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of the long parliament, and also a military man, and led, as colonel, a regiment of Essex men to the fight at Worcester; came in good time, and fought well against kingship and tyranny in the house of the Stewarts; was of the last parliament. He is not so wise as Solomon, or so substantial and thorough in his principles for righteousness and freedom, as Job, chap. xxix. but rather soft in his spirit, and too easy, like a nose of wax, to be turned on that side where the greatest strength is. Being therefore of so hopeful principles for the new court-interest, and so likely to comply with their will and pleasure, no doubt need be made of his fitness to be a Lord, and to be taken out of the house to have a negative voice in the other house over all the good men in Essex, the now Lord of Warwick, the Protector's brother-in-law, excepted, and all the people of these lands besides.

42. Lord Ewre, a gentleman of Yorkshire, not very bulky or imperious for a Lord; he was once well esteemed of for honesty, and therefore chosen to be one of the little parliament; hath also been of all the parliaments since. The Yorkshire men happily may like his being new lorded, and that he should have a negative voice over them; the rather, because they never chose him to any such thing. The Protector being so well satisfied with his principles, and easiness, like his fellow-lord Honywood,'to be wrought up to do whatever their will and pleasure is, and to say No, when they would have him; it is very meet he also passes for one to be taken out of the house to have a negative voice in the other house, not only over Yorkshire, but all the good people of the commonwealth besides, being a Lord of the old stamp already.

43. Mr. Hampden, now Lord Hampden, a young gentleman of Buckinghamshire, son of the late Colonel Hampden, that noble patriot and defender of the rights and liberties of the English nation; of famous memory, never to be forgotten, for withstanding the King in the case of ship-money; being also one of the five impeached members, which the said King endeavoured to have pulled out of the parliament, whereupon followed such feud, war, and shedding of blood. This young gentleman, Mr. Hampden, was the last of sixty-two, which were added singly by the Protector, after the choice of sixty together; it is very likely, that Colonel Ingoldsby, or some other friend at court, got a cardinal's hat for him, thereby to settle and secure him to the interest of the new court, and wholly take him off from the thoughts of ever following his father's steps, or inheriting his noble virtues; as likewise, that the honest men in Buckinghamshire, and all others that are lovers of freedom and justice, that cleaved so cordially to, and went so chearfully along with his father, in the beginning of the late war, might be out of all hopes of him, and give him over for lost to the good old cause, and inheriting his father's noble spirit and principles, though he doth his lands. He was of the latter parliament, and found right, saving in the design upon which he was made a Lord after all the rest, and the Protector's pleasure. It is very hard to say how fit he is to be a Lord, and how well a negative voice over the good people of this land, and his father's friends in parti cular, will become the son of such a father, and how well the aforesaid good people, now called sectaries, will like of it; but, seeing it is as it is, let him pass for one as fit to be taken out of the house, with the rest,

to have a negative voice, and let him exercise it in the other house, over the good people for a season.

*

44. Sir Arthur Haslerigg, Lord? No; stop there! not Lord Haslerigg, a knight of the old stamp, a gentleman of a very large estate and revenue, was one of the long parliament, and one of the five impeached members, whom the King endeavoured to have pulled out of the house with the other, but was hindered from doing of it; was a colonel in the army; and adventured far in the wars, continued of that parliament till the dissolution thereof; was also chosen of these latter parliaments, but not permitted to sit at the first; he was, by the Protector, as may be seen in the printed list, cut out for a Lord of the other house, and to have a wooden dagger, to wit, a negative voice, with the rest; but he missed his way, and, instead of going into the other house, among the simple negative men, the off-spring of the bastard of William, the sixth Duke of Normandy, he went into the parliament-house among his fellow Englishmen, and there spake freely, bearing a good witness in behalf of the good old cause, the rights and liberties of the people of England; at which the court were vexed and sore displeased. However, for all this losing of his way, and the loss sustained by it, his fame and name, amongst all true English spirits, will be higher and more honourable than the simple title of a new Lord could make him; and, instead of a negative voice in the other house, he will be honoured by after ages as a rare phoenix, that, of forty-four, was found standing alone to his principles, and the good old cause so bled for. Oh. sad and wonderful! but one of forty-four, to be found standing firm to so noble a cause as ever was set on foot since the world began? Let all true English spirits love and honour him, and that will be better than a feather in his cap, or a wooden dagger. His name for ever in the chronicles will live, as one that was a true patriot of his country's liberties; which noble action (if he persevere, and be more refined in that honest spirit) may deservedly obliterate all human frailties and miscarriages of his, during the sitting of the long parliament, and the free people of England may, doubtless, for ever bury them in oblivion. No question, the protector found he was mistaken in him, and that he was not fit to be a Lord, or to have a negative voice, being of no more complying principles to his interest and designs, and the then new model of government, and will scarcely adventure to give him a second invitation to that great honour and dignity he so ungratefully and disdainfully slighted.

