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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 + +Author: David Masson + +Release Date: December 19, 2004 [eBook #14380] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON, VOLUME 5 +(OF 7), 1654-1660*** + + +E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo, Keron Vergon, Leonard Johnson, and +the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON + +Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary +History of His Time + +by + +DAVID MASSON, M.A., LL.D., +Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University of +Edinburgh + +VOLUME V + +1654-1660 + +London: +MacMillan and Co. + +1877 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +BOOK I. + +SEPTEMBER 1654-JUNE 1657. + +HISTORY:--OLIVER'S FIRST PROTECTORATE CONTINUED. + +BIOGRAPHY:--MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE FIRST +PROTECTORATE CONTINUED. + + +CHAP. +I. SECTION I. Oliver and his First Parliament: Sept. 3, 1654-Jan. +22, 1654-5.--Meeting of the First Parliament of the Protectorate: +Its Composition: Anti-Oliverians numerous in it: Their Four Days' +Debate in challenge of Cromwell's Powers: Debate stopped by Cromwell: +His Speech in the Painted Chamber: Secession of some from the +Parliament: Acquiescence of the rest by Adoption of _The +Recognition_: Spirit and Proceedings of the Parliament still +mainly Anti-Oliverian: Their Four Months' Work in Revision of the +Protectoral Constitution: Chief Debates in those Four Months: +Question of the Protector's Negatives: Other Incidental Work of the +Parliament: Question of Religious Toleration and of the Suppression +of Heresies and Blasphemies: Committee and Sub-Committee on this +Subject: Baxter's Participation: Tendency to a Limited Toleration +only, and Vote against the Protector's Prerogative of more: Case of +John Biddle, the Socinian.--Insufficiency now of our former Synopsis +of English Sects and Heresies: New Sects and Denominations: The +Fifth-Monarchy Men: The Ranters: The Muggletonians and other Stray +Fanatics: Bochmenists and other Mystics: The Quakers or Friends: +Account of George Fox, and Sketch of the History of the Quakers to +the year 1654.--Policy of the Parliament with their Bill for a New +Constitution: Parliament outwitted by Cromwell and dissolved: No +Result. + +CHAP. +I. SECTION II. Between the Parliaments, or the Time of Arbitrariness: +Jan. 22, 1654-55--Sept. 17, 1656.--Avowed "Arbitrariness" of this +Stage of the Protectorate, and Reasons for it.--First Meeting of +Cromwell and his Council after the Dissolution: Major-General Overton +in Custody: Other Arrests: Suppression of a wide Republican +Conspiracy and of Royalist Risings in Yorkshire and the West: Revenue +Ordinance and Mr. Cony's Opposition at Law: Deference of Foreign +Governments: Blake in the Mediterranean: Massacre of the Piedmontese +Protestants: Details of the Story and of Cromwell's Proceedings in +consequence: Penn in the Spanish West Indies: His Repulse from +Hispaniola and Landing in Jamaica: Declaration of War with Spain and +Alliance with France: Scheme of the Government of England by +Major-Generals: List of them and Summary of their Police-System: +Decimation Tax on the Royalists, and other Measures _in +terrorem_: Consolidation of the London Newspaper Press: +Proceedings of the Commission of Ejectors and of the Commission of +Triers: View of Cromwell's Established Church of England, with +Enumeration of its various Components: Extent of Toleration outside +the Established Church: The Protector's Treatment of the Roman +Catholics, the Episcopalians, the Anti-Trinitarians, the Quakers, and +the Jews: State of the English Universities and Schools under the +Protectorate: Cromwell's Patronage of Learning: List of English Men +of Letters alive in 1656, and Account of their Diverse Relations to +Cromwell: Poetical Panegyrics on him and his Protectorate.--New +Arrangements for the Government of Scotland: Lord Broghill's +Presidency there for Cromwell: General State of the Country: +Continued Struggle between the Resolutioners and the Protesters for +Kirk-Supremacy: Independency and Quakerism in Scotland: More Extreme +Anomalies there: Story of "Jock of Broad Scotland": Brisk Intercourse +between Scotland and London: Mission of Mr. James Sharp.--Ireland +from 1654 to 1656.--Glimpse of the Colonies. + +CHAP. +I. SECTION III. Oliver and the First Session of his Second +Parliament: Sept. 17, 1656-June 26, 1657.--Second Parliament of the +Protectorate called: Vane's _Healing Question_ and another +Anti-Oliverian Pamphlet: Precautions and Arrests: Meeting of the +Parliament: Its Composition: Summary of Cromwell's Opening Speech: +Exclusion of Ninety-three Anti-Oliverian Members: Decidedly Oliverian +Temper of the rest: Question of the Excluded Members: Their Protest: +Summary of the Proceedings of the Parliament for Five Months (Sept. +1656-Feb. 1656-7): Administration of Cromwell and his Council during +those Months: Approaches to Disagreement between Cromwell and the +Parliament in the _Case of James Nayler_ and on the Question of +Continuation of the Militia by Major-Generals: No Rupture.--The +Soxby-Sindercombe Plot.--Sir Christopher Pack's Motion for a New +Constitution (Feb. 23, 1656-7): Its Issue in the _Petition and +Advice_ and Offer of the Crown to Cromwell: Division of Public +Opinion on the Kingship Question: Opposition among the Army Officers: +Cromwell's Neutral Attitude: His Reception of the Offer: His long +Hesitations and several Speeches over the Affair: His Final Refusal +(May 8, 1657): Ludlow's Story of the Cause.--Harrison and the Fifth +Monarchy Men: Venner's Outbreak at Mile-End-Green.--Proposed New +Constitution of the _Petition and Advice_ retained in the form +of a Continued Protectorate: Supplements to the _Petition and +Advice_: Bills assented to by the Protector, June 9: Votes for the +Spanish War.--Treaty Offensive and Defensive with France against +Spain: Dispatch of English Auxiliary Army, under Reynolds, for +Service in Flanders: Blake's Action in Santa Cruz Bay.--"_Killing +no Murder_": _Additional and Explanatory Petition and +Advice_: Abstract of the Articles of the New Constitution as +arranged by the two Documents: Cromwell's completed Assent to the New +Constitution, and his Assent to other Bills. June 26, 1657: +Inauguration of the Second Protectorate that day: Close of the First +Session of the Second Parliament. + +CHAP. +II. Milton's Life and Secretaryship through the First Protectorate +continued: September 1654-June 1657.--SECTION I.: From September 1654 +to January 1654-5, or Through Oliver's First Parliament.--Ulac's +Hague Edition of Milton's _Defensio Secunda_, with the _Fides +Publica_ of Morus annexed: Preface by Dr. Crantzius to the +Reprint: Ulac's own Preface of Self-Defence: Account of Morus's +_Fides Publica_, with Extracts: His Citation of Testimonies to +his Character: Testimony of Diodati of Geneva: Abrupt Ending of the +Book at this Point, with Ulac's Explanation of the +Cause.--Particulars of the Arrest and Imprisonment of Milton's Friend +Overton.--Three more Latin State-Letters by Milton for Oliver (Nos. +XLIX.-LI.): No State-Letters by Milton for the next Three Months: +Milton then busy on a Reply to the _Fides Publica_ of Morus. + +CHAP. +II. SECTION II.: From January 1654-5 to September 1656, or Through +the Period of Arbitrariness.--Letter to Milton from Leo de Aitzema: +Milton's Reply: Letter to Ezekiel Spanheim at Geneva: Milton's +Genovese Recollections and Acquaintances: Two more of Milton's Latin +State-Letters (Nos. LII., LIII.): Small Amount of Milton's +Despatch-Writing for Cromwell hitherto.--Reduction of Official +Salaries, and Proposal to Reduce Milton's to £150 a Year: Actual +Commutation of his £288 a Year at Pleasure into £200 for Life: Orders +of the Protector and Council relating to the Piedmontese Massacre, +May 1655: Sudden Demand on Milton's Pen in that Business: His Letter +of Remonstrance from the Protector to the Duke of Savoy, with Ten +other Letters to Foreign States and Princes on the same Subject (Nos. +LIV.-LXIV.): His Sonnet on the Subject.--Publication of the +_Supplementum_ to More's _Fides Publica_: Account of the +_Supplementum_, with Extracts: Milton's Answer to the _Fides +Publica_ and the _Supplementum_ together in his _Pro Se +Defensio_, Aug. 1655: Account of that Book, with Specimens: +Milton's Disbelief in Morus's Denials of the Authorship of the +_Regii Sanguinis Clamor_: His Reasons, and his Reassertions of +the Charge in a Modified Form: His Notices of Dr. Crantzius and Ulac: +His Renewed Onslaughts on Morus: His Repetition of the Bontia +Accusation and others: His Examination of Morus's Printed +Testimonials: Ferocity of the Book to the last: Its Effects on +Morus.--Question of the Real Authorship of the _Regii Sanguinis +Clamor_ and of the Amount of Morus's Concern in it: The Du Moulin +Family: Dr. Peter Du Moulin the Younger the Real Author of the +_Regii Sanguinis Clamor_, but Morus the Active Editor and the +Writer of the Dedicatory Epistle: Du Moulin's own Account of the +whole Affair: His close Contact with Milton all the while, and Dread +of being found out.--Calm in Milton's Life after the Cessation of the +Morus-Salmasius Controversy: Home-Life in Petty France: Dabblings of +the Two Nephews in Literature: John Phillips's _Satyr against +Hypocrites_: Frequent Visitors at Petty France: Marvell, Needham, +Cyriack Skinner, &c.: The Viscountess Ranelagh, Mr. Richard Jones, +and the Boyle Connexion: Dr. Peter Du Moulin in that Connexion: +Milton's Private Sonnet on his Blindness, his Two Sonnets to Cyriack +Skinner, and his Sonnet to young Lawrence: Explanation of these Four +Sonnets.--_Scriptum Domini Protectoris contra Hispanos_: +Thirteen more Latin State-Letters of Milton for the Protector (Nos. +LXV.-LXXVII.), with Special Account of Count Bundt and the Swedish +Embassy in London: Count Bundt and Mr. Milton.--Increase of Light +Literature in London: Erotic Publications: John Phillips in Trouble +for such: Edward Phillips's London Edition of the Poems of Drummond +of Hawthornden: Milton's Cognisance of the same.--Henry Oldenburg +and Mr. Richard Jones at Oxford: Letters of Milton to Jones and +Oldenburg.--Thirteen more State-Letters of the Milton Series (Nos. +LXXVIII.-XC.): Importance of some of them. + +CHAP. +II. SECTION III.: From September 1656 to June 1657, or Through the +First Session of Oliver's Second Parliament.--Another Letter from +Milton to Mr. Richard Jones: Departure of Lady Ranelagh for Ireland: +Letter from Milton to Peter Heimbach: Milton's Second Marriage: His +Second Wife, Katharine Woodcock: Letter to Emeric Bigot: Milton's +Library and the Byzantine Historians: M. Stoupe: Ten more +State-Letters by Milton for the Protector (Nos. XCI.-C.): Morland, +Meadows, Durie, Lockhart, and other Diplomatists of the Protector, +back in London: More Embassies and Dispatches over Land and Sea: +Milton Standing and Waiting: His Thoughts about the Protectorate +generally. + + + + +BOOK II. + +JUNE 1657-SEPTEMBER 1658 + +HISTORY:--OLIVER'S SECOND PROTECTORATE. + +BIOGRAPHY:--MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE SECOND +PROTECTORATE. + + +CHAP. +I. Oliver's Second Protectorate: June 26, 1657-Sept. 3, 1658.--Regal +Forms and Ceremonial of the Second Protectorate: The Protector's +Family: The Privy Council: Retirement of Lambert: Death of Admiral +Blake: The French Alliance and Successes in Flanders: Siege and +Capture of Mardike: Other Foreign Relations of the Protectorate: +Special Envoys to Denmark, Sweden, and the United Provinces: Aims of +Cromwell's Diplomacy in Northern and Eastern Europe: Progress of his +English Church-Establishment: Controversy between John Goodwill and +Marchamont Needham: The Protector and the Quakers: Death of John +Lilburne: Death of Sexby: Marriage of the Duke of Buckingham to Mary +Fairfax: Marriages of Cromwell's Two Youngest Daughters: Preparations +for another Session of the Parliament: Writs for the Other House: +List of Cromwell's Peers.--Reassembling of the Parliament. Jan. 20, +1667-8: Cromwell's Opening Speech, with the Supplement by Fiennes: +Anti-Oliverian Spirit of the Commons: Their Opposition to the Other +House: Cromwell's Speech of Remonstrance: Perseverance of the Commons +in their Opposition: Cromwell's Last Speech and Dissolution of the +Parliament, Feb. 4, 1657-8.--State of the Government after the +Dissolution: The Dangers, and Cromwell's Dealings with them: His +Light Dealings with the Disaffected Commonwealth's Men: Threatened +Spanish Invasion from Flanders, and Ramifications of the Royalist +Conspiracy at Home: Arrests of Royalists, and Execution of Slingsby +and Hewit: The Conspiracy crushed: Death of Robert Rich: The Earl of +Warwick's Letter to Cromwell, and his Death: More Successes in +Flanders: Siege and Capture of Dunkirk: Splendid Exchanges of +Compliments between Cromwell and Louis XIV.: New Interference in +behalf of the Piedmontese Protestants, and Project of a Protestant +Council _De Propaganda Fide_: Prospects of the Church +Establishment: Desire of the Independents for a Confession of Faith: +Attendant Difficulties: Cromwell's Policy in the Affairs of the +Scottish Kirk: His Design for the Evangelization and Civilization of +the Highlands: His Grants to the Universities of Edinburgh and +Glasgow: His Council in Scotland: Monk at Dalkeith: Cromwell's +Intentions in the Cases of Biddle and James Nayler: Proposed New Act +for Restriction of the Press: Firmness and Grandeur of the +Protectorate in July 1658: Cromwell's Baronetcies and Knighthoods: +Willingness to call another Parliament: Death of Lady Claypole: +Cromwell's Illness and Last Days, with the Last Acts and Incidents of +his Protectorship. + +CHAP. +II. Milton's Life and Secretaryship through the Second Protectorate. +--Milton still in Office: Letter to Mr. Henry de Brass, with Milton's +Opinion of Sallust: Letters to Young Ranelagh and Henry Oldenburg at +Saumur: Morus in New Circumstances: Eleven more State-Letters of +Milton for the Protector (Nos. CI.-CXI.): Andrew Marvell brought in +as Assistant Foreign Secretary at last (Sept. 1657): John Dryden now +also in the Protector's Employment: Birth of Milton's Daughter by his +Second Wife: Six more State-Letters of Milton (Nos. CXII.-CXVII.): +Another Letter to Mr. Henry de Brass, and another to Peter Heimbach: +Comment on the latter: Deaths of Milton's Second Wife and her Child: +His two Nephews, Edward and John Phillips, at this date: Milton's +last Sixteen State-Letters for Oliver Cromwell (Nos. +CXVIII.-CXXXIII), including Two to Charles Gustavus of Sweden, Two on +a New Alarm of a Persecution of the Piedmontese Protestants, and +Several to Louis XIV. and Cardinal Mazarin: Importance of this last +Group of the State-Letters, and Review of the whole Series of +Milton's Performances for Cromwell: Last Diplomatic Incidents of the +Protectorate, and Andrew Marvell in connexion with them: Incidents of +Milton's Literary Life in this Period: Young Güntzer's +_Dissertatio_ and Young Kock's Phalæcians: Milton's Edition of +Raleigh's Cabinet Council: Resumption of the old Design of Paradise +Lost and actual Commencement of the Poem: Change from the Dramatic +Form to the Epic: Sonnet in Memory of his Deceased Wife. + + + + +BOOK III. + +SEPTEMBER 1658--MAY 1660. + +HISTORY:--THE PROTECTORATE OF RICHARD CROMWELL, THE ANARCHY, +MONK'S MARCH AND DICTATORSHIP, AND THE RESTORATION. + +RICHARD'S PROTECTORATE: SEPT. 3, 1658--MAY 25, 1659. + +THE ANARCHY:-- + +STAGE I.:--THE RESTORED RUMP: MAY 25, 1659--OCT. 13, 1659. + +STAGE II.:--THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE GOVERNMENT: OCT. 13, +1659--DEC. 26, 1659. + +STAGE III.:--SECOND RESTORATION OF THE RUMP, WITH MONK'S +MARCH FROM SCOTLAND: DEC. 26, 1659--FEB. 21, 1859-60. + +MONK'S DICTATORSHIP, THE RESTORED LONG PARLIAMENT, AND THE +RESTORATION. + +BIOGRAPHY:--MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH RICHARD'S +PROTECTORATE, THE ANARCHY, AND MONK'S DICTATORSHIP. + +CHAP. +I. FIRST SECTION. The Protectorate of Richard Cromwell: Sept. 3, +1858--May 25, 1659.--Proclamation of Richard: Hearty Response from +the Country and from Foreign Powers: Funeral of the late Protector: +Resolution for a New Parliament.--Difficulties in Prospect: List of +the most Conspicuous Props and Assessors of the New Protectorate: +Monk's Advice to Richard: Union of the Cromwellians against Charles +Stuart: Their Split among themselves into the Court or Dynastic Party +and the Army or Wallingford-House Party: Chiefs of the Two Parties: +Richard's Preference for the Court Party, and his Speech to the Army +Officers: Backing of the Army Party towards Republicanism or +Anti-Oliverianism: Henry Cromwell's Letter of Rebuke to Fleetwood: +Differences of the Two Parties as to Foreign Policy: The French +Alliance and the War with Spain: Relations to the King of +Sweden.--Meeting of Richard's Parliament (Jan. 27, 1658-9): The Two +Houses: Eminent Members of the Commons: Richard's Opening Speech: +Thurloe the Leader for Government in the Commons: Recognition of the +Protectorship and of the Other House, and General Triumph of the +Government Party: Miscellaneous Proceedings of the +Parliament.--Dissatisfaction of the Army Party: Their Closer +Connexion with the Republicans: New Convention of Officers at +Wallingford-House: Desborough's Speech; The Convention forbidden by +the Parliament and dissolved by Richard: Whitehall surrounded by the +Army, and Richard compelled to dissolve the Parliament.--Responsible +Position of Fleetwood, Desborough, Lambert, and the other Army +Chiefs: Bankrupt State of the Finances: Necessity for some kind of +Parliament: Phrenzy for "The Good Old Cause" and Demand for the +Restoration of the Rump: Acquiescence of the Army Chiefs: Lenthall's +Objections: First Fortnight of the Restored Rump: Lingering of +Richard in Whitehall: His Enforced Abdication. + +CHAP. +I. SECOND SECTION. The Anarchy, Stage I.: or The Restored Rump: May +25, 1659-Oct. 13, 1659.--Number of the Restored Rumpers and List of +them: Council of State of the Restored Rump: Anomalous Character and +Position of the New Government: Momentary Chance of a Civil War +between the Cromwellians and the Rumpers: Chance averted by the +Acquiescence of the Leading Cromwellians: Behaviour of Richard +Cromwell, Monk, Henry Cromwell, Lockhart, and Thurloe, individually: +Baulked Cromwellianism becomes Potential Royalism: Energetic +Proceedings of the Restored Rump: Their Ecclesiastical Policy and +their Foreign Policy: Treaty between France and Spain: Lockhart at +the Scene of the Negotiations as Ambassador for the Rump: Remodelling +and Reofficering of the Army, Navy, and Militia: Confederacy of Old +and New Royalists for a Simultaneous Rising: Actual Rising under Sir +George Booth in Cheshire: Lambert sent to quell the Insurrection: +Peculiar Intrigues round Monk at Dalkeith: Sir George Booth's +Insurrection crushed: Exultation of the Rump and Action taken against +the Chief Insurgents and their Associates: Question of the future +Constitution of the Commonwealth: Chaos of Opinions and Proposals: +James Harrington and his Political Theories: The Harrington or Rota +Club: Discontents in the Army: Petition, and Proposals of the +Officers of Lambert's Brigade: Severe Notice of the same by the Rump: +Petition and Proposals of the General Council of Officers: Resolute +Answers of the Rump: Lambert, Desborough, and Seven other Officers, +cashiered: Lambert's Retaliation and Stoppage of the Parliament. + +CHAP. +I. SECOND SECTION (continued). The Anarchy, Stage II.: or The +Wallingford-House Interregnum: Oct. 13, 1659-Dec. 26, 1659.--The +Wallingford-House Government: Its _Committee of Safety_: +Behaviour of Ludlow and other Leading Republicans: Death of +Bradshaw.--Army--Arrangements of the New Government: Fleetwood, +Lambert, and Desborough, the Military Chiefs: Declared Championship +of the Rump by Monk in Scotland: Negotiations opened with Monk, and +Lambert sent north to oppose him: Monk's Mock Treaty with Lambert and +the Wallingford-House Government through Commissioners in London: His +Preparations meanwhile in Scotland: His Advance from Edinburgh to +Berwick: Monk's Army and Lambert's.--Foreign Relations of the +Wallingford-House Government: Treaty between France and Spain: +Lockhart: Charles II. at Fontarabia: Gradual Improvement of his +Chances in England.--Discussions of the Wallingford-House Government +as to the future Constitution of the Commonwealth: The Vane Party and +the Whitlocke Party in these Discussions: Johnstone of Warriston, the +Harringtonians, and Ludlow: Attempted Conclusions.--Monk at +Coldstream: Universal Whirl of Opinion in favour of him and the +Rump: Utter Discredit of the Wallingford-House Rule in London: +Vacillation and Collapse of Fleetwood: The Rump Restored a second +time. + +CHAP. +I. SECOND SECTION (continued). The Anarchy, Stage III.: or Second +Restoration of the Rump, with Monk's March from Scotland: Dec. 26, +1659-Feb. 21, 1659.--The Rump after its Second Restoration: New +Council of State: Penalties on Vane, Lambert, Desborough, and the +other Chiefs of the Wallingford-House Interregnum: Case of Ludlow: +New Army Remodelling: Abatement of Republican Fervency among the +Rumpers: Dispersion of Lambert's Force in the North: Monk's March +from Scotland: Stages and Incidents of the March: His Halt at St. +Alban's and Message thence to the Rump: His Nearer View of the +Situation: His Entry into London, Feb. 3, 1659-60: His Ambiguous +Speech to the Rump, Feb. 6: His Popularity in London: Pamphlets and +Letters during his March and on his Arrival: Prynne's pamphlets on +behalf of the Secluded Members: Tumult in the City: Tumult suppressed +by Monk as Servant of the Rump: His Popularity gone: Blunder +retrieved by Monk's Reconciliation with the City and Declaration +against the Rump: _Roasting of the Rump in London_, Feb. 11, +1659-60: Monk Master of the City and of the Rump too; Consultations +with the Secluded Members: Bill of the Rump for Enlarging itself by +New Elections; Bill set aside by the Reseating of the Secluded +Members: Reconstitution of the Long Parliament under Monk's +Dictatorship. + +CHAP. +I. THIRD SECTION. Monk's Dictatorship, the Restored Long Parliament, +and the Drift to the Restoration: Feb. 21, 1659-60--April 25, +1660.--The Restored Long Parliament: New Council of State: Active Men +of the Parliament: Prynne, Arthur Annesley, and William Morrice: +Miscellaneous Proceedings of the Parliament: Release of old Royalist +Prisoners: Lambert committed to the Tower: Rewards and Honours for +Monk: "Old George" in the City: Revival of the Solemn League and +Covenant, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and all the Apparatus +of a Strict Presbyterian Church-Establishment: Cautious Measures for +a Political Settlement: The Real Question evaded and handed over to +another Parliament: Calling of the Convention Parliament and +Arrangements for the Same: Difficulty about a House of Lords: How +obviated: Last Day of the Long Parliament, March 16, 1659-60: Scene +in the House.--Monk and the Council of State left in charge: Annesley +the Managing Colleague of Monk: New Militia Act carried out: +Discontents among Monk's Officers and Soldiers: The Restoration of +Charles still very dubious: Other Hopes and Proposals for the moment: +The Kingship privately offered to Monk by the Republicans: Offer +declined: Bursting of the Popular Torrent of Royalism at last, and +Enthusiastic Demands for the Recall of Charles: Elections to the +Convention Parliament going on meanwhile: Haste of hundreds to be +foremost in bidding Charles welcome: Admiral Montague and his Fleet +in the Thames: Direct Communications at last between Monk and +Charles: Greenville the Go-between: Removal of Charles and his Court +from Brussels to Breda: Greenville sent back from Breda with a +Commission for Monk and Six other Documents.--Broken-spiritedness of +the Republican Leaders, but formidable Residue of Republicanism in +the Army: Monk's Measures for Paralysing the same: Successful Device +of Charges; Montague's Fleet in Motion: Escape of Lambert from the +Tower: His Rendezvous in Northamptonshire: Gathering of a Wreck of +the Republicans round him: Dick Ingoldsby sent to crush him: The +Encounter near Daventry, April 22, 1660, and Recapture of Lambert: +Great Review of the London Militia, April 24, the day before the +Meeting of the Convention Parliament: Impatient longing for Charles: +Monk still impenetrable, and the Documents from Breda reserved. + +CHAP. +II. FIRST SECTION. Milton's Life and Secretaryship through Richard's +Protectorate: Sept. 1658-May 1659.--Milton and Marvell still in the +Latin Secretaryship: Milton's first Five State-Letters for Richard +(Nos. CXXXIII.-CXXXVII.): New Edition of Milton's _Defensio +Prima_: Remarkable Postscript to that Edition: Six more +State-Letters for Richard (Nos. CXXXVIII.-CXLIII.): Milton's +Relations to the Conflict of Parties round Richard and in Richard's +Parliament: His probable Career but for his Blindness: His continued +Cromwellianism in Politics, but with stronger private Reserves, +especially on the Question of an Established Church: His Reputation +that of a man of the Court-Party among the Protectoratists: His +_Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes_: Account of +the Treatise, with Extracts: The Treatise more than a Plea for +Religious Toleration: Church-Disestablishment the Fundamental Idea: +The Treatise addressed to Richard's Parliament, and chiefly to Vane +and the Republicans there: No Effect from it: Milton's Four last +State-Letters for Richard (Nos. CXLIV.-CXLVII.): His Private Epistle +to Jean Labadie, with Account of that Person: Milton in the month +between Richard's Dissolution of his Parliament and his formal +Abdication: His Two State-Letters for the Restored Rump (Nos. +CXLVIII.-CXLIX.) + +CHAP. +II. SECOND SECTION. Milton's Life and Secretaryship through the +Anarchy: May 1659--Feb. 1659-60.--_First Stage of the Anarchy, or +The Restored Rump_ (May--Oct. 1659):--Feelings and Position of +Milton in the new State of Things: His Satisfaction on the whole, and +the Reasons for it: Letter of Moses Wall to Milton: Renewed Agitation +against Tithes and Church Establishment: Votes on that Subject in the +Rump: Milton's _Considerations touching the Likeliest Means to +remove Hirelings out of the Church_: Account of the Pamphlet, with +Extracts: Its thorough-going Voluntaryism: Church-Disestablishment +demanded absolutely, without Compensation for Vested Interests: The +Appeal fruitless, and the Subject ignored by the Rump: Dispersion of +that Body by Lambert.--_Second Stage of the Anarchy, or The +Wallingford-House Interruption_ (Oct.-Dec. 1659):--Milton's +Thoughts on Lambert's coup d'etat in his _Letter to a Friend +concerning the Ruptures of the Commonwealth_: The Letter in the +main against Lambert and in Defence of the Rump: Its extraordinary +practical Proposal of a Government by two Permanent Central Bodies: +The Proposal compared with the actual Administration by the +_Committee of Safety_ and the Wallingford-House Council of +Officers: Milton still nominally in the Latin Secretaryship: Money +Warrant of Oct. 25, 1659, relating to Milton, Marvell, and +Eighty-four other Officials: No Trace of actual Service by Milton for +the new _Committee of Safety_: His Meditations through the +Treaty between the Wallingford-House Government and Monk in Scotland: +His Meditations through the Committee-Discussions as to the future +Model of Government; His Interest in this as now the Paramount +Question, and his Cognisance of the Models of Harrirgton and the Rota +Club: Whitlocke's new Constitution disappointing to Milton: Two more +Letters to Oldenburg and Young Ranelagh: Gossip from abroad in +connection with these Letters: Morns again, and the Council of French +Protestants at Londun: End of the Wallingford-House +Interruption.--_Third Stage of ike Anarchy, or The Second +Restoration of the Rump_ (Dec. 1659-Feb. 1659-60):--Milton's +Despondency at this Period: Abatement of his Faith in the Rump: His +Thoughts during the March of Monk from Scotland and after Monk's +Arrival in London: His Study of Monk near at hand and Mistrust of the +Omens: His Interest for a while in the Question of the +Preconstitution of the new Parliament promised by the Rump: His +Anxiety that it should be a Republican Parliament by mere +Self-enlargement of the Rump: His Preparation of a new Republican +Pamphlet: The Publication postponed by Monk's sudden Defection from +the Rump, the Roasting of the Rump in the City, and the Restoration +of the Secluded Members to their places in the Parliament: Milton's +Despondency complete. + +CHAP. +II. THIRD SECTION. Milton through Monk's Dictatorship: Feb. +1659-60--May 1660.--First Edition of Milton's _Ready and Easy Way +to Establish a Free Commonwealth_: Account of the Pamphlet, with +Extracts: Vehement Republicanism of the Pamphlet, with its Prophetic +Warnings: Peculiar Central Idea of the Pamphlet, viz. the Project of +a Grand Council or Parliament to sit in Perpetuity, with a Council of +State for its Executive: Passages expounding this Idea: Additional +Suggestion of Local and County Councils or Committees: Daring +Peroration of the Pamphlet: Milton's Recapitulation of the Substance +of it in a short Private Letter to Monk entitled _Present Means and +Brief Delineation of a Free Commonwealth_: Wide Circulation of +Milton's Pamphlet: The Response by Monk and the Parliament of the +Secluded Members in their Proceedings of the next fortnight: +Dissolution of the Parliament after Arrangements for its Successor: +Royalist Squib predicting Milton's speedy Acquaintance with the +Hangman at Tyburn: Another Squib against Milton, called _The +Censure of the Rota upon Mr. Milton's Book_: Specimens of this +Burlesque: Republican Appeal to Monk, called _Plain English_: +Reply to the same, with another attack on Milton: Popular Torrent of +Royalism during the forty days of Interval between the Parliament of +the Secluded Members and the Convention Parliament (March 16, +1659-60--April 25, 1660): Caution of Monk and the Council of State: +Dr. Matthew Griffith and his Royalist Sermon, _The Fear of God and +the King_: Griffith imprisoned for his Sermon, but forward +Republicans checked or punished at the same time: Needham discharged +from his Editorship and Milton from his Secretaryship: Resoluteness +of Milton in his Republicanism: His _Brief Notes on Dr. Griffith's +Sermon_: Second Edition of his _Ready and Easy Way to Establish +a Free Commonwealth_: Remarkable Additions and Enlargements in +this Edition: Specimens of these: Milton and Lambert the last +Republicans in the field: Roger L'Estrange's Pamphlet against Milton, +called _No Blind Guides_: Larger Attack on Milton by G. S., +called _The Dignity of Kingship Asserted_: Quotations from that +Book; Meeting of the Convention Parliament, April 25, 1660: Delivery +by Greenville of the Six Royal Letters from Breda, April 28-May 1, +and Votes of both Houses for the Recall of Charles: Incidents of the +following Week: Mad impatience over the Three Kingdoms for the King's +Return: He and his Court at the Hague, preparing for the Voyage home: +Panic among the surviving Regicides and other prominent Republicans: +Flight of Needham to Holland and Absconding of Milton from his house +in Petty France: Last Sight of Milton in that house. + + * * * * * + + + +BOOK I. + +SEPTEMBER 1654--JUNE 1657. + +HISTORY:--OLIVER'S FIRST PROTECTORATE CONTINUED. + +BIOGRAPHY:--MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE FIRST +PROTECTORATE CONTINUED. + + + + +THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON, + +WITH THE + +HISTORY OF HIS TIME. + + * * * * * + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OLIVER'S FIRST PROTECTORATE CONTINUED: SEPT. 3, 1654-JUNE 26, 1657. + + +Oliver's First Protectorate extended over three years and six months +in all, or from December 16, 1653 to June 26, 1657. The first nine +months of it, as far as to September 1654, have been already +sketched; and what remains divides itself very distinctly into three +Sections, as follows:-- + +Section I:--_From Sept._ 3, 1654 _to Jan._ 22, 1654-5. This +Section, comprehending four months and a half, may be entitled OLIVER +AND HIS FIRST PARLIAMENT. + +Section II:--_From Jan._ 22, 1654-5 _to Sept._ 17, 1656. +This Section, comprehending twenty months, may be entitled BETWEEN +THE PARLIAMENTS, OR THE TIME OF ARBITRARINESS. + +Section III:--_From Sept._ 17, 1656 _to June_ 26, 1657. +This Section, comprehending nine months, may be entitled OLIVER AND +THE FIRST SESSION OF HIS SECOND PARLIAMENT. + +We map out the present chapter accordingly. + + + + +SECTION I. + +OLIVER AND HIS FIRST PARLIAMENT: +SEPT, 3, 1654-JAN. 22, 1654-5. + +MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF THE PROTECTORATE: ITS +COMPOSITION: ANTI-OLIVERIANS NUMEROUS IN IT: THEIR FOUR DAYS' DEBATE +IN CHALLENGE OF CROMWELL'S POWERS: DEBATE STOPPED BY CROMWELL: HIS +SPEECH IN THE PAINTED CHAMBER: SECESSION OF SOME FROM THE PARLIAMENT: +ACQUIESCENCE OF THE REST BY ADOPTION OF _THE RECOGNITION_: +SPIRIT AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE PARLIAMENT STILL MAINLY +ANTI-OLIVERIAN: THEIR FOUR MONTHS' WORK IN REVISION OF THE +PROTECTORAL CONSTITUTION: CHIEF DEBATES IN THOSE FOUR MONTHS: +QUESTION OF THE PROTECTOR'S NEGATIVES: OTHER INCIDENTAL WORK OF THE +PARLIAMENT: QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS TOLERATION AND OF THE SUPPRESSION +OF HERESIES AND BLASPHEMIES: COMMITTEE AND SUB-COMMITTEE ON THIS +SUBJECT: BAXTER'S PARTICIPATION: TENDENCY TO A LIMITED TOLERATION +ONLY, AND VOTE AGAINST THE PROTECTOR'S PREROGATIVE OF MORE: CASE OF +JOHN RIDDLE, THE SOCINIAN.--INSUFFICIENCY NOW OF OUR FORMER SYNOPSIS +OF ENGLISH SECTS AND HERESIES: NEW SECTS AND DENOMINATIONS: THE +FIFTH-MONARCHY MEN: THE RANTERS: THE MUGGLETONIANS AND OTHER STRAY +FANATICS: BOEHMENISTS AND OTHER MYSTICS: THE QUAKERS OR FRIENDS: +ACCOUNT OF GEORGE FOX, AND SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE QUAKERS TO +THE YEAR 1654.--POLICY OF THE PARLIAMENT WITH THEIR BILL FOR A NEW +CONSTITUTION: PARLIAMENT OUTWITTED BY CROMWELL AND DISSOLVED: NO +RESULT. + +Before the 3rd of September, 1654, the day fixed by the +Constitutional Instrument for the meeting of the First Parliament of +the Protectorate, the 460 newly elected members, or the major part of +them, had flocked to Westminster. They were a gathering of the most +representative men of all the three nations that could be regarded as +in any sense adherents of the Commonwealth. All the Council of State, +except the Earl of Mulgrave and Lord Lisle, had been returned, some +of them by two or three different constituencies. Secretary Thurloe +had been returned; Cromwell's two sons, Richard and Henry, had been +returned, Henry as member for Cambridge University; several gentlemen +holding posts in his Highness's household had been returned. Of the +old English peers, there had been returned the Earl of Salisbury, the +Earl of Stamford, and Lord Dacres; and of the titular nobility there +were Lord Herbert, Lord Eure, Lord Grey of Groby, and the great +Fairfax. Among men of Parliamentary fame already were ex-Speaker +Lenthall, Whitlocke, Sir Walter Earle, Dennis Bond, Sir Henry Vane +_Senior_, Sir Arthur Hasilrig, Thomas Scott, William Ashurst, +Sir James Harrington, John Carew, Robert Wallop, and Sir Thomas +Widdrington; and of Army or Navy men, of former Parliamentary +experience or not, there were Colonels Whalley, Robert Lilburne, +Barkstead, Harvey, Stapley, Purefoy, Admiral Blake, and +ex-Major-General Harrison. Some of these had been returned by two +constituencies. Bradshaw was a member, with two of the Judges, Hale +and Thorpe, and ex-Judge Glynne. Lawyers besides were not wanting; +and Dr. Owen, though a divine, represented Oxford University. One +missed chiefly, among old names, those of Sir Henry Vane +_Junior_, Henry Marten, Selden, Algernon Sidney, and Ludlow; but +there were many new faces. Among the thirty members sent from +Scotland were the Earl of Linlithgow, Sir Alexander Wedderburn, +Colonel William Lockhart, the Laird of Swinton, and the English +Colonels Okey and Read. Ireland had also returned military Englishmen +in Major-General Hardress Waller, Colonels Hewson, Sadler, Axtell, +Venables, and Jephson, with Lord Broghill, Sir Charles Coote, Sir +John Temple, Sir Robert King, and others, describable as Irish or +Anglo-Irish.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Complete list gives in Parl. Hist, III. 1428-1433.] + +The 3rd of September, selected as Cromwell's "Fortunate Day," +chancing to be a Sunday, the Parliament had only a brief meeting with +him that day, in the Painted Chamber, after service in the Abbey, and +his opening speech was deferred till next day, On Monday, +accordingly, it was duly given, but not till after another sermon in +the Abbey, preached by Thomas Goodwin, in which Cromwell found much +that he liked. It was a political sermon, on "Israel's bringing-out +of Egypt, through a Wilderness, by many signs and wonders, towards a +Place of Rest,"--Egypt interpreted as old Prelacy and the Stuart role +in England, the Wilderness as all the intermediate course of the +English Revolution, and the Place of Rest as the Protectorate or what +it might lead to. Goodwill seems to have described with special +reprobation that latest part of the Wilderness in which the cry had +arisen for sheer Levelling in the State and sheer Voluntaryism in the +Church; and Cromwell, starting in that key himself, addressed the +Parliament, with noble earnestness, in what would now be called a +highly "conservative" speech. Glancing back to the Barebones +Parliament and beyond, he sketched, the proceedings of himself and +the Council and the great successes of the Commonwealth during the +intervening eight months and a half, and hopefully committed to the +Parliament the further charge of Order and Settlement throughout the +three nations, Then he withdrew. That same day they chose Lenthall +for their Speaker, and Scobell for their Clerk.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Cromwell's Second Speech (Carlyle, III. 16-37); Commons +Journals of dates.] + +Cromwell's hopes were blasted. The political division of the +population of the British Islands was now into OLIVERIANS, REPUBLICAN +IRRECONCILABLES, PRESBYTERIANS, and STUARTISTS, the two last +denominations hardly separable by any clear line, Now, in this new +Parliament, though there were many staunch Oliverians, and no avowed +Stuartists, the Republican Irreconcilables and the Presbyterians +together formed a majority. They needed only to coalesce, and the +Parliament called by Oliver's own writs would be an Anti-Oliverian +Parliament. And this is what happened. + +No sooner was the House constituted, with about 320 members present +out of the total 460, than it proposed for its first business what +was called "The Matter of the Government"; by which was meant a +review of that document of forty-two Articles, called the +_Government of the Commonwealth_, which was the constitutional +basis of the Protectorate. On Thursday, Sept. 7, accordingly, they +addressed themselves to the vital question of the whole document as +propounded in the first of the Articles. "Whether the House shall +approve that the Government shall be in one Single Person and a +Parliament": such was the debate that day in Grand Committee, after a +division on the previous question whether they should go into +Committee. On this previous question 136 had voted _No_, with +Sir Charles Wolseley and Mr. Strickland (two of the Council of State) +for their tellers, but 141 had voted _Yea_, with Bradshaw and +Colonel Birch for their tellers. In other words, it had been carried +by a majority of five that it fell within the province of the House +to determine whether the Single-Person element in the Government of +the Commonwealth, already introduced somehow as a matter of fact, +should be continued. On this subject the House debated through the +rest of that sitting, and the whole of the next, and the next, and +the next,--i.e. till Monday, Sept 11. Bradshaw, Hasilrig, and Scott +took the lead for the Republicans, not that they hoped to unseat +Cromwell, but that they wanted to assert the paramount authority of +Parliament, and convert the existing Protectorship into a derivative +from the House then sitting. Lawrence, Wolseley, Strickland, and +others of the Council of State, describable as the ministerial +members, maintained the existing constitution of the Protectorate, +and pointed out the dangers that would arise from plucking up a good +practical basis for mere reasons of theory. Matthew Hale interposed +at last with a middle motion, substantially embodying the Republican +view, but affirming the Protectorship at once, and reserving +qualification. All in all, there was great excitement, much +confusion, and an outbreak from some members of very violent language +about Cromwell.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates: Parl. Hist. III. 1445; +Godwin, IV. 116-125.] + +What might have been the issue had a vote come on can only be +guessed. Things were not allowed to go that length. On Tuesday, Sept, +12, the members, going to the House, found the doors locked, soldiers +in and around Westminster Hall, and a summons from the Lord Protector +to meet him again in the Painted Chamber. Having assembled there, +they listened to Cromwell's "Third Speech." It is one of the most +powerful of all his speeches. It began with a long review of his life +in general and the steps by which he had recently been brought to the +Protectorship. It proceeded then to a recitation of what he called +"the witnesses" to his Government, or proofs of its validity--the +Witness _above_, or God's manifest Providence in leading him to +where he was; the Witness _within_, or his own consciousness of +integrity; and the Witnesses _without_, or testimonies of +confidence he had received from the Army, the Judges, the City of +London, other cities, counties and boroughs, and public bodies of all +sorts. "I believe," he said, "that, if the learnedest men in this +nation were called to show a precedent, equally clear, of a +Government so many ways approved of, they would not in all their +search, find it." Then, coming to the point, he asked what right the +present Parliament had to come after all those witnesses and +challenge his authority. Had they not been elected under writs issued +by him, in which writs it was expressly inserted, by regulation of +Article XII. of the Constitutional Instrument of the Protectorate, +"That the persons elected shall not have power to alter the +Government as it is hereby settled in one Single Person and a +Parliament"? On this point he was very emphatic. "That _your_ +judgments, who are persons sent from all parts of the nation under +the notion of approving this Government--for _you_ to disown or +not to own it; for _you_ to act with Parliamentary authority +especially in the disowning of it, contrary to the very fundamental +things, yea against the very root of this Establishment; to sit and +not own the Authority by which you sit:--is that which I believe +astonisheth more men than myself." A revision of the Constitution of +the Protectorate in _circumstantials_ he would not object to, +but the _fundamentals_ must be left untouched. And let those +hearing him be under no mistake as to his own resolution. "The wilful +throwing away of this Government, such as it is, so owned of God, so +approved by men, so witnessed to in the fundamentals of it as was +mentioned above, were a thing which,--and in reference not to +_my_ good, but to the good of these Nations and Posterity,--I +can sooner be willing to be rolled into my grave, and buried with +infamy, than I can give my consent unto." He had therefore called +them now that they might come to an understanding. There was a +written parchment in the lobby of the Parliament House to which he +requested the signatures of such as might see fit. The doors of the +Parliament House would then be open for all such, to proceed +thenceforth as a free Parliament in all things, subject to the single +condition expressed in that parchment. "You have an absolute +Legislative Power in all things that can possibly concern the good +and interest of the public; and I think you may make these Nations +happy by this settlement." With so much great work before them, with +the three nations looking on in hope, with foreign nations looking on +with wonder or worse feelings, had they not a great +responsibility?[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carlyle's Cromwell, III. 37-61.] + +Bradshaw, Hasilrig, and others, would not sign the document offered +them, which was a brief engagement "to be true and faithful to the +Lord Protector and the Commonwealth," and not to propose alteration +of the Government as "settled in a single Person and a Parliament." +The Parliament, therefore, lost these leaders; but within an hour +"The Recognition," as it came to be called, was signed by a hundred +members, and the number was raised to 140 before the day was over, +and ultimately to about 300. And so, with this goodly number, the +House went on. But the Anti-Oliverian leaven was still strong in it. +This appeared even in the immediate dealings of the House with the +Recognition itself. They first (Sept, 14) declared that it should not +be construed to comprehend the whole Constitutional Instrument of the +Protectorate, but only the main principle of the first Article; and +then (Sept. 18) they converted the Recognition into a resolution of +their own, requiring all members to sign it, Next, in order to get +rid of the stumbling-block of the First Article altogether, they +resolved (Sept. 19) that the Supreme Legislative authority was and +did reside in "One Person and the People assembled in Parliament," +and also (Sept. 20) that Oliver Cromwell was and should he Lord +Protector for life, and that there should be Triennial Parliaments. +Thus free to advance through the rest of the Forty-two Articles at +their leisure, they made that thenceforward almost their sole work. +Through the rest of September, the whole of October, and part of +November, the business went on in Committee, with the result of a new +and more detailed Constitution of the whole Government in sixty +Articles instead of the Forty-two. A Bill for enacting this +Constitution, passed the first reading on the 22nd of December, and +the second on the 23rd; it then went back into Committee for +amendments; and in January 1654-5 the House was debating these +amendments and others.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates given and of Nov. 7, and +Godwin, IV, 130-132.] + +In the long course of the total debate perhaps the most interesting +divisions had been one in Committee on October 16, and one in the +House on November 10. In the first the question was whether the +Protectorship should be hereditary, and it had been carried by 200 +votes to 60 that it should _not_. This was not strictly an +Anti-Oliverian demonstration; for, though Lambert was the mover for a +hereditary Protectorship in Cromwell's family, many of the undoubted +Oliverians voted in the majority, nor does there seem to be any proof +that Lambert had acted by direct authority from Cromwell. More +distinctly an Anti-Oliverian vote had been that of Nov. 10, which was +on a question of deep interest to Cromwell: viz. the amount of his +prerogative in the form of a negative on Bills trenching on +fundamentals. In his last speech he had himself indicated these +"fundamentals," which ought to be safe against attack even by +Parliament--one of them being Liberty of Conscience, another the +Control of the Militia as belonging to the Protector _in +conjunction with_ the Parliament, and a third the provision, that +every Parliament should sit but for a fixed period. In all other +matters he was content with a negative for twenty days only; but on +bills trenching on these fundamentals he required a negative +absolutely. The question had come to the vote in a very subtle form. +The motion of the Opposition was that Bills should become Law without +the Protector's consent after twenty days, "provided that such Bills +contain nothing in them contrary to such matters wherein the +Parliament shall think fit to give a negative to the Lord Protector," +while the amendment of the Oliverians or Court-party altered the +wording into "wherein the Single Person and the Parliament shall +declare a negative to be in the Single Person," thus giving Cromwell +himself, and not the Parliament only, a right of deciding where a +negative should lie. On this question the Oliverians were beaten by +109 votes to 85, and the decision would probably have caused a +rupture had not the Opposition conceded a good deal when they went on +to settle the matters wherein Parliament _would_ grant the +Protector a negative.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Journals of dates and Godwin, IV. 134-139.] + +As we have said, almost the sole occupation of the Parliament was +this revision of the flooring on which itself and the Protectorate +stood. They did, however, some little pieces of work besides. They +undertook a revision of the Ordinances that had been passed by the +Protector and his Council, and also of the Acts of the Barebones +Parliament; and they proposed Bills of their own to supersede some of +these,--especially a new Bill for the Ejection of Scandalous +Ministers, and a new Bill for Reform of the Court of Chancery. But of +all the incidental work undertaken by this Parliament none seems to +have been undertaken with so much gusto as that which consisted in +efforts for the suppression of Heresy and Blasphemy. Here was the +natural outcome of the Presbyterianism with which the Parliament was +charged, and here also the Parliament was very vexatious to the soul +of the Lord-Protector. + +After all, this portion of the work of the Parliament can hardly be +called incidental. It was part and parcel of their main work of +revising the Constitution, and it was inter-wrought with the question +of Cromwell's negatives. Article XXXVII. of the original Instrument +of the Protectorate had guaranteed liberty of worship and of +preaching outside the Established Church to "such as profess faith in +Jesus Christ," and Cromwell, in his last speech, had noted this as +one of the "fundamentals" he was bound to preserve. How did the +Parliament meet the difficulty? Very ingeniously. They said that the +phrase "such as profess faith in Jesus Christ" was a vague phrase, +requiring definition; and, the whole House having formed itself into +a Committee for Religion, and this Committee having appointed a +working sub-Committee of about fourteen, the sub-Committee was +empowered to take steps for coming to a definition. Naturally enough, +in such a matter, the sub-Committee wanted clerical advice; and, each +member of the sub-Committee having nominated one divine, there was a +small Westminster Assembly over again to illuminate Parliament on the +dark subject. Dr. Owen and Dr. Goodwin were there, with Nye, Sidrach +Simpson, Stephen Marshall, Mr. Vines, Mr. Manton, and others. Mr. +Richard Baxter had the honour of being one, having been asked to +undertake the duty by Lord Breghill, when the venerable ex-Primate +Usher had declined it; and it is from Baxter that we have the fullest +account of the proceedings. When he came to town from Kidderminster, +he found the rest of the divines already busy in drawing up a list of +"fundamentals of faith," the profession of which was to be the +necessary title to the toleration promised. Knowing "how ticklish a +business the enumeration of fundamentals was," Baxter tried, he says, +to stop that method, and suggested that acceptance of the Creed, the +Lord's P[r]ayer, and the Decalogue would be a sufficient test. This +did not please the others; Baxter almost lost his character for +orthodoxy by his proposal; Dr. Owen, in particular, forgetful of his +own past, was now bull-mad for the "fundamentals." They were drawn +out at last, either sixteen or twenty of them in all, and handed to +Parliament through the sub-Committee. Thus illuminated, Parliament, +after a debate extending over six days (Dec. 4-15, 1654), discharged +its mind fully on the Toleration Question. They resolved that there +should certainly be a toleration for tender consciences outside the +Established Church, but that it should not extend to "Atheism, +Blasphemy, damnable Heresies to be particularly enumerated by this +Parliament, Popery, Prelacy, Licentiousness or Profaneness," nor yet +to "such as shall preach, print, or avowedly maintain anything +contrary to the fundamental principles of Doctrine held forth in the +public profession,"--said "fundamental principles" being the +"fundamentals" of Dr. Owen and his friends, so far as the House +should see fit to pass them. They were already in print, with the +Scriptural proofs, for the use of members, and the first of them +_was_ passed the same day. It was "That the Holy Scripture is +that rule of knowing God, and living unto Him, which whoso does not +believe cannot be saved." The others would come in time. Meanwhile it +was involved in the Resolution of the House that the Protector +himself should have no veto on any Bills for restraining or punishing +Atheists, Blasphemers, damnable Heretics, Papists, Prelatists, or +deniers of any of the forthcoming Christian fundamentals.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of days given; Neal, IV. 97-100; +Baxter's Life, 197-205. On this visit to town, Baxter had the +honour to preach before Cromwell, having never done so till then, +"save once long before when Cromwell was an inferior man among +other auditors." He had also the honour of two long interviews with +Cromwell, the first with one or two others present, the second in +full Council. They seem to have been reciprocally disagreeable. On +both occasions, according to Baxter, Cromwell talked enormously +for the most part "slowly" and "tediously" to Baxter's taste, but +with passionate outbreaks against the Parliament. On the second +occasion the topic was Liberty of Conscience, and what was being +done in the Subcommittee and by the Divines on the subject. Baxter +ventured to hint that he had put his views on paper and that it +might save time if his Highness would read them. "He received the +paper after, but I scarce believe that he ever read it; for I saw +that what he learned must be from himself--being more disposed to +speak many hours than to hear one, and little heeding what another +said when he had spoken himself." Cromwell had made up his mind +about Baxter long ago (Vol. III. p. 386), but had apparently now +given him another trial, on the faith of his reputed liberality on +the Toleration question. But Baxter did not gain upon him.] + +As if to show how much in earnest they were on this whole subject, +the House had at that moment the notorious Anti-Trinitarian John +Biddle in their custody. Since 1644, when he was a schoolmaster in +Gloucester, this mild man had been in prison again and again for his +opinions, and the wonder was that the Presbyterians had not succeeded +in bringing him to the scaffold in 1648 under their tremendous +Ordinance of that year. His Socinian books were then known over +England and even on the Continent, and he would certainly have been +the first capital victim under the Ordinance if the Presbyterians had +continued in power. At large since 1651, he had been living rather +quietly in London, earning his subsistence as a Greek reader for the +press, but also preaching regularly on Sundays to a small Socinian +congregation. In accordance with the general policy of the Government +since Cromwell had become master, he had been left unmolested. The +orthodox had been on the watch, however, and another Socinian book of +Biddle's, called _A Two-fold Catechism_, published in 1654, had +given them the opportunity they wanted. For this book Biddle had been +arrested on the 12th of December, and he had been brought before the +House on his knees and committed to prison on the 13th. The views +which the House were then formulating on the Limits of Toleration in +the abstract may be said therefore to have been illustrated over Mr. +Biddle's body in the concrete. His case came up again on the 15th of +January, when the House, after hearing with horror some extracts from +his books, ordered them to be burnt by the hangman, and at the same +time instructed a Committee to prepare a Bill for punishing him. The +punishment, if the Presbyterians could succeed in falling back on +their Parliamentary Ordinance of May 1648, was to be death.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Ath. III. 593-598; Commons Journals of dates.] + +It was really of very great consequence to the Commonwealth of the +Protectorate what theory of Toleration should be adopted into its +Constitution, whether the Parliament's or Cromwell's. For the ferment +of religious and irreligious speculation of all kinds in the three +nations was now something prodigious, and there were widely diffused +denominations of dissent and heresy that had not been in existence +ten years before, when the Long Parliament and the Westminster +Assembly first discussed the Toleration Question. Our synopsis of the +English sects and Heresies of 1644 (Vol. III. 143-159) is not, +indeed, wholly out of date for 1654, but it would require extensions +and modifications to adjust it accurately to the latter year. There +had been the natural flux and reflux of ideas during the intervening +decade, the waning of some sects and singularities that had no deep +root, the interblending of others, and new bursts in the teeming +chaos. _Atheists_, Sceptics_, _Mortalists_ or _Materialists_, +_Anti-Scripturists_, _Anti-Trinitarians_ or _Socinians_, _Arians_, +_Anti-Sabbatarians_, _Seekers_, and _Divorcers_ or _Miltonists_: all +these terms were still in the vocabulary of the orthodox, describing +persons or bodies of persons of whose opinions the Civil Magistrate +was bound to take account. Sects, on the other hand, that had been on +the black list ten years ago had now been admitted to respectability. +_Baptists_ or _Anabaptists_, _Antinomians, _Brownists_, nay even +INDEPENDENTS generally, had been regarded in 1644 as dark and +dangerous schismatics; but now, save in the private colloquies or +controversial tracts of Presbyterians, no feeling of horror attached +to those names. INDEPENDENTS, indeed, were now the Lords of the +Commonwealth, and _Anabaptists_ and _Antinomians_ were in high +places, so that the most orthodox Presbyterians found themselves side +by side with them in private gatherings and committees. In the +Established Church of the Protectorate there was to be a +comprehension of Presbyterians, Independents, and such Baptists and +other really Evangelical Sectaries as might be willing; and, +accordingly, the question of mere Toleration outside the Established +Church no longer concerned the Evangelical sects lying immediately +beyond ordinary Independency. If, from objection to the principle of +an Establishment, they chose to remain outside, they would have +toleration there as a matter of course. To make up, however, for this +removal of so many of the old Sectaries from all practical interest +in the question on their own account, there were new religious +denominations of such strange ways and tendencies, such unknown +relations to anything hitherto recognised as Orthodoxy or as Heresy, +that the poor Civil Magistrate, or even the coolest Abstract +Tolerationist, in contemplating them, might well be puzzled. The +following is a list of the chief of these new Sects that had sprung +up since 1644:-- + +FIFTH-MONARCHY MEN:--At first sight this does not appear a new sect, +but merely a continuation of the old MILLENARIES or CHILIASTS (Vol. +III, pp. 152-153), who believed that the Personal Reign of Christ on +Earth for a thousand years was approaching. The change of name, +however, indicates greater precision in the belief, and also greater +intensity. According to the wild system of Universal Chronology then +in vogue, the past History of the World, on this side of the Flood, +had consisted of four great successive Empires or Monarchies--the +Assyrian, which ended B.C. 531; the Persian, which ended B.C. 331; +the Macedonian, or Greek Empire of Alexander, which was made to +stretch to B.C. 44; and the Roman, which had begun B.C. 44, with the +Accession of Augustus Cæsar, and which had included, though people +might not see how, all that had happened on the Earth since then. But +this last Monarchy was tottering, and a Fifth Universal Monarchy was +at hand. It was that foreshadowed in Rev. xx.: "And I saw an Angel +come down from Heaven, having the key of the Bottomless Pit and a +great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the Dragon, that great +serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand +years, and cast him into the Bottomless Pit, and shut him up, and set +a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the +thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed +a little season. And I saw Thrones, and they sat upon them, and +judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were +beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the worship of God, and +which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had +received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they +lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the +dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." This +prophecy was the property of all Christians, and might receive +different interpretations. The literal interpretation, favoured by +some theologians, was that, at some date fast approaching, Christ +would reappear visibly on Earth, accompanied by the re-embodied souls +of dead saints and martyrs, while the rest of the dead slept on, and +that in the glorious reign of Righteousness and the subjugation of +all Evil thus begun for a thousand years men then living, or the true +saints among them, might partake. This interpretation, though scouted +by the more rational theologians, had seized on many of the more +fervid English Independents and Sectaries, so that they had begun to +see, in the great events of their own time and land, the dazzling +edge of the near Millennium. The doctrine had caught the souls of +Harrison and other men of action, hitherto classed as Anabaptists or +Seekers. Now, so far there was no harm in it, nor could any of the +orthodox who rejected it for themselves dare to treat it as one of +the heresies to be restrained by the Civil Magistrate. Evidently, +however, there was a root of danger. What if the Fifth-Monarchy men +should make it part of their faith that the saints could accelerate +the Fifth Monarchy, and that it was their duty to do so? Then their +tenet might have strange practical effects upon English politics. +Already, in the time of the Barebones Parliament, there had been +warnings of this, the Fifth-Monarchy men there, or outside the +Parliament, having distinguished themselves by an ultra-Republicanism +which verged on Communism, and also by their zeal for pure +Voluntaryism in Religion and the abolition of a paid Ministry and all +express Church machinery. The fact had not escaped Cromwell, and in +his speech at the opening of the present Parliament he had taken +notice of it. In that very speech he had singled out for remark "the +mistaken notion of the Fifth Monarchy." It was a notion, he admitted, +held by many good and sincere men; nay it was a notion he honoured +and could find a high meaning in. "But for men, on this principle, to +betitle themselves that they are the only men to rule kingdoms, +govern nations, and give laws to people, and determine of property +and liberty and everything else,--upon such a pretension as this: +truly they had need to give clear manifestations of God's presence +with them, before wise men will receive or submit to their +conclusions." If they were notions only, he added, they were best +left alone; for "notions will hurt none but those who have them." +But, when the notions were turned into practice, and proposals were +made for abrogation of Property and Magistracy to smooth the way for +the Fifth Monarchy, then one must remember Jude's precept as to the +mode of dealing with the errors of good men. "Of some have +compassion," Jude had said, "making a difference; others save with +fear, pulling them out of the fire."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Hearne's _Ductor Historicus_, 1714 (for the old +doctrine of the Four Monarchies); Thomason Pamphlets; Carlyle's +Cromwell, III. 24-27.--The Fifth Monarchy notion was by no means an +upstart oddity of thought among the English Puritans of the +seventeenth century. It was a tradition of the most scholarly thought +of mediæval theologians as to the duration and final collapse of the +existing Cosmos; and it may be traced in the older imaginative +literature of various European nations. Thus the Scottish Sir David +Lindsay's long poem entitled _Monarchy, or Ane Dialogue betwix +Experience and one Courtier of the Miserable Estate of the World_, +the date of which is 1553, is a moralized sketch of the whole +previous history of the world, according to the then accepted +doctrine of the Four past Secular Monarchies, with a glance around at +the Europe of Lindsay's own time as already certainly in the dregs of +"The Latter Days," and an anticipation, as if with assured personal +belief, of a glorious Fifth Monarchy, or miraculous reconstitution of +the whole Universe into a new Heaven and Earth, to begin probably +about the year 2000.] + +RANTERS:--"These made it their business," says Baxter, "to set up the +Light of Nature under the name of _Christ in Man_, and to +dishonour and cry down the Church, the Scripture, and the present +Ministry, and our worship and ordinances; and called men to hearken +to Christ within them. But withal they conjoined a cursed doctrine +of Libertinism, which brought them to all abominable filthiness of +life. They taught, as the FAMILISTS, (see Vol. III. p. 152), that God +regardeth not the actions of the outward man, but of the heart, and +that to the pure all things are pure ... I have seen myself letters +written from Abington, where among both soldiers and people this +contagion did then prevail, full of horrid oaths and curses and +blasphemy, not fit to be repeated by the tongue or pen of man; and +this all uttered as the effect of knowledge and a part of their +Religion, in a fanatic strain, and fathered on the Spirit of God." +The Ranters, in fact, seem to have been ANTINOMIANS (see Vol. III. +151-152) run mad, with touches from FAMILISM and SEEKERISM greatly +vulgarized. Of no sect do we hear more in the pamphlets and +newspapers between 1650 and 1655, though there are traces of them of +earlier date. The pamphlets about them generally take the form of +professed accounts of some of their meetings, with reports of their +profane discourses and the indecencies with which they were +accompanied. There are illustrative wood-cuts in some of the +pamphlets; and, on the whole, I fancy that some low printers and +booksellers made a trade on the public curiosity about the Ranters, +getting up pretended accounts of their meetings as a pretext for +prurient publications. There is plenty of testimony, however, besides +Baxter's word, that there was a real sect of the name pretty widely +spread in low neighbourhoods in towns, and holding meetings. Among +Ranters named in the pamphlets I have noticed a T. Shakespeare. "The +horrid villainies of the sect," says Baxter, "did not only speedily +extinguish it, but also did as much as ever anything did to disgrace +all sectaries, and to restore the credit of the ministry and the +sober unanimous Christians;" and this, or the transfusion of +Ranterism into equivalent phrenzies with other names, may account +for the fact that after a while the pamphlets about the Ranters cease +or become rare. Clearly, in the main, the regulation of such a sect, +so long as it did last, was a matter of police; and the only question +is whether there were any tenets mixed up with Ranterism, or held by +some roughly called Ranters, that were capable of being dissociated, +and that were in fact in some cases dissociated, from offences +against public decency. Exact data are deficient, and there were +probably varieties of Ranters theologically. Pantheism, or the +essential identity of God with the universe, and his indwelling in +every creature, angelic, human, brute, or inorganic, seems to have +been the belief of most Ranters that could manage to rise to a +metaphysics--with which belief was conjoined also a rejection of all +essential distinction between good and evil, and a rejection of all +Scripture as mere dead letter; but from a so-called "Carol of the +Ranters" I infer that Atheism, or at least Mortalism or Materialism +(see Vol. III. p. 156-157), had found refuge among some of the +varieties. Thus:-- + + "They prate of God! Believe it, fellow-creature, + There's no such bugbear: all was made by Nature. + We know all came of nothing, and shall pass + Into the same condition once it was + By Nature's power, and that they grossly lie + That say there's hope of immortality. + Let them but tell us what a soul is: then + We shall adhere to these mad brainsick men."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baxter's Life, 76-77; and Thomason Pamphlets +_passim_. The pamphlet last quoted is in Vol. 485 (old +numbering). I have also used a quotation from another pamphlet in +Barclay's _Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the +Commonwealth_ (1876), pp. 417-418.] + +STRAY FANATICS: THE MUGGLETONIANS:--Sometimes confounded with the +Ranters, but really distinguishable, were some crazed men, whose +crazes had taken a religious turn, and whose extravagances became +contagious.--Such was a John Robins, first heard of about 1650, when +he went about, sometimes as God Almighty, sometimes as Adam raised +from the dead, with the power of raising others from the dead. He had +raised Cain and Judas, and other personages of Scripture, forgiving +their sins and blessing them; which personages, changed in character, +but remembering their former selves quite well, went about in +Robins's company and were seen and talked with by various people. He +could work miracles, and in dark rooms would exhibit himself +surrounded with angels, and fiery serpents, and shining lights, or +riding in the air. He had been sent to Bridewell, and his +supernatural powers had left him.--One heard next, in 1652, of two +associates, called John Reeve and Ludovick Muggleton, who professed +to be "the two last Spiritual Witnesses (Rev. xi.) and alone true +Prophets of the Lord Jesus Christ, God alone blessed to all +eternity." They believed in a real man-shaped God, existing from all +eternity, who had come upon earth as Jesus Christ, leaving Moses and +Elijah to represent him in Heaven--also in the mortality of the soul +till the resurrection of the body; and their chief commission was to +denounce and curse all false prophets, and all who did not believe in +Reeves and Muggleton. They visited Robins in Bridewell and told +_him_ to stop his preaching under pain of eternal damnation; but +they favoured some eminent Presbyterian and Independent ministers of +London with letters to the same effect. They dated their letters +"from Great Trinity Lane, at a Chandler's shop, against one Mr. +Millis, a brown baker, near Bow Lane End;" and the editor of +_Mercurius Politicus_, who had received one of their letters so +dated, had the curiosity to go to see them, with some friends of his, +in the end of August 1653. He found them "at the top of an old house +in a cockloft," and made a paragraph of them thus:--"They are said to +be a couple of tailors: but only one of them works, and that is +Muggleton; the other, they say, writes prophecies. We found two women +there whom they had convinced; whom we questioning, they said they +believed all. Besides there was an old country plain man of Essex, +who said he had been with them twice before; and, being asked whether +he were of the same opinion and did believe them, he answered, Truly +he could not tell what to say, but he was come to have some discourse +with them in private." Two mouths after this interview (Oct. 1653), +they were brought before the Lord Mayor and Recorder for their +letters to ministers, and sentenced to six months of imprisonment +each. But they were to be farther heard of in the world. Muggleton +indeed to as late as 1698, when he died at the age of ninety, leaving +a sect called THE MUGGLETONIANS, who are perhaps not extinct +yet.--Among those who attached themselves to Reeves and Muggleton was +a Thomas Tany, who called himself also "Theauro John," and professed +to be the Lord's High Priest. They would have nothing to do with him, +and put him on their excommunicated list. Whether because this preyed +on the poor man's mind or not, he was found in the lobby of the +Parliament House on Saturday, Dec. 30. 1654, with a drawn sword, +slashing at members, and knocking for admittance. The House, who were +then in the midst of their debate on the proper Limits of Toleration, +ordered him to be brought to the bar:--"Where," say the journals, +"being demanded by Mr. Speaker what his name was, answered' +_Theeror John_'; being asked why he came hither, saith, He fired +his tent, and the people were ready to stone him because he burnt the +Bible--which he acknowledgeth he did. Saith it is letters, not life. +And he drew his sword because the man jostled him at the door. Saith +he burnt the Bible because the people say it is the Word of God, and +it is not; it deceived _him_. And saith he burnt the sword and +pistols and Bibles because they are the Gods of England. He did it +not of himself; and, being asked who bid him do it, saith God.' And +thereupon was commanded to withdraw." He was sent into custody +immediately.--Stray fanatics like Robins, Reeves, Muggleton, and +Theauro John, seem to have been not uncommon through England.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 313-317; Mercurius Politicus, No. 167 (Aug. +18-25, 1653); Commons Journals, Dec. 30, 1654; Barclay's _Religious +Societies_, pp. 421-422.] + +BOEHMENISTS AND OTHER MYSTICS:--Of the German Mystic Jacob Boehme +(1575-1624) there had been a _Life_ in English since 1644, with +a catalogue of his writings, and since then translations of some of +the writings themselves had appeared at intervals, mostly from the +shop of one publisher, Humphrey Blunden. The interest in "the +Teutonical Philosopher" thus excited had at length taken form in a +small sect of professed BOEHMENISTS, propounding the doctrine of the +Light of Nature, i.e. of a mystic intuitional revelation in the soul +itself of all true knowledge of divine and human things. Of this sect +Baxter says that they were "fewer in number," and seemed "to have +attained to greater meekness and conquest of passions," than the +other sects. The chief of them was Dr. Pordage, Rector of Bradfield, +in Berks, with his family. They held "visible and sensible communion +with angels" in the Rectory, on the very walls and windows of which +there appeared miraculous pictures and symbols; and the Doctor +himself, besides alarming people with such strange phrases as "the +fiery deity of Christ dwelling in the soul and mixing itself with our +flesh," was clearly unorthodox on many particular +points.[1]--Boehme's system included a mystical physics or cosmology +as well as a metaphysics or theosophy, and some of his English +followers seem to have allied themselves with the famous Astrologer +William Lilly, whose prophetic Almanacks, under the title of +_Merlinus Anglicus_, had been appearing annually since 1644. But +indeed all sorts of men were in contact with this quack or +quack-mystic. He had been consulted by Charles I as to the probable +issue of events; he had been consulted and feed by partisans of the +other side: his Almanacks, with their hieroglyphics and political +predictions, had a boundless popularity, and were bringing him a good +income; he was the chief in his day of those fortune-telling and +spirit-auguring celebrities who hover all their lives between high +society and Bridewell. As he had adhered to the Parliamentarians and +made the stars speak for their cause, he had hitherto been pretty +safe; but the leading Presbyterian and Independent ministers, as we +have seen (ante IV, p. 392), had recently called upon Parliament to +put down his bastard science. Gataker had attacked "that grand +impostor Mr. William Lilly" in an express publication.[2]--Is it in a +spirit of mischief that Baxter names THE VANISTS, or disciples of Sir +Henry Vane the younger, as one of the recognised sects of this time? +That great Republican leader, it was known, with all his deep +practical astuteness and the perfect clearness and shrewdness of his +speeches and business-letters, carried in his head a mystic +Metaphysics of his own which he found it hard to express. It was a +something unique, including ideas from the Antinomians, the +Anabaptists, and the Seekers, he had been so much among, with +something also of the Fifth-Monarchy notion, and with the theory of +absolute Voluntaryism in Religion, but all these amalgamated with new +ingredients. Burnet tells us that, though he had taken pains to find +out Vane's meaning in his own books, he could never reach it, and +that, as many others had the same experience, it might be reasonable +to conclude that Vane had purposely kept back the key to his system. +Friends of Vane had told Burnet, however, that "he leaned to Origen's +notion of a universal salvation of all, both of devils and the +damned, and to the doctrine of pre-existence." Even when Cromwell +and Vane had been close friends, calling each other "Fountain" and +"Heron" in their private letters. Vane had been in possession of +such peculiar lights, or of others, beyond Cromwell's apprehension. +"Brother Fountain can guess at his brother's meaning," he had written +to Cromwell in Scotland August 2, 1651, with reference to some +troublesome on-goings in the Council of State during Cromwell's +absence, begging him not to believe ill-natured reports about +"Brother Heron" in connexion with them, and adding, "Be assured he +answers your heart's desire in all things, except he be esteemed even +by you in principles too high to fathom; which one day, I am +persuaded, will not be so thought by you, when, by increasing with +the increasings of God, you shall be brought to that sight and +enjoyment of God in Christ which passes knowledge." If this to +Cromwell, what to others? Three years had passed, and Vane was now in +compulsory retirement. His _Retired Man's Meditations_ had not +yet been published. Such Vanists, therefore, as there were in 1654 +must have imbibed their knowledge of them from Sir Henry's +conversation or indirectly. Among these Baxter mentions Peter Sterry, +one of Cromwell's favourite preachers, and afterwards known as a +mystic on his own account. Of Sterry's preaching, already notoriously +obscure, Sir Benjamin Rudyard had said that "it was too high for this +world and too low for the other," and Baxter puns on the association +of Vane and Sterry, asking whether _Vanity_ and _Sterility_ +had ever been more happily conjoined. But the sect of the VANISTS +existed perhaps mainly in Baxter's fancy.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Stationers' Registers from 1644 to 1654; Baxter, 77-78; +Neal, IV. 112-113.] + +[Footnote 2: Engl. Cycl. Art. _Lilly_; Stationers' Registers of +date June 10, 1653 (Gataker's Tract) and of other dates (Lilly's +Almanacks).] + +[Footnote 3: Baxter, 74-76; Milton Papers by Nickolls, 78-79; +Wood's Ath. III, 578 et seq. and IV. 136-138.] + +QUAKERS OR FRIENDS:--Who can think of the appearance of this sect in +English History without doing what the sect itself would forbid, and +reverently raising the hat? And yet in 1654 this was the very sect of +sects. It was about the Quakers that there had begun to be the most +violent excitement among the guardians of social order throughout the +British Islands.--It was then six or seven years since they had first +been heard of in any distinct way, and four since they had received +the name QUAKERS. A Derbyshire Justice of the Peace, it is said, +first invented that name for them, because they seemed to be fond of +the text Jer. v. 22, and had offended him by addressing it to himself +and a brother magistrate: "Fear ye not me? saith the Lord; will ye +not tremble at my presence?" But Robert Barclay's account of the +origin of the name in his _Apology for the Quakers_ (1675) is +probably more correct, though not inconsistent. He says it arose from +the fact that, in the early meetings of "The Children of the Light," +as they first called themselves, violent physical agitations were not +unfrequent, and conversions were often signalized by that +accompaniment. There was often an "inward travail" in some one +present; "and from this inward travail, while the darkness seeks to +obscure the light, and the light breaks through the darkness, which +it will always do if the soul gives not its strength to the +darkness, there will be such a painful travail found in the soul that +will even work upon the outward man, so that often-times, through the +working thereof, the body will be greatly shaken, and many groans and +sighs and tears, even as the pangs of a woman in travail, will lay +hold of it: yea, and this not only as to one, but ... sometimes the +power of God will break forth into a whole meeting, and there will be +such an inward travail, while each is seeking to overcome the evil in +themselves, that by the strong contrary workings of these opposite +powers, like the going of two contrary tides, every individual will +be strongly exercised as in a day of battle, and thereby trembling +and a motion of body will be upon most, if not upon all, which, as +the power of Truth prevails, will from pangs and groans end with a +sweet sound of thanksgiving and praise. And from this the name of +_Quakers_, i.e. _Tremblers_, was first reproachfully cast +upon us; which though it be none of our choosing, yet in this respect +we are not ashamed of it, but have rather reason to rejoice +therefore, even that we are sensible of this power that hath +oftentimes laid hold of our adversaries, and made them yield to us, +and join with us, and confess to the Truth, before they had any +distinct and discursive knowledge of our doctrines."--The Quakers, +then, according to this eminent Apologist for them, _had_, from +the first, definite doctrines, which might be distinctly and +discursively known. What were they? They hardly amounted to any +express revolution of existing Theology. In no essential respect did +any of their recognised representatives impugn any of the doctrines +of Christianity as professed by other fervid Evangelical sects. The +Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the natural sinfulness of men, +propitiation by Christ alone, sanctification by the Holy Spirit, the +inspiration and authority of the Scriptures--in these, and in other +cardinal tenets, they were at one with the main body of their +contemporary Christians. Though it was customary for a time to +confound them with the Ranters, they themselves repudiated the +connexion, and opposed the Ranters and their libertinism wherever +they met them. Wherein then lay the distinctive peculiarity of the +Quakers? It has been usual to say that it consisted in their doctrine +of the universality of the gift of the Spirit, and of the constant +inner light, and motion, and teaching of the Spirit in the soul of +each individual believer. This is not sufficient. That doctrine they +shared substantially with various other sects,--certainly with the +Boehmenists and other Continental Mystics, not to speak of the +English Antinomians and Seekers. Nay, in their first great practical +application of the doctrine they had been largely anticipated. If the +inner motion or manifestation of the Spirit in each mind, in +interpretation of the Bible or over and above the Bible, is the sole +true teaching of the Gospel, and if the manifestation cometh as the +Spirit listeth, and cannot be commanded, a regular Ministry of the +Word by a so-called Clergy is an absurdity, and a hired Ministry an +abomination! So said the Quakers. In reaching this conclusion, +however, they had only added themselves to masses of people, known as +Brownists, Seekers, and Anabaptists, who had already, by the same +route or by others, advanced to the standing-ground of absolute +Voluntaryism. What did distinguish the early Quakers seems to have +been, in the first place, the thorough form of their apprehension of +that doctrine of the Inner Light, or Immediate Revelation of the +Spirit, which they held in common with other sects, and, in the +second place, their courage and tenacity in carrying out the +practical inferences from that doctrine in every sentence of their +own speech and every hour of their own conduct. As to the form in +which they held the doctrine itself Barclay will be again our best +authority. "The testimony of the Spirit," he says, "is that alone by +which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can only be, +revealed; who, as by the moving of his own Spirit he converted the +Chaos of this world into that wonderful Order wherein it was in the +beginning, and created Man a living Soul to rule and govern it, so by +the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the sons of +men, both Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles: which revelations of +God by the Spirit, whether by outward voices and appearances, dreams, +or inward objective manifestations in the heart, were of old the +formal object of their faith and remain yet so to be,--since the +object of the Saints' faith is the same in all ages, though set forth +under divers administrations." This Inner Light of the Spirit, +seizing men and women at all times and places, and illuminating them +in the knowledge of God, was, Barclay elsewhere explains, something +altogether supernatural, something totally distinct from natural +Reason. "That Man, as he is a rational creature, hath Reason as a +natural faculty of his soul, we deny not; for this is a property +natural and essential to him, by which he can know and learn many +arts and sciences, beyond what any other animal can do by the mere +animal principle. Neither do we deny that by this rational principle +Man may apprehend in his brain, and in the notion, a knowledge of God +and spiritual things; yet, that not being the right organ, ... it +cannot profit him towards salvation, but rather hindereth." And what +of the use and value of the Scriptures? "From these revelations of +the Spirit of God to the saints have proceeded the Scriptures of +Truth, which contain (1) A faithful historical account of the actings +of God's people in divers ages, with many singular and remarkable +providences attending them; (2) A prophetical account of several +things, whereof some are already past and some yet to come; (3) A +full and ample account of all the chief principles of the doctrine of +Christ ... Nevertheless, because they are only a declaration of the +fountain, and not the fountain itself, therefore they are not to be +esteemed the principal ground of all Truth and Knowledge, nor yet the +adequate primary rule of faith and manners. Nevertheless, as that +which giveth a true and faithful testimony of the first foundation, +they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the +Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and certainty." So +much for the _form_ of the central principle of Early Quakerism, +so far as it can be expressed logically. But it was in the resolute +application of the principle in practice that the Early Quakers made +themselves conspicuous. They were not Speculative Voluntaries, +waiting for the abolition of the National Church, and paying tithes +meanwhile. They were Separatists who would at once and in every way +assert their Separatism. They would pay no tithes; they called every +church "a steeple-house"; and they regarded every parson as the hired +performer in one of the steeple-houses. Then, in their own meetings +for mutual edification and worship, all their customs were in +accordance with their main principle. They had no fixed articles of +congregational creed, no prescribed forms of prayer, no ordinance of +baptism or of sacramental communion, no religious ceremony in +sanction of marriage, and no paid or appointed preachers. The +ministry was to be as the spirit moved; all equally might speak or be +silent, poor as well as rich, unlearned as well as learned, women as +well as men; if special teachers did spring up amongst them, it +should not be professionally, or to earn a salary. Yet, with all this +liberty among themselves, what unanimity in the moral purport of +their teachings! Their restless dissatisfaction with the Established +Church and with all known varieties of Dissent, their passion for a +full reception of Christ at the fountain-head, their searchings of +the Scriptures, their private raptures and meditations, their prayers +and consultations in public, had resulted in a simple re-issue of the +Christianity of the Sermon on the Mount. Quakerism, in its kernel, +was but the revived Christian morality of meekness, piety, +benevolence, purity, truthfulness, peacefulness, and passivity. There +were to be no oaths: Yea or Nay was to be enough. There were to be no +ceremonies of honour or courtesy-titles among men: the hat was to be +taken off to no one, and all were to be addressed in the singular, as +_Thou_ and _Thee_. War and physical violence were unlawful, +and therefore all fighting and the trade of a soldier. Injuries to +oneself were to be borne with patience, but there was to be the most +active energy in relieving the sufferings of others, and in seeking +out suffering where it lurked. The sick and those in prison were to +be visited, the insane and the outcast; and the wrongs and cruelties +of law, whether in death-sentences for mere offences against +property, or in brutal methods of prison-treatment, were to be +exposed and condemned. For the rest, the Friends were to walk +industriously and domestically through the world, honest in their +dealings, wearing a plain Puritan garb, and avoiding all vanities and +gaieties.--Had it been possible for such a sect to come into +existence by mere natural growth, or the unconcerted association of +like-minded persons in all parts of the country at once, even then, +one can see, there would have been irritation between it and the rest +of the community. The refusal to pay tithes, the refusal of oaths in +Courts of Law or anywhere else, the objection to war and to the trade +of a soldier, the _Theeing_ and _Thouing_ of all +indiscriminately, the keeping of the hat on in any presence, would +have occasioned constant feud between any little nucleus of Quakers +and the society round about it. But the sect had not formed itself by +any such quiet process of simultaneous grouping among people who had +somehow imbibed its tenets. It had come into being, and in fact had +shaped its tenets and become aware of them, through a previous +fervour of itinerant Propagandism such as had hardly been known since +the first Apostles and Christian missionaries had walked among the +heathen. The first Quaker, the man in whose dreamings by himself, +aided by scanty readings, the principles of the sect had been +evolved, and in whose conduct by himself for a year or two the sect +had practically originated, was the good, blunt, obstinate, +opaque-brained, ecstatic, Leicestershire shoemaker, George Fox, the +Boehme of England. From the year 1646, when he was two and twenty +years of age, the life of Fox had been an incessant tramp through the +towns and villages of the Midlands and the North, with preachings in +barns, in inns, in market-places, outside courts of justice, and +often inside the steeple-houses themselves, by way of interruption of +the regular ministers, or correction of their doctrine after the +hours of regular service. Extraordinary excitements had attended him +everywhere, paroxysms of delight in him with tears and tremblings, +outbreaks of rage against him with hootings and stonings. Again and +again he had been brought before justices and magistrates, to whose +presence indeed he naturally tended of his own accord for the purpose +of lecturing them on their duties, and to whom he was always writing +Biblical letters. He had been beaten and put in the stocks; he had +been in Derby jail and in several other prisons, charged with riot or +blasphemy; and in these prisons he had found work to his mind and had +sometimes converted his jailors. And so, by the year 1654, "the man +with the leather breeches," as he was called, had become a celebrity +throughout England, with scattered converts and adherents everywhere, +but voted a pest and terror by the public authorities, the regular +steeple-house clergy whether Presbyterian or Independent, and the +appointed preachers of all the old sects. By this time, however, he +was by no means the sole preacher of Quakerism. Every now and then +from among his converts there had started up one fitted to assist him +in the work of itinerant propagandism, and the number of such had +increased in 1654 to about sixty in all. Richard Farnsworth, James +Nayler, William Dewsbury, Thomas Aldam, John Audland, Francis +Howgill, Edward Burrough, Thomas Taylor, John Camm, Richard +Hubberthorn, Miles Halhead, James Parnel, Thomas Briggs, Robert +Widders, George Whitehead, Thomas Holmes, James Lancaster, Alexander +Parker, William Caton, and John Stubbs, of the one sex, with +Elizabeth Hooton, Anna Downer, Elizabeth Heavens, Elizabeth Fletcher, +Barbara Blaugden, Catherine Evans, and Sarah Cheevers, of the other +sex, were among the chief of these early Quaker preachers after Fox. +They had carried the doctrines into every part of England, and also +into Scotland and Ireland; some of them had even been moved to go to +the Continent. Wherever they went there was the same disturbance +round them as round Fox himself, and they had the same hard +treatment--imprisonment, duckings, whippings. It is necessary that +the reader should remember that in 1654 Quakerism was still in this +first stage of its diffusion by a vehement propagandism carried on by +some sixty itinerant preachers at war with established habits and +customs, and had not settled down into mere individual Quietism, with +associations of those who had been converted to its principles, and +could be content with their own local meetings. In the chief centres, +indeed, there were now fixed meetings for the resident Quakers, the +main meeting place for London being the Bull and Mouth in St. +Martin's-le-Grand; but Fox and most of his coadjutors were still +wandering about the country.--There was already an extensive +literature of Quakerism, consisting of printed letters and tracts by +Fox himself, Farnsworth, Nayler, Dewsbury, Howgill, and others, and +of invectives against the Quakers and their principles by +Presbyterians and Independents; and some of the letters of the +Quakers had been directly addressed to Cromwell. There had also, some +time in 1654, been one interview between the Lord Protector and Fox. +Colonel Hacker, having arrested Fox in Leicestershire, had sent him +up to London. Brought to Whitehall, one morning early, when the Lord +Protector was dressing, he had said, on entering, "Peace be on this +House!" and had then discoursed to the Protector at some length, the +Protector kindly listening, occasionally putting a question, and +several times acknowledging a remark of George's by saying it was +"very good," and "the truth." At parting, the Protector had taken +hold of his hand, and, with tears in his eyes, said "Come again to my +house! If thou and I were but an hour of the day together, we should +be nearer one to another. I wish no more harm to thee than I do to my +own soul." Outside, the captain on guard, informing George that he +was free, had wanted him, by the Protector's orders, to stay and dine +with the household; but George had stoutly declined.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sewel's _History of the People called Quakers_ (ed. +1834), I, I--136; Rules and Discipline of the Society of Friends +(1834), _Introduction_; Baxter, 77; Neal, IV. 31-41; Pamphlets +in Thomason Collection; Robert Barclay's _Apology for the +Quakers_ (ed. 1765), pp. 4, 48, 118, 309-310. This last is a +really able and impressive book--far the most reasoned exposition +even yet, I believe, of the principles of early Quakerism. Though +not written till twenty years after our present date, it was the +first accurate and articulate expression, I believe, of the +principles that had really, though rather confusedly, pervaded the +Quaker teachings and writings at that date.--There are many particles +of information about the early Quakers, and about other contemporary +English sects, in _The Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the +Commonwealth_, published in 1878, the posthumous work of a second +Robert Barclay, two hundred years after the first. But the book, +though laborious, is very chaotic, and shows hardly any knowledge of +the time of which it mainly treats.] + +Such were the more recent sects and heresies for which, as well as +for those older and more familiar, the First Parliament of the +Protectorate had been, with the help of Dr. Owen and his +brother-divines, preparing a strait-jacket. Of that Parliament, +however, and of all its belongings, the Commonwealth was to be rid +sooner than had been expected. + +It had been the astute policy of the Parliament to concentrate all +their attention upon the new Constitution for the Protectorate, and +to neglect and postpone other business until the Bill of the +Constitution had been pushed through and presented to Cromwell for +his assent. In particular they had postponed, as much as possible, +all supplies for Army and Navy and for carrying on the Government. By +this, as they thought, they retained Cromwell in their grasp. By the +instrument under which they had been called, he could not dissolve +them till they had sat five months,--which, by ordinary counting from +Sept. 3, 1654, made them safe till Feb. 3, 1654-5. But, if they could +contrive that it should be Cromwell's interest not to dissolve them +then, there was no reason why they should not sit on a good while +longer, perhaps even till near Oct. 1656, the time they had +themselves fixed for the meeting of the next Parliament. To postpone +supplies, therefore, till after the general Bill of the Constitution +in all its sixty Articles should have received Cromwell's assent, to +wrap up present supplies and the hope of future supplies as much as +possible in the Bill itself, was the plan of the Anti-Oliverians. The +Bill, it will be remembered, had passed the second reading on Dec. +23, had then gone into Committee for amendments, and had come back to +the House with these amendments. On the 10th of January, 1654-5, when +the Bill was almost ready to be engrossed, it was moved by the +Oliverians that there should be a conference about it with the +Protector; but the motion was lost by 107 votes to 95. Among various +subsequent divisions was one on the 16th on the question whether the +Bill should become Law even if the Lord Protector should refuse his +assent, and the Anti-Oliverians negatived the putting of the question +by eighty-six votes to fifty-five. The next day, after another +division, it was resolved thus: "That this Bill entitled _An Act +Declaring and Settling the Government of the Commonwealth_, &c., +be engrossed in order to its presentment to the Lord Protector for +his consideration and assent," and that, if "the Lord Protector and +the Parliament shall not agree thereunto and to every Article +thereof, then the Bill shall be void and of none effect." Cromwell +having thus been shut up to accept all or none, the Bill passed the +third and conclusive reading on Friday, Jan. 19. Then all depended on +Cromwell, who would have twenty days to make up his mind. He had made +up his mind already, and did not mean to wait for the parchment. The +Bill included provisions striking, as he conceived, at the root of +his Protectorate, e.g. one for depriving him and the Council of State +of that power of interim legislation which they had hitherto +exercised with so much effect, and others withholding the negative he +thought his due on future Bills affecting fundamentals. He was, +besides, wholly disgusted with the spirit and conduct of the +Parliament. Accordingly, having bethought himself that, in the +payment of the soldiers and sailors, a month was construed as +twenty-eight days only, he let the Saturday and Sunday after the +third reading of the Bill pass quietly by, and then, on Monday the +22nd, having summoned the House to meet him in the Painted Chamber, +addressed them in what counts as the Fourth of his Speeches, told +them their time was up that day, and dissolved them. Their +Constitutional Bill of Sixty Articles disappeared with them; and they +had not, in all the five months, sent up a single Bill to Cromwell +for his assent.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Godwin, IV. 148-157; Carlyle, +III. 70-95.] + + + + +SECTION II. + +BETWEEN THE PARLIAMENTS, OR THE TIME OF ARBITRARINESS: JAN. 22, +1654-55--SEPT. 17, 1656. + +AVOWED "ARBITRARINESS" OF THIS STAGE OF THE PROTECTORATE, AND REASONS +FOR IT.--FIRST MEETING OF CROMWELL AND HIS COUNCIL AFTER THE +DISSOLUTION: MAJOR-GENERAL OVERTON IN CUSTODY: OTHER ARRESTS: +SUPPRESSION OF A WIDE REPUBLICAN CONSPIRACY AND OF ROYALIST RISINGS +IN YORKSHIRE AND THE WEST: REVENUE ORDINANCE AND MR. CONY'S +OPPOSITION AT LAW: DEFERENCE OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS: BLAKE IN THE +MEDITERRANEAN: MASSACRE OF THE PIEDMONTESE PROTESTANTS: DETAILS OF +THE STORY AND OF CROMWELL'S PROCEEDINGS IN CONSEQUENCE: PENN IN THE +SPANISH WEST INDIES: HIS REPULSE FROM HISPANIOLA AND LANDING IN +JAMAICA: DECLARATION OF WAR WITH SPAIN AND ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE: +SCHEME OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND BY MAJOR-GENERALS: LIST OF THEM +AND SUMMARY OF THEIR POLICE-SYSTEM: DECIMATION TAX ON THE ROYALISTS, +AND OTHER MEASURES _IN TERROREM_: CONSOLIDATION OF THE LONDON +NEWSPAPER PRESS: PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMISSION OF EJECTORS AND OF THE +COMMISSION OF TRIERS: VIEW OF CROMWELL'S ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF +ENGLAND, WITH ENUMERATION OF ITS VARIOUS COMPONENTS: EXTENT OF +TOLERATION OUTSIDE THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH: THE PROTECTOR'S TREATMENT +OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS, THE EPISCOPALIANS, THE ANTI-TRINITARIANS, THE +QUAKERS, AND THE JEWS: STATE OF THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS +UNDER THE PROTECTORATE: CROMWELL'S PATRONAGE OF LEARNING: LIST OF +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS ALIVE IN 1656, AND ACCOUNT OF THEIR DIVERSE +RELATIONS TO CROMWELL: POETICAL PANEGYRICS ON HIM AND HIS +PROTECTORATE.--NEW ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF SCOTLAND: LORD +BROGHILL'S PRESIDENCY THERE FOR CROMWELL: GENERAL STATE OF THE +COUNTRY: CONTINUED STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE RESOLUTIONERS AND THE +PROTESTERS FOR KIRK-SUPREMACY: INDEPENDENCY AND QUAKERISM IN +SCOTLAND: MORE EXTREME ANOMALIES THERE: STORY OF "JOCK OF BROAD +SCOTLAND": BRISK INTERCOURSE BETWEEN SCOTLAND AND LONDON: MISSION OF +MR. JAMES SHARP.--IRELAND FROM 1654 TO 1656.--GLIMPSE OF THE +COLONIES. + + +This long stretch of twenty months was to be another period of the +government of the Commonwealth by the Lord Protector and the Council +of State on their own responsibility and without a Parliament. In the +circumstances in which the late Parliament had left them, without +supplies and without a single concluded and authoritative enactment, +they could only fall back on the original Instrument of the +Protectorate, amending its defects by their own ingenuity as +exigencies occurred, with a suggestion now and then snatched, for the +sake of quasi-Parliamentary countenance, from the wreck of the late +Constitutional Bill. Hence a character of "arbitrariness" in +Cromwell's government throughout this period greater perhaps than in +any other of his whole Protectorate. For that, however, he was +prepared. At the first meeting of the Council after the Dissolution +of Parliament (Tuesday, Jan. 23, 1654-5) there were present, I find, +His Highness himself, and thirteen out of the eighteen Councillors, +viz.: Lord President Lawrence, the Earl of Mulgrave, Viscount Lisle, +Lambert, Desborough, Fiennes, Montague, Sydenham, Strickland, Sir +Charles Wolseley, Skippon, Jones, and Rous; and it was then "ordered +by his Highness and the Council that Friday next be set apart for +their seeking of God, and that Mr. Lockyer, Mr. Caryl, Mr. Denn, and +Mr. Sterry, be desired then to give their assistance." In entering on +the new period of their Government, the Protector and the Council +thought a day of special prayer very fitting.[1] + +[Footnote 1 Council Order Book of date.--Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, +having shown Anti-Oliverian tendencies in the late Parliament, did +not reappear in the Council after the Dissolution, and had +virtually ceased to be a member. Colonel Mackworth had died Dec. +26, 1654. The three other members not present at the meeting of +Jan. 23, 1664-5 were Fleetwood, Sir Gilbert Pickering, and Richard +Mayor. Fleetwood was in Ireland; Pickering's absence was +accidental, and he was in his place very regularly afterwards; +Mayor did not attend steadily.] + +In the Dissolution Speech Cromwell, rebuking the Parliament for their +inattention to what he considered their real duty, had compared them +to a tree under the shadow of which there had been a too thriving +growth of other vegetation. Interpreting the parable, he had +explained to them that there was at that moment a new and very +complex conspiracy against the Commonwealth, that the Levellers at +home had been in correspondence with the Cavaliers abroad, that their +plans were laid and their manifestos ready, that commissioners from +Charles Stuart had arrived and stores of arms and money had been +collected, and also (worst of all) that there had been tamperings +with the Army by Commonwealth men of higher note than the mere +Levellers. He did not believe, he said, that any then in Parliament +were in the Cavalier interest in the connexion, but he was not sure +that they were all perfectly clear of the connexion on all its sides. +At all events, he knew that their policy of starving the Army had +given the enemy their best opportunity. Fortunately, he had already +some of the chief home-conspirators in custody, and the Cavalier part +of the plot might explode when it liked.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Speech IV (Carlyle, III 75-81.)] + +The chief of those in custody when Cromwell spoke was the Republican +Major-General Overton. He had been under suspicion before, as we have +seen, but had cleared himself sufficiently to Cromwell, and had been +sent back to Scotland as second in command to Monk (Sept. 1654). +Since then, however, he had relapsed into the Anti-Oliverian mood, +and had become, it was believed, the head of the numerous +Anti-Oliverians or Republicans in Monk's Army, The proposal was to +seize Monk, make Overton the commander-in-chief, and march into +England, But, information having been received in time, there had +been the necessary arrests of the guilty officers (Dec. 1654). Most +of them had been kept in Edinburgh to be dealt with by Monk; but the +chiefs had been sent at once to London, and among them Overton, whose +arrest had taken place at Aberdeen. He was committed to the Tower +Jan. 16, 1654-5. The clue having thus been furnished, further +investigation had disclosed more. In concert with the Anti-Oliverian +movement in the Army of Scotland, and depending on that movement for +help, there had been plottings in England, in which Harrison, Colonel +Okey, Colonel Alured, Colonel Sexby, Adjutant-General Allen, Admiral +Lawson, Major John Wildman, Lord Grey of Groby, Carew, and even +Bradshaw, Hasilrig, and Henry Marten, were, or were said to be, more +or less involved. The aim seems to have been a combination of the +Anabaptist Levellers with the more eminent Republicans,--the +Levellers, or some of them, quite willing to combine also with the +Royalists, and indeed in confidential negotiation with them. How the +scheme, or medley of schemes, would have turned out in the working, +was never to be known. It was frustrated by the arrest, in January +and February, of most of the suspected. The most important arrest was +that of Major Wildman, the undoubted chief of the Levelling section +of the conspiracy. When arrested in Wiltshire, he was found in the +act of dictating a "Declaration of the Free and Well-affected People +of England now in arms against the tyrant Oliver Cromwell, Esq." He +was imprisoned in Chepstow Castle. Sexby, the most active man after +Wildman in the Levelling or Anabaptist section of the conspiracy, +escaped and went abroad. Adjutant-General Allen, and others less +deeply implicated, were dismissed from their posts in the Army. +Harrison was confined in the Isle of Portland, Carew in St. Mawes, in +Cornwall, and Lord Grey of Groby in Windsor Castle. None of all the +Republicans, higher or lower, it was remarked, suffered any +punishment beyond such seclusion or dismissal from the service. +Clemency on that side was always Cromwell's policy.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 158-165; Carlyle, III. 66-70 and 98-99; +Whitlocke, IV. 182-188 (Wildman's Proclamation); Life of Robert +Blair, 319.] + +Much sharper was Cromwell's method of dealing with the attempted +invasion and insurrection of the Royalists independently. Hopes had +risen high at the Court of the Stuarts, and the preparations had been +extensive. Charles himself had gone to Middleburg, with the Marquis +of Ormond and others, to be ready for a landing in England; Hull had +been thought of as the likeliest landing-place; commissioned pioneers +of the enterprise were already moving about in various English +counties. Of all this Thurloe had procured sufficient intelligence +through his foreign spies, and the precautions of the Protector and +Council had been commensurate. The projected Overton revolt in +Scotland and the Wildman-Sexby plot in England having been brought to +nothing, the Royalists had to act for themselves. Two abortive +risings in March, 1654-5, exhausted their energy. One was in +Yorkshire, where Sir Henry Slingsby and Sir Richard Malevrier +appeared in arms, but were immediately suppressed. The other was in +the West, and was more serious. On the night of Sunday, the 11th of +March, a body of 200 Cavaliers, headed by Sir Joseph Wagstaff, one of +Charles's emissaries from abroad, took possession of the city of +Salisbury, The assizes were to be held in the city the next day, and +Chief Justice Rolle, Judge Nicholas, and the High Sheriff, had +arrived and were in their beds. They were seized; and next morning +Wagstaff issued orders for hanging them, but was stopped in the act +by the remonstrances of Colonel John Penruddock and others. From +Salisbury, finding no encouragement among the citizens, the +insurgents moved westward till they reached South Molton in +Devonshire, where they were overtaken on the night of Wednesday, +March 14, by Captain Unton Crook. There was a brief street-fight, +ending in the defeat of the Royalists, and the capture of Penruddock +and about fifty more. Wagstaff escaped. Of the contemporary +insurgents in the north there had meanwhile escaped Malevrier and +also Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, who had come from abroad to head the +Royalist insurrection generally, had gone to the north, but had not +awaited the actual upshot. He lay concealed in London for a time, +and got to Cologne at last. In the trials which ensued those who +suffered capitally were Penruddock, beheaded at Exeter, a Captain +Hugh Grove and several others at other places in the West, and two or +three at York. Many of the inferior culprits, capitally convicted, +had their lives spared, but were sent in servitude to Barbadoes.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 824-827; Whitlocke, IV. 188; Godwin, IV. +167-169; Carlyle, III. 99-100.] + +Revenue had been one of the first cares of the Protector and Council +in resuming power after the Dissolution. By a former ordinance of +theirs of June 1654 (Vol. IV. p. 562), the assessment for the Army +and Navy had been renewed for three months at the rate of £120,000 +per month, and for the next three months at the lowered rate of +£90,000 per month. This ordinance had expired at Christmas 1654; and, +though the Parliament had then passed a Bill for extending the +assessment for three months more at £60,000 per month, the Bill had +never been presented to Cromwell for his assent. On the 8th of +February, 1654-5, therefore, a new Ordinance by his Highness and +Council fixed the assessment for a certain term at £60,000 per month. +This acceptance of the reduction proposed by the Parliament gave +general satisfaction; and there is evidence that at this time +Cromwell and the Council let themselves be driven to various shifts +of economy rather than overstrain their power of ordinance-making in +the unpopular particular of supplies. But, indeed, it was on the +question of the validity of this power generally, all-essential as it +was, that they encountered their greatest difficulties. A merchant +named Cony did more to wreck the Protectorate by a suit at law than +did the Cavaliers by their armed insurrection. Having refused to pay +custom duty because it was levied only by an ordinance of the Lord +Protector and Council of March, 1654, and not by authority of +Parliament, he had been fined £500 by the Commissioners of Customs, +and had been committed to prison for non-payment. On a motion for a +writ of _habeas corpus_ his case came on for trial in May 1655. +Maynard and two other eminent lawyers who were his counsel pleaded so +effectively that they were committed to the Tower for what was +called language destructive to the Government. Cony himself then went +on with the pleading, and so sturdily that Chief Justice Rolle was +non-plussed, and had to confess as much to Cromwell. It was only by +delay, and then by some private management of Cony, that a decision +was avoided which would have enabled the whole population legally to +defy every taxing ordinance of the Protectorate. Similarly the +Ordinance of August 1654 for regulating the Court of Chancery, and +even the Ordinance of Treason under which the late insurgents had +been tried, had brought the Protectorate into collision with the +consciences of Lawyers and Judges. There were such remonstrances to +Cromwell on the subject that he had to re-arrange the whole Bench. He +removed Rolle and two other Judges, appointing Glynne and Steele in +their stead, and he deprived Whitlocke and Widdrington of their +Commissionerships of the Great Seal, compensating them after a while +by Commissionerships of the Treasury. For all this "arbitrariness" +Cromwell avowed, in the simplest and most downright manner, the plea +of absolute necessity. The very existence of his Protectorate was at +peril; and that meant, he declared, the existence of the +Commonwealth.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 174-183; Whitlocke, through April, May, +June, and July, 1655.] + +For such "arbitrariness" in some of the Protector's home-proceedings +there was, most people allowed, a splendid atonement in the marvels +of his foreign policy. Never had there been on the throne of England +a sovereign more bent upon making England the champion-nation of the +world. The deference, the sycophancy, of foreign princes and +potentates to him, and the proofs of the same in letters and +embassies, and in presents of hawks and horses, had become a theme +for jests and caricatures among foreigners themselves. Parliaments +might come and go in Westminster; but there sat Cromwell, immoveable +through all, the impersonation of the British Islands. His +dissolution of the late Parliament, and his easy suppression of the +subsequent tumult, had but increased the respect for him abroad. +Whether he would finally declare himself for Spain or for France was +still the momentous question. The Marquis of Leyda, Spanish Governor +of Dunkirk, had come to London to assist Cardenas in the negotiations +for Spain; but Mazarin was indefatigable in his offers, through M. de +Bordeaux and otherwise.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books _passim_; Guizot, II. 203.] + +While the Parliament was still sitting, Cromwell had sent out two +fleets, one under the command of Blake (Oct. 1654), the other under +that of Penn (Dec. 1654). There was the utmost secrecy as to the +destination and objects of both, but the mystery did not last long +about Blake's. He had received instructions to go into the +Mediterranean, make calls there on all powers against which the +Commonwealth had claims, and bring them to account. Blake fulfilled +his mission with his usual precision and success. His first call of +any importance was on the Grand Duke of Tuscany, formerly so much in +the good graces of the Commonwealth (Vol. IV. pp. 483-485), but whom +Cromwell, after looking more into matters, had found culpable. +Blake's demands were for heavy money-damages on account of English +ships taken by Prince Rupert in 1650, and sold in Tuscan ports, and +also on account of English ships ordered out of Leghorn harbour in +March 1653, so that they fell into the hands of the Dutch. There was +the utmost consternation among the Tuscans, and the alarm extended +even to Rome, inasmuch as some of Rupert's prizes had been sold in +the Papal States. A disembarcation of the English heretics and even +their march to Rome did not seem impossible; and Tuscans and Romans +were greatly relieved when the Grand Duke paid £60,000 and the Pope +20,000 pistoles (£14,000), and Blake retired. His next call was at +Tunis, where there were accounts with the Dey. That Mussulman having +pointed to his forts, and dared Blake to do his worst, there was a +tremendous bombardment on the 3rd of April, 1655, reducing the forts +to ruins, followed by the burning of the Dey's entire war-squadron of +nine ships. This sufficed not only for Tunis, but also for Tripoli +and Algiers. All the Moorish powers of the African coast gave up +their English captives, and engaged that there should be no more +piracy upon English vessels. Malta, Venice, Toulon, Marseilles, and +various Spanish ports were then visited for one reason or another; +and in the autumn of 1655 Blake was still in the Mediterranean for +ulterior purposes, understood between him and Cromwell.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Guizot, II. 186-198, with, documents in Appendix; +Godwin, IV. 187-188; Whitlocke. IV., 206-207.] + +While Blake was in the Mediterranean, one Italian potentate did a +sudden act of infamy, which resounded through Europe, and for which +Cromwell would fain have clutched him by the throat in his own inland +capital. This was Carlo Emanuele II., Duke of Savoy and Prince of +Piedmont. + +In the territories of this young prince, in the Piedmontese valleys +of Luserna, Perosa, and San Martino, on the east side of the Cottian +Alps, lived the remarkable people known as the Vaudois or Waldenses. +From time immemorial these obscure mountaineers, speaking a peculiar +Romance tongue of their own, had kept themselves distinct from the +Church of Rome, maintaining doctrines and forms of worship of such a +kind that, after the Lutheran Reformation, they were regarded as +primitive Protestants who had never swerved from the truth through +the darkest ages, and could therefore be adopted with acclamation +into the general Reformed communion. The Reformation, indeed; had +penetrated into their valleys, rendering them more polemical for +their faith, and more fierce against the Church of Rome, than they +had been before. They had experienced persecutions through their +whole history, and especially after the Reformation; but, on the +whole, the two last Dukes of Savoy, and also Christine, daughter of +Henry IV. of France, and Duchess-Regent through the minority of her +son, the present Duke, had protected them in their privileges, even +while extirpating Protestantism in the rest of the Piedmontese +dominions. Latterly, however, there had been a passion at Turin and +at Rome for their conversion to the Catholic faith, and priests had +been traversing their valleys for the purpose. The murder of one such +priest, and some open insults to the Catholic worship, about +Christmas 1654, are said to have occasioned what followed. + +On the 25th of January, 1654-5, an edict was issued, under the +authority of the Duke of Savoy, "commanding and enjoining every head +of a family, with its members, of the pretended Reformed Religion, of +what rank, degree, or condition soever, none excepted, inhabiting and +possessing estates in the places of Luserna, Lucernetta, San +Giovanni, La Torre, Bubbiana, and Fenile, Campiglione, +Briccherassio, and San Secondo, within three days, to withdraw and +depart, and be, with their families, withdrawn, out of the said +places, and transported into the places and limits marked out for +toleration by his Royal Highness during his good pleasure, namely +Bobbio, Villaro, Angrogna, Rorata, and the County of Bonetti, under +pain of death and confiscation of goods and houses, unless they gave +evidence within twenty days of having become Catholics." Furthermore +it was commanded that in every one even of the tolerated places there +should be regular celebration of the Holy Mass, and that there should +be no interference therewith, nor any dissuasion of any one from +turning a Catholic, also on pain of death. All the places named are +in the Valley of Luserna, and the object was a wholesale shifting of +the Protestants of that valley out of nine of its communes and their +concentration into five higher up. In vain were there remonstrances +at Turin from those immediately concerned. On the 17th of April, +1655, the Marquis di Pianezza entered the doomed region with a body +of troops, mainly Piedmontese, but with French and Irish among them. +There was resistance, fighting, burning, pillaging, flight to the +mountains, and chasing and murdering for eight days, Saturday, April +24, being the climax. The names of about three hundred of those +murdered individually are on record, with the ways of the deaths of +many of them. Women were ripped open, or carried about impaled on +spikes; men, women, and children, were flung from precipices, hacked, +tortured, roasted alive; the heads of some of the dead were boiled +and the brains eaten; there are forty printed pages, and twenty-six +ghastly engravings, by way of Protestant tradition of the ascertained +variety of the devilry. The massacre was chiefly in the Valley of +Luserna, but extended also into the other two valleys. The fugitives +were huddled in crowds high among the mountains, moaning and +starving; and not a few, women and infants especially, perished amid +the snows. On the 27th of April some of the remaining Protestant +pastors and others, gathered together somewhere, addressed a circular +letter to Protestants outside the Valleys, stating the hard case of +the survivors. "Our beautiful and flourishing churches," they said, +"are utterly lost, and that without remedy, unless God Almighty work +miracles for us. Their time is come, and our measure is full. O have +pity upon the desolations of Jerusalem, and be grieved for the +afflictions of poor Joseph! Shew the real effects of your +compassions, and let your bowels yearn for so many thousands of poor +souls who are reduced to a morsel of bread for following the Lamb +whithersoever he goes."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Morland's History of the Evangelical Churches of the +Valleys of Piedmont, with a Relation of the Massacre (1658), +287-428; Guizot, II. 213-215.] + +There was a shudder of abhorrence through Protestant Europe, but no +one was so much roused as Cromwell. In the interval between the Duke +of Savoy's edict and the Massacre he had been desirous that the +Vaudois should publicly appeal to him rather than to the Swiss; and, +when the news of the Massacre reached England, he avowed that it came +"as near his heart as if his own nearest and dearest had been +concerned." On Thursday the 17th of May, and for many days more, the +business of the Savoy Protestants was the chief occupation of the +Council. Letters, all in Milton's Latin, but signed by the Lord +Protector in his own name, were despatched (May 25) to the Duke of +Savoy himself, to the French King, to the States General of the +United Provinces, to the Protestant Swiss Cantons, to the King of +Sweden, to the King of Denmark, and to Ragotski, Prince of +Transylvania. A day of humiliation was appointed for the Cities of +London and Westminster, and another for all England. A Committee was +appointed, consisting of all the Councillors, with Sir Christopher +Pack and other eminent citizens, and also some ministers, to organize +a general collection of money throughout England and Wales in behalf +of the suffering Vaudois. The collection, as arranged June 1, was to +take the form of a house-to-house visitation by the ministers and +churchwardens in every city, town, and parish on a particular Lord's +day, for the receipt of whatever sum each householder might freely +give, every such sum to be noted in presence of the donor, and the +aggregates, parish by parish, or city by city, to be remitted to the +treasurers in London, who were to enter them duly in a general +register. The subscription, which lagged for a time in some +districts, produced at length a total of £38,097 7_s._ +3_d._--equal to about £137,000 now. Of this sum £2000 (equal to +about £7500 now) was Cromwell's own contribution, while London and +Westminster contributed £9384 6_s._ 11_d._, and the various +counties sums of various magnitudes, according to their size, wealth, +and zeal, from Devonshire at the head, with £1965 0_s._ +3_d._, Yorkshire next, with £1786 14_s._ 5_d._, and +Essex next, with £1512 17_s._ 7_d._, down to Merionethshire +yielding £3 0_s._ 1_d._ from her eight parishes, and +Radnorshire £1 14_s._ 4_d._ from her seven. Cromwell's own +donation of £2000 went at once to Geneva for immediate use; and +£10,000 followed on the 10th of July, as the first instalment of the +general subscription. There were similar subscriptions, it ought to +be added, in other Protestant countries.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter from Thurloe to Pell at Geneva (Vaughan's +Protectorate, I. 158-159); Council Order Books, May 17, 18, 22, 23, +25, June 1 and July 8, 1655; Morland, 562-596. Morland gives an +interesting abstract of the Treasurer's Accounts of the Collection; +but the original accounts in a large folio book, entitled +_Committee for Piedmont_ &c., are in the Record Office. The +counties are arranged there alphabetically and the parishes +alphabetically under each county, with the sums which the +_parishes_ individually subscribed. Some parishes seem wholly +to have neglected the subscription, and there are blanks opposite +their names.] + +At the time of the massacre Cromwell had two agents in Switzerland, +viz. Mr. JOHN PELL (Vol. IV. p. 449) and the ubiquitous JOHN DURIE. +They had been sent abroad early in 1654, to cultivate the friendly +intercourse already begun between the Evangelical Cantons and the +Commonwealth, and also to watch the progress of a struggle which had +just broken out between the Popish Cantons of the Confederacy and the +Evangelical Cantons. As the Evangelical Cantons were also astir +about the Vaudois, whose cause was so closely connected with their +own, the services of Pell and Durie were now available for that +business. Cromwell, however, had thought an express Commissioner +necessary, with instructions to negotiate directly with the Duke of +Savoy, and had selected for the purpose Mr, SAMUEL MORLAND, an able +and ingenious man, about thirty years of age, who had been with +Whitlocke in his Swedish Embassy, and had been taken into the Council +office on his return as assistant to Thurloe. On the 26th of May +Morland left London, carrying with him the letters addressed to Louis +XIV. and the Duke of Savoy. He was at La Fère in France on the 1st of +June, treating with the French King and Mazarin, and was able to +despatch thence a letter from the French King to Cromwell, expressing +willingness to do all that could be done for the Vaudois, and +explaining that he had already conveyed his views on the subject to +the Duke of Savoy. Thence Morland continued his journey to Rivoli, +near Turin, where he arrived on the 21st of June. He was received +most politely, was entertained and driven about both at Rivoli and at +Turin itself, and was admitted to a formal audience on or about the +24th. He there made a speech in Latin to the Duke, the Duchess-mother +being also present, and delivered Cromwell's letter, The speech was a +very bold one. He spared no detail of horror in his picture of the +massacre as he had authentically ascertained it, and added, "Were all +the Neros of all times and ages alive again (I would be understood to +say it with out any offence to your Highness, inasmuch as we believe +that none of these things was done by any fault of yours), they would +be ashamed at finding that they had contrived nothing that was not +even mild and humane in comparison. Meanwhile angels are +horrorstruck, mortals amazed!" The Duchess-mother, replying for her +son, could hardly avoid hinting that Mr. Morland had been rather +rude. She was, nevertheless, profuse in expressions of respect for +the Lord Protector, who had no doubt received very exaggerated +representations of what had happened, but at whose request she was +sure her son would willingly pardon his rebellious subjects and +restore them to their privileges. During the rest of Morland's stay +in Turin or its neighbourhood the object of the Duke's counsellors, +and also of the French minister, was to furnish him with what they +called a more correct account of the facts, and induce him to convey +to Cromwell a gentler view of the whole affair. Morland kept his own +counsel; but, having had a second audience, and received the Duke's +submissive but guarded answer to Cromwell, and also several other +papers, he left Turin on the 19th of July and proceeded, according to +his instructions, to Geneva.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Morland, 563-583; and Letters between Pell and Thurloe +given in _Vaughan's Protectorate_.] + +Meanwhile Cromwell, dissatisfied with the coolness of the French King +and Mazarin, and also with the shuffling and timidity of the Swiss +Cantons, had been taking the affair more and more into his own hands. +He had despatched, late in July, another Commissioner, Mr. GEORGE +DOWNING, to meet Morland at Geneva, help Morland to infuse some +energy into the Cantons, and then proceed with him to Turin to bring +matters to a definite issue. He had been inquiring also about the +fittest place for landing an invading force against the Duke, and had +thought of Nice or Villafranca. Blake's presence in the Mediterranean +was not forgotten. All which being known to Mazarin, that wily +statesman saw that no time was to be lost. While Mr. Downing was +still only on his way to Geneva through France, Mazarin had +instructed M. Servien, the French minister at Turin, to insist, in +the French King's name, on an immediate settlement of the Vaudois +business. The result was a _Patente di Gratia e Perdono_, or +"Patent of Grace and Pardon," granted by Charles Emanuel to the +Vaudois Protestants, Aug. 19, in terms of a Treaty at Pignerol, in +which the French Minister appeared as the real mediating party and +certain Envoys from the Swiss Cantons as more or less assenting. As +the Patent substantially retracted the Persecuting Edict and restored +the Vaudois to all their former privileges, nothing more was to be +done. Cromwell, it is true, did not conceal that he was disappointed. +He had looked forward to a Treaty at Turin in which his own envoys, +Morland and Downing, and D'Ommeren, as envoy from the United +Provinces, would have taken the leading part, and he somewhat +resented Mazarin's too rapid interference and the too easy compliance +of the envoys of the Cantons. The Treaty of Pignerol contained +conditions that might occasion farther trouble. Still, as things +were, he thought it best to acquiesce. Downing, who had arrived at +Geneva early in September, was at once recalled, leaving Morland and +Pell still there, to superintend the distribution of the English +subscription-money among the poor Vaudois, instalment after +instalment, as they arrived. The charitable work was to detain +Morland in Geneva or its neighbourhood for more than a year, nor was +the great business of the Piedmontese Protestants to be wholly out of +Cromwell's mind to the day of his death.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Morland, 605-673; Guigot, II. 220-225; Council Order +Book, July 17.] + +Just at the date of the happy, though not perfect, conclusion of the +Piedmontese business, came almost the only chagrin ever experienced +by Cromwell in the shape of the failure of an enterprise. It was now +some months since he had made up his mind in private to a rupture +with Spain, intending that the fact should be first announced to the +world in the actions of the fleet which he had sent with sealed +orders to the West Indies under Penn's command. The instructions to +Penn and to General Robert Venables, who went with him as commander +of the troops, were nothing less, indeed, than that they should +strike some shattering blow at that dominion of Spain in the New +World which was at once her pride and the source of her wealth. It +might be in one of her great West-India Islands, St. Domingo, Cuba, +or Porto Rico, or it might be at Cartagena on the South-American +mainland, where the treasures of Peru were amassed, for annual +conveyance across the Atlantic. Much discretion was left to Penn and +Venables, but on the whole St. Domingo, then called Hispaniola, was +indicated for a beginning. Blake's presence in the Mediterranean with +the other fleet had been timed for an assault on Spain at home when +the news should arrive of the disaster to her colonies.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Guizot, II. 184-186; Godwin, IV. 180-194.] + +Penn and Venables together were not equal to one Blake. They opened +their sealed instructions at Barbadoes, one of the two or three small +Islands of the West-Indies then possessed by the English, and, after +counsel and preparation, proceeded to Hispaniola. The fleet now +consisted of about sixty vessels, and there were about 9000 soldiers +on board, some of them veterans, but most of them recruits of bad +quality. They were off St. Domingo, the capital of the Island, on the +14th of April, 1655, and from that moment there was misunderstanding +and blundering. Penn, Venables, and the Chief Commissioner who had +been sent out with them, differed as to the proper landing point; the +wrong landing point was chosen for the main body; the men fell ill +and mutinied; the Spaniards, who might have been surprised at first +by a direct assault on St. Domingo, resisted bravely, and poured shot +among the troops from ambuscade. Two attempts to get into St. Domingo +were both foiled with heavy loss, including the death of +Major-General Heane and others of the best officers. The mortality +from climate and bad food being also great, the enterprise on +Hispaniola was then abandoned; but, dreading a return to England with +nothing accomplished, Penn and Venables bethought themselves of +Jamaica. Here, where they arrived May 10, they were rather more +fortunate. The Spaniards, utterly unforewarned, deserted the coast, +and fled inland. There was no difficulty, therefore, in taking +nominal possession of the chief town, though even that was done in a +bungling manner. Then, leaving the Island in charge of a portion of +the troops, under Major-General Fortescue, with Vice-Admiral Goodson +to sail about it with a protecting squadron, Penn hastened back to +England, Venables quickly following him. They arrived in London, +within a few days of each other, early in September, and were at once +committed to the Tower for having returned without orders. The news +of the failure of their enterprise had preceded them, and Cromwell +was profoundly angry. A bilious illness which he had about this time +was attributed by the French ambassador Bordeaux to his brooding over +the West-Indian mischance. He was soon himself again, however, and +Penn and Venables had nothing to fear. They were released after a +few weeks. After all, Jamaica was better than nothing.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 195-203; Carlyle, III. 122-123; Guizot, +II. 226-231; Letters of Cromwell to Vice-Admiral Goodson and +Major-General Fortescue (Carlyle, III. 126-132).] + +One result of the West Indian expedition was that the long-delayed +alliance with France was now a settled affair. Cardenas had his +pass-ports sent him, and on the 22nd of October, 1655, he left +England. The Court of Madrid had already recalled him, laid an +embargo on all English property in Spain, and conferred a Marquisate +and pension on the Governor of Hispaniola. On the 24th of October the +Treaty of Peace and Commerce between Cromwell and Louis XIV. was +finally signed; and within a few days afterwards there was out in +London an elaborate document entitled "_Scriptum Domini +Protectoris, ex consensu atque sententia Concilii sui editum, in quo +hujus Reipublica causa contra Hispanos justa esse demonstratur_" +("The Lord-Protector's Manifesto, published with the consent and +advice of his Council, in which the justice of the Cause of this +Commonwealth against the Spaniards is demonstrated"). Now, +accordingly, the Commonwealth entered on a new era of her history. +Cromwell and Mazarin were to be fast friends, and the Stuarts were to +have no help or countenance any more from the French crown; while, on +the other hand, there was to be war to the death between the +Commonwealth and Spain, war in the new world and war in the old, and +Spain was thus naturally to adopt the cause of Charles II., and +employ exiled English Royalism everywhere as one of her agencies,--Of +the consciousness of the Lord-Protector and the Council of this +increased complexity of the foreign relations of the Commonwealth in +consequence of the rupture with Spain there is a curious incidental +illustration. "That several volumes of the book called _The New +Atlas_ be bought for the use of the Council, and that the Globe +heretofore standing in the Council Chamber be again brought thither," +had been one of the Council's instructions to Thurloe at their +meeting of Oct. 2. Thenceforth, doubtless, both the Globe and the +Atlas were to be much in request.--More important, however, than such +fixed apparatus in the Council Room was the moving instrumentality of +envoys and diplomatists in the chief European cities and capitals. +Above all, an able ambassador in Paris was now an absolute necessity. +Nor was the fit man wanting. Among the former Royalists of the +Presbyterian section that had become reconciled to the Commonwealth, +and attached to the Protector by strong personal loyalty, was the +Scottish WILLIAM LOCKHART, member for Lanarkshire in the late +Parliament. He had been trained to arms in France in his youth, and +had since then served as a Colonel among the Scots. In this capacity +he had been in Hamilton's Army of the Engagement, defeated by +Cromwell at Preston, and in David Leslie's subsequent Army for +Charles II., defeated at Dunbar. Having received some insults from +Charles, of such a kind that he had declared that "no King on earth +should use him in that manner," he had snapped his connexion with the +Stuarts before the Battle of Worcester; and for some time after that +battle he had lived moodily in Scotland, meditating a return to +France for military employment. A visit to London and an interview +with Cromwell had retained his talents for the service of the +Protectorate, and his affection for that service had been confirmed +by his marriage, in 1654, with Robina Sewster, the orphan niece of +the Protector. Altogether Cromwell had judged him to be the very man +to represent the Protectorate at Paris, and be even a match for +Mazarin. He was now thirty-four years of age. He was nominated to the +embassy in December 1655; but he did not go to his post till the +following April.--Hardly a less important appointment was that, in +January 1655-6, of young Edward Montague to be one of the Admirals of +the Fleet. Blake, who had been cruising off Cadiz, and on whom there +was the chief dependence for action against the Spaniards at sea, had +felt the responsibility too great, and had applied for a colleague. +Penn, being in disgrace, was out of the question; and Montague, then +a member of the Protector's Council, was chosen. He had been one of +Cromwell's favourites and disciples since the days of Marston Moor +and Naseby, when, though hardly out of his teens, he had +distinguished himself highly as a Parliamentary Colonel. Henceforth +the sea was to be his chief element; and, as Admiral or General at +sea, he was to become very famous.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV, 214-217 and 298-300; Guizot, II. 231-234; +Thomason copy of the Declaration against Spain, dated Nov. 9, 1655; +Council Order Books, Oct. 2, 1655; Article on Lockhart in Chambers's +Biographical Dictionary of Scotsmen; Carlyle, III. 309-310.] + +It was just about this time of change and extension in the foreign +relations of the Commonwealth that the people of England and Wales +became aware that they were, and had been for some time, under an +entirely new system of home-government, called _Government by +Major-Generals_. + +The difficulties of the home-government of the Protectorate were +great and peculiar. The power of the Lord-Protector and his Council +to pass ordinances had been called in question. Judges and lawyers +were not only pretty unanimous in the opinion that resistance to +payment of imposts not enacted by Parliamentary authority might be +made good at law, and that the Ordinance for Chancery Reform was also +legally invalid; they doubted even whether, in strict law, there +could be proceedings for the preservation of the public peace, by +courts and magistrates, under any Council ordinance about crimes and +treasons. All this Cromwell had been meditating. How was revenue to +be raised? How were Royalist and Anabaptist plottings to be +suppressed? How were police regulations about public manners and +morals to be enforced? How was the will of the Central Government at +Whitehall, in any matter whatsoever, to be transmitted to any spot in +the community and made really operative? Meditating these questions, +Cromwell, as he expressed it afterwards, "did find out a little poor +invention": "I say," he repeated, "there was a little thing +invented."[1] The little invention consisted in a formal +identification of the Protector's Chief Magistracy with his Headship +of the Army. He had resolved to map out England and Wales into +districts, and to plant in each district a trusty officer, with the +title of Major-General, who should be nominally in command of the +militia of that district, but should be really also the executive +there for the Central Government in all things. A beginning had been +made in the business as early as May 1655, when Desborough was +appointed Major-General of the Militia in the six southwestern +counties; and the districts had been all marked out and the +Major-Generals chosen in August. But there had been very great +secrecy about the scheme; and not till the 31st of October was there +official announcement of the new organization. Only about mid-winter, +1655-6, did people fully realise what it meant. The Major-Generalcies +then stood thus:-- + +[Footnote 1: Speech V. (Carlyle, III. 176).] + + Person. District. + + 1. MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP SKIPPON. _London._ + + 2. MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN BARKSTEAD. _Westminster and Middlesex._ + + 3. MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS KELSEY. _Kent and Surrey._ + + 4. MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM GOFFE. _Sussex, Hants, and Berks._ + + 5. FLEETWOOD (with MAJOR-GENERAL _Oxford, Bucks, Herts,_ + HEZEKIAH HAYNES as his deputy). _Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex,_ + _and Cambridge._ + + 6. MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD WHALLEY. _Lincoln, Notts, Derby,_ + _Warwick, and Leicester._ + + 7. MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM BUTLER. _Northampton, Bedford,_ + _Hunts, and Rutland._ + + 8. MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES WORSLEY _Chester, Lancaster, and_ + (succeeded by MAJOR-GENERAL _Stafford._ + TOBIAS BRIDGES). + + 9. LAMBERT (with MAJOR-GENERAL _York, Durham, Cumberland_ + ROBERT TILBURNE and MAJOR-GENERAL _Westmorland,_ + CHARLES HOWARD as his deputies). _and Northumberland._ + + 10. MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN DESBOROUGH. _Gloucester, Wilts, Dorset,_ + _Somerset, Devon, and_ + _Cornwall._ + + 11. MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES BERRY. _Worcester, Hereford, Salop,_ + _and North Wales._ + + 12. MAJOR-GENERAL DAWKINS. _Monmouthshire and_ + _South Wales._[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books, as digested by Godwin, IV. 228-229.] + +The powers intrusted to these Major-Generals and to their subordinate +officers in the several counties were all but universal. They were to +patrol the counties with horse and foot, but especially with horse. +They were to guard against robberies and tumults and to bring +criminals to punishment. They were to take charge of the public +morals, and see the laws put in force against drunkenness, blasphemy, +plays and interludes, profanation of the Lord's Day, and +disorderliness generally. They were to keep a register of all +disaffected persons, remove arms from their houses, note their +changes of residence, and take security for the good behaviour of +themselves, their families, and servants. All travellers and +strangers were bound to appear before them, and give an account of +themselves and their business. They were to arrest vagabonds and +persons with no visible means of living. Above all, they were to see +to the execution of a certain very severe and far-reaching measure +which the Protector and the Council had determined to adopt in +consequence of the late Royalist insurrection and conspiracy. + +Either from information that had been received, or merely _in +terrorem_, there had, during the past summer and autumn, been +numerous arrests of persons of rank and wealth that had hitherto been +allowed to live quietly in their country mansions, on the +understanding that, though Royalists, they had ceased to be such, in +any active sense. The Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of Lindsey, the +Earl of Newport, the Earl of Northampton, the Earl of Rivers, the +Earl of Peterborough, Viscount Falkland, and Lords Lovelace, St. +John, Petre, Coventry, Maynard, Lucas, and Willoughby of Parham, with +a great many commoners of distinction, had been thus arrested. There +was a general consternation among the peaceful Royalists throughout +the country. It looked as if their peacefulness was to be of no +avail, as if the Act of Oblivion of Feb. 1651-2 was to be a dead +letter, as if Cromwell had suddenly changed his policy of universal +conciliation. In reality, Cromwell had no intention of reversing his +policy of universal conciliation; but he wanted to teach the lesson +that Royalist insurrections and conspiracies would fall heavily on +the Royalists themselves, and he wanted particularly, at that +moment, to make the Royalists pay the expenses of the police kept up +on their account. Under cover of the consternation caused by the +numerous arrests, he introduced, in fact, a _Decimation_ upon +the Royalists, i.e. an income tax of ten per cent, upon all Royalists +possessing estates in land of £100 a year and upwards or personal +property worth £1500. It was to be the main business of the +Major-Generals to assess this tax within their bounds, and to collect +it strictly and swiftly. It is astonishing with what ease they +succeeded. It seems to have been even a relief to the Royalists to +know definitely what their principles were to cost them, and to have +arrest or the dread of it commuted into a fixed money payment. As +soon as the tax was fairly in operation, all or most of those who had +been arrested were liberated, and subsequent arrests by the +Major-Generals themselves were only of vagabonds or suspicious +persons. The only appeal from the Major-Generals was to his Highness +himself and the Council.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, 223-242; Carlyle, III. 101.] + +What with the vigilance of the Major-Generals in their districts, +what with the edicts of the Protector and the Council for the +direction of the Major-Generals, the public order now kept over all +England and Wales was wonderfully strict. At no time since the +beginning of the Commonwealth had there been so much of that general +decorum of external behaviour which Cromwell liked to see. +Cock-fights, dancing at fairs, and other such amusements, were under +ban. Indecent publications that had flourished long in the guise of +weekly pamphlets disappeared; and books of the same sort were more +closely looked after than they had been. But what shall we say about +this Order, affecting the newspaper press especially:--"_Wednesday, +5th Sept._, 1655--At the Council at Whitehall, Ordered by his +Highness the Lord Protector and the Council, That no person whatever +do presume to publish in print any matter of public news or +intelligence without leave of the Secretary of State"? The effect of +the order was that not only the indecent publications purporting to +be newspapers were suppressed, but also a considerable number of +newspapers proper, insomuch that the London newspaper press was +reduced thenceforth to two weekly prints, authorized by Thurloe, viz. +Needham's _Mercurius Politicus_, published on Thursdays, and +_The Public Intelligencer_, a more recent adventure, published +on Mondays. Just after the order, I note, the _Mercurius +Politicus_ enlarged its size somewhat, to match with the _Public +Intelligencer_, and in the first number of the new size +(Sept. 22-Oct. 4, 1655) the Editor speaks with great approbation of the +Order of Council "silencing the many pamphlets that have hitherto +presumed to come abroad." Needham seems now to have assumed the +editorship of both papers; and after the twenty-third number of the +_Intelligencer_ (March 3-10, 1655-6) the publisher of it, as +well as of the _Mercurius Politicus_, was Thomas Newcome. The +newspaper press of the Protectorate was thus pretty well consolidated +by Mr. Thurloe. There were two papers only, under one management, or +rather there was a single bi-weekly newspaper with alternative +names.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of 1655 and 1658 _passim; Merc. +Pol._ and _Public Intelligencer_ of dates given.] + +It was part of the duty of the Major-Generals to assist, so far as +might still be necessary, in the execution of the Ordinance of Aug. +1654 for the ejection of scandalous and insufficient ministers and +schoolmasters (Vol. IV. p. 564 and p. 571), The County _Committees of +Ejectors_ under that Ordinance had already performed their +disagreeable work in part, but were still busy. On the whole, though +they turned out many, they seem not to have abused their powers. "I +must needs say," is Baxter's testimony, "that in all the counties +where I was acquainted, six to one at least, if not many more, that +were sequestered by the Committees were, by the oaths of witnesses, +proved insufficient or scandalous, or both--especially guilty of +drunkenness or swearing,--and those that, being able godly preachers, +were cast out for the war alone, as for their opinions' sake, were +comparatively very few. This, I know, will displease that party; but +this is true." Baxter admits, indeed, that there were cases in which +the Committees were swayed too much by mere political feeling, and +ejected men from their pulpits whom it would have been better to +retain. Other authorities assert the same more strongly, but rather +fail in the proof. The most notorious instance produced of a blunder +on the part of any of the Committees was in Berkshire. The Rector of +Childrey in this county was the learned orientalist Pocock, who had +lost his Professorship of Hebrew in the University of Oxford for +refusing the engagement to the Commonwealth, but still held the +Arabic lectureship there, because there was no one else who knew +Arabic sufficiently. Not liking his look, or not seeing what +Orientalism had to do with the Gospel, the rude Berkshire Committee +were on the point of turning him out of his Rectory, when Dr. Owen +interfered manfully and prevented the scandal. About the same time, +it is said, Thomas Fuller was in some trepidation about his living of +Waltham Abbey, in Essex, but acquitted himself before the Committee +handsomely.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baxter, 74; Wood's Ath. IV. 319; Godwin, IV. 40-41.] + +Distinct from the County Committees of Ejectors, and forming the +other great constitutional power in Cromwell's Church-Establishment, +was the Central or London _Committee of the Thirty-eight Triers_ +(Vol. IV. p. 571). It was their duty to examine "all candidates for +the public ministry," i.e. all persons presented to livings by the +patrons of the same, and pass only those that were fit. Baxter's +report of the work of these Triers, as done either by themselves in +conclave, or by Sub-commissioners for them in the counties, is the +more remarkable because he disowned the authority under which the +Triers acted and was in controversy with most of them. "Though their +authority was null," he says, "and though some few over-busy and +over-rigid Independents among them, were too severe against all that +were Arminians, and too particular in inquiring after evidences of +sanctification in those whom they examined, and somewhat too lax in +their admission of unlearned and erroneous men that favoured +Antinomianism or Anabaptism, yet, to give them their due, they did +abundance of good to the Church. They saved many a congregation from +ignorant, ungodly, drunken teachers. That sort of men that intended +no more in the ministry than to say a sermon as readers say their +common prayers, and so patch up a few good words together to talk the +people asleep with on Sunday, and all the rest of the week go with +them to the ale-house and harden them in sin; and that sort of +ministers that either preached against a holy life, or preached as +men that never were acquainted with it; all those that used the +ministry but as a common trade to live by, and were never likely to +convert a soul:--all these they usually rejected, and in their stead +admitted of any that were able serious preachers, and lived a godly +life, of what tolerable opinion soever they were. So that, though +they were many of them somewhat partial for the Independents, +Separatists, Fifth Monarchy men, and Anabaptists, and against the +Prelatists and Arminians, yet so great was the benefit above the hurt +which they brought to the Church that many thousands of souls blessed +God for the faithful ministers whom they let in." Royalist writers +after the Restoration give, of course, a different picture. +"Ignorant, bold, canting fellows," they say, "laics, mechanics, and +pedlars," were brought into the Church by Cromwell's Triers. One may, +in the main, trust Baxter.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baxter, 72; Noal, IV. 102-109.] + +Cromwell's Established Church of England and Wales may now be imaged +with tolerable accuracy. It contained two patches of completed +Presbyterian organization, one in London and the other in Lancashire. +The system of Presbyteries or Classes, with half-yearly Provincial +Assemblies, which had been set up by the Long Parliament in these two +districts, remained undisturbed. Both in London and in Lancashire, +however, the system was in a languid state; and for the rest of the +country, and indeed for non-Presbyterians in London and Lancashire +too, the Church or Public Ministry was practically on the principle +of the Independency of Congregations. Each parish had, or was to +have, its regular minister, recognised by the State, and the +association of ministers among themselves for consultation or mutual +criticism was very much left to chance and discretion. Ministers and +deacons, however, did draw up Agreements and form voluntary +Associations in various counties, holding monthly or other periodical +meetings; and, as it was the rule in such associations not to meddle +with matters of Civil Government, they were countenanced by the +Protectorate. Baxter tells us much of the Association in +Worcestershire which he had helped to form in 1653, and adds that +similar associations sprang up afterwards in Cumberland and +Westmorland, Wilts, Dorset, Somersetshire, Hampshire, and Essex. +These Associations are to be conceived as imperfect substitutes for +the regular Presbyterian organization, and most of the ministers +belonging to them were eclectics or quasi-Presbyterians, like Baxter +himself, making the most of untoward circumstances, while the +stricter Presbyterians, who sighed for the perfect model, held aloof. +Perhaps the majority of the State-clergy all over the country +consisted of these two classes of Presbyterians baulked of their full +Presbyterianism,--the _Rigid Presbyterians_, who would accept +nothing short of the system as exemplified in London and Lancashire, +and the _Eclectics_ or _Quasi-Presbyterians_ grouped in +voluntary Associations. But among the State-clergy collectively there +were several other varieties. There were many of the old +_Church-of-England Rectors and Vicars_, still Prelatic in +sentiment, and, though obliged to disuse the Book of Common Prayer, +maintaining some sweet remnant of Anglicanism. Some of these, not of +the High Church school, did not scruple to join the +quasi-Presbyterian Associations that were liberal enough to admit +them; but most found more liberty in keeping by themselves. Then +there were the Independents proper, drawn from all those various +Evangelical Sects, however named separately, whose principle of +Independency stopped short of absolute Voluntaryism, and therefore +did not prevent them from belonging to a State-Church. The more +moderate of these Independents might easily enough, in consistency +with their theory of Congregationalism, join the quasi-Presbyterian +Associations, and some of them did so; but not very many. The +majority of them were simply ministers of the State-Church, in charge +of individual parishes and congregations, and consulting each other, +if at all, only in informal ways. Among the Independent Sectaries of +all sorts thus officiating individually in the State-Church, the +difficulty, as far as one can see, must have been chiefly, or solely, +with the _Baptists_. How could preachers who rejected the rite +of Infant Baptism, maintained the necessity of the rebaptism of +adults, and thought dipping the proper form of the rite, be ministers +of parishes, or be included in any way among the State-clergy? That +such ministers did hold livings in Cromwell's Established Church is a +fact. Mr. John Tombes, the chief of the Anti-Pædobaptists, and +himself one of Cromwell's Triers, retained the vicarage of Leominster +in Herefordshire, with the parsonage of Boss in the same county, and +a living at Bewdley in Worcestershire; and there are other instances. +Baxter's language already quoted implies nothing less, indeed, than +that Anti-Pædobaptists in considerable numbers were presented to +Church-livings by the patrons and passed by the Triers; and he +elsewhere signifies that he did not himself greatly object to this. +"Let there be no withdrawing," he says, "from the ministry and church +of that place [i.e. a parish of mixed Pædobaptists and +Anti-Pædobaptists] upon the mere ground of Baptism. If the minister +be an Anabaptist, let not us withdraw from him on that ground; and, +if he be a Pædobaptist, let not _them_ withdraw from _us_." +He even suggests that the pastor of a church might openly record his +opinion on the Baptism subject, if it were contrary to that of the +majority of the members, and then proceed in his pastorate all the +same, and that, on the other hand, private members might publicly +enter their dissent from their pastor's opinion, and yet abide with +him lovingly and obediently in all other things. How far, and in how +many places, this method of leaving Pædo-baptism an open question was +actually in operation in the Established Church of the Protectorate, +and whether Infant Baptism thus fell into complete abeyance in some +parishes where Anabaptists of eminence were settled, or whether the +Pædobaptist parishioners in such eases quietly avoided that result by +having their children baptized by other ministers, are points of some +obscurity. On the whole, the difficulty can have been felt but +exceptionally and here and there, for it was obviated on the great +scale by the fact that most of the real Anabaptists, preachers and +people alike, were Voluntaries, disowning the State-Church +altogether, and meeting only in separate congregations. Even for +such, however, in localities where they were pretty numerous, there +seems to have been a desire to make some provision. Thus on March 13, +1655-56, it was ordered by His Highness and the Council "that it be +referred to General Desborough, Major-General for the County of +Devon, to take care that the Church under the form of Baptism at +Exeter have such one of the public meeting-places assigned to them +for their place of worship as is best in repair, and may with most +conveniency be spared and set apart for that use." The Exeter +Baptists may have thought it not inconsistent with their principles +to accept so much of State favour. Not the public buildings, so much +as the Tithes and Lay Patronage with which they were connected, were +the abominations of the State-Church in the eyes of the Anabaptist +Voluntaries. For let it not be forgotten that Cromwell's ardent +passion for a Church-Establishment under his Protectorate had come +more and more to involve, in his reasonings, the preservation of the +Tithe-system and the continuance of lay Patronage. The legal patrons +of livings retained their right of nominating to vacancies; the +Triers only checked that right by examination of nominees and the +rejection of the unfit. Cromwell himself combined in his own person, +to a most extraordinary extent, the functions both of Patron and +Trier. "It is observable that, his Highness having near one half of +the livings in England, one way or other, in his own immediate +disposal by presentation, he seldom bestoweth one of them upon any +man whom himself doth not first examine and make trial of in person, +save only that, at such times as his great affairs happen to be more +urgent than ordinary, he useth to appoint some other to do it in his +behalf; which is so rare an example of piety that the like is not to +be found in the stories of Princes." We have not exaggerated, it will +be seen, Cromwell's personal anxiety about his Established Church. +That, indeed, is farther proved, in a very interesting manner, by +certain entries in the Order Books of his Council which become more +and more frequent in this middle section of his Protectorate. They +refer to "augmentations of ministers' stipends." Thus, in December +1655, there is an order for the augmentation of the stipends of +seventy-five ministers in different counties, all in one batch; and +succeeding entries in 1656 show the steady progress of the same work +by repeated orders for other augmentations, batch after batch. +Clearly Cromwell had resolved that there should be a systematic +increase of the salaries of the parochial clergy all over England, +beginning with those who needed it most. The details of the business +were managed by that body of "Trustees for maintenance of ministers" +which had been appointed by Ordinance in Sept. 1654 (Vol. IV. p. +564); but the final Orders for Augmentations came from the Protector +and Council, and there was no part of his work in which the Protector +seemed to have more pleasure.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baxter, 96-97 and 180-188; Wood's Ath. III. 1083; +Council Order Books of dates; Neal, IV. Chap. 3; Marchamont Needham's +Book against John Goodwin, entitled _The Great Accuser Cast +Down_, published in July 1657. The information about Cromwell's +practice in his patronage of livings is from the last. The book was +dedicated to Cromwell.] + +But what of that Toleration of Dissent from the Established Church +which he professed to be equally dear to him? That Cromwell was +faithful still to the principle of Liberty of Conscience, to the +fullest extent of his past professions, there can be no doubt. It may +be more doubtful whether his past professions pledged him to a theory +of Toleration as absolute as that which had been advocated eleven or +twelve years before by Roger Williams and John Goodwin, and then +adopted by the Army Independents generally, and which was still +upheld by the main body of the Anabaptists. The evidence, however, +rather favours the idea that he had already been in sympathy even +with this extreme theory of Toleration, and so that now, though he +had bitterly disappointed his old Anabaptist associates by declaring +himself for the Civil Magistrate's Authority in matters of Religion, +he still cherished the extreme theory of Toleration as it might be +applied round about his Established Church. In his heart, I believe, +he was for persecuting nobody whatsoever, troubling nobody +whatsoever, for mere religious heresy, even of the kinds he himself +most abhorred. But, though this might be his private ideal, his +difficulties publicly and practically were enormous. The other +unlimited Tolerationists in England were Anabaptists and the like, +detesting his Established Church as incompatible with true +Toleration, and in league for battering it down. Through the rest of +the community there was but little voice for Toleration. The frantic +and idiotic stringency of the Presbyterians of 1644-6 was now, +indeed, rather out of fashion, and a certain mild babble about a +Limited Toleration was common in the public mouth. But the old leaven +was at work in many quarters; occasional pamphlets from the +Presbyterian camp still wailed lamentably about "the effects of the +present Toleration, especially as to the increase of Blasphemy and +Damnable Errors;" and some Presbyterian booksellers had recently +published _A Second Beacon Fired_, in which they insidiously +tried to work upon the Lord Protector's new Conservative and +State-Church instincts; by denouncing the books of some leading +Anabaptists and other heretics, hostile to his Government, and humbly +adjuring him to "do what might be expected from Christian +magistrates" in such flagrant cases. In the late Parliament there had +been much of this Presbyterian spirit, and it had been proved +abundantly that the Protector's idea of Toleration would have been +voted down by the national representatives. Then what a harassing +definition of proper Christian Toleration had come even from +Cromwell's favourite Independents, Messrs. Owen and the rest, with +their twenty fundamentals! Add the difficulties arising from the +nature of some of the current heresies themselves, as tending +directly to the defamation of his government, the subversion of laws +and institutions, and the disturbance of the peace.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Various Thomason Pamphlets of 1654-1656. The _Second +Beacon Fired_ was published in Oct. 1654 by six London +booksellers--Luke Fawne, John Rothwell, Samuel Gellibrand, Thomas +Underhill, Joshua Kirton, and Nathaniel Webb. Two of them, Rothwell +and Underhill, had published for Milton in former days. The heretics +chiefly denounced are Biddle, Dell, Farnworth, Norwood, Braine, John +Webster, and Feake. John Goodwin replied to the booksellers in _A +fresh Discovery of the High Presbyterian Spirit, or the Quenching of +"The Second Beacon Fired_," published in Jan. 1654-5, and so +found himself in a new quarrel. There was a reply called _An +Apology for the Six Booksellers_.] + +A very fair amount of Liberty of the Press, though not to newspapers, +nor to publications clearly immoral, seems to have been allowed by +Cromwell. Through 1655 and 1656 there were books and pamphlets of the +most various kinds, and advocating the most various opinions. There +were Episcopalian books and Anabaptist books, arguments for Tithes +and arguments against Tithes, Fifth Monarchy tracts, Quaker Tracts +and Anti-Quaker Tracts, in extraordinary profusion. Prynne would +publish one day _The Quakers unmasked and clearly detected to be +but the spawn of Romish frogs, Jesuits and Franciscan Friars, sent +from Rome to seduce the intoxicated giddy-headed English nation_, +and George Fox would print the next day _The Unmasking and +Discovery of Antichrist, with all the False Prophets, by the true +light which comes from Christ Jesus_. Nor, of course, was there, +any interference with the religious meetings of any of the ordinary +Puritan sects, Baptists or whatever else, that chose to form +separatist congregations. Even those who so far passed the bounds +that they were called Ranters or Fanatics were quite safe in their +own conventicles; and altogether one has to conclude that much that +went by the still worse names of Blasphemy, Atheism, Infidelity, and +Anti-Christianism, had as quiet a life under the Protectorate as in +any later time. Practically, all that is of interest in the enquiry +as to the amount of Religious Toleration under Cromwell's Government +lies in what is known of his dealings with five denominations of +Dissenters from his Established Church--the Papists, the +Episcopalians, the Socinians or Anti-Trinitarians, the Quakers, and +the Jews. + +(1) _The Papists._ Papists might be Papists under Cromwell's +government in the sense that there was no positive compulsion on them +to abjure their creed and profess another. The question, however, is +as to open liberty of Roman Catholic worship. This question had +passed through Cromwell's mind, and the results of his ruminations +upon it appear most succinctly in one of his letters to Mazarin. +After the Treaty made with France, the Cardinal very naturally +pressed the subject of a toleration for Catholics in England, the +rather as Cromwell was always so energetic for a toleration of +Protestants in Catholic countries. "Although I have this set home to +my spirit," Cromwell wrote in reply, "I may not (shall I tell you I +_cannot_?) at this juncture of time, and as the face of my +affairs now stands, answer your call for Toleration. I say _I +cannot_, as to a public declaration of my sense in that point; +although I believe that under my government your Eminency, in behalf +of Catholics, has less reason for complaint, as to rigour on men's +consciences, than under the Parliament. For I have of some, and those +very many, had compassion; making a difference. Truly I have (and I +may speak it with cheerfulness in the presence of God, who is a +witness within me to the truth of what I affirm) made a difference; +and, as Jude speaks, 'plucked many out of the fire,'--the raging fire +of persecution, which did tyrannise over their consciences, and +encroached by an arbitrariness of power upon their estates. And +herein it is my purpose, as soon as I can remove impediments, and +some weights that press me down, to make a farther progress, and +discharge my promise to your Eminency in relation to that."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carlyle, III. 202-203. The letter is dated Dec. 26, +1656.] + +(2) _The Episcopalians._ The question under this heading is not +about those moderate Episcopalian divines who had conformed so far as +to retain their rectories and vicarages in the Established Church, +but about those Episcopalians of stronger principle, whether High +Church and Arminian or not, who had been ejected from their former +livings, or were trying to maintain themselves by some kind of +private practice of their clerical profession in various parts of +England. Against these, just at the time when the Major-Generalcies +were coming into full operation, there did issue one fell Ordinance. +It was published Nov. 24, 1655, under the title of _An Ordinance +for Securing the Peace of the Commonwealth_, and it ordered that +after Jan. 1, 1655-6 no persons should keep in their houses as +chaplains or tutors any of the ejected clergy, and also that none of +the ejected should teach in schools, preach publicly or privately, +celebrate baptism or marriage, or use the Book of Common Prayer, +under pain of being prosecuted. The Ordinance seems to have been +issued merely as part and parcel of that almost ostentatious menace +of severities against the Royalists by which Cromwell sought at that +particular time to terrify them into submission and prevent farther +plottings. At all events, it was announced in the Ordinance itself +that there would be great delicacy in the application of it, so as to +favour such of the ejected as deserved tender treatment; and, in +fact, it was never applied or executed at all. No one was prosecuted +under it; and, though it was not recalled, it was understood that it +was suspended by the pleasure of his Highness, and that chaplains, +teachers, and preachers, of the Episcopal persuasion, might go on as +before, and reckon on all the toleration accorded to other +Dissenters. On this footing they did go on, ex-Bishops and future +Bishops among them, with increasing security; and gradually the +notion got abroad that the Protector began to have even a kindly +feeling for the "good old Church." Many Royalist authorities concur +to that effect. "The Protector," says one, "indulged the use of the +Common-Prayer in families and in private conventicles; and, though +the condition of the Church of England was but melancholy, yet it +cannot be denied that they had a great deal more favour and +indulgence than under the Parliament." Burnet, on the authority of +Dr. Wilkins, afterwards Bishop Wilkins, who was the second husband of +Cromwell's youngest sister, adds a more startling statement. "Dr. +Wilkins told me," says Burnet, "he (Cromwell) often said to him +(Wilkins) no temporal government could have a sure support without a +national church that adhered to it, and he thought England was +capable of no constitution but Episcopacy; to which he told me he did +not doubt but Cromwell would have turned." Wilkins probably liked to +think this after he himself had turned; but it is hardly credible in +the form in which Burnet has expressed it. Yet Cromwell, in that +temper of conservatism, or desire of a settled order in all things, +which more and more grew upon him after he had assumed the +Protectorate, had undoubtedly the old Episcopalian clergy in view as +a body to be conciliated, and employed as a counterpoise to the +Anabaptists. He cannot but have been aware, too, of the spontaneous +movements in some of the quasi-Presbyterian Associations of the +clergy for a reunion as far as possible with the more moderate +Episcopalians, as distinct from the High-Church Prelatists or +Laudians. Among others, Baxter was extremely zealous for such a +project; and his accounts of his correspondence about it with +ex-Bishop Brownrigg in 1655, and his conversations about it at the +same time with ex-Primate Usher, are very curious and interesting. +Baxter and many more were quite willing that there should be a +restored Episcopacy after Usher's own celebrated model: i.e. an +Episcopacy not professing to be _jure divino_, but only for +ecclesiastical conveniency,--the Bishops to be permanent Presidents +of clusters of the clergy, and to be fitted into an otherwise +Presbyterian system of Classes and Provincial Synods. They were +willing, moreover, in the interest of such a scheme, to reconsider +the old questions of a Liturgy, kneeling at the Sacrament, and other +matters of Anglican ceremonial. Enough all this to rouse the angry +souls of _Smectymnuus_, Milton, and the other Root-and-Branch +Anti-Prelatists who had led the English Revolution. But, as times +change, men change, and it is not impossible that Cromwell, the first +real mover of the Root-and-Branch Bill of 1641, may now, fifteen +years later, have looked speculatively sometimes at the old trunk in +the timberyard. It is certain that he treated with profound respect +the man whose advice about any remodelling of Episcopacy would have +been the most authoritative generally. Ex-Primate Usher had lived in +London through the Commonwealth and the Protectorate with the highest +honour, pensioned at the rate of £400 a year, and holding also the +preachership to the Society of Lincoln's Inn. Cromwell had shown him +every attention, and had consulted him on several occasions. He had +retired to Reigate a short time before his death, which happened on +the 21st of March, 1655-6. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, a sum +of £200 having been voted for his funeral by the Protector and +Council. Eight months after his death there was published from his +manuscript, by his friend and former chaplain, Dr. Nicholas Bernard, +that famous _Reduction of Episcopacy into the form of Synodical +Government_ which had got about surreptitiously in 1641 (Vol. II. +229-230), and which was then regarded, and has been regarded ever +since, as the most feasible model of a Low-Church Episcopacy adapted +to Presbyterian forms.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Neal, IV. 135-137 and 101-2; Burnet (ed. 1823) I. 110; +Baxter, 172-178 and 206; Thomason Catalogue, Nov. 25, 1656 +(date of publication of Usher's _Reduction_); Wood's Fasti, I. 446.] + +(3) _Anti-Trinitarians._ The crucial test of Cromwell's +Toleration policy as regarded this class of heretics, and indeed as +regarded all heresies of the higher order, was the case of poor Mr. +John Biddle. The dissolution of the late Parliament had been so far +fortunate for him that the prosecution begun against him by that +Parliament under the old Blasphemy Ordinance of 1648 had been stopped +and he had been set at liberty (March 1655). But it was only to get +into fresh trouble. The orthodox in London were determined that he +should not be at large, and it was reported to the Council on the 3rd +of July that on the preceding Thursday, June 28, "in the new +meeting-house at Paul's, commonly called Captain Chillingdon's church +meeting-place, John Biddle did then and there, in presence of about +500 persons, maintain, some hours together, in a dispute, that Jesus +Christ was not the Almighty or most High God, and hath undertaken to +proceed in the game dispute the next Thursday." Cromwell himself was +present at this meeting of the Council, with Lawrence, Lambert, the +Earl of Mulgrave, Skippon, Rous, Sydenham, Pickering, Montague, +Fiennes, Viscount Lisle, Wolseley, and Strickland. What were they to +do? They ordered the Lord Mayor to stop the intended meeting, and all +such meetings in future, and to arrest Biddle if necessary; and they +referred the affair for farther enquiry to Skippon and Rous. The +affair, it seems, could not possibly be hushed up; Biddle was +committed to Poultry Compter, and then to Newgate, and his trial came +on at the Old Bailey, again under the Blasphemy Ordinance of 1648. +Having, with difficulty, been allowed counsel, he put in legal +objections, and the trial was adjourned till next term. Meanwhile +London was greatly agitated. The Presbyterians and the orthodox +generally were eager for Biddle's conviction; but a very considerable +number of persons, including not only Biddle's own followers and +free-thinkers of other sorts, but also some Independent and Baptist +ministers, whose orthodoxy was beyond suspicion, bestirred themselves +in his behalf. Pamphlets appeared in that interest, one entitled +_The Spirit of Persecution again broken loose against Mr. John +Biddle_, and a numerously signed petition was addressed to +Cromwell, requesting his merciful interference. The Petition, as we +learn from _Mercurius Politicus_, was very badly managed. "The +persons who presented a petition some few days since to his Highness +on the behalf of Biddle," says that paper under date Sept. 28, "came +this day in expectation of an answer. They had access, and divers +godly ministers were present. And, the Petition being read in the +hearing of divers of those under whose countenance it was presented, +many of them disowned it, as being altered both in the matter and +title of it since they signed it, and so looked upon it as a forged +thing, wherein both his Highness and they were greatly abused, and +desired that the original which they signed might be produced; which +Mr. Ives and some others of the contrivers and presenters of it were +not able to do, nor had they anything to say in excuse of so foul a +miscarriage. Whereupon they were dismissed, his Highness having +opened to them the evil of such a practice [tampering with petitions +after they had been signed], as also how inconsistent it was for +_them_, who professed to be members of the Churches of Christ +and to worship him with the worship due to God, to give any +countenance to one who reproached themselves and all the Christian +Churches in the world as being guilty of idolatry: showing that, if +it be true which Mr. Biddle holds, to wit that our Lord and Saviour +Jesus Christ is but a creature, then all those who worship him with +the worship due to God are idolaters. His Highness showed moreover +that the maintainers of this opinion of Mr. Biddle's are guilty of +great blasphemy against Christ, who is God equal with the Father; and +he referred it to them to consider whether any who loved the Lord +Jesus Christ in sincerity could give any countenance to such a person +as he is." But, while the petitioners were thus dismissed with a +severe lecture, Cromwell had made up his mind to save Mr. Biddle. On +the 5th of October it was resolved by the Council that he should be +removed to the Isle of Scilly and there shut up; and Cromwell's +warrant to that effect was at once issued. In no other way could the +trial have been quashed, and it was the kindest thing that could have +been done for Biddle in the circumstances. He lived comfortably +enough in his seclusion in the distant Island for the next two years +and a half, receiving an allowance of a hundred crowns _per +annum_ from Cromwell, and employing his leisure in the deep study +of the Apocalypse and the preparation of a treatise against the +Doctrine of the Fifth Monarchy.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books, July 3 and Oct. 5, 1655; _Merc. +Pol._ Sept. 27-Oct. 4, 1655; Wood's Ath. III. 599-601; Thomason +Catalogue (Tracts for and against Biddle).] + +(4) _The Quakers._ There was immense difficulty with this new +sect--from the fact, as has been already explained, that they had not +settled down into mere local groups of individuals, asking toleration +for themselves, but were still in open war with all other sects, all +other forms of ministry, and prosecuting the war everywhere by +itinerant propagandism. George Fox himself and the best of his +followers seem by this time indeed to have given up the method of +actually interrupting the regular service in the steeple-houses in +order to preach Quakerism; but they were constantly tending to the +steeple-houses for the purpose of prophesying there, as was the +custom in country-places, after the regular service was over. Thus, +as well as by their conflicts with parsons of every sect wherever +they met them, and their rebukings of iniquity on highways and in +market-places, not to speak of their obstinate refusals to pay tithes +in their own parishes, they were continually getting into the hands +of justices of the peace and the assize-judges. Take as one example +of their treatment in superior courts the appearance of William +Dewsbury and other Quakers before Judge Atkins at Northampton after +they had been half a year in Northampton jail.--Seeing them at the +bar with their hats on, the Judge told the jailor he had a good mind +to fine him ten pounds for bringing prisoners into the Court in that +fashion, and ordered the hats to be removed by the jailor's man. +Then, after some preliminary parley, "What is thy name?" said the +Judge to Dewsbury, who had made himself spokesman for all. "Unknown +to the World," said Dewsbury. "Let us hear what that name is that the +World knows not," said the Judge goodhumouredly. "It is," quoth +Dewsbury, "known in the light, and none can know it but he that hath +it; but the name the world knows me by is William Dewsbury." Then to +the question of the Judge, "What countryman art thou?" the reply was, +"Of the Land of Canaan." The Judge remarked that Canaan was far off. +"Nay," answered Dewsbury, "for all that dwell in God are in the holy +city, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from Heaven, where the soul +is in rest, and enjoys the love of God in Jesus Christ, in whom the +union is with the Father of Light." The Judge admitted that to be +very true, but asked Dewsbury whether, being an Englishman, he was +ashamed of that more prosaic fact. "Nay," said Dewsbury, "I am free +to declare that my natural birth was in Yorkshire, nine miles from +York towards Hull." The Judge then said, "You pretend to be +extraordinary men, and to have an extraordinary knowledge of God." +Dewsbury replied, "We witness the work of regeneration to be an +extraordinary work, wrought in us by the Spirit of God." The +conversation then turned on their preaching itinerancy, and +abstinence from all ordinary callings, the Judge remarking that even +the Apostles had worked with their hands. Dewsbury admitted that some +of the Apostles had been fishermen, and Paul a tent-maker, but +asserted that, "when they were called to the ministry of Christ, they +left their callings to follow Christ whither he led them by his +Spirit," and that he and his fellow-prisoners had but done the same. +The end of the colloquy was that the Judge, with every wish to be +lenient, could not make up his mind to discharge the prisoners. "I +see by your carriage," he said, "that what my brother Hale did at the +last assizes, in requiring bond for your good behaviour, he might +justly do it, for you are against magistrates and ministers"; and +they were remitted to Northampton jail accordingly.--If judges like +Hale and Atkins had to act thus, one may imagine how the poor Quakers +fared in the hands of inferior and rougher functionaries. Fines and +imprisonment for vagrancy, contempt of court, or non-payment of +tithes, were the ordinary discipline for all; but there were cases +here and there of whipping by the hangman, and other more ferocious +cruelties. For among the Quakers themselves there were varieties of +milder and wilder, less provoking and more provoking. The Quakerism +of men like Fox and Dewsbury was, at worst, but an obdurate and +irritating eccentricity, in comparison, for example, with the +Quakerism run mad of James Nayler. This enthusiast, once +quarter-master in a horse troop under Lambert, and regarded as "a man +of excellent natural parts," had for three or four years kept himself +within bounds, and been known only as one of the most eminent +preachers of the ordinary Gospel of the Quakers and a prolific writer +of Quaker tracts. But, having come to London in 1655, he had been +unbalanced by the adulation of some Quaker women, with a Martha +Simmons for their chief. "Fear and doubting then entered him," say +the Quaker records, "so that he came to be clouded in his +understanding, bewildered, and at a loss in his judgment, and became +estranged from his best friends, because they did not approve his +conduct." In other words, he became stark mad, and set up for +himself, as "The Everlasting Son, the Prince of Peace, the Fairest +among Ten Thousand, the Altogether Lovely." In this capacity he went +into the West of England early in 1656, the admiring women following +him, and chaunting his praises with every variety of epithet from the +Song of Solomon, till he was clapped up in Exeter jail. Nor was +Nayler the only madman among the Quakers about this time. A kind of +epidemic of madness seems to have broken out in the sect, or among +those reputed to belong to it. "One while," says Baxter, "divers of +them went naked through divers chief towns and cities of the land, as +a prophetical act: some of them have famished and drowned themselves +in melancholy;" and he adds, more especially, as his own experience +in Kidderminster, "I seldom preached a lecture, but going and coming +I was railed at by a Quaker in the market-place in the way, and +frequently in the congregation bawled at by the names of Hireling, +Deceiver, False Prophet, Dog, and such like language." The +Protector's own chapel in Whitehall was not safe. On April 13, 1656, +"being the Lord's day," says the _Public Intelligencer_ for that +week, "a certain Quaker came into the chapel in sermon time, and in a +very audacious manner disturbed the preacher, so that he was fain to +be silent a while, till the fellow was taken away. His Highness, +being present, did after sermon give order for the sending him to a +justice of peace, to be dealt with according to law."--Naturally, the +whole sect suffered for these indecencies and extravagances of some +of its members, and the very name _Quakerism_ became a synonym +for all that was intolerable. The belief had got abroad, moreover, +that "subtle and dangerous heads," Jesuits and others, had begun to +"creep in among them," to turn Quakerism to political account, and +"drive on designs of disturbance." Altogether the Protector and +Council were sorely tried. Their policy seems, on the whole, to have +been to let Quakerism run its course of public obloquy, and get into +jail, or even to the whipping-post _ad libitum_, for offences +against the peace, but at the same time to instruct the +Major-Generals privately to be as discreet as possible, making +differences between the sorts of Quakers, and especially letting none +of them come to harm for their mere beliefs. "Making a difference," +as by the injunction in Jude's epistle, was, as we know, Cromwell's +own great rule in all cases where complete toleration was impossible, +and he does not seem to have been able to do more for the Quakers. He +had not, however, forgotten his interview with their chief, and may +have been interested in knowing more especially what had become of +_him_.--Fox, after much wandering in the West without serious +mishap, had fallen among Philistines in Cornwall early in 1656, and +had been arrested, with two companions, for spreading papers and for +general vagrancy and contumacy. He had been in Launceston prison for +some weeks, when Chief Justice Glynne came to hold the assizes in +those parts. There had been the usual encounter between the Judge and +the Quakers on the eternal question of the hats. "Where had they hats +at all, from Moses to Daniel?" said the Chief Justice, rather rashly, +meaning to laugh at the notion that Scripture could be brought to +bear on the question in any way whatever. "Thou mayest read in the +third of Daniel," said Fox, "that the three children were cast into +the fiery furnace, by Nebuchadnezzar's command, with their coats, +their hose, and _their hats on_." Glynne, though he had lost his +joke, and though Fox put him further out of temper by distributing +among the jurymen a paper against swearing, did not behave badly on +the whole, and the issue was the simple recommitment of Fox and his +friends to Launceston prison. There, however, as they would not any +longer pay the jailor the seven shillings a week he demanded for the +board of each, they were put into the most horrible hole in the place +and treated abominably. They were in this predicament when Cromwell +heard of them. "While G. Fox was still in prison, one of his friends +went to Oliver Cromwell, and offered himself, body for body, to lie +in prison in his stead, if he would take him and let G. Fox go at +liberty. But Cromwell said he could not do it, for it was contrary to +law; and, turning to those of his Council, 'Which of you,' quoth he, +'would do as much for me if I were in the same condition?'" An order +was sent by Cromwell to the Governor of Pendennis Castle to enquire +meantime into the treatment of the Launceston prisoners, and their +release followed after a little while. It was noted also, in proof of +his personal kindness towards the Quakers, that, though he received +letters from some of them violently abusive of himself and his +government, he never showed any anger on that account.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sewel's History of the Quakers (ed. 1834) I. 137-173; +Baxter, 77 and 180; _Public Intelligencer_ of April 14-21, +1656; Council Order Book, Feb. 6, 1655-6.] + +(5)_The Jews._ A very interesting incident of Cromwell's +Protectorate was his attempt to obtain an open toleration for the +Jews in England. Since the year 1290, when they had been banished in +a body out of the kingdom under Edward I., there had been only +isolated and furtive instances of visits to England or residence in +England by persons of the proscribed race. Of late, however, a +certain Manasseh Ben Israel, an able and earnest Portuguese Jew, +settled in Amsterdam as a physician, had conceived the idea that, in +the new age of liberty and other great things in England, there might +be a permission for the Jews to return and live and trade freely. He +had opened negotiations by letter, first with the Rump and then with +the Barebones Parliament, but had at length come over to London to +deal directly with the Protector. "_To his Highness the Lord +Protector, &c. the Humble Addresses of Manasseh Ben Israel, Divine +and Doctor of Physic, in behalf of the Jewish Nation_," were in +print on the 5th of November, 1655; and they were formally before the +Council on the 13th, his Highness present in person. The petition was +for a general protection of such Jews as might come to reside in +England, with liberty of trade, freedom for their worship, the +possession of a Jewish synagogue and a Jewish cemetery in London, and +a revocation of all statutes contrary to such privileges. Cromwell +was thoroughly in favour of the proposal and let the fact be known; +but, as it was necessary to proceed with caution, the matter was +referred to a conference between the Council and twenty-eight persons +outside of it, fourteen of whom were clergymen (Owen, Thomas Goodwin, +Nye, Cudworth, Hugh Peters, Sterry, &c.), and the rest lawyers (St. +John, Glynne, Steele, &c.), or city merchants (Lord Mayor Dethicke, +Aldermen Pack and Tichbourne, &c.) There were four meetings of this +Conference at Whitehall in December, Cromwell himself taking part. "I +never heard a man speak so well," says an auditor of his speech at +one of the meetings. On the whole, however, the Conference could not +agree with his Highness. Some of the city-men objected, on commercial +grounds, to the admission of the Jews; and the clergy were against it +almost to a man, partly on the authority of Scripture texts, partly +from fear of the effects of the importation into London of the new +sect of Judaism. The Conference was discontinued; and, though the +good Rabbi lingered on in London till April 1656, nothing could be +done. Prejudice in the religious world was too strong. Nevertheless +the Protector found means of giving effect to his own views. Not only +did he mark his respect for Manasseh Ben Israel by a pension of £100 +a year, to be paid him in Amsterdam; he admitted so many Jews, one by +one, by private dispensation, that there was soon a little colony of +them in London, with a synagogue to suit, and a piece of ground at +Stepney leased for a cemetery. In effect, the readmission of the Jews +into England dates from Cromwell's Protectorate.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Merc. Pol._ Nov. 1-8, 1655; Council Order Book, +Nov. 13; Godwin, IV. 243-251; Carlyle, III. 136, note. Prynne opposed +the Readmission of the Jews in a pamphlet, in two parts, called _A +Short Demurrer to the Jews' long discontinued Remitter_ (March +1656); and Durie published, in the form of a letter to Hartlib, _A +Case of Conscience: whether it be lawful to admit Jews into a +Christian Commonwealth_ (June 27, 1656). I have not seen Durie's +letter; but Mr. Crossley (_Worthington's Diary_, I. 83, note) +reports it as moderately favourable to the Jewish claim. The letter +is dated, he says, from Cassel, Jan. 8, 1655-6.] + +Although making no great pretensions to learning himself, Cromwell +seems to have taken especial pleasure in that part of his powers and +privileges which gave him an influence on the literature and +education of the country. Here, in fact, he but carried out in a +special department that general notion of the Civil Magistrate's +powers and duties which had led him to declare himself so strongly +for the preservation and extension of an Established Church. The more +thorough-going champions of Voluntaryism in that day, Anabaptists +and others, had begun, as we have seen, to agitate not only for the +abolition of a national Church or State-paid clergy of any kind, but +also for the abolition of the Universities, the public schools, and +all endowments for science or learning. But, if Cromwell had so +signally disowned and condemned the system of sheer Voluntaryism in +Religion, it was not to be expected that the more peculiar and +exceptional Voluntaryism which challenged even State Endowments for +education should find any countenance from _his_ Protectorate. +Nor did it. + +The two English Universities had been sufficiently Puritanized long +before Cromwell's accession to the supreme power--Cambridge in +1644-5, under the Chancellorship of the Earl of Manchester (III. +92-6), and Oxford in 1647-8, under the Chancellorship of the Earl of +Pembroke (IV. 51-52). The Earl of Manchester, who had been living in +complete retirement from public affairs since the establishment of +the Commonwealth, still retained the nominal dignity of the Cambridge +Chancellorship; but Cromwell had already for five years been +Chancellor of the University of Oxford himself, having been elected +to the office in January 1650-1, after the Earl of Pembroke's death. +His interest in University matters had been naturally sustained by +this official connexion with Oxford, and had shown itself in various +ways before his Protectorate; but his Protectorate added fresh powers +to those of his mere Chancellorship for Oxford, and brought his +native University of Cambridge also within his grasp. He availed +himself of his powers largely and punctually in the affairs of both, +and was applauded in both as the steady defender of their honours and +privileges.--To rectify what might still be amiss in them, or too +much after the mere Presbyterian standard of Puritanism, he had +appointed, by ordinance of September 2, 1654, (Vol. IV. p. 565), a +new body of Visitors for each, to inquire into abuses, determine +disputes, &c. The result was that the two Universities were now in +better and quieter working order than they had been since the first +stormy interruption of their old routine by the Civil War. Each +reckoned a number of really able and efficient men among its heads of +colleges, and in its staff of professors and tutors. In Oxford there +was Dr. John Owen, head of Christ Church, and all but permanently +Vice-Chancellor of the University, with Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Dr. John +Wilkins, Dr. Robert Harris, Dr. Thankful Owen, Dr. John Conant, Dr. +Jonathan Goddard, and others, as heads of other Colleges, and Dr. +Henry Wilkinson, Dr. Lewis Du Moulin, Dr. Pocock, and the +mathematicians Dr. Seth Ward and Dr. John Wallis among the +Professors. Cambridge boasted of such men as Dr. Ralph Cudworth, Dr. +Benjamin Whichcote, Dr. John Worthington, Dr. John Lightfoot, Dr. +Lazarus Seaman, Dr. John Arrowsmith, Dr. Anthony Tuckney, Dr. Henry +More, and others now less remembered. And under the discipline and +teaching of such chiefs there was growing up in both Universities a +generation of young men as well grounded in all the older sorts of +learning as any generation of their predecessors, with the benefit +also of newer lights, as was to be proved by the names and +appearances of many of them in English history to the end of the +century. Even Clarendon admits as much. It was a wonder to him to +find, in the subsequent days of his own Chancellorship of the +University of Oxford, that the "several tyrannical governments +mutually succeeding each other" through so many previous years had +not so affected the place but that it still "yielded a harvest of +extraordinary good and sound knowledge in all parts of learning." He +attributed this to the inherent virtues of the academic soil itself, +which could choke bad seeds, cherish the good, and even defy +barrenness by finding its own seeds; but it may be more reasonable to +suppose that the superintendence of the Universities under the +"tyrannical governments," and especially under Cromwell's as the +latest of them, had not been barbaric.--The University Commissioners, +it may be added, had authority to inspect Westminster School, Eton, +Winchester, and Merchant Taylors'. But, indeed, there seems hardly to +have been a foundation for learning anywhere in England that was not, +in one way or another, brought under Cromwell's eye. In his inquiries +after moneys that might still be recoverable out of the wreck of the +old ecclesiastical revenues one can see that, next to the increase +and better sustenance of his Established Ministry, additions to the +endowed scholastic machinery of the country were always in his mind. +It is clear indeed that one of those characteristics of conservatism +by which Cromwell intended that his government should be +distinguished from the preceding Governments of the Revolution was +greater care of the surviving educational institutions of England and +Wales, with the resuscitation of some that had fallen into decay. The +money-difficulties were great, and less could be accomplished than he +desired; but, apart from what may have been done for the refreshment +of the older foundations, it is memorable that Cromwell was able to +give effect to at least one very considerable design of English +University extension. A College in Durham, expressly for the benefit +of the North of England, with a Provostship, four Professorships, and +tutorships and fellowships to match, was one of the creations of the +Protectorate.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Fasti Oxon. from 1654 onwards; Orme's Life of +John Owen, 175-187; Clarendon, 623; Godwin, IV. 102-104 and 595; +Neal, IV. 121-123; with references to Worthington's Diary by +Crossley, and Cattermole's _Literature of the Church of +England_.] + +While it was chiefly through the organized means afforded by the +Universities and Colleges that Cromwell did what he could for the +encouragement of learning, his relations to the learned men +individually that were living in the time of his Protectorate were +always at least courteous, and in some instances peculiarly +friendly. + +Usher being dead (March 21, 1655-6), and also the great Selden (Nov. +20, 1654) and the venerable and learned Gataker (July 27, 1654), the +following were the Englishmen of greatest literary celebrity already, +or of greatest coming note in English literary history, who were +alive at the midpoint of Oliver's Protectorate, and could and did +then range themselves (for we exclude those of insufficient age) as +his adherents on the whole, his subjects by mere compulsion, or his +implacable and exiled enemies. We divide the list into groups +according to that classification, as calculated for the year 1656; +but the names within each group are arranged in the order of +seniority:[1]-- + +[Footnote 1: There may be errors and omissions in the list; but, +having taken some pains, I will risk it as it stands.] + + ADHERENTS MORE OR LESS CORDIAL. + + George Wither (_ætat_ 68). + John Goodwin (_ætat_ 63). + Edmund Calamy (_ætat_ 56). + Thomas Goodwin (_ætat_ 56). + John Lightfoot (_ætat_ 54). + Edmund Waller (_ætat_ 51). + John Rushworth (_ætat_ 49). + Milton (_ætat_ 48). + Benjamin Whichcote (_ætat_ 46). + James Harrington (_ætat_ 45). + Henry More (_ætat_ 42). + John Wilkins (_ætat_ 42). + John Owen (_ætat_ 40). + John Wallis (_ætat_ 40). + Ralph Cudworth (_ætat_ 39). + Algernon Sidney (_ætat_ 39). + Marchamont Needham (_ætat_ 36). + Andrew Marvell (_ætat_ 36). + Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill (_ætat_ 35). + William Petty (_ætat_ 33). + Thomas Stanley (_ætat_ 31). + John Aubrey (_ætat_ 30). + Robert Boyle (_ætat_ 29). + John Bunyan (_ætat_ 28). + Sir William Temple (_ætat_ 27). + John Tillotson (_ætat_ 26). + John Howe (_ætat_ 26). + Edward Phillips (_ætat_ 26). + John Phillips (_ætat_ 25). + John Dryden (_ætat_ 25). + Henry Stubbe (_ætat_ 25). + John Locke (_ætat_ 24). + Samuel Pepys (_ætat_ 24). + Edward Stillingfleet (_ætat_ 21). + + SUBJECTS BY COMPULSION. + + Ex-Bishop Hall (died Sept. 8, 1656, _ætat_ 82). + John Hales (died May 19, 1656, _ætat_ 72). + Robert Sanderson (_ætat_ 69). + Thomas Hobbes (_ætat_ 68). + Robert Herrick (_ætat_ 65). + John Hacket (_ætat_ 64). + Izaak Walton (_ætat_ 63). + James Shirley (_ætat_ 62). + James Howell (_ætat_ 62). + Gilbert Sheldon (_ætat_ 58). + William Prynne (_ætat_ 56). + Brian Walton (_ætat_ 56). + Peter Heylin (_ætat_ 56). + Jasper Mayne (_ætat_ 52). + Thomas Fuller (_ætat_ 52). + Edward Pocock (_ætat_ 52). + Sir William Davenant (_ætat_ 51). + Thomas Browne of Norwich (_ætat_ 51). + William Dugdale (_ætat_ 51). + Henry Hammond (_ætat_ 51). + Richard Fanshawe (_ætat_ 48). + Aston Cockayne (_ætat_ 48). + Samuel Butler (_ætat_ 44). + Jeremy Taylor (_ætat_ 43). + John Cleveland (_ætat_ 43). + John Pearson (_ætat_ 43). + John Birkenhead (_ætat_ 41). + John Denham (_ætat_ 41). + Richard Baxter (_ætat_ 41). + Roger L'Estrange (_ætat_ 40). + Abraham Cowley (_ætat_ 38). + John Evelyn (_ætat_ 36). + Isaac Barrow (_ætat_ 26). + Anthony Wood (_ætat_ 25). + Robert South (_ætat_ 23). + + ACTIVE ENEMIES IN EXILE. + + John Bramhall (_ætat_ 63). + George Morley (_ætat_ 58). + John Earle (_ætat_ 55). + Sir Kenelm Digby (_ætat_ 53). + Sir Edward Hyde (_ætat_ 48). + Thomas Killigrew (_ætat_ 45). + George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (_ætat_ 29). + +The relations of Cromwell to such persons varied, of course, with +their attitudes towards himself and his government. + +The theologian among his adherents to whom he seems to have been +drawn by the strongest elective affinity was Dr. John Owen. "Sir, you +are a person I must be acquainted with," he had said to Owen in +Fairfax's garden; laying his hand on his shoulder, one day in April +1649, just after he had first heard Owen preach;[1] and so, from +being merely minister of Coggeshall in Essex, Owen had become +Cromwell's friend and chaplain in Ireland, and had still, through his +subsequent promotions, ending with the Deanery of Christ Church and +the Vice-Chancellorship of Oxford, been much about Cromwell and much +trusted by him. Perhaps the only difference now between them was that +Owen's theory of Toleration was less broad than Cromwell's. Next to +Owen among the divines of the Commonwealth, the Protector seems to +have retained his liking for Dr. Thomas Goodwin, and for such other +fervid or Evangelical Independents as Caryl, Sterry, Hugh Peters, and +Nicholas Lockyer, with a gradual tendency to John Howe, the youngest +of his chaplains. For the veteran free-lance and Arminian John +Goodwin, a keen critic now of Cromwell's Commission of Triers and of +other parts of his Church-policy, his liking must have been less; but +Goodwin's merits were fairly appreciated, and he had at least perfect +liberty to conduct his congregation as he pleased and to publish his +pamphlets. So, on the other hand, eminent Presbyterian divines like +Calamy, accommodated amply in Cromwell's Established Church, had all +freedom and respect.