# The Works of Thomas Carlyle/Volume 6/Army Manifesto

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Our next entirely authentic Letter is at six-months distance: a hiatus not unfrequent in this Series; but here most especially to be regretted; such a crisis in the affairs of Oliver and of England transacting itself in the interim. The Quarrel between City and Army, which we here see begun; the split of the Parliament into two clearly hostile Parties of Presbyterians and Independents, represented by City and Army; the deadly wrestle of these two Parties, with victory to the latter, and the former flung on its back, and its ‘Eleven Members’ sent beyond Seas: all this transacts itself in the interim, without autograph note or indisputably authentic utterance of Oliver’s to elucidate it for us. We part with him labouring to get the Officers sent down to Saffron Walden; sorrowful on the Spring Fast-day in Covent Garden: we find him again at Putney in Autumn; the insulted Party now dominant, and he the most important man in it. One Paper which I find among the many published on that occasion, and judge pretty confidently, by internal evidence, to be of his writing, is here introduced; and there is no other that I know of.
​How this Quarrel between City and Army, no agreement with the King being for the present possible, went on waxing; developing itself more and more visibly into a Quarrel between Presbyterianism and Independency; attracting to the respective sides of it the two great Parties in Parliament and in England generally: all this the reader must endeavour to imagine for himself,—very dimly, as matters yet stand. In books, in Narratives old or new, he will find little satisfaction in regard to it. The old Narratives, written all by baffled enemies of Cromwell, are full of mere blind rage, distraction and darkness; the new Narratives, believing only in ‘Macchiavelism,’ etc. disfigure the matter still more. Common History, old and new, represents Cromwell as having underhand,—in a most skilful and indeed prophetic manner,—fomented or originated all this commotion of the elements; steered his way through it by ‘hypocrisy,’ by ‘master-strokes of duplicity,’ and suchlike. As is the habit hitherto of History.
‘The fact is,’ says a Manuscript already cited from, ‘poor History, contemporaneous and subsequent, has treated this matter in a very sad way. Mistakes, misdates; exaggerations, unveracities, distractions; all manner of misseeings aud misnotings in regard to it, abound. How many grave historical statements still circulate in the world, accredited by Bishop Burnet and the like, which on examination you will find melt away into after-dinner rumours,—gathered from ancient red-nosed Presbyterian gentlemen, Harbottle Grimston and Company, sitting over claret under a Blessed Restoration, and talking to the loosely recipient Bishop in a very loose way! Statements generally with some grain of harmless truth, misinterpreted by those red-nosed honourable persons; frothed-up into huge bulk by the loquacious Bishop above mentioned, and so set floating on Time’s Stream. Not very lovely to us, they, nor the red-noses they proceeded from! I do not cite them here; I have examined most of them; found ​not one of them fairly believable;—wondered to see how already in one generation, earnest Puritanism being hung on the gallows or thrown out in St. Margaret’s Churchyard, the whole History of it had grown mythical, and men were ready to swallow all manner of nonsense concerning it. Ask for dates, ask for proofs: Who saw it, heard it; when was it, where? A misdate, of itself, will do much. So accurate a man as Mr. Godwin, generally very accurate in such matters, makes “a master-stroke of duplicity” merely by mistake of dating: the thing when Oliver did say it, was a credible truth, and no master-stroke or stroke of any kind!
‘“Master-strokes of duplicity”; “false protestations”; “fomenting of the Army discontents”: alas, alas! It was not Cromwell that raised these discontents; not he, but the elemental Powers! Neither was it, I think, “by masterstrokes of duplicity” that Cromwell steered himself victoriously across such a devouring chaos; no, but by continuances of noble manful simplicity, I rather think,—by meaning one thing before God, and meaning the same before men, not as a weak but as a strong man does. By conscientious resolution; by sagacity, and silent wariness and promptitude; by religious valour and veracity,—which, however it may fare with foxes, are really, after all, the grand source of clearness for a man in this world!’———We here close our Manuscript.
