of Clouts or in Show or a meer Duke of Venice Then their own Declaration printed and published shewed how well Arbitrariness thrived when they owned That their Votes were not to be questioned either by King or People That no Precedents could bound their proceedings That the Soveraign Power resides in the two Horses That the King hath no negative Voyce That a levying War against the personal Commands of the King tho he were present is not a levying War against the King but that a levying War against his Laws and Authority is levying War against the King which was levying War against them That Treason could not be committed against the person of the King otherwise then he was intrusted That they had power to judge of his Actions and whether he discharged his trust or not and that they were only judges of the Law Their Arbitrary putting to death of Yeomans and Boucher at Bristol and others at London for endeavouring to shew their Royalty to their King and Acting against them and their illegal Authority Voting and making a new Seal and breaking all the Kings old Seals Privy Signets of the King's bench Exchequer Court of Wards Admiralty c. Beheading of several persons by a Court martial against Law and Equity Putting Arch-Bishop Laud to Death after four years Imprisonment Their taking the Scotch solemn League and Covenant for the Extirpation of Episcopacy and the alteration of Religion â—sâ—â—blished by Law contrâ—ry to Law and according to their own illegal and Arbitrary proceedings With many more Acts of the same nature which plainly declared to all the World how far they had deviated from their first more plausible Pretexts But all this while I say by the Kings great Concession in yielding to pass that Act which wrought him so much Mischief they seemed to have a shadow of Power from the King and acted as an House tho contrary to the King the Laws of the Land the Liberty of the Subject and against Equity Conscience and Religion But now after the King had been delivered up to them from the Scots and that they had subdued all his Forces and Garrisons Ragland Castle in Wales being the last that held out for his Majesty then they shewed their power more manifestly and that their Intentions were to usurp the Regal Authority altogether having thus far tasted the sweetness of it and thrived in their Rebellion On the 4 th of June 1647. a Party of Horse under Cornet Joyce seized the King at Holdenby where he was under restraint by the Parliaments order and Carried him away to the Army and thence by them brought to Hampton Court about the middle of August where both the Parliament and Army make to him their several unjust Proposals after the insolent manner of Victors which the King could in no ways grant being contrary to his Conscience his Crown and Dignity At the same time the Independant Officers of the Army kept their chief Cabals at Putnâ—y where it was proposed among them That it was not safe for them nor the Kingdom to grant any Power to the King That it was not for them to set up a Power which God had determined to pull down That the power of Kings was grown a burthen to the Nation and that the reason of all their Distractions in their Counsels was from their Compliance to save that man of Bood and to uphold the Tyranny which God by their many Successes had declared against Where also Major General Harrison made a speech pressing them to the taking off the King Who having notice of these wicked Agitators Actions makes his escape from Hampton Court leaving a Letter behind him intending to get over to the Islâ— of Jersey but being in the Isle of Wight he put himself under the Protection of Collonel Hammond a Parliament man and Governour there who sending â—otice thereof to the Parliament they Vote That he should be continued in the Castle of Cowes That no Malignants shall stay in the Island That no Delinquent or Forreigner should be permitted to come to him without the Parliaments leave That five Thousand pounds should be advanced for his Accommodation and That tâ—eâ— would consider who should attend his Person In the mean time the Independent party of the Army cause a Mutiny which tho quelled by the Industry of Cromwel and his Son-in-Law Ireton yet it caused them to alter their Councels and to joyn with them against the Parliament and all accommodation whatsoever with the King The King sends a Letter to the Parliament from the Isle of Wight dated November 18. 1647. superscribed to the Speaker of the House of Lords to be communicated to the House of Commons In which he granted for Peace-sake the setling of Presâ—ytery for three years And the Militia in the hands of the Parliament during his Reign with a Proviso by Patent that then it should return again to his Successors And also that they should have the Choice of his Privy Councellors and desired earnestly to have with them a personal treaty in London After a long debate upon this Letter the Commissioners of Scotland also pâ—â—ssing them to comply with the Kings just desires on the 26 th of November they concluded That four Previous Acts should be drawn up and sent to the King to which if he would sign they Voted That they then would admit of a personal Treaty with him These unreasonable Proposals drawn into form of Acts were these First an Act for raising settling and maintaining Forces by Sea and Land c. In which they fully and wholly divested the King of the Militia his 〈◊〉 and Successors for ever and gave an unlimitted power to the two houses to raise what Forces they please for Land or Sea and of what persons they please and what Money they please to maintain them The second was that all Declarations Oaths Proclamations against the Parliament might be recalled or against all or any that adhered to them The third an Act that those Peers that were made after the great Seal was carried away from the Parliament might be made uncapable of sitting in the house of Peers And lastly That Power may be given to the two Houses to adjourn themselves as they think fit By these you may easily perceive to what height they were come of all unreasonableness These were presented to the King at Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight on the 24 th of December 1647 by the Earl of Denby the Lord Mountague Lisle Goodwin Bunkley and Kemp Commissioners from both Houses of Parliament The King it may well be thought having no desire to dethrone himself and enslave his Subjects refused the Bills and desired to Treat personally sending them his reasons in Writing Whereupon Sr. Tho. wroth moves the House That the King who had Acted like a Mad man should be secured in some inland Castle with sure Guards That Articles of Impeachment should be drawn up against him That he should be wholly lay'd by
by his Writ to confer with him as his Parliament Arduis negotâ—is or about urgent Affairs was Resolued 1 Hen. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 14.14 Hen. 4. Cook 4 th Institut p. 46. c. For it is not natural to suppose and impossible That the Lords and Commons should be a Parliament and make Acts and Laws without the King as for a Body to move and Act without an Head and therefore had there been any such thing intended to have been Enacted it was void because impossible for the Kings Royal assent could not be had after his Death and there is no Clause in the Act that obliges his Successor to Consent which clearly shews they never had any such intention at the making of this Act. And therefore on the death of the King all Commissions both of the Judges and others cease and all Proceedings determined tho the King is said to sit in the Court of the Kings-Bench in his politick Capacity which indeed never dyes so as to cause an Interregnum but other wayes as to the Continuance of Commissions Writs c. which must be renewed Consider also that if these men after the Death of the King could be a Parliament they must be so either by the Common Law and Custom of Parliaments which is clearly against them or by this Statute which as little Countenances them for they would then be another thing distinct from the Parliament which was summoned in the Kings Life for the Country had no Power to elect their Representatives but by the King 's Writ and therefore could receive no more Power from them than the Tenour of the Kings Writ granted which determining with the Kings Life their Representative-Power was also determined and by Consequence they could be no longer a Parliament If it could be thought they could be yet so by that Act then it follows That a Parliament by their Act might create another Parliament to exist after themselves were dissolved which is most absur'd and alters the Root and Foundation of all the Liberties of the Subject for they become no longer their Representatives but a Parliament by their own Act and it will never be thought that the people intended to entrust them with their Authority to change the Government and deprive them of their Fundamental Priviledges The Parliament cannot De jure do any thing against natural Equity quia jura naturae sunt immutabilia And also by the judgement of a Parliament this could not be being against the Law and Custom of Parliament for Ro. Parl. 42. E. 3. no 7. it is declared by the Lords and Commons in full Parliament upon demand made of them in the behalf of the King That they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the Disherision of the King and his Crown to which they were Sworn Now this Act of the 17 th of Caroli Primi is expresly against the Kings Successors Prerogative to call his own Parliament and therefore they could not make such an Act to the Disherision of his King and Crown A Parliament may be three ways Dissolved by the Declaration of the Kings pleasure or for want of entring their Continuances or by the Kings death whereby the Kings Writ which gives them their Authority is determined These words That this Parliament shall not be Dissolved unless by Act of Parliament is a general Negative which cannot extend to all Causes of Dissolution but have a respect only to that most usually hapning the Pleasure of the King till the pretended Grievances of the time were satisfied Now in all Times the judges have excepted particular Cases out of the general Negative or Affirmative Words of Statutes By the Star of Magna Charta C. 11. 'T is enacted That Common pleas shall not follow or be sued in the Kings-Bench which is a general Negative yet it is holden to be clear in Law That the King is not within these general Words and may sue in his Bench or any other Court at his Pleasure The Statute of Winchester is a general Statute That the Hundred c. shall make Satisfaction for all Robberies and Fellonies within the Hundred yet it is Resolved That the Hundreds shall make no Satisfaction for the Robberies of an House because the House was the owners Castle and he might have defended himself and preserved his Goods Besides this Clause in the said Act That all and every thing done or to be done for the Proroguing or Dissolving of this present Parliament contrary to this present Act shall be utterly voyd and of none Effect By which it appears That the cause of Dissolution which they intended to prevent was something that should consist in Action by the words Thing or Things done or to be done which words can only be applicable to an Actual dissolution by the Kings pleasure And the King's death is not a thing done but a Cessation of his personal being and of the Dependants thereupon And is not an Action but a Termination or Period So that it is most Clear these men could no longer by any the least Colour of Law or Reason pretend to sit and Act as a Parliament But alas What are Arguments to them who had usurp'd the Throne and Power of their Soveraign and had the vain and idle Hopes to keep it And to the strengthening themselves with all the Arbitrary and Tyrannical ways imaginable they proceed First they issue out their spurious Act before mentioned against proclaiming the King tho by the Law of the Land instantly upon the King's decease the imperial Crown of the Kingdom of England was by his inherent Birthright and by an undoubted Succession and Descent Actually vested in our now Soveraign eldest Son to the murthered King and next Heir of the Blood to his Royal Father and that before any Ceremony of Coronation as by Stat. of 1. Jacobi Ch. 1. And that all Peers of the Realm Majors Sheriffs and other chief Officers in all the Cities and Corporations of England are oblig'd by their places and Allegiance to proclaim him under pain of High Treason and forfeiting their City and Corporation Charters And notwithstanding the Junto's Prohibition there were several Proclamations printed and scatter'd about the City which proclaimed and asserted the Right of the Prince as next Heir to the Crown and by Birthright to be the lawful King of Great Britain c. Dated the 1 st of February Then also in like manner was privately scatter'd about another Paper in which were four Propositions briefly declaring That the House of Commons had no Power of themselves alone and without the Concurrance of the King and House of Lords to make any Act of Parliament Ordinance or to impose any Tax Oath Forfeiture or Capital Punishment on any Secondly That the few Members now sitting were no Court of Justice in themselves and could Erect no such Court for the Tryal of any person nor had Power to hear and determine any Civil or Criminal Causes and that