--As to his dealings with non-clerical men of +letters friendly to his government, we know a good deal already. +Milton, of whose relations to the Protectorate we shall have to speak +more at large, was his Latin Secretary; Needham was his journalist; +Marvell was in his private employment and was looking for something +more public. Still younger men were growing up, in the Universities +or just out of them, regarding the Protectorate as now the settled +order of things, in which they must pass their future lives. +Cudworth, recently promoted from the mastership of Clare College, +Cambridge, to that of Milton's old College of Christ's, had been +asked by the Protector to recommend to him any very promising young +Cambridge men he might discover;[2] and, doubtless, there had been a +similar request to Owen of Oxford. Dryden, still at Cambridge, though +now twenty-five years of age, and already, by his father's death, a +small Northamptonshire squire of £40 a year, was looking forward, we +shall find, as his family connexions with the Parliamentarians and +the Commonwealth made natural, to a life in London under the great +Protector's shadow. + +[Footnote 1: Orme's Life of Owen (1820), p. 113.] + +[Footnote 2: Life of Cudworth, as cited by Godwin, IV. 596.] + +All that could be expected by divines and scholars ranking in our +second category, i.e. as subjects of the Protectorate by mere +compulsion, and known to be strongly disaffected to it, was +protection and safety on condition of remaining quiet. This they did +receive. For a month or two, indeed, after the terrible ordinance of +Nov. 24, 1655, threatening the expulsion of the ejected Anglican +clergy from the family-chaplaincies, schoolmasterships, and +tutorships, in which so many of them had found refuge, and forbidding +them to preach anywhere or use the Book of Common Prayer, there had +been a flutter of consternation among the poor dispersed clerics. +That Ordinance, however, as we saw, had merely been _in +terrorem_ at a particular moment, and had remained a dead letter. +The admirable John Hales, it is true, did resign a chaplaincy which +he held near Eton rather than bring the good lady who sheltered him +into trouble; and by his death soon afterwards England lost a man of +whom the Protector must have had as kindly thoughts as of any of the +old Anglicans. That case was exceptional. Ex-Bishop Hall, in the end +of his much-battered life, lived quietly near Norwich, remembering +his past losses and sequestrations under the Long Parliament rather +than suffering anything more of the kind. Peter Heylin was in similar +circumstances in Oxfordshire, and by no means bashful. Jeremy Taylor +alternated between the Earl of Carbery's seat, called "the Golden +Grove," in Caernarvonshire, near which he taught a school, and the +society of his friend John Evelyn, in London or at Sayes Court in +Surrey,--tending on the whole to London, where he resumed preaching, +and, after a brief arrest and some little questioning, was left +unmolested. Hammond was mainly at Sir John Packington's in +Worcestershire; Sanderson and Fuller were actually in parochial +livings, the one in Lincolnshire, the other in Essex; and Pocock was +in a Professorship. Sorely vexed as such men were, and poorer in the +world's goods than they had been, this was the time of the greatest +literary productiveness of some of them. Old Bishop Hall had not +ceased to write, but was to leave trifles of his last days to be +published after the Restoration as "Shakings of the Olive Tree"; and +works, or tracts and sermons, by Sanderson, Heylin, Hammond, Fuller, +and Jeremy Taylor, some of them of a highly Episcopal tenor, were +among the publications of the Protectorate. Fuller's _Church +History of Britain_, one of the best and most lightsome books in +our language, was published in 1655-6. Brian Walton's great Polyglott +had not yet been carried farther than the third volume; but the +Protector had continued to that scholar the material furtherance in +his arduous work which had been yielded first by the Rump Government, +apparently on some solicitation by Milton (Vol. IV. pp. 446, 447); +and the work, when it did appear complete in six volumes folio, in +1657, was to contain handsome acknowledgment by Walton of this +generosity. Of the incessant literary activity of the Presbyterian +Baxter through the Protectorate we need say nothing. It is more +remarkable that there was no interruption of William Prynne's +interminable series of pamphlets on all sorts of public questions, +and often violently against the Government. For the rest, where were +the Herricks, the Shirleys, the Clevelands, and the other old +Royalist wits and satirists of the lighter sort? Keeping schools, +most of them, or living with friends in the country, and now and then +sending out, as before, some light thing in print. Samuel Butler, a +secretary or the like in private families, was yet unknown to fame, +but was taking notes and sure to print them some day; and the two +most placid and imperturbable men in all England were Browne of +Norwich and Izaak Walton. Browne, all his best known writings +published long ago, but appearing in new editions, was contented now +with attending his patients; and, when Izaak Walton was not in his +house in Clerkenwell (to which neighbourhood he seems to have removed +after giving up his shop in Chancery Lane), he was away on some +fishing ramble. His _Complete Angler, or The Contemplative Man's +Recreation_ had appeared in May 1653, and a second edition of it +was just out.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Details in this paragraph are from various sources: e.g. +Wood's; 'Ath. and Fasti and Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy under +the several names, Cattermole's _Literature of the Church of +England_, Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual by Bohn, and the +Thomason Catalogue of Pamphlets. See also, for Jeremy Taylor, +Evelyn's _Diary and Correspondence_, about date 1855-6. Evelyn +was greatly concerned about Cromwell's ordinance for suppressing +preaching and schoolmastering by the Anglican clergy, and about its +probable results for Taylor in particular. See one of his letters to +Taylor (pp. 593-4, ed. 1870).] + +The number of wits and men of letters still hostile to the +Protectorate to such a degree that they would undergo the hardships +of exile rather than live in England was, it will have been observed, +comparatively small. This arose from the fact that some who had been +in exile at the death of Charles I, or even afterwards in the train +of Charles II., had reluctantly lost faith in the possibility of a +restoration of the Stuarts, and had returned to England, to join +themselves with those whom we have classed generally as Cromwell's +"subjects by compulsion." Leading cases were those of Hobbes, Sir +William Davenant, and Abraham Cowley; with which, for convenience, +may be associated that of the satirist Cleveland, though _he_ +had never gone into exile, but had remained in England, taking the +risks.--HOBBES, who had been in Paris since 1641, to be out of the +bustle of the English confusions, but who had come into central +connexion with the Stuart cause there by his appointment in 1646 to +be tutor to young Charles, had been obliged to leave that connexion, +ostensibly at least, in 1651 or 1652. The occasion is said to have +been the publication of his _Leviathan_. That famous book of +1651, like its two predecessors of 1650, _Human Nature_ and +_De Corpore Politico_, he had found it convenient to publish in +London, where the Commonwealth authorities do not seem to have made +the least objection. But by this time Hobbes's infidelity, or +Atheism, or Hobbism, or whatever it was, had become a dreadful +notoriety in the world; and, when Hobbes presented a fine copy of his +great book to Charles II., that pious young prince had been +instructed by the Royalist divines about him that it would not do to +countenance either Mr. Hobbes or his books any longer. Charles +retained privately all his own real regard for his old tutor, and +Hobbes perfectly understood that; but the hint had been taken. Back +in England at last, and permitted to live in the house of his old +pupil and patron, the Earl of Devonshire, where his only annoyance +was the society of the Earl's chaplain, Jasper Mayne, he had found +the Protectorate comfortable enough for all his purposes, and had +been publishing new books under it, including his pungent +disputations with ex-Bishop Bramhall on Liberty and Necessity and +with Wallis of Oxford on Mathematics.[1]--Hobbes's friend DAVENANT +had for some time been less lucky. _His_ return to England had +been involuntary. He had been captured at sea in 1650 on his way to +Virginia (Vol. IV. p. 193), had been a prisoner in the Isle of Wight +and in the Tower and in danger of trial for his life, and had been +released only by strong intercession in his favour, in which Milton +is thought to have helped. This result, however, had reconciled him, +and Davenant too had become one of the subjects of the Protectorate. +Nay he had struck out an ingenious mode of livelihood for himself +under Cromwell, somewhat in his old line of business. "At that time," +says Wood, "tragedies and comedies being esteemed very scandalous by +the Presbyterians, and therefore by them silenced, he contrived a way +to set up an Italian Opera, to be performed by declamations and +music; and, that they might be performed with all decency, +seemliness, and without rudeness and profaneness, John Maynard, +serjeant-at-law, and several sufficient citizens, were engagers. This +Italian Opera began in Rutland House in Charter-house yard, May 23, +1656, and was afterwards transferred to the Cockpit in Drury Lane." +Cromwell's own fondness for music may have prompted him to this +relaxation, in Davenants favour, of the old theatre-closing Ordinance +of September 1642. At all events, money was coming in for Davenant, +and he was not very unhappy.[2]--The Satirist JOHN CLEVELAND, as we +have said, had never gone into exile. This was the more remarkable +because, through the Civil War, he had adhered to the King's cause +most tenaciously, not only in official employment for it, but also +serving it by the circulation of squibs and satires very offensive to +the Parliamentarians, and to the Scots in particular. Through the +Commonwealth, however, and also into the Protectorate, he _had_ +lived on in England, in obscurity and with risks, latterly somewhere +in or about Norfolk, as tutor or quasi-tutor to a gentleman, on £30 a +year. By ill luck, in Nov. 1655, just when the police of the +Major-Generals was coming into operation, he had been apprehended, on +his way to Newark, by the vigilance of Major-General Haynes, and +committed to prison in Yarmouth, There seems to have been no definite +charge, other than that he was "the poet Cleveland" and was a +questionable kind of vagrant. He had been in prison for some months +when it occurred to him to address a letter to the Protector himself. +"May it please your Highness," it began, "Rulers within the circle of +their government have a claim to that which is said of the Deity: +they have their centre everywhere and their circumference nowhere, It +is in this confidence that I address your Highness, as knowing no +place in the nation is so remote as not to share in the ubiquity of +your care, no prison so close as to shut me up from the partaking of +your influence." After explaining that he had been and still was a +Royalist, but that he had taken no active part in affairs for about +ten years, he concludes, in a clever vein of compliment, thus: "If you +graciously please to extend indulgence to your suppliant in taking me +out of this withering durance, you will find mercy will establish you +more than power, though all the days of your life were as pregnant +with victories as your twice-auspicious Third of September." The +appeal to Cromwell's magnanimity was successful. Cleveland was +released, came to London, and lived by his wits there till his death +in May 1658.[3]--A much later returner from among the Royalist +exiles than either Hobbes or Davenant was the poet COWLEY. His return +was late in 1655 or early in 1656, and seems to have been attended +with some mystery. He had been for years at Paris or St. Germains, in +the household of Lord Jermyn, acting as secretary to his Lordship and +to Queen Henrietta Maria, deciphering the secret letters that came to +them, and therefore at the very heart of the intrigues for Charles +II. Yet, after a temporary imprisonment, security in £1000 had been +accepted in his behalf, and he had been allowed to remain in London. +The story afterwards by his Royalist friends was that he had come +over, by understanding with Jermyn and the ex-Queen, to watch affairs +in their interest and send them intelligence, and that, the better to +disguise the design, he pretended compliance with the existing +powers, meaning to obtain the degree of M.D. from Oxford, and set up +cautiously as a medical practitioner. It is very unlikely that such a +dangerous game could have been safely tried under eyes like +Thurloe's; and the fact seems to be that Cowley was honestly tired of +exile and willing to comply, in a manly way, for the sake of life +once more at home. One of his first acts after his return was to +publish his Collected Poems in a volume of four parts. They appeared, +on or about April 1656, from the shop of Humphrey Moseley, the +publisher of Milton's Poems ten years before, and still always +dealing, as then, in the finer literature. In a preface to the book +Cowley distinctly avowed his intention to accept the inevitable, +treat the controversy as at length determined against the Stuarts by +the unaccountable will of God, and no longer persist in the +ridiculous business of weaving laurels for the conquered. He +announced at the same time that he had not only excluded from the +volume all his pieces of this last kind, but had even burnt the +manuscripts. In a copy of the book presented by him to the Bodleian +Library at Oxford there is a "Pindarique Ode" in his own hand, dated +June 26, 1656, breathing the same sentiment. The book is supposed to +be addressing the great Library; and, after congratulating itself on +being admitted into such a glorious company without deserts of its +own, but by mere predestination, it is made to say:-- + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Ath. III. 1207-1212, and 972.] + +[Footnote 2: Wood's Ath. III. 805-806. In Davenant's works (pp. +341-359 of folio edition of 1673) will be found, by those who are +curious, a copy of _"The First Day's Entertainment at Rutland House +by Declamations and Musick: after the manner of the Ancients."_ It +strikes one as very proper and very heavy, but it may have been a +godsend to the Londoners after their long deprivation of theatrical +entertainments. The music was partly by Henry Lawes.] + +[Footnote 3: _Cromwelliana_, 154; Wood's Fasti, I. 499; Godwin, +IV. 240-241. There is a MS. copy of Cleveland's letter among the +Thomason large quartos. It is dated "Oct. 1657;" but that, I imagine, +is an error.] + + "Ah! that my author had been tied, like me, + To such a place and such a company, + Instead of several countries, several men, + And business which the Muses hate!"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Fasti, II. 209-213; Johnson's Lives of the Poets, +with Cunningham's Notes (1854), I. 7-12. Cowley did receive the M.D. +degree at Oxford, Dec. 2, 1657, and did remain in England through the +rest of Cromwell's Protectorate; and, though the Royalists welcomed +him back after Cromwell's death, his compliance was to be remembered +against him.] + +As the Muses were returning to England in full number, and ceasing to +be so Stuartist as they had been, it was natural that there should be +express celebrations of the Protectorate in their name. There had +been dedications of books to Cromwell, and applauses of him in prose +and verse, from the time of his first great successes as a +Parliamentary General; and such things had been increasing since, +till they defied enumeration. In the Protectorate they swarmed. +Matchless still among the tributes in verse was Milton's single +Sonnet of May 1652, "_Cromwell, our chief of men_," and Milton +had written no more to or about Cromwell in the metrical form since +the Protectorate had begun, but had contented himself with adding to +his former prose tributes in various pamphlets that most splendid and +subtle one of all which flames through several pages of his +_Defensio Secunda_. It is Milton now, almost alone, that we +remember as Cromwell's laureate; but among the sub-laureates there +were some by no means insignificant. Old George Wither, though his +marvellous metrical fluency had now lapsed into doggrel and senility, +had done his best by sending forth, in 1654-5, from some kind of +military superintendentship he held in the county of Surrey (Wood +calls it distinctly a Major-Generalship at last, but that is surely +an exaggeration), two Oliverian poems, one called _The Protector: A +Poem briefly illustrating the Supereminency of that Dignity,_ the +other _A Rapture occasioned by the late miraculous Deliverance of +his Highness the Lord Protector from a desperate danger_.[1] In +stronger and more compact style, though still rather rough, Andrew +Marvell, in the same year, had added to his former praises of +Cromwell a poem of 400 lines, published in a broad-sheet, with the +title _The First Anniversary of the Government under his Highness +the Lord Protector_. It began:-- + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Ath. III. 762-772.] + + "Like the vain curlings of the watery maze + Which in smooth streams a sinking weight does raise, + So man, declining always, disappears + In the weak circles of increasing years, + And his short tumults of themselves compose, + While flowing Time above his head does close. + Cromwell alone with greater vigour runs, + Sun-like, the stages of succeeding suns; + And still the day which he doth next restore + Is the just wonder of the day before. + Cromwell alone doth with new lustre spring, + And shines the jewel of the yearly ring; + 'Tis he the force of scattered Time contracts, + And in one year the work of ages acts."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Marvell's Works, edited by Dr. Grosart, I. 169-170.] + +But the most far-blazoned eulogy at the time, and the smoothest to +read now, was one in forty-seven stanzas, which appeared May 31, +1655, with the title _A Panegyric to my Lord Protector of the +present greatness and joint interest of his Highness and this Nation, +by E. W., Esq._ The author was Edmund Waller, still under a cloud +for his old transgression, but recovering himself gradually by his +wealth, his plausibility and fine manners, and his powers of +versifying. Here are four of the stanzas:-- + + "Your drooping country, torn by civil hate, + Restored by you, is made a glorious state, + The seat of Empire, where the Irish come, + And the unwilling Scots, to fetch their doom. + + "The sea's our own; and now all nations greet, + With bending sails, each vessel of our fleet; + Your power extends as far as winds can blow, + Or swelling sails upon the globe may go. + + "Heaven, that hath placed this Island to give law + To balance Europe and its states to awe, + In this conjunction doth on Britain smile,-- + The greatest Leader and the greatest Isle .... + + "Had you some ages past this race of glory + Run, with amazement we should read your story; + But living virtue, all achievements past, + Meets envy still to grapple with at last."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Waller's Poems: date of this from Thomason's Catalogue.] + +Waller's verses, if nothing else, would suggest that we ought to know +something more, at this point, of the state of Scotland, Ireland, and +even the Colonies, under Cromwell's Protectorate. + +SCOTLAND. + +After August 1654, when the Glencairn-Middleton insurrection had been +suppressed (Vol. IV, p. 532), the administration of Scotland had been +again for some time wholly in the hands of Monk, as the +Commander-in-chief there, with assistance from the four resident +English Judges and minor officials. Cromwell and his Council in +London, however, had been thinking of a more regular method for the +Government of Scotland; and, at length, in the end of July 1655, the +following was the arrangement: + +I. CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT. + +COUNCIL, SITTING IN EDINBURGH. + +_President of Council_ (£2000 a year): Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill. + + General Monk. + Major-General Charles Howard. + Colonel Adrian Scroope. + Colonel Cooper. + Colonel Nathaniel Whetham. + Colonel William Lockhart (soon afterwards Sir William, and Ambassador to + France). + John Swinton, Laird of Swinton (afterwards Sir John). + Samuel Desborough, Esq. (brother of the Regicide). + +_Chief Clerk to the Council_ (£300 a year): Emanuel Downing. + +SUPREME COMMISSIONERS OF JUSTICE (in lieu of the Old Scotch Court of +Session):--This was a body of Seven Judges; four of whom were +English--George Smith, Edward Moseley, William Lawrence, and Henry +Goodyere (the last two in the places of two of the original four of +1652),--but three of them native Scots, accustomed to Scottish law +and practice. These native Judges had been added for some time +already, and there had been, and were to be, changes of the persons; +but one hears most of Lockhart, Swinton, Sir James Learmont, +Alexander Pearson, and Andrew Ker. At hand, and helping much, though +no longer now the great man he had been in Scotland, was Sir +Archibald Johnstone of Warriston. + +STATE OFFICERS:--Most of the state-offices of the old Scottish +constitution were still kept up, but were held, of course, by the new +Councillors and Judges. The _Keepership of the Great Seal_ was +given to Desborough; the _Signet_ or _Privy Seal_, with the +fees of the old _Secretaryship_, to Lockhart; the _Clerk +Registership_ to Judge Smith; &c. + +TRUSTEES OF FORFEITED AND SEQUESTRATED ESTATES:--Under this name, by +the Ordinance of April 12, 1654 (Vol. IV. pp. 561-562), there was a +body of seven persons, about half of them English, looking after the +rents and revenues of those numerous Scottish nobles and lairds the +punishment of whom, for past delinquency, by total or partial seizing +of their estates, had been one of the necessary incidents of the +Conquest (Vol. IV. pp. 559-561). + +II. MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT. + +COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, General George Monk (head-quarters Dalkeith), +with Major-General Howard, Colonels Cooper, Scroope, and Whetham, and +other Colonels and inferior officers, under him. The total force of +horse and foot in Scotland may have been about 7000 or 8000. It was +distributed over the country in forts and garrisons, the chief being +those of Edinburgh, Leith, Glasgow, Stirling, Dundee, Perth, +Aberdeen, Dunnottar, Burntisland, Linlithgow, Dumbarton, Ayr, +Dunstaffnage, and Inverness. Everywhere the English soldiers acted as +a police, and their officers superseded, or were conjoined with, the +native magistrates and sheriffs in the local courts.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of the English Council July 26, 1655, +containing letter from "Oliver P." to Monk, announcing the new +establishment; _Perfect Proceedings_, No. 307, publishing for +the Londoners, under date July 27, the names of his Highness's new +Council for Scotland; Baillie's Letters, III. 249-250; Godwin, IV. +462-3.] + +Under this government Scotland was now very tranquil and tolerably +prosperous. True, almost all the old poppy-heads or thistle-heads, +the native nobles and notables, were gone. Those of them who had been +taken at Worcester, or had been sent out of Scotland as prisoners +about the same time by Monk, were still, for the most part, in +durance in England; others were in foreign exile; the few that +remained in Scotland, such as Argyle, Loudoun, Lothian, the Marquis +of Douglas, and his son Angus, were out of sight in their +country-houses, utterly broken by private debts or fines and +forfeitures, and in very low esteem. Then, among many Scots of good +status throughout the community, there were complaints and +grumblings on account of the taxes for the support of the English +Army, or on account of loss of posts and chances by the admission of +Englishmen to the same, or by the promotion of such other Scots as +the English saw fit to favour, Incidents of this kind, much noted at +the time, had been the ejection of some Professors from the +Universities by the English Visitors in 1653, and the appointments +by the same visitors of men of their own choice to University +posts--e.g. Mr. Robert Leighton, minister of Newbattle, to the +Principalship of Edinburgh University, and Mr. Patrick Gillespie to +that of the University of Glasgow. But even Baillie, whose complaints +on such grounds had been bitter in 1654, and to whom the appointment +of Gillespie to the Glasgow Principal-ship had been a particular +private grievance, was in better spirits before 1656. Glasgow, he +then reports, was flourishing. "Through God's mercy, our town, in its +proportion, thrives above all the land. The Word of God is well loved +and regarded; albeit not as it ought and we desire, yet in no town of +our land better. Our people has much more trade in comparison than +any other: their buildings increase strangely both for number and +fairness." Burnet's account is that the whole country partook of this +growing prosperity, which he attributes to the excellent police of +the English, the trading they introduced, and the money they put in +circulation. "A man may ride over all Scotland with a switch in his +hand and a hundred pounds in his pocket, which he could not have done +these five hundred years," was Mr. Samuel Desborough's summary +account afterwards of the state of the country which he had helped to +administer under the Protectorate; and Cromwell's own reference to +the subject is even more interesting and precise. Acknowledging that +the Scots had suffered much, and were in fact "a very ruined nation," +yet what had befallen them had introduced, he hinted, a very +desirable change in the constitution of Scottish society. It had +enfranchised and encouraged the middle and lower classes. "The +_meaner_ sort in Scotland," he said, "love us well, and are +likely to come into as thriving a condition as when they were under +their own great lords, who made them work for their living no better +than the peasants of France;" and "The _middle_ sort of people," +he added, "do grow up there into such a substance as makes their +lives comfortable, if not better than they were before." Of course, +in neither of these classes, any more than from among the +dispossessed nobles and lairds, can the sentiment of Scottish +nationality and the pain of its abolition have been extinct. Yet one +notices, towards the end of 1656, a soothing even in that respect. +The Scots, all but universally, by that time, had acquired the habit +of speaking deferentially of "His Highness" or "His Highness the Lord +Protector"; correspondence with Charles II. had entirely ceased; the +Edinburgh barristers had returned to the bar; and the Scottish +clergy, pretty generally, left off praying for Charles publicly. Lord +Broghill's admirable management had helped much to this +reconciliation. "If men of my Lord Broghill's parts and temper be +long among us," wrote Baillie, "they will make the present Government +more beloved than some men wish. From our public praying for the King +Broghill's courtesies, more than his threats, brought off our leading +men." Baillie himself had yielded that point at last.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, III. 236-321 (including letters to Spang, July +19, 1654, Dec. 31, 1655, and Sept. 1, 1656); Burnet (ed. 1823), I. +104-105; Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scotland, II. 249; Carlyle, +III. 342-3 (Cromwell's Speech XVII.).] + +Raging yet among the Scottish clergy, and dividing the Scottish +community so far as the clergy had influence, was the controversy +between the _Resolutioners_ and the _Remonstrants_ or +_Protesters_ (Vol. IV. pp. 201-214, 281-284, 288-289, and 361). +By a law of political life, every community, at every time, must have +_some_ polarizing controversy; and this was Scotland's through +the whole period of her absorption in the English Commonwealth and +Protectorate. The Protesters were the Whigs, and the Resolutioners +the Tories, of Scotland through that time; and the strife between the +parties was all the fiercer because, Scottish autonomy being lost, it +was the only native strife left for Scotsmen, and they were battened +down to it, as an indulgence among themselves, by a larger and +unconcerned rule overhead. General Assemblies of the Kirk being no +longer allowed, it had to be conducted in Provincial Synods and +Presbyteries only, or in sermons and pamphlets of mutual reproach. +The exasperation was great; Church-censures and threats of such +passed and repassed; all attempts at agreement failed; the best +friends were parted. Leaders among the majority, or Resolutioner +clergy, were Mr. Robert Douglas of Edinburgh, who had preached the +coronation sermon of Charles II. at Scone, Mr. James Sharp of Crail +(these two back for some time from the imprisonment in London to +which Monk had sent them in 1651: Vol. IV. 296), Mr. James Wood of +St. Andrews, old Mr. David Dickson, now Professor of Divinity in +Edinburgh, and our perpetual friend Baillie. The minority, or +Protesters, were led by such ministers as Mr. James Guthrie of +Stirling, their first oracle, Mr. Patrick Giliespie of Glasgow +University, Mr. John Livingston of Ancram, Mr, Samuel Rutherford of +St. Andrews, and Mr. Andrew Cant of Aberdeen; with whom, as their +best lay head, was Johnstone of Warriston. Peace-makers, such as Mr. +Robert Blair of St. Andrews and Mr. James Durham of Glasgow, +negociated between the two sides; and Mr. Robert Leighton, in his +Edinburgh Principalship, looked on with saintly and philosophic +indifference. He hoped that, while so many brethren "preached to the +times," one brother might be allowed "to preach on eternity" and that +the differences on earth would "make heaven the sweeter." In fact, +however, the controversy was not merely a theoretical one. Not only +was it involved whether the two last General Assemblies, of 1651 and +1652, swayed as they had been by the Resolutioners, should be +recognised and their acts held valid, and what should be the spirit +and constitution of the Kirk in future: present interests were also +involved. It had been to the Protesters that Cromwell had turned with +greatest liking and hope, both on political grounds and from +spiritual sympathy, when he was fighting in Scotland; and, since the +beginning of his Protectorate, _they_ had been most in favour. +Early in 1654 three of their number, Mr. Patrick Gillespie, Mr. John +Livingston, and Mr. John Menzies, had been summoned to London to +advise the Protector; they had been there two or three months; and +the effects of their advice had been visible in an ordinance about +vacant Kirk-livings very favourable to the Protesters, and generally +in a continued inclination towards the Protesters in the proceedings +of the English Government in Scotland. The ministers and others +ejected by Cromwell's visitors had been mostly of the Resolutioner +species; and one of Baillie's complaints is that Protesters, whether +fit or not, were put into vacant livings by the English, and that +only Scotsmen of that colour were conjoined with the English in the +executive and the judicatories. Till 1656 all this had been very +natural. The dregs of Stuartism, and consequent antipathy to the +Protectorate, had persisted till then most visibly among the +Resolutioners.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, _ut supra_; Life of Robert Blair, 313 +_et seq._; Wodrow's Introduction to his _History_ (1721); +Beattie's _Church of Scotland during the Commonwealth_ (1842), +Chap. III.] + +Though the Protesters were originally what we have called +super-ultra-Presbyterians, it was not surprising that some of them +had moved into Independency. There certainly were some Independents +among the Scottish parish clergy at this time, especially about +Aberdeen; and the Independents apart from the National Church had +become numerous. But mere Independency now, or even Anabaptism, was +nothing very shocking in Scotland; it was the increase of newer +sectaries that alarmed the clergy. Quakerism had found its way into +Scotland; so that there were now, we are told by a contemporary, +"great numbers of that damnable sect of the Quakers, who, being +deluded by Satan, drew away many to their profession, both men and +women." As in England, Quaker preachers went about disturbing the +regular service in churches, or denouncing every form of ministry but +their own to open-air congregations, and often with physical +convulsions and fits of insane phrenzy. The Church-courts and the +civil authorities were much exercised by the innovation, and had +begun action against the sect, the rather because many of the common +people, in their weariness of the strife among their own clergy, +"resetted" the Quaker preachers and said they "got as much good of +them as of anybody else."[1] + +[Footnote 1: The quotations are from Chambers's _Dom. Annals of +Scotland_, II. 232-234.] + +Not an importation like Quakerism, but of ineradicable native growth, +was the crime of witchcraft; and, though that crime was known in +England too, and occupied English law-courts, Scotland maintained her +fearful superiority in witch-trials and witch-burnings. "There is +much witchery up and down our land," wrote Baillie: "the English be +but too sparing to try it, but some they execute." Against crimes of +other orders the English judges were willing enough to act; and +nothing is more startling to one who is new to such facts than to +find how much of their business, in pious and Presbyterian Scotland, +consisted in trials of cases of hideous and abnormal sexualism. But, +indeed, very strange _isms_ of quite another sort, and of which mere +modern theory would have pronounced the Scotland of that time +incapable, lurked underneath all the piety, all the preaching, all +the exercise of Presbyterian discipline, all the seeming distribution +of the population universally into Resolutioners and Protesters, with +interspersed Independents, Baptists, Quakers, and other vehement +Christians. Bead, from the Scottish correspondence of Needham's +_Mercurius Politicus_, in the number for June 26-July 3, 1656, the +following account of one of the cases that had come before Judge +Smith and Judge Lawrence in their Dumfriesshire circuit of the +previous May:-- + + "Alexander Agnew, commonly called Jock of Broad Scotland," + [apparently an itinerant beggar, or Edie Ochiltree, of + Dumfriesshire] was tried on this indictment.--"_First_, the said + Alexander, being desired to go to church, answered 'Hang God: God + was hanged long since; what had _he_ to do with God? he had nothing + to do with God'. _Secondly_, He answered he was nothing in God's + common; God gave him nothing, and he was no more obliged to God + than to the Devil; and God was very greedy. _Thirdly_, When he was + desired to seek anything in God's name, he said he would never seek + anything for God's sake, and that it was neither God nor the Devil + that gave the fruits of the land: the wives of the country gave + _him_ his meat. _Fourthly_, Being asked how many persons were in + the Godhead, answered there was only one person in the Godhead, who + made all; but, for Christ, he was not God, because he was made, and + came into the world after it was made, and died as other men, being + nothing but a mere man. _Sixthly_, He declared that he knew not + whether God or the Devil had the greater power; but he thought the + Devil had the greatest; and 'When I die,' said he, 'let God and the + Devil strive for my soul, and let him that is strongest take it.' + _Seventhly_, He denied there was a Holy Ghost, or knew there was a + Spirit, and denied he was a sinner or needed mercy. _Eighthly_, He + denied he was a sinner, and [said] that he scorned to seek God's + mercy. _Ninthly_, He ordinarily mocked all exercise of God's + worship and convocation in His name, in derision saying 'Pray you + to your God, and I will pray to mine when I think time.' And, when + he was desired by some to give thanks for his meat, he said, 'Take + a sackful of prayers to the mill, and shill them, and grind them, + and take your breakfast off them.' To others he said, 'I will give + you a twopence, and [if ye] pray until a boll of meal and one stone + of butter fall down from heaven through the house-rigging to you.' + To others, when bread and cheese was given him, and was laid on the + ground by him, he said, 'If I leave this, I will [shall] long cry + to God before he give it me again.' To others he said, 'Take a + bannock, and break it in two, and lay down one half thereof, and ye + will long-pray to God before he put the other half to it again.' + _Tenthly_, Being posed whether or not he knew God or Christ, he + answered he had never had any profession, nor never would--he had + never had any religion, nor never would: also that there was no God + nor Christ, and that he never received anything from God, but from + Nature, which he said ever reigned and ever would, and that to + speak of Gods and their persons was an idle thing, and that he + would never name such names, for he had shaken his cap of such + things long since. And he denied that a man has a soul, or that + there is a Heaven or a Hell, or that the Scriptures are the Word of + God. Concerning Christ, he said that he heard of such, a man; but, + for the second person of the Trinity, he had been the second person + of the Trinity if the ministers had not put him in prison, and that + he was no more obliged to God nor the Devil.--And these aforesaid + blasphemies are not rarely or seldom uttered by him, but frequently + and ordinarily in several places where he resorted, to the + entangling, deluding, and seducing of the common people. Through + the committing of which blasphemies, he hath contravened the tenor + of the laws and acts of Parliament, and incurred the pain of death + mentioned therein; which ought to be inflicted upon him with all + rigour, in manner specified in the indictment.--Which indictment + being put to the knowledge of an assize, the said Alexander Agnew, + called Jock of Broad Scotland, was by the said assize, all in one + voice, by the mouth of William Carlyle, late bailie of Dumfries, + their chancellor, found guilty of the said crimes of blasphemy + mentioned in his indictment; for which the commissioners ordained + him, upon Wednesday, 21 May, 1656, betwixt two and four hours in + the afternoon, to be taken to the ordinary place of execution for + the Burgh of Dumfries, and there to be hanged on a gibbet while + [till] he be dead, and all his moveable goods to be escheat." + +The intercourse between Scotland and London, both by letters and by +journeys to and fro, was now very brisk.[1] Not only were Lauderdale, +Eglinton, Marischal, David Leslie, and a number of the other +distinguished Scottish prisoners of 1651, still detained in London, +in more or less strict custody, with their wives and retainers near +them; but many Scots whose proper residence was in Scotland were +coming to London, on visits of some length, for their own or for +public business. Among these, late in 1655, was Lockhart,--to be +converted, as we know, into the Protector's ambassador to the Court +of France. The eccentric ex-Judge Scot of Scotstarvet had already +been in London, petitioning for the remission or reduction of his +fine of £1500 for former delinquency, and succeeding completely at +last, "in consideration of the pains he hath taken and the service he +hath done to the Commonwealth." The Earl of Lothian was in London, +painfully prosecuting petitions for the recovery of certain lost +family-properties. But the most remarkable apparition was that of the +Marquis of Argyle. He came to London in September, 1655, and he seems +to have remained there for a long while. What had brought him up was +also a suit with the Protector and the Council for reparation of some +portions of his lost fortunes and for favour generally; but he seems +to have gone about a good deal, visiting various people. "Came to +visit me." says Evelyn, the naturalist and virtuoso of Sayes Court, +in his diary, under date May 28, 1656, "the old Marquis of Argyle. +Lord Lothian, and some other Scotch noblemen, all strangers to me. +_Note_: The Marquis took the turtle-doves in the aviary for +owls." It had been his characteristic mistake through life.[2] + +[Footnote 1: In the London _Public Intelligencer_ for April +12-19, 1658, among other advertisements of stage-coaches starting +from "the George Inn, without Aldersgate," is one of a fortnightly +stage-coach for Edinburgh, the fare £4. Something of the sort may +have been running already.] + +[Footnote 2: Council Order Books of the Protectorate through 1655 +and 1656; _Mere. Pol._ for Sept. 27-Oct. 4, 1655; Evelyn's +_Diary_ (ed. 1870), p. 248. In the Council Order Books, under +date Sept. 11, 1656, is minuted an order that, in terms of an Act of +the Estates of Scotland of March 16, 1649, the Marquis of Argyle +shall, from and after Nov. 10, 1657, have half the excise of wines +and strong waters in Scotland, but not exceeding £3000 in any one +year, until he is satisfied of a debt of £145,400 Scots due to him by +Scotland on public grounds.] + +Any influence which the Marquis could now have with the Protector in +matters of Scottish Government must have been small; but it was +understood that, such as it was, it would be on the side of the Kirk +party of the Protesters. And this had become of some consequence. In +and through 1656, if not earlier, it had become obvious that the +inclinations of the Protector to that party had been considerably +shaken. The change was attributed partly to Lord President Broghill. +Almost from his first coming to Scotland, this nobleman had found it +desirable to win over the Resolutioners. "The President Broghill," +says Baillie, "is reported by all to be a man exceeding wise and +moderate, and by profession a Presbyterian: he has gained more on the +affections of the people than all the English that ever were among +us. He has been very civil to Mr. Douglas and Mr. Dickson, and is +very intime with Mr. James Sharp. By this means we [the +Resolutioners] have an equal hearing in all we have ado with the +Council. Yet their way is exceeding longsome, and all must be done +first at London." So far as Broghill's communications with London +might serve, the Resolutioners, therefore, might count on him as +their friend. And by this time he had reasons to show. Had he not +succeeded, where the stern Monk had failed, in inducing the +Resolutioner clergy to give up public praying for King Charles and +otherwise to conform; and was it not on this ground that Monk was +believed still to befriend the Protesters? But perhaps it hardly +needed Broghill's representations to induce Cromwell to reconsider +his Scottish policy in regard to the Kirk. That same Conservatism +which had been gaining on him in the English department of his +Protectorate, leading him rather to discourage extreme men while +tolerating them, had begun to affect his views of Kirk parties in +Scotland. The Resolutioners were numerically the larger party: if +they would be reconciled, might they not be his most massive support +in North Britain? It is possible that the institution of the new +Scottish Council under Broghill's Presidency may have been the result +of such thoughts, and that Broghill thus only took a course indicated +for him by Cromwell. At all events, various relaxations of former +orders, about admission to vacant livings and the like, had already +been made in favour of the Resolutioners; and, in and from 1656, it +was noted that extreme men in Scotland too were not to his Highness's +taste, and that, contrary to what might have been expected from his +former relations to Scottish Presbyterianism, his aim now was to +rebuild a good and solid Established Church in Scotland mainly on the +native Presbyterian principle, though under control, and to leave +extravagant spirits, including even those too forward for +Independency among the Scots, to the mere benefits of an outside +toleration. It was not his way to proceed hurriedly, however; and, as +the Protesters were religiously the men most to his liking, and must +by all means be kept within the Kirk, an agreement between them and +the Resolutioners was a political necessity. To this end he had +again, more than once recently, requested some of the leaders of both +parties to come to London for consultation, as Gillespie, Livingston, +and Menzies, for the Protesters, had done before. Appeals to the +Civil Power in ecclesiastical matters being against the Presbyterian +theory which the parties professed in common, that suggestion had not +been taken, notwithstanding the precedent, and the parties had +persisted in their war of mutual invective in Scotland, each getting +what it could by private dealings with the Council there,--the +Resolutioners through Broghill and the Protesters through Monk. But +that could not last for ever; and, in August 1656, strict +Presbyterian theory had been so far waived by both parties that both +had resolved on direct appeal to his Highness in London. The +Resolutioners had the start. They had picked out as their fittest +single emissary Mr. James Sharp of Crail, then forty-three years of +age, already well acquainted with London by his former compulsory +stay there, and with the advantage now of intimacy with Broghill. His +Instructions, signed by three of the leading Resolutioners, were +ready on the 23rd of August. They were substantially that he should +clear the Resolutioners with the Protector from the +misrepresentations of the Protesters, paint the Protesters in return +as mainly hot young spirits and disturbers, and obtain from his +Highness a restoration of Presbyterian use and wont through the whole +Kirk, with preponderance to the Resolutioners, though not with a +General Assembly till times were more quiet. _Per contra_, the +Protesters had drawn out certain propositions to be submitted to +Cromwell. They asked for a Commission for the plantation of kirks, to +be appointed by his authority and to consist of those he might think +fit, to administer the revenues of the Kirk according to the Acts of +Assemblies and the laws of the land prior to 1651, the fatal year of +the "Resolutions." They asked also for a Commission of Visitation, +one half to be elected by the Resolutioners and one half by the +Protesters, to have the power of "planting and purging" in parishes +and of composing differences in Synods and Presbyteries. For urging +these propositions a deputation to Cromwell had been thought of, and +actually appointed. As it was postponed, however, Sharp was to be in +London first by himself. Hence some importance for the Protesters in +any counterweight there might be in Argyle's presence there already. +[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, Letters to Spang, in 1655 and 1656, as already +cited, with III. 568-573 for Instructions to Sharp and Propositions +of the Protesters; Life of Robert Blair, 325-329.] + +No one was more anxious for the success of Mr. Sharp's mission than +the good Baillie of Glasgow University, now in his fifty-fifth year, +a widower for three years, but about to marry again, and known as one +of the stoutest Resolutioners and Anti-Protesters since that +controversy had begun. He had had his discomforts and losses in the +University under the new Principalship of Mr. Patrick Gillespie; but +had been busy with his lectures and books, and the correspondence of +which he was so fond. Among his letters of 1654-5, besides those to +Spang, are two hearty ones to his old friend Lauderdale in his London +captivity, one or two to London Presbyterian ministers, and an +interesting one to Thomas Fuller, regretting that they had not been +sooner acquainted, and saying he had "fallen in love" with Fuller's +books and was longing for his _Church History_. This was not the +only sign of Baillie's mellower temper by this time towards the +Anglicans. He was inquiring much about Brian Walton, whose name had +not been so much as heard of when Baillie was in London, and whose +Polyglott seemed now to him the book of the age. Baxter, on the other +hand, was an Ishmaelite, a man to be put down. All these matters, +however, had been absorbed at length in Baillie's interest in Mr. +Sharp's mission. He was to write to his old London friends, Rous, +Calamy, and Ashe, urging them to help Mr. Sharp to the utmost, and he +was to correspond with Sharp himself. "I pray God help you and guide +you; you had need of a long spoon [in supping with a certain +personage]: trust no words nor faces, for all men are liars," is the +memorable ending of the first letter that Sharp in London was to +receive from Baillie.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, III. 234-335; with Mr. Laing's Life of +Baillie.] + + +IRELAND. + +There had been little of novelty in Ireland for some time after the +proclamation of the Protectorate (Vol. IV. p. 551). Fleetwood, with +the full title of "Lord Deputy" since Sept. 1654, had conducted the +Government, as well as he could, with a Council of assessors, +consisting, after that date, of Miles Corbet, Robert Goodwin, Colonel +Matthew Tomlinson, and Colonel Robert Hammond. This last, so brought +into the Protector's service after long retirement, died at Dublin in +July 1655. Ludlow still kept aloof, disowning the Protectorate, +though remaining in Ireland with his old military commission. Left +very much to themselves, Fleetwood and his Council had carried out, +as far as possible, the Acts for the Settlement of the country passed +or proposed by the Rump in 1652, but not pushing too severely the +great business which the Rump had schemed out, of a general and +gradual cooping up of the Roman Catholics within the single province +of Connaught. In the nature of things, that business, or indeed any +actual prevention of the exercise of the Catholic Religion wherever +Roman Catholics abounded, was impracticable. It was enough, in the +Lord Protector's view, that the land lay quiet, the Roman Catholics +and their faithful priests not stirring too publicly, the English +soldiery keeping all under sufficient pressure, and English and +Scottish colonization shooting in here and there, with Protestant +preaching and Protestant farming in its track. On the whole, +Fleetwood's Lord-Deputyship, if not eventful, was far from unpopular. +[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 447-449.] + +It had occurred to Cromwell, however, that more could be done in +Ireland, and that his son-in-law Fleetwood was perhaps not +sufficiently energetic, or sufficiently Oliverian, for the purpose. +Accordingly, about the same time that Fleetwood had been raised to +the Lord-Deputyship, Cromwell's second son, Henry, had been appointed +Major-General of the Irish Army. The good impression he had made in +his former mission to Ireland (Vol. IV. p. 551) justified the +appointment. Not till the middle of 1655, however, did he arrive in +Ireland. His reception then was enthusiastic, and was followed by the +sudden recall of Fleetwood to London, professedly for a visit only, +but really not to return. The title of Lord-Deputy of Ireland was +still to be Fleetwood's for the full term of his original +appointment; but he was to be occupied by the duties of his English +Major-Generalship and his membership of Oliver's Council at home, and +the actual government of Ireland was thenceforth in the hands of +Henry Cromwell. The young Governor, whose wife had accompanied him, +held a kind of Court in Dublin, with Fleetwood's Councillors about +him, or others in their stead, and a number of new Judges. The +diverse tempers of these advisers, among whom were some Anabaptists +or Anti-Oliverians, and his own doubts as to some of the instructions +that reached him from his father, made his position a very difficult +one; but, though very anxious and sensitive, he managed admirably. In +particular, it was observed that, in matters of religion, he had all +his father's liberality. It was "against his conscience," he said, +"to bear hard upon any merely on account of a different judgment." He +conciliated the Presbyterian clergy in a remarkable manner; the +Royalists liked him; he would not quarrel with the Anabaptists; and +he was as moderate as possible towards the Roman Catholics.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 449-458; _Milton Papers_ by Nickolls, +187-138; Carlyle, III. 108-109, and 133-140 (Letters from Cromwell to +his son Harry).] + +One of Henry Cromwell's difficulties would have been Ludlow, had that +uncompromising Republican remained in Ireland. From that he was +relieved. In January 1655 Fleetwood had been ordered by the Protector +to make Ludlow give up his commission; and, as Ludlow questioned the +legality of the demand, he had arranged with Fleetwood to go and +settle the matter with the Protector himself. The Protector seeming +to prefer that Ludlow should stay where he was, and having sent +orders to that effect, Fleetwood was himself In England, and Henry +Cromwell was in his place in Dublin, and still there seemed no chance +of leave for Ludlow to cross the Channel. At length, without distinct +leave, but trusting to a written engagement Fleetwood had given him, +he ventured on the passage; and on Dec. 12, 1655, after the +experience of a most stormy sea, he had that of a more stormy +interview with the Protector and some of his Council at Whitehall. +Cromwell rated him roundly for his past behaviour generally and for +his return without leave, and demanded his _parole_ of +submission to the established Government for the future. Some kind of +_parole_ Ludlow was willing to give, declaring that he saw no +immediate chance of a subversion of the Government and knew of no +design for that end, but refusing to tie his hands "if Providence +_should_ offer an occasion." With that Cromwell, who had begun +to "carry himself more calmly" towards the end of the interview, was +obliged to be content. He became quite civil to Ludlow, saying he +"wished him as well as he did any of his Council," and desiring him +to make "choice of some place to live in where he might have good +air." Ludlow retired into Essex[1]. + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow's Memoirs, 481-557; Carlyle, III. 136.] + +THE COLONIES. + +With the exception of a factory of the London East India Company, +which had been established at _Surat_ on the west coast of +Hindostan in 1612, and a settlement on the _Gambia_ on the +western coast of Africa, dating from 1631, all the considerable +Colonies of England in 1656 were American:--I. NEW ENGLAND. The four +chief New England Colonies, _Plymouth_, _Massachusetts_, +_Connecticut_, and _New Haven_, confederated since 1643, +together with the outlying Plantations of _Providence_ and +_Rhode-Island_, &c., still belonged politically to the +mother-country; and through Cromwell's Protectorate, as before, the +connexion had been signified by references of various subjects to the +Home-Government, discussions of these by that Government, and orders +and advices transmitted in return. In the main, however, the Colonies +remained independent, each with its annually elected Governor, and +the Confederacy with its annually elected Board of Commissioners +besides; and, while professing high admiration of Cromwell and +approval generally of his rule, they were not troubled with questions +of rule seriously affecting their own interests. The war with the +Dutch did for some time involve them in inconveniences with their +Dutch neighbours; but their dissensions were chiefly with each other, +or domestically within each colony. The harsh proceedings in +Massachusetts and elsewhere against Baptists and other Sectaries gave +some colour to Roger Williams's assertion that, in the matter of +religious toleration, New England was becoming old while Old England +was becoming new; and, as soon as Quakerism had broken out in New +England and Quakers had appeared there (1656), it became evident that +there would be even less mercy for that sect in New England than on +the other side of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, with their zealous +Puritanism, their energy and industry, and the abilities of their +Bradfords, Bradstreets, Winslows, Winthrops, Standishes, Endicotts, +Hayneses, Hopkinses, Newmans, Williamses, and other prominent +governors or assistant-governors, the Confederacy and the Plantations +went on prosperously towards their ultimate, though yet unforeseen, +destiny in the formation of the United States. Cromwell, indeed, had +a scheme which would have stopped that issue. He had a scheme for +fetching all the Puritans of New England back and planting them +splendidly in Ireland. Communications on the subject had passed as +early as 1651, when Ireland had been just reconquered; but naturally +without effect. The New Englanders were not then too numerous perhaps +to have been transported to Ireland bodily; but, as one of their +historians says, "they had taken root." Their increase, however, for +more than a century thenceforward was to be mainly within themselves, +for new arrivals from England had become scarce.[1] II. OTHER +COLONIES AND SETTLEMENTS IN NORTH AMERICA. These too went on very +much at their own will, though not quite unnoticed. _Virginia_, +dating from 1608, and _Maryland_, dating from 1634, continued to +be the favourite colonies for Royalist settlers, Anglican or Roman +Catholic; but there had been recent additions of English Puritans, +and of transported Scottish prisoners of war, to the population of +Virginia, and the connexions with the mother-country had remained +unbroken. There were commercial regulations about both Colonies by +the English Council, and grants of passes to them. Canada and the +other regions about the St. Lawrence, the possession of which had +been contested by the English and the French in the reign of Charles +I, had lapsed long ago into the hands of the French; but Major +Sedgwick had wrested back for Cromwell, in 1654, the peninsula then +called _Acadie_, but now _Nova Scotia_, being part of the +territory that had been granted under that name by Charles to his +Scottish Secretary, the Earl of Stirling, and had been colonised by +Scots, to some extent, from 1625 onwards. Off the mainland, +Newfoundland, which had contained an English fishing population for +at least twenty years, was not neglected; and, beyond the bounds of +any of the North-American Colonies or Plantations that were +definitely named and recognised, there may have been stragglers +knowing themselves to be subjects of the Protectorate.[2] III. THE +WEST INDIES. The _Bermudas_ or _Summer Islands_ had been +English since 1612, and had now a considerable population of opulent +settlers, attracted by their beauty and the salubrity of the climate; +_Barbadoes_, English since 1605, and with a population of more +than 50,000, had been a refuge of Royalists, but had been taken for +the Commonwealth in 1652, and had been much used of late for the +reception of banished prisoners; such other Islands of the Lesser +Antilles as _Antigua_, _Nevis_, _Montserrat_, and the +_Virgin Islands_, together with _The Bahamas_, to the north +of Cuba, had been colonised in the late reign; and _Jamaica_ had +been Cromwell's own conquest from the Spaniards, by Penn's blunder, +in 1655. The war with Spain had given new importance to those West +India possessions of the Protectorate. They had become war-stations +for ships, with considerable armed forces on some of them; and some +of Cromwell's best officers had been sent out, or were to be sent +out, to command in them. Of them all Jamaica was Cromwell's pet +island. He had resolved to keep it and do his best with it. The +charge of it had been given to a commission consisting of Admiral +Goodson, Major-General Fortescue, Major-General Sedgwick (the +recaptor of Nova Scotia from the French), and Daniel Serle, Governor +of Barbadoes; and Fortescue and Sedgwick, and others in succession, +were to die at their posts there. To have the rich island colonised +at once with the right material was the Protector's great anxiety; +and his first thoughts on that subject, as soon as he had learnt that +the Island was his, had issued in a most serious modification of his +former offer to the New Englanders. As they had refused to come back +and colonise Ireland, would they not accept Jamaica? "He did +apprehend the people of New England had as clear a call to transport +themselves thence to Jamaica as they had had from England to New +England, in order to the bettering of their outward condition;" +besides which, their removal thither would have a "tendency to the +overthrow of the Man of Sin." They should be transported free of +cost; they should have lands rent-free for seven years, and after +that at a penny an acre; they should be free from customs, excise, +or any tax for four years; they should have the most liberal +constitution that could be framed: only his Highness would keep the +right of appointing the successive Governors and their Assistants. +The answer of the Massachusetts people, when it did arrive, was +evasive. They spoke of the reported unhealthiness of Jamaica, and +they assured Ms Highness of their admiration, their gratitude, and +their prayers. The answer had not been received at the date we have +reached (Sept. 1656), and the Protector still cherished his idea. As +it proved, the New Englanders were to remain New Englanders, and +Jamaica was to be colonised slowly and with less select material.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Palfrey's Hist. of New England, II. 304-415, and +especially 388-390.] + +[Footnote 2: Various minutes in Council Order Books from 1649 +onwards; Carlyle, III, Appendix, 442-443.] + +[Footnote 3: Mills's _Colonial Constitutions_ (1856), 124-133, +Introd. XXXIV. et seq.; Carlyle, III. 124-133; Palfrey's _New +England_, II. 390-393.] + + + + +SECTION III. + +OLIVER AND THE FIRST SESSION OP HIS SECOND PARLIAMENT: SEPT. 17, +1656-JUNE 26, 1657. + +SECOND PARLIAMENT OF THE PROTECTORATE CALLED: VANE'S _HEALING +QUESTION_ AND ANOTHER ANTI-OLIVERIAN PAMPHLET: PRECAUTIONS AND +ARRESTS: MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT: ITS COMPOSITION: SUMMARY OF +CROMWELL'S OPENING SPEECH: EXCLUSION OF NINETY-THREE ANTI-OLIVERIAN +MEMBERS: DECIDEDLY OLIVERIAN TEMPER OF THE REST: QUESTION OF THE +EXCLUDED MEMBERS: THEIR PROTEST: SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE +PARLIAMENT FOR FIVE MONTHS (SEPT. 1656-FEB. 1656-7): ADMINISTRATION +OF CROMWELL AND HIS COUNCIL DURING THOSE MONTHS: APPROACHES TO +DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN CROMWELL AND THE PARLIAMENT IN THE CASE OF JAMES +NAYLER AND ON THE QUESTION OF CONTINUATION OF THE MILITIA BY +MAJOR-GENERALS: NO RUPTURE.--THE SEXBY-SINDERCOMBE PLOT.--SIR +CHRISTOPHER PACK'S MOTION FOR A NEW CONSTITUTION (FEB. 23, 1656-7): +ITS ISSUE IN THE _PETITION AND ADVICE_ AND OFFER OF THE CROWN TO +CROMWELL: DIVISION OF PUBLIC OPINION ON THE KINGSHIP QUESTION: +OPPOSITION AMONG THE ARMY OFFICERS: CROMWELL'S NEUTRAL ATTITUDE: HIS +RECEPTION OF THE OFFER: HIS LONG HESITATIONS AND SEVERAL SPEECHES +OVER THE AFFAIR: HIS FINAL REFUSAL (MAY 8, 1657): LUDLOW'S STORY OF +THE CAUSE.--HARRISON AND THE FIFTH-MONARCHY MEN: VENNER'S OUTBREAK AT +MILE-END-GREEN.--PROPOSED NEW CONSTITUTION OF THE _PETITION AND +ADVICE_ RETAINED IN THE FORM OF A CONTINUED PROTECTORATE: +SUPPLEMENTS TO THE _PETITION AND ADVICE_: BILLS ASSENTED TO BY +THE PROTECTOR, JUNE 9: VOTES FOR THE SPANISH WAR,--TREATY OFFENSIVE +AND DEFENSIVE WITH FRANCE AGAINST SPAIN: DISPATCH OF ENGLISH +AUXILIARY ARMY, UNDER REYNOLDS, FOR SERVICE IN FLANDERS: BLAKE'S +ACTION IN SANTA CRUZ BAY.--_"KILLING--NO MURDER"_: ADDITIONAL +AND EXPLANATORY PETITION AND ADVICE: ABSTRACT OF THE ARTICLES OP THE +NEW CONSTITUTION AS ARRANGED BY THE TWO DOCUMENTS: CROMWELL'S +COMPLETED ASSENT TO THE NEW CONSTITUTION, AND HIS ASSENT TO OTHER +BILLS, JUNE 26, 1657: INAUGURATION OF THE SECOND PROTECTORATE THAT +DAY: CLOSE OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE SECOND PARLIAMENT. + + +Willing to relieve his government, if possible, from the character of +"arbitrariness" it had so long borne, Cromwell had at last resolved +on calling another Parliament. The matter had been secretly +deliberated in Council in May and June 1656, and the writs were out +on July 10. There had ensued, throughout England, Scotland, and +Ireland, a great bustle of elections, the Major-Generals in England +and the Councils in Scotland and Ireland exerting themselves to +secure the return of Oliverians, and the Protector and his Council by +no means easy as to the result. Two recent Republican pamphlets had +caused agitation. One, which had been called forth by a Proclamation +of a General East a month or two before, was by Sir Henry Vane, and +was entitled _A Healing Question Propounded and Resolved._ It +was temperate enough, approving of the government in some respects, +and even suggesting the continuance of some kind of sovereignty in a +single person, but containing censures of the "great interruption" of +popular liberties, and appeals to the people to do their part. The +other and later pamphlet (Aug. 1), directly intended to bear on the +Elections, was called _England's Remembrancer,_ and was +virtually a call on all to use their votes so as to return a +Parliament that should unseat Oliver. The author of this second +pamphlet evaded detection; but Vane was brought to task for his. He +was summoned to London from his seat of Belleau in Lincolnshire, +July 29; by an order of Aug. 21 he was required to give security in +£5000 that he would do nothing "to prejudice the present government"; +and, on his refusal, there issued a warrant, signed by Henry +Lawrence, as President of the Council, for his committal to King +Charles's old prison, Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight. About +the same time, precautions were taken with Bradshaw, Harrison, +Ludlow, Lawson, Rich, Okey, Alured, and others. Bradshaw was +suspended for a week or two from his Chief-Justiceship of Chester; +Harrison was sent to Pendennis Castle in Cornwall; Rich to Windsor; +security in £5000 was exacted from Ludlow, or rather arranged for him +by Cromwell; and the others were variously under guard. Nor did +leading royalists escape. Just before the meeting of the Parliament, +a dozen of them, including Lord Willoughly of Parham and Sir John +Ashburnham, were sent to the Tower. The Republican Overton was still +there. All this new "arbitrariness" for the moment was for the +purpose of sufficiently tuning the Parliament.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books through July, Aug. and Sept. 1656; +Godwin, IV. 261-277; Ludlow, 568-573; Catalogue of Thomason +Pamphlets.] + +It met on Wednesday, Sept. 17, when the first business was +attendance, with the Protector, in the Abbey Church, to hear a sermon +from Dr. Owen. Among the 400 members returned from England and Wales +were the Protector's eldest son, Richard Cromwell (for Cambridge +University), Lord President Lawrence and at least twelve other +members of the Council (Fleetwood, Lambert, Desborough, Skippon, +Jones, Montague, Sydenham, Pickering, Wolseley, Rous, Strickland, and +Nathaniel Fiennes), with Mr. Secretary Thurloe, Admiral Blake, and +most of the Major-Generals not of the Council (Howard, Berry, +Whalley, Haynes, Butler, Barkstead, Goffe, Kelsey, and Lilburne). +Other members, of miscellaneous note and various antecedents, were +Whitlocke, Ingoldsby, Scott, Dennis Bond, Maynard, Prideaux, Glynne, +Sir Harbottle Grimston, the Earl of Salisbury, Sir Arthur Hasilrig, +Sir Anthony Irby, Alderman Sir Christopher Pack, Lord Claypole, Sir +Thomas Widdrington, Ex-Speaker Lenthall, Richard Norton, Pride (now +Sir Thomas), and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,--this last long an +absentee from the Council, Of the thirty members returned from the +shires, burghs, or groups of such, in Scotland; about half were +Englishmen: e.g. President Lord Broghill for Edinburgh, Samuel +Desborough for Midlothian, Judge Smith for Dumfriesshire, the +physician Dr. Thomas Clarges (Monk's brother-in-law) for Ross, +Sutherland, and Cromarty, Colonel Nathaniel Whetham for St. Andrews, +&c.; while among the native Scots returned were Ambassador Lockhart, +Swinton, the Earl of Tweeddale, and Colonel David Barclay. Ireland +had returned, among _her_ thirty (who were nearly all +Englishmen), Sir Hardress Waller, Major-General Jephson, Sir Charles +Coote, and several Colonels.[1]--Not a few of the chief members had +been returned by more than one constituency: e.g. Lord Broghill, for +Cork as well as for Edinburgh. Several of those returned cannot have +been expected to give attendance, at least at first. Thus, Admirals +Blake and Montague were away with their fleets, off Spain and +Portugal. But Broghill did come up from Scotland to attend, and +Swinton and most of the other members of the Scottish Council with +him, leaving Monk once more in his familiar charge. Ambassador +Lockhart also had come over, or was coming. + +[Footnote 1: List of the members returned for the Second Parliament +of the Protectorate in _Part. Hist._ III. 1479-1484.] + +There were two rather important interventions between Dr. Owen's +opening sermon to the Parliament and their settling down to +business. + +One was the Lord Protector's opening speech in the Painted Chamber, +now numbered as Speech V, of the Cromwell series. It was very long, +of extremely gnarled structure, but full of matter. The pervading +topic was the war with Spain. This was justified, with approving +references to the published Latin Declaration of Oct. 1655 on the +subject, entitled _Scriptum Domini Protectoris, &c._ +(Milton's?), and with vehement expressions of his Highness's personal +abhorrence of Spain and her policy. He represented her and her +allies and dependents as the anti-English and anti-Christian Hydra of +the world, while France, though Roman Catholic too, stood apart from +all the other Catholic powers in not being under the Pope's lash and +so able to be fair and reasonable. He urged the most energetic +prosecution of the war that had been begun. But with the Spanish war +he connected the dangers to England from the Royalist risings and +conspiracies of the last two years, announcing moreover that he had +now full intelligence of a compact between Spain and Charles II., a +force of 7000 or 8000 Spaniards ready at Bruges in consequence, and +other forces promised by Popish princes, clients of Spain. There were +English agents of the alliance at work, he said, and one miscreant in +particular who had been an Anabaptist Colonel; and, necessarily, all +schemes and conspiracies against the present government would drift +into the Hispano-Stuartist interest. He acquitted some of the +opponents of his government, calling themselves "Commonwealth's men" +and "Fifth Monarchy men," from any intention of that conjunction; but +so it would happen. His arrests of some such had been necessary for +the public safety. He knew his system of Major-Generalships was much +criticised, and thought arbitrary; but that had been necessary too, +and a most useful invention. He had called this Parliament with a +hope of united constitutional action with them for the future, and +would recommend, in the domestic programme, under the general head of +"Reformation," certain great matters to their care. There was the +Sustentation of the Church and the Universities; there was +Reformation of Manners; and there was the still needed Reformation of +the Laws. On the Church-question he avowed, more strongly than ever +before, his desire to uphold and perpetuate an Established Church. +"For my part," he said, "I should think I were very treacherous if I +took away Tithes, till I see the Legislative Power settle maintenance +to Ministers another way." He knew that some of the ministers +themselves would prefer some other form of State-provision; but, on +the whole, believing that some distinct State-maintenance of the +Clergy, whether by tithes or otherwise, was "the root of visible +profession." he adjured the Parliament not to swerve from that. He +expounded also his principle of comprehending Presbyterians, +Independents, Baptists, and all earnest Evangelical men amicably in +the Established Church, with small concern about their differences +from each, other, and expressed his especial satisfaction that the +Presbyterians had at length come round to this view, and given up +much of their old Anti-Toleration tenet. "I confess I look at that +as the blessedest thing which hath been since the adventuring upon +this government." Towards the end of the speech there was just a hint +that he stood on his Protectorship for life, and regarded that as a +fundamental, not to be called in question. "I say, Look up to God: +have peace among yourselves. Know assuredly that, if I have an +interest, I am by the voice of the People the Supreme Magistrate, +and, it may be, do know somewhat that might satisfy my conscience, if +I stood in doubt. But it is a union, really it is a union, between +you and me; and, both of us united in faith and love to Jesus Christ, +and to His peculiar Interest in the world,-_that_ must ground +this work. And in that, if I have any peculiar interest which is +personal to myself, which is not subservient to the public end, it +were not an extravagant thing for me to curse myself, because I know +God will curse me if I have." After quoting the 85th Psalm, he +dismissed them to choose their Speaker.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Speech V.; Carlyle, III. 159-196.] + +Then, however, there was the second intervention. It was in the lobby +of the House. Some persons, acting for the Clerk of the Commonwealth +in Chancery, stood there, with tickets certifying that such and such +members had been duly returned and also "_approved by his +Highness's Council";_ the doors of the House were guarded by +soldiers; and none but those for whom the tickets had been made out +were allowed to enter. About ninety-three found themselves thus +excluded; among whom, were Hasilrig, Scott, Irby, Sir Harbottle +Grimston, the Earl of Salisbury, Maynard, four of the six members +for the city of London, and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper. The residue, +who had received tickets, proceeded to constitute the House, and +unanimously elected Sir Thomas Widdrington, Sergeant at Law and one +of the Commissioners of the Treasury, for their Speaker. Almost the +only other business that day was to thank Dr. Owen for his sermon, +and order it to be printed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, Sept. 17, 1656; and Parl. Hist. III. +1484-1487.] + +The next day there was read in the House a letter to the Speaker, +signed by a number of the excluded, informing him of the fact and +desiring to be admitted. Through that and the two following sittings, +an inquiry into the circumstances of the exclusion formed part of the +proceedings. The Clerk of the Commonwealth in Chancery, being +required to attend, did at last present himself, and explained that +he had but obeyed orders. He had received a letter from Mr. Jessop, +the Clerk of the Council, ordering him to deliver tickets only to +such of the persons elected as should be certified to him as approved +by the Council; and he had acted accordingly. With some reluctance, +he produced the letter; and the House then resolved to ask the +Council for their reasons for excluding so many members. These were +given, on the 20th, by Fiennes for the Council. They were to the +effect that Article XXI. of the constituting Instrument of the +Protectorate, called _The Government of the Commonwealth_ (Vol. +IV. pp. 542-544), required the Clerk of the Commonwealth in Chancery, +for the first three Parliaments of the Protectorate, to report to the +Council what persons had been returned, and empowered the Council to +admit those duly qualified and to exclude others, and also that, by +another clause in the same Instrument (Art. XVII.), it was required +that the persons elected should be "of known integrity, fearing God, +and of good conversation." All which being undeniable, it was +resolved by the House, after debate, Sept. 22, by a majority of 125 +to twenty-nine, to refer the excluded to the Council itself for any +farther satisfaction they wanted, and meanwhile "to proceed with the +great affairs of the nation." The House, _without_ the excluded, +it will be seen, was decidedly Oliverian in the main. The excluded, +or some of them, took their revenge by printing and distributing a +Protest or Remonstrance addressed to the Nation, with the names of +all the ninety-three attached, those of Hasilrig and Scott first. It +was a document of extreme vehemence, denouncing the Protector as an +armed tyrant and all who had abetted him in his last act as capital +enemies to the Commonwealth, and disowning beforehand, as null and +void, all that the truncated Parliament might do. Cromwell took no +notice whatever of this Remonstrance. By one more stroke of +"arbitrariness," bolder than any before, but allowed, he might plead, +by the Instrument of his Protectorate, he had fashioned for himself a +Second Parliament, likely to be more to his mind than his First.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, Sept, 18-22, 1656; Whitlocke, IV. +274-280 (where the Remonstrance of the Excluded is given in full); +Ludlow, 579-580.] + +So it proved. Some of the excluded having been admitted after all, +and new elections having been made in cases where members had been +returned by two or more constituencies, the House went on for the +first five months (Sept. 1656-Feb. 1656-7) with a pretty steady +working attendance of about 220 at the maximum--which implies that, +besides the excluded, there must have been a large number of +absentees or very lax attenders. During these five months a large +amount of miscellaneous business was done, with occasional divisions, +but no vital disagreement within the House, or between it and the +Protector. There was an Act for renouncing and disavowing Charles II, +over again, and an Act for the safety of the Lord Protector's person +and government, both made law, by Cromwell's assent, Oct. 27. There +was a vote of approbation of the war with Spain, with votes of means +for carrying it on. There were Bills, more formal than before, for +adjusting and completing the incorporation of Scotland and Ireland +with the Commonwealth. There were Committees of all sorts for +maturing these and other Bills. Among the grand Committees was one +for Religion. There were votes of reward to various persons for past +services. The better observance of the Lord's Day was one of the +subjects of discussion. Amid the minor or more private business one +notes a great many _naturalizings_ of foreigners resident in +England, or of persons of English descent born abroad or otherwise +requiring to be naturalized. Theodore Haak and his family, Dr. Lewis +Du Moulin, a number of Lawrences and Carews, and a daughter of the +poet Waller, are among the scores included in such Naturalization +Bills. Through all this, hardly a week, of course, without an order +to Dr. Owen, Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Caryl, Nye, Sterry, Manton, or some +other leading divine, to preach a special sermon, with thanks after +for his "great pains," and generally a request that the sermon should +be printed. On the whole, Speaker Widdrington had no light post. +Indeed, in January 1656-7, the House, perceiving him to be very ill +and weak, insisted on his taking leave of absence, and appointed +Whitlocke as his substitute. Whitlocke acted as pro-Speaker, he tells +us, from January 27 to Feb. 18, with great acceptance and rapid +despatch of business. On the last of these days, however, +Widdrington, though at the risk of his life, reappeared and resumed +duty. A fee of £5, it seems, was due to the Speaker from every person +naturalized by bill, and all such fees would have gone to Whitlocke +had Widdrington remained absent. The loss to Whitlocke was made up +handsomely by the House in a vote of £2000, besides repayment of £500 +he had expended over his allowance in his Swedish embassy, and thanks +for his many eminent services.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals over period and for dates named; +Whitlocke, IV. 280-286.] + +About a fortnight after the Parliament had met (Oct. 2), there had +come splendid news from Blake and Montague. A Spanish fleet from the +West Indies, with the ex-Viceroy of Peru and his family on board, and +a vast treasure of silver, had been attacked in Cadiz bay by six +English frigates under the command of Captain Stayner. Two of the +ships had been taken, two burnt and sunk (the ex-Viceroy, his wife, +and eldest daughter, perishing most tragically in the flames), and +there had been a great capture of silver. The rejoicing in London was +great, and it was renewed a month afterwards by the actual arrival +of the silver from Portsmouth, a long train of waggon-loads through +the open streets, on its way to the Mint, Admiral Montague himself +had come with it. He was in the House Nov. 4, welcomed with thanks +and applauses to his place for a while among the legislators.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates given, and Godwin, IV, +300-303.] + +Legislative work being back in the hands of a Parliament, the +Protector and his Council had confined themselves meanwhile to +matters of administration, war, and diplomacy. Vane had been released +from his imprisonment in the Isle of Wight by order of Council, Dec. +11, and permitted to return to Lincolnshire; and there had been other +relaxations of the severities attending the opening of the +Parliament. There had been an order of Council (Oct. 2) for the +release of imprisoned Quakers at Exeter, Dorchester, Colchester, and +other places, with instructions to the Major-Generals in the +respective districts to see the order carried out and the fines of +the poor people discharged. The business of the Piedmontese +Protestants still occupied the Council, and there were letters to +various foreign powers. Of new diplomatic arrangements of the +Protector about this time, and through the whole session of the +Parliament, account will be more conveniently taken hereafter; but +Ambassador Lockhart's temporary presence in London, and his frequent +colloquies with the Protector over French affairs, Spanish affairs, +the movements of Charles II abroad, a rumoured dissension between +Charles II. and his brother the Duke of York, and Mazarin's astute +intimacy with all, are worthy of remark even now. It was on Dec. 10, +1656, that Lockhart received from his Highness the honour of +knighthood at Whitehall; and on Feb. 3, 1656-7, it was settled by his +Highness and the Council that Lockhart's allowance thenceforward in +his Embassy should be £100 a week, i.e, about £18,000 a year in +present value. Lockhart's real post being in Paris, his attendance in +Parliament can have been but brief. His fellow-Scotsman, Swinton of +Swinton, also gave but brief attendance. The Protector had taken the +opportunity of Swinton's visit to London to show him special +attention, and to promote in the Council certain very substantial +recognitions of his adhesion to the Commonwealth when other Scots +abhorred it, and of his good services in Scotland to it and the +Protectorate since. But, as his proper place was in Edinburgh, it was +ordered, Dec. 25, 1656, that he, and his fellow-members of the +Scottish Council, Major-General Charles Howard and Colonel Adrian +Scroope, should return thither. This was the more necessary because +Lord Broghill did not mean to return to Scotland, the air of which +did not suit him, but preferred employment for the future either in +England or in his native Ireland. Broghill's Presidency in Scotland +had now, indeed, virtually ceased, and the administration there, with +the difficult steering between the Resolutioners and the Protesters +of the Kirk, had been left to Monk and the rest. Nay, as we know, the +hearing of that vital Scottish question had been transferred to +London. Sharp, who had come to London in Broghill's train as agent +for the Resolutioners, "presently got access to the Protector" and +"was well liked of and accepted." But the Marquis of Argyle had +weight enough yet to stop any concession to him till the other party +had been heard. Accordingly, in October, 1656, a Mr. James Simson, +minister of Airth, had been sent up by the Protesters, to be +followed, more effectively, in January, by Mr. James Guthrie himself, +Principal Gillespie of Glasgow, and three elders, of whom one was +Warriston. There had been a conference and debate between Sharp and +these Protesters before Cromwell, three of his Council being present, +and Owen, Lockyer, Manton, and Ashe attending as representative +English divines; but his Highness had not yet made up his mind. The +rumour in Scotland was that Sharp was likely to succeed, and that he +had driven Warriston and Gillespie very hard in the Conference, and +contrived, in particular, to make Warriston, in self-defence, betray +some awkward secrets. One finds, however, that Principal Gillespie +was invited to preach twice before the Parliament, and thanked for +his sermons, and that he had influence enough to move in the Council +a suit in the interests of the University of Glasgow. Though Sharp, +as Baillie advised him, was "supping with a long spoon," Cromwell +had probably taken estimate of him.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of dates given, and of others (e.g. +Nov. 4 and Dec. 2, 1656, and Jan. 12 and Feb. 12, 1656-7); _Merc. +Pol._ No. 340 (Dec. 11-18, 1656); Life of Robert Blair, 329-331; +Baillie, III. 328-341.] + +One matter In which there had been an approach to disagreement +between the Parliament and the Protector was the famous _Case of +James Nayler;_--Quakerism and its extravagancies were irritating +the sober part of the nation unspeakably, and this maddest of all the +Quakers, on account of the outrageous "blasphemies" of his recent +Song-of-Simon procession through the west of England--repeated at +Bristol after his release from Exeter jail--had been selected by +Parliament for an example. On the 31st of October, 1856, a large +committee was appointed on his case; and on the 5th of December, +Nayler and others having been brought prisoners to London meanwhile, +the report of the Committee was made, and there began a debate on the +case, which was protracted through ten sittings, Nayler himself +brought once or twice to the bar. It was easily resolved that he had +been "guilty of horrid blasphemy" and was a "grand impostor and great +seducer of the people": the difficult question was as to his +punishment. On the 16th of December it was carried but by ninety-six +votes to eighty-two that it should _not_ be death, and, after +some faint farther argument on the side of mercy, this was the +sentence: "That James Nayler be set on the pillory, with his head in +the pillory, in the New Palace, Westminster, during the space of two +hours, on Thursday next, and shall be whipped by the hangman through +the streets from Westminster to the Old Exchange, London, there +likewise to be set on the pillory, with his head in the pillory, for +the space of two hours, between the hours of eleven and one on +Saturday next--in each of the said places wearing a paper containing +an inscription of his crimes: and that at the Old Exchange his tongue +shall be bored through with a hot iron; and that he be there also +stigmatized in the forehead with the letter B: And that he be +afterwards sent to Bristol, and conveyed into and through the said +city on a horse bare-ridged, with his face backwards, and there also +publicly whipped the next market-day after he comes thither: And that +from thence he be committed to prison in Bridewell, London, and there +restrained from the society of all people, and kept to hard labour, +till he be released by Parliament, and during that time be debarred +from the use of pen, ink, and paper, and have no relief but what he +earns by his daily labour." Though petitions for clemency had already +been presented to Parliament by some very orthodox people, the first +part of this atrocious sentence was duly executed Dec. 18. Then came +more earnest petitions both to Parliament and the Protector, with the +effect of a respite of the next part from the 20th to the 27th; +between which dates this letter from the Protector was read in the +House: "O.P. Right Trusty and Well-beloved, We greet you well. Having +taken notice of a judgment lately given by yourselves against one +James Nayler, Although we detest and abhor the giving or occasioning +the least countenance to persons of such opinions and practices, or +who are guilty of the crimes commonly imputed to the said person: +Yet, We, being intrusted in the present Government on behalf of the +People of these Nations, and _not knowing how far such Proceeding, +entered into wholly without Us, may extend in the consequence of +it_, Do desire that the House will let Us know the grounds and +reasons whereupon they have proceeded." Two things are here to be +perceived. One is that Cromwell did not approve of the course taken +with Nayler. The other, and more important, is that he regarded this +action of the House, without his consent, as an intrenchment on that +part of his prerogative which concerned Toleration. He thought +himself, by the constitution of his Protectorate, entrusted with a +certain guardianship of this principle, even against Parliament; and +he did not know how far Nayler's case might be made a precedent for +religious persecutions. What may have been the exact reply to +Cromwell from the House we do not know; but the House was not in a +mood to spare Nayler. He had not satisfied the clergymen sent to +confer with him. Accordingly, on the 27th, a motion to respite him +for another week having been lost by 113 to 59, the second part of +his punishment was inflicted to the letter; after which he was +removed to Bristol to receive the rest. All that one can say is that, +though Cromwell was far from pleased with the business, and even +thought it a horrible one, he did not feel that he could at that time +make it the occasion of an actual quarrel with the Parliament.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Carlyle III, 213-215; Sewel's +_History of the People called Quakers_ (ed. 1834) I. 179-207.] + +Another matter in which a disagreement might have been feared between +Cromwell and his Parliament was that of _The +Major-Generalships._ This "invention" of Cromwell's for the police +of England and Wales generally, and specially for the collection of +the Decimation or Militia Tax from the Royalists, had been so +successful that he had congratulated himself on It in his opening +speech to the Parliament. He, doubtless, desired that Parliament +should adopt and continue it. On the 7th of January, 1656-7, +accordingly, there was read for the first time "a Bill for the +continuing and assessing of a Tax for the paying and maintaining of +the Militia forces in England and Wales," i.e. for prolonging +Cromwell's Decimation Tax of 1655, and virtually the whole machinery +of the Major-Generalships. That there would be serious opposition in +the House had been foreseen since Dec. 25, when there had been two +divisions on the question of leave to bring in the Bill, and leave +had been obtained only by eighty-eight votes to sixty-three. Among +the opponents were Whitlocke and the other lawyers, all those indeed +who wanted to terminate the time of "arbitrariness," and objected to +a tax now on old political delinquents as contrary to the +Parliamentary Act of Oblivion of Feb. 1651-2. On the other hand, the +Bill was strongly supported by Lambert. Fiennes, Lisle, Pickering, +Sydenham, other members of Council, and the Major-Generals +themselves. It was, in fact, a Government Bill, Nevertheless, after a +protracted debate of six days, the second reading of the Bill was +negatived Jan. 29 by 121 to 78, and the Bill absolutely rejected by +124 to 88. Cromwell himself had helped to bring about this result. +Much as he liked his "invention," he had perceived, in the course of +the debate, that it must be given up; and he had given hints to that +effect. The House, in short, had understood that they were left to +their own free will. And so the Major-Generalships disappeared, the +police of the country reverted to the ordinary magistracy, and +Cromwell was to trust to Parliament for necessary supplies in more +regular ways.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Godwin, IV. 327-331.] + +What drew the Parliament and the Protector more closely together +about this time was the explosion of a new plot against the +Protector's life. At the centre of the plot was that "wretched +creature, an apostate from religion and all honesty," of whom +Cromwell had spoken in his opening speech as going between Charles +II. and the King of Spain, and negotiating for a Spanish invasion of +England. In other words, he was Edward Sexby, once a stout trooper +and agitator in the Parliamentarian army (Vol. III. p. 534), +afterwards Captain and even Colonel in the same, but since then one +of the fiercest Anabaptist malcontents. He had been in the Wildman +plot of Feb. 1654-5, but had then escaped abroad; and since then his +occupation had been as described by Cromwell,--now in Flanders, now +in Madrid, shuttling alliance between Spain and the Stuarts. But, +though a Spanish invasion of England to restore the Stuarts was his +great game, an assassination of Cromwell anyhow, whether without a +Spanish invasion or in anticipation of it, was nearest to his heart. +Actually he had been in London just before the meeting of the +Parliament, trying to arrange for such "fiddling things"--so Cromwell +had called them--as shooting him in the Park or blowing him up in his +chamber at Whitehall. Before Thurloe had traces of him, he had again +decamped to Flanders; but he had left a substitute in Miles +Sindercombe, an old leveller and mutineer of 1647, but since then a +quarter-master in Monk's Army in Scotland, and dismissed for his +complicity in the Overton project. Sexby had left Sindercombe £1600; +and with this money Sindercombe had been again tampering with +Cromwell's guard, taking a house at Hammersmith convenient for shots +at Cromwell's coach when he drove to Hampton Court, and buying +gunpowder and combustibles for a nearer attempt in Whitehall. He had +been, seen in the Chapel at Whitehall on the evening of January 8, +and that night the sentinel on duty smelt fire just in time to +extinguish a slow-match that was to explode a mass of blazing +chemicals at midnight. All Whitehall having been roused, the +Protector with the rest, information led at once to Sindercombe. He +was arrested in his lodging, and sent to the Tower; and, his trial +having followed, Feb. 9, he was convicted on evidence given by +accomplices, and doomed to execution on the 14th. In the night +preceding he was found dead in his bed, having poisoned himself. He +had left intimation that he was under no concern about his immortal +soul, having passed out of any form of religion recognising such an +entity, and become a Materialist or Soul-sleeper. Meanwhile his plot +had raised a ferment of new loyalty round the Protector. On the 19th +of January, when Thurloe made a formal disclosure to the House of all +the particulars of the plot, a general thanksgiving throughout +England, Scotland, and Ireland, was ordered, and it was resolved that +the whole House should wait upon his Highness "to congratulate with +his Highness on this great mercy and deliverance." The interview was +on January the 23rd, in the Banqueting House in Whitehall, when +Speaker Widdrington made the address for the House, and Cromwell +replied in a most affectionate speech (_Speech_ VI.). The +thanksgiving was on Feb. 20; on which day Principal Gillespie of +Glasgow and Mr. Warren had the honour of preaching the special +sermons before the House in St. Margaret's, Westminster. The day was +wound up by a noble dinner in Whitehall, to which the whole House had +been invited by the Protector, followed by a concert, vocal and +instrumental, in the part of the Palace called the Cockpit.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates given, and of Feb. 18; +Carlyle, III. 204-211; Godwin, IV. 331-333; _Merc. Pol._ No. +349 (Feb. 12-19, 1656-7); Whitlocke, IV. 286; Parl. Hist. III. 1490.] + +Three days after the great dinner in Whitehall, i.e. on Monday, Feb. +23, 1656-7, there was an incident in the House which turned all the +future proceedings of this Second Parliament of the Protectorate into +a new channel. It is thus entered in the Journals:-- + + " ... Sir Christopher Pack [Ex-Mayor of London, knighted by + Cromwell, Sept. 25, 1655, and now one of the members for the City] + presented a Paper to the House, declaring it was somewhat come to + his hand tending to the Settlement of the Nation and of Liberty and + Property, and prayed it might be received and read; and, it being + much controverted whether the same should be read without farther + opening [preliminary explanation] thereof, the Question being + propounded _That this Paper, offered by Sir Christopher Pack, be + further opened by him before it is read,_ and the Question being + put _That this Question be now put,_ it passed in the Negative. The + Question being propounded _That this Paper, offered by Sir + Christopher Pack, be now read,_ and the Question being put _That + that Question be now put,_ the House was divided. The Noes went + forth:--Colonel Sydenham, Mr. Robinson, Tellers for the Noes--with + the Noes 54; Sir Charles Wolseley, Colonel Fitzjames, Tellers for + the Yeas--with the Yeas 144. So it passed in the Affirmative. And, + the main Question being put, it was Resolved _That this Paper, + offered by Sir Christopher Pack, be now read._ The said Paper was + read accordingly, and was entitled 'The Humble Address and + Remonstrance of the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, now assembled + in the Parliament of this Commonwealth.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of date.] + +The debate on the Paper was protracted to the evening "a candle" +having been ordered in for the purpose; and it was then adjourned to +the next day. In fact, for the next four months, or through the whole +remainder of the session, the House was to continue the debate, or +questions arising out of it, and to do little else. For, on the 24th +of February, it was resolved by a majority of 100 to 44 (Lambert and +Strickland tellers for the _Minority_) that the paper should be +taken up and discussed in its successive parts, "beginning at the +first Article after the Preamble;" and, though an attempt was made +next day to throw the subject into Grand Committee, that was defeated +by 118 to 63. In evidence of the momentousness of the occasion, a +whole Parliamentary day was set apart for "seeking the Lord" upon it, +with prayers and sermons by Dr. Owen and others; and, when the House +met again after that ceremonial (Feb. 28), it was resolved that no +vote passed on any part of the Paper should be binding till all +should be completed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates.] + +Sir Christopher Pack's paper of Feb. 23, 1656-7, entitled _The +Humble Address and Remonstrance, &c._, was nothing less than a +proposed address by Parliament to the Protector, asking him to concur +with the Parliament in a total recast of the existing Constitution. +It had been privately considered and prepared by several persons, and +Whitlocke had been requested to introduce it, "Not liking--several +things in it," he had declined to do so; but, Sir Christopher having +volunteered, Whitlocke, Broghill, Glynne and others, were to back +him. Indeed, all the Oliverians were to back him. Or, rather, there +was to grow out of the business, according as the Oliverians were +more hearty or less hearty in their cooperation, a new distinction of +that body into _Thorough Oliverians_ and _Distressed +Oliverians_ or _Contrariants_. Why this should have been the +case will appear if we quote the First Article of the proposed +Address after the Preamble. It ran thus: "That your Highness will be +pleased to assume the name, style, title, dignity, and office of KING +of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the respective Dominions and +Territories thereunto belonging, and exercise thereof, to hold and +enjoy the same, with the rights and privileges and prerogatives +justly, legally, and rightfully, belonging thereunto: That your +Highness will be pleased, during your life-time, to appoint and +declare the person who shall, immediately after your death, succeed +you in the Government of these Nations." The rest of the Address was +to correspond. Thus Article II. proposed a return to the system of +two Houses of Parliament, and generally the tenor was towards royal +institutions. On the other hand, the regality proposed was to be +strictly constitutional. There was to be an end to all arbitrary +power. There were to be free and full Parliaments once in three years +at farthest; there was to be no violent interference in future with +the process of Parliament, no exclusion of any persons that had been +duly returned by the constituencies; and his Highness and Council +were not to make ordinances by their own authority, but all laws, and +changes or abrogations of laws, were to be by Act of Parliament. +Oliver was to be King, if he chose, and a King with very large +powers; but he was to keep within Statute.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 286 and 289; Commons Journals of March +2, 3, and 24, 1656-7, and March 25, 1657 (whence I have recovered +the original wording of Article I. of the Address).] + +On March 2 and 3 the First Article of the Address was debated, with +the result that it was agreed to _postpone_ any vote on the +first and most important part of the Article, offering Oliver the +Kingship, but with the passing of the second part, offering him, +whether it should be as King or not, the power of nominating his +successor. A motion for postponing the vote on this part also was +lost by 120 to 63. Then, on the 5th, Article II., proposing +Parliaments of _two Houses_, was discussed, and adopted without a +division; after which there were discussions and adoptions of the +remaining proposals, day after day, with occasional divisions about +the wording, till March 24. On that day, the House, their survey of +the document being tolerably complete, went back on the +_postponed_ clause of the First Article, involving the +all-important question of the offer of the Kingship. Through two +sittings that day, and again on March 25 (New Year's Day, 1657), +there was a very anxious and earnest debate with closed doors, the +opposition trying to stave off the final vote by two motions for +adjournment. These having failed, the final vote was taken (March +25); when, by a majority of 123 to 62, the Kingship clause was +carried in this amended form: "That your Highness will be pleased to +assume the name, style, title, dignity, and office of King of +England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the respective Dominions and +Territories thereunto belonging, and to exercise the same according +to the laws of these Nations." Then, it seemed, all was over, except +verbal revision of the entire address. Next day (March 26) it was +referred to a Committee, with Chief Justice Glynne for Chairman, to +perform this--i.e. to "consider of the title, preamble, and +conclusion, and read over the whole, and consider the coherence, and +make it perfect." All which having been done that same day, and the +House having given some last touches, the document was ready to be +engrossed for presentation to Cromwell. By recommendation of the +Committee, the title had been changed from _Address and +Remonstrance_ into _Petition and Advice_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates, and between March 5 and March +25.] + +Of course, the great proposal in Parliament had been rumoured through +the land, notwithstanding the instructed reticence or mysterious +vagueness of the London newspapers; and, in the interval between the +introduction of Sir Christopher Pack's paper and the conversion of +the same into the _Petition and Advice_, with the distinct offer +of Kingship in its forefront, there had been wide discussion of the +affair, with much division of opinion. Against the Kingship, even +horrified by the proposal of it, were most of those Army-men who had +hitherto been Oliverians, and had helped to found the Protectorate. +Lambert, Fleetwood, and Desborough, were at the head of this military +opposition, which included nearly all the other ex-Major-Generals, +and the bulk of the Colonels and inferior officers. One of their +motives was dread of the consequences to themselves from a subversion +of the system under which they had been acting and a return to a +Constitutional and Royal system in which Cromwell and they might have +to part company. This, and a theoretical Republicanism still +lingering in their minds, tended, in the present emergency, almost to +a reunion between them and the old or Anti-Oliverian Republicans. It +had been some of the Oliverian Army-men in Parliament, at all events, +that had first resisted Pack's motion. Ludlow's story is that they +very nearly laid violent hands on Pack when he produced his paper; +and the divisions in the Commons Journals exhibit Lambert and various +Colonels, with Strickland, as among the chief obstructors of the +_Petition and Advice_ in its passage through the House. +Strickland, it will be remembered, was an eminent member of the +Protector's own Council; and, as far as one can gather, several +others of that body, besides Lambert, Fleetwood, Desborough, and +Strickland--perhaps half of the whole number of those now habitually +attending the Council--were opposed to the Kingship. On the other +hand, the more enthusiastic Oliverians of the Council, those most +attached to Cromwell personally, e.g. Sir Charles Wolseley, appear to +have been acquiescent, or even zealous for the Kingship; and there +were at least some military Oliverians, out of the Council, of the +same mind. In the final vote of March 25, carrying the offer of +Kingship, the tellers for the majority were Sir John Reynolds +(Tipperary and Waterford), and Major-General Charles Howard +(Cumberland), while those for the minority were Major-General Butler +(Northamptonshire), and Colonel Salmon (Dumfries Burghs). +Undoubtedly, however, the chief managers of the _Petition and +Advice_ in the House from the first had been Whitlocke, Glynne, +and others of the lawyers, with Lord Broghill. The lawyers had been +long anxious for a constitutional Kingship: nothing else, they +thought, could restore the proper machinery of Law and State, and +make things safe. Accordingly, out of doors, in the whole civilian +class, and largely also among the more conservative citizens, the +idea of Oliver's Kingship was far from unwelcome. The Presbyterians +generally, it is believed, were very favourable to it, their +dispositions towards Cromwell having changed greatly of late; nor of +the old Presbyterian Royalists were all averse. There were Royalists +now who were not Stuartists, who wanted a king on grounds of general +principle and expediency, but were not resolute that he should be +Charles II. only. The real combination of elements against Oliver's +Kingship consisted, therefore, of the unyielding old Royalists of the +Stuart adhesion, regarding the elevation of the usurping "brewer" to +the throne as abomination upon abomination, the Army Oliverians or +Lambert and Fleetwood men, interested in the preservation of the +existing Protectorate, and the passionate Republicans and Levellers, +who had not yet condoned even the Protectorate, and whom the +prospect of King and House of Lords over again, with all their +belongings, made positively frantic. + +How far Cromwell had been aware beforehand of such a project as that +of Sir Christopher Pack's paper may be a question. That he had let it +be known for some time that he was not disinclined to a revision and +enlargement of the constitution of the original Protectorate may be +fairly assumed; but that he had concocted Pack's project and arranged +for bringing it on (which is Ludlow's representation, and, of course, +that of all the Histories) is very unlikely. The project, as in +Pack's paper, and as agreed upon by Whitlocke, Glynne, and other +lawyers and Parliament men, was by no means, in all its parts, such a +project as Cromwell himself would have originated. To the Kingship he +may have had no objection, and we have his own word afterwards that +he favoured the idea of a Second House of Parliament; but there were +accompanying provisions not so satisfactory. What he had hitherto +valued in his Protectorate was the place and scope given to his own +supreme personality, his power to judge what was best and to carry it +through as he could, unhampered by those popular suffrages and +Parliamentary checks and privileges which he held to be mere +euphemisms for ruin and mutual throat-cutting all through the British +Islands in their then state of distraction; and it must therefore +have been a serious consideration with him how far, in the public +interests, or for his own comfort, he could put himself in new +shackles for the mere name of King. What, for example, of the +proposed restitution of the ninety-and-odd excluded members to the +present Parliament? How could he get on after that? In short, there +was so much in Pack's paper suggestive of new and difficult questions +as to the futurity of Cromwell, his real influence in affairs, if he +exchanged the Protectorship for Kingship, that the paper, or the +exact project it embodied, cannot have been of Cromwell's devising. +There are subsequent events in proof of the fact. + +On the 27th of February, the fourth day after the introduction of +Pack's paper, and the very day of the Fast appointed by the House +prior to consideration of it in detail, Cromwell had been waited on +by a hundred officers, headed by the alarmed Major-Generals, +imploring him not to allow the thing to go farther. His reply was +that, though he then specifically heard of the whole project for the +first time, he could by no means share their instantaneous alarm. +Kingship was nothing in itself, at best "a mere feather in a man's +hat"; but it need be no bugbear, and at least ought to be no new +thing to _them_. Had they not offered it to him at the +institution of the Protectorate, though the title of Protector had +been then preferred? Under that title he had been often a mere drudge +of the Army, constrained to things not to his own liking. For the +rest, were there not reasons for amending, in other respects, the +constitution of the Protectorate? Had it not broken down in several +matters, and were there not deficiencies in it? If there had been a +Second House of Parliament, for example, would there have been that +indiscreet decision in the case of James Nayler, a decision that +might extend farther than Nayler, and leave no man safe?--Thus, with +the distinct information that Cromwell would not interfere with +Pack's project in its course through the House, had the Officers been +dismissed. It was probably in consequence of their remonstrance with +Cromwell, however, that the vote on the Kingship clause of the First +Article had been postponed from the 2nd of March to the 25th. The +delay had been useful. Though Lambert, Fleetwood, Desborough, and the +mass of the military men, still remained "contrariants," not a few of +them had been shaken by Cromwell's arguments, or at least by his +judgment. If _he_, whom it was their habit to trust, was +prepared to take the Kingship, and saw reasons for it, why should +they stand out? So, before the vote did come on, Major-Generals +Berry, Goffe, and Whalley, with others, had ceased to oppose, and the +Kingship clause, reserved to the last, as the keystone of the +otherwise completed arch, had been carried, as we have seen, by +two-thirds of the House.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 349-353; Carlyle, III. 217.] + +It was on Tuesday, March 31, in the Banqueting House in Whitehall, +that Speaker Widdrington, attended by the whole House, and by all the +high State-officers, formally presented to Cromwell, after a long +speech, the _Petition and Advice_, engrossed on vellum. The +understanding, by vote of the House, was that his Highness must +accept the whole, and that otherwise no part would be binding. +Cromwell's answer, in language very calm and somewhat sad +(_Speech_ VII.), was one of thanks, with a request for time to +consider. On the 3rd of April, a Committee of the House, appointed by +his request, waited on him for farther answer. It was still one of +thanks: e.g. "I should be very brutish did I not acknowledge the +exceeding high honour and respect you have had for me in this Paper"; +but it was in effect a refusal, on the ground that, being shut up to +accept all or none, he could not see his way to accept (_Speech_ +VIII.). Notwithstanding this answer, which could hardly be construed +as final, the House next day resolved, after two divisions, to adhere +to their _Petition and Advice_, and to make new application to +the Protector. On the previous question the division was +seventy-seven to sixty-five, Major-Generals Howard and Jephson +telling for the majority, and Major-General Whalley and Colonel +Talbot for the minority; on the main question there was a majority of +seventy-eight, with Admiral Montague and Sir John Hobart for tellers, +against sixty-five, told by General Desborough and Colonel Hewson. A +Committee having then prepared a brief paper representing to his +Highness the serious obligation he was under in such a matter, there +was a second Conference of the whole House with his Highness (April +8). His reply to Widdrington then (_Speech_ IX.) did not +withdraw his former refusal, but signified willingness to receive +farther information and counsel. To give such information and +counsel, and In fact to reason out the matter thoroughly with +Cromwell, the House then appointed a large Committee of +_ninety-nine_, composed in the main, one must fancy, of members +who were now eager for the Kingship, or at least had ceased to +object. Whitlocke, Broghill, Glynne, Fiennes, Lenthall, Lord +Commissioner Lisle, Sir Charles Wolseley, and Thurloe, were to be the +most active members of this Committee; but it included also Admiral +Montague, Generals Howard, Jephson, Whalley, Pack, Goffe, and Berry, +with Sydenham, Rous, the Scotch Earl of Tweeddale, the Lord Provost +of Edinburgh, the poet Waller, and even Strickland. The Committee was +appointed April 9, and the House was to await the issue.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carlyle, III. 218-228 (with Cromwell's _Speeches_ +VII., VIII., and IX.); Commons Journals of dates.] + +It seemed as if it would never be reached. The Conferences of the +Committee with Cromwell between April 11 to May 8, their reasonings +with him to induce him to accept the Kingship, his reasonings in +reply in the four speeches now numbered X.-XIII. of the Cromwell +series, his doubts, delays, avoidances of several meetings, and +constant adjournments of his final answer, make a story of great +interest in the study of Cromwell's character, not without remarkable +flashes of light on past transactions, and on Cromwell's theory of +his Protectorship and of Government in general. Speech XIII., in +particular, which is by far the longest, and which was addressed to +the Committee on April 21, is full of instruction. Having in his +previous speeches dealt chiefly with the subject of the Kingship, and +stated such various objections to the kingly title as the bad +associations with it, the blasting as if for ever which it had +received from God's Providence in England, and the antipathy to it of +many good men, he here took up the rest of the _Petition and +Advice_. Approving, on the whole, of the spirit and contents of +the document, and especially of the apparent rejection in it of that +notion of perpetually-sitting Single-House Parliaments which he +considered the most fatal fallacy in politics, and persistence in +which by the Rump had left him no option but to dissolve that body +forcibly and assume the Dictatorship, he yet found serious defects in +some of the Articles, and want of precision on this point and that. +His criticisms of this kind were masterly examples of his breadth of +thought, his foresight, and his practical sagacity, and made an +immediate impression. For, at this stage of the proceedings, the +belief being that he would ultimately accept the Kingship, the House, +whose sittings had been little more than nominal during the great +Whitehall Conferences, applied itself vigorously, by deliberations in +Committee and exchanges of papers with the Protector, to such +amendments of the _Petition and Advice_ as he had indicated. On +April 30 sufficient intimation of such amendments was ready, and the +former Committee of Ninety-nine were required to let his Highness +know the same and ask him to appoint a time for his positive answer. +For another week, notwithstanding two appointments for the purpose, +all was still in suspense. During that week we are to suppose +Cromwell either in perplexed solitary meditation, or shut up in those +confidential meetings with a few of the most zealous promoters of the +Kingship which Whitlocke describes. "The Protector," says Whitlocke, +"often advised about this and other great businesses with the Lord +Broghill, Pierrepoint, myself, Sir Charles Wolseley and Thurloe, and +would be shut up three or four hours together in private discourse, +and none were admitted to come in to him. He would sometimes be very +cheerful with us, and, laying aside his greatness, he would be +exceeding familiar with us, and by way of diversion would make verses +with us, and every one must try his fancy. He commonly called for +tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would now and then take tobacco +himself: then he would fall again to his serious and great business." +At length, on Friday, May 8, the Parliament, assembled once more in +the Banqueting House, did receive their positive answer. It was in a +brief speech (Speech _XIV._) ending "I cannot undertake this +Government with the title of King; and that is mine Answer to this +great and weighty business."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carlyle, III. 280-301 (with Speeches X.--XIV.); Commons +Journals of dates; Whitlocke, IV. 289-290.] + +The story in Ludlow is that to the last moment Cromwell had meant to +accept, and that his sudden and unexpected refusal was occasioned by +a bold stroke of the Army-men. Having invited himself to dine at +Desborough's, says Ludlow, he had taken Fleetwood with him, and had +begun "to droll with them about monarchy," and ask them why sensible +men like them should make so much of the affair, and refuse to please +the children by permitting them to have "their rattle." Fleetwood and +Desborough still remaining grave, he had called them "a couple of +scrupulous fellows," and left them. Next day (May 6) he had sent a +message to the House to meet him in the Painted Chamber next morning; +and, casually encountering Desborough again, he had told Desborough +what he intended. That same day Desborough had told Pride, whereupon +that resolute colonel had surprised Desborongh by saying he would +prevent it still. Going to Dr. Owen on the instant, Pride had made +him draft an Officers' Petition to the House. It was to the effect +that the petitioners, having "hazarded their lives against monarchy," +and being "still ready to do so," observed with pain the "great +endeavours to bring the nation again under their old servitude," and +begged the House not to allow a title to be pressed upon their +General which would be destructive to himself and the Commonwealth. +To this petition Pride had obtained the signatures of two Colonels, +seven Lieutenant-Colonels, eight Majors, and sixteen Captains, not +members of the House; and Cromwell, learning what was in progress, +had sent for Fleetwood, and scolded him for allowing such a thing, +the rather as Fleetwood must know "his resolution not to accept the +crown without the consent of the Army." The appointment with the +House in the Painted Chamber for the 7th was changed, however, into +that in the Banqueting House on the 8th, the latter place, as the +more familiar, being fitter for the negative answer he now meant to +give.--Ludlow's story, though he cites Desborough as his chief +informant, is not perfectly credible in all its details; but the +Commons Journals do show that the meeting originally appointed by +Cromwell on the 6th for the Painted Chamber on the 7th was put off to +the 8th, and then held in the Banqueting House, and also that there +was an Officers' Petition in the interim. It was brought to the doors +of the House, by "divers officers of the Army," on the 8th, just as +the House was adjourning to the Banqueting House; and the Journals +only record that the officers were admitted, and that, a Colonel +Mason having presented the Petition in their name and his own, they +withdrew. The rest is guess; but two main facts cannot be doubted. +One is that Cromwell's great, if not sole, reason at last for +refusing the Crown was his knowledge of the persistent opposition of +a great number of the Army men. The other is that he remembered +afterwards who had been the chief _Contrariants_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 586-591; Commons Journals of dates. There had +been public pamphlets against the Kingship: e.g. one by Samuel +Chidley, addressed to the Parliament, and called "Reasons against +choosing the Protector to be King."] + +While the great question of the Kingship had been in progress there +had been a detection of a conspiracy of the Fifth-Monarchy Men. + +Ever since the abortive ending of the Barebones Parliament these +enthusiasts had been recognisable as a class of enemies of the +Protectorate distinct from the ordinary and cooler Republicans. While +Vane and Bradshaw might represent the Republicans or Commonwealth's +men generally, the head of the Fifth-Monarchy Republicans was +Harrison. The Harrisonian Republic, the impassioned dream of this +really great-hearted soldier, was the coming Reign of Christ on +Earth, and the trampling down, in anticipation of that reign, of all +dignities, institutions, ministries, and magistracies, that might be +inconsistent with it. In the Barebones Parliament, where the +Fifth-Monarchy Men had been numerous, and where Harrison had led +them, they had gone far, as we know, in conjunction with the +Anabaptists, in a practical attempt to convert Cromwell's interim +Dictatorship, with Cromwell's assent or acquiescence, into a +beginning of the great new era. They had voted down Tithes, +Church-Establishments, and all their connexions, and only the +steadiness of Rons, Sydenham, and the other sober spirits, in making +that vote the occasion of a resurrender of all power into Cromwell's +hands, had prevented the consequences. And so, Cromwell's +Protectorate having come in where Harrison wanted to keep a vacuum +for the Fifth Monarchy, and that Protectorate having not only +conserved Tithes and an Established Church, but professed them to be +parts of its very basis, Harrison had abjured Cromwell for ever. +"Those who had been to me as the apple of my eye," said Harrison +afterwards, "when they had turned aside, said to me, Sit thou on my +right hand; but I loathed it." Through the Protectorate, accordingly, +Harrison, dismissed from the Army, had been living as a suspected +person, with great powers of harm; and, three or four times, when +there were Republican risings, or threatenings of such, it had been +thought necessary to question him, or put him under temporary arrest. +The last occasion had been just before the opening of the present +Parliament, when he was arrested with Vane, Rich, and others, and had +the distinction of being sent as far off as Pendennis Castle in +Cornwall, while Vane was sent only to the Isle of Wight, and Rich +only to Windsor. The imprisonments, however, being merely +precautionary, had been but short; and, at the time of the proposal +of the Kingship to Cromwell, Harrison, as well as the others, was +again at liberty. + +That Harrison had ever practically implicated himself in any attempt +to upset the Protectorate by force hardly appears from the evidence. +He was an experienced soldier, and, with all his fervid notions of a +Fifth Monarchy, too massive a man to stir without calculation. All +that can be said is that he was an avowed enemy of Cromwell's rule, +that he was looked up to by all the Fifth-Monarchy Republicans, and +that he held himself free to act should there be fit opportunity. But +there were Harrisonians of a lower grade than Harrison. Especially in +London, since the winter of 1655, there had been a kind of society of +Fifth-Monarchy Men, holding small meetings in five places, only one +man in each meeting knowing who belonged to the others, but the five +connecting links forming a central Committee for management and +propagandism. It must have been from this Committee, I suppose, that +there emanated, in Sept. 1656, a pamphlet called "_The Banner of +Truth displayed, or a Testimony for Christ and against Antichrist: +being the substance of several consultations holden and kept by a +certain number of Christians who are waiting for the visible +appearance of Christ's Kingdom in and over the World, and residing in +and about the City of London_." Probably as yet these humble +Fifth-Monarchy Men had not gone beyond private aspirations. At all +events, Thurloe, though aware of their existence, had not thought +them worth notice. But Sindercombe's Plot of Feb. 1656-7, and the +subsequent proposal of the Kingship for Cromwell, had excited them +prodigiously, and they had been longing for action, and looking about +for leaders. Harrison was their chief hope, and they had applied to +him, but also to other Republicans who were not specially +Fifth-Monarchy Men, such as Rich, Lawson, and Okey. What +encouragement they had or thought they had from such men one does not +know; but they had fixed Thursday, April 9, the very day of the +appointment of the great Committee of Ninety-nine to deal with +Cromwell about the Kingship, for an experimental rendezvous and +standard-raising on Mile-End-Green. This being known to Thurloe, a +horse-troop or two finished the affair by the capture of about twenty +of them at Shoreditch, ready to ride to Mile-End-Green, and also by +the capture at Mile-End-Green itself of their intended standard, some +arms, and a quantity of Fifth-Monarchy books and manifestos. Five or +six of the captured, among whom was Thomas Venner, a wine-cooper, the +real soul of the conspiracy, were imprisoned in the Tower, and the +rest elsewhere; but, in accordance with Cromwell's lenient custom in +such cases, there was no trial, or other public notice of the affair, +beyond a report about it by Thurloe to the House (April 11). +Harrison, however, was again arrested, with Rich, Lawson, and Major +Danvers; and amongst those taken was a Mr. Arthur Squib, who had been +in the Barebones Parliament, and one of Harrison's chief followers +there. Squib's connexion with Venner in the present wretched +conspiracy seems to have been much closer than Harrison's.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 372-375; Carlyle, III. 228-229; Thomason +Catalogue of Pamphlets; Commons Journals, April 11, 1657; Thurloe, I. +289.] + +Cromwell had used the Venner outbreak to point a moral in one or two +of his speeches on the Kingship Question. The standard taken at +Mile-End-Green bore a Red Lion couchant, with the motto _Who shall +rouse him up?;_ and among the tracts or manifestos taken was one +called _A Standard set up, whereunto the true Seed and Saints of +the Most High may be gathered together for the lamb, against the +Beast and the False Prophet_. It was a fierce diatribe against +Cromwell, with a scheme for the government of the Commonwealth on +Fifth-Monarchy principles after his overthrow. The supreme authority +was to be the Lord Jesus Christ; but there was to be an annually +elected Sanhedrim or Supreme Council to represent Him, and to +administer Biblical Law, and no other, with inferior elected judges +for towns and counties. The Bible being the sole Law, a formal +Legislature would be unnecessary; and all other magistracy besides +the Sanhedrim and the Judgeships was to be abolished, and also, of +course, all State ministry of Religion. Now, to Cromwell, who had +read the Tract, all this furnished excellent illustration of the kind +he wanted. Always frankly admitting that it might be said he had +"griped at the government of the nations without a legal assent," he +had never ceased to declare that this had been a sheer necessity for +the nations themselves. But the _Standard set up_ of the +Fifth-Monarchy insurgents of Mile-End-Green had enabled him to return +to the topic with reference specifically to the Barebones Parliament +and the transition thence to the Protectorate. That wild pamphlet, he +had told his auditors, in Speech XII. (April 20), was by one who had +been "a leading person" in the Barebones Parliament (Harrison or +Squib?); and in Speech XIII. (April 21) he had dwelt on the fact +again more at large, revealing a story, as he said, of his "own +weakness and folly." The Barebones Parliament had been one of his own +choosing; he had filled it with "men of our own judgment, who had +fought in the wars, and were all of a piece upon that account." This +he had done in his "simplicity," expecting the best results. But, as +it had happened, there was a band of men in that Parliament driving +even then for nothing but the principles of this wretched +Fifth-Monarchy manifesto, the abolition of Church and Magistracy, and +a trial of a fantastic government by the Law of Moses. Major-General +Harrison and Mr. Squib had been the leaders of this band, with the +Anabaptist minister Mr. Feak as their confidant out of doors; and +what they did from day to day in the Parliament had been concocted in +private meetings in Mr. Squib's house. "This was so _de facto:_ +I know it to be true." Had he not done well in accepting the +Protectorate at such a moment, and so saving the Commonwealth from +the delirium of which they had just seen a new spurt at +Mile-End-Green?[1] + +[Footnote 1: I have taken the account of the _Standard Set Up_ +from Godwin, IV. 375-378, not having seen it myself. The passages +in Cromwell's speeches referring to it will be found in Carlyle, +III, 260, and 276-277.] + +After the Protector's refusal of the Kingship the House proceeded to +adjust the new constitution they had prepared in the _Petition and +Advice_ to that unavoidable fact. Not much was necessary. It was +only necessary to re-shape the key-stone, by removing the word "King" +from the first clause of the First Article and retaining the word +"Protector": all the rest would hold good. Accordingly, after some +days of debate, it was finally agreed, May 22, that the former first +clause of the First Article should be cancelled, and this +substituted: "That your Highness will be pleased, by and under the +name and style of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, +Scotland, and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto +belonging, to hold and exercise the office of Chief Magistrate of +these Nations, and to govern according to this _Petition and +Advice_ in all things therein contained, and in all other things +according to the Laws of these Nations, and not otherwise." The +remaining clause of the First Article, empowering Cromwell to appoint +his immediate successor, was left untouched, as well as all the +subsequent Articles. To the whole of the _Petition and Advice_, +so arranged, Cromwell solemnly gave his assent in the Painted +Chamber, May 25, addressing the House in a short speech, in which he +expressed his thorough confidence in them in respect to those +explanations or modifications of the document which they had promised +in order to meet the objections he had taken the liberty of making. +He did not doubt there would be "a perfecting of those things."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates. The speech of Cromwell in +assenting to the _Petition and Advice_, May 25, 1657, had been +accidentally omitted in the earlier editions of Carlyle's +_Cromwell;_ but it was given in the Appendix to the edition of +1657. It may stand as Speech XIV*. in the numbering.] + +The "perfecting of those things" occupied a good deal of time. What +was necessary was to cast the resolutions already come to in +supplement to the _Petition and Advice_, or those that might yet +suggest themselves, into a valid legal form; and it was agreed, June +4, that, except in as far as it might be well to pass express Bills +on specific matters, the best way would be to frame and submit to his +Highness a _Humble Additional and Explanatory Petition and +Advice_. The due framing of this, and the preparation of the +necessary Bills, were to be work for three weeks more.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of date, and afterwards.] + +Meanwhile, in evidence that the Session of the Parliament up to this +point, notwithstanding the great business of the _Petition and +Advice_ and the Kingship question, had by no means been barren in +legislation, the House had gathered up all the Bills already passed, +but not yet assented to, for presentation to his Highness in a body. +On the 9th of June thirty-eight such Bills, "some of the public, and +the others of a more private, concernment," were presented to his +Highness by the whole House, assembled in the Painted Chamber, the +Speaker, "after a short and pithy speech," offering them as some +grapes preceding the full vintage, and his Highness ratifying all by +his assent.--Among these was one very comprehensive Act with this +preamble: "Whereas, since the 20th of April, 1653, in the great +exigences and necessities of these nations, divers Acts and +Ordinances have been made without the consent of the People assembled +in Parliament--which is not according to the fundamental laws of the +nations and the rights of the People, and is not for the future to be +drawn into example--yet, the actings thereupon tending to the +settlement of the estates of several persons and families and the +peace and quiet of the nations: Be it enacted by his Highness the +Lord Protector and this present Parliament," &c. What is enacted is +that about a hundred Acts and Ordinances, all duly enumerated, out +of those made by the Barebones Parliament in 1653 or by Oliver and +his Council after the establishment of the Protectorate in Dec. 1656, +together with all acts and ordinances of the same touching customs +and excise, shall by this Act be confirmed and made good, either +wholly and absolutely (which is the case with nearly all) or with +specified modifications--"all other Acts and Ordinances, and every +branch and clause therein contained, not confirmed by these presents, +which have been made or passed between the 20th day of April 1653 and +the 17th day of September 1656" to be absolutely null and void. In +other words, the House had been revising long and carefully the Acts +of the Barebones Parliament and the arbitrary Ordinances of Oliver +and his Council from Dec. 1653 onwards, with a view to adopt all that +might stand and to give them new constitutional sanction. Among the +Acts of the Barebones Parliament so confirmed and continued was their +famous Act for the forms and ceremonial of Marriage and for the +Registration of Births and Burials (Vol. IV. p. 511), except only the +clause therein declaring any other marriages than as these prescribed +to be illegal. Of Cromwell's own Ordinances from Dec. 1653 onwards +all were preserved that, I suppose, he really cared for. Thus, of his +_eighty-two_ first public Ordinances, passed between Dec. 1653 +and the meeting of his First Parliament Sept. 3, 1654, +_thirty-six_ were expressly confirmed; which, as most of the +rest were Excise or Customs Ordinances or Orders for temporary +occasion, means that substantially all his legislation on his +entering on the Protectorate was to remain in force. More +particularly, I may note that Nos. 7, 16, 24, 30, 31, 32, 33, 50, 54, +58, 60, 66, 67, 69, 71, 81, and 82, in our List of his first +eighty-two Public Ordinances (Vol. IV. pp. 558-565) were among those +confirmed. These included his Ordinances against Cockfights and +Duels, his Ordinance for Reform of the Court of Chancery, his various +Ordinances for the incorporation and management of Scotland, and his +various Church-Establishment Ordinances for England and Wales, with +his two commissions of Triers and Ejectors. Among contemporary +ordinances of his also confirmed, over and above those in the main +list of Eighty-two, were that for setting up Lectures in Scotland, +that in favour of Glasgow University, and that for the better support +of the Universities of Scotland--this last, however, limited to the +Universities alone by the omission of what related to "the +encouragement of public preachers" (Vol. IV. p. 565: footnote). The +most noticeable Ordinances of Cromwell's _not_ confirmed are +those relating to Treasons--No. 8 in the List of Eighty-two, and its +appendages Nos. 12 and 49. Altogether, the Parliament had handsomely +cleared Cromwell in respect of his Interim Dictatorship and what was +past of his Protectorate, and he had every reason to be satisfied. +But, besides this all-comprehensive Act of retrospection, several of +the other Acts presented for his assent at the same time must have +been very much to his mind.--There was an Act for settling lands in +Scotland upon General Monk, with similar Acts for settling lands in +Ireland on Fleetwood, Dr. Owen, Sir Hardress Waller, and other +persons of desert; there were several Naturalization Bills in favour +of a great number of foreigners and English aliens; there was "An Act +for limiting and settling the prices of Wines"; and there was "An Act +against Vagrants, and wandering, idle, dissolute Persons." Most +welcome to Cromwell, and drawing from him a few words of special +acknowledgment after his assent to all the Bills (_Speech XV._), +were "Two Bills for an Assessment towards the defraying of the charge +of the Spanish war and other occasions of the Commonwealth." One was +for £60,000 a month from England for the three months ending June 24; +the other for an assessment of £20,000 from Ireland for the same +three months. These were instalments of a lump sum of £400,000, which +the House had voted as long ago as Jan. 30, 1656-7, for the carrying +on of the Spanish war, and the remainder of which was to be raised in +other ways. The House had already before it a general Bill for the +continued assessment of England, Scotland, and Ireland, for Army and +Navy purposes, beyond the period specified; but that Bill had not +yet passed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Scobell's Acts and Ordinances +of 1656, given in mass in his book, Part II. p. 371 et seq. See +especially there, pp. 389-395.] + +Army and Navy purposes, and the carrying on of the Spanish War: +these, through all the bustle of the Kingship question, had still +been the deepest things in Cromwell's mind. His alliance with France, +settled so far by the Treaty of Peace and Commerce dated Oct. 24, +1655, but much imperilled since by Mazarin's dexterity in evasion and +his occasional oscillations towards Spain, had at length, by +Lockhart's exertions, been converted into a great Treaty "offensive +and defensive," signed at Paris, March 23rd, 1656-7, and ratified by +Louis XIV. April 30, and by Cromwell himself May 4, 1657. By this +treaty it was provided that there should be joint action against +Spain, by sea and land, for the reduction and capture of Gravelines, +Mardyke, and Dunkirk, the three coast-towns of Spanish Flanders +adjoining the French territories on the north-east. Gravelines, if +taken, was to belong to France ultimately, but, if taken first, was +to be held by the English till Mardyke and Dunkirk were taken--which +two towns were to belong permanently to England, only with +stipulation of inviolability of Roman Catholic worship for the +inhabitants, and of no further English encroachments on Flanders. For +the joint-enterprise France was to supply 20,000 men, and Cromwell an +auxiliary army of 6000 foot (half at the expense of France), besides +a fleet for coast-service. A secret article of the Treaty was that +neither power should make separate peace with the Spanish Crown for +the space of one year from the date of the Treaty.[1]--Cromwell had +lost no time in fulfilling his part of the engagement. To command the +auxiliary English army in Flanders he had selected Sir John Reynolds, +who had served ably heretofore in Ireland, and was now, as we have +seen, member for Tipperary and Waterford in the present Parliament, +and a strong Oliverian. His commission was dated April 25; and by +May 14 he and his 6000 English foot had all been landed at Boulogne. +They were thought the most splendid body of soldiers in Europe, and +were admired and complimented by Louis XIV., who went purposely, with +Lockhart, to review them. The promised fleet of cooperation was to be +under the command of young Admiral Montague, who was still, however, +detained in England.[2]--Meanwhile Blake, in his wider command off +the coasts of Spain itself, or wherever in the Atlantic there could +be a dash at the Spaniard, had added one more to the series of his +naval exploits. To intercept a rich Spanish fleet from Mexico, he had +gone to the Canary Isles; he had found the fleet there, sixteen ships +in all, impregnably ensconced, as it was thought, in the fortified +bay of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe; and, after a council of war, in which +it was agreed that, though the ships could not be taken, they might +be destroyed, he had ventured that tremendous feat April 20, with the +most extraordinary success. He had emerged from Santa Cruz Bay, after +eleven hours of connonading and fighting, all but undamaged himself, +but leaving not a ship of the Spanish fleet extant, and every fort in +ruins. Not till May 28 did the news reach London; but on that day +Thurloe presented a narrative of the glorious action to the House, +who forthwith ordered a special thanksgiving, and a jewel worth £500 +to Blake. On the 10th of June the jewel was sent, with a letter of +honour from the Protector, and instructions to leave fourteen of his +ships off Cadiz, and return home himself with the rest of his +fleet.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 540-542. But see Guizot's _Cromwell and +the English Commonwealth_, II. 377 (Engl. Transl. 1854), with +Latin Text of the Treaty itself in Appendix to same volume.] + +[Footnote 2: Godwin, IV. 542-543; Commons Journals of May 5, 1657 +(leave to Reynolds to go on the service).] + +[Footnote 3: Commons Journals, May 28 and 29, 1657; Godwin, IV. +418-420; Carlyle, III. 264 and 304-305.] + +"_Killing no Murder: briefly discoursed, in Three Questions, by +William Allen:_" such was the title of a pamphlet in secret +circulation in London in June, 1657, and still of some celebrity. It +began with a letter "To His Highness, Oliver Cromwell," in this +strain: "To your Highness justly belongs the honour of dying for the +people; and it cannot choose but be an unspeakable consolation to you +in the last moments of your life to consider with how much benefit to +the world you are likely to leave it ... To hasten this great good is +the chief end of my writing this paper." There follows, accordingly, +a letter to those officers and soldiers of the army who remember +their engagements, urging them to assassinate Cromwell. "We wish we +had rather endured thee, O Charles," it says, "than have been +condemned to this mean tyrant, not that we desire any kind of +slavery, but that the quality of the master sometimes graces the +condition of the slave." Sindercombe is spoken of as "a brave man," +of as "great a mind" as any of the old Romans. At the end there is +this postscript: "Courteous reader, expect another sheet or two of +paper on this subject, if I escape the Tyrant's hands, although he +gets in the interim the crown upon his head, which he hath underhand +put his confederates on to petition his acceptance thereof." This +would imply that, though not in circulation till June, the pamphlet +had been written while the Kingship question was in suspense, i.e, +before May 8. The name "William Allen" on the title-page was, of +course, assumed. The pamphlet, hardly any one now doubts, was by +Edward Sexby, the Stuartist arch-conspirator, then moving between +England and the continent, and known to have been the real principal +of Sindercombe's plot. Actually, when the pamphlet appeared, the +desperate man was again in England, despite Thurloe's police. The +pamphlet was greedily sought after, and much talked of. The sale was, +of course, dangerous. A copy could not be had under five +shillings.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Copy of _Killing no Murder_ (first edition, much +rarer than a second and enlarged edition of 1659) among the Thomason +Pamphlets, with the date "June 1657" marked on it: Wood's Ath. IV. +624-5; Godwin, IV. 388-390 (where the pamphlet is assumed to have +been out "early in May"); Carlyle, III, 67. After the Restoration, +Sexby being then dead, the pamphlet was claimed by another.--An +answer to _Killing no Murder_, under the title _Killing is +Murder_, appeared Sept. 21, 1657. It was by a Michael Hawke, of +the Middle Temple.] + +People were still talking of _Killing no Murder_ when the First +Protectorate came to a close. We have now only to take account of the +circumstances of that event, and of the differences there were to be, +constitutionally, between the First Protectorate and the Second. + +On the 25th of June, 1657, all the details of the _Humble +Additional and Explanatory Petition and Advice_ having been at +length settled by the House, that supplement to the original +_Petition and Advice_ was also ready for his Highness's assent. +The two documents together, to be known comprehensively as _The +Petition and Advice_, were to supersede the more military +Instrument, called _The Government of the Commonwealth_, to +which Cromwell had sworn in Dec. 1653, at his first installation, and +were to be the charter of his new and constitutionalized +Protectorate. The Articles of this new Constitution were seventeen in +all, and deserve some attention:--Article I., as we know, confirmed +Cromwell's Protectorship and empowered him to choose his +successor.--Article II. provided for the calling of Parliaments of +Two Houses once in three years at furthest.--Article III. stipulated +for all Parliamentary privileges and the non-exclusion of any of the +duly elected members except by judgment of the House of which they +might be members.--Article IV., which was much the longest, +determined the classes of persons who should be disqualified from +being elected or voting in elections. _Universally_, all Roman +Catholics were to be excluded, and all who had abetted the Irish +Rebellion. Farther, in _England_, were to be excluded all who +had been engaged in any war against Parliament since Jan. I, 1641-2, +unless they had afterwards given "signal testimony" of their good +affections, and all who, since the establishment of the Protectorate, +had been engaged in any plot or insurrection against _it_. In +_Scotland_ were to be excluded all who had been in arms against +the Parliament of England or against that of Scotland before April 1, +1648 (old _Malignants_ and _Montrosists_), except such as +had afterwards given "signal testimony," &c., and also all who, since +April 1, 1648, had been in arms against the English Parliament or the +Commonwealth (the _Hamiltonians_ of 1648, and the _Scottish +Royalists of all varieties_ who had fought for Charles II. in +1650-51), except such as had since March 1, 1651-2, "lived +peaceably"--but with the supplementary proviso, required by his +Highness, that, while "having lived peaceably" since Worcester would +suffice for the miscellaneous Royalists of 1650-51, who were indeed +nearly the whole population of Scotland, the less pardonable +_Hamiltonians_ of 1648 would have to pass much stricter tests. +In _Ireland_, though Protestants generally were to be qualified, +there was to be like caution in admitting such as, though faithful +before March 1, 1649-50, had afterwards opposed the Commonwealth or +the Protector. These disqualifications affected both voting and +eligibility; but eligibility was restricted still farther. Ineligible +were to be all atheistic persons, scoffers at Religion, unbelievers +in the divine authority of the Bible, or other execrable heretics, +all profaners of the Lord's Day, all habitual drunkards or swearers, +and all who had married Roman Catholics or allowed their children to +marry such. For the rest, all persons of the voting sex, over the age +of twenty-one, and "of known integrity, fearing God, and of good +conversation," were to be eligible. One farther exception had been +made in the original _Petition and Advice_; to wit, all in holy +orders, all ministers or public preachers. "There may be some of us, +it may be, who have been a little guilty of that, who would be loath +to be excluded from sitting in Parliament," Cromwell had said +laughingly while commenting on this clause; and it had accordingly +been defined as excluding only regular pastors of congregations. He +had procured an important modification of another clause of the same +Article. It had been proposed that the business of examining who had +been duly elected, and the power of suspending members till the House +itself should decide, should be vested in a body of forty-one +commissioners to be appointed by Parliament; but, Cromwell having +pointed out that this would be a clumsy process, and that the +commissioners themselves might be "uncertain persons," and might +"keep out good men," it was agreed that the judgment of the House +itself, with a fine of £1000 on every unqualified person that might +take his seat, would fully answer the purpose.--Article V. related to +the Second House of Parliament, called simply "the other House." It +was to consist of not more than seventy nor fewer than forty persons, +qualified as by the last Article, to be nominated by the Protector +and approved by the Commons House, twenty-one to be a quorum, and no +proxies allowed. Vacancies were to be filled up by nominations by the +Protector, approved by the House itself. The powers of the House were +also defined. They were to try no criminal cases whatsoever, unless +on an impeachment sent up from the Commons, and only certain +specified kinds of civil cases. All their final determinations were +to be by the House itself, and not by delegates or +Committees.--Article VI. ruled that all other particulars concerning +"the calling and holding of Parliaments" should be by law and +statute, and that there should be no legislation, or suspension, or +abrogation of law, but by Act of Parliament.--Article VII. guaranteed +a yearly revenue of £1,300,000, whereof £1,000,000 to be for the Army +and Navy, and the remaining £300,000 for the support of the +Government, the sums not to be altered without the consent of +Parliament, and no part of them to be raised by a land-tax. There +might also be "temporary supplies" over and above, to be voted by the +Commons; but on no account was his Highness to impose any tax, or +require any contribution, by his own authority. By Cromwell's request +it was added that his expenditure of the Army and Navy money should +be with the advice of his Council, and that accounts should be +rendered to Parliament.--Article VIII. settled that his Highness's +Privy Council should consist of not more than twenty-one persons, +seven a quorum, to be approved by both Houses, and to be irremovable +but by the consent of Parliament, though in the intervals of +Parliament any of them might be suspended by the Protector. It was +asked that the Government should always be with the advice of the +Council, and stipulated that, after Cromwell's death, all +appointments to the Commandership-in-chief, or to Generalships at +land or sea, should be by the future Protectors with consent of the +Council.--Article IX. required that the Lord Chancellor, or Lord +Keeper, or Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, the Lord Treasurer +or Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the Judges, and all the great +State-officers in England, Scotland, or Ireland, should, in cases of +future appointment by the Protector and his Council, be approved by +Parliament.--Article X. congratulated the Protector on his +Established Church, and begged him to punish, according to law, all +open revilers of the same.--Article XI. related to Religion and +Toleration. The Protestant Faith, as contained in the Old and New +Testaments, and as yet to be formulated in a Confession of Faith to +be agreed upon between his Highness and the Parliament, was to be the +professed public Religion, and to be universally respected as such; +but all believers in the Trinity and in the divine authority of the +Scriptures, though they might dissent otherwise in doctrine, worship, +or discipline from the Established Church, were to be protected in +the exercise of their own religion and worship,--this liberty not to +extend to Popery, Prelacy, or the countenancing of blasphemous +publications. Ministers and Preachers agreeing in "matters of faith" +with "the public profession," though differing in "matters of worship +and discipline," were not to be excluded from the Established Church +by that difference, but might have "the public maintenance appointed +for the ministry" and promotion and employment in the Church +according to their abilities. None but those whose difference +extended to matters of faith need remain outside the Established +Church. Dissenters from the Established Church, if sufficiently right +in the faith, were to have equal admission with others to all civil +trusts and appointments, subject only to any disqualification for +civil office attached to the ministerial profession. His Highness was +requested to agree to the repeal of all laws inconsistent with these +provisions.--Article XII. required that all past Acts for +disestablishing or disendowing the old Prelatic Church, and +appropriating the revenues of the same, should hold good.--Article +XIII. required that Old Malignants, and other such classes of persons +as those disqualified for Parliament in Article IV., should be +excluded also from other public trusts.--Article XIV. stipulated that +nothing in the _Petition and Advice_ should be construed as +implying the dissolution of the present Parliament before such time +as his Highness should independently think fit.--Article XV. provided +that the _Petition and Advice_ should not be construed as +repealing or annulling any Laws or Ordinances already in force, not +distinctly incompatible with itself.--Article XVI. protected in a +similar way all writs, commissions, grants, law-processes, &c., +issued and in operation already, even though the wording should seem +a little past date.--Article XVII. and Last requested his Highness to +be pleased to take an oath of office. A form of such oath appeared in +the _Additional Petition and Advice_, with another form of oath +for his Highness's Councillors in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and +a third for the members of either House of Parliament. This last, +besides a promise to uphold and promote the true Protestant Religion, +contained a special promise of fidelity to the Lord Protector and his +Government. Farther, by the same _Additional Petition and +Advice_, the Lord Protector was requested and empowered to issue +writs calling qualified persons to the other House in convenient time +before the next session of Parliament, and such persons were +empowered to meet and constitute the other House at the time and +place appointed without requiring farther approbation from the +present Single House.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The original Petition and Advice is given in full in +Scobell (378-383), Whitlocke (IV. 292-301), and in Parl. Hist. +(III. 1502-1511); the Additional Petition and Advice in Scobell +450-452, and Whitlocke, IV. 306-310. But see also Cromwell's Speech +XIII. with Mr. Carlyle's elucidations (Carlyle, III. 279 et seq.)] + +Friday, June 26, 1657, was the last day of the present Single House, +and a day of high ceremonial in London. The House, having met as +usual in the morning, and transacted some overstanding business, rose +about two o'clock to meet his Highness in the Painted Chamber. There, +with the words "The Lord Protector doth consent," the _Additional +Petition and Advice_, and therefore the whole new Constitution of +the Protectorate, as just described, became law, and assent was given +also to a number of Bills that had passed the House since the 9th. +Among these was an "Act for convicting, discovering, and repressing +of Popish Recusants," an "Act for the Better Observation of the +Lord's Day," and an "Act for punishing such persons as live at high +rates and have no visible estate, profession, or calling, answerable +thereto." There were also two Money Bills for temporary supplies: +viz. one for raising £15,000 from Scotland, to go along with the +£180,000 from England, and the £20,000 from Ireland, voted for the +three months just ended, and another general and prospective one, +assessing England at £35,000 a month, Scotland at £6000 a month, and +Ireland at £9000 a month, for the next three years. All these assents +having been received, there was an adjournment to Westminster Hall +for the solemn installation of his Highness in his Second +Protectorate.--The Hall had been magnificently prepared, and +contained a vast assemblage. The members of the House, the Judges in +their robes, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their robes, and other +dignitaries, were ranged in the midst round, a canopied chair of +state. It was the royal chair of Scotland, with the mystic +coronation-stone underneath it, brought for the purpose from the +Abbey. In front of the chair was a table, covered with pink-coloured +Geneva velvet fringed with gold; and on the table lay a large Bible, +a sword, the sceptre, and a robe of purple velvet, lined with ermine. +His Highness, having entered, attended by his Council, the great +state officers, his son Richard, the French Ambassador, the Dutch +Ambassador, and "divers of the nobility and other persons of great +quality," stood, beside the chair under the canopy. The Speaker, +assisted by the Earl of Warwick, Whitlocke, and others, then attired +his Highness in the purple velvet robe; after which he delivered to +him the richly-gilt Bible, girt him with the sword, and put the gold +sceptre into his hand. His Highness then swore the oath of office, +administered to him by the Speaker, After that, the Speaker addressed +him in a well-turned speech. "You have no new name," he said, "but a +new date now added to the old name: the 16th of December is now +changed into the 26th of June." He explained that the robe, the +Bible, the sword, and the sceptre were presents to his Highness from +the Parliament, and dwelt poetically on the significance of each. +"What a comely and glorious sight," he concluded, "it is to behold a +Lord Protector in a purple robe, with a sceptre in his hand, a sword +of justice girt about him, and his eyes fixed upon the Bible! Long +may you prosperously enjoy them all, to your own comfort, and the +comfort of the people of these three Nations!" His Highness still +standing, Mr. Manton offered up a prayer. Then, the assemblage giving +several great shouts, and the trumpets sounding, his Highness sat +down in the chair, still holding the sceptre. Then a herald stood up +aloft, and signalled for three trumpet-blasts, at the end of which, +by authority of Parliament, he proclaimed the Protector. There were +new trumpet-blasts, loud hurrahs through the Hall, and cries of "God +save the Lord Protector." Once more there was proclamation, and once +more a burst of applauses. Then, all being ended, his Highness, with +his robe borne up by several young persons of rank, passed with his +retinue from the Hall by the great gate, where his coach was in +waiting. And so, with the Earl of Warwick seated opposite to him in +the coach, his son Richard and Whitlocke on one side, and Viscount +Lisle and Admiral Montague on the other, he was driven through the +crowd to Whitehall, surrounded by his life-guards, and followed by +the Lord Mayor and other dignitaries in their coaches.--There was a +brief sitting of the House after the Installation. It was agreed to +recommend to his Highness to "encourage Christian endeavours for +uniting the Protestant Churches abroad," and also to recommend to him +to take some effectual course "for reforming the government of the +Inns of Court, and likewise for placing of godly and able ministers +there"; and it was ordered that the Acts passed by the House should +be printed collectively, and that every member should have a copy. +Then, according to one of the Acts to which his Highness had that day +assented, the House adjourned itself for seven months, i.e. to Jan. +20, 1657-8.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of June 26, 1657; Parl. Hist. III. +1514-1518 (Reprint of the authorized contemporary account of the +Installation-Ceremony, which had a frontispiece by Hollar); +Whitlocke, IV. 303-305; Guizot's Cromwell, II. 337-339 (where some of +the particulars of the Installation seem to be from French +eye-witnesses).] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE FIRST PROTECTORATE +CONTINUED: SEPTEMBER 1654--JUNE 1657. + +For more than reasons of mere mechanical symmetry, it will be well to +divide this Chapter of Milton's Biography into Sections corresponding +with those of Oliver's Continued Protectorate in the preceding +Chapter. + +SECTION I: FROM SEPTEMBER 1654 TO JANUARY 1654-5, OR THROUGH OLIVER'S +FIRST PARLIAMENT. + +ULAC'S HAGUE EDITION OF MILTON'S _DEFENSIO SECUNDA_, WITH THE +_FIDES PUBLICA_ OF MORUS ANNEXED: PREFACE BY DR. CRANTZIUS TO +THE REPRINT: ULAC'S OWN PREFACE OF SELF-DEFENCE: ACCOUNT OF MORUS'S +_FIDES PUBLICA_, WITH EXTRACTS: HIS CITATION OF TESTIMONIES TO +HIS CHARACTER: TESTIMONY OF DIODATI OF GENEVA: ABRUPT ENDING OF THE +BOOK AT THIS POINT, WITH ULAC'S EXPLANATION OF THE +CAUSE.--PARTICULARS OF THE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF MILTON'S +FRIEND OVERTON.--THREE MORE LATIN STATE-LETTERS BY MILTON FOR OLIVER +(NOS. XLIX.--LI.): NO STATE-LETTERS BY MILTON FOR THE NEXT THREE +MONTHS: MILTON THEN BUSY ON A REPLY TO THE _FIDES PUBLICA_ OF +MORUS. + + +In October 1654 there was out at the Hague, from Ulac's press, a +volume in two parts, with this title: "_Joannis Miltoni Defensio +Secunda pro Populo Anglicano contra infamem Libellum, cujus titulus +'Regii Sanguinis Clamor adversus Parricidas Anglicanos.' Accessit +Alexandri Mori, Ecclesiastæ, Sacrarumque Litterarum Professoris, +Fides Publica contra calumnias Joannis Miltoni, Scurræ. Hagæ-Comitum, +ex Typographia Adriani Ulac_, MDCLIV." ("John Milton's Second +Defence for the English People in reply to an infamous Book entitled +'Cry of the King's Blood against the English Parricides.' To which is +added A Public Testimony of Alexander Morus, Churchman, and Professor +of Sacred Literature, in reply to the Calumnies of John Milton, +Buffoon. Printed at the Hague by Adrian Ulac, 1654.") The reprint of +Milton's _Defensio Secunda_ fills 128 pages of the volume; +More's appended _Fides Publica_, or Public Testimony, in reply, +is in larger type and fills 129 pages separately numbered. Morus, +after all, it will be seen, had been obliged to acquiesce in Ulac's +arrangement (Vol. IV. p. 634). Instead of trying vainly any longer to +suppress Milton's book on the Continent, he had exerted himself to +the utmost in preparing a Reply to it, to go forth with that reprint +of it for the foreign market which Ulac had been pushing through the +press and would not keep back. + +Although Milton complains that Ulac's edition of his book for the +foreign market was not only a piracy, but also slovenly in itself, +with printer's errors vitiating the sense and arrangement in some +cases,[1] it was substantially a reprint of the original. Its +interest for us, therefore, lies wholly in the preliminary matter. +This consists of a short Preface headed "_Lectori_" ("To the +Reader") and signed "GEORGIUS CRANTZIUS, _S.S. Theol. D._," and +a longer statement headed "_Typographus pro Se-ipso_" ("The +Printer in his own behalf") and signed "A. ULACQ." + +[Footnote 1: Pro Se Def. (1655).] + +The Rev. Dr. Crantzius, who does not give his exact address, writes +in an authoritative clerical manner. Though in bad health, he says, +he cannot refrain from penning a few lines, to say how much he is +shocked at the length to which personalities in controversy are +going. He really thinks Governments ought to interfere to put such +things down. Readers will find in the following book of Milton's a +lamentable specimen. He knows nothing of Milton himself; but Milton's +writings show him to be a man of a most damnable disposition, and +Salmasius had once shown him (Dr. Crantzius) an English book of +Milton's propounding the blasphemy "that the doctrine of the Gospel, +and of our Lord Jesus Christ, concerning Divorce is devilish." Dr. +Crantzius had known Salmasius very well; and O what a man _he_ +was! Nothing amiss in him, except perhaps a hasty temper, and too +great subjection to a peculiar connubial fate! There was a posthumous +book of Salmasius against Milton; and, should it ever appear, Milton +would feel that even the dead could bite. Dr. Crantzius had seen a +portion of it; and, "Good Heavens! what a blackguard is Milton, if +Salmasius may be trusted." Dr. Crantzius had known Morus both at +Geneva and in Holland. He was certainly a man often at feud with +enemies and rivals, and giving them too great opportunities by his +irascibility and freedom of speech. But he was a man of high +aspirations; and the late Rev. Dr. Spanheim had once told Dr. +Crantzius that Morus's only fault was that he was _altier_, as +the French say, i.e. haughty. As for Milton's special accusations +against Morus, Dr. Crantzius knew them for a certainty to be false. +Even after the Bontia scandal had got abroad and the lawsuit of Morus +with the Salmasian household was running its course, Dr. Crantzius +had heard Salmasius, who was not in the habit of praising people, +speak highly of Morus. Salmasius had admitted at the same time that +his wife had injured Morus, though he could not afford to destroy his +"domestic peace" by opposing her in the matter. On the Bontia affair +specifically, Salmasius's express words, not only to Dr. Crantzius, +but to others whom he names, had been, "If Morus is guilty, then I am +the pimp, and my wife the procuress." As to the sequel of the case +Dr. Crantzius is ignorant; and he furnishes Ulac with this preface to +the Book only in the interests of truth. But what a quarrelsome +fellow Milton must be, who had not kept his hands off even the +"innocent printer"! + +The "innocent printer's" own preface to the Reprint shows him to have +been a very shrewd person indeed. He keeps his temper better than any +of them. Two years had elapsed., he says, since he printed the +_Regii Sanguinis Clamor_. Who the real author of the book was he +did not even yet know. All he knew was that some one, who wanted to +be anonymous, had sent the manuscript to Salmasius, and that, after +some delay and hesitation, he had obliged Salmasius by putting the +book to press. Ulac then relates the circumstances, already known to +us, of his correspondence with Hartlib about the book, and his offers +to Milton, through Hartlib, to publish any reply Milton might make. +He had been surprised at the long delay of this reply, and also at +the extraordinary ignorance of business shown by Milton and his +friends in their resentment of _his_ part in the matter. It was +for a tradesman to be neutral in his dealings; he had relations with +both the Parliamentarians and the Royalists, and would publish for +either side; and, as to his lending his name to the Dedicatory +Preface to Charles II., everybody knew that printers did such things +every day. However, here now is Mr. Milton's _Defensio Secunda_ +in an edition for the foreign market, printed with the same good will +as if Milton had himself given the commission. It contains, he finds, +a most unjustifiable attack on M. Morus, with abuse also of +Salmasius, who is now in his grave; but that is other people's +business, not Ulac's. He cannot pass, however, the defamation of +himself inserted in Milton's book.--Ulac then quotes the substance of +Milton's account of him as once a swindler and bankrupt in London, +then the same in Paris, &c. (Vol. IV. p. 588). This information, Ulac +has little doubt, Milton has received from a particular London +bookseller, whom Ulac believes also to have been the real publisher +of Milton's book, though Newcome's name appears on it. It is all a +tissue of lies, however, and Ulac will meet it by a sketch of his own +life since he first dealt in books. This takes him twenty-six years +back. It was at that time that, being in Holland, which is his native +country, and having till then not been in trade at all, he received +from England a copy of the _Arithmetica Logarithmica_ of the +famous mathematician Henry Briggs [published 1624]. Greatly +enamoured with this work and with the whole new science of +Logarithms, and observing that Briggs had given the Logarithms for +numbers only from 1 to 20,000, and then from 90,000 to 100,000, he +had set himself to fill up the gap by finding the Logarithms for +numbers from 20,000 to 90,000, and had had the satisfaction, in an +incredibly short space of time, of bringing out the result [in an +extended edition of Briggs's book published at Gouda, 1628]. Briggs +and the English mathematicians were highly gratified, and Ulac was +asked to publish also Briggs's _Trigonometria Britannica_. This +also he had done [at Gouda in 1633, Briggs having died in 1630, and +left the work in charge of his friend Henry Gellibrand]; after which +he had engaged in the heavy labour of converting into Logarithms the +Sines and Tangents to a Radius of 10,000,000,000 given in the _Opus +Palatinum_, and had issued the same under the title +_Trigonometria Artificialis_. These labours of Ulac's were not +unknown to the mathematical world; and it was somewhat surprising +that Milton had not heard of them, especially as, in his sketch of +his own life in the _Defensio Secunda_, he professed his +interest in Mathematics, and spoke of his visits to London from +Horton for the purpose of picking up any novelties in that science. +At any rate, it was zeal for the dissemination of the mathematical +books above-mentioned that had turned Ulac into a printer and +bookseller. In that capacity he certainly had been in London, trading +in books generally, and he had been in difficulties there, though not +of a kind discreditable to himself. After he had been some years in +London, trading peaceably, some London booksellers, jealous for their +monopoly, had conspired against him, and tried to obtain an order +from Archbishop Laud for the confiscation of his whole stock in +trade. Through the kind offices of Dr. Juxon, Bishop of London, this +had been prevented, and he had been empowered to sell off his +existing stock. Nay, a little while afterwards, he had had a +prospect, through the Royal Printers, of a full trading licence from +the Archbishop, on condition of his buying from them copies of two +heavy works they had printed by the Archbishop's desire--viz. +_Theophylact on St. Paul's Epistles_ and the _Catena of the +Greek Fathers on Job_. He had actually obtained such a licence for +two years, and had hopes of its renewal, when the Civil War broke +out. On that account only, and not in any disgrace, as Milton said, +he had, after having been about ten years in all in London, +transferred himself to Paris.[1] He had been there about six years, +dealing honestly, and publishing important theological and other +books, the titles of some of which he gives; but here also he had +been the victim of trade jealousy. He had found it impossible to get +on in Paris, though it was utterly false that he dared not now show +his face there. He _had_ shown his face there, since he had +returned to his native Holland and made the Hague his head-quarters; +and he could show his face there again without any inconvenience. +Meanwhile he was in the Hague, comfortable enough; and his character +there might easily be ascertained.--To return to Milton's present +book. Though Ulac had reprinted it, he had done so in doubt whether, +now that there was peace between the United Provinces and the +Protector, such irritating books between the two nations ought not to +be mutually suppressed. His own leanings had always been rather to +the English Parliamentarians than to the Royalists, and hence he had +been disposed to think well of Milton. Though he cannot think so well +of him now, he will not retaliate by any abuse of Milton. "If Milton +is acknowledged in his own country to be a good man, let him be glad +of it; but I hear that many Englishmen who know him are of another +opinion. I would decide nothing on mere rumour; nay, if I had +ascertained anything scandalous about him with positive certainty, I +should think it better to hold my tongue than to blazon it about +publicly." How strange, however, that Milton had fallen foul of Morus +at such a violent rate! Had he not been told two years ago, through +Hartlib, that Morus was not the author of the book for which he made +him suffer? It was the more inexcusable inasmuch as in the _Joannis +Philippi, Angli, Responsio ad Apologiam Anonymi Cujusdam_--which +work Milton had superintended, if he had not written it--there had +been the same mistake of attributing a work to the wrong person. It +would be for Morus himself, however, to take cognisance of that. + +[Footnote 1: Long ago, foreseeing the interest I should have in ULAC, +I made notes in the State-Paper Office of some documents appertaining +to him when he was a Bookseller in London. They do not quite +correspond with Ulac's account of his reasons for leaving London. The +documents, here arranged in what seems to be their chronological +order, are as follows:--(1) Petition of Ulac, undated, to Sir John +Lambe, Dean of the Arches, that he would intercede with Laud in +Ulac's favour. His two years' licence for importing hooks is now +almost expired; but many of the Greek books he had bought from the +Royal Printers are still on his hands unsold, besides the whole +impression of a _Vita Christi_ which he had also bought from +them after the London stationers would not look at it. It would be a +great thing for him therefore to have his licence extended for a +time; and, if this favour is obtained from his Grace, he promises to +do all he can for the importation of learned Greek and Latin books of +the kind his Grace likes. (2) Humble Petition to Laud by Richard +Whittaker, Humphrey Robinson, George Thomason, and other London +Booksellers, dated April 15, 1640, representing to his Grace that, +contrary to decree in Star-Chamber, "one Adrian Ulacke, a Hollander, +hath now lately imported and landed at the Custom House divers bales +or packs of books, printed beyond seas, with purpose to vent them in +this kingdom," and praying for the attachment of the said bales and +the apprehension of Ulac. (3) Of the same date, Laud's order, or +suggestion to the Lord Treasurer to join him in an order, to attach +the goods in the Custom House accordingly. (4) Humble Petition of +Ulac to Juxon, Bishop of London, of date April 1640, explaining the +transaction for which he is in trouble. He had gone to Paris "upon +the 5th of Dec. last," and had there sold a great many copies of +_Theophylact on Paul's Epistles_, the _Catena Patrum Græcorum +in Jobum_, Bishop Montague's _De Vita Christi_, _Spelman's +British Councils_, &c., at the same time buying a number of books +to be imported into England. Although these last had been sent off +from Paris before January, "yet, by want of ships and winds, they +could come no sooner"--i.e. not till after the 13th of April, 1640, +when his two years' licence for importing had expired. He humbly +beseeches Juxon that he may be allowed to "receive and dispose of the +said books so sent freely without any trouble." (5) A note of Laud's, +written by his secretary, but signed by himself, as follows:--"Had +not the Petitioner offended in a high matter against the State in +transporting bullion of the kingdom, I should have been willing to +have given time as is here [i.e. in the last document] expressed. +However, I desire Sir John Lambe to consider of his Petition, and do +further therein as he shall find to be just and fitting, unless he +find that the sentence in the Star-Chamber hath disabled him.--W. +CANT. _Apr._ 21, 1640." (6) Humble Petition, undated, of Ulac, +now "prisoner in the Fleet," to Sir John Lambe. The prisoner "was, the +24th of May last, censured by the Lords in the High Court of +Star-Chamber in £1000 to his Majesty and imprisonment." He is in very +great straits, owing above £500 to his Majesty's Printers for books, +"much hindered by the deadness of trading," and by the return of many +books on his hands. He is "a stranger, without any friends," and +unless the fine of £1000 is mitigated "to a very low rate," he will +be in "utter ruin and misery." He therefore prays Lambe's good word +with Laud.--My only doubt is whether the document I have put here as +No. 6, ought not to _precede_ the others: i.e. whether Ulac's +offence in the matter of the "bullion," with his fine and +imprisonment, was not an affair of older date than his importation of +books after time in April 1640, though then remembered against him. +All the documents were together in the same bundle in the S. P. 0. +when I examined them, and the published Calendars have not yet +overtaken them.] + +And now for More's own _Fides Publica_ or Public Testimony for +Himself. It is a most painful book on the whole. Gradually it +impresses you with considerable respect for the ability of the +author, and especially for his skill both in logical and pathetic +pleading; and throughout you cannot but pity him, and remember that +he was placed in about the most terrible position that a human being, +and especially a clergyman of wide celebrity, could occupy--placed +there too by what would now be called an act of literary savagery, +outraging all the modern proprieties of personal controversy. Still +the impression left finally is not satisfactory. It is but fair, +however, that he should speak for himself. The book opens thus:-- + + "If I could acknowledge as true of me any of those things which + you, by a wild and unbridled licence, have not only attributed to + me, but have even, to your eternal disgrace, dared to publish, I + should be angry with you to a greater degree than I am, you most + foolish Milton: for let that be your not unfitting, though mild, + designation in the outset, while that of liar and others will + fashion themselves out of the sequel. But, as the charges are such + that there is no one of those to whom I am a little more closely + known, however unfavourable to me, but could convict them of + falsehood from beginning to end, I might afford, strong in the sole + consciousness of my rectitude, to despise them, and perhaps this is + what I ought to do. Still, with a mind as calm as a sense of the + indignity of the occasion will permit, I have resolved to + expostulate with you. Yet I confess myself to be somewhat moved; + not by anger, but by another feeling. I am sorry, let me tell you, + for your own case, and shall be sorry until you prove penitent, and + this whether it is from sheer mental derangement that you have + assailed with mad and impotent fury a man who had done you no harm, + and who was, as you cannot deny, entirely unknown to you, or + whether you have let out the empty house of your ears, as those + good masters of yours say, to foul whisperings going about, and, + with your ears, put your hand and pen too, for I know not what + wages, but certainly little honourable, at the disposal of other + people's malicious humour. Choose which you please. I pray God + Almighty to be merciful to you, and I beg Him also in my own behalf + that, as I proceed to the just defence of my reputation, He may + suggest to me a true and modest oration, utterly free from all + lying and obscenity,--that is, very unlike yours." + +On the point of the authorship of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ +Morus is emphatic enough. He declares over and over again that +_he_ was not the author, and he declares that Milton knew this +perfectly well,--might have known it for two years, but had beyond +all doubt known it before he had published the _Defensio +Secunda_. We shall bring together the passages that refer to this +subject:-- + + I neither wrote it, nor ever pretended to have done so,--this I + here solemnly declare, and make God my witness,--nor did I + contribute anything to the writing of it.... The real author is + alive and well, unknown to me by face, but very well known to + several good men, on the strength of whose joint knowledge of the + fact I challenge with righteous detestation the public lie which + wriggles everywhere through your whole book.... Let the author + answer for himself: I neither take up his quarrel, nor thrust my + sickle into his corn.... But I wish the anonymous author would come + forth some time or other openly in his own name.... What then would + Milton think? He might have reason to fame and detest the light of + life, being manifestly convicted of lying before the world. He + might say, indeed, "I had not thought of it: I have been under a + mistake" ... But what if I prove by clear evidence that you knew + well enough already that the author of this book was another + person, not I? ... [Morus then goes on to say that Milton might + have learnt the fact in various ways, even from a comparison of the + style of the book with that of Morus's acknowledged writings; but + he lays stress chiefly on the information actually sent to Milton + in 1652 by Ulac, and on the subsequent communications to him, + through Durie and the Dutch Ambassador Nieuport, before the + _Defensio Secunda_ had left the press] ... Will you hear a + word of truth? You had certainly learnt the fact, and cannot for + two whole years have been ignorant of it. But, as you perceived it + would not suit your convenience to vent your spleen against an + anonymous opponent, that is a nobody, and some definite person must + be pitched upon as an adversary to bear your rage expressly, no one + else seemed to you more opportune than I as an object of calumny, + whether because you heard that I had many enemies, though (what + proves their savageness) without any cause, who would hold up both + thumbs in applause of your jocosities, or because you knew that, by + the arts of a Juno, I was involved in a lawsuit, more troublesome + in reality than dangerous, and you did not believe that I should + be, as I have been, the winner before all the tribunals.... Your + book once written, Morus must of necessity stand for your opponent, + or Milton, the Defender of the People, would have done nothing in + two years! He would have lost all the laborious compilation of his + days and nights, all his punnings upon my name, all his sarcasms on + my sacred office and profession.... For, if you had taken out of + your book all the reproaches thrown at me, how little would there + have been, certainly not more than a few pages, remaining for your + "People"! What fine things would have perished, what flowery, I had + almost said Floralian, expressions! What would have become of your + "gardens of Alcinous and Adonis," of your little story about + "Hortensius"; what of the "syca_more_," what of "Pyramus and + Thisbe," what of the "Mulberry tree"? [All these are phrases in + Milton's book, introduced whenever he refers circumstantially to + the naughty particulars of the scandals against Morus, whether in + Geneva or in Leyden. The name _Morus_, which means "mulberry + tree" and "fool" in Latin and Greek, and may be taken also for + "Moor" or "Ethiop," and in still other meanings, had yielded to the + Dutch wits, as well as to Milton, no end of metaphors and punning + etymologies in their squibs against the poor man] ... The real + author of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ neither lives among the + Dutch,--is not "stabled" among them, to use your own + expression--nor has he, I believe, anything in common with them ... + Vehemently and almost tragically you complain that I have upbraided + you with your blindness. I can positively affirm that I did not + know till I read it in your own book that you had lost your + eyesight. For, if anything occurred to me that might seem to look + that way, I referred to the mind [Note this sentence: the Latin is + "_Nam, si quid fortè se dabat quod eò spectare videretur, ad + animum referebam_"] ... Could I then upbraid you with blindness + who did not know that you were blind,--with personal deformity who + believed you even good-looking, chiefly in consequence of having + seen the rather neat likeness of you prefixed to your Poems + [Marshall's ludicrous botch of 1645 which Milton had disowned] ... + Nor did I know any more that you had written on Divorce. I have + never read that book of yours; I have never seen it ... I will have + done with this subject. That book is not mine. I have published, + and shall yet publish, other books, not one letter of which shall + you, while I am alive and aware of it, attack with impunity. Some + _Sermons_ of mine are in men's hands; my books _On Grace and + Free Will_ are to be had; there are in print my _Exercitations + on the Holy Scripture, or on the Cause of God_, which I know + have passed into England, so that you have no excuse,--as well as + my _Apology for Calvin_, dedicated to the illustrious Usher of + Armagh, your countryman, my very great friend, whose highly + honourable opinion of me, if the golden old man would permit, I + would put against a thousand Miltons. With God's help others will + appear, some of which, as but partly finished, I am keeping back, + while others are ready for issue. [A list of some of these, + including _Orationes Argumenti Sacri, cum Poematiis_: the list + closed with a statement that he has mentioned only his Latin works, + and not his French Sermons]. + +Every now and then there is a passage of retaliation on Milton. Here +are two specimens: + + MILTON'S OWN CHARACTER AND REPUTATION:--"Do not think, obscurely + though you live, that, because you have had the first innings in + this game in the art of slander, you therefore stand aloft beyond + the reach of darts. You have not the ring of Gyges to make you + invisible. Your virtues are taken note of. You are not such a + person, my friend, that Fame should fear to tell lies even about + _you_; and, unless Fame lies, there is not a meaner or more + worthless man going, and nothing is clearer than that you estimate + by your own morals the characters of other people. But I hope Fame + lies in this. For who could hear without the greatest pain--what I + for my part hardly, nay not to the extent of hardly, bring my mind + to credit--that there is a man living among Christians who, being + himself a concrete of every form of outrageous iniquity, could so + censure others?" + + MILTON'S PRODIGIOUS SELF-ESTEEM:--"All which has so elated you that + you would be reckoned next after the very first man in England, and + sometimes put yourself higher than the supreme Cromwell himself; + whom you name familiarly, without giving him any title of rank, + whom you lecture under the guise of praising him, to whom you + dictate laws, assign boundaries to his rights, prescribe duties, + suggest counsels, and even hold out threats if he shall not behave + accordingly. You grant him arms and rule; you claim genius and the + gown for yourself. '_He only is to be called great_,' you say, + '_who has either done great things_'--Cromwell, to + wit!---'_or teaches great things_'--Milton on Divorce, to + wit!--'_or writes of them worthily_'--the same twice-great + Milton, I suppose, in his Defence of the English People!" + +How does Morus proceed in the main business of clearing his own +character from Milton's charges? His plan was to produce a dated and +authenticated series of testimonials from others, extending over the +period of his life which had been attacked, and to interweave these +with explanations and an autobiographic memoir. He has reached the +eightieth page of his book before he properly begins this enterprise. +He gives first a testimonial from the Genevan Church, dated Jan. 25, +1648, and signed by seventeen ministers, of whom Diodati is one; then +another from the Genevan Senate or Town Council, dated Jan. 26, 1648; +then two more, one from the Church again, and one from the Senate +again, both dated April 1648; then, among others, a special +testimonial from Diodati, in the form of a long letter to Salmasius, +dated "Geneva, 9th May, 1648." Diodati's testimonial, which is given +both in French and in Latin, is the most interesting in itself, and +will represent the others. "As to his morals," says Diodati, writing +of Morus to Salmasius, "I can speak from intimate knowledge, and do +so with, strict conscientiousness. His natural disposition is good +and without deceit or reservation, frank and noble, such as ought to +put him in very harmonious relations with all persons of honour and +virtue, of whatsoever condition,--quick and very sensible to +indignities, but easily coming to himself again: not one to provoke +others, but yet one who has terrible spurs for his own defence. I +have hardly seen any who have done themselves credit by attacking +him. _Conscia virtus_, and you may add what belongs to the +_genus irritabile vatum_, make him well armed against his +assailants. For the rest, piety, honesty, temperance, freedom from +all avarice or meanness, are found in him in a degree suitable to his +profession." + +Suddenly, just when we have read this, and seen Morus self-described +as far as to the year 1648, when he was about to leave Geneva for +Holland, the book comes to a dead stop. Diodati's letter ends on page +129; and when we turn over the leaf we find a Latin note from Ulac, +headed "_The Printer to the Reader_" and expressed as follows:-- + + "Our labours towards finishing this Treatise had come to this + point, when lo! M. Morus, who had been staying for some time here + at the Hague with the intention of completing it, called away by I + know not what occasion to France, and with a favourable wind + hastening his journey, was prevented from bringing all to an end, + and so gratifying with every possible speed the desire of many + curious persons to read both Treatises at once, Milton's and + More's. What to do I was for some days uncertain; but some + gentlemen, not of small condition, at length persuaded me that I + should not defer longer the publication of what of his I had + already in print,--alleging that the remaining and still wanting + testimonies of eminent men, and of the Senates and Churches of + Middleburg, Amsterdam, &c., given for the vindication of M. Morus, + and which were here to have been subjoined, might be afterwards + printed separately when they reached me. Wishing to comply with + their request, and my own inclination too, I now therefore do + publish, Reader, what I am confident will please your curiosity, if + not in full measure, at least a good deal. Let whosoever desires to + see the sequel expect it as soon as possible." + +Was there ever such an unfortunate as Morus? Everything everywhere +seems to go wrong with him. Here, at the Hague, having absented +himself from Amsterdam for the purpose, he has been writing his +Defence of Himself against Milton, doing it cleverly and in a way +likely to make some impression, when, suddenly, for some reason +unknown even to his printer, he is obliged to break off for a journey +into France, just as he was approaching the heart of his subject. Had +he absconded? This seems actually to have been the construction, +abroad. "Morus is gone into France," writes a Hague correspondent of +Thurloe, Nov. 3, 1654; "it is believed that he has a calling, _et +quidem a Castris_, and that he will not return to Amsterdam. They +love well his renown and learning, but not his conversation; for they +do not desire that he should come to visit the daughters of condition +as he was used to do. He promised Ulac to finish his Apology; but he +went away without taking his leave of him: so that you see that Ulac +hath finished abrupt." Morus, as we shall find, did finish the book; +but the _Fides Publica_, as it was first circulated in Holland +towards the end of 1654, and as it first reached Milton, was the book +abruptly broken off as above, at page 130, with the testimonials and +the autobiography coming no farther down than the year 1648, when +Morus had not yet left Geneva. + +In January, 1654-5, when Milton had read Morus's _Fides Publica_ +in its imperfect state, and was considering in what form he should +reply to it, his thoughts on the subject must have been interrupted +by the new misfortune of his friend Overton. What that was has +already been explained generally (ante pp. 32-33); but the details of +the incident belong to Milton's biography. + +Overton's former misunderstanding with the Protector having been made +up, he had been sent back to Scotland, as we saw, in September, 1654, +to be Major-General there under Monk, and pledged to be faithful in +his trust until he should himself give the Protector notice of his +desire to withdraw from it. For a month or two, accordingly, all had +gone well, Monk in the main charge of Scotland, with his +head-quarters at Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, and Overton in special +charge of the North of Scotland, with his head-quarters at Aberdeen. +Meanwhile, as Oliver's First Parliament had been incessantly opposing +him, questioning his Protectorship, and labouring to subvert it, the +anti-Oliverian temper had again been strongly roused throughout the +country, and not least among the officers and soldiers of the army in +Scotland. There had been meetings and consultations among them, and +secret correspondence with scattered Republicans in England and with +some of the Parliamentary Oppositionists, till at length, if +Thurloe's informations were true, the design was nothing less than to +depose Monk, put Overton in supreme command, and march into England +under an anti-Oliverian banner. The Levellers, on the one side, and +the Royalists, on the other, were to be drawn into the movement, if +indeed there had not been actual communications already with agents +of Charles II. It may be a question how far Overton himself was a +party to the design; but it is certain that he had relapsed into his +former anti-Oliverian humour, and was very uneasy in his post at +Aberdeen. "I bless the Lord," he writes mysteriously from that town, +Dec. 26, in answer to a letter of condolence from some friend--"I +bless the Lord I do remember you and yours (by whom I am much +remembered) so far as I am able in everything. I know right well you +and others do it much for me; and, pray, dear Sir, do it still. Heave +me up upon the wings of your prayers to Him who is a God hearing +prayers and granting requests. Entreat Him to enable me to stand to +his Truth; which I shall not do if He deject or forsake me." This +letter, as well as several letters _to_ Overton, had been +intercepted by Monk's vigilance; and hardly had it been written when +Overton was arrested by Monk's orders, and brought to Leith. At Leith +his papers were searched, and there was found in his letter-case +this copy of verses in his own hand:-- + + "A Protector! What's that? 'Tis a stately thing + That confesseth itself but the ape of a King; + A tragical Cæsar acted by a clown, + Or a brass farthing stamped with a kind of crown; + A bauble that shines, a loud cry without wool; + Not Perillus nor Phalaris, but the bull; + The echo of Monarchy till it come; + The butt-end of a barrel in the shape of a drum; + A counterfeit piece that woodenly shows; + A golden effigies with a copper nose; + The fantastic shadow of a sovereign head; + The arms-royal reversed, and disloyal instead; + In fine, he is one we may Protector call,-- + From whom the King of Kings protect us all!" + +With this piece of doggrel, the intercepted letters, and the other +informations, Overton was shipped off by Monk from Leith to London on +the 4th of January, 1654-5; and on the 16th of that month he was +committed to the Tower. Thence the next day he wrote a long letter to +a private friend, in which he enumerates the charges against him, and +replies to them one by one. He denies that he has broken trust with +the Protector; he denies that he is a Leveller; and, what pleases us +best of all, he denies the authorship of the doggrel lines just +quoted. His exact words about these may be given. "But, say some, you +made a copy of scandalous verses upon the Lord Protector, whereby his +Highness and divers others were offended and displeased ... I must +acknowledge I copied a paper of verses called _The Character of a +Protector_; but I did neither compose them, nor (to the best of my +remembrance) show them to any after I had writ them forth. They were +taken out of my letter-case at Leith, where they had been a long time +by me, neglected and forgotten. I had them from a friend, who wished +my Lord [Cromwell] well, and who told me that his Lordship had seen +them, and, I believe, laughed at them, as, to my knowledge, he hath +done at papers and pamphlets of more personal and particular import +and abuse." It is really a relief to know that Overton, who is still +credited with these lines by Godwin, Guizot, and others, was not the +author of them, and this not because of their peculiar political +import, but because of their utter vulgarity. How else could we have +retained our faith in Milton's character of Overton--"you, Overton, +bound to me these many years past in a friendship of more than +brotherly closeness and affection, both by the similarity of our +tastes, and the sweetness of your manners"? Still to have copied and +kept such lines implied some sympathy with their political meaning; +and, Thurloe's investigations having made it credible otherwise that +Overton was implicated, more than he would admit, in the design of a +general rising against the Protector's Government, there was an end +to the promising career of Milton's friend under the Protectorate. He +remained from that time a close prisoner while Oliver lived. On the +3rd of July, 1656, I find, his wife, "Mrs. Anne Overton," had liberty +from the Council "to abide with her husband in the Tower, if she +shall so think fit."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, III. 75-77, and 110-112; Council Order Book, +July 3, 1656. Godwin, whose accuracy can very seldom be impeached, +had not turned to the last-cited pages of Thurloe; and hence he +leaves the doggrel lines as indubitably Overton's own (_Hist. of +Commonwealth_, IV. 163). Guizot and others simply follow Godwin +in this, as in most things else.--That Overton's disaffection was +very serious indeed, and that Cromwell had had good reason for his +suspicions of him even on the former occasion, appears from the fact +that among the Clarendon Papers in the Bodleian there is a draft, in +Hyde's hand, of a letter, dated April 1654, either actually sent, or +meant to be sent, by Charles II. to Overton. The substance of the +letter, as in Mr. Macray's abstract of it for the Calendar of the +Clarendon Papers (II. 344), is as follows:--"_The King to Col. +Ov[erton]._ Has received such information of his affection that he +does not doubt it, and believes that he abhors those who, after all +their pretences for the public, do now manifest that they have +wholly intended to satisfy their own ambition. He has it in his +power to redeem what he has heretofore done amiss; and the King is +very willing to receive such a service as may make him a principal +instrument of his restoration, for which whatsoever he or his family +shall wish they shall receive, and what he shall promise to any of +his friends who may concur with him shall be made good." If this +letter was among those found among Overton's papers at Leith (which +is not very likely), little wonder that Cromwell would not trust +him at large a second time.] + +At the date of Overton's imprisonment the Protector was making up his +mind to dismiss his troublesome First Parliament after his four +months and a half of experience of its temper; and six days after +that date he did dismiss it, to its own surprise, before it had sent +him up a single Bill. How many Latin letters had Overton's friend +Milton written for the Protector in his official capacity during the +four months and a half of that troublesome Parliament? So far as the +records show, only three. They were as follows:-- + + (XLIX.) "To THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD, LUIS MENDEZ DE HARO," + _Sept._ 4, 1654:[1]--The Spanish Prime Minister, Luis de Haro, + had recently, in the Protector's apparent indecision between the + Spanish alliance and the French alliance, resolved to try to secure + him for Spain by sending over a new Ambassador, to supersede + Cardenas, or to co-operate with him. He had announced the same in + letters to Cromwell; who now thanks him, professes his desire to be + in friendship with Spain, and promises every attention to the new + Ambassador when he may arrive, Cromwell pays a compliment to the + minister himself. "To have your affection and approbation," he + says, "who by your worth and prudence have acquired such authority + with the King of Spain that you preside, with a mind to match, over + the greatest affairs of that kingdom, ought truly to be a pleasure + to me corresponding with my apprehension of the honour I shall have + from the good opinion of a man of excellence." Milton is dexterous + in wording his documents. + +[Footnote 1: No. 29 in Skinner Transcript (where exact date is +given); No. 47 in Printed Collection and in Phillips (where month +only is given).] + + (L.) TO THE CONSULS AND SENATE OF THE CITY OF BREMEN, _Oct. + 25_, 1654:--There has come to be a conflict between the City of + Bremen and the new King of Sweden, arising from military designs of + that King on the southern shores of the North Sea and the Baltic, + Bremen is in great straits; and the authorities have represented + this to Cromwell through their agent, Milton's friend, Henry + Oldenburg, and have requested Cromwell's good offices with the + Swedish King. Cromwell answers that he has done what they want. He + has great respect for Bremen as a thoroughly Protestant city, and + he regrets that there should he a quarrel between it and the + powerful Protestant Kingdom of Sweden, having no stronger desire + than that "the whole Protestant denomination should at length + coalesce in one by fraternal agreement and concord." + + (LI.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _Oct._ 28, 1654:--As + announced to the Bremeners in the last letter, Cromwell did write + on their behalf to the Swedish King. He had hoped that the great + Peace of Munster or Westphalia (1648) had left all continental + Protestants united, and he regrets to hear that a dispute between + Sweden and the Bremeners has arisen out of that Treaty. How + dreadful that Protestant Swedes and Protestant Bremeners, once in + league against the common foe, should now be slaughtering each + other! Can nothing be done? Could not advantage be taken of the + present truce? He will himself do anything in his power to bring + about a permanent reconciliation. + +These three letters, it will be observed, belong to the first two +months of that cramped and exasperated condition in which Oliver +found himself when he had his First Parliament by his side; and there +is not a single preserved letter of Milton for Oliver between Oct. +26, 1654, the date of the last of the three, and Jan. 22, 1654-5, the +date of the sudden dissolution of the Parliament. The reason of this +idleness of Milton, in his Secretaryship during those three months, +leaving all the work to Meadows, must have been, I believe, that he +was then engaged on a Reply to More's _Fides Publica_ in the +imperfect state in which it had just come forth. All along, as we +have seen, the Literary Defence of the Commonwealth on every occasion +of importance had been regarded as the special charge of Milton in +his Secretaryship, to which routine duty must give way; and, as his +_Defensio Secunda_ in reply to the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ +had been, like several of his preceding writings, a task performed by +him on actual commission from the Rump Government, though not +finished till the Protectorate had begun, Oliver and his Council may +have thought it but fair that another pamphlet of the same series in +reply to the _Fides Publica_ of Morus should count also to the +credit of Milton's official services, even though it must necessarily +be more a pamphlet of mere personal concern than any of its +predecessors. But, indeed, by this time, Mr. Milton was a privileged +man, who might regulate matters very much for himself, and drop in on +Thurloe and Meadows at the office only when he liked. + + + + +SECTION II: FROM JANUARY 1654-5 TO SEPTEMBER 1656, OR THROUGH THE +PERIOD OF ARBITRARINESS. + +LETTER TO MILTON FROM LEO DE AITZEMA: MILTON'S REPLY: LETTER TO +EZEKIEL SPANHEIM AT GENEVA: MILTON'S GENEVESE RECOLLECTIONS AND +ACQUAINTANCES: TWO MORE OF MILTON'S LATIN STATE-LETTERS (NOS. LII., +LIII.): SMALL AMOUNT OF MILTON'S DESPATCH-WRITING FOR CROMWELL +HITHERTO.--REDUCTION OF OFFICIAL SALARIES, AND PROPOSAL TO REDUCE +MILTON'S TO £150 A YEAR: ACTUAL COMMUTATION OF HIS £288 A YEAR AT +PLEASURE INTO £200 FOR LIFE: ORDERS OF THE PROTECTOR AND COUNCIL +RELATING TO THE PIEDMONTESE MASSACRE, MAY 1655: SUDDEN DEMAND ON +MILTON'S PEN IN THAT BUSINESS: HIS LETTER OF REMONSTRANCE FROM THE +PROTECTOR TO THE DUKE OF SAVOY, WITH TEN OTHER LETTERS TO FOREIGN +STATES AND PRINCES ON THE SAME SUBJECT (NOS. LIV.--LXIV.): HIS SONNET +ON THE SUBJECT.--PUBLICATION OF THE SUPPLEMENTUM TO MORE'S _FIDES +PUBLICA_: ACCOUNT OF THE SUPPLEMENTUM, WITH EXTRACTS: MILTON'S +ANSWER TO THE _FIDES PUBLICA_ AND THE SUPPLEMENTUM TOGETHER IN +HIS _PRO SE DEFENSIO_, AUG. 1655: ACCOUNT OF THAT BOOK, WITH +SPECIMENS: MILTON'S DISBELIEF IN MORUS'S DENIALS OF THE AUTHORSHIP OF +THE _REGII SANGUINIS CLAMOR_: HIS REASONS, AND HIS REASSERTIONS +OF THE CHARGE IN A MODIFIED FORM: HIS NOTICES OF DR. CRANTZIUS AND +ULAC: HIS RENEWED ONSLAUGHTS ON MORUS: HIS REPETITION OF THE BONTIA +ACCUSATION AND OTHERS: HIS EXAMINATION OF MORUS'S PRINTED +TESTIMONIALS: FEROCITY OF THE BOOK TO THE LAST: ITS EFFECTS ON +MORUS.--QUESTION OF THE REAL AUTHORSHIP OF THE _REGII SANGUINIS +CLAMOR_ AND OF THE AMOUNT OF MORUS'S CONCERN IN IT: THE DU MOULIN +FAMILY: DR. PETER DU MOULIN THE YOUNGER THE REAL AUTHOR OF THE +_REGII SANGUINIS CLAMOR_, BUT MORUS THE ACTIVE EDITOR AND THE +WRITER OF THE DEDICATORY EPISTLE: DU MOULIN'S OWN ACCOUNT OF THE +WHOLE AFFAIR: HIS CLOSE CONTACT WITH MILTON ALL THE WHILE, AND DREAD +OF BEING FOUND OUT.--CALM IN MILTON'S LIFE AFTER THE CESSATION OF THE +MORUS-SALMASIUS CONTROVERSY: HOME-LIFE IN PETTY FRANCE: DABBLINGS OF +THE TWO NEPHEWS IN LITERATURE: JOHN PHILLIPS'S _SATYR AGAINST +HYPOCRITES_: FREQUENT VISITORS AT PETTY FRANCE: MARVELL, NEEDHAM, +CYRIACK SKINNER, &C.: THE VISCOUNTESS RANELAGH, MR. RICHARD JONES, +AND THE BOYLE CONNEXION: DR. PETER DU MOULIN IN THAT CONNEXION: +MILTON'S PRIVATE SONNET ON HIS BLINDNESS. HIS TWO SONNETS TO CYRIACK +SKINNER, AND HIS SONNET TO YOUNG LAWRENCE: EXPLANATION OF THESE FOUR +SONNETS.--_SCRIPTUM DOMINI PROTECTORIS CONTRA HISPANOS_: +THIRTEEN MORE LATIN STATE-LETTERS OF MILTON FOR THE PROTECTOR (NOS. +LXV.--LXXVII.), WITH SPECIAL ACCOUNT OF COUNT BUNDT AND THE SWEDISH +EMBASSY IN LONDON: COUNT BUNDT AND MR. MILTON.--INCREASE OF LIGHT +LITERATURE IN LONDON: EROTIC PUBLICATIONS: JOHN PHILLIPS IN TROUBLE +FOR SUCH: EDWARD PHILLIPS'S LONDON EDITION OF THE POEMS OF DRUMMOND +OF HAWTHORNDEN: MILTON'S COGNISANCE OF THE SAME.--HENRY OLDENBURG AND +MR. RICHARD JONES AT OXFORD: LETTERS OF MILTON TO JONES AND +OLDENBURG.--THIRTEEN MORE STATE-LETTERS OF THE MILTON SERIES (NOS. +LXXVIII.--XC.): IMPORTANCE OF SOME OF THEM. + + +Oliver had just entered on his period of Arbitrariness, or Government +without a Parliament, when Milton received the following letter in +Latin from Leo de Aitzema, or Lieuwe van Aitzema, formerly known to +him as agent for Hamburg and the Hanse Towns in London, but now +residing at the Hague in the same capacity (IV. 378-379). Aitzema, we +may now mention, was a Frieslander by birth, eight years older than +Milton, and is remembered still, it is said, for a voluminous and +valuable _History of the United Provinces_, consisting of a +great collection of documents, with commentaries by himself in +Dutch.[1] This had not yet been published. + +[Footnote 1: See Article _Aitzema_ in Bayle's Dictionary.] + + "To the honourable and highly esteemed Mr. John Milton, Secretary + to the Council of State, London. + + "Partly because Morus, in his book, has made some aspersions on you + for your English Book on Divorce, partly because many have been + inquiring eagerly about the arguments with which you support your + opinion, I have, most honoured and esteemed Sir, given your little + work entire to a friend of mine to be translated into Dutch, with a + desire to have it printed soon. Not knowing, however, whether you + would like anything corrected therein or added, I take the liberty + to give you this notice, and to request you to let me know your + mind on the subject. Best wishes and greetings from + + "Your very obedient + + "LEO AITZEMA[1] + + "Hague: Jan. 29, 1654-5." + +[Footnote 1: Communicated by the late Mr. Thomas Watts of the British +Museum, and published by the late Rev. John Mitford in Appendix to +Life of Milton prefixed to Pickering's Edition of Milton's Works +(1851).] + +Milton's answer, rather unusually for him, was immediate. + + TO LEO VAN AITZEMA. + + It is very gratifying to me that you retain the same amount of + recollection of me as you very politely showed of good will by once + and again visiting me while you resided among us. As regards the + Book on Divorce which you tell me you have given to some one to be + turned into Dutch, I would rather you had given it to be turned + into Latin. For my experience in those books of mine has now been + that the vulgar still receive according to their wont opinions not + already common. I wrote a good while ago, I may mention, _three_ + treatises on the subject:--the first, in two books, in which _The + Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce_ (for that is the title of the + book) is contained at large; a second, which is called + _Tetrachordon_, and in which the four chief passages of Scripture + concerning that doctrine are explicated; the third called + _Colasterion_, in which answer is made to a certain sciolist. [The + _Bucer Tract_ omitted in the enumeration.] Which of these Treatises + you have given to be translated, or what edition, I do not know: + the first of them was twice issued, and was much enlarged in the + second edition. Should you not have been made aware of this + already, or should I understand that you desire anything else on my + part, such as sending you the more correct edition or the rest of + the Treatises, I shall attend to the matter carefully and with + pleasure. For there is not anything at present that I should wish + changed in them or added. Therefore, should you keep to your + intention, I earnestly hope for myself a faithful translator, and + for you all prosperity. + + Westminster: Feb. 5, 1654-5.