in Your Power and as little at Your Service Denzil Holles At St. Mere Eglide in Normandy this 14th of February 1648. S. V. ERRATA PAge 15. line 22. read Cromwel P. 39. l. 22. r. written P. 43. l. 27. r. publick P. 89. l. 7. dele Comma L. 4. r. Many in P. 96. l. 15. f. the r. their P. 100 l. 18. l. as to say P. 161. l. 8. dele not MEMOIRS OF DENZIL Lord HOLLIS 1. THE wisest of Men saw it to be a great Evil that Servants should ride on Horses and Princes walk as Servants on the Earth An Evil now both seen and felt in our unhappy Kingdom The meanest of Men the basest and vilest of the Nation the lowest of the People have got the Power into their Hands trampled upon the Crown baffled and misused the Parliament violated the Laws destroyed or supprest the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom oppress'd the Liberties of the People in general broke in sunder all Bands and Tyes of Religion Conscience Duty Loyalty Faith common Honesty and good Manners cast off all fear of God and Man and now lord it over the Persons and Estates of all sorts and ranks of Men from the King on his Throne to the Beggar in his Cottage making their Will their Law their Power their Rule their hairbrain'd giddy phanatical humour and the setting up of a Babel of Confusion the end of all their Actions But how this misery is befallen us the Kingdom brought so low and so unworthily unhappily inconsiderately deliver'd over into such base and ignoble hands the Parliament abused betrayed and now become in show and in name the Instrument of their Tyranny but in truth it self made nothing and if the presence of the right Speaker be so essential to the being and acting of a Parliament and so necessary that Sir Edward Cook says in his Institutes the House cannot sit without him then is there clearly at this present no Parliament but an Assembly of Men acted and moved by the Art and Malice of some few sitting among them by the means of an Army which those few those Vipers of the Parliament that have eaten out the Bowels of their Parent and destroyed her raised that is abused the Parliament making them raise it under colour of necessity for the preservation of the Parliament and Kingdom when in truth it was out of a design to make themselves Masters of both that neither of them might ever enjoy Peace and Liberty more to blast our Hopes nip all the fair Blossoms of Reformation dash in sunder all our preparations and endeavours for the establishing of a happy Peace and so a glorious promising Morning became a Day of darkness a Day of treading down and perplexity this I say will be worth the enquiry and perhaps be no difficult thing to discover and make so plain that he who runs may read 2. Yet I would not be conceived to attribute so much of Wisdom and Foresight to these Men as to believe they had laid this whole Design with the several Circumstances and Steps of proceeding from the beginning which not the Devil himself was so politick and foreknowing as to have done But I am perswaded that they had it in their general Aim and laid it as a foundation for all their Superstructures to do as much mischief as they could make the Disorder as great the Change as universal as was possible and still to improve all opportunities and occasions ex re natâ putting on for more as they prevailed in any thing till at last even beyond what either they could hope or we could fear their Design was brought to this perfection as will appear by the sequel of this Discourse 3. When in the beginning of this Parliament in the Year 1642. after some progress in a Parliamentary way to the relieving of many of our Grievances and reforming many Abuses both in Church and State for which we were not sufficiently thankful it pleased God in his just Judgment for the punishment of our Sins to send a Spirit of Division between the King and the Parliament and things grew to that height as both of them appealed to the Sword to plead their Cause and decide their Quarrel the Members of Parliament who then engaged declared themselves to desire nothing but the settlement of the Kingdom in the honour and greatness of the King and in the happiness and safety of the People And whensoever that could be obtained to lay down the Sword and submit again to the King's Scepter of Peace more willingly than ever they resisted his Force and Power This I am sure was the ultimate end of many I may say of the chiefest of those who at that time appeared upon which principle they first moved and from which they never departed which made them at that time resolve to put their Lives into their hands and offer them a Sacrifice to the welfare and happiness of their Prince and Country I say Prince as well as Country tho he perhaps look'd on them as his greatest Enemies but they consider'd him as their Prince whom Nature Duty the Command of God and the Laws of Men obliged them to reverence and to love as the Head and Father of the People whose greatness consisted in his People's and his People 's in his and therefore neither could be great nor happy one without the other which made those faithful ones put them both in the same Ballance and rather adventure his displeasure by promoting the publick Cause than as they thought his ruin by deserting it 4. Whilst these Men acted in the simplicity of their Hearts there was another Generation of Men which like the frozen Snake that lay in their Bosoms seemed to desire but the same things with them and that the same should have contented them when it was nothing so but they had further Designs to destroy and cut off not a few to make the Land an Aceldama ruin the King and as many of the Nobility and Gentry as they could alter the Government have no order in the Church nor power in the State over them This was the Venom they harbour'd which at first they were not warm enough to put forth But it soon appeared by some evident Symtoms which discovered it to discerning Eyes though many were very long abused For as the Devil can transform himself into an Angel of Light so they pretended Zeal in Religion and to be publick Spirits as if none were so holy and self-denying as they and so insinuated themselves into the good Opinion of Men and being bold and forward got into all Imployments engrossed the whole managing of the War that is the directive part of it not the fighting whilst others who meant plainly and honestly went into their several Countries desirous to see the business soon at an end and either by shewing the Sword to have kept it in on both sides or else if God had otherwise determin'd that some Blood must be drawn
the deep Sufferings of those Northern parts the Scotish Army lying so long upon them on Free-quarter I must be very ignorant of the carriage of an unpaid Army if I did not believe that many disorders were committed many a poor Country-man exceedingly oppress'd and abus'd by the unruly Soldiers and more by half taken and spoiled by them than would have sufficed for their Pay and Entertainment if it had been orderly raised and provided by the authority and care of the State which was to pay them And so should I likewise have very small bowels towards my Country England in general and particularly those poor Counties in one of which I receiv'd my being if I did not grieve and mourn from the bottom of my Soul for the sad condition which did then overspread them the poverty to which they are reduced the ruin of so many Houses and Families the Land lying in many places an uninhabited Wilderness all over a face of misery and desolation But then the more I am raised to an indignation against them who were the cause of this those who had rather suffer not one County or two but all the Counties in England and two Kingdoms besides to perish and ruin than they to fail of their Ends. So must all the North be made a Sacrifice to their malice and revenge upon the Scotish Nation and rather than not enforce the Scots to oppress those parts hoping at last they would fall one upon another they will suffer the Country to endure any Misery and not only so but impudently and perfidiously wrest and misinterpret the Treaty themselves had made and so put a great scorn thereon to give greater provocations to the Scots and thus they make themselves ridiculous and infamous to the World and to all posterity by a gross and palpable collusion 51. For when the Commissioners of Scotland and the General of the Army did so often and earnestly move for Pay for the Soldiers representing that on the monthly Pay which was condition'd for and promised they have not of so many Months received any thing and that it was impossible to observe that Discipline in the Army which was requisite for the ease of the County because the Soldiers were unpaid they had the face to say that by the Treaty the Scots could not receive their Pay at present because there was a Clause that if any part thereof were behind they should be allowed Interest for forbearance which Interest was not to be presently paid neither but afterwards when the Peace was setled and the Kingdom more able upon which these conscionable Logicians infer'd that allowing Interest nothing could be demanded So that which the Scots gave way to out of friendliness and confidence to shew they would not exact upon our necessities if at any time through the great occasions of expence we were not able to give them their full Pay is now made use of and ungratefully turned upon them to defer the payment of any part And this only to affront them and make them desperate 52. And as they deal with the Army so did they with the State and Kingdom of Scotland by putting neglects and indignities upon their Ministers raising jealousies of them and of the whole Nation For this they had their Robert Wright and their unknown Knight to give intelligence of Correspondencies held by them with the Queen of undertaking to do great matters for the King Treaties with France strange designs and practices against the Parliament and every foot Letters of Information from some well-wishers abroad to Mr. Sollicitor or Sir Henry Mildmay or some other of that Gang upon this strain Then this is whisper'd about and these Letters go from hand to hand and told as a secret in every bodies Ears to make people afraid and mistrust even their own Shadows as if all were in danger Sometimes the House must be acquainted with some of these things or some person or other brought to the Bar to make some relation as Sir Thomas Hanmore Then the doors are shut long winded Speeches made to set out our dangers and great expectations rais'd of strange discoveries and all but a parturiunt montes Yet this serves to make a noise and they had Instruments abroad to improve it and many hones well meaning men were cozen'd and stood at gaze knew not what to think of their Brethren of Scotland nor yet of the Members of either House and desir'd to have things more fairly carry'd towards them and as they had had experience of their faithfulness formerly so could they not be brought by such artifices to have an ill opinion of them without better grounds for it and therefore differ'd in the entertainment they gave to those alarms judging them false and causeless accordingly expressing themselves diverting and breaking the desperate thrusts which these men made and were therefore decry'd as Scotish malignant and prejudged in all they did or said 53. The malice against the Scots rests not here it carries them to discover and manifest slighting and neglecting and that not sufficiently provoking a violent injuring and affronting of them First they vouchsafe not to answer the Papers they put into the House some not at all none presently as formerly they were wont to do nor in any convenient time but make them wait days and weeks and months for a return to what the Commissioners present from the Kingdom of Scotland or from themselves in the name of that Kingdom 54. The Committee of the two Kingdoms is now no more in esteem than as they say a Saint without a Holiday That which before did manage all the great business which was looked upon with so much reverence even as a sacred thing pray'd for in the Churches like the Lords in the Council had all the `trust all the power not only in matters of War which were wholly left to them by the ordinance of their Constitution but all other business of consequence as framing propositions for Peace and all Addresses to his Majesty all Negotiations with foreign States whatsoever did in any high degree concern the Parliament or Kingdom was still referred to them and what they did passed for Law was seldom or never alter'd in the House But now the Tide was turn'd they had nothing to do Sir Thomas Fairfax was discharg'd of his subordination to them and left to himself to do as he saw cause with his Army They of the Committee who were of that Faction seldom or never came to it so that the Commissioners of Scotland and the other Members of it did come and attend three or four days one after another sometimes oftner to no purpose and no Committee could sit for want of a number nay they prevail'd so far as now to vilifie and shew their neglect or jealousie of the Scotish Commissioners They would sometimes get business referred to the Members of both Houses that were of that Committee with their Exclusion 55. To provoke them yet more
they Break through the Law of Nations which in all places in the World give protection to publick Ministers employed by any Prince or State so as neither their Servants or Goods and especially not their Letters which are of greater consequence and more immediately concern the Honour and Interest both of their Masters and them ought to be in any sort touch'd or stop'd yet the Packets of the Commissioners of Scotland must be intercepted and their Letters broke open This done several times in a secret and private manner the Letters suppressed and never heard of more which was a great wrong and injury to that Kingdom yet cannot be said to be an affront because it was not avowed But they have likewise done it openly and avowedly in a most inselent way Once they set a Captain one Massey at the Guards by London knowing the Commissioners were sending an Express into Scotland and this Captain who deserves to be made an Example for it and his Masters too who set him to work stops the Gentleman who was sent with the Packet takes the very Letters they had written to the Committee of Estates reads them and keeps the Messenger Prisoner upon the Guard which was the highest affront the greatest violation of the publick Faith the greatest scandal to all Princes States and even Societies of Men the basest unworthiest dealing with a Nation to whom we were engag'd by Amity League Covenant common Interest and all Bonds of Gratitude for the good we had receiv'd from them that ever was heard of or read in any Story or I think ever will be again Yet was this fellow by the power and interest of these Men protected in the House of Commons So far from being punish'd when the Scotish Commissioners made their Complaint that when the Lords had committed him for it they made the House set him at liberty and quarrel with the Lords for breaking their Privileges in committing one who was under examination of their Committee for they had refer'd the business to a Committee in truth not to do the Kingdom of Scotland any right in punishing the Offender but affront it the more in protecting him 56. One would think now these had bid fair for an absolute breach with Scotland but they are not satisfy'd yet one thing more they will do which they are confident will do the feat It is this At the coming in of the Scots they had born them in hand they desir'd nothing but the uniting of the Nations That therefore they would never make Peace without their advice and consent and that as they desir'd a conjunction of Forces and Counsels for prosecution of the War so whensoever a Peace was made they desir'd a conjunction of Counsels and Interests for the preservation thereof that so the Kingdoms interwoven one with another might be a mutual strength and security one to another Therefore in framing the propositions for Peace presented to the King at Oxford and treated on at Vxbridg which was done at the Committee of the two Kingdoms they make it one proposition That some Commissioners from Scotland should be joined with ours in the power of the Militia of this Kingdom and converse some of ours with theirs in their Kingdom and so bring it to the House Where my self and many more who truly desir'd the joyning of the Nations in love and good understanding to perpetuity opposed it fearing that joining them in that power would prove a dividing of affection which should be best set and so preserved by keeping several their several Interests But those carry'd it and what we fear'd prov'd true it being afterward made an occasion of great endeavours to set the two Kingdoms farther asunder and certainly was first done by them out of that design 57. For now when the propositions were to be sent again to the King to Newcastle that Party took their rise upon that proposition to have them all review'd and changed almost all in them that look'd towards the Scots and gave themselves liberty as they had a large Field to shew the inconveniencies of admitting another Kingdom to share power in this And much was done and said reflecting upon Scotland and against all such intermixtures Then those who shewed their dislike of it before and would not have had it done when it was to do being now done did not desire at that time to have it undone in truth unwilling there should be any altering of the propositions at all not knowing where these Men would stop if once they began to change any part And therefore offer'd this consideration that though before it had been no wrong or unkindness to our Brethren not to have admitted them to such a Copartnership which they apprehended would prove rather a prejudice than otherwise but being now in they thought it might be ill taken to thrust them out and argue a jealousie and change of Affection according to the Rule Turpius ejicitur quam non admittitur c. But for that very reason were these Men the more earnest for it that it might be ill taken that it might argue a jealousie that the Scots might see by it that the countenance of the Parliament was not to them as before and that the Ligament being untied by which the two Kingdoms did seem to be bound up together they might fall in sunder and the breach be the greater O the wickedness of these Men that thirsted after nothing but to see the two Kingdoms weltering in that blood which they must let out of one another's Veins But that does the more commend the goodness piety wisdom and moderation of our Brethren of Scotland which prevented it for notwithstanding all these provocations all these injuries and affronts they were stedfast they were unmoveable in their resolutions to promote the Peace of England They said they came in to help it they will not be made Instruments to destroy it They had bound themselves in a Covenant before God and in a Treaty with their Brethren of England to endeavour by all good ways and means a happy Settlement and Reformation both in Church and State The art and malice of their Enemies and the Enemies of Peace shall not engage them to become in any sort an occasion of hindering it Therefore they deny themselves they renounce their own interest they quit all pretensions and agree with the Parliament in those alterations aand thereby defeat the expectation of those who hop'd to see not only the propositions of Peace laid aside upon that occasion but that Scotland should have born the blame both of not making Peace with the King and also of all the Miseries which must have followed upon both Kingdoms by a rupture and breach between ' em 58. When they saw they could not by Art and underhand-dealing compass this Breach that neither the Scots would be provoked to declare against the Parliament and so the War begin on that side nor could they engage the Northern Counties to fall
upon them If either of which had taken they had still kept themselves behind the Curtain and hid the Arm which had thrown the Stone they had seem'd alas innocent well-meaning Men and yet the mischief befallen which they had contriv'd But rather than fail they will throw of the Vizard and come downright with open face to the executing their Design They set on their Teazers as Haslerig Mildmay Martin and many others to move That Sir Thomas Fairfax might go down with his Army to protect those Northern Counties and relieve them from the oppression of the Scots a pretty way of protection and giving ease to send an Army into a Country We see how this Army eases the Country now to the breaking both of their backs and hearts But could they have gotten a Vote for this their work had been done and we should soon have heard of mischief and felt it The animosity between those two Armies had instantly put them and the Kingdoms into blood for which no question Sir Thomas Fairfax had his Instructions but the House would never give way to it tho with earnestness prest many times by that Party And when they saw they could not prevail the presumptions are very strong that they would have had the Army to have march'd thither without the Parliament's order for the Scots had an alarm of the Army 's moving towards them and their Commissioners so inform'd the House with a protestation against it upon which there was a stop with a denial and disavowment of their having any such intention Yet certainly there was an attempt and it is said orders out for part of the Army to move that way but God be thanked it went no further for that would have been a sad business 59. Before I go off this matter I must do that right to Col. Pointz who commanded the Northern Forces as to attribute to his care and vigilancy and his discreet ordering of his business a great part of our happiness that all that mischief was prevented which was so earnestly endeavour'd to be pull'd on us by engaging the Country and Scotish Army in quarrel and bloodshed and that was his Crime with these Men to be for it since so unjustly put out of his Command after they had stir'd up the unruly Rabble of the Agitators to take him by violence out of his House at York being as absolutely in his Command as Fairfax was in his Meerly doing it by an act of power force and violence breaking through all Rules of Justice Equity and Honesty bringing him a Prisoner to the Army not suffering him so much as to put on his Clothes or speak to his Wife or any Friend but use him as if he had been the greatest Traytor in the world when Sir Thomas Fairfax could not pretend to the least jurisdiction over him not any thing could be laid to his charge Such is their hatred of every honest Man who stands in their way to their pernicious designs 60. Their next hope was that the Scotish Army would not go out of the Kingdom at the desire of the Parliament so bloody Noses would be upon that occasion and I must give them their due there was no failure in them to do all that was possible to have kept them in still only to quarrel with them but with a seeming to desire nothing so much as their going Very forward they were to get the Vote of the Parliament that they should be gone but to inable them to go they would not help rather hinder and hang on all the weights they could To say the truth they had some ground to believe First That they would not go Secondly That they could not if they would for the Scots had a colour if not just reason to have refus'd 61. By the Covenant and Treaty the two Kingdoms had bound themselves before God and one to another as one intire Body to prosecute the Cause these are the very words of the Declaration of both Houses to the State of the united Provinces which Declaration Mr. Sollicitor himself penn'd therefore they must hold it Canonical and that neither Kingdom should lay down Arms till the Ends mention'd in the Covenant and Treaty were obtain'd If then in this Cause the Forces of both Kingdoms made but one intire Body the Scots had a good Plea Why will you send us away and disband us wholly This proceeding is not equal the Body must suffer and cannot act as an intire Body if one whole Member be cut off or if there be no more need of acting if the Ends be obtain'd for which the Body was constituted and therefore you send us away then why do you keep up your own Army the other part of this Body This had certainly been strong reason which Mr. Sollicitor would have been puzled to answer 62. Besides the Scots had cause enough to have their jealousie prompt them that it was not safe for them to depart with their Army lay by their Swords and leave standing in this Kingdom so great a Force which they knew to be so ill affected to them and might act to their prejudice and the King being in their power perhaps force both him and the Parliament to a Peace disadvantageous to Scotland and differing from those grounds upon which by the Kingdom of England they were engag'd in this Quarrel or else make no Peace at all but interpose as Cromwel to the Earl of Manchester to hinder it and themselves govern by the Sword not only to the prejudice of Scotland but also ruin of England One may swear there was ground enough for such a fear for since it hath prov'd so to purpose But according to the old Rule they who mean well themselves are not suspicious of others The Scots had no thoughts but of setling a Peace laying down of Arms calling the People and all things to revert into their old Channel therefore they were willing to be gone and return into their own Country in confidence that after their departure the Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax should likewise presently be disbanded since there was no more need of any Army at all so they were willing to go 63. But then the question was if they would go or not and how the Soldiers would be dispos'd to march out who had not been paid of so many Months insomuch as the Scotish Commissioners gave in an account of some 800000 l. Arrears Here our Gallants hop'd they had them upon the Hip and should surely give them a fall Then they thrust on some of their little Northern Beagles as Mr. Blaxton and others to inform what high Sums they had rais'd upon the Country upon which they conclude the Scotish Army was in their debt and therefore they would come to an account with them which had been a sure way to have kept them in the Kingdom five or six months longer But to help that our just Pay-masters said the Army should march away and some persons
