SPEECH FIRST.

A HUNDRED-AND-FORTY of these Summonses were issued; and of all the Parties so summoned, only two' did not attend. Disconsolate Bulstrode says, Many of this Assembly being persons of fortune and knowledge, it was much wondered at by some that they would at this Summons, and from such hands, take upon them the Supreme Authority of this Nation; considering how little right Cromwell and his Officers had to give it, or those Gentlemen to take it.** My disconsolate friend, it is a sign that Puritan England in general accepts this action of Cromwell and his Officers, and thanks them for it, in such a case of extremity; saying as audibly as the means permitted: Yea, we did wish it so! Rather mournful to the disconsolate official mind!-Lord Clarendon again, writing with much latitude, has characterized this Convention as containing in it 'divers Gentlemen who had estates, and such a proportion of credit' in the world as might give some color to the business, but consisting on the whole of a very miserable beggarly sort of persons, acquainted with nothing but the art of praying; artificers of the meanest trades,' if they even had any trade:-all which the reader shall, if he please, add to the general guano-mountains, and pass on not regarding.

The undeniable fact is, these men were, as Whidсcke intimates, a quite reputable Assembly; got together by anxious consultation of the godly Clergy' and chief Puritan lights in their respective Counties; not without much earnest revision, and solemn consideration in all kinds, on the part of men adequate enough for such a work, and desirous enough to do it well. The List of the Assembly exists;† not yet entirely gone dark for Somers' Tracts, i., 216.

Whitlocke, p. 534.

mankind. A fair proportion of them still recognizable to mankind. Actual Peers one or two: founders of Peerage Families; two or three, which still exist among us,-Colonel Edward Montague, Colonel Charles Howard, Anthony Ashley Cooper. And better than King's Peers, certain Peers of Nature; whom if not the King and his pasteboard Norroys have had the luck to make Peers of, the living heart of England has since raised to the Peerage, and means to keep there,--Colonel Robert Blake the SeaKing, for one. 'Known persons,' I do think; 'of approved integrity, men fearing God;' and perhaps not entirely destitute of sense any one of them! Truly it seems rather a distinguished Parliament, even though Mr. Praisegod Barbone, the Leathermerchant in Fleet-street,' be, as all mortals must admit, a member of it. The fault, I hope, is forgivable? Praisegod, though he deals in leather, and has a name which can be misspelt, one discerns to be the son of pious parents; to be himself a man of piety, of understanding and weight, and even of considerable private capital, my witty flunkey friends! We will leave Praisegod to do the best he can, I think.-And old Francis Rouse is there from Devonshire; once member for Truro; Provost of Eton College; whom by and by they make Speaker; whose Psalms the Northern Kirks still sing. Richard Mayor of Hursley is there, and even idle Dick Norton; Alexander Jaffray of Aberdeen, Laird Swinton of the College of Justice in Edinburgh; Alderman Ireton, brother of the late Lord Deputy, colleague of Praisegod in London. In fact, a real Assembly of the Notables in Puritan England; a Parliament, Parliamentum, or real Speaking-Apparatus for the now dominant Interest in England, as exact as could well be got,-much more exact, I suppose, than any ballot-box, free hustings or ale-barrel election usually yields.

Such is the Assembly called the Little Parliament, and wittily Barebones's Parliament; which meets on the 4th of July. Their witty name survives; but their history is gone all dark; and no man, for the present, has in his head or in his heart the faintest intimation of what they did or what they aimed to do. very dark to us; and will never be illuminated much!

They are

Here is

one glance of them face to face; here in this Speech of Oliver's -if we can read it, and listen along with them to it.

There is

this one glance; and for six generations, we may say, in the English mind there has not been another.

Listening from a distance of two Centuries, across the Death chasms, and howling kingdoms of Decay, it is not easy to catch everything! But let us faithfully do the best we can. Having once packed Dryasdust, and his unedifying cries of "Nonsense! Mere Hypocrisy! Ambitious Dupery!" &c., &c., about his business; closed him safe under hatches, and got silence established, we shall perhaps hear a word or two; have a real glimpse or two of things long vanished; and see for moments this fabulous Barebones's Parliament itself, standing dim in the heart of the extinct centuries, as a recognizable fact, once flesh and blood, now air and memory; not untragical to us!

Read this first, from the old Newspapers; and then the Speech itself, which the laborious Editor has with all industry copied and corrected from Two Contemporaneons Reports by dif ferent hands, and various editions of these. Note, however: The Italic sentences in brackets, most part of which, and yet perhaps not enough of which I have suppressed, are evidently by an altogether modern hand!