There were one or two more of the new champions, that with their wooden daggers went into the other house to fight against the rights and liberties of the good people of these lands; but, their names being wanting, and not worthy the enquiring after, nothing can be said of their noble virtues, save that in all likelihood they were of such worthy princi

See Army's Declaration in a Looking-Glass, p. 5. (say they) The first ground and rise of ty ranny, over the free people of this nation, did proceed from the bastard of William, the sixth" Duke of Normandy, who, to prevent the English of all relief by their parliaments, created Lords by his patent and prerogative, to sit by succession in the parliament, as representatives of his conquest and tyranny over us, and not by election of the people, as the representers and patrons of the commonwealth; and to make his usurpation firm and inviolable, he subdued the law. giving power of the free people in parliament, to the negative voice of himself and posterity; and under the yoke of this Norman captivity and villainage, we have been held by that succes sign to this very day, &c. See Large Petition, p. 11, 12. of that book.

ples as their fellows were of, and such as would concur to carry on any design or interest they should be put upon, and would say No with the rest, when any thing came in question that seemed to be against the Protector's height and absoluteness, or intercst of the new court; which he, that hath but half an eye may see, was the only design of calling them thither, as a balance of government to the parliament, so greatly, though falsly, pretended for the good of the people.

There were also, of this chosen number of sixty-two, some of the old earls and lords, called peers, 'which stood off, viz. three earls, Warwick, Musgrave, and Manchester, and two Lords, Say and Wharton,and sat not at all, disdaining, as some thought, to sit with these new up-start Lords; though others again apprehend, that this their forbearance was only out of their old state-policy, till they saw whether a House of Lords formerly so abominated, and thrown down (by the consent and desire of the good people) would again be resented and established, and then intended to come in; but I shall leave it. Some were in Scotland, viz. Ge neral Monk, Earl of Cassils, Lord Warriston, and Sir William Lockhart; which persons may also discover to him, that hath but half an eye, what a pitiful, carnal, low design they were carrying on. Some in Ireland, viz. Henry Cromwell, lord deputy (so called) Recorder Steel, and Colo nel Tomlinson. Some, it may be, had no great mind to it, to wit, Colonel Popham, Mr. Pierrepoint. Others, it is probable, were lettered by political or state-illness, or other occasions, viz. Chief Justice St. John, Mr. John Crew, Sir Gilbert Gerrard, so as they also appeared not, there being not above forty-four or forty-five of that worthy choice of sixtytwo, that appeared and sat there; and it is very likely, some think there were too many of them.

Thus far the description and narrative.

Three or four general queries are further proposed for a close to the whole; and it is humbly offered to all ingenious people, and queried,

First, Whether if it should come to pass (as how soon we know not) that that noble spirit should, like a lion raised from sleep, rise again in the English people, such as it was in forty-one, or forty-two, or about that time, whether these champions, with their feathers in their caps, and their wooden daggers, and those fifty-three persons, who pretended to settle the government by the Humble petition and advice,' would be able to fight with, stand against, and overcome the same, any otherwise than their predecessors the Lords temporal, and the bishops the Lords spiritual, did then? And whether it would not in all likelihood fare with them and their dependents, the patentees of the excise, and all others employed by them, that so oppress and impoverish the nation, as formerly it did with them, if not far worse? They may please to think of it at their leisure,

Secondly, Whether in these five years now passed of the protectoral government, that blessed reformation which the protector, then general, and other grandees of the army, so often promised, and for not bringing forth of which, they pretend they dissolved the old parliament, hath so