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Epist. Fam. 16.] + +The next letter, written in the following month, also connects +itself, but still more closely, with the Morus controversy. It is +addressed to Ezekiel Spanheim, the eldest son of that Frederick +Spanheim, by birth a German, of whom we have heard as Professor of +Theology successively at Geneva (1631-1642) and at Leyden +(1642-1649). This elder Spanheim, it will be remembered, had been +implicated in the opposition to Morus in both places--the story being +that he had contracted a bad opinion of Morus during his +colleagueship with him in Geneva, and that, when Salmasius, partly to +spite Spanheim, of whose popularity at Leyden he was jealous, had +negotiated for bringing Morus to Holland, Spanheim "moved heaven and +earth to prevent his coming." It is added that Spanheim's death (May +1649) was caused by the news that Morus was on his way, and that he +had said on his death-bed that "Salmasius had killed him and Morus +had been the dagger."[1] On the other hand, we have had recently the +assurance of Dr. Crantzius that Spanheim had once told him that the +only fault in Morus was that he was _altier_, or self-confident. +That the stronger story is the truer one substantially, if not to its +last detail, appears from the fact that an antipathy to Morus was +hereditary in the Spanheim family, or at least in the eldest son, +Ezekiel. As a scholar, an antiquarian, and a diplomatist, this +Ezekiel Spanheim was to attain to even greater celebrity than his +father, and his varied career in different parts of Europe was not to +close till 1710. At present he was only in his twenty-fifth year, +and was living at Geneva, where he had been born, and whither he had +returned from Leyden in 1651, to accept a kind of honorary +Professorship that had been offered him, in compliment partly to his +father's memory, partly to his own extraordinary promise. As one who +had lived the first thirteen years of his age in Geneva, and the next +nine in Leyden (1642-1651), and who was now back in Geneva, he had +been amply and closely on the track of Morus; and how little he liked +him will now appear:-- + +[Footnote 1: Bayle, both in Article _Spanheim_ and in Article +_Morus_.] + + TO EZEKIEL SPANHEIM OF GENEVA. + + I know not by what accident it has happened that your letter has + reached me little less than three months after date. There is + clearly extreme need of a speedier conveyance of mine to you; for, + though from day to day I was resolving to write it, I now perceive + that, hindered by some constant occupations, I have put it off + nearly another three months. I would not have you understand from + this my tardiness in replying that my grateful sense of your + kindness to me has cooled, but rather that the remembrance has sunk + deeper from my longer and more frequent daily thinking of my duty + to you in return. Late performance of duty has at least this excuse + for itself, that there is a clearer confession of obligation to do + a thing when it is done so long after than if it had been done + immediately. + + You are not wrong, in the first place, in the opinion of me + expressed in the beginning of your letter--to wit, that I am not + likely to be surprised at being addressed by a foreigner; nor could + you, indeed, have a more correct impression of me than precisely by + thinking that I regard no good man in the character of a foreigner + or a stranger. That you are such I am readily persuaded by your + being the son of a most learned and most saintly father, also by + your being well esteemed by good men, and also finally by the fact + that you hate the bad. With which kind of cattle as I too happen to + have a warfare, Calandrini has but acted with his usual courtesy, + and in accordance with my own sentiment, in signifying to you that + it would be very gratifying to me if you lent me your help against + a common adversary. This you have most obligingly done in this very + letter, part of which, with the author's name not mentioned, I have + not hesitated, trusting in your regard for me, to insert by way of + evidence in my forthcoming _Defensio_ [in reply to More's + _Fides Publica_]. This book, as soon as it is published, I + will direct to be sent to you, if there is any one to whose care I + may rightly entrust it. Any letters you may intend for me, + meanwhile, you will not, I think, be unsafe if you send under cover + to Turretin of Geneva, now staying in London, whose brother in + Geneva you know; through whom as this of mine will reach you most + conveniently, so will yours reach me. For the rest I would assure + you that you have won a high place in my esteem, and that I + particularly wish to be loved by you yet more. + + Westminster: March 24, 1654-5.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Epist. Fam. 17.] + +In writing this letter Milton must have had brought back to his +recollection his visit to Geneva fifteen years before (June 1639) on +his way home from Italy. The venerable Diodati, the uncle of his +friend Charles, was the person in Geneva of whom he had seen most, +and who dwelt most in his memory; but the elder Spanheim had then +been in the same city, and Morus too, and the present Ezekiel +Spanheim, as a boy in his tenth year, and others, still alive, who +had then known Morus, and had since that time had him in view. Milton +had certainly not then himself seen Morus, though he must have heard +of him; but it is possible he may have seen the elder Spanheim, and +may now, in writing to Spanheim's son, have remembered the fact. In +any case there were links of acquaintanceship still connecting Milton +with Geneva and its gossip. The "Calandrini," for example, who is +mentioned in Milton's letter, and who may be identified with a +Genevese merchant named "Jean Louis Calandrin," heard of in Thurloe's +correspondence, must in some way have been known to Milton +personally, and interested in serving him.[1] It had been in in +consequence of a suggestion of this Calandrini, "acting-with his +usual courtesy," that young Spanheim had, in October 1654, when +Morus's fragmentary _Fides Publica_ was just out or nearly so, +addressed a polite letter to Milton, sending him some additional +information about the Genevese portion of Morus's career. The letter +had not readied Milton till the end of December or the beginning of +January 1654-5; and for nearly three months after that he had left it +unacknowledged. That he had been moved to acknowledge it at last was, +doubtless, as his letter itself suggests, and as we shall see yet +more precisely, because he had then nearly ready his Reply to the +_Fides Publica_, and had used Spanheim's information there, only +suppressing the name of his informant. But that Milton had already +had no lack of private informants about Morus's career, whether in +Geneva or in Holland, has appeared abundantly. The +Hartlib-Durie-Haak-Oldenburg connexion about him in London was a +perfect sponge for all kinds of gossip from, abroad. We hear now, +however, of another person in particular who may have supplied Milton +with his earlier information as to the Genevese part of Morus's life, +A family long of note in Geneva had been that of the Turretins, +originally from Italy, and indeed from Lucca, whence they had been +driven, as the Diodatis had been, by their Protestantism, One of this +family, Benedict Turretin, born in Geneva, had been a distinguished +Theology Professor there, and at his death in 1631 had left at least +two sons. One of these, Francis Turretin, born at Geneva in 1623, +had, after the usual wanderings of Continental scholars in those +days, just returned to Geneva (1653), and settled there in what may +be called the family-business, i.e. the profession of Theology. In +this he was to attain extraordinary celebrity, his _Institutio +Theologiæ Elencticæ_ ranking to this day among Calvinistic +Theologians as a master-work of its kind. Well, this Francis +Turretin, rising into fame at Geneva, just as Ezekiel Spanheim was, +and seeing Spanheim daily, had, it seems from Milton's letter, a +brother in London, on intimate terms with Milton; and Milton's +proposition to young Spanheim was that they should correspond in +future through the two Turretins. Who would have thought to find the +future author of the _Institutio Theologiæ Elencticæ_ used by +Milton for postal purposes? Is it not clear too that the London +Turretin must have been one of Milton's informants about Morus's +reasons for leaving Geneva? Respectability everywhere, at our present +date at least, seems adverse to Morus.[2] + +[Footnote 1: For mention of Jean Louis Calandrin, the Genevese +merchant, see Letters between Pell and Thurloe in _Vaughan's +Protectorate_ (I. 302, 308, 354). He died at Geneva, in Feb. +1655-6, about a year after this mention of him by Milton. It is +possible he may have been a relative of a "Cæsar Calandrinus" +mentioned by Wood as one of the many foreigners who had studied at +Exeter College, Oxford, during the Rectorship of Dr. Prideaux +(1612-1641), and who was afterwards "a Puritanical Theologist," +intimate with Usher, a Rector in Essex, and finally minister of the +parish of Peter le Poor in London, where he died in 1665, leaving a +son named John. Wood speaks of him as a German (Wood, Ath. III. 269, +and Fasti, I. 393-4); but the name is evidently Italian. Indeed I +find that there had been an intermarriage in Italy between the +Diodati family and a family of Calandrinis, bringing some of the +Calandrinis also to Geneva about the year 1575. (Reprint, for +private circulation, of a Paper on the Italian ancestry of Mr. +William Diodate of New Haven, U.S., read before the New Haven +Colony Historical Society, June 28, 1875, by Edward E. Salisbury, +p. 13). By the kindness of Colonel Chester, whose genealogical +researches are all-inclusive, I have a copy of the will of the +above-named Cæsar Calandrini of St. Peter le Poor, London. It is +dated Aug. 4, 1665, when he was "three score and ten," and mentions +two sons, Lewis and John, two daughters living, one of them married +to a Giles Archer, and grandchildren by these children, besides +nephews and nieces of the names of Papillon and Burlamachi. The son +"John" in this will proved it in October 1665, and cannot have been +the Calandrini of Milton's letter; but that Calandrini may have +been of the same connexion.] + +[Footnote 2: Bayle, Art. _Francois Turretin_.] + +Busy over his reply to the _Fides Publica_, Milton had stretched +his dispensation from routine duty in his Secretaryship not only +through November and December 1654 and January 1654-5, as was noted +in last section, but as far as to April 1655 in the present section. +Through these five months there is, so far as the records show, a +total blank, at all events, in his official letter-writing. In April +1655, however, as if his reply to the _Fides Publica_ were then +off his mind, and lying in the house in Petty France complete or +nearly complete in manuscript, we do come upon two more of his Latin +State-letters, as follows:-- + + (LII.) TO THE PRINCE OF TARENTE, _April_ 4, 1655[1]:--This + Prince, one of the chiefs of the French nobility, but connected + with Germany by marriage, was a Protestant by education, had been + mixed up with the wars of the Fronde, and was altogether a very + stirring man abroad. He had written to Cromwell invoking his + interest in behalf of foreign, and especially of French, + Protestantism. Cromwell expresses his satisfaction in having had + such an address from so eminent a representative of the Reformed + faith in a kingdom in which so many have lapsed from it, and + declares that nothing would please him more than "to be able to + promote the enlargement, the safety, or, what is most important, + the peace, of the Reformed Church." Meanwhile he exhorts the Prince + to be himself firm and faithful to his creed to the very last.--The + Prince of Tarente, it may be mentioned, had interested himself much + in the lawsuit between Morus and Salmasius. He had tried to act as + mediator and induce Morus to withdraw his action--a condescension + which Morus acknowledges, though he felt himself obliged, he says, + to go on. + +[Footnote 1: No. 32 in Skinner Transcript (which gives the exact +date); also in Printed Collection and in Phillips.] + + (LIII.) To ARCHDUKE LEOPOLD of AUSTRIA, GOVERNOR OF THE SPANISH + NETHERLANDS (_undated_):--Sir Charles Harbord, an Englishman, + has had certain goods and household stuff violently seized at + Bruges by Sir Richard Grenville. The goods had originally been sent + from England to Holland in 1643 by the then Earl of Suffolk, in + pledge for a debt owing to Harbord; and Grenville's pretext was + that he also was a creditor of the Earl, and had obtained a decree + of the English Chancery in his favour. Now, by the English law, + neither was the present Earl of Suffolk bound by that decree nor + could the goods be distrained under it. The decision of the Court + to that effect is herewith transmitted; and His Serenity is + requested to cause Grenville to restore the goods, inasmuch as it + is against the comity of nations that any one should be allowed an + action in foreign jurisdiction which he would not be allowed in the + country where the cause of the action first arose. "The justice of + the case itself and the universal reputation of your Serenity for + fair dealing have moved us to commend the matter to your + attention; and, if at any time there shall be occasion to discuss + the rights or convenience of your subjects with as, I promise that + you shall find our diligence in the same not remiss, but at all + times most ready."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Undated in Printed Collection and in Phillips; dated +"Aug. 1658" in the Skinner Transcript, but surely by mistake. Such +a letter can hardly have been sent to the Archduke after Oct. 1655, +when the war with Spain broke out. I have inserted it at this point +by conjecture only, and may be wrong.] + +In April 1655, when these two letters were written, Oliver was in the +sixteenth month of his Protectorship. His first nine months of +personal sovereignty without a Parliament, and his next four months +and a half of unsatisfactory experience with his First Parliaments +were left behind, and he had advanced two months and more into his +period of compulsory Arbitrariness, when he had to govern, with the +help of his Council only, by any means he could. Count all the Latin +State-Letters registered by Milton himself as having been written by +him for Cromwell during those first fifteen months and more of the +Protectorate, and they number only nine (Nos. XLV.-XLVIII in Vol. IV. +pp. 635-636, and Nos. XLIX.-LIII. in the present volume). These nine +Letters, with the completion and publication of his _Defensio +Secunda_, and now the preparation of a Reply to More's _Fides +Publica_, and also perhaps occasional calls at Thurloe's office +and occasional presences at interviews with ambassadors and envoys in +Whitehall, were all he had been doing for fifteen months for his +salary of £288 a year. The fact cannot have escaped notice. He had +himself called attention to it, as if by anticipation, in that +passage of his _Defensio Secunda_ in which he spoke of the kind +indulgence of the State-authorities in retaining him honourably in +full office, and not abridging his emoluments on account of his +disability by blindness. The passage may have touched Cromwell and +some of the Councillors, and there was doubtless a general feeling +among them of the worth, beyond estimate in money, of Milton's name +to the Commonwealth, and of his past acts of literary championship +for her. Economy, however, is a virtue easily recommended to +statesmen by any pinch of necessity, and it so chanced that at the +very time we have now reached, April 1655, the Protector and his +Council, being in money straits, were in a very economical mood (see +ante p. 35). Here, accordingly, is what we find in the Council Order +Books under date April 17, 1655. + + _Tuesday, April_ 17, 1655:--Present the Lord President + Lawrence, Lord Lambert (styled so in the minute), Colonel Montague, + Colonel Sydenham, Sir Charles Wolseley, Sir Gilbert Pickering, + Major-General Skippon. + + "The Council resumed the debate upon the Report made from the + Committee of the Council to whom it was referred to consider of the + Establishment of the Council's Contingencies. + + "_Ordered:_-- + + "That the salary of £400 _per annum_ granted to MR. GUALTER + FROST as Treasurer for the Council's Contingencies be reduced to + £300 _per annum_, and be continued to be paid after that + proportion till further order. + + "That the former yearly salary of MR. JOHN MILTON, of £288, &c., + formerly charged on the Council's Contingencies, be reduced to £150 + _per annum_, and paid to him during his life out of his + Highness's Exchequer. + + "That the yearly salaries hereafter mentioned, being formerly paid + out of the Council's Contingencies,--that is to say £45 12_s._ + 6_d._ _per annum_ to Mr. Henry Giffard, Mr. Gualter + Frost's assistant,--_per annum_ to Mr. John Hall,--_per + annum_ to Mr. Marchamont Needham,--_per annum_ to Mr. + George Vaux, the house-keeper at Whitehall,--_per annum_ for + the rent of Sir Abraham Williams's house [for the entertainment of + Ambassadors], and--_per annum_ to M. René Angler,--be for the + future retrenched and taken away. + + "That some convenient rooms at Somerset House be set apart for the + entertainment of Foreign Ambassadors upon their address to his + Highness. + + "That it be referred to Mr. Secretary Thurloe to put that part of + the Intelligence [from abroad] which is managed by M. René Augier + into the common charge of Intelligence, and to order it for the + future by M, Augier or otherwise, as he shall see most for the + Commonwealth's service. + + * * * * * + + "That it be offered to his Highness as the advice of the Council + that several warrants be issued under the great seal for + authorizing and requiring the Commissioners of his Highness's + Treasury to pay, by quarterly payments, at the receipt of his + Highness's Exchequer, to the several officers, clerks, and other + persons after-named, according to the proportions allowed them for + their salary in respect of their several respective offices and + employments during their continuance or till his Highness or the + Council shall give other order: that is to say:-- + + "To John Thurloe, Esq., Secretary of State:--For his own office, + after the proportion of £800 _per annum_; for the office of + Mr. Philip Meadows, Secretary for the Latin Tongue, after the rate + of £200 per annum; for the salaries of--clerks attending his + [Thurloe's] office at 6_s._ 8_d._ _per diem_, a + piece (which together amount to----); for the salaries of eleven + messengers at 5_s._ _per diem_, apiece (which together + amount to £1003 15_s._): amounting in the whole to ---- + + "To Mr. Henry Scobell and Mr. William Jessop, Clerks to the + Council, or to either of them:--For their own offices, viz. Mr. + Scobell £500 _per annum_, Mr. Jessop £500 _per annum_; + for the salaries of--clerks attending their office at 6_s._ + 8_d._ _per diem_ (which together amount to ----): + amounting in the whole to ---- + + "To Mr, Edward Dendy, Serjeant at Arms attending the Council:--For + his own office after the proportion of £365 _per annum_; for + the salaries of his _ten_ deputies at 3_s._ 4_d._ + _per diem_ a piece (which together amount to £608 6_s._ + 8_d._); amounting in the whole to £973 6 8 + + "To Richard Scutt, Usher of the Council Chamber:--For himself and + his assistants at 13_s._ _per diem_, (being £237 5_s_, _per + annum_); for Thomas Bennett's salary, keeper of the back-door of + the Council Chamber, at 4_s. per diem_ (being £73 _per + annum_); for the salary of Robert Stebbin, fire-maker to the + clerks, at 2_s. per diem_ (being £36 10_s. per annum_): + amounting in the whole to £346 15 0 + + "The first payment of the said several and respective sums + before-mentioned to commence from the 1st of April instant. + + "To Richard Nutt, master of his Highness's barge:--For his own + office after £80 _per annum;_ for Thomas Washborne, his + assistant, for his salary, after £20 _per annum;_ for the + salaries of 25 watermen to attend his Highness's barge, at £4 + _per annum_ to each (amounting together to £100 _per + annum_): amounting in the whole to £200 _per ann._ + + "The same to commence from 25th March, 1655." + +Clearly the Council were in a mood of economy. Not only were certain +salaries to be reduced, but a good many outlays were to be stopped +altogether, including Needham's subsidy or pension for his +journalistic services. But more appears from the document. In spite +of the general tendency to retrenchment, the salaries of Scobell and +Jessop, the two clerks of the Council, are to be raised from £365 a +year to £500 a year. This alone would suggest that not retrenchment +only, but an improvement also in the system of the Council's +business, was intended. The document as a whole confirms that idea. +It maps out the service of the Council more definitely than hitherto +into departments. Thurloe, of course, is general head, styled now +"Secretary of State"; but it will be observed that the department of +Foreign Affairs, including the management of Intelligence from +abroad, is spoken of as now wholly and especially his, and that +Meadows, with the designation of "Secretary for the Latin Tongue," +ranks distinctly under him in that department. Scobell and Jessop, as +"Clerks to the Council," though under Thurloe too, are now important +enough to be jointly at the head of a separate staff; the Bailiff or +Constable department is separate from theirs, and under the charge of +Mr. Sergeant-at-Arms Dendy; and minor divisions of service, nameable +as Ushership and Barge-attendance, are under the charge of Messrs. +Scutt and Nutt respectively. The payments of salaries are +henceforward not to be vaguely through Mr. Gualter Frost, as +Treasurer for the Council's Contingencies, but by warrants to the +Treasury to pay regularly to the several heads the definite +sums-total in their departments, their own salaries included. + +Milton's case was evidently treated as a peculiar one. It was +certainly proposed that his allowance should be reduced from £288 +18_s._ 6_d._ a year, which had hitherto been its rate, to +£150 a year--i.e. by nearly one half. Most of us perhaps are +disappointed by this, and would have preferred to hear that Milton's +allowance had been doubled or tripled under the Protectorate,--made +equal, say, to Thurloe's. Records must stand as they are, however, +and must be construed coolly. Milton's £288 a year for _his_ +lighter and more occasional duties had doubtless been all along in +fair proportion to the elder Frost's £600 a year, or Thurloe's £800, +for _their_ more vast and miscellaneous drudgery. Nor, if Milton +had ceased to be able to perform the duties, and another salaried +officer had been required in consequence, was there anything +extraordinary, in a time of general revision of salaries, that the +fact should come into consideration. The question was precisely as if +now a high official under government, who had been in receipt of a +salary of over £1000 a year, was struggling on in blindness after six +years of service, and an extra officer at £700 a year had been for +some time employed for his relief. In such a case, the official being +a man of great public celebrity and having rendered extraordinary +services in his post, would not superannuation on a pension or +retiring-allowance be considered the proper course? But this was +exactly the course proposed in Milton's case. The reduction from £288 +to £150 a year was, it ought to be noted, only part of the +proposition; for, whereas the £288 a year had been at the Council's +pleasure, it was now proposed that the £150 a year should be for +life. In short, what was proposed was the conversion of a terminable +salary of £288 a year, payable out of the Council's contingencies, +into a life-pension of £150 a year, payable out of the Protector's +Exchequer: which was as if in a corresponding modern case a +terminable salary of over £1000 a year were converted into a +life-pension of between £500 and £600. On studying the document, I +have no doubt that the intention was to relieve Milton from that +moment from all duty whatsoever, putting an end to that anomalous +_Latin Secretaryship Extraordinary_, into which his connexion +with the Council had shaped itself since his blindness, and remitting +him, as _Ex-Secretary_ Milton, a perfectly free and +highly-honoured man, to pensioned leisure in his house in Petty +France. For it is impossible that the Council could have intended to +retain. Milton in any way in the working Secretaryship at a reduced +salary of £150 a year while Meadows, his former assistant, had the +title of "Secretary for the Latin Tongue," with a higher salary of +£200 a year. Perhaps one may detect Thurloe's notions of official +symmetry in the proposed change. Milton's _Latin Secretaryship +Extraordinary_ or _Foreign Secretaryship Extraordinary_ may +have begun to seem to Thurloe an excrescence upon his own general +_Secretaryship of State_, and he may have desired that Milton +should retire altogether, and leave the Latin Secretaryship complete +to Meadows as his own special subordinate in the foreign department. + +The document, however, we have to add farther, though it purports to +be an Order of Council, did not actually or fully take effect. I +find, for example, that Needham's pension or subsidy of £100 a year, +which is one of the outlays the document proposed to "retrench and +take away," did not suffer a whit. He went on drawing his salary, +sometimes quarterly and sometimes half-yearly, just as before, and +precisely in the same form, viz. by warrant from President Lawrence +and six others of the Council to Mr. Frost to pay Mr. Needham so much +out of the Council's Contingencies. Thus on May 24, 1655, or five +weeks after the date of the present Order, there was a warrant to +Frost to pay Needham £50, "being for half a year's salary due unto +him from the 15th of Nov. last to the 15th of this instant May"; and +the subsequent series of warrants in Needham's favour is complete to +the end of the Protectorate.[1] Again, Mr. George Vaux, whom our +present order seems to discharge from his house-keepership of +Whitehall, is found alive in that post and in receipt of his salary +of £150 a year for it to as late as Oct. 1659.[2] There must, +therefore, have been a reconsideration of the Order by the Council, +or between the Council and the Protector, with modifications of the +several proposals. The proposal to raise the salaries of Scobell and +Jessop from £365 a year to £500 a year each must, indeed, have been +made good,--for Scobell and Jessop's successor in the colleagueship +to Scobell are found afterwards in receipt of £500 a year.[3] But, on +the same evidence, we have to conclude that the reductions proposed +in the cases of Mr. Gualter Frost and Milton were _not_ +confirmed, or were confirmed only _partially_. Frost is found +afterwards distinctly in receipt of £365 a year,[4] The actual +reduction, in his case, therefore, was not from £400 to £300, as had +been proposed, but only from £400 to £365, or back to what his salary +had been formerly (Vol. IV. 575-578). Milton again is found at the +end of the Protectorate in receipt of £200 a year, and not of £150 +only, as had been proposed In the Order.[5] The inference must be, +therefore, that there had been a reconsideration and modification of +the Order in his case also, ratifying the proposal of a reduction, +but diminishing considerably the proposed _amount_ of the +reduction. One would like to know to what influence the modification +was owing, and how far Cromwell himself may have interfered in the +matter. On the whole, while one infers that the reconsideration of +the Order generally may have been owing to direct remonstrances from +those whom it affected injuriously, such as Frost, Vaux, and Needham, +there is little difficulty in seeing what must have happened in +Milton's particular. My belief is that he signified, or caused it to +be signified, that he had no desire to retire on a life-pension, that +it would be much more agreeable to him to continue in active +employment for the State, that for certain kinds of such employment +he found his blindness less and less a disqualification, that the +arrangement as to salary might be as the Council pleased, but that +his own suggestion would be that his salary should be reduced to +£200, so that he and Mr. Meadows should henceforth be on an equality +in that respect. Such, at all events, was the arrangement adopted; +and we may now dismiss this whole incident in Milton's biography by +saying that, though in April 1655 there was a proposal to +superannuate him entirely on a life-pension of £150 a year, the +proposal did not take effect, but he went on from that date, just as +before, in the Latin Secretaryship Extraordinary, though at the +reduced salary of £200 a year instead of his original £288. + +[Footnote 1: My notes from the Money Warrant Books of the Council.] + +[Footnote 2: Money Warrants of Feb. 15, 1658-9 and Oct. 25, 1659.] + +[Footnote 3: Money Warrant of Oct. 25, 1659.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid.] + +[Footnote 5: Ibid.] + +As if to prove that the arrangement was a perfectly suitable one, and +that Milton's retirement into ex-Secretaryship would have been a +loss, there came from him, immediately after the arrangement had been +made, that burst of Latin State-letters which is now the most famous +of his official performances for Cromwell. It was in the second week +of May, 1655, that the news of the Massacre of the Piedmontese +Protestants reached England; and from the 17th of that month, onwards +for weeks and weeks, the attention of the Protector and the Council +was all but engrossed, as we have seen (ante pp. 38-44), by that +dreadful topic. Here are a few of the first Minutes of Council +relating to it:-- + + _Thursday, May_ 17, 1655:--Present: HIS HIGHNESS THE LORD + PROTECTOR, Lord President Lawrence, the Earl of Mulgrave, Colonel + Fiennes, Lord Lambert, Mr. Rous, Major-General Skippon, Lord + Viscount Lisle, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Colonel Montague, Colonel + Jones, General Desborough, Colonel Sydenham, Sir Charles Wolseley, + Mr. Strickland. _Ordered_, "That it be referred to the Earl of + Mulgrave, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Mr. Rous, and Colonel Jones, or + any--of them to consider of the Petition [a Petition from London + ministers and others], and also of the papers of intelligence + already come touching the Protestants under the Duke of Savoy, and + such other intelligence as shall come to Mr. Secretary Thurloe, and + to offer to the Council what they shall think fit, as well + _touching writing of letters_, collections, or otherwise, in + order to their relief ... That it be referred to Colonel Fiennes, + Mr. Strickland, Sir Gilbert Pickering, and Mr. Secretary Thurloe, + to prepare the draft of a letter to the French King upon this day's + debate touching the Protestants suffering in the Dukedom of Savoy, + and to bring in the same to-morrow morning." + + _Friday, May_ 18:--At a second, or afternoon sitting + (_present_: Lord President Lawrence, Lord Lambert, General + Desborough, the Earl of Mulgrave, Colonel Fiennes, Colonel Jones, + Colonel Sydenham, Colonel Montague), "Colonel Fiennes reports from + the Committee of the Council to whom the same was referred the + draft of a Letter to be sent from his Highness to the King of + France concerning the Protestants in the Dukedom of Savoy; which, + after some amendments, was approved and ordered to be offered to + his Highness as the advice of the Council." + + _Tuesday, May_ 22:--_Present_: Lord President Lawrence, + Colonel Sydenham, Mr. Rous, Colonel Montague, Colonel Jones, + General Desborough, Mr. Strickland, Colonel Fiennes, Lord Viscount + Lisle, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Lord Lambert. "The Latin draft of a + Letter to the Duke of Savoy in behalf of the Protestants in his + Territory was this day read. _Ordered_, That it be offered to + his Highness as the advice of the Council that his Highness will + please to sign the said Letter and cause it to be sent to the said + Duke." + + _Wednesday, May_ 23:--"Colonel Fiennes reports from the + Committee of the Council the draft of two letters in reference to + the sufferings of the Protestants in the territories of the Duke of + Savoy, the one to the States-General of the United Provinces, the + other to the Cantons of the Swisses professing the Protestant + Religion; which were read, and, after several amendments, agreed. + _Ordered_, That it be offered to his Highness the Lord + Protector as the advice of the Council that he will please to send + the said letters in his Highness's name to the said States-General + and the Cantons respectively." + +Though Milton's name is not mentioned in these minutes, it was he, +and no other, that penned, or at least turned into Latin, for the +Committee, and so for the Council and the Protector, the particular +letters minuted, and indeed all the other documents required by the +occasion. The following is a list of them:-- + + (LIV.) TO THE DUKE OF SAVOY, _May_ 25, 1655:[1]--This Letter + may be translated entire. It is superscribed "OLIVER, Protector of + the Commonwealth of England, &c., to the Most Serene Prince, + EMANUEL, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, Greeting "; and it is + worded as follows:--"Most Serene Prince,--Letters have reached us + from Geneva, and also from the Dauphinate and many other places + bordering upon your dominion, by which we are informed that the + subjects of your Royal Highness professing the Reformed Religion + were recently commanded by your edict and authority, within three + days after the promulgation of the said edict, to depart from their + habitations and properties under pain of death and forfeiture of + all their estates, unless they should give security that, + abandoning their own religion, they would within twenty days + embrace the Roman Catholic one, and that, though they applied as + suppliants to your Royal Highness, begging that the edict might be + revoked, and that they might be taken into their ancient favour and + restored to the liberty granted them by your Most Serene ancestors, + yet part of your army attacked them, butchered many most cruelly, + threw others into chains, and drove the rest into the deserts and + snow-covered mountains, where some hundreds of families are reduced + to such extremities that it is to be feared that all will soon + perish miserably by cold and hunger. When such news was brought us, + we could not possibly, in hearing of so great a calamity to that + sorely afflicted people, but be moved with extreme grief and + compassion. But, confessing ourselves bound up with them not by + common humanity only, but also by community of Religion, and so by + an altogether brotherly relationship, we have thought that we + should not be discharging sufficiently either our duty to God, or + the obligations of brotherly love and the profession of the same + religion, if we were merely affected with feelings of grief over + this disaster and misery of our brethren, and did not exert + ourselves to the very utmost of our strength and ability for their + rescue from so many unexpected misfortunes. Wherefore the more we + most earnestly beseech and adjure your Royal Highness that you will + bethink yourself again of the maxims of your Most Serene ancestors + and of the liberty granted and confirmed by them time after time to + their Vaudois subjects. In granting and confirming which, as they + performed what in itself was doubtless most agreeable to God, who + has pleased to reserve the inviolable jurisdiction and power over + Conscience for Himself alone, so there is no doubt either that they + had a due regard for their subjects, whom they found hardy and + faithful in war and obedient always in peace. And, as your Royal + Serenity most laudably treads in the footsteps of your forefathers + in all their other kindly and glorious actions, so it is our prayer + to you again and again not to depart from them in this matter + either, but to repeal this edict, and any other measure that may + have been passed for the molestation of your subjects of the + Reformed Religion, restoring them to their habitations and goods, + ratifying the rights and liberty anciently granted them, and + ordering their losses to be repaired and an end to be put to their + troubles. If your Royal Highness shall do this, you will have done + a deed most acceptable to God, you will have raised up and + comforted those miserable and distressed sufferers, and you will + have highly obliged all your neighbours that profess the Reformed + Religion,--ourselves most of all, who shall then regard your + kindness and clemency to those poor people as the fruit of our + solicitation. Which will moreover tie us to the performance of all + good offices in return, and lay the firmest foundations not only + for the establishment but even for the increase of the relationship + and friendship between this Commonwealth and your Dominion. Nor do + we less promise this to ourselves from your justice and moderation. + We beg Almighty God to bend your mind and thoughts in this + direction, and we heartily pray for you and for your people peace + and truth and prosperity in all your affairs."[2]--The bearer of + this letter to the Duke, as we know, was Mr. Samuel Morland, who + had been selected as the Protector's special Commissioner for the + purpose. He left London on the 26th of May. He took with him, also, + a copy of the Latin speech which he was to deliver to the Duke in + presenting the letter. As there is much probability that this Latin + speech is also in part of Milton's composition, and as it is in + even a bolder and more indignant strain than the letter, it may be + well to translate it too:--"Your Serene and Royal Highnesses [the + Duke and his mother both addressed?],--The Most Serene Lord, + Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and + Ireland, has sent me to your Royal Highnesses; whom he salutes very + heartily, and to whom, with a very high affection and peculiar + regard for your Serenities, he wishes a long life and reign, and a + prosperous issue of all your affairs, amid the applauses and + respect of your people. And this is due to you, whether in + consideration of the excellent character and royal descent of your + Highnesses, and the great expectation of the world from so many + eminent good qualities, or in recollection, after reference to + records, of the ancient friendship of our Kings with the Royal + house of Savoy. Though I am, I confess, but a young man, and not + very ripe in experience of affairs, yet it has pleased my Most + Serene and Gracious Master to send me, as one much devoted to your + Royal Highnesses and ardently attached to all bearing the Italian + name, on what is really a great mission.--The ancient legend is + that the son of Croesus was completely dumb from his birth. When, + however, he saw a soldier aiming a wound at his father, straightway + he had the use of his tongue. No other is my predicament, feeling + as I do my tongue loosened by those very recent and bloody wounds + of Mother Church. A great mission surely that is to be called + wherein all the safety and hope of many poor people is + comprehended--their sole hope lying in the chance that they shall + be able, by all their loyalty, obedience, and most humble prayers, + to mollify and appease the minds of your Royal Highnesses, now + irritated against them. In behalf of these poor people, whose cause + pity itself may seem to make its own, the Most Serene Protector of + England also comes as an intercessor, and most earnestly requests + and beseeches your Royal Highnesses to deign to extend your mercy + to these your very poor and most outcast subjects--those, I mean, + who, inhabiting the roots of the Alps and certain valleys in your + dominion, have professed nominally the Religion of the Protestants. + For he has heard (what no one can say has been done by the will of + your Royal Highnesses) that those wretched creatures have been + partly killed by your forces, partly expelled by violence and + driven from their home and country, so that they are now wandering, + with their wives and children, houseless, roofless, poor, and + destitute of all resource, through rugged and inhospitable spots + and over snow-covered mountains. And, through the days of this + transaction, if only the things are true that fame at present + reports everywhere (would that Fame were proved a liar!), what was + not dared and attempted against them? Houses smoking everywhere, + torn limbs, the ground bloody! Ay, and virgins, ravished and + hideously abused, breathed their last miserably; and old men and + persons labouring under illness were committed to the flames; and + some infants were dashed against the rocks, and the brains of + others were cooked and eaten. Atrocity horrible and before unheard + of, savagery such that, good God, were all the Neros of all times + and ages to come to life again, what a shame they would feel at + having contrived nothing equally inhuman! Verily, verily, Angels + are horrorstruck, men are amazed; heaven itself seems to be + astounded by these cries, and the earth itself to blush with the + shed blood of so many innocent men. Do not, great God, do not seek + the revenge due to this iniquity. May thy blood, Christ, wash away + this stain!--But it is not for me to relate these things in order + as they happened, or to dwell longer upon them; and what my Most + Serene Master requests from your Royal Highnesses you will + understand better from his own Letter. Which letter I am ordered to + deliver to your Royal Highnesses with all observance and due + respect; and, should your Royal Highnesses, as we greatly hope, + grant a favourable and speedy answer, you will both do an act most + gratifying to the Lord Protector, who has taken this business + deeply to heart, and to the whole Commonwealth of England, and also + restore, by an exercise of mercy very worthy of your Royal + Highnesses, life, safety, spirit, country, and estates to many + thousands of most afflicted people who depend on your pleasure; and + me you will send back to my native country as the happy messenger + of your conspicuous clemency, with great joy and report of your + exalted virtues, the deeply obliged servant of your Royal + Highnesses for evermore."[3] + +[Footnote 1: So dated in the official copy preserved in the Record +Office (Hamilton's _Milton Papers_, p. 15) and in the copy +actually delivered to the Duke (Morland, pp. 572-574)--the phrase in +both being "_Dabantur ex aula nostra Westmonasterii_, 25 +_Maii_, _anno_ 1654." In the Skinner Transcript, however, +the dating is "_Westmonsterio, May_ 10, 1655;" which again is +changed into "_Alba Aula, May_ 1655," i.e. "Whitehall, May 1655" +(month only given) in the Printed Collections and in Phillips.] + +[Footnote 2: There are one or two slight verbal differences between +Milton's original draft, here translated, and the official copy as +actually delivered to the Duke, and as printed by Morland. Thus, in +the first sentence, instead of _"Redditæ sunt nobis e Geneva, +necnon ex Delphinatu aliisque multis ex locis ditioni vestræ +finitimis, literæ,"_ the official copy has simply _"Redditæ +sunt nobis multis ex locis ditioni vestæ finitimis literæ."_] + +[Footnote 3: I have translated the speech from the official Latin +draft, as preserved in the Record Office, and as printed by Mr. +Hamilton, _Milton Papers_, pp. 18-20. Mr. Hamilton has no doubt +that the composition is Milton's. He founds his opinion partly on the +style, and partly on the fact that the draft is "written in the same +hand as the other official copies of Milton's letters." I agree with +Mr. Hamilton, though the matter does not seem to be absolutely beyond +controversy. The style is generally like Milton's; there are phrases +repeated from Milton's Latin elsewhere--e.g. "_montesque nivibus +coopertos_," repeated from the Letter to the Duke of Savoy, and +"_totius nominis Italici studiosissimum_" which almost repeats +the "_toiius Græci nominis ... cultor_" of the second Letter to +Philaras; and there are also phrases identical with some used in +Milton's other letters on the subject of the Massacre which have yet +to be noted in this list. On the other hand, there are passages and +expressions in the Speech that strike one as hardly Miltonic, while +the purport in some places would favour the idea that Morland wrote +the speech himself. What seems to negative this idea most strongly, +and therefore to point most distinctly to Milton as the author, is +the existence of the MS. official copy in the Record Office. The +speech, that copy proves, must have been prepared before Morland left +London, and must have been taken with him. For that it cannot have +been merely deposited in the State Paper Office afterwards, as a +record of what he did say at Turin, is proved by the fact that his +actual speech at Turin, as printed by himself in his book, with an +English Translation (pp. 558-561), though in substance identical with +the draft-copy, differs in some particulars. In the actual speech the +plural, "Your Royal Highnesses," is changed into the singular, "Your +Royal Highness," for address to the Duke only, though the +Duchess-mother was present; the parenthetical comparison of Morland +to the Son of Croesus is entirely omitted; and there are other verbal +changes, apparently suggested by Morland's closer information as he +approached Turin, or by his sense of fitness at the moment--in +illustration of which the reader may compare the very strong passage +about "the Neros of all times and ages" as we have just rendered it +from the draft with the same passage as we have previously rendered +it from Morland's actual speech (ante p. 42). But, if Morland took +the speech with him, unless he wrote it himself and had it approved +before his departure, who so likely to have furnished it as Milton? +All in all, that is the most probable conclusion; and anything +un-Miltonic in the speech may be accounted for by supposing that, +though the Latin was Milton's, the substance was not entirely his. +Morland, though he does not say in his book that the speech was +furnished him, does not positively claim it as his own. He, at all +events, used the liberty of deviating from the original draft.] + + (LV.) TO THE EVANGELICAL SWISS CANTONS, _May 25, + 1655_[1]:--His Highness in this letter recapitulates the facts + at some length, and expresses his conviction that the Cantons, so + much nearer the scene of the horrors, are already duly roused. He + informs them that he has written to the Duke of Savoy and hopes the + intercession may have effect; but adds, "If, however, he should + determine otherwise, we are prepared to exchange counsels with you + on the subject of the means by which we may be able most + effectively to relieve, re-establish, and save from certain and + undeserved ruin, an innocent people oppressed and tormented by so + many injuries, they being also our dearest brothers in Christ."[2] + +[Footnote 1: So dated in the official copy as dispatched, and as +printed in Morland's book, pp. 581-562; but draft dated +"_Westmonasterio, May 19, 1655_" in the Skinner Transcript, the +Printed Collection, and Phillips.] + +[Footnote 2: One of the phrases in this letter about the poor +Piedmontese Protestants is "_nunc sine tare, sine teoto, ... per +monies desertos atque nives, cum conjugibus ac liberis, miserrime +vagantur_." The phrase occurs almost verbatim in Morland's speech +to the Duke of Savoy--"_sine lare, sine tecto ... cum suis +conjugibus ac liberis vagari_."] + + (LVI.) TO CHARLES GUSTAVUS, KING OF SWEDEN, _May_ 25, + 1655:--To the same effect as the last, _mutatis mutandis_. + What sovereign can be more ready to stir in such a cause than his + Swedish majesty, the successor of those who have been champions of + the Protestantism of Europe? Gladly will the Protector form a + league with him and with other powers to do whatever may be + necessary. + + (LVII.) TO THE KING OF DENMARK, May 25, 1655:[1]--An appeal in the + same strain to his Danish Majesty: phraseology varied a little, But + matter the same. + +[Footnote 1: This and the last both so dated in official copy as +printed in Morland's book, pp. 554-557; dated only "May 1655" in +Skinner Transcript, Printed Collection, and Phillips.] + + (LVIII.) TO LOUIS XIV., KING OF FRANCE, May 25, 1655:[1]--The story + recapitulated for the benefit of his French Majesty, with the + addition that it is reported that some troops of his Majesty had + assisted the Piedmontese soldiery in the attack on the Vaudois. + This the Protector can hardly believe: it would be so much against + that policy of Toleration which the Kings of France have found + essential for the peace of their own dominions. The Protector + cannot doubt, at all events, that his Majesty will use his powerful + influence with the Duke of Savoy to induce him at once, as far as + may be possible, to repair the outrageous wrong already done. + +[Footnote 1: This Letter is omitted in the Printed Collection and in +Phillips; but it is given in the Skinner Transcript (No. 38 there), +and Mr. Hamilton has printed it in his Milton Papers (p. 2). It had +already been printed in Morland's book (pp. 564-565).] + + (LIX.) TO THE MOST EMINENT LORD, CARDINAL MAZARIN, _May_ 25, + 1625:[1]--Not content with writing to Louis XIV., Cromwell + addressed also the great French Minister. After mentioning the + dreadful occasion, the letter proceeds--"There is clearly nothing + which has obtained for the French nation greater esteem with all + their neighbours professing the Reformed Religion than the liberty + and privileges permitted and granted to Protestants by edicts and + public acts. It is for this reason chiefly, though for others as + well, that this Commonwealth has sought for the friendship and + alliance of the French to a greater degree than before. For the + settlement of this there have now for a good while been dealings + here with the King's Ambassador, and his Treaty is now almost + brought to a conclusion. Moreover, the singular benignity and + moderation of your Eminence, always manifest hitherto in the most + important transactions of the Kingdom relating to the French + Protestants, causes me to hope much from your own prudence and + magnanimity." + +[Footnote 1: Utterly undated in Printed Collection and in Phillips, +and quite misplaced in both; properly dated "May 25, 1655" in Skinner +Transcript.] + + (LX.) TO THE STATES-GENERAL OF THE UNITED PROVINCES, _May_ 25, + 1655:[1]--To the same effect as the letters to the Swiss Cantons + and the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, but with emphatic expression + of his Highness's peculiar confidence In the Dutch Republic in such + a crisis. He offers in the close to act in concert with the + States-General and other Protestant powers for any interference + that may be necessary. + +[Footnote 1: So dated in official copy, as printed in Morland's +book, pp. 558-560; but undated in Printed Collection and in +Phillips, and dated "_West., Junii_--1655" in Skinner +Transcript (No. 41 there). This last is a mistake; for Thurloe +speaks of the letter as already written May 25 (Thurloe to Pell, +_Vaughan's Protectorate_, I. 185). The official copy, as given +in Morland, differs somewhat from Milton's draft. "_Ego_" for +Cromwell, in one sentence, is changed into "_Nos;_" and the +closing words of the draft, "_et is demum, sentiet orthodoxnon +injurias atque miserias tam graves non posse nos negligere_" are +omitted in the official copy, possibly as too strong. These may be +among the amendments made in Council, May 23.] + + (LXI.) TO THE PRINCE OF TRANSYLVANIA, _May_, + 1655:[1]--Transylvania, now included in the Austrian Empire, was + then an independent Principality of Eastern Europe, in precarious + and variable relations with Austria, Poland, Russia, and the + Ottoman Empire. The population, a mixture of Wallachs, Magyars. + Germans, and Slavs, was largely Protestant; and the present Prince, + George Ragotzki, was an energetic supporter of the Protestant + interest in that part of Europe, and a man generally of much + political and military activity. He had written, it appears, to + Cromwell on the 16th of November, 1654, and had sent an Envoy to + England with the letter. It had expressed his earnest desire for + friendship and alliance with the Protector, and for co-operation + with him in the defence of the Reformed Religion. Cromwell now + acknowledges the letter and embassy, with high compliments to the + Prince personally, of whose merits and labours there had been so + much fame. This leads him at once to the Piedmontese business. Is + not that an opportunity for the co-operation his Serenity had + mentioned? At any rate, it behoves all Protestant princes to be on + the alert; for who knows how far the Duke of Savoy's example may + spread? + +[Footnote 1: Dated so in Skinner Transcript, Printed Collection, and +Phillips--with the addition "Westminster" in the first, and +"Whitehall" in the two last: no copy given in Morland's book.] + + (LXII.) TO THE CITY OF GENEVA, _June_ 8, 1655:--This letter + announces the collection in progress in England for the relief of + the Piedmontese Protestants. It will take some time to complete the + collection; but meanwhile the first instalment of £2000 [Cromwell's + personal contribution] is remitted for immediate use. His Highness + is quite sure that the City authorities of Geneva will cheerfully + take charge of the money, and see it distributed among those most + in need. A postscript bids the Genevese expect £1500 of the sum + through Gerard Hensch of Paris, and the remaining £500 through Mr. + Stoupe, a well known travelling agent of Cromwell and Thurloe. + + (LXIII.) TO THE KING OF FRANCE, _July_ 29, 1655:--The + Protector here acknowledges an answer received to his previous + letter of May 25. [The answer had been delivered to Morland early + in June, when he was on his way through Paris, and transmitted by + him to the Protector. A translation of it is given in Morland's + book, pp. 566-567.] He is glad to be confirmed in his belief that + the French officers who lent their troops to assist the Piedmontese + soldiery in that bloody business did so without his Majesty's order + and against his will--glad also to learn that these officers have + been rebuked, and that his Majesty has, of his own accord, + remonstrated with the Duke of Savoy, and advised him to stop his + persecution of the Vaudois. As no effect has yet been produced + however, [Morland has by this time delivered his speech at Turin, + and reported the dubious answer given by the Duke of Savoy: ante + pp. 42-43], the Protector is now despatching a special envoy [i.e. + Mr. George Downing] to Turin, to make farther remonstrances. This + envoy will pass through Paris, and his mission will have the + greater chance of success if his Majesty will take the opportunity + of again impressing his views upon the Duke. By so doing, by + punishing those French officers who employed his Majesty's troops + so disgracefully, and by sheltering such of the poor Vaudois as may + have sought refuge in France, his Majesty will earn the respect of + other Powers, and will strengthen the loyalty of his own Protestant + subjects. + + (LXIV.) To CARDINAL MAZARIN, _July_ 29, 1655:--This is a + special note, accompanying the foregoing letter, and introducing + and recommending Mr. Downing to his Eminence. + +Besides these official documents for Cromwell on the Piedmontese +business, there came from Milton his memorable Sonnet on the same, +expressing his own feelings, and Cromwell's too, with less restraint. +It may have been in private circulation at the Protector's Court at +the date of the last two of the ten letters: + +ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT. + + Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones + Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; + Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, + When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, + Forget not: in thy book record their groans + Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold + Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled + Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans + The vales redoubled to the hills, and they + To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow + O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway + The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow + A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way, + Early may fly the Babylonian woe.[1] + +[Footnote 1: If Morland's speech at Turin was of Milton's +composition, as we have found probable, the contrast between one +phrase in that speech and the opening of this Sonnet is curious. "Do +not, great God, do not seek the revenge due to this iniquity," says +the Speech; "Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints," says the +Sonnet.] + +From the Piedmontese Massacre we have now to revert to Morus. His +_Fides Publica_, in reply to Milton's _Defensio Secunda_, had +been published in an incomplete state, as we have seen, by Ulac at +the Hague in August or September 1654; and Milton had a rejoinder to +this publication ready or nearly ready, as we have also seen, by the +end of March 1655. The reason why this Rejoinder had not already +appeared has now to be stated. + +One of Morus's reasons for hurrying into France so unexpectedly, and +leaving his unfinished book in Ulac's hands, seems to have been the +chance of a professorship or pastorship there that would enable him +to quit Holland permanently, and settle at length in his own country. +"Some speak of calling Morus, against whom Mr. Milton writes so +sharply, to be Professor of Divinity at Nismes; but most men say it +will ruin that church," is a piece of Parisian news sent by Pell to +Thurloe in a letter from Zurich dated Oct. 28, 1654;[1] and, with +that prospect, or some other, Morus seems to have remained in France +for some time after that date. When copies of his incomplete _Fides +Publica_ reached him there, he may not have thanked Ulac for +issuing the book in such a state without leave given. All the more, +however, he must have felt himself obliged to complete the book. +Accordingly he did, from France, forward the rest of the MS. to Ulac, +with the result of the appearance at last from Ulac's press of a +supplementary volume with this title: "_Alexandri Mori, +Ecclesiastæ et Sacrarum Litterum Professoris, Supplementum Fidei +Publicæ contra calumnias Joannis Miltoni. Hagae-Comitum, Typis +Adriani Ulacq, 1655._" ("Supplement to the Public Testimony of +Alexander Morus, Churchman and Professor of Sacred Literature, in +reply to the Calumnies of John Milton. Hague: Printed by Adrian +Ulac, 1655.") Ulac prefixes, under the heading "_The Printer to the +Reader_," a brief explanatory Preface. "You have here, good Reader," +he says, "the missing remainder of the edition of a Treatise which we +lately printed and published under the title _Aleaxandri Mori Fides +Publica contra calumnias Joannis Miltoni_. This remainder that +Reverend gentleman has sent me from France. Of the whole matter judge +as may seem fair and just to you. Let it suffice for me to have +satisfied your curiosity. Farewell." It must have been this +_Supplementum_ of Morus, reaching London perhaps in April 1655, +or perhaps during the first busy correspondence about the Piedmontese +massacre, that delayed the appearance of Milton's already written +Rejoinder to the imperfect _Fides Publica_. He would notice this +"Supplement" as well as the volume already published, and so have +done with Morus altogether. + +[Footnote 1: Vaughan's _Protectorate_, I. 73; where "Mr. Miton" +appears as "Mr. Hulton."] + +Morus's _Supplementum_ consists of 105 pages, added to the +original _Fides Publica_, but numbered onwards from the last +page there, so as to admit of the binding of the two volumes into one +volume consecutively paged, though with two title-pages, differently +dated. The matter also proceeds continuously from the point at which +the _Fides Publica_, broke off. Referring to the testimony borne +to his character in the venerable Diodati's Letter from Geneva to +Salmasius, dated May 9, 1648, and connecting it with Milton's mention +of his personal acquaintance with Diodati formed in his visit to +Geneva in 1639, Morus addresses Milton thus: + + "This is that John Diodati upon whom you cast no small stain by + your praise, and who truly, if he were alive, would prefer to be in + the number of those who are vituperated by you. Would he + _were_ alive! How he would beat back your pride, not indeed + with other pride, but with the gravest smile of contempt! How he + would despise in his great mind your thoughts, sayings, acts, all + in one! How he would anticipate your fine satire, and, moved with + holy loathing, spit upon it! '_With him_,' you say, '_I had + daily society at Geneva_.' But what did you learn from him? What + of desirable contagion did you carry away from his acquaintance? + Often have we heard him enumerating those friends he had in your + country whom he commended on the score of either learning or + goodness. Of _you_ we never heard a syllable from him." + +Then, after telling of his affectionate parting with Diodati at +Geneva, when both, were in tears and the old man blessed him, he +proceeds to quote other Testimonials, either in French or in Latin. +Four more are still from former Swiss friends:--viz. an extract from +another letter of Diodati, addressed to M. L'Empereur; a letter from +M. Sartoris to Salmasius, dated Geneva, April 5, 1648; a testimonial +from the lawyer Gothofridius, dated Geneva, May 24, 1648; and a +subsequent letter from the same, dated Basel, April 23, 1651. All are +very complimentary. Passing then to his life in Holland after leaving +Switzerland, Morus continues the series of his testimonials. We have +first, in French or Latin, or both, a letter from the Church at +Middleburg to the Church at Geneva, dated Nov. 2, 1649, an extract +from a letter of the Synod of the Walloon Churches of the United +Provinces to the Pastors and Professors of Geneva, dated May 6, 1650, +and a testimonial from the Church of Middleburg, on the occasion of +sending M. Morus as deputy to the said Synod, dated April 19, 1650. +More documents of the same kind follow, chiefly for the purpose of +disproving the assertion that M. Morus had been condemned and ejected +by the Middleburg Church. They include an extract from the Acts of +the Consistory of the Walloon Church of Middleburg, dated July 10, +1652, a testimonial from the Middleburg Church of the same date, and +an extract from the Articles of the Synod of the Walloon Churches +held at Groede, Aug. 21-23, 1652. Having thus brought himself, with +ample testimonials of character, to the date of his removal from the +Middleburg Church to the Professorship in Amsterdam, he takes up more +expressly the _Accusatio de Bontid_ or Bontia scandal. He gives +what he calls the true and exact version of that story, with those +details about Madame de Saumaise and her quarrel with him on Bontia's +account which have already appeared in our narrative. He lays stress +on the fact that it was himself that had instituted the law-process, +and persevered in it to the end; and he dwells at some length on the +successful issue of the case both in the Walloon Synod and in the +Supreme Court of Holland. He has evidence, he says, that Salmasius, +to his dying day, spoke in high terms of him, and admitted that +Madame de Saumaise was in the wrong. "This statement has been made," +he says, "not solely in reply to your insolence, but also out of +regard for the weakness and ignorance of those at a distance who have +imbibed the venom of the calumny and heard of the spiteful revenge to +which I was subject, but not of the unusual sequel of its judicial +discomfiture. All of whom, but especially my friends and countrymen, +amid whom there has happened to me the same that happened to Basil +among _his_ neighbours, I request and beseech by all that is +sacred not rashly to credit mere report, much less the letters which +my adversaries have sent hither and thither through all nations, +especially after they perceived that they were driven from all their +defences at home, judging that they would more easily invest their +lie with belief and authority in distant parts. Fair critics, I doubt +not, will at least suspend their judgment, and not incline to either +side, until there shall have reached them a just narrative of the +facts, truly and freely written by a friend, the publication of which +has hitherto been kept back at my desire." Three additional +testimonials are then appended to show that his reputation had not +suffered in Amsterdam on account of the Saumaise-Bontia scandal, and +especially that the rumour that he had been suspended from +ministerial functions there was utterly untrue. These Amsterdam +testimonials, as being the latest in date, and the most important in +Morus's favour, may be given in abstract:-- + + _From the Magistrates of Amsterdam, July 11, 1654_:--"Whereas + the Reverend and very learned Mr. Alexander Morus, Professor of + Sacred History in our illustrious School, has complained to us that + one John Milton, in a lately published book, has attacked his + reputation with atrocious calumnies, and has added moreover that + the Magistrates of Amsterdam have interdicted him the pulpit, and + that only his Professorship of Greek remains,... We, &c., + testify." What they testify is that, since Morus had come to + Amsterdam, "not only had he done nothing which could afford ground + for such calumnies, or was unworthy of a Christian and Theologian," + but he had also discharged the duties of his Professorship with + extraordinary learning, eloquence and acceptance. So far, + therefore, were the Magistrates from censuring M. Morus that, on + the contrary, they were ready still, on any occasion, to afford him + all the protection and show him all the good will in their power. + The certificate is sealed with the City seal, and signed by "N. + Nicolai," the City clerk. + + _From the Amsterdam Church (about same date)_:--Three Pastors + of this Church--Gothofrid Hotton, Henry Blanche-Tete, and Nicolas + de la Bassecour--certify, "in the name of the whole convocation of + the Gallo-Belgie Church of Amsterdam," that Morus discharges his + Professorship with high credit; also "that, as regards his life and + conversation, they are so far from knowing or acknowledging him to + be guilty of those things of which he is accused by one Milton, an + Englishman, in his lately published book, that, on the contrary, + they have frequently requested sermons from him, and he has + delivered such in the church, excellent in quality and perfectly + orthodox,--which could not have occurred if anything of the alleged + kind had been known to his brethren (_quod heud factum fuisset si + hujusmodi quioquam nobis innotuisset_)." + + _From the Curators of the Amsterdam School, July 29, + 1654_:--To the same effect, with the story of the circumstances + of the appointment of Morus to the Professorship. They had been + very anxious to get him, and he had justified their choice. "We + think the calumnies with which he is undeservedly loaded arise from + nothing else than the ill-will which is the inseparable + accompaniment of especially distinguished virtue." Signed, for the + Curators, by "C. de Graef" and "Simon van Hoorne." + +After asking Milton how he can face these flat contradictions of his +charges, not from mere individuals, but from important public bodies, +and saying that "one favourable nod from any one of the persons +concerned would be worth more than the vociferations of a thousand +Miltons to all eternity," Morus corrects Milton's mistake as to the +nature of his Professorship. It is not a Professorship of Greek, but +of Sacred History, involving Greek only in so far as one might refer +in one's lectures to Josephus or the Greek Fathers. But he _had_ +been a Professor of Greek--in Geneva, to wit, when little over twenty +years of age. Nor, in spite of all Milton's facetiousness on the +subject of Greek, and his puns on _Morus_ in Greek, was he +ashamed of the fact. "For all learning whatever is Greek, so that +whoever despises Greek Literature, or professors of the same, must +necessarily be a sciolist." And here he detects the reason of +Milton's incessant onslaughts on Salmasius. Milton was evidently +most ambitious of the fame of scholarship, as appeared from his +anticipations of immortality in his Latin poems; and, though he might +be a fair Latinist--not immaculate in Latin either, as he might hear +some time or other from Salmasius himself, though that was a secret +yet--he knew that he could never snatch away from Salmasius the palm +of the highest, i.e. of Greek, scholarship. Morus does not claim for +himself the title of a perfect classic; he is content with his +present position and its duties. Admirable lessons in life are to be +obtained from the study of Church History. Of these not the least is +the verification of the words in the Gospel, "Woe unto you when all +men shall speak well of you." What calumnies had been borne by +Jerome, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Athanasius, and others of the best of +men! With such examples before one, why should an insignificant +person, like the writer, conscious too of many faults and weaknesses, +take calumny too much to heart? This pathetic strain, attained +towards the close of the book, is maintained most skilfully in the +peroration. + + "But, if credit enough is not given to my own solemn affirmation, + nor to this Public Testimony, Thee, Lord God, I make finally my + witness, who explorest the inmost recesses of the spirit, who + triest the reins, and knowest the secret motives of the breast, a + Searcher of hearts to whom, as if by thorough dissection, all + things are bare. Thee, God, Thee I call as my witness, who shalt + one day be my Judge and the Judge of all, whether it is not the + case that men see in this heart of mine what Thou seest not. Would + that Thou didst not also see in the same heart what they do not + see! But ah me! I am far baser in reality than they feign. + Suppliantly I adore the will of Thy Providence that permits me to + be falsely accused among men on account of so many hidden faults of + which I am truly guilty in Thy sight. Thou, Lord, saidst to Shimei, + 'Curse David.' Glory be to Thy name that hast chosen to preserve + me, exercised with so many griefs, that I may serve Thyself. There + is one great sin discernible in my soul, which I confess before the + whole world. I have never served Thee in proportion to my strength; + that little talent of Thy grace which Thou hast deigned to grant me + I have not yet turned to full account--whether because I have + followed too much the pleasures of mere study, or whether I have + consumed too much time and labour in refuting the invectives of the + evil-disposed, to whom, such has been Thy pleasure, I have been + constantly an object of attack. Cover the past for me, regulate the + future. Cleared before men, before Thee I shall be cleared never, + unless Thy mercy shall be my succour. I confess I have sinned + against Thee, nor shall I do so more. Thou seest how this paper on + which I write is now all wet with my tears: pardon me, Redeemer + mine, and grant that the vow I now take to Thee I may sacredly + perform. Let a thousand dogs bark at me, a thousand bulls of Bashan + rush upon me, as many lions war against my soul, and threaten me + with destruction, I will reply no more, defended enough if only I + feel Thee propitious. I will no more waste the time due to Thee, + sacred to Thee, in mere trifles, or lose it in beating off the + importunity of moths. Whatever extent of life it shall please Thee + to appoint me still, I vow, I dedicate, all to Thee, all to Thy + Church. So shall we be revenged on our enemies. Convert us all, + Thou who only canst. Forgive us, forgive them also; nor to us, nor + to them, but to Thy name, be the glory!" + +Milton read this, but was not moved. On the 8th of August, 1655, +there was published his Rejoinder to the original _Fides +Publica_, with his notice of the _Supplementum_ appended. It +is a small volume of 204 pages, entitled _Joannis Miltoni_, _Angli_, +_Pro Se Defensio contra Alexandrum Morum_, _Ecclesiasten_, _Libelli +famosi_, _cui titulus 'Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Cælum adversus +Parricidas Anglicanus'_, _authorem recte dictum. Londini_, _Typis +Newcomianis_, 1655 ("The English, John Milton's Defence for +Himself, in reply to Alexander Morus, Churchman, rightly called the +author of the notorious book entitled 'Cry of the King's Blood to +Heaven against the English Parricides,' London, from Newcome's Press, +1655"). This is perhaps the least known now of all Milton's writings. +It has never been translated, even in the wretched fashion in which +his _Defensio Prima_ and _Defensio Secunda_ have been; and +it is omitted altogether in some professed editions of Milton's whole +works.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The date of publication is from the Thomason copy in the +British Museum.] + +After a brief Introduction, in which Milton remarks that the quarrel, +which was originally for Liberty and the English People, has now +dwindled into a poor personal one, he discusses afresh, as the first +real point in dispute, the question of the authorship of the _Regii +Sanguinis Clamor_. Morus's denials, or seeming denials, go for +nothing. Any man may deny anything; there are various ways of denial; +and he still maintains that Morus is, to all legal intents and +purposes, responsible for the book. "Unless I show this." he says, +"unless I make it plain either that you are the author of that most +notorious book against us, or that you have given sufficient occasion +for justly regarding you as the author, I do not object to the +conclusion that I have been beaten by you in this controversy, and +come out of it ignominiously, with disgrace and shame." How is this +strong statement supported? In the first place, there is reproduced +the evidence of original, universal, and persistent rumour. "This I +say religiously, that through two whole years I met no one, whether a +countryman of my own or a foreigner, with whom there could be talk +about that book, but they all agreed unanimously that you were called +its author, and they named no one for the author but you." To Morus's +assertion that he had openly, loudly, and energetically disowned the +book, where suspected of the authorship, Milton returns a complex +answer. Partly he does not believe the assertion, on the ground that +there were many who had heard Morus confessing to the book and +boasting of it. Partly he asks why such energetic repudiations were +necessary, and why, in spite of them, intimate friends of Morus +retained their former opinion. Partly he admits that there may +latterly have been such repudiations, but not till there was danger +in being thought the author. Any criminal will deny his crime in +sight of the axe; and, apart from the punishment which Morus had +reason to expect when he knew that Milton's reply to the _Regii +Sanguinis Clamor_ was forthcoming, what had not the author of that +book to dread after the Peace between the Dutch and the Commonwealth +had been concluded? By articles IX., X., and XI. of the Peace it was +provided that no public enemy of the Commonwealth should have +residence, shelter, living, or commerce, within the bounds of the +United Provinces; and who more a public enemy of the Commonwealth +than the author of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_? No wonder that, +after that Peace, Morus had trembled for the consequences of his +handiwork. The loss of his Amsterdam Professorship, instant ejection +from Holland, and prohibition of return under pain of death, were +what he had to fear. Were not these powerful enough motives for +denial to a man like Morus? Had not Milton, when he learnt by letters +from Durie in May 1654 that Morus was disowning--the book, been +entitled to remember these motives? For what other evidence had been +produced besides Morus's own word? His friend Hotton's only; and that +was no independent testimony, but only Morus's at second hand. And +even now, after Morus's repeated and studiously-worded denials in his +_Fides Publica_, how did the case stand? + + "That book [the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_] consists of various + prooemia and epilogues [i.e. addition to the central text]--to wit, + _An Epistle to Charles_, another _To the Reader_, and two + sets of verses at the close, one eulogistic of Salmasius, the other + in defamation of me. Now, if I find that you wrote or contributed + any page of this whole book, even a single verse, or that you + published it, or procured it, or advised it, or superintended the + publishing, or even lent the smallest particle of aid therein, you + alone, since no one else is to the fore, shall be to me responsible + for the whole, the author, the 'Crier'. Nor can you call this + merely my severity or vehemence; for this is the procedure + established among almost all nations by right and laws of equity. I + will adduce, as universally accepted, the Imperial Civil Law. Read + _Institut. Justiniani l. IV. De Injuriis, Tit. 4_: 'If any one + shall write, compose, or publish, or with evil design cause the + writing, composing, or publishing, of a book or poem (or story) for + the defamation of any one,' &c. Other laws add 'Even should he + publish in the name of another, or without name;' and all decree + that the person is to be taken for the author and punished as such. + I ask you now, not whether you wrote the text of the _Regii + Sanguinis Clamor_, but whether you made, wrote, published, or + caused to be published, the Epistle Dedicatory to Charles prefixed + to the _Clamor_, or any particle thereof; I ask whether you + composed or caused to be published the other Epistle to the Reader, + or finally that Defamatory Poem, You have replied nothing yet to + these precise questions. By merely disowning the _Clamor_ + itself and strenuously swearing that you wrote no portion of it, + you thought to escape with safe credit, and make game of us, + inasmuch as the Epistle to Charles the Son, or that to the Reader, + or the set of Iambic verses, is not the _Regii Sanguinis + Clamor_. Take now this in brief, therefore, that you may not be + able so to wheel about or prevaricate in future, or hope for any + escape or concealment, and that all may know how far from + mendacious, how veritable on the contrary, or at least not + unfounded, was that report which arose about you: take, I say, this + in brief,--that I have ascertained, not by report alone, but by + testimony than which none can be surer, that you managed the + bringing out of the whole book entitled _Regii Sanguinis + Clamor_, and corrected the printer's proofs, and composed, + either alone, or in association with one or two others, the Epistle + to Charles II. which bears Ulac's name. Of this your own name + 'ALEXANDER MORUS,' subscribed to some copies of that Epistle, has + been too clear and ocular proof to many witnesses of the fact for + you to be able to deny the charge or to get rid of it.... There are + several who have heard yourself either admit, on interrogation, + that that Epistle is yours, or declare the fact spontaneously.... + If you ask on what evidence I, at such a distance, make these + statements, and how they can have become so certain to myself, I + reply that it is not on the evidence of rumour merely, but partly + on that of most scrupulous witnesses who have most solemnly made + the assertions to myself personally, partly on that of letters + written either to myself or to others. I will quote the very words + of the letters, but will not give the names of the writers, + considering that unnecessary in matters of such notoriety + independently. Here you have first an extract from a letter to me + from the Hague, the writer of which is a man of probity and had no + common means of investigating this affair:--'I have ascertained + beyond doubt (_exploratissimum mihi est_) that Morus himself + offered the copy of the _Clamor Regii Sanguinis_ to some other + printers before Ulac received it, that he superintended the + correction of the errors of the press, and that, as soon as the + book was finished, copies were given and distributed by him to not + a few.'... Take again the following, which a highly honourable and + intelligent man in Amsterdam writes as certainly known to himself + and as abundantly witnessed there:--'It is most certain that almost + all through these parts have regarded Morus as the author of the + book called _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_; for he corrected the + sheets as they came from the press, and some copies bore the name + of Morus subscribed to the Dedicatory Epistle, of which also he + was the author. He himself told a certain friend of mine that he + was the author of that Epistle: nay there is nothing more certain + than that Morus either assumed or acknowledged the authorship of + the same.' ... I add yet a third extract. It is from another letter + from the Hague:--'A man of the first rank in the Hague has told me + that he has in his possession a copy of the _Regii Sanguinis + Clamor_ with Morus's own letter.'" + +Farther on Milton re-adverts to the same topic, in a passage which it +is also well to quote: + + "You say you 'will produce not rumours merely, not conversations + merely, but letters, in proof that I had been warned not to assail + an innocent man.' Let us then inspect the letter you publish, which + was written to you by 'that highly distinguished man, Lord + Nieuport, ambassador of the Dutch Confederation,'--a letter, it is + evident, which you bring forward to be read, not for any force of + proof in it, for it has none, but merely in ostentation. He--and it + shows the singular kindliness of 'the highly distinguished man' + (for what but goodness in him should make him take so much trouble + on your most unworthy account?)--goes to Mr. Secretary Thurloe. He + communicates your letter to Mr. Secretary. When he saw that he had + no success, he sends to me two honourable persons, friends of mine, + with that same letter of yours. What do they do? They read me that + letter of Morus, and they request, and say that Ambassador Nieuport + also requests, that I will trust to your letter in which you deny + being the author of the _Clamor Regii Sanguinis_. I answered + that what they asked was not fair--that neither was Morus's word + worth so much, nor was it customary to believe, in contradiction to + common report and other ascertained evidence, the mere letter of an + accused person and an adversary denying what was alleged against + him. They, having nothing more to say on the other side, give up + the debate.... When afterwards the Ambassador wanted to persuade + Mr. Secretary Thurloe, he had still no argument to produce but the + same copy of your letter; whence it is quite clear that those + 'reasons' brought to me 'for which he desired' me to be so good as + not to publish my book had nothing to do with reasons of State. Do + not then corrupt the Ambassador's letter. Nothing there of 'hostile + spirit,' nothing of the 'inopportune time;' all he writes is that + he 'is sorry I had chosen, notwithstanding his request, to show so + little moderation'--sorry, that is, that I had not chosen, at his + private request, to oblige you, a public adversary, and to recall + and completely rewrite a work already printed and all but out. Let + 'the highly distinguished man,' especially as an Ambassador, hold + me excused if I would not, and really could not, condone public + injuries on private intercessions." + +Before Milton passes to the review of Morus's vindication of his +character and past career, he disposes of Dr. Crantzius and Ulac, as +objects intervening between him and that main task. For the _Fides +Publica_, it will be remembered, had been bound up with that Hague +edition of Milton's _Defensio Secunda_ to which the Rev. Dr. +Crantzius had prefixed a preface in rebuke of Milton and in defence +of Morus, and to which Ulac had also prefixed a statement replying to +Milton's charges against him of dishonesty and bankruptcy. Several +pages are given to Dr. Crantzius, who is called "a certain I know not +what sort of a bed-ridden little Doctor," then taxed with ignorance, +garrulity, and general imbecility, and at last kicked out of the way +with the phrase "But I do marvellously delight in Doctors." Ulac, as +having been reckoned with before, receives briefer notice. "_You +are a swindler, Ulac_, said I; _I am a good Arithmetician_, +says Ulac:" so the notice begins; and then follow some sentences to +the effect that Ulac's creditors had been very ill satisfied with his +_counting_, that the rule of probity is not the _Logarithmic +canon_, that correct accounts are different things from _Tables +of Sines_ or _Tables of Tangents and Secants_, and that +acting on the square is not necessarily taught by +_Trigonometry_. After which Milton reverts to Ulac's +double-dealings with himself, first in his fathering the abusive +Dedication of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ while he was +corresponding with Milton's friends in London and making kind +inquiries about Milton's health, and next in bringing out a pirated +edition of the _Defensio Secunda_, printing the same +inaccurately, and actually binding it up with the _Fides +Publica_ of Morus, so as to compel a united sale of the two books +for his own profit. How a man could have published so coolly a book +in which he was himself held up as a rogue and swindler passes +Milton's comprehension; but Ulac, he seems to admit, was no ordinary +tradesman. + +For poor Morus himself there is not an atom of mercy yet. All his +dexterous pleading, all his declarations of innocence, all his +pathetic appeals, all his citations of the decisions in his favour in +the Bontia case by the Walloon Synod and the Supreme Court of +Holland, are simply trampled under foot, and the charges formerly +made against him are ruthlessly reiterated as true nevertheless. +There are even additional details, and fresh charges of the same +kind, derived from more recent information. The plan adopted by +Milton is to go over the _Fides Publica_, extracting phrases and +sentences from it, and commenting on each extract; but the general +effect of the book is that of the ruthless chasing round and round of +the poor ecclesiastic in a biographical ellipse, the two foci of +which are Geneva and Leyden. + +Distinct evidence is produced that both at Geneva and in Holland the +_fama_ against Morus was still as strong as ever. The evidence +takes the form of extracts from two letters received by Milton since +the _Fides Publica_ had appeared;-- + + _From a Letter from Geneva, dated Oct. 14, 1654_ (i.e. from + that letter of Ezekiel Spanheim of which Milton had told Spanheim + that he meant to avail himself, though without mentioning the + writer's name: sec ante pp. 172-173). "Our people here cannot + sufficiently express their wonder that you are so thoroughly + acquainted with the private history of a man unknown to you + personally, and that you have painted him so in his native colours + that not even by those with whom he has been on the most familiar + terms could the whole play-acting career of the man (_tota, + hominis histrionia_) have been more accurately or happily set + forth; whence they are at a loss, and I with them, to understand + with what face, shameless though he is and impudent-mouthed, he is + on the point of daring again to appear in the public theatre. For + it is the consummation and completeness of your success in this + part of the business that you have not brought forward either + imagined or otherwise unknown charges against the man, but charges + of common repetition in the mouths of all his greatest friends + even, and which can be clearly corroborated by the authority and + vote of the whole assembly, and even by the accession of farther + criminations to the same effect... I would assure you that hardly + any one can now longer be found here, where for many years he + discharged a public-office, but greatly to the disgrace of this + Church, who would dare or undertake longer to lend his + countenance to the man's prostituted character." + + _From a Letter from Durie at Basel, Oct. 3, 1654_:--"As + regards Morus's vices and profligacy, Hotton does not seem to + entertain that opinion of him; I know, however, that others speak + very ill of him, that his hands are against nearly everybody and + everybody's hands against him, and that many ministers even of the + Walloon Synod are doing their best to have him deprived of the + pastoral office. Nor here in Basel do I find men's opinion of him + different from that in Holland of those who like him least." + +The fresh, particulars of information that Milton had received about +Morus and his alleged misdeeds are unsparingly brought out. The name +of the woman of bad character at Geneva with whom Morus was said to +have been implicated there, and the scandal about whom had driven him +from Geneva, has now been ascertained by Milton. It was Claudia +Pelletta; and of her name, and all the topographical details of +Morus's alleged meetings with her, there is enough and more than +enough. Claudia Pelletta at Geneva, and Bontia at Leyden, pull Morus +between them page after page: not that they only have claims, for in +one sentence we hear of an insulted widow somewhere in Holland, and +in another of a dubious female figure seen one rainy night with Morus +in a street in Amsterdam. But Bontia is still Milton's favourite. He +repeats the Latin epigram about her and Morus; he apologizes for +having hitherto called her Pontia, attributes the error to a +misreading of the MS. of that epigram when it first came from +Holland, but says he still thinks Pontia the prettier name; and, +using information that had recently reached him, though we have been +in prior possession of something equivalent (Vol. IV. p. 465), he +thus reminds Morus of his most memorable meeting with that brave +damsel:-- + + "You remember perhaps that day, nay I am sure you remember the day, + and the hour and the place too, when, as I think, you and Pontia + [he still keeps to the form 'Pontia'] last met in the house of + Salmasius--you to renounce the marriage-bond, she to make you name + the day for the nuptials. When she saw, on the contrary, that it + was your intention to dissolve the marriage-engagement made in the + seduction, then lo! your unmarried bride, for I will not call her + Tisiphone, not able to bear such a wrong, flew furiously at your + face and eyes with uncut nails. You who, on the testimony of + Crantzius (for it is right that so great a contest should not begin + without quotation from your own _Fides Publica_)--you who, on + the testimony of Crantzius, were _altier_ in French, or + _fiercish_ in Latin, and on the testimony of Diodati had + _terrible spurs for self-defence_, prepare to do your manly + utmost in this feminine kind of fight. Madame de Saumaise stands by + as Juno, arbiter of the contest, Salmasius himself, lying in the + next room ill with the gout, when he heard the battle begun, + almost dies with laughing. But alas! and O fie! our unwarlike + Alexander, no match for his Amazon, falls down vanquished. She, + getting her man underneath, then first, from her position of + vantage, goes at his forehead, his eye-brows, his nose; with + wonderful arabesques, and in a Phrygian style of execution, she + runs her finger-points over the whole countenace of her prostrate + subject: never were you less pleased, Morus, with Pontia's lines + of beauty. At last, with difficulty, either margin of his cheeks + fully written on, but the chin not yet finished, up he rises, a + man, by your leave, absolutely nail-perfect, no mere Professor now + but a Pontifical Doctor,--for you might have inscribed upon him, as + on a painting, _Pontia fecit_. [We see now the reason for + keeping to the form 'Pontia.'] Doctor? Nay rather a codex in which + his vengeful critic had scraped her adverse comments with a new + stilus. You felt then, I think, Ulac's Tables of Tangents and + Secants, to a radius of I know not how many painful ciphers, + printed on your skin." + +How does Milton meet Morus's protestations of his innocence both at +Geneva and in Leyden, and the evidence he adduces in his behalf? +Respecting the protestations, he notes that they are merely general +and that, like his denials of the authorship of the _Regii +Sanguinis Clamor_, they are worded equivocally or indistinctly. +Why does he not deny the Pelletta charge and the Bontia charge, and +the other charges, one by one specifically, and in a downright +manner? Why does he not go back to Geneva, face the living witnesses +and the documentary evidence there waiting him, and abide the issue? +As for the decisions in his favour in the Bontia case by the Walloon +Synod and the Supreme Court of Holland, of what worth are they? One +could see, one had even been informed, that there had been influences +at work with both tribunals to procure the result, such as it was. +Many good, but easy, men had thought it best, for the reputation of +the Christian ministry, not to rake too deeply into such an +unpleasant business. Especially in the Synod the proceedings had been +a farce. When Riverius, the moderator of the Synod, at the close of +the proceedings, had said to Morus, "_Never was a Moor so +whitewashed as you have been to-day_," could not everybody, with +any sense of humour, perceive that the Reverend gentleman had been +joking? Then, what had been the formal decision of the Synod? +"_That nothing had been found in the papers of weight to take away +from the Churches their wonted liberty of inviting M. Morus to preach +when there was occasion_." Was that a whitewashing with which to +be content? No wonder that Morus had taken refuge among his paper +testimonials. About the whole system of Testimonials Milton is +considerably dubious. He does not deny that a public testimonial may +be an honour, and that there may be proper occasion for such things; +but, real discernment of merit being rare, and those who give and +those who seek testimonials being but a jumble of the good and the +bad together, the abuses of the system bring it into discredit. "The +man of highest quality needs another's testimonial the least; nor +does any good man ever do anything merely to make himself known." +Waiving that general question, however, one may _examine_ +Morus's testimonials. + +This examination of the testimonials is begun in the first or main +part of Milton's _Pro Se Defensio_; but, as Morus had only +entered on his testimonials in the _Fides Publica_ as originally +published, and presented most of them in his _Supplementum_ to +that book, so Milton prolongs this branch of his criticism into an +appendix entitled separately _Authoris ad Aleasandri Mori +Supplementum Responsio_ ("The Author's Answer to Alexander More's +Supplement.") Prom the first sentences of this Appendix we learn that +the preceding part of Milton's book had been written two months +before the _Supplementum_ had come into his hands. + +Morus's published Testimonials divide themselves chronologically, it +may have been observed, into three sets--(1) those given him at +Geneva early in the year 1648, and brought by him into Holland on his +removal thither, (2) those given him at Middleburg between Nov. 1649 +and Aug. 1652, and (3) the three given him at Amsterdam in July 1654, +after Milton's _Defensio Secunda_ had appeared, and in +contradiction of statements made in that book.--On the Genevese set +of Testimonials, including that from the venerable Diodati, Milton's +criticism, in substance, is that they were vitiated by their date. +They had been given, or obtained by hard begging, not perhaps before +the Pelletta scandal had been heard of, but before it had been +sufficiently notorious, and while it still seemed credible to many +that Morus was innocent, and others were good-naturedly willing to +stop the investigation by speeding him off to another scene, Theodore +Tronchin, pastor and Professor of Theology, and Mermilliod and +Pittet, two other pastors, had been the first movers, among the +Genevese clergy, for an inquiry into Morus's conduct; the elder +Spanheim had, as Milton believed, been one of those that even then +would have nothing to do with the Testimonials; the aged Diodati had +then for some time ceased to attend the meetings of his brethren, and +might not know all. But, in any case, nearly a year had elapsed +between the date of the last of those Genevese Testimonials which +Morus had published and Morus's actual departure from Geneva. During +that interval there had been a progress of Genevese opinion on the +subject of his character and conduct, and he had been furnished with +fresh papers in the nature of farewell Testimonials. Morus had +suppressed those. Would he venture to produce them?--On the +Middleburg Testimonials the criticism is that they do not matter much +one way or another, but that they show Morus on the whole to have +soon been found a troublesome person in Holland also, some business +about whom was always coming up in the Walloon Synods. In Middleburg +too there had been a progress of opinion about him with farther +experience. His co-pastor there. M. Jean Long, who had been his firm +friend for a while, and had signed some of the testimonials, was now +understood to speak of him with absolute detestation. Morus having +produced some of these testimonials to disprove Milton's assertion +that he had been ejected by the Middleburg church, Milton explains +that he had not said _ejected_, but only _turned adrift_, +and that this was substantially the fact. Now, however, if Durie's +report is correct, not only would the single Middleburg church, but +nearly the whole Walloon Synod also, willingly _eject_ +him.--Milton's greatest difficulty is with the three Amsterdam +testimonials of July 1654. He has to admit that they prove him to +have been misinformed when he said that the Amsterdam authorities had +interdicted Morus from the pulpit, just as he had been wrong in +calling Morus's Amsterdam professorship that of Greek. That admission +made (and it was hard for Milton ever to admit he was wrong, even in +a trifle), he contents himself with quoting sentences from the +Amsterdam testimonials to show how merely formal they were, how +little hearty, and with this characteristic observation about the +Amsterdam dignitaries, tossing their testimony aside in any case: +"_Et id nescio_, [Greek: aristindên] _an_ [Greek: +ploutindên], _virtute an censu, magistratum ilium in civitate suâ +obtineant_: And I know not, moreover, whether it is by merit or by +wealth that the gentlemen hold that magistracy in their city." This +is, doubtless, Milton's return for the slighting mention of himself +in the Amsterdam testimonials.[1] + +[Footnote 1: A Hague correspondent of Thurloe, commenting on the +appearance of the first part of Morus's _Fides Publica_ and its +abrupt ending had written, Nov. 3, 1654, thus: "The truth is Morus +durst not add the sentence [text of the judicial finding] against +Pontia; for the charges are recompensed [costs allowed her], and +where there is payment of charges that is to say that the action of +Pontia is good, but that the proofs fail.... The attestations of his +life at Amsterdam and at the Hague, he could not get them to his +fancy" (Thurloe, 11.708).] + +While we have thus given, with tolerable completeness, an abstract of +Milton's extraordinary _Pro Se Defensio contra Alexandrum +Morum_, we have by no means noticed everything in it that might be +of interest in the study of Milton's character. There is, for +example, one very curious passage in which Milton, in reply to a +criticism of Morus, defends his use of very gross words (_verba +nuda et prætextata_) in speaking of very gross things. He makes +two daring quotations, one from Piso's Annals and the other from +Sallust, to show that he had good precedent; and he cites Herodotus, +Seneca, Suetonius, Plutarch, Erasmus, Thomas More, Clement of +Alexandria, Arnobius, Lactantlas, Eusebius, and the Bible itself, as +examples occasionally of the very reverse of a squeamish euphemism. +Of even greater interest is a passage in which he foresees the +charges of cruelty, ruthlessness, and breach of literary etiquette, +likely to be brought against him on account of his treatment of +Morus, and expounds his theory on that subject. The passage may fitly +conclude our account of the _Pro Se Defensio_:-- + + "To defame the bad and to praise the good, the one on the principle + of severe punishment and the other on that of high reward, are + equally just, and make up together almost the sum of justice; and + we see in fact that the two are of nearly equal efficacy for the + right management of life. The two things, in short, are so + interrelated, and so involved in one and the same act, that the + vituperation of the bad may in a sense be called the praising of + the good. But, though right, reason, and use are equal on both + sides, the acceptability is not the same likewise; for whoever + vituperates another bears the burden and imputation of two very + heavy things at once,--accusing another, and thinking well of + himself. Accordingly, all are ready enough with praise, good and + bad alike, and the objects of their praise worthy and unworthy + together; but no one either dares or is able to accuse freely and + intrepidly but the man of integrity alone. Accustomed in our youth, + under so many masters, to make laborious displays of imaginary + eloquence, and taught to think that the demonstrative force of the + same lies no less in invective than in praise, we certainly do at + the desk hack to pieces bravely the traditional tyrants of + antiquity. Mezentius, if such is the chance, we slay over again + with unsavoury antitheta; or we roast to perfection Phalaris of + Agrigentum, as in his own bull, with lamentable bellowing of + enthymemes. In the debating room or lecture-room, I mean; for in + the State for the most part we rather adore and worship such, and + call them most powerful, most great, most august. The proper thing + would be either not to have spent our first years in sport as + imaginary declaimers, or else, when our country or the State needs, + to leave our mere fencing-foils, and venture sometimes into the + sun, and dust, and field of battle, to exert real brawn, shake real + arms, seek a real foe. The Suffeni and Sophists of the past, on the + one hand, the Pharisees and Simons and Hymenæi and Alexanders of + the past on the other, we go at with many a weapon: those of the + present day, and come to life again in the Church, we praise with + studied eulogies, we honour with professorships, and stipends, and + chairs, the incomparable men that they are, the highly-learned and + saintly. If it comes to the censuring of one of them, if the mask + and specious skin of one of them are dragged off, if he is shown to + be base within, or even publicly and openly criminal, there are + some who, for what purpose or through what timidity I know not, + would have him publicly defended by testimonies in his favour + rather than marked with due animadversion. My principle, I confess, + and as the fact has several times proved, is far enough apart from + theirs, inasmuch as, if I have made any profit when young in the + literary leisure I then had, whether by the instructions of learned + men or by my own lucubrations, I would employ the whole of it to + the advantage of life and of the human race, could I range so far, + to the utmost of my weak ability. And, if sometimes even out of + private enmities public delinquencies come to be exposed and + corrected, and I have now, impelled by all possible reasons, + prosecuted with most just invective, nor yet without proper result, + not an adversary of my own merely, but one who is the common + adversary of almost all, a nefarious man, a disgrace to the + Reformed Religion and to the sacred order especially, a dishonour + to learning, a most pernicious teacher of youth, an unclean + ecclesiastic, it will be seen, I hope, by those who are chiefly + interested in making an example of him (for why should I not so + trust?), that herein I have performed an action neither displeasing + to God, nor unwholesome to the Church, nor unuseful to the State." + +What a blast this to pursue poor Morus over the Continent! It would +seem as if, in expectation of it, he had put himself as far as he +could out of hearing. When Milton's _Pro Se Defensio_ appeared, +Morus was no longer in France, but in Italy; and it was not till May, +1656, or nine months after, that he reappeared in Holland. Then, as +he had outrun by more than a year his formal leave of absence from +his Amsterdam professorship, granted Dec, 20, 1654, there seem to +have been strict inquiries as to the causes of his long absence. It +was explained that he had fallen ill at Florence; it also came out +that he had had a very distinguished reception from the Grand Duke of +Tuscany, and that the Venetian Senate had presented him with a chain +of gold for a Latin poem he had written on a recent defeat of the +Turks at sea by the Venetian navy; and, what was most to the point, +it appeared, by addresses of his own at Amsterdam, and at a meeting +of the Walloon Synod at Leyden, that he had found in Italy great +opportunities "for advancing the glory of God by the preaching of the +Gospel." We know independently that, while in Italy, he had made +acquaintance with some of those wits and scholars among whom Milton +had moved so delightfully in his visit of 1638-9, and among whom +Heinsius had been back in 1652-3, to find that they still remembered +Milton, and could talk about him (Vol. IV. pp. 475-476); and it is +even startling to have evidence from Moms himself that he exchanged +especial compliments at Rome with Milton's old friend Holstenius, the +Vatican librarian, and became so very intimate at Florence with +Milton's beloved Carlo Dati as to receive from Dati the most +affectionate attention and nursing through his illness. And so, all +seeming fully satisfied at Amsterdam, he resumed his duties in the +Amsterdam School. Not to be long at peace, however. Hardly had he +returned when, either on the old charges, now so terrifically +reblazoned through Holland by Milton's perseverance for his ruin, or +on new charges arising from new incidents, he and the Walloon +church-authorities were again at feud. In this uncomfortable state we +must leave him for the present.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bayle's Dict, Art. _Morus_, and Bruce's Life of +Morus, pp. 142-145 and 204-205. This last book is a curiosity. One +hardly sees why the life and character of Morus should have so +fascinated the Rev. Archibald Bruce, who was minister of the Associate +Congregation at Whitburn, in Linlithgowshire, from 1768 to 1816, and +Professor of Theology there for the Associate Presbyterian Synod for +nearly all that time. He was a worthy and learned man, for whom Dr. +McCrie, the author of the Life of John Knox, and of the same +Presbyterian denomination, entertained a more "profound veneration" +than for any other man on earth (see Life of McCrie by his son, edit. +1840, pp. 52-57). He was "a Whig of the Old School," with liberal +political opinions in the main, but strongly opposed to Roman +Catholic emancipation; which brought him into connexion with Lord +George Gordon, of the "No Popery Riots" of 1780. He wrote many books +and pamphlets, and kept a printer at Whitburn for his own use. He may +have been drawn to Morus by his interest in the history of +Presbyterianism abroad, especially as Morus was of Scottish +parentage, or by his interest in the proceedings of Presbyterian +Church Courts in such cases of scandal as that of Morus. At any rate, +he defends Morus throughout most resolutely, and with a good deal of +scholarly painstaking. Milton, on the other hand, he thoroughly +dislikes, and represents as a most malicious and un-Christian man, +consciously untruthful, and of most lax theology to boot. To be sure, +he was the author of _Paradise Lost_; but that much-praised poem +had serious religious defects too! There is something actually +refreshing in the _naïveté_ and courage with which the +sturdy Professor of the Associate Synod propounds his own dissent +from the common Milton-worship.--The authority for Morus's +acquaintanceship in Italy with Holstenius and Dati is the collection +of his Latin Poems, a thin quarto, published at Paris in 1669, under +the title of _Alexandri Mori Poemata_. It contains his poem, a +longish one in Hexameters, on the victory of the Venetians over the +Turks; also verses to the Grand-Duke of Tuscany; also obituary +elegiacs to Diodati of Geneva, and several pieces to or on Salmasius. +One piece, in elegiacs, is addressed "_Ad Franciscum Turretinum, +raræ indolis ac summæ spei juvenem_." This Francis Turretin (so +addressed, I suppose, long ago, when he and Morus were in Geneva +together) was, if I mistake not, the famous Turretin of Milton's +letter about Morus to Ezekiel Spanheim (ante pp. 173-176). Among the +other pieces are one to Holstenius and one to Carlo Dati. In the +first Morus, speaking of his introduction to Holstenius and to the +Vatican library together, says he does not know which seemed to him +the greater library. The poem to Dati is of considerable length, in +Hexameters, and entitled "_Ægri Somnium: ad præstantem virum +Carolum Dati_" ("An Invalid's Dream: To the excellent Carlo +Dati"). It represents Morus as very ill in Florence and thinking +himself dying. Should he die in Florence and be buried there, he +would have a poetic inscription over his grave to the effect that +while alive he also had cultivated the Muses, and begging the +passer-by to remember his name ("_Qui legis hæc obiter, Morique +morique memento_"). How kind Dati had been to him--Dati, "than +whom there is not a better man, the beloved of all the sister Muses, +the ornament of his country, having the reputation of being all but +unique in Florence for learning in the vanished arts, siren at once +in Tuscan, Latin, and Greek! ... This Dati soothed my fever-fits with +the music of his liquid singing, and sat by my bed-side, and spoke +words of sweetness, which inhere yet in my very marrow." And so +Milton's Italian friend of friends (Vol. III. pp. 551-654 and +680-683) had been charitable to poor Morus, whom he knew to be a +fugitive from Milton's wrath, and who could name Milton, if at all, +only with tears and cursing.] + +It is now high time, however, to answer a question which must have +suggested itself again and again in the course of our narrative of +the Milton and Morus controversy. Who was the real author of the book +for which Morus had been so dreadfully punished, and what was the +real amount of Morus's responsibility in it? + +That Milton's original belief on this subject had been shaken has +been already evident. He had written his _Defensio Secunda_, in +firm reliance on the universal report that Morus was the one proper +author of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_, or that it had been +concocted between him and Salmasius; and, though Morus's denial of +the authorship had been formally conveyed to him before the +_Defensio Secunda_ left the press, he had let it go forth as it +was, in the conviction that he was still not wrong in the main. The +more express and reiterated denials of Morus in the _Fides +Publica_, however, with the references there to another person as +the real author, though Morus was not at liberty to divulge his name, +had produced an effect. The authorship of the _Regii Sanguinis +Clamor_ was then indeed a secondary question, inasmuch as in the +_Fides Publica_ Morus had interposed himself personally,--not +only in self-defence, but also for counter-attack on Milton. Still, +as the _Fides Publica_ would never have been written had not +Milton assumed Morus to be the author of the _Regii Sanguinis +Clamor_ and dragged him before the world solely on that account, +Milton had necessarily, in replying to the _Fides Publica_, +adverted to the secondary question. His assertion now, i.e, in the +_Pro Se Defensio_, was a modified one. It was that, whatever +facts had yet to be revealed respecting the authorship of the four or +five parts of the compound book severally, he yet knew for certain +that Morus had been the editor of the whole book, the corrector of +the press for the whole, the busy and ostentatious agent in the +circulation of early copies, and the writer at least of the +Dedicatory Preface to Charles II., put forth in Ulac's name. The +question for us now is how far this modified assertion of Milton was +correct. + +Almost to a tittle, it _was_. That Morus was the editor of the +book, the corrector of the press, and the active agent in the +circulation of early copies, may be taken as established by the +documentary proofs furnished by Milton, and is corroborated by +independent evidence known to ourselves long ago (Vol. IV. pp. +459-465). But was he also partially the author? Here too Milton's +evidence may be taken as conclusive, so far as respects the +Dedicatory Epistle to Charles II. That Epistle, with its enormous +praises of Salmasius, and its extremely malignant notice of Milton, +was undoubtedly by Morus, for copies of it signed by himself were +still extant. So far, therefore, Milton was right in saying that +Morus's denial of the authorship of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ +was an equivocation, resting on a tacit distinction between the body +of the book and the additional or editorial matter. In several +passages Morus himself had betrayed this equivocation, but in none so +remarkably as in a sentence to the peculiar phrasing of which we +called attention in quoting it (ante p. 159). Protesting that he had +not so much as known the fact of Milton's blindness at the time of +the publication of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_, and therefore +could not have been guilty of the heartless allusion to it in the +Dedicatory Epistle, he there said, "_If anything occurred to me +that might seem to look that way, I referred to the mind_,"--a +phrase which it is difficult to construe otherwise than as an +admission that he had written the Dedicatory Epistle, but had +employed the familiar quotation there ("_monstrum horrendum, +informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum_") only metaphorically. All in +all, then, the authorship of the Dedicatory Epistle, as well as the +editorship and adoption of the whole anonymous book, is fastened upon +Morus. With this amount of responsibility fastened upon him, however, +Morus must be dismissed, and another person brought to the bar. He +was the Rev. DR. PETER DU MOULIN the younger. + +The Du Moulins were a French family, well known in England. The +father, Dr. Peter Du Moulin the elder (called _Molinæus_ in +Latin), was a French Protestant theologian of great celebrity. He had +resided for a good while in England in the reign of James I., +officiating as French minister in London, and in much credit with the +King and others; but, on the death of James, he had returned to +France. At our present date he was still alive at the age of +eighty-seven, and still not so much out of the world but that people +in different countries continued to think of him as a contemporary +and to quote his writings. There are references to him, far from +disrespectful, in one of Milton's Anti-Episcopal Pamphlets in reply +to Bishop Hall.[1] Two of his sons, both born in France, had settled +permanently in England, and had become passionately interested in +English public affairs, though in very different directions.--The +younger of these, LEWIS DU MOULIN, born 1606, having taken the degree +of Doctor of Physic at Leyden, had come to England when but a young +man, and, after having been incorporated in the same degree at +Cambridge (1684), had been in medical practice in London. At the +beginning of the Long Parliament, he had taken the Parliamentarian +side, and had written, under the name of "Irenæus Philalethes," two +Latin pamphlets against Bishop Hall's _Episcopacy by Divine +Right_--pamphlets very much in the same vein of root-and-branch +Church Reform as those of the Smectymnuans and Milton at the same +time. Since then, still adhering to the Parliament through the Civil +War, he had become well known as an Independent--much, it is said, to +the chagrin of his old father, who was a Presbyterian, with leanings +to moderate Episcopacy; and in 1647, in the Parliamentary visitation +of the University of Oxford, he had been rewarded with the Camden +Professorship of History in that University. He had been made M.D. of +Oxford in 1649. At least three publications had come from his pen +since his appointment to the Professorship, one of them a Translation +into Latin (1650) of the first chapter of Milton's +_Eikonoklastes_. From this we should infer, what is +independently likely, that he was acquainted with Milton +personally.[2]--Very different from the Independent and +Commonwealth's man Lewis Du Monlin. M.D. and History Professor of +Oxford, was his elder brother PETER DU MOULIN, D.D. Born in 1600, he +had been educated, like his brother, at Leyden, and had taken his +D.D. degree there. He is first heard of in England in 1640, when he +was incorporated in the same degree at Cambridge; and at the +beginning of the Civil War he was so far a naturalised Englishman as +to be Rector of Wheldrake, near York. From that time, though a +zealous Calvinist theologically, he was as intensely Royalist and +Episcopalian as his brother was Parliamentarian and Independent. So +we learn most distinctly from a brief MS. sketch of his life through +the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth, written by himself after the +Restoration, for insertion into a copy of the second edition of one +of his books, of date 1660, presented by him to the library of +Canterbury Cathedral. "Our gracious King and now glorious Martyr, +Charles the First, he there says, finding that his rebellious +subjects, not content to make war against him in his kingdom, +assaulted him with another war out of his kingdom with their tongues +and pens, he set out a Declaration to invite all his loving subjects +and friends that could use the tongues of the neighbouring states to +represent with their pens the justice of his cause, especially to +Protestant Churches abroad. That Declaration smote my heart, as +particularly addressed to me; and I took it as a command laid upon me +by God himself. Whereupon I made a solemn vow to God that, as far as +Latin and French could go in the world, I would make the justice of +the King's and the Church's cause to be known, especially to the +Protestants of France and the Low Countries, whom the King's enemies +did chiefly labour to seduce and misinform. To pay my vow, I first +made this book" [entitled originally "_Apologie de la Religion +Reformée, et de la Monarchie et de I'Église d'Angleterre, contre les +Calomnies de la Ligue Rebelle de quelques Anglois et Écossois_"; +but in an imperfect English translation the title was afterwards +changed into "_History of the Presbyterians_", and in the second +French edition, on a copy of which Du Moulin was now writing, it +became "_Histoire des Nouveaux Presbytériens, Anglois et +Écossois_"]--which was begun "at York, during the siege [i.e. June +1644, just before Marston Moor], in a room whose chimney was beaten +down by the cannon while I was at my work; and, after the siege and +my expulsion from my Rectory at Wheldrake, it was finished in an +underground cellar, where I lay hid to avoid warrants that were out +against me from committees to apprehend me and carry me prisoner to +Hull. Having finished the book, I sent it to be printed in Holland by +the means of an officer of the Master of the Posts at London, Mr. +Pompeo Calandrini, who was doing great and good services to the King +in that place. But, the King being dead, and the face of public +businesses altered, I sent for my MS. out of Holland, and reformed it +for the new King's service. And it was printed, but very +negligently, by Samuel Browne at the Hague [1649?] ... Much about the +same time I set out my Latin Poem, _Ecclesiæ Gemitus_ ('Groans +of the Church'), with, a long Epistle to all Christians in the +defence of the King and the Church of England; and, two years after +[1652], _Clamor Regii Sanguinis ad Coelum_. God blessed these +books, and gave them the intended effect, the disabusing of many +misinformed persons. And it was so well resented by his Majesty, then +at Breda, that, being showed my sister Mary among a great company of +ladies, he brake the crowd to salute her, and tell her that he was +very sensible of his obligations to her brother, and that, if ever +God settled him in his kingdom, he would make him know that he was a +grateful prince." Here, then, in Dr. Peter Du Moulin's own hand, +though not till after the Restoration, we have the _Regii Sanguinis +Clamor_ claimed as his, with the information that it was one of a +series of books written by him with the special design of maintaining +the cause of Charles II. and discrediting the Commonwealth among +Continental Protestants.[3] + +[Footnote 1: See close of _Animadversions on the Remonstrant's +Defence_.] + +[Footnote 2: Wood's Fasti, II. 125-126; Whitlocke, II. 290. The +writings of Lewis Du Moulin I have here mentioned are known to me +only by the titles and descriptions given by Wood and his annotator +Dr. Bliss.] + +[Footnote 3: Wood's Fasti, II. 195; and _Gentleman's Magazine_ +for 1773, pp. 369-370. In the last is given the autobiographic +sketch of Du Moulin, transcribed from the copy of his _Histoire +des Nouveaux Presbytériens_ (edit. 1660) in the Canterbury +Library.--The Mary du Moulin, the sister of Peter and Lewis, +mentioned in the autobiographic sketch, died at the Hague in Feb. +1699, having, like most of the Du Moulins, attained a great age. +The father, Dr. Peter the elder, died in 1658 at the age of ninety; +Lewis died in 1683 at the age of seventy-seven; and Peter the +younger, of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_, died in 1684 at the +age of eighty-four.--The reader will have noted the Pompeo +Calandrini mentioned as an official in the London Post Office in +the time of the Civil War, and as secretly aiding Charles I. in his +correspondence. He was, doubtless, of the Italian-Genevese family of +Calandrinis already mentoned, _ante_ pp. 172-173 and footnote.] + +Yet farther proof on the subject, also from Dr. Peter's own hand. In +the Library of Canterbury Cathedral there is, or was, his own copy of +the original edition of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_; and in +that copy the preliminary Dedicatory Epistle in Ulac's name to +Charles II. is marked for deletion, and has these words prefixed to +it in Du Moulin's hand; "_Epistola, quam aiunt esse Alexandri +Mori, quæ mihi valde non probatur_" ("Epistle which they say is by +Alexander Morus, and which is not greatly to my taste"),[1] All the +rest, therefore, was his own. But, to remove all possible doubt, we +have the still more complete and exact information furnished by him +in 1670, Milton then still alive and in the first fame of his +_Paradise Lost_. In that year there appeared from the Cambridge +University Press a volume entitled _Petri Molinæi P. F. [Greek: +Parerga]: Poematum Libelli Tres_. It was a collection of Dr. Peter +Du Moulin's Latin Poems, written at various times of his life, and +now arranged by him in three divisions, separately title-paged, +entitled respectively "Hymns to the Apostles' Creed," "Groans of the +Church" (_Ecclesiæ Gemitus_), and "Varieties." In the second +division were reprinted the two Latin Poems that had originally +formed part of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_, with their full +titles as at first: to wit, the "Eucharistic Ode," to the great +Salmasius for his _Defensio Regia_, and the set of scurrilous +Iambics "To the Bestial Blackguard John Milton, Parricide and +Advocate of the Parricide." With reference to the last there are +several explanations for the reader in Latin prose at different +points in the volume. At one place the reader is assured that, though +the Iambics against Milton, and some other things in the volume, may +seem savage, zeal for Religion and the Church, in their hour of sore +trial, had been a sufficient motive for writing them, and they must +not be taken as indicating the private character of the author, as +known well enough to his friends. At another place (pp. 141-2 of the +volume) there is, by way of afterthought or extension, a larger and +more express statement about the Iambics against Milton, which must +here be translated in full: "Into what danger I was thrown," says Du +Moulin, "by the first appearance of this Poem in the _Clamor Regii +Sanguinis_ would not seem to me worthy of public notice now, were +it not that the miracle of divine protection by which I was kept safe +is most worthy of the common admiration of the good and the praise of +the Supreme Deliverer. I had sent my manuscript sheets to the great +Salmasius, who entrusted them to the care of that most learned man, +Alexander Morus. This Morus delivered them to the printer, and +prefixed to them an Epistle to the King, in the Printer's name, +exceedingly eloquent and full of good matter. When that care of +Morus over the business of printing the book had become known to +Milton through the spies of the Regicides in Holland, Milton held it +as an ascertained fact that Morus was the author of the +_Clamor;_ whence that most virulent book of Milton's against +Morus, entitled _Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano_. It had +the effect, moreover, of making enemies for Morus in Holland; for at +that time the English Tyrants were very much feared in foreign parts. +Meanwhile I looked on in silence, and not without a soft chuckle, at +seeing my bantling laid at another man's door, and the blind and +furious Milton fighting and slashing the air, like the hoodwinked +horse-combatants in the old circus, not knowing by whom he was struck +and whom he struck in return. But Morus, unable to stand out against +so much ill-will, began to cool in the King's cause, and gave Milton +to know who the author of the _Clamor_ really was (_Clamoris +authorem Miltono indicavit_). For, in fact, in his Reply to +Milton's attack he produced two witnesses, of the highest credit +among the rebels, who might have well known the author, and could +divulge him on being asked. Thus over me and my head there hung the +most certain destruction. But that great Guardian of Justice, to whom +I had willingly devoted both my labour and my life, wrought out my +safety through Milton's own pride, as it is customary with His Wisdom +to bring good out of evil, and light out of darkness. For Milton, who +had gone full tilt at Morus with his canine eloquence, and who had +made it almost the sole object of his _Defensio Secunda_ to cut +up the life and reputation of Morus, never could be brought to +confess that he had been so grossly mistaken: fearing, I suppose, +that the public would make fun of his blindness, and that +grammar-school boys would compare him to that blind Catullus in +Juvenal who, meaning to praise the fish presented to Domitian, + + "'Made a long speech, + Facing the left, while on his right there lay + The actual turbot.' + +[Footnote 1: _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1773, as in last note.] + +"And so, Milton persisting in his blundering charge against Morus +for that dangerous service to the King, the other Rebels could not, +without great damage to their good patron, proceed against any other +than Morus as guilty of so great a crime. And, as Milton preferred my +getting off scatheless to being found in a ridiculous position +himself, I had this reward for my pains, that Milton, whom I had +treated so roughly, turned out my patron and sedulous body-guard. +Don't laugh, reader; but give best thanks, with me, to God, the most +good, the most great, and the most wise, deliverer." + +This final version of the story of Du Moulin (in 1670, remember) +seems to have become current among those who, after the Restoration, +retained any interest in the subject. Thus, Aubrey, in his notes for +Milton's life, written about 1680, has a memorandum to this effect, +giving "Mr. Abr. Hill" as his authority: "His [Milton's] sharp +writing against Alexander More of Holland, upon a mistake, +notwithstanding he [Morus] had given him [Milton], by the ambassador, +all satisfaction to the contrary, viz. that the book called +_Clamor_ was writ by Peter Du Moulin. Well, that was all one +[said Milton]; he having writ it [the _Defensio Secunda_], it +should go into the world: one of them was as bad as the +other.'"--_Bentrovato_; but there is at least one vital +particular in which neither Du Moulin's amusing statement in 1670 nor +Aubrey's subsequent anecdote seems to be consistent with the exact +truth as already before us in the documents. The secret of the real +authorship of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ had been better and +longer kept than Du Moulin's statement would lead us to suppose. Even +Ulac in 1654, as we have seen, while declaring that Morus was not the +author, could not tell who else he was. Morus himself did then know, +having been admitted into the secret, probably from the first; and +several others then knew, having been told in confidence by +Salmasius, Morus, or Du Moulin. Charles II. himself seems to have +been informed. But that Morus had refrained from divulging the secret +generally, or communicating it in a precise manner to Milton, even at +the moment when he was frantically trying to avert Milton's wrath and +stop the publication of the _Defensio Secunda_, seems evident, +and must go to his credit. In the remonstrance with Thurloe, in May +1654, through the Dutch ambassador Nieuport, intended to stop the +publication when, it was just leaving the press, we hear only of the +denial of Morus that he was the author--nothing of any information +from him that Du Moulin was the real author; and, though Durie had +about the same time informed Milton in a letter from the Hague that +he had heard the book attributed, on private authority from Morus, to +"a certain French minister," no name was given. Farther, in the +_Fides Publica_, published some months afterwards, Morus was +still almost chivalrously reticent. While declaring that the real +author was "alive and well," and while describing him negatively so +far as to say that he was not in Holland, nor within the circle of +Morus's own acquaintances, he still avoids naming him, and only +appeals to himself to come forward and own his performance. And so, +as late as August 1655, when Milton replied to Morus in his _Pro Se +Defensio_, the evidence still is that, though he had more correct +ideas by that time as to the amount and nature of Morus's +responsibility for the book, and was aware of some other author at +the back of Morus, he had not yet ascertained who this other author +was, and still thought that the defamatory Iambics against himself, +as well as the Dedicatory Epistle to Charles II., might be Morus's +own. It seems to me possible that not till after the Restoration did +Milton know that the alleged "French Minister" at the back of Morus +in the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ was Dr. Peter Du Moulin, or at +all events that not till then did he know that the defamatory +Iambics, as well as the main text, were that gentleman's. The only +person who could have put an end to the mystery completely was Du +Moulin himself, and not till after the Restoration, as we have seen, +was it convenient, or even safe, for Du Moulin to avow his +handiwork. + +Yet all the while, as Du Moulin himself hints in his confession of +1670, he had been, if we may so express it, close at Milton's elbow. +In 1652, when the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ appeared, Du Moulin, +then fifty-two years of age, and knows as a semi-naturalized +Frenchman, the brother of Professor Lewis Du Moulin of Oxford, had +been going about in England as an ejected parson from Yorkshire, the +very opposite of his brother in politics. He had necessarily known +something of Milton already; and, indeed, in the book itself there is +closer knowledge of Milton's position and antecedents than would have +been easy for Salmasius, or Morus, or any other absolute foreigner. +The author had evidently read Milton's _Tenure of Kings and +Magistrates_ and his _Eikonoklastes_, as well as his +_Defensio Prima_; he was aware of the significance given to the +first of these treatises by the coincidence of its date with the +King's Trial, and could represent it as actually a cause of the +Regicide; he had gone back also upon Milton's Divorce Pamphlets and +Anti-Episcopal Pamphlets, and had collected hints to Milton's +detriment out of the attacks made upon him by Bishop Hall and others +during the Smectymnuan controversy. All this acquaintance with +Milton, the phrasing being kept sufficiently indefinite, Du Moulin +could show in the book without betraying himself. That, as he has +told us, would have been his ruin. The book, though shorter than the +_Defensio Regia_ of Salmasius, was even a more impressive and +successful vilification of the Commonwealth than that big +performance; and not even to the son of the respected European +theologian Molinaeus, and the brother of such a favourite of the +Commonwealth as Dr. Lewis Du Moulin, could Parliament or the Council +of State have shown mercy after such an offence. As for Milton, the +attack on whom ran through the more general invective, not for "forty +thousand brothers" would _he_ have kept his hands off Dr. Peter +had he known. Providentially, however, Dr. Peter remained +_incognito_, and it was Morus that was murdered, Dr. Peter +looking on and "softly chuckling." Rather, I should say, getting more +and more alarmed, and almost wishing that the book had never been +written, or at all events praying more and more earnestly that he +might not be found out, and that Morus, murdered irretrievably at any +rate, would take his murdering quietly and hold his tongue. For the +Commonwealth had firmly established itself meanwhile, and had passed +into the Protectorate; and all rational men in Europe had given up +the cause of the Stuarts, and come to regard pamphlets in their +behalf as so much waste paper; and was it not within the British +Islands after all, ruled over though they were by Lord Protector +Cromwell, that a poor French divine of talent, tied to England +already by various connexions, had the best chances and outlooks for +the future? So, it appears, Du Moulin had reasoned with himself, and +so he had acted. "After Ireland was reduced by the Parliamentary +forces," we are informed by Wood, "he lived there, some time at +Lismore, Youghal, and Dublin, under the patronage of Richard, Earl of +Cork. Afterward, going into England, he settled in Oxon (where he was +tutor or governor to Charles, Viscount Dungarvan, and Mr. Richard +Boyle his brother); lived there two or more years, and preached +constantly for a considerable time in the church of St. Peter in the +East."[1] His settlement at Oxford, near his brother Dr. Lewis, dates +itself, as I calculate, about 1654; and it must have been chiefly +thence, accordingly, that he had watched Milton's misdirected +attentions to poor Morus, knowing himself to be "the actual turbot." +There is proof, however, as we shall find, that he was, from that +date onwards, a good deal in London, and, what is almost startlingly +strange, in a select family society there which must have brought him +into relations with Milton, and perhaps now and then into his +company. Du Moulin could believe in 1670 that Milton even then knew +his secret, and that he owed his escape to Milton's pride and +unwillingness to retract his blunder about Morus. We have seen reason +to doubt that; and, indeed, Milton, had, in his second Morus +publication, put himself substantially right with the public about +the extent of Morus's concern in the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_, +and had scarcely anything to retract. What he could do in addition +was Du Moulin's danger. He could drag a new culprit to light and +immolate a second victim. That he refrained may have been owing, as +we have supposed most likely, to his continued ignorance that the Dr. +Du Moulin now going about in Oxford and in London, so near himself, +was the original and principal culprit; or, if he did have any +suspicions of the fact, there may have been other reasons, in and +after 1655, for a dignified silence. + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Fasti, II. 195.] + +In proceeding from the month of August 1655, when Milton published +his _Pro Se Defensio_, to his life through the rest of Oliver's +Protectorate, it is as if we were leaving a cluster of large islands +that had detained us long by their size and by the storms on their +coasts, and were sailing on into a tract of calmer sea, where the +islands, though numerous, are but specks in comparison. The reason of +this is that we are now out of the main entanglement of the Salmasius +and Morus controversy. Milton had taken leave of that subject, and +indeed of controversy altogether for a good while. + +In the original memoirs of Milton due note is taken of this calm in +his life after his second castigation of Morus. "Being now quiet from +state adversaries and public contests," says Phillips, "he had +leisure again for his own studies and private designs"; and Wood's +phrase is all but identical: "About the time that he had finished +these things, he had more leisure and time at command." Both add +that, in this new leisure, he turned again at once to those three +labours which had been occupying him, at intervals, for so many +years, and which were, in fact, always in reserve as his favourite +hack-employments when he had nothing else to do--his compilations for +his intended _Thesaurus Linguæ Latinæ_, his _History of +Britain_, and his _Body of Biblical Theology_. The mere +mention of such works as again in progress in the house in Petty +France in the third or fourth year of Milton's blindness confirms +conclusively the other evidences that he had by this time overcome in +a remarkable manner the worst difficulties of his condition. One sees +him in his room, daily for hours together, with his readers and +amanuenses, directing them to this or that book on the shelves, +listening as they read the passages wanted, interrupting and +requiring another book, listening again, interrupting again, and so +at length dictating his notes, and giving cautions as to the keeping +of them. His different sets of papers, with the volumes most in use, +are familiar now even to his own touch in their places on the table +or the floor; and, when his amanuenses are gone, he can sit on by +himself, revising the day's work mentally, and projecting the sequel. +And so from day to day, with the variation of his afternoon exercise +in the garden, or the walk beyond it in some one's company into the +park or farther, or an occasional message from Thurloe on +office-business, or calls from friends singly or two or three +together, and always, of course, at intervals through the day, the +pleased contact of the blind hands with the stops of the organ. + +Among the inmates of the house in Petty France in the latter part of +1655, besides the blind widower himself, were his three little orphan +girls, the eldest, Anne, but nine years of age, the second, Mary, but +seven, and the youngest, Deborah, only three. How they were tended no +one knows; but one fancies them seeing little of their father, and +left very much to the charge of servants. Two women-servants, with +perhaps a man or boy to wait on Milton personally, may have completed +the household, unless Milton's two nephews are to be reckoned as also +belonging to it. + +That the nephews still hovered about Milton, and resided with him +occasionally, together or by turn, giving him their services as +amanuenses, appears to be certain. Edward Phillips was now +twenty-five years of age, and John Phillips twenty-four; but neither +of them had taken to any profession, or had any other means of +subsistence than private pedagogy, with such work for the booksellers +as could be obtained by their own ability or through their uncle's +interest. The younger, as we know, had made some name for himself by +his _Joannis Philippi, Angli, Responsio_ of 1652, written in +behalf of his uncle, and under his uncle's superintendence; and it is +probable that both the brothers had in the interval been doing odds +and ends of literary work. There are verses by both among the +commendatory poems prefixed to the first two parts of Henry Lawes's +_Ayres and Dialogues for one, two, or three Voices_, published +in 1653, as a sequel to that previous publication of 1648, entitled +_Choice Psalmes put into musick for three Voices_, which had +contained Milton's own sonnet to Lawes; and in the _Divine +Poems_ of Thomas Washbourne, a Gloucestershire clergyman, +published in 1654, there are "Verses to his friend Thomas Washbourne" +by Edward Phillips. In this latter year, I find, John Phillips must +have been away for some time in Scotland, for in a letter to Thurloe +dated "Wood Street, Compter, 11th April, 1654", the writer--no other +than Milton's interesting friend Andrew Sandelands, now back from +Scotland himself--mentions Phillips as there instead. Sandelands had +not ceased, under the Protectorate, to try to make himself useful to +the Government, and so get restored to his Rectory; and, as nothing +had come of his grand proposal about the woods of Scotland, he had +interested himself in a new business: viz. "the prosecution of that +information concerning the Crown Lands in Scotland which his Highness +and the late Council of State did refer to the Commissioners at +Leith." Assuring Thurloe that he had been diligent in the affair, he +says, "I have employed Mr. John Phillips, Mr. Milton's kinsman, to +solicit the business, both with the Judges at Edinburgh and with the +Commissioners at Leith; who by _his last letter_ promiseth to +give me a very good account very speedily." Whether this means that +Sandelands had himself sent Phillips from London to Scotland on the +business, or only that, knowing Phillips to be already in Scotland, +he had put the business into his hands, in either case one discerns +an attempt on Milton's part to find some public employment, other +than clerkship under himself, for the unsteady Phillips. The attempt, +however, must have failed; for in 1655 Phillips was back in London, +still a Bohemian, and apparently in a mood that boded ill for his +ever being anything else.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Ath. IV. 760-769 and 212; Lawes's _Ayres and +Dialogues_; Thurloe, II. 226-227.--At the date of the letter to +Thurloe (April 11, 1654) Sandelands was still in great straits. He +had been arrested for debt and was then in prison. He reminds Thurloe +of his attempts to be useful for the last year or more, not +forgetting his project, in the winter of 1652-3, of timber and tar +from the Scottish woods. The "stirs in Scotland" since, it appears, +had obstructed that design after it had been lodged, through Milton, +with the Committee of the Admiralty; but Sandelands hopes it may be +revived, and recommends a beginning that summer in the wood of +Glenmoriston about Loch Ness, where the English soldiers are to be +plentiful at any rate. "Sir," he adds, "if a winter journey into +Scotland to do the State service, and my long attendance here, hath +not deserved a small reward, or at least the taking off of the +sequestration from my parsonage in Yorkshire, I hope ere long I +shall merit a far greater, when by my means his Highness's revenues +shall be increased."--Milton, I may mention, had, about this time, +several old acquaintances in the Protector's service in Scotland. +One was the ex-licencer of pamphlets, Gilbert Mabbot. I find him, in +June 1653, in some official connexion with Leith (Council Order +Book, June 3).] + +On the 17th of August, 1655, or just nine days after the publication +of Milton's _Pro Se Defensio_, there appeared anonymously in +London, in the form of a small quarto pamphlet of twenty-two pages, a +poem in rhyming heroics, entitled _A Satyr against Hypocrites_. +In evidence that it was the work of a scholar, there were two mottoes +from Juvenal on the title-page, one of them the well known "Si natura +negat, facit indignatio versum." Of the performance itself there can +be no more exact description than that of Godwin. "It is certainly +written," he says, "with considerable talent; and the scenes which +the author brings before us are painted in a very lively manner. He +describes successively a Sunday, as it appeared in the time of +Cromwell, a christening, a Wednesday, which agreeably to the custom +of that period was a weekly fast, and the profuse and extravagant +supper with which, according to him, the fast-day concluded. The +christening, the bringing home the child to its mother, who is still +in confinement, and the talk of the gossips, have a considerable +resemblance to the broadest manner of Chaucer." This last remark +Godwin at once qualifies. Whereas in Chaucer, he says, we have sheer +natural humour, with no ulterior end, the _The Satyr against +Hypocrites_ "is an undisguised attack upon the National Religion, +upon everything that was then visible in this country and metropolis +under the name of Religion." In other words, it is in a vein of +anti-Puritanism, or even anti-Cromwellianism, quite as bitter as that +of any of the contemporary Royalist writers, or as that of Butler and +the post-Restoration wits, with a decided tendency also to indecency +in ideas and expression, Of the more serious parts this is a +specimen:-- + + "Oh, what will men not dare, if thus they dare + Be impudent to Heaven, and play with prayer, + Play with that fear, with that religious awe, + Which keeps men free, and yet is man's great law! + What can they but the worst of Atheists be + Who, while they word it 'gainst impiety, + Affront the throne of God with their false deeds? + Alas! this wonder in the Atheist breeds. + Are these the men that would the age reform, + That _Down with Superstition_ cry, and swarm + This painted glass, that sculpture, to deface, + But worship pride and avarice in their place? + _Religion_ they bawl out, yet know not what + Religion is, unless it be to prate!" + +That such "a smart thing," as Wood calls it, should have appeared in +the middle of Cromwell's Protectorate, and that, its +anti-Cromwellianism being implied in its general anti-Puritanism +rather than explicitly avowed, it should have had a considerable +circulation, need not surprise us. What is surprising is that the +author should have been Milton's younger nephew, who had been brought +up from his very childhood under his uncle's roof, and educated +wholly and solely by his uncle's own care. It would add to the +surprise if the thing had been actually written in Milton's house; +and even for that there is, as we shall find, something like +evidence. Altogether, I should say, Mr. John Phillips had, of late, +got quite beyond his uncle's control, and had taken to courses of his +own, not in very good company. Among new acquaintances he had +forsworn his uncle's politics, and was no longer perfectly at ease +with him.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _A Satyr against Hypocrites_, 1655 (Thomason copy +for date of publication); Godwin's _Lives of the Phillipses_, +49-51; Wood's Ath. IV. 764.--The _Satyr against Hypocrites_ is +ascribed in some book-catalogues to Edward Phillips; nay, I have +found it ascribed, by a singular absurdity, to Milton himself. That +it passed at the time as Edward Phillips's seems proved by the entry +of it in the Stationers' Registers under date March 14, 1654-5: "_A +Satyr against Hypocrites by Edward Phillips, Gent_," the +publisher's name being given as "Nathaniel Brooke." I cannot explain +this; but John Phillips was certainly the author. Wood alone would +be good authority; but it appears from one of Bliss's notes to Wood +that the piece was afterwards claimed by John Phillips, and in +Edward Phillips's _Theatrum Poetarum_, published in 1675, the +piece is ascribed by name to his brother John, in evidence of his +"vein of burlesque and facetious poetry" (Godwin, Lives of the +Phillipses, p. 158). It was a rather popular piece when first +published, and was twice reprinted after the Restoration.] + +During the whole time of Milton's residence in Petty France, his +elder nephew tells us, "he was frequently visited by persons of +quality, particularly my lady Ranelagh (whose son for some time he +instructed), all learned foreigners of note (who could not part out +of this city without giving a visit to a person so eminent), and +lastly by particular friends that had a high esteem for him: viz. +Mr. Andrew Marvell, young Lawrence (the son of him that was President +of Oliver's Council), ... Mr. Marchamont Needham, the writer of +_Politicus_, but above all Mr. Cyriack Skinner." To these may be +added Hartlib, Durie (when he was not abroad), Henry Oldenburg, and +others of the Hartlib-Durie connexion. Altogether, the group is an +interesting one, and it is precisely in and about 1655 that we have +the means of seeing all the individuals of it in closest proximity to +Milton and to each other. As one's curiosity is keenest, at this +point, about Lady Ranelagh, she may have the precedence. + +On her own account she deserves it. We have already seen (ante Vol. +III. 658-660) who she was,--by marriage the Viscountess Ranelagh, +wife of Arthur Jones, second Viscount Ranelagh in the Irish Peerage, +but by birth Catharine Boyle, daughter of the great Richard Boyle, +first Earl of Cork, with the four surviving sons of that Earl for her +brothers, and his five other surviving daughters for her sisters.--Of +her four brothers, the eldest, Richard Boyle, second Earl of Cork, +lived generally in Ireland, looking after his great estates there; +and indeed it was in Ireland that most of the family had their chief +properties. But the second brother, Roger Boyle, Lord Broghhill, +already known to us for his services in Ireland under Cromwell, and +for his conspicuous fidelity to Cromwell ever since, was now in +Scotland, as President of Cromwell's Council there. _He_ may be +called the literary brother; for, though his chief activity hitherto +had been in war and politics, he had found time to write and publish +his long romance or novel called _Parthenissa_, and so to begin +a literary reputation which was to be increased by poems, tragedies, +comedies, &c., in no small profusion, in coming years. His age, at +our present date, was about thirty-four. Two years younger was +Francis Boyle, the third brother, afterwards Lord Shannon, and four +years younger still was the philosophical and scientific brother, Mr. +Boyle, or "the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle." When we last saw this +extraordinary young man, after his return from his travels, i.e. in +1645-48, he was in retirement at Stalbridge in Dorsetshire, absorbed +in studies and in chemical experiments, but corresponding eagerly +with Hartlib and others in London, and sometimes coming to town +himself, when he would attend those meetings of the _Invisible +College_, the germ of the future Royal Society, about the delights +of which Hartlib was never tired of writing to him. This mode of life +he had continued, with the interruption of a journey or two abroad, +till 1652. "Nor am I here altogether idle," he says in one of his +latest letters to Hartlib from Stalbridge; "for I can sometimes make +a shift to snatch from the importunity of my affairs leisure to trace +such plans, and frame such models, as, if my Irish fortune will +afford me quarries and woods to draw competent materials from to +construct after them, will fit me to build a pretty house in Athens, +where I may live to Philosophy and Mr. Hartlib." The necessity of +looking after the Irish fortune of which he here speaks had since +then taken him to Ireland and kept him there for the greater part of +two years. He found it, he says, "a barbarous country, where chemical +spirits were so misunderstood, and chemical instruments so +unprocurable, that it was hard to have any Hermetic thoughts in it;" +and he had betaken himself to "anatomical dissections" as the only +kind of scientific pastime that Irish conditions favoured. On +returning to England, in 1654, he had settled in Oxford, to be in the +society of Wilkins, Wallis, Goddard, Ward, Petty, Bathurst, Willis, +and other kindred scientific spirits, most of them recently +transferred from London to posts in the University, and so forming +the Oxford offshoot of the _Invisible College_, as distinct from +the London original. But still from Oxford, as formerly from +Stalbridge, the young philosopher made occasional visits to London; +and always, when there, he was to be found at the house of his +sister, Lady Ranelagh.--What property belonged to Lady Ranelagh +herself, or to her husband, lay also mainly in Ireland; but for many +years, in consequence of the distracted state of that country, her +residence had been in London. "In the Pall Mall, in the suburbs of +Westminster," is the more exact designation. Her Irish property +seems, for the present, to have yielded her but a dubious revenue; +and though she had a Government pension of £4 a week on some account +or other, she seems to have been dependent in some degree on +subsidies from her wealthier relatives. It also appears, though +hazily, that there was some deep-rooted disagreement between her and +her husband, and that, if he was not generally away in Ireland, he +was at least now seldom with her in London. She had her children with +her, however. One of these was her only son, styled then simply Mr. +Richard Jones, though modern custom would style him Lord Navan. In +1655 he was a boy of fifteen years of age, Lady Ranelagh herself +being then just forty. The education of this boy, and of her two or +three girls, was her main anxiety; but she took a deep interest as +well in the affairs of all the members of the Boyle family, not one +of whom would take any step of importance without consulting her. She +corresponded with them all, but especially with Lord Broghill and the +philosophical young Robert, both of them her juniors, and Robert +peculiarly her _protegé_. In his letters to her, all written +carefully and in a strain of stately and respectful affection, we see +the most absolute confidence in her judgment; and it is from her +letters to him, full of solicitude about his health, and of interest +in his experiments and speculations, that we obtain perhaps the best +idea of that combination of intellectual and moral excellencies to +which her contemporaries felt they could not do justice except by +calling her "the incomparable Lady Ranelagh." For that name, which +was to be hers through an entire generation more, was already as +common in talk about her beyond the circle of her own family as the +affectionate one of "Sister Ranelagh" was within that circle. Partly +it was because she was one of the best-educated women of her time, +with the widest tastes and sympathies in matters literary and +philosophical, and with much of that genius of the Boyles, though in +feminine form, which was represented by Lord Broghill and Robert +Boyle among her brothers. Just before our present date we find her +taking lessons in Hebrew from a Scotch teacher of that language then +in London, who afterwards dedicated his _Gate to the Holy +Tongue_ to her, with much respect for her "proficiency in so short +a time," and "amidst so many abstractions as she was surrounded +with." And so in things of greater grasp. In writing to her brother +Robert her satisfaction with the new Experimental Philosophy which he +and others are trying to institute can express itself as a belief +that it will "help the considering part of mankind to a clearer +prospect into this great frame of the visible world, and therein of +the power and wisdom of its great Maker, than the rough draft wherein +it has hitherto been represented in the ignorant and wholesale +philosophy that has so long, by the power of an implicit faith in the +doctrine of Aristotle and the Schools, gone current in the world has +ever been able to assist them towards." But it was not merely by +variety of intellectual culture that Lady Ranelagh was distinguished. +One cannot read her letters without discerning in them a deep +foundation of piety in the best sense, real wisdom, a serious +determination with herself to make her own life as actively useful as +possible, and a disposition always to relate herself to what was +sterling around her. "Though some particular opinions might shut her +up in a divided communion," said Burnet of her long afterwards, "yet +her soul was never of a party. She divided her charities and +friendships, her esteem as well as her bounty, with the truest regard +to merit and her own obligations, without any difference made upon +the account of opinion." This was true even at our present date, when +she was an Oliverian in politics, like her brother Broghill, though +perhaps more moderately so, and in religious matters what may be +called a very liberal Puritan.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Birch's Life of Robert Boyle, prefixed to edition of +Boyle's Works, pp. 27-33; Letters of Boyle to Lady Ranelagh and of +Lady Ranelagh to Boyle in Vol. V. of his Works; Notes by Mr. Crossley +to his edition of _Worthington's Diary and Correspondence_ for +the Chetham Society, I. p. 164-165, and 366. Mrs. Green's Calendar +of State-Papers for 1651, p. 574.] + +How long Lady Ranelagh had known Milton is uncertain; but, as her +nephew, the young Earl of Barrimore, had been one of Milton's pupils +in his house in the Barbican, and as we had express information that +he had been sent there by his aunt, the acquaintance must have begun +as early as 1646 or 1647. And now, it appears, through all the +intermediate eight years of Milton's changes of residence and +fortune, including his six in the Latin Secretaryship, the +acquaintanceship has been kept up, and has been growing more +intimate, till, in 1655, in his widowerhood and blindness in his +house in Petty France, there is no one, and certainly no lady, that +more frequently calls upon him, or whose voice, on the staircase, +announcing who the visitor is, he is more pleased to hear. They were +close neighbours, only St. James's Park between their houses; and his +having taught her nephew, the young Earl of Barrimore, was not now +the only link of that kind between themselves. She had not been +satisfied till she had contrived that her own son should, to some +extent, be Milton's pupil too. "My Lady Ranelagh, whose son for some +time he instructed" are Phillips's words on this point; and, though +we included Lady Ranelagh's son, Mr. Richard Jones, afterwards third +Viscount and first Earl of Ranelagh, in our general enumeration of +Milton's pupils, given under the year 1647, when the Barbican +establishment was complete, it was with the intimation that this +particular pupil, then but seven years old, could hardly have been +one of the Barbican boys, but must have had the benefit of lessons +from Milton in some exceptional way afterwards. The fact, on the +likeliest construction of the evidence, seems to have been that +Milton, to oblige Lady Ranelagh, had quite recently allowed the boy +to come daily, or every other day, from his mother's house in Pall +Mall to Petty France, to sit with him for an hour or two, and read +Greek and Latin. To the end of his life Milton found this easy kind +of pedagogy a pleasant amusement in his blindness, and made it indeed +one of his devices for help to himself in his readings and references +to books; and Lady Ranelagh's son may have been his first experiment +in the method. That he retained an interest in this young Ranelagh of +a semi-tutorial kind, as well as on his mother's account, the sequel +will prove. + +Strange things do happen in real life; and actually it was possible +that, on the day of one of Lady Ranelagh's visits to Milton, she +might have had a call in her own house from Dr. Peter Du Moulin. For +her ladyship's circle of acquaintance did include this gentleman. He +had been tutor in Ireland to her two nephews, Viscount Dungarvan and +Mr. Richard Boyle, sons of her eldest brother, the Earl of Cork, and +he had come with them, still in that capacity, to Oxford (ante p. +224), and so had been introduced into the whole Boyle connexion.[1] +What amount of awkwardness there may have been in a possible meeting +between Du Moulin and Milton themselves through this common social +connexion of theirs in London has been already discussed. The +Ranelagh circle, for the rest, included all those, or most of them, +that were Milton's friends independently, and could converse about +him in her ladyship's own spirit. The family of Lord President +Lawrence, for example, were in high esteem with Lady Ranelagh; and +the President's son, Mr. Henry Lawrence, Milton's young friend, and +presumably one of his former pupils of the Barbican days, seems to +have been about this time much in the company of her ladyship's +nephew, the Earl of Barrimore. That young nobleman, we may mention, +had become a married man, shortly after he had ceased to be Milton's +pupil in the Barbican, and was now leading a gallant and rather idle +life about London, but not quite astray from his aunt's society, or +perhaps from Milton's either.[2] Then there were Hartlib, Durie, +Haak, and other lights of the London branch of the _Invisible +College_, friends of Robert Boyle for years past, and +corresponding with him and the other luminaries of the Oxford colony +of the _College_. Hartlib, in particular, who now lived at +Charing Gross, and who had found a new theme of interest in the +wonderful abilities and wonderful experiments of Mr. Clodius, a +German chemist, who had recently become his son-in-law, was still in +constant correspondence with Boyle, and was often at Lady Ranelagh's +on some occasion or other.[3] Nor must Milton's new German friend, +Henry Oldenburg, the agent for Bremen, be forgotten. He also, as we +shall find, had been drawn, in a special manner, into the Boyle and +Ranelagh connexion, and was, in fact, entering, by means of this +connexion, on that part of his interesting career for which he is +remembered in the annals of English science. He was to marry Durie's +only daughter, and be retained by that tie, as well as by others, in +the Hartlib-Durie cluster of Milton's friends. + +[Footnote 1: Dr. Peter Du Moulin was one of Robert Boyle's friends +and correspondents both before and after the Restoration. It was at +Boyle's request that Du Moulin translated and published in 1658 a +little book called _The Devil of Mascon_, a French story of +well-authenticated spirit-rapping; and the book was dedicated by +Dumoulin to Boyle, and Boyle contributed an introductory letter to +it. Moreover, it was to Boyle that Du Moulin in 1670 dedicated the +first part of his _Parerga_ or Collection of Latin Poems, the +second part of which contained his reprint of the Iambics against +Milton from the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_.--See Birch's Life of +Boyle, p. 60, and four letters of Du Moulin to Boyle in Boyle's +Works, Vol. V (pp 594-596). In three of these letters, all written +after the Restoration, Du Moulin presents his respectful services to +"My Honourable Lady Ranelagh" in terms implying long-established +acquaintanceship. But there are other scattered proofs of Du Moulin's +long intimacy with the whole Boyle family.] + +[Footnote 2: The young Earl had married, hastily and against his +mother's will, in 1649, shortly after he had been Milton's pupil. See +a letter of condolence on the subject from Robert Boyle to his +sister, the young Earl's mother (Boyle's Works, V. 240). For the +intimacy between the young Earl of Barrimore and young Henry Lawrence +see a letter of Hartlib's to Boyle. (Ibid. V. 279).] + +[Footnote 3: Letters of Hartlib to Boyle in Vol. V. of Boyle's +Works.] + +Marvell, Needham, and Cyriack Skinner are not certainly known to have +been among Lady Ranelagh's acquaintances. _Their_ visits to +Milton, therefore, have to be imagined apart. Marvell's, if he were +still domiciled at Eton, can have been but occasional, but must have +been always welcome. Needham's cannot have been, as formerly, on +business connected with the _Mercurius Politicus_; for Milton +had ceased for some years to have anything to do with the editorship +of that journal. The duty of licensing it and its weekly double, +_The Public Intelligencer_, also edited by Needham and published +by Newcome, was now performed regularly by the omnipotent Thurloe. +Both journals would come to Milton's house, to be read to him; and +Needham, in his visits, would bring other gossip of the town, and be +altogether a very chatty companion. "Above all, Mr. Cyriack Skinner" +is, however, Phillips's phrase in his enumeration of those of his +uncle's friends who were most frequently with him about this time. +The words imply that, since June 1654, when this old pupil of +Milton's had again "got near" him (Vol. IV. pp. 621-623), his +attention to Milton had been unremitting, so that Milton had come to +depend upon it and to expect him almost daily. On that understanding +it is that we may read most luminously four private Sonnets of +Milton, all of the year 1655, two of them addressed to Cyriack +Skinner, and one to young Lawrence. The remaining sonnet, standing +first of the four in the printed editions, is addressed to no one in +particular; but the four will be read best in connexion. In reading +them Cyriack Skinner is to be pictured as about twenty-eight years of +age, and Lawrence as a youth of two and twenty:-- + +(1) + + When I consider how my light is spent + Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, + And that one talent which is death to hide + Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent + To serve therewith my Maker, and present + My true account, lest He, returning, chide, + "Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" + I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent + That murmur, soon replies:--"God doth not need + Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best + Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state + Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, + And post o'er land and ocean without rest: + They also serve who only stand and wait." + +(2) + + Cyriack, this three years' day these eyes, though clear, + To outward view, of blemish or of spot, + Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot; + Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear + Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, + Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not + Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot + Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer + Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask? + The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied + In Liberty's defence, my noble task, + Of which all Europe talks from side to side. + This thought might lead me through the world's vain masque + Content, though blind, had I no better guide. + +(3) + + Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son, + Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire, + Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire + Help waste a sullen day, what may be won + From the hard season gaining? Time will run + On smoother, till Favonius reinspire + The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire + The lily and rose, that neither sowed nor spun. + What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, + Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise + To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice + Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air? + He who of those delights can judge, and spare + To interpose them oft, is not unwise. + +(4) + + Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench + Of British Themis, with no mean applause, + Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws, + Which others at their bar so often wrench, + To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench + In mirth that after no repenting draws; + Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause, + And what the Swede intend, and what the French. + To measure life learn thou betimes, and know + Toward solid good what leads the nearest way; + For other things mild Heaven a time ordains, + And disapproves that care, though wise in show, + That with superfluous burden loads the day, + And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains. + +It has been argued that the last two of these Sonnets must be out of +their proper chronological places in the printed editions. They must +have been written, it is said, before Milton lost his sight: for how +are such invitations to mirth and festivity reconcileable with +Milton's circumstances in the third or fourth year of his blindness? +There is no mistake in the matter, however. In Milton's own second +or 1673 edition of his Minor Poems the sonnets, in the order in which +we have printed them,--with the exception of No. 2, which had then to +be omitted on account of its political point,--come immediately after +the sonnet on the Piedmontese Massacre; and there are other reasons +of external evidence which assign Nos. 1, 3, and 4, distinctly to +about the same date as No. 2, the opening--words of which date +_it_ near the middle of 1655. But, indeed, we should miss much +of the biographic interest of the last two sonnets by detaching them +from the two first. In No. 1 we have a plaintive soliloquy of Milton +on his blind and disabled condition, ending with that beautiful +expression of his resignation to God's will in which, under the +image of the varieties of service that may be required by some great +monarch, he contrasts his own stationariness and inactivity with the +energy and bustle of so many of his contemporaries. In No. 2, +addressed to Cyriack Skinner, he treats of the same topic, only +reverting with pride, as he had done several times in prose, to the +literary labour that had brought on his calamity. In both the +intimation is that he has disciplined himself to live on as +cheerfully as possible, taking daily duties, and little pleasures +too, as they come. What more natural, therefore, than that, some +little while after those two affecting sonnets on his blindness had +been written, there should be two others, in which not a word should +be said of his blindness, but young Lawrence and Cyriack Skinner +should find themselves invited, in a more express manner than usual, +to a day in Milton's company? For that is the proper construction of +the Sonnets. They are cards of invitation to little parties, perhaps +to one and the same little party, in Milton's house in the winter of +1655-6. It is dull, cold, weather; the Parks are wet, and the +country-roads all mire; and for some days Milton has been baulked of +his customary walk out of doors, tended by young Lawrence or Cyriack. +To make amends, there shall be a little dinner in the warm room at +home--"a neat repast" says Milton temptingly, adding "with wine," +that there may be no doubt in that particular--to be followed by a +long talk and some choice music. So young Lawrence is informed in +the metrical missive to _him_; and the same day (unless, as we +may hope, the little dinner became a periodical institution in +Milton's house), Cyriack is told to come too. Altogether they are +model cards of invitation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: More detailed reasons for the dating of Sonnets 1, 3, +and 4 (for Sonnet 2 dates itself) will be found in the Introductions +to those Sonnets in the Cambridge Edition of Milton. In line 12 of +No. 2 I have substituted the word "talks" for the word "rings," now +always printed in that place. "Of which all Europe rings from side to +side," is the reading in the copy of the Sonnet as first printed by +Phillips in 1694 at the end of his memoir of Milton; but that copy +is corrupt in several places. The original dictated draft of the +Sonnet among the Milton MSS. at Cambridge is to be taken as the +true text; and there the word is "talks." Phillips had doubtless +the echo of "rings" in his ear from the Sonnet to Fairfax. The more +sonorous reading, however, has found such general acceptance that an +editor hardly dares to revert to "talks."] + +We are now in the winter of 1655-6, and we have seen no Secretarial +work from Milton since his letters and other documents in the +business of the Piedmontese Protestants in May, June, and July, 1655. +Officially, therefore, he had had another relapse into idleness. Not, +however, into total idleness. "_Scriptum Dom. Protectoris +Reipublicæ Anglicæ, Scotiæ, Hiberniæ, &c., ex Consensa atque +Sententia Concilii Sui Edictum, in quo Hujus Reipublicæ Causa contra +Hispanos justa esse demonstratur_, 1655" ("Manifesto of the Lord +Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland. Ireland, &c., put +forth by the consent and advice of his Council, in which the justice +of the cause of this Commonwealth against the Spaniards is +demonstrated, 1655"), is the title of a Latin document, of the length +of about twenty such pages as the present, now always included in +editions of Milton's prose-writings, on the probability, though not +quite the certainty, that it was Milton's performance. If so, it was +the third great document in the nature of a Declaration of War +furnished by Milton for the Commonwealth, the two former having been +his Latin version of the Declaration of the Causes of War against the +Scots in June 1650 (IV. 228) and his similar version of the +Declaration against the Dutch in July 1652 (IV. 482-483). The present +manifesto was perhaps a more difficult document to draft than either +of those had been, inasmuch as Cromwell had to justify in it his +recent attack upon the Spanish possessions in the West Indies. +Accordingly, the manifesto had been prepared with some pains. It +passed the Council finally on the 26th of October, 1655, four days +after the Spanish ambassador Cardenas had left England, and two days +after the Treaty between Cromwell and France had been signed;[1] and +the Latin copies of it were out in London on the 9th of November.[2] +Unlike the previous Declarations against the Scots and the Dutch, +which had been printed in several languages, it appears to have been +printed in Latin only. + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Book of date.] + +[Footnote 2: Dated copy among the Thomason Pamphlets.] + +A general notion of the document will be obtained from, an extract or +two in translation. The opening is as follows:-- + + "That the causes that induced us to our recent attack on certain + Islands in the West Indies, now for some time past in the + possession of the Spaniards, are just and in the highest degree + reasonable, there is no one but will easily understand if only he + will reflect in what manner that King and his subjects have always + conducted themselves towards the English nation in that tract of + America ... Whenever they have opportunity, though without the + least reason of justice, and with no provocation of injury, they + are incessantly killing, murdering, nay butchering in cold blood, + our countrymen there, as they think fit, seizing their goods and + fortunes, destroying their plantations and houses, capturing any of + their vessels they may meet on those seas, and treating their crews + as enemies and even pirates. For they call by that opprobrious name + all of any nation, themselves alone excepted, who dare to navigate + those waters. Nor do they profess to have any other or better right + for this than reliance on some ridiculous donation of the Pope, and + the fact that they were the first discoverers of some parts of that + western region ... Certainly it would have been disgraceful and + unworthy in us, in possession as we were, by God's bounty, of so + many ships, furnished, equipped, and ready for every use of + maritime warfare, to have chosen to let them rot idly at home, + rather than employ them in those parts in avenging the blood of the + English, so unjustly, so inhumanly, and so often, shed by the + Spaniards there,--nay, the blood too of the Indians, inasmuch as + God 'hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all + the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before + appointed, and the bounds of their habitation' [Acts xvii. 26] ... + Our purpose, however, is to show the right and equity of the + transaction itself, rather than to state all our several reasons + for it. And, that we may do this the more clearly, and explain + general assertions by particulars, it will be proper to cast our + eyes back a little into the past, and to run strictly over the + transactions between the English and the Spaniards, observing the + state of affairs on both sides, as far as mutual relations were + concerned, from the time of the first discovery of the West Indies + and of the Reformation of Religion. For those two great events, as + they were nearly contemporary, occasioned everywhere in the world + vast changes, but especially as between the English and the + Spaniards; which two nations have from that time followed diverse + and almost opposite methods and principles in the management of + their affairs." + +The manifesto, accordingly, then reviews the history of the relations +between Spain and England from the time of Henry VIII., appending at +last a long list of more recent outrages by the Spaniards on English +ships and settlements in the West Indies, the dates all duly given, +with the names of the ships and their captains, and the values of the +cargoes. After which, returning to more general considerations, it +discusses the two pretexts of the Spaniards for their sole +sovereignty in the West Indies,--the Papal donation, and the right of +first discovery. Both are dismissed as absurd; and the document ends +with an appeal to the common interests of Protestantism throughout +Europe. Even the recent massacre of the Vaudois Protestants is +brought into the plea. Thus:-- + + "If meanwhile we suffer such grievous injuries to be done to our + countrymen in the West Indies without any satisfaction or + vengeance; if we consent to be all excluded from that so important + part of the world; if we permit our bitter and inveterate enemy + (especially now that peace has been made with the Dutch) to carry + home unmolested those huge treasures from the West Indies, by + which he can repair his present losses, and restore his affairs to + such a condition that he shall be able again to betake himself to + that deliberation of his in 1588 'whether it would be more prudent + to begin with England for the recovery of the United Provinces of + Holland, or to begin with them for the subjugation of + England';--beyond a doubt he will find for himself not fewer, but + even more reasons, why the beginning should now be made with + England. And, should God permit him ever to carry out these + designs, then we should have good grounds for expecting that on us + first, but eventually on all Protestants wheresoever, there would + be wreaked the residue of that most brutal massacre suffered lately + by our brothers in the Alpine valleys: which massacre, if credit is + to be given to the published complaints of those poor orthodox + Christians, was originally schemed and appointed in the secret + councils of the Spanish Court, through the agency of those paltry + friars whom they call missionaries (_per illos fraterculos + missionarios quos vacant Hispanicæ aulæ consiliis intimis + informata primitus ac designata erat_)." + +How far Milton's hand helped in this important document of the +Protectorate may fairly be a question. The substance was probably +drafted by the Council and Thurloe, and only handed to Milton for +re-expression and translation; nay, it is possible that even in the +work of translation, to save time, Milton and Meadows may have been +partners. All in all, however, as the proofs are all but certain that +Milton's hand was to _some_ extent employed in the document, it +may mark his return to ordinary official work in Oct.-Nov. 1655, +after three months of renewed exemption from such work, following his +batch of state-letters on the subject of the Massacre in +Piedmont.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The _Scriptum Domini Protectoris contra Hispanos_ +was reprinted, as indubitably Milton's, in 1738, and again in 1741, +to assist in rousing British feeling afresh against Spain; and Birch +and all succeeding editors of Milton have agreed in regarding it as +his. Godwin, however (_Hist. of Commonwealth_, IV. 217-219, +footnote), suggests doubts.] + +What adds to the probability that Cromwell's Manifesto against Spain, +dated Oct. 26, 1655, and published Nov. 9, was partly of Milton's +composition, is the fact, to which we have now to request attention, +that he did about this time resume ordinary office-work to an extent +beyond expectation. The following is a list of Letters to Foreign +States and Princes written by him for Cromwell from Dec. 1655 to May +1656 inclusively. Two or three of them are important Cromwellian +documents, and require elucidation:-- + + (LXV.) TO THE DOGE OF VENICE, _Dec. 1655_:--His Highness + congratulates the Venetians upon their recent naval victory over + the Turks, but brings to their notice the fact that among the ships + they had taken in that victory there was an English one, called + _The Great Prince_, belonging to William and Daniel Williams + and Edward Beal, English merchants. She had been pressed by the + Turks at Constantinople, and employed as a transport for Turkish + soldiers and provisions to Crete. The crew had been helpless in the + affair, and the owners blameless; and his Highness does not doubt + that the Doge and Senate will immediately give him a token of their + friendship by causing the ship to be restored.--The naval victory + of the Venetians was, doubtless, that which Morus had celebrated + In the Latin poem for which he received his gold chain (ante pp. + 212-213). + + (LXVI.) To LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE, Dec. 1655:--Samuel Mico, William + Cockain, George Poyner, and other English merchants have petitioned + his Highness about a ship of theirs, called _The Unicorn_, + which had been seized in the Mediterranean as long ago as 1650 by + the Admiral and Vice-Admiral of the French fleet, with a cargo + worth £34,000. The capture was originally unfair, as there was then + peace between England and France, and express promises had been + recently given by Cardinal Mazarin and the French Ambassador, M. de + Bordeaux, that amends would be made as soon as the Treaty with + France was complete. That happily being now the case, his Highness + expects from his Majesty the indemnification of the said merchants + as "the first-fruits of the renewed friendship and recently formed + alliance." + + (LXVII.) To LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE, _Jan._ 1655-56:[1]--His + Highness has been informed of very extraordinary conduct on the + part of the French Governor of Belleisle in the Bay of Biscay. On + the 10th of December last, or thereabouts, he not only admitted + into his port one Dillon, a piratic enemy of the English + Commonwealth, and assisted him with supplies, but also prevented + the recapture of a merchant ship from the said Dillon by Captain + Robert Vessey of the _Nightingale_ war-ship, and further + secured Dillon's escape when Vessey had fought him and had him at + his mercy. All this is, of course, utterly against the recent + Treaty: and his Majesty will doubtless take due notice of the + Governor's conduct and give satisfaction. + +[Footnote 1: Not in the Printed Collection nor in Phillips; but in +the Skinner Transcript (No. 46 there), and printed thence in +Hamilton's Milton Papers (p. 4).] + + (LXVIII.) TO THE EVANGELICAL SWISS CANTONS, _Jan._ 1655-6. To + understand this important letter it is necessary to remember that + in 1653 there had broken out, for the second or third time, a Civil + War of Religion among the Swiss. The Popish Cantons of Schwytz, + Uri, Zug, Unterwalden, Luzern, &c., had quarrelled with the + Protestant or Evangelical Cantons of Zurich, Basel, Schaffhausen, + Bern, Glarus, Appenzell, &c.; and, as the Popish Cantons trusted to + help from surrounding Catholic powers, the Confederation and Swiss + Protestantism were in peril. It had been to watch events and + proceedings in this struggle that Cromwell had sent into + Switzerland, early in 1654, Mr. John Pell and Mr. John Durie, as + his agents (ante p. 41). Durie had remained only about a year; but + Pell was still there, reinforced now by Morland, who, after his + special mission to the Duke of Savoy on the business of the + Piedmontese Massacre of April 1655, had taken up his abode in + Geneva to superintend the distributing of the money collected for + the Piedmontese Protestants. That massacre had been ominous to the + Swiss, and had complicated the strife between the Popish and the + Evangelical Cantons. In the Popish Cantons, especially that of + Schwytz, there had been severe persecutions of Protestant + Dissenters; the union of these Cantons among themselves and their + Anti-Protestant temper had become stronger; and altogether the news + from Switzerland was bad. Application had been made by the + Evangelical Cantons, through Pell, for help from Cromwell, similar + application being made at the same time to the Dutch; and the + following is Cromwell's answer:--"Both from your public acts + transmitted to us by our Commissioners at Geneva [Pell and + Morland], and from your letter dated at Zürich, Dec. 27, we + understand abundantly in what condition your affairs are.--too + abundantly, since it is none of the best. Wherein, though we grieve + to find your peace at an end and so lasting a Confederacy ruptured, + yet, as it appears that this has happened by no fault on your part, + we trust that hence, from the very iniquity and obstinacy of your + adversaries, there is again being furnished you only so much new + occasion for displaying your courage and your long-known constancy + in the Evangelical Faith. For what the Schwytz Cantoners are + driving at in their resolution to make it a capital offence in any + one to embrace our Religion, and who they are that have instigated + them to proceedings of such a hostile spirit to the Orthodox Faith, + no one can avoid knowing who has not yet forgotten that foul + slaughter of our brethren in Piedmont. Wherefore, well-beloved + friends, as you always have been, be still, by God's help, brave; + do not yield your rights and federate privileges, nay, Liberty of + Conscience and Religion itself, to be trampled on by worshippers of + idols; and so prepare yourselves that you may not only appear the + champions of your own liberty and safety, but may be able also to + succour and stand by your neighbouring brethren by all means in + your power, especially those most sorrow-stricken Piedmontese: + firmly persuaded of this, that the intention was to have opened a + passage to your persons over their bodies and deaths. For my part, + be assured [the expression in the singular: _de me scitote_] + that your safety and prosperity are no less my care and anxiety + than if this fire had broken out in this our own Commonwealth, or + than if those axes of the Schwytz Cantoners had been sharpened, and + their swords drawn (as they veritably are, for all the Reformed are + concerned), for our own necks. No sooner, therefore, have we been + informed of the state of your affairs, and the obdurate temper of + your enemies, than, taking counsel with some very honourable + persons, and some ministers of the Church of highest esteem for + their piety, on the subject of the assistance it might be possible + to send you consistently with our own present requirements, we have + come to those resolutions which our agent Pell will communicate to + you. For the rest, we cease not to commend to the favour of + Almighty God all your plans, and the protection of this most + righteous cause of yours, whether in peace or in war."--From a + private letter of Thurloe's to Pell, of the same date as this + official one, we learn that the persons consulted by Cromwell on + the occasion were the Committee for the Piedmontese Collection + (ante pp. 40-41), his Highness regarding the Piedmontese business + and the Swiss business as radically identical, and desiring to + prepare the public mind for exertions, if necessary, in behalf of + Swiss Protestantism as extraordinary as those that had been made + for the Piedmontese. The conferences on the subject were very + earnest, with the result that his Highness instructed Pell to offer + the Cantons of Zürich and Bern a subsidy of £20,000, at the rate of + £5000 a month, on security for repayment--the first £5000, however, + to be sent immediately, without waiting for such security.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Thurloe's Letter in Vaughan's _Protectorate_, +I, 334-337.] + + (LXIX.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _Feb._ 1655-6:[1]--This + letter also is very important, though less in itself than in its + circumstances; and it requires introduction.--Charles X., or + Charles Gustavus (Karl Gustav), the successor of Queen Christina on + the Swedish throne, was proving himself a man of energy. Chancellor + Oxenstiern, so long the leading statesman of Sweden, had died in + Aug. 1654, just after the accession of Charles; and under the new + King, with the younger Oxenstiern for his Chancellor, Sweden had + entered on a career of war, which was to continue through his whole + reign, and the aim of which was little less than the extension of + Sweden into an Empire across the Baltic. He had begun with Poland, + between which and Sweden there was an old feud, and the King of + which then was John Casimir. Other powers, however, had been + immediately stirred by the war. Denmark, Russia, and the German + empire generally, were interested in saving Poland, and therefore + tended to an alliance against Karl Gustav; while, on the other + hand, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich-Wilhelm, found it + convenient for the present, in the interests of his Prussian + possessions, to be on the side of Sweden. Cromwell had not been + likely at first to interfere directly in such a complicated + continental quarrel; and, indeed, as we have seen from a previous + letter of his to the Swedish King (ante p. 166), his first feeling + on hearing of the Swedish movements on the Continent had been that + of regret at the disturbance of the Peace of Westphalia. Still + Sweden was a power which commanded Cromwell's respect. Nor was + Charles X., on his side, less anxious to retain the friendship of + the great English Protector. On succeeding Christina he had + accepted and ratified her Treaty with Cromwell--"Whitlocke's + Treaty," as it may be called; he had sent a Mr. PETER COYET to be + Swedish Resident in London; and, after he had begun his Polish war, + there was nothing he desired more than some yet closer partnership + between himself and Cromwell, that might unite Sweden and England + in a common European policy. Accordingly, in July 1655, Charles X. + being then in camp in Poland, there had arrived in London a + splendid Swedish embassy extraordinary, consisting of COUNT + CHRISTIERN BUNDT, and other noblemen and gentlemen, with + attendants, to the number of two hundred persons in all, "generally + proper handsome men and fair-haired." Whitlocke, who was naturally + called in by the Protector on this occasion, describes with unusual + gusto the reception of the Embassy. There was a magnificent + torchlight procession of coaches, most of them with six horses, to + convey the Ambassador and his suite from Tower Wharf, where they + landed, to Sir Abraham Williams's house in Westminster; there were + feastings and other entertainments, at the Lord Protector's charge, + for three days; and at length on the third day Count Bundt had + audience in the Banqueting House at Whitehall, in the midst of a + great assembly, with ladies in the galleries. It was difficult to + say whether in this audience the Ambassador or the Protector + acquitted himself best. "The Ambassador's people," says Whitlocke, + "were all admitted into the room, and made a lane within the rails + in the midst of the room. At the upper end, upon a footpace and + carpet, stood the Protector, with a chair of state behind him, and + divers of his Council and servants about him. The Master of the + Ceremonies [still Sir Oliver Fleming] went before the Ambassador on + the left side; the Ambassador, in the middle, betwixt me and + Strickland, went up in the open lane of the room. As soon as they + [the Ambassador and his immediate suite] came within the room, at + the lower end of the lane, they put off their hats, the Ambassador + a little while after the rest; and, when he was uncovered, the + Protector also put off his hat, and answered the Ambassador's three + salutations in his coming up to him; and on the foot-pace they + saluted each other as friends usually do; and, when the Protector + put on his hat, the Ambassador put on his as soon as the other. + After a little pause, the Ambassador put off his hat, and began to + speak, and then put it on again; and, whensoever in his speech he + named the King his master, or Sweden, or the Protector, or England, + he moved his hat: especially if he mentioned anything of God, or + the good of Christendom, he put off his hat very low; and the + Protector still answered him in the like postures of civility." The + speech, which was in Swedish, but immediately translated into Latin + by the Ambassador's secretary, was to the effect that the King of + Sweden desired to propound to His Highness some matters for + additional treaty. Cromwell's reply, delivered in English, which + the Ambassador understood, was to the effect that he was very + willing to enter into "a nearer and more strict alliance" with the + King of Sweden and would nominate some persons to hear Count + Bundt's proposals.--All this had been in the last days of July + 1655; but, though there had been subsequent audiences of the + Ambassador, and banquets given to him and the other chief Swedes by + the Protector himself at Hampton Court, August had passed, and + September, and October, and November, and still the actual Treaty + had been avoided. Other things engrossed the Protector--the Treaty + with France, the West-India Expedition, the beginning of the War + with Spain, &c. But in Count Bundt there had been sent to Cromwell + perhaps the most high-tempered ambassador he had ever seen. + Immediately after the first audience, Dorset House, in Fleet + Street, taken and furnished at the Ambassador's own expense, had + become the head-quarters of the Embassy; and here, as month after + month had passed without approach to real business, his impatience + had flashed into fierceness. It broke out in his talk to Whitlocke, + who took every opportunity of being with him, the rather because + other "grandees" held aloof. "No Commissioners being yet come to + the Swedish Ambassador," writes Whitlocke, under date Dec. 1655, + "he grew into some high expressions of his sense of the neglect to + his master by this delay; which I did endeavour to excuse, and + acquainted the Protector with it, who thereupon promised to have it + mended." In truth, the warlike Swedish King had become by this time + a man whose embassy compelled attention. "_Letters of the success + of the Swedes in Poland and Lithuania," "Letters of the Swedes' + victory against the Muscovites," "The Swedes had good success in + Poland and Moscovia," "An Agreement made between the King of Sweden + and the Elector of Brandenburg:_" such had been pieces of + foreign news recently coming in. Accordingly, in January 1655-6, + Whitlocke, Fiennes, Strickland, and Sir Gilbert Pickering, had been + empowered, on the Protector's part, to treat with Count Bundt, and + the Treaty had begun.--There were preliminary difficulties, + however. Cromwell wanted a Treaty that should include the Dutch and + the King of Denmark, and be, in fact, a League of the chief + Protestant Powers of Europe in behalf of general Protestant + interests; Count Bundt, on the other hand, pressed that special + League between England and Sweden which he had come to propound, + arguing that, while it would be more advantageous to both countries + in the meantime, it might be extended afterwards. For a while there + was danger of wreck on this preliminary difference; and Cromwell + even talked of transferring the Treaty to Stockholm and sending + Whitlocke thither for the second time as + Ambassador-Plenipotentiary--greatly to Whitlocke's horror, who had + no desire for another such journey, and a good deal to Count + Bundt's displeasure, who thought himself and his mission slighted. + At length, the Ambassador having signified that he had received new + instructions from his master, which would enable him to meet + Cromwell's views in some points, he was allowed to have his own way + in the main; and in February 1655-6 the Treaty was on foot, both in + the Council meetings at Whitehall, and in meetings of Whitlocke and + the other English Commissioners with the Ambassador at Dorset + House. "A long debate touching levies of soldiers and hiring of + ships in one another's dominions;" "long debates touching + contraband goods, in which list were inserted by the Council corn, + hemp, pitch, tar, money, and other things:" such are Whitlocke's + descriptions of the Dorset House meetings. The Treaty, in fact, was + partly commercial and partly political, pointing to new advantages + for England, but also to new responsibilities, all round the Baltic + and throughout Germany. In the debates no one more resolute, no one + more clear-headed, no one more contemptuous when he pleased, than + Count Bundt; and he had, it appears, a very able second in his + subordinate, the Swedish Resident in ordinary, Mr. Coyet.--In the + midst of these laborious debates over the Treaty news had arrived + of the birth at Stockholm of a son and heir to the Swedish King. + The birth of this Prince, afterwards Charles XI. of Sweden, + occasioned a grand display of loyalty at the Swedish Embassy in + London. "Feb. 20," writes Whitlocke, "the Swedish Ambassador kept a + solemnity this evening for the birth of the young Prince of Sweden. + All the glass of the windows of his house, which were very large, + being new-built, were taken off, and instead thereof painted papers + were fitted to the places, with the arms of Sweden upon them, and + inscriptions in great letters testifying the rejoicing for the + birth of the young Prince: on the inside of the papers in the rooms + were set close to them a very great number of lighted candles, + glittering through the painted papers: the arms and colours and + writings were plainly to be discerned, and showed glorious, in the + street: the like was in the staircase, which had the form of a + tower. In the balconies on each side of the house were trumpets, + which sounded often seven or eight of them, together. The company + at supper were the Dutch Ambassador, the Portugal and Brandenburg + Residents, Mynheer Coyet, Resident for Sweden, the Earls of Bedford + and Devon, the Lords St. John, Ossory, Bruce, Ogilvie, and two or + three other young lords, the Count of Holac (a German), the Lord + George Fleetwood, and a great many knights and gentlemen, besides + the Ambassador's company. It was a very great feast, of seven + courses. The Swedish Ambassador was very courteous to me; but the + Dutch and others were reserved towards me, and I as much to + them."--Milton's Letter to the Swedish King in Cromwell's name + relates itself to this last incident. The King had written + specially to Cromwell announcing the happy news of the birth of his + son and heir; and Cromwell replies in this fashion:--"As it is + universally understood that all concerns of friends, whether + adverse or prosperous, ought to be of mutual and common interest + among them, the performance by your Majesty of the most agreeable + duty of friendship, by vouchsafing to impart to us your joy by + express letters from yourself, cannot but be extremely gratifying + to us, in regard that it is a sign of singular and truly kingly + civility in you, indisposed as you are to live merely for yourself, + so to be indisposed even to keep a joy to yourself, without feeling + that your friends and allies participate in the same. We duly + rejoice, therefore, in the birth of a Prince, to be the son of so + excellent a King, and the heir, we hope, of his father's valour and + glory; and we congratulate you on the same happy coincidence of + domestic good fortune and success in the field with which of old + that King of renowned fortitude, Philip of Macedon, was + congratulated--the birth of whose son Alexander and his conquest of + the powerful nation of the Illyrians are said to have been + simultaneous. For we make no question but the wresting of the + Kingdom of Poland by your arms from the Papal Empire, as it were a + horn from the head of the Beast, and your Peace made with the Duke + of Brandenburg, to the great satisfaction of all the pious, though + with growls from your adversaries, will be of very great + consequence for the peace and profit of the Church. May God grant + an end worthy of such signal beginnings; may He grant you a son + like his father in virtue, piety, and achievements! All which we + truly expect and heartily pray of God Almighty, already so + propitious to your affairs,"--It is clear that Cromwell desired to + be all the more polite to the Swedish monarch because of the long + delay of the Treaty with Count Bundt. That Treaty was going on + slowly; and we shall hear more of Milton in connexion with it.[2] + +[Footnote 1: So dated in Printed Collection, Phillips, and Skinner +Transcript.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitlocke, IV. 208-227; i.e. from July 1655 to Feb. 20, +1655-6.] + + (LXX.) To FREDERICK III., KING OF DENMARK, _Feb._ + 1655-6(?)[1]:--John Freeman, Philip Travis, and other London + merchants, have represented to his Highness that a ship of theirs + was seized and detained by the Danish authorities in March 1653 + because the Captain tried to slip past Elsinore without paying the + toll. He was a Dutchman and had done this dishonestly on his own + account, that he might pocket the money. There had been + negotiations on the subject with the Danish Ambassador when there + had been one in London, and redress had been promised; but, though + the merchants had since sent an agent to Copenhagen, the only + effect had been to add expense to their loss. By the Danish law it + is the master of a ship that is punishable for the offence of + evading toll, and the ship may be condemned, but not the goods. The + offender in this case is now dead, but left a confession; the sum + evaded was small; the cargo detained was worth £3000; will his + Majesty see that the goods are restored, with reparation? + +[Footnote 1: Quite undated in Printed Collection, Phillips, and +Skinner Transcript, but conjecturally of about this date.] + + (LXXI.) TO THE STATES GENERAL OF THE UNITED PROVINCES, + _April_ 1, 1656:--A complaint in behalf of Thomas Bussel, + Richard Beare, and other English merchants. A ship of theirs, + called _The Edmund and John_, on her voyage from Brazil to + Lisbon, was seized long ago by a privateer of Flushing, commanded + by a Lambert Bartelson. The ship itself and the personal property + of the sailors had been restored; but not the goods of the + merchants. The Judges in Holland had not done justice in their + case; and now, after long litigation, an appeal is made to the + chief authority. + + (LXXII.) To Louis XIV. OF FRANCE, _April_ 9, 1656 (?): This is + the Credential Letter of LOCKHART, going on his embassy to the + French King. As Lockhart was by far the most eminent of the + Protector's envoys, it may be translated entire: "WILLIAM LOCKHART, + to whom We have given this letter to be carried to your Majesty, is + a Scot by nation, of an honourable house, beloved by us, known for + his very great fidelity, valour, and integrity of character. He, + that he may reside in France, and be with you, so as to be able + assiduously to signify to you my singular respect for your Majesty, + and my desire not only for the preservation of peace between us but + also for the perpetuation of friendship, has received from us the + amplest instructions. We request, therefore, that you will receive + him kindly, and give him gracious audience as often as there may be + occasion, and place absolutely the same trust in whatsoever may be + said and settled by him in our name as if the same things had been + said and settled by Ourselves in person. We shall hold them all as + ratified. Meanwhile we pray all peace and prosperity for your + Majesty and your kingdom." + + (LXXIII.) To CARDINAL MAZARIN, _April_ 9, 1656 (?):--A Letter + accompanying the above, and introducing LOCKHART specially to the + Cardinal. It is also worth translating entire: "Seeing the affairs + of France most happily administered by your counsels, and daily + increasing in prosperity to such a degree that your high popularity + and high authority in government are justly increased and enlarged + accordingly, I have thought it fit, when sending an ambassador to + your King with letters and instructions, to recommend him also most + expressly to your Eminence: to wit, WILLIAM LOCKHART, a man of + honourable family, closely related to us, and respected by us + besides for his singular trustworthiness. Wherefore your Eminence + may receive as our own whatsoever shall be communicated by him in + our name, and may also freely commit and entrust to him in my + confidence whatever you shall think fit to communicate in return. + From him too you will learn more at large, what I now again + profess, as more than once already, how high is my feeling of your + great services to France, and what a well-wisher I am to your + reputation and dignity."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Neither of these Letters about Lockhart is in the +Printed Collection or in Phillips; but both are in the Skinner +Transcript (Nos. 110 and 111 there), whence they have been printed +by Mr. Hamilton in his _Milton Papers_ (pp. 9-10). He dates +them both, as in the Transcript, "_West., Aug._ 1658;" but that +is clearly a mistake, and the letters are out of their proper places +in the Transcript. Lockhart was nominated for the Embassy in Dec. +1655, and he "took ship at Rye on the 14th of April, 1656, on his way +to France" (see a letter of Thurloe's to Pell in Vaughan's +_Protectorate_, I. 376-377). I have ventured to affix the exact +date "April 9, 1656" to the two letters, because it is on that day +that I find Lockhart's departure on his embassy definitely settled +in the Council Order Books. Before "Aug. 1658" Lockhart had known +Louis XIV. and the Cardinal intimately for more than two years and +needed no introduction.] + + (LXXIV.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _April_ 17, + 1656:--Another extremely polite letter of the Protector to his + Swedish Majesty, marking a farther stage in the proceedings of the + Swedish Treaty.--That Treaty had been going on at Dorset House, the + Swedish Ambassador and the Swedish Resident, continuing their + colloquies with Whitlocke. Fiennes, and Strickland, about pitch, + tar, hemp, mutual privileges of trade between England and Sweden, + trade also with Prussia, Poland, and Russia, and all the other + items of the Treaty, and the Ambassador always pushing on the + business and chafing at the slow progress made. Again and again he + had taken serious offence at something. Once it was because, + waiting on the Protector at Whitehall, he had been kept + half-an-hour before the Protector appeared. It was with difficulty + he was prevented from going away without seeing his Highness; "he + durst not for his head," he said, "admit of such dishonour to his + master"; he had to be pacified by an apology. Then, when he did see + the Protector, he had fresh cause for dissatisfaction. The + propositions of the Treaty, as agreed upon so far between the + Commissioners and the Ambassador, having been reported to the + Council, and there having been a discussion on them there, Thurloe + taking a chief part, new hesitations and difficulties had arisen, + so that, when Cromwell conversed with Count Bundt, the Count was + amazed to find his Highness cooler about the Treaty altogether than + he had expected, and again harping on Protestant interests and the + necessity of including the Dutch. The Count seems then to have + broken bounds in his talk about the Protector to Whitlocke and + others. In his own country, Sweden, he said, "when a man professed + sincerity, they understood it to be plain and clear dealing"; if a + man meant _Yea_ he said _Yea_, and if he meant _No_ + he said _No_; but in England it seemed to be different. The + explanations and soft words of Whitlocke and the rest having calmed + him down again, the Treaty proceeded.--One of the most important + meetings at Dorset House, by Whitlocke's account, was on the 8th of + April. Mr. Jessop, as one of the Clerks of the Council, was there + by appointment, and read "the new Articles in English as they were + drawn up according to the last resolves of the Council." A long + debate on the Articles followed. The Ambassador begged "to be + excused if he should mistake anything of the sense of them, they + being in English, which he could not so well understand as if they + had been in Latin, which they must be put into in conclusion; but + he did observe," &c. In fact, he restated his objections to making + pitch, tar, hemp, flax, and sails, contraband, as they were the + staple produce of Sweden. Lord Fiennes, in reply, premised: "that + the Articles were brought in English for the saving of time, and + they should be put in Latin when his Excellency should desire," and + then discussed the main subject. Whitlocke followed, and the + Ambassador again, and Fiennes again, all in English; and "Mynheer + Coyet then spake in Latin, that pitch, tar, and hemp were not in + their own nature, nor by the law of nations, esteemed contraband + goods," &c. Strickland said a few words in reply, and then + Whitlocke made a longer and more lawyer-like answer to Mynheer + Coyet,--also, as he takes care to tell us, speaking in Latin. The + discussion, which was long protracted, and extended to other + topics, was closed by the Ambassador; who said "he desired a copy + of these Articles now debated, and, if they pleased, that he might + have it in Latin, which he would consider of." This was + promised.