X ^ o / OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES WITH ELUCIDATIONS BY THOMAS CARLYLE VOL. I. BOSTON ALDINE BOOK PUBLISHING CO. PUBLISHERS ft 15 I MO V.../-2 CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. CHAFTKR PAGE I. ANTI-DRYASDUST 3 II. OF THE BIOGRAPHIES OF OLIVER 13 III OF THE CROMWELL KINDRED 20 IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY 34 V. OF OLIVER'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 74 Part I. TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR, 1636-1642. LETTER I. To MR. STORIE 83 II. To MRS. ST. JOHN 91 Two YEARS 101 LETTER III. To MR. WILLINGUAM 104 In THE LONG PARLIAMENT 107 Part n. TO THE END OF THE FIKST CIVIL WAR, 1642-1646. PRELIMINARY 119 LITTER IV. To R. BARNARD, Es<^ 125 iv CONTENTS. PACK CAMBRIDGE ( 12? COM. CANT. ( " CAMBRIDGESHIRE, To WIT " ) 128 LETTER V. To SUFFOLK COMMITTEE 130 LOWESTOFF 131 LETTER VI. To THE MAYOR OF COLCHESTER . 136 VII. To SIR J. BURGOYNE 138 VIII. To R. BARNARD, ESQ 189 IX. To LINCOLN COMMITTEE 142 X. UNKNOWN: GRANTHAM ; . . 144 XI. To THE MAYOR OF COLCHESTER 146 XII. To CAMBRIDGE COMMISSIONERS 149 XIII. UNKNOWN 153 XIV. To CAMBRIDGE COMMISSIONERS 155 XV. To THE SAME 157 XVI. To SUFFOLK COMMITTEE 161 XVII. To O. ST. JOHN, ESQ 163 XVII I. To SUFFOLK COMMITTEE 165 WINCEBY FIGHT 170 LETTER XIX. To REV. MR. HITCH 174 XX, To MAJOR-GENERAL CRAWFORD 175 XXI. To COL. WALTON 181 XXII. To ELY COMMITTEE 185 XXIII. To COL. WALTON 187 THREE FRAGMENTS OF SPEECHES, SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE . . 188 LETTER XXIV. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 194 XXV. To COMMITTEE OF BOTH KINGDOMS .... 197 XXVJ. To GOVERNOR R. BURGESS 199 CONTENTS. v PAQK XXVII. To THE SAME 200 XX VIII. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 201 BY EXPRESS 203 LETTER XXIX. To HON. W. LENTHALL 205 XXX. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 211 XXXI. To HON. W. LENTIIALL 217 XXXII. To SIE T. FAIRFAX Ml .XXXI II. To HON. W. LENTUALL 225 XXXIV. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 231 XXXV. To HON. W. LENTHALL 232 $art III. HKTUKKN THE TWO CIVIL WARS. 1646-1648. LETTER XXXVI. To T. KNYVETT, ESQ 238 XXXVII. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 240 XXXVIII. To THE SAME . .' . 841 XXXIX. To J. ROSHWORTU, ESQ 244 XL. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 245 XLI. To MRS. IRETON ... 247 XLII. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 249 XLIII. To THE GAME 853 XUV. To THE SAME 254 AKMY MANIFESTO 250 LETTER XLV. To ARCHBISHOP OF YORK 273 XI. VI. To COL. JONES 270 XIA'lI. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 878 XI. VIII. To TIIK SAME gw vi CONTENTS PAGE XLIX. To HON. W. LENTHALL 282 L. To COL. WUALLEY ,284 LI. To DR. T. HILL 285 LII. To COL. HAMMOND 287 LIII. To COL. NORTON 290* LIV. To SIR T. FAIRFAX 294 FREE OFFER 295 LETTER LV. To COL. NORTON 296 LVI. To THE SAME 297 LVII. To COL. HAMMOND 300 LVIII. To COL. KENRICK 302 PRATER-MEETING 302 Part IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 1648. LETTER LIX. To HON. W. LENTHALL 312 LX. To MAJOR T. SAUNDERS 313 LXI. To LORD (LATE SIR THOMAS) FAIRFAX .... 316 LXII. To HON. W. LENTHALL 322 PRESTON BATTLE 323 LETTER LXIII. To LANCASHIRE COMMITTEE 327 LXIV. To HON. W. LENTHALL 329 LXV. To YORK COMMITTEE 343 LXVI. To THE SAME 344 LIVII. To OLIVER ST. JOHN 347 LIV1II. To LORD WHARTON 349 DECLARATION . 352 CONTENTS. vii PAGE LETTER LXIX. To LOKD FAIRFAX 354 LXX. To THE GOVERNOR OF BERWICK 355 LXXI. To LORD MARQUIS OF ARGYLK 356 LXX11. To SCOTS COMMITTEE OF ESTATES 358 LXXIU. To EARL OF LOUDON 360 PROCLAMATION 361 LETTER LXXIV. To SCOTS COMMITTEE OF ESTATES .... 365 LXXV. To HON. W. LENTHALL 367 LXXVI. To LORD FAIRFAX 370 LXXVII. To SCOTS COMMITTEE OF ESTATES .... 372 LXXVIII. To HON. W. LJSNTHALL 375 LXXIX. To THE SAME 376 LXXX. To GOVERNOR MORRIS 379 LXXXI. To DERBY HOUSE COMMITTEE 380 LXXXII. To JENNER AND ASUE 383 LXXX1II. To LORD FAIRFAX 387 LXXXIV. To THOMAS ST. NICHOLAS 389 LXXXV. To COL. ROBERT HAMMOND 390 LXX XVI. To MASTER AND FELLOWS OF TRINITY HALL, CAMBRIDGE 399 DKATH WARRANT 400 $art V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1649. LETTER LXXXV11. To REV. Miu ROBINSON 405 PAS 406 LKTTBR LXX XVIII. To HICIURU MAYOR ... 408 CONTENTS. PAGE ORDER 409 LETTER LXXXIX. To RICHARD MAYOR 411 XC. To THE SAME 412 XCI. To DR, LOVE 414 XC1I. To RICHARD MAYOR 416 XCIII. " " " , . 420 XC1V. " " " . . . 422 XCV. " " 423 XCVI. " " " . . ...... 424 THE LEVELLERS 426 LETTER XCVII. To SIR J. HARRINGTON 436 XCVIII. To HON W. LENTHALL 438 XCIX. To RICHARD MAYOR .440 C. To THE SAME 442 CI. To MRS. RICHARD CROMWELL 444 CII. To HON. W. LENTHALL 446 DECLARATION BY THE LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND . . . . 448 IRISH WAR 450 LETTER CHI. To THE CHIEF OFFICER IN DUNDALK .... 456 CIV. To PRESIDENT BRADSHAW 457 CV. To HON. W. LENTHALL 458 CVI. " " " " 465 CVII. " " " " 467 CVIII. To GOVERNOR TAAFF 479 CIX. " " " 481 CX. " " " 482 CXI. " " . 483 CONTENTS. ix PAQK CXII. To HON. W. LENTHALL 484 CX1II. To RICIIAED MAYOII 486 CXIV. To HON. TIIOMAS SCOTT 488 CXV. To HON. W. LENTUALL 489 CXVI. " " " " 495 CXVII. " " " " 600 CXVIU. To HON. LORD WIJABTOS . , . , , 505 OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES. WITH ELUCIDATIONS. VOL. XVIL OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. ANTI-DRYASDUST. WHAT and how great are the interests which connect them- selves with the hope that England may yet attain to some practical belief and understanding of its History during the Seventeenth Century, need not be insisted on at present ; such hope being still very distant, very uncertain. We have wan- dered far away from the ideas which guided us in that Century, and indeed which had guided us in all preceding Centuries, but of which that Century was the ultimate manifestation : we have wandered very far ; and must endeavor to return, and con- nect ourselves therewith again ! It is with other feelings than those of poor peddling Dilettantism, other aims than the writing of successful or unsuccessful Publications, that an earnest man ocr-upics himself in those dreary provinces of the dead and l)u rit-d. The last glimpse of the Godlike vanishing from this Kn;laud; conviction and veracity giving place to hollow cant and formulism antique " Reign of God," which all true men in their several dialects and modes have always striven for, giving place to modern Reign of the No-God, whom men name Devil: this, in its multitudinous meanings and results, is a sight to create reflections in the earnest man ! One wishes there were ;i History of English Puritanism, the last of all our Heroisms ,* s small prospect of such a thing at present. 4 INTRODUCTION. "Few nobler Heroisms/' says a well-known Writer long occupied on this subject, "at bottom perhaps no nobler Hero- ism ever transacted itself on this Eartli ; and it lies as good as lost to us ; overwhelmed under such an avalanche of Human Stupidities as no Heroism, before ever did. Intrinsically and extrinsically it may be considered inaccessible to these genera- tions. Intrinsically, the spiritual purport of it has become inconceivable, incredible to the modern mind. Extrinsically, the documents and records of it, scattered waste as a shore- less chaos, are not legible. They lie there, printed, written, to the extent of tons and square miles, as shot-rubbish ; un- edited, unsorted, not so much as indexed ; full of every con- ceivable confusion; yielding light to very few; yielding darkness, in several sorts, to very many. Dull Pedantry, conceited idle Dilettantism, prurient Stupidity in what shape soever, is darkness and not light ! There are from Thirty to Fifty Thousand unread Pamphlets of the Civil War in the British Museum alone : huge piles of mouldering wreck, wherein, at the rate of perhaps one pennyweight per ton, lie things memorable. They lie preserved there, waiting happier days; under present conditions they cannot, except for idle purposes, for dilettante excerpts and such like, be got exam- ined. The Kush worths, Whitlocks, Nalsons, Thurloes; enor- mous folios, these and many others have been printed, and some of them again printed, but never yet edited, edited as you edit wagon-loads of broken bricks and dry mortar, simply by tumbling up the wagon ! Not one of those monstrous old volumes has so much as an available Index. It is the general rule of editing on this matter. If your editor correct the press, it is an honorable distinction to him. "Those dreary old records, they were compiled at first by Human Insight, in part ; and in great part, by Human Stu- pidity withal ; but then it was by Stupidity in a laudable diligent state, and doing its best ; which was something : and, alas, they have been successively elaborated by Human Stupidity, in the idle state, falling idler and idler, and only pre- tending to be diligent; whereby now, for us, in these late days, they have grown very dim indeed ! To Dryasdust Print- PITAP. I. ANTI-DRYASDUST. 6 ing Societies, and such like, they afford a sorrowful kind of pabulum; but for all serious purposes, they are as if non- extant ; might as well, if matters are to rest as they are, not have been written or printed at all. The sound of them is not a voice, conveying knowledge or memorial of any earthly or heavenly thing ; it is a wide-spread inarticulate slumberous inumblement, issuing as if from the lake of Eternal Sleep. Craving for oblivion, for abolition and honest silence, as a blessing in comparison I "This then," continues our impatient friend, "is the Ely- sium we English have provided for our Heroes ! The Rush- wurthian Elysium. Dreariest continent of shot-rubbish the eye ever saw. Confusion piled on confusion to your utmost horizon's edge: obscure, in lurid twilight as of the shadow of Death ; trackless, without index, without finger-post, or mark of any human foregoer ; where your human footstep, if you are still human, echoes bodeful through the gaunt solitude, peopled only by somnambulant Pedants, Dilettants, and dole- ful creatures, by Phantasms, errors, inconceivabilities, by Night- mares, pasteboard Norroys, griffins, wiverns, and chimeras dire ! There, all vanquished, overwhelmed under such waste lumber-mountains, the wreck and dead ashes of some six un- believing generations, does the Age of Cromwell and his Puri- tans lie hidden from us. This is what we, for our share, have been able to accomplish towards keeping our Heroic Ones in memory. By way of sacred poet they have found voluminous 1 >i yasdust, and his Collections and Philosophical Histories. " To Dryasdust, who wishes merely to compile torpedo Ilis- s of the philosophical or other sorts, and gain immortal 1 iiiK-ls for himself by writing about it and about it, all this is sport ; but to us who struggle piously, passionately, to be- liold, if but in glimpses, the faces of our vanished Fathers, it itli! O Dryasdust, my voluminous friend, had Human Stupidity continued in tho diligent state, think you it had ever come to this ? Surely at least you might have made an Indi-x for those huge books ! Even your genius, had you Ix-i-n faithful, was adequate to that. Those thirty thousand or fifty nid old Nowspa|>ors and Pamphlets of the King's Library, 6 INTRODUCTION. it is you, my voluminous friend, that should have sifted them, many long years ago. Instead of droning out these melan- choly scepticisms, constitutional philosophies, torpedo narra- tives, you should have sifted those old stacks of pamphlet matter for us, and have had the metal grains lying here accessible, and the dross-heaps lying there avoidable ; you had done the human memory a service thereby ; some human remembrance of this matter had been more possible ! " Certainly this description does not want for emphasis : but all ingenuous inquirers into the Past will say there is too much truth in it. Nay, in addition to the sad state of our Historical Books, and what indeed is fundamentally the cause and origin of that, our common spiritual notions, if any notion of ours may still deserve to be called spiritual, are fatal to a right understanding of that Seventeenth Century. The Chris- tian Doctrines which then dwelt alive in every heart, have now in a manner died out of all hearts, very mournful to behold ; and are not the guidance of this world any more. Nay worse still, the Cant of them does yet dwell alive with us, little doubting that it is Cant ; in which fatal intermediate state the Eternal Sacredness of this Universe itself, of this Human Life itself, has fallen dark to the most of us, and we think that too a Cant and a Creed. Thus the old names suggest new tilings to us, not august and divine, but hypocritical, pitia- ble, detestable. The old names and similitudes of belief still circulate from tongue to tongue, though now in such a ghastly condition: not as commandments of the Living God, which we must do, or perish eternally ; alas, no, as something very different from that ! Here properly lies the grand unintelligi- bility of the Seventeenth Century for us. From this source has proceeded our maltreatment of it, our miseditings, mis- writings, and all the other "avalanche of Human Stupidity," wherewith, as our impatient friend complains, we have allowed it to be overwhelmed. We have allowed some other things to be overwhelmed ! Would to Heaven that were the worst fruit we had gathered from our Unbelief and our Cant of Belief! Our impatient friend continues : "I have known Nations altogether destitute of printer'^- CHAP. I. ANTI-DRYASDUST. 7 types and learned appliances, with nothing better than old songs, monumental stoneheaps and Quipo-thrums to keep record by, who had truer memory of their memorable things than this ! Truer memory, I say : for at least the voice of their Past Heroisms, if indistinct, and all awry as to dates and statistics, was still melodious to those Nations. The body of it might be dead enougli ; but the soul of it, partly harmon- ized, put in real accordance with the 'Eternal Melodies/ was alive to all hearts, and could not die. The memory of their ancient Brave Ones did not rise like a hideous huge leaden vapor, an amorphous emanation of Chaos, like a petrifying Medusa Spectre, on those poor Nations: no, but like a Heav- en's Apparition, which it was, it still stood radiant beneficent before all hearts, calling all hearts to emulate it, and the recog- nition of it was a Psalm and Song. These things will require to be practically meditated by and by. Is human Writing, then, the art of burying Heroisms and highest Facts in Chaos; so that no man shall henceforth contemplate them without horror and aversion, and danger of locked-jaw ? What does Dryasdust consider that he was born for ; that paper and ink were made for ? " It is very notable, and leads to endless reflections, how the Greeks hud their living Iliad, where we have such a deadly indescribable Cromwelliad. The old Pantheon, home of all the gods, has become a Peerage-Hook, with black and white surplice controversies superadded, not unsuitably. The Greeks had their Homers, Hesiods, where we have our Hymn , Kushworths, our Norroys, Garter-Kings, and Bishops Cobweb. Very notable, I say. By the genius, wants and instincts and opportunities of the one People, striving to keep themselves in mind of what was memorable, there had fashioned itself, in the effort of successive centuries, a Homer's Iliad: by those of the other People, in successive centuries, a Collins's Peeraya improved by Sir Egerton Brydges. By their Pantheons ye shall know them ! Have not we English a talent for Silence ? Our very Speech :md I'rinted-Speeeh, such a force of torpor dwelling in it, is properly a higher power of Silence. Then; is no Silence like the Speech you cannot listen to without 8 INTRODUCTION. danger of locked-jaw ! Given a divine Heroism, to smother it well in human Dulness, to touch it with the mace of Death, so that no human soul shall henceforth recognize it for a Heroism, but all souls shall fly from it as from a chaotic Torpor, an Insanity and Horror, I will back our English genius against the world in such a problem ! " Truly we have done great things in that sort ; down from Norman William all the way, and earlier : and to the English mind at this hour, the past History of England is little other than a dull dismal labyrinth, in which the English mind, if candid, will confess that it has found of knowable (meaning even conceivable), of lovable, or memorable, next to nothing. As if we had done no brave thing at all in this Earth; as if not Men but Nightmares had written of our History ! The English, one can discern withal, have been perhaps as brave a People as their neighbors ; perhaps, for Valor of Action and true hard labor in this Earth, since brave Peoples were first made in it, there has been none braver anywhere or anywhen : but, also, it must be owned, in Stupidity of Speech they iave no fellow ! What can poor English Heroisms do in such case, but fall torpid into the domain of the Nightmares ? For of a truth, Stupidity is strong, most strong. As the Poet Schiller sings : ' Against Stupidity the very gods fight unvic- torious.' There is in it an opulence of murky stagnancy, an inexhaustibility, a calm infinitude, which will baffle even the gods, which will say calmly, 'Yes, try all your lightnings here ; see whether my dark belly cannot hold them ! ' ' Mit der Dummheit kampfen Cotter selbst vergebens.' " Has our impatient friend forgotten that it is Destiny withal as well as " Stupidity ; " that such is the case more or less with Human History always ! By very nature it is a laby- rinth and chaos, this that we call Human History ; an abatis of trees and brushwood, a world-wide jungle, at once growing and dying. Under the green foliage and blossoming fruit- trees of To-day, there lie, rotting slower or faster, the forests of all other Years and Days. Some have rotted fast, plants of annual growth, and are long since quite gone to inorganic CH.U-. I. ANTI-DRYASDUST. 9 mould ; others arc like the aloe, growths that last a thousand or three thousand years. You will find them in all stages of decay and preservation ; down deep to the beginnings of the History of Man. Think where our Alphabetic Letters came From, where our Speech itself came from ; the Cookeries we live by, the Masonries we lodge under ! You will iiud fibrous roots of this day's Occurrences among the dust of Cadmus and Trismegistus, of Tubal-cain and Triptolomus ; the tap-roots of them are with Father Adam himself and the cinders of Eve's first fire! At bottom, there is no perfect History; there is none such conceivable. All past Centuries have rotted down, and gone confusedly dumb and quiet, even as that Seventeenth is now threatening. to do. Histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and is gifted with an eye and a soul! For the leafy blossoming Present Time springs from the whole Past, remembered and unreineinberable, so confusedly as we say: and truly the Art of History, the grand difference between a Dryasdust and a sacred Poet, is very much even this : To distinguish well what does still reach to the surface, and is alive and frondent jor us ; and what reaches no longer to the surface, but moul- ders safe under ground, never to send forth leaves or fruit for mankind any more : of the former we shall rejoice to hear ; to hear of the hitter will be an affliction to us; of the latter only I'edants and Dullards, and disastrous 7/ta/efactors to the world, v. ill find good to speak. By wise memory and by wise obliv- ion: it lies all there! Without oblivion, there is no remem- 1 nance possible. When both oblivion and memory are wise, when the general soul of man is clear, melodious, true, there may come a modern Iliad as memorial of the Past: when both :oolish, and the general soul is overclouded with confu- sions, with unveracities and discords, there is a " Rushworth- ian chaos." Let Dryasdust be blamed, beaten with stripes it you will; but let it !* with pity, with blame to Fate chiHly. Alas, when sacred Priests are arguing about "black and white surplices;" and sacred Poets have long professedly deserted Truth, and gone a wool-gathering after "Ideals" and such like, what. IMII you expect of pour .M-mlar Pedants? The labyrinth 10 INTRODUCTION. of History must grow ever darker, more intricate and dismal ; vacant cargoes of " Ideals " will arrive yearly, to be cast into the oven ; and noble Heroisms of Fact, given up to Dryasdust, will be buried in a very disastrous manner ! But the thing we had to say and repeat was this, That Puritanism is not of the Nineteenth Century, but of the Seventeenth ; that the grand unintelligibility for us lies there. The Fast-day Sermons of St. Margaret's Church Westminster, in spite of printers, are all grown dumb! In long rows of little dumpy quartos, gathered from the bookstalls, they in- deed stand here bodily before us : by human volition they can be read, but not by any human memory remembered. We forget them as soon as read ; they have become a weariness to the soul of man. They are dead and gone, they and what they shadowed ; the human soul, got into other latitudes, can- not now give harbor to them. Alas, and did not the honorable Houses of Parliament listen to them with rapt earnestness, as to an indisputable message from Heaven itself ? Learned and painful Dr. Owen, learned and painful Dr. Burgess ; Stephen Marshall, Mr. Spurstow, Adoniram Byfield, Hugh Peters, Philip Nye : the Printer has done for them what he could, and Mr. Speaker gave them the thanks of the House : and no most astonishing Review-Article, or tenth-edition Pam- phlet, of our day can have half such " brilliancy," such " spirit," " eloquence," such virtue to produce belief, which is the high- est and in reality the only literary success, as these poor little dumpy quartos once had. And behold, they are become inarticulate quartos ; spectral ; and instead of speaking, do but screech and gibber ! All Puritanism has grown inarticu- late ; its fervent preachings, prayings, pamphleteerings are sunk into one indiscriminate moaning hum, mournful as the voice of subterranean winds. So much falls silent: human Speech, unless by rare chance it touch on the " Eternal Melo- dies," and harmonize with them ; human Action, Interest, if divorced from the Eternal Melodies, sinks all silent. The fashion of this world passeth away. The Age of the Puritans is not extinct only and gone away from us, but it is as if fallen beyond the capabilities of CHAT. i. ANTI-DRYASDUST. 11 Memory herself ; it is grown unintelligible, what we may call incredible. Its earnest Purport awakens now no resonance in our frivolous hearts. We understand not even in imagina- tion, one of a thousand of us, what it ever could have meant. It seems delirious, delusive ; the sound of it has become tedious as a tale of past stupidities. Not the body of heroic Puritan- ism only, which was bound to die, but the soul of it also, which was and should have been, and yet shall be immortal, has for the present passed away. As Harrison said of his Banner, and Lion of the Tribe of Judali : " Who shall rouse him up ? " "l r or indisputably," exclaims the above-cited Author in his vehement way, " this too was a Heroism ; and the soul of it remains part of the eternal soul of things ! Here, of our own land and lineage, in practical English shape, were Heroes on the Earth once more. Who knew in every fibre, and with heroic daring laid to heart, That an Almighty Justice does verily rule this world ; that it is good to fight on God's side, and bad to fight on the Devil's side ! The essence of all Hero- isms and Veracities that have been, or that will be. Perhaps it was among the nobler and noblest Human Heroisms, this Puritanism of ours : but English Dryasdust could not discern it for a Heroism at all; as the Heaven's lightning, born of its black tempest, and destructive to pestilential Mud-giants, is mere horror and terror to the Pedant species everywhere ; which, like the owl in any sudden brightness, has to shut its eyes, or hastily procure smoked-spectacles on an improved principle. Heaven's brightness would be intolerable other- wise. Only your eagle dares look direct into the fire-radiance ; only your Schiller climbs aloft 'to discover whence the light- ning is coming.' 'Godlike men love lightning,' says one. ( >ur old Norse fathers called it a God ; the sunny blue-eyed Thor, with his all-conquering thunder-hammer, who again, in calmer season, is beneficent Summer-heat. Godless men it not ; shriek murder when they see it ; shutting their > eyes, and hastily procuring smoked-spectacles. O Dryasdust, thou art great and thrice-great ! " 1 P>ut, alas," exclaims he elsewhere, getting his eye on tho real nodus of tho matter, " what is it, all this Kushworthian V 12 INTRODUCTION. inarticulate rubbish-continent, in its ghastly dim twilight, with its haggard wrecks and pale shadows ; what is it, but the com- mon Kingdom of Death ? This is what we call Death, this mouldering dumb wilderness of things once alive. Behold here the final evanescence of Formed human things ; they had form, but they are changing into sheer formlessness ; ancient human speech itself has sunk into unintelligible maundering. This is the collapse, the etiolation of human features into mouldy blank ; dissolution ; progress towards utter silence and disappearance ; disastrous ever-deepening Dusk of Gods and Men ! Why has the living ventured thither, down from the cheerful light, across the Lethe-swamps and Tartarean Phlegethons, onwards to these baleful halls of Dis and the three-headed Dog ? Some Destiny drives him. It is his sins, I suppose : perhaps it is his love, strong as that of Orpheus for the lost Eurydice, and likely to have no better issue ! " Well, it would seem the resuscitation of a Heroism from tne Past Time is no easy enterprise. Our impatient friend seems really getting sad ! We can well believe him, there needs pious love in any " Orpheus " that will risk descending to the Gloomy Halls ; descending, it may be, and fronting Cerberus and Dis, to no purpose ! For it oftenest proves so ; nay, as the Mythologists would teach us, always. Here is another My thus. Balder the white Sungod, say our Norse Skalds, Balder, beautiful as the summer-dawn, loved of Gods and ]ju'n, was dead. His Brother Herrnoder, urged by his Mother's tears and the tears of the Universe, went forth to seek him. He rode through gloomy winding valleys, of a dismal leaden color, full of howling winds and subterranean torrents ; nine days ; ever deeper, down towards Hela's Death-realm : at Lone- some Bridge, which, with its gold gate, spans the River of Moaning, he found the Portress, an ancient woman, called Modgudr, " the Vexer of Minds," keeping watch as usual : Modgudr answered him, " Yes, Balder passed this way ; but he is not here ; he is down yonder, far, still far to the North, within Hela's Gates yonder." Hermoder rode on, still daunt- less, on his horse, named " Swiftness " or " Mane of Gold ; " CHAP. II. r.HMjUAmiES OF OLIVER. 13 reached Hela's Gates ; leapt sheer over them, mounted as he was; suit- I Wilder, the very Balder, with his eyes: but could not bring him back ! The Nornas were inexorable ; Balder was never to come back. Balder beckoned him mournfully a still adieu ; Nanna, Baldens Wife, sent " a thimble " to her mother as a memorial : Balder never could return ! Is not this an emblem ? Old Portress Modgudr, I take it, is Dryas- dust in Norse petticoat and hood ; a most unlovely beldame, the "Vexer of Minds"! We will here take final leave of our impatient friend, occu- pied in this almost desperate enterprise of his ; we will wish him, which it is very easy to do, more patience, and better suo- ihan he seems to hope. And now to our own small enter- prise, and solid despatch of business in plain prose 1 CHAPTER II. OF THE BIOGRAPHIES OF OLIVER. OURS is a very small enterprise, but seemingly a useful one ; tratory perhaps to greater and more useful, on this same matter : The collecting of the Letters and Speeches of Oliver ( 'nnnwelly and presenting them in natural sequence, with the still possible elucidation, to ingenuous readers. This is a thing that can be done ; and after some reflection, it has appeared worth doing. No great thing : one other dull Book added to the thousand, dull every one of them, which have been issued on this subject! But situated as we are, new Dulness is unhappily inevitable ; readers do not reascend out of deep con fusions without some trouble as they climb. These authentic utterances of the man Oliver himself I jrithered them from far and near; fished them up from >ul Lethean qna-niires where they lay buried ; I have i endeavored to wash them clean from foreign stu- pidities i sueh a job of buckwashing as I do not long to repeat) ; :ui.l ' shall now se.e, them in their own shape. Work- 14 INTRODUCTION. ing for long years in those unspeakable Historic Provinces, of which the reader has already had account, it becomes more and more apparent to one, That this man Oliver Cromwell was, as the popular fancy represents him, the soul of the Puritan Revolt without whom it had never been a revolt transcend- ently memorable, and an Epoch in the World's History ; that in fact he, more than is common in such cases, does deserve to give his name to the Period in question, and have the Puritan llevolt considered as a Cromwelliad, which issue is already very visible for it. And then farther, altogether contrary to the popular fancy, it becomes apparent that this Oliver was not a man of falsehoods, but a man of truths ; whose words do carry a meaning with them, and above all others of that time are worth considering. His words and still more his silences, and unconscious instincts, when you have spelt and lovingly deciphered these also out of his words will in several ways reward the study of an earnest man. An earnest man, I ap- prehend, may gather from these words of Oliver's, were there even no other evidence, that the character of Oliver, and of the Affairs he worked in, is much the reverse of that mad jum- ble of " hypocrisies," &c. &c., which at present passes current as such. But certainly, on any hypothesis as to that, such a set of Documents may hope to be elucidative in. various respects. Oliver's Character, and that of Oliver's Performance in this world : here best of all may we expect to read it, whatsoever it was. Even if false, these words, authentically spoken and written by the chief actor in the business, must be of prime moment for understanding of it. These are the words this man found suitablest to represent the Things themselves, around him, and in him, of which we seek a History. The new-born Things and Events, as they bodied themselves forth to Oliver Cromwell from the Whirlwind of the passing Time, this is the name and definition he saw good to give of them. To get at these direct utterances of his, is to get at the very heart of the business ; were there once light for us in these, the business had begun again at the heart of it to be luminous ! On the whole, we will start with this small service, the Letters CHAP II. BIOGRAPHIES OF OLIVER. 15 and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell washed into something of legibility again, as the preliminary of alL May it prosper with a few serious readers ! The heart of that Grand Puritan Business once again becoming visible, even in faint twilight, to mankind, what masses of brutish darkness will gradually vanish from all fibres of it, from the whole body and environ- ment of it, and trouble no man any more ! Masses of foul darkness, sordid confusions not a few, as I calculate, which now bury this matter very deep, may vanish : the heart of this matter and the heart of serious men once again brought into approximation, to write some " History " of it may be a little easier, for my impatient friend or another. To dwell on or criticise the particular Biographies of Crom- well, after what was so emphatically said above on the general subject, would profit us but little. Criticism of these poor Books cannot express itself except in language that is painful. They far surpass in "stupidity " all the celebrations any Hero ever had in this world before. They are in fact worthy of oblivion, of charitable Christian burial. Mark Noble reckons up some half-dozen "Original Biogra- phies of Cromwell ; " 1 all of which and some more I have ex- amined ; but cannot advise any other man to examine. There am several laudatory, worth nothing ; which ceased to be read when Charles II. came back, and the tables were turned. The vituperative are many : but the origin of them all, the chief fountain indeed of all the foolish lies that have circulated about < 'liver since, is the mournful brown little Book called Flugel- />/,. or the Life and Death of 0. Cromwell, the late Usurper, by .In IMPS Heath ; which was got ready so soon as possible on the K-u-k of tli" Annus Mirabilis or Glorious Restoration,' and is written in such spirit as we may fancy. When restored poten- tates and high dignitaries had dug up "above a hundred buried PS, and flung them in a heap in St. Margaret's Church- :." the corpse of Admiral Blake among them, and Oliver's rrmnwell, i. 294-300. His list is very inaccurate and incomplete, luit in.t worth completing or rectifying. * The First Ivlitiou aeeins to be of 10 INTRODUCTION. old Mother's corpse ; and were hanging on Tyburn gallows, as some small satisfaction to themselves, the dead clay of Oliver, of Ireton, and Bradshaw ; when high dignitaries and poten- tates were in such a humor, what could be expected of poor pamphleteers and garreteers ? Heath's poor little brown lying Flagellum is described by one of the moderns as a " Flagi- tium ; " and Heath himself is called " Carrion Heath," as being " an unfortunate blasphemous dullard, and scandal to Humanity ; blasphemous, I say ; who when the image of God is shining through a man, reckons it in his sordid soul to be the image of the Devil, and acts accordingly ; who in fact has no soul, except what saves him the expense of salt ; who intrinsically is Carrion and not Humanity : " which seems hard measure to poor James Heath. "He was the son of the King's Cutler," says Wood, " and wrote pamphlets," the best he was able, poor man. He has become a dreadfully dull indi- vidual, in addition to all ! Another wretched old Book of his, called Chronicle of the Civil Wars, bears a high price in the Dilettante Sale-catalogues ; and has, as that Flagellum too has, here and there a credible trait not met with elsewhere : but in fact, to the ingenuous inquirer, this too is little other than a tenebrific Book ; cannot be read except with sorrow, with torpor and disgust, and in fine, if you be of healthy memory, with oblivion. The latter end of Heath has been worse than the beginning was ! From him, and his Flagellums and scandalous Human Platitudes, let no rational soul seek knowledge. Among modern Biographies, the great original is that of Mark Noble above cited ; a such " original " as there is : a Book, if we must call it a Book, abounding in facts and pretended facts more than any other on this subject. Poor Noble has gone into much research of old leases, marriage-contracts, deeds of sale and such like : he is learned in parish-registers and genealogies, has consulted pedigrees "measuring eight feet by two feet four ; " goes much upon heraldry ; in fact, has amassed a large heap of evidences and assertions, worthless and of worth, respecting Cromwell and his Connections ; from 1 Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell, by the Rev. Mark Noble. 2 vols. London, 1787. CHAP. n. BIOGRAPHIES OF OLIVER. 17 which the reader, by his own judgment, is to extract what he oan. For Noble himself is a man of extreme imbecility ; his judgment, for most part, seeming to lie dead asleep ; and indeed it is worth little when broadest awake. He falls into manifold mistakes, commits and omits in all ways ; plods along contented, in an element of perennial dimness, purblindness ; has occasionally a helpless broad innocence of platitude which is almost interesting. A man indeed of extreme imbecility ; to whom nevertheless let due gratitude be borne. His Book, in fact, is not properly a Book, but rather an Aggregate of bewildered jottings ; a kind of Croinwellian Bio- graphical Dictionary, wanting the alphabetical, or any other, arrangement or index : which latter want, much more remedi- able than the want of judgment, is itself a great sorrow to the reader. Such as it is, this same Dictionary without judgment and without arrangement, " bad Dictionary gone to pie," as we may call it, is the storehouse from which subsequent Biogra- phies have all furnished themselves. The reader, with con- tinual vigilance of suspicion, once knowing what man he has to do with, digs through it, and again through it ; covers the margins of it with notes and contradictions, with references, Deductions, rectifications, execrations, in a sorrowful, but not "iitirely unprofitable manner. Another Book of Noble's, called - of the licyicides, written some years afterwards, during French Jacobin time, is of much more stupid character ; nearly meaningless indeed ; mere water bewitched ; which no man need buy or read. And it is said he has a third Book, on some other subject, stupider still ; which latter point, however, may be considered questionable. For the rest, this poor Noble is of very impartial mind re- ing Cromwell ; open to receive good of him, and to receive evil, even inconsistent evil : the helpless, incoherent, but placid and favorable notion he has of Cromwell in 1787 contrasts notably with that which Carrion Heath had gathered of him in 1663. For, in spite of the stupor of Histories, it is beautiful, once more, to see how the Memory of Cromwell, in its huge inarticulate si niitiram-e, not able to speak a wise word for itself to any one, has nevertheless been steadily growing clearer and 18 INTRODUCTION. clearer in the popular English mind ; how from the day when high dignitaries and pamphleteers of the Carrion species did their ever-memorable feat at Tyburu, onwards to this day, the progress does not stop. In 1698, 1 one of the earliest words expressly in favor of Cromwell was written by a Critic of Ludlow's Memoirs. The anon} r mous Critic explains to solid Ludlow that he, in that solid but somewhat wooden head of his, had not perhaps seen entirely into the centre of the Universe, and workshop of the Destinies ; that, in fact, Oliver was a questionable uncommon man, and he Ludlow a common handfast, honest, dull and in- deed partly wooden man, in whom it might be wise to form no theory at all of Cromwell. By and by, a certain " Mr. Banks," a kind of Lawyer and Playwright, if I mistake not, produced a still more favorable view of Cromwell, but in a work otherwise of no moment ; the exact date, and indeed the whole substance of which is hardly worth remembering. 2 The Letter of " John Maidston to Governor Winthrop " Winthrop Governor of Connecticut, a Suffolk man, of much American celebrity is dated 1659 ; but did not come into print till 1742, along with Thurloe's other Papers. 8 Maidston had been an Officer in Oliver's Household, a Member of his Parliaments, and knew him well. An Essex man he ; probably an old acquaintance of Winthrop's ; visibly a man of honest affections, of piety, decorum and good sense. Whose loyalty to Oliver is of a genuine and altogether manful nature, mostly silent, as we can discern. His Letter gives some really lucid traits of those dark things and times ; especially a short por- traiture of the Protector himself, which, the more you know him, you ascertain the more to be a likeness. Another Officer of Oliver's Household, not to be confounded with this Maid- ston, but a man of similar position and similar moral character to Maidston's ; a " Groom of the Bedchamber," whose name one 1 So dated in Somers Tracts (London, 1811), vi. 416, but liable to correc- tion if needful. Poor Noble (i. 297) gives the same date, and then placidly, in the next line, subjoins a fact inconsistent with it. As his manner is ! 2 Short Critical Review of the Life of Oliver Cromwell, by a Gentleman of the Middle Temple. London, 1739. 8 Thurloe, i. 763-768 ; and correct Noble, i. 94. CHAP. n. BIOGRAPHIES OF OLIVER. 19 at length dimly discovers to be Harvey, 1 not quite unknown otherwise ; is also well worth listening to on this matter. He, in 1659, a few months before Maidston wrote, had published a credible and still interesting little Pamphlet, Passages con- cerning his late Highnesses last Sickness ; to which, if space permit, we shall elsewhere refer. In these two little off-hand bits of writing, by two persons qualified to write and witness, there is a clear credibility for the reader ; and more insight obtainable as to Oliver and his ways than in any of the express Biographies. That anonymous Life of Cromwell, which Noble very igno- rantly ascribes to Bishop Gibson, which is written in a neutral spirit, as an impartial statement of facts, but not without a secret decided leaning to Cromwell, came out in 1724. It is the Life of Cromwell found commonly in Libraries : a it went through several editions in a pure state ; and I have seen a "fifth edition" with foreign intermixtures, "printed at Bir- mingham in 1778," on gray paper, seemingly as a Book for Hawkers. The Author of it was by no means " Bishop Gibson," 1 ut one Kirnber, a Dissenting Minister of London, known other- wise as a compiler of books. He has diligently gathered from old Newspapers and other such sources ; narrates in a dull, steady, concise, but altogether unintelligent manner ; can be read without offence, but hardly with any real instruction. Image of Cromwell's self there is none, express or implied, in this Book ; for the man himself had none, and did not feel the want of any : nay in regard to external facts also, there are inaccuracies enough, here too, what is the general rule in these books, you can find as many inaccuracies as you like : dig where you please, water will come ! As a crown to all the modern Biographies of Cromwell, let us note Mr. Forster's late one : * full of interesting original excerpts, and indications of 1 Th "Cofferer," elsewhere called Steward of the Household, la "Mr. M:\ii|*ton : " "Gentlemen of the Bedchamber, Mr. Charles Harvey, Mr. Under- wood." Prestwick's Funeral of the Protector (reprinted in Forster's Briti$h Stiitetmen, v. 436, 4c.). 1 The Life of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwralth ; impartially collected c. London, 1724. Ditiugiiished also by a not intolerable Portrait. -tinmen of the Commonwealth, by John Former (London, 1840), volx iv. and v 20 INTRODUCTION. what is notablest in the old Books ; gathered and set forth with real merit, with energy in abundance and superabundance; amounting in result, we may say, to a vigorous decisive tearing- up of all the old hypotheses on the subject, and an opening of the general mind for new. Of Cromwell's actual biography, from these and from all Books and sources, there is extremely little to be knoAvn. It is from his own words, as I have ventured to believe, from his own Letters and Speeches well read, that the world may first obtain some dim glimpse of the actual Cromwell, and see him darkly face to face. What little is otherwise ascertainable, cleared from the circumambient inanity and insanity, may be stated in brief compass. So much as precedes the earliest still extant Letters, I subjoin here in the form most convenient. CHAPTER III. />F THE CROMWELL KINDRED. OLIVER CROMWELL, afterwards Protector of the Common- wealth of England, was born at Huntingdon, in St. John's Parish there, on the 25th of April, 1599. Christened on the 29th of the same month ; as the old Parish-registers of that Church still legibly testify. 1 His Father was Eobert Cromwell, younger son of Sir Henry Cromwell, and younger brother of Sir Oliver Cromwell, Knights both ; who dwelt successively, in rather sumptuous fashion, at the Mansion of Hinchinbrook hard by. His Mother was Eliza- beth Steward, daughter of William Steward, Esquire, in Ely ; an opulent man, a kind of hereditary Farmer of the Cathedral Tithes and Church lands round that city ; in which capacity his son, Sir Thomas Steward, Knight, in due time succeeded him, resident also at Ely. Elizabeth was a young widow when Kobert Cromwell married her : the first marriage, to one " Wil- liam Lynne, Esquire, of Bassingbourne in Cambridgeshire," 1 Noble, i. 92. CHAP. III. THE CROMWELL KINDRED. 21 had lasted but a year : husband and only child are buried in Ely Cathedral, where their monument still stands; the date of their deaths, which followed near on one another, is 1589. 1 The exact date of the young widow's marriage to Robert Crom- well is nowhere given ; but seems to have been in 1591.* Our Oliver was their fifth child; their second boy; but the first soon died. They had ten children in all ; of whom seven came to maturity, and Oliver was their only son. I may as well print the little Note, smelted long ago out of huge dross-heaps in Noble's Book, that the reader too may have his small benefit of it 8 This Elizabeth Steward, who had now become Mrs. Robert Cromwell, was, say the genealogists, "indubitably descended from the Royal Stuart Family of Scotland ; " and could still f-ount kindred with them. " From one Walter Steward, who had accompanied Prince James of Scotland," when our inhos- pitable politic Henry IV. detained the poor Prince, driven in 1 Noble, ii. 198, and MS. penes me. * Ibid. i. 88. * OLIVER CROMWELL'S BROTHERS AND SISTERS. Oliver's Mother had been a widow (Mrs. Lynne of Bassingbourne) before marrying Robert Cromwell; neither her age nor his is discoverable here. 1. First child (seemingly), Joan, baptized 24th September, 1592; ahe died in 1600 (Noble, i. 88). 2. Elizabeth, 14th October, 1593 ; died unmarried, thinks Noble, in 1672, at I'lv _ gee Appendix, No. 23, a Letter in regard to her, which has turned up. ( \:*e of 1857.) 3 Henry, 31st August, 1595; died young, "before 1617." 4 Catherine, 7th February, 1596-7; married to Whitstooe, a Parlia- mentary Officer; then to Colonel Jones. r>. OIIVKR, born 25th April, 1599. 6. Margaret, 22d February, 1600-1 ; she became Mrs. Wanton, or Walton, Huntingdonshire ; her son was killed at Marston Moor, as we shall see. 7 Anna, 2d January. 1602-3; Mrs. Sewster, Huntingdonshire; died l-t November, 1646: her Brother Oliver had just ended the "first Civil \Vrr " thon. a Jane, 19th January, 16O5-6; Mrs. Desborow, Cambridgeshire ; died, ttrmin\>-~ " "f God's Justice vindicating ii< If 36 INTRODUCTION. again : he learned, to appearance moderately well, what the sons of other gentlemen were taught in such places ; went through the universal destinies which conduct all men from childhood to youth, in a way not particularized in any one point by an authentic record. Readers of lively imagination can follow him on his bird-nesting expeditions, to the top of " Barnabee's big Tree," and else-whither, if they choose j on his fen-fowling expeditions, social sports and labors manifold ; vacation-visits to his Uncles, to Aunt Hampden and Cousin John among others : all these things must have been ; but how they specially were is forever hidden from all men. He had kindred of the sort above specified ; parents of the sort above specified, rigorous yet affectionate persons, and very religious, as all rational persons then were. He had two sisters elder, and gradually four younger; the only boy among seven. Readers must fancy his growth there, in the North end of Huntingdon, in the beginning of the Seventeenth Century, as they can. In January, 1603-4, 1 was held at Hampton Court a kind of openly on Violators of God's Law, that is the purport of the Book) : Lon- don, 1631. A kindly ingenious little Book; still partly readable, almost lovable ; some thin but real vein of perennial ingenuity and goodness recog- nizable in it. What one might call a Set of " Percy- Anecdotes ; " but Anec- dotes authentic, solemnly select, and with a purpose : " Percy- Anecdotes " for a more earnest Century than ours ! Dedicated to the Mayor and Burgesses of Huntingdon, for sundry good reasons ; among others, " because, Mr. Mayor, you were my scholar, and brought up in my house." 1 Here, more fitly perhaps than afterwards, it may be brought to mind, that the English year in those times did not begin till March ; that New- Year's Day was the 25th of March. So in England, at that time, in all records, writings and books; as indeed in official records it continued so till 1752. In Scotland it was already not so ; the year began with January there ever siuce 1 COO ; as in all Catholic countries it had done ever since the Papal alteration of the Stylt; in 1532 ; an 7 as in most Protestant countries, excepting England, it soon after that began to do. Scotland in respect of the day of the month still followed the Old Style. "New- Year's Day the 25th of March : " this is the whole compass of the fact ; with which a reader in those old books has, not without more difficulty than he expects, to familiarize himself. It has occasioned more misdatings and consequent confusions to modern editorial persons than any other as simple circumstance. So learned a man as Whitaker Historian of WhaHey, CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 37 Theological Convention, of intense interest all over England, and doubtless at Huntingdon too ; now very dimly known, if at all known, as the " Hampton-Court Conference." It was a meeting for the settlement of some dissentient humors in religion. The Millennary Petition, what we should now call the " Monster Petition," for the like in number of signatures was never seen before, signed by near a thousand Clergy- men, of pious straitened consciences : this and various other Petitions to his Majesty, by persons of pious straitened con- sciences, had been presented ; craving relief in some cere- monial points, which, as they found no warrant for them in the Bible, they suspected (with a very natural shudder in that case) to savor of Idol-worship and Mimetic Dramaturgy, instead of God-worship, and to be very dangerous indeed for a man to have concern with ! Hampton-Court Conference was accord- ingly summoned. Four world-famous Doctors, from Oxford and Cambridge, represented the pious straitened class, now 1 Binning to be generally conspicuous under the nickname I'uritiDis. The Archbishop, the Bishop of London, also world- famous men, with a considerable reserve of other bishops, deans and dignitaries, appeared for the Church by itself Church. Lord Chancellor, the renowned Egerton, and the highest offi- cial i>ersons, many lords and courtiers with a tincture of sacred science, in fact the flower of England, appeared as witnesses ; with breathless interest. The King himself presided; having real gifts of speech, and being very learned in Theology, which it was not then ridiculous but glorious for him to be. filling Sir George Raddiffe't Corm/xwufcnce (London, 1810), with the lofty air which sita well on him on other occasions, has altogether forgotten the above small circumstance : in consequence of which we have Oxford Carriers dying in January, or the first half of March, ami to our great amazement going on t.. forward hutter-boxes in the May following; and similar miracles not a few occurring : ami b short the whole CormpOftdMm in jumlilt-d to pieces; :i dm- Lit of topsy-turvy being introduced into the Spring of every year; and the learned F.ditor ."its, with IMH lofty air. presiding over more ChaoH come I ! In the text here, we of course translate into the modern year, hut leaving the day of the month as we find it ; and if for greater assurance both f..rn.- he written down, as for instance 1603-4, the la*t figure in always the modern one; 100.1-4 means 1604 for our calendar. 38 INTRODUCTION. More glorious than the monarchy of what we now call Litera- ture would be ; glorious as the faculty of a Goethe holding visibly of Heaven: supreme skill in Theology then' meant that. To know God, cos, the Maker, to know the Divine Laws and inner Harmonies of this Universe, vmist always be the highest glory for a man ! And not to know them, always the highest disgrace for a man, however common it be ! Awful devout Puritanism, decent dignified Ceremonialism (both always of high moment in this world, but not of equally high), appeared here facing one another for the first time. The demands of the Puritans seem to modern minds very limited indeed : That there should be a new correct Trans- lation of the Bible (granted?), and increased zeal in teaching (omitted); That "lay inipropriations " (tithes snatched from the old Church by laymen) might be made to yield a "seventh part" of their amount, towards maintaining ministers in dark regions which had none (refused) ; That the Clergy in districts might be allowed to meet together, and strengthen one an- other's hands as in old times (refused with indignation) ; on the whole (if such a thing durst be hinted at, for the tone is almost inaudibly low and humble), That pious straitened Preachers, in terror of offending God by Idolatry, and useful to human souls, might not be cast out of their parishes for genuflexions, white surplices and such like, but allowed some Christian libert} r in mere external things : these were the claims of the Puritans ; but his Majesty eloquently scouted them to the winds, applauded by all bishops, and dignitaries lay and clerical ; said, If the Puritans would not conform, he would " hurry them out of the country ; " and so sent Puritanism and the Four Doctors home again, cowed into* silence for the present. This was in January, 1604. 1 News of this, speech enough about it, could not fail in Robert Cromwell's house among others. Oliver is in his fifth year, always a year older than the Century. In November, 1605, there likewise came to Robert Crom- well's house, no question of it, news of the thrice unutter- able Gunpowder Plot. Whereby King, Parliament, and God's 1 Neal's History of the Puritans (London, 1754), i. 411. CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 89 Gospel in England, were to have been, in one infernal moment, blown aloft; and the Devil's Gospel, and accursed incredi- bilities, idolatries, and poisonous confusions of the Romish Babylon, substituted in their room ! The eternal Truth of the Living God to become an empty formula, a shamming grimace o[ the Three-hatted Chimera ! These things did fill Huntingdon and Robert Cromwell's house with talk enough, in the winter of Oliver's sixth year. And again, in the summer of his eleventh year, in May, 1610, there doubtless failed not news ami talk, How the Great Henry was stabbed in Paris streets; assassinated by the Jesuits j black sons of the scarlet woman, murderous to soul and to body. Other things, in other years, the diligent Historical Student will supply according to faculty. The History of Europe, at that epoch, meant essentially the struggle of Protestantism against Catholicism, a broader form of that same struggle, of devout Puritanism against dignified Ceremonialism, which forms the History of England then. Henry the Fourth of France, so long as he lived, was still to be regarded as the head of Protestantism ; Spain, bound up with the Austrian Empire, as that of Catholicism. Henry's " Grand Scheme " naturally strove to carry Protestant England along with it ; James, till Henry's death, held on, in a loose way, by Henry ; and his Political History, so far as he has any, may be consid- ered to lie there. After Henry's death, he fell off to " Span- ish Infantas," to Spanish interests ; and, as it were, ceased to have any History, nay began to have a negative one. Among the events which Historical Students will supply for Robert Cromwell's house, and the spiritual pabulum of young Oliver, the Death of Prince Henry in 1612, 1 and the lective accession of Prince Charles, fitter for a ceremo- nial Archbishop than a governing King, as some thought, will not be forgotten. Then how the Elector Palatine was married ; and troubles began to brew in Germany ; and little I>r. Laud was maoV Archdeacon of Huntingdon; such news the Historical Student can supply. And on the whole, all students and persons can know always thut Oliver's mind was 1 6th Nov. (Caiiideu'B Annals). 40 INTRODUCTION. kept full of news, and never wanted for pabulum ! But from the day of his Birth, which is jotted down, as above, in the Parish-register of St. John's Huntingdon, there is no other authentic jotting or direct record concerning Oliver himself to be met with anywhere, till in the Admission-Book of Sidney- Sussex College, Cambridge, we come to this, 1 1616. " A Festo Annunciationis ad Festum Sancti Michaelis Arch- angeli, 1616 : " such (meaning merely, From New-year s-day, or 25th March, to 29th September) is the general Heading of the List of Scholars, or Admissi, for that Term; and first in order there stands, " Oliveritis Cromwell Huntingdoniensis ad- missus ad commeatum Sociorum, Aprilis vicesimo tertio ; Tutore Magistro Ricardo Howlet:" Oliver Cromwell from Hunting- don admitted Fellow Commoner, 23d April, 1616 ; Tutor Mr. Richard Howlet. Between which and the next Entry some zealous individual of later date has crowded in these lines : " Hie fuit grandis ille Impostor, Carnifex perditissimiis, qui pientissimo Rege Carolo Primo nefarid ccede sublato, ipsum usurjtavit Thronum, et Tria Regna per quinque ferme annorum spatium, sttb Protectoris nomine, indomitd tyrannide vexavit." Had the zealous individual specifically dated this entry, it had been a slight improvement, on a thing not much im- provable. We can guess, After 1660, and not long after. Curious enough, of all days, on this same day Shakspeare, as his stone monument still testifies, at Stratford-on-Avon, died : " Obiit Anno Domini 1616. jEtatis 53. Die 23 Apr." 2 While Oliver Cromwell was entering himself of Sidney-Sussex College, William Shakspeare was taking his farewell of this world. Oliver's Father had, most likely, come with him; it is but some fifteen miles from Huntingdon ; you can go and come in a day. Oliver's Father saw Oliver write in the Album at Cambridge : at Stratford, Shakspeare's Ann Hatha- 1 Nohle, i. 254 ; corrected by the College Book itself. 2 Collier's Life of Shakspeare (London, 1845), p. 253. CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 41 way was weeping over his bed. The first world-great thiug that remains of English History, the Literature of Shakspeare, was ending ; the second world-great thing that remains of English History, the armed Appeal of Puritanism to the In- visible God of Heaven against many very visible Devils, on Earth and Elsewhere, was, so to speak, beginning. They have their exits and their entrances. And one People, in its time, plays many parts. Chevalier Florian, in his Life of Cervantes, has remarked that Shakspeare's death-day, 23d of April, 161G, was likewise that of Cervantes at Madrid. " Twenty -third of April" is, sure enough, the authentic Spanish date : but Chevalier Florian has omitted to notice that the English twenty-third is of Old Style, The brave Miguel died ten days before Shakspeare ; and already lay buried, smoothed right nobly into his long rest. The Historical Student can meditate on these things. In the foregoing winter, here in England, there was much trying of Ker Earl of Somerset and my Lady once of Essex, and the poisoners of Overbury; and before Christmas the inferior murderers and infamous persons were mostly got hanged ; and in these very days, while Oliver began his studies, my Lord of Somerset and my Lady were tried, and not hanged. And Chief-Justice Coke, Coke upon Lyttleton, had got into difficulties by the business. And England gen- erally was overspread with a very fetid atmosphere of Court- news, murders, and divorce-cases, in those months; which still a little affects even the History of England. Poor Somer- set Ker, King's favorite, "son of the Laird of Ferniehirst," he and his extremely unedifying affairs, except as they might transiently affect the nostrils of some Cromwell of importance, do not much belong to the History of Eng- land ! Carrion ought at length to be buried. Alas, if " wise memory" is ever to prevail, there is need of much "wise oblivion " first. Oliver's Tutor in Cambridge, of whom legible History and I know nothing, was " Magister Richard Howlet : " whom readers must fancy a grave ancient Puritan and Scholar, in dark anti- quarian clothes aud dark antiquarian ideas, according to their 42 INTRODUCTION. faculty. The indubitable fact is, that he Richard Howlet did, in Sidney-Sussex College, with his best ability, endeavor to infiltrate something that he called instruction into the soul of Oliver Cromwell and of other youths submitted to him : but how, of what quality, with what method, with what result, will remain extremely obscure to every one. In spite of moun- tains of books, so are books written, all grows very obscure. About this same date, George Radcliffe, Wentworth Strafford's George, at Oxford, finds his green-baize table-cover, which his mother had sent him, too small ; has it cut into " stockings," and goes about with the same. 1 So unfashionable were young Gentlemen Commoners ! Queen Elizabeth was the first person in this country who ever wore knit stockings. 1617. In March of this year, 1617, there was another royal visit at Hinchinbrook. 2 But this time, I conceive, the royal entertain- ment would be much more moderate ; Sir Oliver's purse grow- ing lank. Over in Huntingdon, Robert Cromwell was lying sick, somewhat indifferent to royal progresses. King James, this time, was returning northward to visit poor old Scotland again, to get his Pretended-Bishops set into activity, if he could. It is well known that he could not, to any satisfactory extent, neither now nor afterwards : his Pre- tended-Bishops, whom by cunning means he did get instituted, had the name of Bishops, but next to none of the authority, of the respect, or, alas, even of the cash, suitable to the reality of that office. They were by the Scotch People derisively called Tulchan Bishops. Did the reader ever see, or fancy in his mind, a Tulchan ? A Tulchan is, or rather was, for the 1 " UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, 4th Dec., 1610. " LOVING MOTHER, . . . Send also, I pray you, by Briggs [this is Briggs the Carrier, who dies in January, and continues forwarding butter in May], a green table-cloth of a yard and half a quarter, and two linen table-cloths. ... If the green table-cloth be too little, I will make a pair of warm stock- ings of it. ... Thus remembering my humble duty, I take my leave. Your loving Son, GEORGE RAHCUFFE." Raddiffe's Letters, by Whitaker (London, 1810), pp. 64,65. * Camden's Annals ; Nichols's Progresses. CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 43 thing is long since obsolete, a Calf-skin stuffed into the rude similitude of a Calf, similar enough to deceive the imperfect perceptive organs of a Cow. At inilking-time the Tulchan, with head duly bent, was set as if to suck ; the fond cow look- ing round fancied that her calf was busy, and that all was right, and so gave her milk freely, which the cunning maid was straining in white abundance into her pail all the while ! The Scotch milkmaids in those days cried, " Where is the Tul- clmn ; is the Tulchan ready?" So of the Bishops. Scotch Lairds were eager enough to " milk " the Church Lands and Tithes, to get the rents out of them freely, which was not always easy. They were glad to construct a Form of Bishops to please the King and Church, and make the milk come with- out disturbance. The reader now knows what a Tulchan Bishop was. A piece of mechanism constructed not without difficulty, in Parliament and King's Council, among the Scots ; and torn asunder afterwards with dreadful clamor, and scat- tered to the four winds, so soon as the Cow became awake to it! Villiers Buckingham, the new favorite, of whom we say little, was of the royal party here. Dr. Laud, too, King's Chaplain, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, attended the King on this occasion ; had once more the pleasure of seeing Hunt- ingdon, the cradle of his promotions, and the birthplace of Oliver. In Scotland, Dr. Laud, much to his regret, found "no religion at all," no surplices, no altars in the east or anywhere ; no bowing, no responding ; not the smallest regu- larity of fuglemanship or devotional drill-exercise ; in short "no religion at all that I could see," which grieved me much. 1 What to us is greatly more momentous : while these royal things went on in Scotland, in the end of this same June at Huntingdon, Robert Cromwell died. His Will is dated 6th .Iiiiit-. 2 His burial-day is marked in the Church of All-Saints, 24th June, 1617. For Oliver, the chief mourner, one of the moat pregnant epochs. The same year, died his old Graud- 1 Wharton's Laud (London, 1695), pp. 97, 10ur Oliver, when he indisputably did afterwards enter Parlia- ment, came in for Huntingdon Town ; so that, on this hypothe- sis, he must have first been Knight of the Shire, and then have sunk (an immense fall in those days) to be a Burgh Mem- which cannot without other ground be credited. What the original Chancery Parchments say of the business, whether the error is theirs or Browne Willis's, I cannot decide : on inquiry at the Rolls' Office, it turns out that the Records, for some fifty years about this period, have vanished "a good while ago." Whose error it may be, we know not ; but an error we may safely conclude it is. Sir Oliver was then still living at Hinrhinbrook. in the vigor of his years, no reason whatever why he should not serve as formerly ; nay, if he had withdrawn, his young Nephew, of no fortune for a Knight of the Shire, was not the man to replace him. The Members for Huntingdon Town in this Parliament, as in the preceding iro .1 Mr. Main waring and a Mr. St. John. The County hers in the preceding Parliament, and in this too with tlu- c.-rr.M tii.n of the concluding syllable in this, are "Edward Montague, Esquire," and "Oliver Cromwell, Knight." * Noble, i. 100, 54 INTRODUCTION. 1626. In the Ashmole Museum at Oxford stands catalogued a "Letter from Oliver Cromwell to Mr. Henry Downhall, at St. John's College, Cambridge ; dated, Huntingdon, 14 October, 1626 ; " l which might perhaps, in some very faint way, have elucidated Dr. Simcott and the hypochondrias for us. On applying to kind friends at Oxford for a copy of this Letter, I learn that there is now no Letter, only a mere selvage of paper, and a leaf wanting between two leaves. It was stolen, none knows when ; but stolen it is ; which forces me to con- tinue my Introduction some nine years farther, instead of end- ing it at this point. Did some zealous Oxford Doctor cut the Letter out, as one weeds a hemlock from a parsley-bed ; that so the Ashmole Museum might be cleansed, and yield only pure nutriment to mankind? Or was it some collector of autographs, eager beyond law ? Whoever the thief may be, he is probably dead long since ; and has answered for this, and also, we may fancy, for heavier thefts, which were likely to be charged upon him. If any humane individual ever henceforth get his eye upon the Letter, let him be so kind as send a copy of it to the Publishers of this Book, and no questions will be asked. 8 1627. A Deed of Sale, dated 20th June, 1627, still testifies that Hinchinbrook this year passed out of the hands of the Crom- wells into those of the Montagues. 8 The price was 3,000 ; curiously divided into two parcels, down to shillings and pence, one of the parcels being already a creditor's. The Purchaser is "Sir Sidney Montague, Knight, of Barnwell, one of his Majesty's Masters of the Requests." Sir Oliver Cromwell, son of the Golden Knight, having now burnt out his splendor, disappeared in this way from Hinchinbrook ; retired deeper into the Fens, to a place of his near Ramsey 1 Bodleian Library : Codices MSS. Asfimoleani, No. 8398. 2 Letter found, worth nothing : Appendix, No. 1. (Note to Second Edition.) Noble, i. 43. CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 55 Mere, where he continued still thirty years longer to reside, in an eclipsed manner. It was to this house at Ramsey that Oliver, our Oliver, then Captain Cromwell in the Parliament's service, paid the domiciliary visit much talked of in the old Hooks. The reduced Kuight, his Uncle, was a Royalist or Malignant; and his house had to be searched for arms, for mu- nitions, for furnishings of any sort, which he might be minded to send off to the King, now at York, and evidently intending war. Oliver's dragoons searched with due rigor for the arms ; while the Captain respectfully conversed with his Uncle ; and even "insisted" through the interview, say the old Books, " on standing uncovered : " which latter circumstance may be taken as an astonishing hypocrisy in him, say the old block- head Books. The arms, munitions, furnishings were with all rigor of law, not with more rigor and not with less, carried away ; and Oliver parted with his Uncle, for that time, not "craving his blessing," I think, as the old blockhead Books say ; but hoping he might, one day, either get it or a better th;in it, for what he had now done. Oliver, while in military charge of that country, had probably repeated visits to pay to his Uncle ; and they knew little of the mail or of the circum- stances, who suppose there was any likelihood or any need of either insolence or hypocrisy in the course of these. As for the old Knight, he seems to have been a man of easy temper ; given to sumptuosity of hospitality ; and averse to severer duties. 1 When his eldest son, who also showed a turn for expense, presented him a schedule of debts, craving ;iil towards the payment of them, Sir Oliver answered with a Id :md sigh, "I wish they were paid." Various Cromwells, sons of his, nephews of his, besides the great Oliver, took part in the Civil War, some on this side, some on that, whose in- distinct designations in the old Books are apt to occasion mis- takes with modern readers. Sir Oliver vanishes now from Hinchinbrook, and all the public business records, into the darker places of the Fens. His name disappears from Willis : in the next Parliament, the Knight of the Shire for Hunt- ingdon becomes, inM-;nl of him, "Sir Capell Bedall, Baronet." 1 Full, r'.- W .ithiet, HuutiiigduiiMliire. 56 INTRODUCTION. The purchaser of Hinchinbrook, Sir Sidney Montague, was brother of the first Earl of Manchester, brother of the third Lord Montague of Boughton ; and father of " the valiant Colonel Montague/' valiant General Montague, Admiral Mon- tague, who, in an altered state of circumstances, became first Earl of Sandwich, and perished, with a valor worthy of a better generalissimo than poor James Duke of York, in the Sea-fight of Solebay (Southwold Bay, on the coast of Suffolk) in 1672. 1 In tnese same years, for the dates and all other circum- stances of the matter hang dubious in the vague, there is record given by Dugdale, a man of very small authority on these Cromwell matters, of a certain suit instituted, in the King's Council, King's Court of Requests, or wherever it might be, by our Oliver and other relations interested, con- cerning the lunacy of his Uncle, Sir Thomas Steward of Ely. It seems they alleged, This Uncle Steward was incapable of managing his affairs, and ought to be restrained under guar- dians. Which allegation of theirs, and petition grounded on it, the King's Council saw good to deny : whereupon Sir Thomas Steward continued to manage his affairs, in an in- capable or semi-capable manner; and nothing followed upon it whatever. Which proceeding of Oliver's, if there ever was such a proceeding, we are, according to Dugdale, to consider an act of villany, if we incline to take that trouble. What we know is, That poor Sir Thomas himself did not so con- sider it ; for, by express testament some years afterwards, he declared Oliver his heir in chief, and left him considerable property, as if nothing had happened. So that there is this dilemma : If Sir Thomas was imbecile, then Oliver was right ; and unless Sir Thomas was imbecile, Oliver was not wrong ! Alas, all calumny and carrion, does it not incessantly cry, " Earth, oh, for pity's sake, a little earth ! " 1628. Sir Oliver Cromwell has faded from the Parliamentary scene into the deep Fen-country, but Oliver Cromwell, Esq., 1 Collins's Peerage (London, 1741), ii. 286-289. CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 57 appears there as Member for Huntingdon, at Westminster on ".Monday the 17th of March," 1627-8. This was the Third Parliament of Charles : by much the most notable of all Par- liaments till Charles's Long Parliament met, which proved his last. Having sharply, with swift impetuosity and indignation, dismissed two Parliaments, because they would not "supply" him without taking "grievances" along with them; and, mean- while and afterwards, having failed in every operation foreign and domestic, at Cadiz, at Rhe, at Rochelle ; and having failed, too, in getting supplies by unparliamentary methods, Charles " consulted with Sir Robert Cotton what was to be done ; " who answered, Summon a Parliament again. So this cele- brated Parliament was summoned. It met, as we said, in March, 1628, and continued with one prorogation till March, 1629. The two former Parliaments had sat but a few weeks each, till they were indignantly hurled asunder again ; this one continued nearly a year. Wentworth (Strafford) was of this Parliament; Hauipden too, Selden, Pym, Holies, and others known to us : all these had been of former Parliaments as well ; Oliver Cromwell, Member for Huntingdon, sat there for the first time. It is very evident, King Charles, baffled in all his enter- prises, and reduced really to a kind of crisis, wished much this Parliament should succeed; and took what he must have thought incredible pains for that end. The poor King strives visibly throughout to control himself, to be soft and patient ; inwardly writhing and rustling with royal rage. Unfortunate King, we see him chafing, stamping, a very fiery steed, but, I ri. lied, check-bitted, by innumerable straps and considera- tions ; struggling much to be composed. Alas, it would not do. This Parliament was more Puritanic, more intent on rigorous and divine Gospel, than any other had ever been. As indeed all these Parliaments grow strangely in Puritanism ; more and ever more earnest rises from the hearts of them all, " ' ' Sacred Majesty, lead us not to Antichrist, to Illegality, to temporal and eternal Perdition ! " The Nobility and Gentry of Engluiid were then a very strange body of men. The English 58 INTRODUCTION. Squire of the Seventeenth Century clearly appears to have believed in God, not as a figure of speech, but as a very fact, very awful to the heart of the English Squire. " He wore his Bible-doctrine round him," says one, " as our Squire wears his shot-belt ; went abroad with it, nothing doubting." King Charles was going on his father's course, only with fright- ful acceleration : he and his respectable Traditions and No- tions, clothed in old sheepskin and respectable Church-tippets, were all pulling one way; England and the Eternal Laws pulling another; the rent fast widening till no man could heal it This was the celebrated Parliament which framed the Peti- tion of Bight, and set London all astir with " bells and bon- fires " at the passing thereof ; and did other feats not to be particularized here. Across the murkiest element in which any great Entity was ever shown to human creatures, it still rises, after much consideration, to the modern man, in a dim but undeniable manner, as a most brave and noble Parliament. The like of which were worth its weight in diamonds even now ; but has grown very unattainable now, next door to in- credible now. We have to say that this Parliament chastised sycophant Priests, Mainwariug, Sibthorp, and other Arminian sycophants, a disgrace to God's Church; that it had an eye to other still more elevated Church-Sycophants, as the main- spring of all ; but was cautious to give offence by naming them. That it carefully " abstained from naming the Duke of Buck ingham." That it decided on giving ample subsidies, but not till there were reasonable discussion of grievances. That in manner it was most gentle, soft-spoken, cautious, reverential ; and in substance most resolute and valiant. Truly with valiant patient energy, in a slow steadfast English manner, it carried, across infinite confused opposition and discouragement, its Petition of Right, and what else it had to carry. Four hun- dred brave men, brave men and true, after their sort ! One laments to find such a Parliament smothered under Dryasdust's shot-rubbish. The memory of it, could any real memory of it rise upon honorable gentlemen and us, might be admonitory, would be astonishing at least. We must clip one extract from CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 59 Rnshworth's huge Rag-fair of a Book; the mournfulest torpedo rubbish-heap, of jewels buried under sordid wreck and dust and dead ashes, one jewel to the wagon-load; and let the render try to make a visual scene of it as he can. Here, we say, is an old Letter, which " old Mr. Chamberlain of the Court of Wards," a gentleman entirely unknown to us, received fresh and new, before breakfast, on a June morning of the year 1628 ; of which old Letter we, by a good chance, 1 have obtained a copy for the reader. It is by Mr. Thomas Alured, a good Yorkshire friend, Member for Malton in that county ; written in a hand which, if it were not naturally stout, would tremble with emo- tion. Worthy Mr. Alured, called also " Al'red " or Aldred ; " uncle or father, we suppose, to a " Colonel Alured," well known afterwards to Oliver and us : he writes ; we abridge and pre- sent, as follows : " FRIDAY, 6th June, 1628. " SIB, Yesterday was a day of desolation among us in Parliament; and this day, we fear, will be the day of our dissolution. " Upon Tuesday Sir John Eliot moved that as we intended to furnish his Majesty with money, we should also supply him with counsel. Representing the doleful state of affairs, he : fd there might be a Declaration made to the King, of the danger wherein the Kingdom stood by the decay and contempt of religion, by the insufficiency of his Ministers, by the " &c. &c. " Sir Humphrey May, Chancellor of the Duchy, said, ' it was a strange language ; ' yet the House commanded Sir John Eliot to go on. Whereupon the Chancellor desired, 'If he went on, he the Chancellor might go out.' They all bade him ' begone : ' yet he stayed, and heard Sir John out. The House generally inclined to such a Declaration ; which was accordingly resolved to be set about. " But next day, Wednesday, we had a Message from his Maj- esty by the Speaker, That as the Session was positively to end > KnHhworth'B Ifiitoneal CuUtctiant (London, 1682), i. 609, 610. (Note, v,,Li. ii :iml iii. of thus Copy are of 1680, * prior edition seemingly ; iv. and v. of vi. and vii. of 1701 ; viii., Stra fiord 1 * Trial, of I Too.) 60 INTRODUCTION. in a week, we should husband the time, and despatch our old businesses without entertaining new !" Intending neverthe- less " to pursue our Declaration, we had, yesterday, Thursday morning, a new Message brought us, which I have here en closed. Which requiring us Not to cast or lay any aspersion upon any Minister of his Majesty, the House was much affected thereby." Did they not in former times proceed by fining and committing John of Gaunt, the King's own son ; had they not, in very late times, meddled with and sentenced the Lord Chancellor Bacon and others ? What are we arriving at! " Sir Robert Philips of Somersetshire spake, and mingled his words with weeping. Mr. Pyni did the like. Sir Edward Cook [old Coke upon Lyttleton], overcome with passion, seeing the desolation likely to ensue, was forced to sit down when he began to speak, by the abundance of tears." Oh, Mr. Chamber- lain of the Court of Wards, was the like ever witnessed ? " Yea, the Speaker in his speech could not refrain from weep- ing and shedding of tears. Besides a great many whose grief made them dumb. But others bore up in that storm, and en- couraged the rest." We resolved ourselves into a Committee, to have freer scope for speech ; and called Mr. Whitby to the chair. The Speaker, always in close communication with his Maj- esty, craves leave from us, with much humility, to withdraw " for half an hour ; " which, though we knew well whither he was going, was readily granted him. It is ordered, " No other man leave the House upon pain of going to the Tower." And now the speaking commences, " freer and frequenter," being in. Committee, and old Sir Edward Coke tries it again. " Sir Edward Cook told us, ' He now saw God had not ac- cepted of our humble and moderate carriages and fair proceed- ings ; and he feared the reason was, We had not dealt sincerely with the King and Country, and made a true representation of the causes of all those miseries. Which he, for his part, re- pented that he had not done sooner. And therefore, not know- ing whether he should ever again speak in this House, he would now do it freely ; and so did here protest, That the CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 61 author and cause of all those miseries was THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.' Which was entertained and answered with a cheerful acclamation of the House. [Yea, yea ! Well moved, well spoken ! Yea, yea !] As, when one good hound recovers the scent, the rest come in with full cry ; so they (we) pursued it, and every one came home, and laid the blame where he thought the fault was," on the Duke of Buckingham, to wit. " And as we were putting it to the question, Whether he should be named in our intended Remonstrance as the chief cause of all our miseries at home and abroad, the Speaker, living been, not half an hour, but three hours absent, and with the King, returned; bringing this Message, That the House should then rise (being about eleven o'clock), adjourn till the morrow morning, and no Committees to sit, or other business to go on, in the interim." And so, ever since, King's Majesty, Speaker, Duke and Councillors, they have been medi- tating it all night ! "What we shall expect this morning, therefore, God of Heaven knows ! We shall meet betimes this morning ; partly for the business' sake ; and partly because, two days ago, we made an order, That whoever comes in after Prayers shall pay twelvepence to the poor. " Sir, excuse my haste : and let us have your prayers ; whereof both you and we have need. I rest, affectionately at your service, "THOMAS ALURED." This scene Oliver saw, and formed part of; one of the memorablest he was ever in. Why did those old honorable gentlemen " weep " ? How came tough old Coke upon Ly ttle- ton, one of the toughest men ever made, to melt into tears like a girl, and sit down unable to speak ? The modern honor- able gentleman cannot tell. Let him consider it, and try if he can tell ! And then, putting off his Shot-belt, and striving to put on some Bible-doctrine, some earnest God's truth or other, try if he can discover why he cannot tell ! The Remonstrance against Buckingham was perfected ; the hounds huvin^ ;,'<>t all upon the scent. Buckingham was ex- 62 INTRODUCTION. pressly " named/' a daring feat : and so loud were the hounds, and such a tune in their baying, his Majesty saw good to con- firm, and ratify beyond shadow of cavil, the invaluable Petition of Eight, and thereby produce " bonfires," and bob-majors upon all bells. Old London was sonorous ; in a blaze with joy-fires. Soon after which, this Parliament, as London, and England, and it, all still continued somewhat too sonorous, was hastily, with visible royal anger, prorogued till October next, till January as it proved. Oliver, of course, went home to Hunt- ingdon to his harvest-work; England continued simmering and sounding as it might. The day of prorogation was the 26th of June. 1 One day in the latter end of August, John Felton, a short swart Suffolk gentleman of military air, in fact a retired lieutenant of grim serious disposition, went out to walk in the eastern parts of London. Walking on Tower Hill, full of black reflections on his own condition, and on the condition of England, and a Duke of Buckingham holding all England down into the jaws of ruin and disgrace, John Felton saw, in evil hour, on some cutler's stall there, a broad sharp hunting-knife, price one shilling. John Felton, with a wild flash in the dark heart of him, bought the said knife ; rode down to Portsmouth with it, where the great Duke then was; struck the said knife, with one fell plunge, into the great Duke's heart. This was on Saturday, the 23d of August of this same year. 2 ' Felton was tried; saw that his wild flashing inspiration had been not of God, but of Satan. It is known he repented : when the death-sentence was passed on him, he stretched out his right hand ; craved that this too, as some small expiation, might first be stricken off ; which was denied him, as against law. He died at Tyburn ; his body was swinging in chains at Portsmouth ; and much else had gone awry, when the Parliament reassembled, in January following, and Oliver came up to Town again. 1 Commons Journals, i. 920. 2 Clarendon (i. 68); Hamond 1'Estrange (p. 90); D'Ewes (MS. Auto- biography), &c. ; all of whom report the minute circumstances of the assassi- nation, not one of them agreeing completely with another. CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 63 1629. The Parliament Session proved very brief; but very ener- getic, very extraordinary. " Tonnage and Poundage," what we now call Custom-house Duties, a constant subject of quarrel between Charles and his Parliaments hitherto, had again been levied without Parliamentary consent; in the teeth of old Tallagio non concedendo, nay even of the late solemnly con- firmed Petition of Right ; and naturally gave rise to Parlia- mentary consideration. Merchants had been imprisoned for refusing to pay it; Members of Parliament themselves had been " supcena'd : " there was a very ravelled coil to deal with in regard to Tonnage and Poundage. Nay the Petition of Right itself had been altered in the Printing; a very ugly business too. In regard to Religion also, matters looked equally ill. Sycophant Mainwaring, just censured in Parliament, had been promoted to a fatter living. Sycophant Montague, in the like circumstances, to a Bishopric : Laud was in the act of con- secrating him at Croydon, when the news of Buckingham's death came thither. There needed to be a Committee of Religion. The House resolved itself into a Grand Committee of Religion ; and did not want for matter. Bishop Neile of Winchester, Bishop Laud now of London, were a frightfully ceremonial pair of Bishops ; the fountain they of innumerable tendencies to Papistry and the old-clothes of Babylon! It was in this Committee of Religion, on the llth day of Febru- ary, 1628-9, that Mr. Cromwell, Member for Huntingdon, stood up and made his first Speech, a fragment of which has found its \v:iy into History, and is now known to all mankind. He said " He had heard by relation from one Dr. Beard [his old Srhoolmast.T.-it Huntingdon], that Dr.. Alablaster had preached tint I'..]... i yat Paul's Cross; and that the Bishop of Winchester [Dr. Neile] had commanded him as his Diocesan, He should It not hi i i-.r t< flip contrary. Mainwaring, so justly cen- sun-d in this House for his sermons, was by the same Bishop's nirnns preferred to a rich living. If these are the steps to Church-preferment, what aro we to expect?" l 1 Parliamrntary Hintory (Ixmclou, 1763), viii. 289. 64 INTRODUCTION. Dr. Beard, as the reader knows, is Oliver's old Schoolmaster at Huntingdon ; a grave, speculative, theological old gentleman, seemingly, and on a level with the latest news from Town. Of poor Dr. Alablaster there may be found some indistinct, and instantly forgettable particulars in Wood's Athence. Paul's Cross, of which I have seen old Prints, was a kind of Stone Tent, "with leaden roof," at the northeast corner of Paul's Cathedral, where Sermons were still, and had long been, preached in the open air; crowded devout congregations gathering there, with forms to sit on, if you came early. Queen Elizabeth used to " tune her pulpits," she said, when there was any great thing on hand; as Governing Persons now strive to tune their Morning Newspapers. Paul's Cross, a kind of Times Newspaper, but edited partly by Heaven itself, was then a most important entity ! Alablaster, to the horror of mankind, was heard preaching "flat Popery" there, " prostituting our columns," in that scandalous manner ! And Neile had forbidden him to preach against it : " what are we to expect ? " The record of this world-famous utterance of Oliver still Jies in manuscript in the British Museum, in Mr. Crewe's Notebook, or another's : it was first printed in a wretched old Book called Epliemeris Parliamentaria, professing to be com- piled by Thomas Fuller; and actually containing a Preface recognizable as his, but nothing else that we can so recognize : for " quaint old Fuller *' is a man of talent ; and this Book looks as if compiled by some spiritual Nightmare, rather than a rational Man. Probably some greedy Printer's compilation ; to whom Thomas, in ill hour, had sold his name. In the Com- mons Journals, of that same day, we are farther to remark, there stands, in perennial preservation, this notice : " Upon question, Ordered, That Dr. Beard of Huntingdon be written to by Mr. Speaker, to come up and testify against the Bishop ; the order for Dr. Beard to be delivered to Mr. Cromwell." The first mention of Mr. Cromwell's name in the Books of any Parliament. A new Remonstrance behooves to be resolved upon ; Bishops Neile and Laud are even to be named there. Whereupon, . ,,u IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 65 before they could get well " named," perhaps before Dr. Beard had well got up from Huntingdon to testify against them, the King hastily interfered. This Parliament, in a fortnight more, was dissolved ; and that under circumstances of the most unparalleled sort. For Speaker Finch, as we have seen, was a Courtier, in constant communication with the King: one day while these high matters were astir, Speaker Finch refused to " put the question," when ordered by the House ! He said he had orders to the contrary ; persisted in that ; and at last took to weeping. What was the House to do? Adjourn for two days, and consider what to do ! On the second day, which was Wednesday, Speaker Finch signified that by his Majesty's command they were again adjourned till Monday next. On Monday next, Speaker Finch, still recusant, would not put the former nor indeed any question, having the Kind's order to adjourn again instantly. He refused; was reprimanded, menaced; once more took to weeping; then started up to go his ways. But young Mr. Holies, Denzil Holies, the Earl of Clare's second son, he and certain other honorable members were prepared for that movement : they seized Speaker Finch, set him down in his chair, and by main force held him there ! A scene of such agitation as was never seen in Parliament before. " The House was much troubled." " Let him go ! " cried certain Privy Councillors, Majesty's Ministers as we should now call them, who in those days sat in front of the Speaker; "Let Mr. Speaker go!" cried they imploringly. "No!" answered Holies; "God's wounds, he shall sit there till it please the House to rise!" The House, in a decisive though almost distracted manner, with their Speaker thus held down for them, locked their doors; re- dacted Three emphatic Resolutions, their Protest against Arminianism, against Papistry, against illegal Tonnage and Poundage; and passed the same by acclamation; letting no man out, refusing to let even the King's Usher in; then swiftly vanishing so soon as the resolutions were passed, for they understood the Soldiery was coming. 1 For which surpris- ing procedure, vindicated by Necessity the mother of Inven- 1 Kuahworth, i 067-669. "i xvii. 6 66 INTRODUCTION. tion and supreme of Lawgivers, certain honorable gentlemen, Denzil Holies, Sir John Eliot, William Strode, John Selden, and others less known to us, suffered fine, imprisonment and much legal tribulation : nay Sir John Eliot, refusing to sub- mit, was kept in the Tower till he died. This scene fell out on Monday, 2d of March, 1629. Directly on the back of which, we conclude, Mr. Cromwell quitted Town for Huntingdon again ; told Dr. Beard also that he was not wanted now ; that he might at leisure go on with his Theatre of God's Judgments now. 1 His Majesty dissolved the Parliament by Proclamation ; saying something about " vipers " that had been there. It was the last Parliament in England for above eleven years. The King had taken his course. The King went on raising supplies without Parliamentary law, by all conceivable devices ; of which Ship-money may be considered the most original, and sale of Monopolies the most universal. The monopoly of " soap " itself was very grievous to men. 2 Your soap was dear, and it would not wash, but only blister. The ceremonial Bishops, Bishop or Archbishop Laud now chief of them, they, on their side, went on diligently hunting out " Lecturers," erecting " altars in the east end of churches ; " charging all clergymen to have, in good repair and order, " Four surplices at Allhallowtide." 8 Vexations spiritual and fiscal, beyond what we can well fancy now, afflicted the souls of men. The English Nation was patient ; it endured in silence, with prayer that God in justice and mercy would look upon it. The King of England with his chief-priests was going one way ; the Nation of England by eternal laws was going another : the split became too wide for healing. Oliver and others seemed now to have done with Parliaments ; a royal Proclamation forbade them so much as to speak of such a thing. 1 Third Edition, "increased with many new examples," in 1631. 2 See many old Pamphlets. 8 Laud's Diary, iu Whartou's Laud, CHAP IV, EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 67 1630. In the " new charter " granted to the Corporation of Hunt- ingdon, and dated 8th July, 1630, Oliver Cromwell, Esquire, Thomas Beard, D.D. his old Schoolmaster, and Robert Bar- nard, Esquire, of whom also we may hear again, are named Justices of the Peace for that Borough. 1 I suppose there was nothing new in this nomination ; a mere confirming and con- tinuing of what had already been. But the smallest authentic fact, any undoubted date or circumstance regarding Oliver and his affairs, is to be eagerly laid hold of. 1631. In or soon after 1631, as we laboriously infer from the im- broglio records of poor Noble, Oliver decided on an enlarged sphere of action as a Farmer ; sold his properties in Hunting- don, all or some of them ; rented certain grazing-lands at St. Ives, five miles down the River, eastward of his native place, ;ind removed thither. The Deed of Sale is dated 7th May, 1<'.'!l;* the properties are specified as in the possession of himself or his Mother; the sum they yielded was 1,800. With this sum Oliver stocked his Grazing-Farm at St. Ives. The Mother, we infer, continued to reside at Huntingdon, hut withdrawn now from active occupation, into the retire- ment befitting a widow advanced in years. There is even some gleam of evidence to that effect: her properties are sold: but Oliver's children born to him at St. Ives are still christened at Huntingdon, in the Church he was used to; which may mean also that their good Grandmother was still there. Properly this was no change in Oliver's old activities; it was an enlargement of the sphere of them. His Mother still at Huntingdon, within few miles of him, he could still super- intend and protect her existence there, while managing his new operations at St Ives. He continued here till the sum- 1 Noble, i. 102 * Ibid. i. 103, 104. 68 INTRODUCTION. mer or spring of 1636. l A studious imagination may suffi- ciently construct the figure of his equable life in those years. Diligent grass-farming ; mowing, milking, cattle-marketing : add "hypochondria," fits of the blackness of darkness, with glances of the brightness of very Heaven ; prayer, religious reading and meditation ; household epochs, joys and cares : we have a solid substantial inoffensive Farmer of St. Ives, hoping to walk with integrity and humble devout diligence through this world ; and, by his Maker's infinite mercy, to escape destruction, and find eternal salvation, in wider Divine Worlds. This latter, this is the grand clause in his Life, which dwarfs all other clauses. Much wider destinies than he anticipated were appointed him on Earth ; but that, in com- parison to the alternative of Heaven or Hell to all Eternity, was a mighty small matter. The lands he rented are still there, recognizable to the Tourist ; gross boggy lands, fringed with willow-trees, at the east end of the small Town of St. Ives, which is still noted as a cattle-market in those parts. The " Cromwell Barn," the pretended " House of Cromwell," the &c. &c. are, as is usual in these cases, when you come to try them by the documents, a mere jumble of incredibilities, and oblivious human plati- tudes, distressing to the mind. But a Letter, one Letter signed Oliver Cromwell and dated St. Ives, does remain, still legible and indubitable to us. What more is to be said on St. Ives and the adjacent matters will best arrange itself round that Document. One or two entries here, and we arrive at that, and bring these imperfect Intro- ductory Chronicles to a close. 1632. In January of this year Oliver's seventh child was born to him ; a boy, James ; who died the day after baptism. There remained six children, of whom one other died young; it is not known at what date. Here subjoined is the List of them, Noble, i. 106. CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 69 and of those subsequently born ; in a Note, elaborated, as before, from the imbroglios of Noble. 1 This same year, William Prynne first began to make a noise in England. A learned young gentleman " from Swainswick, 1 OLIVER CROMWELL'S CHILDREN. (Married to Elizabeth Bourchier, 22d Angnst, 1620.) 1. Robert; bapti/ed 13th October, 1C21. Named for his Grandfather. No farther account of him (except, now, supra, p. 48 n.) ; he died before ripe years. 2. Oliver ; baptized 6th February, 1622-3 ; went to Felsted School. "Captain in Harrison's Regiment," no. At Peterborough in 1643 (Noble, i 133, 134). He died, or was killed during the War ; date and place not yet discoverable. Noble says it was at Appleby; referring to Whitlocke. Whit- locke (p. 318 of 1st edition, 322 of 2d), on ransacking the old Pamphlets, turns out to be indisputably in error. The Protector on his death-bed alludes to this Oliver's death : " It went to my heart like a dagger, indeed it did." 3. Bridget ; baptized 4th August, 1624. Married to Ireton, 15th of Juue, 1640 (Xohle, i. 134, ia twice in error) ; widow, 26th November, 1651. Married to Fleetwood (exact date, after long search, remains undiscovered ; Noble, ii. 355, says " before " June, 1652, at random seemingly). Died at Stoke N.-wington, near London, September, 1681. 4. Richard; born 4th October, 1626. At Felsted School. " In Lincoln's Inn, 27th May, 1647 : " an error ? Married, in 1649, Richard Mayor's daugh- ter, of Hursley, Hants. First in Parliament, 1654. Protector, 1658. Dies, poor idle Triviality, at Cheshunt, 12th July, 1712. 5. Henry; baptized at All-Saints (the rest are at St. John's), Huntingdon, 20th January, 1627-8. Felsted School. In the army at sixteen. Captain, under Harrison I think, in 1647. Colonel in 1640, and iu Ireland with his Father. Lord Deputy there in 1657. In 1060 retired to Spiuney Abbey, " near Snham," nearer Wicken, in Cambridgeshire. Foolish story of Charles II. and tho " stable-fork " there (Noble, i. 212). Died 2:id March, 1673-4 ; Inirieil in \Vi< ken Church. A brave man and true : had he been named Pro- tector, there had, most likely, been quite another History of England to write, at present ! 6. Elizalteth; baptized 2d July, 1029. Mrs. Claypole, 1645-6. Died at 3 in the morning, Hampton-court, 6th August, 1058, four weeks before h-r Father. A graceful, bravo ami amiable woman. The lamentation about 1 >r Hi-wit, ami " bloodshed " (in Clarendou and others) is fudge. At St. Ivos and Kly . 7. Jnmis: bapti/.ed sth January, 1031-2; died next day. 8. Mary; baptized (at Huntingdon still) IHh February, 1630-7. I nberir, l*tli November, U",. r ,7. Dean Swift knew her "handsome an. I like her Father." (Journal Iu Stella, " 13th Nov. 1710. "J Did Uih Man b 70 INTRODUCTION. near Bath," graduate of Oxford, now " an Outer Barrister of Lincoln's Inn ; " well read in English Law, and full of zeal for Gospel Doctrine and Morality. He, struck by certain flagrant scandals of the time, especially by that of Play-acting and Masking, saw good, this year, to set forth his Histriotnastix, or Player's Scourge ; a Book still extant, but never more to be read by mortal. For which Mr. William Prynne himself, before long, paid rather dear. The Book was licensed by old Archbishop Abbot, a man of Puritan tendencies, but now verg- ing towards his end. Peter Heylin, "lying Peter" as men sometimes call him, was already with hawk's eye and the in- tensest interest reading this now unreadable Book, and, by Laud's direction, taking excerpts from the same. It carries our thought to extensive world-transactions over sea, to reflect that in the end of this same year, " 6th Novem- ber, 1632," the great Gustavus died on the Field of Liitzen ; fighting against Wallenstein; victorious for the last time. While Oliver Cromwell walked peacefully intent on cattle- husbandry, that winter-day, on the grassy banks of the Ouse at St. Ives, Gustavus Adolphus, shot through the back, was sinking from his horse in the battle-storm far off, with these words : " Ich habe genug, Bruder ; rette Dich. Brother, I have got enough ; save thyself." 1 On the 19th of the same month, November, 1632, died like- wise Frederick Elector Palatine, titular King of Bohemia, hus- band of King Charles's sister, and father of certain Princes, 1712 (1712-3 ? is not decided in Noble). Eichard died within a few months of her. 9. Frances; baptized (at Ely now) 6th December, 1638. "Charles II. was for marrying her : " not improbable. Married Mr. Rich, Earl of War- wick's grandson, llth November, 1657 : he died in three months, 16th Febru- ary, 1657-8. No child by Rich. Married Sir John Russel, the Checquers Russels. Died 27th January, 1719-20. In all, 5 sons and 4 daughters ; of whom 3 sons and all the daughters came to maturity. The Protector's Widow died at Norborough, her son-in-lav Claypole's place (now ruined, patched into a farm-house ; near Market-Deeping ; it is itself in Northamptonshire), 8th October, 1672. 1 Schiller, Geschichte des SQjahriyen Krieget. CHAP. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 71 Rupert and others, who came to be well known in our History. Elizabeth, the Widow, was left with a large family of them in Holland, very bare of money, of resource, or immediate hope ; but conducted herself, as she had all along done, in a way that gained much respect. " Alles fur Ruhm und Ihr, All for Glory and Her," were the words Duke Beruhard of Weimar carried on his Flag, through many battles in that Thirty- Years War. She was of Puritan tendency ; understood to care little about the Four surplices at Allhallowtide, and much for the root of the matter. Attorney-General Noy, in these months, was busy tearing up the unfortunate old manufacturers of soap ; tormenting man- kind very much about soap. 1 He tore them up irresistibly, reduced them to total ruin ; good soap became unattainable. 1633. In May, 1633, the second year of Oliver's residence in this new Farm, the King's Majesty, with train enough, passed through Huntingdonshire, on his way to Scotland to be crowned. The loud rustle of him disturbing, for a day, the summer husbandries and operations of mankind. His ostensi- ble business was to be crowned ; but his intrinsic errand was, what his Father's formerly had been, to get his Pretended- Bishops set on foot there; his Tukhans converted into real Calves; in which, as we shall see, he succeeded still worse than his Father had done. Dr. Laud, Bishop Laud, now near upon Archbishophood, attended his Majesty thither as for- ni. -rly; still found "no religion " there, but trusted now to introduce one. The Chapel at Holyrood-house was fitted up with every equipment textile and metallic; and little Bishop Land in person "performed the service," in a way to illumi- nate tho oenighted natives, as was hoped, show them how \ rtist coul.l do it. He had also some dreadful travelling through certain of the savage districts of that country. Crossing Huntingdonshire, on this occasion, in his way Northward, hi; Majesty had visited the Establishment of Nicholas Ferrar at Little (Jidding, on tho western border of Kutfhwortli, il. 135, 252, &c. 72 INTRODUCTION. that county. 1 A surprising Establishment, now in full flower ; wherein above fourscore persons, including domestics, with Ferrar and his Brother and aged Mother at the head of them, had devoted themselves to a kind of Protestant Monachism, and were getting much talked of in those times. They fol- lowed celibacy, and merely religious duties ; employed them- selves in " binding of Prayer-books," embroidering of hassocks, in alms-giving also, and what charitable work was possible in that desert region ; above all, they kept up, night and day, a continual repetition of the English Liturgy ; being divided into relays and watches, one watch relieving another as on shipboard ; and never allowing at any hour the sacred fire to go out. This also, as a feature of the times, the modern reader is to meditate. In Izaak Walton's Lives there is some drowsy notice of these people, not unknown to the modern reader. A far livelier notice ; record of an actual visit to the place, by an Anonymous Person, seemingly a religious Lawyer, perhaps re- turning from Circuit in that direction, at all events a most sharp distinct man, through whose clear eyes we also can still look ; is preserved by Hearne in very unexpected neighborhood. 2 The Anonymous Person, after some survey and communing, suggested to Nicholas Ferrar, " Perhaps he had but assumed all this ritual mummery, in order to get a devout life led peace- ably in these bad times ? " Nicholas, a dark man, who had acquired something of the Jesuit in his Foreign travels, looked at him ambiguously, and said, "I perceive you are a person who know the world ! " They did not ask the Anonymous Person to stay dinner, which he considered would have been agreeable. Note these other things, with which we are more immedi- ately concerned. In this same year the Feoffees, with their Purchase of Advowsons, with their Lecturers and Running Lecturers, were fairly rooted out, and flung prostrate into total ruin ; Laud having set Attorney-General Noy upon them, 1 Rnshworth, ii. 178. a Thomse Caii Vtndicice Antiquitatis Academics Oxoniensis (Oxf. 1630), ii. 702-794. There are two Lives of Ferrar ; considerable writings about him ; but, except this, nothing that much deserves to be read. CHAT. IV. EVENTS IN OLIVER'S BIOGRAPHY. 73 and brought them into the Star-chamber. " God forgive them, 11 writes Bishop Laud, "and grant me patience!" on hearing v that they spake harshly of him ; not gratefully, but ungrate- fully, for all this trouble he took ! In the same year, by pro- curement of the same zealous Bishop hounding on the same invincible Attorney-General, William Prynne, our unreadable friend, Peter Heylin having read him, was brought to the Star- chamber ; to the Pillory, and had his ears cropt off, for the first time ; who also, strange as it may look, manifested no gratitude, but the contrary, for all that trouble ! l 1634. In the end of this the third year of Oliver's abode at St. Ives, came out the celebrated Writ of Ship-uioney. It was the last feat of Attorney-General N oy : a morose, amorphous, cynical Law-Pedant, and invincible living heap of learned rubbish ; once a Patriot in Parliament, till they made him Attorney-General, and enlightened his eyes : who had fished up from the dust-abysses this and other old shadows of " prece- dents," promising to be of great use in the present distressed state of the Finance Department. Parliament being in abey- ance, how to raise money was now the grand problem. Nby himself was dead before the Writ came out ; a very mixed renown following him. The Vintners, says Wood, illuminated at his death, made bonfires, and " drank lusty carouses : " to them, as to every man, he had been a sore affliction. His h';irt, on dissection, adds old Anthony, was found "all shriv- elled up like a leather penny-purse ; " which gave rise to com- ments among the Puritans. 8 His brain, said the pasquinades of the day, was found reduced to a mass of dust, his heart was a bundle of old sheepskin writs, and his belly consisted of a barrel of soap.* Some indistinct memory of him stiM survives, as of a grisly Law Pluto, and dark Law Monster, kind of In- fernal King, Chief Enchanter in the Domdaniel of Attor- neys ; one of those frightful men, who, as his contemporaries 1 Roshworth ; Whin-ton's Lamd. 1 Wood's Athena (Blip's edition, London, 1815), ii. 583. ' Kiuhwurtb. 74 INTRODUCTION. passionately said and repeated, dare to " decree injustice by a law" The Ship-money Writ has come out, then; and Cousin Hampden has decided not to pay it ! As the date of Oliver's St. Ives Letter is 1635-6, and we are now come in sight of that, we will here close our Chronology. CHAPTER V. OF OLIVER'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES. LETTERS and authentic Utterances of Oliver lie scattered, in print and manuscript, in a hundred repositories, in all varieties of condition and environment. Most of them, all the impor- tant of them, have already long since been printed and again printed ; but we cannot in general say, ever read : too often it is apparent that the very editor of these poor utterances had, if reading mean understanding, never read them. They stand in their old spelling ; mispunctuated, misprinted, un- elucidated, unintelligible, defaced with the dark incrustations too well known to students of that Period. The Speeches above all, as hitherto set forth in The Somers Tracts, in The Milton State-papers, in Burton's Diary, and other such Books, excel human belief : certainly no such agglomerate of opaque confusions, printed and reprinted ; of darkness on the back of darkness, thick and threefold ; is known to me elsewhere in the history of things spoken or printed by human creatures. Of these Speeches, all except one, which was published by au- thority at the time, I have to believe myself, not very exult- ingly, to be the first actual reader for nearly two Centuries past. Nevertheless these Documents do exist, authentic though defaced ; and invite every one who would know that Period, to study them till they become intelligible again. The words of Oliver Cromwell, the meaning they had, must be worth re- covering, in that point of view. To collect these Letters and CHAP. V. OF OLIVER'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES. 75 authentic Utterances, as one's reading yielded them, was a comparatively grateful labor; to correct them, elucidate and make them legible again, was a good historical study. Surely " a wise memory " would wish to preserve among men the written and spoken words of such a man; and as for the " wise oblivion," that is already, by Time and Accident, done to our hand. Enough is already lost and destroyed ; we need not, in this particular case, omit farther. Accordingly, whatever words authentically proceeding from Oliver himself I could anywhere find yet surviving, I have here gathered ; and will now, with such minimum of annotation as may suit that object, offer them to the reader. That is the purport of this Book. I have ventured to believe that, to cer- tain patient earnest readers, these old dim Letters of a noble English Man might, as they had done to myself, become dimly legible again ; might dimly present, better than all other evi- dence, the noble figure of the Man himself again. Certainly there is Historical instruction in these Letters : Historical, and perhaps other and better. At least, it is with Heroes and god-inspired men that I, for my part, would far rather con- verse, in what dialect soever they speak ! Great, ever-fruitful ; profitable for reproof, for encouragement, for building up in manful purposes and works, are the words of those that in their day were men. I will advise serious persons, interested in Kngland past or present, to try if they can read a little in these Letters of Oliver Cromwell, a man once deeply in- terested in the same object. Heavy as it is, and dim and obsolete, there may be worse reading, for such persons in our tinif. For the rest, if each Letter look dim, and have little light, after all study ; yet let the Historical reader reflect, such light as it has cannot be disputed at all. These words, exposi- tory of that day and hour, Oliver Cromwell did see fittest to be written down. The L- tt- r hangs there in the dark abysses of the Past : if like a star almost extinct, yet like a real star ; fixed; about which there is no cavilling possible. That auto- graph Letter, it was once all luminous a a burning beacon, y word of it a live coal, in its time ; it was once a piece of 76 INTRODUCTION. the general fire and light of Human Life, that Letter ! Neither is it yet entirely extinct : well read, there is still in it light enough to exhibit its own self; nay to diffuse a faint authentic twilight some distance round it. Heaped embers which in the daylight looked black, may still look red in the utter darkness. These letters of Oliver will convince any man that the Past did exist ! By degrees the combined small twilights may produce a kind of general feeble twilight, rendering the Past credible, the Ghosts of the Past in some glimpses of them visible ! Such is the effect of contemporary letters always ; and I can very confidently recommend Oliver's as good of their kind. A man intent to force for himself some path through that gloomy chaos called History of the Seventeenth Century, and to look face to face upon the same, may perhaps try it by this method as hopefully as by another. Here is an irregular row of beacon-fires, once all luminous as suns ; and with a certain inextinguishable erubescence still, in the abysses of the dead deep Night. Let us look here. In shadowy outlines, in dim- mer and dimmer crowding forms, the very figure of the old dead Time itself may perhaps be faintly discernible here ! I called these Letters good, but withal only good of their kind. No eloquence, elegance, not always even clearness of expression, is to be looked for in them. They are written with far other than literary aims; written, most of them, in the very flame and conflagration of a revolutionary struggle, and with an eye to the despatch of indispensable pressing business alone : but it will be found, I conceive, that for such end they are well written. Superfluity, as if by a natural law of the case, the writer has had to discard ; whatsoever quality can be dispensed with is indifferent to him. "With unwieldy move- ment, yet with a great solid step he presses through, towards his object ; has marked out very decisively what the real steps towards it are ; discriminating well the essential from the ex- traneous ; forming to himself, in short, a true, not an untrue picture of the business that is to be done. There is, in these Letters, as I have said above, a silence still more significant of Oliver to us than any speech they have. Dimly we discover features of an Intelligence, and Soul of a Man, greater than CHAK V. OF OLIVER'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES. 77 any speech. The Intelligence that can, with full satisfaction to itself, come out in eloquent speaking, in musical singing, is, after all, a small Intelligence. He that works and does some Poem, not he that merely says one, is worthy of the name of Poet. Cromwell, emblem of the dumb English, is interesting to me by the very inadequacy of his speech. Heroic insight, valor and belief, without words, how noble is it in compari- son to the adroitest flow of words without heroic insight ! I have corrected the spelling of these Letters ; I have punc- tuated, and divided them into paragraphs, in the modern man- ner. The Originals, so far as I have seen such, have in general no paragraphs : if the Letter is short, it is usually found written on the first leaf of the sheet ; often with the conclusion, or some postscript, subjoined crosswise on the margin, indicat- ing that there was no blotting-paper in those days ; that the hasty writer was loath to turn the leaf. Oliver's spelling and pointing are of the sort common to educated persons in his time ; and readers that so wish, may have specimens of him in abundance, and of all due dimness, in many printed Books : but to us, intent here to have the Letters read and understood, it seemed very proper at once and altogether to get rid of that encumbrance. Would that the rest were all as easily got rid of ! Here and there, to bring out the struggling sense, I have added or rectified a word, but taken care to point out the same; what words in the Text of the Letters are mine, the reader will find marked off by brackets: it was of course my supreme duty to avoid altering, in any respect, not only the sense, but the smallest feature in the physiognomy, of the Original. And so, " a minimum of annotation " having been added, what minimum would serve the purpose, here are the rs and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell ; of which the reader, with my best wishes, but not with any very high immediate hope of mine in that particular, is to make what he can. Surdy it is far enough from probable that these Letters of Cromwell, written originally for quite other objects, and selected not by the Genius of History, but by blind Accident which h;is saved them hitherto and destroyed the rest, can illuminate fur a modern man this Period of our Auuals, which 78 INTRODUCTION. for all moderns, we may say, has become a gulf of bottomless darkness ! Not so easily will the modern man domesticate himself in a scene of things every way so foreign to him. Nor could any measurable exposition of mine, on this present occasion, do much to illuminate the dead dark world of the Seventeenth Century, into which the reader is about to enter. He will gradually get to understand, as I have said, that the Seventeenth Century did exist ; that it was not a waste rubbish- continent of Rushworth-Nalson State-papers, of Philosophical Scepticisms, Dilettantisms, Dryasdust Torpedoisms ; but an actual flesh-and-blood Fact; with color in its cheeks, witli awful august heroic thoughts in its heart, and at last with steel sword in its hand ! Theoretically this is a most small postulate, conceded at once by everybody ; but practically it is a very large one, seldom or never conceded ; the due practical conceding of it amounts to much, indeed to the sure promise of all. I will venture to give the reader two little pieces of advice, which, if his experience resemble mine, may prove fur- thersome to him in this inquiry : they include the essence of all that I have discovered respecting it. The first is, By no means to credit the wide-spread report that these Seventeenth-Century Puritans were superstitious crack-brained persons ; given up to enthusiasm, the most part of them ; the minor ruling part being cunning men, who knew how to assume the dialect of the others, and thereby, as skil- ful Machiavels, to dupe them. This is a wide-spread report ; but an untrue one. I advise my reader to try precisely the opposite hypothesis. To consider that his Fathers, who had thought about this world very seriously indeed, and with very considerable thinking faculty indeed, were not quite so far behindhand in their conclusions respecting it. That actually their "enthusiasms," if well seen into, were not foolish but wise. That Machiavelism, Cant, Official Jargon, whereby a man speaks openly what he does not mean, were, surprising as it may seem, much rarer then than they have ever since been. Really and truly it may in a manner be said, Cant, Parliamentary and other Jargon, were still to invent in this world. Heavens, one could weep at the contrast! Cant CHAP. v. OF OLIVER'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES. ?9 was not fashionable at all ; that stupendous invention of " Speech for the purpose of concealing Thought " was not yet made. A man wagging the tongue of him, as if it were the dapper of a bell to be rung for economic purposes, and not so much as attempting to convey any inner thought, if thought lit- have, of the matter talked of, would at that date have awakened all the horror in men's minds, which at all dates, and at this ilute too, is due to him. The accursed thing! No man as yet dared to do it ; all men believing that God would judge tin-in. In the History of the Civil War far and wide, I have not fallen in with one such phenomenon. Even Archbishop Ijaud and Peter Heylin meant what they say ; through their words you do look direct into the scraggy conviction they have formed: or if "lying Peter" do lie, he at least knows that he is lying ! Lord Clarendon, a man of sufficient unveracity of heart, to whom indeed whatsoever has direct veracity of heart is more or less horrible, speaks always in official lan- guage ; a clothed, nay sometimes even quilted dialect, yet al- ways with some considerable body in the heart of it, never with none I The use of the human tongue was then other than it now is. I counsel the reader to leave all that of Cant, J>ii|>pry, Machiavelism, and so forth, decisively lying at the tlnvshold. He will be wise to believe that these Puritans do mean what they say, and to try unimpeded if he can discover what that is. Gradually a very stupendous phenomenon may rise on his astonished eye. A practical world based on Belief in God; such as many centuries had seen before, but as never any century since has been privileged to see. It was tin- last glimpse of it in our world, this of English Puritanism : great, very glorious ; tragical enough to all thinking hearts that look on it from these days of ours. My second advice is, Not to imagine that it was Constifu tion, " Liberty of the people to tax themselves," Privilege of Parliament, Triennial or annual Parliaments, or any modifica- tion of these sublime Privileges now waxing somewhat faint in our admirations, that mainly animated our Cromwells, 1'yms, and HamjKlens to the heroic efforts we still admire in pect. Not these very measurable "Privileges," but a 80 INTRODUCTION. far other and deeper, which could not be measured ; of which these, and all grand social improvements whatsoever, are the corollary. Our ancient Puritan Eeforiners were, as all Re- formers that will ever much benefit this Earth are always, inspired by a Heavenly Purpose. To see God's own Law, then universally acknowledged for complete as it stood in the holy Written P>ook, made good in this world ; to see this, or the true unwearied aim and struggle towards this : it was a thing worth living for and dying for ! Eternal Justice ; that God's Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven ; corollaries enough will flow from that, if that be there ; if that be not there, no corollary good for much will flow. It was the general spirit of England in the Seventeenth Century. In other somewhat sadly disfigured form we have seen the same immortal hope take practical shape in the French Revolution, and once more astonish the world. That England should all become a Church, if you like to name it so ; a Church presided over not by sham- priests in " Four surplices at Allhallowtide," but by true god- consecrated ones, whose hearts the Most High had touched and hallowed with his fire : this was the prayer of many, it was the godlike hope and effort of some. Our modern methods of Reform differ somewhat, as in- deed the issue testifies. I will advise my reader to forget the modern methods of Reform ; not to remember that he has ever heard of a modern individual called by the name of Reformer, if he would understand what the old meaning of the word was. The Cromwells, Pyms, Hampdens, who were understood on the Royalist side to be firebrands of the Devil, have had still worse measure from the Dryasdust Philosophies, and sceptical Histories, of later times. They really did resemble firebrands of the Devil, if you looked at them through spectacles of a certain color. For fire is always fire. But by no spectacles, only by mere blinders and wooden-eyed spectacles, can the flame-girt Heaven's messenger pass for a poor mouldy Pedant and Constitution-monger, such as this would make him out to be! On the whole, say not, good reader, as is often done, "It was then all one as now." Good reader, it was considerably CHAP. V. OF OLIVER'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES. 81 different then from now. Men indolently say, " The Ages are all alike ; ever the same sorry elements over again, in new vesture ; the issue of it always a melancholy farce-tragedy, in one Age as in another ! " Wherein lies very obviously a truth ; but also in secret a very sad error withal. Sure enough, the highest Life touches always, by large sections of it, on the vulgar and universal : he that expects to see a Hero, or a Heroic Age, step forth into practice in yellow Drury-lane stage-boots, and speak in blank verse for itself, will look long in vain. Sure enough, in the Heroic Century as in the Un- heroic, knaves and cowards, and cunning greedy persons were not wanting, were, if you will, extremely abundant. But the question always remains, Did they lie chained, subordi- nate in this world's business ; coerced by steel-whips, or in whatever other effectual way, and sent whimpering into their due subterranean abodes, to beat hemp and repent ; a true never-ending attempt going on to handcuff, to silence and sup- press them ? Or did they walk openly abroad, the envy of a general valet-population, and bear sway; professing, with- out universal anathema, almost with general assent, that they were the Orthodox Party, that they, even they, were such men as you had right to look for ? Reader, the Ages differ greatly, even infinitely, from one another. Considerable tracts of Ages there have been, by far the majority indeed, wherein the men, unfortunate mortals, were a set of mimetic creatures rather than men; without heart-insight as to this Universe, and its Heights and Abysses ; without conviction or belief of their own regarding it, at all ; who walked merely by hearsays, traditionary cants, black and white surplices, and inane confusions ; whose whole Exist- ence accordingly was a grimace ; nothing original in it, nothing genuine or sincere but this only, Their greediness of appetite and their faculty of digestion. Such unhappy Ages, too numer- ous here below, the Genius of Mankind indignantly seizes, as disgraceful to the Family, and with Rhadamanthine ruth- lessness annihilates; tumbles large masses of them swiftly into Eternal Night These are the Unheroio Ages; which < rve, on the general field of Existence, except as dust, V-.l XVII. 82 INTRODUCTION. as inorganic manure. The memory of such Ages fades away forever out of the minds of all men. Why should any memory of them continue ? The fashion of them has passed away ; and as for genuine substance, they never had any. To no heart of a man any more can these Ages become lovely. What melodious loving heart will search into their records, will sing of them, or celebrate them ? Even torpid Dryas- dust is forced to give over at last, all creatures declining to hear him on that subject ; whereupon ensues composure and silence, and Oblivion has her own. Good reader, if you be wise, search not for the secret of Heroic Ages, which have done great things in this Earth, among their falsities, their greedy quackeries and wwheroisms ! It never lies and never will lie there. Knaves and quacks, alas, we know they abounded : but the Age was Heroic even because it had declared war to the death with these, and would have neither truce nor treaty with these ; and went forth, flame-crowned, as with bared sword, and called the Most High to witness that it would not endure these ! But now for the Letters of Cromwell themselves. PAET I. TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. 1636-1642. LETTER I. ST. IVES, a small Town of perhaps fifteen hundred souls, stands on the left or Northeastern bank of the River Ouse, in flat grassy country, and is still noted as a Cattle-market in those parts. Its chief historical fame is likely to rest on the following one remaining Letter of Cromwell's, written there on the llth of January, 1635-6. The little Town, of somewhat dingy aspect, and very quies- cent except on market-days, runs from Northwest to Southeast, parallel to the shore of the Ouse, a short furlong in length : it probably, in Cromwell's time, consisted mainly of a row of houses fronting the River ; the now opposite row, which has its hack to the River, and still is shorter than the other, still flef.-etive at the upper end, was probably built since. In that case, the locality we hear of as the " Green " of St Ives would then be the space which is now covered mainly with cattle- pens for market-business, and forms the middle of the stwf. A narrow steep old Bridge, probably the same which Cromwell travelled, leads you over, westward, towards Godmanchester, where you again cross the Ouse, and get into Huntingdon, ward out of St. Ives, your route is towards Earith, Ely and the heart of the Fens. At the upper or Northwestern extremity of the place stands the Church ; Cromwell's old fields being at the opposite ex- 84 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. llJan. tremity. The Church from its Church-yard looks down into the very River, which is fenced from it by a brick wall. The Ouse flows here, you cannot without study tell in which direc- tion, fringed with gross reedy herbage find bushes ; and is of the blackness of Acheron, streaked with foul metallic glitter- ings and plays of color. For a short space downwards here, the banks of it are fully visible ; the western row of houses being somewhat the shorter, as already hinted : instead of houses here, you have a rough wooden balustrade, and the black Acheron of an Ouse River used as a washing-place or watering-place for cattle. The old Church, suitable for such a population, stands yet as it did in Cromwell's time, except perhaps the steeple and pews ; the flagstones in the interior are worn deep with the pacing of many generations. The steeple is visible from several miles' distance ; a sharp high spire, piercing far up from amid the willow-trees. The coun- try hereabouts has all a clammy look, clayey and boggy ; the produce of it, whether bushes and trees, or grass and crops, gives you the notion of something lazy, dropsical, gross. This is St. Ives, a most ancient Cattle-market by the shores of the sable Ouse, on the edge of the Fen-country ; where, among other things that happened, Oliver Cromwell passed five years of his existence as a Farmer and Grazier. Who the primitive Ives himself was, remains problematic ; Camden says he was " Ivo a Persian ; " surely far out of his road here ! From him however, Phantasm as he is (being indeed Nothing, except an ancient "stone-coffin," with bones, and tatters of " bright cloth " in it, accidentally ploughed up in this spot, and acted on by opaque human wonder, miraculous " dreams," and the "Abbot of Ramsey"), 1 Church and Village indisputa- bly took rise and name ; about the Year 1000 or later ; and have stood ever since ; being founded on Cattle-dealing and the firm Earth withal. Ives or Yves, the worthy French- man, Bishop of Chartres in the time of our Henry Beauclerk ; neither he nor the other French Yves, Patron Saint of Attor- neys, have anything to do with this locality ; but miraculous 1 His Legend (De Beato Yvone, Episcopo Persa), with due details, in Bol- landns, Ada Sanctorum, Junii, torn. ii. (Venetiis, 1742), pp. 288-292. 163. LETTER I. ST. IVES. 85 "Ivo the Persian Bishop" and that anonymous stone-coffin alone. Oliver, as we observed, has left hardly any memorial of him self at St. Ives. The ground he farmed is still partly capable of being specified, certain records or leases being still in exist- ence. It lies at the lower or Southeast end of the Town j a stagnant flat tract of land, extending between the houses or rather kitchen-gardens of St. Ives in that quarter, and the 1 'auks of the Kiver, which, very tortuous always, has made a new bend here. If well drained, this land looks as if it would produce abundant grass, but naturally it must be little other than a bog. Tall bushy ranges of willow-trees and the like, at present, divide it into fields ; the Kiver, not visible till you are close on it, bounding them all to the South. At the top of the fields next to the Town is an ancient massive I'.ftrn, still used as such ; the people call it "Cromwell's Barn : " and nobody can prove that it was not his ! It was evidently some ancient man's or series of ancient men's. Quitting St. Ives Fen-ward or Eastward, the last house of all, which stands on your right hand among gardens, seemingly the best house in the place, and called Slepe Hall, is conti- ilt-ntly pointed out as "Oliver's House." It is indisputably Slepe-Hall House, and Oliver's Farm was rented from the estate of Slepe Hall. It is at present used for a Boarding- school : the worthy inhabitants believe it to be Oliver's ; and even point out his " Chapel " or secret Puritan Sermon-room in the lower story of the house : no Sermon-room, as you may well discern, but to appearance some sort of scullery or wash- house or bake-house. " It was here he used to preach," say they. Courtesy forbids you to answer, " Never ! " But in fact there is no likelihood that this was Oliver's House at all : in its present state it does not seem to be a century old ; * and originally, as is like, it must have served as residence to the of Sl.-pe-Hall estate, not to the Farmer of a part Tradition makes a sad blur of Oliver's memory in liis native country ! We know, and shall know, only this, for certain here. That Oliver fanned part or whole of these Slepe- > Noble, i 102, 106. PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 11 Jan. Hall Lands, over which the human feet can still walk with assurance ; past which the Eiver Ouse still slumberously rolls, towards Earith Bulwark and the Fen-country. Here of a cer- tainty Oliver did walk and look about him habitually, during those five years from 1631 to 1636 ; a man studious of many temporal and many eternal things. His cattle grazed here, his ploughs tilled here, the heavenly skies and infernal abysses overarched and underarched him here. In fact there is, as it were, nothing whatever that still deci- sively to every eye attests his existence at St. Ives, except the following old Letter, accidentally preserved among the Harley Manuscripts in the British Museum. Noble, writing in 1787, says the old branding-irons, " 0. C.," for marking sheep, were still used by some Farmer there ; but these also, many years ago, are gone. In the Parish-Records of St. Ives, Oliver ap- pears twice among some other ten or twelve respectable rate- payers ; appointing, in 1633 and 1634, for "St. Ives cum Slepa" fit annual overseers for the " Highway and Green : " one oi the Oliver signatures is now cut out. Fifty years ago, a vague old Parish-clerk had heard from very vague old persons, that Mr. Cromwell had been seen attending divine service in the Church with " a piece of red flannel round his neck, being sub- ject to inflammation." * Certain letters " written in a very kind style from Oliver Lord Protector to persons in St. Ives," do not now exist ; probably never did. Swords " bearing the initials of 0. C.," swords sent down in the beginning of 1642, when War was now imminent, and weapons were yet scarce, do any such still exist ? Noble says they were numerous in 1787 ; but nobody is bound to believe him. Walker a tes- tifies that the Vicar of St. Ives, Rev. Henry Downhall, was ejected with his curate in 1642 ; an act which Cromwell could have hindered, had he been willing to testify that they were fit clergymen. Alas, had he been able ! He attended them in red flannel, but had not exceedingly rejoiced in them, it would seem. There is, in short, nothing that renders Cromwell's 1 See Noble : his confused gleanings and speculations concerning St. Ives are to be found, i. 105, 106, and again, i. 258-261. 2 Sufferings of the Clergy. See also Appendix, No. 1. leae. LETTER I. ST. IVES. 87 existence completely visible to us, even through the smallest chink, but this Letter alone, which, copied from the Museum Manuscripts, worthy Mr. Harris * has printed for all people. We slightly rectify the spelling, and reprint. u To my very loving friend Mr. Storie, at the Sign of the Dog in the Royal Exchange, London : Deliver these. "ST. IVES, llth January, 1635. " MR. STORIE, Amongst the catalogue of those good works which your fellow-citizens and our countrymen have done, this will not be reckoned for the least, That they have provided for the feeding of souls. Building of hospitals provides for men's bodies ; to build material temples is judged a work of piety ; but they that procure spiritual food, they that build up spiritual temples, they are the men truly charitable, truly pious. Such a work as this was your erecting the Lecture in our Country ; in the which you placed Dr. Wells, a man of goodness and in- dustry, and ability to do good every way ; not short of any I know in England : and I am persuaded that, sithence his com- ing, the Lord hath by him wrought much good among us. " It only remains now that He who first moved you to this, put you forward in the continuance thereof : it was the Lord ; ami therefore to Him lift we up our hearts that He would per- fect it. And surely, Mr. Storie, it were a piteous thing to see a Lecture fall, in the hands <)f so many able and godly men, as I am persuaded the founders of this are ; in these times, win-rein we see they are suppressed, with too much haste and violence, by the enemies of God his Truth. Far be it that so much guilt should stick to your hancls, who live in a City so renowned for the clear shining light of the Gospel. You know, Mr. Storie, to withdraw the pay is to let fall the Lecture : for who goeth to warfare at his own cost? I beseech you there- 1 Life of Cromwfll : a blind farrago, published iu 1761, "after the manner f Mr. Bayle," a very bail "manner," more especially when a Harris pre- side* over it ! Yet puor Harris's Rook, his three Books (on Cromwell, Charles and James I.) have worth : cart-loads of Excerpta, carefully trauscribed, and .. in the way known to us, " by ahoviug up the shafts." The increasing iuu u -t -I :.. -ui.j.-i t brought evt-u tluxw U> a second oditiou iu 1814. 88 PAKT I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. n Jan. fore in the bowels of Jesus Christ, put it forward, and let the good man have his pay. The souls of God's children will bless you for it ; and so shall I ; and ever rest, "Your loving Friend in the Lord, " OLIVER CROMWELL. "Commend my hearty love to Mr. Busse, Mr. Beadly, and my other good friends. I would have written to Mr. Busse ; but I was loath to trouble him with a long letter, and I feared I should not receive an answer from him : from you I expect one so soon as conveniently you may. Vale." * Such is Oliver's first extant Letter. The Eoyal Exchange has been twice burned since this piece of writing was left at the Sign of the Dog there. The Dog Tavern, Dog Landlord, frequenters of the Dog, and all their business and concernment there, and the hardest stone masonry they had, have vanished irrecoverable. Like a dream of the Night ; like that transient Sign or Effigies of the Talbot Dog, plastered on wood with oil pigments, which invited men to liquor and house-room in those days ! The personages of Oliver's Letter may well be unknown to us. Of Mr. Story, strangely enough, we have found one other notice : he is amongst the Trustees, pious and wealthy citizens of London for most part, to whom the sale of Bishops' Lands is, by act of Parliament, committed, with many instructions and conditions, on the 9th of October, 1646. 2 " James Story " is one of these ; their chief is Alderman Fowke. From Oliver's expression, "-our Country," it may be inferred or guessed that Story was of Huntingdonshire : a man who had gone up to London, and prospered in trade, and addicted himself to 1 Harris (London, 1814), p. 12. This Letter, for which Harris, in 1761, thanks " the Trustees of the British Museum," is not now discoverable in that Establishment ; " a search of three hours through all the Catalogues, assisted by one of the Clerks," reports itself to me as fruitless. Does exist safe, nevertheless (Sloane MSS. no. 2035, f. 125, a venerable brown Auto- graph) ; and in the " new Catalogue " will be better indicated. " Busse " is by no means " Bunse," as some have conjectured. (Note to Third Edition.) 2 Scobell's 4cte and Ordinances (London, 1658), p. 99. 1636. LETTER I. ST. IVES. 89 Puritanism; much of him, it is like, will never be known ! Of Busse and Beadly (unless Busse be a misprint for Bunse, Alderman Bunce, another of the above " Trustees "), there remains no vestige. Concerning the "Lecture," however, the reader will recall what was said above, of Lecturers, and of Laud's enmity to them ; of the Feoffees who supported Lecturers, and of Laud's final suppression and ruin of those Feoffees in 1633. Mr. Story's name is not mentioned in the List of the specific Feof- fees ; but it need not be doubted he was a contributor to their fund, and probably a leading man among the subscribers. By the light of this Letter we may dimly gather that they still continued to subscribe, and to forward Lectureships where possible, though now in a less ostentatious manner. It appears there was a Lecture at Huntingdon : but his Grace of Lambeth, patiently assiduous in hunting down such objects, had managed to get that suppressed in 1633, 1 or at to get the King's consent for suppressing it. This in 1633. So that " Mr. Wells " could not, in 1636, as my imbe- cile friend supposes, 2 be " the Lecturer in Huntingdon," wher- ever else he might lecture. Besides Mr. Wells is not in danger of suppression by Laud, but by want of cash ! Where Mr. Wells lectured, no mortal knows, or will ever know. Why not at St. Ives on the market-days ? Or he might be a " Run- ning Lecturer," not tied to one locality : that is as likely a guess as any. Whether the call of this Wells Lectureship and Oliver's Letter got due return from Mr. Story we cannot now say ; bufc judge that the Lectureship as Laud's star was rapidly ou the ascendant, and Mr. Story and the Feoffees had already lost 1,800 by the work, and had a fine in the Star-chamber still hanging over their heads did in fact come to the ground, and trouble no Archbishop or Market Cattle-dealer with God's Gospel any more. Mr. Wells, like the others, vanishes from I ! tory, or nearly so. In the chaos of the King's Pamphlets one seems to discern dimly that he sailed for New England, and that he returned in better times. Dimly once, in 1641 or 1 Wharton'B Laud (London, 1695), p. 527. * NoMe, i. 259 90 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 1636. 1642, you catch a momentary glimpse of a " Mr. Wells " in such predicament, and hope it was this Wells, preaching for a friend, " in the afternoon," in a Church in London. 1 Reverend Mark Noble says, the above Letter is very curious, and a convincing proof how far gone Oliver was, at that time, in religious enthusiasm. 2 Yes, my reverend imbecile friend, he is clearly one of those singular Christian enthusiasts, who believe that they have a soul to be saved, even as you do, my reverend imbecile friend, that you have a stomach to be satis- fied, and who likewise, astonishing to say, actually take some trouble about that. Far gone indeed, my reverend imbecile friend ! This, then, is what we know of Oliver at St. Ives. He wrote the above Letter there. He had sold his Properties in Hunt- ingdon for 1,800 ; with the whole or with part of which sum he stocked certain Grazing-Lands on the Estate of Slepe Hall, and farmed the same for a space of some five years. How he lived at St. Ives : how he saluted men on the streets ; read Bibles ; sold cattle ; and walked, with heavy footfall and many thoughts, through the Market Green or old narrow lanes in St. Ives, by the shore of the black Ouse River, shall be left to the reader's imagination. There is in this man talent for farm- ing ; there are thoughts enough, thoughts bounded by the Ouse liiver, thoughts that go beyond Eternity, and a great black Bea of things that he has never yet been able to think. I count the children he had at this time ; and find them six : Four boys and two girls ; the eldest a boy of fourteen, the youngest a girl of six ; Robert, Oliver, Bridget, Richard, Henry, Elizabeth. Robert and Oliver, I take .it, are gone to Felsted School, near Bourchier their Grandfather's in Essex. Sir Thomas Bourchier the worshipful Knight, once of London, lives at Felsted ; Sir William Mash am, another of the same, lives at Otes hard by, as we shall see. Cromwell at the time of writing this Letter was, as he him- self might partly think probable, about to quit St. Ives. His mother's brother Sir Thomas Steward, Knight, lay sick at Ely in those very days. Sir Thomas makes his will in this same 1 Old Pamphlet : Title mislaid and forgotten. a Noble, i. 259. 1638. LETTER II. ELY. 91 month of January, leaving Oliver his principal heir ; and on the 30th it was all over, and he lay in his last home : " Buried in the Cathedral of Ely, 30th January, 1G35-6." Worth noting, and curious to think of, since it is indisputa- ble : On the very day while Oliver Cromwell was writing this Letter at St. Ives, two obscure individuals, " Peter Aldridge and Thomas Lane, Assessors of Ship-money," over in Bucking- hamshire, had assembled a Parish Meeting in the Church of Great Kimble, to assess and rate the Ship-money of the said Parish : there, in the cold weather, at the foot of the Chil- tern Hills, "11 January, 1635," the Parish did attend, " John Hampden, Esquire," at the head of them, and by a Return still extant, 1 refused to pay the same or any portion thereof, witness the above "Assessors," witness also two "Parish Constables " whom we remit from such unexpected celebrity. John Hampden's share for this Parish is thirty-one shillings and sixpence ; for another Parish it is twenty shillings ; on which latter sum, not on the former, John Hampden was tried. LETTER n. OLIVER removed to Ely very soon after writing the foregoing Letter. There is a " receipt for 10 " signed by him, dated " Kly, 10 June, 1636;" a and other evidence that he was then resident there. He succeeded to his Uncle's Farming of the Tithes; the Leases of these, and new Leases of some other .small lands or fields granted him, are still in existence. He continued here till the time of the Long Parliament ; and his Family still after that, till some unascertained date, seemingly about 1647, 8 when it became apparent that the Long Parlia- ment was not like to rise for a great while yet, and it was 1 Fac-eimfle Engraving of it, in Lord Nugent'* Memorials ofHampde*(l*>n don, 1832), i. 231. Noble, i. 107. See Appendix, No 8, last Letter there. (Note to Third Edition.) 92 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. isOct judged expedient that the whole household should remove to London. His Mother appears to have joined him in Ely ; she quitted Huntingdon, returned to her native place, an aged grandmother, was not, however, to end her days there. As Sir Thomas Steward, Oliver's Uncle, farmed the tithes of Ely, it is reasonable to believe that he, and Oliver after him, occupied the house set apart for the Tithe-Farmer there; as Mark Noble, out of dim Tradition, confidently testifies. This is "the house occupied by Mr. Page;" 1 under which name, much better than under that of Cromwell, the inhabi- tants of Ely now know it. The House, though somewhat in a frail state, is still standing ; close to St. Mary's Church-yard ; at the corner of the great Tithe-barn of Ely, or great Square of tithe-barns and offices, which "is the biggest barn in England but one," say the Ely people. Of this House, for Oliver's sake, some Painter will yet perhaps take a correct likeness : it is needless to go to Stuntney, out on the Soham road, as Oliver's Painters usually do ; Oliver never lived there, but only his Mother's cousins ! Two years ago this House in Ely stood empty ; closed finally up, deserted by all the Pages, as " the Commutation of Tithes " had rendered it superfluous : this year (1845), I find it is an Alehouse, with still some chance of standing. It is by no means a sumptuous mansion ; but may have conveniently held a man of three or four hundred a year, with his family, in those simple times. Some quaint air of gentility still looks through its ragged dilapidation. It is of two stories, more properly of one and a half ; has many windows, irregular chimneys and gables. Likely enough Oliver lived here ; likely his Grandfather may have lived here, his Mother have been born here. She was now again resident here. The tomb of her first husband and child, Johannes Lynne and poor little Catharina Lynne, is in the Cathedral hard by. " Such are the changes which fleeting Time procureth." The Second extant Letter of Cromwell's is dated Ely, Octo- ber, 1638. 2 It will be good to introduce, as briefly as possible, 1 Noble, i. 106. 8 In Appendix, No. 2, another Note of his. ( Third Edition.) 1W8 LETTER II. ELY. 93 a few Historical Dates, to remind the reader what o'clock on the Great Horologe it is, while this small Letter is a-writing. Last year in London there had been a very strange spectacle ; and in three weeks after, another in Edinburgh, of still more significance in English History. On the 30th of June, 1637, in Old Palace-yard, three men, gentlemen of education, of good quality, a Barrister, a Physi- cian and a Parish Clergyman of London were set on three Pil- lories ; stood openly, as the scum of malefactors, for certain hours there ; and then had their ears cut off, bare knives, hot branding-irons, and their cheeks stamped " S.L.," Sedi- tious Libeller ; in the sight of a great crowd, " silent " mainly, and looking " pale." l The men were our old friend William Prynne, poor Prynne who had got into new trouble, and here lost his ears a second and final time, having had them " sewed on again " before : William Prynne, Barrister ; Dr. John Bast- wick ; and the Rev. Henry Burton, Minister of Friday -Street Church. Their sin was against Laud and his surplices at All- hallowtide, not against any other man or thing. Prynne. speaking to the people, defied all Lambeth, with Rome at the back of it, to argue with him, William Prynne alone, that these practices were according to the Law of England ; " and if I fail to prove it," said Prynne, " let them hang my body at the door of that Prison there," the Gate-house Prison. " Whereat the people gave a great shout," somewhat of an ominous one, I think. Bastwick's wife, on the scaffold, received his ears in her lap, and kissed him. 8 Prynne's ears the executioner " rather sawed than cut." " Cut me, tear me," cried Prynne ; " I fear thee not ; I fear the fire of Hell, not thee ! " The June sun had shone hot on their faces. Burton, who had dis- coursed eloquent religion all the while, said, when they carried him, near fainting, into a house in King Street, " It is too hot to last." Too hot indeed. For at Edinburgh, on Sunday the 23d of July following, Archbishop Laud having now, with great effort and much manipulation, got his Scotch Liturgy and Scotch Tnalt (Cohbett'g, Loudoii, 180'J), iii. 746. Towers 'a Brituh Liivjraj'liy. 94 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 13 Oct Pretended-Bishops ready, 1 brought them fairly out to action, and Jenny Geddes hurled her stool at their head. " Let us read the Collect of the day," said the Pretended-Bishop from amid his tippets ; " De'il colic the wame of thee ! " answered Jenny, hurling her stool at his head. " Thou foul thief, wilt thou say mass at iny lug ? " a I thought we had got done with the mass some time ago ; and here it is again ! " A Pape, a Pape ! " cried others : " Stane him ! " 8 In fact the service could not go on at all. This passed in St. Giles's Kirk, Edin- burgh, on Sunday, 23d July, 1637. Scotland had endured much in the bishop way for above thirty years bygone, and endeavored to say nothing, bitterly feeling a great deal. But now, on small signal, the hour was come. All Edinburgh, all Scotland, and behind that all England and Ireland, rose into unappeasable commotion on the flight of this stool of Jenny's ; and his Grace of Canterbury, and King Charles himself, and nany others had lost their heads before there could be peace again. The Scotch People had sworn their Covenant, not with- 1 Rushworth, ii. 321, 343, iii. Appendix, 153-155 ; &c. 2 " No sooner was the Book opened by the Dean of Edinburgh, but a number of the meaner sort, with clapping of their hands and outcries, made u great uproar ; and one of them, called Jane or Janot Gaddis (yet living at the writing of this relation), flung a little folding-stool, whereon she sat, at the Dean's head, saying, ' Out, thou false thief ! dost thou say the mass at my lug ? ' Which was followed with so great a noise," &c. These words are in the Continuation of Baker's Chronicle, by Phillips (Milton's Nephew) ; ItftTi edition of Baker (London, 1670), p. 478. They are not in the fourth edition of Baker, 1665, which is the first that contains the Continuation ; they follow as here in all the others. Thought to be the first grave mention of Jenny Geddes in Printed History ; a heroine still familiar to Tradition everywhere in Scotland. In a foolish Pamphlet, printed in 1661, entitled Edinburgh's Joy, &c., Joy for the Blessed Restoration and Annus Mirabilis, there is mention made of " the immortal Jenet Geddis," whom the writer represents as rejoicing ex- ceedingly in that miraculous event ; she seems to be a well-known person, keeping " a cabbage-stall at the Tron Kirk," at that date. Burns, in his Highland Tour, named his mare Jenny Geddes. Helen of Troy, for practical importance in Human History, is but a small Heroine to Jenny : but she has been luckier in the recording ! For these bibliographical notices I am indebted to the friendliness of Mr. David Laing of the Signet Library, Edinburgh. 8 Rushworth, Kennet, Balfour. 138. LETTER IT. ELY. 95 out "tears;" and were in these very days of October, 1638, while Oliver is writing at Ely, busy with their whole might electing their General Assembly, to meet at Glasgow next month. I think the Tukhan Apparatus is likely to be some- what sharply dealt with, the Cow having become awake to it ! Great events are in the wind ; out of Scotland vague news, of unappeasable commotion risen there. In the end of that same year, too, there had risen all over England huge rumor concerning the Ship-money Trial at Lon- don. On the 6th of November, 1637, this important Process of Mr. Hampden's began. Learned Mr. St. John, a dark tough man, of the toughness of leather, spake with irrefragable law- eloquence, law-logic, for three days running, on Mr. Hampden's side ; and learned Mr. Holborn for three other days ; pre- served yet by Rushworth in acres of typography, unreadable now to all mortals. For other learned gentlemen, tough as leather, spoke on the opposite side ; and learned judges ani madvert ed ; at endless length, amid the expectancy of men. With brief pauses, the Trial lasted for three weeks and three days. Mr. Hampden became the most famous man in England, 1 by accident partly. The sentence was not de- livered till April, 1638 ; and then it went against Mr. Hamp- den: judgment in Exchequer ran to this effect, " Consideration est per eosdem Barones, qiiod pra'dicius Johannes Hampden de iisdem viyinti solidis oneretur," He must pay the Twenty shil- lings, " et inde satisfaciat"* No hope in Law-Courts, then; Petition of Right and Tail-agio non concedendo have become an old song. If there be not hope in Jenny Geddes's stool and " De'il colic the wame of thee," we are in a bad way ! During which great public Transactions, there had been in Cromwell's own Fen-country a work of immense local celebrity going on : the actual Drainage of the Fens, so long talked about ; the construction, namely, of the great Bedford Level, to carry til.- Ouse River direct into the sea; holding it forcibly aloft in strong embankments, for twenty straight miles or so ; not leav- ing it to meander and stagnate, and in the wet season drown the country, as heretofore. This grand work began, Dryasdust 1 CUremlon. a Hushworth, iii Ap|.-n.lix, 150-216; H> ii. 480. 96 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 13 Oct. in his bewildered manner knows not when ; but it " went on rapidly/' and had ended in 1637. 1 Or rather had appeared, and strongly endeavored, to end in 1637 ; but was not yet by any means settled and ended ; the whole Fen-region clamoring that it could not, and should not, end so. In which wide clamor, against injustice done in high places, Oliver Cromwell, as is well known, though otherwise a most private quiet man, saw good to interfere ; to give the universal inarticulate clamor a voice, and gain a remedy for it. He approved himself, as Sir Philip War- wick will testify, 2 "a man that would set well at the mark," that took sure aim, and had a stroke of some weight in him. We cannot here afford room to disentangle that affair from the dark rubbish-abysses, old and new, in which it lies deep buried : suffice it to assure the reader that Oliver did by no means " oppose " the Draining of the Fens, but was and had been, as his Father before him, highly favorable to it ; that he opposed the King in Council wishing to do a public injustice in regard to the Draining of the Fens ; and by a " great meeting at Hunt- ingdon," and other good measures, contrived to put a stop to the same. At a time when, as Old Palace-yard might testify, that operation of going in the teeth of the royal will was some- what more perilous than it would be now ! This was in 1638, according to the good testimony of Warwick. 8 Cromwell ac- quired by it a great popularity in the Fen-country, acquired the name or nickname " Lord of the Fens ; " and what was much more valuable, had done the duty of a good citizen, what- ever he might acquire by it. The disastrous public Events which soon followed put a stop to all farther operations in the Fens for a good many years. These clamors of local grievance near at hand, these rumors of universal grievance from the distance, they were part of the Day's noises, they were sounding in Cromwell's mind, along with many others now silent, while the following Letter went off towards " Sir William Masham's House called Otes, 1 Dugdale's Hist, of Embankments ; Cole's, Wells 's, &c. &c. Hist of the Fens- 2 Warwick's Memoirs (London, 1701), p. 250. 8 Ibid. : poor Noble blunders, as he is apt to do. 18-38. LETTER II. ELY. 97 in Essex," in the year 1638. Of Otes and the Mashams in Essex, there must likewise, in spite of our strait limits, be a word said. The Mashams were distant Cousins of Oliver's ; this Sir William Masham, or Massain as he is often written, proved a conspicuous busy man in the Politics of his time ; on the Puritan side; rose into Oliver's Council of State at last. 1 The Mashams became Lords Masham in the next generations, and so continued for a while ; one Lady Mashain was a daugh- ter of Philosopher Cudworth, and is still remembered as the iri'-nd of John Locke, whom she tended in his old days ; who lies buried, as his monument still shows, at the Church of High Laver, in the neighborhood of which Otes Mansion stood. High Laver, Essex, not far from Harlow Station on the North- eastern Railway. The Mashams are all extinct, and their Mansion is swept away as if it had not been. "Some forty ago," says my kind informant, "a wealthy Maltster ot Bishop's Stortford became the proprietor by purchase ; and; pulled the Manor-house down ; leaving the out-houses as cot- tages to some poor people." The name Otes, the tomb of Locke, and this undestroyed and now indestructible fraction of Rag-paper alone preserve the memory of Mashamdoin in this world. We modernize the spelling ; let the reader, for it may be worth his while, endeavor to modernize the senti- ment and subject-matter. There is only .this farther to be premised, That St. John, the celebrated Ship-money Barrister, has married for his second wife a Cousin of Oliver Cromwell's, a Daughter of Uncle Henry's, whom we knew at Upwood long ago ; a which Cousin, and perhaps her learned husband reposing from his arduous law-duties along with her, is now on a Summer or Autumn visit at Otes, and has lately seen Oliver there. 1 Ilia Great-grandson's wife was, withal, a famous woman; the Abigail Matiham of Queen Anne, most reuowued of Waiting- womeu, or " Abigails," in KiiL'IMi History! (Note c/1869.) * Antea, p. 26. YOU ZTII. f 98 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 13 Oct. " To my beloved Cousin Mrs. St. John, at Sir William Masham his House called Otes, in Essex : Present these. " ELY, 13th October, 1638. " DEAR COUSIN, I thankfully acknowledge your love in your kind remembrance of me upon this opportunity. Alas, you do too highly prize my lines, and my company. I may be ashamed to own your expressions, considering how unprofit- able I am, and the mean improvement of my talent. " Yet to honor my God by declaring what He hath done for my soul, in this I am confident, and I will be so. Truly, then, this I find : That He giveth springs in a dry barren wilderness where no water is. I live, you know where, in Meshec, which they say signifies Prolonging ; in Kedar, which signifies Slackness : yet the Lord forsaketh me not. Though He do prolong, yet He will I trust bring me to His tabernacle, to His resting-place. My soul is with the Congregation of the First-born, my body rests in hope ; and if here I may honor my God either by doing or by suffering, I shall be most glad. "Truly no poor creature hath more cause to put himself forth in the cause of his God than I. I have had plentiful wages beforehand ; and I am sure I shall never earn the least mite. The Lord accept me in His Son, and give me to walk in the light, and give us to walk in the light, as He is the light ! He it is that enlighteneth our blackness, our darkness. I dare not say, He hideth His face from me. He giveth me to see light in His light. One beam in a dark place hath ex- ceeding much refreshment in it: blessed be His Name for shining upon so dark a heart as mine ! You know what my manner of life hath been. Oh, I lived in and loved darkness, and hated light; I was a chief, the chief of sinners. This is true : I hated godliness, yet God had mercy on me. O the riches of His mercy ! Praise Him for me ; pray for me, that He who hath begun a good work would perfect it m the day of Christ. " Salute all my friends in that Family whereof you are yet a member. I am much bound unto them for their love. I bless the Lord for them ; and that my Son, by their procure- 1638. LETTER II. ELY. 99 ment, is so well. Let him have your prayers, your counsel ; let me have them. "Salute your Husband and Sister from me: He is not a man of his word ! He promised to write about Mr. Wrath of Epping ; but as yet I receive no letters : put him in mind to do what with conveniency may be done for the poor Cousin I did solicit him about. " Once more farewell. The Lord be with you : so prayeth " Your truly loving Cousin, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l There are two or perhaps three sons of Cromwell's at Felsted School by this time : a likely enough guess is, that he might have been taking Dick over to Felsted on that occasion when he came round by Otes, and gave such comfort by his speech to the pious Mashams, and to the young Cousin, now on a summer visit at Otes. What glimpses of long-gone summers ; of long-gone human beings in fringed trouser-breeches, in starched ruff, in hood and fardingale ; alive they, within their antiquarian costumes, living men and women ; instruc- tive, very interesting to one another I Mrs. St. John came down to breakfast every morning in that summer visit of the year 1638, and Sir William said grave grace, and they spake polite devout things to one another ; and they are vanished, they and their things and speeches, all silent, like the echoes of the old nightingales that sang that season, like the blossoms of the old roses. Death, Time 1 For the soul's furniture of these brave people is grown not unintelligible, antiquarian, than their Spanish boots and 1 :q.jn;t caps. Reverend Mark Noble, my reverend imbecile friend, discovers in this Letter evidence that Oliver was once a very dissolute man ; that Carrion Heath spake truth in that FLuji-Uuin Balderdash of his. O my reverend imbecile friend, hadst thou thyself never any moral life, but only a sensitive and digestive? Thy soul never longed towards the serene its, ;ill hidden from thee; and thirsted as the hart in dry j.l :u -s wherein no waters be ? It was never a sorrow for thee 1 Thorloe'tt Statr I'ajmrs (Loudun, 174*), L 1. 100 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 1638. that the eternal pole-star had gone out, veiled itself in dark clouds ; a sorrow only that this or the other noble Patron forgot thee when a living fell vacant ? I have known Chris- tians, Moslems, Methodists, and, alas, also reverend irrever- ent Apes by the Dead Sea I O modern reader, dark as this Letter may seem, I will ad- vise thee to make an attempt towards understanding it. There is in it a " tradition of humanity " worth all the rest. Indis- putable certificate that man once had a soul ; that man once walked with God, his little Life a sacred island girdled with Eternities and Godhoods. Was it not a time for heroes ? Heroes were then possible. I say, thou shalt understand that Letter ; thou also, looking out into a too brutish world, wilt then exclaim with Oliver Cromwell, with Hebrew David, as old Mr. House of Truro, and the Presbyterian populations, still sing him in the Northern Kirks : " Woe 's me that I in Meshec am A sojourncr so long, Or that I in the tents do dwell To Kedar that belong ! " Yes, there is a tone in the soul of this Oliver that holds of the Perennial. With a noble sorrow, with a noble patience, he longs towards the mark of the prize of the high calling. He, I think, has chosen the better part. The world and its wild tumults, if they will but let him alone! Yet he too will venture, will do and suffer for God's cause, if the call come. What man with better reason ? He hath had plentiful wages beforehand ; snatched out of darkness into marvellous light : he will never earn the least mite. Annihilation of self ; Selbsttodtung, as Novalis calls it ; casting yourself at the foot- stool of God's throne, " To live or to die forever ; as Thou wilt, not as I will." Brother, hadst thou never, in any form, such moments in thy history ? Thou knowest them not, even by credible rumor? Well, thy earthly path was peaceabler, I suppose. But the Highest was never in thee, the Highest will never come out of thee. Thou shalt at best abide by the stuff ; as cherished house-dog, guard the stuff, perhaps with enor- 1640. TWO YEARS. 101 mous gold-collars and provender : but the battle, and the hero- death, and victory's fire-chariot carrying men to the Immortals, shall never be thine. I pity tb.ee j brag not, or I shall have to despise thee. TWO YEARS. SUCH is Oliver's one Letter from Ely. To guide us a little through the void gulf towards his next Letter, we will here intercalate the following small fractions of Chronology. 1639. May-July. The Scots at their Glasgow Assembly * had rent their Tulchan Apparatus in so rough a way, and otherwise so ill comported themselves, his Majesty saw good, in the begin- ning of this year, immense negotiation and messaging to and fro having proved so futile, to chastise them with an Army. By unheard-of exertions in the Extra-Parliamentary way, his Majesty got an Army ready ; marched with it to Berwick, is at Newcastle, 8th May, 1G39. 2 But, alas, the Scots, with a much better Army, already lay encamped on Dunse Law ; every nobleman with his tenants there, as a drilled regiment, round him ; old Field-marshal Lesley for their generalissimo ; at every Colonel's tent this pennon flying, For Christ's Crown and Covenant : there was no fighting to be thought of. 8 Nei- ther could the Pacification there patched up be of long con- tinuance. The Scots disbanded their soldiers ; but kept the officers, mostly Gustavus-Adolphus men, still within sight. 1640. The Scotch Pacification, hastily patched up at Dunse Hill, did not last; discrepancies arose as to the practical meaning 1 Nov. 1688; Baillie's Letter (Edinburgh, 1841), i. 118-176. 1 Roflhworth, iii. 'J.iO * Ib. iii. 920-94'.*, Huillie, i. 184-221; King's Army " dismissed " Pacification) vuti June (Kiuhworth, iii. 946). 102 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 1640. of this and the other clause in it. Discrepancies which tho farther they were handled, embroiled themselves the more. His Majesty having burnt Scotch paper Declarations " by the hands of the common hangman," and almost cut off the poor Scotch Chancellor London's head, and being again resolute to chastise the rebel Scots with an Army, decides on summoning a Parliament for that end, there being no money attainable otherwise. To the great and glad astonishment of England ; which, at one time, thought never to have seen another Parlia- ment ! Oliver Cromwell sat in this Parliament for Cambridge ; l recommended by Hampden, say some ; not needing any rec- ommendation in those Fen-countries, think others. Oliver's Colleague was a Thomas Meautys, Esquire. This Parliament met, 13th April, 1640 : it was by no means prompt enough with supplies against the rebel Scots ; the King dismissed it in a huff, 5th May ; after a Session of three weeks : Historians call it the Short Parliament. His Majesty decides on raising money and an Army " by other methods ; " to which end, Wentworth, now Earl Strafford and Lord-Lieutenant of Ire- land, who had advised that course in the Council, did himself subscribe 20,000. Archbishop Laud had long ago seen "a cloud rising " against the Four surplices at Allhallowtide ; and now it is covering the whole sky, in a most dismal and really thundery-looking manner. His Majesty by " other methods," commission of array, benevolence, forced-loan, or how he could, got a kind of Army on foot, 2 and set it marching out of the several Counties in the South towards the Scotch Border : but it was a most hopeless Army. The soldiers called the affair a Bishops' War they mutinied against their officers, shot some of their officers : in various Towns on their march, if the Clergyman were reputed Puritan, they went and gave him three cheers ; if of Surplice tendency, they sometimes threw his furniture out of window. 8 No fighting against poor Scotch Gospellers was to be hoped for from these men. Meanwhile the Scots, not to be behind- 1 Browne Willis, pp. 229, 230; Rushworth, iii. 1105. Ib. iii. 1241. 8 Vicar's Parliamentary Chronicle (Lond. 1644) p. 20. IMO. TWO YEARS. 103 hand, had raised a good Army of their own ; and decided on going into England with it, this time, " to present their griev- ances to the King's Majesty." On the 20th of August, 1G40, they cross the Tweed at Coldstream ; Montrose wading in the van of them all. They wore uniform of hodden gray, with blue caps ; and each man had a moderate haversack of oatmeal on his back. 1 August 28th. The Scots force their way across the Tyne, at Newburn, some miles above Newcastle; the King's Army making small fight, most of them no fight ; hurrying from Newcastle, and all town and country quarters, towards York again, where his Majesty and Strafford were. 2 The Bishi>x War was at an end. The Scots, striving to be gentle as doves in their behavior, and publishing boundless brotherly Declara- tions to all the brethren that loved Christ's Gospel and God's Justice in England, took possession of Newcastle next day ; took possession gradually of all Northumberland and Durham, and stayed there, in various towns and villages, about a year. The whole body of English Puritans looked upon them as their saviors : some months afterwards, Robert Baillie heard the London ballad-singers, on the streets, singing copiously with strong lungs, " Grainercy, good Master Scot " by way of burden. 8 1 1 is Majesty and Strafford, in a fine frenzy at this turn of affairs, found no refuge, except to summon a ''Council of Peers," to enter upon a " Treaty " with the Scots ; and alas, at last, summon a New Parliament. Not to be helped in any way. Twelve chief Peers of the summoned " Council " peti- tioned for a Parliament ; the City of London petitioned for a r.irliament, and would not lend money otherwise. A Parlia- iMi'iit was appointed for the 3d of November next; where- upon London cheerfully lent 200,000 ; and the treaty with the Scots at Ri|>on, 1st Octolior, 1640, 4 by and by transferred to London, went j)aceably on at a very leisurely pace. The Scotch Army lay ipiarh-ml at Newcastle, and over Northum- berland ami Durham, on an allowance of 850 a day; an Army l Old Pamphlet*. * Ruahworth, iii. 1236, &c. Baillie's Letter*. Uwthwurtli, iii. 1282. 104 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 1640. indispensable for Puritan objects ; no haste in finishing its Treaty. The English Army lay across in Yorkshire ; without allowance except from the casualties of the King's Exchequer ; in a dissatisfied manner, and occasionally getting into "Army- Plots." This Parliament, which met on the 3d of November, 1640, has become very celebrated in History by the name of the Long Parliament. It accomplished and suffered very singular destinies ; suffered a Pride's Purge, a Cromwell's Ejectment ; suffered Reinstatements, Re-ejectments ; and the Rump or Fag-end of it did not finally vanish till 16th March, 1659-60. Oliver Cromwell sat again in this Parliament for Cambridge Town ; Meautys, his old Colleague, is now changed for " John Lowry, Esquire," * probably a more Puritanic man. The Members for Cambridge University are the same in both Par- liaments. LETTER III. " To my loving friend Mr. Willingham, at his House in Swithin's Lane : These. " [LONDON, February, 1640.] 2 "SiK, I desire you to send me the Reasons of the Scots to enforce their desire of Uniformity in Religion, expressed in their 8th Article ; I mean that which I had before of you. I would peruse it against we fall upon that Debate, which will be speedily. Yours, "OLIVER CROMWELL." 3 There is a great quantity of intricate investigation requisite to date this small undated Note, and make it entirely trans- parent ! The Scotch Treaty, begun at Ripon, is going on, 1 Willis ; Rnshworth, iv. 3. See Cooper's Annals of Cambridge (London, 1845), iii. 303, 304. a The words within brackets, here as always in the Text of Cromwell's Letters, are mine, not his ; the date in this instance is conjectural or inferen- tial. 8 Harris, p. 517 ; Sloane MSS. no. 2035, f. 126. 1M1. LETTER III. ANTI-EPISCOPACY. 105 never ended : the agitation about abolishing Bishops has just begun, in the House and out of it. On Friday, llth December, 1640, the Londoners present their celebrated " Petition," signed by 15,000 hands, craving to have Bishops and their Ceremonies radically reformed. Then on Saturday, 23d January, 1640-1, comes the still more celebrated "Petition and Remonstrance from 700 Ministers of the Church of England," l to the like effect. Upon which Documents, especially upon the latter, ensue strenuous debat- ings, a ensues a " Committee of Twenty-four ; " a Bill to abolish Superstition and Idolatry ; and, in a week or two, a Bill to take away the Bishops' Votes in Parliament : Bills recom- mended by the said Committee. A diligent Committee ; which heard much evidence, and theological debating, from Dr. Bur- gess and others. Their Bishops Bill, not without hot arguing, passed through the Commons j was rejected by the Lords ; took effect, however, in a much heavier shape, within year and day. Young Sir Ralph Varney, son of Edmund the Standard-bearer, has preserved very careful Notes of the the- ological revelations and profound arguments, heard in this Committee from Dr. Burgess and others ; intensely interesting at that time to all ingenuous young gentlemen ; a mere torpor now to all persons. In fact, the whole world, as we perceive, in this Spring of 1641, is getting on fire with episcopal, anti-episcopal emo- tion ; and the Scotch Commissioners, with their Desire of Uni- formity, are naturally the centre of the latter. Bishop Hall, Smectymnuus, and one Mr. Milton " near St. Bride's Church," are all getting their Pamphlets ready. The assiduous con- temporary individual who collected the huge stock of loose Printing now known as King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, usually writes the date on the title-page of each ; but has, with a curious infelicity, omitted it in the case of Milton's Pamphlets, which accordingly remain undatable except approximately. 1 Commons Journals, ii. 72. 8 Il.i.l. ii. 81 ; 8th and 9th of February. Se Haillie'i Letters, i. 308 ; aud Ruahworth, iv. 93 and 174. 106 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. iwi. The exact copy of the Scotch Demands towards a Treaty I have not yet met with, though doubtless it is in print amid the unsorted Rubbish-Mountains of the British Museum. No- tices of it are to be seen in Baillie, also in Rushworth. 1 The first Seven Articles relate to secularities ; payment of dam- ages ; punishment of incendiaries, and so forth : the Seventh is the "recalling" of the King's Proclamations against the Scots. The Eighth, "anent a solid peace betwixt the Na- tions," involves this matter of Uniformity in Religion, and therefore is of weightier moment. Baillie says : " For the Eighth great Demand some days were spent in preparation;" The Lords would have made no difficulty about dismantling Berwick and Carlisle, or such like ; but finding that the other points of this Eighth Article were to involve the permanent relations of England, they delayed. " We expect it this very day," says Baillie (28th February, 1640-1). Oliver Cromwell also expects it this very day, or " speedily," and there- fore writes to Mr. Willingharn for a sight of the Documents again. Whoever wishes to trace the emergence, re-emergence, slow ambiguous progress and dim issue of this "Eighth Article," may consult the opaque but authentic Commons Journals, and strive to elucidate the same by poor old brown Pamphlets, in the places cited below. 3 It was not finally voted in the affirmative till the middle of May ; and then still it was far from being ended. It ended, properly, in the Summoning of a " Westminster Assembly of Divines," To ascertain for us liow " the two Nations " may best attain to " Uniformity of Religion." This " Mr. Willingham my loving friend," of whom I have found no other vestige anywhere in Nature, is presumably a London Puritan concerned in the London Petition and other such matters, to whom the Member for Cambridge, a man of known zeal, good connection, and growing weight, is worth convincing. 1 Baillie, i. 297, and antea et postea; Rushworth, iv. 166. 2 Commons Journals, ii. 84, 85 ; Diurnal Occurrences in Parliament (Printed for William Cooke, London, 1641, often erroneous as to the day), 10th Feb- ruary, 7th March, 15th May. 1641. IN THE LONG PARLIAMENT 107 Oliver St. John the Ship-money Lawyer, n w Member for Totuess, has lately been made Solicitor General on the 2d of February, 1640-1, D'Ewes says of him, " newly created ; " l a date worth attending to. Stratford's Trial is coming on ; to begin on the 22d of March : Stratford and Laud are safe in the Tower long since ; Finch and VVindebank, and other Delin- quents in high places, have fled rapidly beyond seas. IN THE LONG PARLIAMENT. THAT little Note, despatched by a servant to Swithin's Lane in the Spring of 1641, and still saved by capricious destiny while so much else has been destroyed, is all of Autographic that Oliver Cromwell has left us concerning his proceedings in the first three-and-twenty months of the Long Parliament. Months distinguished, beyond most others in History, by anxieties and endeavors, by hope and fear and swift vicissi- tude, to all England as well as him : distinguished on his part by much Parliamentary activity withal ; of which, unknown hitherto in History, but still capable of being known, let us wait some other opportunity of speaking. Two vague appear- ances of his in that scene, which are already known to most readers, we will set in their right date and place, making them faintly visible at last ; and therewith leave this part of the subject. In D'Ewes's Manuscript above cited a are these words, relat- ing to Monday, Qth November, 1640, the sixth day of the Long Parliament: "Mr. Cromwell delivered the Petition of John Lilburn," young Lilburn, who had once been Prynne's amanuensis, among other things, and whose " whipping with 200 stripes from Westminster to the Fleet Prison," had already rendered him conspicuous. This is the record of D'Ewes. To which let us now annex the following well-known passage of 1 Sir Rimond D'Rwea's Notei of the Tang Parliament (Harleian MSS nos- 162-166), fol. 189 a. p. 156 of Tmwcript pa** u*. D'Kwm, foL4. 108 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 1841. Sir Philip Warwick ; and if the reader fancy the Speeches on the previous Saturday, 1 and how the " whole of this Monday was spent in hearing grievances " of the like sort, some dim image of a strange old scene may perhaps rise upon him. " The first time I ever took notice of Mr. Cromwell," says Warwick, " was in the very beginning of the Parliament held in November, 1640 ; when I [Member for Radnor] vainly thought myself a courtly young gentleman, for we courtiers valued ourselves much upon our good clothes ! I came into the House one morning," Monday morning, " well clad ; and per- ceived a gentleman speaking, whom I knew not, very ordi- narily apparelled ; for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed to have been made by an ill country-tailor ; his linen was plain, and not very clean ; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band, which was not much larger than his collar. His hat was without a hat-band. His stature was of a good size ; his sword stuck close to his side : his counte- nance swoln and reddish, his voice sharp and untunable, and his eloquence full of fervor. For the subject-matter would not bear much of reason ; it being on behalf of a servant of Mr. Prynne's who had dispersed Libels ; " yes, Libels, and had come to Palace-yard for it, as we saw : " I sincerely pro- fess, it lessened much my reverence unto that Great Council, for this gentleman was very much hearkened unto ; " a which was strange, seeing he had no gold lace to his coat, nor frills to his band ; and otherwise, to me in my poor feather-head, seemed a somewhat unhandy gentleman ! The reader may take what of these Warwick traits he can along with him, and also omit what he cannot take; for though Warwick's veracity is undoubted, his memory after many years, in such an element as his had been, may be ques- tioned. The " band " we may remind our readers, is a linen tippet, properly the shirt-collar of those days, which, when the hair was worn long, needed to fold itself with a good expanse of washable linen over the upper- works of the coat, and defend these and their velvets from harm. The " specks of blood," 1 Commons Journals, 7th Nov. 1640 ; Rushworth, iv. 24, &c. 2 Warwick, p. 247. 1641. IN THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 109 if not fabulous, we, not without general sympathy, attribute to bad razors : as for the " hat-band," one remarks that men did not speak with their hats on ; and therefore will, with Sir Philip's leave, omit that. The " untunable voice," or what a poor young gentleman in these circumstances would consider as such, is very significant to us. Here is the other vague appearance : from Clarendon's Life. 1 " He [Mr. Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon] was often heard to mention one private Committee, in which he was put acci- dentally into the chair ; upon an Enclosure which had been made of great wastes, belonging to the Queen's Manors, with- out the consent of the tenants, the benefit whereof had been given by the Queen to a servant of near trust, who forthwith sold the lands enclosed to the Earl of Manchester, Lord Privy Seal ; who together with his Son Mandevil were now most concerned to maintain the Enclosure ; against which, as well the inhabitants of other manors, who claimed Common in those wastes, as the Queen's tenants of the same, made loud com- plaints, as a great oppression, carried upon them with a very high hand, and supported by power. " The Committee sat in the Queen's Court ; and Oliver Crom- well being one of them, appeared much concerned to counte- nance the Petitioners, who were numerous together with their Witnesses; the Lord Mandevil being likewise present as a party, and by the direction of the Committee sitting covered. 'i< unwell, who had never before been heard to speak in the House of Commons," at least not by me, though he had often spoken, and was very well known there, " ordered the Witnesses and Petitioners in the method of the proceeding ; and seconded, and enlarged upon what they said, with great passion ; and the Witnesses and persons concerned, who were a very rude kind of people, interrupted the Counsel and Wit- nesses on the other side, with great clamor, when they said anything that did not please them ; so that Mr. Hyde (whose office it was to oblige men of all sorts to keep order) was compelled to use some sharp reproofs, and some threats, to reduce them to such a temper that the business might be i L 78 (Oxford, 1761). 110 PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. 1641. quietly heard. Cromwell, in great fury, reproached the Chair- man for being partial, and that he discountenanced the Witnesses by threatening them : the other appealed to the Committee ; which justified him, and declared that he behaved himself as he ought to do ; which more inflamed him," Crom- well, "who was already too much angry. When upon any men- tion of matter-of-fact, or of the proceeding before and at the Enclosure, the Lord Mandevil desired to be heard, and with great modesty related what had been done, or explained what had been said, Mr. Cromwell did answer, and reply upon him with so much indecency and rudeness, and in language so con- trary and offensive, that every man would have thought, that as their natures and their manners were as opposite as it is possible, so their interest could never have been the same. In the end, his whole carriage was so tempestuous, and his behavior so insolent, that the Chairman found himself obliged to reprehend him : and to tell him, That if he [Mr. Cromwell] proceeded in the same manner, he [Mr. Hyde] would presently adjourn the Committee, and the next morning complain to the House of him. Which he never forgave ; and took all occa- sions afterwards to pursue him with the utmost malice and revenge, to his death," not Mr. Hyde's, happily, but Mr. Crom- well's, who at length did cease to cherish " malice and revenge " against Mr. Hyde ! Tracking this matter, by faint indications, through various obscure courses, I conclude that it related to "the Soke of Somersham," * near St. Ives ; and that the scene in the Queen's Court probably occurred in the beginning of July, 1641. 2 Crom- well knew this Soke of Somersham, near St. Ives, very well ; knew these poor rustics, and what treatment they had got ; and wished, not in the imperturbablest manner it would seem, to see justice done them. Here too, subtracting the due sub- trahend from Mr. Hyde's Narrative, we have a pleasant visu- ality of an old summer afternoon " in the Queen's Court " two hundred years ago. 1 Commons Journals, ii. 172. 2 Ibid. 87, 150, 172, 192, 215, 218, 319, the dates extend from 17th Fel> tuary to 21st July. 1641 1641. IN THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Ill Cromwell's next Letters present him to us, not debating, or about to debate, concerning Parliamentary Propositions and Scotch " Eighth Articles," but with his sword drawn to en- force them ; the whole Kingdom divided now into two armed conflicting masses, the argument to be by pike and bullet henceforth. PART n. TO THE END OF THE FIRST CIVIL WAR. 1642-1646. PRELIMINARY. THERE is therefore a great dark void, from February, 1641, to January, 1643, through which the reader is to help himself from Letter III. over to Letter IV., as he best may. How has pacific England, the most solid pacific country in the world, got all into this armed attitude ; and decided itself to argue henceforth by pike and bullet till it get some solution ? Dry- asdust, if there remained any shame in him, ought to look at those wagon-loads of Printed Volumes, and blush ! We, in great haste, offer the necessitous reader the following hints and considerations. It was mentioned above that Oliver St. John, the noted Puritan Lawyer, was already, in the end of January, 1641, made Solicitor-General. The reader may mark that as a small fraction of an event showing itself above ground, completed ; and indicating to him a grand subterranean attempt on the part of King Charles and the Puritan Leaders, which unfor- tunately never could become a fact or event. Charles, in January last or earlier (for there are no dates discoverable but this of St. John's), perceiving how the current of the Nation ran, and what a humor men were getting into, had de- cided on trying to adopt the Puritan leaders, Pym, Hampden, Holies and others, as what we should now call his " Min- isters : " these Puritan men, under the Earl of Bedford as chief, might have hoped to become what we should now call PRELIMINARY. 113 a " Majesty's Ministry," and to execute peaceably, with their King presiding over them, what reforms had grown inevitable. A most desirable result, if a possible one ; for of all men these had the least notion of revolting, or rebelling against their King! This negotiation had been entered into, and entertained as a possibility by both parties : so much is indubitable ; so much and notliing more, except that it ended without result. 1 It would in our days be the easiest negotiation ; but it was then an impossible one. For it meant that the King should content himself with the Name of King, and see measures the reverse <>f what he wished and willed take effect by his sanction. Which, in sad truth, had become a necessity for Charles I. in the England of 1641. His tendency and effort has long been the reverse of England's ; he cannot govern England, whatever he may govern ! And yet to have admitted this necessity, alas, was it not to have settled the whole Quarrel, without the eight-and-forty years of fighting, and confused bickering and oscillation, which proved to be needful first ? The negotiation dropped ; leaving for visible result only this appointment of St. John's. His Majesty on that side saw no course possible for him. Accordingly he tried it in the opposite direction, which also, on failure by this other, was very natural for him. He entered into secret tampe rings with the Officers of the English Army ; which, lying now in Yorkshire, ill-paid, defeated, and in neigh- borhood of a Scotch Army victoriously furnished with 850 a was very apt for discontent. There arose a " first Ariny- Plot " for delivering Strafford from the Tower ; then a second Army-Plot for some equally wild achievement, tending to de- liver Majesty from thraldom, and send this factious Parliament about its business. In which desperate schemes, though his Majesty strove not to commit himself beyond what was neces- sary, it became and still remains indubitable that he did par- ticipate; as indeed, the former course of listening to his Parliament having been abandoned, this other of coercing or awing it by armed force was the only remaining one. 1 Whitlocke, C'lareudou ; tee Foreter's Statemen, ii. 15O-157. TOL ivii g 114 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 1841. These Army-Plots, detected one after another, and investi- gated and commented upon, with boundless interest, in Parlia- ment and out of it, kept the Summer and Autumn of 1641 in continual alarm and agitation ; taught all Opposition persons, and a factious Parliament in general, what ground they were standing on ; and in the factious Parliament, especially, could not but awaken the liveliest desire of having the Mili- tary Force put in such hands as would be safe for them. " The Lord-Lieutenants of Counties," this factious Parliament con- ceived an unappeasable desire of knowing who these were to be : this is what they mean by " Power of the Militia ; " on which point, as his Majesty would not yield a jot, his Parlia- ment and he the point becoming daily more important, new offences daily accumulating, and the split ever widening ultimately rent themselves asunder, and drew swords to de- cide it. Such was the well-known consummation ; which in Crom- well's next Letter we find to have arrived. Here are a few dates which may assist the reader to grope his way thither. From " Mr. Willingham in Swithin's Lane " in February, 1641, to the Royal Standard at Nottingham in August, 1642, and " Mr. Barnard at Huntingdon " in January, 1643, which is our next stage, there is a long vague road ; and the lights upon it are mostly a universal dance of will-o'-wisps, and distracted fire-flies in a state of excitement not good guidance for the traveller ! 1641. Monday, 3d May. Strafford's Trial being ended, but no sen- tence yet given, Mr. Robert Baillie, Minister of Kilwiuning, who was here among the Scotch Commissioners at present, saw in Palace-yard, Westminster, " some thousands of Citizens and Apprentices " (Miscellaneous Persons and City Shopmen, as we should now call them), who rolled about there " all day," bellowing to every Lord as he went in or came out, " with a loud and hideous voice : " " Justice on Strafford ! Justice oil Traitors !' M which seemed ominous to the Rev. Mr. Baillie. i Baillie, i. 351. 1841. PRELIMINARY. In which same hours, amid such echoes from without, the honorable House of Commons within doors, all in great tremor about Army-Plots, Treasons, Death-perils, was busy redacting a " Protestation ; " a kind of solemn Vow, or miniature Scotch Covenant, the first of a good many such in those earnest agi- tated times, to the effect : " We take the Supreme to witness that we will stand by one another to the death in prosecution of our just objects here ; in defence of Law, Loyalty and Gos- pel here." To this effect ; but couched in very mild language, and with a " Preamble," in which our Terror of Army-Plots, the moving principle of the affair, is discreetly almost shaded out of sight ; it being our object that the House should b "unanimous" in this Protestation. As accordingly the House was ; the House, and to a great extent the Nation. Hundreds of honorable Members, Mr. Cromwell one of them, sign the Protestation this day ; the others on the following days : their names all registered in due succession in the Books. 1 Nay, it is ordered that the whole Nation be invited to sign it ; that each honorable Member send it down to his constituents, and invite them to sign it. Which, as we say, the constituents, all the reforming part of them, everywhere in England, did ; with a feeling of solemnity very strange to the modern mind. Strik- ing terror into all Traitors ; quashing down Army-Plots for the present, and the hopes of poor Strafford forever. A Pro- testation held really sacred ; appealed to, henceforth, as a thing from which there was no departing. Cavalcades of Free- In )lders, coming up from the country to petition the Honorable Huiise, for instance, the Four Thousand Petitioners from Buckinghamshire, about ten months hence, rode with thia Protestation " stuck in their hats." 2 A very great and awe- inspiring matter in those days; till it was displaced by greater of the like kind, Solemn League and Covenant, and Monday next, Wth May, his Majesty accordingly signed (lenience on Strafford ; who was executed on the Wednesday Commoni Jj "' '' -""' '" Cambridge Appendix, No. 3. 116 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 164L following. No help for it. A terrible example ; the one supremely able man the King had. On the same Monday, 10th May, his Majesty signed like- wise another Bill, That this Parliament should not be dissolved without its own consent. A Bill signed in order that the City might lend him money on good Security of Parliament ; money being most pressingly wanted, for our couple of hungry Armies Scotch and English, and other necessary occasions. A Bill which seemed of no great consequence except financial; but which, to a People reverent of Law, and never, in the wildest clash of battle-swords, giving up its religious respect for the constable's baton, proved of infinite consequence. His Maj- esty's hands are tied ; he cannot dismiss this Parliament, as he has done the others, no, not without its own consent. August 10th. Army-Plotters having fled beyond seas ; the Bill for Triennial Parliaments being passed ; the Episcopacy- Bill being got to sleep ; and by the use of royal varnish a kind of composure, or hope of composure, being introduced : above all things, money being now borrowed to pay the Armies and disband them, his Majesty, on the 10th of the month, 1 set out for Scotland. To hold a Parliament, and compose mat- ters there, as his Majesty gave out. To see what old or new elements of malign Royalism could still be awakened to life there, as the Parliament surmised, who greatly opposed his going. Mr. Cromwell got home to Ely again, for six weeks, this autumn ; there being a recess from 9th September when the business was got gathered up, till 20th October when his Majesty was expected back. An Interim Committee, and Pym, from his " lodging at Chelsea," 2 managed what of indispen- sable might turn \ip. November 1st. News came to London, to the re-assembled Parliament, 8 that an Irish Rebellion, already grown to be an Irish Massacre, had broken out. An Irish Catholic imitation of the late Scotch Presbyterian achievements in the way of " religious liberty ; " one of the best models, and one of the 1 Wharton's Laud, p. 62. 2 His Report, Commons Journals, ii. 289. 8 Laud, p. 62 ; Commons Journals, in die. 1641. PRELIMINARY. 117 worst imitations ever seen in tins world. Erasmus's Ape, observing Erasmus shave himself, never doubted but it too could shave. One knows what a hand the creature made of itself, before the edge-tool could be wrenched from it again ! As this poor Irish Kebellion unfortunately began in lies and bluster, and proceeded in lies and bluster, hoping to make itself good that way, the ringleaders had started by pretending or even forging some warrant from the King ; which brought much undeserved suspicion on his Majesty, and greatly corn* plicated his affairs here for a long while. November 22d. The Irish Rebellion blazing up more and more into an Irish Massacre, to the terror and horror of all antipapist men ; and in England, or even in Scotland, except by the liberal use of varnish, nothing yet being satisfactorily mended, nay all things hanging now, as it seemed, in double and treble jeopardy, the Commons had decided on a " Grand Petition and Remonstrance," to set forth what their griefs and necessities really were, and really would require to have done for them. The Debate upon it, very celebrated in those times, came on this day, Monday, 22d November. 1 The longest De- bate ever yet known in Parliament ; and the stormiest, nay, h;ul it not been for Mr. Hampden's soft management, "we had like to have sheathed our swords in each other's bowels," says Warwick; which I find otherwise to be true. The Remon- strance passed by a small majority. It can be read still in Rushworth,* drawn up in precise business order; the whole 206 Articles of it, every line of which once thrilled electri- cally into all men's hearts, as torpid as it has now grown. " The chimes of Margaret's were striking two in the morning when we came out." It was on this occasion that Oliver, " coming down stairs," is reported to have said, He would have sold all and gone to New England, had the Remonstrance not passed;' a vague report, gathered over dining-tables long i!t'-r, to which the reader need not pay more heed than it merits. His Majesty returned from Scotland on the Thursday 1 Commons Journal*, in die; D'Ewee MSS. f. 179 b. 2 Ku.iliwi.rtli. iv. 438-451 ; bee al*o 436, 437. * Clarendon. 118 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 1641, following, and had from the City a thrice-glorious Civic Enter- tainment. 1 December IQtfi. The Episcopal business, attempted last Spring in vain, has revived in December, kindled into life by the Remonstrance ; and is raging more fiercely than ever ; crowds of Citizens petitioning, Corporation "going in sixty coaches " to petition ; 2 the Apprentices, or City Shopmen, and miscellaneous persons, petitioning : Bishops " much in- sulted " in Palace-yard as they go in or out. Whereupon hasty Welsh Williams, Archbishop of York, once Bishop of Lincoln and Lord Keeper, he with Eleven too hasty Bishops, Smec- tymnuus Hall being one of them, give in a Protest, on this 10th of December, 8 That they cannot get to their place in Par- liament ; that all shtJl be null and void till they do get there. A rash step ; for which, on the 30th of the same month, they are, by the Commons, voted guilty of Treason ; and " in a cold evening," with small ceremony, are bundled, the whole dozen of them, into the Tower. For there is again rioting, again are cries "loud and hideous ; " Colonel Luusford, a truculent one-eyed man, having " drawn his sword " upon the Apprentices in Westminster Hall, and truculently slashed some of them ; who of course responded in a loud and hideous manner, by tongue, by fist, and single-stick ; nay, on the morrow, 28th of December, 4 they came marching many thousands strong, with sword and pistol, out of the City. " Slash us now ! while we wait on the Honorable House for an answer to our petition ! " and insulted his Majesty's Guard at Whitehall. What a Christmas of that old London, of that old year ! On the 6th of February following, Episcopacy will be voted down, with blaze of "bonfires" and "ringing" of all the bells, very audible to poor^pld Dr. Laud 6 over in the Tower yonder. 1642. January 4th. His Majesty seeing these extremities arrive, and such a conflagration begin to blaze, thought now the time 1 Rushworth, iv. 429. 2 Vicars, p. 56. 8 Rushworth, Iv. 467. * Ibid. iv. 464. 6 Wliarton's Laud, p. 62 ; aee also p. 65. 1*42. PRELIMINARY. 119 had come for snatching the main live coals away, and BO quenching the same. Such coals of strife he counts to the number of Five in the Commons House, and One in the Lords : Pym, Hampden, Haselrig, with Holies and Strode (who held down the Speaker fourteen years ago), these are the Five Commons ; Lord Kimboltou, better known to us as Mandevil, Oliver's friend, of the "Soke of Somersham," and Queen's- Court Committee, he is the Lord. His Majesty flatters him- self he has gathered evidence concerning these individual firebrands, That they "invited the Scots to invade us" in 1640 : he sends, on Monday, 3d January, 1 to demand that they be given up to him as Traitors. Deliberate, slow and, as it were, evasive reply. Whereupon, on the morrow, he rides down to St. Stephen's himself, with an armed very miscella- neous force, of five hundred or of three hundred truculent braggadocio persons at his back ; enters the House of Commons, the truculent persons looking in after him from the lobby, with intent to seize the said Five Members, five principal hot coals ; and trample them out, for one thing. It was the fatalest step this poor King ever took. The Five Members, timefully warned, were gone into the City ; the whole Parliament re- moved itself into the City, " to be safe from armed violence." From London City, and from all England, rose one loud voice of lamentation, condemnation : Clean against law ! Paint an inch thick, there is, was, or can be, no shadow of law in this. Will you grant us the Militia now ; we seem to need it now ! His Majesty's subsequent stages may be dated with more brevity. January Wth. The King with his Court quits Whitehall ; the Five Members and Parliament purposing to return to- morrow, with the whole City in arms round them. 2 He left Whitehall ; never saw it again till he came to lay down his head there. March 9/A. The King has sent away his Queen from Dover, "to ho in a place of safety," and also to pawn the Crown Jewels in Holland, and get him arms. He returns Northward again, avoiding London. M;my Messages between the Houses 1 Common* Journal*, ii. 307. * Vicar*, p. 64. 