Rocks Nor the People into the like Rebellion in seeking to avoid Arbitrary Government or some Shadows of it bring it upon themselves totally to the subverting the Monarchy and the Fundamental Laws of the Land To the intent then that they may see the difference between the happy Reign of lawful Kings and usurping Tyrants we have Collected the illegal Acts and bloody Persecutions of those Usurpers of Arbitrary Government the Rump and Oliver that by the matter of Fact the People may be convinced and deterred from thinking of Rebelling against their lawful Prince since 't is the only way to bring in Arbitrary Government whose most horrid Picture is display'd in the following History Arbitrary Government displayed to the Life in the illegal Transactions of the late Times IF we mount up the Hill of Time present and thence take a view on either hand lyes Time past and Time future or to come the latter is continually hidden in a Cloud and we are not able to take any Prospect of it unless by Divine or Prophetick illumination which tho certain is rare yet a wise man by looking back on Time past and Comparing the certain Effects resulting from several Causes may give a shrewd Guess of what is to come and thus from Experience he will pronounce that Fears and Jealousies betwixt a Prince and his people being wrought to the height will produce on the one hand Severity on the other Rebellion If the Prince gets the better of the People after they have run into actual disobedience it is not to be expected he should whilst he Lives slacken the Reins of his Power but by keeping them under extend it to the utmost of the line If the people thrive in their Rebellion the certain sequel is Usurpation Tyrannick and Arbitrary Government as hath been seen in several Ages and recounted in several Histories which we shall not mention our Design being to confine our Discourse to our own late Affairs and Transactions from the first setting up of the Rump in the place of Monarchy to the Restauration of our present Monarch whom God grant long to Reign If we look down from this Hill of Time presents thorow the Optick of History on Time past we behold the first Ages as in Landskip only not in a due Proportion being much lessened in Relation the middle Ages are more clearly viewed and lye open to discovery and are more largely Displayed in History but again the more near or next to the Mountain of Time present are also covered in a certain obscurity and as it were over-shadowed by the Mount of Time present that Truth is traced with a faint touch and usually things are not so clearly seen as at a longer distance But since every day renders the Prospect more clear We hope in this our short Relation of the late Usurpers and of their Tyrannick and Arbitrary Government to shew to the People a most lucid Picture of that dreaded Monster which they do and may most justly fear Arbitrary Government Fears and Jealousies fomented and heightned we may say begot it and Rebellion brought it forth for it was the foul Issue of our bloody Civil Wars It is not my task to write the Transactions between the late King and his Parliaments nor to draw forth a Scheme of that most unnatural War which robb'd England of it's Peace and devoured so many brave and valiant Subjects this hath been sufficiently and fully by several Pens already performed But I shall begin the rise of my Historical Collections from the time of the Exclusion of the greater part of the Members of the house of Commons called the long Parliament and when the Tail or Rump as they are called of the said Commons against all Law and Right usurped the Regal Authority of the Nation and placing it upon themselves Exercised a Tyrannick and Arbitrary Government with any shadow of legal Authority for altho it is not to be doubted that the bloody War commenced by the long Parliament against their sovereign Lord and King was illegal and unjust yet I say by that Bill passed by his late Majesty together with the Bill of attainder against the Earl of Strafford on the 8 th of May 1641. for the continuance of that Parliament and that it should not be Prorogued or Adjourned but by act of Parliament and on the 10 th of the same Month had the Royal assent gave them I say some Colour or shadow of Authority and extreamly inbroiled the Kings affairs The advisers to the passing of this Act are not certainly known some attribute it to the Lord Say others to the designing Marquess Hamilton who brag'd of it in Scotland as his Act but whoever they were it prov'd most pernicious to the King and seem'd to Authorise the Rebellion by his own Act. But before we enter upon the Actions of these Usurpers we shall only make mention of some preliminary Acts of illegal Arbitrariness of this Parliament before their Votes of Non-Addresses to the King and their sceluding their fellow Members and of their growing up to that perfection of Evil in taking upon them the Administration of the Government and of that unparallel'd-Murther of a great Monarch their soveraign Lord and King The first was under the Notion of maintaining the Protestant Religion their entring into a solemn Protestation or Association among themselves and also imposing it on the Consciences of all others who should bear any Office either in Church or State Secondly their raising men arming them and forming an Army and so running on into actual Rebellion against their Head and continuing that most Bloody War with so much Heat and Animosity hearkhing to no Treaties c. Next their flinging the Bishops out of the House and imprisoning twelve of them for asserting their Right only by a Protestation And which was absolutely against the Priviledges granted to them by Magna Charta and a lopping off one of the Estates of the Realm Then their putting a difference between the Kings person and his politick Capacity raising War against him in his own Name for as yet the Keepers of the Liberties of England were not thought of but the Style ran in the name of the King and Parliament making the King to fight against himself and to War with himself Next their illegal imprisoning their fellow Subjects and disseizing many of their free Holds for their Loyalty to their Prince and for not lending them Money to carry on their Rebellion and also putting to Death the Hothams all contrary to Magna Charta and the Liberty of the subject and full of Arbitrariness Next their endeavouring to perswade the People that the Soveraignty law wholly and radically in them and so effectually in the Parliament on House of Commons for they now began to be esteemed only the Parliament Then by their Endeavouring â—o take the power of the Sword out of their Soveraigns â—and and to put it into their own thereby to make him a King
other and instead of Juratores pro Domino Rege shall be used Juratores pro republica and so Contra pacem dignitatem Coronam nostram should be turned into Contra pacem publicam All judges Justices Ministers and Officers to take Notice thereof and that whatever should be done Contrary to this Act hence forward should be declared null and void in Law the Death of the King or any usage Law Custom c to the Contrary The King after his Sentence was lodg'd in White-Hall and the little time they gave him to prepare himself he was disturb'd with the noise of his rude Guards filling all the Rooms with the smoak of their Tobacco a thing extreamly offensive to him and they Rung in his Ears the clincking of Pots and such like Noises and not only so but he lay so near the place where he was to Dye that he could hear every stroke of the Hammers of those Workmen that were erecting the Scaffold and working all night all which Barbarity was to mortifie him but that would not bring him to their Bent On Munday he was removed to St. James's whence he came the next day on Foot thorow the Park to suffer his Martyrdom And now on the 30 th of January 1648. was Acted the most unheard of Tragedy that ever was Committed and not to be parallel'd in History in any Countrey A King convented and Tryed openly in a Court of unlawful Judicatory as a Capital Criminal by the meanest of his Subjects under pretence of Law and then publickly Executed on a Scaffold in the face of the Sun and the People before his own Palace by the hand of the common Hangman as it hath since appeared is so strange a thing that it will be the Admiration of succeeding Ages as well as it hath been of our own and I think a most notable Display of Arbitrary Usurpation For tho we have had some of our Kings murthered in our Land yet there was some modesty shewed in their Assassination in that it was done Privately and Acted by great Persons laying claim to or Ambitioning the Crown nay they were so Cautious as in the Murthers of Edward the second and Richard the second First to depose them and to take away their Crowns or making them to resign them by their own Acts becoming thereby private men accounting them else Sacred to be murthered but thus I say to be publickly put to Death under the Colour of Law and Justice and to justifie such â— bloody Perpetration to the World as a legal Act being so palpable against all Laws both Divine and Humane was a thing never to be found in any Age or in any story I shall say no more of it his Majesties Speech and all the fatal Transactions of that Tragedy being Printed at large only I shall take notice that this Royal Martyr with much Constancy Courage and Resolution lai'd his Head on the Block and suffered under the Ax in refusing to acknowledge the Authority of these bloody Usurpers to be legal and because he would not betray the Liberties Lives and Properties of his people to an unjust and usurping Tyrannical Government Even whilst he was on the Scaffold he was pittied by some of his Persecutors the Officers of the Army which Cromwell perceiving he begun to play with them his usual jugling Tricks and made them believe that he would consult with them concerning the saving of the Kings Life Seeming to pitty him himself and blaming him for being Obstinate in not adhering to their Propositions feigning a Reluctancy for his Death and therefore told them He should be very glad if it might be effected with the safety of the Kingdom tho what was done was by the Authority of the Parliament yet he feared the Odium might be cast on them but says he before we proceed in this weighty Matter let us seek God to which they agreed and Oliver began a long-winded Prayer which lasted so long till News was brought them that the King was Executed which several not suspecting were surprized and amazed but Cromwell holding up his Hands told them he now saw clearly that it was not the will of God that the King should live and therefore he was afraid they had done ill to tempt God to desire it This was the end of his Majesty Charles the First and now all the world believed as most legally they might that this Parliament was dissolved of Course by the Death of the King by what Authority now can they pretend to sit and Act Even by the same unjust Power of the Sword whereby they had committed so many illegal Acts contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Land as now in continuing themselves a Parliament was against the most ancient Constitutions of Parliaments But they lay hold of the Act of 17. Car. 1. for the Continuance of this Parliament In which these words Were And be it declared and Enacted by the King our Soveraign Lord with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same that this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unless by Act of Parliament to be passed for that Purpose Therefore they declared and believe that they are still a Parliament and are not Dissolved by the Kings Death because not dissolved by an Act of Parliament But it was answered that it was and ever hath been the undoubted Prerogative of the King to Call and Dissolve Parliaments and that an Act for their Perpetuation was a taking way one of the chiefest Flowers in the imperial Crown of England which the King could not grant and give away tho with consent of both Houses But this Act was palpably against the King's inclination being as it were forced to it by some Heady violent and turbulent Men. But that a Perpetuation or Extention of it beyond the Kings Death was never then thought of is most plain by the Preamble of the said Act where it is expressed That by reason of great Sums of Money of necessity to be advanced for the speedy relief of his Majesties Army and People in the northern parts of the Realm and that Credit might be had for the raising such Monies and to take away the Fears and Jealousies of any that should lend such Monies upon their Credit that this Parliament should not be Prorogued or Dissolved before Justice be done on Delinquents and publick Grievaâ—ces redressed it was Enacted c That they should not be Dissolved but by an Act of Parliament so that by the very end and Scope of this Act there could not be thought to be any Perpetuation of this Parliament or that they should not be Dissolved by the Kings death For else certainly they would have inserted the like special Clause as That this Parliament shall not be Dissolved by his Majesties death but only by Act of Parliament But that the Parliament was Dissolved Ipso facto by the Kings death being called
Johnson and Josiah Berners These under the Mask of the Good Old-Cause begin to â—urn afresh to their old Villanies and to the enriching themselves with the poor remainers of the spoyls of the â—eople On the 12th of May Lambert accompanied with Desborow Barksted and 12 other Colonels of the Army â—resent a Petition to the House from the Army containâ—â—g their desires concerning the Government That the Government might be a free State and Common-Wealth without a single Person Kingship or House of Peers That there might be a due regulation of the Laws That an Act of Oblivion might be passed That the Laws and Ordinances made in the several changes of the Government and not to repealed may be good in Law That the publick Debts might be paid That a Liberty of Conscience be granted to all excepting Papists and Episcopists That a godly Ministry be incouraged That Universities and Schools of Learning be countenanced and Reformed That all Royalists be discountenanced and not suffered to have any place of Trust That none may have places of Trust but such as are eminent for Godliness Constancy and Faithfulness to the good Cause and Interest of the Nations That a provision be made for Succession of Parliaments That Fleetwood may be the Lieutenant-General of the Army That the Legislative power may be in the Representatives of the People consisting of an House successively chosen by the People That the executive power may be in a Council of State consisting of a certain number of qualified persons That the Debts contracted by his late Highness and his Father might be paid and that a Revenue of 10000 l. per Annum might be setled upon the late Protector and his heirs for ever and 10000 l. per Annum more during his Life and 8000 l. upon his honourable Mother during her Life c. This was the Armies project of Government for which they receive the thanks of the House by their Speaker and are told there are many weighty things contained in it which they would take into their Consideration And upon this before they would make any settlement upon the late Protector they send to him for an Acknowledgment of his submission to the Government which he formally sent them in hopes of the Settlement with a Schedule of his Debts But they refuse to pay them and delay making any Settlement either on Him or his Mother for they were a sort of Persons who never lov'd to give away money from themselves Yet to please him and to remove him further from them they give him 2000 pounds to discharge some part of his Debts and required that he and all his Dependences remove from Whitehall in six days Fleetwood began to grow discontented at this slighting