The south-west counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to serve them round the year: and the northern parts producing more than they need, those in the west come in the summer to buy at Leith the stores that come from the north: and from a word whiggam, used in driving their horses, all that drove were called the whiggamors, and The minis- shorter the whiggs. Now in that year, after the an insurrec- news came down of duke Hamilton's defeat, the mition. nisters animated their people to rise, and march to ters made Edenburgh and they came up marching on the head of their parishes, with an unheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way as they came. The marquis of Argile and his party came and headed them, they being about 6000. This was called the whiggamors inroad: and ever after that all that opposed the court came in contempt to be called whiggs: and from Scotland the word was brought into England, where it is now one of our unhappy terms of distinction". The committee of their estates, with the force they had in their hands, could easily have dissipated this undisciplined herd. But they, knowing their own weakness, sent to Cromwell, desiring his assistance. Upon that, the committee saw they could not stand before him: so they came to a treaty, and delivered up the government to this new body. Upon their assuming it, they declared all who had served • Which unhappy distinctions no man living was more ready to foment than the good bishop himself; and the first inquiry he made into any body's character was, whether he were a whigg or a tory: if the latter, he made it his business to rake all the spiteful stories he could collect together, in order to lessen their esteem in the world, which he was very free to publish, without any regard to decency or modesty. D. or assisted in the engagement incapable of any em- in the isle During his absence from the scene, the treaty of The treaty the isle of Wight was set on foot by the parliament, of Wight. who seeing the army at such a distance, took this occasion of treating with the king. Sir Henry Vane, and others who were for a change of government, had no mind to treat any more. But both city and country were so desirous of a personal treaty, that it could not be resisted. Vane, Pierpoint, and some others, went to the treaty on purpose to delay matters, till the army could be brought up to London. All that wished well to the treaty prayed the king, at their first coming, to dispatch the business with all possible haste, and to grant the first day all that he could bring himself to grant on the last. Hollis and Grimstone told me, they had both on their knees begged this of the king. They said, they knew Vane would study to draw out the treaty to a great length: and he, who declared for an unbounded liberty of conscience, would try to gain on the king's party by the offer of a toleration for the common prayer and the episcopal clergy. His design in that was to gain time, till Cromwell should settle Scotland and the north. But they said, if the king would frankly come in, without the formality of papers backward and forward, and send them back next day with the concessions that were absolutely necessary, they did not doubt but he should, in a very few days, be brought up with honour, freedom, and safety to the parliament, and that matters should be brought to a present settlement. Titus, who was then much trusted by the king, and employed in a negociation with 45 the presbyterian party, told me he had spoke often and earnestly to him in the same strain: but the king could not come to a resolution: and he still fancied, that in the struggle between the house of commons and the army, both saw they needed him so much, to give them the superior strength, that he imagined by balancing them he would bring both sides into a greater dependence on himself, and force them to better terms. In this Vane flattered the episcopal party, to the king's ruin as well as their own. But they still hated the presbyterians as the first authors of the war; and seemed unwill ing to think well of them, or to be beholding to them. Thus the treaty went on with a fatal slowness and by the time it was come to some maturity, Cromwell came up with his army, and overturned all. dissimula Upon this I will set down what sir Harbotle Cromwell's Grimstone told me a few weeks before his death: tion. whether it was done at this time, or the year before, I cannot tell: I rather believe the latter. When the house of commons and the army were a quarrelling, at a meeting of the officers it was proposed to purge the army better, that they might know whom to depend on. Cromwell upon that said, he was sure of the army; but there was another body that had more need of purging, naming the house of commons, and he thought the army only could do that. Two officers that were present brought an account of this to Grimstone, who carried them with him to the lobby of the house of commons, they being resolved to justify it to the house. There was another debate then on foot: but Grimstone diverted it, and said, he had a matter of privilege of the highest sort to lay before them: it was about the being and freedom of the house. So he charged Cromwell with the design of putting a force on the house he had his witnesses at the door, and desired they might be examined: they were brought to the bar, and justified all that they had said to him, and gave a full relation of all that had passed at their meetings. When they withdrew, Cromwell fell down on his knees, and made a solemn prayer to God, attesting his innocence, and his zeal for the service of the house: he submitted himself to the providence of God, who it seems thought fit to ex ercise him with calumny and slander, but he committed his cause to him: this he did with great vehemence, and with many tears. After this strange and bold preamble, he made so long a speech, justifying both himself and the rest of the officers, except a few that seemed inclined to return back to Egypt, that he wearied out the house, and wrought so much on his party, that what the witnesses had said was so little believed, that had it been moved, Grimstone 46 thought that both he and they would have been sent to the Tower. But whether their guilt made them modest, or that they had no mind to have the matter much talked of, they let it fall: and there was no strength in the other side to carry it farther. To complete the scene, as soon as ever Cromwell got out of the house, he resolved to trust himself no more among them; but went to the army, and in a few days he brought them up, and forced a great many from the house. I had much discourse on this head with one who knew Cromwell well, and all that set of men; and asked him how they could excuse all the prevarications, and other ill things of which they were visibly guilty in the conduct of their affairs. He told me, they believed there were great occasions in which some men were called to great services, in the doing of which they were excused from the common rules of morality: such were the practices of Ehud and Jael, Samson and David: and by this they fancied they had a privilege from observing the standing rules. It is very obvious how far this principle may be carried, and how all justice and mercy may be laid aside on this pretence by every bold enthusiast. Ludlow, in, his memoirs, justifies this force put on |