ngdom, the
government is, and ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons," and Charles
II. was received in London with uproarious enthusiasm.

The army was disbanded; a royalist House of Commons restored the Church of
England and ordered general acceptance of its Prayer Book. Puritanism,
driven from rule, could only remain in power in the heart and conscience of
its adherents.

To the old Commonwealth man it might seem, in the reaction against
Puritanism, and in the popularity of the King, that all that had been
striven for in the civil war had been lost, in the same way as after the
death of Simon of Montfort it might have appeared that "the good cause" had
perished with its great leader. In reality the House of Commons stood on
stronger ground than ever, and was to show its strength when James II.
attempted to override its decisions. In the main the very forms of
Parliamentary procedure were settled in the seventeenth century, to remain
undisturbed till the nineteenth century. "The Parliamentary procedure of
1844 was essentially the procedure on which the House of Commons conducted
its business during the Long Parliament."[63]

With Charles II. on the throne the absolutism of the Crown over Parliament
passed for ever from England. Cromwell had set up the supremacy of the army
over the Commons: this, too, was gone, never to be restored.

Henceforth government was to be by King, Lords, and Commons; but
sovereignty was to reside in Parliament. Not till a century later would
democracy again be heard of, and its merits urged, as Lilburne had urged
them under the Commonwealth.

* * * * *

CHAPTER V

CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT--ARISTOCRACY TRIUMPHANT

GOVERNMENT BY ARISTOCRACY

For nearly two centuries--from 1660 to 1830--England was governed by an
aristocracy of landowners. Charles II. kept the throne for twenty-five
years, because he had wit enough to avoid an open collision with
Parliament. James II. fled the country after three years--understanding no
more than his father had understood that tyranny was not possible save by
consent of Parliament or by military prowess. At the Restoration the royal
prerogative was dead, and nothing in Charles II.'s reign tended to diminish
the power of Parliament in favour of the throne. Charles was an astute
monarch who did not wish to be sent on his travels again, and consequently
took care not to outrage the nation by any attempt upon the liberti