persons that at any time raise a Power in opposition to the present Governors as these very persons found by experience during their short rule Aristotle and his adherents are much cried down by our modern natural Philosophers for making privation a principle but certainly these men made it the most considerable principle in their politicks for they could not effect any thing fully but demolition and destruction They never set up any thing in the way of Government that was new but it was in a short time disliked and overthrown And indeed it could not be otherwise since the greedy Monster of their faction could not subsist but by devouring whatsoever was most precious in the Land and since the opportunity to do so could not be had but by frequent changes of Government so the rapacity of this brood of Harpies caused the destruction of so many fair Buildings whereof the raising had been so costly the suppression of Bishops with their Hierarchy and the sale of their Lands and I may even say felling of the Royal Oak it self with prostitution of the publick Revenue and Ornaments to sale and the same cause would infallibly have produced the ruine of both Universities with demolition of the Colledges and alienation of their Lands and many other destructions of that nature so as to have deprived the Nation of all excellence in the way of beauty and splendor That this was done the Power once raised is not strange but how so great a part of the people nay even of that remainder of Parliament should be drawn to consent to it carrieth much wonder and certainly there was much art used to win their consent to so great a devastation The Historical part of this business being too heavy a burden for my shoulders I shall only for the satisfaction of some friends set down in writing my observations of the carriage of that business at Westminster where I was then resident as a Member of the House of Commons wherein perhaps there may be found some particulars not so obvious to others and in that respect likely to be omitted In matters Political it is seldom found that events depend upon causes necessarily producing them and when they do there must be some great imperfection in the original constitution of a State as writers in Politicks affirm of Civil War arising in an Oligarchy by reason of many dependences upon great persons possest of the Sovereign power whose private and differing interests distract the forces of such Commonwealths but this cannot be our case who live in an extraordinary well-tempered Monarchy where the perfect constitution is sufficiently proved by an esflux of very much time without the least appearance of any visible defect We must therefore search out other causes It cannot be doubted that there is a Divine Providence which ordereth and governeth all things but as this is above us and altogether out of our sight so we must rather submit chearfully than make any inquisition about it As for second causes in disturbance of States none can justifie an armed opposition by Subjects against their Sovereign and unless there be some plausible title to the Supreme power there is seldom any that become considerable but discontents upon conceit of misgovernment and in this case the justness of discontent is not so dangerous as the generality of it and in that respect designs grounded upon right reason and with certainty of publick advantage if effected are yet well laid aside when liable to a general misconstruction in the way either of danger or oppression Never Parliament was assembled when the people were in a higher discontent than at this time such a general diffidence there was as they thought themselves sure of nothing The encrease of Ceremonies had made them fear the approach of a Religion hateful to them The late business of Ship-money together with some other impositions without consent of Parliament caused them to apprehend the loss of property in their estates and they had little hope of redress by Parliament because his then Majesty had been so unhappy as to be put upon a sudden dissolution of all Parliaments formerly by him called There wanted not persons ill-disposed and seditious to trumpet these things in the ears of the generality whereby they incensed them so far as thereby they found means to raise a power against their Sovereign which how it was done and by what degrees and how improved is the chief intent of our business to set forth At the time of assembling this unhappy Parliament there were two armies on foot in England whereof one was that of the Scots and another consisting of English-men to oppose them if occasion were and the King to remove all jealousie of a wilful continuance of the war by engaging them to a fresh hostility had made the Earl of Holland a person then standing gracious with the Parliament and People General of the English army The persons who knew themselves faulty in holding intelligence with the Scots were then so apprehensive of a complete agreement between his Majesty and Them and of their being won to a compliance with him in all things as the Earl of Holland in a private Letter to Mr. Pym writ somewhat to this effect That the sky was horridly black in those Northern parts and that all things there seemed as tending to an universal judgment The Earl being then General could not intend this other than a private advertisement but Mr. Pym finding the publication of it a sit means to encrease the general apprehensions