swollen by several prelates, by several of the illegitimate sons
of Charles the Second, and by several needy and greedy courtiers.
The cry in all the public places of resort was that the nation
would be ruined by the three B's, Bishops, Bastards, and Beggars.
On Wednesday the tenth, at length, the contest came to a decisive
issue. Both Houses were early crowded. The Lords demanded a
conference. It was held; and Pembroke delivered back to Seymour
the bill and the amendments, together with a paper containing a
concise, but luminous and forcible, exposition of the grounds on
which the Lords conceived themselves to be acting in a
constitutional and strictly defensive manner. This paper was read
at the bar; but, whatever effect it may now produce on a
dispassionate student of history, it produced none on the thick
ranks of country gentlemen. It was instantly resolved that the
bill should again be sent back to the Lords with a peremptory
announcement that the Commons' determination was unalterable.

The Lords again took the amendments into consideration. During
the last forty-eight hours, great exertions had been made in
various quarters to avert a complete rupture between the Houses.
The statesmen of the junto were far too wise not to see that it
would be madness to continue the struggle longer. It was indeed
necessary, unless the King and the Lords were to be of as little
weight in the State as in 1648, unless the House of Commons was
not merely to exercise a general control over the government, but
to be, as in the days of the Rump, itself the whole government,
the sole legislative chamber, the fountain from which were to
flow all those favours which had hitherto been in the gift of the
Crown, that a determined stand should be made. But, in order that
such a stand might be successful, the ground must be carefully