FOOTNOTE:[1]Nehemiah Wharton, a Londoner who volunteered and joined the army of Essex. He writes to his former employer, a city merchant, to whom he had been apprenticed.
[1]Nehemiah Wharton, a Londoner who volunteered and joined the army of Essex. He writes to his former employer, a city merchant, to whom he had been apprenticed.
[1]Nehemiah Wharton, a Londoner who volunteered and joined the army of Essex. He writes to his former employer, a city merchant, to whom he had been apprenticed.
Source.—Carlyle,Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, March 10, 1643.
Sir,Thecomplaints 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 untoyou. 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 different 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 otherwise; but I tell you my mind.—I desire you would receivethis man into your favour 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. I know you will not think it fit my Lord should discharge an Officer of the Field but in a regulate way. I question whether you or I have any precedent for that.
I have not further to trouble you:—but rest,
Your humble servant,Oliver Cromwell.
Source.—Clarendon State Papers.Vol. ii., p. 155.
Sir,Theexperience I have had of your worth and the happiness I have enjoyed in your friendship are wounding considerations to me when I look upon this present distance between us. Certainly, my affections to you are so unchangeable, that hostility itself cannot violate my friendship to your person. But I must be true to the cause wherein I serve. The old limitationusque ad aras, holds still; and where my conscience is interested, all other obligations are swallowed up. I should most gladly wait upon you, according to your desire, but that I look upon you as engaged in that party beyond the possibility of a retreat, and consequently uncapable of being wrought upon by any persuasion. And I know the conference could never be so close between us, but that it would take wind, and receive a construction to my dishonour. That great God who is the searcher of my heart, knows with what a sad sense I go on upon this service, and with what a perfect hatred I detest this war without an enemy. But I look upon it as sent from God; and that is enough to silence all passion in me. The God of Heaven in hisgood time send us the blessing of peace, and in the mean time fit us to receive it. We are both upon the stage, and must act such parts as are assigned us in this tragedy. Let us do it in a way of honour, and without personal animosities....
Source.—Letters and Journals of R. Baillie.Edinburgh: the Bannatyne Club, 1823. Vol. ii., p. 117.
R. Baillie to (?) David Dickson in Scotland, despatched Jan. 1, 1644.
Reverend and Beloved Brother,...In the Grand Committee this afternoon we have finally agreed on a draft of a letter for the churches abroad to inform them of our condition, which shortly you will see in print. Also we have begun one business, (very handsomely I trust,) of great consequence. In the time of this anarchy the divisions of the people weekly do much increase: the Independent party grows; but the Anabaptists more; and the Antinomians most. The Independents being most able men, and of great credit, fearing no less than banishment from their native country if Presbyteries were erected, are watchful that no conclusion be taken for their prejudice. It was my advice which Mr. Henderson presently applauded, and gave me thanks for it, to eschew a public rupture with the Independents, till we were more able for them. As yet a Presbytery to this people is conceived to be a strange monster. It was our good therefore to go on hand in hand, so far as we did agree, against the common enemy: hoping that in our differences, when we behooved to come to them, God would give us light; in the meantime we would assay to agree upon the Directory of Worship, wherein we expect no small help from these men, to abolish the Great Idol of England, the Service-Book, and to erect in all the parts of worship a full conformity to Scotland in all things worthy to be spoken of.... This day was proposed byMr. Solicitor, seconded by Sir Harry Vane, my Lord Say and my Lord Wharton at our Committee and assented to by all, that a sub-committee of five, without exclusion of any of the committee, shall meet with us of Scotland for preparing a Directory of Worship to be communicated to the Grand Committee and by them to the Assembly. Also there is a paper drawn up by Mr. Marshall, in the name of the chief men of the Assembly and the chief of the Independents, to be communicated on Monday to the Assembly and by their advice to be published, declaring the Assembly's mind to settle, with all speed is possible, all the questions needful about religion: to reform according to the word of God all abuses: and to give to every congregation a person, as their due; whereupon loving and pithy exhortations are framed to the people, in the name of the men who are of the greatest credit, to wait patiently for the Assembly's mind, and to give over that most unreasonable purpose of their own reformations and gathering of congregations.... Further ways are in hand, which if God bless, the Independents will either come to us or have very few to follow them. As for the other sects, wise men are in opinion that God's favour in this Assembly will make them evanish. We had great need of your prayers. On Wednesday Mr. Pym was carried from his house to Westminster on the shoulders, as the fashion is, of the chief men of the Lower House, all the House going in procession before him, and before them the Assembly of Divines. Marshall had a most eloquent and pertinent funeral sermon, which we would not hear, for funeral sermons we must have away, with the rest. The Parliament has ordered to pay his debt, and to build him, in the chapel of Henry VII., a most stately monument.