120 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 1642. of Parliament and him : " Will your Majesty grant us Power of the Militia ; accept this list of Lord-Lieutenants ? " On the 9th of March, still advancing Northward without affirma- tive response, he has got to Newmarket ; where another Mes- sage overtakes him, earnestly urges itself upon him : Could not your Majesty please to grant us Power of the Militia for a limited time ? " No, by God ! " answers his Majesty, " not for an hour ! " 1 On the 19th of March he is at York ; where his Hull Magazine, gathered for service against the Scots, is lying near; where a great Earl of Newcastle, and other Northern potentates, will help him ; where at least London and its Puritanism, now grown so fierce, is far off. There we will leave him ; attempting Hull Magazine, in vain ; exchanging messages with his Parliament ; messages, missives, printed and written Papers without limit : Law- pleadings of both parties before the great tribunal of the English Nation, each party striving to prove itself right, and within the verge of Law : preserved still in acres of typogra- phy, once thrillingly alive in every fibre of them ; now a mere torpor, readable by few creatures, not rememberable by any. It is too clear his Majesty will have to get himself an army, by Commission of Array, by subscriptions of loyal plate, pawning of crown jewels, or how he can. The Parliament by all methods is endeavoring to do the like. London subscribed "Horses and Plate," every kind of plate, even to women's thimbles, to an unheard-of amount ; 2 and when it came to actual enlisting, in London alone there were " four thousand enlisted in a day." 3 Four thousand, some call it five thou- sand, in a day : the reader may meditate that one fact. Royal messages, Parliamentary messages ; acres of typography thrill- ingly alive in every fibre of them, these go on slowly abating, and military preparations go on steadily increasing till the 23d of October next. The King's " Commission of Array for Leicestershire " came out on the 12th of June, commissions for other counties following as convenient ; the Parliament's 1 Rushworth, iv. 533. a Vicars, pp. 93, 109 ; see Commons Journals, 10th June, 1642. 8 Wood's Athenee, iii. 193. 1643. PRELIMINARY. 121 " Ordinance for the Militia," rising cautiously pulse after pulse towards clear emergence, had attained completion the week before. 1 The question puts itself to every English soul, Which of these will you obey ? and in all quarters of English ground, with swords getting out of their scabbards, and yet til*- constable's baton still struggling to rule supreme, there is a most confused solution of it going on. Of Oliver in these months we find the following things noted ; which the imaginative reader is to spread out into sig- nificance for himself the best he can. February 1th. " Mr. Cromwell," among others, " offers to lend Three Hundred Pounds for the service of the Common- wealth," 2 towards reducing the Irish Rebellion, and reliev- ing the afflicted Protestants there, or here. Rushworth, copying a List of such subscribers, of date 9th April, 1642, has Cromwell's name written down for "500" 8 seemingly the same transaction ; Mr. Cromwell having now mended his offer : or else Mr. Rushworth, who uses the arithmetical cipher in this place, having misprinted. Hampden's subscription there is 1,000. In Mr. Cromwell it is clear there is no back- wardness, far from that ; his activity in these months notably increases. In the I? Ewes MSS.* he appears and reappears ; suggesting this and the other practical step, on behalf of Ire- land oftenest ; in all ways zealously urging the work. July 15th. " Mr. Cromwell moved that we might make an order to allow the Townsmen of Cambridge to raise two Com- panies of Volunteers, and to appoint Captains over them.'" On which same day, 15th July, the Commons Clerk writes these words : " Whereas Mr. Cromwell hath sent down arms into the County of Cambridge, for the defence of that County, it is this day ordered," that he shall have the "100" expended on that service repaid him by and by. Is Mr. Cromwell aware that there lies a color of high treason in aU 1 Hnabftnds the Printer's Firtt Collection (Lond. 1643) pp. 346, 331. * Common* Journal*, ii. 408. 8 Ruahworth, iv. 564. February -.July, 1642. ' D'EwM MSS. f. 658-661. ' Ceauion* Journal*, ii. 674. PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 1642. this; risk not of one's purse only, but of one's head? Mr. Cromwell is aware of it, and pauses not. The next entry ia still stranger. August 15th. " Mr. Cromwell in Cambridgeshire has seized the Magazine in the Castle at Cambridge ; and hath hindered the carrying of the Plate from that University ; which, as some report, was to the value of 20,000 or thereabouts." So does Sir Philip Stapleton, member for Aldborough, member also of our new " Committee for Defence of the Kingdom," report this day. For which let Mr. Cromwell have indemnity. 1 Mr. Cromwell has gone down into Cambridgeshire in person, since they began to train there, and assumed the chief manage- ment, to some effect, it would appear. The like was going on in all shires of England ; wherever the Parliament had a zealous member, it sent him down to his shire in these critical months, to take what management he could or durst. The most confused months England ever saw. In every shire, in every parish; in court-houses, ale-houses, churches, markets, wheresoever men were gathered together, England, with sorrowful confusion in every fibre, is tearing itself into hostile halves, to carry on the voting by pike and bullet henceforth. Brevity is very urgent on us, nevertheless we must give this other extract. Bramston the Ship-money Judge, in trouble with the Parliament and sequestered from his place, is now likely to get into trouble with the King, who in the last days of July has ordered him to come to York on business of impor- tance. Judge Bramston sends his two sons, John and Frank, fresh young men, to negotiate some excuse. They ride to York in three days; stay a day at York with his Majesty; then return, " on the same horses," in three days, to Skreens in Essex ; which was good riding. John, one of them, has left a most watery incoherent Autobiography, now printed, but not edited, nor worth editing, except by fire to ninety-nine hun- dredths of it ; very distracting ; in which, however, there is 1 Commons Journals, ii. 720, 6. See likewise Tanner MSS. Ixiii. 116; Querela Cantabrigiensis (aud wipe away its blubberings and inexactitudes a little), Life tj'Dr Barwick, &c., Cambridge Portfolio (London, 1840), ii. 386-388. 1042. PRELIMINARY. 123 this notable sentence ; date about the middle of August, not discoverable to a day. Having been at York, and riding back on the same horses in three days : " In our return on Sunday, near Huntingdon, between that and Cambridge, certain musketeers start out of the corn, and command us to stand; telling us we must be searched, and to that end must go before Mr. Cromwell, and give account from whence we came and whither we were going. I asked where Mr. Cromwell was ? A soldier told us, He was four miles off. I said, it was unreasonable to carry us out of our way ; if Mr. Cromwell had been there, I should have willingly given him all the satisfaction he could desire; and putting my hand into my pocket, I gave one of them Twelvepence, who said, we might pass. By this I saw plainly it would not be possible for my Father to get to the King with his coach ; " 1 neither did he go at all, but stayed at home till he died. September \&th. Here is a new phasis of the business. In a "List of the Army under the command of the Earl of Essex," a we find that Robert Earl of Essex is " Lord General for King and Parliament" (to deliver the poor beloved King from traitors, who have misled him, and clouded his tine under- standing, and rendered him as it were a beloved Parent fallen insane) ; tliat Robert Earl of Essex, we say, is Lord General for King and Parliament ; that William the new Earl of Bed- ford is General of the Horse, and has, or is every hour getting to have, " seventy-five troops of 60 men each ; " in every troop a Captain, a Lieutenant, a Cornet and Quartermaster, whose ii:unus are all given. In Troop Sixty-seven, the Captain is " Oliver Cromwell," honorable member for Cambridge ; many honorable members having now taken arms ; Mr. Hampden, for example, having become Colonel Hampden, busy drilling his mm in Chalgrove Field at this very time. But moreover, in Troop Eight of Earl Bedford's Horse, we find another " Oliver Cromwell, Cornet;" and with real thankfulness for this flint-spark in the great darkness, recognize him for our 1 Autobiography of Sir ./Jin llraimton, Knt. (Cuiudtm Society, 1W5), p. 86. Km;-' . f'uuphleto, small 4to, uo. 73. 124 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 1642. honorable member's Son. His eldest Son Oliver, 1 now a stout young man of twenty. "Thou too, Boy Oliver, thou art fit to swing a sword. If there ever was a battle worth fighting, and to be called God's battle, it is this ; thou too wilt come ! " How a staid, most pacific, solid Farmer of three-and-forty decides on girding himself with warlike iron, and fighting, he and his, against principalities and powers, let readers who have formed any notion of this man conceive for them- selves. On Sunday, 23d October, was Edgehill Battle, called also Keinton Fight, near Keinton on the south edge of Warwick- shire. In which Battle Captain Cromwell was present, and did his duty, let angry Denzil say what he will. 2 The Fight was indecisive ; victory claimed by both sides. Captain Crom- well told Cousin Hampden, They never would get on with a set of poor tapsters and town-apprentice people fighting against men of honor. To cope with men of honor they must have men of religion. " Mr. Hampden answered me, It was a good notion, if it could be executed." Oliver himself set about executing a bit of it, his share of it, by and by. " We all thought one battle would decide it," says Richard Baxter ; 3 and we were all much mistaken ! This winter there arise among certain Counties " Associations " for mutual defence, against Royalism and plunderous Rupertism ; a mea- sure cherished by the Parliament, condemned as treasonable by the King. Of which " Associations," countable to the num- ber of five or six, we name only one, that of Norfolk, Suf- folk, Essex, Cambridge, Herts ; with Lord Grey of Wark for Commander ; where, and under whom, Oliver was now serving. This " Eastern Association " is alone worth naming. All the other Associations, no man of emphasis being in the midst of them, fell in few months to pieces ; only this of Cromwell's subsisted, enlarged itself, grew famous ; and indeed kept its own borders clear of invasion during the whole course of 1 Antea, p. 69. 8 Vicars, p. 198 ; Denzil Holles's Memoirs (in Mazeres's Tracts, vol. i.). ' Life (London, 1696), Part i. p. 43. M43 LETTER IV. 125 the War. Oliver, in the beginning of 1643, is serving there, under the Lord Grey of Wark. Besides his military duties, Oliver, as natural, was nominated of the Committee for Cam- bridgeshire in this Association ; he is also of the Committee for Huntingdonshire, wliich as yet belongs to another " Asso- ciation." Member for the Committee of Huntingdonshire ; to uhich also has been nominated a "Robert Barnard, Esquire," 1 who however, does not sit, as I have reason to surmise ! LETTER IV. THE reader recollects Mr. Robert Barnard, how, in 1630, he got a Commission of the Peace for Huntingdon, along with " Dr. Beard and Mr. Oliver Cromwell," to be fellow Justices there. Probably they never sat much together, as Oliver went to St. Ivea soon after, and the two men were of opposite politics, which in those times meant opposite religions. But here in twelve-years space is a change of many things ! " To my assured friend Robert Barnard, Esquire: Present these. " [HrrarriHGDON], 23d January, 1642. "MR. BARNARD, It's most true, my Lieutenant with some other soldiers of my troop were at your House. I dealt [so] freely [as] to inquire after you ; the reason was, I had heard you reported active against the proceedings of Parliament, and for those that disturb the peace of this Country and the Kingdom, with those of this Country who have had meetings not a few, to intents and purposes too-too full of suspect. 1 1 Husband*, i. 892; see for the other particulars, ii. 183, 327, 804, 809; Common* Journals, &c. * Country 'u equivalent to county or nyion ; too-too, in those days, means littli- ni'.n- tli.m too ; tutpect itt tuspeclabiiity , almost an proper an our modern 126 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 23 Jan. "It's true, Sir, I know you have been wary in your car- riages ; be not too confident thereof. Subtlety may deceive you ; integrity never will. With ray heart I shall desire that your judgment may alter, and your practice. I come only to hinder men from increasing the rent, from doing hurt ; but not to hurt any man : nor shall I you ; I hope you will give me uo cause. If you do, I must be pardoned what my relation to the Public calls for. " If your good parts be disposed that way, know me for " Your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. "Be assured fair words from me shall neither deceive you of your houses nor of your liberty." 1 My Copy, two Copies, of this Letter I owe to kind friends, who have carefully transcribed it from the Original at Lord Gosford's. The present Lady Gosford is "grand-daughter of Sir Robert Barnard," to whose lineal ancestor the Letter is addressed. The date of time is given ; there never was any date or address of place, which probably means that it was written in Huntingdon and addressed to Huntingdon, where Robert Barnard, who became Recorder of the place, is known to have resided. Oliver, in the month of January, 1642-3, is present in the Fen-country, and all over the Eastern Associa- tion, with his troop or troops ; looking after disaffected per- sons ; ready to disperse royalist assemblages, to seize royalist plate, to keep down disturbance, and care in every way that the Parliament Cause suffer no damage. 2 A Lieutenant and party have gone to take some survey of Robert Barnard, Esquire ; Robert Barnard, standing on the right of injured innocence, innocent till he be proved guilty, protests : Oliver responds as here, in a very characteristic way. It was precisely in these weeks, that Oliver from Captain became Colonel : Colonel of a regiment of horse, raised on his own principles so far as might be, in that " Eastern Associa- 1 Original in the possession of Lord Gosford, at Worliugham iu Suffolk. 8 Appendix, No. 4. 1643. LETTER V. CAMBRIDGE. 127 tion ; " and is hencefoi-th known in the Newspapers as Colonel Cromwell. Whether on this 23d of January, he was still Captain, or had ceased to be so, no extant accessible record apprises us. On the 2d March, 1642-3, I have found him named as "Col. Cromwell," 1 and hitherto not earlier. He is getting " men of religion " to serve in this Cause, or at least would fain get such if he might. LETTER V. CAMBRIDGE. IN the end of February, 1642-3, " Colonel " Cromwell is at Cambridge ; " great forces from Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk " having joined him, and more still coming in. 2 There has been much alarm and running to and fro, over all those counties. Lord Capel hanging over them with an evident intent to plun- Annuls of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1845), iii. 340. * IIuflhandB' Second Collection (London, 1646), p. 329; Commons Journal*, : Ac. rt.-.l o.iuplete, 15th July, 1643 (Cooper's Annalt, iii. 350) ' ''fi/u/Tiyienstt, &c. 4c. iu Cooper, ubi supri. xvu. 9 130 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 10 March. centre of all business is. " Colonel Cook," I think, is Captain of the Garrison ; but the soul of the Garrison, and of the Association generally, is probably another Colonel. Now here, now swiftly there, wherever danger is to be fronted, or prompt work is to be done : for example, off to Norwich just now, on important businesses j and, as is too usual, very ill supplied with money. LETTER V. OF Captain Nelson I know nothing ; seem to see an uncer- tain shadow of him turn up again, after years of industrious fighting under Irish Inchiquin and others, still a mere Captain, still terribly in arrear even as to pay. 1 " It 's pity a Gentle- man of his affections should be discouraged ! " " The Deputy Lieutenants," Suffolk Committee, could be named, if there were room. 2 The "business for Norfolk" we guess to be, as usual, Delinquents, symptoms of delinquent Royalists getting to a head. " To my honored Friends the Deputy Lieutenants for the County of Suffolk. "CAMBRIDGE, 10th March, 1642. " GENTLEMEN, I am sorry I should so often trouble you about the business of money: it's no pleasant subject to be too frequent upon. But such is Captain Nelson's occasion, for want thereof, that he hath not wherewith to satisfy for the billet of his soldiers ; and so this Business for Norfolk, so hopeful to set all right there, may fail. Truly he hath bor- rowed from me, else he could not have paid to discharge this Town at his departure. " It 's pity a Gentleman of his affections should be dis- couraged ! Wherefore I earnestly beseech you to consider him and the Cause. It 's honorable that you do so. What you can help him to, be pleased to send into Norfolk ; he 1 Commons Journals, v. 524, 530. 2 Husbands, ii. 171, 193. 1643. LOWESTOFP. 131 hath not wherewith to pay a Troop one day, as he tells me. Let your return be speedy, to Norwich. Gentlemen, com- mand "Your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. " [P. S.] I hope to serve you in my return : with your con- junction, we shall quickly put an end to these businesses, the Lord assisting." l By certain official docketings on this same Letter, it appears that Captain Nelson did receive his 100 ; touched it promptly on the morrow, " llth March ; I say received : JOHN NELSON." How the Norfolk businesses proceeded, and what end they came to in Suffolk itself, we shall now see. LOWESTOFF. TRTC Colonel has already had experience in such Delinquent matters; has, by vigilance, by gentle address, by swift au- dacity if needful, extinguished more than one incipient con- flagration. Here is one such instance, coming to its sad maturity, and bearing fruit at Westminster in these very hours. On Monday, 13th March, 1642-3, Thomas Conisby, Esquire, High Sheriff of Herts, appears visibly before the House of Commons, to give account of a certain " Pretended Commis- sion of Array," which he had been attempting to execute one lM:uket-day, some time since, at St. Albans in that county. 9 Such King's Writ, or Pretended Commission of Array, the said Hi-h Sheriff had, with a great Posse Comitatus round him, been executing one Market-day at St. Albans (date irrecover- ably lost), when Cromwell's Dragoons dashed suddenly in 1 Autograph, in the poswessiou of C. Meadows, Esq., Great Sealing, Woodl.ri.li;.-, Suffolk. * Common* Jvurnalt, ii. 1000. 1001 132 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 13 March. upon him ; laid him fast, not without difficulty : he was first seized by " six troopers," but rescued by his royalist mul- titude ; then " twenty troopers " again seized him ; " barrica- doed the inn-yard ; " * conveyed him off to London to give what account of the matter he could. There he is giving ac- count of it, a very lame and withal an " insolent " one, as seems to the Honorable House j which accordingly sends him to the Tower, where he had to lie for several years. Commis- sions of Array are not handy to execute iu the Eastern Asso- ciation at present ! Here is another instance ; general result of this ride into Norfolk, " end of these businesses," in fact. The " Meeting at Laystoff," or Lowestoff in Suffolk, is men- tioned in all the old Books ; but John Cory, Merchant Burgess of Norwich, shall first bring us face to face with it. Assiduous Sir Symond got a copy of Mr. Cory's Letter, 2 one of the thou- sand Letters which Honorable Members listened to in those mornings ; and here now is a copy of it for the reader, news all fresh and fresh, after waiting two hundred and two years. Colonel Cromwell is in Norwich : old Norwich becomes visi- ble and audible, the vanished moments buzzing again with old life, if the reader will read well. Potts, we should premise, and Palgrave, were lately appointed Deputy Lieutenants of Norwich City ; 8 Cory I reckon to be almost a kind of Quasi- Mayor, the real Mayor having lately been seized for Royalism ; Knyvett of Ashwellthorpe we shall perhaps transiently meet again. The other royalist gentlemen also are known to anti- quaries of that region, and what their " seats " and connections were : but our reader here can without damage consider merely that they were Sons of Adam, furnished in general with due seats and equipments ; and read the best he can : 1 Vicars, p. 246 ; May's History of the Long Parliament (Guizot's French Translation), ii. 196. 2 D'Ewes MSS. . 1139 ; Transcript, p. 378. 8 Commons Journals, 10th December, 1642. 1643. LOWESTOFF. 133 " To Sir John Potts, Knight Baronet, of Mannington, Norfolk : These. Laus Deo. "NORWICH, 17 Martii, 1642. 1 K RIGHT HONORABLE AND WORTHY SIR, I hope you caine in due time to the end of your journey in health and safety ; which 1 shall rejoice to hear. Sir, I might spare my labor in imw writing ; for I suppose you are better informed from other hands ; only to testify my respects : "Those sent out on Monday morning, the 13th, returned that night, with old Mr. Castle of Raveningham, and some arms of his, and of Mr. London's of Alby, and of Captain Haiuond's, with his leading staff-ensign and drum. Mr. Castle is secured at Sheriff Greenwood's. That night letters from Yarmouth informed the Colonel, 4 That they had, that day, made stay of Sir John Wentworth, and of one Captain Allen from Lowestoff, who had come thither to change dollars ; both of whom are yet secured ; and further, That the Town of Lowestoff had received in divers strangers, and was fortifying itself. " The Colonel advised no man might enter in or out the gates [of Norwich] that night. And the next morning, between five and six, with his live troops, with Captain Fountain's, Cap- tain Rich's, and eighty of our Norwich Volunteers, he marched towards Lowestoff; where he was to meet with the Yarmouth Volunteers, who brought four or five pieces of ordnance. Tho Town [of Lowestoff] had blocked themselves up ; all except where they had placed their ordnance, which were three pieces; before which a chain was drawn to keep off the horse. The Colouel summoned the Town, and demanded, If they would deliver up their strangers, the Town and their army ? promising them then favor, if so ; if not, none. They yielded to deliver up their strangers, but not to the rest. Whereupon our Norwich dragoons crept under the chain before mentioned ; and came within pistol-shot of their ordnance ; proffering to 1 Means 164,3 of onr Stylo. There are yet aevon days of the Old Year to run. * " rix. Cromwell," add* D'Ewos. 134 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 20 March, fire upon their cannoneer, who fled : so they gained the two pieces of ordnance, and broke the chain ; and they and the horse entered the Town without more resistance. Where presently eighteen strangers yielded themselves ; among whom were, of Suffolk men : Sir T. Barker, Sir John Pettus ; of Norfolk: Mr. Knyvett of Ashwellthorpe [whom we are to meet again] ; Mr. Richard Catelyn's Son, some say 1m Father too was there in the morning ; Mr. F. Cory, my unfortu nate cousin, who I wish would have been better persuaded. " Mr. Brooke, the sometime minister of Yarmouth, and some others, escaped, over the river. There was good store of pis- tols, and other arms : I hear, above fifty cases of pistols. The Colonel stayed there Tuesday and Wednesday night. I think Sir John Palgrave and Mr. Smith went yesterday to Berks. It is rumored Sir Robert Kemp had yielded to Sir John Pal- grave ; how true it is I know not, for I spoke not Sir John yesterday as he came through Town. I did your message to Captain Sherwood. Not to trouble you further, I crave leave ; and am ever " Your Worship's at command, " JOHN CORY. " Postscriptum, 20th March, 1642. Right worthy Sir, The above said, on Friday, was unhappily left behind ; for which I am sorry; as 'also that I utterly forgot to send your plate. On Friday night the Colonel brought in hither with him the prisoners taken at Lowestoff, and Mr. Trott of Beccles. On Saturday night, with one troop, they sent all the prisoners to Cambridge. Sir John Wentworth is come off with the pay- ment of 1,000. On Saturday, Dr. Corbett of Norwich, and Mr. Henry Cooke * the Parliament man, and our old [Alder- man] Daniell were taken in Suffolk. Last night, several troops went out ; some to Lynn-ward, it 's thought ; others to Thetford-ward, it 's supposed, because they had a prisoner with them. Sir, I am in great haste, and remember nothing else at present. JOHN CORY." 1 Corbett is or was " Chancellor of Norwich Diocese ; " Henry Cooke is Son of Coke upon Lyttleton, has left his place in Parliament, and got into dangerous courses, 1W3. LETTERS VI.-VIII. 135 Cory still adds : " Sir Richard Berney sent to me, last night, and showed and gave me the Colonel's Note to testify he had paid him the 50," a forced contribution levied by the Association Committee upon poor Berney, who had shown himself " backward : " let him be quiet henceforth, and study to conform. This was the last attempt at Royalism in the Association where Cromwell served. The other " Associations," no man duly forward to risk himself being present in them, had already fallen, or were fast falling, to ruin; their Counties had to undergo the chance of War as it came. Huntingdon County soon joined itself with this Eastern Association. 1 Cromwell's next operations, as we shall perceive, were to deliver Lincoln- shire, and give it the power of joining, which in September next took effect. 2 Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Herts, Hunts : these are thenceforth the " Seven Associated Counties," called often the " Association " simply, which make a great figure in the old Books, and kept the War wholly out of their own borders, having had a man of due forwardness among them. LETTERS VI.-VIIL TUB main brunt of the War, during this year 1643, is in the extreme Southwest, between Sir Ralph Hopton and the Earl o! Stamford ; ;uul in the North, chiefly in Yorkshire, between the Earl of Newcastle and Lord Fairfax. The Southwest, Cornwall or Devonshire transactions do not much concern us in this j.l:n-.- ; Imt with tin: Yorkshire we shall by and by have some concern. A considerable flame of War burns conspicuous in those two regions : the rest of England, all in a hot but very dim state, may be rather said to sinokr, everywhere ready for burning, and incidentally catch fire here and there. Mil/, iiuaUuid*. u. 1W. * Ib. p. 327. 136 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. March, Essex, the Lord General, lies at Windsor, all spring, with the finest Parliamentary Army we have yet had ; but unluckily can undertake almost nothing, till he see. For his Majesty in Oxford is also quiescent mostly ; engaged in a negotiation with his Parliament ; in a Treaty, of which Colonel Hainp- den and other knowing men, though my Lord of Essex cannot, already predict the issue. And the Country is all writhing in dim conflict, suffering manifold distress. And from his Majesty's head-quarters ever and anon there darts out, now hither now thither, across the dim smoke-element, a swift fierce Prince Rupert, plundering and blazing ; and then sud- denly darts in again ; too like a streak of sudden fire, for he plunders, and even burns, a good deal ! Which state of things Colonel Hampden and others witness with much impatience ; but cannot get the Lord General to undertake anything, till he see. An obscure entangled scene of things ; all manner of War- movements and swift-shooting electric influences crossing one another, with complex action and reaction ; as happens in a scene of War ; much more of Civil War, where a whole People and its affairs have become electric. Here are Three poor Letters, reunited at last from their long exile, resuscitated after long interment : not in a very luminous condition ! Ves- tiges of Oliver in the Eastern Association ; which, however faint, are welcome to us. LETTER VI. THE Essex people, at least the Town of Colchester and Lang- ley their Captain have, in some measure, sent their contingent to Cambridge ; but money is short. Cromwell, home rapidly again from Norfolk, must take charge of it ; has an order from the Lord General ; nay it seems a Great Design is in view ; and Cromwell too, like Richard Baxter and the rest of us, imagines one grand effort might perhaps end these bleeding miseries. 1643. LETTER VI. CAMBRIDGE. 137 [To the Mayor &c. of Colchester, By Captain Dods worth: These.'] " [CAMBRIDGE,] 23d March, 1642. "GENTLEMEN, Upon the coming down of your Townsmen to Cambridge, Captain Langley not knowing how to dispose of them, desired me to nominate a fit Captain : which I did, an honest, religious, valiant Gentleman, Captain Dodsworth, the Bearer hereof. " He hath diligently attended the service, and much improved his men in their exercise; but hath been unhappy beyond others in not receiving any pay for himself, and what he had for his soldiers is out long ago. He hath, by his prudence, what with fair and winning carriage, what with money bor- rowed, kept them together. He is able to do so no longer : they will presently disband, if a course be not taken. " It 's pity it should be so ! For I believe they are brought into as good order as most Companies in the Army. Besides, at this instant there is great need to use them ; I have received a special command from my Lord General, To advance with what force we can, to put an end, if it may be, to this Work, God so assisting, from whom all help cometh. " I beseech you, therefore, consider this Gentleman, and the soldiers ; and if it be possible, make up his Company a hun- dred and twenty : and send them away with what expedition is possible. It may, through God's blessing, prove very happy. One month's pay may prove all your trouble. I speak to wise men : God direct you. I rest, " Yours to serve you, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * The present Great Design, though it came to nothing, is not without interest for us. Some three days before the date of this Letter, as certain Entries in the Commons Journals still testify,* there had risen hot alarm in Parliament; my Lord General writing from Windsor, " at three in the morning : " 1 Morruit'ii Hillary of Colrhrxtir (London, 1748), book i. p. 55; "from the Origiimt," h MY*, bat not where that WM or i. Common* Journal*, iii. 10, IX 138 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 10 April, Prince Rupert out in one of his forays ; in terrible force before the Town of Aylesbury : ought not one to go and fight him ? Without question! eagerly answer Colonel Hampden and others : Fight him, beat him ; beat more than him ! Why not rise heartily from Windsor with this fine Army ; calling the Eastern Association and all friends to aid us ; and storm in upon Oxford itself ? It may perhaps quicken the negotiations there ! This Design came to nothing, and soon sank into total obscurity again. But it seems Colonel Hampden did entertain such a Design, and even take some steps in it. And this Let- ter of Oliver's, coupled with the Entries in the Commons Jour- nals, is perhaps the most authentic proof we yet have of that fact; an interesting fact, which has rested hitherto on the vague testimony of Clarendon, 1 who seems to think the De- sign might have succeeded. But it came to nothing ; Colonel Hampden could not rouse the Lord General to do more than " write at three in the morning," and send " special commands," for the present. LETTER VII. AND now here is a new horde of " Plunderers " threatening the Association with new infall from the North. The old Newspapers call them " Camdeners ; " followers of a certain Noel, Viscount Camden, from Rutlandshire; who has seized Stamford, is driving cattle at a great rate, and fast threatening to become important in those quarters. " Sir John Burgoyne " is the Burgoyne of Potton in Bedfordshire, chief Committee- man in that County : Bedford is not in our Association ; but will perhaps lend us help in this common peril. [To my honored Friend Sir John Burgoyne, Baronet: These."] " [HUNTINGDON.] 10th April, 1643. "Sin, These Plunderers draw near. I think it will do well if you can afford us any assistance of Dragooners, to help 1 History of the Rebellion (Oxford, 1819), ii. 319; see also May's Long Par- liament (Maseres's edition, Loudou, 1612), p. 192. 1643. LETTER VIII. HUNTINGDON. 139 in this great Exigence. We have here about Six or Seven Troops of Horse ; such, I hope, as will fight. It 's happy to resist such beginnings betimes. -If you can contribute anything to our aid, let us speedily participate thereof. In the mean time, and ever, command " Your humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." > Concerning these Camdeners at Stamford and elsewhere, so soon as Colonel Cromwell has got himself equipt, we shall hear tidings again. Meanwhile, say the old Newspapers, 8 "there is a regiment of stout North folk blades gone to Wisbeach, Croy- l;uitl, and so into Holland " of Lincolnshire, "to preserve those parts," if they may. Colonel Cromwell will follow ; and give good account of that matter by and by. Lincolnshire in fact ought to be all subdued to the Parlia- ment; added to the Association. We could then co-operate with Fairfax across the Humber, and do good service ! So reason the old Committees, as one dimly ascertains. The Parliament appointed a Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, Lord Wil- loughby of Parham, a year ago ; * but he is much infested with Camdeners, with enemies in all quarters, and has yet got no secure footing there. Cromwell's work, and that of the Asso- ciation, for the next twelvemonth, as we shall perceive, was that of clearing Lincolnshire from enemies, and accomplish iug this problem. LETTER VIII. MK A vw ii ILK enter Robert Barnard, Esquire, again. Bar- naul, getting ever deeper into trouble, has run up to Town; has been persuading my Lord of Manchester and others, That he is not a disaffected man ; that a contribution should not be inflicted on him by the County Committee. 1 Communicated (from an old Copy) by H. C. Cooper, Esq., Cambridge. * In Cooper's Annals, iii. .143. ' Commons Jounuds (ii. 497), 25th March, 1642. New encouragement and auction Kiren him (Kunhwurth, v. 108), of date 9th Jan. 164?- I. 140 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 17 April, " To my very loving Friend Robert Barnard, Esquire : Present these. " [HUNTINGDON,] 17th April, 1643. " SIR, I have received two Letters, one from my Lord of Manchester, the other from yourself ; much to the same effect : I hope therefore one answer will serve them both. " Which is in short this : That we know you are disaffected to the Parliament ; and truly if the Lords, or any Friends, may take you off from a reasonable Contribution, for my part I should be glad to be commanded to any other employment. Sir, you may, if you will, ' come freely into the country about your occasions.' For my part, I have protected you in your absence ; and shall do so to you. " This is all, but that I am ready to serve you, and rest, " Your loving friend, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 1 Let Barnard return, therefore ; take a lower level, where the ways are more sheltered in stormy weather; and so save himself, and " become Recorder after the Restoration/ Subtlety may deceive him ; integrity never will ! LETTERS IX.-XL CROMWELL, we find, makes haste to deal with these "Cam- deners." His next achievement is the raising of their Siege of Croylaud (in the end of April, exact date not discover- able) ; concerning which there are large details in loud-spoken Vicars : 2 How the reverend godly Mr. Ram and godly Ser- geant Home, both of Spalding, were " set upon the walls to 1 Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1791), Ixi. 44 : no notice whence, no criti- cism or commentary there : Letter undoubtedly genuine. 2 " Thou that with ale, or viler liquors, Didst inspire Withers, Prynne and Vicars." Hudibras, canto i. 645. 1*43. LETTERS IX.-X1 141 be shot at," when the Spalding people rose to deliver Croyland ; how " Colonel Sir Miles Hobart " and other Colonels rose also to deliver it, and at last bow "the valiant active Colonel Cromwell " rose, and did actually deliver it. 1 Cromwell has been at Lynn, he has been at Nottingham, at Peterborough, where the Soldiers were not kind to the Cathedral and its Surplice-furniture : 2 he has been here and then swiftly there ; encountering many things. For Lincoln- shire is not easy to deliver; dangers, intricate difficulties abound in those quarters, and are increasing. Lincolnshire, infected with infalls of Camdeuers, has its own Malignancies too; and, much more, is sadly overrun with the Marquis of Newcastle's Northern " Popish Army " at present. An Army " full of Papists," as is currently reported ; officered by renegade Scots, " Sir John Henderson," and the like un- clean creatures. For the Marquis, in spite of the Fairfaxes, has overflowed Yorkshire ; flowed across the Humber ; has fortified himself in Newark-on-Trent, and is a sore afflictior to the well-affected thereabouts. By the Queen's interest he is now, from Earl, made Marquis, as we see. For indeed, what is worst of all, the Queen in late months has landed in these Northern parts, with Dutch ammunition purchased by English Crown Jewels ; is stirring up all manner of " Northern 1'apists" to double animation; tempting Hothams and other waverers to meditate treachery, for which they will pay dear. She is the centre of these new perils. She marches South- \v;ird, much agitating the skirts of the Eastern Association ; joins the King " on Keinton field " or Edgehill field, where he fought last autumn. She was impeached of treason by the Commons. She continued in England till the following summer ; * then quitted it for long years. Let the following Three Letters, one of which is farther distinguished as the first of Cromwell's ever published in the 1 Vicar*, pp. 322-325; Newspapers (25th April-id May), in Cromwelliana, p. 4. 3 Royalist Newspapers (in CromweUiana, p. 4) ; Qutrela Cantab. ; &c. &c. From February, 1642-3 till July, 1644 (C'lareudon, iii. l'J5, Kiuhworth, T. 684). 142 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 3 May. Newspapers, testify what progress he is making in the dif- ficult problem of delivering Lincolnshire in this posture of affairs. LETTER IX. THERE was in those weeks, as we learn from the old News- papers, a combined plan, of which Cromwell was an element, for capturing Newark ; there were several such ; but this and all the rest proved abortive, one element or another of the combination always failing. That Cromwell was not the fail- ing element we could already guess, and may now definitely read. "Lord Grey," be it remembered, is Lord Grey of Groby, once Military Chief of the Association, though now I think employed mainly elsewhere, nearer home : a Leicestershire man ; as are " Hastings " and " Hartop : " well known all of them in the troubles of that County. Hastings, strong for the King, holds " Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which is his Father's House, well fortified ; " l and shows and has shown himself a pushing man. " His Excellency " is my Lord General Essex. " Sir John Gell " is Member and Commander for Derbyshire, has Derby Town for Garrison. The Derbyshire forces, the Not- tinghamshire forces, the Association forces : if all the " forces " could but be united ! But they never rightly can. [To the Honorable the Committee at Lincoln: These.'] " [LINCOLNSHIRE,] 3d May, 1643. "MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, I must needs be hardly thought on ; because I am still the messenger of unhappy tidings and delays concerning you, though I know my heart is to assist you with all expedition ! " My Lord Grey hath now again failed me of the ren- dezvous at Stamford, notwithstanding that both he and I received Letters from his Excellency, commanding us both to meet, and, together with Sir John Gell and the Notting- ham forces, to join with you. My Lord Grey sent Sir Edward Hartop to me, To let me know he could not meet me at 1 Clarendon, ii. 202. 1643. LETTER IX. LINCOLNSHIRE. 143 Stamford according to our agreement; fearing the exposing of Leicester to the forces of Mr. Hastings and some other Troops drawing that way. "Believe it, it were better, in my poor opinion, Leicester were not, than that there should not be found an immediate taking of the field by our forces to accomplish the common ends. Wherein I shall deal as freely with him, when I meet him, as you can desire. I perceive Ashby-de-la-Zouch sticks much with him. I have offered him now another place of meet- ing ; * to come to which suppose he will not deny me ; and that to be to-morrow. If you shall therefore think fit to send one over unto us to be with us at night, you do not know how far we may prevail with him : To draw speedily to a head, with Sir John Gell and the other forces, where we may all meet at a general rendezvous, to the end you know of. And then you shall receive full satisfaction concerning my integ- rity ; 2 and if no man shall help you, yet will not I be want- ing to do my duty, God assisting me. "If we could unite those forces [of theirs] ; and with them speedily make Grantham the general rendezvous, both of yours and ours, I think it would do well. I shall bend my en- . >rs that way. Your concurrence by some able instrument to solicit this, might probably exceedingly hasten it; espe- cially having so good a foundation to work upon as my Lord General's commands. Our Norfolk forces, which will not prove so many as you may imagine by six or seven hundred men, will lie conveniently at Spalding; and, I am confident, be ready to meet at Grantham at the general rendezvous. tug of difficulty lies ; struggling very sore, as beseems the Son of Light and Son of Adam, not to be van- quished by the mud-element ! Intricate struggles ; sunk almost all in darkness now : of which t:ik< this other as a token, gathered still luminous from i it In n tic but mostly inane opacities of the Common* Jour- nal*:* "21 June, 1643, Mr. Pym reports from the Committee 1 Munuit' Uittmif of Colcktttrr, book i. p. 5. a iii 138 148 PART It. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 27 July, of the Safety of the kingdom," our chief authority at present, to this effect, That Captain Hotham, son of the famed Hull Hotham, had, as appeared by Letters from Lord Grey and Colonel Cromwell, now at Nottingham, been behaving very ill ; had plundered divers persons without regard to the side they were of ; had, on one occasion, " turned two pieces of ordnance against Colonel Cromwell ; " nay, once, when Lord Grey's quartermaster was in some huff with Lord Grey " about oats," had privily offered to the said quartermaster that they two should draw out their men, and have a fight for it with Lord Grey ; not to speak of frequent correspondences with New- ark, with Newcastle, and the Queen now come back from Holland : wherefore he is arrested there in Nottingham, and locked up for trial. This was on the Wednesday, this report of Pym's: and, alas, while Pym reads it, John Hampden, mortally wounded four days ago in a skirmish at Chalgrove Field, lies dying at Thame ; died on the Saturday following ! LETTERS XII.-XV. Thursday, July the 27th," on, or shortly before that day, " news reach London " that Colonel Cromwell has taken Stamford, retaken it, I think ; at all events taken it. Where- upon the Cavaliers from Newark and Belvoir Castle came hovering about him : he drove them into Burleigh House, near by, and laid siege to the same ; " at three in the morning," battered it with all his shot, and stormed it at last. 1 Which is "a good help we have had this week." On the other hand, at Gainsborough we are suffering siege ; indisputably the Newarkers threaten to get the upper hand in that quarter of the County. Here is Cromwell's Letter, happily now the original itself ; concerning Lord Willoughby of Parham, and the relief of Gainsborough " with powder and match." 1 Vicars ; Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 6). j43. LETTER XII. HUNTINGDON. 149 LETTER XII. IN Rushworth and the old Newspaper copies of this Letter, along with certain insignificant, perhaps involuntary varia- tions, there are two noticeable omissions ; the whole of the first paragraph, and nearly the whole of the last, omitted for cause by the old official persons ; who furthermore have given only the virtual address " To the Committee of the Association xittiny at Cambridge" not the specific one as here : " T<, my noble Friends, Sir Edmund Bacon, Knight and Baronet, Sir William Spring, Knight and Baronet, Sir Thomas Barnardiston, Knight, and Maurice Barrow, Esquire: Present these. " HUNTINGDON, 31st July, 1G43. "GENTLEMEN, No man desires more to present you with encouragement than myself, because of the forwardness I find in you, to your honor be it spoken, to promote this great Cause. And truly God follows us with encouragements, who is the God of blessings : and I beseech you let Him not lose His blessings upon us! They come in season, and with all the advantages of heartening : as if God should say, ' Up and be doing, and I will stand by you, and help you ! ' There is nothing to be feared but our own sin and sloth. 1 " It hath pleased the Lord to give your servant and soldiers a notable victory now at Gainsborough. I marched after the taking of Hurleigh House upon Wednesday to Grantham, where I met about 300 horse and dragooners of Nottingham. With these, by agreement, we met the Lincolners at North Si-arle, which is about ten miles from Gainsborough, upon Thursday in the evening ; where we tarried until two of the clock in the morning ; and then with our whole body advanced towards Gainsborough. "About a mile and a half from the Town, we met a forlorn hope of the enemy of near 100 horse. Our dragooners labored to beat them back ; but not alighting off their horses, the enemy charged them, and beat some four or five of them off 1 Tbi* paragraph in omitted in Rushworth and the Newspapers. 150 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. siJuly, their horses : out horse charged them, and made them retire unto their main body. We advanced, and came to the bottom of a steep hill : we could not well get up but by some tracks ; which our men essaying to do, a body of the enemy endeav- ored to hinder; wherein we prevailed, and got the top of the hill. This was done by the Lincolners, who had the van- guard. " When we all recovered the top of the hill, we saw a great Body of the enemy's horse facing us, at about a musket-shot or less distance ; and a good Reserve of a full regiment of horse behind it. We endeavored to put our men into as good order as we could. The enemy in the mean time advanced towards us, to take us at disadvantage ; but in such order as we were, we charged their great body, I having the right wing ; we came up horse to horse ; where we disputed it with our swords and pistols a pretty time ; all keeping close order, so that one could not break the other. At last, they a little shrink- ing, our men perceiving it, pressed in upon them, and imme- diately routed this whole body ; some flying on one side and others on the other of the enemy's Reserve; and our men, pursuing them, had chase and execution about five or six miles. "I perceiving this body which was the Reserve standing still unbroken, kept back my Major, Whalley, from the chase ; and with my own troop and the other of my regiment, in all being three troops, we got into a body. In this Reserve stood General Cavendish ; who one while faced me, another while faced four of the Lincoln troops, which was all of ours that stood upon the place, the rest being engaged in the chase. At last General Cavendish charged the Lincolners, and routed them. Immediately I fell on his rear with my three troops ; which did so astonish him, that he gave over the chase, and would fain have delivered himself from me. But I pressing on forced them down a hill, having good execution of them ; and below the hill, drove the General with some of his soldiers into a quagmire ; where my Captain-lieutenant slew him with a thrust under his short ribs. The rest of the body was wholly routed, not one man staying upon the place. 1643. LETTER XII. HUNTINGDON. 151 "We then, after this defeat which was so total, relieved the Town with such powder and provision as we brought. Which done, we had notice that there were six troops of horse and 300 foot on the other side of the Town, about a mile off us : we desired some foot of my Lord Willoughby's, about 400; and, with our horse and these foot, marched towards them : when we came towards the place where their horse stood, we beat back with my troops about two or three troops of the enemy's, who retired into a small village at the bottom of the hill. When we recovered the hill, we saw in the bottom, about a quarter of a mile from us, a regiment of foot ; after that another; after that the Marquis of Newcastle's own regiment ; consisting in all of about 60 foot colors, and a great body of horse ; which indeed was Newcastle's Army. Which, coming so unexpectedly, put us to new consultations. My Lord Willoughby and I, being in the town, agreed to call off our foot. I went to bring them off : but before I returned, divers of the foot were engaged ; the enemy advancing with his whole body. Our foot retreated in disorder ; and with some loss got the Town ; where now they are. Our horse also came off with some trouble ; being wearied with the long fight, and their horses tired ; yet faced the enemy's fresh horse, and by several removes got off without the loss of one man ; the em -my following the rear with a great body. The honor of this retreat is due to God, as also all the rest : Major Whalley did in this carry himself with all gallantry becoming a gentle- man and a Christian. '' Thus you have this true relation, as short as I could. What you are to do upon it, is next to be considered. 1 If I ruiild sjH?;ik words to pierce your hearts with the sense of our and your condition, I would ! If you will raise 2,000 Foot at !!' '.sent to encounter this Army of Newcastle's, to raise the siege, and to enable us to fight him, we doubt not, by the grace of God, but that we shall be able to relieve the Town, and beat the Enemy on * the other side of Trent. Whereas if 1 The rest of this paragraph, all except the last sentence, is omitted : Post- script, tx>, omitted. MeanH " to." 152 PAHT II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. SlJuly, somewhat be not done in this, you will see Newcastle's Army march up into your bowels ; being now, as it is, on this side Trent. I know it will be difficult to raise thus many in so short time : but let me assure you, it 's necessary, and there- fore to be done. At least do what you may, with all possible expedition ! I would I had the happiness to speak with one of you : truly I cannot coine over, but must attend my charge ; the Enemy is vigilant. The Lord direct you what to do. Gentlemen, I am " Your faithful servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL, "P.S. Give this Gentleman credence: he is worthy to be trusted, he knows the urgency of our affairs better than my- self. If he give you intelligence, in point of time, of haste to be made, believe him : he will advise for your good." 1 About two miles south of Gainsborough, on the North-Scarle road, stands the Hamlet and Church of Lea ; near which is a " Hill," or expanse of upland, of no great height, but sandy, covered with furze, and full of rabbit-holes, the ascent of which would be difficult for horsemen in the teeth of an enemy. This is understood to be the " Hill " of the fight referred to here. Good part of it is enclosed, and the ground much al- tered, since that time ; but one of the fields is still called " Red- coats Field," 2 and another at some distance nearer Gainsborough " Graves Field ; " beyond which latter, " on the other or west- ern face of the Hill, a little over the boundary of Lea Parish with Gainsborough Parish, on the left hand (as you go North) between the Road and the River," is a morass or meadow still known by the name of Cavendish's Boy, which points out the locality. 8 Of the " Hills " and " Villages " rather confusedly alluded 1 Rusbworth, v. 278 ; given now (Third Edition) according to Autograph in the possession of Dawson Turner, Esq., Great Yarmouth. (Papers of Norfolk Archaeological Society, Jan. 1848; and Athenaeum, London, llth March, 1848.) a See Squire Papers, no. xxxiv., vol. xviii. p. 87. 8 MS- penes me. 1643. LETTER XIII. HUNTINGDON. 153 to in the second part of the Letter, which probably lay across Trent Bridge on the Newark side of the river, I could obtain no elucidation, and must leave them to the guess of local antiquaries interested in such things. 1 " General Cavendish," whom some confound with the Earl of Newcastle's brother, was his Cousin, " the Earl of Devon- shire's second son ; " an accomplished young man of three- and-twenty ; for whom there was great lamenting ; indeed a general emotion about his death, of which we, in these radical times, very irreverent of human quality itself, and much more justly of the dresses of human quality, cannot even with effort form any adequate idea. This was the first action that made Cromwell to be universally talked of : He dared to kill this honorable person found in arms against him ! " Colonel Crom- well gave assistance to the Lord Willoughby, and performed very gallant service against the Earl of Newcastle's forces. This was the beginning of his great fortunes, and now he began to appear in the world." 3 Waller has an Elegy, not his best, upon " Charles Ca'ndish." It must have been written some time afterwards : poor Waller, in these weeks, very narrowly escapes death himself, on ac- count of the " Waller Plot ; " makes an abject submission ; pays 10,000 fine ; and goes upon his travels into foreign parts I LETTER XIII. HERE meanwhile is a small noteworthy thing. Consider these "Young Men and Maids," and that little joint-stock company of theirs ! Amiable young persons, may it prosper with you ! Twelvescore pounds and so many stand of muskets, well, this little too, in the great Cause, will help. For a pure preached Gospel, and the ancient liberties of England, 1 Two other Letters on this Gaiimborough Action, iu Appendix, No. 5. * Whitlocke (1st edition, Loudon, 1682, ai always, uulww the contrary he specified), p. 68. FeuUm's Waller, p. 209. 154 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 2 August, who would not try to lielp ? Fine new cloaks and fardingales are good ; but a company of musketeers busy on the right side, how much better ! Colonel Cromwell, now home again, has received a Deputation on the matter ; and suggests improve- ments. "Country" which will take your muskets, means County. Three pounds, we perceive by calculation, will buy a war-saddle and pistols. Who the " Sir " is, guessable as some Chairman of this " Young Men and Maids " Society ; and in what Town he sits, whether in Huntingdon itself or in another, must remain forever uncertain. His Address, by negligence, has vanished ; his affair wholly has vanished ; the body of it gone all to air, and only the soul of it now surviving, and like to survive 1 To " [HUNTINGDON,] 2d August, 1643. " SIB, I understand by these Gentlemen the good affec- tions of your Young Men and Maids ; for which God is to be praised. " I approve of the business : only I desire to advise you that your ' foot company ' may be turned into a troop of horse ; which indeed will, by God's blessing, far more advantage the Cause than two or three companies of foot ; especially if your men be honest godly men, which by all means I desire. I thank God for stirring up the youth to cast in their mite, which I desire may be employed to the best advantage ; there- fore my advice is, that you would employ your Twelvescore Pounds to buy pistols and saddles, and I will provide four- score horses ; for 400 more will not raise a troop of horse. As for the muskets that are bought, I think the Country will take them of you. Pray raise honest godly men, and I will have them of my regiment. As for your Officers, I leave it as God shall or hath directed to choose ; and rest, "Your loving friend, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * * Fairfax Correspondence (London, 1849), iii. 56: the Original is Auto- graph ; address quite gone ; docketed " Colonel Cromwell's Letter to [in regard to] the Bachelors and Maids, 2d August, 1643, from Huntingdon." 1643. LETTER XIV. HUNTINGDON. LETTER XIV. was directly taken, after this relief of it; Lord Willoughby could not resist the Newarkers with New- castle at their head. Gainsborough is lost, Lincoln is lost ; unless help come speedily, all is like to be lost. The follow- ing Letter, with its enclosure from the Lord Lieutenant Wil- loughby of Parham, speaks for itself. Head the Enclosure first " To my noble Friend Colonel Cromwell, at Huntingdon : T/tese. "BOSTON, 5th August, 1643. " NOBLE SIR, Since the business of Gainsborough, the hearts of our men have been so deaded that we have lost most of them by running away. So that we were forced to leave Lincoln upon a sudden : and if I had not done it then, I should have been left alone in it. So that now I am at Bos- ton ; where we are very poor in strength ; so that without some speedy supply, I fear we shall not hold this long neither. "My Lord General, I perceive, hath writ to you, To draw all the forces together. I should be glad to see it : for if that will not be, there can be no good to be expected. If you will endeavor to stop my Lord of Newcastle, you must presently draw them to him and fight him ! For without we be mas- ters of the field, we shall be pulled out by the ears, one after another. The Foot, if they will come on, may march very securely to Boston ; which, to me, will be very considerable to your Association. For if the Enemy get that Town, which is now very weak for (It-fence for want of men, I believe they will not be long out of Norfolk and Suffolk. " I can say no more : but desire you to hasten ; and rest^ " Your servant, " FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY." ' 1 Baker MSS. (Trinity-College Library, Cambridge), xxxiv 429 ; ii in M>.v low, together with the following. 156 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 6 August, " To my honored Friends the Commissioners at Cambridge : These present. " HUNTINGDON, 6th August, 1643. " GENTLEMEN, You see by this Enclosed how sadly your affairs stand. It 's no longer Disputing, but Out instantly all you can ! Raise all your Bands ; * send them to Huntingdon ; get up what Volunteers you can ; hasten your Horses. u Send these Letters to Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, with- out delay. I beseech you spare not, but be expeditious and industrious ! Almost all our Foot have quitted Stamford : there is nothing to interrupt an Enemy, but our Horse, that is considerable. You must act lively ; do it without distraction. Neglect no means ! I am, " Your faithful servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 3 In the Commons Journals, August 4th, 8 are various Orders, concerning Colonel Cromwell and his affairs, of a comfortable nature : as, " That he shall have the Three Thousand Pounds, already levied in the Associated Counties, for payment of his men ; " likewise privilege of " Free Quarter on the march he is now upon ; " and lastly, " That the Six Associated Counties do forthwith raise two thousand men more" for his behoof and that of the Cause. On which occasion Speaker Lenthall, as we otherwise find, writes to him on the part of the House, in these encouraging terms : " The House hath commanded me to send you these enclosed Orders ; and to let you know that nothing is more repugnant to the sense of this House, and dangerous to this Kingdom, than the unwillingness of their forces to march out of their several Counties." " For your- self, they do exceedingly approve of your faithful endeavors to God and the Kingdom." 4 1 Trainbands. a Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 355 ; Tanner MSS. Uii. 229. * Commons Journals, ii. 193. * Tauner MSS. bui. (i.), 221. 1843. LETTER XV. PETERBOROUGH. 157 LETTER XV. THE Committee's answer, " my return from you," will find Cromwell at Stamford ; to which, as to the place of dauger, he is already speeding and spurring. Here is his next Letter to these honored Friends : " To my honored Friends the Commissioners at Cambridge : These present. " [PETERBOROUGH,] 8th August, 1643. " GENTLEMEN, Finding our foot much lessened at Stam- ford, and having a great train and many carriages, I held it not safe to continue there, but presently after my return from you, I ordered the foot to quit that place and march into Hol- land [to Spalding] ; which they did on Monday last. 1 I was the rather induced so to do because of the Letter I received from my Lord Willoughby, a copy whereof I sent you. " I am now at Peterborough, whither I came this afternoon. I was no sooner come but Lieutenant-Colonel Wood sent me word, from Spalding, That the Enemy was marching, with twelve flying colors of horse and foot, within a mile of Swin- stead : so that I hope it was a good providence of God that our foot were at Spalding. " It much concerns your Association, and the Kingdom, that so strong a place as Holland is be not possessed by them. If you have any foot ready to march, send them away to us with all speed. I fear lest the Enemy should press in upon our foot : he being thus far advanced towards you, I hold it very fit that you should hasten your horse at Huntingdon, and whut you can speedily raise at Cambridge, unto me. I dare not go into Holland with my horse, lest the enemy should advance with his whole body of horse, this way, into your Association ; but remain ready here, endeavoring 8 my Lord Grey's and the Northamptonshire horse towards me ; that so, if we be able, we may fight the enemy, or retreat unto you, with our whole strength. I beseech you hasten your levies, what you can; 1 Ytrdajr. J "but ain ready vudoavoring," in urig. 158 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 8 August, especially those of foot! Quicken all our friends with new letters upon this occasion j which I believe you will find to be a true alarm. The particulars I hope to be able to inform you speedily of, more punctually ; having sent, in all haste, to Colonel Wood for that purpose. " The money I brought with me is so poor a pittance when it comes to be distributed amongst all my troops that, consider- ing their necessity, it will not half clothe them, they were so far behind, if we have not more money speedily, they will be exceedingly discouraged. I am sorry you put me to it to write thus often. It makes it seem a needless importunity in me ; whereas, in truth, it is a constant neglect of those that should provide for us. Gentlemen, make them able to live and subsist that are willing to spend their blood for you ! I say no more ; but rest, "Your faithful servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 1 Sir William Waller, whonr some called William the Con- queror, has been beaten all to pieces on Lansdown Heath, about three weeks ago. The Fairfaxes too are beaten from the field ; glad to get into Hull, which Hotham the Traitor was about delivering to her Majesty, when vigilant persons laid him fast. 2 And, in the end of May, Earl Stamford wa.s defeated in the Southwest ; and now Bristol has been sud- denly surrendered to Prince Rupert, for which let Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes (says Mr. Prynne, still very zealous) be tried by Court-Martial, and if possible, shot. 1 Fairfax Correspondence, iii. 58. 2 Of Hotham : 29th June, 1643 (Rushworth, v. 275, 276) ; of the Fairfaxes, at Adderton Moor: 30th June (ib. 279); of Waller: 13th July (ib. 285; Clarendon, ii. 376-379). Stratton Fight in Cornwall, defeat of Stamford by Hopton, was 16th May ; Bristol is 22d July (Rushworth, v. 271, 284). 1643. LETTERS XVI.-XVIL 159 LETTERS XVI.-XVIL IN the very hours while Cromwell was storming the sand- hill near Gainsborough " by some tracks," honorable gentle- men at St. Stephen's were voting him Governor of the Isle of Ely. Ely in the heart of the Fens, a place of great mili- tary capabilities, is much troubled with " corrupt ministers," with " corrupt trainbands," and understood to be in a peril- ous state ; wherefore they nominate Cromwell to take charge of it. 1 We understand his own Family to be still resident in Ely. The Parliament affairs, this Summer, have taken a bad course ; and, except it be in the Eastern Association, look everywhere declining. They have lost Bristol, their footing in the Southwest and in the North is mostly gone ; Essex's Army has melted away, without any action of mark all Sum- mer, except the loss of Hainpden in a skirmish. In the be- ginning of August, the King breaks out from Oxford, very clearly superior in force ; goes to settle Bristol ; and might thence, it was supposed, have marched direct to London, if he had liked. He decides on taking Gloucester with him be- fore he quit those parts. The Parliament, in much extremity, calls upon the Scots for help; who, under conditions, will consent. In these circumstances, it was rather thought a piece of heroism in our old friend Lord Kinibolton, or Mandevil, now In I'oine Earl of Manchester, to accept the command of the Eastern Association : he is nominated " Sergeant-Major of the Associated Counties," 10th August, 1643; is to raise new force, infantry and cavalry ; has four Colonels of Horse under him; Colonel Cromwt-11, who soon lx>came his second in command, is one of them; Colonel Norton, whom we shall meet aftor- 1 Commons Joumalt, iii. 186 (of 2ftth July, 1G4.1) ; ih 153, 167, ISO, &c. to r.-.7 ((!, lk ArchBologiral Society (Norwich, January, 1848^ 1 " upon " crossed out :t- :iml I/IIOIH ; " ready for " written over it. 164 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. n Sept I have occasion. [Of] the 3,000 allotted me, I cannot got the Norfolk part nor the Hertfordshire : it was gone before I had it. I have minded your service to forgetfulness of my own and Soldiers' necessities. I desire not to seek myself: [but] I have little money of my own to help my Soldiers, My estate is little. I tell you, the business of Ireland and England hath had of me, in money, between eleven and twelve hundred pounds; therefore my Private can do little to help the Public. You have had my money : I hope in God I desire to venture my skin. So do mine. Lay weight upon their patience ; but break it not ! Think of that which may be a real help. I believe 5,000 l is due. "If you lay aside the thought of me and my Letter, I expect no help. Pray for " Your true friend and servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. "[P.S.] There is no care taken how to maintain that Force of Horse and Foot raised and a-raising for my Lord of Man- chester. He hath not "one able to put on [that business]. The Force will fall if some help not. Weak counsels and weak actings undo all ! [two words crossed out} : all will be lost, if God help not ! Remember who tells you." a In Lynn Kegis there arose " distractions," last Spring ; dis- tractions ripening into open treason, and the seizure of Lynn by Malignant forces, Roger L'Estrange, known afterwards as Sir Roger the busy Pamphleteer, being very active in it. Lynn lies strong amid its marshes ; a gangrene in the heart of the Association itself. My Lord of Manchester is now, with all the regular Foot, and what utmost effort of volun- teers the Country can make, besieging Lynn, does get it, at last, in a week hence. Ten days hence the Battle of Newbury is got ; and much joy for Gloucester and it. But here in the Association, with such a weight of enemies upon us, and such 1 Erased, as not the correct sum. " Additional Ayscough MSS. 5015, art. 25 : printed, with some errors, in Annual Register, xxxv. 358 W43. LETTER XVm. HOLLAND. LINCOLNSHIRE. 165 a stagnancy and staggering want of pith within us, things still look extremely questionable ! Monday, 25th September. The House of Commons and the Assembly of Divines take the Covenant, the old Scotch Cove- nant, slightly modified now into a " Solemn League and Cove- nant ; " in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. 1 They lifted up their hands seriatim, and then " stept into the chancel to sign." The List yet remains in Rushworth, incorrect in some places. There sign in all about 220 Honorable Members that day. The whole Parliamentary Party, down to the low- est constable or drummer in their pay, gradually signed. It was the condition of assistance from the Scotch ; who are now calling out " all fencible men from sixteen to sixty," for a third expedition into England. A very solemn Covenant, and Vow of all the People ; of the awfulness of which, we, in these days of Custom-house oaths and loose regardless talk, cannot form the smallest notion. Duke Hamilton, seeing his painful Scotch diplomacy end all in this way, flies to the King ;ii i txford, is there " put under arrest," sent to Pendenuis Castle near the Land's End.* LETTER IN Rushworth's List of Members covenanting in St. Marga- ret's Church on Monday, September 25th, the name of Oliver Cromwell stands visible : but it is an error ; as this Letter and other good evidences still remain to show. Indeed some sin- gular oseitancy must have overtaken the watchful Rushworth, on that occasion of the Covenant ; or what is likelier, some inextricable shuffle had got among his Paj>er-masses there, wh.-n In- i -a me to redact them Ion-,' after, the indefatigable painful man! Thus he says furthermore, and again says, the signing took place "on September 2Jd," which was Friday; 1 Common* Jtmnuils, iii. 2.VJ-2S4 ; Rashworth (incorn>< t in various particu- law, unusual with Kinhworth), v 475, 4HO ; the Covenant itself, ib. 478. * Unmet, Memoirs of the Dukei oj Hamilton. 106 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 28 Sept. whereas the Rhadamanthine Commons Journals still testify, that on Friday, September 22d, there was merely order and appointment made to sign on the 25th ; and that the signing itself took place, accordingly, on Monday, September 25th, as we have given it. With other errors, incident to the exact- est Rush worth, when his Paper-masses get shuffled ! Here is another entry of his, confirmable beyond disputing ; which is of itself fatal to that of " Oliver Cromwell " among " those who signed the Covenant that day." Oliver Cromwell had quite other work to do than signing of Covenants, many miles away from him just now ; and indeed, I guess, did not sign this one for many days and weeks to come; not 'till he got to his place in Parliament again, with more leisure on his hands than now. Tuesday, "26th September. The Lord Willoughby " of Par- ham "and Colonel Cromwell came to Hull, to consult with the Lord Fairfax ; but made no stay : and the same day, Sir Thomas Fairfax crossed Humber with Twenty Troops of Horse, to join with Cromwell's forces in Lincolnshire." * For the Marquis of Newcastle is begirdliug, and ever more closely besieging, the Lord Fairfax in Hull ; which has obliged him to ship his brave Son, with all the horse, across the Humber, in this manner : horse are useless here ; under the Earl of Manchester, on the other side, they may be of use. The landing took place at Saltfleet that same afternoon, say the Newspapers : here now is what followed thereupon, successful though rather dangerous march into the safe parts of Lincolnshire, and continuance of the drillings, fightings, and enlistments there. Committee-men " Spring and Barrow " are known to us ; of Margery and " the Malignants' horses " we have also had some inkling once. " To his honored Friends, Sir William Spring and Mr. Barrow: These present. " [HOLLAND, LINCOLNSHIRE,] 28th Sept. 1643. "GENTLEMEN, It hath pleased God to bring off Sir Thomas Fairfax his Horse over the river from Hull, being 1 Rushworth, v. 280. LETTER XVTII. HOLLAND, LINCOLNSHIRE. 167 about One-and-twenty Troops of Horse and Dragoons. The Lincolnshire horse labored to hinder this work, being about Thirty-four Colors of Horse and Dragoons ; we marched up to their landing place, and the Lincolnshire Horse retreated. " After they were come over, we all marched towards Hol- land ; and when we came to our last quarter upon the edge of Holland, the Enemy quartered within four miles of us, and kept the field all night with his whole body : his iutendment, as we conceive, was to fight us ; or hoping to interpose betwixt us and our retreat; having received, to his Thirty- four Colors of Horse, Twenty fresh Troops, Ten Companies of Dragoons ; * and about a Thousand Foot, being General King's own Kegiment. With these he attempted our guards and our quarters ; and, if God had not been merciful, had ruined us before we had known of it ; the Five Troops we set to keep the watch failing much of their duty. But we got to horse ; and retreated in good order, with the safety of all our Horse of the Association ; not losing four of them that I hear of, and we got five of theirs. And for this we are exceedingly bound to the goodness of God, who brought our troops off with so little loss. " I write unto you to acquaint you with this ; the rather that God may be acknowledged ; and that you may help for- ward, in sending such force away unto us as lie unprofitably in your country. And especially that Troop of Captain Mar gery's, which surely would * not be wauting, now we so muck need it ! " I hear there hath been much exception taken to Captain Margery and his Officers, for taking of horses. I am sorry \ "ti should discountenance those who (not to make benefit to f Sii-inselves, but to serve their Country) are willing to venture their lives, and to purchase to themselves the displeasure of bad men, that they may do a I'ulilic benefit. I undertake not to justify all Captain Margery's actions: but his own con- science knows whether he hath taken the horses of any but Malignants; and it were somewhat too hard to put it upon the consciences of your fellow Deputy Lieutenants, whether 1 \Vw*d torn. 168 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 28 Sept they have not freed the horses of known Malignants ? A fault not less, considering the sad estate of this Kingdom, than to take a horse from a known Honest man ; the offence being against the Public, which is a considerable aggravation ! I know not the measure every one takes of Malignants. I think it is not fit Captain Margery should be the judge . but if he, in this taking of horses, hath observed the plain char acter of a Malignant, and cannot be charged for one horse otherwise taken, it had been better that some of the bitter- ness wherewith he and his have been followed had been spared ! The horses that his Cornet 1 Boulry took, he will put himself upon that issue for them all. " If these men be accounted ' troublesome to the Country/ I shall be glad you would send them all to me. I '11 bid them welcome. And when they have fought for you, and endured some other difficulties of war which your ' honester ' men will hardly bear, I pray you then let them go for honest men ! I protest unto you, many of those men which are of your Coun- try's choosing, under Captain Johnson, are so far from serving you, that, were it not that I have honest Troops to master them, although they be well paid, yet they are so mutinous that I may justly fear they would cut my throat ! Gentle- men, it may be it provokes some spirits to see such plain men made Captains of Horse. It had been well that men of honor and birth had entered into these employments : but why do they not appear ? Who would have hindered them ? But see- ing it was necessary the work must go on, better plain men than none ; but best to have men patient of wants, faithful and conscientious in their employment. And such, I hope, these will approve themselves to be. Let them therefore, if I be thought worthy of any favor, leave your Country with your good wishes and a blessing. I am confident they 2 will be well bestowed. And I believe before it be long, you will be in their debt; and then it will not be hard to quit scores. " What arms you can furnish them withal, I beseech you do it. I have hitherto found your kindness great to me : I 1 " Coronett " in orig. 2 your wishes. 1643. LETTER XVIII. HOLLAND, LINCOLNSHIRE. 169 know not what I have done to lose it ; I love it so well, and prize it so high, that I would do my best to gain more. You have the assured affection of " Your most humble and faithful servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. "P.S. I understand there were some exceptions taken at a Horse that was sent to me, which was seized out of the hands of one Mr. Goldsmith of Wilby. If he be not by you judged a Malignant, and that you do not approve of my having of the Horse, I shall as willingly return him again as you shall desire. And therefore, I pray you, signify your pleasure to me herein under your hands. Not that I would, for ten thousand horses, have the Horse to my own private benefit, saving to make use of him for the Public : for I will most gladly return the value of him to the State. If the Gentleman stand clear in your judgments, I beg it as a special favor that, if the Gen- tleman be freely willing to let me have him for my money, let him set his own price : I shall very justly return him the money. Or if he be unwilling to part with him, but keeps him for his own pleasure, be pleased to send me an answer thereof : I shall instantly return him his Horse ; and do it with a great deal more satisfaction to myself than keep him. Therefore I beg it of you to satisfy my desire in this last re- quest ; it shall exceedingly oblige me to you. If you do it not, I shall rest very unsatisfied, and the Horse will be a burden to ine so long as I shall keep him." l The Earl of Manchester, recaptor of Lynn Regis lately, is still besieging and retaking certain minor strengths and Fen i^irrisons, sweeping the intrusive Royalists out of those Southern Towns of Lincolnshire. This once done, his Foot once joined to Cromwell's and Fairfax's Horse, something may be expected in the Midland parts too. 1 Original in tliu |>utMxion of Dawaoo Tomer, Esq., Great Yarmouth ; printed in Papt-rs of Norfolk Archaeological Society (Norwich, January, ItUtf). 170 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 1644. WINCEBY FIGHT. LINCOLNSHIRE, which has now become one of the Associated Seven, 1 and is still much overrun by Newarkers and Northern Papists, shall at last be delivered. Hull siege still continues, with obstinate sally and onslaught ; on the other hand, Lynn siege, which the Earl of Manchester was busy in, has prosperously ended; and the Earl himself, with his foot regiments, is now also here ; united, in loose quarters, with Cromwell and Fairfax, in the Boston region, and able probably to undertake somewhat. Cromwell and Fairfax with the horse, we perceive, have still the brunt of the work to do. Here, after much marching and skirmishing, is an account of Winceby Fight, their chief exploit in those parts, which cleared the country of the Newarkers, General Kings, and renegade Sir John Hendersons ; as recorded by loud-spoken Vicars. In spite of brevity we must copy the Narrative. Cromwell himself was nearer death in this action than ever in any other ; the victory too made its due figure, and " appeared in the world." Winceby, a small upland Hamlet, in the Wolds, not among the Fens, of Lincolnshire, is some five miles west of Horn- castle. The confused memory of this Fight is still fresh there ; the Lane along which the chase went bears ever since the name of " Slash Lane," and poor Tradition maunders about it as she can. Hear Vicars, a poor human soul zealously prophesying as if through the organs of an ass, in a not mendacious, yet loud-spoken, exaggerative, more or less asinine manner : 2 1 20th September, 1643, Husbands, ii. 327. 2 Third form of Vicars : God's Ark overtopping the World's Waves, or the Third Part of the Parliamentary Chronicle : by John Vicars (London, printed by M. Simons and J. Meecock, 1646), p. 45. There are three editions or successive forms of this Book of Vicars's (see Bliss's Wood, tn voce) : it is always, unless the contrary be expressed, the second (of 1644) that we refer to here. 1643. WIM'tBY FIGHT. 171 . . . "All that night," Tuesday, 10th October, 1643, "we were drawing our horse to the appointed rendezvous ; and the next morning, being Wednesday, iny Lord " Manchester "gave order that the whole force, both horse and foot, should be drawn up to Bolingbroke Hill, where he would expect the enemy, being the only convenient ground to fight with him. But Colonel Cromwell was no way satisfied that we should fight ; our horse being extremely wearied with hard duty two or three days together. " The enemy also drew, that " Wednesday " morning, their whole body of horse and dragooners into the field, being 74 colors of horse, and 21 colors of dragoons, in all 95 colors. We had not many more than half so many colors of horse and dragooners ; but I believe we had as many men, besides our foot, which indeed could not be drawn up until it was very late. The enemy's word was 'Cavendish;'" he that was killed in the Bog ; " and ours was ' Religion.' I believe that as we had no notice of the enemy's coming towards us, so they had as little of our preparation to fight with them. It was about twelve of the clock ere our horse and dragooners were drawn up. After that we marched about a mile nearer the enemy ; and then we began to descry him, by little and little, coming towards us. Until this time we did not know we should fight ; but so soon as our men had knowledge of the enemy's coming, they were very full of joy and resolution, thinking it a great mercy that they should now fight with him. < >ur men went on in several bodies, singing Psalms. Quarter- master-General Vermuyden with five troops had the forlorn ho|*-, and Colonel Cromwell the van, assisted with other of my Lord's troops, and seconded by Sir T. Fairfax. Both armies about Ixbie, if I mistake not the Town's name," you do mistake. Mr. Vicars ; it is Wiuceby, a mere hamlet and not a town. I'.oth they and we 1m. 1 dia\vn up our dragooners ; who gave the first charge; and thru the horse fell in. Colonel Cromwell f-ll with brave resolution 141011 the enemy, immediately after their dragoonurs had given him the first volley; yet they Were so nimble, as that, within half pistol-shot, they gave him 172 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. n Oct. 1643. another : his horse was killed under him at the first charge, and fell down upon him ; and as he rose up, he was knocked down again by the Gentleman who charged him, who 't was conceived was Sir Ingram Hopton : but afterwards he " the Colonel "recovered a poor horse in a soldier's hands, and bravely mounted himself again. Truly this first charge was so home-given, and performed with so much admirable courage and resolution by our troops, that the enemy stood not another ; but were driven back upon their own body, which was to have seconded them ; and at last put these into a plain disorder ; and thus, in less than half an hour's fight, they were all quite routed, and " driven along Slash Lane at a terrible rate, un- necessary to specify. Sir Ingram Hopton, who had been so near killing Cromwell, was himself killed. " Above a hundred of their men were found drowned in ditches," in quagmires that would not bear riding ; the " dragooners now left on foot " were taken prisoners ; the chase lasted to Horncastle or beyond it, and Henderson the renegade Scot was never heard of in those parts more. My Lord of Manchester's foot did not get up till the battle was over. This very day of Winceby Fight, there has gone on at Hull a universal sally, tough sullen wrestle in the trenches all day ; with important loss to the Marquis of Newcastle ; loss of ground, loss of lives, loss still more of invaluable guns, brass drakes, sackers, what not : and on the morrow morning the Townsfolk, looking out, discern with emotion that there is now no Marquis, that the Marquis has marched away under cloud of night, and given up the siege. Which surely are good encouragements we have had ; two in one day. This will suffice for Winceby Fight, or Horncastle Fight, of llth October, 1643 ; * and leave the reader to imagine that Lincolnshire too was now cleared of the " Papist Army," as we violently nickname it, all but a few Towns on the Western border, which will be successfully besieged when the Spring comes. 1 Account of it from the other side, in Rushworth, v. 282 ; Hull Siege, Ac. ib. 280. 1644. LETTERS X1X.-XX. 173 LETTERS XIX.-XX. IN the month of January, 1643-4, Oliver, as Governor of Ely, is present for some time in that City ; lodges, we suppose, with his own family there ; doing military and other work of government : makes a transient appearance in the Cathedral one day ; memorable to the Reverend Mr. Hitch and us. The case was this. Parliament, which, ever since the first meeting of it, had shown a marked disaffection to Surplices at Allhallowtide and " monuments of Superstition and Idolatry," and passed Order after Order to put them down, has in August last come to a decisive Act on the subject, and specifi- cally explained that go they must and shall. 1 Act of Parlia- ment which, like the previous Orders of Parliament, could only have gradual partial execution, according to the humor of the locality ; and gave rise to scenes. By the Parliament's directions, the Priest, Churchwardens, and proper officers were to do it, with all decency : failing the proper officers, improper officers, military men passing through the place, these and such like, backed by a Puritan populace and a Puritan soldiery, had to do it ; not always in the softest manner. As many a Querela, Peter Heylin's (lying Peter's) History, and Perse- cutio Untlecima, still testifies with angry tears. You cannot pull the shirt off a man, the skin off a man, in a way that will please him ! Our Assembly of Divines, sitting earnestly deliberative ever since June last, 2 will direct us what Form of Worship we are to adopt, some form, it is to be hoped, not gm\vn dramaturgic to us, but still awfully symbolic for us. 1 28th Anpnst, lf.4.3 (Scuhll, i. 53 ; Commons Journals, Hi. 220) : 2d NoTem- '.inmrms Journals, uml Hiis>i:iinls, ii. 119) : 31st August, 1641 ; 23d January, 1641 (Commons Journals, in die-bus). * Bill for convocation of them, read a third time, 6th January, 1642-3 inns Journals, ii. 916); Act iUelf, with the Names, 13th June, 1643 il, i. 42-44). 174 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 10 Jan. Meanwhile let all Churches, especially all Cathedrals, be stript of whatever the general soul so much as suspects to be stage- property and prayer by machinery, a thing we very justly hold in terror and horror, and dare not live beside ! Ely Cathedral, it appears, had still been overlooked, Ely, much troubled with scandalous ministers, as well as with disaffected trainbands, and Mr. Hitch, under the very eyes of Oliver, persists in his Choir-service there. Here accord- ingly is an official Note, copies of which still sleep in some repositories. LETTER XIX. [To the Reverend Mr. Hitch, at Ely : These.'] " [ELY,] 10th January, 1643. "MB. HITCH, Lest the Soldiers should in any tumultuary or disorderly way attempt the reformation of the Cathedral Church, I require you to forbear altogether your Choir-service, so unedifying and offensive : and this as you shall answer it, if any disorder should arise thereupon. " I advise you to catechise, and read and expound the Scrip- ture to the people ; not doubting but the Parliament, with the advice of the Assembly of Divines, will direct you farther. I desire your Sermons [too], where usually they have been, but more frequent. " Your loving friend, "OLIVER CROMWELL." l Mr. Hitch paid no attention ; persisted in his Choir-service : whereupon enter the Governor of Ely with soldiers, " with a rabble at his heels," say the old Querelas. With a rabble at his heels, with his hat on, he walks up to the Choir ; says audibly : " I am a man under Authority ; and am commanded to dismiss this Assembly," then draws back a little, that the Assembly may dismiss with decency. Mr. Hitch has paused 1 Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1788), Iviii. 225 : copied " from an old Copy, by a Country Rector," who has had some difficulty in reading the nauic of Hitch, and knows nothing farther about him or it. 1644. LETTER XX. CAMBRIDGE. 175 for a moment ; but seeing Oliver draw back, he starts again : " As it was in the beginning " ! " Leave off your fooling, and come down, Sir ! " 1 said Oliver, in a voice still audible to this Editor ; which Mr. Hitch did now instantaneously give ear to. And so, " with his whole congregation," files out, and vanishes from the field of History. Friday, 19th January. The Scots enter England by Berwick, 21,000 strong: on Wednesday they left Dunbar "up to the kiit-cs in snow;" such a heart of forwardness was in them. 3 Old Lesley, now Earl of Leven, was their General, as before ; a Committee of Parliamenteers went with him. They soon drove in Newcastle's "Papist Army" within narrower quar- ters ; in May, got Manchester with Cromwell and Fairfax brought across the Humber to join them, and besieged New- castle himself in York. Which, before long, will bring us to Marston Moor, and Letter Twenty-first. In this same month of January, 22d day of it, directly after Hitch's business, Colonel Cromwell, now more properly Licutenant-General Cromwell, Lieutenant to the Earl of Man- chester in the Association, transiently appeared in his place in Parliament ; complaining much of my Lord Willoughby, t a backward General, with strangely dissolute people alnmt him, a great sorrow to Lincolnshire; 8 and craving that my Lord Manchester might be appointed there instead : which, as we see, was done ; with good result. LETTER XX. ABOUT the end of next month, February, 1644, the Lieu- tenant -fJenenil, w- find, has been in Gloucester, successfully convoying Ammunition thither; and has taken various strong- IIOURPR by the road. anion;: i-tlicrs, Hilsden-House in Buck- inghamshire, with important gentlemen, and many prisoners; 1 Walker's Suffering of the Clrryy (London, 1714), Part ii. p. ->.T 2 Ruhw.,rtli, v 603-606. D'Ewe* MM. vol. iv. f. 280 h. 176 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. February, which latter, " Walloons, French, and other outlandish men," appear in Cambridge streets in a very thirsty condition ; and are, in spite of danger, refreshed according to ability by the loyal Scholars, and especially by "Mrs. Cumber's maid," with a temporary glass of beer. 1 In this expedition there had gone with Cromwell a certain Major-General Crawford, whom he has left behind in the Hilsden neighborhood ; to whom there is a Letter, here first producible to modern readers, and con- nected therewith a tale otherwise known. Letter Twentieth, which exists as a Copy, on old dim paper, in the Kimbolton Archives, addressed on the back of the sheet, with all reverence, To the Earl of Manchester, and forms a very opaque puzzle in that condition, turns out, after due study, to have been a Copy by that Crawford of a Letter addressed to himself: Copy hastily written off, along with other hasty confused sheets still extant beside it, for the Earl of Manchester's use, on a certain Parliamentary occasion, which will by and by concern us too for a moment. A " Lieutenant-Colonel," Packer I dimly apprehend is the name of him, has on this Hilsden-and-Gloucester expedition given offence to Major-General Crawford ; who again, in a somewhat prompt way, has had Packer laid under arrest, under suspension at Cambridge; in which state Packer still painfully continues. And may, seemingly, continue : for here has my Lord of Manchester just come down with a Parlia- mentary Commission "to reform the University," a thing of immense noise and moment, and " is employed in regard of many occasions ; " is, in fact, precisely in these hours,' 2 issuing his Summonses to the Heads of Houses ; and cannot spare an instant for Packer and his pleadings. Crawford is still in Buckinghamshire; nevertheless the shortest way foi Packer will be to go to Crawford, and take this admonitory Letter from his superior in command : 1 Qufirela (in Cooper's Annals, iii. 370) ; Cromwelliana, p. 8 (5th March 1643). 2 llth March (Cooper, iii. 371 ; details in Neal, ii. 79-89). 1644. LETTER XX. CAMBRIDGE. 177 [To Major- General Crawford : These."] "CAMBRIDGE, 10th March [1643]. 1 " SIR, The complaints you preferred to my Lord against your Lieutenant-Colonel, both by Mr. Lee and your own Letters, have occasioned his stay here : my Lord being [so] employed, in regard of many occasions which are upon him, that he hath not been at leisure to hear him make his defence : which, in pure justice, ought to be granted him or any man before a judgment be passed upon him. "During his abode here and absence from you, he hath acquainted me what a grief it is to him to be absent from his charge, especially now the regiment is called forth to action: and therefore, asking of me my opinion, I advised him speedily to repair unto you. Surely you are not well advised thus to turn off one so faithful to the Cause, and so able to serve you as this man is. Give me leave to tell you, I cannot be of your judgment; [cannot understand] if a man notorious for wickedness, for oaths, for drinking, hath as great a share in your affection as one who fears an oath, who fears to sin, that this doth commend your election of men to serve as fit instruments in this work ! "Ay, but the man 'is an Anabaptist.' Are you sure of that ? Admit he be, shall that render him incapable to serve the Public? * He is indiscreet.' It may be so, in some things : we have all human infirmities. I tell you, if you had none but such ' indiscreet men ' about you, and would be pleased to use them kindly, you would find as good a fence to you as any you have yet chosen. " Sir, the State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions ; if they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies. I advised you formerly to bear with men of diff.-rent minds from yourself: if you had done it when I advised you to it, I think you would not have had so many stumbling-blocks in your way. It may be you judge other- ; but I tell you my mind. I desire you would receive 1 In Appendix, No. 6 . Letter from Oliver, uuully busy, and not yet got to Cambridge. TOI. XTII 12 ' 178 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 10 March, this man into your favor and good opinion. I believe, if he follow my counsel, he will deserve no other but respect from you. Take heed of being sharp, or too easily sharpened by others, against those to whom you can object little but that they square not with you in every opinion concerning matters of religion. If there be any other offence to be charged upon him, that must in a judicial way receive determination. 1 know you will not think it fit my Lord should discharge ao Officer of the Field but in a regulate way. I question whether you or I have any precedent for that. " I have not farther to trouble you : but rest, " Your humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l Adjoined to this Letter, as it now lies, in its old reposi- tory at Kimbolton, copied and addressed in the enigmatic way above mentioned, there is, written in a Clerk's hand, but corrected in the hand which copied the Letter, a confused loud-spoken recriminatory Narrative, of some length, about the Second Battle of Newbury ; touching also, in a loud con- fused way, on the case of Packer and others : evidently the raw-material of the Earl's Speech in defence of himself? in the time of the Self-denying Ordinance; of which the reader will hear by and by. Assiduous Crawford had pro- vided the Earl with these helps to. prove Cromwell an insub- ordinate person, and what was equally terrible, a favorer of Anabaptists. Of the Letter, Crawford, against whom also there lay accusations, retains the Original ; but furnishes this Copy ; of which, unexpectedly, we too have now ob- tained a reading. This sharp Letter may be fancied to procure the Lieutenant- Colonel's reinstatement ; who, we have some intimation, does march with his regiment again, in hopes to take the Western Towns of Lincolnshire. Indeed Lieutenant-Colonel Packer, if this were verily Packer as he seems to be, became a dis- 1 Communicated, with much politeness, by the Duke of Manchester, from Family Papers at Kimbolton. 2 Rnshworth, v. 733-736. 1844. LETTER XX. CAMBRIDGE. 179 tinguished Colonel afterwards, and gave Oliver himself some trouble with his Auabaptistries. 1 In the Letter itself, still more in the confused Papers adjoined to it, of Major-General Crawford's writing, there is evidence enough of smouldering fire-elements in my Lord's Eastern-Association Army ! The Lieutenant-General Cromwell, one perceives, is justly sus- ]>ected of a lenity for Sectaries, Independents, Anabaptists themselves, provided they be "men that fear God," as he phrases it. Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburn (Freeborn John), Lieu- tenant-Colonel Fleetwood risen from Captaincy now : these and others, in the Crawford Documents, come painfully to view in this Lincolnshire campaign and afterwards ; with discontents, with "Petitions," and one knows not what; all tending to Sectarian courses, all countenanced by the Lieutenant-General. 8 Most distasteful to Scotch Crawford, to my Lord of Man- chester, not to say criminal and unforgivable to the respect- able Presbyterian mind. Reverend Mr. Baillie is now up in Town again with the Scotch Commissioners, for there is again a Scotch Commis- sion here, now that their Army has joined us : Reverend Mr. Buillie, taking good note of things, has this pertinent passage some six months hence : " The Earl of Manchester, a sweet meek man, did formerly permit Lieutenant-General Cromwell to guide all the Army at his pleasure : the man Cromwell is a very wise and active head " yes, Mr. Robert ! " universally well beloved as religious and stout ; but a known Independent or favorer of Sects," the issues of which might have been frightful ! " But now our countryman Crawford has got a great hand with Manchester, stands high with all that are against Sects ; " which is a blessed change indeed,* and may partly explain this Letter and some other things to us ! Of Major-General Crawford, who was once a loud-sounding well-known man, but whose chance for being remembered much longer will mainly ground itself on a Letter he copied with very different views, let us say here what little needs to be 1 Ludlow (London, 1721), ii. 599. 1 MS. by Crawford at Kimboltou. Baillie, ii. 229 (16tb September, 1644). 180 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. said. He is Scotch ; of the Crawfords of Jordan-Hill, in Ren- frewshire ; has seen service in the German Wars, and is deeply conscious of it; paints himself to us as a headlong audacious fighter, of loose loud tongue, much of a pedant and braggart, somewhat given to sycophancy too. Whose history may sum itself up practically in this one fact, That he helped Cromwell and the Earl of Manchester to quarrel ; and his character in this other, That he knew Lieutenant-G-eneral Cromwell to be a coward. This he, Crawford, knew ; had seen it ; was wont to assert it, and could prove it. Nay once, in subsequent angry months, talking to the Honorable Denzil Holies in West- minster Hall, he asserted it within earshot of Cromwell him- self ; "who was passing into the House, and I am very sure did hear it, as intended ; " who, however, heard it as if it had been no affair of his at all; and quietly walked on, as if his affairs lay elsewhere than there ! : From which I too, the knowing Denzil, drew my inferences, ignominious to the human character ! Poor Crawford, after figuring much among the Scotch Committee-men and Presbyterian Grandees for a time, joined or rejoined the Scotch Army under Lesley ; and fell at the Siege of Hereford in 1645, fighting gallantly I doubt not, and was quiet thenceforth. 8 In these same weeks there is going on a very famous Treaty once more, " Treaty of Uxbridge : " with immense apparatus of King's Commissioners and Parliament and Scotch Commis- sioners ; 8 of which, however, as it came to nothing, there need nothing here be said. Mr. Christopher Love, a young eloquent divine, of hot Welsh blood, of Presbyterian tendency, preach- ing by appointment in the place, said, He saw no prospect of an agreement, he for one ; " Heaven might as well think of agreeing with Hell ; " 4 words which were remembered against Mr. Christopher. The King will have nothing to do with 1 Holles's Memoirs: in Maseres's Select Tracts (London, 1815), i. 199. 2 Wood's Athence (Life, p. 8) ; Baillie, ii. 235 and ssepius (correct ib. ii. 218 n. and Godwin, i. 380) ; Holies; Scotch Peerages; &c. &c. 8 29th Jan.- 5th March, Rushworth, v. 844-946; Whitlocke, 122, 123. * Wood, iii. 281 ; Commons Journals, &c. 1644. LETTER XXI. MARSTON MOOR. 181 Presbyterianism, will not stir a step without his Surplices at Allhallowtide ; there remains only War ; a supreme managing " Committee of Both Kingdoms ; " combined forces, and war. On the other hand, his Majesty, to counterbalance the Scots, had agreed to a "Cessation in Ireland," sent for his "Irish Army " to assist him here, and indeed already got them as good as ruined, or reduced to a mere marauding apparatus. 1 A new " Papist " or partly " Papist Army," which gave great scandal in this country. By much the remarkablest man in it was Colonel George Monk ; already captured at Nantwich, and lodged in the Tower. But now the "Western Towns of Lincolnshire are all taken ; Manchester with Cromwell and Fairfax are across the Hum- ber, joined with the Scots besieging York, where Major-General Crawford again distinguishes himself ; a and we are now at Marstou Moor. LETTER XXI. MARSTON MOOB. IN the last days of June, 1644, Prince Kupert, with an army of some 20,000 fierce men, came pouring over the hills from Lancashire, where he had left harsh traces of himself, to re- lieve the Marquis of Newcastle, who was now with a force of 6,000 besieged in York, by the united forces of the Scots under Leven, the Yorkshiremen under Lord Fairfax, and the Asso- ciated Counties under Manchester and Cromwell. On hearing of his approach, the Parliament Generals raised the Siege; drew out on the Moor of Long Marston, some four miles off, to oppose his coming. He avoided them by crossing the river Ouse ; relieved York, Monday, 1st July ; and might have re- 1 Kushworth, v. 547 (Ceation, 15th September, 1643) ; v. 299-303 (Sieg* of Naotwirh, nnf His enemies. At his fall, his horse being killed with the 1'iillct, and as I am informed three horses more, I am told he bid them, Open to the right and left, that he might see the rogues run. Truly he was exceedingly beloved in the Army, 1 I conclude, the poor Boy Oliver lias already fallen in these Ware, none of us knows where, though his Father well knew ! Note to Third Edition : In the Squire PUJH-IS (Frurer's Magazine, December, 1847) is this pa.- " Meeting Cromwell again after nome ahsence, just on the edge of Marstmi Hiittlc, Sjiiirn navs. ' I ilmught he looked aad and wearied, for he had had a ad lorn ; young Oliver got killi-l to death not long before, I heard : it was ueur Kuureeborough, ami 30 more got killed.' " JVute of 1857 : see autea, p. 48 u. 184 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 5 July, of all that knew him. But few knew him ; for he was a pre- cious young man, fit for God. You have cause to bless the Lord. He is a glorious Saint in Heaven ; wherein you ought exceedingly to rejoice. Let this drink up your sorrow ; seeing these are not feigned words to comfort you, but the thing is so real and undoubted a truth. You may do all things by the strength of Christ. Seek that, and you shall easily bear your trial. Let this public mercy to the Church of God make you to forget your private sorrow. The Lord be your strength : so prays " Your truly faithful and loving brother, "OLIVER CROMWELL. " My love to your Daughter, and my Cousin Perceval, Sis- ter Desborow and all friends with you.' i Colonel Valentine Walton, already a conspicuous man, and more so afterwards, is of Great-Staughton, Huntingdonshire, a neighbor of the Earl of Manchester's ; Member for his Coiinty, and a Colonel since the beginning of the War. There had long been an intimacy between the Cromwell Family and his. His Wife, the Mother of this slain youth, is Margaret Cromwell, Oliver's younger Sister, next to him in the family series. "Frank Russel" is of Chippenham, Cambridgeshire, eldest son of the Baronet there ; already a Colonel ; soon after- wards Governor of Ely in Oliver's stead. 2 It was the daugh- ter of this Frank that Henry Cromwell, some ten years hence, wedded. Colonel Walton, if he have at present some military charge of the Association, seems to attend mainly on Parliament ; and this Letter, I think, finds him in Town. The poor wounded youth would have to lie on the field at Marston while the Bat- tle was fought ; the whole Army had to bivouac there, next to no food, hardly even water to be had. That of " Seeing the rogues run," occurs more than once at subsequent dates in these 1 Seward's Anecdotes (London, 1798), i. 362; reproduced in Ellis's Original Letters (First Series), iii. 299. " Original once in the possession of Mr. Lang- ton of Welbeck Street," says Ellis ; "in the Bodleian Library," says Seward. 2 See Noble, ii. 407, 408, with vigilance against his blunders. 1644. LETTER XXII. LINCOLN. Wars : * who first said it, or whether anybody ever said it, must remain uncertain. York was now captured in a few days : Prince Rupert had fled across into Lancashire, and so " south to Shropshire, to recruit again ; " Marquis Newcastle with " about eighty gen- tlemen," disgusted at the turn of affairs, had withdrawn beyond seas. The Scots moved northward to attend the Siege of Newcastle, ended it by storm in October next. On the 24th of which same month, 24th October, 1644, the Parliament promulgated its Rhadamanthine Ordinance, To " hang any Irish Papist taken in arms in this country ; " 2 a very severe Ordinance, but not uncalled for by the nature of the " marauding apparatus " in question there. LETTERS XXII.-XXIII. THE next Two Letters represent the Army and Lieutenant- General got home to the Association again ; and can be read with little commentary. " The Committee for the Isle of Ely," we are to remark, consists of Honorable Members connected with that region, and has its sittings in London. Of " Major Ireton " we shall hear farther ; " Husband " also is slightly met with elsewhere ; and " Captain Castle " grew, I think, to be Colonel Castle, and perished at the Storm of Tredah, some years afterwards. LETTER XXH. " For my noble Friends the Committee for the Isle rfEly: Present these: "LiwooLif, 1st September, 1644. "GENTLEMEN, I understand that you have lately release.! some persons committed by Major Ireton and Captain II band, aud one committed by Captain Castle, all [committed] 1 Ludlow. Kuj*bwwrtli, v. 783 186 PAET II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. i Sept. upon clear and necessary grounds as they are represented unto me ; [grounds] rendering them as very enemies as any we have, and as much requiring to have them continued secured. "I have given order to Captain Husband to see them re- committed to the hands of my Marshal, Richard White. And I much desire you, for the future, Not to entrench upon me so much as to release them, or any committed in the like case by myself, or my Deputy and Commanders in the Gar- rison, until myself or some Superior Authority l be satisfied in the cause, and do give order in allowance of their enlarge- ment. For I profess I will be no Governor, nor engage any other under me to undertake such a charge, upon such weak terms ! "I am so sensible of the need we have to improve the present opportunity of our being masters in the field and having no Enemy near the Isle, and to spare whatever charge we can towards the making of those Fortifications, which may render it more defensible hereafter if we shall have more need, I shall desire you, for that end, to ease the Isle and Treasury from the superfluous charge of [having] two several Committees for the several parts of the Isle; and that one Committee, settled at March, may serve for the whole Isle. " Wherefore I wish that one of your number may, in your courses, intend 2 and appear at that Committee, to manage and uphold it the better for all parts of the Isle. Resting upon your care herein, I remain, " Your friend to serve you, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 3 1 Not inferior ! 2 " intend " means " take pains ; " March is a Town in the Ely region. 8 Old Copy, now (January, 1846) on sale at Mr. Graves's, Pall-Mali : printed in the Athenceum of 13th December, 1845. Old copy, such as the Clerks of Honorable Members were wont to take of Letters read in the House, or officially elsewhere ; worth copying for certain parties, in a time without Newspapers like ours. 1644. LETTER XXIII. SLEAFORD. 187 LETTER XXIII. SLEAFORD is in Lincolnshire, a march farther South. Lieu- teuant-General Cromwell with the Eastern- Association Horse, if the " Foot " were once settled, might not he dash down to help the Lieutenant-General Essex and his " Army in the West"? Of whom, and of whose sad predicament amid tin; hills of Cornwall there, we shall see the issue anon. Brother Walton, a I'arliainent-inau, has written, we perceive, to Crom- well, suggesting such a thing; urging haste if possible. In Cromwell is no delay : but the Eastern-Association Army, horse or foot, is heavy to move, beset, too, with the old internal discrepancies, Crawfordisms, scandals at Sectaries, and what not. " For Colonel Valentine Walton : These, in London. "SLEAFORD, 6th or 5th September [1644]. " SIR, We do with grief of heart resent the sad condition of our Army in the West, and of affairs there. That business has our hearts with it ; and truly had we wings, we would fly thither ! So soon as ever my Lord and the Foot set me loose, there shall be in me no want to hasten what I can to that service. "For indeed all other considerations are to be laid aside and to give place to it, as being of far more importance. I hope the Kingdom shall see that, in the midst of our neces- sities, we shall serve them without disputes. We hope to for- get our wants, which are exceeding great, and ill cared for; and desire to refer the many slanders heaped ujxm us by false tongues to God, who will, in due time, make it appear to the world that we study the glory of God, and the honor and liberty of the Parliament. For which we unanimously fight ; without seeking our own interests. " Indeed, we never find our men so cheerful as when there is work to do. I trust you will always hear so of them. Tho Lord is our strength, and in Him is all our hope. Pray for ns. Present my love to my friends : I beg their prayers. The Lord still bless you. 188 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 6 or 5 Sept. " We have some amongst us much l slow in action : if we could all intend our own ends less, and our ease too, our business in this Army would go on wheels for expedition ! [But] because some of us are enemies to rapine and other wickednesses, we are said to be ' factious,' to ( seek to maintain our opinions in religion by force,' which we detest and abhor. I profess I could never satisfy myself of the justness of this War, but from the Authority of the Parliament to maintain itself in its rights : and in this Cause I hope to approve myself an honest man and single-hearted. " Pardon me that I am thus troublesome. I write but sel- dom : it gives me a little ease to pour my mind, in the midst of calumnies, into the bosom of a friend. Sir, no man more truly loves you than "Your brother and servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 THREE FRAGMENTS OF SPEECHES. SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE. THE following Three small Fragments of Speeches will have to represent for us some six months of occasional loud debat- ing, and continual anxious gestation and manipulation, in the Two Houses, in the Committee of Both Kingdoms, and in many other houses and places ; the ultimate outcome of which was the celebrated " Self-denying Ordinance," and " New Model " of the Parliament's Army ; which indeed brings on an entirely New Epoch in the Parliament's Affairs. Essex and Waller had, for the third or even fourth time, chiefly by the exertions of ever-zealous London, been fitted out with Armies ; had marched forth together to subdue the West ; and ended in quite other results than that. The two Gen- erals differed in opinion ; did not march long together : Essex, 1 " much " is old for very. * Seward's Anecdotes^ ut supra, i. 362. 1644. SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE. 189 urged by a subordinate, Lord Roberts, who had estates in Cornwall and hoped to get some rents out of them, 1 turned down thitherwards to the left; Waller bending up to the right ; with small issue either way. Waller's last action was au indecisive, rather unsuccessful Fight, or day of skirm- ishing, with the King, at Cropredy Bridge on the border of Oxford and Northampton Shires, 2 three days before Marston Moor. After which both parties separated : the King to fol- low Essex, since there was now no hope in the North ; Waller to wander London-wards, and gradually "lose his Army by desertion," as the habit of him was. As for the King, he fol- lowed Essex into Cornwall with effect ; hemmed him in among the hills there, about Bodmin, Lostwithiel, Foy, with contin- ual skirmishing, with ever-growing scarcity of victual ; forced poor Essex to escape to Plymouth by the Fleet, 8 and leave his Army to shift for itself as best might be : the horse under Balfour to cut their way through ; the foot under Skippon to lay down their arms, cease to be soldiers, and march away " with staves in their hands " into the wide world. This sur- render was effected 1st September, 1644, two months after Marston Moor. The Parliament's and Cromwell's worst an- ticipation, in that quarter, is fulfilled. The Parliament made no complaint of Essex ; with a kind of Roman dignity, they rather thanked him. They proceeded to recruit Waller and him, summoned Manchester with Crom- well his Lieutenant-General to join them ; by which three bodies, making again a considerable army, under the command of .Manchester and Waller (for Essex lay " sick," or seeming to be sick), the King, returning towards Oxford from his victory, was intercepted at Ncwbury ; and there, on Sunday, 27th October, 1644, fell out the Second Battle of Newbury. 4 Wherein his Majesty, after four hours' confused fighting, rather had the worse ; yet contrived to march off, unmolested, " by moonlight, at 10 o'clock," towards Wallingford, and got 1 Clarendon. * 29th June, K,J4, (M.in mlun, ii. 655. His own distinct, downright and aumewhat sulk/ Narrative, in Ruah- worth, v. 701. Clarendon, ii. 717. 190 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 25 Nor. safe home. Manchester refused to pursue ; though urged by Cromwell, and again urged. Nay twelve days after, when the King came back, and openly revictualled Dennington Castle, an important strong-place hard by, Manchester, in spite of Cromwell's urgency, still refused to interfere. They, in fact, came to a quarrel here, these two: and much else that was represented by them came to a quarrel ; Presbytery and Independency, to wit. Manchester was re- ported to have said, If they lost this Army pursuing the King, they had no other ; the King " might hang them all." To Cromwell and the thorough-going party, it had become very clear that high Essexes and Manchesters, of limited notions and large estates and anxieties, who besides their fear of being themselves beaten utterly, and forfeited and " hanged," were afraid of beating the King too well, would never end this Cause in a good way. Whereupon ensue some six months of very complex manipulation, and public and private consulta- tion, which these Three Fragments of Speeches are here to represent for us. I. In the House, of Commons, on Monday, 25th November, 1644, Lieutenant- General Cromwell did, as ordered on the Satur- day before, exhibit a charge against the Earl of Manchester, to this effect: " That the said Earl hath always been indisposed and back- ward to engagements, and the ending of the War by the sword ; and [always] for such a Peace as a [thorough] vic- tory would be a disadvantage to ; and hath declared this by principles express to that purpose, and [by] a continued series of carriage and actions ansAverable. " That since the taking of York, 1 as if the Parliament had now advantage fully enough, he hath declined whatsoever tended to farther advantage upon the Enemy ; [hath] neg- lected and studiously shifted off opportunities to that purpose, as if he thought the King too low, and the Parliament too high, especially at Dennington Castle. 1 Directly after Marston Moor. K44. PKLF DKNY1NG ORDINANCE. 191 " That he hath drawn the Army into, and detained them in, such a posture as to give the Enemy fresh advantages ; and this, before his conjunction with the other Armies, 1 by his own absolute will, against or without his Council of War, against many commands of the Committee of Both Kingdoms, and with contempt and vilifying of those commands ; and, since the conjunction, sometimes against the Councils of War, and sometimes by persuading and deluding the Council to neg- lect one opportunity with pretence of another, and this again of a third, and at last by persuading [them] that it was not fit to fight at all." To these heavy charges, Manchester furnished with his confused Crawford Documents, and not forgetting Letter fifth which we lately read makes heavy answer, at great length, about a week after : of which we shall remember only this piece of countercharge, How his Lordship had once, in those very Newbury days, ordered Cromwell to proceed to some rendezvous with the horse, and Cromwell, very unsuit- ably for a Lieutenant-General, had answered, The horses were already worn off their feet ; " if your Lordship want to have the skins of the horses, this is the way to get them ! " Through which small slit, one looks into large seas of general discrepancy in those old months ! Lieutenant-General Crom- well is also reported to have said, in a moment of irritation surely, " There would never be a good time in England till we )i:nl done with Lords." 8 But the most appalling report that now circulates in the world is this, of his saying once, " If he iii<-t the King in battle, he would fire his pistol at the King as at another;" pistol, at our poor semi-divine misguided Father fallen insane : a thing hardly conceivable to the Pres- l))U'riuu human mind ! 4 1 Waller's and EMX'S at Newbnry. * Riwhwnrth. v. 732; Common* Journal*, ill. 703-706. Kushworth. v. 734. Old Pamphlet* Ktpiut, onwards to 1649. 192 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 9 Dec. II. In the House of Commons, on Wednesday, 9th December, all sitting in Grand Committee, u there was a general silence for a good space of time" one looking upon the other to see who would break the ice, in regard to this delicate point of getting our Essexes and Manchesters softly ousted from the Army ; a very delicate point indeed; when Lieutenant- General Cromwell stood up, and spake shortly to this effect : " It is now a time to speak, or forever hold the tongue. The important occasion now, is no less than To save a Nation, out of a bleeding, nay almost dying condition : which the long continuance of this War hath already brought it into ; so that without a more speedy, vigorous and effectual prosecution of the War, casting off all lingering proceedings like [those of] soldiers-of-fortune beyond sea, to spin out a war, we shall make the kingdom weary of us, and hate the name of a Parliament. " For what do the Enemy say ? Nay, what do many say that were friends at the beginning of the Parliament ? Even this, That the Members of both Houses havo got great places and commands, and the sword into their hands ; and, what by interest in Parliament, what by power in the Army, will per- petually continue themselves in grandeur, and not permit the War speedily to end, lest their own power should deter- mine with it. This [that] I speak here to our own faces, is but what others do utter abroad behind our backs. I am far from reflecting on any. I know the worth of those Com- manders, Members of both Houses, who are yet in power : but if I may speak my conscience without reflection upon any, I do conceive if the Army be not put into another method, and the War more vigorously prosecuted, the People can bear the War no longer, and will enforce you to a dis- honorable Peace. "But this I would recommend to your prudence, Not to insist upon any complaint or oversight of any Commander-in-chief upon any occasion whatsoever ; for as I must acknowledge myself guilty of oversights, so I know they can rarely be avoided in military affairs. Therefore, waiving a strict inquiry 1644. SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE. 103 into the causes of these things, let us apply ourselves to the remedy ; which is most necessary. And I hope we have such true English hearts, and zealous affections towards the general weal of our Mother Country, as no Members of either House will scruple to deny themselves, and their own private inter- ests, for the public good ; nor account it to be a dishonor done to them, whatever the Parliament shall resolve upon in this weighty matter." * III. On the same day, seemingly at a subsequent part of the de- bate, Lieutenant- General Cromwell said likewise, as follows: " MR. SPEAKER, I am not of the mind that the calling of the Members to sit in Parliament will break, or scatter our Armies. J can speak this for my own soldiers, that they look not upon, me, but upon you ; and for you they will fight, and live and die in your Cause ; and if others be of that mind that they are of, you need not fear them. They do not idolize me, but look upon the Cause they fight for. You may lay upon them what commands you please, they will obey your commands in that Cause they fight for. 2 To be brief, Mr. Zouch Tate, Member for Northampton, moved this day a Self-denying Ordinance; which, in a few days more, was passed in the Commons. It was not so easily got through the Lords ; but there too it had ultimately to pass. One of the most important clauses was this, introduced not without difficulty, That religious men might now serve without taking the Covenant as a first preliminary, perhaps they might take it by and by. This was a great ease to tender con- sciences ; and indicates a deep split, which will grow wider and wider, in our religious affairs. The Scots Commissioners have sent for Whitlocke and Maynard to the Lord General's, to ask in judicious Scotch dialect, Whether there be not ground >secute Cromwell as an " incendiary " ? " You ken varry weel ! " The two learned gentlemen shook their heads.' 1 Huxhworth, vi. 4. * Cromwelliana, p. 1? Whitlocke, Hi. p. Ill (December, 1644). VOL. XTII. 13 194 PAKT II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. a April, This Self-denying Ordinance had to pass ; it and the New Model wholly; by the steps indicated below. 1 Essex was gratified by a splendid Pension, very little of it ever act- ually paid ; for indeed he died some two years after : Man- chester was put on the Committee of Both Kingdoms : the Parliament had its New-Model Army, and soon saw an entirely- new epoch in its affairs. LETTER XXIV. BEFORE the old Officers laid down their commissions, Waller with Cromwell and Massey were sent on an expedition into the West against Goring and Company; concerning which there is some echo in the old Books and Commons Journals, but no definite vestige of it, except the following Letter, read in the House of Commons, 9th April, 1645; which D'Ewes happily had given his Clerk to copy. The Expedition itself, which proved successful, is now coming towards an end. Fair- fax the new General is at Windsor all April ; full of business, regimenting, discharging, enlisting, new-modelling. LETTER XXIV. " For the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Fairfax, General of the Army: Haste, Haste: These: At Windsor. " [SALISBURY,] 9th April (ten o'clock at night), 1645. " SIR, Upon Sunday last we marched towards Bruton in Somersetshire, which was General Goring's head-quarter : but he would no stand us ; but marched away, upon our appear- ance, to Wells and Glastonbury. Whither we held it unsafe 1 Rushworth, vi. 7, 8 : Self-denying Ordinance passed in the Commons 19th December, and is sent to the Lords ; Conference about it, 7th January ; re- jected by the Lords 1 5th January, because " we do not know what shape the Army will now suddenly take." Whereupon, 21st January, "Fairfax is ' nominated General ; " and on the 19th February, the New Model is completed and passed : " This is the shape the Army is to take." A second Self-denying Ordinance, now introduced, got itself finally passed 3d April, 1G45. 1645. LETTER XXIV. SALISBURY. 195 to follow him ; lest we should engage our Body of Horse too far into that enclosed country, not having foot enough to stand by them ; and partly because we doubted the advance of Prince Rupert with his force to join with Goring ; having some notice from Colonel Massey of the Prince his coming this way. "General Goring hath [Sir Richard] Greenvil in a near jjosture to join with him. He hath all their Garrisons iw Devon, Dorset and Somersetshire, to make an addition to him. Whereupon, Sir William Waller having a very poor Infantry of about 1,COO men, lest they, being so inconsiderable, should engage * our Horse, we came from Shaftesbury to Salisbury to secure our Foot ; to prevent our being necessitated to a too unequal engagement, and to be nearer a communica tion with our friends. " Since our coming hither, we hear Prince Rupert is come to Marshfield, a market-town not far from Trowbridge. If the enemy advance all together, how far we may be endangered, that I humbly offer to you ; entreating you to take care of us, and to send us with all speed such an assistance, to Salisbury, as may enable us to keep the field and repel the enemy, if God assist us : at least to secure and countenance us so, as that we be not put to the shame and hazard of a retreat ; which will lose the Parliament many friends in these parts, who will think themselves abandoned on our departure from them. Sir, I beseech you send what Horse and Foot you can spare towards Salisbury, by way of Kingscleere, with what convenient ex- pedition may be. Truly we look to be attempted upon every day. " These things being humbly represented to your knowledge and care, I subscribe myself, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 In Carte's Ormond Papers (i. 79) is a Letter of the same date on the same subject, somewhat illustrative of this. See also Commons Journals in die. 1 entangle or encumber. MSS >..! v. p 189; p 445 of Traiucript 196 PART IT. FIRST CIVIL WAR. April, LETTERS XXV.-XXVII. PRINCE EUPERT had withdrawn without fighting ; was now at Worcester with a considerable force, meditating new infall. For which end, we hear, he has sent 2,000 men across the country to his Majesty at Oxford, to convoy "his Majesty's person and the Artillery " over to Worcester to him, both of which objects are like to be useful there. The Committee of Both Kingdoms order the said Convoy to be attacked. " The charge of this service they recommended particularly to General Cromwell, who, looking on himself now as dis- charged of military employment by the New Ordinance, which was to take effect within few days, and to have no longer opportunity to serve his country in that way, was, the night before, come to Windsor, from his service in the West, to kiss the General's hand and take leave of him : when, in the morn- ing ere he was come forth of his chamber, those commands, than which he thought of nothing, less in all the world, came to him from the Committee of Both Kingdoms." * " The night before " must mean, to all appearance, the 22d of April. How Cromwell instantly took horse ; plunged into Oxfordshire, and on the 24th, at Islip Bridge, attacked and routed this said Convoy ; and the same day, " merely by dra- goons " and fierce countenance, took Bletchington House, for which poor Colonel Windebank was shot, so angry were they : all this is known from Clarendon, or more authentically from Eushworth ; 2 and here now is Cromwell's own account of it : 1 Sprigge's Anglia Rediviva (London, 1647), p. 10. Sprigge was one of Fairfax's Chaplains ; his Book, a rather ornate work, gives florid but authen- tic and sufficient account of this New-Model Army in all its features and operations, by which " England " had " come alive again." A little sparing in dates ; but correct where they are given. None of the old Books is better worth reprinting. For some glimmer of notice concerning Joshua Sprigge himself, see Wood in voce, and disbelieve altogether that " Nat. Fiennes " had anything to do with this Book. 2 vi. 23, 24. 1645, LETTER XXV. BLETCHINGTON. 197 LETTER XXV. " COMMITTEE of Both Kingdoms," first set up in February gone a year, when the Scotch Army came to help, has been the Executive in the War-department ever since ; a great but now a rapidly declining authority. Sits at Derby House : Four Scotch ; Twenty-one English, of whom Six a quorum. Johnston of Warriston is the notablest Scotchman ; among tin- leading English are Philip Lord Wharton and the Younger Vane. 1 " Watlington " is in the Southeast nook of Oxfordshire ; a day's march from Windsor. " Major-General Browne " com- mands at Abingdon ; a City Wood-merchant once ; a zealous soldier, of Presbyterian principles at present. The rendezvous ;tt Watlington took place on Wednesday night ; the 25th o April is Friday. " To the Riyht JTonornl>le the Committee of Both Kingdoms, at Derby House : These. " BLETCHINGTON, 25th April, 1645. "Mr LORDS ANI> GENTLEMEX, According to your Lord ships' appointment, I have attended your Service in these parts ; and have not had so fit an opportunity to give you an account as now. " So soon as I received your commands, I appointed a ren- ile/vuus at Watlington. The body being come up, I marched to \Yhe;itley Bridge, having sent before to Major-General 1! ro \vne for intelligence; audit being market-day at Oxford, from whence I likewise lioj^d, by some of the market-people, to jjiin notice where the Enemy was. " Towards night I received certain notice by Major-General I'.rowne, that the Carriages were not stirred, that Prince M:mrice was not here ; and by some Oxford scholars, that 1 List, and liuht as to its n|>|H>intment, in Commons Journals (7th Feb. I), iii- 391 ; Haillic, ii. Ml < t -rpius. Its Papers sod Correspondence, a < urioin Mt of record*, lie iu very tolerable order iu the Stoto-Pupe* ( till, . 198 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 25 April, there were Four Carriages and Wagons ready in one place, and in another Five ; all, as I conceived, fit for a march. 1 " I received notice also that the Earl of Northampton's Regiment was quartered at Islip ; wherefore in the evening I marched that way, hoping to have surprised them; but, by the mistake and failing of the forlorn-hope, they had an alarm there, and to all their quarters, and so escaped me ; by means whereof they had time to draw all together. " I kept my body all night at Islip : and, in the morning, a party of the Earl of Northampton's Eegiment, the Lord Wil- mot's, and the Queen's, came to make an infall upon me. Sir Thomas Fairfax's Eegiment 2 was the first that took the field ; the rest drew out with all possible speed. That which is the General's Troop charged a whole squadron of the Enemy, and presently broke it. Our other Troops coming seasonably on, the rest of the Enemy were presently put into confusion ; so that we had the chase of them three or four miles ; wherein we killed many, and took near two hundred prisoners, and about four hundred horse. " Many of them escaped towards Oxford and Woodstock ; divers were drowned 5 and others got into a strong House in Bletchington, belonging to Sir Thomas Cogan ; wherein Colonel Windebank kept a garrison with near two hundred men. Whom I presently summoned ; and after a long Treaty he went out, about twelve at night, with these Terms here en- closed ; leaving us between two and three hundred muskets, besides horse-arms, and other ammunition, and about three- score-and-eleven horses more. " T^ia was the mercy of God ; and nothing is more due than a real acknowledgment. And though I have had greater mercies, yet none clearer : because, in the first [place"], God brought them to our hands when we looked not for them ; and delivered them out of our hands when we laid a reasonable design to surprise them, and which we carefully endeavored. His merGy appears in this also, That I did much doubt the 1 " marrti," out towards Worcester. 2 *' whi"j was once mine," he might have added, but modestly does not ; only allud'Hg to it from afar, in the next sentence. 1645. LETTER XXVI. FARRINGDON. 199 storming of the House, it being strong and well manned, and I having few dragoons, and this being not my business ; and yet we got it. " I hope you will pardon me if I say, God is not enough owned. We look too much to men and visible helps : this hath much hindered our success. But I hope God will direct all to acknowledge Him alone in all [things]. " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL,." 1 Poor Windebank was shot by sudden Court-martial, so en- raged were they at Oxford, for Cromwell had not even foot- soldiers, still less a battering gun. It was his poor young Wife, they said, she and other " ladies on a visit there," that had confused poor Windebank : he set his back to the wall of Merton College, and received his death-volley with a soldier's stoicism.* The Son of Secretary Windebank, who fled beyond seas long since. LETTER XXVI. How Cromwell, sending off his new guns and stores to Abingdon, now shot across westward to " Kadcot Bridge " or " Bainpton-in : the-Bush ; " and on the 26th gained a new vic- tory thru; ; uud on the whole made a rather brilliant sally of it : this too is known from Clarendon, or more authentically in>m Uush worth ; but only the concluding unsuccessful part "t this, the fruitless Summons to Farringdon, has left any trace in autograph. " To the Governor of the Garrison in Farringdon. " 29th April, 1645. " SIR, I summon you to deliver into my hands the House wherein you are, and your Ammunition, with ;ill things else 1 I'amphlet, in /'iirliammiary Hillary, xiii. 459 : read in the House, Monday, 2Sth April (Commons Jonrnalt,iv. 124). Letter to Fairfax on the same sub- ject, A|i|M-mlix, No. 7. 09 took about 5,000, very many officers, but of what quality we yet know not. We took also about 200 carriages, all he had ; and all his guns, being 12 in number, whereof two were demi-cannon, two demi-culverins, and I think the rest sackers. We pursued the Enemy from three miles short of Harborough to nine beyond, even to the sight of Leicester, whither the King fled. " Sir, this is none other but the hand of God ; and to Him alone belongs the glory, wherein none are to share with Him. The General served you with all faithfulness and honor : and the best commendation I can give him is, That I daresay he attributes all to God, and would rather perish than assume to himself. Which is an honest and a thriving way : and yet as much for bravery may be given to him, in this action, as to a man. Honest men served you faithfully in this action. Sir, they are trusty ; I beseech you, in the name of God, not to discourage them. I wish this action may beget thankfulness and humility in all that are concerned in it. He that ventures his life for the liberty of his country, I wish he trust God for the liberty of his conscience, and you for the liberty he fights for. In this he rests, who is " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* John Bunyan, I believe, is this night in Leicester, not yet writing his Pilyrim's Progress on paper, but acting it on the face of the Earth, with a brown matchlock on his shoulder. Or rather, vrithout the matchlock just at present ; Leicester and he having beea taken the other day. " Harborough Church " is getting " filled with prisoners," while Oliver writes, and an immense contemporaneous tumult everywhere going on I The " honest men who served you faithfully " on this occa- sion are the considerable portion of the Army who have not yet succeeded in bringing themselves to take the Covenant. Whom the Presbyterian Party, rigorous for their own formula, call " Schismatics," " Sectaries," " Anabaptists," and other hard 1 Harl. M8S uu. 7502, art. 6, p. 7 ; Kushworth, vi. 45. VOL. xvu. 14 210 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 14 June, names ; whom Cromwell, here and elsewhere, earnestly pleads for. To Cromwell, perhaps as much as to another, order was lovely, and disorder hateful ; but he discerned better than some others what order and disorder really were. The forest-trees are not in " order " because they are all clipt into the same shape of Dutch-dragons, and forced to die or grow in that way ; but because in each of them there is the same genuine unity of life, from the inmost pith to the outmost leaf, and they do grow according to that ! Cromwell naturally became the head of this Schismatic Party, intent to grow not as Dutch- dragons, but as real trees ; a Party which naturally increased with the increasing earnestness of events and of men. The King stayed but a few hours in Leicester ; he had taken Leicester, as we saw, some days before, and now it was to be re-taken from him some days after : he stayed but a few hours here ; rode on, that same night, to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which he reached "at daybreak," poor wearied King ! then again swiftly Westward, to Wales, to Ragland Castle, to this place and that; in the hope of raising some force, and coining to fight again ; which, however, he could never do. 1 Some ten mouths more of roaming, and he, " disguised as a groom," will be riding with Parson Hudson towards the Scots at Newark. The New-Model Army marched into the Southwest; very soon " relieved Colonel Robert Blake " (Admiral Blake), and many others ; marched to ever new exploits and victories, which excite the pious admiration of Joshua Sprigge ; and very soon swept all its enemies from the field, and brought this War to a close. 2 The following Letters exhibit part of Cromwell's share in that business, and may be read with little commentary. 1 Iter Carolinum ; being a succinct Relation of the necessitated Marches, Retreats and Sufferings of his Majesty Charles the First, from 10th January, 1641, till the time of his Death, 1648 : Collected by a daily Attendant upon his Sacred Majesty during all the said time. London, 1660. It is reprinted in Somers Tracts (v. 263), but, as usual there, without any editing except a nomi- nal one, though it somewhat needed more. a A Journal of every day's March of the Army under his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax (in Sprigge, p. 331). 1646. LETTER XXX. THE CLUBMEN. 211 LETTEK XXX. THE CLUBMEN. THE victorious Army, driving all before it in the Southwest, where alone the King had still any considerable fighting force, found itself opposed by a very unexpected enemy, famed in the old Pamphlets by the name of Clubmen. The design was at bottom Royalist; but the country -people in these regions had been worked upon by the Royalist Gentry and Clergy, on the somewhat plausible ground of taking up arms to defend themselves against the plunder and harassment of loth Armies. The great mass of them were Neutrals ; there even appeared by and by various transient bodies of " Clubmen " on the Par- liament side, whom Fairfax entertained occasionally to assist him in pioneering and other such services. They were called Clubmen, not, as M. Villemain supposes, 1 because they united in Clubs, but because they were armed with rough country weapons, mere bludgeons if no other could be had. Sufficient understanding of them may be gained from the following Letter of Cromwell, prefaced by some Excerpts. From Rushworth : " Thursday, July 3d, Fairfax marched from Blandford to Dorchester, 12 miles ; a very hot day. Where Colonel Sidenham, Governor of Weymouth, gave him information of the condition of those parts ; and of the great danger from the Club-risers ; " a set of men " who would not suffer either contribution or victuals to be carried to the Par- liament's garrisons. And the same night Mr. Hollis of Dor- setshire, the chief leader of the Ch.bmen, with some others of their principal men, came to Fairfax : and Mr. Hollis owned himself to be one of their leaders ; affm.ring that it was fit the 1 Our French friend* ought to be informed that M. Vi Ill-main's Book on Cromwell ia, unluckily, a rather ignorant and shallow one. Of M. Gni/t, on the other hand, we are to say that his Two Volume*, so far as they go, nro thr fruit of n-al ability and solid itudii-H applied to those Transaction*. 212 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 4 August, people should show their grievances and their strength. Fair- fax treated them civilly, and promised they should have an answer the next morning. For they were so strong at that time, that it was held a point of prudence to be fair in de- meanor towards them for a while ; for if he should engage with General Goring and be put to the worst, these Clubmen would knock them on the head as they should fly for safety. That which they desired from him was a safe-conduct for certain persons to go to the King and Parliament with Peti- tions : " l which Fairfax in a very mild but resolute manner refused. From Sprigge, 2 copied also into Rushworth with some inac- curacies : " On Monday, August 4th, Lieutenant-General Crom- well, having intelligence of some of their places of rendezvous for their several divisions, went forth " from Sherborne " with a party of Horse to meet these Clubmen ; being well satisfied of the danger of their design. As he was marching towards Shaftesbury with the party, they discovered some colors upon the top of a high Hill, full of wood and almost inaccessible. A Lieutenant with a small party was sent to them to know their meaning, and to acquaint them that the Lieutenant- General of the Army was there ; whereupon Mr. Newman, one of their leaders, thought fit to come down, and told us, The in- tent was to desire to know why the gentlemen were taken at Shaftesbury on Saturday ? The Lieutenant-General returned him this answer : That he held himself not bound to give him or them an account; what was done was by Authority; and they that did it were not responsible to them that had none : but not to leave them wholly unsatisfied, he told him, Those persons so met had been the occasion and stirrers of many tumultuous and unlawful meetings ; for which they were to be tried by law ; which trial ought not by them to be questioned or interrupted. Mr. Newman desired to go up to return the answer ; the Lieutenant-General with a small party went with him ; and had some conference with the people to this pur- pose : That whereas they pretended to meet there to save their goods, they took a very ill course for that : to leave their 1 Rmshworth, vi 52. a pp. 78, 79. J645. LETTER XXX. THE CLUBMEN. 213 houses was the way to lose their goods ; and it was offered them, That justice should be done upon any who offered them violence: and as for the gentlemen taken at Shaftesbury, it was only to answer some things they were accused of, which they had done contrary to law and the peace of the Kingdom. Herewith they seeming to be well satisfied, promised to return to their houses ; and accordingly did so. "These being thus quietly sent home, the Lieutenant-Gen- eral advanced farther, to a meeting of a greater number, of about 4,000, who betook themselves to Hambledon Hill, near Shrawton. At the bottom of the Hill ours met a man with a musket, and asked, Whither he was going ? he said, To the Club Army ; ours asked, What he meant to do ? he asked, What they had to do with that ? Being required to lay down his arms, he said He would first lose his life ; but was not so good as his word, for though he cocked and presented his mus- ket, he was prevented, disarmed, and wounded, but not " Here, however, is Cromwell's own Narrative : " To the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Fairfax, Commander-in- Chief of the Parliament' s Forces [at Sherbome : These~\. " [SHAFTESBURY,] 4th August, 1645. SIR, I marched this morning towards Shaftesbury. In my way I found a party of Clubmen gathered together, about two miles on this side of the Town, towards you; and one Mr. Newman in the head of them, who was one of those who did attend you at Dorchester, with Mr. Hollis. I sent to them to know the cause of their meeting : Mr. Newman came to me ; ami told me, That the Clubmen in Dorset and Wilts, to the number of ten thousand, were to meet about their men who were taken away at Shaftesbury, and that their intendment was to secure themselves from plundering. To the first I told them, That although no account was due to them, yet I knew the men were taken by your authority, to be tried judicially for raising ;i Third Party in the Kingdom ; and if they should be found guilty, they must suffer according to the nature of tin ir offfinv; if innocent, T assured them you would acquit them. Upon this th^y said. It (h.-y have deserved punish- 214 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. ment, they would not have anything to do with them ; and so were quieted as to that point. For the other [point], I assured them, That it was your great care, not to suffer them in the least to be plundered, and that they should defend themselves from violence, and bring to your Army such as did them any wrong, where they should be punished with all severity : upon this, very quietly and peaceably they marched away to their houses, being very well satisfied and contented. " We marched on to Shaftesbury, where we heard a great body of them was drawn together about Hambledon Hill ; where indeed near two thousand were gathered. I sent [up] a forlorn-hope of about fifty Horse ; who coming very civilly to them, they fired upon them ; and ours desiring some of them to come to me, were refused with disdain. They were drawn into one of the old Camps, 1 upon a very high Hill : I sent one Mr. Lee 2 to them, To certify the peaceableness of my intentions, and To desire them to peaceableness, and to submit to the Parliament. They refused, and fired at us. I sent him a second time, To let them know, that if they would lay down their arms, no wrong should be done them. They still (through the animation of their leaders, and especially two vile Ministers) refused; I commanded your Captain-Lieu- tenant to draw up to them, to be in readiness to charge ; and if upon his falling on, they would lay down arms, to accept them and spare them. When we came near, they refused his offer, and let fly at him ; killed about two of his men, and at least four horses. The passage not being for above three abreast, kept us out : whereupon Major Desborow wheeled about ; got in the rear of them, beat them from the work, and did some small execution upon them; I believe killed not twelve of them, but cut very many [and put them all to flight]. We have taken about 300 ; many of which are poor silly creatures, whom if you please to let me send home, they promise to be very dutiful for time to come, and 'will be hanged before they come out again.' 1 Roman Camps (Cough's Camden, i. 52). 2 " One Mr. Lee, who, upon the approach of ours, had come from them." (Sprigge, p. 79.) 1645. LETTER XXX. THE CLUBMEN. 215 " The ringleaders which we have, I intend to bring to you. They had taken divers of the Parliament soldiers prisoners, besides Colonel Fiennes his men; and used them most barba- rously ; bragging They hoped to see my Lord Hopton, and that he is to command them. They expected from Wilts great store ; and gave out they meant to raise the siege at Sherborne, when [once] they were all met. We have gotten great store of their arms, and they carried few or none home. We quar- ter about ten miles off, and purpose to draw our quarters near to you to-morrow. " Your most humble servant, " OLIVEK CROMWELL." * " On Tuesday at night, August 5th, the Lieutenant-General " Cromwell " with his party returned to Sherborne," where the General and the rest were very busy besieging the inexpug- nable Sir Lewis Dives. " This work," which the Lieutenant General had now been upon, continues Sprigge, " though unhappy, was very neces- sary." a No messenger could be sent out but he was picked up by these Clubmen ; these once dispersed, " a man might ride very quietly from Sherborne to Salisbury." The inexpug- nable Sir Lewis Dives (a thrasonical person known to the readers of Evelyn), after due battering, was now soon stormed: whereupon, by Letters found on him, it became apparent how deeply Koyalist this scheme of Clubmen had been ; " Commis- sions for raising regiments of Clubmen ; " the design to be extended over England at large, "yea into the Associated Counties." However, it has now come to nothing: and the Army turns Northward to the Siege of Bristol, where Prince Bupert is doing all he can to entrench himself. 1 Newspapers (Cromwelliana, p. 20). * Sprigge, p. 81. PAltT II. .FlliST CIVIL WAR. 14 Sept. LETTER XXXI. STORM OF BRISTOL. "ON the Lord's Day, September 21, according to Order of Parliament, Lieutenant-General Cromwell's Letter on the tak- ing of Bristol was read in the several Congregations about London, and thanks returned to Almighty God for the admira- ble and wonderful reducing of that city. The Letter of the renowned Commander is well worth observation." * For the Siege itself, and what preceded and followed it, see, besides this Letter, Rupert's own account, 2 and the ample details of Sprigge copied with abridgment by Rushworth : Sayer's His- tory of Bristol gives Plans, and all manner of local details, though in a rather vague way. [For the Honorable William Lenthall, Speaker of the Commons House of Parliament : These.'} "BRISTOL, 14th September, 1645. " SIR, It has pleased the General to give me in charge to represent unto you a particular account of the taking of Bristol; the which I gladly undertake. " After the finishing of that service at Sherborne, it was dis- puted at a council of war, Whether we should march into the West or to Bristol ? Amongst other arguments, the leaving so considerable an enemy at our backs, to march into the heart of the Kingdom, the undoing of the country about Bristol, which was [already] exceedingly harassed by the Prince his being thereabouts but a fortnight; the correspondency he might hold in Wales ; the possibility of uniting the Enemy's forces where they pleased, and especially of drawing to ail head the disaffected Clubmen of Somerset, Wilts and Dorset, 1 Newspapers (Cromwdliana, p. 24). a Bushworth, vi. 69, &c. 1645. LETTER XXXI. STORM OF BRISTOL. 217 when once our backs were towards them : these considerations, together with [the hope of] taking so important a place, so advantageous for the opening of trade to London, did sway the balance, and beget that conclusion. . " When we came within four miles of the City, we had a new debate, Whether we should endeavor to block it up, or make a regular siege ? The latter being overruled, Colonel Welden with his brigade marched to Pile Hill, on the South side of the City, being within musket-shot thereof : where in a few days they made a good quarter, overlooking the City. Upon our advance, the enemy fired Bedmiiister, Clifton, and some other villages lying near to the City; and would have fired more, if our unexpected coming had not hindered. The General caused some Horse and Dragoons under Commissary- General Ireton to advance over Avon, to keep in the enemy on the North side of the Town, till the foot could come up : and after a day, the General, with Colonel Montague's and Colonel Rainsborough's Brigades, inarched over at Kensham to Staple- ton, where he quartered that night. The next day, Coionel Montague, having this post assigned with his brigade, To secure all between the Rivers Froom and Avon ; he came up to Lawford's Gate, 1 within musket-shot thereof. Colonel Rainsborough's post was near to Durdham Down, whereof the Dragoons and three regiments of Horse made good a post HIM u the Down, between him and the River Avon, on his right hand. And from Colonel Raiusborough's quarters to Froom River, on his left, a part of Colonel Birch's, and [the whole of] General Skippon's regiment were to maintain that post. " These posts thus settled, our Horse were forced to be upon exceeding great duty ; to stand by the Foot, lest the Foot, being so weak in all their posts, might receive an affront. And truly lirn-in we were very happy, that we should receive so little loss by sallies ; considering the paucity of our men to make good tin- posts, and strength of the Enemy within. I'-y sallies (which were three or four) I know not that we lost thirty men, in all the time of our siege. Of officers of quality, 1 Ouo of thu Uristul Gates. 218 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 14 Sept. only Colonel Okey was taken by mistake (going [of himself] to the Enemy, thinking they had been friends), and Captain Guilliams slain in a charge. We took Sir Bernard Astley ; and killed Sir Kichard Crane, one very considerable with the Prince. " We had a council of war concerning the storming of the Town, about eight days before we took it ; and in that there appeared great unwillingness to the work, through the unsea- sonableness of the weather, and other apparent difficulties. Some inducement to bring us thither had been the report of the good affection of the Townsmen to us ; but that did not answer expectation. Upon a second consideration, it was overruled for a storm. And all things seemed to favor the design ; and truly there hath been seldom the like cheerful- ness to any work like to this, after it was once resolved upon. The day and hour of our storm was appointed to be on Wednes- day morning the Tenth of September, about one of the clock. We chose to act it so early because we hoped thereby to sur- prise the Enemy. With this resolution also, to avoid confu- sion and falling foul one upon another, That when [once] we had recovered 1 the Line and Forts upon it, we should not advance farther till day. The General's signal unto a storm, was to be, The firing of straw, and discharging four pieces of cannon at Pryor's Hill Fort. " The signal was very well perceived of all ; and truly the men went on with great resolution ; and very presently recov- ered the Line, making way for the Horse to enter. Colonel Montague and Colonel Pickering, who stormed at Lawford's Gate, where was a double work, well filled with men and can- non, presently entered ; and with great resolution beat the Enemy from their works, and possessed their cannon. Their expedition was such that they forced the Enemy from their advantages, without any considerable loss to themselves. They laid down the bridges for the Horse to enter ; Major Des- borow commanding the Horse; who very gallantly seconded 1 recovered means " taken," " got possession of : " the Line is a new earthen work outside the walls ; very deficient in height, according to Kupert's ac- count. 1645. LETTER XXXI. STOKM OF BRISTOL. 219 the Foot. Then our Foot advanced to the City Walls ; where they possessed the Gate against the Castle Street : where into were put a hundred men; who made it good. Sir Hardress Waller with his own and the General's regiment, with no less resolution, entered on the other side of Lawford's Gate, towards Avon Eivor; and put themselves into immediate conjunction with the rest of the brigade. " During this, Colonel Kainsborough and Colonel Hammond attempted Fryer's Hill Fort, and the Line downwards towards Froom ; and the Major-General's regiment being to storm to- wards Froom River, Colonel Hammond possessed the Lino im- mediately, and beating the enemy from it, made way for the Horse to enter. Colonel Ilainsborough, who had the hardest task of all at Pryor's Hill Fort, attempted it ; and fought near three hours for it. And indeed there was great despair of carrying the place ; it being exceeding high, a ladder of thirty rounds scarcely reaching the top thereof; but his resolution was such that, notwithstanding the inaccessibleness and diffi- culty, he would not give it over. The Enemy had four pieces of cannon upon it, which they plied with round and case shot upon our men : his Lieutenant-Colonel Bowen, and others, were two hours at push of pike, standing upon the palisadoes, but could not enter. [But now] Colonel Hammond being entered the Line (and [here] Captain Ireton, 1 with a forlorn of Colonel Rich's regiment, interposing with his Horse between the Enemy's Horse and Colonel Hammond, received a shot with two pistol-bullets, which broke his arm), by means of this entrance of Colonel Hammond, they did storm the Fort on that part which was inward ; [and so] Colonel Rainsborough's and ('loud Hammond's men entered the Fort, and immediately put almost all the men in it to the sword. \norn resistance ; but were constantly worsted, at Langport, at Torrington, wheresoever they rallied and made a new attempt. The Parliament Army went steadily and rapidly on; storming Bridge water, storming all manner of Towns and Castles ; clear- ing the ground before them: till Sir Ralph was driven into < Wi i wall ; and, without resource or escape, saw himself obliged next spring 1 to surrender, and go beyond seas. A brave and honorable man ; respected on both sides ; and of all the King's Generals the most deserving respect. He lived in retirement ;ilro;ul; taking no part in Charles Second's businesses; and il it'd in honorable poverty before the Restoration. The following Three Letters a are what remain to us con- riTiiing Cromwell's share in that course of victories. He was present in various general or partial Fights from Lang- pni-t t<> P.ovt-y Tracey ; became especially renowned by his i id took many Strong Places besides those mentioned here. 1 Truru, Uth March, 164 5-6 (Rushworth, vi. 110). 2 Appendix, No. '., contains Two more Battle of Langport, and Summons t Winchester (Note q/"1857). 224 PAKT II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. UQct LETTER XXXII. \_To the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Fairfax, General of the Parliament's Army: These.~j [WINCHESTER, 6th October, 1645.] u SIR, I came to Winchester on the Lord's day, the 28th of September ; with Colonel Pickering, commanding his own, Colonel Montague's, and Sir Hardress Waller's regiments. After some dispute with the Governor, we entered the Town. I summoned the Castle ; was denied ; whereupon we fell to prepare batteries, which we could not perfect (some of our guns being out of order) until Friday following. Our battery was six guns ; which being finished, after firing one round, I sent in a second summons for a treaty ; which they refused. Whereupon we went on with our work, and made a breach in the wall near the Black Tower ; which, after about 200 shot, we thought stormable ; and purposed on Monday morning to attempt it. On Sunday night, about ten of the clock, the Governor beat a parley, desiring to treat. I agreed unto it ; and sent Colonel Hammond and Major Harrison in to him, who agreed upon these enclosed Articles. " Sir, this is the addition of another mercy. You see God is not weary in doing you good : I confess, Sir, His favor to you is as visible, when He comes by His power upon the hearts of your enemies,, making them quit places of strength to you, as when He gives courage to your soldiers to attempt hard things. His goodness in this is much to be acknowledged : for the Castle was well manned with six hundred and eighty horse and foot, there being near two hundred gentlemen, officers, and their servants ; well victualled, with fifteen hundred-weight of cheese, very great store of wheat and beer ; near twenty bar- rels of powder, seven pieces of cannon ; the works were exceed- ing good and strong. It 's very likely it would have cost much blood to have gained it by storm. We have not lost twelve men : this is repeated to you, that God may have all the praise, for it 's all His due. Sir, I rest, your most humble servant, " OLIVER CKOMWELL." * 1 Sprigge, p, 128; Newspapers (ill Cromwtdliuiia, p. 25) ; Kushworth, vi. 91, 16. LETTER XXXIII. BASINGSTOKE. 225 "Lieuten ant-General Cromwell's Secretary," who brings this Letter, gets 50 for his good news. 1 By Sprigge's account, 2 lie appears to have been " Mr. Hugh Peters," this Secretary. Peters there makes a verbal Narrative of the affair, to Mr. Speaker and the Commons, which, were not room so scanty, we should be glad to insert. It was at this surrender of Winchester that certain of the captive enemies having complained of being plundered contrary to Articles, Cromwell had the accused parties, six of his own soldiers, tried : being all found guilty, one of them by lot was hanged, and the other five were marched off to Oxford, to be there disposed of as the Governor saw fit. The Oxford Gov- ernor politely returned the five prisoners, " with an acknowl- edgment of the Lieutenant-General's nobleness." ' LETTER XXXm. BASING House, Pawlet Marquis of Winchester's Mansion, stood, as the ruined heaps still testify, at a small distance from Basingstoke in Hampshire. It had long infested the Parlia- ment in those quarters ; and been especially a great eye-sorrow to the "Trade of London with the Western Parts." With Dennington Castle at Newbury, and this Basing House at Basingstoke, there was no travelling the western roads, except with escort, or on sufferance. The two places had often been attempted ; but always in vain. Basing House especially had stood siege after siege, for four years ; ruining poor Colonel This and then poor Colonel That ; the jubilant Royalists had given it the name of Basting House : there was, on the Parlia- ment side, a kind of passion to have Basing House taken. The Lieutonant-General, gathering all the artillery he can lay hold of ; firing incessantly, 200 or 500 shot at some given point till he see a hole made ; and then storming like a fire-flood : he perhaps may manage it. 1 Common* Journalt, 7th October, 1645. p. 129. Spriggo, p. 139. TOL. xvn. 16 226 PART 11. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 14 Oct. " To the Honorable William Lenthall, Speaker of the Commons House of Parliament : These. " BASINGSTOKE, 14th October, 1645. " SIR, I thank God, I can give you a good account of Basing. After our batteries placed, we settled the several posts for the storm : Colonel Dalbier was to be on the north side of the House next the Grange ; Colonel Pickering on his left hand, and Sir Hardress Waller's and Colonel Montague's regiments next him. We stormed, this morning, after six of the clock : the signal for falling on was the firing four of our cannon ; which being done, our men fell on with great resolu- tion and cheerfulness. We took the two Houses without any considerable loss to ourselves. Colonel Pickering stormed the New House, passed through, and got the gate of the Old House ; whereupon they summoned a parley, which our men would not hear. " In the mean time dolonel Montague's and Sir Hardress Waller's regiments assaulted the strongest work, where the Enemy kept his Court of Guard ; which, with great resolu- tion, they recovered ; beating the Enemy from a whole cul- verin, and from that work : which having done, they drew their ladders after them, and got over another work, and the house-wall, before they could enter. In this Sir Hardress Waller, performing his duty with honor and diligence, was shot in the arm, but not dangerously. " We have had little loss : many of the Enemy are men put to the sword, and some officers of quality ; most of the rest we have prisoners, amongst whom the Marquis [of Winchester himself] and Sir Robert Peak, with divers other officers, whom I have ordered to be sent up to you. We have taken about ten pieces of ordnance, with much ammunition, and our sol- diers a good encouragement. " I humbly offer to you, to have this place utterly slighted, for these following reasons : It will ask about eight hundred men to manage it ; it is no frontier ; the country is poor about it ; the place exceedingly ruined by our batteries and mortar- pieces, and by a fire which fell upon the place since our taking 1645. LETTER XXXIII. BASINGSTOKE. it. If you please to take the Garrison at Farnham, some out of Chichester, ami a good part of the foot which were here under Dalbier, and to make a strong Quarter at Newbury with three or four troops of horse, I dare be confident it would not only be a curb to Dennington, but a security and a frontier to all these parts ; inasmuch as Newbury lies upon the River, and will prevent any incursion from Dennington, Wallingford or Farringdon into these parts ; and by lying there, will make the trade most secure between Bristol and London for all car- riages. And I believe the gentlemen of Sussex and Hampshire will with more cheerfulness contribute to maintain a garrison on the frontier than in their bowels, which will have less safety in it. "Sir, I hope not to delay, but to march towards the West to-morrow ; and to be as diligent as I may in my expedition thither. I must speak my judgment to you, That if you intend to have your work carried on, recruits of Foot must be had, and a course taken to pay your Army ; else, believe me, Sir, it may not be able to answer the work you have for it to do. " I intrusted Colonel Hammond to wait upon you, who was taken by a mistake whilst we lay before this Garrison, whom God safely delivered to us, to our great joy ; but to his loss of almost all he had, which the Enemy took from him. The Lord grant that these mercies may be acknowledged with all thank- fulness : God exceedingly abounds in His goodness to us, and will not be weary until righteousness and peace meet ; and until He hath brought forth a glorious work for the happiness of this poor Kingdom. Wherein desires to serve God and you, with a faithful heart, "Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * Colonel Hammond, whom we shall by and by see again, brought this good news to London, and had his reward, of 200 ; * Mr. Peters also, being requested " to make a relation 1 Sprigge, pp. 137-139; Newspapere (in Cramwelliana, p. 27); and Harl. 787. Common* Jtwmnh (Iftth Ort 1645). iv. 309. 228 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. UGct. to the House of Commons, spake as follows." The reader will like to hear Mr. Peters for once, a man concerning whom he has heard so many falsehoods, and to see an old grim scene through his eyes. Mr. Peters related : "That he came into Basing House some time after the storm," on Tuesday, 14th of October, 1645 ; " and took a view first of the works ; which were many, the circumvallation being above a mile in compass. The Old House had stood (as it is reported) two or three hundred years, a nest of Idolatry ; the New House surpassing that in beauty and stateliness ; and either of them fit to make an emperor's court. "The rooms before the storm (it seems), in both Houses, were all completely furnished ; provisions for some years rather than months ; 400 quarters of wheat ; bacon divers rooms-full, containing hundreds of flitches ; cheese proportionable ; with oatmeal, beef, pork ; beer divers cellars-full, and that very good," Mr. Peters having taken a draught of the same. " A bed in one room, furnished, which cost 1,300. Popish books many, with copes, and such utensils. In truth, the House stood in its full pride j and the Enemy was persuaded that it would be the last piece of ground that would be taken by the Parliament, because they had so often foiled our forces which had formerly appeared before it. In the several rooms and about the House, there were slain seventy-four, and only one woman, the daughter of Dr. Griffith, who by her railing," poor lady, " provoked our soldiers (then in heat) into a farther passion. There lay dead upon the ground, Major Cuffle ; a man of great account amongst them, and a notorious Papist .- slain by the hands of Major Harrison, that godly and gallant gentleman," all men know him. ; "and Eobinson the Player, who, a little before the storm, was known to be mocking and scorning the Parliament and our Army. Eight or nine gentle- women of rank, running forth together, were entertained by the common soldiers somewhat coarsely ; yet not uncivilly, considering the action in hand. " The plunder of the soldiers continued till Tuesday night : one soldier had a Hundred and Twenty Pieces in gold for his share ; others plate, others jewels ; among the rest, one got 1645. LETTER XXX III. BASING HOUSE. 229 three bags of silver, which (he being not able to keep his own counsel) grew to be common pillage amongst the rest, and the fellow had but one half-crown left for himself at -last. The soldiers sold the wheat to country -people ; which they held up at good rates awhile ; but afterwards the market fell, and there were some abatements for haste. After that, they sold the household stuff ; whereof there was good store, and the country loaded away many carts ; and they continued a great while, fetching out all manner of household stuff, till they had fetched out all the stools, chairs, and other lumber, all which they sold to the country -people by piecemeal. " In all these great buildings, there was not one iron bar left in all the windows (save only what were on fire), before night. And the last work of all was the lead ; and by Thursday morn- ing, they had hardly left one gutter about the House. And what the soldiers left, the fire took hold on ; which made more than ordinary haste ; leaving nothing but bare walls and chim- neys in less than twenty hours ; being occasioned by the neglect of the Enemy in quenching a fire-ball of ours at first." What a scene ! " We know not how to give a just account of the numbei of persons that were within. For we have not quite three hundred prisoners ; and it may be, have found a hundred slain, whose bodies, some being covered with rubbish, came not at once to our view. Only, riding to the House on Tuesday night, we heard divers crying in vaults for quarter ; but our men could neither come to them, nor they to us. Amongst those that we saw slain, one of their officers lying on the ground, seeming so exceeding tall, was measured; and from his great too to his crown was 9 feet in length " (.), 15th Oct. 1645. * Marching from Collumpton to Ttverton, while Cromwell writes (Sprigge, p. Mi). 232 PART II. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 17 Oct. " 1 perceive that it 's their desire to have the place 1 taken in. But truly I could not do other than let them know what the condition of affairs in the West is, and submit the busi- ness to them and you. I shall be at Langford House to-night, if God please. I hope the work will not be long. If it should, I will rather leave a small part of the Foot (if Horse will not be sufficient to take it in), than be detained from obeying such commands as I shall receive. I humbly beseech you to be con- fident that no man hath a more faithful heart to serve you than myself, nor shall be more strict to obey your commands than " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. " Sir, I beseech you to let me know your resolution in this business with all the possible speed that may be; because whatsoever I be designed to, I wish I may speedily endeavor it, time being so precious for action in this season." 2 Langford House, whither Oliver is now bound, hoping to arrive to-night, is near Salisbury. He did arrive accordingly ; drew out part of his brigade, and summoned the place; here is his own most brief account of the business LETTER XXXV. *' To the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker to the Honorable House of Commons : These. "SALISBURY, 17th October (12 at night), 1645. " SIR, I gave you an account, the last night, of my march- ing to Langford House. Whither I came this day, and im- mediately sent them in a Summons. The Governor desired I should send two Officers to treat with him ; and I accordingly appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Hewson and Major Kelsey there- J Dennington Castle. 2 Sloane MSS 1519, foL 61: only the Signature is in Oliver's hand. ir.r LETTER XXXV. SALISBURY. 233 unto. The Treaty produced the Agreement, which I have here enclosed to you. "The General, I hear, is advanced as far West as Collumpton, and hath sent some Horse and Foot to Tiverton. It is ear- nestly desired that more Foot might march up to him ; it being convenient that we stay [here] a day for our Foot that are behind and coming up. " I wait your answer to my Letter last night from Wallop : I shall desire that your pleasure may be speeded to me; and rest, Sir, " Your humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* Basing is black ashes, then ; and Langford is ours, the Garrison "to march forth to-morrow at twelve of the clock, being the 18th instant." a And now the question is, Shall we attack Denniugton or not ? Colonel Dal bier, a man of Dutch birth, well known to readers of the old Books, is with Cromwell at present ; his Second in command. It was from Dalbier that Cromwell first of all learned the mechanical part of soldiering ; he had Dal- bier to help him in drilling his Ironsides ; so says Heath, credi- ble on such a point. Dennington Castle was not besieged at present ; it surrendered next Spring to Dalbier. 8 Cromwell returned to Fairfax ; served through Winter with him in the West, till all ended there. About a month before the date of this Letter, the King had appeared again with some remnant of force, got together in Wales ; with intent to relieve Chester, which was his key to Ireland : but this force too he saw shattered to pieces on Kowton Heath, near that City. 4 Ho had also had an eye towards the great Moutrose in Scotland, who in these weeks was bla/ing at his highest there: but him too David Lesley 1 King's Pamphlet*, small 4to, no. 239, art. 19 (no. 42 of Th. Weekly Account). 1 Sprigge, p. 145. 1st April, 1646 (RnMiworth, vi. 252). * 24th September, 1645 (RtubworUi, vi. 117; Lord Digby'a account of it, Ormvnd Paper*, ii. 90). 234 PART n. FIRST CIVIL WAR 15 June, with dragoons, emerging from the mist of the Autumn morn- ing, on Philipshaugh near Selkirk, had, in one fell hour, trampled utterly out. The King had to retire to Wales again ; to Oxford and obscurity again. On the 14th of next March, as we said, Sir Ralph Hopton surrendered himself in Cornwall. 1 On the 22d of the same month, Sir Jacob Astley, another distinguished Royalist Gen- eral, the last of them all, coming towards Oxford with some small force he had gathered, was beaten and captured at Stow among the Wolds of Gloucestershire : 2 surrendering himself, the brave veteran said, or is reported to have said, " You have now done your work, and may go to play, unless you will fall out among yourselves." On Monday night, towards twelve of the clock, 27th April, 1646, the King in disguise rode out of Oxford, somewhat uncertain whitherward, at length towards Newark and the Scots Army. 8 On the Wednesday before, Oliver Cromwell had returned to his place in Parliament. 4 Many detached Castles and Towns still held out, Ragland Castle even tilt the next August; scattered fires of an expiring conflagration, that need to be extinguished with effort and in detail. Of all which victorious sieges, with their elaborate treaties and mov- ing accidents, the theme of every tongue during that old Summer, let the following one brief glimpse, notable on pri- vate grounds, suffice us at present. Oxford, the Royalist metropolis, a place full of Royalist dignitaries, and of almost inexpugnable strength, had it not been so disheartened from without, was besieged by Fair- fax himself in the first days of May. There was but little fighting, there was much negotiating, tedious consulting of Parliament and King; the treaty did not end in surrender till Saturday, 20th June. And now, dated on the Monday before, at Holton, a country Parish in those parts, there is this still legible in the old Church Register, intimately in- teresting to some friends of ours ! " HENKY IBETON, Com- 1 Hopton's own account of it, Ormond Papers, ii. 109-126. 2 Rushworth, vi. 139-141. 3 Ibid. vi. 267 ; Iter Carolinum. * Cromwelliana, p. 81. 1646. LETTER XXXV. NEW MEMBERS. 235 missary-General to Sir Thomas Fairfax, and BRIDGET, Daugh- ter to Oliver Cromwell, Lieutenant-General of the Horse to the said Sir Thomas Fairfax, were married, by Mr. Dell, in the Lady Whorwood her House in Holton, 15th June, 1646. ALBAN EALES, Rector." l Ireton, we are to remark, was one of Fairfax's Commissioners on the Treaty for surrendering Oxford, and busy under the walls there at present : Holton is some five miles east of the City ; Holton House we guess by various indications to have been Fairfax's own quarter. Dell, already and afterwards well known, was the General's Chaplain at this date. Of " the Lady Whorwood " I have traces, rather in the Royalist direction ; her strong moated House, very useful to Fairfax in those weeks, still stands conspicuous in that region, though now under new figure and ownership; drawbridge become fixed, deep ditch now dry, moated island changed into a flower- garden ; " rebuilt in 1807." Fairfax's Lines, we observe, ex- ti-nded "from Headington Hill to Marstou," several miles in advance of Holton House, then "from Marston across the < li'-rwell, and over from that to the Isis on the North side of the City;" southward and elsewhere, the besieged, "by a dam at St. Clement's Bridge, had laid the country all under water:"* in such scene, with the treaty just ending and general Peace like to follow, did Iretou welcome his Bride, a brave young damsel of twenty -one; escorted, doubtless by her Father among others, to the Lord General's house ; and there, by the Rev. Mr. Dell, solemnly handed over to new destinies! This wedding was on Monday, 15th June ; on Saturday came Uu- final signing of the treaty : and directly thereupon, on Monday next, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice took the road, with their attendants, and their passes to the sea-coast ; a sight for the curious. On Tuesday "there went about 300 persons, 1 Parish Register of Holton (copied, Oct. 1846). Poor Noble (i. 134) Menu to have copied this same Register, and to have misread his own Note: L'nini: in.-ti-;i.| of Holton Nation, an imaginary place; and instead of Jane January, an impossible date. See antea, p. 69 ; poetca, Letter XT, I p. 247. 2 Ituxuworth, vi. 279-285. 236 PART IT. FIRST CIVIL WAR. 1646. mostly of quality ; " and on Wednesday all the Royalist force, 3,000 [or say 2,000] to the Eastward, 500 to the North ; " with "drums beating, colors flying," for the last time; all with passes, with agitated thoughts and outlooks : and in sacred Oxford, as poor Wood intimates, 1 the abomination of desola- tion supervened ! Oxford surrendering with the King's sanction quickened other surrenders ; Ragland Castle itself, and the obstinate old Marquis, gave in before the end of ' August : and the First Civil War, to the last ember of it, was extinct. The Parliament, in these circumstances, was now getting itself " recruited," its vacancies filled up again. The Royal- ist Members, who had deserted three years ago, had been, without much difficulty, successively "disabled," as their crime came to light : but to issue new writs for new elections, while the quarrel with the King still lasted, was a matter of more delicacy ; this too, however, had at length been resolved upon, the Parliament Cause now looking so decidedly pros- perous, in the Autumn of 1645. Gradually, in the following months, the new Members were elected, above two hundred and thirty of them in all. These new Members, " Recruiters," as Anthony Wood and the Royalist world reproachfully call them, were, by the very fact of their standing candidates in such circumstances, decided Puritans all, Independents many of them. Colonel, afterwards Admiral Blake (for Taunton), Ludlow, Ireton (for Appleby), Algernon Sidney, Hutchinson known by his Wife's Memoirs, were among these new Members. Fairfax, on his Father's death some two years hence, likewise came in. 2 1 Fasti, ii. 58, sec. edit. 2 The Writ is issued 16th March, 1647-8 (Commons Journals). PAKT III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS, 1646-1648. LETTERS XXXVI.-XLIL THE conquering of the King had been a difficult operation ; but to make a Treaty with him now when he was conquered, proved an impossible one. The Scots, to whom he had fled, entreated him, at last, "with tears " and "on their knees," to take the Covenant, and sanction the Presbyterian worship, if he could not adopt it ; on that condition they would fight to the last man for him : on no other condition durst or would a man of them fight for him. The English Presbyterians, as yet the dominant party, earnestly entreated to the same effect. In vain, both of them. The King had other schemes : the King, writing privately to Digby before quitting Oxford, when he had some mind to venture privately on London, as he ultimately did on the Scotch Camp, to raise Treaties and Cabal- lings there, had said, " endeavoring to get to London ; being not without hope that I shall be able so to draw either the hyterians or the Independents to side with me for extir- pating one another, that I shall be really King again." * Such a man is not easy to make a Treaty with, on the word of a King ! In fact, his Majesty, though a belligerent party who had not now one soldier on foot, considered himself still a tower of strength ; as indeed he was ; all men having a to us incon- ceivable reverence for him, till bitter Necessity and he together 1 Oxford, 26th March, 1646; Carte 'a Lift of Ornumd, iii. (London, 1735), p. 4JJ. 238 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 27 July, drove them away from it. Equivocations, spasmodic obstina- cies, and blindness to the real state of facts, must have an end. - The following Seven Letters, of little or no significance for illustrating public affairs, are to carry us over a period of most intricate negotiation ; negotiation with the Scots, managed manfully on both sides, otherwise it had ended in quarrel ; negotiations with the King ; infinite public and private nego- tiations ; which issue at last in the Scots marching home with 200,000 as "a fair instalment of their arrears," in their pocket ; and the King marching, under escort of Parliamen- tary Commissioners, to Holmby House in Northamptonshire, to continue in strict though very stately seclusion, "on 50 a day," 1 and await the destinies there. LETTER XXXVI. KNYVETT, of Ashwellthorpe in Norfolk, is one of the un- fortunate Royalist Gentlemen whom Cromwell laid sudden hold of at Lowestoff some years ago, and lodged in the Castle of Cambridge, - suddenly snuffing out their Royalist light in that quarter. Knyvett, we conclude, paid his " contribution," or due fine, for the business ; got safe home again ; and has lived quieter ever since. Of whom we promise the reader some transitory glimpse once more. 2 Here accordingly is a remarkable Letter to him, now first adjusted to its right place in this Series. The Letter used to be in the possession of the Lords Berners, whose ancestor this Knyvett was, one of whose seats this Ashwellthorpe in Nor- folk still is. With them, however, there remains nothing but a Copy now, and that without date, and otherwise not quite correct. Happily it had already gone forth in print with date and address in full ; has been found among the lumber and innocent marine-stories of Sylvanus Urban, communicated, in an incidental way, by " a Gentleman at Shrewsbury," who, in 1787, had got possession of it, honestly, we hope; and to the comfort of readers here. 1 WMtlocke, p. 244. a Antea, p. 134. 1G4C. LETTER XXXVI. LONDON. 239 " For my noble Friend Thomas Knyvett, Esquire, at his House at AshwelltJiorpe : These. " LONDON, 27th July, 1646. " SIR, I cannot pretend any interest in you for anything I havo done, nor ask any favor for any service I may do you. But because I am conscious to myself of a readiness to serve any gentleman in all possible civilities, I am bold to be before- hand with you to ask your favor on behalf of your honest poor neighbors of Hapton, who, as I am informed, are in some trouble, and are likely to be put to more, by one Robert Browne your Tenant, who, not well pleased with the way of these men, seeks their disquiet all he may. "Truly nothing moves me to desire this more than the pity I bear them in respect of their honesties, and the trouble I hear they are likely to suffer for their consciences. And how- ever the world interprets it, I am not ashamed to solicit for siu-h as are anywhere under pressure of this kind ; doing even as I would be done by. Sir, this is a quarrelsome age ; and the anger seems to me to be the worse, where the ground is difference of opinion; which to cure, to hurt men in their n: tines, persons or estates, will not be found an apt remedy. Sir, it will not repent you to protect those poor men of Hapton from injury and oppression : which that you would is the effect of this Letter. Sir, you will not want the grateful acknowledgment, nor utmost endeavors of requital from "Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l Ilapton is a Parish and Hamlot some seven or eight miles south of Norwich, in the Hundred of Depwade; it is within a mile or two of this Ashwollthorpe ; which was Knyvett's resi- dence at that time. What " Robert Browne your Tenant " had in hand or view against these poor Parishioners of Hapton, must, as the adjoining circumstances are all obliterated, remain somewhat indistinct to us. We gather in tf*'"*' 1 '"! that the rarishioners of Hapton wrro a little given t<> Sectarian, liule- 1 i;*Hllniuiii'* Miiyiizine (1787), liv. 337. 240 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. siJuly, pendent notions; which Browne, a respectable Christian of the Presbyterian strain, could not away with. The oppressed poor Tenants have contrived to make their case credible to Lieutenant-General Cromwell, now in his place in Parliament again ; have written to him ; perhaps clubbed some poor sixpences, and sent up a rustic Deputation to him : and lu>, "however the respectable Presbyterian world may interpret it, is not ashamed to solicit for them : " with effect, either now or soon. LETTEK XXXVII. " For his Excellency the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Fairfax, General of the Parliament's Forces : * These. " [LONDON,] 31st July, 1646. " SIR, I was desired to write a Letter to you by Adjutant Fleming. The end of it is, To desire yoiir Letter in his recom- mendation. He will acquaint you with the sum thereof, more particularly what the business is. I most humbly submit to your better judgment, when you hear it from him. "Craving pardon for my boldness in putting you to this trouble, I rest, " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 3 Adjutant Fleming is in Sprigge's Army-List. I suppose him to be the Fleming who, as Colonel Fleming, in Spring 1648, had rough service in South Wales two years after- wards ; and was finally defeated, attempting to "seize a Pass " near Pembroke Castle, then in revolt under Poyer ; was driven into a Church, and there slain, some say, slew himself. 8 Of Fleming's present " business " with Fairfax, whether it 1 At Ragland, or about leaving Bath for the purpose of concluding Rag- land Siege (Rushworth, vi. 293). 2 Sloane MSS. 1519, fol. 70. 5 Rushworth, vii. 1097, 38 : a little " before " 27th March, 1648. 1C46. LETTER XXXVIII. LONDON. 241 were to solicit promotion here, or continued employment in Ireland, nothing can be known. The War, which proved to be but the " First War," is now, as we said, to all real intents, ended : Ragland Castle, the last that held out for Charles, has been under siege for some weeks ; and Fairfax, who had been " at the Bath for his health," was now come or coming into those parts for the peremptory reduction of it. 1 There have begun now to be discussions and speculations about sending men to Ireland j a about sending Massey (famed Governor of Gloucester) to Ireland with men, and then also about dis- banding Massey's men. Exactly a week before, 24th July, 1646, the united Scots and Parliamentary Commissioners have presented their " Propo- sitions " to his Majesty at Newcastle : Yes or No, is all the answer they can take. They are most zealous that he should say Yes. Chancellor London implores and prophesies in a very remarkable manner : " All England will rise against you ; they," these Sectarian Parties, " will process and depose you, and set up another Government," unless you close with the I'mjjositions. His Majesty, on the 1st of August (writing at Newcastle, in the same hours whilst Cromwell writes this in London), answers in a haughty way, No.* LETTER XXXVIII. August Wth. The Parliamentary commissioners have re- turned, and three of the leading Scots with them, to see what is now to be done. The " Chancellor " who comes with Argyle is London, the Scotch Chancellor, a busy man in those years, Fairfax is at Bath ; and " the Solicitor," St John the Ship-money Lawyer, is there with him. 1 Ibid. vi. 293 ; Fairfax's first Letter from Ragland is of 7th August ; 14th August be dates from Usk; and Raglaud in surrendered on llio 17th. 9 CrvmweUiana, April, 164fi, p. 31. 8 Rnnlnvorth. vi. 319-321. TO!.. XVII. W 242 PART HI. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 10 August. " For his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, the General : These. "LONDON, 10th August, 1646. "SiR, Hearing you were returned from Ragland to the Bath., I take the boldness to make this address to you. "Our Commissioners sent to the King came this night to London. 1 I have spoken with two of them, and can only learn these generals, That there appears a good inclination in the Scots to the rendition of our Towns, and to their march out of the Kingdom. When they bring in their Papers, we shall know more. Argyle, and the Chancellor, and Dunfermline are come up. Duke of Hamilton is gone from the King into Scotland. I hear that Montrose's men are not disbanded. The King gave a very general answer. Things are not well in Scotland ; would they were in England ! We are full of faction and worse. "I hear for certain that Ormond has concluded a Peace with the Rebels. Sir, I beseech you command the Solicitor to come away to us. His help would be welcome. Sir, I hope you have not cast me off. Truly I may say, none more affectionately honors nor loves you. You and yours are in my daily prayers. You have done enough to command the uttermost of, " Your faithful and most obedient servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL.* "[P. S.] I beseech you, my humble service may be pre- sented to your Lady. " [P.S. 2J.] 8 The money for disbanding Massey's men is gotten, and you will speedily have directions about them from the Commons House." " Our Commissioners " to Charles at Newcastle, who have returned "this night," were: Earls Pembroke and Suffolk^ from the Peers ; from the Commons, Sir Walter Earle (Wey- * Commons Journals, 11 Aug. 1646. Sloane MSS. 1519, fol. 63. 8 This second Postscript has been squeezed in above the other, and is evi- dently written after it. 1(146. LETTER XXXVIIT. LONDON. 243 mouth), Sir John Hippesley (Cockermouth), Robert Goodwin (East Grinstead, Sussex), Luke Robinson (Scarborough). 1 " Duke of Hamilton : " the Parliamentary Army found him in Pendennis Castle, no, in St. Michael's Mount Castle, - when they took these places in Cornwall lately. The Par- liament has let him loose again ; he has begun a course of new diplomacies, which will end still more tragically for him. Onnond is, on application from the Parliament, ostensibly ordered by his Majesty not to make peace with the outlaw Irish rebels ; detestable to all men : but he of course follows his own judgment of the necessities of the case, being now nearly over with it himself, and the King under restraint unable to give any real " orders." The truth was, Ormond's Peace, odious to all English Protestants, had been signed and finished in March last ; with this condition among others, That an Army of 10,000 Irish were to come over and help his Majesty ; which truth is now beginning to ooze out. A new Onnond Peace : not materially different I think from the late very sad Glamorgan one ; which had been made in secret through the Earl of Glamorgan, in Autumn last; and then, when by ill chance it came to light, had needed to be solemnly denied in Winter following, and the Earl of Glamorgan to be thrown into prison to save appearances ! On the word of an unfortunate King ! a It would be a comfort to understand farther, what the fact soon proves, that this new Peace also will not hold ; the Irish Priests and Pope's Nuncios disap- proving of it. Even while Oliver writes, an Excommunica- tion or some such Document is coming out, signed " Frater <>T;irrel," "Abbas O'Teague," and the like names: poor Or- mond going to Kilkenny, to join forces with the Irish rebels, is treacherously set upon, and narrowly escapes death by them. s Concerning " the business of Massey's men," there are some 1 Rnshworth, vi. 309, where the proposals are ako given. a Riuhworth, vi. 242, 2.39-247 ; Birvh'H Inquiry concerning Glamorgan ; Carte'* Onnond; Ac. Correct details in liul\vin, ii 102-124. Rush worth, vi. 416 ; Carte's Life of Onnond. 244 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 26 August, notices in Ludlow. 1 The Commons had ordered Fairfax to disband them, and sent the money, as we see here ; whereupon the Lords ordered him, Not. Fairfax obeyed the Commons ; apologized to the Lords, who had to submit, as their habit was. Massey's Brigade was of no particular religion ; Massey's Miscellany, " some of them will require passes to Ethiopia," says ancient wit. But Massey himself was strong for Presby- terianism, for strict Drill-sergeantcy and Anti-heresy of every kind : the Lords thought his Miscellany and he might have been useful. LETTER XXXIX. His Excellency, in the following Letter, is Fairfax ; John Rushworth, worthy John, we already know ! Fairfax has returned to the Bath, still for his health; Ragland being taken, and the War ended. " For John Rushworth, Esquire, Secretary to his Excellency, at the Bath : These. "THE HOUSE [OF COMMONS], 26 Aug. [1646]. " MR. RUSHWORTH, I must needs entreat a favor on the behalf of Major Lilburn; who has a long time wanted em- ployment, and by reason good his necessities may grow upon him. " You should do very well to move the General to take him into favorable thoughts. I know a reasonable employment will content him. As for his honesty and courage, I need not speak much of [that], seeing he is so well known both to the General and yourself. " I desire you answer my expectation herein so far as you may. You shall very much oblige, Sir, " Your real friend and servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." a 1 Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow (London, 1722), ii. 181. 2 Sloaue MSS 1519, fol. 71 . Signature alone is Oliver's. 1646. LETTER XL. LONDON. 245 This is not "Freeborn John," the Sectarian Lieutenant- Colonel once in my Lord of Manchester's Army ; the Lilburn whom Cromwell spoke for, when Sir Philip Warwick took note of him ; the John Lilburn " who could not live without a quarrel ; who if he were left alone in the world would have to divide himself in two, and set the John to fight with Lil- burn, and the Lilburn with John ! " Freeborn John is already a Lieutenant-Colonel by title ; was not in the New Model at all ; is already deep in quarrels, lying in limbo since August last, for abuse of his old master Prynne. 1 He has quarrelled, or is quarrelling, with Cromwell too ; calls the Assembly of Divines an Assembly of Dry-vines ; will have little else but quarrelling henceforth. This is the Brother of Freeborn John ; one of his two Brothers. Not Robert, who already is or soon becomes a Colonel in the New Model, and does not " want employment." This is Henry Lilburn : appointed, probably in consequence of this application, Governor of Tyne- inouth Castle : revolting to the Royalists, his own Soldiers slew him there, in 1G48. These Lilburns were from Durham County. LETTER XL. "DELINQUENTS," conquered Royalists, are now getting them- selves fined, according to rigorous proportions, by a Parlia- ment Committee, which sits, and will sit long, at Goldsmiths' Hall, making that locality very memorable to Royalist gentle- ntpn. 1 The Staffordshire Committee have sent a Deputation up to Town. They bring a Petition ; very anxious to have 2,000 out of tln-ir StalTonlsliiiv Delinquents from Goldsmiths' Hall, or even 4,000, to pay off their forces, and send them to Ireland ; which lie heavy on the County at present. 1 Wood, iii. 353. " Tin- prcx-eiMliiigs of it, all now in very superior order, still Ho in tho State-Paper ()ili<. 246 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 60ct "For his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax [General of the Parliament 's Army'] : These. " [LONDON,] 6th October, 1646. " SIR, I would be loath to trouble you with anything ; but indeed the Staffordshire Gentlemen came to me this day, and with more than ordinary importunity did press me to give their desires furtherance to you. Their Letter will show what they entreat of you. Truly, Sir, it may not be amiss to give them what ease may well be afforded, and the sooner the better, especially at this time. 1 " I have no more at present, but to let you know the busi- ness of your Army is like to come on to-morrow. You shall have account of that business so soon as I am able to give it. I humbly take leave, and rest, " Your Excellency's most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL."* The Commons cannot grant the prayer of this Petition; 8 Staffordshire will have to rest as it is for some time. " The business of your Army " did come on " to-morrow ; " and assess- ments for a new six months were duly voted for it, and other proper arrangements made. 4 LETTER XLI. COLONEL IRETON, now Commissary-General Ireton, was wedded, as we saw, to Bridget Cromwell on the 15th of June last. A man " able with his pen and his sword ; " a distin- guished man. Once B. A. of Trinity College, Oxford, and Student 1 " and the sooner," &c. : these words are inserted above the line, by way of caret and afterthought 2 Sloane MSS. 1519, fol. 72: Oliver's own hand. Note, his Signature seems generally to be Oliver Cromwell, not O. Cromwell ; to which practice we conform throughout, though there are exceptions to it. 8 7th December, 1646, Commons Journals, v. 3. * 7th October, 1646, Commons Journals, iv, 687. 1646. LETTER XLI. LONDON. 247 of the Middle Temple ; then a gentleman trooper in my Lord General Essex's Life-guard ; now Colonel of Horse, soon Mem- ber of Parliament ; rapidly rising. A Nottinghamshire man ; has known the Lieutenant-General ever since the Eastern- Association times. Combury House, not now conspicuous on the maps, is discoverable in Oxfordshire, disguised as Bland- ford Lodge, not too far from the Devizes, at which latter Town Fairfax and Ireton have just been, disbanding Massey's Brigade. The following Letter will require no commentary. "For my beloved Daughter Bridget Ireton, at Combury , General's Quarters: These. " LONDON, 25th October, 1646. " DEAR DAUGHTER, I write not to thy Husband ; partly to avoid trouble, for one line of mine begets many of his, which I doubt makes him sit up too late; partly because I am myself indisposed J at this time, having some other consid- erations. " Your Friends at Ely are well : your Sister Claypole is, I trust in mercy, exercised with some perplexed thoughts. She aces her own vanity and carnal mind; bewailing it: she seeks after (as I hope also) what will satisfy. And thus to be a seeker is to be of the best sect next to a finder ; and such an one shall every faithful humble seeker be at the end. Happy seeker, happy finder ! Who ever tasted that the Lord is gra- cious, without some sense of self, vanity and badness ? Who ever tasted that graciousness of His, and could go less 8 in !', less than pressing after full enjoyment ? Dear II- art, press on; let not Husband, let not anything cool thy affections after Christ. I hope he 8 will be an occasion to in- llame them. That which is best worthy of love in thy Hus- band is that of the image of Christ he bears. Look on that, and love it best, and ;ill the rest for that. I pray for thee and him ; do so for me. 1 not in the ni1 On Thursday, llth February, 1646-7, on the road between Mansfield and Nottingham, road between Newcastle and Jlolinby House, "Sir Thomas Fairfax went and met the King ; who stopped his horse : Sir Thomas alighted, and kissed the King's hand ; and afterwards mounted, and dis- coursed with the King as they passed towards Nottingham." 1 The King had left Newcastle on the 3d of the month ; got to Holmby, or Hoklenby, on the 13th; and "there," says the poor Iter Carolinum, " during pleasure." LETTERS XLIII.-XLIV. BEFORE reading these two following Letters, read this Ex- tract from a work still in Manuscript, and not very sure of ever getting printed : " The Presbyterian ' Platform ' of Church Government, as recommended by the Assembly of Divines or ' Dry- Vines,' has at length, after unspeakable debatings, passings and repassings through both Houses, and soul's-travail not a little, about 'ruling-ciders,' 'power of the keys,' and such like, been got firutlly passed, though not without some melancholy shades of Erastianism, or 'the Voluntary Principle,' as the new phrase runs. The Presbyterian Platform is passed by Law ; and Lon- don and other places, busy 'electing their ruling-elders,' are just about ready to set it actually on foot. And now it is lio|T(l there will be some 'uniformity' as to that high matter. " Uniformity of free-growing healthy forest-trees is good \ uniformity of clipt Dutch-dragons is not so good! The ques- tion, Which of the two? is by no means settled, though the< Assembly of Divines, and majorities of both Houses, woul<\ f.iin think it so. The general English mind, which, loving good order in all tilings, loves regularity even at a high price, could be content with this Presbyterian scheme, which we call 1 Whitlocke, p. 242 ; her CanUnum (in Somen Traett, ri 274) : Whit- dote, tut Ubiuil, itt luexact. 