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-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
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-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
Earl of Manchester in his place of Major General being one of his own near relations The House of Commons was employed in providing money without which they could have no good effect of their armies Several ways were found but no one nor all of them together answerable to their occasions One was by Sequestration of Delinquents estates not excepting the King 's own revenue which last yielded the best supply being manag'd by a Committy of Parliament whereas they were inforced to use ravenous people in the Sequestration of private estates making a very slender account to the publick and converting most of the profits to their own use whereof the Parliament was not in condition to take much notice at that time Another way of raising mony there was by requiring a twentieth part of goods and a fifth part of every man's revenue This began upon persons disaffected to the Parliament but came at last to be a calling dance being made general and herein both parties did good service by giving complete information concerning one anothers estates But the last and surest was a monthly tax for the army which was the first of that kind and likeliest to continue in being And now the case is wholly altered for every demand must be answered there being armies on foot very well disposed to constrain payment in case of refusal About this time those persons who had been nominated Committies in each County for money matters held meetings in imitation of the Covenanters tables in Scotland and took upon them the decision of businesses relating to the County in general but especially as to the war which comprized the suppression of the Royallists and by this means they exercised an unlimited power being assured of Indemnity at Westminster for all things done in the way of advantage to their military affairs While the asperities of war lay thus frozen up in winter quarters it pleased his Majesty to send the Earl of South-hampton and Sir John Culpepper with a proposition for a treaty of peace and a considerable member of our House made this relation to me of Mr. Pims opinion concerning it This Gentleman said he met Mr. Pim going into the Committy of Safety and desiring a word with him asked if he knew the substance of Southhampton's message and what he thought of it Mr. Pim's answer was that he knew the particulars and praised God in his heart hoping that the issue of it would be happy for the Kingdome But it seems that being entred into the Committy his mind soon changed for the General with other Lords there were absolutely for the refusal of it which was the event of it also in Parliament and not without some harshness in the manner for South-hampton and Culpepper would have delivered their message in the respective Houses within the Bar as Members which was refused to them and so their message being made known and unanimously concluded unseasonable by reason of the Generals standing yet together with divers other eminent persons declared Traytor they both returned to Oxford This may appear strange since the General was conceived to wish and labour for peace which may the better be believed because after this time he sent a letter to the Parliament to express his sense of the Nations miserable condition under a war and to desire that there might be propositions of peace sent to his Majesty a fault never to be forgiven by the private Caballists which desire of restoring peace continued with him even to his end as was hinted in his funeral Sermon wherein he was compared to Abner who perished being in such a design but it is usual for such persons to dislike all pacification saving what is procured by themselves wherein their own interests are fully provided for and it is very likely that Essex would have had the business to pass chiefly through his own hands whereby we may see how far a poor Nation may suffer by the on of some principal persons But howsoever it was with others it is not to be doubted but some of the close Cabal rather than to yield to any pacification were disposed to make use of the pious intimation delivered by a Minister in a Fast Sermon preached before the House of Commons which was this That if they could not effect the desired reformation yet it would be in their power to break the pillars and as Sampson did to pull down the house over the heads of their enemies Yet for publick satisfaction the people being wearied with a war it was always in agitation to bring the business to a treaty though not without much jealousie on the Parliaments side which might be much encreased by a letter from a Lord at Oxford to a Commander in that army which became publick being intercepted and contained these words Do but cudgel them into a Treaty and we shall do well enough with them Before drawing the armies out in the year 1643. there had been a hopeful treaty of peace both parties having tendred propositions and Commissioners being sent to Oxford to treat but this was soon rendred fruitless by the Parliament who too far straightned the time of treaty and bound up their Commissioners by instructions obliging them in the first place to treat upon and conclude the proposition for disbanding of the armies which could not be consented to by his Majesty without assurance first had that the other most important articles would be agreed upon And so at this time the poor people were defeated of their hopes it being one of our Cabals greatest arts to give way to a treaty of peace for publick satisfaction and then to bring it to a rupture in some plausible way as here it was upon the article of disbanding which was a thing so much desired by the people This year 1643. businesses were transacted at Westminster with greater heighth than ever for the Queen being returned to the King's quarters with some assistance the House of Commons assumed the boldness to impeach her of high treason at the Lord's bar and about the same time both Houses voted a new great Seal to be made which is the instrument of Royal power far above all others and the doing of these two things could not but much exasperate his Majesty yet their military affairs were never less succesful for the West of England was wholly lost by defeat of the Earl of Stamford's army and Bristow forced by Prince Rupert In the Northern parts the Earl of Newcastle was prevalent almost wholly And certainly had the King instead of besieging Glocester marched to London and the Earl of Newcastle instead of besieging Hull forced his way into the Eastern association the war had come to a period but Divine Providence had designed a more gentle end and disposed the minds of the Northern and Western armies so as they would not forsake their own Countries till they saw them cleared from all opposition The Parliaments business being in this evil condition it was easily
