mean time the King tells them in the House of Lords the Commons present What had intervened in the War and what else He judged necessary to be done and presses them to supply Means whereby the Rebels might speedily be driven Home again whereunto He also would contribute His Endeavours assuring them further That that being done they should find him most ready to remove all their Grievances But they did not in any kind comply with the King's Desires but seeming displeased with his calling the Scots Rebels resolved not to send them Home with whom they had long since conspired before they had acquired every thing that they judged necessary for the Support of their designed Usurpation With this assurance the Commons purge their House of such as they thought might oppose their Designs and to shew themselves good Patriots entertained such Petitions Preludes to the ensuing Rebellion as they themselves had for the most part framed inveighing against Grievances from several Parts of the Kingdom and omitting entirely what they were assembled for imputed all the Misfortunes and Errors of the Government obliquely to the King through the Sides of his Counsellors and Servants And yet they will seemingly flatter him under pretence of inspecting his Revenue which they pretended much to desire promising not only to augment and settle it but to make his Majesty one of the Richest Princes in Christendom In the mean time to try his Patience and their own Power with the People they ordered Pryn Burton and Bastwick to be released out of Prison Who in defiance of Justice and the King's Authority made a pompous Entry into London attended with many Thousands of pretended Zealots And now they encourage and receive Petitions against the Hierarchy of the Church resolving indeed to change both the Government thereof and also of the State by drawing the Supreme Power by little and little into their own Hands Daring in order to it not only to slight but to question the Lawfulness of the Royal Authority it self But the King's Friends and such who were addicted to Monarchy were to be removed out of both Houses which they endeavour by Threats by Tumults and by affixing their Names upon Posts and in time effected For several of the Nobles and many of the Lower House since they could not Vote with Liberty absented thence altogether whilst they who stay'd being either enslaved to the Faction or unequal to them in Numbers durst say nothing The Lord Keeper and Secretary Windebank with divers others withdrew themselves into Holland and France The Bishops were Imprisoned and Ejected against Magna Charta and the immemorial Custom of past Ages which allowed them a Legislative Power before Parliaments were Instituted The Judges also who had Voted Ship-Money to be Legal were themselves voted Guilty of Treason whilst the weight of their Indignation fell upon the Earl of Strafford who by the Instigation of the Scots was to be taken away The Earl was then in the North having been advertised by his Friends in the House as also by his own Reason of the Danger and therefore advised not to appear in Parliament as knowing the Hatred and Envy both That and the Scots bare against him Who if he kept himself out of their Sight and Reach might perhaps be forgot or at least being less prosecuted make a secure retreat into Ireland which was at his Devotion or beyond Sea till better Times But he relying upon his own Innocence and unwilling to seem Guilty by a Retreat and the King being unwilling to Part with a Person whose Counsel he should want in his most abstruse Affairs came up to London Yet so armed that he had himself designed to Impeach some of his Chief Enemies being sufficiently provided with Matter for an Accusation But they were too nimble for him The Tryal of the E. of Strafford for he had scarce taken his Seat in the House of Lords but he was accused by the Commons of High-Treason And yet there were some Motions made in order to his Preservation in Case the King would consent to advance some of the Grandees of the Faction to the great Offices of the Crown But That being delayed or denied did so incense the Disappointed that joining with the Scots they became more implacable against him The Articles against this Great Man were Twenty-eight in Number whereof the chief were That he had Subverted the Fundamental Laws of the Land Introduced a Despotick Power into the Kingdom and endeavoured to destroy the Ancient Privileges of Parliament To these Sir Henry Vane's Memorials were produced wherein the Opinions of Strafford and some others given in Private to the King were set down which as they added Weight to the Accusation so they added Infamy and Infidelity to the Secretary which he could not clear himself of by pretending his Son had stollen his Notes out of his Closet But nothing of these were lawfully proved although they had invited Witnesses and Accusers out of Ireland too prone of their own accord to destroy this Great Man that he being removed they might attempt that Rebellion which they had long designed For refuting the Arguments produced against him the Faction began to conceive that if they did not destroy him they should hazard their own Reputation