take into consideration what is fit to be done what not and give their orders accordingly examine and censure the Orders and Votes of Parliament receive all Complaints give the redress send out their Warrants and Commands write their Letters exercise a general power over all set up a new form of Government in the Army and in the end are instrumental to their Masters to possess themselves of his Majesty's Person subdue Parliament City and Kingdom and be reveng'd upon all those who had formerly given any disturbance to the carrying on of their design till such time as the work was done which they had set them to do But then Mr. Cromwel and his Officers could give a stop to their proceedings And when the Agitators thought to do as formerly and finish'd what they were made to believâ—â— should be the Catastrophe of their Tragedy which was the destruction of the King and alteration of the Government Counsels not being at that time so dispos'd nor the time ripe for the execution they soon found their Locks were cut and the influence of their Superiors ceasing their strength fail'd so as they brought but confusion to themselves three of the chief were condemn'd to die for mutiny but Cromwel being a merciful Prince would take but one who was shot to death the rest reduced to subjection and obedience their Council Table dissolv'd and their Castles in the Air Vanish'd to smoak But these things fell out long after for a time they triumph act all drive on the design Cromwel and his fellows standing behind the Curtain laught in their sleeves and pleas'd themselves to see the Game which they had packt play so well 83. The first Act of these new Rulers was a Letter sent to their three principal Officers who were then in London and innocent persons God knows knew nothing of all this Sir Thomas Fairfax Lieutenant General Cromwel and Serjeant Major General Skippon For this last to do him right I think that at that time he was innocent indeed but afterwards I must avow it he together with the help of Mr. Marshal a Minâ—â—â—er contributed more to the success of their Villanies betraying the Parliament and City into their hands than all that Cromwel the Sollicitor Ireton and the rest of the Crew did or could do and no question will be sufficiently rewarded for it by them for they are good at it to pay dear out of the publick Store for any man's Conscience that will be sold and may be useful to them 84. This Letter was an exclamation against the Parliament false and untrue Complaints of wrongs done to the Soldiers at Assizes in the Counties a protestation against the Irish Expedition calling it a design to break the Army declaring if any of these three Commanders should engage their averseness to it tho one of them Skippon was by the Parliament appointed and had accepted it in plain English saying they would not disband nor receive any other propositions from the Parliament till their expectations were satisfy'd Three of the Agitators brought it and Skippon acquainted the House with it they were sent for and carry'd themselves at the Bar in a slighting braving manner refusing to answer such questions as the Speaker by order of the House ask'd them saying they were employ'd by the Army and could not without leave from thence discover any thing Many the House resenting this high affront were earnest to have them severely punish'd but that Party stood as stifly for them insomuch that the worthy Burgess of Newcastle Mr. Warmworth stood up and said he would have them committed indeed but it should be to the best Inn of the Town and good Sack and Sugar provided them which was as ridiculous as 't was a bold and insolent scorn put upon the Parliament at last even Mr. Skippon himself excused them said they were honest Men and wisht they might not be too severely dealt with whereupon the House flatted let them go without punishment and by tameness encreas'd their madness and presumption Where as had they serv'd them as Mr. Cromwel after wards did their fellows hang'd one of them they all well deserving it it might probably have given a stop to their Career and prevented a great deal of mischief which has since befallen the Kingdom by their means 85. All that we did whether it was Fate or Design I know not but it prov'd our Ruin was to command down to the Army the Officers that were Members of the House such as were in town and the General himself I say I know not if there were a design in it because afterwards upon just such another occasion we sent Sir Henry Vane the younger Mr. Scawen and some others which I am sure was a thing laid and this wrought the same effect as that did even put them together the better to contrive and lay their business joining the counsels of the Officers to the actings of the Agitators so to hatch that horrid Rebellion which soon after broke out to the utter ruin if God's hand of mercy interpose not of Parliament and Kingdom They were sent to allay the distempers and to prevent inconveniencies but how they discharg'd that trust will soon appear 86. Instead of discountenancing reproving and suppressing that disposition to mutiny that standing upon terms with the Parliament those Meetings and Consultations by which the ill humour was nourish'd and instead of perswading them to a fitting obedience and submission and laying the Regiments farther asunder to lessen and abate the contagion they gave them occasion to encrease their distempers and vent them by asking them what they will have calling the Officers together and sending them to their several Regiments to be inform'd of their designs and by drawing them together already so indispos'd and inflam'd inflame them the more A strange way of quieting an Army that was in a way to Rebellion and had begun to set up a new Government amongst themselves by their Agitators which sped accordingly and produced the effect that they desir'd a representation of Grievances in which the whole Army now join'd and engag'd except some few gallant Men both Officers and Soldiers who detested those proceedings 87. This Representation is brought up to the House by Lieutenant General Cromwel and Colonel Fleetwood who had the faces to say just as the Representation begins That the Army was quiet and free from any visible distemper which was only to amuse us But then it expostulates with the Parliament the making of the foremention'd Declaration sending for up and questioning those persons who had been complain'd of for obstructing the Service of Ireland justifies them taxes the Commissioners of Parliament and other Members of the House for doing ill offices to the Army stands upon all the particulars of the first Petition 88. The House was very much dissatisfy'd with these proceedings and if ever it deny'd it self did it then for it was willing to give the Army satisfaction in all things
was according to their Minds conducing to their Ends. If it be so and that they will be Slaves let them be Slaves still for they deserve no better The Army was the fittest place for them as Brutus said of those he took Prisoners at the first Battel of Philippi Let them go says he they are greater Captives in their own Camp under Cesar and Anthony than here 147. They might likewise have consider'd that the force upon the Parliament from the Army as it was greater so to have been a more horrid crime of more dangerous consequence to the Kingdom and more destructive to the being of Parliaments than that from the Apprentices which is in my opinion very clear This of the Apprentices being a sudden tumultuary thing of young idle people without design and without that obligation indeed but an effect of the other both as following their example and also as occasion'd by the just offence which they had given the City whereas the Army was a form'd deep laid design of revenge upon them they call'd their Enemies of domination over the Parliament and Kingdom carry'd on both with power and cunning laying the foundation of a perpetual Tyranny by a company of hir'd Servants that had receiv'd more wages ten times than their work deserv'd and now betray'd the trust reposed in them rising against their Masters whose own Swords they turn'd upon their breasts to force them to do most dishonourable unjust infamous actions deliver up themselves and the Kingdom to their wills So as take the act of the Apprentices at the worst it is ex malis minimum and that of those fugitive Members at the best which is that they were really under a force and under a fear they did vitare Charibdim incidere in Scyllam and leap as the old Proverb is out of the Fryingpan into the Fire wherein they were unfortunate and well would it be for them in the day of their accounts if it were but fortune but it is too apparent to have been in some of them a propens'd Malice and detestable Combination 148. As for what they lay to the eleven Members with all the aggravations in that Declaration I will not answer it as Mr. Nathaniel Fines did Mr. Walker's Charge against him to say only thou liest and quote along the Margin First Second Third and Fourth Lie But this I will say to disprove it affirming it upon the word of a Gentleman and faith of an honest Man I think I may speak as much for the whole number I was not in the City all the time those businesses were in agitation knew nothing of the Petitions nor actings in the Common Council nothing of the City's engagement never saw it till two or three days after it was printed had not the least thought of the Apprentices coming down to Westminster nor notice of it till the very day at eleven of the Clock when they were already there We had appointed four days before to meet that day at dinner at the Bell in Kingstreet there to even our Reckonings because we had made a common Purse for Lawyers Fees and other charges in preparing our answer for the House then to take our leaves one of another resolving to go several ways some beyond Sea some into the Country As I was going into my Coach there was with me Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Waller Major General Massey and Mr. Long one brought us word of the hubbub at the House whereupon we resolv'd not to go and parted companies upon it but presently Sir William Lewis's Footman came to tell us his Master and Mr. Nichols were staying for us at the Bell upon which Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Waller and my self who were yet together went thither but hearing more of the disorder about Westminster Hall we would not stay so much as to make an end of our Dinners but presently came away I mention this particular because I know they have made a great matter of that meeting as if it was to be near hand to receive information and send instructions according to occasion when we were as innocent of it as any of those who cry out most against us nay more if it be true what is so confidently reported as I said before that there were Independents most busie amongst that unruly multitude 149. Here we have seen what those worthy Members did at the Army and upon what ground and besides what little reason they had to go away upon the pretended force which was a sudden thing then past and care taken it should be no more and they lying before under a greater force which they purposely now ran again into to continue it the longer upon themselves and the Kingdom Now let us see what in the mean time was doing at London 150. The Houses met according to the adjournment upon Friday the 30 th of Iuly some six or sevenscore in the House of Commons and as great a number of Lords in their House as of those who went to the Army but all mute neither having their Speaker for whom they sent about to seek waiting till they had certain information how they had dispos'd of themselves then they fell into consideration of what was to be done and that offer'd it self which in truth was obvious to every man's reason to chuse other Speakers For the Lords House there could be no question it was every day's practice their Speaker being but pro tempore and changeable at pleasure so they make choice of my Lord Willoughby of Parham For the House of Commons it lay not so above ground their Speaker being a settled Officer made with great Formalities and not so moveable at pleasure but that he cannot be at all remov'd upon no occasion not for misdemeanour as it is not esteem'd for a Speaker to be honest or to be so powerful by his compliance with the major or the more active part of the House to be born out in his Knaveries as some have the luck of it or if he desert the House as Mr. Lenthal lately did or be disabled by sickness or any other accident I think no Man will say For then what Act of continuance will be of avail to keep up the Parliament since it would depend upon the will of one Man or the uncertainty of his health to frustrate all such provisions and at any time to set a period to a Parliament 151. Therefore they proceed to the choice of their Speaker and pitch upon Mr. Henry Pelham who according to the custom is presented at the Lords House Bar brought in by my Lord of Pembrook in his Robes and there receiv'd 152. They then go on upon the business of the House take into consideration the Letter spoken of sent by Rushworth to Mr. Lenthal the late Speaker which discover'd the intention of the Army to march up against the City whereupon they order a Letter to be written to the General signifying in what quietness they sat
his Excellency all the Works from the Thames side to Islington Fort demolisht the eleven Members secur'd or given up and all the Reformados and Officers likewise who were ready to have fought for them This was as worthily by the Common Council yielded to their Ambassadors notably promoting it The eleven Members were not yet seiz'd nor deliver'd but as bad left to shift for themselves no care at all taken for their preservation tho the City had now this last time wholly embark'd in their trouble and engag'd them in their business petitioning the House of Commons to enjoin them to attend the Service of the House themselves not at all moving in or desiring it Nay they did not so much as provide for Major General Massey whom they had made their Commander in chief but like Isachar bow'd under the Burden betray'd themselves and all that had to do with them 159. Here was an end of the Parliament and in truth of the Câ—â—y all whose Glory is laid in the â—ust and as it was high before in reputation both at home and abroad so is it now become a hissing and reproach to all that see it or hear of it The next day Sir Thomas Fairfax sends to take possession and the day after that marches in state bringing with him those deserting Lords and Commons and the Earl of Manchester and Mr. Lenthal the two pretended Speakers not vouchsafing to look upon the Lord Mayor and Aldermen who were there with the Recorder provided with a Speech for his entertainment which he did not so well deserve as they did that scorn then put upon them 160. He goes strait to the Houses put those two Men in the Speakers places who had no more right to them than himself and has ever since continu'd them there by force and keeping out the true Speakers which the Lord Willoughby is to the Peers that House being under an adjournment and not sitting when the Intruder came in so not in a capacity to admit him and Mr. Pelham to the Commons who had been legally chosen when the House was free and under no force the other having deserted which is of all Crimes the greatest 161. So as without him it is no House but an Assembly of Men acting under the Army without lawful authority some of them by a combination and agreement with the Army but far the greater part by a terror and an awe from it and therefore to be look'd upon accordingly and questionless many of them continuing there out of a good intent like so many Hushais only to defeat the pernicious Counsels of those Achitophels who had design'd the destruction of David the ruin of honest Men and even the trouble and confusion of the whole Israel of God Church and State These are so far from deserving thereby either to become the object of blame or pardon as they merit exceedingly are worthy the praise both of present and future times but to be consider'd rather as faithful Patriots that act out of necessity in an extraordinary way stand in the Gap to keep off mischief than as Members of Parliament able or indeed qualify'd to exercise any parliamentary Power for the good of the Kingdom the House having been disturb'd and for the time suppress'd by a real Force not feign'd and imaginary as the other was and while this force continues not suffer'd to come together but as soon as it ceases will return of it self to be as it was before 162. For there is a difference between these two Cases one the Parliaments acting under a force remaining still to be a Parliament which dos not annual it nor the Acts it dos but makes them fit to be repeal'd yet standing good pro tempore 163. Many of our best Laws have been so made when Armies have been on foot and afterwards declar'd good in a free Parliament and what then done did appear to be inconvenient and unjust was by subsequent Parliaments repeal'd So is it fit that what was compel'd to be done by the Apprentices and others in that tumultuous way the Monday that the force was should be repeal'd as not fit to be continu'd And so all that has been done a great while under the power and force of the Army since it first rebel'd and gave Laws to the Parliament is as fit if not more to be hereafter repeal'd and questionless will if ever the Parliament come to be free again Nay even these pretenders do us that right as finding the proceedings of the Parliament after their desertion not sutable to their Ends but against them by an Ordinance to repeal and declare them null which otherwise had not been needful seeing they would fall of themselves being Crimes in their own nature as proceeding from an usurp'd Authority This is one case the other is when a force proceeds so far and so high as not to suffer a Parliament to be gives it such a wound as for the time it cannot act but must cease even as a wounded Body that lies in a Trance without sense or motion But when that force is over and the Spirits recollected it returns to it self to do the functions of life move and act as formerly It is but like a Parenthesis in a Sentence and remains one and the same as if the Parenthesis were not at all 164. But to return where I left This General a setter up and puller down of Parliaments has a Chair set him in either House where first in the Lords House then in the Commons those pretended Speakers make Speeches to him giving him thanks for all approving his Declaration of the Reasons of his coming to London desiring him to go on in taking care for the security of the Kingdom and to appoint a Guard for the Parliament Than which there was never any thing more base but Mr. Lenthal exceeded being both base and prophane applying a Higgaior Selah to this last act of his Excellency who as wisely took it Then that the prophaness might be compleat and God mock'd as well as Men abus'd they appoint the Thursday after for a day of Thanksgiving and fitted it with Preachers Mr. Marshal and Mr. Nye Simeon and Levi where they say Marshal outwent all that had gone before him and his Brother Nye was a modest Presbyterian in comparison of him but that Apostate went beyond Ela making this deliverance a greater one than the Gunpowder Treason as I have been credibly inform'd by those that heard him And some few days after Sir Thomas Fairfax and the whole Army marcht in triumph with Lawrel in their Hats as Conquerors through the subdu'd City of London to shew it was at his mercy which was an airy vanity I confess above my understanding and might have rais'd a spirit of Indignation not so easily to have been laid But a higher insolency of an Army compos'd of so mean people and a more patient humble submission and bearing of a great and populous City but a little before so
Army and other places against these proceedings act their parts so to the life as the Life of a Man must go to make up the disguise an Agitator whom at a Council of War with two more they condemned was shot to death so as the King could not but have a great confidence in these Men to believe that they were really for his preservation At last Cromwel writes a Letter to Whalley who commands the Guards about his Majesty's Person to be shewn his Majesty and other informations are likewise brought him to make him believe that if he escap'd not presently he will be murder'd and he is advis'd to go to the Isle of Wight where they had beforehand provided him a Jaylor Colonel Hammond one for whom they said they could answer that there his Majesty would be in safety and they able to serve him 181. Here they have the King safe enough and now the Army is presently quiet the Agitators as obedient as Lambs and Councils of War are set up again to act as formerly And Sir Thomas Fairfax with their advice sets out a Remonstrance to give satisfaction to the Army which he concludes with a Protestation to adhere to conduct live and die with the Army in the prosecution of some things there express'd as namely To obtain a present provision for constant Pay stating of Accounts security for Arrears with an effectual and speedy course to raise Monies a period to be set to this Parliament provision for future Parliaments the certainty of their meeting sitting and ending the freedom and equality of Elections and other things which he had the impudence and boldness to publish in print 182. And now instead of the Proposals they intend to send the four Bills to his Majesty to sign which done they would treat with him By these Bills the Army was to be establish'd which was the English of that for the Militia and by another of them they would make sure that the countenance of the Parliament and the acting of the Army should never be separated which was the intent of that for power of adjourning So as if at any time the just sense of Indignation of so many Indignities and Injuries offer'd by the Army to all ranks of Men Magistrates both supreme and subordinate people of all conditions and degrees should stir them up to some endeavours of casting off this iron Yoke their Party in Parliament with their Speaker Mr. Lenthal's help should presently be ready to adjourn to the Army then damn and destroy all the world by colour of Law and power of the Sword so King and Kingdom must be subject to a perpetual slavery by Act of Parliament 183. The Scots were laid aside in this Address to his Majesty contrary to the Treaty and contrary to the Covenant By the Treaty there ought to have been no application for Peace but with their advice and consent here the Scots did not only not advise nor consent but protest against it By the Covenant all were bound to keep united firm and close one to another not to suffer themselves to be divided here these Men do divide from the whole Kingdom of Scotland make a rent and breach between the Kingdoms in settling of the Peace the very end both of Treaty and Covenant 184. And for that subterfuge that it is against the privilege of Parliament that any out of the Houses should interpose or have any thing to do with Bills it is a mere cavil Fig-leaves which cover not their nakedness for that would have been no more against Privilege than was the whole transaction of business in carrying on of the War and managing other great concernments of Parliament and Kingdom wherein the Scots all along were admitted to participate in Counsel and Interest 185. The King refusing to sign these Bills Hammond by Sir Thomas Fairfax's single order claps him up a Prisoner removes all his Servants It seems by this time they had forgot their Remonstrance of the 23 d of Iune where they say it is against their principles to imprison the King and that there can be no Peace without due consideration of his Majesty's Rights But then was then and now is now It was then necessary for the good of their Affairs to seem gracious desirous of Peace and of restoring the King Now they appear in their own colours their nature having no restraint nay Sir Thomas Fairfax's Command is so absolute and sacred as Captain Burley was hang'd for endeavouring to oppose it there being at that time no other pretence for his Majesty's Imprisonment but because Sir Thomas Fairfax had commanded it it is true that upon his signification to the Houses of what he had done it was approv'd of and confirm'd 186. All this while a rigorous hand is continu'd against the impeach'd Lords who were under the Black Rod the Gentlemen of the House of Commons the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in the Tower who had been kept Prisoners so many Months upon a general Impeachment and no particular Charge against them It was often endeavour'd in the House to have pass'd the Articles which were brought in against the Lord Willoughby to be a leading Case to the rest Where I cannot pass by that I find he is charg'd with Treason for levying War against the King and this done by the same persons that imprison the King and had hang'd Burley for levying War for him One may see they will find matter to hang on all hands Many debates were had on this business and at last it was resolv'd to lay the Articles aside 187. The seven Lords still press'd for their Trial the House of Peers as often sent down to the House of Commons to give them notice of it and no Charge coming up they set them at liberty The Common Council likewise petition'd for the liberty of their Members in the Tower which the Army took so heinously as that and the laying aside of the Charge against the Lord Willoughby together with a Vote which had pass'd for disbanding the supernumerary Forces produce a thundring Remonstrance of December the 7 th casting in the Parliaments teeth their delays and neglects That the Army had with patience waited four Months upon them That finding such obstructions in matters of supply and such unworthy requital they apprehended God upbraids their care to preserve a people given up to their own destruction That they could to speak Amen with the power and advantages God had put into their hands for so is their expression have put the Army and other Forces engag'd with it into such a posture as to have assur'd themselves of Pay and made their opposers have follow'd them with offers of satisfaction That now all business seems to be wrapt up in one bare Vote That all supernumery Forces should be disbanded which Vote they say they cannot imagine to be absolute and soveraign They offer as their final advice that 40000 l. more per mensem be added to the 60000 l.