Modern readers ought to believe that there was a real impulse of heavenly Faith at work in this Controversy; that on both sides, more especially on the Army’s side, here lay the central element of all; modifying all other elements and passions;—that this Controversy was, in several respects, very different from the common wrestling of Greek with Greek for what are called ‘Political objects’!—Modern readers, mindful of the French Revolution, will perhaps compare these Presbyterians and Independents to the Gironde and the Mountain. And there is an analogy; yet with differences. With a great difference in the situations; with the difference, too, between ​Englishmen and Frenchmen, which is always considerable; and then with the difference between believers in Jesus Christ and believers in Jean Jacques, which is still more considerable!
A few dates, and chief summits of events, are all that can be indicated here, to make our ‘Manifesto’ legible.
From the beginnings of this year 1647 and earlier, there had often been question as to what should be done with the Army. The expense of such an Army, between twenty and thirty thousand men, was great; the need of it, Royalism being now subdued, seemed small; besides, it was known that there were many in it who ‘had never taken the Covenant,’ and were never likely to take it. This latter point, at a time when Heresy seemed rising like a hydra, and the Spiritualism of England was developing itself in really strange ways, became very important too,—became gradually most of all important, and the soul of the whole Controversy.
Early in March, after much debating, it had been got settled that there should be Twelve-thousand men employed in Ireland, which was now in sad need of soldiers. ‘The rest were, in some good way, to be disbanded. The ‘way,’ however, and whether it might really be a good way, gave rise to considerations.—Without entering into a sea of troubles, we may state here in general that the things this Army demanded were strictly their just right: Arrears of pay, ‘three-and-forty weeks’ of hard-earned pay; indemnity for acts done in War; and clear discharge according to contract, not service in Ireland except under known Commanders and conditions,—‘our old Commanders,’ for example. It is also apparent that the Presbyterian party in Parliament, the leaders of whom were, several of them, Colonels of the Old Model, did not love this victorious Army; that indeed they disliked and grew to hate it, useful as it had been to them. Denzil Holles, Sir William Waller, Harley, Stapleton, these men, all strong for ​Presbyterianism, were old unsuccessful Colonels or Generals under Essex; and for very obvious reasons looked askance on this Army, and wished to be, so soon as possible, rid of it. The first rumour of a demur or desire on the part of the Army, rumour of some Petition to Fairfax by his Officers as to the ‘way’ of their disbanding, was by these Old Military Parliament-men very angrily repressed; nay, in a moment of fervour, they proceeded to decree that whoever had, or might have, a hand in promoting such Petition in the Army was an ‘Enemy to the State, and a Disturber of the Public Peace’,—and sent forth the same in a ‘Declaration of the 30th of March,’ which became very celebrated afterwards. This unlucky ‘Declaration,’ Waller says, was due to Holles, who smuggled it one evening through a thin House. ‘Enemies to the State, Disturbers of the Peace’: it was a severe and too proud rebuke; felt to be unjust, and looked upon as ‘a blot of ignominy’; not to be forgotten, nor easily forgiven, by the parties it was addressed to. So stood matters at the end of March.
At the end of April they stand somewhat thus. Two Parliament Deputations, Sir William Waller at the head of them, have been at Saffron Walden, producing no agreement: five dignitaries of the Army, ‘Lieutenant-General Hammond, Colonel Hammond, Lieutenant-Colonel Pride,’ and two others, have been summoned to the bar; some subalterns given into custody; Ireton himself ‘ordered to be examined’;—and no ‘satisfaction to the just desires of the Army’; on the contrary, the ‘blot of ignominy’ fixed deeper on it than before. We can conceive a universal sorrow and anger, and all manner of dim schemes and consultations going on at Saffron Walden and the other Army-quarters, in those days. Here is a scene from Whitlocke, worth looking at, which takes place in the Honourable House itself; date 80th April 1647:
​‘Debate upon the Petition and Vindication of the Army. Major-General Skippon, in the House, produced a Letter presented to him the day before by some Troopers, in behalf of Eight Regiments of the Army of Horse. Wherein they expressed some reasons, Why they could not engage in the service of Ireland under the present Conduct,’ under the proposed Commandership, by Skippon and Massey; ‘and complained, Of the many scandals and false suggestions which were of late raised against the Army and their proceedings; That they were taken as enemies; That they saw designs upon them, and upon many of the Godly Party in the Kingdom; That they could not engage for Ireland till they were satisfied in their expectations, and their just desires granted.—Three Troopers, Edward Sexby, William Allen, Thomas Sheppard, who brought this Letter, were examined in the House, touching the drawing and subscribing of it; and, Whether their Officers were engaged in it or not? They affirmed, That it was drawn up at a Rendezvous of several of those Eight Regiments; and afterwards at several meetings by Agents or Agitators, for each Regiment; and that few of their Officers knew or took notice of it.