252 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 11 March, the Dutch-dragon one ; but a deeper portion of the English mind inclines decisively to growing in the forest-tree way, and indeed will shoot out into very singular excrescences, Quakerisms and what not, in the coming years. Nay already we have Anabaptists, Brownists, Sectaries and Schismatics springing up very rife : already there is a Paul Best, brought before the House of Commons for Socinianism ; nay we hear of another distracted individual who seemed to maintain, in confidential argument, that ' God was mere Reason.' 1 There is like to be need of garden-shears, at this rate ! The devout House of Commons, viewing these things with a horror incon- ceivable in our loose days, knows not well what to do. Lon- don City cries, ' Apply the shears ! ' the Army answers, ' Apply them gently ; cut off nothing that is sound ! ' The question of garden-shears, and how far you are to apply them, is really difficult ; the settling of it will lead to very un- expected results. London City knows with pain, that there are ' many persons in the Army who have never yet taken the Covenant ; ' the Army begins to consider it unlikely that cer- tain of them will ever take it ! " These things premised, we have only to remark farther, that the House of Commons meanwhile, struck with devout horror, has, with the world generally, spent Wednesday, the 10th of March, 1646-7, as a Day of Fasting and Humiliation for Blasphemies and Heresies. 2 Cromwell's Letter, somewhat remarkable for the grieved mind it indicates, was written next day. Fairfax with the Army is at Saffron Walden in Essex ; there is an Order this day 8 that he is to quarter where he sees best. There are many Officers about Town ; soliciting pay- ments, attending private businesses : their tendency to Schism, to- Anabaptistry and Heresy, or at least to undue tolerance for all that, is well known. This Fast-day, it would seem, is regarded as a kind of covert rebuke to them. Fast-day was Wednesday ; this is Thursday evening : l Whitlocke. a Ibid. p. 243. 8 Commons Journals, v. 1 10. 1647 LETTER XLIII. LONDON. LETTER XLIH. " For his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, General of the Parlia- ment?* Army [at Saffron Walden] : These. [LONDON, 11 March, 1646.] " SIB, Your Letters about your head-quarters, directed to the Houses, 1 came seasonably, and were to very good purpose. There want not, in all places, men who have so much malice against the Army as besots them: the late Petition, which suggested a dangerous design upon the Parliament in [your] coming to those quarters 2 doth sufficiently evidence the same : but they got nothing by it, for the Houses did assoil the Army from all suspicion, and have left you to quarter where you please.* " Never were the spirits of men more embittered than now. Surely the Devil hath but a short time. Sir, it's good the heart be fixed against all this. The naked simplicity of Christ, with that wisdom He is pleased to give, and patience, will over- come all this. That God would keep your heart as He has done hitherto, is the prayer of " Your Excellency's most humble servant, "OLIVER CBOMWELL." " [P. S.] * I desire my most humble service may be pre- sented to my Lady. Adjutant Allen desires Colonel Baxter, some time Governor of Beading, may be remembered. I humbly <: Colonel Overton may not be out of your remembrance. He is a deserving man, and presents his humble services to you. Upon the Fast-day, divers soldiers were raised (as I heard), both horse and foot, near 200 in Covent Garden, To 1 <\>mmoni Journal*, v. 110, llth March, 1646 (Letter is dated Saffron Walden, 9th Marrli). * Saffron Walden, in the Eastern A.w<>oiation : " Not to qoarter in the rn AModatkra," had the Lord**, through .Mam lirstur their Speaker, lately written ( Common* Journal*, infrk) ; hut without effect. ' Common* Journal*, v. 110, llth March, 1646. 4 Written across on the margin, according to custom. 254 PART HI. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 17 March, prevent us soldiers from cutting the Presbyterians' throats. These are fine tricks to mock God with." 1 This flagrant insult to " us soldiers," in Covent Garden and doubtless elsewhere, as if the zealous Presbyterian Preacher were not safe from violence in bewailing Schism, is very significant. The Lieutenant-General himself might have seen as well as " heard " it, for he lived hard by, in Drury Lane I think ; but was of course at his own Church, bewailing Schism too, though not in so strait-laced a manner. Oliver's Sister Anna, Mrs. Sewster, of Wistow, Huntingdon- shire, had died in these months, 1st November, 1646. 2 Among her little girls is one, Robina, for whom there is a distinguished Scotch Husband in store ; far off as yet, an " Ensign in the French Army " as yet, William Lockhart by name ; of whom we may hear more. This Letter lies contiguous to Letter XXXIV. in the Sloane Volume : Letter XXXIV. is sealed conspicuously with red wax ; this Letter, as is fit, with black. The Cromwell crest, " lion with ring on his fore-gainb," the same big seal, is on both. LETTER XLTV. COMMONS JOURNALS, 17th March, 1646 : " Ordered, That the Committee of the Army do write unto the General, and ac- quaint him that this House takes notice of his care in order- ing that none of the Forces under his Command should quarter nearer than Five-and-twenty Miles of this City : That notwith- standing his care and directions therein, the House is informed that some of his Forces are quartered much nearer than that j and To desire him to take course that his former Orders, touching the quartering of his Forces no nearer than Twenty- five Miles, may be observed." 1 Sloane MSS. 1519, fol. 62. a See antea, p. 21 ; and Noble, i. 89. l<*47. LETTER XLIV. LONDON. 255 u To his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, General of the Parlia- ment's Army : These. " [LONDON,] 19th March, 1646. "SiR, This enclosed Order I received; but, I suppose, Letters from the Committee of the Army to the effect of this are come to your hands before this time. I think it were very good that the distance of Twenty-five Miles be very strictly observed ; and they are to blame that have exceeded the dis- tance, contrary to your former appointment. This Letter I received this evening from Sir William Massam, 1 a Member of the House of Commons ; which I thought fit to send you ; his House being much within that distance of Twenty-five Miles of London. I have sent the Officers down, as many as I could well light of. "Not having more at present, I rest, " Your Excellency's most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL."* The troubles of the Parliament and Army are just begin* ning. The order for quartering beyond twenty-five miles from London, and many other " orders," were sadly violated in the course of this season. "Sir W. Massam's House," "Otes in Essex," is a place known to us since the beginning of these Letters. The Officers ought really to go down to their quarters in the Eastern Counties ; Oliver has sent them off, as many of them as lie " could well light of." The Presbyterian System is now fast getting into action : on the 20th May, 1647, the Synod of London, with due Prolocutor or Moderator, met in St Paul's. 8 In Lancashire too the Sys- tem is fairly on foot; but I think in other English Counties it was somewhat lazy to move, and never came rightly into ac- tion, owing to impedimenta. Poor old Laud is condemned of treason, and beheaded, years ago; the Scots, after Marston Masham. ' Sloane MRS. 1519, fol. 74. Rah worth, YI. 489; Whitlooke (p. 249} tlat*s wrong. 256 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 10 June, Fight, pressing heavy on him; Prynne too being very un- grateful. That " performance " of the Service to the Hyper- borean populations in so exquisite a way has cost the Artist dear ! He died very gently ; his last scene much the best, for himself and for us. The two Hothams also, and other traitors, have died. ARMY MANIFESTO. OUR next entirely authentic Letter is at six months' distance : a hiatus not unfrequent in this Series ; but here most especially to be regretted ; such a crisis in the affairs of Oliver and of England transacting itself in the interim. The Quarrel between City and Army, which we here see begun ; the split of the Par- liament into two clearly hostile Parties of Presbyterians and Independents, represented by City and Army ; the deadly wres- tle of these two Parties, with victory to the latter, and the former flung on its back, and its " Eleven Members " sent be- yond Seas : all this transacts itself in the interim, without autograph note or indisputably authentic utterance of Oliver's to elucidate it for us. We part with him laboring to get the Officers sent down to Saffron Walden ; sorrowful on the Spring Fast-day in Coveut Garden : we find him again at Putney in Autumn ; the insulted Party now dominant, and he the most important man in it. One Paper which I find among the many published on that occasion, and judge pretty confidently, by internal evidence, to be of his writing, is here introduced ; and there is no other that I know of. How this Quarrel between City and Army, no agreement with the King being for the present possible, went on waxing ; devel- oping itself more and more visibly into a Quarrel between Pres- byterianism and Independency; attracting to the respective sides of it the two great Parties in Parliament and in England generally : all this the reader must endeavor to imagine for himself, very dimly, as matters yet stand. In books, in Narratives old or new, he will find little satisfaction in regard 1G47. ARMY MANIFESTO. 257 to it. The old Narratives, written all by baffled enemies of Cromwell, 1 are full of mere blind rage, distraction and dark- ness ; the new Narratives, believing only in " Machiavelism," &c. disfigure the matter still more. Common History, old and new, represents Cromwell as having underhand, in a most skilful and indeed prophetic manner, fomented or originated all this commotion of the elements ; steered his way through it by " hypocrisy," by " master-strokes of duplicity," and such like. As is the habit hitherto of History. " The fact is," says a Manuscript already cited from, " poor History, contemporaneous and subsequent, has treated this matter in a very sad way. Mistakes, misdates ; exaggerations, unveracities, distractions ; all manner of misseeings and mis- notings in regard to it, abound. How many grave historical statements still circulate in the world, accredited by Bishop Buruet and the like, which on examination you will find melt away into after-dinner rumors, gathered from ancient red- nosed Presbyterian gentlemen, Harbottle Grimston and Com- pany, sitting over claret under a Blessed Restoration, and talking to the loosely recipient Bishop in a very loose way ! Statements generally with some grain of harmless truth, mis- interpreted by those red-nosed honorable persons ; frothed up into huge bulk by the loquacious Bishop above mentioned, and so set floating on Time's Stream. Not very lovely to us, they, nor the red-noses they proceeded from ! I do not cite them here ; I have examined most of them ; found not one of them fairly believable ; wondered to see how already in one generation, earnest Puritanism being hung on the gallows or thrown out in St. Margaret's Churchyard, the whole History of it had grown mythical, and men were ready to swallow all man- ner of nonsense concerning it. Ask for dates, ask for proofs : Who saw it, heard it ; when was it, where ? A misdate, of itself, will do much. So accurate a man as Mr. Godwin, gen- erally very accurate in such matters, makes 'a master-stroke of duplicity ' merely by mistake of dating : * the thing when .mnirx; W;ill;r'n VinilictitiuH of hit Character,- Cleineut Walk- er*f Flittory of Imtcfiendenry ; Su-. &c. * Godwin, ii 300, citing Walker, p. 31 (should be p. 33). VOL. \VH. 17 258 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 10 June, Oliver did say it, was a credible truth, and no master-stroke or stroke of any kind ! "'Master-strokes of duplicity;' 'false protestations;' 'fo- menting of the Army discontents : ' alas, alas ! It was not Cromwell that raised these discontents ; not he, but the ele- mental Powers ! Neither was it, I think, ' by master-strokes of duplicity' that Cromwell steered himself victoriously across such a devouring chaos ; no, but by continuances of noble manful simplicity, I rather think, by meaning one thing before God, and meaning the same before men, not as a weak but as a strong man does. By conscientious resolu- tion ; by sagacity, and silent wariness and promptitude ; by religious valor and veracity, which, however it may fare with foxes, are really, after all, the grand source of clearness for a man in this world ! " We here close our Manuscript. Modern readers ought to believe that there was a real im- pulse of heavenly Faith at work in this Controversy ; that on both sides, more especially on the Army's side, here lay the central element of all ; modifying all other elements and pas- sions ; that this Controversy was, in several respects, very different from the common wrestling of Greek with Greek for what are called "Political objects"! Modern readers, mind- ful of the French Revolution, will perhaps compare these Pres- byterians and Independents to the Gironde and the Mountain. And there is an analogy ; yet with differences. With a great difference in the situations ; with the difference, too, between Englishmen and Frenchmen, which is always considerable ; and then with the difference between believers in Jesus Christ and believers in Jean Jacques, which is still more considerable ! A few dates, and chief summits of events, are all that can be indicated here, to make our " Manifesto " legible. From the beginnings of this year 1647 and earlier, there had often been question as to what should be done with the Army. The expense of such an Army, between twenty and thirty thousand men, was great ; the need of it, Eoyalism being now subdued, seemed small ; besides, it was known that there were many in it who " had never taken the Covenant," and were 1*47. ARMY MANIFESTO. 269 never likely to take it. This latter point, at a time when Heresy seemed rising like a hydra, 1 and the Spiritualism of England was developing itself in really strange ways, became very important too, became gradually most of all important, and the soul of the whole Controversy. Early in March, after much debating, it had been got settled that there should be twelve thousand men employed in Ireland, 9 which was now in sad need of soldiers. The rest were, in some good way, to be disbanded. The " way," however, and whether it might really be a good way, gave rise to considerations. Without entering into a sea of troubles, we may state here in general that the things this Army demanded were strictly their just right : Arrears of pay, " three-and-forty weeks " of hard- oanu'd pay ; indemnity for acts done in War ; and clear dis- charge according to contract, not service in Ireland except under known Commanders and conditions, "our old Com- manders," for example. It is also apparent that the Presby- terian party in Parliament, the leaders of whom were, several of them, Colonels of the Old Model, did not love this victorious Army ; that indeed they disliked and grew to hate it, useful as it had been to them. Denzil Holies, Sir William Waller, Har- ley, Stapleton, these men, all strong for Presbyteriaiiism, were old unsuccessful Colonels or Generals under Essex; and for very obvious reasons looked askance on this Army, and wished to be, so soon as possible, rid of it. The first rumor of a demur or desire on the part of the Army, rumor of some Petition to Fairfax by his Officers as to the " way " of their disbanding, was by these Old-Military Parliament-men very angrily re -r of the Public Peace," and sent forth the same in a "Declaration of the 30th of Murrh," which became very cele- brated afterwards. This unlucky " Declaration," Waller says, was due to Holies, who smuggled it one evening through a thin House. " Enemies to the State, Disturbers of the Peace : " it 1 8e Edward*'* finnynrna (London, 1016), for many furious details of it. * 6th March, C'vmmoM Jottrnuli. r. 107. 260 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 10 June. was a severe and too proud rebuke ; felt to be unjust, and looked upon as " a blot of ignominy ; " not to be forgotten, nor easily forgiven, by the parties it was addressed to. So stood matters at the end of March. At the end of April they stand somewhat thus. Two Parlia- ment Deputations, Sir William Waller at the head of them, have been at Saffron Walden, producing no agreement : 1 five dignitaries of the Army, " Lieutenant-General Hammond, Colo- nel Hammond, Lieutenant-Colonel Pride," and two others, have been summoned to the bar ; 2 some subalterns given into custody ; Ireton himself " ordered to be examined ; " and no " satisfaction to the just desires of the Army ; " on the con- trary, the " blot of ignominy " fixed deeper on it than before. We can conceive a universal sorrow and anger, and all manner of dim schemes and consultations going on at Saffron Walden and the other Army-quarters, in those days. Here is a scene from Whitlocke, worth looking at, which takes place in the Honorable House itself ; date 30th April, 1647 : 8 " Debate upon the Petition and Vindication of the Army. Major-General Skippon, in the House, produced a Letter pre- sented to him the day before by some Troopers, in behalf of Eight Regiments of the Army of Horse. Wherein they ex- pressed some reasons, Why they could not engage in the ser- vice of Ireland under the present Conduct," under the proposed Commander ship, by Skippon and Massey ; " and complained, Of the many scandals and false suggestions which were of late raised against the Army and their proceedings ; That they were taken as enemies ; That they saw designs upon them, and upon many of the Godly Party in the Kingdom ; That they could not engage for Ireland till they were satisfied in .their expectations, and their just desires granted. Three Troopers, Edward Sexby, William Allen, Thomas Sheppard, who brought this Letter, were examined in the House, touch- 1 Waller, pp. 42-85. 2 Commons Journals, v. 129 (29th March, 1647). 8 Whitlocke, p. 249 ; Commons Journals, in die ; and a fuller account in Itushworth, vi. 474. The " Letter," immediately referred to, is in Gary's Memorials (Selections from the Tanner MSS. ; London, 1842), i. 201. 1047. ARMY MANIFESTO. 261 ing the drawing and subscribing of it; and, Whether their Officers were engaged in it or not ? They affirmed, That it was drawn up at a Rendezvous of several of those Eight Regi- ments ; and afterwards at several meetings by Agents or Agitators, for each Regiment ; and that few of their Officers knew or took notice of it. " Those Troopers being demanded, Whether they had not been Cavaliers ? it was attested by Skippon, that they had constantly served the Parliament, and some of them from the beginning of the War. Being asked concerning the meaning of some expressions in the Petition," especially concerning tf cer- tain men aiming at a Sovereignty" "they answered, That the Letter being a joint act of those Regiments, they could not give a punctual answer, being only Agents ; but if they might have the queries in writing, they would send or carry them to those Regiments, and return their own and their answers. They were ordered to attend the House upon summons." Three sturdy fellows, fit for management of business ; let the reader note them. They are " Agents " to the Army : a class of functionaries called likewise " Adjutators " and mis- spelt " Agitators ; " elected by the common men of the Army, to keep the ranks in unison with the Officers in the present crisis of their affairs. This is their first distinct appearance in the eye of History ; in which, during these months, they play a great part. Evidently the settlement with the Army will be a harder task than was supposed. During these same months some languid negotiation with the King is going on ; Scots Commissioners come up to help in treating with him ; but as he will not hear of Covenant or Presbytery, there can no result follow. It was an ugly aggra- vation of the blot of ignominy which the Army smarts under, the report raised against it, That some of the Leaders had , " If the King would come to thr.m, they would put the crown on his head again." Cromwell, from his place in Par- liament, earnestly watches these occurrences ; waits what the f, r n-:it "birth of Providence" in them may l>e; "carries him- self with much wariness ; " is more and more looked up to by 262 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 10 June, the Independent Party, for his interest with the Soldiers. One day, noticing the " high carriages " of Holies and Com- pany, he whispers Edmund Ludlow who sat by him, " These men will never leave till the Army pull them out by the ears ! " 1 Holies and Company, who at present rule in Par- liament, pass a New Militia Ordinance for London ; put the Armed Force of London into hands more strictly Presbyterian. 2 There have been two London Petitions against the Army, and two London Petitions covertly in favor of it ; the Managers of the latter, we observe, have been put in prison. May Sth. A new and more promising Deputation, Cromwell at the head of it. " Cromwell, Ireton, Fleetwood, Skippon," proceed again to Saffron Walden ; investigate the claims and grievances of the Army ; 8 engage, as they had authority to do, that real justice shall be done them ; and in a fortnight return with what seems an agreement and settlement ; for which Lieu- tenant-General Cromwell receives the thanks of the House. 4 The House votes what it conceives to be justice, " eight weeks of pay" in ready money, bonds for the rest, and so forth. Congratulations hereupon ; a Committee of Lords and Com- mons are ordered to go down to Saffron Walden, to see the Army disbanded. May 2Stk. On arriving at Saffron Walden, they find that their notions of what is justice, and the Army's notions, differ widely. " Eight weeks of pay," say the Army ; " we want nearer eight times eight ! " Disturbances in several of the quarters : at Oxford the men seize the disbanding-money as part of payment, and will not disband till they get the whole. A meeting of Adjutators, by authority of Fairfax, convenes at Bury St. Edmund's, a regular Parliament of soldiers, " each common man paying fourpence to meet the expense : " it is agreed that the Army's quarters shall be " contracted," brought closer together ; that on Friday next, 4th of June, there shall 1 Ludlow, i. 189; see Whitlocke, p. 252. 2 4th May, 1647, Commons Journals, v. 160: " Thirty-one Persona," their names given. 8 Letters from them, in Appendix, No. 10. 4 May 21st, Commons Journals, v. 181. 1647. ARMY MANIFESTO. 263 be a Rendezvous, or General Assembly of all the Soldiers, there to decide on what they will do. 1 June kth and 5th. The Newmarket Rendezvous, " on Kent- ford Heath," a little east of Newmarket, is held ; a kind of Covenant is entered into, and other important things are done : but elsewhere in the interim a thing still more important had been done. On Wednesday, June 2d, Cornet Joyce, once a London tailor they say, evidently a very handy active in.ni, he and five hundred common troopers, a volunteer Party, not expressly commanded by anybody, but doing what they know the whole Army wishes to be done, sally out of Oxford, where things are still somewhat disturbed ; proceed to Holmby House ; and, after two days of talking, bring " the King's Person" off with them. To the horror and despair of tin Parliament Commissioners in attendance there ; but clearly to the satisfaction of his Majesty, who hopes, in this new shuttie-and-deal, some good card will turn up for him ; hopes, with some ground, "the Presbyterians and Independents may now be got to extirpate one another." His Majesty rides will- ingly ; the Parliament Commissioners accompany, wringing their hands : to Hinchinbrook, that same Friday night ; where Colonel Montague receives them with all hospitality, entertains them for two days. Colonel Whalley with a strong party, deputed by Fairfax, had met his Majesty ; offered to deliver him from Joyce, back to Holmby and the Parliament ; but his Majesty positively declined. Captain Titus, quasi Tighthose, very well known afterwards, arrives at St. Stephen's with the news ; has 50 voted him " to buy a horse," for his _:n';it service; and fills all men with terror and amazement. Honorable Houses agree to "sit on the Lord's day;" Stephen Marshall to pray for them ; never were in such a plight before. The Controversy, at this point, has risen from Economical into Political : Army Parliament in the Easti rn Counties against Civil Parliament in Westminster; and, "How the Nation shall be settled " between them ; whether its growth shall be in the forest-tree fashion, or in the dipt Dutch-dragon fashion ? 4W-610. 264 PAKT III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WAKS. 10 June, Monday, June 7th. All Officers in the House are ordered forthwith to go down to their regiments. Cromwell, without order, not without danger of detention, say some, has already gone: this same day, "General Fairfax, Lieutenant-General Cromwell, and the chief men of the Army," have an interview with the King, "at Childerley House, between Huntingdon and Cambridge : " his Majesty will not go back to Holinby ; much prefers " the air " of these parts, the air of Newmarket for instance ; and will continue with the Army. 1 Parliament Commissioners, with new Votes of Parliament, are coming down ; the Army must have a new Rendezvous, to meet them. New Rendezvous at Royston, more properly on Triploe Heath near Cambridge, is appointed for Thursday ; and in the interim a " Day of Fasting and Humiliation " is held by all the soldiers, a real Day of Prayer (very inconceivable in these days), For God's enlightenment as to what should now be done. Here is Whitlocke's account of the celebrated Rendezvous itself, somewhat abridged from Rushworth, and dim enough ; wherein, however, by good eyes a strange old Historical Scene may be discerned. The new Votes of Parliament do not appear still to meet " the just desires " of the Army ; meanwhile let all things be done decently and in order. "The General had ordered a Rendezvous at Royston;" properly on Triploe Heath, as we said ; on Thursday, 10th June, 1647 : the Force assembled was about twenty-one thou- sand men, the remarkablest Army that ever wore steel in this world. "The General and the Commissioners rode to each Regiment. They first acquainted the General's Regiment with the Votes of the Parliament ; and Skippon," one of the Commissioners, " spake to them to persuade a compliance. An Officer of the Regiment made answer, That the Regiment did desire that their answer might be returned after perusal of the Votes by some select Officers and Agitators, whom the Regiment had chosen ; and said, This was the motion of the Regiment. "He desired the General and Commissioners to give him leave to ask the whole Regiment if this was their answer. 1 Ruehworth, vi. 549. 1647. ARMY MANIFESTO. 265 Leave being given, they cried ' All.' Then he put the ques- tion, If any man were of a contrary opinion he should say, No ; and not one man gave his ' No.' The Agitators, in behalf of the soldiers, pressed to have the question put at once, Whether the Regiment did acquiesce and were satisfied with the Votes ? " The Agitators knew well what the answer would have been ! " But in regard the other way was more orderly, and they might after perusal proceed more deliberately, that question was laid aside. " The like was done in the other Regiments ; and all were very unanimous ; and always after the Commissioners had done reading the Votes, and speaking to each Regiment, and had received their answer, all of them cried out, ' Justice, Jus- tice ! ' " not a very musical sound to the Commissioners. " A Petition was delivered in the field to the General, in the name of ' many well-affected people in Essex ; ' desiring, That the Army might not be disbanded ; in regard the Common- wealth had many enemies, who watched for such an occasion to destroy the good people." l Such, and still dimmer, is the jotting of dull authentic Bulstrode, drowning in official oil, and somnolent natural pedantry and fat, one of the remarkablest scenes our History ever had : An Armed Parliament, extra-official, yet not with- out a kind of sacredness, and an Oliver Cromwell at the head of it; demanding with one voice, as deep as ever spake in England, " Justice, Justice ! " under the vault of Heaven. That same afternoon, the Army moved on to St. Albans, nearer to London ; and from the Rendezvous itself, a joint Letter was despatched to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, which the reader is now at last to see. I judge it, pretty confidently, by evidence of style alone, to be of Cromwell's own writing. It differs totally in this respect from any other of those mul- titudinous Army-Papers ; which were understood, says Whit- locke, to be drawn up mostly by Ireton, " who had a subtle working brain ; " or by Lambert, who also had got some tinc^ ture of Law and other learning, and did not want for brain, are very able Papers, though now very dull ones. This Wl.itlocke, p. 255. 266 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. lOJune, is in a far different style ; in Oliver's worst style ; his style when lie writes in haste, and not in haste of the pen merely, for that seems always to have been a most rapid business with him ; but in haste before the matter had matured itself for him, and the real kernels of it got parted from the husks. A style of composition like the structure of a block of oak-root, as tortuous, unwedgeable, and as strong ! Read attentively, this Letter can be understood, can be believed : the tone of it, the " voice " of it, reminds us of what Sir Philip Warwick heard j the voice of a man risen justly into a kind of chant, very dangerous for the City of London at present. " To the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Com- mon Council of the City of London : These. "RorSTON, 10th June, 1647. " RIGHT HONORABLE AND WORTHY FRIENDS, Having, by our Letters and other Addresses presented by our General to the Honorable House of Commons, endeavored to give satisfac- tion of the clearness of our just Demands ; and [having] also, in Papers published by us, remonstrated the grounds of our proceedings in prosecution thereof ; all of which being pub- lished in print, we are confident [they] have come to your hands, and received at least a charitable construction from you. " The sum of all these our Desires as Soldiers is no other than this : Satisfaction to our undoubted Claims as Soldiers ; and reparation upon those who have, to the utmost, improved all opportunities and advantages, by false suggestions, misrep- resentations and otherwise, for the destruction of this Army with a perpetual blot of ignominy upon it. Which [injury] we should not value, if it singly concerned our own particular [persons] ; being ready to deny ourselves in this, as we have done in other cases, for the Kingdom's good : but under this pretence, we find, no less is involved than the overthrow of the privileges both of Parliament and People; and that rather than they * shall fail in their designs, or we receive what in the eyes of all good men is [our] just right, the King- 1 The Presbyterian leaders hi Parliament, Holies, Stapleton. Barley, Waller, &c. 1647. ARMY MANIFESTO. 267 dom is endeavored to be engaged in a new War. [In a new War,] and this singly by those who, when the truth of these things shall be made to appear, will be found to bo the authors of those [said] evils that are feared ; and who have no other way to protect themselves from question and punishment but by putting tin; Kingdom into blood, under the pretence of their honor of and their love to the Parliament. As if that were dearer to them than to us ; or as if they had given greater proof of their faithfulness to it than we. " But we perceive that, under these veils and pretences, they seek to interest in their design the City of London : as if that City ought to make good their miscarriages, and should prefer a few self-seeking men before the welfare of the Public. And indeed we have found these men so active to accomplish* their designs, and to have such apt instruments for their turn in that City, that we have cause to suspect they may engage many therein upon mistakes, which are easily swallowed, in times of such prejudice against them * that have given (we may speak it without vanity) the most public testimony of their good affections to the Public, and to that City in particular. "[As] for the thing we insist upon as Englishmen, and surely our being Soldiers hath not stript us of that interest, although our malicious enemies would have it so, we desire a Settlement of the Peace of the Kingdom and of the Liberties of the Subject, according to the Votes and Declarations of I'.ir- liament, which, before we took arms, were, by the Parliament, used as arguments and inducements to invite us and divers of our dear friends out ; some of whom have lost their lives in this War. Which Ix'ing now, by God's blessing, finished, we think we have as much right to demand, and desire to see, a happy Settlement, as we have to our money and [to] the other < '>imnon interest of Soldiers which we have insisted upon. We linil also the ingenuous and honest People, in almost all parts of the Kingdom where we come, full of the sense of ruin and y if the Army should be disbanded before the Peace of the Kingdom, and those other things before mentioned, have a full and perfect Settlement. i Oblique for " u*." 268 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS, lojune, " We have said before, and profess it now, We desire no alteration of the Civil Government. As little do we desire to interrupt, or in the least to intermeddle with, the settling of the Presbyterial Government. Nor did we seek to open a way for licentious liberty, under pretence of obtaining ease for tender consciences. We profess, as ever in these things, When once the State has made a Settlement, we have nothing to say but to submit or suffer. Only we could wish that every good citizen, and every man who walks peaceably in a blame- less conversation, and is beneficial to the Commonwealth, might have liberty and encouragement ; this being according to the true policy of all States, and even to justice itself. " These in brief are our Desires, and the things for which we stand ; beyond which we shall not go. And for the obtaining of these things, we are drawing near your City 1 professing sincerely from our hearts, [That] we intend not evil towards you ; declaring, with all confidence and assurance, That if you appear not against us in these our just desires, to assist that wicked Party which would embroil us and the Kingdom, neither we nor our Soldiers shall give you the least offence. We come not to do any act to prejudice the being of Parlia- ments, or to the hurt of this [Parliament] in order to the present Settlement of the Kingdom. We seek the good of all. And we shall wait here, or remove to a farther distance to abide there, if once we be assured that a speedy Settlement of things is in hand, until it be accomplished. Which done, we shall be most ready, either all of us, or so many of the Army as the Parliament shall think fit, to disband, or to go for Ireland. ""And although you may suppose that a rich City may seen; an enticing bait to poor hungry Soldiers to venture far to gain the wealth thereof, yet, if not provoked by you, we do pro- fess, Rather than any such evil should fall out, the soldiers shall make their way through our blood to effect it. And we can say this for most of them, for your better assurance, That they so little value their pay, in comparison of higher 1 That is the remarkable point. 1647. ARMY MANIFESTO. 269 concernments to a Public Good, that rather than they will be unrighted in the matter of their honesty and integrity (which hath suffered by the Men they aim at and desire justice upon), or want the settlement of the Kingdom's Peace, and their [own] and their fellow-subjects' Liberties, they will lose all. Which may be a strong assurance to you that it 's not your wealth they seek, but the things tending in common to your and their welfare. That they may attain [these], you shall do like Fellow-Subjects and Brethren if you solicit the Parliament for them, on their behalf. " If after all this, you, or a considerable part of you be seduced to take up arms in opposition to, or hindrance of, vhese our just undertakings, we hope we have, by this brotherly premonition, to the sincerity of which we call God to witness, freed ourselves from all that ruin which may be- fall that great and populous City ; having thereby washed our hands thereof. We rest, " Your affectionate Friends to serve you, "THOMAS FAIRFAX. HENRY IRETON. OLIVER CROMWELL. ROBERT LILBURN. ROBERT HAMMOND. JOHN DESBOROW. THOMAS HAMMOND. THOMAS RAINSBOROW. HARDRESS WALLER. JOHN LAMBERT. NATHANIEL RICH. THOMAS HARRISON." l THOMAS PRIDE. This Letter was read next day in the Commons House, 8 not without emotion. Most respectful answer went from the Guildhall, "in three coaches with the due number of outriders." On June 16th, the Army, still at St. Albans, accuses of trea- son Eleven Members of the Commons House by name, as chief authors of all these troubles ; whom the Honorable House is respectfully required to put upon their Trial, and prevent from voting in the interim. These are the famed Eleven 'xjrs; Holies, Waller, Stapleton, Massey are known to us ; the whole List, for benefit of historical readers, we sub- 1 Uiwhworth, vi. 5*4. Common* Journal*, v. 808. 270 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 26 July, join in a Note. 1 They demurred ; withdrew ; again returned ; in fine, had to "ask leave to retire for six months," on account of their health, we suppose. They retired swiftly in the end ; to France ; to deep concealment, to the Tower otherwise. The history of these six weeks, till they did retire and the Army had its way, we must request the reader to imagine for himself. Long able Papers, drawn by men of subtle brain and strong sincere heart : the Army retiring always to a safe distance when their Demands are agreed to ; straightway ad- vancing if otherwise, which rapidly produces an agreement. A most remarkable Negotiation ; conducted with a method, a gravity and decorous regularity beyond example in such cases. The " shops " of London were more than once " shut ; " tremor occupying all hearts : but no harm was done. The Parliament regularly paid the Army ; the Army lay coiled round London and the Parliament, now advancing, now reced- ing ; saying in the most respectful emblematic way, " Settle- ment with us and the Godly People, or ! " The King, still with the Army, and treated like a King, endeavored to play his game, " in meetings at Woburn " and elsewhere ; but the two Parties could not be brought to extirpate one another for his benefit. Towards the end of July, matters seemed as good as settled : the Holies " Declaration," that " blot of ignominy," being now expunged from the Journals ; a the Eleven being out ; and now at last, the New Militia Ordinance for London (Presbyterian Ordinance brought in by Holies on the 4th of May) being revoked, and matters in that quarter set on their old footing again. The two Parties in Parliament seem pretty equal in numbers ; the Presbyterian Party, shorn of its Eleven, is 1 Denzil Holies (Member for Dorchester), Sir Philip Stapleton (Borough- bridge), Sir William Waller (Andover), Sir William Lewis (Petersfield), Sir John Clotworthy (Maiden), Recorder Glynn (Westminster), Mr. Anthony Nichols (Bodmin) ; these Seven are old Members, from the beginning of the Parliament; the other Four are " recruiters," elected since 1645: Major- General Massey (Wootton-Basset), Colonel Walter Long (Ludgershall), Colo- nel Edward Harley (Herefordshire), Sir John Maynard (Lostwithiel). 2 Asterisks still in the place of it, Commons Journals, 29th March, 1647. 1647. ARMY MANIFESTO. 271 cowed down to the due pitch ; and there is now prospect of fair treatment for all the Godly Interest, and such a Settle- mpnt with his Majesty as may be the best for that. Towards the end of July, however, London City, torn by factions, but Presbyterian by the great majority, rallies again in a very extraordinary way. Take these glimpses from contempora- neous Whitlocke ; and rouse them from their fat somnolency a little. July 26th. Many young men and Apprentices of London came to the House in a most rude and tumultuous manner ; and presented some particular Desires. Desires, That the Eleven may come back; that the Presbyterian Militia Ordi- nance be not revoked, that the Revocation of it be revoked. Desire, in short, That there be no peace made with Sectaries, but that the London Militia may have a fair chance to fight them ! Drowsy Whitlocke continues ; almost as if he were in Paris in the eighteenth century : " The Apprentices, and many other rude boys and mean fellows among them, came into the House of Commons ; and kept the Door open and their hats on ; and called out as they stood, ' Vote, Vote ! ' rnul in this arrogant posture stood till the votes passed in that way, To repeal the Ordinance for change of the Militia, to " &c. " Tn the evening about seven o'clock, some of the Com- mon Council came down to the House : " but finding the Par- liiinit-nt and Speaker already had been forced, they, astute Common-Council men, ordered their Apprentices to go home again, the work they had set them upon being now finislu-d. 1 This disastrous scene fell out on Monday, 26th July, 1647 : the I! .-s. on the morrow morning, without farther sitting, ad journcd till Friday next. On Friday next, behold, the Two Speakers, "with tin- Mace," and many Members of both Houses, have withdrawn ; anl the Army, lately at 1 ''e very far greater, yet I see difficulties, and not that assurance of godliness, though indeed of fair- ness. I confess that which is told me concerning the estate of Mr. M. is more than I can look for, as things now stand. " If God please to bring it about, the consideration of piety in the I'an-nts, and such hopes of the Gentlewoman in that respect, make tin- business to me a great mercy ; concerning which I desire to wait ujxm God. 1 Noble, ii. 436-442. 292 PART TTT. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 25 Feb. "lam confident of thy love; and desire things may be carried with privacy. The Lord do His will : that 's best ; to which submitting, I rest, "Your humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l What other Father it was that made " the offer of a very great proposition " to Oliver, in the shape of his Daughter as Wife to Oliver's Son, must remain totally uncertain for the present ; perhaps some glimpse of it may turn up by and by. There were "difficulties" which Oliver did not entirely see through ; there was not that assurance of " godliness " in the house, though there was of " fairness " and natural integrity ; in short, Oliver will prefer Mayor, at least will try him, and wishes it carried with privacy. The Commons, now dealing with Delinquents, do not forget to reward good Servants, to "conciliate the Grandees," as splenetic Walker calls it. For above two years past, ever since the War ended, there has been talk and debate about settling 2,500 a year on Lieutenant-General Cromwell ; but difficulties have arisen. First they tried Basing-House Lauds, the Marquis of Winchester's, whom Cromwell had demolished ; but the Marquis's affairs were in disorder; it was gradually found the Marquis had for most part only a Life-rent there : only " Abbotston and Itchin " in that quarter could be realized. Order thereupon to settle " Lands of Papists and Delinquents " to the requisite amount, wheresoever convenient. To settle especially what Lands the Marquis of Worcester had in that "County of Southampton;" which was done, though still with insufficient result. 2 Then came the Army Quarrels, and 1 Harris, p. 501 . Copy of this, and of the next Two Letters to Norton, by Birch, in Ayscough MSS. 41G2, f. 56, &c. 2 Commons Journals (iv. 416), 23d January, 1645-6 : the Marquis of Worcester's Hampshire Lands. Ib. 426, a week afterwards : " Abberston and Itchc//," meaning Abbotston and Itchin, Marquis of Winchester's there. See also Letter of Oliver St. John to Cromwell, in Thurloe, i. 75. Commons Journals (v. 36) alnmt a year afterwards, 7th January, 1646-7 : " remainder of the 2,500" from Marquis of Winchester's Lands in general ; which in a fort- J648. LETTER LIII. LONDON. 293 an end of such business. But now in the Commons Journals, 7th March, the very day of Oliver's next Letter, this is what we read : * " An Ordinance for passing unto Oliver Cromwell, Esquire, Lieutenant-General, certain Lands and Manors in the Counties of Gloucester, Monmouth and Glamorgan, late the Earl of Worcester's, was this day read the third time and, upon the question, passed ; and ordered to be sent unto the Lords for their concurrence." Oliver himself, as we shall find, has been dangerously sick. This is what Clement Walker, the splenetic Presbyterian, " an elderly gentleman of low stature, in a gray suit, with a little stick in his hand," reports upon the matter of the Grant: "The 7th of March, an Ordinance to settle 2,500 a year of Land, out of the Marquis of Worcester's Estate," old Marquis of Worcester at Ragland, father of my Lord Gla- morgan, who in his turn became Marquis of Worcester and wrote the Century of Inventions, 2,500 a year out of this old Marquis's Estate "upon Lieutenant-General Cromwell! I have heard some gentlemen that know the Manor of Chepstow and the other Lands affirm" that in reality they are worth <>0 or even 6,000 a year; which is far from the fact, my little elderly friend ! " You see," continues he, " though they have not made King Charles 'a Glorious King,'" as they sometimes undertook, "they have -settled a Crown-Revenue upon Oliver, and have made him as glorious a King as ever John of Leyden was ! " * A very splenetic old gentleman in gray ; verging towards Pride's Purge, and lodgment in the Tower, T think ! He is from the West ; known long since in iloucester Siege; Member now for Wells; but terminates in the Tower, with ink, and abundant gall in it, to write the History of Independency there. more is found to be impomihle : whereupon " Lands of Delinquents and s," n# in the Text. None of these Iliiinpsliire Iiuds, except Abhot- Hton and IN hin, are named. Nuble says, " Fawley Park " iu the samo County ; which is potwible enough. 1 T. 482. * History of Independency (London, 1G48), part i. 83 and 55. 204 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 7 March, LETTER LIV. "For his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, General of the Par- liament's Armies [at Windsor] : These. " [LONDON,] 7th March, 1647. "SiR, It hath pleased God to raise me out of a dan- gerous sickness; and I do most willingly acknowledge that the Lord hath, in this visitation, exercised the bowels of a Father towards me. I received in myself the sentence of death, that I might learn to trust in Him that raiseth from the dead, and have no confidence in the flesh. It 's a blessed thing to die daily. For what is there in this world to be accounted of! The best men according to the flesh, and things, are lighter than vanity. I find this only good, To love the Lord and His poor despised people, to do for them, and to be ready to suffer with them : and he that is found worthy of this hath obtained great favor from the Lord ; and he that is established in this shall (being confirmed to Christ and the rest of the Body *) participate in the glory of a Resur- rection which will answer all. 2 " Sir, I must thankfully confess your favor in your last Let- ter. I see I am not forgotten ; and truly, to be kept in your remembrance is very grejat satisfaction to me ; for I can say in the simplicity of my heart, I put a high and true value upon your love, which when I forget, I shall cease to be a grateful and an honest man. " I most humbly beg my service may be presented to your Lady, to whom I wish all happiness, and establishment in the truth. Sir, my prayers are for you, as becomes your Excellency's " Most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. "[P.S.] Sir, Mr. Rushworth will write to you about the Quartering, and the Letter lately sent; and therefore I for- bear." 8 1 Christ's Body, his Church. 8 Turns now to the margin of the sheet, lengthwise. 8 SloaneMSS. 1519, fol. 79. lU8. FREE OFFER. -'J.3 FREE OFFER. FROM the Committee of the Lords and Commons sitting at Derby House, Sir John Evelyn reports a certain Offer from Lieutenant-General Cromwell; which is read in the words following : T To the Honorable the Committee of Lords and Commons for the Affairs of Ireland, sitting at Derbij House : The Offer of LieutenantrGeneral Cromwell for the Service of Ireland.] " 21 MA.RTII, 1647. "THE two Houses of Parliament having lately bestowed 1,080 per annum upon me and my heirs, out of the Earl of Worcester's Estate ; the necessity of affairs requiring assist- ance, I do hereby offer One Thousand Pounds annually to be paid out of the rents of the said lands ; that is to say, 500 out of the next Michaelmas rent, and so on, by the half year, for the space of five years, if the War in Ireland shall so long continue, or that I live so long : to be employed for the ser- vice of Ireland, as the Parliament shall please to appoint-, provided the said yearly rent of 1,680 become not to be suspended by war or other accident. " And whereas there is an arrear of Pay due unto me whilst I was Lieutenant-General unto the Earl of Manchester, of about 1,500, audited and stated; as also a great arrear due for about Two Years being Governor of the Isle of Ely : I do hereby discharge the State from all or any claim to be made by me thereunto. "OLIVES CROMWEXJU WI " Ordered, That the House doth accept the Free Offer of I.icutenant-General Cromwell, testifying his zeal and good affection." My splenetic little gentleman in gray, with the little stick in his hand, takes no notice of this; which modifies materially what the Chepstow Connoisseurs and their " five or six thousand a year " reported lately ! 1 Common* Journal*, T. 513. 296 PAKT III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 28 March, LETTER LV. HEBE is Norton and the Marriage again. Here are news out of Scotland that the Malignant Party, the Duke of Hamil- ton's Faction, are taking the lead there ; and about getting up an Army to attack us, and deliver the King from Sectaries : 1 Reverend Stephen Marshall reports the news. Let us read : " For my noble Friend Colonel Richard Norton : These. "FABNHAM, 28th March, 1648. " DEAR DICK, It had been a favor indeed to have met you here at Farnham. But I hear you are a man of great business ; therefore I say no more : if it be a favor to the House of Commons to enjoy you, what is it to me ! But, in good earnest, when will you and your Brother Russel be a little honest, and attend your charge there ? Surely some expect it ; especially the good fellows who chose you ! " I have met with Mr. Mayor ; we spent two or three hours together last night. I perceive the gentleman is very wise and honest} and indeed much to be valued. Some things of common fame 2 did a little stick : I gladly heard his doubts, and gave such answer as was next at hand, I believe, to some satisfaction. Nevertheless I exceedingly liked the gen- tleman's plainness and free dealing with me. I know God lias been above all ill reports, and will in His own time vindi- cate me ; I have no cause to complain. I see nothing but this particular business between him and me may go on. The Lord's will be done. " For news out of the North there is little ; only the Malig- nant Party is prevailing in the Parliament of Scotland. They are earnest for a war ; the Ministers 8 oppose as yet. Mr. Marshall is returned, who says so. And so do many of our Letters. Their great Committee of Danger have two Malig- nants for one right. It 's said they have voted an Army of 1 Rnshworth, vii. 1040, &c. 2 Against myself ; " favor for Sectaries," and so forth. 8 Clergy. 1C48. LETTER LVI. LONDON. 297 40,000 in Parliament; so say some of Yesterday's Letters. But I account my news ill bestowed, because upon an idle person. " I shall take speedy course in the business concerning my Tenants ; for which, thanks. My service to your Lady. I am really, " Your affectionate servant, " OLIVKK CROMWELL." * Had Cromwell come out to Farnham on military business ? Kent is in a ticklish state ; it broke out some weeks hence in open insurrection, 2 as did many other places, when once the " Scotch Army of 40,000 " became a certainty. 'The business concerning my Tenants" will indicate that in Hampshire, within ken of Norton, in Fawley Park, in Itchin, Abbotstou, or elsewhere, " my Tenants " are felling wood, cut- ting copses, or otherwise not behaving to perfection : but they sluill be looked to. For the rest, Norton really ought to attend his duties in Parliament ! In earnest " an idle fellow," as Oliver in sport calls him. Given to Presbyterian notions ; was purged out by Pride ; came back ; dwindled ultimately into Koyalism. " Brother Russel " means only, brother Member. He is the Frank Russel of the Letter on Marston Moor. Now Sir Francis; and sits for Cambridgeshire. A comrade of Nor- ton's ; seemingly now in his neighborhood, possibly on a visit to him. The attendance on the House in these months is extremely thin ; the divisions range from 200 to as low as 70. Nothing going on but Delinquents' fines, and abstruse negotiations with the Isle of Wight, languid Members prefer the country till some result arrive. LETTER LVI. HKRE is a new phasis of the Wedding-treaty; which, as seems, " doth now a little stick." Prudent Mr. Mayor insists 1 H:irriH, p. 502. * 24lh or 25th May, 1648 (Rush worth, rii. 1128). 298 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 3 April, on his advantages ; nor is the Lieutenant-General behindhand. What " lands " all these of Oliver's are, in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Hampshire, no Biographer now knows. Portions of the Parliamentary Grants above alluded to; perhaps "Pur- chases by Debentures," some of them. Soldiers could seldom get their Pay in money ; with their " Debentures," they had to purchase Forfeited Lands ; a somewhat uncertain invest- ment of an uncertain currency. The Mr. Robinson mentioned in this Letter is a pious Preacher at Southampton. 1 "My two little Wenches" are Mary and Frances : Mary aged now near twelve , Frances ten. 3 [For my noble Friend Colonel Richard Norton ; These.'] " [LONDON,] 3d April, 1648. " DEAR NORTON, I could not in my last give you a perfect account of what passed between me and Mr. Mayor; because we were to have a conclusion of our speed that morning after I wrote my Letter to you, 8 Which we had; and having had a full view of one another's minds, we parted with this : That both would consider with our relations, and according to satisfactions given there, acquaint one another with our minds. " I cannot tell better how to do, [in order] to give or receive satisfaction, than by you ; who, as I remember, in your last, said That, if things did stick between us, you would use your endeavor towards a close. " The things insisted upon were these, as I take it : Mr. Mayor desired 400 per annum of Inheritance, lying in Cambridge- shire and Norfolk, to be presently settled, 4 and to be for main- tenance ; wherein I desired to be advised by my Wife. I offered the Land in Hampshire for present maintenance ; which I dare say. with copses and ordinary fells, 5 will be communibus annis, 500 per annum: and besides fthis] 500 per annum in Tenants' hands holding but for one life ; and about 300 per annum, some for two lives, some for three lives. But as to 1 Harris, p. 504. 2 See antea, p. 70. 3 Letter LV. 4 on the Future Pair. 6 fellings. 1648. LETTER LVI. LONDON. 299 this, if the latter offer be not liked of, I shall be willing a farther conference be held in [regard to] the first. " In point of jointure I shall give satisfaction. And as to the settlement of lands given ine by the Parliament, satisfaction to be given in like manner, according as we discoursed. [And] in what else was demanded of me, I am willing, so far as I re- member any demand was, to give satisfaction. Only, I having been informed by Mr. Robinson that Mr. Mayor did, upon a former match, offer to settle the Manor wherein he lived, and to give 2,000 in money, I did insist upon that ; and do desire it may not be with difficulty. The money I shall need for my two little Wenches ; and thereby I shall free my Son from being charged with them. Mr. Mayor parts with nothing at present but that money ; except the board [of the young Pair] which I should not be unwilling to give them, to enjoy the comfort of their society ; which it 's reason he smart for, if he will rob me altogether of them. " Truly the land to be settled, both what the Parliament gives me, and my own, is very little less than 3,000 per annum, all things considered, if I be rightly informed. And a Lawyer of Lincoln's Inn, having searched all the Marquis of Worcester's writings, which were taken at Ragland and sent for by the Parliament, and this Gentleman appointed by the Committee to search the said writings, assures me there is no scruple concerning the title. And it so fell out that this Gentleman who searched was my own Lawyer, a very godly able man, and my dear friend ; which I reckon no small mercy. He is also possessed of the writings for me. 1 " I thought fit to give you this account ; desiring you to make such use of it as God shall direct you : and I doubt not 'at you will do the part of a friend between two friends. I account myself one ; and I have heard you say Mr. Mayor was entirely so to you. Wliat the good pleasure of God is, I shall wait ; there alone is rest Present my service to your Lady, to Mr. Mayor, &c. I rest, " Your affectionate servant, "OLIVKB CROMWTSLI. 1 hold* ihtwe liaglaud I>nuuente oo my behalf. 300 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 6 April, "[P.S.] I desire you to carry this business with all privacy. I beseech you to do so, as you love me. Let me entreat you not to lose a day herein, that I may know Mr. Mayor's mind ; for I think I may be at leisure for a week to attend this busi- ness, to give and take satisfaction ; from which perhaps I may be shut up afterwards by employment. 1 I know thou art an idle fellow : but prithee neglect me not now ; delay may be very inconvenient to me : I much rely upon you. Let me hear from you in two or three days. I confess the principal con- sideration as to me, is the absolute settlement [by Mr. Mayor] of the Manor where he lives ; which he would not do but con- ditionally, in case they have a son, and but 3,000 in case they have no son. But as to this, I hope farther reason may Work him to more." 2 Of " my two little Wenches," Mary, we may repeat, became Lady Fauconberg ; Frances was wedded to the Honorable Mr. Kich, then to Sir John Kussell. Elizabeth and Bridget are already Mrs. Claypole and Mrs. Ireton. Elizabeth, the younger, was first married. They were all married very young ; Eliza- beth, at her wedding, was little turned of sixteen. LETTER LVII. " For Colonel Robert Hammond. " [LONDON,] 6th April, 1648. " DEAR ROBIN, Your business is done in the House : your 10 by the week is made 20, 1,000 given you; and Order to Mr. Lisle to draw up an Ordinance for 500 per annum to be settled upon you and your heirs. This was done with smoothness ; your friends were not wanting to you. I know thy burden ; this is an addition to it : the Lord direct and sustain thee. "Intelligence came to the hands of a very considerable 1 Went to Wales in May 2 Harris, p. 502. 1648. LETTER LVII. LONDON. Person, That the King attempted to get out of his window ; and that he had a cord of silk with him whereby to slip down, but his breast was so big the bar would not give him passage. This was done in one of the dark nights about a fortnight ago. A Gentleman with you led him the way, and slipped down. The Guard, that night, had some quantity of wine with them. The same party assures that there is aquafortis gone down from London, to remove that obstacle which hindered; and that the same design is to be put in execution in the next dark nights. He saith that Captain Titus, and some others about the King are not to be trusted. He is a very consider- able Person of the Parliament who gave this intelligence, and desired it should be speeded to you. " The Gentleman that came out of the window was Master Firebrace ; the Gentlemen doubted are Cresset, Burrowes, and Titus ; the time when this attempt of escape was, the 20th of March. " Your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 1 Henry Firebrace is known to Birch, and his Narrative is known. " He became Clerk of the Kitchen to Charles IL" The old Books are full of King's Plots for escape, by aquafortis and otherwise. 8 His Majesty could make no agreement with th Parliament, and began now to smell War in the wind. His presence in this or the other locality might have been of clear advantage. But Hammond was too watchful. Titus, with or without his new horse, attends upon his Majesty ; James Harrington also (afterwards author of Oceana) ; and "the Honorable Thomas Herbert," who has left a pleasing Narra- oncerning that affair. These, though appointed by the Parliament, are all somewhat in favor with the King. Ham- mond's Uncle the Chaplain, as too favorable, was ordered out of the Island about Christinas last. 1 Birch, p. 41. The Original in cipher. Lilly's Life; Wood, $ Hammond; 4c. Ac. 302 PAKT ill. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WAKS. 18 April, LETTER LVIII. "THE Gentleman I mentioned to you," who is now travel- ling towards Dover with this hopeful Note in his pocket, must remain forever anonymous. Of Kenrick I have incidentally heard, at Worcester Fight or elsewhere ; but of " the Gentle- man " nowhere ever. A Shadow, sunk deep, with all his busi- ness, in the Land of Shadows ; yet still indisputably visible there : that is the miracle of him ! " To Colonel Kenrick [Lieutenant of Dover Castle : These']. " [LONDON,] 18th April, 1648. " SIB, This is the Gentleman I mentioned to you. I aia persuaded you may be confident of his fidelity to you in the things you will employ him in. " I conceive he is fit for any Civil employment ; having been bred towards the Law, and having besides very good parts. He hath been a Captain-Lieutenant : and therefore I hope you will put such a value on him, in [the] Civil way, as one that hath borne such a place shall be thought by you worthy of. Whereby you will much oblige, " Your affectionate servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. " [P.S.] I expect to hear from you about your defects in the Castle, that so you may be timely supplied." * " Defects in the Castle," and in all Castles, were good to be amended speedily, in such predicaments as we are now again on the eve of. PRAYEK-MEETINO. THE Scotch Army of Forty Thousand, " to deliver the King from Sectaries," is not a fable but a fact. Scotland is dis- 1 Gentleman's Magazine (1791), Lxi. 520; without comment or indication of an/ kind. 1648. PRAYER-MEETING. 303 tracted by dim disastrous factions, very uncertain what it will do with the King when he is delivered ; but in the mean while Hamilton has got a majority in the Scotch Parliament ; and drums are beating in that country : the " Army of Forty Thou- sand, certainly coming," hangs over England like a flaming comet, England itself being all very combustible too. In few weeks hence, discontented Wales, the Presbyterian Colonels 'I'-elaring now for Royalism, will be in a blaze; large sections of England, all England very ready to follow, will shortly after be in a blaze. The small Governing Party in England, during those early months of 1648, are in a position which might fill the bravest mind with misgivings. Elements of destruction everywhere under and around them ; their lot either to conquer, or igno- miniously to die. A King not to be bargained with ; kept in Carisbrook, the centre of all factious hopes, of world-wide in trigues : that is one element. A great Royalist Party, subdued with difficulty, and ready at all moments to rise again : that is another. A great Presbyterian Party, at the head of which is London City, " the Purse-bearer of the Cause," highly dissat- isfied at the course things had taken, and looking desperately round for new combinations and a new struggle : reckon that for a third element. Add lastly a headlong Mutineer, Repub- lican, or Levelling Party : and consider that there is a working House of Commons which counts about Seventy, divided in pretty equal halves too, the rest waiting what will come of it. Come of it, and of the Scotch Army advancing towards it ! Cromwell, it appears, deeply sensible of all this, does in weeks make strenuous repeated attempts towards at least a union among the friends of the Cause themselves, whose aim is one, whose peril is one. But to little effect. Ludlow, with visible satisfaction, reports how ill the Lieutenant-General sped, when he brought the Army Grandees and Parliament Grandees "to a Dinner" at his own house "in King Street," and urged a cordial agreement : they would not draw together at all. 1 Parliament would not agree with Army; hardly Par- liament with itself: as little, still less, would 1'arlianient and > LudJow. i 38. 304 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL AVARS. 1648 City agree. At a Common Council in the City, prior or pos terior to this Dinner, his success, as angry little Walker inti- mates, was the same. "Saturday, 8th April, 1648," having prepared the ground beforehand, Cromwell with another leader or two, attended a Common Council ; spake, as we may fancy, of the common dangers, of the gulfs now yawning on every side : " but the City," chuckles my little gentleman in gray, with a very shrill kind of laughter in the throat of him, " were now wiser than our First Parents ; and rejected the Serpent and his subtleties." l In fact, the City wishes well to Hamil ton and his Forty Thousand Scots ; the City has, for some time, needed regiments quartered in it, to keep down open Royalist- Presbyterian insurrection. It was precisely on the morrow after this visit of Cromwell's that there arose, from small cause, huge Apprentice-riot in the City : discomfiture of Train- bands, seizure of arms, seizure of City Gates, Ludgate, New- gate, loud wide cry of " God and King Charles ! " riot not to be appeased but by " desperate charge of cavalry," after it had lasted forty hours. 2 Such are the aspects of affairs, near and far. Before quitting Part Third, I will request the reader to undertake a small piece of very dull reading; in which how- ever, if he look till it become credible and intelligible to him, a strange thing, much elucidative of the heart of this matter, will disclose itself. At Windsor, one of these days, unknown now which, there is a Meeting of Army Leaders. Adjutant- General Allen, a most authentic earnest man, whom we shall know better afterwards, reports what they did. Entirely amaz- ing to us. These are the longest heads and the strongest hearts in" England; and this is the thing they are doing; this is tlu* way they, for their part, begin despatch of business. The reader, if he is an earnest man, may look at it with very many thoughts, for which there is no word at present. "In the year Forty-seven, you may remember," says Ad- jutant Allen, " we in the Army were engaged in actions of a 1 Hintory of Independency , part i. 85. * Rushworth, vii. 1051. PRAYER-MEETING. 305 very high nature ; leading us to very untrodden paths, both in our Contests with the then Parliament, as also Conferences with the King. In which great works, wanting a spirit of faith, and also the fear of the Lord, and also being unduly sur- prised with the fear of man, which always brings a snare, we, to make haste, as we thought, out of such perplexities, measur- ing our way by a wisdom of our own, fell into Treaties with the King and his Party : which proved such a snare to us, and l'd into such labyrinths by the end of that year, that the very things we thought to avoid, by the means we used of our own . devising, were all, with many more of a far worse and more perplexing nature, brought back upon us. To the overwhelm- ing of our spirits, weakening of our hands and hearts ; filling us with divisions, confusions, tumults, and every evil work ; and thereby endangering the ruin of that blessed Cause we had, with such success, been prospered in till that time. " For now the King and his Party, seeing us not answer their ends, began to provide for themselves, by a Treaty with the then Parliament, set on foot about the beginning of Forty- eight. The Parliament also was, at the same time, highly dis- pleased with us for what we had done, both as to the King and themselves. The good people likewise, even our most cordial friends in the Nation, beholding our turning aside from that path of simplicity we had formerly walked in and been blessed in, and thereby much endeared to their hearts, began now to fear, and withdraw their affections from us, in this politic path which we had stepped into, and walked in to our hurt, the year before. And as a farther fruit of the wages of our backsliding hearts, we were also filled with a spirit of great jealousy and divisions amongst ourselves ; having left that Wis- dom of the Word, which is first pure and then peaceable ; so that we were now fit for little but to tear and rend one another, and thereby prepare ourselves, and the work in our hands, to be ruined by our common enemies. Enemies that were ready to say, as many others of like spirit in this day do, 1 of the like 1 1659: Allen's Pamphlet u written as a Monition and Example to Fleet- wood and the others, now in a similar peril, but with no Oliver now among them. 306 PART ITT. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. iiua. sad occasions amongst us, ( Lo, this is the day we looked for.' The King and his Party prepare accordingly to ruin all ; by sudden Insurrections in most parts of the Nation : the Scot, concurring with the same designs, comes in with a potent Army under Duke Hamilton. We in the Army, in a low, weak, divided, perplexed condition in all respects, as aforesaid : some of us judging it a duty to lay down our arms, to quit our stations, and put ourselves into the capacities of private men, since what we had done, and what was yet in our hearts to do, tending, as we judged, to the good of these poor Nations, was not accepted by them. " Some also even encouraged themselves and us to such a thing, by urging for such a practice the example of our Lord Jesus ; who, when he had borne an eminent testimony to the pleasure of his Father in an active way, sealed it at last by his sufferings ; which was presented to us as our pattern for imitation. Others of us, however, were different-minded ; thinking something of another nature might yet be farther our duty ; and these therefore were, by joint advice, by a good hand of the Lord, led to this result ; viz. To go solemnly to search out our own iniquities, and humble our souls before the Lord in the sense of the same ; which, we were persuaded, had provoked the Lord against us, to bring such sad perplexi- ties upon us at that day. Out of- which we saw no way else to extricate ourselves. " Accordingly we did agree to meet at Windsor Castle about the beginning of Forty-eight. And there we spent one day together in prayer ; inquiring into the causes of that sad dis- pensation," let all men consider it ; " coming to no farther result that day ; but that it was still our duty to seek. And on the morrow we met again in the morning; where many spake from the Word, and prayed ; and the then Lieutenant- General Cromwell," unintelligible to Posterity, but extremely intelligible to himself, to these men, and to the Maker of him and of them, "did press very earnestly on all there present to a thorough consideration of our actions as an Army, and of our ways particularly as private Christians : to see if any in- iquity could be found in them ; and what it was, that if pos- 1C 18. PRAYER-MEETING. 807 sible we might find it out, and so remove the cause of such sad rebukes as were upon us (by reason of our iniquities, as we judged) at that time. And the way more particularly the Lord led us to herein was this : To look back and consider what time it was when with joint satisfaction we could last say to the best of our judgments, The presence of the Lord was amongst us, and rebukes and judgments were not as then upon us. Which time the Lord led us jointly to find out and agree in ; and having done so, to proceed, as we then judged it our duty, to search into all our public actions as an Army afterwards. Duly weighing (as the Lord helped us) each of tin-in, with their grounds, rules, and ends, as near as we could. And so we concluded this second day, with agreeing to meet again on the morrow. Which accordingly we did upon the same occasion, reassuming the consideration of our debates the day before, and reviewing our actions again. " By which means we were, by a gracious hand of the Lord, led to find out the veiy steps (as we were all then jointly convinced) by which we had departed from the Lord, and provoked Him to depart from us. Which we found to be those cursod carnal Conferences our own conceitod wisdom, our fears, and want of faith had prompted us, the year before, to entertain with the King and his Party. And at this time, and on this occasion, did the then Major Goffo (as I remeinbei was his title) make use of that good Word, Proverbs First and Twenty-third, Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will jxnir out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my ttvm/.s- unto you. Whi.-li, we having found out our sin, he urged as our duty from those words. And the Lord so accompanied by His Spirit, that it had a kindly effect, like a word of His, upon most of our hearts that were then present: which begot in us a great sense, a shame and loathing of ourselves for our iniquities, and a justifying of the Lord as righteous in His proceedings against us. " And in this path the Lord led us, not only to see our sin, but also our duty; and this so unanimously set with weight upon each heart, that none was able hardly to speak a won I to each other for bitter weeping," does the modern reader 308 PART III. BETWEEN THE CIVIL WARS. 1648. mark it ; this weeping, and who they are that weep ? Weep- ing "partly in the sense and shanie of our iniquities; of our unbelief, base fear of men, and carnal consultations (as the fruit thereof) with our own wisdoms, and not with the Word of the Lord, which only is a way of wisdom, strength and safety, and all besides it are ways of snares. And yet we were also helped, with fear and trembling, to rejoice in the Lord ; whose faithfulness and loving-kindness, we were made to see, yet failed us not ; who remembered us still, even in our low estate, because His mercy endures forever. Who no sooner brought us to His feet, acknowledging Him in that way of His (viz. searching for, being ashamed of, and willing to turn from, our iniquities), but He did direct our steps ; and presently we were led and helped to a clear agreement amongst ourselves, not any dissenting, That it was the duty of our day, with the forces we had, to go out and fight against those potent enemies, which that year in all places appeared against us." Courage ! " With an humble confidence, in the name of the Lord only, that we should destroy them. And we were also enabled then, after serious seeking His face, to come to a very clear and joint resolution, on many grounds at large there debated amongst us, That it was our duty, if ever the Lord brought us back again in peace, to call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for that blood he had shed, and mischief he had done to his utmost, against the Lord's Cause and People in these poor Nations." Mark that also ! " And how the Lord led and prospered us in all our under- takings that year, in this way ; cutting His work short, in righteousness ; making it a year of mercy, equal if not tran- scendent to any since these Wars began; and making it worthy of remembrance by every gracious soul, who was wise to observe the Lord, and the operations of His hands, I wish may never be forgotten." Let Fleetwood, if he have the same heart, go and do likewise. 1 1 A faithful Memorial of that remarkable Meeting of many Officers of the Army in England at Windsor Castle, in the year 1648, &c. &c. (in Sowers Tracts, vi. 499-501 ). 1648. PRAYER-MEETING. 309 Abysses, black chaotic whirlwinds : does the reader look upon it all as Madness ? Madness lies close by ; as Madness does to the Highest Wisdom, in man's life always : but this 13 not mad ! This dark element, it is the mother of the light- nings and the splendors ; it is very sane, this I PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 1648. LETTERS LIX. LXII. ABOUT the beginning of May, 1648, the general Presby- terian-Royalist discontent announces itself by tumults in Kent, tumults at Colchester, tumults and rumors of tumult far and near ; portending, on all sides, that a new Civil War is at hand. The Scotch Army of Forty Thousand is certainly voted ; certainly the King is still prisoner at Carisbrook ; factious men have yet made no bargain with him : certainly there will and should be a new War ? So reasons Presby- terian Royalism everywhere. Headlong discontented Wales in this matter took the lead. Wales has been full of confused discontent all Spring; this or the other confused Colonel Poyer, full of brandy and Pres- byterian texts of Scripture, refusing to disband till his arrears be better paid, or indeed till the King be better treated. To whom other confused Welsh Colonels, as Colonel Powel, Major-General Laughern, join themselves. There have been tumults at Cardiff, tumults here and also there ; open shooting and fighting. Drunken Colonel Poyer, a good while ago, in March last, seized Pembroke ; flatly refuses to obey the Par- liament's Order when Colonel Fleming presents the same. Poor Fleming, whom we saw some time ago soliciting promo- tion : l he here, attempting to defeat some insurrectionary party of this Poyer's [at a Pass] (name of the Pass not i Letter XXXVII. p. 240. 1648. LETTER LIX. PEMBROKE. 311 given), is himself defeated, forced into a Church, and killed. 1 Drunken Poyer, in Pembroke strong Castle, defies the Parlia- ment and the world : new Colonels, Parliamentary and Pres- byterian-Royalist, are hastening towards him, for and against. Wales, smoking with confused discontent all Spring, has now, by influence of the flaming Scotch comet or Army of Forty Thousand, burst into a general blaze. " The gentry are all for the King ; the common people understand nothing, and follow the gentry." Chepstow Castle too has been taken " by a strat- agem." The country is all up or rising : " the smiths have all fled, cutting their bellows before they went ; " impossible to get a horse shod, never saw such a country ! 8 On the whole, Cromwell will have to go. Cromwell, leave being asked of Fairfax, is on the 1st of May ordered to go ; marches on Wednesday, the 3d. Let him march swiftly! Horton, one of the Parliamentary Colonels, has already, while Cromwell is on march, somewhat tamed the Wdsh humor, by a good beating at St. Pagan's : St. Fagan's Fight, near Cardiff, on the 8th of May, where Laughern, hastening towards Poyer and Pembroke, is broken in pieces. Cromwell marches by Monmouth, by Chepstow (llth May) ; takes Chepstow Town ; attacks the Castle, Castle will not surrender, he leaves Colonel Ewer to do the Castle, who, after four weeks, does it. Cromwell, by Swansea and Carmarthen, ad- vances towards Pembroke; quelling disturbance, rallying force, as he goes; arrives at Pembroke in some ten days more; and, for want of artillery, is like to have a tedious siege of it. 8 LETTER LIX. HERB is his first Letter from before the place: a rugged rapid despatch, with some graphic touches in it, and rather Runhworth, vii. 1097. - Hml. 8 Abundant detail* lie scattered in Rushworth, vii. : Poyer and IVml>n>ko Caatli-. in March, p. 1033 ; Kluming killed (1st May), p. lo'.i: ; Cli. j-t.-w mirjirisetl ("beginning of May"), p. 1109, retaken (29tli M;iy), p. 1130; bl. Faguu'v Fight (Wth May), p. 1110; Cromwell's March, pp. 1121-1128. 312 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. HJune, more of hope than the issue realized. Guns of due quality are not to be had. In the beginning of June, 1 " Hugh Peters " went across to Milford Haven, and from the Lion, a Parlia- ment Ship riding there, got " two drakes, two demi-culverins, and two whole culverins," and safely conveyed them to the Leaguer ; with which new implements an instantaneous essay was made, and a " storming " thereupon followed, but without success. Of " the Prince," Prince Charles and his revolted ships, of the "victory in Kent" and what made it needful, we shall have to speak anon. [To the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the House of Commons : These.~\ "LEAGUER BEFORE PEMBROKE, 14th June, 1648. " SIB, All that you can expect from hence is a relation of the state of this Garrison of Pembroke. Which is briefly thus : "They begin to be in extreme want of provision, so as in all probability they cannot live a fortnight without being starved. But we hear that they mutinied about three days since ; cried out, ' Shall we be ruined for two or three men's pleasure ? Better it were we should throw them over the walls.' It 's certainly reported to us that within four or six days they'll cut Poyer's throat, and come all away to us. Poyer told them, Saturday last, that if relief did not come by Monday night, they should no more believe him, nay they should hang him. "We have not got our Guns and Ammunition from Wal- lingford as yet ; but, however, we have scraped up a few, which stand us in very good stead. Last night we got two little guns planted, which in twenty-four hours will take away their Mills; and then, as Poyer himself confesses, they are all undone. We made an attempt to storm him, about ten days since ; but our ladders were too short, and the breach so as men could not get over. We lost a few men; but I am confident the Enemy lost more. Captain Flower, of Colonel 1 Cromwelliana, p. 40. 164. liETTEH LX. PEMBROKE. 313 Dean's Regiment, WAS wounded; and Major Grigg's Lieu- tenant and Ensign elain; Captain Purges lies wounded, and very sick. I question not, but within a fortnight we shall have the Town ; [and] Foyer hath engaged himself to the Officers of the Town, Not to keep the Castle longer than the Town can hold out. Neither indeed can he ; for we can take away his water in two days, by beating down a staircase, which goes into a cellar where he hath a well. They allow the men half a pound of beef, and as much bread a day ; but it is almost spent. "We much rejoice at what the Lord hath done for you in Kent. Upon our thanksgiving * for that victory, which was both from Sea and Leaguer, Poyer told his men, that it was the Prince [Prince Charles and his revolted Ships], coming with relief. The other night they mutinied in the Town. Last night we fired divers houses ; which [fire] runs up the Town still : it much frights them. Confident I am, we shall have it in fourteen days, by starving. I am, Sir, " Your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." " Precisely in about " fourteen days " a new attempt was made,' not without some promising results, but again ineffec- tual. " The Guns are not come from Bristol, for want of wind ; " and against hunger and short scaling-ladders Poyer is stubborn. Three days after this Letter to Lenthall, some three weeks since the siege began, here is another, to Major Sauuders. LETTER LX. OF this Major, afterwards Colonel, Thomas Saundere, now lying at Brecknock, there need little be said beyond what the 1 By Cannon-volleys. ' Kuahworth, vii. 1159: read in the Houue, 20th Juue, 1648 (Common* Journal*, v. 608). * Uual. worth, vii. 1175. 314 PAKT IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 17 June, Letter itself says. Ho is " of Derbyshire," it seems ; sat after- wards as a King's- Judge, or at least was nominated to sit ; continued true to the Cause, in a dirn way, till the very Res- toration ; and withdrew then into total darkness. This Letter is endorsed in Saunders's own hand, " The Lord General's order for taking Sir Trevor Williams, and Mr. Morgan, Sheriff of Monmouthshire." Of which two Welsh individuals, except that Williams had been appointed Commander-in-chief of the Parliament's forces in Monmouthshire some time ago, and Morgan High Sheriff there, 1 both of whom had now re- volted, we know nothing, and need know nothing. The Letter has come under cover enclosing another Letter, of an official sort, to one " Mr. Rumsey " (a total stranger to me) ; and is superscribed For Yourself. [To Major Thomas Saunders, at Brecknock : These."] " [BEFORE PEMBROKE,] 17th June, 1648. " SIR, I send you this enclosed by itself, because it 's of greater moment. The other you may communicate to Mr. Rumsey as far as you think fit and I have written. I would not have him or other honest men be discouraged that I think it not fit, at present, to enter into contests ; it will be good to yield a little, for public advantage : and truly that is my end ; wherein I desire you to satisfy them. "I have sent, as my Letter mentions, to have you remove out of Brecknockshire ; indeed, into that part of Glamor- ganshire which lieth next Monmouthshire. For this end : We have plain discoveries that Sir Trevor Williams, of Llan- gibby, 2 about two miles from Usk, in the County of Mon- mouth, was very deep in the plot of betraying Chepstow Castle ; so that we are out of doubt of his guiltiness thereof. I do hereby authorize you to seize him; as also the High Sheriff of Monmouth, Mr. Morgan, who was in the same plot. "But, because Sir Trevor Williams is the more dangerous 1 10th January, 1645-6, Williams ; 17th November, 1647, Morgan : Com mons Journals, in diebus. 2 He writes " Laugevie , " " Muniuoutb " too. 1648. LETTER LX. PEMBROKE. 815 man by far, I would have you seize him first, and the other will easily be had. To the end you may not be frustrated and that you be not deceived, I think fit to give you some characters of the man, and some intimations how things stand. He is a man, as I am informed, full of craft and sub- tlety ; very bold and resolute ; hath a House at Llangibby well stored with arms, and very strong; his neighbors about him very Malignant, and much for him, who are apt to rescue him if apprehended, much more to discover anything which may prevent it. He is full of jealousy ; partly out of guilt, but much more because he doubts some that were in the business have discovered him, which indeed they have, and also because he knows that his Servant is brought hither, and a Minister to be examined here, who are able to discover the whole plot. " If you should march directly into that Country and near him, it's odds he either fortify his House, or give you the slip : so also, if you should go to his House, and not find him there ; or if you attempt to take him, and miss to effect it ; or if you make any known inquiry after him, it will be discovered. " Wherefore, [asj to the first, you have a fair pretence of going out of Brecknockshire to quarter about Newport and Caerleon, which is not above four or five miles from his House. You may send to Colonel Herbert, whose House lieth in Mon- niouth.shire ; who will certainly acquaint you where he is. You are also to send to Captain Nicholas, who is at Chepstow, |uire him to assist you, if he [Williams] should get into his House and stand upon his guard. Samuel Jones, who is Quartermaster to Colonel Herbert's troop, will be very assist- ing to you, if you send to him to meet you at your quarters; both by letting you know where he is, and also in all matters of intelligence. If there shall be need, Captain Burges's troop, now quartered in Glamorganshire, shall be directed to receive orders from you. " You perceive by all this that we are, it may be, a little t . K> much solicitous in this business ; * it's our fault ; and indeed Be Appendix. Null. 316 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 28 June, such a temper causeth us often to overact business. Where- fore, without more ado, we leave it to you ; and you to the guidance of God herein ; and rest, Yours, "OLIVER CROMWELL. "[P.S.] If you seize him, bring, and let him be brought with a strong guard, to me. If Captain Nicholas should light on him at Chepstow, do you strengthen him with a strong guard to bring him. If you seize his person, disarm his House ; but let not his arms be embezzled. If you need Captain Burges's troop, it quarters between Newport and Chepstow." l Saunders, by his manner of endorsing this Letter, seems to intimate that he took his two men ; that he keeps the Letter by way of voucher. Sir Trevor Williams by and by 2 com- pounds as a Delinquent, retires then into " Langevie House " in a diminished state, and disappears from History. Of Sheriff Morgan, except that a new Sheriff is soon appointed, we have no farther notice whatever. 8 LETTER LXI. SINGE Cromwell quitted London, there have arisen wide commotions in that central region too ; the hope of the Scotch Army and the certainty of this War in Wales excite all unruly things and persons. At Pembroke lately we heard the cannons fire, both from Leaguer and Ships, for a " victory in Kent : " concerning which and its origins and issues, take the following indications. May 16th, Came a celebrated " Surrey Petition : " high-flying armed cavalcade of Freeholders from Surrey, with a Petition craving in very high language that Peace be made with his Majesty : they quarrelled with the Parliament's Guard in 1 Harris, p. 495 ; and Forster, iv. 239. 2 Commons Journals. Note to Colonel Hughes, 26th June, 1648, in Appendix, No. 11. 1*4* LETTER LXI. PEMBROKE. 317 Westminster Hall, drew swords, had swords drawn upon them ; " the Miller of Wandsworth was run through with a halbert," he and others ; and the Petitioners went home in a slashed and highly indignant condition. Thereupon, May 2th, armed meeting of Kentish-men on Blackheath ; armed meeting of Essex-men ; several armed meetings, all in communication with the City Presbyterians : Fairfax, ill of the gout, has to mount, in extremity of haste, as a man that will quench fire among smoking flax. June 1st. Fairfax, at his utmost speed, smites fiercely against the centre of this Insurrection ; drives it from post to post; drives it into Maidstone "about 7 in the evening," " with as hard fighting as I ever saw ; " tramples it out there. The centre-flame once trampled out, the other flames, or armed meetings, hover hither and thither ; gather at length, in few days, all at Colchester in Essex ; where Fairfax is now be- sieging them, with a very obstinate and fierce resistance from them. This is the victory in Kent, these are the "glorious successes God has vouchsafed you," which Oliver alludes to in this Letter. We are only to notice farther that Lambert is in the North ; waiting, in very inadequate strength, to see the Scots arrive. Oliver in this Letter signifies that he has reinforced him with some " horse and dragoons," sent by " West Chester," which we now call Chester, where " Colonel Dukinfield " is Governor. The Scots are indubitably coming : Sir Marmaduke Langdale (whom Oliver, we may remark, encountered in the King's left wing at Naseby Flrjht) has raised new Yorkshiremen, has seized Berwick, seized Carlisle, and joined the Scots ; it is be- coming an openly Royalist affair. In Lancashire a certain Sir Kirhard Tempest, very forward in his Royalism, goes suddenly bla/ing abroad "with 1,000 horse and many knights and gen- tlMnen," threatening huge peril ; but is, in those very hours, iijeously set upon by Colonel Robert Lilburn with what little ('.(impact force there is, and at once extinguished: an acceptable service on the part of Colonel Robert ; for which let him luivi- thanks from Parliament, and reward of 1,000.* i , j.j.. 3PJ, :n:; , L'ommvns Journal*, (5th July, 1648), v. 624 ; *c 318 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 28 June, Very desirable, of course, that Oliver had done with Pem- broke, and were fairly joined with Lambert. But Pembroke is strong ; Poyer is stubborn, hopes to surrender " on condi- tions ; " Oliver, equally stubborn, though sadly short of artil- lery and means, will have him " at mercy of the Parliament," so signal a rebel as him. Fairfax's Father, the Lord Ferdi- nando, died in March last ; * so that the General's title is now changed : " To his Excellency the Lord Fairfax, General of the Parlia- ment's Army : These. "BEFORE PEMBROKE, 28th June, 1648. " SIR, I have some few days since despatched horse and dragoons for the North. I sent them by the way of West Chester ; thinking it fit to do so in regard of this enclosed Letter which I received from Colonel Dukinfield ; requiring them to give him assistance in the way. And if it should prove that a present help would not serve the turn, then I ordered Captain Pennyfeather's troop to remain with the Governor [Dukinfield] ; and the rest immediately to march towards Leeds, and to send to the Committee of York, or to him that commands the forces in those parts, for direc- tions whither they should come, and how they shall be dis- posed of. " The number I sent are six troops : four of horse, and two of dragoons ; whereof three are Colonel Scroop's, and Cap- tain Pennyfeather's troop, and the other two dragoons. I could not, by the judgment of the Colonels here, spare more, nor send them sooner, without manifest hazard to these parts. Here is, as I have formerly acquainted your Excellency, a very desperate Enemy ; who, being put out of all hope of mercy, are resolved to endure to the uttermost extremity; being very many [of them] gentlemen of quality, and men thoroughly re- solved. They have made some notable sallies upon Lieutenant- Colonel Reade's quarter, 2 to his loss. We are forced to keep 1 13th March, 1647-8 (Rushworth, vii. 1030). J Reade had been intrusted with the Siege of Tenby : that had ended June 3d (Commons Journals, v. 588) ; and Reade is now assisting at Pembroke. IMS. LETTER LXT. PEMBROKE. 319 divers posts, or else they would have relief, or their horse break away. Our foot about them are four-and-twenty hun- dred; we always necessitated to have some in garrisons. "The Country, since we sat down before this place, have made two or three insurrections ; and are ready to do it every day : so that, what with looking to them, and disposing our horse to that end, and to get us in provisions, without which we should starve, this country being so miserably exhausted and so poor, and we no money to buy victuals, indeed, what- ever may be thought, it 's a mercy we have been able to keep our men together in the midst of such necessity, the suste- nance of the foot for most part being but bread and water. Our guns, through the unhappy accident at Berkley, not yet come to us ; and indeed it was a very unhappy thing they were brought thither ; the wind having been always so cross, that since they were recovered from sinking, they could not [come to us] ; and this place not being to be had without fit instruments for battering, except by starving. 1 And truly I believe the Enemy's straits do increase upon them very fast, and that within a few days an end will be put to this business ; which surely might have been before, if we had received things wherewith to have done it. But it will be done in the best time.* " I rejoice much to hear of the blessing of God upon your Excellency's endeavors. I pray God that this Nation, and those that are over us, and your Excellency and all we that are under you, [may discern] what the mind of God may be in all this, and what our duty is. Surely it is not that the poor Godly People of this Kingdom should still be made the object of wrath and anger; nor that our God would have our necks under a yoke of bondage. For these things that have l:iti-ly como to pass have boon the wonderful works of God; breaking the rod of the oppressor, as in the day of Midian, not with garments much rolled in blood, but by the terror of 1 " Without either fit inotrumont* for battering except by starving." Great haute, and c..n-.i.l.T.il.lo Htnmbling in tho grammar of this last sentence! Aft. r " jitarving," a men- comma; and toon. * God'* time is the best. 820 PART IV. SECOND CIVIJ- WAR. 28 June, the Lord; who will yet save His people and confound His enemies, as on that day. The Lord multiply His (Trace upon you, and bless you, and keep your heart upright ; and then, though you be not conformable to the men of this world noff to their wisdom, yet you shall be precious in the eyes of God, and He will be to you a horn and a shield. " My Lord, I do not know that I have had a Letter fron any of your Army, of the glorious successes God has vouch safed you. I pray pardon the complaint made. I long to [be] with you. I take leave ; and rest, my Lord, " Your most humble and faithful servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. " [P.S.] Sir, I desire you that Colonel Lehunt may have a Commission to command a Troop of Horse, the greatest part whereof came from the Enemy to us ; and that you would be pleased to send blank Commissions for his inferior officers, with what speed may be." l In Rushworth, under date March 24th, is announced that " Sir W. Constable has taken care to send ordnance and am- munition from Gloucester, for the service before Pembroke." ? " The unhappy accident at Berkley," I believe, is the stranding of the " Frigate," or Shallop, that carried them. Guns are not to be had of due quality for battering Pembroke. In the mean time, several bodies of " horse " are mentioned as deserting, or taking quarter and service on the Parliament side. 3 It is over these that Lehunt is to be appointed Colonel ; and to Fairfax as General-in-chief "of all the Parliament's 'Forces raised or to be raised," it belongs to give him and his subordinates the due commissions. July 5th. Young Villiers Duke of Buckingham, son of the assassinated Duke ; he with his Brother Francis, with the Earl of Holland, and others who will pay dear for it, started up about Kingston-on-Thames with another open Insurrectionary Armament ; guided chiefly by Dutch Dalbier, once Cromwell's 1 Sloane MSS. 1519, f. 90. a vii. 1036. 8 Rushworth, Cromwelliana. 1048. LETTER LXI. PEMBROKE. 821 instructor, but now gone over to the other side. Fairfax and the Army being all about Colchester in busy Siege, there seemed a good opportunity here. They rode towards Reigate, these Kingston Insurgents, several hundreds strong : but a Parliament Party '' under Major Gibbons " drives them back ; tbllowing close, comes to action with them between " Nonsuch Park and Kingston," where the poor Lord Francis, Brother of the Duke, fell mortally wounded; drives them across the river " into Hertfordshire ; " into the lion's jaws. For Fairfax sent a Party out from Colchester ; overtook them at St. Neot's j and captured, killed, or entirely dissipated them. 1 Dutch Dalbier was hacked in pieces, " so angry were the soldiers at him." The Earl of Holland stood his trial afterwards ; and lost his head. The Duke of Buckingham got off; might almost as well have died with poor Brother Francis here, for an} r good he afterwards did. Two pretty youths, as their Van- dyke Portraits in Hampton Court still testify ; one of whom lived to become much uglier! July 8th. Duke Hamilton, with the actual Scotch Army, is " at Annan " on the Western Border, ready to step across to England. Not quite forty thousand ; yet really about half that number, tolerably effective. Langdale, with a vanguard of three thousand Yorkshire men, is to be guide ; Monro, with a body of horse that had long served in Ulster, is to bring up the rear. The great Duke dates from Annan, 8th July, 1648.' Poor old Annan ; never saw such an Army gathered, since the Scotch James went to wreck in Solway Moss, above a hundred years ago! 8 Scotland is in a disastrous, distracted condition ; overridden by a Hamilton majority in Parliament. Poor Scotland will, with exertion, deliver its " King from the power of Sectaries ; " and is dreadfully uncertain what it will do witli him when delivered ! Perhaps Oliver will save it the trouU*-. July 11th. Oliver at last is loose from Pembroke; as the following brief Letter will witness. Rnnhworth. vii. 1178. 1182. * Ibid. Til. 1184. .him.* V. A i. 1542. vot xvn 21 322 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. LETTER LXII. " To the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the House of Commons : These. "[PEMBROKE,] llth July, 1648 "SiR, The Town and Castle of Pembroke were surren- dered to me this day, being the Eleventh of July ; upon the Propositions which I send you here enclosed. 1 What Arms, Ammunition, Victual, Ordnance or other Necessaries of War are in [the], Town I have not to certify you, the Commis- sioners I sent in to receive the same not being yet returned, nor like suddenly to be ; and I was unwilling to defer the giving you an account of this mercy for a day. " The Persons Excepted are such as have formerly served you in a very good Cause ; but, being now apostatized, I did rather make election of them than of those who had always been for the King ; judging their iniquity double ; because they have sinned against so much light, and against so many evidences of Divine Providence going along with and prosper- ing a just Cause, in the management of which they themselves had a share. I rest, "Your humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL.'"* Drunken Colonel Poyer, Major-General Laughern and cer- tain others, " persons excepted," have had to surrender at mercy ; a great many more on terms : Pembroke happily is down ; and the Welsh War is ended. 8 Cromwell hurries northward : by Gloucester, Warwick ; gets " 3,000 pairs of shoes " at Leicester ; leaves his prisoners at Nottingham (with Mrs. Hutchinson and her Colonel, in the Castle there) ; joins 1 Given in Knshworth, vii. 1190. 2 Copy in Tanner MSS. Ixii. 159 : printed correctly in Grey on the Third Volume of Neal's Puritans (Appendix, p. 129), from another source. 8 Order, " 12th July, 1648" (the day after Pembroke), for demolishing the Castle of Haverfordweet : in Appendix, No. 11. 1048. LETTERS LXTIT.-LXVI. PRESTON BATTLE. 323 Lambert among the hills of Yorkshire, 1 where his presence is much needed now. July 21th. In these tumultuous months the Fleet too, as we heard at Pembroke once, 3 has partially revolted ; " set Colonel Admiral Rainsborough ashore," in the end of May last. The Earl of Warwick, hastily sent thither, has brought part of it to order again ; other part of it has fled to Holland, to the Young Prince of Wales. The Young Prince goes hopefully on board, steers for the coast of England ; emits his summons and manifesto from Yarmouth roads, on the 27th of this month. Getting nothing at Yarmouth, he appears next week in the Downs ; orders London to join him, or at least to lend him 20,000. s It all depends on Hamilton and Cromwell now. His Maj- esty from Carisbrook Castle, the revolted Mariners, the Lon- don Presbyterians, the Besieged in Colchester, and all men, are waiting anxiously what they Two now will make of it when they meet. LETTERS LXni.-LXVL PRESTON BATTLE. THK Battle of Preston or Battle-and-Rout of Preston lasts three days ; and extends over many miles of wet Lancashire country, from " Langridge Chapel a little on the east of toil," southward to Warrington Bridge, and northward also as far as you like to follow. A wide-spread, most con- fused transaction; the essence of which is, That Cromwell, uding the valley of the Ribble, with a much smaller but prompt and compact force, finds Hamilton flowing southward at Preston in very loose order; dashes in upon him, cuts him 1 At Barnanl Pastlo. on the 27th Jnly, " his horse " joined (Rnshworth, TU. 121 1 ) ; he himself uut till a fortnight after, at Wetherby farther south. J Autoa, p. 313. Rnliw,,rth, vii. ; 29th May, p. 1131 ; 8th Jane, llth June, pp. 1145, 1151 ; 27th July, pp. 1207, 1215, &C. 324 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. August, in two, drives him north and south, into as miserable ruiii as his worst enemy could wish. 1 There are four accounts of this Affair by eye-witnesses, still accessible : Cromwell's account in these Two Letters ; a Captain Hodgson's rough brief recollections written afterwards; and on the other side, Sir Marmaduke Langdale's Letter in vindi- cation of his conduct there ; and lastly the deliberate Narra- tive of Sir James Turner (" alias Dugald Dalgetty," say some). As the Affair was so momentous, one of the most critical in all these Wars, and as the details of it are still so accessible, we will illustrate Cromwell's own account by some excerpts from the others. Combining all which, and considering well, some image of this rude old tragedy and triumph may rise upon the reader. Captain Hodgson, an honest-hearted, pudding-headed York- shire Puritan, now with Lambert in the Hill Country, hover- ing on the left flank of Hamilton and his Scots, saw Cromwell's face at Bipon, much .to the Captain's satisfaction. " The Scots," says he, " marched towards Kendal ; we towards Kipon, where Oliver met us with horse and foot. We were then between eight and nine thousand : a fine smart Army, fit for action. We marched up to Skipton ; the Forlorn of the Enemy's horse," Sir Marmaduke's, " was come to Gargrave ; having made havoc of the country, it seems, intending never to come there again." " Stout Henry Cromwell," he gave them a check at Gargrave ; * and better still is coming. Here, however, let us introduce Sir James Turner, a stout pedant and soldier-of-fortune, original Dugald Dalgetty of the Novels, who is now marching with the Scots, and happily has a turn for taking Notes. The reader will then have a certain ubiquity, and approach Preston on both sides. Of the Scotch Officers, we may remark, Middleton and the Earl of Calendar have already fought in England for the Parliament : Baillie, once beaten by Montrose, has been in many wars, foreign and 1 Hodgson's Memoirs (with Slingsby's Memoirs, Edinburgh, 1808; a dull authentic. Book, left full of blunders, of darkness natural and adscititious, b)- the Editor), pp. 114, 115. 1648. LETTERS LXIII.-LXVI. PRESTON BATTLE. 325 domestic ; he is left-hand cousin to the Reverend Mr. Robert, who heard the Apprentices in Palace-yard bellowing " Justice on Strafford ! " long since, in a loud and hideous manner. Neither of the Lesleys is here, on this occasion ; they abide at home with the oppressed minority. The Duke, it will be seen, marches in extremely loose order ; vanguard and rear- guard very far apart, and a Cromwell attending him ou Hank ! " At Hornby," says the learned Sir James alias Dugald, " a day's march beyond Kendal, it was advised, Whether we should march to Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Western Counties ; or if we should go into Yorkshire, and so put ourselves in the straight road to London, with a resolution to fight all who would oppose us ? Calendar was indifferent ; Middleton was for Yorkshire ; Baillie for Lancashire. When my opinion was asked, I was for Yorkshire ; and for this reason only, That I understood Lancashire was a close country, full of ditches and In-d^es ; which was a great advantage the English would have over our raw and undisciplined musketeers ; the Parliament's army consisting of disciplined and well-trained soldiers, and excellent firemen ; while on the other hand, Yorkshire was a more open country and full of heaths, where we might both make use of our horse, and come sooner to push of pike " with our foot " My Lord Duke was for Lancashire way ; and it seems he had hopes that some forces would join with him in his march that way. I have indeed heard him say, that he thought Manchester his own if he came near it. Whatever the matter was, I never saw him tenacious in anything during the time of his command but in that. We chose to go that way, which led us to our ruin. "Our march was much retarded by most rainy and tempes- tuous weather, tin- elements fighting against us ; and by staying for country horses to carry our little ammunition. The van- guard is constantly given to Sir Marmaduke, upon condition that he should constantly furnish guides; pioneers for clearing the ways; and, which was more than both these, have good ;unl certain intelligence of all the Enemy's motions. But u li.-tl.i-r it was by our fault or his neglect, want of intelligence 326 PART IV. SECOND CTVTL WAR. August, helped to ruin us ; for," in fact we were marching in ex- tremely loose order ; left hand not aware what the right was doing ; van and rear some twenty or thirty miles apart ; far too loose for men that had a Cromwell on their flank ! On the night of Wednesday, 16th August, 1648, my Lord Duke has got to Preston with the main body of his foot; his horse lying very wide, ahead of him at Wigan, arear of him, one knows not where, he himself hardly knows where Sir Marmaduke guards him on the left, "on Preston Moor, about Langridge Chapel," some four miles up the Kibble, and knows not, in the least, what storm is coming. For Cromwell, this same night, has got across the hills to Clitheroe and farther; this same Wednesday night he lies "at Stony- hurst," where now the College of Stony hurst is, "a Papist's house, one Sherburn's ; " and to-morrow morning there will be news of Cromwell. "That night," says Hodgson, "we pitched our camp at Stan- yares Hall, a Papist's house, one Sherburn's ; and the next morning a Forlorn of horse and foot was drawn out. And at Langridge Chapel our horse " came upon Sir Marmaduke ; "drawn up very formidably. One Major Poundall [Pownel, you pudding-head !] and myself commanded the Forlorn of foot. And here being drawn up by the Moorside (a mere scantling of us, as yet, not half the number we should have been), the General" Cromwell "comes to us, orders us To march. We not having half of our men come up, desired a little patience ; he gives out the word, ' March ! ' " not having any patience, he, at this moment ! And so the Battle of Pres- ton, the first day of it, is begun. Here is the General's own Report of the business at night. Poor Langdale did not know at first, and poor Hamilton did not know all day, that it was Cromwell who was now upon them. 1 Sir Marmaduke com- plains bitterly that he was not supported ; that they did not even send him powder, marched away the body of their force as if this matter had been nothing ; " merely some flying party, Ashton and the Lancashire Presbyterians." Cromwell writes in haste, late at night. 1 Sir Marmaduke's Letter. 164*. LETTER LXIII. PRESTON BATTLE. 327 LETTER LXIII. " For the Honorable Committee of Lancashire sitting at Manchester. ( u / desire the Commander of the Forces there to open this Let- ter, if U come not to their hands.) "[PRESTON,] I7th August, 1648. "GENTLEMEN, It hath pleased God, this day, to show His great power by making the Army successful against the com- mon Enemy. " We lay last night at Mr. Sherburn's of Stonyhurst, nine miles from Preston, which was within three miles of the Scots quarters. We advanced betimes next morning towards Pres- ton, with a desire to engage the Enemy ; and by that time our Forlorn had engaged the Enemy, we were about four miles from Preston, and thereupon we advanced with the whole Army : and the Enemy being drawn. out on a Moor betwixt us and the Town, the Armies on both sides engaged ; and after a very sharp dispute, continuing for three or four hours, it |ilr,isrcl God to enable us to give them a defeat; which I huj? we shall improve, by God's assistance, to their utter ruin : and in this service your countrymen have not the least 1 share. u We cannot be particular, having not time to take account of the slain and prisoners ; but we can assure you we have in.iiiy prisoners, and many of those of quality; and many slain; and the Army so dissipated [as I say]. Tin- principal part whereof, with Duke Hamilton, is on south side Kibble and J);ir\vcii Bridge, and we lying with the greatest part of the Army close to them ; nothing hindering the ruin of that part of the Enemy's Army but tho night. It shall be our care that they shall not pass over any ford beneath the Bridge,* to go Northward, or to come betwixt us and Whalley. "We understand Colonel-General Ashton's are at Whalley; 1 meant) " tin- n<>r 1< * There U buch a ford, ri'lablu if lido aud rain permit 328 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 17 Aug. we have seven troops of horse or dragoons that we believe lie at Clitheroe. This uight I have sent order to them expressly to march to Whalley, to join to those companies ; that so we may endeavor the ruin of this Enemy. You perceive by this Letter how things stand. By this means the Enemy is broken : and most of their horse having gone Northwards, and we hav- ing sent a considerable party at the very heel of them ; and the Enemy having lost almost all his ammunition, and near four thousand arms, so that the greatest part of the Foot are naked ; therefore, in order to perfecting this work, we de- sire you to raise your County ; and to improve your forces to the total ruin of that Enemy, which way soever they go ; and if 1 you shall accordingly do your part, doubt not of their total ruin. " We thought fit to speed this to you ; to the end you may not be troubled if they shall march towards you, but improve your interest as aforesaid, that you may give glory to God for this unspeakable mercy. This is all at present from, " Your very humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* Commons Journals, Monday, 21 Augusti, 1648 : " The Copy of a Letter from Lieutenant-General Cromwell, from Preston, of 17 Augusti, 1648, to the Committee of Lancashire sitting at Manchester, enclosed in a Letter from a Member of this House from Manchester, of 19 Augusti, 1648, were this day read. Ordered, That it be referred to the Committee at Derby House to send away a copy of Lieutenant-General Cromwell's Letter to the General " Fairfax, " and to the Lord Admiral " Warwick, to encourage them in their part of the work. The enclosing " Letter from the Member of this House at Manches- 1 " that " in the Original. The punctuation and grammar of these sen- tences might have been improved ; but their breathless impetuosity, direct- ness, sincere singleness of purpose, intent on the despatch of business only, would have been obscured in the process. 2 Lancashire during the Civil War (a Collection of Tracts republished by the Chetham Society, Manchester, 1844), p. 257. The letter is in many old Pamphlets of the time. Langdale's Letter is also given in this Chetham Book, p. 267. IMS. LETTER LXIV. PRESTON BATTLE. 329 ter," short and insignificant, about " dispensations," " provi- dences," &c. is also given in the old Pamphlets, and in this Chetham Book now before us. He signs himself " W. L. ; " probably William Langton, the new Member for Preston. LETTER LXIV. CROMWELL, on this Thursday Night, does not yet know all the havoc he has made. Listen to stout Sir James from the other side ; and pity poor men embarked in a hollow Cause, with a Duke of Hamilton for General. " Beside Preston in Lancashire," says the stout Knight, " Cromwell falls on Sir Marmaduke's flank. The English " of Sir Marmaduke "imagined it was one Colonel Ashton, a powerful Presbyterian, who had got together 3,000 men to oppose us, because we came out of Scotland without the Gen- eral Assembly's permission. Mark the quarrel. While Sir Marmaduke disputes the matter, Baillie, by the Duke's order, marches to Ribble Bridge, and passes it with all the foot ex- cept two brigades." Never dreaming that Cromwell is upon us ! " This was two miles from Preston. By my Lord Duke's command, I had sent some ammunition and commanded-men to Sir Marmaduke's assistance : but to no purpose ; for Crom- well prevailed; so that our English first retired, and then fled. It must be remembered that, the night before this sad encounter, Earl Calendar and Middleton were gone to Wigan, eight miles from thence, with a considerable part of the cav- alry. Calendar was come back, and was with the Duke," while the action took place ; " and so was I : but upon the rout of Sir Marmaduke's people, Calendar got away to Rib- ble, where he arrived safely by a miracle, as I think ; for the Enemy was between the Bridge and us, and had killed or taken most part of our two brigades of foot," which was all that Baillie had left here. The Duke with his guard of horse, Sir Marmaduke with many officers, among others myself, got into Preston Town ; 330 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAK. August, with intention to pass a ford below it, though at that lime not ridable. At the entry of the Town, the enemy pursued us hard. The Duke faced about, and put two troops of them to a retreat ; but so soon as we turned from them, they again turned upon us. The Duke facing the second time, charged them, which succeeded well. Being pursued the third time, my Lord Duke cried To charge once more for King Charles ! One trooper refusing, he beat him with his sword. At that charge we put the enemy so far behind us, that he could not so soon overtake us again. Then Sir Marmaduke and I en- treated the Duke to hasten to his Army : and truly here he showed as much personal valor as any man could be capable of. We swam the Kibble River : and so got to the place where Lieutenant-General Baillie had advantageously lodged the foot, on the top of a Hill, among very fencible enclo- sures. " After Calendar came to the infantry, he had sent 600 mus- keteers to defend Ribble Bridge. Very unadvisedly ; for the way Cromwell had to it was a descent from a hill that com- manded all the champaign ; which was about an English quarter of a mile in length between the Bridge and that Hill where our foot were lodged. So that our musketeers, having no shelter, were forced to receive all the musket-shot of Cromwell's infantry, which was secure within thick hedges ; and after the loss of many men, were forced to run back to our foot. Here Claud Hamilton, the Duke 's Lieutenant- Colonel, had his arm broke with a musket-bullet. " The Bridge of Eibble being lost, the Duke called all the Colonels together on horseback to advise what was next to be done. We had no choice but one of two : Either stay, and maintain our ground till Middleton (who was sent for) came back with his cavalry ; Or else march away that night, and find him out. Calendar would needs speak first ; whereas by the custom of war he should have told his opinion last, and it was, To inarch away that night so soon as it was dark. This was seconded by all the rest, except by Lieut.-General Baillie and myself. But all the arguments we used, as, the impossibility of a safe retreat from an enemy so powerful of 1648. LETTER LX1V. PREsiUN BATTLE. 331 lior.se ; in so very foul weather, and extremely deep ways ; our soldiers exceedingly wet, weary and hungry ; the inevitable loss of all our ammunition, could not move my Lord Duke by his authority to contradict the shameful resolution taken by the major part of his officers. "After that drumless march was resolved upon, and but few horse appointed to stay in rear of the foot, I inquired, What should become of our unfortunate Ammunition, since forward with us we could not get it ? It was not thought fit to blow it up that night, lest thereby the Enemy should know of our retreat, or rather flight. I was of that opinion too ; but for another reason : for we could not have blown it up then with- out a visible mischief to ourselves, being so near it. It was ordered it should be done, three hours after our departure, by a train : but that being neglected, Cromwell got it all. " Next morning we appeared at Wigan Moor ; half our num- ber less than we were ; most of the faint and weary soldiers having lagged behind ; whom we never saw again. Lieutenant- General Middleton had missed us," such excellent order was in this Army ; " for he came by another way to Kibble Bridge. It was to be wished he had still stayed with us ! He, not finding us there, followed our track : but was himself hotly pursued by Cromwell's horse ; with whom he skirmished the whole way till he came within a mile of us. He lost some men, and several were hurt, among others Colonel Urrey l got a danger- ous shot on the left side of his head; whereof, though he was afterwards taken prisoner, he recovered. In this retreat of Middleton's, which he managed well, Cromwell lost one of the gallantest officers he had, Major Thoruhaugh; who was run into the l>iv:u-.t with a lance, whereof he died. After Lieutenant-General Middleton's coining, we began to think of fighting in that Moor : but that was found impossible, in regard it was nothing large, and was environed with en- closures which commanded it, and these wo could not maintain long, for want of that ammunition we had left Ixjhind us. An. I therefore we marched forward with intention to gain Warrington, ten miles from the Moor we were in; and there 1 Sir Juiui Hurry, th famous Turncoat, of whom afterwards. 332 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. Augmt, we conceived we might faee about, having the command of a Town, a River, and a Bridge. Yet I conceive there were but few of us could have foreseen we might be beaten before we were masters of any of them. " It was towards evening and in the latter end of August," Friday, 18th of the month, " when our horse began to march. Some regiments of them were left with the rear of the foot : Middleton stayed with these; my Lord Duke and Calendar were before. As I marched with the last brigade of foot through the Town of Wigan, I was alarmed, That our horse behind me were beaten, and running several ways, and that the enemy was in my rear. I faced about with that brigade ; and in the Market-place serried the pikes together, shoulder to shoulder, to entertain any that might charge : and sent orders to the rest of the brigades before, To continue their march, and follow Lieutenant-General Baillie who was before them. It was then night, but the moon shone bright. A regiment of horse of our own appeared first, riding very dis- orderly. I got them to stop, till I commanded my pikes to open, and give way for them to ride or run away, since they would not stay. But now my pikemen, being demented (as I think we were all), would not hear me : and two of them ran full tilt at me," poor Dalgetty ! " One of their pikes, which was intended for my belly, I griped with my left hand ; the other ran me nearly two inches into the inner side of my right thigh ; all of them crying, of me and those horse, ' They are Cromwell's men ! ' This was an unseasonable wound ; for it made me, after that night, unserviceable. This made me forget all rules of modesty, prudence and discretion," my choler being up, and my blood flowing ! " I rode to the horse, and desired them to charge through these foot. They fearing the hazard of the pikes, stood : I then made a cry come from behind them, That the enemy was upon them. This encour- aged them to charge my foot so fiercely, that the pikemen threw down their pikes, and got into houses. All the horse galloped away, and as I was told afterwards, rode not through but over our whole foot, treading them down; and in this confusion Colonel Lockhart," let the reader note that Colo- iwa. LETTER LX1V. I'llESTON BATTLE. 333 riel, "was trod down from his horse, with great danger of his life. " Though the Enemy was near, yet I beat drums to gather my men together. Shortly after came Middleton with some horse. I told him what a disaster I had met with, aud what a greater I expected. He told me he would ride before, and make the horse halt. I marched, however, all that night till it was fair day ; and then Baillie, who had rested a little, entreated me to go into some house and repose on a chair ; for I had slept none in two nights, and eaten as little. I alighted ; but the constant alarms of the Enemy's approach made me resolve to ride forward to Warrington, which was but a mile ; and indeed I may say I slept all that way, notwithstanding my wound." While the wounded Dalgetty rides forward, let us borrow another glimpse from a different source; 1 of bitter struggle still going on a nttle to the rear of him. " At a place called Redbank," near Winwick Church, two miles from Warrington, " the Scots made a stand with a body of pikes, and lined the hedges with muskets ; who so rudely entertained the pursuing Enemy, that they were compelled to stop until the coming up of Colonel Pride's regiment of foot, who, after a sharp dispute, put those same brave fellows to the run. They were com- manded by a little spark in a blue bonnet, who performed the part of an excellent commander, and was killed on the spot." Does any one know this little spark in the blue bonnet ? No one. His very mother has long ceased to weep for him now. Let him have burial, aud a passing sigh from us ! Dugald Turner continues : " I expected to have found either the Duke or Calendar, or both of them, at Warrington : but I did not ; and indeed I have often been told that Calendar carried away the Duke with him, much against his mind. Here did the Lieutenant- < J^nt-ral of the foot meet with an Order, whereby he is required ' To make as good conditions for himself and those under him as he could ; for the horse would not come back to him, being resolved to preserve themselves for a better time.' Baillie 1 Heath's Chronicle, p. 323. 334 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. August, was surprised with this ; and looking upon that action which he was ordered to do, as full of dishonor, he lost much of that patience of which naturally he was master ; and beseeched any that would to shoot him through the head," poor Baillie ! " At length having something composed himself, and being much solicited by the officers that were by him, he wrote to Cromwell. I then told him, That so long as there was a resolution to fight, I would not go a foot from him ; but now that they were to deliver themselves prisoners, I would pre- serve my liberty as long as I could : aud so took my leave of him, carrying my wounded thigh away with me. I met imme- diately with Middleton ; who sadly condoled the irrecoverable losses of the last two days. Within two hours after, Baillie and all the officers and soldiers that were left of the foot were Cromwell's prisoners. I got my wound dressed that morning by my own surgeon ; and took from him those things I thought necessary for me ; not knowing when I might see him again ; as indeed I never saw him after." l This was now the Saturday morning when Turner rode away, "carrying his wounded thigh with him ; " and got up to Hamil- ton and the vanguard of horse ; who rode, aimless or as good as aimless henceforth, till he and they were captured at Uttoxeter, or in the neighborhood. Monro with the rear- guard of horse, "always a day's march behind," hearing now what had befallen, instantly drew bridle ; paused uncertain ; then, in a marauding manner, rode back towards their own country. Of which disastrous doings let us now read Cromwell's vic- torious account, drawn up with more deliberation on the mor- row after. "This Gentleman," who brings up the Letter, is Major Berry ; " once a Clerk in the Shropshire Iron-works ; " now a very rising man. " He had lived with me," says Eich- ard Baxter, " as guest in my own house ; " he has now high destinies before him, which at last sink lower than ever. 2 1 Memoirs of his own Life and Times, by Sir James Turner (Edinburgh, 1829), pp. 63-67. 2 Baxter's Life, pp. 57, 97, 58, 72. 164d. LETTER LXIV. PRESTON BATTLE. 3B6 " To the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the House of Commons : These. " [WARRINGTON,] 20th August, 1648. " SIR, I have sent up this Gentleman to give you an account of the great and good hand of God towards you, in the late victory obtained against the Enemy in these parts. " After the conjunction of that Party which I brought with me out of Wales with the Northern Forces about Knares- borough and Wetherby, hearing that the Enemy was ad- vanced with their Army into Lancashire, we marched the next day, being the 13th of this instant August, to Otley (hav- ing cast off our Train, and sent it to Knaresborough, because of the difficulty of marching therewith through Craven, and to the end we might with more expedition attend the Enemy's motion) : and on the 14th to Skipton ; the 15th to Gisburne ; the 16th to Hodder Bridge over Kibble ; * where we held a council of war. At which we had in consideration, Whether we should march to Whalley that night, and so on, to interpose between the Enemy and his farther progress into Lancashire aixl so southward, which we had some advertisement the Kiiriiiy intended, and [we are] since confirmed that they in- tended for London itself : Or whether to march immediately over the said Bridge, there being no other betwixt that and ron, and there engage the Enemy, who we did believe would stand his ground, because we had information that the Irish Forces under Monro lately come out of Ireland, which consisted of twelve hundred horse and fifteen hundred foot, were on their march towards Lancashire to join them. " It was thought that to engage the Enemy to fight was our 1 < )ver Hodder rather, which in the chief tributary of the Kibble in those npland parts, and little inferior I" the main stream in size. Rihhle from tho Northen.*t, Holdr>r from the North, then :i few miles farther, f'alder from tho South : after which Rihble pursues its old direction ; draining an extensive bill tract by means of frequent im-misiderable brooks, and receiving no nota- )>!> -(ream on either side till, far dowu, the Darweu from the East and South fall-* in near Preaton, and the united waters, now a respectabl' River, ruh swiftly into the Irish Sea. 336 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 20 Ang. business; and the reason aforesaid giving us hopes that our marching on the North side of Kibble would effect it, it was resolved we should march over the Bridge ; which accordingly we did ; and that night quartered the whole Army in the field by Stonyhurst Hall, being Mr. Sherburn's house, a place nine miles distant from Preston. Very early the next morning we inarched towards Preston : having intelligence that the Enemy was drawing together thereabouts from all his out-quarters, we drew out a Forlorn of about two hundred horse and four hun- dred foot, the horse commanded by Major Smithson, the foot by Major Pownel. Our Forlorn of horse marched, within a mile [to] where the Enemy was drawn up, in the enclosed grounds by Preston, on that side next us ; and there, upon a Moor, about half a mile distant from the Enemy's Army, met with their Scouts and Outguard ; and did behave themselves with that valor and courage as made their Guards (which con sisted both of horse and foot) to quit their ground ; and took divers prisoners; holding this dispute with them until our Forlorn of foot came up for their justification ; and by these we had opportunit} 7 to bring up our whole Army. " So soon as our foot and horse were come up, we resolved that night to engage them if we could ; and therefore, advan- cing with our Forlorn, and putting the rest of our Army into as good a posture as the ground would bear (which was totally inconvenient for our horse, being all enclosure and miry ground), we pressed upon them. The regiments of foot were ordered as followeth. There being a Lane, very deep and ill, up to the Enemy's Army, and leading to the Town, we commanded two regiments of horse, the first whereof was Colonel Harrison's and next was my own, to charge up that Lane ; and on either side of them advanced the [Main]-battle, which were Lieu- tenant-Colonel Reade's, Colonel Dean's, and Colonel Pride's on the right ; Colonel Bright's and my Lord General's on the left ; and Colonel Ashton with the Lancashire regiments in reserve. We ordered Colonel Thornhaugh's and Colonel Twistle ton's regi- ments of horse on the right ; and one regiment in reserve for the Lane ; and the remaining horse on the left : so that, at last, we came to a Hedge-dispute ; the greatest of the impres- 1648. LETTER LXIV. PRESTON BATTLE. 337 sion from the Enemy being upon our left wing, and upon the [Main] -battle on both sides the Lane, and upon our horse in the Lane : in all which places the Enemy were forced from their ground, after four hours' dispute ; until we came to the Town ; into which four troops of my own regiment first en- tered; and, being well seconded by Colonel Harrison's regi- ment, charged the Enemy in the Town, and cleared the streets. " There came no band of your foot to fight that day but did it with incredible valor and resolution ; among which Colonel Bright's, my Lord General's, Lieutenant-Colonel Reade's and Colonel Ashton's had the greatest work ; they often coming to push of pike and to close firing, and always making the Enemy to recoil. And indeed I must needs say, God was as much seen in the valor of the officers and soldiers of these before- mentioned as in any action that hath been performed; the Enemy making, though he was still worsted, very stiff and sturdy resistance. Colonel Dean's and Colonel Pride's, out- winging the Enemy, could not come to so much share of the action ; the Enemy shogging 1 down towards the Bridge ; and keeping almost all in reserve, that so he might bring fresh liands often to fight. Which we not knowing, and lest we should be outwinged, [we] placed those two regiments to en- large our right wing ; this was the cause they had not at that time so great a share in that action. " At the last the Enemy was put into disorder ; many men slain, many prisoners taken; the Duke, with most of the Scots horse and foot, retreated over the Bridge ; where, after a very hot dispute betwixt the Lancashire regiments, part of my Lord General's, and them, being often at push of jiikf, they were beaten from the Bridge ; and our horse and foot, following them, killed many and took divers prisoners ; and we possessed the Bridge over Darwen [also], and a few houses there ; the Enemy being driven up within musket-shot 1 Shog is from the same root M shock; " shogging," a word of Oliver's, in uch caeii signifies moving by pukes, intermittently. Kibble Bridge lay on the Scotch right; Deaii au 260; and Lmllow, i. 189. Cbmmvru Journal*, T. 685. The Scot*. 344 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 23 Aug. and Five Hundred nimble Foot, to destroy them all. My Horse are miserably beaten out ; and I have Ten Thousand of them Prisoners. " We have killed we know not what ; but a very great num- ber ; having done execution upon them above thirty miles together, besides what we killed in the Two great Fights, the one at Preston, the other at Warringtou [or Winwick Pass]. The Enemy was twenty-four thousand horse and foot ; whereof eighteen thousand foot and six thousand horse : and our number about six thousand foot and three thousand horse at the utmost. " This is a glorious Day : God help England to answer His mercies ! I have no more ; but beseech you in all your parts to gather into bodies, and pursue. I rest, " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. " [P.S.] The greatest part, by far, of the Nobility of Scot- land are with Duke Hamilton." 1 LETTER LXVI. " For the Honorable the Committee at York : These. " WIGAN, 23d August, 1648. " GENTLEMEN, I have intelligence even now come to my hands, That Duke Hamilton with a wearied Body of Horse is drawing towards Pontefract; where probably he may lodge himself, and rest his Horse ; as not daring to continue in those Countries whence we have driven him; the Country- people rising in such numbers, and stopping his passage at every bridge. " Major-General Lambert, with a very considerable force, pursues him at the heels. I desire you that you would get to- gether what force you can, to put a stop to any farther designs they may have; and so be ready to join with Major-General 1 Copy in the possession of W. Beaumont, Esq., Warriugton. 1648. LETTER LXVI. WIG AN. 345 Lambert, if there shall be need. I ain marching Northward with the greatest part of the Ariny ; where I shall be glad to hear from you. I rest, " Your very affectionate friend and servant, "OLIVER CBOMWELL. " I could wish you would draw out whatever force you have ; either to be in his rear or to impede his march. For I am per- suaded, if he, or the greatest part of those that are with him be taken, it would make an end of the Business of Scot- land." 1 This Letter, carelessly printed in the old Newspaper, is with- out address; but we learn that it "came to my hands this present afternoon," " at York," 26th August, 1648 ; whither also truer rumors, truer news, as to Hamilton and his affairs, are on the road. On Friday, 25th, at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, the poor Duke of Hamilton, begirt with enemies, distracted with mutinies and internal discords, surrenders and ceases ; " very ill, and unable to march." "My Lord Duke and Calendar," says Dalgetty, " fell out and were at very high words at supper, where I was," the night before ; " each blaming the other for the misfortune and miscarriage of our affairs : " a sad employment ! Dalgetty himself went prisoner to Hull ; lay long with Colonel Robert Overton, an acquaintance of ours there. " As we rode from Uttoxeter, we made a stand at the Duke's window ; and he look- ing out with some kind words, we took our eternal farewell of him," never saw him more. He died on the scaffold for this business; being Earl of Cambridge, and an English Peer as well as Scotch : the unhappiest of men ; one of those " sin- gularly able men " who, with all their " ability," have never succeeded in any enterprise whatever ! 1 Newspaper, Packett of Letter* from Scotland and the North, no. 24 (London, printed by Robert Ibbitoon in Smitbfield, 29th August, 1648). See, in Appen- dix, No. 12, Letter of same date to Derby-House Committee, requesting RIIJV 346 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 23 Aug. Colchester Siege, one of the most desperate defences, being now plainly without object, terminates on Monday next. 1 Surrender, "on quarter" for the inferior parties, "at discre- tion " for the superior. Two of the latter, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, gallant Officers both, are sentenced and shot on the place. " By Ireton's instigation," say some : yes, or without any special instigation; merely by the nature of the case ! They who, contrary to Law and Treaty, have again involved this Nation in blood, do they deserve nothing ? Two more, Goring and Lord Capel, stood trial at Westminster ; of whom Lord Capel lost his head. He was " the first man that rose to complain of Grievances " in November, 1640 ; being then Mr. Capel, and Member for Hertfordshire. The Prince with his Fleet in the Downs, too, so soon as these Lancashire tidings reached him, made off for Holland ; " en- tered the Hague in thirty coaches," and gave up his military pursuits. The Second Civil War, its back once broken here at Preston, rapidly dies everywhere ; is already as good as dead. In Scotland itself there is no farther resistance. The oppressed Kirk Party rise rather, and almost thank the conquerors. "Sir George Monro," says Turner, "following constantly a whole day's march to the rear of us," finding himself, by this unhappy Battle, cut asunder from my Lord Duke, and brought into contact with Cromwell instead, " marched straight back to Scotland and joined with Earl Lanark's forces," my Lord Duke's brother. " Straight back," as we shall find, is not the word for this march. " But so soon as the news of our Defeat came to Scotland," continues Turner, " Argyle and the Kirk Party rose in arms ; every mother's son ; and this was called the l Whiggamore Raid : ' " 1648, first appearance of the Whig party on the page of History, I think ! " David Lesley was at their head, and old Leven," the Fieldmarshal of 1639, " in the Castle of Edinburgh; who cannonaded the Royal" Hamilton "troops whenever they came in view of him ! " a Cromwell proceeds northward, goes at last to Edinburgh itself, to compose this strange state of matters. 1 28th August, Rushworth, vii. 1242. 2 Turner, ubi eupra; Guthry's Memoirs (Glasgow, 1748), p. 285. 1648. LETTER LXV1I. KNAKESBOROUGH. 347 LETTERS LXVIL-LXXIX. MONBO with the rearward of Hamilton's beaten Army did not march "straight back " to Scotland, as Turner told us, but very obliquely back ; lingering for several weeks on the South side of the Border; collecting remnants of English, Scotch, and even Irish Malignants, not without hopes of raising a new Army from them, cruelly spoiling those Northern Counties in the interim. Cromwell, waiting first till Lambert with the forces sent in pursuit of Hamilton can rejoin the main Army, moves Northward, to deal with these broken par- ties, and with broken Scotland generally. The following Thirteen Letters bring him as far as Edinburgh : whither let us now attend him with such lights as they yield. LETTER LXVII. OLIVER ST. JOHN, a private friend, and always officially an important man always on the Committee of Both Kingdoms, Derby-House Committee, or whatever the governing Authority might be, finds here a private Note for himself ; one part of which is very strange to us. Does the reader look with any intelligence into that poor old prophetic, symbolic Deathbed- scene at Preston ? Any intelligence of Prophecy and Symbol in general ; of the symbolic Man-child Makers halal- has hoaz at Jerusalem, or the handful of Cut Grass at Preston ; of the opening Portals of Eternity, and what last departing gleams there are in the Soul of the pure and just? Mahershalal- hashbaz (" Hasten-to-the-spoil," so called), and the bundle of Cut Grass are grown somewhat strange to us ! Kead ; and having sneered duly, consider : " For my worthy Friend Oliver St. John, Esquire, Solicitor- General : These, at Lincoln's Inn. "KNABEBBOBOUUH, 1st Sept. [1648.] "DEAR SIB, I can s;iy nothing; but surely the Lord our (i"l is a great and glorious God. He only ic worthy to be PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. feared and trusted, and His appearances particularly to be waited for. He will not fail His People. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord ! " Remember my love to my dear brother H. Vane : I pray he make not too little, nor I too much, of outward dispensa- tions : God preserve us all, that we, in simplicity of our spirits, may patiently attend upon them. Let us all be not careful what men will make of these actings. They, will they, nill they, shall fulfil the good pleasure of God ; and we shall serve our generations. Our rest we expect elsewhere : that will be durable. Care we not for to-morrow, nor for any- thing. This Scripture has been of great stay to me : read Isaiah Eighth, 10, 11, 14; read all the Chapter. 1 " I am informed from good hands, that a poor godly man died in Preston, the day before the Fight ; and being sick, near the hour of his death, he desired the woman that cooked to him, To fetch him a handful of Grass. She did so ; and when he received it, he asked Whether it would wither or not, now it was cut ? The woman said, ' Yea.' He replied, ' So should this Army of the Scots do, and come to nothing, so soon as ours did but appear/ or words to this effect ; and so immediately died. " My service to Mr. W. P., Sir J. E., and the rest of our good friends. I hope I do often remember you. " Yours, " OLIVER CROMWELL. " My service to Frank Eussel and Sir Gilbert Pickering." * 1 Yes, the indignant symbolic " Chapter," about Mahershalal-hashbaz, and the vain desires of the wicked, is all worth reading ; here are the Three Verses referred to, more especially : " Take counsel together," ye unjust, " and it shall come to naught ; speak the word, and it shall not stand. For God is with us. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts ; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary : but for a stone of stum- bling and for a rock of offence to both the Houses of Israel ; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ! And many among them shall stum- ble and fall, nud be broken, and be snared, and be taken." This last verse, we find, is often in the thoughts of Oliver. 2 AyBcough MSS. 4107, f . 94 ; a Copy by Birch. 1648. LETTER LXVIH. KNARESBOROUGH. 349 " Sir J. E.," when he received this salutation, was palpable enough ; but has now melted away to the Outline of a Shadow ! I guess hi in to be Sir John Evelyn of Wilts ; and, with greater confidence, "Mr. W. P." to be William Pierpoint, Earl of Kingston's Son, a man of superior faculty, of various destiny and business, " called in the Family traditions, Wise William; " Ancestor of the Dukes of Kingston (Great-grandfather of that Lady Mary, whom as Wortley Montagu all readers still know) ; and much a friend of Oliver, as we shall transiently see. LETTER LXVIIL ANOTHER private Letter : to my Lord Wharton ; to congrat- ulate him on some " particular mercy," seemingly the birth of an heir, and to pour out his sense of these great general mer- cies. This Philip Lord Wharton is also of the Committee of Derby House, the Executive in those months ; it is probable 1 Cromwell had been sending despatches to them, and had hastily enclosed these private Letters in the Packet. Philip Lord Whartou seems to have been a zealous Puritan, much concerned with Preachers, Chaplains &c., in his domes- tic establishment ; and full of Parliamentary and Politico- religious business in public. He had a regiment of his own raising at Edgehill Fight ; but it was one of those that ran away ; whereupon the unhappy Colonel took refuge " in a saw- pit," says Royalism confidently, crowing over it without end.* A quarrel between him and Sir Henry Mildmay, Mem- ber for Maiden, about Sir Henry's saying, " He Wharton had made his peace at Oxford " in November, 1643, is noted in the Commons Journals, iiL 300. It was to him, about the time of tliis Cromwell Letter, that one Osborne, a distracted King's flunky, had written, accusing Major Rolf, a soldier under Hammond, of attempting to poison Charles in the Isle of 1 ' 'ommont Journal*, vi. 6, 5th September. * Woud' Ailt- ii" , iii. 177, uud in all ninuutr uf 1'uaiphleU eLtewhew. 350 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL, WAR. 2 Sept. Wight. 1 This Philip's patrimonial estate, Wharton, still a Manor-house of somebody, lies among the Hills on the south- west side of Westmoreland ; near the sources of the Eden, the Swale rising on the other watershed not far off. He seems, however, to have dwelt at Upper Wiuchington, Bucks, " a seat near Great Wycombe." He lived to be a Privy Councillor to William of Orange. 2 He died in 1696. Take this other anec- dote, once a very famous one : " James Stewart of Blantyre, in Scotland, son of a Treasurer Stewart, and himself a great favorite of King James, was a gallant youth ; came up to London with great hopes : but a discord falling out between him and the young Lord Wharton, they went out to single combat each against the other ; and at the first thrust each of them killed the other, and they fell dead in one another's arms on the place." 3 The " place " was Islington fields ; the date 8th November, 1609. The tragedy gave rise to much ballad-singing and other rumor. 4 Our Philip is that slain Wharton's Nephew. This Letter has been preserved by Thurloe ; four blank spaces ornamented with due asterisks occur in it, Editor Birch does not inform us whether from tearing off the Seal, or why. In these blank spaces the conjectural sense, which I distinguish here as usual by brackets, is occasionally somewhat questionable. " For the Right Honorable the Lord Wharton : These. " [KNARESBOROUGH,] 2d Sept. 1648. " MY LORD, You know how untoward I am at this busi- ness of writing : yet a word. I beseech the Lord make us sensible of this great mercy here, which surely was much more than [the sense of it] the House expresseth. 5 I trust [to have, 1 Wood, iii. 501 ; Pamphlets ; Commons Journals, &c. 2 Wood, iv. 407, 542 ; Fasti, i. 335 ; Nicolas's Synopsis of the Peerage. 8 Scotstarvet's Staggering State (Ediiib. 1754, a very curious little Book), p. 32. 4 Bibliotheca Topographica, no. xlix. 6 The house calls it " a wonderful great mercy and success," this Preston victory ( Commons Journals, v. 680) ; ami then passes on to other matters 1648. LETTER LXVm. KN ARES BOROUGH. 351 through] the goodness of our God, time and opportunity to speak of it to you face to face. When we think of our God, what are we ! Oh, His mercy to the whole society of saints, despised, jeered saints ! Let them mock on. Would we were all saints ! The best of us are, God knows, poor weak saints ; yet saints ; if not sheep, yet lambs ; and must be fed. We have daily bread, 1 and shall have it, in despite of all enemies. There 's enough in our Father's house, and He dispenseth it. 2 I think, through these outward mercies, as we call them, Faith, Patience, Love, Hope are exercised and per- fected, yea Christ formed, and grows to a perfect man within us. I know not well how to distinguish : the difference is only in the subject [not in the object] ; to a worldly man they are outward, to a saint Christian ; but I dispute not. " My Lord, I rejoice in your particular mercy. I hope that it is so to you. If so, it shall not hurt you ; not make you plot or shift for the young Baron to make him great. You will say, ' He is God's to dispose of, and guide for ; ' and there you will leave him. My love to the dear little Lady, better [to me] than the fluid. The Lord bless you both. My love and service to all Friends high and low ; if you will, to my Lord and Lady Mulgrave and Will Hill. I am truly, " Your faithful friend and humblest servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."' During these very days, perhaps it was exactly two days after, "on Monday last," if that mean 4th September, 4 Monro, lying about Appleby, has a party of horse "sent into tin- P.ishopric;" firing "divers houses" thereabouts, and not n 'it <|iiite adequately conscious that its life had been saved hereby! What fir.- w;w lilii/.ini;, ami how high, in Wales, and theu in Lancashire, is known onl\ in jii-rf-i lic.n to those that trampled it nut. 1 Spiritual food, enroiiri^cmi'iit of merciful Providence, from day to day. 1 There follows here in the Birch edition: "Aw onr eyes [seven stare] behinde, then wee can [seven stars) we for him " word* totally unintelligible; and not worth guessing at, the original not being here, but only Birch'0 quea- Thurloe, i. 99. CVomirW/iamr , p. 45. 352 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 8 Sept forgetting to plunder " the Lord Wharton's tenants " by the road : Cromwell penetrating towards Berwick, yet still at a good distance, scatters this and other predatory parties rapidly enough to Appleby, as it were by the very wind of him ; like a coming mastiff smelt in the gale by vermin. They are swifter than he, and get to Scotland, by their dexterity and quick scent, unscathed. " Across to Kelso," about Sep- tember 8th. 1 Mulgrave in those years is a young Edmund Sheffield, of whom, except that he came afterwards to sit in the Council of State, and died a few days before the Protector, History knows not much. "Will Hill "is perhaps William Hill, a Puritan Merchant in London, ruined out of "a large estate' by lending for the public service ; who, this Summer, and still in this very month, is dunning the Lords and Commons, the Lords with rather more effect, to try if they cannot give him some kind of payment, or shadow of an attempt at payment, he having long lain in jail for want of his money. A zeal- ous religious, and now destitute and insolvent man ; known to Oliver ; and suggests himself along with the Miilgraves by the contrast of " Friends high and low." Poor Hill did, after infinite struggling, get some kind of snack at the Bishops' Lands by and by. 2 The " young Baron " now born is father, I suppose, he or his brother is father, 8 of the far-famed high-gifted half- delirious Duke of Wharton. On the 8th of September, Cromwell is at Durham, 4 scaring the Monro fraternity before him ; and publishes the following " DECLARATION. "WHEREAS the Scottish Army, under the command of James Duke of Hamilton, which lately invaded this Nation of 1 Rushworth, vii 1250, 3, 9, 60. 2 Commons Journals, vi. 29, 243. ? He, Thomas, the one now born ; subsequently Marquis, and a man other- wise of distinction ; who " died 12th April, 1715, in the 67th year of his age : " Boyer's Political State, of Great Britain (April, 1715, London), p. 305. (NoU to Third Edition: communicated by Mr. T. Watts of the British Museum.) * Commons Journals, vii. 1260. 1048. DECLARATION. 363 England, is, by tho blessing of God upon the Parliament's Forces, defeated and overthrown ; and some thousands of their soldiers and officers are now prisoners in our hands ; so that by reason of their great number, and want of sufficient guards and watches to keep them so carefully as need re- quires (the Army being employed upon other duty and ser- vice of the Kingdom), divers may escape away ; and many, both since and upon the pursuit, do lie in private places in the country : " I thought it very just and necessary to give notice to all, and accordingly do declare, That if any Scottishmen, officers or soldiers, lately members of the said Scottish Army, and taken or escaped in or since the late Fight and pursuit, shall be found straggling in the countries, or running away from the places assigned them to remain in till the pleasure of the Parliament, or of his Excellency the Lord General be known, It will be accounted a very good and acceptable service to the Country and Kingdom of England, for any person or per- sons to take and apprehend all such Scottishmen ; and to carry them to any Officer having the charge of such prisoners ; or, in defect of such Officer, to the Committee or Governor of tho next Garrison for the Parliament within the County where they shall be so taken ; there to be secured and kept in prison, as shall be found most convenient. " And the said Committee, Officer, or Governor respectively, are desired to secure such of the said prisoners as shall be so apprehended and brought unto them, accordingly. And if any of the said Scottish officers or soldiers shall make any resist- ance, and refuse to be taken or render themselves, all such persons well affected to the service of the Parliament and Kingdom of England, may and are desired to fall upon, fight with, and slay such refusers : but if the said prisoners shall pontiimi' and remain within the places and guards assigned for the keeping of them, That then no violence, wrong, nor injury be offered to them by any means. Provided also, and special care is to be taken, That no Scottish man residing within this Kingdom, and not having a niciulHT <>f tin- s:nd Army, and also, That none such of *VII "'* 354 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 11 the said Scottish prisoners as shall have liberty given them, and sufficient passes to go to any place appointed, may be in- terrupted or troubled hereby. " OLIVER CROMWELL." l " [DURHAM,] 8th September, 1648." LETTER LXIX. FAIRFAX is still at Colchester, arranging the "ransoms," and confused wrecks of the Siege there ; Cromwell has now reached Berwick, 2 at least his outposts have, all the Monros now fairly across the Tweed. " Lieutenant-Colonel Cowell," I con- clude, was mortally wounded at Preston Battle ; and here has the poor Widow been, soliciting and lamenting. " For his Excellency the Lord Fairfax, General of all the Parliament's Armies : These. "[ALNWICK,] llth Sept. 1648. " MY LORD, Since we lost Lieutenant-Colonel Cowell, his Wife came to me near Northallerton, much lamenting her loss, and the sad condition she and her children were left in. " He was an honest worthy man. He spent himself in your and the Kingdom's service. He being a great Trader in Lon- don, deserted it to serve the Kingdom. He lost much moneys to the State ; and I believe few outdid him. He had a great arrear due to him. He left a Wife and three small children but meanly provided for. Upon his death-bed, he commended this desire to me, That I should befriend his to the Parliament or to your Excellency. His Wife will attend you for Letters to the Parliament ; which I beseech you to take into a tender consideration. " I beseech you to pardon this boldness to, "Your Excellency's most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." a 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 46) 2 Rushworth, vii. 125. Lansdowne MSS. 1236, fol. 85. 148. LETTER LXX. ALNWICK. 355 On the 19th .Tune, 1649, "Widow Cowell " is ordered to be paid her Husband's Arrears by the Committee at Haber- dashers' Hall. 1 One hopes she received payment, poor woman! "Upon his death-bed her Husband commended tli is desire to me." In the very hours while this Letter is a- writing, " Monday, llth September, 1648," Monro, now joined with the Earl of Lanark, presents himself at Edinburgh : but the Whiggamore Raid, all the force of the West Country, 6,000 strong, is already there; "draws out on the crags be-east the Town," old Leven in the Castle ready to fire withal ; and will not let him enter. Lanark and Monro, after sad survey of the in- accessible armed crags, bend westward, keeping well out of the range of Leven's guns, to Stirling ; meet Argyle and the Whiggamores, make some Treaty or Armistice, and admit them to be the real " Committee of Estates," the Hamilton Faction having ended. 2 Here are Three Letters, Two of one date, directly on the back of these occurrences. LETTER LXX. " For the Governor of Berwick : These. "ALNWICK, 15th Sept. 1648. , Being come thus near, I thought fit to demand the Town of Berwick to be delivered into my hands, to the use of the Parliament and Kingdom of England, to whom of right it U'longeth. "I need not use any arguments to convince you of the justice hereof. The witness that God hath Iwrne against your Army, in their Invasion of those who desired to sit in peace by you, doth at once manifest His dislike of the injury done to a Nation that meant you no harm, but hath been all along desirous to keep amity and brotherly affection and agreement with you. "If you deny me in this, we must make a second appeal to 1 Common* Jvurnult, \i 237. Quthry, pp. 288-297. 356 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 16 Sept God, putting ourselves upon Him, in endeavoring to obtain our rights, and let Him be judge between us. And if our aim be anything beyond what we profess, He will requite it. If farther trouble ensue upon your denial, we trust He will make our innocency to appear. " I expect your answer to this summons, this day, and rest, " Your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." l Ludovic Lesley, the Scotch Governor of Berwick, returns "a dilatory answer," not necessary for us to read. Here is a more important message : LETTER LXXI. "For the Right Honorable the Lord Marquis of Argyle, and the rest of the well-affected Lords, Gentlemen, Ministers and People now in arms in the Kingdom of Scotland. Present. " [NEAR BERWICK,] 16th September, 1648. " MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, Being (in prosecution of the common Enemy) advanced,* with the Army under my command, to the borders of Scotland, I thought fit, to prevent any misapprehension or prejudice that might be raised thereupon, to send your Lordships these Gentlemen, Colonel Bright, Scoutmaster-General Howe, and Mr. Stapylton, to acquaint you with the reasons thereof : concerning which I desire your Lordships to give them credence. I remain, my Lords, "Your very humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 Colonel Bright and Scoutmaster Rowe are persons that often occur, though somewhat undistinguishably, in the Old Pamphlets. Bright, in the end of this month, was sent over, 1 Lords Journals (in Parliamentary History, xvii. 485). Thurloe, i. 100. IMS. LETTER LXXT. NEAR BERWICK. 357 "from Berwick" apparently, to take possession of Carlisle, now ready to surrender to us. 1 " Scoutmaster " is the Chief of the Corps of " Guides," as soldiers now call them. As to Stapylton or Stapleton, we have to remark that, besides Sir Philip Stapleton, the noted Member for Boroughbridge, and one of the Eleven, who is now banished and dead, there is a Bryan Stapleton now Member for Aldborough ; he in January last 2 was Commissioner to Scotland : but this present Stapyl- ton is still another. Apparently, one Robert Stapylton ; a favorite Chaplain of Cromwell's ; an Army-Preacher, a man of weight and eminence in that character. From his follow- ing in the rear of the Colonel and the Scoutmaster, instead of taking precedence in the Lieutenant-General's Letter, as an M.P. would have done, we may infer that this Reverend Robert Stapylton is the Cromwell Messenger, sent to speak a word to the Clergy in particular. Scoutmaster Rowe, William Rowe, appears with an enlarged sphere of influence, presiding over the Cromwell spy-world in a very diligent, expert and almost respectable manner, some years afterwards, in the Milton State-Papers. His counsel might bo useful with Argyle ; his experienced eye, at any rate, might take a glance of the Scottish Country, with advantage to an invading General. Of the Reverend Mr. Stapylton's proceedings on this occa- sion we have no notice : but he will occur afterwards in these Letters ; and two years hence, on Cromwell's second visit to those Northern parts, we find this recorded: "Last Lord's Day," 29th September, 1050, " Mr. Stapylton preached in the High Church" of Edinburgh, while we were mining the Cas- tlr ! " forenoon and afternoon, before his Excellency with his Officers ; where was a great concourse of people ; many Scots expressing much affection at the doctrine, in their usual way of groans." 8 In tln-ir usual way of groans, while Mr. Stapylton held forth: consider that! Mr. Robert, "at 10 o'clock at night on the 3d September," next year, writes, 1 Cromwelliana, p. 48. * Common* Journalt, v. 442 ; Whitlocke, p. 290. CYvNiuW/ifini, p. 92. 358 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. i g ep t "from the other side of Severn," a copious despatch con- cerning the Battle of Worcester, 1 and then disappears from History. The following Letter, of the same date, was brought by the same Messengers for the Committee of Estates. LETTER LXXII. " For the Right Honorable the Committee of Estates for the Kingdom of Scotland: These. "[NEAR BERWICK,] 16th Sept. 1648. " RIGHT HONORABLE, Being upon my approach to the borders of the Kingdom of Scotland, I thought fit to acquaint you of the reason thereof. "It is well known how injuriously the Kingdom of England was lately invaded by the Army under Duke Hamilton ; con- trary to the Covenant and [to] our leagues of amity, and against all the engagements of love and brotherhood between the two Nations. And notwithstanding the pretence of your late Declaration, 2 published to take with the people of this Kingdom, the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled declared the said Army so entering, Enemies to the Kingdom ; and those of England who should adhere to them, Traitors. And having 3 received command to march with a considerable part of their Army, to oppose so great a violation of faith and justice, what a witness God, being appealed to, 4 hath borne, upon the engagement of the two Armies, against the unright- eousness of man, not only yourselves, but this Kingdom, yea and a great part of the known world will, I trust, acknowledge. How dangerous a thing is it to wage an unjust war ; much more, to appeal to God the Righteous Judge therein ! We 1 Cromwelliana, p. 113. 2 To be found in Rushworth ; read it not ! 3 The grammar requires " I having," but the physiognomy of the sentence requires nothing. * on Preston Moor. 1M. LETTER LXXII. NEAR BERWICK. 359 trust He will persuade you better by this manifest token of His displeasure; lest His hand be stretched out yet more against you, and your poor People also, if they will be deceived. " That which I am to demand of you is, The restitution of the Garrisons of Berwick and Carlisle into my hands, for the use of the Parliament and Kingdom of England. If you deny me herein, I must make our appeal to God; and c;ill upon Him for assistance, in what way He shall direct us ; where- in we are, and shall be, so far from seeking the harm of the well- affected people of the Kingdom of Scotland, that we profess as before the Lord, That (what difference an Army, necessitated in a hostile way to recover the ancient rights and inheritance of the Kingdom under which they serve, can make) 1 we shall use our endeavors to the utmost that the trouble may fall upon the contrivers and authors of this breach, and not upon the poor innocent people, who have been led and compelled iuto this action, as many poor souls now prisoners to us confess. "We thought ourselves bound in duty thus to expostulate with you, and thus to profess ; to the end we may bear our integrity out before the world, and may have comfort in God, whatever the event be. Desiring your answer, I rest, "Your Lordships' humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* The troubles of Scotland are coming thick. The "En- gagers," those that "engaged" with Hamilton, are to be condemned; then, before long, come " Resolutioners " and Protesters;" and in the wreck of the Hamilton- Argyle discussions, and general annotations, all men desiring to say Yes and No instead of Yes or No, Royalisiu and Pres- byterianism alike are disastrously sinking. The Lordships here addressed, aa "Committee of Estates" " no far ae an Armr, necessitated to vindicate its romitry by War, ran make a dwcriiiiiuiitimi." Tim "ancieiit right** ami iulwriuiuce" are the right to ctuxwe uur own &ug ur Mwluujj, au4 BO iwttU, TliUftoe, ', 100. 360 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 18 Sept. can make no answer, for they do not now exist as Committee of Estates; Argyle and Company are now assuming that character: the shifting of the dresses, which occasions some complexity in those old Letters, is just going on. From Argyle and Company, however, who see m Cromwell their one sure stay, there are already on the road conciliatory con- gratulatory messages, by Lairds and Majors, " from Falkirk," where the Whiggamore Kaid and Lanark are making their Armistice or Treaty. Whereupon follows, with suitably vague Superscription, for Argyle and Company: LETTER LXXIII. "To the Right Honorable the Earl of London, Chancellor of the Kingdom of Scotland : " To be communicated to the Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Burgesses now in arms, 1 who dissented in Parliament from the late Engagement against the Kingdom of England. "CHESWICK, 2 18th Sept. 1648. " RIGHT HONORABLE, We received yours from Falkirk of the 15th September instant. We have had also a sight of your Instructions given to the Laird of Greenhead and Major Strahan ; as also other two Papers concerning the Treaty between your Lordships and the Enemy; wherein your care of the interest of the Kingdom of England, for the delivery of the Towns 8 unjustly taken from them, and [your] desire to preserve the unity of both Nations, appears. By which also we understand the posture you are in to oppose the 1 " The Whiggamore Raid," as Turner calls it, now making a Treaty with Lanark, Monro, and the other Assignees of the bankrupt Hamilton concern. Expressly addressed, in the next Letter, as " Committee of Estates," they now. 2 Cheswick, still a Manor-house " of the Family of Strangeways," lies three or four miles south of Berwick, on the great road to Newcastle and London. 8 Berwick and Carlisle, which by agreement in 1646-7 were not to be garrisoned except by consent of both Kingdoms. 1648. LETTER LXXITI. CHEsWICK. 361 Enemies of the welfare and the peace of both Kingdoms; for which we bless God for His goodness to you ; and re- joice to see the power of the Kingdom of Scotland in a hopeful way to be invested in the hands of those who, we trust, are taught of God to seek His honor, and the comfort of His people. " And give us leave to say, as before the Lord, who knows the secrets of all hearts, That, as we think one especial end of Providence in permitting the enemies of God and Goodness in lx)th Kingdoms to rise to that height, and exercise such tyranny over His people, was to show the necessity of Unity amongst those of both Nations, so we hope and pray that the late glorious dispensation, in giving so happy success against your and our Enemies in our victories, may be the foundation of Union of the People of God in love and amity. Unto that end we shall, God assisting, to the utmost of our power en- deavor to perform what may be behind on our part : and when we shall, through any wilfulness, fail therein, let this pro- fession rise up in judgment against us, as having been made in hypocrisy, a severe avenger of which God hath lately appeared, in His most righteous witnessing against the Army under Duke Hamilton, invading us under specious pretences of piety and justice. We may humbly say, we rejoice with more trembling 1 than to dare to do such a wicked thing. "Upon our advance to Alnwick, we thought fit to send a good body of our horse to the borders of Scotland, and thereby a summons to the Garrison of Berwick ; 3 to which having received a dilatory answer, I desired a safe-convoy for Colonel Bright and the Scoutmaster-General of this Army to go to the Committee of Estates in Scotland ; who, I hope, will have the opportunity to be with your Lordships before this come to your hands, and, according as they are in- structed, will let yoxir Lordships in some measure, as well as we could in so much ignorance of your condition, know our affections to you. And understanding things more fully 1 "Juin tn-inliling with your mirth" (Scrum! I'aulm). Utter IA.\ 362 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 18 Sept by yours, we now thought fit to make you this [present] return. " The command we received, upon the defeat of Duke Ham- ilton, was, To prosecute this business until the Enemy were put out of a condition or hope of growing into a new Army, and the Garrisons of Berwick and Carlisle were reduced. Four regiments of our horse and some dragoons, who had followed the Enemy into the south parts, 1 being now come up ; and this country not able to bear us, the cattle and old corn thereof having been wasted by Moiiro and the forces with him ; the Governor of Berwick also daily victualling his Garrison from Scotland side ; and the Enemy yet in so considerable a pos- ture as by these Gentlemen and your Papers we understand, still prosecuting their former design, having gotten the advan- tage of Stirling Bridge, and so much of Scotland at their backs to enable them thereunto ; and your Lordships' condi- tion not being such, at present, as may compel them to submit to the honest and necessary things you have proposed to them for the good of both the Kingdoms : we have thought fit, out of the sense of duty to the commands laid upon us by those who have sent us, and to the end we might be in a pos- ture more ready to give you assistance, and not be wanting to what we have made so large professions of, to advance into Scotland with the Army. 2 And we trust, by the blessing of God, the common Enemy will thereby the sooner be brought to a submission to you : and we thereby shall do what becomes us in order to the obtaining of our Garrisons ; engaging our- selves that, so soon as we shall know from you that the Enemy will yield to the things you have proposed to them, and we have our Garrisons delivered to us, we shall forthwith depart out of your Kingdom ; and in the mean time be [even] more tender towards the Kingdom of Scotland, in the point of charge, than if we were in our own Kingdom. " If we shall receive from you any desire of a more speedy advance, we shall readily yield compliance therewith; desir- 1 Uttoxeter and thereabouts. 2 Neither does the sentence end even here ! It is dreadfully bad composi- tion ; yet contains a vigorous clear sense in it. 1H4* LETTER LXXII1. CHESWICK. 363 ing also to hear from you how affairs stand. This being the result of a Council of War, I present it to you as the expres- sion of their affections and of my own ; who am, my Lords, "Your most humble servant, "OUVER CROMWELL." 1 Cheswick, where Oliver now has his head-quarter, lies, as we s;iii by it ; his Majesty eagerly consulting about " escape " all the while, escape to Orinond who is now in Ireland again, escape some-whither, any-whither ; and considering the Treaty mainly as a piece of Dramaturgy, which must be handsomely done in the interim, and leave a good impression on the Pub- lic. 1 Such is the Treaty of Forty Days ; a mere torpor on the page of History ; which the reader shall conceive for himself ad libitum. The Army, from head-quarters at St. Albans, re- gards him and it with a sternly watchful eye ; not participat- ing in the hopes of Presbyterian Royalism at all ; and there begin to be Army Councils held again. As for Cromwell, he is gone forward to Edinburgh ; reaches Seaton, the Earl of Winton's House, which is the head-quarters of the horse, a few miles east of Edinburgh, on Tuesday even- ing. Next day, Wednesday, 4th October, 1648, come certain Dignitaries of the Argyle or Whiggamore Party, and escort him honorably into Edinburgh; "to the Earl of Murrie's House in the Cannigate [so, in good Edinburgh Scotch, do the old Pamphlets spell it] ; where a strong guard," an English Guard, " is appointed to keep constant watch at the Gate ; " and all manner of Earls and persons of Whiggamore quality come to visit the Lieutenant-General ; and even certain Clergy come, who have a leaning that way. 2 The Earl of Moray's 1 Hid own Letters (in Wagstaff's Vindication of the. Royal Martyr, in Carte's Ormana, Ac.) ; Bee Godwin, ii. COtMi23. * True Account of the great Expressions of Love from the Noblemen, Ac. of Scotland unto Lieutenjuit-Genera) Cromwell and hia Officers ; In a Letter to a Frinud (London, 1C48 ; Kind's I'limpUM*. -mall 4to, no. :i'JL', 2C>, dated With UM pea 23U October) : Abridged iu Rualiworth, vii. 372 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 5 Oct. House, Moray House, still stands in the Canongate of Edin- burgh, well known to the inhabitants there. A solid spacious mansion, which, when all bright and new two hundred years ago, must have been a very adequate lodging. There are re- mains of noble gardens ; one of the noble state-rooms, when I last saw it, was an extensive Paper Warehouse. There is no doubt but the Lieutenant-General did lodge here ; Guthry seeming to contradict this old Pamphlet, turns out to con- firm it. 1 The Lieutenant-General has received certain Votes of Par- liament, 2 sanctioning what he has done in reference to these Scotch Parties, and encouraging and authorizing him to do more. Of which circumstance, in the following official Docu- ment, he fails not to avail himself, on the morrow after his arrival. LETTER LXXVn. " For the Right Honorable the Committee of Estates for the Kingdom of Scotland : These. "EDINBURGH, 5th October, 1648. " RIGHT HONORABLE, I shall ever be ready to bear wit- ness of your Lordships' forwardness to do right to the King- dom of England, in restoring the Garrisons of Berwick and Carlisle ; and having received so good a pledge of your resolu- tions to maintain amity and a good understanding between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, it makes me not to doubt but that your Lordships will farther grant what in justice and reason may be demanded. " I can assure your Lordships, That the Kingdom of England did foresee that wicked design of the Malignants in Scotland to break all engagements of faith and honesty between the Nations, and to take from the Kingdom of England the Towns of Berwick and Carlisle. And although they could have pre- 1 Guthry's Memoirs, p. 297. For a description of the place, see Chambers't Edinburgh Journal, 21st January, 1837. 2 Commons Journals, 28th September, 1648. 1043. LETTER LXXVII. EDINBURGH. 373 vented the loss of those considerable Towns, without breach of the Treaty, by laying forces near unto them ; yet such was the tenderness of the Parliament of England not to give the least suspicion of a breach with the Kingdom of Scotland, that they did forboar to do anything therein. And it is not unknown to your Lordships, when the Malignants had gotten the power of your Kingdom, how they protected and employed our English Malignants, though demanded by our Parliament; and possessed themselves of those Towns ; and with what violence and unheard-of cruelties they raised an Army, and began a War, and invaded the Kingdom of England; and endeavored, to the uttermost of their power, to engage both Kingdoms in a perpetual Quarrel, and what blood they have spilt in our Kingdom, and what great loss and prejudice was brought upon our Nation, even to the endangering the total ruin thereof. " And although God did, by a most mighty and strong hand, and that in a wonderful manner, destroy their designs ; yet it is apparent that the same ill-affected spirit still remains; and that divers Persons of great quality and power, who were either the Contrivers, Actors, or Abettors of the late unjust War made upon the Kingdom of England, are now in Scot- land ; who undoubtedly do watch for all advantages and opportunities to raise dissensions and divisions between the Nations. "Now forasmuch as I am commanded, To prosecute the remaining part of the Army that invaded the Kingdom of England, wheresoever it should go, to prevent the like nris- : Aii'l considering that d Ivors of that Army are retired into Scotland, and that some of the heads of those Malignants were raising new forces in Scotland to carry on the same de- sign ; and that they will certainly be ready to do the like upon all occasions of advantage : And forasmuch as the Kingdom of i IK! hath lately received so great damage by the failing of the Kingdom of Scotland in not suppressing Malignants and Tnrciiiliarirs as they ought to have done; and in suffering Persons to be put iu places of great trust in the Kingdom, who 374 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 5 Oct. by their interest in the Parliament and the Countries, brought the Kingdom of Scotland so far as they could, by an unjust Engagement, to invade and make War upon their Brethren of England : " [Therefore,] rny Lords, I hold myself obliged, in prose- cution of my Duty and Instructions, to demand, That youi Lordships will give assurance in the name of the Kingdom of Scotland, that you will not admit or suffer any that have been active in, or consenting to, the said Engagement against Eng- land, or have lately been in arms at Stirling or elsewhere in the maintenance of that Engagement, to be employed in any public Place or Trust whatsoever. And this is the least secu- rity I can demand. I have received an Order from both Houses of the Parliament of England, 1 which I hold fit to commu- nicate to your Lordships ; whereby you will understand the readiness of the Kingdom of England to assist you who were dissenters from that Invasion ; and I doubt not but your Lord- ships will be as ready to give such farther satisfaction as they in their wisdoms shall find cause to desire. " Your Lordships' most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." a This was presented on Thursday to the Dignitaries sitting in the Laigh Parliament-House in the City of Edinburgh. During which same day came " the Lord Provost to pay his respects " at Moray House ; came " old Sir William Dick," an old Provost nearly ruined by his well-affected Loans of Money in these Wars, " and made an oration in name of the rest ; " came many persons, and quality carriages, making Moray House a busy place that day ; " of which I hope a good fruit will appear." Loudon Cancellarius and Company, from the Laigh Parlia- ment-House, respond with the amplest assent next day : 8 and 1 Votes of September 28th ; Commons Journals, vi. 37 : " received the day we entered Edinburgh " (Rushworth, ubi suprk). 2 King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 392, 19 : Printed by order of Parlia- ment. 8 King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 392, 19. 1648. LETTER LXXVIII DALHOUSIE. 375 on the morrow, Saturday, all business being adjusted, and Lambert left with two horse-regiinents to protect the Laigh Parliament-House from Lanarks and Malignauts, " when we were about to come away, several coaches were sent to bring up the Lieutenant-General, the Earl of Leven " Governor of the Castle and Scotch Commander-iu-Chief, " with Sir Arthur Haselrig and the rest of the Officers, to Edinburgh Castle ; where was provided a very sumptuous Banquet," old Leven doing the honors, " my Lord Marquis of Argyle and divers other Lords being present to grace the entertainment. At our departure, many pieces of ordnance and a volley of small shot was given us from the Castle ; and some Lords convoying us out of the City, we there parted." The Lord Provost had I- frayed us, all the while, in the handsomest manner. We proceeded to Dalhousie, the Seat of the Ramsays, near Dal- keith : on the road towards Carlisle and home, by Selkirk and Hawick, I conclude. Here we stay till Monday morning, and leave orders, and write Letters. LETTER LXXVIIL A PRIVATE Note in behalf of " this Bearer, Colonel Robert Montgomery," now hastening up to Town ; with whom we shall make some farther acquaintance, in another quarter, by and by. Doubtless the request was complied with. u For the HonoroJjIf \\'i Ilium Li'vihall, Esquire, Speaker of the Jlonorable House of Commons : These. " DALIIOUSIE, 8th October, 1648. " SIR, Upon the desire of divers Noblemen and others of the Kingdom of Scotland, I am bold to become a suitor to you on the behalf of this Gentleman, the Bearer, Colonel Robert Montgomery; sbn-in-law 1 to the Earl of Eglinton. Wlx>sc faithfulness to you in the late troubles may render him worthy 1 Mistake nf tlir Lieutenant-General's for "son;" "youngest son/' say the Peerage Books. 376 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 9 Oct. of a far greater favor than I shall, at this time, desire for him : for I can assure you, that there is not a Gentleman of that Kingdom that appeared more active against the late Invaders of England than himself. 11 Sir, it 's desired that you would please to grant him an Order for two thousand of the common Prisoners that were of Duke Hamilton's Army. You will have very good security that they shall not for the future trouble you : he will ease you of the charge of keeping them, as speedily as any other way you can dispose of them ; besides their being in a friend's hands, so as there need be no fear of their being ever em- ployed against you. " Sir, what favor you shall please to afford the Gentleman will very much oblige many of your friends of the Scottish Nation j and .particularly " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 1 LETTER LXXIX. THE next, of Monday, is on public business ; deliberately looking before and after. " To the Honorable William Lenthall, JZsquire, Speaker of the Honorable House of Commons : These. " DALHOUSIE, 9th October, 1648. " SIR, In my last, wherein I gave you an account of my despatch of Colonel Bright to Carlisle, after the rendition of Berwick, I acquainted you with my intentions to go to the head-quarters of my horse at the Earl of Winton's, within six miles of Edinburgh ; that from thence I might represent to the Committee of Estates what I had farther to desire in your behalf. " The next day after I came thither, I received an invitation from the Committee of Estates to come to Edinburgh , they 1 Tanner MSS. (in Cary, ii. 32). 1648. LETTER LXXIX. DALHOUSIE. 377 sending to me the Lord Kirkcudbright and Major-General Holboru for that purpose ; with whom I went the same day, being Wednesday, 4th of this instant October. We fell into consideration, What was fit farther to insist upon. And being sensible that the late Agreement between the Committee of Estates and the Earls of Crawford, Glencairn, and Lanark, did not sufficiently answer my instructions, which were, To disenable them from being in power to raise new troubles to England : therefore I held it my duty, Not to be satisfied with the mere disbanding of themj but considering their power and interest, I thought it necessary to demand con- cerning them and all their abettors, according to the contents of the Paper 1 here enclosed. " Wherein, having received that very day your Votes for giving farther assistance [to the Well-affected in Scotland], I did in the close thereof acquaint them with the same ; re- serving such farther satisfaction to be given by the Kingdom of Scotland, as the Parliament of England should in their wisdom see cause to desire. The Committee of Estates [had] sent the Earl of Cassilis, Lord Warriston, and two Gentlemen more to me, To receive what I had to offer unto them ; which upon Thursday I delivered. Upon Friday I received by the said persons this enclosed Answer, 2 which is the Original itself. "Having proceeded thus far as a Soldier, and I trust, by the blessing of God, not to your disservice ; and having laid the business before you, I pray God direct you to do farther as may be for His glory, the good of the Nation wherewith you are intrusted, and the comfort and encouragement of the Saints of God in both Kingdoms and all the World over. I do think the affairs of Scotland are in a thriving posture, as to the interest of honest men : and [Scotland is] like to be a better neighbor to you now than when the great pretenders to the Covenant and Religion and Treaties, I mean Duke Hamilton, the Earls of Lauderdale, Traquair, Carnegy, and their confederates, had the power in their hands. I dare [be bold to] say that that Party, with their pretences, had no 1 Letter LXXVIL Already referred to, autwi, ].. 370. 378 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 90ct only, through the treachery of some in England (who have cause to blush), endangered the whole State and Kingdom of England ; but also [had] brought Scotland into such a con- dition, as that no honest man who had the fear of God, or a conscience of Religion, [and] the just ends of the Covenant and Treaties, could have a being in that Kingdom. But God, who is not to be mocked or deceived, and is very jealous when His Name and Eeligion are made use of to carry on impious designs, hath taken vengeance of such profanity, even to astonishment and admiration. And I wish from the bottom of my heart, it may cause all to tremble and repent, who have practised the like, to the blasphemy of His Name, and the destruction of His People ; so as they may never presume to do the like again ! And I think it is not unseasonable for me to take the humble boldness to say thus much at this time. " All the Enemy's Forces in Scotland are now disbanded. The Committee of Estates have declared against all of that Party's sitting in Parliament. 1 Good Elections are [already] made in divers places ; of such as dissented from and opposed the late wicked Engagement: and they are now raising a force of about 4,000 Horse and Foot j which until they can com- plete, they have desired me to leave them two Regiments of Horse and two Troops of Dragoons. Which accordingly I have resolved, conceiving I had warrant by your late Votes so to do ; and have left Major-General Lambert to command them. " I have received, and so have the Officers with me, many honors and civilities from the Committee of Estates, the City of Edinburgh, and Ministers ; with a noble entertainment ; which we may not own as done to us, but as [done to] your servants. I am now marching towards Carlisle ; and I shall give you such farther accounts of your affairs as there shall be occasion. I am, Sir, " Your humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." a 1 The Scotch Parliament, which is now getting itself elected. 8 King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 392, 19 ; see Commons Journals, vi. 54. 1648. LETTER LXXX. PONTEFRACT. 379 Cromwell, at Carlisle on the 14th, has received delivery of the Castle there, for which good news let the Messenger have ifilOO. 1 Leaving all in tolerable order in those regions, the Lieutenant-General hastens into Yorkshire to Pontefract or Pomfret Castle ; a a strong place which had been surprised in the beginning of the year, and is stubbornly defended ; sur- render being a very serious matter now ; the War itself being contrary to Law and Treaty, and as good as Treason, think some. LETTERS LXXX.-LXXXVI. THE Governor of Pontefract Castle is one Morris, once the Earl of Strafford's servant ; a desperate man : this is the Lieu- tenant-General's summons to him. LETTER LXXX. " For the Governor of Pontefract Castle. " [PONTEFRACT,] 9th November, 1648. "Sin, Being come hither for the reduction of this place, I thought fit to summon you to deliver your Garrison to me, for the use of the Parliament. Those gentlemen and soldiers with you may have better terms than if you should hold it to extremity. I expect your answer this day, and rest, " Your servant, CKOMWKIJ*"* Governor Morris stiffly refuses; holds out yet a good while, and at last loses his head at York assizes by the business. 4 Royalism is getting desperate ; has taken to highway robbery ; is assassinating, and extensively attempting to assassinate.' > Common* Journal*, 20th October, 1648. Appendix, No. 14. Newspapers (Cromwelliana, p. 48) ; Rushworth, vii. 1329. St.it.. Trial*. * Rush worth, TU. 1279 &c., 1916, 380 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. is Nov. Two weeks ago ; Sunday, 29th October, a Party sallied from this very Castle of Pontefract ; rode into Doncaster in disguise, and there, about five in the afternoon, getting into Colonel Rainsborough's lodging, stabbed him dead : murder, or a very questionable kind of homicide ! LETTER LXXXI. As to Pontefract and Governor Morris, here are some perti- nent suggestions, " propositions," the old Pamphlet calls them, sent " in a Letter from Lieutenant-General Cromwell and his Officers ; " which are " read in the House," and straightway acted upon, to a certain extent : had they been acted upon in full, that business might have ended sooner. tt For the Right Honorable the Committee of Lords and Commons sitting at Derby House : These present. " KNOTTINGLEY, NEAR PONTEFRACT, 15th November, 1648. " MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, So soon as I came into these parts, I met with an earnest desire from the Committee of this County to take upon me the charge here, for the redu- cing of the Garrison of Poutefract. I received also commands from my Lord General to the same effect. I have had sight of a Letter to the House of Commons ; wherein things are so represented, as if the Siege were at such a pass that the prize were already gained. In consideration whereof, I thought fit to let you know what the true state of this Garrison is ; as also the condition of the country, that so you may not think demands for such things as would be necessary unreason- able. " My Lords, the Castle hath been victualled with two hun- dred and twenty or forty fat cattle, within these three weeks ; and they have also gotten in, as I am credibly informed, salt enough for them and more. So that I apprehend they are victualled for a twelvemonth. The men within are resolved 1B4H. LETTER LXXXI. KNOTTINGLEY. 381 to endure to the utmost extremity; expecting no mercy, as indeed they deserve none. The place is very well known to be one of the strongest inland Garrisons in the Kingdom ; well watered ; situated upon a rock in every part of it, and there- fore difficult to mine. The walls very thick and high, with strong towers ; and if battered, very difficult of access, by reason of the depth and steepness of the graft. The County is exceedingly impoverished ; not able to bear free-quarter ; nor well able to furnish provisions, if we had moneys. The work is like to be long, if materials be not furnished answer- able. I therefore think it my duty to represent unto you as followeth : viz. " That moneys be provided for Three complete regiments of Foot, and Two of Horse ; [and indeed] that money be pro- vided for all contingencies which are in view, too many to enu- merate. That Five Hundred Barrels of powder, [and] Six good Battering-guns, with Three Hundred shot to each Gun, be speedily sent down to Hull : we desire none may be sent less than demi-cannous. We desire also some match and bullet. And if it may be, we should be glad that two or three of the biggest Mortar-pieces with shells may likewise be sent. "And although the desires of such proportions may seem mostly, yet I hope you will judge it good thrift ; especially if you consider that this place hath cost the Kingdom some hun- dred thousands of pounds already. And for aught I know, it may cost you one more, if it be trifled withal ; besides the dis- honor of it, and what other danger may be emergent, by its being in such hands. It 's true, here are some two or three git at guns in Hull, and hereabouts ; but they are unservice- able : and your Garrisons in Yorkshire are very much unsup- plied at this time. " T have not as yet drawn any of our Foot to this place ; only I make use of Colonel Fairfax's and Colonel Malevrier's Foot regiments; and keep the rest of the guards with the Horse; jnirjMising to bring on some of our Foot to-morrow. The rest these jarta Ix-in^ not well able to bear them are a little. 382 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 15 Nov. dispersed in Lincoln and Nottingham Shires, for some re- freshment ; which after so much duty they need, and a little expect. " And indeed I would not satisfy myself nor my duty to you and them, To put the poor men, at this season of the year, to lie in the field : before we be furnished with shoes, stockings and clothes, for them to cover their nakedness, which we hear are in preparation, and would l be speeded : and until we have deal-boards to make them courts-of-guard, and tools to cast up works to secure them. " These things I have humbly represented to you ; and wait- ing for your resolution and command, I rest, " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." a Due Orders of the House in consequence, dated Saturday, 18th November, can be read in the same old Pamphlet ; 3 most prompt Orders, giving if not " Five Hundred Barrels of powder," yet " Two Hundred and Fifty ; " a middle term, or compliance half-way, which perhaps is as much as one could expect ! Pontefract did not surrender till the end of March next. 4 Meanwhile, the Royal Treaty in Newport comes to no good issue, and the Forty Days are now done ; the Parliament by small and smaller instalments prolongs it, still hoping beyond hope for a good issue. The Army, sternly watchful of it from St. Albans, is presenting a Eemonstrance, That a good issue lies not in it ; that a good issue must be sought elsewhere than in it. By bringing Delinquents to justice ; and the CHIEF DELINQUENT, who has again involved this Nation in blood! To which doctrine, various petitioning Counties and Parties, and a definite minority in Parliament and England generally, testify their stern adherence, at all risks and hazards whatso- ever. 1 Old for "should." 2 King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 394, 24. 8 See also Commons Journals, vi. 81. " 22d March " (Commons Journals, vi. 174). 1648. LETTER LXXXII. KNOTTINGLEY. 383 LETTER LXXXII. JENNER Member for Cricklade, and Ashe Member for West- bury ; these two, sitting I think in the Delinquents' Commit- tee at Goldsmiths' Hall, seem inclined for a milder course. Wherein the Lieutenant-General does by no means agree with the said Jenner and Ashe ; having had a somewhat closer experience of the matter than they! " Colonel Owen " is a Welsh Delinquent ; I find he is a Sir John Owen, the same Sir John who seized my Lord Arch- bishop's Castle of Conway, in that violent manner long since. 1 A violent man, now got into trouble enough ; of whom there arises life-and-death question by and by. " The Governor of Nottingham" is Colonel Hutchinson, whom we know. Sir Miirmaduke Langdale we also know, and " presume you have heard what is become of him ? " Sir Marmaduke, it was rigorously voted on the 6th of this month, is one of the " Seven that shall be excepted from pardon ; " whom the King himself, if he bargain with us, shall never forgive. 1 He escaped after- wards from Nottingham Castle, by industry of his own. " To the Honorable my honored Friends Robert Jenner and John Ashe, Esquires \_at London~\ : These. "KXOTTINOLF.Y, NEAR POXTEFRACT, 20th November, 1G48. " GFVTT.EMKN, I received an Order from the Governor of Nottingham, directed to him from you, To bring up Colonel < hven, or take bail for his coining up to make his composition, In- having made an humble Petition to the Parliament for the same. "If I be not mistaken, the House of Commons did vote all those [persons] Traitors that did adhere to, or bring in, the in their late Invading of this Kingdom under Duke Hamilton. And not without very clear justice; this being :i more prodigious Treason than any that had been perfected In-fore; because the former quarrel was that Englishmen might 1 Antea, p. 274. f Commons Juiirnals, vi. 70. 384 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 90 Nor. rule over one another ; this to vassalize us to a foreign Nation. And their fault who have appeared in this Summer's business is certainly double to theirs who were in the first, because it is the repetition of the same offence against all the wit- nesses that God has borne, 1 by making and abetting a Second War. " And if this be their justice, 2 and upon so good grounds, I wonder how it comes to pass that so eminent actors should so easily be received to compound. You will pardon mo if T tell you how contrary this is to some of your judgments at the ren- dition of Oxford : though we had the Town in consideration, 8 and [our] blood saved to boot; yet Two Years perhaps was thought too little to expiate their offence. 4 But now, when you have such men in your hands, and it will cost you nothing to do justice ; now after all this trouble and the hazard of a Second War, for a little more money 5 all offences shall be pardoned ! " This Gentleman was taken with Sir Marmaduke Langdale, in their flight together : I presume you have heard what is become of him. Let me remember you, that out of the [same] Garrison was fetched not long since (I believe while we were in heat of action) Colonel Humphrey Mathews, than whom this Cause we have fought for has not had a more dangerous enemy ; and he not guilty only of being an enemy, but he 1 From Naseby downwards, God, in the battle-whirlwind, seemed to speak and witness very audibly. 2 House of Commons's. 8 Town as some recompense. * Sentence unintelligible to the careless reader, so hasty is it, and over- crowded with meaning in the original. " Give me leave to tell you that, if it were contrary to some of yonr judgments, that at the rendition of Oxford, though we had the Town in consideration, and blood saved to boot ; yet Two Years perhaps," &c. Oxford was surrendered 20th-24th June, 1G46 (antea, p. 234) , the Malignants found there were to have a composition, not exceed- ing Two Years' revenue for estates of inheritance (Rushworth, vi. 280-285), which the victorious Presbyterian Party, belike Jenner and Ashe among the rest, had exclaimed against as too lenient a procedure. Very different now, when the new Malignants, though a doubly criminal set, are bone of their own bone ! 6 Goldsmiths' Hall has a true feeling for Money ; a dimmer one for Jus tice, it seems ! 1648. LETTER LXXXH. KXOTTIXGLEY. 385 apostatized from your Cause and Quarrel ; having been a Colo- nel, ii not more, under you, and [then] the desperatest pro- moter of the Welsh Rebellion amongst them all ! And how near you were brought to ruin thereby, all men that know anything can tell ; * and this man was taken away by composi- tion, by what order I know not. " Gentlemen, though my sense does appear more severe than perhaps you would have it, yet give me leave to tell you I find a sense among the Officers concerning such things as [the treatment of] those men, to amazement ; which truly is not so much to see their blood made so cheap, as to see such mani- fest witnessings of God, so terrible and so just, no more reverenced. " I have directed the Governor to acquaint the Lord-General herewith j and rest, Gentlemen, " Your most obedient servant [OLIVER CROMWELL]." 2 Here is a sour morsel for Jenner and Ashe ; different from what they were expecting ! It is to be hoped they will digest this piece of admonition, and come forth on the morrow two sadder and two wiser men. For Colonel Owen, at all events, there is clearly no outlook, at present, but sitting reflective in the strong-room of Nottingham Castle, whither his bad Genius has led him. May escape beheading on this occasion ; but very narrowly. He " was taken with Sir Marmaduke in their flight together : " one of the confused Welshmen discomfited in Juno and July last, who had fled to join Hamilton, and be worse discomfited a second time. The House some days ago hud voted that "Sir John Owen," our "Colonel Owen," should get off with "banishment;" likewise that Lord Capel, the Earl of Holland, and other capital Delinquents should be * banished ; " and even that James Earl of Cambridge (James Duke of Hamilton) should be "fined 100,000." Such votes are not unlikely to produce " a sense amongst the Officers," who had to grapple with these men, as with devouring dragons 1 Witnww fhepirtuw, St. Pagan's, Pembroke : " thia man " in Mathews. SI'-n.f MSS. 151'J, foL 94. wi. xvu. 25 386 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 20 Nov. lately, life to life. Such votes will need to be rescinded. 1 Such, and some others ! For indeed the Presbyterian Party has rallied in the House during the late high blaze of Royal- ism ; and got a Treaty set on foot as we saw, and even got the Eleven brought back again. Jenner and Ashe are old stagers, having entered Parliament at the beginning. They are frequently seen in public busi- ness; assiduous subalterns. Ashe sat afterwards in Oliver's Parliaments. 2 Of this Ashe I will remember another thing : once, some years ago, when the House was about thanking some Monthly-fast Preacher, Ashe said pertinently, " What is the use of thanking a Preacher who spoke so low that nobody could hear him ? " 8 Colonel Humphrey Mathews, we are glad to discover, 4 was one of the persons taken in Pembroke Castle by Oliver himself in July last : brought along with him, on the march towards Preston, and left, as the other Welsh Prisoners were, at Not- tingham ; out of which most just durance some pragmatical official, Ashe, Jenner, or another, "by what order I know not," has seen good to deliver him ; him, " the desperatest promoter of the Welsh Rebellion amongst them all." Such is red-tape even in a Heroic Puritanic Age! No wonder "the Officers have a sense of it," amounting even "to amazement." Our blood that we have shed in the Quarrel, this you shall account as nothing, since you so please ; but these " manifest witness- ings of God, so terrible and so just," are they not witness- ings of God ; are they mere sports of chance ? Ye wretched infidel red-tape mortals, what will or can become of you ? By and by, if this course hold, it will appear that " you are no Parliament ; " that you are a nameless unbelieving rabble, with the mere title of Parliament, who must go about your business else-whither, with soldiers' pikes in your rearward ! This Lieutenant-General is not without temper, says Mr. Maidston : " temper exceeding fiery, as I have known ; yet the 1 Passed, 10th November, 1648 (Commons Journals, vi. 3) ; repealed, 13th December (with a Declaration; Somei-t Tracts, v. 167). 