72 COMMISSIONERS AT TRIPLOE HEATH. [1647. and Cromwell he expressed the same desire to remain with the army. He preferred 'the air' of Newmarket to 'the air' of Holmby. Cromwell went to London; and took his place in the House. There is no very reliable account of what occurred when he who was held to be the chief manager of the great coup-d'état, appeared in his seat. Hollis represents Cromwell, as well as Ireton, Fleetwood, and Rainsborough, who were members of the House as well as officers of the army, " blaming the soldiers at that distance, as Cromwell did openly in the House, protesting, for his part, he would stick to the Parliament."* He then, continues the wrathful Presbyterian, "did steal away that evening, I may say run away post down to the Army, and presently join in the subscription of a rebellious letter." The narrative of a more candid chronicler says, that Cromwell "got hastily and secretly out of town, and without stop or stay rid to Triploe Heath, his horse all on a foam, and there was welcomed with the shouts of the whole Army, to whom he declared the actions and designs of the Parliament." + Commissioners were again coming to the Army on the 10th; and Cromwell has arrived a little before them. Twenty-one thousand men are drawn up on Triploe Heath; not an ordinary body of soldiers, but men, as they described themselves in one of their petitions," who had abandoned their estates, trades, callings, and the contentments of a quiet life, for the perils and fatigues of war in defence of the public liberty." Fairfax and the commissioners ride to each regiment. The votes of parliament are first read to the general's own regiment. An officer stands forth, saying that the regiment would determine upon an answer when the votes had been submitted to a Council of Officers and Adjutators. The men are asked if that is their answer? "All, all." This is not a tumultuous reply; they speak when leave is given. The question is also put, if any be of a contrary opinion to say "No." Not a voice is heard. The same formality is observed towards every regiment, with a similar result; and a cry goes up from each, as the commissioners pass on, of "Justice, Justice." In the afternoon, this Army is on its march towards London; and the "rebellious letter" of which Hollis speaks, is sent to the lord-mayor and aldermen. It is a remarkable letter, the composition, as Mr. Carlyle thinks, of Cromwell; signed by Fairfax, Cromwell, Ireton, and other chief officersin number thirteen. "We desire," they say, a settlement of the peace of the kingdom and of the liberties of the subject, according to the votes and declarations of Parliament, which, before we took arms, were, by the Parliament, used as arguments and inducements to invite us and divers of our dear friends out, some of whom have lost their lives in this war. . . For the obtaining of these things we are drawing near your city; professing sincerely from our hearts, that we intend not evil towards you; declaring, with all confidence and assurance, that if you appear not against us in these our just desires, to assist that wicked Party which would embroil us and the kingdom, neither we nor our soldiers shall give you the least offence. . . . . And although you may suppose that a rich city may seem an enticing bait to poor hungry soldiers to venture far to gain the wealth thereof,-yet, if not provoked by you, we do profess, rather than any such evil should fall out, the soldiers shall make their way through our blood to effect it." This is plain speaking. * Hollis, p. 84. 1647.] THE ARMY ADVANCES TOWARDS LONDON. 73 The Army has reached St. Alban's; and a respectful answer is conveyed thither by a deputation from the City. On the 16th the Army demands the impeachment of eleven members of the Commons, Hollis, Stapleton, Massey, and eight others of the leading Presbyterians-the men of whom Cromwell spoke when he whispered about the army pulling them out by the ears. City is in consternation. The Parliament is incapable of acting with any vigour. Messages are daily going between St. Alban's and Westminster with the interminable arguments of each of these great powers. But the one possesses a strength more immediately effective than the highest ability of the pen. If the parliamentary negotiators appear obstinate, the Army advances. On the 25th of June it is at Uxbridge. The shops in the City are shut. The Army has received a months' pay, as it demanded. But it has continued to advance. The effect is instantaneous. On the 26th the eleven obnoxious members retire from Parliament; the Commons vote for the adoption of all the proceedings of the Army; and commissioners are appointed on each side to regulate the affairs of the kingdom. There is no longer any talk of defending London; and the Army falls back a few miles. For more than three months have these serious differences between Par liament and Army gone on. There is a pause of nearly another month, in which the kingdom does seem approaching to a settlement. We have lost sight of the monarch during the busy two