his Brother but to please him they Vote him to be the Commander in Chief of all the Armies and Land-Forces in England Scotland and Ireland for one year and that he should have power to Sign Commissions and nominate Officers under him as should be approved by the Parliament But upon the second Reading of the Bill for this purpose they altered their minds and ordered all Commissions for the Land and Sea-Forces to be Signed by the Speaker and delivered to the Officers Gratis They also Order the Government of Ireland to be by Commissioners and Henry Cromwel to be removed 'T is thought if he had stirred at that time being much beloved by the Officers of his Army there he might have disappointed this Parliament of any further proceedings but being over persuaded he quietly left his Authority Scotland was yet a trouble to them which they knew not how to get into their hands for General Monk kept all things in so great Order and quietness there and was so prudent in all his Actions that they could not find fault with him nor mistrust him but believed him really their Friend They now begin to proceed vigorously and cause the Protector 's Seal to be broken and confirm their own old one of which Terryl Fountain and infamous Bradshaw are made Commissioners very busie they are of preferring one another to places of proffit and about the beginning of June keeping close to their Good Old Cause of Gain they ordered a Bill for publick Sales to be brought in And now White-Hall Somerset-House Hampton-Court and all that Cromwell had kept for himself are ordered to be sold for ready money And beginning with the Deer they fall to selling them by five or six Brace at a time And that no Stone might be unturn'd for the getting of money they project to make all such persons who had assumed Dignities or Titles of Honor heretofore conferred on them by the late King taken away by Act of Parliament to pay the summs forfeited by the said Act. Then they offer at an Act for the makeing all honours conferred by Charles Stewart voyd and null Then they fall to their old trade of raising monies by Assessments and continue the Excise and Customs to the 1 st of October And that they may hook in all they can they authorize the collecting of an Assessment granted by the Parliament 1656 for 3 years one year of which was yet behind and uncollected this was 35000 l. a month on England 6000 l. on Scotland and 9000 l. a month on Ireland thus they owned not the authority of that Parliament yet they owned their mony Assessed by them and put it into their own pockets They next revive their Committee of plundring Ministers and make an order for impressing of Seamen which they wanted Then they make their speaker Custos Rotulorum of Oxford shire and Berks. Sir Hen Mildmay of Essex and several other places to the cheif of their members following their old vocation of shareing all among themselves The Government of Jersay to Coll. Mason Cooper Zanker Sadler and Lawrence have Regiments given them in Ireland All things seem to submit to their power and Fleetwood Lambert Desberow and the rest are forced to receive their Commissions from their General Mr Speaker which tho' dissatisfied dissemblingly they submit to It was very much admired that the Parliament should imagine that the Armie would be true to them or that any Oaths would hold them when they had seen them so often break their former Allegiance to themselves and to their late Protector and on the other side it was as much admired that the Armie would thus trust this Parliament or Junto they had so grosly abused for they could not believe that the Junto would not remember their doings and so provide for their own security and establishment as to ruine the Armie if they could But out of all this evil God was now a forming good For the Government of the Armie under the Speaker the General they made 7 Commissioners namely Lieutenant General Fleetwood Sir Hen. Vaine Sir Arthur Hazlerig Colonels Lambert Desborow Ludlow and Berry These were very active in their authority placeing and displacing many Officers in the Armie by the Parliaments
Palace their broad roots are tost Into the air So Romulus was lost New Rome in such a Tempest mis't her King And from Obeying fell to Worshiping On Oeta's top thus Hercules lay dead With ruin'd Okes and Pines about him spread Those his last fury from the Mountain rent Our dying Hero from the Continent Ravish'd whole Towns and Forts from Spaniards rest As his last Legacy to Brittain left The Ocean which so long our hopes confin'd Could give no limits to His vaster mind Our Bounds inlargment was his latest toyle Nor hath he left us Prisoners to our Isle Under the Tropick is our language spoke And part of Flanders hath receiv'd our yoke From Civil Broyles he did us disingage Found nobler objects for our Martial rage And with wise Conduct to his Country show'd Their ancient way of conquering abroad Ungratefull then if we no Tears allow To Him that gave us Peace and Empire too Princes that fear'd him grieve concern'd to see No pitch of glory from the Grave is free Nature her self took notice of His death And sighing swelâ—'d the Sea wiâ—h such a breath That to remotest shores her Billowes rol'd Thâ— approching Fate of their great Ruler told Vpon the late STORME translated out of Mr. Waller's fine Piece of FLATTERY THen take him Devil Hell his Soul doth claime In Stormes as Loud as his King-murthring Fame His cheating Groans and Teares has shak'd this Isle Cleft Brittains Oakes for Brittains funerall Pile Now at his Exit Trees uncut are tost Into the Ayr So Faustus once was lost Rome mist her first so London her last King Both kill'd then wept and fell to worshiping We in a Storme of wind our Nimrod lost King'd him then Sainted him then cursâ—d his Ghost In Oeta's flames thus Hercules lay dead In Worcesters flames he on his raving Bed He some scraggâ—d Oakes and Pines from Mountains rent This stole two brave Isles from the Continent Ravishâ—d whole Towns and that his Spanish Theft As a curs'd Legacy to Brittain left The Seas with which our hopes God had confin'd The Devil made too narrow for his mind Our Bounds enlargement was his greatest toyle He made our Prison greater than our Isle Under the Line our enslav'd crys are spoke And we and Dunkirek draw but in one Yoke From broyles he made he best could dis-engage From his own head diverts our purchas'd rage And by fine State-art to his Country show'd How to be Slaves at home and Theeves abroad Confederate Usurpers quake to see The Grave not under th' power of Tyranny Nature shrunk up at this great Monster 's death And swell'd the Seas with much affrighted breath Then to the Bounder'd Shore her Billowes roll'd Th' approching fate of Europes troubles told ENGLAND Still freshly lamenting the Loss of her KING with several of her Dearest CHILDREN which have been beheaded hanged and shot by O. CROMWEL and the Long-Parliament In a Brief Collection of the remarkable Passages that have happened to this Land from the year 1640 to the year 1660. IN sixteen hundred thirty nine we then Did think and say we were unhappy men Because that we in many years before Had not a Parliament nay I 'le say more We then did murmur and we did complain Of many pressures we did them sustain Ship-mony then a burden was unto us O Lord these taxes we cry'd will unto us This coat and conduct mony is unlawfull Lord sent a Parliament to make us joyfull Shall we be made such slaves unto the will Of such a King that seeks out lives to kill And our estates will take away by force Yea our Religion which of all is worse A Parliament Lord send us was the song Of rich and poor the old and eke the young Well God did hear us and into the heart Of our late King did put it to his smart To call a Parliament as I remember For to begin the third day of November Which is now nineteen years ago compleat And doth sit still with grief we may repeat Then presently the Taxes down were voted Which were so great as I before have noted Star-chamber then and high Commission Court Were then put down t is true what I report Then did the King grant unto them to sit In Parliament so long as they thought fit And then for a Triennial Parliament An Act was made mistakes for to prevent Then joyfull were we this same news to hear Rung Bells made Bonfires as it did appear But now behold consider and look back And see how we have been put to the wrack For first a hundred thousand pound was rais'd To give the Scots at which we were amaz'd For their good service done some time before This recompence they had then for their lore Besides in sixteen hundred forty six Just twice as much the Parliament did fix And give unto them ' cause they should deliver The King unto them the like I think was never Thus was the King by our dear Brother sold For no less mony than before was told Likewise an hundred thousand pound scarce less Was raisd the Irish Rebells to suppress And after that above three thousand pound Was raisd for Souldiers which was quickly found And listed were to fight against the King What think you now was 't not a goodly thing The fifty subsidies were raisd beside Pole mony also which men did deride And other Sums of money freely given Tot set out Ships for Coals they were so risen Then did they order every one to bring His Plate to Guild-Hall to the very Ring Bodkin and Thimble brought to maintain the cause All which was done and that with great applause And those that would this order not obey The twentieth part of his Estate must pay Such was the greedy Appetite of those Who seem'd our Friends but I think were our Foes Besides all these yet see how great vast sums From every Hall and Corporation comes And other places which if I should name 'T would add no glory to them nor good fame Then was there not a far more worse device Laid on our Backs a thing call'd the Excise For we Excise did pay for meat and drink And all things else that they upon could think Besides at Brainford when there was a fight We sent the Souldiers with such great delight Cart-loads of victuals with great store of Cloaths With Shirts Shoos Hats and many a pair of Hose And mony too by some was freely given By those who thought thereby for to gain Heaven All which was done as they said with intent To bring the King unto his Parliament And make him glorious and a happy King This was the cry though they meant no such thing Likewise in sixteen hundrrd forty three The Parliament did order there should be The worth in mony of a good meals meat For every one that was i' th house did eat For half a year together it was paid Oh was not this a very gallant traid Likewise in sixteen
up the Foundation of a Government which the people were to consent to which consent or Agreement of the People should be above Law That in the Agreement a day should be set for the Dissolution of the Parliament and this to be drawn up in a Remonstrance from the Army This was incouraged by Major general Harrison who urgged there could be no safety for them nor the Nation but by the cutting off the Kings Head and the thorowly purging at least if not the Dissolving the Parliament Upon this the Army now wholly at Cromwell's Devotion sends up a Petition to the Commons for Justice to be done on the King as a Capital Offender That the Prince of Wales and Duke of York be Summon'd by a Day and if they come not in to be declared incapable of the Succession and Government and if they come in to be proceeded against for Satisfaction That the Revenues of the Crown be sequestred That publick Justice might be done against the Actors in the late Wars against the Parliament That they may be paid their Arrears and the Country eased of free Quarters and lastly that a Period be put to this Parliament and care taken for the Electing of future Parliaments and that no King be admitted for the future The Army Entring the City The Rump dreggs of y e house of Commons Sitting after y e Army had turnd y e good members out Oliver seeking God whilâ— the King is murthered by his order Bradshaw the Taylor and y e Hangman keeper of the Libertyes of England This force being put upon the House and new moulded driving away all that were not for their turn besides many others for fear absented themselves the rest who afterwards obtained the name of Rump or Rumpers being the Relicks of a greater Body met again and submitting to the Power of the Army to please them Vote That no Message be received from the King on pain of Treason That the General should take Care of his Person and that a Charge of High Treason should be drawn up against him Having now fully concluded to destroy him Thus have we briefly drawn to your View the first Lineaments of an Arbitrary Government and Tyrannical Usurpation in very short Draughts shewing however the ways and means whereby these Men or Junto of Usurpers came by their Power and Authority overthrowing the very Foundation of our Ancient and most glorious Monarchy under the Notion of Liberty and setting up a Tyrannical Democracy or rather Oligarchy under the Regiment of a few selected Fellows who called themselves the Parliament and the Representatives of the Nation and in whom they pretend all Right of Power and Magistracy was to be placed The very shadow of all legal Power was now gone and this unparallel'd force put upon the Parliament in excluding the Major part of their Members by the Arbitrary will of Oliver Cromwel and his Mâ—â—midons contrary to all Law and Right took from them the very Name of a Parliament But they care not for that they shadow their impious Acts under that venerable Denomination and having now as they thought got into the Kingly throne by the power of the Army and the Sword imagined they should keep it when all this while not having the Command of the Army but being ridden by the general Officers thereof who designed as soon as they had done their work to pay them their Wages by dismissing them were but as the Cats foot made use of by the Monkey for the raking the Chesnut out of the Fire the benefit of which they intended to take themselves and this was the Murthering of their lawful Soverain whom they had deposed which was the next main Design driven on by the Independent Army and their Dromidaries this Junto of Men. We have seen these Men grown up into full Strength of Arbitrariness and got into the Throne of their Soveraign we will now proceed to Trace them by their Steps in the Exercise of this their Tyrannical Usurpation which we shall find to be according to the same unlawful Progress and to be of the same bloody Complexion for it is a certain Maxim That what Power is got by unlawful means must be kept by the same unlawful ways notwithstanding