... All our company, praise to God, are in good health and cheerfulness. I must break off: for I must preach to-morrow, as also my other colleagues.
Source.—Milton,Prose Works. Ed. Bohn. Vol. ii., p. 90.Areopagitica, 1644.
Lords and commons of England, consider what nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors: a nation not slow and dull, but of a quick ingenious and piercing spirit; acute to invent, subtile and sinewy to discourse not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to.... Now once again by all concurrence of signs and by the general instinct of holy and devout men, as they daily and solemnly express their thoughts, God is decreeing to begin some new and great period in His church; even to the reformation of reformation itself; what does He then but reveal Himself to His servants, and as His manner is, first to His Englishmen? I say, as His manner is, first to us, though we mark not the method of His counsels, and are unworthy. Behold now this vast city; a city of refuge, the mansion-house of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with His protection: the shop of war hath not there more anvils and hammers working, to fashion out the plates and instruments of armed justice in defence of beleaguered truth, than there be pens and heads there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching Reformation; others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and convincement. What could a man require more from a nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge? What wants there to such a toward and pregnant soil but wise and faithful labourers, to make a knowing people a nation of prophets, of sages, and of worthies? We reckon more than five months yet to harvest: there need not be five weeks; had we but eyes to lift up, the fields are white already. Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic terrors ofsect and schism, we wrong the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding which God hath stirred up in this city. What some lament, we rather should rejoice at, should rather praise this pious forwardness among men, to reassure the ill-deputed care of their religion into their own hands again. A little generous prudence, a little forbearance of one another, and some grain of charity, might win all these diligences to join and unite into one general and brotherly search after truth; could we but forego this prelatical tradition, of crowding free consciences and Christian liberties into canons and precepts of men. I doubt not, if some great and worthy stranger should come among us, wise to discern the mould and temper of a people, and how to govern it, observing the high hopes and aims, the diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and reasonings in the pursuance of truth and freedom, but that he would cry out as Pyrrhus did, admiring the Roman docility and courage, "If such were my Epirots, I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted to make a church or kingdom happy." Yet these are the men cried out against for schismatics and sectaries, as if, while the temple of the Lord was building, some cutting, some squaring the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should be a sort of irrational men, who could not consider there must be many schisms and many dissections made in the quarry and in the timber, ere the house of God can be built. And when every stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world; neither can every piece of building be of one form; nay rather the perfection consists in this, that out of many moderate varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportional, arises the goodly and the gracious symmetry that commends the whole pile and structure.... Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam; purging and unscaling her long abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance;while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms.
What should you do, then, should ye suppress all this flowery crop of knowledge and new light sprung up and yet springing daily in this city? Should ye set up an oligarchy of twenty engrossers over it, to bring a famine upon our minds again, when we shall know nothing but what is measured to us by their bushel? Believe it, lords and commons! they who counsel you to such a suppressing do as good as bid ye suppress yourselves; and I will soon show how. If it be desired to know the immediate cause of all this free writing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned a truer than your own mild and free and humane government; it is the liberty, lords and commons, which your own valorous and happy counsels have purchased us; liberty, which is the nurse of all great arts: this it is which hath rarefied and enlightened our spirits like the influence of Heaven; this is that which hath enfranchised, enlarged, and lifted up our apprehensions degrees above themselves. Ye cannot make us now less capable, less knowing, less eagerly pursuing of the truth, unless ye first make yourselves, that made us so, less the lovers, less the founders of our true liberty. We cannot grow ignorant again, brutish, formal and slavish, as ye found us: but you then must first become that which ye cannot be, oppressive, arbitrary, and tyrannous; as they were from whom ye have freed us. That our hearts are now more capacious, our thoughts more erected to the search and expectation of greatest and exactest things, is the issue of your own virtue propagated in us; ye cannot suppress that unless ye reinforce an abrogated and merciless law, that fathers may despatch at will their own children.... Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
Source.—Memorials of Montrose.Edinburgh: The Maitland Club, 1841. Vol. ii., p. 175.