‘Those Troopers being demanded, Whether they had not been Cavaliers?—it was attested by Skippon, that they had constantly served the Parliament, and some of them from the beginning of the War. Being asked concerning the meaning of some expressions in the Petition,’ especially concerning “certain men aiming at a Sovereignty,”—‘they answered, That the Letter being a joint act of those Regiments they could not give a punctual answer, being only Agents; but if they might have the queries in writing, they would send or carry them to those Regiments, and return their own and their answers.—They were ordered to attend the House upon summons.’
Three sturdy fellows, fit for management of business; let the reader note them. They are ‘Agents’ to the Army: a class of functionaries called likewise ‘Adjutators’ and mis-​spelt ‘Agitators’; elected by the common men of the Army, to keep the ranks in unison with the Officers in the present crisis of their affairs. ‘This is their first distinct appearance in the eye of History; in which, during these months, they play a great part. Evidently the settlement with the Army will be a harder task than was supposed.
During these same months some languid negotiation with the King is going on; Scots Commissioners come up to help in treating with him; but as he will not hear of Covenant or Presbytery, there can no result follow. It was an ugly aggravation of the blot of ignominy which the Army smarts under,—the report raised against it. ‘That some of the Leaders had said, ‘If the King would come to them, they would put the crown on his head again.’—Cromwell, from his place in Parliament, earnestly watches these occurrences; waits what the great ‘birth of Providence’ in them may be;—‘carries himself with much wariness’; is more and more looked up to by the Independent Party, for his interest with the Soldiers. One day, noticing the ‘high carriages’ of Holles and Company, he whispers Edmund Ludlow who sat by him, ‘These men will never leave till the Army pull them out by the ears’! Holles and Company, who at present rule in Parliament, pass a New Militia Ordinance for London; put the Armed Force of London into hands more strictly Presbyterian. There have been two London Petitions against the Army, and two London Petitions covertly in favour of it; the Managers of the latter, we observe, have been put in prison.
May 8th. A new and more promising Deputation, Cromwell at the the head of it. ‘Cromwell, Ireton, Fleetwood, Skippon,’ proceed again to Saffron Walden; investigate the claims and grievances of the Army: engage, as they had authority to do, that real justice shall be done them; and in ​a fortnight return with what seems an agreement and settlement; for which Lieutenant-General Cromwell receives the thanks of the House. The House votes what if conceives to be justice, ‘eight weeks of pay’ in ready-money, bonds for the rest,—and so forth. Congratulations hereupon; a Committee of Lords and Commons are ordered to go down to Saffron Walden, to see the Army disbanded.
May 28th. On arriving at Saffron Walden, they find that their notions of what is justice, and the Army’s notions, differ widely. ‘Eight weeks of pay,’ say the Army; ‘we want nearer eight times eight!’ Disturbances in several of the quarters:—at Oxford the men seize the disbanding-money as part of payment, and will not disband till they get the whole. A meeting of Adjutators, by authority of Fairfax, convenes at Bury St. Edmund’s,—a regular Parliament of soldiers, ‘each common man paying fourpence to meet the expense’; it is agreed that the Army’s quarters shall be ‘contracted,’ brought closer together; that on Friday next, 4th of June, there shall be a Rendezvous, or General Assembly of all the Soldiers, there to decide on what they will do.
