Chapter IV: His Weariness (2)

After I had laid waste the whole country of Argyle, and brought off provisions, for my army, of what could be found, I received information that Argyle was got together with a considerable army, made up chiefly of his own clan, and vassals and tenants, with others of the rebels that joined him, and that he was at Inverlochy, where he expected the Earl of Seaforth, and the sept of the Frasers, to come up to him with all the forces they could get together. Upon this intelligence I departed out of Argyleshire, and marched through Lorn, Glencow, and Aber, till I came to Lochness, my design being to fall upon Argyle before Seaforth and the Frasers could join him. My march was through inaccessible mountains, where I could have no guides but cow-herds, and they scarce acquainted with a place but six miles from their own habitations. If I had been attacked but with one hundred men in some of these passes, I must have certainly returned back, for it would have been impossible to force my way, most of the passes being so strait that three men could not march abreast. I was willing to let the world see that Argyle was not the man his Highlandmen believed him to be, and that it was possible to beat him in his own Highlands. The difficultest march of all was over the Lochaber mountains, which we at last surmounted, and came upon the back of the enemy when they least expected us, having cut off some scouts we met about four miles from Inverlochy. Our van came within view of them about five o'clock in the afternoon, and we made a halt till our rear was got up, which could not be done till eight at night. The rebels took the alarm and stood to their arms, as well as we, all night, which was moonlight, and very clear. There were some few skirmishes between the rebels and us all the night, and with no loss on our side but one man. By break of day I ordered my men to be ready to fall on upon the first signal, and I understand since, by the prisoners, the rebels did the same. A little after the sun was up, both armies met, and the rebels fought for some time with great bravery, the prime of the Campbells giving the first onset, as men that deserved to fight in a better cause. Our men, having a nobler cause, did wonders, and came immediately to push of pike, and dint of sword, after their first firing. The rebels could not stand it, but, after some resistance at first, began to run, whom we pursued for nine miles together, making a great slaughter, which I would have hindered, if possible, that I might save your Majesty's misled subjects, for well I know your Majesty does not delight in their blood, but in their returning to their duty. There were at least fifteen hundred killed in the battle and the pursuit, among whom there are a great many of the most considerable gentlemen of the name of Campbell, and some of them nearly related to the Earl. I have saved and taken prisoners several of them, that have acknowledged to me their fault and lay all the blame on their Chief. Some gentlemen of the Lowlands, that had behaved themselves bravely in the battle, when they saw all lost, fled into the old castle, and, upon their surrender, I have treated them honourably, and taken their parole never to bear arms against your Majesty.

We have of your Majesty's army about two hundred wounded, but I hope few of them dangerously. I can hear but of four killed, and one whom I cannot name to your Majesty but with grief of mind, Sir Thomas Ogilvy, a son of the Earl of Airly's, of whom I writ to your Majesty in my last. He is not yet dead, but they say he cannot possibly live, and we give him over for dead. Your Majesty had never a truer servant, nor there never was a braver, honester gentleman. For the rest of the particulars of this action, I refer myself to the bearer, Mr. Hay, whom your Majesty knows already, and therefore I need not recommend him.

Now, Sacred Sir, let me humbly intreat your Majesty's pardon if I presume to write you my poor thoughts and opinion about what I heard by a letter I received from my friends in the south, last week, as if your Majesty was entering into a treaty with your rebel Parliament in England. The success of your arms in Scotland does not more rejoice my heart, as that news from England is like to break it. And whatever come of me, I will speak my mind freely to your Majesty, for it is not mine, but your Majesty's interest I seek.

When I had the honour of waiting upon your Majesty last, I told you at full length what I fully understood of the designs of your Rebel subjects in both kingdoms, which I had occasion to know as much as any one whatsoever; being at that time, as they thought, entirely in their interest. Your Majesty may remember how much you said you were convinced I was in the right in my opinion of them. I am sure there is nothing fallen out since to make your Majesty change your judgment in all those things I laid before your Majesty at that time. The more your Majesty grants, the more will be asked; and I have too much reason to know that they will not rest satisfied with less than making your Majesty a King of straw. I hope the news I have received about a treaty may be a mistake, and the rather that the letter wherewith the Queen was pleased to honour me, dated the 30th of December, mentions no such thing. Yet I know not what to make of the intelligence I received, since it comes from Sir Robert Spottiswood, who writes it with a great regret; and it is no wonder, considering no man living is a more true subject to your Majesty than he. Forgive me, Sacred Sovereign, to tell your Majesty that, in my poor opinion, it is unworthy of a King to treat with Rebel subjects, while they have the sword in their hands. And though God forbid I should stint your Majesty's mercy, yet I must declare the horror I am in when I think of a treaty, while your Majesty and they are in the field with two armies, unless they disband, and submit themselves entirely to your Majesty's goodness and pardon.

