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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81007	The Lord General Cromwel's speech delivered in the Council-Chamber, upon the 4 of July, 1653. To the persons then assembled, and intrusted with the supreme authority of the nation. This is a true copie: published for information, and to prevent mistakes.	Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658.	1654 (1654)	Wing C7169; Thomason E813_13; ESTC R3114	16,487	28

might be safe to the Nation we might acquiesse therein when we prest them to give satisfaction in this the answer was made that nothing could be good to the Nation but the continuance of this Parliament we wondred that we should have such a return we said little to that But seeing they would not give us that which might satisfie us that their way was honest and safe they would give us leave to make our Objections We did tell them that wee thought that way they were going in would bee impracticable we could not tell them how it would bee brought to passe to send out an Act of Parliament into the Country to have qualifications in an Act to be the Rules of Electors and Elected and not to know who should execute this Desired to know whether the next Parliament were not like to consist of all Presbyters Whether those Qualifications would hinder them or Newters and though it bee our desire to value and esteem of that Judgement only they having been as wee know having deserted this cause and Interest upon the Kings account and upon that closure between them and the Neighbour Nation wee do think wee must professe wee had as good have delivered up our Cause into the hands of any as into the hands of interessed and byassed men for it is one thing to live friendly and brotherly to bear with and love a person of another judgement in Religion another thing to have any so far set into the saddle upon that account as that it should bee in them to have all the rest of their Brethren at mercy Having had this discourse making these Objections of bringing in Neuters or such as should impose upon their Brethren or such as had given testimony to the Kings party and objecting to the danger of it in drawing the concourse of all people to arraign every individuall person which indeed did fall obviously in and the issue would certainly have been the putting it into the hands of men that had little affection to this cause The answer again was made and it was confessed by some that these objections did lye But answer was made by a very eminent person at the same time as before that nothing would save the Nation but the continuance of this Parliament this being so we humbly proposed an expedient of ours which was indeed to desire that the Government being in that condition it was and things being under so much ill sense abroad and so likely to come to confusion in every respect if it went on so wee desired they would devolve the trust over to persons of honor and integrity that were well known men well-affected to Religion and the Interest of the Nation which we told them and was confessed had been no new thing when these Nations had been under the like hurly burly and distractions and it was confessed by them it had been no new thing we had been at labour to get presidents to convince them of it and we told them these things we offered out of that deep sense we had of the good of the Nations and the Cause of Christ And being answered to that nothing would save the Nation but the continuance of that Parliament although they would not say they would perpetuate it at that time least of all But finding their indeavours did directly tend to it they gave us this Answer that the things wee had offered were of a tender and very weighty consideration they did make objections how wee should raise mony and some other objections we told them that that wee offered as an expedient because wee thought better then that for which no reason was or thought would be given wee desired them to lay the thing seriously to heart they told us they would take consideration of these things till the morning that they would sleep upon them and I think that there was scarce any day that there sat above 50 or 52 or 53. At the parting two or three of the chief ones the very chiefest of them did tell us that they would indeavour the suspending the proceedings of the Representative the next day till they had a further conference and we did acquiesce and had hope if our expedient would take up a loving debate the next day wee should have some such issue of our debate as would have given a satisfaction to all they went away late at night and the next morning wee considering how to order that which wee had to offer to them when they were to meet in the Evening word was brought they were proceeding with a Representative with all the eagernesse they could wee did not beleeve persons of such quality could doe it a second and a third Messenger told us they had almost finished it and had brought it to that issue with that hast that had never been before leaving out the things that did necessarily relate to due qualifications as wee have heard since resolved to make it a paper Bill not to ingrosse it that they might make the quicker dispatch of it thus to have thrown all the liberties of the Nation into the hands that never bled for it upon this Account wee thought it our duty not to suffer it and upon this the House was dissolved This wee tell you that you may so know that what hath been done in the dissolution of this Parliament was as necessary to be done as the preservation of this cause and that necessity that led us to doe that hath brought us to this issue of exercising an extraordinary way and course to draw your selves together upon this accompt that you are men who know the Lord and have made observations of his marvellous dispensations and may be trusted with this cause It remains for I shall not acquaint you further with that that relates to your taking upon you this great businesse that being contained in this paper in my hand which I doe offer presently to you to read having done that which wee thought to have done upon this ground of necessity which we know was not feigned necessity but real and true to the end the Government might not bee at a losse to the end wee might manifest to the world the singlenesse of our hearts and integrity who did those things not to grasp after the power our selves to keep it in a military hand no not for a day as far as God enables us with strength and ability to put it into the hands that might be called from severall parts of the Nation this necessity I say and we hope may say for our selves this integrity of laboring to divest the Sword of the power and authority in the civill administration of it hath been that that hath moved us to conclude of this course and having done that wee think we cannot with the discharge of our consciences but offer somewhat unto you as I said before for our own exoneration it having been the practice of others who have voluntarily and out of sense of