to adventure their own for speedy stopping the issue of it in the Kingdom 5. This was the first step of those unworthy Mens getting into power When other Gentlemen of the House of Commons unluckily left it upon these occasions they then undertook the business put themselves and their Creatures into all Committees persons most of them before only known by their Faces and esteemed for their Silence and Modesty But they soon grew Bold and Impudent domineering not only over the rest of the House but much more over others abroad and by their Pride and Insolency contracting Envy and Hatred to the Parliament 6. By this means they had power over all the Money of the Kingdom pleasured and recompensed whom they would which were none be sure but their Creatures or such as would be theirs and so made many Proselytes both within doors and without increasing their Party exceedingly which made them carry the business of the House as they would themselves and made it easie to them in all Debates concerning applications for Peace to drive us to extremities demanding unreasonable things laying upon the King the Conditions of Naash to thrust out his right Eye for a reproach or as the Devil did to our Saviour to have him fall down and worship them lay his Honour at their Feet his Life at their Mercy while they upon all occasions revile and reproach him give countenance and encouragement to all the bitter scurrilous and unseemly Expressions against him impeach the Queen give her the usage both in words and actions one would not have done to the meanest Handmaid of the Kingdom tho the Wife Daughter and Sister of a King the Mother of our Prince who is to sit upon the Throne if these Men hinder him not and all this to make the distance wide the wound deep that there might be no closing no binding up Then was there nothing but expelling Members out of the House on the least information If any of those Whelps did but bark against any one and could but say he was busie in the Country nothing but sequestring impeaching of Treason turning Men and their Families turning Wife and Children to starve so many Committees and Sub-Committees of Examinations Sequestrations fifth and twentieth part c. made in City and Country and some of the most factious busy beggarly men put in as fittest Tools for such Masters to work by to rake Men to the Bones and take all advantages to ruin them 7. This was a great breaking of heart to all honest Men especially to those in the House who being present and Eye-witnesses of the management of Affairs easily discovered the drift of these persons and opposed it all they could which made those Blood-suckers conceive a mortal hatred against them and in truth against all Gentlemen as those who had too great an interest and too large a stake of their own in the Kingdom to ingage with them in their Design of perpetuating the War to an absolute confusion 8. This made them look with a jealous Eye upon my Lord of Essex who was General of the Army finding him not fit for their turn as too desirous of Peace and of maintaining Monarchy and therefore they resolve to lay him aside beginning to draw Supplies from him neither providing Recruits nor furnishing him with Money or Arms except sometimes for a pinch when the necessity of their own preservation required it clogging him all they could countenancing and supporting who ever did oppose him In the mean time carrying on the business of the House in a wild madness making Ordinances like Draco's Laws written in Blood that no Man could be safe whom they had a mind to destroy and their mind was to destroy all they could by making so many desperate to render things more irreconcileable and cut off all hopes of Peace which they were resolved to put by upon any terms per fas aut nefas if not by art and cunning rather to use force than fail and where the Fox's Skin would not reach to take the Lion's as to give one Instance for all 9. The House of Lords in the Summer after the beginning of our Troubles in 1643 having resolv'd to deliver themselves and the Kingdom from this Aegyptian Slavery had prepared a Message to the King with Overtures for an Accommodation and sent it down to the House of Commons on a Saturday where the major part seemed to be of the same mind and after a long dispute and much opposition prevail'd to take it into consideration made an entrance into it agreed to some particulars and it growing late adjourned the further debate till Monday morning against which time these Firebrands had set the City in a flame as if there were a resolution to betray all to the King and thereupon brought down a Rabble of their party some thousands to the House of Commons door who gave out threatning Speeches and named among themselves but so as they might be heard some Members of the House whom they said they lookt upon as Enemies and would pull out of the House which did so terrifie many honest timorous Men and gave that boldness to the others as contrary to all order they resumed the Question that was settled on Saturday for going on with the business and at last carried it by some Voices to have it laid aside which was the highest strain of Insolency the greatest violation of the Authority and Freedom the two essential Ingredients of a Parliament that before that time was ever known Since I confess the Army has far outstrip'd it 10. This made some persons cast about how a stop might be given to such violent proceedings and to have other Counsels admitted which probably would give some allay to those sharp and implacable Spirits It appearing to be altogether impossible ever to obtain a Peace whilst they were Rulers who Phaeton like were able to set the whole World on fire It was therefore proposed that our Brethren of Scotland might be called in who were known to be a wise People lovers of Order firm to Monarchy who had twice before gone through the misfortune of taking up Arms and wisely had laid them down still contenting themselves with that which was necessary for their security avoiding extremities Their wisdom and moderation as was presumed might then have delivered us from that precipice of misery and confusion into which our Charioteers were hurrying us amain 11. But these Men would none of it at that time they hoped to be able to carry on the Work themselves and meant to divide all the Spoil which they had done if it had not pleased God to give them that check in the West when their Army there was beaten through Sir Arthur Haslerig's default one of their invincible Champions First his ignorant foolhardiness afterwards his baseness and cowardise who then found himself to be mortal for before he thought himself invincible and absolutely Stick-free and Shot-free having had the good
Fortune to be in a gallant Regiment under Sir William Balfore at Kenton-Field and so not to run away but as himself did afterwards relate it wink and strike and bear down all before him This made him so absolute a Souldier as he thought Christendom had not his fellow and therefore would not be govern'd by his Commander in chief in that Western Brigade a gallant and discreet Gentleman but would charge contrary to order without sense or reason and finding that resistance which he did not expect ran away as basely with all the Horse leaving the Foot engaged Presently afterwards the Town of Bristol was lost by the like Gallantry and good Soldiery of another of their Champions who for it was condemned to die by a Council of War and pardoned by my Lord of Essex who was well requited for it afterwards both by this Gentleman and his Father 12. Then our Masters finding themselves to be mortal too began to be afraid and now the Scots must be called in So in all hast they send to them to come and help with open Cry Save us or we perish They promise any thing offer any thing do any thing for the present that the Scots would have them do The Honour of England not thought of Liberty of Conscience and the godly Party not mentioned But all that was heard was the Covenant Uniformity in Church-Government uniting the Nations never to make Peace without them and a solemn Treaty for all this closed there and presently ratified by the Parliament here 13. But they meant afterwards to be even with them to perform nothing of what was de futuro to be done to serve their turns by them to make them instrumental for their deliverance at that plunge and then pick quarrels with them and send them home again with scorn and discontent which they have since sufficiently laboured to do and went far towards it and to the engaging of the two Kingdoms in Blood if some persons had not interposed with more ingenuous and more moderate Counsels to the happy success of whose Endeavours the piety honesty and moderation of the Scots themselves did very much contribute concurring with them and cooperating in all things which might promote a Peace as shall be afterwards shewed in its due place for this is but by the way 14. Those Creatures of theirs whom they sent Commissioners into Scotland for that business represented the state of Affairs to that Parliament clear otherwise than it was endearing their own Party to them as the only sincere publick spirited Men who desired such a Reformation as was agreeable to their Government and such a Peace as might be a joint safety and security to both Kingdoms giving Characters of all others as Malignants ill affected averse to the Scotish Nation opposers of a good understanding between the Kingdoms and of their mutual assistance of each other 15. With which prejudice of us the Scots were strongly possessed at their coming in about Ianuary 1643. and were in England some time before they were disabused They were first made believe nothing should be done without them or their advice and consent To that purpose a Committee of the two Kingdoms must be appointed for uniting the Councils to order and direct the prosecution of the War and for communicating and transacting all Affairs between the Kingdoms In packing whereof and keeping out some persons whom our Masters did disaffect they used such juggling as never was heard of before in Parliament and none but such Hocus-pocus's could have the Face to have done 16. Well they carried it and to work they go bearing it very fair to the Scots till they were got aloft again and that with their help they had recovered and cleared the North obtained that great Victory at Marston-Moor in Iuly 1644 which without them they had never done And however Lieutenant General Cromwel had the impudence and boldness to assume much of the honour of it to himself or rather Herod like to suffer others to magnifie him and adore him for it for I can scarce believe he should be so impudent to give it out himself so conscious as he must be of his own base cowardliness those who did the principal Service that day were Major General Lesley who commanded the Scots Horse Major General Crawford who was Major General to the Earl of Manchester's Brigade and Sir Thomas Fairfax who under his Father commanded the Northern Brigade But my friend Comwel had neither part nor lot in the business For I have several times heard it from Crawford's own mouth and I think I shall not be mistaken if I say Cromwel himself has heard it from him for he once said it aloud in Westminster-Hall when Cromwel past by him with a design he might hear him that when the whole Army at Marston-Moor was in a fair possibility to be utterly routed and a great part of it running he saw the Body of Horse of that Brigade standing still and to his seeming doubtful which way to charge backward or forward when he came up to them in a great passion reviling them with the name of Poltroons and Cowards and asked them if they would stand still and see the Day lost Whereupon Cromwel shewed himself and in a pitiful Voice said Major General what shall I do he begging pardon for what he said not knowing he was there towards whom he knew his distance as to his Superiour Officer told him Sir if you charge not all is lost Cromwel answered he was wounded and was not able to charge his great wound being a little burn in the Neck by the accidental going off behind him of one of his Soldiers Pistols then Crawford desired him to go off the Field and sending one away with him who very readily followed wholesom advice led them on himself which was not the duty of his Place and as little for Cromwel's Honor as it proved to be much for the advancement of his and his Parties pernicious Designs This I have but by relation yet I easily believe it upon the Credit of the Reporter who was a Man of Honor that was not ashamed nor afraid to publish it in all places Besides I have heard a parallel Story of his Valour from another person Colonel Dalbier not inferiour neither in quality nor reputation to Major General Crawford who told me That when Basing-House was storm'd Cromwel instead of leading on his Men stood a good distance off out of Gun-shot behind a Hedg And something I can deliver of him upon my own knowledg which makes passage for the easier belief of both these Relations and assures me that that Man is as errand a Coward as he is notoriously perfidious ambitious and hypocritical This was his base keeping out of the Field at Keinton Battel where he with his Troop of Horse came not in impudently and ridiculously affirming the day after That he had been all that day seeking the Army and place of Fight tho his
go into the West which they conceived would be an easie Task at that time to reduce the King's Party brought low and so not able to send any Forces into those parts for their relief and encouragement 24. This they knew would absolutely break my Lord of Essex who must harass his Army to follow a light and moving Body and if the King which was probable enough should chance to give him the slip and get from him into the West then was he ruin'd in his Reputation and liable to a Question and perhaps a further Prosecution It proved that his Majesty did get by them and passed by Sir William Waller's Quarters on the other side who as soon as he knew it marched after him and gave notice to my Lord of Essex thereof so as before he knew any thing Sir William Waller was got a days march before after the King Then was it impossible for him to overtake them and being so much nearer the West Sir William Waller engaged in the other Service he upon the Advice of his Council of War resolved to bend that way yet not to make such speed but that he should receive other Orders from our Governors above that he might comply with them Accordingly he gave that Account to the Parliament and Committee of the two Kingdoms with his desire of their Directions They were so mad to see themselves defeated of their Plot that they would not for many days return him any answer at all his disobedience was blown up and trumpeted about by them and their Agents Some of whom did not stick to say It were better my Lord of Essex and his whole Army were lost and ruined than the Parliament not obeyed and that by their consents he nor his Army should be look'd after or cared for more A Maxim they have forgotten now in the case of Sir Thomas Fairfax and his Army's not Disobedience but open Rebellion but they were as good as their words then and did most maliciously wilfully and treacherously as to the Parliaments Cause which they seemed to be zealous in suffer General and Army to be lost and the whole West left further out of the Parliaments reach than before 25. Sir Arthur Haslerig posted up to London breathing out nothing but ruin and destruction to the Earl of Essex spoke it out in the hearing of several persons That he would ruin him or be ruined himself His malice and violence was so great at the Committee of the two Kingdoms where he and his Party were prevalent that a report was thence brought down to the House of Commons by which Sir William Waller was taken off from following the King and by that means the King was left at liberty to bend his whole force for the West after my Lord of Essex which he presently did At last they left my Lord of Essex at liberty to proceed in that Western Expedition but with a resolution to let him perish He takes in Weymouth and some other Towns goes on as far as Cornwal whither the King's Forces follow him at the heels cut off all provision from him press upon him exceedingly and put him to very great streights He engaged in a Country inclosed with deep Ditches and strong Fences that he could neither break through nor march away but sends Letter upon Letter Messenger upon Messenger to the Parliament representing his Condition and how easie it was with a small force sent upon the back of the King's Army if but only a good Party of Horse to stop their Provisions and turn the Tables streighten them and free him than which certainly nothing had been more easie and would have saved the Kingdom a Mass of Treasure and thousands of good Mens lives which the continuance of the War after that time did cost 26. But our Masters did not desire then to see the War at an end they had not the Sword in those hands they would have it for to break the King's forces well knowing they must then have had a Peace and such a Peace as had carried with it an establishment of the King's Government a keeping up the Nobility and Gentry all things must have returned into their proper Channel and the security of the Parliament and Kingdom being provided for the Law of the Land must have taken place their Arbitrary Empire been at an end and their Design wholly defeated 27. Therefore my Lord of Essex must not be relieved but sacrificed to their Ambition the King's Army must be yet preserved to give them a colour to new model theirs and put the Power into the base hands of their Creatures which should keep the Kingdom in a perpetual Bondage and tho they ended the War with the King yet never made Peace but continued to grind the Faces and break the Backs of the People with Taxes and Free-Quarter to maintain an Army when no Enemy was left in a word they govern by the Sword the height of all Misery and Slavery that any Land can undergo 28. My Lord of Essex and his Army were by this means broken in Cornwal in the latter end of that Summer and the King seemed to gain a great Advantage recover a great deal of Strength but to nip that they soon provided Force sufficient it suiting with their Ends that his Majesty should seem strong but not be so Therefore the Soldiers of that Army which had lost their Arms in Cornwal are presently armed again and two other Armies joined to them the Earl of Manchester's and Sir W. W aller's who gave the King's Forces a ruffle at Dennington gaining some of the Works Yet when the King came with the remainder of his Strength they did not think it convenient to put it to the trial of a Day but suffered him to march away when it had been a most easie thing to have prevented it And even there in all likelyhood have made an end of the business which was that they feared and Sir Arthur Haslerig could come up to London and into the House of Commons all in beaten Buff cross girt with Sword and Pistols as if he had been killing his thousands when 't is more probable if there was any danger that he had been crying under a Hedg as he did at Cherrington Fight bellowing out Ah wo is me all is lost we are all undone insomuch that a great Officer a Scotch-man finding him in that tune wished him to go off the Field and not stand gudding there a Scotch term for crying to dishearten the Soldiers but in the House of Commons he feared nothing none so fierce and valiant without fear or wit and there like a great Soldier in that habit gave a Relation of what had pass'd highly extolling the gallantry and conduct of all the Commanders the valour of the Soldiers that no mortal Men could do more that the best Soldiers in the world could not have hinder'd the King's marching off and that it had been no wisdom to have adventur'd to fight
Common-wealth's Money by Gifts and Rewards and paying pretended Arrears in a word seek the ruin of the Kingdom and the advancement of themselves and their Party this made them change their Minds and many of them to confess and acknowledg they had been abused 47. But this was not the work of one day Some time passed before they could make these clear discoveries and disabuse themselves our grand Impostors kept them a good while at gaze with putting jealousies into their heads against the Scots as if the Scots had a design of making good their footing in this Kingdom and that we who were of the other Party from them did carry on the Scotch Interest and design'd to betray the Rights and Liberties of England with which Engine they batter'd a long time and made no small impression in many mens Minds 48. For the next step they meant to make was to fall foul with the Scots and engage the Kingdoms one against another in Blood which was the return they would give the Scots as a reward of the good Service they had done them coming to their help in time of need when they were so low so despairing of carrying on their work and effecting what they had projected to themselves as that the chief of them a little before were ready to run away Ships prepared good store of Treasure which they had shark'd pack'd up to carry with them or return'd beyond Sea by Bills of Exchange and all things in a readiness for their remove so well were they resolved to hazard and if need were sacrifice themselves for their Country tho they would be thought to be the only Patriots but they had certainly left it in the lurch if first my Lord of Essex had not done that memorable piece of Service in relieving Glocester which was so gallantly defended by Major General Massey and fighting the great Battel of Newbury And a little before that the Kingdom of Scotland engaging in the Cause sent in their Army to their assistance My Lord of Essex as has been shewed already had his reward he was cashier'd and so was Major General Massey who since likewise is turn'd out of the House being one of the eleven Members and voted to be impeached of High Treason And next the Scots must have theirs The quarrelling with them and endeavouring to destroy their Army is what I must now speak of as the Subject of the next Act in this Tragedy The first endeavour is to break the Scotish Army by not paying it which before whilst they had need of it or hopes that the Kingdom of Scotland might cooperate to the working of their Designs they could be careful to do their utmost to satisfie and to provide for it fitting Accommodations But now they can let many months pass without sending them any Money or taking any care for their supply or so much as affording them good words One of these two effects they thought this would certainly produce either the Soldiers to run away perhaps mutiny so the Army disband and fall to pieces or else live upon Free-quarters so by oppressing the Country to become odious and the people rise against them Nor were they wanting to give all encouragement so to do Emissaries were sent out and Agents employ'd in all places to stir up and imbitter mens Spirits Many Complaints were by their procurements sent up to the Parliament and all means used to get hands to those Complaints and strange things were suggested vast Sums to be levy'd by them so many thousand Pounds a week to be levy'd upon a County unheard of Insolencies to be committed Robbing Killing Ravishing Riots all manner of Villanies This would come up with open cry make a great noise be received and heighten'd in the House of Commons with railing Speeches bitter Invectives blown over the City and Kingdom to the disadvantage and reproach not only of the Army but the Nation in a word all done that could be imagin'd to set Man Woman and Child and even the very Stones against them The Commissioners of Scotland that were in London would many times send in their Papers to the Houses of Parliament to shew the falshoods of those Reports and desire that Committees might be sent down to join with theirs to examine these things pressing that it ought to be so done by the Treaty between the two Kingdoms and that there should always be a Committee of both Kingdoms with the Army to govern it to provide what was sit for the Soldiers and prevent both disorders and misunderstandings but it was not that which our Masters desir'd and therefore they would send none 49. The Members of the House who dislik'd those Courses and saw the endeavours that were us'd to cause a breach between the two Nations did yet desire that if those relations were true it might so appear and be represented not only to the General of the Army and to that part of the Committee of Estates of Scotland which was in England both those with the Parliament and those with the Army but even to the Kingdom of Scotland that there might be redress the Offenders punish'd and the Kingdom of England righted and satisfy'd If false that the raisers and contrivers of those Reports might be punish'd and the Kingdom of Scotland repaired which was the way to keep Peace between the Nations And so sometimes they prevail'd and got it order'd for an Examination but never any thing could be made of it Only at a Market-Town in Yorkshire there had been a Riot and some Men killed for which a Council of War had passed on the Offenders and some as I remember were executed some cashier'd And for the raising those great Sums of Money it is true Money they did raise or else their Soldiers must have starv'd But for that exorbitancy of raising so many thousand Pounds a Week upon one County it was a Scandal and false Lye grounded upon notable Cheat and Collusion For the Scots drawing their Quarters near together which they did as well for the better governing of their Army as for the safety of it knowing they had many back-friends this made them lie heavy upon places and exact the more Money and Provisions from those several Townships Then did these Men who were employed to blow the Coals and put all into a flame if possible between the Country and the Scots take the highest rate that was set upon any one of these Towns and make a computation what it would come to upon the whole County at that proportion which Sum they inform'd to be the charge upon that County for the payment of the Scotish Army and this must be made a great business and past for a truth as if the Scots had rais'd so much Money when in truth there was no such thing 50. Yet let me not be thought to excuse and justifie all that the Soldiers of that Army have done upon the Country and not to pity with a very tender Sense