especially seeing the King had declared in an Excellent Speech to the Two Houses That he could not apprehend him Guilty and that it was very probable that the Lords would also acquit him Being therefore incensed against him they resolved to destroy him Voting him by a Special Bill of Attainder Guilty of High-Treason for that he had endeavoured to infringe the Laws and had by accumulative Crimes rend'red himself more than sufficiently obnoxious thereby making themselves his Accusers and Judges And thus he was Condemned by a New Law made since his Transgressions For Crimes not yet perpetrated Not for the Ill he had already committed but that he had enabled himself to do what he pleased But they wisely cautioned that this should not be made a President whereby they might secure themselves against that Retribution of Injustice which they had used towards him By this they plainly acknowledged the Injuriousness of their Sentence for had it been otherwise He is Condemned what harm could there have been in the Example Whilst they were thus employed the Tumults without fomented by the Chief of the Conspiracy raged horribly especially against their Dissenting Colleagues whereof Fifty-nine had their Names posted up for Straffordians that is Publick Enemies that thereby they might be exposed to the Madness of the Rabble Though in truth they deserved to have their Names inserted in Gold for daring so generously to assert oppressed Innocence Of these the Lord Digby was one who had been as severe as any in the Prosecution of the Earl till convinced of his Error by the Lustre of the others Vertue he generously recanted whereby he lost himself in the Opinion of the Faction particularly by that
as appears by his Concessions And now the Hopes of Peace and a Happy Accommodation seemed at â—and which had also been effected if the Parliament had not wretchedly lost too much time in frivolous disputations of no weight Whereby it appeared as formerly at Vxbridge that they never designed that this Treaty should take any effect nor that they would be satisfied with Part who had already devoured the Whole in their thoughts The Army who seemed to acquiesce in the Pleasure of their Superiors whilst engaged in War did dare now the Royallists being every where supprest changing their Principles with their Success plainly to dissent And to declare openly to the whole World That nothing would satisfy but the Destruction of the King and the Subversion of Monarchy In order hereunto a fierce Petition was presented from the City against the Treaty which was also seconded from Oxfordshire New-Castle York c. and in particular Ireton's Regiment insisted upon the same demanding That the same fault may have the same punishment in the Person of King or Lord as in the Person of the meanest Commoner A Prelude to the designed Regicide They had formerly designed the Murther of the King by the Ministry of that Villain Rolfe as is already mentioned but now fierce with their Victories they will themselves destroy him To this purpose they emit a Remonstrance The Armies Remonstrance execrable as it's Authors Cromwell and Ireton which was presented to the Commons House by Col. Eure and Seven other Scelerates like himself In this they furiously declaim against the Restitution of the King or any Accomodation with him requiring That he as the Capital Enemy should be brought to judgment That the Prince and Duke of York should be summoned in by a day That the Parliament should constitute a Government for the future and fixing a Period to their own Session should take care for Annual or Biennial Parliaments and the like stuff which they offered in their own Names and as the Agreement of the People They were grown now to that insolence that their modest General writ to the Committee of the Army for Money or he should be forced to receive that is take it out of the Collectors and the Receivers hands where he could find it if speedy course be not taken to supply him Which however high it appeared or unbeseeming in the General was connived at And now again the Army declare That they can see in the Majority of those trusted with the Affairs of the Kingdom nothing less than a treacherous or corrupt Neglect of and Apostacy from the publick Trust reposed in them and therefore they appeal from them to God and the People In order to this the Army marches towards the City and in contempt of the Parliament's Order who commanded their stay advance sending a Declaration before them wherein They accuse the Members of Folly of Infidelity and Inconstancy threatning They would come to Westminster where they would further act as God should inspire them And thus the Parliament after successes above their desires are agitated and tormented with the Mutinies of their own Army They had indeed declared the seditious and mutinying Souldiers Enemies but now by a desponding Compliance they Vote them their Pay and the Officers their Arrears and also that the Declaration against the Army be rased out of the Journal of the House They further as also the Citizens of London and the Counties began to make all their â—pplications to the General especially Cromwell â—nd the Army The Parliament seemed now