THE Lord General CROMWEL's SPEECH Delivered in the Council-Chamber Upon the 4 of July 1653. To the persons then assembled and intrusted with the Supreme Authority of the Nation This is a true Copie Published for Information and to prevent Mistakes Printed in the yeer 1654. The Lord General CROMWELL His Speech At the Councel-Chamber July 4. 1653. GENTLEMEN I Suppose the Summons that hath been instrumental to bring you hither gives you well to understand the cause of your being here Howbeit having some things to impart which is an Instrument drawn up by the consent and advice of the principal Officers of the Army which is a little as we conceive more significant then that other of Summons we have that here to tender you And we have somewhat likewise further to say to you for our own exoneration and we hope it may be somewhat further to your satisfaction And therefore seeing you sit here somewhat uneasie by reason of the scantness of the Room and the heat of the Weather I shall contract my self with respect to that I have not thought it amiss a little to mind you of that Series of providence wherein the Lord hitherto hath dispensed wonderful things to these Nations from the beginning of our Troubles to this very day If I should look much backward we might remember the state of affairs as they were before the short and that which was the last Parliament in what a posture the things of this Nation stood doth so well I presume occur to all your memories and knowledges that I shall not need to look so far backward nor yet to the beginning of those Hostile actions that past between the King that was and the then-Parliament And indeed should I begin this labour the things that would fall necessarily before you would rather be fit for a History then for a Discourse at this present But thus far we may look back You very well know after divers turnings of affairs it pleased God much about the midst of this War to winnow as I may so say the Forces of this Nation and to put them into the hands of men of other Principles then those that did engage at the first By what strange providences that also was brought about would ask more time then is allotted me to remember you of Indeed there are Stories that do recite those transactions and give Narratives of matter of fact but those things wherein the life and power of them lay those strange windings and turnings of Providence those very great appearances of God in crossing and thwarting the designes of men that he might raise up a poor and a contemptible company of men neither vers'd in Military affairs nor having much natural propensity to them even through the owning of a Principle of Godliness of Religion which so soon as it came to be owned the state of affairs put upon that foot of account how God blest them and all undertakings by the rising of that most improbable despicable contemptible means for that we must for ever own you very well know What the several successes have been is not fit to mention at this time neither though I must confess I thought to have enlarged my self upon this Subject forasmuch as the considering the works of God and the operation of his hands is a principal part of our duty and a great encouragement to the strengthning of our hands and of our faith for that which is behinde And then having given us those marvelous dispensations amongst other ends for that was a most principal end as to us in this revolution of affairs and issues of those Successes God was pleased to give this Nation and the Authority that then stood were very great things brought about besides those dints that were upon those Nations and places where they were carried on even in the Civil affairs to the bringing offenders to Justice even the greatest to the bringing the state of this Government to the name at least of a Commonwealth to the searching and sifting of all Places and Persons the King removed and brought to justice and many great ones with him the House of Peers laid aside the House of Commons the Representative of the people of England it self winnowed sifted and brought to a handful as you may very well remember And truely God would not rest there for by the way although it be fit for us to entitle our failings and miscarriages to our selves yet the gloriousness of the work may well be attributed to God himself and may be called his strange Work You may remember well that at the change of the Government there was not an end of our Troubles although that yeer were such things transacted as indeed made it to be the most memorable yeer I mean 1648. that ever this Nation saw so many Insurrections Invasions secret Designes open and publike Attempts quash'd in so short a time and this by the very signal appearances of God himself I hope we shall never forget You know also as I said before that as the effect of that memorable yeer 1648. was to lay the Foundation of bringing Delinquents to punishment so it was of the change of the Government although it be true if we had time to speak the carriages of some in trust in most eminent trust was such as would have frustrated to us the hopes of all our Undertakings had not God miraculously prevented I mean by that Closure that would have been endeavoured by the King whereby we should have put into his hands all that Cause and Interest we had opposed and had had nothing to have secured us but a little piece of Paper But things going out how it pleased the Lord to keep this Nation in exercise both at Sea and Land and what God wrought in Ireland and Scotland you likewise know until the Lord had finisht all that trouble upon the matter by the marvelous salvation wrought at Worcester I confess to you I am very much troubled in my spirit that the necessity of affairs doth require that I should be so short in these things because I told you before This is the leanest part of the transaction to wit an Historical Narration there being in every Dispensation whether the King 's going from the Parliament the pulling down the Bishops purging the House at that time by their going away to assist the King change of Government whatever it was not any of those things but hath a remarkable point of Providence set upon it that he that runs may read Therefore I am heartily sorry that in point of time I cannot be particular in those things which I did principally designe this day thereby to provoke and stir up your hearts and mine to gratitude and confidence I shall now begin a little to remember you the passages that have been transacted since Worcester-fight whence coming with my fellow-Officers and Souldiers we expected and had some reasonable confidence that our expectations should not be frustrate That

