THE

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

HOUSE OF STUART.-PART I. (CONTINUED).

CHAPTER X.

THE COMMONWEALTH*.

1649-1653.

Commonwealth established.-Mutinies in the army.-Affairs of Scotland.Fate of Montrose.-Charles II. in Scotland.-Affairs of Ireland.-Cromwell in Scotland. Battle of Dunbar.-Invasion of England.-Battle of Worcester-Escape of Charles.-Conquest of Ireland.-Dutch war.-Designs of Cromwell ;-he dissolves the parliament;-its character.

THE very day of the execution of the king, the commons passed an act making it treason to proclaim the prince of Wales or any other to be king of England or Ireland. On the 6th of February they voted by a majority of forty-four to twenty-nine that "the house of peers is useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished"†; and the following

* Authorities same as for Charles I. with Thurloe, Milton and Burton. See Appendix (A).

† The peers were allowed to retain their titles, but they lost their privileges; in return they became eligible to be elected into the house of commons, of which Pembroke, Salisbury, and Howard of Escrick took advantage.

day it was resolved that the office of a king is "unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous to the liberty, etc., of the nation, and ought to be abolished." The next day (8th) the great seal was broken to pieces by order of the house and in their presence, and a new one substituted, of which Whitelock, Lisle and sergeant Keble were appointed lordcommissioners, to hold their office quamdiu se bene gesserint. Of the judges six resigned, the others consented to remain provided the parliament engaged not to alter the fundamental laws. The King's-bench was henceforth to be styled the Upper-bench; writs were to run in the name of the "Keepers of the liberty of England by the authority of parliament"; an engagement to be true to the commonwealth of England took the place of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. In order to form an executive, five members of the house* were directed to select a certain number of persons to be a Council of State.

While the commons were thus converting the ancient monarchy of England into a republic, a High Court of Justice was sitting in judgement on the royalists of rank who were prisoners in their hands. On the night after the death of the king, the duke of Hamilton had made his escape from Windsor, but he was recognised and arrested by some troopers next day as he was knocking in disguise at an inngate in Southwark. Lord Capel also escaped out of the Tower, but he was discovered and seized by two watermen at a house in Lambeth. These two noblemen, with lord Norwich and sir John Owen, were some days after (10th) brought before a High Court of Justice, presided over by

*Namely, John Lisle, Cornelius Holland, Thomas Scot, Edmund Ludlow and Luke Robinson, all regicides except the last. Godwin says, that “a remarkable delicacy was observed in this business," as 66 none of them had been habitually concerned in the conduct of public affairs." They were however as much concerned in them as most others. He adds, that the five were directed to nominate forty persons, and that (out of delicacy no doubt) they did nominate only thirty-five, of course expecting, as it came to pass, that they themselves would be added. Ludlow's own account is more honourable to himself and friends.

1649.]

COUNCIL OF STATE.

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Bradshaw, and arraigned for treason. The duke, who was arraigned as earl of Cambridge, pleaded that he was of another nation, under an order of whose parliament he had acted; but to this it was replied, that he had sat and voted and otherwise acted as an English peer. Lord Norwich and Owen simply pleaded not guilty. Capel pleaded the articles of Colchester, but Fairfax, Ireton and colonel Berksted asserted that these were only "to free him from immediate power of the sword to take his life." The court sat on several days. Lord Holland, who had been brought up from Warwick, was also put on his trial (27th); he pleaded that quarter had been given him. None of their pleas however availed; they were all sentenced to lose their heads (Mar. 6). A petition was presented to the parliament the next day by the lady Holland and other ladies, which only procured a respite of two days; the following day new petitions were presented. The house then proceeded to vote on their several cases; it was determined that the duke and lord Capel should not be reprieved; the votes for and against were equal in the cases of Holland and Norwich, and the speaker, by his casting vote, condemned the former and saved the latter. Colonel Hutchinson seeing sir John Owen without any one to make an exertion in his favour, took pity on him and prevailed on Ireton to give him his interest, and by their joint influence he was saved by a majority of five*. Hamilton, Holland and Capel were beheaded the next day (9th) in Palace-yard: they met their fate with courage and constancy, especially the last, who behaved, we are told, "like a stout Roman."

