He was by disposition far less prone to adventure and more given to sober thought, and the violence of his father and the bigoted opinions which he held had repelled him from rather than attracted him toward the principles which he advocated.

When, however, the summons came from his father to join him at Reading, with the rest of the hands employed in the business, he did not hesitate.

He still hoped that the pacific party in Parliament would overcome the more violent, and that the tyranny of a small minority toward which the country appeared to be drifting would be nipped in the bud.
The divisions, indeed, in the Parliament were far greater than in the councils of the king.

Between the Independents and the Presbyterians a wide gulf existed.

The latter party, which was much the more numerous in Parliament, and which had moreover the countenance and alliance of the Scotch Presbyterians, viewed with the greatest jealousy the increasing arrogance of the Independents and of the military party.