judged fit to call in the Scots which matter being moved in the House of Commons and it being objected that it would be fruitless to call them without proposing to them at the same time something of great advantage by it there stood up presently that great Patriot Henry Martin and desired with much confidence that an offer might be made them of the Counties of Northumberland and Cumberland and in case they were not therewith contented to add two such other Counties in the North as should be most convenient for them So little care had he in that conjuncture of the honour and advantage of the English Nation This was justly thought extravagant yet that business of calling in the Scotts being communicated to the Lords there was a Committy of Lords and Commons nominated to go into Scotland and matters were so transacted with the Scots as they entred into England with an army the February following I should have related how in the former year after the King 's retiring from Parliament there was set up at Westminster an assembly of Divines being an Ecclesiastical body of strange constitution and composed of persons nominated by the Knights and Burgesses of each County to which were added a small number named by the Lords and some few Commissioners deputed by the Kirk of Scotland This assembly being so extraordinary in the constitution was certainly designed to produce great effects but the success was not answerable for they could never perfect their model of Church Government not well agreeing among themselves by reason of the Independent members who approved of no Church discipline other than Parochial and even that part of the model which was concluded upon with approbation of Parliament could never be put in execution the Presbyterian discipline being so strict as made it unpleasing to most of the people and especially to those of the Gentry who found themselves likely to be over-powered by the Clergy even in the places of their habitation But the Army after it became new modelled was wholly averse to it I conceive the intentions of calling an Assembly to have been these two First to have a Synod of Divines concurring in the subversion of the Bishops and their Hierarchy and in this the Parliament had their end fully for the matter very well pleased all such persons as were earnestly of their party And secondly to agree upon some uniformity in Divine Service which was the ground of their Directory but all Uniformity or colour of it was distasteful to the Independents which became the growing opinion and at last so over-spread the Army as the sight of a black-coat grew hateful to them and so the Directory fell to ground of it self These Assembly-men might well be discouraged since hopes were given at first that the Lands of Bishops and of Collegiate Churches should be setled in some way for the raising of all Parochial Churches a competency of means for the Ministers but the necessities belonging to War exposed these to sale and frustrated that hope I should have related how the House of Commons finding the Pulpits filled with persons disaffected to them made a breach upon the Lords in point of Judicature and erected a Committy called of plundered Ministers and by this Committy they ejected the old Ministers and placed new at pleasure but because the ejected had been possest of a Freehold the Committy ordered to his Wife and Children a fifth part of the profits if cause were not shewed to the contrary which must be this That the person displaced was otherwise possest of temporal means sufficient and to my observation there was scarcely any of the new-placed who did not dispute that provision at the Committy But it seems that this Committy could not dispatch that business fast enough for the Earl of Manchester was afterwards invested with a power by both Houses to do the same thing within his association as also to reform the University of Cambridge where he had the like arbitrary power of ejection But the Parliament had a way of cementing their fluctuating faction by religious bands of union which certainly they found very effectual though upon differing grounds or else they would never have had three of them in three or four years time which I think is not to be paralell'd in any other revolt The first of these was a protestation in the year 1641 which being before the War began took into it the defence of his Majesties Royal person Estate and Dignity The second was termed a Vow and Covenant set on foot in the year 1642 and this containeth no mention of the King but in the way of forcible opposition to him by prosecuting the War And the third was the Scottish-Covenant which again taketh in the defence of his Majesties Royal person but in so perplexed and complicated a way as it signified little And in this was also contained a total abrogation of the Government Ecclesiastical by Archbishops Bishops c. with the whole Hierarchy so as this Covenant may be said to have spoken perfect Scottish The taking of the first and last of these in their proper time was pressed upon the people in general with all terror and the Vow and Covenant which related much to a particular conspiracy only upon the Members of both Houses and certainly it was a very useful policy to engage the most considerable persons in these oaths and in other things rendring them odious to their Prince and exposing them to confiscation of their Estates upon conquest which could not but make them stick the more closely to common defence All the time of this Parliament it was the design of our Caballists to abate the power of the Lords House and in pursuance of that design at the very beginning in Straffords business they prevailed to have the Recusant Lords deprived of Voting there and afterwards they had not patience to stay till the Bishops were excluded by the Ordinance but took advantage of a protestation made by such Bishops as then sate in the House of Lords being about half their number and to my best remembrance thus it was Those Bishops having taken a resolution not to continue sitting long after his Majesties forsaking the Southern parts yet finding that there was an Ordinance coming for abolition of their Order which must pass the Lords House they used their endeavours to enervate that which might be done in their absence and upon that ground they entred a Protestation subscribed with their names against all such determinations to their prejudice This being become matter of record the House of Commons took notice of it and came up presently with an impeachment of those Bishops by name as guilty of a Praemunire in assuming to themselves a power to invalidate that which is otherwise the Law of the Land viz. the Jurisdiction of Parliament and upon this ground how justly I know not for the matter was never brought to Judgment those Bishops unhappily formed to themselves a
