1653 DUTCH SUCCESSES 247 in Scotland and Ireland. Able-bodied men fled from the sight of one of the State's ships as they would have done from the plague. In London a raid was made on shore, and landsmen, even gentlemen unused to the sea, were dragged out of their beds and hurried on board ship. With the navy in such a state it was impossible adequately to protect commerce. April a ship laden with silk worth 10,000l. was taken by the French, and another worth 80,000l. fell into the hands of the Dutch.1 April. Losses at sea. 1652. Nov. Cutting out of the 'Phoenix.' 1653. March 1. ordered to Leghorn. In Such calamities are amongst the ordinary accidents of maritime war. It was of greater importance that the enemy was triumphant in the Mediterranean. In November, indeed, Captain Cox succeeded in cutting out the 'Phoenix-an English ship which had been previously captured by the Dutch-from the port of Leghorn.2 The Grand Duke, angered by this outThe English rage on his neutrality, ultimately ordered Badiley, leave who now commanded both his own and Appleton's squadrons, to restore the 'Phoenix' or to withdraw his ships. The latter alternative was chosen, and, on March 14, Appleton, without waiting for the approach of Badiley, who lay in the offing, attempted to force a passage with six ships against sixteen of the Dutch, but was utterly defeated with the loss of all his force except a single ship. Badiley was at too great a distance to render help.3 For the present, at least, the Levant trade was at the mercy of the Dutch. Merchants in London who Distress in had embarked their capital in these ventures were breaking daily after the news had been told.4 March 14. Defeat of Appleton. April. London. 2 [See Mr. Spalding's Life of Richard Badiley, p. 132.] 3 Appleton to the Navy Committee, Nov. 22; Badiley to the Navy Committee, Dec. 2; Longland to the Navy Committee, March 14, S.P. Dom. xxv. 65; xxvi. 2; xxxiv. 32. Compare Professor Laughton's Lives of Appleton and Badiley in the Dict. of Nat. Biog. [See also Spalding's Life of Richard Badiley, pp. 185-212.] Newsletter, April, Clarendon MSS. ii. No. 1,083. Interruption of the coal trade. To the majority of the inhabitants of London the interruption of the coal trade was even more serious. The Dutch, beaten out of the Channel, were resuming activity in the North Sea, and hindered the colliers from sailing. It was even rumoured that the greater part of the Newcastle coal ships had been taken by De With. The price of coals, which had been 27. a chaldron, now rose to 67., and they were only to be procured with difficulty even at that price. Cooks' shops were closed for want of fuel. A wag collected a crowd in the streets by shouting 'coal at 3d. a bushel,' and when asked where they were to be sold so cheaply, replied At Rotterdam Stairs.' On April 15, a newswriter summed up the position:-"This press hath caused great murmurings among the people, and believe it we do much dread some sudden mischief from them, especially if they once hear that the Dutch have declared for the King. Our dearth of coal exasperates them and, I assure you, if the Dutch keep them from us, we shall shortly cut each other's throats." 1 66 This seething mass of popular discontent must have strengthened the hands of those who opposed the Government Military on political grounds. The military preachers had preachers. for some time been able to defy Parliament unchecked. Before the end of March one of them announced at Blackfriars that they intended speedily to destroy' that accursed Parliament at Westminster.' Rather," ,” said an officer, “than we will suffer this Parliament to sit any longer, we will bring in the Cavaliers and make a Parliament of them, whom we know have a great deal more of honour and honesty than they.” On April 10, a young glazier preaching at Somerset House told his audience that 'they should ere long see greater April 10. A preaching destruction fall on the Parliament than ever befel the glazier. Cavaliers.' At this stage, a woman in the congregation irrelevantly called out: "Why do you wear cuffs? Neither our Lord nor His disciples ever taught in cuffs." The sympathies of the congregation, however, were with the preacher, and as 1 Newsletter, April 1, Clarendon MSS. ii. No. 1,096. 1653 April 12. Day of thanks RELIGION IN WALES 249 soon as this conscientious questioner had been expelled, he proceeded with his revilings. On the 12th, the day of Thanksgiving for the victory over the Dutch, many churches remained closed, and those open were but thinly attended. Some of the sea-captains, remembering at what a price the victory had been won, left London to avoid offering thanks for a success which had cost the lives of so many of their comrades.1 giving for the victory in the Channel. Signs were, however, not altogether wanting that the excess of fanaticism might lead to a reaction. Early in 1650 an Act The propa gation of the Gospel in Wales. had been passed for the propagation of the Gospel in Wales. By this Act power was given to commissioners of whom Harrison was one-to deprive all malignant and scandalous clergy, and to establish a preaching ministry in their room, upon the certificate of a certain number of ministers whose names were recited in the Act. The authority thus conferred on the commissioners was to expire on March 25, 1653, and their opponents asked Parliament not to renew it. It can hardly be