â—eglected whilst the Army triumph and all Men are affraid of doing any thing that may â—isplease them The King hurried to Hurst Castle During these traverses and the Treaty at Newport not yet finished the King by command from Fairfax was by Col. Eure hurried to Hurst-Castle a place Infamous for Cold and the Insalubrity of the Air. At parting from the Isle the Parliament-Commissioners coming to take their leave of him he gave them his Answer unsealed and having acquainted them with the Condition of the Times he told them He had parted with All how dear soever to him except wherein his Conscience was dissatisfied And finally added That he had reason to believe that this would be the last time of their enterview But that blessed be God he had made his Peace with him and should without fear undergo what he should be pleased to suffer Men to do unto him As for them they could not but know that in his fall and ruin they saw their own and that also near to them He prayed God to send them better friends than he had found He was fully informed of the whole Plot and Carriage against him and his But that nothing so much afflicted him as the sense and feeling he had of the Sufferings of his Subjects and the Miseries that hung over his Three Kingdoms drawn upon them by those who upon pretences of good violently pursue their own Interests and Ends. Fairfax by so much the more wicked in that he witlesly acted for others brought the Army equally Rebels to the Parliament now as they had been to the King before to London and in Contempt of the Treaty impudently took up his Quarters at White Hall And yet the pretended Parliament that had hitherto rejected as well the King's Concessions as his Demands in contemplation of the Armies Insolence The Parliament Vote his Concessions satisfactory voted His Majesty's Answer to the Propositions of both Houses to be Satisfactory But this was too late for theâ—e double Rebels were so furiously enraged thereat that they immediately demanded by writing from the Parliament That the late accused Members and such other who favoured the Scots the King or the Personal Treaty should be excluded the Houses Nor were they pleased to stay for an Answer but besetting the Senate they seize upon One and Forty of them whom they imprison and seclude a Hundred and Sixty more leaving none to sit but such who were mancipated to Cromwell and the Faction The Common-Council was purged with the same Ingredients from the Army the vacancies being supplied with Plebeian fanaticks whereof any Forty should be a Quorum and Superior to the Mayor These petitioning with the same fury against the King as the Agitators had done involved the City in the Guilt of the Regicide as well as the Rebellion The Government being thus changed from one Tyranny to another the Supream Power which the Presbyterians had so long hunted for was surprized by the Independants Who to shew their Authority dissannul whatever the Presbyterians had voted concerning the Treaty or their secluded Colleagues And some time after divers of the Lords how degenerate did so far compliment Fairfax upon his Proceedings that they let him know They would wave their Titles and Priviledges in case they should be judged burthen-some to the Common-wealth or the Peoples Liberties Things being thus disposed and the Obstacles that might hinder their
them as St. Johns and others were for imposing Conditions upon the King for they no more doubted of his Restitution that might restrain him from acting beyond their pleasure But His Majesty's Rights and Prerogatives were inviolablely restored to him by the Prudence and noble Endeavours of Monk This enraged the Regicides to that height that they began now to condemn their own Precipitation and Folly accusing themselves of Madness in that that they did persecute Lambert so rashly and unseasonably to their own Destruction They now call to mind how ridiculously they had rejected the King's Gracious Letters presented them by Nevil who had accidentally received them wherein they were assured of Indignity for all their monstrous Crimes and Treasons if they yet at length would return to their Duty They therefore like Men in Despair agitated by the Flagitiousness of their Guilt resolved to vindicate their Crimes by attempting greater and to try the Matter once more by the Sword Nor was it long before an occasion presented it self Lambert who had been imprisoned in the Tower because he had refused to give bail for his good Behaviour had escaped thence and appear'd armed about Northampton Some Sectaries and several disbanded Souldiers repaired to him all the Fanaticks of the Army being upon the Wing till stay'd with the News of his Defeat This Sedition was extinguish'd in its Birth And Lambert being taken by Ingolsby without a Blow hâ—s Party was easily dispersed whilst he was returned into a more safe Custody in the Tower During this Interval of Parliaments the Council of State administer'd Affairs with much Prudence and Courage and putting out a Proclomation against all Disturbers of the Peace easily restrained the Seditious Minds of the most dissenting Monk also purging his Army by the Casheering of Fanaticks and living more familiarly