As to the state of affairs in this Kingdom, the bearer will fully inform your Majesty in every particular. And give me leave, with all humility, to assure your Majesty that, through God's blessing, I am in the fairest hopes of reducing this kingdom to your Majesty's obedience. And, if the measures I have concerted with your other loyal subjects fail me not, which they hardly can, I doubt not before the end of this summer I shall be able to come to your Majesty's assistance with a brave army, which, backed with the justice of your Majesty's cause, will make the Rebels in England, as well as in Scotland, feel the just rewards of Rebellion. Only give me leave, after I have reduced this country to your Majesty's obedience, and _conquered from Dan to Beersheba_, to say to your Majesty then, as David's General did to his master, "_Come thou thyself, lest this country be called by my name_." For in all my actions I aim only at your Majesty's honour and interest, as becomes one that is to his last breath, may it please your Sacred Majesty,--

Your Majesty's most humble, most faithful, and
most obedient Subject and Servant,
MONTROSE.

INVERLOCHY IN LOCHABER,
_February 3rd, 1645_.

CHARLES AND HENRIETTA MARIA (1646).

=Source.=--Camden Society's Publications. Vol. lix., p. 45.

NEWCASTLE,
_June 10th, 1646_.

DEAR HEART,

These two last weeks I heard not from thee, nor any about thee, which hath made my present condition the more troublesome, but I expect daily the contentment of hearing from thee. Indeed I have need of some comfort, for I never knew what it was to be barbarously baited before, and these five or six days last have much surpassed, in rude pressures against my conscience, all the rest since I came to the Scotch army; for, upon I know not what intelligence from London, nothing must serve but my signing the covenant (the last was, my commanding all my subjects to do it), declaring absolutely, and without reserve, for Presbyterian government, and my receiving the Directory in my family, with an absolute command for the rest of the kingdom; and if I did not all this, then a present agreement must be made with the parliament, without regard of me, for they said that otherways they could not hope for peace or a just war. It is true they gave me many other fair promises in case I did what they desired (and yet for the militia they daily give ground); but I answered them, that what they demanded was absolutely against my conscience, which might be persuaded, but would not be forced by anything they could speak or do. This was the sum of divers debates and papers between us, of which I cannot now give thee an account. At last I made them be content with another message to London, requiring an answer to my former, with an offer to go thither upon honourable and just conditions. Thus all I can do is but delaying of ill, which I shall not be able to do long without assistance from thee. I cannot but again remember thee, that there was never man so alone as I, and therefore very much to be excused for the committing of any error, because I have reason to suspect everything that these advised me, and to distrust mine own single opinion, having no living soul to help me. To conclude, all the comfort I have is in thy love and a clear conscience.

I know the first will not fail me, nor (by the grace of God) the other. Only I desire thy particular help, that I should be as little vexed as may be; for, if thou do not, I care not much for others. I need say no more of this, nor will at this time, but that I am eternally thine.

CHARLES R.

CROMWELL AND LUDLOW (1646).

=Source.=--_The Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow._ Ed. C. H. Firth. Oxford, 1894. Vol. i., pp. 144, 145.

In the meantime I observed that another party was not idle: for, walking one morning with Lieutenant-General Cromwell in Sir Robert Cotton's garden, he inveighed bitterly against them, saying in a familiar way to me, "If thy father were alive, he would let some of them hear what they deserve," adding further "that it was a miserable thing to serve a Parliament, to whom let a man be never so faithful, if one pragmatical fellow amongst them rise up and asperse him, he shall never wipe it off. Whereas," said he, "when one serves under a general, he may do as much service, and yet be free from all blame and envy." This text, together with the comment that his after-actions put upon it, hath since persuaded me that he had already conceived the design of destroying the civil authority, and setting up of himself; and that he took that opportunity to feel my pulse, whether I were a fit instrument to be employed by him to those ends. But having replied to his discourse, that we ought to perform the duty of our stations, and trust God with our honour, power, and all that is dear to us, not permitting any such considerations to discourage us from the prosecution of our duty, I never heard any more from him upon that point.

AN ARMY DEBATE (1647).

=Source.=--_Clarke Papers_, Camden Society's Publications. Vol. i., p. 301. Putney, October 29, 1647.

AT A MEETING OF THE OFFICERS FOR CALLING UPON GOD.

Part of the Debate on the Agreement of the People, First article, "That the people of England being at this day very unequally distributed by Counties, Cities and Boroughs for the election of their Deputies in Parliament, ought to be more indifferently proportioned according to the number of the inhabitants."

_Col. Rainborough._ Really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he; and therefore truly, Sir, I think it's clear that every man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that Government....