the specious pretences of Liberty and setling the Kingdom This Junto of Men being met and Voted as we have declared That no more Address should be made to the King nor any Message received from him they take Care in the next place having got into the Saddle to keep it and to make the World believe they had a right to it if they could for now an Ordinance was drawn up that the Lords and Commons of England do declare That by the Fundamental Laws of the Land it is Treason in the King of England to levy War against the Parliament This preparative in making the King a Transgressor and in placing the Supream Power in the People whose Representatives they were was in Order to their Design of Murthering the King This being sent up to the Lords who denyed to consent to it the Commons grow very angry and finding the Lords to be yet an Obstacle to their bloody Intentions they Vote That all Members of Committees should Act in any Ordinance by them made without the Lords Concurrance the People having by God the full power Originally in themselves and therefore what ever they enact is Law which passed Nemine Contradicente The Army still continuing their Guards upon the House keeping out any of those Members were not of their Party and imprisoning them they had much â—doe to make an House and sometimes it was Noon 〈◊〉 they could get forty men together without which iâ— could not be an House so very Scrupulous were these grand Hypocrites to keep up a Face of Authority in these minute Circumstances who in the great Fundamentals had broke in two all Bonds Obligations Oaths and Laws The Army now the Lords of all Garrison Black-Fryars and St. Paul's turning the house of God into a Stable and defiling it with Dung robbing divers Halls which they call'd borrowing of several sums of Money by their Saint-like Prerogative accounting the rest Egyptians In the mean time the secluded Members still imprisoned put forth a Declaration against this most horrid violence of the Army done to their Persons and to the Fundamental Laws of the Land the Rights of the People and the priviledges of Parliament this was dated 11 th December 1648. This being complained of to the House both Lords and Commons put forth a Declaration against it wherein they declare That the Declaration put forth by those Members of the House of Commons Excluded the House in which was these Words viz That all Acts Ordinances Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons made since the 6 th of December or hereafter to be made duering the restraint and forcible Seclusion from the House and the Continuance of the Armies force upon it are no way Obligatory but
having made way for the most horrid and Bloody design that ever was heard of the Motion is made in this usurping House to proceed to the Trâ—al of the King as a Capital Offender When the grand Impostor Cromwell stood up and said That if any man moved this upon Design he should think him the greatest Traytor in the World but since Providence and Necessity had cast them upon it he should pray to God to bless their Councells And so on the 28 th of December 1648. Thomas Scot brought in the Ordinance for the Tryal of the King being read and Committed three several times and all the Commissioners names inserted Consisting of divers Gentlemen and Soldiers This Ordinance being pass'd the Junto they send it up to the Lords House by the Lord Grey of Grooby together with their Vote formerly made Viz. Resolved c. That the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament do declare and adjudge That by the Fundamental Laws of the Realm it is Treason in the King of England for the time to come to levy War against the Parliament and Kingdom of England The house of Lords debate the matter and first the Declaratory Vote against which the Earls of Manchester and Northumberland with others spake and declared There was none nor could be any such Fundamental Law in England whereby the King could be a Traytor by leaving War against his People and that thus to declare Treason by an Ordinance when no law was extant to judge it by was most unreasonable Upon which the Lords cast out this Ordinance and Vote and adjourned themselves for seven days This proceeding of the Lords gave them no small trouble and stirr'd up the wrath of some of the Zealots who threatned to hang a Pad-lock on the Lords door and sending up to search their journal Book they found the Lords had made these two Votes That they do not Concur to the said declaratory Vote And Secondly That they rejected the Ordinance for the Tryal of the King Upon which these men resolving to be rid of the Lords as well as of King they Vote That they should Act without them as well they might according to their own Law That all Authority was sounded in the People and that they being the Representatives of the People all Authority lay in them Some of them were for Impeaching the Lords for favouring the grand Delinquent of the Land as they called the King And now to make all sure on their sides that they may Act legally On the 4 th of January they Vote That the People are under God the Original of all just Power That the Commons of England in Parliament assembled being chosen by and representing the People have the Supreme Power of this Nation That whatsoever is declared or Enacted for Law by the House of Commons assembled in Parliament hath the force of Law This makes clear Work and by this our Arbitrary Usurpers may do what they will and cut off their Kings Head according to their own Position legally what need of Kings Lords Laws Rights Liberties Properties or fundamental Government when the Arbitrary Consciences of such men may serve instead of all and conclude thereby all the People of England tho they declare against it and tho opposed by the King or House of Peers And thus notwithstanding the rejection of the Lords these Commons pass their Ordinance and declaratory Vote by the name of An Act of Parliament of the House of Commons which was never before heard of for the Tryal of Charles Stewart King of England This being objected to Hugh Peters that there was no President or Example for the Tryal of a King by a judicial Court he Prophanely applyed That there was never any President before the Virgin Mary of a Womans conceiving and bringing forth a Child without accompanying with a Man therefore they might walk without President for this was an Age to make Examples and Presidents There was yet one thing that passed these men which they had not foreseen which was That it was a very improper thing to make use of the Kings Seal wherein he is styled King of England c. by the Grace of God to seal a Commission against him for his Tryal They were now in hast and could not stay for a new one which they had not as yet thought on therefore it was concluded the Commissioners should proceed upon the Ordinance without any Commission under Seal and that every Commissioner should set his own Hand and Seal to the Instruments of their Proceedings All things being now in a readiness for the Tryal The King is taken from Hurst Castle and brought to Winchester thence to Farnham thence to Winsor and thence to St. James on the 19 th day of January And they had caused for the greater Solemnity of the Business their Serjeant Dandy who was appointed Serjeant at Arms to the Commissioners for the Tryal of his Majesty to proclaim it openly in Westminster-Hall with his Mace on Horse back with six Trumpets and several Officers attending all bare That the Commissioners were to sit to morrow and that all those who had any thing to say against Charles Stewart King of England might be heard This was done in like manner in Cheap-side and at the Royal Exchange The same day the House Voted their great Seal to be broken and ordered a new one to be made Upon this Mr. Prin sends to the Junto a Memento of their unpresidented Proceedings Complaining of the force and Violence put upon their fellow Members warning them from Acting Consulting or ordaining any Act or Ordinance without Concurrence of their fellow-Members being Arbitrary and against Law and that the secluded Members not only declared against such Proceedings but more especially against this horrid Act of theirs for the Tryal of the King shewing them That by the common Law and by the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. and all other Acts concerning Treason it is high Treason for any man to Compass or Contrive the Death of the King or his eldest Son tho never Executed That they were also bound to the Contrary by their Oath of Allâ—giance from which no Power could absolve them That they had in above an hundred Declarations and Ordinances in the name of the Parliament professed That they never intended the least hurt injury or Violence to the Kings person his Crown Dignity or Posterity with several other things very pressing and full as may be seen at large in the printed Paper but all was in vain for they were resolved on the Business tho they could give no kind of colourable Reason for their Actings This Memento was seconded with a Declaration and Protestation signed the 19 th of January by the said Prin and Clement Walker another of the secluded Members which ran very much after the same Tenure and absolutely Protesting against the Junto's Actings and Proceedings declared against the illegal Act of Erecting an high Court of Justice and usurping a Power against
all Law and without all President to try depose and bring to Capital punishment the King and to dis-inherit his Posterity c. But at the same time the Officers of the Army had contrived and ordered two Godly Petitions to be presented to them viz For the abolishing Tythes and the Repealing the Act for the Banishment of the Jews And now Oliver and his Privado Officers having brought their Work to this readiness are fasting and praying as hard as they can no doubt for the Success of it tho they put another Face on the matter and said it was for Direction and Counsel And now it was and not before that this great Usurper of the â—onarchy and Liberties of the people began to lay the great Design of steping into the Soveraignty and laying the Foundation of his Tyrannical reign by the Death and Murther of the King For the private Officers both from the King and his Friends and from the Prince himself in this exigent to save the Life of his Father were not small but he that now aimed at all would not be content with a portion of justly acquired greatness and perhaps he was not sufficiently assured of the Mercy of the Prince he had so highly offended as that he could be able to forgive all those great Crimes he was guilty of but that either himself or his Posterity might remember them to his Prejudice since all he was able to do towards his Majesties Restauration was but what in Duty and Conscience he was bound to do But what ever instiâ—ations he had besides those of the Devil he was not to be shaken tho attempted by a Kinsman of his and of his own Name who as reported was sent either from the Prince himself then at the Haguâ— or from the States of Holland with Credential Letters and a Blank sealed with the Kings and Princes Signets and confirmed by the States for Cromwell to write his own Conditions in if he would preserve the Life of the King This found him at his House recluse with his Privadoes at their Prayers as given out but to what God we may easily Imagine The business being urgent and the Kings Martyrdom approaching the Gentleman with some difficulty got to the private Speech of him to whom he very fully laid open the Hainousness of the Fact he was going about and what an Odium it was about to cast on the English Nation abroad and withal let him understand what Terms he had to offer him and that he might now make himself his Family and Posterity for ever happy and Honourable otherwise he would bring such an Ignoimny on the whole Generation that no time would be able to delete Cromwell after his canting way shifted it off from himself and put the Act upon the Army and Parliament declaring he had sought God very much in the Business but as yet had no return of his Fasting and Prayers about it therefore he desired till night to consider of it and promised that he should hear from him before he went to Bed and accordingly about Twelve or One of the Clock the Gentleman expecting his Answer he sent him word That he might return for he and his Officers had been seeking God and that now it was Resolved the King must dye this was but a night or two before the King's Murther On the 20 th day of January 1648. being Saturday these bloody Commissioners met called an high Court of Justice for the Tryal of the King who was brought before them and with much Patience and sometimes smiling he heard their long Charge but denying the Jurisdiction of the Court refused to plead requiring them to shew by what Law or Authority besides their unjust Usurpation or power of the Sword he was brought before them who were his Subjects I shall not trouble the Reader with any farther Relation of this Tryal it being at large so often printed nor with the Names of the Judges and Officers of this pretended Court it being to be had in every Booksellers shop I intending in these Collections only a brief Narrative of these Usurpers Proceedings that the World might behold the true Picture of Arbitrary Government and Tyrannical rule and not an exact Chronicle or History of those times tho I would not omit any Material thing that may give Satisfaction or Delight to the Reader I shall observe that as an ill Omen the Silver head of the King's Staff dropt off as the Charge was reading which the King wondring at and seeing none so Officious as to take it up he stoop'd himself and taking it up put it into his Pocket At his going from the Court looking very austerely about him without moving his Hat he pointed with his Staff to the Sword and said I do not fear that As he went along the Hall some Cry'd out Justice Justice and others God save the King On Sunday Cromwell Bradshaw and the rest of the Commissioners kept a Fast at White-Hall where preached Joshuah Sprigg whose Text was He that sheds-Man's blood by Man shall his Blood be shed Then Mr. Foxley whose Text was Judge not lest you be Judged Lastly Hugh Peters whose Text was I will Bind their Kings in Chains and their Nobles in Fetters of Iron And thus by their wicked application of the word of God they endeavoured to justifie their most Execrable Murther of their Lawful King There was by some who durst to do any thing against these Cruel and powerful men certain Papers scattered about in which were several Queries as Whether a King of three Kingdoms could be Condemned by one Kingdom alone without the Consent or Concurrence of the other Kingdoms Whether a King if try'd ought not to be try'd by his Peers And whether he could be said to have any such in his Kingdom Whether if a King were Tryable he ought not to be tryed in full Parliament of Lords and Commons Whether the 8 th part of the Members of the Commons meeting in the House under the force of the Army the rest being forcibly restrained from sitting can by any Pretext of Law or Justice erect a Court for the Tryal of the King And whether this could be properly called a Court of Justice without the great Seal of England Whether that those men who by several Remonstrances Speeches and Actions have publickly declared themselves Enemies to the King can either in Law or Conscience be his Judges when it is Exception enough for the basest Felon to any Jury-man to hinder him from being his Judge Whether this most illegal and Arbitrary Tryal of the King by an high Court of Justice may not prove a most Dangerous inlet to absolute Tyranny and bloody Butchery and every mans Life be at the Arbitrary will of his Enemies erected into a Court of Conscience without limits or bounds But words are nothing and these paper Arms tho furnished with the highest Reason could not move these obdurate Men who persisted in their bloody Business driven
