[306] This was a danger against which nothing but, an Act of Parliament could be a security; and to obtain such an Act was not easy.

Everything seemed to indicate that, if the Houses were convoked, they would come up to Westminster animated by the spirit of 1640.

The event of the county elections could hardly be doubted.

The whole body of freeholders, high and low, clerical and lay, was strongly excited against the government.

In the great majority of those towns where the right of voting depended on the payment of local taxes, or on the occupation of a tenement, no courtly candidate could dare to show his face.