The removal of an unpopular minister, even if so strong a step should frighten others who were inclined to follow in his footsteps, was not the final aim of Parliament: it would no longer endure in the highest offices of the court and state either secret or open opponents. The King was warned not to let matters go so far as that their names should be mentioned. The Prince of Wales in future ought to be surrounded by men publicly held by Parliament to be trustworthy: neither Jesuits nor Capuchins were to be endured in the Queen’s household: no one who entered England with instructions from the Pope was to enjoy the protection of the law: if the King left the country a guard of trusty nobles was to prevent any Popish intrigues of the Queen’s court. The internal administration of the [A.D. 1641.] realm was to be ordered in the same way: none but adherents of the Parliament should hold the chief posts in the counties, or be entrusted by them with subordinate offices. With these was combined the idea of joining in an oath by which the obedience of the officers and militia to parliamentary ordinances should be secured, and of placing in safe hands the ports of the kingdom and the command of the fleet. Various motives may have conspired to produce these resolutions; the renewed mistrust of the households of the King and Queen, which naturally held to the prerogative of the crown, imitation of the Scots, and rivalry with them, in so far as they aimed at exercising a separate influence over the King, above all the logical development of the principles already adopted, which could tolerate no independent action of the crown. On the occasion of the King’s journey these tendencies of the predominant party in the Lower House obtained the fullest expression. It was proposed that for the time a deputy or _custos regni_ should be appointed, to give the requisite sanction to the bills that passed the two Houses, or that royal functions should be entrusted to the Prince of Wales, who was still too young for a will of his own, perhaps to the Elector Palatine, who was very needy: it is even said that words were uttered to the effect that there was no need of monarchical forms[267]. If so, this was the first time that republican sentiments were expressed in the debates of Parliament. These things however were as yet far off. Though some of the Lords agreed with the Commons, there was always in the Upper House a majority which opposed them in decisive moments. It is plain, nevertheless, that the movement was entering on a new stage. A simple restoration of the constitution to check the encroachments of the crown would no longer suffice. The barriers were in danger of being broken down which the constitution itself placed in the way of the dominant faction.