ate, cause of the outbreak
of the Civil War. "To be safe from armed violence," the Commons, as far
as the rules of the House would permit, placed themselves under the
protection of the City; and the day previous to the one fixed for their
return to St. Stephen's under the protection of the trained bands of
London, the King left Whitehall, to return to it only to pay the dire
penalty for his past offences. Both sides now actively prepared for the
inevitable struggle. Owing to Pym's forethought, the Tower was
blockaded, and the two great arsenals of Hull and Portsmouth secured for
the Parliament. Owing to the force and boldness of his language, the
House of Lords was scared out of the policy of obstruction it had taken
up. On the avowal by Parliament of the refusal of the governor of Hull
to open the gates to the King, the members of the Royalist party
withdrew from Westminster; and on August 22nd, 1642, the uplifting of
Charles' standard on a hill at Nottingham announced the outbreak of the
Civil War.

On the well-trodden ground of the progress of the war, it is unnecessary
for our purposes to dwell. The issues involved were truly tremendous.
The evolution of the English Constitution had left it undecided to whom
the supreme power in the nation did rightfully accrue: and this was,
perhaps, the most practical question at issue.[29:1] As between
Parliament and King, the question was, whether the supreme power was to
continue to be wielded by a king whose temporal jurisdiction was to be
limited only by ancient laws interpreted by judges of his own creation
and removable at his pleasure, or by the representatives of the nation
in Parliament assembled? It was left to the Model Army to remind the
members of the Long Parliament that their power, as that of "all future
representatives of this nation, is inferior only to theirs who choose
them."[29:2] However, to make both King and Church responsible to
Parliament was, in truth, the one common aim of the whole Parliamentary
party; and, as Gardiner well points out,[29:3] "every year which passed
after the Restoration made it more evident that, for the time at least,
the most substantial gains of the long conflict had fallen to those who
had concentrated their efforts on this object."

Keeping in view the reforms secured during the first session of the Long
Parliament, it may fairly be urged that everything necessary to this end
had been gained prior to the outbreak of the Civil W