that they grew to be not only an unnecessary grievous burden in respect of charge but also a let and hinderance to the setling all Government both civil and ecclesiastical neither submitting themselves to order of Parliament nor permitting others where they could hinder it but giving countenance to all disorders especially in the Church as breaking open the Church doors doing most unseemly barbarous things indeed not fit to be related either to modest or Christian Ears and in time of Divine Service interrupting Ministers as they were preaching miscalling reviling them sometimes pulling them down by violence beating and abusing them getting into the Pulpits themselves and venting either ridiculous or scandalous things false and pernicious Doctrins countenancing and publishing seditious Pamphlets for which they had a Press that follow'd the Army decrying both King and Parliament and all Authority infusing a rebellious Spirit into the people under the pretence of Liberty and Freedom All this notwithstanding while the Scotish Army was in the Kingdom Such things were whisper'd such jealousies and fears rais'd as these inconveniencies were not only dispens'd with but the Army supported and cherish'd as if they had been tutelary Gods those who must have protected and deliver'd us from all danger and all that the Parliament and Kingdom could do little enough to feed and maintain them tho an excrescence that drew away the whole nourishment of the Body and starv'd it 67. But afterwards when the Kingdom saw how they had been abus'd made to fear where no fear was and were come to themselves they soon grew to feel the weight of that which lay upon them and seek for ease Then City and Country could petition the Parliament for disbanding the Army complain of their intolerable disorders and irregularities and the Parliament was well dispos'd for it who now likewise discover'd the art and malice of the Independent Party a Spirit they had rais'd which they would gladly lay and consider'd that as such an Army was dangerous so none at all was needful that Ireland wanted what we had too much of Soldiers 68. Besides they well saw that whilst that Army stood they should never be able to relieve Ireland to any purpose the stock of the Kingdom was swallow'd up in their maintenance and tho for the space of a whole year there had not been an Enemy in the Field nor Town possess'd by any to find them employment yet they recruited daily all care being taken for sending them Pay Arms Provision Clothes with all other necessaries as if they were every day upon hard and dangerous Service when they did nothing but trouble and oppress the Country â— so as notwithstanding their glorious pretences of fighting for Conscience not Pay sacrificing themselves to God and the Kingdom 's Cause none of them would stir to help the poor Protestants in that Kingdom but even hinder'd what they could all others from going 69. Which appear'd by Colonel Hammond's Capitulation being design'd for the Service of Dublin who tho he were but an Ensign to Sir Simon Harcourt in the begining of those Wars now a Colonel of the new Model stood upon his pantoufles That he would not be oblig'd for longer than two or three Months have all his Pay before hand Victuals for six Months tho he would stay but two be absolute Commander of all the Forces there have a proportion of Money over and above for contingent occasions put into what hands he would appoint a Fleet of Ships to transport him wait upon him and be at his disposing not to stir without his leave in truth he must be Admiral and General such Terms as no Prince or foreign State that had but given an assistance could have stood upon higher This was the obedient conscientious Army but most Men were satisfy'd if it was not disbanded Ireland must be lost and England undone 70. The Parliament therefore taking into their consideration the necessity of relieving that dying Kingdom after long debate and much opposition from all that Party came at last to a resolution in May 1647 and vote that a certain proportion of Foot and Horse should forthwith be transported into Ireland as I remember seven Regiments of Foot of which four I am certain were to be taken out of the Army they further vote that no Foot should be continu'd in England but those that were to be for the necessary defence of the Garisons and that about five thousand Horse and Dragoons should remain under Pay in this Kingdom for quieting and preventing any stir or trouble either within or from abroad to interrupt proceedings till a settlement of Affairs Peoples Minds after such Commotions being like the Sea after a Storm unquiet for some time tho the wind be abated Those Men would have had a far greater number and press'd it earnestly saying We laid by our strength that all might be deliver'd back into the King's hands and tho even this proportion seem'd very great to discreet and moderate Men yet they pitch'd upon it partly to stop the mouths of these Railers and give satisfaction to all indifferent persons who look'd not so far into business and were apt enough to be misled into jealousies and suspicions and partly because they well hop'd it would be but for some short time that this charge should be continu'd upon the Kingdom 71. Here then is the Ax first laid to the root of this broad spreading Tree the Army a dismal Cypress the shadow and dropping whereof were so pernicious as to darken all the comfortable beams of our Sun-shine of Peace and suffer no good thing to prosper near it this vext the Children of darkness who now must cast about shake Heaven and Earth raise all the black Spirits of Hell confound Sea and Land and all the Elements rather than permit this to take place 72. The Parliament goes on with this work refers it to the Committee of Lords and Commons at Derby-house to see those Votes concerning Ireland put in execution The eleven Members were almost all of them of that Committee who may say Hinc illae Lacrimae For doing their parts together with the rest in discharge of the duty and trust which lay upon them to take care of that poor Kingdom and discovering the designs of the Army to frustrate all the good designs of the Parliament they incur the mortal hatred of the Party and Army which have driven them from their Homes and Country and City of London without the privity or consent of the House of Parliament The Earl of Warwick the Lord Dacres Sir William Waller Sir Iohn Clotworthy Major General Massey and Mr. Salloway are the persons employ'd These labour to dispose Officers and Soldiers to a compliance with the necessities of Ireland but at the very first were receiv'd with a mutinous acclamation amongst the Officers whom they had call'd together some of them crying out One and all and the whole Company disturb'd and distemper'd So as finding it not
or Colonel Fleetwood which was given to Colonel Fleetwood as one Lieutenant Markham inform'd the House saying the Messenger that brought it told him so nor did Sir Arthur Haslerig make a clear answer when he was ask'd concerning it in the House Colonel Fleetwood being at that time gone to the Army so as he could not be examin'd 97. By this trick they hope to catch the people and so find no resistance to their traiterous proceedings yet they will not trust only to Jugling they will play a sure Game and have power in their hands to go through the work and make their way if it will not be given Therefore the Army must be put into a posture for it they have the Soldiers already they must have Artillery and Ammunition so at the same meeting Cromwel likewise appoints Ioyce as the same Authors relate to repair to Oxford secure that Garison the Magazine and Train of Artillery which had there lain many Months the Army having had nothing to do and so no use for it which therefore the Parliament had then order'd to be remov'd and brought back to the Tower the place where all Stores are kept But those who were sent down by the Parliament for that purpose were by these Mutineers beaten and wounded the Magazine and Train kept away by force and besides some 3 or 4000 l. in Money taken from them which they had carry'd down for disbanding of the Regiment there in Garison And now they think they have all in their own hands the Fish is catcht they may throw away the Net They begin thereforre to appear in their own Colours Cromwel Ireton with the rest of the Cabal and Sir Thomas Fairfax in the last place who tho he be General is not to lead but will be sure to follow close may not lay aside their innocency and their ignorance for all this while they knew nothing and put themselves in the head of the Agitators own all they have done and at Triploe Heath near Cambridg appoint a general Rendevous there to declare themselves and avowedly enter into the Confederacy 96. At this Rendevous was fram'd that solemn Engagement wherein they say they look upon the resolutions of the Parliament for their disbanding as proceeding from malicious and mischievous Principles and Intentions and not without carnal and bloody purposes That therefore they are resolv'd not to appear at the places thereto appointed and then declare agree and promise to and with each other That till they have such satisfaction in all their Grievances and such security for the future as shall be agreed on at a Council consisting of the general Officers with two Commission Officers and two Soldiers to be chosen for each Regiment they will not disband or divide nor suffer themselves to be disbanded or divided And this is one result of that meeting of the godly obedient Army this the fruit of the new Model and of all the great undertakings of that man of God as his Disciples call'd him Lieutenant General Cromwel in their behalf 99. They likewise frame there another submissive business which they call'd an humble Representation of the dissatisfaction of the Army in relation to the late resolution for so sudden disbanding where they are more large in their humble cudgeling of the Parliament and do it to that purpose with a scorn of all that had been offer'd to their satisfaction say The private Soldiers will not regard what is behind of Pay after disbanding implying all must be had require further security for the Officers Arrears as Forest Lands and the revenues of Cathedrals quarrel with the ordinances past for Indemnity exemption form Pressing c. expostulate about the Declaration against their seditious Petition yet standing in force demand reparation for questioning their mutinous Officers and will have it against those Members of the House who had done but their duty and discharg'd their Consciences in that particular declare plainly That tho all their Grievances were duly consider'd it were nothing except those persons were censur'd calling them Men of desperate Principles Incendiaries that must not continue to be their Judges that is must not sit in Parliament and much more of this nature which in contempt they send up to the House These are they that fight for privilege of Parliament who have made a Covenant with God and Man so to do and well they perform it those they mislike must be thrust out by head and shoulders and such as remain if they be not obedient to them shall be serv'd with the same sauce And this is to make a free Parliament Was there ever a more perfidious breach of Duty did Rebellion it self ever outdo it can any Man think Yet let us go a little further with them and we shall see greater abominations than these 100. All this while they seem'd to desire only things concerning themselves tho very unfittingly and wickedly both for matter and manner yet not to meddle with any thing else concerning settling the business of the Kingdom which in many Messages and Declarations they still protested against saying as Sir Thomas Fairfax wrote up from Cambridg That whatever was suggested or suspected they would leave all such matters to the wisdom of the Parliament But now Tempora mutantur they have power in their hands and the Kingdom shall feel it the Parliament shall not only give them what they will have but do what they will have done or smart for it They make the world believe they will set the King on his Throne and in his Rights the People in their Liberties the Parliament in its Duty and a Golden Age is like to follow 101. To this end they march up in a hostile way towards London bring his Majesty along with them from Royston Sir Thomas Fairfax Cromwel Ireton and the rest of the Officers write a Letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council telling them That the sum of what they have desir'd of the Parliament is a satisfaction to their demands as Soldiers a reparation upon those that have improv'd advantages as they falsely say by false suggestions and misrepresentations to the destruction of the Army and endeavour'd to engage the Kingdom in a new War That the things they insist upon as English Men are a settlement of the Peace of the Kingdom and of the Liberties of the Subject which they say they have as much right to demand as their Money or other common Interest of Soldiers and that the honest People of England are full of the sense of Ruin and Misery should they disband before That for the obtaining of these things they are drawing near the City and declare That if the City appear not against them nor provoke them they will give no offence but if they do they call God to witness they are free and have wash'd off the Ruin which will befal it that they will lose all rather than not be righted of the Men they aim at therefore
desire that like fellow Subjects and Brethren the Citizens would follicite the Parliament in their behaf 102. Here they first take upon them openly to intermeddle with the business of the Kingdom contrary to all the former Declarations and Protestations but their words nor yet their vows were ever any rule to know their meaning by as Hammond told the King concerning Cromwel so is it with all those visible Saints have they promis'd vow'd sworn never so much call'd God and Man to witness if the condition of their Catholick Cause so alter that what they have so promis'd and sworn be no longer expedient for them a pretended Enthusiasm a new Light shall give a dispensation and they will do clean contrary yet all out of tenderness of Conscience well they are now in strength and power and will make use of it to turn all upside down 103. The poor Parliament all this while is sitting upon addle Eggs take a great deal of pains like Children to build Castles of Cards a puff from their faithful Army blows it all down It is true that at first upon return of their Commissioners who were sent down to disband and had brought them an account of the scorn put upon them how instead of the Regiments coming to the Rendevous appointed a Command from Sir Thomas Fairfax fetch'd them clear another away how the train of Artillery was seiz'd upon at Oxford the Money which should have disbanded a Regiment taken away by force and the Servants whom they had employ'd beaten and wounded this did with good reason startle them many of the Members express'd a sharp and severe Sense of it the House was taking vigorous and honourable Resolutions tho oppos'd with might and main by all the Independent Party who prevail'd but little being now a known engag'd Faction till Serjeant Major General Skippon stood up a Presbyterian one who had seem'd to dislike those factious ways before his last going down to the Army who was nominated Commander in chief for the Irish Expedition had receiv'd a gift of a thousand Pounds by way of encouragement to go but now was willing enough to stay at home with it he forsooth in a grave way with a doleful Countenance and lamentable Voice makes a long Speech to exhort to moderation and to bear with the Infirmities of a zealous conscientious Army which had done so much good Service Therefore it was his opinion we should humble our selves before God appoint a day of Fasting and do those things which the Army desir'd give them their full Pay alter the Ordinance according as they propos'd and he was perswaded in his Conscience they would then be satisfy'd however they were not to be provok'd for they were a form'd Body which would be upon us before we were aware This knockt us on the head especially his last Argument a demonstration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is they are strong they will fall upon you timorous Men as he knew many of those were he had to deal with could make no reply to it 104. But had he done his duty given warning of those preparations and intentions sooner when he was below with the Army so long and could not choose but discern it the House would not have been so surpris'd would have provided against it in time but now fear took away the use of reason They look'd upon the Army as even at their doors Hannibal ad portas and all of them Children of Anak armed Giants not to be resisted 105. Whereas in truth there was no such cause of fear As they in the Army had more Cause carrying about them so much guilt as I am confident they had as great a share of apprehension But they presum'd upon their Agents among us they knew we had them with us both in Parliament and City who would betray us possess'd with the like evil Spirit as Ahab's Prophets were we should prevail otherwise we were not in so despicable a condition The Parliament had not yet utterly lost their reputation the Image of Authority was not wholly defaced in them they had a stock intire and untoucht of 200000 l. provided for disbanding the Army and service of Ireland multitude of Officers and gallant Soldiers about the Town who had always fought gallantly and obey'd readily had little reason to be in love with the Army which had unhors'd them so it is likely would have engag'd chearfully and done good service The City was high in the opinion of the People for courage and resolution firmness to the Parliament zeal in the Cause hatred of Independency dislike of the Army and a Purse to make all good give Sinews and Strength to that side with which they should close and had particularly presented many Petitions to the House for those very things which they were doing and the Army only came to undo which were in order to a Peace restoring the King settling the Government both in Church and State and giving ease and quietness to the Kingdom so as they were in truth already engag'd with us and waited but a Summons to declare themselves when by this unfortunate Man's interposition at that time to whom chiefly and to his Chaplain Marshal we must attribute all the Evil that has since befallen King and Kingdom all was dasht instead of a generous resistance to the insolencies of perfidious Servants vindicating the honour of the Parliament discharging the trust that lay upon them to preserve a poor People from being ruin'd and inslav'd to a rebellious Army they deliver up themselves and Kingdom to the will of their Enemies prostitute all to the Lust of heady and violent Men suffer Mr. Cromwel to saddle ride switch and spur them at his pleasure 106. For we instantly fell as low as dirt vote the common Soldier his full Pay the Officers a Month more that is in all three Months upon disbanding or engaging for Ireland take all our Ordinances in pieces change and alter them according to their minds and which is worst of all expunge our Declaration against that mutinous Petition cry Peccavimus to save a whipping but all would not do 107. In so much that when our Commissioners were sent down to the Army at Triplo Heath to give an account of our dutiful complyance they would not vouchsafe to hear them but when they offer'd to read the Votes cry out Justice Justice a Note that Cromwel and Ireton had taught them to sing being done by their directions as some of their own Disciples falling our with them have since discover'd which was by Mr. Scawen who was one of those were sent reported back to the House in such a gastly fearful manner only to terrifie us and make us more supple he saying the Army was so strong so unanimous so resolv'd as the poor Presbyterians hearts fell an Inch lower and the Independents made themselves merry with it Then forsooth the Houses must send down Members to abide with the Army as with a
Power independent or a third Estate improve all advantages and opportunities to give good impressions of the actions and intentions of the poor Parliament and like Benhadad's Servants catch at any thing of comfort which might fall these were Sir Henry Vane the younger Serjeant Major General Skippon Mr. Scawen and Mr. Povey 108. In the mean time the Army is marching draws nearer and nearer to the City where as well as in the Parliament Men were between hopes and fears looking upon what was done sufficient to appease them what then offer'd what they always intended for doing right to the Army and in truth to all persons they could not but hope as well But seeing the postures and proceedings of the other side there was more cause of fear till at last that Letter came to the City of which I spoke before which satisfy'd our doubtings and when the Citizens who were sent from the Common Council brought it to the Parliament the horror and indignation of such an Impiety so great a Presumption so manifest a Rebellion awaken'd us to see our danger and master'd those fears which had been given us to awe us from resistance so as both Houses and City resolv'd to put themselves in a posture of defence appointed a Committee of Lords and Commons to go into the City call the Committee of the Militia of London to them and jointly and severally do what was necessary for our common safety 109. The Committee went and did their parts but they found Ioab's hand every where the Army had so plaid Absalom pretending an intention to settle Peace immediately correct the exorbitances with which the people had been oppress'd and abus'd restore the King with such other plausible things and their Agents had so industriously improv'd their Interests some false Brothers in the City as Alderman Foulks and Alderman Gibbs so cunningly wrought upon mens Minds sometimes upon their Fears setting out the strength and power of the Army which threaten'd nothing but ruin sometimes upon their hopes and desires of Peace gilding over their proceedings as all done in order to it sometimes upon the dislike of the present condition assuring them all Taxes and Payments would by this means be taken off sometimes upon their credulity making them believe that those Persons whom the Army had in their eyes to remove were not so well affected to the publick but had particular Ends and Designs of their own to arm Reformadoes and set up the power of another Sword to rule and govern by so to continue the Miseries and Burdens of the People by which Falshoods and Juglings those two chiefly like Iannes and Iambres had generally bewitcht the City and lull'd it into a security withstanding those who had no other thought than to deliver their Brethren and themselves from that subjection and vassalage to which they were then design'd and are since brought As the Citizens resolv'd not to stir but look'd on to see what this Army would do some few did appear rather to make objection and hinder the business than help it and tho many good orders were made for putting the City into a posture to defend it self none were obey'd so on all hands the poor Parliament and Kingdom and City it self were betray'd and left to the mercy of the Army whose mercy we shall soon see was Cruelty it self Injustice Oppression Violence and Rebellion in the highest degree 110. They now thunder upon us with Remonstrances Declarations Letters and Messages every day commanding one day one thing next day another making us vote and unvote do and undo and when they had made us do some ugly thing jeer us and say our doing justifies their desiring it as they serv'd us concerning all we had granted for Pay expunging our Declaration passing the Ordinances for Indemnity against Pressing and the like They tell us in their Representation of the 14 th of Iune That our resuming the consideration of these things as to their further satisfaction dos much justifie their desires and proceedings so far and therefore they then proceed further and say They desire full and equal satisfaction not only for themselves but for all the Soldiery throughout the Kingdom who have concurr'd or will concur with them so ingage all against the Parliament and contract such a debt as has broken the back of the Commonwealth and now say they are not a mercenary Army to serve the arbitrary power of the State but that they took up Arms in Judgment and Conscience notwithstanding they have receiv'd more Pay than all the Armies in the Kingdom and yet liv'd most of Spoil and free Quarter therefore they are resolv'd to assert and vindicate the power and rights of the Kingdom and say That what they do is short of the proceedings of other Nations to things of a higher nature than as yet they had pretended to instancing in the Netherlands and Scotland For the present they require that the Houses be purg'd those who have appear'd against them not to be theirs and the Kingdom 's Judges whose names they say they will speedily give in they tell the Parliament what kind of Men they will have preferr'd to power and trust in the Commonwealth then which was a Crime some six weeks before to move in Parliament and in a Parliamentary way so as that sagacious Gentleman Mr Gurden stood up in a rage and said it smelt of Oxford and it was much decryed by all the Crew but is now of publick merit and very pious coming from their Masters the Army they will have a determinate period of time set to this Parliament some provision to be made for the continuance of future Parliaments And when his Majesty shall have given his Concurrence to these and all other things that shall be propos'd for the liberties of the People the Militia and peace of the Kingdom then his Rights and of his Posterity to be consider'd They will have the Rights of the People clear'd for freedom of Petitioning and such as are imprison'd for pretended Misdemeanours to be speedily try'd and have reparations if they have suffer'd wrongfully the power given to Committees and deputy Lieutenants to be taken into consideration The Kingdom to be publickly satisfy'd in point of Accounts and after publick Justice done upon some of the excepted Persons that there be an Act of Oblivion Then they conclude that these things done tho there be many other particulars yet which certainly was merely out of their great goodness and grace like that of the modest Spaniard with his no quiero mas they will ask no more but leave the rest to the wisdom and justice of the Parliament and this they say they find to be the concurrent sense of the People by their Petitions presented to the General wherein as in all the rest they play the arrant Impostors and Mountebanks being as impudent false cunning bloody proud and ambitious as the Devil himself their grand Master They will have us believe the
Sense of the People joyn'd with them and that they petition'd for these things when their own fellow Witches have since discover'd how Cromwel himself drew those Petitions sent them about into the Countries had his Agents to promote them with mellifluous enamouring promises as the expression is so got some Independents to subscribe them and perhaps some few more that they had cozen'd which serv'd the turn and made their wise General engage himself with them saying That what he wanted in expression of his devotion to their Service should be supply'd in action as Mr. Iohn Lawmind informs in his Putney Projects 111. The Parliament is now brought to a fine pass made a notable free Parliament but we must believe it to be so because Cromwel's Army says it and speed as well as our first Parents believing the Serpent that told them eating the Apple would make them as Gods wise and happy The Army on the other side triumphs drives on like Iehu bears down all before it carries about the King as a Prisoner to shew him and make that use of him which the Philistines would have done with the Ark prevail against all opposition and truly that and their power together did make them prevail 112. Their next work is charging eleven Persons Members of the House of Commons particularly by name but with general things for particulars they were not provided with as their friend Iohn Lawmind says who uses these words the particular matter of their Charge was to seek after they had in general charg'd them And another of their Disciples Sirrah Nico says That Cromwel confess'd at Colebrook he had nothing against Sir Iohn Maynard yet he must be put in amongst the rest only because he was a busie Man against him and his faction so you see these Thieves falling out some truth comes to light 113. With this general Charge there comes another Paper from his Excellency and the Army under his Command requiring the Members impeach'd may be forthwith suspended sitting in the House and a months Pay to be immediately sent down to the Army for a present supply and of these things to know the resolution by the next Thursday at the furthest which was within two days They require further That the Officers who had deserted the Army as they call'd it but in truth who had left them for their Rebellion and engag'd for Ireland should have no more of their Arrears paid them till the Army was first satisfy'd And to be sure the Parliament should have none to defend them They command them to raise no new Forces within the Kingdom nor invite nor admit any from other parts the reason or at least the colour for this was because the Committee of Safety at such a time as in obedience to the Order of Parliament they had endeavour'd to have put the City in a condition to defend the Parliament and it self had consider'd of raising some Force but never any thing was put in execution nor one Man listed And tho the Parliament and City did assure them there was no proceeding in it which they might then very likely believe and in good manners have acquiesc'd yet such was either their fear by reason of guilt or their scorn of the Parliament and petulancy to shew how they slighted what they said or declar'd as they would not believe them but threap them down that there was listing still and quarrel with them about it to such a height were they then grown and others to that tameness 114. This pass'd about the 15 th of Iune The Houâ—e took these things into consideration obey'd in all but that concerning the Members wherein they came to a resolution That upon such a general Charge they could not in Justice proceed against them nor suspend them therefore desire to know what they could charge them with in particular They further consider'd how unhandsome it was the King should be so hurry'd up and down with the Army and that if he were at some of his own Houses near London application might be made to him jointly by them and the Scotish Commissioners in order to Peace whereupon tho it was mightily oppos'd by the Independent Party yet they voted his Majesty should be desir'd to come to his Mannor House at Richmond 115. Here the Scholars had broken out a little into rebellion against their Schoolmasters the Army and soon they were lash'd for it For on the 23 d of June comes a ratling Lesson a Remonstrance from his Excellency full of sharp and scoffing Expressions and ends with a lusty Menace tells them The voting of the King to Richmond is but in pursuance of the former design upon him at Holmby and to put his Majesty within the reach of those Men who had already listed considerable numbers of Horse and Foot about London therefore wishes them as they tender the welfare of the Kingdom and the avoiding of jealousies and other inconveniencies in the Army to resume again the consideration of that business and not propose any place for him nearer London than they would have the head Quarters of the Army then to ingratiate themselves with the King and his Party and make him willing to stay with them till their design was ripe to dispose of him otherwise as it was afterwards they take notice of some scandalous information by the procurement forsooth of eleven Members and others of their Party as if his Majesty were kept a Prisoner among them which they say is most false and contrary to their Principles as has appear'd since by what Sir Thomas Fairfax commanded to be done to the King in the Isle of Wight upon his Majesty's answer to the four Bills without order of Parliament like a great Prince Ex mero motu certa scientia tho it was afterwards approv'd of and justify'd Ex parte post but as yet they are harmless Saints and good Subjects all for the King Therefore they take occasion to declare there That they desire a just freedom for his Majesty and those of his Party and profess they do not see how there can be a firm Peace without a due consideration of and provision for the Rights of himself his Royal Family and late Partakers O ye Hypocrites then with Honey for him in their Mouths and War in their Hearts 116. For the expunging of the Declaration they say they acknowledg the Justice of the House in it but should rather have been satisfy'd with the Parliaments declaring how and by whom they had been misinform'd and surpriz'd and that it is an apparent dishonour to them to pass such a Declaration and soon after without alteration in the pretended ground and cause of it for shame of the world to expunge it I confess they say true in this but the old Proverb is true Jests are bitter Jests 117. Then for the Members they insist to have them forthwith suspended upon the general Charge saying they would willingly proceed to particulars if they might