presently imparted that Letter to the House of Commons and from thence the substance of it was divulged over all the City of London This served to keep the people in a heat and jealousie concerning the Kings intentions but that fear proved vain for the pacification was effected wholly by interposition of the English-Commissioners who were persons approved of by the Parliament as to that employment But this business of satisfying the Scots and of disbanding of the Armies requiring vast summs of money there were were great Taxes laid upon the people by Act of Parliament which money was not likely to be levied in much time and therefore there needed a present supply by the City of London who as was pretended would not part with their money lest a dissolution of the Parliament should come before payment thereupon the King was pressed to pass the Act of Continuance whereby the Parliament could not be dissolved but by their own consent This Act had the Royal assent and gave to the Crown the greatest blow that it had yet received for so the King established against himself a Power which he could not extinguish This pacification being free from all secret agreements with the Scots gave a great strength and confidence to our Cinistones or kindlers of Sedition for though the Presbyterian discipline was now again consimed as to Scotland yet it was impossible that the Scots could think themselves secure to hold it
them with an absolute negative and there passed something then which perhaps may be fit to be inserted herein as containing that which is something extraordinary I received the relation from a noble person who was one of the Commoners then sent and this it is After having received his Majesties answer the Committy being still at Theobalds retired it self to take into consideration the terms of it that there might be no difference in reporting to the several Houses of Parliament As soon as the Committy was set the Earl of Warwick was called out to speak with his brother the Earl of Newport He went out and speedily returned with this account of the business that the Earl of Newport had acquainted him that the King was even then so pressed to give a more satisfactory answer as he was confident they should have such an answer if they would but defer their departure for a small season To this the whole company seemed to assent with much chearfulness when suddenly young Sir Henry Vain declared himself to mervail at it for said he is there any person here who can undertake to know the Parliaments mind that is whether this which we have or that which is called a more satisfactory answer will be more pleasing to the Houses For my part I cannot and if there be any that can let him speak to this no man made any answer and so having agreed upon the report to be made they departed I have related this to shew how easily one subtle ill-disposed person may overthrow a general good intention Now were the well affected party as it was then termed stirred up in all parts to give incouragement to the House of Commons in the way of pretended Reformation by petitions whereof some were delivered dayly at the bar and the deliverers had thanks given by the Speaker which was a thing altogether new And as a general return to these and to keep the people in perfect heat it was resolved that a general and publick declaration of the State of the kingdom should be made to the Nation In time of former Princes the House of Commons had some times but very rarely made remonstrances of that nature to the King which were never pleasing to him yet not justly to be excepted against because it is exprest in the writs of Summons that they are to advise his Majesty but for any advising or treating with the people it was always held illegal and of mischievous consequence Upon these grounds the declaration being brought into the House caused a very long debate but was at last passed with the dissent of very many of the most considerable Members Our Nation being in such disorder the rebellion broke out in Ireland and the Lords of the Council being yet in London imparted their new received intelligence to the House of Commons who seemed chearfully to embrace the business of reducing that Kingdom to obedience and thereupon endeavoured the raising of a stock of money by adventure upon security of the living Bears-skin which was the Estates of such persons as were in Rebellion Upon this the King made offer of going in person to suppress the rebellion if he might be supplied with money and other necessaries for the work which offer was so far from being hearkned unto at Westminster as it created new jealousie But the Parliament made good use of the Irish business for by that means they listed Officers and made full enquiry concerning their inclinations which succeeded happily with them afterwards Every day produced new differences between the King and Parliament for that unsatiable Monster of publick security caused the making of a proposition to his Majesty which was that the Parliament might govern the Militia or Trained-bands for some time at least which was rejected by the King as a power not to be parted withal no not for an hour whereupon the Parliament made new Lieutenants for each County who assumed the exercise of that power by Parliamentary authority in many parts of the Kingdom And upon the same ground of publick security Sir John Hotham seised upon the Town of Kingston upon Hull with the Kings