June 4th and 5th. The Newmarket Rendezvous, ‘on Kentford Heath,’ a little east of Newmarket, is held; a kind of Covenant is entered into, and other important things are done:—but elsewhere in the interim a thing still more important had been done. On Wednesday June 2d, Cornet Joyce,—once a London tailor, they say, evidently a very handy active man,—he and Five-hundred common troopers, a volunteer Party, not expressly commanded by anybody, but doing what they know the whole Army wishes to be done, sally out of Oxford, where things are still somewhat disturbed; proceed to Holmby House; and, after two days of talking, bring ‘the King’s Person’ off with them. To the horror and despair of the Parliament Commissioners in attendance there ; but clearly to the satisfaction of his Majesty,—who hopes, in this new shuffle-and-deal, some good card will turn-up for him; ​hopes, with some ground, ‘the Presbyterians and Independents may now be got to extirpate one another.’ His Majesty rides willingly; the Parliament Commissioners accompany, wringing their hands:—to Hinchinbrook, that same Friday night; where Colonel Montague receives them with all hospitality, entertains them for two days. Colonel Whalley with a strong party, deputed by Fairfax, had met his Majesty; offered to deliver him from Joyce, back to Holmby and the Parliament; but his Majesty positively declined.—Captain Titus, quasi Tighthose, very well known afterwards, arrives at St. Stephen’s with the news; has 50l. voted him ‘to buy a horse,’ for his great service; and fills all men with terror and amazement. The Honourable Houses agree to ‘sit on the Lord’s day’; have Stephen Marshall to pray for them; never were in such a plight before. The Controversy, at this point, has risen from Economical into Political: Army Parliament in the Eastern Counties against Civil Parliament in Westminster; and, ‘How the Nation shall be settled’ between them; whether its growth shall be in the forest-tree fashion, or in the clipt Dutch-dragon fashion?—
Monday June 7th. All Officers in the House are ordered forthwith to go down to their regiments. Cromwell, without order, not without danger of detention, say some, has already gone: this same day, ‘General Fairfax, Lieutenant-General Cromwell, and the chief men of the Army,’ have an interview with the King, ‘at Childerley House, between Huntingdon and Cambridge’; his Majesty will not go back to Holmby; much prefers ‘the air’ of these parts, the air of Newmarket for instance; and will continue with the Army. Parliament Commissioners, with new Votes of Parliament, are coming down; the Army must have a new Rendezvous, to meet them. New Rendezvous at Royston, more properly on Triploe Heath near Cambridge, is appointed for Thursday; and in the interim a ‘Day of Fasting and Humiliation’ is held by all the soldiers,—a real Day of Prayer (very inconceivable in ​these days), For God’s enlightenment as to what should now be done.
Here is Whitlocke’s account of the celebrated Rendezvous itself,—somewhat abridged from Rushworth, and dim enough; wherein, however, by good eyes a strange old Historical Scene may be discerned. The new Votes of Parliament do not appear still to meet ‘the just desires’ of the Army; meanwhile let all things be done decently and in order.
‘The General had ordered a Rendezvous at Royston’; properly on Triploe Heath, as we said; on Thursday 10th June 1647: the Force assembled was about Twenty-one thousand men, the remarkablest Army that ever wore steel in this world. ‘The General and the Commissioners rode to each Regiment. They first acquainted the General’s Regiment with the Votes of the Parliament; and Skippon,’ one of the Commissioners, ‘spake to them to persuade a compliance. An Officer of the Regiment made answer that the Regiment did desire that their answer might be returned after perusal of the Votes by some select Officers and Agitators, whom the Regiment had chosen; and said, This was the motion of the Regiment.
‘He desired the General and Commissioners to give him leave to ask the whole Regiment if this was their answer. Leave being given, they cried “All.” Then he put the question, If any man were of a contrary opinion he should say, No;—and not one man gave his “No.”—The Agitators, in behalf of the soldiers, pressed to have the question put at once, Whether the Regiment did acquiesce and were satisfied with the votes?’ The Agitators knew well what the answer would have been!—‘But in regard the other way was more orderly, and they might after perusal proceed more deliberately, that question was laid aside.