with his Officers than usual reconciled the most fierce amongst them to an Acquiescence in the Resolves of the future Parliament The Disturbers of our Peace being thus suppressed or quieted the Loyal Party as if indued with new Spirits put on more chearful Countenances and shaking off their Fears with their Shackles appeared more eminently conspicuous But being traduced by their Adversaries as thirsting after Revenge and Blood they abundantly demonstrated by their Declaration their own Innocence and the Enemies Malice restifying That they would leave Vengeance to God and Justice to the Disposal of Parliament And now the City of London did also publish a Declaration whereby they endeavoured to clear themselves from the Guilt of the Regicide and Vsurpation as being actuated and oppressed by the Counsels of Despair and Violence Nor will we deny but that they contributed by the like Tumults to the Restitution as they had formerly fomented the War We have hitherto made but little mention of the Particular Actions of our King for we would not intermingle the History of the Best of Princes with that of the most Scelerate of Subjects We shall therefore deliver the Series of his Actions by themselves wherein notwithstanding will appear as Extreams do best shine by Contraries not only the Eminency of his Vertues but the Errors Impieties Rebellions Treasons Slaughters Sacriledges Pride Rapine and Infamy of his Enemies For what Mischief did they not commit and were guilty of After the King 's miraculous Escape from Worcester through a thousand Hazards he at length got safe into France being received at Paris as if sent from Heaven A pregnant Example of the Care of Providence for the Persons of Kings That Monarchy was actuated then with well-nigh the same Spirit of Division which had so lately distracted England the Parisians inveighing against the Errors of the Government and Evil Counsellors pointing particularly at Mazarin with the same Rage and Passion as the Londoners did against Strafford The Princes were grieved that a Stranger should be First Minister of State and would have him therefore removed In order to which they raised an Army obtaining Assistance from Spain that Nation being very officious in helping their Neighbours upon such like Accompts Nor did they find King Lewis unprovided but resolved to oppose them with all his Power King Charles perswaded Lewis and the Princes by his own example to peace but could not prevail tho he carried himself with that Equality that both sides were Jealous of his Conduct For the Princes refused to lay down Arms unless the Cardinal were removed And the King with the Queen-Regent his Mother would not have Laws prescribed to them by their Subjects The Princes had called the Duke of Lorrain to their Aid who also entered France with an Army but returned upon the Interposition of King Charles who had discoursed with him about his undertaking the Protection of Ireland This enraged the Princes against Charles who blamed him much and the Parisians did dare to calumniate and affront him to that Height that he was forced to retire to St. Germains Where he also for the most part continued until a League being made betwixt Cromwell and that Crown which he had opposed in vain he was compelled again to go into Exile out of his very Banishment The Duke of York had thus long served in the Armies of France with such Bravery and Fortitude particularly in the Battle of Estampes that he attracted the Eyes of all Men upon him And his behaviour in General in Court and Camp were so signal that the Duke of Longville would have bestowed his Daughter upon him the greatest Fortune in France And Marshal Turene being very Sick recommended him to his King as the fittest Person in that Great Monarchy to command his Armies But he would not stay in France after the King his Brother though he was offered to be Liuetenant-General of their Forces in Italy but leaving that inhospitable Land accepted the Invitation of Don John the Governour of the Spanish Low-Countries where he largely asserted the Glories of his former Actions The King in his passage to Germany was received at Leige with all imaginable Honour and going thence to the Spaw met his Sister the Princoss of Orange there Very many Persons of Quality as is usual at the Season but in unusal Numbers upon this Occasion were come thither out of the Neighbouring Nations as well to see this Royal Congress as to take the Waters And all of them paid His Majesty as much Reverence and Honour as if he had been their own Natural Prince or would have vyed with us who had the Happiness then to attend him in Duty and Obedience and Veneration for him He was afterwards received at Colen by the Magistrates there which the same Testimonies of good-will and Esteem Where he resolved to fix his Court for some Time as a place delectable and convenient for his Designs A while after he accompanied his Sister in her Return to Holland as far as Dusseldorp where he was magnificently received by the Duke of Newburgh and treated during his Stay with Hunting and other Royal Divertisements Being