months in which London lies under the shadow of that eagle's wing. Is he a guest or a prisoner amidst that Army, so differently composed from his own roystering Cavaliers? He is certainly not an ill-used prisoner. " His majesty," says Clarendon, "sat still, or removed to such places as were most convenient for the march of the army; being in all places as well provided for and accommodated, as he had used to be in any progress." All persons were allowed to resort to him-" the best gentlemen of the several counties through which he passed." His own chaplains had leave to attend upon him for his devotions, and "performed their function at the ordinary hours, in their accustomed formalities." Royalists of rank visited him without restraint; "and many good officers who had served his majesty faithfully were civilly received by the officers of the army, and lived quietly in their quarters." The king lodged at great houses in the neighbourhood of the army;-at the earl of Salisbury's at Hatfield, when the troops were at St. Alban's; at Caversham, the earl of Craven's, when the army had moved further from London. Sir Philip Warwick has a curious passage, implying that there was some general belief that the king's disgust at the harsher treatment he had received from the Presbyterians would moderate his own desire for episcopal uniformity, and lead him to look with approbation upon that liberty of conscience which the Independents professed and demanded:* "At Causham [Caversham] I had the honour to come into his presence, though I staid not there; but, by all I could perceive either from himself or any other, he was very apprehensive in what hands he was, but was not to let it be discerned. Nor had he given that countenance to Dr. Taylor's 'Liberty of Prophesying' which some believed ne had." The prejudices of his education, and the principles of his govern At p. 46 we gave an extract from the letter of Cromwell, in which, on the very day of the Battle of Naseby, he asserts this ruling principle of his mind. We insert here a fac-simile of that remarkable portion of the letter. "Memoirs," p. 301. 74 THE KING'S TREATMENT IN THE ARMY. [1647. ment, were too exclusive to allow Charles to admit the doctrine of Toleration, although proclaimed by his own favourite chaplain. When Jeremy Taylor Fou the whor is Juno. 14 $2,645. Haurubnowe. Youn most huablo sennant thier Committ Fac-simile of a portion of the letter written by Cromwell to the Speaker of the House of Commons, from his lowly retreat in Wales sent forth this plea for religious liberty into an unquiet world, he said, "I thought it might not misbecome my duty and endeavours to plead for peace, and charity, and forgiveness, and permissions mutual; although I had reason to believe that such is the iniquity of men, and they so indisposed to receive such impresses, that I had as good plough the sands or till the air as persuade such doctrines."* It was reserved for a * "Epistle Dedicatory to Lord Hatton." 1647.] PROPOSALS OF THE INDEPENDENTS TO THE KING. 75 happier age to understand and act upon these principles. Taylor had been favoured by Laud; but he had broken away from Laud's narrow estimate of what was necessary for the security of an established Church. The problem that its power and dignity and usefulness might be upheld in connection with the most absolute spiritual freedom beyond its pale, required to be practically worked out for two centuries before it could be held to be solved. The reasoners in steel, who were as impatient of the domination of "New Presbyter" as of "Old Priest," were dealing more practically with this question of toleration than any previous set of men who had so advocated the rights of conscience. Few had advocated those rights, having strong religious convictions of their own. Cromwell was the great expositor of their principle; and he probably went as far as the spirit of Protestantism would then permit. Charles hated the Presbyterians, but he gave no confidence to the Independents. The king and his conqueror now sometimes met. The king had been allowed by Fairfax, with an instant attention to his request, to have an interview with his children, the dukes of York and Gloucester, and the princess Elizabeth. Sir John Berkeley, who came over from the queen when Charles had informed her of his reception by the army, had many conferences with Cromwell; who, although "wishing that the king was more frank, and would not tie himself so strictly to narrow maxims," told Berkeley "that he had lately seen the tenderest sight that ever his eyes beheld, which was the interview between the king and his children; and wept plentifully at the remembrance of it, saying, that never man was so abused as he in his sinister opinions of the king, who, he thought, was the uprightest and most conscientious man of his three kingdoms." And yet Berkeley, whilst he records this trait of Cromwell's character, which, after the accustomed fashion, we must call hypocrisy, writes, "I was of his majesty's sense, that men whose hands were yet hot with the blood of his most faithful subjects, ought not entirely to be trusted; but thought they ought absolutely to be well dissembled with, whilst his majesty was in their hands at least, that he might the better get out of them."