On December 1 the Remonstrance was presented to the King at Hampton Court, by a deputation of the Commons. It was accompanied by a petition, in which the two chief demands, on which all the rest depended, were repeated in strong terms--that he would deprive the bishops of their temporal authority, and moderate their spiritual power so far that all oppression in doctrine, government and discipline should cease--that he would banish the malignants from his council, and admit no influence from the opposite side, however near or high the quarter from which it came. The request was appended that the King would not restore to the rebels their forfeited possessions in England, but keep them for the public service. At this and some other points the King let an exclamation of ironical astonishment or disapproval escape him; at the rest he exhibited neither anger nor annoyance, he only expressed the wish that the Remonstrance should not be published without his concurrence. He had undoubtedly however resolved to resist with all his might the purposes disclosed in it. On the day after the presentation of the petition he showed this by a [A.D. 1641.] proclamation which, in opposition to the ordinance of the Parliamentary commission, forbade all deviation from the Book of Common Prayer. In relation to the other disputed question he acted in the same manner as in reference to spiritual affairs. It had hitherto remained doubtful on what principle the highest posts not yet disposed of should be filled up: in the last few months there had been again a talk of introducing men like Hollis and Pym into the highest ranks of the administration[290]. Even for the household posts there were candidates who reckoned on the support of Parliament. When however the opposition, which it was hoped had been lulled, again exhibited itself in so direct and implacable a form, the King would no longer think of any such approximation, as it would in fact have been endorsing the claims of the Commons. The dignity of Lord Steward, to which the Lower House wished to see the Earl of Pembroke appointed, was conferred by Charles on James Stuart, Duke of Lennox and Richmond, who, like his ancestors, was in the confidence of the royal family. Just as little was he disposed to entrust the office of Lord Treasurer to the Earl of Salisbury, the son of Robert Cecil: he named as Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Colepepper, one of the leaders of the minority. The two Vanes lost their posts, the elder to his bitter chagrin the Secretaryship of State, in which he had grown grey; and Lord Falkland was induced to undertake it. Edward Hyde as yet received no office, though he took part in all deliberations: he busied himself in answering the Remonstrance which he had so vainly resisted at the time. But the soul of the ministry was Lord Digby, another of Charles I’s advisers who came over to him from the opposition. The Queen asserted that she had by her personal