A petition was accordingly presented to the House of Commons by alderman Fowke on the 6th February.(720) The petition set out at considerable length all the proceedings that had taken place since the question of the militia was first submitted to Charles. It compared the attitude of the city towards parliament in the late civil war with the part played by the citizens in a previous civil war, viz., the war of the Barons, when (according to the petitioners) the Barons were eventually beaten out of the field owing to the citizens of London staying at home! The petitioners proceeded to show the necessity of the City being empowered to raise militia in the adjacent counties for the purpose of keeping open a passage for victualling the city in times of danger; that since the militia of the suburbs had been under the command of the City good service had been rendered to the parliamentary cause, and notably in the relief of Gloucester; that if it were now removed from the jurisdiction of the City the suburban forts might be seized and both the city and parliament might be threatened; and that it was for the better preservation of parliament, and not for the purpose of rendering the city militia independent of parliament, that the petitioners appeared before the House. Finally, Alderman Fowke, who acted as spokesman, declared himself authorised to state that if the militia of the city and kingdom were not settled by the king and parliament there would be no course left open to the city authorities but to act according to their conscience and to abide by their covenant. A similar petition was presented to the House of Lords (7 Feb.). A week later (14 Feb.) a counter-petition was addressed to the Commons by the inhabitants of the Tower Hamlets, Westminster and Southwark,(721) and on the 13th March a committee was appointed to arrange, if possible, a compromise.(722) (M347)