+ It was towards the end of June that the king and the Independents,— Cromwell and Ireton, Vane and Henry Marten,-appeared to have come to such an understanding as promised a termination to the miseries of the kingdom; an understanding that would have restored the king to those just rights which were compatible with the existence of civil and religious liberty. Whether such an arrangement would have endured, had it been effected, may justly be questioned. But the proposals which were made by the leaders of the Army to Charles at this juncture, were far more moderate than any which had been previously tendered or suggested. They were to the effect that the Long Parliament should be dissolved within a year; that future Parliaments should be biennial, and not to be dissolved or adjourned except by their own consent, unless they had sat a hundred and twenty days; that the representation should be made more equal, by disfranchising decayed and inconsiderable towns, and giving a greater number of members to counties or other divisions of the kingdom; that the judicial power of both Houses "New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ large. '-Millon. 76 THE KING REJECTS THE PROPOSALS. [1647. should be limited; that grand jurymen should be chosen in some equal way, and not at the discretion of the sheriff. These were national reforms, not materially affecting the royal prerogative; reforms which have been gradually established in the working of the constitution. The great question of the power of the sword was proposed to be settled, upon the principle that the royal authority over the militia should be subject to the advice of Parliament and a Council for ten years. The other great subject of difference, that of religion, was provided for by the proposition that an Act should be passed, taking away all ecclesiastical jurisdiction extending to civil penalties; that there be a repeal of all Statutes enjoining the use of the Common Prayer under penalties, as well as of those that imposed penalties for not attending the service of the Church; and, further, that the taking of the Covenant should not be enforced upon any, and all penalties taken away that had been imposed upon the refusers. These propositions being received as the basis for securing the rights, liberties, peace, and safety of the kingdom, it was to be provided that "his majesty's person, his queen and royal issue, may be restored to a condition of safety, honour, and freedom in the nation, without diminution of their personal rights, or further limitation to the exercise of the legal power." How the proposals were received by the king is minutely detailed by sir John Berkeley. Charles appears to have mainly objected to the minor condition which excepted seven of his adherents from a general amnesty, and from the privilege of compounding for their estates; and to that which stipulated that royalists should not sit in the next Parliament. "I procured his Majesty a sight of the Army's Proposals six or eight days before they were offered to him in public. His Majesty was much displeased with them in general, saying, That, if they had a mind to close with him, they would never impose so hard terms upon him. I replied, That, if they had demanded less than they had done, I should have suspected them more than I now did of intending not really to serve his Majesty, but only to abuse him; since it was not likely that men who had, through so great dangers and difficulties, acquired so great advantages, should ever sit down with less than was contained in the Proposals; and, on the other side, never was a crown (that had been so near lost) so cheaply recovered, as his Majesty's would be, if they agreed upon such terms. His Majesty was of another advice, and returned, That they could not subsist without him, and therefore he did not doubt but that he should see them very shortly be glad to condescend farther; and then objected to three particular points of the Proposals. The first was, The exception of seven, not named, from pardon. The second, The excluding his party from being eligible in the next ensuing Parliament. And the third, That though there was nothing done. against the Church-government established, yet there was nothing done to assert it. To these, I replied, That after his Majesty and the Army were accorded, it would be no impossible work to make them remit in the first point; and, if he could not, when his Majesty was re-instated in his throne, he might easily supply seven persons beyond the seas, in such sort as to make their banishment supportable to them. To the second; That the next Parliament would be necessitated to lay great burdens upon the kingdom; and it would be a happiness to the king's Party, to have no voice in them. To the third, That the Law was security enough for the Church, and it was |