--The meeting so described was nearly the last in which + the Swedish Resident, M. Coyet, took part. He was on the eve of his + departure from England, leaving his principal, Count Bundt, to + finish the Treaty; and the present brief letter of Milton for + Cromwell to his Swedish Majesty has reference to that fact. "Peter + Julius Coyet," it begins, "having performed his mission to us, and + so performed it that he ought not to be dismissed by us without the + distinction of justly earned praise, is on the point of returning + to your Majesty"; and in three sentences more very handsome + testimony is borne to Coyet's ability and fidelity in the discharge + of his duty, and his Swedish Majesty is again assured of the + Protector's high regard for himself. "A constant course of + victories against all enemies of the Church" is the Protector's + wish for him.--Evidently, again, Cromwell, whatever might be the + issue of the Treaty, was anxious to stand well with the + Scandinavian; in corroboration of which we have this special + paragraph in Whitlocke under date May 3: "This day the Protector + gave the honour of knighthood to MYNHEER COYET, the King of + Sweden's Resident here, who was now SIR PETER COYET, and gave him a + fair jewel, with his Highness's picture, and a rich gold chain: it + cost about £400." Coyet, therefore, had remained in London a + fortnight after the date of Milton's letter.[1] Indeed he remained + a few days longer, assisting in the Treaty to the last. + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 227-255: i.e. from Feb. 20, 1655-6, to +May 3, 1656.] + + (LXXV.) To Louis XIV. OF FRANCE, _May_ 14, 1656:[1]--John + Dethicke, Merchant, at present Lord Mayor of the City of London, + and another merchant, named William Wakefield, have represented to + his Highness that, as long ago as October 1649, a ship of theirs, + called _The Jonas of London_, was taken at the mouth of the + Thames by one White of Barking, acting under a commission from the + son of the late King, and taken into Dunkirk, then governed for the + French King by M. L'Estrades. They had applied for satisfaction at + the time, but had received a harsh answer from the governor. + Perhaps his French Majesty, on receipt of this letter, will direct + justice to be done. + +[Footnote 1: Not dated in Printed Collection, Phillips, or Skinner +Transcript; but dated by reference to it in a subsequent letter.] + + (LXXVI.) TO THE STATES-GENERAL OF THE UNITED PROVINCES, _May_ + 1656:--Also about a ship, but this time for the recovery of + insurance on one. She was _The Good Hope of London_, belonging + to John Brown, Nicholas Williams, and others; she had been insured + in Amsterdam; she had been taken by a ship of the Dutch East India + Company on her way to the East Indies; the insurers had refused to + pay the sum insured for; and for six years the poor owners had been + hopelessly fighting the case in the Dutch courts. It is a case of + real hardship. + + (LXXVII.) TO THE SAME, _May_ 1656:--Three times before letters + have been written to the States-General in the interest of Thomas + and William Lower, who had been left property in Holland by their + father's will, but have been unjustly kept out of the same by + powerful persons there, and tossed from law-court to law-court. + This fourth application, it is hoped, may be more successful. + +These thirteen State Letters, were there nothing else, would prove +that in and after the winter of 1655-6 Milton's services were again +in request for ordinary office-work. But they do not represent the +whole of his renewed industry in that employment. + +The tremendous Swedish ambassador, Count Bundt, whose energy in his +master's interests had swept through Whitehall like a storm, +searching out flaws, waking up Thurloe and the Council, and obliging +Cromwell himself to be more circumspect, had made his influence felt, +it seems, even in the house of the blind Secretary-Extraordinary. It +was on the 8th of April, 1656, as we have just learnt from Whitlocke, +that the Ambassador, in one of his conferences with Whitlocke, +Fiennes, and Strickland, in Dorset House, M. Coyet also being +present, had rather objected to the fact that the new Articles of the +Treaty, drafted for his consideration by the Council, and brought to +the conference by Mr. Jessop, had been brought in English, and not in +Latin, as would have been business-like. Latin or English, as the +Commissioners knew, it would have been all the same to Count Bundt, +inasmuch as it was the matter of the Articles that displeased him; +but they had promised that he should have them in Latin, and +Whitlocke had judiciously taken the opportunity of speaking in Latin, +in reply to some of M. Coyet's observations in the same tongue, as if +to show the Ambassador that Latin was by no means so scarce a +commodity as he seemed to suppose about the Protector's Court. There +had been delay, however, in furnishing the promised Latin +translation; and Count Bundt, glad of that new occasion for +fault-finding, did not let it escape him. "The Swedish Ambassador," +relates Whitlocke under date May 6, 1656, "again complained of the +delays in his business, and that, when he had desired to have the +Articles of this Treaty put into Latin, according to the custom in +Treaties, it was fourteen days they made him stay for that +translation, and sent it to one MR. MILTON, a blind man, to put them +into Latin, who, he said, must use an amanuensis to read it to him, +and that amanuensis might publish the matter of the Articles as he +pleased; and that it seemed strange to him there should be none but a +blind man capable of putting a few Articles into Latin: that the +Chancellor [the late Oxenstiern] with his own hand penned the +Articles made at Upsal [in Whitlocke's Treaty], and so he heard the +Ambassador Whitlocke did for those on his part. The employment of MR. +MILTON was excused to him, because several other servants of the +Council, fit for that employment, were then absent."[1] If this is +exact, Count Bundt, having been promised the Latin translation on the +8th of April, did not receive it till about the 22nd, and he had been +nursing his wrath on the subject for a fortnight more before it +exploded. In the delay itself he had certainly good ground for +complaint. There was reason also in the complaint that important +secret documents had gone to a blind man, who must employ an +amanuensis, unless the Commissioners could have replied that the +Protector and the Council had thoroughly seen to that matter, and +that Milton's amanuensis on such occasions was always a sworn clerk +from the Whitehall office. On the whole, the Commissioners seem to +have taken more easily than became their places, or than the +Protector would have liked, the insinuation of the imperious Count +that the Protector's official retinue must be a ragged and +undisciplined rout, not to be compared with Karl Gustav's. May not +Whitlocke himself, however, thinking at that moment of his own Latin +sufficiency, have sharpened the point of the insinuation?[2] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 257.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitlocke, from his interest in Swedish affairs, had +taken ample notes of the negotiations with Count Bundt; and his story +of them is unusually minute. One observes that more than once in the +course of it he dwells on the fact that, though employed by the +Protector in this business, and taking the lead in it, he was still +_not_ one of the Council.] + +The excuse of the Commissioners to Count Bundt for having sent the +Articles to Milton for translation was that "several other servants +of the Council, fit for that employment, were then absent." They mast +have referred, in particular, to Mr. Philip Meadows, the Latin +Secretary in Ordinary. He had, we find, taken some part in the +negotiation in its earlier stage;[1] but, before it had proceeded +far, he had been selected for a service which took him out of +England. In December 1655 it had been resolved to send a special +agent to Portugal; and on the 19th of February, 1655-6, at a Council +meeting at which Cromwell himself was present, Meadows, thought of +from the first, was formally nominated as the fit person. It was a +great promotion for Meadows; for, whereas his salary hitherto in the +Latin Secretaryship had been £200 a year, his allowance for the +Portuguese agency was to be £800 a year or more. On the 21st of +February he had £300 advanced to him for his outfit; on the 28th he +was voted £100, being for two quarters of his Secretarial salary due +to him, with £50 more for the quarter then current but not completed; +and within a few days afterwards he was on his way to Lisbon.[2] His +departure, I should say--preceded perhaps by a week or two of +cessation from office duty in preparation for it--was the real cause +of the re-employment of Milton at this time in such routine work as +we have seen him engaged in. All or most of his former letters for +the Protector, it may have been noticed, e.g. those on the +Piedmontese business, had been on important occasions, such as might +justify resort to the Latin Secretary Extraordinary; but in the batch +written since Dec. 1655, when Meadows's Portuguese mission had been +resolved on, the ordinary and the extraordinary come together, and +Milton, in writing letters about ships, as well as in translating +draft articles, does work that would have been done by Meadows. And +this arrangement, we may add, was to continue henceforth. For, +despite the sneers of Count Bundt as to the poverty of the +Protector's official staff, the Protector and Council, we shall find, +were in no hurry to fill up the place left vacant by Meadows, but +were quite satisfied that Mr. Milton should go on doing his best +alone, with Thurloe to instruct him, and with the help of such +underlings in Latin as Thurloe could put at his disposal. My belief +is that Milton was pleased at this trust in his renewed ability for +ordinary business. + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 218; where it is mentioned that in Dec. +1655 Meadows communicated with Whitlocke on the subject of the Treaty +by Thurloe's orders.] + +[Footnote 2: Council Order Books of dates. It is curious that +Whitlocke, noting the new appointment of Meadows, under March 1655-6, +enters it thus: "Mr. Meadows was going for _Denmark_, agent for +the Protector." Meadows did go to Denmark, but not till a good while +afterwards; and the blunder of _Denmark_ at this date for +_Portugal_ is one of the many proofs that Whitlocke's memorials +are not all strictly contemporary, but often combinations of +reminiscences and afterthoughts with the materials of an actual +diary.] + +Among the matters that occupied the attention of the Protector's +Government about this time was the state of Popular Literature. + +It is a fact, easily explained by the laws of human nature, and +capable of being proved statistically, that since the strong +government of Cromwell had come in, and something like calm and +leisure had become possible, there had been a return of people's +fancies to the lighter Muses. Nothing strikes one more, in turning +over the Registers of the old London Book-trade, than the steady +increase through the Protectorate of the proportion of books of +secular and general interest to those of controversy and theology. +One feels oneself still in the age of Puritanism, it is true, but as +if past the densest and most stringent years of Puritanism and coming +once more into a freer and merrier air. Poems, romances, books of +humour, ballads and songs, reprints of Elizabethan tragedies and +comedies, reprints of such pieces as Shakespeare's _Venus and +Adonis_, collections of facetious extracts from the wits and poets +of the reigns of James and Charles I., are now not uncommon. Humphrey +Moseley, Milton's publisher of 1645, faithful to his old +trade-instinct for poetry and the finer literature generally, was +still at the head of the publishers in that line; but Henry +Herringman, who had published Lord Broghill's _Parthenissa_, had +begun to rival Moseley, and there were other caterers of amusing and +humorous books. Publishers imply authors; and so in the London of the +Protectorate, apart from stray survivors from among the wits of King +Charles's reign, there were men of a younger sort, bred amid the more +recent Puritan conditions, but with literary zests that were Bohemian +rather than Puritan, Among these, as we have hinted, and as we may +now state more distinctly, were Milton's nephews, Edward and John +Phillips.[1] + +[Footnote 1: My notes from the Stationers' Registers, from 1652 to +1656.] + +Such Popular Literature as we have described had been left perfectly +free. Indeed Censorship or Licensing of books generally, as distinct +from newspapers, had all but ceased. Since Bradshaw's Press-Act of +1649, it had been rather rare for an author or bookseller to take the +trouble, in the case of a non-political book, to procure the +imprimatur of any official licenser in addition to the ordinary +trade-registration; and in this, as an established custom, Cromwell's +Government had acquiesced. Only in one particular, apart from +politics, was there any disposition to interfere with the liberty of +printing. This was where popular wit, humour, or poetry might pass +into the ribald, profane, or indecent. Vigilance against open +immorality had from the first appeared to Cromwell one of the chief +duties of his Government; and he seems to have been unusually +attentive to this duty in 1655-6, when he had just put the country +under the military police of his Major-Generals and their +subordinates. Then it is that we hear most of the suppressing of +horse-races and the like, and that we are least surprised at +encountering such a piece of information as that "players were taken +in Newcastle and whipped for rogues." Now, though by this time there +had already, by previous care on the part of Government, been a +considerable cleansing of the Popular Literature of London, yet +something or other in the state of the book-world about 1655-6 seems +to have occasioned new and more special interference. I believe it to +have been the increased frequency of ballads, facetiæ, and reprints, +of higher literary character than the coarse pamphlets that had been +suppressed, but objectionable on the same moral grounds. At all +events, all but simultaneously with the Order of the Protector and +his Council, of Sept. 5, 1655, concentrating the whole newspaper +press in the hands of Needham and Thurloe (see ante pp. 51-52), there +had been a new general Ordinance "against Scandalous Books and +Pamphlets and for the Regulation of Printing" (Aug. 18, 1655), and it +was not long before this Ordinance was put in operation in one or two +cases of the kind indicated. Here are some extracts from the Order +Books of the Council in April and May 1656:-- + + _Tuesday, April_ 1656:--"That it be referred to the Earl of + Mulgrave, Colonel Jones, and Lord Strickland, or any two of them, + to examine the business touching the book entitled _Sportive Wit + or the Muses' Merriment_, and to send for the author and + printer, and report the same to the Council." + + _Friday, April_ 25, 1656:--Present: the Lord President + Lawrence, the Earl of Mulgrave, Lord Lambert, Sir Gilbert + Pickering, Colonel Sydenham, Colonel Jones, the Lord Deputy of + Ireland (Fleetwood), Lord Viscount Lisle, Mr. Rous, Major-General + Skippon, and Lord Strickland. "Colonel Jones reports from the + Committee of the Council to whom was referred the consideration of + a book entitled _Sportive Wit or the Muses' Merriment_, that + the said book contains in it much scandalous, lascivious, + scurrilous, and profane matter. _Ordered_ by his Highness the + Lord Protector, by and with the advice of the Council, That the + Lord Mayor of the City of London and the rest of the Committee for + the regulation of Printing do cause all such [copies] of the said + book as are not already seized to be forthwith seized on, wherever + they shall be found, and cause the same, together with those + already seized, to be delivered to the Sheriffs of London and + Middlesex, who are to cause the same to be forthwith publicly + burnt.--He further reports that Nathaniel Brookes, Stationer, at + the Angel in Cornhill, caused the said book to be printed; that the + printers thereof were John Grismond, living in Ivy Lane, and James + Cotterill, living in Lambeth Hill; and that JOHN PHILLIPS, of + Westminster, was the author of the Epistle Dedicatory. + _Ordered_, That it be referred to Sir John Barkstead, Knight, + Lieutenant of the Tower [and Major-General for Westminster and + Middlesex], to cause the fines to be levied on the said persons + according to law: [also] that the said persons do attend the + Council on Tuesday next."--Milton's younger nephew, therefore, had + been the editor of the offending volume. Of the eleven members of + Council present when this fact came out, six were among those + friends of Milton whom he had specially mentioned in his + _Defensio Secunda_: viz. Fleetwood, Lambert, Lawrence, + Pickering, Sydenham, and Strickland. + + _Saturday, April_ 26, 1656:--His Highness the Lord Protector + approves of a great many recent Orders of Council presented to him + all at once by Mr. Scobell, the Clerk of the Council. Among them is + the order "for burning the book called _Sportive Wit_." + + _Friday, May_ 9, 1656:--His Highness the Lord Protector + present in person, with Lord President Lawrence, Lambert, + Fleetwood, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Strickland, Sydenham, and + Jones:--_Ordered_, &c. "That the Lord Mayor of the City of + London and the rest of the Committee for regulating Printing do + cause all the books entitled _Choice Droliery, Songs and + Sonnets_ (being stuffed with profane and obscene matter, tending + to the corruption of manners), to be seized wherever the same shall + be found, and cause the same to be delivered to the Sheriffs of + London and Middlesex, who are required to give order that the same + be burnt." + +Copies of the second of the two books thus condemned by Cromwell and +his Council have, I believe, survived the burning, The publisher was +a John Sweeting, who had duly registered the book on the 9th of +February 1655-6, shortly after which date it had appeared with this +full title, _Choice Drollery, Songs and Sonnets: being a Collection +of Divers Eminent Pieces of Poetry of several Eminent Authors, never +before printed_. I have not seen any copy of the other book +bearing the precise title _Sportive Wit, or the Muses' +Merriment_; but there are surviving copies of what may be the same +with an alternative title, viz. _Wit and Drollery: Jovial Poems, +never before printed, by Sir J.M., Jas. S., Sir W.D., J.D., and other +admirable wits_. It had been out in London since. Jan. 18, 1655-6, +had been registered on the 30th of that month, and is a respectably +printed little book of 160 pages, with the motto "_Ut nectar +ingenium_" under the title, and with, the imprint _London. +Printed for Nath. Brook, at the Angel in Cornhill_, 1656. It +contains moreover a Dedication "To the truly noble Edward Pepes, +Esq.," and an Epistle "To the Courteous Reader," both signed with the +initials J.P. Either, therefore, this is the same book as the +_Sportive Wit or the Muses' Merriment_ which, figures in the +Orders of the Council, or John Phillips had edited simultaneously for +Nathaniel Brooke (who had been the publisher of his _Satyr against +Hypocrites_ in the preceding August) two books of the same general +character. Even on the latter supposition, _Wit and Drollery,_ +in the absence of _Sportive Wit,_ may serve as a representative +of that production of the same editor and the same publisher. The +substance of Phillips's Epistle to the Reader in _Wit and +Drollery_ is as follows:-- + + "Reader,--To give thee a broadside of plain dealing, this + _Wit_ I present thee with is such as can only be in fashion, + invented purposely to keep off the violent assaults of melancholy, + assisted by the additional engines and weapons of sack and good + company... What hath not been extant of Sir J. M., of Ja. S., of + Sir W. D., of J. D., and other miraculous muses of the times, are + here at thy service; and, as Webster, at the end of his play called + _The White Devil,_ subscribes that the action of Perkins + crowned the whole play, so, when thou viewest the title, and + readest the sign of 'Ben Jonson's Head, in the backside of the + Exchange, and the Angel in Cornhill,' where they are sold, enquire + who could better furnish thee with such sparkling copies of wit." + +Among the included pieces are the younger Alexander Gill's lampoon on +Ben Jonson for his _Magnetic Lady_ and Ben Jonson's reply to the +same (ante Vol. I. pp. 528-529); there are also several pieces of +Suckling; but, for the rest, as the title-page bears, the volume +consists chiefly of specimens of _"Sir J. M."_ (Sir John +Mennes), _"Jas. S."_ (James Smith), _"Sir W. D"_ (Sir +William Davenant), and _"J. D."_ (Dr. Donne), professing not to +have been before in print. Whether this was so, and whether the +pieces were all authentically by these poets, need not here concern +us. It is enough to say that many of the pieces are decidedly, and +some very grossly, of the improper kind. The reader will not expect +to have this proved by extract; but of the more innocent "drollery" +the following stanzas from a poem entitled _"Nonsense"_ may be a +sample:-- + + O that my lungs could bleat like buttered pease! + But bleating of my lungs hath caught the itch, + And are as mangy as the Irish seas, + That doth engender windmills in a bitch. + + I grant that rainbows, being lulled asleep, + Snort like a woodknife in a lady's eyes; + Which makes her grieve to see a pudding creep; + For creeping puddings only please the wise. + + Note that a hard-roed herring should presume + To swing a tithe-pig in a catskin purse, + For fear the hailstones which did fall at Rome + By lessening of the fault should make it worse. + + For 'tis most certain winter woolsacks grow, + Till that the sheepshorn planets give the hint, + From geese to swans, if men could keep them so, + And pickle pancakes in Geneva print. + +At worst, the volume was but a catchpenny collection of pieces of a +kind of which there was plenty already dispersed in print under the +names of the same authors, or of others as classical; and, if this +was the same book as the _Sportive Wit,_ or at all like that +book, it may have been some mere accident of the moment that brought +Government censure upon Phillips's volume, while others, as had, +escaped. But how annoying the whole occurrence to Milton![1] + +[Footnote 1: Thomason copy of _Wit and Drollery_ in the British +Museum, dated Jan. 18, 1655-6.--I failed to find a book with the +title _The Sportive Wit_ in the Thomason Collection, and hence +my hypothesis that there was but one book, with alternative titles. I +am rather inclined to believe, however, that there were two, and have +a vague recollection of having seen two books, one with one of the +titles and the other with the other, advertised in a contemporary +newspaper list of books on sale by the publisher Brooke. In Lowndes's +Bibliog. Manual by Bohn, _sub voce_ "Wit," the two books are +given as distinct; but then _Sportive Wit or the Muses' +Merriment_ is there dated 1656, while there is no notice of an +edition of _Wit and Drollery, Jovial Poems,_ till 1661. Though +I leave the matter in doubt, some collector of Facetiac may know all +about it. In any case, if _Wit and Drollery_ was not the +identical book condemned, it is of interest to us as being one of +Phillips's editing at the same moment.--Donne, who figures so +strangely in _Wit and Drollery,_ had been dead twenty-five +years, but was accessible in various editions and reprints of his +Poems. The other three poets named in the title-page as the chief +authors of the pieces--Sir John Mennes, James Smith, and +Davenant--were still alive and publishing for themselves. Indeed the +_Musarum Delitice, or Muses' Recreation,_ consisting of pieces +by Mennes and Smith, had been published by Herringman only the year +before (1655), and was in its second edition in 1658; and it may have +been the success of this and Smith in it. Mennes, a stout book that +led to Phillips's publication and to the use of the names of Mennes +Royalist sea-captain, who had served with Prince Rupert, and was in +exile at our present date, became Chief Comptroller of the Navy after +the Restoration and lived to 1670. Smith was a Devonshire clergyman, +of Royalist antecedents, who had complied with the existing powers +and retained his living. After the Restoration he had promotion in +the Church: and he died in 1667.] + +Less unsatisfactory to Milton, must hare been the literary +appearances about the same time of his elder nephew, Edward Phillips. +On the same day on which the stationer Nathaniel Brooke had +registered _Wit and Drollery_ edited by John Phillips, i.e. on +Jan. 30, 1655-6, he had registered two tales or small novels called +"_The Illustrious Shepherdess_" and "_The Imperious +Brother_" both "written originally in Spanish and now Englished by +Edward Phillips, Gent."[1] The first of these translations, both from +the Spanish of Juan Perez de Montalvan (1602-1638), is dedicated by +Phillips to the Marchioness of Dorchester, in what Godwin calls "an +extraordinary style of fustian and bombast."[2] With the exception, +of such affectation in style, which Phillips afterwards threw off, +there is nothing ill to report of these early performances of his; +and two translations from the Spanish were a creditable proof of +accomplishment. But still more interesting was another literary +performance of Edward Phillips's of the same date. This was his +edition of the Poems of Drummond of Hawthornden. + +[Footnote 1: Stationers' Registers of date.] + +[Footnote 2: Godwin's _Lives of the Phillipses_, 138-139. I +know the translations only from Godwin's account of them.] + +Drummond had died in 1649, leaving in manuscript, at Hawthornden or +in Edinburgh, not only his _History of Scotland from 1423 +to 1542, or through the Reigns of the Five Jameses_, but +also various other prose-writings, and a good deal of verse in +addition to what he had published in his life-time. Drummond's son +and heir being under age, the care of the MSS. had devolved chiefly +on Drummond's brother-in-law, Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, a +well-known Scottish judge, antiquary, and eccentric. Hitherto the +troubles in Scotland had prevented the publication by Sir John of +these remains of his celebrated relative, the only real Scottish poet +of his generation. With the other Scottish dignitaries and officials +who had resisted the English invasion, Sir John himself had been +turned out of his public posts, heavily fined, and remitted into +private life (Vol. IV. p. 561). Gradually, however, as Scotland had +become accustomed to her union with England, things had come round +again for the old ex-Judge, as well as for others. There is reason to +believe that he was in London for some time in 1654-5, soliciting the +Protector and the Council for favour in the matter of his fine, if +not for restoration to one of his former offices, the Director of +the Scottish Chancery. The case of Scot of Scotstarvet, at all +events, _was_ then under discussion in the Council, with the +result that his fine, which had been originally £1500, but had been +reduced to £500, was first reduced farther to £300, and next, +apparently by Cromwell's own interposition, altogether "discharged +and taken off, in consideration of the pains he hath taken and the +service he hath done to the Commonwealth."[1] If Scotstarvet himself, +then seventy years of age, had come to London on the business, he +must have brought Drummond's MSS., or copies of them, with him. On +the 16th of January 1854-5 there had been registered at Stationers' +Hall, as forthcoming, Drummond's _History of Scotland through the +Reigns of the Five Jameses_, with a selection of other +prose-writings of his, chiefly of a political kind; and the volume +did appear immediately, as a handsome small folio, bearing date 1655, +and "printed by Henry Hills for Rich. Tomlins and himself." As Henry +Hills was one of the printers to his Highness and the Council, the +appearance from his press of a volume so full of conservative +doctrine, inculcating so strongly the duty of submission to kingly +prerogative and to constituted authority, may not be without +significance. Another interesting circumstance about it is that it +had appeared under the charge of a London editor, "Mr. Hall of Gray's +Inn,"--i.e., unless I am mistaken, that Mr. John Hall whom we saw +brought in, at £100 a year, to do pieces of literary hackwork for the +Council under Milton as long ago as May 1649, and who had been in +some such employment for the Council, at least occasionally, ever +since (ante p. 177). Accidental or not, the fact that the editor of +Drummond's Prose Writings, selected by Scotstarvet or by the printer +Hills, should have been a servant of the Council of State, and a kind +of underling of Milton in that capacity, is at least curious. But it +becomes more curious when taken in connexion, with the fact that the +editor of the companion volume, containing the first professedly +complete edition of Drummond's Poems, was Milton's elder nephew. This +volume, though announced by Mr. Hall in his Introduction to the +Prose Volume, did not appear till about a year afterwards, and then +as an octavo of 224 pages, with this title, _"Poems by that most +famous Wit, William Drummond of Hawthornden ... London, Printed for +Rickard Tomlins, at the Sun and Bible, neare Pye-Corner,_ 1656." +The volume is dedicated to Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, and includes +about sixty small pieces of Drummond never before published, which +Sir John had supplied from the Hawthornden MSS. Apart from revision +of the proofs, Phillips's editorship consisted in a prose preface, +signed "E.P.," and a set of commendatory verses, signed in full +"Edward Phillips." + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books, March 9 and March 19, 1654-5.] + +Drummond's Poetry had long been known to Milton in the fragmentary +state in which alone it had been till then accessible, i.e. in the +successive instalments of it published by Drummond himself in +Edinburgh between 1613 and 1638. There might be proof also that +Drummond was one of Milton's favourites, and regarded by him as one +of the sweetest and truest poets that there had been in Great Britain +through that age of miscellaneous metrical effort, much of it +miscalled Poetry, which included the whole of the laureateship of Ben +Jonson and the beginning of that of Davenant. Accordingly, it is not +difficult to suppose that phrases about Drummond from Milton's own +mouth were worked by Phillips into his prose preface to the London +edition of the Poems of Drummond. There is a little hyperbolism in +that preface; but the opening definition of Drummond's genius is +exact, and the fitness of some of the phrases quite admirable. +Thus:-- + + "To say that these Poems are the effects of a genius the most + polite and verdant that ever the Scottish nation produced, although + it he a commendation not to be rejected (for it is well known that + that country hath afforded many rare and admirable wits), yet it is + not the highest that may be given him; for, should I affirm that + neither Tasso, nor Guarini, nor any of the most neat and refined + spirits of Italy, nor even the choicest of our English Poets, can + challenge to themselves any advantage above him, it could not be + judged any attribute superior to what he deserves ... And, though + he hath not had the good fortune to be so generally famed abroad as + many others, perhaps of less esteem, yet this is a consideration + that cannot diminish, but rather advance, his credit; for, by + breaking forth of obscurity, he will attract the higher + admiration, and, like the sun emerging from a cloud, appear at + length with so much the more forcible rays..." + +Milton's interesting German friend, Henry Oldenburg, had recently +removed from London to Oxford. "In the beginning of this year," says +Wood in his _Fasti_ for 1656, "studied in Oxon, in the condition +of a sojourner, HENRY OLDENBURG, who wrote himself sometimes +GRUBENDOL [anagram of OLDENBUBG]; and in the month of June he was +entered a, student by the name of _'Henricus Oldenburg, Bremensis, +Nobilis Saxo'_: at which time he was tutor to a young Irish +nobleman, called Henry O'Bryen [son of Henry, Earl of Thomond], then +also a student there."[1] As we construe the case, Oldenburg, having +been for some years in England as agent for Bremen, had begun to see +that he was likely to remain in England permanently; and he had gone +to Oxford for the benefit of a year of study there with readings in +the Bodleian, and the society more especially of Robert Boyle, +Wilkins, Wallis, Petty, and the rest of the Oxford colony or offshoot +from the _Invisible College_ of London. Desirable on its own +account, this migration to Oxford had been made easier to him +financially, if it had not been, occasioned, by the arrangement that +he should be tutor there to the young Irish nobleman whom Wood names. +But this young nobleman was not to be Oldenburg's only pupil at +Oxford. Though Wood does not mention the fact, there went with him +thither, or there speedily followed him thither, to be also under his +charge, another young Irish nobleman. This was no other than, our own +Richard Jones, son of Viscount and Lady Ranelagh, the Benjamin among +Milton's pupils. Whatever had been the nature of Milton's recent +instructions of the youth, they had now ceased, and Oldenburg was to +be thenceforward the youth's more regular tutor. It does not seem to +have been intended that young Ranelagh should formally enter a +college, so as to receive the usual education at the University, but +only that he should obtain some acquaintance with Oxford and its +ways, and be for a while in the society of his uncle Boyle, and of +his two cousins, Viscount Dungarvan and Mr. Richard Boyle. If these +two sons of the Earl of Cork were still under the tutorship of Dr. +Peter Du Moulin, Oldenburg and Jones at Oxford must have come +necessarily also into constant intercourse with that very secret +admirer of Milton. Oxford, we do gather, was still Du Moulin's +head-quarters; but he was so much on the wing thence that Oldenburg +might expect to succeed him in the tutorship of at least one of the +young Boyles. Oldenburg was then thirty years of age, and young +Ranelagh about sixteen. + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Fasti, II. 197.] + +Among four letters to young Jones or Ranelagh included in Milton's +Latin Familiar Epistles one is undated. It is put second of the four +in the printed collection, but it ought to have been put first. It is +Milton's first letter to the youth in his new position at Oxford +under Henry Oldenburg's charge. The date may be in or about May +1636:-- + + "To the Noble Youth, RICHARD JONES. + + "I received your letter much after its date,--not till it had lain, + I think, fifteen days, put away somewhere, at your mother's. Most + gladly at last I recognised in it your continued affection for me + and sense of gratitude. In truth my goodwill to you, and readiness + to give you the most faithful admonitions, have never but + justified, I hope, both your excellent mother's opinion of me and + confidence in me, and your own disposition. There is, indeed, as + you write, plenty of amenity and salubrity in the place where you + now are; there are books enough for the needs of a University: if + only the amenity of the spot contributed as much to the genius of + the inhabitants as it does to pleasant living, nothing would seem + wanting to the happiness of the place. The Library there, too, is + splendidly rich; but, unless the minds of the students are made + more instructed by means of it in the best kinds of study, you + might more properly call it a book-warehouse than a Library. Most + justly you acknowledge that to all these helps there must be added + a spirit for learning and habits of industry. Take care, and steady + care, that I may never have occasion to find you in a different + state of mind; and this you will most easily avoid if you + diligently obey the weighty and friendly precepts of the highly + accomplished Henry Oldenburg beside you. Farewell, my well-beloved + Richard; and allow me to exhort and incite you to virtue and piety, + like another Timothy, by the example of that most exemplary woman, + your mother. + + "Westminster." + +In this letter one observes the rather strict tone of Mentorship +assumed towards young Ranelagh, as if Milton was aware of something +in the youth, that needed checking, or as if Lady Ranelagh, with her +motherly knowledge, had given Milton a hint that the strict tone with +him would be generally the best. The tendency to a depreciation of +Oxford, which is also visible in the letter, is no surprise from +Milton. + +The Anti-Oxonian feeling, if that is not too strong a name for it +after all, is even more apparent in Milton's next letter, addressed +not to young Ranelagh, but to his tutor. Young Ranelagh, it appears, +not long after the receipt of the foregoing, had run up to London on +a brief visit to his mother, and had brought Milton a letter from +Oldenburg. To this Milton replies as follows:-- + + "To HENRY OLDENBURG, Agent for Bremen with the English Government. + + "Your letter, brought by young Ranelagh, has found me rather busy; + and so I am forced to be briefer than I should wish. You have + certainly kept _your_ departing promise of writing to me, and + that with a punctuality surpassed. I believe, by no one hitherto in + the payment of a debt. I congratulate you on your present + retirement, to my loss though it be, since it gives pleasure to + you; I congratulate you also on that happy state of mind which + enables you so easily to set aside at once the ambition and the + ease of city-life, and to lift your thoughts to higher matters of + contemplation. What advantage that retirement affords, however, + besides plenty of books, I know not; and those persons you have + found there as fit associates in your studies I should suppose to + be such rather from their own natural constitution than from the + discipline of the place,--unless perchance, from missing you here, + I do less justice to the place for keeping you away. Meanwhile you + yourself rightly remark that there are too many there whose + occupation it is to spoil divine and human things alike by their + frivolous quibblings, that they may not seem to be doing absolutely + nothing for those many endowments by which they are supported so + much to the public detriment. All this you will understand better + for yourself. Those ancient annals of the Chinese from the Flood + downwards which you say are promised by the Jesuit Martini[1] are + doubtless very eagerly expected on account of the novelty of the + thing; but I do not see what authority or confirmation they can add + to the Mosaic books. Our Cyriack, whom you bade me salute, returns + the salutation. Farewell. + + "Westminster: June 25, 1656." + +[Footnote 1: Martin Martini, Jesuit Missionary to China, was born +1614 and died 1661.] + +That Count Bundt's remonstrance on the employment of a blind man in +the Protector's diplomatic business had had no effect will be proved +by the following list of state-letters written by Milton immediately +after that remonstrance. We bring the list down to Sept. 1656, the +month in which the Second Parliament of the Protectorate met: + + (LXXVIII.) To KINGS AND FOREIGN STATES GENERALLY, _June_ + 1656:[1]--This is a Passport by the Protector in favour of PETER + GEORGE ROMSWINCKEL, Doctor of Laws. He had been born and bred in + the Roman Catholic Church, and had held high offices in that Church + at Cologne, but had become an ardent Protestant, and had been for + some time in England. He was now on his way back to Germany, to + assume the post of Councillor to the widowed Duchess of Symmeren + (?); and the Protector desires all English officers, consuls, + agents, &c., and also all foreign Governments, to give him free + passage and handsome treatment. The tone of the letter is even + haughtily Protestant. On the ground that "most people think in + Religion with easy acquiescence in exactly what they have received + from their forefathers, and not what they themselves, after + imploring divine help, have learnt to be true by their own + perception and knowledge," the case of Romswinckel is represented + as peculiarly interesting; and such phrases as "the Papal + superstition" are not spared. The passport was probably expected to + come only into Protestant hands. + +[Footnote 1: This Letter is not given in the Printed Collection or +in Phillips; it is in the Skinner Transcript, and has been printed +by Mr. Hamilton in his _Milton Papers_ (pp. 5-6).] + + (LXXIX.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _June_ 1656:[1]--A + special recommendation of the above Romswinckel to the Swedish + King, in the same high Protestant tone. + +[Footnote 1: Not in Printed Collection or Phillips, but in +Skinner Transcript, and printed by Hamilton (_Milton Papers_, +6-7).] + + (LXXX.) TO THE KING OF PORTUGAL, _July_ 1656:--The Portuguese + merchants of the Brazil Company owe certain English merchants a + considerable sum of money on shipping accounts since 1649 and 1650. + The English merchants, understanding that, by recent orders of his + Portuguese Majesty, they are likely to lose the principal of the + debt, and be put off with the bare interest, have applied to the + Protector. He thinks it a hard case, and begs the King to let the + debt be paid in full, principal and five years of interest. + + (LXXXI.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _July_ 1656:--After + more than two months of farther debating between Count Bundt and + the English Commissioners, in the course of which there had been + frequent new displays of the Count's high temper, the Treaty + between the Protector and Charles Gustavus had at last been happily + finished on the 17th of July. On that day, Whitlocke tells as, he + and Lords Fiennes and Strickland had their long final meeting over + the Treaty with the Ambassador, ending; in formal signing and + sealing on both sides. The main difficulty had been got over thus: + "Concerning the carrying of pitch, tar, &c. to Spain, during our + war with them [the Spaniards], there was a single Article, that the + King of Sweden should be moved to give order for the prohibiting of + it, and a kind of undertaking that it should be done." On the + whole, the Protector was satisfied; and, as he had contracted some + admiration and liking for the Ambassador, precisely on account of + his unusual spirit and stubbornness, he marked the conclusion of + the Treaty by special compliments and favours. "The Swedish + Ambassador," says Whitlocke under date July 25, "having taken his + leave of the Protector, received great civilities and respects from + him, and afterwards dined with him at Hampton Court, and hunted + with him. The Protector bestowed the dignity of knighthood upon one + of his [the Ambassador's] gentlemen, Sir Gustavus Duval, the + mareschal." The present Latin letter by Milton, accordingly, was + the letter of honourable dismissal which the Swede was to take back + to his master. Perhaps the Swede knew that even this was written by + the Protector's blind Latinist.--"Oliver, Protector of the + Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland, &c., to the most + Serene Prince, Charles Gustavus, King of the Swedes, Goths, and + Vandals, &c." is the heading of the letter; which proceeds + thus:--"Most Serene King,--As we have justly a very high regard for + the friendship of so great a Prince as your Majesty, one so famous + for his achievements, so necessarily should that most illustrious + Lord, CHRISTIERN BUNDT, your Ambassador Extraordinary, by whose + endeavours a Treaty of the closest alliance has just been ratified + between us, have been to as, were it but on this pre-eminent + account, an object of favour and good report. We have accordingly + judged it fit that he should be sent back to you after his most + praiseworthy performance of this Embassy: but not without the + highest acknowledgment at the same time of his other excellent + merits, to the end that one who has been heretofore in esteem and + honour with you may now feel that he is indebted to this our + commendation for yet more abundant fruits of his assiduity and + prudence. As for the transactions that yet remain, we have resolved + shortly to send to your Majesty a special Embassy for those; and + meanwhile may God preserve your Majesty safe, to be a pillar in His + Church's defence and in the affairs of Sweden!--From our Palace of + Westminster,--July 1656. Your Majesty's most affectionate, OLIVER, + Protector &c."--Count Bundt, we may add, remained in England a + month more after all, receiving farther attentions and + entertainments; and not till Aug. 23 did he finally depart, taking + with him not only Milton's Letter, but also a present from the + Protector of £1200 worth of "white cloth" and a magnificent jewel. + It was because this jewel could not be got ready at once that he + had staid on; and it was worth waiting for. "The jewel was his + Highness's picture in a case of gold, about the bigness of a + five-shillings piece of silver, set round the case with sixteen + fair diamonds, each diamond valued at £60: in all worth about + £1000." The Count wore the jewel tied with a blue ribbon to his + breast so long as he was in sight, barging down the Thames.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 257-273.] + + (LXXXII.) To the King of Portugal, _Aug._ 1656:--Mr. Philip + Meadows has been in Lisbon since March, busy in the duties of his + mission, and sending letters and reports home. There was still + danger, however, in being an agent for the English Commonwealth in + a Roman Catholic country; and Meadows had nearly shared the fate of + Dorislaus and Ascham. On the 11th of May, as he was returning at + night to his lodgings in Lisbon, carried in a litter, he was + attacked by two horsemen, who "discharged two pistols into the + litter and shot him through the left hand."[1] The wound was not + serious; but the King of Portugal was naturally in great concern. + He offered a large reward for the discovery of the criminals; and, + in a Latin letter to Cromwell, dated "Alcantara, May 26, N.S.," he + professed his desire to have them punished, whether they were + English refugees or native Portuguese.[2] The present Letter by + Milton is the Protector's reply. Though there has been some + interval since the receipt of his Majesty's letter, his Highness + has not yet heard that the criminals have been apprehended; and he + insists that there shall be a vigorous prosecution of the search + and recommends that it should be put into the hands of "some + persons of honesty and sincerity, well-wishers to both nations." + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe to Pell, June 26, Vaughan's _Protectorate_, +I. 432.] + +[Footnote 2: See Letter itself in Thurloe, V. 28.] + + (LXXXIII.) To Louis XIV. of France, _Aug._ 1656:--Again about + a ship, but this time in a peremptory strain.--Richard Baker and + Co. of London have complained to the Protector that a ship of + theirs, called _The Endeavour_, William Jopp master, laden at + Teneriffe with 300 pipes of rich Canary wine, had, in November + last, been seized by four French privateer vessels under command of + a Giles de la Roche, who had carried ship, cargo, and most of the + crew away to the East Indies, after landing fourteen of the crew on + the Guinea coast. For this daring act he had pleaded no excuse, + except that his own fleet wanted provisions and that he believed + the owners of his fleet would make good the loss. The Protector + now demands that £16,000 be paid to Messrs. Baker and Co., and also + that Giles de la Roche be punished. It concerns his French + Majesty's honour to see to this, after that recent League with the + English Commonwealth to which his royal oath is pledged. Otherwise + all faith in Leagues will be at an end. + + (LXXXIV.) TO CARDINAL, MAZARIN, _Aug._ 1656:--On the same + subject as the last. While writing to the King about such an + outrage, the Protector cannot refrain from imparting the matter + also to his Eminence, as "the sole and only person whose singular + prudence governs the most important affairs of the French and the + chief business of the kingdom, with equal fidelity, counsel, and + vigilance." + + (LXXXV.) TO THE STATES-GENERAL OF THE UNITED PROVINCES, + _Aug._ 1656. A Letter of some length, and very important. "We + doubt not," It begins, "but all will bear us this testimony--that + no considerations have ever been stronger with us in contracting + foreign alliances than, the duty of defending the Truth of + Religion, and that we have never accounted anything more sacred + than the union and reconciliation of those who are either the + friends and defenders of Protestants, or at least not their + enemies." With what grief, then, does his Highness hear of new + dissensions breaking out among Protestant powers, and especially of + signs of a rupture between the United Provinces and Sweden! Should + there be war between those two great Protestant powers, how the + common enemy will rejoice! "To the Spaniard the prospect has + already brought such an access of spirit and confidence that he + has not hesitated, through his Ambassador residing with you, to + obtrude most audaciously his counsels upon you, and that about the + chief concerns of your Republic: daring even partly to terrify you + by throwing in threats of a renewal of war, partly to solicit you + by setting forth a false show of expediency, to the end that, + abandoning by his advice your old and most faithful friends, the + French, the English, and the Swedes, you would be pleased to form a + close alliance with your former enemy and tyrant, pacified now + forsooth, and, what is most to be feared, quite fawning." The + Protector earnestly adjures their High Mightinesses the States to + be on their guard. "We are not ignorant that you, in your wisdom, + often revolve in your minds the question of the present state of + Europe in general, and especially the condition of the Protestants: + how the Cantons of the Swiss following the orthodox faith are kept + in suspense by the expectation from day to day of new commotions + to be stirred up by their countrymen following the faith of the + Pope, and this while they have hardly emerged from that war which, + plainly on account of Religion, was blown and kindled by the + Spaniard, who gave their enemies leaders and supplied the money; + how for the inhabitants of the Alpine Valleys the designs of the + Spaniards are again contriving the same slaughter and destruction + which they most cruelly inflicted on them last year; how the German + Protestants are most grievously troubled under the rule of the + Kaiser, and retain their paternal homes with difficulty; how the + King of Sweden, whom God, as we hope, has raised up as a valiant + champion of the Orthodox Religion, is carrying on with the whole + strength of his kingdom a doubtful and most severe war with the + most powerful enemies of the Reformed Faith; how your own Provinces + are threatened by the ominous league lately struck up among your + Papist neighbours, of whom a Spaniard is the Prince; how we here, + finally, are engaged in a war declared against the Spanish King." + What an aggravation of this condition of things if there should be + an actual conflict between their High Mightinesses and Sweden! Will + not their High Mightinesses lay all this to heart, and come to a + friendly arrangement with Charles Gustavus? The Protector hardly + understands the causes of the disagreement; but, if he can be of + any use between the two powers, he will spare no exertion. He is + about to send an embassy to the Swedish King, and will convey to + him also the sentiments of this letter.--That the preparation of + this Letter to the States-General had been very careful appears + from the following minute relating to it in the Council Order-Books + for Tuesday Aug. 19:--"Mr. Secretary [Thurloe] reports the draft of + a letter to the States-General of the United Provinces; which was + read, and committed to Sir Charles Wolseley, with the assistance of + the Secretary, to amend the same, in pursuance of the present + debate, and report it again to the Council." Cromwell was himself + present at this meeting of the Council, with Lawrence, Lambert, + Wolseley, Strickland, Rous, Jones, Skippon, and Pickering. The + draft read was most probably the English that was to be turned into + Latin by Milton: but this does not preclude the idea that the + document itself was substantially Milton's. Thurloe can hardly have + drafted _such_ a document. He may have gone to Milton first. + + (LXXXVI.) To The King of Portugal, _Aug._ 1656:--The Protector + has received his Portuguese Majesty's Ratification of the Peace + negotiated in London by his Extraordinary Ambassador Count Sa in + 1654, and also of the secret and preliminary articles of the same; + and he has received letters from Philip Meadows, his agent at + Lisbon, informing him that the counterpart Ratification on the + English side had been duly delivered to his Majesty. There being + now therefore a firm and settled Peace between the two nations, + dating formally from June 1656, the Protector salutes his Majesty + with all cordiality. As to his Majesty's letters of June 24th, + mentioning some clauses of the League a slight alteration of which + would be convenient for Portugal, the Protector is willing to have + these carefully considered, but suggests that the whole Treaty may + be perilled by tampering with any part of it. + + (LXXXVII.) To THE COUNT OF ODEMIRA, _Aug._ 1656:--This is a + letter to the Prime Minister of Portugal, to accompany the + foregoing to the King. The Protector acknowledges the Count's zeal + and diligence in promoting the Peace now concluded, and takes the + opportunity of pressing upon him, rather than again upon the King, + relentless inquiry into the late attempt to assassinate Meadows. + + (LXXXVIII.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _Aug._ 1656:--A + letter very much in the strain of that just sent to the + States-General of the United Provinces. Although, knowing what a + champion the Protestant Faith has in his Swedish Majesty, the + Protector cannot but rejoice in the news of his successes, there is + one drawback. It is the accompanying news of the misunderstanding + between his Majesty and the Dutch, now come to such a pass, he + hears, that open conflict is likely, especially in the Baltic. The + Protector is in the dark as to the causes, but ventures to press on + his Majesty the views he had been pressing, but a few days ago, + upon the Dutch. Let him think of the perils of Protestantism; let + him think of Piedmont, of Austria, of Switzerland! "Who is ignorant + that the counsels of the Spaniards and of the Roman Pontiff have, + for two years past, filled all those places with conflagrations, + slaughters, and troubles to the orthodox? If to these evils, so + many already, there shall be added an outbreak of bad feeling among + Protestant brethren themselves, and especially between two powers + in whose valour, resources, and constancy lies the greatest + safeguard of the Reformed Churches, so far as human means avail, + the Reformed Religion itself must be endangered and brought to an + extreme crisis. On the other hand, were all of the Protestant name + to cultivate perpetual peace with that brotherly unanimity which + becomes them, there will be no reason at all to be very much afraid + of inconvenience to us from all that the arts or force of our + enemies can do." O that his Majesty may see his way to a pacific + settlement of his differences with the Dutch! The Protector will + gladly do anything to secure that result. + + (LXXXIX.) TO THE STATES OF HOLLAND, _Sept._ 1856:--William + Cooper, a London minister, has represented to the Protector that + his father-in-law, John le Maire of Amsterdam, invented, about + thirty-three years ago, a certain device by which much revenue was + brought in to the States of Holland, without any burden to the + people. It was the settling of a certain small seal or stamp to be + used in the Provinces ("_id autem erat parvi sigilli in + Provinciis constitutio_"). For the working this invention he had + taken into partnership one John van den Brook; and the States of + Holland had promised the partners 3000 guilders yearly, equal to + about £300 English, for the use of the thing. Not a farthing, + however, had they ever received, though the States had benefited so + much; and now, as they are both tired out, they have transferred + their right to William Cooper, who means to prosecute the claim. + The States are prayed to look into the matter, and to pay Cooper + the promised annual pension, with arrears. + + (XC.) To LOUIS XIV. of FRANCE, _Sept._ 1656:--His Highness is + sorry to trouble his Majesty so often; but the grievances of + English subjects must be attended to. Now a London merchant, called + Robert Brown, who had bought 4000 hides, part of the cargo of a + Dieppe ship, legally taken before the League between France and + Britain, had sold about 200 of them to a currier in Dieppe, but; + instead of receiving the money, had found it attached and stopped + in his factor's hands. He could have no redress from the French + court of law to which the suit had been referred; and the Protector + now desires his Majesty to bring the matter before his own Council. + If acts done before the League are to be called in question, + Leagues will be meaningless; and it would be well to make an + example or two of persons causing trouble of this kind. + +Six of these thirteen State-Letters, it ought to be observed, belong +to the single month of August 1656. They form Milton's largest +contribution of work of this kind in any one month since the very +beginning of his Secretaryship, with the exception of his burst of +letters on the news of the Piedmontese Massacre in May 1655. Nor +ought it to escape notice that some of the letters of Aug. 1656 are +particularly important, and that two of them are manifestos of that +passionate Protestantism of the Protector which had prompted his bold +stand in the matter of the Piedmontese Persecution, and which had +matured itself politically since then into the scheme of an express +League or Union of all the Protestant Powers of Europe. It cannot be +by mere accident that, when Cromwell wanted letters written in the +highest strain of his most characteristic passion, they should have +always been supplied by Milton. Whatever might be done by the office +people that Thurloe had about him, it must have been understood that, +for things of this sort, there was always to be recourse to the Latin +Secretary Extraordinary. + +A little item of recent Council-business of which Milton may have +heard with some interest appears as follows in the Council +Order-Books under date Aug. 7, 1656:--"Upon consideration of the +humble petition of Peter Du Moulin, the son, Doctor of Divinity, and +a certificate thereunto subscribed, being presented to his Highness, +and by his Highness referred to the Council, _Ordered_ ... That +the said Dr. Peter Du Moulin, the petitioner, be permitted to +exercise his ministerial abilities, the late Proclamation [of Nov. +24, 1655: see ante pp. 61-62], or any orders or instructions given to +the Major-Generals and Commissioners in the several counties, +notwithstanding." And so even the author of the _Regii Sanguinis +Clamor_ was now an indulged man, and might look forward to being a +Vicar or a Rector, or something higher still, in Cromwell's +Established Church. _Can_ his secret have possibly been then +known? _Can_ the Council have known that the man who petitioned +the Protector for indulgence, and to whom they now advised the +Protector to grant it, was the author of the most vehement and bitter +book that had ever been written on the Royalist side, the man who had +abused the Commonwealth men as "robbers, traitors, parricides" and +"plebeian scoundrels," who had written of Cromwell "Verily an egg is +not liker an egg than Cromwell is like Mahomet," and who had capped +all his other politenesses about Milton by calling him "more vile +than Cromwell, damned than Ravaillac"?[1] + +[Footnote 1: Dr. Peter du Moulin did become a Vicar in Cromwell's +Established Church. He was inducted into the Vicarage of Bradwell, in +Bucks, Oct. 24, 1657, but quitted it in a few days, apparently for +something better (Wood's Fasti, II. 195: Note by Cole).] + + + + +SECTION III: FROM SEPTEMBER 1656 TO JUNE 1657, OR THROUGH THE FIRST +SESSION OF OLIVER'S SECOND PARLIAMENT. + +ANOTHER LETTER FROM MILTON TO MR. RICHARD JONES: DEPARTURE OF LADY +RANELAGH FOR IRELAND: LETTER FROM MILTON TO PETER HEIMBACH: MILTON'S +SECOND MARRIAGE: HIS SECOND WIFE, KATHARINE WOODCOCK: LETTER TO +EMERIC BIGOT: MILTON'S LIBRARY AND THE BYZANTINE HISTORIANS: M. +STOUPE: TEN MORE STATE-LETTERS BY MILTON FOR THE PROTECTOR (NOS. +XCI.-C.): MORLAND, MEADOWS, DURIE, LOCKHART, AND OTHER DIPLOMATISTS +OF THE PROTECTOR, BACK IN LONDON: MORE EMBASSIES AND DISPATCHES OVER +LAND AND SEA: MILTON STANDING AND WAITING: HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THE +PROTECTORATE GENERALLY. + + +Not much altogether is recoverable of Milton's life through that +section of the Protectorate which coincides with the first Session of +the Second Parliament (Sept. 17, 1656-June 26, 1657). What is +recoverable will connect itself with (1) Three Private Epistles of +his dated in these nine months, and (2) The series of his +State-letters in the same period. To Richard Jones, _alias_ +young Ranelagh, still at Oxford with Oldenburg, Milton, four days +after the meeting of the Parliament, addressed another letter in that +tone of Mentorship which he seems to have thought most suitable for +the youth:-- + + "To the Noble youth, RICHARD JONES. + + "Preparing again and again to reply to your last letter, I was + first prevented, as you know, by some sudden pieces of business, of + such a kind as are apt to be mine; then I heard you were off on an + excursion to some places in your neighbourhood; and now your most + excellent mother, on her way to Ireland--whose departure ought to + be a matter of no ordinary regret to both of us (for to me also she + has stood in the place of all kith and kin: _nam et mihi omnium, + necessitudinum loco fuit_)--carries you this letter herself. + That you feel assured of my affection for you, right and well; and + I would have you feel daily more and more assured of it, the more + of good disposition and of good use of your advantages you give me + to see in you. Which result, by God's grace, I see you not only + engage for personally, but, as if I had provoked you by a wager on + the subject, give solemn pledge and put in bail that you will + accomplish,--not refusing, as it were, to abide judgment, and to + pay the penalty of failure if judgment should be given against you. + I am truly delighted with this so good hope you have of yourself; + which you cannot now be wanting to, without appearing at the same + time not only to have been faithless to your own promises but also + to have run away from your bail. As to what you write to the effect + that you do not dislike Oxford, you adduce nothing to make me + believe that you have got any good there or been made any wiser: + you will have to shew me that by very different proofs. Victories + of Princes, which you extol with praises, and matters of that sort + in which force is of most avail, I would not have you admire too + much, now that you are listening to Philosophers [Robert Boyle and + his set?]. For what should be the great wonder if in the native + land of _wethers_ there are born strong horns, able to + _ram_ down most powerfully cities and towns? [_Quid enim + magnopere mirandum est si vervecum, in patria valida nascantur + cornua quæ urbes et oppida arietare valentissime possint?_ + Besides the pun, there is some geographical allusion, or allusion + of military history, which it is difficult to make out.] Learn you, + already from your early age, to weigh and discern great characters + not by force and animal strength, but by justice and temperance. + Farewell; and please to give best salutations in my name to the + highly accomplished Henry Oldenburg, your chamber-fellow. + + "Westminster: Sept. 21, 1656." + +If the date of this letter, as published by Milton himself, is +correct, it was written on a Sunday. Yet there can have been no +particular haste; for Lady Ranelagh, who was to carry the letter to +her son at Oxford on her way to Ireland, did not leave London for at +least another fortnight. The pass for "Lady Catharine, Viscountess of +Ranelagh, and her two daughters," with their servants, eight horses, +&c., to go into Ireland, was granted, I find, by the Protector's +Council, Oct. 7, 1656, on the motion of Lord President Lawrence.[1] +She was to be away in Ireland for some years, occupied with family +business of various kinds; and Milton was thinking with regret of the +blank in his life that would be caused by her absence. For she had +been to him, he says, "in the place of all kith and kin." How much +that phrase involves! Though we have no letters from Milton to Lady +Ranelagh, or from Lady Ranelagh to Milton, and though the fact of +their friendship has been left by Milton unrecorded in that poetical +form, whether of sonnet or of idyll, which has preserved for us so +finely other incidents and intimacies of his life, this one phrase, +duly interpreted, ought to make up for all. Perhaps in no part of any +eminent man's life, especially if he is bereft domestically, is there +wanting this benefit of some supreme womanly interest wakened in his +behalf. Twice in Milton's life, so unfortunate domestically hitherto, +we have seen something of the kind. Twelve years ago, in the old +Aldersgate days of his desertion by his wife, it seemed to be the +Lady Margaret Ley that was paramount. More recently, through the +Westminster years of blindness and widowerhood, the real ministering +angel, if there had been any such, had been that Lady Ranelagh whom +English History remembers at any rate as the incomparable sister of +Lord Broghill and of Robert Boyle. Let there be restored to her +henceforth the honour also of having been Milton's friend. + +[Footnote 1: Council Order-Books of date.] + +The next extant Epistle of Milton, written when the Second Parliament +of the Protectorate had sat nearly two months, is also quite of a +private nature. Of the German or Dutch youth to whom it is addressed, +Peter Heimbach, I have ascertained only that he had been residing for +some time in London, perhaps originally brought thither in the train +of some embassy or agency, and that he had recently published in +London a Latin letter of eulogy on Cromwell,[1] extremely +enthusiastic and somewhat juvenile. Milton's letter suggests farther +that he had been much about Milton, as amanuensis or what not, but +was now on a visit to Holland. + +[Footnote 1: The Letter, which is in thirty-five pages of small +folio, is entitled "_Petri ab Heimbach, G.F., ad Serenissimum +Potentissimumque Principem Olivarium, D. G. Magnæ Brittaniæ +Protectorem, veræ Fidei Defensorem, Pium, Felicem, Invictum, +Adlocutio Gralulatoria: Londini, Ex Typographia Jacobi +Cottrellii_, 1656." The praise of Cromwell is boundless; and his +conduct in the Piedmontese business, and his care of learning and the +Universities, are especially noticed.] + + "To the very accomplished youth, PETER HEIMBACH. + + "Most amply, my Heimbach, have you fulfilled your promises and all + the other expectations one would have of your goodness, with the + exception, that I have still to long for your return. You promised + that it would be within two months at farthest; and now, unless my + desire to have you back makes me misreckon the time, you have been + absent nearly three. In the matter of the Atlas you have abundantly + performed all I requested of you; which was not that you should + procure me one, but only that you would find out the lowest price + of the book. You write that they ask 130 florins; it must be the + Mauritanian mountain _Atlas_, I think, and not a book, that + you tell me is to be bought at so huge a price. Such is now the + luxury of Typographers in printing books that the furnishing of a + library seems to have become as costly as the furnishing of a + villa. Since to me at least, on account of my blindness, painted + maps can hardly be of use, vainly surveying as I do with blind eyes + the actual globe of the earth, I am afraid that the bigger the + price at which I should buy that book the greater would seem to be + my grief over my deprivation. Be good enough, pray, to take so much + farther trouble for me as to be able to inform me, when you return, + how many volumes there are in the complete work, and which of the + two issues, that of Blaeu or that of Jansen, is the larger and more + correct. This I hope to hear from yourself personally, on your + speedy return, rather than by another letter. Meanwhile farewell, + and come back to us as soon as you can. + + "Westminster: Nov. 8, 1656." + +One guesses from this letter that Heimbach was then in Amsterdam. It +was there, at all events, that the two Atlases about which Milton +enquired had been published or were in course of publication. That of +John Jansen, called _Novus Atlas_, when completed in 1658, +consisted of six folio volumes; the yet more magnificent +_Geographia Blaeviana_, or Atlas of the geographer and printer +John Blaeu, was not perfect till 1662, and then consisted of eleven +volumes of very large folio. But various Atlases, or collections of +maps in anticipation of the complete Atlas, had been on sale by Blaeu +for ten or twelve years previously: e.g., from his own +trade-catalogue in 1650, "Atlas, four volumes illuminated, bound +after the best fashion, will cost 150 guldens," and "Belgia Foederata +and Belgia Regia, two vols., white [uncoloured], 70 guldens, or +illuminated 140 guldens." The gulden or Dutch florin was equal to +1_s._ 8_d._ English, so that the price of Blaeu's four +volume Atlas of 1650 was £12 10_s._ To Milton in 1656 the price +of the same, or of whatever other Atlas he had in view, was to be +twenty florins less, i.e. about £11. It was much as if one were asked +to give £38 for a book now; and no wonder that Milton hesitated.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The information about the prices of Blaeu's general +Atlas in 1650 and his special Atlas of the two Belgiums in the same +year is from a curious letter in the _Correspondence of the Earls +of Ancram and Lothian_, edited for the Marquis of Lothian, in +1875, by Mr. David Laing (II. 256).] + +Just four days after the date of the letter to Heimbach, i.e. on the +12th of November, 1656, there took place an event of no less +consequence to the household in Petty France than Milton's second +marriage, after four years of widowerhood. It was performed, as the +Marriage Act then in force required, not by a clergyman, but by a +justice of the peace, and is registered thus in the books of the +parish of St. Mary Aldermanbury, London, under the year 1656: "The +agreement and intention of marriage between JOHN MILTON, Esq., of the +Parish of Margaret's in Westminster, and MRS. KATHARINE WOODCOCKE, of +the Parish of Mary's in Aldermanbury, was published three several +market-days in three several weeks, viz. on Wednesday the 22nd and +Monday the 27th of October, and on Monday the 3rd of November; and, +no exceptions being made against their intention, they were, +according to the Act of Parliament, married the 12th of November by +Sir John Dethicke, Knight and Alderman, one of the Justices of Peace +for this City of London."[1] Of this KATHARINE WOODCOCK (the "Mrs." +before whose name does not mean that she had been married before) we +learn farther, from Phillips, that she was "the daughter of Captain +Woodcock of Hackney"; and that is nearly all that we know of her +family. A Captain John Woodcock, who is found giving a receipt for +£13 8_s._ to the Treasurer-at-War on Oct. 6, 1653, on the +disbanding of his troop, may possibly have been her father, as no +other Captain Woodcock of the time has been discovered.[2] There is +reason to believe that Milton had not been acquainted with the lady +before his blindness, and so that, literally, he had never +_seen_ her. Not the less, for the brief space of her life +allotted to their union, she was to be a light and blessing in his +dark household. + +[Footnote 1: Given in Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1840; but I owe +my copy to the kindness of Colonel Chester, who took it direct from +the Register of St. Mary, Aldermanbury; and who supplies me with +the following information in connexion with it: "It is generally +said that the marriage took place in that church; but this, I +think, may be doubted. I noticed, in several instances, that, when +the religious ceremony was performed after the civil one, the fact +was recorded; but it is not so in this case. I think that the +City marriages at that period usually took place in the Guildhall, +where a magistrate sat daily; though I believe they were sometimes +solemnized at the residence of one of the parties."] + +[Footnote 2: Phillips; Hunter's _Milton Gleanings_, p. 35. +Colonel Chester tells me that, although Katharine Woodcock is +described in the Register as "of the parish of Mary's in +Aldermanbury," he found no trace of her family in that parish at the +time. "There were Woodcocks there at a much earlier period (say 100 +years before); but about this time I found only one burial, that of +Michael Woodcock, whose will I have since looked at, but which does +not mention her." The conjecture that Mr. Francis Woodcock, minister +of St. Olave's, Southwark, was a relative, receives no support from +what is known of his principles (see Vol. III, 184). A contemporary +Puritan divine, Thomas Woodcock, for some time minister of St. Andrew +Undershaft, is found living at Hackney after the Restoration.] + +The household better ordered; the three young orphan girls of the +first marriage better tended; more of lightsomeness and cheerfulness +for Milton himself among his books; continuance, under new +management, of the little hospitalities to the learned foreigners who +occasionally call, and to the habitual visitors: so, we are to +imagine, pass away at home those winter months of 1656-7 during which +the great topics of interest outside were the war with Spain, +Sindercombe's plot against the Protector's life, the debates in +Parliament over the case of James Nayler, and the proceedings there +for amending the system of the Protectorate, whether by converting it +into Kingship or otherwise. Not, however, till the last day of March +1656-7, or three months and a half after the marriage with Katharine +Woodcock, have we another distinct glimpse of Milton in his private +life. On that day he dictated, in Latin, the following letter:-- + + "To the most accomplished EMERIC BIGOT. + + "That on your coming into England I had the honour of being thought + by you more worth visiting and saluting than others was truly and + naturally gratifying to me; and that now you renew your salutation + by letter, even at such an interval, is somewhat more gratifying + still. For in the first instance you might have come to me perhaps + on the inducement of other people's opinion; but you could hardly + return to me by letter save at the prompting of your own judgment, + or, at least, good will. On this surely I have ground to + congratulate myself. For many have made a figure by their published + writings whose living voice and daily conversation have presented + next to nothing that was not low and common: if, then, I can attain + the distinction of seeming myself equal in mind and manners to any + writings of mine that have been tolerably to the purpose, there + will be the double effect that I shall so have added weight + personally to my writings, and shall receive back by way of + reflection from them credit, how small soever it may be, yet + greater in proportion. For, in that case, whatever is right and + laudable in them, that same I shall seem not more to have derived + from authors of high excellence than to have fetched forth pure and + sincere from the inmost feelings of my own mind and soul. I am + glad, therefore, to know that you are assured of my tranquillity of + spirit in this great affliction of loss of sight, and also of the + pleasure I have in being civil and attentive in the reception of + visitors from abroad. Why, in truth, should I not bear gently the + deprivation of sight, when I may hope that it is not so much lost + as revoked and retracted inwards, for the sharpening rather than + the blunting of my mental edge? Whence it is that I neither think + of books with anger, nor quite intermit the study of them, + grievously though they have mulcted me,--were it only that I am + instructed against such moroseness by the example of King Telephus + of the Mysians, who refused not to be cured in the end by the + weapon that had wounded him. As to that book you possess, _On the + Manner of Holding Parliaments_, I have caused the marked + passages of it to be either amended, or, if they were doubtful, + confirmed, by reference to the MS. in the possession of the + illustrious Lord Bradshaw, and also to the Cotton MS., as you will + see from your little paper returned herewith. In compliance with + your desire to know whether also the autograph of this book is + extant in the Tower of London, I sent one to inquire of the Herald + who has the custody of the Deeds, and with whom I am on familiar + terms. His answer is that no copy of that book is extant among + those records. For the help you offer me in return in procuring + literary material I am very much obliged. I want, of the Byzantine + Historians, _Theophanis Chronographia_ (folio: Greek and + Latin), _Constantini Manassis Breviarium Historicum_, with + _Codini Excerpta de Antiquitatibus Constantinopolitanis_ + (folio: Greek and Latin), _Anastasii Bibliothecarii Historia et + Vitæ Romanorum Pontificum_ (folio); to which be so good as to + add, from the same press, _Michael Glycas_, and _Joannes + Cinnamus_, the continuator of Anna Comnena, if they are now out. + I do not ask you to get them as cheap as you can, both because + there is no need to put a very frugal man like yourself in mind of + that, and because they tell me the price of these books is fixed + and known to all. MR. STOUPE has undertaken the charge of the money + for you in cash, and also to see about the most convenient mode of + carriage. That you may have all you wish, and all you aspire after, + is my sincere desire. Farewell. + + "Westminster: March 24, 1656-7." + +Of the French scholar to whom this letter was addressed there is an +excellent notice in Bayle. "EMERIC BIGOT," says Bayle, "one of the +most learned and most honest men of the seventeenth century, was a +native of Rouen, and of a family very distinguished in the legal +profession. He was born in 1626. The love of letters drew him aside +from public employments; his only occupation was in books and the +acquisition of knowledge; he augmented marvellously the library which +had been left him by his father. Once every week there was a meeting +at his house for talk on matters of erudition. He kept up literary +intercourse with a great number of learned men; his advices and +information were useful to many authors; and he laboured all he could +for the good and advantage of the Republic of Letters. He published +but one book [a Life of St. Chrysostom]; but apparently he would have +published others had he lived to complete them. M. Ménage in France, +and Nicolas Heinsius among foreigners, were his two most intimate +friends. He had none of the faults that accompany learning: he was +modest and an enemy to disputes. In general, one may say he was the +best heart in the world. He died at Rouen Dec. 18, 1689, aged about +sixty-four years." How exactly this description of Bigot for his +whole life tallies with the notion we should have of him, at the age +of thirty-two, from Milton's letter! He had been in England some time +ago, it appears, and had there, like other foreigners, paid his +respects to Milton. And now, either from Rouen, or more probably from +Paris, he had reopened the communication, quite in the style of a man +such as Bayle paints him. The immediate object of his letter seems to +have been to ask Milton to have some doubtful passages in a book "On +the Manner of Holding Parliaments" compared with MS. authorities in +London; but he had taken occasion to express also his vivid +recollection of Milton, his interest in Milton's present condition, +and his desire to be of use to him in the quest or purchase of +foreign books. + +Milton, who had evidently performed very punctually Bigot's immediate +commission,[1] did, it will be observed, send him a commission in +return. It deserves a little explanation:--There was then in course +of publication at Paris, under the auspices and at the expense of +Louis XIV., the first splendid collective edition of the Byzantine +Historians, i.e. of that series of Historians, Chroniclers, +Antiquarians, and Memoir-writers of the Eastern or Greek Empire from +the 6th century to the 15th in whose works lies imbedded all our +information as to the History of the East through the Middle Ages. +The publication, which was to attain to the vast size of thirty-six +volumes folio, containing the Greek Texts with Latin Translations and +Notes, was not to be completed till 1711; but it had been begun in +1645. Now, in Milton's library, it appears, the Byzantine Historians +were already pretty well represented, either in the shape of the +earlier volumes of this Parisian collection, or in that of separate +prior editions of particular writers. There were some gaps, however, +which he wanted to fill up. He wanted the _Chronographia_ of +Theophanes Isaacius, a chronicle of events from A.D. 277 to A.D. 811; +also the _Brevarium Historicum_ of Constantine Manasses, a +metrical chronicle of the world from the Creation to A.D. 1081; also +the book of Georgius Codinus, the compiler of the fifteenth century, +entitled _Excerpta de Originibus Constantinopolitanis_; also +that of Anastasius Bibliothecarius on the _Lives of the Popes_. +The Parisian editions of these, or of the first three, were now out +(all in 1655). At the same time there might be sent him the Parisian +editions, if they had appeared, of the Annals of _Michael +Glycas_, bringing the History of the World from the Creation to +A.D. 1118, and the valuable Lives of John and Manuel Comnenus by +_Joannes Cinnamus_, the imperial notary of the 12th century.--As +the Parisian edition of Michael Glycas (by Labbe) did not appear till +1660, and that of Joannes Cinnamus (by Du Cange) not till 1670, Bigot +can have forwarded to Milton only the first-mentioned Byzantine +books. One may imagine the arrival of the parcel of learned folios in +the neat new tenement which Milton inhabited in Petty France; and it +gives one a stronger idea than we have yet had of Milton's passion +for books, and of his indomitable perseverance and ingenuity in the +use of them in his blind state, that he should have taken such pains, +at our present date, to supply himself with copies of some of the +rare Byzantine Historians. Connecting this purchase, through Bigot, +with the recent inquiry, through Heimbach, about the price of +Blaeu's great Atlas, may we not also discern some increased +attention to the furnishing of the house occasioned by the second +marriage? + +[Footnote 1: It seems to me possible, though I would not be too sure, +that the book about which Bigot wrote to Milton was one entitled +_Modus tenendi Parliamentum apud Anglos_, by Henry Elsynge, +Clerk of the House of Lords, and father of the Henry Elsynge who was +Clerk of the Commons In the Long Parliament (Wood, Ath. III. 363-4). +The book, which had been sent forth under Parliamentary authority in +1641, was a standard one; and manuscript copies of it, or drafts for +it, more complete than itself, may well have been extant in such +places as the Cotton Library or Bradshaw's. Actually Elsynge's +autograph of the book, dated 1626, was extant in London at the date +of Milton's letter, though not in the Tower. An edition of the book, +"enriched with a large addition from the author's original MS.," was +published in 1768; and the MS. itself is now in the British Museum +(Bonn's _Lowndes_, Article "Elsynge").] + +The Herald in charge of the Records in the Tower, mentioned in +Milton's letter as one of his acquaintances, was, I believe, WILLIAM +RYLEY, Norroy King-at-arms. He had been Clerk of the Records, under +the Master of the Rolls, for some years, and was to continue in the +post till after the Restoration. A more interesting person was the +"MR. STOUPE" who took charge of the cash to Bigot for the Byzantine +volumes, and was to see to their conveyance to London.--He was no +common character. A Grison by birth, he had settled in London as +minister of the French Church in the Savoy; but he had left that post +to be one of Thurloe's travelling-agents and political intelligencers +or spies. For two years or more he had been employed in secret +missions to France and Switzerland, chiefly for negotiation in the +interests of the continental Protestants; and his success in this +kind of employment, often at considerable personal risk, and his +talent for collecting information in London itself by means of +correspondence from abroad, had gradually recommended him to the +Protector. Burnet, who knew him well in after life, when he was more +a frantic Deist than either a Protestant or "Christian," had more +anecdotes about Cromwell from him than from any other man. The +anecdotes he liked best to tell were those in which his own +intriguing ability figured. Thus it was Stoupe, according to his own +account, that knew of Cromwell's design on the Spanish West Indies +before all the rest of the world. One day, late in 1654, having been +called into the Protector's room on business, he had noticed him very +intent upon a map and measuring distances on it. Information being +Stoupe's trade, he contrived to see that the map was one of the Bay +of Mexico, and drew his inference. Accordingly, when the fleet of +Penn and Venables was ready to sail, but nobody knew its destination, +"Stoupe happened to say in a company he believed the design was on +the West Indies. The Spanish Ambassador, hearing that, sent for him +very privately, to ask him upon what ground he said it; and he +offered to lay down £10,000 if he could make any discovery of that. +Stoupe owned to me that he had a great mind to the money, and fancied +he betrayed nothing if he did discover the grounds of these +conjectures, since nothing had been trusted to him; but he expected +greater matters from Cromwell, and said only that in a diversity of +conjectures that seemed to him more probable than any others." +Another of Stoupe's stories to Burnet was even more curious. Having +learnt by a letter from Brussels that a certain refugee had come over +to assassinate Cromwell, and was lodged in King Street, Westminster, +he had hurried to Whitehall, and sent in a note to Cromwell, then in +Council, saying he had something to communicate. Cromwell, supposing +it might be one of Stoupe's ordinary pieces of intelligence, had sent +out Thurloe to him. Though "troubled at this," Stoupe had no option +but to show Thurloe the letter. To his surprise, Thurloe had made +light of the matter, saying that they had rumours of that kind by the +score, and it was not for a great man like the Protector to trouble +himself about them. Stoupe, who had hoped his fortune would be made, +went away "much cast down," to write to Brussels for surer evidence. +He mentioned the matter, however, to Lord Lisle; and so, when Sexby's +or Sindercombe's Plot was discovered a while afterwards, Lisle, +talking of it with the Protector, and not doubting that the Protector +knew all about Stoupe's previous revelation, said _that_ must be +the man Stoupe had spoken of. "Cromwell seemed amazed at this, and +sent for Stoupe, and in great wrath reproached him for his +ingratitude in concealing a matter of such consequence to him. Stoupe +upon this shewed him the letters he had received, and put him in mind +of the note he had sent in to him, which was immediately after he had +the first letter, and that he had sent out Thurloe to him. At that +Cromwell seemed yet more amazed, and sent for Thurloe, to whose face +Stoupe affirmed the matter; nor did he deny any part of it, but only +said that he had many such advertisements sent him, in which till +this time he had never found any truth. Cromwell replied sternly that +he ought to have acquainted _him_ with it, and left _him_ +to judge of the importance of it. Thurloe desired to speak in private +with Cromwell. So Stoupe was dismissed, and went away, not doubting +but Thurloe would be disgraced." What was his surprise, however, to +find not only that Thurloe was not disgraced, but that he himself was +thenceforth less in favour? Thurloe, in justifying himself, had told +Cromwell more about Stoupe than he previously knew, and "possessed +Cromwell with such an ill opinion of him that after that he never +treated him with any confidence."[1] If the story is true, Stoupe's +loss of favour dates from Jan. 1656-7, or two months before Milton's +letter to Bigot. It would seem, however, that he was still employed +in some way as one of Thurloe's agents; and hence Milton's use of him +to convey the cash to France.[2] That Milton knew Stoupe would have +been certain without this evidence; but the evidence is +interesting.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Burnet's _Hist. of his Own Time_, Book I.] + +[Footnote 2: Of the £2000 sent from London to Geneva in June 1655 as +the first instalment of relief for the Piedmontese Protestants +(Cromwell's own subscription) £500 had been sent through Stoupe. See +ante p. 190.] + +[Footnote 3: Stoupe might make a good character in any historical +novel of the time of the Protectorate. His career did not end then. +He was to be "a brigadier-general in the French armies," and one +knows not what else, before Burnet made his acquaintance.] + +Of the following State-Letters of Milton, all belonging to our +present section of his life, five bear date before his second +marriage, and five after. Those after the marriage come at longer +intervals than those before:-- + + (XCI.) TO THE KING OF PORTUGAL, _Oct._ 1656:--Peace with + Portugal being happily ratified, the Protector is despatching + THOMAS MAYNARD to be his consul in that country. This letter is to + introduce him and bespeak access for him to his Majesty. + + (XCII.) TO THE KING OF SWEDEN, _Oct._ 1656:--A soldierly + knight, Sir William Vavasour, who has been in England, is now + returning to his military duty under the Swedish King. The + Protector need hardly recommend back to his Majesty a servant so + distinguished, but ventures to do so, and to suggest that he should + be paid his arrears. + + (XCIII.) TO THE KING OF PORTUGAL, _Oct._ 1656:--An English + ship-master, called Thomas Evans, is going to Lisbon to prosecute + his claim for £7000 against the Brazil Company, being damages + sustained by the seizure of his ship, the _Scipio_, six years + before, by the Portuguese Government, while he was in the Company's + service. The Treaty provides for such claims; and, though the + Protector has written before on the subject generally, he cannot + but write specially in this case. + + (XCIV.) TO THE SENATE OF HAMBURG, _Oct. 16, 1656:_--Long ago, + in the time of King Charles, two brothers, James and Patrick Hays, + being the lawful heirs of their brother Alexander, who had died + intestate in Hamburg, had obtained a decree in their favour in the + Hamburg Court, assigning them all the said Alexander's property, + except dower for his widow. From that day to this, however, chiefly + by the influence of Albert van Eizen, a man of consequence in + Hamburg, they have been kept out of their rights. They are in + extreme poverty and have applied to the Protector. As he considers + it the first duty of his Protectorate to look after such cases, he + writes this letter. It is to request the Hamburg Senate to see that + the two brothers have the full benefit of the old decision of the + Court. Further delay has been threatened, he hears, in the form of + an appeal to the Chamber of Spires. That such an appeal is illegal + will appear by the signed opinions of English lawyers which he + forwards. "But, if entreaty is of no avail, it will be necessary, + and that by the common right of nations, to resort to measures of + retaliation." His Highness hopes this may be avoided by the + prudence of the Senate. + + (XCV.) TO LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE, _Nov. 1656:_--No answer has + yet been received to his Highness's former letter, of May 14, on + the subject of the claim of Sir John Dethicke, then Lord Mayor of + London, and his partner William Wakefield, on account of the + capture of a ship of theirs in 1649 by a pirate acting for Charles + Stuart, and the insolent detention of the same by M. L'Estrades, + the French Governor of Dunkirk (see the Letter, ante p. 253). + Perhaps the delay had arisen from the fact that M. L'Estrades was + then away with the army in Flanders; but "now he is living in Paris + itself, or rather fluttering about with impunity in city and court + enriched with the spoils of our people." His Highness now + imperatively demands immediate and strict attention to the matter. + It is one of positive obligation by the Treaty; and the honour and + good faith of His French Majesty are directly concerned.--It is a + curious coincidence that within a day or two of the writing of this + strong letter by Milton in behalf of Sir John Dethicke, that knight + should have solemnised Milton's marriage with Katharine Woodcock. + Nov. 12 was the date of the marriage; and, as Dethicke is spoken of + in this letter as no longer in his Mayoralty, it must have been + written after Lord Mayor's day, i.e. after Nov. 9, 1656. + + (XCVI.) TO FREDERICK III., KING OF DENMARK, _Dec. 1856:_--This + is another of Cromwell's fervid Protestant letters, very much in + the strain of those four months before to the States-General of the + United Provinces and Charles Gustavus of Sweden, and indeed, with + identical expressions. First he acknowledges letters from his + Danish Majesty, of date Feb. 16, received through the worthy Simon + de Pitkum, his Majesty's agent. They have been so gratifying, and + the matter of them is so important, that his Highness has been + looking about for a suitable person to be sent as confidential + minister to Copenhagen. Such a person he hopes to send soon: + meanwhile a letter may convey some thoughts about the state of + Europe that are much occupying his Highness. The dissensions among + Protestant States are causing him profound grief. Especially he is + grieved by the jealousies and misunderstandings that separate two + such important Protestant States as Denmark and Sweden. Can they + not be removed? Sweden and the United Provinces, with both of which + his Highness had taken the liberty of remonstrating to the same + effect, have been coming to a happy accommodation: why should + Denmark keep aloof? Let his Danish Majesty lay this to heart. Let + him think of the persecutions of Protestants in Piedmont, in + Austria, and in Switzerland; and let him imagine the eternal + machinations of the Spaniard behind all. These surely are + inducements sufficient to a reconciliation with Sweden, if it can + be brought about. The Protector's good offices towards that end + shall not be wanting if required. He has the highest esteem for the + King of Denmark, and would cultivate yet closer alliance with + him.--Relating to this letter is a minute of Council of the date + Tuesday, Dec. 2: "The draft of a letter from his Highness to the + King of Denmark was this day read, and after read by parts; and the + several clauses thereof, being put to the question, were, with some + amendments, agreed; and, the whole being so passed, it was offered + to his Highness as the advice of the Council that his Highness will + please to send the same." The letter, therefore, was deemed + important. Was the draft read in English or in Latin? On the first + supposition it may still have come from Milton, though it had to go + back to him. + + (XCVII.) To WILLIAM, LANDGRAVE OF HESSE, _March + 1656-7_:--After an apology to the Landgrave for not having + sooner answered a letter of his received nearly twelve months ago, + the Protector here also plunges into the subject of Union among + Protestants. He is glad that the Landgrave appreciates the + exertions in this behalf that have been made in Britain and + elsewhere. "We have particularly desired the same peace for the + Churches of all Germany, where dissension has been too sharp and of + too long continuance; and through our DURIE, labouring at the same + fruitlessly now for many years, we have heartily offered any + possible service of ours that might contribute thereto. We remain + still in the same mind; we desire to see the same brotherly love to + each other among those Churches: but how hard a business this is of + settling a peace among those sons of peace, as they pretend + themselves, we understand, to our great grief, only too abundantly. + For it is hardly to be hoped that those of the Reformed and those + of the Augustan confession will ever coalesce into the communion of + one Church; they cannot without force be prevented from severally, + by word and writings, defending their own beliefs; and force cannot + consist with ecclesiastical tranquillity. This, at least, however, + they might allow one to entreat--that, as they do differ, they + would differ more humanely and moderately, and love each other + nevertheless." It is a great pleasure to the Protector to exchange + sentiments on this subject with a Prince of such distinguished + Protestant ancestry. + + (XCVIII.) TO THE DUKE OF COURLAND, _March 1657_:--After + thanking this potentate of the Baltic for his hospitality, some + time ago, to an English agent passing through to Muscovy, the + Protector brings to his notice the case of one John Jamesone, a + Scotchman, master of one of the Duke's ships. The ship had been + wrecked going into port, but not by Jamesone's fault. The pilot, to + whom he had intrusted it, according to rule and custom, had been + alone to blame. Jamesone has been a faithful servant of the Duke + for seven years; he is in great distress; and his Highness hopes + the Duke will not stop his pay. + + (XCIX.) TO THE CONSULS AND SENATE OF DANTZIG, _April + 1657_:--The Dantzigers, for whom the Protector has a great + respect, have unfortunately sided with the Poles against the King + of Sweden. Would that, for the sake of Religion, and in the spirit + of their old commercial amity with England, they had chosen + otherwise, or would yet change their views! That, however, is + rather beyond the immediate business of this letter; which is to + request them either to release the noble Swede, Count Konigsmarck, + who has become their prisoner by treachery, or at least make his + captivity easier. + + (C.) TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA, _April 1657_:--On the throne of + this vast, chaotic, semi-Asiatic Empire at this time was Alexis, + the son and successor of Michael Romanoff, the founder of that new + dynasty under which Russia was to enter on her era of greatness. He + had come to the throne, as a young man, in 1645, and had since + then, in the despotic Czarish way, continued his father's policy + for the civilization of his subjects by cultivating commerce with + the neighbouring European states, and bringing in foreigners for + service in his armies or otherwise. On the execution of Charles I., + however, he had broken utterly with the Regicide Island, and had + ordered out of his dominions all English adherents of the + Parliament. He alone of European Sovereigns had at once taken this + high stand against the English Republic. But events, Russian + interests, and communications from the Protector, had gradually + brought him round. Since 1654, when a certain WILLIAM PRIDEAUX had + been sent to Russia as agent for the Protector, the trade with + Russia, through Archangel, had resumed its former dimensions, under + rules permitting English merchants to sell and buy goods at + Archangel, and have a factory there, but "not to go up in the + country for Moscow or any other city in Russia."[1] The envoy + himself, however, had visited Moscow; and his long letters thence, + or from Archangel, had thrown much light on the internal condition + of that strange outlandish Muscovy, as Russia was then generally + called, about which there had been hitherto more of curiosity than + knowledge. The immense wealth of the Emperor, his vast military + forces, the barbaric splendours of his Court, the Oriental + submissiveness of the people and their oddities of dress and + manners, the peculiarities of the Greek Religion, the great + resources of Russia, and the obstructions yet existing in the way + of trade with her, had all become topics of English gossip. But, in + fact, Alexis had become a considerable personage in general + European politics. By wars with Poland, and other populations about + him, he had greatly enlarged his territories, adopting new titles + of sovereignty to signify the same; and in the general imbroglio of + North-Eastern Europe, involving Sweden, Denmark, Poland, the United + Provinces, and even Germany, he had come to be a power whose + movements and embassies commanded attention. It had been resolved, + therefore, by the Protector and his Council to send a more special + envoy to "the Great Duke of Muscovia"; and, on the 12th of March + 1656-7, RICHARD BRADSHAW, ESQ., so long Resident for the + Commonwealth at Hamburg, was recommended by the Council to his + Highness as the proper person.[2] The present letter of Milton, + accordingly, is the Letter of Credence which Bradshaw was to take + with him.--The Letter is addressed to his Russian Majesty, as + punctually as possible, by all his chaos of titles, thus: "Oliver, + Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland, &c., + to the Most Serene and most powerful Prince and Lord, the Emperor + and Great Duke of all Russia, Lord of Volodomeria, Moscow, and + Novgorod, King of Kazan, Astracan, and Siberia, Lord of Vobscow, + Great Duke of Smolensk, Tuerscow, and other places, Lord and Great + Duke of Novograda, and of the lower countries of Czernigow, + Rezanscow, &c., Lord of all the Northern Clime, and also Lord of + Everscow, Cartalinska, and many other lands."[3] After referring to + the old commercial intercourse between Russia and England, the + Protector says he is moved to seek closer communication, with his + most august Imperial Majesty by that extraordinary worth, far + outshining that of all his ancestors, by which he has won himself + so good an opinion among all neighbouring Princes, Then he + introduces and highly recommends BRADSHAW, who will duly reveal his + instructions. + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, II. 562.] + +[Footnote 2: Council Order Book of date.] + +[Footnote 3: Compare this address with that which the Envoy of the +United Provinces was instructed by the States-General to be most +punctual in using in his addresses to his Czarish Majesty nearly six +years before (Aug. 1651: see Thurloe, I. 196):--"Most illustrious, +most potent great Lord, Czar and Grand Duke Alexey Michaelowitz, +Autocrator of all both the Greater and Lesser Russia, Czar of Kiof, +Wolodomiria, Novgorod, Czar of Kazan, Czar of Astracan, Czar of +Siberia, Lord of Plescow, and Grand Duke of Smolensko, Tweer, +Jugonia, Permia, Weatka, Bolgaria, Lord and Grand-Duke of Novagrada +and the low lands of Zenigow, Resan, Polotzko, Rostof, Yareslav, +Belooseria, Udoria, Obdoria, Condinia, Wietepsky, M'Stitslof, Lord of +all the Northern Lands, Lord of the Land of Iversky, Czar of +Cartalinsky and Grusinsky, and of the Land of Cardadinsky, Prince of +the Circasses and Gorshes, heir of his Father and Grand-father, and +Lord and Sovereign of many other Easterly, Westerly, and Northerly +Lordships and Dominions." Milton, for the Protector, is somewhat more +economical and uses _Rex_ for _Czar_.] + +The mission of BRADSHAW to Russia was not the only incident in the +Protector's diplomatic service about this time in which Milton, as +Foreign Secretary Extraordinary, may have felt an interest. MORLAND, +after having been in Switzerland for about a year and a half on the +business that had grown out of his original Piedmontese mission, had +been at length recalled, leaving the Swiss agency, as before, in the +hands of PELL by himself. He had been back in London since Dec. 1656, +had attended the Council several times to give full and formal report +of his proceedings, and had also appeared before the great Committee +for the Collection for the Piedmontese Protestants, and presented his +accounts of the moneys received and expended. All that he had done +met with high approbation; and, by way of reward in kind, it was +voted by the Council, May 5, 1657, that he should have £700 for 'the +charge of paper, printing, and cutting of the maps, for 2000 copies +of his History,' and the whole of the profits of that book. Morland's +_History of the Evangelical Churches of Piemont_, which appeared +in the following year, was therefore a State publication the +copyright of which was made over to the author. More munificent still +was the reward of the services of MEADOWS in Portugal. His special +mission having been successfully accomplished, and ordinary consular +duty in Lisbon having been put into good hands, he too had returned +to London, but only to be designated at once (Feb. 24, 1656-7) for +another mission of importance. This was that mission to the King of +Denmark which Cromwell had promised in his letter to the King of Dec. +1656, but for which a suitable person had not then been found. To +Meadows, fresh from Portugal, the appointment to Denmark was in +itself a high compliment; but there were very substantial +accompaniments. His allowance in his new mission was to be £1000 a +year; a special sum of £400 was voted for the expense of his journey; +and it was ordered that, for his able discharge of his Portuguese +mission, £100 a year should be settled on him and his for ninety-nine +years--a vote partly commuted a few days afterwards (March 19) into a +present money-payment of £1000. For DURIE, who was also now back in +England, and indeed close to Milton in Westminster, after another of +his roving missions, first through Switzerland, and then in other +parts, there was to be no employment so distinguished as that found +for Meadows. It was enough that he should be at hand for any farther +service of propagandism in behalf of his life-long idea of a +Pan-Protestant Union. Of two new diplomatic appointments that were +soon to be made, both above Durie's mark, we shall hear in time. The +most splendid diplomatic appointment of all in the Protector's +service had, as we already know (ante p. 114), just received an +increase of dignity. The Scottish COLONEL WILLIAM LOCKHART, the +husband of Cromwell's niece, and his Ambassador at the Court of +France since April 1656, had been back on a visit in the end of the +year to attend Parliament and to consult with Cromwell; and now, +knighted by Cromwell, he had returned to France as SIR WILLIAM +LOCKHART, with his great allowance of £100 a week, or £5200 a +year.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of dates Jan. 1, 27, Feb. 3, 24, +March 5, 12, 19, 1656-7, and May 5, 1657; Letter of Durie, dated +"Westminster, May 28, 1657," in Vaughan's Protectorate (II. 173).] + +At no time, indeed, since the beginning of the Protectorate, had +there been such activity in that foreign and diplomatic department of +the Protector's service to which Milton belonged. Cromwell's alliance +offensive and defensive with France against Spain (March 23, 1656-7), +leading immediately to the transport of an English auxiliary army +under General Reynolds to co-operate with the French in Flanders +(ante pp. 140-141), would in itself have caused an increase of such +activity; but, in addition to this, and inextricably involved with +this in Cromwell's general Anti-Spanish policy, was that idea of a +League or Union of the Protestant States of Europe which had first +perhaps been roused in his mind by the Piedmontese massacre of 1655, +but had gradually, as so many of Milton's subsequent State-Letters +prove, assumed firmer form and wider dimensions. The Dutch, the +Protestant Swiss, the Protestant German princes and cities, the +Danes, the Swedes, the Protestants of Transylvania and other eastern +parts, perhaps even the Russians, all, so far as Cromwell's influence +could go, were to be brought to a common understanding for the +promotion of Protestant interests throughout the world and the +defiance of all to the contrary. It was Durie's old dream of +Pan-Protestantism redreamt by a man whose state was kingly, and who +had the means of turning his dreams into realities. Now, +consequently, in the service of that dream, as in his service +generally, + + "Thousands at his bidding speed, + And post o'er land and ocean without rest." + +While so many were thus coming and going, at £800 a year, £1000 a +year, or £5000 a year, blind Milton, with his £200 a year, could only +"stand and wait," the stationary Latin drudge. The return of his old +assistant Meadows from Portugal may again have relieved him of +somewhat of the drudgery; for, though Meadows was designated for the +new mission to Denmark Feb. 24, 1656-7, he did not actually set out +for Denmark till the following August, and there is something like +proof that in the interval, envoy though he now was, he resumed +secretarial duty at Whitehall under Thurloe. His renewed presence in +London may account for the comparative rarity of Milton's +State-Letters from Dec. 1656 to April 1657, and also for the fact +that then there follows a total blank of four months in the series, +bringing us precisely to August, when Meadows was preparing to go +away again. What passed during these months we already know. The +great question of Kingship or continued Protectorship, which had been +in suspense during those months of March and April in which Milton +had written his last four letters, had been brought to a close May 8, +when Cromwell at last decisively refused the Crown; and the First +Session of his Second Parliament had accordingly ended, June 26, not +in his coronation, as had been expected, but in his inauguration in +that Second Protectorship the constitution of which had been framed +by the Parliament in their so-called _Petition and +Advice_.--What may have been Milton's thoughts on the Kingship +question we can pretty easily conjecture. Almost to a certainty, he +was one of the private "_Contrariants_," one of those Oliverians +who, with Lambert, Fleetwood, and most of the Army-men, objected +theoretically to a return to Kingship, feared it would be fatal, and +were glad therefore when Cromwell declined it and accepted the +constitutionalized Protectorship instead. But, indeed, by this time, +it is possible that Milton, though still Oliverian in the main, still +a believer in Cromwell's greatness and goodness, was not so devotedly +an Oliverian as he had been when he had written his panegyric on the +Protector and the Protectorate in his _Defensio Secunda_. Even +then he had made his reserves, and had ventured to express them in +advices and cautions to Cromwell himself. He can hardly have +professed that in those virtues of the avoidance of arbitrariness and +self-will, the avoidance of over-legislation and over-restriction, +which he had especially recommended to Cromwell, the rule of the +Protector through the last three years had quite satisfied his ideal. +Many of the so-called "arbitrary" measures, and even the temporary +device of the Major-Generalships, he may have excused, as Cromwell +himself did, on the plea of absolute necessity; all the measures +distinctly for repression of Royalist risings and conspiracies must +have had his thorough approbation; and, in the great matter of +liberty of speculation and speech, Cromwell had certainly shown more +sympathy with the spirit of Milton's _Areopagitica_ than most of +his Councillors or either of his Parliaments. Nor, as we have +sufficiently seen, did Milton's notions of Public Liberty, any more +than Cromwell's, formulate themselves in mere ordinary +constitutionalism, or the doctrine of the rightful supremacy of +Parliaments elected by a wide or universal suffrage, and a demand +that such should be sitting always. He had more faith perhaps, as +Cromwell had, in a good, broad, and pretty permanent Council, acting +on liberal principles, and led by some single mind. But there +_had_ been disappointments. What, for example, of the frequent +questionings and arrests of Bradshaw, Vane, and other high-minded +Republicans whom Milton admired, and what especially of the prolonged +disgrace and imprisonment of his dear friend Overton? Or, even if the +plea of necessity or supposed necessity should cover such cases too +(for Cromwell's informations through Thurloe might reach farther than +the public knew, and the good Overton, at all events, had gone into +devious and dangerous courses), what about the Protector's grand +infatuation on the subject of an Established Church? He had preserved +the abomination of a State-paid ministry; he had made that +institution the very pride of his Protectorate; he was actually +fattening up over again a miscellaneous State-clergy, in place of the +old Anglicans, by studied encouragements and augmentations of +stipend. So Milton thought, and very much in that language; and here, +above all, must have been his dissatisfaction with Cromwell's +Government. But what could be done? What other Government could there +be? What would the Commonwealth have been without Cromwell, and in +what condition would it be if he were removed? On the whole, what +could a blind private thinker do but, in his occasional interviews +with the great Protector on business, or his rarer presences perhaps +in a retired place at one of the Protector's musical entertainments +at Whitehall, keep all such thoughts to himself, reserving frank +expression of them for his intimates, and meanwhile behaving as a +loyal Oliverian and performing his duty? In such a state of mind, as +I believe, did Milton pass from the First Protectorate into the +Second. + + + + +BOOK II. + +JUNE 1657-SEPTEMBER 1658. + +HISTORY:--OLIVER'S SECOND PROTECTORATE. + +BIOGRAPHY:-MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE SECOND +PROTECTORATE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OLIVER'S SECOND PROTECTORATE: JUNE 26, 1657--SEPT. 3, 1658. + +REGAL FORMS AND CEREMONIAL OF THE SECOND PROTECTORATE: THE +PROTECTOR'S FAMILY: THE PRIVY COUNCIL: RETIREMENT OF LAMBERT: DEATH +OF ADMIRAL BLAKE: THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AND SUCCESSES IN FLANDERS: +SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF MARDIKE: OTHER FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE +PROTECTORATE: SPECIAL ENVOYS TO DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND THE UNITED +PROVINCES: AIMS OF CROMWELL'S DIPLOMACY IN NORTHERN AND EASTERN +EUROPE: PROGRESS OF HIS ENGLISH CHURCH-ESTABLISHMENT: CONTROVERSY +BETWEEN JOHN GOODWIN AND MARCHAMONT NEEDHAM: THE PROTECTOR AND THE +QUAKERS: DEATH OF JOHN LILBURNE: DEATH OF SEXBY: MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE +OF BUCKINGHAM TO MARY FAIRFAX: MARRIAGES OF CROMWELL'S TWO YOUNGEST +DAUGHTERS: PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER SESSION OF THE PARLIAMENT: WRITS +FOR THE OTHER HOUSE: LIST OF CROMWELL'S PEERS.--REASSEMBLING OF THE +PARLIAMENT, JAN. 20, 1657-8: CROMWELL'S OPENING SPEECH, WITH THE +SUPPLEMENT BY FIENNES: ANTI-OLIVERIAN SPIRIT OF THE COMMONS: THEIR +OPPOSITION TO THE OTHER HOUSE: CROMWELL'S SPEECH OF REMONSTRANCE: +PERSEVERANCE OF THE COMMONS IN THEIR OPPOSITION: CROMWELL'S LAST +SPEECH AND DISSOLUTION OF THE PARLIAMENT, FEB. 4, 1657-8.--STATE OF +THE GOVERNMENT AFTER THE DISSOLUTION: THE DANGERS, AND CROMWELL'S +DEALINGS WITH THEM: HIS LIGHT DEALINGS WITH THE DISAFFECTED +COMMONWEALTH'S MEN: THREATENED SPANISH INVASION FROM FLANDERS, AND +RAMIFICATIONS OF THE ROYALIST CONSPIRACY AT HOME: ARRESTS OF +ROYALISTS. AND EXECUTION OF SLINGSBY AND HEWIT: THE CONSPIRACY +CRUSHED: DEATH OF ROBERT RICH: THE EARL OF WARWICK'S LETTER TO +CROMWELL, AND HIS DEATH: MORE SUCCESSES IN FLANDERS: SIEGE AND +CAPTURE OF DUNKIRK: SPLENDID EXCHANGES OF COMPLIMENTS BETWEEN +CROMWELL AND LOUIS XIV.: NEW INTERFERENCE IN BEHALF OF THE +PIEDMONTESE PROTESTANTS, AND PROJECT OF A PROTESTANT COUNCIL _DE +PROPAGANDA FIDE_; PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT: DESIRE OF +THE INDEPENDENTS FOR A CONFESSION OF FAITH: ATTENDANT DIFFICULTIES: +CROMWELL'S POLICY IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE SCOTTISH KIRK: HIS DESIGN FOR +THE EVANGELIZATION AND CIVILIZATION OF THE HIGHLANDS: HIS GRANTS TO +THE UNIVERSITIES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW; HIS COUNCIL IN SCOTLAND: +MONK AT DALKEITH: CROMWELL'S INTENTIONS IN THE CASES OF BIDDLE AND +JAMES NAYLER; PROPOSED NEW ACT FOR RESTRICTION OF THE PRESS: FIRMNESS +AND GRANDEUR OF THE PROTECTORATE IN JULY 1658: CROMWELL'S BARONETCIES +AND KNIGHTHOODS: WILLINGNESS TO CALL ANOTHER PARLIAMENT: DEATH OF +LADY CLAYPOLE: CROMWELL'S ILLNESS AND LAST DAYS, WITH THE LAST ACTS +AND INCIDENTS OF HIS PROTECTORSHIP. + + +Whether Cromwell's Second and Constitutionalized Protectorship was as +agreeable to himself as his First had been may be doubted. He had +accepted it, however, and meant to try it in all good faith. If, on +the one hand, it was more limited, on the other it was attended with +more of grandeur and dignity. Inasmuch as the actual Kingship had +been offered him, and the new constitution was exactly that which +would have gone with the Kingship, his Protectorship now, in the eyes +of all the world, was equivalent to Kingship. When inducted into his +First Protectorship, stately though the ceremonial had been, he had +worn but a black velvet suit, with a gold band round his hat, and +the chief symbol of his investiture had been the removal of his own +military sword and substitution of the civil sword presented to him +by Lambert. He had come into this Second Protectorship robed in +purple, and holding a sceptre of massy gold. In heraldry, as well as +in reality, he had taken his place among the Sovereigns of Europe. + +Round about Cromwell, even through the First Protectorate, there had +been, as we have abundantly seen, much of the splendour and equipage +of sovereignty. The phrases "His Highness's Court" and "His +Highness's Household" had become quite familiar. On all public +occasions he was attended and addressed most ceremoniously; when he +rode out in state it was with life-guards about him, outriders in +front, and coaches following; and the Order-Books of the Council +prove that his relations to the Council were regulated by careful +etiquette, and that his personal attendance at any of their meetings +was regarded as a distinction. One observes also, as with Cromwell's +approval, and in evidence of the conservatism that had been growing +upon himself, a retention or even multiplication of aristocratic +forms in his court and government. He had conferred knighthoods less +sparingly than at first, though still rather sparingly;[1] in +mentions of any of the old nobility, whether those that had become +Oliverian and were to be seen at Whitehall, or those who lived in +retirement, their old titles were scrupulously preserved,--e.g. "The +Marquis of Hertford," "The Earl of Warwick," "The Earl of Mulgrave," +"The Lord Viscount Lisle," "The Right Honourable the Lord Broghill"; +and not only were official or courtesy titles still recognised, as by +calling Fleetwood "My Lord Deputy," Whitlocke "Lord Commissioner +Whitelocke," Fiennes "Lord Commissioner Fiennes," and Lawrence "Lord +President Lawrence," but there had been a curious extension of usage +in this last particular. The Protector's sons had become respectively +"The Lord Richard Cromwell" and "The Lord Henry Cromwell" in the +newspapers and in public correspondence; and, for some reason or +other, probably on account of places held in his Highness's Household +or Ministry apart from the Council, at least two of the Councillors +had of late received similar courtesy-promotion. From the beginning +of 1655 Lambert had ceased to be called "Major-General Lambert," and +had become "Lord Lambert," and from the beginning of 1656 "Mr. +Strickland" had passed into "Lord Strickland." They are so named both +in the Council Order-Books and in the Journals of the First Session +of the Second Parliament. + +[Footnote 1: Here is a list of Cromwell's Knights of the First +Protectorate, so far as I have ascertained them:--Lord Mayor Thomas +Viner (Feb. 8, 1653-4); John Copleston (June 1, 1655); Colonel John +Reynolds (June 11, 1655); Lord Mayor Sir Christopher Pack (Sept. 20, +1655); Colonel Thomas Pride, of 'Pride's Purge' celebrity (Jan. 17, +1655-6); Major-General John Barkstead, Lieutenant of the Tower (Jan. +19, 1655-6); M. Coyet, of the Swedish Embassy (April 15, 1656); +Richard Combe (Aug. 1656); Lord Mayor Dethicke and George Fleetwood, +Esq. of Bucks (both Sept. 15, 1656); Ambassador Lockhart, Lord Mayor +Robert Tichbourne, Sheriff James Calthorpe, and Lislebone Long, Esq., +Recorder of London (all Dec. 10, 1656); Colonel James Whitlocke, a +son of Bulstrode Whitlocke (Jan. 6, 1656-7); Thomas Dickson, of York +(March 3, 1656-7); Richard Stayner (June 11, 1657).] + +If there had been so much of sovereign and aristocratic form in the +First Protectorate, there was a natural increase of such in the +Second. In the first place, the family of the Protector now lived in +the reflection of that dignity of the purple which had been formally +thrown round himself. The Protector's very aged Mother having died in +honour and peace at Whitehall, Nov. 16, 1654, blessing him with her +last words[1], the family, in the Second Protectorate, was as +follows:-- + +[Footnote 1: At "ninety-four years of age" according to a letter of +Thurloe's the day after her death (Thurloe to Pell, Nov. 17, 1654, in +Vaughan's _Protectorate_, I. 79-81); but Colonel Chester +(_Westminster Abbey Registers, 521, Note_) sees reason for +believing she had been baptized at Ely, Oct. 28, 1565, and was +therefore only in her ninetieth year at her death.] + + HIS HIGHNESS, OLIVER, LORD PROTECTOR: _ætat. 58._ + + HER HIGHNESS, ELIZABETH, LADY PROTECTRESS. + + Children and Children-in-Law. + + 1. THE LADY BRIDGET: _ætat. 33_: Ireton's widow, married to + Fleetwood since 1652. FLEETWOOD, though he had been recalled from + Ireland in the middle of 1655, and had been in London since then, + retained his nominal Lord-Deputyship till Nov. 1657. + + 2. THE LORD RICHARD CROMWELL: _ætat._ 31: married since 1649 + to DOROTHY MAYOR, daughter of Richard Mayor, Esq., of Hursley, + Hants, who had been member for Hants in the Long Parliament, a + fellow-Colonel with Cromwell in the Civil War, and afterwards in + some of the Councils of the Commonwealth, in the Little Parliament, + and in the Council of the Protectorate.--Though Lord Richard's + tastes were all for a quiet country-life, with "hawking, hunting, + and horse-racing," he had been in both the Parliaments of the + Protectorate, and had taken some little part in the Second. His + father now brought him more forward. On the 3rd of July, 1657, when + the Second Protectorate was but a week old, the Lord Protector + resigned his Chancellorship of the University of Oxford; and on the + 18th Lord Richard was elected in his stead. He was installed at + Whitehall, July 29. He was also made a Colonel, and at length he + was brought into the Council. The fact is thus minuted in the + Council's Books under date Dec. 31, 1657:--"The Lord Richard + Cromwell did this day take the oath of a Councillor, the same being + administered unto him by the Earl of Mulgrave and General + Desborough, in virtue of his Highness's Commission under the Great + Seal." He was immediately put on all Committees of the Council; and + generally after that, when he did attend, his name was put next + after the President's in the _sederunt_. + + 3. THE LORD HENRY CROMWELL: _ætat. 29_: in the Army since his + boyhood; Colonel since 1649; Major-General and chief Commander in + Ireland since the middle of 1655. At the beginning of the Second + Protectorate he was still in the Government of Ireland with his + military title only; but on the 24th of November 1657 he was sworn + into the full Lord Deputyship in succession to Fleetwood. He had + been married since 1653 to a daughter of Sir Francis Russell, of + Chippenham, Cambridgeshire. + + 4. THE LADY ELIZABETH: _ætat. 28_: married in her seventeenth + year to JOHN CLAYPOLE, ESQ., of a Northamptonshire family. He had + been made the Lord Protector's "Master of Horse," and had therefore + been known for some time by the courtesy-title of "Lord Claypole." + He had been in the Second Parliament of the Protectorate; and, as + Master of Horse, had figured prominently in the ceremonial of the + late Installation. Lord and Lady Claypole were established in the + household of the Lord Protector, at Whitehall, or at Hampton Court; + and Lady Claypole was a very favourite daughter. + + 5. THE LADY MARY: _ætat. 21_. She was unmarried when the + Second Protectorate began, though Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper is said + to have sought her hand, and to have turned against the Protector + on being refused it; but on the 18th of November 1657 she became + the second wife of THOMAS BELLASIS, VISCOUNT FALCONBRIBGE, one of + the old nobility. He was about thirty years of age, had been + abroad, had been sounded by Lockhart in Paris as to his + inclinations to the Protectorate, had given every satisfaction in + that matter, and had been certified by Lockhart to the Protector as + "a person of extraordinary parts." On his own account, and also + because he was of an old Royalist family, his marriage with Lady + Mary was thought an excellent match. + + 6. THE LADY FRANCES: _ætat. 19_. This, the youngest of + Cromwell's children, was also unmarried at the beginning of the + Second Protectorate. The fond dream of the wealthy old + Gloucestershire squire, Mr. John Dutton, that his nephew and + Cromwell's ward, Mr. William Dutton, Andrew Marvell's pupil at Eton + with the Oxenbridges, might become the husband of the Lady Frances, + as had been arranged between him and Cromwell (vol. IV. pp. + 616-619), had not been fulfilled; and, the old squire himself being + now dead, young Dutton was left to find another wife for himself in + due time.[1] For the Lady Frances, his Highness's youngest + daughter, there might well be greater destinies. There had been + vague whispers, indeed, of a suggestion in certain quarters that + Charles II. himself should propose for her and negotiate for a + restoration, or a succession to Cromwell, accordingly; but for more + than a year there had been more authentic talk of her marriage with + Mr. ROBERT RICH, the only son of Lord Rich, and grandson and (after + his father) heir-apparent of the Earl of Warwick. That this great + and popular old Parliamentarian and Presbyterian Earl had been won + round at last to the Protectorate, and that he had graced the late + Installation conspicuonsly by his presence, were no unimportant + facts; and the projected family-alliance was by no means + indifferent to Cromwell. There were difficulties, not on the part + of the young people; but at length, Nov. 11, 1657, just a week + before the marriage of the elder sister to Lord Falconbridge, Lady + Frances did become the wife of Mr. Rich. In the fourth month of the + marriage, however. Feb. 16, 1657-8, the husband died, leaving the + Lady Frances, not yet twenty years of age, a widow. She married + again, and did not die till Jan. 1720-1. + +[Footnote 1: The will of John Dutton, Esq., of Sherborne, +Gloucestershire, was proved June 30, 1657, just four days after the +beginning of the Second Protectorate; and young Mr. William Dutton +married a widow eventually--"Mary, daughter of John, Viscount +Scudamore, and relict of Thomas Russell of Worcestershire, Esq." +(Noble's Cromwell, I, pp 153-154).] + +OTHER RELATIVES + +Worth noting among the Relatives of Cromwell alive in the Second +Protectorate, were the following;--(1) The Protector's eldest +surviving sister, ELIZABETH CROMWELL, _ætat. 64_, living at Ely, +unmarried, and receiving occasional presents from her brother. She +lived to 1672. (2) The Protector's sister CATHERINE, _ætat._ 61, +first married to a Roger Whetstone, a Parliamentarian officer, and +afterwards to COLONEL JOHN JONES, member of the Long Parliament for +Monmouthshire, and one of the Regicides. He had been a member of the +first and second Councils of the Commonwealth, had been for some time +in Ireland as one of Fleetwood's Council, and was now a member of the +Protector's Second Parliament. (3) The Protector's youngest sister +ROBINA, formerly the wife of a Peter French, D.D., but now the wife +of DR. JOHN WILKINS, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford. Wilkins held +the Wardenship by dispensation from Cromwell, his marriage in the +office being against Statute. The only child of Mrs. Wilkins, by her +first marriage, became afterwards the wife of Archbishop Tillotson. +(4) The Protector's niece, ROBINA, daughter of his deceased sister +Mrs. Anna Sewster, and now wife of SIR WILLIAM LOCKHART. (5) The +Protector's brother-in-law COLONEL VALENTINE WALTON, who had been +member for Huntingdonshire in the Long Parliament, one of the +Regicides, and a member of all the Councils of the Commonwealth; His +first wife; Oliver's sister Margaret, being dead, he had married a +second, and had for some time been less active politically and less +Oliverian. (6) The Protector's brother-in-law JOHN DESBOROUGH, known +as an officer of horse through the Civil Wars, and latterly as one of +Cromwell's stoutest adherents through his Interim Dictatorship and +Protectorate, a member of both his Parliaments, one of his +Councillors, and one of his Major-Generals, though opposed to the +Kingship. He was now a widower by the recent death of his wife, +Cromwell's sister Jane. (7) The Protector's cousin, or father's +sister's son, EDWARD WHALLEY, Colonel in the Civil Wars, one of the +Regicides, and latterly member of both Parliaments of the +Protectorate and one of the Major-Generals. (8) The Protector's aunt, +or father's sister, Mrs. ELIZABETH HAMPDEN, mother of the famous +Hampden, and now a very aged widow, living about Whitehall, with +another son alive, besides grandchildren by her famous dead son, the +eldest of whom, Richard Hampden, was a member of the present +Parliament. (9) The Protector's cousin's son, COLONEL RICHARD +INGOLDSBY, a Recruiter in the Long Parliament, one of the signers of +Charles's death-warrant, and one of the members for Buckinghamshire +in both Parliaments of the Protectorate. More distant kindred of the +Protector were the DUNCHES of Berkshire, and the MASHAMS of Essex, +the head of whom, Sir William Masham, Bart., had been member for that +county in the Long Parliament, and a member of all the Councils of +the Commonwealth and of the first Parliament of the Protectorate. The +poet WALLER was connected with the Protector by his cousinship with +the Hampdens.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Among authorities for the facts in this compilation, +besides Council Order Books, and the whole narrative heretofore, are +Carlyle's three genealogical Notes (I. 16, 20-21, and 54-55), Wood's +Fasti, II. 155-8, various passages in Codwin, and two "Narratives" +in _Harl. Misc_ III. 429-468.] + +The Protector's new Privy Council for his Second Protectorate was not +constituted till Monday, July 13, 1657, more than a fortnight after +his installation. Then, his Highness being present, there were sworn +in, according to the new oath of fidelity provided by the _Petition +and Advice_, Lord President Lawrence, General Desborough, Lord +Commissioner Fiennes, the Earl of Mulgrave, Lord Viscount Lisle, Mr. +Rous, Lord Deputy Fleetwood, Lord Strickland, and Mr. Secretary +Thurloe. This last took his seat at the board as full Councillor by +special nomination of his Highness. In the course of the next few +meetings there came in Colonel Sydenham, Major-General Skippon, Sir +Gilbert Pickering, and Sir Charles Wolseley, raising the number to +thirteen; which completed the Council for some time, though Colonel +Philip Jones and Admiral Montague afterwards took their seats, and +Lord Richard Cromwell, as we have seen, was added Dec. 31. On +comparing the total list with that of the Council of the First +Protectorate (Vol. IV. p. 545), it will be seen that Cromwell +retained all that were alive of his former Council, except Lambert, +Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, and Mr. Richard Mayor. Sir Anthony Ashley +Cooper had been a deserter from the former Council as early as Dec. +1654, and had since then been so conspicuous in the opposition that +he had been one of the ninety-three excluded from the House at the +opening of the Second Parliament. Mr. Mayor, Richard Cromwell's +father-in-law, though still nominally in the Council, seems to have +been now in poor health and in retirement. The one extraordinary +omission was that of Lambert. He had taken all but the chief part in +the foundation of the First Protectorate; why was he absent from the +Government of the Second? His Oliverianism, it appears, had +evaporated in the late debates about the Kingship and the new +constitution. Certain it is that he did not present himself at the +first meeting of the new Council, and that, after an interview with +Cromwell in consequence, he surrendered his two regimental +colonelcies, his major-generalship, and £10 a day which he had for +the last, and withdrew into private life. Still called "Lord +Lambert," and with a pension of £2000 a year granted him by Cromwell, +he retired to Wimbledon, where his chief amusement was the +cultivation of tulips.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of July 13, 1657, and thenceforward; +Ludlow, 593-594; Godwin, IV. 446-447.] + +The new Council having been constituted, and having begun to hold its +meetings twice or thrice a week, the administration of affairs, home +and foreign, was free to go on, in his Highness's hands and the +Council's, without farther Parliamentary interruption till Jan. 20, +1657-8. Foreign affairs may here have the precedence. + +Blake's grand blow at the Spaniard in Santa Cruz Bay was still in all +people's minds, and they were looking for the return of that hero, +recalled as he had been, June 10, either for honourable repose in his +battered and enfeebled state after three years at sea, or for further +employment nearer home in connexion with the French-English alliance +and the Flanders expedition. He was never, alas! to set foot in +England. Off Plymouth, as his fleet was touching the shores, he died, +utterly worn out with scurvy and dropsy, Aug. 7, 1657, aged +fifty-eight. As the news spread, there was great sorrow; and on the +13th of August it was ordered by the Council, "That the Commissioners +for the Admiralty and Navy do forthwith give order for the interment +of General Blake in the Abbey Church at Westminster, and for all +things requisite to be prepared for the funeral of General Blake in +such sort as was done for the funeral of General Deane, and that they +give direction for the preparing of Greenwich House for the reception +of the body of General Blake, in order to his funeral." The body, +having been embalmed, lay at Greenwich till Sept. 4, when it was +brought up the Thames with all funereal pomp, mourning hangings on +the barges and the wherries all the way, and so buried in Henry the +Seventh's chapel, the Council, the great Army officers, the Lord +Mayor and Aldermen, and other dignitaries standing round, while a +multitude thronged outside. It was observed that Lord Lambert had +made a point of being present, as if to signify that the great sailor +and he had always understood each other. How Blake would have farther +comported himself had he lived no one really knows. At sea he had +made it a principle to abstain from party-politics. "When news was +brought him of a metamorphosis in the State at home, he would then +encourage the seamen to be most vigilant abroad; for, said he, 'tis +not our duty to mind State-affairs, but to keep foreigners from +fooling us." The idea among the ultra-Republicans of using Blake's +popularity to undermine Cromwell had long come to nothing.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books, Aug. 13, 1657: Godwin, IV. 420-421; +Wood's Fasti, I. 371.] + +Blake gone, the naval hope of England now was Admiral Montague. Since +August 11 he had been cruising up and down the Channel with his fleet +under general orders. The interest of the war with Spain now lay +chiefly in Flanders, where the Protector's army of 6000 foot under +General Reynolds was co-operating with the larger French army of +Louis XIV. commanded by Turenne. Here Cromwell had, again to complain +of Mazarin's wily policy. By the Treaty the great object of the +expedition was to be the reduction of the coast-towns, Gravelines, +Mardike, and Dunkirk; but these sieges had been postponed, and +Turenne had been campaigning in the interior, the English troops +obliged to attend him hither and thither, and complaining much of +their bad accommodation and bad feeding. Mazarin, in fact, was +studying French interests only, A peremptory communication from +Cromwell through Ambassador Lockhart, Aug. 31, changed the state of +matters. "I pray you tell the Cardinal from me," he said, "that I +think, if France desires to maintain its ground, much more to +_get_ ground, upon the Spaniard, the performance., of his Treaty +with us will better do it than anything appears yet to me of any +design he hath." He offered 2000 more men from England, if necessary; +but he added in a postscript, "If indeed the French be so false to us +as that they would not have us have any footing on that side the +water, then I desire ... that all things may be done in order to the +giving us satisfaction, and to the drawing-off of our men. And truly, +Sir, I desire you to take boldness and freedom to yourself in your +dealing with the French on these accounts." The Cardinal at once +succumbed, and the siege of Mardike by land and sea was begun Sept. +21. The place was taken in a few days, and, in terms of the Treaty, +given into the possession of General Reynolds for the English. A +little while afterwards, a large Spanish force under Don John of +Austria, the Duke of York serving in it with four regiments of +English and Irish refugees, attempted a recapture of the place; but, +by the desperate fighting of the garrison and Montague's assisting +fire from his ships, the attempt was foiled. The Protector had thus +obtained at least one place of footing on the Continent; and, with +English valour to assist the military genius of Turenne, there was +prospect, late in 1657, of still more success in the Spanish +Netherlands. Lockhart was again in London for consultation with +Cromwell Oct. 15, and Montague was back Oct. 24, on which day he took +his oath and place in the Council.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carlyle, III. 306-315 (including two Letters of Cromwell +to Lockhart); Godwin, IV. 543-544; Guizot, II. 379-381; +_Cromwelliana_, 168; Council Order Books, Oct. 24, 1657.] + +Various other matters of foreign concern occupied the Protector and +his Council in the first months of the new Protectorate. There is an +order in the Council Books, July 28, 1657, for the despatch of £1000 +more to the Piedmontese Protestants, and for certain sums to be paid +to Genevese and other ministers for trouble they had taken in that +matter; and, as late as Nov. 25, there is an order for another +despatch of £1500. There were, indeed, to be farther collections for +the Piedmontese sufferers, and new interposition in their behalf with +the Duke of Savoy. Nay, by this time, the generosity of his Highness +in the Piedmontese business had led to applications from distressed +Protestants in other parts of Europe. Thus, Nov. 4, his Highness +being himself present in the Council, and having communicated "a +petition from the pastors of several churches of the Reformed +Religion in Higher Poland, Bohemia, &c., now scattered abroad through +persecution in those parts, desiring some relief, and also a petition +from Adam Samuel Hartmann and Paul Cyril, delegates from these +exiles, together with a narrative of their condition and sufferings," +it was ordered that the matter should be referred to the Committee +for the Piedmontese Protestants and preparations made for another +collection of money. All the while, of course, there had been the +more usual and regular diplomatic business between the Protector and +the various agencies of foreign powers in London. One hears +especially of the arrival, Aug. 1657, of a new +Ambassador-Extraordinary from Portugal, Don Francisco de Mello, of +entertainments to him, and of audiences granted to him; also of much +intercourse between his Highness and the Dutch Ambassador Lord +Nieuport, now so long resident in England and so much regarded there. +But the latter half of 1657 is also remarkable for the despatch by +his Highness of three special Envoys of his own to the northern +Protestant Powers. MR. PHILIP MEADOWS, appointed Envoy to Denmark as +long ago as Feb. 24, 1656-7 (ante p. 294), but detained meanwhile in +London, set out on his mission at last, Aug. 31; and at the same time +MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM JEPHSON, distinguished for his services in +Ireland, and returned as member for Cork and Youghal to both +Parliaments of the Protectorate, set out as Envoy to his Swedish +Majesty. He had been chosen for the important post Aug. 4. Finally, +on the 18th of December, partly in consequence of the departure of +the Dutch Ambassador Nieuport in the preceding month, for some +temporary stay at home on private affairs, GEORGE DOWNING, ESQ. (ante +pp. 43 and 191) was appointed to follow him in the capacity of +Resident for his Highness in the United Provinces.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of dates; Whitlocke, IV. 311-313; +and _Cromwelliana_, 168-169.] + +The general purport of these three missions of Cromwell in 1657 +requires explanation. Not commercial interests merely, but also zeal +for union among the Protestant Powers, had all along moved his +diplomacy; and now the state of things in the north of Europe was so +extraordinary that, on the one hand, the cause of Protestant union +seemed in fatal peril, but, on the other hand, if it could be +retrieved, it might be retrieved perhaps in a definite and +magnificent form. The prime agency in bringing about this state of +things had been the vast energy of the young Swedish King, Charles X. +or Karl-Gustav. Cromwell had by this time contracted an especial +admiration of this prince, and had begun to regard him as a kindred +spirit and the armed champion of Continental Protestantism. To see +him succeed to the last in his Polish enterprise, and then turn +himself against Austria and her Roman Catholic clientage in the +Empire, had come to be Cromwell's desire and the desire in Great +Britain generally. For a time that had seemed probable. In the great +Battle of Warsaw, fought July 28-30, 1656, Charles-Gustavus and his +ally the Elector of Brandenburg routed the Poles disastrously; and, +Ragotski, Prince of Transylvania, also abetting and assisting the +Swede, "_actum jam videbatur de Polonia_" as an old annalist +says: "it seemed then all over with Poland." But a medley of powers, +for diverse reasons and interests, had been combining themselves for +the salvation of Poland, or at least for driving back the Swede to +his own side of the Baltic. Not merely the Austrians and the German +Catholic princes were in this combination, but also the Muscovites or +Russians, and, most unnatural of all, the Danes, with countenance +even from the more distant Dutch. Nay, the prudent Elector of +Brandenburg, hitherto the ally of the Swede, was drawn off from that +alliance. This was done by a treaty, dated Nov. 10, 1656, by which +the Polish King, John Casimir, yielded to the Elector the full +sovereignty of Ducal Prussia or East Prussia, till then held by the +Elector only by a tenure of homage to the Polish Crown. All being +ready, the Danish King, Frederick III., gave the signal by declaring +war against Sweden and invading part of the Swedish territories. When +the news reached Cromwell, which it did Aug. 13, 1657, it affected +him profoundly. He had previously been remonstrating, as we have +seen, both with the Danes and the Dutch, by letters of Milton's +composition (ante pp. 272-3 and 290), trying to avert such an +unseemly Protestant intervention in arrest of the Swedish King's +career. And now, having his two envoys, MEADOWS and JEPHSON, ready +for the emergency, he despatched them at once to the scene of that +new Swedish-Danish war in which what had hitherto been the +Swedish-Polish war was to be at once engulphed. For Karl-Gustav had +turned back out of Poland to deal directly with the Danes, and the +interest was now concentrated on the struggle between these two +powers--the Poles, the German Catholics, the Muscovites, the Elector +of Brandenburg, the Dutch, and other powers, looking on more or less +in sympathy with the Danes, and some of them ready to strike in. To +end the war, if possible, by reconciling Charles X. and Frederick +III, was Cromwell's first object; and, with that aim in view, Jephson +was to attach himself more particularly to Charles X., whatever might +be his war-track, and Meadows more particularly to Frederick III. But +they might cross each other's routes, deal with other States along +these routes, and work into each other's hands. RICHARD BRADSHAW, +likewise, who had been sent as Envoy to the Czar of Muscovy in the +beginning of the year (ante pp. 292-294), would be moving about +usefully on the east of the Baltic. And, if a reconciliation between +Sweden and Denmark should by any means be brought about, what then +should be aimed at but a repair of the rupture between the Elector of +Brandenburg and the Swedish King, so as to save the Elector from the +threatened vengeance of the Swede, and then farther the aggregation +of other Protestant German States, and of the Dutch, round this +nucleus of a Swedish-Danish-Brandenburg alliance, for common action +against Poland, Austria, and German Catholicism? Even the Muscovites, +as of the Greek Church, might be brought in, or at least they might +be rendered neutral. All this was in contemplation, as a tissue of +ideal possibilities, when MEADOWS and JEPHSON were despatched in +August, and the mission of DOWNING four months later to the United +Provinces was partly in the same great interest. It may seem matter +for wonder that a man of Cromwell's practical sagacity, already so +deeply implicated on the Continent by his Flanders enterprise and his +alliance with France, should have had such a passion for farther +interference as thus to insert his hands into the apparently +measureless entanglement in northern and eastern Europe. But, in the +first place, his practical sagacity was not at fault. Precisely that +it should not be an entanglement, but a marshalling of powers in two +sets according to their true religions and political affinities, was +the essence of his aspiration; there were deep tendencies towards +that result; sagacity consisted in perceiving these, and practicality +in promoting them. Cromwell's aspiration in connexion with the +Swedish-Danish war was also, it could be proved, that of other +thoughtful Protestants then contemplating the war and speculating on +its chances. But, in the second place, the business of the French +alliance and the Flanders enterprise was vitally inter-connected with +the so-called entanglement in the north and east. The German Emperor +Ferdinand III. had died in April 1657; the Empire was vacant; Mazarin +had set his heart on obtaining that central European dignity for his +young master, Louis XIV., and was intriguing with the Electors for +the purpose; it was still uncertain whether, when the time came, a +majority of the Electoral College would vote for Louis XIV. or would +retain the Imperial dignity in the House of Austria by choosing the +late Emperor's son Leopold. The future of Germany and of +Protestantism in Germany was concerned deeply in that issue; and, +whatever may have been Cromwell's feelings in the special prospect of +the election of his ally Louis XIV. to the Empire, he was bound to +prefer that to the election of another incarnation of Austrian +Catholicism.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Studied from scattered documents in Thurloe and from +those of Milton's State-Letters for Cromwell that appertain to Sweden +and Denmark and the missions of 1657, with help from a very luminous +passage in Baillie's Letters (III. 370-371), and with facts and dates +from the excellent abridged History forming the Supplement to the +_Rationarium Temporum_ of the Jesuit Petavius (edit. 1745, I. +562-564), and from Carlyle's _History of Frederick the Great_, +I. 222-223.] + +At home meanwhile things went on smoothly. Cromwell had by this time +brought his Established Church into a condition highly satisfactory +to himself. The machinery of the _Ejectors_ and the +_Triers_ was still in full operation; and, on reports from the +_Trustees for the Maintenance of Ministers_, his Highness and +the Council still had the pleasure, from time to time, of ordering +new augmentations of clerical stipends. The Voluntaryism which still +existed in wide diffusion through the English mind had become +comparatively silent; and indeed open reviling of the Established +Church had been made punishable by Article X. of the _Petition and +Advice_. Perhaps the plainest speaker now against the principle of +an Established Church, or at least against the constitution of the +present one, was the veteran John Goodwin of Coleman Street. "_The +Triers (or Tormentors) tried and cast by the Laws of God and Men_" +was the title of a pamphlet of Goodwin's, which had been out since +May 1657, assailing the Commission of Triers. Goodwin was too eminent +a Commonwealth's man, and too fair a controversialist, to be treated +as a mere reviler; and it was left to the Protector's journalist, +Marchamont Needham, to reply through the press. "_The Great Accuser +cast down, or a Public Trial of Mr. John Goodwin of Coleman Street, +London, at the Bar of Religion and Right Reason_," was a pamphlet +by Needham, published July 31. It was dedicated "To His Most Serene +Highness, Oliver, Lord Protector," &c., in such terms as +these:--"Sir, It is a custom in all countries, when any man hath +taken a strange creature, immediately to present it to the Prince: +whereupon I, having taken one of the strangest that (I think) any +part of your Highness's dominions hath these many years produced, do, +with all submissiveness, make bold to present him, bound hand and +foot with his own cords (as I ought to bring him), to your Highness. +He need not be sent to the Tower for his mischievousness: there is no +danger in him now, nor like to be henceforth, as I have handled him." +In a prefixed Epistle to the Reader there is a good deal of +scurrility against Goodwin. He is described as "worse than a common +nuisance." He is taxed also with inconsistency, inasmuch as he had +been one of those who, in Feb. 1651-2, had signed the famous +_Proposals of Certain Ministers to the Committee for the +Propagation of the Gospel_, in which the principle of an +Established Church had been assumed and asserted (ante, IV. 392). In +the body of the pamphlet Needham maintains that principle. "Christ +left no such rules and directions," he says, "nor was it his +intention to leave such, for propagating the Gospel, as exclude the +Magistrate from using his wisdom and endeavours in order thereunto." +He defends the Commission of Triers and the Commission of Ejectors, +and more than once twits Goodwin with having taken up at last the +extreme crotchets of Roger Williams the American. "_A Letter of +Address to the Protector occasioned by Mr. Needham's Reply to Mr. +Goodwin's Book against Triers_" appeared Aug. 25; but we need not +follow the controversy farther. It had come to be Mr. John Goodwin's +fate to be the severest public critic of Cromwell's Established +Church; it had come to be Mr. Marchamont Needham's to be the most +prominent defender of that institution.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thomason Pamphlets, and Catalogue of the same for +dates.] + +More likely than such men as John Goodwin to be classed as open +revilers of the Established Church were the Quakers. They were now +very numerous, going about in England, Scotland, Ireland, and +everywhere else, as before, and mingling denunciations of every form +of the existing ministry with their softer and richer teachings. They +were still liable, of course, to varieties of penal treatment, +according to the degrees of their aggressiveness and the moods of the +local authorities; but the disposition at head-quarters was decidedly +towards gentleness with them. Hardly had the new Council of State +been constituted when, Cromwell himself present, three of the most +eminent London physicians, Dr. Wright, Dr. Cox, and Dr. Bates, were +instructed "to visit James Nayler, prisoner in Bridewell, and to +consider of his condition as to the state both of his mind and body +in point of health"; and, from that date (July 16, 1657), his farther +detention seems to have been merely for his cure. George Fox, whose +circuits of preaching took him as far as Edinburgh and the Scottish +Highlands, could never be in London without addressing a pious letter +or two to Cromwell, or even going to see him; and another Quaker, +Edward Burrough, was so drawn to Cromwell that he was continually +penning letters to him and leaving them at Whitehall. During and +after the Kingship question these letters were particularly frequent, +the Quakers being all _Contrariants_ on that point. "O +Protector, who hast tasted of the power of God, which many +generations before thee have not so much since the days of apostasy +from the Apostles, take heed that thou lose not thy power; but keep +Kingship off thy head, which the world would give to thee:" so had +Fox written in one letter, ending, "O Oliver, take heed of undoing +thyself by running into things that will fade, the things of this +world that will change; be subject and obedient to the Lord God." +There was something in all this that really reached Cromwell's heart, +while it amused him; and, though he would begin by bantering Fox at +an interview, sitting on a table and talking in "a light manner," as +Fox himself tells us, he would end with some serious words. Both to +Fox personally, and to the letters from him and other Quakers, his +reply in substance uniformly was that they were good people, and +that, for himself, "all persecution and cruelty was against his +mind." Cromwell was only at the centre, however, and could not +regulate the administration of the law everywhere.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of date; and Sewel's _History of +the Quakers_, I. 210-233.] + +John Lilburne once more, but now for the last time, and in a totally +new guise! Committed to prison in 1653 by the government of the +Barebones Parliament, acting avowedly not by law but simply "for the +peace of this nation" (ante, IV. 508), he had been first in the +Tower, then in a castle in Jersey, and then in Dover Castle. In this +last confinement, which had been made tolerably easy, a Quaker had +had access to him, with very marked effects. "Here, in Dover Castle," +Lilburne had written to his wife, Oct. 4, 1655, "through the +loving-kindness of God, I have met with a more clear, plain, and +evident knowledge of God, and myself, and His gracious outgoings to +my soul, than ever I had in all my lifetime, not excepting my +glorying and rejoicing condition under the Bishops." Again, in a +later letter: "I particularly can, and do hereby, witness that I am +already dead or crucified to the very occasions and real grounds of +outward wars, and carnal sword-fightings, and fleshly bustlings and +contests, and that therefore confidently I now believe that I shall +never hereafter be a user of the temporal sword more, nor a joiner +with those that do. And this I do here solemnly declare, not in the +least to avoid persecution, or for any politic ends of my own, or in +the least for the satisfaction of the fleshly wills of any of my +great adversaries, or for satisfying the carnal will of my poor weak +afflicted wife, but by the special movings and compulsions of God now +upon my soul ... and that thereby, if yet I must be an imprisoned +sufferer, it may from this day forward be for the truth as it is in +Jesus, which truth I witness to be truly professed and practised by +the savouriest of people, called Quakers." This had not at once +procured his release, for he remained in Dover Castle through at +least part of 1656. At length, however, after some proposal to let +him go abroad again, or to send him and his wife to the Plantations, +security had been accepted for his good behaviour, and he had been +allowed to live as he liked at Eltham in Kent. Here, and elsewhere, +he sometimes preached, and was in much esteem among the Quakers; and +here, on Saturday the 29th of August, 1657, he died. On the following +Monday his corpse was removed to London and conveyed to the house +called "The Bull and Mouth" at Aldersgate, the chief meeting-place of +the London Quakers. "At this place, that afternoon, assembled a +medley of people, among whom the Quakers were most eminent for +number; and within the house a controversy Was whether the ceremony +of a hearse-cloth should be cast over his coffin; but, the major +part, being Quakers, not assenting, the coffin was about five o'clock +in the evening brought forth into the street. At its coming out, +there stood a man on purpose to cast a velvet hearse-cloth over the +coffin, and he endeavoured to do it; but, the crowd of Quakers not +permitting it and having gotten the body on their shoulders, they +carried it away without further ceremony, and the whole company +conducted it into Moorfields, and thence into the new churchyard +adjoining to Bedlam, where it lieth interred." Lilburne at his death +was but thirty-nine years of age. He was popular to the last with the +Londoners, and there were notices of him, comic and serio-comic, +long after his death. By order of Council, Nov. 4, his Highness +himself present, payment of the arrears of an allowance he had of +40_s._ a week, with continuation of the same allowance +thenceforward, was granted to his wife, Elizabeth.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sewel's _History of the Quakers_. I. 160-163 +(where, however, there is an error as to the date of Lilburne's +death); Wood's Ath. III. 357; _Cromwelliana_, 168; Council +Order Books of Nov. 4, 1657.] + +When the subdued Lilburne thus went to his grave among the Quakers, +his unsubdued successor in the trade of Anti-Cromwellian conspiracy, +the Anabaptist ex-Colonel Sexby, was in the Tower, waiting his doom. +He had been arrested, July 24, in a mean disguise and with a great +over-grown beard, on board a ship that was to carry him back to +Flanders after one of his visits to London on his desperate design of +an assassination of Cromwell, to be followed by a Spanish-Stuartist +invasion. What _would_ have been his doom can be but guessed. He +became insane in the Tower, and died there in that state Jan. 13, +1657-8. He had previously confessed to Barkstead, the Lieutenant of +the Tower, that he had been the real mover of the Sindercombe Plot, +that he had been in the pay of Spain, and also, apparently, that he +was the author of _Killing no Murder_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Merc. Pol._ of dates, as quoted in +_Cromwelliana_, 167-170.] + +So quiet and even was the course of home-affairs through the first +seven months of the new Protectorate that such glimpses and anecdotes +of particular persons have to suggest the general history. Yet one +more of the sort. + +In the parish register of Bolton Percy in Yorkshire there is this +entry: "George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and Mary, the daughter +of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron, of Nunappleton within this +Parish of Bolton Percy, were married the 15th day of September +_anno Dom_. 1657." This was, in fact, the marriage of the great +Fairfax's only child, Marvell's former pupil, now nineteen years of +age, to the Royalist Duke of Buckingham, aged thirty. The poet +Cowley, who had known the Duke since their Cambridge days together, +acted as his best man at the wedding, which was celebrated with great +festivities at Nunappleton, Cowley contributing a poem. But surely +it was a most extraordinary marriage, and, though there had been +rumours of such a possibility for several years, it was heard of with +surprise. The only child and heiress of the great Parliamentarian +General, one of the founders of the Commonwealth, married to this +Royalist of Royalists, the handsome young insurgent in the Second +Civil War of 1648, the boon-companion of Charles II. for some time +abroad, his boon-companion and buffoon all through his dreary year of +Kingship among the Scots, his fellow-fugitive from the field of +Worcester, and ever since, though less in Charles's company than +before, and serving as a volunteer in the French army, yet a main +trump-card in Charles's lists! How had it happened? Easily enough. +The great Fairfax, with ample wealth of his own, had made most +honourable and chivalrous use of the accessions to that wealth that +had come in the shape of Parliamentary grants to him out of the +confiscated estates of Royalists. Now, one such grant, in lieu of a +money pension of £4000 a year, had been a portion of the confiscated +property of the young Duke of Buckingham, including an estate in +Yorkshire and York House in the Strand. The young Duke, stripped of +his revenues of £25,000 a year, had been living meanwhile on the +proceeds of a great collection of pictures, Titians and what not, +that had been made by his father, and which had been quietly conveyed +abroad for sale. But Fairfax had not forgotten the splendid young +man, and had every wish to retrieve his fortunes for him. There had +probably been communications to that end, not only with Buckingham +himself, but even with Charles II.; and the result had been the +Duke's return to England and appearance in Yorkshire, early in 1657, +to woo Mary Fairfax or to complete the wooing. Who could resist him? +It might have been better for Mary Fairfax had she died in her +girlhood, fresh from Marvell's teaching; but now she was Duchess of +Buckingham. York House and the estate in Yorkshire had been restored +to her husband by gift, and Nunappleton and other Fairfax estates +were to be settled on him and her for their lives, and on their heirs +should there be any.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Markham's Life of Fairfax, 364-372.] + +Naturally, the Protector might have something to say to the +arrangement. The great Fairfax was a man to whom anything in reason +would be granted; and, though Cromwell had no reason to believe that +Fairfax favoured his Protectorate, and there had been even reports +from Thurloe's foreign agents of correspondence between Fairfax and +Charles II.,[1] no one could challenge Fairfax's honour or doubt his +passive allegiance. But a son-in-law like Buckingham about him +altered the case. Little wonder, therefore, that the marriage at +Nunappleton was discussed at the Council in London. On the 9th of +October, his Highness and eight more being present, it was ordered +that a warrant should issue for arresting, and confining in the Isle +of Jersey, George, Duke of Buckingham, who had been "in this nation +for divers months without licence or authority." This led, of course, +to earnest representations from Fairfax. Accordingly, Nov. 17, "His +Highness having communicated to the Council that the Lord Fairfax +hath made addresses to him, with some desires on behalf of the Duke +of Buckingham," it was ordered "That the Resolves and Act of +Parliament in the case of the said Duke be communicated to the Lord +Fairfax as the grounds of the Council's proceedings touching the said +Duke, and that there be withal signified to the Lord Fairfax the +Council's civil respects to his Lordship's own person." The message +was to be conveyed by the Earl of Mulgrave, Lord Deputy Fleetwood, +and Lord Strickland. Fairfax and the young couple must have made +farther appeal; for, Dec. 1, his Highness "delivered in to the +Council a paper containing an offer of some reasons in reference to +the Duke of Buckingham his liberty," whereupon it was minuted "That +the Council do declare it as their opinion that it is not consistent +with their duty to advise his Highness to grant the Duke of +Buckingham his liberty as is desired, nor consistent with his +Highness's trust to do the same." Lord Strickland and Sir Charles +Wolseley were to communicate the minute to Fairfax. Probably Fairfax +had come up to town on the business. The young couple would seem to +have remained in the country; nor do I find that the order for the +arrest of the Duke was yet actually enforced.[2] + +[Footnote 1: As early as Nov. 1654 Charles II. had written to +Fairfax, begging him to "wipe out all he had done amiss" by such +services to the Royal cause as he might yet render (Macray's +Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers, II. 426).] + +[Footnote 2: Council Order Books of dates.] + +What may have disposed Cromwell not to be too harsh about the +marriage was the fact that he had just celebrated the marriages of +his own two youngest daughters. Lady Frances, the youngest, became +Mrs. Rich on the 11th of November, and Lady Mary became Viscountess +Falconbridge on the 18th. + +The drift of public interest was now towards the reassembling of the +adjourned Parliament on the 20th of January 1657-8. Especially there +was great curiosity as to the persons that would be called by his +Highness to form the Second or Upper House. That was satisfied in the +course of December by the issue of his Highness's writs under the +great seal (quite in regal style, with the phrases "We," "ourself," +"our great seal," &c.) to the following _sixty-three_ persons, +the asterisks to be explained presently:-- + + *Lord Richard Cromwell (_Councillor_, &c.). + Lord Henry Cromwell (_Lord Deputy of Ireland_). + + Of the Titular Nobility. + + The Earl of Warwick. + The Earl of Manchester. + The Earl of Mulgrave (_Councillor_). + The Earl of Cassilis (Scotch). + William, Viscount Say and Sele. + *Thomas, Viscount Falconbridge (_son-in-law_). + *Philip, Viscount Lisle (_Peer's son and Councillor_). + *Charles, Viscount Howard (raised to this rank by Cromwell, + July 20, 1657). + Philip, Lord Wharton. + *George, Lord Eure. + *Roger, Lord Broghill (_Peer's son_). + *John, Lord Claypole (_son-in-law and "Master of our Horse"_). + + Great Army and Navy Officers. + + *Lieutenant-General Charles Fleetwood (_son-in-law and + Councillor_). + *Admiral, or "General of our Fleet," John Desborough (_brother-in-law + and Councillor_: made Admiral in suecession to Blake). + *Admiral, or "General of our Fleet," Edward Montague (_Councillor, + and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury_). + *Commissary-General of Horse, Edward Whalley (_cousin_). + Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, General George Monk. + + Great State and Law Officers. + + *Nathaniel Fiennes (_Councillor_), + Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal. + *John Lisle, ditto. + *Bulstrode Whitlocke, one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. + *William Sydenham (_Councillor_), ditto. + *Henry Lawrence (_Lord President of the Council_). + Oliver St. John, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. + *John Glynne, Lord Chief Justice of the Upper Bench. + *William Lenthall, Master of the Rolls. + William Steele, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. + + Baronets. + + Sir Gilbert Gerrard. + Sir Arthur Hasilrig. + *Sir John Hobart. + *Sir Gilbert Pickering (_Councillor and Chamberlain to the + Household_). + *Sir Francis Russell (_Henry Cromwell's father-in-law_). + *Sir William Strickland. + *Sir Charles Wolseley (_Councillor_). + + Knights. + + *Sir John Barkstead (knighted by Cromwell Jan, 19, 1655-6). + Sir George Fleetwood (knighted by Cromwell Sept. 15, 1656). + *Sir John Hewson (_Colonel_, knighted by Cromwell + Dec. 5, 1657). + *Sir Thomas Honeywood. + Sir Archibald Johnstone of Warriston (Scotch). + Sir William Lockhart (_Ambassador_, knighted by Cromwell + Dec. 10, 1656). + *Sir Christopher Pack (_Alderman_, knighted by Cromwell + Sept. 20, 1656). + *Sir Richard Onslow. + *Sir Thomas Pride (Colonel Pride, knighted by Cromwell + Jan, 17, 1655-6). + *Sir William Roberts. + *Sir Robert Tichbourne (_Alderman_, knighted by Cromwell + Dec. 10, 1656). + Sir Matthew Tomlinson (_Colonel_, knighted in Dublin by Lord + Henry Cromwell. Nov. 25, 1657). + + Others. + + *James Berry (_the Major-General_). + John Clerke (_Colonel_). + *Thomas Cooper (_Colonel_). + John Crewe. + *John Fiennes. + *William Goffe (_the Major-General_). + *Richard Ingoldsby (_Cousin's son and Colonel_). + *John Jones (_brother-in-law and Colonel_). + *Philip Jones (_Councillor and Colonel_, and now "_Comptroller + of our Household_"). + *Richard Hampden (son of the great Hampden). + William Pierrepoint. + Alexander Popham. + *Francis Rous (_Councillor and Provost of Eton_). + *Philip Skippon (_Councillor and Major-General_). + *Walter Strickland (_Councillor_). + *Edmund Thomas.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In compiling the list I have used the enumerations in +Parl. Hist. III. 1518-1519, Whitlocke, IV. 313-314, and Godwin. IV. +469-471 (the last two not perfect): also a Pamphlet of April 1659 +called _A Second Narrative of the Late Parliament_.] + +Such were "Oliver's Peers or Lords," remembered by that name now, and +so called at the time, not because they were Peers or Lords in the +old sense, but because they were to be members of that "Other House" +which, by Article V. of the _Petition and Advice_, was to +exercise some of the functions of the old House of Lords. The +selection was various enough, and probably as good as could be made; +but there must have been great doubts as to the result. Would those +of the old English hereditary nobility whom it had been deemed +politic to summon condescend to sit as fellow-peers with Hewson, once +a shoemaker, Pride, once a brewer's drayman, and Berry, once a clerk +in some iron works? What of Manchester, recollecting his deadly +quarrel with Cromwell as long ago as 1644-5, and what of Say and +Sele, who had remained sternly aloof from the Protectorate from the +very first, the pronounced Oliverianism of two of his sons +notwithstanding? Then would Anti-Oliverian Commoners like Hasilrig +and Gerrard, hating the Protector with their whole hearts, take it as +a compliment to be removed from the Commons, where they could have +some power in opposition, to a so-called Upper House where they would +be lost in a mass of Oliverians? Farther, of the Oliverians who would +have willingly taken their seats and been useful, several of the most +distinguished, such as Henry Cromwell, Monk, Lockhart, and Tomlinson, +were at a distance, and could not appear immediately. Finally, if, +after all these deductions, a sufficient House should be brought +together, it would be at the expense of a considerable weakening of +the Government party in the Commons by the withdrawal of leading +members thence, and this at a time when such weakening was most +dangerous. For, by the _Petition and Advice_, were not the +Anti-Oliverians excluded from last session, to the number of ninety +or more, to take their seats in the Commons now, without farther let +or hindrance from the Protector? + +Cromwell had, doubtless, foreseen that one of the difficulties of his +Second Protectorate would be the transition from the system of a +Single-House Parliament, now nine years in use, to a revived form of +the method of Two Houses. The experiment, however, had been, of his +own suggestion and was still to his liking, Could the Second House +take root, it might aid him, on the one hand, in that steady and +orderly domestic policy which, he desired in general, and it might +increase his power, on the other hand, to stand firmly on his own +broad notion of religious toleration. At all events, the time had now +come when the difficulty must be faced. + +On Wednesday. Jan. 20, 1657-8; the members of the two Senses, such of +them at least as had appeared, were duly in their places. Those of +the new House were assembled in what tad formerly been the House of +Lords, Of the sixty-three that had been summoned forty-three had +presented themselves and had been sworn in by the form of oath +prescribed in the _Petition and Advice_, They were the +forty-three whose names are marked by asterisks in the preceding list +of those summoned. When it is considered that from seven to ten of +those not asterisked there (e.g. Henry Cromwell, Monk, Steele, +Lockhart, and Tomlinson) would certainly have taken their places but +for necessary and distant absence, and might take them yet, the House +mast be called, so far, a very successful one. It had failed most +conspicuously, as had been expected, in one of its proposed +ingredients. Of the old English Peers there had come in only Visconnt +Falconbridge and Lord Eure; Warwick, Manchester, Say and Sele, +Wharton, even Mulgrave, were absent. More ominous still was the +absence of the Anti-Oliverian commoner Sir Arthur Hasilrig, He had +not yet come to town, and there was much speculation what course he +would take if he did come. Would he regard himself as still member +for Leicester in the Commons House, though he had been excluded +thence in September 1656, as he had before been driven from the same +seat in the First Parliament of the Protectorate; and would he +reclaim that seat now rather than go into the Upper House? Meanwhile +for most of those who had been excluded in Sept. 1658 along with +Hasilrig there was no such dilemma; and, accordingly, they had +mustered, in pretty large number, to claim their seats in the +Commons, The only formality with which they had to comply now was the +prescribed oath of the _Petition and Advice_, by which they, as +well as the members of the Upper House, were to swear, among other +things, "to be true and faithful to the Lord Protector," &c., and not +to "contrive, design, or attempt anything against his person or +lawful authority." It is evident that Cromwell trusted a good deal to +the effects of this oath; for he had taken care that there should be +stately commissioners in the lobby of the Commons from a very early +hour in the morning to swear the members as they came in. As many as +150 or 180 members in all, the formerly excluded and the old sitters +together, seem to have been in the House, thus sworn, about the time +when the forty-three were assembled in the adjacent Other House. The +Commons had then resumed business, on their own account, as met after +regular adjournment. They had appointed a Mr. John Smythe to be their +Clerk, in lieu of Mr. Henry Scobell, now made general "Clerk of the +Parliament" and transferred to the Other House, and they had fixed +that day week as a day of prayer for divine assistance, when the +Usher of the Black Rod appeared to summon them to meet his Highness +in the Other House. Arranging that the Sergeant-at-Arms should carry +the mace with him, and stand by the Speaker with the mace at his +shoulder through the whole interview with his Highness, the House +obeyed the summons.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, Jan. 20, 1657-8, et seq.; Ludlow, +596-597; List of the 43 who sat in the Upper House in pamphlet of +1659 already cited, called _A Second Narrative_, &c.] + +Cromwell's speech to the two Houses (Speech XVI.) opened +significantly with the words "_My Lords, and Gentlemen of the House +of Commons_." It was a very quiet speech, somewhat slowly and +heavily delivered, with "peace" for the key-word. He represented the +nation as now in such a nourishing state, especially in the +possession of a settled and efficient Public Ministry of the Gospel, +and at the same time of ample religious liberty for all, that nothing +more was needed than oblivion of past differences, and a hearty +co-operation of the two Houses with each other, and with himself. +Apologizing for being too ill to discourse more at length, he asked +Lord Commissioner Fiennes to do so for him. The speech of Fiennes was +essentially a continuation in the same strain, but with a +gorgeousness and variety of metaphor, Biblical and poetical, in +description of the new era of peace and its duties, utterly beyond +the bounds of usual Parliamentary oratory even then, and to which +Cromwell and the rest, with all their experience of metaphor from the +pulpit, must have listened with astonishment. "Jacob, speaking to his +son Joseph, said _I had not thought to have seen thy face, and lo! +God hath showed me thy seed, also:_ meaning his two sons, Ephraim +and Manasseh. And may not many amongst us well say some years hence +_We had not thought to have seen a Chief Magistrate again among us, +and lo! God hath shown us a Chief Magistrate in his Two Houses of +Parliament?_ Now may the good God make them like Ephraim and +Manasseh, that the Three Nations may be blessed in them, saying +_God made thee like these Two Houses of Parliament, which two, like +Leah and Rachel, did build the House of God!_ May you do worthily +in Ephrata, and be famous in Bethlehem!" There was more of the same +kind, including a comparison of the new constitution of the +_Petition and Advice_ to the perfected eduction of the orderly +universe out of chaos. It was the speech of a Puritan Jean Paul.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carlyle, III. 320-326; Commons Journals Jan. 21 and +Jan. 25, 1657-8. Fiennes's speech is given in full under the last +date, and must have much talked of. Whitlocke also prints it, IV. +315-329.] + +Which of the two Houses was Ephraim and which Manasseh in Fiennes's +own fancy does not appear; but the Commons had already voted +themselves to be Ephraim, and the Other House to be the questionable +Manasseh. The Anti-Oliverians among them, now in the majority or +nearly so, had resolved that their best policy, bound as they were by +oath to the Protectorate and the new Constitution of the _Petition +and Advice_ generally, would be to question the powers of the new +House as defined in the constituting document. The definition had +been rather vague. The meaning had certainly been that the new House +should be a legislative House, standing in very much the same +relation to the Commons as the old House of Lords had done, and not +merely a Judicial High Court for certain classes of cases, with +general powers of advice to the Commons in the conduct of weighty +affairs. This, however, was what the Anti-Oliverians in the Commons +contended; and on this contention, if possible, they were to break +down the Other House and so make a gap in the new Constitution. They +had made a beginning even in the small matter of the relative claims +of Mr. Smythe, their own new Clerk, and Mr. Scobell, as general +"Clerk of the Parliament," to the possession of certain documents; +but they found a better opportunity when, at their third sitting +(Jan. 22, afternoon), they were informed that "some gentlemen were at +the door with a message from the Lords." The message was merely a +request that the Commons would join the Lords in an address to his +Highness asking him to appoint a day of humiliation throughout the +three nations; but, purporting to be from "the Lords," it cut very +deep. By a majority of seventy-five to fifty-one it was resolved +"That this House will send an answer by messengers of their own," +i.e. that they would take time to consider the subject. Two more days +passed, the House transacting some miscellaneous business, but +nursing its resolution for a split; and, on Monday the 25th, lo! Sir +Arthur Hasilrig among them, standing up prominently and insisting on +being sworn and admitted to his seat. He had disdained the summons to +the Other House, and his proper place was _here!_ With some +hesitation, he was duly sworn, and so was added to the group of +Anti-Oliverian leaders already in the House. He, Thomas Scott, Sir +Anthony Ashley Cooper, John Weaver, Sergeant Maynard, and one or two +others, were thenceforth to head the opposition within doors. Outside +there were in process of signature certain great petitions to the +Commons House intended to widen the difference between it and the +Protector.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Godwin, IV. 479-495; Carlyle, +III. 328.] + +At this point the Protector interposed. On the afternoon of the same +day on which Hasilrig had taken his seat (Jan. 25) the Commons were +summoned to the Banqueting House in Whitehall, to listen to another +speech from his Highness (Speech XVII.), addressed to them and the +Other House together. It opened with the phrase "_My Lords and +Gentlemen of thee Two Houses of Parliament_," to obviate any +objections there might be to the form of opening in the speech of +five days before; and it was conceived in the same spirit of +respectfulness to both Houses and anxiety for their support. But it +expounded, more strongly and at more length than the former speech, +the pressing reasons for unanimity now. It surveyed, first, the state +of Europe generally, dwelling on the ominous combination of Roman +Catholic interests everywhere, and the perils to the Protestant Cause +from the disputes among the Protestant Powers, and especially from +the hostility of the Danes and the Dutch to the heroic King of +Sweden, who had "adventured his all against the Popish Interest In +Poland." It declared the vital concern of Great Britain in all this, +if only because an invasion of Great Britain in behalf of the Stuarts +was a settled part of the Anti-Protestant programme. "You have +accounted yourselves happy in being environed with a great Ditch from +all the world beside. Truly, you will not be able to keep your Ditch, +nor your shipping, unless you turn your ships and shipping into +troops of horse and companies of foot, and fight to defend yourselves +on _terra firma_." Then, turning to the state of affairs at +home, he insisted on the necessity of a general union in defence of +the existing settlement. One Civil War more, he said, would throw the +nation into a universal confusion, with or without a restoration of +the Stuarts, and, if _with_ such a restoration, then with +consequences to some that they did not now contemplate. He made no +express reference to the proceedings in the Commons of the last few +days, but implored both Houses to abstain from dissensions, stand on +the basis to which he and they had sworn, and join with him in real +work.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carlyle, III. 329-347.] + +The appeal to the Commons was in vain. After three or four more +meetings, they resumed, Jan. 29, the subject of the answer to be +returned to the message of the 22nd from the Other House. By a vote +of eighty-four to seventy-eight they resolved to go into Grand +Committee on the subject. This having been done, they resolved, Jan. +30, "That the first thing to be debated shall be the Appellation to +be given to the persons to whom the answer shall be made." On this +one point there was a protracted debate of four days, the +oppositionists insisting that the appellation should be simply "The +Other House," as in the _Petition and Advice_, and the +Oliverians contending that that was no name at all, that it had been +employed in the _Petition and Advice_ only as a blank to be +afterwards filled up, and that the proper name would be "The House of +Lords." In one of two divisions on Feb. 3 the votes were eighty-seven +against eighty-six; in the other they were ninety-three against +eighty-seven. These divisions, however, were merely incidental, and +the debate was still going on fiercely on Thursday, Feb. 4. Scott had +spoken and was trying to speak again in defiance of rule, with +Hasilrig backing him, when "Mr. Speaker informed the House that the +Usher of the Black Rod was at the door with a message from his +Highness." Hasilrig seems to have been still on his feet when the +Black Rod, having been admitted, delivered his message: "Mr. Speaker, +His Highness is in the Lords House, and desires to speak with you." +Thither they adjourned, and there his Highness briefly addressed the +two Houses once again (Speech XVIII.). Or rather he addressed both +Houses only through about half of his speech; for, at a particular +point, he turned deliberately to the Commons and proceeded thus: "I +do not speak to these Gentlemen, 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 [the Second Protectorship], to be +in a capacity by your advice. 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! 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 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. 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. That which I told you in the Banqueting House 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--what if I said into a rebellion? And I hope I shall make +it appear to be no better, if God assist me. 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. And what is like to come +upon this, the enemy being ready to invade us, but even present blood +and confusion? 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, 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!"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; and Carlyle, III. 348-353.] + +Thus, after a second session of only sixteen days, the Second +Parliament of the Protectorate was at an end. Cromwell's explanation +of his reasons for dissolving it is perfectly accurate. Through the +first session the Parliament, as a Single House Parliament, had, by +the exclusion of about ninety of those returned to it, been a +thoroughly Oliverian body, and its chief work had been a +reconstitution of the Protectorate on a definite basis; but through +the second session this Parliament, though nominally the same, had +been split into two Houses, the House of Lords wholly Oliverian, but +the House of Commons, by the loss of a number of its former members +and the readmission of the excluded, turned into an Anti-Oliverian +conclave. Fourteen folio pages of the _Commons Journals_ are +the only remaining formal records of the short and unfortunate +Session. Oliver's Lords can have had little more to do than meet and +look at each other. + + * * * * * + +There was to be no Parliament more while Cromwell lived. For seven +months onwards from Feb. 4, 1657-8, he was to govern, one may say, +more alone than ever, more as a sovereign, and with all his energies +in performance of the sovereignty more tremendously on the strain. + +There was still, of course, the Council, now essentially a Privy +Council, meeting twice or thrice a week, or sometimes on special +summons, and with this novelty in the public style and title of the +councillors, that those of them who had been in the Upper House of +the late Parliament retained the name of "Lords." Lord President +Lawrence, Lord Richard Cromwell, Lord Fleetwood, Lord Montague, Lord +Commissioner Fiennes, Lord Desborough, Lord Viscount Lisle, the Earl +of Mulgrave, Lord Rous, Lord Skippon, Lord Pickering (_alias_ +"The Lord Chamberlain"), Lord Strickland, Lord Wolseley, Lord +Sydenham, Lord Jones (_alias_ "Mr. Comptroller"), and Mr. +Secretary Thurloe: such would have been the minute of a complete +_sederunt_ of the Council when, it resumed duty after the +dissolution of the Parliament. There never was such a complete +_sederunt:_ ten out of the sixteen was the average attendance, +rising sometimes to twelve. Occasionally Cromwell came to one of +their meetings; but generally they transacted business among +themselves to his order, and communicated with him privately. A few +of the Councillors were more closely in his confidence than the rest; +Whitlocke, though not of the Council, was often consulted about +special affairs; and the man-of-all-work, closeted with his Highness +daily, was Mr. Secretary Thurloe. His Highness had, moreover, a +private secretary, Mr. William Malyn, who had been with him already +for several years.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books from Feb. 1857-8 onwards; Thurloe, +II. 224.] + +As Cromwell had intimated in his Dissolution Speech, his first labour +after the dissolution was to attack that vast complication of dangers +of which he had already sure knowledge, and which he declared to have +been caused, or brought to a head, by the wretched conduct of the +Commons through their sixteen days of session, and by the positive +treason of some of their number. He had described the dangers as +gathering from two quarters, though they were already interrelated +and would run together at last. There was "the King of Scots' game," +or the plot of a Royalist commotion in conjunction with a threatened +invasion of the Spanish-Stuartist Army; and there was the design of a +great insurrection of Old Commonwealth's men for a subversion of the +Protectorate and a return to the pure Single-House Republic. Of the +first danger he had said, "I think myself bound before God to do what +I can to prevent it"; the second he had denounced as rebellion, +saying, "I hope I shall make it appear to be no better, if God assist +me." For three or four months he was to be engaged in making good +these words; but he had begun already. On February 6, at a great +meeting of the Army-officers in the Banqueting House, he had +discoursed to them impressively for two hours, abashing two or three +that had been tampered with, and receiving from the rest assurances +of their eternal fidelity. Ludlow says that, for several nights +successively, before or after this meeting, Cromwell himself took the +inspection of the watch among the soldiers at Whitehall.[1] + +[Footnote 1: 2 Ludlow, 598-600; Godwin. IV. 496-7.] + +As always, Cromwell's tenderness towards the Republicans or Old +Commonwealth's men appeared now in his dealings with the new +commotion on that side. Colonel Packer and Captain Gladman, two +disaffected officers in his own regiment of horse, appear to have +been merely dismissed from their commands; and one hears besides of +but a few arrests, with no farther consequences than examination +before the Council and temporary imprisonment. Harrison was again +arrested, the Fifth-Monarchy men having, of course, lent themselves +to the agitation, and Harrison having this time, Whitlocke says, been +certainly "deep in it." Among the others arrested were Mr. John +Carew, the Regicide and Councillor under the Commonwealth, John +Portman, who had been secretary to Blake in the Fleet, a Hugh +Courtney, and John Rogers, a preacher. There seems to have been no +thought of any proceedings against Hasilrig, Scott, Sir Anthony +Ashley Cooper, and the other Anti-Cromwellian leaders in the late +Parliament. This, however, is less remarkable than that, with +information in Cromwell's possession that some of the members of the +Parliament, nominally Commonwealth's men, had actually commissions +from Charles II. and were enlisting persons under such commissions +for any possible insurrection whatever, he had contented himself with +announcing the fact in his Dissolution Speech and so merely +signifying to the culprits that their lives were in his hands.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 599-600; Whitlocke, IV. 330; Godwin, IV. +502-503.] + +The Royalist project and its ramifications were really very +formidable. A Spanish Army of about 8000 men, with Charles II. and +his refugees among them, _was_ gathered about Bruges, Brussels, +and Ostend, with vessels of transport provided; and the burst of a +great Royalist Insurrection at home, in Sussex, London, and +elsewhere, _was_ to coincide with the invasion from abroad. The +Duke of Ormond himself had come to London in disguise, to observe +matters and make preparations. He was in London for three weeks, +living in the house of a Roman Catholic surgeon in Drury Lane, till +Cromwell, who knew the fact, generously sent Lord Broghill to him +with a hint to be gone. This was early in March, some days after a +proclamation "commanding all Papists and other persons who have been +of the late King's party or his son's to depart out of the cities of +London and Westminster," and another proclamation forbidding such +persons living in the country to stir more than five miles from their +fixed places of abode. On the 12th of that month the Lord Mayor, +Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London met his Highness +and the Army-officers by appointment at Whitehall, where his Highness +explained to them at length the nature of the crisis, informed them +particularly of the strength of the Flanders army of invasion, +Ormond's visit, &c., and solemnly committed to them the safety of the +City. The response of the City authorities was extremely loyal.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 507-508; Carlyle, III. 353-354; _Merc. +Pol._, of March 11-18, 1657-8, quoted in _Cromwelliana_, +pp. 170-171. The Proclamation ordering Papists and other Royalists +out of London and Westminster, and that ordering such persons in the +country to keep near home, are both dated Feb. 25, 1657-8. There are +copies at the end of one of the volumes of the Council's minutes.] + +On the principle that the country could not afford for ever this +periodical trouble of a Royalist Conspiracy, and that some examples +of severity might make the present upheaving the last of the kind, +Cromwell had resolved on a few such examples. His information, +through Thurloe and otherwise, was unerring. He knew, and had known +for some time, who were the members of the so-called "Sealed Knot," +i.e. that secret association of select Royalists resident in England +who were in closest correspondence with Hyde and the other +Councillors of Charles abroad, and were chiefly trusted by them for +the management of the cause at home, Indeed, Sir Richard Willis, one +of the chiefs of the "Sealed Knot," had for some time been in +understanding with Cromwell, pledged to him by a peculiar compact, +and revealing to him all that passed among the Royalists. Hence, +before the end of April, some of the members of the "Sealed Knot," +and a number of leading Royalists besides, had been lodged in the +Tower. Among them were Colonel John Russell (brother of the Earl of +Bedford), Colonel John White, Sir William Compton, Sir William +Clayton, Sir Henry Slingsby (a prisoner in Hull since the Royalist +rising of 1654-5, but negotiating there desperately of late to secure +the officers and the town itself for Charles), Sir Humphrey Bennett, +Mr. John Mordaunt (brother of the Earl of Peterborough), Dr. John +Hewit (a London Episcopal clergyman), Mr. Thomas Woodcock, and a +Henry Mallory. It was part of the understanding with Willis that +several of the prisoners, Willis's particular friends, should be +ultimately released. For trial were selected Slingsby, Clayton, +Bennett, Mordaunt, Woodcock, Mallory, and Dr. Hewit. The trials were +in Westminster Hall, in May and June, before a great High Court of +Justice, consisting of all the judges, some of the great state +officers, and a hundred and thirty commissioners besides, all in +conformity with an Act of the late Parliament prescribing the mode of +trial for such prime offences. Five of the seven were either +acquitted or spared: only Slingsby and Dr. Hewit were brought to the +scaffold. They were beheaded on Tower Hill, June 8. Much influence +was exerted in behalf of Hewit; but, besides that he had been deeply +implicated, he had been contumacious in the Court, challenging its +competency, and refusing to plead. Prynne had stood by him, and +prepared his demurrer.--From the evidence collected in Dr. Hewit's +case it appeared that he, if not Ormond, had been calculating on the +co-operation of Fairfax, Lambent, Sir William Waller, and a great +many other persons of name, up and down the country, not included +among those whom Cromwell had seen fit to arrest. As Thurloe +distinctly says, "It's certain Sir William Waller was fully engaged," +the omission, of that veteran commander from the number must have +been an act of grace. About Lambert the speculation seems to have +been absurd; and, though Cromwell must have known that Fairfax was +now inclining generally towards a Restoration, he cannot have +believed anything stronger at present in his case. There was no +public reference to such high personages; nor, with the exception of +some friendly expostulation by the Protector with a young Mr. John +Stapley of Sussex (son of Stapley the Regicide and Councillor of the +Commonwealth), who _had_ been lured into the business, was any +account taken of the other miscellaneous persons in Hewit's list of +reputable sympathisers. It was enough for Cromwell to know who had +swerved so far, and to have made examples of Hewit himself and +Slingsby.--These two would have been the only victims but for a wild +sub-conspiracy in the City of London while the trials of Hewit and +Slingsby were in progress. A few desperate cavaliers about town, the +chief of whom were a Sir William Leighton, a Colonel Deane, and a +Colonel Manley, holding commissions from Charles, had met several +times at the Mermaid Tavern and elsewhere, and had arranged for a +midnight tumult on Saturday the 15th of May. They were to attack the +guard at St. Paul's, seize the Lord Mayor, raise a conflagration near +the Tower, &c. The hour had come, and the conspirators were in the +Mermaid Tavern for their final arrangements, when lo! the trainbands +on the alert all round them and Barkstead riding through the streets +with a train of five small cannon. A good many were arrested, thirty +of them London prentices. Six of the principals were condemned July +2, of whom one was hanged, two were hanged, drawn, and quartered, and +three were reprieved. For the prentices there was all clemency.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 869-870; Godwin, IV. 508-527; _Merc. +Pol_, May 13-20, 1658, quoted in _Cromwelliana_, 171-172; +Thurloe, VII. 25, 65-69, 88-90, 100, and 147-8; Whitlocke, IV. 334.] + +Though the prosecutions of the Royalist plotters were not concluded +till the beginning of July, all real danger from the plot itself had +been over in March or April, when Ormond was back in Bruges with the +report that his mission had been abortive and that Cromwell was too +strong. We must go back, therefore, for the other threads of our +narrative. + +The death of Mr. Robert Rich, Cromwell's son-in-law since the +preceding November, had occurred Feb. 16, 1657-8, only twelve days +after the dissolution of the Parliament. Cromwell, saddened by the +event himself, had found time even then to write letters of +condolence and comfort to the young man's grandfather, the Earl of +Warwick. The Earl's reply, dated March 11, is extant. "My pen and my +heart," it begins, "were ever your Lordship's servants; now they are +become your debtors. This paper cannot enough confess my obligation, +and much less discharge it, for your seasonable and sympathising +letters, which, besides the value they deserve from so worthy a hand, +express such faithful affections, and administer such Christian +advice, as renders them beyond measure welcome and dear to me." Then, +after pious expression at once of his grief and of his resignation, +he concludes with words that have a historical value. "My Lord," he +says, "all this is but a broken echo of your pious counsel, which +gives such ease to my oppressed mind that I can scarce forbid my pen +being tedious. Only it remembers your Lordship's many weighty and +noble employments, which, together with your prudent, heroic, and +honourable managery of them, I do here congratulate as well as my +grief will give me leave. Others' goodness is their own; yours is a +whole country's, yea three kingdoms'--for which you justly possess +interest and renown with wise and good men: virtue is a thousand +escutcheons. Go on, my Lord; go on happily, to love Religion, to +exemplify it. May your Lordship long continue an instrument of use, a +pattern of virtue, and a precedent of glory!" On the 19th of April +1658, or not six weeks after the letter was written, the old Earl +himself died. By that time the louring appearances had rolled away, +and Cromwell's "prudent, heroic, and honourable managery" had again +been widely confessed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 527-531, where Warwick's beautiful letter is +quoted in full, but where his death is postdated by a month. See +Thurloe, VII. 85.] + +Through all the turmoil of the proceedings against the plotters +Cromwell had not abated his interest in his bold enterprise in +Flanders, or in his alliance with the French generally. That alliance +having been renewed for another year (March 28, 1658), reinforcements +were sent to the English auxiliary army to fit it for farther work in +the Netherlands. Sir John Reynolds, the first commander of that army, +having been unfortunately drowned in returning to England on a short +leave of absence (Dec. 5, 1657), the Governorship of Mardike had +come into the hands of Major-General Morgan, while the command in the +field had been assigned to Lockhart, hitherto the Protector's +Ambassador only, though soldiering had been formerly his more +familiar business. In conjunction with Turenne, Lockhart had been +pushing on the war, and at length (May 1658) the two armies, and +Montagu's fleet, were engaged in the exact service which Cromwell +most desired, and Lockhart had been always urging. This was the siege +of Dunkirk, with a view to the possession of that town, as well as +Mardike, by the English. To be near the scene of such important +operations, Louis XIV. and Cardinal Mazarin had taken up their +quarters at Calais; and, not to miss the opportunity of such near +approach of the French monarch to the shores of England, Cromwell +despatched his son-in-law Viscount Falconbridge on a splendid embassy +of compliment and congratulation. He landed at Calais on the 29th of +May, was received by both King and Cardinal with such honours as they +had never accorded to an ambassador before, and returned on the 3rd +of June to make his report. The very next day there was a tremendous +battle close to Dunkirk between the French-English forces under +Turenne and Lockhart and a Spanish army which had come for the relief +of the besieged town under Don John of Austria and the Prince of +Condé, with the Dukes of York and Gloucester in their retinue. Mainly +by the bravery of Lockhart's "immortal six thousand," the victory of +the French and English was complete; and, though the Marquis of +Leyda, the Spanish Governor of Dunkirk, maintained the defence +valiantly, the town had to surrender on the 14th of June, two days +after the Marquis had been mortally wounded in a sally. Next day, +according to the Treaty with Cromwell, the town was at once delivered +to Lockhart, Louis XIV. himself, who was on the spot, handing him the +keys. Already, while that event was unknown, and merely to +reciprocate the compliment of Falconbridge's embassy to Calais, there +had been sent across the Channel, in the name of Louis XIV., the Duke +de Crequi, first Gentleman of his Bedchamber, and M. Mancini, the +nephew of Cardinal Mazarin, "accompanied by divers of the nobility of +France and many gentlemen of quality." Met at Dover by Fleetwood and +an escort, they arrived in London June 16, and remained there till +the 21st, having audiences with his Highness, delivering to him +letters from Louis and the Cardinal, and entertained by him with all +possible magnificence. While they were there, a special envoy joined +them, announcing the capture of Dunkirk; and so the joy was complete. +There was nothing the French King would not do to show his regard for +the great Protector; and, but for his Majesty's illness at that +moment from small-pox, the Cardinal himself would have come over +instead of sending his nephew. And why should there not be a renewal +of the Treaty after the expiry of the present term, to secure another +year or two of that co-operation of the English Army and Fleet with +Turenne which had led already to such excellent results? What if +Ostend, as well as Dunkirk and Mardike, were to be made over to the +Protector? These were suggestions for the future, and meanwhile new +successes _were_ added to the capture of Dunkirk. Town after +town in Flanders, including Gravelines at last, yielded to Turenne, +or other generals, and received French garrisons, and through the +summer autumn the Spaniards were so beset in Flanders that an +expedition thence for the invasion of England in the interest of +Charles Stuart, or in any other interest, was no longer even a +possibility.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 544-551; where, however, the digest of facts +does not seem accurate in every point. Compare Thurloe, VII. 173-177 +and-192-3, and _Merc. Pol._ June 10-17 and June 17-24, 1658 (as +quoted in _Cromwelliana_, 172-173), and Guizot, II 380-388.] + +While thus turning to account the alliance with the only Catholic +power with which there could be safe dealing, the Protector clung +firmly to his idea of a League among the Protestant Powers +themselves. If Burnet's information is correct, it was about this +time that he contemplated the institution in London of "a Council for +the Protestant Religion in opposition to the Congregation _De +Propaganda_ _Fide_ at Rome." It was to sit at Chelsea +College: there were to be seven Councillors, with a large yearly fund +at their disposal; the world was to be mapped out into four great +regions; and for each region there was to be a Secretary at £500 a +year, maintaining a correspondence with that region, ascertaining the +state of Religion in it, and any exigency requiring interference. +That remained only a project; but meanwhile there was the agency of +Jephson with the King of Sweden, of Meadows with the King of Denmark, +of Downing with the United Provinces, and of other Envoys here and +there, all working for peace among the Protestant States and joint +action against the common enemy. In the Council Order Books for May +1658 one comes also upon new considerations of the old subject of the +Protestants of the Piedmontese valleys, with a fresh remittance of +£3000 for their relief, and an advance at the same time of £500 out +of the Piedmontese Fund for the kindred purpose of relieving twenty +distressed Bohemian families. Indeed in that month his Highness was +again at white heat on the subject of his favourite Piedmontese. The +Treaty of Pignerol, by which the persecuting Edict of 1655 had been +recalled and liberty of worship again yielded to the poor Vaudois +(ante pp. 43-44), had gradually been less and less regarded; there +were new troubles to the Vaudois from the House of Savoy; there were +even signs of a possible repetition in the valleys of all the former +horrors. How to prevent that was a serious thought with Cromwell amid +all his other affairs; and he made his most effective stroke by an +immediate appeal to the French King. On the 26th of May there went to +his Majesty one of Milton's Latin State Letters in the Protector's +name, adjuring him, by his own honour and by the faith of their +alliance, to save the poor Piedmontese and secure the Treaty which +had been made in their behalf by former French intervention; and on +the same day there went a letter to Lockhart urging him to his utmost +diligence in the matter, and suggesting that the French King should +incorporate the Piedmontese valleys with his own dominion, giving the +Duke of Savoy some bit of territory with a Catholic population in +exchange. Reaching Louis XIV. and Lockhart at the moment of the great +success before Dunkirk, these letters accomplished their object. The +will of France was signified at Turin, and the Protestants of the +Valleys had another respite.