all Acts by Pretext of such Power were illegal and the adjudging any Person to death and Executing them was Treason and wilful Murther Thirdly That the said Commons had no power to make any great Seal of England and that all Commissions granted under their great Seal were illegal and all Proceedings in Law upon such Writs null and voyd to all intents and purposes Lastly That the denyal of the King's Title to the Crown and the plotting to deprive him of it and the setting it upon the Head of another was High Treason and within the Stat. 25 th Ed. 3. Ch. 2. as likewise their Subverting the fundamental Laws of the Land and introducing an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government was High Treason at the common Law c. This was all the Loyalists could do at present by these weak Indeavours to assert the Kings right and shew the people what Slaves they were become but this affrighted not these Men who in the next place February 1 st Vote That all such Members who assented to the Vote of the 5 th of December 1648. That the Kings Concessions were a Ground for the House to Proceed to a Settlement should not be admitted into the House until they had declared their disapproval of that Vote before they sit and that such as were now in the House should enter their dissent to that Vote being only those who had before Voted in the Negative The Lords were yet sitting but no notice taken of them by the Commons for having overthrown the Monarchy they now lay aside the Lords and therefore Vote them dangerous and useless Frebruary 5 th and so Voted them down with this Proviso That they might be capable to be Elected Knights of the shire and Burgesses and so sit among the Commons Three of them only so debased themselves viz. The Earls of Pembroke Salisbury and the Lord Howard of Estrick The rest of the Peers put forth their Protestation against these Proceedings of the Commons which came forth on the 8 th of Frebruary in which they asserted their own Priviledges and the fundamental Laws of the Nation disclaiming the Votes of the Commons for Erecting an high Court of Justice for the Tryal of the King and altering the Government Law Seal c. and against their Traiterous murthering their Soveraign and disinheriting the Prince the Lawful Heir of the Crown of England and also protesting against their Vote of the 6 th of Frebruary for the abolishing the House of Peers as destructive to the beings of Parliament the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and the Lives Liberties and Properties of the people whom they had made Slaves to their Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government But this affrights not the Commons and to keep the Lords from meeting the Army set a Guard at their Doors of their House and the House now proceeds to set up a Common-wealth and to abolish Monarchy and therefore they formed an Act intituled an Act for the Exheredation of the Royal Line the abolishing of Monarchy in this Kingdom and the setting up a Common-wealth which they ordered to be published in all places And to Vindicate these their most horrid Proceedings they had their Pulpit-Trumpeters who justified their Impious Acts in all places and John Godwin and Milton to write in their Defence of putting the King to death declaring in Print That the King suffered on just Grounds and according to his Demerits And now instead of one King these Common-wealth Rumpers set up forty Tyrants as a Committee of State But the people generally seemed displeased at this Alteration of the Government and Reineldson Lord Major of the City refused to publish their Act for abolishing of Monarchy for whâ—ch he was discharged of his Office and with two Aldermen sent to the Tower and Andrews was chosen in his stead upon this the Rumpers put forth a new Declaration to justifie their Proceedings calling them A Deliverance of the people from the Bondage that was brought in by the Norman Conquest and their Maintenance of the ancient Laws notwithstanding their Alteration of some forms of the Regality which ancient Laws might consist very well with a Republick and that they had only abolished their Abuses promising to establish a safe and firm Peace and to advance the true Protestant Religion the Encouragment of a Godly ministry and of Trade and the Maintenance of the Poor thorowout the Realm Then their Great Seal came forth having on one side a Cross and Harp for the Arms of England and Ireland with this Inscription â— The Great Seal of England And on the other side was the Picture of the Commons with these words In the first year of Freedom by God's blessing restored 1648. Likewise they caused a new Coyn to be minted and stamped their Money with a Cross and Harp instead of the King's Effigies with this Motto God with us Then they took away all Clauses in any former Acts for the taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and made them null and a new Oath framed and tendred to all that were to have any publick place of Trust and assumed to themselves both Judicial and Legislative power of the King and both Houses of Parliament and the Executive power they committed to a Council of State of forty Persons of the most Active men in the Army and others of desperate Fortunes Six of the Judges viz. Justice Bacon Brown Beddinfield Creswell Trevor and Atkins quitted their places not being able to bring their Consciences to Act under this Arbitrary and illegal power six other of them continued who were Justice Rolls St. Johns Pheasanâ— Baron Wild and Baron Yates To their new Council of State they gave Power tâ— Command and settle the Militia of England and Irâ—land Power to set forth Ships and such a Considerable Navy as they should think fit Power to appoinâ— Magistrates and stores for England and Ireland and tâ— dispose of them for the Service of the Nation Anâ— power to Execute all the powers given them for a whole Year to come They had two Seals appointed a great Seal and a Signet Cromwell was made Chaiâ—-man of this Committee and an Oath framed for eveâ—â— Member to take to be true to the Parliament as they termed themselves not to disclose their Secrets anâ— to adhere to the present Settlement of the Government 〈◊〉 a Republick without King or House of Lords Abouâ— this time the Officers of the Army at a Councâ—â— of War debated Whether they should not put to the Sword all that were of the King's Party to secure the Nation to themselves and it was carried in the Negative but by two voyces so near were they to a general Massacre And many Petitions came from several Counties that at least three of the most eminent of the King's party in each County might be put to Death to free the Land from Blood-Guiltiness Cromwell by this as you may perceive had gotten all the executive Power of the Kingdom into his own
States In the mean time they have no small umbrage of the Scots Proceedings who had sent to the King then at the Hague and invited him into Scotland with several Propositions in order thereunto But Middleton and Monroe fearing the Kirk Party would hold the King to hard Terms should he come in upon their Propositions rise in the North of Scotland but were soon supprest by Ker and Stranghan upon this our Junto strike in and offering them by their Letters several fair Temptations that they might break with the King promising to stand by them and to defend their Liberty as they called it But this took not And about this time they make a new Act of Treason such as scarce was ever heard of before That to kill the General Lievtenant General or any Member of that House of Parliament or Councel of State should be Treason was to have been put into it but after long debate was omitted betraying too much Cowardise in them and having other ways secured themselves in the Act. For it was made Treason to Act Plot Contrive or speak against this Fag End of the Parliament or their Government and all Endeavours against the Keepers of the Liberties of England and the Councel of State to subvert them as now Constituted and that shall be hereafter Constituted by Parliament what an individuum vagum is here and for every such Act c. to forfeit Life and Estate And also to move and stir up the people against them was declared Treason nay so much as to endeavour to withdraw any Soldier or Officer from their obedience to their Superior Officer or from the present Government aforesaid Also to Counterfeit their great Seal is by this Act made Treasons Are not these in the mean time excellent Conservators of the Liberties of the Nation And a very free State Lilburn in the Tower was kept from Pen Ink and Paper and all allowance for Meat and Drink taken from him tho he petitioned for it so that he was kept three days with half a Meals meat and in a close Chamber none suffered to come at him This under a King had been Tyrannical but is Prudence in this free State About this time also orders were given to certain Committees to inquire upon Oath and to Certifie the improved vallue of every mans Estate both Real and Personal which they intended thorowout the Kingdom following the Conqueror's steps to have by them a Dooms-day Book that they might the better load the people with Taxes and free Quarter in this their new Subjected and Conquered Kingdom called a Free-state Here the House enables their Committees to give Oaths when they had not Power to give any themselves Contrary to that Maxim None can give what he hath not or more Power than is in himself These are the men that were so much troubled with the Oath ex Officio and yet require Oaths against a mans self Nay the Scriveners in London were commanded by these supream Governors to shew their Books that they might inspect what and whose Money they had in their Hands the better to come at it themselves And that they might grasp at all they were Contriving to seize all the Tythes of the Kingdom into their own Hands and to make all Ministers their Stipendary Lecturers and to depend upon the State that they might Preach no Doctrine but what should be agreeable to themselves or in justification of their Actions This was a politick Device Oliver before he went for Ireland took all the politiok Care possible to keep up the Greatness he had acquired and to secure this Junto of Men which he made use of only to set up himself besides the Bridle he had already made them the Councel of State Composed of his Creatures he picks out of the Army left behind in England the chief of his Creatures and Constitutes them a Councel of War or a Councel of Officers to over-awe all with the Power of the Sword for silent Leges inter Arma and now silet Justitia inter Leges filet Jus inter Judices The Government was now a Cerberus with three Heads a Parliament a Councel of State and a Councel of War Many Scruple to pay their illegal Tax of ninety Thousand pound a Month for the Army and therefore have their Goods taken from them by Violence and sold tho they exclaim against it as not done by Law Mr. Prin declares against it and shews it to be against the Statutes Magna Charta 29.30.25 Ed. 1 Chap. 5.6.34 Ed. 1.21 Ed. 3.25 Ed 3.45 Ed. 3.11 Hen. 4.1 Rich 3. The Petition of Right and many more and it was observed to them that no Tax was to be imposed but upon necessity and for the good of the People 25. Ed. 1. Cook Just but for the keeping up an Army when the Wars were done was the bain of the People and that more Taxes had been raised in eight years than in all the Kings Reigns since the Conquest A hundred and fifty thousand Pound was advanced for Oliver's expedition into Ireland who was to be accomptable only of part of it the rest to be disposed at his Discretion for the use of the Common-wealth And now this Junto begin to think of adjourning themselves according to Oliver's desire and in the mean time things to be left to his two Caballs or Councells That of State and that of War but this was a bitter Pill and they knew not how to leave their old Seats where most of them were grown very warm and tho urged to it by the Councells and that some trouble was given to Lenthal their Speaker by Articles drawn up by his Council of Officers but they fearing lest they might not get together again if once separated desired time to finish some Acts they had upon their Hands and then they would adjourn themselves by which you may see how free these Keepers of the Kingdoms freedom were First down went the King and his Power lapsed into the two Houses down went the House of Lords and then all Power was in the House of Commons now they are going down and the supream Power is in a Councel of State who must down too and then the Wheel turns round and all the Power will be in a single Tyrannical person and Usurper Some of the Acts that lay yet on their Hands and which they promised to dispatch were That all Acts concerning Loans Monies Excise Sequestrations Goldsmiths-Hall Haberdashers-Hall Assessments for England and Ireland be passed so that they intended a Continuance of the Peoples Slavery and Burthens Also an Act for the setling the Militia throughout the Kingdom An Act for punishing revolted Seamen An Act for the relief of well affected Tenants against Malignant Land Lords An Act for suppressing Malignant Pamphlets aspersing the Proceeding of this Parliament Councel of State and Army An Act for the suppressing of seditious Preachers An Act for the â—â—â—ing away of a Clause of the Stat. 25.