_Commissary Ireton._ Give me leave to tell you, that if you make this the rule I think you must fly for refuge to an absolute natural Right, and you must deny all Civil Right.... For my part I think it is no right at all. I think that no person hath a right to an interest or share in the disposing or determining of the affairs of the Kingdom, and in choosing those that shall determine what laws we shall be ruled by here, no person hath a right to this that hath not a permanent fixed interest in this Kingdom.... We talk of birthright. Truly by birthright there is thus much claim. Men may justly have by birthright, by their very being born in England, that we shall not seclude them out of England, that we shall not refuse to give them air and place and ground and the freedom of the highways and other things, to live amongst us.... That I think is due to a man by birth. But that by a man's being born here he shall have a share in that power that shall dispose of the lands here, and of all things here, I do not think it a sufficient ground. I am sure if we look upon ... that which is most radical and fundamental and which if you take away there is no man hath any land, any goods, any civil interest, that is this; that those that choose the representors for the making of laws by which this state and kingdom are to be governed, are the persons who taken together do comprehend the local interest of this kingdom: that is, the persons in whom all land lies, and those in Corporations in whom all trading lies....

_Rainborough._ Truly, Sir, I am of the same opinion I was; and am resolved to keep it till I know reason why I should not. I do think the main cause why Almighty God gave men reason, it was, that they should make use of that reason. Half a loaf is better than none if a man be an hungry, yet I think there is nothing that God hath given a man that any else can take from him. I do not find anything in the law of God, that a Lord shall choose 20 burgesses and a gentleman but two, and a poor man shall choose none. But I do find that all Englishmen must be subject to English laws, and I do verily believe that there is no man but will say that the foundation of all law lies in the people....

_Ireton._ I wish we may all consider of what right you will challenge, that all people should have right to elections. Is it by the right of nature? By that same right of nature by which you can say one man hath an equal right with another to the choosing of him that shall govern him--by the same right of nature, he hath an equal right in any goods he sees; meat, drink, clothes, to take and use them for his sustenance. He hath a freedom to the land, to exercise it, till it; he hath the same freedom to anything that anyone doth account himself to have any property in.... Since you cannot plead it by anything but the law of nature, I would fain have any man show me their bounds, where you will end, and why you should not take away all property?

_Rainborough._ I wish we were all true hearted, and that we did all carry ourselves with integrity. For my part, I think you do not only yourselves believe that we are inclining to anarchy, but you would make all men believe that. That there is property the Law of God says, else why hath God made that law, "Thou shalt not steal"? If I have no interest in the Kingdom I must suffer by all their laws, be they right or wrong. I am a poor man, therefore I must be oppressed....

_Cromwell._ I know nothing but this, that they that are the most yielding have the greatest reason; but really, Sir, this is not right as it should be. No man says you have a mind to anarchy, but the consequence of this rule tends to anarchy, must end in anarchy, for where is there any bound or limit set, if you take away this limit, that men that have no interest but the interest of breathing, shall have no voice in elections? Therefore I am confident on it that we should not be so hot one with another....

_Rainborough._ I deny that there is property, to a Lord, to a Gentleman, to any man more than another in the Kingdom of England. I would fain know what we have fought for. This is the old law of England, and that which enslaves the people of England, that they should be bound by laws in which they have no voice at all....

_Mr. Sexby._ We have engaged in this Kingdom and ventured our lives, and it was all for this: to recover our birthrights and privileges as Englishmen, and by the arguments used there is none. There are many thousands of us soldiers that have ventured our lives: we have had little property in the Kingdom as to our estates; yet we have had a birthright. It seems now, unless a man hath a fixed estate in this Kingdom, he hath no right in this kingdom. I wonder we were so much deceived. I shall tell you in a word my resolution. I am resolved to give my birthright to none. I do think the poor and meaner of this kingdom have been the means of the preservation of this kingdom....

_Ireton._ For my part, rather than I will make a disturbance to a good Constitution of a kingdom wherein I may live in godliness and honesty and peace and quietness, I will part with a great deal of my birthright. I will part with my own property rather than I will be the man that shall make a disturbance in the Kingdom for my property....

_Rainborough._ But I would fain know what the poor soldier hath fought for all this while? He hath fought to enslave himself, to give power to men of riches, men of estates, to make him a perpetual slave. We do find in all presses that go forth none must be pressed that are freehold men. When these Gentlemen fall out among themselves they shall press the poor scrubs to come and kill them.

_Cromwell._ I confess I am most dissatisfied with that I heard Mr. Sexby speak of any man here, because it did savour so much of will. But I desire that all of us may decline that, and if we meet here really to agree to that which is for the safety of the Kingdom, let us not spend so much time in such debates as these are. If we think to bring it to an issue this way I know our debates are endless, and I think if you do desire to bring this to a result it were well if we may but resolve upon a Committee. I say it again, if I cannot be satisfied to go so far as these Gentlemen ... I shall freely and willingly withdraw myself, and I hope to do it in such manner that the Army shall see that I shall by my withdrawing satisfy the interest of the Army, the public interest of the Kingdom, and those ends these men aim at.

THE AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE (1647).

=Source.=--British Museum Pamphlets. E. 412.21.