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Burnet (ed. 1823), I. 133; Letters of Downing, &c. in +Thurloe, Vol. VII.; Council Order Books of date; Carlyle, III. +357-365.] + +Were one asked what subject of home concern had the first place in +Cromwell's attention through all the events and transactions that +have hitherto been noticed, the answer must still be the same for +this as for all the previous portions of his Protectorate. It was +"The Propagation of the Gospel," with all that was then implied in +that phrase as construed by himself. + +As regarded England and Wales, the phrase meant, all but exclusively, +the sustenance, extension, and consolidation of Cromwell's Church +Establishment. The _Trustees for the better Maintenance of +Ministers_, as well as the _Triers_ and _Ejectors_, were +still at work; and in the Council minutes of the summer of 1658, just +as formerly, there are orders for augmentations of ministers' +stipends, combinations of parishes and chapelries, and the like. +Substantially, the Established Church had been brought into a +condition nearly approaching Cromwell's ideal; but he had still +notions of more to be done for it in one direction or another, and +especially in the direction of wider theological comprehension. He +did not despair of seeing his great principle of concurrent endowment +yet more generally accepted among those who were really and +evangelically Protestant. Much would depend on the nature of that +Confession of Faith which Article XI. of the _Petition and +Advice_ had required or promised as a standard of what should be +considered qualifying orthodoxy for the Church of the Protectorate. +For such a purpose the Westminster Confession of Faith, even though +its doctrinal portions might stand much as they were, could hardly +suffice as a whole. That Confession was to be recast, or a new one +framed. So the _Petition and Advice_ had provided or suggested; +but it may be doubted whether Cromwell was very anxious for any such +formal definition of the creed of his Established Church. He +preferred the broad general understanding which all men had, with +himself, as to what constituted sound Evangelical Christianity, and +he had more trust in administration in detail through his Triers and +Ejectors than in the application of formulas of orthodoxy. Here, +however, Owen and the other Independent divines most in his +confidence appear to have differed from him. They felt the want of +some such confession and agreement for Association and Discipline as +might suit at least the Congregationalists of the Established Church, +and be to them what the Westminster Confession was to the +Presbyterians. "From the first, all or at least the generality of our +churches," they said, "have been in a manner like so many ships, +though holding forth the same general colours, yet launched singly, +and sailing apart and alone on the vast ocean of these tumultuous +times, and exposed to every wind of doctrine, under no other conduct +than that of the word and spirit, and their particular elders and +principal brethren, without association among themselves, or so much +as holding out common lights to others to know where they were." A +petition to this effect, though not in these terms, having been +presented to his Highness, he reluctantly yielded. He allowed a +preliminary meeting of representatives of the Congregational churches +in and about London to be held on June 21, 1658, and circular letters +to be sent out to all the Congregational churches in England and +Wales convoking a Synod at the Savoy on the 29th of September. The +Confession of Faith, if any, to be drawn up by this Synod was not, of +course, to be the comprehensive State Confession foreshadowed in +Article XI. of the _Petition and Advice_, but only the voluntary +agreement of the Congregationalists or Independents for themselves. +In fact, to all appearance, if the harmonious comprehension of +moderate Anglicans, Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, within +one and the same Church, was to be signified by written symbols as +well as carried out practically, this could be done only by a plan of +concurrent confessions justifying the concurrent endowments. Even for +that, it would seem, Cromwell was now prepared. Yet he was a little +dubious about the policy of the coming Synod, and certainly was as +much resolved as ever that Synods and other ecclesiastical assemblies +should be only a permitted machinery for the denominations +severally, and that the Civil Magistrate should determine what +denominations could be soldered together to make a suitable +State-Church, and should supervise and make fast the junctions.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of May 1658; Neal's Puritans, IV. +188 et seq.; Orme's Life of Owen, 230-232.] + +There is very striking evidence of Cromwell's attention at this time +to the spiritual needs of Scotland in particular.--Early in 1657 we +left Mr. James Sharp in London as agent for the Scottish Resolutioner +clergy, and Principal Gillespie of Glasgow, Mr. James Guthrie, Mr. +James Simpson, and Johnstone of Warriston, with the Marquis of Argyle +in the background, opposing the clever Sharp, and soliciting his +Highness's favour for the Scottish Protesters or Remonstrants (ante +pp. 115-116). Both deputations had remained on in London +perseveringly, Sharp making interest with the Protector through +Broghill; Thurloe, and the London Presbyterian ministers, while Owen, +Lockyer, and the rest of the Independent ministers, with Lambert and +Fleetwood, took part rather with the agents of the Protesters. +Wearied with listening to the dispute personally, Cromwell had +referred it to a mixed committee of twelve English Presbyterians and +Independents, and at length had told both parties to "go home and +agree among themselves." Sharp, Simpson, and Guthrie had, +accordingly, returned to Scotland before the autumn of 1657; and, +though Gillespie, Warriston, and Argyle were left behind, it was +difficult to say that either party had won the advantage. Baillie, +indeed, writing from Glasgow after Sharp's return, could report that +the Protesters had, on the whole, been foiled, and chiefly by the +instrumentality of "that very worthy, pious, wise, and diligent young +man, Mr. James Sharp." But, on the other hand, the Protesters had +obtained some favours. As far as one can discern, Cromwell's judgment +as between the two parties of Scottish Kirkmen had come to be that +they were to be treated as a Tory majority and a pugnacious Whig +minority, whose differences would do no harm if they were both kept +under proper control, and that both together formed such a +Presbyterian body as might suitably possess, and yet divide, the +Church of Scotland. For, as has been remarked already, Cromwell, in +his conservatism, had come, on the whole, to be of opinion that the +national clergy of Scotland must be left massively Presbyterian, and +that it would not do to weld into the Scottish Establishment, as into +the English, Baptists, or even ordinary professing Independents, in +any considerable number. This would be bad news for those Scottish +Independents and Baptists who had naturally expected encouragement +under Cromwell's rule, but had already been disappointed. It would be +the common policy of the Resolutioners and Protesters to keep or +drive such erratic spirits out of the Kirk.[1]--Whether because the +long stay of the Scottish deputations in London had turned much of +Cromwell's thoughts towards Scotland, or simply because his own +anxiety for the "Propagation, of the Gospel" everywhere in his +dominions, had led his eyes at last to that portion of Great Britain, +we have now to record one of Cromwell's designs for Scotland worthy +of strong mark even in the total history of his Protectorate. On +Thursday, April 15, 1658, there being present In the Council the Lord +President Lawrence, Lord Richard Cromwell, the Earl of Mulgrave, and +Lords Meetwood, Wolseley, Sydenham, Lisle, Strickland and Jones, the +following draft was agreed to:--"Oliver, by the grace of God Lord +Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and +the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging, To our +well-beloved Council in Scotland greeting: Whereas for about the +space of one hundred years last past the Gospel, blessed be God! hath +been plentifully preached in the Lowlands of the said nation, and +competent maintenance provided for the ministers there, yet little or +no care hath been taken for a very numerous people inhabiting in the +Highlands by the establishing of a ministry or maintenance,--where +the greatest part have scarce heard whether there be an Holy Ghost or +not, though there be some in several parts, as We are informed, that +hunger and thirst after the means of salvation,--and that there is a +concealed maintenance detained in unrighteousness, and diverted from +the right ends to the sole benefit of particular persons; And being +also informed that there hath been much revenue for many years +together in the late King's time and since concealed and detained +from Us by such persons as have no right or title thereunto, and that +some ministers that were acquainted with the Highland language have +in a late summer season visited those parts and been courteously used +by many professing there breathings after the Gospel: We do +therefore, in consideration of their sad condition, the great honour +and glory of God, and the good that may redound to the souls of many +poor ignorant creatures, Will and Require you, with all care, +industry and conveniency, to find out a way and means for the +Planting of the Gospel in those parts, and that, in pursuance thereof +and the better carrying on of so pious a work, our Barons of our +Exchequer in Scotland do search and find out _£600 per annum_ +of concealed estates and revenues belonging to Us, or that may belong +to Us and our Successors, and issue forth and pay the same unto such +person or persons as by our said Council shall be nominated and +appointed, out of such concealed rents or any other concealed +revenues whatsoever, quarterly or half-yearly as there shall be +cause, by and with their assent and approbation, to the only use and +end aforesaid. For which so doing this shall be your and their +warrant. Witness Ourself at our Palace at Westminster the ---- day +---- 1658." This does not seem to have sufficed for his Highness; for +on Tuesday, May 4, the Council returned to the subject and prepared +another draft, beginning, "Forasmuch as We, taking into consideration +the sad condition of our People in Scotland living in the Highlands, +for want of the Preaching of the Gospel and Schools of Learning for +training up of youth in Learning and Civility, whereby the +inhabitants of those places in their lives and whole demeanour are +little different from the most savage heathens," and ending with +instructions that £1200 a year, or double the sum formerly proposed, +should be set apart out of still recoverable rents and revenues of +alienated Chaplaincies, Deaneries, &c. of the old Popish and +Episcopal Church of Scotland, and applied to the purposes of +preaching and education in the Highlands. The sum, in the Scotland of +that time, might go as far as £7000 or £8000 a year now, though in +England it would have been worth only about £4200 of present value. +Spent on an effective Gaelic mission of travelling pastors, and on a +few well-planted schools, it might have accomplished a good +deal.[2]--Since the beginning of the Protectorate there had been +some care in finding new funds for the Scottish Universities as well +as for the English. Principal Gillespie of Glasgow had procured a +grant for the University of that city (Vol. IV. p. 565), and +something had been done for University-reform in Aberdeen. +Accordingly, that Edinburgh might not complain, it was now agreed, at +a meeting of Council, July 15, 1658, his Highness himself present; to +issue an order beginning, "Know ye that We, taking into our +consideration the condition of the University of Edinburgh, and that +(being but of late foundation, viz. since the Reformation of Religion +in Scotland) the rents thereof are exceedingly small," and concluding +by putting £200 a year at the disposal of the Town Council of +Edinburgh, "being the founders and undoubted patrons of the said +University," to be applied for University purposes with the advice +and consent of the Masters and Regents. The gift, it appears, had +been promised to Principal Leighton, when he had been in London, some +time before, on one of his yearly journeys for his own bookish +purposes, and certainly neither as Resolutioner nor Protester. "Mr. +Leighton does nought to count of, but looks about him in his +chamber," is Baillie's characteristic fancy-sketch of Leighton when +he was back in Edinburgh and the £200 a year had become a certainty; +but he adds that the saint had shown more temper than usual at +finding that Mr. Sharp had contrived that £100 of the sum should go +to Mr. Alexander Dickson (son of the Resolutioner David Dickson) who +had been recently appointed to the Hebrew Professorship, and whom +Leighton did not like. Indeed Baillie makes merry over the +possibility that the poor £200 a year for Edinburgh might never be +forthcoming, any more than the richer "flim-flams" Mr. Gillespie had +obtained for Glasgow, though in _them_ he confessed a more +lively interest.[3]--Whether Scotland should ever actually handle the +new endowments for her Universities, or the more important £1200 a +year for the civilization of the Highlands, depended on the energy +and ability of his Highness's Scottish Council in finding out ways +and means. Broghill being still absent in England, but on the wing +for Ireland, and Lockhart and others being also absent, the most +active of the Councillors now left in Scotland, in association with +Monk, seem to have been Lord Keeper Desborough, Swinton of Swinton, +and Colonel Whetham. Since August 1656, by the Protector's orders, +_three_ had been a sufficient quorum of the Council. Monk, of +course, was the real Vice-Protector. Scotland had become his home. He +had lived for some years in the same house at Dalkeith, "pleasantly +seated in the midst of a park," occupying all his spare time "with +the pleasures of planting and husbandry"; he had buried his second +son, an infant, in a chapel near; and to all appearance he might +expect to spend the rest of his days where he was, a wealthy English +soldier-farmer naturalized among the Scots, acquiring estates among +them, and keeping them under quiet command.[4] + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, III, 836-874 and 577-582; Blair's Life, +333-334; Council Order Books, Feb. 12 and March 5, 1656-7, and Sept. +18, 1657; and a pamphlet published in London in July 1659 with the +title "_The Hammer of Persecution, or the Mystery of Iniquity in +the Persecution of many good people in Scotland under the Government +of Oliver, late Lord Protector, and continued by others of the same +spirit, disclosed with the Remedies thereof, by Robt. Pitilloh, +Advocate._" The Persecution complained of by Mr. Pitilloh, a +Scottish lawyer who had left Presbyterianism, was simply the +discouragement under the Protectorate of such Scottish ministers as +had turned Independents and Baptists. The names of some such are +given: e.g. Mr. John Row, Principal of the College of Old Aberdeen; +Mr. Thomas Charters, Kilbride; Mr. John Menzies, Aberdeen; Mr. +Seaton, Old Aberdeen; Mr. Youngston, Durris; Mr. John Forbes, +Kincardine. "As soon as Oliver was lift up to the throne," says +the writer, "some of the Presbyterian faction were sent for; and, to +ingratiate himself with them, intimating tacitly that it was his +law no minister in Scotland should have allowance of a livelihood +but a National Presbyterian, he ordered that none should have +stipends as ministers ... but such as had certificates from some +four of a select party, being thirty in all, ... of the honest +Presbyterian party."] + +[Footnote 2: Council Order Books of dates.] + +[Footnote 3: Council Order Books of date, and Baillie, III. 356 and +365-366. Another interesting item of Scottish History under +Cromwell's rule may have a place here, though it belongs properly to +the First Protectorate. In the Council Order Books under date Feb. +17, 1656-7, is this minute:--"On consideration of a report from his +Highness's Attorney General, annexed to the draft of a Patent +prepared by his High Counsel learned, in pursuance of the Council's +order of the 13th of January last, according to the purport of an +agreement in writing presented to the Council under the hand of the +Provost of Edinburgh on behalf of that city and of Dr. Purves on +behalf of the Physicians of Scotland, the same being for erecting a +College of Physicians in Scotland: _Ordered_, That it be +offered to his Highness as the advice of the Council that his +Highness will be pleased to issue his warrant for Mr. Attorney +General to prepare a Patent for his Highness's signature according +to the said Draft."] + +[Footnote 4: Council Order Books, Aug. 14, 1656.] + +Next to the Propagation of the Gospel by an Established Ministry +everywhere, the fixed idea of Cromwell for his Home-Government, as we +have had again and again to explain, was toleration of all varieties +of religious opinion. Under this head little that is new presents +itself in the part of his Protectorate with which we are now +concerned. The Anti-Trinitarian Mr. John Biddle, who had been in +custody in the Isle of Scilly since Oct. 1655 (ante p. 66), had moved +for a writ of habeas corpus, and had been brought to London, +apparently with an intention on Cromwell's part to set him at +liberty. Nor had Cromwell lost sight of the poor demented Quaker, +James Nayler. There is extant a long and confidential letter to his +Highness from his private secretary Mr. William Malyn, giving an +account of a visit Malyn had paid to Nayler in Bridewell expressly by +his Highness's command. It is to the effect that he had found Nayler +well enough in bodily health, but so mulishly obstinate or mad that +he could not be coaxed in a long interview to speak even a single +word, and that therefore, though Malyn did not like to "dissuade" his +Highness from "a work of tenderness and mercy," he could hardly yet +advise Nayler's release, but would carefully apply the money he had +received from his Highness for Nayler's comfort. For the Quakers +generally there was, we fear, no more specific protection than +Cromwell's good-nature when a case of cruelty was distinctly brought +within his cognisance. What shall we say, however, of one order or +intention of Cromwell's Council in June 1658, which, if not against +liberty of conscience in the general sense, was decidedly retrograde +in respect of the specific liberty of the press? On the 22nd of that +month, nine members being present, though not his Highness, it was +agreed, on a report by Mr. Comptroller, i.e. by Lord Jones, from a +Committee that had been appointed on the subject, to recommend to his +Highness to issue a warrant with this preamble, "Whereas there are +divers good laws, statutes, acts, and ordinances of Parliament in +force, which were heretofore made and published against the printing +of unlicensed, seditious, and scandalous books and pamphlets, and for +the better regulating of printing, wherein several provisions are +contained, sufficient to prevent the designs of persons disaffected +to the State and Government of this Commonwealth, who have assumed to +themselves and do continually take upon them a licentious boldness to +write, print, publish, and disperse many dangerous, seditious, +blasphemous, Popish, and scandalous pamphlets, books, and papers, to +the high dishonour of God, the scorn and contempt of the Laws and of +all good Order and Government; and forasmuch as it nearly concerns +Us, in respect of the public peace and safety, to take care for a due +execution of the said laws." What followed was a special charge to +the Master and Wardens of the Stationers' Company, together with +Henry Hills and John Field, his Highness's Printers, to see to the +strict enforcement in future of the restrictions of certain cited +Press Acts,--to wit, the ordinance of the Long Parliament of June 14, +1643 (that against which Milton had written his _Areopagitica_), +the similar ordinance of the same Parliament of date Sept. 28, 1647, +the Act of the Rump Parliament of Sept. 20, 1649 (Bradshaw's Press +Act of the first year of the Commonwealth), and the renewal of the +same Jan. 7, 1652-3. Had this been all, one might have inferred +nothing more than one of those occasional panics about Press +licentiousness from the recurrence of which even Milton's reasoning +had never been able to free the Government with which he was +connected. But at the same meeting it was referred to Lord Fleetwood, +Lord Wolseley, Lord Pickering, Lord Jones, Lord Desborough, Lord +Viscount Lisle, and Lord Strickland, or to any two of them, "to +consider of fit persons to be added for licensing of books and to +report the names of such persons to the Council." This was distinctly +retrogressive; and the regret of Milton must have been none the less +because four of the Committee that were to find the new licensers +were men he had named in his _Defensio Secunda_ as heroes of the +Commonwealth, and because, as appears from a marginal jotting to the +minute as it stands in the Council Order Books, the man thought of at +once for one of the new licensers, or as the person fittest to be +first consulted in the business, was Marchamont Needham. After all, +it may have been, like some of the previous movements for +press-regulation, only a push from Paternoster Row in defence of the +legitimate book-trade, and the main intention of the Council itself +may have been against pamphlets like _Killing no Murder_ or +publications of the indecent order.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of dates, and Nickolis's _Milton +State Papers_, 143-144 (the last for Malyn's Letter about Nayler). +For previous Press Acts referred to by the Council, see ante Vol. +III. 266-271, and Vol. IV. 116-118.] + +O how stable and grand seemed the Protectorate in the month of July +1658! Rebellion at home in all its varieties quashed once more, and +now, as it might seem, for ever; the threatened invasion of the +Spaniards and Charles Stuart dissipated into ridicule; a footing +acquired on the Continent, and 6000 Englishmen stationed there in +arms; Foreign Powers, with Louis XIV. at their head, obeisant to the +very ground whenever they turned their gaze towards the British +Islands, and dreading the next bolt from the Protector's hands; those +hands evidently toying with several new bolts and poising them +towards the parts of Europe for which they were intended; great +schemes, besides, for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies, +in that inventive brain! All this, we say, in July 1658, by which +time also it was known that the Protector, so far from fearing to +face a new Parliament, was ready to call one and would take all the +chances. His immediate necessity, of course, was money. His second +Parliament, at the close of its first and loyal session in June 1657, +had provided ordinary supplies for three years; but there had been no +new revenue-arrangements in the short second session, and the current +expenses for the Flanders expedition, the various Embassies, the +Court, and the whole conduct of the Government, far outran the voted +income. The pay of the armies in England, Scotland, and Ireland was +greatly in arrears; on all hands there were straits for money; and, +whatever might be done by expedients and ingenuity meanwhile, the +effective extrication could only be by a Parliament. Not for +subsidies only, however, was Cromwell willing to resort again to that +agency, with all its perils. He believed that, in consequence of what +had passed since the Dissolution in January, any Parliament that +should now meet him would be in a different mood towards himself from +that he had recently encountered. Then might there not be proposals, +in which he and such a Parliament might agree, for constitutional +changes in advance of the Articles of the _Petition and Advice_, +though in the same direction of orderliness and settled and stately +rule? Was there not wide regret among the civilians that he had not +accepted the Kingship; had his refusal of it been really wise; might +not that question be reopened? With that question might there not go +the question of the succession, whether by nomination for one life +only as was now fixed, or by perpetual nomination, or by a return to +the hereditary and dynastic principle which the lawyers and the +civilians thought the best? Nor could the Second House of Parliament +remain the vague thing it had been so far fashioned. It must be +amended in the points in which its weakness had been proved; and all +the evidence hitherto was that it must be made truly and formally a +House of Lords, if even with the reinstitution of a peerage as part +and parcel of the legislative system. Whether such a peerage should +be hereditary or for life only might be in doubt; but there were +symptoms that, even if the Legislative Peerage should be only for +life, Cromwell had convinced himself of the utility, for general +purposes, of at least a Social Peerage with, hereditary rank and +titles. In his First Protectorate he had made knights only; in his +Second he created a few baronets. Nay, besides favouring the courtesy +appellation of "lords," as applied to all who had sat in the late +Upper House and to the great officers of State, he had added at least +two peers of his own making to the hereditary peerage as it had come +down from the late reign.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In continuation of a former note giving a list of the +Knighthoods of Cromwell's First Protectorate so far as I have +ascertained them (ante p. 303), here is a list of the Knighthoods of +the Second:--William Wheeler (Aug. 26, 1657); Edward Ward, of Norfolk +(Nov. 2, 1657); Alderman Thomas Andrews (Nov. 14, 1657); Colonel +Matthew Tomlinson (Nov. 25, 1657, in Dublin, by Lord Henry Cromwell +as Lord Deputy for Ireland); Alderman Thomas Foot, Alderman Thomas +Atkins, and Colonel John Hewson (all Dec. 5, 1657); James Drax, Esq., +a Barbadoes merchant (Dec. 31, 1657); Henry Bickering and Philip +Twistleton (Feb. 1, 1657-8); John Lenthall, Esq., son of Speaker +Lenthall (March 9, 1657-8); Alderman Chiverton and Alderman John +Ireton (March 22, 1857-8); Colonel Henry Jones (July 17, 1658, for +distinguished bravery at the siege of Dunkirk).-Baronetcies conferred +by Cromwell were the following:--John Read, of Hertfordshire (Juae +25. 1657); the Hon. John Claypole, father of Lord Claypole (July 20, +1657); Thomas Chamberlain (Oct. 6, 1657); Thomas Beaumont, of +Leicestershire (March 5, 1657-8); Colonel Henry Ingoldsby, John +Twistleton, Esq., and Henry Wright, Esq., son of the physician Dr. +Wright (all April 10, 1658); Griffith Williams, of Carnarvonshire +(May 28, 1658); Attorney General Edmund Prideaux and Solicitor +General William Ellis (Aug. 13, 1668); William Wyndham, Esq., co. +Somerset (Aug. 28, 1658). The Baronetcies, being rare, seem to have +been much prized; and that of Henry Ingoldsby raised jealousies (see +letter of Henry Cromwell in Thurloe, VII. 57).--_Peerages_ +conferred by Cromwell were not likely, any more than his Knighthoods +and Baronetcies, to be paraded by their possessors after the +Restoration. But Cromwell's favourite, Colonel Charles Howard, a +scion of the great Norfolk Howards, was raised to the dignity of +Viscount Howard of Morpeth and Baron Gilsland in Cumberland; +Cromwell's relative, Edmund Dunch, of Little Wittenham, Berks, was +created Baron Burnell, April 20, 1658; and Cromwell, just before his +death, made, or wanted to make, Bulstrode Whitlocke a Viscount.] + +As early as April the new Parliament had been thought of, and since +June there had been a select committee of nine, precognoscing the +chances, considering the questions to be brought up, and feeling in +every way the public pulse. The nine so employed were Lords +Fleetwood, Fiennes, Desborough, Pickering, Philip Jones, Whalley, +Cooper, and Goffe, and Mr, Secretary Thurloe. There are a few +glimpses of their consultations in the Thurloe correspondence, where +also there is a hint of some hope of the compliance at last even of +such old Republicans as Vane and Ludlow. But July 1658 had come, and +no one yet knew when the Parliament would meet. It could not be +expected then before the end of the year.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII. 99, 151-152, et seq.] + +Before that time Oliver Cromwell was to be out of the world. Though +but in his sixtieth year, and with his prodigious powers of will, +intellect, heart, and humour, unimpaired visibly in the least atom, +his frame had for some time been giving way under the pressure of his +ceaseless burden. For a year or two his handwriting, though statelier +and more deliberate than at first, had been singularly tremulous, and +to those closest about him there had been other signs of physical +breaking-up. Not till late in July, however, or early in August, was +there any serious cause for alarm, and then in consequence of the +terrible effects upon his Highness of his close attendance on the +death-bed of his second daughter, the much-loved Lady Claypole. She +had been lingeringly ill for some time, of a most painful internal +disease, aggravated by the death of her youngest boy, Oliver. Hampton +Court had received her as a dying invalid, tortured by "frequent and +long convulsion-fits"; and here, through a great part of July, the +fond father had been hanging about her, broken-hearted and unfit for +business. For his convenience the Council had transferred its +meetings from Whitehall to Hampton Court; but, though he was present +at one there on July 15, he avoided one on July 20, another on July +22, and a third on July 27. On the 29th, which was the fifth meeting +at Hampton Court, he did look in again and take his place. Next day +Lord and Lady Falconbridge arrived at Hampton Court, where already, +besides the Protestor and the Lady Protectress, there were Lord +Richard Cromwell, the widowed Lady Frances, and others of the family, +all round the dying sufferer. After that meeting of the Council of +July 29 which he had managed to attend, and an intervening meeting at +Whitehall without him, the Council was again at Hampton Court on +Thursday the 5th of August. At this meeting one of the resolutions +was "That Mr. Secretary be desired to make a collection of such +injuries received by the English from the Dutch as have come to his +cognisance, and to offer the same to the Council on this day +seven-night." This was a very important resolution, significant of a +dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Dutch, and a desire to call +them to account again, which had for some time been growing in +Cromwell's mind; and there can be no doubt that he had suggested +the subject to the Council. But his Highness did not appear in the +meeting himself, and next day Lady Claypole lay dead. Before her +death his grief had passed into an indefinite illness, described as +"of the gout and other distempers"; and, though he was able to come +to London on the 10th of August, on which night Lady Claypole's +remains were interred in a little vault that had been prepared for +them in Henry VIIth's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, he returned to +Hampton Court greatly the worse. But, after four or five days of +confinement, attended by his physicians--on one of which days (the +13th) Attorney General Prideaux and Solicitor General Ellis were made +baronets--he was out again for an hour on the 17th; and thence till +Friday the 20th he seemed so much better that Thurloe and others +thought the danger past. From the public at large the fact of his +illness had been hitherto concealed as much as possible; and hence it +may have been that on two or three of those days of convalescence he +showed himself as usual, riding with his life-guards in Hampton Court +Park. It was on one of them, most probably Friday the 20th, that +George Fox had that final meeting with him which he describes in his +Journal. The good but obtrusive Quaker had been writing letters of +condolence and mystical religious advice to Lady Claypole in her +illness, and had recently sent one of mixed condolence and rebuke to +Cromwell himself; and now, not knowing of Cromwell's own illness, he +had come to have a talk with him about the sufferings of the Friends. +"Before I came to him, as he rode at the head of his life-guard," +says Fox, "I saw and felt a waft of death go forth, against him; and, +when I came to him, he looked like a dead man." Fox, nevertheless, +had his conversation with the Protector, who told him to come again, +but does not seem to have mentioned the inquiry he had been making, +through his secretary Mr. Malyn, about the state of Fox's +fellow-Quaker, poor James Nayler. Next day, Saturday, Aug. 21, when +Fox went to Hampton Court Palace to keep his appointment, he could +not be admitted. Harvey, the groom of the bedchamber, told him that +his Highness was very ill, with his physicians about him, and must +be kept quiet. That morning his distemper had developed itself +distinctly into "an ague"; which ague proved, within the next few +days, to be of the kind called by the physicians "a bastard tertian," +i.e. an ague with the cold and hot shivering fits recurring most +violently every third day, but with the intervals also troublesome. +Yet it was on this first day of his ague that he signed a warrant for +a patent to make Bulstrode Whitlocke a Viscount. Whitlocke himself, +though he afterwards declined the honour as inconvenient, is precise +as to the date. The physicians thinking the London air better for the +malady than that of Hampton Court, his Highness was removed to +Whitehall on Tuesday the 24th. That was one of the intervals of his +fever, and he seems to have come up easily enough in his coach, and +to have been quite able to take an interest in what he found going on +at Whitehall. Six days before (Aug. 18) the Duke of Buckingham, who +had been for some time in London undisturbed, living in his mansion +of York House with his recently wedded wife, and with Lord and Lady +Fairfax in their society, had been apprehended on the high-road some +miles from Canterbury; and, whether on the old grounds, or from new +suspicions, the Council, by a warrant issued on the 19th, doubtless +with Cromwell's sanction intimated from Hampton Court, had committed +him to the Tower. On the very day of Cromwell's return to Whitehall +this business of the Duke was again before the Council, in +consequence of a petition from the young Duchess that he might be +permitted to remain at York House on sufficient security. Fairfax +himself had gone to Whitehall to urge his daughter's request and to +tender the security, and Cromwell, though unable to be in the +Council-room, gave him a private interview. According to the story in +the Fairfax family, it must have been an unpleasant one. Cromwell +could be stern on such a subject even at such a time and to his old +commander, and so Fairfax "turned abruptly from him in the gallery at +Whitehall, cocking his hat, and throwing his cloak under his arm, as +he used to do when he was angry." Nor was this the last piece of +public business of which the Protector, though never more in the +Council-room, must have been directly cognisant. Whitlocke says he +visited him and was kept to dine with him on the 26th, and that he +was then able to discourse on business; but, as Whitlocke makes +Hampton Court the place, there must be an error as to the day. The +last baronetcy he conferred was made good on Saturday the 28th, four +days after the interview with Fairfax; and even after that, between +his fever-fits, he kept some grasp of affairs, and received and sent +messages. But that Saturday of the last baronetcy was a day of marked +crisis. The ague had then changed into a "double tertian," with two +fits in the twenty-four hours, both extremely weakening. So Sunday +passed, with prayers in all the churches; and then came that +extraordinary Monday (Aug. 30, 1658) which lovers of coincidence have +taken care to remember as the day of most tremendous hurricane that +ever blew over London and England. From morning to night the wind +raged and howled, emptying the streets, unroofing houses, tearing up +trees in the parks, foundering ships at sea, and taking even Flanders +and the coasts of France within its angry whirl. The storm was felt, +within England, as far as Lincolnshire, where, in the vicinity of an +old manor-house, a boy of fifteen years of age, named Isaac Newton, +was turning it to account, as he afterwards remembered, by jumping +first with the wind, and then against it, and computing its force by +the difference of the distances. Through all this storm, as it +shuddered round Whitehall, shaking the doors and windows, the +sovereign patient had lain on, passing from fit to fit, but talking +in the intervals with the Lady Protectress or with his physicians, +while Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Sterry, or some other of the preachers +that were in attendance, went and came between the chamber and an +adjoining room. A certain belief that he would recover, which he had +several times before expressed to the Lady Protectress and others, +had not yet left him, and had communicated itself to the preachers as +an assurance that their prayers were heard. Writing to Henry Cromwell +at nine o'clock that night, Thurloe could say, "The doctors are yet +hopeful that he may struggle through it, though their hopes are +mingled with much fear." Even the next day, Tuesday, Aug. 31, +Cromwell was still himself, still consciously the Lord Protector. +Through the storm of the preceding day Ludlow had made a journey to +London from Essex on family-business, beaten back in the morning by a +wind against which two horses could not make way, but contriving late +at night to push on as far as Epping. "By this means," he says, "I +arrived not at Westminster till Tuesday about noon, when, passing by +Whitehall, notice was immediately given to Cromwell that I was come +to town. Whereupon he sent for Lieutenant General Fleet wood, and +ordered him to enquire concerning the reasons of my coming at such +haste and at such a time." If Cromwell could attend to such a matter +that day, he must have been able also to prompt the resolution of his +Council in Whitehall the same day in the case of the Duke of +Buckingham. It was that the Duke, on account of his health, might be +removed from the Tower to Windsor Castle, but must continue in +confinement. At the end of the day, Fleetwood, writing to Henry +Cromwell, reported, "The Lord is pleased to give some little reviving +this evening: after few slumbering sleeps, his pulse is better." As +near as can be guessed, it was that same night that Cromwell himself +uttered the well-known short prayer, the words of which, or as nearly +as possible the very words, were preserved by the pious care of his +chamber-attendant Harvey. It is to the same authority that we owe the +most authentic record of the religious demeanour of the Protector +from the beginning of his illness. Very beautifully and simply Harvey +tells us of his "holy expressions," his fervid references to +Scripture texts, and his repetitions of some texts in particular, +such repetitions "usually being very weighty and with great vehemency +of spirit." One of them was "It is a fearful thing to fall into the +hands of the living God." Three times he repeated this; but the texts +of promise and of Christian triumph had all along been more +frequently on his lips. All in all, his single short prayer, which +Harvey places "two or three days before his end," may be read as the +summary of all that we need to know now of the dying Puritan in these +eternal respects. "Lord," he muttered, "though I am a miserable and +wretched creature, I am in covenant with Thee through grace, and I +may, I will, come to Thee. For Thy people, Thou hast made me, though +very unworthy, a mean instrument to do them some good, and Thee +service; and many of them have set too high a value upon me, though +others wish and would be glad of my death. But, Lord, however Thou +dost dispose of me, continue and go on to do good for them. Give them +consistency of judgment, one heart, and mutual love; and go on to +deliver them, and with the work of reformation; and make the name of +Christ glorious in the world. Teach those who look too much upon Thy +instruments to depend more upon Thyself; pardon such as desire to +trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are Thy people too; +and pardon the folly of this short prayer, even for Jesus Christ's +sake; and give us a good night, if it be Thy pleasure." Wednesday, +Sept. 1, passes unmarked, unless it may be for the delivery to the +Lady Protectress, in her watch over Cromwell, of a letter, dated that +day, and addressed to her and her children, from the Quaker Edward +Burrough. It was long and wordy, but substantially an assurance that +the Lord had sent this affliction upon the Protector's house on +account of the unjust sufferings of the Quakers. "Will not their +sufferings lie upon you? For many hundreds have suffered cruel and +great things, and some the loss of life (though not by, yet in the +name of, the Protector); and about a hundred at this present day lie +in holes, and dungeons, and prisons, up and down the nation." The +letter, we may suppose, was not read to Cromwell, and the Wednesday +went by. On Thursday, Sept. 2, there was an unusually full +Council-meeting close to his chamber, at which order was given for +the removal of Lords Lauderdale and Sinclair from Windsor Castle to +Warwick Castle, to make more room at Windsor for the Duke of +Buckingham. That night Harvey sat up with his Highness and again +noted some of his sayings. One was "Truly, God is good; indeed He is; +He will not--" He did not complete the sentence. "His speech failed +him," says Harvey; "but, as I apprehended, it was 'He will not leave +me.' This saying, that God was good, he frequently used all along, +and would speak it with much cheerfulness and fervour of spirit in +the midst of his pain. Again he said, 'I would be willing to live to +be farther serviceable to God and His people; but my work is done.' +He was very restless most part of the night, speaking often to +himself. And, there being something to drink offered him, he was +desired to take the same, and endeavour to sleep; unto which he +answered, 'It is not my design to drink or to sleep, but my design is +to make what haste I can to be gone.' Afterwards, towards morning, +using divers holy expressions, implying much inward consolation and +peace, among the rest he spake some exceeding self-debasing words, +annihilating and judging himself." This is the last. The next day, +Friday, was his twice victorious Third of September, the anniversary +of Dunbar and Worcester. That morning he was speechless; and, though +the prayers in Whitehall, and in all London and the suburbs, did not +cease for him, people in the houses and passers in the streets knew +that hope was over and Oliver at the point of death. For several days +there had been cautious approaches to him on the subject of the +nomination of his successor, and either on the stormy Monday or later +that matter had been settled somehow.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books from July 8 to Sept. 2, 1658, +giving minutes of fifteen meetings at Whitehall or Hampton Court, +Cromwell present at the two first, viz. July 8 (Whitehall), July 15 +(Hampton Court), and at the sixth, viz. July 29 (Hampton Court), but +at no other; Thurloe, VII. 309, 320, 323, 340, 344, 354-356, +362-364, 366-367, 369-370; _A Collection of Several Passages +concerning his late Highness, Oliver Cromwell, in the Time of his +Sickness_ (June 9, 1659, "London, Printed for Robert Ibbetson, +dwelling in Smithfield, near Hosier Lane"); _Cromwelliana_, +174-178 (including an abridgment of the last tract); Whitlocke, IV. +334-335; Markham's Life of Fairfax, 373-374; Ludlow, 610; Godwin, IV. +564-575; Carlyle, III. 367-376 (which may well be read again and +again); Sewel's History of the Quakers, 1. 242-245; Life of Newton by +Sir David Brewster (1860), I. 14.] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE SECOND PROTECTORATE. + +MILTON STILL IN OFFICE: LETTER TO MR. HENRY DE BRASS, WITH MILTON'S +OPINION OF SALLUST: LETTERS TO YOUNG RANELAGH AND HENRY OLDENBURG AT +SAUMUR: MORUS IN NEW CIRCUMSTANCES: ELEVEN MOBE STATE-LETTERS OF +MILTON FOR THE PROTECTOR (NOS. CI.-CXI.): ANDREW MARVELL BROUGHT IN +AS ASSISTANT FOREIGN SECRETARY AT LAST (SEPT. 1657): JOHN DRYDEN NOW +ALSO IN THE PROTECTOR'S EMPLOYMENT: BIRTH OF MILTON'S DAUGHTER BY HIS +SECOND WIFE: SIX MORE STATE-LETTERS OF MILTON (NOS. CXII.-CXIII.): +ANOTHER LETTER TO MR. HENRY DE BRASS, AND ANOTHER TO PETER HEIMBACH: +COMMENT ON THE LATTER: DEATHS OF MILTON'S SECOND WIFE AND HER CHILD: +HIS TWO NEPHEWS, EDWARD AND JOHN PHILLIPS, AT THIS DATE: MILTON'S +LAST SIXTEEN STATE-LETTERS FOR OLIVER CROMWELL (NOS. +CXVIII.-CXXXIII.), INCLUDING TWO TO CHARLES GUSTAVUS OF SWEDEN. TWO +ON A NEW ALARM OF A PERSECUTION OF THE PIEDMONTESE PROTESTANTS, AND +SEVERAL TO LOUIS XIV. AND CARDINAL MAZARIN: IMPORTANCE OF THIS LAST +GROUP OF THE STATE-LETTERS, AND REVIEW OF THE WHOLE SERIES OF +MILTON'S PERFORMANCES FOR CROMWELL: LAST DIPLOMATIC INCIDENTS OF THE +PROTECTORATE, AND ANDREW MARVELL IN CONNEXION WITH THEM: INCIDENTS +OF MILTON'S LITERARY LIFE IN THIS PERIOD: YOUNG GUNTZER'S +_DISSERTATIO_ AND YOUNG KECK'S PHALAECIANS: MILTON'S EDITION OF +RALEIGH'S _CABINET COUNCIL_: RESUMPTION OF THE OLD DESIGN OF +_PARADISE LOST_ AND ACTUAL COMMENCEMENT OF THE POEM: CHANGE FROM +THE DRAMATIC POEM TO THE EPIC: SONNET IN MEMORY OF HIS DECEASED +WIFE. + + +Through the Second Protectorate Milton remained in office just as +before. He was not, however, as had been customary before at the +commencement of each new period of his Secretaryship, sworn in +afresh. Thurloe was sworn in, both as General Secretary and as full +Councillor, and Scobell and Jessop were sworn in as Clerks;[1] but we +hear of no such ceremony in the case of Milton. His Latin +Secretaryship, we infer, was now regarded as an excrescence from the +Whitehall establishment, rather than an integral part of it. An oath +may have been administered to him privately, or his old general +engagement may have sufficed. + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books, July 13 and 14, 1657.] + +Our first trace of Milton after the new inauguration of Cromwell is +in one of his Latin Familiar Epistles, addressed to some young +foreigner in London, of whom I know nothing more than may be learnt +from the letter itself:-- + + "To the Very Distinguished MR. HENRY DE BRASS. + + "I see, Sir, that you, unlike most of our modern youth in their + surveys of foreign lands, travel rightly and wisely, after the + fashion of the old philosophers, not for ordinary youthful quests, + but with a view to the acquisition of fuller erudition from every + quarter. Yet, as often as I look at what you write, you appear to + me to be one who has come among strangers not so much to receive + knowledge as to impart it to others, to barter good merchandise + rather than to buy it. I wish indeed it were as easy for me to + assist and promote in every way those excellent studies of yours as + it is pleasant and gratifying to have such help asked by a person + of your uncommon talents. + + "As for the resolution you say you have taken to write to me and + request my answers towards solving those difficulties about which + for many ages writers of Histories seem to have been in the dark, + I have never assumed anything of the kind as within my powers, nor + should I dare now to do so. In the matter of Sallust, which you + refer to me, I will say freely, since you wish me to tell plainly + what I do think, that I prefer Sallust to any other Latin + historian; which also was the almost uniform opinion of the + Ancients. Your favourite Tacitus has his merits; but the greatest + of them, in my judgment, is that he imitated Sallust with all his + might. As far as I can gather from what you write, it appears that + the result of my discourse with you personally on this subject has + been that you are now nearly of the same mind with me respecting + that most admirable writer; and hence it is that you ask me, with + reference to what he has said, in the introduction to his + _Catilinarian War_--as to the extreme difficulty of writing + History, from the obligation that the expressions should be + proportional to the deeds--by what method I think a writer of + History might attain that perfection. This, then, is my view: that + he who would write of worthy deeds worthily must write with mental + endowments and experience of affairs not less than were in the doer + of the same, so as to be able with equal mind to comprehend and + measure even the greatest of them, and, when he has comprehended + them, to relate them distinctly and gravely in pure and chaste + speech. That he should do so in ornate style, I do not much care + about; for I want a Historian, not an Orator. Nor yet would I have + frequent maxims, or criticisms on the transactions, prolixly thrown + in, lest, by interrupting the thread of events, the Historian + should invade the office of the Political Writer: for, if the + Historian, in explicating counsels and narrating facts, follows + truth most of all, and not his own fancy or conjecture, he fulfils + his proper duty. I would add also that characteristic of Sallust, + in respect of which he himself chiefly praised Cato,--to be able to + throw off a great deal in few words: a thing which I think no one + can do without the sharpest judgment and a certain temperance at + the same time. There are many in whom you will not miss either + elegance of style or abundance of information; but for conjunction + of brevity with abundance, i.e. for the despatch of much in few + words, the chief of the Latins, in my judgment, is Sallust. Such + are the qualities that I think should be in the Historian that + would hope to make his expressions proportional to the facts he + records. + + "But why all this to you, who are sufficient, with the talent you + have, to make it all out, and who, if you persevere in the road you + have entered, will soon be able to consult no one more learned than + yourself. That you do persevere, though you require no one's advice + for that, yet, that I may not seem to have altogether failed in + replying correspondingly with the value you are pleased to put upon + my authority with you, is my earnest exhortation and suggestion. + Farewell; and all success to your real worth, and your zeal for + acquiring wisdom. + + "Westminster: July 15, 1657." + +Henry Oldenburg, and his pupil Richard Jones, _alias_ young +Ranelagh, had left Oxford in April or May 1657, after about a year's +stay there, and had gone abroad on a tour which was to extend over +more than four years. It was an arrangement for the farther education +of young Ranelagh in the way most satisfactory to his mother, Lady +Ranelagh, and perhaps also to his uncle, Robert Boyle, neither of +whom seems to have cared much for the ordinary University routine; +and particulars had been settled by correspondence between Oldenburg +at Oxford and Lady Ranelagh in Ireland.[1] Young Ranelagh, I find, +took with him as his servant a David Whitelaw, who had been servant +to Durie in his foreign travels: "my man, David Whitelaw," as Durie +calls him.[2] The ever-convenient Hartlib was to manage the +conveyance of letters to the travellers, wherever they might be.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Letter of Oldenburg to Boyle, dated April! 5, 1657, +given in Boyle's Works (V. 299).] + +[Footnote 2: Letters of Durie in _Vaughan's Protectorate_ (II. +174 and 195).] + +[Footnote 3: Letter of Oldenburg in Boyle's Works (V. 301).] + +They went, pretty directly, to Saumur in the west of France, a +pleasant little town, with a college, a library, &c., which they had +selected for their first place of residence, rather than Paris. An +Italian master was procured to teach young Jones "something of +practical geometry and fortification"; and, for the rest, Oldenburg +himself continued to superintend his studies, directing them a good +deal in that line of physical and economical observation which might +be supposed congenial to a nephew of Boyle, and which had become +interesting to himself. "As for us here," wrote Oldenburg to Boyle +from Saumur, Sept. 8, 1657, "we are, through the goodness of God, in +perfect health; and, your nephew having spent these two or three +months we have been here very well and in more than ordinary +diligence, I cannot but give him some relaxation in taking a view of +this province of Anjou during this time of vintage; which, though it +be a very tempting one to a young appetite, yet shall, I hope, by a +careful watchfulness, prove unprejudicial to his health."[1] A good +while before Oldenburg wrote this letter to Boyle both he and his +pupil had written to Milton, and Milton's replies had already been +received. They are dated on the same day, but we shall put that to +young Ranelagh first. It will be seen that Oldenburg must have had a +sight of it from his pupil before he wrote the above to Boyle:-- + +[Footnote 1: Boyle's Works, V. 299.] + + "To the noble youth, RICHARD JONES. + + "That you made out so long a journey without inconvenience, and + that, spurning the allurements of Paris, you have so quickly + reached your present place of residence, where you can enjoy + literary leisure and the society of learned persons, I am both + heartily glad, and set down to the credit of your disposition. + There, so far as you keep yourself in bounds, you will be in + harbour; elsewhere you would have to beware the Syrtes, the Rocks, + and the songs of the Sirens. All the same I would not have you + thirst too much after the Saumur vintage, with which you think to + delight yourself, unless it be also your intention to dilute that + juice of Bacchus, more than a fifth part, with the freer cup of the + Muses. But to such a course, even if I were silent, you have a + first-rate adviser; by listening to whom you will indeed consult + best for your own good, and cause great joy to your most excellent + mother, and a daily growth of her love for you. Which that you may + accomplish you ought every day to petition Almighty God, Farewell; + and see that you return to us as good as possible, and as cultured + as possible in good arts. That will be to me, beyond others, a most + delightful result. + + "Westminster: Aug. 1, 1657." + +The letter to Oldenburg contains matter of more interest:-- + + "To HENRY OLDENBURG. + + "I am glad you have arrived safe at Saumur, the goal of your + travel, as I believe. You are not mistaken in thinking the news + would be very agreeable to me in particular, who both love you for + your own merit, and know the cause of your undertaking the journey + to be so honourable and praiseworthy. + + "As to the news you have heard, that so infamous a priest has been + called to instruct so illustrious a church, I had rather any one + else had heard it in Charon's boat than you in that of Charenton; + for it is mightily to be feared that whoever thinks to get to + heaven under the auspices of so foul a guide will be a whole world + awry in his calculations. Woe to that church (only God avert the + omen!) where such ministers please, mainly by tickling the + ears,--ministers whom the Church, if she would truly be called + _Reformed_, would more fitly cast out than desire to bring + in. + + "In not having given copies of my writings to any one that does not + ask for them, you have done well and discreetly, not in my opinion + alone, but also in that of Horace:-- + + "Err not by zeal for us, nor on our books + Draw hatred by too vehement care. + + "A learned man, a friend of mine, spent last summer at Saumur. He + wrote to me that the book was in demand in those parts; I sent only + one copy; he wrote back that some of the learned to whom he had + lent it had been pleased with it hugely. Had I not thought I should + be doing a thing agreeable to them, I should have spared you + trouble and myself expense. But, + + "If chance my load of paper galls your back, + Off with, it now, rather than in the end + Dash down the panniers cursing. + + "To our Lawrence, as you bade me, I have given greetings in your + name. For the rest, there is nothing I should wish you to do or + care for more than see that yourself and your pupil get on in good + health, and that you return to us as soon as possible with all your + wishes fulfilled. + + "Westminster: Aug. 1, 1657." + +The books mentioned in the third paragraph as having been sent by +Milton to Saumur in Oldenburg's charge must have been copies of the +_Defensio Secunda_ and of the _Pro Se Defensio_. The person +mentioned with such loathing in the second paragraph was the hero of +those performances, Morus. The paragraph requires explanation. For +Morus, uncomfortable at Amsterdam, and every day under some fresh +discredit there, a splendid escape had at length presented itself. He +had received an invitation to be one of the ministers of the +Protestant church of Charenton, close to Paris. This church of +Charenton was indeed the main Protestant church of Paris itself and +the most flourishing representative of French Protestantism +generally. For the French law then obliged Protestants to have their +places of worship at some distance from the cities and towns in which +they resided, and the village of Charenton was the ecclesiastical +rendezvous of the chief Protestant nobility and professional men of +the capital, some of whom, in the capacity of lay-elders, were +associated in the consistory of the church with the ministers or +pastors. Of these, in the beginning of 1657, there had been five, all +men of celebrity in the French Protestant world--viz. Mestrezat, +Faucheur, Drelincourt, Daillé, and Gaches; but the deaths of the two +first in April and May of that year had occasioned vacancies, and it +was to fill up one of these vacancies that Morus had been invited +from Amsterdam. Oldenburg, as we understand, had heard this piece of +news, when passing through Paris on his way to Saumur, probably in +June. He had heard it, seemingly, on board the Charenton boat--i.e. +as we guess, on board the boat plying on the Marne between Paris and +Charenton. Hence the punning phraseology of Milton's reply. He would +rather that such a piece of news had been heard by anybody on board +_Charon's/_ boat than by Oldenburg on board the _Charenton_ +wherry. Altogether the idea that Morus should be admitted as one of +the pastors of the most important Protestant church in France was, we +can see, horrible to him; and he hoped the calamity might yet be +averted.--For the time it seemed likely that it would be. There had +been ample enough knowledge in Paris of the coil of scandals about +the character of Morus; and copies of Milton's two Anti-Morus +pamphlets had been in circulation there long before Oldenburg took +with him into France his new bundle of them for distribution. +Accordingly, though there was a strong party for Morus, disbelieving +the scandals, and anxious to have him for the Charenton church on +account of his celebrity as a preacher, there were dissentients among +the congregation and even in the consistory itself. One hears of +Sieur Papillon and Sieur Beauchamp, Parisian advocates, and elders in +the church, as heading the opposition to the call. The business of +the translation of Morus from Amsterdam was, therefore, no easy one. +In any case it would have brought those Protestant church courts of +France that had to sanction the admission of Morus at Charenton into +communication about him with those courts of the Walloon Church in +Holland from whose jurisdiction he was to be removed; and one can +imagine the peculiar complications that would arise in a case so +extraordinary and involving so much inquiry and discussion. In fact, +for more than two years, the business of the translation of Morus +from Amsterdam to Paris was to hang notoriously between the Dutch +Walloon Synods, who in the main wanted to disgrace and depose him +before they had done with him, and the French Provincial Synods, now +roused in his behalf, and willing in the main to receive him back +into his native country as a man not without his faults, but more +sinned against than sinning.[1]--And so for the present (Aug. 1657) +Morus was still in his Amsterdam professorship, longing to be in +France, but uncertain whether his call thither would hold. How the +case ended we shall see in time. Meanwhile it is quite apparent that +Milton was not only willing, but anxious, that _his_ influence +should be imported into the affair, to turn the scale, if possible, +against the man he detested. As he had not heard of the call of Morus +to Charenton till the receipt of Oldenburg's letter, his motives +originally for despatching a bundle of his Anti-Morus pamphlets into +France with Oldenburg can have been only general; but one gathers +from his reply to Oldenburg that he thought the pamphlets might now +be of use specifically in the business of the proposed translation. +Indeed, one can discern a tone of disappointment in Milton's letter +with Oldenburg's report of what he had been able to do with the +pamphlets hitherto. He might have spared himself the expense, he +says, and Oldenburg the trouble. Oldenburg, as we know (Vol. IV. pp. +626-627), had never been very enthusiastic over Milton's onslaughts +on Morus, The distribution of the Anti-Morus publications, therefore, +may not have been to his taste. Milton seems to hint as much. + +[Footnote 1: Bayle, Art. Morus; Brace's Life of Morus, 204 et +seq.--It was deemed of great importance by the English Royalists +that they should be able to report of Charles II., when Paris was +his residence, that he attended the church at Charenton. There is a +letter to him of April 17, 1653, saying his non-attendance there was +"much to his prejudice." (Macray's Cal. of Clarendon Papers, II. +193).] + +In August 1657 Milton, after three months of total rest, so far as +the records show, from the business of writing foreign Letters for +the Protector, resumed that business. We have attributed his release +from it for so long to the fact that his old assistant MEADOWS was +again in town, and available in the Whitehall office, in the interval +between his return from Portugal and his departure on his new mission +to Denmark; and the coincidence of Milton's resumption of this kind +of duty with the precise time of Meadows's preparations for his new +absence is at least curious. Though it had been intended that he +should set out for Denmark immediately after his appointment to the +mission in February, he had been detained for various reasons; and +now in August, the great war between Denmark and Sweden having just +begun, he was to set out in company with another envoy: viz. +MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM JEPHSON, whom Cromwell had selected as a +suitable person for a contemporary mission, to the King of Sweden +(ante p. 312). It will be observed that eight of the following ten +Letters of Milton, all written in August or September 1657, and +forming his first contribution of letters for the Second +Protectorate, relate to the missions of Jephson and Meadows:-- + + (CI.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _August_ 1657:--His + Highness has heard with no ordinary concern that war has broken out + between Sweden and Denmark. [He had received the news August 13: + see ante p. 313.] He anticipates great evils to the Protestant + cause in consequence. He sends, therefore, the most Honourable + WILLIAM JEPHSON, General, and member of his Parliament, as + Envoy-extraordinary to his Majesty for negotiation in this and in + other matters. He begs a favourable reception for Jephson. + + (CII.) TO THE COUNT OF OLDENBURG, _August_ 1657:--On his way + to the King of Sweden, then in camp near Lubeck, JEPHSON would + have to pass through several of the German states, and first of all + through the territories of this old and assured friend of the + English Commonwealth and of the Protector (see Vol. IV. pp. 424, + 480-1, 527, 635-6). Cromwell, therefore, introduces JEPHSON, and + requests all furtherance for him. + + (CIII.) TO THE CONSULS AND SENATE OF BREMEN, _August_ + 1657:--Also to introduce and recommend JEPHSON; who, on his route + from Oldenburg eastwards, would pass through Bremen. + + (CIV.) TO THE CONSULS AND SENATE OF HAMBURG, _August_ + 1657:--Still requesting attention to JEPHSON on his transit. + + (CV.) TO THE CONSULS AND SENATE OF LUBECK, _August_ + 1657:--Still recommending JEPHSON; who, at Lubeck, would be near + his destination, the camp of Charles Gustavus. + + (CVI.) TO FREDERICK-WILLIAM, MARQUIS OF BRANDENBURG, _August_ + 1657:--At first this Prince, better known now as "The Great + Elector, Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia," had been on the side of + Sweden against Poland; and, in conjunction with Charles Gustavus, + he had fought that great Battle of Warsaw (July 1656) which had + nearly ruined the Polish King, John Casimir. Having been detached + from his alliance with Sweden, however, in a manner already + explained (ante p. 313), he had now a very difficult part to play + in the Swedish-Polish-German-Danish entanglement.--As Jephson had + instructions to treat with this important German Prince, as well as + with the King of Sweden, Cromwell begs leave to introduce him + formally. "The singular worth of your Highness both in peace and in + war, and the greatness and constancy of your spirit, being already + so famed over the whole world that almost all neighbouring Princes + are eager for your friendship, and no one could desire for himself + a more faithful and constant friend and ally, in order that you may + understand that we also are in the number of those that have the + highest and strongest opinion of your remarkable services to the + Christian Commonweal, we have sent to you the most Honourable + WILLIAM Jephson," &c.: so the note opens; and the rest is a mere + request that the Elector will hear what Jephson has to say.--The + relations between the Elector and the Protector had hitherto been + rather indefinite, if not cool; and hence perhaps the highly + complimentary strain of this letter. + + (CVII.) TO THE CONSULS AND SENATE OF HAMBURG, _August_ + 1657:--All the foregoing, for Jephson, must have been written + between August 13, when the news of the proclamation of war between + Sweden and Denmark reached London, and August 29, when Jephson set + out on his mission. MEADOWS left London, on his distinct mission, + two days afterwards.[1] His route was not to be quite the same as + Jephson's; but he also was to pass through Hamburg. He is therefore + recommended separately, by this note, to the authorities of that + city. His letters of credence to the King of Denmark had, + doubtless, already been made out,--possibly by himself. They are + not among Milton's State-letters. + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, under Aug. 1657.] + + (CVIII.) To M. DE BORDEAUX, AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY FOR THE + FRENCH KING, _August_ 1657:--There has been presented to the + Lord Protector a petition from Samuel Dawson, John Campsie, and + John Niven, merchants of Londonderry, stating that, shortly after + the Treaty with France in 1655, a ship of theirs called _The + Speedwell_ ("name of better omen than the event proved"), the + master of which was John Ker, had been seized, on her return voyage + from Bordeaux to Derry, by two armed vessels of Brest, taken into + Brest harbour, and sold there with her cargo. The damages + altogether are valued at £2,500. The petitioners have not been able + to obtain redress in France. The matter has been referred by the + Protector to his Council. They find that the petitioners have a + just right either to the restitution of their ship and cargo or to + compensation in money. "I therefore request of your Excellency, and + even request it in the name of the most Serene Lord Protector, that + you will endeavour your utmost, and join also the authority of your + office to your endeavours, that as soon as possible one or other be + done." The wording shows that the letter was not signed by the + Protector himself, but only by Lawrence as President of the + Council. It was probably not in rule for the Protector personally + to write to an Ambassador in such a case. + + (CIX.) TO THE GRAND-DUKE OF TUSCANY, _Sept._ 1657:--A letter + of rather peculiar tenor. A William Ellis, master of a ship called + _The Little Lewis_, had been hired at Alexandria by the Pasha + of Memphis, to carry rice, sugar, and coffee, either to + Constantinople or Smyrna, for the use of the Sultan himself; + instead of which the rascal, giving the Turkish fleet the slip, had + gone into Leghorn, where he was living on his booty. "The act is + one of very dangerous example, inasmuch as it throws discredit on + the Christian name and exposes to the risk of robbery the fortunes + of merchants living under the Turk." The Grand-Duke is therefore + requested to be so good as to arrest Ellis, keep him in custody, + and see to the safety of the ship and cargo till they are restored + to the Sultan. + + (CX.) TO THE DUKE OF SAVOY (undated)[1]:--This letter to the prince + on whom the Piedmontese massacre has conferred such dark celebrity + is on very innocent and ordinary business. The owners of a London + ship, called The Welcome, Henry Martin master, have Informed his + Highness that, on her way to Genoa and Leghorn, she was seized by a + French vessel of forty-six guns having letters of marque from the + Duke, and carried into his port of Villafranca. The cargo is + estimated at £25,000. Will the Duke see that ship and cargo are + restored to the owners, with damages? He may expect like justice in + any similar case in which he may have to apply to his Highness. + +[Footnote 1: Not in Printed Collection nor in Phillips; but in the +Skinner Transcript as No. 120 with the title _Duci Subaudiæ_, +and printed thence by Mr. Hamilton in his _Milton Papers_ (pp. +11-12). No date is given in the Skinner Transcript; and the insertion +of the letter here is a mere guess. The place where it occurs in the +Skinner Transcript suggests that it came rather late in the +Protectorate, perhaps even after the present point. The years 1656 +and 1657 seem the likeliest.] + + (CXI.) TO THE MARQUIS OF BRANDENBURG, _Sept._ 1657:--This is + an important letter. "By our last letter to your Highness," it + begins, "either already delivered or soon to be delivered by our + agent WILLIAM JEPHSON, we have made you aware of the legation + intrusted to him; and we could not but there make some mention of + your high qualities and signification of our goodwill towards you. + Lest, however, we should seem only cursorily to have touched on + your superlative services in the Protestant cause, celebrated so + highly in universal discourse, we have thought it fit to resume + that subject, and to offer you our respects, not indeed more + willingly or with greater devotion, but yet somewhat more at large. + And justly so, when news is brought to our ears every day that your + faith and constancy, though tempted by all kinds of intrigues, + solicited by all contrivances, yet cannot by any means be shaken, + or diverted from the friendship of the brave King your ally,--and + that too when the affairs of the Swedes are in such a posture that, + in preserving their alliance, it is manifest your Highness is led + rather by regard to the common cause of the Reformed Religion than + by your own interests; when we know too that, though surrounded on + all sides, and all but besieged, either by hidden or nearly + imminent enemies, you yet, with your valiant but far from large + forces, stand out with such firmness and strength of mind, such + counsel and prowess of generalship, that the sum and weight of the + whole business seems to rest, and the issue of this war to depend, + mainly on your will." The Protector goes on to say that, in such + circumstances, he would consider it unworthy of himself not to + testify in a special manner his sympathy with the Elector and + regard for him. He apologizes for delay hitherto in treating with + the Elector's agent in London, JOHN FREDERICK SCHLEZER, on the + matters about which he had been sent; and he closes with fervent + good wishes.--Evidently, the recognition of the importance of the + Elector, and anxiety as to the part he might take in the war now + involving Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and part of Germany, had been + growing stronger in Cromwell's mind within the last few weeks. From + the language of the letter one would infer either that Cromwell did + not yet fully know of that treaty of Nov. 1656 by which the Polish + King had bought off the Elector from the Swedish alliance by ceding + to him the full sovereignty of East Prussia, or else that since + then the Elector had been oscillating back to the + alliance.--SCHLEZER had been in London since 1655, and had lodged + at Hartlib's house in the end of that year.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter of Hartlib's in Worthington's Diary and +Correspondence, edited by Crossley (I, 66).] + +Ten Latin State-letters nearly all at once, implying as they do +consultations with Thurloe, if not also interviews with the Protector +and the Council, argue a pretty considerable demand upon Milton at +this date for help again in the Foreign Secretaryship. + +It would seem, however, that it had occurred to the Protector and the +Council that they were again troubling Mr. Milton too much or left +too dependent on him, and that, with the increase of foreign business +now in prospect in consequence of the Swedo-Danish war and its +complications, it would be well to have an assistant to him, such as +Meadows had been. Accordingly, at a meeting of the Council on Tuesday +Sept. 8, 1657, Cromwell himself present, with Lawrence, Fleetwood, +Lord Lisle, Strickland, Pickering, Sydenham, Wolseley, and Thurloe, +there was this minute: "Ordered by his Highness the Lord Protector, +by and with the advice of the Council, that MR. STERRY do, in the +absence of Mr. Philip Meadows, officiate in the employment of Mr. +Meadows under Mr. Secretary [Thurloe], and that a salary of 200 merks +_per annum_ be allowed him for the same."[1] Whether this Mr. +Sterry was the preacher Mr. Peter Sterry, already employed and +salaried as one of the Chaplains to the Council, or only a relative +of his, I have not ascertained; but it is of the less consequence +because the appointment did not take effect. The person actually +appointed was MR. ANDREW MARVELL at last. We say "at last," for had +he not been recommended for the precise post by Milton four years and +a half before under the Rump Government? Milton may have helped now +to bring him in, or it may have been done by Oliver himself in +recognition of Marvell's merits in his tutorship of young Dutton and +of his Latin and English Oliverian verses. There seems to be no +record of Marvell's appointment in the Order Books; but he tells us +himself it was in the year 1657. "As to myself," he wrote in 1672, +"I never had any, not the remotest, relation to public matters, nor +correspondence with the persons then predominant, until the year +1657, when indeed I entered into an employment for which I was not +altogether improper." When Marvell wrote this, he was oblivious of +some particulars; for, though it is true that he was in no public +employment under the Protectorate till 1657, it can hardly be said +that he had not "the remotest relation" till then to public matters, +nor any "correspondence with the persons then predominant." Enough +for us that, from the year he specifies, and precisely from September +in that year, he was Milton's colleague in the Foreign or Latin +Secretaryship. "_Colleague_" we may call him, for his salary was +to be £200 a year (not 200 merks, as had been proposed for Sterry), +the same as Milton's was, and the same as Meadows's had been; and yet +not _quite_ "colleague," inasmuch as Milton's £200 a year was a +life-pension, and also inasmuch as, in stepping into Meadows's place, +Marvell became one of Thurloe's subordinates in the office, while +something of the original honorary independence of the Foreign +Secretaryship still encircled Milton.--Just as Marvell had for some +time been wistful after a place in the Council Office, suitable for a +scholar and Latinist, so there was another person now in the same +condition of outside waiting and occasional looking-in. "Received +then of the Right honble. Mr. Secretary Thurloe the sume of fifty +pounds: £50: _by mee_, JOHN DRIDEN" is a receipt, of date "19 +October 1657," among Thurloe's papers in the Record Office--the words +"_by mee_, JOHN DRIDEN" in a neat slant hand, different from the +body of the receipt. The poet Dryden, it may be remembered, was the +cousin and client of Sir Gilbert Pickering, one of the most important +men in the Council and one of the most strongly Oliverian. The poet +left Cambridge, his biographers tell us, without his M.A. degree, +"about the middle of 1657," and it was a taunt against him afterwards +that he had begun his London life as "clerk" to Sir Gilbert. As he +cannot have got the £50 from Thurloe for nothing, the probability is +that he had been employed, through Sir Gilbert, to do some clerkly +or literary work for the Council. No harm, at all events, in +remembering the ages at this date of the three men of letters thus +linked to the Protectorate at its centre. Milton was in his +forty-ninth year, Marvell in his thirty-eighth, Dryden in his +twenty-seventh.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books of date.] + +[Footnote 2: Marvell's _Rehearsal Transprosed_ (in Mr. Grosart's +edition of Marvell's Prose Works), I. 322; Receipt in Record Office +as quoted; Christie's Memoir of Dryden prefixed to Globe edition of +Dryden's Poetical Works.--That Marvell was appointed Milton's +colleague or assistant precisely in September 1657 is proved by the +fact that his first quarter's salary appears in certain accounts as +due in the following December (see Thurloe, VII. 487).] + +On the day on which Dryden received his fifty pounds from Thurloe +there was this entry in the birth-registers of the parish of St. +Margaret's, Westminster: "October 19, 1657, _Katherin Milton, d. to +John, Esq., by Katherin_." The entry may be still read in the +book, with these words appended in an old hand some time afterwards: +"_This is Milton, Oliver's Secretary_." It is the record of the +birth of a daughter to Milton by his second wife, Katharine Woodcock, +in the twelfth month of their marriage. The little incident reminds +us at this point of the domestic life in Petty France; but it need +not delay us. We proceed with the Secretaryship. + +Whatever share of the regular work of the Foreign Department may have +been now allotted to Marvell, an occasional letter was still required +from Milton. The following Latin dispatches were written by him +between September 1657 and Jan. 1657-8, when the Protector's Second +Parliament reassembled for its second session, as a Parliament of two +Houses:-- + + (CXII.) TO M. DE BORDEAUX, THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR, _Oct._ + 1657:--This is not in the Protector's name, but in that of the + President of the Council. It is about the case of a Luke Lucy + (_Lucas Lucius_) a London merchant. A ship of his, called + _The Mary_, bound from Ireland to Bayonne, had been driven by + tempest into the port of St. Jean de Luz, seized there at the suit + of one Martin de Lazon, and only discharged on security given to + abide a trial at law of this person's claim. Now, his claim was + preposterous. It was founded on an alleged loss of money as far + back as 1642 by the seizure by the English Parliament of goods on + board a ship called _The Santa Clara_. He was not the owner of + the goods, but only agent, with a partner of his, called Antonio + Fernandez, for the real owners; there had been a quarrel between + the partners; and the Parliament had stopped the goods till it + should be decided by law who ought to have them. Fernandez was + willing to try the action in the English Courts; but De Lauzon had + made no appearance there. And now De Lauzon had hit on the + extraordinary expedient of seizing Lucy's ship and dragging the + totally innocent Lucy into an action in the French Courts. All + which having been represented to the Protector by Lucy's petition, + it is begged that De Lauzon may be told he must go another way to + work. + + (CXIII.) TO THE DOGE AND SENATE OF VENICE, _Oct._ 1657:--A + rather long letter, and not uninteresting. First the Protector + congratulates the Venetians on their many victories over the Turks, + not only because of the advantage thence to the Venetian State, but + also because of the tendency of such successes to "the liberation + of all Christians under Turkish servitude." But, under cover of + this congratulation, he calls to their attention again the case of + a certain brave ship-captain, Thomas Galilei (_Thomam + Galileum_). He had, some five years ago, done gallant service + for the Venetians in his ship called _The Relief_, fighting + alone with a whole fleet of Turkish galleys and making great havoc + among them, till, his own ship having caught fire, he had been + taken and carried away as a slave. For five years he had been in + most miserable captivity, unable to ransom himself because he had + no property in the world besides what might be owing to him for his + ship and services by the Venetian Government. He had an old father + still alive, "full of grief and tears which have moved Us + exceedingly"; and this old man begs, and His Highness begs, that + the Doge and Senate will arrange for the immediate release of the + captive. They must have taken many Turkish prisoners in their late + victories, and it is understood that those who detain the captive + are willing to exchange him for any Turk of equal value. Also his + Highness hopes the Doge and Senate will pay at once to the old man + whatever may be due to his captive son. This, his Highness + believes, had been arranged for after his former application on the + subject; but probably, in the multiplicity of business, the matter + had been overlooked. May the Republic of Venice long flourish, and + God grant them victories over the Turks to the very end! + + (CXIV.) TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY LORDS, THE STATES GENERAL OF THE + UNITED PROVINCES, _Nov._ 1657:--This is a letter of + commendation of the Dutch Ambassador William Nieuport on his + temporary return home on private affairs (see ante p. 312). Through + the "several years" of His Highness's acquaintance with him, he had + found him of "such fidelity, vigilance, prudence, and justice, in + the discharge of his office" that he could not desire a better + Ambassador, or believe their High Mightinesses could find a better + one. He cannot take leave of him, though but for a short time, + without saying as much. Throughout his embassy, his aim had been, + "without deceit or dissimulation," to preserve the peace and + friendship that had been established; and, so long as he should be + Dutch Ambassador in London, his Highness did not see "what occasion + of offence or scruple could rankle or sprout up" between the two + States. At the present juncture he should regret his departure the + more if he were not assured that no man would better represent to + their High Mightinesses the Protector's goodwill to them and the + condition of things generally. "May God, for His own glory and the + defence of the Orthodox Church, grant prosperity to your affairs + and perpetuity to our friendship!"--In writing this letter, Milton + must have remembered Nieuport's interference in behalf of Morus, + for the suppression at the last moment, if possible, of the + _Defensio Secunda_. He had not quite relished that + interference, or the manner of it. See Vol. IV, pp. 631-633, and + ante p. 202-203. + + (CXV.) TO THEIR HIGH MIGHTINESSES THE STATES GENERAL OF THE UNITED + PROVINCES, _Dec._ 1657:--A fit sequel to the foregoing, for it + is the Letter Credential to GEORGE DOWNING, just selected to be his + Highness's Resident at the Hague, and so the counterpart of + Nieuport (ante p. 312). "GEORGE DOWNING," it begins, "a gentleman + of rank, has been for a long time now, by experience of him in many + and various transactions, recognised and known by Us as of the + highest fidelity, probity, and ability." He is, accordingly, + recommended in the usual manner; and there is intimation, though + not in language so strong as that of Lockhart's credentials to + France, that "communications" with him will be the same as with his + Highness personally. "Communications" only this case, Downing not + being a plenipotentiary like Lockhart.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Downing's father was Emanuel Downing, a settler in +Massachusetts, and his mother was a sister of the celebrated +Governor John Winthrop. Though born in this country (in or near +Dublin in 1623), their son had grown up in New England, much under +the charge of Hugh Peters, who was related to him. He graduated at +Harvard University in 1642. Thence he had come to England, and, from +being a preacher in Okey's regiment of dragoons in the New Model +(1645), had passed gradually into other employments. He had been +Scoutmaster-General to the Army in Scotland (1653), but had been +attached since 1655 to Thurloe's office, and employed, as we have +seen, in diplomatic missions. His appointment to be Cromwell's +minister at the Hague was a great promotion. His salary in the post +was to be £1100 a year, worth nearly £4000 a year now. (Sibley's +_Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University_. I. +28-53, with corrections at p. 583.)] + + (CXVI.) TO THE PROVINCIAL STATES OF HOLLAND, _Dec._ + 1657:--While recommending DOWNING to the States General, his + Highness cannot refrain from recommending him also specially to the + States of Holland, self-governed as they are internally, and "so + important a part of the United Provinces" besides. + + (CXVII.) TO FERDINAND, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, _Dec._ + 1657:--The Protector's last letter to the Grand Duke (ante 372) had + produced immediate effect. The rascally Englishman Ellis, who, to + the discredit of English and Christian good faith, had run off + with the cargo of rice, sugar, and coffee, belonging to the Sultan + of Turkey, had been arrested in Leghorn. So the Grand Duke had + informed Cromwell in a letter dated Nov. 10. The present is a reply + to that letter, and is very characteristic. "We give you thanks for + this good office; and now we make this farther request,--that, as + soon as the merchants have undertaken that satisfaction shall be + made to the, Turks, the said Master be liberated from custody, and + the ship and her lading be forthwith let off, lest perchance we + should seem to have made more account of the Turks than of our own + citizens. Meanwhile we relish so agreeably your Highness's + singular, conspicuous, and most acceptable good-will towards us + that we should not refuse the brand of ingratitude if we did not + eagerly desire a speedy opportunity of gratifying you in return by + the like promptitude, by means of which we might prove to you in + very deed our readiness also in returning good offices. Your + Highness's most affectionate OLIVER." + +To the same month as the last three of these Latin State-Letters +belong two more of Milton's Latin Familiar Epistles. The persons to +whom they are addressed are already known to us: + + "To the very distinguished MR. HENRY DE BRASS. + + "Having been hindered these days past by some occupations, + illustrious Sir, I reply later than I meant. For I meant to do so + all the more speedily because I saw that your present letter, full + of learning as it is, did not so much leave me room for suggesting + anything to you (a thing which you ask of me, I believe, out of + compliment to me, not for your own need) as for simple + congratulation. I congratulate myself especially on my good fortune + in having, as it appears, so suitably explained Sallust's meaning, + and you on your so careful perusal of that most wise author with so + much benefit from the same. Respecting him I would venture to make + the same assertion to you as Quintilian made respecting + Cicero,--that a man may know himself no mean proficient in the + business of History who enjoys his Sallust. As for that precept of + Aristotle's in the Third Book of his Rhetoric [Chap. XVII] which + you would like explained--'Use is to be made of maxims both in the + narrative of a case and in the pleading, for it has a moral + effect'--I see not what it has in it that much needs explanation: + only that the _narration_ and the _pleading_ (which last + is usually also called the _proof_) are here understood to be + such as the Orator uses, not the Historian; for the parts of the + Orator and the Historian are different whether they narrate or + prove, just as the Arts themselves are different. What is suitable + for the Historian you will have learnt more correctly from the + ancient authors, Polybius, the Halicarnassian, Diodorus, Cicero, + Lucian, and many others, who have handed down certain stray + precepts concerning that subject. For me, I wish you heartily all + happiness in your studies and travels, and success worthy of the + spirit and diligence which I see you employ on everything of high + excellence. Farewell. + + "Westminster: December 16, 1657." + + + "To the highly accomplished PETER HEIMBACH. + + "I have received your letter dated the Hague. Dec. 18 [foreign + reckoning: the English would be Dec. 8], which, as I see it + concerns your interests, I have thought I ought to answer on the + very day it has reached me. After thanking me for I know not what + favours of mine,--which, as one who desires everything good for + you, I would were really of any consideration at all,--you ask me + to recommend you, through Lord Lawrence, to our Minister appointed + for Holland [DOWNING, whose credential letters Milton had drawn up + only a day or two before]. I really regret that this is not in my + power, both because of my very few intimacies with the men of + influence, almost shut up at home as I am, and as I prefer to be + (_propter paucissimas familiaritates meas cum gratiosis, qui domi + fere, idque libenter, me contineo_), and also because I believe + the gentleman is now embarking and on his way, and has with him in + his company the person he wishes to be his Secretary--the very + office about him you seek. But the post is this instant going, + Farewell. + + "Westminster: December 18, 1657." + +Too much is not to be made of certain phrases in this note. Milton +was declining, in as civil terms as possible, a request which might +perhaps have been troublesome even if the Secretaryship to Mr. +Downing had been vacant; and, though it would have been enough, as +far as Heimbach's present application was concerned, to tell him that +Mr. Downing was already provided, the other reason may have been +thrown in by way of discouragement of such applications in future. +We have had proof that Milton liked Heimbach; but we do not know +what estimate he had formed of Heimbach's abilities. Still, any words +used by Milton about himself are always to be taken as in +correspondence with fact; and hence we are to suppose that, at the +time he wrote, he did keep himself as much aloof as possible from the +magnates of the Council, performing the pieces of work required of +him in his own house, rather than making them occasions for visits +and colloquies. His old and intimate friend Fleetwood, and his friend +Lord President Lawrence, with Desborough, Pickering, Strickland, +Montague, and Sydenham, all of whom had been mentioned by him with +more or less of personal regard in the _Defensio Secunda_ in +1654, were still Councillors, and formed indeed more than half the +Council; but his intercourse with some of these individually may have +been less since his blindness. Then, of the rest, Thurloe was the +real man of influence, the real _gratiosus_ who could carry or +set aside a request like Heimbach's; and, though Milton's +communications with Thurloe must necessarily have been more frequent +than with any other person of the Council, one has an indefinable +impression that Thurloe had never taken cordially to Milton or Milton +to Thurloe. At the date of Milton's note to Heimbach, too, +_gratiosi_ were becoming plentiful all round the Council. +Cromwell's sixty-three writs for the new Upper House had gone out, or +were going out, and in a week or two many more "lords" were to be +seen walking in couples in any street in Westminster. Milton, in +_his_ quiet retreat there, may have had something of all this in +his mind when he wrote to young Mr. Heimbach. + +The short second session of the Parliament, with its difficult +experiment of the two Houses once more, and the angry dispute of the +Commons whether the name of "Lords" _should_ be allowed to the +Other House, had come and gone (Jan. 20--Feb. 4, 1657-8), and of +Milton or his thoughts and doings through that crisis we have no +trace whatever. Our next glimpse of him is just after the moment of +the abrupt dissolution of the Parliament, when Cromwell was +addressing himself again, single-handed, to the task of grappling +with the double danger of anarchy within and a threatened invasion +from without. The glimpse is a very sad one. + +"_Feb._ 10, 1657-8, _Mrs. Katherin Milton_," and again +"_March_, 20, 1657-8, _Mrs. Katherin Milton_," are two +entries, within six weeks of each other, in the burial registers of +St, Margaret's, Westminster. They are the records of the deaths of +Milton's second wife and the little girl she had borne him only in +October last. Which entry designates the mother and which, the child +we should not know from the entries themselves; but a sentence in +Phillips's memoir of his uncle settles the point. "By his second +wife; Katharine, the daughter of Captain Woodcock of Hackney," says +Phillips, "he had only one daughter, of which the mother, the first +year after her marriage, died in childbed, and the child also within +a month after." The first entry, therefore, is for the mother, and +the second for the child. The mother died exactly at the time of the +dissolution of the Parliament, and not in child-birth itself, but +nearly four months after child-birth; and the little orphan, +outliving the mother a short while, died at the age of five months. +And so Milton was again left a widower, with his three daughters by +the first marriage, the eldest in her twelfth year. His private life, +for eighteen years now, had certainly not been a happy one; but this +death of his second wife seems to have been remembered by him ever +afterwards with deep and peculiar sorrow. She had been to him during +the short fifteen months of their union, all that he had thought +saintlike and womanly, very sympathetic with himself, and maintaining +such peace and order in his household as had not been there till she +entered it. And now once more it was a dark void, in which he must +grope on, and in which things must happen as they would. + +Small comfort at this time can Milton have had from either of his +nephews. Not that they had openly separated themselves from him, or +even ceased to be deferential to him and proud of the relationship, +but that they had more and more gone into those courses of literary +Bohemianism those habits of mere facetious hack-work and balderdash, +which he must have noted of late as an increasing and very ominous +form of protest among the clever young Londoners against Puritanism +and its belongings. The _Satyr against Hypocrites_ by his +younger nephew in 1655 had been, in reality, an Anti-Puritan and +Anti-Miltonic production; and, since the censure of that younger +nephew by the Council in 1656 for his share in _The Sportive Wit or +Muses' Merriment_, he had naturally stumbled farther and farther +in the same direction. By the year 1658, I should say, John Phillips +had entirely given up his uncle's political principles, and was known +among his tavern-comrades as an Anti-Oliverian. We have no express +publications in his name of this date, but he seems to have been +scribbling anonymously. Of the literary industry of his more sedate +and likeable elder brother, Edward, there is authentic evidence. _A +New World of Words, or a General Dictionary, containing the Terms, +Etymologies, Definitions, and Perfect Interpretations, of the proper +Significations of hard English words throughout the Arts and +Sciences_: such is the title of a folio volume published by him in +1657, and for the purposes of which he was afterwards accused of +having plagiarized largely from the _Glossographia_ of one +Thomas Blount, published in the preceding year. In this piece of +labour, which was doubtless a bookseller's commission, he must have +had, the question of plagiarism apart, his uncle's thorough +good-will; but it cannot have been the same with his _Mysteries of +Love and Eloquence: or the Arts of Wooing and Complimenting, as they +are managed in the Spring Garden, Hide Park, the New Exchange, and +other eminent Places_. That performance, which appeared in August +1658, with a Preface "To the Youthful Gentry," and which must have +been in progress at our present date, was much more in the vein of +his brother John, and indeed was done to the order of Nathaniel +Brooke, the bookseller who had published John's _Satyr against +Hypocrites_, and also the more questionable _Sportive Wit or the +Muses' Merriment_. "The book," says Godwin, "is put together with +conspicuous ingenuity and profligacy, and is entitled to no +insignificant rank among the multifarious productions which were at +that time issued from the press to debauch the manners of the nation +and bring back the King. It consists of imaginary conversations and +forms of address for conversation, poems, models of letters, +questions and answers, an Art of Logic with examples from the poets, +and various instructions and helps to the lover for the composition +of his verses; and, if we could overlook the gross provocations to +libertinism and vice which everywhere occur in the book, it might be +mentioned as no unentertaining illustration of the manners of the men +of wit and gallantry in the time when it was published." To Godwin's +description we may add that the book includes a Rhyming Dictionary, +"useful for that pleasing pastime called Crambo," also a collection +of parlour-games, and a number of other clever things. The poems and +songs interspersed with the prose were mostly old ones reprinted, +some of them chosen with fine taste; but one or two were Phillips's +own. Of the model phrases or set expressions which form one of the +prose parts of the volume, by way of instruction in the language of +gallantry and courtship, specimens are these,--"With your ambrosiac +kisses bathe my lips;" "You are a white enchantress, lady, and can +enchain me with a smile;" "Midnight would blush at this;" "You walk +in artificial clouds and bathe your silken limbs in wanton +dalliance." What could Milton do, so far as such a production came +within his knowledge, but shake his head and mingle smiles with a +frown? Clearly the elder nephew too had slipped the Miltonic +restraints. He had not lapsed, however, so decidedly as his brother; +and we may partly retract in his case the statement that Milton could +have little comfort from him. He still went and came about Milton, +very attentively.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Godwin's _Lives of the Phillipses_ (1815), 49-57, +and 139-140; Wood's _Ath._ IV. 760-769. I have not myself +examined Phillips's _New World of Words_; but I have looked at +the Thomason copy of his _Mysteries of Love and Eloquence_, +where the date of publication is given. Perhaps Godwin is a little +too severe in his account of it.] + +During the month immediately preceding his wife's death, and the two +months following it, there is a break in the series of Milton's +State-Letters for Cromwell. But he resumed the familiar occupation on +the 30th of March, 1658; and thenceforward to the end of the +Protectorate the series is again pretty continuous. Indeed, of this +period of Milton's life we know little more than may be inferred +from, or associated with, the following morsels of his continued +Secretaryship:-- + + (CXVIII.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _March_ 30, + 1658:--The occasion of this letter was the receipt of news at last + of the climax of the Swedish-Danish war in a great triumph of the + Swedes. "In January 1658 Karl Gustav marches his army, horse, foot, + and artillery, to the amount of twenty thousand, across the Baltic + ice, and takes an island without shipping,--Island of Fünen, + across the Little Belt; three miles of ice; and a part of the sea + _open_, which has to be crossed on planks. Nay, forward from + Fünen, when he is once there, he achieves ten whole miles more of + ice; and takes Zealand itself--to the wonder of mankind." Such, in + Mr. Carlyle's summary (_History of Frederick the Great, i. 223, + edit._ 1869), was the feat of the Swedish warrior against his + Danish enemy. It was followed almost immediately by a Peace between + the two Powers, called _The Peace of Roeskilde_, by which + Sweden acquired certain territories from Denmark, but very generous + terms on the whole were granted to the Danes. Of all this there had + been news to Cromwell, not only from his own correspondents, but + also in an express letter from Charles Gustavus; and it is to this + letter that Milton now replies in Cromwell's name:--"Most serene + and potent King, most invincible Friend and Ally,--The Letter of + your Majesty, dated from the Camp in Zealand, Feb. 21, has brought + Us all at once many reasons why, both privately on our own account, + and on account of the whole Christian Commonwealth, we should be + affected by no ordinary joy. In the first place, because the King + of Denmark (made your enemy, I believe, not by his own will or + interests, but by the arts of the common foes) has been, by your + sudden advent into the heart of his kingdom, and without much + bloodshed, reduced to such a pass that he has at length, as was + really the fact, judged peace more advantageous to him than the + war undertaken against you. Next, because, when he thought he could + in no way sooner obtain such a peace than by using Our help long + ago offered him for a conciliation, your Majesty, on the prayer + merely of the letters of our Envoy, deigned to show, by such an + easy grant of peace, how much value you attached to Our friendship + and interposed good-will, and chose that it should be My office in + particular, in this pious transaction, to be myself nearly the sole + adviser and author of a Peace which is speedily to be, as I hope, + so salutary to Protestant interests. For, whereas the enemies of + Religion despaired of being able to break your combined strength + otherwise than by engaging you against each other, they will now + have cause, as I hope, thoroughly to fear that this unlooked-for + conjunction of your arms and hearts will turn into destruction for + themselves, the kindlers of this war. Do you, meanwhile, most brave + King, go on and prosper in your conspicuous valour, and bring it to + pass that, such good fortune as the enemies of the Church have + lately admired in your exploits and course of victories against the + King now your ally, the same they may feel once more, with God's + help, in their own crushing overthrow."[1] From this letter it will + be seen that the missions of Meadows and Jephson, but especially + that of Meadows, had been of use. The immediate object of the + missions, a reconciliation of Sweden and Denmark, had been + accomplished; and what remained farther was, as Cromwell hints, the + association of the other Continental Protestant powers with these + two Scandinavian kingdoms in a league against Austria and Spain. + How exactly this idea accorded with reflective Protestant sentiment + everywhere appears from a few sentences in one of Baillie's + letters, commenting on the very occurrences that occasioned + Cromwell's present despatch. "I am glad," writes Baillie, "that by + a Peace, however extorted, the Swedes are free to take course with + other enemies. I wish Brandenburg may return to his old posture, + and not draw on himself next the Swedish armies; which the Lord + forbid! for, after Sweden, we love Brandenburg next best.... Our + wish is that the Muscoviter, for reforming of his churches, + civilizing of his people, and doing some good upon the Turks and + Tartars, were more straitly allied with Sweden, Brandenburg, the + Transylvanian, and other Protestant princes. We should rejoice if, + on this too good a quarrel against the Austrians ... he [Charles + Gustavus] would turn his victorious army upon them and their + associates, with the assistance of France and a good Dutch league. + It seems no hard matter to get the Imperial Crown and turn the + Ecclesiastic Princes into Secular Protestants."[2] Very much in the + direction of Baillie's hopes were Cromwell's envoys, Meadows, + Jephson, Bradshaw, and Downing, to labour for the next few months. + Of their journeys hither and thither, their expectations and + disappointments, there are glimpses in successive letters in + _Thurloe_; from which also it appears that Meadows and Downing + gave most satisfaction, and that, after a while, Jephson was + relieved of the main business of the Swedish mission, and that + mission was conjoined with the Danish in the hands of Meadows + (Thurloe, VII. 63-64). + +[Footnote 1: The translation of this letter by Phillips is unusually +careless. It jumbles the tenses in such a manner that the Peace +between Sweden and Denmark does not seem to have yet taken place, +but only to be hoped for by Cromwell. In fact, Phillips's +translation robs the letter of all its meaning and interest.] + +[Footnote 2: Baillie, III. 371.] + + (CXIX.) TO THE GRAND-DUKE OF TUSCANY, _April_ 7, 1658:--A John + Hosier, master of a ship called _The Lady_, had been swindled + in April 1656 by an Italian named Guiseppe Armani, who has + moreover possessed himself fraudulently of 6000 pieces of eight + belonging to one Thomas Clutterbuck. There is a suit against Armani + at Leghorn; but Hosier, after going to great expenses, is deterred + from appearing there by threats of personal violence. "We therefore + request your Highness both to relieve this oppressed man, and also + to restrain the insolence of his adversary, according to your + accustomed justice." + + (CXX.) TO LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE, _May_ 26, 1658:[1]--This is a + very momentous letter. It is Cromwell's appeal to the French King + in behalf once more of the poor Piedmontese Protestants:--"Most + serene and potent King, most august Friend and Ally,--Your Majesty + may remember that, at the time when there was treaty between us for + the renewing of our League [April 1655]--the highly auspicious + nature of which transaction is now testified by many resulting + advantages to both nations and much damage to the common + enemy--there fell out that miserable massacre of the People of the + Valleys, whose cause, forsaken on all hands and sorely beset, we + commended, with all ardour of heart and commiseration, to your pity + and protection. Nor do we think that your Majesty, of yourself, was + wanting in a duty so pious, nay so human, in as far as, by your + authority or by the respect due to your person, you could prevail + with the Duke of Savoy. We, certainly, and many other Princes and + States, were not wanting, in the matter of embassies, letters, + interposed entreaties, on the subject. After a most bloody + slaughter of both sexes and of every age, Peace was at last + granted, or rather a kind of more guarded hostility clothed with + the name of Peace: the conditions of the Peace were settled in your + town of Pignerol--hard conditions indeed, but in which wretched + and poor people that had suffered all that was dreadful and brutal + might easily acquiesce, if only, hard and unjust as they are, they + were to be stood to. They are _not_ stood to; for the promise + of each and all of them is eluded and violated by false + interpretation and various asides: many are thrown out of their + ancient abodes; many are interdicted from their native religion; + new tributes are exacted; a new citadel is hung over their heads, + whence soldiers frequently break forth, plundering or murdering all + they meet: in addition to all which, new forces of late are + secretly being got ready against them, and those among them who + profess the Roman Religion have warning orders to remove for a + time, so that all things now again seem to point to an + exterminating onslaught on those most miserable creatures who were + left over from that last butchery. That you will not allow this to + be done I beseech and conjure you, Most Christian King, by that + right hand of yours which sealed alliance and friendship with Us, + by that most sacred ornament of the title of _Most Christian_; + that you will not permit such a license of furious raging, I do not + say to any prince (for such furious raging cannot possibly come + upon any prince, much less upon the tender age of that Prince, or + into the womanly mind of his Mother), but to those most holy + assassins, who, while they profess themselves the servants and + imitators of our Saviour Christ, Him who came into this world to + save sinners, abuse His most meek name and institutes for savage + slaughters of innocents. Snatch, thou who art able, and who in such + a towering station art worthy to be able, so many suppliants of + yours from the hands of homicides, who, drunk with gore recently, + thirst for blood again, and consider it most advisable for + themselves to lay at the doors of princes the odium of their own + cruelty. Do not thou, while thou reignest, suffer thy titles or the + territories of thy realm, or the most merciful Gospel of Christ, + to be defiled by that scandal. Remember that these very Vaudois + submitted themselves to your grandfather Henry, that great favourer + of Protestants, when the victorious Lesdiguières, through those + parts where there is even yet the most convenient passage into + Italy, pursued the yielding Savoyard across the Alps. The + instrument of that Surrender is yet extant among the Public Acts of + your Kingdom; in which, among other things, it is expressly + provided and precautioned that the Vaudois should thenceforth be + handed over to no one unless with those same conditions on which, + by that instrument, your most invincible grandfather received them + into his protection. This protection the suppliants now implore; + as pledged by the grandfather, they demand it from you, the + grandson. They would prefer and desire to be your subjects rather + than his to whom they now belong, even by some exchange, if that + could be managed; but, if that cannot be managed, to be yours at + least in as far as your patronage, pity, and shelter can make them + so. There are even reasons of state which might exhort you not to + drive back Vaudois fleeing to you for refuge; but I would not, such + a great King as you are, think of you as moved to the defence of + those lying under calamity by other considerations than the promise + of your ancestors, piety, and kingly benignity and greatness of + soul. So the praise and glory of a most beautiful deed will be + yours unalloyed and entire, and through all your life you will find + the Father of Mercy, and His Son, King Christ, whose name and + doctrine you will have vindicated from a wicked atrocity, more + favouring and propitious to yourself. May God Almighty, for His own + glory, the safeguard of so many innocent Christian human beings, + and your true honour, dispose your Majesty to this resolution!" The + letter was sent to Ambassador Lockhart, then commanding the English + auxiliaries at Dunkirk, with very precise instructions to deliver + it to his French Majesty, and to follow it up energetically by his + own counsels.[2] It may have been delivered to Louis XIV. at or + near Calais. It had, as we have seen, full effect. All in all, it + is one of the most eloquent of the Milton series; and Milton must + have exerted himself in the composition. + +[Footnote 1: The exact day of the month is not given either in the +Printed Collection or in the Skinner Transcript; but it is +determined by a letter of Cromwell's to Ambassador Lockhart on the +same business. The two letters went together (see Carlyle, III. +357-365).] + +[Footnote 2: Letter of Cromwell to Lockhart of date May 25, 1658, +printed by Mr. Carlyle, _loc. cit._, from the Ayscough MSS.] + + (CXXI.) TO THE EVANGELICAL SWISS CANTONS, _May_ 26, + 1658:[1]--On the same great business as the last.--"Illustrious and + most honourable Lords, most dear Friends:--Concerning the Vaudois, + your most afflicted neighbours, what grievous and intolerable + things they have suffered from their Prince for Religion's sake, + besides that the mind almost shrinks from remembering them because + of the very atrocity of the facts, we have thought it superfluous + to write to you what must be much better known to yourselves. We + have also seen copies of the letters which your Envoys, who a good + while since were the advisers and witnesses of the Peace of + Pignerol, have written to the Duke of Savoy and the President of + his Council in Turin; in which they show and prove in detail that + all the conditions of the Peace have been broken, and have been + rather a snare for those miserable people than a security. Which + violation of the conditions, continued from the very date of the + Peace even to this day, and every day growing more grievous, unless + they endure patiently, unless they prostrate themselves and lie + down to be trampled on and pushed into mud, their Religion itself + forsworn, there impends over them the same calamity, the same + havoc, which harassed and desolated them, with their wives and + children, in so miserable a manner three years ago, and which, if + it is to be undergone again, will wholly extirpate them. What can + the poor people do? They have no respite, no breathing-time, as yet + no certain refuge. They have to deal with wild beasts or with + furies, to whom the recollection of the former slaughters has + brought no remorse, no pity for their fellow-countrymen, no sense + of humanity or satiety in shedding blood. These things are clearly + not to be borne, whether we have regard to our Vaudois brethren, + cherishers of the Orthodox Religion from of old, or to the safety + of that Religion itself. We, for our part, removed though we are by + too great an interval of space, have heartily performed all we + could in the way of help, and shall not cease to do the like. Do + you, who are close not only to the torments and almost to the cries + of your brethren, but also to the fury of the same enemies, + consider prospectively, in the name of Immortal God, and that + betimes, what is now _your_ duty; on the question of what + assistance, what protection, you can and ought to give to your + neighbours and brothers, otherwise speedily to perish, consult your + own prudence and piety, but your valour also. It is identity of + Religion, be sure, that is the cause why the same enemies would see + you likewise destroyed, nay why they would, at the same time, in + the same by-past year, _have_ seen you destroyed by an + intestine war against you by members of your Confederacy. Next to + the Divine aid it seems simply to be with you to prevent the very + oldest branch of the purer Religion from being cut down in that + remnant of the primitive faithful: and, if you neglect their + safety, now brought to the extreme crisis of peril, see that the + next turn do not, a little while after, visit yourselves. While we + advise thus fraternally and freely, we are meanwhile not idle on + our own part: what alone it is allowed to us at such a distance to + do, whether for securing the safety of those who are endangered, or + for succouring the poverty of those who are in need, we have taken + all pains in our power to do, and shall yet take all pains, God + grant to us both such tranquillity and peace at home, such a + settled condition of things and times, that we may be able to turn + all our resources and strength, all our anxiety, to the defence of + His Church against the fury and madness of His enemies!" + +[Footnote 1: The day of the month not given either in the Printed +Collection or in the Skinner Transcript; but we may date by the last +letter.] + + (CXXII.-CXXV.) TO LOUIS XIV. AND CARDINAL MAZARIN: end of + _May_ 1658:[1]--This is a group of four letters, two to the + King and two to the Cardinal, all appertaining to the splendid + embassy of compliment on which Cromwell despatched his son-in-law, + Viscount Falconbridge, in the end of May 1658, when he heard that + the French Court had come so near England as Calais (ante pp. + 340-341):--(1.) TO LOUIS XIV. "Most serene and potent King, most + august Friend and Ally,--Thomas, Viscount Falconbridge, my + son-in-law, being on the point of setting out for France, and + desiring to come into your presence, to kiss your royal hand and + testify his veneration and the respect which he cherishes for your + Majesty, though, on account of the great pleasantness of his + society, I am unwilling to part with him, yet, as I do not doubt + but, from the Court of so great a King, in which so many most + prudent and valiant men have their resort, he will shortly return + to us much more accomplished for all honourable occupations, and in + a sense finished, I have not thought it right to oppose his mind + and wish. And, though he is one, if I mistake not, who may seem to + bring his own sufficient recommendations with him wherever he goes, + yet, if he should feel himself somewhat more acceptable to your + Majesty on my account, I shall likewise consider myself honoured + and obliged by that same kindness. May God keep your Majesty safe, + and long preserve our fast friendship for the common good of the + Christian world."--(2.) TO CARDINAL MAZARIN. As his son-in-law Lord + Falconbridge is going into France, recommended by a letter to the + French King, Cromwell cannot but inform his Eminence of the fact, + and give Lord Falconbridge an introduction to his Eminence also. + "Whatever benefit he may receive from his stay amongst you (and he + hopes it will not be small) he is sure to owe most of it to your + favour and kindness, whose mind and vigilance almost singly sustain + and guard such great affairs in that kingdom." (3.) To LOUIS XIV. + "Most serene and potent King, most august Friend and Ally,--As + soon as news had arrived that your Majesty was come into camp, and + was besieging with so great forces that infamous town and asylum of + pirates, Dunkirk, I conceived a great joy, and also a sure hope + that now in a short time, by God's good assistance, the sea will be + less infested with robbers and more safely navigable, and that your + Majesty will soon by your warlike prowess avenge those frauds of + the Spaniard,--one commander corrupted by gold to betray Hesden, + another treacherously taken at Ostend. I therefore send to you the + most noble Thomas, Viscount Falconbridge, my son-in-law, both to + congratulate your arrival in a camp so close to us, and also to + explain personally with what affection we follow your Majesty's + achievements, not only by the junction of our forces, but with all + wishes besides that God Almighty may keep your Majesty's self safe + and long preserve our fast friendship for the common good of the + Christian world." (4.) To CARDINAL MAZARIN. As he is sending his + son-in-law Viscount Falconbridge to congratulate the arrival of his + French Majesty in the camp near Dunkirk, he has commanded him to + convey also salutations and thanks to his Eminence, "by whose + fidelity, prudence, and vigilance, above all, it has been brought + about that French business is so prosperously managed against the + common enemy in so many different parts, and especially in + neighbouring Flanders." It is clear that all these letters cannot + have been sent, but only two of them. The closing words of the two + letters to the King, for example, are identical to an extent + incompatible with the idea that they were both delivered. It may be + guessed by the suspicious that at first the intention was that Lord + Falconbridge should seem to be visiting France for his own + curiosity or pleasure, the Protector only taking advantage of his + whim, and that letters 1 and 2 were then drafted, but that + afterwards it was thought better to send Lord Falconbridge on an + avowed embassy of congratulation in Cromwell's own name, and + letters 3 and 4 were then substituted. Perhaps, however, there was + no duplicity in the affair at all, and the idea of the embassy did + actually originate in a whim of Lord Falconbridge. Anyhow all the + notes were written by Milton, and he kept copies of those not + used. + +[Footnote 1: Exact day not given either in Printed Collection or in +Skinner Transcript; but the occasion fixes the time pretty closely.] + + (CXXVI.) To THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, _May_ 1658:--This is + in a very different tone from recent letters of the Protector to + the same Italian Prince (ante p. 372 and p. 378).--His Highness has + been informed of various acts of discourtesy of late to his Fleet + off Leghorn, utterly inconsistent with the terms of friendship on + which he had supposed himself to stand with the Grand Duke. + Accommodation to the ships has been refused, out of deference to + Spain; restrictions have been put on their supplies of fresh water; + English merchants resident in Leghorn, and even the English Consul, + have not been permitted to go on board; shots have actually been + fired; &c. If these things had been done by the Governor of the + Town without orders, let him be punished; but, if otherwise, "let + your Highness consider that, as we have always very highly valued + your good-will, so we have learnt to distinguish open injuries + from-good-will." + + (CXXVII.-CXXX.) To LOUIS XIV. AND CARDINAL MAZARIN. _June_ + 1658:--On the 16th of June there had arrived in London, in rapid + return for the embassy of Viscount Falconbridge to Calais, the + splendid counter-embassy to Cromwell of the Duke de Crequi and M. + Mancini, the Cardinal's nephew (ante pp. 340-341). That in itself + would have been an incident calling for some special acknowledgment + from the Protector; but hardly had the embassy arrived when there + came news of the great event which both Louis XIV. and Cromwell had + for some time been intently expecting--the capture of Dunkirk. On + the 15th of June the keys of the captured town had been handsomely + delivered to Sir William Lockhart by Louis XIV. himself, so that + the Treaty with Cromwell had been fully kept in that particular. + Louis had sent a special Envoy with letters to announce the event + to Cromwell formally; and this Envoy shared in the magnificent + hospitalities which Cromwell showered upon the Duke de Crequi, M. + Mancini, and their retinue. The four following letters all relate + to this glorious occasion, and date themselves between June 16, + when the French ambassadors arrived in London, and June 21, when + they took their departure. (1.) To Louis XIV. "Most serene and + potent King, most august Friend and Ally,--That your Majesty has + so speedily, by the illustrious embassy you have sent, repaid my + mission of respect with interest, besides that it is a proof of + your singular graciousness and magnanimity, comes as a + manifestation also of the degree of your regard for my honour and + dignity, not to myself only, but to the whole English People; on + which account, in their name, I duly return your Majesty my most + cordial thanks. Over the most happy victory which God gave to our + conjoint forces against the enemy [in the Battle near Dunkirk on + June 3, ten days before the surrender of the town: ante p. 340], I + rejoice along with you; and it is very gratifying to me that in + that battle our men were not wanting either to their duty to you, + or to the warlike glory of their ancestors, or to their own valour. + As for Dunkirk, your Majesty's hopes for the near surrender of + which are expressed in your letter, I have the additional joy of + being able so soon to write back that the surrender has now + actually taken place; and my hopes are that the Spaniard will + presently pay for his double treachery by the loss not of one city + only,--the effecting of which result by the capture of the other + town [Bergen, near Dunkirk, now also besieged] I would that your + Majesty may have it in your power to report as quickly. As to your + Majesty's farther promise that my interests shall be your care, in + that matter I have no mistrust, the promise coming from a King of + such worth and friendliness, and having the confirmation of the + word of his Ambassador, the most excellent and accomplished Duke de + Crequi. That Almighty God may be propitious to your Majesty and to + the French State, at home and in war, is my sincere wish." (2.) To + CARDINAL MAZARIN. As we have already seen in Cromwell's + correspondence with France, letters to the King and the Cardinal + then almost always went in pairs, for Louis XIV. was but beginning + his long career of _Grand Monarque_ at the age of twenty, + while the Cardinal, at the age of fifty-six, still retained that + ministerial ascendancy which he had exercised all through the + minority of Louis, and indeed since the death of Richelieu in + 1642. This letter of Cromwell's to the Cardinal is even more + interesting than that to the King, and may be given in full:--"Most + Eminent Lord,--While I am thanking by letter your most Serene King, + who has sent such a splendid embassy to return respects and + congratulations and to communicate to me his joy over the recent + most noble victory, I should be ungrateful if I did not at the same + time pay by letter the thanks due also to your Eminence, who, to + testify your good-will towards me, and your regard for my honour in + all possible ways, have sent with the embassy your most worthy and + highly accomplished young nephew, and even write that, if you had + any one nearer akin to you or dearer, you would have sent that + person in preference,--adding a reason which, coming from the + judgment of so great a man, I consider no mean tribute of praise + and distinction: to wit, your desire that those nearest to you in + blood should imitate your Eminence in honouring and respecting me. + Well, they will perhaps, at least, in your love for me, have had no + stinted example of politeness, candour, and friendliness: of worth + and prudence at their highest there are other far more brilliant + examples in you, by which they may learn how to administer kingdoms + and the greatest affairs with glory. With which that your Eminence + may long and prosperously conduct affairs, for the common good of + the French kingdom, yea of the whole Christian Republic, a + distinction properly yours, I promise that my wishes shall not be + wanting." (3.) To LOUIS XIV.[1] A more formal letter than the + last, acknowledging the French King's own intimation that Dunkirk + had been taken, and given into the possession of Lockhart. "That + Dunkirk had surrendered to your Majesty, and that it had been by + your orders immediately put in our possession, we had already heard + by report; but with what a willing and glad mind your Majesty did + it, to testify your good-will towards me in this matter, I have + been especially informed by your royal letter, and have had + abundantly confirmed by the gentleman in whom, from the tenor of + that letter, I have all confidence,--the master in ordinary of your + Palace. In addition to this testimony, though it needs no farther + weight with me, our Ambassador with you [Lockhart], in discharge of + his duty, writes to the same effect, and there is nothing that he + does not ascribe to your most firm steadiness in my favour. Let + your Majesty be assured in turn that there shall be no want of + either care or integrity on our part in performing all that remains + of our agreement with the same faith and diligence as hitherto. For + the rest, I congratulate your Majesty on your successes and on the + very near approach of the capture of Bergen; and may God Almighty + grant that there may be as frequent exchanges as possible of such + congratulations between us." (4.) TO CARDINAL MAZARIN[2]. This is + on the same occasion and in the same strain. One sentence will + suffice. "With what faith and expression of the highest good-will + all was performed by you, though your Eminence's own assurance + fully satisfied me, yet, that I should have nothing more to + desiderate, our Ambassador, in carefully writing to me the details, + had omitted nothing that could either serve for my information or + answer your opinion of him."--It is curious, after these two last + letters, to turn to those letters of Lockhart's to which Cromwell + refers. They quite confirm his words, though they contain + expressions, about both the King and the Cardinal, of which + Cromwell would not perhaps have sent them literal copies. Thus, in + a letter to Thurloe, of June 14, the day before the delivery of + Dunkirk to the English, but when all the arrangements for the + delivery had been made, Lockhart, speaking of the difficulties he + anticipated in so arduous and delicate a post as the Governorship + of Dunkirk, especially with his small supplies and great lack of + money, adds,--"Nevertheless I must say I find him [the Cardinal] + willing to hear reason; and, though the generality of Court and + Army are even mad to see themselves part with what they call _un + si bon morceau_, so delicate a bit, yet he is still constant to + his promises, and seems to be as glad in the general, + notwithstanding our differences in little particulars, to give this + place to his Highness as I can be to receive it: the King is also + exceeding obliging and civil, and hath more true worth in him than + I could have imagined." Next day Lockhart wrote a brief note to + Thurloe announcing himself as actually in possession, "blessed be + God for this great mercy, and the Lord continue his protection to + his Highness"; and there were subsequent longer letters both to + Thurloe and to Cromwell himself[3]. Dunkirk was called "The Key of + Spanish Flanders"; and the conquest of this place for the + Protectorate was, it is to be remembered, among the last of + Cromwell's great acts. + +[Footnote 1: This Letter is not to be found in the Printed +Collection or in Phillips; but it is in the Skinner Transcript (No. +102 there), and has been printed by Mr. Hamilton in his _Milton +Papers_, 7-8.] + +[Footnote 2: Neither is this Letter in the Printed Collection. It +stands as No. 103 in the Skinner Transcript, and has been printed by +Hamilton, p. 8.] + +[Footnote 3: Thurloe, VII. 173 et seq.] + + (CXXXI.) TO CHARLES GUSTAVUS, KING OF SWEDEN, _June_ + 1658:--Since Cromwell's last letter by Milton to this heroic + Scandinavian (March 30), congratulating him on his generous Peace + with Denmark, and urging the policy of a League of all the northern + Protestant Powers for conjoint action against Austria, Poland, and + Catholicism universally, the movements of the Swede had been most + perplexing. Now he had been turning against the Poles and + Austrians; but again Denmark, or even the Dutch, seemed to be the + object of his resentment, while there was very quarrelsome + negotiation between him and the Elector Marquis of Brandenburg, and + every appearance that the Elector might have to bear the next full + burst of his wrath. All this did not seem favourable to the + prospects of a Protestant League, and Cromwell's envoys, Meadows, + Jephson, Bradshaw, and Downing, had been going to and fro with + their wits on the stretch. Such, in general, was the condition of + affairs when Milton for Cromwell wrote as follows:--"Most serene + and potent King, most dear Friend and Ally,--As often as we look + upon the ceaseless plots and various artifices of the common + enemies of Religion, so often our thought with ourselves is how + necessary it is for the Christian world, and how salutary it would + be, for the easier frustration of the attempts of these + adversaries, that the Potentates of Protestantism should be + conjoined in the strictest league among themselves, and principally + your Majesty with our Commonwealth. How much, and with what zeal, + that has been furthered by Us, and how agreeable latterly it would + have been to us if the affairs of Sweden and our own had been in + such a condition and position that the League could have been + ratified heartily by us both, and with all fit aid the one to the + other, We have testified to your agents from the time when they + first treated of the matter with Us. Nor, truly, were they wanting + to their duty; but, as was their custom in other things, in this + matter also they displayed prudence and diligence. But we have been + so exercised at home by the perfidy of wicked citizens, who, though + several times received back into trust, do not yet cease to form + new conspiracies, and to repeat their already often shattered and + routed plots with the exiles, and even with the Spanish enemy, + that, occupied in beating off our own dangers, we have not hitherto + been able, as was our wish, to turn our whole attention and entire + strength to the guardianship of the common cause of Religion. What + was possible, however, to the full extent of our power, we have + already studiously performed; and, whatever for the future in this + direction shall seem to conduce to your Majesty's interests, we + shall not desist not only to desire, but also to co-operate with + you with all our strength in accomplishing where they may be + opportunity. Meanwhile we congratulate, and heartily rejoice in, + your Majesty's most prudent and most valiant actions, and desire + with assiduous prayers that God may will, for the glory of his own + Deity, that the same course of prosperity and victory may be a very + long one."--So far as Milton's state-letters show, this is the last + of the relations between Oliver Cromwell and Karl-Gustav of Sweden. + But, in _Thurloe_ and elsewhere, there are farther traces of + the great Swede in connexion with Cromwell, and of the interest + which the two kindred souls felt in each other. Passing over some + weeks of still uncertain movement of the Swede hither and thither + in his complications with Austria, Poland, Denmark, Muscovy, + Brandenburg, and the Dutch, we may note the sudden surprise of all + Europe when, early in August, he tore up his brief Peace with + Denmark, re-invaded Zealand, and marched straight upon Copenhagen. + His reasons for this extraordinary act he thought it right to + explain to Cromwell in a long letter dated from his quarters near + Copenhagen, August 18, 1658. The letter can have reached Cromwell + only on his death-bed; and, on the whole, Cromwell had to leave the + world with the consciousness that the League of Protestant Powers + for which he had prayed and struggled was apparently as far off as + ever. The election to the vacant Emperorship had already taken + place at last, July 8, 1658, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and it was + the Austrian Leopold, King of Hungary, and not the French Louis + XIV., after all, that had been proclaimed and saluted _Imperator + Romanorum_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII., at various points from the beginning, +but especially pp. 338, 342, and 257. Foreign dates in Thurloe +have to be rectified.] + + (CXXXII.) TO THE KING OF PORTUGAL, _August_ 1658:--A John + Buffield, merchant of London, has been wronged by the detention of + property of his by a Portuguese mercantile firm, and has been + tossed about in Portuguese law-courts. The Protector requests his + Portuguese Majesty to look into the matter and see justice done. + +So ends the series of Milton's Letters for Oliver. As there had been +eighty-eight such in all (XLV.-CXXXII.) during the four years and +nine months of the Protectorate, whereas there had been but +forty-four (I.-XLIV.) similar letters during the preceding four years +and ten months of the Commonwealth proper and Interim Dictatorship, +it will be seen that Milton's industry in this particular form of his +Secretaryship had been just twice as great for Oliver as for the +Governments before the Protectorate.[1] That fact in itself is +rather remarkable, when we remember that Milton came into the +Protector's service totally blind. Of course, whoever had been in the +post would have had more to do in the way of letter-writing for the +Protector than had been required by the preceding Councils of State +in their comparatively thin relations with foreign powers; but that a +blind man in the post should have been so satisfactory for the +increased requirements says something for the employer as well as for +the blind man. Thurloe and others had relieved Milton of much of the +secretarial work; there had also been many breaks in Milton's +secretaryship even in the letter-writing department, occasioned by +ill-health, family-troubles, or occupation with literary tasks which +were really public commissions and were credited to him as such; and +at such times the dependence had been on Meadows or some one else for +the Latin letters necessary. Always, however, when the occasion was +very important, as when there had to be the burst of circular letters +about the Piedmontese massacre, the blind man had to be sent to, or +sent for. And what is worthy of notice now is that this had continued +to be the case to the last. At no time in the Secretaryship had there +been a series of more important letters from Milton's pen than those +just inventoried, written for the Protector in the last five months +of his life, and mostly in the months of May and June, 1658. Two or +three of them are about ships or other small matters, showing that, +even with Marvfell now; at hand for such drudgery, Milton did not +wholly escape it; but the rest are on the topics of highest interest +to Cromwell and closest to his heart. The poor Piedmontese +Protestants are again in danger. Who must again sound the alarm? +Milton. Cromwell's son-in-law, the gallant Falconbridge, starts on +his embassy to Calais. Who must write the letters that are to +introduce him to King Louis and the Cardinal? Milton. The gorgeous +return embassy of the Duke de Crequi and M. Mancini has to be +acknowledged, and the bells rung for the fall of Dunkirk; and with +the congratulations to be conveyed across the Channel on that event +there have to be interwoven Cromwell's thanks to the King and the +Cardinal for having so punctually kept their faith with him by the +delivery of the town to Lockhart. Who shall express the complex +message? None but Milton. Finally, Cromwell would stretch his hand +eastward across the seas to grasp that of the Swedish Charles +Gustavus struggling with _his_ peculiar difficulties, to give +him brotherly cheer in the midst of them, brotherly hope also that +they two, whoever else in a generation of hucksters, may yet live to +lead in a glorious Protestant League for the overthrow of Babylon and +the woman blazing in scarlet. Who interprets between hero and hero? +Always and only the blind Milton. Positively, in reading Milton's +despatches for Cromwell on such subjects as the persecutions of the +Vaudois and the scheme of a Protestant European League, one hardly +knows which is speaking, the secretary or the ruler. Cromwell melts +into Milton, and Milton is Cromwell eloquent and Latinizing.[2] + +[Footnote 1: With one exception, all the State-letters of Milton, +from the beginning of his Secretaryship to the death of Cromwell, +that have been preserved either in the Printed Collection or in the +Skinner Transcript, have now been inventoried, and, as far as +possible, dated and elucidated in the text of these volumes. The +exception is a brief scrap thrown in at the end of the Letters for +Cromwell both in the Printed Collection and in the Skinner +Transcript, but omitted by Phillips in his translation as not +worthwhile. It was not written for Cromwell or his Council, but +only for the Commissioners of the Great Seal--whether for those +under the Protectorate, or for their predecessors, does not appear, +though perhaps that might be ascertained. The scrap may be numbered +at this point, though inserted only as a note:--(CXXXIII.) "We, +Commissioners of the Great Seal of England, &c., desire that the +Supreme Court of the Parliament of Paris will, on request, take such +steps that Miles, William, and Maria Sandys, children of the lately +deceased William Sandys and his wife Elizabeth Soame, English by +birth and minors, may be able, from Paris, where they are now under +protection of the said Court, to return to us forthwith, and will +deliver the said children into the charge of the Scotchman James +Mowat, a good and honest man, to whom we have delegated this charge, +that he may receive them where they are and bring them to us; and we +engage that, on opportunity of the same sort offered, there will be a +return from this Court of the like justice and equity to any subjects +of France."] + +[Footnote 2: The uniformly Miltonic style of the greater letters for +the Protector, the same style as had been used in the more +important letters for the Commonwealth, utterly precludes the idea +that Milton was only the translator of drafts furnished him. In +the smaller letters, about ships wrongfully seized and other private +injuries, the case may have been partly so, though even there +Milton must have had liberty of phraseology, and would imbed the +facts in his own expressions. But there was not a man about the +Council that could have furnished the drafts of the greater letters +as we now have them. My idea as to the way in which they were +composed is that, on each occasion, Milton learnt from Thurloe, or +even in a preappointed interview with the Council, or with Cromwell +himself, the sort of thing that was wanted, and that then, having +himself dictated and sent in an English draft, he received it back, +approved or with corrections and suggested additions, to be turned +into Latin. Special Cromwellian hints to Milton for the letter to +Louis XIV, on the alarm of a new persecution of the Piedmontese +(ante pp. 387-9) must have been, I should say, the causal reference +to a certain pass as the best military route yet into Italy from +France, and the suggestion of an exchange of territories between +Louis and the Duke of Savoy so as to make the Vaudois French +subjects. The hints may have been given to Milton beforehand, or +they may have been [n]otched in by Cromwell in revising Milton's +English draft.] + +The last letters to Louis XIV., Mazarin, and Charles Gustavus of +Sweden, bring us to within about two months of Cromwell's death, and +the last one of all, that to the King of Portugal, to within less +than a single month of the same. We have yet a farther trace of the +diplomacies proper to Milton's office round the dying Protector. +Here, however, it is not Milton that comes into view, but his +colleague or assistant, Andrew Marvell. + +The Dutch Lord-Ambassador Nieuport, after having been absent in +Holland since November 1657, had been sent back by their High +Mightinesses, the States-General, to resume his post. The +complication of affairs in northern Europe by the movements of +Charles Gustavus, and the menacing attitude of that King not only +pretty generally all round the Baltic, but also towards the Dutch +themselves, had rendered Nieuport's renewed presence in London very +necessary. Newly commissioned and instructed, he made his voyage, and +was in the Thames on the night of the 23rd of July, though too late +to reach Gravesend that night. The arrival of an ambassador being +then an affair of much punctilio, he sent his son up the river in a +shallop, to inform Mr. Secretary Thurloe and Sir Oliver Fleming, the +master of the ceremonies, and to deliver to Thurloe a letter +requesting that the pomp of a public reception might be waived and he +might be permitted to take up his quarters quietly in the Dutch +Embassy, still furnished and ready, just as he had left it. Young +Mynheer Nieuport, coming to London on this errand, found things there +in unexpected confusion,--the Lord Protector at Hampton Court, +attending the death-bed of his daughter Lady Claypole, and leaving +business to itself, and Secretary Thurloe also out of town. +Fortunately, Thurloe was not then at Hampton Court, but only at his +own country-house two miles off. Thither young Nieuport rode at once. +He met Thurloe coming in his coach to Whitehall; whereupon Thurloe, +after all proper salutations, informed him that his Highness had +already heard of his father's arrival and had given orders for his +suitable reception. Meanwhile, would young Mr. Nieuport come into the +coach, so that they might drive back to Whitehall together? Arrived +at Whitehall, Thurloe immediately gave orders for the preparation of +one of his Highness's barges to be sent down to Gravesend, "with a +gentleman called Marvell, who is employed in the despatches for the +Latin tongue." Apparently this gentleman was on the spot, and was at +once introduced by Thurloe to young Nieuport. Then young Nieuport +went down the river by himself, rejoining his father at Gravesend, +and bringing him a letter from Thurloe, to the effect that his +Highness was very anxious that his reception should be in all points +such as became the respect due to himself and his office, but that +Mr. Marvell would come expressly to discuss and arrange particulars +and that whatever Lord Nieuport should finally judge fitting should +also be satisfactory to his Highness. That was on the night of +Saturday, the 24th. Next day, Sunday the 25th, Marvell was duly down +at Gravesend in the barge, actually before morning-sermon, as the +Ambassador himself informs us, bidding the Ambassador formally +welcome in the Lord Protector's name, and sketching out for him "a +public reception, with barges and coaches, and also an entertainment, +such as is usually given to the chiefest Ambassadors." Lord Nieuport +still preferring less bustle on his own account, and thinking also +that a great public reception would be unseemly at a time when "the +Lord Protector and the whole Court were in great sadness for the +mortal distemper of the Lady Claypole," Marvell remained in waiting +on him at Gravesend that day, and in the night brought him up to town +in his barge _incognito_. It was thought that his Highness might +possibly be able to come from Hampton Court to Whitehall the next day +or the next; but, that chance having passed, it was arranged that the +Ambassador should himself go to Hampton Court, and have an audience +with the Protector at three o'clock in the afternoon of Thursday the +29th. Accordingly, at eleven o'clock on that day the master of the +ceremonies was at the Dutch Embassy, with three six-horse coaches; +and, having been driven to Hampton Court, the Ambassador was received +by Thurloe "at the second gate of the first court," and taken to his +Highness's room. After interchange of compliments, his Highness +expressed his regret "that his own indisposition, and other domestic +inconveniencies, had hindered him from coming to London"; and then, +the general company having been dismissed, and only Lord President +Lawrence, Lord Strickland, and Thurloe, remaining in the room, there +was some talk on business. Various matters were mentioned, but only +generally, Nieuport not thinking it fit to trouble his Highness with +"a large discourse," and his Highness indeed intimating that he did +not find himself well enough to talk much. But all was very amicable, +and at the end of the interview Cromwell, saying he hoped to be in +London next week, insisted on conducting the Ambassador to the door +of the antechamber, leaving Lawrence, Strickland, and Thurloe, to do +the rest by attending him through the galleries back to the coaches. +On that same day there had been a Council-meeting at Hampton Court, +the last at which Cromwell was present. Possibly Dutch business was +discussed there, and also at the next meeting of Council, which was +at Whitehall on the 3rd of August, and without Cromwell. On the 5th, +at all events, when the Council again met at Hampton Court, Cromwell +not present, there was, as we have seen (ante, p. 355), a minute on +Dutch business of a very ominous character. Cromwell's heart was now +with the magnanimous Swede rather than with the merchandizing Dutch; +and, in all probability, had he lived longer, Ambassador Nieuport +would have had to send home news that might not have been pleasant to +their High Mightinesses. But the next day (August 6) Lady Claypole +was dead; and from that day, through the remaining four weeks of +Cromwell's life, the concerns of the foreign world grew dimmer and +dimmer in his regards. Perhaps to the last moment of his +consciousness what did most interest him in that foreign world was +the great new commotion round the Baltic in which his Swedish brother +was the central figure, and in which both the Dutch and the +Brandenburg Elector were playing anti-Swedish parts, the Elector +avowedly, the Dutch more warily, "The King of Sweden hath again +invaded the Dane, and very probably hath Copenhagen by this time," +wrote Thurloe from Whitehall to Henry Cromwell at two o'clock in the +morning of August 27. Cromwell, therefore, had learnt that fact +before his death, and it must have mingled with his thoughts in his +dying hours. In these very hours, we find, not only was Ambassador +Nieuport close at hand again, for Dutch negotiations in which the +fact would naturally be of high moment, but Herr. Schlezer also, the +London agent of the Brandenburg Elector, was at the doors of the +Council office, with express letters from the Elector, which he was +anxious to deliver to Thurloe himself, in case even at such a time +some answer might be elicited. Thurloe choosing to be inaccessible, +he had left the letters with Mr. Marvell. Thus, twice in the last +weeks of Oliver's Protectorate we have a distinct sight of Marvell in +his capacity of substitute for Milton. He barges down the Thames very +early on a Sunday morning to salute an Ambassador in the name of the +Protector and bring him up to town in a proper manner; and he +receives in the Whitehall office a troublesome diplomatic agent, who +has come with important despatches.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII 286 and 298-299 (Letters of Nieuport to +the States-General), 362 (Letter of Thurloe to Henry Cromwell), and +373-374 (Latin letter of Schlezer to Thurloe, two days after +Cromwell's death).] + +Thirty-three Latin State-Letters and five Latin Familiar Epistles are +the productions of Milton's pen we have hitherto registered as +belonging to the Second Protectorate of Oliver. Two or three +incidents, appertaining more properly to his Literary Biography, have +yet to be noticed before we leave the period. + +Here is the title of a little foreign tract of which I have seen a +solitary, and perhaps unique, copy:-"_Dissertationis ad quoedam +loca Miltoni Pars Posterior; quam, adspirante Deo, Præsids Dn. Jacobo +Schallero, S.S, Theol. Doct, et Philos. Pract. Prof., ad. h.t. +Facult. Phil. Decano, solenniter defendet die[17] mens. Septemb. +Christophorus Güntzer, Argentorat. Argentorati, Typis Friderici +Spoor, 1657_" ("Second Part of a Dissertation, on certain Passages +of Milton; which, with God's favour, and tinder the presidency of +James Schaller, Doctor of Divinity and Professor of Practical +Philosophy, acting as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy for the +occasion, Christopher Güntzer of Strasburg will solemnly defend on +the 17th of September. Strasburg, Printed by Frederic Spoor, 1657"). +Of the Schaller here mentioned we have heard before in connexion with +a publication of his in 1653, also entitled _Dissertatio ad loca +quædam Miltoni_, and appended then to certain +_Exercitationes_ concerning the English Regicide by the Leipsic +jurist Caspar Ziegler (Vol. IV. pp. 534-535). He seems to have +retained an interest in the subject, and to have kept it up among +those about him; for here, four years after his own Dissertation, he +is to preside at the academic defence of another on the same subject +by a Christopher Güntzer, who was probably one of his pupils. Young +Güntzer, it seems, had been trying his hand on the subject already; +for this is but the "second part" of his performance. The "first +part" I have not seen, though it seems to have been published. The +"second part" is a thin quarto, paged 45-92, as if to be bound with +the first. It is in a juvenile and dry style of quotation and +academic reasoning, modelled after Schaller's older Dissertation, and +not worth an abstract. More interesting than itself are eleven pieces +of congratulatory Latin verse prefixed to it by college friends of +the disputant. In more than one of these Milton is mentioned; but the +liveliest mention of him is in a set of Phalæcians signed +"Christianus Keck." Phalæcians are not to be attempted in English; +but, as the semi-absurd relish of the thing would be lost in prose, +the first few lines may run into a kind of equivalent doggrel:-- + + "What Salmasius, he whom all men hailed as + Learning's prodigy, Phoenix much too big for + His own late generation, ay or any old one, + Wrote so bravely against the sin of Britain, + Then all wet with the royal bloodshed in her, + Milton answered with pen that, be it granted, + Showed vast genius, nor a mind without some + Real marks of artistic cultivation, + Though, O shame! patronizing such an outrage. + Milton's pen is refuted next by Schaller's,-- + Quite a different pen and more respected." + +Young Keck then goes on to assure his fellow-students that, if their +eminent Professor Schaller's Dissertation of 1653 in reply to Milton +had been duly read and pondered in Great Britain, it would have been +of far more use towards a restoration of the Stuarts than camps and +cannon; and he ends by congratulating the world on the fact that now +young Güntzer, the accomplished young Güntzer, has placed himself by +the side of the learned Professor, to wave the same inextinguishable +torch of truth.[1]--In all probability, Milton never heard of such a +trifle. It illustrates, however, the kind of rumour of himself and +his writings that was circling, in the year 1657, in holes and +corners of German Universities. Strasburg, with Elsatz generally, was +then within the dominions of Austria; and it was naturally less in +Austrian Germany than in other parts of the Continent that there was +that especial admiration of Milton which had been growing since the +publication of his _Defensio Prima_, but which, as Aubrey tells +us, had reached its height under the Protectorate. "He was mightily +importuned," says Aubrey, "to go into France and Italy. Foreigners +came much to see him, and much admired him, and offered to him great +preferments to come over to them; and the only inducement of several +foreigners that came over into England was chiefly to see O. +Protector and Mr. J. Milton; and [they] would see the house and +chamber where he was born. He was much more admired abroad than at +home." This corresponds with all our own evidence hitherto, though we +have heard nothing of those invitations and offers of foreign +preferment of which Aubrey speaks. + +[Footnote 1: The copy I have seen of Güntzer's _Dissertatio_ is +in the British Museum Library. The figure "17" is inserted in MS. +after the word "_die_" in the title-page.] + +In May 1658, three or four months before Cromwell's death, there was +published in London a little volume of about 200 pages, with this +title-page: "_The Cabinet Council; Containing the chief Arts of +Empire, and Mysteries of State; Discabineted in Political and +Polemical Aphorisms, grounded, on Authority, and Experience; And +illustrated with the choicest Examples and Historical Observations. +By the Ever-renowned Knight, Sir Walter Raleigh, published by John +Milton Esq._-Quis Martem tunicâ tectum Adamantinâ digne +scripserit?-_London, Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Tho. Johnson at +the sign of the Key in St. Pauls Churchyard, near the West-end, +1658."_ Prefixed to the body of the volume, which is divided into +twenty-six chapters, is a note "_To the Reader,"_ as follows: +"Having had the manuscript of this Treatise, written by Sir Walter +Raleigh, many years in my hands, and finding it lately by chance +among other books and papers, upon reading thereof I thought it a +kind of injury to withhold longer the work of so eminent an author +from the public: it being both answerable in style to other works of +his already extant, as far as the subject would permit, and given me +for a true copy by a learned man at his death, who had collected +several such pieces.-JOHN MILTON."[1] + +[Footnote 1: There were subsequent reprints of Raleigh's _Cabinet +Council_ from this 1658 edition by Milton, with changes of +title. See Bohn's Lowndes under _Raleigh_] + +By far the most interesting fact, however, in Milton's literary life +under the Second Protectorate is that he had certainly, before its +close, resumed his design of a great English poem, to be called +Paradise Lost. Phillips's words might even imply that he had resumed +this design before the end of the First Protectorate. For, after +having mentioned that, in the comparative leisure in which he was +left by the conclusion of his controversy with Morus (Aug. 1655), he +resumed those two favourite hack-occupations on which he always fell +back when he had nothing else to do,--his History of England and his +compilations for a Latin Dictionary,--Phillips adds, "But the highth +of his noble fancy and invention began now to be seriously and mainly +employed in a subject worthy of such a muse: viz. a Heroic Poem, +entitled _Paradise Lost_, the noblest," &c. In this passage, +however, Phillips is throwing together, in 1694, all his +recollections of the four years of his uncle's life between Aug. 1655 +and Aug. 1659; and Aubrey's earlier information (1680), originally +derived from Phillips himself, is that _Paradise Lost_ was begun +"about two years before the King came in," i.e. about May 1658. This +would fix the date somewhere in the two or three months immediately +following the death-of Milton's second wife. In such a matter exact +certainty is unattainable; and it is enough to know for certain that +the resumption of _Paradise Lost_ was an event of the latter +part of Cromwell's Second Protectorate, and that some portion of the +poem was actually written in the house in Petty France, Westminster, +while Milton was in communication with Cromwell and writing letters +for him. In the rooms of that house, or in the garden that stretched +from the house into St. James's Park across part of what is now the +ground of Wellington Barracks, the subject of the epic first took +distinct shape in Milton's mind, and here he began the great +dictation. + +Eighteen years had elapsed since Milton, just settled in London after +his return from Italy, had first fastened on the subject, preferred +it by a sure instinct to all the others that occurred in competition +with it, and sketched four plans for its treatment in the form of a +sacred tragedy, one with the precise title _Paradise Lost_, and +another with the title _Adam Unparadised_ (Vol. II. pp. 106-108, +and 115-119). Through all the distractions of those eighteen years +the grand subject had not ceased to haunt him, nor the longing to +return to it and to his poetic vocation. Nay there had hung in his +memory all this while certain lines he had actually written and +destined for the opening of the intended tragedy. They were the ten +lines that now form lines 32-41 of the fourth book of our present +_Paradise Lost_. He had imagined, for the opening of his +tragedy, Satan already arrived within our Universe out of Hell, and +alighted on our central Earth near Eden, and gazing up to Heaven and +the Sun blazing there in meridian splendour. He had imagined Satan, +in this pause of his first advent into the Universe he was to ruin, +thus addressing the Sun as its chief visible representative:-- + + "O thou that with surpassing glory crowned, + Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god + Of this new World,--at whose sight all the stars + Hide their diminished heads,--to thee I call, + But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, + O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, + That bring to my remembrance from what state + I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere, + Till pride and worse ambition threw me down, + Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King!" + +And now, after eighteen years, the poem having been resumed, but with +the resolution, made natural by Milton's literary observations and +experiences in the interval, that the dramatic form should be +abandoned and the epic substituted, these ten lines, written +originally for the opening of the Drama, were to be the nucleus of +the Epic.[1] With our present _Paradise Lost_ before us, we can +see the very process of the gradual reinvention. In the epic Satan +must not appear, as had been proposed in the drama, at once on our +earth or within our universe. He must be fetched from the +transcendental regions, the vast extra-mundane spaces, of his own +prior existence and history. And so, round our fair universe, +newly-created and wheeling softly on its axle, conscious as yet of no +evil, conscious only of the happy earth and sweet human life in the +midst, and of the steady diurnal change from day and light-blue +sunshine into spangled and deep-blue night, Milton was figuring and +mapping out those other infinitudes which outlay and encircled his +conception of all this mere Mundane Creation. Deep down beneath this +MUNDANE CREATION, and far separated from it, he was seeing the HELL +from which was to come its woe; all round the Mundane Creation, and +surging everywhere against its outmost firmament, was the dark and +turbid CHAOS out of which its orderly and orbicular immensity had +been cut; and high over all, radiant above Chaos, but with the +Mundane Universe pendent from it at one gleaming point, was the great +EMPYREAN or HEAVEN of HEAVENS, the abode of Angels and of Eternal +Godhead. Not to the mere Earth of Man or the Mundane Universe about +that Earth was Milton's adventurous song now to be confined, +representing only dramatically by means of speeches and choruses +those transactions in the three extramundane Infinitudes that might +bear on the terrestrial story. It must dare also into those +infinitudes themselves, pursue among them the vaster and more general +story of Satan's rebellion and fall, and yet make all converge, +through Satan's scheme in Hell and his advent at last into our World, +upon that one catastrophe of the ruin of infant Mankind which the +title of the poem proclaimed as the particular theme. + +[Footnote 1: Phillips's words in quoting these lines are, "In the +Fourth Book of the Poem there are six [he says _six_, but quotes +all the _ten_] verses which, several years before the Poem was +begun, were shown to me and some others as designed for the very +beginning of the said Tragedy." These words, if the Epic was begun in +1658, might carry us back at farthest to about 1650 as the date when +the ten lines were in existence; but, besides that Phillips's +expression is vague, we have Aubrey's words in 1680 as follows:--"In +the [4th] Book of _Paradise Lost_ there are about six verses of +Satan's exclamation to the Sun which Mr. E. Phi. remembers about +fifteen or sixteen years before ever his Poem was thought of; which +verses were intended for the beginning of a Tragoedie, which he had +designed, but was diverted from it by other business." This, on +Phillips's own authority, would take the lines back to 1642 or +1643; and that, on independent grounds, is the probable date. +Hardly after 1642 or 1643 can Milton have adhered to his original +intention of writing _Paradise Lost_ in a dramatic form.] + + "Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit + Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste + Brought death into the World, and all our woe, + With loss of Eden, till one greater Man + Restore us and regain the blissful seat, + Sing, Heavenly Muse"-- + +Such might be the simple invocation at the outset; but, knowing now +all that the epic was really to involve, and how far it was to carry +him in flight above the Aonian Mount, little wonder that he could +already promise in it + + "Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." + +It may have been in one of the nights following a day of such +meditation of the great subject he had resumed, and some considerable +instalment of the actual verse of the poem as we now have it may have +been already on paper, or in Milton's memory for repetition to +himself, when he dreamt a memorable dream. The house is all still, +the voices and the pattering feet of the children hushed in sleep, +and Milton too asleep, but with his waking thoughts pursuing him into +sleep and stirring the mimic fancy. Not this night, however, is it of +Heaven, or Hell, or Chaos, or the Universe of Man with its +luminaries, or any other of the objects of his poetic contemplation +by day, that dreaming images come. Nor yet is it the recollection of +any business, Piedmontese, Swedish, or French, last employing him +officially, that now passes into his involuntary visions. His mind is +wholly back on himself, his hard fate of blindness, and his again +vacant and desolate household. But lo! as he dreams, that seems +somehow all a mistake, and the household is _not_ desolate. A +radiant figure, clothed in white, approaches him and bends over him. +He knows it to be his wife, whom he had thought dead, but who is not +dead. Her face is veiled, and he cannot see that; but then he had +never seen that, and it was not so he could distinguish her. It was +by the radiant, saintlike, sweetness of her general presence. That is +again beside him and bending over him, the same as ever; and it was +certainly she! So for the few happy moments while the dream lasts; +but he awakes, and the spell is broken. So dear has been that dream, +however, that he will keep it as a sacred memory for himself in the +last of all his Sonnets:-- + + "Methought I saw my late espoused saint + Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, + Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, + Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint. + Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint + Purification in the Old Law did save, + And such as yet once more I trust to have + Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint, + Came vested all in white, pure as her mind. + Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight + Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined + So clear as in no face with more delight. + But oh! as to embrace me she inclined, + I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night."[1] + +[Footnote 1: We do not know the exact date of this Sonnet; but the +internal evidence decidedly is that it was written not very long +after the second wife's death, and probably in 1658. The manuscript +copy of it among the Milton MSS. at Cambridge is in the hand of a +person who was certainly acting as amanuensis for Milton early in +1660 and afterwards.] + + + + +BOOK III. + +SEPTEMBER 1660--MAY 1660. + +HISTORY:--THE PROTECTORATE OF RICHARD CROMWELL, THE ANARCHY, +MONK'S MARCH AND DICTATORSHIP, AND THE RESTORATION. + + RICHARD'S PROTECTORATE: SEPT. 3, 1658--MAY 25, 1659. + + THE ANARCHY:-- + + STAGE I.:--THE RESTORED RUMP: MAY 25, 1659--OCT. 13, 1659. + + STAGE II.:--THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE GOVERNMENT: OCT. 13, 1659--DEC. + 26, 1659. + + STAGE III.:--SECOND RESTORATION OF THE RUMP, WITH MONK'S MARCH + FROM SCOTLAND: DEC. 26, 1659--FEB. 21, 1659-60. + + MONK'S DICTATORSHIP, THE RESTORED LONG PARLIAMENT, AND THE + RESTORATION. + +BIOGRAPHY:--MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH RICHARD'S +PROTECTORATE, THE ANARCHY, AND MONK'S DICTATORSHIP. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +First Section. + +THE PROTECTORATE OF RICHARD CROMWELL: SEPT. 3, 1658--MAY 25, 1659. + +PROCLAMATION OF RICHARD: HEARTY RESPONSE FROM THE COUNTRY AND FROM +FOREIGN POWERS: FUNERAL OF THE LATE PROTECTOR: RESOLUTION FOR A NEW +PARLIAMENT.--DIFFICULTIES IN PROSPECT: LIST OF THE MOST CONSPICUOUS +PROPS AND ASSESSORS OF THE NEW PROTECTORATE: MONK'S ADVICES TO +RICHARD: UNION OF THE CROMWELLIANS AGAINST CHARLES STUART: THEIR +SPLIT AMONG THEMSELVES INTO THE COURT OR DYNASTIC PARTY AND THE ARMY +OR WALLINGFORD-HOUSE PARTY: CHIEFS OF THE TWO PARTIES: RICHARD'S +PREFERENCE FOR THE COURT PARTY, AND HIS SPEECH TO THE ARMY OFFICERS: +BACKING OF THE ARMY PARTY TOWARDS REPUBLICANISM OR ANTI-OLIVERIANISM: +HENRY CROMWELL'S LETTER OF REBUKE TO FLEETWOOD: DIFFERENCES OF THE +TWO PARTIES AS TO FOREIGN POLICY: THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AND THE WAR +WITH SPAIN: RELATIONS TO THE KING OF SWEDEN.--MEETING OF RICHARD'S +PARLIAMENT (JAN. 27, 1658-9): THE TWO HOUSES: EMINENT MEMBERS OF THE +COMMONS: RICHARD'S OPENING SPEECH: THURLOE THE LEADER FOR GOVERNMENT +IN THE COMMONS: RECOGNITION OF THE PROTECTORSHIP AND OF THE OTHER +HOUSE, AND GENERAL TRIUMPH OF THE GOVERNMENT PARTY: MISCELLANEOUS +PROCEEDINGS OF THE PARLIAMENT.--DISSATISFACTION OF THE ARMY PARTY: +THEIR CLOSER CONNEXION WITH THE REPUBLICANS: NEW CONVENTION OF +OFFICERS AT WALLINGFORD-HOUSE: DESBOROUGH'S SPEECH: THE CONTENTION +FORBIDDEN BY THE PARLIAMENT AND DISSOLVED BY RICHARD: WHITEHALL +SURROUNDED BY THE ARMY, AND RICHARD COMPELLED TO DISSOLVE THE +PARLIAMENT.--RESPONSIBLE POSITION OF FLEETWOOD, DESBOROUGH, LAMBERT, +AND THE OTHER ARMY CHIEFS: BANKRUPT STATE OF THE FINANCES: NECESSITY +FOR SOME KIND OF PARLIAMENT: PHRENZY FOR "THE GOOD OLD CAUSE" AND +DEMAND FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE RUMP: ACQUIESCENCE OF THE ARMY +CHIEFS: LENTHALL'S OBJECTIONS: FIRST FORTNIGHT OF THE RESTORED RUMP; +LINGERING OF RICHARD IN WHITEHALL: HIS ENFORCED ABDICATION. + + +OLIVER was dead, and Richard was Protector. He had been nominated, in +some indistinct way, by his father on his death-bed; and, though +there was missing a certain sealed nomination paper, of much earlier +date, in which it was believed that Fleetwood was the man, it was the +interest of all parties about Whitehall at the moment, Fleetwood +himself included, to accept the death-bed nomination. That having +been settled through the night following Oliver's death, Richard was +proclaimed in various places in London and Westminster on the morning +of September 4, amid great concourses, with firing of cannon, and +acclamations of "_God save His Highness Richard Lord +Protector!_" It was at once intimated that the Government was to +proceed without interruption, and that all holding his late +Highness's commissions, civil or military, were to continue in their +appointments. + +Over the country generally, and through the Continent, the news of +Oliver's death and the news that Richard had succeeded him ran +simultaneously. For some time there was much anxiety at Whitehall as +to the response. From all quarters, however, it was reassuring. +Addresses of loyal adhesion to the new Protector poured in from +towns, counties, regiments, and churches of all denominations; the +proclamations in London and Westminster were repeated in Edinburgh, +Dublin, and everywhere else; the Armies in England, Scotland, and +Ireland were alike satisfied; the Navy was cordial; from Lockhart, as +Governor of Dunkirk, and from the English Army in Flanders, there +were votes of confidence; and, in return for the formal intimation +made to all foreign diplomatists in London of the death of the late +Protector and the accession of his son, there came mingled +condolences on the one event and congratulations on the other from +all the friendly powers. Richard himself, hitherto regarded as a mere +country-gentleman of simple and jolly tastes, seemed to suit his new +position better than had been expected. In audiences with deputations +and with foreign ambassadors he acquitted himself modestly and +respectably; and, as he had his father's Council still about him, +with Thurloe keeping all business in hand in spite of an inopportune +illness, affairs went on apparently in a satisfactory course.--A +matter which interested the public for some time was the funeral of +the late Protector. His body had been embalmed, and conveyed to +Somerset House, there to lie in open state, amid banners, +escutcheons, black velvet draperies and all the sombre gorgeousness +that could be devised from a study of the greatest royal funerals on +record, including a superb effigy of his Highness, robed in purple, +ermined, sceptred, and diademed, to represent the life; and not till +the 23rd of November was there an end to these ghastly splendours by +a great procession from Somerset House to Westminster Abbey to +deposit the effigy in the chapel of Henry VII., where the body itself +had already been privately interred.--A week after this disappearance +of the last remains of Oliver (Nov. 29, 1658) it was resolved in +Council to call a Parliament. This, in fact, was but carrying out the +intention formed in the late Protectorate; but, while the cause that +had mainly made another Parliament desirable to Oliver was still +excruciatingly in force,--to wit, the exhaustion of funds,--it was +considered fitting moreover that Richard's accession should as soon +as possible pass the ordeal of Parliamentary approval. Thursday, Jan. +27, 1658-9, was the day fixed for the meeting of the Parliament. +Through the intervening weeks, while all the constituencies were +busy with the canvassing and the elections, the procedure of Richard +and his Council at Whitehall seemed still regular and judicious. +There was due correspondence with foreign powers, and there was no +interruption of the home-administration. The Protector kept court as +his father had done, and conferred knighthoods and other honours, +which were thankfully accepted. Sermons were dedicated to him as "the +thrice illustrious Richard, Lord Protector." In short, nearly five +months of his Protectorship passed away without any tumult or +manifest opposition.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Merc. Pol._, from Sept. 1658 to Jan. 1658-9, as +quoted in _Cromwelliana_, 178-181; Thurloe, VII. 383-384, _et +seq._ as far as 541; Whitlocke, IV. 335-339; Phillips (i.e. +continuation of Baker's Chronicle by Milton's nephew, Edward +Phillips), ed. 1679, pp. 635-639; _Peplum Olivarii_, a funeral +sermon on Oliver, dated Nov. 17, 1658, among Thomason +Pamphlets.--Knights of Richard's dubbing in the first five months of +his Protectorate were--General Morgan (Nov. 26), Captain Beke (Dee. +6), and Colonel Hugh Bethel (Dee. 26). There may have been others.] + +Appearances, however, were very deceptive. The death of Cromwell had, +of course, agitated the whole world of exiled Royalism, raising sunk +hopes, and stimulating Charles himself, the Queen-Mother, Hyde, +Ormond, Colepepper, and the other refugees over the Continent, to +doubled activity of intrigue and correspondence. And, though that +immediate excitement had passed, and had even been succeeded by a +kind of wondering disappointment among the exiles at the perfect calm +attending Richard's accession, it was evident that the chances of +Charles were immensely greater under Richard than they had been while +Oliver lived. For one thing, would the relations of Louis XIV. and +Mazarin to Richard's Government remain the same as they had been to +Oliver's? There was no disturbance of these relations as yet. The +English auxiliaries in Flanders were still shoulder to shoulder with +Turenne and his Frenchmen, sharing with them such new successes as +the capture of Ypres, accomplished mainly by the valour of the brave +Morgan. But who knew what might be passing in the mind of the crafty +Cardinal? Then what of the Dutch? In the streets of Amsterdam the +populace, on receipt of the news of Cromwell's death, had gone about +shouting "The Devil is dead"; the alliance between the English +Commonwealth and the United Provinces had recently been on strain +almost to snapping; what if, on the new opportunity, the policy of +the States-General should veer openly towards the Stuart interest? +All this was in the calculations of Hyde and his fellow-exiles, and +it was their main disappointment that the quiet acceptance and +seeming stability of the new Protectorate at home prevented the +spring against it of such foreign possibilities. "I hope this young +man will not inherit his father's fortune," wrote Hyde in the fifth +month after Richard's accession, "but that some confusion will fall +out which must make open a door for us." The speculation was more +likely than even Hyde then knew. Underneath the great apparent calm +at home the beginnings of a confusion at the very centre were already +at work.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII. 405 and 414; Guizot's _Richard Cromwell +and the Restoration_ (English edition of 1856), I. 6-11.] + +It will be well at this point to have before us a list of the most +conspicuous props and assessors of the new Protectorate. The name +_Oliverians_ being out of date now, they may be called _The +Cromwellians_. We shall arrange them in groups:-- + +I. THE COUNCIL. + + Lord President Lawrence. + Lord Lieutenant-General Fleetwood (his Highness's brother-in-law). + Lord Major-General Desborough (his Highness's uncle-in-law). + Lord Sydenham (Colonel). + Lord Pickering (_Chamberlain of the Household_). + Lord Strickland. + Lord Skippon. + Lord Fiennes (_one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal_). + Lord Viscount Lisle. + Lord Admiral Montague. + Lord Wolseley. + Lord Philip Jones (_Comptroller of the Household_). + Mr. Secretary Thurloe.[1] + +[Footnote 1: On comparing this list of Richard's Council with the +list of the Council in Oliver's Second Protectorate (ante p. 308) two +names will be missed--those of the EARL of MULGRAVE and old FRANCIS +ROUS. The Earl of Mulgrave had died Aug. 28, 1658, five days before +Cromwell himself. The venerable Rous only just survived. He died +Jan. 7, 1658-9, and is hardly to be counted in the present list. +Richard's father-in-law, RICHARD MAYOR, though still alive and +nominally in the Council, had retired from active life.] + +II. NEAR ADVISERS, NOT OF THE COUNCIL. + + Lord Viscount Falconbridge (his Highness's brother-in-law). + Lord Viscount Howard (Colonel). + Lord Richard Ingoldsby (Colonel). + Lord Whitlocke (still a much respected Cromwellian, and conjoined + with Fiennes and Lisle in the Commission of the Great Seal, + Jan. 22, 1658-9). + Lord Commissioner John Lisle. + Lord Chief Justice Glynne. + Lord Chief Justice St. John. + William Pierrepoint. + Sir Edmund Prideaux (_Attorney General_). + Sir William Bills (_Solicitor General_). + Sir Oliver Fleming (_Master of the Ceremonies_). + Sir Richard Chiverton (_Lord Mayor of London_). + Dr. John Wilkins (his Highness's uncle-in-law). + Dr. John Owen. + Dr. Thomas Goodwin. + +III. CHIEF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ARMY IN OR NEAR LONDON:--Fleetwood +and Desborough, besides being Councillors, were the real heads of the +Army; and Skippon, Sydenham, and Montague, though of the Council too, +with Viscount Howard and Ingoldsby, among the near advisers out of +the Council, might also rank as Army-chiefs. But, in addition to +these, there were many distinguished officers, tied to the +Cromwellian dynasty, as it might seem, by their antecedents. Among +these were Edward Whalley, William Goffe, Robert Lilburne, Sir John +Barkstead, James Berry, Thomas Kelsay, William Butler, Tobias +Bridges, Sir Thomas Pride, Sir John Hewson, Thomas Cooper, John +Jones, and John Clerk. These were now usually designated, in their +military capacity, as merely _Colonels;_ but the first eight had +been among Cromwell's "Major-Generals," three of the thirteen had +their knighthoods from him, and nine of the thirteen (Whalley, Goffe, +Barkstead. Berry, Pride, Hewson, Cooper, Jones, and Clerk) had been +among his Parliamentary "Lords."--We have mentioned but the chiefs of +the Army, called "the Army Grandees;" but, since Richard's accession, +and by his consent or summons, Army-officers of all grades had +flocked to London to form a kind of military Parliament round +Fleetwood and Desborough, and to assist in launching the new +Protectorate. They held weekly meetings, sometimes to the number of +200 or more, in Fleetwood's residence of WALLINGFORD HOUSE, close to +Whitehall Palace; and, as at these meetings, as well as at the +smaller meetings of "the Army Grandees" in the same place, all +matters were discussed, WALLINGFORD HOUSE was, for the time, a more +important seat of deliberation than the Council-Room itself. There +were also more secret meetings in Desborongh's house. + +IV. WEIGHTY CROMWELLIANS AWAY FROM LONDON. (1) GENERAL GEORGE MONK, +_Commander-in-Chief in Scotland;_ with whom may be associated +such members of the Scottish Council as Samuel Desborough, Colonel +Adrian Scroope, Colonel Nathaniel Whetham, and Swinton of Swinton. +(2) LORD HENRY CROMWELL, _Lord Deputy of Ireland_ hitherto, but +now, by his brother's commission, _Lord Lieutenant of Ireland_ +(Sept. 1658); with whom may be associated such of the Irish Council +or military staff as Chancellor Steele, Chief Justice Pepys, Colonel +Sir Hardress Waller, Colonel Sir Matthew Tomlinson, Colonel William +Purefoy, Colonel Jerome Zanchy, and Sir Francis Russell. Also in +Ireland at this time, and nominally in retirement, but a Cromwellian +of the highest magnitude, was LORD BROGHILL. (3) Abroad the most +important Cromwellian by far was SIR WILLIAM LOCKHART, _Lord +Ambassador to France, General, and Governor of Dunkirk;_ with whom +may be remembered George Downing, Resident in the United Provinces, +and Meadows and Jephson, Envoys to the Scandinavian powers. Lockhart +managed to be in England on a brief visit in December 1658. + +These fifty or sixty persons, one may say, were the men on whom it +mainly depended, in the first months of Richard's Protectorate, +whether that Protectorate should succeed or should founder. It has +been customary, in general retrospects of the time, to represent some +of them as already tired of the Commonwealth in any possible form, +and scheming afar off for the restoration of the Stuarts. This, +however, is quite a misconstruction.--Monk, who is chiefly suspected, +and who did now, from his separate station in the north, watch events +in an independent manner, had certainly as yet no thought of the kind +imagined. He had sent Richard a paper of advices showing a real +desire to assist him at the outset. He advised him, substantially, to +persevere in the later or very conservative policy of his father, but +with certain differences or additions, which would be now easy. He +ought, said Monk, at once to secure the affections of the great +Presbyterian body, by attaching to himself privately some of the most +eminent Presbyterian divines, and by publicly calling an Assembly of +Divines, in which Moderate Presbyterians and Moderate Independents +together might agree on a standard of orthodoxy, and so stop the +blasphemy and profaneness "too frequent in many places by the great +extent of Toleration." Then, when a Parliament should meet, he ought +to bring a number of the most prudent and trustworthy of the old +nobility and the wealthy country gentry into the House of Lords. For +retrenchment of expense the chief means would be a reduction of the +Armies in England, Scotland, and Ireland, by throwing two regiments +everywhere into one, and so getting rid of unnecessary officers; nor +let his Highness think this advice too bold, for Monk could assure +him "There is not an officer in the Army, upon any discontent, that +has interest enough to draw two men after him, if he be out of +place." On the other hand, the Navy ought to be strengthened, and +many of the ships re-officered[1]--Such were Monk's advices; and, +whatever may be thought of their value, they were certainly given in +good faith. And so with those others to whom, from their subsequent +conduct, similar suspicions have been attached. At our present date +there was no ground for these suspicions. To some in the list, either +ranking among the actual Regicides or otherwise deeply involved in +the transactions of the late reign and their immediate consequences, +the idea of a Restoration of the Stuarts may have been more horrible, +on personal grounds, than it need have been to others, conscious only +of later participation and lighter responsibility; but not a man in +the list yet dreamt of going over to the Royalist cause. The +dissensions were as to the manner and extent of their adhesion to +Richard, and the policy to be recommended to him or forced upon him. + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII. 387-388.] + +Cromwell's death having removed the one vast personal ascendency that +had so long kept all in obedience, jealousies and selfish interests +had sprung up, and were wrangling round his successor. From certain +mysterious letters in cipher from Falconbridge to Henry Cromwell it +appears that the wrangle had begun even round Cromwell's death-bed, +"Z. [Cromwell] is now beyond all possibility of recovery" +Falconbridge had written on Tuesday, Aug. 31: "I long to hear from A. +[Henry Cromwell] what his intentions are. If I may know, I'll make +the game here as fair as may be; and, if I may have commission from +A., I can make sure of Lord Lockhart and those with him." One might +imagine from this that Falconbridge would have liked to secure the +succession for Henry; but it rather appears that what he wanted was +to counteract a cabal against the interests of the family generally, +which he had reported as then going on among the officers. Certain +it is that, after Richard had been proclaimed and Henry had most +loyally and affectionately put all his services at the disposal of +his elder brother, Falconbridge continued in cipher letters to inform +Henry of the proceedings of the same cabal. Gradually, in these +letters and in other documents, we come to a clear view of the main +fact. It was that the wrangle of jealousies and personal interests +round the new Protector had taken shape in a distinct division of his +adherents and supporters into two parties. First there was what may +be called the _Court Party_ or _Dynastic Party,_ +represented by Falconbridge himself, and by Admiral Montague, +Fiennes, Philip Jones, Thurloe, and others in the Council, with +Howard, Whitlocke, and Ingoldsby, out of the Council, and with the +assured backing of Henry Cromwell, Broghill, and Lockhart, if not +also of Monk. What they desired was to make Richard's Protectorate an +avowed continuation of his father's, with the same forms, the same +powers, and the permanence of the _Petition and Advice_ as the +instrument of the Protectoral Constitution in every particular. In +opposition to this party was the _Army Party,_ or +_Wallingford-House Party,_ led by Fleetwood and Desborough, with +a following of others in the Council and of the Army-officers almost +in mass. While maintaining the Protectorate in name, they were for +such modifications of the Protectoral Constitution as might consist +with the fact that the chief magistrate was now no longer Oliver, but +the feeble and unmilitary Richard. In especial, they were for +limiting the Protectorship by taking from Richard the control of the +Army, and re-assuming it for the Army itself in the name of the +Commonwealth. It was their proposal, more precisely, that Fleetwood +should be Commander-in-chief independently, and so a kind of military +co-ordinate with the Protector.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Falconbridge's Letters (deciphered) in Thurloe, VII. +365-366 et seq., with other Letters in Thurloe and Letters of the +French Ambassador, M. de Bordeaux, chiefly to Mazarin, appended to +Guizot's _Richard Cromwell and the Restoration,_ I. 231 _et +seq._] + +For nearly five months there had been this tug of parties at +Whitehall round poor Richard. Naturally, all his own sympathies were +with the Dynastic Party; and he had made this apparent. He had +proposed to bring Falconbridge and Broghill, perhaps also Whitlocke, +into the Council; and, when he found that the Army party would not +consent, he had declined to bring in Whalley, Goffe, Berry, and +Cooper, proposed by that party in preference. In the matter of the +limitation of his Protectorship by the surrender of his headship of +the Army he had been even more firm. The matter having come before +him formally by petition from the Council of Officers, after having +been pressed upon him again and again by Fleetwood and Desborough in +private, he had, in a conference with all the officers then in town +(Oct, 14). Fleetwood at their head, explained his sentiments fully. +The speech was written for him by Thurloe. After some gentle +preliminaries, with dutiful references to his father, it came to the +main subject. "I am sure it may be said of me," said Richard, "that +not for my wisdom, my parts, my experience, my holiness, hath God +chosen me before others: there are many here amongst you who excel me +in all these things: but God hath done herein as it pleased Him, and +the nation, by His providence, hath put things this way. Being then +thus trusted, I shall make a conscience, I hope, in the execution of +this trust; which I see not how I should do if I should part with any +part of the trust which is committed to me unto any others, though +they may be better men than myself." He then instanced the two +things which he understood to be demanded of him by the Army. "For +instance," he said, "if I should trust it to any one person or more +to fill up the vacancies of the Army otherwise than it is in the +_Petition and Advice_--which directs that the +commanders-in-chief of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the other +field-officers, should be from time to time supplied by me, with the +consent of the Council, leaving all other commissioned officers only +to my disposal--I should therein break my trust and do otherwise than +the Parliament intended. It may as well be asked of me that I would +commit it to some other persons to supply the vacancies in the +Council, in the Lords' House, and all other magistracies. I leave it +to any reasonable man to imagine whether this be a thing in my power +to do.... There hath also been some discourse about a +Commander-in-chief. You know how that stands in the _Petition_ +and _Advice_, which I must make my rule in my government, and +shall through the blessing of God stick close to that. I am not +obliged to make _any_ Commander-in-chief: that is left to my own +liberty, as it was in my father's; only, if I will make any, it must +be done by the consent of the Council. And by the Commander-in-chief +can be meant no other than the person who _under me_ commands +the whole Army, call him what you will--'Field-Marshal,' +'Commander-in-chief,' 'Major-General,' or 'Lieutenant-General.' ... +Commander-in-chief is the genus; the others are the species. And, +though I am not obliged to have any such person besides myself to +command all the forces, yet I _have_ made one: that is, I have +made my brother Fleetwood Lieutenant-General of all the Army, and so +by consequence commander-in-chief [_under me_]; and I am sure I +can do nothing that will give him more influence in the Army than +that title will give him, unless I should make him General +[_instead of me_]; and I have told you the reasons why I cannot +do that." Altogether, the speech, and the modesty with which it was +delivered, produced very considerable effect for the moment upon the +officers. Whalley, Goffe, Berry, and others are understood to have +shown more sympathy with Richard in consequence; there was respect +for his firmness among people generally when it came to be known; +and, though the meetings at Wallingford House and Desborough's house +were continued, action was deferred. One effect, however, had been to +rouse the dormant Anti-Cromwellianism of the Army-men, and to bring +out, more than Fleetwood and Desborough intended, that leaven of pure +Republicanism, or affection for the "good old cause" of 1648-1653, +which had not ceased, through all the submission to the Protectorate, +to lurk in the regiments in combination with Anabaptistry, +Fifth-Monarchism, and other extreme forms of religious Independency. +In the meetings round Fleetwood and Desborough there had been +reflections on the late Protector's memory far from respectful. Henry +Cromwell in Ireland had heard of this; and among many interesting +letters of his to various correspondents on the difficulties of his +brother's opening Protectorate, all showing a proud and fine +sensitiveness, with some flash of his father's intellect, there is +one (Oct. 20) of rebuke to his brother-in-law Fleetwood on account of +_his_ conjunction with the malcontents, "Pray give me leave to +expostulate with you. How came those 200 or 300 officers together? +... If they were called, was it with his Highness's privity? If they +met without leave in so great a number, were they told their error? I +shall not meddle with the matter of their petition, though some +things in it do unhandsomely reflect not only on this present, but +his late, Highness, I wish with all my heart you were +Commander-in-chief of all the forces in the three nations; but I had +rather have it done by his Highness's especial grace and mere motion +than put upon you in a tumultuary soldierly way. But, dear brother, I +must tell you (and I cannot do it without tears) I hear that dirt was +thrown upon his late Highness at that great meeting. They were +exhorted to stand up for that 'good old cause which had long lain +asleep,' &c. I thought my dear father had pursued it to the last. He +died like a servant of God, and prayed for those that desired to +trample upon his dust, for _they_ also were God's people. O dear +brother! ... whither do these things tend? Surely God hath a +controversy with us. What a hurly-burly is there made! A hundred +Independent ministers called together" [the Savoy Synod of the +Congregationalists, with Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Nye, Caryl, and +others, at their head, convoked Sept. 29, 1658, for framing a +Confession of Faith, by permission from the late Protector: see ante +p. 844]. "a Council, as you call it, of 200 or 300 officers of a +judgment! Remember what has always befallen imposing spirits. Will +not the loins of an imposing Independent or Anabaptist be as heavy as +the loins of an imposing Prelate or Presbyter? And is it a dangerous +error that dominion is founded on grace when it is held by the Church +of Rome, and a sound principle when it is held by the Fifth Monarchy? +... O dear brother, my spirit is sorely oppressed with the +consideration of the miserable estate of the innocent people of +these three poor nations. What have these sheep done that +_their_ blood should be the price of _our_ lust and +ambition? Let me beg of you to remember how his late Highness loved +you, how he honoured you with the highest trust in the world by +leaving the sword in your hand which must defend or destroy us; and +his declaring his Highness his successor shows that he left it there +to preserve _him_ and _his_ reputation. O brother, use it +to curb extravagant spirits and busybodies; but let not the nations +be governed by it. Let us take heed of arbitrary power. Let us be +governed by the known laws of the land, and let all things be kept in +their proper channels; and let the Army be so governed that the world +may never hear of them unless there be occasion to fight. And truly, +brother, you must pardon me if I say God and man may require this +duty at your hand, and lay all miscarriages in the Army, in point of +discipline, at _your_ door." Fleetwood could answer this (Nov. +9) but very lamely: "I do wonder what I have done to deserve such a +severe letter from you," &c. Fleetwood was really a good-hearted +gentleman, meaning no desperate harm to Richard or his Protectorate, +though desiring the Commandership-in-chief for himself, and perhaps +(who knows domestic secrets?) a co-equality of public status for his +wife, Lady Bridget, with the Lady-Protectress Dorothy. In fact, +however, Lieutenant-General Fleetwood and Major-General Desborough +between them had let loose forces that were to defy their own +management. Meanwhile, the phenomenon observable in the weeks +preceding the meeting of the Parliament which Richard had called was +that of a violent division already among the councillors and +assessors of the Protectorate. There was the _Court Party_ or +_Dynastic Party,_ taking their stand on the _Petition and +Advice,_ and advocating a strictly conservative and constitutional +procedure, in the terms of that document, on the lines laid down by +Oliver. There was also the _Army Party_ or _Wallingford-House +Party,_ led by Fleetwood and Desborough, with an immediate retinue +of Cromwellian ex-Major-Generals and Colonels purposely in London, +and a more shadowy tail of majors, captains, and inferior officers, +coiled away among the regiments.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII. 447-449, 454-455, and 498; Phillips, 639; +Guizot, I. 13-19, with Letters of M. de Bordeaux appended to the +volume.] + +More than questions of home-administration was involved in this +division of parties. It involved also the future foreign policy of +the Protectorate. The desire of Richard himself and of the Court +Party was to prosecute the foreign policy which Oliver had so +strenuously begun. Now, the great bequests from the late Protectorate +in the matter of foreign policy had been two: (1)_The War with +Spain, in alliance with France._ The Treaty Offensive and +Defensive with France against Spain, originally formed by Cromwell +March 23, 1656-7, and renewed March 28, 1658, was to expire on March +28, 1659. Was it to be then again renewed? If not, how was the war +with Spain to be farther conducted, and what was to become of +Dunkirk, Mardike, and other English conquests and interests in +Flanders? Mazarin was really anxious on this topic. The alliance +with England had been immensely advantageous for France; and could it +not be continued? In frequent letters, since Cromwell's death, to M. +de Bordeaux, the French Ambassador in London, Mazarin had pressed for +information on this point. The substance of the Ambassador's replies +had been that the new Protector and his Council, especially Mr. +Secretary Thurloe, were too much engrossed with home-difficulties to +be very explicit with him, but that he had reason to believe a loan +from France of £50,000 would aid the natural inclinations of the +Court-party to continue the alliance. This was more than Mazarin +would risk on the chance, though he was willing to act on the +suggestion of the ambassador that a present of Barbary horses should +be sent to Lord Falconbridge, or a jewel to Lady Falconbridge, to +keep _them_ in good-humour. There can be no doubt that +Falconbridge, Thurloe, Lockhart, and the Court Party generally, did +hope to preserve the close friendship with France and the hold +acquired by England on Flanders. Lockhart particularly had at heart +the hard, half-starved condition of his poor Dunkirk garrison and +the other forces in Flanders. On the other hand, there were signs +that public feeling might desert the Court Party in their desire to +carry on Oliver's joint-enterprise with France against the Spaniards. +Dunkirk and Mardike were precious possessions; but might it not be +better for trade to make peace with Spain, even if Jamaica should +have to be given back and there should have to be other sacrifices? +This idea had diffused itself, it appears, pretty widely among the +pure Commonwealth's men, and was in favour with some of the +Wallingford-House party. Why be always at war with Spain? True, she +was Roman Catholic, and the more the pity; but what did that concern +England? Was there not enough to do at home?[1] (2) _Assistance to +the King of Sweden_. A great surprise to all Europe just before +Cromwell's death had been, as we know, the sudden rupture of the +Peace of Roeskilde between Sweden and Denmark, with the reinvasion of +Zealand by Charles Gustavus, and his march on Copenhagen (ante p. +396). Had Cromwell lived, there is no doubt that, with whatever +regret at the new rupture, he would have stood by his heroic brother +of Sweden. For was not the Swedish King still, as before, the one +real man of mark in the whole world of the Baltic, the hope of that +league of Protestant championship on the Continent which Cromwell had +laboured for; and was he not now standing at bay against a most ugly +and unnatural combination of enemies? Not only were John Casimir and +his Roman Catholic Poles, and the Emperor Leopold and his Roman +Catholic Austrians, and Protestant Brandenburg and some other German +States, all in eager alliance with the Danes for the opportunity of +another rush against _him_; the Dutch too were abetting the +Danes for their own commercial interests? Actually this was the state +of things which Richard's Government had to consider. Charles +Gustavus was still besieging Copenhagen; a Dutch fleet, under Admiral +Opdam, had gone to the Baltic to relieve the Danes (Oct. 1658): was +Cromwell's grand alliance with the Swede, were the prospects of the +Protestant League, were English interests in the Baltic, to be of no +account? Applications for help had been made by the Swedish King; +Mazarin, through the French ambassador, had been urging assistance to +Sweden; the inclinations of Richard, Thurloe, and the rest, were all +that way. Here again, however, the perplexity of home-affairs, the +want of money, the refusal of Mazarin himself to lend even £50,000, +were pleaded in excuse. All that could be done at first was to +further the despatch to the Baltic of Sir George Ayscough, an able +English Admiral who had for some years been too much in the +background, but of whom the Swedish Count Bundt had conceived a high +opinion during his embassy to England in 1655-6, and who had +consequently been invited by the Swedish King to enter his service, +bringing with him as many English officers and seamen as he could. +This volunteer expedition of Ayscough Richard and his Council did at +once countenance. Nay, when news came (Nov. 8) of a great defeat of +Opdam's Dutch fleet by the Swedish Admiral Wrangel, the disposition +to help the Swede became stronger. On the 13th of that month a +special envoy from the Swedish King, who had been in London for some +weeks, took his departure with some satisfaction; and within a few +days Vice-Admiral Lawson and his fleet of some twenty or twenty-one +ships in the Downs had orders to sail for the Sound, for mediation at +least, but for the support of Charles Gustavus if necessary. The +fleet did put to sea, but with hesitations to the last and the report +that it was "wind-bound."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Letters between Mazarin and M. de Bordeaux in Guizot, I. +231-286, and II. 441-450; Thurloe, VII. 466-467.] + +[Footnote 2: Letters between Mazarin and M. de Bordeaux last cited, +with. Guizot, I. 23-26; Thurloe, VII. 412, 509, 529; Whitlocke for +Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. 1658, also for Aug. 1656; Phillips, +638.] + +"Wind-bound" was the exact description of the state of Richard's +Government itself. All depended on what should blow from the +Parliament that had been called. In the writs for the elections to +the Commons there had been a very remarkable retrogression from the +practice of Oliver for his two Parliaments. For those two Parliaments +there had been adopted the reformed electoral system agreed upon by +the Long Parliament, reducing the total number of members for England +and Wales to about 400, instead of the 500 or more of the ancient +system, and allocating the 400 among constituencies rearranged so as +to give a vast proportion of the representation to the counties, +while reducing that of the burghs generally and disfranchising many +small old burghs altogether. The _Petition and Advice_ having +left this matter of the number of seats and their distribution open +for farther consideration, Richard and his Council had been advised +by the lawyers that it would be more "according to law" and therefore +more safe and more agreeable to the spirit and letter of the +_Petition and Advice_, to abandon the late temporary method, +though sanctioned by the Long Parliament, and revert to the ancient +use and wont. Writs had been issued, therefore, for the return of +over 500 members from England and Wales by the old time-honoured +constituencies, besides additions from Scotland and Ireland. Thus, +whereas, for the last two Protectoral Parliaments, some of the larger +English counties had returned as many as six, eight, nine, or twelve +members each, all were now reduced alike to two, the large number of +seats so set free, together with the extra hundred, going back among +the burghs, and reincluding those that had been disfranchised. London +also was reduced from six seats to four. It seems amazing now that +this vast retrogression should have been so quietly accepted. It +seems even to have been popular; and, at all events, it roused no +commotion. It had been recommended by the lawyers, and it was +expected to turn out favourable to the Government.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 615-619; and compare the List of Members of this +Parliament of Richard (_Part. Hist._ III. 1530-1537) with the +lists of Oliver's two Parliaments _(Part. Hist._ 1428-1433, and +1479-1484).] + +On Thursday, Jan. 27, 1658-9, the two Houses assembled in +Westminster. In the Upper House, where Lord Commissioner Fiennes +occupied the woolsack, were as many of Cromwell's sixty-three "Lords" +(ante pp. 323-324) as had chosen to come. All the Council, except +Thurloe, being in this House, and the others having been, for the +most part, carefully selected Cromwellians, it might have been +expected that Government would be strong in the House. As it +included, however, Fleetwood, Desborough, and all the chief Colonels +of the Wallingford-House party, it is believed that in such +attendances as there were (never more than forty perhaps) that party +may have been stronger than the Court party. But it was the +composition of the Commons House that was really of consequence, and +here appearances promised well for Richard. The total number of the +members, by the returns, was 558, of whom 482 were from English +counties and burghs, 25 from Wales, 30 from Ireland, and only 21 from +Scotland. Some fifty of the total number were resolute pure +Republicans, among whom may be noted Bradshaw (Cheshire), Vane +(Whitchurch in Hants), Scott (Wycombe), Hasilrig (Leicester), Ludlow +(Hindon), Henry Neville (Reading), Okey (Bedfordshire), and Weaver +(Stamford); and there was a considerable sprinkling of +Anti-Cromwellians of other colours besides, including Lord Fairfax +(Yorkshire), Lambert (Pontefract), Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (Wilts), +and Major-General Browne (London). But Thurloe was there to represent +the Government in chief (returned by Cambridge University, but by +several other places also); and he could count about a hundred sure +English adherents on the benches; among whom were Sir Edmund +Prideaux (Saltash), Sir William Ellis (Grantham), together with his +own subordinate in the Council-office, William Jessop (Stafford), and +Milton's assistant in the Foreign Secretaryship, Andrew Marvell +(Hull). There were not a few Army-officers of the Wallingford-House +party; but, on the whole, this element did not seem to be +particularly strong in the House. Among the members for Scottish +constituencies were the Marquis of Argyle (Aberdeenshire), Samuel +Desborough (Midlothian), the Earl of Tweeddale (East Lothian), +Colonel Adrian Scroope (Linlithgow group of Burghs), Swinton of +Swinton (Haddingtonshire), Colonel Whetham (St. Andrews, &c.), and +Monk's brother-in-law, Dr. Thomas Clarges (Aberdeen, Banff, and +Cullen). Ireland had returned, among her thirty, Sir Hardress Waller +(Kerry, &c.), Sir Jerome Zanchy (Tipperary and Waterford), Sir +Charles Coote (Galway and Mayo), and two Ingoldsbys. The Scottish and +Irish representatives were, almost to a man, Government nominees. +Altogether, Thurloe's anxiety must have been about the yet unknown +mass of 300 or so, some scores of them lawyers, others +country-gentlemen, and many of them young, that formed the neutral +stuff to be yet operated upon. Among these, in spite of the oath of +fidelity to the Lord Protector, there were indubitably not a few who +were Stuartists at heart; but most wavered between Republicanism and +the Protectorate, and it was hopeful for Thurloe in this respect that +so much of the mass was Presbyterian. Ludlow, who did not at first +take his seat, tells us that he at last contrived to do so furtively +without being sworn, and seems to hint that Vane did the same. There +was negligence on the part of the doorkeepers, or they were confused +by the multitude of strange faces; for a stray London madman, named +King, sat in the House for some time, in the belief that, as one of +that name had been elected for some place, he might possibly be the +person.[1] + +[Footnote 1: List in _Parl. Hist._ III. 1530-1537; Ludlow, 619 +et seq.] + +Richard's opening speech was in a good strain. It assumed loyalty to +the memory of his father and to the _Petition and Advice_, and +recommended immediate attention to the arrears of the Army and to +other money-exigencies, with zealous prosecution of the war with +Spain, and consideration of what might be done for the King of +Sweden, the cause of European Protestantism, and English interests in +the Baltic. The speech was delivered in the Lords, only a few of the +Commons attending. They were busy with swearing in their members, and +with the election of a Speaker. Mr. Chaloner Chute, a lawyer, one of +the members for Middlesex, was unanimously chosen; but, short as the +session was to be, the House was to have three Speakers in +succession. Mr. Chute acted till March 9, when his health broke down, +and Sir Lislebone Long, one of the members for Wells, was appointed +his substitute. Sir Lislebone died only seven days afterwards (March +16), and Mr. Thomas Bampfield, one, of the members for Exeter, +succeeded him. Chute having died also, Bampfield became full Speaker. +April 15, 1659.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Parl. Hist._ III. 1537-1540, and Commons Journals +of dates.] + +A day or two having been spent in preliminary business, and the House +presenting the spectacle, long unknown in Westminster, of no fewer +than between 300 and 400 members in daily attendance, Thurloe, on the +1st of February, boldly threw down the gage by bringing in a bill for +recognising Richard's right and title to be Lord Protector. Hasilrig +and the Republicans were taken by surprise, and could only protest +that the motion was unseasonable and that other matters ought to have +precedence. The bill having been read the first time that day, +Thurloe consented that the second reading should be deferred to the +7th. On that day, accordingly, there began a debate which lasted for +seven successive days, and was a full trial of strength between the +Government and the Republicans. Hasilrig, Neville, Scott, Vane, +Ludlow, and others, exerted themselves to the utmost, Hasilrig +leading, and making one speech three hours long. It was evident, +however, that the Republicans knew themselves to be but a minority, +and used the debate only for re-opening the question of a Republic. +They did not attack the direct proposal of the Bill; on the contrary +they vied with the Cromwellians in language of respect for Richard. +"I confess I do love the person of the Lord Protector; I never saw +nor heard either fraud or guile in him." said Hasilrig. "I would not +hazard a hair of his present Highness's head," said Scott; "if you +think of a Single Person, I would have him sooner than any man +alive." They did not want, they said, to pull down the Protectorate; +they only objected to Thurloe's high-handed method for committing the +House to a foregone conclusion. But Thurloe beat. On Monday the 14th, +the question having been finally put "that it be part of this Bill to +recognise and declare his Highness Richard, Lord Protector, to be the +undoubted Lord Protector and Chief Magistrate," it was carried by 191 +votes to 168 to retain the words "recognise and," and so to accept +Richard's accession as valid already. On a proposal to leave out the +word "undoubted" Thurloe did not think a division worth while, but +made the concession. He did oppose a resolution, suddenly brought +forward, to the effect that the vote just passed should not be +binding until the House should have settled the clauses farther +defining the powers of the Lord Protector; but that resolution, +having caught the fancy of the House, passed with his single dissent. +On the whole, he had succeeded in his first great battle with the +Republicans.