The Charter in its new form was really a manifesto issued by the moderate men who rallied round the throne of the young King; it may be viewed in two aspects, as a declaration by the Regent and his co-adjutors of the policy on which they accepted office, and as a bid for the support of the barons who still adhered to the faction of the French prince. Its issue was, indeed, dictated by the crucial situation created by the presence in England of Prince Louis of France supported by a foreign army and by a large faction of the English barons who had sworn homage to him as their king. It was, therefore, framed in terms likely to conciliate such of the opposition as were still open to conciliation. Yet the new Charter could not be a verbatim re-issue of the old one. Vital alterations were required by the altered circumstances.[239] It was no longer the expression of a reluctant consent by the government of the day to the demands of its enemies, but rather a set of rules deliberately accepted by that government for its own guidance. The chief tyrant against whom the original provisions had been directed was now dead, and certain forms of tyranny, it was confidently hoped, had died with him. Restraints now placed on the Crown’s prerogatives would only hamper the free action of the men who framed them, not of their political opponents. The new beneficent government must not suffer for the sins of the old evil one. The Regent, while willing to do much for the cause of conciliation, could not afford to paralyze his own efficiency at a time when foreign invaders were in possession of one-half of England, from which it would require a supreme effort to dislodge them. In especial, the Crown, in its urgent need for money wherewith to pay the wages of its mercenaries, must suffer no unnecessary restraints upon its powers of taxation. The existing civil war made it imperative that the government should retain a free hand in exacting feudal services and in levying scutages. Moderate-minded men would readily acquiesce in the wisdom of this policy; while it was useless to modify it in the hope of conciliating the extreme party who had thrown in their lot irretrievably with Prince Louis. ----- Footnote 239: The cause for wonder is rather how few changes required to be made. “It is, however, by no means the least curious feature of the history, that so few changes were needed to transform a treaty won at the point of the sword into a manifesto of peace and sound government.” Stubbs, _Const. Hist._, II. 21. -----