July 4th, 1653. This being the day appointed by the Letters of Summons from his Excellency the Lord General, for the meeting of the Persons called to the Supreme Authority, there came about a Hundred-and-twenty of them to the Council-. Chamber in Whitehall. After each person had given in a Ticket of his Name, they all entered the room, and sat down in chairs appointed for them, round about the table. Then his Excellency the Lord General, standing by the window opposite to the middle of the table, and as many of the Officers of the Army as the room could well contain, some on his right hand and others on his left, and about him,-made the following Speech to the Assembly:'

GENTLEMEN,

I

suppose the Summons that hath been instrumental to bring you hither gives you well to understand the occasion of your being here. Howbeit, I have something farther to impart to you, which is an Instrument drawn up by the consent and advice of the principal Officers of the Army; which is a little (as wè conceive) more significant

than the Letter of the Summons. We have that here to tender you, and somewhat likewise to say farther for our own exoneration ;* which we hope may be somewhat farther for your satisfaction. And withal seeing you sit here somewhat uneasily by reason of the scantness of the room, and heat of the weather, I shall contract myself with respect thereunto.

We have not thought it amiss a little to remind you of that Series of Providences wherein the Lord hath appeared, dispensing wonderful things to these Nations from the beginning of our Troubles to this very day.

If I should look much backward, we might remind you of the state of affairs as they were before the short, that is the last, Parliament,—in what posture the things of this Nation then stood: but they do so well, I presume, occur to all your memories and knowledge, that I shall not need to look so far backward. Nor yet to those hostile occasions which arose between the King that was and the Parliament that then followed. And indeed should I begin much later, the things that would fall very necessarily before you, would rather be for a History than for a verbal Discourse at this present.

But thus far we may look back. You very well know, it pleased God, much about the midst of this War, to winnow (if I may so say) the Forces of this Nation ;‡ and to put them into the hands of other men of other principles than those that did engage at the first. By what ways and means that was brought about, would ask more time than is allotted me to mind you of it. Indeed there are Stories that do recite those Transactions, and give you narratives of matters of fact: but those things wherein the life and power of them lay; those strange windings and turnings of Providence; those very great appearances of God, in crossing and thwarting the purposes of men, that He might raise up a poor and contemptible company of men, neither versed in military affairs, nor having much natural propensity to them,' into wonderful success- !' Simply by their owning a Principle of Godliness and Religion; which so soon as it came to be owned, and the state of affairs put upon the foot of that account, how God blessed them, furthering all undertakings, yet using the most improbable and the most contemptible and despicable means (for that we shall ever own): is very well known to you.

* exoneration' does not here mean excuse' or 'shifting away of blame, but mere laying down of office with due form.

†The Long Parliament.

Self-denying Ordinance; beginning of 1645: see vol. i., p. 153 et seq. 5 Fairfax's Army. I upon that footing

What the several Successes and Issues have been, is not fit to mention at this time neither;-though I confess I thought to have enlarged myself upon that subject; forasmuch as Considering the works of God, and the operations of His hands, is a principal part of our duty; and a great encouragement to the strengthening of our hands and of our faith, for that which is behind.* And among other ends which those marvellous Dispensations have been given us for, that's a principal end, which ought to be minded by us.

6

Certainly' in this revolution of affairs, as the issue of those Successes which God was pleased to give to the Army, and 'to' the Authority that then stood, there were very great things brought about;-besides those dints that came upon the Nations and places where the War itself was, very great things in Civil matters too. 'As first,' the bringing of Offenders to justice,—and the Greatest of them. Bringing of the State of this Government to the name (at least) of a Commonwealth. Searching and sifting of all persons and places. The King removed, and brought to justice; and many great ones with him. The House of Peers laid aside. The House of Commons itself, the representative of the People of England, winnowed, sifted and brought to a handful; as you very well remember.

And truly God would not rest there :-for by the way, although it's fit for us to ascribe our failings and miscarriages to ourselves, yet the gloriousness of the work may well be attributed to God Himself, and may be called His strange work. You remember well that at the Change of the Government there was not an end of our Troubles [No!]-although in that year were such high things transacted as indeed made it to be the most memorable year (I mean the year 1648) that this Nation ever saw. So many Insurrections, Invasions, secret Designs, open and public Attempts, all quashed in so short a time, and this by the very signal appearance of God Himself; which, I hope, we shall never forget! —You know also, as I said before, that, as the first effect of that memorable year of 1648 was to lay a foundation, by bringing Offenders to Punishment, so it brought likewise to the Change of Government :—although it were worth the time' perhaps, if one had time,' to speak of the carriage of some in places of trust, in most eminent places of trust, which was auch as (had not God miraculously appeared) would have frustrated us of the hopes of all our undertakings. I mean by the closure of the Treaty that was endeavored with the King;|| whereby they would have * still to come.

'intitle' in orig.

† England, Ireland, Scotland.

§ Kent, St. Neot's, Colchester, Welsh Poyer at Pembroke, Scotch Hamilton at Preston, &c., &c.

Il Treaty of the Isle of Wight, again and again endeavored.