the Authority that then was having such a History to look back unto such a God that appeared for them so eminently so visibly that even our enemies many times confess'd that God himself was engaged against them or they should never have been brought so lowe nor disappointed in every undertaking for that may be said by the way had we miscarried but once where had we been I say We did think and had some reasonable confidence that coming up then the mercies that God had shewed the expectations that were in the hearts of all good men would have prompted those that were in Authority to have done those good things which might by honest men have been judged a return fit for such a God and worthy of such mercies and indeed a discharge of duty to those for whom all these mercies have been shewed that is the Interest of the three Nations The true Interest of the three Nations And if I should now labour to be particular in enumerating some businesses that have been transacted from that time till the dissolution of the late Parliament indeed I should be upon a Theme would be very troublesome to my self For I must say for my self and fellow-Officers we have rather desired and studied healing then to rake into sores and look backward to render things in those colours that would not be very well pleasing to any good eye to look upon Onely this we must say for our own exoneration and as thereby laying some foundation for the making evident the necessity and duty that was incumbent upon us to make this last great Change I think it will not be amiss to offer a word or two in that not taking pleasure to rake into the business were not there some kinde of necessity so to do Indeed we may say without commending our selves I mean my self and those Gentlemen that have been engaged in the Military affairs that upon our return we came fully bent in our hearts thoughts to desire and use all fair and lawfull means we could to have had the Nation to reap the fruit of all that blood and treasure that had been expended in this cause and we have had many desires and thirstings in our spirits to finde out wayes and means wherein we might any wayes be instrumentall to help it forward and we were very tender for a long time so much as to Petition till August last or thereabouts we never offered to Petition but some of our then Members and others having good acquaintance and relation to divers members of the Parliament we did from time to time sollicite that which we thought if there had been no body to prompt them no body to call upon them would have been listed too out of ingenuity and integrity in them that had opportunity to have answered our expectations and and truly when we saw nothing would be done we did as we thought according to our duty reminde them by a Petition which Petition I suppose the most of you have seen which we delivered either in July or August last what effect that had is likewise very well known the truth is we had no return at all that the satisfaction for us was but a few words given us the businesse petitioned for most of them we were told were under consideration And those that were not had very little or no consideration at all Finding the people dissatisfied in every corner of the Nation and bringing home to our doores the none performance of those things that had been promised and were of due to be performed we did think our selves concerned we indeavoured as became honest men to keep up the reputation of honest men in the world and therfore we had divers times indeavoured to obtain a meeting with divers Members of Parliament and truly we did not begin this till October last and in those meetings did in all faithfulnesse and sincerity beseech them that they would be mindfull of their duty to God and man and of the discharge of their trust to God and man I believe these Gentlemen that are many of them here can tell that we had at the least ten or twelve meetings most humbly begging and beseeching them that of their own accords they would do those good things that had been promised that so it might appear they did not do them by any suggestion from the Army but of their own ingenuity so tender were we to preserve them in the reputation and opinion of the people to the uttermost And having had many of those meetings and declaring plainly that the issue would be the judgment displeasure of God against them the dissatisfaction of the People and the putting things into a confusion Yet how little we did prevaile we well know and we believe is not unknown to you at the last when we saw indeed that things would not be laid to heart we had a serious consideration amongst our selves what other way to have recourse unto And when indeed we came to those close considerations they began to take the Act of the new Representative to heart and seemed exceeding willing to put it on the which had it been done or would it have been done with that integrity with that caution that would have saved this Cause and the Interest we have been so long ingaged in there could nothing have happened to our judgments more welcome then that would have bin but finding plainly that the intendment of it was not to give the people that Right of Choise althought it had been but aseding right either the seeming to give the people that Choice intended and designed to recrute the House the better to perpetuat themselves And truly having divers of us spoken to to that end that we should give way to it a thing to which we had a perpetuall aversation which we did abominate the thoughts of we alwayes declared our judgements against it and our dissatisfaction but yet they would not hear of a Representative before it lay three years before them without proceeding with one line considerably in it they that could not endure to hear of it then when we came to our close considerations then instead of protracting they did make as much preposterous hast of the other hand and ran into that extremity and finding that this spirit was not accoridng to God and that the whol weight of this Cause which must needs have been very dear unto us who have so often adventured our lives for it and we believe is so to you when we saw plainly that there was not so much consideration how to assert it or to provide security for it and indeed to crosse these that they reckoned the most troublesome people they had to deal with which was the Army which by this time was sufficiently their displeasure when we saw this truly that had power in our hands to let the busines go to such an issue as this was to throw back the cause into the hands of them we

