persons that at any time raise a Power in opposition to the present Governors as these very persons found by experience during their short rule Aristotle and his adherents are much cried down by our modern natural Philosophers for making privation a principle but certainly these men made it the most considerable principle in their politicks for they could not effect any thing fully but demolition and destruction They never set up any thing in the way of Government that was new but it was in a short time disliked and overthrown And indeed it could not be otherwise since the greedy Monster of their faction could not subsist but by devouring whatsoever was most precious in the Land and since the opportunity to do so could not be had but by frequent changes of Government so the rapacity of this brood of Harpies caused the destruction of so many fair Buildings whereof the raising had been so costly the suppression of Bishops with their Hierarchy and the sale of their Lands and I may even say felling of the Royal Oak it self with prostitution of the publick Revenue and Ornaments to sale and the same cause would infallibly have produced the ruine of both Universities with demolition of the Colledges and alienation of their Lands and many other destructions of that nature so as to have deprived the Nation of all excellence in the way of beauty and splendor That this was done the Power once raised is not strange but how so great a part of the people nay even of that remainder of Parliament should be drawn to consent to it carrieth much wonder and certainly there was much art used to win their consent to so great a devastation The Historical part of this business being too heavy a burden for my shoulders I shall only for the satisfaction of some friends set down in writing my observations of the carriage of that business at Westminster where I was then resident as a Member of the House of Commons wherein perhaps there may be found some particulars not so obvious to others and in that respect likely to be omitted In matters Political it is seldom found that events depend upon causes necessarily producing them and when they do there must be some great imperfection in the original constitution of a State as writers in Politicks affirm of Civil War arising in an Oligarchy by reason of many dependences upon great persons possest of the Sovereign power whose private and differing interests distract the forces of such Commonwealths but this cannot be our case who live in an extraordinary well-tempered Monarchy where the perfect constitution is sufficiently proved by an esflux of very much time without the least appearance of any visible defect We must therefore search out other causes It cannot be doubted that there is a Divine Providence which ordereth and governeth all things but as this is above us and altogether out of our sight so we must rather submit chearfully than make any inquisition about it As for second causes in disturbance of States none can justifie an armed opposition by Subjects against their Sovereign and unless there be some plausible title to the Supreme power there is seldom any that become considerable but discontents upon conceit of misgovernment and in this case the justness of discontent is not so dangerous as the generality of it and in that respect designs grounded upon right reason and with certainty of publick advantage if effected are yet well laid aside when liable to a general misconstruction in the way either of danger or oppression Never Parliament was assembled when the people were in a higher discontent than at this time such a general diffidence there was as they thought themselves sure of nothing The encrease of Ceremonies had made them fear the approach of a Religion hateful to them The late business of Ship-money together with some other impositions without consent of Parliament caused them to apprehend the loss of property in their estates and they had little hope of redress by Parliament because his then Majesty had been so unhappy as to be put upon a sudden dissolution of all Parliaments formerly by him called There wanted not persons ill-disposed and seditious to trumpet these things in the ears of the generality whereby they incensed them so far as thereby they found means to raise a power against their Sovereign which how it was done and by what degrees and how improved is the chief intent of our business to set forth At the time of assembling this unhappy Parliament there were two armies on foot in England whereof one was that of the Scots and another consisting of English-men to oppose them if occasion were and the King to remove all jealousie of a wilful continuance of the war by engaging them to a fresh hostility had made the Earl of Holland a person then standing gracious with the Parliament and People General of the English army The persons who knew themselves faulty in holding intelligence with the Scots were then so apprehensive of a complete agreement between his Majesty and Them and of their being won to a compliance with him in all things as the Earl of Holland in a private Letter to Mr. Pym writ somewhat to this effect That the sky was horridly black in those Northern parts and that all things there seemed as tending to an universal judgment The Earl being then General could not intend this other than a private advertisement but Mr. Pym finding the publication of it a sit means to encrease the general apprehensions presently imparted that Letter to the House of Commons and from thence the substance of it was divulged over all the City of London This served to keep the people in a heat and jealousie concerning the Kings intentions but that fear proved vain for the pacification was effected wholly by interposition of the English-Commissioners who were persons approved of by the Parliament as to that employment But this business of satisfying the Scots and of disbanding of the Armies requiring vast summs of money there were were great Taxes laid upon the people by Act of Parliament which money was not likely to be levied in much time and therefore there needed a present supply by the City of London who as was pretended would not part with their money lest a dissolution of the Parliament should come before payment thereupon the King was pressed to pass the Act of Continuance whereby the Parliament could not be dissolved but by their own consent This Act had the Royal assent and gave to the Crown the greatest blow that it had yet received for so the King established against himself a Power which he could not extinguish This pacification being free from all secret agreements with the Scots gave a great strength and confidence to our Cinistones or kindlers of Sedition for though the Presbyterian discipline was now again consimed as to Scotland yet it was impossible that the Scots could think themselves secure to hold it