--Nor was he less successful in the second. The +Protectorship having been voted, it was Thurloe's policy to push next +the question of the recognition of the Other House, whereas the +Republicans desired to avoid that question as long as possible, so as +to keep the Other House a mere nonentity, while the Commons +proceeded, as the substantial and sovereign House, to define the +powers of the Protector. On the 18th of February, the Republicans, +having challenged a settlement of this difference by moving that the +question of the negative voice of the Protector in passing laws +should have precedence of the question of the Other House, were +beaten overwhelmingly by 217 votes to 86; and then for more than a +month the question of the Other House was the all-engrossing one. It +involved other questions, some of them apparently independent. Thus, +on the 8th of March, the debate took a curiously significant turn. +Indignant at the very notion that there should be anything in England +calling itself "The House of Lords," the Republican speakers had +played on this supposed horror with every variety of sarcasm, +sneering at the existing "Other House," with its shabby equipment of +old colonels and other originally mean persons. If there was to be a +House of Lords, Hasilrig and others now said imprudently, why should +it not be a real one, why should not the old nobility, so many of +them honourable men, resume their places? "Why not?" was the instant +retort from some independent members, with the instant applause of +many in the House. Hasilrig saw his mistake, of which Thurloe did not +fail to take advantage. "The old Peers," said Thurloe, "are not +excluded by the _Petition and Advice_: divers are +called,--others may be"; and the occasion was taken to pass a +resolution expressly reserving for such of the old peers as had been +faithful the privilege of being summoned to the Other House, should +the issue of the debate be in favour of the existence of that +institution. The divisions on this incidental resolution were the +largest recorded in the Journals of the House--the previous question +for putting the resolution being carried by 203 to 184, and the +resolution itself by 195 to 188. Though the majority was but small, +the gain to the Court Party was precious, because on an unexpected +point. But the Republicans had done themselves no good by their style +in the main discussion, A miscellaneous assembly always resents the +ungenerous, and the sneers at the existing composition of the Other +House had seemed ungenerous. "They have gone through wet and dry, hot +and cold, fire and water; they are the best officers of the best army +in the world; their swords are made of what Hercules's club was made +of": such were the terms in which one speaker defended the military +veterans of the Other House; and they were received with cheers. Nor +did the next step of the Republicans improve their position. Having +observed what a considerable proportion of Thurloe's majorities +consisted of the members from Scotland and Ireland, Cromwellians +nearly to a man, they tried to sweep these from the House in +anticipation of future votes. First, they raised the question about +the Scottish members, contending that their presence in an English +Parliament was unconstitutional, that the _de facto_ +incorporation of Scotland with the Commonwealth had never been +legally consummated, &c. On this subject, the House having first +negatived the proposal that the Scottish members should withdraw +during the debate, it was decided, March 21, by a majority of 211 +(Thurloe one of the tellers) to 120 (Vane one of the tellers), "That +the members returned for Scotland shall continue to sit as members +during this present Parliament," A like vote, March 23, retained the +Irish members. The Republicans had again lost character by this piece +of tactics. Not only was it offensive to Scotland and Ireland; but to +many disinterested English members it seemed a mean attempt to +depreciate, for a mere party purpose, those great achievements of +recent years which had made the British Islands, as if by miracle, +one body-politic at last. On the 28th of March the principal debate +came to an end in this two-claused Resolution: "That this House will +transact with the persons now sitting in the Other House, as an House +of Parliament, during the present Parliament; and that it is not +hereby intended to exclude such Peers as have been faithful to the +Parliament from their privilege of being duly summoned to be members +of that House." The final division was 198 to 125; but there had been +a preceding division on the question whether the words "when they +shall be approved by this House" should be inserted after the word +"Parliament" in the first clause. This very ingenious amendment of +the Anti-Cromwellians had been rejected by 183 votes to 146, the +tellers for the Cromwellian majority being the Marquis of Argyle and +Thurloe, and for the minority Lord Fairfax and Lord Lambert.--Thus, +at the end of the second month of the Parliament, the victory was +clearly with Thurloe and the Government. The Protectorship had been +recognised; and the Other House also had been recognised, rather +grudgingly indeed, and not by the desired name of "The House of +Lords," but with a proviso that seemed to put that and more within +reach. It had also been ascertained in general that, in a House of +Commons larger than had been seen in Westminster for many years, +Richard's Government was stronger, on vital questions, than the +Republicans and all other Anti-Cromwellians together. For there had +been discussions affecting the foreign policy of the Protectorate, +and in these the Republicans and Anti-Cromwellians had been equally +beaten. It had been, carried, for example, on Thurloe's +representation, to persevere in the despatch of a strong fleet to the +Baltic in the interest of the Swedish King; and such a fleet, now +under Admiral Montague's command, had actually sailed before the end +of March. It was in the Sound early in April.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates, and Guizot, I. 46-72 (where +the extracts from speeches are from _Burton's Diary_); also +Commons Journals of Feb. 21 and 24; and Thurloe, VII. 636-637 and +644-645.] + +In minor matters the House had shown some independence. On the 23rd +of February they had ordered the release of the Duke of Buckingham +from the imprisonment to which he had been committed by Oliver, +accepting the Duke's own word of honour, and Fairfax's bail of +£20,000, that he would not abet the enemies of the Commonwealth. So, +on the 16th of March, they had released Milton's friend, the +Republican Major-General Overton, from his four years' imprisonment, +declaring Cromwell's mere warrant for the same to have been +insufficient and illegal. This was a most popular act, and the +liberated Overton was received in London with enthusiastic ovations. +Other political prisoners of the late Protectorate were similarly +released, and, on the whole, the majority of the House, though with +all reverence for Oliver's memory, were ready to take any occasion +for signifying that his more "arbitrary" acts must be debited to +himself only. There were also distinct evidences of a disposition in +the House, due to the massive representation of the Presbyterians in +it, to question the late Protector's liking for unlimited religions +toleration. They approved heartily, it appears, of his Established +Church, and even of its breadth as including Presbyterians and +Independents; but, like preceding Parliaments, they were for a more +rigorous care for Church-orthodoxy, and more severe dealings with +"heresies and blasphemies." Quakers, Anti-Trinitarians, and Jews were +especially threatened. Here, indeed, the House meant rather to +indicate its good-will to the Protectorate than the reverse; for, +though. Richard and Henry Cromwell inherited their father's religious +liberality, and others of the Cromwellians agreed with them, not a +few were disposed, like Monk, to make a compact with the +Presbyterians for heresy-hunting part of the very programme of +Richard's Protectorate. The Toleration tenet, indeed, was perhaps +more peculiarly a tenet of the Republicans than of any other +political party, and not without strong reasons of a personal kind, +people said, on the part of some of them. Had not Mr. Henry Neville, +for example, been heard to say that he was more affected by some +parts of Cicero than by anything in the Bible? If heathenism like +that infected the Republican opposition, what could any plain honest +Christian do but support the Protectorate?[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates given, and of Feb. 26 and +April 2; Guizot, I. 103-104.] + +April 1659 was the third month of the Parliament. About a hundred of +the members hitherto in attendance had then withdrawn, and the +attendances had sunk to between 150 and 270. This was the more +ominous because the struggle had now ceased to be one between the +Protector's Government and the Opposition, and had become one between +the Court Party and the Army or Wallingford-House Party for the +farther use of Thurloe's victories. + +The Republicans, foiled in their own measures, had entered into +relations with the Wallingford-House magnates. True, these were not, +for the nonce, Republicans. On the contrary, they were still one wing +of the declared supporters of Richard's Protectorship, and their +chiefs all but composed that Other House the rights of which Thurloe +had vindicated so manfully against the Republicans, and which was now +therefore a working part of the Legislature. But might there not be +ways and means of breaking down the allegiance of the +Wallingford-House men to the Protectorate, their present implication +with it notwithstanding? They were primarily Army-chiefs, and only +secondarily politicians for the Protectorate; behind them was the +Army itself, charged with Republican sentiments from of old, and with +not a few important officers in it who were Republicans re-avowed; +and, besides, they were politicians for the Protectorate in an +interest of their own which quite separated them from the Court +Party. Might not these differences between the Court Party and the +Wallingford-House Party be so operated upon as to force the Court +Party into open antagonism to the Army, and so leave the +Wallingford-House men no option but to fall back upon Army +Republicanism and make the Army an agent, in spite of themselves, for +the "good Old Cause"? How well-founded was this calculation will +appear if we remember one or two facts. Cessation of Army-domination +in politics, and reliance on massive public feeling and on +constitutional methods, were now fixed principles of the Court +Party. Monk had expressed them when he advised Richard to reduce the +Army and get rid of superfluous officers, assuring him that the most +disaffected officer, once discharged, would be a very harmless +animal. Henry Cromwell had expressed the same in that letter to +Fleetwood in which he sighed for the happy time when the Army would +never be heard of except when it was fighting. Thurloe, Broghill, +Falconbridge, and the rest, were of the same general opinion; and +parts of the Army itself, they believed, had been schooled into +docility. Monk could answer for the troops and officers in Scotland, +Henry Cromwell for those in Ireland, and Lockhart for those in +Flanders. But then there was the great body of soldiers and officers +in England, with London for their rendezvous. To them abnegation of +direct influence in politics was death. It was not only their arrears +that they saw endangered, but that Army privilege of debating and +theorizing which had been asserted by Cromwell in the Civil War, and +which Cromwell afterwards, while regulating and checking it, had +never abolished. Were they to meet no more, agitate no more? Was the +great Army of the Commonwealth to be degraded, for the benefit of +this new Protector, into a mere collection of men paid for bestriding +horses and handling pikes and ramrods? So reasoned the rank and file +and the subalterns; but the chiefs, while sharing the general +feeling, had additional alarms of their own. They had left actions +behind them, done in their major-generalcies or other commands for +Cromwell, for which they might be called to account under a civilian +Protectorate, or other merely constitutional Government. There had +actually been signs in the present Parliament of a tendency to the +re-investigation of cases of military oppression and the impeachment +of selected culprits. Were the Army-men to consent, in such +circumstances, to give up their powers of self-defence and corporate +action? No! Oliver's son might deserve consideration; but Oliver's +Army had prior claims. + +Hitherto, Fleetwood, Desborough, and the rest of the +Wallingford-House Party, had been content with private remonstrances +with Richard on Army grievances in general, or particular grievances +occasioned by his own exercise of Army-patronage. A saying of +Richard's in one of these conferences had been widely reported and +had given great offence. In reply to a suggestion that he was doing +wrong in appointing any but "godly" officers, he had said, "Here is +Dick Ingoldsby, who can neither pray nor preach, and yet I will trust +him before ye all." As nothing was to be made of Richard in this +private way, the Army party had resolved on another great convention +of officers in London, nominally for the consideration of Army +affairs, but really to constrain both Richard and the Parliament. +Ludlow, who had hitherto been the medium of communication between the +Republicans and the Wallingford-House men, was informed of this +proposal; and he and the other Republicans looked on with the keenest +interest. Would Richard, with his recent experience, allow the +officers to reassemble in general council? To the horror of Broghill, +Falconbridge, Thurloe, and the rest of the Court party, it was found +that, in a moment of weakness, cajoled privately by Fleetwood and +Desborough, he _had_ given the permission, without even +consulting his Council. Nothing could be done but let the convention +meet, taking care that as many officers as possible of the Court +party should be present in it. Accordingly, on the 5th of April 1659, +there were about 500 officers of all ranks at Wallingford House, +Fleetwood and Desborough at the head of one Protectoral party, and +Broghill, Viscount Howard, Falconbridge, with Whalley and Goffe, +representing the other, while among the general body there were no +one knew how many pure Republicans. The meeting having been solemnly +opened with prayer by Dr. Owen, there was a vehement speech from +Desborough. The essence of the speech was that "several sons of +Belial" had crept into the Army, corrupting its former integrity, and +that therefore he would propose that every officer should be +cashiered that would not "swear that he did believe in his conscience +that the putting to death of the late King, Charles Stuart, was +lawful and just." Amid the cheers that followed, Lords Howard and +Falconbridge (two of the denounced "sons of Belial"?) left in +disgust; but Broghill remained and opposed bravely. He disliked all +tests; but, if there was to be a test, he would propose that it +should be simply an oath "to defend the Government as it is now +established under the Protector and Parliament." If the present +meeting insisted on a test, and did not adopt that one, he would see +that it should be moved in Parliament. This, supported by Whalley and +Goffe, calmed the meeting somewhat; and, after much more speaking, in +which the necessity of a separation of the military power from the +civil was a prominent topic, the result was "_A Humble +Representation and Petition of the Officers of the Armies of England, +Scotland, and Ireland_," expressed in general and not unrespectful +terms, but conveying sufficiently the Army's demands. Presented to +Richard in Whitehall on the 6th of April, this petition was forwarded +by him to the Commons on the 8th, with a letter to the Speaker. For +more than a week no notice was taken by the House; but, the petition +having been circulated in print, with other petitions and documents +more fierce for "the good old cause," and the general council of +officers still continuing the meetings at Wallingford House, with the +excitement of sermons and prayers added to that of their debates, the +House was driven at last into that attitude of direct antagonism to +the Army in the name of the Protectorate on which both Royalists and +Republicans had calculated. Thurloe would fain have avoided this, and +had almost longed for some Cavalier outbreak to occupy the two +conflicting Protectoral parties and reunite them. But the numerous +Cavaliers in London had been well instructed and lay provokingly +still; and the management of the crisis for Richard had passed from +Thurloe to the House itself. On Monday the 18th of April, in a House +of 250, with shut doors to prevent any from leaving, it was resolved, +by 163 votes to 87, "That, during the sitting of the Parliament there +shall be no general council or meeting of the officers of the Army +without the direction, leave, and authority of his Highness the Lord +Protector and both Houses of Parliament"; and it was also resolved, +"That no person shall have or continue any command or trust in any of +the Armies or Navies of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or any of the +Dominions or Territories thereto belonging, who shall refuse to +subscribe, That he will not disturb nor interrupt the free meetings +in Parliament of any of the members of either House of Parliament, or +their freedom in their debates and counsels." The concurrence of the +Other House was desired in these votes; and the Commons, who had +noted with surprise that Hasilrig, Ludlow, Scott, and Vane, rather +took part with the Army in the debate, proceeded to the serious +consideration of the arrears of pay due to the officers and soldiers, +and of other real military grievances, in order to reconcile the +Army, if possible, to their strong Resolutions.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 633-638; Commons Journals of dates; Guizot, I. +112-120; Phillips, 641; Thurloe, VII. 657-658; Letters of M. de +Bordeaux to Mazarin, in Guizot, I. 361-365.] + +That was not possible. Richard, urged by Broghill and others, and +strengthened by the votes of the Commons, summoned up courage to go +to the council of officers at Wallingford House next day, and, after +listening to their debates for a while, declare their meetings +dissolved. The only effect was that they dispersed themselves then, +to meet from day to day just as before, Dr. Owen and other preachers +still among them. Meanwhile, the concurrence of the Other House with +the Resolutions having been purposely delayed and all but refused, +the Commons adopted what farther measures they could for securing +Richard's control of the militia. Richard was advised by those around +him to empower them to seize Fleetwood and Desborough, and also +Lambert, whose conjunction with the Wallingford-House party was now +notorious. He hesitated. He had never done harm to anybody, he said, +and he would not have a drop of blood shed on his poor account. The +question now was between a forced dissolution of the +Wallingford-House council of officers and a dissolution of the +Parliament itself. That, in spite of Richard's objection to violence, +seemed on the eve of being decided by a murderous battle in the +streets of London. Fleetwood, summoned to Whitehall to see the +Protector, neglected the summons; and through the night between +Wednesday the 20th and Thursday the 21st of April there was a +rendezvous in and round St. James's, by Fleetwood's order, of all the +regiments in town. A counter-rendezvous, in Richard's name, was +attempted at Whitehall; but Whalley, Goffe, and Ingoldsby, who would +have commanded here and done their best, found that they had no +soldiers to command, the bulk of their own regiments, with some of +Richard's guards, having preferred the other rendezvous. What then +happened is told by Ludlow in a single sentence. "About noon," says +the sturdy democrat, "Colonel Desborough went to Mr. Richard Cromwell +at Whitehall, and told him that, if he would dissolve his Parliament, +the officers would take care of him, but that, if he refused to do +so, they would do it without him, and leave him to shift for +himself." There was some consultation, in which Broghill, Fiennes, +Thurloe, Wolseley, and Whitlocke, took part. Whitlocke, as he tells +us, was against a dissolution even in that extremity; but most of the +others thought it inevitable. Richard, therefore, reluctantly +yielded; but, as he declined to dissolve the Parliament in person, a +commission for the purpose, directed to Lord Commissioner Fiennes, +the Speaker of the Upper House, was drawn up by Thurloe, and +delivered in the night to Fleetwood and Desborough. Next day, Friday +the 22nd, when the message came to the Commons by the Black Rod to +attend in the House of Lords, there was the utmost possible +confusion. Some members who had gone out were recalled; all were +ordered to remain in their places; there was a wild hubbub of motions +and speeches, Fairfax conspicuous for his indignation; and, at +length, the House, without paying attention to the summons of the +Black Rod, adjourned itself to Monday morning at eight o'clock. The +Dissolution, therefore, had to be effected by published proclamation, +and by padlocking and guarding the doors of the House.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 639-641; Whitlocke under date April 21, 1659; +Commons Journals of April 22; Phillips, 641-642; Guizot, I. +120-128, with Letters of M. de Bordeaux to Mazarin appended at pp. +366-375.] + +A week before the Dissolution the Parliament had estimated the public +debt, as it would stand at the end of the year then current, at a +total of £2,222,090, besides what might be due to the forces in +Flanders. Of this sum £1,747,584 was existing debt in arrears, +£393,883 was debt of the Navy running on for the year, and £80,623 +was the calculated deficit for the year by the excess of the ordinary +expenditure in England, Scotland, and Ireland over the revenues from +these countries. It is interesting to note the particulars of this +last item. The annual income from England was £1,517,275, and the +annual expenses in England £1,547,788, leaving a deficit for England +of £30,513; the annual income from Scotland was £143,652, but the +outlay £307,271 (more than double the income), leaving a deficit for +Scotland of £163,619; the annual income from Ireland was £207,790, +and the outlay £346,480, leaving a deficit for Ireland of £138,690. +This would have made the total deficit, for the ordinary +administration, civil and military, of the three nations, £332,823; +but, as £252,200 of this sum would be met by special taxes on England +for the support of the Armies in Scotland and Ireland, the real +deficit was £80,623, as above. How to meet that, and the £393,883 +running on for the Navy, and the arrears of £1,747,584 besides, and +the unknown amount that might be due to the Army in Flanders, was the +financial problem to be solved. Two millions and a half, it may be +said roughly, were required to set the Commonwealth clear.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, April 16, 1659.] + +The late Parliament having stated the problem, but having had no time +to attempt the solution, the responsibility had descended to those +who had turned them out. It was but one form of the enormous and most +complex responsibility they had undertaken; but it was the particular +form of responsibility that had most to do in determining their +immediate proceedings. Had it been merely the administration that had +come into their hands, with the defence of the Commonwealth against +the renewed danger of a Royalist outburst at home and inburst from +abroad to take advantage of the political crash, the +Wallingford-House chiefs would probably have thought it sufficient to +constitute themselves into a military Oligarchy for maintaining and +carrying on Richard's Protectorate. Fleetwood, Desborough, and +Lambert would have been a Triumvirate in Richard's name, and the only +deliberative apparatus would have been the general council of +officers continued, or a more select Council of their number +associated with a few chosen civilians. The Triumvirs might have +given such a form to the constitution as, while securing the real +power for themselves, and not abolishing Richard, would have +satisfied or beguiled for the moment the so-called Republicanism now +again rampant among the inferior Army-men. But there was no money; +Government in any form was at a deadlock until money could be raised; +and how was that to be effected? The Wallingford-House magnates did +meditate for an instant whether they should not try to raise money by +their own authority, but concluded that the experiment would be too +desperate, and that, for this reason, if for no other, some kind of +Parliament must be at once set up.--But what Parliament? Here they +had not far to seek. For the last month or more, placards on all the +walls of London, the very cries of news-boys in the streets, had been +telling them what Parliament. We have several times quoted the phrase +"The Good Old Cause," as coming gradually into use after Oliver's +death, and passing to and fro in documents and speeches. But no one +can describe now the force and frequency of that phrase in London and +throughout England in April 1659 and for months afterwards. If two +men passed you in the street, you heard the words "the good old +cause" from one of them; every second or third pamphlet in the +booksellers' shops had "The Good Old Cause" on its title-page or +running through its text; veterans rolled out the phrase sonorously +in their nightly prayers, or went to sleep mumbling it. One notes +constantly in the history of any country this phenomenon of the +expression of a great wave of feeling in some single popular phrase, +generally worn out in a few months; but the present is a peculiarly +remarkable instance. The phrase, in itself, was ambiguous. One might +have supposed "the good old cause" to be the cause of Royalty and the +Stuarts. This was an ironical advantage; for the phrase was a +Republican, and even a Regicide, invention. It meant, as we have +passingly explained, the pure Republican constitution which had been +founded on the Regicide and which lasted till Cromwell's dissolution +of the Rump on the 20th of April, 1653. It proclaimed that Cromwell's +Interim Dictatorship and Protectorate had been an interruption of the +natural course of things, dexterously leaving it an open question +whether that interruption had been necessary or justifiable, but +calling on all men, now that Oliver was dead and his greatness gone +with him, to regard his rule as exceptional and extraordinary, and to +revert to the old Commonwealth. It involved, therefore, a very exact +answer to the question which the Wallingford-House magnates were now +pondering. A Parliament was wanted: what other Parliament could it be +than the Rump restored? Let that very Assembly which Cromwell had +dissolved on the 20th of April, 1653, resume their places now, treat +the six years of interval as a dream, and carry on the +Government.--With this course prescribed to them by the very clamours +that were in the air, and pressed upon them by Ludlow, Vane, +Hasilrig, and the more strenuously Republican men of the Army-Council +itself, Fleetwood, Desborough, and the other magnates still faltered. +They hardly liked to descend from their own elevation; such +Republicanism as they had learnt of late to profess was not the old +Republicanism of Ludlow and Vane, but one admitting the supreme +magistracy of a Single Person; and they had obligations of honour, +moreover, to the present Richard. They pleaded that it was impossible +to restore the Rump, inasmuch as there were not survivors enough from +that body to make a House. Hereupon Dr. Owen, who seems to have been +extremely active in this crisis, produced in Wallingford House a +list, which he had obtained from Ludlow, of about 160 persons who had +been duly qualified (i.e. non-secluded) members of the Rump between +1648 and 1653, and were believed to be still alive. There were then +meetings for consultation at Sir Henry Vane's house, with farther +differences over some demands of the Army-magnates. They demanded the +payment of Richard's debts, ample provision for his subsistence and +dignity, and some recognition of his Protectorship; and they also +demanded that, besides the Representative House, there should be a +Select Senate or Other House. To these demands for a continuation of +the Protectorate in a limited form the Republicans could not yield, +though Ludlow, to remove obstructions, was willing to concede a +temporary Senate for definite purposes. The differences had not been +adjusted when the Wallingford-House men intimated that they were +prepared for the main step and would join with the Republicans in +restoring the Rump. This was finally arranged on the 6th of May, when +there was drawn up for the purpose "A Declaration of the Officers of +the Army," signed by the Army Secretary "by the direction of the Lord +Fleetwood and the Council of Officers," and when two deputations, one +of Army-chiefs with the Declaration in their hands, and the other of +independent Republicans, waited on old Speaker Lenthall at his house +in Covent Garden. It was for Lenthall, as the Speaker of the Rump at +its dissolution, to convoke the surviving members.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 644-649; Parl. Hist. III. 1546-7; Thomason +Pamphlets, and Chronological Catalogue of the same.] + +Ludlow becomes even humorous in describing the difficulties they had +with old Lenthall. To the deputation of Republicans, which arrived +first, "he began to make many trifling excuses, pleading his age, +sickness, inability to sit long," the fact being, as Ludlow says, +that he had been one of Oliver's and Richard's courtiers, and was now +thinking of his Oliverian peerage, which would be lost if the +Protectorate lapsed into a Republic. When the military deputation +arrived, and Lambert opened the subject fully, Lenthall was still +very uneasy. "He was not fully satisfied that the death of the late +King had not put an end to the Parliament." That objection having +been scouted, and the request pressed upon him that he would at once +issue invitations to such of the old members as were in town to meet +him next morning and form a House, "he replied that he could by no +means do as we desired, having appointed a business of far greater +importance to himself, which he would not omit on any account, +because it concerned the salvation of his own soul. We then pressed +him to inform us what it might be: to which he answered that he was +preparing himself to participate of the Lord's supper, which he was +resolved to take on the next Lord's day. Upon this it was replied +that mercy is more acceptable to God than sacrifice, and that he +could not better prepare himself for the aforesaid duty than by +contributing to the public good." As he was still obdurate, the +deputations told him they would do without him. The list of members +was divided among such clerks as were at hand, and the circulars were +duly sent out.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 649-650.] + +Next morning, Saturday May 7, 1659, about thirty of the members of +the old Rump were shaking hands with each other in the House of +Lords, waiting anxiously till as many more should drop in as would +make the necessary quorum of forty, before marching into the Commons. +Army officers and other spectators were in the lobbies, equally +anxious. Time passed, and a few more did drop in, including Henry +Marten, luckily remembered as in jail for debt near at hand, and +fetched thence in triumph. At length, about thirty-seven having +mustered, old Lenthall, who had spies on the spot, thought it best to +come in; and, about twelve o'clock, he led a procession of exactly +forty-two persons into the Commons House, the officers and other +spectators attending them to the doors with congratulations. The +House, having been constituted, entered at once on business, framing +a Declaration for the public suitable for the occasion, and +appointing several committees. They set apart next day, Sunday the +8th, for special religious services, with a re-inauguration sermon by +Dr. Owen.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 651-652; Commons Journals, May 7, 1659; Parl +Hist. III. 1547-1550.] + +On Monday, May 9, the small new House had to re-encounter a +difficulty which had troubled them somewhat at their first meeting on +Saturday. On that day, besides the forty-two members of the Rump who +had answered the summons, there had come to the lobbies fourteen +persons who had been members of the Long Parliament before it became +the Rump, i.e. before that famous Pride's Purge of Dec. 6-7, 1648, +which excluded 143 of the Presbyterians and other Royalists from +their seats, and so converted the Long Parliament into the more +compact body wanted for the King's Trial and the formation of the +Republic (Vol. III. pp. 696-698). The fourteen, among whom were the +Presbyterians Sir George Booth and William Prynne, had insisted on +being admitted, but had been kept out by the officers after some +altercation. But now, on Monday, several of them were back, to see +the issue of a protest that had been meanwhile sent to the Speaker on +behalf of 213 members of the Long Parliament who were in the same +general predicament of "Secluded Members"--to wit, the 143 excluded +by Pride's Purge and seventy more who had been excluded at various +times before for Royalist contumacy. Finding the doors open, three of +these unwelcome visitors went in, of whom two came out again and were +not re-admitted, but one remained. That one was William Prynne. He +sat like a ghoul among the Rumpers. No persuasion on earth could +induce him to leave. Hasilrig stormed at him, and Vane coaxed him; +but there he sat, and there he would sit! He was a member of the Long +Parliament, and no other Parliament was or could be rightfully in +existence but that; if they turned him out, it should only be by +carrying him out by his feet and shoulders! Unwilling to resort to +that method, those present got rid of the intruder by postponing +their meeting to a later hour, and taking care that, when Prynne +reappeared, he should be turned back. The House that day passed an +order that none should sit in it but genuine Rumpers, appointing a +committee to ascertain who these were and to report on dubious cases; +and the order was affixed to the doors outside. For a day or two +Prynne and others still haunted the lobbies; but at length they +desisted, Prynne taking his revenge by at once printing _The +Republicans' and Others' spurious Old Cause briefly and truly +anatomized_, and then _One Sheet, or, if you will, a Winding +Sheet, for the Good Old Cause_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Guizot, I. 138-141; Commons Journals, May 9, 1659; +Catalogue of Thomason Pamphlets. The first of the two named pamphlets +of Prynne appeared, with his name in full, May 13; the second, "by +W.P.," May 30.--Prynne continued, in subsequent pamphlets, to +attack the Rumpers for the wrong done to him and the other secluded +members in still debarring them from their seats. One was entitled +_A True and Perfect Narrative of what was done, spoken, by and +between Mr. Prynne, the old and newly-forcibly late Secluded +Members, the Army Officers, and those now sitting both in the +Commons Lobby, House, and elsewhere, on Saturday and Monday last +(the 7 and 9 of this instant May)_. Though so entitled, it did +not appear till June 13. It contained this passage against the +Bumpers:--"Themselves in divers of their printed Declarations, and +their instruments in sundry books (as JOHN GOODWIN, MARKHAM +NEEDHAM, MELTON, and others), justified, maintained, the very +highest, worst, treasonablest, execrablest, of all Popish, +Jesuitical, Unchristian, tenets, practices, treasons, as the +murthering of Christian Protestant Kings." This is a sample at once +of Prynne's style and of his accuracy. He does not take the trouble +to know the names of the persons he writes about, but plods, on +like a rhinoceros in blinkers.] + +For eighteen days after the resuscitation of the Rump, and +notwithstanding their distinct announcement in their public +declaration that they were to "endeavour the settlement" of the +Commonwealth "without a Single Person, Kingship, or House of Peers," +Richard still lingered in Whitehall and his Protectorship remained +nominally in existence. But the Republicans made what haste they +could to put an end to that anomaly. Their difficulty lay in their +yet unadjusted differences with the Army-officers conjoined with them +in the Restoration of the Rump. Towards the removal of these +differences something was done on the 13th of May, when the House +appointed Fleetwood "Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-chief of the +land-forces in England and Scotland" (Ireland reserved), and +associated with him Lambert, Desborough, Berry, Ludlow, Hasilrig, and +Vane, in a commission of seven empowered to nominate, for approval by +the Parliament, the commissioned officers of the whole Army. Even +with, this arrangement, however, the Army-magnates were not +satisfied; and it left other differences over, which were restated +that very day in a petition and address from the whole Council of +Officers. This Petition and Address, presented to the House by a +deputation of eighteen chief officers, headed by Lambert and +Desborough, consisted of fifteen Articles, the last three of which +contained the points of most vital debate with the pure Republicans. +In Article XIII. it was petitioned that, for the Legislative, there +should be, in addition to the Popular or Representative House, "a +select Senate, co-ordinate in power." Article XIV. required also, for +the Executive; a separate Council of State. Article XV. concerned the +Cromwell family. It did not demand a continuation of the +Protectorate, but It demanded the payment by the State of all debts +contracted by Oliver or Richard in their Protectorates, the +settlement of £10,000 a year on Richard and his heirs for ever, the +settlement of a farther £10,000 a year on Richard for his life, and +the settlement of £8,000 a year for life on "his honourable mother," +the Protectress-dowager,--all this to the end that there might +remain to posterity "a mark of the high esteem this nation hath of +the good service done by his father, our ever-renowned General." The +House was not then prepared to answer the demands of Articles XIII. +and XV., but only that of Article XIV. after a certain fashion. It +was agreed that day that there should be an executive Council of +State, to consist of thirty-one persons, ten of them not members of +Parliament, the Council to hold office till Dec. 1 next ensuing; and +at that meeting and the two next the thirty-one Councillors were duly +chosen. Then, on the 21st of May, various addresses of confidence in +the new Government having by this time come in from London and other +parts, the Republicans felt themselves strong enough to discuss the +petition of the officers, article by article, accepting most of them, +but postponing the three last and another. Without saying what they +meant to do for the Cromwell family, they had In the Interim (May 16) +appointed a committee to "take into consideration the present +condition of the eldest son of the late Lord-General Cromwell, and to +inform themselves what his estate is, and what his debts are, and how +they have been contracted, and how far he doth acquiesce in the +government of this Commonwealth." There were interviews with Richard +in Whitehall accordingly, with the result that there was brought to +the House on the 25th of May a paper signed by him, together with a +schedule of his means and debts. The paper was, in fact, an +abdication, In these terms: "Having, I hope, in some degree, learnt +rather to reverence and submit to the hand of God than to be unquiet +under it, and, as to the late providences that have fallen out +amongst us, however, in respect of the particular engagements that +lay upon me, I could not be active in making a change in the +government of these nations, yet, through the goodness of God, I can +freely acquiesce in it, being made." He promised, in conclusion, to +live peaceably under the new government, and to do all in his power +to induce those with whom he had any interest to do the same. From +the accompanying schedule it appeared that his debts, incurred by his +father or himself in the Protectorship, amounted to £29,640, and that +his own clear revenue, after deduction of annuities to his mother and +others of the family, was but £1299 a year, and that encumbered by a +private debt of £3000. The House accepted the abdication, undertook +the discharge of the debts as stated, voted £2000 at once to Mr. +Richard, referred it to a committee to consider what more could be, +done towards his "comfortable and honourable subsistence," and, for +the rest, requested him to retire from Whitehall, and "dispose of +himself as his private occasions shall require." He lingered still a +little, fearing arrest by his creditors, but did at length retire to +Hampton Court, and thence into deeper and deeper privacy, to live +fifty-three years more and become very venerable, though the more +rude of the country-people would persist in calling him "Tumble-Down +Dick." In the week of his abdication there was on the London +book-stalls a rigmarole poem on the subject, called _The World in a +Maze, or Oliver's Ghost_. It opened with this dialogue between +father and son:-- + +_Oliver P._: Richard.!. Richard! Richard! + +_Richard_: Who calls "Richard"? 'Tis a hollow voice; + And yet perhaps it may be mine own thoughts. + +_Oliver_: No: 'tis thy father risen from the grave; + Nor--would I have thee fooled, nor yet turn knave. + +_Richard_: I could not help it, father.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Parl. Hist. III. 1551-1557; +Pamphlet, of given title, dated May 21 in MS. in the Thomason copy.] + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Second Section. + +THE ANARCHY, STAGE I.: OR THE RESTORED RUMP: + +MAY 25, 1859-OCT. 13, 1659. + +NUMBER OF THE RESTORED RUMPERS AND LIST OF THEM: COUNCIL OP STATE OF +THE RESTORED RUMP: ANOMALOUS CHARACTER AND POSITION OP THE NEW +GOVERNMENT: MOMENTARY CHANCE OF A CIVIL WAR BETWEEN THE CROMWELLIANS +AND THE RUMPERS: CHANCE AVERTED BY THE ACQUIESCENCE OF THE LEADING +CROMWELLIANS: BEHAVIOUR OF RICHARD CROMWELL, MONK, HENRY CROMWELL, +LOCKHART, AND THURLOE, INDIVIDUALLY: BAULKED CROMWELLIANISM BECOMES +POTENTIAL ROYALISM: ENERGETIC PROCEEDINGS OF THE RESTORED RUMP: THEIR +ECCLESIASTICAL POLICY AND THEIR FOREIGN POLICY: TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE +AND SPAIN: LOCKHART AT THE SCENE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS AS AMBASSADOR +FOR THE RUMP: REMODELLING AND RE-OFFICERING OF THE ARMY, NAVY, AND +MILITIA: CONFEDERACY OF OLD AND NEW ROYALISTS FOR A SIMULTANEOUS +RISING: ACTUAL RISING UNDER SIR GEORGE BOOTH IN CHESHIRE: LAMBERT +SENT TO QUELL THE INSURRECTION: PECULIAR INTRIGUES ROUND MONK AT +DALKEITH: SIR GEORGE BOOTH'S INSURRECTION CRUSHED: EXULTATION OF THE +RUMP AND ACTION TAKEN AGAINST THE CHIEF INSURGENTS AND THEIR +ASSOCIATES: QUESTION OF THE FUTURE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH: +CHAOS OF OPINIONS AND PROPOSALS: JAMES HARRINGTON AND HIS POLITICAL +THEORIES: THE HARRINGTON OR ROTA CLUB: DISCONTENTS IN THE ARMY: +PETITION AND PROPOSALS OF THE OFFICERS OF LAMBERT'S BRIGADE: SEVERE +NOTICE OF THE SAME BY THE RUMP: PETITION AND PROPOSALS OF THE +GENERAL COUNCIL OF OFFICERS: RESOLUTE ANSWERS OF THE RUMP: LAMBERT, +DESBOROUGH, AND SEVEN OTHER OFFICERS, CASHIERED: LAMBERT'S +RETALIATION AND STOPPAGE OF THE PARLIAMENT. + + +The Restored Rump, which had met on the 7th of May, 1659, only +forty-two strong, had very sensibly increased its numbers by the +25th, the day of Richard's abdication. In obedience to a summons sent +out to Rumpers in the country, between forty and fifty more had by +that time come in, raising the number in attendance to nearly ninety. +In subsequent months still others and others dropped in, till the +House could reckon about 122 altogether as belonging to it. The +following is the most complete list I have been able to draw out for +the whole of our present term of the existence of the Restored House. +Marks are added to each name, to signify the political course or +resting-place of its owner from his first connexion with the Long +Parliament to his present reappearance:-- + + The asterisk prefixed to a name denotes a _Regicide_, i.e. an + actual signer of the Death-Warrant of Charles I. (Vol. III. 720). + The contraction _Rec._ prefixed signifies that the person was + not an original member of the Long Parliament when it met in Nov. + 1640, but one of the _Recruiters_ who came in at various times + afterwards to supply vacancies. Most of these came in between Aug. + 1645 and the end of 1646 (Vol. III. 401-402); but there were stray + Recruiters through 1647 and 1648; nay, about _eight_ persons + were added by the Rump to itself by new writs issued after the + institution of the Commonwealth. _R_ added to a name signifies + a member of the Barebones Parliament of 1653; _O^1_ a member of + Oliver's First Parliament of Sept. 1654-Jan. 1654-5; _O^2_ a + member of Oliver's Second Parliament of Sept. 1656-Feb. 1657-8. The + addition [t] in the last case denotes that the person was one of + the Anti-Oliverians secluded at the beginning of the first Session, + but restored at the beginning of the second. _R_ denotes a + member of the Commons in Richard's late Parliament, just dissolved; + and _L_ denotes that the person had been one of Oliver's and + Richard's Lords. Other marks might have indicated the distinction + of having belonged to one, or more, or all of the Councils of State + of the Commonwealth, or to the Council of the Protectorate; but in + most cases there will be sufficient recollection of this + distinction by the reader, and references to the lists of the + Councils already given will be easy where particulars are wanted. + Aristocratic courtesy-designations of Oliverian origin are now + stripped off, so as to present the names in the form thought + correct by the restored Republic. + + _Speaker_: William Lenthall (_ætat._ 68), _O^1_, + _O^2_, _L_ + _Rec._ Andrews, Robert _R_ + _Rec._ Anlaby, John _B_, _R_ + _Rec._ Ash, James _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Atkins, Alderman + _Rec._ Baker, James _R_ + Barker, Col. John + _Rec._ Bennett, Col. Robert _B_, _O^1_, _R_ + _Rec._ Bingham, Col. John _B_, _0^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Birch, Col. John _O^1_, _O^2[t]_, _R_ + *_Rec._ Blagrave, Daniel _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Boone, Thomas _O^1_, _R_ + *_Rec._ Bourchier, Sir John + Brereton, Sir Wm., Bart. + _Rec._ Brewster, Robert _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + * Carew, John _B_ + * Cawley, William _R_ + *_Rec._ Challoner, Thomas _R_ + _Rec._ Corbet, John + _Rec._ Crompton, Thomas _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Darley, Henry _O^2[t]_ + _Rec._ Darley, Richard _O^2[t]_ + *_Rec._ Dixwell, Col. John _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Dormer, John + _Rec._ Dove, John + *_Rec._ Downes, Col. John + Dunch, Edmund _O^1_, _O^2_ + _Rec._ Earle, Serjeant Erasmus + Ellis, Sir William _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Eyre, Col. William _R_ + _Rec._ Fagg, John _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Fielder, Col. John _R_ + _Rec._ Fleetwood, Lieut.-Gen, Charles + _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + *_Rec._ Garland, Augustine _O^1_ + _Rec._ Gold, Nicholas _R_ + Goodwin, Robert _R_ + Goodwyn, John _O^1_, _O^2[t]_, _R_ + _Rec._ Gurdon, Brampton + Gurdon, John _O^1_ + Hallows, Nathaniel + Harby, Edward + _Rec._ Harrington, Sir James _O^1_ + _Rec._ Harvey, Col. Edward _O^1_, _O^2[t]_ + Hasilrig, Sir Arthur, Bart. _O^1_, _O^2[t]_, _R_, _L_ + _Rec._ Hay, William _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + Heveningham, William + _Rec._ Hill, Roger _R_ + Holland, Cornelius _O^1_ + *_Rec._ Hutchinson, Col. John + *_Rec._ Jones, Col. John (Cromwell's brother-in-law) + _O^2[t]_, _L_ + _Rec._ Jones, Col. Philip _B_, _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + _Rec._ Leman, William + _Rec._ Lechmere, Nicholas _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Lenthall, Sir John _R_ + Lisle, Lord Commissioner _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + Lisle, Viscount Philip _B_, _L_ + _Rec._ Lister, Thomas _O^1_, _O^2[t]_ + *_Rec._ Livesey, Sir Michael + _Rec._ Love, Nicholas _R_ + Lowry, John _R_ + _Rec._ Lucy, Sir Richard, Bart., _B_, _O^1_, + _O^2[t]_, _R_ + _Rec._ Ludlow, Lieut.-Gen. Edmund _R_ + * Marten, Henry + _Rec._ Martin, Christopher _B_, _R_ + *_Rec._ Mayne. Simon + Mildmay, Sir Henry _O^1_, _O^2[t]_, _R_ + *_Rec._ Millington, Gilbert + Monson, Viscount (Irish Peer) + Morley, Col. Herbert _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + _Rec._ Nelthorpe, James + _Rec._ Neville, Henry _R_ + Nicholas, Robert + Nutt, John + Oldworth, Michael + Palmer, Dr. John + Pembroke, the Earl of (Earl since 1650) + Pennington, Alderman Isaac + Pickering, Sir Gilbert, Bart. _B_, _O^1_, _O^2_ + _Rec._ Pigott, Gervase + Prideaux, Sir Edmund _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + * Purefoy, Col. William _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + Pury, Thomas, Senr. _O^1_, _O^2_ + _Rec._ Pury, Thomas, Junr. + Pyne, Col. John _B_ + _Rec._ Raleigh, Carew (son of the great Raleigh) _R_ + Reynolds, Robert _R_ + _Rec._ Rich, Col. Charles _R_ + _Rec._ Robinson, Luke _O^1_, _O^2_ + St. John, Chief Justice _L_ + _Rec._ Salisbury, the Earl of _O^1_, _O^2[t]_ + Salway, Major Richard _B_ + *_Rec._ Say, William + *_Rec._ Scott, Thomas _O^1_, _O^2[t]_, _R_ + _Rec._ Skinner, Capt. Augustine _O^1_ + _Rec._ Skippon, Major-Gen. _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + _Rec._ Sidney, Col. Algernon + _Rec._ Smith, Philip + *_Rec._ Smyth, Henry + _Rec._ Strickland, Walter _B_, _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + Strickland, Sir William _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + _Rec._ Sydenham, Col. Wm. _B_, _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + *_Rec._ Temple, James + *_Rec._ Temple, Peter + _Rec._ Thompson, Col. George _R_ + _Rec._ Thorpe, Serjeant Francis _O^1_, _O^2[t]_ + Trenchard, John _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + Trevor, Sir John _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + Vane, Sir Henry _R_ + _Rec._ Wallop, Robert _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + Walsingham, Sir Thomas + * Walton, Col. Valentine (Cromwell's brother-in-law) + *_Rec._ Wayte, Col. Thomas + _Rec._ Weaver, Edmund + _Rec._ Wentworth, Sir Peter + _Rec._ West, Edmund + _Rec._ Weston. Benjamin _R_ + _Rec._ White, Col. William + Whitlocke, Lord Commissioner _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + Widdrington, Sir Thomas _O^1_, _O^2_ + *_Rec._ Wogan, Thomas + _Rec._ Wroth, Sir Thomas _O^2_, _R_ + Wylde, Chief Baron _R_[1] + +[Footnote 1: I may explain the manner in which the list has been +prepared:--(1) I have gone over the Journals of the House through the +five months of its sittings--_Commons Journals_, Vol. VII. pp. +644-797--and collected the names appearing in the lists of +Committees. This certifies actual or assumed attendance, more or +less, and at one time or another. (2) I have compared the result with +a list in _Parl. Hist._, III. 1547-8. It is much less complete +than my own, giving only ninety-one names; but it helped me once or +twice. (3) For the political antecedents of the members I have +referred to Mr. Carlyle's Revised List of the Long Parliament, +appended to Vol. II. of his _Cromwell_, and to the Lists of the +Barebones Parliament, Oliver's two Parliaments, and Richard's +Parliament in Vol. III. of the _Parl. Hist._--With all my care, +I may have left errors. Once or twice, where there are several +persons of the same surname, I was doubtful as to the Christian +name. The Journals often omit that.--I have seen, since writing the +above, a folio fly-leaf, published in London in March 1660, giving +what it calls "a perfect list of the Rumpers." It includes 121 names, +and nearly corresponds with mine, but not quite--containing one or +two names not given in mine (e.g. Sir Francis Russell), and omitting +one or two I give. Effectively, I believe my own list the more +authentic.] + +From this list it will be seen, in the first place, that, if Ludlow +was correct in his estimate that there were 160 old Rumpers still +alive, a good many of them did not now reappear in that capacity at +Westminster. It will be seen, farther, that nearly two-thirds of +those who did re-appear were not original members of the Long +Parliament, but Recruiters. But this is not all. While about +one-third of the total number that re-appeared, including fifteen out +of the twenty-three Regicides on the list, had been in retirement +during the intervening governments from 1653 to 1659, about +two-thirds had not kept themselves so immaculate in that interval, +but had served in the Barebones Parliament or in the Parliaments of +the Protectorate. A good many of these, indeed--e.g. Birch, John +Goodwyn, Harvey, Hasilrig, Lister, Lucy, Mildmay, Scott, and Thorpe +had done so avowedly with Republican motives; but, on the other hand, +some--e.g. Colonel Philip Jones, Pickering, Prideaux, St. John, +Skippon, the two Stricklands, Sydenham, and Whitlocke--had merged +their Republicanism in Oliverianism, had been courtiers of Cromwell, +and had taken honours from him. The Restored Rump could be described +as unanimously a Republican body, therefore, only in the sense that +many in it had never swerved from pure Republican principles, and +that the rest were willing now to go back to such. Be it observed, +finally, that the number 122 represents the hypothetical strength of +the Restored House rather than its real strength. In the only +division in the House before the day of Richard's abdication the +Journals show but forty-four as present and voting; nor do the +records of divisions through the whole duration of the House ever +show more than seventy six as thus effectively present at any one +sitting. Only five or six times are as many as sixty noted as present +and voting. One infers that many of the members, after having begun +attending, ceased to do so, from indifference, or from dislike to +what was going on.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of May 13, 1659, with the recorded +divisions in the Journals for the whole session.] + +A very considerable proportion of the effective attendance in the +House must have been furnished by the presence in it of those members +who were members also of the Council of State. This body, appointed +by the House, May 13-16, to be an executive for the restored Rump +Government, consisted of twenty-one Parliamentary and ten +non-Parliamentary members. They were as follows, the asterisks again +denoting Regicides:-- + + Parliamentary Members + (In the order of the number of votes they obtained in the ballot). + + *Sir Arthur Hasilrig, Bart. + Sir Henry Vane Colonel + *Lieut.-General Ludlow + Lieut.-General Fleetwood + Major Richard Salway + Colonel Herbert Morley + *Thomas Scott Colonel + Robert Wallop + Sir James Harrington + *Colonel Valentine Walton + *Colonel John Jones + Colonel William Sydenham + Algernon Sidney + Henry Neville + *Thomas Challoner + *Colonel John Downes + Lord Chief Justice St. John + George Thompson + Lord Commissioner Whitlocke + *Colonel John Dixwell + Robert Reynolds + Non-Parliamentary Members. + + _Seven_ appointed without ballot. + + Thomas, Lord Fairfax _O^1_, _R_ + Major-General Lambert _O^1_, _O^2_, _R_ + Colonel John Desborough _O^1_, _O^2_, _L_ + Colonel James Berry _O^2_, _L_ + *John Bradshaw _O^1_, _O^2[t]_, _R_ + Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Bart. _B_, _O^1_, + _O^2[t]_, _R_ + Sir Horatio Townshend _R_ + + _Three_ chosen, by ballot. + + Josiah Berners _O^1_ + Sir Archibald Johnstone, of Warriston _L_ + Sir Robert Honeywood _R_ + +Fairfax was put among the non-Parliamentary ten because, though he +had been a member of the Rump (a very late Recruiter, elected Feb. +1648-9), he had retired from it before its dissolution. His +nomination now to a seat in the Council was but a compliment, for he +withdrew into Yorkshire. An exceptional appointment was that of the +Scottish Sir Archibald Johnstone of Warriston. The Restored Rump was +avowedly an English Parliament only, treating the union with Scotland +as a business yet to be consummated. The election of a single +Scotchman among the non-Parliamentary members of the Council was like +a pledge that Scottish interests should not meanwhile be neglected. +His election was by the recommendation of his friend Vane, who +probably knew that Johnstone was by this time a _bonâ fide_ +Republican. More questionable appointments, from the Republican point +of view, were those of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and Sir Horatio +Townshend. The second, a cousin of Fairfax, and one of the wealthiest +men in Norfolk, was in secret communication with Charles II., and had +express permission from him to accept the present appointment.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, May 13-16, 1659; Markham's Fairfax, +375; Baillie's Letters, III. 430; Guizot, I. 153.] + +There was one fatal absurdity in the position of the Restored Rump +Government. It came together in the name of "the good old cause," or +a pure and absolute Republic; and yet it stood there itself in +glaring contradiction to what is usually regarded, and to what itself +put forth, as the very root-principle of a pure Republic--to wit, the +Sovereignty of the People. Richard's House of Commons had been as +freely elected as any House of Commons since that of the Long +Parliament, and, as far as England and Wales were concerned, by the +same constituencies; it represented no past mood of the community, +but precisely their mood in January 1658-9; and the attendances in +the House, when it did meet, were unusually numerous. Well, in a +series of debates and votes, in which there was no concussion, this +Parliament had declared, in the main, for a continuation of the +Protectorate and the Protectoral Constitution as settled by Oliver's +Second Parliament. Hardly had this been done when, by a combination +in London between the disappointed Republicans and the Army +malcontents, the Parliament was abruptly dissolved. What then +stepped in to take its place? A small body, effectively about eighty +strong at the utmost, having no pretence of representing the +community at that time, or of being anything else than the casual +surviving rag of a Parliament of 500, the members of which had been +elected at various times, and irregularly, between 1640 and 1649. +Nay, it was not even the surviving rag of that Parliament itself, but +the rag of a stump to which that Parliament had been already reduced +in 1649 by prior military hacking and carving. What pinch of +representative virtue, for the England, Scotland, and Ireland of May +1659, or even for the non-Royalist portions of their populations, was +there in the Restored Rump? Many of them had not been in contact with +their original constituencies for ten years or more; those who had +gone back to their original constituencies, or to others, for +election to the Protectorate Parliaments, or to any of them, had by +that fact treated the rights of the Long Parliament, in its integrity +or in its last stump, as lapsed and defunct, and had appealed to the +community afresh. When that appeal had gone against them, when the +last and fullest Parliament had represented it as the will of the +people that the Protectoral system should be continued, was it not +odd that about forty of the defeated minority of that Parliament, +without consulting their constituencies, should associate themselves +with a number of others, then quite astray from any constituencies, +and with no other title than that of being Old Rumpers too, and this +for the purpose of instituting the very form of Government just +ascertained to be unpopular? It was odd _theoretically_; for, +though there were then Republicans--Milton for one--who had adopted +the principle (essentially Cromwell's too) that the government of +States cannot and ought not to go by mere multitudinous suffrage, but +may be dictated and compelled by the proper few, the Rumpers did not +profess to be Republicans of this sort. The supremacy of the People +through a Single Representative House was the deepest theoretical +tenet of most of the men who had now met to oppose the will of the +People as declared in the fullest Representative House within memory. +But, though odd theoretically, the contradiction is of a kind common +enough in History. The ultra-Republicans of the Restored Rump, whose +very definition of the right Republican system was that there ought +to be nothing in it _a priori_ whatever, were yet believers in +the indefeasible and _a priori_ authority of that Republican +system itself. In other words, so important was it that there should +be no government except by the people themselves through a +Representative House that, if the people would not govern themselves +by a Representative House in a certain particular manner, they must +not be allowed to govern themselves by a Representative House, but +must be governed by a non-representative House till they came to +their senses! + +These remarks are not made speculatively, but because they express +the sentiments common throughout the British Islands at the time, and +explain what followed. + +The first expectation after the usurpation of the Restored Rump had +been that there would be a civil war between the Protectoratists and +the Rumpers. For, though Fleetwood, Desborough, and the other +Army-officers at the centre, had been the agents in Richard's +downfall and had joined with the Republicans in restoring the Rump, +the chances of the Protectorate were by no means exhausted by +_their_ defection. While Richard lingered at Whitehall, his +Protectorship could not be said to be extinct, and whatever of +Cromwellianism survived anywhere apart from the central English Army +might be rallied for the rescue. There was Henry Cromwell and the +Army in Ireland; there was Monk and the Army in Scotland; there was +Lockhart and the Army in Flanders; there was the fleet under Admiral +Montague, a man marked even among Cromwellians for the ardour of his +devotion to Cromwell and his family; and there were other +Cromwellians of influence, dispersed from London by the recent +events, and carrying their resentment with them wherever they went. +Broghill and Coote were back in Ireland; Ingoldsby was on a visit to +Ireland to consult with Henry Cromwell; Falconbridge was in +country-seclusion; and the Marquis of Argyle (a Londoner and client +of the Protectorate for some years) was back furtively in Scotland, +to avoid arrest for his debts, and try new scheming. Then, if there +could be a combination of such elements, what masses of diffused +material on which to work! There was the great body of the English +Presbyterians, reconciled to Oliver's rule completely before his +death, and desiring nothing better now than a continuation of the +Protectoral system; there were the orderly and conservative classes +generally, including many Anglicans who had ceased to be Royalists; +and there were one knows not how many scattered Cromwellians, whether +in civil life or in the Army, whose Cromwellianism was, like +Montague's, less a political creed than a passionate private +hero-worship. Nor was this all. Louis XIV, and Mazarin were +Cromwellians too for the nonce, faithful to the memory of the great +man whose alliance they had courted, and ready to lend the armed aid +of France, if necessary, to the support of his dynasty. No one had +been watching the course of events in England more coolly than M. de +Bordeaux, the French Ambassador in London; and through. May and part +of June 1659 his letters to Mazarin show amply the nature of his +communications with Richard and Thurloe. "I have frequently renewed +my offers of the King's assistance," he wrote to the Cardinal on the +16th of May, nine days after the first meeting of the Restored Rump +and eleven days before Richard's abdication; and again, more +distinctly, on the 19th, "Having yesterday contrived to get an +interview with him [Thurloe] in the country, I assured him that the +King would spare neither money nor troops in order to re-establish +the Protector, if there were any likelihood of success," The +Ambassador, it is true, had conceived the bold private idea that +Louis XIV, and the Cardinal might do better by using such a fine +opportunity for an invasion and conquest of England by France on her +own account; and he had hinted as much to the Cardinal. The idea was +not encouraged; and so the position of M. de Bordeaux in London +remained that of a secret partisan of the Cromwellians, offering them +all help from France if they should engage in a civil war with the +Rumpers.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Guizot, I. 141-146, with Letters of M. de Bordeaux in +the Appendix to the volume (where the dates are by the French +reckoning)--especially Letters 46, 47, 48, and 49 (pp, 381-402); +Baillie, III. 430; Phillips, 647-648.] + +Before the middle of June it was evident that such a Civil War was +not to be feared. Richard himself had been quite inert in Whitehall, +and his abdication was a signal to all his partisans to give up the +cause. Even after that there were efforts or protests in his behalf +here and there, but they died away.--Monk, about whose conduct in the +crisis there had been great anxiety among the Rumpers, and who had +sulkily wanted to know at first what this "Good Old Cause" was that +they were so enthusiastic about in London, had already sounded the +Army in Scotland sufficiently to find that they would not oppose +their English brethren. A letter of adhesion to the Restored +Commonwealth by Monk and the Scottish Army had, accordingly, been +received May 18, and read in the House with great joy; and, though +there were still signs that Monk would stand a good deal on his +independence, his adhesion on any terms was an immense +gain.--Lockhart also, looking about him in Flanders, and considering +what would be best for English interests altogether, had given up all +thoughts of a revolt from the Rump by the Continental forces, and had +returned to England, early in June, to render his accounts. The +Council of the Rump, on their side, considering what was best in the +circumstances, with Dunkirk and the other results of Cromwell's +Flanders enterprise still on their hands, were glad to retain +Lockhart's services in the post of Ambassador to Louis XIV. and sent +him back, after a week or two, with re-credentials in that post from +the new Government.--There had been more uncertainty about Henry +Cromwell in Ireland. His great popularity and the conditions of the +country itself made a Cromwellian revolt there more likely than +anywhere else. But there was to be no such thing. Left by his inert +brother without direct communications, and receiving intelligence, as +he says, "only from common fame," Henry had very bravely held out to +the last, ascertaining the temper of his officers and the Army. Not +till the 15th of June was he clear as to his duty; but on that day, +having fully made up his mind, he addressed to the Speaker of the +Rump a letter worthy of himself and of the occasion. "All this +while," he wrote, "I expected directions from his Highness, by whose +authority I was placed here, still having an eye to the common peace, +by preventing all making of parties and divisions either among the +people or Army. But, hearing nothing expressly from him, and yet +having credible notice of his acquiescing in what Providence had +brought forth as to the future government of these nations, I now +think it time, lest a longer suspense should beget prejudicial +apprehensions in the minds of any, to give you this account: viz, +that I acquiesce in the present way of government, although I cannot +promise so much, affection, to the late changes as others very +honestly may. For my own part, I can say that I believe God was +present in many of your administrations before you were last +interrupted [i.e. before his Father's dissolution of them in April +1653], and may be so again; to which end I hope that those worthy +persons who have lately acknowledged such their interrupting you in +the year 1653 to have been their fault will by that sense of their +impatience be henceforth engaged to do so no more, but be the +instruments of your defence whilst you quietly search out the ways of +peace. .... Yet I must not deny but that the free submission which +many worthy, wise, and conscientious persons yielded to the late +Government under a Single Person, by several ways as well real as +verbal, satisfied me also in that frame. And, whereas my Father +(whom I hope you yet look upon as no inconsiderable instrument of +these Nations' freedom and happiness), and since him my Brother, were +constituted chief in those administrations, and that the returning to +another form hath been looked upon as an indignity to those my +nearest relations, I cannot but acknowledge my own weakness as to the +sudden digesting thereof, and my own unfitness to serve you in the +carrying on your further superstructures upon that basis. And, as I +cannot promote anything which infers the diminution of my late +Father's honour and merit, so I thank the Lord for that He hath kept +me safe in the great temptation wherewith I have been assaulted to +withdraw my affection from that Cause wherein he lived and died." +Thus beautifully and honourably did the real head of the Cromwells +then living draw down the family flag. He was in London on the 4th of +July, to attend the pleasure of the House; on which day they ordered +that it should be referred to the Council to hear his report on Irish +affairs, and then that "Colonel Henry Cromwell have liberty to retire +himself into the country, whither he shall think fit, on his own +occasions." The same day there was an arrangement for paying the +mourning expenses of Cromwell's funeral; and on the 16th the subject +of a retiring provision for Richard Cromwell was resumed. His debts, +as by former assurance, were to be discharged for him; he was to have +a protection from trouble from his creditors meanwhile; and farther +inquiry was directed into the state of his resources, with the +understanding that his income should receive such an increase as +should raise it to £10,000 a year in all.--Monk, Lockhart, and the +Cromwells themselves, having adhered to the new Government, there +could be no separate action by Montague even if he could have won the +Baltic Fleet to his will. Nor, of course, could Louis XIV. and +Mazarin do otherwise now than treat the Protectoratist cause as +extinct, and re-instruct M. de Bordeaux accordingly. He received +credentials as Ambassador from France to the new Government.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII. 669-671, and 683-684; Letters of M. de +Bordeaux, in Guizot, I. 409-413; Commons Journals, June 13 and July +2, 1659.] + +The Cromwellians or Protectoratists being thus no longer a party +militant, the struggle was to be a direct one between the Bumpers and +the cause of Charles II. Here, however, one has to note a most +extraordinary phenomenon. The cause of Charles II., by no exertion on +its own part, but by the mere whirl of events between May and July, +had received an enormous accession of strength. Baulked of their own. +natural purpose of a preserved Protectorate constitutionally defined +and guaranteed afresh, and resenting the outrage done to their latest +suffrages for that end, what could many of the Cromwellians do but +cease to call themselves by that now inoperative name and melt into +the ranks of the Stuartists? For the veteran Cromwellians, implicated +in the Regicide and its close accompaniments, this was, of course, +impossible. To the last breath _they_ must strive to keep out +the King; and, as they could do so no longer as Protectoratists, they +must fall in with the pure Republicans or Restored Rumpers, But for +the great body of the Cromwellians, not burdened by overwhelming +recollections of personal responsibility, there was no such +compulsion. What mattered it to the Presbyterians, or to that younger +part of the entire population which had grown into manhood since the +death of Charles I., whether Kingship, which they would willingly +enough have seen Oliver assume, should now come back to them with +the old dynasty? + +All this Charles and Hyde had been observing. From May 1659 it had +been their policy to enter into communications with the more eminent +of the disappointed or baulked Cromwellians, and to assure them not +only of indemnity for the past, but of rewards and honours to any +extent, if they would now become Royalists. Monk, Montague, Howard, +Falconbridge, Broghill, and Lockhart, had all been thought of. +Applications had been made even to the two Cromwells themselves, and +particularly to Henry Cromwell. There seems to be a reference to that +fact in the close of his fine letter to the Rump Parliament. He +thanked God that he had been able to resist temptation to a course +which in _him_, at all events, would have been infamous; and, +though, he could not serve the Republican Parliament in _their_ +"further superstructures," he could wish them well on the whole, and +so feel that he was remaining as true as he could be, in such +perplexed circumstances, to the cause wherein his father had lived +and died. Monk, without any such reservation, had already adhered to +the Parliament, and Charles's letter, when it did reach him, was not +even to remain in his own pocket till he should see his way more +clearly. Falconbridge and Howard, those two "sons of Belial" in +Desborongh's esteem, had meanwhile, I believe, let it be known that +they might be reckoned on by Charles, Montague and Broghill tended +that way, but were in no such haste. Lockhart had deemed it best to +enter the service of the Restored Rump, and would act honourably for +them while he remained their servant. Thurloe also, though not yet +safe from prosecution by the new Government, thought it only fair to +assist them with advices and information.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 650-651; Guizot, I. 177-178.] + +Meanwhile the new Government had been stoutly at work. The spirit of +the "good old cause" was strong in the two or three scores of members +most regularly in attendance, among whom were Vane, Marten, Ludlow, +Hasilrig, Scott, Salway, Weaver, Neville, Raleigh, Lister, Walton, +Say, Downes, Morley, and John Jones. Remembering the great days of +the Commonwealth between 1649 and 1653, and not inquiring how much of +the greatness of those days had been owing to the fact that the +politicians at the centre had then a Cromwell marching over the map +for them, and winning them the victories that gave them great work to +do, they set themselves, with all their industry, courage, and +ability, to prove to the world that those great days might be renewed +without a Cromwell. The Council generally held its meetings early in +the morning, so that the Council-business might not interfere with +their attendance in the House. Johnstone of Warriston, though a +non-Parliamentary member of the Council, at once acquired high +influence in it. He, Vane, and Whitlocke, were most frequently in the +chair. + +A new great seal; new Commissioners for the same (Bradshaw, Tyrrell, +and Fountain); new Judges; state of the public debts; orders for the +sale of Hampton Court and Somerset House; suspension of the sale of +Hampton Court; votes for pay of the Army and Navy; an Act of +Indemnity and Oblivion; a Bill for settling the Union with Scotland; +re-declarations of a Free Commonwealth, without Single Person, +Kingship, or House of Peers; Irish affairs; a Vote for ending the +present Parliament on the 7th of May ensuing: these mere headings +will indicate much of the miscellaneous activity of the Council, or +of the House, or of committees of the House, as far as to the end of +July. One may glance more closely at their proceedings and intentions +in two departments: (1) _Church and Religion_, On the 27th of +June, In reply to a petition from "many thousands of the free-born +people of this Commonwealth" for the abolition of Tithes, the House +voted that "the payment of Tithes shall continue as now they are, +unless this Parliament shall find out some other and more equal and +comfortable maintenance." Evidently, therefore, the Restored Rumpers +were not yet prepared to interfere materially with the +Church-Establishment as it had been left by Oliver. The petition, +however, which drew from them this declaration, is itself +significant. In the opinion of many over the country absolute +Voluntaryism in Religion was part and parcel of "the good old cause," +and ought to be re-proclaimed as such, at once. Nor, though the +Rumpers now refused to admit that, was sympathy with the demand +wanting within their own body. The majority of the Parliament and of +its Council were, indeed, orthodox Independents or +Semi-Presbyterians, approving of Cromwell's Church policy, and +anxious to support the existing public ministry. But Vane and some +other leading Rumpers were men of mystic and extreme theological +lights, pointing in the direction of Fifth-Monarchyism, Quakerism, +and all other varieties of that fervency for Religion itself which +would destroy mere state-paid machinery in its behalf, while a few, +on the other hand, such as Neville, were cool freethinkers, +contemptuous of Church and Clergy as but an apparatus for the +prevalent superstition. For the present, it had been thought +impolitic perhaps to divide counsels in that matter, or to give +offence to the sober majority of the people by reviving the question, +so much agitated between 1649 and 1653, whether pure Republicanism in +politics did not necessarily involve absolute Voluntaryism in +Religion; but the probability is that the question was only +adjourned. In the connected question of Religious Toleration the new +Government was more free at once to give effect to strong views; and, +though it was not formally announced that unlimited Toleration was to +be the rule of the Restored Republic, this was substantially the +understanding. On the whole, Cromwell's policy in Church-matters was +merely continued. (2) _Relations with Foreign Powers_. In this +matter the rule of the new Government was a very simple one. It was +to withdraw, as speedily as possible, from all foreign entanglements. +No longer now could Charles Gustavus of Sweden calculate on help from +England. Montague's Fleet, indeed, was still in the Baltic; Meadows +was re-commissioned as envoy-in-ordinary to the Kings of Denmark and +Sweden; envoys from Sweden had audiences in London; and at length, +early in July, the importance of the Baltic business was fully +recognised by the despatch of Algernon Sidney and Sir Robert +Honeywood, two of the members of the Council of State, and Mr. Boone, +a member of the House, to act as plenipotentiaries with Montague for +the settlement of the differences between Sweden and Denmark and +between Sweden and the Dutch. The instructions, however, were to +compel the Swedish King to a pacification, and to co-operate with the +Dutch and the Danes in that interest. As regarded the Dutch +themselves, among whom Downing was grudgingly continued as Resident, +there was the most studious care for a friendly intercourse. There +was no revival now of that imperious project of the old Commonwealth +Government for a union of the two Republics which had alarmed the +Dutch and led to the great naval war with them. It was enough that +the English should mind their own affairs, and the Dutch theirs. But +the determination to have no more of Cromwell's "spirited foreign +policy" was most signally manifested in the business of the French +alliance and the war with Spain. That peace should be made with Spain +was a foregone conclusion, and circumstances were favourable. The +Spaniards, crippled by their losses in Flanders, had for some time +been making overtures of peace to the French Court; these had been +received the more willingly at last because of the uncertainties in +which Louis XIV. and Mazarin were left by Cromwell's death; +negotiations had been cleverly on foot since the beginning of the +year for a treaty between the two Catholic Powers, to include the +marriage of Louis XIV. with the Spanish Infanta, Maria Theresa; and, +though the treaty had not been concluded, preliminaries had been so +far arranged that, since May 1659, there had been a cessation of +hostilities. Thus relieved already from the trouble of carrying on +military operations in Flanders, the Restored Rumpers took steps to +get themselves included in the Treaty in progress between the two +Kings, or, if they should fail in that, to secure peace with Spain +independently. This was the main business on which Lockhart had been +re-commissioned as ambassador to the French Court, From Paris he went +to St. Jean de Luz, at the foot of the Pyrenees, where Mazarin and +the Spanish Prime Minister Don Luis de Haro were then holding their +consultations. He arrived there on the 1st of August, in such +ambassadorial pomp as he thought likely to credit his difficult +mission. The business of that mission, was to undo the work he had +done for Cromwell. Such was the will of his new masters. Dunkirk and +the rest of Cromwell's acquisitions on the Continent were only a +trouble; and, if any decent arrangement could be made for selling +them either to France or back to Spain, why not be satisfied? War +with Continental Papacy and championship of Continental Protestantism +were but expensive moonshine.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, from May to the end of July 1659; Parl. +Hist. for same term; Commons Journals of dates; Guizot, I. +165-172.] + +In nothing was the Republican energy of the new Rumpers more +conspicuous than in their determination to subject all forms of the +public service to direct Parliamentary control. They would have all +rigorously in the grasp of the little Restored House itself, until +the power should be handed over to a duly constituted successor. +Hence their precaution, while nominating Fleetwood Lieutenant-General +and Commander-in-chief of the Forces in England and Scotland, of not +giving him supreme power in appointing his officers, but making him +only one of a Commission of Seven for recommending officers to the +House (May 13). Persevering in this policy, and becoming even more +stringent in it, notwithstanding the complaints of the Army-magnates +that it showed want of confidence in their integrity, the House +proceeded, May 28, to a vast remodelling of the entire Armies of +England. Scotland, and Ireland. Fleetwood was confirmed in the +Commandership-in-Chief for England and Scotland by a special Bill, +passed June 7; and by another Bill, passed June 8, reconstituting the +Commissioners for nominations of officers, it was secured not only +that such nominations should require Parliamentary approval, but also +that each commission to an officer should be signed by the Speaker in +the name of the Parliament, and delivered, if possible, to the +officer personally from the Speaker's own hands. Accordingly, on the +9th of June, Fleetwood himself was solemnly presented with a signed +transcript of the Act appointing him Commander-in-Chief in England +and Scotland; and from that day, on through the rest of June, the +whole of July, and even into August and September, much of the +business of the House consisted in passing commissions to the +officers recommended, sometimes with a rejection or substitution, and +in seeing the officers come up in batches to the Speaker to receive +their commissions one by one, each with a lecture on his duty. As +each foot-regiment, consisting of ten companies, had its colonel, its +lieutenant-colonel, its major, and its quartermaster, with seven +captains besides, and twenty subalterns, and as each horse-regiment, +consisting of six troops, had its colonel, its major, four captains +besides, six lieutenants, six cornets, and six quartermasters, one +may guess the tediousness of this process of approving nominations +and delivering commissions. About 1200 persons had to be approved and +commissioned, or, if we throw in chaplains, surgeons, &c., about 1400 +in all. Nevertheless, with certain arrangements for delivering +commissions to officers at a distance, the process was carried so far +that one can make out from the Journals of the House not only the +general plan of the Remodelling, but even the names of a large +proportion of the actually appointed officers. The essence of the +scheme was, of course, that all very pronounced Cromwellians,--e.g. +Falconbridge, Howard, Ingoldsby, Whalley, Barkstead, Goffe, and +Pride,--should be thrown out of their commands, and men of the right +stamp substituted. It is to be noticed also, however, that there were +to be now properly but two _Generals_, and that the highest +officers under these, whatever had been their previous designations, +were all, with a certain courtesy exception in favour of Lambert and +Monk, to rank on one level as merely _Colonels_. As far as to +these Colonels, the result was as follows: + +I. ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. + +_Commander-in-Chief_: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, CHARLES FLEETWOOD. + +I. FOR, SERVICE IN ENGLAND AND WALES: 1. _Colonels of Horse +Regiments_: John Lambert (with Richard Creed for his Major), John +Desborough, James Berry (with Unton Crooke for his Major), Robert +Lilburne, Francis Hacker, John Okey, William Packer (with John +Gladman for his Major), Nathaniel Rich, Thomas Saunders, and Herbert +Morley. 2. _Colonels of Foot-Regiments_: Lieutenant-General +Fleetwood, Lambert, Robert Overton, Matthew Alured, John Hewson (with +John Duckinfield for his Lieutenant-Colonel), John Biscoe, William +Sydenham, Edward Salmon, Richard Mosse, Richard Ashfield, Sir Arthur +Hasilrig, Thomas Kelsay, John Clerk, Robert Gibbon, Robert +Barrow.--One finds, besides, certain Colonels appointed to garrison +commands: e.g. Colonel Thomas Fitch to be Governor of the Tower, +Colonel Nathaniel Whetham to be Governor of Portsmouth, Colonel Mark +Grimes to be Governor of Cardiff Overton was Governor of Hall as well +as Colonel of a Foot-Regiment; and Alured had charge of the +Life-Guard of the House and the Council at Westminster,--All these +appointments were actually made; other colonelcies probably stood +over for consideration.--In the _Journals_ Lambert is styled +"Major-General Lambert," but that was only by courtesy. He had no +commission with that title; and Ludlow makes a point of marking this +by always calling him "Colonel Lambert" only. His distinction was in +holding two colonelcies together, one of Foot and one of Horse. + +II. FOR SERVICE IN SCOTLAND:--Here, probably because of Monk's +passive resistance, the reorganization was less completely carried +out; but the intention seems to have been that Monk, though in +courtesy he might still be called "General Monk," should have only, +by actual commission, the same distinction of double colonelcy that +Lambert had in England. He had a Regiment of Foot and also one of +Horse; and among the other Colonels were, or were to be, Thomas +Talbot (at Edinburgh), Timothy Wilkes (at Leith), Ralph Cobbet (at +Glasgow), Roger Sawrey (at Ayr), Charles Fairfax (at Aberdeen), +Thomas Read (at Stirling, with John Clobery for his +Lieutenant-Colonel), Henry Smith (at Inverness), John Pierson (at +Perth), the veteran Thomas Morgan of Flanders celebrity (a Dragoon +Regiment), and Philip Twistleton (a Horse Regiment). One or two of +these were substitutions for officers whom Monk preferred. + +II. IRELAND. + +_Commander-in-Chief_: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL EDMUND LUDLOW. + +Ludlow, after having been commissioned to an English Colonelcy of +Foot, was removed to this higher post, in succession to Henry +Cromwell, July 4, not with the title of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, +but with the military title of "Lieutenant-General of Horse." For the +Civil Government of Ireland there were associated with him, under the +title of Commissioners, Colonel John Jones, William Steele, Robert +Goodwyn, Colonel Matthew Tomlinson, and Miles Corbet. Ludlow did not +go to Ireland till late in July or early in August; and he had +stipulated, in accepting the Irish command-in-chief, that he should +be at liberty to return to England on occasion. + +Probably because Ludlow's recommendations from Ireland were waited +for, fewer commissions were actually issued for Ireland than for +England and Scotland. Ludlow himself, with Lambert and Monk, had the +distinction of a Colonelcy of Horse and one of Foot together; and +other Colonels appointed were Thomas Cooper, Richard Lawrence, +Alexander Brayfield, Thomas Sadler, and Henry Markham, for +Foot-Regiments, and Jerome Zanchy, Peter Wallis, and Daniel Axtell, +for Horse-Regiments. Sir Hardress Waller, Sir Charles Coote, +Theophilus Jones, and others to be heard of in Ludlow's memoirs, were +still on duty in their old Colonelcies when he arrived in Ireland. + +In exactly the same way was the Navy to be brought within +Parliamentary grasp. John Lawson, an assured Commonwealth's man, +having been appointed Vice-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief in the +narrow seas (to counterbalance the Cromwellian Montague), received +his commission from the Speaker's hands on the 8th of June; such +captains and other officers for Lawson's Fleet as were at hand +received their commissions in the same manner; and commissions signed +by the Speaker were sent out to the flag-officers, captains, and +lieutenants in Montague's Baltic Fleet.--More a matter of wonder +still was the re-organization of the Militia of the Cities and +Counties of all England and Wales. The regular Army could not but +remark the extreme attention of the Parliament to the recruiting and +re-officering of this vast civilian soldiery. A Bill for settling the +Militia, brought in on the 2nd of July, passed on the 26th; and from +that time there was a stream of Militia officers from the counties, +just as of the Regulars, to receive their commissions from the +Speaker. Old Skippon was re-appointed in his natural position as +Major-General of the Militia for the City of London (July 27) and +Commander-In-Chief of all the Forces within, the Weekly Bills (Aug. +2); and Lord Mayor John Ireton was one of the City Colonels.[1] + +[Footnote 1: I have compiled these lists of names, with some labour, +from the Commons Journals of May-Sept. 1659, aided by references to +Ludlow's Memoirs and other authorities for some particulars. There +may be one or two omissions in the lists of actually appointed +Colonels. Possibly also the distribution of the regiments between +England and Scotland, or between Great Britain and Ireland, may not +be absolutely correct. Perhaps that is hardly possible; for there +were shiftings of regiments between England and Ireland within the +few months under notice, and shiftings of regiments, or of parts of +regiments, between England and Scotland. I have put Overton among +the Colonels in England, because he was made Governor of Hull; but +the larger part of the regiment to which he was appointed was with +Monk in Scotland, and Overton's former military experience in high +command had been chiefly in Scotland.] + +The energetic little Rump and its Council were in the midst of all +this re-organizing and re-officering of the Forces of the +Commonwealth when a demand suddenly burst upon them for the actual +service of a portion of those forces, such as they were. + +After a long period of judicious quiet, Hyde and the other +Councillors of Charles abroad, in advice with the Royalists at home, +had resolved on testing the King's improved chances by a general +insurrection. The arrangements had been made chiefly by Mr. John +Mordaunt (see ante p. 337), Sir John Greenville, Sir Thomas Peyton, +Mr. Arthur Annesley, and Mr. William Legge. These five had been the +authorized commissioners for the King in England since March last in +place of the former secret commissioners of the Sealed Knot; and +Mordaunt had been in Brussels to consult with Charles. In idea at +least the arrangements had been most formidable. The conspiracy had +its network through all England and Wales, and included not only the +old Royalists, but also the more numerous Presbyterians and other +baulked Cromwellians, now known collectively as "new Royalists." +Mordaunt himself, with other friends, had undertaken Surrey; Sir +George Booth was to lead in Lancashire and Cheshire, where his +influence with the Presbyterians was boundless; old Sir Thomas +Middleton was to head the rising in Shrepshire and Flintshire; the +Earl of Stamford that in Leicestershire; Lord Willoughby of Parham +that in Suffolk; Colonel Egerton that in Staffordshire; Colonel +Rossiter that in Lincolnshire; Lord Herbert and Major-General Massey +were to rouse Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and the Welsh border; +and there were commissions from Charles to known persons in other +counties, with blank commissions besides. The Duke of Buckingham, the +Earls of Manchester, Derby, Northampton, and Oxford, Lord Fairfax, +Lord Bruce, Lord Falkland, Lord Falconbridge, Sir William Waller, +Colonel Popham, Colonel Ingoldsby, Mr. Edmund Dunch, and many others, +were all implicated, or reported as implicated. Major-General Browne +had been sounded, with a view to a rising of the London +Presbyterians. Moreover, there had been communications from Charles +himself to Admiral Montague in the Baltic, begging him to declare for +the cause, and bring his fleet, or at least his own ship, home for +use. There had been special devices also for bringing Monk into the +confederacy. "I am confident that George Monk can have no malice in +his heart against me, nor hath he done anything against me which I +cannot easily pardon," Charles had written to Sir John Greenville on +the 21st of July, authorizing him to treat with Monk, who was a +distant relative of Greenville's, and to offer him whatever reward in +lands and titles he might himself propose as the price of his +adhesion. With this letter there had gone one to be conveyed by +Greenville to Monk. "I cannot think you will decline my interest," +Charles there said, adding various kind expressions, and offering to +leave the time and manner of Monk's declaring for him entirely to +Monk's own judgment. The letter had not yet been delivered, but much +was expected from it. Meanwhile, as it was deemed essential to the +success of the insurrection that Charles himself should come to +England, he, Ormond, the Earl of Bristol, and one or two others, +went, with all possible privacy, from Brussels to Calais. The Duke of +York was to follow them thither, or to Boulogne; and all were to +embark together.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 868-870; Phillips, 640 and 619-651; Guizot, +191-204.] + +As usual, there was great bungling. On the one hand, Thurloe's means +of intelligence being still wonderfully goods, if only because the +Royalist traitor Sir Richard Willis still maintained with him the +curious compact made with Cromwell, and Thurloe's information being +at the disposal of the Rump Government, there had been time for some +precautions on their part, Through the whole of July 30 and July 31 +the Council, with Whitlocke for President, were busy with +examinations. On the other hand, and chiefly through the agency of +Willis himself, doubts and hesitations had already arisen among the +confederates. It had all along been Willis's good-natured policy to +balance his treachery in revealing the Royalist plans by preventing +his friends from running upon ruin by executing those plans; and this +policy he had again been pursuing. Now, though Charles had by this +time been made aware of Sir Richard's long course of treachery, and +had privately informed Mordaunt of the extraordinary discovery, the +fact had been too little divulged to destroy the effects of Sir +Richard's counsels of wariness and delay, agreeable as these +naturally were to men fearing for their lives and estates and +remembering the failure of all previous insurrections. In short, +whatever was the cause, August 1, which had been the day fixed for a +simultaneous rising in many places, passed with far less +demonstration than had been promised. Mordaunt and a few of his +friends tried a rendezvous in Surrey, only to find it useless; in +several other places those who straggled together dispersed +themselves at once; in Gloucestershire, where Major-General Massey, +Lord Herbert, and their associates, did appear more openly, the +affair ended in the arrest or surrender of the leaders, Massey +escaping after having been taken. Only in Cheshire, where Sir George +Booth was the leader, did a considerable body rise in arms. Booth, +the Earl of Derby, Colonel Egerton, and a number of others, having +met at Warrington, issued a proclamation in which no mention was made +of the King, but it was merely declared that certain "Lords, +Gentlemen, and Citizens, Freeholders and Yeomen, in this once happy +nation," tired of the existing anarchy and tyranny, had resolved to +do what they could to recover liberty and free Parliamentary +Government. Hundreds and hundreds flocking to their standard, they +marched on Chester and took the city without opposition, though the +castle held out. The agitation then extended itself into Flintshire, +where the aged Sir Thomas Middleton distinguished himself by +brandishing his sword in the market-place of Wrexham and proclaiming +the King. Various castles and garrisons in the two counties fell in, +and Presbyterian Lancashire was also in commotion. Sir George Booth +found himself at the head of between 4000 and 5000 men, and it +remained to be seen whether the movement he had begun so boldly in +Cheshire, Flintshire, and Lancashire, might not spread itself +northwards, eastwards, and southwards, and so do the work of the +universal rising originally projected. It was hoped that his Majesty +himself, instead of landing in the south of England, as had been +proposed, would appear soon in the district that had so happily taken +the initiative.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 869-871; Whitlocke, IV. 355-356; Phillips, +649-652 (where Booth's Proclamation is given).] + +After some hesitations among the Rumpers in London on the question +what officer should be sent against Sir George Booth, it was resolved +to send Lambert. He set out on the 6th of August, with three +regiments of horse, three of foot, one of dragoons, and a train of +artillery; and orders were sent for other forces to join him on his +march, and for bringing two regiments from Ireland and three from +Flanders. Communications were to be kept up between Lambert and the +Council at Westminster by messengers twice or thrice every day. Such +incessant communication was very necessary. Over England, Scotland, +and Ireland, the talk was of Sir George Booth's Insurrection, with +much exaggeration of its dimensions, and speculation as to its +chances. Old and new Royalists everywhere, and men who had not yet +declared themselves Royalists, were waiting for news that might +determine their course.--Above all, Monk at Dalkeith was looking +southwards with interest, and timing the arrival of each post-bag In +Edinburgh. He had then a visitor at Dalkeith, in the person of his +brother, the Rev. Mr. Nicholas Monk, minister of Kilhampton parish in +Cornwall, This gentleman had come to take home his daughter, who had +been living with Monk, a suitable husband having now been found for +her in England. But he had come on a little piece of business +besides. His Cornish living had been given him, about a year before, +by Sir John Greenville; and Sir John had thought him the very man to +be employed in bringing round Monk to the King's interest. He had, +accordingly, gone from Cornwall to London, had seen Greenville there +and received instructions, and had also consulted Dr. Thomas Clarges, +Monk's brother-in-law, and his trusty agent in London, Clarges, +without committing himself on the special subject of the mission, +easily procured a passage to Scotland by sea for Mr. Nicholas Monk. +He sailed for Leith, Aug. 5. He had not run the risk of carrying with +him the King's letters to Monk and Greenville; but he had got their +substance by heart. And so, having first sounded Monk's domestic +chaplain, Dr. John Price, who was of Royalist proclivities too, he +had opened to Monk the fact that his sole purpose In coming was not +to bring back his daughter. He told him of the King's commission to +Greenville to treat with him, of the King's letter to himself, of the +extent of the confederacy for the King in England, and of the hopes +that Sir George Booth's rising in Cheshire would yet bring out the +confederacy in its full strength. This was late at night in Dalkeith +House, when the two brothers were by themselves. "The thinking silent +General," we are told, listened and asked a few questions, but, as +usual, said not a word expressing either assent or dissent. Through +the next few days he and Dr. Price, with Dr. Thomas Gumble, the +Presbyterian chaplain to the Council in Edinburgh, and Dr. Samuel +Barrow, chief physician to the Army in Scotland, were much together +in private over a Remonstrance or Declaratory Letter, to be sent to +the ruling Junto in Westminster, "the substance of which was to +represent to them their own and the nation's dissatisfaction at the +long and continued session of this Parliament, desiring them to fill +up their members, and to proceed in establishing such rules for +future elections that the Commonwealth Government might be secured by +frequent and successive Parliaments." The letter had been drafted by +Dr. Price, agreed to at a meeting in Dr. Price's room on Sunday after +evening sermon, and signed by the four and by Adjutant Jeremiah +Smith; and Adjutant Smith was waiting for his horse to go into +Edinburgh, taking the letter with him for the signatures of other +likely officers, when Monk returned to the room and said it would be +better to wait for the next post from England. Next day the post +came, with such news that the letter was burnt and all concerned in +it were enjoined to secrecy.--The news was that Sir George Booth's +Insurrection had been totally and easily crushed by Lambert (August +17-19). Colonel Egerton and other prisoners of importance had been +taken; Sir Thomas Middleton had capitulated; Sir George Booth himself +and the Earl of Derby had escaped, but only to be taken a few days +afterwards.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 356-359; Phillips, 652; Skinner's Life of +Monk, 90-104; Wood's Ath., IV. 815; Phillips, 652-653.] + +At Westminster, where the good news was received Aug. 20, and more +fully Aug. 22 and Aug. 23, all was exultation. A jewel worth £1000 +was voted to Lambert, and there were to be rewards to his officers +and soldiers out of the estates of the delinquents. Since Lambert had +gone, there had been farther searches after delinquents; and, through +the rest of August and the whole of September, both the Council and +the House proceeded with inquiries and examinations relating to the +Insurrection. Among those committed to the Tower, besides Sir George +Booth and Lord Herbert, were the Earl of Oxford, Sir William Waller +("upon suspicion of high treason," aggravated by his refusal to +pledge his honour not to act against the Government), Lord +Falconbridge (discharged on bail of £10,000, Oct. 8), and Sir Thomas +Leventhorpe. The Earl of Derby, the Earl of Chesterfield, and Lord +Willoughby of Parham, in custody in the country, were to be brought +to London; proclamations were out against Mordaunt and Massey; and +the Duke of Buckingham, Sir Henry Yelverton, the poet Davenant, the +Earl of Stamford, Denzil Holies, and many others, including some +Presbyterian ministers, were under temporary arrest or otherwise in +trouble. Vane and Hasilrig conducted the inquiries as cautiously as +possible, and with every desire not to multiply prosecutions too +much. Thus, Admiral Montague, who had suddenly left the Baltic with +his whole fleet, against the will and in spite of the remonstrances +of his fellow-plenipotentiaries, Sidney, Honeywood, and Boone, and +who arrived off the English coast Sept. 10, only to know that the +Royalist revolt was at an end, and that any intentions he may have +had in connexion with it must be concealed, was not called in +question for his strange conduct. He came boldly to London, reported +himself to the Council of State, explained that he had come back for +provisions, &c., and was more or less believed.--For, in fact, the +Council itself, and the House itself, contained more open culprits. +Sir Horatio Townshend had shown himself in his true colours, and had +been among the first apprehended; and, though the wily Sir Anthony +Ashley Cooper cleared himself before a committee of the Council +appointed to investigate a charge against him, strong suspicions +remained. On the 8th of August, just after Lambert had marched +against Booth, there had been a call of the House with the result +that Mr. Peter Brooke and Mr, Edmund Dunch, two members who had never +attended and about whom there were evil reports, were fined £100 +each; and on the 13th of September, while Dunch's fine was remitted +on explanations given, Brooke, who had actually been in arms with +Booth, was brought to the bar of the House in custody, disabled from +sitting in Parliament, and sent to the Tower on a charge of high +treason. Again, on the 30th of September, there was a call of the +House, when fines of £100 were inflicted on Henry Arthington +(_Rec., O²_), John Carew (*_Rec., B_), Thomas Mackworth +(_Rec., O¹, O², R_), Alexander Popham (_O^1, O^2, R_), Richard +Norton (_Rec., B, O^1, O^2, R_), and John Stephens (_Rec., +R_). These six, I imagine, were so punished as having never +attended the House, and as notoriously contumacious or disaffected. +But the House took the opportunity of punishing with smaller fines, +ranging from £5 to £40, twenty-five members who had been attending of +late too negligently; among whom were Lord Chief Justice St. John, +Viscount Lisle, Lord Commissioner Lisle, Colonel Hutchinson, and +Colonel Philip Jones. At the same time they made an example of +Major-General Harrison (*_Rec., O^1, R_). He, of course, had +never attended in the Restored Rump, for the very good reason that he +had been Cromwell's chief aider and abettor in the dissolution of the +Rump in April 1653. Remembering that fact, the House now ejected him +altogether, and declared him incapable of ever sitting in a +Parliament. There was, of course, no suspicion of _his_ +complicity with the Royalists, nor of the complicity of many that had +been fined £5 or £20. The House, in its hour of triumph, was merely +settling all scores together.--In what high spirits Lambert's victory +had put the Rumpers appears from the fact that the House ordered the +release of the Quaker James Nayler at last (Sept. 8), and from such +half-jocular entries in the Order Books of the Council (Aug. 22 _et +seq._) as that Colonel Sydenham, Mr. Neville, or some other member +of the Council, or Mr. Brewster, a member of the Parliament, should +"have a fat buck of this season" out of the New Forest, Hampton Court +Park, or some other deer-preserve of the Commonwealth. The +attendances in the Council through August and September averaged from +twelve to sixteen, and generally included Whitlocke, Vane, Bradshaw, +Hasilrig, Scott, Johnstone of Warriston, Neville, Salway, Walton, +Berry, and Sydenham. Fleetwood and Desborough were more rarely +present.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates and of Aug. 25 and Sept. 14 +(Ashley Cooper); Whitlocke, IV. 355-362; Thurloe, VII. 731-734 +(about Montague); and Order Books of Council of State from Aug. 11 +to the end of September 1659. There is a gap in the series of the +Order Books, as preserved in the Record Office, between Sept. 2, +1658, the day before Oliver's death and Aug. 11, 1659. After Oct. +25, 1659, there is again a gap.] + +Precisely in this time of triumph after Lambert's success did the +Rumpers find leisure to address themselves to the question of the +Form of Government they were to set up in the Commonwealth before +retiring from the scene themselves. It was on the 8th of September +that, after some previous debates in the House, it was referred to a +committee of twenty-nine "to prepare something to be offered to the +House in order to the settlement of the Government of this +Commonwealth." The Committee was to sit from day to day, and to +report on or before the 10th of October. Vane was named first on the +Committee, which included also Hasilrig, Whitlocke, Marten, Neville, +Fleetwood, Sydenham, Salway, Scott, Chief Justice St. John, Downes, +Strickland, and Sir Gilbert Pickering. What a work for a Committee! +It was predetermined, of course, that the Constitution they were to +concoct was to be one suitable for a Free Commonwealth or Republic, +without King, Single Person of any other denomination, or House of +Lords; but, even within that prelimitation, what a range of +possibilities! Nor were the Committee to be perplexed only by the +varieties of their own inventiveness in the art of +constitution-making. All the theorists and ideologists of England, +Scotland, and Ireland, were on the alert to help them, Ludlow's +summary of the various proposals made within the Committee itself, or +pressed upon it from the outside, is worth quoting. "At this time," +he says, "the opinions of men were much divided concerning a Form of +Government to be established amongst us. The great officers of the +Army, as I said before, were for a Select Standing Senate, to be +joined to the Representative of the People. Others laboured to have +the supreme authority to consist of an Assembly chosen by the People, +and a Council of State to be chosen by that Assembly, to be vested +with executive power, and accountable to that which should next +succeed, at which time the power of the said Council should +determine. Some were desirous to have a Representative of the People +constantly sitting, but changed by a perpetual rotation. Others +proposed that there might be joined to the Popular Assembly a select +number of men in the nature of the Lacedæmonian Ephori, who should +have a negative in things wherein the essentials of the Government +should be concerned, such as the exclusion of a Single Person, +touching Liberty of Conscience, alteration of the Constitution, and +other things of the last importance to the State. Some were of +opinion that it would be most conducive to the public happiness if +there might be two Councils chosen by the People, the one to consist +of about 300, and to have the power only of debating and proposing +laws, the other to be in number about 1000, and to have the power +finally to resolve and determine--every year a third part to go out +and others to be chosen in their places." There were differences, +Ludlow adds, as to the proper composition of the body that should +consider and frame the new Constitution. Some were for referring the +deliberation to twenty Parliament men and ten representatives of the +Army, and proposed that, when these had agreed on a model, it should +be submitted first to the whole Army in a grand rendezvous. +Parliament, however, had settled the method of procedure so far by +appointing the present Committee.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of Sept. 8, 1659; Thomason Catalogue of +Pamphlets; Ludlow, 674-676.] + +Of the varieties of political theorists glanced at by Ludlow the most +famous at this time were the Harringtonians or Rota-men. Some account +of them is here necessary. + +Their chief or founder was James Harrington, quite a different person +from the "Sir James Harrington" now of the Council of State. He was +the "Mr. James Harrington" who had been one of the grooms of the +bedchamber to Charles I. in his captivity at Holmby and in the Isle +of Wight (Vol. III. p. 700). Even then he had been a political +idealist of a certain Republican fashion, and it had been part of the +King's amusement in his captivity to hold discourses with him and +draw out his views.--After the King's death, Harrington, cherishing +very affectionate recollections of his Majesty personally, had lived +for some years among his books, writing verses, translating Virgil's +Eclogues, and dreaming dreams. Especially he had been prosecuting +those speculations in the science of politics which had fascinated +him since his student days at Oxford. He read Histories; he studied +and digested the political writings of Aristotle, Plato, +Macchiavelli, Bacon, Hobbes, and others; he added observations of +his own, collected during his extensive travels in France, Germany, +and Italy; he admired highly the constitution of the Venetian +Republic, and derived hints from it; and, altogether, the result was +that he came forth from his seclusion with a more perfect theory and +ideal of a body-politic, as he believed, than had yet been explained +to the world. He had convinced himself "that no government is of so +accidental or arbitrary an institution as people are apt to imagine, +there being in societies natural causes producing their necessary +effects, as well as in the earth or the air"; and one of these +natural causes he had discovered in the great principle or axiom +"that Empire follows the Balance of Property." The troubles and +confusions In England for the last few ages were to be attributed, he +thought, not so much to faults in the governors or in the governed as +to a change in the balance of property, dating from the reign of +Henry VII., which had gradually shifted the weight of affairs from +the King and Lords to the Commons. But all could be put right by +adopting a true model. It must not be an arbitrary monarchy, or a +mixed monarchy, or a mere democracy as vulgarly understood, or any +other of the make-shift constitutions of the past, but something +worthy of being called a Free and Equal Commonwealth, and yet +conserving what was genuine and natural in rank or aristocracy. The +basis must be a systematic classification of the community in +accordance with facts and needs, and the arrangements such as to give +full liberty to all, while distributing power among all in such ways +and proportions as to keep the balance eternally even and make +factions and contests impossible. These arrangements, as he had +schemed them out, were to be very numerous and complicated, every +kind of social assemblage or activity, from the most local and +parochial to the most general and national, having an exact machinery +provided for it; but two all-pervading principles were to be election +by Ballot and rotation of Eligibility.--Harrington's ideal had been +set forth in a thin folio volume, entitled _The Commonwealth of +Oceana_, published in 1656, and dedicated to Cromwell. The book +was in the form of a political romance, with high-flown dialogues, +and a very fantastic nomenclature for his proposed dignities and +institutions, throwing the whole into the air of poetic or literary +whimsy. There was, however, an elaborate exposition of the system and +process of the Ballot. Though too fantastic for direct effect, the +book had been a good deal talked of, and had procured for the author +not only a considerable reputation, but also some following of +disciples. One of these, and his intimate friend, was the Republican +free-thinker Henry Neville. There had also been some criticisms by +opponents, Royalist and Republican; in answer to which Harrington, in +1658, had published a second treatise, called _The Prerogative of +Popular Government_, re-interpreting and vindicating the doctrines +of the _Oceana_, but more in a style of direct +dissertation.--The Harringtonians were by this time pretty numerous. +Besides Neville there were perhaps six or eight of them among the +Rumpers themselves. Why, then, should there not be an effort to +impregnate the "Good Old Cause," sadly in need of new impregnation of +some kind, with a few of the essential Harringtonian principles? By +Neville's means the effort had been actually made in the Parliament. +On the 6th of July there had been presented a petition from "divers +well-affected persons," to which the petitioners "might have had many +thousand hands" besides their own, had they not preferred relying on +the inherent strength of their case. The answer of the House, through +the Speaker, had been most gracious. They perceived that this was a +petition "without any private ends and only for public interest"; and +they assured the petitioners that the business to which the petition +referred, viz. the settlement of a Constitution for the Commonwealth, +was one in which the House intended "to go forward." There is nothing +in the Journals to indicate the nature of the petition; but it had +been drawn up by Harrington and may be read in his Works. It abjured, +in the strongest terms, Kingship or Single-Person Sovereignty in any +form, and particularly "the interest of the late King's son"; but it +represented the existing state of things as chaotic, and urged the +adoption of a definite Constitution for England, the legislative +part of which should consist of two Parliamentary Houses, both to be +elected by the whole body of the People. One was to contain about 300 +members, and was to have the power of debating and propounding laws; +the other was to be much larger, and was to pass or reject the laws +so propounded. Great stress was laid on Rotation in the elections to +both. "There cannot," said the petitioners, "be a union of the +interests of a whole nation in the Government where those that shall +sometimes govern be not also sometimes in the condition of the +governed"; and hence they proposed that annually a third part of each +of the two Houses should wheel out of the House, not to be +re-eligible for a considerable period, and their places to be taken +by newly elected members. Thus every third year the stuff of each +House would be entirely changed.--Not content with petitioning +Parliament, the Harringtonians disseminated their ideas vigorously +through the press. _A Discourse showing that the spirit of a +Parliament with a Council in the intervals is not to be trusted for a +Settlement, lest it introduce Monarchy_, was a pamphlet of +Harrington's, published July 28; another, published Aug. 31, was +entitled _Aphorisms Political_, and consisted of a series of +brief propositions: e.g. "Nature is of God," "The Union with +Scotland, as it is vulgarly discoursed of, is destructive both to the +hopes of a Commonwealth and to Liberty in Scotland." There were to be +other and still other publications, by Harrington or his disciples, +through the rest of the year, including, for popular effect, a copper +engraving of an Assembly in full session, watching the dropping of +noble voting-balls into splendid urns. But this was not all. The +Harringtonians set up their famous debating club, called _The +Rota_. "In 1659, in the beginning of Michaelmas term," says +Anthony Wood, "they had every night a meeting at the then Turk's +Head in the New Palace Yard at Westminster (the next house to the +stairs where people take water), called Miles's coffee-house--to +which place their disciples and virtuosi would commonly then repair: +and their discourses about Government and of ordering of a +Commonwealth were the most ingenious and smart that ever were heard, +for the arguments in the Parliament House were but flat to those. +This gang had a balloting box, and balloted how things should be +carried, by way of _tentamens_; which being not used or known in +England before upon this account, the room every evening was very +full. Besides our author and H. Neville, who were the prime men of +this club, were Cyriack Skinner, ... (which Skinner sometimes held +the chair), Major John Wildman, Charles Wolseley of Staffordshire, +Rog. Coke, Will. Poulteney, afterwards a knight (who sometimes held +the chair), Joh. Hoskyns, Joh. Aubrey, Maximilian Pettie of Tetsworth +in Oxfordshire, a very able man in these matters, ... Mich. Mallet, +Ph. Carteret of the Isle of Guernsey, Franc. Cradock a merchant, Hen. +Ford, Major Venner, ... Tho. Marriett of Warwickshire, Henry Croone a +physician, Edward Bagshaw of Christ Church, and sometimes Rob. Wood +of Linc. Coll., and James Arderne, then or soon afterwards a divine, +with many others, besides antagonists and auditors of note whom I +cannot now name. Dr. Will. Petty was a Rota-man, and would sometimes +trouble Ja. Harrington in his Club; and one Stafford, a gent. of +Northamptonshire, who used to be an auditor, did with his gang come +among them one evening very mellow from the tavern, and did much +affront the junto, and tore in pieces their orders and minutes. The +soldiers who commonly were there, as auditors and spectators, would +have kicked them down stairs; but Harrington's moderation and +persuasion hindered them. The doctrine was very taking, and the more +because as to human foresight there was no possibility of the King's +return. The greatest of the Parliament men hated this design of +rotation and ballotting, as being against their power. Eight or ten +were for it." By Wood's dating in this passage, the Harrington or +Rota Club must have been in full operation shortly after the +appointment, Sept. 8, of the great Committee of Parliament on the new +Constitution. Neville was one of that Committee, and the popularity +of the Club among the soldiers and citizens must have strengthened +his hands in the Committee. Indeed for five months the Rota Club was +to be one of the busiest and most attractive institutions in London, +yielding more amusement of an intellectual kind than any such +meetings as those of the few physicists left in London to be the +nucleus of the future Royal Society. It is worthy of remark that +Harrington and the chief Harringtonians looked with contempt on these +physical philosophers. What were _their_ occupations over drugs, +water-tubs, and the viscera of frogs, compared with great researches +into human nature and plans for the government of states? Dr. William +Petty, who belonged to both bodies, seems to have taken pleasure in +troubling the Rota with his doubts and interrogatives.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Harrington's Works (large folio, 1727), with Toland's +Life of Harrington (1699) prefixed; Wood's Ath., III. 1115-1126; +Commons Journals, July 6, 1659; Catalogue of the Thomason Pamphlets +(for dates), with inspection of first editions of some of +Harrington's Pamphlets in the Thomason Collection.] + +While the Rota was holding its first meetings, the Rump and the +Wallingford-House Party were again in deadly quarrel. More and more +the resolute proceedings of the pure Republicans for subjecting the +Army completely to the Parliament had alienated the Army magnates. +The reviewing by Parliament of all nominations for commissions, the +discharging of this officer and the bringing in of that, the +delivering out of the commissions by the Speaker to the officers +individually, were brooded over as insults. What was the intrinsic +worth of this little so-called Parliament, what were its rights, that +it should so treat the Army that had set it up, and one company of +which could turn it out of doors in five minutes? Though brooding +thus, the Army chiefs had contented themselves with rare attendance +in the House or the Council, and had made no active demonstration. +They were perhaps doubtful whether the spirit of submission to the +Parliament might not be now pretty general among the inferior +officers, all with their bran-new commissions from the Speaker +himself. But the insurrection of Sir George Booth, and the march of +Lambert's brigade into Cheshire to quell it, and the quick and signal +success of that enterprise, had given them the opportunity of testing +the Army's real feelings. Had not the Array now again a title to +remember that it ought to be something more than a mere instrument of +the existing civil authority? Was it not still the old English Army, +always doing the real hard work of the State, and entitled therefore +to some real voice in State-affairs? Where would the Rump have been, +where would the Republic have been, but for this service of Lambert's +brigade? These were the questions asked in Lambert's brigade itself, +more free to put such questions and to discuss them because of the +distance from London; but there were communications between Lambert's +brigade and the centre at Wallingford House, with arrangements for +concerted action. + +As was fitting, the first bolt came from Lambert's brigade. At a +meeting of about fifty officers of that brigade, held at Derby on the +16th of September, it was agreed, after discussion, to appoint a +small committee to draw up the sense of the meeting in due form. +Lambert himself then came quietly to London, where he was on the +20th, with several of his leading officers. The issue of the +committee left at Derby was a petition to Parliament in the name of +"the Officers under the command of the Right Honourable the Lord +Lambert in the late northern expedition." The petition was to be +presented to Parliament when fully signed; but meanwhile a copy of it +was sent up to Colonel Ashfield, Colonel Cobbet, and +Lieutenant-Colonel Duckinfield, then in London, to be given, with a +letter, to Fleetwood as Commander-in-chief, that so it might be +brought before the General Council of Officers. On the 22nd the +House, having heard of the nature of the Petition, required that the +original document should be forthcoming for inspection, and that +Fleetwood should at once produce his copy. The copy sufficed for all +purposes of information. The Petition consisted of a Preamble and +five Articles. It was full of a spirit of dissatisfaction, with +complaints of the prevalence everywhere of "apostates, malignants, +and neuters"; but its specific demands were two. One was that the +semi-Cromwellian petition of the General Council of Officers at +Wallingford House of date May 12, 1659 (ante pp. 449-450), "may not be +laid asleep, but may have fresh life given unto it." The other was +that Fleetwood, whose term of office was just expiring, should be +fixed in the Commandership-in-chief, that Lambert should be made +general officer and chief commander next under him, that Desborough +should be third as chief officer of the Horse, and Monk fourth as +chief commander of the Infantry. On the 23rd these demands, and the +attitude which they signified, were discussed in the House, with shut +doors, and in great excitement, Hasilrig leading the fury. Here was +latent Cromwellianism, or threatened single-person Government over +again, the soft Fleetwood to stop the gap meanwhile, but Lambert, +once he was made general officer and nominally second, to emerge as +the new Cromwell! This was what was felt, if not said; and it was +resolved "That this House doth declare that to have any more general +officers in the Army than are already settled by the Parliament is +needless, chargeable, and dangerous to the Commonwealth." A motion +for censoring the Petition was negatived by thirty-one to twenty-five +(Neville and Scott telling for the minority); but it was ordered that +Fleetwood should communicate the Resolution to the officers of the +Army and admonish them of their irregular proceedings.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Parl. Hist., III. 1562; +Phillips, 654-656 (where the Petition itself is given).] + +Wallingford House itself now took up the controversy, There were +meetings and meetings of the General Conncil of the officers, +cautious at first, but gradually swelling into a chorus of anger over +the indignity put upon their brethren of Lambert's northern +expedition. There were dissenters who wanted to wait and have Monk's +advice, but they were overborne. On the 5th of October Desborough and +some others were in the House with a petition signed by 230 officers +then about London. It consisted of a long preamble and nine +proposals. The preamble complained generally of the +misrepresentation, by some, "to evil and sinister ends," of the +petition and proposals of the faithful officers of Lambert's brigade, +and avowed the continued fidelity of the Army officers to +Commonwealth principles, their repudiation of single-person +Government, and their desire to be at one with the Parliament. The +articles did not repeat the exact demands of the petition of the +Lambert brigade, but asked for an immediate settlement somehow of the +Commandership-in-chief, for justice in all ways to the Army, and +especially for a guarantee that no officer or soldier should be +cashiered "without a due proceeding at a court-martial." The debate +on this Petition was begun on the 8th of October. The House was still +in a most resolute mood. They had received assurances from Monk of +his decided sympathies with them rather than with the +Wallingford-House Council, and they believed still in the +disinclination of many of the officers in England to follow Lambert +and Desborough to extremities. Accordingly, taking up the proposals +of the Petition one by one, they formulated answers to the first and +second on Oct. 10, and answers to the next three on the 11th, all in +a strain of high Parliamentary authority. At this point, however, the +House interrupted its consideration of the Petition to hurry through +a Bill of very vital consequence at such a juncture. It was a Bill +annulling, from and after May 7, 1659, all Acts, Orders, or +Ordinances passed by any Single Person and His Council, or by any +pretended Parliament or other pretended authority between the 19th of +April 1653 (the day before Cromwell's dissolution of the Rump) and +the 7th of May 1659 (the day of the Restoration of the Rump), except +in so far as these had been confirmed by the present Parliament, and +farther declaring it high treason for any person or persons, after +Oct. 11, 1659, to assess, levy, collect, or receive, any tax, impost, +or money contribution whatsoever, on or from the subjects of the +Commonwealth, without their consent in Parliament, or as by law might +have been done before Nov. 3, 1640. This comprehensive Act, +calculated to overawe the Army Magnates by debarring them from all +power of money-raising, had been hurried through because of signs +that nothing less would avail, if even that would now suffice. Not +only had copies of the Army Petition of the 5th been circulated in +print, but there had been letters, with copies of the Petition, to +various important officers away from London, Monk in chief, urging +them to obtain subscriptions in their regiments, and forward the same +immediately to Wallingford House. One such letter, signed by +Lambert, Desborough, Berry, Kelsay, Ashfield, Cobbet, Packer, +Barrow, and Major Creed, had been misdelivered by chance to Colonel +Okey, now on the side of the Parliament; and Okey gave it to +Hasilrig. The letter itself was one on which action might be taken, +and an incident determined the House to very decisive action indeed. +Precisely on that 11th of October when the House had formulated their +answers to the Army Petition as far as to the fifth Article, and when +they also passed the Bill so comprehensively asserting and guarding +their own sole prerogative, Mr. Nicholas Monk arrived in London from +Scotland, with powers from his brother to Dr. Clarges to let the +Parliament know that he would stand by them against the +Wallingford-House party, and would, if necessary, march into England +for their support. Next morning, Oct. 12, this news was buzzed among +the Republican leaders of the House, and with prodigious effect. The +misdelivered letter was read and discussed; and, after a division, on +the previous question, of fifty (Mildmay and Lister tellers) against +fifteen (Colonel Rich and Alderman Pennington tellers), it was +resolved "That the several commissions of these several persons, viz. +Colonel John Lambert, Colonel John Desborough, Colonel James Berry, +Colonel Thomas Kelsay, Colonel Richard Ashfield, Colonel Ealph +Cobbet, Major Richard Creed, Colonel William Packer, and Colonel +William Barrow, who have subscribed the said Letter, shall be, and +are hereby, made null and void, and they and every of them be, and +are hereby, discharged from all military employment." The House then +vested the entire government of the Army in a commission of +seven,--to wit, Fleetwood, Ludlow, Monk, Hasilrig, Colonel Walton, +Colonel Morley, and Colonel Overton, any three to be a quorum; and, +having ordered the regiments of Morley and Okey, and a part of that +of Colonel Mosse, to be on guard in Westminster through the night, +they rose with the consciousness of a bold day's work.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Parl. Hist., III. 1562-8; +Phillips, 656-660; Skinner's Life of Monk, 111-113.] + +Next day, Thursday Oct. 13, there was no House at all. An entry in +the Journals of the House, subsequently inserted, explains why. +"This day," runs the entry, "the late Principal Officers of the Army, +whose commissions were vacated, drew up forces in and about +Westminster, obstructed all passages both by land and water, stopped +the Speaker on his way, and placed and continued guards upon and +about the doors of the Parliament House, and so interrupted the +members from coming to the House and attending their service there." +This is a very correct summary of the incidents of more than twelve +hours. Lambert had resolved to do the feat, and he managed it in the +manner described. Morley's regiment and Mosse's regiment were +faithfully on guard round the House as ordered, and Okey would have +been there too had not his men deserted him; but the House was to +remain empty. Lambert had taken care of that by posting regiments in +an outer ring round Morley's and Mosse's, so as to block all +accesses. Speaker Lenthall, trying to pass in his coach, was stopped +by Lieutenant-Colonel Duckinfield, and turned back with civility to +his house in Covent Garden; and so with the members generally. A few +did break through and get in, among whom was Sir Peter Wentworth, who +had come by water with a stout set of boatmen. This was in the +morning; and through the rest of the day Lambert was riding about, +coming up now and then to Morley's men or Mosse's and haranguing +them. Would they suffer nine of their old officers to be disgraced +and ruined? There were waverings and slidings-off towards Lambert, +perhaps a general tendency to him; but for some hours the opposed +masses stood within pistol-shot of each other, Morley and Mosse +refusing to yield their trust, and neither side willing to begin a +battle. The citizens of London and Westminster waited the issue and +had no desire to interfere. The Council of State, however, had met in +Whitehall; all stray members of the House, though not of the Council, +had been invited to join them; and there was thus a sufficient +gathering of both parties to negotiate an agreement. Not till the +evening was this finally arranged; but then orders were sent out, in +the name of the Council of State, to the regiments on both sides to +go peaceably to their quarters. The orders were most gladly obeyed. +The information that went forth to the citizens, and that was +circulated over the country in letters, was that the Council of +Officers "had been necessitated to obstruct the sitting of the +Parliament for the present," but would themselves take all necessary +charge of the public peace till there should be a more regular +authority. In fact, the Rump had been dissolved a second time after a +restored session, of five months.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of date; Phillips, 661; Whitlocke, IV. +364-365; Ludlow, 711 and 723-726.] + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Second Section (continued). + +THE ANARCHY, STAGE II.: OR THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE INTERREGNUM: OCT. +13, 1659-DEC. 26, 1659. + +THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE GOVERNMENT: ITS _COMMITTEE OF SAFETY_: +BEHAVIOUR OF LUDLOW AND OTHER LEADING REPUBLICANS: DEATH OF +BRADSHAW.--ARMY-ARRANGEMENTS OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT: FLEETWOOD, +LAMBERT, AND DESBOROUGH THE MILITARY CHIEFS: DECLARED CHAMPIONSHIP OF +THE RUMP BY MONK IN SCOTLAND: NEGOTIATIONS OPENED WITH MONK, AND +LAMBERT SENT NORTH TO OPPOSE HIM: MONK'S MOCK TREATY WITH LAMBERT AND +THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE GOVERNMENT THROUGH COMMISSIONERS IN LONDON: HIS +PREPARATIONS MEANWHILE IN SCOTLAND: HIS ADVANCE FROM EDINBURGH TO +BERWICK: MONK'S ARMY AND LAMBERT'S.--FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE +WALLINGFORD-HOUSE GOVERNMENT: TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN: +LOCKHART: CHARLES II. AT FONTARABIA: GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT OF HIS +CHANCES IN ENGLAND.--DISCUSSIONS OF THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE GOVERNMENT +AS TO THE FUTURE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH: THE VANE PARTY +AND THE WHITLOCKE PARTY IN THESE DISCUSSIONS: JOHNSTONE OF WARRISTON, +THE HARRINGTONIANS, AND LUDLOW: ATTEMPTED CONCLUSIONS.--MONK AT +COLDSTREAM: UNIVERSAL WHIRL OF OPINION IN FAVOUR OF HIM AND THE +RUMP: UTTER DISCREDIT OF THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE RULE IN LONDON: +VACILLATION AND COLLAPSE OF FLEETWOOD: THE RUMP RESTORED A SECOND +TIME. + + +For about a fortnight after Lambert's _coup d'état_, the Council +of State of the Rump, having become in a manner a party to that +action, still continued to sit in Whitehall, on an understanding +with the General Council of the Officers meeting in Wallingford +House. There are preserved minutes of their sitting's to the 25th of +October, from which it appears that the Laird of Warriston was in the +chair once or twice, but Whitlocke principally. Bradshaw, who was +then a dying man, had appeared at one meeting, but only to protest +that, "being now going to his God," he must leave his testimony +against a compromise founded on perjury to the Republic. But on the +26th of October, after much consultation, the Council of State gave +place to a new Supreme Executive, chosen by the Wallingford--House +officers, and called _The Committee of Safety._ It consisted of +twenty-three persons, as follows:-- + + Whitlocke (made also_ Lord Keeper of the Great Seal_, Nov. 1). + + Colonel Robert Bennett + Colonel James Berry + Henry Brandreth + Colonel John Clerk + Desborough + Fleetwood + Sir James Harrington + Colonel Hewson + Cornelius Holland + Alderman Ireton + Sir Archibald Johnstone of Wariston + Lambert + Henry Lawrence + Colonel Robert Lilburne + Ludlow + Major Salway + William Steele (Chancellor of Ireland) + Walter Strickland + Colonel William Sydenham + Robert Thompson + Alderman Tichbourne + Sir Henry Vane. + +The combination of persons is curious. Some were mere inserted +ciphers, and others would not act. Whitlocke, who was earnestly +pressed by the officers to give to the body the weight and reputation +of his presence, had very considerable hesitations, but did consent, +chiefly on the ground, as he tells us, that he might be able to +counteract the extravagant communistic tendencies of Vane and Salway, +and so prevent mischief. It is perhaps stranger to find Vane and +Salway themselves on the list. Of late, however, Vane had been +detaching himself from the group of more intense Parliamentarians and +seeing prospects for his ideas from conjunction, rather with the +Army-men. So with Salway, Ludlow had been nominated on the new body +at a venture. Thinking he might be wanted to help the Rump in their +struggle with the Army, he had returned from Ireland, leaving Colonel +John Jones as his _locum tenens_ there; and he had not heard the +astonishing news of Lambert's action till his landing on the Welsh +coast. He had then wavered for a while between going back to Ireland +and coming on to London, but had decided for the latter. Before his +arrival in town he had heard of his nomination to the Committee of +Safety and resolved not to accept it. He was more willing than usual, +however, to make the best of circumstances; he consented even to +shake hands with Lambert when he first met him; and, though not +concealing his opinion that Lambert's act had been utterly +unjustifiable, and that a restitution of the Rump even yet was the +only proper amends, he would not go entirely with those friends of +his who were working for that end, as he thought, too wildly and +boisterously, and too much with a view to mere revenge. These were +Hasilrig, Scott, Neville, Morley, Walton, and their followers, among +whom it is no surprise to find Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper. They, of +course, had been left out of the new Committee of Safety, as the open +and irreconcileable enemies of the system of things Lambert had +brought in. Bradshaw, who would have been with them, died on the 31st +of October, five days after the constitution of the Committee, +leaving surely a most troubled world.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Council Order Books from Oct. 13 to Oct. 25, 1659; +Ludlow, 706-713, 716-718, and 729-731; Whitlocke, IV. 365-368; +Phillips, 662.] + +Military arrangements had been made already (October 14-17) by the +Wallingford-House Council. Fleetwood had been named +Commander-in-chief of all the Armies; Lambert Major-General of the +Forces in England and Scotland; Desborough Commissary-General of the +Horse; and these three, with Vane, Berry, and Ludlow, were to be the +Committee for nominations of all Army-officers. Though this, with the +omission of Hasilrig, was the very committee the Rump had appointed +for the same business, Ludlow could not make up his mind to act on +it. Disaffected officers, such as Okey, Morley, and Alured, had been +removed from their commands; Articles of War for maintaining +discipline everywhere had been drawn out; and the Committee of +nominations was to see that the officers throughout England, +Scotland, and Ireland should be men under engagement to the +newly-established order.--It was foreseen that in this there would be +great difficulties. Even within England and Wales there might be many +officers, besides those already discharged, whose adhesion to the +Wallingford-House policy was dubious; and these had to be found out. +There was still greater uncertainty about Ireland, where Ludlow had +for some months been master for the Rump. Thither, accordingly, there +was despatched Colonel Barrow, to be an agent for the +Wallingford-House policy with Ludlow's deputy Colonel John Jones, and +with the officers of the Irish Army. But it was from Scotland that +the hurricane was expected. Monk, having offered to stand by the Rump +against the Wallingford-House party while yet the two were in +struggle, had necessarily been omitted from that fourth Generalship, +after Fleetwood, Lambert, and Desborough, to which he would doubtless +have been appointed, in conformity with one of the proposals of the +Lambert Brigade Petition of the preceding month, but for that +predeclaration of his hostility. It had been suggested, indeed, that +such an honour might pacify him; but it had been thought best to wait +for farther evidences of his state of mind, and merely to despatch +Colonel Cobbet to Scotland to give explanations to Monk himself and +to probe also the feelings of his officers and soldiers.--They had +not to wait long. No sooner had Monk heard of Lambert's _coup +d'état_ than he repeated his former determination most +emphatically, both by energetic procedure on his own Scottish ground +and by letters to all the four winds. "I am resolved, by the grace +and assistance of God, as a true Englishman," he wrote to Speaker +Lenthall from Edinburgh October 20, "to stand to and assert the +liberty and authority of Parliament; and the Army here, praised be +God, is very courageous and unanimous." There were letters to the +same effect to Fleetwood and Lambert, to Ludlow and his substitutes +in Ireland, to the commanders of the Fleet, and to many private +persons. Colonel Gobbet was not allowed to enter Scotland, but was +seized at Berwick and put in prison. In short, before October 28, +when the new Committee of Safety met for the first time in Whitehall, +it was clear that Monk had constituted himself the +antagonist-in-chief of their government, and the armed champion of +the dismissed Rump. Hasilrig, Scott, Neville, and their comrades, +were in exultation accordingly.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 366-367; Ludlow, 710-712 and 728-729; +Phillips, 663-666; Skinner's Life of Monk, 117-128; Guizot, II. +18-22.] + +Two resolutions were immediately taken by the Committee of Safety. It +was resolved to attempt even then a negotiation with Monk; and it was +resolved to send Lambert north with a large force to prevent Monk's +march into England if the negotiation should fail. On the night of +the 28th of October, Monk's brother-in-law Dr. Clarges, and Colonel +Talbot, one of Monk's favourite officers, then in London, were sent +for by the Committee, and asked to undertake the mission of peace. +They willingly consented, and set out on the 29th, to be followed +within a few days by six other missionaries for the same +purpose--Colonels Whalley and Goffe for the Wallingford-House +officers, a Mr. Dean specially for Fleetwood, and three Independent +ministers, Caryl, Barker, and Hammond, on a religious account. There +were letters in plenty also from Fleetwood and others. Monk was to be +reasoned with from all points of view. But, on the 3rd of November, +Lambert also set out for York, to join Colonel Robert Lilburne there, +and gather forces to block the north of England against the +possibility of Monk's invasion.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 368-369; Phillips, 663; Skinner, 131, +140, and 142-143; Guizot, II. 27-29.] + +Monk, on his part, when Clarges and Talbot arrived in Edinburgh (Nov. +2), and Clarges had held his first long private discourse with him, +was very willing to _seem_ to negotiate, and gave Clarges his +reasons. Though he had represented his Army as unanimously with him, +that was hardly the case. The re-modelling operations of the late +Rump had perturbed his Army considerably, displacing or degrading +officers he liked, and inserting or promoting officers he did not +want. Fortunately, most of the new officers had not yet come to +their posts, and the old ones were still available. But the +regiments, or parts of regiments, in all their dispersed stations, at +Edinburgh, Leith, Dalkeith. Stirling, Perth, Glasgow, Dundee, +Aberdeen, Ayr, Inverness, and the remoter Highland outposts, had to +be manipulated, weeded of oppositionists, and pulled gradually +together; and, as it turned out, there were about 140 oppositionists +among Monk's own approved officers of all ranks. To get rid of these, +and otherwise to shape the Army to his mind, would take six weeks at +least. Then, as he told Clarges, he should be ready. His total force +would consist of ten regiments of foot (his own, Talbot's, Wilkes's, +Read's, Daniel's, Fairfax's, and those now called Overton's, +Cobbet's, Sawrey's, and Smith's), with two regiments of horse (his +own and Twistleton's) and one of dragoons (that of the redoubted +Morgan, now absent in England). By recent careful economy, he had +£70,000 in the bank: his credit with the Scots was such that he could +have more on demand; he had but to give permission, and the Scots +themselves would flock in arms to his standard. He had resolved, +however, that the performance should be in substance wholly an +English one, and that the Scots should be involved in it but +indirectly and sparingly. Additional reasons for delay were furnished +by the fact that the sympathy with Monk which he knew to exist in +England and Ireland, had not yet had due development, In short, Monk +and Clarges agreed that it would be best to fall in with the offer of +negotiation, in order to gain time; and next day (Nov. 3), at a +meeting of Monk's officers, Colonel Wilkes, Lieutenant-Colonel +Clobery, and Major Knight, were deputed to go into England as +Commissioners for a Treaty. They had certain instructions given them, +in which Monk himself "invented matter to confound their debates." +They were to insist on the restoration of the Rump, or, if the Rump +would not be restored, then on a full and free new Parliament.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 663-667, and Skinner, 133-136. Phillips's +information about Monk and his proceedings in Scotland is very full +and minute; indeed his whole account of Monk's enterprise +henceforward to the Restoration, though in form only part of a +continuation of _Baker's Chronicle_, is a contribution of +original history rather than a mere compilation. He was permitted, +as he tells us, the use of Monk's papers and those of his agents. +This part of the book, in fact, looks like a literary commission +executed for Monk.] + +And so, having dispatched the commissioners, Monk continued his +colloquies with Clarges, such privileged persons as the physician Dr. +Barrow and the chaplain Dr. Gumble being admitted to some of them, +but only Clarges fathoming Monk's intentions, and he but in part. +When the Independent ministers and other envoys arrived, there was a +conference at Holyrood House at which they made speeches, Monk +listening, but keeping his own mouth shut. Once, indeed, when Mr. +Caryl warned him that war and bloodshed, if begun, would be "laid at +his door," he burst out against Lambert and his party, saying +_they_ had begun the war, and, if they continued in their +course, he would "lay them on their backs." While the Independent +ministers were yet in Edinburgh, doing their best, there was a more +welcome advent in the person of Colonel Morgan (Nov. 8). He had been +lying ill of gout at York, but had recovered so far as to be able to +come to Edinburgh as a kind of messenger to Monk from Lambert. He +delivered his message punctually enough, but told Monk he was glad to +be with him again, and would follow him implicitly whatever he did, +being "no statesman" himself. Monk was vastly pleased, looking on +Morgan, it is said, as worth more than all the 140 officers he had +lost. Morgan had, moreover, brought important communications from +Yorkshire, which led Monk to dispatch Clarges and Talbot thither to +establish an understanding with Lord Fairfax.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 667-669; Skinner, 138-140.] + +Meanwhile Monk's three Commissioners had arrived at York and been in +parley with Lambert. Finding that the question of the restitution of +the Rump was involved in their instructions, he passed them on to +London, having stipulated for a truce till the result should be +known. On the 12th of November the Commissioners were in London; and +on the 15th, after three days of consultation at Wallingford House, a +treaty of nine Articles was agreed to, and signed by them on the part +of Monk and the Army in Scotland, and by Fleetwood on the part of the +Wallingford-House Council. There was great delight in Whitehall over +this result, and the Tower cannon proclaimed the happy +reconciliation between Monk and the Government. But Monk's +Commissioners had been too hasty, or had been outwitted; and Clarges, +who arrived in London that day, had come too late to stop them and +spin out the time. A pledge of both parties against Charles Stuart or +any single-person Government was in the forefront of the Treaty; and +the rest of the Articles simply admitted Monk and the officers of the +Scottish Army to a share in the Government as then going on, and in +certain arrangements which the Committee of Safety and the +Wallingford-House Council had been already devising on their own +account. Monk received the news at Haddington on the evening of Nov. +18; he returned to Edinburgh next day, "very silent and reserved"; +but that day it was resolved by him, in consultation with some of his +chief officers and with Dr. Barrow, to disown the Treaty--not, +indeed, by actual rejection of any of the Articles, but on the plea +that several things had been omitted and that there must be farther +specification. For this purpose it was proposed that two +Commissioners on Monk's part should be added to the former three, and +that five Commissioners from the Army in England should meet these +and continue the Treaty at Alnwick or some other indifferent place +near Scotland. When this answer reached London, Whitlocke, who had +all along, as he tells us, protested that Monk's object was delay +only and "that the bottom of his design was to bring in the King," +repeated more earnestly his former advice that Lambert should be +pushed on to immediate action. "His advice was not taken," says +Whitlocke, "but a new Treaty consented to by Commissioners on each +part, to be at Newcastle." From about the 20th of November that was +Lambert's headquarters, while Monk, having left a portion of his +forces behind him for necessary garrison purposes in Scotland, came +on from Edinburgh to establish himself at Berwick with the rest. He +was there before the end of the month. In the beginning of December +1659, therefore, the two Armies were all but facing each +other,--Monk's consisting now of about 6000 foot and 1400 horse and +dragoons, and Lambert's of between 4000 and 5000 horse and about +3000 foot: the excess in horse giving Lambert a great superiority. At +Monk's back, moreover, there was no effective support in case of +failure, unless by that arming of the Scots which he was unwilling to +risk, while to back Lambert there were about 20,000 more regulars in +England, besides a militia of 30,000, not to speak of the forces in +Ireland, and the regiments in Flanders. Between the two Armies all +that intervened to prevent conflict was the Treaty to be resumed at +Newcastle. Monk magnified the importance of that, but took great care +to postpone it. Wilkes, Clobery, and Knight, had not returned from +London, and were rather slow to do so and face Monk after their +blunder; and the two new Commissioners had not yet been appointed. +Meanwhile letters and messages passed between the two Armies, and +there were desertions from the one to the other.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Skinner, 146-158; Phillips, 670-672; Whitlocke, IV. +373-377.] + +All this while the London Government of the Committee of Safety had +been attending as well as they could to such general business as +belonged to them in their double capacity of supreme executive and +temporary deliberative. For, at the constitution of the body on the +26th of October, it had been agreed that they should not only +exercise the usual powers of a Council of State, but should also +prosecute that great question of the future form of the Government of +the Commonwealth which had occupied the late Rump. They were to +prosecute this question in conference, if necessary, with the chief +Army officers and others; and, if they should not come to a +conclusion within six weeks, the question was to return to the +Wallingford-House Council itself.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter of M. de Bordeaux to Mazarin of date Nov. 6, 1659 +(i.e. Oct. 28 in English reckoning), in Appendix to Guizot, II. +274-278.] + +In the matter of foreign relations the Committee of Safety had little +to do, the arrangements of the late Rump for withdrawing from foreign +entanglements still holding good for the present. Meadows, who had +become tired of his agency with the two Scandinavian powers, no +longer such an inspiring office as it had been under the +Protectorate, had asked the Rump more than once to recall him. He +had remained in the Baltic to as late as October, but was now back in +London, anxious about his own future and about his arrears of salary. +If the present Government should succeed, there might possibly be a +revival of the Cromwellian policy of co-operation with Charles +Gustavus, and then the services of Meadows might be again in request; +but meanwhile Algernon Sidney and the other plenipotentiaries sent by +the Rump into the Baltic, though checking the heroic Swede and +scorned by him in return, might represent the only policy yet +possible. Downing, though also much exercised by the rapid turns of +affairs, and thinking of scoundrel-like means for securing himself, +does not seem to have been so dissatisfied with his position at the +Hague as Meadows was with his in the Baltic. He had come to London +early in November; a sub-committee of the Committee of Safety had +been appointed to receive his report on present relations with the +United Provinces; and he was waiting for re-credentials. The Dutch +Ambassador Nieuport, we may add, was still in London, as also the +French Ambassador M. de Bordeaux, and other inferior foreign +residents, but all meanwhile as mere on-lookers.--One inquires with +most interest about Ambassador Lockhart. Since August, he had been at +or near St. Jean de Luz, on the borders between France and Spain, +charged, as Ambassador for the Rump, with the business of +endeavouring to have the English Commonwealth included in the great +Treaty then going on between Mazarin and the Spanish minister Don +Luis de Haro, so that, when peace had been definitely concluded +between France and Spain, there might be peace also between Spain and +the Commonwealth. There he had been received, with the utmost respect +by Mazarin and with all courtesy by Don Luis de Haro, both of them +friendly enough to the purpose of his mission for reasons of their +own. It was found, however, that the Peace between France and Spain +was a matter of sufficient complication and difficulty in itself; and +so, though it was not finally concluded and signed till the end of +November, when it took the name of _The Treaty of the Pyrenees_, +and secured, among many other things, the marriage of Louis XIV. with +the Spanish Infanta, Lockhart, knowing all to be settled, had taken +his farewell. He was in London on the 14th of November, in the very +crisis of the negotiation between Monk and the new Government, but +remained only a fortnight. Till Peace with Spain should be concluded +by some means, his true place was at Dunkirk, for the recovery of +which Spain would now certainly wrestle, while France would also bid +high for the acquisition. He left London for Dunkirk on the 1st of +December, the issue between Monk and the new Government still +undecided.--While Lockhart was on the scene of the great negotiation +between Mazarin and Luis de Haro on the Spanish border, there had +been the surprise of the arrival there of no less a person than +Charles II. himself. In August we left him waiting anxiously at +Calais, ready to embark for England on the due explosion there of the +great pre-arranged insurrection of the old Royalists and new +Royalists. He had lingered about the French coast for some time; but, +when the revolt of Sir George Booth had collapsed, the notion of a +new residence in Brussels after another of his failures had become +disagreeable to him. He did go to Brussels, but only to conceive the +idea of a trip, half of pleasure, half of speculation, to the scene +of the great diplomatic conferences. Might not his interests be +considered in the Treaty? Mazarin, who had no wish to see him at the +conferences, declined to give him a passport; but he risked the +journey _incognito_, with Ormond, the Earl of Bristol, and one +or two other attendants, going by a long and circuitous route, and +finding much amusement by the way. As they approached their +destination, there was an unlucky separation of the party into two, +Ormond going on ahead for inquiries and appointing a place for their +reunion. But for some days Charles and the Earl of Bristol were lost. +Ormond, who had missed them at the appointed place, had gone on to +Fontarabia, a small frontier town of Spain, and the residence of Don +Luis de Haro during the Treaty, just as St. Jean de Luz, two or three +miles off, but in the French territory, was the residence of Mazarin. +Sir Henry Bennet, the Ambassador for Charles at the Spanish Court, +was already there; and he, and Ormond, and Don Luis himself, were in +no small anxiety. At length it appeared that the fugitives, on false +information that the Treaty was already concluded, had gone into +Spain on their own account, bound for Madrid itself, and had got as +far as Saragossa. Fetched back to Fontarabia, they were received with +all politeness and state by Don Luis. But, though they remained some +time, the Treaty was so far settled that Charles found that nothing +could be done for his interests through that means. Mazarin, indeed, +resenting his intrusion, and his passage through France without +leave, refused to see him, and gave orders also that Sir Henry Bennet +should not be admitted. With only general assurances of good wishes +from the Spanish minister, a present of 7000 gold pistoles for "the +expenses of his journey," and promises of farther consideration of +his case when there should be opportunity, Charles returned through +France by Paris, and was back in Brussels in December, just about the +time when Lockhart was back in Dunkirk. They had been crossing each +other's paths and were again near neighbours.--Although the late Rump +Government had taken some alarm at Charles's visit to Fontarabia, and +had made remonstrances on the subject of his passage through France, +it was now known that there was no danger of action for Charles +either by France or by Spain. The danger, indeed, was of a more +subtle and incalculable kind, and within the Commonwealth itself. We +have seen how naturally the baulked Cromwellianism of the epoch of +the dissolution of Richard's Parliament and the overthrow of his +Protectorate tended to transmute itself into Stuartism, and how much +of the strength of Sir George Booth's insurrection consisted of new +Royalism so produced. What we have now to add is that every baulked +or defeated cause in succession within the Commonwealth yielded in +the same way potential capital for Charles. The cause of Charles was +like an ultimate refuge for all the disappointed and destitute. Those +who had not already been driven into it were ruefully or gladly +looking forward to it. Even among the extreme Rumpers or pure +Republicans, now maddened by Lambert's coup _d'état_, there were +some, Colonel Herbert Morley for one, who were feeling cautiously +for ways and means of forgiveness at Brussels. Nay, in the present +Committee of Safety and in the Wallingford-House Council associated +with it, there were some fully prepared, should this experiment also +fail, to help in a restoration of the Stuarts rather than go back +into the Republican grasp of Scott, Neville, and Hasilrig. There was +a vague common cognisance of this convergence of so many separate +currents to one final reservoir. It showed itself in mutual +accusations of that very tendency of which all were conscious. Every +party of Commonwealth's men accused every other party of a design to +bring the King in, and every party so accused repudiated the charge +with such strength of language as to beget the suspicion, "The Lady +protests too much, methinks." On the other hand, the uneasy common +consciousness disposed people to be practically somewhat tolerant. +When no one knew what might happen to himself, why should he indict +his neighbour for treason? On some such ground it may have been, as +well as to try to win grace with the Presbyterians or new Royalists, +that the present Government did not proceed with the trials of the +lords and gentlemen committed for high treason for their concern in +the late Insurrection, but released all or most of them. Lords +Northampton, Falkland, Herbert, Howard, and others had been released +November 1, and Sir George Booth himself was set at liberty on the +9th of December.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII. 708, 727, 743, 753-4, 775, and 802; +Whitlocke, IV. 369, 377, and 378; Clarendon, 872-877; Guizot, I. +211-215; Letters of M. de Bordeaux, in Appendix to Guizot, II. 288, +294, and 298; Order Books of Council of State, Aug. 23 and Oct. 13, +1659.] + +In the matter of a new Constitution for the future the procedure of +the Committee of Safety had been not uninteresting. On the 1st of +November they had referred the subject to a sub-committee, consisting +of Vane, Whitlocke, Fleetwood, Ludlow, Salway, and Tichbourne; and on +this sub-committee Ludlow did consent to act. In fact, however, the +General Committee and the Wallingford-House Council kept along with +the Sub-Committee in the great discussion.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 368-369, and Ludlow, 736. Whitlocke does +not here name himself as one of the sub-committee, though he names +the others; but Ludlow names him distinctly, and Whitlocke's words +afterwards (e.g., p. 376) show him to have been an active member.] + +The Kingship of Charles Stuart was, of course, an utterly forbidden +idea in the deliberations. The idea of a revival of any form of the +Protectorship, whether by the recall of Richard, or by the election +of Fleetwood or Lambert, was equally forbidden, although there had +been whispers of the kind about Wallingford House, and Richard was +understood to be hovering near, in case he should be wanted. "Such a +form of Government as may best suit and comport with a Free State and +Commonwealth, without a Single Person, Kingship, or House of Peers," +was what had been solemnly promised in the first public declaration +of the present powers; and to that all stood pledged. This, of +course, involved a Parliament. But what Parliament or what sort of +Parliament? _The late Rump reinstated at once with full +authority_, Ludlow was bound to say, and did say; but, as that was +out of the question with all the rest, he could suppose himself +outvoted on that, and go on. _Richard's late Parliament_ had +been the murmur of some outside, perhaps not the least sensible in +the main; but the suggestion passed, as meaningless without Richard +himself. _The Long Parliament as it was before it became the Rump, +i.e. with all the survivors of the illegally secluded members of +1642-1649 restored to their seats_, was a third proposal, of more +tremendous significance, that had been heard outside, and indeed had +become a wide popular cry. Inasmuch as this meant the bringing back +of the Parliament precisely as it had been before the King's trial +and the institution of the Commonwealth, with all those Presbyterians +and Royalists in it that it had been necessary to eject in mass in +order to make the King's trial and a Commonwealth possible, little +wonder that the present junto shuddered at the bare suggestion. _A +new Parliament, called by ourselves_, was the conclusion in which +they took rest. But here their debates only began. Should it be a +Parliament of one House or of two Houses? If of two Houses, should +the Second House be a select Senate of fifty or seventy, coordinate +with the larger House, as the Army-chiefs had advised the Rumpers, or +should it be a much larger body? What should be the size of the +larger House, and what the powers and relations of the two? Then, +whether of one or of two Houses, how should the Parliament be +elected? To prevent the mere inrush of a Parliament of the old and +ordinary sort, whose first act would probably be to subvert the +Commonwealth, what qualifications should be established for suffrage +and eligibility? Might it not even be advisable not to permit the +people at first full choice of their representatives, with whatever +prescribed qualifications, but to allow them only choice among +nominees sent down to them by a higher power? Should Harrington's +principle of Rotation be adopted, and, if so, to what extent? +Farther, whatever was to be the structure of the Parliament, were any +fundamentals to be laid down beforehand, as eternal principles of the +Commonwealth, which even the Parliament should be bound not to touch? +Must not the perpetuity of Republican Government itself, or +non-return to Kingship or single Chief Magistracy of any kind, be one +of these fundamentals, and Liberty of Conscience another? Nay, should +a Church Establishment and Tithes be left open questions, or should +there be some absolute pre-determination on that great subject? +Finally, when the Sub-Committee and the Committee of Safety, and the +Army officers round about, should have agreed upon all these +questions, so far as to be able to draw out a Constitution or Form of +Government sufficiently satisfactory to themselves, ought not that +Constitution to be submitted to some wider representative authority +for revision and ratification before being imposed on the People? If +so, what should that intervening and ratifying authority be?[1] + +[Footnote 1: This is not a paragraph of suppositions, but the result +of a study of the actual chaos of opinion at the moment, by the help +of hints from Whitlocke, Ludlow, the letters of M. de Bordeaux, and +information in contemporary Thomason pamphlets. Strangely enough, +some of the most luminous hints come from the letters of M. de +Bordeaux. He was observing all coolly and clearly with foreign eyes, +and reporting twice a week to Mazarin.] + +One can see that there were two parties among the debaters. Vane, in +his strange position at last after his many vicissitudes, had come +trailing clouds of his peculiar notions with him, and was regarded as +the advocate of wild and impracticable novelties. Not merely absolute +Liberty of Conscience and abolition of Tithes, in which Ludlow and +others went with him, but certain Millenarian or Fifth Monarchy +speculations, pointing to a glorious future over the trampled ruins +of the Church-Establishment and of much besides, were ideas which he +wanted to ingraft in some shape into the new Constitution. Here he +represented a number of enthusiasts among the subalterns of the Army +and among ex-Army men; and, indeed, it had been with some difficulty +that Major-General Harrison, the head of the Millenarians, had been +kept out of the Committee of Safety at its first formation, and so +prevented from resuming public functions after his five years of +disablement. Not having Harrison by his side, Vane could do little +more than ventilate his Millenarianism, Communism, or whatever it +was, though, as Whitlocke says, he "was hard to be satisfied and did +much stick to his own apprehensions." The leader of the more moderate +party, as against Vane, was Whitlocke himself. He represented the +Lawyers, the Established Clergy, all the more sober and conservative +spirits. Parliamentary use and wont, with no great new-fangled +inventions, but only prudent modifications and precautions; +preservation of the Established Church, the Universities, and the +existing legal system; Liberty of Conscience certainly, but so +guarded as not to give reins to Quakerism and other Sectarian +excesses: these were the recommendations of Whitlocke. The Laird of +Warriston, it appears, who was not on the Sub-Committee, took up a +position of his own in the General Committee, which was neither +Vane's nor Whitlocke's, but represented what Ludlow calls "the +Scottish interest." One of its principles was that Liberty of +Conscience should be very limited indeed. And so, through November, +while Monk was consolidating his forces in Scotland, the discussion +of the new Constitution had been straggling on in the Sub-Committee +and Committee at Whitehall, and in less authorized assemblies in the +same neighbourhood. Among these, besides a clerical conclave of +Independent ministers, such as Owen and Nye, meeting at the Savoy and +advising Whitlocke on the Church-question, one must specially +remember Harrington's Rota Club at the Turk's Head in New Palace +Yard. That institution was now in its full nightly glory, discussing +all the questions that were discussed in Whitehall and many more. It +had won by this time the crowning distinction of being a subject of +daily jokes and witticisms. In a London squib of Nov. 12, 1659, +laughing at Harrington and his Rota-men, the public were informed +that among the last "decrees and orders of the Committee of Safety of +the Commonwealth of Oceana" had been these three:--1. "That the +politic casuists of the Coffee Club in Bow Street [had the Rota +adjourned thither, or was this some other debating Club?] appoint +some of their number to instruct the Committee of Safety at Whitehall +how they shall find an invention to escape Tyburn, if ever the law be +restored; 2. That Harrington's _Aphorisms_ and other political +slips be recommended to the English Plantation in Jamaica, to try how +they will agree with that apocryphal purchase; 3. That a Levite and +an Elder be sent to survey the Government of the Moon, and that +Warriston Johnstone and Parson Peters be the men, as a couple of +learned Rabbis in Lunatics." Heedless of such mockery, the +Harringtonians did not cease to put forth their own pamphlets with +all seriousness. _Valerius and Publicola, or the True Form of a +Popular Commonwealth extracted e puris naturalibus_ is the title +of a dialogue of Harrington's, of Nov. 17, expounding his principles +afresh.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 376 and 379-380; Ludlow, 751-752; Letters +of M. de Bordeaux, in Appendix to Guizot, II. 275, 293, 304; Thomason +Tract of date, entitled _Decrees and Orders, &c.;_ and +Thomason Catalogue.] + +Two conclusions at least had been arrived at in the Sub-Committee and +Committee, and approved by the Wallingford-House Council of officers, +before the middle of November, when they were actually embodied in +the Treaty with Monk's Commissioners in London. One was as to the +mode of determining Parliamentary qualifications. That duty was to be +entrusted to a body of nineteen persons, ten of them named +(Whitlocke, Vane, Ludlow, St. John, Warriston, &c.), and the other +nine to be chosen by the Armies of England, Ireland, and Scotland, +three by each. A still more important conclusion was as to the body, +intermediate between the present powers and the People, to which the +whole Constitution should be submitted for revision and ratification +before being imposed upon the People. It was to be a great +Representative Council of the Army and Navy, to be composed of +delegates in the proportion of two commissioned officers from each +regiment in England, Scotland, or Ireland, chosen by the commissioned +officers of the regiments severally, together with ten naval officers +to be chosen by the officers of the Fleet collectively. To Ludlow, +approving only coldly of all that departed from his fixed idea of +sheer restitution of the Rump, this arrangement seemed, nevertheless, +a very fair one. It was settled, in fact, that the great +Representative Council should meet at Whitehall on the 6th of +December, by which time the complete draft of the Constitution would +be ready.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 374; Phillips. 671-672.] + +The Army and Navy Council did meet on that day, and it is from their +proceedings that we learn best the nature of the Constitution +submitted to them. The meeting, indeed, was not the great one that +had been expected. The delegates from Ireland had not arrived; none +had come from Monk's army, though due intimation had been given to +him and he was reckoned bound by the Treaty; and, of course, in the +circumstances, delegates could not be spared from Lambert's. There +was, however, a sufficient gathering, and Ludlow attended, by +request, as one representative from Ireland. In a debate of five or +six days all the questions that had been discussed in the Committee +of Safety and its Sub-Committee were discussed over again, Ludlow and +Colonel Rich fighting for the restitution of the Rump even yet as the +one thing needful, others starting wild proposals even yet for a +restoration of the Protectorate, but Fleetwood, Desborough, and the +majority urging substantially the proposals that had come from the +Committee of Safety, or rather a reduction of those, by the omission +of such portions of them as were Vane's, to the moderate and +conservative core which might be regarded as Whitlocke's. As +Whitlocke himself was permitted to be present and advise in the +Council, he was able to contribute much to this result by his +lawyerly gravity and frequent mentions of the Great Seal. Altogether +the Constitution as it passed the Council may be considered as his. +And what was it? Nothing very alarming. A new Parliament, of a Single +House, to be elected by the people very much as by use and wont, but +in conformity with a well-considered scheme of "qualifications" for +keeping out the dangerous; a separation, however, of the Executive +from the Legislative, by the appointment, as heretofore, of a Supreme +Council of State; maintenance of the Established Church, and that by +Tithes till some other as ample provision should be devised; +Toleration of Dissent and of free expression of religious belief, but +still on this side of Quakerism and other anomalies, heresies, and +extravagancies: such, after all, was the homely outcome. If Vane and +the theorists of the Harringtonian Club were disappointed, Ludlow was +even in worse despair; and at the last moment he proposed an +extraordinary addition. If the late Rump was not to be restored, and +if they were to adopt a Constitution which threatened, as he feared, +to let in Charles, or to put all back under the power of the sword, +let them at least try to avert such consequences by defining a few +fundamentals which should be inviolable, and let them appoint, under +the name of _Conservators of Liberty_, twenty-one men to be +guardians of these fundamentals. He was humoured in this; and, three +fundamentals having been agreed on--to wit, (1) Commonwealth in +perpetuity, without King, Single Person, or House of Peers, (2) +Liberty of Conscience, (3) Unalterability of the Army arrangements +except by the Conservators--the Assembly proceeded to ballot on a +list of persons named by Ludlow as suitable for the office of +Conservators. All went as Ludlow wished for the first seven or eight +on the list,--dexterously arranged by him so because, being all men +of the Wallingford-House party except Vane and Salway, these two +could hardly in decency be blackballed. But then the order of voting +was broken; and, though Ludlow himself was elected, not another man +of the Parliamentarian party was let in. Actually, the Laird of +Warriston, who had declared publicly against Liberty of Conscience, +and Tichbourne, who had proposed to restore Richard to the +Protectorship, were preferred to such men as Hasilrig and Neville, +and made guardians of fundamentals in which they did not believe. +Ludlow then threw up the entire business in disgust, and resolved +that it was high time for him to be back in Ireland. Nevertheless, +his afterthought of the Fundamentals and their Conservators was +incorporated into Whitlocke's Constitution as it went back to the +Committee of Safety, with the ratification of the Council of Army and +Navy officers, This was on the 14th of December. The next day the +nature of the new Constitution was known to all who were interested, +and there was a proclamation for a Parliament to meet in February.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 377-380; Ludlow, 753-769; Letters of M. +de Bordeaux in Guizot, II. 306 and 315.] + +Monk was now at Coldstream, on the Tweed, about nine miles from +Berwick. On the 13th of December he had taken leave, at Berwick, of a +deputation of Scottish nobles and gentlemen, headed by the Earls of +Glencairn, Tullibardine, Rothes, Roxburgh, and Wemyss, who had come +from Edinburgh with certain propositions and requests. As he was +going into England, leaving Scotland garrisoned but by a poor residue +of his soldiers, would he not permit the shires to raise small native +forces for police purposes, or would he not at least restore to the +Scottish nobility and gentry the privilege of wearing arms themselves +and having their servants armed? Farther, might he not, a little +while hence, sanction a general arming, so that Scotland might have +the pleasure of putting 6000 foot and 1500 horse at his disposal? The +minor requests were, within certain limits, granted easily; but +against the last Monk was still very wary. To have granted it would +have been to proclaim that he was taking the Scottish nation with him +in his enterprise, and so give indubitable foundation to those +rumours that "the King was at the bottom of it" which were flying +about already, and which it was his first care to contradict. There +must be no general arming of the Scots: he would march into England +with his own little army only! Still, however, he did not move from +Coldstream, but stuck there, exchanging messages with Lambert +respecting the renewal of the Treaty. It was now dead winter, and +the snow lay thick over the whole region between the two Generals. +Monk's personal accommodations at Coldstream were much worse than +Lambert's at Newcastle. He was quartered in a wretched cottage, with +two barns, where, on the first night of his arrival, he could find +nothing for supper, and had to munch more than his usual allowance of +raw tobacco instead. But he had the means of paying his men and +keeping them in good humour, while bad pay and the cold weather were +demoralising Lambert's.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Skinner's Life of Monk, 161-168; Phillips, 674-675.] + +For the restitution of the Rump Parliament, Monk's march into England +was to be quite unnecessary. His mere pertinacity in declaring +himself the champion of the Rump and making preparations for the +march had disintegrated all that seemingly coherent strength of the +Wallingford-House party throughout England and Ireland on which +Lambert could rely when he left London in the beginning of November. +All over England and Ireland, for six weeks now, people had been +talking of "Silent Old George," as Monk's own soldiers called him, +though he was but in his fifty-second year, and speculating on his +possible meaning, and on the chance that even Lambert might find him +more than a match. And such mere gossip and curiosity everywhere, +mingling with previous doubtings in some quarters, and with relics of +positive partisanship with the Rump in others, had gradually induced +a complete whirl of public feeling. By the middle of December, when +the Wallingford-House Government put forth their proclamation of a +new Parliament, this was so apparent that Whitlocke and his friends +at the centre might well doubt whether that Parliament would ever +meet. By that time, at all events, Lambert had begun to curse his own +folly in not having fallen upon Monk at first, and in having let +himself afterwards be deluded so long by the phantom of a renewed +treaty at Newcastle. For what had been the news, and continued to be +the news, post after post? Colonel Whetham, Governor of Portsmouth, +formerly Monk's associate in the Scottish Council, now in declared +cooperation with him, and holding the town for the Rump; Hasilrig, +Morley, and Walton, gone to Portsmouth to turn the revolt to +account; these and other members of the late Rump, such as Neville; +Scott, and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, openly resuming their functions +and issuing documents in which they declared General Monk, "the +ablest and most experienced commander in these nations," to be +"warranted in his present actings" by their express commission; +risings or threatenings of risings in various parts of England, +whether Royalist or Republican not known, but equally troublesome to +the existing powers; Admiral Lawson and his Fleet actually in the +Thames with an avowal at length of allegiance to the late Parliament +only, and resisting all Vane's persuasions the other way; the Army in +Ireland, which had seemed so safe, now in a confused ferment, with +Sir Hardress Waller, Sir Charles Coote, Colonel Theophilus Jones, and +others, promoting a general demonstration in Monk's behalf! Lambert's +own Army was infected. That part of it which was called the Irish +Brigade, as consisting of regiments that had been brought from +Ireland at the time of Sir George Booth's insurrection, sympathised +with Monk openly; the rest were dubious or listless. In the rear of +Lambert in Yorkshire, though he can hardly yet have known the fact, +Lord Fairfax was organising a movement, really with Royalist aims, +but to take the form of a concerted combination with Monk as soon as +Monk should advance. But it was in London itself, close round the +powers at Whitehall, that their weakness had become most notorious +and alarming. For some time the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common +Council had been acting almost as an independent authority; the +citizens were resolute against the payment of taxes, and had formed +associations to resist their collection; all that was Cavalierish in +the city was astir, with all that was Republican, in daily displays +of contempt for the Wallingford-House junta and their soldiery. +Hewson's regiment, marching through the city, had been jeered at by +the apprentices and pelted with stones. In the centre of these London +tumults, Fleetwood, the Commander-in-chief, and the honorary head of +the Government, had shown himself incapable even of the local +management. Of Fleetwood, all in all, indeed, one knows not, by this +time, what to think. The combination of mild qualities which Milton +had eulogised in him in 1654 did not now suit. Ever since Richard's +fall, to which he had so largely contributed, Fleetwood had comported +himself as a dignified and sweet-mannered man, more acceptable in the +highest place than Lambert, but uneasy in his mind, and uncomfortable +in his relations to Lambert. He was a deeply religious man, which +Lambert was not; and it was observed that on late occasions in the +Council of Officers, when bad news made some sudden resolution +necessary, and Lambert would have been, ready with one, Fleetwood's +one resource had been "Gentlemen, let us pray." One thinks of +Fleetwood's brother-in-law, poor Henry Cromwell, and what he might +have been in Fleetwood's place. He, the man of real fitness, was in +seclusion in Cambridgeshire, rejected where he was most needed, and +indeed, though he did not yet fully know it, foreclosed already, at +the age of thirty-one, by his own honourable fidelity to his father's +ashes, from all farther career or employment in any English +world.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 674-676; Whitlocke, IV. 378-380; Skinner, +170-178; Thurloe, VII. 797-798 (Letter of Sir Anthony Ashley +Cooper, Scott, &c., to Fleetwood); Guizot, II. 54-57; Letters of M. +de Bordeaux in Appendix to Guizot, II. 307-318.] + +It was close on Christmas, and the anarchy in London had become +indescribable. "I wished myself out of these daily hazards, but knew +not how to get free of them," is Whitlocke's entry in his diary for +Dec. 20; and, under Dec. 22, he writes, "Most of the soldiery about +London declared their judgment to have the Parliament sit again, in +honour, freedom, and safety; and now those who formerly were most +eager for Fleetwood's party became as violent against them, and for +the Parliament to sit again." In other words, the soldiers of +Fleetwood's own London regiments were tired of being insulted and +jeered at, and had come to the conclusion, with their brethren +everywhere else, that Lambert's _coup d'état_ of Oct. 13 had +been a blunder and that the Rump must be reinstated.--In these +circumstances, Whitlocke, after consultation with Lord Willoughby of +Parham, the Presbyterian Major-General Browne, and others, thought +himself justified in going to Fleetwood with a very desperate +project. It was evident, Whitlocke told him, that Monk's design was +to bring in the King; if so, the King's return was inevitable; and, +if the King should return by Monk's means, the lives and fortunes of +all in the Wallingford-House connexion were at the King's or Monk's +mercy. Would not Fleetwood be beforehand with Monk, and himself be +the agent of the unavoidable restoration? He might adopt either of +two plans, an indirect or a direct. The indirect plan would be to +fraternize with the City, declare for "a full and free +Parliament"--not that Parliament for which Whitlocke was preparing +writs, but the fuller and freer one, unfettered by Wallingford-House +"qualifications," for which the Royalists had been astutely calling +out,--and then either take the field with his forces under that +banner, or else, if the forces he could rally proved too small, shut +himself up in the Tower, and trust to the City itself till the effect +were seen. The other way would be to dispatch an envoy to the King at +once with offers and instructions. Whitlocke himself was equally +willing to go into the Tower with Fleetwood or to be his envoy to +Charles. After some rumination, Fleetwood, as Whitlocke understood, +had concluded for the latter plan, and Whitlocke was taking leave of +him, with that understanding, to prepare for his journey, when they +found Vane, Desborough, and Berry, in the ante-chamber. At +Fleetwood's request Whitlocke waited there, while the new comers and +Fleetwood consulted in the other room. In less than a quarter of an +hour, says Whitlocke, Fleetwood came out, telling him passionately "I +cannot do it, I cannot do it." The reason he gave was that he had +just been reminded that he was under a pledge to Lambert to take no +such step without his consent. To Whitlocke's remonstrance that, +Lambert being absent, and the matter being one of life or death, only +instant action could prevent ruin to Fleetwood himself and his +friends, the answer was "I cannot help it"; and so they parted.--This +was on Thursday the 22nd of December. The next day, though Whitlocke +had a call from Colonel Ingoldsby, Colonel Howard, and another, +suggesting that, as Keeper of the Great Seal, he might fitly go to +the King on his own account, he went on sealing writs, he tells us, +for the new Wallingford-House Parliament. Meanwhile, the uproar in +the City being at its maximum, such members of the late Council of +the Rump as were in town met at Speaker Lenthall's house and issued +orders for a rendezvous of Fleetwood's regiments in Lincoln's Inn +Fields under the command of Okey, Alured, Markham, and Mosse. +Fleetwood, applied to for the keys of the Parliament house, willingly +gave them up and resigned all charge. On Saturday the 24th the mass +of the soldiers were gladly at the appointed rendezvous, and were +marched down Chancery Lane, where the Speaker came out to them at the +Rolls, and was received with shouts of joy and repentance. On Monday +the 26th all the members of the Rump who were at hand met the Speaker +in the Council-Chamber at Whitehall, and walked thence to Westminster +Hall, the mace carried before them, and the soldiers and populace +cheering as they passed. They constituted the House and proceeded at +once to business. They had been excluded two months and fourteen +days.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 380-384; Phillips, 676; Letter of M. de +Bordeaux to Mazarin of Dec. 28, 1659 (English reckoning), Guizot, +318-322.] + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Second Section (continued). + +THE ANARCHY, STAGE III.: OR SECOND RESTORATION OF THE RUMP, WITH +MONK'S MARCH FROM SCOTLAND: DEC. 26, 1659--FEB. 21, 1659-60. + +THE RUMP AFTER ITS SECOND RESTORATION: NEW COUNCIL OF STATE: +PENALTIES ON VANE, LAMBERT, DESBOROUGH, AND THE OTHER CHIEFS OF THE +WALLINGFORD-HOUSE INTERREGNUM: CASE OF LUDLOW: NEW ARMY REMODELLING: +ABATEMENT OF REPUBLICAN FERVENCY AMONG THE RUMPERS: DISPERSION OF +LAMBERT'S FORCE IS THE NORTH: MONK'S MARCH FROM SCOTLAND: STAGES AND +INCIDENTS OF THE MARCH: HIS HALT AT ST. ALBAN'S AND MESSAGE THENCE TO +THE RUMP: HIS NEARER VIEW OF THE SITUATION: HIS ENTRY INTO LONDON, +FEB. 3, 1659-60: HIS AMBIGUOUS SPEECH TO THE RUMP, FEB. 6: HIS +POPULARITY IN LONDON: PAMPHLETS AND LETTERS DURING HIS MARCH AND ON +HIS ARRIVAL: PRYNNE'S PAMPHLETS ON BEHALF OF THE SECLUDED MEMBERS: +TUMULT IN THE CITY: TUMULT SUPPRESSED BY MONK AS SERVANT OF THE RUMP: +HIS POPULARITY GONE: BLUNDER RETRIEVED BY MONK'S RECONCILIATION WITH +THE CITY AND DECLARATION AGAINST THE RUMP: ROASTING OF THE RUMP IN +LONDON, FEB. 11, 1659-60: MONK MASTER OF THE CITY AND OF THE RUMP +TOO: CONSULTATIONS WITH THE SECLUDED MEMBERS: BILL OF THE RUMP FOR +ENLARGING ITSELF BY NEW ELECTIONS: BILL SET ASIDE BY THE RESEATING OF +THE SECLUDED MEMBERS: RECONSTITUTION OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT UNDER +MONK'S DICTATORSHIP. + + +The Rump, as restored the second time, never recovered even its +former small dimensions. On a division taken the day after its +restoration there were only thirty-seven present and voting, nor in +any subsequent division did the number exceed fifty-three. This arose +from the fact that Rumpers who had been conspicuous in the +Wallingford-House defection now absented themselves. On the other +hand, the Journals show an accession of at least five members not +visible in the previous session: viz. Colonel Alexander Popham, Sir +Anthony Ashley Cooper, Colonel Henry Markham, Mr. John Lassell, and +Mr. Robert Cecil (second son of the Earl of Salisbury). Ashley +Cooper, not an original Rumper, came in by the recognition, Jan. 7, +1659-60, of his right to sit for Downton in Wilts. Lassell, whose +name is not on the list of the Long Parliament, may have found a seat +in the same way. Prynne and some others of the secluded members +renewed their attempt to get into the House, but were again +refused.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals (Divisions and Committees) from Dec. +26, 1659 to Feb. 21, 1659-60.] + +A new Council of State was, of course, appointed at once. It was to +consist, as before, of _twenty-one_ Parliamentaries and +_ten_ non-Parliamentaries, and to hold office from Jan. 1, +1659-60 to April 1, 1660. The following is the list, the order in +each section being that of preference as shown by the numbers of +votes obtained in the ballot, and the asterisk again denoting a +Regicide. + + PARLIAMENTARIES. + + Sir Arthur Hasilrig, Bart. + Colonel Herbert Morley + Robert Wallop + *Colonel Valentine Walton + *Thomas Scott + Nicholas Love + Chief Justice St. John + Colonel William White + John Weaver + Robert Reynolds + Sir James Harrington + Sir Thomas Widdrington + Colonel George Thompson + *John Dixwell + Henry Neville + Colonel John Fagg + John Corbet + *Thomas Challoner + *Henry Marten + *William Say + Luke Robinson (a tie between him and Carew Raleigh, decided by lot). + + NON-PARLIAMENTARIES. + + Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Bart. (appointed before his election as M.P.) + Josiah Berners + General Monk + Vice-Admiral Lawson + Alderman Love + Thomas Tyrrell + Lord Fairfax + Alderman Foote + Robert Rolle + Slingsby Bethell.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, Dec. 31, 1659 and Jan. 2, 1659-60.] + +The proceeding's of the House for the first month showed no +diminution of self-confidence by the late interruption. Hasilrig, who +was now the chief man in the Parliament and in the Council, was in +such a state of elevation that his friends were a little alarmed. +Next in activity, and more a man of business, was Scott, whose merits +were acknowledged by his appointment first to an informal +Secretaryship of State (Jan. 10), and then to that office fully and +formally, with charge of the foreign and domestic intelligence (Jan. +17). He was to be for the Rump government what Thurloe had been for +the Protectorate. + +A good deal of the first month's business consisted in votes of +approbation for those who had been faithful during the interruption +and votes condemning the Wallingford-House "usurpers" and their acts. +Monk, of course, was the hero among the faithful. Messages of thanks +were sent to him again and again, and on the 16th of January it was +resolved to bestow on him and his heirs £1000 a year. But there were +thanks as well to Admiral Lawson, Whetham, and Fairfax; to Hasilrig, +Scott, Neville, Morley, Walton, and the other members of the Council +of State who had laboured for the good old cause in the interim; and +to Sir Hardress Waller, Sir Charles Coote, and Colonel Theophilus +Jones, for what they had done in Ireland. In the censure of +delinquents there was nothing very revengeful. The Committee of +Safety was styled "the late pretended Committee of Safety," and all +their doings were voted null; but an indemnity for life and estate +was assured to the men themselves, and to all officers who had acted +under them, on condition of present submission. This indemnity was +not so complete but that a few of the late chief's might expect some +punishment. Accordingly, on the 9th of January Vane was brought +before the House, disabled from sitting there any longer, and ordered +into private life at his estate of Raby in Durham; and on the same +day it was voted that Colonels Lambert, Desborough, Berry, Ashfield, +Kelsay, Cobbet, Barrow, Packer, and Major Creed, all of whom were +still at large, should seclude themselves in whatever houses of +theirs were farthest from London. Vane, Lambert, and the rest not +having complied sufficiently, there were subsequent votes, with +little or no effect, for apprehending and compelling them; and on the +18th of January Sydenham and Salway were added to the list of the +reproved, the former by being expelled from the House and the latter +by being suspended. Whitlocke and the Laird of Warriston, though +unanimously regarded as among the prime culprits, escaped without +punishment. Whitlocke even ventured to appear in the House, but was +received so coolly that he soon withdrew into the country, leaving +instructions to his wife to burn a quantity of his papers and to +deliver the great seal to the Speaker. So far was Fleetwood from +being in danger that they were considering whether he might not be +retained as Commander-in-chief. Ludlow, much to his surprise, found +himself among the accused. This, however, was not because of the +middle course he had taken in London through the late interruption, +though he had lost some credit by that with his Republican friends. +He had unfortunately left London on his way back to Ireland on the +very eve of that happy restitution of the Rump which he had despaired +of seeing, and it was in Ireland that his enemies were most numerous +and violent. He had hardly arrived among them and attempted to resume +his command when he received notice from the House that he and +Colonel John Jones, with Miles Corbet and Matthew Tomlinson, were +required to come over to answer certain charges against them relating +to their Irish government (Jan. 5). Ludlow and the others obeyed, and +found, on their arrival in London in February, that Sir Charles Coote +and other officers in Ireland had lodged an impeachment against them +for nothing less than high treason.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates, and generally from Dec. 26, +1659 to Feb. 1659-60; Ludlow, 783-806; Whitlocke, IV. 384-392.] + +Another business, natural in the circumstances, was the now too +familiar one of "re-modelling." Men not now satisfactory had to be +removed from all departments of the public service and more proper +men substituted. Whitlocke's great seal was given into new keeping, +and there were new judicial appointments. To supply vacancies caused +by the removal of defaulting officers in regiments, there began +again, too, on a considerable scale, that process of nomination for +new commissions and of delivery of the commissions by the Speaker +which had been so wearisome in the former session of the House. To +Whetham, Walton, Morley, Okey, Mosse, Alured, Hasilrig, Rich, Eyre, +Hacker, and others, retaining their former colonelcies, or promoted +to farther military trusts, there were added Colonels Camfield, +Streater, Smithson, Sanders, &c.; and now, as heretofore, one is +puzzled by the appearance of many persons as "colonels" who had the +title only from their places in the militia of their counties, or +from the courtesy custom of designating a retired army-man by his +former name of honour. Lambert, Desborough, and the eight others +ordered into seclusion, were, of course, among the discharged; so +also was Robert Lilburne; but Hewson seems to have been forgiven.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, Dec, 1659 and Jan. 1659-60; Whitlocke +as before.] + +Through all these proceedings of the first month there had been signs +of a curious abatement of that thorough-going Republican fervency +which had characterized the House in its previous session. The +essential Republican principle had indeed been at once re-proclaimed. +It had been resolved that each member of the new Council of State, +before assuming office, should take an oath renouncing "the pretended +title or titles of Charles Stuart and the whole line of the late King +James, and of every person, as a single person, pretending or which +shall pretend," &c. The very next day, however, when Hasilrig brought +in a Bill enacting that every member of the House itself, or of any +succeeding House, should take the same oath, a minority, among whom +were Ingoldsby, Colonel Hutchinson, Colonel Fielder, and Colonel +Fagg, opposed very strongly. Not, of course, that they were other +than sound Commonwealth's men; but that oaths were becoming +frightfully frequent, and this one would be "a confining of +Providence," &c.! The first reading of the Bill was carried only by a +majority of twenty-four (Neville and Garland tellers) against fifteen +(Colonel Hutchinson and Colonel Fagg tellers). The effect was that, +after a second reading, the Bill went into Committee and remained +there, the members meanwhile sitting on without any engagement. About +a half of those nominated to the Council of State, including Fairfax, +St. John, Morley, Weaver, and Fagg, remained out of the Council +rather than submit to the qualification made essential in +_their_ case. This was symptomatic enough; but it was also +evident that, on such important questions as Tithes, an Established +Church, and Liberty of Conscience, the House was in no disposition to +persevere in what had hitherto been believed to be radical and +necessary articles of the Republican policy. The instructions given +to a Committee on the 21st of January indicate very comprehensively +the prevalence of a conservative temper in the House on these and +other questions. The Committee were to prepare a declaration for the +public "That the Parliament intends forthwith to proceed to the +settlement of the government, and will uphold a learned and pious +Ministry of the nation and their maintenance by Tithes: and that they +will proceed to fill up the House as soon as may be, and to settle +the Commonwealth without a King, Single Person, or House of Peers; +and will promote the Trade of the nation; and will reserve due +Liberty to tender consciences: and that the Parliament will not +meddle with the executive power of the Law, but only in cases of +mal-administration and appeals, &c." Such a declaration was adopted +and ordered to be published on the 23rd. It was of a nature to +conciliate the Presbyterian and Independent clergy of the +Establishment and the conservative mass of the people generally, but +to disappoint grievously those various sectarian enemies of the +Church Establishment who had hitherto been the most enthusiastic +exponents of the "good old cause." The very phrase "the good old +cause," one observes, was now passing into disrepute, and the word +"fanatics" as a name for its extreme supporters was coming into use +within the circle of the Rump politicians themselves. Hasilrig, +Neville, and the rest of the ultra-Republicans, mast have felt the +power going from their hands.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Phillips, 678; Ludlow, +807-809; Letters of M. de Bordeaux, Guizot, II. 325-839.] + +While much of this cooling of the original Republican fervency was +owing to the recent experience of the public fickleness and of the +necessity of not "confining Providence" too much in the decision of +what to-morrow should bring forth, there was a special cause in the +relations now subsisting between the House and Monk. + +The House having been restored by Monk's agency, but without that +march to London which he had proposed for the purpose, the majority +were by no means anxious to see him in London. Monk, on the other +hand, to whom it had been a disappointment that the House had been +restored without his presence to see it done, was resolved +nevertheless that the march should take place. He was already within +England when the news of the premature restitution of the Rump +reached him, having advanced through the snow from Coldstream to +Wooler in Northumberland on the 2nd of January, to fight Lambert at +last. He was at Morpeth on the 4th, and at Newcastle on the 5th, to +find that there was to be no necessity for fighting Lambert after +all. Lambert's army had melted away with the utmost alacrity on +orders from London, leaving their leader to submit and shift for +himself. After remaining three days at Newcastle, Monk resumed his +march, by Durham and Northallerton, receiving addresses and +deputations by the way, and was at York on the 11th. Here he remained +five days, besieged with more addresses and deputations, but having a +conference also with Lord Fairfax, followed by a visit to his +Lordship at his house of Nunappleton. Fairfax had been in arms to +attack Lambert's rear, in accordance with the understanding he had +come to with Monk; and it was part of Monk's business at York to +reform the wreck of Lambert's forces, incorporating some of them with +his own and putting the rest under the command of officers who had +declared for Fairfax. He arranged also for leaving one of his own +regiments at York and for sending Morgan back with two others to take +charge of Scotland. By these changes his army for farther advance was +reduced to 4000 foot and 1800 horse. Hitherto his march had been by +his own sole authority; but at York he received orders from the +Council of State to come on to London. Dreading what might happen +from his conjunction with the great Fairfax, and not daring to order +him back to Scotland, the Rump leaders had assented to what they +could not avoid. From York, accordingly, he resumed his advance on +the 16th, the country before him, like that he had left behind, still +covered thick with snow. On the 18th, at Mansfield in +Nottinghamshire, he met Dr. Gumble, whom he had sent on to London +about ten days before with letters to the Parliament and the Council +of State, and who had returned with valuable information. Next day, +at Nottingham, his brother-in-law De Clarges also met him, bringing +farther information for his guidance. On the 22nd, as he was +approaching Leicester, Messrs. Scott and Robinson, who had been sent +from London as Commissioners from the Rump to attend him in the rest +of his march, made their appearance ceremoniously and were duly +received. They had come really as anxious spies on Monk's conduct, +and were very inquisitive and loquacious; but they relieved him +thenceforth of much of the trouble of answering the deputations and +addresses by which he was still beset on his route. They were with +him at Northampton, where he was on the 24th; at Dunstable, where he +was on the 27th; and at St. Alban's, where he arrived on the 28th. +Here, twenty miles from London, he rested for five days, to see the +issue of a very important message he had been secretly preparing for +the Parliament and which he now sent on by Dr. Clarges. It was a +request to the House to clear London of all but two of the regiments +then in it, on the ground that, having so recently served Fleetwood +and the Wallingford-House party in their usurpation, they were not to +be trusted. The message was of a kind to surprise and perplex the +House, and Monk had purposely reserved it to this late stage of his +march that there might be the less time for discussion. While waiting +at St. Alban's, he had to endure, we are told, "amongst the rest of +his interruptions," a long fast-day sermon from Hugh Peters, who had +come to his quarters, with two other ministers. Monk's chaplain, Dr. +Price, who was present at the sermon, has left an account of it. The +text was Psalm cvii. 7, "And He led them forth by the right way, that +they might go to a city of habitation"; and Peters, in discoursing on +this text, drew from it the assurance of a happy settlement of the +Commonwealth at last. "With his fingers on the cushion," says Dr. +Price, "he measured the right way from the Red Sea, through, the +Wilderness, to Canaan; told us it was not forty days' march, but God +led Israel forty years through the Wilderness before they came +thither; yet this was still the Lord's right way, who led his people +_crinkledum cum crankledum_." Monk's present march was to be one +of the last of the windings.