Magazin there which his Majesty cried out upon not only as rebellious but as a robbing him of his Arms and Ammunition being personal Goods bought with his money and this before any the least act of hostility shewed on his part The King was then retired to the City of York as a place of more safety than nearer to London And there first of all the Warrants of Parliament being sent by express Messengers for Delinquents by them so stiled were flatly disobeyed which was no unwelcome news to the great managers of affairs at Westminister for they pretended such obstruction of Justice to be a justifiable sufficient ground for the raising of forces When the opposition was grown to this height his Majesty judged it fit that such Members of both Houses as had resolved to engage against the Parliament should withdraw themselves and one of the last that continued sitting in the House of Commons was Mr. Sidney Godolphin who for a farewel declared That by a War the Parliament would expose it self to unknown dangers for said he when the Cards are once shuffled no man knows what the Game will be which was afterwards found by the Parliament too true when their own Army became their Masters But in the mean time this Secession of Members did very much facilitate the entry into and continuance of the War all dispute being taken away within the Houses and the House of Commons would not lose this convenience and therefore they soon excluded the withdrawn Members by special Votes This abscission or cutting off of Members had been formerly used in this and other Parliaments but very rarely and for offences extraordinary and such an offence was this obedience to his Majesty then adjudged to be so unfitting a time for Judgment is the heat of a Civil War in matters relating to that War This War first began in Paper by Manifestoes and Declarations on both parts which brings to remembrance a pleasant passage in the House of Commons upon this account One of the Members brought with him into the House a Declaration of his Majesties which he had newly bought and complained much of those who were so insolent as freely to sell such papers of the Kings At this a young Gentleman of those who were accounted Fanaticks in those days but one who never spake publickly in the House grew into a seeming impatience and said with much earnestness Why not his papers as well as every mans else Which though loudly yet being spoken without standing up was answered only with looks and smiles This passage is scarcely worthy of a place in any serious discourse yet it seemeth naturally to express the small ingenuity of those times which allowed not to a Sovereign Prince in his own Dominions that freedom which every petty fellow assumed without exception At this time
spent a whole night in that debate they sent their Red-coats early in the morning before the next sitting who passed the Streets with great cries and so possest themselves of the House of Commons-door admitting only those Members whose names they found not in their Catalogue and seizing upon many of the rest who would have entred I question not but upon this occasion as upon all others of great importance they held a solemn fast among the chief Commanders to ask counsel of God for the doing of that which they their selves had already resolved upon which if I deceive not my self is one of the greatest hypocrisies that the world hath known The House of Commons being thus moulded according to their desire they presently fell upon the formalities of that most hideous and not to be paralell'd murther of our Royal Sovereign and upon the business of putting down the House of Lords with intention to establish a perfect Democracy among us But God hath preserved us from so unhappy a change As for my self being one of the secluded Members I from that time retired me wholly from publick affairs till a farther call which by Gods mercy I lived to see and had the happiness to be a Member even of that House of Commons when all was disposed there for a perfect restitution of the ancient Government under our most gracious Sovereign Charles the Second whom God preserve long in prosperity for his service and for the happiness of these Nations And here I end this Discourse leaving it to better pens to set forth the continuance of that Anarchy and the miraculous way of Divine providence in Restoring us to our Sovereign Prince and to our fundamental Laws without effusion of one drop of bloud in the Military way A SHORT ADDITAMENT SInce the finishing of this Discourse I have consulted the Histories of several Nations to see if I could meet with any thing running paralel to the raising and issue of this War but I have absolutely failed of doing it It hath been usual for Senates to take part with a power already raised by persons assuming the Sovereignty so it was with the Roman Senate when Galba had prevailed against Nero and that Senate went farther than any other within my reading for they proceeded to a capital sentence against their Prince but it was not till the Imperial dignity was in a manner possessed by Galba and the Military power was so far from being raised or directed by themselves as they durst not give the least countenance to it till Nero was absolutely run down That which cometh nearer to us is a levying of War by the Roman Senate against Julius Maximinus the Emperor but at the same time they invested Pupienus and Albinus with the Imperial purple in