May it please Your Sacred Majesty:—Thelast dispatch I sent your Majesty word by my worthy friend, and your Majesty's brave servant, Sir William Rollock, from Kintore, near Aberdeen, dated the 14th of September last; wherein I acquainted your Majesty with the good success of your arms in this kingdom, and of the battles the justice of your cause has won over your obdurate rebel subjects. Since Sir William Rollock went I have traversed all the north of Scotland up to Argyle's country; who durst not stay my coming, or I should have given your Majesty a good account of him ere now. But at last I have met with him, yesterday, to his cost; of which your gracious Majesty be pleased to receive the following particulars.
After I had laid waste the whole country of Argyle, and brought off provisions, for my army, of what could be found, I received information that Argyle was got together with a considerable army, made up chiefly of his own clan, and vassals and tenants, with others of the rebels that joined him, and that he was at Inverlochy, where he expected the Earl of Seaforth, and the sept of the Frasers, to come up to him with all the forces they could get together. Upon this intelligence I departed out of Argyleshire, and marched through Lorn, Glencow, and Aber, till I came to Lochness, my design being to fall upon Argyle before Seaforth and the Frasers could join him. My march was through inaccessible mountains, where I could have no guides but cow-herds, and they scarce acquainted with a place but six miles from their own habitations. If I had been attacked but with one hundred men in some of these passes, I must have certainly returned back, for it would have been impossible to force my way, most of the passes being so strait that three men could not march abreast. I was willing to let the world see that Argyle was not the man his Highlandmen believedhim to be, and that it was possible to beat him in his own Highlands. The difficultest march of all was over the Lochaber mountains, which we at last surmounted, and came upon the back of the enemy when they least expected us, having cut off some scouts we met about four miles from Inverlochy. Our van came within view of them about five o'clock in the afternoon, and we made a halt till our rear was got up, which could not be done till eight at night. The rebels took the alarm and stood to their arms, as well as we, all night, which was moonlight, and very clear. There were some few skirmishes between the rebels and us all the night, and with no loss on our side but one man. By break of day I ordered my men to be ready to fall on upon the first signal, and I understand since, by the prisoners, the rebels did the same. A little after the sun was up, both armies met, and the rebels fought for some time with great bravery, the prime of the Campbells giving the first onset, as men that deserved to fight in a better cause. Our men, having a nobler cause, did wonders, and came immediately to push of pike, and dint of sword, after their first firing. The rebels could not stand it, but, after some resistance at first, began to run, whom we pursued for nine miles together, making a great slaughter, which I would have hindered, if possible, that I might save your Majesty's misled subjects, for well I know your Majesty does not delight in their blood, but in their returning to their duty. There were at least fifteen hundred killed in the battle and the pursuit, among whom there are a great many of the most considerable gentlemen of the name of Campbell, and some of them nearly related to the Earl. I have saved and taken prisoners several of them, that have acknowledged to me their fault and lay all the blame on their Chief. Some gentlemen of the Lowlands, that had behaved themselves bravely in the battle, when they saw all lost, fled into the old castle, and, upon their surrender, I have treated them honourably, and taken their parole never to bear arms against your Majesty.
We have of your Majesty's army about two hundredwounded, but I hope few of them dangerously. I can hear but of four killed, and one whom I cannot name to your Majesty but with grief of mind, Sir Thomas Ogilvy, a son of the Earl of Airly's, of whom I writ to your Majesty in my last. He is not yet dead, but they say he cannot possibly live, and we give him over for dead. Your Majesty had never a truer servant, nor there never was a braver, honester gentleman. For the rest of the particulars of this action, I refer myself to the bearer, Mr. Hay, whom your Majesty knows already, and therefore I need not recommend him.
Now, Sacred Sir, let me humbly intreat your Majesty's pardon if I presume to write you my poor thoughts and opinion about what I heard by a letter I received from my friends in the south, last week, as if your Majesty was entering into a treaty with your rebel Parliament in England. The success of your arms in Scotland does not more rejoice my heart, as that news from England is like to break it. And whatever come of me, I will speak my mind freely to your Majesty, for it is not mine, but your Majesty's interest I seek.