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Skinner's Life of Monk, 175-199; Phillips, 677-680; +Parl. Hist., III. 1574 (quotation from Dr. Price).] + +While Monk is at St. Alban's, we may inquire into his real +intentions. They connect themselves with the purport of those +addresses with which he had been troubled along his whole route. Not +only had there been addresses from the inhabitants or authorities of +the towns he passed through; but there had been letters to him at +Morpeth from the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, of the +City of London, followed by an address presented to him on the +borders of Northamptonshire by a deputation of three commissioners +from the City, two of them Aldermen. Now, almost all the addresses +had been in one strain. Thanking Monk for what he had already done, +they prayed him to earn the farther gratitude of his countrymen +either by (1) securing that the present House should be converted +into a real Parliament by the restoration of the secluded members of +1642-1648 to their seats and the filling up of other vacancies, or +(2) securing that a full and free new Parliament should be called at +once. Both these methods implied the restoration of Charles, though +mention of that consequence, and by some even the thought of it, was +most studiously avoided. A full and free new Parliament meant, in the +present mood of the country, a recall of Charles rapidly and +unhesitatingly. The filling up of the present Parliament by the +restoration of the secluded members, and by new elections for other +vacancies, meant the reconstituting of the Long Parliament entire, +just as it had been while negotiations with Charles I. were going on, +and before the Army, in order to stop these negotiations and bring in +the Republic, ejected the Royalist and Presbyterian members. Such a +reconstituted Parliament, if time were given it, would also +inevitably recall Charles II., though it might do so after a +preliminary compact with him on the basis of that Treaty of Newport +which had been going on with his father late in 1648, and which might +be regarded as still embodying the views of the Presbyterians +respecting Royalty and its limits. Of the two methods the Cavaliers +or Old Royalists naturally preferred that which would bring in +Charles most speedily and with the fewest conditions; but, as they +were outnumbered by the Presbyterians or New Royalists, they were +willing to accept _their_ method. To the genuine Rumpers, of +course, either proposal was dreadful. To retain the power themselves, +enlarging their House, if at all, only by new elections permitted by +themselves, and not to part with their power unless to a new +Parliament the qualifications for which should have been carefully +pre-determined by themselves, was the only procedure by which they +could hope to preserve the Commonwealth. Hence, on the one hand, +their willingness to throw overboard all that was not absolutely +essential to a Republican policy; but hence, on the other, their +anxiety to enforce an oath among themselves abjuring Charles and the +Stuarts utterly. It had been to feel Monk's inclinations in this +matter of the abjuration oath, and also to watch his attitude to the +deputations and their requests, that they had despatched their two +commissioners, Scott and Robinson, to be in attendance on him. He had +baffled them by his matchless taciturnity. Very probaby, his +intention, when he first projected his march to London, had been to +restore the Rump and to insist at the same time on the re-admission +of the secluded members; and this had been recommended to him by +Fairfax. But, now that the Rump was again sitting without the +secluded members, and determined to keep them out, not even to +Fairfax had he committed himself by a definite promise on that point. +To the deputations he would reply only in curt generalities, or +indeed, after Scott and Robinson had joined him, in generalities +which would have been thought crusty and uncivil, had not Gumble, or +Price, or the physician Dr. Barrow, been always at hand to explain +privately to disappointed persons that the General's way was +peculiar. Only in one matter was he explicit himself. He would not +permit the least insinuation that he designed to bring in Charles. At +York he had caned one of his officers for having said something +imprudent to that effect.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Skinner and Phillips _ut supra_; Letter of M. de +Bordeaux to Mazarin, of date Jan. 21, in Guizot, II. 336-340.] + +On the 30th of January, with whatever reluctance, the House did +comply with Monk's request, by issuing orders for the removal of +Fleetwood's regiments from London; and on the 1st of February the way +was farther cleared by the appointment of Clarges to be +commissary-general of the musters for England and Scotland. There was +a mutiny among Fleetwood's soldiers on account of the disgrace put +upon them, and also on account of their dislike of country quarters +after the pleasures of London; but the mutiny only quickened the +desire to get rid of them. They were marched out by their officers; +and on Friday the 3rd of February, Monk, who had come on to Barnet +the day before, marched in with his army, by Gray's Inn Lane, +Chancery Lane, and the Strand. They appeared to the citizens a very +rough and battered soldiery indeed after their month's march through +the English snows, the horses especially lean and ragged. That night, +and all Saturday and Sunday, Monk was in quarters at Whitehall, +receiving distinguished visitors. Though asked to take his seat in +the Council of State on Saturday, he declined to do so till he should +see his way more clearly on the disputed question of the abjuration +oath.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Skinner, 199-206; Phillips, +680-682.] + +On Monday, Feb. 6, the House was assembled in state to see Monk +introduced into it by Messrs. Scott and Robinson. His designation +among them was only "Commissioner Monk"; for, though he had been +appointed Commander-in-Chief of all the Forces of England, Scotland, +and Ireland, by a secret commission sent him by Hasilrig and a few +other members of the old Council of State during the late +interruption, that commission did not now hold, and he had really no +other authority than that implied by his appointment before Lambert's +_coup d'état_ to be fellow-commissioner with Fleetwood, Ludlow, +Hasilrig, Walton, and Morley for the regulation of the Army. The last +three of these, as still acting in the commission, were nominally his +equals. But every care was taken to testify to Monk the sense of his +extraordinary services. A chair was set for him opposite the Speaker; +at the back of which, as he declined the invitation to be seated, he +stood while the Speaker addressed him in a harangue of glowing +thanks. Then, with his hand on the chair, he spoke in return the +speech he had carefully conned. "Sir, I shall not trouble you with +large narratives," he said; "only give me leave to acquaint you that, +as I marched from Scotland hither, I observed the people in most +counties in great and earnest expectations of Settlement, and they +made several applications to me, with numerous subscriptions. The +chiefest heads of their desires were:--for a free and full +Parliament, and that you would determine your sitting; a Gospel +Ministry; encouragement of Learning and Universities; and for +admittance of the members secluded before 1648, without any previous +oath or engagement. To which I commonly answered, That you are now in +a _free_ Parliament, and, if there were any force remaining upon +you, I would endeavour to remove it; and that you had voted to fill +up your House, and then you would be a _full_ Parliament +also...; but, as for those gentlemen secluded in 1648, I told them +you had given judgment in it and all people ought to acquiesce in +that judgment; but to admit any members to sit in Parliament without +a previous oath or engagement to secure the Government in being, it +was never yet done in England. And, although I said it not to them, I +must say it with pardon to you, that the less oaths and engagements +are imposed (with respect had to the security of the common cause) +your settlement will be the sooner attained to." He was now half +through his speech; and the rest consisted of general recommendations +of a policy in accordance with "the sober interest," with care that +"neither the Cavalier nor Fanatic party" should have a share of the +civil or military power. He ended with a glance at Ireland and +Scotland, bespeaking particular attention to the Scots, as "a nation +deserving much to be cherished," and sure to appreciate the late +declaration in favour of a sober and conservative Church policy, +inasmuch as no nation more dreaded "to be overrun with fanatic +notions." Having thus delivered himself, Monk withdrew, leaving the +House wholly mystified, but also a good deal distempered, by his +ambiguities. It seems to have been on this occasion that Henry Marten +vented that witty description of Monk which is one of the best even +of _his_ good sayings. "Monk," he said, "is like a man that, +being sent for to make a suit of clothes, should bring with him a +budget full of carpenter's tools, and, being told that such things +were not at all fit for the work he was desired to do, should answer, +'It matters not; I will do your work well enough, I warrant you.'" +Monk was now on the spot with his budget of carpenter's tools, and he +meant to make a tolerable suit of clothes with them somehow.[1] + +[Footnote 1: There is a hiatus in the Journals at the point of +Monk's reception and speech in the House; but the speech was printed +separately, and is given in the Parl. Hist. III. 1575-7. The original +authority for Henry Marten's witticism is, I believe, Ludlow +(810-811).] + +There was no lack of advices for his direction. Through the month of +his march and of the anxious sittings of the House in expectation of +him, the London press had teemed with pamphlets for the crisis. _The +Rota, or a Model of a Free State or Equal Commonwealth_ was another +of Harrington's, published Jan. 9, when Monk was between Newcastle +and York; and on the 8th of February, when Monk had been five days in +London, he was saluted by _The Ways and Means whereby an Equal and +lasting Commonwealth may be suddenly introduced_, also by Harrington. +_A Coffin for the Good Old Cause_ was another, in a different strain; +and there were others and still others, some of them in the form of +letters expressly addressed to Monk. From the moment of his arrival +at St. Alban's, indeed, he had become the universal target for +letter-writers and the universal object of popular curiosity. _The +Pedigree and Descent of his Excellency General Monk_ was on the +book-stalls the day before his entry into London, and his speech to +the Parliament was in print the day after its delivery. All were +watching to see what "Old George" would do. He did not yet know that +himself, but was trying to find out. What occupied him was that +question of the means towards a full and free Parliament which had +been pressed upon him all along his march, and about which he had +hitherto been so provokingly ambiguous. Of all the pamphlets that +were coming out only those that could give him light on this question +can have been of the least interest to his rough common sense. Now, +as it happened, he could be under no mistake, after his arrival in +London, as to the strength and massiveness of that current of opinion +which had set in for a re-seating of the secluded members. Since the +first restoration of the Rump in May 1659, Prynne had been keeping +the case of the secluded members perpetually before the public in +pamphlets; and Prynne, more than any other man, had created the +feeling that now prevailed. "Conscientious, Serious, Theological and +Legal Queries propounded to the twice dissipated, self-erected, +Anti-Parliamentary Westminster Juncto"; "Six Important Queries +proposed to the Re-sitting Rump of the Long Parliament"; "Seven +Additional Queries in behalf of the Secluded Members"; "Case of the +Old secured, secluded, and twice excluded Members"; "Three Seasonable +Queries proposed to all those Cities, Counties, and Boroughs, whose +respective citizens have been forcibly excluded," &c.; "Full +Declaration": such are the titles of those of Prynne's pamphlets, the +last of a long series in one and the same strain, which were +delighting or tormenting London when Monk arrived. Many of the +secluded members were in town to await the issue, and the last-named +of Prynne's pamphlets (published Jan. 30) contained an alphabetical +list of the whole body of them. There were, it appears, 194 secluded +members then alive, besides forty who had died since 1648. If Monk +was to do anything at all, was not Prynne's way the safest and most +popular? Practically, at all events, he could now see that the +possible courses had reduced themselves to two,--(1) The Rump's own +way, or self-enlargement of the present House by new writs, issued +with all Republican precautions; (2) The City's way, or Prynne's way, +which proposed to re-insert the secluded members into the present +House, so as to make it legally the Long Parliament over again, with +its rights and engagements precisely as they had been at the time of +the last negotiations with Charles I. in 1648. For which of these two +courses he should declare himself was the question Monk had to +ponder.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thomason Pamphlets, and Catalogue of the same; Wood's +Ath. III. 870-871.] + +He nearly blundered. The Rump, having him and his Army at hand, had +become more firm in their determination to proceed in their own way. +On the 4th of February, the day after Monk's arrival, they resolved +that the present House should be filled up to the number of 400 +members in all for England and Wales, and that the returning +constituencies should be as in 1653; and, having referred certain +details to a Committee, they proceeded on subsequent days to settle +some of the qualifications for voting or eligibility. The Londoners, +tumultuous already, were enraged beyond bounds by these new signs of +the Rump's obstinacy. It was again debated in the Common Council +"whether the City should pay the taxes ordered by the Government"; +influential citizens urged the Lord Mayor to put himself at the head +of a resistance to the Rump at all hazards; there were riots in the +streets and skirmishes between the militia and the apprentices. +Thus, instead of having time to deliberate, Monk found himself in the +midst of such a clash between the House and the City that instant +decision for the one or the other was imperative.--On the night of +the 8th, two days after his speech in Parliament, he received orders +from the Council of State to go into the City with his regiments and +reduce it to obedience. He was to take away the posts and chains in +the streets, unhinge the City gates, and wedge the portcullises; he +was to use any force necessary for the purpose; and he was to arrest +eleven citizens named, and others at his discretion. The orders, +though addressed nominally to all the four Army-Commissioners, were +really intended for Monk; and there was the utmost anxiety among the +leaders of the Rump to see whether he would execute them. To the +surprise of all, to the surprise of his own soldiers even, he did +execute them. On the 9th the House had three sittings; and in the +second of these it was announced that Monk had marched his regiments +that morning into the City, that he was then at Guildhall, that he +had nine of the eleven citizens already in custody, and that he had +removed the posts and chains. All being now quiet, and the Lord Mayor +and Aldermen having undertaken to hold a meeting of the Common +Council and give the Parliament every satisfaction, he had thought it +best not to incense the City by the extreme insult of unhinging the +gates and wedging the portcullises. The Rumpers were in ecstasies. +Monk had committed himself, and was irredeemably theirs. "All is our +own: he will be honest," said Hasilrig to the friends beside him. In +their triumph, they rose once more for a moment to the full height of +Republican confidence. It happened that a deputation of London +citizens, headed by Mr. Praise-God Barebone, had come to the House +that day with a petition and address, signed by some thousands of +"lovers of the good old cause," who were anxious to disclaim all +connexion with the City tumults and with "the promoters of regal +interest" in the City or elsewhere. The petitioners demanded nothing +less than that the House should at once impose an oath abjuring +Charles Stuart upon all clergymen and other persons in public +employment; but even this did not prevent the House from thanking +them cordially. As for the City generally, now that Monk had brought +it to submission, the House would trample it under foot! The Lord +Mayor, having behaved discreetly through the tumults, was to be +thanked; but it was voted that the present Common Council should be +dissolved and a new one elected by such citizens only as the House +should deem worthy of the franchise. Nor was Monk to hesitate any +longer about the city gates and portcullises. Orders were sent to +him, not only to unhinge the gates and wedge the portcullises, as +the Council had already ordered, but to break them in pieces. The +City was to be overmastered utterly and finally, and Monk was to be +the agent.--Not even yet did Monk rebel. The gates and portcullises +were broken in pieces by his soldiers, and every other order was +punctually carried out. The soldiers were in indignation over their +base employment, and the citizens were stupefied. In vain were +Clarges, Dr. Barrow, and others of Monk's friends going about and +assuring the Lord Mayor and Aldermen that the General was a man of +very peculiar ways and must not be too hastily judged. "Very +peculiar ways indeed," thought the citizens, mourning for their +honours lost, and their broken gates and portcullises. On the night +of Friday, Feb. 10, when Monk returned to Whitehall, after his two +days of rough work in the city, it was, as it seemed, with his +reputation ruined for ever among the Londoners. A few days before +he had been the popular demigod, the man on whom all depended, and +who had all in his power. Now what was he but the slave and hireling +of the Rump?[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Phillips, 684-685; Skinner, +211-219; Whitlocke, IV. 394-396.] + +It was afterwards represented by Monk's admirers that his City +proceedings of Feb. 9 and 10 were the effects of consummate judgment. +He could not then have disobeyed the Rump without resigning his +command; Hasilrig and Walton, two of his fellow-commissioners, would +have executed the orders independently; though by a disagreeable +process, he had felt the temper of his officers and soldiers, and +ascertained that they were as disgusted with the Rump as he was +himself! It may be doubted, however, whether he had not only been +handling his carpenter's tools with too sluggish caution. Certain it +is that he had returned to Whitehall in a sullen mood, and that, +after a consultation overnight with his officers, his conclusion was +that he must at once retrieve himself. That was a night of busy +preparations between him and his officers. A letter was drafted, to +be sent to the House next day; and a copy was taken, that it might be +in the printer's hands before the House had received the original. + +Next morning, Saturday Feb. 11, Monk and his regiments were again in +the City, drawn up in Finsbury Fields. He had left the letter for the +House, signed by himself, seven of his colonels, one +lieutenant-colonel, and six majors, to be delivered to the House by +two of the signing colonels, Clobery and Lydcott; and he had come to +make his peace with the City. This was not very easy. The Lord Mayor, +to whom Clarges had been sent to announce the return of the +regiments, and to say that the General meant to dine with his +Lordship that day, was naturally suspicious and distant; but, having +taken counsel with some of the chief citizens, he could do no less +than answer that he would expect the General. At the early +dinner-hour, accordingly, Monk was at his Lordship's house in +Leadenhall Street, coldly received at first, but gradually with more +of curiosity and goodwill as his drift was perceived. He begged +earnestly that his Lordship would send out summonses for an immediate +meeting of the Common Council in Guildhall, notwithstanding the +dissolution of that body by the Rump, saying he would accompany his +Lordship thither and make certain public explanations. Dinner over, +and the Lord Mayor and Common Council having met in Guildhall about +five o'clock, Monk did surprise them. He apologised for his +proceedings of the two preceding days, declaring that the work was +the most ungrateful he had ever performed in his life, and that he +would have laid down his power rather than perform it, unless he had +seen that by such a step he would only have given advantage to the +dominant faction. He was come now, however, to make amends. He had +that morning sent a letter to the House, requiring them to issue out +writs within seven days for the filling up of vacancies in their +ranks, and also, that being done, to dissolve themselves by the 6th +of May at latest, that they might be succeeded by a full and free +Parliament! Till he should receive ample satisfaction in reply to +these demands and otherwise, he meant to remain in the City of London +with his regiments, making common cause with the faithful citizens! +Guildhall rang with acclamations; and, as the news was dispersed +thence through the City, confirmed by the printed copies of Monk's +letter to the Rump that were by this time in circulation, the +dejection of the two last days passed into a phrenzy of joy. +Housewives ran out to Monk's soldiers, who had been standing all day +under arms, carrying them food and drink without stint; crowds of +apprentices danced everywhere like delirious demons; the bells of all +the churches were set a-ringing; the houses of several "fanatics" +were besieged, and the windows in Barebone's all smashed; and far +into the night and into the Sunday morning the streets blazed with +long rows of bonfires. Whatever piece of flesh, in butcher's stall or +in family-safe, bore resemblance to a rump, or could be carved into +something of that shape, was hauled to one of these bonfires to be +flung in and burnt; and for many a day afterwards the 11th of +February 1659-60 was to be famous in London as _The Roasting of the +Rump_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 685-687; Skinner, 219-230; Parl. Hist. III. +1578-9; Letter of M. de Bordeaux, Guizot, II. 350-351; Pepys's Diary, +Feb. 11, 1659-60.] + +On receiving Monk's letter early in the forenoon of Saturday the +House had temporized. They had sent Messrs. Scott and Robinson into +the City after Monk, to thank him for his faithful service of the two +previous days, and to assure him "that, as to the filling up of the +House, the Parliament were upon the qualifications before the receipt +of the said letter, and the same will be despatched in due time." But +at an evening sitting, with candles brought in, the House, informed +by that time of Monk's proceedings in the City, had shown their +resentment by reconstituting the Commission for regulation of the +Army. They did not dare to turn Monk out; but they negatived by +thirty (Marten and Neville tellers) to fifteen (Carew Raleigh and +Robert Goodwyn tellers) a proposal of his partisans to make Sir +Anthony Ashley Cooper one of his colleagues. The colleagues they did +appoint were Hasilrig, Morley, Walton, and Alured; and, in settling +the quorum at three, they rejected a proposal that Monk should always +be one of the quorum.--Through the following week, however, efforts +were still made to come to terms with Monk. On Monday the 13th the +Council of State begged him to return to Whitehall and assist them +with his presence and counsels. His reply was that, so long as the +Abjuration Oath was required of members of the Council, he would not +appear in it, and that meanwhile there were sufficient reasons for +his remaining in the City. Accordingly, he kept his quarters there, +first at the Glass House in Broad Street, and then at Drapers' Hall +in Throgmorton Street, holding _levées_ of the citizens and +city-clergy, and receiving also visits from Hasilrig and other +members of the House. Even Ludlow, though one of the complaints in +Monk's letter was that the House was allowing Ludlow to sit in it +notwithstanding the charge of high treason lodged against him from +Ireland, ventured to go into the den of the lion. He was shy at +first, Ludlow tells us, but became very civil, and, when Ludlow had +discoursed on the necessity of union to keep out Charles Stuart, +"Yea," said he, "we must live and die together for a Commonwealth." +The interest that was now pressing closest round Monk, however, was +that of the Secluded Members. The applications on their behalf by the +Presbyterians of the City and of the counties round were incessant. +Monk even yet had his hesitations. On the one hand, to avert, if +possible, the re-seating of the secluded among them, the Rumpers had +been acting through the week in the spirit of their answer to Monk's +letter. They had been pushing on their Bill of Qualifications, so +that there might be no delay in the issue of writs for filling up +their House to the number of 400, as formerly decided. They had, +moreover, tried to pacify Monk in other ways. They had resolved +(Feb. 14) that the engagement to be taken by members of Parliament +should simply be, "I will be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of +England and the Government thereof in the way of a Commonwealth and +Free State, without a King, Single Person, or House of Lords"; and +they had resolved that this simple declaration should be substituted +for the stronger abjuration oath even for members of the Council of +State. They had also complied with Monk's demands that there should +be more severe reprimand of the late Committee of Safety and +especially of Vane and Lambert. All this was to induce Monk to accept +the proffered _Self-Enlargement of the present House_, rather +than yield to the popular and Presbyterian demand for _the Long +Parliament reconstituted_. Nor were there wanting objections to +the latter plan in Monk's own mind. If a House with the secluded +members re-seated in it would confine itself to questions of present +exigency and future political order, there might be no harm. But +would it do so? With a Presbyterian majority in it, looking on all +that had been done since 1648 as the illegal acts of pretended +Governments, might it not be tempted to a revengeful revision of all +those acts? Might it not thus unsettle those arrangements for the +sale, purchase, gift, and conveyance of property upon which the +fortunes of many thousands, including the Army officers and the +soldiery in England, in Scotland, and especially in Ireland, now +depended? Would Monk's own officers risk such a consequence? To come +to some understanding with the secluded members on these points, Monk +himself, and Clarges and Gumble for him, had been holding interviews +with such of the secluded members as were in London; and matters had +been so far ripened that at length, on Saturday the 18th, by Monk's +invitation, there was a conference at his quarters between about a +dozen of the leading Rumpers and as many representatives of the +Secluded. Hasilrig was one of the Rumpers present; but, as most of +the others were of the Monk party, the conference was not unamicable. +Even the Rumpers who were favourable to the re-admission of the +Secluded, however, could only speak for themselves, and the +representatives of the Secluded could hardly undertake for their +absent brethren; and so there was no definite agreement.----Monk then +took the matter into his own hands. Having, in the course of the +Sunday and Monday, secured the concurrence of his officers, and made +a rough compact in writing with a few of the secluded members, he +marched his Army out of the City on the morning of Tuesday the 21st; +and, the secluded members having met him by appointment at Whitehall, +to the number of about sixty, he made a short speech to them, caused +a longer "Declaration" which he had taken the precaution of putting +on paper to be read to them, and then sent them, under the conduct of +Captain Miller and a sufficient guard, to the doors of the Parliament +House. The incident had been expected; there were soldiers all round +the House already; and the procession walked through cheering crowds +of spectators. Monk remained at Whitehall himself, to hold a General +Council of his officers later in the day.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Phillips, 687-688; Skinner, +233-242; Ludlow, 832-836; Letters of M. de Bordeaux in Guizot, II. +347-365.] + +The Rump, which had been still busy on Saturday with the Bill of +Qualifications or "Disabling Bill," but whose sitting on Monday is +marked only by a hiatus in the Journals, had not formed the House on +Tuesday morning when the procession of secluded members, swelled to +about eighty by stragglers on the way, entered and took their seats. +A few of the Rumpers, seeing what had occurred, ruefully left the +House, to return no more; but most remained and amalgamated +themselves easily with the more numerous new comers. The +reconstituted House then plunged at once into business +thus:-"PRAYERS: _Resolved_, &c., That the Resolution of this +House of the 18th of December, 1648, 'that liberty be given to the +members of this House to declare their dissent to the vote of the 5th +of December 1648 that the King's Answer to the Propositions of both +Houses was a ground for this House to proceed upon for settlement of +the Peace of the Kingdom,' be vacated, and made null and void, and +obliterated." In other words, here was the Long Parliament, like a +Rip Van Winkle, resuming in Feb. 1659-60 the work left off in Dec. +1648, and acknowledging not an inch of gap between the two dates. +There were seven other similar Resolutions, cancelling votes and +orders standing in the way; and these, with orders for the discharge +of the citizens recently imprisoned by the Rump, and resolutions for +annulling the late new Army Commission of the Rump, and for +appointing Monk to be "Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief, under +the Parliament, of all the land-forces of England, Scotland, and +Ireland," and continuing Vice-Admiral Lawson, in his naval command, +were the sum and substance of the business of the first sitting.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of date.] + +Before night Monk and his officers had drafted a Letter to all the +regiments and garrisons of England, Scotland, and Ireland, explaining +to them that, by the grace of God and good London management, they +had passed through another revolution. The Letter began "Dear +Brethren and Fellow-Soldiers," and bore Monk's signature, followed by +those of Colonels Ralph Knight, John Clobery, Thomas Read, John +Hubblethorn, Leonard Lydcott, Thomas Sanders, William Eyre, John +Streater, Richard Mosse, William Parley, Arthur Evelyn, and sixteen +inferior officers. It was vague, but intimated that the Government +was still to be that of a Commonwealth, and that all disturbances of +the peace "in favour of Charles Stuart or any other pretended +authority" were to be put down. More explicit had been Monk's speech +at Whitehall that morning to the secluded members on their way to the +House, published copies of which were also distributed by Monk's +authority. He had assured the secluded members, "and that in God's +presence," that he had nothing before his eyes "but God's glory and +the settlement of these nations upon Commonwealth foundations"; and +he had pointed out the interest of the Londoners especially in the +preservation of a Commonwealth, "that Government only being capable +to make them, through the Lord's blessing, the metropolis and bank of +trade for all Christendom." On the Church question he had been very +precise. "As to a Government in the Church," he had said, "the want +whereof hath been no small cause of these nations' distractions, it +is most manifest that, if it be monarchical in the State, the Church +must follow and Prelacy must be brought in--which these nations, I +know, cannot bear, and against which they have so solemnly sworn; and +indeed moderate, not rigid, Presbyterian Government, with a +sufficient liberty for consciences truly tender, appears at present +to be the most indifferent and acceptable way to the Church's +settlement." It is not uninteresting to know that Monk's chief +ecclesiastical adviser at this moment, and probably the person who +had formulated for him the description of the kind of Church that +would be most desirable, was Mr. James Sharp, from Crail in Scotland. +He had followed Monk to London with a commission from the leaders of +the Scottish Resolutioner clergy; and from his arrival there he had +been, Baillie informs us, "the most wise, faithful, and happy +counsellor" Monk had, keeping him from all wrong steps by his +extraordinary Banffshire sagacity.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 688-689; Parl. Hist. III, 1579-1581 (Monk's +Speech and Declaration); Baillie, III. 440-441. How uncertain it was +yet whether Monk would ever desert the Commonwealth, and how anxious +the Royalists were on the subject, appears from a letter of Mordaunt +to Charles, dated Feb. 17, 1659-60, or four days before the +Restoration of the Secluded Members (_Clar. State Papers_, III. +683). Speaking of Monk, Mordaunt writes thus:--"The visible +inclination of the people; the danger he foresees from so many +enemies; his particular pique to Lambert; the provocation of the +Anabaptists and Sectaries, with whom I may now join the Catholics; +the want of money to continue standing armies; the divisions of the +chief officers in those respective armies; the advices of those near +him--I mean, in particular, Clobery and Knight...; the admonitions +daily given him by Mr. Annesley and Alderman Robinson;--unless God +has fed him to the slaughter, cannot but move him."] + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Third Section. + +MONK'S DICTATORSHIP, THE RESTORED LONG PARLIAMENT, AND THE DRIFT TO +THE RESTORATION: FEB. 21, 1659-60--APRIL 25, 1660. + +THE RESTORED LONG PARLIAMENT: NEW COUNCIL OF STATE: ACTIVE MEN OF THE +PARLIAMENT: PRYNNE, ARTHUR ANNESLEY, AND WILLIAM MORRICE: +MISCELLANEOUS PROCEEDINGS OF THE PARLIAMENT: RELEASE OF OLD ROYALIST +PRISONERS: LAMBERT COMMITTED TO THE TOWER: REWARDS AND HONOURS FOR +MONK: "OLD GEORGE" IN THE CITY: REVIVAL OF THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND +COVENANT, THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH, AND ALL THE APPARATUS +OF A STRICT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH-ESTABLISHMENT: CAUTIOUS MEASURES FOR +A POLITICAL SETTLEMENT: THE REAL QUESTION EVADED AND HANDED OVER TO +ANOTHER PARLIAMENT: CALLING OF THE CONVENTION PARLIAMENT AND +ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE SAME: DIFFICULTY ABOUT A HOUSE OF LORDS: HOW +OBVIATED: LAST DAY OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT, MARCH 16, 1659-60: SCENE +IN THE HOUSE.--MONK AND THE COUNCIL OF STATE LEFT IN CHARGE: ANNESLEY +THE MANAGING COLLEAGUE OF MONK: NEW MILITIA ACT CARRIED OUT: +DISCONTENTS AMONG MONK'S OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS: THE RESTORATION OF +CHARLES STILL VERY DUBIOUS: OTHER HOPES AND PROPOSALS FOR THE MOMENT: +THE KINGSHIP PRIVATELY OFFERED TO MONK BY THE REPUBLICANS: OFFER +DECLINED: BURSTING OF THE POPULAR TORRENT OF ROYALISM AT LAST, AND +ENTHUSIASTIC DEMANDS FOR THE RECALL OF CHARLES: ELECTIONS TO THE +CONVENTION PARLIAMENT GOING ON MEANWHILE: HASTE OF HUNDREDS TO BE +FOREMOST IN BIDDING CHARLES WELCOME: ADMIRAL MONTAGUE AND HIS FLEET +IN THE THAMES: DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS AT LAST BETWEEN MONK AND +CHARLES: GREENVILLE THE GO-BETWEEN: REMOVAL OF CHARLES AND HIS COURT +FROM BRUSSELS TO BREDA: GREENVILLE SENT BACK FROM BREDA WITH A +COMMISSION FOR MONK AND SIX OTHER DOCUMENTS.--BROKEN-SPIRITEDNESS OF +THE REPUBLICAN LEADERS, BUT FORMIDABLE RESIDUE OF REPUBLICANISM IN +THE ARMY: MONK'S MEASURES FOR PARALYSING THE SAME: SUCCESSFUL DEVICE +OF CLARGES: MONTAGUE'S FLEET IN MOTION: ESCAPE OF LAMBERT FROM THE +TOWER: HIS RENDEZVOUS IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE: GATHERING OF A WRECK OF +THE REPUBLICANS FOUND HIM: DICK INGOLDSBY SENT TO CRUSH HIM: THE +ENCOUNTER NEAR DAVENTRY, APRIL 22, 1660, AND RECAPTURE OF LAMBERT: +GREAT REVIEW OF THE LONDON MILITIA, APRIL 24, THE DAY BEFORE THE +MEETING OF THE CONVENTION PARLIAMENT: IMPATIENT LONGING FOR CHARLES: +MONK STILL IMPENETRABLE, AND THE DOCUMENTS FROM BREDA RESERVED. + + +In the nomination of a new Council of State the House adhered to the +now orthodox number of thirty-one. Monk was named first of all, by +special and open vote, on the 21st of February; and the others were +chosen by ballot, confirmed by open vote in each case, on the 23rd, +when the number of members present and giving in voting-papers was +114. The list, in the order of preference, was then, as follows:-- + + General GEORGE MONK + + William Pierrepoint + John Crewe + Colonel Edward Rossiter (Rec.) + Richard Knightley + Colonel Alexander Popham + Colonel Herbert Morley + Lord Fairfax + Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Bart. + Sir Gilbert Gerrard, Bart. + Lord Chief Justice St. John + Lord Commissioner Widdrington + Sir John Evelyn of Wilts + Sir William Waller + Sir Richard Onslow + Sir William Lewis, Bart. + Colonel (Admiral) Edward Montague (_Rec._) + Colonel Edward Harley (_Sec._) + Richard Norton (_Rec._) + Arthur Annesley (_Rec._) + Denzil Holles + Sir John Temple (_Rec._) + Colonel George Thompson (_Sec._) + John Trevor (_Rec._) + Sir John Holland, Bart. + Sir John Potts, Bart. + Colonel John Birch (_Rec._) + Sir Harbottle Grimstone + John Swinfen (_Rec._) + John Weaver (_Rec._) + Serjeant John Maynard. + +With the exception of Monk and Fairfax, who were not members of the +Parliament, and the latter of whom was absent in Yorkshire, these +Councillors are to be imagined as also active in the business of the +House. About nine of them were Residuary Rumpers who had accepted +willingly or cheerfully the return of the secluded. The proportion of +Residuary Rumpers in the whole House was even larger. Though it had +been reported by Prynne that as many as 194 of the secluded were +still alive, and a contemporary printed list gives the names of 177 +as available,[1] the present House never through its brief session +attained to a higher attendance than 150, the average attendance +ranging from 100 to 120; and I have ascertained by actual counting +that more than a third of these were Residuary Rumpers. It is strange +to find among them such of the extreme Republicans as Hasilrig, +Scott, Marten, and Robinson. They left the House for a time, but +re-appeared in it, whereas Ludlow and Neville and others would not +re-appear--Ludlow, as he tells us, making a practice of walking up +and down in Westminster Hall outside, partly in protest, partly to +show that he had not fled.[2] Actually six Regicides remained in the +House: viz. Scott, Marten, Ingoldsby, Millington, Colonel Hutchinson, +and Sir John Bourchier. The majority of the Residuary Rumpers, +however,--represented by such men as Lenthall, St. John, Ashley +Cooper, Colonel Thompson, Colonel Fielder, Carew Raleigh, +Attorney-General Reynolds, Solicitor-General Ellis, and Colonel +Morley, and even by two of the Regicides mentioned (Ingoldsby and +Hutchinson),--were now in harmony with the Secluded, and by no means +disposed to abet Hasilrig, Scott, and Marten in any farther contest +for Rump principles. In other words, the House was now led really by +the chiefs of the reinstated members. Prominent among these, besides +Crewe, Knightley, Gerrard, Sir John Evelyn of Wilts, Sir William +Waller, Sir William Lewis, Arthur Annesley, Sir Harbottle Grimston, +and others named as of the Council, were Prynne, Sir Anthony Irby, +Major-General Browne, Sir William Wheeler, Lord Ancram (member for a +Cornish burgh), William Morrice, and some others, not of the +Council.--Prynne, who ought to have been on the Council, if courage +for the cause of the Secluded and indefatigable assiduity in pleading +it were sufficient qualifications, had not been thought fit for that +honour; but he was a very busy man in the House. He had taken his +place there very solemnly the first day, with an old basket-hilt +sword on; and he was much in request on Committees.--Of more +aristocratic manners and antecedents, and therefore fitter for the +Council, was Arthur Annesley, a man of whom we have not heard much +hitherto, but who, from this point onwards, was to attract a good +deal of notice. The eldest son of the Irish peer Viscount Valentia +and Baron Mountnorris, he had come into the Long Parliament in 1640 +as member for Radnorshire; he had gone with the King in the beginning +of the Civil War; but he had afterwards done good service for the +Parliament in Ireland during the Rebellion, and had at length +conformed to the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. While the +Protectorate lasted he had been really a Cromwellian; but, like so +many other Cromwellians, he was now a half-declared Royalist. He had +been one of the chief negotiators with Monk for the re-seating of the +Secluded, and he took at once a foremost place among them, both in +the House and in the Council. He was now about forty-fire years of +age.--An accession to the House, after it had sat for a week or more, +was Mr. William Morrice. He was a Devonshire man, like Monk, to whom +he was related by marriage. He had been sent into the Long Parliament +in 1645 as Recruiter for Devonshire, and had been afterwards +secluded; and he had been returned to Oliver's two Parliaments and to +Richard's. Living in Devonshire as a squire "of fair estate," he had +acquired the character of an able and bookish man of enlightened +Presbyterian principles; he had been of use to Monk in the management +of his Devonshire property; there had been constant correspondence +between them; and there was no one for whom Monk had a greater +regard. Now, accordingly, at the age of about five and fifty, Morrice +had left his books and come from Devonshire to London at Monk's +request, not only to take his place in Parliament, but also to be a +kind of private adviser and secretary to Monk, more in his intimacy +than even Dr. Clarges.--To complete this view of the composition of +the new Government, we may add that on Feb. 24 Thomas St. Nicholas +was made Clerk of the Parliament, and that on the 27th the House +appointed Thurloe and a John Thompson to be joint-secretaries of +State. There was a division on Thurloe's appointment, but it was +carried by sixty-five votes to thirty-eight. The tellers against +Thurloe were Annesley and Sir William Waller, but he was supported by +Sir John Evelyn of Wilts and Colonel Hutchinson. Thurloe's former +subordinate, Mr. William Jessop, was now clerk to the Council of +State.[3] + +[Footnote 1: A single folio fly-leaf, dated March 26 in the Thomason +copy, and called "_The Grand Memorandum: A True and Perfect +Catalogue of the Secluded Members of the House of Commons," &c._ +It was printed by Husbands on the professed "command" of one of the +members (Prynne?).] + +[Footnote 2: The fly-leaf mentioned in last note gives the names of +thirty-three Rumpers who did not sit in the House after the +readmission of the secluded members. Arranged alphabetically they +were:--Anlaby, Bingham, John Carew, Cawley, James Challoner, +Crompton, Darley, Fleetwood, John Goodwyn, Nicholas Gold, John +Gurdon, Sir James Harrington, Hallows, Harvey, Heveningham, John +Jones, Viscount Lisle, Livesey, Ludlow, Christopher Martin, +Neville, Nicholas, Pigott, Pyne, Sir Francis Russell, the Earl of +Salisbury, Algernon Sidney, Walter Strickland, Sir William +Strickland, Wallop, Sir Thomas Walsingham, and Whitlocke. Compare +with the list of the Restored Rump, ante pp. 453-455.] + +[Footnote 3: Commons Journals of dates, and generally from Feb. 21 +to March 16, 1659-60, with examination of the lists of all the +Committees through that period; Ludlow, 845-846; Wood's Ath. IV. 181 +et seq. (Annesley), and III. 1087 et seq. (Morrice); Clarendon, 891 +and 895.] + +By the rough compact made with Monk, the House was to confine itself +to the special work for which it was the indispensable instrument, +and to push on as rapidly as possible, through that, to an act for +its own dissolution. The majority was such that the compact was +easily fulfilled. Six-and-twenty days sufficed for all that was +required from this reinstated fag-end of the famous Long Parliament. + +Naturally much of the work of the House took the form (1) of redress +of old or recent injuries, and (2) of rewards and punishments. +Almost the first thing done by the House was to restore the +privileges of the City of London, release the imprisoned Common +Council men and citizens, and issue orders for the repair of the +broken gates and portcullises. The City and the Parliament were now +heartily at one, and there was a loan from the City of £60,000 in +token of the happy reconciliation. Sir George Booth, who had been +recommitted to the Tower by the Rump, was finally released, though +still on security. There were several other releases of prisoners and +removals of sequestrations, and at length (Feb. 27) it was referred +to a Committee to consider comprehensively the cases of all persons +whatsoever then in prison on political grounds. On the 3rd of March +particular orders were given for the discharge of the Earl of +Lauderdale, the Earl of Crawford, and Lord Sinclair, from their +imprisonment in Windsor Castle; and thus the last of the Scottish +prisoners from Worcester Battle found themselves free men once more. +Twelve days afterwards the House went to the extreme of the merciful +process by ordering the release of poor Dr. Matthew Wren, the Laudian +ex-Bishop, who had been committed by the Long Parliament early in +1641 along with Laud and Strafford, and who had been lying in the +Tower, all but forgotten, through the intervening nineteen years. At +the same time discretionary powers were given to the Council of State +to discharge any political prisoners that might be still left.--In +the article of _punishments_ the House was very temperate +indeed. Notorious Rumpers were removed, of course, from military and +civil offices, and there were sharper inquiries after Colonel Cobbet, +Colonel Ashfield, Major Creed, and others too suspiciously at large; +but, with one exception, there seemed to be no thought of the serious +prosecution of any for what had been done either under the Rump +Government or during the Wallingford-House interruption. The +exception was Lambert. Brought before the Council, and unable or +unwilling to find the vast bail of £20,000 which they demanded for +his liberty, he was committed by them to the Tower; and the House, on +the 6th of March, confirmed the act, and ordered his detention for +future trial. While Lambert was thus treated as the chief criminal, +the rewards and honours went still, of course, mainly to Monk. To his +Commandership-in-chief of all the Armies there was added the +Generalship of the whole Fleet, though in this command, to Monk's +disappointment, Montague was conjoined with him (March 2). He was +also made Keeper of Hampton Court; and the £1000 a year in lands +which the Rump had voted him was changed by a special Bill into +£20,000 to be paid at once (March 16), As the Bill was first drafted, +the reward was said to be "for his signal services"; but by a vote on +the third reading the word "signal" was changed into "eminent." +Perhaps Annesley, Sir William Waller, and the other new chiefs at +Whitehall were becoming a little tired of the praises of so peculiar +an Aristides. But he was still a god among the Londoners. From St. +James's, which was now his quarters, he would go into the City every +other day, to attend one of a series of dinners which they had +arranged for him in the halls of the great companies, and at which he +found himself so much at ease in his morose way that he would hardly +ever leave the table "till he was as drunk as a beast." Ludlow, who +tells us so, would not have told an untruth even about Monk; and +Ludlow was then in London, knowing well what went on. Let us suppose, +however, that he exaggerated a little, and that old George was the +victim of circumstances.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates, and generally from Feb. 21 +to March 16; Ludlow, 855-856.] + +A large proportion of the proceedings of the House and the Council +may be described as simply a re-establishment of Presbyterianism. The +secluded members being Presbyterians to a man, there was at once an +enthusiastic recollection of the edicts of the Long Parliament +between 1643 and 1648, setting up Presbytery as the national +Religion, with a determination to revert in detail to those symbols +and forms of the Presbyterian system which the triumph of +Independency had set aside during the Commonwealth, and which had +been allowed only partially, and side by side with their contraries, +in the broad Church-Establishment of the Protectorate. The unanimity +and rapidity of the House in their votes in this direction must have +alarmed the Independents and Sectaries. It was on Feb. 29 that the +House appointed a Committee of twenty-nine on the whole subject of +Religion and Church affairs--Annesley, Ashley Cooper, Prynne, and Sir +Samuel Luke (i.e. Butler's Presbyterian "Sir Hudibras") being of the +number; and on the 2nd of March, on report from this Committee, the +Westminster Assembly's Confession of Faith, as it had been under +discussion in the Long Parliament in 1646 (Vol. III. p. 512), was +again brought before the House, and passed bodily at once, with the +exception of chapter 30, "_Of Church Censures_," and chapter 31, +"_Of Synods and Councils_"--which two chapters it was thought as +well to keep still in Committee. The same day there were other +resolutions of a Presbyterian tenor. But the climax was on March 5, +in this form: "_Ordered_, That the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT be +printed and published, and set up and forthwith read in every church, +and also read once a year according to former Act of Parliament, and +that the said SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT be also set up in this +House." Thus, when the bones of Alexander Henderson had been for more +than thirteen years in their tomb in Grey Friars churchyard in +Edinburgh, was the great document which he had drafted in that city +in August 1643, as a bond of religious union for the Three Kingdoms, +and only the first fortunes of which he had lived to see, +resuscitated in all its glory. What more could Presbyterianism +desire? That nothing might be wanting, however, there followed, on +the 14th of March, a Bill "for approbation and admittance of +ministers to public benefices and lectures," one of the clauses of +which prescribed means for the immediate division of all the counties +of England and Wales into classical Presbyteries, according to those +former Presbyterianizing ordinances of the Long Parliament which had +never been carried into effect save in London and Lancashire. The +Universities were to be constituted into presbyteries or inserted +into such; and the whole of South Britain was to be patterned +ecclesiastically at last in that exact resemblance to North Britain +which had been the ideal before Independency burst in. What measures +of "liberty for consciences truly tender" might be conceded did not +yet appear. Anabaptists, Quakers, Fifth Monarchy enthusiasts, and +Monk's "Fanatics" generally, might tremble; and even moderate and +orthodox Independents might foresee difficulty In retaining their +livings in the State Church. Indeed Owen was already (March 13) +displaced from his Deanery of Christ Church, Oxford, by a vote of the +House recognising a prior claim of Dr. Reynolds to that post.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Neal, IV. 224-225.] + +In the matter of a political settlement the proceedings were equally +rapid and simple. Celerity here was made possible by the fact that +the House considered itself quite precluded from discussing the whole +question of the future Constitution. Had they entered on that +question, the probability is that they would have decided for a +negotiation with Charles II., with a view to his return to England +and assumption of the Kingship on terms borrowed from the old Newport +Treaty with his father, or at all events on strictly expressed terms +of some kind, limiting his authority and securing the Presbyterian +Church-Establishment. Even this, however, was problematical. There +were still Republicans and Cromwellians in the Parliament, and not a +few of the Presbyterians members had been Commonwealth's men so long +that it might well appear doubtful to them whether a return to +Royalty now was worth the risks, or whether, if there must be a +return to Royalty, it was in the least necessary to fix it again in +the unlucky House of Stuart. Then the difficulties out of doors! No +one knew what might be the effect upon Monk's own army, or upon the +numerous Republican sectaries, of a sudden proposal in the present +Parliament to restore Charles. On the other hand, the Old Royalists +throughout the country had no wish to hear of such a proposal. +_They_ dreaded nothing so much, short of loss of all chance of +the King's return, as seeing him return tied by such terms as the +present Presbyterian House would impose. It was a relief to all +parties, therefore, and a satisfactory mode of self-delusion to some, +that the present House should abstain from the constitutional +question altogether, and should confine itself to the one duty of +providing another Parliament to which that question, with all its +difficulties, might be handed over.--On the 22nd of February, the +second day of the restored House, it was resolved that a new +Parliament should be summoned for the 25th of April, and a Committee +was appointed to consider qualifications. The Parliament was to be a +"full and free" one, by the old electoral system of English and Welsh +constituencies only, without any representation of Scotland or +Ireland. But what was meant by "full and free"? On this question +there was some light on the 13th of March, when the House passed a +resolution annulling the obligation of members of Parliament to take +the famous engagement to be faithful to "the Commonwealth as +established, without King or House of Lords," and directing all +orders enjoining that engagement to be expunged from the Journals. +This was certainly a stroke in favour of Royalty, in so far as it +left Royalty and Peerage open questions for the constituencies and +the representatives they might choose; but, taken in connexion with +the order, eight days before, for the revival of the Solemn League +and Covenant--in which document "to preserve and defend the King's +Majesty's person and authority" is one of the leading phrases--it was +received generally as a positive anticipation of the judgment on +these questions. There was yet farther light, however, between March +13 and March 16, when the House, on report from the Committee, +settled the qualifications of members and electors. All Papists and +all who had aided or abetted the Irish Rebellion were to be incapable +of being members, and also all who, or whose fathers, had advised or +voluntarily assisted in any war against the Parliament since Jan. 1, +1641-2, unless there had been subsequent manifestation of their good +affections. This implied the exclusion of all the very conspicuous +Royalists of the Civil Wars and the sons of such; and the present +House, as the lineal representative of the Parliamentarians in those +wars, could hardly have done less, especially as there was a +saving-clause of which moderate Royalists would have the benefit, and +as the electors were sure to interpret the saving-clause very +liberally. For there was not even the same guardedness in the +qualifications of the electors themselves. It was proposed, indeed, +by the Committee to disfranchise all "that have been actually in arms +for the late King or his son against the Parliament or have +compounded for his or their delinquency" with an exception only in +favour of manifest penitents; but this was negatived by the House by +ninety-three votes (Lord Ancram and Mr, Herbert tellers) to fifty-six +votes (Scott and Henry Marten tellers). Thus, active Royalists of the +Civil Wars, if they might not be elected, might at least elect; and, +as another regulation disqualified from electing or being elected all +"that deny Magistracy or Ministry or either of them to be the +Ordinances of God "--viz. all Fifth Monarchy men, extreme +Anabaptists, and Quakers--the balance was still towards the +Royalists. In short, as finally passed, the Bill was one tending to +bring in a Parliament the main mass of which should consist of +Presbyterians, though there might be a large intermixture of Old +Royalists, Cromwellians, and moderate Commonwealth's men. To such a +Parliament it might be safely left to determine what the future form +of Government should be, whether Commonwealth continued, restored +Kingship, or a renewal of the Protectorate. The present House had not +itself decided anything. It had not decided against a continuance of +the Commonwealth, should that seem best. It had only assumed that +possibly that might not seem the best, and had therefore removed +obstacles to the free deliberation of either of the other schemes. +The revival of the Solemn League and Covenant might seem to imply +more; but the phraseology of a document of 1643 might admit of +re-interpretation in 1660.--A special perplexity of the present House +was in the matter of the Other House or House of Lords. They were now +sitting themselves as a Single House, notwithstanding that the +Long Parliament, of which they professed themselves to be a +continuation, consisted of two Houses. This was an anomaly in itself, +nay an illegality; and there had been a hot-headed attempt of some of +the younger Peers to remove it by bursting into the House of Lords at +the same time that the secluded members took their seats in the +Commons. Monk's soldiers had, by instructions, prevented that; and, +with the full consent of all the older and wiser peers at hand, the +management of the crisis had been left to the one reconstituted +House. The anomaly, however, had been a subject of serious discussion +in that House. On the one hand, they could not pass a vote for the +restitution of the House of Peers without trenching on that very +question of the future form of Government which they had resolved not +to meddle with. On the other hand, absolute silence on the matter was +impossible. How could the present single House, for example, even if +its other acts were held valid, venture on, an Act for the +dissolution of that Long Parliament whose peculiar privilege, wrung +from Charles I. in May 1641, was that it should never be dissolved +except by its own consent, i.e. by the joint-consent of the two +component Houses? Yet this was the very thing--that had to be done +before way could be made for the coming Parliament. The course +actually taken was perhaps the only one that the circumstances +permitted. When the House, at their last sitting, on Friday, March +16, did pass the Act dissolving itself and-calling the new +Parliament, it incorporated with the Act a proviso in these words: +"Provided always, and be it declared, that the single actings of this +House, enforced by the pressing necessities of the present times, are +not intended in the least to infringe, much less take away, the +ancient native right which the House of Peers, consisting of those +Lords who did engage in the cause of the Parliament against the +forces raised in the name of the late King, and so continued until +1648, had and have to be a part of the Parliament of England." Here +again there was not positive prejudgment so much as the removal of an +obstacle.--It did seem, however, as if the House would not separate +without passing the bounds it had prescribed for itself. It had +already been debated in whose name the writs for the new Parliament +should issue? "In King Charles's" had been the answer of the +undaunted Prynne. He had been overruled, and the arrangement was that +the writs should issue, as under a Commonwealth, "in the name of the +Keepers of the Liberties of England." At the last sitting of the +House, just as the vote for the dissolution was being put, the +Presbyterian Mr. Crewe, provoked by some Republican utterance of +Scott, moved that the House, before dissolving, should testify its +abhorrence of the murder of the late King by a resolution disclaiming +all hand in that affair. The untimely proposal caused a great +excitement, various members starting up to protest that they at least +had never concurred in the horrid act, while others, who had been +King's judges or regicides, betrayed their uneasiness by +prevarications and excuses. Not so Scott. "Though I know not where to +hide my head at this time," he said boldly, "yet I dare not refuse +to own that not only my hand, but my heart also, was in that action"; +and he concluded by declaring he should consider it the highest +honour of his existence to have it inscribed on his tomb: "_Here +lieth one who had a hand and a heart in the execution of Charles +Stuart_." Having thus spoken, he left the House, most of the +Republicans accompanying him. The Dissolution Act was passed, and +there was an end of the Long Parliament. Their last resolution was +that the 6th of April should be a day of general fasting and +humiliation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Ludlow, 863-864; Noble's +Lives of the Regicides, II. 169-199 (Life of Scott, with evidence of +Lenthall and others at his trial); Phillips, 694; Guizot, II. +167-168.] + +Though the House was dissolved, the Council of State was to sit on, +with full executive powers, till the meeting of the new Parliament. +Annesley was now generally, if not habitually, the President of the +Council, and in that capacity divided the principal management of +affairs with Monk. + +The Parliament having provided for expenses by an assessment of +£100,000 a month for six months, the Council could give full +attention to the main business of preserving the peace till the +elections should be over. Conjoined with this, however, was the +important duty of carrying out a new Militia Act which the Parliament +had framed. It was an Act disbanding all the militia forces as they +had been raised and officered by the Rump, and ordering the militia +in each county to be reorganized by commissioners of Presbyterian or +other suitable principles. The Act had given great offence to the +regular Army, naturally jealous at all times of the civilian +soldiery, but especially alarmed now by observing into what hands the +Militia was going. It would be a militia of King's men, they said, +and the Commonwealth would be undone! So strong was this feeling in +the Army that Monk himself had remonstrated with the House, and the +Militia Act, though passed on the 12th of March, was not printed till +the House had removed his objections. This had been done by pointing +to the clause of the Act which required that all officers of the new +Militia should take an acknowledgment "that the war undertaken by +both Houses of Parliament in their defence against the forces raised +in the name of the late King was just and lawful." When Monk had +professed himself satisfied, the re-organization of the Militia went +on rapidly in all the counties. Monk was one of the Commissioners for +the Militia of Middlesex, and to his other titles was added that of +Major-General and Commander-in-chief of the Militia of London. +Meanwhile the Council had issued proclamations over the country +against any disturbance of the peace, and most of the active +politicians had left town to look after their elections. The +Harringtonian or Rota Club, one need hardly say, was no more in +existence. After having been a five months' wonder, it had vanished, +amid the laughter of the Londoners, as soon as the secluded members +had added themselves to the Rump. Theorists and their "models" were +no longer wanted.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, March 10-16; Phillips, 694; +Whitlocke, IV. 405-406; Wood's Ath. III. 1120.] + +Not even yet was there any positive intimation that the Commonwealth +was defunct. No one could declare that authoritatively, and every one +might hope or believe as he liked. The all but universal conviction, +however, even among the Republicans, was that the Republic was +doomed, and that, if the last and worst consummation in a return of +Charles Stuart was to be prevented, it could only be by consenting to +some single-person Government of a less fatal kind. O that Richard's +Protectorate could be restored! The thing was talked of by St. John +and others, but the possibility was past. But might not Monk himself +be invested with the sovereignty? Hasilrig and others actually went +about Monk with the offer, imploring him to save his country by this +last means; and the chance seemed so probable that the French +ambassador, M. de Bordeaux, tried to ascertain through Clarges +whether Monk's own inclinations ran that way. Monk was too wary for +either the Rumpers or the Ambassador. He declined the offers of +Hasilrig and his friends, allowing Clarges privately to inform the +Council that such had been made; and, though he received the +Ambassador, it was but gruffly. "The French ambassador visited +General Monk, whom he found no accomplished courtier or statesman," +writes Whitlocke sarcastically under March 24; and the ambassador's +own account is that he could get nothing more from Monk, in reply to +Mazarin's polite messages and requests for confidence, than a +reiterated statement that he had no information to give. And so, a +Single Person being inevitable, and the momentary uncertainty whether +it would be "Charles, George, or Richard again" being out of the way, +the long-dammed torrent had broken loose. And what a torrent! "King +Charles! King Charles! King Charles!" was the cry that seemed to +burst out simultaneously and irresistibly over all the British +Islands. Men had been long drinking his health secretly or +half-secretly, and singing songs of the old Cavalier kind in their +own houses, or in convivial meetings with their neighbours; openly +Royalist pamphlets had been frequent since the abolition of Richard's +Protectorate; and, since the appearance of the Presbyterian +Parliament of the secluded members, there had been hardly a pretence +of suppressing any Royalist demonstrations whatever. On the evening +of the 15th of March, the day before the Parliament dissolved +itself, some bold fellows had come with a ladder to the Exchange in +the City of London, where stood the pedestal from which a statue of +Charles I. had been thrown down, and had deliberately painted out +with a brush the Republican inscription on the pedestal, "_Exit +tyrannus, Regum ultimus_," a large crowd gathering round them and +shouting "God bless Charles the Second" round an extemporized +bonfire. That had been a signal; but for still another fortnight, +though all knew what all were thinking, there had been a hesitation +to speak out. It was in the end of March or the first days of April +1660, when the elections had begun, that the hesitation suddenly +ceased everywhere, and the torrent was at its full. They were +drinking Charles's health openly in taverns; they were singing songs +about him everywhere; they were tearing down the Arms of the +Commonwealth in public buildings, and putting up the King's +instead.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 695; Letters of M. de Bordeaux, Guizot, II. +381-395; Whitlocke, IV. 405; Pepys's Diary, from beginning to April +11, 1660.] + +Popular feeling having declared itself so unmistakeably for Charles, +it was but ordinary selfish prudence in all public men who had +anything to lose, or anything to fear, to be among the foremost to +bid him welcome. No longer now was it merely a rat here and there of +the inferior sort, like Downing and Morland,[1] that was leaving the +sinking ship. So many were leaving, and of so many sorts and degrees, +that Hyde and the other Councillors of Charles had ceased to count, +on their side, the deserters as they clambered up. He received now, +Hyde tells us, "the addresses of many men who had never before +applied themselves to him, and many sent to him for his Majesty's +approbation and leave to sit in the next Parliament." Between London +and Flanders messengers were passing to and fro daily, with perfect +freedom and hardly any disguise of their business. Annesley, the +President of the Council of State, was in correspondence with the +King; Thurloe, now back in the Secretaryship to the Council, was in +correspondence with him, and by no means dishonourably; and in the +meetings of the Council of State itself, though it was bound to be +corporately neutral till the Parliament should assemble, the drift of +the deliberations was obvious. The only two men whose resistance even +now could have compelled a pause were Monk and Montague. What of +them?----It was no false rumour that Montague, the Cromwellian among +Cromwellians, the man who would have died for Cromwell or perhaps for +his dynasty, had been holding himself free for Charles. Under a cloud +among the Republicans since his suspicious return from the Baltic in +September last, but restored to command by the recent vote of the +Parliament of the secluded members making him joint chief Admiral +with Monk, he was at this moment (i.e. from March 23 onwards) in the +Thames with his fleet, in receipt of daily orders from the Council +and guarding the sea-passage between them and Flanders. He had on +board with him, as his secretary, a certain young Mr. Samuel Pepys, +who had been with him already in the Baltic, had been meanwhile in a +clerkship in the Exchequer office, but had now left his house in Axe +Yard, Westminster, and his young wife there, for the pleasure and +emoluments of being once more secretary to so kind and great a +master. In cabin talk with the trusty Pepys the Lord Admiral made no +secret of his belief that the King would come in; but it was only by +shrewd observations of what passed on board, and of the strange +people that came and went, that Pepys then guessed what he afterwards +knew to be the fact. "My Lord," as Pepys always affectionately calls +his patron, was pledged to the King, and was managing most discreetly +in his interest.[2]--But the power of Montague, as Commander-in-chief +of the Navy only, was nothing in comparison with Monk's. How was Monk +comporting himself? Most cautiously to the last. Though it was the +policy of his biographers afterwards, and agreeable to himself, that +his conduct from the date of his march out of Scotland should be +represented as a slow and continuous working on towards the one end +of the King's restoration, the truth seems to be that he clung to the +notion of some kind of Commonwealth longer than most people, and made +up his mind for the King only when circumstances absolutely compelled +him. With the Army, or a great part of it, to back him, he might +resist and impede the restoration of Charles; but, as things now +were, could he prevent it ultimately? Why not himself manage the +transaction, and reap the credit and advantages, rather than leave it +to be managed by some one else and be himself among the ruined? That +he had been later than others in sending Charles his adhesion was no +matter. He had gained consequence by the very delay. He was no longer +merely commander of an Army in Scotland, but centre and chief of all +the Armies; he was worth more for Charles's purposes than all the +others put together; and Charles knew it! So Monk had been reasoning +for some time; and it was on the 17th of March, the day after the +dissolution of the Parliament of the Secluded Members, that his +ruminations had taken practical effect. Even then his way of +committing himself was characteristic. His kinsman, Sir John +Greenville, the same who had been commissioned to negotiate with him +when he was in Scotland, was again the agent. With the utmost +privacy, only Mr. Morrice being present as a third party, Monk had +received Greenville at St. James's, acknowledged his Majesty's +gracious messages, and given certain messages for his Majesty in +return. He would not pen a line; Greenville was to convey the +messages verbally. They included such recommendations to his Majesty +as that he should smooth the way for his return by proclaiming a +pardon and indemnity in as wide terms as possible, a guarantee of +all sales and conveyances of lands under the Commonwealth, and a +liberal measure of Religious Toleration; but the most immediate and +practical of them all was that his Majesty should at once leave the +Spanish dominions, take up his quarters at Breda, and date all his +letters and proclamations thence. For the rest, as there were still +many difficulties and might be slips, the agreement between his +Majesty and Monk was to be kept profoundly secret.[3] + +[Footnote 1: These two of the late public servants of Oliver--Downing +his minister at the Hague, and Morland his envoy in the business of +the Piedmontese massacre of 1655--had behaved most dishonourably. +Both, for some months past, had been establishing friendly relations +with Charles by actually betraying trusts they still held with the +government of the Commonwealth--Morland by communicating papers and +information which came into his possession confidentially in +Thurloe's office (_Clar. Hist._ 869), and Downing by +communicating the secrets of his embassy to Charles, and acting in +his interests in that embassy, on guarantee that he should retain +it, and have other rewards, when Charles came to the throne +(_Clar. Life_, 1116-1117). There was to be farther proof that +Downing was the meaner rascal of the two.] + +[Footnote 2: Pepys's Diary, from beginning to April 11, 1660. +Montague seems to have first positively and directly pledged himself +to Charles in a letter of April 10, beginning "May it please your +excellent Majesty,--From your Majesty's incomparable goodness and +favour, I had the high honour to receive a letter from you when I was +in the Sound last summer, and now another by the hands of my cousin" +(Clar. State Papers). But the cousin had been already negotiating.] + +[Footnote 3: Clarendon, 891-896; Thurloe, VII. 807-898; Skinner, +266-275; Phillips, 695-696.] + +Over the seas went Greenville, as fast as ship could carry him, with +the precious messages he bore. At Ostend, where he arrived on the +23rd of March, he reduced them to writing; and the next day, and for +several days afterwards, Charles, Hyde, Ormond, and Secretary +Nicholas, were in joyful consultation over them in Brussels. The +advice of an instant removal to Breda fitted in with their own +intentions. Neither the Spanish territory nor the French was a good +ground from which to negotiate openly with England; nor indeed was +Spanish territory quite safe for Charles at a time when, seeing his +restoration possible, Spain might detain him as a hostage for the +recovery of Dunkirk and Mardike. To Breda, accordingly, as Monk +advised, the refugees went. They went in the most stealthy manner, +and just in time to avoid being detained by the Spanish authorities. +Before they reached Breda, however, but when Greenville could say +that he had seen them safe within Dutch territory, he left them, to +post back to England with a private letter to Monk in the King's own +hand, enclosing a commission to the Captaincy-General of all his +Majesty's forces, and with six other documents, which had been +drafted by Hyde, and were all dated by anticipation "_At Our Court +at Breda, this 4/14th of April 1660, in the Twelfth Year of Our +Reign_." One was a public letter "To our trusty and well-beloved +General Monk," to be by him communicated to the President and Council +of State and to the Army officers; another was to the Speaker of the +House of Commons in the coming Parliament; a third was a general +"Declaration" for all England, Scotland, and Ireland; a fourth was a +short letter to the House of Lords, should there be one; a fifth was +for Admirals Monk and Montague, to be communicated to the Fleet; and +the sixth was to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Councilmen of +the City of London. Besides the originals, copies of all were sent to +Monk, that he might keep the originals unopened or suppress any of +them.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 896-902; Phillips, 696; Skinner, 276-280.] + +It could be an affair now only of a few weeks, more or less. There, +at Breda, was his swarthy, witty, good-humoured, utterly profligate +and worthless, young Majesty, with his refugee courtiers round him; +at home, over all Britain and Ireland, they were ready for him, +longing for him, huzzahing for him, Monk and the Council managing +silently in London; and between, as a moveable bridge, there was +Montague and his fleet. When would the bridge move towards the +Continent? That would depend on the newly-elected Parliament, which +was to meet on the 25th. Could there be any mischance in the +meantime? + +It did not seem so. The late politicians of the Rump were dispersed +and powerless. Hasilrig sat by himself in London, moaning "_We are +undone: we are undone_"; Scott was in Buckinghamshire, if +perchance they might elect him for Wycombe: Ludlow hid in Wiltshire +and Somersetshire, also nominated for a seat, but careless about it; +the rest absconded one knows not where. The "Fanatics," as the +Republican Sectaries were now called collectively, were silenced and +overwhelmed. Even Mr. Praise-God Barebone, tired of having his +windows broken, was under written engagement to the Council to keep +himself quiet. The same written engagement had been exacted from +Hasilrig and Scott.--But what of the Army, the original maker of the +Commonwealth, its defender and preserver through good report and bad +report for eleven years, and with strength surely to maintain it yet, +or make a stand in its behalf? The question is rather difficult. It +may be granted that something of the general exhaustion, the fatigue +and weariness of incessant change, the longing to be at rest by any +means, had come upon the Army itself. Not the less true is it that +Republicanism was yet the general creed of the Army, and that, could +a universal vote have been taken through the regiments in England, +Scotland, and Ireland, it would have kept out Charles Stuart. Nay, so +engrained was the Republican feeling in the ranks of the soldiery, +and so gloomily were they watching Monk, that, could any suitable +proportion of them have been brought together, and could any fit +leader have been present to hold up his sword for the Commonwealth, +they would have rallied round him with acclamations. Precisely to +prevent this, however, had been Monk's care. One remembers his advice +from Scotland to Richard Cromwell nineteen months ago, when Richard +was entering on his Protectorate. It was to cashier boldly. Not an +officer in the Army, he had said, would have interest enough, if he +were once cashiered, to draw two men after him in opposition to any +existing Government. The very soul of Monk lies in that maxim, and he +had been acting on it himself. Not only, as we have seen, had he +reofficered his own army in Scotland with the utmost pains before +venturing on his march into England; but, since his coming into +England, he had still been discharging officers, and appointing or +promoting others. He had done so while still conducting himself as +the servant of the Restored Rump; and he had done so again very +particularly after he had become Commander-in-chief for the +Parliament of the Secluded Members. The consequence was most apparent +in that portion of the Army which was more especially his own, +consisting of the regiments he had brought from Scotland, and that +were now round him in London. The officers--Knight, Read, Clobery, +Hubblethorn, &c.--were all men accustomed to Monk, or of his latest +choosing. His difficulty had been greater with the many dispersed +regiments away from London, once Fleetwood's and Lambert's. Not only +was there no bond of attachment between them and Monk; they were full +of bitterness against him, as an interloper from Scotland who had put +them to disgrace, and had turned some of them out of London to make +room for his own men. But with these also Monk had taken his +measures. Besides quartering them in the manner likeliest to prevent +harm, he had done not a little among them too by discharges and new +appointments. One of his own colonels, Charles Fairfax, had been left +at York; Colonel Rich's regiment had been given to Ingoldsby; +Walton's regiment to Viscount Howard; a Colonel Carter had been made +Governor of Beaumaris, with command in Denbighshire; the Republican +Overton had been removed from the Governorship of Hull; Mr. Morrice +had been converted into a soldier, and made Governor of Plymouth; Dr. +Clarges was Commissary General of the Musters for England, Scotland, +and Ireland; and colonelcies were found for Montague, Rossiter, +Sheffield, and Lord Falconbridge. When it is remembered that +Fleetwood, Lambert, Desborough, Berry, Kelsay, and others of the old +officers, Rumpers or Wallingford-House men, were already +incapacitated, and either in prison or under parole to the Council of +State, it will be seen that the English Army of April 1660 was no +longer its former self. There were actually Royalists now among the +colonels, men in negotiation with the King as Monk himself was. +Still, if Monk and these colonels had even now gone before most of +the regiments and announced openly that they meant to bring in the +King, they would have been hooted or torn in pieces. Even in +colloquies with the officers of his own London regiments Monk had to +keep up the Republican phraseology. Suspicions having arisen among +them, with meetings and agitations, his plan had been to calm them by +general assurances, reminding them at the same time of that principle +of the submission of the military to the civil authority which he and +they had accepted. On this principle alone, and without a word +implying desertion, of the Commonwealth, he prohibited any more +meetings or agitations, and caused strict orders to that effect from +the Council of State to be read at the head of every regiment. But an +ingenious device of Clarges went further than such prohibitions. It +was that as many of the officers as possible should be got to sign a +declaration of their submission to the civil authority, not in +general terms merely, but in the precise form of an engagement to +agitate the question of Government no more among themselves, but +abide the decision of the coming Parliament. Many who could not have +been brought to declare for Charles Stuart directly could save their +consciences by signing a document thus conditionally in his interest; +and the device of Clarges was most successful. On the 9th of April a +copy of the engagement signed by a large number of officers in or +near London was in Monk's hands, and copies were out in England, +Scotland, and Ireland, for additional signatures. As to the response +from Scotland there could be little doubt. Morgan, the +commander-in-chief in Scotland, had already reported the complete +submission of the Army there to the order established by the +Parliament of the Secluded Members. Only a single captain had been +refractory, and he far away in the Orkneys. From Ireland, where Coote +and Broghill were now managing, the report was nearly as good. +Altogether, by the 9th of April, Monk could regard the Republicanism +of the Army as but the stunned and paralysed belief of so many +thousands of individual red-coats.--It was no otherwise with the +Navy. Moored with his fleet in the Thames, or cruising with it +beyond, Montague could assure Pepys in private that he knew most of +his captains to be Republicans, and that he was not sure even of the +captain of his own ship; and, studying a certain list which Montague +had given him, Pepys could observe that the captains Montague was +most anxious about were all or nearly all of the Anabaptist +persuasion. Still there was no sign of concerted mutiny; and it was a +great thing at such a time that Vice-Admiral Lawson, Montague's +second in command, and the pre-eminent Republican of the whole Navy, +had shown an example of obedience.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 694-698; Skinner, 263-265; Ludlow, 865-873; +Whitlocke, IV. 405-406; Pepys's Diary, March 28-April 9.] + +There was to be one dying flash for the Republic after all. Lambert +had escaped from the Tower. It was on the night of April 9, the very +day on which Monk was congratulating himself on the engagement of +obedience signed by so many of his officers. For some days no one +knew where the fugitive had gone, and Monk and the Council of State +were in consternation. Proclamations against him were out, forbidding +any to harbour him, and offering a reward for his capture. Meanwhile +emissaries from Lambert were also out in all directions, to rouse his +friends and bring them to a place of rendezvous in Northamptonshire. +One of these emissaries, a Major Whitby, found Ludlow in +Somersetshire, and delivered Lambert's message to him. Ludlow was not +unwilling to join Lambert, but wanted to know more precisely what he +declared for. With some passion, Whitby suggested that it was not a +time to be asking what a man declared _for_; it was enough to +know what he declared _against_. Ludlow demurred, and said it +was always best to put forth a distinct political programme! He +merely circulated the information; therefore, in Somersetshire and +adjoining counties, and waited for further light. Along many roads, +however, especially in the midland counties, others were straggling +to the appointed rendezvous. Discharged soldiers, Anabaptists, +Republican desperates of every kind, were flocking to Lambert.--Alas! +before many of these could reach Lambert, it was all over. Hither and +thither, wherever there were signs of disturbance, Monk had been +despatching his most efficient officers; and, on the 18th of April, +having received more exact information as to Lambert's whereabouts, +he sent off Colonel Richard Ingoldsby to do his very best in that +scene of action. There could not have been a happier choice. For this +was honest Dick Ingoldsby, the Cromwellian, of whom his kinsman +Richard Cromwell had said that, though he could neither preach nor +pray, he could be trusted. He was also "Dick Ingoldsby, the +Regicide," who had unfortunately signed the death-warrant of Charles +I., to please Cromwell; and that recollection was a spur to him now. +Since the abdication of Richard, he had been telling people that he +would thenceforth serve the King and no one else, even though his +Majesty, when he came home, would probably cut off his head. That +consequence, however, was to be avoided if possible; and already, +since the restoration of the secluded members, Ingoldsby had been +doing whatever stroke of work for them might help towards earning +his pardon. Now had come his most splendid opportunity, and he was +not to let it slip.--On Sunday, the 22nd of April, being Easter +Sunday, he came up with Lambert in Northamptonshire, about two miles +from Daventry. Lambert had then but seven broken troops of horse, and +one foot company; but Colonels Okey, Axtell, Cobbet, Major Creed, and +several other important Republican ex-officers, were with him. +Ingoldsby had brought his own horse regiment from Suffolk; Colonel +Streater, with 500 men of a Northamptonshire foot-regiment, had +joined him; the Royalist gentry round were sending in more horse; the +country train-bands were up. The battle would be very unequal; was it +worth while to fight? For some hours the two bodies stood facing each +other, Lambert's in a ploughed field, with a little stream in his +front, to which Ingoldsby rode up frequently, parleying with such of +Lambert's troopers as were nearest, and so effectively as to bring +some of them over. At last, Lambert showing no signs of surrender, +Ingoldsby and Streater advanced, Ingoldsby ready to charge with his +horse, but Streater marching the foot first with beat of drum to try +the effect of a close approach. There was the prelude of a few shots, +which hurt one or two of Lambert's troopers; but the orders were that +the general fire should be reserved till the musketeers should see +the pikemen already within push of the enemy. Then it was not +necessary. Lambert's men had been wavering all the while; his +troopers now turned the noses of their pistols downwards; one troop +came off entire to Ingoldsby; the rest broke up and fled. But Lambert +himself was Ingoldsby's mark. Dashing up to him, pistol in hand, he +claimed him as his prisoner. There was a kind of scuffle, Creed and +others imploring Ingoldsby to let Lambert go; and in the scuffle +Lambert turned his horse and made off, Ingoldsby after him at full +gallop. They were men of about the same age, neither over forty, but +Ingoldsby the stouter and more fearless for a personal encounter. The +two horses were abreast, or Ingoldsby's a little ahead, the rider +turning round in his seat, with his pistol presented at Lambert, whom +he swore he would shoot if he did not yield. Lambert pleaded yet a +pitiful word or two, and then reined in and was taken.--On Tuesday, +the 24th of April, Lambert was again in the Tower, with Cobbet, +Creed, and other prisoners, though Okey and Axtell were not yet among +them. There had been a great review of the City Militia that day in +Hyde Park, at which the various regiments, red, white, green, blue, +yellow, and orange, with the auxiliaries from the suburbs, made the +magnificent muster of 12,000 men. The Parliament was to meet next +day, and Monk and the Council of State had no farther anxiety. Among +the measures they had taken after Lambert's escape had been an order +that the engagement, already so generally signed by the Officers, +pledging to agreement in whatever Parliament should prescribe as to +the future form of government, should be tendered also to the private +soldiers throughout the whole army. In the troops and companies of +Fleetwood's old regiments, as many as a third of the soldiers, or in +some cases a half, were leaving the ranks in consequence; but in +Monk's own regiments from Scotland only two sturdy Republicans had +stepped out.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 698-699; Skinner, 286-289; Ludlow, 873-877; +Wood's Fasti, II. 133-134; Whitlocke, IV. 407-409; M. de Bordeaux to +Mazarin, Guizot, II. 415.] + +So sure was the Restoration of Charles now that the only difficulty +was in restraining impatience and braggartism among the Royalists +themselves. The last argument of the Republican pamphleteers having +been that the Royalists would be implacable after they had got back +the king, and that nothing was to be then expected but the bloodiest +and severest revenges upon all who had been concerned with the +Commonwealth, and some of the younger Royalists having given colour +to such representations by their wild utterances in private, there +had been printed protests to the contrary by leading Royalists in +London and in many of the counties. They desired no revenges, they +said; they reflected on the past as the mysterious course of an +all-wise Providence; they were anxious for an amicable reunion of all +in the path so wonderfully opened up by the wisdom and valour of +General Monk; they utterly disowned the indiscreet expressions of +fools and "hot-spirited persons"; and they would take no steps +themselves, but would confide in Monk, the Council of State, and the +Parliament, The London "declaration" to this effect was signed by ten +earls, four viscounts, five lords, many baronets, knights, and +squires, with several Anglican clergymen, among whom was Jeremy +Taylor. It was of no small use to Monk, who had equally to be on his +guard against too great haste. They were crowding round him now, and +asking why there should be any more delay, why the king should not be +brought to England at once. His one reply still was that the +Parliament alone could decide what was to be done, and that he and +others were bound to leave all to the Parliament. Meanwhile Sir John +Greenville had been back from his mission for some time, and had duly +delivered to Monk the important documents from Breda. Monk had kept +Charles's private letter, but had given Greenville back all the rest, +including his own commission to be his Majesty's Captain-General. Not +a soul was to know of their existence till the moment when they +should be produced in the Parliament.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips, 699-701; Skinner, 283-284 and 290-294; +Clarendon, 902.] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +First Section. + +MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH RICHARD'S PROTECTORATE: SEPT. +1658-MAY 1659. + +MILTON AND MARVELL STILL IN THE LATIN SECRETARYSHIP: MILTON'S FIRST +FIVE STATE-LETTERS FOR RICHARD (NOS. CXXXIII.-CXXXVII.): NEW EDITION +OF MILTON'S _DEFENSIO PRIMA_: REMARKABLE POSTSRCIPT TO THAT +EDITION: SIX MORE STATE-LETTERS FOR RICHARD (NOS. CXXXVIII.-CXLIII.): +MILTON'S RELATIONS TO THE CONFLICT OF PARTIES ROUND RICHARD AND IN +RICHARD'S PARLIAMENT: HIS PROBABLE CAREER BUT FOR HIS BLINDNESS: HIS +CONTINUED CROMWELLIANISM IN POLITICS, BUT WITH STRONGER PRIVATE +RESERVES, ESPECIALLY ON THE QUESTION OF AN ESTABLISHED CHURCH: HIS +REPUTATION THAT OF A MAN OF THE COURT-PARTY AMONG THE +PROTECTORATISTS: HIS _TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER IN ECCLESIASTICAL +CAUSES_: ACCOUNT OF THE TREATISE, WITH EXTRACTS: THE TREATISE MORE +THAN A PLEA FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION: CHURCH-DISESTABLISHMENT THE +FUNDAMENTAL IDEA: THE TREATISE ADDRESSED TO RICHARD'S PARLIAMENT, AND +CHIEFLY TO VANE AND THE REPUBLICANS THERE: NO EFFECT FROM IT: +MILTON'S FOUR LAST STATE-LETTERS FOR RICHARD (NOS. CXLIV.-CXLVII.): +HIS PRIVATE EPISTLE TO JEAN LABADIE, WITH ACCOUNT OF THAT PERSON: +MILTON IN THE MONTH BETWEEN RICHARD'S DISSOLUTION OF HIS PARLIAMENT +AND HIS FORMAL ABDICATION: HIS TWO STATE-LETTERS FOR THE RESTORED +RUMP (NOS. CXLVIII.-CXLIX.). + + +Milton and Marvell continued together In the Latin Secretaryship +through the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell, The following were the +first Letters of Milton for Richard:-- + + (CXXXIII.) To Louis XIV. OF FRANCE, _Sept._ 5, 1658:--"Most + serene and most potent King, Friend and Confederate: As my most + serene Father, of glorious memory, Oliver, Protector of the + Commonwealth of England, such being the will of Almighty God, has + been, removed by death on the 3rd of September, I, his lawfully + declared successor in this Government, though in the depth of + sadness and grief, cannot but on the very first opportunity inform + your Majesty by letter of so important a fact, assured that, as you + have been a most cordial friend to my Father and this Commonwealth, + the sudden intelligence will be no matter of joy to you either. It + is my business now to request your Majesty to think of me as one + who has nothing more resolvedly at heart than to cultivate with all + fidelity and constancy the alliance and friendship that existed + between my most glorious parent and your Majesty, and to keep and + hold as valid, with the same diligence and goodwill as himself, the + treaties, counsels, and arrangements, of common interest, which he + established with you. To which intent I desire that our Ambassador + at your Court [Lockhart] shall be invested with the same powers as + formerly; and I beg that, whatever he may transact with you in our + name, you will receive it as if done by myself. Finally, I wish + your Majesty all prosperity.--From our Court at Westminster." + + (CXXXIV.) To Cardinal Mazarin, _Sept._ [5], 1658:--Dispatched + with the last, and to the same effect. Knowing the reciprocal + esteem between his late Father and his Eminence, Richard cannot but + write to his Eminence as well as to the King. + + (CXXXV.) To Charles Gustavus, King of Sweden. _October_ + 1658:--"Most serene and most potent King, Friend and Confederate: + As I think I cannot sufficiently imitate my father's excellence + unless I cultivate and desire to retain the same friendships which + he sought, and acquired by his worth, and regarded in his singular + judgment as most deserving to be cultivated and retained, there is + no reason for your Majesty to doubt that it will be my duty to + conduct myself towards your Majesty with the same attentiveness and + goodwill which my Father, of most serene memory, made his rule in + his relations to you. Wherefore, although in this beginning of my + Government and dignity I do not find our affairs in such a position + that I can at present reply to certain heads which your agents + have propounded for negotiation, yet the idea of continuing, and + even more closely knitting, the treaty established with your + Majesty by my Father is exceedingly agreeable to me; and, as soon + as I shall have more fully understood the state of affairs on both + sides, I shall indeed be always most ready, as far as I am + concerned, for such arrangements as shall be thought most + advantageous for the interests of both Commonwealths. Meanwhile may + God long preserve your Majesty, to His own glory and for the + guardianship and defence of the Orthodox Church."--The peculiar + state of the relations between the Swedish King and the English + Government is here to be remembered. The heroic Swede, by his + sudden recommencement of war with Denmark, had brought a host of + enemies again around him; and the question, just before Oliver's + death, was whether Oliver would consider himself disobliged by the + rupture of the Peace with Denmark, which had been mainly of his own + making, or whether he would stand by his brother of Sweden and + think him still in the right. That the second would have been + Oliver's course there can be little doubt. The question had now + descended to Richard and his Council. They were anxious to adhere + to the foreign policy of the late Protector in the Swedish as in + all other matters; but there were difficulties. + + (CXXXVI. AND CXXXVII.) To CHARLES GUSTAVUS OF SWEDEN, _Oct._ + 1659:--Two more letters to his Swedish Majesty, following close on + the last:--(1) In the first, dated "Oct. 13," Richard acknowledges + a letter received from the King of Sweden through his envoy in + London, and also a letter from the King to Philip Meadows, the + English Resident at the Swedish Court, which Meadows has + transmitted. He is deeply sensible of his Swedish Majesty's kind + expressions, both of sorrowing regard for his great father's + memory, and of goodwill towards himself. There could not be a + greater honour to him, or a greater encouragement in the beginning + of his government, than the congratulations of such a King. "As + respects the relations entered into between your Majesty and Us + concerning the common cause of Protestants, I would have your + Majesty believe that, since I succeeded to this government, though + our Affairs are in such a state as to require the extreme of + diligence, care, and vigilance, chiefly at home, yet I have had and + still have nothing more sacredly or more deliberately in my mind + than not to be wanting, to the utmost of my power, to the Treaty + made by my father with your Majesty. I have therefore arranged for + sending a fleet into the Baltic Sea, with those commands which our + Internuncio [Meadows], whom we have most amply instructed for this + whole business, will communicate to your Majesty." This was the + fleet of Admiral Lawson, which did not actually put to sea till the + following month, and was then wind-bound off the English coast. See + ante p. 428; where it is also explained that Sir George Ayscough + was to go out with Lawson, to enter the Swedish service as a + volunteer.--(2) The other letter to Charles Gustavus, though dated + "Oct." merely in the extant copies, was probably written on the + same day as the foregoing, and was to introduce this Ayscough. "I + send to your Majesty (and cannot send a present of greater worth or + excellence) the truly distinguished and truly noble man, George + Ayscough, Knight, not only famous and esteemed for his knowledge of + war, especially naval war, as proved by his frequent and many brave + performances, but also gifted with probity, modesty, ingenuity, and + learning, dear to all for the sweetness of his manners, and, what + is now the sum of all, eager to serve under the banners of your + Majesty, so renowned over the whole world by your warlike prowess." + A favourable reception is bespoken for Ayscough, who is to bring + certain communications to his Majesty, and who, in any matters that + may arise out of these, is to be taken as speaking for Richard + himself. It was not till the beginning of the following year that + Ayscough did arrive in the Baltic. + +These five letters were undoubtedly the most important diplomatic +dispatches of the beginning of Richard's Protectorate. They refer to +the two most momentous foreign interests bequeathed from Oliver: viz. +the French Alliance against Spain, and the entanglement in Northern +Europe round the King of Sweden. Milton, as having written all the +previous state-letters on these great subjects, was naturally +required to be himself the writer of the five in which Richard +announced to France and Sweden his resolution to continue the policy +of his father. Marvell's pen may have been used, then and afterwards, +for minor dispatches. + +To the month of October 1658, the month after that of Oliver's death, +belongs also a new edition of Milton's _Defensio Prima_. It was +in octavo size, in close and clear type, and bore this title: +"_Joannis Miltonii, Angli, Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio contra +Claudii Anonymi, alias Salmasii, Defensionem Regiam. Editio +correctior et auctior, ab Autore denuo recognita. Londini, Typis +Newcombianis, Anno Dom. 1658_" (John Milton's Defence, &c. +"_Corrected and Enlarged Edition, newly revised by the Author_" +London: from Newcome's press, &c.).[1] This edition seems to have +escaped the notice to which it is entitled. As far as my examination +has gone, the differences from the original edition through the body +of the work can be but slight. There is, however, a very important +postscript of two pages, which I shall here translate:-- + +[Footnote 1: Thomason copy in British Museum, with the date +"_Octob._" (no day) written on the title-page.] + + "Having published this book, some years ago now [April 1651], in + the hurried manner then required by the interests of the + Commonwealth, but with the notion that, if ever I should have + leisure to take it into my hands again, I might, as is customary, + afterwards polish up something in it, or perchance cancel or add + something, this I fancy I have now accomplished, though with fewer + changes than I thought: a monument, as I see, whosoever has + contrived it, not easily to perish. If there shall be found some + one who will defend civil liberty more freely than here, yet + certainly it will hardly be in a greater or more illustrious + example; and truly, if the belief is that a deed of such arduous + and famous example was not attempted and so prosperously finished + without divine inspiration, there may be reason to think that the + celebration and defence of the same with such applauses was also by + the same aid and impulse,--an opinion I would much rather see + entertained by all than have any other happiness of genius, + judgment, or diligence, attributed to myself. Only this:--Just as + that Roman Consul, laying down his magistracy, swore in public that + the Commonwealth and that City were safe by his sole exertion, so + I, now placing my last hand on this work, would dare assert, + calling God and men to witness, that I have demonstrated in this + book, and brought publicly forward out of the highest authors of + divine and human wisdom, those very things by which I am confident + that the English People have been sufficiently defended in this + cause for their everlasting fame with posterity, and confident also + that the generality of mankind, formerly deceived by foul ignorance + of their own rights and a false semblance of Religion, have been, + unless in as far as they may prefer and deserve slavery, + sufficiently emancipated. And, as the universal Roman People, + itself sworn in that public assembly, approved with one voice and + consent that Consul's so great and so special oath, so I have for + some time understood that not only all the best of my own + countrymen, but all the best also of foreign men, sanction and + approve this persuasion of mine by no silent vote over the whole + world. Which highest fruit of my labours proposed for myself in + this life I both gratefully enjoy and at the same time make it my + chief thought how I may be best able to assure not only my own + country, for which I have already done my utmost, but also the men + of all nations whatever, and especially all of the Christian name, + that the accomplishment of yet greater things, if I have the + power--and I _shall_ have the power, if God be gracious,--is + meanwhile for their sakes my desire and meditation." + +Perhaps one begins to be a little tired of this high-strained +exultation for ever and ever on the subject of his success in the +Salmasian controversy. The recurrence at this point, however, is not +uninstructive. At the beginning of Richard's Protectorate, we can see +Milton's defences of the English Republic were still regarded as the +unparalleled literary achievements of the age, and Milton's European +celebrity on account of them had not waned in the least. It was +something for the blind man, seated by himself in his small home in +Westminster, and sending his thoughts out over the world from which +for six years now he had been so helplessly shut in, to know this +fact, and to be able to imagine the continued recollection of him as +still alive among the myriads moving in that vast darkness. This +fruit of his past labours, he says, he would "gratefully enjoy," but +with no vulgar satisfaction. He would not confess it even to be with +any lingering in him now of the last infirmity of a noble mind. In +his fiftieth year, and in his present state, he could feel himself +superior to that, and could describe his consciousness as something +higher. If he had done a great work already, as he himself believed, +and as the voice of all the best of mankind acknowledged, had it not +been because God had chosen and inspired him for the same, and might +he not in that faith send out a message to the world that perhaps God +had not yet done with him, and they might expect from him, blind and +desolate though he was, something greater and better still? The +closing sentence is exactly such a message, and one can suppose that +Milton was there thinking of his progress in _Paradise Lost_. + +Whatever was the amount of Marvell's exertion in the secretaryship, +Milton was not wholly exempted from the duty of writing even the more +ordinary letters for Richard and his Council. There is a vacant +interval of three months, indeed, after the five last registered and +the next; but in January 1658-9 the series is resumed, and there are +six more letters of Milton for Richard between the end of that month +and the end of February. Richard's Parliament, it is to be +remembered, met on the 27th of January. + + (CXXXVIII.) To CHARLES GUSTAVUS, KING OF SWEDEN, _Jan._ 27, + 1658-9 (i.e. the day of the meeting of the Parliament):--Samuel + Piggott, merchant of London, has complained to the Protector that + two ships of his--the _Post_, Tiddy Jacob master, and the + _Water-dog_, Garbrand Peters master--are detained somewhere in + the Baltic by his Majesty's forces. They had sailed from London to + France; thence to Amsterdam, where one had taken in ballast only, + but the other a cargo of herrings, belonging in part to one Peter + Heinsberg, a Dutchman; and, so laden, they had been bound for his + Majesty's port of Stettin. Probably the Dutch ownership of part of + the herring cargo was the cause of the detention of the ships; but + Piggott was the lawful owner of the ships themselves and of the + rest of the goods. His Majesty is prayed to restore them, and so + save the poor man from ruin. + + (CXXXIX.) To THE HIGH AND MIGHTY, THE STATES OF WEST FRIESLAND, + _Jan._ 27, 1658-9:--A widow, named Mary Grinder, complains + that Thomas Killigrew, a commander in the service of the States, + has for eighteen years owed her a considerable sum of money, the + compulsory payment of which he is trying now to evade by + petitioning their Highnesses not to allow any suit against him in + their Courts for debts due in England. "If I only mention to your + Highnesses that she, whom this man tries to deprive of nearly all + her fortunes, is a widow, that she is poor, the mother of many + little children, I will not do you the injustice of supposing that + with you, to whom I am confident the divine commandments, and + especially those about not oppressing widows and the fatherless, + are well known, any more serious argument will be needed against + your granting this privilege of fraud to the man's petition."--The + Thomas Killigrew here concerned may have been one of several + well-known Killigrews, then refugee Royalists. Hence perhaps the + earnestness of the letter. + + (CXL.) To LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE, _Feb._ 18, 1658-9:--"We have + heard, and not without grief, that some Protestant churches in + Provence were so scandalously interrupted by a certain + ill-tempered bigot that the matter was thought worthy of severe + notice by the magistrates of Grenoble, to whom the cognisance of + the case belonged by law; but that a convention of the clergy, held + shortly afterwards in, those parts, has obtained your Majesty's + order that the whole affair shall be brought before your Royal + Council in Paris, and that meanwhile, there being no decision there + hitherto, these churches, and especially that of Aix, are + prohibited from meeting for the worship of God." His Majesty is + asked to remove this prohibition, and to see the author of the + mischief properly censured. Such a missive proves that Richard and + his Council kept to Oliver's rule of interference whenever there + was persecution of Protestants, and also that they did not doubt + their influence with Louis and Mazarin. + + (CXLI.) To CARDINAL MAZARIN, _Feb._ 19, 1658-9:[1]--The + Duchess-Dowager of Richmond, with her son, the young duke, is going + into France, and means to reside there for some time. His Eminence + is requested to show all possible attention to the illustrious lady + and her son. + +[Footnote 1: So dated in the Skinner Transcript, but "29 Feb." in +Printed Collection and Phillips.] + + (CXLII.) To CARDINAL MAZARIN, _Feb._ 22, 1658-9:[1]--About + eight months ago the case of Peter Pett, "a man of singular + probity, and of the highest utility to us and the Commonwealth by + his remarkable skill in naval affairs," was brought before his + Eminence by a letter of the late Lord Protector (not among Milton's + letters). It was to request that his Eminence would see to the + execution of a decree of his French Majesty's Council, as far back + as Nov. 4, 1647, that compensation should be made to Pett for the + seizure and sale of a ship of his, called the _Edward_, by one + Bascon, in the preceding year. His Eminence has doubtless attended + to the request; but there is still some impediment. Will his + Eminence see where it lies and remove it?--Since the time of Queen + Mary there had been three Peter Petts in succession, ship-builders + and masters of the Royal Dockyard at Deptford; and the present + Peter was the father of the more celebrated Sir Peter Pett, who was + fellow of the Royal Society after the Restoration. + +[Footnote 1: So dated in Printed Collection and in the Skinner +Transcript; misdated "Feb. 25" in Phillips.] + + (CXLIII.) To ALFONSO V., KING OF PORTUGAL, _Feb._ 23, + 1658-9:[1]--Congratulations to his Portuguese Majesty upon a + victory he had recently obtained over "our common enemy the + Spaniard," with acknowledgment of his Majesty's handsome behaviour, + through his Commissioners in London, in the matter of satisfaction, + according to an article in the League between Portugal and the + English Commonwealth, to those English merchants who had let out + their vessels to the Brazil Company. But there is still one such + merchant unpaid--a certain Alexander Bence, whose ship, _The + Three Brothers_, John Wilks master, had made two voyages for the + Company. They refuse to pay him, though they have fully paid others + who had made but one voyage; and "why this is done I do not + understand, unless it be that in their estimation a person is more + worthy of his hire who has earned it once than one who has earned + it twice." Will his Majesty see that Bence receives his due? + +[Footnote 1: In the Printed Collection and Phillips, and also, I +think, in the Skinner Transcript, the king's name is given as "John"; +but John IV. of Portugal had died in 1656 and been succeeded by +Alfonso.] + +These six letters belong to the first month of Richard's Parliament, +with its very large and freely elected House of Commons representing +England, Scotland, and Ireland, and its anomalous addition or +excrescence of another or Upper House, consisting of the two or three +scores of recently-created Cromwellian "Lords." The battle between +the Republicans and the Protectoratists had begun in the Commons, +Thurloe ably leading there for the Protectoratists; the Republicans +had been beaten on the first great question by the recognition of the +Single-Person principle and of Richard's title to the Protectorship; +and the House had gone on to the question of the continued existence +and functions of the other House, with every prospect that the +Cromwillians would beat the Republicans on that question too. From +January to April, not only in the Parliament, but also over the +country at large, the all-engrossing interest, as we know, was this +controversy between pure old Republicanism, desiring neither single +sovereignty nor aristocracy, and that more conservative form of +Commonwealth which had been set up by the Oliverian constitution. +Over the country, no less than in the Parliament, the conservative +policy was in favour, and the Cromwellians or Protectoratists, among +whom the Presbyterians now ranked themselves, were far more numerous +than the old Republicans. Royalism, or at least Stuart Royalism, was +at its lowest ebb. Many that had been Royalists heretofore had +accepted the constitutionalized Protectorate as the best substitute +for Royalty that circumstances allowed, and saw no course left them +but to cooperate with the majority of their countrymen in confirming +Richard's rule. + +How Milton stood related to this controversy is a matter rather of +inference than of direct information. Having been a faithful adherent +and official of Oliver through his whole Protectorate, and still +holding his official place under Richard's Government, there is +little doubt that, if he had been obliged to post himself publicly on +either of the two sides, he would have gone among the Cromwellians. +Nay, if he had been obliged to choose between the two subdivisions of +this body, known as the _Court Party_ (supporting Richard +absolutely) and the _Wallingford-House Party_ (supporting +Richard's civil Protectorate, but wanting to transfer the military +power to the Army-chiefs), there can be little doubt that he would +have gone with the former. Had he been in the House of Commons, like +his colleague Andrew Marvell, his duty there, like Marvell's, would +have been that of a ministerial member, assisting Thurloe and voting +with him in all the divisions. But for his blindness, we may here +say, the chances are that he _would_ long ere now have been a +known Parliamentary man, and that, after having been a Cromwellian +leader in Oliver's second Parliament, he might have been now in +Thurloe's exact place in Richard's present Parliament, or beside +Thurloe as a strangely different chief. This, or that other +alternative of a foreign ambassadorship or residency, which must have +suggested itself again and again to the reader in the course of our +narrative, might have been the natural career of Milton through the +rule of the Cromwells, had not blindness disabled him. For, if +Meadows, his former mere assistant in the Foreign Secretaryship, had +been for some time in the one career with increasing distinction, and +if an opening had been easily found for Marvell in the other, why may +not imagination trace either career, or a combination of the two, had +physical infirmity not prevented, for the greater Cromwellian of whom +these were but satellites? It is imagination only, and would not be +worth while, were it not for one important biographical question +which it brings forward. Had Milton remained capable of any such +practical career under the Cromwells, would he have retained, to the +same extent as he had done through his blindness, the necessary +qualification of being an Oliverian or Cromwellian? How far was his +present Cromwellianism the actual consequence of his blindness, the +mere submissiveness of a blind man to what he had no power to +disturb? It is partly an answer to this question to remember again +his _Defensio Secunda_ of 1654, with its great panegyric on +Cromwell. Milton had been but two years blind when that was +published, and had not lost aught of the vehemence of his Republican +convictions. Not without deliberation, therefore, had he given up the +first form of the Commonwealth, consisting in a single supreme House +of Parliament and an annual Council of State chosen by the same, and +accepted the later or Protectoral form, with Cromwell for its head, a +permanent Council of State round Cromwell, and Parliaments on +occasion. But, underneath this general adhesion to the Protectorate, +there had been even then certain Miltonic reserves, and especially +the reserve of a protest against the continuance of a State Church. +Now, had Milton been in a condition to act the part of a practical +statesman through Oliver's Protectorate, might not some extraordinary +development have been given to those reserves? With his boundless +courage and the non-conforming habits of his genius, would he ever +have been the Parliamentary servant of a Government from which he +differed at all,--from which he differed so vitally on the question +of Church Establishment? Probably in nothing else had Cromwell wholly +disappointed him. Through the Protectorate there had been all the +toleration of religious differences that could be desired, or what +shortcoming there had been had hardly been by Cromwell's own fault; +the other interferences with liberty had hardly perhaps, in Milton's +estimation, gone beyond the necessities of police; and in Cromwell's +foreign policy, with its magnificent championship of Protestantism +abroad, what man in England was more ardently at one with him than +the draftsman of his great foreign despatches? At the time of the +proposal of Cromwell's Kingship, and generally at the time of the +transition out of his first Protectorate into his second, with the +resuscitation then of so many aristocratic forms and the attempt to +reinstitute a house of peers, there may have been, as we have already +hinted, an uprising in Milton's mind of democratic objections, and +the effect may have been that Milton before the end of Oliver's +Protectorate was less of an Oliverian than he had been at the +beginning. Still, precluded from any active concern in those +constitutional changes, he may have reconciled himself to them easily +enough, and also to the transmission of the Protectorship from Oliver +to Richard. The one insuperable stumbling-block, I believe, had been +and was Cromwell's Established Church. Even in his blindness he +could theorize on that, and stiffen himself more and more in his +intense Religious Voluntaryism, Conscious of his irreconcileable +dissent from Cromwell's policy in this great matter, and knowing that +Cromwell was aware of the fact, it may have been a satisfaction to +him that he was not called upon to act a Parliamentary part, in which +proclamation of the dissent and consequent rupture with Cromwell on +the ecclesiastical question would have been inevitable. It may have +been some satisfaction to him that he could go on faithfully and +honestly as a servant of Cromwell in the special business of the +Latin Secretaryship, and for the rest be a lonely thinker and take +refuge in silence. It is worth observing, indeed, that nothing of a +political kind had come from Milton's pen during the last three or +four years of Oliver's Protectorate,--nothing even indirectly bearing +on the internal politics of the Commonwealth since his _Pro Se +Defensio_ against Morus in 1655, and nothing directly bearing +thereon since his _Defensio Secunda_ of 1654. And so, if we +conclude this inquiry by saying that, at the time of Richard's +accession and the meeting of his Parliament, Milton was still a +Cromwellian, but a Cromwellian with the old Miltonic reserves, and +these strengthened of late rather than weakened, we shall be about +right. To the public, however, in the present controversy between the +Protectoratists and the pure Republicans, he was distinctly a +Protectoratist, a Cromwellian, one of the Court-party, an official of +Richard and his Council. + +Since Cromwell's death, we have now to add, Milton had been +re-mustering his reserves. Under a new Protector, and from the new +Parliament of that new Protector, might he not have a hearing on +points on which he had for some time been silent? On this chance, he +had interrupted even his _Paradise Lost_, in order to prepare an +address to the new Parliament. As might be expected, it was on the +subject of the relations of Church and State. Meditating on this +subject, and how it might be best treated practically at such a time, +Milton, had concluded that it might be broken into two parts. "Two +things there be which have been ever found working much mischief to +the Church of God and the advancement of Faith,--Force on the one +side restraining, and Hire on the other side corrupting, the Teachers +thereof." He would, therefore, write one tract on the effects of +Compulsion or State-restraint in matters of Religion and Speculation, +and another on the effects of Hire or State-endowments in the same. +The two would be interconnected, and would in fact melt into each +other; but they might appear separately, and it might be well to +begin with the first, as the least irritating. Accordingly, before +the meeting of the Parliament he had prepared, and after it had met +there was published, in the form of a very tiny octavo, a tract with +this title-page: "_A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical +Causes: Shewing that it is not lawfull for any power on Earth to +compell in matters of Religion. The author J.M. London, Printed by +Tho. Newcomb, Anno_ 1659." The tract consists of an address "To +the Parlament of the Commonwealth of England with the Dominions +thereof," occupying ten of the small pages, and signed "John Milton" +in full, and then of eighty-three pages of text.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The little book was duly registered at Stationers' Hall, +under date Feb. 16, 1658-9, thus: "Mr. Tho. Newcomb entered for his +copy (under the hand of Mr. Pulleyn, warden) a book called A +Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes by John Milton."] + +After intimating that this was but the first of two tracts and that +the other would follow, and also that his argument is to be wholly +and exclusively from Scripture, Milton propounds the argument itself +under four successive heads or propositions.--The first is that, +there being, by the fundamental principle of Protestantism, "no other +divine rule or authority from without us, warrantable to one another +as a common ground, but the Holy Scripture, and no other within us +but the illumination of the Holy Spirit so interpreting that +Scripture as warrantable only to ourselves and to such whose +consciences we can so persuade," it follows that "no man or body of +men in these times can be the infallible judges or determiners in +matters of religion to any other men's consciences but their own." +Having reasoned this at some length by quotations of Scripture texts +and explanations of the same, he proceeds to "yet another reason why +it is unlawful for the civil magistrate to use force in matters of +Religion: which is, because to judge in those things, though we +should grant him able, which is proved he is not, yet as a civil +magistrate he hath no right." Under this second head, and also by +means of Scripture quotations, there is an exposition of Milton's +favourite idea of the purely spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom and +of the instrumentalities it permits. The third proposition advances +the argument by maintaining that not only is the civil magistrate +unable, from the nature of the case, to determine in matters of +Religion, and not only has he no right to try, but he also does +positive wrong by trying. In arguing this, still Scripturally, Milton +dilates on the meaning of the "Christian liberty" of the true +believer, with the heights and depths which it implies in the renewed +spirit, the superiority to "the bondage of ceremonies" and "the weak +and beggarly rudiments." The fourth and last reason pleaded, still +from Scripture, against the compulsion of the magistrate in Religion, +is that he must fail signally in the very ends he proposes to +himself; "and those hardly can be other than first the glory of God, +next either the spiritual good of them whom he forces or the temporal +punishment of their scandal to others." Far from attaining either of +these ends, he can but dishonour God and promote profanity and +hypocrisy.--"On these four Scriptural reasons as on a firm square." +says Milton at the close, "this truth, the right of Christian and +Evangelic Liberty, will stand immoveable against all those pretended +consequences of license and confusion which, for the most part, men +most licentious and confused themselves, or such as whose severity +would be wiser than divine wisdom, are ever aptest to object against +the ways of God." + +Such is the plan of the little treatise, the literary texture of +which is plain and homely, rather than rich, learned, or rhetorical. +"Pomp and ostentation of reading," he expressly says, "is admired +among the vulgar; but doubtless in matters of Religion he is +learnedest who is plainest." It was, we may remember, his first +considerable English dictation for the press since his blindness, and +what one chiefly notices in the style is the strong grasp he still +retains of his old characteristic syntax.[1] The following are a few +of the more interesting individual passages or expressions:-- + +[Footnote 1: I have noted in the Tract one occurrence at least of the +very un-Miltonic word _its_, as follows:--"As the Samaritans +believed Christ, first for the woman's word, but next and much +rather for his own, so we the Scripture first on the Church's word, +but afterwards and much more for its own as the word of God."] + + _Blasphemy._--"But some are ready to cry out 'What shall then + be done to Blasphemy?' Them I would first exhort not thus to + terrify and pose the people with a Greek word, but to teach them + better what it is: being a most usual and common word in that + language to signify any slander, any malicious or evil speaking, + whether against God or man or anything to good belonging." + + _Heresy and Heretic_:--"Another Greek apparition stands in our + way, 'Heresy and Heretic': in like manner also railed at to the + people, as in a tongue unknown. They should first interpret to them + that Heresy, by what it signifies in that language, is no word of + evil note; meaning only the choice or following of any opinion, + good or bad, in religion or any other learning." + + _A Wrested Text of Scripture_:--"It hath now twice befallen me + to assert, through God's assistance, this most wrested and vexed + place of Scripture [_Romans_ XIII, 'Let every soul be subject + unto the higher powers,' &c.]: heretofore against Salmasius and + regal tyranny over the State; now against Erastus and State-tyranny + over the Church." + + _Are Popery and Idolatry to be Tolerated?_--"But, as for + Popery and Idolatry, why they also may not hence plead to be + tolerated, I have much less to say. Their Religion, the more + considered, the less can be acknowledged a Religion, but a Roman + Principality rather, endeavouring to keep up her old universal + dominion under a new name and mere shadow of a Catholic Religion; + being indeed more rightly named a Catholic Heresy against the + Scripture; supported mainly by a civil, and, except in Rome, by a + foreign, power: justly therefore to be suspected, not tolerated, by + the magistrate of another country. Besides, of an implicit faith, + which they profess, the conscience also becomes implicit, and so, + by voluntary servitude to man's law, forfeits her Christian + liberty. Who, then, can plead for such a conscience as, being + implicitly enthralled to man instead of God, almost becomes no + conscience, as the will not free becomes no will? Nevertheless, if + they ought not to be tolerated, it is for just reason of State + more than of Religion; which they who force, though professing to + be Protestants, deserve as little to be tolerated themselves, being + no less guilty of Popery in the most Popish point. Lastly, for + Idolatry, who knows it not to be evidently against all Scripture, + both of the Old and New Testament, and therefore a true heresy, or + rather an impiety; wherein a right conscience can have naught to + do, and the works thereof so manifest that a magistrate can hardly + err in prohibiting and quite removing at least the public and + scandalous use thereof." + + _Christ's unique act of Compulsion_:--"We read not that Christ + ever exercised force but once; and that was to drive profane ones + out of his Temple, not to force them in." + + _Concluding Recommendation to Statesmen and Ministers_:--"As + to those magistrates who think it their work to settle Religion, + and those ministers or others who so oft call upon them to do so, I + trust that, having well considered what hath been here argued, + neither _they_ will continue in that intention, nor + _these_ in that expectation from them, when they shall find + that the settlement of Religion belongs only to each particular + church by persuasive and spiritual means within itself, and that + the defence only of the Church belongs to the magistrate. Had he + once learnt not further to concern himself with Church affairs, + half his labour might be spared and the Commonwealth better + tended." + + * * * * * + +In this last extract there is a distinct outbreak of the intention +which is rather covert through the rest of the tract. To a hasty +reader the tract might seem only a plea for the amplest toleration, +of religious dissent, a plea for full liberty, outside of the +Established Church, not merely to Baptists, but also to Quakers, +Anti-Trinitarians, and all other sects professing in any way to be +Christians and believers in the Bible, Papists alone excepted, and +they but partially and reluctantly. There would be no censure on +Cromwell's policy, if that were all. But an acute reader of the tract +would have detected that more was intended in it than a plea for +Toleration, that the very existence of any Established Church +whatever was condemned. In the passage last quoted it is clearly seen +that this is the ultimate scope. It is a reflection on Cromwell, +almost by name, for not having freed himself from the notion that the +settlement of Religion is an affair of the Civil Magistrate, but on +the contrary having made such a supposed settlement of Religion one +of the passions of his Protectorate. It is a reflection on him, and +on Owen, Thomas Goodwin, and all his ecclesiastical advisers and +assessors, Independent or Presbyterian, for having busied themselves +in maintaining and re-shaping any State-Church, on however broad a +basis, and so having perpetuated the old distinction between +Establishment and Dissent, Orthodoxy and Heresy, instead of +abolishing that distinction utterly, and leaving all varieties of +Christianity, equally unstamped and unfavoured, to organize +themselves as they best could on the principle of voluntary +association. For the future, statesmen and ministers are invited to +cease from persevering in this delusion of the great and good +Cromwell. + +The tract was addressed, as we have said, to the Parliament of +Cromwell's son. The preface, signed with Milton's name in full, is a +recommendation of the doctrine to that body in particular. "I have +prepared, Supreme Council, against the much expected time of your +sitting," Milton there says, "this treatise; which, though to all +Christian Magistrates equally belonging, and therefore to have been +written in the common language of Christendom, natural duty and +affection hath confined and dedicated first to my own nation, and in +a season wherein the timely reading thereof, to the easier +accomplishment of your great work, may save you much labour and +interruption." Then, after having stated the main doctrine, he +continues:--"One advantage I make no doubt of, that I shall write to +many eminent persons of your number already perfect and resolved in +this important article of Christianity: some of whom I remember to +have heard often, for several years, at a Council next in authority +to your own, so well joining religion with civil prudence, and yet so +well distinguishing the different power of either, and this not only +voting but frequently reasoning why it should be so, that, if any +there present had been before of an opinion contrary, he might +doubtless have departed thence a convert in that point, and have +confessed that then both Commonwealth and Religion will at length, if +ever, flourish, in Christendom, when either they who govern discern +between Civil and Religious, or they only who so discern shall be +admitted to govern." In other words, Milton's hopes of a favourable +hearing for his doctrine in Richard's Parliament were founded (1) on +the general ground that many members of the Parliament were old +Commonwealth's men, of the kind that would have carried the abolition +of Tithes and of a State-Church in the Barebones Parliament of 1653, +had not Rous broken up that Parliament and resurrendered the power +to Cromwell, and (2) on the special fact that some of them were men +whom Milton had himself heard with admiration, in the Councils of +State of the Commonwealth, when he first sat there as Foreign +Secretary in attendance, avowing and expounding the principle of +Voluntaryism in Religion, in its fullest possible extent. Among these +last Milton must have had in view chiefly such members of the Commons +House in Richard's Parliament as Vane, Bradshaw, Harrison, Neville, +Ludlow, and Scott, all of whom had been members of one, or several, +or all, of the Councils of State of the old Commonwealth; but he may +have had in view also such members of the present Upper House as +Fleetwood, St. John, and Viscount Lisle. Above all, Vane must have +been in his mind,--Vane, on whom half of his eulogy in 1652 had +been. + + "To know + Both spiritual power and civil, what each means, + What severs each, _thou_, hast learned; which few have done. + The bounds of either sword to _thee_ we owe." + +Might not Vane and his fellows move in the present Parliament for a +reconsideration of that part of the policy of the Protectorate which +concerned Religion? Might they not induce the Parliament to revert, +in the matters of Tithes, a State Ministry, and Endowments of +Religion, to the temper and determinations of the much-abused, but +really wise and deep-minded, Barebones Parliament? Nothing less than +this is the ultimate purport of Milton's appeal; and little wonder +that he prefixed an intimation that he wrote now only as a private +man, and without any official authority whatever. "Of Civil Liberty," +he says in the conclusion of his preface, "I have written heretofore +by the appointment, and not without the approbation, of Civil Power: +of Christian Liberty I write now,--which others long since having +done with all freedom under Heathen Emperors, I should do wrong to +suspect that now I shall with less under Christian Governors, and +such especially as profess openly their defence of Christian liberty, +although I write this not otherwise appointed and induced than by an +inward persuasion of the Christian duty which I may usefully +discharge herein to the common Lord and Master of us all." The words +imply just a shade of doubt whether he, a salaried servant of the +Government, might not be called to account for having been so bold. + +Altogether, Milton's _Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical +Causes_ can be construed no otherwise than as an effort on his +part, Protectoratist and Court-official though he was, to renew his +relations with the old Republican party in the Parliament in the +special interest of his extreme views on the religious question. +Merely as a pleading against Religious Persecution, the treatise +might have had some effect on the Parliament generally, where it was +in fact much needed, in consequence of the presence of so much of the +Presbyterian element, and the likelihood therefore of increased +stringency against Quakers, Socinians, and other Non-Conformists. The +treatise would have found many in the Parliament, besides the +Republicans, quite willing to listen to its advices so far. But only +or chiefly among the old Republicans can there have been any hope of +an acceptance of its extreme definition of Christian Liberty, as +involving Disestablishment and entire separation of Church and +State. + +The Treatise, so far as we can see, produced no effect whatever. So +far as the Religious Question did appear in the Parliament, it was +evident that the preservation of Cromwell's Church-Establishment, its +perpetuation as an integral part of Richard's Protectorate, was a +foregone conclusion in the minds of the vast majority. Any +Disestablishment proposal, emanating from the Republican party, or +from any individual member like Vane, would have been tramped out by +the united strength of the Presbyterians, the Cromwellians of the +Court, and the Wallingford-House Cromwellians. The danger even was +that there might be a retrogression in the matter of mere Toleration, +and that the presence and pressure of so many Presbyterians among the +supporters of Richard might compel Richard's Government, against his +own will and that of his Cromwellian Councillors, to a severer +Church-discipline than had characterized the late Protectorate. But, +indeed, it was not on the Religious Question in any form that the +Republicans found time or need to try their strength. Their battles +in the Parliament were on the two main constitutional +questions:--first, the question of the Protectorate itself or +Single-Person Government; and, next, the question of the Other House +or House of Lords. On the first they were definitively beaten in +February; and on the second they were beaten, no less definitively, +and with more distressing incidents of defeat, before the end of +March (ante pp. 432-435). Then, feeling themselves powerless as an +independent party, they changed their tactics. No sooner had the +Protectoratists or Cromwellians triumphed collectively under +Thurloe's leadership than there had begun among them that fatal +straggle between the two divisions of their body of which the beaten +Republicans could not fail to take advantage. The _Court party_ +of the Cromwellians, still led by Thurloe in the Commons, desired to +preserve the Protectorate unbroken and with full powers, reducing the +Army, as in an orderly and well-constituted State, to its proper +place and dimensions as the instrument of the civil authority; the +_Army Party_, or _Wallingford-House Party_, represented by +Fleetwood and Desborough in chief, wanted to leave Richard only the +civil Protectorship, and to set up a co-ordinate military power. The +differences between the two parties had been smouldering since +Richard's accession, and had been too visible since the first meeting +of the Parliament; but it was in April 1659, after their joint +victory over the Republicans, that they turned against each other in +deadly strife, the Republicans looking on. Through that month the +ominous spectacle was that of two rival Parliaments in +Westminster--Richard's regular Parliament, and the irregular +Wallingford-House Parliament of Army officers--watching each other +and interchanging threats and denunciations. It was on the 18th of +the month that the regular Parliament passed their two courageous +resolutions asserting their supreme authority. They were that the +Wallingford Council of officers should be immediately dissolved and +no more such meetings of officers permitted, and that all officers of +the Army and Navy should take an engagement not to interrupt the +established power (ante pp. 440-441). Then it was evident there would +be a crash, but in what form was still unknown. + +Precisely at this crisis in Richard's Protectorship comes the last +batch of Milton's official letters for him. The letters are four in +number:[1]-- + +[Footnote 1: These Letters do not appear in the ordinary Printed +Collection, or in Phillips; but they are in the Skinner Transcript, +and have been printed thence by Mr. Hamilton in his _Milton +Papers_, pp. 12-14.] + + (CXLIV. and CXLV.) To FERDINAND, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, + _April_ 19, 1659:--Two Letters to this Prince on the same day. + (1) Sir John Dethicke, James Gold, John Limbery, and other London + merchants, are owners of a ship called _The Happy Entrance_, + which they sent out with merchandise for trade in the + Mediterranean, under the command of a John Marvin. They can get no + account from him, and have reason to fear he means to play the + rogue with the ship and cargo and never return. It is believed that + within two months he may put in at Leghorn; and the Protector + requests the Grand Duke to give the merchants, in that case, + facilities for the recovery of their property. (2) A James + Modiford, merchant, complains to the Protector that certain goods + of his, taken to Leghorn about 1652 by another English trader, + Humphrey Sidney, were there seized by some Italian creditors of + Sidney. Modiford has been unable to obtain redress; and the Grand + Duke is now prayed to see his goods restored and any claims Sidney + may have upon him referred to the English Courts. + + (CXLVI.) To ALFONSO V., KING OF PORTUGAL, _April_ + 1659:[1]--A Francis Hurdidge of London complains that a ship of + his, called _The Mary and John_, cargo valued at 70,000 + crowns, employed in the Brazil trade in 1649 and 1650, was seized + by the Portuguese. The ship was afterwards taken from the + Portuguese by the Dutch. The Treaty between the English + Commonwealth and Portugal provides for such cases; and his + Portuguese Majesty is requested to make compensation to Hurdidge to + the extent of 25,000 crowns. The man is in great straits. + +[Footnote 1: "_Joanni Portugallioe Regi_" is the heading in Mr. +Hamilton's copy from the Skinner Transcript; but this is a mistake +(see ante p. 576, note).] + + (CXLVII.) To CHARLES GUSTAVUS, KING OF SWEDEN, _April_ + 1659:--David Fithy, merchant, informs the Protector that, about a + month ago, he contracted to supply to the Navy 150 sacks of hemp. + He has the hemp now at Riga, and a ship ready to bring it thence + for the use of the fleet--"part of which," the Protector skilfully + adds, "has just sailed for the Baltic for your protection" (i.e. + Montague's fleet, despatched this very month: see ante p. 435). It + appears, however, that his Swedish Majesty has forbidden the + exportation of hemp from his port of Riga without special + permission. His Majesty is requested to give Fithy this permission, + that he may be able to fulfil his contract. The Protector will + consider himself much obliged by the kindness. + +No more letters was poor Richard to write to crowned heads. On the +very day on which the two first of the foregoing were written, he +appeared in Wallingford House, and ordered the dissolution of the +Council of Officers according to the edict of the Parliament. Next +day it was known through all London that the question was between a +dissolution of this Council of officers and a dissolution of the +Parliament itself. The day after, Thursday, April 21, there was the +famous double rendezvous of the two masses of soldiery round +Whitehall to try the question, the rendezvous for Richard and the +Parliament utterly failing, while that for Fleetwood, Desborough, and +the other rebel chiefs, flooded the streets and St. James's Park. +That night, quailing before the rough threats of Desborough, Richard +and his Council yielded; and on Friday, the 22nd, the indignant +Parliament knew itself to be dissolved, and Richard's Protectorate +virtually at an end. Nominally, it dragged on for a month more. + +On Thursday, April 21, the day of the dreadful double rendezvous, and +of Desborough's stormy interview with Richard in Whitehall to compel +the dissolution of the Parliament, Milton, in his house in Petty +France, on the very edge of the uproar, was quietly dictating a +private letter. It is that numbered 28 among his _Epistoloe +Familiares_, and headed "_Joanni Badioeo, Pastori +Arausionensi_," i.e. "To John Badiaeus, Pastor of Orange." With +some trouble, I have identified this "Badiaeus" with a certain French +JEAN LABADIE, who is characterized by Bayle as a "schismatic +minister, followed like an apostle," and by another authority as "one +of the most dangerous fanatics of the seventeenth century." The facts +of his life, to the moment of our present concern with him, are given +in the accepted French authorities thus:--Born in 1610 at +Bourg-en-Guyenne, the son of a soldier who had risen to be +lieutenant, he had received a Jesuit education at Bordeaux, had +entered the Jesuit order at an early age, and had become a priest. +For fifteen years he had remained in the order, preaching, and also +teaching rhetoric and philosophy, reputed "a prodigy of talent and +piety," but also a mystic and enthusiast, with fancies that he must +found a new religious sect. While preaching orthodox Catholicism in +public, he had been indoctrinating disciples in private with his +peculiarities; and, when they were numerous enough, he wanted to +leave the Jesuits. By reasonings and kindness, they managed to retain +him for a while; but he grew more odd and visionary, fasting often, +eating only herbs, and having divine revelations. After a dangerous +illness, which brought him to death's door, he did obtain his +dismissal from the Jesuit order in April 1639, and went over France +propagandizing. The Bishop of Amiens, caught by his eloquence, made +him prebendary of a collegiate church in that town; in connexion with +which, and with the Bishop's approval, he founded a religious +association of young women, called St. Mary Magdalene. All seemed to +go well for a time; but at length there was a scandal about him and a +girl in Abbeville, with a burst of similar scandals about his abuse +of the confessional for vicious purposes. To avoid arrest, he +absconded to Paris in August 1644, and thence to Bazas, where he +lived under a feigned name. But the Bishop of Bazas took him up; he +cleared himself to the Bishop and others, and defied his +calumniators. Only for a time; for again there were scandals, and he +was expelled the diocese. Going then to Toulouse, he gained the +confidence of the Archbishop there, who gave him charge of a convent +of nuns. In this post he developed more systematically his notions of +the religious life, described as a compound of Quietism and +Antinomianism, after the fashion of sects already known in France and +Germany, but with sexual extravangances which, when divulged, raised +an indignant storm. In November 1649, he had to abscond from +Toulouse; and, after various wanderings, in which he called himself +"Jean de Jesus Christ" and obtained popularity as a prophet, he came +to Montauban, and there publicly abjured Roman Catholicism in October +1650. Elected minister of the Protestant church of that town in 1652, +he lived there for some years in great esteem among the Protestants, +but in deadly feud with the Roman Catholics. The schism was such that +at last the magistrates had to banish him from the town as a +disturber of the peace. Then he had found refuge in Orange; and he +was in some kind of temporary Protestant pastorship in that town of +south-east France when there was this communication between him and +Milton.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Article LABADIE in _Nouvelle Biographie Générale_ +(1859), with additional information from Article on him in the +_Biographie Universelle_ (edit. 1819), and from _La Vie du +Sieur Jean Labadie_ by Bolsec (Lyon, 1664), and some passages in +Bayle's Dictionary (e.g. in Article _Mamillaires_). It is from +the additional authorities that I learn the fact of the removal of +Labadie from Montauban to Orange; the Article in the _N. Biog. +Gen._ omits it.--I have seen two publications of Labadie at +Montauban--one of 1650, entitled _Declaration de Jean de L'Abadie, +cydevant prestre_, giving his reasons for quitting the Church of +Rome; the other of 1651, entitled _Lettre de J. de L'Abadie à ses +amis de la Communion Romaine touchant sa Declaration_.] + + TO JEAN LABADIE, MINISTER OF ORANGE. + + "If I answer you rather late, distinguished and reverend Sir, our + common friend Durie, I believe, will not refuse to let me transfer + the blame of the late answer from myself to him. For, now that he + has communicated to me that paper which you wished read to me, on + the subject of your doings and sufferings in behalf of the Gospel, + I have not deferred preparing this letter for you, to be given to + the first carrier, being really anxious as to the interpretation + you may put upon my long silence. I owe very great thanks meanwhile + to your Du Moulin of Nismes [not far from Orange], who, by his + speeches and most friendly talk concerning me, has procured me the + goodwill of so many good men in those parts. And truly, though I + am not ignorant that, whether from the fact that I did not, when + publicly commissioned, decline the contest with an adversary of + such name [Salmasius], or on account of the celebrity of the + subject, or, finally, on account of my style of writing, I have + become sufficiently known far and wide, yet my feeling is that I + have real fame only in proportion to the good esteem I have among + good men. That you also are of this way of thinking I see + plainly--you who, kindled by the regard and love of Christian + Truth, have borne so many labours, sustained the attacks of so many + enemies, and who bravely do such actions every day as prove that, + so far from seeking any fame from the bad, you do not fear rousing + against you their most certain hatred and maledictions. O happy man + thou! whom God, from among so many thousands, otherwise knowing and + learned, has snatched singly from the very gates and jaws of Hell, + and called to such an illustrious and intrepid profession of his + Gospel! And at this moment I have cause for thinking that it has + happened by the singular providence of God that I did not reply to + you sooner. For, when I understood from your letter that, assailed + and besieged as you are on all hands by bitter enemies, you were + looking round, and no wonder, to see where you might, in the last + extremity, should it come to that, find a suitable refuge, and that + England was most to your mind, I rejoiced on more accounts than one + that you had come to this conclusion,--one reason being the hope of + having you here, and another the delight that you should have so + high an opinion of my country; but the joy was counterbalanced by + the regret that I did not then see any prospect of a becoming + provision for you among us here, especially as you do not know + English. Now, however, it has happened most opportunely that a + certain French minister here, of great age, died a few days ago. + The persons of most influence in the congregation, understanding + that you are by no means safe where you are at present, are very + desirous (I report this not from vague rumour, but on information + from themselves) to have you chosen to the place of that minister: + in fact, they invite you; they have resolved to pay the expenses of + your journey; they promise that you shall have an income equal to + the best of any French minister here, and that nothing shall be + wanting that can contribute to your pleasant discharge of the + pastoral duty among them. Wherefore, take my advice, Reverend Sir, + and fly hither as soon as possible, to people who are anxious to + have you, and where you will reap a harvest, not perhaps so rich in + the goods of this world, but, as men like you most desire, + numerous, I hope, in souls; and be assured that you will be most + welcome here to all good men, and the sooner the better. Farewell. + + "Westminster: April 21, 1659." + +It is clear from this letter that Milton had never heard of the +scandals against M. Labadie's moral character, or, if he had, utterly +disbelieved them, and regarded him simply as a convert from Roman +Catholicism whose passionate and aggressive Protestant fervour had +brought intolerable and unjust persecution upon him in France. Durie +was his informant; and, for all we can now know, Milton's judgment +about Labadie may have been the right one, and the traditional French +account of him to this day may be wrong. It is certainly strange, +however, to find Milton befriending with so much readiness and zeal +this French Protestant minister, against whom there were exactly such +scandals abroad as those which he had himself believed and blazoned +about Morus, for the murder of Morus's reputation over Europe, and +his ruin in the French Protestant Church in particular. Nor does the +reported sequel of Labadie's life, in the ordinary accounts of him, +lessen the wonder.--Labadie did not come to London, as Milton had +hoped. When he received Milton's letter, he was on the wing for +Geneva, where he arrived in June 1659, and where he continued his +preaching. Here, in the very city where Morus had once been, there +still were commotions round him; and, after new wanderings in +Germany, we find him at Middleburg in Holland in 1666, thus again by +chance in a town where Morus had been before him. At Middleburg he +seems to have attained his widest celebrity, gathering a body of +admirers and important adherents, the chief of whom was "Mademoiselle +Schurmann, so versed in the learned languages." At length a quarrel +with M. de Wolzogue, minister of the Walloon church at Utrecht, +brought Labadie into difficulties with the Walloon Synod and with the +State authorities, and he migrated to Erfurt, and thence to Altona, +where he died in 1674, "in the arms of Mademoiselle Schurmann," who +had followed him to the last. He left a sect called _The +Labadists_, who were strong for a time, and are perhaps not yet +extinct. Among the beliefs they inherited from him are said to have +been these:--(1) That God may and does deceive man; (2) That +Scripture is not necessary to salvation, the immediate action of the +Spirit on souls being sufficient; (3) That there ought to be no +Baptism of Infants; (4) That truly spiritual believers are not bound +by law and ceremonies; (5) That Sabbath-observance is unnecessary, +all days being alike; (6) That the ordinary Christian Church is +degenerate and decrepit. One sees here something like a French +Quakerism, but with ingredients from older Anabaptism. Had Milton's +letter had the intended effect, the sect might have had its home in +London.[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Nouvelle Biographie Générale_, as before.--It is +to be remembered that Milton himself authorized the publication of +his letter to Badiaeus with his other Latin Familiar Epistles in +1674 (see Vol. I. p. 239). By that time he must have known the whole +subsequent career of Labadie and all the reports about him; and he +cannot even then have thought ill of him or of Mad'lle Schurmann. +To the end, he liked all bold schismatics and sectaries, if they +took a forward direction.] + +Virtually at an end on the 22nd of April by the enforced dissolution +of the Parliament, Richard's Protectorate was more visibly at an end +on the 7th of May, when the Wallingford-House chiefs agreed with the +Republicans in restoring the Rump. Eight days after that event Milton +was called on to write two letters for the new Republican +authorities. They were as follows:-- + + (CXLVIII.) TO CHARLES GUSTAVUS, KING OF SWEDEN, _May_ 15, + 1659:--"Most serene and most potent King, and very dear Friend: As + it has pleased God, the best and all-powerful, with whom alone are + all changes of Kingdoms and Commonwealths, to restore Us to our + pristine authority and the supreme administration of English + affairs, we have thought it good in the first place to inform your + Majesty of the fact, and moreover to signify to you both our high + regard for your Majesty, as a most potent Protestant prince, and + also our desire to promote to the utmost of our power such a peace + between you and the King of Denmark, himself likewise a very potent + Protestant prince, as may not be brought about without our + exertions and most willing good offices. Our pleasure therefore is + that our internuncio extraordinary, Philip Meadows, be continued in + our name in exactly the same employment which he has hitherto + discharged with your Majesty for this Commonwealth; and to that end + we, by these presents, give him the same power of making proposals + and of treating and dealing with your Majesty which he had by his + last commendatory letters. Whatever shall be transacted and + concluded by him in our name, the same we pledge our promise, with + God's good help, to confirm and ratify. May God long preserve your + Majesty as a pillar and defence of the Protestant cause.--WILLIAM + LENTHALL, _Speaker of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of + England_." + + (CXLIX) To FREDERICK III., KING OF DENMARK, _May_ 15, + 1659:--The counterpart of the foregoing. His Danish Majesty, + addressed as "most serene King and very dear Friend" is informed by + Lenthall of the change in English affairs, and of the sympathy the + present English Government feels with him in his adversity. They + will do their utmost to secure a peace between him and the King of + Sweden; and Philip Meadows, their Envoy Extraordinary to the King + of Sweden, has full powers to treat with his Danish Majesty too for + that end. "God grant to your Majesty, as soon as possible, a happy + and joyful outcome from all those difficulties of your affairs in + which you behave so bravely and magnanimously!" + +On the 25th of May Richard sent in his reluctant abdication, leaving +the Rump, which had already assumed the supreme authority, to +exercise that authority without further challenge or opposition on +his part. Most of the public officials remained in their posts, and +Milton remained In his. After five years and five months of +Secretaryship under a Single-Person Government, he found himself +again Secretary under exactly such a Republican Government as he had +served originally, consisting now of the small Parliament of the +Restored Rumpers and of a Council of State appointed by that +Parliament. In this Council of State were Bradshaw, Vane, Sir James +Harrington, St. John, Hasilrig, Scott, Walton, and Whitlocke, who had +been members of all the first five Councils of the Commonwealth, from +that which had invited Milton to the Secretaryship in 1649 to that +which Cromwell forcibly dissolved in 1653, besides Fairfax, +Fleetwood, Ludlow, John Jones, Wallop, Challoner, Neville, Dixwell, +Downes, Morley, Thompson, and Algernon Sidney, whom Milton had known +as members of one or more of those five Councils, and Lambert and +Desborough, who had not been in any of them, but were among his later +acquaintances. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Second Section. + +MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE ANARCHY: MAY 1659--FEB. +1659-60. + +_FIRST STAGE OF THE ANARCHY, OR THE RESTORED RUMP_ (MAY--OCT. +1659):--FEELINGS AND POSITION OF MILTON IN THE NEW STATE OF THINGS: +HIS SATISFACTION ON THE WHOLE, AND THE REASONS FOR IT: LETTER OF +MOSES WALL TO MILTON: RENEWED AGITATION AGAINST TITHES AND +CHURCH-ESTABLISHMENT: VOTES ON THAT SUBJECT IN THE RUMP: MILTON'S +CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE HIRELINGS OUT +OF THE CHURCH: ACCOUNT OF THE PAMPHLET, WITH EXTRACTS: ITS +THOROUGH-GOING VOLUNTARYISM: CHURCH-DISESTABLISHMENT DEMANDED +ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT COMPENSATION FOR VESTED INTERESTS: THE APPEAL +FRUITLESS, AND THE SUBJECT IGNORED BY THE RUMP: DISPERSION OF THAT +BODY BY LAMBERT. + +_SECOND STAGE OF THE ANARCHY, OR THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE +INTERRUPTION_ (OCT.--DEC. 1659):--MILTON'S THOUGHTS ON LAMBERT'S +COUP D'ÉTAT IN HIS _LETTER TO A FRIEND CONCERNING THE RUPTURES OF +THE COMMONWEALTH_: THE LETTER IN THE MAIN AGAINST LAMBERT AND IN +DEFENCE OF THE RUMP: ITS EXTRAORDINARY PRACTICAL PROPOSAL OF A +GOVERNMENT BY TWO PERMANENT CENTRAL BODIES: THE PROPOSAL COMPARED +WITH THE ACTUAL ADMINISTRATION BY THE _COMMITTEE OF SAFETY_ AND +THE _WALLINGFORD-HOUSE COUNCIL OF OFFICERS_: MILTON STILL +NOMINALLY IN THE LATIN SECRETARYSHIP: MONEY WARRANT OF OCT. 25, +1659, RELATING TO MILTON, MARVELL, AND EIGHTY-FOUR OTHER OFFICIALS: +NO TRACE OF ACTUAL SERVICE BY MILTON FOR THE NEW _COMMITTEE OF +SAFETY_: HIS MEDITATIONS THROUGH THE TREATY BETWEEN THE +WALLINGFORD-HOUSE GOVERNMENT AND MONK IN SCOTLAND: HIS MEDITATIONS +THROUGH THE COMMITTEE-DISCUSSIONS AS TO THE FUTURE MODEL OF +GOVERNMENT: HIS INTEREST IN THIS AS NOW THE PARAMOUNT QUESTION, AND +HIS COGNISANCE OF THE MODELS OF HARRINGTON AND THE ROTA CLUB: +WHITLOCKE'S NEW CONSTITUTION DISAPPOINTING TO MILTON: TWO MORE +LETTERS TO OLDENBURG AND YOUNG RANELAGH: GOSSIP FROM ABROAD IN +CONNECTION WITH THESE LETTERS: MORUS AGAIN, AND THE COUNCIL OF FRENCH +PROTESTANTS AT LOUDUN: END OF THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE INTERRUPTION. + +_THIRD STAGE OF THE ANARCHY, OR THE SECOND RESTORATION OF THE +RUMP_ (DEC. 1659-FEB. 1659-60):--MILTON'S DESPONDENCY AT THIS +PERIOD: ABATEMENT OF HIS FAITH IN THE RUMP: HIS THOUGHTS DURING THE +MARCH OF MONK FROM SCOTLAND AND AFTER MONK'S ARRIVAL IN LONDON: HIS +STUDY OF MONK NEAR AT HAND AND MISTRUST OF THE OMENS: HIS INTEREST +FOR A WHILE IN THE QUESTION OF THE PRECONSTITUTION OF THE NEW +PARLIAMENT PROMISED BY THE RUMP: HIS ANXIETY THAT IT SHOULD BE A +REPUBLICAN PARLIAMENT BY MERE SELF-ENLARGEMENT OF THE RUMP: HIS +PREPARATION OF A NEW REPUBLICAN PAMPHLET: THE PUBLICATION POSTPONED +BY MONK'S SUDDEN DEFECTION FROM THE RUMP, THE ROASTING OF THE RUMP IN +THE CITY, AND THE RESTORATION OF THE SECLUDED MEMBERS TO THEIR PLACES +IN THE PARLIAMENT: MILTON'S DESPONDENCY COMPLETE. + + +With what feelings was it that Milton found himself once more in the +employment of his old masters, the original Republicans or +Commonwealth's-men? That there may have been some sense of +awkwardness in the re-connexion is not unlikely. Had he not for six +years been a most conspicuous Cromwellian? Had he not justified again +and again in print Cromwell's _coup d'état_ of 1653, by which +the Rump had been turned out of power, and which the now Restored +Rumpers, and especially such of their leaders as Vane, Scott, +Hasilrig, and Bradshaw, were bound to remember as Cromwell's +unpardonable sin, and the woeful beginning of an illegitimate +interregnum? He had justified it, hardly anonymously, in his Letter +to a Gentleman in the Country, published in May 1653, only a +fortnight after the fact (Vol. IV. pp. 519-523). He had justified it +a year later in his _Defensio Secunda_ of 1654, published some +months after the Protectorate had actually begun. In that famous +pamphlet, he had, amid much else to the same effect, made special +reference to Cromwell's Dissolution of the Rump in these words +addressed to Cromwell himself: "When you saw delays being contrived, +and every one more intent on his private interests than on the public +good, and the people complaining of being cheated of their hopes and +circumvented by the power of a few, you did what they themselves had +so often declined to do when asked, and put an end to their +Government" (Vol. IV. p. 604). Rumpers of tenacious memories cannot +have forgotten such published utterances of Milton, while the fact +that he had for some years past been an Oliverian, a Protectoratist, +a Court-official for Oliver and Richard, was patent to all. Yet, now +that the old Rumpers were restored to power, the survivors of the +original "few" whose dissolution by Cromwell he had publicly praised +and defended, here was Milton still in his secretaryship and writing +the first foreign letters they required. + +How was this? It is hardly a sufficient answer to say that it is +quite customary for officials to remain in their places through +changes of Government. On the one hand, Milton was not a man to +remain in an element with which he could not conscientiously accord; +and, on the other, the Rumpers were rather careful in seeking public +servants of their own sort. Thurloe was out of the general +Secretaryship; and one of the first acts of the restored House was to +punish Mr. Henry Scobell, Clerk of the Parliament, for having +entered, the fact of Cromwell's Dissolution of the House on April 20, +1653, in the Journals tinder that date. They ordered a Bill to be +brought in for repealing the Act by which Scobell held the +Clerkship.[1] The truth, then, is that Milton was not, on the whole, +displeased by the return of his old friends to power. Though he had +justified Cromwell's dissolution of the Rump and had become openly an +Oliverian at the beginning of the Protectorate, he had never ceased +to regard with admiration and affection such of the old Republicans +as Vane, Bradshaw, and Overton. It had probably all along been a +question with him whether the blame of their disablement under the +Protectorate lay more with themselves or with Oliver. Then, as we +have abundantly seen, there is reason for believing that before the +end of the Protectorate his own Oliverianism or Cromwellianism had +become weaker than at first. The Miltonic reserves, as we have called +them, with which he had given his adhesion to the Protectorate even +at first, had taken stronger and stronger development in his mind; +and, whatever he found to admire in Cromwell's Government all in all, +the whole course of that Government in Church matters had been a +disappointment. Milton wanted to see Church and State entirely +separated; Cromwell had mixed them, intertwined them, more than ever. +Milton wanted to see the utter abolition in England of anything that +could be called a clergy; Cromwell had made it one of the chief +objects of his rule to maintain a clergy and extend it massively. +Whether this policy might not yet be reversed had been one of +Milton's first questions with himself after Cromwell's death; and his +_Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes_, addressed to +Richard's Parliament, had been a challenge to that Parliament not to +shrink from the great attempt. In that treatise, it is not too much +to say, Milton had shaken hands again with the old Republican party. +In the preface to it he had dwelt fondly on his former connexion with +them, on his recollection especially of the speeches he had heard +from some of them in the old Councils of State of the Commonwealth, +when he had first the honour to sit there as Latin Secretary, and +listen to their private debates. What clearness then, what +decisiveness, in such men as Vane and Bradshaw, on that "important +article of Christianity," the necessary distinctness of the Civil +from the Religious! Ah! could those old days be back! He had written +as if those days had not been satisfactory, as if the dispersion of +his old masters of those days had been necessary; but, in so writing, +had he not been too hasty? So he had been asking himself of late; and +though, as Richard's Latin Secretary, and writing under his +Protectorate, he had not said a word against the established +Protectoral Government, he had expressed generally his conviction +that England would never be right till either those charged with the +Government should be men "discerning between Civil and Religious" or +none but such should be charged with the Government. Now, however, in +May 1659, he might speak more plainly. Richard's Government had been +swept away;--Richard's Parliament, which he had addressed, was no +more in being; and, by a revolution which he had not expected, and in +which he had taken no part, the pure Republic, with the relics of the +Parliament that had first created it, was again the established +order. All round about him the men he respected most were exulting in +the change, and calling it a revival of "the Good Old Cause." Without +pronouncing on the change in all its aspects, he could join in the +exultation for a special reason. Would not the restored Republican +Parliament and their Councils of State see it to be part of their +duty to assert at last the principle of absolute Religious +Voluntaryism? + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals, May 19, 1659.] + +This representation of Milton's position at the time of the +restoration of the Rump is confirmed by a private letter then +addressed to him. The writer was a certain Moses Wall, of Causham or +Caversham in Oxfordshire, a scholar and Republican opinionist of whom +there are traces in Hartlib's correspondence and elsewhere.[1] Milton +had recently written to him, sending him perhaps a copy of his +_Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes_; and this is +Wall's reply--written, it will be observed, the very day after +Richard's abdication:-- + +[Footnote 1: Worthington's Diary and Correspondence, by Crossley, I. +355 and 365.] + + "Sir, + + "I received yours the day after you wrote, and do humbly thank you + that you are pleased to honour me with your letters. I confess I + have (even in my privacy in the country) oft had thoughts about + you, and that with much respect for your friendliness to truth in + your early years and in bad times. But I was uncertain whether your + relation to the Court (though I think that a Commonwealth was more + friendly to you than a Court) had not clouded your former light; + but your last book resolved that doubt. + + "You complain of the non-progressency of the nation, and of its + retrograde motion of late, in liberty and spiritual truths. It is + much to be bewailed; but, yet, let us pity human frailty. When + those who had made deep protestations of their zeal for our + liberty, both spiritual and civil, and made the fairest offers to + be the asserters thereof, and whom we thereupon trusted,--when + these, being instated in power, shall betray the good thing + committed to them, and lead us back to Egypt, and by that force + which we gave them to win us liberty hold us fast in chains,--what + can poor people do? You know who they were that watched our + Saviour's sepulchre to keep him from rising [soldiers! see Matthew + XXVII. and XXVIII.]. Besides, whilst people are not free, but + straitened in accommodations for life, their spirits will be + dejected and servile; and, conducing to that end [of rousing them], + there should be an improving of our native commodities, as our + manufactures, our fishery, our fens, forests, and commons, and our + trade at sea, &c.: which would give the body of the nation a + comfortable subsistence. And the breaking that cursed yoke of + Tithes would much help thereto. Also another thing I cannot but + mention; which is that the Norman Conquest and Tyranny is continued + upon the nation without any thought of removing it: I mean the + tenure of land by copyhold, and holding for life under a lord, or + rather tyrant, of a manor; whereby people care not to improve their + land by cost upon it, not knowing how soon themselves or theirs may + be outed it, nor what the house is in which they live, for the same + reason; and they are far more enslaved to the lord of the manor + than the rest of the nation is to a king or supreme magistrate. + + "We have waited for liberty; but it must be God's work and not + man's: who thinks it sweet to maintain his pride and worldly + interest to the gratifying of the flesh, whatever becomes of the + precious liberty of mankind. But let us not despond, but do our + duty; God will carry on that blessed work, in despite of all + opposites, and to their ruin if they persist therein. + + "Sir, my humble request is that you would proceed, and give us that + other member of the distribution mentioned in your book: viz. that + Hire doth greatly impede truth and liberty. It is like, if you do, + you shall find opposers; but remember that saying,_'Beatius est + pati quam frui,'_ or, in the Apostle's words, James V. 11. + [Greek: Makarizomen tous hypomenontas] ['We count them happy that + endure']. I have sometimes thought (concurring with your assertion) + of that storied voice that should speak from heaven when + Ecclesiastics were endowed with worldly preferments, _'Hodie + venenum infunditur in Ecelesiam'_ ['This day is poison poured + into the Church']; for, to use the speech of Gen. IV. _ult._, + according to the sense which it hath in the Hebrew, 'Then began men + to corrupt the worship of God.' I shall tell you a supposal of + mine; which is this:--Mr. Durie has bestowed about thirty years' + time in travel, conference, and writing, to reconcile Calvinists + and Lutherans, and that with little or no success. But the shortest + way were:--Take away ecclesiastical dignities, honours, and + preferments on both sides, and all would soon be hushed; those + ecclesiastics would be quiet, and then the people would come forth + into truth and liberty. But I will not engage in this quarrel. Yet + I shall lay this engagement upon myself,--to remain + + "Your faithful friend and servant, + + "M. Wall.[1] + + "Causham: May 26, 1659." + +[Footnote 1: Copy in Ayscough: MS. in British Museum, No. 4292 (f. +121); where the copyist "J. Owen" (the Rev. J. Owen of Rochdale) +certifies it as from the original. It was printed, not very +correctly, by Richard Baron, in 1756, in his preface to his edition +of the _Eikonoklastes._] + +Here, from a man evidently after Milton's own heart on the Church +question, we have Milton's welcome back into the ranks of the old +Republicans. And more and more through the five months of the first +Restoration of the Rump (May 7--Oct. 13) the friends of "the good +old cause" had reason to know that Milton was again one of +themselves. It happens, indeed, that we have no more letters of his +for the Restored Rump Government than the two of May 15, already +quoted, which he wrote for the restored House, and which were signed +by Speaker Lenthall. Those two letters close the entire series of the +known and extant State-Letters of Milton. He and Marvell, however, +were still in their Secretaryship, drawing their salaries as before; +and of the completeness of Milton's re-adherence to the Republican +Government there is evidence more massive and striking than could +have been furnished by any number of farther official letters by him +for the Rump or its Council. + +Milton, had not judged wrongly in supposing that the question of +Church-disestablishment would now be made part and parcel of "the +good old cause." We have already glanced at the facts (p. 466), but +they may be given here more in detail:--Hardly had the Rump been +reconstituted when petitions for Disestablishment, in the form of +petitions for the abolition of Tithes, began to pour in upon it. One +such, called "The Humble Representation and Petition of many +well-affected persons in the counties of Somerset, Wilts, and some +parts of Devon, Dorset, and Hampshire," was read in the House on the +14th of June. The petitioners were thanked, and informed that the +House resolved "to give encouragement to a godly, preaching, learned +ministry throughout the nation, and for that end to continue the +payment of Tithes till they can find out some other more equal and +comfortable maintenance for the ministry, and satisfaction of the +people; which they intend with all convenient speed." That day, +accordingly, in a division of thirty-eight Yeas (Carew Raleigh and +Sir William Brereton tellers) to thirty-eight Noes (Hasilrig and +Colonel White tellers) it was carried, by the Speaker's casting vote, +to refer the question of some substitute for Tithes to a Grand +Committee. On the 27th of June, there having been other petitions +against Tithes in the meantime, signed by "many thousands," the House +came to a more definite resolution, which they ordered to be printed +and published by the Judges in their circuits. It was "That this +Parliament doth declare that, for the encouragement of a godly, +preaching, learned ministry throughout the nation, the payment of +Tithes shall continue as now they are, _unless_ this Parliament +shall find out some other," &c. As the word _unless_ had been, +substituted for the word _until_ without a division, it is +evident that the House had gone back in their intentions in the +course of the fortnight, and were less disposed to commit themselves +to any serious interference with the Church Establishment as left by +Cromwell. The disappointment to the petitioning thousands must have +been great. Still, the question had been raised, and might be +regarded as only adjourned. What was wanted was continued agitation +out of doors, more petitioning and more pamphleteering.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates.] + +It was in this last way that Milton could help. As advised by his +friend Moses Wall, he had been busy over that second Disestablishment +tract which he had promised; and in August 1659 it appeared in this +form: _"Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove +Hirelings out of the Church. Wherein is also discourc'd of Tithes, +Church-fees, Church Revenues; and, whether any maintenance of +ministers can be settl'd by law. The author J.M. London, Printed by +T.N. for L. Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head Alley,_ 1659." The +volume is a very small octavo, and contains eighteen unnumbered pages +of prefatory address to the Parliament in large open type, signed +"John Milton" in full, followed by 153 pages of text.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Copy in Thomason Collection, with date "Aug." marked on +title-page--month only, no day.] + +The Address to the Parliament deserves particular notice. The +following is the main portion of it, with two phrases Italicised:-- + + "Owing to your protection, Supreme Senate, this liberty of writing + which I have used these eighteen years on all occasions to assert + the just rights and freedoms both of Church and State, and so far + approved as to have been trusted with the representment and defence + of your actions to all Christendom against an adversary of no mean + repute, to whom should I address what I still publish on the same + argument but to you, whose magnanimous counsels first opened and + unbound the age from a double bondage under Prelatical and Regal + tyranny, above our own hopes heartening us to look up at last like + Men and Christians from the slavish dejection wherein from father + to son we were bred up and taught, and thereby deserving of these + nations, if they be not barbarously ingrateful, to be acknowledged, + next under God, _the authors and best patrons of Religious and + Civil Liberty that ever these Islands brought forth?_ The care + and tuition of whose peace and safety, _after a short but + scandalous night of interruption,_ is now again, by a new + dawning of God's miraculous Providence among us, revolved upon your + shoulders. And to whom more appertain these Considerations which I + propound than to yourselves, and the debate before you, though I + trust of no difficulty, yet at present of great expectation, not + whether ye will gratify, were it no more than so, but whether ye + will hearken to the just petition of many thousands best affected + both to Religion and to this your return, or whether ye will + satisfy (which you never can) the covetous pretences and demands of + insatiable Hirelings, whose disaffection ye well know hath to + yourselves and your resolutions? That I, though among many others + in this common concernment, interpose to your deliberations what my + thoughts also are, your own judgment and the success thereof hath + given me the confidence: which requests but this--that, if I have + prosperously, God so favouring me, defended the public cause of + this Commonwealth to foreigners, ye would not think the reason and + ability whereon ye trusted once (and repent not) your whole + reputation to the world either grown less by more maturity and + longer study or less available in English than in another tongue: + but that, if it sufficed, some years past, to convince and satisfy + the unengaged of other nations in the justice of your doings, + though then held paradoxal, it may as well suffice now against + weaker opposition in matters (except here in England, with a + spirituality of men devoted to their temporal gain) of no + controversy else among Protestants." + +This is, unmistakeably, a public testimony of Milton's re-adhesion to +the Rumpers, with something like an expression of regret that he had +ever parted from them. After all, he could call them "the authors and +best patrons of religious and civil liberty that ever these Islands +brought forth"; and, with this renewed conviction, and remembering +also their former confidence in himself, especially in the Salmasian +controversy, he could now congratulate them and the country on their +return to power. But is not the Address also a recantation of his +Oliverianism? To some extent, it must be so interpreted. It seems +utterly impossible, indeed, that the phrase "_a short but +scandalous night of interruption_" was intended to apply to the +entire six years of the Cromwellian Dictatorship and Protectorship. +That had not been a "short" interruption, for it had exceeded in +length the whole duration of the Commonwealth it had interrupted; and +it would be the most marvellous inconsistency on record if Milton +could ever have brought himself to call it "scandalous." Who had +written the panegyric on Cromwell and his actually established +Protectorship in the _Defensio Secunda?_ Who had been Oliver's +Latin Secretary from first to last, and penned for him his despatches +on the Piedmontese massacre and all his greatest besides? The +likelihood, therefore, is that "the short but scandalous night of +interruption" in Milton's mind was the fortnight or so of +Wallingford-House usurpation which broke up Richard's Parliament and +Protectorate, and from the continuance of which, with all the +inconveniences of a mere military despotism, the restoration of the +Rump had seemed a happy rescue. But, though this single phrase may be +thus explained, the tone of the whole address intimates far less of +gratitude to Oliver dead than there had been of admiration for Oliver +living. And the reason at this point is most obvious. Was it not +precisely because Cromwell had failed to fulfil Milton's expectation +of him, in his sonnet of May 1652, that he would deliver the +Commonwealth from the plague of "hireling wolves," calling themselves +a Clergy--was it not because Cromwell from first to last had pursued +a contrary policy--that it remained for Milton now, seven years after +the date of that sonnet, to have to offer, as a private thinker, and +on mere printed paper, his own poor _Considerations touching the +likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of the Church?_ It was not +in a pamphlet on that subject, wherever else, that Milton could say +his best for the memory of Cromwell. + +After some preliminary observations connecting the present treatise +with its forerunner; Milton opens his subject thus:-- + + "Hire of itself is neither a thing unlawful, nor a word of any evil + note, signifying no more than a due recompense or reward, as when + our Saviour saith, 'The labourer is worthy of his hire.' That which + makes it so dangerous in the Church, and properly makes HIRELING a + word always of evil signification, is either the excess thereof or + the undue manner of giving and taking it. What harm the excess + thereof brought to the Church perhaps was not found by experience + till the days of Constantine; who, out of his zeal, thinking he + could be never too liberally a nursing father of the Church, might + be not unfitly said to have either overlaid it or choked it in the + nursing. Which was foretold, as is recorded in Ecclesiastical + traditions, by a voice heard from Heaven, on the very day that + those great donations of Church-revenues were given, crying aloud, + _'This day is poison poured into the Church'_ [Note the + adoption of the anecdote from Mr. Wall's letter]. Which the event + soon after verified, as appears by another no less ancient + observation, that 'Religion brought forth wealth, and the Daughter + devoured the Mother.' But, long ere _wealth_ came into the + Church, so soon as any _gain_ appeared in Religion, HIRELINGS + were apparent, drawn in long before by the very scent thereof + [References to Judas as the first hireling, to Simon Magus as the + second, and to various texts in the Acts and Epistles proving that + among the early preachers of Christianity there were men who + preached 'for filthy lucre's sake,' or made a mere trade of the + Gospel] .... Thus we see that not only the excess of Hire in + wealthiest times, but also the undue and vicious taking or giving + it, though but small or mean, as in the primitive times, gave to + hirelings occasion, though not intended yet sufficient, to creep at + first into the Church. Which argues also the difficulty, or rather + the impossibility, to remove them quite, unless every minister + were, as St. Paul, contented to teach _gratis:_ but few such + are to be found. As therefore we cannot justly take away all Hire + in the Church, because we cannot otherwise quite remove Hirelings, + so are we not, for the impossibility of removing them all, to use + therefore no endeavour that fewest may come in, but rather, in + regard the evil, do what we can, will always be incumbent and + unavoidable, to use our utmost diligence how it may be least + dangerous. Which will be likeliest effected if we consider,--first + what recompense God hath ordained should be given to ministers of + the Church (for that a recompense ought to be given them, and may + by them justly be received, our Saviour himself, from the very + light of reason and of equity, hath declared, Luke X. 7, '_The + labourer is worthy of his hire'_); _next,_ by whom; and, + _lastly,_ in what manner." + +In this passage and in other passages throughout the Treatise it is +clear that Milton's ideal was a Church in which no minister should +take pay at all for his preaching or ministry, whether pay from the +state or from his hearers, but every minister should, as St. Paul +did, preach, absolutely and systematically _gratis_, deriving +his livelihood and his leisure to preach from his private resources, +or, if he had none such, then from the practice of some calling or +handicraft apart from his preaching. Deep down in Milton's mind, +notwithstanding his professed deference to Christ's words, "_The +labourer is worthy of his hire,_" we can see this conviction that +it would be better for the world if religious doctrine, or in fact +doctrine of any kind, were never bought or sold, but all spiritual +teachers were to abhor the very touch of money for their lessons, +being either gentlemen of independent means who could propagate the +truth splendidly from high motives, or else tent-makers, carpenters, +and bricklayers, passionate with the possession of some truth to +propagate. This, however, having been acknowledged to be perhaps an +impossibility on any great scale, he goes on to inquire, as proposed, +what the legitimate and divinely-appointed hire of Gospel-ministers +is, from whom it may come, and in what manner. The general result is +as follows:--I. The Tithes of the old Jewish dispensation are utterly +abolished under the Gospel. Nearly half the treatise is an argument +to this effect, and consequently for the immediate abolition of the +tithe-system in England. Here Milton lends his whole force to the +popular current on this subject among the friends of "the good old +cause," advocating those petitions to the Rump of which he has spoken +in his preface. But he goes farther than the abolition of tithes. He +will not allow of any statutory substitute for tithes, any taxation +of the people in any form for the support of Religion. The only +substitute for tithes which he discusses specifically is compulsory +church-fees for ministerial offices, such as baptisms, marriages, and +burials. These, as well as tithes, he utterly condemns; and he winds +up this part of his inquiry thus: "Seeing, then, that God hath given +to ministers under the Gospel that only which is justly given them +(that is to say, a due and moderate livelihood, the hire of their +labour), and that the heave-offering of Tithes is abolished with the +Altar (yes, though not abolished, yet lawless as they enjoy them), +their Melchizedekian right also trivial and groundless, and both +tithes and fees, if exacted or established, unjust and scandalous, we +may hope, with _them_ removed, to remove Hirelings in some good +measure." II. It is maintained that the lawful maintenance of the +ministry can consist only in the voluntary offerings of those they +instruct, whether tendered individually, or collected into a common +treasury for distribution. The flocks ought to maintain their own +pastors, and no others are bound to contribute for the purpose. But +what of poor neighbourhoods that cannot maintain pastors and yet need +them most sorely? Milton has unbounded confidence that these will be +overtaken and provided for by the zeal of pious individuals, or by +"the charity of richer congregations," taking the form of itinerant +missions. "If it be objected that this itinerary preaching will not +serve to plant the Gospel in those places unless they who are sent +abide there some competent time, I answer that, if they stay there +for a year or two, which was the longest time usually staid by the +Apostles in one place, it may suffice to teach them who will attend +and learn all the points of Religion necessary to salvation: then, +sorting them into several congregations of a moderate number, out of +the ablest and zealousest of them to create elders, who, exercising +and requiring from themselves what they have learnt (for no learning +is retained without constant exercise and methodical repetition), may +teach and govern the rest: and, so exhorted to continue faithful and +stedfast, they may securely be committed to the providence of God and +the guidance of his Holy Spirit till God may offer some opportunity +to visit them again and to confirm them." The only concession Milton +will make is that, in cases of urgent necessity, application may be +made to magistrates or other trustees of charitable funds for aid in +these temporary and itinerant missions. For the rest, it will be +seen, it is with difficulty that he allows the existence of a +permanent pastorate anywhere. If there is to be a body of men in the +community making a business of preaching, and if in towns and +populous neighbourhoods congregations choose to retain the services, +for life or for an indefinite period, of particular ministerial +persons selected from this body, and to erect handsome buildings +convenient for such services, well and good, or rather it cannot be +helped; but the picture most to Milton's fancy is that of an England +generally, or at all events of a rural England, without any fixed or +regular parish pastors or parish-churches, but each little local +cluster of believers meeting on Sundays or other days in chapel or +barn for mutual edification, or to be instructed by such simple +teaching elders as may easily, from time to time, be produced within +itself. Add the itinerant agency of more practiced and professional +preachers, circulating periodically among the local clusters, to +rouse them or keep them alive; and nothing more would be needed. +There would be plenty of preaching, and good preaching, everywhere; +but, as most of it would be spontaneous by hard-handed men known +among their neighbours, and working, like their neighbours, for their +ordinary subsistence, the preaching profession, as a means of income, +would be reduced to a minimum. In a Church so constituted there would +still be hirelings, especially in large towns and where there were +wealthy congregations; but the number of such would be greatly +reduced. III. Under the third head of the "manner" of the recompense +to ministers, where there is any recompense at all, the substance of +Milton's remarks is that the purely voluntary character of the +recompense must be studiously maintained. It must be purely an alms, +an oblation of benevolence. Hence it should never take the form of a +life-endowment, or even of a contract conferring a legal title to +demand payment. The appearance of a minister of the Gospel in a +law-court to sue for money supposed to be due to him for his +ministerial services, even by promise or agreement, is spoken of with +disgust. Were it the understood rule that there could be no recovery +by a minister even of his promised salary, would not that also tend +in some degree to keep Hirelings out of the Church? + +The pamphlet, it will be seen, is more outspoken and thoroughgoing +than its forerunner. It contains also more of those individual +passages that represent Milton in his rough mood of sarcastic +strength, though none of such beauty or eloquence as are to be found +in his earlier pamphlets. The following are characteristic:-- + + _Mr. Prynne's Defences of Tithes_:--"To heap such unconvincing + citations as these in Religion, whereof the Scripture only is our + rule, argues not much learning nor judgment, but the lost labour + of much unprofitable reading. And yet a late hot Querist for + Tithes, whom ye may know, by his wits lying ever beside him in the + margin, to be ever beside his wits in the text,--a fierce Reformer + once, now rankled with a contrary heat,--would send us back, very + reformedly indeed, to learn Reformation from Tyndarus and Rebuffas, + two Canonical Promoters."[1] + +[Footnote 1: The reference is to Prynne's _Ten Considerable +Queries concerning Tithes, &c., against the Petitioners and Petitions +for their Total Abolition_: 1659.] + + _Marriages and Clerical Concern in the same_:--"As for + Marriages, that ministers should meddle with them, as not + sanctioned or legitimate without their celebration, I find no + ground in Scripture either of precept or example. Likeliest it is + (which our Selden hath well observed _I. II. c. 28. Ux. Heb._) + that in imitation of heathen priests, who were wont at nuptials to + use many rites and ceremonies, and especially judging it would be + profitable and the increase of their authority not to be spectators + only in business of such concernment to the life of man, they + insinuated that marriage was not holy without their benediction, + and for the better colour made it a Sacrament; being of itself a + Civil Ordinance, a household contract, a thing indifferent and free + to the whole race of mankind, not as religious, but as men. Best, + indeed, undertaken to religious ends, as the Apostle saith (1 Cor. + VII. '_In the Lord_'); yet not therefore invalid or unholy + without a minister and his pretended necessary hallowing, more than + any other act, enterprise, or contract, of civil life,--which ought + all to be done also in the Lord and to his glory,--all which, no + less than marriage, were by the cunning of priests heretofore, as + material to their profit, transacted at the altar. Our Divines deny + it to be a Sacrament; yet retained the celebration, till prudently + a late Parliament recovered the civil liberty of marriage from + their encroachment, and transferred the ratifying and registering + thereof from their Canonical Shop to the proper cognisance of Civil + Magistrates" [The Marriages Act of the Barebones Parliament; in + accordance with which had been Milton's own second marriage: see + ante p. 281, and Vol. IV. p. 511]. + + _Sitting under a Stated Minister:_--"If men be not all their + lifetime under a teacher to learn Logic, Natural Philosophy, + Ethics, or Mathematics, ... certainly it is not necessary to the + attainment of Christian knowledge that men should sit all their + life long at the foot of a pulpited divine, while he, a lollard + indeed over his elbow-cushion, in almost the seventh part of forty + or fifty years, teaches them scarce half the principles of + Religion, and his sheep ofttimes sit the while to as little purpose + of benefiting as the sheep in their pews at Smithfield." + + _Congregations for mutual Edification:_--"Notwithstanding the + gaudy superstition of some devoted still ignorantly to temples, we + may be well assured that He who disdained not to be laid in a + manger disdains not to be preached in a barn, and that by such + meetings as these, being indeed most apostolical and primitive, + they will in a short time advance more in Christian knowledge and + reformation of life than by the many years preaching of such an + incumbent,--I may say such an incubus ofttimes,--as will be meanly + hired to abide long in those places." + + _A Reflection on Cromwell for his Established Church:_--"For + the magistrate, in person of a nursing father, to make the Church + his mere ward, as always in minority,-the Church to whom he ought + as a Magistrate (Isaiah XLIS. 23) '_to bow down with his face + toward the earth and lick up the dust of her feet,_'--her to + subject to his political drifts and conceived opinions by mastering + her revenue, and so by his examinant Committees to circumscribe her + free election of ministers,--is neither just nor pious: no honour + done to the Church, but a plain dishonour." + + _University Education of Ministers:--State of the Facts:_ + "They pretend that their education, either at School or University, + hath been very chargeable, and therefore ought to be repaired in + future by a plentiful maintenance: whereas it is well known that + the better half of them, and ofttimes poor and pitiful boys, of no + merit or promising hopes that might entitle them to the public + provision but their poverty and the unjust favour of friends, have + had the most of their breeding, both at School and University, by + scholarships, exhibitions, and fellowships, at the public + cost,--which might engage them the rather to give freely, as they + have freely received. Or, if they have missed of these helps at the + latter place, they have after two or three years left the course of + their studies there, if they ever well began them, and undertaken, + though furnished with little else but ignorance, boldness, and + ambition, if with no worse vices, a chaplainship in some + gentleman's house, to the frequent imbasing of his sons with + illiterate and narrow principles. Or, if they have lived there [at + the University] upon their own, who knows not that seven years' + charge of living there,--to them who fly not from the government + of their parents to the licence of a University, but come seriously + to study,--is no more than, may be well defrayed and reimbursed by + one year's revenue of an ordinary good benefice? If they had then + means of breeding from their parents, 'tis likely they have more + now; and, if they have, it needs must be mechanic and uningenuous + in them to bring a bill of charges for the learning of those + liberal Arts and Sciences which they have learnt (if they have + indeed learnt them, as they seldom have) to their own benefit and + accomplishment. But they will say 'We had betaken us to some other + trade or profession, had we not expected to find a better + livelihood by the Ministry.' This is what I looked for,--to + discover them openly neither true lovers of Learning and so very + seldom guilty of it, nor true ministers of the Gospel." + + _University Education of Ministers not Necessary_: "What + Learning, either human or divine, can be necessary to a minister + may as easily and less chargeably be had in any private house ... + Those theological disputations there held [i.e. at the + Universities] by Professors and Graduates are such as tend least of + all to the edification or capacity of the people, but rather + perplex and leaven pure doctrine with scholastical trash than + enable any minister to the better preaching of the Gospel. Whence + we may also compute, since they come to reckonings, the charges of + his needful library; which, though some shame not to value at £600 + [equivalent to £2000 now], may be competently furnished for £60 + [equivalent to £200 now]. If any man, for his own curiosity or + delight, be in books further expensive, that is not to be reckoned + as necessary to his ministerial either breeding or function. But + Papists and other adversaries cannot be confuted without Fathers + and Councils, immense volumes and of vast charges! I will show them + therefore a shorter and a better way of confutation: _Tit. I._ + 9; 'Holding fast the faithful Word as he hath been taught, that he + may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince + gainsayers,'--who are confuted as soon as heard bringing that which + is either not in Scripture or against it. To pursue them further + through the obscure and entangled wood of antiquity, Fathers and + Councils fighting one against another, is needless, endless, not + requisite in a minister, and refused by the first Reformers of our + Religion. And yet we may be confident, if these things be thought + needful, let the State but erect in public good store of Libraries, + and there will not want men in the Church who of their own + inclinations will become able in this kind against Papists or any + other Adversary." + +No Parliament that England ever saw, not even the Barebones +Parliament itself, could have entertained for a moment, with a view +to practical legislation, these speculations of the blind Titan in +all their length and breadth. Disestablishment, Disendowment, +Abolition of a Clergy, had been the dream of the Anabaptists and +Fifth Monarchy men of the Barebones Parliament. Even in that House, +however, the battle practically, and on which the House broke up, was +on the question of the continuance of Tithes, and it is dubious +whether some in that half of the House which voted against Tithes +would not have been for preserving a Church Establishment or +Preaching Ministry by some other form of state-maintenance. Nor can +one imagine, even in those eager and revolutionary times, an utter +disregard of that principle of compensation for life-interests which +any Parliament now, contemplating a scheme of Disestablishment, would +consider binding in common equity. The old Bishops, and the Prelatic +Clergy, indeed, had been disestablished without much consideration of +life-interests; but the procedure in their case had been of a penal +character, and it is unlikely that it would have been equally +unceremonious with the new clergy of Presbyterians and Independents, +allowed generally to be orthodox. From any hesitation on that score +Milton is absolutely free. He sees no difficulties, takes regard of +none. It is not with a flesh-and-blood world that he deals, a world +of men, and their wives, and their families, and their yearly +incomes, and their fixed residences and household belongings. It is +with a world of wax, or of flesh and blood that must be content to be +treated as wax. It is thought right to disestablish the Church: well, +then, let the Clergy go! Abolish tithes; provide no substitute; +proclaim that, after this day week, or the first day of the next +year, not a penny shall be paid to any man by the State for preaching +the Gospel, or doing any other act of the ministry: and what then? +Why, there will be a flutter of consternation, of course, through +some ten thousand or twelve thousand parsonages; ten thousand or +twelve thousand clerical gentlemen will stare bewilderedly for a +while at their wives' faces: but do not be too much concerned! They +will all shift very well for themselves when they know they must; the +best of them will find congregations where they are, or in other +places, and will work all the harder; and, if the drones and dotards +go threadbare and starve for the rest of their lives, that is but +God's way with such since the beginning of the world! Be instant, be +rapid, be decisive, be thoroughgoing, O ye statesmen! What are vested +interests in the Church of Christ? + +As the Restored Rumpers had already decreed that an Established +Church should be kept up in England, and had gone no farther on the +Tithes question than to say that Tithes must be paid, as by use and +wont, until some substitute should be provided, it is not likely +that, however long they had sat, Milton's views would have had much +countenance from them. There were individuals among them of Milton's +way of thinking on the whole; but he had probably made a mistake in +fancying that he had materially improved his influence, or the +chances of his notions of Church-polity, by his public re-adhesion to +the Rump. In fact, the continued existence of the Rump was more +precarious than he had thought. In August 1659, while his pamphlet +was in circulation, Lambert was away in the north, suppressing the +Cheshire Insurrection of Sir George Booth; in the next month +discontent with the Rumpers and their rule was rife in Lambert's +victorious northern Brigade; and in the beginning of October London +was again in agitation with the rupture of the hasty alliance that +had been patched up between the Republicans and the Wallingford-House +Council of Army Officers. It was on the 12th of October that the Rump +defied the Army by cashiering Lambert, Desborough, Berry, and six +other officers; and on the 13th Lambert retaliated by his _coup +d'état_, filling the streets with his soldiery, catching the +Rumpers one by one as they went to the House, and informing them that +it was the will of the Army that they should sit no more. Thus had +begun that "Second Stage of the Anarchy" which we have called _The +Wallingford-House Interruption_. + +Of Milton's thoughts over the change effected by Lambert's _coup +d'état_ we have an authentic record in a letter of his, dated +"October 20, 1659" (i.e. just a week after the _coup d'état_), +and addressed to some friend with whom he had been conversing on the +previous night. It appears in his works now with the title "_A +Letter to a Friend, concerning the Ruptures of the Commonwealth: +Published from the Manuscript_."