His Highness, a few days after, on occasion of some Reply to a Message of his "concerning the state of the Public Moneys," was formally requested by the Commons to furnish them with a Copy of this Speech:* he answered that he did not remember four lines of it in a piece, and that he could not furnish a Copy. Some Copy would nevertheless have been got up, had the Parliament continued sitting. Rushworth, Smythe, and "I" (the Writer of Burton's Diary), we, so soon as the Speech was done, went to York House; Fairfax's Town-house, where Historical John, brooding over endless Paper-masses, and doing occasional Secretary work, still lodges: here at York House we sat together till late, "comparing Notes of his Highness's Speech;" could not finish the business that night, our Notes being a little cramp. It was grown quite dark before his Highness had done; so that we could hardly see our pencils go, at the time.** The Copy given here is from the Pell Papers, and in part from an earlier Original; first printed by Burton's Editor; and now reproduced, with slight alterations of the pointing &c., such as were necessary here and there to bring out the sense, but not such as could change anything that had the least title to remain unchanged. SPEECH XVIII. His Highness's last noble appeal, the words as of a strong great Captain addressed in the hour of imminent shipwreck, produced no adequate effect. The dreary Debate, supported chiefly by intemperate Haselrig, peppery Scott, and futurerenegade Robinson, went on, trailing its slow length day after day daily widening itself, too, into new dreariness, new questionability: a kind of pain to read even at this distance, and with view of the intemperate hot heads actually stuck on Temple Bar! For the man in "green oilskin hat with nightcap under it,” the Duke of Ormond namely, who lodges at the Papist Chirurgeon's in Drury Lane, is very busy all this while. * Thursday 28th Jan. 1657-8 (Parliamentary History, xxi. 196; Burton, ii. 379). ** Burton, ii. 351. - And Fifth-Monarchy and other Petitions are getting concocted in the City, to a great length indeed; and there are stirrings in the Army itself;-and, in brief, the English Hydra, cherished by the Spanish Charles-Stuart Invasion, will shortly hiss sky-high again, if this continue! As yet, however, there stands one strong Man between us and that issue. The strong Man gone, that issue, we may guess, will be inevitable; but he is not yet gone. For ten days more the dreary Debate has lasted. Various good Bills and Notices of Bills have been introduced; attempts on the part of well-affected Members to do some useful legislation here;* attempts which could not be accomplished. What could be accomplished was, to open the fountains of constitutional logic, and debate this question day after day. One or two intemperate persons, not excluded at the threshold, are of great moment in a Popular Assembly. The mind of which, if it have any mind, is one of the vaguest entities; capable, in a very singular degree, of being made to ferment, to freeze, to take fire, to develop itself in this shape or in that! The history of our Second Session, and indeed of these Oliverian Parliaments generally, is not exhilarating to the constitutional mind! But now on the tenth day of the Debate, with its noise growing ever noisier, on the 4th of February 1657-8, "about eleven in the morning," while peppery Scott is just about to attempt yelping out some new second speech, and there are cries of "Spoken! spoken!" which Sir Arthur struggles to argue, down, · arrives the Black Rod. "The Black Rod stays!" cry some, while Sir Arthur is arguing for Scott. "What care I for the Black Rod?" snarls he: "The Gentleman" (peppery Scott) "ought to be heard."- Black Rod, however, is heard first; signifies that "His Highness is in the Lords House, and desires to speak with you.' Under way therefore! Shall we take our Mace?" By all means, if you consider it likely to be useful for you!** *Parliamentary History, xxi. 203-4. ** Burton, ii. 462 et seqq.; see also Tanner мss. li. 1, for a more minute account. in They take their Mace; range themselves in due mass, the "Other House," Lords House, or whatever they call it; and his Highness, with a countenance of unusual earnestness, sorrow, resolution and severity, says: MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF I had very comfortable expectations that God would which I That which brought me into the capacity I now stand in was the Petition and Advice given me by you; who, in reference to the ancient Constitution ["Which had Two Houses and a King," though we do not in words mention that!], did draw me to accept the place of Protector. ["I was a kind of Protector already, I always understood; but let that pass. Certainly you invited me to become the Protector I now am, with Two Houses and other appendages, and there lies the gist of the matter at present."] There is not a man living can say I sought it; no, not a man nor woman treading upon English ground. But contemplating the sad condition of these Nations, relieved from an intestine War into a six or seven years Peace, I did think the Nation happy therein! ["I did think even my first Protectorate was a successful kind of thing!] But to be petitioned thereunto, and advised by you to undertake such a Government, a burden too heavy for any creature; and this to be done by the House that then had the Legislative capacity: certainly I did Carlyle, Cromwell. IV. 13 RNHARD TALCHN 23. SEP. 1861 look that the same men who made the Frame should make it good unto me! I can say in the presence of God, in comparison with whom we are but like poor creeping ants upon the earth, I would have been glad to have lived under my woodside, to have kept a flock of sheep-[Yes, your Highness; it had been infinitely quieter, healthier, freer. But it is gone forever: no woodsides now, and peaceful nibbling sheep, and great still thoughts, and glimpses of God "in the cool of the evening walking among the trees:" nothing but toil and trouble, double, double, till one's discharge arrive, and the Eternal Portals open! Nay even there by your woodside, you had not been happy; not you, with thoughts going down to the Death-kingdoms, and Heaven so near you on this hand, and Hell so near you on that. Nay who would grudge a little temporary Trouble, when he can do a large spell of eternal Work? Work that is true, and will last through all Eternity! Complain not, your Highness! His Highness does not complain. "To have kept a flock rather than undertaken such a of sheep," he says] Government as this. But undertaking it by the Advice and Petition of you, I did look that you who had offered it unto me should make it good. * I did tell you, at a Conference concerning it, that I would not undertake it, unless there might be some other Persons to interpose between me and the House of Commons, who then had the power, and prevent tumultuary and popular spirits: and it was granted I should name another House. I named it of men who shall meet you wheresoever you go, and shake hands with you; and tell you it is not Titles, nor Lords, nor Parties that they value, but a Christian and an Eng * One of the Kingship, Conferences of which there is no Report. lish Interest! Men of your own rank and quality, who will not only be a balance unto you, but a new force. added to you,* while you love England and Religion. Having proceeded upon these terms; and finding such a spirit as is too much predominant, everything being too high or too low; where virtue, honesty, piety and justice are omitted:-I thought I had been doing that which was my duty, and thought it would have satisfied you! But if everything must be too high or too low, you are not to be satisfied. [There is an innocency and childlike goodness in these poor sentences, which speaks to us in spite of rhetoric]. Again, I would not have accepted of the Government, unless I knew there would be a just accord between the Governor and Governed; unless they would take an Oath to make good what the Parliament's Petition and Advice advised me unto! Upon that I took an Oath [On the Twenty-sixth of June last], and they [On the Twentieth of January last, at their long Table in the Anteroom] took another Oath upon their part answerable to mine: and did not every one know upon what condition he swore? God knows, I took it upon the conditions expressed in the 'Act of' Government! And I did think we had been upon a foundation, and upon a bottom; and thereupon I thought myself bound to take it, and to be "advised by the Two Houses of Parliament." And we standing unsettled till we arrived at that, the consequences would necessarily have been confusion, if that had not been settled. Yet there were not constituted "Hereditary Kings;" 'no,' the Power "but to themselves," however helplessly, must mean this; and la good reporter would have substituted this. |