When I had the honour of waiting upon your Majesty last, I told you at full length what I fully understood of the designs of your Rebel subjects in both kingdoms, which I had occasion to know as much as any one whatsoever; being at that time, as they thought, entirely in their interest. Your Majesty may remember how much you said you were convinced I was in the right in my opinion of them. I am sure there is nothing fallen out since to make your Majesty change your judgment in all those things I laid before your Majesty at that time. The more your Majesty grants, the more will be asked; and I have too much reason to know that they will not rest satisfied with less than making your Majesty a King of straw. I hope the news I have received about a treaty may be a mistake, and the rather that the letter wherewith the Queen was pleased to honour me, dated the 30th of December, mentions no such thing. Yet I know not what to make of the intelligenceI received, since it comes from Sir Robert Spottiswood, who writes it with a great regret; and it is no wonder, considering no man living is a more true subject to your Majesty than he. Forgive me, Sacred Sovereign, to tell your Majesty that, in my poor opinion, it is unworthy of a King to treat with Rebel subjects, while they have the sword in their hands. And though God forbid I should stint your Majesty's mercy, yet I must declare the horror I am in when I think of a treaty, while your Majesty and they are in the field with two armies, unless they disband, and submit themselves entirely to your Majesty's goodness and pardon.
As to the state of affairs in this Kingdom, the bearer will fully inform your Majesty in every particular. And give me leave, with all humility, to assure your Majesty that, through God's blessing, I am in the fairest hopes of reducing this kingdom to your Majesty's obedience. And, if the measures I have concerted with your other loyal subjects fail me not, which they hardly can, I doubt not before the end of this summer I shall be able to come to your Majesty's assistance with a brave army, which, backed with the justice of your Majesty's cause, will make the Rebels in England, as well as in Scotland, feel the just rewards of Rebellion. Only give me leave, after I have reduced this country to your Majesty's obedience, andconquered from Dan to Beersheba, to say to your Majesty then, as David's General did to his master, "Come thou thyself, lest this country be called by my name." For in all my actions I aim only at your Majesty's honour and interest, as becomes one that is to his last breath, may it please your Sacred Majesty,—
Your Majesty's most humble, most faithful, and
most obedient Subject and Servant,Montrose.
Inverlochy in Lochaber,February 3rd, 1645.
Source.—Camden Society's Publications. Vol. lix., p. 45.
Newcastle,June 10th, 1646.
Dear Heart,Thesetwo last weeks I heard not from thee, nor any about thee, which hath made my present condition the more troublesome, but I expect daily the contentment of hearing from thee. Indeed I have need of some comfort, for I never knew what it was to be barbarously baited before, and these five or six days last have much surpassed, in rude pressures against my conscience, all the rest since I came to the Scotch army; for, upon I know not what intelligence from London, nothing must serve but my signing the covenant (the last was, my commanding all my subjects to do it), declaring absolutely, and without reserve, for Presbyterian government, and my receiving the Directory in my family, with an absolute command for the rest of the kingdom; and if I did not all this, then a present agreement must be made with the parliament, without regard of me, for they said that otherways they could not hope for peace or a just war. It is true they gave me many other fair promises in case I did what they desired (and yet for the militia they daily give ground); but I answered them, that what they demanded was absolutely against my conscience, which might be persuaded, but would not be forced by anything they could speak or do. This was the sum of divers debates and papers between us, of which I cannot now give thee an account. At last I made them be content with another message to London, requiring an answer to my former, with an offer to go thither upon honourable and just conditions. Thus all I can do is but delaying of ill, which I shall not be able to do long without assistance from thee. I cannot but again remember thee, that there was never man so alone as I, and therefore very much to be excused for the committing of any error, because I have reason to suspect everything that these advised me,and to distrust mine own single opinion, having no living soul to help me. To conclude, all the comfort I have is in thy love and a clear conscience.
I know the first will not fail me, nor (by the grace of God) the other. Only I desire thy particular help, that I should be as little vexed as may be; for, if thou do not, I care not much for others. I need say no more of this, nor will at this time, but that I am eternally thine.
Charles R.
Source.—The Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow.Ed. C. H. Firth. Oxford, 1894. Vol. i., pp. 144, 145.
In the meantime I observed that another party was not idle: for, walking one morning with Lieutenant-General Cromwell in Sir Robert Cotton's garden, he inveighed bitterly against them, saying in a familiar way to me, "If thy father were alive, he would let some of them hear what they deserve," adding further "that it was a miserable thing to serve a Parliament, to whom let a man be never so faithful, if one pragmatical fellow amongst them rise up and asperse him, he shall never wipe it off. Whereas," said he, "when one serves under a general, he may do as much service, and yet be free from all blame and envy." This text, together with the comment that his after-actions put upon it, hath since persuaded me that he had already conceived the design of destroying the civil authority, and setting up of himself; and that he took that opportunity to feel my pulse, whether I were a fit instrument to be employed by him to those ends. But having replied to his discourse, that we ought to perform the duty of our stations, and trust God with our honour, power, and all that is dear to us, not permitting any such considerations to discourage us from the prosecution of our duty, I never heard any more from him upon that point.