opposition to him and claimed no Sovereignty in themselves which setting up of Emperor against Emperor was a thing very frequent among the Romans In these later times there have been divers Rebellions against Princes wherein Senates have been concurring but have not originally formed the opposition So in the United Provinces of Belgia Arms were first raised by particular persons or places and the States or Deputies of Provinces afterwards approved and concurred And the Parliament of Paris adjoyned it self to the Liguers or Covenanters against the two last Henries of France but that Parliaments actions are little to our purpose for they are to be looked upon as no more than a standing Court of Judicature wherein the Peers of France are priviledged to sit at pleasure and having jurisdiction only in some part of the French Dominion except in cases of appeal and besides this the War was neither begun nor managed under their Authority In Scotland an Assembly stiled Ecclesiastical though comprizing Lay-persons was Convocated by King Charles the First and they continued their Session after his Majesties Act for their dissolution assuming to themselves a power independent upon him but I never read that they made any Order for raising of Military Forces for maintenance of their Decrees though it was otherwise done against his Majesty In our Chronicles there is mention of divers Kings deposed even by Parliament but those Parliaments did it in compliance with a strength already in being and they no ways either directed or concurred in raising that power Thus have I raked together out of several Histories much filth but none of so bad savour as that contracted by our Long Parliament There are some particulars of aggravation against that Assembly I mean chiefly the House of Commons who for the most spurred the Lords into action as to things irregularly done which are not applicable to any of those in foreign Histories As first that they levied War against their Prince in their own name Secondly that they were Assembled by the King 's Writ to advise him in his affairs and therefore ought not to have acted against him Thirdly that they were limited by the terms of that Writ and in that respect ought not to have exceeded those limits Fourthly that they were representatives of the Commons and though they would be otherwise exorbitant ought not to have done things prejudicial to them and contrary to the mind of their Major part as certainly they did in levying of War and in those things which ensued thereupon And lastly they assumed a Jurisdiction upon the Kings Royal person without the least colour of right by making Substitutes stiled by them a High Court of Justice to Arraign him as a Delinquent and to proceed capitally against him even to death it self whereas he alone was the Fountain of all Justice within his Dominions and nothing of that nature could regularly be done against the meanest person but by vertue of Authority or Commission from him And all this when he was still acknowledged to be their King for he was so stiled In Terminis at the Arraignment This is far beyond what hath been formerly done by any other body of men and is of so odious a condition as pity it is there cannot be a total obliteration of it to prevent any transmission to posterity It hath been hinted herein that the levying of War against the King was displeasing to the people in general yet partly by terror and partly by hope of advantage the most powerful part of the Nation was made instrumental in it and this may the better be believed because many of the most important businesses transacted in that Parliament were upon a weaker consideration carried on contrary to the judgment of the Major part of that House of Commons I intend the sense of the House as it was constituted at first for to speak of it otherwise were like making a Coat for the Moon which is never of the same dimensions but either encreasing or decreasing This seemeth a paradox yet thus much I can say by experience for the truth of it that oftentimes very many Members of those who sate near me in the House gave their voice the same
a General without Command surrendred his Commission with many expressions of good affection to the Parliament and wholly bent himself to a retirement being the first person and last of the Nobility employed by the Parliament in Military affairs which soon brought him to the period of his life and he may be an example to all future Ages to deter all persons of like dignity from being instrumental in setting up a Democratical power whose interest it is to keep down all persons of his condition Yet they did him all possible honour in his Funerals at the publick charge so acceptable is an opportune death In pursuance of the great design all the old Commanders were wormed out by little and little and none admitted to Commands but those persons who were known not only to be of an Antimonarchical spirit but purely disposed to the Armies interests which the Army found very useful afterwards when it began to contend with the House of Commons for the Sovereign power By this it may appear how supinely negligent the Parliament was in forbearing to mould the army with surer dependence upon it self which might have been effected in the nomination of Colonels and chief Officers at first if care had been taken for choice of many persons who were resolved to stand fall with their interest such as were Colonel Harley and