as it drew on a treaty at Caris-brook Castle in the Isle of Wight where the King had his forced residence called the personal treaty because none were admitted to be present at the debate but the King his self and the Commissioners of Parliament It is true that the King might retire at any time into another room to advise with Divines and others being persons of his own choice but they were not admitted to be present with him for assistance in the debate There were terms of very great disadvantage yet the King carried himself even to admiration of the Commissioners I remember that it hapned after the report had been made in the House of Commons as we passed through Westminster-hall that one of us was speaking of his Majesties great abilities in the hearing of one of our Grandees who turning his face to him who spake used these words perceive you take notice of the King 's great abilities and you may thence conclude with your self that you have the more cause to take heed of him which speech I could not but find very strange as if it were dangerous to a Nation to be governed by a Prince of parts extraordinary But this treaty had the like issue with others though the unsatisfactoriness of the King's concessions could not be voted in the House as it was then constituted which caused a new purgation of it by the army Before this personal treaty the Parliament for a long time was enforced to take for payment whatsoever reasons the army Officers were pleased to tender for their justification but in the year 1647. the army was grown to that insolence as the Presbiterian party in Parliament thought it unsufferable and thereupon they took heart and having made some resolute votes sent a Committy of both Houses to the City of London to ingage them in an opposition to the army together with the Parliament but there was then as great a Schisme or rent in the City as in the Parliament and the Borough of Southwork siding wholly with the army it was impossible for the City to stand out against it so as that ill grounded opposition fell wholly to ground and the Speakers of both Houses who easily foresaw the issue and together with many other Members had made an escape to the army returned triumphantly to Westminster and the army with much greater triumph marched in body quite through London and by means of this opposition became more eminently powerful than ever And thus the great City of London was made to stoop and it may be observed in this business taking it wholly from the beginning to its happy conclusion that all other persons and parties which had been much cryed up for eminent power were brought low as the great favorites in Church and State the Scottish armies the Houses of Parliament and the Royal Soveraign his self whom it pleased God to humble even unto violent death as it was with his and our Blessed Saviour And as for this triumphant army with its brave and politick Commanders Divine Providence reserved it and them to an utter dissolution as to that great power wherewith they so afflicted the world which came upon them at last though with leaden feet And to shew unto those insolent Commanders of the army the unstableness of their condition it pleased God before this personal treaty that there was a strong design laid to draw on a total change of affairs by insurrections in divers Counties and a fresh coming in of the Scots who now began to understand themselvs better Yet as is usual in matters wherein several and distant parties undertake together these could not hold time one with another so as some were overthrown before others appeared to stir But as preparatory to these troubles the Parliament by a just judgment of God as a return for their own miscarriage in the same kind was much disquieted with tumultuating Petitioners from Surrey Kent and other Counties who carried themselves with such violence as some of the Petitioners lost their lives by the guard which attended in the new Palace-yard the loss of these persons was so ill resented abroad as Kent suddenly arose in a great body for the King and had Essex held time with them it might have somewhat distracted the army but Essex men stayd till the Kentish strength was broken at Maidstone and then began to stir whereupon the remainder of Kentish men crossed the Thames and came into Essex where not being able to resist a complete army the whole party of both Counties was constrained to retire into Colchester town and was there besieged by General Fairesax and enforced to surrender for want of provisions About the same time the Earl of Holland made a party and took arms on the other side of London but finding no assistance from the Countrey he retired Northwards after some damage received and being pursued by forces sent by the army his party was routed at St. Neots in Huntington shire and he his self there taken prisoner Neither had the Scots under Duke Hamilton any better success for Cromwel having gathered together a competent force fell upon them in their quarters when they had scarcely heard of him and he cannot be said to have routed them for they were never suffered to gather themselves into a body so as all that great army fell to nothing without making the least opposition in any considerable number and in the pursuit the Duke their General was also taken prisoner Now the army having once more cleared the coast had good leisure to fall into mutiny again but it was against the Parliament and not against their Officers who made use of the common Soldiers to demand Justice as they called it against the King and for whatsoever else they the Officers had in their desires and for this they found out a new and unheard of way giving the Soldiers leave to chuse agitators being substitutes receiving denomination from agitating their businesses which then consisted only in medling with affairs concerning the publick These persons were busie-headed fellows pointed out by the Officers but elected by the Soldiery and held their assemblies wherein they questioned all parts of the Government and proposed what new models they thought fit This made the people in general almost mad fearing that all would fall into absolute confusion but the army Officers meant no such thing as parting at this time with their old Masters who had not yet done all their work and who would be governed as they knew by experience which perhaps a new and more numerous representive body would not have endured and therefore they resolved only upon the seclusion of all those Members whom they had found to be principled opposite to their interest and so having had good trial upon our great debate concerning the personal Treaty and time to make a Catalogue of such persons names as they intended to seclude during one days adjournment made by the House after having