Source.—Clarke Papers, Camden Society's Publications. Vol. i., p. 301. Putney, October 29, 1647.
At a Meeting of the Officers for calling upon God.
Part of the Debate on the Agreement of the People, First article, "That the people of England being at this day very unequally distributed by Counties, Cities and Boroughs for the election of their Deputies in Parliament, ought to be more indifferently proportioned according to the number of the inhabitants."
Col. Rainborough.Really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he; and therefore truly, Sir, I think it's clear that every man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that Government....
Commissary Ireton.Give me leave to tell you, that if you make this the rule I think you must fly for refuge to an absolute natural Right, and you must deny all Civil Right.... For my part I think it is no right at all. I think that no person hath a right to an interest or share in the disposing or determining of the affairs of the Kingdom, and in choosing those that shall determine what laws we shall be ruled by here, no person hath a right to this that hath not a permanent fixed interest in this Kingdom.... We talk of birthright. Truly by birthright there is thus much claim. Men may justly have by birthright, by their very being born in England, that we shall not seclude them out of England, that we shall not refuse to give them air and place and ground and the freedom of the highways and other things, to live amongst us.... That I think is due to a man by birth. But that by a man's being born here he shall have a share in that power that shall dispose of the lands here, and of all things here, I do not think it a sufficient ground. I am sure if we look upon ... that which is most radical and fundamental and which if you take away there is no man hath any land, any goods, any civil interest,that is this; that those that choose the representors for the making of laws by which this state and kingdom are to be governed, are the persons who taken together do comprehend the local interest of this kingdom: that is, the persons in whom all land lies, and those in Corporations in whom all trading lies....
Rainborough.Truly, Sir, I am of the same opinion I was; and am resolved to keep it till I know reason why I should not. I do think the main cause why Almighty God gave men reason, it was, that they should make use of that reason. Half a loaf is better than none if a man be an hungry, yet I think there is nothing that God hath given a man that any else can take from him. I do not find anything in the law of God, that a Lord shall choose 20 burgesses and a gentleman but two, and a poor man shall choose none. But I do find that all Englishmen must be subject to English laws, and I do verily believe that there is no man but will say that the foundation of all law lies in the people....
Ireton.I wish we may all consider of what right you will challenge, that all people should have right to elections. Is it by the right of nature? By that same right of nature by which you can say one man hath an equal right with another to the choosing of him that shall govern him—by the same right of nature, he hath an equal right in any goods he sees; meat, drink, clothes, to take and use them for his sustenance. He hath a freedom to the land, to exercise it, till it; he hath the same freedom to anything that anyone doth account himself to have any property in.... Since you cannot plead it by anything but the law of nature, I would fain have any man show me their bounds, where you will end, and why you should not take away all property?
Rainborough.I wish we were all true hearted, and that we did all carry ourselves with integrity. For my part, I think you do not only yourselves believe that we are inclining to anarchy, but you would make all men believe that. That there is property the Law of God says, else why hath God made that law, "Thou shalt not steal"? If I have no interestin the Kingdom I must suffer by all their laws, be they right or wrong. I am a poor man, therefore I must be oppressed....
Cromwell.I know nothing but this, that they that are the most yielding have the greatest reason; but really, Sir, this is not right as it should be. No man says you have a mind to anarchy, but the consequence of this rule tends to anarchy, must end in anarchy, for where is there any bound or limit set, if you take away this limit, that men that have no interest but the interest of breathing, shall have no voice in elections? Therefore I am confident on it that we should not be so hot one with another....
Rainborough.I deny that there is property, to a Lord, to a Gentleman, to any man more than another in the Kingdom of England. I would fain know what we have fought for. This is the old law of England, and that which enslaves the people of England, that they should be bound by laws in which they have no voice at all....
Mr. Sexby.We have engaged in this Kingdom and ventured our lives, and it was all for this: to recover our birthrights and privileges as Englishmen, and by the arguments used there is none. There are many thousands of us soldiers that have ventured our lives: we have had little property in the Kingdom as to our estates; yet we have had a birthright. It seems now, unless a man hath a fixed estate in this Kingdom, he hath no right in this kingdom. I wonder we were so much deceived. I shall tell you in a word my resolution. I am resolved to give my birthright to none. I do think the poor and meaner of this kingdom have been the means of the preservation of this kingdom....
