Wearied with the labours of the long session, the English Parliament during the King's absence entered on a recess, which was to last from September 9 to October 28, not however without first appointing a committee, chosen of both Houses, to despatch current business and maintain order.

Men breathed again after the tension at which the immense activity of the last ten months had kept their minds: but when they came quietly to look back upon the past, the feeling that was evinced was by no means one of entire satisfaction. There was no blinding themselves to the fact that they had gone far beyond the prospects which had floated before the eyes of the majority at the time of the last elections to Parliament. Instead of a restoration of the rights of Parliament on the ancient footing, the constitution was endangered, and all power fallen into the hands of a few men, who had the majority in the divisions. The members who returned to their counties did not give a very satisfactory report of the mode of carrying on the debates, in which they were often prevented from stating their views, so that there was not complete freedom of speech. Disapproval was especially aroused by a resolution which had been passed in very thin houses during the last days of the session, and clothed with legal force without respect to constitutional forms. It related to spiritual affairs.