‘The like was done in the other Regiments; and all were very unanimous; and always after the Commissioners had done reading the Votes, and speaking to each Regiment, and had received their answer, all of them cried out, “Justice, Justice!”’—not a very musical sound to the Commissioners.
​‘A Petition was delivered in the field to the General, in the name of “many well-affected people in Essex”; desiring, That the Army might not be disbanded; in regard the Commonwealth had many enemies, who watched for such an occasion to destroy the good people.’
Such, and still dimmer, is the jotting of dull authentic Bulstrode,—drowning in official oil, and somnolent natural pedantry and fat, one of the remarkablest scenes our History ever had: An Armed Parliament, extra-official, yet not without a kind of sacredness, and an Oliver Cromwell at the head of it; demanding with one voice, as deep as ever spake in England, ‘ Justice, Justice!’ under the vault of Heaven.
That same afternoon, the Army moved on to St. Albans, nearer to London; and from the Rendezvous itself, a joint Letter was despatched to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, which the reader is now at last to see. I judge it, pretty confidently, by evidence of style alone, to be of Cromwell’s own writing. It differs totally in this respect from any other of those multitudinous Army-Papers; which were understood, says Whitlocke, to be drawn up mostly by Ireton, ‘who had a subtle working brain’; or by Lambert, who also had got some tincture of Law and other learning, and did not want for brain. They are very able Papers, though now very dull ones. This is in a far different style; in Oliver’s worst style; his style when he writes in haste,—and not in haste of the pen merely, for that seems always to have been a most rapid business with him; but in haste before the matter had matured itself for him, and the real kernels of it got parted from the husks. A style of composition like the structure of a block of oak-root,—as tortuous, unwedgeable, and as strong! Read attentively, this Letter can be understood, can be believed : the tone of it, the ‘voice’ of it, reminds us of what Sir Philip Warwick heard; the voice of a man risen justly into a kind of chant,—very dangerous for the City of London at present.
‘TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAYOR, ALDERMEN, AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LONDON: THESE
‘Royston, 10th June 1647.
‘Right Honourable and Worthy Friends,—Having, by our Letters and other Addresses presented by our General to the Honourable House of Commons, endeavoured to give satisfaction of the clearness of our just Demands; and “having” also, in Papers published by us, remonstrated the grounds of our proceedings in prosecution thereof;—all of which being published in print, we are confident “they” have come to your hands, and received at least a charitable construction from you.
‘The sum of all these our Desires as Soldiers is no other than this: Satisfaction to our undoubted Claims as Soldiers; and reparation upon those who have, to the utmost, improved all opportunities and advantages, by false suggestions, misrepresentations and otherwise, for the destruction of this Army with a perpetual blot of ignominy upon it. Which “injury” we should not value, if it singly concerned our own particular “persons”; being ready to deny ourselves in this, as we have done in other cases, for the Kingdom’s good: but under this pretence, we find, no less is involved than the overthrow of the privileges both of Parliament and People;—and that rather than they shall fail in their designs, or we receive what in the eyes of all good men is “our” just right, the Kingdom is endeavoured to be engaged in a new War. “In a new War,” and this singly by those who, when the truth of these things shall be made to appear, will be found to be the authors of those “said” evils that are feared;—and who have no other way to protect themselves from question and punishment but by putting the Kingdom into blood, under the pretence of their honour of and their love to the ​Parliament. As if that were dearer to them than to us; or as if they had given greater proof of their faithfulness to it than we.
‘But we perceive that, under these veils and pretences, they seek to interest in their design the City of London:—as if that City ought to make good their miscarriages, and should prefer a few self-seeking men before the welfare of the Public. And indeed we have found these men so active to accomplish their designs, and to have such apt instruments for their turn in that City, that we have cause to suspect they may engage many therein upon mistakes,—which are easily swallowed, in times of such prejudice against them that have given (we may speak it without vanity) the most public testimony of their good affections to the Public, and to that City in particular.
