these points, that at a time when their opponents were so powerful, they ceased not to iterate their complaints about the increase of sects, and the mischiefs which ensued in consequence of withholding from the authorities which had been set up the coercive powers necessary to suppress them. There was a bill against blasphemy which this party endeavoured to tolerance. carry in 1646, and which they succeeded in passing two years Their in- later, the provisions of which bespeak a frightful spirit of intolerance, reminding us very forcibly of the many similar decrees which occur in the pages of ecclesiastical history, and which were made the ground of proceedings so disgraceful to Christianity. By this act, any denial of the Trinity, of the proper deity or humanity of Christ, of his death as an atonement for the guilty, of his freedom from sin, of his resurrection, of the general rising from the dead, of the day of judgment, or of the authenticity of the canonical scriptures,-was declared to be a capital offence! Many less considerable heresies are named as to be punished by other penalties*. The authors of this enactment had imbibed the sentiment that truth must be one; that to themselves pertained the rare felicity of having discovered it; and that the most consistent evidence of their hallowed attachment to its interests was in the adoption even of such means with a view to its support. Thus the reasoning which had descended from Bonner to Laud, passed from the latter to the men who brought him to the block! Several of propositions passed as ordinances. By the influence of the independents, which operated to delay the act concerning blasphemy, the commons were induced to pass several of the most important of the propositions that the rejected had been rejected by the king, in the shape of ordinances-a proceeding which gave them the force of acts of parliament without waiting for the royal sanction. This republican principle was acted upon with respect to those parts of the propositions which related to the abolition of episcopacy, and the sale of the bishops' lands; to a justification of the proceedings in parliament in both kingdoms since the commencement of hostilities; to the appointment of the great officers of state by the parliament; and to its retaining the command of the forces during the next twenty years t. These proceedings, though the lords did not, for the present, concur with them, were important as indicating the temper of the Scots surlower house. They belong to the month of October, and render the about two months later a committee of both kingdoms laid king to the English a report before the commons, which led to the payment of parliament. large arrears to the Scottish army, and to the surrender of the king into the hands of the English parliament. As Rushworth, 149, 150. + Journals of Commons. Sept, 22, 29. Oct. 9. Nov. 2, 16, et alibi. these transactions were coincident in point of time, the Scots were reproached by their enemies with having sold their king. But it was deemed important by both parties that the Scots should evacuate the kingdom and disband; and not less so that the king should be retained in England; and these objects could not have been otherwise accomplished. The demands of the Scots, and of the English presbyterians, were the same; Charles had refused those demands; and he was delivered by the former to the latter until such time as he should be brought to consent to their common terms. The monarch was received by a body of parliamentary commissioners, who conducted him to Holdenby House, in the county of Northampton. Relative position of parties in England from this time. But this proceeding, which was viewed with much satisfaction by the English presbyterians, both as it would materially reduce the expenditure of the government, and as it seemed, by placing the king in their hands, to confer on them the power of dictating the conditions of a settlement, was soon found to have placed the affairs of the kingdom, as a matter at issue, between an unarmed presbyterian majority in the parliament and the capital, and the independent minority of the lower house, sustained by nearly the whole strength of the army. On the departure of the Scots, the presbyterians ceased to have a military force in which they could confide; and it accordingly became their great object to disband the army under Fairfax, which, they well knew, had been for some time governed by principles and passions most hostile to their plans. It was given out, with this view, that the war had reached its close, and that the time for returning to a peace establishment had arrived. Confidence of the pres byterians. Nor was this considered a difficult work to perform. The presbyterians in the city, in the fullness of their confidence, prepared a petition to be presented to the two houses, which prayed that no person disaffected to the covenant should be promoted to, or allowed to retain, any public trust; that persons not duly ordained should be no more suffered to preach, nor the meetings of separate congregations be tolerated; and that an ordinance should be passed to put down all heresies and schisms, by visiting their abettors with exemplary punishments. The petition further stated, that, not to disband the army, would be to justify the imputation that those who were in arms had taken to them as a trade, and not from regard to the public cause; and while speedy assistance should be afforded to Ireland, means, it was added, should be used to bring those persons to deserved punishment who had sought to forward their private ends by acting the part of firebrands between England and Scotland. This significant petition was presented by the common council, who coupled it with another from themselves, in which they prayed that all persons in the army, whether officers or privates, who were known to be opposed to the covenant, should be dismissed; and expressed their persuasion that no difficulty would be found in supplying the place of such persons by others more trustworthy. This last expression discloses something of the real state of parties at this moment: the motive to disband the army was not that the services of so powerful a body were no more needed, but that an army pledged to the covenant was deemed much more desirable than an army so far wedded to independency. The royalists, though dispersed, were still formidable, and the Irish catholics continued in open revolt. It was agreed that Fairfax should retain his office as commander-inchief. But it was also voted that every officer under his command should take the covenant, and conform to the government of the church as established by ordinance; that no commander of a garrison should remain a member of parliament; and that all offices above that of a colonel should be abolished, excepting, of course, the rank of commander-in-chieft. The object of the presbyterians in these votes was to purify the army generally from its leaven of independency, and to compel Cromwell, and other formidable opponents, such as Ludlow, Hutchinson, Ireton, and Algernon Sidney, to relinquish their connexion either with the army or with the parliament. Hollis and Stapleton were the recognised leaders of the presbyterians in these courses, and it was altogether