CHAP. IX. conduct, and retorted on his accuser charges of insubordination, falsehood, and treachery; saying that on the day of battle neither he nor his regiment appeared at the post assigned them (November). The Presbyterians were greatly excited; for a long time they had suspected Cromwell and his friends of a design to The Presbyterians intrigue against obtain the command of the army, to abolish the House Cromwell. of Lords, divide the House of Commons, dissolve the covenant, and erect a new government upon republican and independent principles. To defeat this project, Holles, Stapleton, Glynn, Merrick, and the chief Presbyterian leaders, met at Essex's house, where, sending for Whitelocke and Maynard, they proposed to denounce Cromwell as an incendiary, and to demand his punishment according to the late treaty. But these lawyers replied that the proofs they had were insufficient to sustain the charge; and it was then resolved that Manchester should accuse him before the Lords of having expressed a wish to reduce the peers to the rank of private gentlemen. This charge failed also, and it was then found expedient to leave the dreaded lieutenantgeneral unmolested. The Presbyterians, foreseeing their fate, had, during this, sought another remedy, and sent Lord Denbigh and Whitelocke to Oxford to commence negotiations for peace. After some exchanges of preliminaries, it was at last agreed (December and January), that commissioners from the parliaments of both kingdoms and the King should meet at Uxbridge, to discuss the conditions of a treaty. But while they thus negotiated, their opponents prepared for war. On the 9th of December, when the commissioners had assembled to take into consideration the sufferings of the kingdom, and to devise some remedy for them, Cromwell rose and said that the blame of the continuance of the war rested with the two houses, who could not be expected to bring it to a speedy termination, as long as so many of their members derived from military commands, wealth, authority, and consideration. His real object was plain to every one; yet the motion which an The first obscure member made in support of his speech, "that Ordinance. no member of either house should, during the war, enjoy or execute any office or command, civil or military, and that an ordinance should be brought in to that effect," was concurred in by the majority (although Cromwell's party were the minority), and when an exemption was suggested in favour of Essex, it was lost on a division, by 27 voices, in a house of 193 members (December). Two days after this, when the ordinance Self-denying 1645 was brought forward, the debate was long and violent, and was renewed four times in one week. It was immediately rejected by the Lords (December 21st), but under such conditions that another ordinance was brought forward and passed by both houses (April, 1645). This second self-denying ordinance, as it was called, differed from the above, and enacted that every member of parliament was thereby discharged from The second whatever office, civil or military, that had been conferred by the Self-denying authority of parliament, after the expiration of forty days. The former Ordinance. edict was prospective, and had more of the character of a law; this prescribed something immediately to be done, and no more; it left the general principle as before, and did not prevent the discharged officers from recovering their offices again.* 66 By this enactment the army was new modelled;" and was to consist of 7,600 horse and 14,400 foot, under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax as lord-general, and Skippon as majorgeneral. Fairfax was invested with the power of nominating all his officers, and with the execution of martial law. No mention was made in his commission of the King's authority, or of the preservation of his person. The post of lieutenant-general was left vacant; no doubt, to be filled up by the appointment of Cromwell. 64. Ecclesiastical occurrences since the beginning of the war. It will be convenient for us now to notice the ecclesiastical proceedings of the two houses at Westminster. The patriot chiefs were not guilty of shedding the blood of their religious opponents, except upon political grounds. They pointed the hatred of their followers against the Roman Catholics as Oath of the natural enemies of freedom; and the parliament devised abjuration an oath of abjuration, by which all the tenets of the Rome. Church of Rome were renounced, and all who refused to take it were fined to the extent of two-thirds of their property. against The synod The great object, however, of the Presbyterians, was the destruction of the Episcopal establishment, and for this purpose the synod of divines before mentioned was assembled at Westminster, June, 1643. The Presbyterians formed by far the majority in this assembly; but the few Independents of divines. who were in it were men of energy and talents, veteran disputants, eager, fearless, and persevering. These two parties watched each other with jealousy. On such questions as the appointment of fast days, the suppression of public and scandalous sins, the prohibition of priestly garments, the removal of organs from churches, and the mutilation or destruction of monuments deemed *Godwin's Hist. of the Commonwealth, II., 41. CHAP. IX. superstitious or idolatrous, they generally agreed; but when they came to church government, they fought obstinately and fiercely, For more than a year the perseverance of the Independents prevented the synod from doing anything; at the same time that their associate Cromwell obtained from the Commons an order for referring a plea for the indulgence of tender consciences to a committee, they brought in a like motion to the synod, and the controversy which thence ensued lasted for some time. At last, on the 3rd of January, 1645, the Prayer Book was abolished, and a book entitled "Directions for Public Worship," drawn up, regulating the order of the service, the administration of the sacraments, the ceremony of marriage, the visitation of the sick, and the burial of the dead. The Scots would have introduced the practice of the kirk on all these subjects, but the English The objected; and accordingly, the form of a liturgy was substituted carefully avoided, and much of the matter as well as the Prayer Book. manner of divine service was left to the talents or the Directory for the inspiration of the minister. The Directory was soon sanctioned by parliament, and ordered to be observed in all