That he had resigned what Right he could pretend to it by that very Concession which they urged with so much Violence that forgeting the Rules of Modesty the King was forced to Dissolve them and to punish some of the most Factious of that Seditious Convention But the Causes of these Heats must be further sought In the Reign of Queen Mary a great Number of People withdrew themselves out of England whereof many Some pretended Causes of Sedition infected with the Discipline of Geneva upon Queen Elizabeth's Assumption to the Crown returning brought that uneasie Preciseness with them which suddenly grew to that height by the Carlessness or Pusillanimity of the Magistrates under King James that it did not only insinuate it self under the veil of Piety amongst the People but even into the Court and Parliaments where joining it self to those of Anti-Monarchic Principles it endeavoured to diminish the Prerogative and subject the King to those Necessities which might force him to unusual Ways of supplying them Which also happened for being pressed by the indispensible Exigence of his Affairs and perceiving no hopes of Subsidies from Parliaments he began to have an Aversion for them so Constituted and search for Refuge in his Prerogative And yet he had so much Reverence for the Laws that he would act nothing contrary to them as appears in Ship-Money which Tax however it were imposed to vindicate the Honour of the Sea against Pyrates and our Potent Neighbours he would not exact it till it was adjudged to him by all the Judges of Westminster and that under their Hands But the Common People despising the Moderation of their Prince and instigated by those who desired a Change crying out That their Laws and Liberties were endangered mutinied attributing all the Errors and Misfortunes in the Government for the Undertakings Abroad had not been very successful to his Counsellors that they might transversly smite him and blast his Reputation To this the exuberant Power of the Clergy that pretended Exemption from the Jurisdiction of the Laicks did not please The unusual Introduction of Ceremonies as they cried out and the placing of the Communion-Table at the East-End of the Church with the more severe Imposition of Rites however indifferent except in the Command did trouble them and were the occasion of very great Tumults in many Parishes But nothing did equally move their Choler and Pity as the Punishment of some Seditious Scriblers against Ceremonies and the Bishops their Authors by Incarceration and cutting off their Ears who however Guilty and deserving what the Rigour of Justice could inflict were yet thought to be hardly dealt with considering the serene Tranquillity of those Halcion Days And truly Peace and its Concomitant Plenty flourish'd amongst us to the Envy of our Neighbours continuing to the Fourth Lustre of the King's Reign The Flourishing Condition of the Nation which might have been perpetual being inexpugnable from Abroad if it had not been destroyed by the more than Civil Rage of our Mischievous Dissenters Nothing seemed wanting to our Felicity before it was disturbed by these nefarious Tumults and our People if they could have seen their own Happiness were considering the inexhaustible affluence of all Things the Liberty of Commerce and the free Enjoyment of what they had acquired the happiest of any Subjects under any known Government in the World But our Luxury encreasing with our Abundance we grew wanton and fell into such a Surfeit that nothing but a violent Bleeding could effect a Cure The true Cause of these Evils had its Rise from the noxious Indulgence of our Physicians who neglecting to stifle the Factious Humours of the Puritans in their Infancy gave such force and boldness to this Contagion that it unhappily Infected the whole Body Politick to the Ruine of Hierarchy the best of Spiritual and Monarchy the best of Temporal Governments 'T is scarce conceivable that there were found any in so happy a State that should seem to desire a Change And yet such there were amongst which Who they were who desired a Change the chief Ring-leaders were the Presbyterians who had their Missionaries and Lecturers in all the Quarters of the Kingdom and those swarms of Sectaries their Brood who contended for an equal Liberty in Civil as well as Sacred Things The Catholicks wished for the Dominion of Rome in Spirituals But the Gentry and Lesser Nobility which composed the House of Commons out of Contemplation of their own Greatness whilst they sate there preferred Democracy before all other In the mean time this disguised Impiety grew up under the plausible pretence of Sanctity seducing the Vulgar with a Shew of Religion into a Reverence of it It is not imaginable how far this Sacred Novelty prevailed by the seditious Fury of its Preachers and their uncontrouled railing against the received Rites of the Church and the lawful Power of the King It had bewitch'd the Town the Country and Private Families into an Opinion of it nor were the great Representatives of the Kingdom exempted from its Contagion which the King had abundantly Experimented in all the Parliaments he had summoned For in them the Novellists and Democraticks pretending the Liberty and Defence of Religion against the Designs of the Court and Popery