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reign, to whom they did all owe, and had sworn allegiance. The parliament is the great council, and hath acted all and more against their lord and sovereign than the other did against Christ. The proceedings against our sovereign were more illegal, and in many things more cruel. The true religion delivered unto us in scripture, and professed in the true, ancient, and catholic church, doth teach us to honour and obey the king, as God's minister set over us; and that the injuries of kings, though ever so great, are to be endured by their subjects, who have no other remedy, and are to use no other arms against their king, than to pray unto God for him, who hath the hearts of kings in his hand, and may turn them when he thinks fit.” M'Auley, vol. iv. p. 426. Such was the language, not only of a simple minister of the gospel, but of a prelate!! Let us be no longer surprised at the hypocrisy of Charles on the scaffold, and not wonder that Charles II. proved so unconstitutional in his government when he had such ghostly advisers; but Englishmen would not exchange their privileges for the political divinity of prelates, and banished a family that acted upon it. Lord Digby writes thus to Ormonde: "From the creation to the accursed day of this damnable murder, nothing parallel to it was ever heard of. Even crucifying our blessed Saviour, if we consider him only in his human nature, did nothing equal this, his kingdom not being of this world; and he, though unjustly condemned, yet judged at a lawful tribunal." Carte's Orinonde, vol. iii. p. 667. Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 211. Comparisons of Charles's sufferings with those of Christ were widely circulated. Milton's Prose Works, Def. Sec. pro Pop. Ang. p. 241, 242.

We have already said a little about the research of Noble, and here we shall give an instance of it: He, in his account of Harrison, Lives of the Regicides, refers to Worsley's History of the Isle of Wight, and says, that the narrative of Charles's sufferings in Hurst castle, as given by Worsley, from an authentic manuscript, would melt any heart but that of a stern republican. Now, in the first place, Worsley relates chiefly what occured at Newport, and breaks off his account of the king when he was carried out of the island. In the second place, the authentic manuscript is no other than Colonel Cooke's Memoirs, which, says Worsley, were published shortly after the restoration, but have since become scarce, and therefore he referred to the manuscript copy in the British Museum. The fact is, however, that they were republished along with Herbert's Memoirs, to which, Worsley particularly refers, and it is inexcusable in No

Cooke

ble not to have been particularly acquainted with them. had been one of Cromwell's officers, but was gained over by Charles, and his narrative is so disingenuous, that it is directly contradicted by the monarch's own correspondence. Worsley is extremely incorrect in his narrative, as may be ascertained by comparing it with Herbert's Memoirs, to which he refers as his authority for great part of his statement.

230

CHAP. XII.

State of

England, &c.

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State of England.-Settlement of the Commonwealth.-
A High Court of Justice constituted for the Trial of
the Duke of Hamilton, as Earl of Cambridge, and the
Earls of Norwich, &c.—Irish Affairs, and the Ex-
ploits of Cromwell there, &c.-State of Scotland.-The
Expedition and Death of Montrose.-English Affairs.
-Arrival of Charles II. in Scotland, and War between
the two Nations.-Fairfax declines the Command of the
Army destined against Scotland, and Cromwell appoint-
ed General.-Cromwell's Expedition into Scotland.-
Battle of Dunbar.-Subsequent Measures of the Cove-
nanters, and their Expedition into England.-Battle of
Worcester.-The King's Escape.-Exploits of the Navy;
Character of Blake.-The Dutch War.-State of Par-
ties.-Dissolution of the Parliament, and Usurpation
of Cromwell.

THE death of Charles produced the greatest sensation, not only throughout every part of the British empire, but of all Christendom; and the royalist party tried to sound the tocsin amongst all princes, clergy, and privileged orders, as an example of rebellion in subjects which they were

bound out of self-interest to avenge; the monarchs being told that they ought to regard the blood of the English king as if it had flowed from their own veins. It is extraordinary, however, that the last act of the English parliament against that unfortunate prince, while it excited alarm, also inspired awe and respect. Far from joining in a league for the conquest of England in favour of Charles II., these monarchs, as we are told by Clarendon, who would have ridden on the neck of his country at the head of foreign troops, shared in the spoil of that infatuated prince's private property *. His furniture, plate, and paintings, were exposed to sale; and Cardinal Mazarin, as head of the French government, and Christina of Sweden, both great admirers of the English, and particularly of Cromwell, were extensive purchasers of those sumptuous articles. The presbyterian party, throughout the British empire, or rather their clergy and leaders, though they would have reduced the crown to a total dependency on

Clar. vol. iv. p. 263. This author says, that "so many miraculous circumstances contributed to his ruin, that men might well think that heaven and earth conspired it. Though he was, from the first declension of his power, so much betrayed by his own servants, that there were very few who remained faithful to him, yet that treachery proceeded not always from any treasonable purpose to do him any harm, but from particular and personal animosities against other men,” p. 258. Yet, forsooth, a woman in the middling ranks at the Hague, being with child, fell into travel with horror at the mention of the king's death, and died; and all about Charles II. were bereft of their understandings, p. 275.

themselves, and even avowed that it might be transferred to another head, while many justified the execution, though they detested the instru ments by whom it was accomplished, were now loud in expressions of abhorrence against the obnoxious party who had blasted all their hopes, and, instead of giving them the spiritual dominion, which imported also the civil, allowed a general liberty of conscience, fatal to the prospects and pretensions of an aspiring priesthood *. Equally with the royalists they declaimed against the king's death, and predicted general anarchy and confusion from allowing men to worship their Creator in the manner most reconcileable to their own consciences. The event, however, proved that the liberty of conscience so decried, was no less politic than charitable, and conformable to true Christian piety. A learned and pious ministry

They are well lashed by Milton in his tenure of kings and magistrates. By the way, had the late Dr. Watson seen this tract in Symmons' edition of Milton's Prose Works, vol. ii., it would have saved him from a very great error, and prevented an injurious attack on Milton, in regard to Luther and other reformers,-an attack which proves that the right reverend prelate had never looked into the works which he pretended to be so fully master of. For, as my very learned and very worthy friend Dr. M'Crie justly observes, the works are fairly quoted by Milton. But the whole passage in this tract, as published by himself, had been expunged in the various collections of his prose works, till it was restored by Symmons, vol. ii. p. 271. 304. By the way, I do not know how the prelate could reconcile his philippic with the revolution settlement. For the passage of the Bishop of Landaff just referred to, see his sermon preached before the house of lords, 30th Jan. 1795.

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