2 Parliamentai-y History, xxi. 3. D'Ewes MSS. p. 414. * Cromwelliana, pp. 41, 4$ 1648. LETTER LXXXIII. KNOTTINGLEY. 387 flame of it kept down for most part, or soon allayed ; and naturally compassionate towards objects in distress, even to an effeminate measure. Though God had made him a heart wherein was left little room for any fear but what was due to God Himself, yet did he exceed in tenderness towards suf- ferers," * yes, and in rigor against infidel quacks and god- less detestable persons, which is the opposite phasis of that, he was by no means wanting! LETTER LXXXIII. " ALL the Regiments here have petitioned my Lord General against the Treaty [at Newport], and for Justice and a Settle- ment of the Kingdom. They desired the Lieutenant-General to recommend their Petition ; which he hath done in the Let- ter following ; " which is of the same date, and goes in the same bag with that to Jenuer and Ashe, just given. " For his Excellency the Lord General Faifax [at St. Allans : These]. u KKOTTIHGLEY, 20th November, 1648. " MY LORD, I find in the Officers of the Regiments a very great sense of the sufferings of this poor Kingdom ; and in them all a very great zeal to have impartial Justice done upon Offenders. And I must confess, I do in all, from my heart, concur with them ; and I verily think and am persuaded they are things which God puts into our hearts. " I shall not need to offer anything to your Excellency : I know, God teaches you; and that He hath manifested His presence so to yon as that you will give glory to Him in the ?yos of all the world. I held it my duty, having received these Petitions and Letters, and being [so] desired by the franiers thereof, to present them to you. The good Lord 's I.-tf-r r.. U'iuthrup (Tlmrloe, i. 766). 388 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 20 Nov. work His will upon your heart, enabling you to it ; and the presence of Almighty God go along with you ! Thus prays, my Lord, "Your most humble and faithful servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * This same day, Monday, 20th November, 1648, the Army from St. Albans, by Colonel Ewer and a Deputation, presents its humble unanimous " Remonstrance " to the House ; craving that the same be taken "into speedy and serious considera- tion." 2 It is indeed a most serious Document ; tending to the dread Unknown ! Whereupon ensue " high debates," Whether we shall take it into consideration ? Debates to be resumed this day week. The Army, before this day week, moves up to Windsor ; will see a little what consideration there is. New- port Treaty is just expiring; Presbyterian Royalism, on the brink of desperate crisis, adds still two days of life to it. LETTER LXXXIV. THE Army came to Windsor on Saturday the 25th ; on which same day Oliver, from Knottingley, is writing a remarkable Letter, the last of the series, to Hammond in the Isle of Wight, who seems to be in much strait about "that Person " and futile Treaty, now under his keeping there. First, however, read this Note, of like date, on a local mat- ter : one of many Notes which a vigilant Lieutenant-General, be where he may, has to importune the Governing Powers with. Hull Garrison and Governor Overton, like most garri- sons and persons, are short of pay. Grocers' Hall, Haber- dashers' Hall, or some section of the Finance Department, ought absolutely to take thought of it. 1 Rnshworth, vii. 1339. 8 Commons Journals, vi. 81 ; Remonstrance itself in Rushworth, vii. 1330. IMS. LETTER LXXXIV. KNOTTINGLEY. 389 "For my noble Friend Thomas St. Nicholas, Esquire [These, at London]. '' KNOTTINGLEY, 25th November, 1648. " SIR, I suppose it 's not unknown to you how much the Country is in arrear to the Garrison of Hull ; as likewise how probable it is that the Garrison will break, unless some speedy course be taken to get them money ; the soldiers at the present being ready to mutiny, as not having money to buy them bread; and without money the stubborn Townspeople will not trust them for the worth of a penny. " Sir, I must beg of you that, as you tender the good of the Country, so far as the security of that Garrison is motioned, you would give your assistance to the helping of them to their money which the Country owes them. The Governor will apply himself to you, either in person or by letter. I pray you do for him herein as in a business of very high conse- quence. I am the more earnest with you, as having a, very deep sense how dangerous the event may be, of their being neglected in the matter of their pay. I rest upon your favor herein ; and subscribe myself, Sir, " Your very humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * Hull Garrison does not " break : " doubtless St. Nicholas, a chief Clerk, of weight in his department, did what he could. A Kentish man this St. Nicholas, if any one could be sup- posed to care what he was; came to be Recorder of Canter- bury, and even refractory Member for Canterbury ; * has his seat, for the present, in the Grocers'-Hall region, among the budgets or " bottomless bags," as Independency Walker calls them. And now for the remarkable Letter contemporaneous with this: 1 KimWs (anonymons) Life of Cromwell (4th edition. London, 1741), p, 92 : Not giveu in tho 1st edition ; no notice whence. 8 Whitlocke, September, 1656 (2d edition, p. 648); Parliamentary Hutory, xxi. 8 ; and Common* Journalt, vii. 65O, 7jy 390 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 26 Nov. LETTER LXXXV. K To Colonel Robert Hammond : These. " [KNOTTINGLEY, NEAR PONTEFRACT,] 25th November, 1648. "DEAR EOBIN, No man rejoiceth more to see a line froin thee than myself. I know thou hast long been under trial. Thou shalt be no loser by it. All [things] must work for the best. " Thou desirest to hear of my experiences. I can tell thee : I am such a one as thou didst formerly know, having a body of sin and death ; but I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord there is no condemnation, though much infirmity ; and I wait for the redemption. And in this poor condition I obtain mercy, and sweet consolation through the Spirit. And find abundant cause every day to exalt the Lord, and abase flesh, and herein 5 I have some exercise. " As to outward dispensations, if we may so call them : we have not been without our share of beholding some remarkable providences, and appearances of the Lord. His presence hath been amongst us, and by the light of His countenance we have prevailed. 2 We are sure, the good-will of Him who dwelt in the Bush has shined upon us ; and we can humbly say, We know in whom we have believed ; who can and will perfect what remaineth, and us also in doing what is well-pleasing in His eyesight. " I find some trouble in your spirit ; occasioned first, not only by the continuance of your sad and heavy burden, as you call it, but [also] by the dissatisfaction you take at the ways of some good men whom you love with your heart, who through this principle, That it is lawful for a lesser part, if in the right, to force [a numerical majority] &c. "To the first : Call not your burden sad or heavy. If your Father laid it upon you, He intended neither. He is the Father of lights, from whom comes every good and perfect 1 " and iti the latter respect at least." a At Preston, &c. 1648. LETTKK LXXXV. KNOTTINGLEY. 391 gift; who of His own will begot us, and bade us count it all joy when such tilings befall us ; they being for the exercise of faith and patience, whereby in the end we shall be made perfect (James i.). "Dear Robin, our fleshly reasonings ensnare us. These make us say, ' heavy/ ' sad/ ' pleasant/ ' easy.' Was there not a little of this when Robert Hammond, through dissatis- faction too, desired retirement from the Army, and thought ot quiet in the Isle of Wight ? * Did not God find him out there ? I believe he will never forget this. And now I per- ceive he is to seek again ; partly through his sad and heavy burden, and partly through his dissatisfaction with friends' actings. "Dear Robin, thou and I were never worthy to be door- keepers in this Service. If thou wilt seek, seek to know the mind of God in all that chain of Providence, whereby God brought thee thither, and that Person to thee ; how, before and since, God has ordered him, and affairs concerning him : and then tell me, Whether there be not some glorious and high meaning in all this, above what thou hast yet attained ? And, laying aside thy fleshly reason, seek of the Lord to teach thee what that is ; and He will do it. I dare be positive to say, It is not that the wicked should be exalted, that God should so appear as indeed He hath done. 2 For there is no peace to them. No, it is set upon the hearts of such as fear the Lord, and we have witness upon witness, That it shall go ill with them and their partakers. I say again, seek that spirit to teach thee ; which is the spirit of knowledge and understand- ing, the spirit of counsel and might, of wisdom and of the fear of the Lord. That spirit will close thine eyes and stop thine ears, so that thou shalt not judge by them; but thou shalt judge for the meek of the Earth, and thou shalt be made able to do accordingly. The Lord direct thee to that which is well-pleasing in His eyesight. " As to thy dissatisfaction with friends' actings upon that 1 6th SfptMnliT "f t'" 1 { V.-ar. r other purposes that God has so manifest**! Hiimmlf as, in these trana- action* of oon, lie Luia 392 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 35 Nov. supposed principle, I wonder not at that. If a man take not his own burden well, he shall hardly others' ; especially if involved by so near a relation of love and Christian brother- hood as thou art. I shall not take upon me to satisfy ; but I hold myself bound to lay my thoughts before so dear a friend. The Lord do His own will. " You say : ' God hath appointed authorities among the nations, to which active or passive obedience is to be yielded. This resides in England in the Parliament. Therefore active or passive resistance.' &c. " Authorities and powers are the ordinance of God. This or that species is of human institution, and limited, some with larger, others with stricter bands, each one according to its constitution. [But] I do not therefore think the Authorities may do anything, 1 and yet such obedience be due. All agree that there are cases in which it is lawful to resist. If so, your ground fails, and so likewise the inference. Indeed, dear Robin, not to multiply words, the query is, Whether ours be such a case ? This ingenuously is the true question. " To this I shall say nothing, though I could say very much ; but only desire thee to see what thou findest in thy own heart to two or three plain considerations. First, Whether Salus Populi be a sound position ? 3 Secondly, Whether in the way in hand,* really and before the Lord, before whom conscience has to stand, this be provided for ; or if the whole fruit of the War is not like to be frustrated, and all most like to turn to what it was, and worse ? And this, contrary to Engage- ments, explicit Covenants with those 4 who ventured their lives upon those Covenants and Engagements, without whom per- haps, in equity, relaxation ought not to be ? Thirdly, Whether this Army be not a lawful Power, called by God to oppose and fight against the King upon some stated grounds ; and being in power to such ends, may not oppose one Name of Authority, for those ends, as well as another Name, since it was not the 1 Whatsoever they like. 2 " The safety of the people the supreme law : " is that a true doctrine or a false one ? 3 By this Parliamentary Treaty with the King. * Ua soldiers. 1648. LETTER LXXXV. KNOTTINGLEY. 393 outward Authority summoning them that by its power made the quarrel lawful, but the quarrel was lawful iu itself ? If so, it may be, acting will be justified in foro humano. But truly this kind of reasonings may be but fleshly, either with or against: only it is good to try what truth may be in them. And the Lord teach us. " My dear Friend, let us look into providences ; surely they mean somewhat. They hang so together ; have been so con- stant, so clear, unclouded. Malice, swoln malice against God's people, now called ' Saints/ to root out their name ; and yet they [these poor Saints], getting arms, and therein blessed with defence and more ! I desire, he that is for a principle of suffering * would not too much slight this. I slight not him who is so minded : but let us beware lest fleshly reasoning see more safety in making use of this principle than in acting! Who acts, if he resolve not through God to be willing to part with all ? Our hearts are very deceitful, on the right and on the left. " What think you of Providence disposing the hearts of so many of God's people this way, especially in this poor Army, wherein the great God has vouchsafed to appear ! I know not one Officer among us but is on the increasing haud. 3 And let me say, it is after much patience, here in the North. We trust, the same Lord who hath framed our minds in our act- ings is with us in this also. And all contrary to a natural tendency, and to those comforts our hearts could wish to enjoy as well as others. And the difficulties probably to be encoun- tered with, and the enemies : not few ; even all that is glo- rious in this world. Appearance of united names, titles and authorities [all against us] ; and yet not terrified [we] ; only desiring to fear our great God, that we do nothing against His will. Truly this ia our condition.* 1 Faflrire obedience. * Come or coming over to this opinion. * The incorrect original, rushing on in an eager nngrammatical manner, were it not that common readers might miss the meaning of it, would please me better; at any rate I subjoin it here as somewhat characteristic: "And It- 1 me sajr it ia hero iu the North aftr much patiouce, wo trust the same Lord 394 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 25 Nov. " And to conclude. We in this Northern Army were in a waiting posture ; desiring to see what the Lord would lead us to. And a Declaration l is put out, at which many are shaken : although we could perhaps have wished the stay of it till after the Treaty, yet seeing it is conie out, we trust to rejoice in the will of the Lord, waiting His farther pleasure. Dear llobin, beware of men ; look up to the Lord. Let Him be free to speak and command in thy heart. Take heed of the things I fear thou hast reasoned thyself into; and thou shalt be able through Him, without consulting flesh and blood, to do valiantly for Him and His people. " Thou mentionest somewhat as if, by acting against such opposition as is like to be, there will be a tempting of God. Dear Robin, tempting of God ordinarily is either by acting presumptuously in carnal confidence, or in unbelief through diffidence : both these ways Israel tempted God in the wilder- ness, and He was grieved by them. Not the encountering [of] difficulties, therefore, makes us to tempt God ; but the acting before and without faith. 2 If the Lord have in any measure persuaded His people, as generally Ho hath, of the lawfulness, nay of the duty, this persuasion prevailing upon the heart is faith ; and acting thereupon is acting in faith ; and the more the difficulties are, the more the faith. And it is most sweet that he who is not persuaded have patience towards them that are, and judge not : and this will free thee from the trouble of others' actings, which, thou sayest, adds to thy grief. Only let me offer two or three things, and I have done. " Dost thou not think this fear of the Levellers (of whom there is no fear) 'that they would destroy Nobility' [&c.], has caused some to take up corruption, and find it lawful to make this ruining hypocritical Agreement, on one part ? 8 Hath not who hath framed our minds in our actings, is with us in this also. And this contrary to a natural tendency, and to those comforts our hearts could wish to enjoy with others. And the difficulties probably to be encountered with, and the enemies, not few, even all that is glorious in this world, with appear- ance of united names, titles and authorities, and yet not terrified, only " &c. 1 Remonstrance of the Army, presented by Kwer on Monday last 8 Very true, my General, then, now, and always ! 8 Hollow Treaty at Newport. 1648. LETTER LXXXV KNOTTINGLEY. 395 this biased even some good men ? I will not say, the thing they fear will come upon them ; but if it do, they will them- selves bring it upon themselves. Have not some of our friends, by their passive principle (which I judge not, only I think it liable to temptation as well as the active, and neither of them good but as we are led into them of God, and neither of them to be reasoned into, because the heart is deceitful), been occasioned to overlook what is just and honest, and to think the people of God may have as much or more good the one way than the other ? Good by this Man, against whom the Lord hath witnessed ; and whom thou knowest ! Is this so in their hearts ; or is it reasoned, forced in ? l " Robin, I have done. Ask we our hearts, Whether we think that, after all, these dispensations, the like to which many gen- erations cannot afford, should end in so corrupt reasonings of good men ; and should so hit the designings of bad ? Think- est thou, in thy heart, that the glorious dispensations of God point out to this ? Or to teach His people to trust in Him, and to wait for better things, when, it may be, better are sealed to many of their spirits ? a And I, as a poor looker-on, I had rather live in the hope of that spirit [which believes that God doth so teach us] and take my share with them, expecting a good issue, than be led away with the others. "This trouble I have been at, because my soul loves thee, and I would not have thee swerve, or lose any glorious oppor- tunity the Lord puts into thy hand. The Lord be thy coun- sellor. Dear Robin, I rest thine, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* Colonel Hammond, the ingenuous young man whom Oliver much loves, did not receive this Letter at the Isle of Wight, whither it was directed ; young Colonel Hammond is no longer tin TO. On Monday, the 27th, there came to him Colonel Ewer, 1 I think it in "reasoned " in, and by bad arguments too, your Excellency! The inner heart of the men, in real contact with the inner heart of the matter, had little to do with all that : alas, wot there erer any such " contact " with the real truth of any matter, on the part of nnch men ! * Already indubitably sure to many of them. Birch, p. 101 ; ends the volume. 396 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 27 Nor, he of the Remonstrance ; Colonel Ewer with new force, with an Order from the Lord General and Army-Council that Colo- nel Hammond do straightway repair to Windsor, being wanted at head-quarters there. A young Colonel, with dubitations such as those of Hammond's, will not suit in that Isle at present. Ewer, on the Tuesday night, a night of storm and pouring rain, besets his Majesty's lodgings in the Town of Newport (for his Majesty is still on parole there), with strange soldiers, in a strange state of readiness, the smoke of their gun- matches poisoning the air of his Majesty's apartment itself ; and on the morrow morning at eight of the clock, calls out his Majesty's coach ; moves off with his Majesty in grim reti- cence and rigorous military order, to Hurst Castle, a small solitary stronghold on the opposite beach yonder. 1 For, at London, matters are coming rapidly to a crisis. The resumed Debate, " Shall the Army Remonstrance be taken into consideration ? " does not come out affirmative ; on the con- trary, on Thursday, the 30th, it comes out negative by a Major- ity of Ninety: "No, we will not take it into consideration." " No ? " The Army at Windsor, thereupon, spends again "a Day in Prayer." The Army at Windsor has decided on the morrow that it will march to London ; marches, arrives accordingly, on Saturday, December 2d; quarters itself in Whitehall, in St. James's; "and other great vacant Houses in the skirts of the City and Villages about, no offence be- ing given anywhere." a In the drama of Modern History one knows not any graver, more noteworthy scene ; earnest as very Death and Judgment. They have decided to have Jus- tice, these men ; to see God's Justice done, and His judgments executed on this Earth. The abysses where the thunders and the splendors are bred, the reader sees them again laid bare ; and black Madness lying close to the Wisdom which is bright- est and highest : and owls and godless men who hate the lightning and the light, and love the mephitic dusk and dark- ness, are no judges of the actions of heroes ! " Shedders of blood ? " Yes, blood is occasionally shed. The healing Sur- 1 Colonel Cook's Narrative, in Rushworth, vii. 1344. a Rnshworth, vii. 1350. 1648. LETTER LXXXV. KNOTTINGLEY. 397 geon, the sacrificial Priest, the august Judge pronouncer of God's oracles to men, these and the atrocious Murderer, are alike shedders of blood; and it is an owl's eye that, except for the dresses they wear, discerns no difference in these ! Let us leave the owl to his hootings ; let us get on with our Chronology and swift course of events. On Monday, 1th December, the House, for the last time, takes " into farther debate " the desperate question, Whether his Majesty's concessions in that Treaty of Newport are a ground of settlement ? debates it all Monday ; has debated it all Friday and Saturday before. Debates it all Monday, " till five o'clock next morning ; " at five o'clock next morning, decides it, Yea. By a Majority of Forty-six, One Hundred and Twenty-nine to Eighty-three, it is at five o'clock on Tuesday morning decided, Yea, they are a ground of settle- ment. The Army Chiefs and the Minority consult together, in deep and deepest deliberation, through that day and night ; not, I suppose, without Prayer ; and on the morrow morning this is what we see : Wednesday, 6th December, 1648, " Colonel Rich's regiment of horse and Colonel Pride's regiment of foot were a guard to the Parliament; and the City Trainbands were discharged" from that employment. 1 Yes, they were ! Colonel Rich's horse stand ranked in Palace-yard, Colonel Pride's foot in Westmin- ster Hall and at all entrances to the Commons House, this day : and in Colonel Pride's hand is a written list of names, names of the chief among the Hundred and Twenty-nine ; and at his side is my Lord Grey of Groby, who, as this Member after that comes up, whispers or beckons, " He is one of them : he cannot enter ! " and Pride gives the word, " To the Queen's Court ; " and Member after Member is marched thither, Forty- one of them this day; and kept there in a state bordering on rabidity, ;usking, By what Law ? and ever again, By what Law ? Is there a color or faintest shadow of Law, to be found in any of the Books, Year-books, Rolls of Parliament, Brac- tous, Fletas, Cokes upon Lyttletou, for this ? Hugh Peters 1 Kiuhworth, vii. 1353, BOO Whitlocke (2d edition, p. 360), Walker's , ic. 398 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 6 Dec. visits them ; has little comfort, no light as to the Law ; con- fesses, " It is by the Law of Necessity ; truly, by the Power of the Sword." It must be owned the Constable's baton is fairly down, this day; overborne by the Power of the Sword, and a Law not to be found in any of the Books. At evening the distracted Forty-one are marched to Mr. Duke's Tavern hard by, a " Tavern called Hell ; " and very imperfectly accommodated for the night. Sir Symonds D'Ewes, who has ceased taking notes long since ; Mr. William Prynne, louder than any in the question of Law ; Waller, Massey, Harley, and other remnants of the old Eleven, are of this unlucky Forty-one ; among whom too we count little Clement Walker " in his gray suit with his little stick," l asking in the voice of the indomitablest terrier or Blenheim cocker, "By what Law ? I ask again, By what Law ? " Whom no mortal will ever be able to answer. Such is the far-famed Purging of the House by Colonel Pride. This evening, while the Forty-one are getting lodged in Mr. Duke's, Lieutenant-General Cromwell came to Town. Ponte- fract Castle is not taken ; he has left Lambert looking after that, and come up hither to look after more important things. The Commons on Wednesday did send out to demand " the Members of this House " from Colonel Pride ; but Pride made respectful evasive answer ; could not, for the moment, com- ply with the desires of the Honorable House. On the Thurs- day Lieutenant-General Cromwell is thanked ; and Pride's Purge continues : new men of the Majority are seized ; others scared away need no seizing ; above a Hundred in all ; * who are sent into their countries, sent into the Tower ; sent out k of our way, and trouble us no farther. The Minority has now become Majority ; there is now clear course for it, clear reso- lution there has for some time back been in it. What its resolution was, and its action that it did in pursuance thereof, "an action not done in a corner, but in sight of all the Na- tions," and of God who made the Nations, we know, and the whole world knows ! 1 List in Rushworth, p. 1355. 1 Liat in Soiners Tracts, vi. 37 ; verj iuvorrect, w all the Lists jure. IMS LETTER LXXXVI. LONDON. 391) LETTER LXXXVI. DUTCH Dorislaus, the learned Doctor, late Judge-Advocate, employed in many weighty things, and soon to be employed in the weightiest, wants now a very small accommodation which is in the gift of certain Cambridge people. A busy Lieutenant-General, while the world-whirlwind is piping loud, has to write for him this small Note withal : 4 u To the Right Worshipful the Master and Fellows of Trinity Hall in Cambridge : These. " [LONDON,] 18th December, 1648. " GhnrouBMBN, I am given to understand that by the late decease of Dr. Duck, his Chamber hath become vacant in the Dm -tors Commons [here]; to which Dr. Dorislaus now de- si reth to be your tenant : who hath done service unto the Parliament from the beginning of these Wars, and hath been constantly employed by the Parliament in many weighty affairs; and especially of late, beyond the seas, with the Stut 's General of the United Provinces. " 1 1' you please to prefer him before any other, paying rent and line to your College, I shall take it as a courtesy at your hands ; whereby you will oblige, " Your assured friend and servant, "OLIVER CKOMWELL." * Whether Dorislaus got Duck's Chamber, we shall not ask ; li'-in-.r, ::oinf three weeks hence, employed as Advocate in nil- King's Trial, and shortly after assassinated at the Hague for that work, 2 it proved to be of no importance to Dorislaus. The loud world-whirlwind pij>es as before. > Triuity-Hall MSS. in r,i, ,,//,/./. Partfoliu (Lou don, 1840), ii. 390 M Autea, p. 27y ; Wood, iii. 400 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 29 Jan. DEATH-WARRANT. THE Trial of Charles Stuart falls not to be described in this place ; the deep meanings that lie in it cannot be so much as glanced at here. Oliver Cromwell attends in the High Court of Justice at every session except one; Fairfax sits only in the first. Ludlow, Whalley, Walton, names known to us, are also constant attendants in that High Court, during that long-memorable Month of January, 1649. The King is thrice brought to the Bar ; refuses to plead, comports himself with royal dignity, with royal haughtiness, strong in his divine right ; " smiles " contemptuously, " looks with an austere coun- tenance ; " does not seem, till the very last, to have fairly be- lieved that they would dare to sentence him. But they were men sufficiently provided with daring ; men, we are bound to see, who sat there as in the Presence of the Maker of all men, as executing the judgments of Heaven above, and had not the fear of any man or thing on the Earth below. Bradshaw said to the King, " Sir, you are not permitted to issue out in these discoursings. This Court is satisfied of its authority. No Court will bear to hear its authority questioned in that man- ner." " Clerk, read the Sentence ! " And so, under date Monday, 29th January 1648-9, there is this stern Document to be introduced ; not specifically of Oliver's composition ; but expressing in every letter of it the conviction of Oliver's heart, in this, one of his most important appearances on the stage of earthly life. " To Colonel Francis Hacker, Colonel Huncks, and Lieutenant- Colonel Phayr, and to every of them. " At the High Court of Justice for the Trying and Judging of Charles Stuart, King of England, 29th January, 1648. w WHEREAS Charles Stuart, King of England, is and stand- eth convicted, attainted and condemned of High Treason and other high Crimes ; aud Sentence upon Saturday last was pro- nounced against him by this Court, To be put to death by M*e 1648 DEATH-WARRANT 401 severing of his head from his body ; of which Sentence exe- cution yet remaineth to be done : " These are therefore to will and require you to see the said Sentence executed, in the open Street before Whitehall, upon the morrow, being the Thirtieth day of this instant month of January, between the hours of Ten in the morning and Five in the afternoon, with full effect. And for so doing, this shall be your warrant. " And these are to require all Officers and Soldiers, and others the good People of this Nation of England, to be assist- ing unto you in this service. " Given under our hands and seals, " JOHN BRADSHAW. THOMAS GREY [LORD GROBY]. OLIVER CROMWELL. [and Fifty-six others.]" * " Tetrce bettuce, ac molossis suis ferociores, Hideous monsters, more ferocious than their own mastiffs ! " shrieks Saumaise ; a shrieks all the world, in unmelodious soul-confusing diapason of distraction, happily at length grown very faint in our day. The truth is, no modern reader can conceive the then atrocity, ferocity, unspeakability of this fact. First, after long reading in the old dead Pamphlets does one see the magnitude of it. To be equalled, nay to be preferred think some, in point of horror, to " the Crucifixion of Christ." Alas, in these irrev- erent times of ours, if all the Kings of Europe were cut in pieces at one swoop, and flung in heaps in St. Margaret's Church-yard on the same day, the emotion would, in strict arithmetical truth, be small in comparison ! We know it not, this atrocity of the English Regicides ; shall never know it. I reckon it perhaps the most daring action any Body of Men to be met with in History ever, with clear consciousness, de- in..-rately set themselves to do. Dread Phantoms, glaring sujHirnal on you, when once they are quelled and their 1 Rtuhworth, rii. 1426; Nakou's Trial of King C'Aor/ej (London, 1684), Pbelpcw's Trial of Ac. &c. Balmaati Defennu Hji (Sumj>lil>iw regiia, 1650), p. 6. TOL. XVII M 402 PART IV. SECOND CIVIL WAR. 90 Jan. 1648. light snuffed out, none knows the terror of tho Phantom ! The Phantom is a poor paper-lantern with a candle-end in it, which any whipster dare now beard. A certain Queen in some South-Sea Island, I have read in Missionary Books, had been converted to Christianity ; did not any longer believe in the old gods. She assembled her people ; said to them, " My faithful People, the gods do not dwell in that burning-mountain in the centre of our Isle. That is not God ; no, that is a common burning-mountain, mere culinary fire burning under peculiar circumstances. See, I will walk before you to that burning-mountain ; will empty my wash-bowl into it, cast my slipper over it, defy it to the uttermost, and stand the consequences ! " She walked ac- cordingly, this South-Sea Heroine, nerved to the sticking- place; her people following in pale horror and expectancy: she did her experiment ; and, I am told, they have truer notions of the gods in that Island ever since ! Experiment which it is now very easy to repeat, and very needless. Honor to the Brave who deliver us from Phantom-dynasties, in South- Sea Islands and in North ! This action of the English Regicides did in effect strike a damp like death through the heart of Flunkyism universally in this world. Whereof Flunkyism, Cant, Cloth-worship, or whatever ugly name it have, has gone about incurably sick ever since ; and is now at length, in these generations, very rapidly dying. The like of which action will not be needed for a thousand years again. Needed, alas not till a new genuine Hero-worship has arisen, has perfected itself; and had time to degenerate into a Flunkyism and Cloth-worship again 1 Which I take to be a very long date indeed. Thus ends the Second Civil War. In Regicide, in a Com- monwealth and Keepers of the Liberties of England. In punishment of Delinquents, in abolition of Cobwebs ; if it be possible, in a Government of Heroism and Veracity ; at lowest, of Anti-Flunkyism, Anti-Cant, and the endeavor after Heroism and Veracity. PAET V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1649. LETTEES LXXXVII.-XCVL ON Tuesday, 30th January, 1648-9, it is ordered in the Com- mons House, " That the Post be stayed until to-morrow morn- ing, ten of the clock ; " and the same afternoon, the King's Execution having now taken place, Edward Dendy, Sergeant- at-Arms, with due trumpeters, pursuivants and horse-troops, notifies, loud as he can blow, at Cheapside and elsewhere, openly to all men, That whosoever shall proclaim a new King, Charles Second or another, without authority of Parliament, in this Nation of England, shall be a Traitor and suffer death. For which service, on the morrow, each trumpeter receives "ten shillings" of the public money, and Sergeant Dendy himself shall see what he will receive. 1 And all Sheriffs, Mayors of Towns and such like are to do the same in their re- spective localities, that the fact be known to every one. After which follow, in Parliament and out of it, such debatings, committee-ings, consultings towards a Settlement of this Nation, as the reader can in a dim way sufficiently fancy for himself on considering the two following facts. First, That on February 13M, Major Thomas Scott, an honorable Member whom we shall afterwards know better, limits in his Report OF Ordinance for a COUNCIL OF STATE, to be henceforth the Executive among us ; which Council, to the 1 Common* Journal*, vi. 136; Scobell's Acti and UrJinanctt (London, IftfiR. 1667). ii. 3 404 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. i Feb. number of Forty-one Persons, is thereupon nominated by Parliament ; and begins its Sessions at Derby House on the 17th. Bradshaw, Fairfax, Cromwell, Whitlocke, Harry Marten, Ludlow, Vane the Younger, and others whom we know, are of this Council. Second, That, after much adjustment and new-modelling, new Great Seals, new Judges, Sergeant's-maces, there comes out, on May 19th, an emphatic Act, brief as Sparta, in these words : " Be it declared and enacted by this present Parlia- ment, and by the authority of the same : That the People of England, and of all the dominions and territories thereunto belonging, are and shall be, and are hereby constituted, made, established and confirmed to be, A COMMONWEALTH OR FKEE- STATE ; and shall from henceforth be governed as a Common- wealth and Free-State, by the Supreme Authority of this Nation the Representatives of the People in Parliament, and by such as they shall appoint and constitute officers and minis- ters under them for the good of the People ; and that with- out any King or House of Lords." 1 What modelling and consulting has been needed in the interim, the reader shall conceive. Strangely enough, among which great national transactions the following small family -matters again turn up; asserting that they too had right to happen in this world, and keep memory of themselves, and show how a Lieutenant-General's mind, busy pulling down Idolatrous Kingships and setting up Eeligious Commonwealths, has withal an idle eldest Son to marry ! There occurred " a stick," as we saw some time ago, 2 in this Marriage-Treaty : but now it gathers life again ; and, not to agitate the reader's sympathies overmuch, we will say at once that it took effect this time ; that Richard Cromwell was actually wedded to Dorothy Mayor, at Hursley, on Mayday, 1649 ; 8 and, one point fairly settled at last ! But now mark farther how Anne, second daughter of the House of Hursley, 1 Scobell, ii. 30 ; Commons Journals, 1 9th May. "- Letter LVI. antea p. 298. 8 Noble, i. 188. 1049. LETTER LXXXVII. LONDON. 405 came to be married not long after to " John Diineh of Pusey in Berkshire ; " which Dunch of Pusey had a turn for collect- ing Letters. How Dunch, groping about Hursley in subse- quent years, found "Seventeen Letters of Cromwell," and collected thorn, and laid them up at Pusey ; how, after a cen- tury or so, Horace Walpole, likewise a collector of Letters, got his eye upon them ; transcribed them, imparted them to dull Harris. 1 From whom, accordingly, here they still are and continue. This present fascicle of Ten is drawn principally from the Pusey stock; the remainder will introduce them- selves in due course. LETTER LXXXVII. COLONEL NORTON, " dear Dick," was purged out by Pride ; lazy Dick and lazy Frank Eussel were both purged out, or scared away, and are in the lists of the Excluded. Dick, we infer, is now somewhat estranged from Cromwell; probably both Dick and Frank : Frank returned ; Dick too, though in a fitful manner. And so, there being now no " dear Norton " on the spot, the Lieutenaut-Geueral applies to Mr. Robinson, the pious Preacher at Southampton, of whom we transiently heard already ; a priest and counsellor, and acting as such, to all parties. " For my very loving Friend Mr. Robinson, Preacher at Southampton: These. " [LONDON,] 1st Febrnary, 1648. "SiR, I thank you for your kind Letter. As to the busi- you mention, I desire to use this plainness witli you. " When the last overture was, between me and Mr. Mayor, liy tin- kiinliiivs of Colonel Norton, after the meeting I had with Mr M.i\"! :it r'unilum, I desired the Colonel (finding, as I thought, s.'iue scruples in Mr. Mayor), To know >l him v.hrtluT liis iniinl \v:is free to the tiling <>r not. Colonel Norton ^avr me this account. That Mr Mayor, by reason of some matters as they then stood, was not very free thereunto. 1 Harris, p. 504. 406 PAT?T V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. iFeb. Whereupon I did acquiesce, submitting to the providence of God. " Upon your reviving of the business to ine, and your Letter, I think fit to return you this answer, and to say in plainness of spirit to you : That, upon your testimony of the Gentle- woman's worth, and the common report of the piety of the Family, I shall be willing to entertain the renewing of the motion, upon such conditions as may be to mutual satisfaction. Only I think that a speedy resolution" will be very convenient to both parties. The Lord direct all to His glory. " I desire your prayers therein ; and rest, "Your very affectionate friend, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* "February 1st," it is Thursday; the King was executed on Tuesday : Robinson at Southampton. I think, must have been writing at the very time. On Tuesday night last, a few hours after the King's Execu- tion, Marquis Hamilton had escaped from Windsor, and been retaken in Southwark next morning, Wednesday morning. " Knocking at a door," he was noticed by three troopers ; who questioned him, detected him ; 2 and bringing him to the Parliament Authorities, made 40 apiece by him. He will be tried speedily, by a new High Court of Justice ; he and others. PASS. u To all Officers and Soldiers and all Persons whom these may concern. "WHEREAS John Stanley of Dalegarth, in the county of Cumberland, Esquire, hath subscribed to his Composition, and paid and secured his Fine, according to the direction of Parliament : 1 Harris, p. 5O4 ; one of the seventeen Letters found at Pnsey. * Cromivelliana, p. 51. 1849. PASS. 407 "These are to require you to permit and suffer him and his servants quietly to pass into Dalegarth abovesaid, with their horses and swords, and to forbear to molest or trouble him or any of his Family there ; without seizing or taking away any of his horses, or other goods or estate whatsoever ; and to per- mit and suffer him or auy of his Family, at any time, to pass to any place, about his or their occasions ; without offering any injury to him or any of his Family, either at Dalegarth, or in his or their travels : As you will answer your contempt at your utmost perils. " Given under my hand and seal this 2d of February, 1648. "OLIVER CUOMWELL."* Oliver's seal of " six quarterings " is at the top. Of course only the seal and signature are specially his : but this one Pass may stand here as the sample of many that were then circu- lating, emblem of a time of war, distress, uncertainty and danger, which then was. The 2d of February is Friday. Yesterday, Thursday, there was question in the House of "many Gentlemen from the Northern Counties, who do attend about Town to make their compositions," and of what is to be done with them. 2 The late business that ended in Preston Fight had made many new delinquents in those parts ; whom now we see painfully with pale faces dancing attendance in Goldsmiths' Hall, not to say knocking importunately at doors in the gray of the morn- ing, in danger of their life ! Stanley of Dalegarth has happily got his composition finished, his Pass signed by the Lieutenant- General ; and may go home, with subdued thankfulness, in a whole skin. Dalegarth Hall is still an estate or farm, in the southern extremity of Cumberland ; on the Esk river, in the Raven^liuss district: not far from that small Lake which Tourists go to see under the name of Devock Water. Quiet life to Stanley there ! 1 Jefferaon's History and Antiquitiet of AUerdale Ward, CvmbcrUind (Car- Hale, 1842), p. 284. * Comment Juwnali, in die. 408 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. laFeb. LETTER LXXXVIII. u For my very worthy friend Richard Mayor, Esq : These. " [LONDON,] 12th February, 1648. " SIR, I received some intimations formerly, and by the last return from Southampton a Letter from Mr. Robinson, concerning the reviving of the last year's motion touching my Son and your Daughter. Mr. Robinson was also pleased to send enclosed in his a Letter from you, bearing date the 5th of this instant February, wherein I find your willingness to enter- tain any good means for the completing of that business. "From whence I take encouragement to send my Son to wait upon you; and by him to let you know, That my de- sires are, if Providence so dispose, very full and free to the thing, if, upon an interview, there prove also a freedom in the young persons thereunto. What liberty you will give herein, I wholly submit to you. " I thought fit, in my Letter to Mr. Robinson, to mention somewhat of expedition ; because indeed I know not how soon I may be called into the field, or other occasions may remove me from hence ; having for the present some liberty of stay in London. The Lord direct all to His glory. I rest, Sir, " Your very humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* Thomas Scott is big with the Council of State at present ; he produces it in the House to-morrow morning, 13th February ; and the List of actual Councillors, as we said, is voted the next day. There is also frequent debate about Ireland 2 in these days, and what is to be done for relief of it ; the Marquis of Ormond, furnished with a commission from the Prince, who now calls himself Charles II., reappeared there last year ; has, with end- less patience and difficulty, patched up some kind of alliance with the Papists, Nuncio Papists and Papists of the Pale ; and 1 Harris, p. 505 ; one of the Pusey seventeen. 3 Cromwelliana, 14th February, &c. 1849. ORDER 409 so far as numbers go, looks very formidable. Ono does not know how soon one " may be called into the field." However, there will several things turn up to be settled first. ORDER. Ox the Saturday, 17th February, 1648 9, more properly on Monday, 19th, the Council of State first met, to constitute itself and begin despatch of business. 1 Cromwell seems to have bvcn their first President. At first it had been decided that they should have no constant President ; but after a time, the inconveniences of such a method were seen into, and Bradshaw was appointed to the office. The Minute-book of this Council of State, written in the clear old hand of Walter Frost, still lies complete in the State- Paper Office ; as do the whole Kecords of the Committee of Both Kingdoms, of the Committee of Sequestrations in Gold- smiths' Hall, and many other Committees and officialities of the Period. By the long labor of Mr. Lemon, these waste Documents, now gathered into volumes, classed, indexed, methodized, have become singularly accessible. Well read, the thousandth or perhaps ten-thousandth part of them well excerpted, and the nine hundred and ninety-nine parts well forgotten, much light for what is really English History might still be gathered there. Alas, if the half-million of money, or but the twentieth part of it, wasted in mere stupidities upon the old-parchment Record Commission, had been expended upon wise labors here ! But to our " Order." Sir Oliver Fleming, a most gaseous but indisputable histori- cal Figure, of uncertain genesis, uncertain habitat, glides through the old Books as "Master of the Ceremonies," master of one knows not well what. In the end of 1643 he clearly is nominated " Master of the CYremonics " by Parliament itself ; * and glides out and in ever after, presiding over " Dutch 1 Common! Journals, vi. 146. 1 9d November, 1643, Comtiwnt Journal*, iii. 299. 410 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. aa FU Ambassadors," " Swedish Ambassadors " and such like, to the very end of the Protectorate. A Blessed Restoration, of course, relieved him from his labors. He, for the present, wants to see some Books in the late Royal Library of St. James's. This scrap of paper still lies in the British Museum : " To the Keeper of the Library of St. James's. "These are to will and require you, upon sight hereof, to deliver unto Sir Oliver Fleming, or to whom he shall appoint, two or three such Books as he shall choose, of which there is a double copy in the Library : to be by him disposed [of] as there shall be direction given him by the Council. Of which you are not to fail, and for which this shall be your war- rant. " Given at the Council of State, this 22d day of February, 1648. " In the name, and signed by Order of the Council of State appointed by Authority of Parliament, " OLIVER CROMWELL (Prceses pro tern/pore)."*- There is already question of selling the late King's goods, crown-jewels, plate, and " hangings," under which latter title, we suppose, are included his Pictures, much regretted by the British connoisseur at present. They did not come actually to market till July next. 2 LETTER LXXXIX. REVEREND Mr. Stapylton, of whom we heard once before in Edinburgh, has been down at Hursley with Mr. Richard ; Miss Dorothy received them with her blushes, with her smiles ; the elder Mayors with " many civilities : " and the Marriage- treaty, as Mr. Stapylton reports, promises well. 1 Additional Ayscough MSS. 12,098. 2 Scobell, Part ii. 46, the immense Act of Parliament for sale of them. IMS. LETTER LXXXIX. LONDON. 411 " For my very worthy Friend Richard Mayor, Esquire : These. " [LONDON,] 26th February, 1648. " SIR, I received yours by Mr. Stapylton ; together with an account of the kind reception and the many civilities afforded [to] them, 1 especially to my Son, in the liberty given him to wait upon your worthy Daughter. The report of whose virtue and godliness has so great a place in my heart, that I think fit not to neglect anything, on my part, which may consummate a close of the business, if God please to dispose the young ones' hearts thereunto, and other suitable ordering [of] affairs towards mutual satisfaction appear in the dispensation of Providence. " For which purpose, and to the end matters may be brought to as near an issue as they are capable of, not being at lib- erty, by reason of public occasions, to wait upon you, nor your health, as I understand, permitting it, I thought fit to send this Gentleman, Mr. Stapylton, instructed with my mind, to see how near we may come to an understanding one of another therein. And although I could have wished the con- sideration of things had been between us two, it being of so near concernment, yet Providence for the present not allow- ing, I desire you to give him credence on my behalf. " Sir, all things which yourself and I had in conference, at Farnham, do not occur to my memory, through multiplicity of business intervening. I hope I shall with a very free heart testify my readiness to that which may be expected from me. " I have no more at present : but desiring the Lord to order this affair to His glory and the comfort of His servants, I rest, Sir, " Your humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * 1 To Richard Cromwell and him. 1 Harris, p. 505 ; oue of the 1'uaey seventeen ; Signature only is in Crom- well's hand. 412 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 8 March. LETTER XC. THIS Thursday, 8th March, 1648-9, they are voting and debating in a thin House, hardly above sixty there, Whether Duke Hamilton, Earl Holland, Lords Capel, Goring, and Sir John Owen, our old friend "Colonel Owen" of Nottingham Castle, Jenner and Ashe's old friend, 1 are to die or to live ? They have been tried in a new High Court of Justice, and all found guilty of treason, of levying war against the Su- preme Authority of this Nation. Shall they be executed ; shall they be respited? The House, by small Majorities, decides against the first three ; decides in favor of the last ; and as to Goring, the votes are equal, the balance-tongue trembles, " Life or Death ! " Speaker Lenthall says, Life. 2 Meanwhile, small private matters also must be attended to. u For my very worthy Friend Richard Mayor, Esquire : These. " [LONDON,] 8th March, 1648. " SIB, Yours I have received ; and have given further instructions to this Bearer, Mr. Stapylton, to treat with you about the business in agitation, between your Daughter and my Son. " I am engaged 8 to you for all your civilities and respects already manifested. I trust there will be a right understand- ing between us, and a good conclusion : and though I cannot particularly remember the things spoken of at Farnham to which your Letter seems to refer me, yet I doubt not but I have sent the offer of such things now as will give mutual satisfaction to us both. My attendance upon public affairs will not give me leave to come down unto you myself ; I have sent unto you this Gentleman with my mind. " I salute Mrs. Mayor, though unknown, with the rest of your Family. I commit you, with the progress of the Busi- ness, to the Lord ; and rest, Sir, " Your assured friend to serve you, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* 1 Letter LXXXII. p. 86. 2 Commons Journals, vi. 159. 8 obliged. * Harris, p. 506 ; one of the seventeen. IS 19. LETTER XC. LONDON. 413 On the morrow morning, poor versatile Hamilton, poor ver- satile Holland, with the Lord Cupel who the first of all in this Parliament rose to complain of Grievances, meet their death in Palace-yard. The High Court was still sitting in West- minster Hall as they passed through "from Sir Robert Cot- ton's house." Hamilton lingered a little, or seemed to linger, in the Hall; still hopeful of reprieve and fine of 100,000: but the Earl of Denbigh, his brother-in-law, a Member of the Council of State, stept up to him; whispered in his ear; the poor Duke walked on. That is the end of all his diplomacies ; liis Scotch Army of Forty Thousand, his painful ridings to Uttoxeter, and to many other places, have all issued here. The Earl of Lanark will now be Duke of Hamilton in Scotland: may a better fate await him! The once gay Earl of Holland has been " converted " some days ago, as it were for the nonce, poor Earl ! With regard to my Lord Capel again, who followed last in order, he be- haved, says Bulstrode, "much after the manner of a stout Roman. He had no Minister with him, nor showed any sense of death approaching ; but carried himself all the time he was upon the scaffold with that boldness and resolution as was to be admired. He wore a sad-colored suit, his hat cocked up, and his cloak thrown under one arm ; he looked towards the people at his first coming up, and put off his hat in manner of a salute ; he had a little discourse with some gentlemen, and passed up and down in a careless posture." l Thus died Lord !, the first who complained of Grievances: in seven years' there are such changes for a man; and the first acts of his Drama little know what the last will be ! This new High Court of Justice is one of some Seven or Eight that sat in those years, and were greatly complained of by Constitutional persons Nobody ever said that they decided contrary to evidence , but they were not the regular Judges. Th-y took the I'urliament's law as good, without consulting Fleta and Kracton about it They consisted of learned Ser- geants and <>thrr wri^hty persons nominated by the Parliament) usually in j, r i*nr me). drr-Book of the Council of Stale (in the State-Paper Office), i. 86. Ibid.; Todd'fl Life of Mtiton (London, 1826). pp. 96, 108-123. 416 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 14 March, Thursday next ; makes his proof-shot, " to the Senate of Ham- burgh," 1 about a week hence ; and gives, and continues to give, great satisfaction to that Council, to me, and to the whole Nation now, and to all Nations ! Such romance lies in the State-Paper Office. Here, however, is another Letter on the Hursley Business, of the same date as Letter XCI. ; which must also be read. I do not expect many readers to take the trouble of representing before their minds the clear condition of " Mr. Ludlow's lease," of the 250," " the 150 " &c. in this abstruse affair : but such as please to do so, will find it all very straight at last. We observe, Mr. Mayor has a decided preference for " my ould land ; " land that I inherited, or bought by common contract, instead of getting it from Parliament for Public Services! In fact, Mr. Mayor seems somewhat of a sharp man : but neither has he a dull man to deal with, though a much bigger one. LETTER XCII. [For my worthy Friend Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley : These.'] " [LONDON,] 14th March, 1648. " SIB, I received your Paper by the hands of Mr. Stapyl- ton. I desire your leave to return my dissatisfaction there- with. I shall not need to premise how much I have desired (I hope upon the best grounds) to match with you. The same desire still continues in me, if Providence see it fit. But I may not be so much wanting to myself nor family as not to have some equality of consideration towards it. a " I have two young Daughters to bestow, if God give them 1 Senatus Populusque Angllcanus Amplissimo Civitatis ffamburgensis Senatui, Sulutem. (In Milton's Lilerce Senatus Anglicani, this Jirst Letter to the Ham- burgers is not given.) 8 " it " is not the family, hut the match. 1W9. LETTER XCli. LONDON. life and opportunity. According to your Offer, I have noth- ing for them ; nothing at all in hand. If my Son die, what consideration is there to me ? And yet a jointure parted with [on my side]. If she die, there is [on your side] little [money parted with] ; [even] if you have an heir male, [there is] but 3,000, [and] without time ascertained. 1 " As for these things [indeed], I doubt not but, by one interview between you and myself, they might be accommo- dated to mutual satisfaction ; and in relation to these, I think we should hardly part, or have many words, so much do I desire a closure with you. But to deal freely with you : the settling of the Manor of Hursley, as you propose it, sticks so much with me, that either I understand you not, or else it much fails my expectation. As you offer it, there is 400 per annum charged upon it. For the 150 to your Lady, for her life, as a jointure, I stick not at that : but the 250 per annum until Mr. Ludlow's Lease expires, the tenor whereof I know not, and so much of the 250 per annum as exceeds that Lease in annual value for some time also after the expiration of the said Lease, 1 give such a maim to the Manor of Hursley as indeed renders the rest of the Manor very incon- siderable. " Sir, if I concur to deny myself in point of present moneys, as also in the other things mentioned, as aforesaid, I may and do expect the Manor of Hursley to be settled without any charge upon it, after your decease, saving your Lady's jointure of 150 per annum, which if you should think fit to in- crease, I should not stand upon it. Your own Estate is best known to you : but surely your personal Estate, being free for you to dispose, will, with some small matter of addition, beget a nearness of equality, if I hear well from others. And if 1 Sw Letter L VI. antea, p. 298. " Lnrllow'u Lease, " &c. is not very plain. The " tenor of Lndlow's Lease," is still less known to us than it was to the Lieutenant-General ! Than much il dear : 250 + 100 = 4OO |HmiuU are to be paid off liurslcy Manor by Kirlmpl and his Wife, which pivesa sail "maim " to it. When Ludlow's Lease falls in, there will be somo increment of benefit to the Manor ; but we are to derive no advantage from that, we are still to pay the aurplM "for some time ftcr." rot xvn. 27 418 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 14 March. the difference were not very considerable, I should not insist upon it. "What you demand of me is very high in all points. I am willing to settle as you desire in everything ; saving for maintenance 400 per annum, 300 per annum?- I would have somewhat free, to be thanked by them for. The 300 per annum, of my old land 2 for a jointure, after my Wife's decease, I shall settle; and in the mean time [a like sum] out of other lands at your election : and truly, Sir, if that be not good, neither will any lands, I doubt. I do not much distrust, your principles in other things have acted 8 you towards confidence. You demand in case my Son have none issue male but only daughters, then the [Cromwell Lands] in Hantshire, Monmouth- and Gloucestershire to descend to these daughters, or else 3,000 apiece. The first would be most unequal ; the latter [also] is too high. They will be well provided for by being inheritrixes of their Mother ; and I am willing [that] 2,000 apiece be charged upon those lands [for them]. "Sir, I cannot but with very many thanks acknowledge your good opinion of me and of my Son ; as also your great civilities towards him ; and your Daughter's good respects, whose goodness, though known to me only at a distance and by the report of others, I much value. And indeed that causeth me so cheerfully to deny myself as I do in the point of moneys, and so willingly to comply in other things. But if I should not insist as above, I should in a greater measure than were meet deny both my own reason and the advice of my friends ; which I may not do. Indeed, Sir, I have not closed with a far greater Offer of estate ; but chose rather to fix here : I hope I have not been wanting to Providence in this. 1 Means, in its desperate haste: "except that instead of 400 per annum for maintenance, we must say .300." 2 Better than Parliament-land, thinks Mayor! Oliver too prefers it for his Wife ; hut thinks all land will have a chance to go, if that go. 3 actuated or impelled. 1649. LETTER XCIII. LONDON. 419 "I have made myself plain to you. Desiring you will make my Son thr messenger of your pleasure and resolution herein as speedily as with conveniency you may, I take leave, and rest, "Your affectionate servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. " I desire my service may be presented to your Lady and Daughters." 1 On the morrow, which is Thursday, the 15th, day also of John Milton's nomination to be Secretary, Lieutenaut-General Cromwell was nominated Commander for Ireland ; satisfactory appointments both. LETTER XCIII. THE Lieutenant-General is in hot haste to-day ; sends a brief Letter " by your Kinsman," consenting to almost everything. Mayor, as we saw before, decidedly prefers " my ould land " to uncertain Parliamentary land. Oliver (see last Letter) offered to settle the 300 of jointure upon his old land, after his Wife's decease ; he now agrees that half of it, 150, shall be settled directly out of the old land, and the other half out of what Parliamentary land Mayor may like best. The Letter breathes haste in every line; but hits, with a linn knock, in Cromwell's way, the essential nails on their head, as it hurries on. " Your Kinsman," who carries this Letter, turns out by and by to be a Mr. Barton ; a man somewhat particular in his ways of viewing matters ; unknown otherwise to all men. The Lieutenant General getting his Irish Appointment con- firmed in Parliament, and the conditions of it settled, 1 is naturally very busy. 1 Harris, p 5O7; Dunrh'a Pnsey seventeen. * Crumtorllitinn . mwna Journal*, Ac. 420 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 25 March, " For my worthy Friend Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley : These. " [LONDON,] 25th March, 1649. "SiR, You will pardon the brevity of these lines; the haste I am in, by reason of business, occasions it. To testify the earnest desire I have to see a happy period to this Treaty between us, I give you to understand, "That I agree to 150 per annum out of the 300 per annum of my old land for your Daughter's jointure, and the other 150 where you please. [Also] 400 for present main- tenance where you shall choose; either in Hantshire, Glou- cester- or Monmouthshire. Those lands [to be] settled upon my Son and his heirs male by your Daughter; and in case of daughters, only 2,000 apiece to be charged upon those lauds. " [On the other hand] 400 per annum free, 1 to raise por- tions for my two daughters. I expect the Manor of Hurslej to be settled upon your Daughter and her heirs, the heirs of her body. Your Lady a jointure of 150 per annum out of it. For compensation to your younger Daughter, I agree to leave it in your power, after your decease, to charge it with as much as will buy in the Lease of the farm at Ailing- ton 2 by a just computation. I expect, so long as they [the young couple] live with you, their diet, as you expressed ; or in case of voluntary parting [from you], 150 per annum. [You are to give] 3,000 in case you have a Son; 8 to be paid in two years next following. In case your Daughter die without issue, 1,000 within six months [of the mar- riage]. " Sir, if this satisfy, I desire a speedy resolution. I should the rather desire so because of what your Kinsman can 1 Means, " shall be settled on Richard and his Wife, that I may be left free." 2 "Ludlow's Lease," I fancy. Anne Mayor, "your younger Daughter," married Dunch of Pusey ; John Dunch, to whom we owe these seventeen Letters. See also Letter 27th August, 1657. 3 Grandson, i.e. : in the next sentence " die" means more properly live. 1849. LETTER XCIII. LONDON. 421 satisfy you in. The Lord bless you and yonr Family, to whom I desire my affections and service may be presented. I rest, " Your humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." 1 Your Kinsman can in part satisfy you what a multiplicity of business we are in : modelling the Army for Ireland ; which indeed is a most delicate dangerous operation, full of difficulties perhaps but partly known to your Kinsman! For, in these days, John Lilburn is again growing very noisy; bringing out Pamphlets, EnglantVs New Chains Dis- covered, in several Parts. As likewise The Hunting of the Foxes from, Triploe Heath to Whitehall by five Small Beagles* the tracking out of Oliver Cromwell and his Grandees, onward from their rendezvous at Royston or Triploe, all the way to their present lodgment in "Whitehall and the seat of authority. " Five small Beagles," five vociferous petitionary Troopers, of the Levelling species, who for their high carriage and mutinous ways have been set to " ride the wooden horse " lately. Do military men of these times understand the wooden horse ? He is a mere triangular ridge or roof of wood, set on four sticks, with absurd head and tail superadded ; and you ride him barebacked, in face of the world, frequently with muskets tied to your feet, in a very uneasy manner! To Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburn and these small Beagles it is manifest we are getting into New Chains, not a jot better than the old; and certainly Foxes ought to be hunted and tracked. Three of the Beagles, the best-nosed and loudest-toned, by names Richard Overton, William Walwyn, Thomas Prince, these, with Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburn, huntsman of the pack, are shortly after this lodged in the Tower ; * " committed to the Lieutenant," to be in mild but safe keeping with that offi- cer. There is, in fact, a very dangerous leaven in the Army, and in the Levelling Pnblie :it present, which thinks with 1 Harm, p. 508 ; one of the seventeen. 1 (Jiveu in Somrr* Tracts, vi 44-60. 27th March, llth April, ICl'J (Common* Joumali, in diehu). 122 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 30 March, itself: God's enemies having been fought down, chief Delin- quents all punished, and the Godly Party made triumphant, why does not some Millennium arrive ? LETTER XCIV. " COMPENSATION," here touched upon, is the " compensation to your younger Daughter " mentioned in last Letter ; burden settled on Hursley Manor, " after your decease," " to buy in the Lease of Allington Farm." Mayor wants it another way ; which " seems truly inconvenient," and in brief cannot be. u For my worthy Friend Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley : These. " [LONDON,] 30th March, 1649. " SIR, I received yours of the 28th instant. I desire the matter of compensation may be as in my last to you. You propose another way ; which seems to me truly inconvenient. " I have agreed to all other things, as you take me, and that rightly, repeating particulars in your Paper. The Lord dispose this great Business (great between you and me) for good. "You mention to send by the Post on Tuesday. 1 I shall speed things here as I may. I am designed for Ireland, which will be speedy. I should be very glad to see things settled before I go, if the Lord will. My service to all your Family. I rest, Sir, " Your affectionate servant [OLIVER CROMWELL]." 8 LETTER XCV. WHO the Lawyer, or what the " arrest " of him is, which oc- casions new expense of time, I do not know. On the whole, one begins to wish Richard well wedded ; but the settlements do still a little stick, and we must have patience. 1 The 30th of March is Friday ; Tuesday is the 3d of April. 2 Harris, p. 508. 1848. LETTEK XCV. LONDON. 423 "For my worthy Friend Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley:- These. "[LONDON,] 6th April, 1649. " SIB, I received your Papers enclosed in your Letter ; although I know not how to make so good use of them as otherwise might have been, to have saved expense of time, if the arrest of your Lawyer had not fallen out at this time. " I conceive a draught, to your satisfaction, by your own Lawyer, would have saved much time ; which to me is pre- cious. I hope you will send some [one] up, perfectly in- structed. I shall endeavor to speed what is to be done on my part ; not knowing how soon I may be sent down towards my charge for Ireland. And I hope to perform punctually with you. " Sir, my Son had a great desire to come down and wait upon your Daughter. I perceive he minds that more than to attend to business here. 1 I should be glad to see him settled, and all things finished before I go. I trust not to be want- ing therein. The Lord direct all our hearts into His good pleasure. I rest, Sir, " Your affectionate servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL " My service to your Lady and Family." a There is much to be settled before I can "be sent down to my charge for Ireland." The money is not yet got; and the Army has ingredients difficult to model. Next week, a Parliamentary Committee, one of whom is the Lieutenant- General, and another is Sir Harry Vane, have to go to the City, and try if they will lend us 120,000 for this business. Much speaking in the Guildhall there, in part by Cromwell.' The City will lend ; and now, if the Army were once modelled, and ready to march ? 1 The dog ! Harris, p. 509. ' 12th April, 1649, Nevrspapen (in CVomwe&ona, p. 55). 424 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 15 April, LETTER XCVI. HERE, at any rate, is the end of the Marriage-treaty, not even Mr. Barton, with his peculiar ways of viewing matters, shall now delay it long. " For my worthy Friend Richard Mayor, Esquire : These. " [LONDON,] 15th April, 1649. "SiR, Your Kinsman Mr. Barton and myself, repairing to our Counsel, for the perfecting of this Business so much concerning us, did, upon Saturday this 15th of April, draw our Counsel to a meeting : where, upon consideration had of my Letter to yourself expressing my consent to particulars, which [Letter] Mr. Barton brought to your Counsel Mr. Hales of Lincoln's Inn ; J upon the reading that which expresseth the way of your settling Hursley, ycrur Kinsman expressed a sense of yours contrary to the Paper in my hand, as also to that under your hand of the 28th of March, which was the same as mine as to that particular. "In 2 that which I myself am to do, I know nothing of doubt, but do agree it all to your Kinsman's satisfaction. Nor is there much material difference [between us], save in this, wherein both my Paper sent by you to your Counsel, and yours of the 28th, do in all literal and all equitable con- struction agree, viz. : To settle an Estate in fee-simple upon your Daughter, after your decease ; which Mr. Barton affirms not to be your meaning, although he has not (as to me) formerly made this any objection ; nor can the words bear it ; nor have I anything more considerable in lieu of what I part with than this. And I have appealed to yours or any Counsel in England, whether it be not just and equal that I insist thereupon. " And this misunderstanding if it be yours, as it is your 1 " Hales " ia the future Judge Hale. 2 A mere comma here, instead of new paragraph ; greatly obscuring the sense ; " as to that particular, and I know nothing of doubt in that which I am to doe, but doe agree itt all," &c. LETTER XCVI. LONDON. 425 Kinsman's put a stop to the Business 5 so that our Counsel could not proceed, until your pleasure herein were known. Wherefore it was thought fit to desire Mr. Barton to have re- course to you to kuow your mind ; he alleging he had no author- ity to understand that expression so, but the contrary ; which was thought not a little strange, even by your own Counsel. " I confess I did apprehend we should be incident to mis- takes, treating at such a distance ; although I may take the boldness to say, there is nothing expected from me but I agree to it to your Kinsman's sense to a tittle. "Sir, I desired to know what commission your Kinsman had to help this doubt by an expedient ; who denied to have any ; but did think it were better for you to part with some money, and keep the power in your own hand as to the land, to dispose thereof as you should see cause. Whereupon an overture was made, and himself and your Counsel desired to draw it up ; the effect whereof this enclosed Paper contains. And although I should not like change of agreements, yet to show how much I desire the perfecting of this Business, if you like thereof (though this be far the worse bargain), I shall submit there- unto ; your Counsel thinking that things may be settled this way with more clearness and less intricacy. There is mention made of 900 per annum to be reserved : but it comes to but about 800; my lands in Glamorganshire being but little above 400 per annum ; and the [other] 400 per annum out of my Manor in Gloucester- and Monmouthshire. I wish a clear understanding may be between us; truly I would not willingly mistake. Desiring to wait upon Providence in this Business, I rest, Sir, " Your affectionate friend and servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. "I desire my service may be presented to your Lady and Daughters." l This is the last of the Marriage-treaty. Mr. Barton, whom - no Counsel iu England " could back, was of course disowned 1 lUrria, p. 509. 426 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 15 April, in his overzeal ; the match was concluded j solemnized 1st May, 1649. 1 Richard died 12th July, 1712, at Cheshunt, age 86 ; 2 his Wife died 5th January 1676-6, at Hursley, and is buried there, where, ever after Richard's Deposition, and while he travelled on the Continent, she had continued to reside. In pulling clown the old Hursley House, above a century since, when the Estate had passed into other hands, there was found in some crevice of the old walls a rusty lump of metal, evidently an antiquity ; which was carried to the new Proprietor at Winchester j who sold it as " a Roman weight," for what it would bring. When scoured, it turned out, or is said by vague Noble, quoting vague " Vertue," " Hughes's Letters," and Ant. Soc. (Antiqua- rian Society), to have turned out, to be the Great Seal of the Commonwealth. 3 If the Antiquaries still have it, let them be chary of it. THE LEVELLERS. WHILE Miss Dorothy Mayor is choosing her wedding-dresses, and Richard Cromwell is looking forward to a life of Arcadian felicity now near at hand, there has turned up for Richard's Father and other parties interested, on the public side of things, a matter of very different complexion, requiring to be instantly dealt with in the interim. The matter of the class called Levellers ; concerning which we must now say a few words. In 1647, as we saw, there were Army Adjutators ; and among some of them wild notions afloat, as to the swift attainability of Perfect Freedom civil and religious, and a practical Millen- nium on this Earth ; notions which required, in the Rendez- vous at Corkbushfield, " Rendezvous of Ware," as they oftenest call it, to be very resolutely trodden out. Eleven chief muti- neers were ordered from the ranks in that Rendezvous ; were 1 Noble, i. 188. 2 Ibid. i. 176, 188. 3 Ibid. i. 195. Bewildered Biography of the Mayors, " Majors or Alaijon," ibid. ii. 436-440. 1649. THE LEVELLERS. 427 condemned by swift Court-Martial to die ; and Trooper Arnold, one of them, was accordingly shot there and then ; which extinguished the mutiny for that time. War since, and Jus- tice on Delinquents, England made a Free Commonwealth, and such like, have kept the Army busy : but a deep republican leaven, working all along among these men, breaks now again into very formidable development. As the following brief glimpses and excerpts may satisfy an attentive reader who will spread them out, to the due expansion, in his mind. Take first this glimpse into the civil province ; and discern, with amazement, a whole submarine world of Calvinistic Sans- culottism, Five-point Charter and the Rights of Man, threaten- ing to emerge almost two centuries before its time ! " The Council of State," says Whitlocke, 1 just while Mr. Bar- ton is boggling about the Hursley Marriage-settlements, " has intelligence of certain Levellers appearing at St. Margaret's Hill, near Cobham" in Surrey, and at St. George's Hill," in the same quarter : " that they were digging the ground, and sow- ing it with roots and beans. One Everard, once of the Army, who terms himself a Prophet, is the chief of them : " one Winstanley is another chief. " They were thirty men, and s;iie fair. 8 This is the account they give of them- selves when brought before the General some days afterwards : " April 20th, 1649. Everard and Winstanley, the chief of those that digged at St. George's Hill in Surrey, came to the 1 17th April, 1 649, p: 384. * King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 427, 6 (Declaration of the bloody and nnrhristian Acting of William Star, &*.-. in oppoaitiuu to ttiooe that dig upon. GcorgivHill iu Surrey J , ib. IH>. 418, f 5, Ac. 428 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 20 April. General and made a large declaration, to justify their proceed- ings. Everard said, He was of the race of the Jews," as most men, called Saxon and other, properly are ; " That all the Lib- erties of the People were lost by the coming in of William the Conqueror ; and that, ever since, the People of God had lived under tyranny and oppression worse than that of our Fore- fathers under the Egyptians. But now the time of deliver- ance was at hand ; and God would bring His People out of this slavery, and restore them to their freedom in enjoying the fruits and benefits of the Earth. And that there had lately appeared to him, Everard, a vision ; which bade him, Arise and dig and plough the Earth, and receive the fruits thereof. That their intent is to restore the Creation to its former condition. That as God had promised to make the barren land fruitful, so now what they did, was to restore the ancient Community of enjoying the Fruits of the Earth, and to distribute the benefit thereof to the poor and needy, and to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. That they intend not to meddle with any man's property, nor to break down any pales or enclosures," in spite of reports to the contrary ; " but only to meddle with what is common and untilled, and to make it fruitful for the use of man. That the time will suddenly be, when all men shall will- ingly come in and give up their lands and estates, and submit to this Community of Goods." These are the principles of Everard, Winstanley, and the poor Brotherhood, seemingly Saxon, but properly of the race of the Jews, who were found dibbling beans on St. George's Hill, under the clear April skies in 1649, and hastily bringing in a new era in that manner. " And for all such as will come in and work with them, they shall have meat, drink, and clothes, which is all that is necessary to the life of man : and as for money, there is not any need of it ; nor of clothes more than to cover nakedness." For the rest, " That they will not defend themselves by arms, but will submit unto authority, and wait till the promised opportunity be offered, which they conceive to be at hand. And that as their forefathers lived in tents, so it would be suitable to their condition now to live in the same. 1649. THE LEVELLERS. 429 "While they were before the General, they stood with their hats on ; and being demanded the reason thereof, they said, Because he was but their fellow-creature. Being asked the meaning of that phrase, Give honor to whom honor is due, they said, Your mouths shall be stopped that ask such a question." l Dull Bulstrode hath " set down this the more largely because it was the beginning of the appearance " of an extensive level- ling doctrine, much to be " avoided " by judicious persons, see- ing it is "a weak persuasion." The germ of Quakerism and much else is curiously visible here. But let us look now at the military phasis of the matter ; where " a weak persuasion" mounted on cavalry horses, with sabres and fire-arms in its hand, may become a very perilous one. Friday, 20th April, 1649. The Lieutenant-General has con- sented to go to Ireland; the City also will lend money; and now this Friday the Council of the Army meets at Whitehall to decide what regiments shall go on that service. " After a solemn seeking of God by prayer," they agree that it shall be by lot : tickets are put into a hat, a child draws them : the regiments, fourteen of foot and fourteen of horse, are decided on in this manner. " The officers on whom the lot fell, in all the twenty -eight regiments, expressed much cheerfulness at the decision." The officers did : but the common men are by no means all of that humor. The common men, blown upon by Lilburn and his five small Beagles, have notions about England's new Chains, about the Hunting of Foxes from Triploe Heath, and in fact ideas concerning the capa- bility that lies in man and in a free Commonwealth, which are of the most alarming description. Thursday, 26th April. This night, at the Bull in Bishops- gate, there has an alarming mutiny broken out in a troop of Whalley's regiment there. Whalley's men are not allotted for Ireland : but they refuse to quit London, as they are or- dered ; they want this and that first : they seize their colors from the Cornet, who is lodged at the Bull there: the Gen- eral and the Lieutenant-General have to hasten thither ; quell ' WhiUocke,j>.884. 430 PARTY. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. as April, them, pack them forth on their march ; seizing fifteen of them first, to be tried by Court-Martial. Tried by instant Court- Martial, five of them are found guilty, doomed to die, but par- doned ; and one of them, Trooper Lockyer, is doomed and not pardoned. Trooper Lockyer is shot, in Paul's Church-yard, on the morrow. A very brave young man, they say ; though but three-and-twenty, " he has served seven years in these Wars," ever since the Wars began. " Religious " too, " of excellent parts and much beloved ; " but with hot notions as to human Freedom, and the rate at which the millenniums are attainable, poor Lockyer ! He falls shot in Paul's Church-yard on Friday, amid the tears of men and women. Paul's Cathedral, we re- mark, is now a Horse-guard ; horses stamp in the Canons' stalls there : and Paul's Cross itself, as smacking of Popery, where in fact Alablaster once preached flat Popery, is swept altogether away, and its leaden roof melted into bullets, or mixed with tin for culinary pewter. Lockyer's corpse is watched and wept over, not without prayer, in the eastern regions of the City, till a new week come ; and on Monday, this is what we see advancing westward by way of funeral to him. " About one hundred went before the Corpse, five or six in a file ; the Corpse was then brought, with six trumpets sound- ing a soldier's knell ; then the Trooper's Horse came, clothed all over in mourning, and led by a footman. The Corpse was adorned with bundles of Rosemary, one half stained in blood ; and the Sword of the deceased along with them. Some thou- sands followed in rank and file : all had seagreen-and-black Ribbon tied on their hats and to their breasts : and the women brought up the rear. At the new Church-yard in Westminster, some thousands more of the better sort met them, who thought not fit to march through the City. Many looked upon this funeral as an affront to the Parliament and Army ; others called these people ' Levellers ; ' but they took no notice of any one's sayings." 1 That was the end of Trooper Lockyer : six trumpets wailing stern music through London streets; Rosemaries and Sword half dipt in blood ; funeral of many thousands in seagreen 1 Whitlocke, p. 385. 1649. THE LEVELLERS. 431 Ribbons and black: testimony of a weak persuasion now looking somewhat perilous. Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburn and his five small Beagles, now in a kind of loose arrest under the Lieutenant of the Tower, make haste to profit by the general emotion ; publish on the 1st of May l their " Agreement of the People," their Bentham-Sieyes Constitution ; Annual very exquisite Parliament, and other Lilburn apparatus ; whereby the Perfection of Human Nature will with a maximum of rapidity be secured, and a millennium straightway arrive, sings the Lilburn Oracle. May 9/A. Richard Cromwell is safe wedded; Richard's Father is reviewing troops in Hyde Park, "seagreen colors in some of their hats." The Lieutenant-General speaks earnestly to them. Has not the Parliament been diligent, doing its l>est? It has punished Delinquents; it has voted, in these very days, resolutions for dissolving itself and assembling future Parliaments. 3 It has protected trade ; got a good Navy afloat. You soldiers, there is exact payment provided for you. Martial Law ? Death, or other punishment, of Mutineers ? Well ! Whoever cannot stand Martial Law is not fit to be a soldier: his best plan will be to lay down his arms; he shall Invf his ticket, and get his arrears as we others do, we that still mean to fight against the enemies of England and this Cause.* One trooper showed signs of insolence; the Lien- t 1 1. nit-General suppressed him by rigor and by clemency ; the rnen ribbons were torn from such hats as had them. The humor of the men is not the most perfect This Review was on Wednesday: Lilburn and his five small Beagles are, on S:it unlay, committed close Prisoners to the Tower, each rigor- mi ly to a cell of his own. It is high time. For now the flame has caught the ranks of tin- Army itself, in Oxfordshire, in Gloucestershire, at Salis- bury when- hi-ad-quartor.*; an 1 ; and rapidly there is, on all hands, a dangerous conflagration blazing out. In Oxfordshire, <>nr Captain Thompson, not known to us before, has burst from tn v quarters at Itanlmry, with a party of two hundred, in these 1 WhitWke's date, p. 885. * 15th April, 1649, Common* Jnunalt. Newspapers (in (.'romwtUitina, p. 56). 432 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. uitay, ame days ; has sent forth his England's Standard Advanced 1 insisting passionately on the New Chains we are fettered with ; indignantly demanding swift perfection of Human Freedom, justice on the murderers of Lockyer and Arnald ; threaten- ing that if a hair of Lilburn and the five small Beagles be hurt, he will avenge it " seventy -and-seven fold." This Thompson's Party, swiftly attacked by his Colonel, is broken within the week ; he himself escapes with a few, and still roves up and down. To join whom, or to communicate with Gloucestershire where help lies, there has, in the interim, open mutiny, " above a thousand strong," with subalterns, with a Cornet Thompson brother of the Captain, but without any leader of mark, broken out at Salisbury : the General and Lieutenant-General, with what force can be raised, are hastening thitherward in all speed. Now were the time for Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburn ; now or never might noisy John do some considerable injury to the Cause he has at heart : but he sits, in these critical hours, fast within stone walls ! Monday, 14th May. All Sunday the General and Lieutenant- General marched in full speed, by Alton, by Andover, towards Salisbury ; the mutineers, hearing of them, start northward for Buckinghamshire, then for Berkshire ; the General and Lieutenant-General turning also northward after them in hot chase. The mutineers arrive at Wantage ; make for Oxford- shire by Newbridge ; find the Bridge already seized ; cross higher up by swimming; get to Burford, very weary, and " turn out their horses to grass ; " Fairfax and Cromwell still following in hot speed, "a march of near fifty miles" that Monday. What boots it ? there is no leader, noisy John is sitting fast within stone walls ! The mutineers lie asleep in Burford, their horses out at grass ; the Lieutenant-General, having rested at a safe distance since dark, bursts into Burford as the clocks are striking midnight. He has beset some hun- dreds of the mutineers, " who could only fire some shots out of windows ; " has dissipated the mutiny, trodden down the Levelling Principle out of English affairs once more. Here is the last scene of the business ; the rigorous Court-Martial 1 Giren in Walker's History of Independency, part ii. 168; dated 6th May. 1649. THE LEVELLERS. 433 having now sat ; the decimated doomed Mutineers being placed on the leads of the Church to see : Thursday, 17tk May. "This day in Burford Church-yard, Cornet Thompson, brother to Thompson the chief leader, was brought to the place of execution ; and expressed himself to this purpose : That it was just what did befall him ; that God did not own the ways he went ; that he had offended the Gen- eral : he desired the prayers of the people ; and told the sol- diers who were appointed to shoot him, that when he held out his hands, they should do their duty. And accordingly he was immediately, after the sign given, shot to death. Next after him was a Corporal, brought to the same place of execu- tion ; where, looking upon his fellow-mutineers, he set his hack against the wall ; and bade them who were appointed to shoot, ' Shoot ! ' and died desperately. The third, being also a Corporal, was brought to the same place ; and without the least acknowledgment of error, or show of fear, he pulled off his doublet, standing a pretty distance from the wall; and bade the soldiers do their duty ; looking them in the face till they gave fire, not showing the least kind of terror or fearful- ness of spirit." So die the Leveller Corporals ; strong they, after their sort, for the Liberties of England j resolute to the very death. Misguided Corporals ! But History, which has wept for a misguided Charles Stuart, and blubbered, in the most copious helpless manner, near two centuries now, whole floods of brine, enough to salt the Herring-fishery, will not refuse these poor Corporals also her tributary sigh. With Arnald of the Rendezvous at Ware, with Lockyer of the Bull in Bishopsgate, and other misguided martyrs to the Liberties of England then and since, may they sleep well ! Cornet Dean, who now came forward as the next to be shot, " expressed penitence ; " got pardon from the General : and there was no more shooting. Lieutenant-General Cromwell went into the Church, called down the Decimated of the Muti- neers ; rebuked, admonished ; said, The General in his mercy h:i'l forgiven them. Misguided men, would you ruin this Cause, which marvellous Providences have so confirmed to ua the Cause of God ? Go, repent ; and rebel no more, lest TOL. XVII. '..'* 434 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND, 17 May, a worse thing befall you ! " They wept," says the old News- paper ; they retired to the Devizes for a time ; were then restored to their regiments, and marched cheerfully for Ire- land. Captain Thompson, the Cornet's brother, the first of all the Mutineers, he too, a few days afterwards, was fallen in with in Northamptonshire, still mutinous : his men took quar- ter ; he himself " fled to a wood ; " fired and fenced there, and again desperately fired, declaring he would never yield alive ; whereupon " a Corporal with seven bullets in his carbine " ended Captain Thompson too ; and this formidable conflagra- tion, to the last glimmer of it, was extinct. Sansculottism, as we said above, has to lie submerged for almost two centuries yet. Levelling, in the practical civil or military provinces of English things, is forbidden to be. In the spiritual provinces it cannot be forbidden; for there it everywhere already is. It ceases dibbling beans on St. George's Hill near Cobham ; ceases galloping in mutiny across the Isis to Burford ; takes into Quakerisms, and kingdoms which are not of this world. My poor friend Dryasdust lamentably tears his hair over the " intolerance " of that old Time to Quakerism and such like. If Dryasdust had seen the dibbling on St. George's Hill, the threatened fall of " park pales," and the gallop to Burford, he would reflect that Conviction in an ear- nest age means, not lengthy Spouting in Exeter Hall, but rapid silent Practice on the face of the Earth; and would perhaps leave his poor hair alone. On Thursday night, 17th of the month, the General, Lieu- tenant-General, and chief Officers arrive at Oxford ; lodge in All-Souls College ; head-quarters are to be there for some days. Solemnly welcomed by the reformed University ; bedinnered, bespeeched ; made Doctors, Masters, Bachelors, or what was suitable to their ranks, and to the faculties of this reformed University. Of which high doings, degrees and convocation- dinners, and eloquence by Proctor Zanchy, we say nothing, being m haste for Ireland. This small benefit we have from the business : Anthony Wood, in his crabbed but authentic way, has given us biographical sketches of all these Graduates; biographies very lean, very perverse, but better than are com- 1649. THE LEVELLERS. 435 monly going then, and in the fatal scarcity not quite without value. 1 Neither do we speak of the thanking in the House of Com- mons ; or of the general Day of Thanksgiving for London, which is Thursday, the 7th June (the day for England at large being Thursday, 21st), and of the illustrious Dinner which the City gave the Parliament and Officers, and all the Dignitaries of England, when Sermon was done. It was at Grocers' Hall, this City dinner ; really illustrious. Dull Bui- strode, Keeper, or one of the Keepers, of the Commonwealth Groat Seal, was there, Keeper of that lump of dignified metal, found since all rusty in the wall at Hursley : and my Lord of Pembroke, an Earl and Member of the Council of State, "speaking very loud," as his manner was, insisted that illustrious Bulstrode should take place above him. I have given place to Bishop Williams when he was Keeper ; and the Commonwealth Great Seal is as good as any King's ever was ; illustrious Bulstrode, take place above me : so ! * " On almost every dish was enamelled a bandrol with the word Welcome. No music but that of drum and trumpet;" no bal- derdash, or almost none, of speech without meaning ; " no drinking of healths or other incivility : " drinking of healths ; a kind of invocation or prayer, addressed surely not to God, in that humor ; probably therefore to the Devil, or to the Heathen gods ; which is offensive to the well-constituted mind. Four hundred pounds were given to the Poor of London, that they also might dine. 4 And now for Bristol and the Campaign in Ireland. 1 Wood's Alhfwr, iv. (Fatti, n. 127-155) : the Graduates of Saturday, 19th May, 1649, are, Fairfax, p. 148; Cromwell, p. 152; Colonels Srrojv, Grosve- nor, Sir l/nnl,,.** Waller, IngoliMnj, Hum son, Gaff", Okey ; Adjutant-General Sedascue, Scoutmaster Kowe : and of Monday, 21st, Lieutenant-Colonel Cotbet, p. 140; Juhu Rush worth, Cornet .///<, p. 138: of whom those marked here in Italics have li..irri|.!ii.-- worth looking at for an instant. 1 Common* Journal*, 26th May, 1649. ' \Vhitl.H-k. j, :.! . pp. 59. 40). 436 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 10 July, LETTERS XCVII.-CIL Tuesday, Wth July, 1649. " This evening, about five of the clock, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland began his journey ; by the way of Windsor, and so to Bristol. He went forth in that state and equipage as the like hath hardly been seen ; him- self in a coach with six gallant Flanders mares, whitish gray ; divers coaches accompanying him ; and very many great Offi- cers of the Army ; his Life-guard consisting of eighty gal- lant men, the meanest whereof a Commander or Esquire, in stately habit ; with trumpets sounding, almost to the shak- ing of Charing Cross, had it been now standing. Of his Life- guard many are Colonels ; and, believe me, it 's such a guard as is hardly to be paralleled in the world. And now have at you, my Lord of Ormond ! You will have men of gallantry to en- counter ; whom to overcome will be honor sufficient, and to be beaten by them will be no great blemish to your reputation. If you say, Caesar or Nothing : they say, A Republic or Noth- ing. The Lord Lieutenant's colors are white." * Thus has Lord-Lieutenant Cromwell gone to the Wars in Ireland. But before going, and while just on the eve of going, he has had the following, among a multiplicity of other busi- nesses, to attend to. LETTER XCVH. BARNABAS O'BRYEN, Sixth Earl of Thomond, Twentieth- and-odd King of Thomond, a very ancient Irish dignitary of the Limerick regions, whom it were still worth while to con- ciliate, has fallen into " straits," distresses ; applies to the Lord Lieutenant to help him a little. The Lord Lieutenant thinks his case good ; forwards it with recommendation to Harrington, of the Council of State, the proper official person 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana,p. 62). 1*40, LETTER XCVII. LONDON. in such matters. Note, this is by no means Harrington of the Oceana, this " Sir James ; " this is Member (" recruiter ") for Rutlandshire, and only a distant cousin of the Oceana's. What the Earl of Thomond's case was, as we have not seen the " enclosed " statement of it, shall remain somewhat vague to us. Thomond had not joined the Irish Massacre in 1641 : but neither would he join against it ; he apologized to the King's Lieutenant on that occasion, said he had no money, no force ; retired with many apologetic bows into England to the King himself ; leaving his unmoneyed Castle of Bunratty to the King's Lieutenant, who straightway found some 2,000 of good money lying hidden in it, and cheerfully ap- propriated the same. I incline to think, it may be for this two thousand and odd pounds, to have it acknowledged as a debt and allowed on the Earl of Peterborough's estate, that the poor Earl, " in the modesty of his desires," is now plead- ing. For he has been in active Royalist services since that passive one ; in Ormond Wars, cessations, sequestrations, is a much-mulcted, impoverished man. And as for the Earl of iVterborough his son-in-law, he was one of poor Earl Hol- land's people in that fatal futile rising of St. Neot's, last year ; and is now wandering in foreign parts, in a totally ruined condition. Readers who are curious may follow the indications in the note. 1 Earl Thomond's modest desire was allowed. Bunratty Castle, where that 2,000 was found " bur- ied in the walls," is now quite deserted by the Thomonds ; is now " the largest Police-Barrack " in those Limerick regions. [For the Honorable Sir Jn/m's Harrington, Knight, of the Council of State: These."] " [LONDON,] 9th July, 1649. " SIR, You see by this Enclosed, how great damage the F.nl nl Tin. iiiond hath sustained by these Troubles, and what tniis In 1 :md his family are reduced unto by reason thereof. Y'u see the modesty of his desires to be such as may well 1 Lndlow, i. 21 ; Whitlooke (2dedit.), p. 420, see also p. 201 ; Common* Journal*, vi. L'T'.t, 44J (15th August, 1649 ami 23d July, 1650); Collins'.-* Peer- aye, ii. 216; Ac. Ac. 438 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. lOJuly, merit consideration. I am confident, that which he seeks is not so much for advantage of himself, as out of a desire to preserve his son-in-law the Earl of Peterborough's fortune and family from ruin. "If the result of the favor of the House fall upon him, although but in this way, it 's very probable it will oblige his Lordship to endeavor the peace and quiet of this Common- wealth. Which will be no disservice to the State ; perhaps of more advantage than the extremity of his Fine. Besides, you showing your readiness to do a good office herein will very much oblige, Sir, " Your affectionate servant, " OLIVER CKOMWELL." 1 LETTER XCVIII. HERE likewise is a Letter which the Lord Lieutenant, in still greater haste, now in the very act of departing, has had to write, on behalf of his " Partner " or fellow Member for Cambridge ; which likewise the reader is to glance at, before going : " For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire. " [LONDON,] 10th July, 1649. " SIR, I beseech you, upon that score of favor, if I be not too bold to call it friendship, which I have ever had from you, let me desire you to promote my Partner's humble suit to the House ; and obtain, as far as possibly you may, some just satisfaction for him. I know his sufferings -for the Public have been great, besides the loss of his calling by his attendance here. His affections have been true and con- stant ; and, I believe, his decay great in his Estate. It will be justice and charity to him ; and I shall acknowledge it as a favor to, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 1 Tanner MSS. (in Gary, ii. 150). 2 Harris, p. 516 ; Harleian MSS no 6988 collated, and exact. 1949. LETTER XCVIII. LONDON. 439 John Lowry, Esquire, is Oliver's fellow Member for Cam- bridge. What Lowry's " losses," " estate," " calling," or his- tory in general were, remains undiscoverable. One might guess that he had been perhaps a lawyer, some call him a " chandler " or trader, 1 of Puritan principles, and fortune already easy. He did not sit in the short Parliament of 1640, as Oliver had done ; Oliver's former " Partner," one Meautys as we men- tioned already, gave place to Lowry when the new Election happened. Lowry in 1645 was Mayor of Cambridge. Some contro- 1 versy as to the Privileges of the University there, which was now reformed according to the Puritan scheme, had arisen with the Town of Cambridge : a deputation of Cambridge Uni- versity men, with " Mi 1 . Vines " at their head, comes up with a Petition to the House of Commons, on the 4th of August, 1645 ; reporting that they are like to be aggrieved, that the " new Mayor of Cambridge will not take the customary oaths," in respect to certain privileges of the University ; and pray- ing the House, in a bland and flattering way, to protect them. The House answers : " Yours is the University which is under the protection of this House ; " Oxford, still in the King's hands, being in a very unreformed state: "this House can see no learning now in the Kingdom but by your eyes ; " certainly you shall be protected ! Counter-Petitions come from Lowry and the Corporation ; but we doubt not the Uni- versity was protected in this controversy, and Gown made good against Town. 3 What the controversy specially was, or what became of it, let no living man inquire. Lowry here vanishes into thick night again ; nowhere reappears till in this Letter of Cromwell's. Letter written, as its date bears, on the very day when he set out towards Bristol, to take the command in Ireland, " loth July, 1041), about live in the afternoon." In some Committee- room, or other such locality, in the thick press of business, Lowry had contrived to make his way to the Lord Lieutenant, and to get this Lettrr out of him. Which indeed proved very 1 Cooper's A nnnlt of Cambridge. ' e Commune JournaU, vi 229, 241. 440 PARTY. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 19 July, helpful. For on that day week, the 17th of July, 1049, we find as follows : " The humble Petition of John Lowry, Esquire, was this day read. Ordered, That the sum of three hundred pounds be allowed unto the said Mr. John Lowry, for his losses in the said Petition mentioned ; and that the same be charged upon the revenue : and the Committee of Eeveuue are authorized and appointed to pay the same : and the same is especially recommended to Sir Henry Vane, Senior, to take care the same be paid accordingly," 1 which we can only hope it was, to the solace of poor Mr. Lowry, and the ending of these discussions. Ten years later, in Protector Eichard's time, on Friday, 22d July, 1659, a John Lowry, Esquire, now quite removed from Cambridge, turns up again ; claiming to be continued " Cheque in Ward in the Port of London," which dignity is accord- ingly assured him till " the first day of October next." 2 But whether this is our old friend the Mayor of Cambridge, and what kind of provision for his old age this same Chequeship in Ward might be, is unknown to the present Editor. Not the faintest echo or vestige henceforth of a John Lowry either real or even possible. The rest gloomy Night compresses it, and we have no more to say. LETTER XCIX. MAYOR of Hursley, with whom are the young Couple, is con- nected now with an important man ; he has written in behalf of " Major Long ; " for promotion as is likely. The important man does not promote on the score of connection ; and mildly signifies so much. " For my very loving Brother Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley : These. "BRISTOL, 19th July, 1649. " LOVING BROTHER, I received your Letter by Major Long ; and do in answer thereunto according to my best under 1 See Commons Journals vi. 263. 2 Ibid. vii. 737. 1649. LETTER XCIX. BRISTOL. 441 standing, with a due consideration to those gentlemen who have abid the brunt of the service. " I am very glad to hear of your welfare, and that our chil- dren have so good leisure to make a journey to eat cherries : it 's very excusable in my Daughter ; I hope she may have a very good pretence for it ! I assure you, Sir, I wish her very well ; and I believe she knows it. I pray you tell her from me, I expect she writes often to me ; by which I shall under- stand how all your Family doth, and she will be kept in some exercise. I have delivered my Son up to you ; and I hope you will counsel him : he will need it ; and indeed I believe he likes well what you say, and will be advised by you. I wish lie may be serious ; the times require it. " 1 hope my Sister l is in health ; to whom I desire my very lit 'arty affections and service may be presented ; as also to my Cousin Ann, 2 to whom I wish a good husband. I desire my affections may be presented to all your Family, to which I wish a blessing from the Lord. I hope I shall have your prayers in the Business to which I am called. My Wife, I trust, will be with you before it be long, in her way towards Bristol. Sir, discompose not your thoughts or Estate for what you are to pay me. Let me know wherein I may comply with your occa- sions and mind, and be confident you will find me to you aa your own heart. " Wishing your prosperity and contentment very sincerely, with the remembrance of my love, I rest, " Your affectionate brother and servant, " OLIVKB CROMWELL." * Mayor has endorsed this Letter : " Received 27th July, 1649, per Messenger express from Xowbury." He has likewise, says Harris, jotted on it " some shorthand," and "an account of his cattle and sheep." Who the " Major Long " was, we know- not : Cromwell undertakes to " do " for him what may be right and reasonable, and nothing more. Cromwell, leaving London as we saw on Tuesday evening, 1 Mm. Mayor. * MIM Mayor, afterwards Mrs. Dunch of Pusey. iiarru, p. 510 : no. 8 of the Puaey seven t 442 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. August, July 10th, had arrived at Bristol on Saturday evening, which was the 14th. He had to continue here, making his prepara- tions, gathering his forces, for several weeks. Mrs. Cromwell means seemingly to pass a little more time with him before he go. In the end of July, he quits Bristol ; moving westward by Tenby l and Pembroke, where certain forces were to be taken up, towards Milford Haven ; where he dates his next Letters, just in the act of sailing. LETTER C. THE new Lord Lieutenant had at first designed for Munster, where it seemed his best chance lay. Already he has sent some regiments over, to reinforce our old acquaintance Colonel, now Lieutenant-General Michael Jones, at present besieged in Dublin, and enable him to resist the Ormond Army there. But on the 2d of August an important Victory has turned up for Jones : surprisal, and striking into panic and total rout, of the said Ormond Army ; s which fortunate event, warmly recognized in the following Letter, clears Dublin of siege, and opens new outlooks for the Lord Lieutenant there. He sails thitherward ; from Milford Haven, Monday, August 13th. Ireton, who is Major-General, or third in command, Jones being second, follows with another division of the force, on Wednesday. Hugh Peters also went ; and " Mr. Owen " also, for another chaplain. The good ship John is still lying in Milford waters, we sup- pose, waiting for a wind, for a turn of the tide. " My Son " Richard Cromwell, and perhaps Richard's Mother, we may dimly surmise, had attended the Lord Lieutenant thus far, to wish him speed on his perilous enterprise ? 1 At Tenby 2d August, Commons Journals, vi. 277. 2 Rout at Rathmines or Bagatrath : Ormond's own Account of it, in Carte's Ormond Papers, ii. 403, 407-411 : Jones's Account, in Gary's 11. 159-162. Commons Journals, vi. 278 (14th August, 1649). i49 LETTER C. MILFORD HAVEN. 443 [For my loving Brother Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley : These.'} " [MILFORD HAVEN,] From Aboard the John, 13th August, 1649. " LOVING BROTHER, I could not satisfy myself to omit this opportunity by my Son of writing to you ; especially there being so late and great an occasion of acquainting you with the happy news I received from Lieutenant-General Jones yesterday. " The Marquis of Ormond besieged Dublin with nineteen thousand men or thereabouts ; seven thousand Scots and three thousand more were coming to [join him in] that work. Jones issued out of Dublin with four thousand foot and twelve hun- dred horse ; hath routed this whole Army ; killed about four thousand upon the place ; taken 2,517 prisoners, above three hundred [of them] officers, some of great quality. 1 " This is an astonishing mercy ; so great and seasonable that indeed we are like them that dreamed. What can we say ! The Lord fill our souls with thankfulness, that our mouths may be full of His praise, and our lives too; and grant we may never forget His goodness to us. These things seem to strengthen our faith and love, against more difficult times. Sir, pray for me, That I may walk worthy of the Lord in all that He hath called me unto ! " I have committed my Son to you ; pray give him advice. I envy him not his contents ; but I fear he should be swal- lowed up in till-in. I would have him mind and understand Business, read a little History, study the Mathematics and Cosmography : these are good, with subordination to the things of God. Better than Idleness, or mere outward worldly contents. These fit for Public services, 8 for which a man is born. 1 The round numbers of this account hare, as ia usual, come exaggerated (Carte, iibi aupra). 9 Service* useful to all men. 444 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 13 Aug. " Pardon this trouble. I am tlms bold because I know you love me ; as indeed I do you, and yours. My love to my dear Sister, and my Cousin Ann your Daughter, and all Friends. I rest, Sir, " Your loving brother, " OLIVER CROMWELL. "j~P.S.] Sir, I desire you not to discommodate yourself be- cause of the money due to me. Your welfare is as mine : and therefore let me know, from time to time, what will con- venience you in any forbearance ; I shall answer you in it, and be ready to accommodate you. And therefore do your other business ; let not this hinder." 1 Of Jones and his Victory, and services in Ireland, there was on the morrow much congratulating in Parliament : revival of an old Vote, which had rather fallen asleep, For settling Lands of a Thousand Pounds a year on him ; and straightway, more special speedy Vote of " Lands to the value of Five Hundred Pounds a year for this last service ; " which latter Vote, we hope, will not fall asleep as the former had done. 9 LETTER CI. SAME DATE, SAME CONVEYANCE. " To my beloved Daughter Dorothy Cromwell, at Hursley : These. "FROM ABOARD THE JOHN, 13th Aug. 1649. " MY DEAR DAUGHTER, Your Letter was very welcome to me. I like to see anything from your hand ; because indeed I stick not to say I do entirely love you. And therefore I hope a word of advice will not be unwelcome nor unacceptable to thee. 1 Forster's Statesmen of the Commonwealth, iv. 267 : From certain MSS. of Lord Nugent's. a Commons Journals, vi. 278, 281 (14th, 18th August, 1649). 1649. LETTER CI. ABOARD THE JOHN. " I desire you both to make it above all things your busi- ness to seek the Lord : to be frequently calling upon Him, that He would manifest Himself to you iu His Son ; and be listening what returns He makes to you, for He will be speaking in your ear and in your heart, if you attend there- unto. I desire you to provoke your Husband likewise there- unto. As for the pleasures of this Life, and outward Business, let thai be upon the bye. Be above all these things, by Faith in Christ ; and then you shall have the true use and comfort of them, and not otherwise. 1 I have much satisfaction in hope your spirit is this way set ; and I desire you may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; and that I may hear thereof. The Lord is very near : which we see by His wonderful works : and therefore He looks tliat we of this generation draw near to Him. This late great Mercy of Ireland is a great manifestation thereof. Your Hus- band will acquaint you with it. We should be much stirred up in our spirits to thankfulness. We much need the spirit of Christ, to enable us to praise God for so admirable a mercy. " The Lord bless thee, my dear Daughter. I rest, " Thy loving Father, "OLIVEK CROMWELL. "[P.S.] I hear thou didst lately miscarry. Prithee take heed of a coach by all means ; borrow thy Father's nag when thou intendest to go abroad." a Is the last phrase ironical ; or had the " coach," in those ancient roads, overset, and produced the disaster ? Perhaps " thy Father's nag " is really safer ? Oliver is not given to irony ; nor in a tone for it at this moment. These gentle domesticities and pieties are strangely contrasted with the fiery savagery and iron grimness, stern as Doom, which meets us in the next set of Letters we have from him ! 1 How true is this ; equal, in ita obsolete dialect, to the highest that man has yet attained to, in any dialect old or new ! ' Fonter, ir. 268 : From certain MS8. of Lord Nugent's. 446 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 15 Aug. On the second day following, on the 15th of August/ Crom- well with a prosperous wind arrived in Dublin ; " where," say the old Newspapers, 2 "he was received with all possible demonstrations of joy ; the great guns echoing forth their welcome, and the acclamations of the people resounding in every street. The Lord Lieutenant being come into the City, where the concourse of the people was very great, they all flocking to see him of whom before they had heard so much, at a convenient place he made a stand," rising in his carriage we suppose, " and with his hat in his hand made a speech to them." Speech unfortunately lost : it is to this effect ; " That as God had brought him thither in safety, so he doubted not but by Divine Providence to restore them all to their just liberties and properties," much trodden doAvn by those unblessed Papist- Royalist combinations, and the injuries of war: "and that all persons whose hearts' affections were real for the carrying on of this great work against the barbarous and bloodthirsty Irish and their confederates and adherents, and for propagating of Christ's Gospel and establishing of Truth and Peace, and restoring of this bleeding Nation of Ireland to its former hap- piness and tranquillity, should find favor and protection from the Parliament of England and him, and withal receive such rewards and gratuities as might be answerable to their merits." " This Speech," say the old Newspapers, " was enter- tained with great applause by the people ; who all cried out, 1 We will live and die with you ! ' " LETTER CII. SIB GEORGE ATSCOUGH, now vigilantly cruising on those coasts, " Vice- Admiral of the Irish Seas," who has done good service more than once, he ought not to suffer in his private economics by absence on the Public Service. 1 Carte, ii. 83. a In Kimber, Life of Cromwell (London, 1724), p. 126. iW9. LETTER CII. DUBLIN. 447 [/"or the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of th Parliament: These.~\ "DUBLIN, 22d August, 1649. " Sir, Before my coining for Ireland, I was bold to move the House on behalf of Sir George Ayscough; who then I thought had merited the favor of the Parliament, but since, much more, by his very faithful and industrious carriage in this place. " It seems, whilst he is attending your service, a Lease he holds of the Deanery of Windsor had like to be purchased over his head, he not coming to buy it himself by the time limited. H>- holds a very considerable part of his estate in Church- s ; one or more being in Impropriate Tithes, which he and his ancestors have held for a good time : all which is like to determine, and go from him and his, by your Orders. " I found the Parliament well to resent the motion I made on his behalf at that time. I desire you please to revive the business ; and to obtain the House's favor for him, which they intended and expressed. He will, I presume, herewith send his humble desires : for which I beg your furtherance ; and rest, Sir, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." 1 Ayscough is a Lincolnshire man. Last year, in the time of Itevolted Ships, he stood true to the Parliament ; and brought his own ship off to them, in spite of perils. Serves now under Blake; is fast rising as a Sea-officer. The Lord Lit-utenant's request iu behalf of him has already been com- with. 1 Tanner MSS (in f'ary, ii. 163). 1 Comment Jwrnalt,*\.\\ August, 1649 (vi. 276); see ib. 9th July, 1649 (on hir|i l>:il.h . tin- d.iy of Thuiiioinl's Letter too, Cromwell had boeii " moving the llm*: " for him). Whitlocke (2d edition), p. 317. 448 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 84 Aug. A DECLARATION BY THE LOKD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND. MICHAEL JONES'S Dublin Army, like all Armies hitherto in Ireland, is of a quite unsatisfactory structure, of habits and practices quite unsatisfactory. The Lord Lieutenant is busy modelling it ; rearranging it under new and more capable Officers; above all, clearing it of bad men: an Irish friend informs us, "There hath been an huge purge of the Army which we found here : it was an Army made up of dissolute and debauched men." 1 " The Officers reduced are not a little discontented," writes another friend : but the public service so requires it. Officers and men, and all Ireland are to know that henceforth it is on a new footing we proceed. Here is a Declaration, legible on such market-crosses, church-doors and the like, as we have access to j well worth attending to in a distracted seat of war. This DECLARATION is appointed to be printed, and published throughout all Ireland: By special direction from OLIVER CROMWELL. " WHEREAS I am informed that, upon the marching out of the Armies heretofore, or of parties from Garrisons, a liberty hath been taken by the Soldiery to abuse, rob and pillage, and too often to execute cruelties upon the Country People : Being resolved, by the grace of God, diligently and strictly to re- strain such wickedness for the future, " I do hereby warn and require all Officers, Soldiers, and others under my command, henceforth To forbear all such evil practices as aforesaid ; and Not to do any wrong or violence toward Country People, or persons whatsoever, unless they be actually in arms or office with the Enemy ; and Not to meddle with the goods of such, without special order. 1 Newspaper Letter, iu King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 439, 7 ; another, ib. 22. M49. DECLARATION BY THE LORD LTET T TENANT. 4 !'. " And I farther declare, That it shall be free and lawful to and for all manner of persons dwelling in the country, as well gentlemen and soldiers, as farmers and other people (such as are in arms or office with or for the Enemy only excepted), to make their repair, and bring any provisions unto the Army, while in march or camp, or unto any Garrison under my com- mand : Hereby assuring all such, That they shall not be molested or troubled in their persons or goods ; but shall have the benefit of a free market, and receive ready money for goods or commodities they shall so bring and sell : And that they, behaving themselves peaceably and quietly ; and paying such Contributions, proportionately with their neighbors, as have been, are, or shall be duly and orderly imposed upon them, for maintenance of the Parliament's forces and other public iisr-s, shall have free leave and liberty to live at home with their families and goods ; and shall be protected in their persons and estates by virtue Hereof, until the 1st of January next : By or before which time [1st of January next], all such of them as are minded to reside, and plough and sow, in tlio [Army's] quarters, are to make their addresses, for now and farther protections, to the Attorney-General, residing at Dub- lin, and to such other persons as shall be authorized for that purpose. " And hereof I require all Soldiers, and others under my command, diligently to take notice and observe the same : as they shall answer to the contrary at their utmost perils. Strictly charging and commanding all Officers and others, in tlicir several places, carefully to see to it That no wrong or vio- lence be done to any such person as aforesaid, contrary to the ef- f'-ft of the premises. Being resolved, through the grace of God, to punish all that shall offend contrary hereunto, very severely, according to Law or Articles of War ; to displace, and other- punish, all such Officers as shall be found negligent in their places, and not to see to the due observance hereof, or not to punish the offenders under their respective commands. " Given at Dublin, the 24th of August, 1649. "OLIVER CK<>M\V rr,u wl Pamphlet*, mnall 4to, no. 439, 25. XTII. '_* 450 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1649L IRISH WAK. THE history of the Irish War is, and for the present must continue, very dark and indecipherable to us. Ireland, ever since the Irish Rebellion broke out and changed itself into an Irish Massacre, in the end of 1C41, has been a scene of distracted controversies, plunderings, excommunications, treacheries, conflagrations, of universal misery and blood and bluster, such as the world before or since has never seen. The History of it does not form itself into a picture ; but remains only as a huge blot, an indiscriminate blackness ; which the human memory cannot willingly charge itself with ! There are Parties on the back of Parties ; at war with the world and with each other. There are Catholics of the Pale, demanding freedom of religion ; under my Lord This and my Lord That. There are Old-Irish Catholics, under Pope's Nuncios, under Abbas O'Teague of the excommunications, and Owen Roe O'Neil ; demanding not religious freedom only, but what we now call " Repeal of the Union ; " and unable to agree with the Catholics of the English Pale. Then there are Ormond Roy- alists, of the Episcopalian and mixed creeds, strong for King without Covenant : Ulster and other Presbyterians, strong for King and Covenant : lastly, Michael Jones and the Com- monwealth of England, who want neither King nor Covenant. All these, plunging and tumbling, in huge discord, for the last eight years, have made of Ireland and its affairs the black unutterable blot we speak of. At the date of Oliver's arrival, all Irish Parties are united in a combination very unusual with them ; very dangerous for the incipient Commonwealth. Ormond, who had returned thither with new Commission, in hopes to co-operate with Scotch Hamilton during the Second Civil War, arrived too late for that object ; but has succeeded in rallying Ireland into one mass of declared opposition to the Powers that now rule. 1449. IRISH WAR. 451 Catholics of the Pale, and Old-Irish Catholics of the Massacre, v, ill at length act together : Protestant English Royalisni, which has fled hither for shelter ; nay, now at last Rovalist Presbyterianism, and the very Scots in Ulster, have all joined with Ormond " against the Regicides." They are eagerly inviting the young Charles Second to come thither, and be crowned and made victorious. He as yet hesitates between that and Scotland ; may probably give Scotland the preference. But in all Ireland, when Cromwell sets foot on it, there remain only two Towns, Dublin and Deny, that hold for the Commonwealth ; Dublin lately besieged, Deny still besieged. A very formidable combination. All Ireland kneaded together, by favorable accident and the incredible patience of Ormond, stands up in one great combination, reso- lute to resist the Commonwealth. Combination great in bulk; but made of iron and clay ; in meaning not so great. Oliver has taken survey and measure of it ; Oliver descends on it like the hammer of Thor ; smites it, as at one fell stroke, into dust and ruin, never to reunite against him more. One could pity this poor Irish people ; their case is pitiable enough ! The claim they started with, in 1641, was for re- ligious freedom. Their claim, we can now all see, was just : utially just, though full of intricacy; difficult to render olriir and concessible; nay, at that date of the World's His- tory, it was hardly recognizable to any Protestant man for just; and these frightful massacrings and sanguinary bluster- ings have rendered it, for the present, entirely unrecognisable. A just, though very intricate claim : but entered upon, and cuted, by such methods as were never yet available for asserting any claim in this world ! Treachery and massacre: what could come of it ? Eight years of cruel fighting, of des- perate violence and misery, have left matters worse a thousand- fold than they were at first. No want of daring, or of patriotism so called ; but a gn-at want of other things ! Numerous large masses of armed men have twon on foot ; lull of tifiy veh-- rncuoe and audacity, but without worth as Armies: savage horiK-s rather; full of hatml and iimtuitl lintn-d, of disobedi- ;ty ;uid noise. UndrilU-d, unpaid. driving herds of 452 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1649. plundered cattle before them for subsistence; rushing dowii from hillsides, from ambuscadoes, passes in the mountains; taking shelter always " in bogs whither the cavalry cannot fol- low them." Unveracious, violent, disobedient men. False in speech ; alas, false in thought, first of all ; who have never let the Fact tell its own harsh story to them ; who have said always to the harsh Fact, " Thou art not that way, thou art this way ! " The Fact, of course, asserts that it is that way : the Irish Projects end in perpetual discomfiture; have to take shelter in bogs whither cavalry cannot follow ! There has been no scene seen under the sun like Ireland for these eight years. Murder, pillage, conflagration, excommunication ; wide-flowing blood, and bluster high as Heaven and St. Peter ; as if wolves or rabid dogs were in fight here ; as if demons from the Pit had mounted up, to deface this fair green piece of God's Creation with their talkings and workings ! It is, and shall remain, very dark to us. Conceive Ireland wasted, torn in pieces ; black Controversy as of demons and rabid wolves rushing over the face of it so long ; incurable, and very dim to us : till here at last, as in the torrent of Heaven's lightning descending liquid on it, we have clear and terrible view of its affairs for a time ! Oliver's proceedings here have been the theme of much loud criticism and sibylline execration ; into which it is not our plan to enter at present. We shall give these Irish Letters of his in their own natural figure, and without any commentary what- ever. To those who think that a land overrun with Sanguinary Quacks can be healed by sprinkling it with rose-water, these Letters must be very horrible. Terrible Surgery this : but is it Surgery and Judgment, or atrocious Murder merely ? That is a question which should be asked ; and answered. Oliver Cromwell did believe in God's Judgments ; and did not believe in the rose-water plan of Surgery; which, in fact, is this Editor's case too ! Every idle lie and piece of empty bluster this Editor hears, he too, like Oliver, has to shudder at it ; has to think : " Thou, idle bluster, not true, thou also art shutting men's minds against the God's Fact ; thou wilt issue as a cleft crown to some poor man some day ; thou also wilt have to 1W9. IRISH WAR. 453 take shelter in bogs whither cavalry cannot follow ! " But in Oliver's time, as I say, there was still belief in the Judgments of God ; in Oliver's time, there was yet no distracted jargon of " abolishing Capital Punishments," of Jean-Jacques Philan- thropy, and universal rose-water in this world still so full of sin. Men's notion was, not for abolishing punishments, but for making laws just : God the Maker's Laws, they considered, had not yet got the Punishment abolished from them ! Men had a notion, that the difference between Good and Evil was still considerable ; equal to the difference between Heaven and Hell. It was a true notion. Which all men yet saw, and felt in all fibres of their existence, to be true. Only in late decadent generations, fast hastening towards radical change or final perdition, can such indiscriminate mashing up of Good and Evil into one universal patent-treacle, and most unmedical electuary, of Rousseau Sentimentalism, universal Pardon and Benevolence, with dinner and drink and one cheer more, take effect in our earth. Electuary very poisonous, as sweet as il is, and very nauseous ; of which Oliver, happier than we, hal not yet heard the slightest intimation even in dreams. The reader of these Letters, who has swept all that very ominous twaddle out of his head and heart, and still looks with a recognizing eye on the ways of the Supreme Powers with this world, will find here, in the rude practical state, a Phe- nomenon which he will account noteworthy. An armed Sol- dier, solemnly conscious to himself that he is the Soldier of , ait tlin in thy sphere the minister 454 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1649. of God's Justice ; feeling that thou art here to do it, and to see it done, at thy soul's peril ? Thou wilt then judge Oliver with increasing clearness ; otherwise with increasing darkness, misjudge him. In fact, Oliver's dialect is rude and obsolete ; the phrases of Oliver, to him solemn on the perilous battle-field as voices of God, have become to us most mournful when spouted as frothy cant from Exeter Hall. The reader has, all along, to make steady allowance for that. And on the whole, clear recognition will be difficult for him. To a poor slumberous Canting Age, mumbling to itself everywhere, Peace, Peace, where there is no peace, such a Phenomenon as Oliver, in Ireland or else- where, is not the most recognizable in all its meanings. But it waits there for recognition ; and can wait an Age or t\vo. The memory of Oliver Cromwell, as I count, has a good many centuries in it yet ; and Ages of very varied complexion to apply to, before all end. My reader, in this passage and others, shall make of it what he can. But certainly, at lowest, here is a set of Military Despatches of the most unexampled nature ! Most rough, unkempt ; shaggy as the Numidian lion. A style rugged as crags ; coarse, drossy : yet with a meaning in it, an energy, a depth ; pouring on like a fire-torrent ; perennial fire of it visible athwart all drosses and defacements : not uninteresting to see ! This man has come into distracted Ireland with a God's Truth in the heart of him, though an unexpected one ; the first such man they have seen for a great while indeed. He carries Acts of Parliament, Laws of Earth and Heaven, in one hand ; drawn sword in the other. He addresses the bewildered Irish popu- lations, the black ravening coil of sanguinary blustering indi- viduals at Tredah and elsewhere : " Sanguinary blustering individuals, whose word is grown worthless as the barking of dogs ; whose very thought is false, representing not fact, but the contrary of fact, behold, I am come to speak and to do the truth among you. Here are Acts of Parliament, methods of regulation and veracity, emblems the nearest we poor Puri- tans could make them of God's Law-Book, to which it is and shall be our perpetual effort to make them correspond nearer 1649. IRISH WAR. 4.-,:, and nearer. Obey them, help us to perfect them, be peaceable and true under them, it shall be well with you. Refuse to obey them, I will not let you continue living ! As articulate- epeaking veracious orderly men, not as a blustering murderous kennel of dogs run rabid, shall you continue in this Earth. Choose ! " They chose to disbelieve him ; could not under- stand that he, more than the others, meant any truth or justice to them. They rejected his summons and terms at Tredah : he stormed the place; and according to his promise, put every man of the Garrison to death. His own soldiers are forbidden to plunder, by paper Proclamation ; and in ropes of authentic hemp they are hanged when they do it. 1 To Wexford Garri- son the like terms as at Tredah ; and, failing these, the like storm. Here is a man whose word represents a thing ! Not bluster this, and false jargon scattering itself to the winds : what this man speaks out of him comes to pass as a fact ; speech with this man is accurately prophetic of deed. This is the first King's face poor Ireland ever saw ; the first Friend's face, little as it recognizes him, poor Ireland ! But let us take the Letters themselves ; and read them with various emotions, in which wonder will not fail. What a rage, wide-sweeping, inexorable as Death, dwells in that heart ; close neighlwr to pity, to trembling affection, and soft tears ! Some readers know that softness without rigor, rigor as of adamant to rest upon, is but sloth and cowardly baseness ; that without justice first, real pity is not possible, and only false pity and maudlin weakness is possible. Others, again, are not aware of that fact. To our Irish friends we ought to say likewise that this Garrison of Tredah consisted, in good part, of Eug- li.limc'u. 1 Perfectly certain this: and therefore let "the bloody hoof of the Saxon," &c. forbear to continue itself on that matter. At its peril ! Idle blustering, and untruth of every kind lr;ul to tho like terrible results in these days as they did in those. 1 Two instance* : King's Pamphlets, large 4to. no. 42, 19, tith-15th Sept. 1049. * Lodlow. i. 301. 456 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IKELAND. 12 Sept. LETTERS CIIL-CVL STOBM OF TREDAH. THE first of this set, a Summons to Dundalk, will be fully understood so soon as the Two following it are read. The Two following it, on Tredah, or Drogheda as we now name it, contain in themselves, especially the Second and more delib- erate of the two contains, materials for a pretty complete ac- count of the Transaction there. It requires only to be added, what Cromwell himself has forborne to do, that on the repulse of the first attack, it was he, in person, who, " witnessing it from the batteries," hastened forward and led on the new attack : My pretty men, we must positively not be repulsed ; we must enter here, we cannot do at all without entering ! The rest of these Irish Letters may, I hope, tell their own tale. LETTER CHI. " For the Chief Officer commanding in Dundalk : These. " [TBEDAH,] 12th September, 1649. " SIB, I offered mercy to the Garrison of Tredah, 1 in send- ing the Governor a Summons before I attempted the taking of it. Which being refused brought their evil upon them. " If you, being warned thereby, shall surrender your Gar- rison to the use of the Parliament of England, which by this I summon you to do, you may thereby prevent effusion of blood. If, upon refusing this Offer, that which you like not befalls you, you will know whom to blame. I rest, " Your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 1 " Treedagh " he writes. 2 Autograph, in the possession of the Earl of Shannon, at Castle-Martyr, in the County of Cork. 1649. LETTER CIV. STORM OF TREDAH. 457 The Chief Officer commanding in Dundalk never received this Letter, I believe ! What, in the interim, had become of Dundalk and its Chief and other Officers, will shortly appear. LETTER CIV. [To the Honorable John Bradshaw, Esquire, President of the Council of State : These. ] "[DUBLIN,] 16th September, 1649. " SIR, It hath pleased God to bless our endeavors at Tre- dah. After battery, we stormed it. The enemy were about 3,000 strong in the Town. They made a stout resistance ; and near 1,000 of our men being entered, the Enemy forced them out again. But God giving a new courage to our men, they attempted again, and entered ; beating the Enemy from their defences. "The Enemy had made three retrenchments, both to the right and left [of] where we entered ; all which they were forced to quit. Being thus entered, we refused them quarter ; having, the day before, summoned the Town. I believe we put to the sword the whole number of the defendants. I do not think thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives. Those that did, are in safe custody for the Barbadoes. Since that time, the Enemy quitted to us Trim and Dundalk. In Trim they were in such haste that they left their guns behind them. "This hath been a marvellous great mercy. The Enemy, being not willing to put an issue upon a field-battle, had put into this Garrison almost all their prime soldiers, being about 3,000 horse and foot, under the command of their best officers ; Sir Arthur Ashton being made Governor. There were some seven or eight regiments, Ormond's being one, under the com- mand of Sir Edmund Varney. I do not believe, neither do I h-'.-ir, that any officer escaped with his life, save only one Lieu- tenant, who, I hear, going to tlu Enemy said, That he was the 458 PARTY. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 16 Sept. only man that escaped of all the Garrison. The Enemy upon this were filled with much terror. And truly I believe this bitterness will save much effusion of blood, through the good- ness of God. *' I wish that all honest hearts may give the glory of this to God alone, to whom indeed the praise of this mercy belongs. [As] for instruments, they were very inconsiderable the work throughout. . . . " Captain Brandly did with forty or fifty of his men very gallantly storm the Tenalia ; for which he deserves the thanks of the State. [I rest, Your most humble servant,] " OLIVER CROMWELL." * " Tenalia," I believe, is now called Tenaille by engineers ; a kind of advanced defensive-work, which takes its name from resemblance, real or imaginary, to the lip of a pair of. pincers. The " Sir Edmund Varney " who perished here was the son of the Standard-bearer at Edgehill. For Sir Arthur Ashton see Clarendon. Poor Sir Arthur had a wooden leg which the soldiers were very eager for, understanding it to be full of gold coin ; but it proved to be mere timber : all his gold, 200 broad pieces, was sewed into his belt, and scrambled for when that came to light. 2 There is in Wood's Life 3 an old-soldier's ac- count of the Storm of Tredah, sufficiently emphatic, by Tom Wood, Anthony's brother, who had been there. LETTER CV. {For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These."] "DUBLIN, 17th September, 1649. " SIR, Your Army being safely arrived at Dublin ; and the Enemy endeavoring to draw all his forces together about Trim and Tecroghan, as my intelligence gave me, from 1 Whitlocke, p. 412 2 Ibid. 3 Prefixed to the Athenae, Oxonientes. i.;4D. LETTER CV. STORM OF TREDAH. 459 whence endeavors were made by the Marquis of Ormond to draw Owen Roe O'Neil with his forces to his assistance, but with what success I cannot yet learn, I resolved, after some refreshment taken for our" weather-beaten men and horses, and accommodations for a march, to take the field. And accord- ingly, upon Friday, the 30th of August 1 last, rendezvoused with eight regiments of foot, six of horse and some troops of dragoons, three miles on the north side of Dublin. The design was, To endeavor the regaining of Tredah ; or tempt- ing the Enemy, upon his hazard of the loss of that place, to fight. " Your Army came before the Town upon Monday follow- ing.* Where having pitched, as speedy course was taken as could be to frame our batteries ; which took up the more time because divers of the battering guns were on ship-board. Upon Monday, the 9th * of this instant, the batteries began to play. Whereupon I sent Sir Arthur Ashton, the then Governor, a summons, To deliver the Town to the use of the Parliament of England. To the which receiving no satisfactory answer, I proceeded that day to beat down the Steeple of the Church on the south side of the Town, and to beat down a Tower not far from the same place, which you will discern by the Chart enclosed. " Our guns not being able to do much that day, it was re- solved to endeavor to do our utmost the next day to make breaches assaultable, and by the help of God to storm them. The place pitched upon was that part of the Town-wall next a Church called St. Mary's; which was the rather chosen because we did hope that if we did enter and possess that Church, we should be the better able to keep it against their horse and foot until we could make way for the entrance of our horse ; and we did not conceive that any part of the Town Avnuld afford the like advantage for that purpose witlx this. The batteries planted were two: one was for that part of 'vVall against the east end of the said Church ; the other 1 Friday fa 31*t ; thin error aa to the day of the month continues throngh th* letter. * 3d September. * 10th. 460 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 17 Sept against the Wall on tLe south side. Being somewhat long in battering, the Enemy made six retrenchments : three of them from the said Church to Duleek Gate; and three of them from the east end of the Church to the Town-wail and BO backward. The guns, after some two or three hundred shot, beat down the corner Tower, and opened two reasonable good breaches in the east and south Wall. " Upon Tuesday, the 10th of this instant, about five o'clock in the evening, we began the Storm: and after some hot dispute we entered, about seven or eight hundred men ; the Enemy dispirting it very stiffly with us. And indeed, through the advantages of the place, and the courage God was pleased to give the defenders, our men were forced to retreat quite out of the breach, not without some considerable loss ; Colonel Castle being there shot in the head, whereof he presently died : and divers officers and soldiers doing their duty killed and wounded. There was a Tenalia to flanker the south Wall of the Town, between Duleek Gate and the corner Tower before mentioned; which our men entered, wherein they found some forty or fifty of the Enemy, which they put to the sword. And this [Tenalia] they held : but it being with- out the Wall, and the sally-port through the Wall into that Tenalia being choked up with some of the Enemy which were killed in it, it proved of no use for an entrance into the Town that way. " Although our men that stormed the breaches were forced to recoil, as is before expressed ; yet, being encouraged to re- cover their loss, they made a second attempt : wherein God was pleased so to animate them that they got ground of the Enemy, and by the goodness of God, forced him to quit his entrenchments. And after a very hot dispute, the Enemy having both horse and foot, and we only foot, within the Wall, they gave ground, and our men became masters both of their retrenchments and [of] the Church ; which indeed, although they made our entrance the more difficult, yet they proved of excellent use to us ; so that the Enemy could not [now] annoy us with their horse, but thereby we had advan- tage to make good the ground, that so we might let in our 1649 LETTER CV. STORM OF TREDAH. 461 own horse; which accordingly was done, though with much difficulty. " Divers of the Enemy retreated into the Mill-Mount : a place very strong and of difficult access ; being exceedingly high, having a good graft, and strongly palisadoed. The Governor, Sir Arthur Ashtou, and divers considerable Officers being there, our men getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword. And indeed, being in the heat of action, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the Town: and, I think, that night they put to the sword about 2,000 men ; divers of the officers and soldiers being fled over the Bridge into the other part of the Town, where about 100 of them possessed St. Peter's Church-steeple, some the west Gate, and others a strong Round Tower next the Gate called St. Sunday's. These being summoned to yield to mercy, refused. Whereupon I ordered the steeple of St. Peter's Church to be fired, when one of them was heard to say in the midst of the flames : ' God damn me, God confound me ; I burn, I burn.' " The next day, the other two Towers were summoned ; in one of which was about six or seven score ; but they refused to yield themselves : and we knowing that hunger must com- ]>! them, set only good guards to secure them from running away until their stomachs were come down. From one of the s:ii'l Towers, notwithstanding their condition, they killed and wounded some of our men. When they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head; and every tenth man of the soldiers killed ; and the rest shipped for the Barba- does. The soldiers in the other Tower were all spared, as to their lives only ;' and shipped likewise for the Barbadoes. " I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon those barkirous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood ; and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of Mood for the future. Which are the satisfac- tory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work n-iimrsr and regret. The officers and soldiers of this Garrison win- the flower of their army. And their great expectation was, that our attempting this place would put fair to ruin us ; they 462 FAkT V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 17 Sept. being confident of the resolution of their men, and the advan- tage of the place. If we had divided our force into two quar- ters to have besieged the North Town and the South Town, we could not have had such a correspondency between the two parts of our Army, but that they might have chosen to have brought their Army, and have fought with which part [of ours] they pleased, and at the same time have made a sally with 2,000 men upon us, and have left their walls manned ; they having in the Town the number hereafter specified, but some say near 4,000. " Since this great mercy vouchsafed to us, I sent a party of horse and dragoons to Duudalk ; 1 which the Enemy quitted, and we are possessed of, as also [of] another Castle they deserted, between Trim and Tredah, upon the Boyne. I sent a party of horse and dragoons to a House within five miles of Trim, there being then in Trim some Scots Companies, which the Lord of Ardes brought to assist the Lord of Ormond. But upon the news of Tredah, they ran away ; leaving their great guns behind them, which also we have possessed. " And now give me leave to say how it comes to pass that this work is wrought. It was set upon some of our hearts, That a great thing should be done, not by power or might, but by the Spirit of God. And is it not so, clearly ? That which caused your men to storm so courageously, it was the Spirit of God, who gave your men courage, and took it away again ; and gave the Enemy courage, and took it away again; and gave your men courage again, and therewith this happy success. And therefore it is good that God alone have all the glory. " It is remarkable that these people, at the first, set up the Mass in some places of the Town that had been monasteries ; but afterwards grew so insolent that, the last Lord's-day be- fore the storm, the Protestants were thrust out of the great Church called St. Peter's, and they had public Mass there : and in this very place near 1,000 of them were put to the sword, fleeing thither for safety. I believe all their friars were knocked on the head promiscuously but two ; the one of which was Father Peter Taaff, brother to the Lord Taaff, 1 Antea, Letter C11L wo. LETTER TV. STORM OF TREDAH. 4<>:> whom the soldiers took, the next day, and made an end of. The other was taken in the Round Tower, under the repute of a Lieutenant, and when he understood that the officers in that Tower had no quarter, he confessed he was a Friar ; but that did not save him. "A greal deal of loss in this business fell upon Colonel Hewson's, Colonel Castle's, and Colonel Ewer's regiments. Colonel Ewer having two Field-Officers in his regiment shot ; Colonel Castle and a Captain of his regiment slain ; Colonel Hewson's Captain-Lieutenant slain. I do not think we lost loo men upon the place, though many be wounded. " I most humbly pray the Parliament may be pleased [that] this Army may be maintained ; and that a consideration may be had of them, and of the carrying on affairs here, [such] as may give a speedy issue to this work. To which there seems to be a marvellous fair opportunity offered by God. And al- though it may seem very chargeable to the State of England to maintain so great a force ; yet surely to stretch a little for the present, in following God's providence, in hope the charge will not l>e long I trust it will not be thought by any (that have not irreconcilable or malicious principles) unfit for me to move, For a constant supply ; which, in human probability as to outward things, is most likely to hasten and perfect this work. And indeed if God please to finish it here as He hath done in England, the War is like to pay itself. We keep the field much ; our tents sheltering us from the wet and cold. But yet the Country-sickness overtakes many : ami t hero fore we desire recruits, and some fresh regiments of I'lint. iiiriy l>e sent us. For it's easily conceived by what the Garrisons already drink up, what our Field-Army will come to, if God shall give more Garrisons into our hands. Craving pardon for this great trouble, I rest, " Your most obedient servant, "OLIVER CROMWKLL. "P. S. Since writing of my Letter, a Major who brought off forty-three horse from tin- Km-mv told me that it 's reported in their ramp that Owrii Koe ami they are agreed. 464 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 17 Sept " The defendants in Tredali consisted of : The Lord of Or- mond's regiment (Sir Edmund Varuey Lieutenant-Colonel), of 400 : Colonel Byrn's, Colonel Warren's, and Colonel Wall's, of 2,000 j the Lord of Westmeath's, of 200 ; Sir James Dillon's, of 200 ; and 200 horse." l The report as to Owen Roe O'Neil is correct. Monk, who had lately in Ulster entered upon some negotiation with O'Neil and his Old-Irish Party, who, as often happened, were in quarrel with the others, found himself deserted by his very soldiers, and obliged to go to England ; where this policy of his, very useful as Monk had thought, is indignantly dis- avowed by the Authorities, who will not hear of such a con- nection. 2 Owen Roe O'Neil appears to have been a man of real ability : surely no able man, or son of Order, ever sank in a more dismal welter of confusions unconquerable by him ! He did no more service or disservice henceforth ; he died in some two months, of a disease in the foot, poisoned, say some, by the gift of a "pair of russet-leather boots" which some traitor had bestowed on him. 8 Such was the Storm of Tredah. A thing which, if one wanted good assurance as to the essential meaning of it, might well " work remorse and regret : " for indisputably the outer body of it is emphatic enough ! Cromwell, not in a light or loose manner, but in a very solemn and deep one, takes charge for himself, at his own peril, That it is a judgment of God: and that it did "save much effusion of blood," we and all spectators can very readily testify. "The execrable policy of that Regicide," says Jacobite Carte on the occasion, " had the effect he proposed. It spread abroad the terror of his name ; it cut " In fact, it cut through the heart of the Irish War. Wexford Storm followed (not by forethought, it would seem, but by chance of war) in the same stern fashion ; and there was no other storm or slaughter needed in that Country. 1 Newspapers; in Parliamentary History (London, 1763), xix. 201. 2 10th August, 1649 (Commons Journals, vi. 277) 8 Carte, ii. 83. 1649 LETTER CVI. DUBLIN. 465 Rose-water Surgeons might have tried it otherwise ; but that was not Oliver's execrable policy, not the Rose-water one. And so we leave it, standing on such basis as it has. Ormond had sent orders to " burn " Dundalk and Trim be- fore quitting them ; but the Garrisons, looking at Tredah, were in too much haste to apply the coal. They marched away at double-quick time ; the Lord Lieutenant got possession of both Towns unburnt. He has put Garrisons there, we see, which " drink up " some of his forces. He has also despatched Colonel Venables, of whom we shall hear again, with a regi- ment or two, to reduce Carlingford, Newry, to raise what Siege there may be at Derry, and assist in settling distracted Ulster : of whose progress here are news. LETTER CVL " For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These, " DUBUH, 27th September, 1649. "ME. SPEAKER. I had not received any account from Colonel Venables, whom I sent from Tredah to endeavor the reducing of Carlingford, and so' to march Northward to- wards a conjunction with Sir Charles Coote, until the last night. " After he came to Carlingford, having summoned the place, both the three Castles and the Fort commanding the Harbor were rendered to him. Wherein were about Forty Barrels of Powder, Seven Pieces of Cannon ; about a Thousand Muskets, and Five Hundred Pikes wanting twenty. In the entrance into the Harbor, Captain Fern, aboard your man-of- war, had some danger ; being much shot at from the Sea Fort, a bullet shooting through his main-mast. The Captain's en- trance into that Harbor was a considerable adventure, and a good service; as also was that of Captain Braudly, 1 who, 1 Aatea, p. 458. ii. 80 466 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 87 Sept with forty seamen, stormed a very strong Tenalia at Tredah, and helped to take it ; for which he deserves an owning by you.- " Venables marched from Carlingford, with a party of Horse and Dragoons, to the Newry ; leaving the Foot to come up after him. He summoned the place, and it was yielded before his Foot came up to him. Some other informations I have received from him, which promise well towards your Northern Interest; which, if well prosecuted, will, I trust God, render you a good account of those parts. "I have sent those things to be presented to the Council of State for their consideration. I pray God, as these mercies flow in upon you, He will give you an heart to improve them to His glory alone ; because He alone is the author of them, and of all the goodness, patience and long- suffering extended towards you. "Your Army has marched; and, I believe, this night lieth at Arklow, in the County of Wicklow, by the Sea-side, be- tween thirty and forty miles from this place. I am this day, by God's blessing, going towards it. " I crave your pardon for this trouble ; and rest, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVEK CROMWELL. "P.S. I desire the Supplies moved for may be hastened. I am verily persuaded, though the burden be great, yet it is for your service. If the Garrisons we take swallow up your men, how shall we be able to keep the field ? Who knows but the Lord may pity England's sufferings, and make a short work of this ? It is in His hand to do it, and therein only your servants rejoice. I humbly present the condition of Captain George Jenkins's Widow. He died presently after Tredah Storm. His Widow is in great want. "The following Officers and Soldiers were slain at the storming of Tredah : Sir Arthur Ashton, Governor ; Sir Ed- mund Varney, Lieutenant-Colonel to Ormond's Regiment ; Colonel Fleming, Lieutenant-Colonel Finglass, Major Fitz- 1649. LETTER CVII. WEXFORD. gerald, with eight Captains, eight Lieutenants, and eight Cornets, all of Horse; Colonels Warren, Wall, and Byrn, of Foot, with their Lieutenants, Majors, &c. ; the Lord TaafFs Brother, an Augustine Friar ; forty-four Captains, and all their Lieutenants, Ensigns, &c. ; 220 Reformadoes and Troopers ; 2,500 Foot-soldiers, besides Staff-Officers, Surgeons, &c." l Venables went on, rapidly accomplishing his service in the North; without much hurt; though not without imminent peril once, by a camisado, or surprisal^in the night-time, which is afterwards alluded to in these Letters. The Lord Lieutenant, we observe, still dates from Dublin, but is to quit it " this day ; " his " Army has already marched : " Southward now, on a new series of operations. LETTER CVII. STORM OF WEXFORD. " for the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England: These. "WEXFORD, 14th October, 1649. "SiR, The Army marched from Dublin, about the 23d of September, into the County of Wicklow, where the Enemy had a Garrison about fourteen miles from Dublin, called Killincarrick ; which they quitting, a Company of the Army was put therein. From thence the Army marched through ;il most a desolated country, until it came to a passage over the River Doro, 1 about a mile above the Castle of Arklow, 1 King's Pamphlet*, Hmall 4to, no. 441, art. 7, "Letters from Ireland, printed by Authority " (p. 13). Ptirlidmentary History (xix. 207-209) has copied thin Letter from the old Pamphlet (an usual, giving uo referenro) ; :ui'l after the concluding " Surgeons, &c." has taken the liberty of aiMini; these wonlx, " and many inhalntants," of which then- is no whisper ill the old PaiiiphloU ; a Tery considerable lil>rty iinl-c.i ' 1 River Darragh; a branch of what i- now called the Avoca; well known to musical person*. 468 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 14 Oct. which was the first seat and honor of the Marquis of Ormond's family. Which he had strongly fortified ; but it was, upon the approach of the Army, quitted ; wherein we left another Company of Foot. "From thence the Army inarched towards Wexford; where in the way was a strong and large Castle, at a town called Limbrick, the ancient seat of the Esmonds ; where the Enemy had a strong Garrison; which they burnt and quitted, the day before our coming thither. From thence we marched towards Ferns, an episcopal seat, where was a Castle ; to which I sent Colonel Keynolds with a party to summon it. Which accordingly he did, and it was surrendered to him ; where we having put a company, advanced the Army to a passage over the River Slaney, which runs down to Wex- ford ; and that night we marched into the fields of a Village called Enniscorthy, belonging to Mr. Robert Wallop ; l where was a strong Castle very well manned and provided for by the Enemy ; and, close under it, a very fair House belonging to the same worthy person, a Monastery of Franciscan Friars, the considerablest in all Ireland: they ran away the night before we came. We summoned the Castle; and they re- fused to yield at the first ; but upon better consideration, they were willing to deliver the place to us : which accordingly they did; leaving their great guns, arms, ammunition and provisions behind them. " Upon Monday the First of October we came before Wex- ford. Into which the Enemy had put a Garrison, consisting of [part of] their Army ; this Town having, until then, been so confident of their own strength as that they would not, at any time, suffer a Garrison to be imposed upon them. The Com- mander that brought in those forces was Colonel David Sin- nott ; who took upon him the command of the place. To whom 1 Wallop is Member ("recruiter") for Andover; a King's-Judge ; Mem- ber of the Council of State ; now and afterwards a conspicuous rigorous republican man. He has advanced money, long since, we suppose, for the Public Service in Ireland ; and obtained in payment this " fair House," and Superiority of Enniscorthy : properties the value or no-value of which will much depend on the Lord Lieutenant's success at present. Wallop's rep- resentative, a Peer of the Realm, is still owner here, as it has proved. 1MO. LETTER CVIT. WEXPORD. 460 I sent a Summons, a Copy whereof is this enclosed ; between whom and me there passed Answers and Replies, Copies whereof these also are : 1. ' To the Commander-in-Chiefofthe Town of Wexford. ' BEFORE WEXFORD, 3d October, 1649. ' SIR, Having brought the Army belonging to the Parliament of England before this place, to reduce it to its due obedience : to the end effusion of blood may be prevented, and the Town and country about it preserved from ruin, I thought fit to summon you to deliver the same to me, to the use of the State of England. 4 By thig offer, I hope it will clearly appear where the guilt will lie, if innocent persons should come to suffer with the nocent. I expect your speedy answer ; and rest, Sir, your servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.' ' For the Lord General Cromwell. ' WSXPOBD, 3d October, 1649. ' SIR, I received your Letter of Summons for the delivery of this Town into your hands. Which standeth not with my honor to do of myself; neither will I take it U|H>U me, without the advice of the rest of the Officers and Mayor of this Corporation ; this Town being of so great consequence to all Ireland. Whom I will call together, and con- fer with ; and return my resolution to you, to-morrow by twelve of the clock. 4 In the mean time, if you be so pleased, I am content to forbear all acts of hostility, so you permit no approach to be made. Expecting your answer iu that particular, I remain, ray Lord, your Lord- ship's servant, D. SINNOTT.' 2. ' To the Commander -in- Chief of the Town of Wexford. 1 BKKOKE WEXFOKD, 3d October, 1649. 4 SIR, I am contented to expect your resolution by twelve of the dock to-morrow morning. Because our tents are not so good a cover- ing as your houses, and for other reasons, I cannot agree to a cessation. 1 real, your servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.' 4 For the Lord General Cromwell. ' WKXKOKO, 4th October, 1649. SIR, I have advised with the Mayor and Officers, as I promised, and then-lip.!!! am content that Four, whom 1 shall employ, may have 470 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 14 Oct. a Conference and Treaty with Four of yours, to see if any agreement and understanding may be begot between us. To this purpose I desire you to send mine a Safe-conduct, as I do hereby promise to send unto yours when you send me their names. And I pray that the meeting may be had to-morrow at eight of the clock in the forenoon, that they may have sufficient time to confer and debate together, and determine the matter ; and that the meeting and place may be agreed upon, and the Safe-conduct mutually sent for the said meeting this afternoon. Expecting your answer hereto, I rest, my Lord, your servant, ' D. SlNNOTT. ' Send me the names of your Agents, their qualities and degrees. Those I fix upon are : Major Jaines Byrne, Major Theobald Dillon, Alderman Nicholas Chevers, Mr. William Stafford.' 3. ' To the Commander -in- Chief of the Town of Wexford. ' BEFORE WEXFORD, 4th October, 1649. ' SIR, Having summoned you to deliver the Town of Wexford into my hands, I might well expect the delivery thereof, and not a formal Treaty ; which is seldom granted but where the things stand upon a more equal foot. ' If therefore yourself or the Town have any desires to offer, upon which you will surrender the place to me, I shall be able to judge of the reasonableness of them when they are made known to me. To which end, if you shall think fit to send the Persons named in your last, intrusted by yourself and the Town, by whom I may understand your desires, I shall give you a speedy and fitting Answer. And I do hereby engage myself, that they shall return in safety to you. ' I expect your answer hereunto within an hour , and rest, your servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.' ' For the Lord General Cromwell. ' WEXFORD, 4th October, 1649. ' SIR, I have returned you a civil Answer, to the best of my judg- ment; and thereby, I find, you undervalue me and this place BO much, that yon think to have it surrendered without Capitulation or honorable Terms, as appears by the hour's limitation in your last. ' Sir, had I never a man in this Town but the Townsmen, and Artil- lery here planted, I should conceive myself in a very befitting condition to make honorable conditions. And having a considerable party, [along] with them, in the place, I am resolved to die honorably, or make such 149. LETTER CVII. WEXFORD. 471 conditions as may secure my honor and life in the eyes of my own Party. ' To which reasonable terms if you hearken not, or give me [not] time to send my Agents till eight of the clock in the forenoon to-morrow, with my Propositions, with a farther Safe-conduct, I leave you to your better judgment, and myself to the assistance of the Almighty ; and so conclude. Your servant, D. SINNOTT.' ' For the Lord General Cromwell. 1 WEXFORD, 5th October, 1649. 1 SIR, My Propositions being now prepared, I am ready to send my Agents with them unto you. And for their safe return, I pray you to send a Safe-conduct by the Bearer unto me, in hope an honorable agreement may thereupon arise between your Lordship and, my L< >rd, your Lordship's sen-ant, D. SINNOTT.' " Whilst these papers were passing between us, I sent the Lieutenant-General 1 with a party of dragoons, horse and foot, to endeavor to reduce their Fort, which lay at the mouth of their harbor, about ten miles distant from us. To which he sent a troop of dragoons ; but the Enemy quitted their Fort, leaving behind them about seven great guns ; betook them- selves, by the help of their boats, to a Frigate of twelve guns lying in the harbor, within cannon-shot of the Fort. The dra- L r " and that all the Freemen of the said Town, from time to time, shall be as free in all the seaports, cities and towns in England, as the Freemen of all and every the said cities and towns ; ami all and every the Freemen of the said cities and towns to be* as free in the said Town of Wexford as the Freemen thereof, for their greater encouragement to trade and commerce together on all hands. ' 10. That no memory remain of any hostility or distance which was hitherto between the said Town and Castle on the one part, and tho Par- liament or State of England on the other part ; but that all act and acts, transgressions, offences, depredations and other crimes, of what naturn or quality soever, be they ever so transcendent, attempted or done, or supposed to be attempted or done, by the Inhabitants of the said Town or any other, heretofore or at present adhering to the said Town, either native or stranger, and every of them, shall pass in oblivion ; without chastisement, challenge, recompense, demand or questioning for them, or any of them, now or at any time hereafter. D. SINNOTTV 1 For the Commander -in- Chief in the Town of Wexford. ' [BEFORE WEXFORD,] llth October, 1649. ' SIR, I have had the patience to peruse your Propositions ; to which I might have returned an Answer with some disdain. But, to be short, ' I shall give the Soldiers and Non-commissioned Officers quarter for life, and leave to go to their several habitations, with their wearing- el, a lies ; they engaging themselves to live quietly there, and to take up aniiH no more against the Parliament of England. And the Com- ini.-Moned Officers quarter for their lives, but to render themselves Pris- oners. And as for the Inhabitants, I shall engage myself That no violcnc. shall be offered to their goods, and that I shall protect the Town from plunder 4 I expert your positive Answer instantly ; and if you will upon these terms surrender and quit, [and] shall, in one hour, send forth to me Four Officers of th,- quality of Field-Officers, and Two Aldermen, for the performance thereof, I shall thereupon forbear all acts of hostility. Your servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.'* 1 The rest of the Wexford Correspondence is in Tanner and elsewhere; thin, which completed it, heiug considered hopelewly lost, most 1* taken as a VIT\ interestine little Doeuim-ni, now that it hat* turned up. Autograph for Far-simile Copy ' tnu<-li interlined and very hastily written), now (March IMS) in the poaeeeeionof Edward Crawford, Esq., Solicitor, Wellington Quay, ]>uMin. 476 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. u Oct. " Which [Answer] indeed had no effect. For whilst I was preparing of it ; studying to preserve the Town from plunder, that it might be of the more use to you and your Army, the Captain, who was one of the Commissioners, being fairly treated, yielded up the Castle to us. Upon the top of which our men no sooner appeared, but the Enemy quitted the Walls of the Town ; which our men perceiving, ran violently upon the Town with their ladders, and stormed it. And when they were come into the market-place, the Enemy making a stiff resistance, our forces brake them; and then put all to the sword that came in their way. Two boatftils of the Enemy attempting to escape, being overprest with numbers, sank ; whereby were drowned near three hundred of them. I believe, in all, there was lost of the Enemy not many less than two thousand ; and I believe not twenty of yours from first to last of the Siege. And indeed it hath, not without cause, been deeply set upon our hearts, That, we intending better to this place than so great a ruin, hoping the Town might be of more use to you and your Army, yet God would not have it so ; but by an unexpected providence, in His righteous justice, brought a just judgment upon them ; causing them to become a prey to the soldier who in their piracies had made preys of so many families, and now with their bloods to answer the cruelties which they had exercised upon the lives of divers poor Protes- tants ! Two [instances] of which I have been lately acquainted with. About seven or eight score poor Protestants were by them put into an old vessel ; which being, as some say, bulged by them, the vessel sank, and they were all presently drowned in the Harbor. The other [instance] was thus : They put divers poor Protestants into a Chapel (which, since, they have used for a Mass-house, and in which one or more of their priests were now killed), where they were famished to death. "The soldiers got a very good booty in this place ; and had not they 1 had opportunity to carry their goods over the River, whilst we besieged it, it would have been much more : I could have wished for their own good, and the good of 1 The Townsfolk. K.n LETTER CVII. WEXFORD. 477 the Garrison, they had been more moderate. 1 Some things which were not easily portable, we hope we shall make use of to your behoof. There are great quantities of iron, hides, tallow, salt, pipe- and barrel-staves ; which are under commis- sioners' hands, to be secured. We believe there are near a hun- dred cannon in the Fort, and elsewhere in and about the Town. Here is likewise some very good shipping : here are three vessels, one of them of thirty-four guns, which a week's time would fit to sea ; there is another of about twenty guns, very near ready likewise. And one other Frigate of twenty guns, upon the stocks ; made for sailing ; which is built up to the uppermost deck : for her handsomeness' sake, I have appointed the workmen to finish her, here being materials to do it, if you or the Council of State shall approve thereof. The Frigate, also, taken beside the Fort, is a most excellent vessel for sail- ing. Besides divers other ships and vessels in the Harbor. " This Town is now so in your power, that of the former inhabitants, I believe scarce one in twenty can challenge any property in their houses. Most of them are run away, and many of them killed in this service. And it were to be wished, that an honest people would come and plant here ; where are very good house's, and other accommodations fitted to their hands, which may by your favor be made of encouragement to them. As also a seat of good trade, both inward and outward ; and of marvellous great advantage in the point of the herring and other fishing. The Town is pleasantly seated and strong, hav- ing a rampart of earth within the wall near fifteen feet thick. "Thus it hath pleased God to give into your hands this other mercy. For which, as for all, we pray God may have all the glory. Indeed your instruments are poor and wi-ak, and can do nothing but through believing, and that is the gift of God also. I humbly take leave, and rest, " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CUOMWELL. "[P.S.] A day or two before our flattery WMS plantod, Or- moud, the Earl of Oastlehavi-n, tin- L'>nl of Ardcs and Clanue- 1 Not forced 00 to itorm them. 478 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. U Oct. boyes were on the other side of the Water, with about 1,800 horse [and] 1,500 foot ; and offered to put in four or five hun- dred foot more into the Town ; which the Town refusing, he marched away in all haste. I sent the Lieutenant-General after him, with about 1,400 horse j but the Enemy made haste from him." J Young Charles II., who has got to the Isle of Jersey, decid- edly inclining towards Ireland as yet, will probably be stag- gered by these occurrences, when the news of them reaches him. Not good quarters Ireland at present ! The Scots have proclaimed him King ; but clogged it with such conditions about the Covenant, about Malignants, and what not, as noth- ing but the throat of an ostrich could swallow. The poor young King is much at a loss ; 2 must go some-whither, and if possible take some Mrs. Barlow with him ! Laird Winram, Senator of the College of Justice, is off to deal with him ; 8 to see if he cannot help him down with the Covenant : the Laird's best ally, I think, will be Oliver in Ireland. At Edinburgh these are the news from that quarter : " In October and November this year there ran and were spread frequent rumors that Lieutenant-General Oliver Crom- well was routed in Ireland, yea killed ; and again that he bore all down before him like ane impetuous torrent : how that he had taken Tradaffe and Washeford," Tredah and Wexford ; " and there, neither sparing sex nor age, had exercised all the cruelties of a merciless inhuman and bloody butcher, even brutishly against Nature. On these rumors Will Douglas," no great shakes at metre, " did write these lines : ' Cromwell is dead, and risen ; and dead again, And risen the third time after he was slain : No wonder ! For he 's messenger of Hell : And now he buffets us, now posts to tell What 's past ; and for more game new counsel takes Of his good friend the Devil, who keeps the stakes.'" 4 1 Newspapers (in Cromwdliana, pp. 65-67); completed by Tanner MSS. (in Gary, ii. 168-185), and the Dublin Autograph given above at p. 473. 2 Carte's Ormond Papers, i. 316, &c. 8 llth October, 1649, Balfour's Historical Works (Edinb. 1825), iii. 432. * Balfour's Historical Works, iii. 433. M4d. LETTER CVIII. ROSS. 479 LETTERS CVHI.-CXIL BOSS. UNDER date 5th November, 1649, we read in the old News- papers : " Our affairs here have made this progress : Wexford being settled under the command of Colonel Cooke, our Army stayed not long there ; but hasted farther unto Ross. Which is a walled Town, situated upon the river Barrow, a very plea- sant and commodious river, bearing vessels of a very consid- erable burden. Upon Wednesday, the 17th of this instant October, we sat down before Ross ; and my Lord Lieutenant, the same day, sent in this following Summons : LETTER CVIII. ' For the Commander-irirChief in Ross : These. ' [BEFORE Ross,] 17th October, 1649. 'SiR, Since my coming into Ireland, I have this witness for myself, That I have endeavored to avoid effusion of blood ; having been before no place, to which such terms have not l)een first sent as might have turned to the good and preserva- tion of those to whom they were offered ; this being my prin- ciple, that the people and places where I come may not suffer, except through their own wilfulness. 'To the end I may observe the like course with this place and jeople therein, I do hereby summon you to deliver the Town of Ross into my hands, to the use of the Parliament of England. Expecting your speedy answer, I rest, ' Your servant, 'OLIVER CROMWELL.'* " The trumpeter that carried this summons was denied en- trance into the Town. They rc civcd his paper at the gates ; 1 Newspapers (in Cromwrlliana, p. 67). 480 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 19 Oct and told him that an answer should be returned thereunto by a drummer of their own. Hereupon we prepared our batteries, and made ready for a storm, Ormond himself, Ardes, and Castlehaven were on the other side of the River ; and sent in supplies of 1,500 foot, the day before it was surrendered to us ; 1,000 foot being in it before we came unto it. Castle- haven was in it that morning they delivered it, and Inchiquin too had been there not above two or three days before our advance thither. They boated over their men into the Town in our sight ; and yet that did not discourage us in making ready all provisions fitting for a storm. On Friday, the 19th of this instant, our great pieces began to play, and early in the morning the Governor sent out his Answer to my Lord Lieu- tenant's Summons. ' For General Cromwell, or, in his absence, For the Commander- in- Chief of the Army now encamped before Boss. 'Ross, 19th October, 1649. ( SIR, I received a Summons from you, the first day you appeared before this place ; which should have been answered ere now, had not other occasions interrupted me. And al- though I am now in far better condition to defend this place than I was at that time, yet am I, upon the considerations offered in your Summons, content to entertain a Treaty ; and to receive from you those conditions that may be safe and honorable for ine to accept of. Which if you listen to, I desire that pledges on both sides may be sent, for performance of such Articles as shall be agreed upon ; and that all acts of hostility may cease on both sides, and each party keep within their distance. To this your immediate resolution is expected by, Sir, 'Your servant, ' LUCAS TAAFF/ " Hereunto my Lord immediately returned this Answer [which counts here as our Hundred-and-ninth Letter] : 1649. LETTER CIX. ROSS. 481 LETTER CIX. ' For the Governor of Ross : These. ' [BEFORE Ross,] 19th October, 1649. 1 SIR, If you like to march away with those under your command, with their arms, bag and. baggage, and with drums and colors, and shall deliver up the Town to me, I shall give caution to perform these conditions ; expecting the like from you. As to the inhabitants, they shall be permitted to live peaceably, free from the injury and violence of the soldiers. ' If you like hereof, you can tell how to let me know your mind, notwithstanding my refusal of a cessation. By these you will see the reality of my intentions to save blood, and to preserve the place from ruin. I rest, ' Your servant, 'OLIVER CROMWELL.' l " Our batteries still continued, and made a great breach in the Wall. Our men were drawn out in a readiness to storm, Lieutenant-Colonel Ingoldsby being by lot chosen to lead them ; but the Governor being willing to embrace conditions, sent out this his Reply : ' For General Cromwell: These. Ross, 19th October, 1649. ' SIR, There wants but little of what I would propose ; which is, That such Townsmen as have a desire to depart, may have liberty within a convenient time to carry away themselves and goods ; and liberty of conscience to such as shall stay : and that I may carry away such artillery and ammunition as I have in my command. If you be inclined to this, I will send, upon your honor as a safe-conduct, an Officer to conclude with you. To which your immediate answer is expected by, Sir, ' Your servant, ' LUCAS TAAKF.' 1 Newfpapers (in Cromwelliana , p. 68). TOL XT 1 1 81 482 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 19 Oct. " Hereunto my Lord gave this return [our Hundred-and- tenth Letter]: LETTER CX. ' For the Governor of Boss : These. ' [BEFORE Ross,] 19th October, 1649. ' SIR, To what I formerly offered, I shall make good. As for your carrying away any artillery or ammunition, that you brought not with you, or [that] hath not come to you since you had the command of that place, I must deny you that ; expecting you to leave it as you found it. ' [As] for that which you mention concerning liberty of conscience, I meddle not with any man's conscience. But if by liberty of conscience, you mean a liberty to exercise the Mass, I judge it best to use plain dealing, and to let you know, Where the Parliament of England have power, that will not be allowed of. As for such of the Townsmen who desire to depart, and carry away themselves and goods (as you express), I engage myself they shall have three months' time so to do ; and in the mean time shall be protected from violence in their persons and goods, as others under the obedience of the Par- liament. ' If you accept of this offer, I engage my honor for a punc- tual performance hereof. I rest, 'Your servant, ' OLIVER CROMWELL.' l " The Governor returned this Answer : 1 For General Cromwell: These. ' 19th OCTOBER, 1649. ' SIR, I am content to yield up this place upon the terms offered in your last and first Letters. And if you please to send your safe-conduct to such as I shall appoint to perfect these conditions, I shall on receipt thereof send them to you. 1 Newspapers (in Cromwdliana, p. 68). 1649. LETTER CXI. ROSS. 483 In the interval, To cease all acts of hostility, and that all parties keep their own ground, until matters receive a full end. And so remains, Sir, ' Your servant, ' LUCAS TAAFF.' " Hereunto my Lord replied thus : LETTER CXI. ' For the Governor of Ross : These. '19th OCTOBER, 1649. ' SIR, You have my hand and honor engaged to perform what I offered in my first and last Letters; which I shall in- violably observe. I expect you to send me immediately four persons of such quality as may be hostages for your perform- ance ; for whom you have this Safe-conduct enclosed, into which you may insert their names. Without which I shall not cease acts of hostility. If anything happen by your delay, to your prejudice, it will not be my fault. Those you send may see the conditions perfected. Whilst I forbear acts of hostility, I expect you forbear all actings within. I rest, ' Your servant, ' OLIVER CROMWELL.' * "This," says the old Newspaper, "was the last message be- tween them : the Governor sending out his four hostages to compose and perfect the Agreement, our batteries ceased ; and our intentions to storm the Town were disappointed. Thus within three days we had possession of this place without the effusion of blood. A very considerable place, and a very good quarter for the refreshment of our soldiers. The Enemy marched over to the other side of the River, and did not come out of that side of the Town where we h;ul <-iir:iiupf*nwrHianu, p. 69). 484 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 25 Oct. English were in the Garrison, some five or six hundred here, do, as their common custom is, "join us." Munster Royalist Forces, poor Ormond men, they had rather live, than be slaiu iu such a Cause as this has grown. LETTEE CXII. HEBE is Cromwell's official account of the same business, in a Letter to Lenthall : [For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These.~\ " Ross, 25th October, 1649. " SIR, Since my last from Wexford, we marched to Ross ; a walled Town, situated upon the Barrow ; a port-town, up to which a ship of seven or eight hundred tons may come. " We came before it upon Wednesday, the 17th instant, with three pieces of cannon. That evening I sent a summons; Major-General Taaff, being Governor, refused to admit my Trumpet into the Town ; but took the Summons in, returning me no answer. I did hear that near 1,000 foot had been put into this place some few days before my coming to it. The next day was spent in making preparations for our battery ; and in our view there were boated over from the other side of the river, of English, Scots, and Irish, 1,500 more ; Ormond, Castlehaven, and the Lord of Ardes, being on the other side of the water to cause it to be done. " That night we planted our battery ; which began to play very early the next morning. The Governor immediately sent forth an Answer to my Summons ; copies of all which I make bold herewith to trouble you [with] ; * the rather because you may see how God pulls down proud stomachs. The Gov- ernor desired commissioners might treat, and that in the mean time there might be a ceasing of acts of hostility on both sides. 1 We have just read them. 1648. LETTER CXII. ROSS. 485 Which I refused ; sending in word, That if he would march away with arms, bag and baggage, and give me hostages for per- formance, he should. Indeed he might have done it without my leave, by the advantage of the River. He insisted upon having the cannon with him ; which I would not yield unto, but required the leaving the artillery and ammunition ; which he was content to do, and marched away, leaving the great artillery and the ammunition in the stores to me. When they marched away, at least five hundred English, many of them of the Munster forces, came to us. "Ormond is at Kilkenny, Inchiquin in Munster, Henry O'Neil, Owen Roe's son, is come up to Kilkenny, with near 2,000 horse and foot, with whom and Ormond there is now a perfect conjunction. So that now, I trust, some angry friends will think it high time to take off their jealousy l from those to whom they ought to exercise more charity. " The rendition of this Garrison was a seasonable mercy, as giving us an opportunity towards Munster ; and is for the pres- ent a very good refreshment for our men. We are able to say nothing as to all this, but that the Lord is still pleased to own a company of poor worthless creatures; for which we desire His name to be magnified, and [that] the hearts of all con- cerned may be provoked to walk worthy of such continued favors. This is the earnest desire of " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. "P.S. Colonel Horton is lately dead of the Country-disease, leaving a Son behind him. He was a person of great integrity ami courage. His former services, especially that of the last summer, I hope will be had in remembrance." * Poor Horton ; he beat the Welsh at St. Fagan's, and did good service " last summer ; " and now he is dead of " the Country- 1 Jealonxy of tho Parliament's having countenanced Monk in bis negotia- tions with Ow.-n !;. .iti.l i In- ny for them, and wait upon our God. And we hope hall seek the welfare and peace of our nutiv< Country . ami 500 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND the Lord give them hearts to do so too. Indeed, Sir, I was constrained in my bowels to write thus much. I ask your pardon ; and rest, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." l An Able-Editor in the old Newspapers has been inexpres- sibly favored with the sight of a Letter to " an Honorable Member of the Council of State;" Letter dated "Cork, 18th December, 1649 ; " wherein this is what we still read : " Yes- terday my Lord Lieutenant came, from Youghal the head- quarter, unto Cork ; my Lord Broghil, Sir William Fenton, and divers other Gentlemen and Commanders attending his Excellency. Who hath received here very hearty and noble entertainment. To-morrow the Major-General " Ireton " is ex- pected here : both in good health, God be praised. This week, I believe, they will visit Kinsale, Bandon Bridge, and other places in this Province that have lately declared for us, and that expect a return of his affection and presence, which joys many. Some report here that the Enemy burns towns and provisions near our quarters : but the example may at length turn to their own greatest prejudice. Colonel Dearie and Colonel Blake, our Sea-Generals, are both riding in Cork Harbor." 2 Dated on the morrow is this Letter : LETTER CXVH. " For the Honorable William Lentholl, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. "CORK, 19th December, 1649. " MR. SPEAKER, Not long after my last to you from before Waterford, by reason of the tempestuousness of the weather, 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, pp. 71-73). 2 Ibid. p. 7^ 1M9. LETTER CXVIT. CORK. 501 we thought fit, and it was agreed, To march away to Winter- quarters, to refresh our men until God shall please to give farther opportunity for action. " We marched off, the 2d of this instant ; it being so terrible a day as over I marched in all my life. Just as we marched off in the morning, unexpected to us, the Enemy had brought an addition of near two thousand horse and foot to the increase of their Garrison : which we plainly saw at the other side of the water. We marched that night some ten or twelve miles through a craggy country, to Kilmac Thomas ; a Castle some eight miles from Dungarvan. As we were marching off in the morning from thence, the Lord Broghil I having sent before to him to march up to me sent a party of horse, to let me know, He was, with about twelve or thirteen hundred of the Munster horse and foot, about ten miles off, near Dungarvan, which was newly rendered to him. " In the midst of these good successes, wherein the kindness and mercy of God hath appeared, the Lord, in wisdom, and for gracious ends best known to Himself, hath interlaced some things which may give us cause of serious consideration what His mind therein may be. And we hope we wait upon Him, desiring to know, and to submit to His good pleasure. The noble Lieutenant-General, 1 whose finger, to our knowledge, never ached in all these expeditions, fell sick ; we doubt, upon a cold taken upon our late wet march and ill accommo- dation : and went to Dungarvan, where, struggling some four or five days with a fever, he died ; having run his course with BO much honor, courage and fidelity, as his actions better speak than my pen. What England lost hereby, is above me to .s]':ik. I am sure, I lost a noble friend, and companion in l:tlx>rs. You see how God mingles out the cup unto us. In- deed we are at this time a crazy company ; yet we live in His sight; and shall work the time that is appointed us, and Khali rest after that in peace. 3 " But yet there hath been some sweet at the bottom of the cup; of which I shall now give you an account. Being 1 Michael Jones: Lndlow (i. 304) in a little misinformed. * Ye*, my brave ouc; evnn so! 502 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 19 Dec. informed that the Enemy intended to take in the Fort of Pas- sage, and that Lieutenant-General Ferral with his Ulsters 1 was to march out of Waterford, with a considerable party of horse and foot, for that service, I ordered Colonel Zanchy, who lay on the north side of the Blackwater, To march with his regiment of horse, and two pieces of two troops of dragoons to the relief of our friends. Which he accordingly did ; his party consisting in all of about three hundred and twenty. When he came some few miles from the place, he took some of the Enemy's stragglers in the villages as he went ; all which he pnt to the sword : seven troopers of his killed thirty of them in one house. When he came near the place, he found the Enemy had close begirt it, with about five hundred Ulster foot under Major O'Neil ; Colonel Wogan also, the Governor of Duncannon, with a party of his, with two great battering guns and a mortar-piece, and Captain Browne, the Governor of Ballihac, were there. Our men furiously charged them ; and beat them from the place. The Enemy got into a place where they might draw up ; and the Ulsters, who bragged much of their pikes, made indeed for the time a good resistance : but the horse, pressing sorely upon them, broke them ; killed near an hundred upon the place ; took three hundred and fifty pris- oners, amongst whom, Major O'Neil, and the Officers of five hundred Ulster foot, all but those which were killed ; the renegade Wogan, with twenty-four of Ormond's kurisees, and the Governor of Ballihac, &c. Concerning some of these, I hope I shall not trouble your justice. " This mercy was obtained without the loss of one on our part, only one shot in the shoulder. Lieutenant-General Ferral was come up very near, with a great party to their relief ; but our handful of men marching toward him, he shamefully hasted away, and recovered Waterford. It is not unworthy taking notice, That having appointed a Day of public Thanksgiving throughout our territories in Ireland, as well as a week's warn- ing would permit, for the recovery of Munster, which proves a sweet refreshment to us, even prepared by God for us, after our weary and hard labor, That that very day, and that 1 Ulster-men. 1M. LETTER CXVII. CORK. 503 very time, while men were praising God, was this deliverance wrought " Though the present state of affairs bespeaks a continuance of charge, yet the same good hand of Providence, which hath blessed your affairs hitherto, is worthy to be followed to the uttermost. And who knows, or rather who hath not cause to hope, that He may, in His goodness, put a short period to your whole charge ? Than which no worldly thing is more desired and endeavored by " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CBOMWELL."* Ormond witnessed this defeat at Passage, from some steeple, or " place of prospect " in Waterford ; and found the " Mayor," whom he sent for, a most unreasonable man. 8 " The renegade Wogan : " Captain Wogan, once in the Par- liament service, joined himself to Hamilton and the Scots in 1648 ; u bringing a gallant troop along with him." His ma- raudings, pickeerings, onslaughts, and daring chivalries became very celebrated after that. He was not slain or hanged here at Passage ; * there remained for him yet, some four years hence, his grand feat which has rendered all the rest memora- ble : " that of riding right through England, having rendez- voused at Barnet, with a Party of two hundred horse," to join Middleton's new Scotch Insurrection in the Highland Hills ; where he, soon after, died of consumption and some slight hurt. 4 What " kurisees " are, I do not know ; may be cuiras- siers, in popular locution : some nickname for Ormond's men, whom few loved ; whom the Mayor of Waterford, this very day, would not admit into his Town even for the saving of Passage Fort. 5 With certain of these "your justice" need not be troubled. 1 Newspapers (in CromwtUiana, pp. 73, 74). Carte, ii. 103 ; whose account is otherwise very defi;-i"nt. Appendix, No. 16. Clarendon, iii. G7, Wuitlucke, Ueath'i Chronicle, Ac. Crt, ii. 103. 504 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 19 Dec. This Letter, with two others, one from Ireton and-one from Broghil, all dated Cork, 19th December, were not received in the Commons House till Tuesday, 8th January ; such were then the delays of the winter post. On which same day it is resolved, That the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland be desired to come over, and give his attendance here in Parliament. 1 Speaker is ordered to write him a Letter to that effect. "The ground of this resolution," says Whitlocke, "was That the news of the King's coming to Scotland became more probable than formerly." Laird Winram's dealings with him, and Cromwell's successes, and the call of Necessity, are prov- ing effectual ! " And," continues Whitlocke, " the proceedings of the Scots in raising of new forces gave an alarm to the Par- liament : and some of their Members who had discoursed with the Lord General Fairfax upon thoae matters, and argued how necessary it would be to send an Ajmy into Scotland to divert the war from England, had found the General wholly averse to any such thing; and, by means of his Lady, who was a strict Presbyterian, to be more a friend to the Scots than they," those Members, " wished. Therefore they thought this a fit time to send for the Lieutenant of Ireland, the rather as his Army was now drawn into winter-quarters." 2 The Lord Lieutenant thought, or was supposed to think, of complying straightway, as the old Newspapers instruct us ; but on better counsel, the Scotch peril not being very immi- nent as yet, decided " to settle Ireland in a safe posture " first. Indeed, the Letter itself is long in reaching him ; and the rumor of it, which arrives much sooner, has already set the Enemy on false schemes, whereof advantage might be taken. 8 Meanwhile, in Munster, in Ireland generally, there is much to be done, on the great scale and on the small. Some days before the last Letter gets into the Speaker's hands, here is another, a private one, travelling towards Philip Lord Wharton, whom we transiently saluted last year at Knaresborough. 4 1 Commons Journals, vi. 343, 344. a Whitlocke, p. 422. 8 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 77). 1 Appendix, No. 17 : Letter, of 31st December, recommending a Chief Justice for Minister. 1849. LtiTTEJi CXV11I. CUKK. 605 LETTER CXVIIL LORD WHARTON, when we last saw him, was of the Derby- House Committee, a busy man and manager; but he is not now of the Council of State ; having withdrawn from all man- agement, into a painful inquiring condition. One of our zeal- ous Puritans and Patriots, but much troubled with cautious dubitatious ; involved in "reasonings," in painful labyrinths of constitutional and other logic, for the present. Of which sort there are now many. Who indignantly drew the sword, and long zealously fought and smote with it, nothing doubting ; and are now somewhat astonished at the issue that has come of it ! Somewhat uncertain whether these late high actings, executing judgment on your King, abolition of your House of Lords, and so forth, are owned by the Eternal Powers or not owned. Of Temporal Powers there is clearly none that will own them ; and unless the other do ? The Lord Lieutenant intimates, in his friendliest way, that surely it is indispensable to have " satisfaction " on that score ; also that it is perilous not to get it ; and furthermore that labyrinths of constitutional and other logic are by no means the course towards that " For the Right Honorable the Lord Wharton : These. " CORK, 1st Jan. 1649. "Mr DEAR FRIEND, MY LORD, If I know my heart, I love you in truth : and therefore if, from the jealousy of unfeigned love, I play the fool a little, and say a word or two at guess, I know you will pardon it. "It were a vain thing, by Letter, to dispute over your doubts, or undertake to answer your objections. I have heard them all ; and / have rest from the trouble of them, and [of] what has risen in my own heart; for which I desire to be humbly thankful. I do not condemn your reasonings ; I doubt them. It 'a easy to object to the glorious Actings of God, if we look too much upon Instruments ! I have heard compu- tations wade uf the Members in Parliament : 'The good kcj.t 506 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. Uan. out, the worst left in,' l &c. : it has been so these nine years : yet what hath God wrought ? The greatest works last ; and still is at work ! Therefore take heed of this scandal. " Be not offended at the manner [of God's working] ; per- haps no other way was left. What if God accepted their zeal, [even] as He did that of Phinehas, 2 whom reason might have called before a jury ! What if the Lord have witnessed His approbation and acceptance to this [zeal] also, not only by signal outward acts, but to the heart [of good men] too ? What if I fear, my Friend should withdraw his shoulder from the Lord's work, Oh, it } s grievous to do so ! through scandals, through false mistaken reasonings ? " ' There 's difficulty, there 's trouble ; here, in the other way, there 's safety, ease, wisdom : in the one no clearness/ this is an objection indeed, { in the other satisfaction.' ' Satisfaction : ; it 's well if we thought of that first, and [as] severed from the other considerations, 8 which do often bias, if not bribe the mind. Whereby miste are often raised in the way we should walk in, and we call it darkness or ( dissatisfaction : ' Oh, our deceitful hearts ! Oh, this flatter- ing world ! How great is it to be the Lord's servant in any drudgery 4 (I thought not to have written near [so far as] the other side : love will not let me alone ; I have been often provoked [to it by you]) in all hazards His worst is far above the world's best ! He makes us able, in truth, to say so; we cannot of ourselves. How hard a thing is it to reason ourselves up to the Lord's service, though it be so 1 Original has " most bad remaining : " " these nine years " means, ever since the Parliament first met. 2 " And behold, one of the Children of Israel came, and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman ; in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the Congregation of the Children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation," by reason of those very sins. " And when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the Priest, saw it, he rose up from among the Congregation, and took a javelin in his hand ; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the belly. So the plague was stayed from the Children of Israel." (Numbers, xxv. 6-8.) * of " safety," profit, &c. * Turns the leaf, we perceive. 1650. LETTER CXVIIL CORK. 507 honorable; how easy to put ourselves out there, where the flesh has so many advantages ! " You were desired to go along with us : I wish it still. 1 Yet we are not triumphing ; we may, for aught flesh knoweth, suffer after all this : the Lord prepare us for His good pleasure ! You were with us in the Power of things : why not in the Form ? I am persuaded your heart hankers after the hearts of your poor Friends ; and will, until you can find others to close with : which I trust, though we in ourselves be contemptible, God will not let you do ! " My service to the dear little Lady : I wish you make her not a greater temptation [to you, in this matter,} than she is ! Take heed of all relations. Mercies should not be temp- tations : yet we too oft make them so. The Lord direct your thoughts into the obedience of His will, and give you rest and peace in the Truth. Pray for your most true and affectionate " Servant in the Lord, " OLIVER CROMWELL. u [P.S.] I received a Letter from Robert Hammond, whom truly I love in the Lord with most entire affection : it much grieved me, not because I judged, but feared the whole spirit of it was from temptation ; indeed, I thought I perceived a proceeding in that; which the Lord will, I trust, cause him to unlearn. I would fain have written to him, but am strait- ened in time. Would he would be with us a little. Perhaps it would be no hurt to him." * Of Wharton and his dubitations, which many share in, we shall again hear. Of Wharton, young Colonel Hammond, 1 Shadow of condescension, implied in this, strikes his Excellency ; which he hastens to retract. * Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1814), Ixxxiv. p. 418. Given there with- out editing ; no notice whence : clearly genuine. Note to Third Edition. Original, in autograph, endorsed by Wharton, " rec : 30th January, 1649, from my Lord, Leefetennant of Ireland, from Ireland," is now (1848) in the Fit /.william Museum, Cambridge; Pottscri/tt here is added from the Original This Letter, and two others to be given by and by (CXLVI. and CLXXXI.), came to the Fit/willi.uu Museum, some thirty yours ago; discovered "among the Court-rolls of tlie Mauur of Wyuioudliaiu Crouiwell, Norfolk." 508 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND, i Jan. 1650. young Colonel Montague, Tom Westrow, Henry Lawrence, idle Dick, men known to us, and men unknown ; of them and their abstruse "reasonings," and communings with the Lord Lieutenant in St James's Park, we shall have a hint by and by. Some of whom received full " satisfaction," and others never could. Here is a kind of Epistle General, in a quite other tone, intended to give " satisfaction," to a quite other class, if they are capable of it. OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES WITH ELUCIDATIONS BY THOMAS CARLYLE VOL. II. BOSTON ALDINE BOOK PUBLISHING CO. PUBLISHERS CONTENTS. $art V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND (Continued). PAOB DECLARATION FOR THE UNDECEIVING OP DELUDED PEOPLE . . 3 LETTER CXIX. To HON. W. LENTHALL 25 CXX. To THE GOVERNOR OF CAIIIR CASTLE .... 30 CXXI. To PRESIDENT BRADSHAW 32 CXXII. To THE GOVERNOR, MAYOR, AND ALDERMEN or KlLKENNEY 33 CXXIII. To THE GOVERNOR OF KILKENNY 35 CXXIV. To THE SAME 37 CXXV. To THE MAYOR OF KILKENNY 38 CXXVI. To THE SAME 40 CXXVIT. To THE GOVERNOR OF KILKENNY 41 CXXVIII. To THE SAME .42 CXX IX. To THE DUBLIN COMMISSIONERS *3 CXXX. To HON. W. LENTHALL 44 CXXXI. To RICHARD MAYOR 51 CX XX II. To RICHARD CROMWELL 52 TIIF. SQUIRE PAPERS 60 iv CONTENTS. Part VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 1650-1661. PAQB WAR WITH SCOTLAND 95 LETTER CXXXIII. To HON. W. LENTHALL 101 CXXXIV. To RICHARD MAYOR 103 CXXXV. To PRESIDENT BRADSHAW 106 CXXXVI. To SCOTS COMMITTEE OF ESTATES .... 110 CXXXVII. To GEN. LESLEY 116 CXXXVIII. To THE COUNCIL OF STATE 119 BATTLE OF DTJNBAR 122 LETTER CXXXIX. To SIR A. HASELRIG 124 PROCLAMATION 133 LETTER CXL. To HON. W. LENTHALL 134 CXLI. To SIR A. HASELRIG 141 CXLII. To PRESIDENT BRADSHAW 143 CXLII1. To MRS. CROMWELL 145 CXLIV. To RICHARD MAYOR 146 CXLV. To LIEUT.