deprivation instead of a withdrawing By this means and by the absence of those Lords who withdrew themselves to serve his Majesty the House of Peers was grown so empty as their Authority became little considerable which was not much regarded by our Leaders in the House of Commons who in likelihood had at that time a resolution to dissolve that House as it came to pass afterwards As great assertors of priviledge of Parliament as that House of Commons pretended to be yet they cared not how far they encroached upon the Lords nor how they violated their priviledges as may appear by a message delivered at their Bar near the beginning of the Parliament which was to this effect That the Commons found in that House so great an obstruction of matters tending to the good of the Common-wealth as they desired their Lordships to make known the names of such Lords as were the causes of it that they might be dealt with as enemies to the State So as in those days the House of Commons might properly use the French proverbial saying Je n'ayme pas le bruit si je ne le faits I love no noise but what I make my self But their own House began to be almost as much cried out upon for paucity of Members and for this they had provided a remedy sufficient by the new great Seal and there was little danger of bringing in evil Members for no writ of election could be issued but by Warrant from the Speaker and consent of the House who would not grant it for places where the people were known to be disaffected to the Parliament By this means the House became pretty well filled and many of the new Members were Officers of the Army who had been so used to command as at the last they found a way to command even the House it self Besides this the new Great Seal enabled the Parliament to constitute Judges and to set up again the Courts at Common Law as also to make what Justices of the Peace they thought sit whereof there was very great want in the Parliament Quarters till then so as now there were complete judicial proceedings both Criminal and Civil which gave great satisfaction to the people and would have deserved high applause but that all men knew this convenience to be raised upon a most unjust and insolent foundation Before this recruiting of the House of Commons as it was then called the Military affairs of Parliament were much advanced for by the help and countenance of the Scottish Army his Majesties strength in the North was so broken as the Parliament had first besieged Newark and then the City of York but both these Towns were very bravely relieved by Prince Rupert and could that Prince have been contented with the honour of having effected his business in the dissolution of those sieges it had been happy but he as a Souldier knew what a fear usually is attendant upon Armies in a retreat having been forced to forsake a siege and thereupon he gave the Parliament Forces Battel at Marston-Moor and was defeated wholly yet with such a confusion on both parts as six Generals present in that sight were said to take wing at the same time conceiving their party to be utterly overthrown whereof General Lesly of the Scottish was one This set the Parliaments reputation very high in point of strength and gave opportunity to our Caballists of abating or rather dissolving Essex his power who as they conceived and perhaps grounding their conceit upon his Letter for propositions to his Majesty in which Letter he also exprest much care that the Royal person might be preserved in safety had no mind to an utter overthrow of the Regal Authority So as when the Armies were withdrawn into their Winter-quarters our grand Politicians set themselves upon the effecting of this great work which must have influence as well upon Essex his chief adherents as upon himself The manner of this critical business was thus It was affirmed in the House of Commons as impossible that the War could be brought to an end by an Army that had totally lost its discipline whereupon it was moved and assented to that a Committy should be nominated for examination of corruptions and abuses in the Army This Committy sate many days and was very full of employment till at last a Report was called for Then arose up Mr. Tate the Chair-man with a great bundle of papers in his hand being a very great Presbyterian and little suspecting that his business would become the ruine of his party as it did in conclusion He appeared unwilling to make the Report but being pressed to do it he desired that the House would first give him leave to speak a few words And then he uttered his parable concerning a man much troubled with Botches and Boiles in several parts of his body who had recourse to a Physician for cure his Doctor told him that he could give him plaisters to cure any part of his body so disaffected but that whatsoever was healed in one member would break out again in another for the whole habit of his body was corrupted and that if he would have perfect health he must procure for himself a better habit of body by much purgation with a new diet and so the Ulcers would be healed of themselves This saith Mr. Tate is so applicable to the business in hand as I hope the House will find no need of a Report and yet upon command I am ready to make it Hereupon other Members who had prepared themselves spake against the Report and said that abroad out of doors all our ill successes were imputed to the absence of Members from Parliament and then a motion was made that there might be a self-denying Ordinance by which all the Members of either House might be deprived of other employments that diverted them from their service in Parliament This was very hard of digestion to many Members who had profitable Offices yet for publick satisfaction and for better reforming of the Army it was consented to that there should be such an Ordinance which was afterwards brought in and passed both Houses By this means Essex Denbigh Manchester Grey of Groby Sir William Waller Haselrig Brereton Cromwell and divers others were deprived of Command though the last was never intended to suffer by this Ordinance as it appeared afterwards But notwithstanding all this Essex had not surrendred his Commission and therefore something must be done to shew him a perfect necessity So the House of Commons proceeded in nomination of Collonels for their new Army whereof Sir Thomas Fairfax was one and at last he was Voted to be General of it He was a person eminent for valour vaillant comme son espée fearless as his sword but of a temper more flexible than Essex and very many others which pleased Cromwell who meant to be the chief Steersman Not long after this Essex finding himself imperatorem sine exercitu