[Footnote 1:  The commissioners according to the act (for bills passed by the Commons alone were now denominated acts), were in number 133, chosen out of the lower house, the inns of court, the city, and the army.  In one of their first meetings they chose Bradshaw for their president.  He was a native of Cheshire, bred to the bar, had long practised in the Guildhall, and had lately before been made serjeant.  In the first list of commissioners his name did not occur; but on the rejection of the ordinance by the upper house, the names of six lords were erased, and his name with those of five others was substituted.  He obtained for the reward of his services the estate of Lord Cottington, the chancellorship of the duchy of Lancaster, and the office of president of the council.]

Commons.  But where, he asked, were the Lords?  Were the Commons the whole legislature?  Were they free?  Were they a court of judicature?  Could they confer on others a jurisdiction which they did not possess themselves?  He would never acknowledge an usurped authority.  It was a duty imposed upon him by the Almighty to disown every lawless power, that invaded either the rights of the crown or the liberties of the subject.  Such was the substance of his discourse, delivered on three different days, and amidst innumerable interruptions from the president, who would not suffer the jurisdiction of the court to be questioned, and at last ordered the “default and contempt of the prisoner” to be recorded.

The two following days the court sat in private, to receive evidence that the king had commanded in several engagements, and to deliberate on the form of judgment to be pronounced.[a] On the third Bradshaw took his seat, dressed in scarlet; and Charles immediately demanded to be heard.  He did not mean, he said, on this occasion either to acknowledge or deny the authority of the court; his object was to ask a favour, which would spare them the commission of a great crime, and restore the blessing of tranquillity to his people.  He asked permission to confer with a joint committee of the Lords and Commons.  The president replied that the proposal was not altogether new, though it was now made for the first time by the king himself; that it pre-supposed the existence of an authority co-ordinate with that of the Commons, which could not be admitted; that its object could only be to delay the proceedings of the court, now that judgment was to be pronounced.  Here he was interrupted by the earnest expostulation of Colonel Downes, one of the members.  The king was immediately

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1649.  Jan. 27.]

removed; the commissioners adjourned into a neighbouring apartment, and almost an hour was spent in private and animated debate.  Had the conference been granted, Charles would have proposed (so at least it was understood) to resign the crown in favour of the prince of Wales.