at night when the Common Council hearing of these disorders sent down the Sheriffs of London and some of the Aldermen to appease them which they did This was upon Monday the 26 th of Iuly The Houses adjourn'd themselves the House of Peers to Friday the Commons house to the next day The City had against the next day which was Tuesday taken order to prevent such further inconveniences by unruly people assembling about Westminster which before they could not well do in regard their Militia was unsettled by the alteration that the new Ordinance upon the Armies command had made and I heard sent down a Message to the House of Commons to assure them of it but Mr. Speaker was so hasty to adjourn till the Friday perhaps because the rather he would not receive that Message which had half spoil'd the Plot that he would scarce stay till it was a House and some of the sactious crying to adjourn he did so tho many cry'd out against it who could not be heard 144. By the Friday the two Speakers the Earl of Manchester of the Peers and Mr. Lenthal of the Commons instead of giving their attendance according to their duty upon the Houses with eight Lords and fifty eight Commoners were run down to the Army there enter into an engagement bearing date the 4 th of August to live and die with it upon pretence of a force and violence to the Parliament but in truth by a Conspiracy with the Army design'd and laid principally by Mr. Saint Iohn the Sollicitor as appears by a Letter sent from Rushworth Sir Thomas Fairfax's Secretary to the Speaker with no name in it but the latter part of it written with his own hand advising him not to appear at the House on Friday morning but to take counsel of Mr. Sollicitor who would tell him what was fit to be done assuring him the Army would all lie in the dirt or protect them who were their friends This as I remember was the effect of the Letter yet remaining in one of the Houses which no doubt came from Sir Thomas Fairfax and Mr. Cromwel and the rest of those Governors undertaking so for the Army and shews who was the man that must give the Orders and direct what was to be done by the House and then may well be suppos'd to be the Author of all The ground of this Engagement is made to be a Declaration of the Armies shewing the reasons of their advance towards London as full of falshood as it is of malice against the eleven poor Members and in truth intended only against them who are by it said to be the cause of all that had been done in the City that therefore they were resolv'd to march up to London expecting the well affected people of the City would either put us in safe custody or deliver us up to them stuffing up the whole Declaration with falshoods and lies as well in the narrative part as in the comment upon it they pretend That to carry on our former evil designs and preserve our selves from the hand of Justice we had endeavour'd to cast the Kingdom into a new War and to that end had procur'd an under hand listing of Reformadoes and continu'd a wicked and treasonable Combination which we caus'd several persons to enter into That this could not be done in the time of the old Commissioners for the Militia and therefore the new were made who many of them were very intimate with us which was a just cause for the Army to have them chang'd again That thereupon the tumult was abetted and fomented by us to violate the Parliament and force it into our hands which makes them require that we may be in that manner deliver'd up and declar'd all that was done in the Houses that day or afterwards till those fugitive Members should return again null and void so here the Army takes upon it to declare what Votes shall stand good what not and this is for the honour and freedom of the Parliament that which those worthy Patriots would live and die upon And besides they say they were labouring after the settlement of the Kingdom and had even brought it to perfection the particular proposals ready to be sent to the Parliament for a final conclusion of all our troubles which conclusion of our troubles in truth nothing in the sight of Man could have hinder'd but this cursed practice of violence upon the Parliament which very thing in them was as cursed a High Treason as could be committed a mercenary Army rais'd by the Parliament all of them from the General except what he may have in expectation after his Father's death to the meanest Centinal not able to make a thousand Pounds a year Lands most of the Colonels and Officers mean Tradesmen Brewers Taylors Goldsmiths Shoemakers and the like a notable Dunghil if one would rake into it to find out their several Pedigrees these to rebel against their Masters put conditions upon them upon the King and whole Kingdom make their Will a Rule that all the Interests of King Parliament and Kingdom must be squared by which they are not asham'd to declare here to the world 145. And this pious Declaration do these worthy Lords and Commons receive with much approbation and with much thankfulness to God in the first place and next under him to the ever faithful Army and so became like the Proselites which the Scribes and Pharisees made twofold more the Children of Hell than themselves more criminous and guilty of a greater Treason as having broken a higher Trust being themselves part of the Parliament which they deserted and betray'd a wound given in the more noble and vital parts tearing the Bowels and piercing to the very Heart Whereas the Army were but Servants outward and ministerial parts so to be look'd upon and so punish'd Slaves were crucify'd but Citizens that betray'd were exterminated they and their posterity and the whole City turn'd into mourning sensible of the loss as the Body when depriv'd of a principal Member 146. They should have remembred that even at the time of the pretended force which they would have men believe to have driven them away the House lay under a greater force and themselves were greater Slaves to the lusts of the Army which trampled upon their Necks made them more contemptible than the smallest Court of Guard that had but a Corporal to command it to eat their words their Declarations Orders Ordinances break their Faith betray and destroy all that serv'd them faithfully give thanks for being cudgel'd and abus'd pray and pay and be glad it would be accepted should not every Member have been sensible of such violations and injuries done to the Body But some will say it was as these Men will have it who were like the sinful lusts in the Soul quiet and well pleas'd while the strong man the Devil keeps the house So they were satisfy'd with all that was done because it
so confident were they of their innocency tho they knew the malice of their Enemies and their violence and force upon the Parliament But proceedings since have made it clear what Justice they should have found For notwithstanding all this those Horse and Foot were so powerful an argument against them backing the Remonstrance for the exclusive resolution that it was carry'd to expel them the House and Impeachments order'd to be brought in A parallel proceeding to this was never known in Parliament where it has not been refus'd to any especially who were beyond Sea or in truth any where absent upon leave to give a further day upon non-appearance the first and in our Case there was a great deal more reason considering the season of the year the occasion of our departure then look'd upon as a merit our readiness to obey upon the first Summons All this writes but their Injustice and our Oppression in the more Capital Letters 193. I am now coming to the Catastrophe of this Tragedy the last and most horrid Act. The Parliament forc'd to do that which is unnatural against the being of Parliament the end for which it is call'd which has rationem formae in all moral things that is to declare they will make no further address or application to the King receive none from him nor suffer it in others which is as if a Limb should cut it self off from the Body and thereby deprive it self of life and nourishment For the communication between the King and Parliament is that which gives it being and life It is call'd by the King ad colloquium habendum tractatum cum proceribus Regni c. They are the words of the Writ which brings them together Now there is Colloquium Tractatus cut off which was the first unhappy breach between his Majesty and this Parliament and which the Parliament found themselves grieved at that he had withdrawn himself from them so as they could not repair unto him for advice and counsel And in all our Declarations and Messages in the beginning until these people who it seems had projected from the first what they have now acted got to the Helm and steer'd us into this violent tempestuous Course that we neither see our Pole nor use our Compass we still desir'd press'd endeavour'd his Majesty's return to his Parliament But they say he shall not return the Regal Power they have assum'd they will keep it and exercise it They will no longer be fellow Subjects with the rest of the Kingdom but Lords and Masters Those whom they represent and whose substitutes they are they will put under their foot as if an Ambassadour should renounce the Prince that sent him and say he will make his own Dignity real and original which is but representative and deriv'd take away the substance and yet the shadow remain certainly this is exceedingly against nature and will turn all upside down yet this disorder must be made perpetual put out of all possibility of recovery like Death from which there can be no returning For admit the King would grant all that they have desir'd or can desire give them all imaginable security for it it is impossible it should be made known and so cannot be receiv'd and by consequence our Peace never be settled which is casting the Kingdom into a mortal disease putting it past cure past hope 194. To shew by what Magick this Spirit is rais'd you have his fellow Devil immediately call'd up by a Council of War a Declaration comes from his Excellency and the general Council of the Army from Windsor bearing date the 9 th of Ianuary presented to the House the 11 th by Sir Hardress Waller wherein they give their approbation of the Votes say the Parliament in that Address to the King with the four Bills could go no lower without denying that which God in the issue of War had born such testimony unto That they account that great business of a settlement to the Kingdom and security to the publick interest thereof by and with the King's concurrence to be brought to so clear a trial as that upon the King's denyal they can see no further hopes of settlement and security that way therefore upon the consideration of that denyal added to so many other such Votes as had been pass'd that no further application should be made to him c. They do freely and unanimously declare for themselves and the Army that they are resolv'd firmly to adhere with and stand by the Parliament in the things so voted and in what shall be further necessary for the prosecution thereof and for the settling and securing the Parliament and Kingdom without the King and against the King or any other that shall hereafter partake with him 195. And in this I believe them being I am confident the only truth has proceeded from them in all their Declarations or Proposals with relation to his Majesty I would remember them if 't were to any purpose of some of their former professions That it was against their principles to imprison the King that no Peace could be lasting without him and the like But they can blow hot and cold as the fellow in the Fable to make all the Satyrs and almost the Devil himself abhor them as afraid to be outdone by them in his own art of lying and dissembling Therefore I shall not trouble my self any more with blazoning their Coat Armour which is nothing but false colours and base metals Their Impostures Contradictions Falshoods Hypocrisies and damnable Delusions being beyond all Heraldry not to be trick'd within the compass of any Scutcheon 196. I will only add one Scene more of this last Act represented in the House of Commons I do not hear that the House of Peers have had any part in it But the Commons like the Consistory of Rome have spent much time since in hunting out the Premises to infer the Conclusion formerly agreed upon a Declaration or rather rhetorical Invective to perswade mens Affections not convince their Judgments of those enormities in the King which should justly merit and so justifie the resolutions taken concerning him The particulars are such as truly I cannot name withont horror Auferat oblivio si potest si non silentium tegat I would forget that ever such a thing was done by the Parliament I will only say this of that Faction for I look upon it merely as their act and their Army's who have forc'd the House to it as they have to all the rest since the breaking out of their Rebellion the owning them paying them voting their continuance expelling committing impeaching their own Members the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London doing what not for the encreasing their own shame and setting up their Diana that Idol of confusion That if they themselves believe that to be true which they there relate they are excellent good Patriots and notable Justices to see and not see
MEMOIRS OF DENZIL Lord HOLLES The Right Hon ble Denzel Baron Holles of Ifield Aetat 78. Anc. 1676. Ob. 1679. MEMOIRS OF DENZIL Lord HOLLES Baron of Ifield in Sussex From the Year 1641 to 1648. LONDON Printed for Tim. Goodwin at the Queen's Head against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet M. DC.XC.IX To His Grace JOHN Duke of Newcastle c. May it please your Grace WHEN the following Papers of the famous Lord Holles Your Great Uncle happen'd to fall into my Hands I could not long deliberat whether they deserv'd a public View and therefore intended to get them printed without any further Ceremony for the large share he had in the Transactions of those Times will as much engage others to read these Memoirs as the Defence he was oblig'd to make for himself are a sufficient Reason for his writing them But when I understood that Your Grace out of the Love You bear to virtuous Actions and Your Piety towards so near a Relation did order a stately Monument to be erected at Dorchester for this Illustrious Person I was of opinion that as well for that Reason as because in his Life-time he entertain'd an extraordinary Affection and Esteem for You Your Name should in like manner be inscrib'd on this Monument which he has left of Himself to Posterity The Justice of the thing and the Sincerity of my Intentions must be all my Apology to Your Grace for this Presumtion for the Public of whom You deserv'd so well and particularly in appearing early like Your Noble Ancestors for the Liberty of these Nations will acknowledg it an Obligation nor if any thing should chance to be amiss can I doubt but an easy Pardon will be granted to one who is tho unknown my Lord with so profound a Respect Your Grace's most humble Servant March 28. 1699. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER SUch as really desire to know the naked Truth and propose for their chiefest aim the common good which are certainly the best tho not the greatest part of Mankind have ever exprest a desire in their Writings of seeing the Memoirs of all parties made public as the most effectual means of framing a true General History For in those places where nothing is licens'd to appear but what visibly tends to the advantage of one side there can be no sincere representation of Affairs the basest Cowards must pass for the bravest Heroes the worst of Villains for the greatest Saints the most Ignorant and Vicious for Men of Learning and Virtue and the Enemies of their Country for its Preservers and Friends Without consulting therefore the particular interest or reputation of any Faction but only the benefit of England in general these Memoirs of the Great Lord Holles are communicated to the World that by comparing them with those of Ludlow and such as appear'd before or will be publish'd hereafter relating to the same times they may afford mutual Light to each other and after distinguishing the personal resentments or privat biasses of every one of 'em the Truth wherein they are all found to agree tho drest by them in different Garbs may by som impartial and skilful hand be related with more candor clearness and uniformity What figure our Author made in the Parliament and in the Wars at home and abroad in his privat and public Capacities is generally known and needs not therefore be mention'd in this place The account he gives of himself in the following Papers is confirm'd by many living Witnesses as well as in the greatest part by other VVriters of the same Transactions But whether the vehemence of his Stile the barbarous Usage he receiv'd his concern for the Presbyterian Party and his Displeasure at the King's misfortunes to whom he was then an adherent and a friend have not guided his Pencil to draw the lines of Cromwel's Face too strong and the shadows too many I refer to the judgment of the disinterested Reader desiring him to allow all that is reasonably due to one in these or the like Circumstances This caution iustice has oblig'd me to insert For as to that tyrannical Usurper of the Supreme Administration who prov'd so ungrateful to the Commonwealth so treacherous to the King and so fatal toboth I think him bad enough painted in his own true Colours without standing in need of exaggerating Rhetoric to make him look more odious or deform'd I should write something here likewise with relation to General Fairfax but that the properest place for it seems to be in a Preface to his own MEMORIAL which is in good hands and it 's hop'd may be shortly expos'd to public view How far soever King Charles the First 's Enemies in England may look on themselves disoblig'd or any of his Friends neglected by my Lord Holles the Scots are surely beholding to him for in his long Panegyric on that Nation he has said more in their behalf than their own Historians have ever been able to offer But in this and other matters of the like nature we shall not anticipate the Readers Curiosity or Iudgment I shall therefore only acquaint him that tho this Piece be entitul'd Memorials from the History it contains yet in substance it is an Apology for that Party who took up Arms not to destroy the King or alter the Constitution but to restore the last and oblige the former to rule according to Law To the Unparallel'd Couple Mr. Oliver St. Iohn his Majesty's Sollicitor General and Mr. Oliver Cromwel the Parliament's Lieutenant General the two grand Designers of the Ruin of three Kingdoms GENTLEMEN AS You have been principal in ministring the matter of this Discourse and giving me the leisure of making it by banishing me from my Country and Business so is it reason I should particularly address it to You. You will find in it some representation of the grosser Lines of your Features those outward and notorious Enormities that make You remarkable and Your Pictures easie to be known which cannot be expected here so fully to the Life as I could wish He only can do that whose Eye and Hand have been with You in Your secret Counsels who has seen You at Your Meetings Your Sabbaths where You have laid by Your assumed Shapes with which You cozen'd the World and resumed Your own imparting each to other and both of You to Your fellow Witches the bottom of Your Designs the policy of Your Actings the turns of Your Contrivances all Your Falshoods Cozenings Villanies and Cruelties with Your full intentions to ruin the three Kingdoms All I will say to You is no more than what St. Peter said to Simon the Sorcerer Repent therefore of this Your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thoughts of Your Hearts may be forgiven You. And if you have not Grace to pray for Your selves as it may be You have not I have the Charity to do it for You but not Faith enough to trust You. So I remain I thank God not
Quarters were but at a Village near hand whence he could not find his way nor be directed by his Ear when the Ordnance was heard as I have been credibly informed 20 or 30 Miles off so that certainly he is far from the Man he is taken for 17. That day's work at Marston-Moor turned the Scales and raised again the fortune of the Parliament which till that day had very much declined And these Men who all this while stalked under the sides of the Parliament and did but pretend the business of Reformation and the Peoples Liberties thereby to break the power of the King first that afterwards they might either by artifice or force lay as low the Authority of Parliament unless it would betray its truth and yield to be instrumental to them did after this begin to put out their Horns appear in their Colours and as they warmed more and more to spit out their Venom against Monarchy against Nobility and Gentry against that Reformation with which they had formerly held forth to the Scots against the very Covenant their Vows and Declarations wherewith they had abused God and the World 18. Then did Cromwel declare himself to the Lord of Manchester and indeed reveal'd the whole Design First His rancor against the Scots as that he would as soon draw his Sword against them as against any of the King's Party Then his hatred of the Nobility and House of Peers wishing there was never a Lord in England and saying he loved such and such because they loved not Lords and that it would not be well till he was but Mr. Montague Thirdly His intentions to hinder Peace and that therefore he desired none to be of that Army but such as were of the Independent judgment to interpose if a Peace were like to be made which agreed not with their humours All this remains upon Record in both Houses being the Earl of Manchester's Charge against him And let any one judg if this be not the very Plot which was then laid and since practised Has not every particular been attempted by them have they not fully compleated that which was chiefly aimed at As that which will and must certainly if not prevented bring on all the rest the hindering of Peace that no ease nor quietness might be restored to the Kingdom For when the Parliament was ready to disband the only Army then left and so to free the Subject from all Payments and Taxes that every one might return to his Vocation and all differences between King and Parliament might be ended and reconciled in a parliamentary way then did the Cadmean Brood turn their Swords against their fellow Subjects and their Masters the Parliament which by open force they assault make void and unvote what they had voted concerning their Disbanding put by all thoughts of Peace and throw back the Kingdom which was entring into the desired Haven of Peace and Happiness into the deep Seas of Storms and Misery and Confusion where I beseech God it perish not But of all this anon 19. Things were not yet ripe tho the Serpent's Eggs were laid by him in the Earl of Manchester's bosom it was not time to hatch the Cockatrice Therefore when it was by the Earl made known to the Houses their Party in the House of Commons did more solito with all the violence and injustice in the world smother and suppress it quarrelling that the Lords had infring'd their Privileges in desiring that might be examined by a Committee in both Houses saying The Lords ought not to meddle in it because it concern'd a Commoner whereas nothing was more ordinary throughout the whole proceeding of this Parliament in all their inquisitions Yet by that means this was then stifled the breach of Privilege referr'd to a Committee of the House of Commons and there the business died 20. After this the Scots saw how they were cheated and it came to be though not an open breach yet a great coldness between them a withdrawing of confidence of familiarity of Counsels And the Scots then found that the other party had been misrepresented being the Men who in truth did agree with them in Principles and in Design Which was only to reform not to alter to regulate and so to save not to destroy That they still carried about with them the sense of their Allegiance and Duty to the person of the King whom they did desire to see reinvested into his Throne and Kingly Government with such a power and in such a way as might be good both for Him and the People that thereby confusion misery and that disorder which the Poet describes to have been in the first Chaos and which we now see not in a Fiction but really feel and smart under might be avoided 21. By little and little the Scots and these latter came to a better understanding at last they discover the horrid Practices and the whole Design of the others who in the mean time drove it on Iehu like violently bearing down and destroying all that opposed them for some opposition they found They saw there was a strong Party in the House against them between whom and the Soldiers who were under Command of my Lord of Essex there was a good Correspondency and these two together with the Scots were as a threefold Cord not to be broken by them therefore they would untwist it and so destroy them one after another 22. The Earl of Essex must be the first who they found would not bow and therefore must break for many applications had been made to see if he would stoop to their Lure Great offers large promises all the glory of the Kingdom should be his if he would but worship them be as they termed it true to the Godly Party but he was true to his Principles Therefore they do what they can to make him odious not paying his Army to make it a Burden to the Country and infamous not giving him means of acting by Supplies and Provisions so to be looked upon as a Drone or worse or putting him upon such Actions as should break him so to make him come off with dishonour 23. As when he was about Oxford in the Summer 1644 he on one side of the River and Sir William Waller with his Brigade on the other the King having then but a small force within the Town and either not provided for a Siege or not willing to be shut in with a light body of Horse and I think some mounted Men held them play and distracted them being sometimes on the one side sometimes on the other which was easie for him to do going through the Town as he saw occasion by the conveniency of the Gates It being then known that he waited but his opportunity and advantage to slip by or break through our Grand Masters ordered my Lord of Essex with a heavy body of an Army and a great train of Artillery to attend his Majesties motion and Sir William Waller to