churches in both kingdoms. A week after this (January 10th), Archbishop Laud, seventy-two years of age, after having been four years in the Tower, was executed. His friends had begun to cherish the hope that, amidst the din of arms, he might be forgotten, and suffered to descend peaceably into the grave. But unfortunately, the rectory of Chartham, in Kent, became vacant, and as he was the patron, the Lords ordered him to appoint one person, the King another (February, 1643). He hesitated to obey either of the commands, Execution of Laud. on which the Lords sent a message to the Commons to expedite his trial. A committee was immediately appointed, and Prynne, who thirsted for the blood of his former persecutor, was entrusted with the task of collecting evidence. At the end of six months specific articles were exhibited against him, relating partly to those papistical innovations which had nothing of a political character about them; partly to the violent proceedings in the Star Chamber and High Commission Court, wherein Laud was very prominent as a councillor, but certainly without any greater legal responsibility than fell on many others. The Lords, repenting of their rash message, intimated that these charges contained no legal treason; but when the Commons changed their impeachment into an ordinance for the archbishop's execution, they complained. The execution of this aged prelate was the most unjustifiable act committed by the zealots, and one 1645 of the greatest reproaches of the Long Parliament. Laud had amply merited punishment for his tyrannical abuse of power, yet for his execution not the slightest pretence of political necessity could be urged, and in this respect, although he was condemned on the same grounds as Strafford, his punishment was unjustifiable.* 65. Negotiations at Uxbridge. On the 30th of January, 1645, the commissioners of the King and the parliament began their negotiations at Uxbridge. The chief royal commissioners were Hyde, Culpeper, Nicholas, Southampton, Capel, and Palmer, and nearly all of them were friends of peace; among the parliamentary commissioners Vane, St. John, Prideaux, and the Independents, alone entertained other views. The negotiations were to last twenty days; the subjects for especial consideration were, religion, the militia, and Ireland, each of which was to be discussed in rotation for three days, until the time was expired. The parliamentary commissioners demanded that Episcopacy should be abolished, and the Directory substituted for the Prayer Book; that the command of the army and navy should be vested in the two houses; and that the cessation of arms lately concluded with the Irish rebels, should be immediately broken, and hostilities resumed. In the discussions which ensued upon these points, it soon became evident that the difficulties in the way of peace were insurmountable: the Presbyterians insisted upon the establishment of the kirk; the politicians upon the command of the militia; the Independents upon liberty of conscience; while Charles had promised the Queen to conclude nothing without her consent, and only wished to gain time. Desperate at seeing the negotiations end in nothing but incessant bitterness, Hyde, Southampton, and the friends of peace, concerted a final effort, and endeavoured to obtain from the King some concessions. at last yielded so far as to give up the command of the militia for some years to commissioners who should be named, half by the parliament, and half by himself. But during the night he received a letter from Montrose, who had been achieving brilliant victories on a small scale, in Scotland, informing him that he had signally defeated Argyle at Inverlochy, in Lochaber, on the 2nd of February, and that as the whole north of Scotland was at his feet, he should immediately march to the King's relief. When Southampton went, therefore, next morning to Charles, for final instructions, to his astonishment the King withdrew his promised concession; the conferences were instantly broken off, and the sword was again appealed to.† * Hallam, I., 585-6. + Guizot's Eng. Rev., 260-264. He CHAP. IX. III. FROM THE NEW MODELLING OF THE ARMY TO THE KING'S SURRENDER. 66. State of the two combatants at this time. The prospects of the two combatants were now widely different; on the side of the Royalists, all was lowering and gloomy; on that of the Parliament, bright and cheering. The cessation in Ireland had brought the King no benefit; and the brilliant victories of Montrose in Scotland, did nothing to arrest that ruin which menaced the throne and its adherents. About one-third of England was still in the hands of the Royalists. From Oxford to the extremity of Cornwall, Charles held uninterrupted sway; North and South Wales, with the exception of the Castles of Pembroke and Montgomery, acknowledged his authority; and several towns in the midland counties were held by his troops. The army. Royalists. was under the nominal command of the Prince of Wales, but the real command of Prince Rupert; it was, however, frittered away in a multitude of petty garrisons, and was in a state of the most alarming insubordination. The generals, divided into factions, disobeyed the royal orders, and refused to serve under an adversary or a rival; the officers indulged in every kind of debauchery; the privates lived at free quarters; and the royal forces were more terrible to their friends by their licentiousness, than to their enemies by their valour. The Character of the new modelled On the other side, the army of the parliament had been remodelled, according to the ordinance. The men who composed it belonged chiefly to the Independents, and were selected after the rules Cromwell had originally laid down. They were, perhaps, the most remarkable men who ever took up arms for liberty. Each individual soldier marched into battle army. with the sense of a glorious martyrdom in case of death, and of divine selection in case of life and triumph. One hand held the Bible, the other the sword. For them death had no terrors, and pain, suffering, or fatigue were entirely subdued. Believing that they were in a state of grace, they never allowed themselves to do anything unworthy of the high calling with which they believed God had honoured them-they considered themselves vessels of glory, set apart for the purposes of heaven. These feelings and impulses thus being common among them, were a bond of indissoluble union. They advanced into the field chanting the psalms contained in the Scriptures, and fought, as |