‘“As” for the thing we insist upon as Englishmen,—and surely our being Soldiers hath not stript us of that interest, although our malicious enemies would have it so,—we desire a Settlement of the Peace of the Kingdom and of the Liberties of the Subject, according to the Votes and Declarations of Parliament, which, before we took arms, were, by the Parliament, used as arguments and inducements to invite us and divers of our dear friends out; some of whom have lost their lives in this War. Which being now, by God’s blessing, finished,—we think we have as much right to demand, and desire to see, a happy Settlement, as we have to our money and “to” the other common interests of Soldiers which we have insisted upon. We find also the ingenuous and honest People, in almost all parts of the Kingdom where we come, full of the sense of ruin and misery if the Army should be disbanded before the Peace of the Kingdom, and those other things before mentioned. have a full and perfect Settlement.
‘We have said before, and profess it now, We desire no alteration of the Civil Government. As little do we desire ​to interrupt, or in the least to intermeddle with, the settling of the Presbyterial Government. Nor did we seek to open a way for licentious liberty, under pretence of obtaining ease for tender consciences. We profess, as ever in these things, When once the State has made a Settlement, we have nothing to say but to submit or suffer. Only we could wish that every good citizen, and every man who walks peaceably in a blameless conversation, and is beneficial to the Commonwealth, might have liberty and encouragement; this being according to the true policy of all States, and even to justice itself.
‘These in brief are our Desires, and the things for which we stand; beyond which we shall not go. And for the obtaining of these things, we are drawing near your City; professing sincerely from our hearts, “That” we intend not evil towards you; declaring, with all confidence and assurance, That if you appear not against us in these our just desires, to assist that wicked Party which would embroil us and the Kingdom, neither we nor our Soldiers shall give you the least offence. We come not to do any act to prejudice the being of Parliaments, or to the hurt of this “Parliament” in order to the present Settlement of the Kingdom. We seek the good of all. And we shall wait here, or remove to a farther distance to abide there, if once we be assured that a speedy Settlement of things is in hand,—until it be accomplished. Which done, we shall be most ready, either all of us, or so many of the Army as the Parliament shall think fit,—to disband, or to go for Ireland.
‘And although you may suppose that a rich City may seem an enticing bait to poor hungry Soldiers to venture far to gain the wealth thereof,—yet, if not provoked by you, we do profess, Rather than any such evil should fall out, the soldiers shall make their way through our blood to effect it. And we can say this for most of them, for your better assurance, That they so little value their pay, in comparison of ​higher concernments to a Public Good, that rather than they will be unrighted in the matter of their honesty and integrity (which hath suffered by the Men they aim at and desire justice upon), or want the settlement of the Kingdom’s Peace, and their “own” and their fellow-subjects’ Liberties,—they will lose all. Which may be a strong assurance to you that it’s not your wealth they seek, but the things tending in common to your and their welfare. That they may attain “these,” you shall do like Fellow-Subjects and Brethren if you solicit the Parliament for them, on their behalf.
‘If after all this, you, or a considerable part of you, be seduced to take up arms in opposition to, or hindrance of, these our just undertakings,—we hope we have, by this brotherly premonition, to the sincerity of which we call God to witness, freed ourselves from all that ruin which may befall that great and populous City; having thereby washed our hands thereof. We rest, your affectionate Friends to serve you,
* ‘Thomas Fairfax.
* Oliver Cromwell.
* Robert Hammond.
* Thomas Hammond.
* Hardress Waller.
* Nathaniel Rich.
* Thomas Pride.
* Henry Ireton.
* Robert Lilburn.
* John Desborow.
* Thomas Rainsborow.
* John Lambert.
* Thomas Harrison.’
This Letter was read next day in the Commons House,— not without emotion. Most respectful answer went from the Guildhall, ‘in three coaches with the due number of outriders.’
On June 16th, the Army, still at St. Albans, accuses of treason Eleven Members of the Commons House by name, as chief authors of all these troubles; whom the Honourable House is respectfully required to put upon their Trial, and prevent from voting in the interim. These are the famed ​Eleven Members; Holles, Waller, Stapleton, Massey are known to us; the whole List, for benefit of historical readers, we subjoin in a Note. They demurred; withdrew; again returned; in fine, had to ‘ask leave to retire for six months,’ on account of their health, we suppose. They retired swiftly in the end; to France; to deep concealment,—to the Tower otherwise.