Ireton.For my part, rather than I will make a disturbance to a good Constitution of a kingdom wherein I may live in godliness and honesty and peace and quietness, I will part with a great deal of my birthright. I will part with my own property rather than I will be the man that shall make a disturbance in the Kingdom for my property....
Rainborough.But I would fain know what the poor soldierhath fought for all this while? He hath fought to enslave himself, to give power to men of riches, men of estates, to make him a perpetual slave. We do find in all presses that go forth none must be pressed that are freehold men. When these Gentlemen fall out among themselves they shall press the poor scrubs to come and kill them.
Cromwell.I confess I am most dissatisfied with that I heard Mr. Sexby speak of any man here, because it did savour so much of will. But I desire that all of us may decline that, and if we meet here really to agree to that which is for the safety of the Kingdom, let us not spend so much time in such debates as these are. If we think to bring it to an issue this way I know our debates are endless, and I think if you do desire to bring this to a result it were well if we may but resolve upon a Committee. I say it again, if I cannot be satisfied to go so far as these Gentlemen ... I shall freely and willingly withdraw myself, and I hope to do it in such manner that the Army shall see that I shall by my withdrawing satisfy the interest of the Army, the public interest of the Kingdom, and those ends these men aim at.
Source.—British Museum Pamphlets. E. 412.21.
An Agreement of the People for a Firm and Present Peace upon Grounds of Common Right.
Having by our late labours and hazards made it appear to the world at how high a rate we value our just freedom, and God having so far owned our cause as to deliver the enemies thereof into our hands, we do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other to take the best care we can for the future to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition and the chargeable remedy of another war; for, it cannot be imagined that so many of our countrymen would have opposed us in this quarrel if they had understood their own good, so may we safely promise to ourselves that, when our common rights and liberties shall be cleared, their endeavours will be disappointed that seek to make themselves our masters.
Since, therefore, our former oppressions and scarce-yet-ended troubles have been occasioned, either by want of frequent national meetings in Council, or by rendering those meetings ineffectual, we are fully agreed and resolved to provide that hereafter our representatives be neither left to an uncertainty for the time nor made useless to the ends for which they are intended.
In order whereunto we declare:—
I.
That the people of England, being at this day very unequally distributed by Counties, Cities, and Boroughs, ought to be more indifferently proportioned according to the number of the inhabitants; the circumstances whereof for number, place, and manner are to be set down before the end of this present Parliament.
II.
That, to prevent the many inconveniences apparently arising from the long continuance of the same persons in authority, this present Parliament be dissolved upon the last day of September which shall be in the year of our Lord, 1648.
III.
That the people do, of course, choose themselves a Parliament once in two years, viz. upon the first Thursday in every 2d March, after the manner as shall be prescribed before this present Parliament end, to begin to sit upon the first Thursday in April following, at Westminster or such other place as shall be appointed from time to time by the preceding Representatives, and to continue till the last day of September then next ensuing, and no longer.
IV.
That the power of this, and all future Representatives of this Nation, is inferior only to theirs who choose them, anddoth extend, without the consent or concurrence of any other person or persons, to the enacting, altering, and repealing of laws, to the erecting and abolishing of offices and courts, to the appointing, removing, and calling to account magistrates and officers of all degrees, to the making war and peace, to the treating with foreign States, and, generally, to whatsoever is not expressly or impliedly reserved by the represented to themselves.
Which are as followeth.
1. That matters of religion and the ways of God's worship are not at all entrusted by us to any human power, because therein we cannot remit or exceed a tittle of what our consciences dictate to be the mind of God without wilful sin: nevertheless the public way of instructing the nation (so it be not compulsive) is referred to their discretion.
2. That the matter of impresting and constraining any of us to serve in the wars is against our freedom; and therefore we do not allow it in our Representatives; the rather, because money (the sinews of war), being always at their disposal, they can never want numbers of men apt enough to engage in any just cause.
3. That after the dissolution of this present Parliament, no person be at any time questioned for anything said or done in reference to the late public differences, otherwise than in execution of the judgments of the present Representatives or House of Commons.
4. That in all laws made or to be made every person may be bound alike, and that no tenure, estate, charter, degree, birth, or place do confer any exemption from the ordinary course of legal proceedings whereunto others are subjected.
5. That as the laws ought to be equal, so they must be good, and not evidently destructive to the safety and well-being of the people.