-GEN. IRETON 147 CXLVI. To LORD WHARTON 149 CXL VII. To GOVERNOR DUNDAS 153 CXLVIII. To THE SAME 156 QUERIES 162 PROCLAMATION : INHABITANTS HAVE FREE LEAVE TO COME AND Go 164 LETTER CXLIX. To PRESIDENT BRADSHAW 165 CL. To SCOTS COMMITTEE OF ESTATES .... 171 CLI. To COL. STRAHAN 174 CONTENTS. PROCLAMATION : MOSS-TROOPEBS ............ 177 LETTER CLII. To GOVERNOR OP BORTHWICK CASTLE .... 178 CLH1. To HON. W. LENTHALL ......... 179 CLIV. To GOVERNOR DUNDAS ......... 184 CLV. " " .......... 185 CLVI. " " " .......... 187 CLVU. " " " .......... 189 CLVI1I. " " " .......... 189 CLIX. " " " .......... 191 CLX. " " " .......... 192 PASS ..................... 192 PROCLAMATION .................. 193 LETTER CLXI. To HON. W. LENTHALL ........ 194 CLXII. To COL. HACKER ........... 197 CLXIII. To GEN. LESLEY ........... 199 CLXIV. To SCOTS COMMITTEE OP ESTATES ..... 203 CLXV. To COMMITTEE OP ARMY ........ 205 CLXVI. To REV. DR. GREENWOOD ........ 209 CLXVII. To THE SAME ............ 212 CLXV1II. To HON. W. LENTHALL ........ 213 CLXIX. To THE SAME ............ 215 CLXX. To PRESIDENT BRADSHAW ........ 218 CLXXI. To MRS. CROMWELL .......... 219 CLXXII. To HON. A. JOHNSTOK ......... 221 SECOND VISIT TO GLASGOW ....... ....... 224 LETTER CLXXIII. To MRS. CROMWELL ......... 228 CLXX IV. To PRESIDENT UKADSUAW 230 vi CONTENTS. PAGB CLXXV. To HON. W. LENTHALL 232 CLXXVI. To PRESIDENT BRADSHA.W 234 CLXXVII. To THE SAME 235 CLXXVIII. To RICHARD MAYOR 237 CLXXIX, To HON. W. LENTHALL 240 CLXXX. To THE SAME 240 CLXXXI. To LORD WHARTON 246 BATTLE OF WORCESTER 248 LETTER CLXXXII. To HON. W. LENTHALL 251 CLXXXIII. To THE SAME 252 Part VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 1651-1658. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT 261 LETTER CLXXXIV. To REV. J. COTTON 267 CLXXXV. To MR. HUNGERFORD 279 CLXXXVI. To A. HUNGERFORD, ESQ 285 CLXXXVIL To LIEUT.-GEN. FLEETWOOD 287 CLXXXVIII. To MR. PARKER 295 SUMMONS , 297 SPEECH I. OPENING OF THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT 298 LETTER CLXXXIX. To LLEUT..GEN. FLEETWOOD 329 CXC. To COMMITTEE OF CUSTOMS 331 CXCI. To H. WESTON, ESQ 332 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT 340 LISTS OF THE EASTERN-ASSOCIATION COMMITTEES . . ... 368 CONTENTS. vii Part Vin. FIRST PROTECTORATE PARLIAMENT. 1654. PAQB LETTER CXCII. To RICHARD MAYOR 389 CXCIII. To LOKD FLEETWOOD 391 CXCrV. To COL. ALLURED ^. . 392 CXCV. To SIR T. VYNER 394 SPEECH II. MEETING OP THE FIRST PROTECTORATE PARLIAMENT 397 III. To THE FIRST PROTECTORATE PARLIAMENT . . . 420 LETTER CXCVI. To R. BENNET, Esq. 451 CXCVIL To CAPTAIN CROOK 452 SPEECH IV. DISSOLUTION OP THE FIRST PROTECTORATE PAB- LLAMENT 456 Part IX. THE MAJOR-GENERALS. 1655-1656. CHRONOLOGICAL ..,,.. .'...,, 483 OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND (CONTINUED). WITH ELUCIDATIONS. vou xnn. OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES. DECLARATION OF THE LORD LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND. FOR THE UNDECEIVING OF DELUDED PEOPLE. THE " Supreme Council of Kilkenny," still more the Occult u Irish Hierarchy " which was a main element thereof, remains, and is like to remain, a very dark entity in History: little other, after all one's reading, than a featureless gaunt shadow; extinct, and the emblem to us of huge noises that are also extinct. History can know that it had features once: of > dark-visaged Irish Noblemen arid Gentlemen ; dark- visaged Abbases O'Teague, and an Occult Papist Hierarchy ; earnestly planning, perorating, excommunicating, in a high Irish tone of voice : alas, with general result which Nature found untrue. Let there be noble pity for them in the hearts of the noble. Alas, there was withal some glow of real Irish Patriotism, some light of real human valor, in those old hearts : but it had parted company with Fact; came forth enveloped in such hu;_, r e cmlx>diment of headlong ferocity, of violence, hatred, noise, and general unveracity and incoherency, as as brought a Cromwell upon it at last! These reflections might lead us far. What we have to say here is, that in -the present expiring condition of the Irish Rebellion, nearly trodden to destruction now, it has been jml^'-il very fitting. That there be an end of excommunication fur the present, aud a real attempt at union 4 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1650. instead. For which object there has, with much industry, been brought about a " Conventicle," or general Meeting of the Occult Hierarchy, at a place called Clonmacnoise, in the inontli of December last. Clonmacnoise, "Seven Churches of Clon- macuoise ; " some kind of Abbey then ; now a melancholy tract of ruins, "on some bare gravelly hills," among the dreary swamps of the Shannon ; nothing there but wrecks and death, for the bones of the Irish Kings lie there, and burial there was considered to have unspeakable advantages once : a Ruin now, and dreary Golgotha among the bogs of the Shannon; but an Abbey then, and fit for a Conventicle of the Occult Hierarchy, " which met on the 4th of December, 1649," for the purpose above said. There, of a certainty, in the cold days of December, 1649, did the Occult Hierarchy meet, warmed, we hope, by good log-fires and abundant turf, and " for somewhat less than three weeks " hold consulta- tion. The real issue of which has now, after two hundred years, come to be very different from the then apparent one ! The then apparent issue was a " Union ; " worthless " super- ficial Union," as Carte * calls it ; skin-deep, which was broken again within the month, and is of no interest to us here. But it chanced also that, to usher in this worthless " Union." the Occult Hierarchy published in print a Manifesto, or general Injunction and Proclamation to the Irish People ; which Mani- festo coming under the eye of the Lord Lieutenant, provoked an Answer from him. And this Answer, now resuscitated, and still fit to be read by certain earnest men, Irish and other : this we may define as the real issue for us, such as it is. One of the remarkablest State-Papers ever issued by any Lord Lieutenant ; which, if we could all completely read it, as an earnest Editor has had to try if he could do, till it became completely luminous again, and glowed with its old veracity and sacred zeal and fire again, might do us all some good perhaps ! The Clonmacnoise Manifesto exists also, as a small brown Pamphlet of six leaves, " printed at Kilkenny and reprinted l Life ofOrmond, ii. 105-110. 1650. DECLARATION. 5 at London in January, 1G49 ; " l but is by no means worth inserting here. It is written in a very smooth, indeed vague and faint style, the deeply discrepant humors at Clonmacnoise not admitting of any other for their " superficial Union ; " and remains, in the perusal, mostly insignificant, and as if obliter- ated into dim-gray, till once, in the Lord Lieutenant's fiery illumination, some traits of it do come forth again. Here is our short abstract of it, more than sufficient for present purposes. " The Kilkenny Pamphlet starts by a preamble, in the form of Public Declaration ; setting forth, with some brevity, That whereas various differences had existed in the Catholic Party, said differences do now and shall, blessed be Heaven, all recon- cile themselves into a real ' Union ; ' real Union now, by these presents, established, decreed, and bound to exist and continue : signed duly by all the Occult Hierarchy, twenty Bishops more or less, Antonius Clonmacnosensis among the rest. This is the first part of the Clonmacnoise Manifesto : this is to be read in every Church for certain Sundays ; and do what good it can. Follows next, similarly signed, a short set of ' Acts,' special Orders to Priests and People at large, as to what they are to do by way of furthering said Union, and bringing good success to the Cause. Among which Orders we recognize one for masses, universal prayers (not wholly by machinery, we hope) ; and, with still more satisfaction, another for decisively putting down, or at least in every way discountenancing, those bands called ' Idle-Boys ' (ancestors of Captain Kock, one per- ceives), who much infest the country at present. "Our Manifesto then, thirdly, winds up with an earnest admonition, or Exhortation General, to the People of Ireland high and low, Not to be deceived with any show of clemency, or ' moderate usage/ exercised upon them hitherto ; inasmuch as it is the known intention of the English Parliament to ex- terminate the whole of them ; partly by slaughter, partly by banishment ' to the Tobacco Islands ' and hot West-India locali- whither many have already been sent. Known intention ; 1 King's Pamphlet*, largo 4to, no. 43, 5 ; the London Reprint, or the day of purchasing it by tin- t Jou usury," 1640-40 6 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1650. as can be deduced by the discerning mind from clear symp- toms, chiefly from these two: First, that they, the English Parliament, have passed an < Act of Subscription/ already dis- posing of Irishmen's estates to English Money-lenders : and then second, That they have decided to extirpate the Catholic Religion, which latter fact, not to speak of their old Scotch Covenant and the rest, may be seen with eyes, even from this Lord Lieutenant's own expressions in his Letter to the Gov- ernor of Ross ; * which are quoted. To extirpate the Catholic Religion : how can they effect this but by extirpating the pro- fessors thereof ? Let all Irishmen high and low, therefore, beware ; and stand upon their guard, and adhere to the super- ficial Union ; slaughter, or else banishment to the Tobacco Islands, being what they have to expect." It is by this third or concluding portion of the Clonmacnoise Manifesto that the Lord Lieutenant's wrath has been chiefly kindled : but indeed he blazes athwart the whole Document, athwart it and along it, as we shall see, like a destroying sword, and slashes in pieces it and its inferences, and noxious delusions and delud- ings, in a very characteristic style. What perhaps will most strike the careless modern reader in the Clonmacnoise Manifesto, with its " inferences " of gen- eral extermination, is that " show of moderate usage at pres- ent ; " and the total absence of those " many Inhabitants " butchered at Drogheda lately : total absence of those ; and also of the " Two Hundred Women in the Market-place of Wexford," who in modern times have even grown " Two Hundred beauti- ful Women " (all young, and in their Sunday clothes for the occasion), and figure still, in the Irish Imagination, in a very horrid manner. They are known to Abbe Macgeohegan, these interesting Martyrs, more or less ; to Philopater Irenseus, to my Lord Clarendon, Jacobite Carte, and other parties divided by wide spaces and long centuries from them ; but not to this Occult Hierarchy sitting deliberative close at hand, and doing their best in the massacre way, who are rather concerned to guard us against shows of clemency exercised hitherto ! This circumstance, and still more what Cromwell himself says on 1 See vol. xvii. p. 482. iflgo. DECLARATION. 7 the subject of " massacring," will strike the modern reader ; and the " Two Hundred Women," and some other things, I persuade myself, will profitably vanish from the Market-place henceforth ! So soon as convenient, that wretched chimera will do well to vanish ; and also, I think, a certain terrible fact, which the Irish Imagination pretends to treat sometimes as a chimera, might profitably return, and reassert itself there. The massacre of 1641 was not, we will believe, premeditated by the Leaders of the Rebellion ; but it is an awful truth, written in sun-clear evidence, that it did happen ; and the noble-minded among the men of Ireland are called to admit it, and to mourn for it, and to learn from it ! To the ear of History those " ghosts " still shriek from the Bridge of Portnadown, 1 if not now for just vengeance on their murderers, yet for pity on them, for horror at them : and no just man, whatever his new feelings may be, but will share more or less the Lord Lieutenant Crom- well's old feelings on that matter. It must not be denied, it requires to be admitted ! As an act of blind hysterical fury, very blind and very weak and mad, and at once quite misera- ble and quite detestable, it remains on the face of Irish His- tory ; and will have to remain till Ireland cease, much more generally than it has yet done, to mistake loud bluster for inspired wisdom, and spasmodic frenzy for strength; till, let us say, Ireland do an wjual act of magnanimous forbearance, of valor in the silent kind ! Of which also we have by no means lost hope. No: and if among the true hearts of Ireland tin-re chanced to be found one who, across the opaque angry whirlwind in which all Cromwell matters are enveloped for him, could rocognizo, in this thunder-clad figure of a Lord Lieutenant now about to speak to him, the veritable Heaven's Messenger clad in thunder; and accept the stern true message he brings ! Who knows ? That too, we believe, is coming ; and with it many hopeful things. But to onr Declaration, however that may be. 1 Atli.hu it>. lakni in ir.il-i. in Sir John Temple'* History 0f the Iritk Mauiirrr ninl l!,/-llivH (Manerea's edition, L<>iij Parliament ; ami the cuulvuipurary Booka /xisii'm. 8 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1660. A Declaration of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,, For the Unde- ceiving of Deluded and Seduced People : which may be satisfactory to all that do not wilfully shut their eyes against the light. In answer to certain late Declarations and Acts, framed by the Irish Popish Prelates and Clergy, in a Conventicle at Clonmacnoise. " HAVING lately perused a Book printed at Kilkenny in the year 1649, containing divers Declarations and Acts of the Popish Prelates and Clergy, framed in a late Conventicle at Clonmacnoise, the 4th day of December in the year aforesaid, I thought fit to give a brief Answer unto the same. " And first to the first ; which is a Declaration, wherein (having premised the reconciliation of some differences among themselves, [and the hearty " Union " they have now attained to] they come to state [the reasons of] their War, [grounding it] upon 'the interest of their Church, of his Majesty and the Nation,' and their resolution to prosecute the same with unity. All which will deserve a particular survey. " The Meeting of the Archbishops, Bishops and other Pre- lates at Clonmacnoise is by them said to be proprio motu. By which term they would have the world believe that the Secular Power hath nothing to do to appoint, or superintend, their Spiritual Conventions, as they call them ; although in the said meetings they take upon them to intermeddle in all Secular Affairs ; as by the sequel appears. But first for their ' Union ' they so much boast of. If any wise man shall seri- ously consider what they pretend the grounds of their 'differ- ences ' to have been, and the way and course they have taken to reconcile the same ; and their expressions thereabout, and the ends for which, and their resolutions how to carry on their great Design declared for; he must needs think slightly of their said ' union.' 1 And also for this, That they resolve all other men's consent [and reconciliation] into their own ; with- out consulting them at all. "The subject of this reconciliation was, as they say, 'the 1 " it " in orig. 1680. DECLARATION. 9 Clergy and Laity.* The discontent and division itself was grounded on the late difference of opinion happening amongst the ' Prelates and Laity.' I wonder not at differences in opinion, at discontents and divisions, where so Antichristian and dividing a term as ' Clergy and Laity ' is given and re- ceived. A term unknown to any save the Antichristian Church, and such as derive themselves from her: ab initio nonfult sic. The most pure and primitive Times, as they best knew what true union was, so in all addresses to the several Churches they wrote unto, not one word of this. The members of the Churches are styled ' Brethren, and Saints of the same household of Faith:' [and] although they had orders and distinctions amongst them for administration of ordinances, of a far different use and character from yours, yet it nowhere occasioned them to say, contemptim, and by way of lessening in contradistinguishing, ' Laity and Clergy.' It was your pride that begat this expression. And it is for filthy lucre's sake that you keep it up : that by making the People believe that they are not so holy as yourselves, they might for their penny purchase some sanctity from you ; and that you might bridle, saddle and ride them at your pleasure ; and do (as is most true of you) as the Scribes and Pharisees of old did by their ' Laity,' keep the knowledge of the Law from them, and then be able in their pride to say, ' This people, that know not the Law, are cursed.' " And no wonder, to speak more nearly to your * differ- ences ' and ' union,' if it lie in the Prelates' power to make the Clergy and the Laity go together by the ears when they please, but that they may as easily make a simple and senseless reconciliation! Which will last until the next Nuncio comes from Rome with supermandatory advices ; and then this Gordian knot must be cut, and the poor 'Laity' forced to dance to a new tune. " I say not this as being troubled at your ' union.' By the grace of God, we fear not, we care not for it. Your Covenant [if you understood it] is with Death and Hell ! Your union is like that ut Simeon and Levi : 'Associate yourselves, and ye ahull LKJ broken iu pieces; take counsel together, and it 10 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 16JKX shall come to naught ! * For though it becomes us to be humble in respect of ourselves, yet we can say to you : God is not with you. You say, Your union is < against a common enemy : ' and to this, if you will be talking of ' union/ I will give yud consider that I 14 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. I860. [to], with the Pope himself at Rome, in favor of the Irish Catholics.' 1 I intend not this to you ; but to such Protestants as may incline to you, and join with you upon this single account, which is the only appearing inducement to them. [To them I intend it,] seeing there is so much probability of ill in this abstracted ; and so much certainty of ill in fighting for the Romish Religion against the Protestant ; and fighting [along] with men under the guilt of so horrid a Massacre. From participating in which guilt, whilst they take part with them, they will never be able to assoil themselves, either before God or good men. "In the last place, you are pleased, having, after your usual manner, remembered yourselves first, and ' his Majesty,' as you call him, next ; like a man of your tribe, with his Ego et Rex meus, you are pleased to take the People into con- sideration. Lest they should seem to be forgotten ; or rather you would make me believe they are much in your thoughts. Indeed I think they are ! Alas, poor ' Laity ' ! That you and your King might ride them, and jade them, as your Church hath done, and as your King hath done by your means, almost in all ages ! But it would not be hard to prophesy, That the beasts being stung and kicking, this world will not last always. Arbitrary power [is a thing] men begin to be weary of, in Kings and Churchmen ; their juggle between them mutually to uphold Civil and Ecclesiastical Tyranny begins to be trans- parent. Some have cast off loth ; and hope by the grace of God to keep so. Others are at it ! Many thoughts are laid up about it, which will have their issue and vent. 2 This principle, That People are for Kings and Churches, and Saints are for the Pope or Churchmen, as you call them, begins to be ex- ploded ; and therefore I wonder not to see the Fraternity so much enraged. I wish ' the People ' wiser than to be troubled at you ; or solicitous for what you say or do. " But it seems, notwithstanding all this, you would fain have them believe it is their good you seek. And to cozen them, in deed and in truth, is the scope of your whole Declaration, and of your Acts and Decrees in your foresaid Printed Book. 1 See, vol. xvii. p. 243. 2 Paris City A.D. 1789-1 795 ) 1650. DECLARATION. 15 Therefore to discover and unveil those falsities, and to let them [the People] know what they are to trust to from me, is the principal end of this my Declaration. That if I be not able to do good upon them, which I most desire, and yet in that I shall not seek to gain them by flattery ; but tell them the worst, in plainness, and that which I am sure will not be acceptable to you ; and if I cannot gain them [I say] I shall have comfort in this, That I have freed my own soul from the guilt of the evil that shall ensue. And on this subject I hope to leave nothing unanswered in all your said Declarations and Decrees at Cloumacnoise. "And because you carry on your matter somewhat con- fusedly, I shall therefore bring all that you have said into some order; that so we may the better discern what every- thing signifies, and give answer thereunto. " You forewarn the People of their danger ; which you make to consist : First, ' in the extirpation of the Catholic Religion ; ' Secondly, ' in the destruction of their Lives ; ' Thirdly, ' in the ruin of their Fortunes.' To avoid all which evils you fore- warn them : First, That they be not deceived by the Com- mander-iu-Chief of the Parliament Forces : And in the next place, having stated [the ground of] your War, as aforesaid, you give them your positive advice and counsel To engage in blood : And [then] lastly [you] bestow upon them a small collation in Four Ecclesiastical Decrees or Orders, which will signify as little, being performed by your spirit, as if you had said, nothing. And the obligation [that lay on you] to all this you make to be your Pastoral relation to them, ' over your Flocks.' " To which last a word or two. 1 I wonder how this relation was brought about ! If they be ' Flocks,' and you ambitious of the relative term ? [Yes,] you are Pastors : but it is by an antiphrasis, a minime pascendo ! You either teach the People not at all ; or else you do it, as some of you came to this Conventicle who were sent by others, tanquam Procura- 1 The Lord Lieutenant It rry impatient with " this last ; " flies at it Jir*. 16 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1650. tores, [teach them,] as your manner is, by sending a com- pany of silly ignorant Priests, who can but say the Mass, and scarcely that intelligibly ; or with such stuff as these your sense- less Declarations and Edicts ! But how dare you assume to call these men your ' Flocks,' whom you have plunged into so horrid a Kebellion, by which you have made them and the Country almost a ruinous heap ? And whom you have fleeced and polled and peeled hitherto, and make it your business to do so still. You cannot feed them ! You poison them with your false, abominable and antichristian doctrine and practices. You keep the Word of God from them ; and instead thereof give them your senseless Orders and Traditions. You teach them ' implicit belief : ' he that goes amongst them may find many that do not understand anything in the matters of your Religion. I have had few better answers from any since I came into Ireland that are of your Flocks than this, 'That indeed they did not trouble themselves about matters of Religion, but left that to the Church.' Thus are your ' Flocks ' fed ; and such credit have you of them. But they must take heed of ' losing their Religion.' Alas, poor creatures, what have they to ' lose ' ? " Concerning this, [of losing their Religion,] is your grand caveat [however]. And to back this, you tell them of ' Reso- lutions and Covenants to extirpate the Catholic Religion out of all his Majesty's Dominions.' And you instance in ' Crom- well's Letter of the 19th October, 1649, to the then Governor of Ross,' J repeating his words, which are as follows, viz. ' For that which you mention concerning liberty of conscience, I meddle not with any man's conscience. But if by liberty of conscience, you mean a liberty to exercise the Mass, I judge it best to use plain dealing, and to let you know, Where the Parliament of England have power ; that will not be allowed of.' And this you call a ' tyrannical Resolution ; ' which you say hath been put in execution in Wexford, Ross and Tredah. "Now let us consider. First, you say, The design is, to extirpate the Catholic Religion. Let us see your honesty 1 See vol. xvii. p. 482. 1650. DECLARATION. 17 herein. Your word ' extirpate ' is as ill collected from these grounds, and as senseless as the word 'Catholic,' ordinarily used by you when you mention Catholic Roman Church. The word ' extirpate ' means [ruin of] a thing already rooted and established : which word [is] made good by the proof of ' Cove- nants,' by that Letter expressing the non-toleration of the Mass (wherein, it seems, you place all the ' Catholic Religion,' and there you show some ingenuity), 1 and [by] your instance of what was practised in the three Towns afore mentioned : do these prove, either considered apart or all together, the ' extir- pation ' of the Catholic Religion ? " By what Law was the Mass [ever rooted, or] exercised in these places, or in any the Dominions of England or Ireland, or Kingdom of Scotland ? You were intruders herein ; you were open violators of the known Laws ! And yet you call the 'Covenant/ and that [refusal] in the Letter, and these practices [at Wexford, Ross and Tredah], 'extirpation* of the Catholic Religion, [which had] thus again [been] set on foot by you, by the advantage of your Rebellion, and shak- ing off the just Authority of the State of England over you I Whereas, I dare be confident to say, You durst not own the saying of one Mass, [for] above these eighty years in Ireland. And [only] through the troubles you made, and through the ries you brought on this Nation and the poor People tlicrnof, your numbers, which is very ominous, increasing with the [numbers of the] wolves, through the desolations you made in the Country; [only by all this] did you recover :i the public exercise of your Mass ! And for the main- ice of this, thus gained, you would make the poor People 1 . licve that it is ghostly counsel, and given in love to them as your ' Flocks,' That thoy should run into Wars, and venture . and all upon such a ground as this ! But if God be jilt-ascil to unveil you of your sheeps-clothing, that they [the People] may see how they have been deluded, and by whom, I shall exceedingly rejoice; and indeed for their sakes only have I given you these competent characters, for their good, if (Jfxl shall so bless it. 1 Mf:ui- " iii"onnonsnoi," M tumal. 18 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. i860. " And now for them [the People of Ireland], I do ^articu- larly declare what they may expect at my hands in thia point. Wherein you will easily perceive that, as I neither have [flat- tered] nor shall flatter you, so neither shall I go about to delude them with specious pretences, as you have ever done. " First, therefore : I shall not, where I have power, and tbp Lord is pleased to bless me, suffer the exercise of the Mass. where I can take notice of it. [No,] nor [in any way] suffer you that are Papists, where I can find you seducing the People, or by any overt act violating the Laws established ; but if you come into my hands, I shall cause to be inflicted the punish- ments appointed by the Laws, to use your own term, secun- dum gravitatem delicti* upon you ; and [shall try] to reduce things to their former state on this behalf. 2 As for the Peo- ple, what thoughts they have in matters of Religion in their own breasts I cannot reach ; but shall think it my duty, if they walk honestly and peaceably, Not to cause them in the least to suffer for the same. And shall endeavor to walk patiently and in love towards them, to see if at any time it t;hall please God to give them another or a better mind. And all men under the power of England, within this Dominion, are hereby required and enjoined strictly and religiously to do the same. "To the second [danger threatened] ; which is 'the destruc- tion of the Lives of the Inhabitants of this Nation:' to make it good that this is designed, they 8 give not one reason. Which is either because they have none to give; or else for that they believe the People will receive everything for truth they say, which they have too well taught them, and God knows the People are too apt, to do. But I will a little help them. They speak indeed of 'rooting out the Common Peo- ple ; ' and also, by way of consequent, that the extirpating the Catholic Religion is not to be effected without the ' massacring, destroying or banishing the Catholic Inhabitants.' Which 1 A phrase in their Pamphlet. 2 No cozening here ! 8 Is now addressing the People ; has unconsciously turned away from the Priests, and put them into the third person. 1650. DECLARATION. 19 how analogical an argument this is, I shall easily make appear by and by. " Alas, the generality of ' the Inhabitants ' are poor ' Laity ' as you call them, and ignorant of the grounds of the ' Catholic religion.' l Are they, then, so interwoven with your Church Interest as that the absence of them makes your 'Catholic Religion ' fall to the ground ? We know you think not so. You reckon yourselves, and yourselves only, the pillars and supporters thereof ; and the Common People [useful] as far as they have the exercise of club-law, and, like the ass you ride on, obey your commands. But concerning these relations of your Religion [and your right to practise it], enough has been spoken in another place ; only you love to mix things for your advantage. "But [now] to your logic. Here is your argument: The design is to extirpate the Catholic Religion ; but this is not to be done but by the massacring, banishing or otherwise destroy- ing the Catholic Inhabitants : ergo it is designed to massacre, banish and destroy the Catholic Inhabitants. To try this no-concluding argument, [nothing-concluding] but yet well rnnugh agreeing with your learning, I give you this di- lemma ; by which it will appear That, whether your Religion be true or false, this will not follow : " If your Religion be the true Religion, yet if a Nation may degenerate from the true Religion, and apostatize, as too many have [evidently] done, (through the seducements of your Unman Church [say we]), then it will not follow that men must be ' massacred, banished or otherwise destroyed,' neces- sarily ; no, not as to the change of the true Religion in a Na- tion or Country !* Only, this argument doth wonderfully well agree with your principles and practice; you having chiefly uiade use of fire and sword, in all the changes in Religion that 1 Unimportant they, to the vigor or decline of it. * A subtle " dilemma," and very Oliverian ; seems to eat itself like a Serpeut-of-eternity, and l>e very circular reasoning ; yet grounds itself, if examined, upon sharp just insight, im50. DECLARATION. 21 " Thirdly, as to that of ' the ruin of their Fortune.' You instance the Act of Subscription, 1 ' whereby the estates of the Inhabitants of Ihis Nation are sold, so as there reinaineth now no more but to put the Purchasers in possession ; ' and that for this cause are the Forces drawn out of England. And that you might carry the Interest far, [so as] to engage the Common sort of People with you, you farther say to them, That ' the moderate usage [hitherto] exercised to them is to no other end but to our private advantage, and for the better support of our Army ; ' [we] intending at the close of our ' conquest,' as you term it, ' to root out the Common People also, and to plant the Luid with Colonies to be brought hither out of England.' This, consisting of divers parts, will ask distinct answers. " And first, to the Act of Subscription. It 's true there is such an Act ; and it was a just one. For when, by your execrable Massacre and Rebellion, you had not only raised a bloody War to justify the same ; and thereby occasioned the exhausting the Treasure of England in the prosecution of so just a War against you, was it not a wise and just act in the State to raise money by escheating the Lauds of those who had a hand in the Rebellion ? Was it not fit to make their Estates to defray the charge, who had caused the trouble ? The best therefore that lies in this argument is this, and that only reaching to them who have been in arms, for farther it goes not : ' You have forfeited your Estates, and it is likely they will be escheated to make satisfaction ; and therefore you had better fight it out than repent or give off now ; or [else], 1 At the first breaking out of the Irish Rebellion into an Irish Massacre, the King's Exchequer being void, and the case like a case of conflagration, ;ui Act was passed, engaging the Public Faith, That whoever would " subscribe " money towards suppressing the said Rebellion in Ireland, and detestable and horrible Massacre of Protestants there, should, with liberal interest, be n-ji.r-1 from the forfeited Estates of the Rebels, so soon as they were got. Thi.s is the " Act of Sulwcription " spoken of here. His Majesty said: " How will that answer? It is like selling the bear's skin before you have caught your bear." A bargain, nevertheless, which hundreds and thousands entered into, with free puree and overflowing heart ; " above a Quarter of a Million " raised by it ; generous emotion, and tragic terror and pity, lending sanction to doubt- ful prbfit-and-loHs. A very wioe and just Act <>f Parliament, the Lord Lieu- tenant think* ; which did abu fulul ita engagements by aud by. 22 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1650. see what mercy you may find from the State of England. And seeing holy Church is engaged in it, we will, by one means or another, hook in the Commons, and make them sensible that they are as much concerned as you, though they were never in arms, or came quickly off ! ' And for this cause doubtless are these two coupled together ; by which your honest dealing is manifest enough. " But what ? Was the English Army brought over for this purpose, as you allege ? Do you think that the State of Eng- land will be at Five or Six Millions' charge merely to procure Purchasers to be invested in that for which they did disburse little above a Quarter of a Million ? Although there be a Jus- tice in that also, which ought, and I trust will be seasonably performed toward them. No, I can give you a better reason for the Army coming over than this. England hath had ex- perience of the blessing of God in prosecuting just and right- eous Causes, whatever the cost and hazard be ! 1 And if ever men were engaged in a righteous Cause in the world, this will scarce be a second to it. We are come to ask an account of the innocent blood that hath been shed ; and to endeavor to bring to an account by the blessing and presence of the Almighty, in whom alone is our hope and strength all who, by appearing in arms, seek to justify the same. We come to break the power of a company of lawless Rebels, who having cast off the Authority of England, live as enemies to Human Society ; whose principles, the world hath experience, are, To destroy and subjugate all men not complying with them. We come, by the assistance of God, to hold forth and maintain the lustre and glory of English Liberty 2 in a Nation where we have an undoubted right to do it ; wherein the People of Ireland 1 Hear this Lord Lieutenant ! 2 " Liberty," here, which much astonishes our Irish friends, is very far from meaning what in most modern dialects it now does. " Liberty," with this Lord Lieutenant, means " rigorous settled Obedience to Laws that are just." Which it is very noble indeed to settle, " and hold forth and maintain " against all men. Laws grounded on the eternal Fact of Things, which is a much preferable " ground " to the temporary Fiction of Things, as set forth at any Clonmacnoise, Kilkenny, or other Supreme Centre-of -Jargon, there or elsewhere, that has been or that can be ! 1650. DECLARATION. 23 (if they listen not to such seducers as you are) may equally participate in all benefits ; to use [their] liberty and fortune equally with Englishmen, if they keep out of arms. " And now, having said this to you, I have a word to them ; that in this point, which concerns them in their estates and fortunes, they may know what to trust to. Such as have been formerly in arms, may, submitting themselves, have their cases presented to the State of England ; where no doubt the State will be ready to take into consideration the nature and quality of their actings, and deal mercifully with them. As for those now in arms, who shall come in, and submit, and give Engage- ments for their future quiet and honest carriage, and submis- sion to the State of England, I doubt not but they will find like merciful consideration ; except only the Leading Per- sons and principal Contrivers of this Rebellion, whom I am confident they will reserve to make examples of Justice, what- soever hazards they incur thereby. And as for such Private Soldiers as lay down their arms, and shall live peaceably and honestly at their several homes, they shall be permitted so to do. And [in general], for the first two sorts, ' for such as have been or as now are in arms and shall submit/ I shall humbly and effectually represent their cases to the Parliament, as far as becomes the duty and place I bear. P>ttt as for those who, notwithstanding all this, persist and continue in arms, they must expect what the Providence of God, in that which is falsely called the Chance of War, will cast upon them. For such of the Nobility, Gentry and Commons of Ireland as have not been actors in this Rebellion, they shall and may expect the protection in their Goods, Liberties and" Lives which I -aw gives them ; and in their husbandry, merchandising, manufactures and other trading whatsoever, the same. They 1> h.iving themselves as becomes honest and peaceable men; testifying their good affections, upon all occasions, to the ser- vice of the State of England, equal justice shall be done them with the English. They shall bear proportionably with them in teixes. And if the Soldiery be insolent upon them, upon re punished with utmost severity, and they protected equally with Englishmen. 24 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1650. " And having .said this, and purposing honestly to perform it, if this People shall headily run on after the counsels of their Prelates and Clergy and other Leaders, I hope to be free from the misery and desolation, blood and ruin, that shall befall them; and shall rejoice to exercise utmost severity against them. [OLIVER CROMWELL.] 1 [Given at YOUGHAL, January, 1649.J " This Declaration, as appears here, does not date or even ex- pressly sign itself : but by search, chiefly in a certain Manu- script Fragment, which will by and by concern us farther, 2 we find that it was drawn up at Youghal after the 15th, and came forth printed at Cork before the 29th of January ; on which latter day the Army took the field again. And so we leave this Declaration ; one of the remarkablest State-Papers ever published in Ireland since Strongbow, or even since St. Patrick, first appeared there. LETTERS CXIX.-CXXI. THB Speaker's Letter of Recall has never yet reached Ire- land ; and the rumor of it already has ; which, as we intimated, sets the Enemy on fresh schemes, whereof advantage might be taken. The unwearied Lord Lieutenant, besides his labors known to us, has been rehabilitating Courts of Justice in Dublin, settling contributions, and doing much other work ; and now, the" February or even January weather being unusu- 1 Declaration, &c. as above given. Licensed by the Secretary of the Army. Printed at Cork : and reprinted at London, by E. Griffin, and are to be sold in the Old Bailey; March 21st, 1649. King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 462, 6. In Ayscongh MSS. no. 4769 (a Fragment of an anonymous Contemporary Narrative, which will by and by be more specially referred to), are some two pages of this Declaration, transcribed from the Cork Edition : the concluding words are not " exercise utmost severity against them," but " act severity against them," which probably is the true reading. * Ayscongh MSS. no. 47G9 (Fragment of a Narrative, referred to in the previous Note), pp. 100 et seq. 16W. LETTER CXTX. CASTLETOWN. 25 ally good, he takes the field again, in hopes of perhaps soon finishing. The unhappy Irish are again about excommuni- cating one another ; the Supreme Council of Kilkenny is again one wild howl ; and Ormond is writing to the King to recall him. Now is the Lieutenant's time; the February weather being good ! LETTER CXIX. HERE is another small excerpt from Bulstrode, which we may take along with us ; a small speck of dark Ireland and its affairs rendered luminous for an instant. To which there is reference in this Letter. We saw Enniscorthy taken on the last day of September, the " Castle and Village of Enniscorthy," " which belongs to Mr. Robert Wallop ; " a Garrison was settled there ; and this in some three months' time is what becomes of it. 9th January, 1649, Letters reach Bulstrode, perhaps a fort- night after date, "That the Enemy surprised Enniscorthy Castle in this manner : Some Irish Gentlemen feasted the Garrison Soldiers; and sent in women to sell them strong- water, of which they drank too much ; and then the Irish fell upon them, took the Garrison, and put all the Officers and Soldiers to the sword." Sharp practice on the part of the Irish Gentlemen ; and not well advised ! Which constrained the Lord Lieutenant, when he heard of it, to order " that the Irish," P.ipist or suspected Irish, " should be put out of such Garrisons as were in the power of Parliament," 1 sent to seek quarters elsewhere. " For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. "CASTLETOWN, 15th February, 164'J. "MR. SPEAKER, Having refreshed our men for some short time in our Winter-quarters, 8 and health being pretty well re- covered, we thought fit to take the field ; and to attempt such things as God by His providence should lead us to upon the Enemy. Whitlocke, p. 421. ' Youghal had been the bead-quarter 26 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 15 Feb " Our resolution was to fall into the Enemy's quarters two ways. The one party, being about fifteen or sixteen troops of horse and dragoons and about two thousand foot, were ordered to go up by the way of Carrick into the County of Kilkenny under the command of Colonel Reynolds ; whom Major-General Ireton was to follow with a reserve. I myself was to go by the way of Mallow, 1 over the Blackwater, towards the County of Limerick and the County of Tipperary, with about twelve troops of horse, and three troops of dragoons, and between two and three hundred foot. '' I began my march upon Tuesday the nine-aud-twentieth of January, from Youghal : and upon Thursday the one-and- thirtieth, I possessed a Castle called Kilkenny, upon the edge of the County of Limerick ; where I left thirty foot. From thence I marched to a Strong-house belonging to Sir Richard Everard (called Clogheeu), 2 who is one of the Supreme Coun- cil ; where I left a troop of horse and some dragoons. From thence I marched to Roghill Castle, which was possessed by some Ulster foot, and a party of the Enemy's horse ; which upon summons (I having taken the Captain of horse prisoner before) was rendered to me. These places being thus pos- sessed gave us much command (together with some other holds we have) of the White-Knights' and Roche's Country ; and of all the land from Mallow to the Suir-side ; especially by [help of] another Castle, called Old Castletown [which], since my march, [was] taken by my Lord of Broghil. Which I had sent to his Lordship to endeavor ; as also a Castle of Sir Edward Fitzharris, over the Mountains in the County of Lim- erick ; I having left his Lordship at Mallow, with about six or seven hundred horse and four or five hundred foot, to pro- tect those parts, and your interest in Munster ; lest while we were abroad, Inchiquin, whose forces lay about Limerick and the County of Kerry, should fall in behind us. His Lordship drew two cannon to the aforesaid Castle ; which having sum- moned, they refused. His Lordship, having bestowed about 1 " Muyallo " he writes, and " Mayallo." 2 " Cloghern " in the old Newspaper ; but it seems to be misprinted, as almost all these names are. " Roghill " I find nowhere now extant. 1660. LETTER CXIX. CASTLETOWN. 27 ten shot upon it, which made their stomachs come down, he gave all the soldiers quarter for life ; and shot all the Officers, being six in number, to death. Since the taking of these Gar- risons, the Irish have sent their commissioners to compound for their contribution as far as the walls of Limerick. " I marched from Roghill Castle over the Suir, with very much difficulty; and from thence to Fethard, almost in the heart of the County of Tipperary ; where was a Garrison of the Enemy. The Town is most pleasantly seated ; having a very good Wall with round and square bulwarks, after the old manner of fortifications. We came thither in the night, and indeed were very much distressed by sore and tempestuous wind and rain. After a long march, we knew not well how to dispose of ourselves ; but finding an old Abbey in the suburbs, ami some cabins and poor houses, we got into them, and had opportunity to send [the Garrison] a summons. They shot at my trumpet ; and would not listen to him, for an hour's space : but having some Officers in our party whom they knew. I sent them, To let them know I was there with a good part of the Army. We shot not a shot at them ; but they were very angry, and fired very earnestly upon us ; telling us, It was not a time of night to send a summons. But yet in the end, tin (rovernor was willing to send out two commissioners, I think rather to see whether there was a force sufficient to force him, than to any other end. After almost a whole night spent in treaty, the Town was delivered to me the next morning, upon terms which we usually call honorable; which I was the will- in _,'! to give, because I had little above two hundred foot, and in- it her ladders nor guns, nor anything else to force them. That night, there being about seventeen companies of the Ulster foot in Cashel, above five miles from thence, the}' quit it in some disorder ; and the Sovereign and the Aldermen sent to me a petition, desiring that I would protect them. Which I have also made a quarter. " From thence I marched towards Callan ; hearing that Colonel Reynolds was there, with the Party before mentioned. When I e.ime thither, I found he had fallen upon the Enemy's horse, ami nmt.-.l th-Mii (l.'in-,' about a hundred), with Lis 28 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN* IRELAND 15 Feb. forlorn ; [he] took my Lord of Ossory's Captain-Lieutenant, and another Lieutenant of Lorse, prisoners; and one of those who betrayed our Garrison of Euniscorthy ; whom we hanged. The Enemy had possessed three Castles in the Town; one of them belonging to one Butler, very consider- able; the other two had about a hundred or hundred and twenty men in them, which [latter] he attempted; and they, refusing conditions seasonably offered, were put all to the sword. Indeed some of your soldiers did attempt very notably in this service : I do not hear there were six men of ours lost. Butler's Castle was delivered upon conditions, for all to march away, leaving their arms behind them. Wherein I have placed a company of foot and a troop of horse, under the command of my Lord Colvil ; the place being six miles from Kilkenny. From hence Colonel Keynolds was sent with his regiment to remove a Garrison of the Enemy's from Knocktofer (being the way of our communication to Ross) ; which accordingly he did. " We marched back with the rest of the body to Fethard l and Cashel: where we are now quartered, having good plenty both of horse meat and man's meat for a time ; and being indeed, we may say, even almost in the heart and bowels of the Enemy ; ready to attempt what God shall next direct. And blessed be His name only for this good success ; and for this [also], That we do not find our men are at all consider- ably sick upon this expedition, though indeed it hath been very blustering weather. " I had almost forgot one business : The Major-General was very desirous to gain a Pass over the Suir ; where indeed we had none but by boat, or when the weather served. Where- fore, on Saturday in the evening, he marched with a party of horse and foot to Ardfinnan ; where was a Bridge, and at the foot of it a strong Castle. Which he, about four o'clock the next morning, attempted; killed about thirteen of the Ene- my's outguard; lost but two men, and eight or ten wounded : the Enemy yielded the place to him, and we are possessed of 1 Letter, " Fethard, 9th February," to Colonel Phayr, Governor of Cork, for reinforcements : Appendix, No. 18. LETTER CXIX. CASTLETOWM. X- it, being a very considerable Pass, and the nearest to our Pass at Cappoquin over the Blackwater, whither we can bring guns, ammunition, or other things from Youghal by water, and [then] over this Pass to the Army. The County of Tipperary have submitted to 1^00 a month contribution, although they have six or seven of the Enemy's Garrisons yet upon them. u Sir, I desire the charge of England as to this War may be abated as much as may be, and as we know you do desire, out of your care to the Commonwealth. But if you expect your work to be done, if the marching Army be not constantly paid, and the course taken that hath been humbly represented, indeed it will not be for the thrift of England, as far as England is concerned in the speedy reduction of Ireland. The money we raise upon the Counties maintains the Garrison forces; and hardly that. If the active force be not main- tained, and all contingencies defrayed, how can yon expect but to have a lingering business of it ? Surely we desire not to spend a shilling of your treasury, wherein our consciences do not prompt us. We serve you ; we are willing to be out of 1 our trade of war; and shall hasten, by God's and grace, to the end of our work, as the laborer doth to be at his rest. This makes us bold to be earnest with you for Uf^UHHMV supplies: that of money is one. And there be some other things, which indeed I do not think for your service to speak of publicly, which I shall humbly represent to the Council of State, wherewith I desire we may be accommodated. "Sir, the Lord, who doth all these things, gives hopes of a speedy issue to this business; and, I am persuaded, will gra- ckmsly appear in it. And truly there is no fear of the strength f enemies round about, nor of tongues at home. God hath hitherto fenced yon against all those, to wonder and iiHMiiifinl ; they are tokens of your iiy and success : only it will be good for 700, and us that serve you, to fear the Lord ; to fear unbelief, self-seeking > to bare y the I>aw of England, well ascertained, known, and acted on, this long while, it is death to have been concerned in that. VOL. xvin. 3 34 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 23 March, " By this free dealing, you see I entice you not to a com- pliance. You may have Terms [such as] may save you in your lives, liberties and estates, according to what may be fitting for me to grant and you to receive. If you choose for the worst, blame yourselves. In confidence of the gracious blessing and presence of God with His own Cause, which by many testimonies this is, I shall hope for a good issue upon my endeavors. " Expecting a return from you, I rest, " Your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." l In Kilkenny are two military Governors, one of the City, one of the Castle ; a Mayor with his Citizens and civic Func- tionaries; not to speak of Priests, miscellaneous clerical or other wreck of the once Supreme Council of Kilkenny, now hastily exploded : all of whom this Letter of Friday evening throws into the natural agitation, into the necessity of some swift resolution conjunct or several. On the morrow morning, Butler, "Sir Walter Butler," Governor of the City, answers with lion heart, or at least with lion voice and face, laconically in the name of all : "For General Cromwell. " KILKENNY, 23 Martii, 1649. " SIB, Your Letter I have received ; and in answer there- of : I am commanded to maintain this City for his Majesty ; which, by the power of God, I am resolved to do. Sir, "Your servant, "WALTER BUTLER." So that we have nothing for it but to " take the best view we can where to plant our batteries;" send, in the mean while, another Letter with more precise explanation of our terms, Letter now lost, which probably occupies the Gov- 1 Narrative Fragment (in Ayscough MSS. no. 4769) : found likewise, with date 23d March, in King's Pamphlets, sin. 4to, no. 464, art. 2; where the rest of these Kilkenny Letters are. 1650. LETTER CXXIII. BEFORE KILKENNY. 35 ernor and Civic Authorities during Saturday and Sunday ; and on Monday morning, by which time our batteries too are about ready, produces from the Governor new emphatic refusal : u For General Cromwell. " KILKENNY, 25 Martii, 1649 [should be 1650|. " SIB, Your last Letter I received, and in answer : I have such confidence in God to maintain this place as I will not lose it upon such terms as you offer, but will sooner lose my life and the lives of all that are here rather than submit to such dishonorable conditions. So I rest, Sir, " Your servant, "WALTER BUTLER." Whereupon, " on Monday, the 25th, our batteries," unhappily only consisting of three guns, will have to open ; and for the lion-voiced Governor there goes off this Answer : LETTER CXXIII " For the Governor of Kilkenny. " [BEFORE KILKENNY,] 25th March, 1650. u SIR, If you had been as clear as I was in my last, 1 1 might perhaps have understood you so as to give you some farther answer : but, you expressing nothing particularly what you have to except against in mine, I have nothing more to r turn save this, That for some reasons I cannot let your Trumpeter suddenly come back, but have sent you this by a Drummer of my own. I rest, " Your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* Your Trumpeter cannot suddenly come back, "for some rea- sons," chiefly for this, that our poor batteries are about to begin to play, and that, in fact, we have a thought of storming 1 Second Letter, now loot. > King's Pamphlets, no. 464, art. 2, p. 13. 36 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 25 March, you. Governor Butler, hearing the batteries begin to play, makes haste to specify his conditions } which still seem rather high : "For General Cromwell. "KILKENNY, 25 Martii, 1650. "SiR, Yours of this instant I received; the particulars which you would have me express are these : "That the Mayor and Citizens and all the other inhabitants and others now resident in the City and liberties thereof, with their servants, shall be secured with their lives, liberties, es- tates and goods, and live in their own habitations with all freedom : And that our Clergymen and all others here resid- ing, of what degree, condition or quality soever, that shall be minded to depart, shall be permitted to depart safely hence with their goods and whatsoever they have, to what place soever they please within this realm, and in their departure shall be safely convoyed : And that the said Inhabitants shall have free trade and traffic with all places under the Parliament of England's command and elsewhere : And that the foresaid Inhabitants shall have their arms, ammunition and artillery for their own defence, the Town and liberties thereof paying such reasonable contribution as shall be agreed upon, and not to be otherwise charged : And that the Governors, Command- ers, Officers and Soldiers, both horse and foot, now garrisoned as well in the Castle as in the City, without exception of any of them, shall safely march hence," whither they list, "with their arms, ammunition, artillery, bag and baggage, and what- soever else belongs to them ; with their drums beating, colors flying, matches burning, and bullet in bouch [musketeer's " bouch," louche or cheek, in which at this epoch he keeps his bullets for immediate use] ; and that they have a competent time for their departure and carrying away their goods, with a sufficient and safe convoy. And that Major Nicholas Wall, and all others Commanders, Officers and Soldiers who came out of the English quarters, now residing here, shall have the benefit of this Agreement. Without which, I am resolved to maintain this place, with God's help. 1660. LETTER CXXIV. BEFORE KILKENNY. 37 " Thus expecting your answer, and that during this treaty there shall be a cessation of arms, I rest, Sir, "Your servant, "WALTER BUTLER." These terms are still somewhat lion-voiced ; but our batter- ies, such as they are, continue playing ; the tone, before next morning, abates a little, and this other Note has gone; accompanied by one from the Mayor, which is now lost, but of which we can still guess the purport : " For General Cromwell. "KILKENNY, 25 Martii, 1650. "SiR, Although I may not doubt, with God's help, to maintain this place, as I have formerly written, yet I do send the Bearer to let you know, That I am content to treat with you of the Proposals to be made on either side, so that there be a cessation of arms and all acts of hostility during that treaty. So, expecting your answer, I rest, " Your servant, "WALTER BUTLER." Meanwhile, having spent " about a hundred shot " upon it, a breach discloses itself, which we hope is stormable. Storm- ing party, on Tuesday, the 26th, is accordingly drawn out, waiting the signal ; and on another side of the City, " Colonel Ewer with 1,000 men " is to assault the quarter called the Irish Town. These Answers go, to their respective destinations : LETTER CXXIV. *For the Governor of Kilkenny. u [BEFORB KILKENNY,) 26th March, 1650. " SIR, Except the conditions were much bettered, and we in a worse posture and capacity to reduce you than before the last Letters I sent you, I cannot imagine whence those high Demands of yours arise. I hope in God, before it be long 38 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 26 March, you may have occasion to think other thoughts ; to which I leave you. " I shall not so much as treat with you on those Propositions. You desire some articles for honor's sake ; which out of hon- esty, I do deny : viz. that of marching in the equipage you mention [muskets loaded, matches burning, &c.]. I tell you, my business is to reduce you from, arms, and the country to quietness and due subjection ; to put an end to the War, and not to lengthen it ; wishing, if it may stand with the will of God, this People may live as happily as they did before the bloody Massacre, and better too. If you and the company with you be of those who resolve to continue to hinder this, we know Who is able to reach you, and, I believe, will. " For the Inhabitants of the Town, of whom you seem to have a care, you know your retreat 1 to be better than theirs ; and therefore it 's not impoliticly done to speak for them, and to engage them to keep us as long from you as they can. If they be willing to expose themselves to ruin for you, you are much beholding unto them. " As for your ' Clergymen ' as you call them, in case you. agree for a surrender, they shall march away safely, with their goods and what belongs to them : but if they fall otherwise into my hands, I believe they know what to expect from me. If upon what I proposed formerly, with this addition con- cerning them, you expect things to be cleared, I am content to have Commissioners for that purpose. I rest, Sir, " Your servant^ " OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 LETTER CXXV. " To the Mayor of Kilkenny. " [BEFORE KILKENNY,] 26th March, 1650. " SIR, Though I could have wished you and the Citizens had been indeed more sensible of your own interests and con- 1 means of surety and withdrawal. * King's Pamphlets, no. 464, art. 2, pp. 17, 18. LETTER CXXV. BEFORE KILKENNY. 39 cernments, yet since you are minded to involve it so much with that of soldiers, I am glad to understand you, which will be some direction to me what to think and what to do. I rest, " Your friend, " OLIVEB CROMWELL." * On signal given, the storming party of the breach, and Colonel Ewer at the Irish Town fall on : Colonel Ewer with good suc- cess ; the storming party with indifferent or bad, : finding, alter the breach is got, interior retrenchments, counterworks, palisadoes, hot fire ; and drawing back, with the loss of " Cap- tain Frewen, and 20 or 30 men." Ewer, however, is master of the Irish Town j the breach is still there, more stormable than Tredah was, it may be hoped ! Here in the interim is new anxious response from the Mayor : " For the Right Honorable General Cromwell. " KILKENNY, 26th March, 1650. " RIGHT HONORABLE, I received your Honor's Letter in answer to mine, which I wrote unto your Honor in pursuance of the Propositions sent by our Governor unto your Honor, for obtaining of the said conditions, which seemed unto us al- most befitting to be granted ; the military part having exposed themselves for our defence ; which obligeth us not to accept of any conditions but such as may be befitting them. I desire your Honor to grant a Cessation of arms, and that Hostages on both sides be sent, and Commissioners appointed to treat of the conditions. I rest, " Your Honor's servant, "JAMES ARCHDAKIN, Mayor of Kilkenny" To which we answer : 1 Klug's Pamphlets, no. 464, art 2, p. 14. 40 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. ae March, LETTER CXXVI. u For the Mayor of Kilkenny. " [BEFORE KILKENNY,] 26th March, 1650. " SIR, Those whom God hath brought to a sense of His hand upon them, and to amend, submitting themselves thereto and to the Power to which He hath subjected them, I cannot but pity and tender : and so far as that effect appears in you and your fellow-citizens, I shall be ready, without capitulation, to do more and better for you and them upon that ground, than upon the high Demands of your Governor, or his capitulations for you. " I suppose he hath acquainted you with what I briefly of- fered yesterday, in relation to yourself and the Inhabitants ; otherwise he hath the more to answer for to God and man. And notwithstanding the advantages (as to the commanding and entering the Town) which God hath given us since that offer, more than we were possessed of before, yet I am still willing, upon your surrender, to make good the same to the City, and that with advantage. " Now in regard of that temper which appears amongst you by your Letters, though I shall not engage for more upon the Governor's demands for you, whose power I conceive is now greater to prejudice and endanger the City than to protect it ; [nevertheless,] to save it from plunder and pillage, I [have] promised the Soldiery that, if we should take it by storm, the Inhabitants shall give them a reasonable Gratuity in money, in lieu of the pillages ; and so made it death for any man to plunder. Which I shall still keep them to, by God's help, although we should be put to make an entry by force, unless I shall find the Inhabitants engaging still with the Governor and [his] Soldiery to make resistance. You may see also the way I chose for reducing the place was such as tended most to save the Inhabitants from pillage, and from perishing pro- miscuously the innocent with the guilty : to wit, by attempt- ing places which being possessed might bring it to a surrender, rather than to enter the City itself by force. 1050. LETTER CXXVII. BEFOKE KILKENNY. 41 " If what is here expressed may beget resolution in you which would occasion your safety and be consistent with the end of my coining hither, I shall be glad ; and rest, " Your friend, " OLIVER CKOMWELL." 1 Urged by the Mayor, by Colonel Ewer, and the course of destiny, the Governor's lion-voice has abated ; he writes : " For General Cromivell. " KILKENNY, 26 Martii, 1650. "SiR, In answer of your Letter: If you be pleased to appoint Officers for a Treaty for the surrender of the Castle and City upon soldier-like conditions, I will appoint Officers of such quality as are in the Garrison ; provided that Hos- tages of equality be sent on both sides, and a Cessation of arms be also granted during the Treaty. Assuring a perform- ance, on iny side, of all that will be agreed upon, I rest, Sir, " Your servant, "WALTER BUTLER. " P.S. I desire to know what 's become of my Trumpeter I employed two days ago." LETTER CXXVIL " To the Governor of Kilkenny. "(BEFORE KILKENNY], 26th March, 1650. " SIR, That no extremity may happen for want of a right understanding, I am content that Commissioners on each side do meet, in the Leaguer at the South side of the City ; author- ized to treat and conclude. For which purpose, if you shall speedily send me the names and qualities of the. Commission- ers you will send out, I shall appoint the like number on my authori/.cd as aforesaid, to meet with them ; and shall Pamphlet*, no. 464, art. 2, pp. 15, 16. 42 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 27 March, send in a Safe-conduct for the coming out and return of yours. As for Hostages, I conceive it needless and dilatory. I expect that the Treaty begin by 8 of the clock this evening, and end by 12 ; during which time only will I grant a Cessation. Ex- pecting your speedy answer, I rest, "Your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." * Governor answers, at a late hour : Time is too short ; im possible to end so soon ; " your Trumpeter did not arrive tiL nine : " Commissioners are " Major John Crawford, Captam David Turnbull, James Cowley, Esq. Recorder of this City, and Edward Rothe Merchant ; " these will meet yours, where specified, at six to-morrow morning, " so as Hostages be sent for their safe return ; for without Hostages the Gentlemen will not go." LETTER CXXVIII t( To the Governor of Kilkenny. " [BEFORE KILKENNY,] 27th March, 1650. " SIB, The reason of the so late coming of my answer was because my Trumpeter was refused to be received at the North end of the Town ; and where he was admitted, was kept long upon the Guard. " I have sent you a Safe-conduct for the Four Commissioners named by you ; and if they be such as are unwilling to take my word, I shall not, to humor them, agree to Hostages. I am willing to a Treaty for four hours, provided it be begun by 12 of the clock this morning : but for a Cessation, the time last appointed for it being past, I shall not agree unto [it], to hinder my own proceedings. " Your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* After which straightway, with official Warrant, signed both by the City Governor and by the Castle one (" Ja. Welsh "), come 1 King's Pamphlets, no. 464, art. 2, pp. 15, 16. 2 Ibid. 1650. LETTER CXXIX. CAKRICK-ON-SUIR. 43 the Four Commissioners ; and then speedily the Treaty per- fects itself : City and Garrison surrender wholly ; City to pay ransom of 2,000 at specified short dates, Recorder Cowley and Merchant Rothe remaining " hostages till it be paid : " Soldiers to march out, "bullet in bouch," with all the honors of war ; but at the end of two miles to put bullet out of bouch, arms :unl war-honors wholly down, and, "except 100 muskets and 100 pikes allowed them for defence against the Tories," go off in an entirely pacific form. Thus go they ; and the siege of Kilkenny, happily for all parties, for us here among others, terminates. LETTER CXXIX. A ROUGH brief Note, on accidental business, " concerning Cork House ; " more interesting to the Boyle Genealogist? and Publiu Antiquaries than to us. The " Commissioners at Dublin " are Parliamentary Com- missioners, of whom there have been various successive ets, the last set just appointed, 1 for various administrative objects, chiefly, just now, for "Advancement of the Gospel' 1 by " Sale of Dean-and-Chapter Lands," to pay fit Preachers with, and provide right Churches for them. " Cork House " is nrt Lismore, but the Family Mansion in Dublin ; it stood on Cork Hill then, and has quite vanished now; the "Dean at Dublin " has or had some interest in it, which might advance the Gospel if bestowed well. [To the Commissioners at Dublin: These.] " (CABRICK-ON-SDIB], 1st April, 1650. "GENTLEMEN, Being desired by the Countess of Cork th:it. nothing may be done by way of disposal of such part of Cork House as is holden of the Dean in Dublin (in case my 1 8th Man I), ]f,4'J-. r >0 ( Common* Journal*, vi. 379) : "Colonel John Ilew- ,ii. Governor t Dlll.lill, v n U..!..-rt Kin". \\ iili;ini !l:wkin-. Daniel Ililtcli- IM-M ii. \Vilii:un Lawrence, Kaqre., or any three of them, with the consent ot the Ixml Lieutenant." 44 PARTY. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 1 April, Lord of Cork's interest be determined therein) ; and that my Lord of Cork may have the refusal thereof before any other, in regard his Father has been at great charge in building thereof, and some part of the same House is l my Lord's in- heritance, and in that respect the other part would not be so convenient for any other : " Which motion I conceive to be very reasonable. And therefore I desire you not to dispose of any part of the said House to any person whatsoever, until you hear farther from me ; my Lady having undertaken, in a short time, as soon as she can come at the sight of her writings [so as] to be satis- fied what interest my Lord of Cork hath yet to come therein, my Lord will renew his term in the said House, or give full resolution therein. I rest, " Your loving friend, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 " My Lady of Cork," the second Earl's Wife, Lord Broghil's sister-in-law, has good access to the Lord Lieutenant at pres- ent : will find her business drag, nevertheless. 8 LETTER CXXX. OFFICIAL Despatch, briefly recapitulating that affair of Kilkenny and some others ; points also towards return to England. " For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. "CARRICK, 2<1 April, 1650. " MR. SPEAKER, I think the last Letter I troubled you with, was about the taking of Cahir, since which time there were taken, by beating up their quarters, two Colonels, a 1 " being " in orig. 2 Old Copy, " The Coppie of my Lord Lieutenant's Letter to the Commis- sioners at Dublin concerniuge Corke House ; " now in the possession of Sir W. Betham, Ulster King of Arms. 3 Commons Journals, vi. 434 ; Lodge's Peerage (Arcbdall's), i. 170; &c. 1660. LETTER CXXX. CARRICK. 45 Lieutenant-Colonel, Major, and divers Captains, all of horse : Colonel Johnson, 1 Lieutenant-Colonel Laughern, and Major Simes, were shot to death, as having served under the Parlia- ment, but now taken up arms with the Enemy. " Hearing that Castlehaveu and Lieut.-General Ferral were about Kilkenny, with their Army lying there quartered, and about Carlow and Leighlin Bridge; and hearing also that Colonel Hewson, with a good Party from Dublin, was come as far as Ballysonan, 2 and had taken it, we thought fit to send an express to him, To march up towards us for a conjunction. And because we doubted the sufficiency of his Party to march with that security that were to be wished, Colonel Shilbourn was ordered to go with some troops of horse out of the County of Wexford, which was his station, to meet him. And because the Enemy was possessed of the fittest places upon the Barrow for our conjunction, we sent a Party of seven or eight hundred horse and dragoons and about five hundred foot, to attempt upon Castlehaven in the rear, if he should have endeavored to defend the places against Colonel Hewson. " Our Party, being a light nimble Party, was at the Barrow- side before Colonel Hewson could be heard of ; and possessed a House, by the Graigue ; they marched towards Leighlin, and faced Castlehaven at a pretty distance; but he showed no forwardness to engage. Our Party not being able to hear of Colonel Hewson, came back as far as Thomastown, a small walled Town, and a pass upon the Nore, between Kilkenny and Ross. Which our men attempting to take, the Enemy made no great resistance ; but, by the advantage of the bridge, quitted the Town, and fled to a Castle about half a mile dis- tant off, which they had formerly possessed. That night the President of Munster* and myself came up to the Party. We summoned the Castle; and, after two days, it was sur- rendered to us ; the Enemy leaving their arms, drums, colors 1 The other Colonel, Randall Claydon, was tried and condemned with tin- other* ; but pardoned. See Letter in Appendix, No. 20 ; and Whitlocke. (NaUof 1857.) * See Whitlocke, p. 430; Carte, ii. 113. * Ireton (Common* Journal*, 4th December, 1649). 46 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 2 April, and ammunition behind them, and engaging never to bear arms more against the Parliament of England. "We lay still after this about two or three days. The President went back to Fethard, to bring up some great guns, with a purpose to attempt upon the Granny, 1 and some Castles thereabouts, for the better blocking up of Waterford ; and to cause to advance up to us some more of our foot. In the end we had advertisement that Colonel Hewson was come to Leighlin ; where was a very strong Castle and pass over the Barrow. I sent him word that he should attempt it ; which he did ; and, after some dispute, reduced it. By which means we have a good pass over the Barrow, and intercourse between Munster and Leinster. I sent Colonel Hewson word that he should march up to me ; and we, advancing likewise with our Party, met [him], near by Gowran ; a populous Town, where the Enemy had a very strong Castle, under the command of Colonel Hammond ; a Kentishman, who was a principal actor in the Kentish Insurrection, 3 and did manage the Lord Capel's business at his Trial. I sent him a civil invitation to deliver up the Castle unto me ; to which he returned me a very reso- lute answer, and full of height. We planted our artillery; and before we had made a breach considerable, the Enemy beat a parley for a treaty ; which I, having offered so fairly to him, refused ; but sent him in positive conditions, That the soldiers should have their lives, and the Commission Officers to be disposed of as should be thought fit ; which in the end was submitted to. The next day, the Colonel, the Major, and the rest of the Commission Officers were shot to death; all but one, who, being a very earnest instrument to have the Castle delivered, was pardoned. 8 In the same Castle also we took a Popish Priest, who was chaplain to the Catholics in this regiment ; who was caused to be hanged. I trouble you with this the rather, because this regiment was the Lord of Ormond's own regiment. In this Castle was good store of provisions for the Army. 1 Now a ruin near Waterforcl ; he spells it " Granno." 2 In 1648. None of our Hammonds. 8 In Appendix, No. 20, is some farther notice of this one. 1650. LETTER CXXX. CARRICK. 47 "After the taking of this Castle, it was agreed amongst us to march to the City of Kilkenny. Which we did upon Friday, the 22d of March : and coming with our body within a mile of the Town, we advanced with some horse very neai unto it ; and that evening I sent Sir Walter Butler and the Corporation a Letter. We took the best view we could where to plant our batteries ; and upon Monday, the 25th, our bat- teries, consisting of three guns, began to play. After near a hundred shot, we made a breach, as we hoped storinable. Our men were drawn out ready for the attempt ; and Colonel Ewer [was] ordered, with about one thousand foot, to endeavor to possess the Irish Town, much about the time of our storm- ing ; which he accordingly did, with the loss of not above three or four men. Our men upon the signal fell on upon the breach : which indeed was not performed with usual courage nor success; for they were beaten off, with the loss of one Captain, and about twenty or thirty men killed and wounded. The Enemy had made two retrenchments or counterworks, which they had strongly palisadoed : and both of them did so command our breach, that indeed it was a mercy to us we did not farther contend for an entrance there ; it being probable that, if we had, it would have cost us very dear. " Having possessed the Irish Town ; and there being another Walled Town on the other side of the River, eight companies of foot were sent over the Kiver to possess that. Which ac- cordingly was effected, and not above the like number lost that were in possessing the Irish Town. The Officer that com- manded this party in chief attempted to pass over the Bridge into the City, and to fire the Gate ; which indeed was done with good resolution; but, lying too open to the Enemy's shot, he had forty or fifty men killed and wounded; which was a sore blow to us. We made our preparations for a second battery ; which was well near perfected : [but] the Enemy, seeing himself thus begirt, sent for a Treaty; and li;ul it; and, in some hours, agreed to deliver up the Castle ujxm the Articles enclosed. Which [accordingly] we received ui x>n Thursday, the 28th of March. We find the Castle exceeding well fortified by the industry of the Enemy ; being 48 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 2 April, also very capacious : so that if we had taken the Town, we must have had a new work for the Castle, which might have cost much blood and time. So that, we hope, the Lord hath provided better for us ; and we look at it as a gracious mercy that we have the place for you upon these terms. " Whilst these affairs were transacting, a Lieutenant- Colonel, three Majors, eight Captains, being English, Welsh and Scotch, with others, possessed of Cantwell Castle, 1 a very strong Castle, situated in a bog, well furnished with provisions of corn, were ordered by Sir Walter Butler to come to strengthen the Garrison of Kilkenny. But they sent two Officers to me, to offer me the place, and their service, that they might have passes to go beyond sea to serve foreign states, with some money to bear their charges : the last whereof [likewise] I consented to ; they promising to do nothing to the prejudice of the Parliament of England. Colonel Abbot also attempted Ennisnag: where were gotten a company of rogues which [had] revolted from Colonel Jones. 2 The Soldiers capitulated for life, and their two Officers were hanged for revolting. Adjutant-General Sadler was commanded with two guns to attempt some Castles in the County of Tipperary and Kilkenny; which being reduced [would] exceedingly tend to the blocking up of two consider- able Towns. He summoned Pulkerry, a Garrison under Clonmel ; battered it ; they refusing to come out, stormed it; put thirty or forty of them to the sword, and the rest remaining obstinate were fired in the Castle. He took Ballopoin ; the Enemy marching away, leaving their arms behind them. He took also the Granny and Donkill, two very considerable places to Waterford, upon the same terms. We have advanced our quarters towards the Enemy, a con- .siderable way above Kilkenny ; where we hope, by the gaining of ground, to get subsistence; and still to grow upon the Enemy, as the Lord shall bless us. 1 "Cantwell," still known among the peasantry by that name, is now called Sandford's Court ; close upon Kilkenny ; " Donkill " seems to be Donhill, a ruined Strength not far from Waterford. Of Pulkerry and Ballopoin, in this paragraph, I can hear no tidings. 2 The late Michael Jones. 1650. LETTER CXXX. CARKICR. 49 "Sir, I may not be wanting to tell you, and renew it again, That our hardships are not a few; that I think in my conscience, if moneys be not supplied, we shall not be able to carry on your work : I would not say this to you, if I did not reckon it my duty so to do. But if it be sup- plied, and that speedily, I hope, through the good hand of the Lord, it will not be long before England will be at an cn-ing tin- Knemy, it's so much in their bowels. We have taken many considerable places lately, without much loss. What can we say to these things ! If God be for us, who can be against us? \Ylm can fight against the Lord and pros- per? Who can resist His will? The Lord keep us in His love. " I desire your prayers ; your Family is often in mine. I rejoice to hear how it hath pleased the Lord to deal with my 1 iament ; meaaenger, "Richard Lehunt" (Colonel Lehunt, I Mi.-vc, vol. xvii p. 320), geta 50. (Commons Journal*, vi. 397, 13th April, 1GOO.) 52 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. 2 April, Daughter. 1 The Lord bless her, and sanctify all His dispensa- tions to them and us. I have committed my Son to you ; I pray counsel him. Some Letters I have lately had from him have a good savor : the Lord treasure up grace there, that out of that treasury he may bring forth good things. " Sir, I desire my very entire affection may be presented to my dear Sister, my Cousin Ann and the rest of my Cousins, and to idle Dick Norton when you see him. Sir, I rest, " Your most loving brother, "OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 LETTER CXXXII. u For my beloved Son Richard Cromwell, Esquire, at Hursley in Hampshire : These. " CARRICK, 2d April, 1650. "DiCK CROMWELL, I take your Letters kindly: I like expressions when they come plainly from the heart, and are not strained nor affected. " I am persuaded it 's the Lord's mercy to place you where you are : I wish you may own it and be thankful, fulfilling all relations to the glory of God. Seek the Lord and His face con- tinually : let this be the business of your life and strength, and let all things be subservient and in order to this ! You cannot find nor behold the face of God but in Christ ; therefore labor to know God in Christ ; which the Scripture makes to be the sum of all, even Life Eternal. Because the true knowledge is not literal or speculative ; [no,] but inward ; transforming the mind to it. It's uniting to, and participating of, the Divine Nature (Second Peter, i. 4) : ' That by these ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corrup- 1 In a hopefnl way, I conclude ! Richard's first child, according to Noble's registers, was not born till 3d November, 1652 (Noble, i. 189); a boy, who died within three weeks. Noble's registers, as we shall soon see, are very defective. 2 Harris, p. 512. i860. LETTER CXXXII. CARRICK. 63 tion that is in the world through lust/ It 's such a knowledge as Paul speaks of (Ph Utopians, iii. 8-10) : ' Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things; and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteous- ness which is of the Law, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by Faith ; that I may know Him, and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings ; being made conformable unto His Death.' * How little of this knowledge is cimong us 1 My weak prayers shall be for you. " Take heed of an unactive vain spirit ! Recreate yourself with Sir Walter Raleigh's History : it 's a Body of History ; and will add much more to your understanding than frag- ments of Story. Intend 2 to understand the Estate I have settled: it's your concernment to know it all, and how it stands. I have heretofore suffered much by too much trust- ing others. I know my Brother Mayor will be helpful to you in all this. "You will think, perhaps, I need not advise you To love your Wife ! The Lord teach you how to do it ; or else it will be done ill-favoredly. Though Marriage be no instituted Sacrament, yet where the undented bed is, and love, this union aptly resembles [that of] Christ and His Church. If you can truly love your Wife, what [love] doth Christ bear to His Church and every poor soul therein, who ' gave Himself ' for it and to it ! Commend me to your Wife ; tell her I entirely love her, and rejoice in the goodness of the Lord to her. I wish her every way fruitful. I thank her for her loving Letter. " I have presented my love to my Sister and Cousin Ann &c. in my Letter to my Brother Mayor. I would not have him alter his affairs because of my debt. My purse is as his : my 1 These oentencea well known to Oliver ; familiar to him in their phr ologj, and in their flense too; and never to \Mfinnlly forgotten bj the earnest- hearted of the Sons of Men are not quoted iu the Original, but merelj * Old word for " endeavor." 54 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. May, present thoughts are but To lodge such a sum for my two little Girls ; it 's in his hand as well as anywhere. I shall not be wanting to accommodate him to his mind ; I would not have him solicitous. Dick, the Lord bless you every way. I rest, " Your loving Father, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l In the end of this month, " the President Frigate," Presi- dent Bradshaw Frigate, sails from Milford Haven "to attend his Excellency's pleasure," and bring him home if he see good to come. He has still one storm to do there first ; that of Clon- mel, where " Two thousand foot, all Ulster men," are gathered for a last struggle; the death-agony of this War, after which it will fairly die, and be buried. A very fierce storm, and fire- whirlwind of last agony ; whereof take this solid account by an eye-witness and hand-actor ; and so leave this part of our subject. The date is 10th May, 1650 ; "a Letter from Clonmel in Ireland : " " Worthy Sir, Yesterday," Thursday, 9th May, " we stormed Clonmel : in which work both officers and soldiers did as much and more than could be expected. We had, with our guns, made a breach in their works ; where, after an hot fight, we gave back a while ; but presently charged up to the same ground again. But the Enemy had made themselves exceeding strong, by double-works and traverse, which were worse to enter than the breach ; when we came up to it, they had cross-works, and were strongly flanked from the houses within their works. The Enemy defended themselves against us that day, until towards the evening, our men all the while keeping up close to their breach ; and many on both sides were slain." The fierce death-wrestle, in the breaches here, lasted 1 Memoirs of the Protector Oliver Cromwell, by Oliver Cromwell, Esquire, a Descendant of the Family (London, 1822), i. 369. An incorrect, dull, insig- nificant Book ; contains this Letter, and one or two others, " in possession of the Cromwell Family." Another Descendant, Thomas Cromwell Esquire's Oliver Cromwell and his Tirn>:s (London, 1821), is of a vaporous, gesticnlative, Anti-aerial, still more insignificant character ; and contains nothing that iB not common elsewhere. 1650. LETTER CXXX1I. CARRICK. 55 four hours : so many hours of hot storm and continuous tug of war, "and many on both sides were slain. At night the Enemy drew out on the other side, and marched away undis- covered to us ; and the inhabitants of Clonmel sent out for a parley. Upon which, Articles were agreed on, before we knew the Enemy was gone. After signing of the Conditions, we discovered the Enemy to be gone ; and, very early this morning, pursued them ; and fell upon their rear of stragglers, and killed above 200, besides those we slew in the storm. We entered Clonmel this morning ; and have kept our Condi- tions with them. The place is considerable ; and very advan- tageous to the reducing of these parts wholly to the Parliament of England." 1 Whitlocke has heard by other Letters, " That they found in Clonmel the stoutest Enemy this Army had ever met in Ireland ; and that there was never seen so hot a storm, of so long continuance, and so gallantly defended, either in England or Ireland." * The Irish Commander here was Hugh O'Neil, a kinsman of Owen Roe's : vain he too, this new brave O'Neil ! It is a lost Cause. It is a Cause he has not yet seen into the secret of, and cannot prosper in. Fiery fighting cannot prosper in it ; no, there needs something other first, which has never yet been done ! Let the O'Neil go else-whither, with his fighting talent ; here it avails nothing, and less. To the surrendered Irish Officers the Lord Lieutenant granted numerous permis- sions to embody regiments, and go abroad with them -into any country not at war with England. Some " Five-and-forty Thou- sand " Kurisees, or whatever name they had, went in this way to France, to Spain, and fought there far off ; and their own land had peace. The Lord Lieutenant would fain have seen Waterford sur- render before he went : but new Letters arrive from the Par- liament ; affairs in Scotland threaten to become pressing. He appoints Ireton his Deputy, to finish the business hore ; rapidly in:ik!s what survey of Minister, what adjustment of Ireland, military and civil, is possible ; steps on board the President 1 Newspapers (in Cromwciltana, p. 61). - U hitlocke, p. 441. 56 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. May, Frigate, in the last days of May, and spreads sail for England. He has been some nine months in Ireland ; leaves a very hand- some spell of work done there. At Bristol, after a rough passage, the Lord Lieutenant is received with all the honors and acclamations, "the great guns firing thrice ; " hastens up to London, where, on Friday, 31st May, all the world is out to welcome him. Fairfax, and chief Oiiicers, and Members of Parliament, with solemn salutation, on Hounslow Heath : from Hounslow Heath to Hyde Park, where are Trainbands and Lord Mayors ; on to Whitehall and the Cockpit, where are better than these, it is one wide tu- mult of salutation, congratulation, artillery-volleying, human shouting ; Hero-worship after a sort, not the best sort. It was on this occasion that Oliver said, or is reported to have said, when some sycophantic person observed, " What a crowd come out to see your Lordship's triumph ! " " Yes, but if it were to see me hanged, how many more would there be ! " ' Such is what the Irish common people still call the " Curse of Cromwell ; " this is the summary of his work in that coun- try. The remains of the War were finished out by Ireton, by Ludlow : Ireton died of fever, at Limerick, in the end of the second year ; 2 and solid Ludlow, who had been with him for some ten months, succeeded. The ulterior arrangements for Ireland were those of the Commonwealth Parliament and the proper Official Persons; not specially Oliver's arrangements, though of course he remained a chief authority in that matter, and nothing could well be done which he with any emphasis deliberately condemned. There goes a wild story, which owes its first place in His- tory to Clarendon, I think, who is the author of many such : How tfie Parliament at one time had decided to "extermi- nate " all the Irish population ; and then, finding this would not quite answer, had contented itself with packing them all off into the Province of Connaught, there to live upon the 1 Newspapers (in Kimber, p. 148) ; Whitlockc, p. 441. 8 26th November, 1651 (Wood in voa) : Ludlow had arrived iu January of the same year (Memoirs, i. 322, 332, &c.). 1650. RETURN TO ENGLAND. 67 moorlands; and so had pacified the Sister Island. 1 Strange rumors no doubt were afloat in the Council of Kilkenny, in tho Conventicle of Clonmacuoise, and other such quarters, and were kept up for very obvious purposes in those days ; and iny Lord of Clarendon at an after date, seeing Puritanism hung on the gallows and tumbled in heaps in St. Margaret's, thought it safe to write with considerable latitude respecting its procedure. My Lord had, in fact, the story all his own way for about a hundred and fifty years ; and, during that time, has set afloat through vague heads a great many things. His authority is rapidly sinking; and will now probably sink deeper than even it deserves. The real procedure of the Puritan Commonwealth towards Ireland is not a matter of conjecture, or of report by Lord Clarendon ; the documentary basis and scheme of it still stands in black-on-white, and can be read by all persons. 2 In this Document the reader will find, set forth in authentic business-form, a Scheme of Settlement somewhat different from that of " extermination ; " which, if he be curious in that mat- ter, he ought to consult. First, it appears by this Document, "all husbandmen, ploughmen, laborers, artificers and others of the meaner sort " of the Irish nation are to be, not exter- minated ; no, but rendered exempt from punishment and ques- tion, as to these Eight Years of blood and misery now ended ; which is a very considerable exception from the Clarendon Scheme ! Next, as to the Ringleaders, the Rebellious Land- lords, and Papist Aristocracy ; as to these also, there is a (.in fully graduated scale of punishments established, that pun- ishment and guilt may in some measure correspond. All that <::m be proved to have been concerned in the Massacre of Forty- one ; for these, and for certain other {Arsons of the turncoat species, whose names are given, there shall be no pardon ; "extermination," actual death on the gallows, or perpetual banishment and confiscation for these; but not without legal inquiry and due trial first had, for these, or for any one. Then 1 ''"tifinuation nf Clurentlon'* Life (Oxford, I7<',|), p. 1 I ! &c. 2 Scobell, Tart ii. |>. l'J7 (lath Auguut, 1G5:>); see also p. 317 (27th Jinn . 1656). 58 PART V. CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND. May, certain others, who have been in arms at certain dates against the Parliament, but not concerned in the Massacre : these are declared to have forfeited their estates ; but lands to the value of one third of the same, as a modicum to live upon, shall be assigned them, where the Parliament thinks safest, in the moorlands of Connaught, as it turned out. Then another class, who are open Papists and have not manifested their good affection to the Parliament : these are to forfeit one third of their estates ; and continue quiet at their peril. Such is the Document ; which was regularly acted on ; fulfilled with as much exactness as the case, now in the hands of very exact men, admitted of. The Catholic Aristocracy of Ireland have to undergo this fate, for their share in the late miseries ; this and no other : and as for all " ploughmen, husbandmen, artifi- cers and people of the meaner sort," they are to live quiet where they are, and have no questions asked. In this way, not in the way of "extermination," was Ire- land settled by the Puritans. Five-and-forty thousand armed u kurisees " are fighting, not without utility we hope, far off in foreign parts. Incurably turbulent ringleaders of revolt are sent to the moorlands of Connaught. Men of the Massacre, where they can be convicted, of which some instances occur, are hanged. The mass of the Irish Nation lives quiet under a new Land Aristocracy ; new, and in several particulars very much improved indeed : under these lives now the mass of the Irish Nation ; ploughing, delving, hammering ; with their wages punctually paid them ; with the truth spoken to them, and the truth done to them, so as they had never before seen it since they were a Nation ! Clarendon himself admits that Ireland flourished, to an unexampled extent, under this ar- rangement. One can very well believe it. What is to hinder poor Ireland from flourishing, if you will do the truth to it and speak the truth, instead of doing the falsity and speaking the falsity ? Ireland, under this arrangement, would have grown up gradu- ally into a sober diligent drab-colored population ; developing itself, most probably, in some form of Calvinistic Protes- tantism. For there was hereby a Protestant Church of Ire- 1850. RETURN TO ENGLAND. 59 land, of the most irrefragable nature, preaching daily in all its actions and procedure a real Gospel of veracity, of piety, of fair dealing and good order, to all men ; and certain other " Protestant Churches of Ireland," and unblessed real- imaginary Entities, of which the human soul is getting weary, would of a surety never have found footing there ! But the Ever-blessed Restoration came upon us. All that arrangement was torn up by the roots ; and Ireland was appointed to de- velop itself as we have seen. Not in the drab-colored Puritan way ; in what other way is still a terrible dubiety, to itself and to us ! It will be by some Gospel of Veracity, I think, when the Heavens are pleased to send such. This " Curse of Cromwell," so called, is the only Gospel of that kind I can yet discover to have ever been fairly afoot there. SUPPLEMENT TO PART V. SQUIEE PAPERS. THE following Article in Fraser's Magazine had not the effect in- tended for it, of securing in printer's types a certain poor defaced scantling of Cromwell Letters, which had fallen to my charge under cir- cumstances already sorrowful enough ; and then of being, after some slight peaceable satisfaction to such as took interest in it, forgotten by the public ; I also being left to forget it, and be free of it. On the contrary, the peaceable satisfaction to persons interested was but temporary ; and the public, instead of neglecting and forgetting, took to unquiet guessing, as if there lay some deeper mystery in the thing, perhaps foul-play in it : private guessing, which in a week or two broke out into the Newspapers, in the shape of scepticism, of learned doubt too acute to be imposed upon, grounding itself on antiquarian philologies (internal evidence of anachronisms), " cravat," " stand no nonsense," and I know not what. The unwonted circumstances of the case, and the unsatisfactory though unavoidable reticences in detailing it, threw a certain enigmatic chiaro- scuro over the transaction, which, as it were, challenged the idle wind. Since the public had not neglected and forgotten, the public could do no other than guess. The idle public, obstinately resolute to see into mill- stones, could of course see nothing but opacity and its wide realms ; got into ever deeper doubt, which is bottomless, " a sphere with infinite radius," and very easily arrived at ; could get into no certainty, which is a sphere's centre, and difficult to arrive at ; continued fencing with spectres, arguing from antiquarian philologies, &c. in the Newspapers ; whereby, echo answering echo, and no transparency in millstones being attainable, the poor public rose rapidly to a height of anxiety on this unexpected matter, and raised a noise round itself, which, con- sidering the importance of the subject, might be called surprising. In regard to all which, what could an unfortunate Editor of Cromwell Letters do, except perhaps carefully hold his peace f The ancient house- SQUIRE PAPERS. 61 keeper, in some innocent first-floor, in the still night-time, throws a potsherd which is in her way into the street of the village : a most small transaction, laudable in its kind ; but near by, starts the observant street - dog, who will see farther into it : " Whaf-thaf? Bow-wow ! " and so awakens, in what enormous geometrical progression is \vell known, all the dogs in the village, perhaps all the dogs in the parish, and gradu- ally, even in the county and in the kingdom, to universal vigilant ob- servant " Bow-wow, Whaf-thaf?" in the hope of seeing farther into it. Under which distressing circumstances, the ancient housekeeper under- stands that her one course is patience and silence ; that the less she says or does, the sooner it will end ! This Squire Controversy did not quite terminate by nature, I think ; but rather was suddenly quenched by that outburst of the European revolutions in the end of the February then passing, which led the public intellect into fruitfuler departments. This is not a state of matters one would wish to reawaken ! Scepti- cism, learned doubt, in regard to these Squire Papers, I understand is still the prevailing sentiment ; and also that silence, and the reflection how small an interest, if any whatever, is involved in the matter, are the only means of removing doubt, and of leading us to the least miracu- lous explanation, whatever that may be. To myself, I confess, the phe- nomenon is, what it has always been, entirely inexplicable, a miracle equal to any in Bollandus or Capgravitis, unless these Squire Letters are substantially genuine : and if their history on that hypothesis is very dim and strange, on the other hypothesis they refuse, for me at least, t have any conceivable history at all. Antiquarian philologies, &c. such as appeared in the late universal " Whaf-thaf? " or grand " Squire Controversy " never to be revived, had naturally no effect in changing one's opinion, and could have none. I have since had a visit, two visits, from the Gentleman himself; have conversed with him twice, at large, upon the Letters, the burnt Journal, and all manner of adjacent topics : and certainly, whatever other notion I might form of him, the notion that he either would or could have himself produced a Forgery of Cromwell Letters, or been the instrument (for any consideration, much more for none) of another producing it, was flatly inconceivable once for all. Nay to hint at it, I think, would not be altogether safe for Able Editors within wind of this Gentleman ! So stands it, as it has always stood, with myself, in regard to this small question. At the same time, I am well enough aware, the Gentleman's account of pnx'eedings in the business has nn amazing look; which only the i.il knowledge ,,f him conl.l perhaps render less amazing. Doubt, lo strangers, is very permissible ; nay lo all, these Letters, l>y the verf 62 SQUIRE PAPERS. hypothesis, are involved everywhere in liability to incorrectness ; irre- coverably stript of their complete historical authenticity, and not to be admitted, but to be rigorously excluded, except on that footing, in any History of Cromwell ; and, on the whole, are in the state of an absurd entanglement, connected with a most provoking coil of such. Out of which there is only this good door of egress : That they are in- trinsically of no importance in the History of Cromwell ; that they alter nothing of his Life's character, add nothing, deduct nothing; can be believed or disbelieved, without, to him or to us, any perceptible result whatever ; and ought, in fine, to be dismissed and sent upon their destinies by all persons who have serious truth to seek for, and no time for idle guesses and riddle-rna-rees of the Scriblerus and Nugatory- Antiquarian sort. Accordingly I had decided, as to these Squire Papers, which can or could in no case have been incorporated into any documentary Life of Cromwell, not to introduce them at all into this Book, which has far other objects than they or their questions of antiquarian philology can much further ! But, on the other hand, it was urged by Mends who believe, like myself, in the fundamental authenticity of Squire, that Hereby would arise a tacit admission of Squire's spuriousness, injustice done by me to Squire and to the antiquarian philologers ; that many readers, disbelievers or not, would have a certain wish to see the Squire Papers ; that, in fine, under the head of the semi-romantic or Doubt- ful Documents of Oliver's History, and at all events as an accidental quite undoubtful Document in the history of Oliver's History, they would have a certain value. To all which arguments, not without some slight weight, the Printer now accidentally adds another, That he has room for these Squire Papers, and even need of them to preserve his symme- tries ; that he can maintain an impassable wall between them and the Book, can insert them at the end of Volume Second and yet not in the Volume, with ease and with advantage. Here accordingly these astonish- ing Squire Papers are : concerning which I have only one hope to ex- press, That the public, thinking of them (in silence, if I might advise) exactly what it finds most thinkable, will please to excuse me from farther function in the matter ; my duty in respect of them being now, to the last fraction of it, done ; my knowledge of them being wholly communicated; and my care about them remaining, what it always was, close neighbor to nothing. The Reprint is exact from Fraser's Maga- zine, except needful correction of misprints, and insertion of two little Notes, which have hung wafered on the margin this long while, and are duly indicated where they occur. 1th May, 1849. SQUIRE PAPERS. 63 PHASER'S MAGAZINE FOR DECEMBER, 1847: ARTICLE I. THIRTY-FIVE UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF OLIVER CROMWELL. ON the first publication of Oliver CromweWs Letters and Speeches, new contributions of Cromwell matter, of some value, of no value and even of less than none, were, as the general render knows, diligently forwarded to me from all imarters; and turned to account, in the Second Edition of that work, as the laws of the case seemed to allow. The process, which si mod thon to all practical intents completed, and is in fact very lan- guid and intermittent ever since, has nevertheless not yet entirely ceased ; and indeed one knows not when, if ever, it will entirely cease ; for at longer and longer intervals new documents and notices still arrive; though, except in the single instance now before us, I may describe these latter as of the last degree of insignificance ; hardly even worth " inserting in an Appendix," which was my bargain in respect of them. Whence it does, at last, seem reasonable to infer that our English Archives are now pretty well exhausted, in this particular ; and that nothing more, of importance, concerning Oliver Cromwell's utterances of himself in this world will be gathered henceforth. Here, however, is a kind of exception, in regard to wliich, on more accounts than one, it has become necessary for me to adopt an exceptional course; and if not to edit, in use of elucidating, the contribution sent me, at least to print it straightway, before accident befall it or me. The following Letters, which require to be printed at once, with my explicit testimony to their authenticity, have come into my hands under singular circumstances and conditions. I am not allowed to say that the Originals are, or were, in the possession of Mr. So-and-so, as is usual in like cases ; this, which would satisfy the reader's strict claims in the matter, T have had t<> en^a^e expressly not to do. " Why notf " all readers will ask, with astonishment, or perhaps with other feelings still biiporfluous for our present object. The story is somewhat of an absurd one, what may IK- called a farce-tragedy ; very ludicrous as well as very lamentable ; not glorious to relate ; nor altogether easy, under the conditions prescribed ! Hut these Thirty-five Letters are Oliver Crom- well's; and demand, of me >|)eeially, both that they be piously pre- MTM-d. and that there be no ambiguity, no avoidable mystery or other foolery, in | IP-S. -leiim of them t.i the world. If the JjcttcrM are not to have, in any essential or unessential respect, the, character of voluntary enigmas; but to be read, with nudism-lied attention, in such poor twi- 64 SQUIRE PAPERS. light of intelligibility as belongs to them, some explanation, such as can be given, seems needful. Let me hasten to say, then, explicitly once more, that these Letters are of indubitable authenticity : farther, that the Originals, all or nearly all in Autograph, which existed in June last, iu the possession of a pri- vate Gentleman whose name I am on no account to mention, have now irrecoverably perished ; and, in brief, that the history of them, so far as it can be related under these conditions, is as follows : Some eight or ten months ago, there reached me, as many had already* done on the like subject, a letter from an unknown Correspondent in the distance; setting forth, in simple, rugged and trustworthy, though rather peculiar dialect, that he, my Unknown Correspondent, who seemed to have been a little astonished to find that Oliver Cromwell was actually not a miscreant, hypocrite, &c., as heretofore represented, had in his hands a stock of strange old Papers relating to Oliver: much consumed by damp, and other injury of time ; in particular, much " eaten into by a vermin " (as my Correspondent phrased it), some moth, or body of moths, who had boarded there in past years. The Papers, he said, describing them rather vaguely, contained some things of Crom- well's own, but appeared to have been mostly written by one SAMUEL SQUIRE, a subaltern in the fumed Regiment of Ironsides, who belonge*. to "the Stilton Troop," and had served with Oliver "from the first mount" of that indomitable Corps, as Cornet, and then as "Auditor/ 7 of which latter office my Correspondent could not, nor could I when questioned, quite specificate the meaning, but guessed that it might be something like that of Adjutant in modern regiments. This Auditor Squire had kept some " Journal," or Diary of proceedings, from "the first mount " or earlier, from about 1642 till the latter end of 1645, as I could dimly gather ; but again it was spoken of as " Journals," as " Old Papers," " Manuscripts," in the plural number, and one knew not defi- nitely what to expect : moth-eaten, dusty, dreary old brown Papers ; bewildered and bewildering ; dreadfully difficult to deciphe., as appeared, and indeed almost a pain to the eye, and too probably to the mind. Poring in which, nevertheless, my Unknown Correspondent professed to have discovered various things. Strange unknown aspects of affairs, moving accidents, adventures, such as the fortune of war in the obscure Eastern Association (of Lincoln, Norfolk, &<..), in the early obscure part of Oliver's career, hitherto entirely vacant and dark in all Histories, had disclosed themselves to my Unknown Correspondent, painfully spell- ing in the rear of that destructive vermin : onslaughts, seizures, surprises j endless activity, audacity, rapidity on the part of Oliver; strict general SQUIRE PAPERS. 65 integrity too, nay rhadamanthine justice, and traits of implacable sever- ity connected therewith, which had rather shocked the otherwise strong but modern nerves of my Unknown Correspondent. Interspersed, as I could dimly gather, were certain Letters from Oliver and others (known or hitherto unknown, was not said); kept, presumably, by Auditor Squire, the Ironside Subaltern, as narrative documents, or out of private fondness. As proof what curious and to me interesting matter lay in those old Papers, Journals or Journal, as my Unknown Correspondent indiscriminately named them, he gave me the following small Exceipt : illuminating completely a point on which I had otherwise sought light in vain. See, in Oliver CromwelTs Letters and Speeches, Letter of 5th July, 144 ; which gives account of Marston-Moor Battle, and contains an allusion to Oliver's own late loss, "Sir, you know my own trials this way," touching allusion, as it now proves; dark hitherto for all readers : Meeting Colonel Cromwell again after some absence, just on the edtje of Marston Battle (it is Auditor Squire that writes), " I thought he looked sad and wearied ; for he had had a sad loss ; young Oliver got killed to death not long before, I heard: it was near Kuaresborough, and 30 more got killed." l Interesting Papers beyond doubt, my Unknown Correspondent thought. On one most essential point, however, he professed himself at a painful pause : How far, or whether at all, these Papers ought to be communi- cated to the Public, or even to myselff Part of my Correspondent's old kindred !iad l>een Roundheads, part had been Royalists; of both which sorts plentiful representatives yet remained, at present all united in kindly oblivion of those old sorrows and animosities ; but capable yet, as my Correspondent feared, of blazing np into one knew not what fierce contradictions, should the question be renewed. That was his persua- sion, that, was his amiable fear. I could perceive, indeed, that my Cor- respondent, evidently a simple and honorable man, felt obscurely as if, in his own new conviction about Oliver's character, he possessed a dan- geroiKs secret, which ought in no wise to be lightly divulged. Should he once inconsiderately blab it, this heterodox almost criminal secret, like a fire-spark among tindrr and dry ilax ; how much more if, by publishing tln.se private Pajwrs, confirmatory of the same, he deliler- ntely shot it forth as men- tlame ! Explosion without limit, in tbo family and still wider circles, might ensue. On the whole, ho would consider of it ; was heartily disposed to do for mo, and for the interests of truth (with what ]H-ril soever) all in his power; hojH-d, for the r-t, tube in London s.>.,n, where, it iij'jM-an-d, the 1'apers w re tlu-u lyiug Bn MM vol. xYii. p. 48, n. 1. (Note of 1857.) VOL. XTIII. 5 66 SQUIRE PAPERS. in some repository of his ; would there see me, and do as good will guided hy wise caution might direct. To all which I could only answer with thanks for the small valuable hint concerning young Oliver's death ; with a desire to know more about those old Papers ; with astonishment at my Correspondent's apprehen- sion as to publishing them, which I professed was inconceivable, and likely to fly away as a night-dream if he spoke of it in intelligent circles; and finally with an eager wish for new light of any authentic kind on Oliver Cromwell and his acts or sayings, and an engagement that whatever of that sort my Correspondent did please to favor me with, should be thankfully turned to use, under such conditions as he might see good to prescribe. And here, after a second or perhaps even a third letter and answer (for several of these missives, judged at first to be without importance, are now lost), which produced no new information to me, nor any change in my Correspondent's resolutions, the matter had to rest. To an intelligent Friend, partly acquainted in my Corre- spondent's country, I transmitted his letters ; with request that he would visit this remarkable possessor of old Manuscripts; ascertain for me, more precisely, what he was, and what they were ; and, if possible, per- suade him that it would be safe, for himself and for the universe, to let me have some brief perusal of them ! This Friend unfortunately did not visit those my Correspondent's localities at the time intended : so, hear- ing nothing more of the affair, I had to wait patiently its ulterior devel- opments; the arrival, namely, of my Correspondent in Town, and the opening of his mysterious repositories there. Not without surmises that perhaps, after all, there might be little, or even nothing of available, in them ; for me nothing, but new dreary labor, ending in new disappoint- ment and disgust ; tragic experience being already long and frequent, of astonishingly curious old Papers on Oliver, vouchsafed me, with an effort and from favor, by ardent patriotic correspondents, which, after painful examination, proved only to be astonishing old bundles of in- anity, dusty desolation and extinct stupidity, worthy of oblivion and combustion: surmises tending naturally to moderate very much my eagerness, and render patience easy. So had some mouths passed, and the affair been pretty well forgotten, when, one afternoon in June last, a heavy Packet came by Post : recog- nizable even on the exterior as my Unknown Correspondent's : and hereby, sooner than anticipation, and little as I could at first discern it, had the catastrophe arrived. For within there lay only, in the mean while, copied accurately in ray Correspondent's hand, those Five-and- thirty Letters of Oliver Cromwell which the Public are now to read : this, with here and there some diligent though rather indistinct annota- SQUIRE PAPERS. 67 tion by my Correspondent, where needful; and, in a Note from himself, some vague hint <>f his having been in Town that very day, and eveu on the point of calling on me, had not haste and the rigor of railways hindered; hints too about the old dangers from Royalist kimln ', I assured him, if lie but sold the Originals as Autographs, were worth hundreds of pounds; the old Journal of an Ironside, since such it really seemed to be, for he had named it definitely in the singular, not "Journals" and "Papers" as heretofore, I prized as probably the urious document in the Archives of England, apiece not to lie estimated in tens of thousands. It had become possible, it seemed prob- able and almost certain, that by diligent study of those old Papers, by examination of them as with microscopes, in all varieties of lights, the veritable figure of Cromwell's Ironsides might be called into day. to be si i n by men once more, face to face, in the lineaments of very life! A journey in chase of this unknown Correspondent and his hidden Papers ; any journey, or effort, seemed easy for such a prize. A I. is. alas, by return of post, there arrived a Letter beginning with these words : " What you ask is impossible, if you offered me the B;mk of Kngland for security: the Journal is ashes," all was ashes ! My wonderful Unknown Correspondent had at last, it would appear, having screwed his rourairi; to the sticking place, rushed up to Town by rail ; proceeded straight to his hidden repositories here; sat down, with closed lips, with concentred faculty, and copied me exactly the Cromwell K< t- ill words of Cromwell's own (these he had generously considered mine by a kind of right); which once done he, still with closed lips, with s.i.-rti.-i.il eyes, and torriblo hand and mood, had gathered all his old Puritan Papers great and small, Ironside "Journal," Cromwell I whatever else there might bo, and stornly consumed them with lire. Let Royalist quarrels, in the family or wider circles, arise now if they could ; " much evil," said ho mildly to mo, "hereby lies buried." The element of " resolution," one may well add, " is strong in our family;" utirh.inueablc by men, sc.ucely by the vory gods! And so all was ashes ; and a strange speaking Apparition of tho Past, and of a Past more precimis than any other is or <-:m !>, had sunk ayain into the duad depths of Night. Irrecoverable i all the royal cxclu IJIK T coulJ 68 SQUIRE PAPERS. not buy it back ! That, once for all, was the fact ; of which I, and mankind in general, might now make whatsoever we pleased. With my Unknown Correspondent I have not yet personally met ; nor can I yet sufficiently explain to myself this strange procedure of his, which naturally excites curiosity, amid one's other graver feelings. The Friend above alluded to, who has now paid that visit, alas too late, de- scribes him to me as a Gentleman of honorable frank aspect and manners ; still in his best years, and of robust manful qualities ; by no means, in any way, the feeble, chimerical or distracted Entity, dug up from the Seventeenth Century and set to live in this Nineteenth, which some of my readers might fancy him. Well acquainted with that old Journal, " which went to 200 folio pages ; " and which he had carefully, though not with much other knowledge, read and again read. It is suggested to me, as some abatement of wonder : " He has lived, he and his, for 300 years, under the shadow of a Cathedral City : you know not what kind of Sleepy Hollow that is, and how Oliver Cromwell is related to it, in the minds of all men and uightbirds who inhabit there ! This Gentleman had felt that, one way or other, you would inevitably in the end get this MS. from him, and make it public ; which, what could it amount to but a new Guy-Faux Cellar, and Infernal Machine, to ex- plode his Cathedral City and all its coteries, and almost dissolve Nature for the time being ? Hence he resolved to burn his Papers, and avoid catastrophes." But what chiefly, or indeed exclusively, concerns us here, is that, from the first, and by all subsequent evidence, I have seen this Gentle- man to be a person of perfect veracity, and even of scrupulous exactitude in details ; so that not only can his Copies of the Cromwell Letters be taken as correct, or the correctest he could give, but any remark or statement of his concerning them is also to be entirely relied on. Let me add, for my own sake and his, that, with all my regrets and con- demnations, I cannot but dimly construe him as a man of much real worth ; and even (though strangely inarticulate, and sunk in strange environments) of a certain honest intelligence, energy, generosity ; which ought not to escape recognition, while passing sentence ; least of all by one who is forced unwillingly to relate these things, and whom, as is clear, he has taken great pains, and made a strong effort over himself, to oblige even so far. And this is what I had to say by way of Intro- duction to these new Letters of Oliver Cromwell, which are now all that remains to the world or me from that adventure. With regard to the Letters themselves, they may now be read without farther preface. As will be seen, they relate wholly to the early part of SQUIRE PAPERS. 69 Oliver's career; to that obscure period, hitherto vacant or nearly so in all Histories, while " Colonel Cromwell " still fought and struggled in the Eastern Association, under Lord Grey of Groby, under the Earl of Manchester, or much left to his own shifts ; and was not yet distinguished by the public from a hundred other Colonels. They present to us the same old Oliver whom wo knew, but in still more distinct lineaments and physiognomy ; the features deeply, even coarsely marked, or, as it were, enlarged to the gigantic by unexpected nearness. It is Oliver left to hiniM If ; stript bare of all conventional draperies; toiling, wrest- ling as for life and death, in his obscure element ; none looking over him but Heaven only. He " can stand no nonsenses ; n he is terribly in earn- est ; will have his work done, will have God's Justice done too, and the Everlasting Laws observed, which shall help, not hinder, all manner of work ! The Almighty God's commandments, these, of which this work is one, are great and awful to him ; all else is rather small, and not awful. He has pity, pity as of a woman, of a mother, we have known in Oliver ; and rage also as of a wild lion, where need is. He rushes direct to his point: " If resistance is made, pistol him ; " " Wear them (these uniforms), or go home ; " " Hang him out of hand ; ho wantonly killed the poor widow's boy : God and man will be well pleased to see him punished ! " The attentive reader will catch not only curious minute features of the old Civil War, in these rude Letters; but more clearly than elsewhere significant glimpses of Oliver's character and ways : and if any reader's nerves, like my Correspondent's, be too modern, all effeminated in this universal, very dreary, very portentous babble of " abolishing Capital Punishments" &c. &c., and of sending Judas Iscariot, Courvoisier, Prasliu, Tawell, and Natures own Scoun- drels, teachable by no hellebore, " to the schoolmaster," instead of to the hangman, or to the cesspool, or somewhere swiftly out of the way ' schoolmaster" not having yet overtaken all his otJter hopefuler work, by any manner of means !) perhaps the sight of a great natural I him. in Soul once more, iu whom the stamp of the Divinity is not <[uiie abolished by Ages of Cant, and hollow Wiggery of every kind, einiiii^ now in an age of " Abolition Principles," may do such reader some good ! I understand, one of my Correspondent's more minute reasons fur huniiiii: tin- Inm.Mde Journal was, that it showed Cromwell uncom- monly impatient of scoundrels, from time to time; and might have shocked some people! I print these Letters according to their date, so far as the date in i;iv. n ; nr as the unwritten -h*.. c.m be ascertained or inferred, which rse is imt always ]*>.-sil>le : more especially since the accom|t.iiiy- iug " Journal " wan destroyed. Wuii some hesitation, I decide to print 70 SQUIRE PAPERS. with modern spelling and punctuation, there being no evidence that the partially ill-spelt Copies furnished me are exact to Oliver's ill-spelling ; which at all events is insignificant, the sense having nowhere been at all doubtful. Commentary, except what Auditor Squire and his Tran- scriber have afforded, I cannot undertake to give ; nor perhaps will much be needed. Supplementary words added by myself are marked by brackets, as was the former wont ; annotations, if inserted in the body of the Letter, are in Italics within brackets. And now to business, with all brevity. Nos. I.-VI. THE first Six Letters are of dates prior to the actual breaking out of the Civil War, but while its rapid approach was too evident j and bring to view, in strange lugubrious chiaroscuro, Committees of " Association for mutual Defence" (or however they phrased it), and zealous Indi- viduals, SAMUEL SQUIRE among others, tremulously sitting in various localities, tremulous under the shadow of High Treason on the oue aand, and of Irish Massacre on the other; to whom of course the lonorable Member's communications, in such a season, were of breath- less interest. The King has quitted his Parliament ; and is moving northward, towards York as it proved, in a more and more menacing attitude. I. The address, if there ever was any except a verbal one by the Bearer, is entirely gone, and the date alsoj but may be supplied by probable conjecture : [To the Committee of Association at Huntingdon.] [LONDON, March, 1641.] " DEAE FRIENDS, It is not improbable that the King may go through Huutingdou on his way to Stamford. Pray keep all steady, and let no peace be broken. Beg of all to be silent ; or it may mar our peaceable settling this sad business. Such as are on the Comity Array bid go ; all of you protect, at cost of life, the King from harm, or foul usage by word or deed, as you love the Cause. From your faithful [word lost ?] OLIVER CROMWELL." The Transcriber, my Unknown Correspondent, adds from the burnt Journal this Note : "Journal mentioned a sad riot at Peterborough on the King's going to Stamford, between the Townsmen and the Array." March, 1641, as is known, means 1642 according to the modern style: Newyear's-day is 25th March. SQUIRE PAPERS. 71 IT. The date exists, though wrong written, from haste: but the address must be supplied : " To the Committee of Association at Stilton. " ELY, April, lltb day, 1641 [_for 1642 ; miswritten, Jfeteyear* '&-day being still recent]. "DEAR FRIENDS, The Lord has hardened his {the King's] heart more ami in. >re : [he has] refused to hear reason, or to care for our Cause or Re- i or Peace. " Let our Friends have notice of the sad news. I will be with you at Onndle, if possible, early next week ; say Monday, as I return now to London this day. Things go on as we all said they would. We are all on the point of now openly declaring ourselves . now may the Lord prosper us in the good Cause! " Commend me in brotherly love to onr chosen Friends and vessels of the Lord : I name no one, to all the same. I write myself your Friend in the Lord's Cause, O. " P.S. Be sure and pnt up with no affronts. Be as a bundle of sticks ; let the offence to one be as to all. The Parliament will back us." IIL " To Mr. Samuel Squire [subsequently Cornet and Auditor SquireJ. " LONDON, 3d May, 1642. " DBAB FRIEND, I heard from our good friend W. [ Wildman t] how zealous in the good Cause you were. We are all alive here, and sweating hard to beat those Papists : may the Lord send to us His holy aid to over- come them, and the Devils who seek to do evil. " Say to your Friends that wo have made up our Demands to the control of the Navy, and Trainbands of the Counties' Militia, also all Forts and Castles : and, with God's aid, we will have them if he \tlie King] likes or dislikes. For he is more shifty every day. We must do more also, unless he does that which is right in the sight of (in, I and man to his People. " I shall ri.ini. to Onndle, in my way down, this time; as I learn you live there a great time now. So may yon prosper in all your undertakings, and in iv the Lord God protect and watch over you. Let them all know our mind. From your Friend, 0. C." IV. To the Committee of Auociation [at Cambridge]. " I/oxnoN [June, IMS] " QBNTLKMEN, I have sent yon, l>y HoMx-s's \Vain. those you know of. Yon most get lead as yon may : the Chun-hcs liavc enough and to span u them! We shall see the Lord will supply us. Hr-l ull ^our motions [lean wtll your drill-*x*rci*f\ : and laugh not at ROM'S Dutch tongue ; he is a 72 SQUIRE PAPERS. zealous servant, and we may go farther and get worse man to our hand than lie is. " I learn from R. you get offences from the Bullards at Stamford. 1 Let them heed well what they are about, or [ere] they get a cake more than they bargain for, for their penny. V. says that many come ill to the time fixed for muster : pray heed well their loss of time ; for I assure you, if once we let time pass by, we shall seek in vain to recover it. The Lord helpeth those who heed His commandments : and those who are not punctual in small mat- ters, of what account are they when it shall please Him to call us forth, if we be not watchful and ready 7 Pray beat up those sluggards. I shall be over, if it please God, next Tuesday or Wednesday. I rest, till then, your Friend and Well-wisher, O. C." My Correspondent, who rather guesses this Letter to have gone to Huntingdon, subjoins in reference to it, the following very curious Note gathered from his recollections of the burnt Journal: " Huntingdon regiment of Horse. Each armed and horsed himself; except Mr. Ol r Crom- well's Troop of Slepe Dragoons, of some 30 to 40 men, mostly poor men or very small freeholders : these the Journal mentioned often ; I mean the Slepe Troop of hard-handed fellows, who did as he told them, and asked no questions. The others, despite all that has been said and written, armed themselves and horsed also. I mean the celebrated Tawnies or Ironsides. They wore brown coats, as did most Farmers and little country Freeholders ; and so do now, as you or me tnay see any day. Oliver had some &00 foot also armed by him, who did great service." V. No date, no address now left. Probably addressed to the Com- mittee at Cambridge, or whichever was the central Committee of those Associations ; and, to judge by the glorious ripeness to which matters have come, dated about the beginning of July. A very curious Letter. We have prospered to miracle ; the Eastern Fen regions are all up or rising, and RoyaHsm quite put down there, impossible as that once seemed. Miraculous success ; and greater is yet coming, if we knew it! 1 Note to the Reprint. "Bnllards," printed in Fraser with a mark of interro- gation, has attracted the notice of a helpful Correspondent, or of more than one. "Bullards," equivalent to Bull-wards, I now find, is au old name or nickname for the Stamford people, Stamford being famous for bull-baiting, and gifted with be- quests to promote that branch of enterprise: :< for which legacy," says one Mr. Lowe of those parts, "every Bvllard, in gratitude, ought to drink the joint memory of two heroes named by Mr. Lowe: see Hone's Ewry-Day Book^ i. 1482. SQU1BE PAPERS. 73 [To .] "LoiTOON, July, 1642. "DEAR FRIENDS, Yonr Letters gave me great joy at reading your great progress in behalf of our great Cause. " Verily I do thiuk tlie Lord is with me'. I do undertake strange things, yet ilo I go tlirough witli them, to great profit and gladness, and furtherance of the Lord's threat Work. I do feel myself lifted on by a strange force, I cuinot tell why. JJy night and by day I am urged forward on the great Work. As sure as God appeared to Joseph in a dream, also to Jacob, He also ha,-i diieited [.tume K-east ; I will consume the fowls of heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord."] " Surely it is a sign for us. So I read it. For I seek daily, and do nothing without first so seeking the Lord. " I have much to say to you all, when I do see you. Till I so do, the Lord 1)0 with you; may His grace abound in all your houses. Peace be among yon, loving Friends: so do I pray daily for your souls' health. I pray also, w you also (do], for His mercy to soften the heart of the King. HIM to the end; t/ie tiynaturc itself half eaten : indistinctly guessaWe to hare MB/] " 1 [shall be at] Godmanchester. (if it please the Lord, on] Monday. " [OL]IVBK CROM[WKLI.]." VI. No date; presumably, August, 1642, at Ely or somewhere in that region; where Parliament musters or "surveys" are going on, and Itralililrs with recusant Royalists are rife, in one of which the excel- lent Mr. Sjiriirif has got a stroke. My Corresjxuident, the Transcriber, thinkd " htwse at I't-terlMiriMi^li " must mean merely quarters in a house thu house or home of Squire appearing in .il.it.- Letter to 1>< .it Ouudle. 74 SQUIRE PAPERS. " To Mr. Squire, at his House, Peterborough. [No date.] " SIB, I regret much to hear your sad news. I regret much that worthy vessel of the Lord, Sprigg, came to hurt. " I hope the voice of the Lord will soften the Malignant's heart even yet at the eleventh hour : we rejoice at the [hope] much ; but do keep it quiet, and not to take air. " We had a rare survey about us ; and did much good. I expect to see you all at Stilton on Tuesday. To prevent hindrance, bring your swords and -K [hieroglyph for muskets 1]. From your Friend, O. C-" Nos. VII XXIV. VII. Keinton or Edgehill Battle, the first clear bursting into flame of all these long-smouldering elements, was fought on Sunday, 23d October, 1642. The following Eighteen Letters, dated or approxi- mately datable all but some two or three, bring us on, in a glimmering fitful manner, along the as yet quite obscure and subterranean course of Colonel Cromwell, to within sight of the Skirmish at Gainsborough, where he dared to beat and even to slay the Hou. Charles Cavendish, and first began to appear in the world. [To Auditor Squire.] " WISBEACH, this day, llth November, 1642. " DEAR FRIEND, Let the Saddler see to the Horse-gear. I learn, from one, many are ill-served. If a man has not good weapons, horse and harness, he is as naught. I pray you order this : and tell Raiusborough I shall see to that matter [of his] ; but do not wrong the fool. From your Friend, " O. C." VIII- The following is dated the same day, apparently at a sub- sequent hour, and to the same person : [To Auditor Squire.] " NOVEMBER, llth day, 1642 " Take Three Troops, and go to Downham ; I care not which they be. " OLIVER CROMWELL," IX. "Stanground" is in the Peterborough region; " Alister yow Music" means " Alister jour Trumpeter," of whom there will be other mention. Oliver finds himself at a terrible pinch for inouey : there SQUIRE PAPERS. 75 are curious glimpses into that old House by Ely Cathedral too, and the " Mother " and the " Dame " there ! " To Mr. Samuel Squire, at his Quarters at Stanground. " 29th KOVKHBEB, 1642. "DEAR FHIEXD, I have not at this moment Five Pieces by me; loan I can get none ; aud without money a man is as naught. Pray now open thy pocket, and lend me 150 Pieces until my rent-day , when I will repay, or say 100 Pieces until then. Pray send me them by Alister your Music ; he is a cautious man. " Tell W. I will not have his men cut folk's grass without proper com- pensation. If you pass mine, say to my Dame I have gone into Essex : my boose is open to yon ; make no scruple ; do as at your house at Oundle, or I shall be cross. If you please ride over to Chatteris, and order the quartering of those [that] Suffolk Troop, I hear they have been very bad ; and let no more such doings be. Bid 11. horse 1 any who offend ; say it is my order, and show him this. " Pray do not forget the 100 Pieces ; and bid Alister ride haste. I shall be at Biggleswade at II. Send me the accounts of the week, if possible by the Trumpet ; if not, send them on by one of the Troopers. It were well he rode to Bury, and wait [uxtited] my coming. " I hope you have forwarded my Mother the silks yon got for me in Lon- don ; also those else for my Dame. If not, pray do not fail. From your Friend, "OLIVER CROMWELL." " W." I suppose means Wildman, " R." Rainsborough. My Cor- respondent annotates here : " The Journal ofteu mentioned trouble they [the officers generally] got into from the mm taking, without leave, hay and corn from Maliguauts, whom Oliver never allowed to be robbed, but paid for all justly to friend aud foe." X. " To Cornet Squire, at his Quarters, Tansor: These. " HiJNTlHODON, 22cl Jannnry, 1612. 8i, News has come in, and I want yon. Tell my Son to ride over his men to me, as I want to see him. Tell White and Wildman also I want tli< -m. Be sure you come too : do not delay. " I liave ill UCWB of the men under my Son : tell him from me I must not have it. Bring me over those Papers yon know of, Desborow has come in with good poil, some 3,000 I reckon. Your Friend, O. (" C." rotted off.} - I That i.x, ir<*lr-kort (u*d as a verb). " Do military men of these times tnnl ritanil the wiitly with mii-krN tied to your feet, in a very - rrwmwtlfi Letters and Spetche*, vol. xvii. p. 421. 76 SQUIRE PAPERS, Dated on the morrow after this, is the oelebrated Letter to Robert Barnard, Esquire, now in the possession of Lord Gosford: 1 " Subtlety may deceive you, integrity never will ! " XI. Refers to the Lowestoff exploit ; 2 and must bear date 12th March, 1642-3, apparently from Swaffham, Downham, or some such place on the western side of Norfolk. " For Captain Berry, at his Quarters, Oundle. Haste. [Date gone by moths : 12th March, 1642.] " DEAR FRIEND We have secret and sure hints that a meeting of the Malignants takes place nt Lowestoff on Tuesday. Now I want your aid ; so come with all speed on getting this, with your Troop ; and tell no one your route, but let me see you ere sundown. From your Friend and Commandant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." Auditor Squire had written in his Journal, now burnt : " He [Oliver] got his first information of this business from the man that sold fish to the Colleges [at Cambridge] , who being searched, a Letter was found on him to the King, and he getting rough usage told all he knew." XII. Date and address have vanished; eaten by moths; but can in part be restored. Of the date, it would appear, there remains dimly " the last figure, which looks like a 5 : " that will probably mean " March 15," which otherwise one finds to be about the time. The scene is still the Fen-country ; much harassed by Malignants, necessitating searches for arms, spy-journeys, and other still stronger measures ! " Montague," we can dimly gather, is the future Earl of Sandwich; at present " Cap- tain of the St. Neot's troop," a zealous young Gentleman of eighteen ; who, some six mouths hence, gets a commission to raise a regiment of his own ; of whom there is other mention by and by. [To Cornet Squire.] [ 15th MARCH, 1642.] "DEAR FRIEND, I have no great mind to take Montague's word about that Farm. I learn, behind the oven is the place they hide them [the arms] ; BO watch well, and take what the man leaves ; and hang the fellow out of hand [out-a-hand] , and I am your warrant. For he shot a boy at Filton-bee by the Spinney, the Widow's son, her only support : so God and man must rejoice at his punishment. " I want you to go over to Stamford : they do not well know you ; ride through, and learn all ; and go round by Spalding, and so home by Wisbee l Letters and Speeches, vol. xvii. p. 125. 2 Ibid. vol. xvii. p. 131. SQUIRE PAPERS. 77 [Wubcach]. See 15, 8, 92 ; and bring me word. Wildman is gone by way of Lincoln : you may meet ; but do not know him ; he will not yon. " I would you rould get into Lynn ; for I fear they are building a neat there we must rifle, I sadly fear. You will hear of me at Downham : if not, seek me at Ely ; my Son will say my Quarters to you. From your Friend, " O. C." XTTT. No date, no address ; the Letter itself a ruined fragment, " in < H Ivor's hand." For the rest see Letters and Speeches, vol. xvii. p. 137. " Russell," I suppose, is Russell of Chippenhain, the same whose daugh- t-r Henry Cromwell subsequently married. [To Cornet Squire.] [No date : Cambridge (23d ?) March, 1642.] " SIR, Send me by Alister a list of the Troop, and the condition of men and horses ; also condition of the arms. Ride over to St. Neot's, and see Montague his Troop, and my Son's Troop ; and call on your way back at Huntingdon, and see to Russell's (I hear his men are ill provided in boots) ; and bid them heed a sudden call : I expect a long ride. " I shall want 200 Pieces : bring me them, or else send them by a sure hand. You mentioned to my Wife of certain velvets you had in London, come over in your Father's ship from Italy : now, as far as Twenty Pieces go, buy th [torn off", signature and all]. [OLIVEB CKOMWELL.J " XIV. " To Mr. Squire, at his Quarters, Godmanchester . "CAMBRIDGE, 2Cth March, 1642 [mtsiarittenfor 1643; Neiey ear* s-day wot yesterday], " SIR, Since we came back, I learn no men have got the money I ordered. Let me hear no more of this ; but pay as I direct, as we are about hard work, I think. Yours to mind, OLIVEB CROMWELL." The " bard work" of this Letter, and " long ride" of last, refer to the same matter; which did not take effect after all, much as Colonel urged it. XV. " Direction gone: Letter generally much wasted." Refers, seem- ingly, to those "Plunderers" or " Camdeners" from the Stamford side, concerning whom, about the beginning of this April, there is much talk and terror, and one .tlicr Lrtti-r hy Cromwoll, already printc. I. 1 " Bt-rry" is the future Major-General ; once " Clerk in the Ironworks," Kicli.tnl Baxter's frieud; of whom there was already ineution in the Lowest* iff affair. 1 Letter* and Spetchet, vol. xvn. p. 138. 78 SQUIRE PAPERS. [To Cornet Squire.] " ELY, this 30th day [rest rotted off: March, IMS]. " hope yon to bring me that want in due time, we shall, if it please God, be at S waff ham ; and hear of me at 1 1 [name in cipher], who will say to you all needful. " Mind and come on in strength, as they are out to mischief, and some [guess at their numlter, illerjiUe] Troops, but ill-armed. Tell Berry to ride in, also Montague ; and cut home, as no mercy ought to be shown those rovers, who are only robbers and not honorable soldiers. Call at Cosey : I learn he has got a case of arms down ; fetch them off ; also his harness, it lies in the wall by his bed-head : fetch it off ; but move not his old weapons of his Fath- er's, or his family trophies. Be tender of this, as you respect ray wishes of one Gentleman to another. " Bring me two pair Boot-hose, from the Fleming's who lives in London Lane ; also a new Cravat : I shall be much thankful. I rest, your Friend, " OLIVEK CROMWELL." " London Lane," I understand, is in Norwich. Let us hope " the Fleming " has a good fleecy-hosiery article there, and can furnish one's Cornet; for the weather is still cold ! From Norwich and the Fleming, hy faint reflex, we perceive farther that " Cosey " must be Costessey, vernacularly " Cossy," Park : seat of the old Roman-Catholic Jerninghams (now Lords Stafford), who are much concerned in these broils, to their heavier cost in time coming. Cossy is some four miles east of Norwich ; will lie quite handy for Squire and his Troop as they ride hitherward, being on the very road to Swaffham. 1 XVI. " Mr. Samuel Squire, at his Quarters, Peterborough, in Bridge Street there : Haste. "ST. NEOT'S, 3d April, 1643. " DEAR SIR, I am required by the Speaker to send up those Prisoners we got in Suffolk [at Lowesloff, $-c.] ; pray send me the Date we got them, also their Names in full, and quality. I expect I may have to go up to Town also. I send them up by Whalley's Troop and the Slepe Troop ; my Son goes with them. You had best go also, to answer any questions needed. " I shall require a new Pot [kind of Helmet] ; mine is ill set. Buy me one in Tower Street ; a Fleming sells them, I think his name is Vandelenr : get one fluted, and good barrets ; and let the plume-case be set oa well behind. I would prefer it lined with good shamoy leather to any other. " I have wished them return [tJie tico Troops to return] by way of Suffolk 1 This Paragraph is due to a Correspondent (Jan. 1848), after Fraser, where " Cosey " was printed with a quaere, " Cosey (?) " (Note to the Reprint, 1860) SQUIRE PAPERS. 79 home ; BO remind them. Do see after the 3 [undecipherable cipher]. 81 is play- ing fox : I hold a letter of his he sent to certain ones, which I got of one who carried it. If you light on him, pray take care of him, and bring him on to me. I cannot let each escape ; life and property is lost by each villains. If resistance is given, pistol him. No nonsense can bo held with nucli : lie is as dangerous au a mad bull, and must be quieted by some means. This villain got our men into a strife near Fakenham, some three weeks since ; and two got shot down, and nine wounded ; and the others lost some twenty or thirty on their side ; and all for his mischief. " Let me see you as soon as needs will allow. Mind Henry come to no ill in Loudou. 1 look to yuu to heed him. From your Friend, "OLIVER CKOMWELL." Squire endorses : "We went up with the Treasure; and got sadly mauled coming back, but beat the ruffians [rujfinns] at Chipping, but lost near all our baggage." XVII. These plundering " Ca'ndishere," called lately " Camdenere " from Noel Viscount Camden their principal adherent in these Southern parts, are outskirts or appendages of the Marquis of Newcastle's North - HI <>r "Papist" Anny, and have for Commander the Hon. Charles Cavendish, Cousin of the Marquis ; whence their name. They are fast Ho\viug Southward at present, in spite of the Fairfaxes, to the terror <>f men. Our first distinct notice of them by Oliver; the last will fol- low by and by. " To Mr. Squire, at hit Quarter*, Oundle : These. Pott haste, haste. " STILTON, 12th April thl dy [IMS]. " SIR, Pray show this to Berry, and advise [rifinify to] him to ride in, and join me, l.v four days' time ; as these Ca'ndishers, I hear, are over, tearing and rol.hing all, poor and rich. \moth\ Many poor souls slain, and cattle moved off. Stamford is taken, and Lord Noel [Note] has put some 300 to garrison it. " Send on word to Biggleswade, to hasten those alow fellows. We are upon no child's-play ; and most hare all help at we [they] may. At same time, I will buy your Spanish Headpiece you showed me ; I will give you Five Pieces for it, and my Scots on; at all rates, I will fain have it. So rest, \--.nr Frii-ud, O. C." " The East Foot [from Suffolk, jf-r.] are come in, to some too men, I learn. Hay M> to those Biggleawade dormice." Squire ha* jotted cm this Letter: " writ 12th April, 1642 [ionium l'>n], at we were upon our Line., In riding." 80 SQUIRE PAPERS. X VUL " To Mr. Squire, at his Quarters, Oundle : These. Haste. "ELY, this 13th day April, 1642 [for 1643]. " SIR, J got your Letter and the Headpiece [See Nos. 16, 17], I find we want much ere we march. Our Smiths are hard [on] work at shoes. Press me Four more Smiths as you come on : I must have them, yea or nay ; say I will pay them fee, and let go after shoeing, home, and no hindrances. " I am glad Berry is of our mind ; and in so good discipline of his men, next to good arms, sure victory, under God. I am, your Friend, O. C." XIX. " To Mr. S. Squire, at his Quarters, Oundle : These. Haste. " ELY, this day, Monday [ 1643]. " SIR, The Pay of the three Troops is come down ; therefore come over by Twelve to-morrow, and see to it. I can hear nothing of the man that was sent me out of Suffolk and Essex. I fear he is gone off with the money. If so, our means are straitened beyond my power to redeem ; so must beg of you to lend me 200 Pieces more, to pay them ; and I will give you the order on my Farm at Slepe, as security, if Parliament fail payment, which I much doubt of. " I got the money out of Norfolk last Friday : it came, as usual, ill ; and lies at my Son's quarters safely : also the Hertfordshire money also [sic], which lies at his quarters also. The money which was got from the man at Boston is all gone : I had to pay 20 per centum for the changing it, and then take Orders on certain you know of, which will reduce it down to barely 60 in the 100 : which is hard case on us who strive, thus to lose our hard earn- ings by men who use only pens, and have no danger of life or limb to go through. "Bring me the Lists of the Foot now lying in Garrison. I fear those men from Suffolk are being tried sorely by money from certain parties, whom I will hang, if I catch playing their tricks in my quarters ; by law of arms I will serve them. Order Isham to keep the Bridge (it is needful), and shoot any one passing who has not a pass. The Service is one that we must not be nice upon, to gain our ends. So show him my words for it. " Tell Captain Russell my mind on his men's drinking the poor man's ale, and not paying. I will not allow any plunder : so pay the man, and stop their pay to make it up. I will cashier officers and men, if such is done in future. " So let me see you by noon-time ; as I leave, after dinner, for Cambridge. Sir, I am, your Friend, OLIVER CROMWELL." " Isham," who is to keep the Bridge on this occasion, " left the regi- ment at the same time as Squire did [the First War being ended], and went to sea, as did many others : so said Journal." (Note ~by the Transcriber.) SQUIRE PAPERS. 81 XX. Address torn off, date eaten by moths ; the former to be guessed at, the latter not. [To Air. Squire.] [ -- IMS.] "DEAR FRIEND, [I pray yon] J send a Hundred Pounds to 81 at Ipswich ; also a Hundred Pounds to 92 in Harwich; also Fifty -two Pounds to 151 at Aldborongh ; and do not delay an hour. W. [ Wildman f] is returned : they are all fit to burst at news come in ; and, I much fear, will break out. So I am now going over to clip their wings. I shall be back in five days, if all be well. " Henry has borrowed of yon Fifty Pieces, I learn. Do not let him hare any more ; he does not need it ; and I hope better of you than go against my mind. I rest, your Friend, OLIVER CKOMWKLL." XXL " To Mr. Squire, at hit Quarters, Chatterit: Hatte, haste. " HEADQUARTERS, Monday, daybreak. "SiR, Wildman has seen one who says you have news. How is this I am not put in possession of it? Surely you are aware of our great ueed. Send or come to me by dinner. I am your Friend, " OUTER CROMWELL." XXII. " To Mr. Squire, at his Quarters, Downham. [No date- 1643.] "DEAR FRIEND, I learn from Burton (112) that one landed at the Quar from Holland, who was let go, and is now gone on by way of Lynn. I bear he haft a peaked beard, of a blue-black color: of some twenty-five years old : I think from my letters, a Spaniard. See to him. He will needs cross the \Va-
  • y what* -VT chance the Letter came into Squire's hand) has endorsed u memorandum : " 1 Ki [and other cipher-marks] lives at his ," which pcrliajw may explain the thing? To Mr. W alert, at the Cntt Keys: These in all speed. " LINCOLN, 26th July, 1643. " SIK, If IK- mom be done than you and yonrs have done, It is well you give uvnr mirh JMIWITX an you have to thoae who will I say to you now my 1 S<>mi- MK-II [.lira-"', ami the half of " Kri. /." have gone by moths. VOL. xviii 82 SQUIRE PAPERS. mind thereto : If I have not that aid which is my due, I say to yon I will take it. And so heed me ; for I find your words are mere wind : I shall do as I say, if I find no aid come to me by Tuesday. Sir, I rest, as you will, "OLIVER CROMWELL." XXIV. Here are the Ca'ndishers again; scouring the world, like hungry wolves : swift, mount, and after them ! " To Captain Montague or Sam Squire : Haste, haste, on spur. " WISBEACH, this day [July, 1643]. " SIR, One has just come in to say the Ca'ndishers have come as far as Thorney, and done a great mischief, and drove off some threescore fat beasts. "Pray call all in, and follow them; they cannot have got far. Give no quarter ; as they shed blood at Bourne, and slew three poor men not in arms. So make haste. From your Friend and Commander, "OLIVER CROMWELL." Here, too, is a Letter from Henry Cromwell, copied by my Corre- spondent from Squire's old Papers ; which is evidently of contiguous or slightly prior date, and well worth saving. [To Captain Berry, at his Quarters, Whittlesea: These in all haste. " 18th July, 1643. " SIR, There is great news just come in, by one of our men who has been home on leave. The Ca'ndishers are coming on hot. Some say 80 troops, others 50 troops. Be it as it may, we must go on. Vermuyden has sent his Son on to say, We had better push on three troops as scouts, as far as Stam- ford ; and hold Peterborough at all costs, as it is the Key to the Fen, which if. lost much ill may ensue. Our news says, Ca'ndish has sworn to sweep the Fens clear of us. How he handles his broom, we will see when we meet : he may find else than dirt to try his hand on, I think! Last night came in Letters from the .Lord General; also money, and ammunition a good store. "Our men being ready, we shall ride in and join your Troop at dawn. Therefore send out scouts to see. Also good intelligencers on foot had better be seen after ; they are best, I find, on all occasions. Hold the Town secure ; none go in or out, on pain of law of arms and Avar. Sharman is come in from Thrapstoue : there was a Troop of the King's men driving, but got cut down to a man, not far from Kettering, by the Bedford Horse, aud no quarter given, I hear. " Sir, this is all the news I have. My Father desires me to say, Pray be careful! Sir, I rest, your humble Servant, HENRY CROMWELL." On the same sheet follow four lines of abstruse cipher, with a signa- ture which I take to mean " Oliver Cromwell:" apparently some still more secret message from the Colonel himself. SQUIRE PAPERS. 83 On Friday, 28th July, 1643, precisely ten days after this Letter, oc- curred the action at Gainsborough, where poor General Cavendish, " handling his hrooin " to best ability, was killed ; and a good account, or good instalment of account to begin with, was given of these Ca'ndishers. 1 Nos. XXV.-XXXV. OUR last batch consists of Eleven Letters ; all of which, except two only, bear date 164.'J; and all turn on the old topics. Squire's more intimate relation to Oliver naturally ceased as the sphere of action widened, as the " valiant Colonel" having finished his Eastern-Asso- ciation business, emerged as a valiant General into Marston Battle, into England at large. After 1643, there is only one Letter to Squire ; and that on personal business, and dated 1645. XXV. " To Mr. Squire, at hit Quarters, Wisbeach, at Mr. Thome's House there: by my Son Henry. " AUGUST, 2d day, 1613. " SIR, My Lord Manchester has not the power to serve me as you would [as you wish] for York : but I will see if I can do it for him, to serve you in my Kinsman's [ Whalley's, Dcsborow's, Walton's?] troop. " I will give you all you ask for that Black you won last fight. I remain, yours, OLIVER CROMWELL." " Last Fight " is Gainsborough with the Ca'ndishers ; which oc- curred a week ago, and has yielded Squire a horse among other things. XXVL " To Mr. S. Squire, at his Quarters, the Flag. " THIS DAT, 3d August, 1W3. " SIR, These are to require you to bring the Statements of the Troopers who were on the road, when they stopped the Wains containing the Arms going from [word iliftjible ; my Correspondent writes " Skegness "] to Oxford: that they be paid their dues for the service. " I learn from Jackson that some of the Suffolk Troop requires Passes to return home to Harvest. Now, that is hardly to be given; seeing we are ;i(t<-r Lynn Leaguer, and require all aid needful to surround tin-in [the Lynn :ntt\ : Say I cannot grant their requesting. H;t\ < they nut h.id great God's Ixmnty and grace, in so short a time ? I am filled with i I. , tun and Spcccktt. vol. xvii. p. 149 84 SQUIRE PAPERS. surprise at this fresh requiring of these selfish men. Let them write home, aud hire others to work. I will grant no fresh Passes : the Lord General is against it ; and so am I, fixed in my mind. " Do you ride over to Swaff ham, and buy Oats for 2,000 horse : we shall require as many, to come on to Gaywood, by order, as needed. Also see to the Hay; and let your servants see well that no imposition is practised. I most insist on due weight and measure for man and horse; or let the chap- men look to their backs and pouches ! I stand no rogue's acts here, if they are tolerated in London. I will have my pennyworth for my penny. " Send on a Trooper to Norwich and Yarmouth for news. Bid them call at 112 and 68, and ask Mr. Parmenter after 32: he is fox, I hear. I fear Burton is double. I am, your friend, OLIVER CROMWELL, " I sent a Pass to your Kinsman." XXVII. [To Mr. Squire.] [17th AUGUST, 1643.] ' BID three Troops go on to Downham, and come by way of Wisbeach. Tell Ireton my mind on his shooting that Spy without learning more. I like it not. His name is Nickols, I hear. It were well no news took air of it. 0. C." "From Col. Cromwell on his way to Siege of Lynn, 17th August, 1643 : " so Squire dockets ; which enables us to date. Farther in re- gard to "Ireton's matter" (the well-known Ireton), there stood in the Journal, says my Correspondent : " This man was shot in Thorney Fen: he was a spy, and had done great injury. He had 500 Gold Pieces in his coat, and a Pass of Manchester's and one of the King's." To which my Correspondent adds in his own person : " Shooting spies, and hang- ing newsmongers, was very often done ; and to me very horrihle was the news I read often in the Journal of such doings." XXVIII. The " great work on hand" is a ride to Lincolnshire; which issued in Wincehy Fight, or Horncastle Fight, on Wednesday next. [ To Auditor Squire.\ " ELY, this day [moths] October [1&43J. "DEAR FRIEND, Hasten with all speed you may, and come on the spur to me at Ely : we have a great work on hand, and shall need us all to under- take it. May the Lord be with us. Hasten your men. I must see you by to-morrow sunset, as we start next day. From, yours, "OLIVER CROMWELL." "Came by the Colonel's Music," so Squire endorses. For Wince- by Fight, which followed on Wednesday next, see Letters and Speeches, vol. xvii. pp. 170-173- SQUIRE PAPERS. 85 XXIX. Home at Ely again ; in want of various domestic requisites, a drop of mild brandy, for one. " To Mr. S. Squire, at his Quarters, Dereham, or elsewhere : Haste, haste. "ELY, 15th November, 1613. " SIR, With all speed, on getting this, see Cox ; his Quarters are at the Fort on the South End. Tell him to send me two Colverins, also a small Mortar-piece, with match, powder aiid shot : also a Gunner and his mates, as 1 need them. "Buy of Mr. Teryer a case of Strong-waters for me; and tell the Bailiff to order on such Volunteers as we can : we need all we can get. Also get a cask of cured Fish for me. Do not fail sending on, with good speed, the Cannons ; we stay for them. In haste, yours, "OLIVER CROMWELL." XXX. " To Mr. S. Squire, at his Quarters. "THIS DAY, Friday noon [November, 1643). " SIR, Your Letter is more in the Lord General's business than mine ; bnt to serve you am well pleased at all times. I have writ to the Captain at Loughborongh to mind what he ih abont : at the same time, if your Kins- men are Papists, I do not know well how I dare go against the Law of Par- liament to serve them. I have, to oblige yon, done so far : Take a Pass, and go over and see to this matter, if you are inclined. But I think they, if prudent, will get no farther ill. " I shall want the Blue Parcel of Papers you know of : send them by your Music. Sir, I am, your Friend, OLIVER CROMWELL." Squire endorses : " My Cousin would not leave the Nunnery, so left her." But see next Letter, for a wiser course. XXXL " To Mr. S. Squire, at his Quarters, Fotheringay. " PETERBOROUGH, thin day, 2d Dec. 1643. "DEAR FRIEND, I think I have heard you say that you had a relation in the Nunnery at Longhborongh. Pray, if you love her, remove her speedily ; and I send yon a Pass, as we have orders to demolish it, and I must not dispute orders [no/] : There is one of the Andrews in it; take her away. Nay give them heed to go, if they value themselves. I had rather they did. I like no war on women. Pray preTail on all to go, if yon can. I shall be with you at Onndlc in time. From your Friend, "OLIVER CROMWELL." Squire has written on the other side: "Got my Cousin Mary and Mbw Andrews out, and left them at our house at Thrapstone, with my Aunt, aimi niyht ; ami tho Tnxijw rode over, ami wrecked the Nunnery by urd;r of Paili.m.. 86 SQUIRE PAPERS. XXXII. Some Cathedral or other Church duty come in course ; at which young Montague, Captain of the St. Neot's Troop, would fain hesitate ! Readers may remember Mr. Hitch of Ely, about a fortnight after the date here. 1 u Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry," they must go: the Act of Parliament, were there nothing more, is express! [To Mr. Squire.] "CHRISTMAS EVE [1643]. " SIR, It is to no use any man's saying he will not do this or that. What is to be done is no choice of mine. Let it be sufficient, it is the Par- liament's Orders, and we to obey them. I am surprised at Montague to say so. Show him this : if the men are not of a mind to obey this Order, I will cash- ier them, the whole Troop. I heed God's House as much as any man : but vanities and trumpery give no honor to God, nor idols serve Him ; neither do painted windows make man more pious. Let them do as Parliament bid them, or else go home, and then others will be less caref ID to do what we had done [might have done] with judgment. " I learn there is 4 Men down with the Sickness, in the St. Neot's Troop now at March. Let me hear : so ride over, and learn all of it. Sir, I am, your Friend, OLIVER CROMWELL." Squire has endorsed : " They obeyed the Order." XXXIII. This Letter, in my Copy of it, is confidently dated " Stilton, 31st July, 1643;" but, for two reasons, the date cannot be accepted. First, there is a Letter long since printed, which bears date Huntingdon, instead of Stilton, with precisely the same day and year, the Letter concerning Gainsborough Fight, namely. 2 Secondly, in the Letter now before us there is allusion to " Horncastle" or Winceby Fight, which had not happened in " July," nor till llth October following. If for July we read Jan", January, 1643-4, there is a better chance of being right. [To Auditor Squire.] " STILTON, 31st [January], 1643. "DEAR SIR, Buy those Horses; but do not give more than 18 or 20 Pieces each for them : that is enough for Dragooners. "I will give you 60 Pieces for that Black you won at Horncastle (if you hold to a mind to sell him), for my Son, who has a mind to him. Dear Sir, I am, your Friend, OLIVER CROMWELL. " 15 is come in." I Letters and Speeches, vol. xvii.p. 174. Jbid. vol. xvii. 149. SQUIRE PAPERS. 87 XXXIV. Red coats for the first time ! My Correspondent gives the following annotation : " I remember, in Journal, mention of all the East men [Association men] wearing red coats, 1 horse and foot, to dis- tinguish them from the King's men ; and it being used after by the whole Army. And I think it was after Marston Battle ; but the Journal was full of the rowes of the men, and corporals' cabals." " To Mr. Russell, at his Quarters, Bromley by Brno. [No date at o. 1643.) " SIR, I learn your Troop refuse the new Coats. Say this : Wear them, or go home. I stand uo nonsense from any one. It is a needful thing we be aa one in Color ; much ill having been from diversity of clothes, to slaying [of friends by friends). Sir, I pray you heed this. "OLIVER CROMWELL." XXXV. Cornet or Auditor Squire, it would appear by my Corre- spondent's recollections of the lost Journal, was promoted to be Lieu- tenant for his conduct in Naseby Fight : " he afterwards got wounded in Wales or Cornwall ; place named Turo, I think," undoubtedly at Truro in Cornwall, in the ensuing Autumn. Here, next Spring, 1645-6, while the Service is like to be lighter, he decides on quitting the Army altogether. " To Lieutenant Sqvire, at his Quarters, Tavlstock : These. "MMARCB. 164& " SIR, In reply to the Letter I got this morning from you, I am sorry yon |o] resolve ; for I had gotten you your commission as Captain from the Lord General, and waited only your coming to give it you. Think twice of this. For I intended your good ; as I hope you know my mind that wise. But so if you will, I will not hinder you. For, thanks be given to God, I trust now all will be well for this Nation ; and an enduring Peace be, to God hia glory and our prosperity. " Now there is between you and me some reckoning. Now I hope to be in London, ray in three weeks, if God speed me in this matter. Call at the Speaker')*, and I will pay yon all your due. Pray send me a List of the Items, for guide to me [ for me to guide]. Let me know what I owe your Brother for the Winea he got me out f Spain to my mind. Sir, let me once more wish you [would] think over your resolution, that I may serve you. Your Friend, OLIVER CROMWELL." S<|nire, in his idle moments, has executed on this sheet a rude draw- ing of a Pen and Sword ; very nnlr indeed ; with those words: "Ten * Lttlirt and Sptickct, vol. xvii. p. 151 88 SQUIRE PAPERS. to one the Feather beats the Iron : " that is Squire's endorsement on this his last remaining Letter from Oliver; indicating a nascent purpose, on the part of Squire, to quit the Army after all. With, which nascent purpose, and last Letter, we should so gladly take onr leave of him and his affairs; were it not that there still remain, from the burnt Journal, certain miscellaneous Scraps, transitory jottings of Lists and the like, copied by our Correspondent, which, though gen- erally of the character of mere opaque ashes, may contain here and there some fragment of a burnt bone, once a hero's ; and claim to be included in this which may be called the Funeral Urn of the Ironsides, what is left to us of them after the fire. These Scraps too, let us hastily shoot them in, therefore ; and so end. Scrap 1. On a Slip of Paper in Squire's hand first, but ending with a line v Oliver's : ELY, this 12th day of March, 1613. Sick: M. Kearues T.Allen Wounded: P. Jenkins P. Frisby Tab. Tomlins Sh. Wales 4 horses want new shoes ; 14 bridles want repairs [turns the leaf] ; 4 greaves want repair. Paid for Hay for Horses 50 shillings. The rest all well. SAUL. [Bottom of the Paper.] Sixth Troop to go to Downham. O.C. Scrap 2. My Correspondent says : " These Names are written on a sheet of Paper, folded, and marked Troops" probably, as my Correspondent SQUIRE PAPERS. 89 gnesses elsewhere, the names of the original Ironside Captains ; well worth preserving indeed ! Cromwell Aires Berry Freshwater Woolward Spriggg Sheppherd Fail-side Weston Flutter Stebbings Walton Cam pin Deane Buckell Wright Evanson Collins Larance Wanton Waldca Jones Whalley Cook Fountain Norton (idle Dick) Langley Baruard Dodsworth Richardson Rains forth Clarke Lawsell Russell White Rawlins Sidne (Algernon 1) Cromwell, 11. Cromwell, O. (Junior) Ireton Rich Montague (Sandtrich) Cults Chambers. ScrapS. Names written on a Paper marked " St. Neot's Troop." Speechley Wanton, V. ( Valentine, youny WaUon, Tebbntt (the Saddler f in Scrap 7 ) killed at Marston-Moor ?) Wright Russell, John Kills Cromwell, Rd. (idle Richard/) Barnard Cromwell, Thos. Hunt Montague Pickering Halles, Ambrose Dawson Andres Butler Spencer, junr." Cox Scrap 4. On a Sheet in Squire's hand : The Names of thoM who joined us at Siege of Lynn, and came riding in full armed, and wont into our second rr^iiwnt ; and who left us, many of them, after Marxtnn Fi^'ht, on fancies of conscience, ami turnrd Qnackers (Quali r^ ; and such like left us at Newmarket, and wont livuie with tin- Eatnn II'B foot, to giirrismi I.vnn and Yarmouth. 90 SQUIKE PAPERS. No. 1. Allen, Robert Ames, Simeon Anger, Josua Beales, Constantino Beart, Hiram Bullard, Octavius Ball, Frank Buddery, Isaac S Breckenham, Edward Complin (or Camplin), Judah Camon, Joseph Cornish, Caleb Dunton, SamL Dormer, James Dowueiog, Saml. Daynes, Danyel Eccles, Thomas (music) Elsegood, Zachary Ellis, John Fuller, Jacob Fydeman, John Fyncham, Saul Fenn, Aaron Goodwyn, Robert Gogney, Symon Greenwood, Japhet Goss, Jacques Hutchersou, Levi Hewet, Jacob Hunt, Isaiah Howard, Timon Jeunes le, Jonathan S Kinge, Philip Kiddell, Mores Kett, Reuben S Kett, Aminadab Keckwicke, Josiah Lowger, Thos. Christian Munck, Win. Myleham, Henry Matthewman, Thomas Mason, Alwyn Mylum, Abraham C Medcalf, Leonard Mayliew, Hezekiah Neave, Aram Neale, Jacques Northeu, Christian Osboru, Zatthu Price, Ahimelech Panke, Sheckaniah Pike, Henry Patterson, Paul Roe, Tobias C Ransom, Icheil (or Jeheil) Roe, Zechariah Rust, Christian Rose, Selah Read, Price Stephen Reeve, Manna Soames, Aaron, Major Stangroom, Eleazer Sheringham, Walter Shepperd, Charles Sharpen, Jacobus Snell, Robert Starlin, Edward Sewell, Samuel Swaun, Josua S Thurton, Wm. Valentine Todd, Stephen Tillet, Ishmael Taylor, Vilellius Tizack, Christopher Tuby, Zered Toll, Israel Vickers, John Vaukamp, Hubert Ward, Willm. Waymour, Wm. Wharle, Nicholas Weeds, Amphilioa Woods, John C Waters, Bartolemew Waddelow, Philip Weasey, John SQUIRE PAPERS. 91 Wilkerson, Wm. Ypres, Cornelius Willemons, Gabriel Yabbs, Peter Wasey, Antoney Yewells, Christian Waynford, Antony Youiigman, Gregory Yonngs, Francis Yeames, Robert Yewell, Gordon Yorkshire, Samuel [" I suppose S and C means Sergeants and Corporals." Correspondent.] No. 2. Allwurd Promise Peter A. Money Julius Stannard Cladius Batsen Israel Meeks Danl. Staffort Gilead Barker Will Martin Natl. Steele Valentine Barker John Mills James Thompson Heuricus Clarke Cristr. Mead Jos. Watts Alec Caulfield Robert Mead Malec Wats James Culling Hall Markston Je'sophat Warnes Sim Cross Fred. Mallet Henry Willson Zack Dulwick Mark Nicholls Saul Wensun Alfred Damant Egbert Oaks Oliver Weston Kesiah Danuell Caleb Pede Isachar Watt* Joshua Flint David Pascal Thos. Zobell Mathias Fox John Pulfrey Adolff Zobell Will Gowan Amos Pull Shem Quarles Paul Hales (or Halls) Pious Stone John Yellows Septimus Lefranc Walter Smidt Alfred Love Richard Lome Ludwig Smidt Simeon Waite. " To these names nothing farther is written, beyond names of their Troops. I have written them alphabetically from my List, which is not so arranged." (.Vote by my Correspondent.) Scrap 5. " These are written on a Strip of Paper was enclosed in a Letter." (Corre- spondent. ) OC. DC. RC. HC. Ireton Cole HC. JC. VW. D. Rawlings York A. B. E. J. Rainsboro Mewbnrn H. Castle Frisby White MoMOp Husbands " Copied as they stood in the original Paper. About the treasure going to London [.see antes, No. 16] ; and I think, from the contents, took [find tabn] r.illc^e treasure." (Correpondfnt.) 92 SQUIRE PAPERS. Scrap 6. "List of Names written on a Paper marked Hearty. I have written them alphabetically for convenience, but they were not so in the Original." ( Correspondent. ) Alister Everard, B. Montague Barnard, J. Everard, R. Norton Butler Everson Neale Boyle Ellis Neve Biglande Freshwater Nelson Boucher Farside Ord Bussey Flutter Poulton Berry Frisby Powell Buckel Fischer Pye Barnard, R. Garland Pickerin Castles Hodgea Pede Chambers, J. Halles Ayres Compton Hunt Richardson, R. Carter Hobbard Rose Claypol Holland Rawlen Collins Hewitson Reede Clarke Hawkins Ricketts Campin Henderson Russell, J. Cooke Hunt Ireton Cutts Hart Russell, R. Chambers, W. Handley Russell, F. Cox Isham Reynolds Castel Ingolsby Rainsforth Cole Ireton, J. Richardson, J. Chapman Jones Rawlinges Cromwell, O. senr. John Rich Cromwell, R. Ingoldsby Ayscogh Cromwell, Thos. Kincome Reachlous Cromwell, O. juur. Knightley Steward Cromwell, Richd. Lemmen Sprigges Cromwell, Henry Lawsell Stebbings Desborow Langley Sidney Desborow Monlle Speechley Deane, H. Mewburn Squire Deane, R. Montague Tebbntt Dinch Montague, H. Thornton Dodsworth Marten Warters Dawson, T. Masham Walls Dawson, S. Larance Wanton, V. Dawsou, H. Ayscouw Whally SQUIRE PAPERS. 93 Whitston Wright White Walclen Woolward Weston Walton Wanton, J. Walden Wright Warnet White Vanderay York Yewson " These several Lists are all that I copied ; but I think the List 3 [Scrap 2 as given here| contain** names of the original Captains [and Subalterns] of Troops in the Ironsides; but I cannot say for certain. Tiie large List [Scrap 4] was too far gone to touch, as it was perfectly red with damp, and rotten ; so was burnt. These were in Letters and odd Papers. I have no others copied that I can find in my travelling Writing-desk ; so suppose they are all I took." ( Correspondent.) Scrap 7. * Written on a Letter, and marked Settled." (Correspondent.) Settled. Collonel O. Cromwell Cn. [Captain] J. Des- boro" lieutenant V. Wautou C.rnot E. Whally Qr. Mr. K. Everard Corporals : Cornelius Vanderay Zosimus Rose [the Drill- Corporal: Letter No. 4] Thomas Fischer Trumpets : Levi Allister [your Mu- tid] Thos. Kincome Clerk: Saml. Squire [Self I] Saddeler : J. Tebbutt C'liirugeon : SI. Moule Farrier : Rd. Richardson ScrapS. " Memorandums on a Piece of Paper," in Squire's hand, " copied by mo verbatim." ( Correfftondfnt.) Buried near the Vestrey : 50 horses shot to the death. 40 horses soreley wounded. SO men wounded soreley, yet can Ride. 10 unabel to Ride. I'.ii'X'li So.imes John Purfis Simeon Wildes John Liffel Benjamin Waster Noah Richardson Beth Richardson I.'vi Richardson f uriii-liiiM Van Q5t Casjiar Dorflein Skat to lite death at Caneibonw. [tun* the leaf] OMJ 10 4| Lent for the use of the Parle- ment to pay the Sonldien. Hay ami Corn 100 10 4f 94 SQUIRE PAPERS. Note for its due payt. secured by CoL O.C. 504 19 6 160 10 4} 665 9 10 Lent to . Hiram Dawson 10 Capn. Desboro' 60 Colenl. Cromwell 10 - A new Cravatt 7 A new Spurre 5 A feather for my Basnet 2 14 4 6 A new Staffe for ye Coloures 1 4 14 5 10 Scrap 9. Squire's Conspectus of the " St. Neot's Troop '' is to be seen in Scrap 3. Captain Montague obtained Commission to raise a regiment of his own, "on the 20th August, 1643," says Collins 1 which I think, as " 20th August " was a Sunday, can hardly have been the exact day ! How- ever, raise a regiment he did, and even regiments ; and here is Note of the first of them, in Squire's handwriting : Joined Montague's Landers. Walter [his name Wm. Partrige Gabriel Womac illegible] Collins Collins Lemuel Gilbert John Palmer John Skipon Charles Hurst [or Harst] Saul Cobbham Walter Reachlous Wm. Waters Martin Saul John Evanson May 24, 1644. Wolsey Clarke Wm. Ellis Stephen Willis Henry Johnson Explicit Squints noster ; as all things do end ! Some three other Notes, written in abstruse cipher, and two of them bearing what I take to be Oliver's occult signature, and plainly Squire's address, these I keep back, as too abstruse for any printer or any reader. And herewith let us close the Funeral Urn of the Ironsides, with its burnt bones of heroes, and ashes of mere wood ; and, with deathless regrets against my Unknown Correspondent, and for the present some real thankfulness to Heaven, wash our hands of this melancholy affair. T. CARLYLE. LONDON, 2d Nov. 1847. 1 Peerage (1741), ii. 281. PART VL WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 1650-1651. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. THE Scotch People, the first beginners of this grand Puritan Revolt, which we may define as an attempt to bring the Divine Law of the Bible into actual practice in men's affairs on the Earth, are still one and all resolute for that object ; but they are getting into sad difficulties as to realizing it. Not easy to realize such a thing : besides true will, there need heroic gifts, the highest that Heaven gives, for realizing it! Gifts which have not been vouchsafed the Scotch People at present. The letter of their Covenant presses heavy on these men ; traditions, formulas, dead letters of many things press heavy on them. On the whole, they too are but what we call Pedants in conduct, not Poets : the sheepskin record failing them, and old use-and-wont ending, they cannot farther ; they look into a sea of troubles, shoreless, starless, on which there seems no navigation possible. The faults or misfortunes of the Scotch People, in thrir Puritan business, are many: but properly their grand fault is this, That they have produced for it no sufficiently heroic man among them. No man that has an eye to see beyond the letter and the rubric ; to discern, across many consecrated rubrics of th* Past, the inartirulatc divinoncss too of the Presmt and the Future, and dare all perils in the faith of that ! With Oliver Cromwell born :\ Scotchman : with .1 Horo King and a unanimous Hero Nation at his l>:u-k, it mi^ht have been far 96 PART VI. \VAR WITH SCOTLAND. 1650. otherwise. With Oliver born Scotch, one sees not but the whole world might have become Puritans -, might have struggled, yet a long while, to fashion itself according to that divine Hebrew Gospel, to the exclusion of other Gospels not Hebrew, which also are divine, and will have their share of fulfilment here ! But of such issue there is no danger. Instead of inspired Olivers, glowing with direct insight and noble daring, we have Argyles, Loudons, and narrow, more or less opaque persons of the Pedant species. Committees of Estates, Committees of Kirks, much tied up in formulas, both of them : a bigoted The- ocracy without the Inspiration ; which is a very hopeless phe- nomenon indeed ! The Scotch People are all willing, eager of heart ; asking, Whitherward ? But the Leaders stand aghast at the new forms of danger; and in a vehement discrepant man- ner some calling, Halt ! others calling, Backward ! others, For- ward ! huge confusion ensues. Confusion which will need an Oliver to repress it ; to bind it up in tight manacles, if not otherwise ; and say, " There, sit there and consider thyself a little ! " The meaning of the Scotch Covenant was, That God's divine Law of the Bible should be put in practice in these Nations ; verily it, and not the Four Surplices at Allhallowtide, or any Formula of cloth or sheepskin here or elsewhere which merely pretended to be it. But then the Covenant says expressly, there is to be a Stuart King in the business : we cannot do without our Stuart King ! Given a divine Law of the Bible on one hand, and a Stuart King, Charles First or Charles Sec- ond, on the other : alas, did History ever present a more irre- ducible case of equations in this world ? I pity the poor Scotch Pedant Governors ; still more the poor Scotch People, who had no other to follow ! Nay, as for that, the People did get through, in the end ; such was their indomitable pious con- stancy, and other worth and fortune : and Presbytery became a Fact among them, to the whole length possible for it : not without endless results. But for the poor Governors this irre- ducible case proved, as it were, fatal ! They have never since, if wo will look narrowly at it, governed Scotland, or even well known that they were there to attempt governing it. Once 1C50. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 97 they lay on Dunse Hill, "each Earl with his regiment of Tenants round him," " For Christ's Cvown and Covenant ;" and never since had they any noble National act which it was given them to do. Growing desperate of Christ's Crown and Covenant, they, in the next generation when our Annus Miral>i- lis arrived, hurried up to Court, looking out for other Crowns and Covenants; deserted Scotland and her Cause, somewhat basely ; took to booing and booing for Causes of their own, unhappy mortals ; and Scotland and all Causes that were Scotland's have had to go on very much without them ever since ! Which is a very fatal issue indeed, as I reckon ; and the time for settlement of accounts about it, which could not fail always, and seems now fast drawing nigh, looks very omi- nous to me. For in fact there is no creature more fatal than your Pedant ; safe as he esteems himself, the terriblest issues spring from him. Human crimes are many : but the crime of being deaf to the God's Voice, of being blind to all but parch- ments and antiquarian rubrics when the Divine Handwriting is abroad on the sky, certainly there is no crime which the Supreme Powers do more terribly avenge ! But leaving all that, the poor Scotch Governors, we re- mark, in that old crisis of theirs, have come upon the desperate expedient of getting Charles Second to adopt the Covenant the best he can. Whereby our parchment formula is indeed saved ; but the divine fact has gone terribly to the wall ! The Scotch Governors hope otherwise. By treaties at Jersey, trea- ties at Breda, they and the hard Law of Want together have constrained this poor young Stuart to their detested Covenant; as the Frenchman said, they have "compelled him to adopt it voluntarily." A fearful crime, thinks Oliver, and think we. How dare you enact such mummery under High Heaven! ex- claims hf. You will prosecute Malignants ; and, with the aid of some poor varnish, transparent even to yourselves, you adopt into your Ix^som the Chief Malignant? My soul come not into your secret ; mine honor be not united unto you I In fact, his new Sacred Majesty is actually under way for -.tell urt; will Iw-d ( vennnfre.l King there. Of If :i likely enough young man; very unfortunate he YOU XVIII. 7 98 PART VI WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 1650 too. Satisfactorily descended from the Steward of Scotland and Elizabeth Muir of Caldwell (whom some have called an improper female *) ; satisfactory in this respect, but in others most unsatisfactory. A somewhat loose young man ; has Buckingham, Wilmot and Company, at one hand of him, and painful Mr. Livingston and Presbyterian ruling-elders at the other ; is hastening now, as a Covenanted King, towards such a Theocracy as we described. Perhaps the most anomalous phenomenon ever produced by Nature and Art working to- gether in this World ! He had sent Montrose before him, poor young man, to try if war and force could effect nothing ; whom instantly the Scotch Nation took, and tragically hanged. 3 They now, winking hard at that transaction, proffer the poor young man their Covenant ; compel him to sign it voluntarily, and be Covenanted King over them. The result of all which for the English Commonwealth can- not be doubtful. What Declarations, Papers, Protocols, passed on the occasion, numerous, flying thick between Edinburgh and London in late months, shall remain unknown to us. The Commonwealth has brought Cromwell home from Ireland, and got forces ready for him : that is the practical outcome of it. The Scotch also have got forces ready ; will either invade us, or (which we decide to be preferable) be invaded by us. 8 Cromwell must now take up the Scotch coil of troubles, as he did the Irish, and deal with that too. Fairfax, as we heard, was unwilling to go ; Cromwell, urging the Council of State to second him, would fain persuade Fairfax ; gets him still nomi- nated Commander-in-Chief ; but cannot persuade him ; will himself have to be Commander-in-Chief, and go. In Whitlocke and Ludlow 4 there is record of earnest inter- cessions, solemn conference held with Fairfax in Whitehall, duly prefaced by prayer to Heaven ; intended on Cromwell's 1 Horse-loads of Jacobite, Anti-Jacobite Pamphlets ; Goodall, Father Innee, &c. &c. How it was settled, I do not recollect. 2 Details of the business, in Balfour, iv. 9-22. 8 Commons Journals, 26th June, 1650. * Whitlocke, pp. 444-446 (25th June, 1650) ; Ludlow,]. 317 1660. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 99 part to persuade Fairfax that it is his duty again to accept the chief command, and lead us into Scotland. Fairfax, urged by his Wife, a Vere of the fighting Veres, and given to Presby- terianisni, dare not and will not go; sends "Mr. Rush worth, his Secretary," on the morrow, to give up his Commission, 1 that Cromwell himself may be named General-in-Chief. In this preliminary business, says Ludlow, " Cromwell acted his part so to the life that I really thought he wished Fairfax to go." Wooden-headed that I was, I had reason to alter that notion by and by ! Wooden Ludlow gives note of another very singular inter- view he himself had with Cromwell, " a little after," in those same days or hours. Cromwell whispered him in the House ; they agreed " to meet that afternoon in the Council of State " in Whitehall, and there withdraw into a private room to have a little talk together. Oliver had cast his eye on Ludlow as a tit man for Ireland, to go and second Ireton there ; he took him, as by appointment, into a private room, "the Queen's Guard-chamber " to wit ; and there very largely expressed himself. He testified the great value he had for me, Ludlow ; combated my objections to Ireland ; spake somewhat against Lawyers, what a tortuous ungodly jungle English Law was ; spake of the good that might be done by a good and brave man ; spake of the great Providences of God now abroad on tli. Kiirth ; in particular "talked for almost an hour upon the Huiuired-and-tenth Psalm;" which to me, in my solid wooden head, seemed extremely singular ! * Modern readers, not in the case of Ludlow, will find this illustrative of Oliver. Before setting out on the Scotch litioi!, ;ind just on the eve of doing it, we too will read tli.tt. Psalm of Hebrew David's, which had become English olivn's. we will fancy in our minds, not without reflections and emotions, the largest soul in England looking at this World with prophet's earnestness through that Hebrew I. two l)iviiK Phenomena accurately correspondent for Oliver; the one accurati ly the prophetic symbol and articulate interpretation of the other. As if the Silences had at lei 1 L'vmmotu JvuiiM.it, ubi uprtu a Ludluw, i. 319. 100 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 166(1 found utterance, and this was their Voice from out of old Eternity : " The Lord said unto my Lord : Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power ; in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning : thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord, at thy right hand, shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the Heathen ; he shall fill the places with the dead bodies ; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way : therefore shall he lift up the head." In such spirit goes Oliver Cromwell to the Wars. " A god- intoxicated man," as Novalis elsewhere phrases it. I have asked myself, If anywhere in Modern European History, or even in ancient Asiatic, there was found a man practising this mean World's affairs with a heart more filled by the Idea of the Highest ? Bathed in the Eternal Splendors, it is so he walks our dim Earth : this man is one of few. He is projected with a terrible force out of the Eternities, and in the Times and their arenas there is nothing that can withstand him. It is great ; to us it is tragic ; a thing that should strike us dumb ! My brave one, thy old noble Prophecy is divine ; older than Hebrew David; old as the Origin of Man; and shall, though in wider ways than thou supposest, be fulfilled ! LETTERS cxxxm.-cxxxvni HOOKE and his small business, in rapid public times, will not detain us. Humphrey Hooke, Alderman of Bristol, was elected to the Long Parliament for that City in 1640 ; but being found to have had concern in " Monopolies," was, like 16W. LETTER CXXX1II. LONDON. 101 a number of others, expelled, and sent home again under a cloud. The " service " he did at Bristol Storm, though some- what needing "concealment," ought to rehabilitate him a little in the charity, at least in the pity, of the Well-affected mind. At all events, the conditions made with him must be kept ; and we doubt not were. LETTER CXXXin. [To tfte Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the House of Commons : These.'} "LONDON, 20th June, 1650. " MR. SPEAKER, When we lay before Bristol in the Year 1645, we considered the season of the year, the strength of the place, and of what importance the reducemeut thereof would be to the good of the Commonwealth, and accordingly applied ourselves to all possible means for the accomplishment of the same; which received its answerable effect. At which time, for something considerable done in order to that end, by Humphrey Hooke, Alderman of that place, which, for many reasons, is desired to be concealed, his Excellency the Lord General Fairfax and myself gave him an Engagement under our hands and seals, That he should be secured and protected, by the authority of the Parliament, in the enjoyment of his life, liberty and estate, as freely as in former times, and as any other person under the obedience of the Parliament ; not- withstanding any past acts of hostility, or other thing done I >v him, in opposition to the Parliament or assistance of the Enemy. Which Engagement, with a Certificate of divers godly persons of that City concerning the performance of his part thereof, is ready to be produced. "I understand, that lately an Order is issued out to se- quester him, whereby he is called ID Composition. I thought it meet therefore to give the honorable Parliament this ac- count, that he may be pr-'st-m-.! from anything of that nature. For the performance of which, in order to the good of the 102 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 20 June, Commonwealth, we stand engaged in our faith and honor. I leave it to you ; and remain, Sir, " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * On Wednesday, 26th June, 1650, the Act appointing " That Oliver Cromwell, Esquire, be constituted Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief of all the Forces raised or to be raised by authority of Parliament within the Commonwealth of Eng- land," 2 was passed. " Whereupon," says Whitlocke, " great ceremonies and congratulations of the new General were made to him from all sorts of people ; and he went on roundly with his business." Roundly, rapidly ; for in three days more, on Saturday, the 29th, " the Lord General Cromwell went out of London towards the North : and the news of him marching northward much startled the Scots." 8 He has Lambert for Major-General, Cousin Whalley for Commissary-General ; and among his Colonels are Overton, whom we knew at Hull ; Pride, whom we have seen in West- minster Hall; and a taciturn man, much given to chewing tobacco, whom we have transiently seen in various places, Colonel George Monk by name. 4 An excellent officer ; listens to what you say, answers often by a splash of brown juice merely, but punctually does what is doable of it. Pudding- headed Hodgson the Yorkshire Captain is also there; from whom perhaps we may glean a rough lucent-point or two. The Army, as my Lord General attracts it gradually from the right and left on his march northward, amounts at Tweedsicle to some sixteen thousand horse and foot. 6 Kushworth goes with him as Secretary ; historical John ; having now done with Fair- tax : but, alas, his Papers for this Period are all lost to us : it was not safe to print them with the others ; and they are lost ! The Historical Collections, with their infinite rubbish 1 Tanner MSS. (in Gary, ii. 222). a Commons Journals, in die. 8 Whitlocke, pp. 446, 447, * Life of Monk, by Gamble, his Chaplain. 6 Train, 690; horse, 5,415; foot, 10^249, in toto, 16,3J>4 ( Ci oi p. 85). lew. LETTER CXXXIV. ALNWICK. 103 and their modicum of jewels, cease at the Trial of the King ; leaving us, fallen into far worse hands, to repent of our im- patience, and regret the useful John ! The following Letters, without commentary, which stingy space will not permit, must note the Lord General's progress for us as they can ; and illuminate with here and there a rude gleiim of direct light at first-hand, an old scene very obsolete, confused, unexplored and dim for us. LETTER CXXXIV. DOROTHY CROMWELL, we are happy to find, has a " little brat ; " but the poor little thing must have died soon : in Noble's inexact lists there is no trace of its ever having lived. The Lord General has got into Northumberland. He has a good excuse for being " silent this way," the way of Letters. " For my very loving Brother Richard Mayor, Esquire, at his House at Hursley : These. , 17th July, 1650. "DEAR BROTHER, The exceeding crowd of business I had at London is the best excuse I can make for my silence this way. Indeed, Sir, my heart beareth me witness I want no affection to you or yours ; you are all often in my poor prayers. "I should be glad to hear how the little Brat doth. I could chide both Father and Mother for their neglects of me : I know my Son is idle, but I had better thoughts of Doll. I doubt now her Husband hath spoiled her; pray tell her so from me. If I had as good leisure as they, I should write sometimes. If my Daughter be brooding. I will excuse her; but not for her nursery ! The Lord bless them. I hope you give my Son good counsel ; I believe he needs it. He is in the dangerous time of his age; and it's a very vain world 104 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. nJuly, Oh, how good it is to close with Christ betimes; there is nothing else worth the looking after. I beseech you call upon him, I hope you will discharge my duty and your own love : you see how I am employed. I need pity. I know what I feel. Great place and business in the world is not worth the looking after ; I should have no comfort in mine but that my hope is in the Lord's presence. I have not sought these things ; truly I have been called unto them by the Lord ; and therefore am not without some assurance that He will enable His poor worm and weak servant to do His will, and to fulfil my generation. In this I desire your prayers. Desiring to be lovingly remembered to my dear Sister, to our Son and Daughter, to my Cousin Ann and the good Family, I rest, " Your very affectionate brother, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 1 On Monday, 22d July, the Army, after due rendezvousing and reviewing, passed through Berwick ; and encamped at Mor- dington across the Border, where a fresh stay of two days is still necessary. Scotland is bare of resources for us. That night " the Scotch beacons were all set on fire ; the men fled, and drove away their cattle." Mr. Bret, his Excellency's Trumpeter, returns from Edinburgh without symptom of pacification. " The Clergy represent us to the people as if we were monsters of the world." " Army of Sectaries and Blas- phemers," is the received term for us among the Scots. 2 Already on the march hitherward, and now by Mr. Bret in an official way, have due Manifestoes been promulgated : Decla- ration To all that are Saints and Partakers of the faith of God's Elect in Scotland, and Proclamation To the People of Scotland in general. Asking of the mistaken People, in mild terms, Did you not see us, and try us, what kind of men we were, when we came among you two years ago ? Did you find us plunderers, murderers, monsters of the world ? " Whose ox have we stolen ? " To the mistaken Saints of God in Scot- land, again, the Declaration testifies and argues, in a grand 1 Harris, p. 513 : one of the Pusey stock. * Balfour, iv. 97, 100, &c. : " Cromwell the Blasphemer " (ib. 88). 1R50. LETTER CXXXIV. ALNWICK. 105 earnest way, That in Charles Stuart and his party there can be no salvation ; that we seek the real substance of the Cove- nant, which it is perilous to desert for the mere outer form thereof ; on the whole, that we are not sectaries and blas- phemers ; and that it goes against our heart to hurt a hair of any sincere servant of God. Very earnest Documents ; signed by John Itusb worth in the name of General and Officers ; often printed and reprinted. 1 They bear Oliver's sense in every feature of them ; but are not distinctly of his compo- sition: wherefore, as space grows more and more precious, and Oliver's sense will elsewhere sufficiently appear, we omit them. " The Scots," says Whitlocke, 1 " are all gone with their goods towards Edinburgh, by command of the Estates of Scotland, upon penalty if they did not remove ; so that mostly all the men are gone. But the wives stay behind ; and some of them do bake and brew, to provide bread and drink for the English Army." The public functionaries " have told the people, 'That the English Army intends to put all the men to the sword, and to thrust hot irons through the women's breasts ; ' which much terrified them, till once the General's Procla- mations were published." And now the wives do stay behind, ami brew and bake, poor wives ! That Monday night while we lay at Mordington, with hard accommodation out of doors and in, my pudding-headed friend informs me of a thing. The General has made a large Discourse to the Officers and Army, now that we are across ; speaks to them " as a Christian and a Soldier, To be doubly and trebly diligent, to be wary and worthy, for sure enough we have work before us ! But have we not had God's bless- ing hitherto ? Let us go on faithfully, and hope for the like still!" 1 The Army answered "with acclamations," still audible to me. Yorkshire Hodgson continues: " Well ; that night we pitched at Mordington, about the House. Our Officers," General and StulT Officers, " hearing a great shout among the soldiers, looked out of window. They 1 Newspapers (iu I'arl. Hut. xix. 298, 310) ; Com. Jour. 19th July, 1650. p. 450. Hodgson, p. 130; Whitlocke, p. 450. 106 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 80 July, spied a soldier with a Scotch kirn [churn] ou his head. Some of them had been purveying abroad, and had found a vessel tilled with Scotch cream : bringing the reversion of it to their tents, some got dishf uls, and some hatfuls j and the cream being now low in the vessel, one fellow would have a modest drink, and so lifts the kirn to his mouth : but another canting it up, it falls over his head ; and the man is lost in it, all the cream trickles down his apparel, and his head fast in the tub ! This was a merriment to the Officers ; as Oliver loved an innocent jest." A week after, we find the General very serious; writing thus to the Lord President Bradshaw. LETTER CXXXV. " COPPERSPATH," of which the General here speaks, is the country pronunciation of Cockburuspath ; name of a wild rock- and-river chasm, through which the great road goes, some miles to the eastward of Dunbar. Of which we shall tear again. A very wild road at that time, as may still be seen. The ravine is now spanned by a beautiful Bridge, called Pease Bridge, or Path's Bridge, which pleasure-parties go to visit. The date of this Letter, in all the old Newspapers, is " 30th July," and doubtless in the Original too ; * but the real day, as appears by the context, is Wednesday, 31st. " To the Right Honorable the Lord President of the Council of State: These. " MCSSELBUEGH, 30th July, 1650. " MY LORD, We marched from Berwick upon Monday, being the 22d of July; and lay at my Lord Mordiugton's house, Monday night, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday we marched to Copperspath ; on Friday to Dunbar, where we got some small pittance from our ships ; from whence we marched to Haddington. 1 "Letter from the General, dated 30 Julii " (Commons Journals, vi. 451). 1680. LETTER CXXXV. MUSSELBURGH. 107 "On the Lord's-day, hearing that the Scottish Array meant to meet us at Gladsmoor, we labored to possess the Moor before them ; and beat our drums very early in the morning. But when we came there, no considerable body of the Army appeared. Whereupon fourteen hundred horse, under the command of Major-General Lambert and Colonel Whalley, were sent as a vanguard to Musselburgh, to see likewise if they could find out and attempt anything upon the Enemy ; I marching in the heel of them with the residue of the Army. Our party encountered with some of their horse; but they could not abide us. We lay at Musselburgh, encamped close, that night ; the Enemy's Army lying between Edinburgh and Leith, about four miles from us, entrenched by a Line flank- ered from Edinburgh to Leith; the guns also from Leith scouring most part of the Line, so that they lay very strong. " Upon Monday, 29th instant, we were resolved to draw up to them, to see if they would fight with us. And when we came upon the place, we resolved to get our cannons as near them as we could ; hoping thereby to annoy them. We like- wise perceived that they had some force upon a Hill that overlooks Edinburgh, from whence we might be annoyed ; [and] did resolve to send up a party to possess the said Hill ; which prevailed : but, upon the whole, we did find that their Army were not easily to be attempted. Whereupon we lay still all the said day ; which proved to be so sore a day and night of rain as I have seldom seen, and greatly to our disad- vantage ; the Enemy having enough to cover them, and we nothing at all considerable. 1 Our soldiers did abide this diffi- culty with great courage and resolution, hoping thoy should speedily come to fight. In the morning, the ground being very wet, [and] our provisions scarce, we resolved to draw back to our quarters at Musselburgh, there to refresh and revictual. "Tin- Knciny, when we drew off, fell upon our rear; and put them into some little disorder: but our bodies of horse being in some readiness, came to a grabble with them ; where 1 " NVnr -\ lilt It- \ illain- named. I think, Lii-huagarie," means, Lang Niddery n |. I i.M ; the Niitit'-i-ti n<-ar Dmliliiitfston, .still deservedly called I.iin'i l.y tii- jMN.pl.- though inaji maker- :ip|*-ud the epithet elsewhere. 108 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 30 July, indeed there was a gallant and hot dispute ; the Major-Gen- eral 1 and Colonel Whalley being in the rear ; and the Enemy drawing out great bodies to second their first affront. Our men charged them up to the very trenches, and beat them in. The Major-General's horse was shot in the neck and head; himself run through the arm with a lance, and run into an- other place of his body, was taken prisoner by the Enemy, but rescued immediately by Lieutenant Empson of my regi- ment. Colonel Whalley, who was then nearest to the Major- General, did charge very resolutely ; and repulsed the Enemy, and killed divers of them upon the place, and took some pris- oners, without any considerable loss. Which indeed did so amaze and quiet them, that we marched off to Musselburgh, but they dared not send out a man to trouble us. We hear their young King looked on upon all this, but was very ill satisfied to see their men do no better. " We came to Musselburgh that night ; so tired and wearied for want of sleep, and so dirty by reason of the wetness of the weather, that we expected the Enemy would make an in fall upon us. Which accordingly they did, between three and four of the clock this morning; with fifteen of their most select troops, under the command of Major-General Montgomery and Strahan, two champions of the Church : upon which busi- ness there was great hope and expectation laid. The Enemy came on with a great deal of resolution ; beat in our guards, and put a regiment of horse in some disorder : but our men, speedily taking the alarm, charged the Enemy ; routed them, took many prisoners, killed a great many of them j did execu- tion [to] within a quarter of a mile of Edinburgh ; and, I am informed, Strahan 2 was killed there, besides divers other Offi- cers of quality. We took the Major to Strahan's regiment, Major Hamilton ; a Lieutenant-Colonel, and divers other Offi- cers, and persons of quality, whom yet ,ve know not. Indeed this is a sweet beginning of your business, or rather the Lord's; 1 Lambert. 2 We shall hear of Strahan again, not "killed." This Montgomery is the Earl of Eglinton's son Robert, of whom we heard before (Letter LXXVIII. vol. xvii. p. 375) neither i.s he " slaiii," as will be seeii by aud by. 1050. LETTER CXXXV. MUSSELBURGH. 109 and I believe is not very satisfactory to the Enemy, especially to the Kirk party. We did not lose any in this business, so far as I hear, but a Cornet ; I do not hear of four men more. The Major-General will, I believe, within few days be well to take the field. And I trust this work, which is the Lord's, will prosper in the hands of His servants. " I did not think advisable to attempt upon the Enemy, lying as he doth : but surely this would sufficiently provoke him to fight if he had a mind to. I do not think he is less than Six or Seven Thousand horse, and Fourteen or Fifteen Thousand foot. The reason, I hear, that they give out to their people why they do not fight us, is, Because they expect many bodies of men more out of the North of Scotland ; which when they come, they give out they will then engage. But I believe they would rather tempt us to attempt them in their fastness, within which they are entrenched ; or else hoping we shall famish for want of provisions ; which is very likely to be, if we be not timely and fully supplied. I remain, my Lord, " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. "[P.S.] I understand, since writing of this Letter, that Major-General Montgomery is slain." * Cautious David Lesley lies thus within his Line " flankered " from Leith shore to the Calton Hill, with guns to " scour " it ; with outposts or flying parties, as we see, stationed on the back slope of Salisbury Crags or Arthur's Seat ; with all Edinburgh safe behind him, and indeed all Scotland safe behind him, for supplies : and nothing can tempt him to come out. The factions and distractions of Scotland, and its Kirk Committees and State Committees, and poor Covenanted King and Courtiers, are many : but Lesley, standing steadily to his guns, persists here. His Army, it appears, is no great things of an Army : " altogether governed by the Committee of Es- and Kirk," snarls an angry 6%coveuanted Courtier, whom the said Committee has just ordered to take himself 1 Newspapers (iu CromwvUiana, pp. 85, 86). 