I do not

That

say, that was the meaning of your Oath to you. were to go against my own principles, to enter upon another man's conscience. God will judge between you and me! If there had been in you any intention of Settlement, you would have settled upon this basis, and have offered your judgment and opinion 'as to minor improvements.'

Ad

God is my witness; I speak it; it is evident to all the world and people living, That a new business hath been seeking in the Army against this actual Settlement made by your consent. I do not speak to these Gentlemen [Pointing to his right hand," says the Report], or Lords, or whatsoever you will call them; I speak not this to them, but to you. You advised me to come into this place, to be in a capacity* by your vice. Yet instead of owning a thing, some must have I know not what; and you have not only disjointed yourselves but the whole Nation, which is in likelihood of running into more confusion in these fifteen or sixteen days that you have sat, than it hath been from the rising of the last Session to this day. Through the intention of devising a Commonwealth again! That some people might be the men that might rule all! [Intemperate Haselrig, peppery Scott, and such like: very inadequate they to "rule;" inadequate to keep their own heads on their shoulders, if they were not RULED, they!] And they are endeavouring to engage the Army to carry that thing. And hath that man been "true to this Nation," whosoever he be, especially that hath taken an Oath, thus to prevaricate? These designs have been made among the Army, to break and divide

"of authority" is delicately understood, but not expressed.

us. I speak this in the presence of some of the Army: That these things have not been according to God, nor according to truth, pretend what you will! [No, your Highness; they have not.] These things tend to nothing else but the playing of the King of Scots' game (if I may so call him); and I think myself bound before God to do what I can to prevent it. ["I, for my share:" Yea!]

That which I told you in the Banqueting-House 'ten days ago' was true, That there are preparations of force to invade us. God is my witness, it hath been confirmed to me since, not a day ago, That the King of Scots hath an Army at the water's side, ready to be shipped for England. I have it from those who have been eyewitnesses of it. And while it is doing, there are endeavours from some who are not far from this place, to stir up the people of this Town into a tumulting, [City Petitions are mounting very high, as perhaps Sir Arthur and others know!] what if I said, Into a rebellion! And I hope I shall make it appear to be no better, if God assist me. [Noble scorn and indignation is gradually getting the better of every other feeling in his Highness and us.]

It hath been not only your endeavour to pervert the Army while you have been sitting, and to draw them to state the question about a "Commonwealth;" but some of you have been listing of persons, by commission of Charles Stuart, to join with any Insurrection that may be made. [What a cold qualm in some conscious heart that listens to this! Let him tremble, every joint of him; or not visibly tremble; but cower home to his place, and repent; and remember in whose hand his beggarly existence in this world lies!] And what is

like to come upon this, the Enemy being ready to invade us, but even present blood and confusion? [The next and final Sentence is partly on fire] And if this be so, I do assign 'it' to this cause: Your not assenting to what you did invite me to by your Petition and Advice, as that which might prove the Settlement of the Nation. And if this be the end of your sitting, and this be your carriage, [Sentence now all beautifully blazing], I think it high time that an end be put to your sitting. And I DO DISSOLVE THIS PARLIAMENT ! And let God be judge between you and me!§

Figure the looks of Haselrig, Scott and Company! "The "Mace was clapt under a cloak; the Speaker withdrew, and "exit Parliamentum," the Talking-Apparatus vanishes.* "God bel judge between you and me!"—"Amen!" answered they,** thought they, indignantly; and sank into eternal silence.

It was high time; for in truth the Hydra, on every side, is stirring its thousand heads. "Believe me," says Samuel Hartlib, Milton's friend, writing to an Official acquaintance next week, "believe me, it was of such necessity, that if their Session had "continued but two or three days longer all had been in blood "both in City and Country, upon Charles Stuart's account."***

His Highness before this Monday's sun sets, has begun to lodge the Anarchic Ringleaders, Royalist, Fifth-Monarchist, in the Tower; his Highness is bent once more with all his faculty, the Talking-Apparatus being gone, to front this Hydra, and trample it down) once again. On Saturday he summons his Officers, his Acting-Apparatus, to Whitehall round him; explains to them "in a Speech two hours long" what kind of Hydra it is; asks, Shall it conquer us, involve us

*Ibid. ii. 464.