These things we declare to be our native rights, and therefore are agreed and resolved to maintain them with our utmost possibilities against all opposition whatsoever; being compelled thereunto not only by the examples of our ancestors, whose blood was often spent in vain for the recovery of their freedoms, suffering themselves through fraudulent accommodations to be still deluded of the fruit of their victories, but also by our own woeful experience, who, having long expected and dearly earned the establishment of these certain rules of government, are yet made to depend for the settlement of our peace and freedom upon him that intended our bondage and brought a cruel war upon us.
(Excerpt.)
Source.—Rushworth. Vol. vi., p. 1419.
Now, therefore, upon serious and mature deliberation of the premises, and consideration had of the notoriety of the matters of fact charged upon him as aforesaid, this Court is in judgment and conscience satisfied that he, the said Charles Stuart, is guilty of levying war against the said Parliament and people, and maintaining and continuing the same; for which in the said charge he stands accused, and by the general course of his government, counsels, and practices, before and since this Parliament began (which have been and are notorious and public, and the effects whereof remain abundantly upon record) this Court is fully satisfied in their judgments and consciences, that he has been and is guilty of the wicked design and endeavours in the said charge set forth; and that the said war hath been levied, maintained, and continued by him as aforesaid, in prosecution, and for accomplishment of the said designs; and that he hath been and is the occasioner, author and continuer of the said unnatural, cruel, and bloody wars, and therein guilty of high treason, and of the murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, desolations, damage, and mischief to this nation acted and committed in the said war, and occasioned thereby. For all which treasons and crimes this Court doth adjudge that he, the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant,traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of this nation, shall be put to death by the severing of his head from his body.
Source.—Clarendon,History of the Rebellion.Book XI., §§ 239-243.
To speak first of his private qualifications as a man, before the mention of his princely and royal virtues: he was, if ever any, the most worthy of the title of an honest man; so great a love of justice, that no temptation could dispose him to a wrongful action, except it was so disguised to him that he believed it to be just. He had a tenderness and compassion of nature, which restrained him from ever doing a hard-hearted thing; and therefore he was so apt to grant pardons to malefactors, that the judges of the land represented the damage and insecurity to the public, that flowed from such his indulgence. And then he restrained himself from pardoning either murders or highway robberies, and quickly discerned the fruits of his severity by a wonderful reformation of those enormities. He was very punctual and regular in his devotions; he was never known to enter upon his recreations or sports, though never so early in the morning, before he had been at public prayers, so that on hunting days his chaplains were bound to a very early attendance. He was likewise very strict in observing the hours of his private cabinet devotions, and was so severe an exactor of gravity and reverence in all mention of religion, that he could never endure any light or profane word in religion, with what sharpness of wit soever it was covered; and though he was well pleased and delighted with reading verses made upon any occasion, no man durst bring before him anything that was profane or unclean. That kind of wit had never any countenance then. He was so great an example of conjugal affection, that they that did not imitate him in that particular did not brag of their liberty: and he did not only permit,but direct his bishops to prosecute those scandalous vices, in the ecclesiastical courts, against persons of eminence and near relation to his service.
His kingly virtues had some mixture and alloy, that hindered them from shining in full lustre, and from producing those fruits they should have been attended with. He was not in his nature very bountiful, though he gave very much. This appeared more after the Duke of Buckingham's death, after which those showers fell very rarely: and he paused too long in giving, which made those to whom he gave less sensible of the benefit. He kept State to the full, which made his Court very orderly; no man presuming to be seen in a place where he had no pretence to be. He saw and observed men long before he received any about his person; and did not love strangers, nor very confident men. He was a patient hearer of causes, which he frequently accustomed himself to at the council board, and judged very well, and was dextrous in the mediating part: so that he often put an end to causes by persuasion, which the stubbornness of men's humours made dilatory in courts of justice.
He was very fearless in his person, but not very enterprising. He had an excellent understanding, but was not confident enough of it; which made him oftentimes change his opinion for a worse, and follow the advice of men that did not judge so well as himself. This made him more irresolute than the conjuncture of his affairs would admit: if he had been of a rougher and more imperious nature he would have found more respect and duty. And his not applying some severe cures to approaching evils proceeded from the lenity of his nature, and the tenderness of his conscience, which, in all cases of blood, made him choose the softer way, and not hearken to severe counsels how reasonably soever urged. This only restrained him from pursuing his advantage in the first Scots expedition, when, humanly speaking, he might have reduced that nation to the most slavish obedience that could have been wished. But no man can say he had then many who advised him to it, but thecontrary, by a wonderful indisposition all his council had to fighting, or any other fatigue. He was always an immoderate lover of the Scottish nation, having not only been born there, but educated by that people and besieged by them always, having few English about him till he was king; and the major number of his servants being still of that nation, who he thought could never fail him. And among these, no man had such an ascendant over him, as Duke Hamilton had.