110 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 3 Aug. away again ; " altogether governed by the Committee of Estates and Kirk," snarls he, "and they took especial care in their levies not to admit any Malignants or Engagers [who had been in Hamilton's Engagement] ; placing in command, for most part, Ministers' Sons, Clerks and other sanctified crea- tures, who hardly ever saw or heard of any sword but that of the spirit ! " 1 The more reason for Lesley to lie steadily within his Line here. Lodged in " Bruchton Village," which means Broughton, now a part of Edinburgh New Town ; there in a cautious solid manner lies Lesley ; and lets Cromwell attempt upon him. It is his history, the military history of these two, for a month to come. Meanwhile the General Assembly have not been backward with their Answer to the Cromwell Manifesto, or " Declaration of the English Army to all the Saints in Scotland," spoken of above. Nay, already while he lay at Berwick, they had drawn up an eloquent Counter-Declaration, and sent it to him ; which he, again, has got " some godly Ministers " of his to declare against and reply to : the whole of which Declarations, Replies and Re-replies shall, like the primary Document itself, remain suppressed on the present occasion. 2 But along witli this " Reply by some godly Ministers," the Lord General sends a Letter of his own, which is here : LETTER CXXXVI. " To the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland; or, in case of their not sitting, To the Commissioners of the Kirk of Scotland : These. " MDSSELBURGH, 3d August, 1650. " SIRS, Your Answer to the Declaration of the Army we have seen. Some godly Ministers with us did, at Berwick, compose this Reply ; s which I thought fit to send you. 1 Sir Edward Walker, Historical Discourses (London, 1705), p. 162. 2 Titles of them, copies of several of them, in Parliamentary History, xix. 8 The Scotch " Answer " which " we have seen," dated Edinburgh, 22d July, 1650, "Answer unto the Declaration of the Army;" and then thia 1650. LETTER CXXXVI. MUSSELBURGH. Ill " That you or we, in these great Transactions, answer the will and mind of God, it is only from His grace and mercy to us. And therefore, having said as in our Papers, we commit the issue thereof to Him who disposeth all things, assuring you that we have light and comfort increasing upon us, day by day ; and 1 are persuaded that, before it be long, the Lord will manifest His good pleasure, so that all shall see Him ; and His People shall say, This is the Lord's work, and it is marvellous in our eyes : this is the day that the Lord hath made ; we will be glad and rejoice therein. Only give me leave to say, in a word [thus much] : " You take upon you to judge us in the things of our God, though you know us not, though in the things we have said unto you, in that which is entitled the Army's Declaration, we have spoken our hearts as in the sight of the Lord who hath tried us. And by your hard and subtle words you have be- gotten prejudice in those who do too much, in matters of conscience, wherein every soul is to answer for itself to God, depend upon you. So that some have already fol- lowed you, to the breathing out of their souls : l [and] others continue still in the way wherein they are led by you, we fear, to their own ruin. " And no marvel if you deal thus with us, when indeed you can find in your hearts to conceal from your own people the Papers we have sent you ; who might thereby see and under- stand the bowels of our affections to them, especially to such among them as fear the Lord. Send as many of your Papers as you please amongst ours; 2 they have a free passage. I fear them not. What is of God in them, would it might be embraced and received! One of them lately sent, directed To the Under-Officers and Soldiers in the English Army, hath begotten from them this enclosed Answer ; * which they desired Englinh " Reply" to it now sent, entitled " Vindication of the Declaration of the Army : " in King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 475, 15 (Printed, London, 16th Ang. 1650). 1 In the Muaselburgh Skirmish, &c. * Oar people. * Tlie Si-'.f-h Paper " To the Under-Offioers," &c., received on the last day of Joljr ; and close following on it, this " Answer " which it " hath begotten 112 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND, 3 Aug. me to send to you : not a crafty politic one, but a plain simple spiritual one ; what kind of one it is, God knoweth, and God also will in due time make manifest. " And do we multiply these things, 1 as men ; or do we them for the Lord Christ and His People's sake ? Indeed we are not, through the grace of God, afraid of your numbers, nor confident in ourselves. We could I pray God you do not think we boast meet your Army, or what you have to bring against us. We have given humbly we speak it before our God, in whom all our hope is some proof that thoughts of that kind prevail not upon us. The Lord hath not hid His face from us since our approach so near unto you. " Your own guilt is too much for you to bear : bring not therefore upon yourselves the blood of innocent men, de- ceived with pretences of King and Covenant ; from whose eyes you hide a better knowledge ! I am persuaded that divers of you, who lead the People, have labored to build yourselves in these things ; wherein you have censured others, and estab- lished yourselves ' upon the Word of God.' Is it therefore infallibly agreeable to the Word of God, all that you say ? I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. Precept may be upon precept, line may be upon line, and yet the Word of the Lord may be to some a Word of Judgment ; that they may fall backward, and be broken and be snared and be taken ! 2 There may be a spiritual fulness, which the World may call drunkenness ; 8 as in the second from them," addressed To the People of Scotland (especially those among them thdt know and fear the T^ord) from whom yesterday we received a Paper directed To the Under- Officers &c. ; of date " Musselburgh, 1st August, 1650:" in King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 475, 10 (Printed, London, 12th August, 1650). This Answer " by the Under-Officere," a very pious and zealous Piece, seems to have found favor among the pious Scots, and to have circulated among them in Manuscript Copies. A most mutilated unintelligible Frag- ment, printed in Anakcta Scolica (Edinburgh, 1834), ii. 271, as "a Procla- mation by Oliver Cromwell," turns out to be in reality a fraction of this " Answer by the Under-Officers : " printed there from a " Copy evidently made at the time," evidently a most ruinous Copy, " and now in the possession of James Mackuight, Esq." 1 Papers and Declarations. 2 Bible phrases. 8 As you now do of us ; while it is rather you that are " drunk." 1650. LETTER CXXXVI. MUSSELBITRGH. 113 Chapter of the Acts. There may be, as well, a carnal confi- dence upon misunderstood and misapplied precepts, which may be called spiritual drunkenness. There may be a Covenant made with Death and Hell ! 1 I will not say yours was so. But judge if such things have a politic aim: To avoid the ('V.-i-fknviug scourge; 1 or, To accomplish worldly interests? And if therein we 2 have confederated with wicked and carnal UK 11, and have respect for them, or otherwise [have] drawn them in to associate with us, Whether this be a Covenant of God, and spiritual ? Bethink yourselves ; we hope we do. "I pray you read the Twenty-eighth of Isaiah, from the fifth to the fifteenth verse. And do not scorn to know that it is the Spirit that quickens and giveth life. " The Lord give you and us understanding to do that which is well-pleasing in His sight. Committing you to the grace of God, I rest, u Your humble servant, "OLIVEB CROMWELL."* Here is the passage from Isaiah ; I know not whether the General Assembly read it and laid it well to heart, or not, but it was worth their while, and is worth our while too : "In that day shall the Lord of Hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of His people. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. " But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of tho way ! The Priest and the Prophet have rrn-d through strong drink ; they are swallowed up of wine ; they are out of tho way through strong drink. They err in vision, they stunihle in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and Hlthim-ss ; so that there is no place clean. " Whom shall He teach knowledge ? Whom shall He make to understand doctrine ? Them that are weaned from the inilk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon 1 Bible phraMft. 2 you. * Newspaper* (in Parliamentary History, xix. 320-323). TO,. XTIII. 8 114 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 3 Aug. precept, precept upon precept ; line upon line, line upon line ; here a little and there a little. For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people. To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshment; yet they would not hear." No. " The Word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little, That they might go, and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken! Wherefore hear ye the Word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people which is in Jeru- salem." Yes, hear it, and not with the outward ear only, ye Kirk Committees, and Prophesying and Governing Persons every- where : it may be important to you ! If God have said it, if the Eternal Truth of things have said it, will it not need to be done, think you ? Or will the doing some distracted shadow of it, some Covenanted Charles Stuart of it, suffice ? The Kirk Committee seems in a bad way. David Lesley, however, what as yet is in their favor, con- tinues within his Line ; stands steadily to his guns ; and the weather is wet ; Oliver's provision is failing. This Letter to the Kirk was written on Saturday : on the Monday following, 1 " about the 6th of August," as Major Hodgson dates it, the tempestuous state of the weather not permitting ship-stores to be landed at Musselburgh, Cromwell has to march his Army back to Dunbar, and there provision it. Great joy in the Kirk-and-Estates Committee thereupon: Lesley steadily con- tinues in his place. The famine among the Scots themselves, at Dunbar, is great ; picking our horses' beans, eating our soldiers' leavings : " they are much enslaved to their Lords," poor creatures ; almost destitute of private capital, and ignorant of soap to a terrible extent. 2 Cromwell distributes among them "pease and wheat to the value of 240." On the 12th here turns to Musselburgh ; finds, as heavy Bulstrode spells it in good Scotch, with a friskiness we hardly looked for in him, That Lesley has 1 Balfonr, iv. 89. 2 Whitlocke, p. 452. lew. LETTER CXXXVI. MUSSELBURGH. 115 commanded " The gude women should awe come away with their gear, and not stay to brew or bake, any of them, for the English ; " which makes it a place more forlorn than before. 1 Oliver decides to encamp on the Peutland Hills, which lie on the other side of Edinburgh, overlooking the Fife and Stirling roads ; and to try whether he cannot force Lesley to fight, by cutting off his supplies. Here, in the mean time, is a Letter from Lesley himself; written in "Brougbton Village," pre- cisely while Oliver is on march towards the Pentlands : " For his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell. "BHDCHTON, 13th August, 1650. "MY LORD, I am commanded by the Committee of Es- tates of this Kingdom, and desired by the Commissioners of the General Assembly, to send unto your Excellency this en- closed Declaration, as that which containeth the State of the Quarrel ; wherein we are resolved, by the Lord's assistance, to fight your Army, when the Lord shall be pleased to call us thereunto. And as you have professed you will not conceal any of our Papers, I do desire that this Declaration may be made known to all the Officers of your Army. And so I rest, " Your Excellency's most humble servant, " DAVID LESLEY." 8 This Declaration, done by the Kirk, and endorsed by the Estates, we shall not on the present occasion make known, even though it is brief. The reader shall fancy it a brief em- phatic disclaimer, on the part of Kirk and State, of their hav- ing anything to do with Malignants ; disclaimer in emphatic words, while the emphatic facts continue as they were. Dis- tinct hope, however, is held out that the Covenanted King will testify openly his sorrow for his Father's Malignancies, and his own resolution for a quite other course. To which Oliver, from the slope of the Pentlands,* returns this an awer; Whitlocke, p 45.1. 1 Newspapers (in 1'tirlinmnitary History, xix. 330). " about Cnlintuii " ( Uulfour, iv. 90)./ 116 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 14 Aug. LETTER CXXXVII. For the Right Honorable David Lesley, Lieutenant- General of the Scots Army : These. THE CAMP AT PENTLAND HILLS, 14th August, 1650. "SiR, I received yours of the 13th instant; with the Paper you mentioned therein, enclosed, which I caused to be read in the presence of so many Officers as could well be gotten together; to which your Trumpet can witness. We return you this answer. By which I hope, in the Lord, it will appear that we continue the same we have professed ourselves to the Honest People in Scotland ; wishing to them as to our own souls ; it being no part of our business to hinder any of them from worshipping God in that way they are satisfied in their consciences by the Word of God they ought, though different from us, but shall therein be ready to perform what obligation lies upon us by the Covenant. 1 "But that under the pretence of the Covenant, mistaken, and wrested from the most native intent and equity thereof, a King should be taken in by you, to be imposed upon us ; and this [be] called ' the Cause of God and the Kingdom ; ' and this done upon ' the satisfaction of God's People in both Nations/ as is alleged, together with a disowning of Malig- nants ; although he 2 who is the head of them, in whom all their hope and comfort lies, be received ; who, at this very in- stant, hath a Popish Army fighting for and under him in Ire- land ; hath Prince Rupert, a man who hath had his hand deep in the blood of many innocent men of England, now in the head of our Ships, stolen from us upon a Malignant account ; hath the French and Irish ships daily making depredations on our coasts ; and strong combinations by the Malignants in England, to raise Armies in our bowels, by virtue of his com- missions, who hath of late issued out very many to that pur- pose : How the [Godly] Interest you pretend you have 1 Ungrammatical, but intelligible and characteristic. Charles Stuart. irjW. LETTER CXXXVII. PENTLAND HILLS. 117 received him upon, and the Malignant Interests in their ends and consequences [all] centring in this man, can be secured, we cannot discern ! And how we should believe, that whilst known and notorious Malignants are fighting and plotting against us on the one hand, and you declaring for him on the other, it should not be an ' espousing of a Malignant Party's Quarrel or Interest;' but be a mere 'fighting upon former grounds and principles, and in defence of the Cause of God and the Kingdoms, a.s hath been these twelve years last past,' as you say : how this should be ' for the security and satisfac- tion of God's People in both Nations ; ' or [how] the opposing of this should render us enemies to the Godly with you, we cannot well understand. Especially considering that all these Malignants take their confidence arid encouragement from the late transactions of your Kirk and State with your King. For as we have already said, so we tell you again, It is but [some] satisfying security to those who employ us, and [who] are con- cerned, that we seek. Which we conceive will not be by a few formal and feigned Submissions, from a Person that could not tell otherwise how to accomplish his Malignant ends, and [is] therefore counselled to this compliance, by them who assisted his Father, and have hitherto actuated himself in his most evil and desperate designs ; designs which are now again by them set on foot. Against which, How you will be able, in the way you are in, to secure us or yourselves ? [this it now] is (for as much as concerns ourselves) our duty to look after. " If the state of your Quarrel be thus, upon which, as you say, you resolve to fight our Army, you will have opportunity to do that ; else what means our abode here ? And if our hope be not in the Lord, it will be ill with us. We commit both you and ourselves to Him who knows the heart and tries the reins ; with whom are all our ways ; who is able to do for us and you above what we know : Which we desire may be in much mercy to His poor People, and to the glory of His great Name. " And having performed your desire, in making your Papers so public as is Injforu 'xpressed, I desire you to do the like, by letting the Stat-, Kirk and Army have the knowledge hereot 118 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. i4Aug. To which end I have sent you enclosed two Copies [of this Letter] ; and rest, " Your humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." * The encampment on Pentland Hills, "some of our tents within sight of Edinburgh Castle and City," threatens to cut off Lesley's supplies ; but will not induce him to fight. " The gude wives fly with their bairns and gear " in great terror of us, poor gude wives ; and " when we set fire to furze-bushes, report that we are burning their houses." a Great terror of us ; but no other result. Lesley brings over his guns to the western side of Edinburgh, and awaits, steady within his fastnesses there. Hopes have arisen that the Godly Party in Scotland, seeing now by these Letters and Papers what our real meaning is, may perhaps quit a Malignant King's Interest, and make blood- less peace with us, " which were the best of all." The King boggles about signing that open Testimony, that Declaration against his Father's sins, which was expected of him. " A great Commander of the Enemy's, Colonel Gibby Carre " (Colonel Gilbert Ker, of whom we shall hear farther), solicits an inter- view with some of ours, and has it ; and other interviews and free communings take place, upon the Burrow-Moor and open fields that lie between us. Gibby Ker, and also Colonel Strahan who was thought to be slain : 8 these and some minority of others are clear against Malignancy in every form ; and if the Cove- nanted Stuart King will not sign this Declaration ! Where- upon the Covenanted Stuart King does sign it ; signs this too, 4 1 Newspapers (in Parliamentary History, xix. 331-333). 2 Narrative of Farther Proceedings, dated " From the Camp in Musselbnrgh Fields, 16th August, 1650;" read in the Parliament 22d August (Commons Journals) ; reprinted in Parliamentary History (xix. 327) as a " Narrative by General Cromwell ; " though it is clearly enough not General Cromwell's, hut John Rushworth's. 8 Letter CXXXV. antea, p. 106. 4 At our Court at Dunfermline this 16th day of August, 1650 (Sir Edward Walker, pp. 170-176; by whom the melancholy Document is, with due loyal indignation, given at large there). 1650. LETTER CXXXVIII. MUSSELBURGH. 119 what will he not sign ? and these hopes of accommoda- tion vanish. " Neither still will they risk a Battle ; though in their inter- views upon the Burrow-Moor, they said they longed to do it. Vain that we draw out in battalia ; they lie within their fast- nesses. We march, with defiant circumstance of war, round all accessible sides of Edinburgh ; encamp on the Pentlands, return to Musselburgh for provisions ; go to the Pentlands again, enjoy one of the beautifulest prospects, over deep-blue seas, over yellow cornfields, dusky Highland mountains, from Ben Lomond round to the Bass again ; but can get no Battle. And the weather is broken, and the season is advancing, equinox within ten days, by the modern Almanac. Our men fall sick ; the service is harassing ; and it depends on wind and tide whether even biscuit can be landed for us nearer than I )unbar. Here is the Lord General's own Letter " to a Member of the Council of State," we might guess this or the other, but cannot with the least certainty know which, LETTER CXXXTTTI. [To Council of State in Whitehall: These."] " MUBSELBURGII, 30th August, 1650. " SIR, Since my last, we seeing the Enemy not willing to engage, and yet very apt to take exceptions against speeches of that kind sjMtkcn in our Army ; which occasioned some of them to come to parley with our Officers, To let them know that they would fight us, they lying still in or near their fastnesses, on the west side of Edinburgh, we resolved, the Lord assisting, to draw near to them once more, to try if we could fight them. And indeed one hour's advantage gained might probably, we think, have given us an oppor- tunity. 1 "To which purpose, upon Tuesday, the 27th instant, we 1 Had we come ouo hour sooner : but wo did not 120 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 30 Aug. marched westward of Edinburgh towards Stirling; which the Enemy perceiving, marched with as great expedition as was possible to prevent us ; and the vanguards of both the Armies came to skirmish, upon a place where bogs and passes made the access of each Army to the other difficult. We, being ignorant of the place, drew up, hoping to have engaged; but found no way feasible, by reason of the bogs and other difficulties. " We drew up our cannon, and did that day discharge two or three hundred great shot upon them ; a considerable number they likewise returned to us : and this was all that passed from each to other. Wherein we had near twenty killed and wounded, but not one Commission Officer. The Enemy, as we are informed, had about eighty killed, and some considerable Officers. Seeing they would keep their ground, from which we could not remove them, and our bread being spent, we were necessitated to go for a new supply : and so marched off about ten or eleven o'clock on Wednesday morning. 1 The Enemy perceiving it, and, as we conceive, fearing we might interpose between them and Edinburgh, though it was not our intention, albeit it seemed so by our march, retreated back again, with all haste ; having a bog and passes between them and us : and there followed no considerable action, saving the skirmishing of the van of our horse with theirs, near to Edin- burgh, without any considerable loss to either party, saving that we got two or three of their horses. " That [Wednesday] night we quartered within a mile of Edinburgh and of the Enemy. It was a most tempestuous night and wet morning. The Enemy marched in the night between Leith and Edinburgh, to interpose between us and our victual, they knowing that it was spent ; but the Lord in mercy prevented it; and we, perceiving in the morning, got, time enough, through the goodness of the Lord, to the seaside, to re-victual ; the Enemy being drawn up upon the Hill near 1 We drew towards our old Camp, one of our old Camps, that Wednesday ; aud off to Musselburgh " for a new supply " next morning. Old Camp, or Bivouac, " on Pentland Hills," says vague Hodgsou (p. 142) ; " within a mile of Edinburgh," says Cromwell in this Letter, who of course knows well. 1650. LETTER CXXXVIII. MUSSELBURGH. 121 Arthur's Seat, looking upon us, but not attempting any- thing. " And thus you have an account of the present occurrences. " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* The scene of this Tuesday's skirmish, and cannonade across bogs, has not been investigated ; though an antiquarian Topog- rapher might find worse work for himself. Hough Hodgson, very uncertain in his spellings, calls it Gawger Field, which will evidently take us to Gogar on the western road there. The Scotch Editor of Hodgson says farther, " The Water of Leith lay between the two Armies ; " which can be believed or not ; which indeed turns out to be unbelievable. Yorkshire Hodgson's troop received an ugly cannon-shot while they stood at prayers ; just with the word Amen, came the ugly cannon- shot singing, but it hurt neither horse nor man. We also " gave them an English shout " at one time, along the whole line, 2 making their Castle-rocks and Pentlands ring again ; but could get no Battle out of them, for the bogs. Here, in reference to those matters, is an Excerpt which, in spite of imperfections, may be worth transcribing. " The Eng- lish Army lay " at first " near Musselburgh, about Stony Hill. But shortly after, they marched up to Braid House," to Braid Hills, to Pentland Hills, Colinton and various other Hills and Houses in succession ; " and the Scots Army, being put in some readiness, marched up to Corstorphine Hill. But because the English feared it was too near the Castle of Edinburgh, they would not hazard battle there. Wherefore both Armies marched to Gogar, Tuesday, August 27th ; and played each upon other with their great guns : but because of Gogar Burn (Brook} and other ditches betwixt the Armies, they could not join battle. Next day, about mid-day," more precisely Wednes- day about ten or eleven o'clock, " the English began to retire ; and went first to their Leaguer at Braid Hills," within a mile of Edinburgh as their General says. " The English removing, 1 Newspapcra (in Parliamentary History, xix. 339). j, |>. lil. 122 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 30 Aug. the Scots followed by Corstorphine the long gate " (roundabout road), which is hard ground, and out of shot-range. " The English," some of them, " marched near to Musselburgh ; and, in the mid night, planted some guns in iNiddry : the Scots having marched about the Hill of Arthur's Seat, towards Craig- millar, there planted some guns against those in Niddry ; " x and in fact, as we have seen, were drawn up on Arthur's Seat on the morrow morning, looking on amid the rain, and not attempting anything. The Lord General writes this Letter at Musselburgh on Fri- day, the 30th, the morrow after his return : and directly on the heel of it there is a Council of War held, and an impor- tant resolution taken. With sickness, and the wild weather coming on us, rendering even victual uncertain, and no Battle to be had, we clearly cannot continue here. Dun bar, which has a harbor, we might fortify for a kind of citadel and winter- quarter ; let us retire at least to Dunbar, to be near our sole friends in this country, our Ships. On the morrow evening, Saturday, the Slst, the Lord General fired his huts, and marched towards Dunbar. At sight whereof Lesley rushes out upon him; has his vanguard iu Prestonpans before our rear got away. Saturday night through Haddington, and all Sunday to Dunbar, Lesley hangs, close and heavy, on Cromwell's rear ; on Sunday night bends southward to the hills that overlook Dunbar, and hems him in there. As will be more specially related in the next fascicle of Letters. LETTERS CXXXIX.-CXLVL BATTLE OF DUNBAR. THE small Town of Dunbar stands, high and windy, looking down over its herring-boats, over its grim old Castle now much honey-combed, on one of those projecting rock-promonto- 1 Collections by a Private Hand, at Edinburgh, from 1650 to 1661 (Wood- row MSS.), printed in Historical Fragments on Scotch Affairs from 1635 to 1664 r-Minbnrgh, 1832), Part i. pp. 27, 28. 1680. DTJNBAR BATTLE. 123 ries with which that shore of the Frith of Forth is niched and vandyked, as far as the eye can reach. A beautiful sea; good land too, now that the plougher understands his trade ; a grim niched barrier of whinstone sheltering it from the chaf- ings and tumblings of the big blue German Ocean. Seaward St. Abb's Head, of whinstone, bounds your horizon to the east, not very far off ; west, close by, is the deep bay, and fishy little village of Belhaven : the gloomy Bass and other rock- islets, and farther the Hills of Fife, and foreshadows of the Highlands, are visible as you look seaward. From the bot- tom of Belhaven bay to that of the next sea-bight St. Abb's- ward, the Town and its environs form a peninsula. Along the base of which peninsula, " not much above a mile and a half from sea to sea," Oliver Cromwell's Army, on Monday, 2d of September, 1650, stands ranked, with its tents and Town behind it, in very forlorn circumstances. This now is all the ground that Oliver is lord of in Scotland. His Ships lie in the offing, with biscuit and transport for him ; but visible elsewhere in the Earth no help. Landward as you look from the Town of Dunbar there rises, some short mile off, a dusky continent of barren heath Hills ; the Lammermoor, where oury mountain-sheep can be at home. The crossing of which, by any of its boggy passes, and brawling stream-courses, no Army, hardly a solitary Scotch Packman could attempt, in such weather. To the edge of these Lammermoor Heights, David Lesley has betaken him- self; lies now along the outmost spur of them, a long Hill of considerable height, which the Dunbar people call the Dun, Doon, or sometimes for fashion's sake 'the Down, adding to it the Teutonic Hill likewise, though Dun itself in old Celtic signifies Hill. On this Doon Hill lies David Lesley with the victorious Scotch Army, upwards of twenty thousand strong; with tin- Commit t.-rs <-f Kirk and Estates, the chief Dignita- ries of tin- Country, and in fact the flower of what the pure Covenant in this the twelfth year of its existence can still bring forth. There lies he since Sunday night, on the top and slope of this Doon Hill, with tin; impassable heath-continents behind him ; embraces, as within outspread tiger-claws, the 124 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 2 Sept. base-line of Oliver's Dunbar peninsula; waiting what Oliver will do. Cockburnspath with its ravines has been seized on Oliver's left, and made impassable ; behind Oliver is the sea ; in front of him Lesley, Doon Hill, and the heath-continent of Lammermoor. Lesley's force is of three-and-twenty thou- sand, 1 in spirits as of men chasing, Oliver's about half as many, in spirits as of men chased. What is to become of Oliver ? LETTER CXXXIX. HASELRIG, as we know, is Governor of Newcastle. Oliver on Monday writes this Note ; means to send it off, I suppose, by sea. Making no complaint for himself, the remarkable Oliver ; doing, with grave brevity, in the hour the business of the hour. " He was a strong man," so intimates Charles Har- vey, who knew him : " in the dark perils of war, in the high places of the field, hope shone in him like a pillar of fire, when it had gone out in all the others." a A genuine King among men, Mr. Harvey. The divinest sight this world sees, when it is privileged to see such, and not be sickened with the un- holy apery of such ! He is just now upon an " engagement," or complicated concern, " very difficult." " To the Honorable Sir Arthur Haselng, at Newcastle or else- where : These. Haste, haste. " [DUNBAR,] 2d September, 1 650. " DEAR SIR, We are upon an Engagement very difficult. The Enemy hath blocked up our way at the Pass at Coppers- path, through which we cannot get without almost a miracle. He lieth so upon the Hills that we know not how to come that way without great difficulty ; and our lying here daily consum- eth our men, who fall sick beyond imagination. " I perceive, your forces are not in a capacity for present 1 27,000 say the English Pamphlets; 16,000 foot and 7,000 horse, says Sir Edward Walker (p. 182), who has access to know. 2 Passages in his lliyhness's lust Sickness, already referred to. 1650. LETTER CXXXIX. DUNBAR. 125 release. Wherefore, whatever becomes of us, it will be well for yon to get what forces you can together ; and the South to help what they can. The business nearly concerneth all Good People. If your forces had been in a readiness to have fallen upon the back of Copperspath, it might have occasioned sup- plies to have come to us. But the only wise God knows what is best. All shall work for Good. Our spirits l are comfort- able, praised be the Lord, though our present condition be as it is. And indeed we have much hope in the Lord; of whose mercy we have had large experience. " Indeed, do you get together what forces you can against them. Send to friends in the South to help with more. Let H. Vane know what I write. I would not make it public, lest danger should accrue thereby. You know what use to make hereof. Let me hear from you. I rest, " Your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. " [P.S.] It 's difficult for me to send to you. Let me hear from [you] after [you receive this]." a The base of Oliver's " Dunbar Peninsula," as we have called it (or Dunbar Pinfold where he is now hemmed in, upon "an entanglement very difficult "), extends from Belhaven Bay on his right, to Brocksmouth House on his left ; " about a mile and a half from sea to sea." Brocksmouth House, the Earl (now Duke) of Roxburgh's mansion, which still stands there, his soldiers now occupy as their extreme post on the left. As its name indicates, it is the mouth or issue of a small Rivulet, 1 mimls. a Communicated by John Hare, Esquire, Roseraont Cottage, Clifton. The MS. at Clifton id a Copy, without date; but has this title in au old hand: "Copy of an original Letter of Oliver Cromwell, written \viih his own hand, the day bffon- tin- IJiittli- <>f Dunlcirr, to Sir A. Ifaselridgc." Note t<> Second Edition. Found muce (1846), with the Postscript, printed from the Original, in Brand's llittory of Newcastle (London, 17- M, ii 47'.* Note to 7'li'nl l-'.ilitiun. Autograph Original found now (May, 1H47) ; in the pomee- MOII ..f K. Onuatou, EWJ-, Newcautle-ou-Tyne. See posicu, p. 143, and Appen- dix, No. 10. 126 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 3 Sept or Burn, called Brock, Brocksburn ; which, springing from the Lammermoor, and skirting David Lesley's Doon Hill, finds its egress here into the sea. The reader who would form an image to himself of the great Tuesday, 3d of September, 1650, at Dunbar, must note well this little Bum. It runs in a deep grassy glen, which the South-country Officers in those old Pamphlets describe as a " deep ditch, forty feet in depth, and about as many in width," ditch dug out by the little Brook itself, and carpeted with greensward, in the course of long thousands of years. It runs pretty close by the foot of Doon Hill ; forms, from this point to the sea, the boundary of Oliver's position; his force is arranged in battle-order along the left bank of this Brocksburn, and its grassy glen; he is busied all Monday, he and his Officers, in ranking them there. " Before sunrise on Monday " Lesley sent down his horse from the Hill-top, to occupy the other side of this Brook; " about four in the afternoon " his train came down, his whole Army gradually came down ; and they now are ranking them- selves on the opposite side of Brocksbiirn, on rather narrow ground ; cornfields, but swiftly sloping upwards to the steep of Doon Hill. This goes on, in the wild showers and winds of Monday, 2d September, 1650, on both sides of the Rivulet of Brock. Whoever will begin the attack, must get across this Brook and its glen first ; a thing of much disadvantage. Behind Oliver's ranks, between him and Dunbar, stand his tents ; sprinkled up and down, by battalions, over the face of this " Peninsula ; " which is a low though very uneven tract of ground ; now in our time all yellow with wheat and barley in the autumn season, but at that date only partially tilled, describable by Yorkshire Hodgson as a place of plashes and rough bent-grass ; terribly beaten by showery winds that day, so that your tent will hardly stand. There was then but one Farm-house on this tract, where now are not a few : thither were Oliver's Cannon sent this morning; they had at first been lodged " in the Church," an edifice standing then as now somewhat apart, "at the south end of Dunbar." We have notice of only one other " small house," belike some poor shepherd's homestead, in Oliver's tract of ground : it stands I860. DUNBAR BATTLE. 127 close by the Brock Rivulet itself, and in the bottom of the little glen ; at a place where the banks of it flatten themselves out into a slope passable for carts : this of course, as the one " pass " in that quarter, it is highly important to seize. Pride and Lambert lodged " six horse and fifteen foot " in this poor hut early in the morning: Lesley's horse came across, and drove them out; killing some and "taking three prisoners;" and so got possession of this pass and hut; but did not keep it. Among the three prisoners was one musketeer, "a very stout man, though he has but a wooden arm," and some iron hook at the end of it, poor fellow. He " fired thrice," not without effect, with his wooden arm ; and was not taken without difficulty: a handfast stubborn man; they carried him across to General Lesley to give some account of himself. In several of the old Pamphlets, which agree in all the details of it, this is what we read : "General David Lesley (old Leven," the other Lesley, "being in the Castle of Edinburgh, as they relate l ), asked this man, If the Enemy did intend to fight ? He replied, ' What do you think we come here for ? We come for nothing else ! ' 'Soldier/ says Lesley, 'how will you fight, when you have shipped half of your men, and all your great guns ? ' The Soldier replied, 'Sir, if you please to draw down your men, you shall find both men and great guns too ! ' " A most dogged handfast man, this with the wooden arm, and iron hook on it ! " One of the Officers asked, How he durst answer the General so saucily ? He said, ' I only answer the question put to me ! ' " Lesley sent him across, free again, by a trumpet : he made his way to Cromwell ; reported what had passed, and added doggedly, He for one had lost twenty shillings by the business, plundered from him in this action. "The Lord General gave him thereupon two pieces," which I think are forty, shillings ; and sent him away rejoicing.* This is the 1 Old Leven is here, if the Pamphlet knew ; but only as a volunteer and without command, though nominally still General-in-ohief. * Cadwell the Army-Messenger's Narrative to the Parliament (in Carte's Ormorid Papen, i. 382). Given also, with other details, in King's Pamphlets, mall 4to, no. 478, 9, 7, 10; no. 479, I ; &c. &c. 128 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 3 Sept. adventure at the " pass " by the shepherd's hut in the bottom of the glen, close by the Brocksburn itself. And now farther, on the great scale, we are to remark very specially that there is just one other " pass " across the Brocks- burn ; and this is precisely where the London road now crosses it ; about a mile east from the former pass, and perhaps two gunshots west from Brocksmouth House. There the great road then as now crosses the Burn of Brock ; the steep grassy glen, or "broad ditch forty feet deep," flattening itself out here once more into a passable slope : passable, but still steep on the southern or Lesley side, still mounting up there, with considerable acclivity, into a high table-ground, out of which the Doon Hill, as outskirt of the Lammermoor, a short mile to your right, gradually gathers itself. There, at this " pass," on and about the present London road, as you discover after long dreary dim examining, took place the brunt or essential agony of the Battle of Dunbar long ago. Read in the extinct old Pamphlets, and ever again obstinately read, till some light rise in them, look even with unrnilitary eyes at the ground as it now is, you do at last obtain small glimmerings of distinct features here and there, which gradually coalesce into a kind of image for you; and some spectrum of the Fact be- comes visible ; rises veritable, face to face, on you, grim and sad in the depths of the old dead Time. Yes, my travelling friends, vehiculating in gigs or otherwise over that piece of London road, you may say to yourselves, Here without monu- ment is the grave of a valiant thing which was done under the Sun ; the footprint of a Hero, not yet quite undistinguish- able, is here ! "The Lord General about four o'clock," say the old Pam- phlets, " went into the Town to take some refreshment," a hasty late dinner, or early supper, whichever we may call it ; " and very soon returned back," having written Sir Arthur's Letter, I think, in the interim. Coursing about the field, with enough of things to order ; walking at last with Lambert in the Park or Garden of Brocksmouth House, he discerns that Lesley is astir on the Hill-side ; altering his position some- J850. DUNBAJ? BATTLE. 129 what. That Lesley, in fact, is coming wholly down to the basis of the Hill, where his horse had been since sunrise: coining wholly down to the edge of the Brook and glen, among the sloping harvest-fields there; and also is bringing up his left wing of horse, most part of it, towards his right : edging himself, "snogging," as Oliver calls it, his whole line more and more to the right ! His meaning is, to get hold of Brocksmouth House and the pass of the Brook there ; l after which it will be free to him to attack us when he will ! Lesley, in fact, considers, or at least the Committee of Estates and Kirk consider, that Oliver is lost ; that, on the whole, he must not be left to retreat, but must be attacked and anni- hilated here. A vague story, due to Bishop Burnet, the watery source of many such, still circulates about the world, That it was the Kirk Committee who forced Lesley down against his will ; that Oliver, at sight of it, exclaimed, " The Lord hath delivered " &c. : which nobody is in the least bound to believe. It appears, from other quarters, that Lesley was advised or sanctioned in this attempt by the Committee of Estates and Kirk, but also that he was by no means hard to advise; that, in fact, lying on the top of Doon Hill, shelterless in such weather, was no operation to spin out beyond necessity; and that if anybody pressed too much upon him with advice to come down and fight, it was likeliest to be Royalist Civil Dignitaries, who had plagued him with their cavillings at his cunctations, at his "secret fellow-feeling for the Sectarians and Regicides," ever since this War began. The poor Scotch Clergy have enough of their own to answer for in this busi- ness ; let every back bear the burden that belongs to it. In a word, Lesley descends, has been descending all day, and "shogs " himself to the right, urged, I believe, by manifold counsel, and by the nature of the case ; and, what is equally important for us, Oliver sees him, and sees through him, in this movement of his. At sight of this movement, Oliver suggests to Lambert standing by him, Does it not give us an advantage, if we, ul of him, like to begin the attack ? Here is the Enemy's 1 Baillie's Lettert, iii. 111. VOL. xvin. 9 130 PART VI WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 3 Sept. right wing coming out to the open space, free to be attacked on any side ; and the main-battle hampered in narrow sloping ground between Doon Hill and the Brook, has no room to manoeuvre or assist : 1 beat this right wing where it now stands ; take it in flank and front with an overpowering force, it is driven upon its own main-battle 1 , the whole Army is beaten? Lambert eagerly assents, "had meant to say the same thing." Monk, who comes up at the moment, likewise assents ; as the other Officers do, when the case is set before them. It is the plan resolved upon for battle. The attack shall begin to-morrow before dawn. And so the soldiers stand to their arms, or lie within in- stant reach of their arms, all night; being upon an engage- ment very difficult indeed. The night is wild and wet ; 2d of September means 12th by our calendar: the Harvest Moon wades deep among clouds of sleet and hail. Whoever has a heart for prayer, let him pray now, for the wrestle of death is at hand. Pray, and withal keep his powder dry ! And be ready for extremities, and quit himself like a man ! Thus they pass the night ; making that Danbar Peninsula and Brock Kivulet long memorable to me. We English have some tents ; the Scots have none. The hoarse sea moans bodeful, swinging low and heavy against these whinstone bays ; the sea and the tempests are abroad, all else asleep but we, and there is One that rides on the wings of the wind. Towards three in the morning the Scotch foot, by order of a Major-General say some, 2 extinguish their matches, all but two in a company; cower under the corn-shocks, seeking some imperfect shelter and sleep. Be wakeful, ye English; watch, and pray, and keep your powder dry. About four o'clock comes order to my pudding-headed Yorkshire friend, that his regiment must mount and march straightway ; his and various other regiments march, pouring swiftly to the left to Brocksmouth House, to the Pass over the Brock. 1 Hodgson. a " Major-General Holburn " (he that escorted Cromwell into Edinburgh in 1648), says Walker, p. 180. 1660. DUNBAR BATTLE. 131 With overpowering force let us storm the Scots right wing there; beat that, and all is beaten. Major Hodgson riding along, heard, he says, "a Cornet praying in the night;" a company of poor men, I think, making worship there, under the void Heaven, before battle joined : Major Hodgson, giving his charge to a brother Officer, turned aside to listen for a minute, and worship and pray along with them; haply his last prayer on this Earth, as it might prove to be. But no : this Cornet prayed with such effusion as was wonderful ; and imparted strength to my Yorkshire friend, who strengthened his men by telling them of it. And the Heavens, in their mercy, I think, have opened us a way of deliverance! The Moon gleams out, hard and blue, riding among hail-clouds ; and over St. Abb's Head a streak of dawn is rising. And now is the hour when the attack should be, and no Lambert is yet here, he is ordering the line far to the right yet; and Oliver occasionally, in Hodgson's hearing, is im- patient for him. The Scots too, on this wing, are awake; thinking to surprise us; there is their trumpet sounding, we heard it once ; and Lambert, who was to lead the attack, is not here. The Lord General is impatient; behold Lambert at last! The trumpets peal, shattering with fierce clangor Night's silence ; the cannons awaken along all the Line : " The Lord of Hosts ! The Lord of Hosts ! " On, my brave ones, on! The dispute "on this right wing was hot and stiff, for three quarters of an hour." Plenty of fire, from field pieces, snap- hances, matchlocks, entertains the Scotch main-battle across the Brock ; poor stiffened men, roused from the corn-shocks with their matches all out! But here on the right, their horse, "with lancers in the front rank," charge desperately; drive us back across the hollow of the Rivulet ; back a little ; lnil the Lord gives us courage, and we storm home again, horse and foot, upon them, with a shock like tornado tem- pests; break them, beat them, drive them all adrift. "Some fled towards Copperspath, but most across their own foot." Their own poor foot, whose matches were hardly well alight yet! Poor men, it was a terrible awakening for them: field- 132 " PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 3 Sept. pieces and charge of foot across the Brocksburn; and now here is their own horse in inad panic trampling them to death. Above three thousand killed upon the place : " I never saw such a charge of foot and horse," says one ; l nor did I. Oliver was still near to Yorkshire Hodgson when the shock suc- ceeded ; Hodgson heard him say, " They run ! I profess they run ! " And over St. Abb's Head and the German Ocean, just then, bursts the first gleam of the level Sun upon us, " and I heard Nol say, in the words of the Psalmist, 'Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered,'" or in Rous's metre, " Let God arise, and scattered Let all his enemies be ; And let all those that do him hate Before his presence flee ! " Even so. The Scotch Army is shivered to utter ruin ; rushes in tumultuous wreck, hither, thither ; to Belhaven, or, in their distraction, even to Dunbar; the chase goes as far as Haddington ; led by Hacker. " The Lord General made a halt," says Hodgson, " and sang the Hundred-and-seventeenth Psalm," till our horse could gather for the chase. Hundred- and-seventeenth Psalm, at the foot of the Doon Hill; there we uplift it, to the tune of Bangor, or some still higher score, and roll it strong and great against the sky : " Oh, give ye praise unto the Lord, All nations that be ; Likewise ye people all, accord His name to magnify ! " For great to-us-ward ever are His loving-kindnesses; His truth endures forevermore : The Lord oh do ye bless ! " And now, to the chase again. The Prisoners are ten thousand, all the foot in a ma&*. Many Dignitaries are taken ; not a few are slain ; of whom see Printed Lists, full of blunders. Provost Jaffray of Aberdeen, Member of the Scots Parliament, one of the Com- 1 Rushworth's Letter to the Speaker (in Parliamentary History, xix. 341 ). J650. DUNBAR BATTLE 133 mittee of Estates, was very nearly slain: a trooper's sword was in the air to sever him, but one cried, He is a man of consequence ; he can ransom himself ! and the trooper kept him prisoner. 1 The first of the Scots Quakers, by and by ; and an official person much reconciled to Oliver. Ministers also of the Kirk Committee were slain ; two Ministers I find taken, poor Carstairs of Glasgow, poor Waugh of some other place, of whom we shall transiently hear again. General David Lesley, vigorous for flight as for other things, got to Edinburgh by nine o'clock ; poor old Leven, not so light of movement, did not get till two. Tragical enough. What a change since January, 1644, when we marched out of this same Dunbar up to the knees in snow ! It was to help and save these very men that we then marched ; with the Covenant in all our hearts. We have stood by the letter of the Cove- nant ; fought for our Covenanted Stuart King as we could ; they again, they stand by the substance of it, and have trampled us and the letter of it into this ruinous state ! Yes, my poor friends; and now be wise, be taught! The letter of your Covenant, in fact, will never rally again in this world. The spirit and substance of it, please God, will never die in this or in any world ! Such is Dunbar Battle ; which might also be called Dunbar Drove, for it was a frightful rout. Brought on by miscalcu- lation ; misunderstanding of the difference between substances and semblances ; by mismanagement, and the chance of war. My Lord General's next Seven Letters, all written on the morrow, will now be intelligible to the reader. First, how- ever, take the following PROCLAMATION. "FORASMUCH as I understand there are several Soldiers of the Enemy's Army yet abiding in the Field, who by reason of their wounds could not march from thence : " These are therefore to give notice to the Inhabitants of this 1 Diary of Alexander Jaffray (Londou, 1834; unhappily relating almost all to the inner man of Jaffrajr)- 134 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Sept Nation That they may and hereby have x free liberty to repair to the Field aforesaid, and, with their carts or [in] any other peaceable way, to carry away the said Soldiers to such places as they shall think fit : provided they meddle not with, or take away, any the Arms there. And all Officers and Soldiers are to take notice that the same is permitted. " Given under my hand, at Dunbar, 4th September, 1650. "OLIVER CROMWELL. " To be proclaimed by beat of drum." 3 LETTER CXL. " For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. " DCNBAR, 4th September, 1650. " SIR, I hope it 's not ill taken, that I make no more fre- quent addresses to the Parliament. Things that are in trouble, in point of provision for your Army, and of ordinary direc- tion, I have, as I could, often presented to the Council of State, together with such occurrences as have happened ; who, I am sure, as they have not been wanting in their extraordinary care and provision for us, so neither in what they judge fit and necessary to represent the same to you. And this I thought to be a sufficient discharge of my duty on that behalf. "It hath now pleased God to bestow a mercy upon you, worthy of your knowledge, and of the utmost praise and thanks of all that fear and love His name ; yea, the mercy is far above all praise. Which that you may the better perceive, I shall take the boldness to tender unto you some circumstances accompanying this great business, which will manifest the greatness and seasonableness of this mercy. " We having tried what we could to engage the Enemy, three or four miles West of Edinburgh ; that proving ineffectual, and our victual failing, we marched towards our ships for a 1 SIC. 2 Old Newspaper, Several Proceedings in Parliament, no. 50 (5th-12th Sept. 1650): in Burney Newspapers (British Museum), voL xxxiv. 1650. LETTER CXL. DUNBAR. 135 recruit of our want. The Enemy did not at all trouble us in our rear ; but marched the direct way towards Edinburgh, and partly in the night and morning slips through his whole Army ; and quarters himself in a posture easy to interpose between us and our victual. But the Lord made him to lose the oppor- tunity. And the morning proving exceeding wet and dark, we recovered, by that time it was light, a ground where they could not hinder us from our victual : which was an high act of the Lord's Providence to us. We being come into the said ground, the Enemy marched into the ground we were last upon : having no mind either to strive to interpose between us and our victuals, or to fight ; being indeed upon this [aim of re- ducing us to a] lock, hoping that the sickness of your Army would render their work more easy by the gaining of time. Whereupon we marched to Mtisselburgh, to victual, and to ship away our sick men ; where we sent aboard near five hundred sick and wounded soldiers. "And upon serious consideration, finding our weakness so to increase, and the Enemy lying upon his advantage, at a gen- eral council it was thought fit to march to Dunbar, and there to fortify the Town. Which (we thought), if anything, would provoke them to engage. As also, That the having of a Gar- rison there would furnish us with accommodation for our sick men, [and] would be a good Magazine, which we exceed- ingly wanted ; being put to depend upon the uncertainty of weather for landing provisions, which many times cannot be done though the being of the whole Army lay upon it, all the coasts from Berwick to Leith having not one good harbor. As also, To lie more conveniently to receive our recruits of horse and foot from Berwick. " Having these considerations, upon Saturday, the 30th l \ugust, we marched from Musselburgh to Haddington. \Vln>re, by that time we had got the' van-brigade of our horse, and our foot and train, into their quarters, tho Enemy had marched with that exceeding expedition that they fell upon tli.- rear-forlorn of our horse, and put it in soino disorder; :me seen ; and that He would find out a way of deliverance and salvation for us : and indeed we had our consolations and our hopes. Upon Monday evening, the Enemy's whole numbers were very great ; about six thousand horse, as we heard, and sixteen thousand foot at least ; ours drawn down, as to sound men, to about seven thousand five hundred foot, and three thousand five hundred horse, [upon Monday evening] the Enemy drew down to the right wing about two-thirds of their left wing of horse. To the right wing; shogging also their foot and train much to the right ; causing their right wing of horse to edge down towards the sea. We could not well imagine but that the Enemy intended to attempt upon us, or to place themselves in a more exact condition of interposition. The Major-General and myself coming to the Earl Roxburgh's House, and observ- ing this posture, I told him I thought it did give us an oppor- tunity and advantage to attempt upon the Enemy. To which i mediately replied, That he had thought to have said the same thing to me. So that it pleased the Lord to set this 138 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Sept apprehension upon both of our hearts, at the same instant. We called for Colonel Monk, and showed him the thing : and com- ing to OUT quarters at night, and demonstrating our apprehen- sions to some of the Colonels, they also cheerfully concurred. " We resolved therefore to put our business into this pos- ture : That six regiments of horse, and three regiments and a half of foot should march iu the van ; and that the Major- Gen eral, the Lieutenant-General of the horse, and the Commis- sary-General, 1 and Colonel Monk to command the brigade of foot, should lead on the business ; and that Colonel Pride's brigade, Colonel Overton's brigade, and the remaining two regiments of horse should bring up the cannon and rear. The time of falling on to be by break of day : but through some delays it proved not to be so ; [not] till six o'clock in the morning. " The Enemy's word was, The Covenant ; which it had been for divers days. Ours, The Lord of Hosts. The Major-General, Lieutenant-General Fleetwood, and Commissary-General Wh al- ley, and Colonel Tvvistleton, gave the onset ; the Enemy being in a very good posture to receive them, having the advantage of their cannon and foot against our horse. Before our foot could come up, the Enemy made a gallant resistance, and there was a very hot dispute at sword's point between our horse and theirs. Our first foot, after they had discharged their duty (being overpowered with the Enemy), received some repulse, which they soon recovered. For my own regiment, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Goffe and my Major, White, did come seasonably in ; and, at the push of pike, did repel the stoutest regiment the Enemy had there, merely with the courage the Lord was pleased to give. Which proved a great amazement to the residue of their foot ; this being the first action between the foot. The horse in the mean time did, with a great deal of courage and spirit, beat back all oppositions ; charging through the bodies of the Enemy's horse and of their foot ; who were, after the first repulse given, made by the Lord of Hosts as stubble to their swords. Indeed, I believe I may speak it without partiality : both your chief Commanders and 1 Lambert, Fleetwood, Whalley. 1650. LETTER CXL. DUNBAR. 139 others in their several places, and soldiers also, were acted * with as much courage as ever hath been seen in any action since this War. I know they look not to be named ; and there- fore I forbear particulars. " The best of the Enemy's horse being broken through and through in less than an hour's dispute, their whole Army being put into confusion, it became a total rout ; our men having the chase and execution of them near eight miles. We believe that upon the place and near about it were about three thousand slain. Prisoners taken : of their officers you have this enclosed List ; of private soldiers near ten thousand. The whole bag- gage and train taken, wherein was good store of match, powder and bullet ; all their artillery, great and small, thirty guns. We are confident they have left behind them not less than fif- teen thousand arms. I have already brought in to me near two hundred colors, which I herewith send you. 8 What officers of theirs of quality are killed, we yet cannot learn ; but yet surely divers are : and many men of quality are mortally wounded, as Colonel Lumsden, the Lord Libberton and others. And, that which is no small addition, I do not believe we have lost twenty men. Not one Commission Officer slain as I hear of, save one Cornet ; and Major Rooksby, since dead of his wounds ; and not many mortally wounded : Colonel Whal- ley only cut in the handwrist, and his horse (twice shot) killed under him ; but he well recovered another horse, and went on in the chase. "Thus you have the prospect of one of the most signal nit-ivies God hath done for England and His people, this War: and now may it please you to give me the leave of a few words. It is easy to say, The Lord hath done this. It would do you good to see and hear our poor foot to go up and down 1 "actuated," as we now write it. 2 They hung long in Westminster Hull ; beside the Preston ones, and -till others that came. Colonel 1'riile has l>een heard to wish, and almost to II.-IM:, Thar t ho Lawyers' gowns might all be hung up beside the Scots colors > t, aii'l tlif Lawyers' selves, except some very small and most select need- ful n 11111:11. f ! unU-n-d ]* rrni|.torily to clisapjx'ar from those localities, and eek au boui-.-i trade elsewhere! (Walker's i/istwy <>j Intndency.) 140 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Sept. making their boast of God. But, Sir, it 's in your hands, and by these eminent mercies God puts it more into your hands, To give glory to Him ; to improve your power, and His bless- ings, to His praise. We that serve you beg of you not to own us, but God alone. We pray you own His people more and more ; for they are the chariots and horsemen of Israel. Dis- own yourselves ; but own your Authority ; and improve it to curb the proud and the insolent, such as would disturb the tranquillity of England, though under what specious pretences soever. Relieve the oppressed, hear the groans of poor pris- oners in England. Be pleased to reform the abuses of all pro- fessions : and if there be any one that makes many poor to make a few rich, 1 that suits not a Commonwealth. If He that strengthens your servants to fight, please to give you hearts to set upon these things, in order to His glory, and the glory of your Commonwealth, [then] besides the benefit England shall feel thereby, you shall shine forth to other Nations, who shall emulate the glory of such a pattern, and through the power of God turn in to the like ! " These are our desires. And that you may have liberty and opportunity to do these things, and not be hindered, we have been and shall be (by God's assistance) willing to venture our lives ; and [will] not desire you should be precipitated by importunities, from your care of safety and preservation ; but that the doing of these good things may have their place amongst those which concern well-being, 2 and so be wrought in their time and order. " Since we came in Scotland, it hath been our desire and longing to have avoided blood in this business ; by reason that God hath a people here fearing His name, though deceived. And to that end have we offered much love unto euch, in the bowels of Christ ; and concerning the truth of our hearts therein, have we appealed unto the Lord. The Ministers of 1 " Many of them had a peck at Lawyers generally " (says learned Bui- strode in these months, appealing to posterity, almost with tears iii his big dull eyes!). 2 We as yet struggle for being ; which is preliminary, and still more essen- tial. 1050. LETTER CXLL DUNBAR. 141 Scotland have hindered the passage of these things to the hearts of those to whom we intended them. And now we hear, that not only the deceived people, but some of the Min- isters are also fallen in this Battle. This is the great hand of the Lord, and worthy of the consideration of all those who take into their hands the instruments of a foolish shepherd, to wit, meddling with worldly policies, and mixtures of earthly power, to set up that which they call the Kingdom of Christ, which is neither it, nor, if it were it, would such means be found effectual to that end, and neglect, or trust not to, the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit ; which is alone power- ful and able for the setting up of that Kingdom ; and, when trusted to, will be found effectually able to that end, and will also do it ! This is humbly offered for their sakes who have lately too much turned aside : that they might return again to Breach Jesus Christ, according to the simplicity of the Gospel ; and then no doubt they will discern and find your protec- tion and encouragement. " Beseeching you to pardon this length, I humbly take leave ; and rest, Sir, " Your most obedient servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * Industrious dull Bulstrode, coming home from the Council of State towards Chelsea on Saturday afternoon, is accosted on the streets, " near Charing Cross," by a dusty individual, who declares himself bearer of this Letter from my Lord Gen- eral ; and imparts a rapid outline of the probable contents to Bulstrode's mind, which naturally kindles with a certain slow solid satisfaction on receipt thereof. 9 LETTER CXLI. LETTER CXXXIX., for Sir Arthur, did not go on Monday night ; and finds now an unexpected conveyance f Brand, 1 Newnpapem (in Cromwlliana, pp. 87-91). * Whitlucke (2<1 edition), p. 470 (7th Sopt.). 142 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Sept. Historian of Newcastle, got sight of that Letter, and of this new one enclosing it, in the hands of an old Steward of the Haselrigs, grandfather of the present possessor of those Docu- ments, some half-century ago ; and happily took copies. Letter CXXXIX. was autograph, " folded up hastily before the ink was quite dry ; sealed with red wax : " of this there is noth- ing autograph but the signature ; and the sealing-wax is black. " For the Honorable Sir Arthur Haselrig, at Newcastle or else- where : These. Haste, haste. "DuNBAR, 4th September, 1650. SIR, You will see by my Enclosed, of the 2d of this month, which was the evening before the Fight, the condition we were in at that time. Which I thought fit on purpose to send you, that you might see how great and how seasonable our deliverance and mercy is, by such aggravation. "Having said my thoughts thereupon to the Parliament, I shall only give you the narrative of this exceeding mercy ; * believing the Lord will enlarge your heart to a thankful con- sideration thereupon. The least of this mercy lies not in the advantageous consequences which I hope it may produce ; of glory to God and good to His People, in the prosecution of that which remains; unto which this great work hath opened so fair a way. We have no cause to doubt but, if it shall please the Lord to prosper our endeavors, we may find oppor- tunities both upon Edinburgh and Leith, Stirling-Bridge, and other such places as the Lord shall lead unto. Even far above our thoughts ; as this late and other experiences gives good encouragement. "Wherefore, that we may not be wanting, I desire you, with such forces as you have, Immediately to march to me to Dunbar ; leaving behind you such of your new Levies as will prevent lesser incursions : for surely their rout and ruin is so total that they will not be provided for anything that is very considerable. Or rather, which I more incline unto, 1 Means the, bare statement, Iii the next sentence, " The least liee not," is for The not least lies. inso. LETTER CXLII. DUNBAR. 143 That you would send Thomlinson with the Forces you have ready, and this with all possible expedition ; and that you will go on with the remainder of the Reserve, which, upon better thoughts, I do not think can well be done without you. " Sir, let no time nor opportunity be lost. Surely it 's prob- able the Kirk has done their do. 1 I believe their King will set up upon his own score now ; wherein he will find many friends. Taking opportunity offered, it's our great advan- tage, through God. I need say no more to you on this behalf ; but rest, " Your humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. " My service to your good Lady. I think it will be very fit that you bake Hard-bread again, considering you increase our numbers. I pray you do so. Sir, I desire you to pro- cure about three or four score Masons, and ship them to us with all speed: for we expect that God will suddenly put some places into our hands, which we shall have occasion to fortify." LETTER CXLII. " To the Lord President of the Council of State: These. " DUNBAR, 4th September, 1650. " MY LORD, I have sent the Major-General, with six regiments of horse and one of foot, towards Edinburgh ; purjiosing (God willing) to follow after, to-morrow, with what convenience I may. "We are put to exceeding trouble, though it be an effect of abundant mercy, with the numerousness of our Prisoners ; having so few hands, so many of our men sick; so little 1 " doo " in orig. 2 Brand'H History of Newcastle, \\. 489. In Brand's Book there follow Ex- cerptt from two other Letter* to Sir Arthur ; of which, on inquiry, the present Baronet of Noaely Hall unluckily knows nothing farther. The Excerpte, with their date*, Khali be given presently. 144 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Sept conveniency of disposing of them ; l and not, by attendance thereupon, to oinit the seasonableness of the prosecution of this mercy as Providence shall direct. We have been constrained, even out of Christianity, humanity, and the forementioned necessity, to dismiss between four and five thousand Prisoners, almost starved, sick and wounded; the remainder, which are the like, or a greater number, I am fain to send by a convoy of four troops of Colonel Hacker's, to Berwick, and so on to Newcastle, southwards. 2 "I think fit to acquaint your Lordship with two or three observations. Some of the honestest in the Army amongst the Scots did profess before the fight, That they did not believe their King in his Declaration ; 8 and it 's most evident he did sign it with as much reluctancy and so much against his heart as could be: and yet they venture their lives for him upon this account; and publish this [Declaration] to the world, to be believed as the act of a person converted, when in their hearts they know he abhorred the doing of it, and meant it not. " I hear, when the Enemy marched last up to us, the Minis- ters pressed their Army to interpose between us and home ; 1 The Prisoners : sentence ungrammatical, but intelligible. 2 Here are Brand's Excerpts from the two other Letters to Sir Arthur, spoken of in the former Note: " Dunbar, 5th Sept. 1650. . . . After much deliberation, we can find no way how to dispose of these Prisoners that will be consisting with these two ends : to wit, the not losing them and the not starving them, neither of which would we willingly incur, but by- sending them into England." (Brand, ii. 481.) "Edinburgh, Qlh Sept. 1650. ... I hope your Northern Guests are come to you by this time. I pray you let humanity be exercised towards them : I am persuaded it will be comely. Let the Officers be kept at Newcastle, some sent to Lynn, some to Chester." (Ibid. p. 480). (Note to Third Edition). Letters complete, in Appendix, No. 19. A f rightful account of what became of these poor " Northern Guests " as they proceeded " southwards ; " how, for sheer hunger, they ate raw cabbages in the " walled garden at Morpeth," and lay in unspeakable imprisonment in Durham Cathedral, and died as of swift pestilence there : In Sir Arthur Haselrig's Letter to the Council of State (reprinted, from the old Pamphlets, in Parliamentary History, xix. 417). 8 Open Testimony against the sins of his Father, see antea, p. 118. 1650. LETTER CXLIII. DUNRAR. 145 the chief Officers desiring rather that we might have way made, though it were by a golden bridge. But the Clergy's council prevailed, to their no great comfort, through the goodness of God. " The Enemy took a gentleman of Major Brown's troop prisoner, that night we came to Haddington; and he had quarter through Lieutenant-General David Lesley's means ; who, finding him a man of courage and parts, labored with him to take up arms. But the man expressing constancy and resolution to this side, the Lieutenant-General caused him to be mounted, and with two troopers to ride about to view their gallant Army ; using that as an argument to per- suade him to their side ; and, when this was done, dismissed him to us in a bravery. And indeed the day before we fought, they did express so much insolency and contempt of us, to some soldiers they took, as was beyond apprehension. " Your Lordship's most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l WHICH high officialities being ended, here are certain glad domestic Letters of the same date. LETTER CXLIII. " For my beloved Wife Elizabeth Cromwell, at the Cockpit : These. " DUNBAR, 4th September, 1650. "MY D^ARKST, I have not leisure to write much. But I (mild chide thee that in many of thy Letters thou writest to me, That I should not be unmindful of thee and thy little ones. Truly, if I love you not too well, I think I err not on the other hand much. Thou art dearer to me than any riv;it.iire; let that suffice. " The Lord hath showed us an exceeding mercy : who r;m ti-11 how great it is! My weak faith hath been upheld. ^papers (in 'VOIMV/// " if " in orig. " which do " in orig. ; deU " which." The Pope. Wheu Iri-le purged them. 158 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 12 Sept. a liberty from the fear of like usurpations, and have cast off him * who trod in his Father's steps, doing mischief as far as he was able (whom you have received like fire into your bosom, of which God will, I trust, in time make you sen- sible) : if [I say] Ministers railing at the Civil Power, and calling them murderers and the like for doing these things, have been dealt with as you mention, will this be found a 'personal persecution' ? Or is sin so, because they say so ? 2 They that acted this great Business 8 have given a reason of their faith in the action ; and some here 4 are ready farther to do it against all gainsayers. "But it will be found that these reprovers do not only make themselves the judges and determiners of sin, that so they may reprove ; but they also took liberty 6 to stir up the people to blood and arms ; and would have brought a war upon England, as hath been upon Scotland, had not God prevented it. And if such severity as hath been expressed towards them be worthy of the name of ' personal persecution,' let all uninterested men judge : [and] whether the calling of the practice 'railing' be to be paralleled with the Malignants' imputation upon the Ministers for speaking against the Popish Innovations in the Prelates' times, 6 and the [other] tyrannical and wicked prac- tices then on foot, let your own consciences mind you ! The Koman Emperors, in Christ's and his Apostles' times, were usurpers and intruders upon the Jewish State : yet what foot- step 7 have ye either of our blessed Saviour's so much as will- ingness to the dividing of an inheritance, or their 8 [ever] meddling in that kind ? This was not practised by the Church since our Saviour's time, till Antichrist, assuming the Infallible Chair, and all that he called Church to be under him, practised this authoritatively over Civil Governors. The way to fulfil 1 Your Charles II., as yon call him. 2 Because you call it so. 8 Of judging Charles First. 4 I for one. 6 In 1 648. 6 O Oliver, my Lord General, the Lindley-Murray composition here is dreadful ; the meaning struggling, like a strong swimmer, in an element very viscous! 7 Vestige. 8 The Apostles'. i860. LETTER CXLVIII. EDINBURGH. 159 your Ministry with joy is to preach the Gospel ; which I wish some who take pleasure in reproofs at a venture, do not forget too much to do ! "Thirdly, you say, You have just cause to regret that men of Civil employments should usurp the calling and employment of the Ministry ; to the scandal of the Reformed Kirks. Are you troubled that Christ is preached ? Is preaching so ex- clusively your function ? 1 Doth it scandalize the Reformed Kirks, and Scotland in particular ? Is it against the Cove- nant ? Away with the Covenant, if this be so ! I thought, the Covenant and these [professors of it] could have been willing that any should speak good of the name of Christ : if not, it is no Covenant of God's approving ; nor are these Kirks you mention insomuch a the Spouse of Christ. Where do you find in the Scripture a ground to warrant such an assertion, That Preaching is exclusively your function ? Though an Appro- bation from men hath order in it, and may do well ; yet he that hath no better warrant than that, hath none at all. I hope He that ascended up on high may give His gifts to whom He pleases : and if those gifts be the seal of Mission, be not [you] envious though Eldad and Medad prophesy. You know who bids us covet earnestly the best gifts, but chiefly that we may prophesy ; which the Apostle explains there to be a speaking to instruction and edification and comfort, which speaking, the instructed, the edified and comforted can best toll the energy and effect of [and say whether it is genuine]. If such evidence be, I say again, Take heed you envy not for your own sakes ; lest you be guilty of a greater fault than Moses reproved in Joshua for envying for his sake. " Indeed, you err through mistaking of the Scriptures. Ap- probation 'is an act of conveuiency in respect of order; not of necessity, to give faculty to preach the Gospel. Your pre- tended fear lest Error should step in, is like the man who would keep all the wine out the country lest men should bo drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy, to 1 "so incluHive in your function," moans that. 2 So far a* their notion of the Covenant goea. * Or . iay "Ordination," Sli mn A j.i.p.Uit L.U ;unl Appointment ly men. 160 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 12 Sept. deprive a man of his natural liberty upon a supposition lie may abuse it. When he doth abuse it, judge. If a man speak foolishly, ye suffer him gladly J because ye are wise ; if erro- neously, the truth more appears by your conviction [of him]. Stop such a man's mouth by sound words which cannot be gainsaid. If he speak blasphemously, or to the disturbance of the public peace, let the Civil Magistrate punish him : if truly, rejoice in the truth. And if you will call our speakings together since we came into Scotland, to provoke one another to love and good works, to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and repentance from dead works ; [and] to charity and love to- wards you, to pray and mourn for you, and for your bitter returns to [our love of you], and your incredulity of our pro- fessions of love to you, of the truth of which we have made our solemn and humble appeals to the Lord our God, which He hath heard and borne witness to : if you will call [these] things scandalous to the Kirk, and against the Covenant, be cause done by men of Civil callings, we rejoice in them, notwithstanding what you say. " For a conclusion : In answer to the witness of God upon our solemn Appeal, 2 you say you have not so learned Christ [as] to hang the equity of your Cause upon events. We [for our part] could wish blindness have not been upon your eyes to all those marvellous dispensations which God hath lately wrought in England. But did not you solemnly appeal and pray ? Did not we do so too ? And ought not you and we to think, with fear and trembling, of the hand of the Great God in this mighty and strange appearance of His ; instead of slightly calling it an < event ' ! 8 Were not both your and our expectations renewed from time to time, whilst we waited upon God, to see which way He would manifest Himself upon our appeals ? And shall we, after all these our prayers, fastings, tears, expectations and solemn appeals, call these bare 'events' ? The Lord pity you. " Surely we [for our part] fear ; because it hath been a 1 With a patient victorious feeling. 2 At Dunbar 3 " but can slightly call it an eveut " in orig. 1650. LETTER CXLVITT. EDINBURGH. 161 merciful and gracious deliverance to us.. I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, search after the mind of the Lord in it towards you ; and we shall help you by our prayers ; that you may find it out : for yet (if we know our hearts at all) our bowels do, in Christ Jesus, yearn after the Godly in Scotland. We know there are stumbling-blocks which hinder you : the personal prejudices you have taken up against us * and our ways, wherein we cannot but think some occasion has been given, 2 and for which we mourn : the apprehension you have that we have hindered the glorious Reformation you think you were upon : I am persuaded these and such like bind you up from an understanding, and yielding to, the mind of God, in this great day of His power and visitation. And, if I be rightly informed, the late Blow you received is attributed to profane counsels and conduct, and mixtures 8 in your Army, and such like. The natural man will not find out the cause. Look up to the Lord, that He may tell it you. Which that He would do, shall be the fervent prayer of, " Your loving friend and servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. "[P.S.] These [following] Queries are sent not to reproach you, but in the love of Christ laying them before you; we being persuaded in the Lord that there is a truth in them. Which we earnestly desire may not be laid aside unsought after, from any prejudice either against the things themselves, or the unworthiness or weakness of the person that offers them. If you turn at the Lord's reproofs, He will pour out His Spirit upon you ; and you shall understand His words ; and they will guide you to a blessed Reformation indeed, 4 even to one according to the Word, and such as the people of 1 Me, Oliver Cromwell * I have ofton, in Parliament and elsewhere, l>eon crabbed towards your hide-bound Presbyterian Kuriiuila; ami given it many a fillip, not thinking Hufficiently what good withal was in it. 1 Admission <>f Kir/ u:> r- ami iuiu""Ily people, 4 "glorious Ki'f'>rm:itic>n," " M~-- ttid to the contrary) that which is really 172 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 9Oct Malignancy and all Malignants do centre; against whose Family the Lord hath so eminently witnessed for bloodguilti- ness, not to be done away by such hypocritical and formal shows of repentance as are expressed in his late Declaration ; and your strange prejudices against us as men of heretical opinions (which, through the great goodness of God to us, have been unjustly charged upon us), have occasioned your reject- ing those Overtures which, with a Christian affection, were offered to you before any blood was spilt, or your People had suffered damage by us. " The daily sense we have of the calamity of War lying upon the poor People of this Nation, and the sad conse- quences of blood and famine likely to come upon them ; the advantage given to the Malignant, Profane, and Popish party by this War ; and that reality of affection which we have so often professed to you, and concerning the truth of which we have so solemnly appealed, do again constrain us to send unto you, to let you know, That if the contending foi that Person be not by you preferred to the peace and wel- fare of your Country, the blood of your Peoples, the love o{ men of the same faith with you, and (in this above all) the honor of that God we serve, Then give the State of Eng- land that satisfaction and security for their peaceable and quiet living beside you, which may in justice be demanded from a Nation giving so just ground to ask the same, from those who have, as you, taken their enemy into their bosom, whilst he was in hostility against them : [Do this ;] and it will be made good to you, That you may have a lasting and durable Peace with them, and the wish of a blessing upon you in all religious and civil things. " If this be refused by you, we are persuaded that God, who hath once borne His testimony, will do it again on the be- half of us His poor servants, who do appeal to Him whether their desires flow from sincerity of heart or not. I rest, " Your Lordships' humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELI,/' ' 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 93). 1650. LETTER CL. LINLITHGOW. 173 The Committee of Estates at Stirling or elsewhere debated about an Answer to this Letter; but sent none, except of civility merely, and after considerable delays. A copy of the Letter was likewise forwarded to Colonels Ker and Strahan and their Western Army, by whom it was taken into consid- eration ; and some Correspondence, Cromwell's part of which is not yet altogether lost, followed upon it there ; and indeed Cromwell, as we dimly discover in the old Books, set forth to- wards Glasgow directly on the back of it, in hopes of a closer communication with these Western Colonels and their Party. While Ker and Strahan are busy " at Dumfries," says Bail- lie, " Cromwell with the whole body of his Army and cannon conies peaceably by way of Kilsyth to Glasgow." It is Friday evening, 18th October, 1650. " The Ministers and Magistrates flee all away. I got to the Isle of Cumbrae with my Lady Montgomery ; but left all my family and goods to Cromwell's courtesy, which indeed was great ; for he took such a course with his soldiers that they did less displeasure at Glasgow than if they had been in London ; though Mr. Zachary Boyd," a fantastic old gentleman still known in Glasgow and Scot- land, "railed on them all, to their very face, in the High Church ; " 1 calling them Sectaries and Blasphemers, the fan- tastic old gentleman ! " Glasgow, though not so big or rich as Edinburgh, is a much sweeter place ; the completest town we have yet seen here, and one of their choicest Universities." The people were much afraid of us till they saw how we treated them. " Captain Covel of the Lord General's regi- ment of horse was cashiered here for holding some blasphemous opinions." 1 This is Cromwell's first visit to Glasgow: he made two others, of which on occasion notice shall be taken. In Pinkerton's Correspondence are certain " anecdotes of Crom- well at Glasgow ; " which, like many others on Cromwell, need not be repeated anywhere except in the nursery. Cromwell entered Glasgow on Friday evening ; over Sunday, was patient with Zachary Boyd : but got no result out of Ker and St ml inn. Ker and Strahan, at Dumfries on the Thursday, 1 Baillie, iii. 119; Whitlix-ke, p. 459. * Whitlucke, p. 459 ; CromweUianu, pp 92, 93. 174 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. i8Oct have perfected and signed their Remonstrance of the Western Army ; l a Document of much fame iu the old Scotch Books. "Expressing many sad truths," says the Kirk Committee. Expressing, in fact, the apprehension of Ker and Strahan that the Covenanted King may probably be a Solecism Incarnate, tinder whom it will not be good to fight longer for the Cause of Christ and Scotland ; expressing meanwhile considerable reluctancy as to the English Sectaries ; and deciding, on the whole, to fight them still, though on a footing of our own. Not a very hopeful enterprise ! Of which we shall see the issue by and by. Meanwhile news come that this Western Army is aiming towards Edinburgh, to get hold of the Castle there. Whereupon Cromwell, in all haste, on Monday, sets off thitherward; "lodges the first night in a poor cottage fourteen miles from Glasgow ; " arrives safe, to prevent all alarms. His first visit to Glasgow was but of two days. LETTER CLI. THE Western Colonels have given in their "Remonstrance to the Committee of Estates; and sat in deliberation on their copy of Cromwell's Expostulatory Letter to that Body, the Letter we have just read, in which these two words, " secur- ity " and " satisfaction," are somewhat abstruse to the West- ern Colonels. They decide that it will not be convenient to return any public Answer ; but they have forwarded a private Letter of acknowledgment with " Six Queries : " Letter lost to us ; Six Queries still surviving. To which, directly after his return to Edinburgh, here is Cromwell's Answer. The Six Queries, being very brief, maybe transcribed; the Letter of acknowledgment can be conceived without transcribing : " Query 1. Why is < satisfaction ' demanded ? 2. What is the satisfaction demanded? 3. For what is the 'security* demanded ? 4. What is the security ye would have ? 5. From whom is the security required ? 6. To whom is the security * Dated 17th October; given in Balfour, iv. 141-160. IfiUO. LETTER CLI. EDINBURGH. 175 to be given ? " l Queries which, I think, do not much look like real despatch of business in the present intricate con- juncture ! This Letter it appears, is, if not accompanied, directly fol- lowed by " Mr. Alexander Jaffray " Provost of Aberdeen, and a "Reverend Mr. Carstairs " of Glasgow, two Prisoners of Oliver's ever since Dunbar Drove, who are to " agent " the same.* [To Colonel Strahan, icith the Western Army : These.] " EDINBURGH, 25th October, 1650. " SIB, I have considered of the Letter and the Queries ; and, having advised with some Christian friends about the same, think fit to return an Answer as followeth : " [That] we bear unto the Godly of Scotland the same Christian affection we have all along professed in our Papers ; being ready, through the grace of God, upon all occasions, to give such proof and testimony thereof as the Divine Provi- dence shall minister opportunity to us to do. That nothing would be more acceptable to us to see than the Lord removing offences, and inclining the hearts of His People in Scotland to meet us with the same affection. That we do verily appre- hend, with much comfort, that there is some stirriug of your bowels by the Lord ; giving some hope of His good pleasure tending hereunto ; which we are most willing to comply with, and not to be wanting in anything on our part which may further the same. " And having seen the heads of two Remonstrances, the one of the Ministers of Glasgow, and the other of the Officers and Gentlemen of the West," we do from thence hope that the Lord hath cleared unto you some things that were formerly hidden, and which we hope may lead to a better understanding. Never- theless, we cannot but take notice, that from some expressions in the same Papers, we have too much cause to note that there 1 Balfour, iv. 135. a Baillie, iii. 120. Remonstrance of the Western Army is this latter ; the other, very con- In as a kind of codicil to this, is not known to me except at second- baud, from Raillie'a eager, earnest, very headlong and perplexed account of that Business (iv. 130, 122 et 176 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 25 Oct. is still so great a difference betwixt us as we are looked upon and accounted as Enemies. " And although we hope that the Six Queries, sent by you to us to be answered, were intended to clear doubts and remove the remaining obstructions ; which we shall be most ready to do : yet, considering the many misconstructions which may arise from the clearest pen (where men are not all of one mind), and the difficulties at this distance to resolve doubts and rectify mistakes, we conceive our Answer in Writing may not so effectually reach that end as a friendly and Christian Conference by equal persons [might]. " And we doubt not we can, with ingenuity and clearness, give a satisfactory account of those general things held forth in the Letter sent by us to the Committee of Estates, 1 and in our former Declarations and Papers ; which we shall be ready to do by a Friendly Debate, when and where our answer to these particulars may probably tend to the better and more clear understanding betwixt the Godly Party of both Nations. " To speak plainly in a few words : If those who sincerely love and fear the Lord amongst you are sensible that matters have been and are carried by your State so as that therewith God is not well pleased, but the Interest of His People [is] hazarded, in Scotland and England, to Malignants, to Papists, and to the Profane, we can, through Grace, be willing to lay our bones in the dust for your sakes ; and can, as heretofore we have [said], still continue to say, That, not to impose upon you in Religious or Civil Interests, not dominion nor any worldly advantage [not these], but the obtaining of a just security to ourselves, 2 were the motives, and satisfactions to our consciences, in this Undertaking. [A just security ;] which we believe by this time you may think we had cause to be sensible was more than endangered by the carriage of affairs with your King. And it is not success, and more visible clearness to our consciences arising out of the dis- coveries God hath made of the hypocrisies of men, that hath altered [or can alter] our principles or demands. But we take 1 Letter CL. * " securing ourselves " in orig. 1650. PROCLAMATION. 177 from thence humble encouragement to follow the Lord's provi- dence in serving His Cause and People ; not doubting but He will give such an issue to this Business as will be to His glory and your comfort. I rest, " Your affectionate friend and servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." * There followed no " Friendly Debate " upon this Letter ; nothing followed upon it except new noise in the Western Army, and a strait-laced case of conscience more perplexing than ever. Jaffray and Carstairs had to come back on parole again; Strahan at length withdrew from the concern: the Western Army went its own separate middle road, to what issue we shall see. Here is another trait of the old time ; not without illumina- tion for us. " One Watt, a tenant of the Earl of Tweedale's being sore oppressed by the English, took to himself some of his own degree; arid by daily incursions and infalls.on the English Garrisons and Parties in Lothian, killed and took of them above four hundred," or say the half or quarter of so many, " and enriched himself by their spoils." The like " did one Augustin, a High-German," not a Dutchman, "being purged out of the Army before Dunbar Drove," of whom we shall hear farther. In fact, the class called Moss-troopers begins to abound; the only class that can flourish in such a state of affairs. Whereupon comes out this PROCLAMATION. "I Fixnixo that divers of the Army under my command are not only spoiled and robbed, but also sometimes barbarously and inhumanly butchered and slain, by a sort of Outlaws and Robbers, not under the discipline of any Army ; and finding that all our tenderness to the Country produceth no other effect than their compliance with, and protection of, such 1 Clarendon State-Papers (Oxford, 1773), ii. 551, 552. VOL XVIII. 12 178 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 18 Nov. persons ; and considering that it is in the power of the Coun- try to detect and discover them (many of them being in- habitants of those places where commonly the outrage is committed) ; and perceiving that their motion is ordinarily by the invitation, and according ^ to intelligence given them by Countrymen : "I do therefore declare, that wheresoever any under my command shall be hereafter robbed or spoiled by such parties, I will require life for life, and a plenary satisfaction for their goods, of those Parishes and Places where the fact shall be committed ; unless they shall discover and produce the of- fender. And this I wish all persons to take notice of, that none may plead ignorance. " Given under my hand at Edinburgh, the 5th of November, 1650. " OLIVER CROMWELL." * LETTER CLH. ONE nest of Moss-troopers, not far off, in the Dalkeith region, ought specially to be abated. " To the Governor of Borthwick Castle : These. "EDINBURGH, 18th November, 1650. " SIR, I thought fit to send this Trumpet to you, to let you know, That if you please to walk away with your com- pany, and deliver the House to such as I shall send to receive it, you shall have liberty to carry off your arms and goods, and such other necessaries as you have. "You have harbored such parties in your House as have basely and inhumanly murdered our men : if you necessitate me to bend my cannon against you, you may expect what I doubt you will not be pleased with. I expect your present Answer ; and rest, " Your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 2 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 94). 8 Russell's Life of Cromwell, ii. 95 (from Statistical Account of Scotland). 1650. LETTER CLIII. EDINBURGH. 179 The Governor of Borthwick Castle, Lord Borthwick of that Ilk, did as he was bidden ; " walked away," with movable goods, with wife and child, and had "fifteen days" allowed him to pack : whereby the Dalkeith region and Carlisle Road is a little quieter huiiceforth. LETTER CLIII. COLONELS Ker and Strahan with their Remonstrance have filled all Scotland with a fresh figure of dissension. The Kirk finds " many sad truths " in it ; knows not what to do with it. In the Estates themselves there is division of opinion. Men of worship, the Minister in Kirkcaldy among others, are heard to say strange things : " That a Hypocrite," or Solecism Incar- nate, " ought not to reign over us ; that we should treat with Cromwell, and give him assurance not to trouble England with a King ; that whosoever mars such a Treaty, the blood of the slain shall be on his head ! " " Which are strange words," says Baillie, " if true." Scotland is in a hopeful way. The extreme party of Malignants in the North is not yet quite ex- tinct ; and here is another extreme party of Kemonstrants in the West, to whom all the conscientious rash men of Scot- land, in Kirkcaldy and elsewhere, seem as if they would join themselves ! Nothing but remonstrating, protesting, treatyiug ami mistreatying from sea to sea. To have taken up such a Remonstrance at first, and stood by it, before the War began, had been very wise : but to take it up now, and attempt not to make a Peace by it, but to con- tinue the War with it, looks mad enough ! Such, neverthe- less, is Colonel Gibby Ker's project, not Strahan's, it would seem : men's projects strangely cross one another in this time of bewilderment ; and only perhaps in doing nothing could a man in such a scene act wisely. Lambert, however, is gone into the West with three thousand horse to deal with Ker ami his projects ; the Lord General has himself been in the West : tin- riid of KIT'S projects is succinctly shadowed forth in the 180 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Dec. following Letter. From Baillie l we learn that Ker, with his Western Army, was lying at a place called Carnmnnock, when he made this infall upon Lambert ; that the time of it was " four in the morning of Sunday, 1st December, 1650 ; " and the scene of it Hamilton Town, and the streets and ditches thereabouts : a dark sad business, of an ancient Winter morn- ing ; sufficiently luminous for our purpose with it here. The " treaties among the Enemy " means Ker and Strahan's confused remonstratings and treatyings ; the " result," or gen- eral upshot, of which is this scene in the ditches at four in the morning. 2 u To the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. "EDINBURGH, 4th December, 1650. " SIR, I have now sent you the results of some Treaties amongst the Enemy, which came to my hand this day. " The Major-General and Commissary-General Whalley marched a few days ago towards Glasgow. The Enemy at- tempted his quarters in Hamilton ; were entered the Town : but by the blessing of God, by a very gracious hand of Provi- dence, without the loss of six men as I hear of, he beat them out ; killed about an Hundred ; took also about the same num- ber, amongst whom are some prisoners of quality ; and near an hundred horse, as I am informed. The Major-General is still in the chase of them ; to whom also I have since sent the addition of a fresh party. Colonel Ker (as my Messenger, this night, tells me) is taken : his Lieutenant-Colonel ; and one that was sometimes Major to Colonel Strahan ; and Ker's Captain- Lieutenant. The whole Party is shattered. And give me leave to say it, If God had not brought them upon us, we might have marched three thousand horse to death, and not have lighted on them. And truly it was a strange Providence brought them upon him. For I marched from Edinburgh on the north side of Clyde ; [and had] appointed the Major- General to march from Peebles to Hamilton, on the south side of Clyde. I came thither by the time expected ; tarried the 1 Ui. 125. a See also Whitlocke, 16th December, 1650. 1050. LETTER CLIII. EDINBURGH. 181 remainder of the day, and until near seveu o'clock the next morning, apprehending [then that] the Major-General would not come 1 , by reason of the waters. I being retreated, the Enemy took encouragement; marched all that night; and came upon the Mujor-General's quarters about two hours before day ; where it pleased the Lord to order as you have heard. "The Major-General and Commissary-General (as he sent me word) were still gone on in the prosecution of them ; and [he] saith that, except an hundred and fifty horse in one body, he hears they are fled, by sixteen or eighteen in a company, all the country over. Robin Montgomery was come out of Stirling, with four or five regiments of horse and dragoons, 1 but was put to a stand when he heard of the issue of this busi- ness. Strahan and some other Officers had quitted some three weeks or a month before this business ; so that Ker commanded this whole party in chief. " It is given out that the Malignants will be almost all re- ceived, and rise unanimously and expeditiously. I can assure you, that those that serve you here find more satisfaction in having to deal with men of this stamp than [with] others ; and it is our comfort that the Lord hath hitherto made it the matter of our prayers, and of our endeavors (if it might have been the will of God), To have had a Christian understanding between those that fear God in this land and ourselves. And yet we hope it hath not been carried on with a willing failing of our duty to those that trust us : and I am persuaded the Lord hath looked favorably upon our sincerity herein ; and will still do so ; and upon you also, whilst you make the Inter- est of God's People yours. " Those religious People of Scotland that fall in this Cause we cannot but pity and mourn for them ; and we pray that all 1 For the purpose of rallying to him these Western forces, or such of them as would follow the official Authorities and him ; and leading them to Stirling, to tin: main Army (Hailliv, ubi tnpra). Poor Ker thought it might be useful to do a feat on his own footing first : and here is the conclusion of him ! Colo- iii 1 Ijutiin Munt^iiini-ry " is the Earl of Kgliuton'd Sou, whom wo have re- peatedly (K.-CU before 182 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Dec. good men may do so too. Indeed, there is at this time a very great distraction, and mighty workings of God upon the hearts of divers, both Ministers and People ; much of it tending to the justification of your Cause. And although some are as bitter and as bad as ever ; making it their business to shuffle hypo- critically with their consciences and the Covenant, to make it [seem] lawful to join with Malignants, which now they do, as well they might long before, having taken in the Head [Malignant] of them : yet truly others are startled at it ; and some have been constrained by the work of God upon their consciences, to make sad and solemn accusations of themselves, and lamentations in the face of their Supreme Authority ; charging themselves as guilty of the blood shed in this War, by having a hand in the Treaty at Breda, and by bringing the King in amongst them. This lately did a Lord of the Session ; and withdrew [from the Committee of Estates]. And lately Mr. James Livingston, a man as highly esteemed as any for piety and learning, who was a Commissioner for the Kirk at the said Treaty, charged himself with the guilt of the blood of this War, before their Assembly ; and withdrew from them, and is retired to his own house. " It will be very necessary, to encourage victuallers to come to us, that you take off Customs and -Excise from all things brought hither for the use of the Army. " I beg your prayers ; and rest, " Your humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * This, then, is the end of Ker's fighting project ; a very mad one, at this state of the business. The Remonstrance continued long to be the symbol of the Extreme-Covenant or Whiggamore Party among the Scots ; but its practical operation ceased here. Ker lies lamed, dangerously wounded ; and, I think, will fight no more. 2 " Strahan and some others, voted traitorous by the native Authorities, went openly over to Cromwell ; 1 Newspapers (in Crormvelliana, pp. 94, 95). 2 Other notice of him, and of his unsubduable stiffness of neck, in Thur loe, iv. 480 (Dec. 1655), &c. 1650. LETTER CLIII. EDINBURGH. ltfo Strahan soon after died. As for the Western Army, it straight- way dispersed itself ; part towards Stirling and the Authori- ties ; the much greater part to their civil callings again, wishing they had never quitted them. " This .miscarriage of affairs in the West by a few unhappy men," says Baillie, " put us all under the foot of the Enemy. They presently ran over all the country ; destroying cattle and crops ; putting Glasgow and all other places under grievous contributions. This makes me," for my part, " stick at Perth ; not daring to go where the Enemy is master, as he now is of all Scotland south of the Forth." * It only remains to be added, that the two Extreme Parties being broken, the Middle or Official one rose supreme, and widened its borders by the admission, as Oliver anticipated, " of the Malignants almost all ; " a set of " Public Resolutions " so called being passed in the Scotch Parliament to that end, and ultimately got carried through 4he Kirk Assembly too. Official majority of " Besolutioners," with a zealous party of " Remonstrants," who are also called " Protesters : " in Kirk and State, these long continue to afflict and worry one another, sad fruit of a Covenanted Charles Stuart ; but shall not far- ther concern us here. It is a great comfort to the Lord General that he has now mainly real Malignants for enemies in this country ; and so can smite without reluctance. Unhappy " Kcsolutioners," if they could subdue Cromwell, what would become of them at the hands of their own Malignants ! They have admitted the Chief Malignant, " in whom all Malignity doth centre," into their bosom ; and have an Incarnate Sole- cism presiding over them. Satisfactorily descended from Elizabeth Muir of Caldwell, but in all other respects most unsatisfactory ! The " Lord of the Session," who felt startled at this con- dition of things, and " withdrew '' from it, I take to have been Sir James Hope of Craighall, 8 of whom, and whose scruples, and the censures they got, there is frequent mention in these months. But the Laird of Swinton, another of the same, went still farther in the same course ; and indeed, soon after this 1 iii. m (dte,*l January, 165O-1). - BaUuur.iv. 173,235. 184 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 12 Dec. defeat of Ker, went openly over to Cromwell. " There is very great distraction, there are mighty workings upon the hearts of divers." " Mr. James Livingston," the Minister of Aucrum, has left a curious Life of himself : he is still represented by a distinguished family in America. LETTER CLIV. THE next affair is that of Edinburgh Castle. Our Derbyshire miners found the rock very hard, and made small way in it : but now the Lord General has got his batteries ready ; and, on Thursday, 12th December, after three months' blockade, salutes the place with his " guns and mortars," and the following set of Summonses ; which prove effectual. " For the Governor of Edinburgh Castle : These. "EDINBURGH, 12th December, 1650. " SIB, We being now resolved, by God's assistance, to make use of such means as He hath put into our hands towards the reducing of Edinburgh Castle, I thought fit to send you this Summons. " What the grounds of our proceedings have been, and what our desires and aims in relation to the glory of God and the common Interest of His People, we have often expressed in our Papers tendered to public view. To which though credit hitherto hath not been given by men, yet the Lord hath been pleased to bear a gracious and favorable testimony ; and hath not only kept us constant to our profession, and in our affec- tions to such as fear the Lord in this Nation, but hath un- masked others from their pretences, as appears by the present transactions at St. Johnston. 1 Let the Lord dispose your resolutions as seemeth good to Him : my sense of duty 1 Readmission " of the Malignants almost all ; " Earl of Calendar, Duke of Hamilton, &c. (Balfour, iv. 179-203) ; by the Parliament at Perth, at " St. Johnston," aa the old name is. l0. LETTER CLV. EDINBURGH. 185 presseth me, for the ends aforesaid, and to avoid the effusion of more blood, To demand the rendering of this place to me upon fit conditions. " To which expecting your answer this day, I rest, " Sir, your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." The Governor's Answer to my Lord General's Letter is this: "For his Excellency the General of the English Forces. "EDINBURGH, 12th December, 1650. " MY LORD, I am intrusted by the Estates of Scotland with this place ; and being sworn not to deliver it to any without their warrant, I have no power to dispose thereof by myself. I do therefore desire the space of ten days, wherein I may con- veniently acquaint the said Estates, and receive their answer. And for this effect, your safe-conduct for them employed in the message. Upon the receipt of their answer, you shall have the resolution of, my Lord, " Your most humble servant, " W. The Lord General's Eeply to Governor Walter Dundas : LETTER CLV. u For the Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh. "EDINBURGH, 12th December, 1650. "SiR, It concerns not me to know your obligations to those that trust you. I make no question the apprehensions you have of your abilities to resist those impressions which shall be made upon you, 1 are the natural and equitable rules of all men's judgments and consciences in your condition; except you had taken an oath beyond a possibility. I leave that to your consideration ; and shall not seek to contest with 1 By my cannons and mortars. 186 PAKT VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 13 Dec your thoughts : only I think it may become me to let }uu know, You may have honorable terms for yourself and those with you ; and both yourself and soldiers have satisfaction to all your reasonable desires ; and those that have other employ- ments, liberty and protection in the exercise of them. ' But to deal plainly with you, I will not give liberty to you to consult your Committee of Estates ; because I hear, those that are honest amongst them enjoy not satisfaction, and the rest are now discovered to seek another Interest than they have formerly pretended to. And if you desire to be informed of this, you may, by them you dare trust, at a nearer distance than St. Johnston. " Expecting your present answer, I rest, " Sir, your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." The Governor's Reply, No. 2, arrives on the morrow, Friday ; " For his Exceuency the Lord General of the English Forces in Scotland. "EDINBURGH CASTLE, 13th December, 1650. " MY LORD, It much concerneth me (considering my obligations) to be found faithful in the trust committed to me. And therefore, in the fear of the living God, and of His great Name called upon in the accepting of my trust, I do again press the liberty of acquainting the Estates. The time is but short ; and I do expect it, as answerable to your pro- fession of affection to those that fear the Lord. In the mean time I am willing to hear information of late proceedings from such as he dare trust who is, my Lord, " Your humble servant, " W. DtJNDAS." The Lord General's Keply, No. 2 : 1660. LETTER CLVI. EDINBURGH. 187 LETTER CLVI. u For the Governor of Edinburgh Castle : These. "EDINBURGH, 13th December, 1650. "Sin, Because of your strict and solemn adjuration of me, in the fear and Name of the living God, That I give you time to send to the Committee of Estates, to whom you under- took the keeping of this place under the obligation of an oath, as you affirm, I cannot but hope that it is your conscience, and not policy, carrying you to that desire. The granting of which, if it be prejudicial to our affairs, 1 am as much obliged in conscience not to do it, as you can pretend cause for your conscience' sake to desire it. " Now considering [that] our merciful and wise God binds not His People to actions too cross one to another ; but that our bands may be, 1 as I am persuaded they are, through our mistakes and darkness, not only in the question about the surrendering this Castle, but also in all the present differences: I have much reason to believe that, by a COR- iricuce, you may be well satisfied, in point of fact, of your Estates (to whom you say you are obliged) carrying on an Interest destructive and contrary to what they professed when they committed that trust to you, having made to depart from them many honest men through fear of their own safety,* and making way for the reception of professed Malignants, both in their Parliament and Army ; and also [that you] may have laid before you such grounds of our ends and aims to the preservation of the interest of honest men in Scotland as well as England, as will (if God vouchsafe to appear in them) give your conscience satisfaction. Which if you refuse, I hope you will not have cause to say that we are either unmindful of the great Name of the Lord which you have mentioned, nor that we are wanting to answer our profession of affection to those that fear the Lord. 1 oar perplexities are caused. Swintoii. Straban. llopo of Crmfghall. 4c. 188 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 14 Dec. " I am willing to cease hostility for some hours, or con- venient time to so good an end as information of judgment and satisfaction of conscience ; although I may not give liberty for the time desired, to send to the Committee of Estates ; or at all stay the prosecution of my attempt. " Expecting your sudden answer, I rest, "Your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." J The Governor's Reply, No. 3, comes out on Saturday : 11 For his Excellency the Lord General of the English Forces in Scotland: These. "EDINBURGH CASTLE, 14th December, 1650. " MY LORD, What I pressed, in my last, proceeded from conscience and not from policy : and I conceived that the few days desired could not be of such prejudice to your affairs as to bar the desired expressions of professed affection towards those that fear the Lord. And I expected that a small delay of our own 2 affairs should not have preponderated the satis- faction of a desire pressed in so serious and solemn a manner for satisfying conscience. " But if you will needs persist in denial, I shall desire to hear the information of late proceedings from such as I dare trust, and [as] have had occasion to know the certainty of things. Such I hope you will permit to come alongst at the first convenience ; and during that time all acts of hostility, and prosecution of attempts, be forborne on both sides. I am, my Lord, " Your humble servant, " W. DUNDAS." The Lord General's Eeply, No. 3 : 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 97). fi " oar own," one't own. 185'.. LETTER CLVIII. EDINBURGH. 189 LETTER CLVIL u For the Governor of Edinburgh Castle : These. "EDINBURGH, 14th December, 1650. " SIR, You will give me leave to be sensible of delays out of conscience of duty [too]. "If you please to name any you would speak with [who are] now in Town, they shall have liberty to come and speak with you for one hour, if they will ; provided you send pres- ently. I expect there be no loss of time. I rest, " Your servant, " OLIVER CBOMWELL." * Governor Dundas applies hereupon for Mr. Alexander Jaffray and the Reverend John Carstairs to be sent to him : two official persons, whom we saw made captive in Dunbar Drove, who have ever since been Prisoners-on-parole with his Excellency ; doing now and then an occasional message for him ; much meditating on him and his ways. Who very naturally decline to be concerned with so delicate an opera- tion as this now on hand, in the following characteristic Note, enclosed in his Excellency's lieply, No. 4 : LETTER CLVHI. " For the Governor of Edinburgh Castle : These. "EDINBURGH, 14th December, 1650. "SiR, Having acquainted the Gentlemen with your desire to speak with them, and they making some difficulty of it, [they] have desired me to send you this enclosed. I rest, " Sir, your servant, "OLIVES CROMWELL."' Here is " this enclosed : " 1 Newspapers (in Crvmuxlliana, p. 97). * Ibid. p. 98. 190 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. UDec. "for the Right Honorable the Governor of Edinburgh Castle: These. "EDINBURGH, 14th December, 1650. " RI'GHT HONORABLE, We now hearing that you was de- sirous to speak with us for your information of the posture of affairs, we would be glad, and we think you make no doubt of it, to be refreshing or useful to you in anything ; but the matter is of so high concernment, especially since it may be you will lean somewhat upon our information in managing that important trust put upon you, that we dare not take upon us to meddle : ye may therefore do as ye find your- selves clear and in capacity ; and the Lord be with you. We are, Sir, your honor's humble servants, well-wishers in the Lord, "AL. JAFFRAY. Jo. CARSTAIRS." So that, for this Saturday, nothing can be done. On Sunday, we suppose, Mr. Stapylton, in black, teaches in St. Giles's ; and other qualified persons, some of them in red with belts, teach in other Kirks ; the Scots, much taken with the doc- trine, " answering in their usual way of groans," Hum-m-mrrh ! and on Monday, it is like, the cannons and mortar-pieces begin to teach again, or indicate that they can at once begin. Wherefore, on Wednesday, here is a new Note from Governor Dundas; which we shall call Reply No. 4, from that much- straitened Gentleman: "EDINBURGH CASTLE, 18th December, 1650. "My LORD, I expected that conscience, which you pre- tended to be your motive that did induce you to summon this house before you did attempt anything against it, should also have moved you to have expected my Answer to your Demand of the house ; which I could not, out of conscience, suddenly give without mature deliberation ; it being a business of such high importance. You having refused that little time, which 1650. LETTER CLIX. EDINBURGH. 191 I did demand to the effect I might receive the commands of them that did intrust me with this place ; and [I] yet not daring to fulfil your desire, I do demand such a competent time as may be condescended upon betwixt us, within which if no relief come, I shall surrender this place upon such honorable conditions as can be agreed upon by capitulation ; and duriug which time all acts of hostility and prosecution of attempts on both sides may be forborne. I am, my Lord, " Your humble servant, "W. DUNDAS." The Lord General's Reply, No. 5 : LETTER CLIX. u For the Governor of Edinburgh Castle: These. "EDINBURGH, 18th December, 1650. " SIR, All that I have to say is shortly this : That if you will send out Commissioners by eleven o'clock this night, thoroughly instructed and authorized to treat and conclude, you may have terms, honorable and safe to you, and [to] those whose interests are concerned in the things that are with you. I shall give a safe-conduct to such whose names you shall send within the time limited, and order to forbear shooting at their coming forth and going in. " To this I expect your answer within one hour, and rest, " Sir, your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * The Governor's Reply, No. 5 : " EDINBURGH OAMTLE, 18th December. 1650. "MY LORD, I have thought upon these two Gentlemen whose names are here inontiom-il ; to wit, Major Andrew Aberuethy and Captain Robert Henderson; whom I purpose 1 Newspapers (in Cromuxlliana, p. 98). 192 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 18 Dec. to send out instructed, in order to the carrying on the Capita lation. Therefore expecting a safe-conduct for them with this bearer, I rest, my Lord, " Your humble servant, W. DUNDAS." The Lord General's Reply, No. 6 : LETTER CLX. " For the Governor of Edinburgh Castle : These. "EDINBURGH, 18th December, 1650. " SIR, I have, here enclosed, sent you a safe-conduct for the coming forth arid return of the Gentlemen you desire; and have appointed and authorized Colonel Monk and Lieutenant-Colonel White to meet with your Commis- sioners, at the house in the safe-conduct mentioned : there to treat and conclude of the Capitulation on my part. I rest, " Sir, your servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* Here is his Excellency's Pass or safe-conduct for them : PASS. " To all Officers and Soldiers under my Command. " You are on sight hereof to suffer Major Andrew Abernethy and Captain Robert Henderson to come forth of Edinburgh Castle, to the house of Mr. Wallace in Edinburgh, and to re- turn back into the said Castle, without any trouble or moles- tation. " Given under my hand, this 18th December, 1650. "OLIVER CROMWELL."' By to-morrow morning, in Mr. Wallace's House, Colonel ^torik jtnd the other Three have agreed upon handsome terms ; 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 98). 2 Ibid. p. 99 1650. PROCLAMATION. 193 of which, except what indicates itself in the following Proc- lamation, published by beat of drum the same day, we need say nothing. All was handsome, just and honorable, as the case permitted; my Lord General being extremely anxious to gain this place, and conciliate the Godly People of the Nation. By one of the conditions, the Public Registers, now deposited in the Castle, are to be accurately bundled up by authorized persons, and carried to Stirling, or whither the Authorities please; concerning which some question after- wards accidentally rises. PROCLAMATION. To be proclaimed by the Marshal-general, by beat of drum in Edinburgh and Leith. " WHEREAS there is an agreement of articles by treaty con eluded betwixt myself and Colonel Walter Dundas, Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh, which doth give free liberty to all Inhabitants adjacent, and all other persons who have any goods in the said Castle, to fetch forth the same from thence : " These are therefore to declare, That all such people before mentioned who have any goods in the Castle, as is before ex- pressed, shall have free liberty between this present Thursday, the 19th instant, and Tuesday, the 24th, To repair to the Cas- tle, and to fetch away their goods, without let or molestation. And I do hereby farther declare and require all Officers and Soldiers of this Army, That they take strict care, that no vio- lation be done to any person or persons fetching away their goods, and carrying them to such place or places as to them seeraeth fit. And if it shall so fall out that any Soldier shall be found willingly or wilfully to do anything contrary here- unto, he shall suffer death for the same. And if it shall appear that any Officer shall, either through connivance or otherwise, do or suffer [to be done] anything contrary to and against the said Proclamation, wherein it might lie in his power to VOL. XVIII 13 194 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 24 Dec. prevent or hinder the same, he the said Officer shall likewise suffer death. " Given under my hand the 19th of December, 1 650. CRCMWELL." 1 It is now Thursday : we gain admittance to the Castle on the Tuesday following, and the Scotch forces march away, in a somewhat confused manner, I conceive. For Governor Dun das and the other parties implicated are considered little better than traitors, at Stirling : in fact, they are, openly or secvetly, of the Remonstrant or Protester species ; and may as well come over to Cromwell ; which at once or gradually the most of them do. What became of the Clergy, let us not inquire : Remonstrants or Resolutioners, confused times await them ! Of which here and there a glimpse may turn up as we proceed. The Lord General has now done with Scotch Treaties ; the Malignants and Quasi-Malignants are ranked in one definite body ; and he may smite Avithout reluctance. Here is his Letter to the Speaker on this business. After which, we may hope, the rest of his Scotch Letters may be given in a mass ; sufficiently legible without commentary of ours. LETTER CLXI. " For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. "EDINBURGH, 24th Dec. 1650. " RIGHT HONORABLE, It hath pleased God to cause this Castle of Edinburgh to be surrendered into our hands, this day about eleven o'clock. I thought fit to give you such ac- count thereof as I could, and [as] the shortness of time would permit. " I sent a Summons to the Castle upon the 12th instant ; which occasioned several Exchanges and Replies, which, for their unusualness, I also thought fit humbly to present Jx> you. 2 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 99). 3 We have already read them. 1660. LETTERS CLXII.-CLXXXI. 195 Indeed the mercy is very great, and seasonable. I think, I need to say little of the strength of the place ; which, if it had not come in as it did, would have cost very much blood to have attained, if at all to be attained ; and did tie up your Army to that inconvenience, That little or nothing could have been attempted whilst this was in design ; or little fruit had of any- thing brought into your power by your Army hitherto, without it. I must needs say, not any skill or wisdom of ours, but the good hand of God hath given you this place. " I believe all Scotland hath not in it so much brass ordnance as this place. I send you here enclosed a List thereof, 1 and of the arms and ammunition, so well as they could be taken on a sudden. Not having more at present to trouble you with. I take leave, and rest, Sir, "Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * LETTERS CLXII.-CLXXXI. THE Lord General is now settled at Edinburgh till the sea- son for campaigning return. Tradition still reports him as lodged, as in 1(>48, in that same spacious and sumptuous " Earl of Murrie's House in the Cannigate ; " credibly enough ; though Tradition does not in this instance produce any written voucher hitherto. 8 The Lord General, as we shall find by and by. falls dangerously sick here ; worn down by overwork and the rugged climate. The Soots He entrenched at Stirling, diligently raising new ; parliamenting and committeeing diligently at Perth; 1 Drake*, minions, murderers, monkeys, of brass and iron, not interest- ing to u, except it f* " the great iron murderer called Muckle-Meg" already in existence, and still held in some confused remembrance in those Northern potk Newspapers (in CromweUiana, p. 99). Ye, iu fine: Menorie of tht Somervilte* (Edinburgh, 1815), ii. 423, give* * my Lady Home's Lodging," which is known to signify that same House. (Ak 0/1857.) 196 PART VI. WAK WITH SCOTLAND. s Feb. crown their King at Scone Kirk, on the First of January, 1 in token that they have now all "complied" with him. The Lord General is virtually master of all Scotland south of the Forth ; fortifies, before long, a Garrison as far west as " Newark," 2 which we now call Port Glasgow, on the Clyde. How his forces had to occupy themselves, reducing detached Castles ; coercing Moss-troopers ; and, in detail, bringing the Country to obedience, the old Books at great length say, and the reader here shall fancy in his mind. Take the following two little traits from Whitlocke, and spread them out to the due expansion and reduplication : "February 3d, 1650. Letters that Colonel Eenwick sum- moned Hume Castle to be surrendered to General Cromwell. The Governor answered, ' I know not Cromwell ; and as for my Castle, it is built on a rock.' Whereupon Colonel Fenwick played upon him " a little " with the great guns." But the Governor still would not yield ; nay sent a Letter couched in these singular terms : " I, William of the Wastle, Am now in my Castle ; And aw the dogs in the town Shanna gar 3 me gang down." So that there remained nothing but opening the mortars upon this William of the Wastle ; which did gar him gang down, more fool than he went up. We also read how Colonel Hacker and others rooted out bodies of Moss-troopers from Strength after Strength ; and "took much oatmeal," which must have been very useful there. But this little Entry, a few days subsequent to that of Willie Wastle, affected us most : " Letters that the Scots in a Village called Geddard rose, and armed themselves ; and set upon Captain Dawson as he returned from pursuing some Moss-troopers ; killed his guide and trumpet ; and took Daw- son and eight of his party, and after having given them quar- 1 Minute description of the ceremony in Somers Tracts, ri. 117. 8 Milton State-Papers, p. 84. " Shaud garre " is Whitlocke's reading. 1651. LETTER CLX11. EDINBURGH. 197 ter, killed them all in cold blood," 1 In which " Village called Geddard," do not some readers recognize a known place, Jed- dart or Jedburgh, friendly enough to Moss-troopers ; and in the transaction itself, a notable example of what is called " Jeddart Justice," killing a man whom you have a pique at; killing him first, to make sure, and then judging him ! However there come Letters too, "That the English soldiers married divers of the Scots Women ; " which was an excellent move- ment on their part ; and may serve as the concluding feature here. LETTER CLXH. THE " Empson " of this Letter, who is now to have a Com- pany iu Hacker's regiment, was transiently visible to us once already, as " Lieutenant Empson of my regiment," in the Skirmish at Musselburgh, four months ago. 8 Hacker is the well-known Colonel Francis Hacker, who attended the King on the scaffold ; having a signed Warrant, which we have read, addressed to him and two other Officers to that effect. The most conspicuous, but by no means the most approved, of his military services to this Country ! For which one indeed, in overbalance to many others, he was rewarded with death after the Restoration. A Rutlandshire man ; a Captain from the beginning of the "War; and rather favorably visible, from time to time, all along. Of whom a kind of continuous Out- line of a Biography, considerably different from Caulfield's and other inane Accounts of him, 8 might still be gathered, did it much concern us here. To all appearance, a somewhat taci- turn, somewhat indignant, very swift, resolute and valiant man. He died for his share in the Regicide ; but did not pro- fess to repent of it ; intimated, in his taciturn way, that he was willing to accept the results of it, and answer for it in a much higher Court than the Westminster one. We are indeed to understand generally, in spite of the light phrase which Crom- 1 14th February, 1650 (Whitlocke, p. 464). tor CXXXV., antea, p. 106. Caulfield's High Court of Justice, pp. 83-87 ; Truil* of the Rryictde* ; Ac. 198 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 25 Dec. well reprimands in this Letter, that Hacker was a religious man j and in his regicides and other operations did not act without some warrant that was very satisfactory to him. For the present he has much to do with Moss-troopers ; very active upon them ; for which " Peebles " is a good locality. He continues visible as a Republican to the last ; is appointed " to raise a regiment " for the expiring Cause in 1659, in which, what a little concerns us, this same "Hubbert " here in ques- tion is to be his Major. 1 " To the Honorable Colonel Ifacker, at Peebles or elsewhere : These. "[EDINBURGH,] 25th December, 1650. " SIB, I have [used] the best consideration I can, for the present, in this business ; and although I believe Captain Hubbert is a worthy man, and hear so much, yet, as the case stands, I cannot, with satisfaction to myself and some others, revoke the Commission I had given to Captain Empson, with- out offence to them, and reflection upon my own judgment. " I pray let Captain Hubbert know I shall not be unmind- ful of him, and that no disrespect is intended to him. But indeed I was not satisfied with your last speech to me about Empson, That he was a better preacher than fighter or sol- dier, or words to that effect. Truly I think he that prays and preaches best will fight best. I know nothing [that] will give like courage and confidence as the knowledge of God in Christ will ; and I bless God to see any in this Army able and willing to impart the knowledge they have, for the good of others. And I expect it be encouraged, by all the Chief Officers iii this Army especially ; and I hope you will do so. I pray receive Captain Empson lovingly ; I dare assure you he is a good man and a good officer ; I would we had no worse. I rest, " Your loving friend, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * 1 Commons Journals, vii. 669, 675, 824. z Harris, p. 516 ; Lausdowne MfcjS., 1236, fol. 99, contains the address, which Harris has omitted. 1860. LETTER CLXUl. EDINBURGH. 199 LETTER CLXTII. LETTER hundred-and-sixty-third relates to the exchange of three Prisoners whom we saw taken in Dunbar Drove, and have had an occasional glimpse of since. Before reading it, let us read another Letter, which is quite unconnected with this ; but which lies, as we may see, on the Lord General's table in Moray House in the Canongate, while he writes this ; and indeed is a unique of its kind : A Letter from the Lord General's Wife. " My Lord Chief Justice " is Oliver St. John, known to us this long while ; " President " is Bradshaw ; " Speaker " is Lenthall : high official persons ; to whom it were better if the Lord General took his Wife's advice, and wrote occasionally. " The Lady Elizabeth Cromwell to her Husband the Lord General at Edinburgh. " [COCKPIT, LONDON,] 27th December, 1650. " MY DEAJBEST, I wonder you should blame me for writing no oftener, when I have sent three for one : I cannot but think they are miscarried. Truly if I know my own heart, I should as soon neglect myself as to [omit] * the least thought to- wards you, who in doing it, I must do it to myself. But when I do write, my Dear, I seldom have any satisfactory answer ; which makes mu think my writing is slighted ; as well it may : but I cannot but think your love covers my weakness and infirmities. " I should rejoice to hear your desire in seeing me ; but I desire to submit to the Providence of God; hoping the Lord, who hath separated us, and hath often brought us together again, will in His good time bring us again, to the praise of His name. Truly my life is but half a life in your absence, did not the Lord make it up in Himself, which I must acknowl- edge to the praise of His grace. " I would you would think to write sometimes to your dear friend my Lord Chief Justice, of whom I have often put you in mind. And truly, my Dear, if you would think of what I 1 Word torn oat. 200 PART Vi. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. put you in mind of some, it might be to as much purpose as others ; 1 writing sometimes a Letter to the President, and sometimes to the Speaker. Indeed, my Dear, you cannot think the wrong you do yourself in the want of a Letter, though it were but seldom. I pray think on ; 2 and so rest, " Yours in all faithfulness, " ELIZABETH CROMWELL." 8 This Letter, in the original, is frightfully spelt : but other- wise exactly as here : the only Letter extant of this Heroine ; and not unworthy of a glance from us. It is given in Harris too, and in Noble very incorrectly. And now for the Letter concerning Provost Jaffray and his two fellow-prisoners from Dunbar Drove. "For the Right Honorable Lieutenant- General David Lesley : These. " EDINBURGH, 17th January, 1650. " SIB, I perceive by your last Letter you had not met with Mr. Carstairs 4 and Mr. Waugh, who were to apply themselves to you about Provost Jaff ray's and their release, [in ex- change] for the Seamen and Officers. But I understood, by a Paper since shown me by them under your hand, that you were contented to release the said Seamen and Officers for those Three Persons, who have had their discharges accord- ingly. "I am contented also to discharge the Lieutenant [in ex- change] for the Four Troopers at Stirling, who hath solicited me to that purpose. " I have, here enclosed, sent you a Letter, 5 which I desire you to cause to be conveyed to the Committee of Estates ; and that such return shall be sent back to me as they shall please to give. I remain, Sir, " Your humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* 1 The grammar bad ; the meaning evident or discoverable, and the bad grammar a part of that ! 2 " think of" is the Lady's old phrase. 8 Milton State-Pafters, p. 40. 4 Custaires. 6 The next Letter. Thurloe, i. 172. Laigh Parliament House. 1651. LETTER CLX111. ED1NBUKUH 201 Here is a notice from Balfour : * At Perth, 22d Novem- ber, 1650 (licrje prcesente" the King being present, as usually after that Flight to the Grampian Hills he is allowed to be), "the Committee of Estates remits to the Committee of Quarterings the exchange of Prisoners anent Mr. Alexander Jaffray and Mr. John Carstairs, Minister, with some English Prisoners in the Castle of Dumbarton. ; ' Nevertheless, at this date, six or seven weeks after, the business is not yet perfected.- Alexander Jaffray, as we know already, is Provost of Aber- deen ; a leading man for the Covenant from of old ; and gen- erally the Member for his Burgh in the Scotch Parliaments of these years. In particular, he sits as Commissioner for Aber- deen in the Parliament that met 4th January, 1649 ; * under which this disastrous Quarrel with the English began. He was famed afterwards (infamous it then meant) as among the first of the Scotch Quakers ; he, with Barclay of Urie, and other lesser Fallen-Stars. Personal intercourse with Crom- well, the Sectary and Blasphemer, had much altered the no- tions of Mr. Alexander Jaffray. Baillie informed us, three months ago, he and Carstairs, then Prisoners-ou -parole, were sent Westward by Cromwell " to agent the Remonstrance," to guide towards some good issue the Ker-and-Strahan Nego- tiation ; which, alas, could only be guided headlong into the ditches at Hamilton before daybreak, as we saw! Jaffray but afterwards in the Little Parliament ; was an official person in Scotland,* and one of Cromwell's leading men there. Carstairs, we have to say or repeat, is one of the Ministers of Glasgow ; deep in the confused Remonstrant-Resolutioner Controversies of that day ; though on which side precisely one does not altogether know, perhaps he himself hardly alto- gether knew. From Baillie, who has frequent notices of him, it is clear he tends strongly towards the Cromwell view in many things; yet with repugnancies, anti-sectary and other, difficult for frail human nature. How he managed his life- 1 iv. 168. Balfonr, iii. 382. * Ousted our friend Scotetarvet, most nnjostly, thinks he of the Stagncr- <7 State (p. 19!) There wanted only that to make the Homily on Life's 202 FAIiT VI. WAIi WITH SCOTLAND. 17 Jan. pilotage in these circumstances shall concern himself mainly. His Son, I believe, is the " Principal Carstairs," * who became very celebrated among the Scotch Whigs in King William's time. He gets home to Glasgow now, where perhaps we shall see some glimpses of him again. John Waugh (whom they spell Vauch and Wauch. and otherwise distort) was the painful Minister of Borrowstoun- ness, in the Shire of Linlithgow. A man of many troubles, now and afterwards. Captive in the Duubar Drove ; still deaf he to the temptings of Sectary Cromwell ; deafer than ever. In this month of January, 1651, we perceive he gets his deliverance ; returns with painfully increased experience, but little change of view derived from it, to his painful Min- istry ; where new tribulations await him. From Baillie 2 I gather that the painful Waugh's invincible tendency was to the Resolutioner or Quasi-Malignant side ; and too strong withal ; no level sailing, or smooth pilotage, possible for poor Waugh ! For as the Remonstrant, Protester, or Ker-and- Strahan Party, having joined itself to the Cromwellian, came ultimately to be dominant in Scotland, there ensued for strait- laced clerical individuals who would cling too desperately tc the opposite Resolutioner or Quasi-Malignant side, very bad times. There ensued in the first place, very naturally, this, That the strait-laced individual, who would not cease to pray publicly against the now Governing Powers, was put out of his living : this ; and if he grew still more desperate, worse than this. Of both which destinies our poor strait-laced Waugh may serve to us as an emblem here. Some three years hence we find that the Cromwellian Government has, in Waugh's, as in various other cases, ejected the strait-laced Resolutioner, and inducted a Zoose-laced Protester into his Kirk ; leaving poor "Waugh the strait-laced to preach "in a barn hard by." And though the loose-laced " have but fifteen," and the strait-laced "all the Parish," it matters not; the stipend and the Kirk go with him whose lacing is loose : one has nothing but one's barn left, and sad reflections. Nay in Waugh's case, the very 1 B'uxj. Britann. in voce ; somewhat indistinct. - iii. 248. 1651. LETTER CLXIV. EDINBURGH. 203 barn, proving as is likely an arena of too vehement discourse, was taken away from him ; and he, Waugh, was lodged in Prison, in the Castle of Edinburgh. 1 For Waugh " named the King in his prayers," he and " Mr. Robert Knox " even went that length ! In Baillie, under date llth November, 1653, is a most doleful inflexible Letter from Waugh's own hand : "brought to the top of this rock," as his ultimate lodging- place ; " having my habitation among the owls of the desert, because of my very great uselessness and fruitlessness among the sons of men." Yet he is right well satisfied, conscience yielding him a good &c. &c. Poor Waugh, I wish he would reconsider himself. Whether it be absolutely indispensable to Christ's Kirk to have a Nell-Gwynn Defender set over it, even though descended from Elizabeth Muir ; and if no other, not the bravest and devoutest of all British men, will do for that ? Waugh, it is a strange camera-obscura, the head of man! LETTER CLXIV. WE have heard of many Moss-troopers : we heard once of a certain Watt, a Tenant of the Earl of Tweedale's, who being ruined out by the War, distinguished himself in this new course ; and contemporary with him, of " one Augustin a High- German." To which latter some more special momentary no- tice now falls due. Read Bal four's record, and then Cromwell's Letter. " One Augustin, a High-German, being purged out of the Army before Dunbar Drove, but a stout and resolute young man, :nul lover of the Scots Nation, imitating Watt, in Octo- ber or November this year, annoyed the Enemy very much ; killing many of his stragglers ; and made nightly infalls upon tlu-ir quarters, taking aud killing sometimes twenty, some- times thirty, and more or less of them : whereby he both en- riched himself and his followers, and greatly damnified the His chief abode was aliout and iu the Mountains of i Baillie, in, 24S, 253, 22ft. 204 FART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. i? J an . Pentland and Soutra." And again, from Perth, 19th Decem- ber, 1650 : " Memorandum, That Augustin departed from Fife with a party of sixscore horse ; crossed at Blackness on Fri- day, 13th December ; forced Cromwell's guards ; killed eighty men to the Enemy ; put in thirty-six men to Edinburgh Cas- tle, with all sorts of spices, and some other things ; took thirty- five horses and five prisoners, which he sent to Perth the 14th of this instant." Which feat, with the spices and thirty-six men, could not indeed save Edinburgh Castle from surrender- ing, as we saw, next week ; but did procure Captain Augustin "thanks from the Lord Chancellor and Parliament in his Majesty's name," and good outlooks for promotion in that quarter. 1 " For the Right Honorable the Committee of Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland : These. "EDINBURGH, 17th January, 1650 "Mr LORDS, Having been informed of divers barbarous murders and inhuman acts, perpetrated upon our men by one Augustin a German in employ under you, and one Ross a Lieu- tenant, I did send to Lieutenant-General David Lesley, desir- ing justice against the said persons. And to the end I might make good the fact upon them, I was willing either by com- missioners on both parts, or in any other equal way, to have the charge proved. "The Lieutenant-General was pleased to allege a want of power from Public Authority to enable him herein : which occasions me to desire your Lordships that this business may be put into such a way as may give satisfaction ; whereby I may understand what rules your Lordships will hold during this sad Contest between the two Nations ; [rules] which may evidence the War to stand upon other pretences at least than the allowing of such actions will suppose. " Desiring your Lordships' answer, I rest, my Lords, " Your humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."' 1 Balfour, iv. 166, 210, 214. 2 Thurloe, i. 173. Laigh Parliament House. 1651. LETTER CLXV. EDINBURGH. 205 No effect whatever seems to have boen produced by this Let- ter. The Scotch Quasi-Malignant Authorities have "thanked " Augustin, and are determined to have all the benefit they can of him, which cannot be much, one would think ! In the following June accordingly we find him become " Colonel Augustin," probably Major or Lieutenant-Colonel; quartered with Robin Montgomery " at Dumfries ; " giving " an alarm to Carlisle," but by no means taking it; "falling in," on an- other occasion, " with two hundred picked men," but very glad to fall out again, " nearly all cut off." In strong practical Re monstrance against which, the learned Bulstrode has Letters in November, vague but satisfactory, " That the Scots them- selves rose against Augustin, killed some of his men, and drove away the rest ; " entirely disapproving of such courses and personages. And then finally in January following, " Letters that Augustin the great robber in Scotland, upon disband- ing of the Marquis of Huntly's forces," the last remnant of Scotch Malignancy for the present, " went into the Orcades, and there took ship for Norway." * Fair wind and full sea to himl LETTER CLXV. AN Official Medallist has arrived from London to take the Effigies of the Lord General, for a Medal commemorative of the Victory at Dunbar. The Effigies, Portrait, or " Statue " as they sometimes call it, of the Lord General appears to be in a state of forwardness ; but he would fain waive such a piece of vanity. The " Gratuity to the Army " is a solid thing : but this of the Effigies, or Stamp of my poor transient unbeautiful Face ? However, the Authorities, as we may surmise, have made up their mind, 1 Newspapers (in Cromweliiana, p. 104) ; Whitlocke, 23d November, 1651; ib i4th January, 1651-2. 206 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Feb. " For the Honorable the Committee of the Army [at London] : These. "EDINBURGH, 4th February, 1650. " GENTLEMEN, It was not a little wonder to me to see that you should send Mr. Synionds so great a journey, about a busi- ness importing so little, as far as it relates to me ; whereas, if my poor opinion may not be rejected by you, I have to offer to that 1 which I think the most noble end, to wit, The Commemo- ration of that great Mercy at Dunbar, and the Gratuity to the Army. Which might be better expressed upon the Medal, by engraving, as on the one side the Parliament, which I hear was intended and will do singularly well, so on the other side an Army, with this Inscription over the head of it, The Lord of Hosts, which was our Word that day. Wherefore, if I may beg it as a favor from you, I most earnestly beseech you, if I may do it without offence, that it may be so. And if you think not fit to have it as I offer, you may alter it as you see cause ; only I do think I may truly say, it will be very thank- fully acknowledged by me, if you will spare the having my Effigies in it. "The Gentleman's pains and trouble hither have been very great ; and I shall make it my second suit unto you that you will please to confer upon him that Employment which Nich- olas Briot had before him : indeed the man is ingenious, and worthy of encouragement. I may not presume much ; but if, at my request, and for my sake, he may obtain this favor, I shall put it upon the account of my obligations, which are not few; and, I hope, shall be found ready to acknowledge [it], and to approve myself, Gentlemen, " Your most real servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* Of " Nicholas Briot " and " Mr. Symonds," since they have the honor of a passing relation to the Lord General, and still enjoy, or suffer, a kind of ghost-existence in the Dilettante memory, we may subjoin, rather than cancel, the following 1 I should vote exclusively for that. 2 Harris, p. 519. 1851. LETTER CLXV. EDINBURGH. 207 authentic particulars. In the Commons Journals of 20th August, 1<>42, it is : " Ordered, That the Earl of Warwick," now Admiral of our Fleet, "be desired that Monsieur Bryatt may hare delivery of his wearing apparel ; and all his other goods stayed at Scarborough, not belonging to Minting and Coining of Moneys." This Nicholas Bryatt, or Briot, then, must have been Chief Engraver for the Mint at the beginning of the Civil Wars. We perceive, he has gone to the King northward; but is here stopt at Scarborough, with all his baggage, by Warwick the Lord High Admiral : and is to get away. What became of him afterwards, or what was his history before, no man and hardly any Dilettante knows. Symonds, Symons, or, as the moderns call him, Simon, is still known as an approved Medal-maker. In the Commons Journals of 17th December, 1651, we find : " Ordered, That it be referred to the Council of State to take order that the sum of 300 be paid unto Thomas Symonds, which was agreed by the Committee appointed for that purpose to be paid unto him, for the Two Great Seals made by him, and the materials thereof : And that the said Council do take consideration of what farther recompense is fit to be given unto him for his extraordinary pains therein ; and give order for the payment of such sum of money as they shall think fit in respect thereof." An earlier entry, which still more concerns us here, is an < >nliT, in favor of one whose name has not reached the Clerk, and is now indicated only by stars, That the Council of State shall pay him for "making the Statue of the General," doubtless this Medal or Effigies of the General; the name in- dicated by stars being again that of Symonds. The Order, we observe, has the same date as the present Letter. 1 The Medal of Cromwell, executed on this occasion, still exists, and is said to be a good likeness. 8 The Committee-men had not taken my Lord General's advice about the Parliament, about the Army with the Lord of Hosts, and the total omitting of his own Effigies. Vertue published Engravings of all these Medals of Simon (as he spells him) in the year 1753. 1 CommtM* Jvuntdt, 4th February 16MM * Harris, p. 518. 208 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Feb. The " Two Great Seals/' mentioned in the Excerpt above, are also worth a word from us. There had a good few Great Seals to be made in the course of this War : all by Symonds : of whom, with reference thereto, we find, in authentic quarters, various notices, of years long prior and posterior to this. The first of all the " new Great Seals " was the one made, after infinite debates and hesitations, in 1643, when Lord Keeper Ly ttleton ran away with the original : Symonds was the maker of this, as other entries of the same Rhadamanthine Commons Journals instruct us : On the llth July, 1643, Henry Marten is to bring "the man " that will make the new Great Seal, and let us see him " to-morrow ; " which man, it turns out, at sight of him, not " to-morrow," but a week after, on the 19th July, is "Mr. Simonds," l who, we find farther, is to have 100 for his work ; 40 in hand, 30 so soon as his work is done, and the other 30 one knows not when. Symonds made the Seal duly ; but as for his payment, we fear it was not very duly made. Of course when the Commonwealth and Council of State began, a couple of new Great Seals were needed ; and these too, as we see above, Symonds made ; and is to be paid for them, and for the General's Statue ; which we hope he was, but are not sure ! Other new Seals, Great and Not-so-great, in the subsequent mutations, were needed ; and assiduous Symonds made them all. Nevertheless, in 1659, when the Protectorate under Richard was staggering towards ruin, we find, "Mr. Thomas Symonds Chief Graver of the Mint and Seals," repeatedly turning up with new Seals, new order for payment, and new indication that the order was but incompletely complied with. 3 May 14th, 1659, he has made a new and newest Great Seal ; he is to be paid for that, and " for the former, for which he yet remains unsatisfied." Also on the 24th May, 1659, 8 the Coun- cil of State get a new Seal from him. Then on the 22d August, on the Rump Parliament's re-assembling, he makes a "new Parliament Seal ; " and presents a modest Petition to have his money paid him : order is granted very promptly to that end 5 1 Commons Journals, iii. 162, 174. 2 Ibid. vii. 654. 8 Ibid. vii. 663. 1651. LETTER CLXVI. EDINBURGH. 209 "his debt to be paid for this Seal, and for all former work done by him ; " we hope, with complete effect. 1 The Restoration soon followed, and Symonds continued still in the Mint under Charles II. ; when it is not very likely his claims were much better attended to ; the brave Hollar, and other brave Artists, having their own difficulties to get life kept in, during those rare times, Mr. Rigmarole ! Symonds, we see, did get the place of Nicholas Briot ; and found it, like other brave men's places, full of hard work and short rations. Enough now of Symonds and the Seals and Effigies. LETTER CLXVI. ALONG with Symonds, various English strangers, we per- ceive, are arriving or arrived, on miscellaneous business with the Lord General in his Winter-quarters. Part of the Oxford Caput is here in Edinburgh, with " a very high testimony of respect ; " whom, in those same hours, the Lord General dis- misses honorably with their Answer. We are to premise that Oxford University, which at the end of the First Civil War had been found in a most broken, Ma- lignant, altogether waste and ruinous condition, was after- \s -.mis, not without difficulty, and immense patience on the jurt of the Parliament Commissioners, radically reformed. Philip Earl of Pembroke, he of the loud voice, who dined once with Bulstrode in the Guildhall ; 3 he, as Chancellor of the University, had at last to go down in person, in the Spring of 1C IS; put the intemperate Dr. Fell, incorrigible otherwise, under lock and key; left the incorrigible Mrs. Dr. Fell, "whom the soldiers had to carry out in her chair," "sitting in the f July, 1649. 1861. LETTEK CLXVI. EDINBURGH. 211 what late) let me advise you of my unfitness to answer the ends of so great a Service and Obligation, with some things very obvious. " I suppose a principal aim in such elections hath not only respected abilities and interest to serve you, but freedom [as] to opportunities of time and place. As the first may not be well supposed, so the want of the latter may well become me to represent to you. You know where Providence hath placed me for the present ; and to what I am related if this call were off, 1 I being tied to attendance in another Land as much out of the way of serving you as this, for some certain time yet to come appointed by the Parliament. The known esteem and honor of this place is such, that I should wrong it and your favor very much, and your freedom in choosing me, if, either by pretended modesty or in any unbenign way, I should dis- pute the acceptance of it. Only I hope it will not be imputed to me as a neglect towards you, that I cannot serve you in the measure I desire. " I offer these exceptions with all candor and clearness to you, as [leaving you] most free to mend your choice in case you think them reasonable ; and shall not reckon myself the less obliged to do all good offices for the University. But if these prevail not, and that I must continue this honor, until I can personally serve you, you shall not want my prayers That that seed and stock of Piety and Learning, so marvellously springing up amongst you, may be useful to that great aud glorious Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ ; of the approach of which so plentiful an effusion of the Spirit upon those hope- ful plants is one of the best presages. And in all other things I shall, by the Divine assistance, improve my poor abilities and interests in manifesting myself, to the University and yourselves, " Your most cordial friend and servant, "OLIVER CKOMWM.L." u 1 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland " for throe years to come " ( Common* Journals, '), 22d Jane, 1649. 8 From the Archives of Oxford University ; communicated by Rev. Dr. 212 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Feb. On the same Tuesday, 4th February, 1650-1, while the Lord General is writing this and the former Letter, his Army, issu- ing from its Leith Citadel and other Winter-quarters, has marched westward towards Stirling ; he himself follows on the morrow. His Army on Tuesday got to Linlithgow ; the Lord General overtook them at Falkirk on Wednesday. Two such days of wind, hail, snow and rain as made our soldiers very uncomfortable indeed. On Friday, the morning proving fair, we set out again ; got to Kilsyth ; but the hail-reservoirs also opened on us again : we found it impossible to get along ; and so returned, by the road we came ; back to Edinburgh on Saturday, 1 coated with white sleet, but endeavoring not to be discouraged. We hope we much terrified the Scots at Stirling ; but the hail-reservoirs proved friendly to them. LETTER CLXVII. THE Oxford Convocation has received the foregoing Letter, " canting Letter sent thereunto," as crabbed Anthony desig- nates it, " dated at Edinburgh on the 4th of February," and now at length made public in print; they have "read it in Convocation," continues Anthony, " whereat the Members made the House resound with their cheerful acclamations ; " 2 and the Lord General is and continues their Chancellor ; encourag- ing and helping forward them and their work, in many ways, amid his weighty affairs, in a really faithful manner. As be- gins to be credible without much proof of ours, and might still be abundantly proved if needful. Here however, in the first blush of the business, comes Mr. Waterhouse, with a small recommendation from the Lord General; " John Waterhouse of Great Greenford in Middlesex, son of Francis Waterhouse by Bridget his wife," if anybody want to know him better ; 3 "a student heretofore for eigh- 1 Perfect Diurnal (in Cromwelliana, p. 100). 2 Fasti, ii. 159. 3 Ibid. 163 : "created Doctor of Physic by virtue of the Letters of Olivet Cromwell, General" (12th March, 1650-1). 1651. LETTER CLXVIII. EDINBURGH. 213 years in Trinity College, Cambridge," a meritorious Man and Healer since ; whom one may well decorate with a Degree, or decorate a Degree with, by the next opportunity. " To my very Worthy Friend Dr. Greenwood, Vice- Chancellor of tlie University of Oxford. "EDINBUKGH, 14th February, 1650. " SIB, This Gentleman, Mr. Waterhouse, went over into Ireland as Physician to the Army there ; of whose diligence, fidelity and abilities I had much experience. Whilst I was there, he constantly attended the Army : and having, to my own knowledge, done very much good to the Officers and Sol- diers, by his skill and industry ; and being upon urgent occasion lately come into England, [he] hath desired me to recommend him for the obtaining of the Degree of Doctor in that Science. Wherefore I earnestly desire you that, when he shall repair to you, you * will give him your best assistance for the obtaining of the said Degree ; he being shortly to return back to his charge in Ireland. " By doing whereof, as you will encourage one who is will- ing and ready to serve the Public, so you will also lay a very great obligation upon, " Sir, your affectionate servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." 3 LETTER CLXVITL COLONEL ROBERT LILBURN, a stout impetuous soldier, as both his Brothers were, and steady to his side as neither of them was, had the honor, at a critical time, in the Summer of 1648, while Duke Hamilton and his Scots were about invading us, to do the State good service, as we transiently saw ; * to beat down, namely, and quite suppress, in Lancashire, a cer- 1 " that you " in the hasty original. 1 From the Archived of Oxford University ; communicated by Rev. Dr. BliM. Ante*, vol. xvii. p. 317. 214 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 8 March, tain Sir Richard Tempest and his hot levyings of " 1,000 horse," and indeed thereby to suppress all such levyings on behalf of the said Duke, in those Northern parts. An impor- tant, and at the time most welcome service. Letter of thanks, in consequence ; reward of 1,000 in consequence, reward voted, never yet paid, nor, as would seem, likely soon to be. Colonel Eobert will take Delinquents' lands for his 1,000 ; will buy Bear Park, with it and with other debentures or moneys : Bear Park, once Beaurepaire, a pleasant manor near native Durham, belongs to the Cathedral land ; and might an- swer both parties, would the Committee of Obstructions move. " To the Right Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England : These. "EDINBUHGH, 8th March, 1650. " SIR, I am informed that Colonel Robert Lilburn is like to be damnified very much, in relation to his purchase of the Manor of Bear Park in the County of Durham, by being em- ployed in the service of the Commonwealth in * Scotland : which business (as I understand), upon his Petition to the Parliament, was referred to the Committee of Obstructions, and a Report thereof hath lain ready in the hands of Mr. John Corbet, a long time, unreported. " I do therefore humbly desire that the House may be moved to take the said Report into speedy consideration, that so Colonel Lilburn may have redress therein, according as you think fit ; and that his readiness and willingness to return to his charge here, and leave his own affairs to serve the Public, may not turn to his disadvantage. I doubt not but those services he hath done in England and here will be a sufficient motive to gratify him herein ; which shall be acknowledged by, Sir, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." a Committee of Obstructions, " a Committee for removing Ob- structions to the Sale of Dean-and-Chapter Lands," does accord- ! " pf " in orig. 2 Baker MSS. (Cambridge), xxxv. 79. 1651. LETTER CLXIX. EDINBURGH 215 ingly bestir itself; and on Tuesday, 18th March, the due order is given. 1 To which, we doubt not, as the matter then drops, effect was given, till the Restoration came, and ousted Colo- nel Robert and some others. Whether the 49 (iKtli March, 165O), due " redrew " to him. * Ibid. vj. 410 (8th May, 1650). 216 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 11 March, he pleased to help it forward, a word might be very further- some. The Lord General is prompt with his word ; writes this Letter, as I find, this and the foregoing, in some interval of a painful fit of sickness he has been laboring under. " To the Eight Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England : These. "EDINBURGH, llth March, 1650. " SIR, Having received information from the Mayor and Citizens of Durham, and some Gentlemen of the Northern Counties, That upon their Petition to the Parliament, ' that the Houses of the late Dean and Chapter in the City of Dur- ham might be converted into a College or School of Literature/ the Parliament was pleased in May last to refer the same to the Committee for removing Obstructions in the sale of Dean- and-Chapter Lands, ' to consider thereon, and to report their opinion therein to the House : ?1 Which said Committee, as I am also informed, have so far approved thereof as that they are of an opinion That the said Houses will be a fit place to erect a College or School for all the Sciences and Literature, and that it will be a pious and laudable work and of great use to the Northern parts ; and have ordered Sir Arthur Haselrig to make report thereof to the House accordingly : And the said Citizens and Gentlemen having made some address to me to contribute my assistance to them therein : "To which, in so good and pious a work, I could not but willingly and heartily concur. And not knowing wherein I might better serve them, or answer their desires, than by recommending the same to the Parliament by, Sir, yourself their Speaker, I do therefore make it my humble and earnest request that the House may be moved, as speedily as conven- iently may be, to hear the Report of the said Committee con- cerning the said Business, from Sir Arthur Haselrig; K that so the House, taking the same into consideration, may do therein what shall seem meet for the good of those poor Countries. 1 Commons Journals, ubi suprk. 165L LETTER CLXIX. EDINBURGH. 217 " Truly it seems to me a matter of great concernment and importance ; as that which, by the blessing of God, may much conduce to the promoting of learning and piety in those poor rude and ignorant parts ; there being also many concurring advantages to this Place, as pleasantness and aptness of situa- tion, healthful air, and plenty of provisions, which seem to favor and plead for their desires therein. And besides the good, so obvious to us, [which] those Northern Counties may reap thereby, who knows but the setting on foot this work at this time may suit with God's present dispensations ; and may if due care and circumspection be used in the right constituting and carrying on the same tend to, and by the blessing of God produce, such happy and glorious fruits as are scarce thought on or foreseen ! " Sir, not doubting of your readiness and zeal to promote so good and public a work, I crave pardon for this boldness ; and rest, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." 1 Whereupon the Committee for removing Obstructions does bestir itself; manages, in three months hence (for we do nothing rashly), to report* by "Sir Arthur Haselrig, touch- ing Duresme College-Buildings to be converted to a College or School for all the Sciences of Literature : That " that And, in brief, History itself has to report that the pious Project, thanks mainly to furtherance by the Lord General, whose power to further it increased by and by, did actually, some seven years hence, take effect; 8 actually began giving Lessons of human Grammar, human Geography, Geometry, and other divine Knowledge, to the vacant human mind, in 1 Baker MSS. xxviii. 455 : printed also in Ilutchinson's History of Durham , and elsewhere. 8 Commons Journal* (vi. 589), 18th Jane, 1651. Protector's Letter* Patent of 15th May, 1657, following tip hi Ordinance cil of the previous Year : Ilutrhinson's History of the County Palatine of Durham (Newcastle, 1785), i. 514-530. See Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, in ::: n unhri.lgo IVtiti..n againal it: 18th April, 1659). " Throve apace," wya Hntchuuon, " till " &c. 218 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 24 March, those once sleepy Edifices, dark heretofore, or illuminated mainly by Dr. Cosins's Papistical waxlights or the like : and so continued, in spite of opposition, till the Blessed Restora- tion put a stop to it, and to some other things. In late years there is again some kind of Durham College giving Lessons, I hope, with good success. LETTER CLXX. BY that tempestuous sleety expedition in the beginning of February my Lord General caught a dangerous illness, which hung about him, reappearing in three successive relapses, till June next ; and greatly alarmed the Commonwealth and the Authorities. As this to Bradshaw, and various other Letters still indicate. " To the Right Honorable the Lord President of the Council of State: These. "EDINBURGH, 24th March, 1650. " MY LORD, I do with all humble thankfulness acknowl- edge your high favor, and tender respect of me, expressed in your Letter, and the Express sent therewith to inquire after one so unworthy as myself. " Indeed, my Lord, your service needs not me : I am a poor creature ; and have been a dry bone ; and am still an unprofit- able servant to my Master and you. I thought I should have died of this fit of sickness ; but the Lord seemeth to dispose otherwise. But truly, my Lord, I desire not to live, unless I may obtain mercy from the Lord to approve my heart and life to Him in more faithfulness and thankfulness, and [to] those I serve in more profitableness and diligence. And I pray God, your Lordship, and all in public trust, may im- prove all those unparalleled experiences of the Lord's won- derful Workings in your sight, with singleness of heart to His glory, and the refreshment of His People; who are to 1651. LETTER CLXXI. EDINBURGH. 219 Him as the apple of His eye ; and upon whom your enemies, both former and latter, who have fallen before you, did split themselves. " This shall be the unfeigned prayer of, " My Lord, your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* From Edinburgh, of date 18th March, by special Express we have this comfortable intelligence: "The Lord General is now well recovered : he was in his dining-room to-day with his Officers, and was very cheerful and pleasant." And the symptoms, we see, continue good and better on the 24th. " So that there is not any fear, by the blessing of God, but our General will be enabled to take the field when the Provisions arrive." " Dr. Goddard " is attending him. 2 Before the end of the month he is on foot again ; sieging Blackness, sieging the Island of Inchgarvie, or giving Colonel Moiik directions to that end. LETTER CLXXI. THE following Letter brings its own commentary : " for my beloved Wife Elizabeth Cromwell, at the Cockpit : These. " [EDINBUBOH,] 12th April, 1651. "Mr DEAREST, I praise the Lord I am increased in strength in my outward man: But that will not satisfy me .:] >t 1 get a heart to love and serve my heavenly Father better ; and get more of the light of His countenance, which is. bettor than life, and more power over my corruptions: in these hopes I wait, and am not without expectation of a gra- cious return. Pray for me ; truly I do daily for thee and the d' -nr Family; and Gal Almighty bless you all with His spirit- ual blessings. {in Cromwrlliana.p. 101). * Ibid, pp. 100, 101. 220 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 12 April. "Mind poor Betty of the Lord's great mercy. Oh, I desire her not only to seek the Lord in her necessity, but in deed and in truth to turn to the Lord ; and to keep close to Him ; and to take heed of a departing heart, and of being cozened with worldly vanities and worldly company, which I doubt she is too subject to. I earnestly and frequently pray for her and for him. Truly they are dear to me, very dear ; and I am in fear lest Satan should deceive them, knowing how weak our hearts are, and how subtle the Adversary is, and what way the deceitfulness of our hearts and the vain world make for his temptations. The Lord give them truth of heart to Him. Let them seek Him in truth, and they shall find Him. " My love to the dear little ones ; I pray for grace for them. I thank them for their Letters ; let me have them often. "Beware of my Lord Herbert's resort to your house. If he do so, it may occasion scandal, as if I were bargaining with him. Indeed, be wise, you know my meaning. Mind Sir Henry Vane of the business of my Estate. Mr. Floyd knows my whole mind in that matter. " If Dick Cromwell and his Wife be with you, my dear love to them. I pray for them : they shall, God willing, hear from me. I love them very dearly. Truly I am not able as yet to write much. I am weary ; and rest, " Thine, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l " Betty " and " he " are Elizabeth Claypole and her Hus- band ; of whom, for the curious, there is a long-winded intri- cate account by Noble, 2 but very little discoverable in it. They lived at Norborough, which is near Market Deeping, but in Northamptonshire; where, as already intimated, the Lady Protectress, Widow Elizabeth Cromwell, after the Res- toration, found a retreat. "They had at least three sons and daughters." Claypole became " Master of the Horse " to Oliver ; sat in Parliament ; made an elegant appearance in the world : but dwindled sadly after his widowership ; his 1 Cole MSS. xxxiii. 37 : a Copy ; Copies are frequent. ii. 375, &c. JG51. LETTER CLXX1I. P;i)INBURGH. 221 second marriage ending in " separation," in a third quasi- marriage, and other confusions, poor man ! But as yet the Lady Claypole lives ; bright and brave. " Truly they are dear to me, very dear." " Dick Cromwell and his Wife " seem to be up in Town on a visit ; living much at their ease in the Cockpit, they. Brother Henry, in these same days, is out "in the King's County " in Ireland ; doing hard duty at " Ballybawn " and elsewhere, 1 the distinguished Colonel Cromwell. And Dep- uty Ireton, with his labors, is wearing himself to death. In the same house, one works, another goes idle. " The Lord Herbert " is Henry Somerset, eldest son of the now Marquis of Worcester, of the Lord Glamorgan whom we knew slightly at llaglaud, in underhand " Irish Treaties " and such like ; whose Century of Inventions is still slightly known to here and there a reader of Old Books. " This Lord Herbert," it seems, " became Duke of Beaufort after the Res- toration." For obvious reasons, you are to "beware of his resort to your house at present." A kind of professed Protes- tant he, but come of rank Papists and Malignants ; which may give rise to commentaries. One stupid Annotator on a certain Copy of this Letter says, "his Lordship had an in- trigue with Mrs. Claypole ; " which is evidently downright stupor and falsehood, like so much else. LETTER CLXXH. UPON the Surrender of Edinburgh Castle, due provision had been made for conveyance of the Public Writs and Registers to what quarter the Scotch Authorities might direct ; and "Passes," und*-r tin; Lord General's hand, duly granted for that end. Archibald Johnston, Lord Register, we conclude, had nperintended the operation ; had, after much labor, bundled the l*ublic Writs properly together into masses, packages; and put them on shipboard, considering this the 1 Newspapers (in (Jromwellmmi, p. 102). 222 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 13 April, eligiblest mode of transport towards Stirling and the Scotch head-quarters at present. But now it has fallen out, in the middle of last month, that the said ship has been taken, as many ships and shallops on both sides now are; and the Public Writs are in jeopardy : whereupon ensues correspond- ence ; and this fair Answer from my Lord General : [2b the Honorable Archibald Johnston, Lord Register of Scotland : These]. "EDINBURGH, 12th April, 1651. " MY LORD, Upon the perusal of the Passes formerly given for the safe passing of the Public Writs and Registers of the Kingdom of Scotland, I do think they 1 ought to be restored : and they shall be so, to such persons as you shall appoint to receive them ; with passes for persons and vessels, to carry them to such place as shall be appointed : so that it be done within one mouth next following. " I herewith send you a Pass for your Servant to go into Fife, and to return with the other Clerks ; and rest, " Your servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." a Warriston's answer, written on Monday, the 12th being Saturday, is given also in Thurloe. The Lord General's phrase, " perusal of the Passes," we now find is prospective, and means " reperusal," new sight of them by the Lord Gen- eral ; which, Archibald earnestly urges, is impossible ; the original Passes being now far off in the hands of the Authori- ties, and the Writs in a state of imminent danger, lying in a ship at Leith, as Archibald obscurely intimates, which the English Governor has got his claws over, and keeps shut up in dock ; with a considerable leak in her, too : very bad stowage for such goods. 8 Which obscure intimation of Archibald's becomes lucid to us, as to the Lord General it already was, when we read this sentence of Bulstrode's, under date 22d March, 1650-1 : " Letters that the Books and Goods belonging 1 The Writs and Registers. 2 Tburloe, i. 117. Records of the Laigh Parliament House. 3 Ibid. 166L LETTER CLXXIL EDINBURGH. 223 to the " Scotch " King and Register were taken by the Parlia- ment's ships ; and another ship, laden with oats, meal, and other provisions, going to Fife : twenty-two prisoners." * For captures and small sea-surprisals abound in the Frith at present ; the Parliament-ships busy on one hand ; and the " Captain of the Bass," the " Shippers of Wemyss," and the like active persons doing their duty on the other, whereby infinite " biscuit," and such small ware, is from time to time realized. 9 Without doubt the Public Writs were all redelivered, ac- cording to the justice of the case; and the term of "one month," which Archibald pleads hard to get lengthened, was made into two, or the necessary time. Archibald's tone towards the Lord General is anxiously respectful, nay sub- missive and subject. In fact, Archibald belongs, if not by profession, yet by invincible tendency, to the Remonstrant Ker-and-Strahan Party ; and looks dimly forward to a near time when there will be no refuge for him, and the like of Jim, but Cromwell. Strahan, in the month of January last, is already "excommunicated, and solemnly delivered to the Devil, in the Church of Perth." 8 This is what you have to look for, from a Quasi-Malignant set of men ! This Archibald, as is well known, sat afterwards in CronL- well's Parliaments ; became " one of Cromwell's Lords ; " and ultimately lost his life for these dangerous services. Archi- bald Johnston of Warriston ; loose-flowing Bishop Burnet's uncle by the Mother's side : a Lord Register of whom all the world has heard. Redactor of the Covenanters' protests, in 1637, and onwards ; redactor perhaps of the Covenant itself ; canny lynx-eyed Lawyer, and austere Presbyterian Zealot ; full of fire, of heavy energy and gloom : in fact, a very nota- ble character ; of whom our Scotch friends might do well to give us farther elucidations. Certain of his Letters edited by Lord Hailes, 4 a man of fine intelligence, though at that time ignorant of this subject, have proved well worth their paper 1 Whitlocke. p. 490. Balfour, iv. 204, 241, 251, 4c. Ibid. iv. 240. Memorials and Letter! in the Reiyn of Charles I. (Glasgow, 1766). 224 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 12 April, and ink. Many more, it appears, still lie in the Edinburgh Archives. A good selection and edition of them were desir- able. But, alas, will any human soul ever again love poor Warriston, and take pious pains with him, in this world ? Properly it turns all upon that ; and the chance seems rather dubious ! SECOND VISIT TO GLASGOW. THAT Note to Warriston, and the Letter to Elizabeth Crom- well, as may have been observed, are written on the same day, Saturday, 12th April, 1651. Directly after which, on Wednes- day, the 16th, there is a grand Muster of the Army on Mussel- burgh Links ; preparatory to new operations. Blackness Fort has surrendered ; Inchgarvie Island is beset by gunboats : Colo- nel Monk, we perceive, who has charge of these services, is to be made Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance : and now there is to be an attack on Burntisland with gunboats, which also, one hopes, may succeed. As for the Army, it is to go west- ward this same afternoon ; try whether cautious Lesley, strait- ened or assaulted from both west and east, will not come out of his Stirling fastness, so that some good may be done upon him. The Muster is held on Musselburgh Links ; whereat the Lord General, making his appearance, is received " with shouts and acclamations," the sight of him infinitely comfort- able to us. 1 The Lord General's health is somewhat re-estab- lished, though he has had relapses, and still tends a little towards ague. '' About three in the afternoon " all is on march towards Hamilton ; quarters " mostly in the field there." Where the Lord General himself arrives, on Friday night late ; and on the morrow afternoon we see Glasgow again. Concerning which here are two notices from opposite points of the compass, curiously corroborative of one another ; which we must not withhold. Face-to-face glimpses into the old dead actualities ; worth rescuing with a Cromwell in the centre of them. 1 Newspapers (iu Cromwelliana, p. 102). 1651. SECOND VISIT TO GLASGOW. 225 The first is from Baillie ; * shows us a glance of our old friend Carstairs withal. Read this fraction of a Letter : " Reverend and dear Brother, For preventing of mistakes," lest you should think us loose-laced, Remonstrant, sectarian individuals, " we have thought meet to advertise you that Cromwell having come to Hamilton on Friday late, and to Glasgow on Saturday with a body of his Army, sooner than we could well with safety have retired ourselves," there was nothing for it but to stay and abide him here! "On Sunday forenoon he came unex- pectedly to the High Inner Kirk ; where quietly he heard Mr. Robert Ramsay," unknown to common readers, " preach a very honest sermon, pertinent to his" Cromwell's "case. In the afternoon he came, as unexpectedly, to the High Outer Kirk ; where he heard Mr. John Carstairs," our old friend, " lecture, and " a " Mr. James Durham preach, graciously, and weel to the times as could have been desired." So that you see we are not of the loose-laced species, we ! " And gen- erally all who preached that day in the Town gave a fair enough testimony against the Sectaries." Whereupon, next day, Cromwell sent for us to confer with him in a friendly manner. "All of us did meet to advise," for the case was grave : however, we have decided to go ; nay are just going ; but, most unfortunately, do not write any record of our inter- view ! Nothing, except some transient assertion elsewhere that" we had no disadvantage in the thing." a So that now, from the opposite point of the compass, the old London News- paper must come in ; curiously confirmatory : " Sir, We came hither " to Glasgow " on Saturday last, April 19th. The Ministers and Townsmen generally stayed at home, and did not quit their habitations as formerly. The Ministers ht-re have mostly deserted from the proceedings ad the Water," at Perth, and are in fact given to Re- monstrant ways, though Mr. Baillie denies it: "yet they are Dually dissatisfied with us. Hut though they preach against .is in the pulpit to our faces, yet we permit them without dis- turbance, as willing to gain them by love. 1 (Glasgow, 22d April, 1051) iii. 161 1 Baillie, iii. 168. VOL. XVIII. 16 226 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. April, " My Lord General sent to them to give us a friendly Chris- tian meeting, To discourse of those things which they rail against us for; that so, if possible, all misunderstandings be- tween us might be taken away. Which accordingly they gave us on Wednesday last. There was no bitterness nor passion vented on either side ; all was with moderation and tenderness. My Lord General and Major-General Lambert, for the most part, maintained the discourse ; and, on their part, Mr. James Guthry and Mr. Patrick Gillespie. 1 We know not what sat- isfaction they have received. Sure I am, there was no such weight in their arguments as might in the least discourage us from what we have undertaken ; the chief thing on which they insisted being our Invasion into Scotland." 2 The Army quitted .Glasgow after some ten days ; rather hastily, on Wednesday, 30th April ; pressing news, some false alarm of movements about Stirling, having arrived by ex- press from the East. They marched again for Edinburgh ; quenched some foolish Town Riot, which had broken out among the Glasgow Baillies themselves, on some quarrel of their own; and was now tugging and wriggling, in a most unseemly manner, on the open streets, and likely to enlist the population generally, had not Cromwell's soldiers charitably scattered it asunder before they went. 8 In three days they were in Edinburgh again. When a luminous body, such as Oliver Cromwell, happens to be crossing a dark Country, a dark Century, who knows what he will not disclose to us ! For example : On the West- ern edge of Lanarkshire, in the desolate uplands of the Kirk of Shotts, there dwelt at that time a worshipful Family of Scotch Lairds, of the name of Stewart, at a House called Aller- toun, a lean turreted angry-looking old Stone House, I take it ; standing in some green place, in the alluvial hollows of the " Gelaspy " the Sectarian spells ; in all particulars of facts he coincides with Baillie. Guthry and Gillespie, noted men in that time, published a " Sum " of this Interview (Baillie, iii. 168), but nobody now knows it. 2 Newspapers (in Crormoelliana, p. 102). " Ane Information concerning the late Tumult in Glasgow, Wednesday, April 30th," at the very time of Cromwell's Removal (in Baillie, iii. 161). 1651. SECOND VISIT TO GLASGOW. 227 Auchter Burn or its tributaries : most obscure ; standing lean and grim, like a thousand such ; entirely unnoticeable by His- tory, had not Oliver chanced to pass in that direction, and make a call there ! Here is an account of that event : unfortu- nately very vague, not written till the second generation after ; indeed, palpably incorrect in some of its details ; but indubita- ble as to the main fact ; and too curious to be omitted here. The date, not given or hinted at in the original, seems to fix itself as Thursday, 1st May, 1651. On that day Auchter Burn rushing idly on as usual, the grim old turreted Stone House, aud rigorous Presbyterian inmates, and desolate uplands of the Kirk of Shotts in general, saw Cromwell's face, and have become memorable to us. Here is the record given as we find it. 1 " There was a fifth Son " of Sir Walter Stewart, Laird of Allertoun : " James ; who in his younger years was called ' the Captain of Allertoun,' from this incident : Oliver Cromwell, Captain-General of the English Sectarian Army, after taking Edinburgh Castle, was making a Progress through the West of Scotland ; and came down towards the River Clyde near Lanark, aud was on his march back, against King, Charles the. Second's Army, then with the King at Stirling. Being in- formed of a la-ar way through Auchtermuir, he came with some General Officers to reconnoitre ; and had a Guide along. Sir Walter, being a Royalist and Covenanter, had absconded. As he " Cromwell " passed, he called in at Allertouu for a farther Guide ; but no men were to be found, save one valetu- dinary Gentleman, Sir Walter's Son" properly a poor vale- tudinary Boy, as appears, who of course could do nothing for him. He found the road not practicable for carriages; and upon his return he called in at Sir Walter's House. There was none to entertain him but the Lady and Sir Walter's sickly Son. The good Woman was as much for the King and K<>yal Family as her Husband : but she offered the General the civilities of IHT House ; and a glass of canary was presented. The Gen- eral observed the forms of these times (I have it from good Collection!, published i\> the MaiOaad { Clul> (Glasgow, 184:?), p. 9. 228 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 3Maj. authority), and he asked a blessing in a long pathetic grace before the cup went round ; he drank his good wishes 1 for the family, and asked for Sir Walter ; and was pleased to say, His Mother was a Stewart's Daughter, and he had a relation to the name. All passed easy ; and our James, being a lad of ten years, came so near as to handle the hilt of one of the swords : upon which Oliver stroked his head, saying, ' You are my little Captain ; ' and this was all the Commission our Cap- tain of Allertoun ever had. " The General called for some of his own wines for himself and other Officers, 2 and would have the Lady try his wine ; and was so humane, When he saw the young Gentleman so maigre and indisposed, he said, Changing the climate might do good, and the South of France, Montpellier, was the place. " Amidst all this humanity and politeness he omitted not, in person, to return thanks to God in a pointed grace after his repast ; and after this hasted on his return to join the Army. The Lady had been a strenuous Royalist, and her Son a Cap- tain in command at Dunbar ; yet upon this interview with the General she abated much of her zeal. She said she was sure Cromwell was one who feared God, and had that fear in him, and the true interest of Religion at heart. A story of this kind is no idle digression ; it has some small connection with the Family concerns, and shows some little of the genius of these distracted times." And so we leave it ; vague, but in- dubitable ; standing on such basis as it has. LETTER CLXXm. [For my beloved Wife Elizabeth Cromwell, at the Cockpit : These.] "EDINBURGH, 3d May, 1651. "My DEAREST, I could not satisfy myself to omit this jvost, although I have not much to write ; yet indeed I love to write to my Dear, who is very much in my heart. It joys me 1 Certainly incorrect. 2 Imaginary. 1651. LETTER CLXXIII. EDINBURGH. 229 to hear thy soul prospereth : the Lord increase His favors to thee more and more. The great good thy soul can wish is, That the Lord lift upon thee the light of His countenance, which is better than life. The Lord bless all thy good counsel and example to all those about thee, and hear all thy prayers, and accept thee always. " I am glad to hear thy Son and Daughter are with thee. I hope thou wilt have some good opportunity of good advice to him. Present my duty to my Mother, my love to all the Family. Still pray for "Thine, "OLIVER CKOMWELL." l "Written the day after his return to Edinburgh. " Thy Son and Daughter " are, to all appearance, Eichard and his Wife, who prolong their visit at the Cockpit. The good old "Mother" is still spared with us, to have " my duty " presented to her. A pale venerable Figure ; who has lived to see strange things in this world ; can piously, in her good old tremulous heart, rejoice in such a Son. Precisely in these days, a small ship driven by stress of weather into Ayr Harbor, and seized and searched by Crom- well's Garrison there, discloses a matter highly interesting to the Commonwealth. A Plot, namely, on the part of the Eng- lish Presbyterian-Royalists, English Royalists Proper, and all manner of Malignant Interests in England, to unite with the Scots and their King : in which certain of the London Pres- byterian Clergy, Christopher Love among others, are deeply iriv< lived. The little ship was bound for the Isle of Man, with tidings to the Earl of Derby concerning the affair; and now we have caught her within the Bars of Ayr ; and the whole matter is made manifest ! * Reverend Christopher Love ia l.iiu the 25th of June, the Army from all quarters reassem* t)l<-'l "in its old Camp on the Pentland Hills;" marched west- ward ; left Linlithgow July 2d, ever westward, with a view to force the Enemy from his strong ground about Stirling. Much 1 " not to " in orig. ; dele " not." 1 Kimber's (anonymous) Life qf Oliver CrotnwtU (London, 1724), p. 201 ; doee not say whence derived. 232 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 2Uuly, pickeering, vaporing, and transient skirmishing ensues ; but the Enemy, strongly entrenched at Torwood, secured by bogs and brooks, cannot be forced out. We take Calendar House, and do other insults, before their eyes ; they will not come out. Cannonadings there are " from opposite Hills ; " but not till it please the Enemy can there be any battle. David Lesley, sec- ond in rank, but real leader of the operations, is at his old trade again. The Problem is becoming difficult. We decide to get across into Fife ; to take them in flank, and at least cut off an important part of their supplies. Here is the Lord General's Letter on the result of that enterprise. Farther details of the Battle, which is briefly spoken of here, still remembered in those parts as the Bat- tle of Inverkeithing, may be found in Lambert's own Letter concerning it. 1 " Sir John Browne, their Major-General," was once a zealous Parliamenteer ; " Governor of Abingdon " and much else ; but the King gained him, growls Ludlow, " by the gift of a pair of silk stockings," poor wretch ! Besides Browne, there are Massey, and various Englishmen of mark with this Malignant Army. Massey's Brother, a subaltern person in London, is one of the conspirators with Christopher Love. The Lord General has in the interim made his Third Visit to Glasgow ; concerning which there are no details worth giving here. 2 Eev. Christopher Love, on the 5th of this month, was condemned to die. 8 LETTER CLXXV. " for the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. " LINLITHGOW, 21st July, 1651. " SIR, After our waiting upon the Lord, and not knowing what course to take, for indeed we know nothing but what God 1 North Ferry, 22d July, 1651 (Whitlocke, p. 472) : the Battle was on Sun- day, the 20th. See also Balfour, iv. 313. 2 Whitlocke, p. 471 ; MiUon State-Papers, p. 84 (llth July, 1651), 8 Wood, iii. 278, &c. 1651. LETTER CLXXV. LINLITHGOW. 233 pleaseth to teach us of His great mercy, we were directed to send a Party to get us a landing [on the Fife coast] by our boats, whilst we marched towards Glasgow. " On Thursday morning last, Colonel Overton, with about one thousand four hundred foot and some horse and dragoons, landed at the North Ferry in Fife ; we with the Army lying iiciir the Enemy (a small river parted us and them), and having < -I'M saltations to attempt the Enemy within his fortifications: but the Lord was not pleased to give way to that counsel, pro- posing a better way for us. The Major-General [Lambert] marched, on Thursday night, with two regiments of horse and two regiments of foot, for better securing the place ; and to attempt upon the Enemy as occasion should serve. He get- ting over, and finding a considerable body of the Enemy there (who would probably have beaten our men from the place if He had not come), drew out and fought them ; he being about two regiments of horse, with about four hundred of horse and dragoons more, and three regiments of foot ; the Enemy five regiments of foot, and about four or five of horse. They came to a close charge, and in the end totally routed the Enemy ; having taken about forty or fifty colors, 1 killed near two thou- sand, some say more ; have taken Sir John Browne their Major-General, who commanded in chief, and other Colonels and considerable Officers killed and taken, and about five or six hundred prisoners. The Enemy is removed from their ground with their whole Army ; but whither we do not cer- tainly know. " This is an unspeakable mercy. I trust the Lord will fol- low it until He hath perfected peace and truth. We can truly say, we were gone as far as we could in our counsel and action ; and we did say one to another, we knew not what to do. Where- fore it 's sealed upon our hearts, that this, as all the rest, is from the Lord's goodness, and not from man. I hope it becometh me to pray, That we may walk humbly and self-denyingly before the Lord, and believingly also. That you whom we serve, as the Authority over us, may do the work committed to you, with uprightness and faithfulness, and thoroughly, * Farther account uf thoae in Appendix, No. 22. 234 FAliT VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 24 July, as to the Lord. That you may not suffer anything to remain that offends the eyes of His jealousy. That common weal may more and more be sought, and justice done impartially. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro ; and as He finds out His enemies here, to be avenged on them, so will He not spare them for whom He doth good, if by His loving-kindness they become not good. I shall take the humble boldness to represent this Engagement of David's, in the Hundred-and-nineteenth Psalm, verse Hundred-and-thirty-fourth, Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep Thy precepts. " I take leave, and rest, " Sir, your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. "P.S. The carriage of the Major-General, as in all other things so in this, is worthy of your taking notice of ; as also the Colonels Okey, Overtoil, Daniel, West, Lydcot, Syler, and the rest of the Officers." 1 Matters now speedily take another turn. At the Castle of " Dundas " we are still on the South side of the Frith ; in front of the Scotch lines, though distant : but Inchgarvie, often tried with gunboats, now surrenders ; Burntisland, by force of gunboats and dispirituient, surrenders : the Lord General him- self goes across into Fife. The following Letters speak for themselves. LETTER CLXXVI. [To the Right Honorable the Lord President of the Council of State: These.'] "DCNDAS, 24th July, 1651. " MY LORD, It hath pleased God to put your affairs here in some hopeful way, since the last Defeat given to the Enemy. 1 Newspapers (in ParL Hist. xix. 494 ; and Cromtvelliana, p. 105). 1651. LETTER CLXXVII. LINLITHGOW. 235 " I marched with the Army very near to Stirling, hoping thereby to get the Pass ; and went myself with General Dean, and some others, up to Bannockburn ; hearing that the Enemy were marched on the other side towards our forces in Fife. Indeed they went four or five miles on towards them ; but hearing of my advance, in all haste they retreated back, and possessed the Park, and their other works. Which we viewed ; and finding them not advisable to attempt, resolved to march to Queen's Ferry, and there to ship over so much of the Army as might hopefully be master of the field in Fife. Which accord ingly we have almost perfected ; and have left, on this side, somewhat better than four regiments of horse, and as many of foot. " I hear now the Enemy's great expectation is to supply themselves in the West with recruits of men, and what victual they can get : for they may expect none out of the North, \vht-n once our Army shall interpose between them and St. Fohnston. To prevent their prevalency in the West, and making incursions into the Borders of England, . . . 1 " OLIVER CROMWELL." a LETTER CLXXVII. OF this Letter Sir Harry Vane and the Council of State judge it improper to publish anything in the Newspapers, except a rough abstract, in words of their own, of theirs? ///> jxiru graphs and the concluding one. In which state it presents itself in the Old Pamphlets. 8 The Letter copied in full lies among the Tanner Manuscripts; gives us a glimpse into tin- private wants, and old furnitures, of the Cromwell Army. "Pots" are cavalry helmets; " backs-and- breasts " are still seen on cuirassier regiments; "snaphances" (German schnapp- Ji'i/,n, snapcock) are a new wonderful invention, giving fire 1 Sir Harry Vane, who reads the letter ill Parliament, judges it prudent to Btop here (Commont JounuiU, vi. 614). * Newnpapers (in OromtPafUtata, p. 107). In Pttrliamrntary I/irtory, xix. 498. 236 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 26 July, by flint-and-steel ; promising, were they not so terribly ex- pensive, to supersede the old slow matchlock in. field-service ! But, I believe, they wind up like a watch before the trigger acts ; l and corne very high ! " To the Eight Honorable the Lord President of the Council of State: These. "LiNLiTHGOW, 26th July, 1651. " MY LORD, I am able to give you no more account than what you have by my last ; only we have now in Fife about thirteen or fourteen thousand horse and foot. The Enemy is at his old lock, and lieth in and near Stirling ; where we cannot come to fight him, except he please, or we go upon too- too manifest hazards; he having very strongly laid himself, and having a very great advantage there. Whither we hear he hath lately gotten great provisions of meal, and reinforce- ment of his strength out of the North under Marquis Huntly. It is our business still to wait upon God, to show us our way how to deal with this subtle Enemy ; which I hope He will. " Our forces on this side the River 2 are not very many : wherefore I have sent for Colonel Rich's ; and shall appoint them, with the forces under Colonel Saunders, to embody close upon the Borders, and to be in readiness to join with those left on this side the Frith, or to be for the se- curity of England, as occasion shall offer ; there being little use of them where they lie, as we know. " Your Soldiers begin to fall sick, through the wet weath- er which has lately been. It is desired, therefore, that the recruits of foot determined [on] may rather come sooner in time than usually; and may be sure to be full in numbers, according to your appointment, whereof great failing has lately been. For the way of raising them, it is wholly sub- mitted to your pleasure ; and we hearing you rather choose to send us Volunteers than Pressed-men, shall be very glad you go that way. " Our Spades are spent to a very small number : we de- sire, therefore, that of the five thousand tools we lately sent 1 Grose's Military Antiquities. 2 Means " Frith " always. 1651. LETTER CLXXVIII. BtJHNTISLAND. 237 for, at the least three thousand of them may be spades, they wearing most away in our works, and being most useful. Our Horse-arms, especially our pots, are come to a very small number: it is desired we may have a thousand backs-aud- breasts and fifteen hundred pots. We have left us in store but four hundred pair of pistols ; two hundred saddles ; six hundred pikes ; two thousand and thirty muskets, whereof thirty snaphances. These are our present stores : and not knowing what you have sent us by this Fleet that is coming, we desire we may be considered therein. Our cheese and butter is our lowest store of Victual " We were necessitated to pay the Soldiery moneys now at their going over into Fife; whereby the Treasury is much exhausted, although we desire to husband it what we can. This being the principal time of action, we desire your Lord- ship to take a principal care that money may be supplied us with all possible speed, and these other things herewith mentioned ; your affairs so necessarily requiring the same. " The Castle of Inchgarvie, which lieth in the Kiver, almost in the midway between the North and South Ferry, com- monly called Queen's Ferry, was delivered to us on Thurs- day last. They marched away with their swords and baggage only; leaving us sixteen cannon, and all their other arms and ammunition. I remain, my Lord, " Your lordship's most humble servant, "OLIVES CROMWELL."* LETTER CLXXVIII. [To my very loving Brother Richard Mayor, Esquire, at Hursley: These}. " [BCRWTISLAND,] 2fith July, 1651. "DEAR BROTHER, I was glad to receive a Letter from you; for indeed anything that comes from you is very wel- i Tanner MSS., in Cary, ii. 288-290. 238 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 28 July, come to me. I believe your expectation of my Son's coming is deferred. I wish he may see a happy delivery of his Wife first, 1 for whom I frequently pray. "I hear my Son hath exceeded his allowance, and is in debt. Truly I cannot commend him therein ; wisdom re- quiring his living within compass, and calling for it at his hands. And in my judgment, the reputation arising from thence would have been more real honor than what is attained the other way. I believe vain men will speak well of him that does ill. "I desire to be understood that I grudge him not laud- able recreations, nor an honorable carriage of himself in them ; nor is any matter of charge, like to fall to my share, a stick 2 with me. Truly I can find in my heart to allow him not only a sufficiency but more, for his good. But if pleasure and self-satisfaction be made the business of a man's life, [and] so much cost laid out upon it, so much time spent in it, as rather answers appetite than the will of God, or is comely before His Saints, I scruple to feed this humor ; and God forbid that his being my Son should be his allowance to live not pleasingly to our Heavenly Father, who hath raised me out of the dust to be what I am ! "I desire your faithfulness (he being also your concern- ment as well as mine) to advise him to approve himself to the Lord in his course of life ; and to search His Statutes for a rule of conscience, and to seek grace from Christ to enable him to walk therein. This hath life in it, and will come to somewhat : what is a poor creature without this ? This will not abridge of lawful pleasures ; but teach such a use of them as will have the peace of a good conscience going along with it. Sir, I write what is in my heart ; I pray you communi- cate my mind herein to my Son, and be his remembrancer in these things. Truly I love him, he is dear to me ; so is his Wife ; and for their sakes do I thus write. They shall not want comfort nor encouragement from me, so far as I may 1 Noble's registers are very defective ! These Letters, too, were before the poor mail's eyes. 2 stop. 1351. LETTER CLXXVIII. BURNTISLAND. 