oppressed the Prerogative to advance their own endeavouring to raise the Authority of the People whose Vicegerents they were upon the Ruines of the King To this they branded with the Odious Title of Papists all that opposed them by which means they deceived the People who are still the more addicted to their Superiors by how much they observe them the more Zealous for the Advancement of Religion And truly the depravedness of the Age was so great that whatever was said in behalf of the King and his Ministers against Popery had no Credit but on the contrary whatever was affirmed to perswade the People that the Court did Favour Superstition was greedily swallowed down without any regard to Reasons of State which sometimes obliged to a Compliance with the Desires of Foreign Princes and Embassadors But the true Source of our Miseries came from Scotland this Embryo of Rebellion gathering Strength from Foreigners upon this Occasion The Nobility in the Infancy of King JAMES had by the Connivance of Murrey the Governour The Scots Tumults usurped the Lands and Possessions belonging to the Cathedrals and Monasteries of that Kingdom which they also enjoyed untill King Charles pressed with foreign Wars and but ill supplied from Scotland resolved by the Advice of his Council there to reunite the said Possessions to the Crown again which he did by an Act of Revocation with a Commission of Surrend'ries of Superiorities and Tithes But those Nobles resolved to turn all upside down rather than part with their Usurpations and be deprived of the Vassalage of the Ministers and Land-owners And so conspiring against the King himself designed to oppose his Authority both Sacred and Civil in the next
the Duke of Gloucester the King 's Youngest Brother as least obnoxious to the Wiles of the Enemy by reason of his tender Years but this also displeased and nothing was fixed upon In the mean time several Petitions out of the Counties were presented to Cromwell in which after an Enumeration of his Glorious Actions they earnestly desire That God having given him the Power of the Sword they might be eased of their Grievances by his and his Armies mediation Moved with these Supplications and his own Ambition he ceased not to press the Members singly and collectively to put an End to their odious Domination and permit the Election of a new Representative of Men singular for their Integrity and Holiness of Life to whom the Government might be transferred But these Conscript Fathers bewitcht with the Sweets of Empire turned every Stone to prevent their casheering and being vehemently urged to it promised that they would name a day for the ending of this Session But Cromwell raving with the Thoughts of Supremacy and looking upon every Delay as pernicious rushing into the House of Commons having taxed all with their Crimes pointing at several with his Finger accused some of Adultery some of Drunkenness others of Gluttony and not a few of Robbing the Common wealth And his Officers upon his stamping with his Foot which was the Signal crowding in to him he turned out this Hated Juncto putting a Period to that detestable Convention which had thus long abused the Sacred Name of Parliament And here we ought to adore the unsearchable Judgments of God seeing them who violated the Majesty of their own Lord become Slaves by as just Retribution to their own Servants 'T is scarce credible with what universal Applause this Dissolution was effected not that better Times unless the King were restored durst be hoped for but that People were willing to try every Change rather than longer to bear the Yoke of this odious Domination And thus this perfidious Servant subverted his equally perfidious Superiors and constituting a Council of State which should govern at his beck requires by Proclamation the Subjects Obedience and Submission under great Penalties to their Dictates Many eminent Men have acquired Dominion over their Fellows by Fortitude and Vertue and some by flagitious and detestable Crimes but very few by cheating and perhaps scarce another besides Cromwell who ever invaded and obtained the Supreme Power by Tears and Sighs and Lyes and Pretences of Religion And yet it was with these Arts that this Ambitious Trooper and False Prophet having deceived the Army he commanded being Fanaticks and gained the Independants by Benefits durst attempt what ever Power and Ambition could suggest The Mock-Parliament being turned out the Civil Employments in the Kingdom were by Proclamation confirmed in their Hands that enjoyed them whilst the Souldiery by Sea and Land as also the Armies in Scotland and Ireland did not only approve of this Change by their suffrages but by their congratulatory Addresses too protesting their Obedience to their Generalissimo and his Orders in all Things But Cromwell lest he might seem to arrogate the Supreme Power to himself and thereby offend the Dissenting Brethren and the better to delude the Democraticks with the jugglings of Appearances convened another Assembly by advice of his Officers to the number of one Hundred and Four and Twenty To these being Godly Men and chosen by himself out of the Provinces he devolved the Supreme Power who being