The new Council of State when completed consisted of forty-one members, of whom five were peers†. Bradshaw was chosen president, and the office of Latin secretary was bestowed on his kinsman John Milton ‡. The council was appointed for a year; the army, navy and ordnance were placed under its authority; it had power to regulate trade * Life of Hutchinson, p. 307. + See Appendix (B). See Appendix (C).

and to negotiate with foreign states. The members were required to take an oath expressing their approval of all the late proceedings, but only nineteen (among whom fourteen were regicides) would subscribe it; the remainder, headed by Fairfax and Vane, positively refused. A new form was therefore devised (Feb. 22); they were only required "to approve of what shall be done by the commons in parliament, the supreme authority of this nation."

This supreme authority was such a miserable remnant of the parliament of England, that they could not but feel ashamed and uneasy as they gazed on their shrunken dimensions. To increase their number, they consented to re-admit such members as had not voted in the affirmative on the 5th of December, and who would record their dissent from that vote on the journals; they also from time to time issued writs for new elections in places where their interest was strong, and their number thus gradually rose to about one hundred and fifty.

"Never," says the panegyrist of the heads of the republican party, "never did any governors enter upon their functions under more formidable difficulties than the men who now undertook to steer and direct the vessel of the new commonwealth. They were, in a certain sense, a handful of men with the whole people of England against them." In these words he has, we think, pronounced their condemnation; for a handful of men had no right to take upon them to decide what form of government was best for the people of England, and to force it on them by the swords of a fanatic soldiery. Against them were the royalists, who though depressed were numerous and wealthy; and the presbyterians, whose hostility had been to the church, not to the crown. On their side were their great personal qualities, the arms of upwards of forty thousand soldiers, and the greater part of the independents and the other minor religious sects.

The new government was in fact that species of tyranny denominated oligarchy, and depending, like all other tyran

1649.]

SUPPRESSION OF MUTINY.

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nies, for its existence on the power of the sword. But it was here that its chief source of danger lay; the fanatic principles of the levellers were widely spread among the Prætorian guards of the new commonwealth, and it was not long ere they broke out into action. The fearless John Lilburne, the sworn foe to despotism of every kind, led the way by a petition against the Agreement of the People; petitions from officers and soldiers, and from the well-affected in various parts, poured in, calling for annual parliaments with entirely new members; the enforcement of the self-denying ordinance; the abolition of the Council of State and the High Court of Justice; requiring legal proceedings to be in English, and the fees of lawyers to be reduced; the excise and customs to be abolished, and the estates of delinquents to be sold; liberty of conscience, abolition of tithes, and fixed salaries of 100l. a year for the ministers of the Gospel.

To quell the spirit of the army vigorous means were employed. Five troopers, the bearers of a remonstrance from several regiments, were sentenced by a court-martial to ride the wooden horse, have their swords broken over their heads, and be cashiered. Lilburne, who was keeping up a constant fire of pamphlets*, was, with his associates. Walwyn, Prince and Overton, committed to the Tower (Mar. 29). Numerous petitions, especially from the woment, were presented in their favour, but without effect. Mutinies broke out in the regiments destined for Ireland; the first was at Bishopsgate, in the city, where a troop of horse seized the colours and refused to march. For this five of them were sentenced to be shot, but with the ex

* "England's New Chains Discovered;” “A Second Part" of the same; and "The Hunting of the Foxes from Newmarket and Triploe-heath to Westminster, by five small Beagles," alluding to the five troopers, &c.

"They were bid," says Walker, "to go home and wash their dishes, to which some of them replied, They had neither dishes nor meat left." A very different answer, he says, from what they used to receive "when they had money, plate, rings, bodkins and thimbles to sacrifice to these legislative idols."