The history of these six weeks, till they did retire and the Army had its way, we must request the reader to imagine for himself. Long able Papers, drawn by men of subtle brain and strong sincere heart: the Army retiring always to a safe distance when their Demands are agreed to; straightway advancing if otherwise,—which rapidly produces an agreement. A most remarkable Negotiation; conducted with a method, a gravity and decorous regularity beyond example in such cases. The ‘shops’ of London were more than once ‘shut’; tremor occupying all hearts:—but no harm was done. The Parliament regularly paid the Army; the Army lay coiled round London and the Parliament, now advancing, now receding; saying in the most respectful emblematic way, ‘Settlement with us and the Godly People, or———!’—The King, still with the Army, and treated like a King, endeavoured to play his game, ‘in meetings at Woburn’ and elsewhere; but the two Parties could not be brought to extirpate one another for his benefit.
Towards the end of July, matters seemed as good as settled: the Holles ‘ Declaration,’ that ‘blot of ignominy,’ being now expunged from the Journals; the Eleven being out; and now at last, the New Militia Ordinance for London (Presbyterian ​Ordinance brought in by Holles on the 4th of May) being revoked, and matters in that quarter set on their old footing again. The two parties in Parliament seem pretty equal in numbers; the Presbyterian Party, shorn of its Eleven, is cowed down to the due pitch; and there is now prospect of fair treatment for all the Godly Interest, and such a Settlement with his Majesty as may be the best for that. Towards the end of July, however, London City, torn by factions, but Presbyterian by the great majority, rallies again in a very extraordinary way. Take these glimpses from contemporaneous Whitlocke; and rouse them from their fat somnolency a little.
July 26th. Many young men and Apprentices of London came to the House in a most rude and tumultuous manner; and presented some particular Desires. Desires, That the Eleven may come back; that the Presbyterian Militia Ordinance be not revoked,—that the Revocation of it be revoked. Desire, in short, That there be no peace made with Sectaries, but that the London Militia may have a fair chance to fight them!—Drowsy Whitlocke continues; almost as if he were in Paris in the eighteenth century: ‘The Apprentices, and many other rude boys and mean fellows among them, came into the House of Commons; and kept the Door open and their hats on; and called out as they stood, “Vote, Vote!” and in this arrogant posture stood till the votes passed in that way, To repeal the Ordinance for change of the Militia, to’ etc. ‘In the evening about seven o’clock, some of the Common Council came down to the House’—but finding the Parliament and Speaker already had been forced, they, astute Common-Council men, ordered their Apprentices to go home again, the work they had set them upon being now finished. This disastrous scene fell out on Monday 26th July 1647: the Houses, on the morrow morning, without farther sitting, adjourned till Friday next.
On Friday next,———behold, the Two Speakers, ‘with the ​Mace,’ and many Members of both Houses, have withdrawn; and the Army, lately at Bedford, is on quick march towards London! Alarming pause. ‘About noon,’ however, the Remainders of the Two Houses, reinforced by the Eleven who reappear for the last time, proceed to elect new Speakers, ‘get the City Mace’; order, above all, that there be a vigorous enlistment of forces under General Massey, General Poyntz, and others. ‘St. James’s Fields’ were most busy all Saturday, all Monday; shops all shut; drums beating in all quarters; a most vigorous enlistment going on. Presbyterianism will die with harness on its back. Alas, news come that the Amny is at Colnebrook, advancing towards Hounslow; news come that they have rendezvoused at Hounslow, and received the Speakers and fugitive Lords and Commons with shouts. Tuesday 8d August 1647 was such a day as London and the Guildhall never saw before or since! Southwark declares that it will not fight; sends to Fairfax for Peace and a ‘sweet composure’; comes to the Guildhall in great crowds petitioning for Peace;—at which sight, General Poyntz, pressing through for orders about his enlistments, loses his last drop of human patience; ‘draws his sword’ on the whining multitudes, ‘slashes several persons, whereof some died.’ The game is nearly up. Look into the old Guildhall on that old Tuesday night; the palpitation, tremulous expectation; wooden Gog and Magog themselves almost sweating cold with terror:
‘General Massey sent out scouts to Brentford: but Ten men of the Army beat Thirty of his; and took a flag from a Party of the City. The City Militia and Common Council sat late; and a great number of people attended at Guildhall. When a scout came in and brought news, That the Army made a halt; or other good intelligence,—they cry, “One and all!” But if the scouts reported that the Army was advancing nearer them, then they would cry as loud, “Treat, treat, treat!” So they spent most part of the night. At last they resolved to send the General an humble ​Letter, beseeching him that there might be a way of composure.’