odious to the people by their bloody tyrannous and arbitrary Actions that he knew it would be very grateful to them to have them dissolv'd Ireton was dead in Ireland who had been a great Assistant to him in promoting him but it was thought he was so true a Common-wealths-man that he would not have suffered Cromwell to have grasped the Scepter and to have set up himself in the place of the Monarch he had pull'd down and since he was now able to act himself without his Councils he was but a Rub out of his way almost all Ireland being subdued and under his subjection Ludlow being Lieutenant General of thâ— Army there and one active in the reducing the Remainder left unfinished by Ireton On the other hand General Monk whom he had left in Scotland with seven thousand men had taken Sterlin Dundee Perth and all the strong Holds in Scotland S. Andrews Aberdeen and all the Castles surrendred upon Summons so that Scotland as well as Ireland was at his devotion and three Kingdoms he hoped to make a prey of and to make them more sure and to unite them into one they enter'd upon the project of having each Kingdom incorporated with England like Wales by causing them to elect their several Members to sit in the English Parliament And now that he might yet make the Junto more odious he puts them on the ordinary Drudgery of taking away the lives of such of the Royal Party as he thought might be any hinderance to his Designs by their arbitrary way of Tryal in their High Court of Injustice or by a Court-Marshal and thus as the saying is he killed two Birds with one Stone rid his Opposers out of the way and made his Instruments odious that he might with the more safety lay them aside when he saw his time The Earl of Derby was the first that felt the bloody severity of these Rulers at Westminster who appointed a Court-Marshal to sit at Chester for his Tryal and several others that were taken at the Battel of Worcester where he was sentenced to be beheaded tho he had surrendred himself upon Articles and promise of his life to one Captain Edge but notwithstanding his plea the arbitrary Court condemn'd him and he was executed at Bolton in Lancashire the fifteenth of October 1651. And by the same Court Sir Timothy Fetherstone-haugh was condemned and for the same crime of Loyalty for endeavouring to bring in Charles Stewart as they called the King and to possess him of his Right the Crown of England who was beheaded at Chester the twenty second day of the same month likewise by the same Court Captain Benbow was condemned and according to their Sentence shot to Death at Shrewsbury And Captain Symkins in another place Many more of note were put into the Tower and reserved for a further Exercise of their Cruelty And now the way to the Crown did not seem very Difficult for Jersy Isie of Man and the Barbadoes yield to their Power and Oliver in the next place bent all his thoughts to turn this â—ump of a Parliament out of Doors having done with them as much Mischief as he well could He looks now very big upon them and had shewn by his behaviour the Resentment he had of their former sawcy Expostulation of his management of the Affairs in Scotland and when he came into the House they all Crouch'd and the fauning Speaker made his Panegyrick with palpable Flattery notwithstanding it was moved in the House by some of his Creatures that this House should be dissolved and Care taken for another to be Chosen but this was a bitter Potion they knew not how to swallow And upon this the Levellers are again set to work and Countenanced who before were so much Cry'd down that they might bait them to a Dissolution and that he might be Lord Paramount in Nomine as well as he was already in Re. But yet there were two Obstacles in his Way The first was the Duke of Gloucester was too near him he was yet a Prisoner in Scarborow Castle him he causes to be removed and sent away into Holland which was done by the order of the Junto to the no small joy of his Friends that he had escaped out of the cruel Claws of these Bears with Life This rub being removed another more Difficult appeared which was the War with Holland and he very Rationally concluded it would be too hard a Task for him to make War both abroad with them and at home with his own Common-wealth which he intended to pull down Considering what a small share he had of the Love of the people and that he was to â—et up himself and Establish his rule and Arbitrary Sway by the Power of the Army only and for this Reason he was forced to let his Journy-men continue their Seats a little longer and wait the Issue of this War This War being foreseen to quiet the Peoples minds they pass an Act of Grace or Oblivion a Pardon for all Hostilities past with an Intention of forgetting all Injuries but upon Condition of taking an Ingagement which they imposed upon the People wherein they promise and Ingage To be true and Faithful to the Common-wealth of England as then Established without King or House of Lords But out of this Act The Lord Goring and his Sons Sr. John Webster The executors of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Murtherers of Dorislaus and Ascham were excepted Still several Addresses Petitions Declarations and Desires came from divers Counties and Places to the Parliament for the putting a Period to their sitting and for providing for future Representatives which Perplext them and were very distastful seeing them so pressing and after many put offs and Reasons for their Continuance they were forced to comply and resolved that the longest Day of their Sitting should be the 5 th of November in the Year 1654. two years too long as Cromwell thought for he intended their Reign should be shorter but his Projects being not yet Ripe he awaited his oportunity About the latter end of this year they made an Act to banish John Lilburn who was very troublesome to them and whom it seems Oliver was much afraid of Knowing him to be an Enemy to his Ambitious Proceedings and very popular It was provided by this Act that if he returned without leave from the State he should suffer as a Felon Preparations for War being made on both sides the States of Holland seeing the English make an Act so Prejudicial to their Trade and to prepare to maintain it against them being somewhat fearful of the Event sent over their Embassadors Myn Heeren Cate Vander-Peer Sharp and Newport who found our English States very high and made such demands that the Dutch could not yield to and so in the beginning of the year 1652 they get their Fleets to Sea well Man'd and Equipped Marten Harpers Vantrump being the Admiral for the Dutch Popham being Dead Dean
following But in the mean time Rear-Admiral Stainer with six other Ships of the English Fleet met with the Spanish Fleet near Cadiz returning from the West Indies with Plate where he sunk several of them with great treasure and took others which he brought away with two Millions of pieces of Eight which amounts to 400000 pounds Sterling There were several Noble men and Dons of Spain taken Prisoners whom Cromwell treated handsomely and after a little while generously sent them home without Ransom And now on the 17 th of September 1656 the appointed time for the Meeting of the Parliament those who were Elected met and chose for their Speaker Sir Thomas Widdrington The Major-Generals had a great hand in chusing this Parliament who by their Arbitrary Power and Authority caused whom they pleased to be chosen and it was thought it was one of Cromwell's policies to Constitute them for that end wanting a Parliament that might give him money And also by their most tyrannical sway they had rendred themselves so odious to the Royalists that they desired rather any other Government should be than these Bashaw's and it was indeed thought to be one of Cromwell's policies in their Constitution that their tyranny might cause his Iron yoke alone to sit more easie about their necks for he gave them up to the Parliament who abolish'd them His design of making himself King and of wearing the Imperial Crown and of becoming a legal Monarch and of transmitting it to his posterity now plainly was manifested though God did not see it good to let the Iniquity of the Nation run on so far as to disinherit the right line having in his Wisedom resolved to continue it to the posterity of Chaâ—les the Martyr for though Cromwell knew he had more Power and greater Dominion and was more absolute than any King of England yet the glorious Title of King and the wearing of a Crown was the desire of his ambitious soul not that it could add more to his Power but he imagined that by that means he should be accounted more legal for that the Crown takes away all attaint and that perhaps he might be able to transmit it to his posterity and make it hereditary in his own line He knew his tyrannick Usurpation was against all the Laws of the Land and that he could hold what he had got no longer than the Army pleased to stick to him who like an head-strong beast was grown so skittish he had much adoe to master it but by setling the Crown on his own head he thought to reduce every thing to its old channel the race of the Stuarts only changed for that of Cromwells and for this end he now began all he could to court the Nobility and Gentry of the Royal Party after he had sufficiently humbled and crush'd them and made them poor all to sweeten them against his assuming the Crown having got as he hop'd a Parliament for his purpose for none were admitted into this Parliament after their Elections but such as the Council allowed of and many persons that Oliver durst not trust were in this Parliament and that he thought not fit to sit till some Laws were first made for the strengthning his Authority and carrying on of his design There was therefore a Recognition of his Highness Government by a single person placed ready with a Guard of Red-coats to be signed before any of the Members went into the House and such as refused to sign it were dismissed and not suffered to sit by which means near 200 at the first were excluded those that sat taking no notice of this most horrid force And now let those who so much stand up for Law and Justice and cry out upon Arbitrary Rule tell me if ever a greater could be acted upon the Liberties of the People in denying them their freedoms in the sitting of their Representatives in Parliament and if any of the most Arbitrary Kings of England ever did or durst attempt the like But what might not and what did not this Tyrant and Usurper doe At first this Parliament went on very smoothly and to the content of their Protectorian Master the first thing was they made a Vote declaring his War with Spain to be just and honourable with a resolution of assisting him in it Then as a Grand step for him to Mount the Throne they make an Act for the renouncing the title of â—harles Stuart and the whole line of King James unto the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland seconded with another for the securing his Highness Person and the continuance of the Nations peace which was bound up in it And this last Act was made by reason of a Plot then discovered against his Person by one Syndercomb or rather a Contrivance of his Secretary Thurlo's to further his designs This Syndercomb was a Leveller or Fifth-Monarchy-man and disbanded by Monk in Scotland who being a resolute fellow and disgusted was drawn in by two of Thurlo's Creatures one Cecil and Toop of Cromwell's Life-guard who pretending a Male-contentedness easily drew him in to a design of Murthering the Tyrant there being about that time a book printed and published with the name Allen to it a disbanded Leveller called Killing no Murther which with notable Arguments proved the Lawfulness of Killing Cromwell as an Usurper and Tyrant which book almost scared him out of his wits and made him ever after afraid of every strange face that came near him and made him betake himself to these artifices to affright assassinates by his severity Syndercomb being thus trepann'd and drawn in by his Instruments had prepared a Blunderbuss and had placed it to shoot him in his Coach going to Hampton-Court and if that failed he was to have fired White-Hall by placing a Basket of combustible matter in the Chapel with a train all which is discovered Syndercomb and his Companions seized the Life-guard men confess the Plot and are pardoned Syndercomb is tryed for it at the upper Bench-bar as they then called it and convicted by the Witness of his fellow Conspirators he was Condemn'd to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd at Tyhurn but before his Execution he was found dead and poysoned in the Tower by himself as the Inquest of the Coroner found it though by others suspected to be a fineness of Thurlo's however as a felo de se he was drawn at an Horses tail to Tower-hill and there put into the ground under the Scaffold and a Stake driven thorow his Body This occasioned the Act to be hastned for his Highness preservation and a thanksgiving Voted for this great delivery the Parliament attending him at White-Hall in the Banqueting-house where a Congratulatory Oration upon this occasion was made to him The next day the time being very convenient Alderman Pack started a motion that for the better and more sure settlement of the Nation the Protector might be desired to assume the stile and title of King as the most