consistent with the narrow conceptions and angry intolerance of such persons to suppose that the acknowledged supremacy of parliament would be a sufficient protection against those expressions of resentment on the part of the army which it was natural to expect as the consequence of such proceedings. It should be added, that with the votes already mentioned was another, which ordered an immediate embarkation of a great part of the army under Fairfax to serve against the insurgent catholics in Ireland. At the same time, the discussions in parliament with respect to the payment of arrears, were attended with so many difficulties and delays as *Tracts of George III. in the British Museum, vol. 290. The house of commons gave these "covenant-engaged citizens thanks for their constant good affections," and appointed the following Tuesday for taking it into consideration. When that day came, the independent party opposed the consideration of the petition, but were in a minority of ninety-nine to one hundred and fifty-six. Journals, Dec. 19, 22. The presbyterians, however, did not judge it prudent to bring the questions referred to in the petition to a decision at this juncture, and suffered the intended debate to be postponed from day to day. Tracts of George III. ibid. March 5. Hollis left some account of the times in which he lived; but it has been justly remarked that the dedication to his Memoirs is a significant warning as to the temper in which they are written:-" To the Unparalleled Couple, Mr. Oliver St. John, his Majesty's Solicitor General, and Mr. Oliver Cromwell, the Parliament's Lieutenant General, the Two Grand Designers of the Ruin of Three Kingdoms. Normandy, Feb. 14, 1648." to warrant suspicion of a design to elude the just demands of the army even in that respect. The crisis between the presbyterians and the independents was now at hand. The latter found themselves called upon to submit to a yoke under the name of presbyterianism, hardly less Complaints oppressive than they had fought against under the name of of the army. prelacy. They saw every practicable slight cast upon their leaders; their boasted liberty of conscience about to be wrested from them; their dismission meditated, even without a just settlement of their pecuniary claims on the power which they had protected and established at the hazard of their lives; and, above all, one division of their strength on the eve of being drafted to Ireland, that the remainder might not be sufficient to impede measures designed to place the whole kingdom, with its new ecclesiastical establishment, under the guardianship of an army pledged to the covenant. vance towards the It was in order to intimate a determination not to submit to such a course of affairs, that the forces under Fairfax began an advance towards London. This movement led to proceed- Its first adings in the commons which were designed to show the willingness of the house to make its promised payments to the capital. army, and to provide for its support. But a petition was at the same time presented by the common council, which prayed that. an order might be issued enjoining that body to withdraw to a greater distance from the capital, and that it should be disbanded without delay. These petitioners also complained of a counter-petition said to be preparing in the city, and urged, with characteristic heedlessness and intolerance, that means should be employed to suppress it, and to ascertain who were its promoters. The obnoxious petition adverted to purported to be from "many thousands desiring the glory of God, the freedom of the commonwealth, and the peace of all men," and complained particularly of the burden of tithes; of the exclusion of all persons from public trusts who did not conform to the established church; and of the many persecutions inflicted on such persons under the name of roundheads, independents, sectaries, schismatics, and heretics*. Deputation from the parliament. March 20. The arrears at this time due to the army were forty-three weeks' pay to the horse, and eighteen weeks' to the foot, a sum, in the whole, considerably above three hundred thousand pounds. By a deputation for the purpose, the commons apprised the army of the vote in which they had pledged themselves to raise sixty thousand pounds a month for its support, and promised two months' pay to such regiments as should be disbanded. This, it will be perceived, was not one-fifth of the sum due to the cavalry, and less than half the amount owing to the infantry. * Journals of Commons, March 11, 15, 17. Journals of Lords. But the great object of this deputation, was to make arrangements for the embarkation of a large portion of the army to Ireland. Many difficulties were thrown in the way of this object by the council of officers in their conference with the deputation; and a petition was prepared, to express the desires both of the officers and soldiers on various matters, but particularly with respect to an act of indemnity securing them against all proceedings on account of anything in their conduct during the war-and also that measures should be adopted to satisfy them with respect to their arrears before disbanding *. Violent conduct of the presby terians. The commons became aware of this proceeding, and, in order to repress it, and to prevent any similar attempt, summoned several officers who were suspected of being its promoters to their bart. On the same day it was voted that three regiments, commanded by colonels who were known to be zealous presbyterians, should form part of the force to be retained in England. Hollis, who was not without that sort of courage which arises from an insensibility to danger, concluded this day of bold measures by proposing that all persons adhering to the said petition should be prosecuted as enemies of the state, and this motion, carried at a late hour in the commons, was approved the next day by the lords ‡. Such proceedings, against an army consisting of such men, were unjust and singularly impolitic. Second deputation. The deputation to the army from the commons on the twentieth of March, was followed by another, which appeared in its quarters on the thirteenth of April. Colonel Lambert, in behalf of the assembled officers, insisted on the terms stated in the former conference. He wished also to know who would be entrusted with the command of the force which it was proposed should go to Ireland. The answer was that general Skippon, an officer acceptable to all parties, had been named as commander-inchief; and that colonel Massey had been chosen to act as his general of the horse, an arrangement having been made to retain the regiments of Fairfax and Cromwell among those which should remain in England. The name of Massey, who was a known adherent of the presbyterians, was not heard with approbation. Skippon, it was said, must be too sensible of his years and infirmities to accept of such a trust; and, in conclusion, it was stated that no objection would be made to the service in Ireland if the men were allowed to embark for that kingdom under their present commanders §. About ten days subsequent, the commons went into a debate on the * Waller's Vindication, 42-45. Rushworth, vi. 444—474. Rushworth, vi. 470. Journals of Lords. Waller, 77–85. |