AN AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE FOR A FIRM AND PRESENT PEACE UPON GROUNDS OF COMMON RIGHT.

Having by our late labours and hazards made it appear to the world at how high a rate we value our just freedom, and God having so far owned our cause as to deliver the enemies thereof into our hands, we do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other to take the best care we can for the future to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition and the chargeable remedy of another war; for, it cannot be imagined that so many of our countrymen would have opposed us in this quarrel if they had understood their own good, so may we safely promise to ourselves that, when our common rights and liberties shall be cleared, their endeavours will be disappointed that seek to make themselves our masters.

Since, therefore, our former oppressions and scarce-yet-ended troubles have been occasioned, either by want of frequent national meetings in Council, or by rendering those meetings ineffectual, we are fully agreed and resolved to provide that hereafter our representatives be neither left to an uncertainty for the time nor made useless to the ends for which they are intended.

In order whereunto we declare:--

I.

That the people of England, being at this day very unequally distributed by Counties, Cities, and Boroughs, ought to be more indifferently proportioned according to the number of the inhabitants; the circumstances whereof for number, place, and manner are to be set down before the end of this present Parliament.

II.

That, to prevent the many inconveniences apparently arising from the long continuance of the same persons in authority, this present Parliament be dissolved upon the last day of September which shall be in the year of our Lord, 1648.

III.

That the people do, of course, choose themselves a Parliament once in two years, viz. upon the first Thursday in every 2d March, after the manner as shall be prescribed before this present Parliament end, to begin to sit upon the first Thursday in April following, at Westminster or such other place as shall be appointed from time to time by the preceding Representatives, and to continue till the last day of September then next ensuing, and no longer.

IV.

That the power of this, and all future Representatives of this Nation, is inferior only to theirs who choose them, and doth extend, without the consent or concurrence of any other person or persons, to the enacting, altering, and repealing of laws, to the erecting and abolishing of offices and courts, to the appointing, removing, and calling to account magistrates and officers of all degrees, to the making war and peace, to the treating with foreign States, and, generally, to whatsoever is not expressly or impliedly reserved by the represented to themselves.

Which are as followeth.

1. That matters of religion and the ways of God's worship are not at all entrusted by us to any human power, because therein we cannot remit or exceed a tittle of what our consciences dictate to be the mind of God without wilful sin: nevertheless the public way of instructing the nation (so it be not compulsive) is referred to their discretion.

2. That the matter of impresting and constraining any of us to serve in the wars is against our freedom; and therefore we do not allow it in our Representatives; the rather, because money (the sinews of war), being always at their disposal, they can never want numbers of men apt enough to engage in any just cause.

3. That after the dissolution of this present Parliament, no person be at any time questioned for anything said or done in reference to the late public differences, otherwise than in execution of the judgments of the present Representatives or House of Commons.

4. That in all laws made or to be made every person may be bound alike, and that no tenure, estate, charter, degree, birth, or place do confer any exemption from the ordinary course of legal proceedings whereunto others are subjected.

5. That as the laws ought to be equal, so they must be good, and not evidently destructive to the safety and well-being of the people.

These things we declare to be our native rights, and therefore are agreed and resolved to maintain them with our utmost possibilities against all opposition whatsoever; being compelled thereunto not only by the examples of our ancestors, whose blood was often spent in vain for the recovery of their freedoms, suffering themselves through fraudulent accommodations to be still deluded of the fruit of their victories, but also by our own woeful experience, who, having long expected and dearly earned the establishment of these certain rules of government, are yet made to depend for the settlement of our peace and freedom upon him that intended our bondage and brought a cruel war upon us.

THE SENTENCE ON THE KING (1648-49).

(EXCERPT.)

=Source.=--Rushworth. Vol. vi., p. 1419.

Now, therefore, upon serious and mature deliberation of the premises, and consideration had of the notoriety of the matters of fact charged upon him as aforesaid, this Court is in judgment and conscience satisfied that he, the said Charles Stuart, is guilty of levying war against the said Parliament and people, and maintaining and continuing the same; for which in the said charge he stands accused, and by the general course of his government, counsels, and practices, before and since this Parliament began (which have been and are notorious and public, and the effects whereof remain abundantly upon record) this Court is fully satisfied in their judgments and consciences, that he has been and is guilty of the wicked design and endeavours in the said charge set forth; and that the said war hath been levied, maintained, and continued by him as aforesaid, in prosecution, and for accomplishment of the said designs; and that he hath been and is the occasioner, author and continuer of the said unnatural, cruel, and bloody wars, and therein guilty of high treason, and of the murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, desolations, damage, and mischief to this nation acted and committed in the said war, and occasioned thereby. For all which treasons and crimes this Court doth adjudge that he, the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of this nation, shall be put to death by the severing of his head from his body.

CHARLES I.'S CHARACTER (1649).

=Source.=--Clarendon, _History of the Rebellion._ Book XI., §§ 239-243.