for that the King would be King still and would soon have had another Army tho they had gotten the better but if he had beaten them they had been utterly lost This served the turn for that time to cast a mist before the peoples eyes and stop their mouths Yet within very few Weeks after this worthy Knight forgot all he had said for it is by Cromwel laid as a Crime to the Earl of Manchester's Charge whom they then meant to lay aside that he was the cause they sought not with the King and Sir Arthur is a principal Witness to make it good But on the other side the Earl of Manchester returns the Bill charging Cromwel that it was his not obeying Orders who being commanded as Lieutenant General of the Horse to be ready at such a place by such an hour early in the Morning came not till the Afternoon and by many particulars makes it clear to have been only his fault 29. And to say the truth they could not else have carried on their Design of new modelling their Army of which then there had been no need and preventing a Peace which they feared might else have followed For if the King had been too sore prest at that time it was in their apprehensions probably he might have laid hold upon the Propositions for Peace which were then ready and sent to him to Oxford immediately after 30. Therefore now they set upon their great Work projected long before and which Cromwel had broken to my Lord of Manchester in the time of his greatness with him when he thought him to be one of their own that was to have an Army composed of those of the Independent Judgment to interpose if there were like to be a Peace only their Presumption and Impudence was swell'd to be so much higher as now they would have no other Army but of them Because they saw the danger was over there being no Enemy to take the Field against them but such an one as they had willingly set up and given time and means to get together so as there would be no great need of fighting that part having been acted by others for they were never good at it but excellent to assume the praise and reap the benefit when others had done the work 31. Therefore the whole force of the Kingdom must be theirs in the hands of their Creatures all the Noblemen and Gentlemen who had engaged in the beginning and born the heat of the day must be laid by all these gallant Officers who had done the Parliament the best Service indeed all must be cashier'd The Earl of Essex the Earl of Manchester Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Waller and the rest must be reduced cast by as old Almanacks in truth not fitted to their Meridian 32. For this Feat the Juggle of a Self-denying Ordinance is found out whereby it is ordained that no Member of either House shall bear any Office Martial or Civil which strikes them all out of Employment and Cromwel too but for him they will soon find a Starting-hole 33. Then there must be one body of an Army composed of so many thousand Horse and Foot out of the several Armies which were to be reduced as I remember some 20 or 21 thousand which number they have since doubled or trebled for the ease of the Kingdom the Officers to be named by the House and a Committee appointed under the specious name of a Committee of Reformation for this Work by which they tear in sunder all their Forces discontent all their best Officers and Soldiers utterly disjoynt the whole Frame of the Martial part of their Affairs and I dare say put the King's Party in greater hopes of being able to make it good by the Sword and less to apprehend the Consequence of not making a Peace at that time than the gaining of a Battel would have done nor in truth could it have any other Operation with rational Men. 24. So to work they go and find difficulties enough The Soldiers bore an affection to their old Officers which made them unwilling to be reduced Money there was not to give any reasonable satisfaction out of their Arrears to those who were to be cashier'd But a fortnights pay was ordered where many months were owing Yet such was the obedience of those Officers gallant Men old Soldiers most of them to the authority of Parliament so unlike to the late rebellious Carriage and Insolency of our new Model as shall be hereafter shewed that they submit to it are content to sit down themselves and which is more use their interest to perswade the Soldiers to a Conformity Some of the Horse who had served under my Lord of Essex were a little stiff and made some shew of standing out in Hertfordshire which our violent bloody new Modellers would have made advantage of presently to have faln on them and put them to the Sword but the Parliament followed more moderate Counsels endeavouring to gain them through fair means by sending down some of their old Officers to dispose them to a submission which employment they declined not but went and prevailed to which my Lord of Essex himself contributed very much an Example that this present young General Sir Thomas Fairfax would not follow when his Army was to be disbanded 35. Yet such was the wickedness and desperate madness of those Men who thirsted after nothing but blood mischief and confusion that at the very same time when the Parliament was going a gentle way Mr. St. Iohn the King's Solicitor one who I think has as much of the Blood of this Kingdom to answer for and has dipp'd as deep in all cunning pernicious Counsels as any one man alive wrote a Letter under-hand to the Committee of Hertfordshire which is yet extant that they should raise the Country and fall upon these men to put all into blood contrary to the desire and endeavour of the Parliament A Villany never to be forgotten nor forgiven in any man much less a Man of Law who should better know what price the Law sets upon the life of every Subject much more of many together and of a whole County which if he had been obeyed had run a great hazard 36. But I wonder not at this or any other such passage from him who could have the face to say in his Argument against my Lord of Strafford That some persons were not to have Law given them but be knockt on the head no matter how tho he knows it or should know it to be against the Laws both of God and Man that any should be put to death before a legal Conviction however he may have practised the contrary since the beginning of these unhappy troubles his composition being it seems like that Monster Emperor's Lutum Sanguine maceratum And to less than an Emperor I would not parallel him whose vast thoughts have carried him above King and Parliament to frame new mould alter and
said at Oxford when I was amongst others sent thither to present Propositions to the King where they had a sit Instrument to act for them and say and swear any thing they would have him who was at that very time employed by some of their principal ones to truck and drive a Treaty underhand with some great persons at Oxford For the chief among them had always Grace to try more ways then one to the Wood and commonly not to row the way they look'd willing enough to have made a good bargain for themselves at Court and then have left their Whelps their Zealots to have mended themselves as they could perhaps not despairing but to have perswaded them it was for their good and the advancement of their Catholick Cause so to have quieted them and some little thing should have been done for their satisfaction I did with my own Eyes see Letters and so did several persons Members of both Houses some yet alive some dead witten by Savil to divers of great quality at Oxford one to L. D. some to others with only one Letter for their Names where intelligence was given of the proceedings and intentions of the Parliament and their Army many Propositions made in the name of that Party and their Undertakings and in the Close my Lord Savil to be Lord Treasurer Mr. Solicitor to be Lord Keeper and others of their Faction to have several Offices of Honourand Trust. These Letters were seen likewise by my Lord Willoughby and Mr. Whitlock who are yet alive and can testifie it and by the Earl of Essex Sir Philip Stapleton and Sir Christopher Wray who are dead Some of them were written by Savil's own hand some copy'd out by a person of Honour who was employ'd by him and is yet alive to make it good And when they play'd this Game themselves and pretended forsooth a designupon Oxford and to have the King's Army in the West deliver'd to them which was all but collusion and deceit to abuse the World and colour their Correspondencies then did they make Savil play the Villain and accuse me whom they prosecuted with that height of malice and violence with so much injustice and partiality especially that Man of Law Mr. Sollicitor who tho Mr. Whitlock had not only consented to but joined in and advised all that I had done at Oxford and that Savil himself had laid it equally upon us both in his Information it seems either not so wicked as his setters on or not fully instructed by them yet such was the Justice of that Man as he would needs sever our Cases and was not a shamed not only so to declare his Judgment but press'd it and sollicited it that the proceedings might be singly against me whereby the eyes of many indifferent persons Members of the House were open'd and their Spirits rais'd to an Indignation insomuch that in spight of the Sollicitor and his Party I was acquitted by the House 44. This made them bethink themselves begin to mistrust the House and doubt if they should be able to carry things as formerly And thereupon resolve on a course which some amongst them had formerly still oppos'd or declin'd as Mr. Sollicitor by name which was to have the vacant places of those they had thrust out filled up by a new Election issuing out Writs for it under their new Great Seal This they hoped would alter the Constitution of the House and give them infallibly a majority of Votes Accordingly in the long Summer Vacation of the year 1645 when very many of the Members were gone into their several Countries they fall upon that point of recruiting the House and notwithstanding the thinness thereof and its being surprised with that Debate their Creatures most of them there as they were always sure of some fifty Voices persons whose only Employment was there to drudg and carry on their Masters work having thereby a greatness far above the Sphere they had formerly mov'd in whereas the others were Gentlemen who had Estates which requir'd their looking after and all of them some Vocations either for their particular business or pleasure which made them less diligent and many of them as at other times so then away yet they carried it but by three Voices 45. Then to work they go to canvass for Elections in all places for the bringing in of such as should be wholly theirs First they did all they could to stop Writs from going any whither but where they were sure to have fit Men chosen for their turns and many an unjust thing was done by them in that kind Sometimes denying Writs sometimes delaying till they had prepared all things and made it as they thought cock-sure Many times Committee-men in the Country such as were their Creatures appearing grossly and bandying to carry Elections for them sometimes they did it fairly by the power of the Army causing Soldiers to be sent and quarter'd in the Towns where Elections were to be awing and terrifying sometimes abusing and offering violence to the Electors And when these undue Elections were complain'd of and question'd at the Committee of Privileges there appeared such palpable partiality so much injustice such delays and tricks to vex Parties grieved and their Witnesses such countenancing and defending those who had done the wrong as it dishearten'd every body and made many even sit down and give over prosecution 46. Notwithstanding all this and that by this means some persons unduly chosen were brought in yet it prov'd that far the greater part of those new Members deceiv'd the expectation of these Men. For tho they came into the House with as much prejudice as was possible against the other moderate Party who had always been represented to them as persons ill affected not faithful to the Parliament obstructing all businesses that were for the good of the Kingdom having Self-ends and ambitious designs of their own when they came to sit in the House themselves to see with their own eyes the carriage of things understand the ways and drift both of the one and the other Party discern the tricks and violent proceedings of the one and plainness and reality of the other that all these aimed at was but to get a good Peace see the Government settled both in Church and State and make no advantages to themselves have no share nor desir'd none of the Moneys look after no Offices nor Preserments in a word not seek themselves but the pulick and those on the other side hinder and oppose the settling of the Government and keep things in a distraction and confusion not willing to put up the Sword but continue the burdens and pressures of the Country countenance the insolencies of Soldiers bear them out in their abusing of Ministers and other honest Men who were for Church-Government keep up factions and drive on interests in the House put themselves their Kindred and Friends into all places of power and profit share and divide among them the
be left behind to see all accounts adjusted which had requir'd very good Rhetorick to have made it Justice especially to have appear'd so to the Scotish Soldiers for to have sent them away without Money and then ask the Country-man what the Soldiers had taken when he might say what he thought â— good the Soldier not there to answer for himself and yet his Pay to be thereby determin'd would have been but hard measure But the Rhetorick had been Sir Thomas Fairfax to have gone down with his Army which should have made it just and easie and every thing for this was it they desir'd to bring it to as it was often mov'd and press'd by them 64. At last the well-wishers to Peace with much ado prevail'd in the House and it was carry'd to offer the Scots a gross Sum for all so to part fair and avoid the delay and disputes of an account to which they presently agreed Then the question was what Sum. Here again we had a strong debate For our Incendiaries hung by every twig sticking fast to their Principles to dissatisfie the Scots and break with them if possible upon any point pretending the poverty of the Kingdom and the great Sums the Scots had rais'd and therefore they would give but 100000 l. which they knew was all one with a hundred Shillings as to the satisfying of the Soldiers for marching away In the end after many debates in the House and passages to and again with the Scotch Commissioners the lowest Sum that could be agreed unto by the Commissioners was 400000 l. two in hand and the other two after some time with a protestation of theirs that the Army would not be satisfy'd with less nor inabled to march which was motive enough for these Men to deny it for if they could have wrought the dissatisfaction of the Army so as to have refus'd to go it was where they would have it Whereupon 't was oppos'd by them with all the power they had but in the end the better part that is the moderate Party who were the Peace-makers those that labour'd to keep things even and fair between the two Kingdoms carry'd it And the sum was voted and all things agreed upon tho with difficulty for they fought it out and lost it by Inches then the Scots declar'd they would march out by such a day 65. Yet had our Boutefeus one hope left which was to quarrel at last about the person of the King believing the Scots would certainly have taken his Majesty with them into Scotland This they knew had been ground sufficient and would have engag'd all England against them giving a confirmation to all the jealousies formerly rais'd and occasion'd a thousand more And had certainly more advantag'd the designs of those who thirsted after the destruction of the King first the Scots next and then all such as desir'd Peace within this Kingdom and have made them a smoother way to their damnable Ends the altering of the Government and bringing in a confusion both in Church and State than any thing that could have happen'd And the two Kingdoms had been together in blood the author of the mischief undiscover'd mask'd over with the glorious pretences of zealously vindicating the honesty and interest of England and every breach of Covenant and Treaty in this Cause which made them with so much peremptoriness and incivility and in truth injustice demand that the Scots would deliver up his Majesty who had an equal interest in his Royal Person with the Kindom of England he being equally King of both and an equal interest in the closing and binding up the unhappy differences which were between him and both his Kingdoms they having been engag'd in that Quarrel at the entreaty of England and made up together with an intire Body with England as is before shewed for the prosecution of it Therefore they had no more reason to trust us with the King than we had them and as much were they concern'd in all that related to his Majesty's Person so as they had ground enough to have disputed it and out of that hope was it press'd by the others But the wisdom of the Scotish Nation foresaw the inconveniencies which must have necessarily follow'd had they been positive at that time how they had plaid their Enemies game to their own ruin and even ruin to his Majesty Therefore they made for him the best conditions they could that is for the safety and honour of his Person and to avoid greater mischiefs were necessitated to leave him in England and so march away Which they did in February 1646. 66. Here then the very mouth of Iniquity was stopt Malice it self had nothing to say to give the least blemish to the faithfulness and reality of the Kingdom of Scotland the clearness of their Proceedings their zeal for Peace without self-seeking and self-ends to make advantage of the miseries and misfortunes of England This gave such a reputation to them and to those that appear'd for them that is so far for them as to endeavour the doing of them right and prevent the practices of those who sought all means of doing them wrong and gave such a blow to the other violent Party so broke their power and lessen'd their authority in the Parliament as it made way for obtaining those resolutions which were presently taken for disbanding Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army Till when by the fomenting jealousies against the Scots and against all moderate and well affected persons as if their designs were to betray the Cause deliver over the Honour and Interest and Strength of England into the hands of the Scots they prevail'd so far generally upon the affection of the people and especially upon many well-meaning but not so well discerning persons Members of Parliament as they were able to suppress all good motions tending towards Peace all endeavours of smoothing those rugged ways that their violence had put all things in and to swell up that Independent Army like the Spleen in the Body by the concourse of all ill humours to the ruin and consumption of the Body it self And yet other Forces cashier'd as Major General Massey's Brigade which had done all the Service in the West of which those Drones robb'd the sweet getting the honour and advantage of it to themselves That tho that Army was compos'd for the most part of factious Sectaries except some few gallant Men that were scatter'd here and there amongst them as Colonel Greves Colonel Thomas Sheffield Sir Robert Pye Colonel Herbert Colonel Butler Quarter-Master General Fincher and other Officers of Quality and Gentlemen of the Life-Guard who had formerly serv'd under my Lâ—â—d of Essex and Sir William Waller and in other parts of the Kingdom to whom they did the honour of letting them perform all the Action which that Army had to do and who every one of them afterward left it when it left its obedience to the Parliament and fidelity to the Kingdom and
convenient to deal with them together in a body they desir'd that such as had a sense of the miserable condition of that Kingdom and a will to ingage for the relief of it would repair to them to their Lodgings which very many did Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels and other Officers and undertook for themselves and a very considerable number of their Soldiers about 1500 or 2000 casting themselves wholly upon the Parliament for their conditions The rest of the Officers and Soldiers of the Army doing all that was possible to obstruct the Service decrying the Employment railing upon misusing threatning and thereby discourage those who engag'd calling them deserters of the Army and of their General and by great offers and assurance of better conditions to stay with them keeping of others 73. And at that very time did some of the Officers meet and prepare a Petition together with a Representation in the name of the whole Army That before disbanding there might be an Act of Indemnity with the King 's royal Assent to it that Auditors might speedily repair to the Army to casâ— up their Accounts for their Service from the beginning that none who had serv'd voluntarily in that Army should be compel'd to go out of the Kingdom that till disbanded Money might be sent down for their supply This was a fair beginning of the godly Army's taking care for Ireland and of those good Officers proceedings so obedient to the Parliament as meerly for that they had been made choice of and put into the rooms of far better Men than themselves now forsooth when the Parliament would have some of them go for Ireland they will put the whole Army into a Mutiny 74. For an Army or any part of it to join in a Petition tho but for Pay when their Superiors that Authority which they are to obey require any Duty to be perform'd or Service to be done by them as the present relieving of Ireland was this I think by the Rules of War has in all Armies been held a Mutiny and the Authors at least punish'd with death Here to be sure it shall mutiny to purpose and not disband according to the resolutions of Parliament they put them not only to petition in this mutinous way but to desire impossibilities as Tacitus says Non ut assequerentur sed causam seditioni not to rest satisfy'd with former Ordinances and the general care taken for all who had serv'd in these unhappy Wars but to demand a particular Act of Indemnity with his Majesty's approbation not that they car'd for him or meant ever to see him again in power to enact any thing which their proceedings since have made clear to all mens understandings though some discern'd it very well to be their principle and their drift from the beginning but they knew this would take up time could not possibly be so soon done and would elude all endeavours of disbanding So for Auditors to go and cast up their Accounts was the work of many Months and a strange demand for this godly obedient Army to make who by their own sayings were not Mercenary but had taken up Arms in judgment and conscience and out of love and duty to the Parliament not for their Pay Their other demand is as good and is as much as to say as that the Parliament should send none of them for Ireland they who were the Parliaments Army who as Mr. Cromwel made us believe would go with a word to any part of the World whither the Parliament would please to send them and therefore the other Armies and Major General Massey's Forces must be cashier'd those who certainly would have gone to make way for their entertainment These now who had receiv'd the Pay of the Kingdom so long the sole Army which like Pharaoh's lean Kine had eaten all the rest and had the Sword of the Parliament singly and wholly in their hands stand upon terms and will not be compell'd to go that is will not go for they know none is compell'd for Ireland nor was there any thought of it since many were willing to ingage in that War who were not so in this but this was enough to possess the Army with a prejudice against the imployment and against the intentions and proceedings of Parliament 75. This Petition and other of their practices so interrupted the business that our Commissioners at their return inform'd both Houses of it who yet were so tender of conceiving or expressing any great dislike of the contrivers and promoters of the Petition for obstructing the Service of Ireland and distempering the Army and that those who had but been drawn in it should not find themselves lessen'd in their good Opinion who resolv'd to pass by all and punish none except such as should mutinously persist in the promoting of it They sent likewise up for some of the Officers that had more notoriously appear'd therein and in discouraging and abusing them who offer'd themselves in the Irish Service Whose miscarriage though it was very gross and the answers of some of them at the House of Commons Bar mere collusion and equivocation as by name Lieutenant Colonel Pride's who being charg'd with causing the Petition to be read at the head of his Regiment deny'd it stoutly because it seems it was but at the head of every Company the Regiment not being drawn up together notwithstanding all this the House willing to bury what was past and hoping it would have gain'd them to a better obedience for the future sent them down again rather with respect than otherwise acquiescing with their denyal And this very act of Clemency was turn'd against them and afterwards when the Army came to do their work barefac'd no longer to excuse but justifie that Petition nay make the Parliament criminous for questioning it they upbraided the House with sending up for the Officers from their Charge when they had nothing to say to them 76. The necessity of disbanding more and more appearing it hastens the resolutions for it whereupon it was order'd that Officers and Soldiers should have six weeks Pay of their Arrears and so be disbanded those that would be taken in for Ireland to have six weeks more advance The Parliament at first pitch'd upon no greater Sum it being the highest that had yet been given to any Major General Massey's Brigade which had been much longer without Pay and had done better Service had no more The other Armies under my Lord of Essex and Sir William Waller which had likewise done more work the chief and main of it all as having had a stronger Force to grapple with and yet had receiv'd less Wages were put off with a fortnights Pay This made the Parliament think this proportion sufficient yet afterwards they of themselves increas'd it to two months which was more than any had before Supposing then there would be no question of a compliance they proceed to perfect what was further necessary for the