Sectaries and Enthusiasticks met at Westminster and usurping the Name of a Parliament as most plausible began to manage the Affairs of the Kingdom But they performed nothing of consequence save that they endeavoured to take away Tythes and alienate the Revenues of the Church as Antichristian They attempted also to abrogate our Laws as Badges of the Norman Conquest imposed to enslave us to suppress our Vniversities and Publick Schools as savouring of Paganism and to annihilate Titles and Nobility as contrary to the Law of Nature and Christianity All which they had also effected if they had not been stopt in their Carreer by a suddain Dissolution Cromwell had many Privado's amongst this mad Rabble who seeing they could do no good with them by tempering their Obstinacy and considering that they acted by a precarious Authority and the Will of another the Speaker being likewise of their Cabal they took their time when many of the other were absent declaring that since no good was to be expected from the Common-wealth so constituted it seemed consonant to reason that the Parliament should be dissolved Which by the Speaker's leaving the Chair was done who marching in the Head of the rest of the Party to White-Hall they surrendered to Cromwell the Authority they had received from him opening thereby a Passage to that Supremacy he so eagerly thirsted after year 1653 Being then by a Decree of the Council of War and Consent of the Army Lambert contributing mainly to it for he also hoped to have his Turn in the Government after the Death of his General chosen Protector he was no less vigilant in conserving his Dignity than he had been industrious in acquiring it But first it was thought fit he should be installed in this New Dignity which was done in great state at Westminster-Hall Dec. 18. where he took an Oath according to the Tenor of an Instrument then presented to him To govern the Nations according to the Laws Statutes and Customs to seek their Peace and cause Justice and Law to be equally administred The Heads of the said Instrument were That the Protector should call a Parliament every Three Years which should sit Five Months That their Bills unless he consented to them in Twenty Days should pass without him That his Council should not exceed One and Twenty nor be under Thirteen who immediately upon his Death should choose another Protector but that no Protector after him should be General of the Army That he should have power to make Peace or War and with his Council make Laws in the intervals of Parliament that should be binding to the Subjects c. His Council for the present seemingly appointed by the Chief Officers but allowed by himself were Fourteen in Number Harrison and some others being disgusted with the Change being lest out tho they had hitherto strenuously but blindly contributed to it But the City not content to have testified their Joy by their Bells and Bonfires invited this New Dictator to a magnificent Feast at Grocers Hall where he Knighted Viner the Mayor but in his Return was saluted with a Brick-bat which light upon his Coach nothing else save a profound Silence accompanying this splendid Cavalcade But Cromwell not taken with Appearances in Order to his Settlement sends his Son Henry to Command in Ireland and General Monk into Scotland securing thereby the Three Kingdoms in his Power At home he discountenances Bradshaw the Regicide with Scot Vane and other Enemies to Monarchy and
not as absolutely refusing it but as desiring time to consider of it For the Rump compell'd all in Office to a Renunciation of the Right and Title of the King By which means they insured them in their Society and insnared them in the same Bond of Rebellion with themselves The Londoners deceived in their Expectations began to Mutiny They will acknowledge no Authority but that of a Free Parliament and make a Decree in their Common Council that for the future they will pay no Taxes nor Imposts whatever to any but by order of such a Convention full and entirely their own Masters The Rump mad with Anger command Monk to march into the City with his Army and order him to beat down the Gates and Portcullises break their Posts and take away their Chains out of the Streets Several also of the Prime Citizens Assertors of Liberty were put in the Tower Sectaries and Fanaticks being introduced into their Vacancies The People were amazed at these Actions of Monk from whom they had hoped better things Whilst he revolving the Odiousness of what he had done however necessitated to it by the pressing Commands of the Juncto and lest he should imprudently spoil what he had so well begun and not ignorant that these Tasks had been imposed upon him as well to try his Obedience as to break the Friendship and Intelligence which was betwixt him and the City resolved to attempt greater Matters To all this he apprehended a Diminution of his Power with the Souldiers which was likewise effected that very Day the Command of the Army being given to a Septemvirate of their own Confidents he being but one of the Number This highly displeased him nor could he endure Co-Equals in Power which the Rump forgetful that it was Lambert's Case had obtruded upon him