[223] Whitelock maintained, both on this occasion, and at the treaty of Uxbridge, that the power of the militia resided in the king and two houses jointly. Pp. 55, 129. This, though not very well expressed, can only mean that it required an act of parliament to determine and regulate it. [224] See the list of those recommended, _Parl. Hist._ 1083. Some of these were royalists; but on the whole, three-fourths of the military force of England would have been in the hands of persons, who, though men of rank, and attached to the monarchy, had given Charles no reason to hope that they would decline to obey any order which the parliament might issue, however derogatory or displeasing to himself. [225] "When this bill had been with much ado accepted, and first read, there were few men who imagined it would ever receive further countenance; but now there were very few who did not believe it to be a very necessary provision for the peace and safety of the kingdom. So great an impression had the late proceedings made upon them, that with little opposition it passed the Commons, and was sent up to the Lords." Clarend. ii. 180. [226] Clarendon, ii. 375; _Parl. Hist._ 1077, 1106, etc. It may be added, that the militia bill, as originally tendered to the king by the two houses, was ushered in by a preamble asserting that there had been a most dangerous and desperate design on the House of Commons, the effect of the bloody counsels of the papists, and other ill-affected persons, who had already raised a rebellion in Ireland. Clar. p. 336. Surely he could not have passed this, especially the last allusion, without recording his own absolute dishonour: but it must be admitted, that on the king's objection they omitted this preamble, and also materially limited the powers of the lords lieutenant to be appointed under the bill. [227] A declaration of the grievances of the kingdom, and the remedies proposed, dated April 1, may be found in the _Parliamentary History_, p. 1155. But that work does not notice that it had passed the Commons on Feb. 19, before the king had begun to move towards the north. Commons' Journals. It seems not to have pleased the House of Lords, who postponed its consideration, and was much more grievous to the king than the nineteen propositions themselves. One proposal was to remove all papists from about the queen; that is, to deprive her of the exercise of her religion, guaranteed by her marriage contract. To this objection Pym replied that the House of Commons had only to consider the law of God and the law of the land; that they must resist idolatry, lest they incur the divine wrath, and must see the laws of this kingdom executed; that the public faith is less than that they owe to God, against which no contract can oblige, neither can any bind us against the law of the kingdom. _Id._ 1162. [228] _Parl. Hist._ 702.