To speak first of his private qualifications as a man, before the mention of his princely and royal virtues: he was, if ever any, the most worthy of the title of an honest man; so great a love of justice, that no temptation could dispose him to a wrongful action, except it was so disguised to him that he believed it to be just. He had a tenderness and compassion of nature, which restrained him from ever doing a hard-hearted thing; and therefore he was so apt to grant pardons to malefactors, that the judges of the land represented the damage and insecurity to the public, that flowed from such his indulgence. And then he restrained himself from pardoning either murders or highway robberies, and quickly discerned the fruits of his severity by a wonderful reformation of those enormities. He was very punctual and regular in his devotions; he was never known to enter upon his recreations or sports, though never so early in the morning, before he had been at public prayers, so that on hunting days his chaplains were bound to a very early attendance. He was likewise very strict in observing the hours of his private cabinet devotions, and was so severe an exactor of gravity and reverence in all mention of religion, that he could never endure any light or profane word in religion, with what sharpness of wit soever it was covered; and though he was well pleased and delighted with reading verses made upon any occasion, no man durst bring before him anything that was profane or unclean. That kind of wit had never any countenance then. He was so great an example of conjugal affection, that they that did not imitate him in that particular did not brag of their liberty: and he did not only permit, but direct his bishops to prosecute those scandalous vices, in the ecclesiastical courts, against persons of eminence and near relation to his service.

His kingly virtues had some mixture and alloy, that hindered them from shining in full lustre, and from producing those fruits they should have been attended with. He was not in his nature very bountiful, though he gave very much. This appeared more after the Duke of Buckingham's death, after which those showers fell very rarely: and he paused too long in giving, which made those to whom he gave less sensible of the benefit. He kept State to the full, which made his Court very orderly; no man presuming to be seen in a place where he had no pretence to be. He saw and observed men long before he received any about his person; and did not love strangers, nor very confident men. He was a patient hearer of causes, which he frequently accustomed himself to at the council board, and judged very well, and was dextrous in the mediating part: so that he often put an end to causes by persuasion, which the stubbornness of men's humours made dilatory in courts of justice.

He was very fearless in his person, but not very enterprising. He had an excellent understanding, but was not confident enough of it; which made him oftentimes change his opinion for a worse, and follow the advice of men that did not judge so well as himself. This made him more irresolute than the conjuncture of his affairs would admit: if he had been of a rougher and more imperious nature he would have found more respect and duty. And his not applying some severe cures to approaching evils proceeded from the lenity of his nature, and the tenderness of his conscience, which, in all cases of blood, made him choose the softer way, and not hearken to severe counsels how reasonably soever urged. This only restrained him from pursuing his advantage in the first Scots expedition, when, humanly speaking, he might have reduced that nation to the most slavish obedience that could have been wished. But no man can say he had then many who advised him to it, but the contrary, by a wonderful indisposition all his council had to fighting, or any other fatigue. He was always an immoderate lover of the Scottish nation, having not only been born there, but educated by that people and besieged by them always, having few English about him till he was king; and the major number of his servants being still of that nation, who he thought could never fail him. And among these, no man had such an ascendant over him, as Duke Hamilton had.

As he excelled in all other virtues, so in temperance he was so strict, that he abhorred all debauchery to that degree, that, at a great festival solemnity, where he once was, when very many of the nobility of the English and Scots were entertained, being told by one who withdrew from thence, what vast draughts of wine they drank, and "that there was one earl who had drunk most of the rest down, and was not himself moved or altered," the King said, "that he deserved to be hanged," and that earl coming shortly after into the room where his majesty was, in some gaiety, to show how unhurt he was from that battle, the king sent one to bid him withdraw from his Majesty's presence; nor did he in some days after appear before him.

So many miraculous circumstances contributed to his ruin that men might well think that heaven and earth and the stars designed it. Though he was, from the first declension of his power, so much betrayed by his own servants, that there were very few who remained faithful to him, yet that treachery preceded not from any treasonable purpose to do him any harm, but from particular animosities against other men. And afterwards the terror all men were under of the Parliament, and the guilt they were conscious of themselves, made them watch all opportunities to make themselves gracious to those who could do them good; and so they became spies upon their master, and from one piece of knavery were hardened and confirmed to undertake another; till at last they had no hope of preservation but by the destruction of their master. And after all this, when a man might reasonably believe that less than a universal defection of three nations could not have reduced a great king to so ugly a fate, it is most certain that, in that very hour when he was thus wickedly murdered in the sight of the sun, he had as great a share in the hearts and affections of his subjects in general, was as much beloved, esteemed, and longed for by the people in general of the three nations, as any of his predecessors had ever been. To conclude, he was the worthiest gentleman, the best friend, the best husband, the best father, and the best Christian, that the age in which he lived had produced. And if he were not the best king, if he were without some parts and qualities which have made some kings great and happy, no other prince was ever so unhappy who was possessed of half his virtues and endowments, and so much without any kind of vice.