239 afford it. But indeed I cannot think I do well to feed a volup- tuous humor in my Son, if he should make pleasures the business of his life, in a time when some precious Saints are bleeding, and breathing out their last, for the safety of the rest. Memorable is the speech of Uriah to David (Second Samuel, xi. II). 1 " Sir, I beseech you believe I here say not this to save my purse ; for I shall willingly do what is convenient to satisfy his occasions, as I have opportunity. But as I pray he may not walk in a course not pleasing to the Lord, so [I] think it lieth upon me to give him, in love, the best counsel I may ; and know not how better to convey it to him than by so good a hand as yours. Sir, I pray you acquaint him with these thoughts of mine. And remember my love to my Daughter ; for whose sake I shall be induced to do any reasonable thing. I pray for her happy deliverance, frequently and earnestly. " I am sorry to hear that my Bailiff 2 in Hantshire should do to my Son as is intimated by your Letter. I assure you I shall not allow any such thing. If there be any suspicion of his abuse of the Wood, I desire it may be looked after, and inquired into ; that so, if things appear true, he may be re- moved, although indeed I must needs say he had the repute of a godly man, by divers that knew him, when I placed him there. " Sir, I desire my hearty affection may be presented to my Sister ; to my Cousin Ann, and her Husband though unknown. I praise the Lord I have obtained much mercy in respect of my health ; the Lord give me a truly thankful heart. I desire your prayers ; and rest, " Your very affectionate brother and servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* 1 "And Uriah mid unto David, The Ark, and Tsmril, and Jndah abide in tenta; and my lord Joah, and the son-ants of my lord, are encamped in th open fiekta ; (thaD I, then, go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and tn li<- with my wife I A* thou liveet, and as thy soul lireth, I will not do this thine." Uayl/e." ilarrin, p. 513. 240 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 29 July, My Cousin Ann, then, is wedded ! " Her Husband though unknown " is John Dunch ; who, on his Father's decease, be- came John Dunch of Pusey ; to whom we owe this Letter, among the others. LETTER CLXXIX. a To the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. " BURNTISLAND, 29th July, 1651. a SIR, The greatest part of the Army is in Fife ; waiting what way God will farther lead us. It hath pleased God to give us in Burntisland ; * which is indeed very conducing to the carry- ing on of our affairs. The Town is well seated ; pretty strong ; but marvellous capable of farther improvement in that respect, without great charge. The Harbor, at a high spring, is near a fathom deeper than at Leith ; and doth not lie commanded by any ground without the Town. We took three or four small men-of-war in it, and I believe thirty or forty guns. " Commissary-General Whalley marched along the seaside in Fife, having some ships to go along the coast ; and hath taken great store of great artillery, and divers ships. The Enemy's affairs are in some discomposure, as we hear. Surely the Lord will blow upon them. I rest, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL." LETTER CLXXX. IN effect, the crisis has now arrived. The Scotch King and Army, finding their supplies cut off, and their defences ren- dered unavailing, by this flank-movement, break up sud- denly from Stirling; 8 march direct towards England, for a 1 " Brunt Island " in orig. 2 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 107). 8 " Last day of July" (Bates, ii. 120). 1651. LETTER CLXXX. LEITH. 241 stroke at the heart of the Commonwealth itself. Their game now is, All or nothing. A desperate kind of play. Royalists, Presbyterian-Royalists and the large * miscellany of Discon- tented Interests may perhaps join them there ; perhaps also not ! They march by Biggar ; enter England by Carlisle, 1 on Wednesday, 6th of August, 1651. "At Girthead, in the Parish of Wamphray, in Annandale," human Tradition, very faintly indeed, indicates some Roman Stones or Mile-stones, by the wayside, as the place where his sacred Majesty passed the Tuesday night; which are not quite so venerable now as formerly.* " To the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. " LEITH, 4th August, 1651. " SIR, In pursuance of the Providence of God, and that blessing lately given to your forces in Fife ; and finding that the Enemy, being masters of the Pass at Stirling, could not be gotten out there except by hindering his provisions at St. Johnston, we, by general advice, thought fit to attempt St. Johnston; knowing that that would necessitate him to quit his Pass. Wherefore, leaving with Major-General Harri- son about three thousand horse and dragoons, besides those which are with Colonel Rich, Colonel Saunders, and Colonel >n, upon the Borders, we marched to St. Johnston ; * and lying one day before it, we had it surrendered to us. " During which time we had some intelligence of the Ene- my's marching southward ; though with some contradictions, as if it had not been so. But doubting it might be true, we (leaving a Garrison in St. Johnston, and sending Lieutenant- (ifiifral Monk with about five or six thousand to Stirling to n-il uoe that place, and by it to put your affairs into a good I ><>st ure in Scotland) marched, with all possible exj)edition, back again ; and have passed our foot ami many of our horse 1 WhitWke.p. 474. 2 Nirln. l.-i-* Carlisle's To/xMfrnpliical Diet, of Scotland, Wamphray. * 2d AiimM. H..M i i;.ili..ur. iv .'H;i); "St. Jolmstou," aa we know, > fVM * "i xvin 10 242 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Aug. over the Frith this day ; resolving to make what speed we can tip to the Enemy, who, in his desperation and fear, and out of inevitable necessity, is run to try what he can do this way. " I do apprehend, that if he goes for England, being some few days' march before us, it will trouble some men's thoughts ; and may occasion some inconveniences ; which I hope we are as deeply sensible of, and have been, and I trust shall be, as diligent to prevent, as any. And indeed this is our com- fort, That in simplicity of heart as towards God, we have done to the best of our judgments ; knowing that if some issue were not put to this Business, it would occasion another Winter's war : to the ruin of your soldiery, for whom the Scots are too hard in respect of enduring the Winter diffi- culties of this country; and to the endless expense of the treasure of England in prosecuting this War. It may be sup- posed we might have kept the Enemy from this, by interpos- ing between him and England. Which truly I believe we might : but how to remove him out of this place, without doing what we have done, unless we had had a commanding Army on both sides of the River of Forth, is not clear to us ; or how to answer the inconveniences aforementioned, we un- derstand not. " We pray, therefore, that (seeing there is a possibility for the Enemy to put you to some trouble) you would, with the same courage, grounded upon a confidence in God, wherein you have been supported to the great things God hath used you in hitherto, improve, the best you can, such forces as you have in readiness, or [as] may on the sudden be gath- ered together, To give the Enemy some check, until we shall be able to reach up to him ; which we trust in the Lord we shall do our utmost endeavor in. And indeed we have this comfortable experience from the Lord, That this Enemy is heart-smitten by God ; and whenever the Lord shall bring us up to them, we believe the Lord will make the desperateness of this counsel of theirs to appear, and the folly of it also. When England was much more unsteady than now ; and when o much more considerable Army of theirs, unfoiled, invaded 1651. LETTER CLXXX. LEITH. 243 you ; and we had but a weak force to make resistance at Preston, upon deliberate advice, we chose rather to put ourselves between their Army and Scotland : and how God succeeded that, is not well to be forgotten ! This [present movement] is not out of choice on our part, but by some kind of necessity ; and, it is to be hoped, will have the like issue. Together with a hopeful end of your work ; in which it 'a : to wait upon the Lord, upon the earnest of former ex- periences, and hope of His presence, which only is the life of your Cause. Major-General Harrison, with the horse and dragoons un- der him, and Colonel Rich and the rest in those parts, shall attend the motions of the Enemy ; and endeavor the keeping of them together, as also to impede his march. And will be ready to be in conjunction with what forces shall gather to- gether for this service: to whom orders have been speeded to that purpose ; as this enclosed to Major-General Harrison will show. Major-General Lambert, this day, marched with a very considerable body of horse, up towards the Enemy's n-ar. With the rest of the horse, and nine regiments of foot, most of them of your old foot and horse, I am hasting up ; and shall, by the Lord's help, use utmost diligence. I hope I have left a commanding force under Lieutenant-General Monk in and " This account I thought my duty to speed to you ; and rest, " Your most humble servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l The Scots found no Presbyterian-Royalists, no Royalists Proper to speak of, nor any Discontented Interest in England disposed to join them in present circumstances. They marched, under rigorous discipline, weary and uncheered, south through Lancashire ; had to dispute their old friend the Bridge of Warrington with Lambert and Harrison, who attended them with horse-troops on the left; Cromwell with the main Army steadily advancing behind. They carried the Bridge at \\ >'.<:- 1 Newspapers (in Cromwdliana, pp. 107, 108). 244 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4Ang. rington ; they summoned various Towns, but none yielded ; proclaimed their King with all force of lungs and heraldry, but none cried, God bless him. Summoning Shrewsbury, with the usual negative response, they quitted the London road ; bent southward towards Worcester, a City of slight Garrison and loyal Mayor ; there to entrench themselves, and repose a little. Poor Earl Derby, a distinguished Koyalist Proper, had hast- ened over from the Isle of Man, to kiss his Majesty's hand in passing. He then raised some force in Lancashire, and was in hopes to kindle that country again, and go to Worcester in triumph : but Lilburn, Colonel Robert, whom we have known here before, fell upon him at Wigan ; cut his force in pieces : 1 the poor Earl had to go to Worcester in a wounded and wrecked condition. To Worcester, and, alas, to the scaffold by and by, for that business. The Scots at Worcester have a loyal Mayor, some very few adventurous loyal Gentry in the neigh- borhood ; and excitable Wales, perhaps again excitable, lying in the rear: but for the present, except in their own poor fourteen thousand right-hands, no outlook. And Cromwell is advancing steadily ; by York, 8 by Nottingham, by Coventry and Stratford ; " raising all the County Militias," who muster with singular alacrity ; flowing towards Worcester like the Ocean-tide; begirdling it with "upwards of thirty thousand men." His Majesty's royal summons to the Corporation of London is burnt there by the hands of the common hangman ; Speaker Lenthall and the Mayor have a copy of it burnt by that functionary at the head of every regiment, at a review of the Trainbands in Moorfields. 8 London, England generally, seems to have made up its mind. At London on the 22d of August, a rigorous thing was done : Reverend Christopher Love, eloquent zealous Minister of St. Lawrence in the Jewry, was, after repeated respites and nego- tiations, beheaded on Tower Hill. To the unspeakable emotion 1 Lilburn's two Letters, in Gary, ii. 338-345. 8 See Appendix, No. 21. 8 Bates, ii. 122; Whitlocke, p. 492; see also Commons Journals, vii. 6 (23d August, 1651). 1651. LETTER CLXXX. LEITH. 245 of men. Nay the very Heavens seemed to testify a feeling of it, by a thunder-clap, by two thunder-claps. When the Par- liament passed their vote on the 4th of July, That he should die according to the sentence of the Court, there was then a terrible thunder-clap, and darkening of daylight. And now when he actually dies, " directly after his beheading," arises thunder-storm that threatens the dissolution of Nature ! Na- ture, as we see, survived it. The old Newspaper says, It was on the 22d August, 1642, that Charles late King erected his Standard at Nottingham : and now on this same day, 22d August, 1651, Charles Pre- tender erects his at Worcester ; and the Reverend Christopher dies. Men may make their reflections. There goes a story, due to Carrion Heath or some such party, That Cromwell be- ing earnestly solicited for mercy to this poor Christopher, did, while yet in Scotland, send a Letter to the Parliament, recom- mending it ; which Letter, however, was seized by some roving outriders of the Scottish Worcester Army ; who reading it, and remembering Uxbridge Sermon, tore it, saying, " No, let the villain die!" after the manner of Heath. Which could be proved, if time and paper were of no value, to be, like a hun- dred other very wooden mytJis of the same Period, without truth. Guarda e passa. Glance at it here for the last time, and never repeat it more ! Charles's Standard, it would seem then, was erected at Worcester on Friday, the 22d, the day of poor Christopher's death. On which same Friday, about sunrise, "our Mes- senger [the Parliament's] left the Lord General at Mr. Pierpoint's House," William Pierpoint, of the Kingston Family, much his friend, the House called Thoresby, "near Mansfield ; " just starting for Nottingham, to arrive there that night. From Nottingham, by Coventry, by Stratford and ;i;un, to " the southeast side of Worcester," rallying Country forces as we go, will take till Thursday next. Here at Stratford on the Wednesday, eve of that, is a Letter acci- dentally preserved. 246 PAKT VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. August LETTER CLXXXI. DUBITATING Wharton, he also might help to rally forces ; liis name, from " Upper Wiuchiugton in Bucks," or wherever he may be, might do something. Give him, at any rate, a last chance. " Tom Westrow," here accidentally named ; once a well-known man, familiar to the Lord General and to men of worth and quality ; now, as near as may be, swallowed forever in the Night-Empires ; is still visible, strangely enough, through one small chink, and recoverable into daylight as far as needful. A Kentish man, a Parliament Soldier once, named in military Kent Committees ; sat in Parliament too, [recruiter] for Hythe, though at present in abeyance owing to scruples. Above all, he was the Friend of poor George Wither, stepson of the Muses ; to whom in his undeserved distresses he lent beneficent princely sums ; and who, in poor splay-footed dog- gerel, very poor, but very grateful, pious, true, and on the whole noble, preserves some adequate memory of him for the curious. 1 By this chink Tom Westrow and the ancient figure of his Life, is still recoverable if needed. Westrow, we find by good evidence, did return to his place in Parliament ; 2 quitted it too, as Wither informs us, fore- seeing the great Catastrophe ; and retired to country quiet, up the River at Teddington. Westrow and the others returned : Wharton continued to dubitate ; and we shall here take leave of him. " Poor foolish Mall," young Mary Cromwell, one of " my two little Wenches," has been on a visit at Winchington, I think ; " thanks to you and the dear Lady " for her. 1 Westrow Revived: a Funeral Poem without Fiction, composed by George Wither, Esq. ; that God may be glorified in His Saints, and that &c. &c. (King's Pamphlets, 12mo, no. 390: London, 1653-4, dated with the pen, "3d January ") : unadulterated doggerel ; but really says something, and even something just ; by no means your insupportablest " poetic " reading, as times go ! 2 " Admitted to sit ; " means, readmitted after Pride's Purge : Commons Journals (vii. 27, 29), 10th October, L65I. 1661. LETTER CLXXXI. STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 247 " For my Honored Lord Wharton : These. " STBATFORD-ON-AVOK, 27th August, 1651. "Mr LORD, I know I write to my Friend, therefore give me leave to say one bold word. "In my very heart: Your Lordship, Dick Norton, Tom Westrow, Kobert Hammond have, though not intentionally, helped one another to stumble at the dispensations of God, and to reason yourselves out of His service ! " Now [again] you have opportunity to associate with His people in His work ; and to manifest your willingness and desire to serve the Lord against His and His people's enemies. Would you be blessed out of Zion, and see the good of His people, and rejoice with His inheritance, I advise you all in the bowels of love, Let it appear you offer yourselves willingly to His work ! Wherein to be accepted, is more honor from the Lord than the world can give or hath. I am persuaded it needs you not, save as your Lord and Master needed the Ass's Colt, to show His humility, meekness and condescension : but you need it, to declare your submission to, and owning yourself the Lord's and His people's ! l ' " If you can break through old disputes, I shall rejoice if you help others to do so also. Do not say, You are now satis- fied because it is the old Quarrel ; as if it had not been so all this while ! " I have no leisure ; but a great deal of entire affection to you and yours, and those named [here], which I thus plainly express. Thanks to you and the dear Lady, for all loves, and for poor foolish Mall. I am in good earnest [thankful] ; and so also your Lordship's " Faithful friend and most humble servant, " OLIVKR CROMWELL." * 1 Grammar, in this last clause, lost in the haste " Ass's Colt " in " Beast " in ..rijf. * Gentleman'* Mnyarinf (London, 1814), Ixxxiv. p. 419. In Appendix, No. 26, there i* now (1H57) another Letter to liin 248 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 3 Sept. Charles's standard has been floating over Worcester some six days ; and now on Thursday, 28th of August, conies in sight Cromwell's also ; from the Evesham side ; with upwards of thirty thousand men now near him ; and some say, upwards of eighty thousand rising in the distance to join him if need were. LETTERS CLXXXIL-CLXXXIII. BATTLE OF WORCESTER. THE Battle of Worcester was fought on the evening of Wednesday, 3d September, 1651 ; anniversary of that at Dun- bar last year. It could well have but one issue ; defeat for the Scots and their Cause ; either swift and complete ; or else incomplete, ending in slow sieges, partial revolts, and much new misery and blood. The swift issue was the one appointed ; and complete enough ; severing the neck of the Controversy now at last, as with one effectual stroke, no need to strike a second time. The Battle was fought on both sides of the Severn ; part of Cromwell's forces having crossed to the Western bank, by Upton Bridge, some miles below Worcester, the night before. About a week ago, Massey understood himself to have ruined this Bridge at Upton ; but Lambert's men " straddled' across by the parapet," a dangerous kind of saddle for such riding, I think ! and hastily repaired it ; hastily got hold of Upton Church, and maintained themselves there ; driving Massey back with a bad wound in the hand. This was on Thursday night last, the very night of the Lord General's arrival in those parts ; and they have held this post ever since. Fleet- wood crosses here with a good part of Cromwell's Army, on the evening of Tuesday, September 2d ; shall, on the morrow, attack the Scotch posts on the Southwest, about the Suburb of St. John's, across the River ; while Cromwell, in person, on this side, plies them from the Southeast. St. John's Suburb lies at some distance from Worcester ; west, or southwest as 1661. BATTLE OF WORCESTER. 249 we say, on the Herefordshire Road ; and connects itself with the City by Severn Bridge. Southeast of the City, again, near the then and present London Road, is " Fort Royal " an en- trenchment of the Scots : on this side Cromwell is to attempt the Enemy, and second Fleetwood, as occasion may serve. Worcester City itself is on Cromwell's side of the River; stands high, surmounted by its high Cathedral ; close on the left or eastern margin of the Severn ; surrounded by fruitful fields, and hedges unfit for cavalry-fighting. This is the pos- ture of affairs on the eve of Wednesday, 3d September, 1651. But now, for Wednesday itself, we are to remark that be- tween Fleetwood at Upton, and the Enemy's outposts at St. John's on the west side of Severn, there runs still a River Teme ; a western tributary of the Severn, into which it falls about a mile below the City. This River Teme Fleetwood hopes to cross, if not by the Bridge at Powick which the Enemy possesses, then by a Bridge of Boats which he is him- self to prepare lower down, close by the mouth of Teme. At this point also, or " within pistol-shot of it," there is to be a Bridge of Boats laid across the Severn itself, that so both ends of the Army may communicate. Boats, boatmen, carpenters, aquatic and terrestrial artificers and implements, in great abundance, contributed by the neighboring Towns, lie ready i MI the River, about Upton, for this service. Does the reader n<>\v understand the ground a little ? Fleetwood, at Upton, was astir with the dawn, September 3d. But it was towards " three in the afternoon " before the boat- men were got up ; must have been towards five before those Bridges were got built, and Fleetwood set fairly across the Teme to begin business. The King of Scots and his Council of War, "on the top of the Cathedral," have been anxiously viewing him all afternoon ; have seen him build his Bridges oats ; see him now in great force got across Teme River, king the Scotch on the South, fighting them from hedge to hedge towards the Suburb of St. John's. In great force : for new regiments, horse and foot, now stream across the Severn Bridge of Boats to assist Fleetwood : nay, if the Scots knew it, my Lord (J ncral himself is come across, "did lead 2oO PART VI. WAK WITH SCOTLAND. 3 Sept. the van in person, and was the first that set foot on the Enemy's ground." The Scots, obstinately struggling, are gradually beaten there ; driven from hedge to hedge. But the King of Scots and his War-Council decide that most part of Cromwell's Army must now be over in that quarter, on the West side of the River, engaged among the hedges ; decide that they, for their part, will storm out, and offer him battle on their own East side, now while he is weak there. The Council of Wai- comes down from the top of the Cathedral ; their trumpets sound : Cromwell also is soon back, across the Severn Bridge of Boats again ; and the deadliest tug of war begins. Fort Royal is still known at Worcester, and Sudbury Gate at the southeast end of the City is known, and those other localities here specified ; after much study of which and of the old dead Pamphlets, this Battle will at last become conceivable. Besides Cromwell's Two Letters, there are plentiful details, questionable and unquestionable, in Bates and elsewhere, as indicated below. 1 The fighting of the Scots was fierce and desperate. " My Lord General did exceedingly hazard him- self, riding up and down in the midst of the fire ; riding, himself in person, to the Enemy's foot to offer them quarter, whereto they returned no answer but shot." The small Scotch Army, begirdled with overpowering force, and cut off from help or reasonable hope, storms forth in fiery pulses, horse and foot ; charges now on this side of the River, now on that ; can on no side prevail. Cromwell recoils a little ; but only to rally, and return irresistible. The small Scotch Army is, on every side, driven in again. Its fiery pulsings are but the struggles of death : agonies as of a lion coiled in the folds of a boa ! " As stiff a contest, for four or five hours, as ever I have seen." But it avails not. Through Sudbury Gate, on Crom- well's side, through St. John's Suburb, and over Severn Bridge on Fleetwood's, the Scots are driven in again to Worcester Streets ; desperately struggling and recoiling, are driven 1 Bates, Part ii. 124-127. King's Pamphlets ; small 4to, no. 507, 12 (given mostly in Cromwelliana, pp. 114, 115) ; large 4to, no. 54, 15, 18 Letter from Stapyltun the Chaplain, in Cromwelliana, p. 11?. J851. LETTER CLXXXII. WORCESTER. 251 through Worcester Streets, to the North end of the City, and terminate there. A distracted mass of ruin : the foot all killed or taken ; the horse all scattered on flight, and their place of refuge very far ! His Sacred Majesty escaped, by royal oaks and other miraculous appliances well known to mankind : but fourteen thousand other men, sacred too after a sort though not majesties, did not escape. One could weep at such a death for brave men in such a Cause ! But let us now read Cromwell's Letters. LETTER CLXXXIL ' For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England; These. " NEAR WORCESTER, 3d Sept. 1651 (10 at night). "SiK, Being so weary, and scarce able to write, yet I thought it my duty to let you know thus much. That upon this day, being the 3d of September (remarkable for a mercy vouchsafed to your Forces on this day twelvemonth in Scot- ! i! ul), we built a Bridge of Boats over Severn, between it and Teme, about half a mile from Worcester; and another over Teme, within pistol-shot of our other Bridge. Lieutenant- General Fleetwood and Major-General Dean marched from Upton on the southwest side of Severn up to Powick, a Town ivhich was a Pass the Enemy kept. We [from our side of Severn] passed over some horse and foot, and were in con- junction with the Lieutenant-General's Forces. We beat the Enemy from hedge to hedge till we beat him into Worcester. "The Enemy then drew all his Forces on the other side the Town, all but what he had lost ; and made a very considerable fight with us, for three hours' space: but in the end we lir:it him totally, and jjursimd him to his Royal Fort, which we took, and imlred have beaten his whole Army. When we took this Fort, we turned his own guns upon him. The Enemy hath had great loss : and certainly is scattered, and run sfvrral ways. We are in pursuit of him, and have laid forces in several places, that we hope will gather him up. 252 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Sept. " Indeed this hath been a very glorious 'mercy ; and as stiff a contest, for four or five hours, as ever I have seen. Both your old Forces and those new raised have behaved themselves with very great courage ; and He that made them come out, made them willing to tight for you. The Lord God Almighty frame our hearts to real thankfulness for this, which is alone His doing. I hope I shall within a day or two give you a more perfect account. " In the mean time I hope you will pardon, Sir, " Your most humble servant, "OLIVEK CROMWELL." 1 On Saturday the 6th comes a farther Letter from my Lord General ; " the effect whereof speaketh thus : " LETTER CLXXXIII. " For the Honorable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England : These. "WORCESTER, 4th September, 1651. " SIR, I am not able yet to give you an exact account of the great things the Lord hath wrought for this Common- wealth and for His People: and yet I am unwilling to be silent ; but, according to my duty, shall represent it to you as it comes to hand. " This Battle was fought with various success for some hours, but still hopeful on your part ; and in the end became an absolute victory, and so full an one as proved a total defeat and ruin of the Enemy's Army ; and a possession of the Town, our men entering at the Enemy's heels, and fighting with them in the streets with very great courage. We took all their baggage and artillery. What the slain are, I can give you no account, because we have not taken an exact view ; but they are very many : and must needs be so ; because the 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 113) ; Tanner MSS. (Gary, Hi. 355). 165L LETTER CLXXXHI. WORCESTER. dispute was long and very near at hand ; and often at push of pike, and from one defence to another. There are about six or seven thousand prisoners taken here ; and many Officers and Noblemen of very great quality : Duke Hamilton, the Earl of Rothes, and divers other Noblemen, I hear, the Earl of Lauderdale ; many Officers o great quality ; and some that will be fit subjects for your justice. " We have sent very considerable parties after the flying Enemy ; I hear they have taken considerable numbers of pris- oners, and are very close in the pursuit. Indeed, I hear the Country riseth upon them everywhere ; and I believe the forces that lay, through Providence, at Bewdley, and in Shropshire and Staffordshire, and those with Colonel Lilburn, were in a condition, as if this had been foreseen, to intercept what should return. " A more particular account than this will be prepared for you as we are able. I hear they had not many more than a thousand horse in their body that fled : and I believe you have near four thousand forces following, and interposing between them and home ; what fish they will catch, Time will de- clare. 1 Their Army was about sixteen thousand strong ; and fought ours on the Worcester side of Severn almost with their whole, whilst we had engaged about half our Army on the other side but with parties of theirs. Indeed it was a stiff business ; yet I do not think we have lost two hundred men. Your new-raised forces did perform singular good service ; for which they deserve a very high estimation and acknowledg- ment ; as also for their willingness thereunto, forasmuch as the same hath added so much to the reputation of your affairs. They are all despatched home again ; which I hope will be much for the ease and satisfaction of the Country; which is a great fruit of these successes. " The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy. Surely, if it be not, such a one we shall have, if this provoke those that are con- cerned in it to thankfulness ; and the Parliament to do the 1 PhraA omitted in the Newspaper. In orig., aii utiicuU Laud bus written on the niargiu " omitt thu." 254 PART VI. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 4 Sept. will of Him who hath done His will for it, and for the Nation ; whose good pleasure it is to establish the Nation and the Change of the Government, by making the People so willing to the defence thereof, and so signally blessing the endeavors of your servants in this late great work. I am bold humbly to beg, That all thoughts may tend to the promoting of His honor who hath wrought so great salvation ; and that the fat- ness of these continued mercies may not occasion pride and wantonness, as formerly the like hath done to a chosen Na- tion ; l but that the fear of the Lord, even for His mercies, may keep an Authority and a People so prospered, and blessed, and witnessed unto, humble and faithful ; and that justice and righteousness, mercy and truth may flow from you, as a thankful return to our gracious God. This shall be the prayer of, Sir, " Your most humble and obedient servant, " OLIVER CROMWELL. " Your Officers behaved themselves with much honor in this service ; and the Person 2 who is the Bearer hereof was equal, in the performance of his duty, to most that served you that day." 8 " On Lord's-day next, by order of Parliament," these Letters are read from all London Pulpits, amid the general thanks- giving of men. At Worcester, the while, thousands of Pris- oners are getting ranked, " penned up in the Cathedral," with sad outlooks : carcasses of horses, corpses of men, frightful to sense and mind, encumber the streets of Worcester j " we are plucking Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen from their lurking. 1 " But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked : (and them art waxen fat, thon art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness:) then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation" (Deuteronomy, xxxii. 15). 2 Major Cobbet, "who makes a relation," and gets 100 (Commons Journals, vii. 12, 13). 8 Newspapers (in Crotmvelluina, pp. 113, 114); Tanner MSS. (in Gary, ii. 359-362). 1851. AFTER WORCESTER. 255 holes," into the unwelcome light. 1 Lords very numerous ; a Peerage sore slashed. The Duke of Hamilton has got his thigh broken ; dies on the fourth day. The Earl of Derby, also wounded, is caught, and tried for Treason against the State ; lays down his head at Bolton, where he had once carried it too high. Lauderdale and others are put in the Tower ; have to lie there, in heavy dormancy, for long years. The Earls of Cleveland and Lauderdale came to Town together, about a fortnight hence. " As they passed along Cornhill in their coaches with a guard of horse, the Earl of Laudordale's coach made a stand near the Conduit : where a Carman gave his Lordship a visit, saying, ' Oh, my Lord, you are welcome to London ! I protest, off goes your head, as round as a hoop ! ' But his Lordship passed off the fatal compliment only with a laughter, and so fared along to the Tower." 2 His Lordship's big red head has yet other work to do in this world. Having, at the Ever-blessed Restoration, managed, not without diffi- culty, "to get a new suit of clothes," 8 he knelt before his now triumphant Sacred Majesty on that glorious Thirtieth of May ; learned from his Majesty, that " Presbytery was no religion for a gentleman ; " gave it up, not without pangs ; and reso- lutely set himself to introduce the exploded Tulchan Apparatus into Scotland again, by thumbikins, by bootikins, by any and every method, since it was the will of his Sacred Majesty ; failed in the Tulchan Apparatus, as is well known ; earned for himself new plentiful clothes-suits, Dukedoms and pro- motions, from the Sacred Majesty ; and from the Scotch People l-txMio' -an with him ; fixed it upon a new small Home he had found there, which has become a large one since ; the big busy Capital of Massachusetts, Boston, so called. John Cotton his .Wrk, very curiously stamped on the face of this Planet ; likely r<> ' ontinue for some time ! For the rest, a painful Preacher, i.rii-ular of high Gospels to Now England; who in his day was well seen to be connected with the Supreme Powers of this Universe, the word of him being as a live-coal to the hearts of many. He died some years afterwards; was thought, ially on his death-bed, to have manifested gifts even of Prophecy, 1 a thing not inconceivable to the human mind that well considers Prophecy and John Cotton. We should say farther, that the Parliament, that Oliver among and before them, had taken solemn anxious thought (warning Propagating of the Gospel in New England; and, ainon^ other measures, passed an Act to that end; 8 not un- worthy of attention, were our hurry less. In fact, there are traceable various small threads of relation, interesting recipro- cities and mutualities, connecting the poor young Infant, New ii. d. with its old Puritan .Mother and her affairs, in those years. Which ought to !* disentangled, to be made conspicu- ous and beautiful, by the Infant herself now that she has 1 Thurl>e, \. 565 ; in 1< Scobell (27th July, 1649), ii. 66. 268 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. October, jrown big ; the busy old Mother having had to shove them, v/Hi so much else of the like, hastily out of her way for the present ! --*- However, it is not in reference to this of Propa- gating the Gospel in New England ; it is in congratulation on the late higA Actings, and glorious Appearances of Providence in Old England, that Cotton has been addressing Oliver : intro- duced to him, as appears, by some small mediate or direct acquaintanceship, old or new ; founding too on their general relationship as Soldier of the Gospel and Priest of the Gospel, high brother and humble one; appointed, both of them, to fight for it to the death, each with such weapons as were given him. The Letter of Cotton, with due details, is to be seen in Hutchinson's Collection. 1 The date is " Boston in New Eng- land, 28th of Fifth [Fifth Month, or July], 1651 : " the sub- stance, full of piety and loyalty, like that of hundreds of others, must not concern us here, except these few inter- esting words, upon certain of our poor old Dunbar friends : " The Scots whom God delivered into your hands at Dunbar," says Cotton, " and whereof sundry were sent hither, we have been desirous, as we could to make their yoke easy. Such as were sick of the scurvy, or other diseases, have not wanted physic and chirurgery. They have not been sold for Slaves, to perpetual servitude ; but for six, or seven, or eight years, as we do our own. And he that bought the most of them, I hear, buildeth Houses for them, for every Four a House ; and layetli some acres of ground thereto, which he giveth them as their own, requiring them three days in the week to work for him by turns, and four days for themselves; and promiseth, as soon as they can repay him the money he laid out for them, he will set them at liberty." Which really is a mild arrange- ment, much preferable to Durham Cathedral and the raw cab- bages at Morpeth ; and may turn to good for the poor fellows, if they can behave themselves ! 1 Papers relative to the History of Massachusetts (Boston, 1769), p. 236. 2651. LETTER CLXXXIV. LONDON. 269 " For my Esteemed Friend, Mr. Cotton, Pastor of the Church at Boston in New England : These. " [LONDON,] 2d October, 1651. "WORTHY SIR, AND MY CHRISTIAN FRIEND, I received yours a few days since. It was welcome to ine because signed by you, whom I love and honor in the Lord : but more [so] to see some of the same grounds of our Actings stirring in you that are in us, to quiet us to our work, and support us therein. Which hath had the greatest difficulty in our engagement in Scotland ; by reason we have had to do with some who were, I verily think, Godly, but, through weakness and the subtlety of Satan, [were] involved in Interests against the Lord and His People. " With what tenderness we have proceeded with such, and that in sincerity, our Papers (which I suppose you have seen) will in part manifest ; and I give you some comfortable assur- ance of [the same]. The Lord hath marvellously appeared even against them. 1 And now again when all the power was devolved into the Scottish King and the Malignant Party, they invading England, the Lord rained upon them such snares as the Enclosed 2 will show. Only the Narrative in short is this, That of their whole Army, when the Narrative was framed, not five men were returned. " Surely, Sir, the Lord is greatly to be feared and to be praised ! We need your prayers in this as much as ever. How shall we behave ourselves after such mercies ? What is the Lord a-doing ? What Prophecies are now fulfilling ? * Who is a God like ours ? To know His will, to do His will, are both of Him. " I took this liberty from business, to salute you thus in a word. Truly I am ready to serve you and the rest of our Brethren and the Churches with you. I am a poor weak ' Frnm Preston downward. 1 IXuihtless the Official Narrative of Worcester Battle; published about a week ago, aa Preamble to the Act appointing a Day of Thanksgiving ; 26th September, 1651 ; reprinted in Parliamentary History, xx. 59-65. * See Psalm Hundred aud tenth. 270 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. October, creature, and not worthy the name of a worm ; yet accepted to serve the Lord and His People. Indeed, my dear Friend, between you and me, you know not me, my weaknesses, my inordinate passions, my unskilfulness, and every way un- fitness to my work. Yet, yet the Lord, who will have mercy on whom He will, does as you see ! Pray for me. Salute all Christian friends though unknown. I rest, " Your affectionate friend to serve you, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * About this time, for there is no date to it but an evidently vague and erroneous one, was held the famous Conference of Grandees, called by request of Cromwell ; of which Bulstrode has given record. Conference held " one day " at Speaker Lenthall's house in Chancery Lane, to decide among the leading Grandees of the Parliament and Army, How this Nation is to be settled, the Long Parliament having now resolved on actually dismissing itself by and by. The ques- tion is really complex : one would gladly know what the leading Grandees did think of it ; even what they found good to say upon it ! Unhappily our learned Bulstrode's report of this Conference is very dim, very languid : nay Bulstrode, as we have found elsewhere, has a kind of dramaturgic turn in him, indeed an occasional poetic friskiness ; most unexpected, as if the hippopotamus should show a tendency to dance ; which painfully deducts from one's confidence in Bulstrode's entire accuracy on such occasions ! Here and there the multi- tudinous Paper Masses of learned Bulstrode do seem to smack a little of the date when he redacted them, posterior to the Ever-blessed Restoration, not prior to it. We shall, never- theless, excerpt this dramaturgic Report of Conference : the reader will be willing to examine with his own eyes, even as in a glass darkly, any feature of that time ; and he can remem- ber always that a learned Bulstrode's fat terrene mind im- aging a heroic Cromwell and his affairs is a very dark gTass indeed ! 1 Harris, p. 518; Birch's Original, copied in Additional Ayscough MSS. no. 415G, 70. 1651. CONFERENCE AT LENTHALL'S. 271 The Speakers in this Conference, Desborow, Oliver's Brother- in-iaw ; Whalley, Oliver's Cousin ; fanatical Harrison, tough St. John, my learned Lord Keeper or Commissioner Whitlocke himself, are mostly known to us. Learned Wid- drington, the mellifluous orator, once Lord Commissioner too, and like to be again, though at present "excused from it owing to scruples," will by and by become better known to us. A mellifluous, unhealthy, seemingly somewhat scrupulous and timorous man. 1 He is of the race, of that Widdrington whom we still lament in doleful dumps, but does not fight upon the stumps like him. There were " many other Gentlemen," who merely listened. " Upon the defeat at Worcester," says Bulstrode vaguely,* " Cromwell desired a Meeting with divers Members of Parlia- ment, and some chief Officers of the Army, at the Speaker's house. And a great many being there, he proposed to them, That now the old King being dead, and his Son being defeated, he held it necessary to come to a Settlement of the Nation. And in order thereunto, had requested this Meeting; that they together might consider and advise, What was fit to be done, and to be presented to the Parliament. "SPEAKER. My Lord, this Company were very ready to attend your Excellence, and the business you are pleased to propound to us is very necessary to be considered. God hath given marvellous success to our Forces under your command ; and if we do not improve these mercies to some Settlement, such as may be to God's honor, and the good of this Common, wealth, we shall be very much blameworthy. " HARRISON. I think that which my Lord General hath !>i-(>inui(led, is, To advise as to a Settlement both of our Civil ;md Spiritual Liberties; and so, that the mercies which the Lord hath given in to us may not be cast away. How this may be done is the great question. " WHITLOCKE. It is a great question indeed, and not sud- denly to be resolved I Yet it were pity that a meeting of so 1 Wood, in voce. 3 Whitlocke, p. 491 ; the date, 10th December. 1651, ia that of the Paper merely , and a.* applied to the < 'onfrrfiicu itself caiiuut b- o>rrect 272 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 1651. many able and worthy persons as I see here, should be fruit- less. I should humbly offer, in the first place, Whether it be not requisite to be understood in what way this Settlement is desired ? Whether of an absolute Republic, or with any mixture of Monarchy. "CROMWELL. My Lord Commissioner Whitlocke hath put us upon the right point : and indeed it is my meaning, that we should consider, Whether a Republic or a mixed Monarchical Government will be best tp be settled ? And if anything Monarchical, then, In whom that power shall be placed ? " SIB THOMAS WIDDRINGTON. I think a mixed Monarchical Government will be most suitable to the Laws and People of this Nation. And if any Monarchical, I suppose we shall hold it most just to place that power in one of the Sons of the late King. " COLONEL FLEETWOOD. I think that the question, Whether an absolute Republic, or a mixed Monarchy, be best to be set- tled in this Nation, will not be very easy to be determined ! " LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE ST. JOHN. It will be found, that the Government of this Nation, without something of Monarchical power, will be very difficult to be so settled as not to shake the foundation of our Laws, and the Liberties of the People. "SPEAKER. It will breed a strange confusion to settle a Government of this Nation without something of Monarchy. "COLONEL DESBOROW. I beseech you, my Lord, why may not this, as well as other Nations, be governed in the way of a .Republic ? "WHITLOCKE. The Laws of England are so interwoven with the power and practice of Monarchy, that to settle a Government without something of Monarchy in it, would make so great an alteration in the Proceedings of our Law that you will scarce have time l to rectify it, nor can we well foresee the inconveniences which will arise thereby. " COLONEL WHALLEY. I do not well understand matters of Law : but it seems to me the best way, Not to have anything of Monarchical power in the Settlement of our Government. And if we should resolve upon any, whom have we to pitch 1 Between t.his and November, 1654. 165L CONFERENCE AT LENTHALL'S. 273 upon ? The King's Eldest Son hath been in arms against us, and his Second Son l likewise is our enemy. "SiB THOMAS WIDDKINGTON. But the late King's Third Son, the Duke of Gloucester, is still among us ; and too young to have been in arms against us, or infected with the principles of our enemies. "WIIITLOCKE. There may be a day given for the King's Eldest Son, 3 or for the Duke of York his Brother, to come in to the Parliament. And upon such terms as shall be thought fit, and agreeable both to our Civil and Spiritual liberties, a Settlement may be made with them. " CROMWELL. That will be a business of more than ordi- nary difficulty ! But really I think, if it may be done with safety, and preservation of our Rights, both as Englishmen aud as Christians, That a Settlement with somewhat of Mo- narchical power in it would be very effectual." Much other discourse there was, says my learned friend ; but amounting to little. The Lawyers all for a mixed Govern- ment, with something of Monarchy in it; tending to call IK one of the King's Sons, I especially tending that way ; secretly loyal in the worst of times. The Soldiers, again, were all for a Republic ; thinking they had had enough of the King and his Sons. My Lord General always checked that secret-loyalty of mine, and put off the discussion of the King's Son ; yet did not declare himself for a Republic either ; was indeed, as my terrene fat mind came at length to image him, merely "fishing for men's opinions," and for provender to himself and his appetites, as I in the like case should have been doing! The Conference broke up, with what of "fish" in this kind my Lord General had taken, and no other result arrived at. 1 James ; who has fled to the Continent some time ago, " in women's clothes," with one Colonel Bamfield, and is getting fast into Papistry and other contagions. * Charles Stuart : " a day " for him, npon whose hrad there was, not many weeks ago, a Reward of .1000? Did you actually *y my Lord General have broken up so. Four years ago, he ended one in King Street by playfully " flinging a cushion " at a certain solid head of our acquaintance, and running down-stairs. 1 Here too it became ultimately clear to the solid head that he had been " fishing." Alas, a Lord General has many Conferences to hold ; and in terrene minds, ligneous, oleaginous, and other, images himself in a very strange manner ! The candid imagination, busy to shape out some conceivable Oliver in these nineteen months, will accept thankfully the following small indubitabilities, or glimpses of definite events. December Sth, 1651. In the beginning of December (Whit- locke dates it 8th December) came heavy tidings over from Ireland, dark and heavy in the house of Oliver especially : that Deputy Ireton, worn out with sleepless Irish services, had caught an inflammatory fever, and suddenly died. Fell sick on the 16th of November, 1651 ; died, at Limerick, on the 26th. 2 The reader remembers Bridget Ireton, the young wife at Cornbury : 3 she is now Widow Ireton ; a sorrowful bereaved woman. One brave heart and subtle-working brain has ended : to the regret of all the brave. A man able with his pen and his sword ; " very stiff in his ways." Dryasdust, who much loves the brave Ireton in a rather blind way, intimates that Ireton's " stern virtue " would prob- ably have held Cromwell in awe ; that had Ireton lived, there had probably been no sacrilege against the Constitution on Oliver's part. A probability of almost no weight, my erudite friend. The " stern virtue " of Ireton was not sterner on occa- sion than that of Oliver ; the probabilities of Ireton's disap- proving what Oliver did, in the case alluded to, are very small, resting on solid Ludlow mainly ; and as to those of Ireton's holding Cromwell " in awe," in this or in any matter he had himself decided to do, I think we may safely reckon them at zero, my erudite friend ! 1 Lndlow, i. 240. 3 Wood, iii. 300; Whitlocke, p. 491. Letter (Oliver to his Sister) in Ap- pendix, No. 23. 8 Letter XLI. vol xvii. 247 ; and antea, p. 149. 1*552. LAW-REFORMS. 275 Lambert, now in Scotland, was appointed Deputy in Ireton's room ; and meant to go ; but did not. Some say the Widow Ireton, irritated that the beautiful and showy Lady Lambert should already " take precedence of her in St. James's Park," frustrated the scheme : what we find certain is, That Lambert did not go, that Fleet wood went ; and farther, that the Widow Ireton in due time became Wife of the Widower Fleetwood : the rest hangs vague in the head of zealous Mrs. Hutchiuson, solid Ludlow, and empty Rumor. 1 Ludlow, already on the si>ot, does the Irish duties in the interim. Ireton has solemn Public Funeral in England ; copious moneys settled on his Widow and Family ; all honors paid to him, for his own sake and his Father-in-law's. March 25th, 1652. Above two years ago, when this Rump Parliament was in the flush of youthful vigor, it decided on reforming the Laws of England, and appointed a working Committee for that object, our learned friend Bulstrode one of them. Which working Committee finding the job heavy, gradually languished ; and after some Acts for having Law- proceedings transacted in the English tongue, and for other improvements of the like magnitude, died into comfortable sleep. On my Lord General's return from Worcester, it had been poked up again ; and, now rubbing its eyes, set to work in good earnest; got a subsidiary Committee appointed, of twenty-one persons not members of this House at all, To say and suggest what improvements were really wanted : such im- provements they the working Committee would then, with all the n-adiness in life, effectuate and introduce in the shape of specific Acts. Accordingly, on March 25th, first day of the new year 1652, learned Bulstrode, in the name of this working Committee, reports that the subsidiary Committee has sug- gested a variety of things : among others, some improvement in our method of Transferring Property, of enabling poor John Doe, who finds at present a terrible difficulty in doing it, to inform Richard Roe, "I John Doe do, in very fact, sell to thre Richard Roe, such and such a Property, according to 1 Hutchimon'B Memoir* (Loudon, 1806), p. 195; Ludlow. pp. 414, 449, 4c. 276 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 1652. the usual human meaning of the word sell ; and it is hereby, let me again assure thee, indisputably SOLD to thee Richard, by me John : " which, my learned friend thinks, might really be an improvement. To which end he will introduce an Act : nay there shall farther be an Act for the " Kegistry of Deeds in each County," if it please Heaven. " Neglect to register your Sale of Land in this promised County-Register within a given time," enacts the learned Bulstrode, " such Sale shall be void. Be exact in registering it, the Land shall not be subject to any incumbrance." Incurubrance : yes, but what is " incum- brance " ? asks all the working Committee, with wide eyes, when they come actually to sit upon this Bill of Registry, and to hatch it into some kind of perfection : What is " incum- brance " ? No mortal can tell. They sit debating it, painfully sifting it, " for three months ; " * three months by Booker's Almanac, and the Zodiac Horologe : March violets have become June roses ; and still they debate what " incumbrance " is ; and indeed, I think could never fix it at all ; and are perhaps debating it, if so doomed, in some twilight foggy section of Dante's Nether World, to all Eternity, at this hour ! Are not these a set of men likely to reform English Law ? Likely these to strip the accumulated owl-droppings and foul guano- mountains from your rock-island, and lay the reality bare, in the course of Eternities ! The wish waxes livelier in Colo- nel Pride that he could see a certain addition made to the Scots Colors hung in Westminster Hall yonder. I add only, for the sake of Chronology, that on the fourth day after this appearance of Bulstrode as a Law-reformer, occurred the famous Black Monday ; fearfulest eclipse of the Sun ever seen by mankind. Came on about nine in the morn- ing ; darker and darker : ploughmen unyoked their teams, stars came out, birds sorrowfully chirping took to roost, men in amazement to prayers : a day of much obscurity ; Black Mon- day, or Mirk Monday, 29th March, 1652. 2 Much noised of by Lilly, Booker, and the buzzard Astrologer tribe. Betokening 1 Ludlow, i. 430; Parliamentary History, xx. 84; Commons Journals, vii. 67, 110, &c. 2 Balfour, iv. 349 ; Law's Memorials, p. 6. 1652. DUTCH WAR. 277 somewhat ? Belike that Bulstrode and this Parliament will, in the way of Law-reform and otherwise, make a Practical Gospel, or real Reign of God, in this England ? July 9th, 1652. A great external fact, which, no doubt, has its effect on all internal movements, is the War with the Dutch. The Dutch, ever since our Death-Warrant to Charles First, have looked askance at this New Commonwealth, which wished to stand well with them ; and have accumulated offence on offence against it. Ambassador Dorislaus was assassinated in their country ; Charles Second was entertained there ; eva- sive slow answers were given to tough St. John, who went over as new Ambassador : to which St. John responding with great directness, in a proud, brief and very emphatic manner, took his leave, and came home again. Came home again ; and passed the celebrated Navigation Act, 1 forbidding that any goods should be imported into England except either in Eng- lish ships or in ships of the country where the goods were produced. Thereby terribly maiming the " Carrying Trade of the Dutch ; " and indeed, as the issue proved, depressing the Dutch Maritime Interest not a little, and proportionally elevat- ing that of England. Embassies in consequence, from their irritated High Mightinesses; sea-fightings in consequence; and much negotiating, apologizing, and bickering mounting ever higher ; which at length, at the date above given, issues in declared War. Dutch War: cannonadings and fierce sea- fights in the narrow seas ; land-soldiers drafted to fight on shipboard ; and land-officers, Blake, Dean, Monk, who became very famous sea-officers ; Blake a thrice-famous one ; poor Dean lost his life in this business. They doggedly beat the Dutch, and again beat them : their best Van Tromps and De Ruyters could not stand these terrible Puritan Sailors and Gunners. The Dutch gradually grew tame. The public mind, occupied with sea-fights and sea-victories, finds again that the New Representative must be patiently waited for ; chat this is not a time for turning out the old Representative, which has so many affairs on its hands. 1 Introduced 5th Auguut, 1651 ; paased 9th October, 1651 . given in Scobell, ii. 176. 278 PAKT VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 1652. But the Dutch War brings another consequence in the train of it : renewed severity against Delinquents. The necessities of cash for this War are great : indeed, the grand business of Parliament at present seems to be that of Finance, finding of sinews for such a War. Any remnants of Royal lands, of Dean-and-Chapter lands, sell them by rigorous auction ; the very lead of the Cathedrals one is tempted to sell ; nay almost the Cathedrals themselves, 1 if any one would buy them. The necessities of the Finance Department are extreme. Money, money: our Blakes and Monks, in deadly wrestle with the Dutch, must have money ! Estates of Delinquents, one of the readiest resources from of old, cannot, in these circumstances, be forgotten. Search out Delinquents : in every County make stringent inquest after them ! Many, in past years, have made light settlements with lax Committee-men; neighbors, not without pity for them. Many of minor sort have been overlooked altogether. Bring them up, every Delinquent of them ; up hither to the Rhadamanthus-bar of Goldsmiths' Hall and Haberdashers' Hall ; sift them, search them ; riddle the last due sixpence out of them. The Commons Journals of these months have for- midable ell-long Lists of Delinquents ; List after List ; who shall, on rigorous terms, be ordered to compound. Poor un- known Eoyalist Squires, from various quarters of England ; whose names and surnames excite now no notion in us except that of No. 1 and No. 2: my Lord General has seen them "crowding by thirties and forties in a morning" 2 about these Haberdasher-Grocer Halls of Doom, with haggard expression of countenance ; soliciting, from what austere official person they can get a word of, if not mercy, yet at least swift judg- ment. In a way which affected my Lord General's feelings. We have now the third year of Peace in our borders : is this what you call Settlement of the Nation ? 1 Parliamentary History, xx. 90. 2 Speech, postea. 1652. LETTER CLXXXV. LONDON. 279 LETTER CLXXXV. THE following Letter " to my honored Friend Mr. Hunger- ford the Elder," which at any rate by order of time introduces itself here, has probably some reference to these Committee businesses : at all events, there hangs by it a little tale. 8ome six miles from Bath, in the direction towards Salisbury, are to be seen, "on the northeast slope of a rocky height called Farley Hill," the ruins of an old Castle, once well known by the name of Farley Montfort or Farley Hun.gerford : Man- sion once of the honorable Family of Hungerfords, while there was such a Family. The Hungerfords are extinct above a century ago ; and their Mansion stands there as a Ruin, know- ing little of them any more. But it chanced, long since, be- fore the Ruiu became quite roofless, some Land-Steward or Agent of a new Family, tapping and poking among the melan- choly lumber there, found " an old loose Chest " shoved loosely " under the old Chapel-altar ; " and bethought him ot opening the same. Masses of damp dust ; unclean accumular tion of beetle-and-spider exuviae, to the conceivable amount, under these, certain bundles of rubbish-papers, extinct lease- records, marriage-contracts, all extinct now, among which, however, were Two Letters bearing Oliver Cromwell's signature. These Two the Land-Steward carefully copied, thanks to him; and here, out of Collinsoii's History of Somer.-is]tlrr, the first of them now is. Very dark to the Land-Steward, to Collinson, and to us. For the Hungerfords are extinct ; their Name and Family, like their old Mansion, a mouldering ruin, almost our chief light in regard to it, the two little bits of Paper, rescued from the old Chest under the Chapel-altar, in that romantic manner ! There were three Hungerfords in Parliament ; all for Wilt- shire constituencies. Sir Edward, "Knight of the Bath," Puritan original Member for Chippenham ; Lord of this Man- sion of Farley, as we find: 1 thru Henry, Esq., "recruiter" for 1 Colliiwon (ifi. 357 n.) gives his Kpiuph copied from the old Chapel; but is very dark atid even uvU contradictory in what he aaya farther 280 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 1652. Bedwin since 1646 ; probably a cadet of the House, perhaps heir to it : both these are now " secluded Members ; " purged away by Pride ; nay it seems Sir Edward was already dead, about the time of Pride's Purge. The third, Anthony Hunger- ford, original Member for Malmesbury, declared for the King in 1642; was of course disabled, cast into the Tower when caught ; made his composition, by repentance and due fine, "fine of 2,532," in 1646, 1 when the First Civil War ended; and has lived ever since a quiet repentant man. He is of "Blackbourton in Oxfordshire/'' this Anthony; but I judge by his Parliamentary connection and other circumstances, like- wise a cadet of the House of Farley. Of him by and by, when we arrive at the next Letter. For the present, with regard to Sir Edward, lord of the Farley Mansion, we have to report, by tremulous but authentic lights, that he stood true for the Parliament ; had controversies, almost duels, in behalf of it ; among other services, lent it 500. Furthermore, that he is now dead, "died in 1648;" and that his Widow cannot yet get payment of that 500; that she is yet only struggling to get a Committee to sit upon it. 2 One might guess, but nobody can know, that this Note was addressed to Henry Hungerford, in reference to that business of Sir Edward's Widow. Or possibly it may be Anthony Hungerford, the repentant Royalist, that is now the " Elder Hungerford ; " a man with whom the Lord General is not without relations ! Unimportant to us, either way. A hasty Note, on some " business " now unknown, about which an unknown "gentleman" has been making inquiry and negotiation ; for the answer to which an unknown " servant " of some " Mr. Hungerford the Elder " is waiting in the hall of Oliver's House, the Cockpit, I believe, at this date : in such faintly luminous state, revealing little save its own exist- ence, must this small Document be left. 1 Commons Journals, iv. 565 (5th June, 1646); ib. iii. 526, &c. * Committee got, 18th February, 1652-3, "The Lord General" Crcm>rell in it (Commons Journals, vii. 260) : Danger of Duel (ib. ii. 928, 981 ; January -June, 1643). See ib. iv. 161, v. 618, &c. 1552. LETTER CLXXXV. LONDON. 281 " For my Honored Friend Mr. Hungerford the Elder, at his House: These. " [LONDON,] 30th July, 1652. " SIR, I am very sorry my occasions will not permit me to return J to you as I would. I have not yet fully spoken with the Gentleman I sent to wait upon you ; when I shall do it, I shall be enabled to be more particular. Being unwilling to detain your servant any longer, with my service to your Lady and Family, I take my leave, and rest, " Your affectionate servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL."* It is a sad reflection with my Lord General, in this Hunger- ford and other businesses, that the mere justice of any matter will so little avail a man in Parliament : you can make no way till you have got up some party on the subject there ! ' In fact, red-tape has, to a lamentable extent, tied up the souls of men in this Parliament of the Commonwealth of England. They are becoming hacks of office ; a savor of Godliness still on their lips, but seemingly not much deeper with some of them. I begin to have a suspicion they are no Parliament ! If the Commonwealth of England had not still her Army Par- liament, rigorous devout Council of Officers, men in right life- and-death earnest, who have spent their blood in this Cause, who in case of need can assemble and act again, what would become of the Commonwealth of England? Earnest persons, from this quarter and that, make petition to the Lord General and Officers, That they would be pleased to take the matter in hand, and see right done. To which the Lord General and Officers answer always : Wait, be patient ; the Parliament itself will yet do it. What the " state of the Gospel in Wales " is, in Wales or elsewhere, I cannot with any accuracy ascertain ; but see well reply. * Collinaon's Hittory of SvmertetMre (Bath, 1791), iii. 957 note. Sou Appendix, No. 25. * Speech, 282 PAET VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 30 July, that this Parliament has shown no zeal that way ; has snackled rather, and tied up with its sorrowful red-tape the movements of men that had any zeal. 1 Lamentable enough. The light of the Everlasting Truth was kindled; and you do not fan the sacred flame, you consider it a thing which may be left to itself ! Unhappy : and for what did we fight, then, and wrestle with our souls and our bodies as in strong agony ; besieging Heaven with our prayers and Earth and its Strengths, from Naseby on to Worcester, with our pikes and cannon ? Was it to put an Official Junto of some Threescore Persons into the high saddle in England ; and say, Ride ye ? They would need to be Threescore beautif uler men ! Our blood shed like water, our brethren's bones whitening a hundred fields ; Tredah Storm, Dunbar death-agony, and God's voice from the battle- whirl wind : did they mean no more but you ! My Lord General urges us always to be patient : Patience, the Parliament itself will yet do it. That is what we shall see! On the whole, it must be seriously owned by every reader, this present Fag-end of a Parliament of England has failed altogether to realize the high dream of those old Puritan hearts. " Incumbrance," it appears, cannot in the abstract be denned : but if you would know in the concrete what it is, look there ! The thing we fought for, and gained as if by miracle, it is ours this long while, and yet not ours ; within grasp of us, it lies there unattainable, enchanted under Par- liamentary formulas. Enemies are swept away ; extinguished as in the brightness of the Lord : and no Divine Kingdom, and no clear incipiency of such, has yet in any measure come! These are sorrowful reflections. For, alas, such high dream is difficult to realize ! Not the Stuart Dynasty alone that opposes it; all the Dynasties of the Devil, the whole perversions of this poor Earth, without us and within us, oppose it. Yea, answers with a sigh the heart of my Lord General : yea, it is difficult, and thrice diffi- cult ; and yet woe to us, if we do not with our whole soul try it, make some clear beginning of it; if we sit defining 1 Speech, poetea. 1652. THE RUMP. 283 "incumbrances," instead of bending every muscle to the wheel that is incuinbered ! Who art thou that standest still ; that having put to thy hand, turnest back ? In these years of miracle in England, were there not great things, as if by divine voices, audibly promised ? " The Lord said unto my Lord!" And is it all to end here? In Juntos of Three- score ; in Grocers-Hall Committees, in red-tape, and official shakings of the head ? My Lord General, are there no voices, dumb voices from the depths of poor England's heart, that address themselves to you, even you ? My Lord General hears voices ; and would fain distinguish and discriminate them. Which, in all these, is the God's voice ? That were the one to follow. My Lord General, I think, has many meditations, of a very mixed, and some of a very abstruse nature, in these months. Amjust 13th, 1652. This day came a "Petition from the Officers of my Lord General's Army," which a little alarmed us. Petition craving for some real reform of the Law ; some real attempt towards setting up a Gospel Ministry in Eng- land ; real and general ousting of scandalous, incompetent and plainly diabolic persons from all offices of Church and State ; real beginning, in short, of a Reign of Gospel Truth in this England ; and for one thing, a swift progress in that most slow-going Bill for a New Representative ; an actual ending of this present Fag-end of a Parliament, which has now sat very long! So, in most respectful language, prays this Petition * of the Officers. Petition prefaced, they say, with earnest prayer to God : that was the preface or prologue they gave it; what kind of epilogue they might be prepared to give it, one does not learn : but the men carry swords at their sides ; and we have known them ! " Many thought this kind of Petition dangerous ; and counselled my Lord General to put a stop to the like: but he seemed to make light of it," says Bulstrode. In fact, my Lord Genera 1 does not disapprove of it: my Lord General, after much abstruse meditation, has decided on putting himself at the bead of it He, and a serious minority in Parliament, and Whitlocke, p. 516. 284 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 14 Sept in England at large, think with themselves, once more, If it were not for this Army Parliament, what would become of us ? Speaker Lenthall " thanked " these Officers, with a smile which I think must have been of the grimmest, like that produced in certain animals by the act of eating thistles. September 14^A, 1C52. The somnolent slow-going Bill for a New Representative, which has slept much, and now and then pretended to move a little, for long years past, is resus- citated by this Petition ; comes out, rubbing its eyes, disposed for decided activity ; and in fact sleeps no more ; cannot think of sleep any more, the noise round it waxing ever louder. Settle how your Representative shall be ; for be it now actually must ! This Bill, which has slept and waked so long, does not sleep again : but, How to settle the conditions of the New Repre- sentative ? there is a question ! My Lord General will have good security against " the Presbyterial Party," that they come not into power again ; good security against the red-tape Party, that they sit not for three months denning an incum- brance again. How shall we settle the New Representative ; on the whole, what or how shall we do? For the old stagnancy is verily broken up : these petitioning Army Offi- cers, with all the earnest armed and unarmed men of England in the rear of them, have verily torn us from our moorings ; and we do go adrift, with questionable havens, on starboard and larboard, very difficult of entrance ; with Mahlstroms and Niagaras very patent right ahead ! We are become to man- kind a Rump Parliament; sit here we cannot much longer; and we know not what to do ! " During the month of October, some ten or twelve confer- ences took place," private conferences between the Army Officers and the Leaders of the Parliament : wherein nothing could be agreed upon. Difficult to settle the New Representa- tive; impossible for this Old Misrepresentative or Rump to continue ! What shall or can be done ? Summon, without popular intervention, by earnest selection on your and our part, a Body of godly wise Men, the Best and Wisest we can find in England ; to them intrust the whole question ; LETTER CLXXXVI. COCKPIT. 285 and do you abdicate, and depart straightway, say the Officers, forty good Men, or a hundred and forty ; choose them well, they will define an incumbrance in less than three months, we may hope, and tell us what to do ! Such is the notion of the Army Officers, and my Lord General ; a kind of Puritan " Convention of the Notables," so the French would call it ; to which the Parliament Party see insuperable objections. What other remedy, then? The Parliament Party mourn- fully insinuate that there is no remedy, except, except con- tinuance of the present Rump ! l November 7th, 1652. "About this time," prior or posterior to it, while such conferences and abstruse considerations are in progress, my Lord General, walking once in St. James's Park, beckons the learned Bulstrode, who is also there ; strolls gradually aside with him, and begins one of the most important Dialogues. Whereof learned Bulstrode has preserved some record ; which is unfortunately much dimmed by just suspicion of dramaturgy on the part of Bulstrode ; and shall not be ex- cerpted by us here. It tends conspicuously to show, first, how Cromwell already entertained most alarming notions of " making oneself a King," and even wore them pinned on his sleeve, for the inspection of the learned; and secondly, how Bulstrode, a secret-royalist in the worst of times, advised him by no means to think of that, but to call in Charles Stuart, - who had an immense popularity among the Powerful in Eng- land just then ! " My Lord General did not in words express any anger, but only by looks and carriage ; and turned aside from me to other company," as this Editor, in quest of cer- tainty and insight, and not of doubt and fat drowsy pedantry, will now also do ! LETTER CLXXXVI. HERE, from the old Chest of Farley Castle, is the other Hungerford Letter; and a dim glance into the domesticities again. Anthony Hungerford, as we saw, was the Royalist 1 Speech, postea. 28C PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. lODec. Hungerford, of Blackbonrton in Oxfordshire; once Member for Malmesbury ; who has been living these six or seven years past in a repentant wholesomely secluded state. "Cousin Dunch " is young Mrs. Dunch of Pusey, once Ann Mayor of Hursley ; she lives within visiting distance of Blackbourton, when at Pusey ; does not forget old neighbors while in Town, and occasionally hears gloomy observations from thorn. " Your Lord General is become a great man now ! " From the Answer to which we gather at least one thing : That the " offer of a very great Proposition " as to Son Richard's mar. riage, which we once obscurely heard of, 1 was, to all appear- ance, made by this Anthony Hungerford, perhaps in behalf of his kinsman Sir Edward, who, as he had no Son, 2 might have a Daughter that would be a very great Proposition to a young man. Unluckily "there was not that assurance of Godliness " that seemed to warrant it : however, the nobleness of the Overture is never to be forgotten. " For my honored Friend Anthony Hungerford, Esquire : These. " COCKPIT, 10th December, 1652. " SIR, I understand, by my Cousin Dunch, of so much trouble of yours, and so much unhandsomeness (at least seem- ing so) on my part, as doth not a little afflict me, until I give you this account of my innocency. " She was pleased to tell my Wife of your often resorts to my house to visit me, and of your disappointments. Truly, Sir, had I but once known of your being there, and [had con- cealed myself], it had been an action so below a gentleman or an honest man, so full of ingratitude for your civilities I have received from you, as would have rendered me unworthy of human society ! Believe me, Sir, I am much ashamed that the least color of the appearance of such a thing should have hap- pened ; and [I] could not take satisfaction but by this plain- dealing for my justification, which I ingenuously offer you. And although Providence did not dispose other matters to our mutual satisfaction, yet your nobleness in that Overture 1 Antea, vol. xvii. p. 291 2 Epitaph in Collinson's Somersetshire. 1652. LETTER CLXXXVII. COCKPIT. 287 obligeth me, and I hope ever shall whilst I live, to study upon all occasions to approve myself your Family's and your " Most affectionate and humble servant, "OLIVER CROMWELL. "My Wife and I desire our service be presented to your Lady and Family." l LETTER CLXXXVII. SKEMINGLY belonging to the same neighborhood is the fol- lowing altogether domestic Letter to Fleetwood; which still survives in Autograph ; but has no date whatever, and no indi- cation that will enable us to fix its place with perfect exactness. Fleetwood's Commission for Ireland is dated 10th July, 1652;* the precise date of his marriage with Bridget Ireton, of his departure for Ireland, or of any ulterior proceedings of his, is not recoverable, in those months. Of Henry Cromwell, too, we know only that he sat in the Little Parliament ; and, indis- putably therefore, was home from Ireland before summer next. From the total silence as to Public Affairs, in this Letter, it may be inferred that nothing decisive had yet been done or resolved upon; that through this strange old Autograph, as through a dim Horn-Gate (not of Dreams but of Realities), we are looking into the interior of the Cromwell Lodging, and the Cromwell heart, in the Winter of 1652. " For the Right Honorable Lieutenant- General Fleetwood, Com- mander -in-Chief of the Forces in Ireland: These. [COCKPIT, 1652.] " DEAR CHARLES, I thank you for your loving Letter. The same hopes and desires, upon your planting into my Family, were much the same in me that you express in yours towards me. However, the dispensation of the Lord is, to 1 (Hirer Cromwell'* Mrmoin of the. Protector (3d edition, T-ondon, 1822), ii. 488 ; me r<>llinm>n'H History of Somertetshire, iii. 357 note. 9 Tliurloe, L 212. 288 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. December, have it otherwise for the present ; and therein I desire to ac- quiesce ; not being out of hope that it may lie iu His good pleasure, in His time, to give us the mutual comfort of our relation : the want whereof He is able abundantly to supply by His own presence ; which indeed makes up all defects, and is the comfort of all our comforts and enjoyments. " Salute your dear Wife from me. Bid her beware of a bondage spirit. 1 Fear is the natural issue of such a spirit ; the antidote is Love. The voice of Fear is : If I had done this ; if I had avoided that, how well it had been with me ! I know this hath been her vain reasoning. [Poor Biddy !] ' Love argueth in this wise : What a Christ have I ; what a Father in and through Him ! What a Name hath my Father : Merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth; forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. What a Nature hath my Father: He is LOVE; free in it, unchangeable, in- finite ! What a Covenant between Him and Christ, for all the Seed, for every one : wherein He undertakes all, and the poor Soul nothing. The new Covenant is Grace, to or upon the Soul; to which it [the Soul] is passive and receptive: I'll do away their sins ; I'll write my Law, &c. / I'll put it in their hearts : they shall never depart from me, &c. 2 "This commends the Love of God: it's Christ dying for men without strength, for men whilst sinners, whilst enemies. And shall we seek for the root of our comforts within us, What God hath done, what He is to us in Christ, is the root of our comfort : in this is stability ; in us is weakness. Acts of obedience are not perfect, and therefore yield not perfect Grace. Faith, as an act, yields it not ; but [only] as it carries us into Him, who is our perfect rest and peace ; in whom we are accounted of, and received by, the Father, even as Christ Himself. This is our high calling. Kest we here, and here only. 8 1 A Secretary has written hitherto ; the Lord General now begins, himself, with a new pen. 2 Has been crowding, for the last line or two, very close upon the bottom of the page ; finds now that it will not do ; and takes to the margin. 3 Even so, my noble one ! The noble soul will, one day, again come to under,-;taiid these old words of yours. 1652. THE RUMP. 289 "Commend me to Harry Cromwell: I pray for him, That he may thrive, and improve in the knowledge and love of Christ. Commend me to all the Officers. My prayers indeed are daily for them. Wish them to beware of bitterness of spirit ; and of all things uncomely for the Gospel. The Lord give you abundance of wisdom, and faith and patience. Take heed also of your natural inclination to compliance. "Fray for me. I commit you to the Lord; and rest, " Your loving father, "OLIVER CROMWELL." l "The Boy and Betty are very well. Show what kindness you well may to Colonel Clayton, to my nephew Gregory, to Clay pole's Brother." And so the miraculous Horn-Gate, not of Dreams but of Realities and old dim Domesticities, closes again, into totally opaque ; and we return to matters public. December, 1652-March, 1653. The Dutch War prospers and has prospered, Blake and Monk beating the Dutch in tough sea-fights ; Delinquents, monthly Assessments, and the lead of Cathedrals furnishing the sinews : the Dutch are about send- ing Ambassadors to treat of Peace. With home affairs, again, it goes not so well. Through winter, through spring, that Bill for a New Representative goes along in its slow gestation; reappearing Wednesday after Wednesday; painfully strug- gling to take a shape that shall fit both parties, Parliament Grandees and Army Grandees both at once. A thing difficult ; a tiling impossible! Parliament Grandees, now become a con- t< inptible Rump, wish they could grow into a Reputable Full Parliament again, and have the Government and the Govern- 1 Has exhausted the long hroad margin ; inverts now, and writes atop. 2 Ayacongh MSS. no. 4165, f. 1. On (In- inner or blank leaf of this i-uriona 'lil Sheet are neatly paetod two square tiny t>iu of Paper : on one of them, " Fairfax " in autograph ; on the other these wonls, " <;<> \vns of Swaffham and Botsharn, which Towns had peti- tioned about certain rights of theirs, and got clear promise of redress in fit time, did " tumultuously assemble," to seek redress for themselves ; did " by force expel your Petitioners' workmen from their diking and working in the said Fens ;" did 1 Godwin, iii. 456 (who cites Kchanl : nt much of un Authority in each Mtten). 3 Act for that object (Scubell, ii. 33), 29th May, 1649. PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 23 April, tumble in again "the dikes by them made ;" and in fine did peremptorily signify that if they or any other came again to dike in these Fens, it would be worse for them. "The evil effects of which " are very apparent indeed. Whereupon this Official Letter, or Warrant ; written doubtless in the press of much other business. [ To Mr. Parker, Agent for the Company of Adventurers for Draining the Great Level of the Fens.~\ " [WHITEHALL], 23d April, 1653. " MR PARKER, I hear some unruly persons have lately committed great outrages in Cambridgeshire, about Swaffham and Botsharn, in throwing down the works making by the Adventurers, and menacing those they employ thereabout. Wherefore I desire you to send one of my Troops, with a Cap- tain, who may by all means persuade the people to quiet, by letting them know, They must not riotously do anything, for that must not be suffered : but [that] if there be any wrong done by the Adventurers, upon complaint, such course shall be taken as appertains to justice, and right will be done. I rest, " Your loving friend, " OLIVER CROMWELL." l The Declaration of the Lord General and his Council of Offi- cers? which came out on the Friday following the grand Catas- trophe, does not seem to be of Oliver's composition : it is a Narrative of calm pious tone, of considerable length ; promises, as a second Declaration still more explicitly does, 8 a Real As- sembly of the Puritan Notables ; and, on the whole, can be imagined by the reader ; nay we shall hear the entire substance of it from Oliver's own mouth, before long. These Declara- tions and other details we omit. Conceive that all manner of Authorities, with or without some little preambling, agree to go on as heretofore; that adherences arrive from Land-Gen- erals and Sea-Generals by return of post ; that the old Council 1 From the Records of the Fen Office, in Sergeants' Inn, London ; commu- nicated with other Papers relating thereto, by Samuel Wells, Esq. 2 22d April, Crotiiwetitaita, p. 120. 8 30th April, ibid. p. 122. SUMMONS. 297 of State having vanished with its Mother, a new Interim Council of State, with " Oliver Cromwell, Captain General," at the head of it, answers equally well ; in a word, that all people are looking eagerly forward to those same " Known Persons, Men fearing God, and of approved Integrity," who are now to be got together from all quarters of England, to say what flail be done with this Commonwealth, whom there is now !in Fag-end of a corrupt Parliament to prevent just men from choosing with their best ability. Conceive all this; and read the following SUMMONS. " To . " FORASMUCH as, upon the dissolution of the late Parliament, it became necessary that the peace, safety and good govern- ment of this Commonwealth should be provided for : And in order thereunto, divers Persons fearing God, and of approved Fidelity and Honesty, are, by myself with the advice of my Council of Officers, nominated ; to whom the great charge and trust of so weighty affairs is to be committed : And having good assurance of your love to, and courage for, God and the interest of His Cause, and [that] of the good People of this Commonwealth j <: I, Oliver Cromwell, Captain General and Commander-in- fhipf of all the Armies and Forces raised and to be raised \\ithin this Commonwealth, do hereby summon and require V'ou, , being one of the Persons nominated, Per- nn.illy to be and appear at the Council-Chamber, commonly known or called by the name of the Council-Chamber at White- lull, within the City of Westminster, upon the Fourth day of July next ensuing the date hereof; Then and there to take upon you the said Trust ; unto which you are hereby called, and appointed to serve as a Member for the County of . And hereof you are not to fail. " Given under my hand and seal the 6th day of June, 1663. " OLIVER CROMWELL." * (in CromvoeUiana, p 125). 298 PAKT VII. THE LITTLE PAKLIAMENT. 4 July, SPEECH FIEST. A HUNDRED and forty of these Summonses were issued; and of all the Parties so summoned, " only two " did not at- tend. Disconsolate Bulstrode says, " Many of this Assembly being persons of fortune and knowledge, it was much wondered at by some that they would, at this Summons, and from such hands, take upon them the Supreme Authority of this Nation : considering how little right Cromwell and his Officers had to give it, or those Gentlemen to take it." l My disconsolate friend, it is a sign that Puritan England in general accepts this action of Cromwell and his Officers, and thanks them for it, in such a case of extremity ; saying as audibly as the means permitted : Yea, we did wish it so ! Rather mournful to the disconsolate official mind ! Lord Clarendon again, writing with much latitude, has characterized this Convention as con- taining in it " divers Gentlemen who had estates, and such a proportion of credit " in the world as might give some color to the business ; but consisting, on the whole, of a very miserable beggarly sort of persons, acquainted with nothing but the art of praying ; " artificers of the meanest trades," if they even had any trade : all which the reader shall, if he please, add to the general $rMawo-mountains, and pass on not regarding. The undeniable fact is, these men were, as Whitlocke inti- mates, a quite reputable Assembly; got together by anxious " consultation of the godly Clergy" and chief Puritan lights in their respective Counties ; not without much earnest revision, and solemn consideration in all kinds, on the part of men adequate enough for such a work, and desirous enough to do it well. The List of the Assembly exists ; 2 not yet entirely gone dark for mankind. A fair proportion of them still recog- nizable to mankind. Actual Peers one or two : founders of Peerage Families two or three, which still exist among us, 1 Whitlocke, p. 534. 2 Somer$ Tracts, i. 216. 1(553. SPEECH t. 299 Colonel Edward Montague, Colonel Charles Howard, Anthony Ashley Cooper. And, better than King's Peers, certain Peers of Nature ; whom if not the King and his pasteboard Norroys have had the luck to make Peers of, the living heart of Eng- land has since raised to the Peerage, and means to keep there, Colonel Robert Blake the Sea-King, for one. " Known per- sons," I do think ; " of approved integrity, men fearing God ; " and perhaps not entirely destitute of sense any one of them ! Truly it seems rather a distinguished Parliament, even though Mr. Praisegod Barbone, " the Leather-merchant in Fleet Street," be, as all mortals must admit, a member of it. The fault, I hope, is forgivable ! Praisegod, though he deals in leather, and has a name which can be misspelt, one discerns to be the son of pious parents ; to be himself a man of piety, of understanding and weight, and even of considerable pri- vate capital, my witty flunky friends ! We will leave Praise- i:od to do the best he can, I think. And old Francis Rouse is there from Devonshire ; once member for Truro ; Provost of Eton College ; whom by and by they make Speaker ; whose Psalms the Northern Kirks still sing. Richard Mayor of Hursley is there, and even idle Dick Norton; Alexander Jaffnvy of Aberdeen, Laird Swinton of the College of Justice in Edinburgh ; Alderman Ireton, brother of the late Lord Deputy, colleague of Praisegod in London. In fact, a real A nibly of the Notables in Puritan England; a Parliament, J'nrfiamentum, or real Speaking- Apparatus for the now domi- nant Interest in England, as exact as could well be got, much more exact, I suppose, than any ballot-box, free hustings or alt'-l>arrel election usually yields. Such is the Assembly called the Little Parliament, and wit- tily /.'. Th.'V are very dark to us; and will never be illumi- nated much! Here is one glance of them face to face; here in this Speech of Oliver's. if we can read it, and listen along with them to it. There is this one glance ; and for six 300 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, generations, we may say, in the English mind there has not been another. Listening from a distance of two Centuries, across the Death-chasms and howling kingdoms of Decay, it is not easy to catch everything ! But let us faithfully do the best we can. Having once packed Dryasdust, and his unedifying cries of " Nonsense ! Mere hypocrisy ! Ambitious dupery ! " &c. &c., about his business ; closed him safe under hatches, and got silence established, we shall perhaps hear a word or two ; have a real glimpse or two of things long vanished ; and see for moments this fabulous Barebones's Parliament itself, stand- ing dim in the heart of the extinct Centuries, as a recognizable fact, once flesh and blood, now air and memory ; not untragical to us. Read this first, from the old Newspapers; and then the Speech itself, which a laborious Editor has, with all industry, copied and corrected from Two Contemporaneous lleports by different hands, and various editions of these. Note, however : The Italic sentences in brackets, most part of which, and yet perhaps not enough of which I have suppressed, are evidently by an altogether modern hand ! "July 4th, 1653. This being the day appointed, by the Letters of Summons from his Excellency the Lord General, for the meeting of the Persons called to the Supreme Au- thority, there came about a hundred and twenty of them to the Council-Chamber in Whitehall. After each person had given in a Ticket of his Name, they all entered the room, and sat down in chairs appointed for them, round about the table. Then his Excellency the Lord General, standing by the window opposite to the middle of the table, and as many of the Officers of the Army as the room could well contain, some on his right hand, and others on his left, and about him, made the following Speech to the Assembly : " " GENTLEMEN, I suppose the Summons that hath been instrumental to bring you hither gives you well to understand the occasion of your being here. Howbeit, I have something farther to impart to you, which is an Instrument drawn up by J.J.M. SPEECH I. 301 the consent and advice of the principal Officers of the Army ; which is a little (as we conceive) more significant than the Letter of the Summons. We have that here to tender you ; and somewhat likewise to say farther for our own exonera- tion ; 1 which we hope may be somewhat farther for your satisfaction. And withal seeing you sit here somewhat un- easily by reason of the scantness of the room and heat of the weather, I shall contract myself with respect thereunto. "We have not thought it amiss a little to remind you of that Series of Providences wherein the Lord hath appeared, dispensing wonderful things to these Nations from the begin- ning of our Troubles to this very day. " If I should look much backward, we might remind you of the state of affairs as they were before the Short, that is the last, Parliament, in what posture the things of this Nation then stood : but they do so well, I presume, occur to all your memories and knowledge, that I shall not need to look so far backward. Nor yet to those hostile occasions which arose be- tween the King that was and the Parliament 2 that then fol- lowed. And indeed, should I begin much later, the things that would fall very necessarily before you, would rather be for a History than for a verbal Discourse at this present. " But thus far we may look back. You very well know, it pleased God, much about the midst of this War, to winnow (if I may so say) the Forces of this Nation ; 8 and to put them into the hands of other men of other principles than those that did engage at the first. By what ways and means that was brought about, would ask more time than is allotted me to mind you of it. Indeed, there are Stories that do recite Transactions, and give you narratives of matters of fact : but those things wherein the life and power of them lay ; those strange windings and turnings of Providence ; those very great appearances of God, in crossing and thwarting the 1 "exoneration" doea not here mean "excuue" or "shifting away of Mann-," I. ut mere laying down of office with due form. Tin LOIIK Parliament. Self-denying Ordinance; beginning of 1645 ee vul xvil. p. 188 et seq. 302 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, purposes of men, that He might raise up a poor and contempt- ible company of men, 1 neither versed in military affairs, nor having much natural propensity to them [into wonderful suc- cess !]. Simply by their owning a Principle of Godliness and Religion ; which so soon as it came to be owned, and the state of affairs put upon the foot of that account, 2 how God blessed them, furthering all undertakings, yet using the most improbable and the most contemptible and despicable means (for that we shall ever own) : is very well known to you. "What the several Successes and Issues have been, is not fit to mention at this time neither; though I confess I thought to have enlarged myself upon that subject ; foras- much as Considering the works of God, and the operations of His hands, is a principal part of our duty ; and a great en- couragement to the strengthening of our hands and of our faith, for that which is behind. 8 And among other ends which those marvellous Dispensations have been given us for, that 's a principal end, which ought to be minded by us. " [Certainly] in this revolution of affairs, as the issue of those Successes which God was pleased to give to the Army, and [to] the Authority that then stood, there were very great things brought about ; besides those dints that came upon the Nations 4 and places where the War itself was, very great things in Civil matters too. [As first,] the bringing of Of- fenders to justice, and the Greatest of them. Bringing of the State of this Government to the name (at least) of a Com- monwealth. Searching and sifting of all persons and places. The King removed, and brought to justice ; and many great ones with him. The House of Peers laid aside. The House of Commons itself, the representative of the People of Eng- land, winnowed, sifted, and brought to a handful ; as you very well remember. " And truly God would not rest there : for, by the way, although it 's fit for us to ascribe 5 our failings and miscar- riages to ourselves, yet the gloriousness of the work may well 1 Fairfax's Army. 2 upon that footing. 8 still to come. * England, Ireland, Scotland. ' " intitle " in orig. 1653. SPEECH I. 303 be attributed to God Himself, and may be called His strange work. You remember well that at the Change of the Govern- ment there was not an end of our Troubles, [JVo /] although in that year were such high things transacted as indeed made it to be the most memorable year (I mean the Year 1648) that this Nation ever saw. So many Insurrections, 1 Invasions, secret Designs, open and public Attempts, all quashed in so short a time, and this by the very signal appearance of God Himself ; which, I hope, we shall never forget ! You know also, as I said before, that, as the first effect of that memorable year of 1648 was to lay a foundation, by bringing Offenders to Punishment, so it brought us likewise to the Change of Govern- ment : although it were worth the time [perhaps, if one had time], to speak of the carriage of some in places of trust, in most eminent places of trust, which was such as (had not God miraculously appeared) would have frustrated us of the hopes of all our undertakings. I mean by the closure of the Treaty that was endeavored with the King; 2 whereby they would have put into his hands all that we had engaged for, and all our security should have been a little piece of Paper ! That tiling going off, you very well know how it kept this Nation still in broils by sea and land. And yet what God wrought in Ireland and Scotland you likewise know ; until He had finished these Troubles, upon the matter, 8 by His marvel- lous salvation wrought at Worcester. " I confess to you, that I am very much troubled in my own spirit that the necessity of affairs requires I should be so short in those things: because, as I told you, this is the faim-nf part. of the Transactions, this mere historical Narrative of tin-in ; t here being in every particular ; in the King's first going from the Parliament, in the pulling down of the Bishops, the House of 1'eers, in every step towards that Change of the Government, I say there is not any one of these things, thus removed and 1 Kent, St. Neot's, Colchester, Welsh Poyer at Pembroke, Scotch H:imi]t..n at Preston, 4c. &. 2 Treaty of the Lde of Wight, again and again endeavored. * Mean* " so to speak ; " a common phrase of those times ; a perpetual one with Clarendon, for instance. 304 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 Julj, reformed, but hath an evident print of Providence set upon it, so that he who runs may read it. I am sorry I have not an opportunity to be more particular on these points, which I principally designed, this day ; thereby to stir up your hearts and mine to gratitude and confidence. " I shall now begin a little to remind you of the passages that have been transacted since Worcester. Coming from whence, with the rest of my fellow Officers and Soldiers, we did expect, and had some reasonable confidence our expecta- tions would not be frustrated, That, having such an history to *ook back unto, such a God, so eminently visible, even our enemies confessing that ' God Himself was certainly engaged against them, else they should never have been disappointed in every engagement,' and that may be used by the way, That if we had but miscarried in the least, 1 all our former mercies were in danger to be lost : I say, coming up then, we had some confidence That the mercies God had shown, and the expectations which were upon our hearts, and upon the hearts of all good men, would have prompted those who were in Authority to do those good things which might, by honest men, have been judged fit for such a God, and worthy of such mercies ; and indeed been a discharge of duty from those to \vhom all these mercies had been shown, for the true interest of this Nation ! [Yes /] If I should now labor to be particu- lar in enumerating how businesses have been transacted from that time to the Dissolution of the late Parliament, indeed I should be upon a theme which would be troublesome to myself. For I think I may say for myself and my fellow Officers, That we have rather desired and studied Healing and Looking-for- ward than to rake into sores and to look backward, to give things forth in those colors that would not be very pleasing to any good eye to look upon. Only this we shall say for our own vindication, as pointing out the ground for that unavoid- able necessity, nay even that duty that was incumbent upon us, to make this last great Change I think it will not be amiss to offer a word or two to that. [Hear, hearf] As I 1 lost one battle of these many. JI553. SPEECH I. 305 said before, we are loath to rake into businesses, were there not a necessity so to do. " Indeed, we may say that, ever since the coming up of my- self and those Gentlemen who have been engaged in the mili- part, it hath been full in our hearts and thoughts, To desire and use all the fair and lawful means we could to have the Nation reap the fruit of all the blood and treasure that had been spent in this Cause: and we have had many desires, and thirstings in our spirits, to find out ways and means wherein we might be anywise instrumental to help it forward. We were very tender, for a long time, so much as to petition. For some of the Officers being Members ; and others having very good acquaintance with, and some relations to, divers Members of Parliament, we did, from time to time, solicit such ; thinking if there had been nobody to prompt them, nor call upon them, these things might have been attended to, from ingenuity * and integrity in those that had it in their power to answer such expectations. " Truly, when we saw nothing would be done, we did, as we thought according to our duty, a little, to remind them by a Petition; which I suppose you have seen : it was delivered, as I remember, in August last. 2 What effect that had, is like- wise very well known. The truth is, we had no return at all for our satisfaction, a few words given us ; the things pre- sented by us, or the most of them, we were told ' were under consideration : ' and those not presented by us had very little or no consideration at all. Finding the People dissatisfied in every corner of the Nation, and [all men] laying at our doors th.- non-performance of these things, which had been promised, and were of duty to be performed, truly we did then think ourselves concerned, if we would (as becomes honest men) keep up the reputation of honest men in the world. And therefore we, divers times, endeavored to obtain meetings wiili divers Members of Parliament; and we did not begin those till about October last. And in these meetings we did, with all faithfulness and sincerity, beseech them that they C'ommoru Journal*, vii. 164 (13th August, 1652) VOL. XVIII. 20 306 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, would be mindful of their duty to God and men, in the dis- charge of the trust reposed in them. I believe (as there are many gentlemen here know), we had at least ten or twelve meetings ; most humbly begging and beseeching of them, That by their own means they would bring forth those good things which had been promised and expected ; that so it might ap- pear they did not do them by any suggestion from the Army, but from their own ingenuity : so tender were we to preserve them in the reputation of the People. Having had very many of those meetings ; and declaring plainly that the issue would be the displeasure and judgment of God, the dissatisfaction of the People, the putting of [all] things into a confusion : yet how little we prevailed, we very well know, and we believe it 's not unknown to you. " At last, when indeed we saw that things would not be laid to heart, we had a very serious consideration among ourselves what other ways to have recourse unto [ Yea, that is the ques- tion /] ; and when we grew to more closer considerations, then they [the Parliament men] began to take the Act for a Repre- sentative l to heart, and seemed exceeding willing to put it on. And had it been done with integrity, there could nothing have happened more welcome to our judgments than that. But plainly the intention was, Not to give the People a right of choice ; it would have been but a seeming right : that [sem- blance] of giving them a choice was only to recruit the House, the better to perpetuate themselves. And truly, having been, divers of us, spoken unto to give way hereunto, to which we made perpetual aversions, indeed abominating the thoughts of it, we declared our judgments against it, and our dissatisfac- tion with it. And yet they that would not hear of a Repre- sentative formerly, when it lay three years before them, without proceeding one line, or making any considerable progress, I say, those that would not hear of this Bill formerly, did now, when they saw us falling into more closer considerations, make, instead of protracting their Bill, as much preposterous haste with it on the other side, and run into that [opposite] extremity. 1 For a New Parliament and Method of Election. 1953. SPEECH I. 307 " Finding that this spirit was not according to God ; and that the whole weight of this Cause which must needs be very dear unto us who had so often adventured our lives for it, and we believe it was so to you did hang upon the business now in hand; and seeing plainly that there was not here any consideration to assert this Cause, or provide security for it, but only to cross the troublesome people of the Army, who by this time were high enough in their dis- pleasures : Truly, I say, when we saw all this, having power in our hands [we could not resolve] to let such monstrous proceedings go on, and so to throw away all our liberties into the hands of those whom we had fought against [Pres- byterian-Royalists ; at Preston and elsewhere, "fought against" yea and beaten to ruin, your Excellency might add /] ; we came, first, to this conclusion among ourselves, That if we had been fought out of our liberties and rights, Necessity would have taught us patience ; but that to deliver them [sluggishly] up would render us the basest persons in the world, and worthy to be accounted haters of God and of His People. \Vlnn it pleased God to lay this close to our hearts; and indeed to show us that the interest of His People was grown dii'ap, [that it was] not at all laid to heart, but that if things came to real comj>etition, His Cause, even among themselves, would also in every point go to the ground : indeed, this did a- Id nr.Tc considerations to us, That there was a duty incum- Ix'iit upon us [even upon us]. And I speak here in the presence of some that were at the closure of our consultations, and as before the Lord the thinking of an act of violence \v;is to us worse than any battle that ever we were in, or that could be, to the utmost hazard of our lives [Hear himf] : so willing were we, even very tender and desirous, if possible, that these men might quit their places with honor. " I am the longer upon this ; because it hath been in our own hearts and consciences, justifying us, and hath never been yet thoroughly imparted to any ; and we had rather i with y>u than have done it before; and do think indeed that this Transaction is moiv proper for a verbal com- munication than to have it put into writing. I doubt, he whose 308 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, pen is most gentle in England would, in recording that, have been tempted, whether he would or no, to dip it deep in anger and Avrath. [Stifled cries from Dryasdust.'] But affairs be- ing at this posture ; we seeing plainly, even in some critical cases, 1 that the Cause of the People of God was a despised thing ; truly we did believe then that the hands of other nieu [than these] must be the hands to be used for the work. And we thought then, it was very high time to look about us, and to be sensible of our duty. [Oliver's voice somewhat ris- ing ; Major- General Harrison and the others looking rather animated /] " If, I say, I should take up your time to tell you what in- stances we have to satisfy our judgments and consciences, That these are not vain imaginations, nor things fictitious, but which fell within the compass of our own certain knowl- edge, it, would bring me, I say, to what I would avoid, to rake into these things too much. Only this. If anybody was in competition for any place of real and signal trust, [if any really public interest was at stake in that Parliament,] how hard and difficult a matter was it to get anything carried without making parties, without practices * indeed unworthy of a Parliament ! When things must be carried so in a Su- preme Authority, indeed I think it is not as it ought to be, to say no worse [Nor do I~\ \ Then, when we came to other trials, as in that case of Wales [of establishing a Preaching Ministry in Wales] which, I must confess for my own part, I set myself upon, if I should relate what discountenance that business of the poor People of God there had (who had men 2 watching over them like so many wolves, ready to catch the lambs so soon as they were brought forth into the world) ; how signally that Business was trodden under foot [in Parlia- ment], to the discountenancing of the Honest People, and the countenancing of the Malignant Party, of this Common- wealth ! I need but say it was so. For many of you know, and by sad experience have Telt it to be so. And somebody I hope will, at leisure, better impart to you the state of that Business [of Wales] ; which really, to myself and Officers, 1 " things " in orig. 2 Clergymen so called. 16M. SPEECH I. 309 was as plain a trial of their spirits [the Parliament's spirits] as anything, it being known to many of us that God had kindled a seed there, 1 indeed hardly to be paralleled since the Primitive time. " I would these had been all the instances we had ! Find- ing [however] which way the spirits of men went, finding that good was never intended to the People of God, I mean, when I say the People of God, I mean the large com- prehension of them, under the several Forms of Godliness in this Nation ; finding, I say, that all tenderness was for- gotten to the Good People (though it was by their hands and their means, under the blessing of God, that those sat where they did), we thought this very bad requital ! I will not say, they were come to an utter inability of working Kef oriuation, though I might say so in regard to one thing : the Reformation of the Law, so much groaned under in the posture it now is in. [Hear, hear /] That was a thing we had many good words spoken for ; but we know that many months together were not enough for the settling of one word, ' In- cumbrances' [Three calendar months! A grim smile on some faces], I say, finding that this was the spirit and complex- ion of men, although these were faults for which no man should lift up his hand against the Superior Magistrate ; not simply for these faults and failings, yet when we saw that this [New Representative of theirs] was meant to perpetuate men of such spirits ; nay when we had it from their own mouths, That they could not endure to hear of the Dissolu- tion of this Parliament : we thought this an high breach of trust. If they had been a Parliament never violence was upon, 9 sitting as free and clear as any in former ages, it was thought, this, to be a breach of trust, such as a greater could not be. " And that we might not be in doubt about these matters ; having had that Conference among ourselves which I gave you 1 Expression then correct enough: " kindle " = &iWa'n (German), mean- ing "give birth t<," " create." Occurs in Shakspcare more than once. * Had no Pride's Purge, Apprentice riot, or the like, ever come upon them. 310 PAltT VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, an account of, we did desire one more, and indeed it was the night before the Dissolution ; it had beeii desired two or three nights before : we did desire that we might speak with some of the principal persons of the House. That we might with ingenuity open our hearts to them ; that we might either be convinced of the certainty of their intentions ; or else that they would be pleased to hear our expedients to prevent these inconveniences. And indeed we could not attain our desire till the night before the Dissolution. There is a touch of this in our Declaration. 1 As I said before, at that time we had often desired it, and at that time we obtained it : where about twenty of them were, none of the least in consideration for their interest and ability ; with whom we desired some dis- course upon these things ; and had it. And it pleased these Gentlemen, who are here, the Officers of the Army, to desire me to offer their sense for them, which I did, and it was shortly thus : We told them ( the reason of our desire to wait upon them now was, that we might know from them, What security lay in their manner of proceeding, so hastened, for a New Kepresentative ; wherein they had made a few qualifica- tions, such as they were : and How the whole business would [in actual practice] be executed : Of which we had as yet no account ; and yet we had our interest, our lives, estates and families therein concerned ; and, we thought likewise, the Honest People had interest in us : " How all this was to be ? " That so, if it did seem they meant to appear in such honest and just ways as might be security to the Honest Interest, we might therein acquiesce : or else that they would hear what we had to offer.' Indeed, when this desire was made, the answer was, ' That nothing would do good for this Nation but the con- tinuance of this Parliament ! ' We wondered we should have such a return. We said little to that : but, seeing they would not give us satisfaction that their ways were honorable and just, we craved their leave to make our objections. We then told them, That the way they Avere going in would be impracticable. [That] we could not tell how to send out an Act with such qualifications as to be a rule for electing and for being elected, 1 Of April 22d ; referred to, not given, at p. 296. 1653. SPEECH I. 311 Until we first knew who the persons were that should be admitted to elect. And above all, Whether any of the quali- fications reached [so far as to include] the Presbyterian Party. 1 And we were bold to tell them, That none of that judgment who had deserted this Cause and Interest 2 should have any power therein. We did think we should profess it, That we had as good deliver up our Cause into the hands of any as into the hands of those who had deserted us, or who were as neu- ters ! For it 's one thing to love a brother, to bear with and love a person of different judgment in matters of religion j and another thing to have anybody so far set in the saddle on that account, as to have all the rest of his brethren at mercy. u Truly, Gentlemen, having this discourse concerning the impracticableuess of the thing, the bringing in of neuters, and such as had deserted this Cause, whom we very well knew ; objecting likewise how dangerous it would be by drawing con- courses of people in the several Counties (every person that was within the qualification or without) ; and how it did fall obvious to us that the power would come into the hands of men who had very little affection to this Cause : the answer again was made, and that by very eminent persons, ' That nothing would save the Nation but the continuance of this Parliament.' This being so, we humbly proposed, since neither our counsels, our objections to their way of proceeding, nor their answers to justify that, did give us satisfaction ; nor did we think they ever intended to give us any, which indeed some of them have since declared [to be the fact], we pro- '1 to them, I say, our expedient; which was indeed this : That the Government of the Nation being in such a condition ;us we saw, atid things [being] under so much ill sense abroad, and likely to end in confusion [if we so proceeded], we de- sired they would devolve the trust over to some Well-affected Men, such as had an interest in the Nation, and were known to be of good affection to the Commonwealth. Which, we told them, was no new thing when this Land was under the like hurly-burlies. And we had been laboring to get precedents 1 " I'rwliyti-ry " in ori^. * NWUO of yuur KoyaliitU, llamillou-iuvadkm 312 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, [out of History] to convince them of it ; and it was confessed by them it had been no new thing. This expedient we offered out of the deep sense we had of the Cause of Christ; and were answered so as I told you, That nothing would save this Nation but the continuance of that Parliament. [The continu- ance :] they would not [be brought to] say the perpetuating of it, at this time ; yet we found their endeavors did directly tend that way ; they gave us this answer, ' That the thing we offered was of a very high nature and of tender consideration : How would money be raised ? ' and made some other ob- jections. We told them [how] ; and that we here offered an expedient five times better than that [of theirs], for which no reason was given, nor we thought could be given [ Why should the Fag-end of this poor old Parliament, now fallen impotent except to raise money for itself, continue ? No reason is given, nor we think can be, that will convince mankind"] ; and desired them that they would lay things seriously to heart ! They told us, They would take time for the consideration of these things till to-morrow ; they would sleep upon them, and consult some friends ; [some friends,] though, as I said, there were about twenty-three [of them here], and not above fifty-three in the House. And at parting, two or three of the chief of them, one of the chief [ Sir Harry Vane /], and two or three more, did tell us, That they would endeavor to suspend farther proceedings about their Bill for a New Kepresentative until they had another conference with us. And upon this we had great satisfaction ; and had hope, if our expedient could re- ceive a loving debate, that the next day we should have some such issue thereof as would give satisfaction to all. 1 And herewith they went away, [it] being late at night. "The next morning, we considering how to order what we had farther to offer to them in the evening, word was brought us that the House was proceeding with all speed upon the New Representative ! We could not believe it, that such persons would be so unworthy ; we remained there till a sec- ond and third messenger came, with tidings That the House was really upon that business, and had brought it near to the 1 " hoping by conference to have satisfaction to all " in orig. 1658. SPEECH L 313 i.ssue, and with that height l as was never before exercised ; leaving out all things relating to the due exercise of the qualifications (which had appeared all along [in it till now]) ; and [meaning], as we heard, to pass it only on paper, without engrossing, for the quicker despatch of it. Thus, as we apprehend, would the T a berties of the Nation have been thrown away into the hands of those who had never fought for it. And upon this we thought it our duty not to suffer it. [No /] And upon this the House was dissolved, even when the Speaker was going to put the last question. [Let HIM travel at any rate /] "I have too much troubled you with this: but we have made this relation, that you might know that what hath been done in the Dissolution of the Parliament was as necessary to be done as the preservation of this Cause. And the necessity which led us to do that, hath brought us to this [present] issue, Of exercising an extraordinary way and course to draw You together [here] ; upon this account, that you axe men who know the Lord, and have made observations of His marvellous Dispensations ; and may be trusted, as far as men may l>e trusted, with this Cause. " It remains now for me to acquaint you [a little] farther with what relates to your taking upon you this great Business. [But indeed] that is contained in the Paper 3 here in my hand, which will be offered presently to you to read. 8 But having done that we have done [Dissolving of the Parliament ; vliirh cannot be repented of, and need not be boasted off] upon such ground of necessity as we have [now] declared, which was not a feigned necessity but a real, [it did behoove us,] 1 violence, height of temper. 3 An Indenture or Internment of Government, some account of which can be f "ii M. I, if any one ia curious about it, in Parliamentary History, xx. 175. * Considerable discrepancies in the Two Reports throughout this para- graph ; indicating Home embarrassment and intricacy in the Speaker. Which with onr bent industry we endeavor to reconcile ; to elicit from them what thf r-.il utterance, or thought and attempted uttcrum -, of the Speaker may have been. The two Reporters being faithful according to their ability, and the Speaker faithful according to bin, all discrepancies ought to dissolve themselves in clearer insight and conviction ; aa we hope they do. 314 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, to the end we might manifest to the world the singleness of our hearts and our integrity who did these things, Not to grasp at the power ourselves, or keep it in military hands, no not for a day ; but, as far as God enabled us with strength and ability, to put it into the hands of Proper Persons that might be called from the several parts of the Nation. This necessity ; and I hope we may say for ourselves, this integrity of concluding to divest the Sword of all power in the Civil Administration, hath been that that hath moved us to put You to this trouble [of coming hither] : and having done that, truly we think we cannot, with the discharge of our own consciences, but offer somewhat to you on the devolving of the burden on your shoulders. 1 It hath been the practice of others who have, voluntarily and out of a sense of duty, di- vestecJ themselves, and devolved the Government into new hands j I say, it hath been the practice of those that have done so; it hath been practised, and is very consonant to reason, To lay [down] together with their Authority, some Charge [how to employ it] 2 (as we hope we have done), and to press the duty [of employing it well] : concerning which we have a word or two to offer you. " Truly God hath called you to this Work by, I think, as wonderful providences as ever passed upon the sons of men in so short a time. And truly I think, taking the argument of necessity, for the Government must not fall ; taking the appearance of the hand of God in this thing, [I think] you would have been loath it should have been resigned into the hands of wicked men and enemies ! I am sure, God would not have it so. It 's come, therefore, to you by the way of necessity ; by the way of the wise Providence of God, through weak hands. And therefore, I think, coming through our hands, though such as we are, it may not be ill taken if 1 " for our own exoneration " in orig. 2 He seems embarrassed lest he be thought to have some authority over this new Little Parliament, and to treat them as if he were their King. The dissolving of the old Parliament has also its embarrassment, though not so prominent here ; and both together make au intricate paragraph. Our Two Reports, from this point, virtually coincide again. 165-3. SPEECH 1. 315 we do offer somewhat (as I said before) as to the discharge of the Trust which is now incumbent upon you. [Certainly not f] And although I seem to speak of that which may have the face and interpretation of a Charge, it 's a very humble one : and if he that means to be a Servant to you, who hath now called you to the exercise of the Supreme Authority, discharge what lie conceives to be a duty to you, we hope you will take it in good part. " And truly I shail not hold you long in it ; because I hope it 's written in your hearts to approve yourselves to God. Only this Scripture I shall remember to you, which hath been much \i|>on my spirit: Hosea, xi. 12, 'Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the Saints.' It 's said before, that ' Eph- laini compassed God about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit.' How God hath been compassed about by fastings and thanksgivings, 1 and other exercises and transactions, I think we have all cause to lament. Truly you are called by <;<"1, [as Judah \vas,] to 'rule with Him/ and for Him. And you are called to be faithful with the Saints who have been instrumental to your call. [Again,] Second Samuel, xxi. 3, ' He that ruleth over men,' the Scripture saith, ' must be just, ruling in the fear of God.' [Groans from Dryasdust. Patience, my friend ! Really, does not all this seem an incredibility ; o palpable hypocrisy, since it is not the mouth of an imbecile tli nt speaks it ? My estimable, timber-headed, leaden-hearted 'I, fan there be any doubt of it ?~] " And truly it 's better to pray for you than to counsel you in that matter, That you may exercise the judgment of mercy :md truth! It's better, I say, to pray for you than counsel yu ; to ask wisdom from Heaven for you ; which I am conti- 1 There was a Monthly Fast, the Last Wednesday of every month, helil iluly for alx.ut Seven Years; till, after the King's Death, wo aholished it Immense, preaching and howling, all over the country, there hashecn on these stated Wednesdays; sin-en :unl insincere. Not to speak of due Thanks- giving for victories an.l f<-li-itl^ innnmeraMe ; all ending in this infelicitous ci>nditi..n' Hi- Kv.-lh'tH-y thinks we ought to restrain such haltits ; not t., imifat,. F.phraim.or the Long parliament, in such. The rest of this Discourse i proprrlv :i ^.-niion .f liis ; anri 318 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, that are good. And if the poorest Christian, the most mis- taken Christian, shall desire to live peaceably and quietly under you, I say, if any shall desire but to lead a life of godliness and honesty, let him be protected. " I think I need not advise, much less press you, to endeavor the Promoting of the Gospel ; to encourage the Ministry ; 1 such a Ministry and such Ministers as be faithful in the Land ; upon whom the true character is. Men that have received the Spirit, which Christians will be able to discover, and do [the will of] ; men that ' have received Gifts from Him who is ascended up on high, who hath led captivity captive, to give gifts to men,' 2 even for this same work of the Ministry ! And truly the Apostle, speaking in another place, in the Twelfth of the Romans, when he has summed up all the mercies of God, and the goodness of God ; and discoursed, in the former Chap- ters, of the foundations of the Gospel, and of those things that are the subject of those first Eleven Chapters, he beseecheth them to 'present their bodies a living sacrifice.' [Note that!] He beseecheth them that they would not esteem highly of themselves, but be humble and sober-minded, and not stretch themselves beyond their line ; and also that they would have a care for those that * had received gifts ' to the uses there mentioned. I speak not I thank God it is far from my heart for a Ministry deriving itself from the Papacy, and pretending to that which is so much insisted on, ' Succession.' [" Hear, hear ! " from the Puseyites.~\ The true Succession is through the Spirit [/ should say so /] given in its measure. The Spirit is given for that use [To make proper Speakers- forth of God's eternal Truth] ; and that 's right Succession. But I need not discourse of these things to you ; who, I am persuaded, are taught of God, much more and in a greater measure than myself, concerning these things. " Indeed I have but one word more to say to you ', though in that perhaps I shall show my weakness : it 's by way of encouragement to go on in this Work. And give me 'aave to begin thus. I confess I never looked to see such a Pay as this, it may be nor you neither, when Jesus Christ should 1 Pleaching Clergy, 2 Ephesiaus, iv. 8. 1653. SPEECH I. 319 be so owned as He is, this day, in this Work. Jesus Christ is owned this day by the Call of You; and you own Him by your willingness to appear for Him. And you manifest this, as far as poor creatures may do, to be a Day of the Power of Christ. I know you well remember that Scripture, ' He makes His People willing in the day of His power.' l God manifests this to be the Day of the Power of Christ; having, through so murh blood, and so much trial as hath been upon these Nations, made this to be one of the great issues thereof : To have His People called to the Supreme Authority. [A thing, I confess, worth striving for ; and the one .thing worth striving forf] He makes this to be the greatest mercy, next to His own Son. God hath owned His Son ; and He hath owned you, and made you own Him. I confess I never looked to have seen such a day ; I did not. Perhaps you are not known by face to one another; [indeed] I am confident you are strangers, coming from all parts of the Nation as you do : but we shall tell you that indeed we have not allowed ourselves the choice of one person in whom we had not this good hope, That there was in him faith in Jesus Christ, and love to all His People and Saints. [ What a Parliament ; unexampled before and since in this world !~\ " Thus God hath owned you in the eyes of the world ; and thus, by coming hither, you own Him : and, as it is in Isaiah, xliii. 21, it 's an high expression ; and look to your own hearts whether, now or hereafter, God shall apply it to you : ' This People,' saith God, ' I have formed for Myself, that they may show forth my praiso.' I say, it 's a memorable passage ; and, I hope, not unfitly applied : the Lord .apply it to each of your hearts ! I shall not descant upon the words ; they are plain: indeed you are as like the 'forming of God 'as ever people were. If a man should tender a Book to you [to swear you upon], I dare appeal to all your consciences, Neither directly nor indirectly did you seek for your coming hither. You have been passive in coming hither; being called, and indeed that's :m active work. [though not on your part I] 1 Pnalm ex. .1 ; a favorite Psalm of Olivor'i, as wo know already, and -lid Lndlow knows. 320 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, 'This People have I formed : ' consider the circumstances by which you are ' called ' hither ; through what strivings \_At Marston Moor, at Naseby, Dunbar and elsewhere], through what blood you are come hither, where neither you nor I, nor no man living, three months ago, had any thought to have seen such a company taking upon them, or rather being called to take, the Supreme Authority of this Nation ! Therefore, own your call ! Indeed, I think it may be truly said that there never was a Supreme Authority consisting of such a Body, above one hundred and forty, I believe ; [never such a Body] that came into the Supreme Authority [before] under such a notion [as this] in such a way of owning God, and being owned by Him. And therefore I may also say, never such a ' People ' so ' formed, ' for such a purpose, [were] thus called before. [These are lucent considerations ; lucent, nay radiant f] " If it were a time to compare your standing with [that of] those that have been ' called ' by the Suffrages of the People [He does not say what the result would be~\ Which who can tell how soon God may fit the People for such a thing ? None can desire it more than I ! Would all were the Lord's People ; as it was said, ' Would all the Lord's People were Prophets ! ' [Fit to sit in Parliament and make Laws: alas, hitherto but few of them can "prophesy " /] I would all were fit to be called. It ought to be the longing of our hearts to see men brought to own the Interest of Jesus Christ. And give me leave to say : I f I know anything in the world, what is there likelier to win the People to the interest of Jesus Christ, to the love of God- liness (and therefore what stronger duty lies on you, being thus called), than an humble and godly conversation ? So that they may see [that] you love them ; [that] you lay yourselves out, time and spirits, for them ! Is not this the likeliest way to bring them to their liberties ? [To make them free by being servants of God / free, and fit to elect for Parliament /] And do not you, by this, put it upon God to find out times and seasons for you ; [fit seasons] by putting forth His Spirit ? At least you convince them that, as men fearing God have fought them out of their bondage under the Regal Power, so nu*n Searing God do ne delivered to another people ' [and passively 1 Iluudred-oud-ttiuth I'salm, mid other Scriptural, arc known to Ludlow iri-i li< VOL. xviii. 21 322 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT, 4 July, wait]. Truly God hath brought this to your hands ; by the owning of your call ; blessing the Military Power. The Lord hath directed their [our~] hearts to be instrumental to call you ; and set it upon our hearts to deliver over the Power ' to another people.' [Therefore " we " are not the persons prophesied of?~\ But I may appear to be beyond my line here ; these things are dark. Only, I desire my thoughts l to be exercised in these things, and so I hope are yours. " Truly seeing things are thus, that you are at the edge of the Promises and Prophecies [Does not say what results] At least, if there were neither Promise nor Prophecy, yet you are carrying on the best things, you are endeavoring after the best things ; and, as I have said elsewhere, 2 if I were to choose any servant, the meanest Officer for the Army or the Com- monwealth, I would choose a godly man that hath principles. Especially where a trust is to be committed. Because I know where to have a man that hath principles. I believe if any one of you should choose a servant, you would do thus And I would all our Magistrates were so chosen : this may be done ; there may be good effects of this ! Surely it 'a our duty to choose men that fear the Lord, and will praise the Lord : such hath the Lord ' formed for Himself ; ' and He ex- pects no praises from other [than such]. [Oh, Secretary of the Home Department, my right honorable friend /] " This being so, truly it puts me in mind of another Scrip- ture, that famous Psalm, Sixty-eighth Psalm ; 8 which indeed 1 " senses " in orig. 2 In some Speech now lost : probably in many Speeches ; certainly in all manner of Practice and Action. 8 We remember it ever since Dunbar morning ; let us read a passage or two of it again : His Excellency and the Little Parliament will perhaps wait a moment ; and it may do us good ! " Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered : let them also that hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away ; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish before the presence of God." The unhappy ! " But let the righteous be glad : let them rejoice before God, yea let them rejoice exceedingly. Sing unto God, sing praises to His name. A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation. " O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy People, the Earth shook, 165:3. SPEECH I. 323 is a glorious Prophecy, I am persuaded, of the Gospel Churches, it may be, of the Jews also. There it prophesies that ' Ho will bring His People again from the depths of the Sea, as once He led Isruel through the Red Sea.' And it may be, as some think, God will bring the Jews home to their station 'from the isles of the sea,' and answer their expectations ' as from the depths of the sea.' But [at all events], sure I am, when the Lord shall set up the glory of the Gospel Church, it shall be ;i gathering of people as ' out of deep waters,' 'out of the multi- tude of waters : ' such are His People, drawn out of the multi- tudes of the Nations and People of this world. And truly that Psalm is very glorious in many other parts of it : When He gathers them, ' great was the company ' of them that pub- lish His word. 'Kings of Armies did flee apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil' [Consider Charles Stuart, First and Second ; and what we see this day!'] ; and ' Although ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of :i dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.' [/A//*/] And indeed the triumph of that Psalm is exceeding high and great ; and God is accomplishing it. And the close of it, that closeth with my heart, and I do not doubt with yours, ' The Lord shakes the hills and ^nouutains, and they reel.' And God huth a Hill too ; ' an high Hill as the Hill of Bashan : and the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thou- sands of Angels, and God will dwell upon this Hill forever ! ' [PBOCUL I'uoKANi ! The man is without a soul that looks into this Great Soul of a man, radiant luith the splendors of very II' dwell in . yea (lie Lord will dwell in it forever. The chariot* of (i.>( Angels: the Lord u among them, att in Sinai in the holy place." 324 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 4 July, of Holies, let us have done with THY commentaries I Thou canst not fathom it.] " I am sorry I have troubled you, in such a place of heat as this is, so long. All I have to say, in my own name, and that of my fellow Officers who have joined with me in this work, is : That we shall commend you to the grace of God, to the guidance of His Spirit : [That] having thus far served you, or rather our Lord Jesus Christ [in regard to you], we shall be ready in our stations, according as the Providence of God shall lead us, to be subservient to the [farther] work of God, and to that Authority which we shall reckon God hath set over us. And though we have no formal thing to present you with, to which the hands, or visible expressions, of the Officers and Soldiers of the three Nations of England, Scotland and Ireland [are set] ; yet we may say of them, and we may say also with confidence for our brethren at Sea, with whom neither in Scotland, Ireland, nor at Sea, hath there been any artifice used to persuade their consents to this work, that nevertheless their consents have flowed in to us from all parts, beyond our expectations : and we may with all confidence say, that as we have their approbation and full consent to the other work, so you have their hearts and affections unto this. 1 And not only theirs : we have very many Papers from the Churches of Christ throughout the Nation ; wonderfully both approving what hath been done in removing of obstacles, and approving what we have done in this very thing. And having said this, we shall trouble you no more. But if you will be pleased that this In- strument 2 be read to you, which I have signed by the advice of the Council of Officers, we shall then leave you to your own thoughts and the guidance of God ; to dispose of your- selves for a farther meeting, as you shall see cause. 8 1 " other work " delicately means dissolving the old Parliament ; " this " is assembling of you, " this very thing." 2 The Instrument is to be found among the Old Pamphlets ; but being of a much lower strain, mere constitutionalities, &c. in phrase and purport alike Jfiaden, we do not read it. 8 Report in Parliamentary History, and the common Pamphlets, ends here. 16W. SPEECH L 325 " I have only this to add. The affairs of the Nation lying on our hands to be taken care of; and we knowing that both the Affairs at Sea, the Armies in Ireland and Scotland, and the providing of things for the preventing of inconveniences, and the answering of emergencies, did require that there should be no Interruption, but that care ought to be taken for these things ; and foreseeing likewise that before you could digest yourselves into such a method, both for place, time and other circumstances, as you shall please to proceed in, some time would be required, which the Commonwealth could not bear in respect to the managing of things : I have, within a week [past] set up a Council of State, to whom the managing of affairs is committed. Who, I may say, very voluntarily and freely, before they see how the issue of things will be, have engaged themselves in business; eight or nine of them being Members of the House that late was. I say I did exercise that power which, I thought, was devolved upon me at that time ; to the end affairs might not have any interval [or interruption]. And now when you are met, it will ask some time for the settling of your affairs and your way. And [on the other hand] a day cannot be lost [or left vacant], but they must be in continual Council till you take further order. So that the whole matter of their consideration also which regards them is at your disposal, as you shall see cause. And therefore I thought it my duty to acquaint you with thus much, to prevent distractions in your way: That things have been thus ordered ; that your affairs will [not stop, but] go on [in the mean while], till you see cause to alter this Council; they having no authority or continuance of sitting, except simply until you take farther order." * The reader has now struggled through this First Speech of my Lord General's ; not without astonishment to find that he 1 Milton State- Paper* , pp. 106-114: and Parliamentary History, xx. 153- 175; which latter is identical with Ilarieian Miscellany (London, 1810), vi. 3.31-344. Our Report, in some cramp passages, which could not always be iii'licated without roiifusimi, is ;i ii-rtinm . 1 Ilarloian MSS. no. 7502, f. 13 : " Copyed from the Original in y li:inls <-f Mrs. ('<><.k ((Jrandanghter to I.ii-utrnaiit-Gcneral Flectwood) of Newin^-ni. Mid 1 " : NoV 5, 175'.), l>y A. <;iff..r.I." Printed, without reference, incorn-i tl\, in Annual Regitter for 1761, p. 49; in (lentleman't Magazine, &c. Ap|*>ndix, n. 2 vii. 323, 23d September, 1653. 332 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. October, "For my honored Friends, the Committee for Regulating the Customs : These Present. [COCKPIT, October, 1653.] "GENTLEMEN, I am sorry after recommendation of a Friend of mine the Bearer hereof, considering him in rela- tion to his poor Parents an object of pity and commiseration, yet well deserving and not less qualified for employment, - he should find such cold success amongst you. " His great necessities and my love once more invite me to write unto you, in his behalf, To bestow on him, if it may not be in the City by reason of multiplicity of suitors, a place in the Out-ports : and I doubt not but his utmost abilities will be improved to the faithful discharging of such trust as you shall impose on him, for the good of the Commonwealth. And thereby you will engage him who remains, " Your affectionate friend, " OLIVER CROMWELL." * LETTER CXCI. THIS "Henry Weston," otherwise unknown to all Editors, is a Gentleman of Surrey; his "House at Ockham," not Onl-- ham, is in the neighborhood of Guildford in that County. So much, strangely enough, an old stone Tablet still legible in Ockham Church, which a beneficent hand has pointed out, enables me to say; an authentic dim old Stone in Surrey, curiously reflecting light on a dim old Piece of Paper which has fluttered far about the world before it reached us here ! " Brother Ford," I find by the same authority, is of knightly rank in Sussex : and Henry Weston's Father "lieth buried in the Chancel of Speldhurst Church " in Kent ; his Uncle, a childless man, resting here at Ockham, " since the 8th day of July, 1638, in the clymacteric of his age, 63." 2 "Reverend 1 Letter genuine, teste me ; reference unfortunately lost. * Copy of the Inscription pi-.ncs UK . 1653. LETTEK CXCI. LONDON. 333 Mr. Draper " has not elsewhere come across me. Happily we can hope he officiates well in Kent ; and read this Letter with' out other light. " For my honored Friend Henry Weston, Esquire, at his House in Ockham: These. " [LONDON,] 16th Nov. 1653. "SiR, MY NOBLE FRIEND, Your Brother Ford was lately witli me, acquainting me with my presumption in moving for, and your civility in granting, the Advowson of Speldhurst to one Mr. Draper, who is now incumbent there, and who, it seems, was there for three or four years before the death of the old incumbent, by virtue of a sequestration. " Sir, I had almost forgot upon what account I made thus bold with you ; but now have fully recollected. I understand the person is very able and honest, well approved of by most of the good Ministers thereabout; and much desired by the honest people who are in a Religious Association in those parts. 1 Wherefore I now most heartily own and thank you for your favor showed Mr. Draper for my sake; beseeching the continuance of your respects to the Gentleman, who shall be very much tied to pay you all service ; and so shall, in what lieth in his power, " Your affectionate friend to serve you, " OLIVER CROMWELL." ' And now to Parliament affairs again, to the catastrophe now nigh. On the whole, we have to say of this Little Parliament, that it sut for five months and odd days, very earnestly striving; earnestly, nobly, and by no means unwisely, as the ignorant 1 Ha* crossed oat " thereabout* ; " and written " in those parts," as prefer- able. 2 Additional Ayoeooch MSB. no. 12,098. Original, in good preservation ; with thin ttndomement in a newer hand . " The Generell Cromwell's letter about SpHderst living ;" and this Note ap|X'iided : " In an old Bible I had fruiu -nd with other Uooke, March, 1726." Some Transatlantic Puritan, to all ap|>aranre. 334 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 16 Nov. Histories teach. But the farther it advanced towards real Christianism in human affairs, the louder grew the shrieks of Sham-Christianism everywhere profitably lodged there ; and prudent persons, responsible for the issue, discovered that of a truth, for one reason or another, for reasons evident and for reasons not evident, there could be no success according to that method. We said, the History of this Little Parliament lay all buried very deep in the torpors of Human Stupidity, and was not likely ever to be brought into daylight in this world. In their five months' time they passed various good Acts ; chose, with good insight, a new Council of State ; took wise charge of the needful Supplies ; did all the routine business of a Par- liament in a quite unexceptionable, or even in a superior man- ner. Concerning their Council of State, I find this Note; which, though the Council had soon to alter itself, and take new figures, may be worth appending here. 1 Routine business done altogether well by this Little Parlia- ment. But, alas, they had decided on abolishing Tithes, on supporting a Christian Ministry by some other method than Tithes ; nay far worse, they had decided on abolishing the Court of Chancery ! Finding grievances greater than could be borne ; finding, for one thing, " Twenty -three thousand Causes of from five to thirty years' continuance " lying undetermined in Chancery, it seemed to the Little Parliament that some Court ought to be contrived which would actually determine these and the like Causes ; and that, on the whole, Chancery 1 Council'of State elected, Tuesday, 1st November, 1653 ( Commons Jour- HO/S, vii. 344). The Election is by ballot, 113 Members present; "Colonel Montague" (Sandwich), " Colonel Cromwell" (Henry), and "Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper," are three of the Four Scrutineers. Among the Names re- ported as chosen, here are some, with the Numbers voting for them : Lord General Cromwell (113, one and all) ; Sir Gilbert Pickering (Poet Dryden's Cousin and Patron, 1 10) ; Desborow (74) ; Harrison (58) ; Mayor (of Hurs- ley, 57) ; Colonel Montague (59) ; Ashley Cooper (60); Lord Viscount Lisle (Algernon Sidney's Brother, 58); Colonel Norton (idle Dick, recovered from the Pride's Purge again, but liable to relapse again, 57). The Council i.s of Thirty-one ; Sixteen of the Old or Interim Council (above referred to in Cromwell's Speech) are to continue ; Fifteen new : these mentioned here are all among the Old, whom the Lord General and his Officers had already nominated. 1653. LITTLE PARLIAMENT RESIGNS. 335 would be better for abolition. Vote to that effect stands reg- istered in the Commons Journals : * but still, for near two hun- dred years now, only expects fulfilment. So far as one can discover in the huge twilight of Dryasdust, it was mainly by this attack on the Lawyers, and attempt to abolish Chancery, that the Little Parliament perished. Tithes helped, no doubt; and the clamors of a safely settled Ministry, Presbyterian- Royalist many of them. But the Lawyers exclaimed : " Chan- cery ? Law of the Bible ? Do you mean to bring in the Mosaic Dispensation, then ; and deprive men of their proper- ties ? Deprive men of their properties ; and us of our learned wigs and lucrative long-windednesses, with your search for 'Simple Justice' and 'God's Law,' instead of Learned- Sergeant's Law ? " There was immense " carousing in the Temple " when this Parliament ended ; as great tremors had been in the like quarters while it continued. 8 But in brief, on Friday, the 2d of December, 1653, there came a "Report from the Tithes-Committee," recommending that Ministers of an incompetent, simoniacal, loose, or other- wise scandalous nature, plainly unfit to preach any Gospel to immortal creatures, should have a Travelling Commission ot chosen Puritan Persons appointed, to travel into all Counties, and straightway inspect them, and eject them, and clear Christ's Church of them : whereupon there ensued high debatings : Accept the Report, or Not accept it ? High debat- inga, for the space of ten days ; with Parliamentary manosu- vrings, not nr cessary to specify here. Which rose ever higher ; and on Saturday, the 10th, had got so high that, as I am credi- bly informed, certain leading persons went about colleaguing and consulting, instead of attending Public Worship on the Lord's-day : and so, on Monday morning early, while the extreme Gospel Party had not yet assembled in the House, it wa surreptitiously moved and carried, old Speaker Rouse somewhat treacherously assenting to it, " That the sitting of this Parliament any longer, as now constituted, will not be for 1 v. 296 ; 5th Augnut, 1653. * Exact Relation of tke Troniuirtions of the late Parliament, by a Member of the ftame (Louduu, 1654) rcpriuted iu Some it Tract*, vi. 266-284. 336 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 2 Dec. the good of the Commonwealth ; and that therefore it is requi- site to deliver up unto the Lord General Cromwell the Powers which we received from him ! " Whereupon, adds the same Rhadainanthiue Record, " the House rose ; and the Speaker, with many of the Members of the House, departed out of the 1 louse to Whitehall : where they, being the greater number of the Members sitting in Parliament, did, by a Writing," hastily redacted in the waiting-room there, and signed on separate bits of paper hastily wafered together, "resign unto his Excellency their said Powers. And Mr. Speaker, attended by the Members, did present the same unto his Excellency accordingly," and retired into private life again. 1 The Lord General Cromwell testified much emotion and sur- prise at this result ; emotion and surprise which Dryasdust knows well how to interpret. In fact, the Lord General is responsible to England and Heaven for this result; and it is one of some moment ! He and the established Council of State, "Council of Officers and" non-established "Persons of Interest in the Nation," must consider what they will now do! Clearly enough to them, and to us, there can only one thing be done : search be made, Whether there is any King, Kon- ning-, Canning, or Supremely Able-Man that you can fall in with, to take charge of these conflicting and colliding elements, drifting towards swift wreck otherwise ; any " Parish Con- stable," as Oliver himself defines it, to bid good men keep the peace to one another. To your unspeakable good-luck, such Supremely Able-Man, King, Constable, or by whatever name you will call him, is already found, known to all persons for years past: your Puritan Interest is not yet necessarily a wreck ; but may still float, and do what farther is in it, while he can float ! From Monday onwards, the excitement of the public mind in old London and whithersoever the news went, in those winter days, must have been great. The " Lord General 1 Commons Journals, vii. 363 ; Exact Relation, ubi supra ; Whitlocke, V. 551, &c. 1653. PROTECTOR. 337 called a Council of Officers and other Persons of Interest in the Nation," as we said ; and there was " much seeking of God by prayer," and abstruse advising of this matter, the matter being really great, and to some of us even awful ! The dia- logues, conferences and abstruse advisings are all lost; the result we know for certain. Monday was 12th of December ; on Friday, 16th, the result became manifest to all the world : That the ablest of Englishmen, Oliver Cromwell, was hence- forth to be recognized for Supremely Able ; and that the Title of him was to be LORD PROTECTOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND, with "Instrument of Government," "Council of Fifteen or of Twenty-one," and other necessary less important circumstances, of the like conceivable nature. The Instrument of Government, a carefully constitutional piece in Forty-two Articles ; the Ceremony of Installation, transacted with due simplicity and much modest dignity, " in the Chancery Court in Westminster Hall." that Friday after- noon ; the chair of state, the Judges in their robes, Lord Mayors with caps of maintenance ; the state-coaches, outriders, outrunners, and " great shoutings of the people ; " the proces- sion from and to Whitehall, and " Mr. Lockier the Chaplain's Exhortation " to us there : these, with the inevitable adjuncts of the case, shall be conceived by ingenious readers, or read in innumerable Pamphlets and Books, 1 and omitted here. " His Highness was in a rich but plain suit; black velvet, with cloak of the same : about his hat a broad band of gold." Does the reader see him? A rather likely figure, I think. Stands some five feet ten or more ; a man of strong solid stature, and dignified, now partly military carriage: the expression of him valor and devout intelligence, energy and delicacy on a basis of simplicity. Fifty-four years old, gone April last; ruddy-fair complexion, bronzed by toil and age; light- brown hair and moustache are getting streaked with gray. A liguri- of sulHririit impressiveness; not lovely to the man- milliner species, nor pretending to be so. Massive stature; 1 Whithx-ko, pp. r.V_-. r >fil , Newapapora (iu CrumweHiana, p. 131, in Par- i fli*t,>ry, xx.) ; &<:.&. TOI.. xvin. 22 338 PART VII. THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 16 Dec. big massive head, of somewhat leonine aspect, " evident work- shop and storehouse of a vast treasury of natural parts." Wart above the right eyebrow; nose of considerable blunt- aquiline proportions ; strict yet copious lips, full of all tremu- lous sensibilities, and also, if need were, of all fiercenesses and rigors ; deep loving eyes, call them grave, call them stern, looking from under those craggy brows, as if in lifelong sorrow, and yet not thinking it sorrow, thinking it only labor and endeavor : on the whole, a right noble lion-face and hero- face ; and to me royal enough. 1 The reader, in his mind, shall conceive this event and its figures. Conceived too, or read elsewhere than here, shall Dryasdust's multifarious unmelodious commentaries be, and likewise Anti-Dryasdust's ; the two together cancelling one another ; and amounting pretty well, by this time, to zero for us. "Love of power," as flunkies love it, remains the one credi- bility for Dryasdust ; and will forever remain. To the valet- soul how will you demonstrate that, in this world, there is or was anything heroic ? You cannot do it ; you need not try to do it. I cite with some reluctance from a Manuscript Author, often enough referred to here, the following detached sentences, and so close this Seventh Part. " Dryasdust knows not the value of a king," exclaims he ; " the bewildered mortal has forgotten it. Finding Kings'- cloaks so cheap, hung out on every hedge, and paltry as beg- gars' gabardines, he says, 'What use is in a King? This King's-cloak, if this be your King, is naught ! ' " Power ? Love of power ? Does ' power ' mean the faculty of giving places, of having newspaper paragraphs, of being waited on by sycophants ? To ride in gilt coaches, escorted by the flunkyisms and most sweet voices, I assure thee, it is not the Heaven of all, but only of many ! Some born Kings I myself have known, of stout natural limbs, who, in shoes of moderately good fit, found quiet walking handier ; and crowned themselves, almost too sufficiently, by putting on their own private hat, with some spoken or speechless, ' God 1 Maidston's Letter to Winthrop, in Thurloe, i. 763-768 ; Cooper's For- traits ; Mask of Cromwell's Face (in the Statuaries' Shops). 1653. PROTECTOR. 339 enable me to be King of what lies under this ! For Eterni- ties lie under it, and Infinitudes, and Heaven also and Hell. And it is as big as the Universe, this Kingdom ; and I am to conquer it, or be forever conquered by it, now while it is called To-day!' " The love of ' power,' if thou understand what to the man- i'ul heart ' power ' signifies, is a very noble and indispensable love. And here and there, in the outer world too, there is a due throne for the noble man ; which let him see well that he seize, and valiantly defend against all men and things. God gives it him ; let no Devil take it away. Thou also art called by the God's-message : This, if thou canst read the Heavenly omens and dare do them, this work is thine. Voice- less, or with no articulate voice, Occasion, god-sent, rushes storming on, amid the world's events ; swift, perilous ; like a whirlwind, like a fleet lightning-steed : manfully thou shalt clutch it by the inane, and vault into thy seat on it, and ride and guide there, thou ! Wreck and ignominious overthrow, if thou have dared when the Occasion was not thine : ever- lasting scorn to thee if thou dare not when it is; if the cackling of lioman geese and Constitutional ganders, if the clack of human tongues and leading-articles, if the steel of armies and the crack of Doom deter thee, when the voice was God's ! Yes, this too is in the law for a man, my poor quack- ridden, bewildered Constitutional friends ; and we ought to remember this withal. Thou shalt is written upon Life in 'haructers as terrible as Thou shalt not, though poor Dry- asdust reads almost nothing but the latter hitherto." And so we close Part Seventh ; and proceed to trace with ill piety, what faint authentic vestiges of Oliver's Protectorate the envious Stupidities have not obliterated for us. SUPPLEMENT TO PART VU. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. IN the old Parliamentary History, 1 and in other Books, is given, 14 compiled from the Chancery Records and Commons Journals," a List of the Long-Parliament Members, arranged according to their Counties and Boroughs ; which is very welcome to the historical in- quirer. But evidently, for every purpose of historical inquiry connected with this Period, there is needed farther, if not some well-investi- gated brief " Biographical Dictionary of the Long- Parliament Mem- bers," such as the pious historical student is free to imagine for himself, but will not soon get, at least and lowest, some Alphabetical List of their Names ; the ready index and memento of a great many things to us. As no such List was anywhere discoverable, I had to construct one for my own behoof ; a process by no means difficult in proportion to its usefulness, the facts being already all given in the extant List by Places, and only requiring to be rearranged for the new object of a List by Names. This latter List, after long doing duty in the man- uscript state, is now, for the use of others, appended here in print, there being accidentally a corner of room for it in this New Edition. It is not vitally connected with Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches ; yet neither is it quite without relation to the man. Here are the Names of some five or six hundred men, whom Oliver Crom- well sat in view of, and worked along with, through certain years of time in this world ; their Names and Localities, if we have nothing more. More is attainable concerning several of them, and is very well worth attaining ; but little more, to the general reader, is yet attained. Featureless, to the general reader ; little other than ticketed shadows, a strange sanhedrim of phantoms, most of these men ; not unlikely all of them to become shadows and invisible, except where kindled by some contact with this the luminous and living one 1 Here are their 1 London, 1763, ki. 13-&7. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 341 Names, at whatever worth the reader may put upon them : " ad- joined" to the Name of Oliver in this place, but capable of being disjoined again ; and perhaps worth printing, there being a corner of room for them. What is a more questionable point, this List I am aware is not quite free from errors ; one or two of which it has even fallen in my own way not only to surmise, but to prosecute to their source, and correct. Numerous I do not suppose them to be, nor important : but I cannot certify that there are none ; nor help farther in removing what there may be. The List itself, once printed, offers to all studious persons the opportunity to help ; which certainly it would be a beneficence of its sort if some strict antiquary, or series of antiquaries, would effect- ually do. The constituent elements of the " most remarkable Parlia- ment that ever sat," which indeed is definable as the Father of Parliaments, which first rendered Parliaments supreme, and has since set the whole world upon chase of Parliaments, a notable speculation very lively in most parts of Europe at this day, deserve at least to have their names accurately given. They deserve, and perhaps they will one day get, much more ; they deserve a History, constitutional, biographical, political, practical, picturesque, better than most Enti- ties that yet have one among us ; and, in all points of view, they will be found not imaginary but real, and well worth remembering and attending to. Meanwhile, in the absence of all History, constitutional or other, of the Long Parliament, let this imperfect foreshadow of the incipiency of one be welcome. The asterisk *, prefixed to a Member's name, denotes that he was a " Recruiter " (see Letters a*;ini[)lield, Sir John, Baronet .... Penryn. Barker, Anthony, Esq. (void) .... WaUingford. Barker, John, Esq., Alderman .... Coventry. Barnardiston, Sir Nathaniel, Knight . . Suffolk. Barnardiston, Sir Thomas, Knight . . Bury St. Edmunds. Barnttain, Sir Francis, Knight (dead '46) Maidslone. * Harrington, Sir John, Baronet (King's judge) Newton, Hants. Barrington, Sir Thomas, Baronet (dead '44) Colchester. Barrow, Morris, Esq Eye, Suffolk. Barwis, Richard, Esq. (died) .... Carlisle. Basset, William, Esq. (disab. '11) . . Bath. Bayntou, Sir Edward, Knight (King's judge) Chippenham. Bay 1 1 ton, Sir Edward, Knight .... Devizes. Bedingfield, Sir Anthony, Knight . . Dunwich. Bell, William, E.sq Westminster Bellasis, Henry, Esq. (disab. '42, York- shire petition) Yorkshire. Bellasis, John, Esq. (disab. '42, York- shire petition ; made Ix>rd '44) . . . Thirsk. Bellinghatn, Sir Henry, Bart, (disab. '45) Westmoreland. Bellinghatn, James, Esq Westmoreland. BiMnv, Squire, Esq Aldborough, Suffolk. Bonce, Alexander, Esq. (succeeded Rainsborough) Altlburnngh, Suffolk. I'.fiidlowes, Sir Robert, Knight . . . Lancaster. met, Thomas, Esq. (dead '44) . . Hindon, WUt*. Benson, Henry, Esq. (expelled '41, for .vlling protections) Knarexhorougk. !' ;keley, Sir Henry, Knight (void) . . Ilchester. Hiildiilph, Michael, Kq Lichjleld. Biughaui, John, Eq Sltaflcsbury. 344 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Birch, John, Esq. (the Colonel; Walk- er's Sufferings of the Clergy, part ii. p. 34) Leominster. *Birch, Thomas, Esq. (from Oct. '49) . Liverpool. Bishop, Sir Edward, Knight (void) . . Bramber. *Blackiston, John, Esq. (regicide) . . Newcastle-on-Tyne. *Blagrave, Daniel, Esq. (regicide) . . Reading. * Blake, Robert, Esq. (the Admiral) . . Taunton. Blud worth, Sir Thomas, Knight (disab.) Reigate. Bodville, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Anglesea. Bond, Dennis, Esq. (King's judge) . . Dorchester. *Bond, John, LL.D Melcomb Regis. *Boone, Thomas, Esq. (King's judge) . Clifton, Dartmouth, Hard- ness (Devonshire, united) *Booth, George, Esq. (May, '46) . . . Cheshire. *Booth, John, Esq Portsmouth. *Borde, Herbert, Esq. (died) .... Steyning. Borlace, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Corfe Castle. Borlace, John, Esq. (void) Marlow. *Bo,scawen, Hugh, Esq Cornwall. *Bosville, Godfrey, Esq. (King's judge) Warwick. *Boughtoii, Thomas, Esq Warwickshire. *Bourchier, Sir John, Knight (regicide) Ripon. Bowyer, Sir Thomas, Baronet (disab. '42, for Chichester garrison) . . . Bramber. Bowyer, Sir William (died '40) . . . Staffordshire. *Bowyer, John, Esq Staffordshire. Boyle, Richard, Viscount Dungarvon (e. s. of E. of Cork, whom he suc- ceeded in '43 ; disab. '43) .... Appleby. *Boynton, Sir Matthew, Baronet (dead '47) Scarborough. Boys, Sir Edward, Knight (dead '46) . Dover. *Boys, John, Esq Kent. Brereton, Sir William, Bart. (King's judge) Cheshire. Brett, Henry, Esq. (disab.) .... Gloucester. *Brewster, Robert, Esq Dunwich. Bridgeman, Orlando, Esq. (Lawyer, see D'Etves, 118 ; disab. for assisting Lord Strange '42) Wigan. *Briggs, Sir Humphrey, Knight . . . Great Wenlock. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 345 Brooke, Sir John, Knight (disab. '43, for raising money in Lincolnshire) . Appleby. *Brooke, Peter, Esq Newton, Lancashire. Brown, Sir Ambrose, Baronet .... Surrey. *Brown, Richard, Esq Bomney. *Brown, Major- General Richard (disab. '49) Wycombe. Brown, Samuel, Esq Clifton, Dartmouth, Hard- ness (united). *Browue, John, Esq. (King's judge) . Dorsetshire. Broxholme, John, Esq. (dead '47) . . Lincoln. Buckhurst, Lord Richard (e. a', of E. of Dorset, disab. '44) (Steyning, Sussex, but pre- fers) East Grinstead. Bulkeley, John, Esq Newton, Hants. Buller, Francis, Esq East Looe. Buller, George, Esq. (died) .... Saltash. Buller, Sir Richard, Knight (dead '46) . Fowey. *Burgoyne, Sir John, Baronet .... Warwickshire. Burgoyne, Sir Roger, Baronet . . . Bedfordshire. Burrel, Abraham, Esq. (King's judge) . Huntingdon. Button, John, Esq Lymington. Byshe, Edward, junior, Esq Bletchingley. Cage, William, Esq. (dead *44) . . . Ipswich. Campbell, James, Esq Qrampound. Campion, Henry, Esq Lymington. Capel, Arthur, Esq. (created Lord '41) . Hertfordshire. Carew, Sir Alexander (treachery of Plymouth; beheaded '44) .... Cornwall. Carew, John, Esq. (regicide) .... Tregony, Cornwall. Carew, William, Esq Milborn Port. ('iirnaby, Sir William, Knight (disab. '42) Morpeth. Catalyn, Richard, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Norwich. Cave, Sir Richard, Knight (disab. '42) . Lichfield. Cawley, William, Esq. (regicide) . . Midhurst, Sussex. CVril, Robert, Esq. (2d B. of E. of Salis- bury) Old Sarum. (Vive, Thomas, Esq Bridjwrt, Dorsetshire. ri.;i.lw.-ll, William, Esq. (disab. '11) . St. Michael*, Cornwall. rii.illoner, James, E.s<[ (Kind's judge) Aldborow/h , Yorkshire. , Thomas, JVM j. ( re^icidu) . . Richmond, Yorkshire. 340 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. *Charlton, Robert, Esq Bndgnorth. Chaworth, Dr. (not duly) Mid hurst, Sussex. Cheeke, Sir Thomas, Knight .... (Becralslon, Devon, but pre- ferred) Harwich. *Chettle, Francis, Esq Corfe Castle. Cheyne, William, Esq. (died) .... Amersham. Chichely, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '42) . Cambridgeshire. Cholmley, Sir Hugh (disab. '43) . . . Scarborough. *Cholmley, Thomas, Esq Carlisle. Chomley, Sir Henry, Knight .... Northallerton. *Clark, Samuel, Esq Exeter. *Clement, Gregory, Esq. (regicide; disab. '52) Camclford. Clifton, Sir Gervase, Baronet (disab.) . East Retford. Clinton, Lord Edward (e. s. of E. of Lincoln) St. Michaels, Cornwall. *Clive, Robert, Esq Bridgnorlh. Clotworthy, Sir John, Knight (disab., one of the 11) (Bossiney, Cornwall, but prefers) Maiden, > wa;. Coke, Henry, Esq. (disab. '42) . . . Dunwich. Coke, Sir John, Knight Derbyshire. Colepepper, Sir John, Knight (disab. '44; made Lord 21 Oct. '44) . . . . Kent. Combe, Edward, Esq. (void) .... Warwickshire. Compton, Lord James (e. s. of E. of Northampton; disab.) Warwickshire. Coningsby, Fitzwilliam, Esq. (disab. '41, monopolist) Herefordshire. *Coniugsby, Humphrey, Esq. (disab. '46) Herefordshire. *Constable, Sir William, Baronet (regi- cide; instead of Benson the jobber, and in preference to Deerlove, '42) . Knaresborough. Constantino, William, Esq. (disab. '43) . Poole. Uook, Sir Robert, Knight (died) . . . Tewkesbury. Cook, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Leicester. *Copley, Lionel, Esq. (disab. with the 11) Bossiney. *Corbet, John, Esq. (King's judge) . . Bishop's Castle, Salop. *Corbet, Sir John, Baronet Shropshire. Corbet, Miles, Esq. (regicide) .... Yarmouth. LIST OP THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 347 Cornwallis, Sir Frederick, Baronet (dis- ab '42, for sending officers from Hol- land) Eye, Suffolk. Coryton, William, Esq. (not duly) . . Launccston, alias DuncheviL Coventry, John, Esq. (2d s. of late Lord Keeper, disab. '42) Evesham. Cowcher, John, Esq Worcester. Cradock, Matthew, Esq. (died '40) . . London. Cranbourne, Viscount Charles (e. s. of K. of Salisbury) Hertford. Crane, Sir Robert, Baronet (dead '44) . Sudbury. Craven, John, Esq. (void; made Baron Craven 21 March, '43) Tewkesbury. Creswell, Sergeant Richard Evesham. Crew, John, Esq Brackley. Crispe, Sir Nicholas, Knight (expelled '41, for monopoly in copperas) . . . Winchelsea. *Crompton, Thomas, Esq Staffordshire. Cromwell, Oliver, Esq Cambridge. *Cromwell, Richard, Esq Portsmouth. Crooke, Sir Roliert, Knight (disab. '43) Wendover, Bucks- Crowther, William, Esq Weobly. *Crynes, Elizeus, Esq Tavistock. Curwen, Sir Patricius, Baronet (disab. '44) Cumberland. Curzon, Sir John, Baronet Derbyshire. *Dacres, Sir Thomas, Knight (instead of Capel) Hertfordshire. Dacres, Thomas, Esq Kellington. Dalstnn, Sir George, Knight (disab '44) Cumlterland. I Ulsiou, Sir William, Baronet (disab. '44) Carlisle. Dauby, Sir Tlmmas, Knight (disab. '42, Yorkshire petition) Richmond, Yorkshire. Danvers, Sir John, Knight (E. Danby's brother; regicide) Malmsbury. Darlcy, Henry. K\ Malton. Daili-v. Kirhai.l, KM). (Kin s judge) . Northallcrton. h.i\i. . Mrii'i. "A. IVMJ. (.lisali. '!:'.) . . Christchurch, Hants. Davies, William, Ksq Carmarthen. Deerinp, Sir Edward, Barouet (disab. '42, for printing his speechea) Kent. Decrlove, William, Esq. (void) . . . Knaresborough. 348 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Denton, Sir Alexander, Knight (disab. '44) Buckingham. *Devereux, George, Esq Montgomery. D'Ewes, Sir Simond, Baronet .... Sudbury. Digby, Lord George (e. s. of E. of Bris- tol; till 10 June, '41, writ to House of Peers) (Milborn Port, but preferred) Dorsetshire. Digby, John, Esq. (disab. '42). . . . Milborn Port. Dives, Sir Lewis, Knight (disab.) . . Bridport. *Dixwell, John, Esq. (regicide) . . . Dover. *Dobins, Daniel, Esq Bewdley. *Dodderidge, John, Esq Barnstaple. *Dormer, John, Esq. (in '46) .... Buckingham. *Dove, John, P^sq. (King's judge) . . Salisbury. *Downes, John, Esq. (regicide) . . . Arundel. *Dowse, Edward, Esq. (dead '48) . . Portsmouth. *Doyley, John, Esq Oxford. Drake, Sir William, Knight .... Amersham, Bucks. *Drake, Francis, Esq Amersham. *Drake, Sir Francis, Baronet .... Beerahton. Dryden, Sir John, Baronet Northamptonshire. Dunch, Edmund, Esq Wallingford. Dutton, John, Esq. (disab.) .... Gloucestershire. *Earle, Erasmus, Esq Nonoich. Earle, Thomas, Esq Wareham, Dorset. Earle, Sir Walter, Knight Weymouth. Eden, Thomas, LL.D. (dead in '44). . Cambridge University, Edgcombe, Piers, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Camelford. Edgecumbe, Richard, Esq. (disab.) . . Newport, Cornwall. *Edwards, Humphrey, Esq. (regicide) . Shropshire. *Ed wards, Richard, Esq. (Nov. '50). . Bedford. *Edwards, Richard, Esq Christchurch, Hants. *Edwards, William, Esq Chester. *Egerton, Sir Charles, Knight .... Ripon. *Elford, John, Esq Tlverton. Ellis, William, Esq Boston. *Ellison, Robert, Esq Newcastle-on-Tyne. Erisy, Richard, Esq St. Mawes, Cornwall. Eure, Sergeant Samuel (disab. '44) . . Leominster. Evelyn, George, Esq Reigate. Evelyn, Sir John, Knight Bletchingley , Surrey LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 349 Evelyn, Sir John, Knight Luilgershall, Wilts. Eversfield, Sir Thomas, Knight (disab. '44) Hastings. Exton, Edward, Esq Southampton. Fagg, John, Esq. (King's judge) . . Rye. Fairfax, Lord Ferdiuaudo (died '47) . Yorkshire. Fairfax, Sir Thomas, Knight (from 7 Feb. '49) Cirencester. Falkland, Lord (disab. '42, killed at Newbery, Sept. '43) Newport, Wight. Fanshaw, Sir Thomas, K.B. (disab. '43) Hertford. Fanshaw, Sir Thomas, Knight (disab. '42) Lancaster. *Fell, Thomas, Esq. (after Fanshaw) . Lancaster. Fenwick, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Morpeth. *Fenwick, George, Esq. (King's judge) Morpeth. Fenwick, Sir John, Knight (disab. '44) ( Cockermo uth, but pre- ferred) Northumberland. *Fenwick, William, Esq Northumberland. Femfold, Sir Thomas (dead '45) . . . Steyning. Ferrers, Richard, Esq. (disab.) . . . Barnstaple. Fettiplacc, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Berkshire. Fielder, John, Esq St. Ives, Cornwall. Fiennes, Hon. James (e. s. of "Old Subtlety," Say and Scale) .... Oxfordshire. *Fiennes, Hon. John (3d s. of Sub- tlety) Morpeth. Fiennes, Hon. Nathaniel (2d s. of Sub- tlety) Banbury. Finch, Sir John, Knight (dead '44) . . Winchchea. Fitxwilliiim, Hon. William (e. s. of Lord Vise. Fitzwilliam; till Jan. '44) . . Peterborough. Flootwood, Charles, Esq Marlborough. Fleetwood, George, Esq. (regicide; suc- ceeded Goodwin, '15) Buckinghamshire. Fleetwrxxl, Sir Miles, Knight (died) . . Ilindon, Wilts. Fountaine, Thomas, Esq. (in place of H:ini|lt'n; dead *4tf) Wentlnvrr. *Fowel, Edmund, Esq Tavinlock. Fo\\cl, Sir Edmund, Knight .... AsMmrton. FoxwUt, Williitiu, Eaq Carnarvon. 350 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Franklyn, John, Esq. (dead '45) . . . Marlborougk. Franklyn, Sir John, Knight (dead in '48) Middlesex. *Frye, John, Esq. (King's judge; against the Trinity; disab. '51) , . Shaftesbury. Gallop, George, Esq Southampton. Gamul, Francis, Esq. (disab. '44 ; see Rushworth, iv. 3) Chester. *Gardiner, Samuel, Esq Evesham. *Garland, Augustin, Esq. (regicide) . . Queenborough. Garton, Henry, Esq. (dead '41) . . . Arundel. Gawdy, Framlingham, Esq Thetford. *Gawen, Thomas, Esq Launceston, alias Dunchevit *Gell, Thomas, Esq Derby. George, John, Esq. (disab.) .... Cirencester. Gerrard, Francis, Esq Seaford {Cinque Ports). Gerrard, Sir Gilbert, Baronet .... Middlesex. Glauville, Sergeant John (instead of Humphrey Hooke, monopolist) . . Bristol Glanville, William, Esq. (disab. '44) . Camelford. Glynn, John, Esq. (Recorder; disab., one of the 11) Westminster. Godolphin, Francis, Esq. (disab.) . . St. Ives, Cornwall. Godolphin, Francis, Esq. (disab. '44) . Helston, Cornwall. Godolphin, Sidney, Esq. (killed at Salt- ash '42) Helston. *Gold, Nicholas, Esq. (died) .... Fowey. Goodwin, Arthur, Esq. (died, May '45) Buckinghainshire. Goodwin, Ralph, Esq. (disab. '44 ; Secretary to Rupert) Ludlow. Goodwin, Robert, Esq East Grinstead. Goodwyn, John, Esq Haslemere, Surrey. Gorges, Sir Theobald, Knight (disab. '44) Cirencesler. Goring, Colonel George (disab. '42, for surrendering Portsmouth) .... Portsmouth. *Got, Samuel, Esq Winchelsea. *Gourdon, Brampton, jun., Esq. . . Sudbury. Gourdon, John, Esq. (King's judge) . Ipswich. Grantham, Thomas, Esq Lincoln. *Gratvvick, Roger, Esq. (King's judge) Hastings. *Green, Giles, Esq Corfe Castle. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 351 Greenville, Sir Bevil (disab. '42; killed at Lansdo'.vn, July, '43) .... Cornwall. Grey, Henry de (commonly called Lord Ruthen ; House of Peers, on father E. Kent's death, in '43) Leicestershire. Grey, Lord Thomas, of Groby (e. s. of E. of Stamford; regicide) .... Leicester. Griffith, Sir Edward, Knight (disab. '44) Downton, Wilts. Griffith, John, sen., Esq. (died '42) . . Beaumaris. (iriiiith, John, jun., Esq. (disab. '42) . Carnarvonshire. Grimston, Harbottle, Esq. (afterwards Sir) Colchester. Grimston, Sir Harbottle, Baronet (dead '47) Harwich. *Grove, Thomas, Esq Milborn Port. Hales, Sir Edward, Baronet (disab.) . Queenborough , Kent. Hallows, Nathaniel, Esq. (Alderman) . Derby. llainpden, John, Esq. (slain June, '43) ( Wendover, but preferred) Buckinghamshire. Harding, Sir Richard, Knight (disab. '44) Bedtoin, Wilts. Harley, Edward, Esq. (till '47; one of the 11) Herefordshire. Harley, Sir Robert, K.B Herefordshire. Harley, Robert, Esq Radnor. Harman, Richard, Esq. (dead '46) . . Norwich. Harrington, Sir James, Knight (King's judge) Rutlandshire. Harrington, John, Esq. (void) . . . Somersetshire. 1 Harris, John, Esq Launceston, alias Dunchevit. Harris, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Lixkeard. Harrison, Sir John, Knight (disab. '43) Lancaster. Harrison, Thomas, Esq. (Major-Gen- eral, regicide) Wendover. Harrison, William, Esq. (disab. '43) . Queenborough Hartnoll, George, Esq. (disab.) . . . Tiverton. Harvey, Edmund, Esq. (instead of Smith; King's judge) Bedwin, Wilts. Harvey, Edward, Esq Higham Ferrers. Harvey, John, Ksq. (dead '45) . . Hythe. 1 Sat afterward* for Ca.itle Carey, as appears ; and took come dim meagre ffottt, which are still hi existence among tin- I'.iit. Mtis. MSS. 352 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Haselrig, Sir Arthur, Baronet (King's iudere) . .... Leicestershire. J Ox Hatcher, Thomas, Esq Stamford. Hatton, Sir Christopher (disab. '42, ar- ray ; made Baron '43) (Castle Rising, but preferred) Higham Ferrers. Hatton, Sir Robert (in place of Sir Christopher ; disab. '42) Castle Rising. *Hay, Herbert, Esq Arundel. *Hay, William, Esq Rye. Hayman, Sir Henry, Baronet .... Hythe. Hayman, Sir Peter, Knight (dead '41) . Dover. Heblethwaite, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '44) Malton. *Hele, Sir Thomas (disab.) .... Plimpton, Devon. Herbert, Edward, Esq. (till Jan. '41, made Attorney-General) Old Sarum. Herbert, Sir Henry, Knight (disab. '42, array) Bewdley. *Herbert, Henry, Esq Monmouthshire * Herbert, John, Esq Monmouthshire' *Herbert, Hon. James (2d s. of E. of Pembroke) Wiltshire. Herbert, Lord Phil. (e. s. of E. of Pem- broke) Glamorganshire. Herbert, Richard, Esq. (disab. '42, ar- ray) Montgomery. Herbert, William, Esq. (disab., killed atEdgehill) Cardiff. Herbert, William, Esq. (disab. '44) . . ( Woodstock, but preferred) Monmouthshire. Heveningham, William, Esq. (King's judge) Stockbridge, Hants. *Hill, Roger, Esq. (King's judge) . . Bridport. Hippesley, Gabriel, Esq. (void) . . . Marlow. Hippesley, Sir John, Knight .... Cockermoutk. *Hobart, Sir John, Baronet (dead '47) Norfolk. Hobby, Peregrine, Esq. (in place of Borlace) Marlow. *Hodges, Luke, Esq. (died) .... Bristol. Hodges, Thomas, Esq Cricklade. *Hodgps, Thomas, Esq Ilchester. Holboru, Robert, Esq. (disab '42) . . St. Michaels. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 353 *Holcrofte, John, Esq Wigan. Holland, Cornelius, Esq. (King's judge; in place of Roe) New Windsor. Holland, Sir John, Baronet .... Castle Rising, Norfolk. Holies, Denzil, Esq. (till '47; one of the 11) Dorchester. Holies, Francis, Esq Lostwilhiel. Holies, Gervase, Esq. (disab. '42) . . Great Grimsby. Hooke, Humphrey, Esq. (monopolist, not duly: Evans's Bristol, p. 181) . . . Bristol. Hopton, Sir Ralph, K.B. (disab. '42) . Wells. Homer, George, Esq. (void; Harring- ton's partner) Somersetshire. Hoskins, Bennet, Esq Hereford. Hotham, John, Esq. (beheaded 1 Jan. '44) Scarborough. Hotham, Sir John, Baronet (beheaded 2 Jan. '44) Beoerley. Houghton, Sir Richard, Baronet (from '45) Lancashire. Howard, Lord Edward, of Escrick (in '49; disab. '51) Carlisle. Howard, Sir Robert, K.B. (disab. '42) . Bishop's Castle, Salop. Howard, Thomas, Esq. (in place of Barker; disab. '44; D'Ewcs, 219) . Wallingford Hoyle, Thomas, Esq. (Alderman) . . York. Hudson, Edmund, Esq. (disab. '47) . Lynn. Hiin^erford, Anthony, Esq. (disab.) . Malmsbury. Hungerford, Sir Edward, K.B. . . . Chippenham. Hungorford, Henry, Esq Bedwin, WUt*. Hunt, Robert, Esq. (void, but re-elected; disab. '44) Ilchester. Hunt, Thomas, Esq Shrewsbury. Hussey, Thomas, Esq. (after Jervoise li.-d) Whilchurch, Hants. Hutchinson, John, Esq. (the Colonel; regicide) Nottinghamshire. Hutchinson, Sir Thomas, Knight (dead '44) Nottinghamshire. Hyde, Edward, Esq. (Clarendon; disab. 42) Saltaxh. ', Sergeant Robort (disab. '42) . . Salisbury. VOL. xviii. 23 354 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. *Ingoldsby, Richard, Esq. (the signer) . Wendover. Ingram, Sir Arthur, Knight (died) . . Kellingtom* Ingram, Sir Thomas, Knight (disab. '42, for Yorkshire petition) .... Thirsk. Irby, Sir Anthony, Knight Boston. *Ireton, Henry, Esq Appleby. Jacob, Sir John, Knight (expelled '41, monopolist of tobacco) Rye. Jane, Joseph, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Liskeard. Jenner, Robert, Esq Cricklade. Jennings, Sir John, Knight (died '42) . St. Albans. *Jenniugs, Richard, Esq. (succeeds Sir John) St. Albans. Jephson, William, Esq Stockbridge, Hants. Jermyn, Henry, Esq. (disab. '43; Lord Jermyn) Bury St. Edmunds. Jermyn, Sir Thomas, Knight (disab. '44) Bury St. Edmunds. Jervoise, Richard, Esq. (dead '45) . . Whit church, Hants. Jervoise, Sir Thomas, Knight .... Whitchurch. Hants* Jesson, William, Esq. (Alderman) . . Coventry. Jones, Arthur, Lord Ranelagh (disab.) Weobly. *Jones, John, Esq. (regicide) .... Merionethshire. *Jones, Colonel Philip (in Feb. '50) . Brecknockshire. Jones, William, Esq Beaumaris. *Kekewich, George, Esq Liskeard. *Kemp, John, Esq Christchurch, Hants. Killegrew, Henry, Esq. (disab. '44) . West Looe. King, Richard, Esq. (disab. '43) . . . Melcomb Regis. Kirkby, Roger, Esq. (disab. '42) . . Lancashire. *Kirkham, Roger, Esq. (dead '46) . . Old Sarum. Kirle, Walter, Esq Leominster. Kirton, Edward, Esq. (disab. '42) . . Milborn Port. *Knatchbull, Sir Norton, Baronet . . Romney. Knightley, Richard, Esq Northampton. Knowles, Sir Francis, sen., Knight . . (died '48) Reading. Knowles, Sir Francis, Jan., Knight (died '45) Reading. Lane, Thomas, Esq Wy combe. *Langton, William, Esq Preston. *Lascelles, Francis, Esq. (King's judge) Thirsk. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 355 *Lawrence. Henry, Esq Westmoreland. Lechuiere, Nicholas, Esq Droitwich. Lee, Richard, Esq Rochester. Lee, Sir Richard, Baronet (disab. '42) . Shropshire. Leech, Nicholas, Esq. (dead '47) . . Newport, Cornwall. Leeds, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '42) . . Steyning. Ixjgh, Peter, Esq. (dead '41) .... Newton, Lancashire. Legrose, Sir Charles, Knight .... Orford, Suffolk. Leigh, Edward, Esq Stafford. Leigh, Sir John, Knight Yarmouth, Wight. *Leman, William, Esq Hertford. Lenthall, John, Esq. (King's judge) . Gloucester. Lenthall, William, Esq. (Speaker) . . Woodstock. Leveson, Sir Richard, K.B. (disab. '42) Newcastle-under-Line. Lewis, Ludovicos, Esq Brecon. Lewis, Sir William, Baronet (disab., one of the 11, in '47) Petersfield. Lewkenor, Christopher, Esq. (disab. '42) Chichester. Lisle, Johu, Esq. (King's judge) . . . Winchester. Lisle, Lord Philip (e. s. of Robert E. of Leicester; King's judge). . . . (St. Iocs, Cornwall, but pre- ferred) Yarmouth, Wight. Lister, Sir John, Knight (died) . . . Hull. Lister, Thomas, Esq. (King's judge) . Lincoln. Lister, Sir William, Knight .... East Retford. Littleton, Sir Edward, Baronet (disab. '44) Staffordshire. Littleton, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '44) . Great Wenlock. Litton, Sir William, Knight .... Hertfordshire. Livesey, Sir Michael, Baronet (regi- cide) Queenborougk. Lloyd, Francis, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Carmarthen. Lloyd, John, Esq Carmarthenshire. I.Iuy.l. Walter, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Cardiganshire. *I,ong, Lislebone, Esq Wells. Long, Richard, Esq. (monopolist, not duly) Bristol. Long, Walter, Esq. (instead of Ash- bumham; one of the 11, in '47) . . Ludgcrshall, Wilts. Love, Nicholas, r'.^\. (King's judge) . Winchester. Lowe, George;, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Calne. Lower, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '44) . . East Looe. 356 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Lowry, John, Esq. (King's judge; see Harris, Appendix) Cambridge. Lucas, Henry, Esq Cambridge University. *Luckyn, Capel, Esq Harwich. *Lucy, Sir Richard, Baronet . ... Old Sarum. Lucy, Sir Thomas, Knight (died '40) . Warwick. *Ludlow, Edmund, Esq Hindon, Wills. Ludlow, Sir Henry, Knight (dead '44) . Wiltshire. *Ludlow, Lieut- General Edmund (regi- cide) Wiltshire. Luke, Sir Oliver, Knight Bedfordshire. Luke, Sir Samuel, Knight (died) . . Bedford. Lumley, Sir Martin, Baronet .... Essex. Lutterel, Alexander, Esq. (dead '44) . Minehead. Lyster, Sir Martin, Knight .... Brackley, Northamptonshu*. *Mackworth, Thomas, Esq Ludlow. Mallory, Sir John, Knight (disab. '43) Ripon. Mallory, William, Esq. (disab. '42, York- shire petition) Ripon. Manaton, Ambrose, Esq. (disab. '44) . Launceston, alias Dunchevit. Mansfield, Charles Viscount (e. s. of E. of Newcastle, disab. '44) .... East Retford. Marlot, William, Esq. (dead '46) . . Shoreham. Marten, Henry, Esq. (regicide) . . . Berkshire. *Martin, Christopher, Esq Plimpton. *Martin, Sir Nicholas, Knight . . . Devonshire. *Masham, Sir William, Baronet (King's judge) Essex. *Masham, William, Esq Shrewsbury. *Massey, Edward, Esq. (the soldier; disab., one of the 11) Wootton Basset. Masters, Sir Edward, Knight (dead '48) Canterbury. *Matthews, Roger, Esq. (disab. '44) Clifton, Dartmouth, Hard- ness (united). Mauleverer, Sir Thomas, Baronet (regi- cide) Boroughbridge. May, Thomas, Esq. (not May historian ; disab. '42) Midhurst. *Maynard, Sir John, K.B. (disab., one of the 11) Ltjstwithiel. Maynard, John, Esq. (refusing Newport, Cornwall, whereupon Prynne) . . . Totnese. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 357 *Mayne, Simon, Esq. (regicide) . . . Aylesbury. Melton, Sir John (died '40) .... Newcastle-on-Tyne. Murrick, Sir John, Knight Newcastle-under-Line. MI-IIX, Sir John, Knight (disab. '44) . Newton, Hants. Middleton, Sir Thomas, Knight . . . Denbighshire. *Middleton, Thomas, Esq Flint. Mil MlrUm, Thomas, Esq Horsham. Mildmay, Sir Henry, Knight (King's judge) Maiden. Millington, Gilbert, Esq. (regicide ; D'Euxs, 211, 13 Dec. '41) .... Nottingham. Monson, William, Viscount Mouson in Ireland (King's judge) Reigale. Montague, Sir Sidney, Knight (disab. '42) Huntingdonshire. Montague, Edward, Esq. (Colonel, E. of Sandwich ; after his father Sir Sidney) Huntingdonshire. Montague, Edward, Esq. (succeeds Lord M. of Boughton, in '44; till then) 1 . Huntingdon. Moody, Miles, Esq. (dead '46) . . . Ripon. Moor, Richard, Esq. (dead '44) . . . Bishop's Castle. Moor, Thomas, Esq Heytesbury. Moor, Thomas, Esq Ludlow. Moore, John, Esq. (regicide) .... Liverpool. More, Sir Poynings, Baronet (dead '49) Haslemere. Morgan, William, Esq. (dead '49) . . Brecknockshire. Morley, Herbert, Esq. (King's judge) . Lewes. Morley, Sir William, Knight (disab. '42, for garrison there) Chichester. Mostyn, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Flintshire. Mountford, Sir Edward, Knight (dead Ml) Norfolk. Moyle, John, Esq East Loot. Moyle, John, jun., Esq. (dead '46) . . St. Germaint. Musgrave, Sir Philip, Baronet (disab. '43, array) Westmoreland. Napier, Sir Gerard, Knight (disab. '44) . Melcomb Regis. r, Sir Robert, Baronet .... Peterborough. Nabh, John, Ksq Worcester. 1 A "George Montague " is aUu indisputably a member (Common* Journal*, iv. 10), I kuow nut fur what place. 358 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. *Needham, Sir Robert, Knight . . . Haverford West. *Nelthorp, James, Esq. (King's judge) . Beverlcy. *Nelthorp, John, Esq Beverley. *Nevil, , Esq. (from '49) .... East Retford. Neville, Henry, Esq. (from '50) . . Berkshire. Newport, Francis, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Shrewsbury. Newport, Sir Richard, Knight (disab.; made Lord '42) Shropshire. Nicholas, Edward, Esq. (Secretary after Falkland; disab.) Newton, Hants. Nichols, Anthony, Esq. (disab., one of the 11) Bodmin. Nichols, Sergeant Robert (King's judge) Devizes. *Nixon, John, Esq. (Alderman) . . . Oxford. Noble, Michael, Esq Lichfield. Noel, Hon. Baptist (e. s. of Viscount Carnden; disab.) Rutlandshire. North, Sir Dudley, Baronet .... Cambridgeshire. North, Sir Roger, Knight (disab. ?) . . Eye, Suffolk. Northcote, Sir John, Baronet .... Ashburlon. *Norton, Sir Gregory, Baronet (regicide) Midhurst. *Norton, Richard, Esq. (Colonel) . . Hampshire. Nutt, John, Esq. (King's judge) . . . Canterbury. Ogle, Sir William, Knight (disab.'43) . Winchester. Oldsworth, Michael, Esq (Plimpton, Devon, buf. pre- ferred) Salisbury. Onslow, Arthur, Esq. (void, but re- elected) Bramber. Onslow, Sir Richard, Knight .... Surrey. Osborne, Sir Edward, Knight (void) . Berwick. *Owen, Arthur, Esq Pembrokeshire. Owen, Sir Hugh, Knight Pembroke. Owfield, Sir Samuel, Knight (dead '44) Gallon. *Owfield, William, Esq Gallon. Owner, Edward, Esq Yarmouth. *Oxenden, Henry, Esq Winchelsea. *Packer, Robert, Esq. ...... Wallingford. Packington, Sir John, Baronet (disab. '42; array) Aylesbury. *Palgrave, Sir John, Baronet .... Norfolk. Palmer, Geoffrey, Esq. (disab. '42) . . Stamford. *Palmer, John. M.D Bridgwater. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 359 *Palmer, Sir Roger, Knight (succeeded Legh in '42; di.sab. '44) Newton, Lancashire. Palmes, Sir Guy, Knight (disab. '43) . Rutlandshire. Parker, Sir Philip, Knight Suffolk. Parker, Sir Thomas, Knight .... Seaford {Cinque Portt). Parkhurst, Sir Robert, Knight (died) . Guildford. Parry, George, LL.D. (disab. '44) . . St. Mawes. I'mteriche, Sir Edward, Baronet . . . Sandwich. Pun let, Sir John, Knight (disab. '42) . Somersetshire iVurd, George, Esq. (died) , . . . Barnstaple. *Peck, Henry, Esq Chichesler. Pel ham, Henry, Esq. (speaker in tu- mults of 11) (? rani ham. Pelham, John, Esq Hastings. *Pelham, Peregrine, Esq. (regicide; Heath, p. 364) HuU. Pelham, Sir Thomas, Baronet .... Sussex. *Pembroke, Philip, Earl of (in Pile's place, '49, House of Lords being abol- ished; died '50) Berkshire. lYimington, Isaac, Esq. (King's judge) London. Pennyman, Sir William, Bart, (disab. '42) Richmond, Yorkshire. Penrose, John, Esq Helston. Percival, John, Esq. (dead '44) . . . Lynn. Percival, Sir Philip, Knight (dead '47) Neicport, Cornwall. Perfoy, William, Esq. (regicide) . . . Warwick. Peyton, Sir Thomas, Baronet (disab. '44) Sandwich. Philips, Edward, Esq. (instead of Berke- ley, '40; disab. '44) llchester. Pickering, Sir Gilbert, Baronet (Poet Dryden's; King's judg;) .... Northamptonshire. Pi.-koring, K<>l>ert, Esq. (void '4(5) . . East Grinstead. Piercy, Henry, Esq. (Earl of Northum- liurland's brother; expelled, Army- 1'lot, '41; made Baron '43) . . . (Portsmouth, but preferred) North umberland. Pierpoint, Francis, Esq. (3d s. of Earl of Kingston) Not tint/ham. Pii-rjHjint, William, Esq. (:>d s. of do.) . Great Wenlock, Salop. Pigot, Gervase, Esq Nottinghamshire. 3GO LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Pile, Sir Francis, Baronet (died '49) . Berkshire. Playters, Sir William, Baronet . . . Orford, Suffolk. Pleydall, William, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Wootton Basset. Pole, Sir William, Knight (disab. '43) . Honiton. Polewheel, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Tregony. Pollard, Sir Hugh, Knight (expelled '41, for plot of bringing up army) . . . Beeralston. Poole, Edward, Esq Wootton Basset. Poole, Sir Nevil, Knight Malmsbury. *Pope, Roger, Esq. (dead '47) . . . Merionethshire. Popham, Alexander, Esq Bath. *Popham, Edward, Esq. (from '45) . . Minehead. Popham, Sir Francis (dead '44) . . . Minehead. Porter, Eudymion, Esq. (disab. '43) . Droitwich. Portman, Sir William, Baronet (disab. '44) Taunton. Potter, Hugh, Esq. (disab.) .... Plimpton. Potts, Sir John, Baronet (died) . . . Norfolk. *Povey, Thomas, Esq Liskeard. Price, Charles, Esq. (disab.) .... Radnorshire. Price, Herbert, Esq. (disab.) .... Brecon- Price, Sir John, Baronet (disab. '45) . Montgomeryshire. *Price, Sir Richard, Baronet .... Cardiganshire. Price, William, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Merionethshire. Prideaux, Edmund, Esq Lyme Regis. *Priestley, William, Esq St. Mawes. Prynne, William, Esq Newport, 1 Cornwall Pury, Alderman Thomas (took notes, see Burton's Diary, where the name is, by mistake, printed " Davy ") .... Gloucester* *Pury, Thomas, jun., Esq. (of Glouces- ter) Monmouth. *Pye, Sir Robert, Knight Woodstock. *Pym, Charles, Esq Beeralston. Pym, John, Esq. (died Dec. '43) . . . Tavistock. Pyne, John, Esq Poole. *Radcliff, John, Esq Chester. Rainsborough, Captain (died '41) . . Aldborough, Suffolk. *Rainsborough, Colonel Thomas (killed at Doncaster, 29 Oct. '48) .... Droitwich. 1 " Newport, soon after the Parliament sat ; " not " Bristol in '45," as the Par* liamentary History gives it. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 361 Rainsford, Sir Henry, Knight (dead '41) . A ndover. Rainsford, Henry, Esq St. Ives, Cornwall. *Raleigh, Carew, Esq Kellington, Cornwall. li.-imsden, Sir John (disab. for Selby right, '44) Northallerton. Rashleigh, Jonathan, Esq. (disab. '44) . Fowey. Kavenscroft, Paul, Esq Horsham. Kcyuulds, Robert, Esq. (King's judge) . Hitidon, Wilts, Rich, Charles, Esq Sandwich. Rich, Nathaniel, Esq. (from Feb. '49) Cirencester. Rich, Robert Lord (e. s. of Robert E. of Warwick; called to Peers, Jan. 27, '11; Rushtcorth, iv. 4) Essex. Rigby, Alexander, Esq. (King's judge). Wigan. Rivers, , Esq. (dead '41) .... Lewes. Robinson, Luke, Esq Scarborough. Rochester, Charles Lord Viscount (e. s. of E. of Somerset) St. Michaels. Rodney, Sir Edward (disab. '42) . . . Wells. Roe, Sir Thomas, Knight (not duly). . New Windsor. Roe, Sir Thomas, Knight (dead in '44) Oxford University. Rogers, Hugh, Esq Calne. Rogers, Richard, Esq. (disab. '42) . . Dorsetshire. Rolle, John, Esq Truro. Rolle, Sir Samuel, Knight (died) . . Devonshire. Rose, Richard, Esq Lyme Regis. Rossiter, Edward, Esq Great Grimsby. Rouse, Francis, Esq Truro. Rudyard, Sir Benjamin, Knight . . . Wilton. Russel, Francis, Esq Cambridgeshire. Russel, Lord William (e. s. of E. of Bed- ford ; till '41) Tavislock. Russel, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Taoistock. St. Hill, Peter, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Twerton, St. John, Sir Beauchamp, Knight . . Bedford. St. John, Oliver, Esq. (Sol.-Gen. in '40) Totness. Salisbury, John, jun., Esq. (disab. '44) Flint. Salisbury, William. K;irl of (in '49) . Lynn. Salway, Humphrey, Esq. (King's judijr) Worcestershire. Salway, Richard, Esq. (King's judge) AfijiUby. is, , Esq. (not duly) . . . Gallon. lyu, Samuel, Esq. (disab. 'U) . . Druilwich. LIST OF THE LONG PAUL LAMENT. Sandys, Thomas, Esq Gallon, Sandys, William, Esq. (expelled '41, as monopolist) Evesham. *Saville, Sir William, Baronet (disab. '42, Yorkshire petition) Old Sarum. *Say, William, Esq. (regicide) . . . Camelford. *Sayer, John, Esq Colchester. *Scawen, Robert, Esq Berwick. *Scot, Thomas, Esq. (dead '47) . . . Aldborough, Yorkshire. *Scott, Thomas, Esq. (regicide) . . . Aylesbury. *Scudamore, James, Esq. (disab.) . . Hereford. Seabourne, Richard, Esq. (disab. '46) . Hereford. Searle, George, Esq Taunlon. Selden, John, Esq Oxford University. Seymour, Edward, Esq. (disab. '44). . Devonshire. Seymour, Sir Francis, Knight (made Lord, '41). Marlborough. *Seymour, Sir John, Knight .... Gloucestershire. *Shapcot, Robert, Esq Tiverton. *Shelley, Henry, Esq. (after Rivers) . Lewes. Shuckburgh, Richard, Esq. (disab.; in- stead of Combe) Warwickshire* Shuttleworth, Richard, Esq Clithero. Shuttleworth, Richard, Esq Preston. Siddenham, Sir Ralph (iu place of Clot- worthy; disab. '42) Bossiney. *Sidney, Algernon, Esq. (after Herbert; King's judge) Cardiff. *Skeffington, Sir Richard, Knight (dead '47) Staffordshire. *Skinner, Augustin, Esq. (King's judge) Kent. *Skippon, Philip, Esq. (the soldier; King's judge) Barnstaple. *Skutt, George, Esq Pools. Slanning, Sir Nicholas, Knight (disab. '42; killed at Bristol) (Plimpton, Devon, but pre- ferred) Penryn. Slingsby, Sir Henry, Baronet (disab. '42, Yorkshire petition ; beheaded '58) . Knaresborough. *Smith, John, Esq. (succeeds Lord An- dover; soon disab.) Oxford. *mith, Philip, Esq Marlborough, LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 363 Smith, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Chester. Smith, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '42) . . Bridgwater. Smith, Sir Walter, Knight (disab. '44) Bedwin, WiUt. Smith, William, Esq. (disab.) . . . Winchelsea. Smyth, Henry, Esq. (regicide) . . . Leicestershire. *Snelling, George, Esq. Southwark. Sneyd, Ralph, jun., Esq. (disab. '43, taken prisoner at Stafford) .... Stafford. Snow, Simon, Esq Exeter. Soame, Sir Thomas, Knight .... London. Spelman, John, Esq Castle Rising, Norfolk. Spring, Sir William, Baronet ; (after Jermyn) Bury St. Edmunds. Springet, Herbert, Esq Shoreham. Spurstow, William, Esq. , merchant (dead '46) Shrewsbury. Stamford, Sir Thomas (not duly) . . Cockermouth. Standish, Thomas, Esq. (dead '44) . . Preston. Stanhope, Ferdinando, Esq. (4th s. of E. of Chesterfield; disab. '43) .... Tamworth. Stanhope, William, Esq. (disab.) . . . Nottingham. *Stapleton, Bryan, Esq Aldborough, Yorkshire. Stapleton, Sir Philip, Knight (disab., one of the 11 ; died '47) Boroughbridge. Stapleton, Henry, Esq Boroughbridge. Staply, Anthony, Esq. (regicide) . . . Sussex. Starre, Colonel (dead '47) . . . Shaflesbury. Stawell, Sir John, K. B. (disab. '42) . Somersetshire. Stephens, Edward, Esq. (two elections ; not duly, then lost, at last duly; died) .' . . . . Tewkesbury. Stephens, John, Esq Tewkesbury. Stephens, Nathaniel, Rsq Gloucestershire. Stephens, William, LL.D Neioport, Wight. Stepney, Sir John, Baronet (disab.) . . Haverford West. Stockdale, Thomas, Esq Knaresborougk. Stonehonse, Sir George, Bart, (disab. '44) Alringdon. Stoughton, Nicholas, Esq. (d<-:nl "1") . GiiUdford. Strangways, Gil>, Esq. (disab. '44) . Brulport. ,'ways, Sir John, Knight (di.sab. Sept. '42) . 304 MST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Strickland, Sir Robert, Knight (diaab. '43) Aldborough, Yorkshire. *Strickland, Walter, Esq. (from '45) . Minehead. Strickland, Sir William, Knight . . . Heydon, Yorkshire. *Strode, Sir Richard, Knight .... Plimpton. *Strode, William, Esq llchester. Strode, William, Esq. (died '45) . . . (Tamworth, but prefers) Beeralston. Sutton, Robert, Esq. (disab. ; made Baron Lexington, 21 Nov. '45). . . Nottinghamshire. *Swynfen, John, Esq. ...... Stafford. *Sydenham, William, jun., Esq. . . . Melcomb Regis. Tate, Zouch, Esq. (Self-denying Ordi- nance) Northampton. Taylor, William, Esq. (instead of a monopolist; disab. '45, Siege of Bris- tol) Bristol. Taylor, William, Esq. (in place of Wal- ler; expelled May, '41, on Strafford's account) New Windsor. *Temple, James, Esq. (regicide) . . . Bramber. *Temple, Sir John, Knight Chichester. *Temple, Peter, Esq. (regicide) . . . Leicester. Temple, Sir Peter, Baronet (King's judge) Buckingham. *Temple, Thomas, Esq . . Huntingdon. *Terrick, Samuel, Esq. ...... Newcastle-under-Line. Theloall, Simon, jun., Esq Denbigh. *Thistlethwaite, Alexander, Esq. . . Doamton, Wilts. Thomas, Edward, Esq Okehampton, Devonshire. *Thomas, Isaiah, Esq ' Bishop's Castle. *Thomas, John, Esq Helston. Thomas, William, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Carnarvon. *Thompson, George, Esq Soulhwark. *Thornhaugh, Francis, Esq. (dead '48) East Retford. *Thorpe, Sergeant Francis (King's judge) Richmond, Yorkshire. *Thynn, Thomas, Esq Saltash. Thynne, Sir James, Knight (disab.) . Wiltshire. Toll, Thomas, Esq Lynn. *Tolson, Richard, Esq Cumberland. Tomkins, Thomas, Esq. (disab. '44) . Weobly. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 865 Trefusis, Nicholas, Esq Cornwall. Trenchard, John, Esq. (King's judge) . Warehatn, Dorsetshire. Trenchard, Sir Thomas, Knight . . Dorsetshire. Trevanion, John, Esq. (disab. ; killed at Bristol) Lostwithiel. Trevor, Sir John, Knight Gnimpound. Trevor, John, Esq Flintshire. Trevor, Sir Thomas, Knight .... Tregony. Trevor, Thomas, Esq. (till '44, then void) .... Monmouth. Tufton, Sir Humphrey, Knight . . . Maidstone. Tulsey, Henry, Esq. (dead ' 14) . . . Christchurch, Hants. Turner, Samuel, M.D. (disab. '44) . . Shaflesbury. Twisden, Thomas, Esq Maidstone. Upton, Arthur, Esq. (died '41) . . . Clifton, Dartmouth, Hard- ness (united). Upton, John, Esq Fowey. Uvedale, Sir William, Knight (disab.) . Petersjield. Vachel, Tanfield, Esq Reading. Valentine, Benjamin, Esq St. Germain$. Vane, George, Esq. (disab.) .... KeUington. Vane, Sir Henry, Knight Wilton. Vane, Sir Henry, jun., Knight . . . Hull. Vassal, Samuel, Esq., merchant . . . London. Vaughan, Charles, Esq Honiton. Vaughan, Edward, Esq Montgomeryshire. Vaughan, Sir Henry, Knight (disab.) . Carmarthenshire. Vaughan, John, Esq. (disab. '45) . . Cardigan. Venables, Peter, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Cheshire. Venn, John, Esq. (regicide) . . . London. Verney, Sir Edmund, Knight Marshal (killed at Edgehill, Oct. '42, where he bore the King's standard) . . . Wycombe. Verney, Sir Ralph, Knight (disab. '45) Aylesbury. Vernon, Henry, Esq. (not duly) . . . Andover. Vivian, Sir Richard, Knight (disab. '44) Tregony. Walker. Cl.-ment, Esq Wells. Walk.-r, llobert, Esq. (disab. '43) . . Exeter. \\';ill.-r, Kdmiiinl. Esq (in place of Lord I-i -!; disab. '43) St. Ivet, CornwaU. 1 Waller, Thomas, Eq Bodmin. 1 " Agranndesluui)." Mjrt KtHjr Briton, (vi. 4103). 300 LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. Waller, Thomas, Esq. (not duly) . . New Windsor. Waller, Sir William, Knight (instead of Vernon; one of the 11) Andover. Wallop, Sir Henry, Knight (dead '44) . Hampshire. * Wallop, Robert, Esq. (King's judge) . Andover. Walsinghain, Sir Thomas, Knight . Rochester. Walton, Valentine, Esq. (regicide) . . Huntingdonshire. *Warmouth, , Esq. (void) . . . Newcastle-on-Tyne. Warton, Michael, Esq. (disab. '44) . . Beverley. Warwick, Philip, Esq. (disab. '44) . . (Romney, but preferred) Radnor. Wastell, John, Esq Afalton. Watkins, William, Esq. (void in '44) . Monmouth. *Wayte, Thomas, Esq. (regicide) . . Rutlandshire. *Weaver, John, Esq. (King's judge) . Stamford. Weaver, Richard, Esq. (dead May, '42) Hereford. *Weaver, Edmund, Esq. (after '4G) . Hereford. Webb, Thomas, Esq. (expelled '42, monopolist) Romney. Wenman, Thomas, Lord Viscount, in Ireland Oxfordshire. Wentworth, Sir George, of Wooley, Knight (disab. '42, Yorkshire peti- tion) Pontefract Wentworth, Sir George, Knight (Staf- ford's brother, disab. '44) .... Pontefract. *Wentworth, Sir Peter, K.B. (King's judge) Tamworik. Wentworth, Lord Thomas (Earl of Cleve- land's eldest son; to House of Peers, 25 Nov. '40, by writ) Bedfordshire. *West, Edmund, Esq (Wendover, but preferred) Buckinghamshire. *Weston, Benjamin, Esq. (King's judge) Dover. Weston, Nicholas, Esq. (disab. '42, for Goriug's business) Portsmouth. Weston, Richard, Esq. (disab.) . . . Stafford. *Westrow, Thomas, Esq Hythe (Cinque Ports). Whaddon, John, Esq Plymouth. Wheeler, William, Esq Westbury, Wilts. Whistler, John, Esq. (disab.) . . . Oxford. LIST OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 367 Whitacre, Lawrence, Esq. (Borough be- ing restored to its rights) .... Okehampton, Devon. Whitaker, William, Esq. (dead '46) . Shaflesbury. White, John, Esq. (died '45) .... Southward. AN lute, John, Esq. (disab. '44) . . . Rye. White, William, Esq. (Secretary to Sir T. Fairfax) Pontefract. Whitehead, Richard, Esq Jjampthire. Wliitland. This is the first specialty of indication at- tempted here. Then secondly, under date 15th Feb. 1644-5, on Fair- : appointment to be Commander-in-chief, there occurs a revision or new-model of Committees, in the Association as everywhere else, for raising assessments to support Fairfax : such men as were added for serving on this Committee, are designated by an (/.). Farther dis- t i in t ions, as threatening rather to confuse than illuminate the reader, an- not given at present. Our only change from those Lists of Husband's is the arrangement, an iinj)ortant and indispensable one, in alphabetical order ; and the correction of what mistakes were palpable, the number and nature of which still testify how hurriedly that old Parliamentary operation, in all stages of it, was done. The spelling especially, with its inces- sant variations, has been an intricate business, not to be settled some- tini.