matter for surprise that the commissioners were highly unpopular in Wales, and that after a considerable number of the clergy had been ejected through their means and the vacant places supplied with vigorous enthusiasts, their nominees were sometimes waylaid and soundly beaten, so that they went about in danger of their lives. Powell. The most conspicuous of the instrusive ministers was Vavasor Powell, a perfervid Welshman who was able to speak to Vavasor his countrymen in their native tongue, and who, by the sincerity of his own life, gained numerous converts, even in that unpuritanical land. He had, too, dreams of millennial glory in the near future, which by no means diminished his influence over his imaginative disciples, but which incited the derision of the multitude. Wales teemed with slander against Powell. His morality was called in 15 1 Newsletter, April 1, 1, Clarendon MSS. ii. Nos. 1,067, 1,096. 2 On Feb. 22, 1650. E, 1,060, No. 80. The Act is not in Scobell, but will be found in question,' and the commissioners were charged with tyrannical conduct. Harrison charged with enlisting men in Wales. denial.2 March 27. Powell preaches in London. April 3. It was now said that Harrison had used 'his preaching people' to enlist 4,000 men in North Wales for his own purposes. So far did the rumour spread that Cromwell thought it worth while to question him, though he readily accepted his In the streets of London incredulity had the upper hand. On March 27, Powell, who had lately returned from Wales, preached in the Charter House to an overflowing audience, after which he begged his hearers to meet him on the following Monday in the open air at Smithfield, as there was no room for them in a church. On the appointed day Powell failed to keep his word. Learning that Smithfield was occupied by a mob some six thousand strong, he attempted to disarm hostility by sending a cap-maker who was one of his fellow-preachers to take his place. The unfortunate substitute was assailed by shouts of abuse, followed by a shower of stones. He would hardly have escaped with his life but for the intervention of the City Marshal, who pulled him down and carried him off. Even the offence given by Powell and his cap-maker was laid to the discredit of Parliament. The mob 'expressed much hatred against our Government, saying such rogues as he and those who protected him were the cause of all their miseries, but they hoped ere long to be freed from them.' 3 A riot at Cromwell was no friend to mob-violence, but he took a warm interest in the propagation of the Gospel in Wales, and he must have regarded with favour the progress of a Bill which had been introduced for continuing the authority of the com 1 These charges were printed in 1654 in Strena Vavasoriensis, and form the authority for Walker's account of the matter in The Sufferings of the Clergy. They were refuted by the testimony of neighbours and other persons qualified to give evidence, afterwards published in Vavasoris Examen et Purgamen, E, 732, 14. March 2 2 Newsletter, Clarendon MSS. ii. No. 1,056. 3 Newsletter, April, ib. ii. No. 1,083. 4 C.J. vii. 272. 1653 missioners. March 25. Bill for continuing the authority of the Welsh commis sioners. It is April 1. rejected. Cromwell maintains the authority of Parliament. CROMWELL SUPPORTS PARLIAMENT 251 Hostility to a Bill in which Harrison was concerned was easily excited in Parliament. The com missioners, it was said, had in their hands 60,000/. of tithes, and asked for a prolongation of their powers merely to avoid parting with the money. On April 1 the Bill was rejected, and an order made for substituting more moderate ministers for those named in the original Act as the dispensers of certificates to preachers.1 Whatever may have been Cromwell's feelings in the matter, he was not yet converted to the doctrine that the army was justified in overthrowing Parliament by force. "Our soldiers," says a news-writer, on the day on which the Bill was rejected, "resolve to have speedily a new representative, and the Parliament resolve the contrary. The General sticks close to the House,2 which causeth him to be daily railed on by the preaching party, who say they must have both a new Parliament and General before the work be done; and that these are not the people that are appointed for perfecting of that great work of God which they have begun. There came a regiment of horse to town this week full-mouthed against the Parliament, but were not suffered to stay here above two days before they, with three violent regiments more, were despatched out of the way towards Scotland." "We hear," proceeds the same writer a week later, "no talk now of our new representative, the April 8. heat of the soldiers being somewhat abated by the "Friday last the House voted down the preaching propagators of North Wales, and ordered a moderate clergy to be put in their places. They had got into their hands 60,000l. per annum of Church livings, which Harrison and others of that party are loth to part with." Newsletter, April, Clarendon MSS. ii. No. 1,083. Nothing of this appears in the Journals, but at this period they were too irregularly kept to justify distrust on that score. [See Shaw's English Church during the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth, ii. 227-229.] 2 I.e. continues to support it; he had not been present in the House for some time. See infra, p. 255. |