THE DIGGERS (1649).

=Source.=--Whitelocke, _Memorials_. P. 396, folio edition, 1732.

_April._--The Council of State had intelligence of new Levellers at St. _Margaret's_ Hill, near _Cobham_ in _Surrey_, and at St. _George's_ Hill, and that they digged the Ground, and sowed it with Roots and Beans; one _Everard_, once of the Army, and who terms himself a Prophet, is the chief of them; and they were about thirty Men, and said that they should be shortly four thousand.

They invited all to come in and help them, and promised them Meat, Drink, and Clothes; they threaten to pull down Park Pales, and to lay all open, and threaten the Neighbours that they will shortly make them all come up to the Hills and work.

The General sent two Troops of Horse to have account of them.

* * * * *

[A few days later (p. 397).]

Everard and Winstanley, the chief of those that digged at St. George's Hill in Surrey, came to the General and made a large Declaration to justify their Proceedings.

Everard said, he was of the Race of the Jews, that all the Liberties of the People were lost by the coming in of William the Conqueror, and that ever since, the People of God had lived under Tyranny and Oppression worse than that of our Forefathers under the Egyptians.

But now the time of the Deliverance was at hand, and God would bring his People out of this Slavery, and restore them to their Freedom in enjoying the Fruits and Benefits of the Earth.

And that there had lately appeared to him a Vision, which bad him arise and dig and plow the Earth, and receive the Fruits thereof, that their Intent is to restore the Creation to its former condition.

That as God had promised to make the barren Land fruitful, so now what they did, was to renew the ancient Community of enjoying the Fruits of the Earth, and to distribute the Benefit thereof to the poor and needy, and to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.

That they intend not to meddle with any Man's Property, nor to break down any Pales or Inclosures; but only to meddle with what was common and untilled, and to make it fruitful for the use of Man; that the time will suddenly be, that all Men shall willingly come in, and give up their Lands and Estates, and submit to this Community.

And for those that will come in and work, they should have Meat, Drink, and Clothes, which is all that is necessary to the Life of Man, and that for Money there was not any need of it, nor of Clothes more than to cover Nakedness.

That they will not defend themselves by Arms, but will submit unto Authority, and wait till the promised Opportunity be offered, which they conceive to be at hand. And that as their Forefathers lived in Tents, so it would be suitable to their Condition now to live in the same, with more to the like Effect.

While they were before the General they stood with their Hats on, and being demanded the Reason thereof, they said, because he was but their fellow Creature; being asked the meaning of that Place, Give honour to whom honour is due, they said, their Mouths should be stopped that gave them that Offence.

I have set down this the more largely, because it was the beginning of the Appearance of this Opinion; and that we might the better understand and avoid these weak Persuasions.

THE STORMING OF DROGHEDA (OR TREDAH) (1649).

=Source.=--Carlyle, _Letter IV.: To the Speaker_, September 17, 1649.

... Upon Tuesday the 10th of this instant, about five o'clock in the evening, we began the storm; and after some hot dispute we entered, about seven or eight hundred men; the enemy disputing it very stiffly with us. And indeed, through the advantages of the place, and the courage God was pleased to give the defenders, our men were forced to retreat quite out of the breach, not without some considerable loss; Colonel Castle being there shot in the head, whereof he presently died; and divers other officers and men doing their duty killed and wounded. There was a "Tenalia"[2] to flank the south wall of the Town, between Duleek Gate and the corner Tower before mentioned;--which our men entered, wherein they found some forty or fifty of the Enemy, which they put to the sword. And this they held: but it being without the Wall, and the sally-port through the Wall into that Tenalia being choked up with some of the Enemy which were killed in it, it proved of no use for an entrance into the Town that way.

Although our men that stormed the breaches were forced to recoil, as is before expressed; yet, being encouraged to recover their loss, they made a second attempt: wherein God was pleased so to animate them that they got ground of the Enemy, and by the goodness of God, forced him to quit his entrenchments. And after a very hot dispute, the Enemy having both horse and foot, and we only foot, within the Wall,--they gave ground, and our men became masters both of their entrenchments and of the Church; which indeed, although they made our entrance the more difficult, yet they proved of excellent use to us; so that the Enemy could not now annoy us with their horse, but thereby we had advantage to make good the ground, that so we might let in our own horse; which accordingly was done, though with much difficulty.

Divers of the Enemy retreated into the Mill-Mount: a place very strong and of difficult access; being exceedingly high, having a good graft, and strongly palisadoed. The Governor, Sir Arthur Ashton, and divers considerable Officers being there, our men getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword. And indeed, being in the heat of action, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the Town: and, I think, that night they put to the sword about 2,000 men;--divers of the officers and soldiers being fled over the Bridge into the other part of the Town, where about 100 of them possessed St. Peter's Church-steeple, some the west Gate, and others a strong Round Tower next the Gate called St. Sunday's. These being summoned to yield to mercy, refused. Whereupon I ordered the steeple of St. Peter's Church to be fired, when one of them was heard to say in the midst of the flames: "God damn me, God confound me; I burn, I burn."