On Friday morning was ‘a meeting at the Earl of Holland’s House in Kensington’ (the Holland House that yet stands), and prostrate submission by the Civic Authorities and Parliamentary Remainders; after which the Army marched ‘three deep by Hyde Park’ into the heart of the City, ‘with boughs of laurel in their hats’;—and it was all ended. Fair treatment for all the Honest Party: and the Spiritualism of England shall not be forced to grow in the Presbyterian fashion, however it may grow. Here is another entry from somnolent Bulstrode. The Army soon changes its headquarters to Putney; one of its outer posts is Hampton Court, where his Majesty, obstinate still, but somewhat despondent now of getting the two Parties to extirpate one another, is lodged.
Saturday ‘September 18th. After a Sermon in Putney Church, the General, many great Officers, Field-Officers, inferior Officers and Adjutators, met in the Church; debated the Proposals of the Army’ towards a Settlement of this bleeding Nation; ‘altered some things in them;—and were very full of the Sermon, which had been preached by Mr. Peters.’
* ↑ Holles’s Memoirs; Waller’s Vindication of his Character; Clement Walker’s History of Independency; etc. etc.
* ↑ Godwin, ii. 300,—citing Walker, p. 31 (should be p. 33).
* ↑ See Edwards’s Gangræna (London, 1646) for many furious details of it.
* ↑ 6th March, Commons Journals, v. 107.
* ↑ Waller, pp. 42-85.
* ↑ Commons Journals, v. 129 (29th March 1647).
* ↑ Whitlocke, p. 249; Commons Journals, in die; and a fuller account in Rushworth, vi. 474. The ‘Letter,’ immediately referred to, is in Cary’s Memorials (Selections from the Tanner mss,; London, 1842), i. 201.
* ↑ Ludlow, i. 189; see Whitlocke, p. 252.
* ↑ 4th May 1647, Commons Journals, v, 160:—‘Thirty-one Persons,’ their names given.
* ↑ Letters from them, in Appendix, No. 10.
* ↑ May 21st, Commons Journals, v. 181.
* ↑ Rushworth, pp. 496-510.
* ↑ Rushworth, vi. 549.
* ↑ Whitlocke, p. 255.
* ↑ The Presbyterian leaders in Parliament, Holles, Stapleton, Harley, Waller, etc.
* ↑ Oblique for ‘us.’
* ↑ That is the remarkable point!
* ↑ Rushworth, vi. 554.
* ↑ Commons Journals, v. 208.
* ↑ Denzil Holles (Member for Dorchester), Sir Philip Stapleton (Boroughbridge), Sir William Waller (Andover), Sir William Lewis (Petersfield), Sir John Clotworthy (Malden), Recorder Glynn (Westminster), Mr. Anthony Nichols (Bodmin); these Seven are old Members, from the beginning of the Parliament;—the other Four are ‘recruiters,’ elected since 1645: Major-General Massey (Wootton-Basset), Colonel Walter Long (Ludgershall), Colonel Edward Harley (Herefordshire), Sir John Maynard (Lostwithiel).
* ↑ Asterisks still in the place of it, Commons Journals, 29th March 1647.
* ↑ Whitlocke, p. 263.
* ↑ Whitlocke, p. 265.
* ↑ 28th August, Rushworth, vii. 791.
* ↑ Whitlocke, p. 272.