was interwoven with the Laws and was most necessary to be assumed For that the Title ought to be accommodated to the Laws not the Laws to it as they must if he continued the name of Protector That new titles were ever suspected and that the name of Protector had still been unfortunate to the Kingdom and to themselves That it being given him by the Soldiers it smelt too much of Conquest That the Roman Empire never thrived so well but was alwâ—ys full of confusion under the titles of Consuls Dictators or Prince of the Senate as it did under the title of Kings untill Caesar came to settle the Empire they also lay'd before him the reasons for the changing the Title of Lord to King of Ireland in the time of King Henry the 8 th for the better and more regular Government of the Nation But their main Argument was drawn from the Statutes of 9 Edw. 5. and 3 H. 7. by which all persons were indemnified that took up Arms for the King in being and would be a great security to himself and the people to have it thus setled upon him by Act of Parliament But for all this for the Reasons aforesaid his fears surmounted his Ambition he at last gave them a peremptory Refusal telling them that it was against his Conscience and that he could not offend so many Godly men and Officers of the Army who had declared against the title and office of King but he desired that the Title of Protector and the Government by a single person might be confirmed by consent of this Parliament Upon this his refusal which was cryed up as a great Vertue and sign of his Humility the Parliament confirm him in his former title and dignity and an explanatory part to the Petition and Advice was prepared in respect of the Protector 's Oath his Counsels Members of the House of Commons and of the other House as they called it instead of the House of Lords which were to sit and to consist of 60 odd Lords of Cromwell's making The chief heads of the Petition and Advice were 1. That he should exercise the Office of Chief Magistrate under the Title of Protector of England Scotland and Ireland and to govern according to the Petition and Advice and that in his life-time he should appoint his Successor 2. That a Parliament should be called every three years at farthest and that it should consist of two Houses 3. That the Members of Parliament legally chosen should not be secluded the House but by consent of the House notwithstanding this he did not re-admit the secluded Members of this House which he had cast out 4. Shewed certain qualifications for the Members to be chosen 5. The power of the other House was declared 6. That no Law should be altered repealed or made but by Act of Parliament 7. That the constant yearly Revenue of the Army and Navy be setled and that to be a Million of Pounds Sterling and 300000 l. more for the support of the Government besides other Temporary supplies as the House of Commons should see necessary and fit 8. That the Protector 's Council should not exceed the number of 21 nor to be under 9 and 7 of them to be a Quorum 9. That the chief Officers of State to be chosen or approved by the Parliament 10. That his Highness should incourage a Godly Ministry 11. That the Protestant Religion should be professed and that he should cause a Confession of Faith to be made and that none should be permitted to reproach it or revile it by words or writings With some other matters of less importance With this the aforementioned Acts with an Act for Assessment of 60000 l. a month for three months Another Money Act for 50000 l. for England 6000 l. for Scotland and 9000 l. for Ireland with some others concerning Trade were presented to Cromwell to Sign by the Parliament To whom returning them many thanks he said That he perceived that among those many Acts they had made that they had taken great care to provide for the just and necessary support of the Common-wealth by those Bills for Levying of Money and understanding that it had been formerly the practice of the chief Governours to acknowledge with thanks to the Commons their care and regard to the Publick therefore he very heartily thank'd them and acknowledged their kindness therein And after he had signed these Bills and the Petition and Advice and Articles therein He told them That he had undertaken one of the greatest burthens that ever was laid upon the back of any humane creature and therefore he asked their help and prayers to God that he might have the divine Assistance for the discharging of this great trust And that for his part nothing should have induced him to have taken upon him this unsupportable burthen to flesh and blood but that he had seen in the Parliament a great care of those things that might make clearly for the Liberty of the Nations and for the Interest of such as feared God And if that the people were not thank full to them for their great care it would fall as a sin upon their heads With much more of the same nature This being done they prepare for the Solemnity of his Inauguration or Investure anew for though he was before solemnly inaugurated into the Protectorate as you have heard according to the Instrument yet it was thought fit that it should be done again for the greater confirmation of the business because the Articles of this Petition and Advice were different from the former Instrument For now there was to be another House and whereas before his Council was to name his Successor he had now power to doe it himself so that he was an absolute Monarch and might leave the Succession to his Son if he pleased A Committee being appointed for this purpose on the 26 th of June 1657 before a great assembly of people and with much more Ceremony than before he was installed in Westminster-Hall under a great Canopy of State in great pomp and much magnificence too long for me here to relate the Great Seal being carried by the Lord Commissioner Fiennes and the Sword by the Earl of Warwick The City Sword by the Lord Mayor Tichbourn all bare-headed The Dutch and French Ambassadors being also present The Speaker of the House of Commons presenting him with a Robe of Purple Velvet a Bible a Sword and a Sceptre making a Speech to him in presenting them Telling him that the Purple Robe was an Emblem of Magistracy and imported Righteousness and Justice The Bible containing the Holy Scriptures was Christ Veiled and Revealed and contained both Precepts and Examples for good Government The Sceptre not unlike a Staff was to shew he was to be the Staff of the poor and weak of ancient use for that the Scripture says The Sceptre should not depart from Judah and that Kings and Princes were called by Homer
and perceiving them might not in the same age at least run into the like nor pull the like fatal consequences upon their heads as Usurpation and Arbitrary Rule and Tyranny either in many or in one which God avert and send peace and tranquility in our dayes But yet the Memory of this Man is adored by many to this day and he is the Idol of some who will yet speak great things of him though without reason and putting our decay of trade upon the present ill management of affairs when indeed it is but the consequence of our Civil Wars and the great expence of Money drained away from the Royalists the vast sums raised on the people by Taxes Assessments and Excise which coming into the Soldiers pockets they set it going into motion which with the vast sums raised on the sale of the Kings Queens Princes Bishops and Delinquents Lands made a flood of money for the present and nothing of want then appeared which was the effect rather of the Tyrant's rapacity than good management for when this glut began to fall again into the private sinks of rich men who lived by the use of money and others who had any great sums fallen to their shares fearing the iniquities of the times and knowing no man could promise himself to be long master of his own especially money where the Will of the Tyrant was Law and whom to disoblige was fatal they remitted vast sums for their security into the bank in Holland making them rich by trading with our money whilst we sat contented with 3 l. per cent for to be secure so that our trade fell and in some time after a scarcity of money appeared which such who only look on the present time and considered not truly the reason attributed to the ill management of the present Governour or of those who sat at the Helm And therefore we may say that the low ebb of Trade in our time had its beginning in Oliver's time And we may likewise consider that in his short Usurpation which was but four years and nine months there was shewn so much Tyranny Oppression and Injustice as excepting the time of the Rumps sitting was not to be parallell'd in any of the Kings since the Conquest Besides in his latter dayes when his fears began to render him cruel he valued neither honesty or honour when they stood in the way of his Ambition and therefore to me 't is a wonder for what it was they admired this Man and must be caused either by partiality or ignorance As for his Politicks his Peace with France and his War with Spain was certainly against the Interest of England in lessning the latter and making the former too great for Christendom and loosing the ballance which England ought carefully to keep between those two Monarchs And then his impolitick Peace with the Dutch on so easie terms when brought with great expence of English Blood and Treasure to that extremity that England mought have had what terms they would so that the whole world thought him infatuated in losing so great an opportunity of doing good to this Nation Then there is nothing more certain that all the Persecution that hath since hapned in France of that King's Protestant Subjects was the effects of his joyning in a League with France at that time by which means that King humbled Spain and made way for his Conquests in Flanders since atchieved and inabled him to subdue all Factions at home which were then arising and brought him into a condition to need none of them being grown since the scourge and terrour of Christendom His shamefull defeat at Hispaniola with the loss of 1500 Merchants Ships to the Spaniard in that War as was made appear to Richard's Parliament and in his spending such vast sums of money and yet leaving a vast debt upon the Kingdom as appeared by the Accounts brought into Richard's Assembly may stand in ballance against his Victories and shew that he was not always successfull and that he had not managed his affairs with that frugality and wisedom as some have thought he did when as by his own accounts it appeared notwithstanding the great incomes he had and the many Parliamentary supplies he had contracted a debt of no less than 1900000 l. As for his Tyranny and Oppression 't is needless to mention it that may be seen throughout this History Yet I cannot but instance here that injustice of his to John Lilburn who had been tryed for his Life by the Long Parliament and acquitted and by them discharged yet because Oliver knew him a dangerous man and one that might give him a trouble caused him to be tryed a second time and though then also cleared by the Law yet according to his own Arbitrary Will against Law and with all injustice and cruelty imaginable kept him close Prisoner so long that he was almost consumed by sickness that he turned him out only to dye Again What greater injustice could there be than that shown to Mr. Cony who being a Prisoner at Cromwell's Suit and being brought to the King 's or upper Bench-bar as they call'd it by an Habeas Corpus causes his Counsel to be violently taken from the Bar and sent to the Tower for no other reason than the Pleading his Clients Cause such an Act of violence as cannot be parallell'd in all the History of England Yet this blessed man is admired As for his ingratitude that appeared to Sir Henry Vain who above all persons in the world was the cause of his advancement and had long espoused his Interest yet he studied to destroy him both in his Life and Estate because he would not adhere to his perjury and falseness And because Vain opposed him he imprison'd him and would have proceeded farther against him In Richard's Assembly upon the complaint of several Prisoners kept close in the Tower many being sent away most inhumanely and sold for Slaves beyond Seas the Lieutenant being sent for and demanded by what Authority he had kept those in his custody so long Prisoners he produced a Paper written all with Oliver's own hand in which were these words Sir I pray you seize such and such persons and all others whom you shall judge dangerous men doe it quickly and you shall have a Warrant for it after you have done Upon which Richard's Assembly Voted this Commitment of the Complainants to be illegal unjust and Tyrannical as no doubt it was This was a spice of his Justice whereby any man was rendred obnoxious not only to himself but to the malice or spleen of his Lieutenant though he were never so innocent And at this rate he might take up and imprison whom he pleased and no man was in safety and that by the chief Governour 's Warrant who by Law can Commit no man by his own Warrant And this too without any cause shewn why or wherefore And the same men Voted that those banish'd or sent away were unjustly
to dispose of all places of Trust and to make Sales and Compositions of all Delinquents Lands and to execute all the powers of the late Council of State that is to do what they please Surely never any free Nation was so abused and imposed upon by a company of false pretenders to Sanctity The news of General Monks actions in the North allarm'd them at their first siting for he had casheired all those Officers in his Armie who would not joyn with him and imprisoned some of them and had seized Berwick and several others strong Holds and was likely to march into England which put them to their wits ends knowing how highly the people were incensed against them and about the same time as a presage of their dying power Brad shaw who had passed the trayterous Sentence upon the King departed this life the last day of this month to receive sentence himself from the King of Kings However this Committee with a new name put forth a Declaration in with they null and make voyd the pretended Orders Acts and Declarations of the late Junto made on the 10th of that instant October and on the Teusday and Wensday following and likewise all Acts Orders and Proceedings thereupon in as full and ample manner as if they had never been See now what may not these people do when they can null and make void the Acts of that power themselvs adored set up and submitted to not long before calling them Saints Godly Upright and Religious men persons fearing God and seeking the good of the Nation yet now vacate their Acts that were displeasing to them or restrained their power Yet the same men declare a liberty to all the freeborn men of the Nation whom they had thus enslaved and with the next breath promise to maintain a painfull Gospel-preaching Ministry to be incouraged by some other way less troublesome than that of Tithes Then they declare against a single person Kingship and House of Peers and that the Common Wealth shall not be governed in a Military way but by the Civil Government of the Committee of Safety who shal prepare such a Form of Government as shall best suit with a free State or Common Wealth then end with a long cant of godly and scriptural expressions of their sincerity and uprightness to Cajole the godly Party and to make them think well of their Saint like Actions This done in order to Government in the begining of November the Safety men nominate Fleetwood Lambert Vane Ludlow Desborow Hewson Holland Salaway and Tichburn to be a Committee to prepare a form of Governenmt in the way of a free State or Common Wealth and Whaly Goff Carill and Barker are dispatched to General Monk to seduce him to joyn with them and to do as they intended to tyrannize over a free born people and arbitrarily to murder them for the avoiding of effusion of blood and the Officers at London wrote to his Officers to the same purpose remonstrateing with much zeal how necessary brotherly Union was to uphold their Domination General Monk who had good Intelligence from England seeing the Northern forces were in a posture to resist him and Lambert comeing down to them with more Regiments out of the South thought it his best way to win time by procrastinations and therefore desires a Treaty which was readily accepted of by those in England and upon this he sends up as Commissioners Col. Wilks Leiut Col. Clobery and Major Knight to tranfact with the like number of Officers at London These had power only to treat but not to come to full agreement without orders but they exceeded their Commission By the way meeting Lambert at York they gave him so full satisfaction in hopes of concluding all things amicably by this Treaty that he advanced no farther northwards The Commissioners on both sides meet at London and Wilks not following his directions went beyond his Commission and being overforward to end the Treaty concluded upon certain Articles very distructive to Monks designs They were breifly these 1. That the pretended title of Charles Stewart or any other clameing from that family should be utterly renounced 2. That the Government of these Nations should be a free State or Common Wealth and not be a single Person King of House of Lords 3. That the Ministry should be mainteined and encouraged 4. That the Universities should be reformed and countenanced 5. That the Officers and souldiers and other persons on either side should be indemnified for things