Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/34

 mons from saving the kingdom with the Lords’ concurrence, the Commons would save the kingdom without it.

The Grand Remonstrance was the beginning of a paper war between the king and the Parliament that lasted well after the first shock of arms. At the very beginning, Parliament made long strides toward claiming supreme power. On the Militia Bill, by which for their own safety the Houses sought to get control of the militia organization of the kingdom, Parliament finally broke with the older policy, and the older theory of balanced power. March 15, the Houses declared that the Militia Ordinance was binding on the people, and that by the fundamental laws of the land it ought to be obeyed. In a resolution of March 16, they based their action on their right as supreme judicature of the kingdom to declare the law of the land. Briefly stated, their implied argument was that the law of the land in a time of great and evident danger was the law of salus populi; and that the Parliament as supreme judge of the laws of the land was judge also of the existence of such a law and of the necessity of invoking it.