first fought with we came to this first conclusion amongst our selves that if we had bin fought out of it necessity would have taught us patience but to be taken from us so unworthily we should be rendered the worst people in the world and we should become traytors both to God and man and when God had laid this to our hearts and that we found the interest of his people was grown cheap and not laid to heart and if we came to competition of things the cause even among themselves would even almost in every thing go to the ground this did adde more consideration to us that there was a duty incumbent upon us and truly I speak it in the presence of some that are here that were at the close consultations I may say as before the Lord the thinking of an act of violence was to us worse than any Engagement that ever we were in yet and worse to us than the utmost hazard of our lives that could be so unwilling were we so tender were we so desirous were we if it were possible that these men might have quit their places with honur And truly this I am the longer upon because it hath been in our hearts and consciences our Justification and hath never yet been imparted thorow to the Nation and we had rather begin with you to do it than to have done it before and do think indeed that these transactions be more proper for a verball communication than to have put it into writing I doubt whosoever had put it on would have been tempted to have dipt his pen in anger and wrath but affairs being at this posture that we saw plainly and evidently in some Criticall things that the Cause of the people of God was a despised thing truly then we did believe that the hands of other men must be the hands that must be trusted with it and then we thought high time for us to look about us and to be sensible of our duty If I should take up your time to tell you what instances we have to satissie our Judgements and Consciences that these were most vain imaginations and things that were petitioned for but that fell within the compasse of our certain knowledge and sence should I repeat these things to you I should do that which I would avoid to rake into these things too much onely this if any body were in competition for any place of reall and finall Trust how hard and difficult a thing it were to get any thing to be carried without making parties without things indeed unworthy of a Parliament And when things must be carried so in a Supream Authority indeed I think it is not as it ought to be but when it came to other Trialls in that Case of Wales which I must confesse for my own part I set my self upon if I should inform what discountenance that businesse of the poore people of God there had who had watchings over them men like so many wolves ready to catch the Lamb assoon as it was brought out into the world how signally they threw that businesse under foot to the discountenancing of the honest people there and to the countenancing of the malignant party of this Common-wealth I need but say it was so many have felt by sad experience it was so who will better impart that businesse to you which for my self and fellow officers I think it was as perfect triall of their spirits as any thing it being known to many of us that God kindles a seed there indeed hardly to be paralel'd since the Primitive times I would this had been all the instances but finding which way their spirits went and finding that good was never intended to the people of God I mean when I say so that large comprehension of them under the severall forms of godlinesse in this Nation when I saw that tendernesse was forgotten to them all though it was very true that by their hands and means through the blessing of God they sate where they did and affrayes not to speak it boastingly had been instrumentally brought to that issue they were brought to by the hands of those poore creatures we thought this an evil requitall I will not say they were at the uttermost pitch of Reformation although I could say that one thing the regulation of the Law so much groaned under in that posture it now is in there was many words spoken for it we know many moneths together was not time enough to passe over one word called Incumbrances I say finding that this was the spirit and complexion of them that though these were faults for which no man should have dared to lift his hand simply for their faults and failings when yet we saw their Intendment was to perpetuate themselves and men of this spirit for some had it from their own mouths from their own designs who could not endure to hear of being dissolved this was an high breach of Trust if they had bin a Parliament never violated sitting as free and as clear as ever any sat in England yet if they would go about to perpetuate themselves we did think this to be so high a breach of Trust as greater could not be and we did not go by guesse in this and to be out of doubt in it we did having that conference among our selves whereof we gave accompt we did desire once more the night before the dissolution and it had been in our desires some two or three dayes before that we might speak with some of the principal persons of the House that we might with enuity open our hears to them to the end we might be either convinced of the ground of their principles and intentions to the good of the Nation or if we could not be convinced they would heare our offer or expedient to prevent this mischeif and indeed we could not prevail for two or three dayes till the night before the dissolution there is a touch of this in that our Declaration we had often desired it at that time we attained there were above twenty of them who were members not of the least consideration for interest and ability with whom we desired to discourse those things had discourse with them it pleased the Gentlemen Officers of the Army to desire me to offer their sence to them and indeed it was shortly carried thus we told them that the reason of our desire to wait upon them was that we might know from them what security lay in the way of their proceedings so hastily with their Representative wherein they had made a few qualifications such as they were and how the whole businesse should be executed we have no accompt of and we desired them they would be pleased and we thought we had an interest in our lives estates and families as well as the worst people of the Nation and that we might be bold to ask satisfaction in that and if they did proceed in honest wayes as