And who indeed can endure Sharers in that Power he is solely Master of Monk impatient of so sordid an Indignity complains to his Officers of this Mutilation of his Authority who upon consideration of the Matter of Fact did unanimously declare That the Parliament forgetful of them by whose Merit they did reign had designed and resolved to casheer them and by continuing their Session to perpetuate their Tyranny over the most Noble English Nation Upon these Grounds the Army marches into London resolving to joyn Hands with the Citizens now Assertors of the Publick Liberty and declare together with them for a Free Parliament as the only Remedy for so many Evils Being thus united the Souldiers pathetically testified their Resentments and Sorrow for the Injuries and forced Violence done to that Noble City which was put upon them against their Wills This happy Conjunction fill'd the Town and whole Kingdom with so universal a Joy that the People demonstrated their Satisfaction by their Acclamations Feb. 9. ringing of their Bells and infinite Bonfires besides the roasting of all manner of Rumps in Contempt of the present Juncto resounding in these Transports and glad Ecstasies the Name and Fame of the General The Mock-Parliament troubled at this unexpected Change and forseeing their infallible Ruin if Monk persisted omitted no Arts no Allurements Wiles Flatteries Threats Treasons or any other means whereby they might reclaim Monk or destroy him It is affirmed that the Sectaries who could suffer any Lord but their own whom they had so cruelly offended offered him the Protectorate upon condition he would not change Party Which he Prudently as well as Loyally refused considering that tho the Employment was magnificent yet it was very hazardous the stream of the Peoples Inclinations flowing towards their old Government It was reported that Monsieur Bourdeaux the Embassadour of France offered the same but with the same success though he had also offered the Assistance of France for securing of the Dignity Monk had given the juncto who had usurp'd the Power over their Colleagues they themselves being scarce an eight part of the whole a Day by which they were to fill their Vacancies with new Elections Which being omitted by the Fanaticks the Secluded Members having given him satisfaction in several Conferences why they ought to be readmitted were however mainly opposed by the Rumpers and chief of their Conspiracy freely permitted to return to their Duty again The House being encreased by double the Number and at liberty to act began where they had ended in 1648. Voting the Concessions of Charles the Martyr in the Isle of Wight to be satisfactory and declare That what ever had been done by their Vsurping Colleagues since was null and of no effect But these Gentlemen being Presbyterians and consequently tenacious of their old Principles condemned indeed what was done by the Independants but recall'd none of their own Unjust Decrees nor voted any thing at present in favour of the King On the contrary they declare That Charles I. did first raise up Arms against the Parliament They impose again the Solemn League and Covenant the Root of all our Evils and Vote That none who had born Arms against the Parliament should be admitted in the next Elections But withal they make Monk Captain-General of all their Forces vote the Gates Portcullises Posts Chains c. of the City to be set up again at the Publick Charge release Booth and others out of Prison put the Militia of the Kingdom into good Hands and having fixed a day for their Dissolution as they had been obliged by Monk they appointed a Free Parliament to convene in April next These things being done to the Satisfaction of all Men they further constitute a Council of State who should govern during the Interregnum And recommending the Souldiery to Monk's Care and Prudence they dissolve themselves by their own Act and Decree putting an end to that Long and Bloody Parliament which could not be determined but by their own Consent after they had exercised their Tyranny upon their Fellow-Subjects besides the Horrid Murther of their Sovereign the Space of Nineteen Years except Oliver's Quingquennium Richard's short Empire and Lambert's Ten Weeks domineering And thus ended that unhappy Parliament which gave Life and Being to those viperous Factions of Presbytery and Independency by whose violence and impetuous ambition of ruling they did not only destroy the Hierarchy of the Church but Monarchy out of the Common-wealth involving themselves in the Ruin of that Parent that begot them 'T is scarce credible with what excess of joy the People wearied with the continuance of that Black Parliament and freed from the fear of its Refurrection entertained the News of its Dissolution The Fanaticks only and the Dependants of the Hated Juncto who left nothing unattempted for the perpetuating the Session of the Regicides were averse to it To effect which they solicited Petitions out of the City against their Dissolution they tempted the Tribunes and Chief Officers with the usual Charms of Largesses to their Party they caused fictitious Lists of the Militia to be printed And when all would not prevail some of