as it drew on a treaty at Caris-brook Castle in the Isle of Wight where the King had his forced residence called the personal treaty because none were admitted to be present at the debate but the King his self and the Commissioners of Parliament It is true that the King might retire at any time into another room to advise with Divines and others being persons of his own choice but they were not admitted to be present with him for assistance in the debate There were terms of very great disadvantage yet the King carried himself even to admiration of the Commissioners I remember that it hapned after the report had been made in the House of Commons as we passed through Westminster-hall that one of us was speaking of his Majesties great abilities in the hearing of one of our Grandees who turning his face to him who spake used these words perceive you take notice of the King 's great abilities and you may thence conclude with your self that you have the more cause to take heed of him which speech I could not but find very strange as if it were dangerous to a Nation to be governed by a Prince of parts extraordinary But this treaty had the like issue with others though the unsatisfactoriness of the King's concessions could not be voted in the House as it was then constituted which caused a new purgation of it by the army Before this personal treaty the Parliament for a long time was enforced to take for payment whatsoever reasons the army Officers were pleased to tender for their justification but in the year 1647. the army was grown to that insolence as the Presbiterian party in Parliament thought it unsufferable and thereupon they took heart and having made some resolute votes sent a Committy of both Houses to the City of London to ingage them in an opposition to the army together with the Parliament but there was then as great a Schisme or rent in the City as in the Parliament and the Borough of Southwork siding wholly with the army it was impossible for the City to stand out against it so as that ill grounded opposition fell wholly to ground and the Speakers of both Houses who easily foresaw the issue and together with many other Members had made an escape to the army returned triumphantly to Westminster and the army with much greater triumph marched in body quite through London and by means of this opposition became more eminently powerful than ever And thus the great City of London was made to stoop and it may be observed in this business taking it wholly from the beginning to its happy conclusion that all other persons and parties which had been much cryed up for eminent power were brought low as the great favorites in Church and State the Scottish armies the Houses of Parliament and the Royal Soveraign his self whom it pleased God to humble even unto violent death as it was with his and our Blessed Saviour And as for this triumphant army with its brave and politick Commanders Divine Providence reserved it and them to an utter dissolution as to that great power wherewith they so afflicted the world which came upon them at last though with leaden feet And to shew unto those insolent Commanders of the army the unstableness of their condition it pleased God before this personal treaty that there was a strong design laid to draw on a total change of affairs by insurrections in divers Counties and a fresh coming in of the Scots who now began to understand themselvs better Yet as is usual in matters wherein several and distant parties undertake together these could not hold time one with another so as some were overthrown before others appeared to stir But as preparatory to these troubles the Parliament by a just judgment of God as a return for their own miscarriage in the same kind was much disquieted with tumultuating Petitioners from Surrey Kent and other Counties who carried themselves with such violence as some of the Petitioners lost their lives by the guard which attended in the new Palace-yard the loss of these persons was so ill resented abroad as Kent suddenly arose in a great body for the King and had Essex held time with them it might have somewhat distracted the army but Essex men stayd till the Kentish strength was broken at Maidstone and then began to stir whereupon the remainder of Kentish men crossed the Thames and came into Essex where not being able to resist a complete army the whole party of both Counties was constrained to retire into Colchester town and was there besieged by General Fairesax and enforced to surrender for want of provisions About the same time the Earl of Holland made a party and took arms on the other side of London but finding no assistance from the Countrey he retired Northwards after some damage received and being pursued by forces sent by the army his party was routed at St. Neots in Huntington shire and he his self there taken prisoner Neither had the Scots under Duke Hamilton any better success for Cromwel having gathered together a competent force fell upon them in their quarters when they had scarcely heard of him and he cannot be said to have routed them for they were never suffered to gather themselves into a body so as all that great army fell to nothing without making the least opposition in any considerable number and in the pursuit the Duke their General was also taken prisoner Now the army having once more cleared the coast had good leisure to fall into mutiny again but it was against the Parliament and not against their Officers who made use of the common Soldiers to demand Justice as they called it against the King and for whatsoever else they the Officers had in their desires and for this they found out a new and unheard of way giving the Soldiers leave to chuse agitators being substitutes receiving denomination from agitating their businesses which then consisted only in medling with affairs concerning the publick These persons were busie-headed fellows pointed out by the Officers but elected by the Soldiery and held their assemblies wherein they questioned all parts of the Government and proposed what new models they thought fit This made the people in general almost mad fearing that all would fall into absolute confusion but the army Officers meant no such thing as parting at this time with their old Masters who had not yet done all their work and who would be governed as they knew by experience which perhaps a new and more numerous representive body would not have endured and therefore they resolved only upon the seclusion of all those Members whom they had found to be principled opposite to their interest and so having had good trial upon our great debate concerning the personal Treaty and time to make a Catalogue of such persons names as they intended to seclude during one days adjournment made by the House after having