§ Burton, ii. 465-70. ** Tradition in various modern Books (Parliamentary History, xxi. 203; Note to Burton, ii. 470); not supported, that I can find, by any contemporary

witness.

*** Hartlib in London (11th Feb. 1657-8) to Moreland at Geneva; printed in Parliamentary History, xxi. 205.

† Appendix, No. 33.

-

in blood and confusion? They answer from their hearts, No, it shall not! "We will stand and fall with your Highness, we will live and die with you!"* It is the last duel this Oliver has with any Hydra fomented into life by a Talking-Apparatus; and he again conquers it, invincibly compresses it, as he has heretofore done.

One day, in the early days of March next, his Highness said to Lord Broghil: An old friend of yours is in Town, the Duke of Ormond, now lodged in Drury Lane, at the Papist Surgeon's there: you had better tell him to be gone!** Whereat his Lordship stared; found it a fact, however; and his Grace of Ormond did go with exemplary speed, and got again to Bruges and the Sacred Majesty, with report That Cromwell had many enemies, but that the rise of the Royalists was moonshine. And on the 12th of the month his Highness had the Mayor and Common Council with him in a body at Whitehall; and "in a Speech at large" explained to them that his Grace of Ormond was gone only "on Tuesday last;" that there were Spanish Invasions, Royalist Insurrections and Frantic-Anabaptist Insurrections rapidly ripening; — that it would well beseem the City of London to have its Militia in good order. To which the Mayor and Common Council, "being very sensible thereof," made zealous response *** by speech and by act. In a word, the Talking-Apparatus being gone, and an Oliver Protector now at the head of the ActingApparatus, no Insurrection, in the eyes of reasonable persons, had any chance. The leading Royalists shrank close into their privacies again, - considerable numbers of them had to shrink into durance in the Tower. Among which latter class, his Highness, justly incensed, and "considering," as Thurloe says, "that it was not fit there should be a Plot of this kind every winter," had determined that a High Court of Justice should take cognisance of some. High Court of Justice is

* Hartlib's Letter, ubi supra.

**Godwin, iv. 508; Budgel's Lives of the Boyles, p. 49; &c. *** Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 171.)

accordingly nominated* as the Act of Parliament prescribes: among the parties marked for trial by it are Sir Henry Slingsby, long since prisoner for Penruddock's business, and the Reverend Dr. Hewit, a man of much forwardness in Royalism. Sir Henry, prisoner in Hull and acquainted with the Chief Officers there, has been treating with them for betrayal of the place to his Majesty; has even, to that end, given one of them a Majesty's Commission; for whose Spanish Invasion such a Haven and Fortress would have been extremely convenient. Reverend Dr.Hewit, preaching by sufferance, according to the old ritual "in St. Gregoy's Church near Paul's," to a select disaffected audience, has farther seen good to distinguish himself very much by secular zeal in this business of the Royalist Insurrection and Spanish Charles-Stuart Invasion; - which has now come to nothing, and left poor Dr. Hewit in a most questionable position. Of these two, and of others, a High Court of Justice shall take cognisance.

The Insurrection having no chance in the eyes of reasonable Royalists, and they in consequence refusing to lead it, the large body of unreasonable Royalists now in London City or gathering thither decide, with indignation, That they will try it on their own score, and lead it themselves. Hands to work, then, ye unreasonable Royalists; pipe, All hands! Saturday the 15th of May, that is the night appointed: To rise that Saturday Night; beat drums for "Royalist Apprentices," "fire houses at the Tower," slay this man, slay that, and bring matters to a good issue. Alas, on the very edge of the appointed hour, as usual, we are all seized; the ringleaders of us are all seized, "at the Mermaid in Cheapside," — for Thurloe and his Highness have long known what we were upon! Barkstead Governor of the Tower "marches into the City with five drakes," at the rattle of which every Royalist Apprentice, and party implicated, shakes in his shoes: - and this also has gone to vapour, leaving only for result certain new individuals of the Civic class to give account of it to the High Court of Justice.

*27th April 1658. Act of Parliament, with List of the Names, is in Scobell, ii. 372-5: see also Commons Journals, vii. 427 (Sept. 1656).