As he excelled in all other virtues, so in temperance he was so strict, that he abhorred all debauchery to that degree, that, at a great festival solemnity, where he once was, when very many of the nobility of the English and Scots were entertained, being told by one who withdrew from thence, what vast draughts of wine they drank, and "that there was one earl who had drunk most of the rest down, and was not himself moved or altered," the King said, "that he deserved to be hanged," and that earl coming shortly after into the room where his majesty was, in some gaiety, to show how unhurt he was from that battle, the king sent one to bid him withdraw from his Majesty's presence; nor did he in some days after appear before him.
So many miraculous circumstances contributed to his ruin that men might well think that heaven and earth and the stars designed it. Though he was, from the first declension of his power, so much betrayed by his own servants, that there were very few who remained faithful to him, yet that treachery preceded not from any treasonable purpose to do him any harm, but from particular animosities against other men. And afterwards the terror all men were under of the Parliament, and the guilt they were conscious of themselves, made them watch all opportunities to make themselves gracious to those who could do them good; and so they became spies upon their master, and from one piece of knavery were hardened and confirmed to undertake another; till at last they had no hope of preservation but by the destruction of their master. And after all this, when a man might reasonably believe that less than a universal defection of threenations could not have reduced a great king to so ugly a fate, it is most certain that, in that very hour when he was thus wickedly murdered in the sight of the sun, he had as great a share in the hearts and affections of his subjects in general, was as much beloved, esteemed, and longed for by the people in general of the three nations, as any of his predecessors had ever been. To conclude, he was the worthiest gentleman, the best friend, the best husband, the best father, and the best Christian, that the age in which he lived had produced. And if he were not the best king, if he were without some parts and qualities which have made some kings great and happy, no other prince was ever so unhappy who was possessed of half his virtues and endowments, and so much without any kind of vice.
Source.—Whitelocke,Memorials. P. 396, folio edition, 1732.
April.—The Council of State had intelligence of new Levellers at St.Margaret'sHill, nearCobhaminSurrey, and at St.George'sHill, and that they digged the Ground, and sowed it with Roots and Beans; oneEverard, once of the Army, and who terms himself a Prophet, is the chief of them; and they were about thirty Men, and said that they should be shortly four thousand.
They invited all to come in and help them, and promised them Meat, Drink, and Clothes; they threaten to pull down Park Pales, and to lay all open, and threaten the Neighbours that they will shortly make them all come up to the Hills and work.
The General sent two Troops of Horse to have account of them.
[A few days later (p. 397).]
Everard and Winstanley, the chief of those that digged at St. George's Hill in Surrey, came to the General and made a large Declaration to justify their Proceedings.
Everard said, he was of the Race of the Jews, that all the Liberties 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 Forefathers under the Egyptians.
But now the time of the Deliverance 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 a Vision, which bad him arise and dig and plow 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 renew 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 Inclosures; but only to meddle with what was common and untilled, and to make it fruitful for the use of Man; that the time will suddenly be, that all Men shall willingly come in, and give up their Lands and Estates, and submit to this Community.
And for those that will come in and work, they should have Meat, Drink, and Clothes, which is all that is necessary to the Life of Man, and that for Money there was not any need of it, nor of Clothes more than to cover Nakedness.
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, with more to the like Effect.
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 themeaning of that Place, Give honour to whom honour is due, they said, their Mouths should be stopped that gave them that Offence.
I have set down this the more largely, because it was the beginning of the Appearance of this Opinion; and that we might the better understand and avoid these weak Persuasions.
Source.—Carlyle,Letter IV.: To the Speaker, September 17, 1649.
... 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 disputing 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 other officers and men doing their duty killed and wounded. There was a "Tenalia"[2]to flank 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 they held: but it being without 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 recover 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 hisentrenchments. 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 entrenchments 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 advantage to make good the ground, that so we might let in our 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 Ashton, 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 compel them, set only good guards to secure them from running away until their stomachs were come down. From one of the said 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 Barbadoes. 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 these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future. Which are the satisfactory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret. The officers and soldiers of this Garrison were the flower of their army. And their great expectation was, that our attempting this place would put fair to ruin us; they being confident of the resolution of their men, and the advantage of the place. If we had divided our force into two quarters 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....
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.