No. XXXV. [Vol. i., p. 488: And the unconquerable mind will then follow if it can.'] PROCLAMATION WHEREAS it hath pleased God, by His gracious providence and goodness, to put the City of Edinburgh and the Town of Leith under my power: And although I have put forth several Proclamations, since my coming into this Country, to the like effect with this present: Yet for further satisfaction to all those whom it may concern, I do hereby again publish and declare, That all the Inhabitants of the country, not now being or continuing in arms, shall have free leave and liberty to come to the Army, and to the City and Town aforesaid, with their cattle, corn, horse, or other commodities or goods whatsoever; and shall there have free and open markets for the same; and shall be protected in their persons and goods, in coming and returning as aforesaid, from any injury or violence of the Soldiery under my command; and shall also be protected in their respective houses. And the Citizens and Inhabitants of the said City and Town shall and hereby likewise have* free leave to vend and sell their wares and commodities; and shall be protected from the plunder and violence of the Soldiers. And I do hereby require all Officers and Soldiers of the Army under my command, To take due notice hereof, and to yield obedience hereto. As they will answer the contrary at their utmost peril. Given under my hand at Edinburgh, the 14th of September, 1650. OLIVER CROMWELL. To be proclaimed in Leith and Edinburgh, by sound of trumpet and beat of drum.t Listen and be reassured, ye ancient Populations, though your Clergy sit obstinate on their Castle-rock, and your Stuart King has vanished! While this comfortable Oyez-oyez goes sounding through the ancient streets, my Lord General is himself just getting on march again: as the next Letter will testify. * Grammar irremediable! + King's Pamphlets, small 4to, No. 479, art. 16 ('The Lord-General Cromwell his march to Stirling: being a Diary of,' &c. Published by Authority'). No. XXXVI. [Vol. i., p. 497: 'His first visit to Glasgow was but of two days.'] LETTER XXXIX. THE Western Colonels have given in their Remonstrance to the Committee of Estates; and sat in deliberation on their copy of Cromwell's expostulatory Letter to that Body, the Letter we have just read, in which these two words, 'security' and 'satisfaction,' are somewhat abstruse to the Western Colonels. They decide that it will not be convenient to return any public Answer; but they have forwarded a private Letter of acknowledgment with Six Queries: Letter lost to us; Six Queries still surviving. To which, directly after his return to Edinburgh, here is Cromwell's Answer. The Six Queries, being very brief, may be transcribed; the Letter of acknowledgment can be conceived without transcribing : Query 1. Why is "satisfaction" demanded? 2. What is the satisfaction demanded? 3. For what is the "security" demand ed? 4. What is the security ye would have? 5. From whom is the security required? 6. To whom is the security to be given?'* Queries which, I think, do not much look like real de spatch of business in the present intricate conjuncture! This Letter, it appears, is, if not accompanied, directly followed by 'Mr. Alexander Jaffray,' Provost of Aberdeen, and a ‘Reverend Mr. Carstairs' of Glasgow, two Prisoners of Oliver's ever since Dunbar Drove, who are to 'agent' the same.† SIR, 'To Colonel Strahan, with the Western Army: These.' Edinburgh, 25th October, 1650. I have considered of the Letter and the Queries; and, having ad vised with some Christian friends about the same, think fit to return an Answer as followeth : 'That' we bear unto the Godly of Scotland the same Christian affec * Balfour, iv., 135. VOL. II. 23 Baillie, iii., 120. tion we have all along professed in our Papers; being ready, through the grace of God, upon all occasions, to give such proof and testimony thereof as the Divine Providence shall minister opportunity to us to do. That nothing would be more acceptable to us to see than the Lord removing offences, and inclining the hearts of His People in Scotland to meet us with the same affection. That we do verily apprehend, with much comfort, that there is some stirring of your bowels by the Lord; giving some hope of His good pleasure tending hereunto: which we are most willing to comply with, and not to be wanting in anything on our part which may further the same. * And having seen the heads of two Remonstrances, the one of the Ministers of Glasgow, and the other of the Officers and Gentlemen of the West, we do from thence hope that the Lord hath cleared unto you some things which were formerly hidden, and which we hope may lead to a better understanding. Nevertheless, we cannot but take notice, that from some expressions in the same Papers, we have too much cause to note that there is still so great a difference between us as we are looked upon and accounted as Enemies. And although we hope that the Six Queries, sent by you to us to be answered, were intended to clear doubts and remove the remaining obstructions; which we shall be most ready to do: yet, considering