The next day, the other two Towers were summoned; in one of which was about six or seven score; but they refused to yield themselves: and we knowing that hunger must compel them, set only good guards to secure them from running away until their stomachs were come down. From one of the said Towers, notwithstanding their condition, they killed and wounded some of our men. When they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head; and every tenth man of the soldiers killed; and the rest shipped for the Barbadoes. The soldiers in the other Tower were all spared, as to their lives only; and shipped likewise for the Barbadoes.

I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future. Which are the satisfactory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret. The officers and soldiers of this Garrison were the flower of their army. And their great expectation was, that our attempting this place would put fair to ruin us; they being confident of the resolution of their men, and the advantage of the place. If we had divided our force into two quarters to have besieged the North Town and the South Town, we could not have had such a correspondency between the two parts of our Army, but that they might have chosen to have brought their Army, and have fought with which part of ours they pleased,--and at the same time have made a sally with 2,000 men upon us, and have left their walls manned; they having in the Town the number hereafter specified, but some say near 4,000....

And now give me leave to say how it comes to pass that this work is wrought. It was set upon some of our hearts, that a great thing should be done, not by power or might, but by the Spirit of God. And is it not so, clearly? That which caused your men to storm so courageously, it was the Spirit of God, who gave your men courage, and took it away again; and gave the Enemy courage, and took it away again; and gave your men courage again, and therewith this happy success. And therefore it is good that God alone have all the glory.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] "Tenalia," a kind of advanced defensive work, which takes its name from its resemblance, real or imaginary, to the lips of a pair of pincers (Carlyle).

THE NAVIGATION ACT (1651).

(EXCERPT.)

=Source.=--_Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum._ Vol. ii., p. 559.

For the Increase of the Shipping and the Encouragement of the Navigation of this Nation, which under the good Providence and Protection of God, is so great a means of the Welfare and Safety of this Commonwealth; Be it Enacted by this present Parliament, and the Authority thereof, That from and after the First day of December, One thousand six hundred fifty and one, and from thence forwards, no Goods or Commodities whatsoever, of the Growth, Production or Manufacture of Asia, Africa or America, or of any part thereof; or of any Islands belonging to them, or any of them, or which are described or laid down in the usual Maps or Cards of those places, as well of the English Plantations as others, shall be Imported or brought into this Commonwealth of England, or into Ireland, or any other Lands, Islands, Plantations or Territories to this Commonwealth belonging, or in their Possession, in any other Ship or Ships, Vessel or Vessels whatsoever, but onely in such as do truly and without fraud belong onely to the People of this Commonwealth, or the Plantations thereof, as the Proprietors or right Owners thereof; and whereof the Master and Mariners are also for the most part of them, of the People of this Commonwealth, under the penalty of the forfeiture and loss of all the Goods that shall be Imported contrary to this Act; as also of the Ship (with all her Tackle, Guns and Apparel) in which the said Goods or Commodities shall be so brought in and Imported; the one moyety to the use of the Commonwealth, and the other moyety to the use and behoof of any person or persons who shall seize the said Goods or Commodities, and shall prosecute the same in any Court of Record within this Commonwealth.

And it is further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Goods or Commodities of the Growth, Production or Manufacture of Europe, or of any part thereof, shall after the First day of December, One thousand six hundred fifty and one, be imported or brought into this Commonwealth of England, or into Ireland, or any other Lands, Islands, Plantations or Territories to this Commonwealth belonging, or in their possession, in any Ship or Ships, Vessel or Vessels whatsoever, but in such as do truly and without fraud belong onely to the people of this Commonwealth, as the true Owners and Proprietors thereof, and in no other, except onely such Forein Ships and Vessels as do truly and properly belong to the people of that Countrey or Place, of which the said Goods are the Growth, Production or Manufactures; or to such Ports where the said Goods can onely be, or most usually are first shipped for Transportation; And that under the same penalty of forfeiture and loss expressed in the former Branch of this Act, the said Forfeitures to be recovered and employed as is therein expressed.

And it is further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Goods or Commodities that are of Forein Growth, Production or Manufacture, and which are to be brought into this Commonwealth, in Shipping belonging to the People thereof, shall be by them Shipped or brought from any other place or places, Countrey or Countreys, but onely from those of their said Growth, Production or Manufacture; or from those Ports where the said Goods and Commodities can onely, or are, or usually have been first shipped for Transportation; and from none other Places or Countreys, under the same penalty of forfeiture and loss expressed in the first Branch of this Act, the said Forfeitures to be recovered and employed as is therein expressed.

HOBBES ON LIBERTY (1651).