Sir Robert Pye who forsook the army when it opposed it self to the Parliament and for want of associates could effect nothing but their own prejudice As soon as this new army began to move it was thought necessary by the House of Commons to send Cromwel to them who was there not only received but intrusted with command of all the cavalry by the title of Lieutenant General there being then no General of the horse This army had but ill success at first having laid siege to Oxford and failed when in the mean time the King with a brave army had taken Leicester town and struck a great terror into all the parts adjacent But all this was useful only to bring on a greater misfortune for General Fairefax drew his army that way and the opposing of his passage brought on that fatal battail of Naseby where there was so absolute a defeat of his Majesties forces as the after strivings were but as labouring for breath by a person not long before his decease After this Oxford was besieged again and yielded by treaty which was followed by a total dissolution of all his Majesties military power Yet the King assayed to engage a powerful army for him which was that of the Scots at Newark and that he might the more endear himself to these he put his Royal person wholly into their power At first the Scots carried themselves as if they intended to appear worthy of so great confidence for they presently marched Northwards The Parliament gave no time to consider but made a peremptory demand to have the King's person delivered to them and had the help of Themistocles his two great gods Vis Suada the terror of a victorious army ready to fall upon them in case of refusal and by way of perswasion a representation of their duty that army being then in the Parliaments pay and obliged to act only in their service to which with many other reasons was added a promise of their arrears by very ready payment The first of these was more likely to give offence than terror to so powerful a body and as to that pretended duty of the army it could not extend it self to the extinguishing of natural allegiance which is a duty personal But whatsoever arguments were used the Scots consented to deliver him and performed it to their eternal infamy which infamy is much encreased by a breach of trust for having received his Majesty they ought to have set him in a state of freedom as good as he had when he came and because the contracting for mony makes the business appear as a sale of their Soveraign Prince Soon after the King's forces were wholly dispersed the army being without imployment made business for it self by interposing in publick matters appertaining to the Government which was begun by a mutinous accusation of Mr. Hollis with other members to the number of eleven and a drawing up of the army Southwards whereupon the Parliament sent Commissioners to them to expostulate about their remove Southwards and to promise all reasonable satisfaction in general terms but nothing would serve without the exclusion of those Members from the House of Commons But I should have related how upon delivery of the King's person the Parliament placed him at Holdenby-house with a guard of Soldiers and a Committy of Lords and Commons to attend him and to order matters there for his security At this the army seemed to take offence disliking the choice of Commanders for his guard but surely their main intention was since now an opposition to the Parliament was designed to have the Royal person only in the power of the army and thereupon they sent a party to take him from Holdenby which was effected without the least opposition and so they held his Majesty with or near the army till being at Hampton Court the chief Officers grew jealous that his residence with the Soldiery might have an influence endangering the power of them the Commanders At this time Cromwel who was the chief manager of affairs in the army carried himself with such respect to his Majesty as his party grew highly jealous of him insomuch as John Lilborn the great Leveller offered a kind of 〈◊〉 against him at the bar in the House of Commons wherunto there was little car given by the house in general but those who abhorred all reconciliation with his Majesty remained unsatisfied and began to complain bitterly of him one to another as a person persidious but their fear was causless for he never intended to be an instrument of so much good to the nation and therefore his courtship must be thought to have had some other intention which may be guessed at by that which followeth While the army lay about Hampton Court the Houses were informed that the King had made an escape from thence and that the chief Commanders were very much distracted with the thought of it This was very well dissembled since it soon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the King had been perswaded to withdraw himself and was never fully out of power for being quickly seized upon again they placed him according to their hearts desire in the Isle of Wight where there could be no addresses made to him but by their permission Yet here the army was content the Parliament should have the honour that his Majesties perseemed to be in their custody for the guard and care of him was referred to a person nominated or at least approved of by them who was Colonel Hammond And now the English Nation though all too late was grown so generally sensible of their Prince his distressed estate