possible to free the Kingdom of that burden even dispensing with their own Honours 89. They pass several Ordinances for Indemnity freeing from pressing the relief of maim'd Soldiers Widows and Orphans with such alterations and amendments as the Army desir'd Concerning the proposition of Pay upon disbanding which was eight weeks they conceiv'd it could not be inlarg'd in regard of the great present expence to which they were necessitated for the supply of Ireland That the two hundred thousand Pounds which for those two occasions were then borrow'd of the City of London would scarce serve 90. Therefore upon these terms both Houses concluded the disbanding begin with the Foot and appoint to every Regiment as they lay quarter'd a Rendevous at some Town near where they were to lay down their Arms receive their Money and have Passes to their several homes Those that would engage for Ireland to march to some other place near hand there to receive Advance-money and further Orders 91. The several Ordinances and Orders were sent to Sir Thomas Fairfax who then had his head quarters at Bury and two Lords and four Commoners were appointed Commissioners to repair to the several places appointed for disbanding with Money and directions to see the Service perform'd and assist Sir Thomas Fairfax in it who was desir'd to issue out his Orders for the Regiments drawing to those places 92. Then it was refer'd to a Committee of the Army to put into a way the stating of the Accounts both of Officers and Soldiers and where more than two Months appear'd to be due the Commission Officer was to receive his Debenter from the Committee and Treasurer of the Army it being appointed where he should be paid The inferior Officer and common Soldier was to have his security upon the Excise Let any Man now judg if the Army had any cause to complain if all was not done that with any colour of reason and modesty could be expected 93. Our Commissioners who were the Earl of Warwick the Lord De la Ware Sir Gilbert Gerard Mr. Grinston and two others went to Chelmsford the first of Iune the Rendevous appointed for the General 's Regiment whither the Lieutenant Colonel came Lieutenant Colonel Iackson an honest and gallant Man with a resolution to conform to the Order of Parliament but a Command comes from the General to the Regiment to march another way for drawing the Quarter near together 94. For upon the 29 th of May when the Votes were sending down for disbanding Sir Thomas Fairfax had call'd a Council of War of the factious Officers the honest Officers who were for submitting to the Parliament and a quiet disbanding having before been most of them abus'd and forc'd away by the violence of the Soldiers and commands of the Agitators he conniving at it where they resolve upon an humble Advice to his Excellency That since their Grievances were not at all satisfy'd and Jealousies were very great it would not be safe to disband but rather draw the Army into a close posture there being a great propensity in the Soldiers to a general Rendevous and then resume the consideration of their Grievances and of the Votes for disbanding suspending for the present any proceedings upon these Votes which advice his Excellency follows So the Parliament commands to disband Sir Thomas to march away and draw to a Rendevous Fit he should be obey'd 95. At the very same time Colonel Rainsborough dos the like with his Regiment which was at Petersfield in Hampshire design'd for Iersey and so far upon the way himself being attending the House of Commons of which he was a Member and pretending to prepare for that Employment which had been entrusted to him but in truth to give his Soldiers opportunity to mutiny as the rest of the Army did who to give them more time for it would not presently acquaint the House with the Intelligence he had receiv'd of their disorder but having it in the morning kept it to himself till towards the evening even denying his knowledg of any such thing when Sir William Lewis inform'd the House of it and about five or six a Clock in the Afternoon the House then by accident sitting as these deportments of the Army gave them cause sufficient spoke of it said they were in a great distemper resolv'd not to march to the Sea side but return to Oxford whereupon being sent down to quiet them and reduce them to obedience he went immediately but put himself at the head of them and instead of taking care for Iersey march'd to Oxford first so to the Army and none more violent in the Rebellion than he for which good Service and joyning with the Agitators in their highest exorbitancies for the destruction of the King and altering of Government and particularly in a Petition for taking away the House of Lords the House of Commons since made him Vice Admiral And the Lords to the eternizing the honour for their gentle tame dispositions consented 96. But one thing was yet wanting as they thought for the carrying on their design and amusing the poor people of England with an expectation of their settling a Peace so to make them sit still and look on whilst they trampled upon Parliament City and Kingdom which was to be possest of the King's Pâ—rson and make the world believe they would bring him up to his Parliament and set him on his Throne For this it seems a meeting was appointed at Lieutenant General Cromwel's upon the thirtieth of May where it is resolv'd That Cornet Ioyce should with a Party of Horse go to Holmby and seize upon his Majesty which is presently executed and given out that others had the like design which they had prevented At first it must seem only to be the act of Mr. Ioyce Cromwel protested he knew nothing of it tho he was the Man appointed it to be done as appears by what has been recited taken out of some of their own Authors one that calls himself Sirrah Niho and others Sir Thomas Fairfax writes a Letter to the House professes the same for himself as in the presence of God with a large undertaking for the rest of his Officers and the body of the Army And perhaps he said true I would fain be so charitable as to believe it nor indeed do I think the good Man is privy to all their Plots he must have no more than what they are pleas'd to carve and chew for him but must swallow all and own them when they come abroad Here then they have the King Ioyce drives away the Guards forc'd Colonel Greaves to fly whom else they threaten'd to kill for no man's life must stand in their way Murder being no Sin in the visible Saints carries away his Majesty and the Commissioners that attend him Prisoners and immediately sends up a Letter to certifie what he had done with directions it should be deliver'd to Cromwel and he absent to Sir Arthur Haslerig
paid Let any of them say so much I desire who ever shall chance to read this to pardon me this folly I do not mean for not taking the Money but seeming to boast of it I must again repeat the Apostle's words I am become a Fool in glorying but they have compel'd me It is true I had paid for a Fine impos'd in the King's Bench which I laid down in ready Money out of my Purse a thousand Marks This in the time of these troubles when my whole Estate was kept from me in the West that for three years or thereabouts I receiv'd thence not one Farthing was reimburs'd to me 137. Now I appeal to the world whether our accusers or we the poor eleven Members so decry'd so oppress'd were the more guilty who they were who had gotten cozen'd oppress'd were indeed the Traitors If he did not say as truly as he did wittily if they had not had more men than matter against us they had been the Traitors themselves which many of their own Disciples have upon the matter confess'd and publish'd saying they were to seek for matter only we were a Beam in their Eyes And their great Apostle Lilburn himself says the great aim was but to pull down those who stood in the way of their preferment 138. Here is our Crime I will ask pardon of God for my failings even in the performance of all these duties where I serv'd my Country best but not of the Parliament from whence I desire no favour Let them put upon me the severest disquisition either concerning those things then charg'd or the great Treason since committed of endeavouring to defend my self the Parliament the City from a rebellious unjust oppressing Army which against all Laws of God and Man came to force us for which I stand voted to be impeach'd of Treason and am outed the House of which I shall treat presently 139. But first I shall shew the Steps to it The Army now did all the Parliament was but a Cypher only cry'd Amen to what the Councils of War had determin'd They make themselves an absolute third Estate have Commissioners residing with them from the Parliament Agents from his Majesty and abuse both sufficiently as solemnly treated with as if no Subjects but a Body subordinate to neither vested with an Independent Authority claiming only from God and their Sword The whole business of the Kingdom is there now agitated and the engagement of the Army is the Standard by which all propositions must be measur'd If any thing be offer'd by the Parliament which they like not it is presently answer'd not to stand with their solemn Engagement Many meetings there were great consultations and debates upon certain proposals for settling of a Peace and securing the Rights and Liberties of the People 140. Notwithstanding this while these things are in agitation after all their affronting baffling forcing the Parliament marching up against it and the City contrary to their orders by which they were not to come nearer than within forty Miles of London they will have them own them for their Army undertake to provide for their maintenance and immediately send down a months Pay yet will not be subject to them in any thing All this is done Mr. Marshal the Minister being a principal Instrument for them who was still going and coming between Westminster and the head Quarters or at the Parliament doors solliciting the Members of both Houses perswading them by all manner of arguments sometimes assurances sometimes terrifyings to agree to those things which the Army desir'd and this not in order to the setting up of Presbytery in which he had formerly been so zealous for the Presbyters were not then Trump and he meant to whine therefore to put out them to take in better Cards for his turn Afterwards they send to repeal the Ordinance for the Militia of London which had been settled upon many and long debates to stand for one whole year and renew the former expir'd Ordinance for establishing the old Committee which was the year before 141. It is but ask and have that is presently done and truly I think it was a design of the Army merely to provoke the City engage them to do something express a dislike perhaps fly out and give them an occasion to offer some violence should they persist or if yield after a little ill favour'dly shewing their teeth then to put such things upon them so yoke them break their strength trample upon their Liberties and Privileges as they should not be able afterwards upon any occasion to raise them disturbance and make opposition to whatever they should set on foot tho never so grievous and displeasing to the whole Kingdom for they thought not themselves secure whilst the City stood unbroken 142. Their Plot took the City was very much mov'd at this sudden Act of the Houses in the altering their Militia without so much as giving them notice to hear what they could say in a point so nearly concerning them They look upon it as an Infringement of their Charter granted and confirm'd to them by so many Kings successively by which they were still to have the power of their own Militia as a shaking of the foundation of all their security for those vast sums of Money they had lent which depended only upon Ordinances and the easie and sudden repealing of this gave them cause to fear they might be serv'd so in the rest 143. Whereupon at their Common Council they agreed upon a Petition to the Houses informing them of the distempers in the City upon the change they had made and beseeching them to reestablish it as it was before which was presented by the Sheriffs some of the Aldermen and of the Members of the Common Council in a fair and submissive way But the Parliament durst do nothing without the leave of their Masters only give them good words and so hop'd to slide over the business Then some young Men Apprentices and others appear'd pressing hard who would not be satisfy'd till it was done which the Houses sticking at the young Men insisting drew a great concourse of people putting things into some heat so as at last they prevail'd and the Militia was again settled according to their desire upon which they went away returning to their homes only some of the younger and more unruly sort remain'd among whom some idle people and perhaps not well affected Soldiers and others and I have heard some of the Independents even belonging to the Army thrust themselves and put the multitude disorderly enough before into great distempers who then would make the Houses do this and the other thing vote the King 's coming to London the calling in of the eleven Members and I know not what else would not suffer the Parliament Men either of the one House or the other to stir till all was voted and pass'd which they desir'd keeping them there till I think nine of the clock
and that therefore he should not advance his Quarters any nearer 153. They afterwards order the eleven Members to come and give their attendance who were presently sent for and some others that had been forc'd by the Army to forbear the House 154. For amongst other enormous proceedings of the Army one was upon pretence that some sat there who had born Arms against the Parliament or abetted the other side they make the House enjoin some Gentlemen to present a state of their Case upon certain Votes then pass'd which put an incapacity upon such as were comprehended in them under a heavy penalty if they forbore not the House of themselves so compelling them either to accuse themselves against all rule of Justice and the very law of Nature undergoing the greatest hazard that could be for if they fail'd in a tittle as very well one might in a thing done three or four years before or that any Knave would come and swear something against him they underwent the penalty or else to deprive themselves of their rights of sitting in the House and so the Town or County which had chosen him lose the service of their Burgess or Knight indeed this was a heinous villany but they are guilty of so many that one drowns another 155. They pass a Vote that the King may be humbly desir'd to come to his own house at Richmond that so the Houses of Parliament and Commissioners of Scotland might have access to him to propose what was necessary for settling the Peace of the Kingdom himself be in a place of safety out of the hands and power of the Army whose fair shews towards him they had cause to suspect to be no other than the kisses of Iudas to betray and ruin both him and the Kingdom and accordingly Messengers were sent to attend him with it but the Army frustrated all those endeavours 156. Some other things were pass'd that day and lest the Parliament should be wanting to it self in doing what was possible for its defence and the Citys in case the Army should not stop upon their Letter the Committee of Safety is reviv'd and order'd as before to join with the Militia and provide for their protection and all but need for Sir Thomas Fairfax and his two Councils of War the Members and the Officers would not vouchsafe to read the Letter but march on Rabshekah like threatning ruin and destruction yet was there no such thought towards them our End being not vim inferre but repellere get such a strength about us as might only defend not offend To that end those Forces which were quarter'd further off in Kent and Surrey as Sir Robert Pye's Company Colonel Graves's and some others were commanded to draw near the City not offering or intending any act of hostility when upon a sudden the Sunday morning the 2 d of August a Party of Horse about two Regiments commanded as I take it by one Desborough a Major fell into Deptford where were some half a score of Sir Robert Pye's Soldiers who had staid behind the rest to discharge the Quarters and most inhumanly and basely butcher'd those poor Men as many as they could light of killing besides any that look'd like a Soldier whom they found upon the way some within a stones cast of the works of Southwark This as it was a most barbarous and bloody Murder which will bring down vengeance upon their heads soon or late that tho they should escape the hand of Justice here the hand of God will certainly overtake them so did it something awaken the City to see their own danger and a little quicken their pace to draw the Ordnance upon their Works and man them something better but in truth not much For I may say they were a people prepar'd for ruin and slavery Gibbs and Fowks principally had bewitch'd them and Agents for the Army who were up and down weaken'd Mens hearts and hands so as nothing was done to any purpose for putting them into a way of safety or possibility of deliverance All were desirous equally of Peace but not all equally afraid of Danger those who fear'd it most were the greatest cause of it and some good well meaning Men of the Assembly Mr. Herbert Palmer and others whom Mr. Marshal had wrought upon and perswaded to come to the Houses first as being Ministers and Ambassadors of Peace to perswade to Peace and then to the Common Council to do the like to them which did but dishearten and discourage those who were apt enough to fear being not so fully ready to resist a power that was coming upon them and did hinder the preparations To say the truth all was done that could be to hinder and little to help Insomuch as at that very time when the Army was marching up for their destruction about 49000 l. which had formerly been order'd to be sent down for the Army 's drawing off further from the City could not be privily convey'd out of Town by Sir Iohn Wollaston and some others in which Mr. Scawen and Mr. Allen Members of the House had a principal hand which was as great a blow to Parliament and City as could be given for it serv'd to keep the Soldiers together and unite them for marching up whereas before there were high discontents amongst them and it weaken'd us even taking away so much of our blood that which at that time we principally stood in need of 157. The Parliament did all that could be desir'd yet still with a resolution to endeavour the ways of preventing extremities Those Commissioners of theirs who were at the Army had in a manner disavowed them for never any thing came from them to the Houses and Mr. Skippon when the City sent to him to come and take the conduct and management of their business a duty they might very well have expected from him he was so far from performing it as he absolutely refus'd except he might have an assurance from the Parliament and from them to return again to the Army if he lik'd not his conditions which was a great ingratitude to those who had deserv'd so well of him and an unworthy complyance with them who had formerly neglected him 158. A Message was resolv'd upon to be sent to the Army to see if they could be stopp'd from coming in that manner to endanger putting all into blood Mr. Swifen and Mr. Ashurst as I remember were nominated the rest I have forgot The like was also prepar'd in the City and more quickly executed upon Tuesday Alderman Gibbs Mr. Noel and some other Aldermen and Common Councilmen were appointed to go with it And they soon return'd not with an Olive branch but with a heavy doom to the honour of the City freedom of the Parliament and safety of the poor eleven Members in the first place and next of all that had engag'd in the defence of the City The Keys of the City if I misremember not must be deliver'd to
full of honour and greatness was I think never heard of 165. And now the Houses fall to voting the Lords leading the way and outdoing the Commons as much as Mr. Lenthal outdid the Earl of Manchester in the Thanksgiving or Mr. Marshal did Mr. Nye in the thanksgiving Sermon They make Sir Thomas Fairfax Generalissimo Commander in chief of all the Forces in the Kingdom and Constable of the Tower otherwise signifying Mr. Oliver Cromwel of whom Sir Thomas was the shadow they thank his Excellency over again for his care of the safety of the City and Parliament Risum teneatis amici leave it wholly to him to appoint what Guards he thinks fit for their security Sed quis custodiet custodes give a months Pay for a gratuity to the Army for their many good Services which is praemium nequitiae then set up the Star Chamber the High Commission the Spanish Inquisition in one Committee of ten Lords and twenty Commoners read over but their names and you will swear it except for four of the Commoners who are very unequally yok'd sixteen against them to sit in the painted Chamber de die in diem to examine the business of the Mutiny and of forcing the Houses 166. So far the Lords lead and the Commons follow but in another Vote they go by themselves a good while that all things done by the Members since as they injuriously and falsly pretend the Speakers and other Members were driven away from the Parliament be annull'd and of no effect and declar'd to have been so at the making thereof The Commons can't agree to this but put off the debare to another time Some sense of honour there was amongst them and of the dangerous consequence of such a Vote besides the unreasonableness and injustice taking away the Authority by which those Votes were made and so exposing to question and ruin all such as were at the passing of them or had acted by them Many days debates were spent upon it but it could not be carry'd the House of Commons would be a House of Commons still and as they represent the people of England so assert their Liberties if they were left to themselves and not overaw'd by the power of the Army 167. Therefore the Agitators must to work again with an humble Address to his Excellency and some Proposals on behalf of the Kingdom and the Army First That all those that have fat at Westminster usurping a parliamentary Authority since the forcible expulsion of the Parliament may immediately be excluded the House Secondly That those Members who have adher'd to that pretended Parliament may be also excluded under a penalty if they presume to sit Thirdly That all former Votes against disaffected Members may be put in execution And this is to make a free Parliament for those Rogues to determine who shall sit who shall not and how they shall be punish'd who disobey them These Lords and Commoners deserve well of Parliament and Kingdom that ran away from the Parliament and went to the Army for this 168. Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Council of War answer presently for it is but a Song of two parts making one harmony all set by the same hand A Remonstrance is forthwith produc'd and sent to both Houses the 18 th of August a sorrowful Ditty for the poor House of Commons which tells them plainly after a long deduction of all passages just lying over the same Lies again That those Members which sat during the absence of the Speakers are guilty of the prosecution and maintenance of the said treasonable engagement and violence and therefore must not be their Judges but their adverse Party shall be theirs which is Army Justice That they might have been made Prisoners of War wherefore they protest and declare if they hereafter intrude themselves to sit in Parliament they can no longer suffer it but will take some speedy effectual course that both they and others guilty of the same practices may be brought to condign punishment 169. And they back this Remonstrance for which the Lords return a Letter of approbation and great thanks to his Excellency for his continu'd care of the honour and freedom of Parliament with a Party of a thousand Horse drawn up to Hide-Park Cromwel and Ireton making menacing Speeches in the House and Guards out of the Army besetting the doors and avenues By all which means and the terror of their surly impeaching looks as some of the Pamphleteers observe it many of the Members were driven away and the poor House forc'd the 20 th of August to pass the Ordinance for declaring all Votes Orders and Ordinances made in one or both Houses from Iuly 26 till August 6 null and void And now they are a free Parliament or as Haslerig told them the next day after the eleven Members were withdrawn a glorious Parliament in truth no Parliament but they are what Mr. Cromwel will have them to be 170. Then they lay about them impeach seven Lords of High Treason sparing only my Lord of Pembrook They proceed against some of their own Members suspend Mr. Bainton put Commissary Copley and Mr. Recorder out of the House whom they commit to the Tower for high Misdemeanours expel likewise Sir Iohn Maynard and send him to the Tower The rest of the eleven Members upon the City's delivering up it self and the Parliament to the will of the Army having sent for their Passes which the House had order'd and upon them withdrawn themselves into foreign parts the Lord Mayor and some of the Aldermen were likewise imprison'd in the Tower and charg'd with Treason And all honest Men persecuted threaten'd and therefore fled and scatter'd some one way and some another and these are the effects of a free Parliament 171. The Lieutenant of the Tower Colonel West an honest and gallant Man after he had been at charge to treat and entertain Sir Thomas Fairfax coming to take possession of his Place as Constable was by that worthy General by way of thankfulness for his good entertainment turn'd out And an Independent one Tichburn a Linen Draper put in which was done with so much insolency and scorn of the City as when his favourite Alderman Gibbs had prepar'd a long winded Speech in the name of the City who crav'd it as a Boon and Act of Grace that he would keep in the old Lieutenant he cut him off short and bid him speak no more of it Indeed it had been against his Instructions and the Maxim of his Master Cromwel and all that faction which is to suffer none in any power save such as are theirs Body and Soul and put all others out 172. So Colonel Pointz was seiz'd upon and by force fetch'd out of his Command in the North Major General Massey must not continue in his of the West Captain Patten turn'd out of his Vice Admiralship and Rainsborough put in Colonel Carne out of the Government of the Isle of Wight and Hammond
in his room The Self-denying Ordinance was a trick for this purpose In the begining of these troubles Sir William Lewis not agreeing with their Palate being Governour of Portsmouth they make the Earl of Essex who was then General send for him upon a supposition that he was a favourer of Malignants and of many other things which being examin'd by the Committee of Safety he gave so good an account of himself as the Committee could not do less than write a Letter in his justification to the General leaving it to him to repair him as he thought fit Then some of these honest Men who themselves had subscrib'd to it sent a Letter privately to my Lord of Essex by which they advis'd his not sending him back to Portsmouth which jugling of theirs he receiv'd with indignation and wish'd Sir William Lewis to return to his Command but he seeing what Men he had to deal with quitted the Employment and to say the truth he only can be happy who has nothing to do with them except it be in punishing them according to their demerits 173. They have now they think both Houses to their minds ready to do whatsoever they please Accordingly the House of Commons orders those of the eleven Members who were beyond Sea upon their Passes which gave them liberty of travelling six Months to appear the 16 th of October taking no course to have them summon'd only notice to be given at their Houses or places of their last abode where few of us had any Servants my self only an old Porter and a Maid or two 174. Then they go on to the publick business such work as the Army had cut out for them Which were certain Proposals that Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Council of War had sent them the 1 st of August sign'd by Iohn Rushworth Secretary now far above Iohn Brown and Henry Elsing In these they 〈◊〉 down a new platform of Government an Vtopia of their own take upon them to alter all give Rules to all cajole the King claw with the people cheat both never intending good to either The reading of the Articles themselves which are in print will satisfie every body they need no Comment and are so many and of so vast a comprehension as to treat of them all to shew the absurdities contradictions impossibilities unreasonableness which many of them contain would swell this to too big a Volume I will only speak to some few and shew how they dissolve the whole frame of this Monarchy taking a sunder every part pulling out every pin and new making it First The constitutions and proceedings of Parliaments projecting new things for their beginnings continuances and endings for the elections of Members privileges and customs of the Houses which they had violated before de facto but now must be alter'd de jure The Militia of the Kingdom where they will have a General appointed to command it Pay setled to maintain it a Council of State to superintend it which signifies to establish by Act of Parliament this holy Army the Council of War and General Cromwel Then matters of the Church where they will have no power exercis'd to preserve Religion and Piety they would have Bishops so they may be just Cyphers and all Acts to be repeal'd which hinder Men from being Atheists or Independents for no body must be enjoyn'd to come to the Church and there may be Meetings to practise any thing of superstition and folly the Covenant must be laid aside In sum it is to take away all Government and set up Independency They propose a new way for making grand Jury-men Justices of Peace and Sheriffs When these and many other things which they mention are settled which will take up time enough then the King Queen and Royal Issue to be restor'd which is as much as just nothing Next they make the people believe they do as great matters for them will have a liberty of petitioning which is but to make way for schismatical seditious Petitions for if any Petition stick at their Diana none so fierce to punish Who more than they against all the Petitions from London and the Counties for disbanding of the Army and complaining of their factious ways how eager were they against the Petitions promoted in the City in the beginning for which Benion was fined and many troubled and some Petitions out of Kent for which some Gentlemen were committed How barbarously did they fall upon some poor women which came one time to Westminster petitioning for Peace commanding a Troop of Horse to run over them the Train'd Bands to shoot at them whereby many were wounded and some kill'd Yet the world must think they will have it free for all to petition Then they will have the Excise taken off from some Commodities whereon the poor people live and a time limited for taking off the whole which was but to please and amuse them till they had got the mastery of those who they thought stood in their way but being Masters themselves they soon sent out a Command more now than any Proclamation or Ordinance to forbid all Soldiers any way to interrupt the levying of the Excise orany other Tax charg'd by the Parliament which they had made merely instrumental to poll the people for the support of them and their Faction They will have no Tythes to be paid and so Ministers to be starv'd for in truth they would have no Ministers at all or rather no Ministery like Iulian the Apostate take away presbyterium not presbyteros for Ministers that will be subservient to them like Mr. Marshal shall be much made of The rules and course of Law must be reduc'd indeed they will need no Law for they will rule by the Sword and the Councils of War shall supply all Courts of Justice Prisoners for debt if they have not wherewith to pay must be freed so we may be sure few debts shall be satisfy'd for it is an easie thing so to convey or conceal an Estate as nothing visible will be left for doing right to Creditors None must be compell'd to answer to questions tending to the accusing themselves or their nearest Relations in criminal Causes witness their Orders to make men under great Penalties state their Case in no less matter than Treason therefore this is understood to extend only to the privilege of their own Faction We must alter all Statutes and Customs of Corporations and of imposing Oaths which may be constru'd to the molestation of religious people that is Independents for all others are Greeks and Barbarians Yet these men in how many Letters and Declarations do they say and protest they have no thought of setting up Independency nor to meddle with any thing but what concerns the Soldiery and leave all the rest to the wisdom of the Parliament Indeed they conclude their Proposals with what concerns the Soldiery That provision may be made for payment of Arrears to the Army and the