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been set upon, as to make any the least proceed therein? Or rather, hath there not been a gradual and an apparent relapsing into those very evils and enormities formerly so greatly shaken, and in some degree broken, but now healed again of their wound, and flourishing a-fresh with open face; the spirit of wickedness and profaneness being risen very high, even among professors, like the unclean spirit cast out, and entering again? And, in particular, that abominable corruption and abuse in the law, and administration of justice, touching which the protector, so called, sometime said, 'It was not to be endured in a Christian commonwealth, that some should so enrich and greaten themselves in the ruin of others. So, likewise, that often complained of grievance of tythes, touching which he also said, as was lately attested in an open court of judicature, several standing by to witness the truth thereof, to whom the words were spoken, "That if he did not take away tythes by the third of September next, to wit, 1654, or such a time, they should call him the greatest juggler that ever was, and would juggle in all things else.' Yet is there any thing done in either of these? Or any thing gone about tending thereunto, now in these five years? As if it were so, that no fruit would ever grow upon such a tree, viz. the monarchical foundation, which the Lord hath pulled up and cursed, as the barren fig tree was. Only there is one goodly amendment, to wit, a confirmation of the act for treble damages, to the undoing of many an honest man, that, upon conscientious grounds, do scruple the payment of them. And, as for the law and the lawyers, they are as before, if not much worse; and is there any ground of hope, that the next five years, should he continue so long, will produce any better fruit, than the five that are already past?

Thirdly, Whether this calculation of these ignoble Lords of the new stamp, being of several complexions, and standing in the afore-mentioned capacities and relations, having also such dependence upon, and lying under so great engagements unto the protector, so called, as his sons and kindred, flattering courtiers, corrupt lawyers, degenerated swordsmen, and a sort of lukewarm indifferent country knights, gentlemen, and citizens, most of them self-interested salary-men, be not likeJy, according to the very specious pretence, to prove a brave balance of government? And whether the good people of this land are likely to have their just rights and freedoms, or religious men the liberty of their consciences by this constitution, any otherwise, than according to the pleasure of the protector and the court? Or than they had in the time of the late King? And whether this calculation were made to any other end than so?

Lastly, Whether, all things soberly weighed and considered, the times be now so happy and blessed, as some do loudly bespeak them to be? And whether, for the future, we are likely to have such prosperity, suc cess, and good days, as some so largely promise themselves? And others it may be expected? Or whether such smiling upon old wickedness, and frowning and turning the back upon righteousness, suppressing its growth, be any comfortable ground of such hope and expectation? Or

whether, upon the whole series of things, as they now appear, there be not rather to be expected some sadder matter, if the Lord in mercy prevent not? Let the wise in heart consider.

NUNTIUS A MORTUIS,

OR A

MESSENGER FROM THE DEAD:

THAT IS,

A stupendous and dreadful colloquy, distinctly and alternately heard by divers, betwixt the ghosts of Henry the Eighth and Charles the First (both Kings of England) who lie entombed in the church of Windsor. Wherein, as with a pencil from heaven, is liquidly, from head to foot, set forth the whole series of the judgments of God the sins of these unfortunate islands.

upon

Translated out of the Latin copy, by G. T. and printed at Paris, 1657. Quarto, containing twenty-six pages.

Courteous Reader,

TO THE READER,

THOU wilt wonder, perhaps, that this terrible narration of a colloquy, so full of dread and astonishment, long since had betwixt two Kings of England, both deceased, should not sooner have come forth, when, in the interval of so great a tract of time, it ought rather to have been put to the press. But thou must know, it was then strangled in its birth (all ready fitted by me to have come into the light) when, the late King's blood yet smoaking, the severity of the times suppressed it. Divers also were shut up close prisoners, lest the truth of such strange prodigies should walk abroad with them; and the soldiers largely bribed, who watched his hearse, not to let any thing of that quality fall from them; but now it is, by God's infinite goodness (nor unhappy, as I may say, midwifery of mine) that again it resaluteth the day, with recommendation to be communicatively used by the---; however, to myself the author, who was present at the late King's burial, and both eye and ear witness of these wonders, not as vain and only forged things, speaking, like to poets, Give thou credit and belief; but as tracing, through those

Vide the 250th article in the catalogue of pamphlets in the Harleian Library.

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