and presented to
both Houses,(519) congratulating them on the steps they had taken "for the
safety of his majesty, the parliament and the kingdom," which would meet
with ready submission on the part of the petitioners, and thanking them
for the honour they had done the City in allowing it to nominate those
persons to whom its militia should be committed.(520) Gurney, the royalist
mayor, did not preside at the court which sanctioned these petitions,
being absent from illness, so it was said.

(M222)

On the 4th April a militia commission appointed by parliament for the city
was read before the Common Council, the commissioners being authorised to
raise and train forces, appoint and remove officers, and do other things
necessary for the suppressing of rebellions and resisting invasions.(521)
It was suggested that six colonels and thirty-four captains should be set
over the trained bands, which had been recently increased to forty
companies, each 200 strong.(522) The pay of the officers was guaranteed by
the Common Council.(523) A stock of gunpowder was laid up in the city
ready for any emergency, and the livery companies were called upon to make
a return of the arms stored in their several halls.(524)

(M223)

On the 10th May a grand review of all the trained bands of the city, with
their new officer Skippon at their head, was held in Finsbury Fields in
the presence of both Houses of Parliament, the members of which were
hospitably entertained on the ground at the City's expense.(525)

(M224)

So pleased was parliament--both Lords and Commons--at the zeal of the City
in raising and training so large a force as 8,000 men, to serve as an
example (it was hoped) to the rest of the kingdom, as also in contributing
upwards of L40,000 (more than one-tenth part of the whole sum recently
voted by parliament) for the defence of the kingdom, that a deputation
from both houses waited on the Common Council (16 May) and returned their
hearty thanks.(526)

(M225)

On the following day (17 May) the Houses resolved that Skippon should
ignore an order from the king to attend his majesty at York, and directed
the sheriffs to suppress any levy of men made without the major-general's
authority.(527)

(M226)

It was no long time before application was again made to the city for more
pecuniary assistance. The breach between king and parliament was rapidly
widening. Charles was known to be collecting forces around him in spite of
a