the many misconstructions which may arise from the clearest pen (where men are not all of one mind), and the difficulties at this distance to resolve doubts and rectify mistakes, we conceive our Answer in Writing may not so effectually reach that end, as a Friendly and Christian Conference by equal persons 'might.' And we doubt not we can, with ingenuity and clearness, give a satisfactory account of those general things held forth in the Letter sent by us to the Committee of Estates,† and in our former Declarations and Papers; which we shall be ready to do by a Friendly Debate,-when and where our answer to these particulars may probably tend to the better and more clear understanding between the Godly Party of both Nations. To speak plainly in a few words. If those who sincerely love and fear the Lord among you are sensible that matters have been and are carried by your State so as that therewith God is not well pleased, but the Interest of His People 'is' hazarded, in Scotland and England, to Malignants, to Papists, and to the Profane,—we can, through Grace, be willing to lay our bones in the dust for your sakes; and can, as heretofore we have * Remonstrance of the Western Army is this latter; the other, very conceivable as a kind of codicil to this, is not known to me except at second hand, from Baillie's eager, earnest, very headlong, and perplexed account of that Business (iv., 120, 122, et seqq.). † Letter XCIX. 'said,' still continue to say, That, not to impose upon you in Religious o Civil Interests, not dominion nor any worldly advantage, 'not these,' but the obtaining of a just security to ourselves,* were the motives, and satisfactions to our consciences, in this Undertaking. A just security ;' which we believe by this time you may think we had cause to be sensible was more than endangered by the carriage of affairs with your King. And it is not success, and more visible clearness to our consciences arising out of the discoveries God hath made of the hypocrisies of men, that hath altered, or can alter,' our principles or demands. But we take from thence humble encouragement to follow the Lord's providence in serving His Cause and People; not doubting but He will give such an issue to this Business as will be to His glory and your comfort. I rest, Your affectionate friend and servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.† There followed no ' Friendly Debate' upon this Letter; nothing followed upon it except new noise in the Western Army, and a straitlaced case of conscience more perplexing than ever. Jaffray and Carstairs had to come back on parole again; Strahan at length withdrew from the concern: the Western Army went its own separate middle road,—to what issue we shall see. No. XXXVII. [Vol. i., p. 497: The 5th of November, 1650. LETTER XL. Oliver Cromwell.'] ONE nest of Mosstroopers, not far off, in the Dalkeith region, ought specially to be abated. SIR, To the Governor of Borthwick Castle: These. Edinburgh, 18th November, 1650. I thought fit to send this Trumpet to you, to let you know, That if you please to walk away with your company, and deliver the House to such as I shall send to receive it, you shall have liberty to carry off your arms and goods, and such other necessaries as you have. You have harbored such parties in your House as have basely and in * 'securing ourselves' in orig. + Clarendon State Papers (Oxford, 1773), ii., 551-2). humanly murdered our men: if you necessitate me to bend my cannon against you, you may expect what I doubt you will not be pleased with. I expect your present Answer; and rest, Your servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.* The Governor of Borthwick Castle, Lord Borthwick of that Ilk, did as he was bidden; 'walked away,' with movable goods, with wife and child, and had 'fifteen days' allowed him to pack; whereby the Dalkeith region and Carlisle Road is a little quieter henceforth. No. XXXVIII. [Vol. i., p. 525: Enough now of Symonds and the Seals and Effigies.'] ALONG with Symonds, various English strangers, we perceive, are arriving or arrived, on miscellaneous business with the Lord General in his Winter-quarters. Part of the Oxford Caput is here in Edinburgh, with a very high testimony of respect;' whom, in those same hours, the Lord General dismisses honorably with their Answer. We are to premise that Oxford University, which at the end of the First Civil War had been found in a most broken, Malignant, altogether waste and ruinous condition, was afterwards, not without difficulty, and immense patience on the part of the Parliament Commissioners, radically reformed. Philip Earl of Pembroke, he of the loud voice, who dined once with Bulstrode in the Guildhall;† he, as Chancellor of the University, had at last to go down in person, in the Spring of 1648; put the intemperate Dr. Fell, incorrigible otherwise, under lock and key; left the incorrigible Mrs. Dr. Fell, 'whom the soldiers had to carry out in her chair,'' sitting in the quadrangle;' appointed a new Vice-Chan * Russell's Life of Cromwell, ii., 95 (from Statistical Account of Scotland) Antea, vol. i., P. 364. |