=Source.=--Hobbes, _Leviathan_, 1651. P. 108.

But as men, for the attaining of peace, and conservation of themselves thereby, have made an Artificial Man, which we call a Common-wealth; so also have they made Artificial Chains, called civil laws, which they themselves, by mutual covenants, have fastened at one end, to the lips of that man, or assembly, to whom they have given the sovereign power; and at the other end to their own ears. These Bonds, in their own nature but weak, may neverthelesse be made to hold, by the danger, though not by the difficulty, of breaking them.

In relation to these Bonds only it is, that I am to speak now, of the _Liberty_ of _Subjects_. For seeing there is no Common-wealth in the world, wherein there be rules enough set down, for the regulating of all the actions, and words of men, (as being a thing impossible:) it followeth necessarily, that in all kinds of actions, by the laws prætermitted, men have the Liberty of doing what their own reasons shall suggest, for the most profitable to themselves. For if we take Liberty in the proper sense, for corporal Liberty; that is to say, freedom from chains and prison, it were very absurd for men to clamor as they do, for the Liberty they so manifestly enjoy. Again, if we take Liberty for an exemption from Laws, it is no less absurd for men to demand, as they do, that Liberty, by which all other men may be masters of their lives. And yet as absurd as it is, this is it they demand; not knowing that the laws are of no power to protect them, without a sword in the hands of a man, or men, to cause those laws to be put in execution. The Liberty of a Subject lieth therefore only in those things which, in regulating their actions, the Sovereign hath prætermitted: such as is the Liberty to buy, and sell, and otherwise contract with one another; to choose their own abode, their own diet, their own trade of life, and institute their children as they themselves think fit; and the like.

Neverthelesse we are not to understand, that by such Liberty, the Sovereign Power of life and death is either abolished or limited. For it has been already shewn, that nothing the Sovereign Representative can do to a Subject, on what pretence soever, can properly be called Injustice, or Injury; because every subject is author of every act the Sovereign doth; so that he never wanteth Right to any thing, otherwise than as he himself is the Subject of God, and bound thereby to observe the laws of Nature. And therefore it may, and doth often happen in Common-wealths, that a Subject may be put to death by the command of the Sovereign Power; and yet neither do the other wrong: As when Jeptha caused his daughter to be sacrificed: In which, and the like cases, he that so dieth had Liberty to do the action, for which he is neverthelesse without injury put to death. And the same holdeth also in a Sovereign Prince, that putteth to death an innocent subject. For though the action be against the law of Nature, as being contrary to Equity, (as was the killing of Uriah by David;) yet it was not an injury to Uriah; but to God. Not to Uriah, because the right to do what he pleased was given him by Uriah himself. And yet to God, because David was God's Subject; and prohibited all iniquity by the law of Nature. Which distinction David himself, when he repented the fact, evidently confirmed, saying, _To Thee only have I sinned_.

A BATTLE WITH THE DUTCH (1652).

=Source.=--_An Exact and Perfect Relation of the Terrible and Bloody Fight between the English and the Dutch Fleets in the Downs on Wednesday, May 19, 1652._ Brit. Mus., E. 665.

_To Mr. Richard Bostock of London, Merchant._

WORTHY SIR,

My service to you, wishing all happiness. On the 18th of May inst. the Hollanders' fleet, consisting of 42 sail of stout ships, all men of war, came by the Eastward, and lay by the lee of the South Foreland, and from thence sent two of their fleet into the Downs to Major Bourn, who was then Admiral (General Blake being absent). The Captains of those ships, coming aboard, desired leave of him to anchor their ships in the Downs. The Admiral asked them why they came into our seas with their flags up, so near our Navy. They answered they had orders not to strike their flags to any they should meet with; whereupon the Major answered them, that within two days' time they should know whether there was room enough for them to anchor in or not. Yet notwithstanding this the Hollanders anchored in Dover road, and rode there till the 19th. About two of the clock in the afternoon, Major Bourne came out of the Downs into Dover road with 10 sail, and Col. Blake from the rest with 13 sail more: the Dutch Fleet, seeing this, weighed anchor, and stood up to the coast of France with their flags up, near upon two hours, and then bore up to Gen. Blake, each ship having a man at the topmast head, as if they intended to have struck their flags.

When they came within shot of our Admiral, he made one shot at them for to strike, but they refused, still coming towards him, whereupon he made two shot more at them, and then the Hollanders gave him one shot, still making nearer to him; and coming up to him, saluted our Admiral with a whole volley of small shot and a broadside of gunshot, and Col. Blake returned him the like, and bearing up after him, they two charged three or four broadsides at each other. Thirteen of the Hollanders gave our Admiral each of them a broadside, before any of our ships came up to second him; then the _General of Folkestone_ came up between the Hollanders and our Admiral, and gave them a breathing time, and in an hour's time the ship called the _Triumph_ came up to them and fell up into the whole fleet.