rest of the Soldiers of the Kingdom who have concurr'd with them in their late proceedings and in the next place of the publick debts and damages of the Kingdom which they have taken a course that the Parliament shall never satisfie having caus'd such a debt to the Soldiers and so insupportable a charge for the maintenance of the Army which is to be satisfy'd in the first place before other debts to the rest of the Kingdom that the Subject is not able to bear it but is utterly ruin'd 175. To some of these Heads they say they will offer some speedy particulars in the nature of Rules of good use to the publick Rules indeed from which and from the Rulers good Lord deliver us But here you see they compile a work like the second part of Solomon's treating from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hysop on the Wall of all degrees and conditions from the King that should be on the Throne to the Beggar in Prison And since they have brought both ends together so now we have a free Parliament and a free Kingdom 176. Every day produces some effects of their tyranny and power like another Africk some Monster tho they were not without their difficulties to wrestle with and overcome For to bring so absolute a Bondage upon a people that was free before could not be without many heats and colds They had the King to deal with whom they must in some measure satisfie and perswade that they had good intentions for him to restore and maintain him in a power and dignity sutable to his Royal Person and Office from which the truth and bottom of their design did differ toto coelo they had the King's Party whom they must entertain in hopes and expectation and then cozen they had the Parliament which must be kept under brought to obedience and a total subservience to their will and command They had the generality of the people who were for Government and Monarchy founded upon Peace as they had reason desirous to be eas'd of their Burdens and Taxes with hopes whereof the Army had fed them but it stood not with their Interest to procure it them They had lastly their own faction which troubled them most of all being violent impatient not to be gain'd to go the pace of their Grandees and wait the revolutions of time which they desir'd might have taken place for the same things to be effected which even those headstrong furious people coveted but with more ease advantage and greatness to themselves 177. For they apprehended it very dangerous to fall presently upon his Majesty and break with him seeing the inclinations of the people towards him and he at liberty for all persons to have access unto him whom he might confer with inform and dispose according to occasion perhaps take some resolutions which they apprehended might turn to their prejudice Besides they knew not how the Scotish Nation might then declare and engage which with the help of those whom they had already discontented by their injustice and oppression in the execution of their particular malice and revenge and those whom they should discontent by frustrating their expectation having born them in hand with hopes of Peace and freedom from Taxes must needs have given a great interruption to their proceedings and even shake the foundation of their whole design therefore they must work in another way make his Majesty believe they will do great things for him so to receive rather an advantage than hinderance from his influence upon the affections of the Kingdom To this end were all those applications to him by Cromwel Ireton and the rest of their Creatures and Instruments in framing of the proposals appearing for his interest in the House seeming to desire his restitution being now turn'd absolute Courtiers They knew it would at last come all to one with that which they have since done to him For coming to a settlement with his concurrence they had the power he but vanam imaginem and what of lustre and quietness had been contributed by his Majesty's conjunction would but have serv'd to have confirm'd and heighten'd their authority all had been but Stilts to raise them above the rest of the Kingdom and himself likewise so as it had been in their power as well as we are sure it had been in their will to destroy him afterwards he should have only been a little longer repriev'd as Vlysses was by Polyphemus to be devour'd at last 178. But the Party would not give way to this hatred to the King envy and jealousies against their aspiring Leaders and a violent desire of having the work done at once lay all persons and things level on the sudden bring forth their monstrous conceptions all at one birth made them break out flye in their faces discover many of their villanies and as appears by that business of Lilburn and Wildman even resolve to take Cromwel out of the way and murder him for an Apostate 179. When Cromwel Ireton and the rest saw this and that this madness of the inferiour sort of their Disciples which had formerly rais'd them supported them and lately given them the advantage of their Enemies victory over the Parliament and a superiority over all the Kingdom would now be their ruin if either they clos'd throughly with the King for then their Party would forsake them turn against them and they knew they had so well merited of King and Kingdom as not to expect to be preserv'd in greatness either for honesty or abilities or if the King continu'd at liberty at Hampton-Court or any other place where freedom of resort might be to him and opportunities taken and improv'd to meet with and prevent all their attempts that then it would be impossible to carry on their business in an open and declar'd way of violence against him They saw a necessity of removing him and making sure his person that done they thought they might be bold to do and say what they would and own a second time the actings and resolutions of the Agitators 180. The difficulty was how to bring this about to cozen the King so as to make him act it himself and flie into the Cage carry him by force they durst not it would be unhandsom it might be dangerous They use this stratagem heighten and sharpen underhand the mad humour of their Party against him to have it break out all manner of ways in threatning Speeches Pamphlets some consultations that whilst his Majesty liv'd in England he could not be safe meetings to consider and come to some resolutions of taking him out of the way the Army is again disquiet the Officers not obey'd all things tending to mutiny and some violent eruption Then dos Mr. Cromwel and his Cabinet Council seem to be extreamly solicitous of the safety of his Majesty's person cause some discoveries to be given him of his danger express great indignation and trouble in the House in the
faults for their own advantage For if the King would have agreed to such Conditions as they propos'd to him and such a Settlement as had been in order to their Ends to have continu'd an Omnipotency in them and ruin'd the rest of the Kingdom these things had been all dispens'd with sacrific'd to their greatness and the advancement of their Dagon then nothing but Hosannah's in their mouths no Peace could be lasting without due consideration of his Rights far was it from them to have a thought of imprisoning him he had been their good King and they his and our gracious Masters But now that his Majesty had discover'd their aims and would not contribute to them he is an Anathema guilty of such and so many crimes as not to be found scarce in any one person and now these Men of Belial can say he shall not reign over us For the things themselves I doubt not but there are those who knowing the Arcana Imperii will give satisfaction to the world by a faithful and clear manifestation of his Majesty's Actions and Counsels relating to them I who stand below and at distance as I cannot have the knowledg of such high things so will not presume to meddle with them only upon the general say that methinks in reason those things cannot be for to destroy the Protestants in France whose preservation must needs be as a contentment to the Soul of a Protestant King so a strength and advantage to his Interest were strange State-policy And as for the Rebellion of Ireland to cut off so great a Limb from himself pluck off one of the three Flowers of his Crown is methinks to be Felo de se. To speak nothing of that concerning King Iames an act so monstrous as not to be suspected in a Heathen not to be found in heathenish Rome much less in a Christian truly I cannot as a rational Man bring my judgment to admit of a belief of those things and then certainly Charity obliges to hope better believe better of any Man much more of a King and of our own King whom Solomon tells us we are not to curse no not in thought much less which Iob blames tell him and tell the world he is wicked and ungodly least of all when there is not a clear an undeniable proof And even their expressions in their Declaration are not positive as if the subject matter were only allegatum not at all probatum and rather set forth ad captandum populum to gain if possible an approbation of the vulgar of what they had done than that they conceiv'd it would find credit with rational and judicious Men or that themselves thought it to be a truth For the other things as Knighthood Ship-money c. any thing by which the Subject has been oppress'd and his Purse pick'd they of all Men should not find fault whose little Finger has been heavier than the Loins of Monarchy What was all that in comparison of free Quarter Excise and even the 100000 l. a Month which they say they must have for the maintenance of the Army those were but Flea-bitings to these At the worst one may say we were then chastis'd with Whips but now with Scorpions 197. And so I hope I have made good what I undertook in the beginning having made it appear that England is become by the actings of these Men that Monster whose shape is perverted the head standing where the feet and the feet where the head should be mean Men mounted aloft and all that is or should be great Lacqueying it after them The authority of the Magistrate suppress'd and the will of particular persons made the Law of the Kingdom Justice obstructed and Violence in the room of it King and Parliament trodden under foot and an Army insulting over the Persons and Estates of the Subject so as we may take up the Psalmist's Complaint That the very Foundations are destroy'd and what then can the Righteous do 198. I will conclude all with this short Epiphonema If such a complicated Treason as this which they have design'd and carry'd on all along consisting of so many several parts by betraying all the Trusts Men can be capable of as Subjects to their King Servants to their Masters an Army to them that rais'd and paid them English Men to their Country and which is more Christians to their God bound up yet in a more particular obligation by Covenant Vows and Protestations all these Relations thrown aside nothing of Duty Conscience or Morality to stand in the way that could either be remov'd or overcome eluded or broken through If I say a Treason rais'd up to this height by so many several steps of Hypocrisie Treachery Perfidiousness Injustice Violence and Cruelty can be made good and the Actors prosper blessing themselves in their success sacrificing to their Nets and Gins by which they have snar'd and destroy'd all their opposers And on the other side if no blessing must be on the good endeavours of those who only had propos'd to themselves Bonum publicum had nothing in particular in their Eye sought nothing for themselves but to find their safety compris'd and contain'd in the happiness and welfare of the King Parliament and Kingdom like the honest Passengers that seek their preservation in saving the Ship they sail in as I can speak it for a truth take the God of Heaven for Witness and defie all the Men on Earth to disprove it that I for my part and I hope the same of those other persons of Honour Members of both Houses with whom I have cooperated and now partake in their sufferings never had other end Let the Earl of Manchester speak who has been present at and privy to all our Consultations and is now join'd and engag'd with the Army and those other Men who carry on this pernicious design where besides the universal desolation of the whole Kingdom there is a particularity against me for my ruin and destruction and therefore I doubt not but he will say all he knows Let Mr. Reynolds of the House of Commons who went a long time and a great way with us but is since fallen off and become throughly theirs the same I say of Colonel Harvy who was long enough in our Ears and in our Bosoms to bottom all our thoughts know all our desires If these or any other even that malicious and treacherous Lord Savil can say that at any time upon any occasion I propos'd any thing that look'd towards a self End the driving of any particular Interest setting up of any Party but merely to prevent these fearful Precipices into which the Kingdom is fallen by the art and practices of these Enemies of Peace and to attain such a settlement as all honest moderate Men might have found in it both security and satisfaction If they can let them speak and if they prove one tittle I will put my Mouth in the dust I will bear my
punishment and expect mercy neither from God nor Man nay even in relation to the Army and those persons who have a long time sought my ruin if all I desir'd and aim'd at in disbanding that schismatical factious Soldiery in carrying on the business of the House in opposition to that Party and even in this last great Treason of levying War against King Parliament and Kingdom as they stile it which was only to do my best endeavour to defend them and my self from a rebellious Army that was marching up for all our destructions contrary to the Orders of both Houses against whom it first rebell'd instead of an obedient disbanding then cudgel'd them to own it for their Army forc'd the City into a trouble and shew of opposition to what it had made the Parliament do then took that occasion to march both against it and the Parliament If notwithstanding all this in what I did I had any thought of personal revenge or to do the least hurt to any particular person in case we had prevail'd but only to return into the way whence we were put out of a free quiet Parliamentary proceeding to accomplish the great work of settling the Peace both of Church and State let me perish and God who is the searcher of hearts knows I now speak nothing but truth 199. Well then I say if all our endeavours must like an untimely birth come to nothing our hope be cut off our persons destroy'd our integrity innocency fidelity question'd and decry'd our good names traduc'd torn in sunder our memories made to stink to all posterity by the false calumnies of our malicious Enemies and their power in suppressing truth and which is worst for all this is but particular the general the publick the Common wealth once in so fair a way of recovery at the eve of a happy day to be rid of Armies enjoy a Peace hear no more of the Instruments of War but see a blessed composure of all unhappy differences reap the fruits of Justice and Mercy and upon a sudden to find all this but as the hungry man's Dream who is the more empty when he awakes so instead of this solid happiness to embrace a Cloud have nothing but the empty promises of a false deceitful Army and be cast back into a greater gulf of misery and confusion than all the enemies in the World could have brought it into and the latter end to be far worse than the beginning 200. If this be our Portion were I a Heathen I should say with Brutus when he meant to kill himself seeing the assertors of publick Liberty overcome and ruin'd and the Invaders prevail and conquer O misera virtus eras igitur fabula seu verba ego te ut rem colebam exercebam tu autem fortunae serviebas But being a Christian I am taught another Lesson to know that nothing comes by chance God who dos all things in number weight and measure orders and disposes all as may most make for his own Honour and the good of his Church and Children to which even the wickedness of the wicked and these Disorders will conduce tho the wit of Man cannot fathom it therefore I will lay my Hand upon my Mouth and not once whisper because the Lord has done it only take up St. Paul's admiration and with it end crying out O Altitudo O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! How unsearchable are his Iudgments and his Ways past finding out FINIS AN Alphabetical Table A. Accommodation with the King propos'd by the Lords and laid aside by the malignant Party of the Commons p. 9 10. Agitators set up by the Army their Actions 86 87. Receive some check from Cromwel 87 88. Write a Letter against the Parliament 88 89. The Insolence of those that brought it 89. Their extravagant Proposals to Sir Tho. Fairfax in relation to the Parliament c. 171. Allen Treasurer of the Army 135. Concern'd in conveying away a great Sum of Money design'd for the Army 161. Army forsaken of divers brave Officers when it left its Obedience to the Parliament 70. Countenanc'd great Disorders in Churches c 71. Petitions from City and Country to have it disbanded 72. Recruits daily tho it had no Enemy to oppose 72. Hinders the Relief of Ireland 73 76 79 83. Voted to be disbanded but what was necessary for Garisons c. 74. Some of its Officers mutiny 76. Petition for an Indemnity before disbanding c. 77 78. Incens'd by the Officers against the Parliament 83 84. Are rather incourag'd than discountenanc'd by the Officers that were sent to appease them 91. Their Representation to the Parliament 91 92. Address their General against disbanding 94 95. Enter into an Ingagement not to disband 99. Their Representation in which they censure the Parliament's Actions with Contempt 100 101 111. Intermeddle with the Business of the Kingdom contrary to their Protestations 103. Refuse to hear the Parliament's Votes tho in their own favour aud march towards the City 108. Their high Pretences for the good of the People c. 110 112 149. Make the Parliament do what they please 111. Require a Period to be put to it 112. Their insolent Demands of it 113 115 116 163. Their specious Pretences for the King 118. Vpbraid the Parliament for doing what they forc'd 'em to 119. Their pretended Care for the Privileges of Parliament ibid. Manage all Affairs of the Kingdom 142 c. Are compos'd of mean Officers c. 149. Their extravagant Proposals to the Parliament in relation to Church and State 177 181. Their Remonstrance Decemb. 7. 1648. against the Parliament 192 195. which is descanted on 195 197. Make the Parliament act against it self set up for Lords and Masters c. 200 201. Army Party their Actions and Aims 1 5. How they got into Power 6. Their Vsage of the King Queen c. 7. Are for the Covenant c. 13. Misrepresent Affairs to the Scots 14. Begin to shew themselves after Marston-moor Fight 18. Oppose the Lords for medling with a Commoner 20 56. Against putting an end to the War 25 29. Govern by the Sword c. 26. Oppos'd by an honest Party in the House ibid. Frustrated in their Expectation of some they had got chosen 43 44. Indeavour to set the two Kingdoms against each other 45. and the Country against the Scots 49. Amuse the House with strange things against them 52. Break the Law of Nations with relation to the Scots Commissioners 54 55 56. Ioin some Scots Commissioners to the English in the Power of the Militia but with an ill design 57. which they would afterwards have alter'd 58. Would have the Army march into the North against the Scots without the Parliament's Order 61. Hinder the Scots going out of England tho they pretended to be for it 62. Quarrel with 'em about the Person of the King 67 68. Their Designs frustrated by the Scots
Prudence 69. Seize upon the King's Person 96. Their Letter to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London concerning their Demands of the Parliament 102. Their large share in the Treasure of the Kingdom 132 137. Their Accounts extravagant 138 139. Their Remonstrance concerning the Members that sat during the Speaker's Absence 172. Draw up a Party of Horse to back it ibid. Turn out Officers that were against them c. 175. The Difficulties they had to encounter 182 183. Cajole the King c. 184. The means they us'd to get rid of him 185 186. Procure his going to the Isle of Wight 187. Send him four Bills to sign 188. Their Declaration from Windsor concerning no further Address to him 200. descanted on 201 c. Ashurst Mr. sent with a Message from the Parliament to the Army 162. B. BLaxton imploy'd by the Army Party to give account what Sums the Scots had rais'd of the Country 65. Bristol lost its Governour condemn'd but pardon'd 12. Burley Captain hang'd by Fairfax's Order 190. C. CHarles King of England his Forces ruffled at Dennington 27. His Safety not regarded by the Army Party 34. Is deliver'd up to the English by the Scots 68. His Person seiz'd by the Army 96. Is made a Prisoner in the Isle of Wight on refusing the four Bills 190. Clotworthy Sir John one of the Committee at Derby-house 75. Commissioners of Scotland endeavour to undeceive the English Parliament in relation to their Army 47. Move for Pay for their Soldiers 50 51. Slighted by the Army Party 54. Their Packets and Letters intercepted and broke open 55. Give in an account of Arrears due to their Army 64. Committee at Derby-house to see the Parliaments Votes concerning Ireland executed 75. Labour to dispose the Army to go thither 76. of Haberdashers-Hall Goldsmiths-Hall c. misus'd by the Army to the ruin of many 129. of the two Kingdoms 14. Is out of esteem tho all Affairs of Moment had been transacted by them c. 53 54. Committee of Reformation 30. Corbet Mr. Mâ—â—es Iustice at the Committee of Examinations 130. Covenant between the two Kingdoms the ends of it not answer'd by sending away the Scots without disbanding the English Army 63. Crawford Major General his Service at Marstonmoor 15 16. Cromwel his Cowardice at Marstonmoor Basinghouse and Keinton 17. His Rancor against the Scots and Hatred of the Nobility 18. His Soldiers mutiny that he may escape the self-denying Ordinance 35. Is dispens'd with for two or three Months but after keeps in for good and all without an Order of the House 36. Keeps from the Army to give 'em opportunity of doing their Mischief 84. His Policy and Hypocrisy in relation to the Disorders of the Army 85. Sent down to 'em but to no purpose ibid. Leaves the Parliament and joins with the Army 86. Orders the King to be seiz'd but denies it 97. and the Magazine at Oxford to be secur'd 98. Appoints a general Rendevouz near Cambridg and justifies what the Agitators had done 99. Gets Petitions of his own drawing sign'd by several Counties 114. His Pension 135. Writes a Letter to Whalley to be shewn the King 187. D. DAcres Lord one of the Committee at Derby-house 75. Delaware Lord one of the Commissioners for disbanding the Army 94. Desborough Major with two Regiments falls upon some of Sir Robert Pye's Men at Deptford and barbarously murders them 159. E. ELections vacant by an Artifice voted to be filled up 41. Vnfairly made by the malignant Party 42. Eleven Members incur the Hatred of the Army for doing their Duty 75. Their Care and Industry with relation to Ireland was the Foundation of the good Successes in that Kingdom 82. Have a general Charge exhibited against them by the Army who require they should be suspended sitting in the House 115 119. Remarks on their Case 120 123. Withdraw from the House to prevent Inconveniences 124. No particular Charge against them the ill Practices of their Enemies to ruin them 125 126. Accus'd by the Army of holding Correspondence with the King c. which is descanted on 127 128 c. Largely vindicated 130 131 c. 140 141. The Army's Declaration against them 148 149. which is largely descanted on 150 c. Are vindicated from the Disorders that happened at Westminster from the Rabble c. 153 154. Order'd by the House to make good their places 157. Forsaken by the City who had espous'd their Cause 163. Their unparallel'd Case 199. Essex Earl suspected and laid aside by the Army Party 8 9 21 30. Is order'd to attend his Majesty's Motions 22 23. His ill Success in the West 24 25. His Ruin design'd by Haslerig 24. Relief refus'd to be sent him 25. His Army willingly disband 31 32. F. FAirfax Sir Thomas commands at Marstonmoor under his Father 15. Is made General 34. His Commission ran only in the name of the Parliament ibid. Is discharg'd of Subordination to the Committee of both Kingdoms 54. Design'd to be sent with his Army to protect the Northern Counties 60. Receives Orders about disbanding 93. Causes his Regiment to march another way 94. Innocent as to seizing the King 97. His Remonstrance concerning the King's being voted to Richmond 117. Takes up his Quarters at Uxbridg 123. Marches to London in State and puts in the old Speakers 164. by whom he is complemented and addressed 167. Marches through the City in Triumph 168. Voted by both Houses General of all the Forces and Constable of the Tower 169. His Remonstrance for satisfaction of the Army 188. His Order concerning the King c. at the Isle of Wight 190. Fleetwood Colonel concern'd in seizing the King 97. His Place and Pension 136. Foulks Alderman of London promotes the Interest of the Army 110 160. G. GIbbs Alderman of London promotes the Interest of the Army 110 160. Sent with a Message to the Army 162. Interrupted by Fairfax in a Speech he was making to him 174. Grey of Grooby Lord is gratified by the Army 137. Against the eleven Members 198. Gurden Mr. against the Parliament's having a Period put to it 112. H. HAmmond Colonel his unreasonable Demands on being design'd for Ireland 73. Haslerig Sir Arthur his ill Success in the West 11. His Rashness c. 12. His Excuse for the King 's not being attack'd at Dennington Cowardice Vain-glory c. 27 28. Is concern'd in seizing the King 97 98. His Pension 136. His great Pay 139. Stays in Town tho Governour of Newcastle to do a feat for the Army 198. Holland Mr. Cornelius his Gratuity from the Army Party 135. Holles Mr. Denzil accus'd by Savil of corresponding with the Lord Digby 38 40. Is prosecuted with great Violence by the Sollicitor St. John 40. Acquitted by the House 41. Concern'd in the Uxbridg-Treaty 57. His Generosity as to the publick Money 140. I. JAckson Lieutenant Colonel submits to the Parliament in order to disband 94. Independents Army c. mostly compos'd of them 29.