^ cxro]>t partly by guess. Our "Esq.," " Gent," and occasional omission of all Title, are correctly what we find in the old Book. Under the given circumstances, Husband's List may be taken as substantially correct ; but of course those Committees, even for speci- 1 Names "read before the House," 17th March, 1G41-2 (Comment Jovrnnlt, , ; nrdiTi-d " to \M- printed," Oth < Vt. following (il>. TUT) . uot given iu either CM . VOL. x v i ii. 24 370 EASTERN-ASSOCIATION COMMITTEES. fied objects, were liable, at all times, both to be supplemented and to be sifted down ; which renders their exact composition a fluctuating object, dependent on date in some measure. CAMBRIDGESHIRE, Cambridgeshire Committees (Husband, ii.), in 1643: 1st April (with Supplement, 15th September), p. 10, p. 322; 7th May (with Supplements and Revisals, 21st June, 3d August, 20!h September), p. 169, p. 225, p. 6 Appendix, p. 329; Association specially, 10th August (and 4th September), p. 284, p. 308. For support of Fairfax in 1644-5, and to the end of the War : 15th February, 1644-5, p. 603. Those that sat exclusively on this Fairfax Committee have an (f.) appended; those of 10th August (among whom are the Deputy-Lieutenants) are marked with an asterisk (*), and such of them as were then new are in italics; (e.) means, For Ely only ; (f.), For Town and University only. Aldmond, Edward. (*./.) *Becket, Thomas, Esq. *Bendish, Thomas, Esq. P>1acldey, James, (t.f.) * Browne, Browning, Edward, Esq. Butler, Henry, Esq. Butler, Nevill, Esq. *Castle, Robert, Esq. *Castle, Thomas, Esq. Chennery, 1 John, Esq. (/.) Clapthorn, George, Esq. Clark, Edward, Esq. *Clark, Robert, Esq. * Clench, Edward, Esq. Clopton, Walter, Esq. *Cooke, Thomas, Esq. *Cromwell, Oliver, Esq. *Cutts, Sir John, Kt. Dal ton, Michael, jun., Esq. Dalton, Michael, sen., Esq. (/.) Desborow, Isaac. Diamond, Tristram, Gent. (e. /.) *Ducket, Thomas, Esq. 1 Spelt also Chymery. Eden, Dr. (/) Fiennes, Aid. (t.f.) Fisher, William, Esq. *Foxlon, Richard, Esq. French, Thomas, (t.) *IIobart, John, Esq. Hynde, Robert Janes, William, Esq. (f.) Leeds, Edward, Esq. Lowry, John, (t.) Male, Edmund. *March, Humberston, Esq. *Marsh, William, Esq. *Martin, Sir Thomas, Kt. *Mayor for the time being. (f) North, Sir Dudley, Kt. Parker, Thomas, Esq. Partridge, Sir Edward, Kt. (e. f.) Pepys, Samuel, Esq. Pepys, Talbot, Recorder. (t.) *Pope, Dudley, Esq. Raven, John, Esq. (/.) Reynolds, James, Esq. (/.) Reynolds, Sir James. (/.) liobsou, Robert, (t.) EASTERN-ASSOCIATION COMMITTEES. 371 Russel, Francis, Esq. Rusael, Killiphet, ES'i, Association specially, H'fii An.-', i. ; .'-I For Mippurt of Fairfax in luU-j, and to thu end of the War: 15 February, 1041-0, p. 604. 374 EASTERN-ASSOCIATION COM M 1TTEES. The (/.) designates the exclusively Fairfax men; the asterisk (*) those of 10th August, the then new ones of whom are in italics. Armyn, Sir William, Bart. (/.) Bonner, John, Gent. (/.) Bulkley, John, Esq. *Burrell, Abraham, Esq. Castle, John, Esq. Cotton, Sir Thomas, Bart. *Crornwell, Oliver, Esq. Desborow, Isaac, Gent. Drury, William. (/.) *Fullwood, Gervaise, Gent. *Harvey, Robert, Gent. Hewet, Sir John, Kt. Ingram, Robert, Gent. *Joceline, Terrill, Esq. King, William, Gent. *Montague, Edward, Esq. Montague, George, Esq. (/.) Offley, John, Gent. Petton, John, Geiit. *Temple, Thomas, Esq. * Vintner, Robert, Gent. Walton, Valentine, Esq. (/.) * Winch, Ouslow, Esq. LINCOLNSHIRE. Lincolnshire Committees (Husband, ii.), in 1643 : 1st April, p. 18; 7th May (with Supplements and Revisals, 1st June, 3d August, 20th September), p. 171, p 194, p. 9 Appendix, p. 329. 3d July, 1644 (County now got ; corresponds to 10th August, 1643, for the other Counties), p. 515. For support of Fairfax in 1644-5, and to the end of the War : 15th February, 1644-5 (with Supplements, 3d April, llth August), p. 604, p. 633, p. 707. The (/".) designates the exclusively Fairfax men ; the asterisk (*) those of 3d July, 1614, the then new ones of whom are in italics ; (I ) means, For Lincoln. Anderson, Edmund, Esq. Archer, John, Esq. Armyn, Sir William, Bart. *Ashlon, Peter, Esq. *Askham, Thomas. Ayscough, Sir Edward, Kt. Ayscough, Edward, Esq. Bernard, John, Gent. Bowtal, Barnaby, Esq. Brassbridge, Aid. (/ Z.) *Browne, John, Gent. Brownlow, Sir John, Bart. Brownlow, Sir William, Bart. Broxholme, John, Esq. (also /.) Bryan, Richard, Esq. *Bury, 1 William, Esq. 1 Spelt also Bury and Btrry. *Cave, Morris, Esq. Cawdron, Robert, Esq. *Cholmley, Montague, Esq. *Coppledike, Thomas, Esq. *Cornwallis, Thomas, Esq. *Cust, Samuel, Esq. Davison, William, Gent. (/.) Dawson, Stephen, Aid. (/.) *Disney, John, sen. Esq. *Disney, Mollineux, Esq. Disney, Thomas, Esq. (f.) * Disney, William, Esq. *Ellis, Edmund, Esq. Ellis, William, Esq. *Emmerson, Alexander, Esq. *Empson, Charles, Esq. Euipson, Francis, Gent. (/I) EASTERN-ASSOCIATION COMMITTEES. 375 Erie, Sir Richard, Bart. Escote, Captain. Filkiu, Richard, Gent. (/) *Fines, Francis, Esq. Fisher, Francis, Esq. (/.) Grantham, Thomas, Esq. (also /.) *Goi*ttHi/lt> tint, V"M/nluin Wiitcock and Wmcodk 376 EASTERN-ASSOCIATION COMMITTEES. NORFOLK. Norfolk Committees (Husband, ii.), in 1643: 1st April (with Supplement, 18th April), p. 19, p. 38; 7th May (with Supplements and Revisals, 1st June, 3d August, 20th September), p. 171, p. 194, p. 9 Appendix, p. 328; Association specially, 10th August, p. 283. For support of Fairfax in 1644-5, and to the cud of the War: 15th February, 1644-5, p. 605. The (f.) designates the exclusively Fairfax men ; the asterisk (*) those of 10th August, the then new ones of whom are in italics ; (.) means, For Norwich. *Ashley, Sir Edward, Kt. *Ashley, Sir Isaac, Kt. Bailiffs of Yarmouth. Bainham, Robert, Esq. (/.) Baker, Thomas, Esq. (n.) Barkham, Sir Edward, Bart. Barret, Christopher, Esq. (n.) Barret, Thomas, Sheriff, (n./.) Boddingfield, Philip, Esq. Borkham, John. Berney, 1 Sir Richard, Bart Blofield, Jeremy, of Alby. *Brewster, John, Esq. Brewster, Samuel, Gent, (n./.) Brown, John, of Sparks. *Burnam, Edmund, Aid. (n.) Buxton, John, Esq. (/.) Calthorp, James, Esq. Calthorp, Philip, Esq. Chamberlain, Edward, Esq. (/.) Church, Bernard, Sheriff, (n.f.) Clarke, of Gaywood. Collier, John, Gent, (n./.) Collyns, of Blackborne Abbey. Coney, William. *Cooke, 2 John, Esq. *Cooke, William, Esq. Corbet, Miles, Esq. Dagly, Robert, of Alsham. 1 Spelt also Berne, Berwy, and Barney. 9 Spelt also Crook and Coke. Day, Sucklin. Doylie, Sir William, Kt. (/.) Earl, Erasmus, Esq. (/.) Felsham, Robert, of Sculthrop. Fountain, Briggs, Esq. Fryer, 1 Tobias, Esq. Gasley, William, of Holcan. Gawdy, Edward, Esq. (/.) Gawdy, Framlingham, Esq. (/.) *Gawdy, Sir Thomas, Kt. *Gawsell, 2 Gregory, Esq. Gibbon, 8 John, Esq. Gibbon, 8 Sir Thomas, Kt. Gooch, Robert, of Elham. Gower, Robert, of Yarmouth, Gent. (/.) * Greenwood, John, Sheriff, (n.) Grey, James de, Esq. (/.) Grey, John, Gent, (n.f.) Harman, Richard, Esq. Harvye, Richard. Heveningham, William, Esq. Heyward. Edward, Esq. (/.) *Hobart, Sir John, Bart. *Hobart, Sir Miles, Kt. Holland, Sir John, Bart. Hough ton, John, Esq. Houghton, Robert, Esq. (/.) 1 Spelt also Frere, Friar, and Fryar. 2 " " Causell, Gousall, and Causey. a Guibon. EASTERN-ASSOCIATION COMMITTEES. 377 Huggen, 1 Sir Thomas, Kt. Hunt, George, Esq. (/.) Jaye, John, of Ersham. Jenny, Francis, Esq. Jenny, Robert, Esq. Johnson, Thomas, Gent. Ket, Robert, of Wicklewood. Kettle, Henry, of Thetford. (/.) King, Henry, Gent. Lincoln, Thomas, of Thetford, Esq., Aid. Lindsey, Matthew, Aid. (n.) Long, Robert, Esq. (/.) May, John, of Lynn, Aid. (/.) Mayor of Lynn for the time be- ing. Mayor of Norwich for the time being, (n.) Money, Samuel, of Bin num. Mountford, Sir Edmund, Kt. Owner, Edward, Esq. (/.) Palgrave, Sir John, Bart. Parkes, 2 Samuel, Gent. Parmenter, Adrian, Esq. (n.) Paston, Sir William, Bart. (/.) Peckoner, 8 Matthew, Aid. (n.) Pell, Sir Valentine, Kt. Vice- comes. (/.) Percivall, John, Esq. of Lynn. Pots, Sir John, Bart. i aes, 4 John, Esq. of Oxtron. Rich, Robert, Esq. Rower, Robert, Gent. * Russell, Thomas, Esq. Stlt-r, John, Gent, (n./) Sratnlur, Adam, Esq. (f.) Sc;inil-r, James, Esq Scottow, Timothy, Gent. (n. /!) 1 Spelt alo /fogim, Hrwgan, //"'/'/in. " " Park*, Parker, PnckU. " " Ptckvctr BI><\ I'ickfxrd. 4 " " Jfeyynf.'. A'.yw*, Rumt*, and Knjin. Sedley, 1 Martin, Esq. Sheppard, Robert, Esq. Sheriffs of Norwich. Sherwood, Livewell, Aid. (n.) Shouldham, Francis, of Fulmers- ton. Skippon, Philip, Esq. (/.) *Smith, Samuel, Esq. *Sotherton, Thomas, Esq. *Spelnian, John, Esq. Spriugall, Thomas, of St. Mary's. Steward, , Esq. (n. /.) Swalter, John, of Southcreak. *Symonds, William, of Norwich, Aid. (.) Taylor, Henry, Esq. (/.) Thacker, John, Aid. (n.) Thorisby, Edmund, Esq. (/.) Tofts, John, Gent. (n. /.) Tofts, Thomas, Aid. (; ./.) Toll, Thomas, Esq. *Tooley, John, Esq. (n.) Townsend, Roger, Esq. (/) Utber, Thomas. Vincent, John, of Criuishain. Walpool, John, Esq. Walter, of Deram. Ward, Hamon, Esq. (/.) Warner, Richard, of Little Brand. Wasted, Thomas, Gent. (/. /:> Watts, Henry, Aid. (.) Web, John, Esq. (/.) Weld, Thomas, Esq. Wilton, 2 Robert, Esq. Windhiun, Sir George, Kt. (/.) Windham, Thomas, Esq. With, of Brodish. Wood, Robert, Esq. WiMxlhouse, Sir Thomas, Bart Wriyhtf Thomas, E* A " business " seemingly of making an advantageous pur- chase of land for Richard; which Mayor will take all the trouble of, and even advance the money for ; but which Oliver P., for good reasons given, "dare not meddle with." No man can now guess what laud it was, nor need much. In the 1 Noble, i. 330 ; llurrie, p. 515 : uue of tho 1'usoy Lcllcni. 390 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. May, Pamphletary dust-mountains is a confused story of Cornet Joyce's, 1 concerning Fawley Park in Hampshire ; which, as the dim dateless indications point to the previous winter or summer, and to the " Lord General Cromwell " as looking towards that property for his Son Eichard, may be the place, for aught we know ! The story sets forth, with the usual bewildered vivacity of Joyce : How Joyce, the same who took the King at Holmby, and is grown now a noisy Anabaptist and Lieutenant- Colonel, how Joyce, I say, was partly minded and fully en- titled to purchase Fawley Park, and Richard Cromwell was minded and not fully entitled : how Richard's Father there- upon dealt treacherously with the said Joyce ; spake softly to him, then quarrelled with him, menaced him (owing to Fawley Park) ; nay ended by flinging him into prison, and almost reducing him to his needle and thimble again, greatly to the enragement and distraction of the said Joyce. All owing to Fawley Park, thinks Joyce and prints ; so that my Lord Protector, if this Park be the place, is very wise "not to meddle or proceed therein." And so we leave it. LETTER CXCm. MONK, in these summer months, has a desultory kind of Rebellion in the Highlands, Glencairn's or Middleton's Rebel- lion, to deal with ; and is vigorously coercing and strangling it. Colonel Alured, an able officer, but given to Anabaptist notions, has been sent into Ulster to bring over certain forces to assist Monk. His loose tongue, we find, has disclosed de- signs or dispositions in him which seem questionable. The Lord Protector sees good to revoke his Commission to Alured, and order him up to Town. 1 True Narrative of the Causes of the Lord- General Cromwell's anger and tn- dignation ar/ainst Lieutenant-Colonel George Joyce: reprinted (without date) in Hnrlpinn Miscellany, v. 557, &c. Joyce "is t jail," 19th September* 1653 (Thurloe, i. 470). LETTER CXCIII. WHITEHALL. 391 [2b the Lord Fleetwood, Lord Deputy of Ireland : These."] "[WHITEHALL,] IGthMay, 1654. " SIR, By the Letter I received from you, and by the in- formation of the Captain you sent to me, I am sufficiently satisfied of the evil intentions of Colonel Alured ; and by some other considerations amongst ourselves, tending to the mak- ing up a just suspicion, by the advice of friends here, I do revoke Colonel Alured from that Employment. " Wherefore I desire you to send for him to return to you to Dublin ; and that you cause him to deliver up the Instruc- tions and Authorities into your hands, which he hath in refer- ence to that Business ; as also such moneys and accounts con- cerning the same, according to the Letter, herein enclosed, directed to him, which I entreat you to deliver when he comes to you. " I desire [you] also, to the end the Service may not be neglected, nor [for] one day stand, it being of so great con- cernment, To employ some able Officer to assist in Colonel Alured's room, until the men be shipped off for their design. We purpose also, God willing, to send one very speedily who, we trust, shall meet them at the place, to command in chief. As for provision of victual and other necessaries, we shall hasten them away ; desiring that these Forces may by no means stay in Ireland ; because we purpose they shall meet their pro- vision in the place they are designed [for]. "If any further discovery be with you about any other pas- sages on Colonel Alured's part, I pray examine them, and speed tin-in to us; and send Colonel Alured over hither with the first opportunity. Not having more upon this subject at pres- ent, I rest, " Your loving father, "OL1VEK 1'. " [T*.S.] I desire you that the Officer, whom you appoint to assist the shippm.; ui the Forces, may have the money in Colonel Alured's hands, for carrying on the Service ; and also 302 PAliT VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 16 May, that he may leave what remains at Carrickfergus for the Com uiander-in-ch ie f , who shall call for it there." l This is the Enclosure above spoken of : LETTER CXCIV. [To Colonel Alured : These.] " [WHITEHALL,] 16th May, 1654. "Sin, I desire you to deliver up into the hands of Lieutenant-General Fleetwood such Authorities and Instruc- tions as you had for the prosecution of the Business of the Highlands in Scotland; and [that] you forthwith repair to me to London ; the reason whereof you shall know when you come hither, which I would have you do with all speed. I would have you also give an account to the Lieutenant- General, before you come away, how far you have proceeded in this Service, and what money you have in your hands, which, you are to leave with him. I rest, " Your loving friend, "OLIVER P." 1 This Colonel Alured is one of several Yorkshire Alureds somewhat conspicuous in these wars ; whom we take to be Nephews or Sons of the valuable Mr. Alured or Ald'red who wrote " to old Mr. Chamberlain," in the last generation, one morning, during the Parliament of 1628, when certain honpr- able Gentlemen held their Speaker down, a Letter which we thankfully read. 8 One of them, John, was Member in this Long Parliament ; a Colonel too, and King's Judge ; who is now dead. Here is another, Colonel Matthew Alured, a distinguished soldier and republican ; who is not dead ; but whose career of usefulness is here ended. " Repairing forth- with to London," to the vigilant Lord Protector, he gives 1 Thnrloe, ii. 285. 2 Ibid. ii. 286. 8 Vol. xvii. p. 59 et seq. 1654. LETTER CXCIV. WHITEHALL. 393 what account he can of himself; none that will hold water, I pri reive; lingers long under a kind of arrest "at the Mews" or elsewhere ; soliciting either freedom and renewed favor, or a fair trial and punishment; gets at length committal to the Tower, trial by Court Martial, dismissal from the service. 1 A fate like that of several others in a similar case to his. Poor Alured ! But what could be done with him ? He had Republican Anabaptist notions; he had discontents, enthu- siasms, which might even ripen into tendencies to correspond with Charles Stuart. Who knows if putting him in a stone waistcoat, and general strait- waistcoat of a mild form, was not the mercifulest course that could be taken with him ? lie must stand here as the representative to us of one of the fatalest elements in the new Lord Protector's position : the Republican discontents and tendencies to plot, fermenting in his own Army. Of which we shall perhaps find elsewhere room to say another word. Republican Overton, Milton's friend, whom we have known at Hull and elsewhere; Okey, the fierce dragoon Colonel and zealous Anabaptist; Alured, whom we see here ; Ludlow, sitting sulky in Ireland : all these .uc already summoned up, or about being summoned, to give account of themselves. Honorable, brave and faithful men : it is, as Oliver often says, the saddest thought of his heart that he must have old friends like them for enemies ! But he cannot help it ; they will have it so. They must go their way, he his. Much need of vigilance in this Protector ! Directly on the back of these Republican commotions oomeout Royalist oin>s ; with which, however, the Protector is less straitened to deal. Lord Deputy Fleetwood has not yet received his Letter at Dublin, when here in London emerges a Royalist Plot; the first of any gravity ; known in the old Books and State-Trials as Vowel and Gerard's Plot, or Somerset Forts Plot. Plot for assassinatini,' the Protector, as usual. Easy to do it, as he goes to Hampton Court on a Saturday, Saturday, the 20th of May, for example. Provide thirty stout men ; and do it i WhitWk*-. pp. 4W, 510; Thnrloe, ii. 24, 313, 414; Burton'a Diary (Louduu. 1.-2-J, iii 40; Common* Journal*, vii. 678. 394 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. July, then. Gerard, a young Royalist Gentleman, connected with Royalist Colonels afterwards Earls of Macelesfield, he will provide five-and-twenty ; some Major Henshaw, Colonel Finch, or I know not who, shall bring the other five. "Vowel a Schoolmaster at Islington, who taught many young gentle- men," strong for Church and King, cannot act in the way of shooting; busies himself consulting, and providing arms. " Billingsley the Butcher in Smithfield," he, aided by Vowel, could easily "seize the Troopers' horses grazing in Islington fields ; " while others of us unawares fall upon the soldiers at the Mews ? Easy then to proclaim King Charles in the City ; after which Prince Rupert arriving with " ten thousand Irish, English and French," and all the Royalists rising, the King should have his own again, and we were all made men ; and Oliver once well killed, the Commonwealth itself were as good as dead ! Saturday, the 20th of May ; then, say our Paris expresses, then ! Alas, in the very birthtime of the hour, " five of the Con- spirators are seized in their beds ; " Gerard, Vowel, all the leaders are seized ; Somerset Fox confesses for his life ; whosoever is guilty can be seized : and the Plot is like water spilt upon the ground ! l A High Court of Justice must decide upon it ; and with Gerard and Vowel it will probably go hard. LETTER CXCV- REFERS to a small private or civic matter : the Vicarage of Christ-Church, Newgate Street, the patronage of which be- longs to " the Mayor, Commonalty and Citizens of London as Governors of the Royal Hospital of St. Bartholomew " ever since Henry the Eighth's time. 2 The former Incumbent, it would seem, had been removed by the Council of State ; some Presbyterian probably, who was, not without cause, 1 French Le Bas dismissed for his share in it : Appendix, No. 28. 2 Elmes's Topographical Dictionary of London, in voce. 1G54. LETTER CXCV. WHITEHALL. 395 offensive to them. If now the Electors and the State could both agree on Mr. Turner, it would " silence " several ques tions, thinks the Lord Protector. Whether they did agree ? Who " Mr. Turner," of such " repute for piety and learning/' was ? These are questions. " To the Right Hnnomble Sir Thomas Vyner, Knight, Lord Mayor of London: These. " [WniTEnau,,! 5th July, 1654. "My LORD MAYOR, It is not my custom now, nor shall be, without some special cause moving, to interpose anything to the hindrance of any in the free course of their presenting persons to serve in the Public Ministry. " But, well considering how much it concerns the public peace, and what an opportunity may be had of promoting the interest of the Gospel, if some eminent and fit person of a pious and peaceable spirit and conversation were placed in Christ-Church, and though I am not ignorant what interest the State may justly challenge to supply that place, which by an Order of State is become void, notwithstanding any resignation that is made : u Yet forasmuch as your Lordship and the rest of the Governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital are about to pre- sent thereunto a person of known nobility and integrity before you, namely Mr. Turner, I am contented, if you think good so to improve the present opportunity as to present ////// to the place, to have all other questions silenced; which will not alone be the fruit thereof; but I believe also the true good of the Parish therein concerned will be thereby much furthered. I rest, " Your assured friend, " OLIVER P. " [P.S.] I can assure you few men of his time in Eng- land have a better repute for piety and learning than Mr. Turner." 1 1 I*uMlowiM> MS8 1 _'.;,. ful 104 The Signature alm- f the Letter in Oliver'* l lie lia.- added tin- Postscript in hi* uwu liuiul. 396 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 5 July, I am apt to think the Mr. Turner in question may have been Jerom Turner, of whom there is record in Wood : 1 a Somersetshire man, distinguished among the Puritans ; who takes refuge in Southampton, and preaches with zeal, learning, piety and general approbation during the Wars there. He afterwards removed "to Neitherbury, a great country Parisb in Dorsetshire," and continued there, " doing good in his zeal- ous way." If this were he, the Election did not take effect according to Oliver's program ; perhaps Jerom himself de- clined it ? He died, still at Neitherbury, next year ; hardly yet past middle age. "He had a strong memory, which he maintained good to the last by temperance," says old Antony : "He was well skilled in Greek and Hebrew, was a fluent preacher, but too much addicted to Calvinism," which is to be regretted. " Pastor vigilantissimus, doctrind et pietate insignis : " so has his Medical Man characterized him ; one "Dr. Loss of Dorchester," who kept a Note-book in those days. Requiescat, requiescant. The High Court of Justice has sat upon Vowel and Gerard ; found them both guilty of High Treason ; they lie under sen- tence of death, while this Letter is a-writing; are executed five days hence, 10th July, 1654 ; and make an edifying end. 3 Vowel was hanged at Charing Cross in the morning ; strong for Church and King. The poor young Gerard, being of gen- tle blood and a soldier, petitioned to have beheading; and had it, the same evening, in the Tower. So ends Plot First. Other Royalists, Plotters or suspect of Plotting, Ashburn- ham, who rode with poor Charles First to the Isle of Wight on a past occasion ; Sir Richard Willis, who, I think, will be useful to Oliver by and by, these and a list of others 8 were imprisoned ; were questioned, dismissed ; and the Assassin Project is rather cowed down for a while. Writs for the New Parliament are out, and much election- eering interest over England : but there is still an anecdote connected with this poor Gerard and the 10th of July, detailed 1 Athence, iii. 404. 2 State Trials (London, 1810), v. 516*539. 8 Newspapers, lst-8th June, 1654 (in Cromwelliana, p. 143). 1654. SPEECH II. 397 at great length in the old Books, which requires to be mentioned here. Al)out an hour after Gerard, there died, in the same place, by the same judicial axe, a Portuguese Nobleman, Don Pautaleon Sa, whose story, before this tragic end of it, was already somewhat twisted up with Gerard's. To wit, on the 23d of November last, this same young Major Gerard was walking in the crowd of Exeter 'Change, where Don Pantaleon, Brother of the Portuguese Ambassador, chanced also to be. Some jostling of words, followed by drawing of rapiers, took place between them ; wherein as Don Pantaleon had rather the worse, he hurried home to the Portuguese Embassy ; armed some twenty of his followers, in headpieces, breast- pieces, with sword and pistol, and returned to seek revenge. Gerard was gone ; but another man, whom they took for him, these rash Portugals slew there ; and had to be repressed, after much other riot, and laid in custody, by the watch or soldiery. Assize-trial, in consequence, for Don Pantaleon ; clear Trial in the " Upper Bench Court," jury half foreigners ; and rigorous sentence of death ; much to Don Pantaleon's amazement, who pleaded and got his Brother to plead the rights of Ambassadors, all manner of rights and consider- ations ; all to no purpose. The Lord Protector would not and could not step between a murderer and the Law : poor Don Pantaleon perished on the same block with Gerard ; two Tragedies, once already in contact, had their fifth-act together. Don Pantaleon's Brother, all sorrow and solicitation being fruitless, signed the Portuguese Treaty that very day, and instantly departed for his own country, with such thoughts as we may figure. 1 SPEECH II. r now the New Parliament has got itself elected; not without mnoh interest: tho first Election there has l>een in 1 iii-l for foul-toon years past. Parliament of four hun- l, thirty Scotch, thirty Irish; freely chosen according to > Whitlorko. pp. 550. 577. 398 PART VIIT. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept. the Instrument, according to the Bill that was in progress when the Rump disappeared. What it will say to these late inarticulate births of Providence, and high transactions ? Something edifying, one may hope. Open Malignants, as we know, could not vote or be voted for, to this Parliament ; only active Puritans or quiet Neutrals, who had clear property to the value of 200. Probably as fair a Representative as, by the rude method of counting heads, could well be got in England. The bulk of it, I sup- pose, consists of constitutional Presbyterians and use-and-wont Neutrals ; it well represents the arithmetical account of heads in England : whether the real divine and human value of thinking-souls in England, that is a much deeper question ; upon which the Protector and this First Parliament of his may much disagree. It is the question of questions, neverthe- less ; and he that can answer it best will come best off in the long-run. It was not a successful Parliament this, as we shall find. The Lord Protector and it differed widely in certain fundamental notions they had ! We recognize old faces, in fair proportion, among those four hundred ; many new withal, who never become known to us. Learned Bulstrode, now safe home from perils in Hyperborean countries, is here ; elected for several places, the truly valuable man. Old-Speaker Lenthall sits, old Major- General Skippon, old Sir William Masham, old Sir Francis Rouse. My Lord Herbert (Earl of Worcester's son) is here ; Owen, Doctor of Divinity, for Oxford University ; a certain not entirely useless Guibon Goddard, for the Town of Lynn, to whom we owe some Notes of the procedure. Leading Officers and high Official persons have been extensively elected ; several of them twice and thrice : Fleetwood, Lam- bert, the Claypoles, Dunches, both the young Cromwells ; Montague for his County, Ashley Cooper for his. On the other hand, my Lord Fairfax is here ; nay Bradshaw, Haselrig, Robert Wallop, Wildraan, and Republicans are here. Old Sir Harry Vane ; not young Sir Harry, who sits meditative in the North. Of Scotch Members we mention only Laird Swinton, and the Earl of Hartfell ; of the Irish., Lord Broghil and 1684. SPEECH II. 390 Commissary-General Reynolds, whom we once saw fighting well in that country. 1 And now hear the authentic Bui- strode ; and then the Protector himself. "September 3d, 1654. The Lord's day, yet the day of the Parliament's meeting. The Members met in the afternoon at sermon, in the Abbey Church at Westminster : after sermon they attended the Protector in the Painted Chamber; who made a Speech to them of the cause of their summons," Speech u HIT- ported; "after which, they went to the House, and ad- journed to the next morning. " Monday, September 4th. The Protector rode in state from Whitehall to the Abbey Church in Westminster. Some hun- dreds of Gentlemen and Officers went before him bare ; with tin Life-guard ; and next before the coach, his pages and lackeys richly clothed. On the one side of his coach went Strickland, one of his Council, and Captain of his Guard, with the Master of the Ceremonies; both on foot. On the other side went Howard,* Captain of the Life-guard. In the coach with him were his son Henry, and Lambert ; both sat bare. All IT him came Claypole, Master of the Horse ; with a gallant led horse richly trapped. Next came the Commissioners of the Great Seal," Lisle, Widdrington, and I ; " Commissioners of the Treasury, and divers of the Council in coaches; last the ordinary Guards. " He alighting at the Abbey Church door," and entering, "the Officers of the Army and the Gentlemen went first ; next them four maces ; then the Commissioners of the Seal, Whit- currying the Purse; after, Lambert carrying the Sword ' : the rest followed. His Highness was seated over against the Pulpit ; the Members of the Parliament on both sides. "After the sermon, which was preached by Mr. Thomas Goodwin, his Highness went, in the same equipage, to the Painted Chamber. Where he took seat in a chair of state set upon steps," raised chair with a canopy over it, under which his Highness sat covered, "and the Members upon benches round about sat all bare. All being silent, his Highness/' * Letter OVII. vol. xvil. p. 4f,7. Colonel Charles, ancestor of the Earl of Carlisle. 400 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept, rising, " put off his hat, and made a large and subtle speech to them." l Here is a report of the Speech, " taken by one who stood very near," and " published 2 to prevent mistakes." As we, again, stand at some distance, two centuries with their chasms and ruins, our hearing is nothing like so good ! To help a little, I have, with reluctance, admitted from the latest of the Commentators a few annotations ; and interca- lated them the best I could ; suppressing very many. Let us listen well ; and again we shall understand somewhat. " GENTLEMEN, You are met here on the greatest occasion that, I believe, England ever saw ; having upon your shoulders the Interests of Three great Nations with the territories belong- ing to them ; and truly, I believe I may say it without any hyperbole, you have upon your shoulders the Interest of all the Christian People in the world. And the expectation is, that I should let you know, as far as I have cognizance of it, the occasion of your assembling together at this time. "It hath been very well hinted to you this day, 8 that you come hither to settle the Interests above mentioned : for your work here, in the issue and consequences of it, will extend so far [even to all Christian people]. In the way and manner of my speaking to you, I shall study plainness ; and to speak to you what is truth, and what is upon my heart, and what will in some measure reach to these great concernments. "After so many changes and turnings, which this Nation hath labored under, to have such a, day of hope as this is, and such a door of hope opened by God to us, truly I believe, some months since, would have been beyond all our thoughts ! I confess it would have been worthy of such a meeting as this is, To have remembered * that which was the rise [of], and gave the first beginning to, all these Troubles which have been upon this Nation : and to have given you a series of the Transactions, not of men, but of the Providence of God, all 1 Whitlocke, p. 582. 2 By G. Sawbrklge, at the Bible on Ludgate Hill, London, 1C54, 3 in the Sermon we have juat heard. * commemorated. 3054. SPEECH II. 401 along unto our late changes : as also the ground of our first undertaking to oppose that usurpation and tyranny 1 which was upon us, both in civils and spirituals ; and the several grounds particularly applicable to the several changes that have been. But I have two or three reasons which divert me from such a way of proceeding at this time. " If I should have gone in that way, [then] that which lies upon my heart [as to these things], which is [so] written there that if I would blot it out I could not, would [itself] have spent this day : the providences and dispensations of God have been so stupendous. As David said in the like case, I'snlm xl. 5, ' Many, Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to-us-ward : they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee : if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be num- bered.' Truly, another reason, unexpected by me, you had to-day in the Sermon : 2 you had much recapitulation of Provi- ilt-nce; much allusion to a state and dispensation in respect of disci pline and correction, of mercies and deliverances [to a state and dispensation similar to ours], to, in truth, the only parallel of God's dealing with us that I know in the world, which was largely and wisely held forth to you this day : To Israel's bringing out of Egypt through a wilderness by many signs and wonders, towards a Place of Rest, I say towards it.* And that having been so well remonstrated to you this day, is another argument why I shall not trouble you with a recapitulation of those things ; though they are things which I hope will never be forgotten, because written in better Books than those of paper ; written, I am persuaded, in the heart of y good man ! " [But] a third reason was this : What I judge to be the end of your meeting, the great end, which was likewise remem- bered to you this day ; * to wit, Healing and Settling. The 1 of Charles, Wentworth, Land and Company. * This Sermon of Goodwin's in not in the collected Edition of his Works ; not arnonpj the Kind's Pamphlets ; not in the Bodleian Library. We gather wli.it thr rinj;iii^ out in practice. 404 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept fourth), ( In the Last Days perilous times shall come ; men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,' and so on. But in speaking of the Antichristian state, he told us (First to Timothy, Chapter fourth, verses first and second), that ' in the latter days ' that state shall come in [not the last days but the latter], wherein 'there shall be a departing from the faith, and a giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy,' and so on. This is only his description of the latter times, or those of Antichrist ; and we are given to understand that there are last times coming, which will be worse ! * And surely it may be feared, these are our times. For when men forget all rules of Law and Nature, and break all the bonds that fallen man hath on him ; [obscuring] the remainder of the image of God in their nature, which they cannot blot out, and yet shall endeavor to blot out, ' having a form of godliness without the power,' [surely] these are sad tokens of the last times ! " And indeed the character wherewith this spirit and prin- ciple is described in that place [of Scripture], is so legible and visible, that he who runs may read it to be amongst us. For by such 'the grace of God is turned into wantonness,' and 1 There is no express mention of Antichrist either here or elsewhere in the Text of Timothy at all ; but, I conclude, a full conviction on the part of Crom- well and all sound Commentators that Antichrist is indubitably shadowed forth there. Antichrist means, with them and him, the Pope ; to whom Laud, &c., with his " four surplices at Allhallowtide " and other clothweb and cob- web furniture, are of kindred. " We have got rid of Antichrist," he seems to intimate, "we have got pretty well done with Antichrist: and are we now coming to something worse? To the Levellers, namely ! The Latter times are over, then ; and we are coming now into the Last times ? " It is on this contrast of comparative and superlative, Latter and Last, that Oliver's logic seems to ground itself : Paul says nothing of Antichrist, nor anything directly of the one time being worse or better than the other ; only the one time is " latter," the other is " last." This paragraph is not important ; but to gain any meaning from it whatever, some small changes have been necessary. I do not encumber the reader witli double samples of what at best is grown ob- solete to him : such as wish to see the original unadulterated unintelligibility, will find it, in clear print, p. 321, vol. xx. of Parliamentary History, and satisfy themselves whether I have read well or ill. 1654. SPEECH II. 405 Christ and the Spirit of God made a cloak for all villany and spurious apprehensions. [Threatening to go a strange course) those Antinomian, Levelling, (lay-dreaming Delasionists ofours!~\ And though nobody will own these things publicly as to practice, the things being so abominable and odious; yet [the consideration] how this principle extends itself, and whence it had its rise, makes me to think of a Second sort of Men [tending in the same direction] ; who it 's true, as I said, will not practise nor own these things, yet can tell the Magistrate 'That he hath nothing to do with men holding such notions : These [forsooth] are matters of conscience and opinion : they are matters of Religion ; what hath the Magis- trate to do with these things ? He is to look to the outward man, not to the inward ' [and so forth]. And truly it so happens that though these things do break out visibly to all, yet the principle wherewith these things are carried on so forbids the Magistrate to meddle with them, that it hath hitherto kept the offenders from punishment. 1 "Such considerations, and pretensions to 'liberty of con- science ' [what are they leading us towards] ! Liberty of Con- science, and Liberty of the Subject, two as glorious things to be contended for, as any that God hath given us ; yet both these abused for the patronizing of villanies ! Insomuch that it hath been an ordinary thing to say, and in dispute to affirm, ' That the restraining of such pernicious notions was not in the Magistrate's power; he had nothing to do with it. Not so much as the printing of a Bible in the Nation for the use of the People [was competent to the Magistrate], lest it should l>e imposed upon the consciences of men,' for ' they would receive the same traditionally and implicitly from the Magis- i The latest of the Commentators says : " This drossy paragraph has not mnch Politic! Philosophy in it, according to our modern established Litany of 'toWa'ioM,' ' fn--d'im of opinion,' 'no man responsible for what opinions In- may f-Tiii.' , indubitably the stars .-till u;c." 406 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept trate, if it were thus received ! ' The afore-mentioned abomi- nations did thus swell to this height among us. " [So likewise] the axe was laid to the root of the Ministry. 1 It was Antichristian, it was Babylonish [said they]. It suf- fered under such a judgment, that the truth is, as the extremity was great according to the former system, 2 1 wish it prove not as great according to this. The former extremity [we suffered under] was, That no man, though he had never so good a testi- mony, though he had received gifts from Christ, might preach, unless ordained. So now [I think we are at the other ex- tremity, when] many affirm, That he who is ordained hath a nullity, or Antichristianism, stamped [thereby] upon his call- ing ; so that he ought not to preach, or not be heard. I wish it may not be too justly said, That there was severity and sharpness [in our old system] ! Yea, too much of an imposing spirit in matters of conscience ; a spirit unchristian enough in any times, most unfit for these [times] ; denying liberty [of conscience] to men who have earned it with their blood ; who have earned civil liberty, and religious also, for those [Stifled murmurs from, the Presbyterian Sect] who would thus impose upon them ! " We may reckon among these our Spiritual evils, an evil that hath more refinedness in it, more color for it, and hath deceived more people of integrity than the rest have done ; for few have been catched by the former mistakes except such as have apostatized from their holy profession, such as, being corrupt in their consciences, have been forsaken by God, and left to such noisome opinions. But, I say, there is another error of more refined sort ; [which] many honest people whose hearts are sincere, many of them belonging to God [have fallen into] . and that is the mistaken notion of the Fifth Monarchy [Yes, your Highness ! But will his Highness and the old Parliament be pleased here to pause a little, till a faithful Editor take the great liberty of explaining somewhat to the 1 Preaching Clergy. 8 " on that hand " in orig. He alludes to the Presbyterian system. 1664. SPEECH II. 407 modern part of the audience ? Here is a Note saved from de- struction; not without difficulty. To his Highness and the old Parliament it will be inaudible ; to them, standing very impassive, serene, immovable in the fixedness of the old Eternities, it will be no hardship to wait a little ! And to us who still live and listen, it may have its uses. " The common mode of treating Universal History," says our latest impatient Commentator, " not yet entirely fallen ob- solete in this country, though it has been abandoned with much ridicule everywhere else for half a century now, was to group the Aggregate Transactions of the Human Species into Four Monarchies : the Assyrian Monarchy of Nebuchadnezzar and ( 'ompany ; the 1'ersian of Cyrus and ditto ; the Greek of Alex- ander; and lastly the Roman. These I think were they, but am no great authority on the subject. Under the dregs of this last, or Roman Empire, which is maintained yet by express name in Germany, Dopulations of this world. Good shall ivign on this Earth : has not the Most High said it ? To ap- prove Harrison, to justify Harrison, will avail little for thee ; g and tiki-wise. Go and do better, thou that disapprovest him. SIM-MI! thou thy life for the Eternal : wo will call thee brave, and rememUT thru for a while ! " 408 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept. So much for " that mistaken notion of the Fifth Monarchy : " and now his Highness, tragically audible across the Centuries, continues again :] Fifth Monarchy. A thing pretending more spirituality than anything else. A notion I hope we all honor, and wait, and hope for [the fulfilment of] : That Jesus Christ will have a time to set up His Reign in our hearts ; by subduing those corruptions and lusts and evils that are there ; which now reign more in the world than, I hope, in due time they shall do. And when more fulness of the Spirit is poured forth to subdue iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness, then will the approach of that glory be. [Most trite ; and not till then /] The carnal divisions and contentions among Christians, so common, are not the symptoms of that Kingdom ! But for men, on this principle, to be title themselves, that they are the only men to rule kingdoms, govern nations, and give laws to people, and determine of property and liberty and everything else, upon such a pretension as this is : truly they had need to give clear manifestations of God's presence with them, before wise men will receive or submit to their conclusions ! Nevertheless, as many of these men have good meanings, which I hope in my soul they have, it will be the wisdom of all knowing and experienced Christians to do as Jude saith. [Jude,] when he reckoned up those horrible things, done upon pretences, and haply by some upon mistakes : ' Of some/ says he, ' have compassion, making a difference ; others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.' 1 I fear they will give too often opportunity for this exercise ! But I hope the same will be for their good. If men do but [so much as] pretend for justice and righteousness, and be of peace- able spirits, and will manifest this, let them be the subjects of the Magistrate's encouragement. And if the Magistrate, by punishing visible miscarriages, save them by that dis- cipline, God having ordained him for that end, I hope it will evidence love and not hatred, [so] to punish where there is cause. [Hear!'] 1 Jade 22, 23. A passage his Highness frequently refers to. 1W4. SPEECH II. 409 " Indeed this is that which doth most declare the danger l of that spirit. For if these were but notions, I mean these instances I have given you of dangerous doctrines both in Civil things and Spiritual ; if, I say, they were but notions, they were best let alone. Notions will hurt none but those that have them. But when they come to such practices as telling us [for instance], That Liberty and Property are not the badges of the Kingdom of Christ ; when they tell us, not that we are to regulate Law, but that Law is to be abrogated, indeed subverted ; and perhaps wish to bring in the Juduical Law [Latest Commentator loquitur : " This, as we observed, was the cry that Westminster raised when the Little Parliament set about reforming Chancery. What countenance this of the Mosaic Law might have had from Harrison and his minority, one does not know. Probably they did find the Mosaic Law, in some of its enactments, more cognate to Eternal Justice and ' the mind of God ' than Westminster-Hall Law was ; and so might reproachfully or admonitorily appeal to it on occa- sion, as they had the clearest title and call to do: but the clamor itself, as significant of any practical intention, on the part of that Parliament, or of any considerable Sect in Eng- land, to bring in the Mosaic Law, is very clearly a long-wigged one, rising from the Chancery regions, and is descriptive of nothing but of the humor that prevailed there. His Highness alludes to it in passing ; and from him it was hardly worth vni that allusion."] Judaical Law ; instead of our known laws settled among us : this is worthy of every Magistrate's consideration. Especially win-re every stouo is turned to bring in confusion. I think, I say, this will be worthy of the Magistrate's consideration. [Slmll he step beyond his province, then, your Highness? And Int, i- fere with freedom of opinion? "/ think, I say, it will be worth his while to consider about it I ""] 1 This fact, that they come so oftc-n to "risible miscarriages," these Fifth MouarchiftU and S|HH-ulativo LvveUera, who " have good meaniogM." 410 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept. " Whilst these things were in the midst of us ; and whilst the Nation was rent and torn in spirit and principle from one end to the other, after this sort and manner I have now told you; family against family, husband against wife, parents against children ; and nothing in the hearts and minds of men but ' Overturn, overturn, overturn ! ' (a Scripture phrase very much abused, and applied to justify unpeaceable practices by all men of discontented spirits), the common Enemy sleeps not : our adversaries in civil and religious respects did take advantage of these distractions and divisions, and did practise accordingly in the three Nations of England, Scotland and Ireland. We know very well that Emissaries of the Jesuits never came in such swarms as they have done since those things 1 were set on foot. And I tell you that divers Gen- tlemen here can bear witness with me How that they [the Jesuits] have had a Consistory abroad which rules all the affairs of things ["Affairs of things : " rough and ready /] in England, from an Archbishop down to the other dependents upon him. And they had fixed in England of which we are able to produce the particular Instruments in most of the limits of their Cathedrals [or pretended Dioceses] an Epis- copal Power [Regular Episcopacy of their own!^ with Arch- deacons, &c. And had persons authorized to exercise and distribute those things [/ begin to love that rough-and-ready method, in comparison with some others /] ; who pervert and deceive the people. And all this, while we were in that sad, and as I said deplorable condition. " And in the mean time all endeavors possible were used to hinder the work [of God] in Ireland, and the progress of the work of God in Scotland ; by continual intelligences and cor- respondences, both at home and abroad, from hence into Ire- land, and from hence into Scotland. 2 Persons were stirred up, from our divisions and discomposure of affairs, to do all they could to ferment the War in both these places. To add yet to our misery, whilst we were in this condition, we were in a 1 Speculations of the Levellers, Fifth-Monarchists, &c. &c. 3 Middletoii-(jloiica.ini Revolts, ami what not. i 54. SPEECH n. 411 [foreign] War. Deeply engaged in War with the Portuguese ; l whereby our Trade ceased : the evil consequences by that War were manifest and very considerable. And not only this, but we had a War with Holland ; consuming our treasure ; occasion- ing a vast burden upon the people. A War that cost this Nation full as much as the [whole] Taxes came unto; the Navy being a hundred and sixty ships, which cost this Nation al>ove 100,000 a month ; besides the contingencies, which would make it 120,000. That very one War [sic] did engage us to so great a charge. At the same time also we were in a \Y;ir with France. \_A Bickering and Skirmishing and Liability to War; 9 Mazarin as yet thinking our side weaker.] The advantages that were taken of the discontents and divisions among ourselves did also ferment that War, and at least hinder us of an honorable peace ; every man being confident we could not hold out long. And surely they did not calculate amiss, if the Lord had not been exceedingly gracious to us ! I say, at the same time we had a War with France. [Yes, ymtr Highness said sn, and we admit it/"] And besides the suffer- ings in respect to the Trade of the Nation, it 's most evident that the Purse of the Nation could not have been able much longer to bear it, by reason of the advantages taken by other States to improve their own, and spoil our Manufacture of Cloth, and hinder the vent thereof; which is the great st:i]>l commodity of this Nation. [And has continued to be!~\ Such was our condition : spoiled in our Trade, and we at this vast expense; thus dissettled at home, and having these engage- ments abroad. " Things being so, and I am persuaded it is not hard to convince every person here they were so, what a heap of ( mfusions were ujjon these poor Nations I And cither tliin-; must, h.ivr lii-iMi h'ft to sink into the miseries these premises would suppose, or else a remedy must be applied. [yf/y/r- ently f] A remedy hath been ajiplird; that hath been this 1 Wli<> protected Uii|H-rt in hi* qaani-|iiraci("<, :inoiiJix, No. 28. 412 PART VIIT. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept. Government ; * a thing I shall sny little unto. The thing is open and visible to be seen and read by all men ; and there- fore let it speak for itself. [Even so, your Highness ; there is a silence prouder and nobler than any speech one is used to hear.] Only let me say this, because I can speak it with comfort and confidence before a Greater than you all : That in the intention of it, as to the approving of our hearts to God, let men judge as the}'' please, it was calculated [with our best wisdom] for the interest of the People. For the interest of the People alone, and for their good, without respect had to any other interest. And if that be not true [ With animation /], I shall be bold to say again, Let it speak for itself. Truly I may I hope, humbly before God, and modestly before you say somewhat on the behalf of the Government. [Recite a little what it " speaks for itself,'' after all ?] Not that I would discourse of the particular heads of it, but acquaint you a little with the effects it has had : and this not for ostentation's sake, but to the end I may at this time deal faithfully with you, and acquaint you with the state of things, and what proceedings have been entered into by 2 this Government, and what the state of our affairs is. This is the main end of my putting you to this trouble. " The Government hath had some things in desire ; and it hath done some things actually. It hath desired to reform the Laws. I say to reform them \_jffearf]: and for that end it hath called together Persons, without offence be it spoken, of as great ability and as great interest as are in these Nations, 3 to consider how the Laws might be made plain and short, and less chargeable to the People ; how to lessen expense, for the good of the Nation. And those things are in prepara- tion, and Bills prepared ; which in due time, I make no ques- tion, will be tendered to you. [In the mean while] there hath been care taken to put the administration of the Laws into the 1 He means, and his hearers understand him to mean, " Form of Govern- ment " mainly ; but he diverges now and then into our modern acceptation of the word " Government," Administration or Supreme Authority. 2 " been upon " in orig. 8 Ordinance for the Reform of Chancery : antea, p. 388. 1654. SPEECH II. 413 hands of just men [Matthew Hale, for instance] ; men of the most known integrity and ability. The Chancery hath been reformed [FROM THE MODERNS : " Only to a very small extent and in a very temporary manner, your Highness ! His Highness returns upon the Law, on subsequent occasions, and finds the reform of it still a very pressing matter. Difficult to sweep the intricate foul chimneys of Law his Highness found it, as we after two centuries of new soot and accumulation now acknowledge on all hands, with a sort of silent despair, a silent wonder each one of us to himself, 'What, in God's name, is to become of all that ? ' " ] hath been reformed ; I hope, to the satisfaction of all good men : and as for the things [or causes] depending there, which made the burden and work of the honorable Persons intrusted in those services too heavy for their ability, it 1 hath referred many of them to those places where Englishmen love to have their rights tried, the Courts of Law at Westminster. " This Government hath [farther] endeavored to put a stop to that heady way (likewise touched of [in our Sermon] this day) of every man making himself a Minister and Preacher. [Commission of Triers ; Yeaf] It hath endeavored to settle a method for the approving and sanctioning of men of piety and ability to discharge that work. And I think I may say it hath committed the business to the trust of Persons, both of the Presbyterian and Independent judgments, of as known ability, piety and integrity, as any, I believe, this Nation hath. And I believe also that, in that care they have taken, they have labored to approve themselves to Christ, to the Nation and to their own consciences. And indeed I think, if there be anything of quarrel against thorn, though I am not here to justify the proceedings of any, it is that they [in fact] go ui>on such a character as the Scripture warrants: To put men into that great Employ mriit. and to approve men inr 1 Tllf (JilVlTIIIIK'l.l 414 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept. it, who are men that have ' received gifts from Him that ascended up on high, and gave gifts' for the work of the Ministry, and for the edifying of the Body of Christ. The Government hath also taken care, we hope, for the expulsion [Commission of Expurgation, too,"] of all those who may be judged any way unfit for this work ; who are scandalous, and the common scorn and contempt of that function. " One thing more this Government hath done : it hath been instrumental to call a free Parliament ; which, blessed be God, we see here this day ! I say, a free Parliament. [Mark the iteration /] And that it may continue so, I hope is in the heart and spirit of every good man in England, save such discontented persons as I have formerly mentioned. It 's that which as I have desired above my life, so I shall desire to keep it above my life. [ Verily ?~\ " I did before mention to you the plunges we were in with respect to Foreign States ; by the War with Portugal, France, the Dutch, the Danes, and the little assurance we had froih any of our neighbors round about. I perhaps forgot, but indeed it was a caution upon my mind, and I desire now it may be so understood, That if any good hath been done, it was the Lord, not we His poor instruments. [Pity if this pass entirely for " cant," my esteemed modern friends ! It is not cant, nor ought to be. O Higginbotham, there is a Selbsttodtung, a killing of Self, as my friend Novalis calls it, which is, was, and forever will be, "the beginning of all morality," of all real work and worth for man under this Sun.] I did instance the Wars ; which did exhaust your treasure ; and put you into such a condition that you must have sunk therein, if it had continued but a few months longer : this I can affirm, if strong probability may be a fit ground. And now you have, though it be not the first in time Peace with Swedeland ; an honorable peace ; through the endeavors of an honorable Person here present as the instrument. [ WMtlocke seen Hushing!] I say you have an honorable peace with a 1654. SPEECH II. 415 Kingdom which, not many years since, was much a friend to France, and lately perhaps inclinable enough to the Spaniard. And I believe you expect not much good from any of your Catholic neighbors [JVb / we are not exactly their darlings /] ; nor yet that they would be very willing you should have a good understanding with your Protestant friends. Yet, thanks l)e to God, that Peace is concluded ; and as I said before, it is an honorable Peace. " You have a Peace with the Danes, a State that lay con- fi pilous to that part of this Island which hath given us the most trouble. [Your Montroses, Middletons came a/irnys, inth their Moss-troopers and Harpy hoste, out of the Danish quarter. ~\ And certainly if your enemies abroad be able to annoy you, it is likely they will take their advantage (where it best lies) to give you trouble from that country. But you have a Peace there, and an honorable one. Satisfaction to your Merchants' ships ; not only to their content, but to their rejoicing. 1 I l>elieve you will easily know it is so [an honorable peace]. You have the Sound open ; which used to be obstructed. That which was and is the strength of this Nation, the Shipping, will now be supplied thence. And whereas you were glad to have anything of that kind a at second-hand, you have now all manner of commerce there, and at as much freedom as the Dutch themselves [who used to be the carriers and venders of it to us] ; and at the same rates and tolls ; and I think, by that Peace, the said rates now fixed upon cannot be raised to you [in future]. " You have a Peace with the Dutch : a Peace unto which I shall say little, seeing it is so well known in the benefit and consequences thereof. And I think it was as desirable, and as acceptable to the spirit of this Nation, as any one thing that. lay l*fore us. And, as I believe nothing so much gratified our 1 " Danish claims settled," as was already aid somewhere, "on the 31st of July : " Dutch and English Commissioners did it, in Goldsmiths' Hall ; "ft on the 27th of June ; if the business were not done when August began, they were then to be "shut up without fire, candle, meat or drink," and to it out very speedily ! Tht-y allowi-d -,ur M.-r.-liants -98,OO<> for damages against the IHIHM (Codwin, iv. 4. Hut you are not yet entered ! [Looking up, with a mournful toss of the head, I think. " Ah, no, your Highness ; not yet ! "] "You were told to-day of a People brought out of Egypt towards the Land of Canaan ; but through unbelief, murmuring, iv I nning, and other temptations and sins wherewith God was provoked, they were fain to come back again, and linger many years in the Wilderness before they came to the Place of Rest. 1 1 ;ire thus far, through the mercy of God. We have cause t> t:tki- iK'tin- of it, That we are not brought into misery [not totally wrecked] ; but [have] as I said before, a door of hope |.-ii. And I may say this to you : If tho Lord's blessing and Hi- j.p-senee go along with the management of affairs at this Mi-fting, you will be enabled to put the topstnne to the work, and make the Nation happy. Hut this must be by know- ing the true state .ur Sue-cease* aud Treaties, &c. enumerated above. VOL. xvin. 27 418 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 4 Sept. People under Circumcision, but raw. 1 Your Peaces are but newly made. And it 's a maxim not to be despised, ' Though peace be made, yet it 's interest that keeps peace ; ' and I hope you will not trust such peace except so far as you see interest upon it. [But all settlement grows stronger by m<-r<> continuance.] And therefore I wisli that you may go forward, and not backward ; and [in brief] that you may have the bless- ing of God upon your endeavors ! It 's one of the great ends of calling this Parliament, that the Ship of the Commonwealth may be brought into a safe harbor; which, I assure you, it will not be, without your counsel and advice. " You have great works upon your hands. You have Ireland to look unto. There is not much done to the Planting thereof, though some things leading and preparing for it are. It is a great business to settle the Government of that Nation upon fit terms, such as will bear that work 2 through. You have had laid before you some considerations, intimating your peace with several foreign States. But yet you have not made peace with. all. And if they should see we do not manage our affairs with that wisdom which becomes us, truly we may sink under disadvantages, for all that's done. [Truly, your High ness /] And our enemies will have their eyes open, and be revived, if they see animosities amongst us ; which indeed will be their great advantage. " I do therefore persuade you to a sweet, gracious and holy understanding of one another, and of your business. [Alas /] Concerning which you had so good counsel this day ; Avhich as it rejoiced my heart to hear, so I hope the Lord will imprint it upon your spirits, wherein you shall have my Prayers. [Prayers, your Highness? If this be not "cant" what noble thing is it, O reader ! Worth thinking of, for a moment. ~\ " Having said this, and perhaps omitted many other material things through the frailty of my memory, I shall exercise plain- ness and freeness with you ; and say, That I have not spoken 1 See, in Joshua, v. 2-8, the whole Jewish Nation circumcised at once. So, too, your Settlements of Discord are yet but indifferently cicatrized. 2 Of planting Ireland with persons that will plough and pray, instead of quarrel and blarney. 1654. SPEECH IT. 419 these things as one who assumes to himself dominion over you ; but as one who doth resolve to be a fellow-servant with you to the interest of these groat affairs, and of the People of these Nations. I shall trouble you no longer ; but desire you to repair to your House, and to exercise your own liberty in the choice of a Speaker, that so you may lose no time in carrying on your work." 1 At this Speech, say the old Newspapers, "all generally seemed abundantly to rejoice, by extraordinary expressions ami hums at the conclusion," Hum-m-m! 3 "His Highness withdrew into the old House of Lords, and the Members of Parliament into the Parliament House. His Highness, so soon as the Parliament were gone to their House, went back to Whitehall, privately in his barge, by water." This Report of Speech Second, "taken by one that stood n<-ar," and "published to prevent mistakes," may be con- sidered as exact enough in respect of matter, but in manner and style it is probably not so close to the Original Deliver ance as the foregoing Speech was. He " who stood near " on this occasion seems to have had some conceit in his abilities as a Reporter; has pared off excrescences, peculiarities, somewhat desirous to present the Portrait of his Highness without the warts. He, or his Parliamentary-History Editor and he, have, for one thing, very arbitrarily divided tho Discourse into little fractional paragraphs; which a good deal obstruct the sense here and there; and have accordingly Keen disregarded in our Transcript. Our changes, which, as before, have been insignificant, are indicated wherever tln-y seem to have importance or physiognomic character, indicated too often, perhaps, for the reader's convenience. o the meaning, I have not anywhere remained in doubt, after due study. The rough Speech when read faithfully 1 Old Pamphlet cited abore: reprinted in Parliammlnry History, xx. 318- na * Cramvxlliana, p. 147 ; see also Gnibon Goddard, Member for Lynn (ii> Burton, i. I lit rod p. xriii.). 420 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept becomes transparent, every word of it; credible, calculated to produce conviction, every word of it; and that I suppose is or should be, as our impatient Commentator says, "the definition of a good Speech. Other ' good speeches,' " continues he, " ought to be spoken in Bedlam ; unless, indeed, you will concede them Drury Lane, and admittance one shilling. Spoken in other localities than these, without belief on the speaker's part, or hope or chance of producing belief on the hearer's Ye Heavens, as if the good-speeching individual were some frightful Wood-and-leather Man, made at Niiruberg, and tenanted by a Devil ; set to increase the Sum of Human Madness, instead of lessening it !" But we here cut short our impatient Commentator. The Reporter of Cromwell, we may say for ourselves, like the painter of him, has not to suppress the warts, the natural rugged physiognomy of the man; which only very poor tastes would exchange for any other. He has to wash the natural face clean, however ; that men may see it, and not the opaque mass of mere soot and featureless confusions which, in two Centuries of considerable Stupidity in regard to that matter, have settled there. SPEECH IIL THIS First Protectorate Parliament, we said, was not suc- cessful. It chose, judiciously enough, old Leuthall for Speaker; appointed, judiciously enough, a Day of general Fasting: but took, directly after that, into constitutional debate about Sanctioning the Form of Government (which nobody was specially asking it to " sanction ") ; about Par- liament and Single Person; powers of Single Person and of Parliament; Co-ordination, Subordination; and other bottom- less subjects; in which getting always the deeper the more it puddled in them, inquiry or intimation of inquiry rose not obscurely in the distance, Whether this Government should be by a Parliament and Single Person? These things the honorable gentlemen, with true industry, debated in Grand 1664. M'KKCH III. Committee, "from eight in the morning till eight at night, with an hour for refreshment about noon," debates waxing ever hotter, question ever more abstruse, through Friday, Saturday, Monday ; ready, if Heaven spared them, to debate it farther for unlimited days. Constitutional Presbyterian j)er- sons, Use-aud-wont Neuters; not without a spicing of sour Republicans, as Bradshaw, Haselrig, Scott, to keep the batch in leaven. His Highness naturally perceived that this would never do, not this; sent therefore to the Lord Mayor, late on Monday night I think, to look after the peace of the City ; to Speaker Lenthall, that he must bring his people to the Painted Chamber before going farther : and early on Tuesday morning, poor Mr. Guibon Goddard, Member for Lynn, just about to proceed again, from the Eastern parts, towards his sublime constitutional day's-work, is overwhelmed by rumors, "That the Parliament is dissolved ; that, for certain, the Council of State, and a Council of War, had sat together all the Sabbath- day before, and had then contrived this Dissolution ! " "Notwithstanding," continues Guibon, "I was resolved to go to Westminster, to satisfy myself of the truth; and to take my share of what I should see or learn there. Going by water to Westminster, I was told that the Parliament- doors were locked up, and guarded with soldiers, and that the Barges were to attend the Protector to the Painted Chamber. As I went, I saw two Barges at the Privy Stairs. River and City in considerable emotion. Being come to the Hall, I was confirmed in what I had heard. Nevertheless I did purpose not to take things merely upon trust; but would receive an actual repulse, to confirm my faith. Accord- ingly, I attempted up the Parliament stairs; but a guard of Soldiers was there, who told me, 'There was no passage that way ; the House was locked up, and command given to give no admittance to any; if I were a Member, I might go into the Painted Chamber, where the Protector would pres- ently be.' The Mace had been taken away by Commissary- Cmeral Whallry. Tin- S|M-.ik-r and all the Members were walking up and down the Hall, th Court of Requests, and 422 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept. the Painted Chamber ; expecting the Protector's coining. The passages there likewise were guarded with soldiers." l No doubt about it, therefore, my honorable friend! Dis- solution, or something, is not far. Between nine and ten, the Protector arrived, with due escort of Officers, halberds, Life-guards; toot his place, covered, under "the state" as before, we all sitting bareheaded on our benches as before ; and with fit salutation spake to us; as follows. "Speech of an hour and a half long;" taken in characters by the former individual who " stood near ; " audible still to modern men. Tuesday morning, 12th September, 1654 ; a week and a day since the last Speech here. In this remarkable Speech, the occasion of which and the Speaker of which are very extraordinary, an assiduous reader, or "modern hearer," will find Historical indications, signifi- cant shadowings-forth both of the Protectorate and the Pro- tector ; which, considering whence they come, he will not fail to regard as documentary in those matters. Nay perhaps, here for the first time, if he read with real industry, there may begin to paint itself for him, on the void Dryasdust Abyss, hitherto called History of Oliver, some dim adumbration of How this business of Assuming the Protectorate may actually have been. It was, many years ago, in reading these Speeches, with a feeling that they must have been credible when spoken, and with a strenuous endeavor to find what their meaning was, and try to believe it, that to the present Editor the Com- monwealth, and Puritan Rebellion generally, first began to be conceivable. Such was his experience. But certainly the Lord Protector's place, that September Tuesday, 1G54, is not a bed of roses ! His painful assevera- tions, appeals and assurances have made the Modern part of his audience look, more than once, with questioning eyes. On this point, take from a certain Commentator sometimes above cited from, and far oftener suppressed, the following rough words : " ' Divers persons who do know whether I lie in that,' says the Lord Protector. What a position for a hero, to be reduced 1 Ayscough MSS-, printed iu Burton's Diary, i. Introd. p. xxxiii. SPEECH III. 423 continually to say He does not lie ! Consider well, never- theless, What else could Oliver do ? To get on with this new Parliament was clearly his one chance of governing peace- ably. To wrap himself up in stern pride, and refuse to give any explanation : would that have been the wise plan of deal- ing with them '( Or the stately and not-so-wise plan? Alas, tin wise plan, when all lay yet as an experiment, with so dread issues in it to yourself and the whole world, was not very
  • n the whole, concludes our Commentator : " As good an explanation as the case admits of, from a barrel-head, or 'raised platform under a state.' Where so much that is true cannot be said ; and yet nothing that is f;ii shall be said, under penalties forgotten in our Time ! With regard to those asseverations and reiterated appeals, note this also : An oath 424 PART V11I. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept was an oath then ; not a solemn piece of blasphemous cant, as too often since. No contemporary that I have met with, who had any opportunity to judge, disbelieved Oliver in these pro- testations; though many believed that he was unconsciously deceiving himself. Which, of course, we too, where needful, must ever remember that he was liable to do ; nay, if you will, that he was continually doing. But to this Commentator, at this stage in the development of things, ' Apology ' seems not the word for Oliver Cromwell; not that, but a far other word ! The Modern part of his Highness's audience can listen now, I think, across the Time-gulfs, in a different mood ; with candor, with human brotherhood, with reverence and grateful love. Such as the noble never claim in vain from those that have any nobleness. This of tasking a great soul continually to prove to us that he was not a liar, is too un- washed a way of welcoming a Great Man ! Scrubby Appren- tices of tender years, to them it might seem suitable ; still more readily to Apes by the Dead Sea ! " Let us have done with it, my friend ; and listen to the Speech itself, of date, Painted Chamber, 12th September, 1654, the best we can ! " GENTLEMEN, It is not long since I met you in this place, upon an occasion which gave me much more content and com- fort than this doth. That which I have now to say to you will need no preamble, to let me into my discourse : for the occasion of this meeting is plain enough. I could have wished with all my heart there had been no cause for it. " At our former meeting I did acquaint you what was the first rise of this Government, which hath called you hither, and by the authority of which you have come hither. Among other things which I then told you of, I said, You were a Free Parliament. And [truly] so you are, whilst you own the Government and Authority which called you hither. But cer- tainly that word [Free Parliament] implied a reciprocity, 1 or it implied nothing at all ! Indeed there was a reciprocity im- plied and expressed ; and I think your actions and carriages 1 " reciprocation " in orig. 1654. SPEECH III. 425 ought to be suitable ! But I see it will be necessary for me now a little to magnify my Office. Which I have not been apt to do. I have been of this mind, I have been always of this mind, since I iirst entered upon my Office, If God will not bear it up, let it sink ! [ Yea /] But if a duty be incumbent upon me to bear my testimony unto it (which in modesty I have hitherto forborne), I am in some measure necessitated thereunto. And therefore that will be the prologue to my discourse. " I called not myself to this place. I say again, I called not myself to this place ! Of that God is witness : and I have many witnesses who, I do believe, could lay down their lives bearing witness to the truth of that. Namely, That I called not myself to this place ! [His Highness is growing emphatic.'] And being in it, I bear not witness to myself [or my office ] ; but God and the People of these Nations have also borne tes- timony to it [and me]. If my calling be from God, and my testimony from the People, God and the People shall take it from me, else I will not part with it. [Do you mark that, and the air and manner of it, my honorable friends /] I should be false to the trust that God hath placed in me, and to the interest of the People of these Nations, if I did. " ' That I called not myself to this place,' is my first asser- tion. ' That I bear not witness to myself, but have many witnesses,' is my second. These two things I shall take the liberty to speak more fully to you of. To make plain and d.-.ir what I have here asserted, I must take liberty to look [a little] back. " I was by birth a Gentleman ; living neither in any con- siderable height, nor yet in obscurity. I have been called to several employments in the Nation : To serve in Parliament [and others] ; and not to be over-tedious I did endeavor to discharge the duty of an honest man, in those services, to God and His People's Interest, and to the Commonwealth; li.ivin^, when time was, a competent acceptation in the hearts of men, and some evidences thereof. I resolve, not to recite tin- times and occasions and opportunities, which have been appointed mo by God to serve Him in j uor the presence and 426 PART VITT. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept. blessings of God therein bearing testimony to me. [ Well said, and well forborne to be said!~\ "Having had some occasions to see, together with my brethren and countrymen, a happy period put to our sharp Wars and contests with the then common Enemy, I hoped, in a private capacity, to have reaped the fruit and benefit, together with my brethren, of our hard labors and hazards : the enjoyment, to wit, of Peace and Liberty, and the privi- leges of a Christian and a Man, in some equality with others, according as it should please the Lord to dispense unto nie. And when, I say, God had put an end to our Wars, or at least brought them to a very hopeful issue, very near an end, after Worcester Fight, I came up to London to pay my ser- vice and duty to the Parliament which then sat : hoping that all minds would have been disposed to answer what seemed to be the mind of God, namely, To give peace and rest to His People, and especially to those who had bled more than others in the carrying on of the Military affairs, I was much dis- appointed of my expectation. For the issue did not prove so. [Suppressed murmurs from Bradshaw and Company.] What- ever may be boasted or misrepresented, it was not so, not so ! " I can say, in the simplicity of my soul, I love not, I love not, I declined it in my former Speech, 1 I say, I love not to rake into sores, or to discover nakednesses ! The thing I drive at is this : I say to you, I hoped to have had leave [for my own part] to retire to a private life. I begged to be dis- missed of my charge ; I begged it again and again ; and God be Judge between me and all men if I lie in this matter ! [Groans from Dryasdust, scarcely audible, in the deep silence.'} That I lie not in matter of fact is known to very many [" Hum-m-m ! " Look of " Yea ! " from the Military Party] : but whether I tell a lie in my heart, as laboring to represent to you what was not upon my heart, I say the Lord be Judge. 2 Let uncharitable men, who measure others by themselves, judge as they please. As to the matter of fact. I say, It is true. As to the ingenuity and integrity of my heart in that 1 Antea, Speech I. p. 298. a He : Believe you alxmt that as you see good. if?r,j. SPEECH HI. 427 desire, I do appeal as before upon the truth of that also! But I could not obtain [what I desired] what my soul longed for. And the plain truth is, I did afterwards apprehend some were of opinion (such the difference of their judgment from mine), That it could not well be. 1 " I confess I am in some strait to say what I could say, and what is true, of what then followed. I pressed the Parliament, as a Member, To period themselves; once and again, nnd :!"ain, and ten, nay twenty times over. I told them, for 1 knew it better than any one man in the "Parliament could 1 now it; because of my manner of life, which had led me everywhere np and down the Nation, 3 thereby giving me to s-. and know the temper and spirits of all men, and of the lit-st of men, that the Nation loathed their sitting. [Hasel- riy, faott and others looking very rjrim.~\ I knew it. And, so far as I could discern, when they were dissolved, there was not so much ns the barking of a dog, or any general and visi- ble repining at it! \1Iow nslmihltl-nrj t1i<>re should not have l>i-i-it /] You are not a few here present who can assert this as well as myself. "And that there was high cause for their dissolution, is most evident : not only in regard there was a just fear of that Parliament's perpetuating themselves, but because it [actu- ally] was their design. [Yes] had not their heels been trod upon by importunities from abroad, even to threats, I believe there never would have been [any] thoughts of rising, or of going out of that lloom, to the world's end. I myself was sounded, and, by no mean persons [07*, Sir Tfnrry Vant >/], ti-mpted; and proposals were made me to that very end: That the Parliament * might be thus perpetuated; that the if, jil.H-i s uii^ht be supplied by new elections ; and so riiiif.iime from generation to generation. "I have declined. 1 have deelined v-ry much, to open these to you. [//'/// noble, man ivould not, your JHyhness?] 1 That I ruuM n< it !> -|i:tn- /] By an arbitrary Power, I say : 2 to make men's estates liable to confiscation, and their persons to impris- onment, sometimes [even] by laws made after the fact committed; often by the Parliament's assuming to itself to * Antea, p. 278. a Such as the Long Parliament did continually exert. 1054. SPEECH TIT. 429 give judgment both in capital and criminal things, which in former times was not known to exercise such a judicature. 1 This, I suppose, was the case [then before us]. And, in my opinion, the remedy was fitted to the disease ! Especially com- ing in the rear of a Parliament which had so exercised its power and authority as that Parliament had done but imme- diately before. " Truly I confess, upon these grounds, and with the satis- faction of divers other persons who saw nothing could be had otherwise, that Parliament was dissolved [Not a doubt of it /] : and we, desiring to see if a few might have been called together for some short time who might put the Nation into some way of certain settlement, did call those Gentlemen [ The Little Parliament ; we remember them /] out of the sev- eral parts of the Nation. And as I have appealed to God before you already, 2 though it be a tender thing to make appeals to God, yet in such exigences as these I trust it will not offend His Majesty ; especially to make them before Persons that know God, and know what conscience is, and what it is to ' lie before the Lord ' ! I say, As a principal end in calling that Assembly was the settlement of the Nation, so a chief end to myself was to lay down the Power which was iu my hands. [Ifum-m-m /] I say to you again, in the 1 Intricate paragraphs, this and the foregoing ; treating of a subject com- plex in itself, and very delicate to handle before such an audience. His Iligh- nem's logic perhaps hobbles somewhat : but this strain of argument, which to us has fallen so dim and obsolete, was very familiar to the audience ho was now addressing, the staple indeed of what their debates for the last throe !iad been (Burton, i. Introd. pp. 25-3.3 ; Whitlocke, p. 587, &<.). " IVr- ].' mating of the same men in Parliament :" that clearly is intolerable, says the first Paragraph. But not only BO, says the second Paragraph, "a ! lativf> Assembly always sitting," though it consist of new men, is likewise in- to]., r.-il.lf : any Parliament, as the Long Parliament has too fatally taught us, if 1. ft t.. it'lf, is, by its nature, arbitrary, of unlimited power, liable to grow tvr.iimi.us ; outfht therefore only to sit at due intervals, and to have other - iTrntrrtorafi-, for example) ready to check it on occasion. AH this tin- :iu< -ii-nt audience understands very well ; and the modern needs only to iiijilt-rstaii'l that they ninlertood it. 2 " I know, nnt toldJ] I refused it again and again ; not compliment- inirly, as they know, and as God knows! I confess, after many arguments, they urging on me, ' That I did not hereby receive anything which put me into a higher capacity than before ; but that it limited me ; that it bound my hands to act IK. tiling without the consent of a Council, until the Parlia- ment, and then limited [me] by the Parliament, as the Act .overnment expresseth,' I did accept it. I might repeat again to you, if it were needful, but I think it hardly is: 1 w:is arbitrary in power ; having the Armies in the three Nations under my command; and truly not very ill be lovi-d by them, nor very ill beloved by the People. By the good People. And I believe I should have been more beloved if they had known the truth, as things were, before God and in themselves,' and also before divers of those Gentlemen whom I but now mentioned unto you. [His Highness is 1 Civil Office-bearers feeliug their commission to be ended. * Plan ur Mdcl of (ioveruiueut. 432 PART VITI. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept. rallying ; getting nut of the, Unutterable into the Utteralle, /] I did, at the entreaty of divers Persons of Honor and Quality, at the entreaty of very many of the chief Officers of the Army then present, [at their entreaty] and at their re- quest, I did accept of the place and title of PROTECTOR : and was, in the presence of the Commissioners of the Great Seal, the Judges, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, the Soldiery, divers Gentlemen, Citizens, and divers other people and persons of quality, and so forth, accom- panied to Westminster Hall ; where I took the Oath to this Government. [Indisputably: draw your own inferences from it /] This was not done in a corner : it was open and public ! This Government hath been exercised by a Council ; * with a desire to be faithful in all things : and, among all other trusts, to be faithful in calling this Parliament. " And thus I have given you a very bare and lean Dis- course ; 2 which truly I have been necessitated to [do], and contracted in [the doing of], because of the unexpectedness of the occasion, and because I would not quite weary you nor myself. But this is a Narrative that discovers to you the series of Providences and of Transactions leading me into the condition wherein I now stand. The next thing I promised [to demonstrate to] you, wherein, I hope, I shall be briefer Though I am sure the occasion does require plainness and freedom ! [But as to this first thing] 8 That I brought not myself into this condition : surely in my own apprehension I did not ! And whether I did not, the things being true which I have told you, I shall submit to your 1 According to the " Instrument " or Program of it, 2 Narration. 3 This paragraph is characteristic. One of Oliver's warts His Highness, in haste to be through, is for breaking off into the " next thing," with hope of greater " brevity ; " but then suddenly bethinks him that he has not yet quite completely winded off the "first thing," and so returns to that. The para- graph, stark nonsense in the original (%vhere they that are patient of such can read it, Parliamentary History, xx. 357), indicates, on intense inspection, that tliis is the purport of it A glimpse afforded us, through one of Oliver's confused regurgitations aud incondite .'n/.vutterances of speech, into the real inner man of him. Of which there will be other instances as we proceed. 1654. SPEECH III. 483 judgment. And there shall I leave it. Let God do what He pleaseth. " The other thing, I say, that I am to speak of to you is, ' That I have not [borne], and do not bear, witness to myself.' I am far from alluding to Him that said so ! * Yet truth, con- cerning a member of His, He will own, though men do not. But I think, if I mistake not, I have a cloud of witnesses. I think so ; let men be as froward as they will. \My honorable /'/Ir/tdsf] I have witness Within, Without, and Above! lUit I shall speak of my witnesses Without; having fully spoken of the Witness who is Above, and [who is] in my own conscience, before. Under the other head a I spoke of these ; because that subject had more obscurity in it, and I in some sort needed appeals ; and, I trust, might lawfully make them (as lawfully as take an oath), where the things were not so apt to be made evident [otherwise. In such circumstances, Yea /] I shall enumerate my witnesses as well as I can. " When I had consented to accept of the Government, there was some Solemnity to be performed. And that was accom- panied by some persons of considerableness in all respects : there were the persons before mentioned to you ; * these accom- panied me, at the time of my entering upon this Government, to Westminster Hall to receive my Oath. There was an express 4 consent on the part of these and other interested persons. And [there was also] an implied consent of many; showing their good liking and approbation thereof. And, Gen- tlemen, I do not think you are altogether strangers to it in your countries. Some did not nauseate it; very many did approve it. " I had the approbation of the Officers of the Army, in the 1 " Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, If I bear witness of my- - If, my witness is not true. There is Another that beareth witness of me." (.//, r. 31,32.) 2 " upon the other account " in orig. ' " bof.irc expressed " in orig. * "explicit" and " implicit" in the original; but we must say " express " and "implied." the word " implicit "having now ; ;.it it-df tacked to " faith " (mptidt-faith), and l>r*como thereby hopelessly di-i^nnl-d from any indepeu- lfnt meaiiiiic. TOL. XVIII. 28 434 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept three Nations of England, Scotland and Ireland. I say, of the Officers : I had that by their [express] Remonstrances, 1 and under signature. But there went along with that express consent of theirs, an implied consent also [of a body] of per- sons who had [had] somewhat to do in the world ; who had been instrumental, by God, to fight down the Enemies of God and of His People in the three Nations. [The Soldiery of the Commonwealth. Persons of "some considerableness" these too /] And truly, until my hands were bound, and I [was] limited (to my own great satisfaction, as many can bear me witness) ; while I had in my hands so great a power and arbitrariness, the Soldiery were a very considerable part of these Nations, especially all Government being dissolved. I say, when all Government was thus dissolved, and nothing to keep things in order but the Sword ! And yet they, which many His- tories will not parallel, even they were desirous that things might come to a consistency ; and arbitrariness be taken away ; and the Government be put into [the hands of] a person lim- ited and bounded, as in the Act of Settlement, whom they distrusted the least, and loved not the worst. [Hear /] There was another evidence [of consent, implied if not express]. " I would not forget the honorable and civil entertainment, with the approbation I found in the great City of London ; * which the City knows whether I directly or indirectly sought. And truly I do not think it folly to remember this. For it was very great and high ; and very public ; and [in- cluded] as numerous a body of those that are known by names and titles, the several Corporations and Societies of Citi- zens in this City, as hath at any time been seen in England And not without some appearance of satisfaction also. And I had not this witness only. I have had from the greatest County in England, and from many Cities and Boroughs and Counties, express approbations. [Express approbations] not of men gathered here and there, but from the County General Assizes ; the Grand Jury, in name of the Noblemen, Gen- 1 Means " Public Letters of Adherence." Dinner, with all manner of gala, in the common Royal Style ; 8th Febru- ary, 1653-4 (Whitlocke, 2d edition, p. 581), 1654. SPEECH III. 435 tlemen, Yeomen and Inhabitants of that County, giving very great thanks to ine for undertaking this heavy burden at such a time ; and giving very great approbation and encouragement to me to go through with it. 1 These are plain ; I have them to show. And by these, in some measure, it will appear ' I do not bear witness to myself.' "This is not all. The Judges, truly I had almost for- gotten it [Another little window into his IHyhness /], the Judges, thinking that there had now come a dissolution to all Government, met and consulted ; and did declare one to another, That they could not administer justice to the satisfaction of their consciences, until they had received Commissions from me. And they did receive Commissions from me; and by virtue of those Commissions they have acted: and all Jus- tices of the Peace that have acted have acted by virtue of like Com missions. Which was a little more than an implied approbation ! And I believe all the Justice administered in the Nation hath been by this authority. Which also I lay before you ; desiring you to think, Whether all those persons now mentioned must not come to you for an Act of Oblivion and General 1 'union, for having acted under and testified to this Government, if it be disowned by you ! "And 1 have two or three witnesses more, equivalent to all these I have yet mentioned, if I be not mistaken, and givatly mistaken ! If I should say, All you that are here are my witnesses, I should say no untruth ! I know that you .in' the same persons here that you were in your countries* Hut I will reserve this for a little; this will be the issue \ the general outcome and climax] of my Proof. [Another lit tit" ictiuloiv : al must a. half-soliloquy ; you see t/te Speech iji-ttiiKj ri'niij in Uie interior of his Highness.'] I say 1 have two or three witnesses, of still more weight than all I have 1 " Humble Petition and Representation of the Grand Jury at the Assizes held at York, Man h, 1653 (1654), in name of"&c. &.-.. N.-ws papers; Per- fect Diurnal, 3d-10lh April, 1G54 (King's Pamphlets, large 4tu.no. 82, 12), and others. Similar recognition " by the Mayor "&* &c. " of tin- an* lent City of York" (ll.i.l ). 3 Where you had to acknowledge Die before election, lit- moons, but doe not >et eo good to nay. 436 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. IS Sept. counted and reckoned yet. All the People in England are my witnesses ; and many in Ireland and Scotland ! All the Sheriffs in England are my witnesses : and all that have come in upon a Process issued out by Sheriffs are my witnesses. [ My honorable friends, how did YOU come in ?] Yea, the Re- turns of the Elections to the Clerk of the Crown, not a thing to be blown away by a breath, the Return on behalf of the Inhabitants in the Counties, Cities and Boroughs, all are my witnesses of approbation to the Condition and Place I stand in. "And I shall now make you my last witnesses ! \Here comes it, "the issue of my Proof!""] And shall ask you, Whether you came not hither by my Writs directed to the several Sheriffs [of Counties], and through the Sheriffs to the other Officers of Cities and Liberties ? To which [Writs] the People gave obedience ; having also had the Act of Gov- ernment communicated to them, to which end great numbers of copies [thereof] were sent down to be communicated to them. And the Government 1 [was] also required to be dis- tinctly read unto the People at the place of election, to avoid surprises [or misleadings of them through their ignorance] ; where also they signed the Indenture, 2 with proviso, ' That the Persons so chosen should not have power to alter the Government as now settled in one Single Person and a Par- liament ! ' \My honorable friends ?] And thus I have made good my second Assertion, ' That I bear not witness to myself ; ' but that the good People of England and you all are my witnesses. " Yea, surely ! And [now] this being so, though I told you in my last Speech ' that you were a Free Parliament,' yet 1 thought it was understood withal that I was the Protector, and the Authority that called you ! That I was in possession of the Government by a good right from God and men ! And I believe if the learnedest men in this Nation were called to show a precedent, equally clear, of a Government so many ways approved of, they would not in all their search find it. I did not in my other Speech take upon me to justify the 1 Act or Instrument of Government. 2 Writ of Return. 16M. SPEECH III. 437 [Act of] Government in every particular; and I told you the reason, which was plain : The Act of Government was public, and had long been published, [in order] that it might be under the niQst serious inspection of all that pleased to peruse it. " This is what I had to say at present for approving l myself to God and my conscience in my actions throughout this under- taking ; and for giving cause of approving myself to every one of your consciences in the sight of God. And if the fact be so, why should we sport with it ? With a business so serious ! May not this character, this stamp [Stamp put upon a man by the Most Hi(jh and His providences], bear equal poise with any Hereditary Interest that could furnish, or hath furnished, in the Common Law or elsewhere, matter of dispute and trial of learning ? In the like of which many have exercised more wit, and spilt more blood, than I hope ever to live to see or hear of again in this Nation ! [Red and White Roses, for ex- ample ; Henry of Bolingbroke, and the last "Protector."] I say, I do not know why I may not balance this Providence, in the sight of God, with any Hereditary Interest [Nor do //]; as a thing less subject to those cracks and flaws which that [other] is commonly incident unto ; the disputing of which has cost more blood in former times in this Nation than we have leisure to speak of now ! " Now if this be thus, and I am deriving a title from God and men upon such accounts as these are Although some men be froward, yet that your judgments who are Persons sent from all parts of the Nation under the notion of appi-m-- ing this Government [His Highness, bursting with meanimj, completes neither of these sentences ; but pours himself, like an irregular torrent, through other orifices and openings.'] For you to disown or not to own it : for you to act with Parlia- mentary Authority especially in the disowning of it ; contrary to the very fundamental things, yea against the very root itself of this Establishment : to sit, and not own the Authority by which you sit, is that which I believe astonisheth more 1 " By what I have .said, I have approved," &c. iu orig. : but rhetorical charity required ilic 438 PART Vlll. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 8ept men than myself; and doth as dangerously disappoint and discompose the Nation as anything [that] could have been invented by the greatest enemy to our peace and welfare, or [that] could well have happened. [Sorrow, anger and re- proach on his Highnesses countenance ; the voice risen somewhat into ALT, and rolling with a kind of rough music in the tones of it /] " It is true, as there are some things in the Establishment which are Fundamental, so there are others which are riot, but are Circumstantial. Of these no question but I shall easily agree to vary, to leave out, [according] as I shall be convinced by reason. But some things are Fundamentals ! About which I shall deal plainly with you : These may not be parted with ; but will, I trust, be delivered over to Posterity, as the fruits of our blood and travail. The Government by a Single Person and a Parliament is a Fundamental ! It is the esse, it is con- stitutive. And as for the Person, though I may seein to plead for myself, yet I do not : no, nor can any reasonable man say it. If the things throughout this Speech be true, I plead for this Nation, and for all honest men therein who have borne their testimony as aforesaid, and not for myself ! And if things should do otherwise than well (which I would not fear), and the Common Enemy and discontented persons take advantage of these distractions, the issue will be put up before God : let Him own it, or let Him disown it, as He pleases ! " In every Government there must be Somewhat Fundamen- tal [ Will speak now of Fundamentals], Somewhat like a Magna Charta, which should be standing, be unalterable. Where there is a stipulation on one side, and that fully accepted, as appears by what hath been said, surely a return * ought to be ; else what does that stipulation signify ? If I have, upon the terms aforesaid, undertaken this great Trust, and exercised it; and by it called you, surely it ought [by you] to be owned. That Parliaments should not make themselves per- petual is a Fundamental. [ Tea ; all know it : taught by the example of the Rump /] Of what assurance is a Law to pre- vent so great an evil, if it lie in the same Legislature to unl&w 1 reciprocal engagement. 1054. SPEECH III. 439 it again ? [Must have a Single Person to check your Parlia- in<:itt.~\ Is such a Law like to be lasting ? It will be a rope of sand j it will give no security j for the same men may un- build what they have built. " [Again,] is not Liberty of Conscience in Religion a Fun- liiiuental ? So long as there is Liberty of Conscience for the Stijireme Magistrate to exercise his conscience in erecting \vliat Form of Church-Government he is satisfied he should pel up ["HE is to decide on the Form of Churrh-dovemment, !lu n '.'" The Moderns, especially the Voluntary /'n'/u-ijtle, stare], why should he not give the like liberty to others ? Liberty of Conscience is a natural right ; and he that would have it, ought to give it ; having [himself] liberty to settle what he lilu-s for the Public. [" Where, then, are the limits of Dissent ? " An nbstruse question, my Voluntary friends ; vsj>edn Midi an ;irr<>iint " :is ours was! For more of < lliu-r'n notions conriTiiiiiK the M:i VIT in Chun-li matters, uee hi* Letter to the Scotch Clergy, J*tt -r ( 'XLVIII., ante*, p liti. 440 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept People driven into wildernesses. As they were, when those poor and afflicted people, who forsook their estates and inher- itances here, where they lived plentifully and comfortably, were necessitated, for enjoyment of their Liberty, to go into a waste-howling wilderness in New England ; where they have, for Liberty's sake, stript themselves of all their comfort ; embracing rather loss of friends and want than be so ensnared and in bondage. [ Tea /] " Another [Fundamental] which I had forgotten is the Militia. That is judged a Fundamental if anything be so. That it should be well and equally placed is very necessary. For, put the ab- solute power of the Militia into [the hands of] one [Person], without a check, what doth it serve ? [On the other hand,] I pray you, what check is there upon your Perpetual Parlia- ments, if the Government be wholly stript of this of the Militia ? [This as we now have it] is * equally placed, and men's desires were to have it so; namely, in one Person, and in the Parliament [along with him], while the Parliament sits. What signified a provision against perpetuating of Par- liaments, if this power of the Militia be solely in them? Think, Whether without some check, the Parliament have it not in their power to alter the Frame of Government altogether, into Aristocracy, Democracy, into Anarchy, into anything, if this [of the Militia] be fully in them ! Yea, into all confu- sion ; and that without remedy ! If this one thing be placed in one [party], that one, be it Parliament, be it Supreme Governor, hath power to make what he pleases of all the rest. ["ffum-m-m ! " from the old Parliament.'] Therefore if you would have a balance at all ; if you agree that some Funda- mentals must stand, as worthy to be delivered over to Pos- terity, truly I think it is not unreasonably urged that [this power of] the Militia should be disposed as we have it in the Act of Government ; should be placed so equally that no one party neither in Parliament nor out of Parliament have the power of ordering it. [Well] the Council are the Trustees of the Commonwealth, in all intervals of Parliament ; and have as absolute a negative upon the Supreme Officer in the said 1 " It is " in orig. 1854. SPEECH III 441 intervals, as the Parliament hath while it is sitting. [it. 444 PART VITT. FIRST PARLIAMENT 12 Sept. and endeavors we have had Nay the things will speak for themselves. The ' Liberty of England,' the Liberty of the People j the avoiding of tyrannous impositions either upon men as men, or Christians as Christians ; is made so safe by this Act of Settlement, that it will speak for itself. And when it shall appear to the world what [really] hath been said and done by all of us, and what our real transactions were For God can discover ; no Privilege [ What ! Not even Privilege of Parliament P] will hinder the Lord from discovering ! No Privi- lege, or condition of man can hide from the Lord ; He can and will make all manifest, if He see it for His glory ! 1 And when these [things, as I say] shall be manifested ; and the People will come and ask, ' Gentlemen, what condition is this we are in ? We hoped for light ; and behold darkness, obscure darkness ! We hoped for rest after ten-years Civil War, but are plunged into deep confusion again ! ' Ay ; we know these conse- quences will come upon us, if God Almighty shall not find out some way to prevent them. " I had a thought within myself, That it would not have been dishonest nor dishonorable, nor against true Liberty, no not [the Liberty] of Parliaments, [if,] when a Parliament was so chosen [as you have been], in pursuance of this Instrument; of Government, and in conformity to it, and with such an approbation and consent to it, some Owning of your Call and of the Authority which brought you hither, had been required before your entrance into the House. [Deep silence in the audience.'] This was declined, and hath not been done, because I am persuaded scarce any man could doubt you came with contrary minds. And I have reason to believe the people that sent you least of all doubted thereof. And therefore I must deal plainly with you : What I forbore upon a just confidence at first, you necessitate me unto now ! [Paleness on some faces.~\ Seeing the Authority which called you is so little valued, and so much slighted, till some such Assurance be given and made known, that the Fundamental Interest shall be settled and approved according to the proviso in the [Writ 1 "Privilege" of Parliament, in those days, strenuously forbids reporting; but it will not serve iu the case referred to ! 1054. SPEECH III. 445 of] Return, and such a consent testified as will make it appear that the same is accepted, I HAVK CAUSED A STOP TO BE PUT TO YOUR ENTRANCE INTO THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE. [ You understand that, my honorable friends ?] " I am sorry, I am sorry, and I could be sorry to the death, that there is cause for this ! But there is cause : and if things be not satisfied which are reasonably demanded, I, for my part, will do that which becomes me, seeking my counsel from God. There is therefore Somewhat [A bit of written Parch- ment /] to be offered to you ; which I hope will answer, being understood with the qualifications I have told you, [namely, of] reforming as to Circumstantials, and agreeing in the Sub- stance and Fundamentals, [that is to say,] in the Form of Government now settled, which is expressly stipulated in your Indentures 'not to be altered.' The making of your minds known in that by giving your assent and subscription to it, is the means that will let you in, to act those things as a Parlia- ment which are for the good of the People. And this thing, [The Parchment! when once it is] shown to you and signed as aforesaid, doth determine the controversy; and may give a happy progress and issue to this Parliament. [Honorable gentlemen look in one another 's faces, find general "The place where you may come thus and sign, as many as God shall make free thereunto, is in the Lobby without the Parliament Door. [My honorable friends, you know the way, don't you ?] " The [Instrument of] Government doth declare that you have a legislative power without a negative from me. As the Instrument doth express it, you may make any Laws; and if I give not my consent, within twenty days, to the pass- ing of your Laws, they are ij,so fiu-to Laws, whether I consent or no, if not contrary to the [Frame of] Government. You have an absolute Legislative Power in all things that can possibly concern the good and interest of the public ; and I think you may make these Nations happy by this Settlement. Ami I. fur my part, shall b> willing to !> Uuuid more than I urn, in anything concerning which I can become convinced 446 PAKT VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept. that it may be for the good of the People, or tend to the pres- ervation of the Cause and Interest so long contended for." 1 Go your ways, my honorable friends, and sign, so many of you as God hath made free thereunto ! The place, I tell you, is in the Lobby without the Parliament Door. The " Thing," as you will find there, is a bit of Parchment with these w.ords engrossed on it : " I do hereby freely promise, and engage myself, to be true and faithful to the Lord Protector and the Common- wealth of England, Scotland and Ireland; and shall not (accord- ing to the tenor of the Indenture whereby I am returned to serve in this present Parliament} propose, or give my consent, to alter the Government as it is settled in a Single Person and a Par- liament." 2 Sign that, or go home again to your countries. Let honorable gentlemen therefore consider what they will do ! " About a hundred signed directly, within an hour." Guibon Goddard and all the Norfolk Members (except one, who was among the direct hundred) went and "had dinner- to- gether," to talk the matter over ; mostly thought it would be better to sign ; and did sign, all but some two. The number who have signed this first day, we hear, is a hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty, nay a hundred and forty. 8 Blank faces of honorable gentlemen begin to take meaning again, some mild, some grim. To-morrow being Fast-day, there is an adjournment. The recusants are treated " with all tenderness ; " most of them come in by degrees : " Three hun- dred before the month ends." Deep Republicans, Bradshaw, Haselrig, Thomas Scott and the like, would not come in ; still less would shallow noisy ones, as Major Wildman ; went home to their countries again, their blank faces settling into permanent grim. My Lord Protector molested no man for his recusancy ; did indeed take that absence as a comparative favor from the parties. Harrison and other suspect persons are a little looked after : the Parliament resumes its function as if little had happened. 1 Old Pamphlet, brother to the foregoing ; reprinted in Parliamentary History, xx. 349-3'>9. Whitlocke, p. 587 Goddard, Whitlocke, Letter in Thnrloe. 1654. SPEECH III. 447 With a singular acquiescence on the part of the Public, write our correspondents, Dutch and other. The Public, which I have known rebel against crowned Kings for twitching the tippet of a Parliament, permits this Lord Protector to smite it on the cheek, and say, " Have a care, wilt thou ! " Perhaps this Lord Protector is believed to mean better than the King did ? There is a difference in the objects of men, as the Pub- lic understands; a difference in the men too for rebelling against ! At any rate, here is singular submission everywhere ; ;md my Lord Protector getting ready a powerful Sea-Armament, neither his Parliament nor any other creature can yet guess for what. 1 Goddard's report of this Parliament is distinct enough ; brief, and not without some points of interest ; " the misfortune is," says one Commentator, " he does not give us names." Alas, a much greater misfortune is, the Parliament itself is hardly worth naming ! It did not prove a successful Parliament; it held on by mere Constitution-building ; and effected, so to fipeak, nothing. Respectable Pedant persons ; never doubting but the Ancient sacred Sheepskins would serve for the New Time, which also has its sacredness ; thinking, full surely, constitutional logic was the thing England now needed of them ! Their History shall remain blank, to the end of the world. I have read their Debates, and counsel no other man to do it. Wholly upon the " Institution of Government," modelling, new-modelling of that : endless anxious spider-webs of constitutional logic; vigilant checks, constitutional jeal- s, &c. &c. To be forgotten by all creatures. They had a Committee of Godly Ministers sitting in tin J'-rusalem Chamber ; a kind of miniature Assembly of Divines ; intent upon "Scandalous Ministers and Schoolmasters," upon i'-nde.r consciences, and the like objects: but there were only ity in this Assembly; they could hardly ever get fairly uiuler way at all ; and have left in English History no trace that I could see of their existence, except a very re;i.Min;ilile Petition, noted in the Record, That the Parliament would be 1 Duuh AmlH8adora, French, *. in Thnrloe, ii. G06.6I3, 638 (15th. 18th 448 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Sept. pleased to advance them a little money towards the purchase of fire and caudle, in these cold dark months. The Parlia- ment, I hope, allowed them coals and a few tallow-lights ; but neither they nor it could accomplish anything towards the Settling of a Godly Ministry in England : my Lord Protector and his Commissions will have to settle that too ; an object dear to all good men. This Parliament spent its time in con- stitutional jangling, in vigilant contrivance of balances, checks, and that species of entities. With difficulty could, at rare intervals, a hasty stingy vote, not for the indispensable Sup- plies, but for some promise of them, be wrung from it. An unprofitable Parliament. For the rest, they had Biddle the Socinian before them ; a poor Gloucester Schoolmaster once, now a very conspicuous Heresiarch, apparently of mild but entirely obstinate manners, poor devil : him they put into the Gatehouse ; him and various others of that kidney. Especially " Theauro John, who laid about him with a drawn sword at the door of the Parliament House one day," 1 a man clearly needing to be confined. " Theauro John : " his name had originally been John Davy, if I recollect ; but the Spirit, in some preternatural hour, revealed to him that it ought to be as above. Poor Davy : his labors, life-adventures, financial arrangements, pain- ful biography in general, are all unknown to us ; till, on this " Saturday, 30th December, 1G54," he very clearly " knocks loud at the door of the Parliament House," as much as to say, " What is this you are upon ? " and " lays about him with a drawn sword ; " after which all again becomes unknown. Seem- ingly a kind of Quaker. Does the reader know James Nayler, and the devout women worshipping him ? George Fox, in his suit of leather, independent of mankind, looks down into the soft Vale of Belvoir, native " Vale of Bever : " Do not the whispering winds and green fields, do not the still smoke- pillars from these poor cottages under the eternal firmaments, say in one's heart, " George, canst thou do nothing for us ? George, wilt thou not help us from the wrath to come ? " George finds in the Vale of Bever " a very tender people." 1 Whitlocke, p. 592. See Goddard (in Burton, i. Introd. cxxvi.). 1664. SPEECH TIT. 449 In fact, most singular Quakerisms, frightful Socinianisms, and other portents, are springing up rife in England. Oliver objected, now and always, to any very harsh punish- ment of Biddle and Company, much as he abhorred their doc- trines. Why burn, or brand, or otherwise torment them, poor souls ? They, wandering as we all do seeking for a door of hope into the Eternities, have, being tempted of the Devil as we all likewise are, missed the door of hope ; and gone tum- bling into dangerous gulfs, dangerous, but not yet beyond the mercy of God. Do not burn them. They meant, some of them, well ; bear, visibly to me, the scars of stern true battle against the Enemy of Man. Do not burn them ; lock them up, that they may not mislead others. On frugal wholesome diet in Pendennis Castle, or Elizabeth Castle in Jersey, or here in the Clink Prison at London, they will not cost you much, and may arrive at some composure. Branding and burning is an ugly business; as little of that as you can. Friday, 29th September, 1654. His Highness, say the old Lumber-Books, went into Hyde Park ; made a small picnic dinner under the trees, with Secretary Thurloe, attended by a few servants ; was, in fact, making a small pleasure excur- sion, having in mind to try a fine new team of horses, whi.-h the Earl or Duke of Oldenburg had lately sent him. Din un- done, his Highness himself determined to drive, two in hand I think, with a postilion driving other two. The horses, beautiful animals, tasting of the whip, became unruly; gal- loped, would not be checked, but took to plunging ; plunged the postilion down; plunged or shook his Highness down, "dragging him by the foot for some time," so that "a pistol went off in his pocket," to the amazement of men. Where- upon ? Whereupon his Highness got up again, little the worse ; was let blood ; and went alxmt his affairs much as usual I 1 Small anecdote, that figures, larger than life, in all the Books and Biographies. I have known men thrown from their horses on occasion, and less noise made aliout it, my erudite friend! But the essential point was, Jus Highness wore a pistol. Yes, his Highnnss is prepared to defend him- Tliurluo, i. fi. r i2-CM ; Ludluw, ii. 508. VOL. XTIII. SO 4. r )0 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. Sept. 1654. self; has men, and has also truculent-flunkies, ami devils and deviVs-servants of various kinds, to defend himself against ; and wears pistols, and what other furniture outward and in- ward may be necessary for the object. Such of you as have an eye that way can take notice of it ! Thursday, 16th November, 1654. On the other hand, what a glimpse into the interior domesticities of the Protector House- hold have we in the following brief Note ! Amid the darkness and buzzard dimness, one light-beam, clear, radiant, mournfully beautiful, like the gleam of a sudden star, disclosing for a moment many things to us ! On Friday, Secretary Thurloe writes incidentally : " My Lord Protector's Mother, of ninety- four years old, died last night. A little before her death she gave my Lord her blessing, in these words : ' The Lord cause His face to shine upon you ; and comfort you in all your ad- versities ; and enable you to do great things for the glory of your Most High God, and to be a relief unto His People. My dear Son, I leave my heart with thee. A good night!'" 1 and therewith sank into her long sleep. Even so. Words of ours are but idle. Thou brave one, Mother of a Hero, fare- well ! Ninety-four years old : the royalties of Whitehall, says Ludlow very credibly, were of small moment to her : " at the sound of a musket she would often be afraid her Son was shot ; and could not be satisfied unless she saw him once a day at least." 2 She, old, weak, wearied one, she cannot help him with his refractory Pedant Parliaments, with his Anabap- tist plotters, Royalist assassins, and world-wide confusions ; but she bids him, Be strong, be comforted in God. And so Good night ! And in the still Eternities and divine Silences Well, are they not divine ? December 26th, 1654. The refractory Parliament and other dim confusions still going on, we mark as a public event of some significance, the sailing of his Highness's Sea-Armament. It has long been getting ready on the Southern Coast ; sea- forces, land-forces ; sails from Portsmouth on Christmas mor- 1 Thurloe to Pell, 17th November, 1654: in Vaughan'a Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell (London, 1839), i. 81. 8 Ludlow, ii. 488 1655. LETTER CXCVI. WHITEHALL. 4.~>1 row, as above marked. 1 None yet able to divine whither bound ; not even the Generals, Venables and Penn, till they reach a certain latitude. Many are much interested to divine ! < Kir Brussels Correspondent writes long since, " The Lord Protector's Government makes England more formidable and .>lerable to all .Nations than ever it has been in my days." 2 LETTERS CXCVI.-CXCVII. HKKK are Two small Letters, harmlessly reminding us of far interests and of near; otherwise yielding no new light; but capable of being read without commentary, liead them ; and let us hasten to dissolve the poor Coustitutioning Par- liament, which ought not to linger on these pages, or on any page. LETTER CXCVI. " To Richard Bennet, Esq., Governor of Virginia : These. "WHITEHALL, 12th January, 1654. " SIK, Whereas the differences between the Lord Baltimore and the Inhabitants of Virginia, concerning the Bounds by them n-.s|ectively claimed, are depending before our Council, an. I yet undetermined ; and whereas we are credibly informed, you have notwithstanding gone into his Plantation in Mai y- liinl, ami countenanced some people their in opposing the Lord Baltimore's Officers; whereby, and with other forces from Virginia, you have much disturl*Hl that Colony and I'.-opl . {<> the endangering of tumults and much bloodshed tin-re, if not timely ]>revnt<-d : "We therefore, at (lie request of the Lord Baltimore, and [of] (livers other PenoBl "i Quality here, who are engaged by great adventures in his interest, do, for preventing of ' ' Penn'a Narrative, in Thurloe, ir. 28. Thurloo, i 100 (llth March, 1653-4). 452 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 12 Jan. disturbances, or tumults there, will and require you, aud all others deriving any authority from you, To forbear disturb- ing the Lord Baltimore, or his Officers or People in Mary- land ; and to permit all things to remain as they were before any disturbance or alteration made by you, or by any other upon pretence of authority from you, till the said Differences above mentioned be determined by us here, and we give farther order therein. " We rest your loving friend, "OLIVER P." 1 Commissioners, it would appear, went out to settle the business ; got it, we have no doubt, with due difficulty settled. See Letter CCIII., 26th September, 1655, "To the Commis- sioners of Maryland." . LETTER CXCVII. HERE again, while the Pedant Parliament keeps arguing and constitutioning, are discontents in the Army that threaten to develop themselves. Dangerous fermentings of Fifth- Monarchy and other bad ingredients, in the Army aud out of it; encouraged by the Parliamentary height of temperature. Charles Stuart, on the word of a Christian King, is extensively bestirring himself. Royalist preparations, provisions of arms ; Anabaptist Petitions : abroad and at home very dangerous designs on foot: but we have our eye upon them. The Scotch Army seems, at present, the questionablest. " The pay of the men is thirty weeks in arrear," for one thing ; the Anabaptist humor needs not that addition ! Colonel Alured, we saw, had to be dismissed the Service last year; Overton and others were questioned, and not dismissed. But now some desperate scheme has risen among the Forces in Scotland, of deposing General Monk, of making Eepublican 1 Thurloe, i. 724. The Signature only is Oliver's ; signature, and sense. Thurloe has jotted on the back of this : " A duplicate als*o hereof was writ, signed by his Highness." 1665. LETTER CXCVI1. WHITEHALL. 453 Overton Commander, and so marching off, all but the in- dispensable Garrison-troops, south into England, there to seek pay and other redress. 1 This Parliament, now in its Fourth Month, supplies no money; nothing but constitutional de- batings. My Lord Protector had need be watchful ! He again, in this December, summons Overton from Scotland ; H'^iui questions him; sees good, this time, to commit him to the Tower, 2 and end his military services. The Army, in Scotland and elsewhere, with no settlement yet to its vague fermenting humors, and not even money to pay its arrears, is dangerous enough. Of Adjutant-General Allen whom this Letter concerns, it may be proper to say that Ludlow in mentioning him has mistaken his man. The reader recollects, a good while ago, Three Troopers, notable at the moment, who appeared once before the Long Parliament, with a Petition from the Army, in the year Forty-seven? Their names were Allen, Sexby, Sheppard : Ludlow will have it, the Trooper Allen was this Adjutant-General Allen; 8 which is a mistake of Ludlow's. Trooper Sexby we did since see, as Captain Sexby, after Preston Fight ; and shall again, in sad circumstances see : but of Trooper Allen there is no farther vestige anywhere except this imaginary one; of Trooper Sheppard not even an imagi- nary vestige. They have vanished, these two ; and Adjutant- General Allen, vindicating his identity such as it is, enters here on his own footing. A resolute devout man, whom we have seen before; the same who was deep in the Prayer- Meeting at Windsor years ago : 4 this is his third, and we hope his last appearance on the stage of things. Allen has been in Ireland, since that Prayer-Meeting; in Poetea, Speech IV. ; and Thurloe, iii. 110, &c. 1 16th January, 1654-5 (Overtoil's Letter, Thurloe, iii. 110). Ludlow, i. 189 : " Edward Sexby," " William Allen ; " bnt in the name of the third Trooper, which is not " Philips " but Sheppard, he is mistaken (Commons J-un.,!*. 'loth April. Ifi47); and aa to " Adjutant-General Allen" and the impossibility of his identity with thia William Allow, we vol. xvii. pp. L'.VI, 304. * Vol. xvii. p. 3(M. 454 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 20 Jan. Ireland and elsewhere, resolutely fighting, earnestly praying, as from of old; has had many darkeuings of mind; expects, for almost a year past, " little good from the Governments of this world," one or the other. He has honored, and still would fain honor, "the Person now in chief place," having seen in him much " upright-heartedness to the Lord ; " must confess, however, "the late Change hath more stumbled me than any ever did;" and, on the whole, knows not what he will resolve upon. 1 We find he has resolved on quitting Ireland, for one thing; has come over to "his Father-in-law Mr. Huish's in Devonshire:" and, to all appearance, is not building established-churches there ! " Captain Unton Crook," of whom we shall hear afterwards, is an active man, son of a learned Lawyer ; 2 very zealous for the Protector's interest ; zealous for his own and his Father's promotion, growls Ludlow. Desborow, who fitted out the late mysterious Sea- A-rmament on the Southern Coast (not too judiciously, I doubt), is Commander-in-chief in those parts. [For Captain Unton Crook, at Exeter: These.] "WHITEHALL, 20th January, 1654. " SIR, Being informed by a Letter of yours and General Desborow, also by a Letter from the High Sheriff of Devon, that Adjutant-General Allen doth very ill offices by multi- plying dissatisfaction in the minds of men to the present Government, I desire you and the High Sheriff to make dili- gent inquiry after him, and try to make out what can be made in this kind, and to give me speedy notice thereof. Not doubting of your care herein, I rest, " Your loving friend, "OLIVER P. " If he be gone out of the Country, learn whither he is gone, arid send me word by next post." 8 1 Two intercepted Letters of Allen's (Thurloe, ii. 214, 215), "Dublin, 6th April, 1654." 2 Made Sergeant Crook in 1655 (Heath, p. 693). 3 Lansdowne MSS. 1236, fol. 102. Superscription torn off; only the Signature id iu Oliver's hand : Address supplied hero by inference. 16*5. ADJUTANT-GENERAL ALLEN. 455 Allen was not gone out of the Country ; he was seized by Crook " in his Father-in-law Mr. Huish's house," on the 31st of January, 1054-5; his papers searched, and himself ordered to be and continue prisoner, at a place agreed upon, Sand in Somersetshire, "under his note of hand." So much we learn from the imbroglios of Thurloe; 1 where also are authentic Depositions concerning Allen, " by Captains John Copleston and the said Uuton Crook;" and two Letters of Allen's own, one to the Protector; and one to "Colonel Daniel Axtel [the Regicide Axtel], Dr. Philip Carteret, or either of them," enclosing that other Letter, and leaving it to them to present it or not, he himself thinking earnestly that they should. Both of these Letters, as well as Unton Crook's to the Protector, and the authentic Deposition of Copleston and Crook against Allen, are dated February 7th, 1654-5. The witnesses depose, 8 That he has bragged to one " Sir John Davis Baronet," of an interview he had with the Pro- tector not long since, wherein he, Allen, told the Protector a bit of his mind ; and left him in a kind of huff, and even at a nonplus ; and so came off to the West Country in a triumphant manner. Farther he talks questionable things of Ireland, of discontents there, and in laud of Lieutenant-General Ludlow ; says, There is plenty of discontent in Ireland ; he himself me;ms to be there in February, but will first go to London again. The Country rings with rumor of his questionable speeches. He goes to " meetings " about Bristol, whither many persons convene, for Anabaptist or other purposes. Such meetings are often on week-days. Questionabler still, he rides thither " with a vizard or mask over his face ; " " with glasses over his eyes," barnacles, so to speak ! Nay, (piestionablestof all, riding, "on Friday, the 5th of last month,'' month of January, 1654-5, "to a meeting at Luppitnear Honi- t-Mi, Devon," there rode also (but not I think to the same place!) a Mr. Hugh Courtenay, once a flaming Royalist < Mlicer in Ireland, and still a flaming zealot to the lost Cause ; who spake nothing all that afternoon but mere treason, of Anabaptists that would rise in London, of &c. &c. Allen, aa 1 iii. 143 ; aee pp. 140, 141. * Thurlue, ill 140. 456 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 22 Jan. we say, ou the last morning of January Avas awoke from sleep In his Father-in-law Mr. Huish's, by the entrance of two armed troopers ; who informed him that Captain Crook and the High Sheriff were below, and that he would have to put on his clothes, and come down. Allen's Letter to the Lord Protector, from Sand in Somerset- shire, we rather reluctantly withhold, for want of room. A stubborn, sad, stingily respectful piece of writing : Wife and baby terribly ill off at Sand ; desires to be resigned to the Lord, "before whom both of us shall ere long nakedly appear ; " petitions that at least he might be allowed " to attend ordinances ; " which surely would be reasonable ! Are there not good horses that require to be ridden with a dex- terous bridle-hand, delicate, and yet hard and strong ? Clearly a strenuous Anabaptist, this Allen; a rugged, true- hearted, not easily governable man ; given to Fifth-Monarchy and other notions, though with a strong head to control them. Fancy him duly cashiered from the Army, duly admonished and dismissed into private life. Then add the Colonel Over- tons and Colonel Alureds, and General Ludlows and Major- General Harrisons, and also the Charles Stuarts and Christian Kings ; and reflect once more what kind of task this of my Lord Protector's is, and whether he needs refractory Pedant Parliaments to worsen it for him ! SPEECH IV. FINDING this Parliament was equal to nothing in the Spirit- ual way but tormenting of poor Heretics, receiving Petitions for a small advance towards coal and candle ; and nothing in the Temporal but constitutional air-fabrics and vigilant check- ings and balancings, under which operations sucli precious fruits at home and abroad were ripening, Oliver's esteem for this Parliament gradually sank to a marked degree. Check, check, like maladroit ship-carpenters hammering, adzing, saw- ing at the Ship of the State, instead of diligently calking and 1055. SPEECH IV. 4-37 paying it; idly gauging and computing, nay recklessly tear- ing up and remodelling; when the poor Ship could hardly keep the water as yet, and the Pirates and Sea-Krukens were gathering round ! All which most dangerous, not to say half-frantic operations, the Lord Protector discerniug well, ami swallowing in silence as his hest was, had for a good while kept his eye upon the Almanac, with more and more impatience for the arrival of the Third of February. That will be the first deliverance of the poor laboring Common- wealth, when at the end of Five Months we send these Par- liament philosophers home to their Countries again. Five Months by the Instrument they have to sit; oh, fly, lazy Time; it is yet but Four Months and Somebody sug- gested, Is not the . Soldier-mouth counted by Four Weeks ? Eight-and-twenty days are a Soldier's Mouth : they have, in a sense, already sat five months, these vigilant Honorable Gentlemen ! Oliver Protector, on Monday morning, 22d of January, 1654-5, surprises the Coustitutioning Parliament with a mes- sage to attend him in the Painted Chamber, and leave " Settling of th& Government" for a while. They have yet voted no Supplies; nor meant to vote any. They thought themselves very safe till February 3d, at soonest. But my Lord Pro- tector, froai his high place, speaks, and dissolves. Speech Fourth, " printed by Henry Hills, Printer to his Hi^hnesL the Lord Protector," is the only one of these Speeches, concerning the reporting, printing or publishing of which there is any visible charge or notice taken by the Gov- ernment of the time. It is ordered in this instance, by the Council of State, That nobody except Henry Hills or those appointed by him shall presume to print or reprint the present Speech, or any part of it. Perhaps an official precaution con- sidered needful ; perhaps also only a matter of copyright ; for the Order is so worded as not to indicate which. At all events, there is no trace of the Report having been anywhere inter- fere^ with ; which seems altogether a spontaneous one ; prob- ably the product of Rush worth or some such artist. 1 1 bee Uurton't Lkary. 458 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 82 Jan. The Speech, if read with due intensity, can be understood ; and what is equally important, be believed ; nay, be found to contain in it a manful, great and valiant meaning, in tone and manner very resolute, yet very conciliatory ; intrinsically not ignoble but noble. For the rest, it is, as usual, sufficiently incondite in phrase and conception ; the hasty outpouring of a mind which is full of such meanings. Somewhat difficult to read. Practical Heroes, unfortunately, as we once said, do not speak in blank-verse ; their trade does not altogether admit of that ! Useless to look here for a Greek Temple with its por- ticos and entablatures, and styles. But the Alp Mountain, with its chasms and cataracts and shaggy pine-forests, and huge granite masses rooted in the Heart of the World : this too is worth looking at, to some. I can give the reader little help ; but will advise him to try. " GENTLEMEN, I perceive you are here as the House of Parliament, by your Speaker whom I see here, and by your faces which are in a great measure known to me. [Doubtless we are here, your Highness /] " When I first met you in this room, it was to my apprehen- sion the hopefulest day that ever mine eyes saw, as to the con- siderations of this world. For I did look at, as wrapt up in you together with myself, the hopes and the happiness of, though not of the greatest, yet a very great [People] ; and the best People in the world. And truly and uufeignedly I thought [it] so : as a People that have the highest and clearest profession amongst them of the greatest glory, namely Ee- ligion : as a People that have been, like other Nations, some- times up and sometimes down in our honor in the world, but yet never so low but we might measure with other Nations : and a People that have had a stamp upon them from God [Hah /] ; God having, as it were, summed up all our former honor and glory in the things that are of glory to Nations, in an Epitome, within these ten or twelve years last past ! So that we knew one another at home, and are well known abroad. " And if I be not very much mistaken, we were arrived IG55. SPEECH IV. 4.*0 as I, and truly I believe as many others, did think at a very safe port ; where we might sit down and contemplate the Dispensations of God and our Mercies ; and might know our Mercies not to have been like to those of the Ancients, who did make out their peace and prosperity, as they thought, by their own endeavors ; who could not say, as we, That all ours were let down to us from God Himself! Whose appearances and providences amongst us are not to be outmatched by any Story. [Deep silence ; from the old Parliament, and from nx.~\ Truly this was our condition. And I know nothing else we had to do, save as Israel was commanded in that most excel- lent Psalm of David : ' The things which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from our children ; showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done. For He established a Testimony in Jacob, and appointed a Law in Israel ; which He com- manded our fathers that they should make known to their children ; that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and de- clare them to their children : that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His com- mandments.' * "This I thought had been a song and a work worthy of England, whereunto you might happily have invited them, had you had hearts unto it. [Alas!] You had this opjwtr- tunity fairly delivered unto you. And if a history shall be written of these Times and Transactions, it will be said, it will not be denied, that these things that I have spoken are tme ! [No TV.S-/ -"//.-< from the Moderns: mere silent >, xftij><>r, nf without 8adwxs.~\ This talent was put into your hands. And I ahull recur to that which I said at the first : I came with very great joy and contentment and comfort, the first time I met you in |.lar-. I'.nt we and these Nations are, for the present, under sonic disappointment! If 1 had promised to have ,1 the Orator, \vhieh I never did affeet, nor do. nor 1 ;liall [//ear/], I doubt not but upon easy suppositions 1 Psalm Ixxviii. 3-7. 460 PART VTIT. FIRST PARLIAMENT, 22 Jan. which I am persuaded every one among you will grant, we did meet upon such hopes as these. " I met you a second time here : and I confess, at that meet- ing I had much abatement of my hopes ; though not a total frustration. I confess that that which damped my hopes so soon was somewhat that did look like a parricide. It is ob- vious enough unto you that the [then] management of affairs did savor of a Not owning, too-too much savor, I say, of a Not owning of the Authority that called you hither. But God left us not without an expedient that gave a second possibility Shall I say possibility ? It seemed to me a probability of recovering out of that dissatisfied condition we were all then in, towards some mutuality of satisfaction. And therefore by that Recognition \_The Parchment we had to sign: Hum-m /I. suiting with the Indenture that returned you hither ; to which afterwards was also added your own Declaration, 1 conformable to, and in acceptance of, that expedient: thereby [I say] you had, though with a little check, another opportunity renewed unto you to have made this Nation as happy as it could have been if everything had smoothly run on from that first hour of your meeting. And indeed, you will give me liberty of my thoughts and hopes, I did think, as I have formerly found in that way that I have been engaged in as a soldier, That some affronts put upon us, some disasters at the first, have made way for very great and happy successes ; 2 and I did not at all despond but the stop put upon you, in like man- ner, would have made way for a blessing from God. That Interruption being, as T thought, necessary to divert you from violent and destructive proceedings ; to give time for better deliberations ; whereby leaving the Government as you found it, you might have proceeded to have made those good and wholesome Laws which the People expected from you, and might have answered the Grievances, and settled those other things proper to you as a Parliament : for which you would ha,ve had thanks from all that intrusted you. [Doubtful '' Hum-m-m ! " from the old Parliament."] 1 Commons Journals (vii. 368), 14th Sept. 1654. * Characteristic sentence, and seiitlment ; not to be meddled with. 1655. SPEECH IV. " What hath happened since that time I have not taken public notice of ; as declining to intrench on Parliament privi- leges. For sure I am you will all bear me witness, That from your entering into the House upon the Recognition, to this very day, you have had no manner of interruption or hindrance of mine in proceeding to what blessed issue the heart of a good man could propose to himself, to this very day [none]. You see you have me very much locked up, as to what you have transacted among yourselves, from that time to this. [" None dare report us, or whisper what we do."] But some things I shall take liberty to speak of to you. " As I may not take notice what you have been doing ; so I think I have a very great liberty to tell you That I do not know what you have been doing ! [ With a certain tone ; as one may hearf] I do not know whether you have been alive or dead. I have not once heard from you all this time ; I have not : and that you all know. If that be a fault that I have not, surely it hath not been mine ! If I have had any melan- choly thoughts, and have sat down by them, why might it not have been very lawful for me to think that I was a Person judged unconcerned in all these businesses ? I can assure you I have not so reckoned myself ! Nor did I reckon myself unconcerned in you. And so long as any just patience could support my expectation, I would have waited to the uttermost to have received from you the issue of your consultations and resolutions. I have been careful of your safety, and the safety of those that you represented, to whom I reckon myself a servant. " But what messages have I disturbed you withal ? What injury or indignity hath been done, or offered, either to your persons or to any privileges of Parliament, since you sat ? I looked at myself as strictly obliged by my Oath, since your recognizing the Government in the authority of which you ;il Ird hither and sat, To give you all possible security, :unl to !]! you from any unparliamentary int'rnij>tion. Think }ou I could not say more upon this subject, if I listed to ex- tli.Tcupon ? But. ln-c:iiisr my actions plead for me, I say uo more of thia. [O//// unuly rolls Us 4C2 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 22 Jan. eyes."} I say, I have been caring for you, for your quiet sit- ting; caring for your privileges, as I said before, that they might not be interrupted ; have been seeking of God, from the great God a blessing upon you, and a blessing upon these Na- tions. I have been consulting if possibly I might, in anything, promote, in my place, the real good of this Parliament, of the hopefulness of which I have said so much unto you. And I did think it to be my 1 nisi ness rather to see the utmost issue, and what God would produce by you, than unseasonably to intermeddle with you. " But, as I said before, T have been caring for you, and for the peace and quiet of these Nations : indeed I have ; and that I shall a little presently manifest unto you. And it leadeth me to let you know somewhat, which, I fear, I fear, will be, through some interpretation, a little too justly put upon you ; whilst you. have been employed as you have been, and, in all that time expressed in the Government, in that Govern- ment, I say in that Government, have brought forth nothing that you yourselves say can be taken notice of without infringe- ment of your privileges ! J I will tell you somewhat, which, if it be not news to you, I wish you had taken very serious consideration of. If it be news, I wish I had acquainted you with it sooner. And yet if any man will ask me why I did it not, the reason is given already : Because I did make it my business to give you no interruption. " There be some trees that will not grow under the shadow of other trees : There be some that choose a man may say so by way of allusion to thrive under the shadow of other trees. I will tell you what hath thriven, I will not say what you have cherished, under your shadow ; that were too hard. Instead of Peace and Settlement, instead of mercy and truth being brought together, and righteousness and peace kissing 1 An embarrassed sentence ; characteristic of his Highness. " You have done nothing noticeable upon this ' Somewhat ' that I am about to speak of, nor, indeed, it seems upon any Somewhat; and ttii/t was one you may, without much ' interpretation,' be blamed for doing nothing upon." " Govern- ment" means Instrument of (government : " the time expressed " therein is Fire Months, now, by my way of calculating it, expired ! Which may account for the embarrassed iteration of the phrase, on his Highness's part. loss. SPEECH IV 463 each other, by [your] reconciling tho TTonest People of these Nations, and settling the woful distempers that are amongst us ; which had been glorious things and worthy of Christians to have proposed, weeds and nettles, briers and thorns have thriven under your shadow ! Dissettlement and division, dis- content and dissatisfaction ; together with real dangers to the whole, have been more multiplied within these five months of your sitting, than in some years before ! Foundations have also been laid for the future renewing of the Troubles of these Nations by all the enemies of them abroad and at home. Let not these words seem too sharp: for they are true as any mathematical demonstrations are or can be. I say, the ene- mies of the peace of these Nations abroad and at home, the discontented humors throughout these Nations, which [prod- ucts] I think no man will grudge to call by that name, of briers and thorns, they have nourished themselves under your shadow ! [Old Parliament looks stil? more uneasy. ~\ " And that I may clearly be understood : They have taken their opportunities from your sitting, and from the hopes they had, which with easy conjecture they might take up and con- clude that there would be no Settlement ; and they have framed their designs, preparing for tin- e\e< -ution of them accordingly. Now whether which appertains not to me to judge of, on their behalf they had any occasion ministered for this, and from whence they had it, I list not to make any scrutiny or search. But I will say this : I think they had it not from me. T am sure they had not [from me]. From whence they had, is not my business now to discourse : but f/mf they had, is obvious to every man's sense. Wh;it [.repara- tions they have made, to be executed in such a season as they thought fit to take their opportunity from : that I know, not as men know things by conjecture, but l>y certain demonstrable knowledge. That they have been for some time past furnish- ing themselves with arms; nothing doubting' but they should have a day for it ; and verily believing that, whatsoever their former disappointments were, they should have more done for them by and from our own divisions, than they were able to do for themselves. I desire to be understood That, in all I 464 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 22 Jan. have to say of this subject, yon will take it that I have no reservation in my mind, as I have not, to mingle things of guess and suspicion with things of fact : but [that] the things I am telling of are fact ; things of evident demonstration. "These weeds, briers and thorns, they have been pre- paring, and have brought their designs to some maturity, by the advantages given to them, as aforesaid, from your sittings and proceedings. [_" Hum-m-m f ""] But by the Waking Eye that watched over that Cause that God will bless, they have been, and yet are, disappointed. [Yea!"] And having men- tioned that Cause, I say, that slighted Cause, let me speak a few words in behalf thereof ; though it may seem too long a digression. Whosoever despiseth it, and will say, It is non Causa pro Causa [a Cause without Cause], the All-searching Eye before mentioned will find out that man ; and will judge him, as one that regardeth not the works of God nor the operations of His hands ! [Moderns look astonished."] For which God hath threatened that He will cast men down, and not build them up. That [man who], because he can dispute, will tell us he knew not when the Cause began, nor where it is ; but modelleth it according to his own intellect ; and submits not to the Appearances of God in the World ; and therefore lifts up his heel against God, and mocketh at all His provi- dences ; laughing at the observations, made up not without reason and the Scriptures, and by the quickening and teaching Spirit which gives life to these other ; calling such obser- vations ' enthusiasms : ' such men, I say, no wonder if they 'stumble and fall backwards, and be broken and snared and taken,' 1 by the things of which they are so wilfully and mali- ciously ignorant ! The Scriptures say, ' The Rod has a voice, and He will make Himself known by the judgments which He executeth.' And do we not think He will, and does, by the providences of mercy and kindness which He hath for His People and their just liberties ; ' whom He loves as the apple of His eye ' ? Doth Pie not by them manifest Himself ? And is He not thereby also seen giving kingdoms for them, 'giving 1 Isaiah, xxviii. 13 A text that had made a great impression upon Oliver : see Letter to the Genernl Assembly^ antea, p. 113. 16.-.5. SPEECH IV. 465 for them, and people for their lives/ as it is in Isaiah Forty-third ? l Is not this as fair a lecture and as clear speak- in'-, r , as anything our dark reason, left to the letter of the Scriptures, can collect from them ? By this voice has God spoken very loud on behalf of His People, by judging their enemies in the late War, and restoring them a liberty to worship, with the freedom of their consciences, and freedom in estates and persons when they do so. And thus we have ion ml the Cause of God by the works of God; which are the testimony of God. Upon which rock whosoever splits shall suffer shipwreck. But it is your glory, and it is mine, if I hav> any in the world concerning the Interest of those that have an interest in a better world, it is my glory that I know a Cause which yet we have not lost; but do hope we shall take a little pleasure rather to lose our lives than lose 1 [//a A/] But you will excuse this long digression. " I say unto you, Whilst you have been in the midst of these Transactions, that Party, that Cavalier Party, I could wish some of them had thrust in here, to have heard what I say, have been designing and preparing to put this Nation in blood i, with a witness. But because I am confident there are none of that sort here, therefore I shall say the less to that < )nly this 1 must teH you : They have been making great prep- arations of arms ; and I do believe it will be made evident to you that they have raked out many thousands of arms, even all that this City could afford, for divers months last past. But it will be said, ' May we not arm ourselves for the defence of our houses? Will anybody find fault for that?' Not for tli.it. But the reason for their doing so hath been as explicit, ami under as rlrar proof, as the fact of doing so. For which I li |>e, by the justice of the land, some will, in the face of the Nation, answrr it with their lives: and then the business will l.c pretty well out of doubt. Banks of money have been ii lining, lor these and other such like uses. Letters have been issued with Privy-seals, to as great Persons as most are in the n, for tin- ailvauce of money. whirli flutters] have I il.ili. xliii .T, I Another prophecy of awful nioin.-nt t.. hi* HighlieM: ,.- S|*-...-li I , aiiUtu, p :I'J. -.11. 30 4G6 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 92 Jan. been discovered to us by the Persons themselves. Commis. sions for Regiments of horse and foot, and command of Castles, have been likewise given from Charles Stuart, since your sit- ting. And what the general insolences of that Party have been, the Honest People have been sensible of, and can very well testify. " It hath not only been thus. But as in a quinsy or pleurisy, where the humor fixeth in one part, give it scope, all [disease] will gather to that place, to the hazarding of the whole : and it is natural to do so till it destroy life in that person on whom- soever this befalls. So likewise will these diseases take acci- dental causes of aggravation of their distemper. And this was that which I did assert, That they have taken accidental causes for the growing and increasing of those distempers, as much as would have been in the natural body if timely remedy were not applied. And indeed things were come to that pass, in respect of which I shall give you a particular account, that no mortal physician, if the Great Physician had not stepped in, could have cured the distemper. Shall I lay this upon your account, or my own ? I am sure I can lay it upon God's ac- count : That if He had not stepped in, the disease had been mortal and destructive ! " And what is all this ? [What are these new diseases that have gathered to this point ?] Truly I must needs still say : ' A company of men like briers and thorns ; ' and worse, if worse can be. Of another sort than those before mentioned to you. These also have been and yet are endeavoring to put us into blood and into confusion ; more desperate and dan- gerous confusion than England ever yet saw. . [Anabaptist Levellers.'} And I must say, as when Gideon commanded his son to fall upon Zeba and Zalmunna, and slay them, they thought it more noble to die by the hand of a man than of a stripling, which shows there is some contentment in the hand by which a man falls : so it is some satisfaction if a Com- monwealth must perish, that it perish by men, and not by the hands of persons differing little from beasts ! That if it must needs suffer, it should rather suffer from rir>h men than from poor men, who, as Solomon says, ' when they oppress, leave 1655. SPEECH IV. 467 nothing behind them, but are as a sweeping rain.' Now such as these also are grown up under your shadow. But it will be asked, What have they done ? I hope, though they pretend ' Commonwealth's Interest,' they have had no encouragement from you ; but have, as in the former case, rather taken it than that you have administered any cause unto them for so doing. [Any cause] from delays, from hopes that this Parliament would not settle, from Pamphlets mentioning strange Votes and Resolves of yours ; which I hope did abuse you ! But thus you see that, whatever the grounds were, these have been the effects. And thus I have laid these things before you ; and you and others will be easily able to judge how far you are concerned. " ' What these men have done ? ' They also have labored to pervert, where they could, and as they could, the Honest- meaning People of the Nation. They have labored to engage some in the Army : and I doubt that not only they, but some others also, very well known to you, have helped to this work of debauching and dividing the Army. They have, they have ! rton, Allen ami Company, your Hiyhne&s ?] I would be loath to say Who, Where, and How ? much more loath to say they were any of your own number. But I can say : Endeavors have been [made] to put the Army into a distemper, and to I '-I'll that which is the worst humor in the Army. Which Hi. 'ii;,'h it was not a mastering humor, yet these took advantage in 'in delay of the Settlement, and the practices before men tioin-d, and tin; stopping of the pay of the Army, to run us into ipiartrr, and to bring us into the inconveniences most In i red ami avoided. What if I am able to make it appeal- in fact, That some amongst you have run into the City of London, to persuade to Petitions and Addresses to you for re- : ng your own Votes that you have passed ? Whether these pr.H'tir.-s were in favor of your Liberties, or tended to beget hopes of Peace and Settlement from you; and whether d>- banrhing the Army in England, as is before expressed, and starving it, and putting it ujMm Free-quarter, and occa ioniir: and necessitating the greatest part thereof in Si-otland to iiiaifh into Knglaiid, leaving the remainder thereof to have 468 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 22 Jan. their throats cut there ; and kindling by the rest a fire in our own bosoms, were for the advantage of affairs here, let the world judge ! "This I tell you also: That the correspondence held with the Interest of the Cavaliers, by that Party of men called Levellers who call themselves Commonwealth's-men [is in our hands]. Whose Declarations were framed to that purpose, and ready to be published at the time of their [projected] common Rising ; whereof [I say] we are possessed ; and for which we have the confession of themselves now in custody ; who confess also they built their hopes upon the assurance they had of the Parliament's not agreeing to a Settlement : whether these humors have not nourished themselves under your boughs, is the subject of my present discourse ; and I think I shall say not amiss, if I affirm it to be so. [His Highness looks ani- mated /] And I must say it again, That that which hath been their advantage, thus to raise disturbance, hath been by the loss of those golden opportunities which God had put into your hands for Settlement. Judge you whether these things were thus, or not, when you first sat down. I am sure things were not thus ! There was a very great peace and sedateness throughout these Nations ; and great expectations of a happy Settlement. Which I remembered to you at the beginning in my Speech ; and hoped that you would have entered on your business as you found it. [" Hum-m-m! We had a Constitu- tion to make! "] "There was a Government [already] in the possession of the People, I say a Government in the possession of the People, for many months. It hath now been exercised near Fifteen Months : and if it were needful that I should tell you how it came into their possession, and how willingly they re- ceived it ; how all Law and Justice were distributed from it, in every respect, as to life, liberty and estate ; how it was owned by God, as being the dispensation of His providence after Twelve Years' War ; and sealed and witnessed unto by the People, I should but repeat what I said in my last Speech unto you in this place : and therefore I forbear. When you were entered upon this Government; ravelling into it 1655. SPEECH IV. 409 You kuow I took no notice what you were doing [JVbr will now, your Jliyhness ; let the Sentence drop /] If you had gone upon that foot of account, To have made such good and whole- some provisions for the Good of the People of these Nations [as were wanted] ; for the settling of such matters in things of Religion as would have upheld and given countenance to a Godly Ministry, and yet [as] would have given a just liberty to godly men of different judgments, [to] men of the same faith with them that you call the Orthodox Ministry in Eng- land, as it is well known the Independents are, and many under the form of Baptism, who are sound in the faith, and though they may perhaps be different in judgment in some lesser matters, yet as true Christians both looking for salva- tion only by faith in the blood of Christ, men professing the fear of God, and having recourse to the name of God as to a strong tower, I say you might have had opportunity to have settled peace and quietness amongst all professing Godliness ; and might have been instrumental, if not to have healed the breaches, yet to have kept the Godly of all judgments from running one upon another ; and by keeping them from being overrun by a Common Enemy, [have] rendered them and these Nations both secure, happy and well satisfied. [And the Con- stitution'.' Ham-m- / m!~\ " Are these things done ; or any things towards them ? Is thrn: not yet upon the spirits of men a strange itch ? Nothing will satisfy them unless they can press their linger upon their bivt.hren's consciences, to pinch them there. To do this was no part of the Contest we had with the Common Adversary. For [indeed] Religion was not the thing at first contested for [at all] : ' but God brought it to that issue at last ; and gav it unto us by way of redundancy ; and at last it proved to be that which was most dear to us. And wherein consisted this more than In obtaining that liberty from the tyranny of the l.ishops to all species of Protestants to worship God according to their own light and consciences ? For want of which many of our brethren forsook their native countries to seek their bread ' Power of thr Militia was thi- jM>int U|K>II whii-li th- :i'-'u.d War began A fUtoment uut fab* , yet truer in form than it is iu caseuce. ^ 470 PAKT VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 22 Jan. from strangers, and to live in howling wildernesses [Our poor brethren of New England /] ; and for which also many that re- mained here were imprisoned, and otherwise abused and made the scorn of the Nation. Those that were sound in the faith, how proper was it for them to labor for liberty, for a just liberty, that men might not be trampled upon for their con- sciences ! Had not they [themselves] labored, but lately, under the weight of persecution ? And was it fit for them to sit heavy upon others ? Is it ingenuous to ask liberty, and not to give it ? What greater hypocrisy than for those who were oppressed by the Bishops to become the greatest op- pressors themselves, so soon as their yoke was removed ? I could wish that they who call for liberty now also had not too much of that spirit, if the power were in their hands ! As for profane persons, blasphemers, such as preach sedition ; the contentious railers, evil-speakers, who seek by evil words to corrupt good manners; persons of loose conversation, punishment from the Civil Magistrate ought to meet with these. Because, if they pretend conscience ; yet walking dis- orderly and not according but contrary to the Gospel, and even to natural lights, they are judged of all. And their sins being open, make them subjects of the Magistrate's sword, who ought not to bear it in vain. The discipline of the Army was such, that a man would not be suffered to remain there, of whom we could take notice he was guilty of such practices as these. " And therefore how happy would England have been, and you and I, if the Lord had led you on to have settled upon such good accounts as these are, and to have discountenanced such practices as the other, and left men in disputable things free to their own consciences ! Which was well provided for by the [Instrument of] Government ; and liberty left to pro- vide against what was apparently evil. Judge you, Whether the contesting for things that were provided for by this Gov- ernment hath been profitable expense of time, for the good of these Nations ! By means whereof you may see you have wholly elapsed your time, and done just nothing! I will say this to you, in behalf of the Long Parliament : That, had ifcvi. SPEECH IV. 471 such an expedient as this Government been proposed to them ; and could they have seen the Cause of God thus provided for ; and been, by debates, enlightened in the grounds [of it], where- by the difficulties might have been cleared [to them], and the reason of the whole enforced, and the circumstances of time and persons, with the temper and disposition of the People, and affairs l>oth abroad and at home when it was undertaken might have been well weighed [by them] : I think in my con science, well as they were thought to love their seats, they would have proceeded in another manner than you have done ! And not have exposed things to these difficulties and hazards they now are at; nor given occasion to leave the People so dissettled as they now are. Who, I dare say, in the soberest and most judicious part of them, did expect, not a questioning, lut a doing of things in pursuance of the [Instrument of] Government. And if I be not misinformed, very many of you came up with this satisfaction ; having had time enough to weigh and consider the same. " And when I say ' such an expedient as this Government/ wherein I dare assert there is a just Liberty to the People of God, and the just Rights of the People in these Nations provided for, I can put the issue thereof upon the clearest reason ; whatsoever any go alxnit to suggest to the contrary. Hut this not being the time and place of such an averment [I forbear at present]. For satisfaction's sake herein, enough is said in a Book entituled 'A State of t/te Case of the Common- ir,,iltkj published in January, 1G53. 1 And for myself, I desire not to keep my place in this Government an hour longer than I may preserve England in its just rights, and may protect the iVople of God in such a just Liberty of their Consciences as I have already mentioned. And therefore if this Parliament have jud-i-il tilings to be otherwise than as I have stated them, it had been huge friendliness between persons who had such a reciprocation in so great concernments to the public, for them to have convinced me in what particulars therein my error lay ! 1 Read it he who wanta atisf:i< tif l.m^ua^ ami suhtilty of rgu ineiit," wya the rarliammlary Hillary (xx. 41'J) 472 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 22 Jan. Of which I never yet had a word from you ! But if, instead thereof, your time has been spent in setting up somewhat else, upon another bottom than this stands [upon], it looks as if the laying grounds for a quarrel had rather been designed than to give the People settlement. If it be thus, it 's well your labors have not arrived to any maturity at all ! [Old Parlia- ment looks agitated ; agitated, yet constant /] " This Government called you hither ; the constitution there- of being limited so, a Single Person and a Parliament. And this was thought most agreeable to the general sense of the Nation; having had experience enough, by trial, of other conclusions ; judging this most likely to avoid the extremes of Monarchy on the one hand, and of Democracy on the other ; and yet not to found Dominium in Gratia, [either. Your Highness does not claim to be here as Kings do, By Gi'ace, then ? No /] And if so, then certainly to make the Authority more than a mere notion, it was requisite that it should be as it is in this [Frame of] Government; which puts it upon a true and equal balance. It has been already submitted to the judi- cious, true and honest People of this Nation, Whether the bal- ance be not equal ? And what their judgment is, is visible, by submission to it ; by acting upon it ; by restraining their Trustees from meddling with it. And it neither asks nor needs any better ratification ! [Hear /] But when Trustees in Parliament shall, by experience, find any evil in any parts of this [Frame of ] Government, [a question] referred by the Government itself to the consideration of the Protector and Parliament, of which evil or evils Time itself will be the best discoverer: how can it be reasonably imagined that a Person or Persons, coming in by election, and standing under such obligations, and so limited, and so necessitated by oath to govern for the People's good, and to make their love, under God, the best underpropping and only safe footing : how can it, I say, be imagined that the present or succeeding Pro- tectors will refuse to agree to alter any such thing in the Gov- ernment as may be found to be for the good of the People ? Or to recede from anything which he might be convinced casts the balance too much to the Single Person ? And although, IBM. SPEECH nr i: .; for the present, the keeping up and having in his power tne Miliua seems the hardest [condition], yet if the power of the Militia should be yielded up at such a time as this, when there is as much need of it to keep this Cause (now most evidently impugned by all Enemies), as there was to yet it [for the sake of this Cause]. what would become of us all! Or if it should not be equally placed in him and the Parliament, but yielded up at any time, it determines his power either for doing the good he ought, or hindering Parliaments from per- petuating themselves ; from imposing what Religion they please on the consciences of men, or what Government they please upon the Nation. Thereby subjecting us to dissettlement ii: every Parliament, and to the desperate consequences thereof. And if the Nation shall happen to fall into a blessed Peace, how easily and certainly will their charge be taken off, and their forces be disbanded ! And then where will the danger be to have the Militia thus stated ? What if I should say : If there be a disproportion, or disequality as to the power, i; is on the other hand ! " And if this be so, Wherein have you had cause to quarrel ? What demonstrations have you held forth to settle me to your opinion ? I would you had made me so happy as to have let me known your grounds 1 I have made a free and ingenuous confession of my faith to you. And I could have wished it had been in your hearts to have agreed that some friendly and cordial debates might have been toward mutual conviction. Was there none amongst you to move such a thing ? No lit n. -ss to listen to it? No desire of a right understanding? If it IK; not folly in me to listen to Town talk, such thin li-ii;- l..-1-n proposed; and rejected, with stillness and .severity, nice .iii.l again Was it not likely to have been more advun tagj-ous to the good of this Nation ? I will say this to you tor myself i and to that I have my conscience as a thousan-1 witnesses, and I have my comfort and contentment in it; and I have the witness [too] of divers here, who I think truly [would] scorn to own me in a lie : That I would not have been averse to any alteration, of the good of which I mk'ht have been convinced. Although 1 could not huvo agreed to the 474 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. taking it off the foundation on which it stands ; namely, the acceptance and consent of the People. ["" Our sanction not needed^ then ! "J "I will not presage what you have been about, or doing, in all this time. Nor do I love to make conjectures. But I must tell you this : That as I undertook this Government in the simplicity of my heart and as before God, and to do the part of an honest man, and to be true to the Interest, which in my conscience [I think] is dear to many of you; though it is not always understood what God in His wisdom may hide from us, as to Peace and Settlement : so I can say that no particular interest, either of myself, estate, honor or family, are, or have been, prevalent with me to this undertaking. For if you had, upon the old Government, 1 offered me this one, this one thing, I speak as thus advised, and before God ; as having been to this day of this opinion ; and this hath been my constant judgment, well known to many who hear me speak : if [I say] this one thing had been inserted, this one thing, That the Government should have been placed in my Family hereditarily, I would have rejected it ! a And I could have done no other according to my present conscience and light. I will tell you my reason ; though I cannot tell what God will do with me, nor with you, nor with the Nation, for throwing away precious opportunities committed to us " This hath been my principle ; and I liked it, when this Government came first to be proposed to me, That it puts us off that hereditary way. Well looking that God hath de- clared what Government He delivered to the Jews, and [that He] placed it upon such Persons as had been instrumental for the Conduct and Deliverance of His People. And considering that Promise in Isaiah, 'That God would give Rulers as at the first, and Judges as at the beginning,' I did not know but J Means " the existing Instrument of Government " without modification of yours. 2 The matter in debate, running very high at this juncture, in the Parlia- ment, was with regard to the Single 1'ersou's being hereditary Hence partly the Protector's emphasis here- SPEECH IV. 475 that God might [now] begin, and though, at present, with a most unworthy person ; yet, as to the future, it might be after this manner ; and I thought this might usher it in ! [A noble thouyht, your Highness /] I am speaking as to my judg- ment against making Government hereditary. To have men chosen, for their love to God, and to Truth and Justice ; and not to have it hereditary. For as it is in the Ecclesiastes : Who knoweth whether he may beget a fool or a wise man ? ' Honest or not honest, whatever they be, they must come in, on that plan ; because the Government is made a patrimony ! And this I perhaps do declare with too much earnestness ; as being my own concernment; and know not what place it may have in your hearts, and in those of the Good People in the Nation. But however it be, I have comfort in this my truth and plainness. " I have thus told you my thoughts ; which truly I have de- clared to you in the fear of God, as knowing He will not l>e mocked; and in the strength of God, as knowing and re- joicing that I am supported in my speaking; especially when I do not form or frame things without the compass of in- tegrity and honesty ; [so] that my own conscience gives me not the lie to what I say. And then in what I say, I can rejoice. ' Now to speak a word or two to you. Of that, I must pro- 11 the name of the same Lord, and wish there had been no cause that I should have thus spoken to you! I told you that I came with joy tho first time; with some regret the sec- ond ; yet now I speak with most regret of all ! I look upon you as having :imong you many persons that I could lay down my life individually for. I could, through tin ^raee of God, desire to lay down my life for yon. So far am I from having an unkind or unchristian heart towards you in your particular capacities ! I have this indeed ;is a work most incumbent upon me [this of speaking the^e tiling to you]. I consulted what might. IN- my duty in sm-li a day as this; casting up all considerations. 1 must cm I told you. that I did think occasionally, This Nation h.nl suffered extremely in the respects mentioned ; as also in the disappointment of their expec* 476 PART VIIT. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 22 Jan. tations of that justice which was due to them by your sitting thus long. [Sitting thus long;] and what have you brought forth ? I did not nor cannot comprehend what it is. I would be loath to call it a Fate ; that were too paganish a word. But there has been Something in it that we had not in our expec- tations. " I did think also, for myself, That I am like to meet with difficulties ; and that this Nation will not, as it is fit it should not, be deluded with pretexts of Necessity in that great busi- ness of raising of Money. And were it not that I can make some dilemmas upon which to resolve some things of my con- science, judgment and actions, I should sink at the very pros- pect of my encounters. Some of them are general, some are more special. [Hear the "dilemmas"] Supposing this Cause or this Business must be carried on, it is either of God or of man. If it be of man, I would I had never touched it with a finger. [Hear /] If I had not had a hope fixed in me that this Cause and this Business was of God, I would many years ago have run from it. If it be of God, He will bear it up. [ Yea /] If it be of man, it will tumble ; as everything that hath been of man since the world began hath done. And what are all our Histories, and other Traditions of Actions in former times, but God manifesting Himself, that He hath shaken, and tumbled down, and trampled upon, everything that He had not planted ? [ Yes, your Highness ; such is, was and forever will be, the History of Man, deeply as we poor Moderns have now forgotten it: and the Bible of every Nation is its Own History - if it have, or had, any real Bible /] And as this is, so [let] the All-wise God deal with it. If this be of human structure and invention, and if it be an old Plotting and Contriving to bring things to this Issue, and that they are not the Births of Providence, then they will tumble. But if the Lord take pleasure in England, and if He will do us good, He is very able to bear us up ! Let the difficulties be whatsoever they will, we shall in His strength be able to encounter with them. And I bless God I have been inured to difficulties ; and I never found God failing when I trusted in Him. I can laugh and sing, in my heart, when I speak of these things to you or elsewhere. 1655. SPEECH IV. 477 And though some may think it is an hard thing To raise Money without Parliamentary Authority upon this Nation; yd I have another argument to the Good People of this Na- tion, if they would be safe, and yet have no better principle: Whether they prefer the having of their will though it be their destruction, rather than comply with things of Neces- sity ? That will excuse me. But I should wrong my native country to suppose this. " For I look at the People of these Nations as the blessing of the Lord : and they are a People blessed by God. They have been so ; and they will be so, by reason of that immortal seed which hath been, and is, among them : those Regenerated Ones in the land, of several judgments ; who are all the Flock of Christ, and lambs of Cnrist. [His,] though perhaps under many unruly passions, and troubles of spirit; whereby they give disquiet to themselves and others : yet they are not so to God; since to us He is a God of other patience; and He will own the least of Truth in the hearts of His People. And the People being the blessing of God, they will not be so angry but they will prefer their safety to their passions, and their renl security to forms, when Necessity calls for Supplies. Had they not well been acquainted with this principle, they had never seen this day of Gospel Liberty. * 1 5ut if any man shall object, ' It is an easy thing to talk Necessities when men create Necessities: would not the Lord Protector make himself great and his family great? Doth not he make these Necessities? And then he will come upon the People with his argument of Necessity!' - This were something hard indeed. But I have not yet known what it is to 'make Necessities,' whatsoever the thoughts or judgments of men are. And I say this, not only to this Assembly, but to the world, That the man liveth not who can come to me and charge me with having, in these great Revolutions, 'made Necessities.' I challenge even all that fear God. And as God hath said, ' My glory I will not give unto another.' let men tnke heed and be twice ;nl\isr,l how they call His Revolutions, the things of God, ;nnl H ; ' . tmiu om- jH-rioil l<> ;uiutlici, how, I say, 478 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 39 Jan. they call them Necessities of men's creation! For by so doing, they do vilify and lessen the works of God, and rob Him of His glory ; which He hath said He will not give unto another, nor suffer to be taken from Him ! We know what God did to Herod, when he was applauded and did not ac- knowledge God. And God knoweth what He will do with men, when they call His Revolutions human designs, and so detract from His glory. These issues and events have not been forecast ; but [were] sudden Providences in things : whereby carnal and worldly men are enraged ; and under and at whicli, many, and I fear some good men, have murmured and repined, because disappointed of their mistaken fancies. But still all these things have been the wise disposings of the Almighty ; though instruments have had their passions and frailties. And I think it is an honor to God to acknowledge the Necessities to have been of God's imposing, when truly they have been so, as indeed they have. Let us take our sin in our actions to ourselves ; it 's much more safe than to judge things so contingent, as if there were not a God that ruled the Earth ! " We know the Lord hath poured this Nation from vessel to vessel, till He poured it into your lap, when you came first together. I am confident that it came so into your hands ; and was not judged by you to be from counterfeited or feigned Necessity, but by Divine Providence and Dispensation. And this I speak with more earnestness, because I speak for God and not for men. I would have any man to come and tell of the Transactions that have been, and of those periods of time wherein God hath made these Revolutions; and find where he can fix a feigned Necessity ! I could recite particulars, if either my strength would serve me to speak, or yours to hear. If you would consider * the great Hand of God in his great Dispensations, you would find that there is scarce a man who fell off, at any period of time when God had any work to do, who can give God or His work at this day a good word. " ' It was/ say some, ' the cunning of the Lord Protector,' I take it to myself, 'it was the craft of such a man, and his 1 " if that you would revolve " in orig. 1855. SPEEC'II IV. 479 plot, that hath brought it about ! ' And, as they say in other countries, There are five or six cunning men in England that have skill ; they do all these things.' Oh, what blasphemy is this ! Because men that are without God in the world, and walk not with Him, know not what it is to pray or believe, and to receive returns from God, and to be spoken unto by the Spirit of God, who speaks without a Written Word some- times, yet according to it! God hath spoken heretofore in divers manners. Let him speak as He pleaseth. Hath He not givi-n us liberty, nay is it not our duty, To go to the Law and the Testimony ? And there we shall find that there have been impressions, in extraordinary cases, as well without the Writ- ten Word as with it. And therefore there is no difference in the thing thus asserted from truths generally received, ex- cept we will exclude the Spirit ; without whose concurrence all other teachings are ineffectual. [ Yea, your Highness ; the true God's- Voice, Voice of the Eternal) is in the heart of every Man ; there, wherever else it be.~] He doth speak to the hearts and consciences of men ; and leadeth them to His Law and Testi- mony, and there [also] He speaks to them : and so gives them double teachings. According to that of Job: < God speaketh once, yea twice ; ' and to that of David : ' God hath spoken once, yea twice have I heard this.' These men that live upon their mtimpsinnift and sumpsimus \Bulstrode looks astonished"], their Masses and Service-Books, their dead and carnal wor- ship, no marvel if they be strangers to God, and to the works of God, and to spiritual dispensations. And because tin- ij say and believe thus, must we do so too? We, in this land, luive been otherwise instructed; even by the Word, and Works, and Spirit of God. '' To say that HKMI bring forth these things when God doth them, judge you if God will bear this? I wish that every sober heart, though he hath had temptations upon him of de- serting this Cause of God, yet may take heed how he provokes and falls into the hands of the Living God by such blasphemies as these! According to tin- '!' nth of the Hebrews: 'If we sin wilfully aft-r that we have received the knowledge of Un- truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin.' [A terrible 480 PART VIII. FIRST PARLIAMENT. 582 Jan. word.] It was spoken to the Jews who, having professed Christ, apostatized from Him. What then ? Nothing but a fearful l falling into the hands of the Living God ! ' They that shall attribute to this or that person the contrivances and production of those mighty things God hath wrought in the midst of us ; and [fancy] that they have not been the Revolu- tions of Christ Himself, ' upon whose shoulders the government is laid,' they speak against God, and they fall under His hand without a Mediator. That is, if we deny the Spirit of Jesus Christ the glory of all His works in the world ; by which He rnles kingdoms, and doth administer, and is the rod of His strength, we provoke the Mediator : and He may say : I will leave you to God, I will not intercede for you ; let Him tear you to pieces ! I will leave thee to fall into God's hands ; thou deniest me my sovereignty and power committed to me ; I will not intercede nor mediate for thee ; thou fallest into the hands of the Living God ! Therefore whatsoever you may judge men for, howsoever you may say, ' This is cunning, and politic, and subtle,' take heed again, I say, how you judge of His Revolutions as the product of men's inventions ! I may be thought to press too much upon this theme. But I pray God it may stick upon your hearts and mine. The worldly-minded man knows nothing of this, but is a stranger to it ; and thence his atheisms, and murmurings at instruments, yea repining at God Himself. And no wonder ; considering the Lord hath done such things amongst us as have not been known in the world these thousand years, and yet notwith- standing is not owned by us ! " There is another Necessity, which you have put upon us, and we have not sought. I appeal to God, Angels and Men, if I shall [now] raise money according to the Article in the Government [whether I am not compelled to do it!]. Which [Government] had power to call you hither; and did; and instead of seasonably providing for the Army, you have labored to overthrow the Government, and the Army is now upon Free- quarter ! And you would never so much as let me hear a tittle from you concerning it. Where is the fault ? Has it not been as if you had a purpose to put this extremity upon us 1*55. SPEECH IV. 481 and the Nation ? I hope, this was not in your minds. I am not willing to judge so : but such is the state into which we are reduced. By the designs of some in the Army who are now in custody, it was designed to get as many of them as possible, through discontent for want of money, the Arm)' being in a barren country, near thirty weeks behind in pay. and upon other specious pretences, to march for England out of Scotland; and, in discontent, to seize their General there [General Monk'], a faithful and honest man, that so an- other [Colonel Overton~\ might head the Army. And all tins opportunity taken from your delays. Whether will this be a thing of feigned Necessity ? What could it signify, but ' The Army are in discontent already ; and we will make them live upon stones; we will make them cast off their governors and discipline ' ? What can be said to this ? I list not to un- saddle myself, and put the fault upon your backs. Whether it hath been for the good of England, whilst men have been talking of this thing or the other [/> i nu^h what a winter and spring this was in England. A Prut.vt.or left with- out supplies, obliged to cut his Parliament adrilt, and front l Mouuiiig'tf letter, in Tkurlot, iii. 384. 484 PART IX. THE MAJOR-GENERALS. 12 Feb. the matter alone ; England, from end to end of it, ripe for an explosion ; for a universal blazing up of all the heterogeneous combustibilities it had ; the Sacred Majesty waiting at Middle- burg, and Hyde cock-sure ! Nevertheless it came all to nothing ; there being a Pro- tector in it. The Protector, in defect of Parliaments, issued his own Ordinance, the best he could, for payment of old rates and taxes ; which, as the necessity was evident, and the sum fixed upon was low, rather lower than had been expected, the Country quietly complied with. Indispensable supply was obtained : and as for the Plots, the Protector had long had his eye on them, had long had his nooses round them ; the Protector strangled them everywhere at the moment suitablest for him, and lodged the ringleaders of them in the Tower. Let us, as usual, try to extricate a few small elucidative facts from the hideous old Pamphletary Imbroglio, where facts and fig- ments, ten thousand facts of no importance to one fact of some, lie mingled, like the living with the dead, in noisome darkness all of them : once extricated, they may assist the reader's fancy a little. Of Oliver's own in reference to this period, too characteristic a period to be omitted, there is little or nothing left us : a few detached Letters, hardly two of them very sig- nificant of Oliver ; which cannot avail us much, but shall be inserted at their due places. February 12th, 1654-5. News came this afternoon that Major John Wildman, chief of the frantic Anabaptist Party, upon whom the Authorities have had their eye of late, has been seized at Exton, near Marlborough, in Wilts ; " by a party of Major Butler's horse." In his furnished lodging; "in a room up-stairs ; " his door stood open : stepping softly up, the troopers found him leaning on his elbow, dictating to his clerk " A Declaration of the free and well-affected People of Eng- land now in Arms [or shortly to be in Arms] against the Tyrant Oliver Cromwell : " l a forcible piece, which can still be read, but only as a fragment, the zealous Major never hav- ing had occasion to finish it. They carried him to Chepstow 1 Whitloeke, p. 599; Cromwelliana, p. 151. i. CHRONOLOGICAL, 485 Castle ; locked him up there : and the free and well-affected People of England never got to Arms against the Tyrant, but only in hopes of getting. Wildman was in the last Par- liament ; but could not sign the Recognition ; went away in virtuous indignation, to ;ict against the Tyrant by stratagem In nceforth. He has been the centre of an extensive world of Plots this winter, as his wont from of old was : the mainspring of Royalist Auabaptistry, what we call the frantic form of Republicanism, which hopes to attain its object by assisting even Charles Stuart against the Tyrant Oliver. A stirring man ; very flamy and very fuliginous : perhaps, since Freeborn John was sealed up in Jersey, the noisiest man in England. The turning of the key on him in Chepstow will be a deliver- ance to us henceforth. We take his capture as the termination of the Anabaptist- Royalist department of the Insurrection. Thurloe has now got all the threads of this Wildman business in his hand : the ringleaders are laid in prison, Harrison, Lord Grey of Groby and various others ; kept there out of harm's way ; dealt with in a rigorous, yet gentle, and what we must call great and man- ful manner. It is remarked of Oliver that none of this Party was ever brought to trial : his hope and wish was always that they might yet be reconciled to him. Colonel Sexby, once Captain Sexby, Trooper Sexby, our old acquaintance, one of Wildman's people, has escaped on this occasion: better for himself had he been captured now, and saved from still mad- der courses he got into. Sunday, March llt/i, 16o4-5, in the City of Salisbury, about midnight, there occurs a thing worth noting. What may 1* i -ailed the general outcome of the Royalist department of the 1 usurruction. This too over England generally has, in all quar- ters where it showed itself, found some " Major Butler " with due " troops of horse " to seize it, to trample it out, and lay the ringleaders under lock and key. Hardly anywhere could it get the length of lighting : too happy if it could but gallop and hide. In Yorkshire, there was some appearance, and a few shots fired; but t> n> fl'i-td: i*K>r Sir Henry Slingaby, and a Lord Malevrier, and others were laid hold of here ; of whom PART IX. THE MAJOR-GENERALS. 11 March, the Lord escaped by stratagem ; and poor Sir Henry lies prisoner in Hull, where it will well behoove him to keep quiet if he can! But on the Sunday night above men- tioned, peaceful Salisbury is awakened from its slumbers by a real advent of Cavaliers. Sir Joseph Wagstaff, "a jolly knight " of those parts, once a Royalist Colonel ; he with Squire or Colonel Penruddock, "a gentleman of fair for- tune," Squire or Major Grove, also of some fortune, and about two hundred others, did actually rendezvous in arms about the big Steeple that Sunday night, and ring a loud alarm in those parts. It was Assize time ; the Judges had arrived the day before. Wagstaff seizes the Judges in their beds, seizes the High Sheriff, and otherwise makes night hideous ; proposes on the morrow to hang the Judges, as a useful warning, which Mr. Hyde thinks it would have been ; but is overruled by Penruddock and the rest. He orders the High Sheriff to pro- claim King Charles; High Sheriff will not, not though you hang him ; Town-crier will not, not even he though you hang him. The Insurrection does not speed in Salisbury, it would seem. The Insurrection quits Salisbury on Monday night hearing that troopers are on foot ; marches with all speed towards Cornwall, hoping for- better luck there. Marches ; but Captain Unton Crook, whom we once saw before, marches also in the rear of it ; marches swiftly, fiercely ; overtakes it at South Molton in Devonshire '-on Wednesday about ten at night," and there in few minutes puts an end to it. " They fired out of windows on us," but could make nothing of it. We took Penruddock, Grove, and long lists of others : Wag- staff unluckily escaped. 1 The unfortunate men were tried, at Exeter, by a regular assize and jury ; were found guilty, some of High Treason, some of " Horse-stealing: " Penruddock and Grove, stanch Royalists both and gallant men, were beheaded ; 1 Crook's Letter, " South Molton, 15th March, 1654, two or three in the morning" (King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 637, 15). State Trials, v. 767 et seqq. ; Whitlocke, p. COl ; Thurloe. iii. 365, 384, 391, 445; Cramwel- liana, pp 152, 153 Official Letters ID reference to this Plot, Appendix, No.2& 1655. CHRONOLOGICAL. 487 several were hanged ; a great many " sent to Barbadoes ; " and this Royalist conflagration too, which should have blazed all over England, is entirely damped out, having amounted to smoke merely, whereby many eyes are bleared ! Indeed so prompt and complete is the extinction, thankless people be- gin to say there had never been anything considerable to extinguish. Had they stood in the middle of it, had they sivn the nocturnal rendezvous at Marston Moor, seen what Shrewsbury, what Rufford Abbey, what North Wales in gen- rnil, would have grown to on the morrow, in that case, thinks the Lord Protector not without some indignation, they had known! 1 Wagstaff has escaped, and Wilmot Earl of Rochester so called ; right glad to be beyond seas again ; and will look twice at an Insurrection before they embark in it in time coming. A terrible Protector this ; no getting of him overset ! He has the ringleaders all in his hand, in prison or still at large ; as they love their estates and their life, let them be quiet. He can take your estate : is there not proof enough to take your head, if he pleases ? He dislikes shedding blood ; but is very apt " to barbadoes " an unruly man, has sent and sends us liy hundreds to Barbadoes, so that we have made an active verb of it : " barbadoes yon." a Safest to let this Protector alone ! Charles Stuart withdraws from Middleburg into the interior obscurities ; and Mr. Hyde will not be so cock-sure another time. Mr. Hyde, much pondering how his secret could have been let out, finds that it is an underling of his, one Mr. Manning, a gen- tleman by birth, " fond of fine clothes," and in very straitened circuiiistain < s at present, who has been playing the traitor. Indisputably a traitor: wherefore the King in Council has him doomed to death; has him shot, in winter following, " in MM- Duke of Neuburg's territory."' Diligent Thurloe finds is to take his place. M. when you can find such men, you may to some purpose intrust considerable powers ! It is in this way that Oliver Protector coerces the un- ruly elements of England; says to them : "Peace, ye! With tin- aid ol Parliament and venerable Parchment, if so may !; without it, if so may not be, I, called hither by a very good Authority, will hold you down. Quiet shall you, for your part, keep yourselves; or be ' barbadoesed,' and worse. Mark it; not while I live shall you have dominion, you nor the Master of you ! " Cock-matches, Horse-races and other loose assemblages are, for limited times, forbid- den. ; over England generally, or in Districts where it may be thought somewhat is a-brewing. Without cock-fighting we can do; but not without Peace, and the absence of Charles Stuart and his Copartueries. It is a Government of some arbitrariness. And yet singular, observes my learned friend, how popular it seems to grow. These considerable infringements of the constitutional fabric, prohibition of cock-fights, ameirings of I loyalists, taxing without consent in Parliament, seem not to awaken the indignation of England ; rather almost the grati- lude and confidence of England. Next year, we have " Let- of great appearances of the Country at the Assizes; and how the Gentlemen of the greatest quality served on Grand Juries; which is fit to be observed." 1 We mention, but cannot dwell upon it, another trait belong- ing to those Spring Months of 1655: the quarrel my Lord 1'roteetor hud in n-.rard to his Ordinance for the Reform of Chancery. Ordinance passed merely by the Protector in Council; never confirmed by any Parliament; which never- theless he insists upon having obeyed. How our learned 15ul- strode, leai iied Widdrington, two of the Keepers of the Great Se;il, durst not obey; and Lisle the other Keeper durst; uud Old-Speaker I^-nt.liall, Master of the Rolls, " would be 1 WlutWkc, p. 624 (April, 1666). 490 PART IX. THE MAJOR-GENERALS. 3 June, hanged at the Rolls Gate before he would obey." What pro- found consults there were among us ; buzz in the Profession, in the Public generally. And then how Oliver Protector, with delicate patient bridle-hand and yet with resolute spur, made us all obey, or else go out of that, which latter step Bulstrode and Widdrington, with a sublime conscientious feeling, preferred to take, the big heart saying to itself, " I have lost a thousand pounds a year ! " And Leuthall, for all his bragging, was not hanged at the Rolls Gate ; but kept his skin whole, and his salary whole, and did as he was bidden. The buzz in the Profession, notwithstanding much abatement of fees, had to compose itself again. 1 Bulstrode adds, some two months hence, " The Protector being good-natured, and sensible of his harsh proceeding against Whitlocke and Wid- drington," made them Commissioners of the Treasury, which was a kind of compensation. There, with Montague anw Sydenham, they had a moderately good time of it ; but saw, not without a sigh, the Great Seal remain with Lisle who durst obey, and for colleague to him a certain well-known Nathaniel Fiennes, a shrewd man, Lord Say and Sele's sou, who knew nothing of that business, says Bulstrode, nay Lisle himself knew nothing of it till he learned it from us.* Con- sole thyself, big heart. How seldom is sublime virtue re- warded in this world ! June 3d, 1655. This day come sad news out of Piedmont ; confirmation of bad rumors there had been, which deeply affects all pious English hearts, and the Protector's most of all. It appears the Duke of Savoy had, not long since, de- cided on having certain poor Protestant subjects of his con- verted at last to the Catholic Religion. Poor Protestant people, who dwell in the obscure valleys "of Lucerna, of Perosa and St. Martin," among the feeders of the Po, in the Savoy Alps : they are thought to be descendants of the old Waldenses ; a pious inoffensive people : dear to the hearts and imaginations of all Protestant men. These, it would appear, the Duke of Savoy, in the past year, undertook to himself to get converted ; for which object he sent friars to preach among 1 Whitlocke, pp. 602-608. 2 Ibid. p. 608. 1055. CHRONOLOGICAL. 491 them. The friars could convert nobody ; one of the friars, on the contrary, was found assassinated, signal to the rest that they had better take themselves away. The Duke thereupon sent other missionaries : six regiments of Catholic soldiers ; and an order to the People of the Valleys either to be con- verted straightway, or quit the country at once. They could not be converted all at once : neither could they quit the country well ; the month was December ; among the Alps ; and it was their home for immemorial years ! Six regiments, however, say they must; six Catholic regiments; and three of them are Irish, made of the banished Kurisees we knew long since ; whose humor, on such an occasion, we can guess at ! It is admitted they behaved " with little ceremony ; " it is not to be denied they behaved with much bluster and vio- lence : ferocities, atrocities, to the conceivable amount, still stand in authentic black-on-white against them. The Protes- tants of the Valleys were violently driven out of house and home, not without slaughters and tortures by the road ; had to seek shelter in French Dauphinu or where they could ; and, in mute or spoken supplication, appeal to all generous hearts of men. The saddest confirmation of the actual banishment, the actual violences done, arrives at Whitehall this day, 3d June, 1655. 1 Pity is perennial : " Ye have compassion on one another," is it not notable, beautiful ? In our days too, there are Polish Balls and such like : but the pity of the Lord Protector and Puritan England for these poor Protestants among the Alps is not to be measured by ours. The Lord Protector is melti -.1 into tears, and roused into sacred fire. This day tin- French 'y, not unimportant to him, was to be signed : this d.iy he refuses to sign it till the King and Cardinal undertake to i him in getting right done, in those poor Valleys.* He .-.mis the poor exiles 2,000 from his own purse ; appoints a l ..f Humiliation :ind a general Collection over Knijland for tint object; has, in short, deeidd that lie will bring help to these p. .or men ; that Kii-jlaml and lie will see them helped 1 Letter of the French Ambassador (ill Thurlut, in 470). Tlnirl.M nl i -uprk 492 PART IX. THE MAJOR-GENERALS. 3 June, and righted. How Envoys were sent ; how blind Milton wrote Letters to all Protestant States, calling on them for co-operation ; how the French Cardinal was shy to meddle, and yet had to meddle, and compel the Duke of Savoy, much astonished at the business, to do justice and not what he liked with his own : all this, recorded in the unreada- blest stagnant deluges of old Official Correspondence, 1 is very certain, and ought to be fished therefrom and made more apparent. In all which, as we can well believe, it was felt that the Lord Protector had been the Captain of England, and had truly expressed the heart and done the will of England ; in this, as in some other things. Milton's Sonnet and Six Latin Letters are still readable ; the Protector's Act otherwise re- mains mute hitherto. Small damage to the Protector, if no other suffer thereby ! Let it stand here as a symbol to us of his Foreign Policy in general ; which had this one object, testified in all manner of negotiations and endeavors, noticed by us and not noticed, To make England Queen of the Protes- tant world ; her, if there were no worthier Queen. To unite the Protestant world of struggling Light against the Papist world of potent Darkness. To stand upon God's Gospel, as the actual intrinsic Fact of this Practical Earth ; and defy all potency of Devil's Gospels on the strength of that. Wherein, again, Puritan England felt gradually that this Oliver was her Captain ; and in heart could not but say, Long life to him ! as we do now. Let us note one other small private trait of Oliver in these months ; and then hasten to the few Letters we have. Dull Bulstrode has jotted down : " The Protector feasted the Com- missioners for Approbation of Ministers." 2 Means the Com- mission of Triers ; 8 whom he has to dinner with him in Whitehall. Old Sir Francis, Dr. Owen and the rest. "He sat at table with them ; and was cheerful and familiar in their company : " Hope you are getting on, my friends : how 1 Thnrloe (much of vol. iii.) ; Vaugkau's Protectorate, &c. * Whitlocke, April, 1655. 8 Antea, p. 386. 1055 CHRONOLOGICAL. 493 this is, and how that is ? " By such kind of little caresses," adds Bulstrode, " he gained much upon many persons." Me, as a piece of nearly matchless law-learning and general wis- dom, I doubt he never sufficiently respected ; though he knew my fat qualities too, and was willing to use and recognize theml RINTEO IN US A. IIIIIII A 000 884 673