[1] Who the Friend was does not +appear; but the words of the Letter imply that he was some one very +near the centre of affairs. "Sir," it begins, "upon the sad and +serious discourse which we fell into last night, concerning these +dangerous ruptures of the Commonwealth, scarce yet in her infancy, +which cannot be without some inward flaw in her bowels, I began to +consider more intensely thereon than hitherto I have been +wont,--resigning myself [i.e. having hitherto resigned myself] to the +wisdom and care of those who had the government, and not finding that +either God or the Public required more of me than my prayers for +those that govern. And, since you have not only stirred up my +thoughts by acquainting me with the state of affairs more inwardly +than I knew before, but also have desired me to set down my opinion +thereof, trusting to your ingenuity, I shall give you freely my +apprehension, both of our present evils, and what expedients, if God +in mercy regard us, may remove them." At the close of the Letter he +says, "You have the sum of my present thoughts, as much as I +understand of these affairs, freely imparted, at your request and the +persuasion you wrought in me that I might chance hereby to be some +way serviceable to the Commonwealth in a time when all ought to be +endeavouring what good they can, whether much or but little. With +this you may do what you please. Put out, put in, communicate or +suppress: you offend not me, who only have obeyed your opinion that, +in doing what I have done, I might happen to offer something which +might be of some use in this great time of need. However, I have not +been wanting to the opportunity which you presented before me of +showing the readiness which I have, in the midst of my unfitness, to +whatever may be required of me as a public duty." The expressions +might suggest that the friend who had been talking with Milton was +Vane or some one else of those Councillors of the Rump who still sat +on at Whitehall consulting with the Wallingford-House Chiefs as to +the form of Government to be set up instead of the Rump (ante pp. +494-495). It may, however, have been some lesser personage, such as +Meadows, back from the Baltic this very month. In any case, the +letter was meant to be shown about, if not printed. It was, in fact, +Milton's contribution, at a friend's request, to the deliberations +going on at Whitehall. + +[Footnote 1: It was first published in the so-called Amsterdam +Edition of Milton's Prose Works (1698); and Toland, who gave it to +the publishers of that edition, informs us that it had been +communicated to him "by a worthy friend, who, a little after the +author's death, had it from his nephew"--i.e. from Phillips.] + +He does not conceal his strong disapprobation of Lambert's _coup +d'état_. Indeed he takes the opportunity of declaring, even more +strongly than he had done two months before, how heartily he had +welcomed the restoration of the Rump. Thus:-- + + "I will begin with telling you how I was overjoyed when I heard + that the Army, under the working of God's holy Spirit, as I + thought, and still hope well, had been so far wrought to Christian + humility and self-denial as to confess in public their backsliding + from the good Old Cause, and to show the fruits of their repentance + in the righteousness of their restoring the old famous Parliament + which they had without just authority dissolved: I call it the + famous Parliament, though not the harmless, since none + well-affected but will confess they have deserved much more of + these nations than they have undeserved. And I persuade me that God + was pleased with their restitution, signing it as He did with such + a signal victory when so great a part of the nation were + desperately conspired to call back again their Egyptian bondage + [Lambert's victory over Sir George Booth]. So much the more it now + amazes me that they whose lips were yet scarce closed from giving + thanks for that great deliverance should be now relapsing, and so + soon again backsliding into the same fault, which they confessed so + lately and so solemnly to God and the world, and more lately + punished in those Cheshire Rebels,--that they should now dissolve + that Parliament which they themselves re-established, and + acknowledged for their Supreme Power in their other day's _Humble + Representation_: and all this for no apparent cause of public + concernment to the Church or Commonwealth, but only for + discommissioning nine great officers in the Army; which had not + been done, as is reported, but upon notice of their intentions + against the Parliament. I presume not to give my censure on this + action,--not knowing, as yet I do not, the bottom of it. I speak + only what it appears to us without doors till better cause be + declared, and I am sure to all other nations,--most illegal and + scandalous, I fear me barbarous, or rather scarce to be exampled + among any Barbarians, that a paid Army should, for no other cause, + thus subdue the Supreme Power that set them up. This, I say, other + nations will judge to the sad dishonour of that Army, lately so + renowned for the civilest and best-ordered in the world, and by us + here at home for the most conscientious. Certainly, if the great + officers and soldiers of the Holland, French, or Venetian forces + should thus sit in council and write from garrison to garrison + against their superiors, they might as easily reduce the King of + France, or Duke of Venice, and put the United Provinces in like + disorder and confusion." + +He adds more in the same strain, and calls upon the Army, as one +"jealous of their honour," to "manifest and publish with all speed +some better cause of these their late actions than hath hitherto +appeared, and to find out the Achan amongst them whose close ambition +in all likelihood abuses their honest natures against their meaning +to these disorders,"--in other words, to disown and denounce Lambert. +But, having thus delivered his conscience on the subject of the +second dismission of the Rump, he declares farther complaint to be +useless, and proceeds to inquire what is now to be done. + +"Being now in anarchy, without a counselling and governing power, and +the Army, I suppose, finding themselves insufficient to discharge at +once both military and civil affairs, the first thing to be found out +with all speed, without which no Commonwealth can subsist, must be a +SENATE or GENERAL COUNCIL OF STATE, in whom must be the power first +to preserve the public peace, next the commerce with foreign nations, +and lastly to raise moneys for the management of these affairs. This +must either be the [Rump] Parliament readmitted to sit, or a Council +of State allowed of by the Army, since they only now have the power. +The terms to be stood on are _Liberty of Conscience to all +professing Scripture to be the Rule of their Faith and Worship_ +and the _Abjuration of a Single Person_. If the [Rump] +Parliament be again thought on, to salve honour on both sides, the +well-affected party of the City and the Congregated Churches may be +induced to mediate by public addresses and brotherly beseechings; +which, if there be that saintship among us which is talked of, ought +to be of highest and undeniable persuasion to reconcilement. If the +Parliament be thought well dissolved, _as not complying fully to +grant Liberty of Conscience, and the necessary consequence thereof, +the Removal of a forced Maintenance from Ministers_ [Milton's own +sole dissatisfaction with the Restored Rump], then must the Army +forthwith choose a Council of State, whereof as many to be of the +Parliament as are undoubtedly affected to these two conditions +proposed. That which I conceive only able to cement and unite the +Army either to the Parliament recalled or this chosen Council must be +a mutual League and Oath, private or public, not to desert one +another till death: that is to say that the Army be kept up and all +these Officers in their places during life, and so likewise the +Parliament or Councillors of State; which will be no way unjust, +considering their known merits on either side, in Council or in +Field, unless any be found false to any of these two principles, or +otherwise personally criminous in the judgment of both parties. If +such a union as this be not accepted on the Army's part, be confident +there is a Single Person underneath. That the Army be upheld the +necessity of our affairs and factions will [at any rate] constrain +long enough perhaps to content the longest liver in the Army. And +whether the Civil Government be an annual Democracy or a perpetual +Aristocracy is not to me a consideration for the extremities wherein +we are, and the hazard of our safety from our common enemy, gaping at +present to devour us. That it be not an Oligarchy, or the Faction of +a few, may be easily prevented by the numbers of their own choosing +who may be found infallibly constant to those two conditions +forenamed--full Liberty of Conscience and the Abjuration of Monarchy +proposed; and the well-ordered Committees of their faithfullest +adherents in every county may give this Government the resemblance +and effects of a perfect Democracy. As for the Reformation of Laws +and the Places of Judicature, whether to be here, as at present, or +in every county, as hath been long aimed at, and many such proposals +tending no doubt to public good, they may be considered in due time, +when we are past these pernicious pangs, in a hopeful way of health +and firm constitution. But, unless these things which I have above +proposed, one way or other, be once settled, in my fear (which God +avert!), we instantly ruin, or at best become the servants of one or +other Single Person, the secret author and fomenter of these +disturbances." + +There is considerable boldness in these proposals of Milton, and yet +a cast of practicality which is unusual with him. They prove again, +if new proof were needed, that he was not a Republican of the +conventional sort. He glances, indeed, at the possibility of an +"Annual Democracy," i.e. a future succession of annual Parliaments, +or at least of annual Plebiscites for electing the Government. But he +rather dismisses that possibility from his calculations; and +moreover, even had he entertained it farther, we know that the +Parliaments or Plebiscites he would have allowed would not have been +"full and free," but only guarded representations of the +"well-affected" of the community,--to wit, the Commonwealth's-men. +But the Constitution to which he looks forward with most confidence, +and which he ventures to think might answer all the purposes of a +perfect democracy, is one that should consist of two perpetual or +life aristocracies at the centre,--one a civil aristocracy in the +form of a largish Council of State, the other a military aristocracy +composed of the great Army Officers,--these two aristocracies to be +pledged to each other by oath, and sworn also to the two great +principles of Liberty of Conscience and resistance to any attempt at +Single Person sovereignty. What communication between the Central +Government so constituted and the body of the People might be +necessary for the free play of opinion might be sufficiently kept +up, he hints, by the machinery of County Committees. The entire +scheme may seem strange to those whose theory of a Republic refuses +the very imagination of an aristocracy or of perpetuity of power in +the same hands; but both, notions, and especially that of perpetuity +of power in the same hands, had been growing on Milton, and were not +inconsistent with _his_ theory of a Republic. Nor was his +present scheme, with all its strangeness, the least practical of the +many "models" that theorists were putting forth. It would, doubtless, +have failed in the trial,--for the conception of a perpetual Civil +Council at Whitehall always in harmony with a perpetual Military +Council in Wallingford House presupposed moral conditions in both +bodies less likely to be forthcoming in themselves than in Milton's +thoughts about them. But everything else would have failed equally, +and some of the "models" perhaps more speedily. Since the subversion +of Richard's Protectorate by Fleetwood and Desborough there had been +no possible stop-gap against the return of the Stuarts. + +The consulting authorities at Whitehall and Wallingford House did +adopt a course having some semblance of that suggested by Milton. +Before the 25th of October, or within six days after the date of +Milton's letter, the relics of the Council of State of the Rump +agreed to be transformed, with additions nominated by the Officers, +into the new Supreme Executive called _The Committee of Safety_; +and, as _The Wallingford-House Council of Officers_ still +continued to sit in the close vicinity of this new Council at +Whitehall, the Government was then vested, in fact, in the two +aristocracies, with Fleetwood, Lambert, Desborough, Berry, and +others, as members of both, and connecting links between them. But +the new _Committee of Safety_ was not such a Senate or Council +as Milton had imagined. For one thing, it consisted but of +twenty-three persons (see the list ante p. 494), whereas Milton would +have probably liked to see a Council of twice that size or even +larger. For another, it was not composed of persons perfectly sound +on Milton's two proposed fundamentals of Liberty of Conscience and +Abjuration of any Single Person. Vane, to be sure, was on the +Committee, and a host in himself for both principles; and there were +others, such as Salway and Ludlow, that would not flinch on either. +But Whitlocke, Sydenham, and the majority, were but moderately for +Liberty of Conscience, and certainly utterly against that Miltonic +interpretation of it which implied Church-disestablishment, while one +at least, the Scottish Johnstone of Warriston, was positively against +Liberty of Conscience beyond very narrow Presbyterian limits. Nor, +though probably all would have assented at that time to an oath +abjuring Charles Stuart, were they all without taint of the Single +Person heresy in other forms. Some of them, including Whitlocke and +Berry, would have liked to restore Richard; and Fleetwood and Lambert +were not wrongly suspected of seeing the most desirable Single Person +every morning in the looking-glass. Milton's former regard for +Fleetwood must have suffered considerably by recent events; and he +thought of Lambert as the very "Achan" to be dreaded. But, farther, +even had the two aristocracies been of perfectly satisfactory +composition, they had abandoned that idea of their own permanence +which Milton had made all but essential. They had agreed that their +chief work should consist in shaping out a fit constitution for the +Commonwealth, and that the _Committee of Safety_ should continue +in power only till that should be done and the new Constitution +should come into operation. + +Such as it was, the new Government of the Wallingford-House +Interruption had no objection to retaining Mr. Milton in the Latin +Secretaryship if he cared to keep it. That he had held the post +throughout the whole of the Government of the Restored Rump (though +all but in sinecure, as we must conclude from the cessation of the +series of his Latin Letters in the preceding May) appears from a very +interesting document in the Record Office. The Council of State of +the Rump, it is to be remembered, had not vanished with the Rump +itself on Oct. 13, but had sat on for twelve days more, though with +its number reduced by the secession of Hasilrig, Scott, Neville, and +other very vehement Rumpers,--the object being to maintain the +continuity of the public business and to make the most amicable +arrangement possible with the Army-officers. That object having been +accomplished by the institution, of the new _Committee of +Safety_, the Council of the Rump, before demitting its powers to +this new body, which was to meet on the 28th of October, held its own +last meeting at Whitehall on the 25th. At such a last meeting it was +but business-like to clear off all debts due by the Council; and, +accordingly, this was done by the issue of the following +comprehensive money-warrant, signed by Whitlocke as President, and by +four others of those present. + + "These are to will and require you, out of such moneys as are or + shall come into your hands, to pay unto the several persons whose + names are endorsed the several sums of money to their names + mentioned, making on the whole the sum of Three Thousand Six + Hundred Eighty-two Pounds, Eight Shillings, and Six Pence: being so + much due to them for their salaries and service to this Council + unto the Two-and-twentieth day of this instant October. Hereof you + are not to fail; and for so doing this shall be your sufficient + warrant. Given at the Council of State at Whitehall this 25th day + of October, 1659. + + "B. WHITLOCKE, _President._ + A. JOHNSTON. + JAMES HARRINGTON. + CHARLES FLEETWOOD. + JA. BERRY. + + "To GUALTER FROST, Esq., + + "Treasurer for the Council's Contingencies." + + "The eighty-six persons to whom the payments are to be made are + divided into groups in the Warrant, the particular sum due to each + person appended to his name. The first five groups stand thus:-- + + £ _s._ _d._ + Richard Deane 234 7 6 + _"At £500 per annum each_ Henry Scobell 234 7 6 + William Robinson 83 0 0 + + _At £1 per day_ Richard Kingdon 86 0 0 + + _At £200 per annum each_ JOHN MILTON 86 12 0 + ANDREW MARVELL 86 12 0 + + Gualter Frost 138 0 10 + _At 20_s._ per diem each_ Matthew Fairbank 139 0 0 + Samuel Morland 88 0 0 + Edward Dendy 169 0 0 + + Matthew Lea 56 6 8 + _At 6_s._ 8_d._ per diem each_ [Clerks] Thomas Lea 56 6 8 + William Symon 56 6 8" + + Then follow the names of _twenty-nine_ persons at 5_s._ + per diem each: viz. Zachary Worth, David Salisbury, Peter + Llewellen, Edward Cooke, Richard Stephens, Stephen Montague, Thomas + Powell; Henry Symball, Joseph Butler, Thomas Pidcott, Richard + Freeman, George Hussey, Roger Read, Edward Osbaldiston, William + Feild, Robert Cooke (or his widow), Thomas Blagden, William Ledsom, + Edward Cooke; Edward Tytan, Thomas Baker, John Bradley, Nicholas + Hill, Anthony Compton, Joshua Leadbetter, Alexander Turner, Thomas + Wright, William Geering, and Edward Bridges. The occupations of the + first seven are not described, but they were probably under-clerks; + the next twelve were "messengers"; the last ten "serjeant deputies" + under Dendy as Serjeant-at-Arms. The sums ordered to be paid to + them vary from £4 to £42 5_s._--_Forty-four_ more persons + are added more miscellaneously, with the sums due to them + respectively. Among these I may note the following:--"George Vaux, + _Housekeeper_" (£69 9_s._ 8_d._), "Mr. Nutt, the + _Barge-keeper_" (£65), "Mr. Embrey, _Surveyor_" (£140 + 12_s._ 6_d._), and "Mr. Kinnereley, + _Wardrobe-keeper_" (£140 12_s._ 6_d._).[1] + +[Footnote 1: From Warrant Book in Record Office. On comparing the +list of persons in this warrant with that in the extract from the +Order Books of Oliver's Council of date April 17, 1655 (pp. 177-179), +and with lists in a former Council minute of date Feb. 3, 1653-4, and +in a Money Warrant of Oliver of same date (Vol. IV. pp. 575-578), it +will be seen that there had been changes in the staff meanwhile. +Milton, Scobell, Gualter Frost, Serjeant Dendy, Housekeeper Vaux, +Bargemaster Nutt, and about a dozen of the clerks, messengers, and +serjeant-deputies remain (one of the former clerks, Matthew +Fairbank, now promoted from his original 6_s._ 8_d._ a day +to 20_s._ a day); but Thurloe, Jessop, Meadows, two younger +Frosts, and a good many others are gone, while new men are Deane, +Robinson, Kingdon, Morland, Marvell, and others. Morland, as we +know, had been brought in a while ago to assist Thurloe; and his +salary, we now see, was larger than Milton's.--When Milton's salary +was reduced, in April 1655, it was arranged that it should be a +life-pension, and payable out of the Exchequer; but the present +warrant Directs payment to him, as to the rest, out of the +Council's contingencies. It would seem, therefore, that Oliver's +arrangement for him had not taken effect, or had been cancelled by +the Rump, and that he was now not a life-pensioner, but once more a +mere official at the Council's pleasure.] + +There is nothing in this warrant to show that Milton's services were +transferred to the new Committee of Safety; but the fact seems to be +that he did remain nominally in the Latin Secretaryship with Marvell +through the whole duration of that body and of the Fleetwood-Lambert +rule, i.e. to Dec. 26, 1659. Nominally only it must have been; for we +have no trace of any official work of his through the period. There +was very little to do for the Government at that time in the way of +foreign correspondence, and for what there was Marvell must have +sufficed. + +Through the months of November and December Milton's thoughts, like +those of other people, must have been much occupied with the +negotiations going on between the new Government and their formidable +opponent in Scotland. What would be the issue? Would Monk persevere +in that championship of the ill-treated Rump which he had so boldly +undertaken? Would he march into England to restore the Rump, as he +had threatened; or would he yet be pacified and induced to accept the +Wallingford-House order of things, with a competent share in the +power? No one could tell. Lambert was in the north with his army, to +beat and drive back Monk if he did attempt to invade England,--at +York early in November, and at Newcastle from the 20th of November +onwards; Monk was still in Scotland,--at Edinburgh or Dalkeith till +the end of November, then at Berwick, but from the beginning of +December at Coldstream. Between the two armies agents were passing +and repassing; negotiators on the part of the London Government were +round about Monk and reasoning with him; Monk's own Commissioners in +London had concluded their Treaty of the 15th of November with +Fleetwood and the Wallingford-House Council, and there had been +rejoicings over what seemed then the happy end of the quarrel; but +again the news had come from Scotland that Monk repudiated the +agreement made by his Commissioners, and that the negotiation must be +resumed at Newcastle. To that the Committee of Safety and the +Wallingford-House Council had consented; but, through Monk's delays, +the negotiation had not yet been resumed. Would it ever be, or would +Monk's army and Lambert's come into clash at last? If so, for which +ought one to wish the victory? So far as Milton was concerned, he was +bound to wish the success of Monk. Was not Monk the champion of that +little Restored Rump to which Milton had himself adhered, and the +late suppression of which he had pronounced to be "illegal and +scandalous"? Was not Monk also professing and proclaiming that very +principle of the proper submission of the military power to the civil +on which Milton himself had dilated? Would it not be only God's +justice if Lambert, "the secret author and fomenter of these +disturbances," should be disgraced and overthrown? Yet, on the other +hand, who could desire even that consequence, or the Restoration of +the Rump, at the expense of another civil war and bloodshed? Where +would the process stop? And, besides, was Monk, with his Presbyterian +notions, learnt among the Scots, the man from whose ascendancy Milton +could hope anything but farther disappointment in the Church +question? All in all, we are to imagine Milton anxious for a +reconciliation. + +No less interesting to Milton must have been the activity of the new +Government meanwhile in their great business of inventing "such a +Form of Government as may best suit and comport with a Free State and +Commonwealth."----The Rump itself, as we know, had been busy with +this problem through the last month of its sittings, having appointed +on the 8th of September a great Committee on the subject, with Vane +named first, but all the most eminent Rumpers included (ante p. 480). +Through this Committee there had been an inburst into the +Parliamentary mind, as Ludlow informs us, of the thousand and one +competing proposals or models of a Commonwealth already devised by +the Harringtonians and other theorists; and, in fact, while the +Committee was sitting, there had started up for its assistance, close +to the doors of Parliament, the famous Harrington or Rota Club, +meeting nightly in Miles's Coffee-house, and including Neville and +others of the Rumpers among its most constant members (ante pp. +484-486). That Milton knew already about Harrington and his "models" +by sufficient readings of Harrington's books there can be no doubt. +In the address to the Rump prefixed to his _Considerations touching +Hirelings_ in August last he had distinctly referred to the kind +acceptance by the Rump of "new models of a Commonwealth" daily +tendered to them in Petitions, and must have had specially in view +the Petition of July 6, which had been drawn up by Harrington, and +which proposed a constitution of two Parliamentary Houses, one of 300 +members, the other much larger, on such a system of rotation as would +change each completely every third year (ante pp. 483-484). His only +criticism on the competing models then had been that, till his own +notion of Church-disestablishment were carried into effect, "no model +whatsoever of a Commonwealth, would prove successful or undisturbed." +At that time, accordingly, Milton was so engrossed with his +Church-disestablishment notion as to be comparatively careless about +the general question of the Form of Government. But, two months +later, as we have seen, in his _Letter on the Ruptures of the +Commonwealth_ occasioned by Lambert's assault on the Rump, he had +abandoned this indifference, and had proposed a model Constitution of +his own, adapted to the immediate exigencies. From that time, we may +now report, though Church-disestablishment was never lost sight of, +the question of the Form of Government had fastened itself on +Milton's mind as after all the main one. From that time he never +ceased to ruminate it himself, and he attended more to the +speculations and theories of others on the same subject. If, once or +twice in the winter months of 1659, Cyriack Skinner, the occasional +chairman of the Rota Club, did not persuade Milton to leave his house +in Petty France late in the evening, and be piloted through the +streets to the Coffee-house in New Palace Yard to hear one of the +great debates of the Club, and become acquainted with their method of +closing the debate by a ballot, it would really be a wonder.----Not +in the Rota Club, however, but in the Committee of Safety at +Whitehall and in the Wallingford-House Council, was the real and +practical debate in progress. On the 1st of November the Committee +had appointed their sub-committee of six to deliberate on the new +Constitution; and through the rest of the month, both in the +sub-committee and in the general committee, there had been that +intricate discussion in which Vane led the extreme party, or party of +radical changes, while Whitlocke stood for lawyerly use and wont in +all things, and Johnstone of Warriston threw in suggestions from his +peculiar Scottish point of view. So far as Milton was cognisant of +the discussion, his hopes must have been in the efforts of his friend +Vane. If any one could succeed in inducing his colleagues to insert +articles for Church-disestablishment and full Liberty of Conscience +into the new Constitution, who so likely as he who had held those +articles as tenets of his private creed so much earlier and so much +more tenaciously than any other public man? Seven years ago Milton +had described him on this account as Religion's "eldest son," on +whose firm hand she could lean in peace. Now that he was again in +power, and that not merely as one of a miscellaneous Parliamentary +body, but as one of a small committee of leaders drafting a +Constitution _de novo_, what might he not accomplish? That Vane +did battle in Committee for the notions he held in common with +Milton, and for others besides, we already know; but we know also +that the massive resistance of Whitlocke, backed outside by the +lawyers and the Savoy clique of the clergy, was too much for Vane, +and that the draft Constitution as it emerged ultimately was +substantially Whitlocke's. It was on the 6th of December that this +draft Constitution was submitted to the Convention of Army and Navy +delegates at Whitehall; and it was on the 14th that, after +modifications by this body tending to make it still more Whitlocke's +than it had been, it went back to the Committee of Safety approved +and ratified. A Single House Parliament of the customary sort to meet +in February; a new Council of State of the customary sort to be +appointed by that Parliament; the Established Church to be kept up, +and by the system of Tithes until some other form of ample +State-maintenance for the clergy should be provided; Liberty of +Conscience for Nonconformists, but within limits: this and no more +was the parturition after all. If Ludlow was in despair because no +sufficient security had been taken that the new Parliament should be +true to the Commonwealth, and if the theorists of the Rota were +disappointed because none of their patent models had been adopted, +Milton's regret can have been no less. Government after government, +but all deaf alike to his teachings! Even this one, with Vane at the +heart of it, unable to rise above the old conceits of a customary +state-craft, and ending in a solemn vote for conserving a Church of +Hirelings! + +So in the middle of December. Then, for another week, the strange +phenomenon, day after day, of that whirl of popular and army opinion +which was to render all the long debate over the new Constitution +nugatory, to upset the Wallingford-House administration, and stop +Whitlocke in his issue of the writs for the Parliament that had just +been announced. Monk's dogged persistency for the old Rump had done +the work without the need of his advance from Coldstream to fight +Lambert. All over England and Ireland people were declaring for Monk +with increasing enthusiasm, and execrating Lambert's _coup +d'état_ and the Wallingford-House usurpation. Portsmouth had +revolted; the Londoners were in riot; Lambert's own soldiery were +falling away from him at Newcastle; Fleetwood's soldiery in London +were growing ashamed of themselves and of their chief amid the taunts +and insults of the populace. On the 20th of December appearances were +such that Whitlocke and his colleagues were in the utmost +perplexity. + +One great Republican had not lived to see this return of public +feeling to the cause of his heart. Bradshaw had died on the 22nd of +November, all but despairing of the Republic. His will was proved on +the 16th of December. It consisted of an original will, dated March +22, 1653, and two codicils, the second dated September 10, 1655. His +wife having predeceased him, leaving no issue, the bulk of his +extensive property went to his nephew, Henry Bradshaw; but there were +various legacies, and among them the following in one group in the +second codicil,--"To old Margarett ffive markes, to Mr. Marcham^t. +Nedham tenne pounds, and to Mr. John Milton tenne poundes." There is +nothing here to settle the disputed question of Milton's cousinship, +on his mother's side, with Bradshaw.[1] The legacy was a trifling +one, equivalent to £35 now; and, as Needham and Milton are associated +on terms of equality, Bradshaw must have been thinking of them +together as the two literary officials who had been so much in +contact with each other, and with himself, in the days of his +Presidency of the Council of State,--Needham as the appointed +journalist of the Commonwealth, and Milton as its Latin champion, and +for some time Needham's censor and supervisor. In Milton's case +perhaps, as the codicil was drawn up fifteen months after the +publication of the _Defensio Secunda_, the legacy may have been +intended not merely as a small token of general respect and +friendliness, but also as a recognition by Bradshaw of the bold +eulogy on him inserted into that work at a critical moment of his +relations to Cromwell. + +[Footnote 1: Ormerod's Cheshire, III. 409; but I owe the verbatim +extract from the codicil to the never-failing kindness of Colonel +Chester.--By an inadvertence the date of Bradshaw's death has been +given, ante p. 495, as Oct. 31, 1659, instead of Nov. 22.] + + * * * * * + +More than two years had elapsed since Milton's last letters to +Oldenburg and young Ranelagh (ante pp. 366-367). They were then at +Sáumur in France, where they remained till March 1658; but since that +time they had been travelling about, and from May 1659, if not +earlier, they had been boarding in Paris. There are glimpses of them +in letters from Oldenburg to Robert Boyle, and also in letters of +Hartlib to Boyle, in which he quotes passages from letters he has +received both from Oldenburg and from young Ranelagh. Thus, in a +letter of Hartlib's to Boyle of April 12, 1659, there is this from +Oldenburg's last: "I have had some discourse with an able but +somewhat close physician here, that spoke to me of a way, though +without particularizing all, to draw a liquor of the beams of the +sun; which peradventure some person that is knowing and experienced +(as noble Mr. Boyle) may better beat out than we can who want +experience in these matters." Young Ranelagh seems to have fully +acquired by this time the tastes for physical and experimental +science which characterized his tutor; and his uncle Boyle may have +read with a smile this from Hartlib of date October 22, 1659:--"This +week Mr. Jones hath saluted me with a very kind letter, containing a +very singular observation in these words: 'Concerning the generation +of pearls I am of opinion that they are engendered in the +cockle-fishes (I pray, Sir, give me the Latin word for it in your +next) of the same manner as the stone in our body,--which I endeavour +fully to show in a discourse of mine about the generation of pearls; +which, when I shall have done it, shall wait upon you for my part in +revenge of your observations. I heard lately a very remarkable story +about margarites from a person of quality and honour in this town, +which you will be glad, I believe, to hear. A certain German baron +of about twenty-four years old, being in prison here at Paris, in +the same chamber with a Frenchman (who told this, as having been +eyewitness of it, to him that told it me), they having both need of +money, the baron sent his man to a goldsmith to buy seven or eight +ordinary pearls, of about twenty pence a piece, which he put +a-dissolving in a glass of vinegar; and, being well dissolved, he +took the paste and put it together with a powder (which I should be +glad to know) into a golden mould, which he had in his pocket, and so +put it a-warming for some time upon the fire; after which, opening +the mould, they found a very great and lovely oriental pearl in it, +which they sold for about two hundred crowns, although it was a great +deal more worth. The same baron, throwing a little powder he had with +him into a pitcher of water, and letting it stand about four hours, +made the best wine that a man can drink.' Thus far the truly hopeful +young gentleman, whereby he hath hugely obliged me. I wish he had the +forementioned powder, that we might try whether we could make the +like pearls and wine." From a subsequent letter of Hartlib's, dated +Nov. 29, 1659, it appears that Oldenburg and Jones were both much +interested in the optical instruments of a certain Bressieux, then in +Paris, who had for two years been chief workman in that line for +Descartes. They were anxious to make him a present of some good glass +from London, because he was rather secretive about his workmanship, +and such a present would go a great way towards mollifying him.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letters of Oldenburg and Hartlib to Boyle in Boyle's +Works (1744), V. 280-296 and 300-302.] + +Very possibly with this last letter of Oldenburg's to Hartlib there +had been enclosed a letter from Oldenburg, and another from young +Ranelagh, to Milton. Two such letters, at all events, Milton had +received, and undoubtedly through Hartlib, who was still the +universal foreign postman for his friends. We can guess the substance +of the two letters. Young Ranelagh does not seem to have troubled +Milton with his speculations on the generation of pearls, or his +story of the German baron and his alchemic powders, but only to have +sent his dutiful regards, with excuses for long neglect of +correspondence. Oldenburg had also sent his excuses for the same, but +with certain pieces of news from abroad, and certain references to +the state of affairs at home. Among the pieces of news were two of +some personal interest to Milton. One was that the unfinished reply +to his _Defensio Prima_, which Salmasius had left in manuscript +at his death six years ago, was about to appear as a posthumous +publication. The other was that there was to be a great Synod of the +French Protestant Church, at which the case of Morus was to be again +discussed. For, though it was more than two years since Morus had +received his call to the collegiate pastorship of the Protestant +Church of Paris or Charenton, the question of his admissibility to +the charge had hung all that while between the Walloon Synods of the +United Provinces and the French Protestant Church Courts, the latter +on the whole favouring him, the former more and more bent on +disgracing him. In April of the present year a Walloon Synod at +Tergou had actually passed on him a sentence of suspension from the +ministerial office and from the holy communion "until by a sincere +repentance of his sins he shall have repaired so many scandals he has +brought upon us." In spite of this, a French Provincial Synod, held +at Ai in Champagne in the following month, had ordered his admission +to be carried into effect, and the Parisian consistory had obeyed +this order, though two members of it protested. There had since then +been another Walloon Synod, held at Nimeguen in September, in which +the former sentence of the Tergou Synod was confirmed, but, for the +sake of peace between the Walloon Church and their brethren of the +French Protestant Church, it was agreed to waive all farther +jurisdiction over Morus in Holland and to "remit the whole cause unto +the prudence, discretion, and charity of the National Assembly of the +French churches to meet at Loudun." This was the Synod of whose +approaching meeting Oldenburg had informed Milton--the Synod of +Loudun in Anjou (Nov. 10, 1659--Jan. 10, 1660). It was to be a very +important assembly indeed,--no mere Provincial Synod, but a national +one, expressly allowed by Louis XIV., and to consist of deputies, +clerical and lay, from all the Protestant churches of France, +empowered to transact all business relating to those churches under +certain royal regulations and restrictions, and in the presence of a +royal Commissioner. As there had been no such National Protestant +Synod in France for fifteen years, there was an accumulation of +business for it, the case of Morus included. They were to examine +that case _de novo_, and to pronounce finally whether Morus was +guilty or not guilty, whether he should remain a minister of the +French Church or not.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bayle, Art. _Morus_, and Bruce's Life of Morus, +204-226.] + +Milton's replies to the two letters will now be intelligible. He +writes, it will be observed, in a gloomy mood, on the very day on +which Whitlocke, for different reasons, was in a gloomy mood too and +"wishing himself out of these daily hazards":-- + + TO HENRY OLDENBURG. + + "That forgiveness which you ask for _your_ silence you will + give rather to _mine_; for, if I remember rightly, it was my + turn to write to you. By no means has it been any diminution of my + regard for you (of this I would have you fully persuaded) that has + been the impediment, but only my employments or domestic cares; or + perhaps it is mere sluggishness to the act of writing that makes me + guilty of the intermitted duty. As you desire to be informed, I am, + by God's mercy, as well as usual. Of any such work as compiling the + history of our political troubles, which you seem to advise, I have + no thought whatever [_longe absum_]: they are worthier of + silence than of commemoration. What is needed is not one to compile + a good history of our troubles, but one who can happily end the + troubles themselves; for, with you, I fear lest, amid these our + civil discords, or rather sheer madnesses, we shall seem to the + lately confederated enemies of Liberty and Religion a too fit + object of attack, though in truth they have not yet inflicted a + severer wound on Religion than we ourselves have been long doing by + our crimes. But God, as I hope, on His own account, and for His + own glory, now in question, will not allow the counsels and onsets + of the enemy to succeed as they themselves wish, whatever + convulsions Kings and Cardinals meditate and design. Meanwhile, for + the Protestant Synod of Loudun, which you tell me is so soon to + meet [Milton does not seem to know that it had been sitting already + for six weeks] I pray--what has never happened to any Synod yet--a + happy issue, not of the Nazianzenian sort,[1] and am of opinion + that the issue of this one will be happy enough if, should they + decree nothing else, they should decree the expulsion of Morus. Of + my posthumous adversary, as soon as he makes his appearance, be + good enough to give me the earliest information. Farewell. + + "Westminster: December 20, 1659." + +[Footnote 1: The allusion seems to be to the great OEcumenical +Council of Constantinople in 381, which confirmed Gregory Nazianzen +in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and in which Gregory presided +for some time and inefficiently.] + + TO THE NOBLE YOUTH, RICHARD JONES. + + "For the long break in your correspondence with me your excuses are + truly most modest, inasmuch as you might with more justice accuse + me of the same fault; and, as the case stands, I am really at a + loss to know whether I should have preferred your not having been + in fault to your having apologised so finely. On no account let it + ever come into your mind that I measure your gratitude, if anything + of the kind is due to me from you, by your constancy in + letter-writing. My feeling of your gratitude to me will be + strongest when the fruits of those services of mine to you of which + you speak shall appear not so much in frequent letters as in your + perseverance and laudable proficiency in excellent pursuits. You + have rightly marked out for yourself the path of virtue in that + theatre of the world on which you have entered; but remember that + the path is common so far to virtue and vice, and that you have yet + to advance to where the path divides itself into two. And you ought + now betimes to prepare yourself for leaving this common path, + pleasant and flowery, and for being able the more readily, with + your own will, though with labour and danger, to climb that arduous + and difficult one which is the slope of virtue only. For this you + have great advantages over others, believe me, in having secured so + faithful and skilful a guide. Farewell. + + "Westminster: December 20, 1659." + +Two days after the date of these letters the uproar of execration +round the Wallingford-House Government had reached such an extreme +that Whitlocke made his desperate proposal to Fleetwood that they +should extricate themselves from their difficulty by declaring for +Charles and opening negotiations with him. Two days more, and +Fleetwood's soldiery, under the command of officers of the Rump, were +marching down Chancery Lane, cheering Speaker Lenthall and asking his +forgiveness. Again two days more, and on the 26th of December, +Fleetwood having given up the game and sent the keys of the +Parliament House to Lenthall, the Rumpers were back in their old +places. We have arrived, therefore, at that _Third Stage of the +Anarchy_ which may be called "The Second Restoration of the +Rump." + + * * * * * + +Of Milton in this stage of the Anarchy we hear little or nothing +directly; but there are means for tracing the course of his +thoughts. + +As may be inferred from the melancholy tone of his letter to +Oldenburg, he had all but ceased to hope for any deliverance for the +Commonwealth by any of the existing parties. Even the Second +Restoration of the Rump, though it was what he was bound to approve, +and had indeed suggested as possibly the best course, can have +brought him but little increase of expectation. If, in its best +estate, after its first restoration, the Rump had disappointed him, +what could he hope from it now in its attenuated and crippled +condition, with Vane expelled from it because of his actings during +the Wallingford-House Interruption, with Salway out of it, who had +worked so earnestly with Vane on the Church-question, and with others +of the ablest also out of it, leaving a House of but about two scores +of persons, to be managed by Hasilrig, Scott, Neville, and Henry +Marten? Nay, not to be managed even by those undoubted Republicans, +but to a great extent also by Ashley Cooper, Fagg, and others, whose +Republicanism was of a very dubious character! For Milton cannot have +failed to take note of the abatement in this session of the Rump of +that Republican fervency which had characterized its former session. +What had been his own two proposed tests of genuine Republicanism? +Willingness of every one concerned with the Government to take a +solemn oath of Abjuration of a Single Person, and willingness also of +every such person to swear to the principle of Liberty of Conscience. +How was it faring with these two tests in this renewed Session of the +Rumpers? An abjuration oath of the kind indicated had been imposed +indeed on the new Council of State; but nearly half of those +nominated to the Council had remained out of that body rather than +take the oath, and Hasilrig's proposal to require the same oath from +all members of the House itself had been so strenuously resisted that +it had fallen to the ground. Then, on the religious question, what +was the deliberate offer of the House to the country in their heads +for a public Declaration on the 21st of January 1659-60? "Due +liberty to tender consciences" was promised; but that was a mere +phrase of custom, implying little or nothing, and it was utterly +engulphed, in Milton's estimate, by the accompanying engagement to +"uphold a learned and pious ministry of the nation and their +maintenance by Tithes." On the Church-disestablishment question the +House had actually receded from its former self by announcing that it +was not even to prosecute the inquiry as to a possible substitute for +Tithes. Altogether, before the twice-restored Rump had sat a month, +Milton must have seen that his ideal Commonwealth was just as far off +as ever. All he could hope was that the wretched little Parliament +would not prove positively treacherous. + +With others, however, he must have been thinking more of Monk's +proceedings and intentions than of those of the Parliament. Monk's +march from Coldstream southwards on the 2nd of January; the vanishing +of the residue of Lambert's forces before him; the addresses to him +in the English counties all along his route; his answers or supposed +answers to these addresses; his wary behaviour to the two +Parliamentary Commissioners that had been sent to attach themselves +to him and find out his disposition in the matter of the Abjuration +Oath; his arrival at St. Alban's on the 28th of January; his message +thence to the Parliament to clear all Fleetwood's regiments out of +London and Westminster before his own entry; that entry itself on the +3rd of February, when he and his battered columns streamed in through +Gray's Inn Lane; finally his first appearance in the House and +speech, there:--of all this Milton had exact cognisance through the +newspapers of his friend Needham and otherwise. It was very puzzling +and by no means reassuring. If he had ever thought of Monk as by +possibility such a saviour of the Commonwealth as he had been longing +for, the study of the actually approaching physiognomy of Old George +all the way from Scotland, and still more Old George's first +deliverance of himself in the Parliament, must have undeceived him. +The Abjuration Oath, it appeared, was not at all to Monk's mind. He +would not take it himself in order to be qualified for the seat voted +him in the Council of State, and he plainly intimated his opinion +that the day for such oaths and engagements was past. Milton cannot +have liked that rejection by the General of one of the tests on which +he had himself placed so much reliance. But, further, what meant +Monk's very ambiguous utterance respecting the three immediate +courses one of which must be chosen? He had distinctly mentioned in +the House that the drift of public opinion, as he could ascertain it +from the addresses made to him along his march, was towards either +_an enlargement of the present House by the re-admission of the +Secluded Members_ or _a full and free Parliament by a new +general election_; and, though he had seemed to acquiesce in that +third course which was proposed by the House itself, viz. _the +enlargement of the House by a competent number of new writs issued by +itself under a careful scheme of qualification for electing or being +eligible_, he had left a very vague impression as to his real +preference. Now to Milton, as to all other ardent Commonwealth's men, +the vital question was which of these three courses was to be taken. +To adopt either of the two first was to subvert the Commonwealth. To +re-admit the secluded members into the present House was to convert +it into a House with an overwhelming Presbyterian majority, and to +bring back the days of Presbyterian ascendancy, with the prospect of +a restoration of Royalty on merely Presbyterian terms. To summon what +was called a new full and free Parliament was, all but certainly, to +bring back Royalty by a more hurried process still. Only by the third +method, the Rump's own method, did there seem a chance of preserving +the Republican constitution; and yet Monk's assent to it had been but +hesitating and uncertain. More ominous still had been his few words +intimating his wishes in the matter of ecclesiastical policy. He +could conceive nothing so good, on the whole, as the Scottish +Presbyterianism he had been living amidst for the last few years, and +he thought that the 'sober interest' in England, steering between the +'Cavalier party' on the one side and the 'Fanatic party' on the +other, would be most secure by keeping to a moderate Presbytery in +the State-Church. That Milton's views as to the merits of Scottish +Presbytery were not Monk's is an old story, needing no repetition +here. What must have concerned him was to see Monk not only at one +with the great mass of his countrymen on the subject of a +Church-Establishment, but actually retrograde on the question of the +desirable nature of such an Establishment, inasmuch as he seemed to +signal his countrymen back out of Cromwell's broad Church of mixed +Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, into a Church more +strictly on the Presbyterian model. Then another unpleasant novelty +in Monk's case was his fondness for the phrases _Fanatics, Fanatic +Notions_, the _Fanatic Party_. The phrases were not new; but +Monk had sent them out of Scotland before him, and had brought them +himself out of Scotland, with a new significance. Very probably they +had been supplied to him out of the vocabulary of his Scottish +clerical adviser Mr. James Sharp, or of the Scottish Resolutioner +clergy generally. At all events, it is from and after the date of +Monk's march into England that one finds the name _Fanatics_ a +common one for all those Commonwealth's men collectively who opposed +a State-Church or the moderate Presbyterian or semi-Presbyterian form +of it. Had Monk drawn out a list of his 'Fanatics,' he would have had +to put Milton himself at the top of them, with Vane, Harrison, +Barebone, and the leading Quakers. + +Nevertheless, here was Monk, such as he was, the armed constable of +the crisis, the one man who could keep the peace and let the Rumpers +proceed in doing their best. That "best" as they had agreed +specifically on the 4th of February, the day after Monk's arrival, +was to be the recruiting of their own House up to a total of 400 +members for England and Wales, such recruiting to be effected by the +issue of a certain number of new writs, together with a scheme of +qualifications calculated to bring in only sound Republicans, or +persons likely to cooperate in farther measures with the present +Rumpers. This being what was promised by the conjunction of Monk and +the Rump, what could Milton do but acquiesce, be glad it was no +worse, and contribute what advice he could? This, accordingly, is +what he did. Pamphlets on the crisis, as we know, had been coming out +abundantly--pamphlets for the good old cause of the Republic, +pamphlets from Rota-men, pamphlets from Prynne and other haters of +the Rump, pamphlets from crypto-Royalists, and pamphlets openly +Royalist; and many of these had taken, and others were still to take, +the form of letters addressed to Monk. It need be no surprise that +Milton had _his_ pamphlet in preparation. He had begun it just +after Monk's arrival in London and the resolution, of the Rump to +recruit itself; he had written it hurriedly and yet with some earnest +care; and it seems to have been ready for the press about or not long +after the middle of February. Before it could go to press, however, +there had been another revolution, obliging him to hold it back. +There had been the rebellion of the Londoners because of the +resolution of the Rump to perpetuate itself by recruiting, instead of +either readmitting the secluded members or calling a new free and +full Parliament; there had been Monk's notorious two days in the +City, by order of the Rump, quashing the rebellion, and breaking the +gates and portcullises (Feb. 9-10); there had been his extraordinary +return the third day, with his profession of regret before the Lord +Mayor and the Aldermen and Common Council, and his announcement that +he had dissolved his connexion with the Rump,--that third day wound +up with yells of delight through all the City, the smashing of +Barebone's windows, and the universal Roasting of the Rump in +street-bonfires (Feb. 11); there had been the ten more days of Monk's +continued residence in the City, the Rumpers vainly imploring +reconciliation with him, and the Secluded Members and their friends +gathering round him and negotiating; and, on Tuesday, Feb. 21, when +he did remove from the City to Westminster, it was with the Secluded +Members in his train, to be marched under military guard to their +seats beside the Rumpers. The writs issued by the Rump for recruiting +itself were now useless. It had been recruited in the way it least +liked, by the sudden reappearance in it of the excluded Presbyterians +and Royalists of the pre-Commonwealth period of the Long Parliament. + +Far more than the mere stopping of his pamphlet was involved for +Milton in the events of that fortnight. He could construe them no +otherwise than as the breaking down of the inner rampart that +defended the Commonwealth against Charles Stuart. The _Roasting of +the Rump_ in London was but a rough popular metaphor for "Down +with the Republic"; and, had the tumult of that night extended from +the City to Westminster and the breaking of the windows of "fanatics" +become general, Milton's would not have escaped. Then, in the course +of the negotiations with Monk through the fatal fortnight, had not +the Rump itself quailed? Had they not offered to cancel the solemn +Abjuration Oath, alike for the Councillors of State and for future +members of Parliament, and to substitute only a general engagement to +be faithful to the Commonwealth, without King, Single Person, or +House of Lords? Hardly anywhere now did there seem to be that stern, +bold, uncompromising opposition to Royalty which would register +itself, as Milton wanted, in an oath before God and man, but only +that feebler Republicanism which would pledge itself with the +understood reservation of "circumstances permitting." But worst of +all was the crowning fact that the Secluded Members had been +restored. By that one stroke of Monk's all that had happened since +the Commonwealth had been set up was put in question, and the power +was given back into the hands of the very men who had protested and +struggled against the setting up of the Commonwealth eleven years +ago. How would these act? It might be hoped perhaps that some of the +more prudent among them, having regard to the lapse of time and the +change of circumstances, might not think it their duty to be as +vehemently Royalist now as they had been in 1648, and also perhaps +that the power of Monk, if Monk himself remained true, might restrain +the rest. But _would_ Monk remain true, or would his power avail +long in restraining a Parliament the majority of which were +Presbyterians and Royalists? Not to speak of the varied ability and +subtlety of such of the new Parliamentary chiefs as Annesley, Sir +William Waller, Denzil Holles, Ashley Cooper, and Harbottle +Grimstone, what was to be expected from the remorseless obstinacy, +the rhinoceros persistency, of such a Presbyterian as Prynne? How +often had Milton jeered at Prynne and the margins of his endless +pamphlets! It might be of some consequence to him now to remember +that he had done so, and had therefore this virtual Attorney-General +of the Secluded for his personal enemy. Altogether, Milton's +despondency had never yet been so deep as it must have been at this +beginning of the last phase of the long English Revolution, +represented in the Parliament of the Secluded Members and in Monk's +accompanying Dictatorship. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Third Section. + +MILTON THROUGH MONK'S DICTATORSHIP. FEB. 1659-60--MAY 1660. + +FIRST EDITION OF MILTON'S _READY AND EASY WAY TO ESTABLISH A FREE +COMMONWEALTH_: ACCOUNT OF THE PAMPHLET, WITH EXTRACTS: VEHEMENT +REPUBLICANISM OF THE PAMPHLET, WITH ITS PROPHETIC WARNINGS: PECULIAR +CENTRAL IDEA OF THE PAMPHLET, VIZ. THE PROJECT OF A GRAND COUNCIL OR +PARLIAMENT TO SIT IN PERPETUITY, WITH A COUNCIL OF STATE FOR ITS +EXECUTIVE: PASSAGES EXPOUNDING THIS IDEA: ADDITIONAL SUGGESTION OF +LOCAL AND COUNTY COUNCILS OR COMMITTEES: DARING PERORATION OF THE +PAMPHLET: MILTON'S RECAPITULATION OF THE SUBSTANCE OF IT IN A SHORT +PRIVATE LETTER TO MONK ENTITLED _PRESENT MEANS AND BRIEF +DELINEATION OF A FREE COMMONWEALTH_: WIDE CIRCULATION OF MILTON'S +PAMPHLET: THE RESPONSE BY MONK AND THE PARLIAMENT OF THE SECLUDED +MEMBERS IN THEIR PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEXT FORTNIGHT: DISSOLUTION OF +THE PARLIAMENT AFTER ARRANGEMENTS FOR ITS SUCCESSOR: ROYALIST SQUIB +PREDICTING MILTON'S SPEEDY ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE HANGMAN AT TYBURN: +ANOTHER SQUIB AGAINST MILTON, CALLED THE _CENSURE OF THE ROTA UPON +MR. MILTON'S BOOK_: SPECIMENS OF THIS BURLESQUE: REPUBLICAN APPEAL +TO MONK, CALLED _PLAIN ENGLISH_: REPLY TO THE SAME, WITH ANOTHER +ATTACK ON MILTON: POPULAR TORRENT OF ROYALISM DURING THE FORTY DAYS +OF INTERVAL BETWEEN THE PARLIAMENT OF THE SECLUDED MEMBERS AND THE +CONVENTION PARLIAMENT (MARCH 16, 1659-60--APRIL 25, 1660): CAUTION OF +MONK AND THE COUNCIL OF STATE: DR. MATTHEW GRIFFITH AND HIS ROYALIST +SERMON, _THE FEAR OF GOD AND THE KING_: GRIFFITH IMPRISONED FOR +HIS SERMON, BUT FORWARD REPUBLICANS CHECKED OR PUNISHED AT THE SAME +TIME: NEEDHAM DISCHARGED FROM HIS EDITORSHIP AND MILTON FROM HIS +SECRETARYSHIP: RESOLUTENESS OF MILTON IN HIS REPUBLICANISM: HIS +_BRIEF NOTES ON DR. GRIFFITH'S SERMON_: SECOND EDITION OF HIS +_READY AND EASY WAY TO ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH_: +REMARKABLE ADDITIONS AND ENLARGEMENTS IN THIS EDITION: SPECIMENS OF +THESE: MILTON AND LAMBERT THE LAST REPUBLICANS IN THE FIELD: ROGER +L'ESTRANGE'S PAMPHLET AGAINST MILTON, CALLED _NO BLIND GUIDES_: +LARGER ATTACK ON MILTON BY G.S., CALLED _HE DIGNITY OF KINGSHIP +ASSERTED_: QUOTATIONS FROM THAT BOOK: MEETING OF THE CONVENTION +PARLIAMENT, APRIL 25, 1660: DELIVERY BY GREENVILLE OF THE SIX ROYAL +LETTERS FROM BREDA, APRIL 28--MAY 1, AND VOTES OF BOTH HOUSES FOR THE +RECALL OF CHARLES; INCIDENTS OF THE FOLLOWING WEEK: MAD IMPATIENCE +OVER THE THREE KINGDOMS FOR THE KING'S RETURN: HE AND HIS COURT AT +THE HAGUE, PREPARING FOR THE VOYAGE HOME: PANIC AMONG THE SURVIVING +REGICIDES AND OTHER PROMINENT REPUBLICANS: FLIGHT OF NEEDHAM TO +HOLLAND AND ABSCONDING OF MILTON FROM HIS HOUSE IN PETTY FRANCE: LAST +SIGHT OF MILTON IN THAT HOUSE. + + +The Parliament of the Secluded Members and Residuary Rumpers had been +sitting for a few days, had confirmed Monk in the Dictatorship by +formally appointing him Captain-General and Commander-in-chief (Feb. +21), and had also (Feb. 22) intimated their resolution to devolve all +really constitutional questions on a new "full and free Parliament," +when Milton did send forth the pamphlet he had written. It was a +small quarto of eighteen pages with this title-page: "_The Readie +and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, and the Excellence +therof compar'd with the inconveniences and dangers of readmitting +kingship in this nation. The author J.M., London, Printed by T.N., +and are to be sold by Livewell Chapman at the Crown in Popes-Head +Alley_. 1660." Copies seem to have been procurable before the end +of February 1659-60, but Thomason's copy bears date "March 3."[1] +That was the day of the order of Parliament for the release of the +last remaining Scottish captives of Worcester Battle. + +[Footnote 1: In Wood's Fasti (I. 485) the pamphlet is mentioned as +"published in Feb." The publication, we learn from subsequent words +of Milton himself, was very hurried, and copies got about without his +press-corrections. I find no entry of the pamphlet in the Stationers' +Registers.--It is particularly necessary to remember that this was +but the _first edition_ of the pamphlet. Another was to follow. +In all the editions of Milton's collected works, from that of 1698 +onwards, the reprint is from the later edition, without notice of the +first; but I hardly know a case in which the distinction between two +editions is more important.] + +The pamphlet opens thus:-- + + "Although, since the writing of this treatise, the face of things + hath had some change, writs for new elections [by the late Rump] + have been recalled, and the members at first chosen [for the + original Long Parliament] readmitted from exclusion to sit again in + Parliament, yet, not a little rejoicing to hear declared the + resolutions of all those who are now in power, jointly tending to + the establishment of a Free Commonwealth, and to remove, if it be + possible, this unsound humour of returning to old bondage instilled + of late by some cunning deceivers, and nourished from bad + principles and false apprehensions among too many of the people, I + thought best not to suppress what I had written, hoping it may + perhaps (the Parliament now sitting more full and frequent) be now + much more useful than before: yet submitting what hath reference to + the state of things as they then stood to present constitutions, + and, so the same end be pursued, not insisting on this or that + means to obtain it. The treatise was thus written as follows." + +This is an attempt by Milton even yet to disguise his despondency. He +had written the pamphlet while the late Rump was still sitting, while +the conjunction between them and Monk was unbroken, and when the last +news was that they had issued, or were about to issue, writs for the +recruiting of their body by a large number of like-minded additional +members; but he will assume that the pamphlet may yet answer its +purpose, with hardly a change of phraseology. No longer, it is true, +does the power lie with the Rump, recruited or unrecruited; it lies +now in the unexpected Parliament of the Residuary Rumpers _plus_ +Monk's restored representatives of the pre-Commonwealth period of the +Long Parliament. But he will suppose the best even after that +surprise. There is, at any rate, a more "full and frequent" +Parliament than before: and there has been no declaration hitherto of +any intention to subvert the Commonwealth. On the contrary, had not +Monk, both in his speech to the Secluded Members before readmitting +them, and also in his Declaration or Address to the Army published +after their re-admission, used the language of a true +Commonwealth's-man, and even called God to witness that his only aim +was "God's glory and the settlement of these nations upon +Commonwealth foundations"? Had not the Secluded Members virtually +made a compact with Monk upon these terms? Milton will not, for the +present, suppose either Monk or the Parliament false in the main +matter. He will only suppose that they have perceived, with himself, +the infatuated drift of the popular humour towards a restoration of +Royalty, and will themselves listen, and allow the country to listen, +to what he had written on that subject two or three weeks ago. + +The despondency which he disguises in the preface appears in the +pamphlet itself. Or rather it is a despondency dashed with a sanguine +remnant of faith that all might yet be well, and that the means of +perpetuating a Republic, all contrary appearances notwithstanding, +might yet be shown to be "ready and easy." The use of these two words +in the title of such a pamphlet at such a time is very +characteristic. It was the public theorist, however, that ventured on +them, rather than the secret and real man. Throughout the pamphlet +there is a sad and fierce undertone, as of one knowing that what he +is prophesying as easy will never come to pass. + +About half of the pamphlet consists of a declamation in general on +the advantages of a Commonwealth Government over a Kingly Government, +and on the dishonour, inconveniences, and dangers, to the British +Islands in particular, if they should relapse into the one form of +Government after having had so much prosperous experience of the +other. In the following specimen of the declamation the reader will +note the prophecy of actual events as far as to the Revolution of +1688:-- + + "After our liberty thus successfully fought for, gained, and many + years possessed (except in those unhappy interruptions which God + hath removed), ... to fall back, or rather to creep back, so poorly + as it seems the multitude would, to their once abjured and detested + thraldom of kingship, not only argues a strange degenerate + corruption suddenly spread among us, fitted and prepared for new + slavery, but will render us a scorn and derision to all our + neighbours. And what will they say of us but scoffingly as of that + foolish builder mentioned by our Saviour, who began to build a + tower and was not able to finish it: 'Where is this goodly Tower of + a Commonwealth, which the English boasted they would build to + overshadow Kings and be another Rome in the West? The foundation + indeed they laid gallantly; but fell into a worse confusion, not of + tongues but of factions, than those at the Tower of Babel, and have + left no memorial of their work behind them remaining but in the + common laughter of Europe.' Which must needs redound the more to + our shame if we but look on our neighbours THE UNITED PROVINCES, to + us inferior in all outward advantages; who, notwithstanding, in the + midst of great difficulties, courageously, wisely, constantly, went + through with the same work, and are settled in all the happy + enjoyments of a potent and flourishing Republic to this + day.--Besides this, if we return to kingship, and soon repent (as + undoubtedly we shall, when we begin to find the old encroachments + coming on by little and little upon our consciences, which must + needs proceed from King and Bishop united inseparably in one + interest), we may be forced perhaps to fight over again all that we + have fought and spend over again all that we have spent, but are + never likely to attain, thus far as we are now advanced to the + recovery of our freedom, never likely to have it in possession as + we now have it,--never to be vouchsafed hereafter the like mercies + and signal assistance from Heaven in our cause, if by our + ingrateful backsliding we make these fruitless to ourselves, all + His gracious condescensions and answers to our once importuning + prayers against the tyranny which we then groaned under to become + now of no effect, by returning of our own foolish accord, nay + running headlong again with full stream wilfully and obstinately, + into the same bondage: making vain and viler than dirt the blood of + so many thousand faithful and valiant Englishmen, who left us in + this liberty bought with their lives; losing by a strange + after-game of folly all the battles we have won, all the treasure + we have spent (not that corruptible treasure only, but that far + more precious one of all our late miraculous deliverances), and + most pitifully depriving ourselves the instant fruition of that + Free Government which we have so dearly purchased,--a Free + Commonwealth: not only held by wisest men in all ages the noblest, + the manliest, the equalest, the justest Government, the most + agreeable to all due liberty, and proportioned equality both human, + civil, and Christian, most cherishing to virtue and true religion, + but also, (I may say it with greatest probability) plainly + commended or rather enjoined by our Saviour Himself to all + Christians, not without remarkable disallowance and the brand of + Gentilism upon Kingship [quotation here of _Luke_ XXII. 25, + 26][1] ... And what Government comes nearer to this precept of + Christ than a Free Commonwealth? Wherein they who are greatest are + perpetual servants and drudges to the public at their own costs and + charges,--neglect their own affairs, yet are not elevated above + their brethren,--live soberly in their families, walk the streets + as other men, may be spoken to freely, familiarly, friendly, + without adoration: whereas a King must be adored like a demigod, + with a dissolute and haughty Court about him, of vast expense and + luxury, masques and revels, to the debauching of our prime gentry + both male and female,--nor at his own cost, but on the public + revenue,--and all this to do nothing but bestow the eating and + drinking of excessive dainties, to set a pompous face upon the + superficial actings of State, to pageant himself up and down in + progress among the perpetual bowings and cringings of an abject + people." + +[Footnote 1: This is one of Milton's very long sentences; and the +length shows, I think, the glow and rapidity of the dictation.] + +Having thus expressed his belief that "a Free Commonwealth, without +Single Person or House of Lords, is by far the best government, _if +it can be had_," Milton glances at the objection that recent +experience in England has shown such government to be practically +unattainable. He denies this, alleging that all disappointment +hitherto "may be ascribed with most reason to the frequent +disturbances, interruptions, and dissolutions which the Parliament +hath had, partly from the impatient or disaffected people, partly +from some ambitious leaders in the Army"; and he declares that the +present time is peculiarly favourable for one more vigorous effort. +"Now is the opportunity, now the very season, wherein we may obtain a +Free Commonwealth, and establish it for ever in the land without +difficulty or much delay." He had written this when the Rump was +sitting, and when he had in view the new elections that were to +recruit that "small remainder of those faithful worthies who at first +freed us from tyranny and have continued ever since through all +changes constant to their trust"; but he lets it stand now, as not +inapplicable to the new condition of things brought in by the sudden +mixture of the Secluded with the Rumpers. The "_Ready and Easy +Way_," however, has still to be explained; and to that he +proceeds. + +The central idea of the pamphlet, and practically its backbone, is +_One and the same Parliament in Perpetuity or Membership for +Life_. This may be a surprise, not only to those who, knowing that +Milton was a Republican, conceive him therefore to have held +necessarily the exact modern theory of Representative Government, but +also to those who understand Milton better, and who may remember at +this point his somewhat contemptuous estimates on previous occasions +of the value of the bodies called Parliaments. If those previous +passages of his writings are studied, however, it will be found that +he is not now so inconsistent as he looks. He had always thought a +broad general council of fit men in the centre of a nation the +essential of good government; and his chief recommendation to +Cromwell, even when approving of his exceptional Sovereignty, had +been that he should keep round him such a general Council. Further, +it will be found that _permanence of the same men at the centre of +affairs_ had always been his implied ideal, whether permanence of +an exceptional Single-Person sovereignty surrounded by a Council, or +permanence of a Council without a Single-Person sovereignty. His real +objection to so-called Parliaments, it will be found, lay in the +association with them of the ideas of shiftingness, interruptedness, +successiveness, the turmoil and debauchery of successive general +elections. So possessed was he with the notion of permanence of +tenure as desirable in the governing agency, whatever it might be, +that he had even modified the notion, as we have seen, to suit the +anomalous conditions of that stage of the Anarchy which we have +called the Wallingford-House Interruption, He had recommended then +the experiment of a duality of life-aristocracies, one civil and the +other military. And now, the turn of circumstances and of his +speculations shutting him up once more to a single Civil Parliament +of the ordinary size and kind, he will insist on the quality of +permanence or perpetuity as that which alone will make _it_ +answer the purpose. But, the very name "Parliament" having been +vitiated so as to make a permanent Parliament a difficult conception +for most people, he would rather get rid of the name altogether, and +call the central governing body simply THE GENERAL OR GRAND COUNCIL +OF THE NATION. + +All this appears in Milton's own words, as follows:-- + + "The ground and basis of every just and free Government (since men + have smarted so oft for committing all to one person) is a GENERAL + COUNCIL OF ABLEST MEN, chosen by the people to consult of public + affairs from time to time for the common good. This Grand Council + must have the forces by sea and land in their power, must raise and + manage the public revenue, make laws as need requires, treat of + commerce, peace, or war, with foreign nations; and, for the + carrying on some particular affairs of State with more secrecy and + expedition, must elect, as they have already, out of their own + number and others, a _Council of State_, And, although it may + seem strange at first hearing, by reason that men's minds are + prepossessed with the conceit of successive Parliaments, I affirm + that the GRAND OR GENERAL COUNCIL, being well chosen, should sit + perpetual: for so their business is, and they will become thereby + skilfullest, best acquainted with the people, and the people with + them. The Ship of the Commonwealth is always under sail: they sit + at the stern; and, if they steer well, what need is there to change + them, it being rather dangerous? Add to this that the GRAND COUNCIL + is both foundation and main pillar of the whole State, and to move + pillars and foundations, unless they be faulty, cannot be safe for + the building. I see not therefore how we can be advantaged by + successive Parliaments, but that they are much likelier continually + to unsettle rather than to settle a free Government, to breed + commotions, changes, novelties, and uncertainties, and serve only + to satisfy the ambition of such men as think themselves injured and + cannot stay till they be orderly chosen to have their part in the + Government. If the ambition of such be at all to be regarded, the + best expedient will be, and with least danger, that every two or + three years a hundred or some such number may go out by lot or + suffrage of the rest, and the like number be chosen in their places + (which hath been already thought on here, and done in other + Commonwealths); but in my opinion better nothing moved, unless by + death or just accusation.... [Farther argument for the permanence + of the Supreme Governing Body, with illustrations from the + Sanhedrim of the Jews, the Areopagus of Athens, the Senates of + Lacedaemon and Home, the full Venetian Senate, and the + States-General of the United Provinces]. I know not therefore what + should be peculiar in England to make successive Parliaments + thought safest, or convenient here more than in all other nations, + unless it be the fickleness which is attributed to us as we are + Islanders. But good education and acquisite wisdom ought to correct + the fluxible fault, if any such be, of our watery situation. I + suppose therefore that the people, well weighing these things, + would have no cause to fear or murmur, though the Parliament, + abolishing that name, as originally signifying but the + _parley_ of our Commons with their Norman King when he pleased + to call them, should perpetuate themselves, if their ends be + faithful and for a free Commonwealth, under the name of a GRAND OR + GENERAL COUNCIL: nay, till this be done, I am in doubt whether our + State will be ever certainly and thoroughly settled.... The GRAND + COUNCIL being thus firmly constituted to perpetuity, and still upon + the death or default of any member supplied and kept in full + number, there can be no cause alleged why peace, justice, plentiful + trade, and all prosperity, should not thereupon ensue throughout + the whole land, with as much assurance as can be of human things + that they shall so continue (if God favour us and our wilful sins + provoke Him not) even, to the coming of our true and rightful and + only to be expected King, only worthy as He is our only Saviour, + the Messiah, the Christ, the only heir of his Eternal Father, the + only by Him anointed and ordained, since the work of our redemption + finished, Universal Lord of all mankind. The way propounded is + plain, easy, and open before us, without intricacies, without the + mixture of inconveniences, or any considerable objection to be + made, as by some frivolously, that it is not practicable. And this + facility we shall have above our next neighbouring Commonwealth (if + we can keep us from the fond conceit of something like a Duke of + Venice, put lately into many men's heads by some one or other + subtly driving on, under that pretty notion, his own ambitious ends + to a crown),[1] that our liberty shall not be hampered or hovered + over by any engagement to such a potent family as the House of + Nassau, of whom to stand in perpetual doubt and suspicion, but we + shall live the clearest and absolutest free nation, in the world." + +[Footnote 1: The allusion here is vague.] + +In effect, therefore, Milton's _Ready and Easy Way_, recommended +to the mixed Parliament of Residuary Rumpers and their reseated +Presbyterian half-brothers of March 1659-60, is that this Parliament, +nailing the Republican flag to the mast, should make itself, or some +enlargement of itself, the perpetual supreme power under the name of +THE GRAND COUNCIL OF THE COMMONWEALTH, appointing a smaller +_Council of State_, as heretofore, to be the working executive, +but plainly intimating to the people that there are to be no more +general Parliamentary elections, but only elections to vacancies as +they may occur in the Grand Council by death or misdemeanour. He is +himself against the adoption of Harrington's principle of rotation to +any extent whatever; but, if it would reconcile people to his scheme, +he would concede rotation so far as to let a portion of the Grand +Council go out every second or third year to admit new men. + +While expounding his main idea, Milton had intimated that he had +another suggestion in reserve, which might help to reconcile +reasonable men of democratic prepossessions to the seeming novelty of +an irremovable apparatus of Government at the centre. This suggestion +he brings forward near the end of the pamphlet. He arrives at it in +the course of a demonstration in farther detail of certain +superiorities of Commonwealth government over Regal. "The whole +freedom of man," he says, "consists either in Spiritual or Civil +Liberty." Glancing first at Spiritual Liberty, he contents himself +with a general statement of the principle of Liberty of Conscience, +as implying the absolute and unimpeded right of every individual +Christian to interpret the Scripture for himself and give utterance +and effect to his conclusions; and, though he does not conceal that +in his own opinion such Liberty of Conscience cannot be complete +without Church-disestablishment, he does not press that for the +present. Enough that Liberty of Conscience, according to any +endurable definition of it, is more safe in a Republic than in a +Kingdom,--which, by various instances from history, he maintains to +be a fact. Then, coming to Civil Liberty, he propounds his reserved +suggestion, or the second real novelty of his pamphlet, thus:-- + + "The other part of our freedom consists in the civil rights and + advancements of every person according to his merit: the enjoyment + of _those_ never more certain, and the access to _these_ + never more open, than in a free Commonwealth. And _both_ in my + opinion may be best and soonest obtained if every county in the + land were made a _Little Commonwealth_, and their chief town a + _City_ if it be not so called already; where the nobility and + chief gentry may build houses or palaces befitting their quality, + may bear part in the [district or city] government, make their own + judicial laws, and execute them by their own elected judicatures, + without appeal, in all things of Civil Government between man and + man. So they shall have justice in their own hands, and none to + blame but themselves if it be not well administered. In these + employments they may exercise and fit themselves till their lot + fall to be chosen into THE GRAND COUNCIL, according as their worth + and merit shall be taken notice of by the people. As for + controversies that may happen between men of several counties, they + may repair, as they now do, to the Capital City. They should have + here also [i.e. in their own Cities and Counties] schools and + academies at their own choice, wherein their children may be bred + up in their own sight to all learning and noble education, not in + grammar only, but in all liberal arts and exercises." + +This is what would now be called a scheme of _Decentralization_ +or _Systematic Local Government_. The counties, with their chief +cities, should be so many little independent communities, each with +its legislative council, its law-courts, and its other institutions, +employing and tasking the political energies and abilities of the +citizens or inhabitants of the district. While this would be +advantageous in itself, inasmuch as it would stimulate mental +activity and social improvement everywhere, and would relieve the +GRAND CENTRAL COUNCIL of much work more properly appertaining to +municipalities, it would doubtless reconcile many to the existence of +such a GRAND CENTRAL COUNCIL in perpetuity. Energetic and ambitious +spirits would have scope and training in their own cities and +neighbourhoods, and the hope of being elected to the Central +Government when there should be a vacancy there would be a fine +incitement to the best to qualify themselves to the utmost for +national statesmanship. + +The following is the closing passage of the whole pamphlet:-- + + "With all hazard I have ventured what I thought my duty, to speak + in season and to forewarn my country in time; wherein I doubt not + but there be many wise men in all places and degrees, but am sorry + the effects of wisdom are so little seen among us. Many + circumstances and particulars I could have added in those things + whereof I have spoken; but a few main matters now put speedily into + execution will suffice to recover us and set all right. And there + will want at no time who are good at circumstances; but men who set + their minds on main matters and sufficiently urge them in these + most difficult times I find not many. What I _have_ spoken is + the language of the Good Old Cause: if it seem strange to any, it + will not seem more strange, I hope, than convincing to backsliders. + Thus much I should perhaps have said though I were sure I should + have spoken only to trees and stones, and had none to cry to but, + with the Prophet, _O Earth, Earth, Earth_, to tell the very + soil itself what God hath determined of Coniah and his seed for + ever. But I trust I shall have spoken persuasion to abundance of + sensible and ingenuous men,--to some perhaps whom God may raise of + these stones to become Children of Liberty, and may enable and + unite in their noble resolutions to give a stay to these our + ruinous proceedings and to this general defection of the misguided + and abused multitude." + +To understand fully the tremendous daring of this peroration, one +must turn to the passage of Hebrew prophecy which it cites and +applies to Charles Stuart. It is _Jeremiah XXII._ 24-30, where +woe is denounced upon Coniah, Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin, the worthless +King of Judah, no better than his father Jehoiakim:--"As I live, +saith the Lord, though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, +were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence. +And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and +into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of +Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. +And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another +country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. But to the +land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return. +Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is +no pleasure? Wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are +cast into a land which they know not? O Earth, Earth, Earth, hear the +word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord: Write ye this man childless, a +man that shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall +prosper, sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in +Judah." + +A curious supplement to Milton's _Ready and Easy Way to establish a +Free Commonwealth_ exists in the shape of a private letter which +he addressed to General Monk. It was not published at the time, and +bears no date, but must have been written immediately after the +publication of the pamphlet, while the Parliament of the Secluded +Members and Residuary Rumpers was still sitting. Milton, it would +seem, had sent Monk a copy of the pamphlet; and this private letter +is nothing but a brief summary of the suggestions of the pamphlet for +the General's easier reading, should he think fit. It is entitled, in +our present copies, "_The Present Means and Brief Delineation of a +Free Commonwealth, easy to be put in practice and without delay: In a +Letter to General Monk_."[1] The whole consists of less than three +of the present pages. Believing that all endeavours must now be used +"that the ensuing election be of such, as are already firm or +inclinable to constitute a Free Commonwealth," Milton appeals to Monk +to be himself the man to lead in these endeavours. "The speediest +way," he says, "will be to call up forthwith [to London] the chief +gentlemen out of every county, [and] to lay before them (as your +Excellency hath already, both in your published Letters to the Army +and your Declaration recited to the Members of Parliament), the +danger and confusion of readmitting kingship in this land." Then let +the gentlemen so charged return at once to their counties, and elect +or cause to be elected, "by such at least of the people as are +rightly qualified," a STANDING COUNCIL in every city and great town, +all great towns henceforth to be called _Cities_. Let it be +understood that these councils are to be permanent seats of district +and local judicature and of political deliberation; but, while +setting up such councils, let the gentlemen also see to the election +of "the usual number of ablest knights and burgesses, engaged for a +Commonwealth, to make up the PARLIAMENT, or, as it will from +henceforth be better called, THE GRAND OR GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE +NATION." The local or city councils having meanwhile been set up, and +it having been intimated that on great occasions their assent will be +required to measures proposed by the Grand Council of the nation, +Milton does not anticipate that there will be much opposition "though +this GRAND COUNCIL be perpetual, as in that book [his pamphlet] I +proved would be best and most conformable to best examples"; but, +should there be opposition, "the known expedient may at length be +used of a partial _rotation_." This is all that Milton has to +say, with one exception:--"If these gentlemen convocated refuse these +fair and noble offers of immediate liberty and happy condition, no +doubt there be enough in every county who will thankfully accept +them, your Excellency once more declaring publicly this to be your +mind, and having a faithful veteran Army so ready and glad to assist +you in the prosecution thereof."--What Monk thought of Mr. Milton's +Letter, if he ever took the trouble to read it, may be easily +guessed. It was at this time that he was so often drunk or nearly so +at the dinners given in the City, and that Sir John Greenville, on +the part of Charles, was watching for an interview with him at St. +James's. + +[Footnote 1: "_Published from the Manuscript_" is the addition +in all our present reprints. In other words, this Letter to Monk, +together with the previous _Letter to a Friend concerning the +Ruptures of the Commonwealth_, came into Toland's hands in the +manner described in Note p. 617, and was also given by Toland for +use in the 1698 edition of Milton's Prose Works.] + +Not one of Milton's pamphlets had a larger immediate circulation or +provoked a more rapid fury of criticism than his _Ready and Easy +Way to establish a Free Commonwealth_. + +From the Parliament indeed the response was only indirect; but every +atom of such indirect response was a dead and contemptuous negative. +Though, when Milton published the pamphlet, he was entitled to assume +that the compact between Monk and the Secluded Members whom he had +restored guaranteed a continuance of the Commonwealth form of +Government, the entire tenor of their proceedings during the +five-and-twenty days to which they confined their sittings (Feb. +2l-March 16, 1659-60) was such as to undeceive him and others on that +point, and to show that, though they abstained from abolishing the +Commonwealth themselves, they meant to leave the succeeding full and +free Parliament they had called at perfect liberty to do so. No other +construction could be put upon their votes even in ecclesiastical +matters. Hardly was Milton's pamphlet out when he knew that they had +voted the revival of the Westminster Assembly's Confession of Faith +as the standard of doctrine in the National Church (March 2), and +the revival of the Solemn League and Covenant as a document of +perpetual national obligation (March 5). Then followed (March 14) +their vote for mapping out all England and Wales according to the +strict pattern of the Scottish Presbyterian organization. But, that +there might be no mistake, their votes predetermining the composition +of the coming Parliament were also in the direction of the admission +of Royalists and the exclusion of those that could be called Fanatics +for the Republic. The engagement to be faithful to the Commonwealth +without King or House of Lords was annulled (March 13); the clauses +disqualifying even the active and conspicuous Royalists of the Civil +Wars were far from stringent; and the very act by which the House +dissolved itself contained a proviso saving the legal and +constitutional rights of the old House of Lords and pointing to the +restitution of the Peerage. How significant also that scene in the +House on the last day of their sittings, Friday, March 16, when Mr. +Crewe moved for a vote of execration on the Regicides, and poor +Thomas Scott, standing up on the floor, and reckless though the words +should seal his doom, declared himself to be one of the blood-stained +band and claimed the fact as his highest earthly honour! What Scott +did that day in the House Milton had done even more publicly a +fortnight before in the daring peroration of his pamphlet. From March +16, 1659-60, Milton and Scott, whoever else, might regard themselves +as in the list for the future hangman. + +In the list for the future hangman! It is a strong expression, but +true historically to the very letter. Read the following from a +scurrilous pamphlet, of six pages in shabby print, called _The +Character of the Rump_, which was out in London on Saturday the +17th of March, the day after the dissolution of the Parliament:-- + + "An ingenious person hath observed that Scott is the Rump's man + Thomas; and they might have said to him, when he was so busy with + the General, + + "Peace, for the Lord's sake, Thomas! lest Monk take us, + And drag us out, as Hercules did Cacus. + + "But John Milton is their goose-quill champion; who had need of a + help-meet to establish anything, for he has a ram's head and is + good only at batteries,--an old heretic both in religion and + manners, that by his will would shake off his governors as he doth + his wives, four in a fortnight. The sunbeams of his scandalous + papers against the late King's Book is [sic] the parent that begot + his late _New Commonwealth_; and, because he, like a parasite + as he is, by flattering the then tyrannical power, hath run himself + into the briars, the man will be angry if the rest of the nation + will not bear him company, and suffer themselves to be decoyed into + the same condition. He is so much an enemy to usual practices that + I believe, when he is condemned to travel to Tyburn in a cart, he + will petition for the favour to be the first man that ever was + driven thither in a wheelbarrow. And now, John, _you_ must + stand close and draw in your elbows [the fancy is of Milton + standing on the scaffold pinioned], that Needham, the Commonwealth + didapper, may have room to stand beside you ... He [Needham] was + one of the spokes of Harrington's Rota, till he was turned out for + cracking. As for Harrington, _he's_ but a demi-semi in the + Rump's music, and should be good at the cymbal; for he is all for + wheeling instruments, and, having a good invention, may in time + find out the way to make a concert of grindstones."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Pamphlet, of title and date given, in the Thomason +Collection. I have mended the pointing, but nothing else.] + +Such was the popular verdict, in March 1660, on Milton and his last +pamphlet, and all his deserts and accomplishments in the world he had +lived in for one-and-fifty years. More of the like may be found on +search; but I will pass to one retort on his _Ready and Easy +Way_, of somewhat higher literary quality than the last, and which +retains a certain celebrity yet. + +It appeared on March 30, as a small quarto of sixteen pages, with +this title: "_The Censure of the Rota upon Mr. Milton's Book, +entituled 'The Ready and Easie Way to Establish a Free +Commonwealth_.'" On the title-page is the imprint, "_London, +Printed by Paul Giddy, Printer to the Rota, at the sign of the +Windmill in Turne-againe Lane_. 1660," and also a professed +extract from the minutes of the Rota Club, "_Die Luna 26 Martii_ +1660," certified by "_Trundle Wheeler, Clerk to the Rota_," +authorizing and ordering Mr. Harrington, as Chairman of the Club, to +draw up and publish a narrative of that day's debate of the Club over +Mr. Milton's pamphlet, and to transmit a copy of the same to Mr. +Milton. The thing, though it has been mistaken by careless people as +actually a production of Harrington's, is in reality a clever +burlesque by some Royalist, in which, under the guise of an imaginary +debate in the Rota over Milton's pamphlet, Milton and the Rota-men +are turned into ridicule together. The mock-names on the title-page +(_Paul Giddy, Trundle Wheeler, &c._) are part of the burlesque; +and it is well kept up in the tract itself, which takes the form of a +letter gravely addressed to Milton and signed with Harrington's +initials, "_J. H._"[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Rota Club, as we already know (ante p. 555), can +have had no meeting on the day supposed in the burlesque, having +disappeared, with all its appurtenances, ballot-box included, at or +immediately after the swamping of the old Rump by the readmission of +the secluded members. The last glimpses we have of it are these from +Pepys's Diary:--_Jan._ 10, 1659-60. "To the Coffee-house, where +were a great confluence of gentlemen: viz. Mr. Harrington, Poulteney +(chairman), Gold, Dr. Petty, &c.; where admirable discourse till 9 at +night."--_Jan._ 17. "I went to the Coffee Club, and heard very +good discourse. It was in answer to Mr. Harrington's answer, who said +that the state of the Roman government was not a settled government, +and so it was no wonder that the balance of property was in one hand +and the command in another, it being therefore always in a posture of +war; but it was carried by ballot that it was a steady government, +though it is true by the voices it had been carried before that it +was an unsteady government: so to-morrow it is to be proved by the +opponents that the balance lay in one hand and the government in +another."--_Feb._ 20 (day before Restitution of the Secluded). +"I to the Coffee-house, where I heard Mr, Harrington and my Lord +Dorset and another Lord talking of getting another place [for the +Club meetings] at the Cockpit, and they did believe it would come +to something." Had there been an express order for closing the +Club?] + +Mr. Harrington is supposed to begin by expressing his regret to Mr. +Milton that his duty obliges him to make so unsatisfactory a report +as to the reception of Mr. Milton's last pamphlet by the Club. "For, +whereas it is our usual custom to dispute everything, how plain or +obscure soever, by knocking argument against argument, and tilting at +one another with our heads (as rams fight) till we are out of breath, +and then refer it to our wooden oracle, the Box, and seldom anything, +how slight soever, hath appeared without some person or other to +defend it, I must confess I never saw bowling-stones run so unluckily +against any boy, when his hand has been out, as the ballots did +against you when anything was put to the question from the beginning +of your book to the end." First, one gentleman had objected to the +very name of the book, _The Ready and Easy Way_, &c., and had +remarked that Mr. Milton was generally unlucky in his titles to his +pamphlets, most of them having been absurd or fantastic. A second +gentleman had been even more impolite. "He wondered you did not give +over writing, since you have always done it to little or no purpose; +for, though you have scribbled your eyes out, your works have never +been printed but for the company of chandlers and tobaccomen, who are +your stationers, and the only men that vend your labours. He said +that he himself reprieved the whole _Defence of the People of +England_ for a groat,... though it cost you much oil and labour +and the Rump £300 a year." Then a third gentleman, a member of the +Long Robe, had been very severe and sarcastic on Mr. Milton's +knowledge of Law; and a fourth, who had travelled much abroad, had +followed with an equally severe criticism on Mr. Milton's knowledge +of European history. This last speaker was beginning to be prosy, +when fortunately some one came into the Club with news that Sir +Arthur Hasilrig, "the Brutus of our Republic," had been nearly torn +in pieces by a rabble of boys in Westminster Hall, just outside the +Club, and had saved himself by taking to his heels. The laughter over +this made the last gentleman forget what he was saying; which gave +opportunity to a fifth gentleman to rise and discourse at some length +on the sophistical and abominable character of Mr. Milton's Political +Philosophy:-- + + "He was of opinion that you did not believe yourself, nor those + reasons you give in defence of Commonwealth, but that you are + swayed by something else, as either by a stork-like fate (as a + modern Protector-Poet calls it, because that fowl is observed to + live nowhere but in Commonwealths), or because you have unadvisedly + scribbled yourself obnoxious, or else you fear such admirable + eloquence as yours would be thrown away under a Monarchy.... All + your politics are derived from the works of Declaimers, with which + sort of writers the ancient Commonwealths had the fortune to abound + ... All which you have outgone (according to your talent) in their + several ways: for you have done your feeble endeavour to rob the + Church, of the little which the rapine of the most sacrilegious + persons hath left, in your learned work against Tithes; you have + slandered the dead worse than envy itself, and thrown your dirty + outrage on the memory of a murdered Prince, as if the Hangman were + but your usher. These have been the attempts of your stiff formal + eloquence, which you arm accordingly with anything that lies in + your way, right or wrong,--not only begging but stealing questions, + and taking everything for granted that will serve your turn. For + you are not ashamed to rob O. Cromwell himself, and make use of his + canting assurances from Heaven and answering condescensions: the + most impious Mahometan doctrine that ever was vented among + Christians."... + +This speaker having ended with a comment on Mr. Milton's remark that +Christ himself had put "the brand of Gentilism" upon Kingship, "a +young gentleman made answer that your writings are best interpreted +by themselves, and that be remembered, in that book wherein you fight +with the King's Picture, you call Sir Philip Sidney's Princess +Pamela, who was born and bred of Christian parents in England, 'a +heathen woman,' and therefore he thought that by _Heathenish_ +you meant _English_, and that in calling Kingship heathenish you +inferred it was the only proper and natural government of the English +nation, as it hath been proved in all ages. To which another objected +that such a sense was quite contrary to your purpose; to which he +immediately replied that it was no new thing with you to write that +which is as well against as for your purpose. After much debate, they +agreed to put it to the ballot; and the young gentleman carried it +without contradiction." Then another critic fell foul of Mr. Milton's +Divinity and Church notions,--one of which, he said, was "that the +Church of Christ ought to have no head upon earth, but the monster of +many heads, the multitude," and another "that any man may turn away +his wife, and take another as oft as he pleases": to which last +accusation is added the comment, "As you have most learnedly proved +upon the fiddle [_Tetrachordon_], and practised in your life and +conversation; for which you have achieved the honour to be styled the +founder of a sect." The audience by this time becoming weary, "a +worthy knight of this Assembly stood up and said that, if we meant to +examine all the particular fallacies and flaws in your writing, we +should never have done; he would therefore, with leave, deliver his +judgment upon the whole: which in brief was this:--That it is all +windy foppery from the beginning to the end, written, to the +elevation of that rabble and meant to cheat the ignorant; that you +fight always with the flat of your hand like a rhetorician, and never +contract the logical fist; that you trade altogether in universals, +the region of deceits and fallacy, but never come so near +particulars as to let us know which among divers things of the same +kind you would be at ... Besides this, as all your politics reach but +the outside and circumstances of things, and never touch at +realities, so you are very solicitous about _words_, as if they +were charms, or had more in them than what they signify; for no +conjuror's devil is more concerned in a spell than you are in a mere +word." This last speaker having moved that Mr. Harrington himself, in +conclusion, should deliver _his_ opinion on Mr. Milton's book, +the result was as follows:-- + + "I knew not (though unwilling) how to avoid it; and therefore I + told them, as briefly as I could, that that which I disliked most + in your treatise was that there is not one word of _The Balance + of Property_, nor the _Agrarian_, nor _Rotation_, in + it from the beginning to the end: without which (together with a + _Lord Archon_) I thought I had sufficiently demonstrated, not + only in my writings but public exercises in that coffee-house, that + there is no possible foundation of a free Commonwealth. To the + first and second of these,--that is, the _Balance_ and the + _Agrarian_,--you made no objection; and therefore I should not + need to make any answer. But for the third,--I mean + _Rotation_,--which you implicitly reject in your design to + perpetuate the present members, I shall only add this to what I + have already said and written on that subject: That a Commonwealth + is like a great top, that must be kept up by being whipt round, and + held in perpetual circulation; for, if you discontinue the + rotation, and suffer the Senate to settle and stand still, down it + falls immediately. And, if you had studied this point as carefully + as I have done, you could not but know there is no such way under + Heaven of disposing the vicissitudes of command and obedience, and + of distributing equal right and liberty among all men, as this of + _Wheeling_."...[1] + +[Footnote 1: There is a reprint of this _Censure of the Rota_ +in the Harleian Miscellany (IV. 179-186). I take the date of +publication from the Thomason copy of the original.] + +How notoriously Milton had flashed forth as the chief militant +Republican of the crisis, how universally he had drawn upon himself +in that character the eyes of the Royalists and become the target for +their bitterest shafts, may appear from yet another probing among the +contemporary London pamphlets.----Perhaps the last formal and +collective appeal on behalf of the Republic to Monk and the others in +power was a small tract which appeared in the end of March, with this +title:--_Plain English to his Excellencie the Lord-General Monk and +the Officers of his Army: or a Word in Season, not onely to them, but +to all impartial Englishmen. To which is added a Declaration of the +Parliament in the year 1647, setting forth the grounds and reasons +why they resolved to make no further Address or Application to the +King. Printed at London in the year_ 1660. The first part of the +tract consists of eight pages addressed to Monk, in the form of a +letter dated "March 22," by some persons who do not give their names, +but sign themselves "your Excellency's most faithful friends and +servants in the common cause"; after which, in smaller type, comes a +reprint of the famous reasons of the Long Parliament for their total +rupture with Charles I. in January 1647-8 (Vol. III. pp. 584-585). +The letter begins thus:--"My Lord and Gentlemen,--It is written +_The prudent shall keep silence in the evil time_; and 'tis like +we also might hold our peace, but that we fear a knife is at the very +throat not only of our and your liberties, but of our persons also. +In this condition we hope it will be no offence if we cry out to you +for help,--you that, through God's goodness, have helped us so often, +and strenuously maintained the same cause with us against the return +of that family which pretends to the Government of these nations ... +We cannot yet be persuaded, though our fears and jealousies are +strong and the grounds of them many, that you can so lull asleep your +consciences, or forget the public interests and your own, as to be +returning back with the multitude to Egypt, or that you should with +them be hankering after the leeks and onions of our old bondage." +There follows an earnest invective against the Stuarts; but the tone +of respectfulness to Monk is kept up studiously throughout. There is +no sign of Milton in the language, and one guesses on the whole that +the tract was a concoction of a few of the City Republicans, with +Barebone among them, meeting privately perhaps in the back-parlour of +the Republican bookseller who ventured the publication anonymously; +but it is possible that Milton may have been consulted, or at least +have been cognisant of the affair. The reprinting of the reasons of +the Long Parliament for their No-Address Resolutions of January +1647-8 was an excellent idea, inasmuch as it reminded people of that +disgust with Charles I., that impossibility of dealing with him even +in his captive condition, which had driven the Parliamentarians to +the theory of a Republic a year before the Republic had been actually +founded; and this feature of the tract may have seemed good to +Milton.----The Tract must have annoyed Monk and the other +authorities, for it was immediately suppressed. This we learn from a +reply to it, which appeared on the 3rd of April, with the title +_Treason Arraigned, in answer to Plain English, being a Trayterous +and Phanatique Pamphlet which was condemned by the Counsel of State, +suppressed by Authority, and the Printer declared against by +Proclamation ... London, Printed in the year_ 1660. The reply +takes the very curious form of a reproduction of the condemned tract +almost textually, paragraph by paragraph, with a running comment of +vituperation upon the author or authors. The following sentences, +culled from the vituperative comment, will show that the writer +suspected Milton as the person chiefly responsible, and will +sufficiently represent the entire performance:-- + + "Some two days since came to my view a bold sharp pamphlet, called + _Plain English_, directed to the General and his Officers.... + It is a piece drawn by no fool, and it deserves a serious answer. + By the design, the subject, malice, and the style, I should suspect + it for a blot of the same pen that wrote _Eikonoklastes_. It + runs foul, tends to tumult; and, not content barely to applaud the + murder of the King, the execrable author of it vomits upon his + ashes with a pedantic and envenomed scorn, pursuing still his + sacred memory. Betwixt him [Milton] and his brother Rabshakeh + [Needham?] I think a man may venture to divide the glory of it. It + relishes the mixture of their united faculties and wickedness.... + Say, Milton, Needham, either or both of you, or whosoever else, say + where this worthy person [Monk] ever mixed with you.... Come, hang + yourself; beg right; here's your true method of begging:--'O, for + Tom Scott's sake, for Hasilrig's sake, for Robinson, Holland, + Mildmay, Mounson, Corbet, Atkins, Vane, Livesey, Skippon, Milton, + Tichbourne, Ireton, Gordon, Lechmere, Blagrave, Barebone, Needham's + sake, and, to conclude, for all the rest of our unpenitent + brethren's sake, help a company of poor rebellious devils[1].'" + +[Footnote 1: The dates of the two pamphlets, and the extracts, are +from copies in the Thomason Collection. Such references to Milton in +the pamphlets of March--April 1660 might be multiplied. He was then +in all men's mouths.] + +We are now, it is to be seen, in the mid-stream of those final forty +days which intervened between the self-dissolution of the last +fag-end of the Long Parliament and the meeting of the Full and Free +Parliament called for the conclusive settlement (March 16, +1659-60-April 25, 1660). Monk was Dictator; the Council of State, +with Annesley for President, was the body in charge, along with Monk, +keeping the peace; but all eyes were directed towards the coming +Parliament, the elections for which were going on. It was precisely +in the beginning of April that the popular current towards a +restoration of Charles Stuart and nothing else had acquired full +force and become a roaring and foaming torrent. They were shouting +for him, singing for him, treating his restoration as already +certain, though the precise manner and date of it must be left to the +Parliament. Only the chiefs, Monk, Annesley, Montague, and the other +Councillors, kept up an appearance as if the issue must not be +anticipated till the Parliament should have actually met. With +letters to and from Charles in their pockets, and each knowing or +guessing that the others had such letters, they were trying to look +as unpledged and as merely cogitative as they could. It was for the +multitude to roar and shout for Charles, and they had now full +permission. It was for the chiefs to be silent themselves, only +managing and manipulating, and watchful especially against any +outbreak of Republican fanaticism even yet that might interfere with +the plain course of things and baulk or delay the popular +expectation. Wherever they could perceive a likelihood of +disturbance, by act or by speech, there they were bound to curb or +suppress. + +At least in one instance they found it necessary to curb a too hasty +and impetuous Royalist. This was Dr. Matthew Griffith, a clergyman +over sixty years of age, once a _protegé_ of the poet Donne. +Sequestered in the early days of the Long Parliament from his rectory +of St. Mary Magdalen, London, he had taken refuge with the King +through the civil wars, and had been made D.D. at Oxford, and one of +the King's chaplains. Afterwards, returning to London, he had lived +there through the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, one of those +that continued the use of the liturgy and other Anglican church-forms +by stealth to small gatherings of cavaliers, and that found +themselves often in trouble on that account. He had suffered, it is +said, four imprisonments. The near prospect of the return of Charles +II. at last had naturally excited the old gentleman; and, chancing to +preach in the Mercers' Chapel on Sunday the 25th of March, 1660, he +had chosen for his text _Prov._ XXIV. 21, which he translated +thus: "My son, fear God and the King, and meddle not with them that +be seditious or desirous of change." On this text he had preached a +very Royalist sermon. There would have been nothing peculiar in that, +as many clergymen were doing the like. But, not content with having +preached the sermon, Dr. Griffith resolved to publish it, in an +ostentatious manner and with certain accompaniments. "_The Fear of +God and the King. Press'd in a Sermon preach'd at Mercers Chappell on +the 25th of March, 1660. Together with a brief Historical Account of +the Causes of our unhappy distractions and the onely way to heal +them. By Matthew Griffith, D.D., and Chaplain to the late King. +London, Printed for Tho. Johnson at the Golden Key in St. Pauls +Churchyard_, 1660": such was the name of a duodecimo out in London +in the first days of April.[1] The volume consists of three +parts,--first, a dedicatory epistle "To His Excellency George Monck, +Captain-General of all the Land Forces of England, Scotland, and +Ireland, and one of the Generals of all the Naval Forces"; then the +sermon itself in fifty-eight pages; and then an addition, in the +shape of a directly political pamphlet, headed "_The Samaritan +Revived_." The gem is the dedication to Monk. The substance of +that is as follows:-- + +[Footnote 1: "April" only, without day, is the date in the Thomason +copy; but it was registered at Stationers' Hall, March 31, and there +is proof that the publication was immediate.] + + "My Lord,--If you will be pleased to allow me to be a physician in + the same sense that all moral divines do acknowledge the + body-politic (consisting of Church and State) to be a patient, + then I will now give your Highness a just account both how far and + how faithfully I have practised upon it by virtue of my profession. + When I first observed things to be somewhat out of order, by reason + of a high distemper, which then appeared by some infallible + indications, I thought it my duty to prescribe an wholesome + electuary (out of the 122nd Psalm at the 6th verse, in a sermon + which I was called to preach in the Cathedral Church of Saint + Paul's, anno 1642, and soon after published by command under this + title: _A Pathetical Persuasion to pray for the Public + Peace_), to be duly and devoutly taken every morning next our + hearts: hoping that, by God's blessing on the means, I should have + prevented that distemper from growing into a formed disease. Yet, + finding that my preventing physic did not work so kindly and take + so good an effect as I earnestly desired, but rather that this my + so tenderly beloved patient grew worse and worse, as not only being + in process of time fallen into a fever and that pestilential, but + also as having received divers dangerous wounds, which, rankling + and festering inwardly, brought it into a spiritual atrophy and + deep consumption, and the parts ill-affected (for want of + Christian care and skill in such mountebanks as were trusted with + the cure, while myself and most of the ancient orthodox clergy were + sequestered and silent) began to gangrene: and, when some of us + became sensible thereof, we took the confidence (being partly + emboldened by the connivance of the higher powers that then were) + to fall to the exercise of our ministerial functions again in such + poor parishes as would admit us: Then I saw it was high time not + only to prescribe strong purgative medicines in the pulpit + (contempered of the myrrh of mortification, the aloes of confession + and contrition, the rhubarb of restitution and satisfaction, with + divers other safe roots, seeds, and flowers, fit and necessary to + help to carry away by degrees the incredible confluence of ill + humours and all such malignant matter as offended), but also to put + pen to paper and appear in print (as in this imperfect and + impolished piece, which as guilty of an high presumption here in + all humility begs your Lordship's pardon) wherein my chief scope is + to personate the Good Samaritan, that, as he cured the wounded + traveller by searching his wounds with wine and suppling them with + oil, so I have here both described the rise and progress of our + national malady, and also prescribed the only remedy, that I might + be in some kind instrumental, under God and your Highness, in the + healing of the same ... My Lord, as it must needs grieve you to see + these three distressed kingdoms lie like a body without a head, so + it may also cheer you to consider that the Comforter hath empowered + you (and in this nick of time you only) to make these dead and dry + bones live. You may by this one act ennoble and eternize yourself + more in the hearts and chronicles of these three kingdoms than by + all your former victories and the long line of your extraction from + the Plantagenets your ancestors ... It is a greater honour to + _make_ a king than to _be_ one. Your proper name minds + you of being St. George for England; you surname prompts you to + stand for order: then let not panic fears, punctilios of human + policy, or state formalities, beguile you (whom we look upon as + Jethro's magistrate, who was a man of courage, fearing God, dealing + truly, and hating covetousness) of that immarescible crown of glory + due to you, whom we hope that God hath designed to be the repairer + of the breach and the temporal redeemer of your native country." + +Evidently Dr. Griffith was a silly person, more likely to make a +cause ridiculous than to help it. There were things in his sermon and +its accompaniments, however, that might harm the King's cause +otherwise than by the bad literary taste of the defence. There was a +tone of that revengeful spirit which it was the policy of all the +more prudent Royalists to disown. Hence the publication annoyed even +in that quarter. The unpardonable offence, however, was the address +to Monk. He was studying to be as secret as the grave, had signified +his leanings to the King by not a single public word, and indeed had +hardly ceased to swear he stood for the Commonwealth. And here was an +impudent Doctor of Divinity spoiling all by openly assuming and +announcing the very thing to be concealed. Monk was excessively +irritated; the Council of State sympathized with him; and so, "to +please and blind the fanatical party" for the moment, Dr. Griffith +was sent to Newgate.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Ath. III. 711-713.--Hyde, writing from Breda, +April 16, 1660, says to a Royalist correspondent: "This very last +post hath brought over three or four complaints to the king of the +very unskillful passion and distemper of some of our divines in their +late sermons; with which they say that both the General and the +Council of State are highly offended, as truly they have reason to be +... One Dr. Griffith is mentioned." _Ibid._, note by Bliss.] + +It was more natural, however, for the General and the Council to take +similar precautions against too violent expressions of +anti-Royalism, too vehement efforts to stir up the Republican embers. +Of their vigilance in this respect we have just seen an instance in +their instant suppression of the Republican appeal to Monk and his +Officers entitled _Plain English_, and their procedure by +proclamation against the anonymous publisher of that tract. If I am +not mistaken, he was Livewell Chapman, of the Crown in Pope's Head +Alley, the publisher of Milton's _Considerations touching the +likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of the Church_, and also +of his more recent _Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free +Commonwealth_. There was, at all events, a printed proclamation of +the Council of State against this person, dated "Wednesday, 28 March, +1660," and signed "William Jessop, Clerk of the Council." It began in +these terms:--"Whereas the Council of State is informed that Livewell +Chapman, of London, Stationer, having from a wicked design to engage +the nation in blood and confusion caused several seditious and +treasonable books to be printed and published, doth, now hide and +obscure himself, for avoiding the hand of justice"; and it ended with +an order that Chapman should surrender himself within four days, and +that none should harbour or conceal him, but all, and especially +officers, try to arrest him. If he was the publisher of _Plain +English_, there would be additional reason for suspecting that +Milton had some cognisance of that anonymous appeal to Monk; but +there can be no doubt that among the "seditious and treasonable +books" the publication of which constituted Chapman's offence was +Milton's own _Ready and Easy Way_. The authorities had not yet +struck at Milton himself, but they were coming very near him. They +had ordered the arrest of his publisher. + +Within a few days after the order for the arrest of Milton's +publisher, Livewell Chapman, the authorities signified their +displeasure, though in a less harsh manner, with another Republican +associate of Milton, his old friend Marchamont Needham.--Not without +difficulty had this Oliverian journalist, the subsidized editor since +1655 of the bi-weekly official newspaper of the Protectorate (calling +itself _The Public Intelligencer_ on Mondays and _Mercurius +Politicus_ on Thursdays), been retained in the service of the Good +Old Cause. His Oliverianism having been excessive, to the extent of +defending not only Oliver's Established Church, but also all else in +his policy that grated most on the pure Republicans, he had been +discharged from his editorship on the 13th of May, 1659, by order of +the Restored Rump, before it had been six days in power, the place +going then to John Canne. But Needham's versatility was matchless, +and on the 15th of August the Rump had thought it best to reappoint +him to the editorship.[1] Since then, having already in succession +been Parliamentarian, Royalist, Commonwealth's man or Rumper, and all +but anti-Republican Protectoratist, the world had known him in his +fifth phase of Rumper or pure Commonwealth's man again. Not only in +his journals, but also in independent pamphlets, he had advocated the +Good Old Cause. One such pamphlet, published with his name in August +1659, under the title of _Interest will not lie_,[2] had been in +reply to some Royalist who had propounded "a way how to satisfy all +parties and provide for the public good by calling in the son of the +late King": against whom Needham's contention was "that it is really +the interest of every party (except only the Papist) to keep him +out." One can understand now why, in the Royalist squib lately +quoted, Needham was named as "the Commonwealth didapper"[3] along +with Milton as "their goose-quill champion," and why the public were +there promised the pleasure of soon seeing the two at Tyburn +together.--But the final performance of Needham's, it is believed, +was a tract called _News from Brussels, in a Letter from a near +attendant on his Majesty's person to a Person of Honour here_. It +purports to be dated at Brussels, March 10, 1659-60, English style, +and was out in London on March 23. The publication is said to have +been managed secretly by Mr. Praise-God Barebone; and, though the +tract was anonymous, it was attributed at once to Needham. Being +"fall of rascalities against Charles II. and his Court," as Wood +says, and professing to give private information as to the terrible +severities which they were meditating when they should be restored to +England, the pamphlet was much resented by the Royalists; and John +Evelyn roused himself from a sickbed to pen an instant and emphatic +contradiction, called _The late News or Message from Brussels +unmasked_. Needham's connexion, or supposed connexion, with so +violent an anti-Royalist tract, and possibly also with the Republican +manifesto called _Plain English_, which appeared in the same +week, could not be overlooked; and, accordingly, in Whitlocke, under +date April 9, 1660, we find this note: "The Council discharged +Needham from writing the Weekly Intelligence and ordered Dury and +Muddiman to do it." The Dury here mentioned was not our John Durie of +European celebrity, but an insignificant Giles Dury. His colleague +Muddiman, the real successor of Needham in the editorship, was Henry +Muddiman, an acquaintance of Pepys, who certifies that he was "a good +scholar and an arch rogue." He had been connected with the London +press for some time (for smaller news-sheets had been springing up +again beside the authorized _Mercurius_ and +_Intelligencer_), and had been writing for the Rumpers. He had +just been, owning to Pepys, however, that he "did it only to get +money," and had no liking for them or their politics.[4] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates. As only the +_Intelligencer_ is named in the orders, one infers that Needham +retained the editorship of the _Mercurius_ during his three +months of suspension. He may have had more of a proprietary hold on +that paper.] + +[Footnote 2: Thomason Catalogue: large quartos.] + +[Footnote 3: _Didapper_: a duck that dives and reappears.] + +[Footnote 4: Wood's Ath. III. 1180-1190; Whitlocke as cited; Pepys, +under date Jan. 9, 1659-60; Evelyn's Diary, Feb. 17, 1659-60 _et +seq._; Baker's Chronicle continued by Edward Phillips (ed. 1679), +pp. 699-700.--It is curious to read Phillips's remarks on the +"several seditious pamphlets" put forth by the Republican fanatics +"to deprave the minds of the people" and prevent the Restoration. +Though he must have remembered well that his uncle's were the chief +of these, he avoids naming him. He mentions, however, the _News +from Brussels_, and dilates on the great service done by Evelyn in +replying to it. Phillips had meanwhile (1663-1665) been in Evelyn's +employment as tutor to his son.] + +If they turned Needham out of his editorship, they could hardly do +less than turn Milton out of his Latin Secretaryship. About this +time, accordingly, he did cease to hold the office which he had held +for eleven years. Phillips's words are that he was "sequestered from +his office of Latin Secretary and the salary thereunto belonging"; +but, unfortunately, though he gives us to understand that this was +shortly before the Restoration, he leaves the exact date uncertain. + +Though the last of Milton's state-letters now preserved and known as +his are the two, dated May 15, 1659, written for the Rump immediately +after the subversion of Richard's Protectorate, we have seen him +holding his office in sinecure, and drawing his salary of £200 a +year, to as late at least as the beginning of the Wallingford-House +Interruption in October 1659; and there is no reason for thinking +that the Council or Committee of Safety of the Wallingford-House +Government, his dissent from their usurpation notwithstanding, +thought it necessary to dismiss him. Far less likely is it that the +Republican Rumpers, when restored the second time in December 1659, +would have parted with a man so thoroughly Republican and so +respectful to themselves, even while they dared not adopt his +Church-disestablishment suggestions. We may fairly assume, then, that +Milton remained Marvell's nominal colleague till Monk's final +termination of the tenure of the Rump by re-admitting the secluded +members, i.e. till Feb. 21, 1659-60. Had he been then at once +dismissed, it would have been no wonder. How could he, the +Independent of Independents, the denouncer of every form of +State-Church, the enemy and satirist of the Presbyterians, and +moreover the author of the Divorce heresy and the founder of a sect +of Divorcers, be retained in the service of a re-Presbyterianized +Government, founding itself on the Westminster Confession and the +Solemn League and Covenant? There is no proof, however, of any such +instant dismissal of Milton by the new powers, but rather a shade of +proof to the contrary in the phraseology of the preface to his +_Ready and Easy Way_. The probability, therefore, is that it was +after March 3, the date of the publication of that pamphlet, that +Milton was sequestered, and that it was the pamphlet itself, added to +the sum of his previous obnoxiousness to the new powers, that led to +the sequestration. Yet, as the new powers were proceeding warily, and +keeping up as long as they could the pretence of leaving the +Commonwealth an open question, it is quite possible that they were in +no haste to discharge Milton, All in all, the most probable time of +his dismissal is some time after the dissolution of the Parliament of +the Secluded Members on the 16th of March, 1659-60, when Monk and the +Council of State were left in the management. As Milton had been +originally appointed by the Council of State and not by Parliament, +it was in the Council's pleasure to continue him or dismiss him. They +were in a severe mood, virtually anti-Republican already, though not +yet avowedly so, between March 28, when they ordered Livewell +Chapman's arrest, and April 9, when they dismissed Needham; and that +or thereabouts may be the date of Milton's discharge.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Phillips's narrative of his uncle's dismissal is a +blotch of confused wording and pointing:--"It was but a little +before the King's Restoration that he wrote and published his book in +defence of a Commonwealth; so undaunted he was in declaring his true +sentiments to the world; and not long before his _Power of the +Civil Magistrate in Ecclesiastical Affairs_ and his _Treatise +against Hirelings,_ just upon the King's coming over; having a +little before been sequestered from his office of Latin Secretary and +the salary thereunto belonging, he was force," &c. This, as it +stands, defies interpretation. The _Treatise of Civil Power in +Ecclesiastical Causes_ appeared in April 1659, or eight months +before the same. There ought, I believe, to have been a full stop +after _Hirelings_, and the rest should have run on thus:--"Just +upon the King's coming over, having a little before been sequestered +from his office of latin Secretary and the salary therunto belonging, +he was force," &c.] + + * * * * * + +In office or out of office, it was the same to Milton. He had +determined that he would not be suppressed, that he would not be +silent, till they should tie his hands, or gag his mouth. There is no +grander exhibition of dying resistance, of solitary and useless +fighting for a lost cause, than in his conduct through April 1680. +Alone he then stood, we may say, the last of the visible Republicans. +Hasilrig, Scott, Ludlow, Neville, and Vane, had collapsed or were out +of sight, the last under ban already by his former brothers of the +Commonwealth; Needham was extinguished; most of the Cromwellians had +gone over to the enemy, or were hastening to surrender. Blind Milton +alone remained, the Samson Agonistes, On him, in the absence of +others, the eyes of the Philistine mob, the worshippers of Dagon, had +been turned from time to time of late as the Hebrew that could make +them most efficient sport; and now it was as if they had all met, by +common consent, to be amused by this single Hebrew's last exertions, +and had sent to bring him on the stage. They laughed, they shouted, +they shrieked, the gathered Philistine thousands: + + "He, patient, but undaunted, where they led him + Came to the place." + +The first of the feats of strength of Milton, thus alone on the +stage, and knowing himself to be confronted and surrounded by a +jeering multitude, was a somewhat puny and unnecessary one. It was an +onslaught on Dr. Matthew Griffith for his Royalist sermon. He wanted +some object of attack, and the very notoriety given to Dr. Griffith's +performance by the rebuke of the Council of State recommended it for +the purpose despite its intrinsic wretchedness. Accordingly, having +had Dr. Griffith's Sermon and its accompaniments read over to him, he +dictated what appeared some time in April with this title: "_Brief +Notes upon a late Sermon, titled 'The Fear of God and the King'; +Preach'd, and since published, by Matthew Griffith, D.D., and +Chaplain to the late King. Wherin many notorious wrestings of +Scripture, and other falsities are observed._"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Original copies of this pamphlet of Milton must be very +scarce. I could not find one in the British Museum, and I have +looked in vain elsewhere. Probably, at the date when it was +published, the Council of State had become very alert in +suppressing such things. I take the title and extracts from +Pickering's (1851) collective edition of Milton's Works, "printed +from the original editions."] + +The tract, which is very short, opens thus:-- + + "I affirmed, in the Preface of a late Discourse, entitled _The + Ready Way to establish a Free Commonwealth, and the Dangers of + readmitting Kingship in this Nation_, that 'the humour of + returning to our old bondage was instilled of late by some + deceivers': and, to make good that what I then affirmed was not + without just ground, one of those deceivers I present here to the + people, and, if I prove him not such, refuse not to be so accounted + in his stead." + +The greater part of the pamphlet consists of an examination of the +sermon itself, with minute remarks on its wrestings or +misinterpretations of Scripture texts, and on the poverty of the +preacher's theology and scholarship generally. There is no actual +disguise of the fact that Milton has the lowest opinion of the +intellectual _calibre_ of his antagonist, whom he once names "a +pulpit-mountebank," and of whom he once says that "the rest of his +preachment is mere groundless chat," Yet, on the other hand, he would +evidently have Dr. Griffith taken as a fair enough specimen of the +average Church-of-England clergyman. "O people of an implicit faith, +no better than Romish if these be your prime teachers!" he once +exclaims, as if Dr. Griffith were a man of some distinction. + +The only portions of the _Notes_ of interest now are those that +bear on the historical situation at the moment. Thus, in the notice +of the Dedicatory Epistle to Monk prefixed to Dr. Griffith's sermon, +there is an evident struggle on Milton's part to speak as if one +might still have faith in the General. It is possible that the +censure of Dr. Griffith by the Council of State, intended as it was +"to please and blind the fanatical party," may have had some such +temporary effect on Milton. At all events, he refers to Monk as one +"who hath so eminently borne his part in the whole action," and he +characterizes one portion of the Dedicatory Epistle, where Monk is +prayed "to carry on what he had so happily begun," as nothing less +than "an impudent calumny and affront to his Excellence." It charges +him, says Milton, "most audaciously and falsely, with the renouncing +of his own public promises and declarations both to the Parliament +and the Army; and we trust his actions ere long will deter such +insinuating slanderers from thus approaching him for the future." +Throughout the _Notes_, however, one sees that even this small +lingering of confidence in Monk is forced, and that Milton is too +sadly convinced of the probable predetermination of all now in power +to fulfil the general expectation and bring in Charles. In the +following passage there is a half-veiled intimation that, rather than +see that ignominious conclusion, Milton would reconcile himself to +Monk's own assumption of the Crown:-- + + "Free Commonwealths have been ever counted fittest and properest + for civil, virtuous, and industrious nations, abounding with + prudent men worthy to govern; Monarchy fittest to curb degenerate, + corrupt, idle, proud, luxurious people. If we desire to be of the + former, nothing better for us, nothing nobler, than a Free + Commonwealth; if we will needs condemn ourselves to be of the + latter, despairing of our own virtue, industry, and the number of + our able men, we may then, conscious of our own unworthiness to be + governed better, sadly betake us to our befitting thraldom: yet, + choosing out of our own number one who hath best aided the people + and best merited against tyranny, the space of a reign or two we + may chance to live happily enough, or tolerably. But that a + victorious people should give up themselves again to the vanquished + was never yet heard of, seems rather void of all reason and good + policy, and will in all probability subject the subduers to the + subdued,--will expose to revenge, to beggary, to ruin and + perpetual bondage, the victors, under the vanquished: than which + what can be more unworthy?" + +Of far more moment than the _Brief Notes on Dr. Griffith's +Sermon_ was a second and enlarged edition of the _Ready and Easy +Way to establish a Free Commonwealth_. + +Though it is announced distinctly and emphatically in the opening +paragraph that this edition is a "revised and enlarged" one, not till +after a careful comparison with the former edition is it seen how +much the announcement implies. There are large additions; there are +omissions; there are changes of phraseology in every page. The new +pamphlet, were it nothing else, would be an interesting study of +Milton's art in authorcraft, of the expertness he had acquired in +recasting a composition of his, ingeniously dove-tailing passages +into it without spoiling the connexion, and ejecting phrases that had +ceased to be relevant or vital, all under the difficulties of his +blindness, when his ear listening to some mouth beside him and his +own mouth interrupting and replying were his sole instruments. But +there is much more than this. The later edition is Milton about a +month farther down the torrent than the first, a month nearer the +falls; and the additions, omissions, and alterations, convey what had +passed in his mind through that month. The second edition of the +_Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free Commonwealth_ is to be +taken, in short, for Milton's Biography at least, as an important new +publication. Only the essential additions and omissions can be here +noticed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The fact that there are two editions of the _Ready and +Easy Way_, though Milton calls express attention to it in the +second, seems to have escaped all the bibliographers. There is no +note of it in Lowndes. What is most curious, however, is that, while +it is the second or enlarged edition alone that is now accessible to +everybody in the collective editions of Milton's Prose Works, from +the so-called Amsterdam edition of 1898 to Pickering's and Bonn's, +yet original copies of this second edition seem, to have wholly +disappeared. There are several original copies of the _Ready and +Easy Way_ in the British Museum, but all of the first edition, not +one of the second; the Bodleian has no copy of the second; every +original copy of the tract that I have been able to see or hear of +anywhere else has always turned out to be one of the first edition. +In my perplexity, I began to ask myself whether this was to be +explained by supposing that Milton, after he had prepared the second +edition for the press, did not succeed in getting it published, and +so that it was not till 1698 that it saw the light, and then by the +accident that his enlarged press-copy had survived, and come (through +Toland or otherwise) into the hands of the printers of the Amsterdam +edition of the Prose Works. But, though several pieces in that +edition are expressly noted as "never before published" (see notes +ante, p. 617 and p. 656), there is no such editorial note respecting +_The Ready and Easy Way_, but every appearance of mere +reprinting from a previously published copy of 1660. On the whole, +therefore, I conclude that Milton did publish his second and enlarged +edition some time in April 1660; and I account for the rarity of +original copies of this second edition by supposing that either the +impression was seized before many copies had got about, or the +Restoration itself came so rapidly after the publication as to make +it all but abortive. Original copies of Milton's contemporary +_Notes on Dr. Griffith's Sermon_ seem, as I have mentioned (ante +p. 675, note), to be equally scarce with original copies of the +second edition of the _Ready and Easy Way_. They were the two +last utterances of Milton before the Restoration, and so close to +that event as perhaps to be sucked down in the whirlpool. Yet, as we +know for certain that the _Notes on Dr. Griffith's Sermon_ did +appear, there is no need for a contrary supposition respecting the +other. Very possibly original copies of both _have_ survived +somewhere; and I should be glad to hear of the fact. As it is, I have +had to take my descriptions of both from the copies in the collective +Prose Works. By the bye, it is an error in bibliographers and editors +to give only the titles of old books from the original title-pages, +without adding the imprints of the publishers. Much historical and +biographical information lies in such imprints. In the present +instance, for example, I should have liked very much to know whether +Livewell Chapman was nominally the publisher of the second edition as +well as of the first, or whether Milton was obliged to put forth the +second edition without any publisher's name.] + +Among the _additions_ the most prominent is this motto (an +extension of Juvenal I. 15, 16) prefixed to the whole:-- + + "_Et nos_ + _Consilium dedimus Syllæ: demus Populo nunc_"; + +which may be translated:-- + + "We have advised + Sulla himself: advise we now the People." + +Had this been prefixed to the first edition, the inevitable +conclusion would have been that Sulla stood for Oliver Cromwell, and +that Milton meant that, having taken the liberty in his _Defensio +Secunda_ of tendering wholesome advices even to the great +Protector in the height of his power, it might be allowed to him now +to advise the general body of his countrymen. Much would have +depended then on Milton's estimate of the character of the real or +Roman Sulla. That seems to have been the ordinary and traditional +one, for in one of the smaller insertions in the text of the present +edition he speaks of the Roman People as having been brought, by +their own infatuation, "under the tyranny of Sulla." Now, though we +have seen that Milton had modified his opinion of the worth of +Cromwell's Government all in all, we should have been shocked by an +epithet of posthumous opprobrium applied to the man he had so +panegyrized while living. Fortunately, we are spared the shock. Monk, +not Cromwell, is the military dictator that Milton has in view in the +metonymy _Sulla_. He is thinking of his Letter to Monk only the +other day, containing that specific suggestion of a PERPETUAL +NATIONAL COUNCIL in the centre and CITY COUNCILS in all the counties +which he developes more at large in his pamphlet. Perhaps he is +thinking also of the more recent remonstrance, called _Plain +English_, addressed by some London Republicans, of whom he may +have been one, to Monk and his Officers. He has now done with Monk; +he knows that the suggestions have taken no effect in that quarter, +perhaps have been rebuffed; he will therefore dedicate them afresh +to the people at large, for whom they were first written. The +translation, accordingly, may run definitely thus:-- + + "This advice we have given + Sulla himself: 'tis for the People now." + +In one or two of the added passages, or modifications of phraseology, +we note reference to the course of events since the publication of +the former edition. Compare, for example, the following portion of +the prefatory paragraph with the corresponding portion of the same +paragraph as it first stood (p. 645):-- + + ... "I thought best not to suppress what I had written, hoping that + it may now be of much more use and concernment to be freely + published in the midst of our elections to a Free Parliament, or + their sitting to consider freely of the Government; whom it behoves + to have all things represented to them that may direct their + judgment therein: and I never read of any state, scarce of any + tyrant, grown so incurable as to refuse counsel from any in a time + of public deliberation, much less to be offended. If their absolute + determination be to enthral us, before so long a Lent of servitude + they may permit us a little Shroving-time first, wherein to speak + freely and take our leaves of Liberty, And, because in the former + edition, through haste, many faults escaped, and many books were + suddenly dispersed ere the note to mend them could be sent, I took + the opportunity from this occasion to revise and somewhat to + enlarge the whole discourse, especially that part which argues for + a Perpetual Senate. The treatise, thus revised and enlarged, is as + follows." + +Again, the renewal of the Solemn League and Covenant by the late +Parliament of the Secluded Members furnishes Milton with a fresh +text. He does not, as might have been expected, and as he certainly +would have done on another occasion, upbraid the Parliament with the +fact, or denounce the return to Presbyterian strictness of which it +was a signal: on the contrary, he presses the fact into his service +as a new argument against the recall of Charles. The first of the +following sentences had appeared in the former edition; but the rest +is suggested by the revival of the Covenant in the interim:-- + + "What Liberty of Conscience can we then expect of others [even the + good and great Queen Elizabeth, he has just said, had thought + persecution necessary to preserve royal authority], far worse + principled from, the cradle, trained up and governed by Popish and + Spanish counsels, and on such depending hitherto for subsistence? + Especially, what can this last Parliament expect, who, having + revived lately and published the Covenant, hare re-engaged + themselves never to readmit Episcopacy? Which no son of Charles + returning but will most certainly bring back with him, if he regard + the last and strictest charge of his father, _to persevere in not + the Doctrine only, but Government, of the Church of England, [and] + not to neglect the speedy and effectual suppressing of Errors and + Schisms_,--among which he accounted Presbytery one of the chief. + Or, if, notwithstanding that charge of his father, he submit to the + Covenant, how will he keep faith to _us_ with disobedience to + _him_, or regard that faith given which must be founded on the + breach of that last and solemnest paternal charge, and the + reluctance, I may say the antipathy, which is in all kings against + Presbyterian and Independent Discipline?" + +Perhaps the most striking instance of _omission_ in the new +edition of matter that had appeared in the first is in the paragraph +on the subject of Spiritual Liberty to which reference has been made +at p. 653. He retains in that paragraph nearly all that related to +Liberty of Conscience generally, but he carefully removes the two or +three sentences in which he had intimated his individual opinion that +there could be no perfect Liberty of Conscience without abolition of +Church Establishments and dissolution of every form of connexion +between Church and State. There was practical sagacity in this +omission at the moment at which he was re-issuing his pamphlet. It +was no time then to be obtruding upon the public, or upon the +Presbyterians that were flocking in to the new Parliament, his +peculiar Disestablishment notion, however precious it might be to +himself. His real business was to stir up all, by any means, to the +defence even yet of the Republican form of Government; in such an +argument, addressed mainly to Presbyterians and other zealots for a +State Church, the question of Disestablishment was rather to be +avoided; nay, for himself, that question had faded into +insignificance for the time in comparison with the vaster question +whether the Republic should be preserved or the Stuarts brought back, +and most willingly would he have been, assured of the preservation of +the Republic even though a State Church should continue to be part +and parcel of it, and the special battle of Disestablishment should +have to be postponed. To keep out the Stuarts, to rouse dread and +disgust even yet at the idea that the Stuarts should return, was the +single all-including possibility, or impossibility, for which he was +now striving. To this end it is that again and again in the course of +the pamphlet he inserts new passages heightening the contrast between +the glories and advantages of free Republican Government and the +miseries and degradation of subjection to a Monarchy. Near the +beginning there is an enlargement of this kind, to the extent of +three pages, in which he reviews, in greater detail than before, the +steps that had led to the establishment of the English Commonwealth; +and appeals to his countrymen whether their experience of +Commonwealth government had not been on the whole satisfactory. Had +not the very speeches and writings of that period, he had asked in +his first edition, "testified a spirit in this nation no less noble +and well-fitted to the liberty of a Commonwealth than in the ancient +Greeks or Romans"? In returning to that topic now, he cannot refrain +from breaking out once more, though it should be the last time, in +his characteristic vein of self-appreciation. "Nor was the heroic +cause," he adds, "unsuccessfully defended to all Christendom against +the tongue of a famous and thought invincible adversary, nor the +constancy and fortitude that so nobly vindicated our liberty, our +victory at once against two the most prevailing usurpers over +mankind, Superstition and Tyranny, unpraised or uncelebrated in a +written monument likely to outlive detraction, as it hath hitherto +convinced or silenced not a few detractors, especially in parts +abroad." Readers who may think that we are already too familiar with +this strain may be reminded that Milton was here taking account of +the contemptuous notices of his Defences of the Commonwealth in some +of the recent Royalist pamphlets, and also that, as he dictated, the +thought must have been passing in his mind that very probably his +days were numbered, and those Defences of the Commonwealth would have +to remain, after all, his last important bequest to the world. + +There is proof that Milton had read the burlesque Censure of the Rota +on the first edition. Not only are two or three sentences omitted or +modified in consequence of remarks there made; but, in the +considerable enlargements he thinks necessary for the support of his +main notion of PERPETUITY OF THIS NATIONAL GREAT COUNCIL, he takes +care to extend also his former references to Harrington's principle +of Rotation and other doctrines. Of course, he was well aware that it +was not Harrington himself that had complained of the slightness of +the former references, but only some Royalist wit caricaturing +Harrington together with himself. While disagreeing with Harrington, +he shows his respect for him. The following are specimens of these +particular enlargements:-- + + _The Rotation Principle_:--"But, if the ambition of such as + think themselves injured that they also partake not of the + Government, and are impatient till they be chosen, cannot brook the + perpetuity of others chosen before them, or if it be feared that + long continuance of power may corrupt sincerest men, the known + expedient is, and by some lately propounded, that annually (or, if + the space be longer, so much perhaps the better) the third part of + Senators may go out, according to the precedence of their election, + and the like number be chosen in their places, to prevent the + settling of too absolute a power if it should be perpetual: and + this they call _Partial Rotation_. But I could wish that this + wheel or partial wheel in State, if it be possible, might be + avoided, as having too much, affinity with the Wheel of Fortune. + For it appears not how this can be done without danger and + mischance of putting out a great number of the best and ablest; in + whose stead new elections may bring in as many raw, unexperienced, + and otherwise affected, to the weakening and much altering for the + worse of public transactions. Neither do I think a Perpetual + Senate, especially chosen and entrusted by the people, much in this + land to be feared, where the well-affected, either in a Standing + Army or in a Settled Militia, have their arms in their own hands. + Safest therefore to me it seems, and of least hazard or + interruption to affairs, that none of the Grand Council be moved, + unless by death or just conviction of some crime; for what can be + expected firm or stedfast from a floating foundation? However, I + forejudge not any probable expedient, any temperament that can be + found in things of this nature, so disputable on either side." + + _Contrast of Harrington's Model with Milton's, and a Suggestion + for the mode of Elections_:--"And this annual Rotation of a + Senate to consist of 300, as is lately propounded, requires also + another Popular Assembly upward of 1000, with an answerable + Rotation. Which, besides that it will be liable to all those + inconveniencies found in the foresaid remedies, cannot but be + troublesome and chargeable, both in their motion and their session, + to the whole land,--unwieldy with their own bulk: unable in so + great a number to mature their consultations as they ought, if any + be allotted to them, and that they meet not from so many parts + remote to sit a whole year leaguer in one place, only now and then + to hold up a forest of fingers, or to convey each man his bean or + ballot into the box, without reason shown or common deliberation; + incontinent of secrets, if any be imparted to them; emulous and + always jarring with the other Senate. The much better way doubtless + will be, in this wavering condition of our affairs, to defer the + changing or circumscribing of our Senate, more than may be done + with ease, till the Commonwealth be thoroughly settled in peace and + safety and they themselves give us the occasion.... Another way + will be to well qualify and refine Elections: not committing all to + the noise and shouting of a rude multitude, but permitting only + those of them who are rightly qualified to nominate as many as they + will; and out of that number others of a better breeding to choose + a less number more judiciously; till, after a third or fourth + sifting and refining of exactest choice, they only be left chosen + who are the due number, and seem by most voices the worthiest.... + But, to prevent all mistrust, the People then will have their + several Ordinary Assemblies (which will henceforth quite annihilate + the odious power and name of _Committees_) in the chief towns + of every County,--without the trouble, charge, or time lost, of + summoning and assembling from so far, in so great a number, and so + long residing from their own houses, or removing of their + families,--to do as much at home in their several shires, entire or + subdivided, towards the securing of their liberty, as a numerous + Assembly of them all formed and convened on purpose with the + wariest rotation." + + _Glance at some of Harrington's other notions_:--"The way + propounded [Milton's] is plain, easy, and open before us: without + intricacies, without the introducement of new or obsolete forms or + terms, or exotic models,--ideas that would effect nothing, but with + a number of new injunctions to manacle the native liberty of + mankind; turning all virtue into prescription, servitude, and + necessity, to the great impairing and frustrating of Christian + Liberty." + +As if the very closeness of the vision of returning Royalty had +rendered Milton's defiance of it more desperate and reckless, he +inserts, wherever he can, some new expression of his contempt for +Charles and all his family, and of his prophetic horror of the state +of society they will bring in. Thus:-- + + "There will be a Queen of no less charge, in most likelihood + outlandish and a Papist, besides a Queen-Mother, such already, + together with both their Courts and numerous Train: then a Royal + issue, and ere long severally _their_ sumptuous Courts, to the + multiplying of a servile crew, not of servants only, but of + nobility and gentry, bred up then to the hopes not of public, but + of court offices, to be Stewards, Chamberlains, Ushers, Grooms." + +But the most terrific new passage in prediction of the Restoration +and its revenges is the following: in which the reader will observe +also the recognition, as in one spurn of boundless scorn, of the +Royalist scurrilities against himself:-- + + "Admit that Monarchy of itself may be convenient to some nations; + yet to us who have thrown it out, received back again, it cannot + but prove pernicious. For Kings to come, never forgetting their + former ejection, will be sure to fortify and arm themselves + sufficiently for the future against all such attempts hereafter + from the People; who shall be then so narrowly watched and kept so + low that, though they would never so fain, and at the same rate of + their blood and treasure, they never shall be able to regain what + they now have purchased and may enjoy, or to free themselves from + any yoke imposed upon them. Nor will they dare to go about + it,--utterly disheartened for the future, if these their highest + attempts prove unsuccessful: which will be the triumph of all + Tyrants hereafter over any People that shall resist oppression; and + their song will then be to others _How sped the Rebellious + English?_, to our posterity _How sped the Rebels your + fathers?_.... Yet neither shall we obtain or buy at an easy rate + this new gilded yoke which thus transports us. A new Royal Revenue + must be found, a new Episcopal,--for those are individual: both + which, being wholly dissipated or bought by private persons, or + assigned for service done, and especially to the Army, cannot be + recovered without a general detriment and confusion to men's + estates, or a heavy imposition on all men's purses,--benefit to + none but to the worst and ignoblest sort of men, whose hope is to + be either the ministers of Court riot and excess or the gainers by + it. But, not to speak more of losses and extraordinary levies on + our estates, what will then be the revenges and offences remembered + and returned, not only by the Chief Person, but by all his + adherents: accounts and reparations that will be required, suits, + indictments, inquiries, discoveries, complaints, + informations,--who knows against whom or how many, though perhaps + neuters,--if not to utmost infliction, yet to imprisonment, fines, + banishment, or molestation. If not these, yet disfavour, + discountenance, disregard, and contempt on all but the known + Royalist, or whom he favours, will be plenteous. Nor let the + new-royalized Presbyterians persuade themselves that their old + doings, though, now recanted, will be forgotten, whatever + conditions be contrived or trusted on. Will they not believe this, + nor remember the Pacification how it was kept to the Scots, how + other solemn promises many a time to us? Let them but now read the + diabolical forerunning libels, the faces, the gestures, that now + appear foremost and briskest in all public places as the harbingers + of those that are in expectation to reign over us; let them but + hear the insolencies, the menaces, the insultings of our newly + animated common enemies, crept lately out of their holes, their + Hell I might say, by the language of their infernal pamphlets, the + spew of every drunkard, every ribald: nameless, yet not for want of + licence, but for very shame of their own vile persons; not daring + to name themselves while they traduce others by name, and give us + to foresee that they intend to second their wicked words, if ever + they have power, with more wicked deeds. Let our zealous + backsliders [the Presbyterians] forethink now with themselves how + _their_ necks, yoked with these tigers of Bacchus,--these new + fanatics of not the preaching but the sweating tub, inspired with + nothing holier than the venereal pox,--can draw one way, under + Monarchy, to the establishing of Church-Discipline with these + new-disgorged Atheisms. Yet shall they not have the honour to yoke + with these, but shall be yoked under them: these shall plough on + _their_ backs. And do they among them who are so forward to + bring in the Single Person think to be by him trusted or long + regarded? So trusted they shall be and so regarded as by Kings are + wont reconciled enemies,--neglected and soon after discarded, if + not prosecuted for old traitors, the first inciters, beginners, and + more than to the third part actors, of all that followed." + +Milton, does not deny that the vast majority of the nation desire the +restoration of the King. He admits the fact and scouts it. He asserts +that by "the trial of just battle" the larger part of the population +of England long ago "lost the right of their election what the form +of Government shall be," and that, if even a majority of the rest +would now vote for Kingship, their wishes must go for nothing. "Is it +just or reasonable that most voices, against the main end of +Government, should enslave the less number that would be free? More +just it is, doubtless, if it come to force, that a less number compel +a greater to retain (which can be no wrong to them) their liberty +than that a greater number, for the pleasure of their baseness, +compel a less most injuriously to be their fellow-slaves." When he +wrote this, he must have known well enough that he was writing in +vain. He confesses as much in his peroration. He confesses it there +even by that single modification of the language which might seem at +first sight the only sign of prudential concession and anticipation +of personal consequences throughout the whole pamphlet. In citing the +prophecy of Jeremiah he omits the passage exulting in God's decree of +exile against Coniah and his seed for ever (ante p. 654-655). But +this is no prudential concession, no softening down in anticipation +that the passage might be produced against him. Of that state of +mind, of any fear of consequences whatever, there is not a trace +throughout the recast of his pamphlet. He is defying and daring the +worst, and has thrown in already every possible addition of matter of +insult to the coming Charles. He omits the passage about Coniah +precisely because its application to Charles is unfortunately no +longer possible; and the peroration for the rest is modified by the +sorrow that so it should be. He will exhort against the Restoration +to his latest breath; but he is looking across the Restoration now, +and sending his words on to an unknown posterity. + + "What I have spoken is the language of that which is not called + amiss _The Good Old Cause_: if it seem strange to any, it will + not seem more strange, I hope, than convincing to backsliders. Thus + much I should perhaps have said though I were sure I should have + spoken only to trees and stones, and had none to cry to but, with + the Prophet, _O Earth, Earth, Earth!_, to tell the very soil + itself what her perverse inhabitants are deaf to. Nay, though what + I have spoken should happen (which Thou suffer not who didst create + Mankind free, nor Thou next who didst redeem us from being servants + of men!) to be the last words of our expiring Liberty. But I trust + I shall have spoken persuasion to abundance of sensible and + ingenuous men,--to some perhaps whom God may raise up of these + stones to become children of reviving Liberty, and may reclaim, + though they seem now choosing them a Captain back for Egypt, to + bethink themselves a little and consider whither they are rushing; + to exhort this torrent also of the people not to be so impetuous, + but to keep their due channel; and, at length recovering and + uniting their better resolutions, now that they see already how + open and unbounded the insolence and rage is of our common enemies, + to stay these ruinous proceedings, justly and timely fearing to + what a precipice of destruction the deluge of this epidemic madness + would hurry us, through the general defection of a misguided and + abused multitude." + +To exhort a torrent! The very mixture and hurry of the metaphors In +Milton's mind are a reflex of the facts around him. Current, torrent, +rush, rapid, avalanche, deluge hurrying to a precipice: mix and +jumble such figures as we may, we but express more accurately the mad +haste which London and all England were making in the end of April +1660 to bring Charles over from the Continent. Of the only important +relic of opposition, the Republicanism of the Army, and how that had +been already managed by Monk, and was still being managed by him, we +have taken account. Its dying effort, as we saw, took the form of +Lambert's escape from the Tower on the 9th of April, and his thirteen +days of wild wandering and skulking on the chance of bringing the +dispersed remains of Republicanism to a rendezvous. That was over on +Easter-Sunday, April 22, when Dick Ingoldsby, with flushed face, and +pistol in hand, collared the fugitive Lambert on his horse in a field +near Daventry, and brought him back, with others, to his prison in +the Tower. Strange that it should have been Lambert after all that +Milton found maintaining last by arms the cause which he was himself +maintaining last by the pen. Lambert was the Republican he least +liked, hardly indeed a genuine Republican at all, though driven to a +desperate attempt for Republicanism as his final shift, So it had +happened, however. Milton and Lambert may be remembered together as +the last opponents of the avalanche. Lambert had fronted it with a +small rapier; Milton had wrestled with it in a grand exhortation.[1] + +[Footnote 1: As the date of the second edition of Milton's _Ready +and Easy Way_ is a matter of real interest, it may be well to note +here the evidence on the point furnished by the extracts that have +been made. In the second extract the phrase "_What can this last +Parliament expect, who, having revived lately and published the +Covenant &c.?_" seems distinctly to certify that Milton was +writing after the 16th of March, when the Parliament of the Secluded +Members had dissolved itself. The first extract, giving the new and +enlarged form of the opening paragraph, farther indicates that, while +Milton was writing, the country was in the midst of the elections for +the new "free and full" Parliament which had been called,--i.e. what +is now known as The Convention Parliament. He thinks that his +pamphlet, as modified, "_may now be of much more use and +concernment to be freely published in the midst of our elections to a +Free Parliament or their sitting to consider freely of the +Government_." Now, the elections went on from the end of March to +about the 20th of April, and Milton's words almost imply that he +expected them to be pretty well advanced before his second edition +was in circulation, so that the effect of that new edition, if it had +any, would rather be on the Parliament itself after its meeting on +April 25. The passages referring to Harrington, and which seem to +imply that Milton had read the _Censure of the Rota_ on his +first edition, would also bring the second edition into the month of +April, inasmuch as the _Censure_ was not out till March 30. +Finally, the whole tone of the added passages implies, as we have +already said, that Milton was at least a month farther down the +stream towards the Restoration than when the first edition appeared, +and the fact that in this second edition he utterly cancels and +withdraws the small lingering of faith in Monk which he had expressed +in his _Notes to Dr. Griffith's Sermon_ seems more particularly +to certify that those _Notes_ preceded the new edition of the +_Ready and Easy Way_ by a week or more. On the whole, I do not +think I am wrong in regarding the new edition as Milton's very last +performance before the Restoration, and in dating it somewhere +between April 9, the day of Lambert's escape from the Tower, and +April 24, when Lambert was brought back a prisoner to London and the +members of the Convention Parliament were already gathered in town. +As Thomason's copy of the first edition is marked "March 3," this +would make the interval between the two editions about a month and a +half.] + +The wrestlings now were ended. All that remained for the blind Samson +was to listen, with bowed head, to the renewed burst of Philistine +hissings, howlings, and execrations, against him, before they would +let him retire. It came from all quarters; but at least two persons +stepped out from the crowd to convert the mere inarticulate uproar +into distinct invective and insult. + +"_No Blinde Guides: in answer to a seditious Pamphlet of J. +Milton's entituled 'Brief Notes on a late Sermon, &c.' Addressed to +the Author_.--'If the Blinde lead the Blinde, both shall fall into +the ditch.'--_London, Printed for Henry Brome, April_ 20, 1660." +This was the title of a tract, of fourteen small quarto pages, which +was out on April 25. The author does not give his name; but he was +Roger L'Estrange, the Royalist pamphleteer.[1] The following +specimen will represent the rest:-- + +[Footnote 1: Wood's Ath. III. 712. The date of the actual appearance +of the tract is from the Thamason copy.] + + "Mr. Milton, + + "Although in your life and doctrine you have resolved one great + question, by evidencing that devils may indue human shapes and + proving yourself even to your own wife an incubus, you have yet + started another; and that is whether you are not of that regiment + which carried the herd of swine headlong into the sea, and moved + the people to beseech Jesus to depart out of their coasts. + (_This_ may be very well imagined from your suitable practices + _here_.) Is it possible to read your _Proposals of the + benefits of a Free State_ without reflecting upon your tutor's + 'All this will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me'? + Come, come, Sir: lay the Devil aside; do not proceed with so much + malice and against knowledge. Act like a man, that a good Christian + may not be afraid to pray for you. Was it not you that scribbled a + justification of the murder of the King against Salmasius, and made + it good too thus: that murder was an action meritorious compared + with your superior wickedness? 'Tis there (as I remember) that you + commonplace yourself into set forms of railing, two pages thick; + and, lest your infamy should not extend itself enough within the + course and usage of your mother-tongue, the thing is dressed up in + a travelling garb and language, to blast the English nation to the + universe, and give every man a horror for mankind when he considers + _you_ are of the race. In this you are above all others; but + in your _Eikonoklastes_ you exceed yourself. There, not + content to see that sacred head divided from the body, your + piercing malice enters into the private agonies of his struggling + soul, with a blasphemous insolence invading the prerogative of God + himself (omniscience), and by deductions most unchristian and + illogical aspersing his last pieties (the almost certain + inspirations of the Holy Spirit) with juggle and prevarication. Nor + are the words ill-fitted to the matter, the bold design being + suited with a conform irreverence of language. But I do not love to + rake long in a puddle. To take a view in particular of all your + factious labours would cost more time than I am willing to afford + them. Wherefore I shall stride over all the rest and pass directly + to your _Brief Notes upon a late Sermon_ ... Any man that can + but read your title may understand your drift, and that you charge + the royal interest and party through the Doctor's sides. I am not + bold enough to be his champion in all particulars, nor yet so rude + as to take an office most properly to him belonging out of his + hand. Let him acquit himself in what concerns the divine; and I'll + adventure upon the most material parts of the rest." [Extracts from + Milton's _Notes on Dr. Griffith's Sermon_ follow, with brief + comments, of no interest, and showing no ability.] + +Almost immediately there followed "_The Dignity of Kingship +Asserted: in answer to Mr. Milton's 'Ready and Easie Way to establish +a Free Commonwealth.' Proving that Kinqship is both in itself and in +reference to these nations farre the most Excellent Government, and +the returning to our former Loyalty or Obedience thereto is the only +way under God to restore and settle these three once flourishing, +now languishing, broken, and almost ruined nations. By G. S., a Lover +of Loyalty. Humbly Dedicated and Presented to his most Excellent +Majesty Charles the Second, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, +true Hereditary King. London, Printed by E.C. for H. Seile, over +against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street, and for W. Palmer at +the Palm-Tree over against Fetter-lane end in Fleet Street._ 1660." +It is a duodecimo volume, the dedication to Charles occupying +twenty-one pages, and the main body of the text 177 pages, with a +peroration in thirty-nine additional pages addressed to Monk and his +Officers and to the two Houses of Parliament about to meet, and then +three pages more of concluding address to his Majesty. Though the +author does not give his name, he hints in the course of the volume +that he may "be inquired after and perhaps soon found out." He says +also that his profession "much differs from politics." Hence it may +be doubted whether the conjecture is right which assigns the book to +a George Searle, who had been an original member of the Long +Parliament for Taunton, and had been one of the Secluded. One might +venture rather on the query whether the author may not have been Dr. +Gilbert Sheldon, soon to be Bishop of London and Archbishop of +Canterbury, but for the present waiting with anxiety for the +certainty of Charles's recall, and doing all he could, with other +divines, to hasten it.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Thomason copy gives "May," without any day, as the +date of publication; but I find the book entered in the Stationers' +Registers as early as March 31, 1660. The writing had been then +begun, and the printing of the book had been going on through April. +There is internal evidence that the new Parliament had not met, or +at least that the Restoration was not positively resolved on, when +the book was finished. Both in the dedication and in the peroration, +the parts last written, the event is spoken of as only in near +prospect.--Sheldon, though a man of public distinction in his time, +has left hardly any writings by which his style could be +ascertained. I think the guess worth risking that the present +performance may have been his, if only because the offer of the guess +may lead to its confutation. George Searle is the man proposed by the +bibliographers (see Bohn's _Lowndes_, Art. Milton, and note p. +108 of Todd's Life of Milton, edit. 1852); but I know not on what +authority except that his initials are "G.S." and that he was "a +writer."--As far as I have observed, it was the first edition of +Milton's pamphlet only that G.S. had before him as he wrote.] + +Whoever wrote the book must have had a touch of scholarly candour in +his nature. Though there is plenty of abuse of Milton, with the +stereotyped allusions to his Divorce Doctrine and its effects, and +with such occasional phrases as "your wind-mill brain," "the +unpracticableness of these your fanatic state-whimsies," and though +there is abuse also, in the coarse familiar strain, of the Rumpers +and Commonwealths-men generally, and of "Oliver, the copper-nosed +saint," we come upon such passages as the following, appreciative at +least of Milton's literary power:-- + + "I am not ignorant of the ability of Mr. Milton, whom the Rump + (which was well-stored with men of pregnant though pernicious wits) + made choice of before others to write their _Defence against + Salmasius;_ one of the greatest learned men of this age, both for + reality and reputation." + + "... made choice of Mr. Milton to be their champion to answer + Salmasius; who, as may be conceived, not vulgarly rewarded for this + service, undertakes it with as much learning and performance as + could be expected from the most able and acute scholar living: + concerning whose answer thus much must be confessed,--that nothing + could be therein desired which either a shrewd wit could prompt or + a fluent elegant style express. And, indeed, to give him his due, + in whatever he vomited out against his Majesty formerly, or now + declaims against Monarchy in behalf of a Republic, he then did, and + doth now, want nothing on his side but truth." + +These are casual expressions in the course of the argumentation with +Milton; and, as there is no need to exhibit the argumentation itself, +a single quotation more will suffice. It is from the Dedication to +Charles II. That, though coming first in the book, was probably +written last, when the writer could exult in the idea that his +Majesty was so soon to land on the British shores, and could have +pleasure in being one of the first to address him ceremoniously and +in public with all his royal titles. Let it be remembered that, by +the introduction of Milton into this Dedication, not only +prominently, but even singly and exclusively, it was as if pains were +taken to remind Charles, just as he was preparing to step into the +ship that was to convey him to England, of the name of that one man +among his subjects who had done more to keep him out, and had +attacked him and his more ferociously, more relentlessly, and more +successfully, than any other living. Suppose that his Majesty, +waiting at Breda, was curious to know already, for certain reasons, +what person, not on the actual list of those who had signed his +father's death-warrant, would be designated to him by universal +opinion at home as the least pardonable traitor; and read this as the +answer of G.S.:-- + + This detestable, execrable murder, committed by the worst of + parricides, accompanied with the disclaiming of your whole royal + stock, disinheriting your Majesty's self and the rest of the royal + branches, driving you and them into exile, with endeavouring to + expunge and obliterate your never-to-be-forgotten just title; + tearing up and pulling down the pillars of Majesty, the Nobles; + garbling and suspending from the place of power all of the Commons + House that had anything of honesty or relenting of spirit toward + the injured Father of three Nations and his royal posterity: acts + horrible to be imagined, and yet with high hand most villainously, + perfidiously, and perjuriously perpetrated by monsters of mankind, + yet blasphemously dishonourers of God in making use of His name and + usurping the title of Saints in their never-before-paralleled nor + ever-sufficiently-to-be-lamented-and-abhorred villanies:--this + Murder, I say, and these Villainies, were defended, nay extolled + and commended, by one MR. JOHN MILTON, in answer to the most + learned Salmasius, who declaimed against the same with most solid + arguments and pathetical expressions; in which Answer he did so + bespatter the white robes of your Royal Father's spotless life + (human infirmities excepted) with the dirty filth of his satirical + pen that to the vulgar, and those who read his book with prejudice, + he represented him a most debauched, vicious man (I tremble, Royal + Sir, to write it), an irreligious hater and persecutor of Religion + and religious men, an ambitious enslaver of the nation, a bloody + tyrant, and an implacable enemy to all his good subjects; and + thereupon calls that execrable and detestable horrible Murder a + just Execution, and commends it as an heroic action: and, in a + word, whatever was done in prosecution of their malice toward your + Royal Progenitor and his issue, or relations, or friends and + assistants, he calls Restoring of the nation to its Liberty. Yea! + to make your illustrious Father more odious in their eyes where he + by any means could fix his scandals, he would not spare that + incomparable piece of his writing, his _Eikon Basilike_, but + in a scurrilous reply thereto, which he entitled + _Eikonoklastes_, he would not spare his devout prayers (which + no doubt the Lord hath heard and will hear): in all which he + expressed, as his inveterate and causeless malice, so a great deal + of wicked, desperate wit and learning, most unworthily misbestowed, + abused, and misapplied, to the reviling of his Prince, God's + vice-gerent on Earth, and the speaking ill of the Ruler of the + People. Now, although your Majesty, nor your Royal Father, neither + of you, need vindication (much less that elaborate work of his), + nor doth anything he hath written in aspersion of his Sovereign + deserve answer (absolutely considered), yet, forasmuch as he hath + in both showed dangerous wit and wicked learning, which together + with elegance in expression is always (in some measure at least) + persuasive with some, and because in these last and worst days + those dangerous times are come in which many account Treason to be + Saintship, and the madness of the people, like the inundation of + waters, hath for many years overflowed all the bounds, &c ... [The + writer, in continuation, refers to the assiduity of the fanatical + enemies of Charles, still working, though at the end of their wits, + to keep him out.] Among many of whom MR. MILTON comes on the stage + in post haste and in this juncture of time, that he may, if + possible, overthrow the hopes of all good men, and endeavours what + he can to divert those that at present sit at the helm, and by fair + pretences and sophisticate arguments would, &c ... Which I taking + notice of, and meeting with this forementioned pamphlet of MR. + MILTON'S, and upon perusal of it finding it dangerously ensnaring, + the fallacy of the arguments being so cunningly hidden as not to be + discerned by any nor every eye,--observing also the language to be + smooth and tempting, the expressions pathetical and apt to move the + affections, ... I thought it my duty, &c. + +Before this salutation of his returning Majesty was visible on the +book-stalls the great event which it anticipated was as good as +accomplished. + +The two Houses of Parliament had met on Wednesday, the 25th of April. +There was not only the "full and free" House of Commons for which +writs had been issued, but a House of Lords also, assembled by its +own will and motion. In the Commons, where Sir Harbottle Grimstone +was elected Speaker, there were present over 400 out of the total of +500 and more that were actually due; in the Lords, where the Earl of +Manchester was chosen Speaker _pro tem._, there were present on +the first day only nine peers besides himself: viz. the Earls of +Northumberland, Lincoln, Denbigh, and Suffolk, Viscount Say and Sele, +and Lords Wharton, Hunsdon, Grey of Wark, and Maynard. It was for +these two bodies to execute between them the task appointed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals and Parl. Hist., for the opening of the +Convention Parliament.] + +The meetings of the first three days were but preliminary, and not a +word passed in either House to signify what was coming. On Friday, +the 27th of April, there was an adjournment of both Houses to +Tuesday, the 1st of May. During that breathless interval it was as +when a mine is ready, the gunpowder and other explosives all stored, +the train laid, and what is waited for is the application of the +lighted match. That duty fell to Sir John Greenville, and the mode in +which it should be performed was settled privately between him and +wary Old George. + +On Saturday, April 28, the Council of State are met at Whitehall, +Annesley in the chair as usual. Colonel Birch, one of the members, +entering late, informs General Monk that there is a gentleman at the +door who desires to speak with him. Monk goes to the door, finds Sir +John Greenville there, and receives him as a perfect stranger, the +guards looking on. Sir John delivers to him a letter, and tells him +that he does so by command of his Majesty. Monk orders the guards to +detain this gentleman, and returns to the Council-room with the +letter. Having broken the seal, but not opened the letter, he hands +it to the President, intimating from whom it has come. The +superscription itself leaves no doubt on that point. The letter is +one of the six, dated "_At our Court at Breda this 4/14th of April +1660, in the twelfth year of Our Reign_," which Sir John +Greenville had brought over to be used by Monk at his discretion, and +which Monk had given back into Greenville's custody till the proper +moment for using them should arrive. It was that particular one of +the six which was addressed to Monk himself, to be communicated by +him to the Council of State and the Officers of the Army. There was +much surprise in the Council, real or affected, Colonel Birch +protesting that he knew nothing of the business, but had merely +found a gentleman at the door inquiring for General Monk and had +brought in his message to the General. That gentleman was sent for +and asked how he came by the letter. "It was given to me by his +Majesty with his own hand," said Sir John. Altogether the Council +were at a loss how to act; but finally it was agreed that they dared +not read the letter without leave from Parliament. There was some +question of sending Greenville into custody meanwhile; but Monk said +he was a kinsman of his and he would be answerable for his +appearance. In short, this attempt to apply the match in the Council +had not sufficiently succeeded, and Sir John knew that he must be +forthcoming in the two Houses themselves. + +Sir John was equal to the occasion. Early in the morning of Tuesday, +the 1st of May, he was at the door of the House of Lords with that +one of the six Letters from Breda which was addressed to their +Lordships. There were now forty-two peers present. By one of these +Greenville sent in his name to Speaker the Earl of Manchester, with +an intimation of the nature of his message. The Earl had no sooner +informed the House who and what were at the door than it was voted +that the Earl should walk down the floor, all present attending him, +to receive his Majesty's letter. Sir John having thus got rid of two +of his documents, presented himself next at the door of the Commons, +to try his chance with a third. He had already conveyed to Speaker +Sir Harbottle Grimstone the fact that he was in attendance with a +letter from his Majesty. He came now at the most fit moment, for the +House had just received a report from the Council of State of what +had happened at the sitting of the Council on the preceding Saturday. +The scene will be best imagined from the record in the Journals of +the House:--"_Tuesday, May the 1st_, 1660. PRAYERS. Mr. Annesley +reports from the Council of State a Letter from the King, unopened, +directed 'To our trusty and well-beloved General Monk, to be +communicated to the President and Council of State, and to the +Officers of the Armies under his command,' being received from the +hands of Sir John Greenville. The House, being informed that Sir +John Greenville, a messenger from the King, was at the door, +_Resolved_, &c. That Sir John Greenville, a messenger from the +King, be called in. He was called in accordingly, and, being at the +bar, after obeisance made, said: 'Mr. Speaker, I am commanded by the +King, my master, to deliver this Letter to You, and he desires that +You will communicate it to the House.' The Letter was directed 'To +Our trusty and well-beloved the Speaker of the House of Commons'; +which, after the messenger was withdrawn, was read to the House by +the Speaker." The bold Sir John had now got rid of three of his six +documents. Nay, he had got rid of four; for in each of the three +there had been enclosed a copy of his Majesty's general +_Declaration_, or Letter to "all Our Loving Subjects of what +degree or quality soever." It was for the Parliament to determine +what should be done with this Declaration, as well as with the other +two remaining Letters, one of them addressed to Generals Monk and +Montague for communication to the Fleet, and the other to the Lord +Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London. The train +had been sufficiently fired already by the delivery of four of the +Breda documents.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lords and Commons Journals of dates; Parl. Hist. IV. +10-25; Phillips (continuation of Baker), 701-705; Skinner's Life of +Monk, 297-302; Whitlocke, IV. 409-411.] + +The explosion was over and the air cleared, and all pretence was at +an end at last. In the Commons, a few minutes after Sir John +Greenville had left the House, it was "RESOLVED, _nemine +contradicente_, That an answer be prepared to his Majesty's +Letter, expressing the great and joyful sense of this House of His +gracious offers, and their humble and hearty thanks to his Majesty +for the same, and with professions of their loyalty and duty to his +Majesty." The Lords had already passed an equivalent resolution, and +had recalled Sir John Greenville to receive their hearty thanks for +his care in the discharge of his duty. The rest of that day was spent +in a conference between the two Houses, and in farther resolutions +and arrangements in each, subsidiary to those two resolutions of the +forenoon which had virtually decreed the Restoration. Thus, in the +Commons, still in the forenoon, "RESOLVED, _nemine +contradicente_, that the sum of £50,000 be presented to the King's +Majesty from this House," and "RESOLVED, _nemine +contradicente_, that the Letters from His Majesty, both that to +the House and that to the Lord General, and his Majesty's Declaration +which came enclosed, be entered at large in the Journal Book of this +House"; and, again, at an afternoon sitting, the conference with the +Lords having meanwhile been held, "RESOLVED, That this House doth +agree with the Lords, and do own and declare that, according to the +ancient and fundamental laws of this kingdom, the Government is, and +ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons." The news of what was doing +in Parliament was already rushing hither and thither among the +Londoners; the day ended among _them_, of course, with bonfires +and ringing of bells and the roar of rejoicing cannon; in the boom of +the cannon, and in whatever form of rude telegraph or of horsemen at +the gallop along the four great highways, London was shaking the +message from itself in palpitations through all the land; nor among +the galloping horsemen were those the least fleet that were spurring +through Kent to the seaside to unmoor the packet-boats and convey the +tidings to Charles. On the 1st of May, 1660, the English Commonwealth +was no more.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Commons Journals and Parl. Hist. of dates; Whitlocke, +IV. 411.] + +Yet another week for the formalities of its burial. A few of the +leading incidents of that week may be presented in abstract:-- + + _May_ 2:--Ordered by the Lords "that the statues of the late + King's Majesty be set up again in all the places from whence they + were pulled down, and that the Arms of the Commonwealth be + demolished and taken away wherever they are, and the King's Arms be + put up in their stead." _Same day in the Commons_:--Leave + given to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City + of London, to return an answer to his Majesty's Letter addressed to + them. This was the fifth of the Breda documents. Also leave given + to Dr. Clarges, a member of the House, to go at once to Breda, with + Monk's answer to the letter _he_ had received. + + _May_ 3:--Sir John Greenville brought into the House of + Commons to receive thanks, and the information that the House had + voted him £500 to buy a jewel. The Speaker, Sir Harbottle + Grimstone, addressed him as follows:--"Sir John Greenville, I need + not tell you with what grateful and thankful hearts the Commons now + assembled in Parliament have received his Majesty's gracious + Letter. _Res ipsa loquitur_: you yourself have been + _ocularis et auricularis testis de rei veritate_: our bells + and our bonfires have already proclaimed his Majesty's goodness and + our joys. We have told the people that our King, the glory of + England, is coming home again; and they have resounded it back + again in our ears that they are ready, and their hearts open, to + receive him. Both Parliament and People have cried aloud to the + King of Kings in their prayers _Long live King Charles the + Second_." The rest of the speech was compliment to Sir John + himself. + + _Same day, in Montague's Fleet in the Downs_:--His Majesty's + letter to Monk and Montague, intended to be communicated to the + Fleet, having been sent by express from Monk, reached Montague that + morning on board his flagship the Naseby. His secretary Pepys + describes what followed: "My Lord summoned a Council of War, and in + the meantime did dictate to me how he would have the vote ordered + which he would have pass this Council. Which done, the Commanders + all came on board, and the Council sat in the coach [Council + cabin], the first Council of War that had been in my time; where I + read the Letter and Declaration; and, while they were discoursing + upon it, I seemed to draw up a vote, which, being offered, they + passed. Not one man seemed to say _No_ to it, though I am + confident many in their hearts were against it. After this was + done, I went up to the quarterdeck with my Lord and the Commanders, + and there read both the papers and the vote; which done, and + demanding their opinion, the seamen did all of them cry out _God + save King Charles_." Pepys then made a circuit of the other + ships with the same great news. "Which was a very brave sight, to + visit all the ships, and to be received with the respect and honour + that I was on board them all, and much more to see the great joy + that I brought to all men, not one through the whole fleet shewing + the least dislike of the business. In the evening, as I was going + on board the Vice-Admiral, the General began to fire his guns, + which he did, all that he had in his ship, and so did all the rest + of the Commanders; which was very gallant, and to hear the bullets + go hissing over our heads as we were in the boat! This done, and + finished my proclamation, I returned to the Naseby, where my Lord + was much pleased to hear how all the fleet took it in a transport + of joy, and shewed me a private letter of the King's to him, and + another from the Duke of York, in such familiar style as their + common friend, with all kindness imaginable. And I found by the + letters, and so my Lord told me too, that there had been many + letters passed between them for a great while, _and I perceive + unknown to Monk_." + + _May_ 5. On report from the Council of State, a General + Proclamation adopted by the Commons, with concurrence of the Lords, + forbidding tumults, and instructing all in authority to continue in + their respective offices and exercise the same thenceforth in his + Majesty's name. + + _May_ 7. Sir George Booth, Lord Falkland, Mr. Denzil Holles, + Sir John Holland, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Bruce, Sir + Horatio Townshend, Lord Herbert, Lord Castleton, Lord Fairfax, Sir + Henry Cholmley, and Lord Mandeville, chosen by the House of Commons + to be the persons to carry to his Majesty the answer of the House + to his Majesty's gracious Letter. The similar deputation from the + Lords' House was to consist of the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of + Warwick, the Earl of Middlesex, Viscount Hereford, Lord Berkley, + and Lord Brooke. Same day, on receipt from Montague of a copy of + his Majesty's letter addressed to Monk and himself, as Generals of + the Fleet, with news of the reception of the same by the Fleet on + the 3rd, Monk and Montague were authorized to answer that letter. + Thus the sixth and last of the Breda documents was finally disposed + of.--Resolved also that Thursday next should be a day of + thanksgiving in London and Westminster for the happy reconciliation + with his Majesty, and farther, "That all and every the ministers + throughout the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the + Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, do, and are + hereby required and enjoined in their public prayers to, pray for + the King's most excellent Majesty by the name of Our Sovereign + Lord, Charles the Second, by the grace of God King of England, + Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith."--Resolved + also that the King be proclaimed to-morrow. + + _Tuesday, May_ 8. Proclamation of Charles accordingly in + Westminster Hall, and at Whitehall, Temple Bar, Fleet Conduit, the + Exchange, and other places, his reign to date from the death of his + father. Copies of the Proclamation to be sent to all authorities + over Great Britain and Ireland, that it may be repeated everywhere. + Also "RESOLVED, _nemine contradicente_, that the King's + Majesty be desired to make his speedy return to his Parliament and + to the exercise of his Kingly Office."[1] + +[Footnote 1: These Notes, except the extract from Pepys, are compiled +from the Commons Journals and the Parliamentary History for the week +between May 1 and May 8, with references to Whitlocke and Phillips.] + +And so all was settled between Charles and his Three Kingdoms. By +this time, indeed, not only in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, but all +over the main island from Land's End to Caithness and all over the +lesser from Mizen Head to Malin Head, there was simply a universal +impatience till it should be known that Montague's fleet had shot +from the Downs towards the Dutch coasts, to bring his Majesty and his +Court, on the decks of his own ships, within hail of the cheering +from Dover cliffs. The delay was chiefly because of the necessity of +certain upholstering and tailoring preparations on both sides. At +home there had to be due preparations of a household for his Majesty, +and of households for his two brothers, when they should arrive. +There had to be got ready not only a new crown and sceptre, and new +robes and ermines, but also the velvet bed, with the gold embroidery, +the lining of satin or cloth of silver, the satin quilts, the fustian +quilts to lie under the satin quilts, the down bolster, the fustian +blankets, the Spanish blankets, the Holland sheets, with other +accoutrements for his Majesty's own bedroom, besides similar +furnishing for the bedrooms of the Dukes of York and Gloucester, a +new coach for his Majesty, liveries for his coachmen, footmen, and +other servants, and innumerable etceteras. Then, on the other side of +the water, where his Majesty had meanwhile received with +extraordinary satisfaction, through Sir John Greenville, the £50,000 +voted him by the Commons, £10,000 of it in gold from England, and the +rest in bank bills payable at sight in Amsterdam, and where the Duke +of York had been promised another £10,000 and the Duke of Gloucester +£5000, much of the money had to be converted into the apparel and +other equipments required for the suitable appearance of the three +royal personages and their retinues when they should present +themselves in England. A great deal might be done at Breda, where +already there was swarming round his Majesty a miscellany of private +visitors, English, Scottish, and Irish, all anxious to be useful, and +many of them with presents of money. But the final arrangements were +to be at the Hague, the capital of the United Provinces, amid +whatever stately ceremonial of congratulation and farewell the Dutch +Government could now offer in atonement for previous neglect or +indifference. There had been most pressing solicitations, indeed, +from the Spanish authorities of Flanders, that Charles would return +to Brussels and make his arrangements there; Mazarin too had sent a +message at last, begging him to honour France by making Calais his +port of departure; but Charles preferred the Hague. It was at the +Hague, therefore, that the commissioners from the two Houses of +Parliament, with deputations from the City of London and the London +clergy, were to wait upon Charles; it was there that he was to confer +his first large collective batch of English knighthoods, following +the single knighthood conferred conspicuously already on Dr. Clarges +at Breda; and it was thence that there was to be the great +embarkation for Dover.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 906-910; Pepys's Diary, from the 8th of May +onwards.] + +And what meanwhile of the chief Republican criminals at home, whether +the Regicides or the scores of others that might count themselves in +peril for more than mere place or property? Since the 1st of May, or +before, such of them as could, such as were at liberty and had money, +had absconded or been trying to abscond. Of the Regicides and some of +the rest we shall hear enough in due course. For the present let us +attend only to Needham and Milton. + +Needham had absconded in good time. It had probably been in the very +beginning of May, if not earlier; for on the 10th of May there was +out in London, in the form of a printed squib, _An Hue and Cry +after Mercurius Politicus_, giving a sketch of his career, and +containing some doggrel verse about his escape, in this style:-- + + "But, if at Amsterdam you meet + With one that's purblind in the street, + Hawk-nosed, turn up his hair, + And in his ears two holes you'll find; + And, if they are, not pawned behind, + Two rings are hanging there. + + "His visage meagre is and long, + His body slender," &c.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "_O. Cromwell's Thankes to the Lord General faithfully +presented by Hugh Peters in another Conference, together with an Hue +and Cry after Mercurius Politicus: London, Printed by M.T._" +("1660, May 10" in the Thomason copy).] + +Our latest glimpse of Milton is on the 7th of May, the day before the +public proclamation of Charles in London. On that day "John Milton, +of the City of Westminster," transferred to his friend "Cyriack +Skinner, of Lincoln's Inn, Gentleman," a Bond for £400 given by the +Commissioners of the Excise in part security for money which Milton +had invested in their hands. In the deed of conveyance, still extant, +under the words at the end, "_Witness my hand and seal thus_," +there follows the signature "JOHN MILTON," not in his own hand, but +recognisably in the fine and peculiar hand of that amanuensis to whom +he had dictated the sonnet in memory of his second wife about two +years before. In yet another hand is the date "7th May, 1660"; but +attached, to verify all, is Milton's family-seal of the double-headed +eagle. Milton, we can see, wanted some money for sudden and urgent +occasions, and his friend Cyriack advanced it. Cyriack and others +had, doubtless, been already about him for some days, imploring him +to hide himself, and devising the means; and that very night, or the +next, as we are to fancy, he is conveyed furtively out of his house +in Petty France to some obscure but suitable shelter. The three +children he has parted with, the eldest not yet fourteen years old, +the second not twelve, and the third just eight, are left under what +tendence there may be, hardly knowing what has happened, but +uncertain whether they shall ever again see their strange blind +father. All is dark, and we may drop the curtain.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sotheby's _Ramblings in Elucidation of Milton's +Autograph_, p. 129, and plate after p. 124. The document mentioned +was purchased in Aug. 1858, for £19, by Mr. Monckton Milnes (now +Lord Houghton), apparently under the impression that the signature +was Milton's own.] + + + + +CORRIGENDA AND ADDENDA IN VOLS. IV. AND V. + +_Vol. IV. pp._ 272-273:--From Mrs. Everett Green's Calendar of +Domestic State Papers for the Third Year of the Commonwealth I learn +that the first meeting of the Council of State for that year was on +Feb. 17, 1650-51, and not on Feb. 19. There had been two meetings +before that of the 19th, and at the first of these Bradshaw had been +re-appointed President. + +_Vol. IV. pp._ 416-418 _and_ 423-424:--To Milton's Letter +to the Oldenburg agent Hermann Mylius, translated and commented on +pp. 416-418, and to the story, as told at pp. 423-424, of the +Safeguard for the Count of Oldenburg's subjects obtained from the +English Council of State by the joint exertions of Mylius and Milton, +an interesting addition has turned up in the form of another Latin +letter from Milton to Mylius, preserved "in a collection of +autographs belonging to the Cardinal Bishop-Prince von +Schwartzenberg." A copy was sent by Dr. Goll of Prague to Professor +Alfred Stern of Bern, author of _Milton und Seine Zeit_; and +Professor Stern communicated it to the _Academy_, where it +appeared Oct. 13, 1877. It may be here translated:--"Yesterday, my +most respected Hermann, after you had gone, there came to me a +mandate of the Council, ordering me to compare the Latin copy [of the +Safeguard] with the English, and to take care that they agreed with +each other, and then to send both to Lord Whitlocke and Mr. Neville +for revision; which I did, and at the same time wrote fully to Lord +Whitlocke on the subject of the insertion you wanted made,--namely +that there should be a clause in favour also of the successors and +descendents of his Lordship the Count, and this in the formula which +you yourself suggested: I added moreover the reasons you assigned +why, unless that were done, the business would seem absolutely null. +What happened in the Council in consequence I do not know for +certain, for I was kept at home by yesterday's rain and was not +present. If you write to the President of the Council +[_Concilii_ only in the copy, but one guesses that the word for +'President' has to be inserted], or, better still, if you send one of +your people to Mr. Frost, you may yourself, I believe, hear from +them; or, at all events, you shall know in the evening from me,--your +most devoted JOHN MILTON. Feb. 13, 1651 [i.e. 1651-2]." The letter +accords in every particular with the extract we have given from the +minutes of the Council of State of Feb. 11, and enables us to see how +the Safeguard for the Count of Oldenburg did emerge, in the desired +form at last, in Parliament on Feb. 17. Professor Stern, in his +communication to the _Academy_, adds that the Safeguard is +"printed by J.J. Winkelmann in his _Oldenburgische Friedens und der +benachbarten Oerter Kriegshandlungen_, p. 390, with the +annotation, '_Hoc diploma ex Anglico originali in Latinum verbatim +versum est._ JOANNES MILTONIUS. _Westmonasterii, 17 Febr., +anno_ 1651-2" ('This diploma is turned verbatim into Latin from +the English original. JOHN MILTON. Westminster, 17 Febr., in the year +1651-2'), I assume, but am not certain, that it is the same as that +mentioned as given in Thurloe, i, 385-6. + +_Vol. IV. p._ 560:--For the Earl of Airly, mentioned as one of +the delinquent Scottish noblemen who were fined by Oliver's ordinance +for Scotland of April 12, 1654, substitute the Earl of Ethie. He was +Sir John Carnegie of Ethie, co. Forfar, Lord Lour since 1639, and +created Earl of Ethie in 1647,--which title he exchanged, after the +Restoration, for that of Earl of Northesk. + +_Vol. V. p. 227, in connexion with Vol. IV, pp._ 487-494:--A +paper found very recently by Mrs. Everett Green in the Record Office, +and kindly communicated by her to me, in continuation of those for +which I have already acknowledged my obligations to her, enables me +to throw some further light on Milton's friend and correspondent +Andrew Sandelands, and on that scheme of his for utilising the +fir-woods of Scotland in which he sought Milton's assistance. The +paper, which is in the handwriting of Sandelands, is dated "30 June, +1653," i.e. two months and ten days after Cromwell had dissolved the +Rump and begun his Interim Dictatorship; it is addressed "For the +Honor'ble. Sir Gilbert Pickering"--Pickering being then, it would +seem, President of Cromwell's Interim Council of Thirteen (see Vol. +IV. pp, 498-499); and it is headed "_A Brief Narration of my +Transactions concerning some Woods in Scotland_." From this +statement of Sandelands it appears that he had first broached his +scheme of obtaining masts and tar for the English navy from the woods +of Scotland to Cromwell himself in August 1652, and that it was in +consequence of Cromwell's recommendation of the scheme to the Council +of State then in power that the business had been referred to the +Commander-in-chief in Scotland and Sandelands had gone to Scotland +("at my own charge," he says) and had the conferences with +Major-General Dean and Colonel Lilburne described at pp. 490-491 of +Vol. IV. The result had been that detailed written explanation of his +scheme to Lilburne the substance of which has been quoted in the same +pages--"the copy whereof," adds Sandelands, "now remains in Mr. +Thurloe's hands." He means, of course, the copy he had enclosed to +Milton in his letter of Jan. 15, 1652-3, and which Milton had duly +delivered to the Council of State. More had come of the matter than +we knew at that date; for Sandelands proceeds thus in his +statement:--"The Council of State, having received this information +(recommended by the Commander-in-chief), gave order that Colonel +Lilburne should prosecute the design effectually. Upon receipt of +which order, Colonel Lilburne was pleased to employ me to try whether +the Earl of Tullibardine (who had an interest of the third part of +the woods of Abernethy and Glencalvie) would sell his share; which I +did, and brought with me an agreement under his hand that for £221 he +would yield up all his interest in the former woods and all other +be-north Tay, upon condition that the money should be paid before the +25th of March last [1653]; which Colonel Lilburne certified to the +Council of State. But, their greater affairs [the discussions with +Cromwell just before his _coup d'état_] obstructing this design, +neither money nor orders were sent. Therefore I did entreat Colonel +Lilburne to do me that justice to certify my diligence; which he did; +and [having come to London meanwhile] I delivered it to his +Excellency [Cromwell] the 12th of June [a month and three weeks after +the _coup d'état_]; who was pleased immediately after to revive +this motion to the Council of State [Cromwell's Interim Council of +Thirteen], and they to refer it to Mr. Carew [one of the Thirteen]. +Since which time I have given my daily attendance at Whitehall, +expecting the event of the business." He ends by soliciting +Pickering, as he had solicited Milton some months before, to bring +the matter to some such conclusion as might reimburse him for his +journey to Scotland and all his care and pains there at his own +charge. From a note appended to the Statement, it appears that the +whole business was referred by Cromwell's Interim Council to a +Committee; but, as we have found Sandelands still in distress and in +want of employment as late as April 1654 (Vol. V. p. 227), his +renewed application can have had but small success. + +End of Volume V + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON, VOLUME 5 +(OF 7), 1654-1660*** + + +******* This file should be named 14380-8.txt or 14380-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/8/14380 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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