past and all unkindness between them buried in perpetual oblivion 6. That the Officers which were made pris'ners in Scotland should be forthwith set at liberty 7. That the Armies be presently dispersed into quarters 9. And a Committee of 19 whereof to make the Quorum should meet about qualifications for suceeding Parliaments 9. That the proportion of mony out of the Assessments of England formerly appointed for the supply of the forces in Scotland be duly paid The ratification of which Articles by Monk's Commissioners strangely amazed the City who had had private assurances from the General of other things and made them not to believe some later letters sent them to continue their Hopes but flung them away at fictitions and caused the messenger to be imprisoned Monk was also as much perplex'd when he had the news of it and when his Commissioners returned imprisoned Wilks for going beyond his Commission and by advice from his Officers demurred to one clause in the 6 Article which was That all the Officers displaced by General Monk might be in a capacity of being restored to their commands and all those put in by him in their places to be removed by which means he should ruine and disarm himself And therefore The treaty was not wholy disaprov'd of but wisely Monk desired that two more might be added to the former Commissioners to meet with the like number of theirs to put a more absolute period to their differences for that there were certain poynts to be treated on not yet agreed to and others wanted explanation This letter subscribed by Monk and many of his Chief Officers and sent to London put Fleetwood Lambert and the rest to much confusion seing Monk thus refuse to ratifie the Treaty and thereupon many expostulatory Letters passed between them which gained time the thing Monk intended he having sent letters and messengers into Ireland from whom he had favourable returns which encouraged him to proceed And this also put new life into the City who now began to revive their Hopes He also had privatly letters from the Lord Fairsax and other persons of quality in England of their resolutions of standing by him tho' upon all this he still kept himself reserv'd and very few knew his intenâ—ions which made many of his friends very doubtfull of him but by this artifice and closeness he effected his business and got into the opinion of the Rumpers whose quarrel only he seemed to espouse And
the Justice of these men But this Prohibition of theirs did but the more enrage the people and the Londoners especially the Apprentices were in an uproar and readye to mutine whereupon Hewosn the one ey'd cobler hath order with his Regiment of foot and some horse to march into the City where he â—â—lld a Cobler and one or two more and wounded several so that the Citizens shut up their shops yet rather madded than daunted thereat there were continuall bickerings between them and the souldiers neither could Desborows canting speech at Guild-Hall work upon them but that sometimes multitudes would flock together and affront the souldiers and tho' they were often dispersed yet they would gather head again And now the Common-Council in which at that time were many stout and honest men began to give ear to the Apprentices petitioning for a free Parliament being thereunto encouraged by an offer of 3000 valiant Seamen to aid them from Vice Admiral Lawson who in this juncture was come up the Thames and had surprized all the Forts and Blockhouses in the way Vaine and Salmon were sent to confer with him but nothing would prevail with him unless the Wallingfordians would readmit the Rumpers to sit again And besides all this Hazelrig Morley and Walton at Portsmouth had so wrought upon those Regiments which were sent against them that they all came over to their side The Safety men and Officers at White-Hall perceiving themselvs to be generally hated and slighted and wanting mony to pay their souldiers and uphold their interest being withall beset on every hand with enemies both City and Country being ready to rise upon them found a necessity of submiting to the Rumpers for fear lest while the two Currs strove for the bone of Goverment the Royal Lyon should come in and destroy them both they finding the pulse of the whole nation tyred with the various fits of arbitrary sway beating towards the return of the King and to their old and equal way of Government and the late reconciliation between France and Spain in which his Majesty was very instrumental seeming to presage some danger to them the Cheif of them then go to the Speaker Lenthal and cry peccavimus where tender-hearted Fleetwood meekly weeping gave a full testimony of his sorrow for his reiterated defection saying That the Lord had blasted their Councells and spit in their Faces 't is his own rhetoric and therefore desires him and the rest of the members to return to the exercise of their Trust for the Government of the Nation And the same day the souldiery being drawn up in Lincolns-Inn-feilds owned the Junto again for the supream authority now they saw thy could keep it no longer themselves The Speaker went presently to the Tower of London the care of which Government whereof he committed to Sir Antony Ashly-Cooper Mr. Weaver and Mr. Berners and two dayes after being the 26th of December this never dying Rump resumed their old places and thus ended the Government of the Armie which lasted only from the 13th of October to the 26th of December following And now almost tyred with relateing tho breifly the several sorts of Arbitrary and tyranical usurpations we are come to the last Act of our Tragedy or Trage-comedy since it ends happily and after the tryall of so many ways of Government almost to the ruin of the Nation they return to the good old way of Monarchy as the onely just equal and legal way of Government for these Nations and for the ease and free-dom of the people But let us pursue our story and see the last struggle gasp for life of this Monster or Dragon of a Common Wealth ruleing by their Arbitrary wills back'd by the power of the sword of a standing Armie who like the Turks Janizarie Keept both the people and their Masters in awe tho hey knew the one was not able to stand the other Soon after this revived Junto to their great joy had met Hazelrig Morley and Walton came to their Companions being attended from Portsmouth by those forces that were led by Desborow to reduce them who being then deserted by them hasted back to London and from thence to St. Albans whence he wrote an humble letter to his restored Masters craveing pardon and telling them that he had procured his own Regiment which was at that time quarter'd there to return to their Obedience From S. Albans Desborow went into Yorksheir to Lambert who was now in a declineing condition General Monk finding things goe to his mind in England now broke of the treaty he had yet continued at York and had planted his armie very advantageously along the River Tweed on the Scotch side in such a prudent manner that in a few hours he could have all his Forces together and lay so well posted that the enemie could not make their way to him without extraordinary disadvantage and if Lambert should have attempted to have got to him by the way of Carlile he would by that means have gained several days march before him towards London being also well assured the Country would come in a pace to him Lambert was about 13000 strong and far superior to General Monk in numbers especially in Horse which made that famous and experienced commander decline engageing The Rumpers as soon as got together order Popham Thomson Scot Okey Ashly-Cooper Alured and Markham or any 3 of them to be Commissioners to Order Direct and Conduct the forces of the armie these write to Lambert to disperse his forces but they were doeing that themselvs before and the Irish Brigade that came over to his assistance under Redman and Bret submitted to the Junto a pardon being sent to Lambert and for all others that should submit to them by the 9 th of the same month by the example of the Irish Regiments divers other Regiments also forsook Lambert who headed by the Lords Fairfax and Faulconbridg lately came to them seized York for the Junto Lambert upon this marches from the borders Southward his souldiers forsakeing him so fast that by such time as he came to North-Allerton he had not above 50 Horse remaining where upon both he and they concluded to lay hold on the offer of pardon and so dispersed which being done those at York likwise departed to their respective Quarters Windsor castle also was surrendred to them by the means of Col. Ingoldsâ—y all things thus prospering they fall upon the Oath of Abjuration or Renunciation of the whole line of King James which they had been hammering at before but now nominateing a Concil of State they order that none of them should Act till they had taken this oath which was now formed more strict than ever and it was also proposed that all the members of the House should take it but this was strongly opposed by many for that secretly divers of them had sought their pardons of the King and seeing that he would inevitably come in the wisest
hundred forty five 'T was ordered also every man to give A penny a week of every Family For one whole year together 't is no lye And this was sent poor Ireland to relieve If those that order'd did not us deceive Then after this they laid on us great Taxes To hew us down as if it were with Axes And sixty thousand pound a month a year They made us pay as it did well appear And some years ninety thousand every month was paid For a whole year together undenayed Besides a hundred twenty thousand pound Was paid a month by all a whole year round All which to many millions doth amount Far geater than the wit of man can count And whosoever did not pay his Seasement Was either plunder'd or prison'd without releasement And by such means some thousands are undâ—ne And knew not how or which way for to run And children likewise are made fatherless That knew not how their wants for to express With multitudes of widows that none knows The number of them or their wants disclose Besides the maimed that want hands or feet And wounded so 't would grieve one for to see 't And yet besides the thousands that are slain Which can't be numbred for it is in vain Then burning houses followed out-right With castles wasted and demolish'd quite And Towns and Cities are by wars undone The souldiers spoiling all that they had won And every place is so impoverished For want of trade to buy the people bread The Churches likewise they were much defaced And made like stables wherein horse were placed They took away the vessels every one And ornaments I think they left not one Thus did the Churches their privileges lose And sects and errours were brought in to choose And God's true worship it was laid aside And in blasphemies they did take a pride And toleration of such things that 's evil Was given them the like did not the Devil Thus have you heard the truth of things in brief And yet not half nor do I think the chief Of what they did in twelve years time they sat But if you 'll mind the next shall tell you what The first beheaded on the Tower Hill Was Earl of Strafford sore against his will Sir Alexander Carew was the second That lost his head for so it must be rekon'd And Captain Hotham after him succeeded His Father also next day after bleeded The Bishop then of Cantorbury next That was beheaded after he preach'd his text But now my heart doth fail the next to tell That lost his life since which we ne're were well O Gracious God was ever such things known A King so kill'd by subjects of his own May that accursed act of killing Kings Drink deep the dregs of the infernal stings Lord Capel next Duke Hamilton another The Earl of Holland also was the tother These three together at Westminster were headed For being true to 'th King this Parliament did it Next Collonel Andrews and then Sir Henry Hide Both on Tower-Hill were headed and there dyed And Captain Bushel in that very place Was headed there when he had run his race Next Mr. Love and Gibons in one day Were both beheaded of a truth I say Loe here 14 to 'th dozen in 12 years Beheaded were by these sad Parliamenteers Besides what others in far remoter places To us unknown who never saw their faces Next you shall know how many we have seen Hang'd in the City and shot to death have been First Challoner and Tomkins in one day Were hang'd in London this is truth I say Tomkins at Fetter-Lane tother at the Change Thus did their madness round about us range About some four months after was another Hang'd at the Change whose name I mean to smother And then another whose name I forgot At Westminster was hang'd for I know what He was a Spy they said came from the King And he must suffer therefore in a string The next in order though not he himself Was Sir Johns Greenevils picture foolish Else That hanged was at the Exchange for why Cause he left us and to the King did fly Then Poyer Pitcher Lockier went to th' pot These three at several times to death were shot All these near London and near thereabout Were hang'd and shot to death which they found out Besides all others throughout the Land If 't could be knowen we should amazed stand They haâ—ing sat twelve years then commeth Cromwell And turns them out which Act it doth please some well But he his part doth play as did the rest And fals to heading hanging like a Beast The first was Gerard that did feel the smart Of his keen Axe which went unto the heart Next Doctor Huit in that very place With Henry Slingsby Knight of comely grace Both in one day but who can tell for what 'T was never known nor never we shall that Then Mr Vowell was hangd at Charing Cross And Marston also hangd to his friends loss But after all comes Betterly on the stage Who in Cheapside was hangd in Cromwell's rage And afterward his bowels burnt in fire ' Cause they against him He said did conspire And then another hang'd was in Tower street And at the Change another we did seeâ—t These eight by Cromwel in the City dy'd But God doth know how many more beside Were hangd and headed within these three Nationâ— Of whom I cant make any true relations POSTSCRIPT FRom the 3 November 1640. to the 20 April 1653. when Oliver Cromwel turned out the long Parliament there hath been 29 Thanks giving days for several victories obtained by them against the King and at least 15 days of Humiliation besides the monthly Fasts which was once a month for very neer 8 years being cast up together is at least 90. which in all make 105. And from the time of their turning out to the 25 December last 1659 there hath been 10 Fasting days and 6 Thanksgiving days so that the total number of the Fasting days to the 25 Decemb. last is 15. and the Thanksgiving days are 35. In the late wars hath been killed above 100 Lords and Knights above 400 Officers besides the common Souldiers above 1000 Ministers put out of their places and died of grief FINIS He was to have been made Earl of Essâ—â—e and Knight of the Garter his Sâ—n of the Bed-chamber to the Prince Ireton â—ord Lievtenant of Ireland 1640. 14 May 1641. 23 Decemb. 1641. 1 Jan. 1644. 2 Jan. 1644. 10 Janv. 1644. 30 Jan. 1648. 9 March 1648. 22 Aug. 1650. 4. March 1650. 29 March 1651. 22 Aug. 1651. 5 Jul. 1643. 19 July 1650. 28 Nov. 1643. 1 Apâ—il 1644. 1 March 1643. 29 De. 1648. 21 Ap. 1649. 27 Apr. 1649. 10 July 1654. 8 June 1658. 10 July 1654. 10 Aug. 1654. 7 July 1658. 9 July 1650.