CHAPTER IV. A.D. 1645. swept away no inconsiderable number, and others were engaged upon the field. The mortality of the last few years had been, from these causes, almost CHAS. I. without precedent. The vacancies were not yet filled up, but they were making way for men of inferior parts and of a lower standing. At length, though not without a severe discussion, the house of commons resolved to recruit its numbers, and by its own authority to issue writs for the election of new members in the place of all those who were deceased, or who had retired to Oxford: Thus the name indeed remained, but little more was left, of that famous parliament which in 1640 had denounced oppression, and proclaimed the rights of England and of the reformation. In these five years the declension of the house of commons had been remarkable. Its eloquence had grown dim, and its statesmanlike capacity had shrivelled into small dimensions. The speeches delivered in 1641 and 1642 are as much above the usual level of parliamentary eloquence as those of 1645 are beneath it. The former are manly in thought and chaste in language; the latter, with the exception of a few such men as Selden, Whitelocke, and St. John, whose thoughtful words must always command respect, are mean and vulgar, and overlaid with a certain religious jargon, as remote from the expression of simple piety as the language of adulation is from that of honest friendship. The transformation, it is true, was not yet complete. The elections for new members did not take place till August, when the selfdenying ordinance had passed. But already members hitherto but little known began to take the lead; M CHAS. I. A.D. 1645. CHAPTER new intentions began to be avowed; and a party IV. was formed, of which Cromwell, Vane, and Martin were the head. For some months there had been a coldness between the generals and the parliament. The earl of Essex was ill in London, desponding and alone; but he still retained the chief command. The second victory at Newbury had been won by his army, but under the command, in his absence, of the earl of Manchester. When the news arrived in London, although a day of thanksgiving was appointed, thanks were not voted to either of the generals, and Manchester was charged by Cromwell, in his place in parliament, with having intentionally permitted the king to escape, and with not having pursued his advantages to the utmost. He defended himself in the upper house, but Cromwell and his friends in the house of commons continued to repeat the accusation. A violent quarrel was at hand. Still the army was attached to its generals; mutinies were reported from day to day; even Cromwell's legion was disaffected; and it was evident that if a collision should take place, the parliament was impotent against thirty thousand men in arms. painful consciousness was felt that the seat of government was about to be transferred from the senate to the camp. A The self-denying ordinance brought on a crisis. Without seeming to strike a blow or to use an effort, Cromwell by this measure reduced the generals and the army into complete subserviency to himself; made the parliament first his instrument and then his victim; seized at the instant the reins which fell out of its hands, and grasped them IV. CHAS. I. A.D. 1645. firmly for the remainder of his life. The way was CHAPTER cautiously prepared. The nation, it was said, required rest; the war which exhausted its energies ought to be closed, for it covered the land with blood; meantime the tone of public principle was deteriorated and religion itself decayed; and no wonder, since the two houses of parliament were everywhere charged with selfishness and ambition. They were brave and patriotic, it was admitted, but they were mistaken; they neglected the business of the state to gather laurels on the field of battle; and the time had now arrived when they should give the nation a noble example of self-denial. Legislation was their proper business; the pursuits of the soldier were unfit for them; and they ought at once to resign their commissions. These hollow murmurings announced the approaching storm. Just at the time, a few reverses which had occurred in the west of England to sir William Waller served to give a still more solemn tone to these feigned or real apprehensions. God was displeased, and the people must abase themselves. A solemn fast was appointed, and the preachers were carefully chosen by Cromwell and the independent party. The A pulpit now began to share the degeneracy of the parliament, and to echo the intentions of the ruling powers. The word fanatic this year enriched our language; it was coined to describe a set of men who transferred the impassioned fervours of devotion to politics, contaminating both at once. The text itself was often a gazette, and it frequently conveyed to the audience the first intimation of some ap * So Clarendon says. IV. CHAS. I. A.D. 1645. It CHAPTER proaching change. There was of course the greatest unanimity among the preachers, and the people joined with unsuspicious fervour in services which continued eight or ten hours without interruption. The preachers deplored the continuance of the war, and expressed their fears that so long as the chief commands were held by members of the legislature it was not likely to come to an end; the nation would grow poor while the parliament grew rich. They even ventured to affirm that the parliament was no less corrupt than the court itself. had as much pride, as much ambition, as many private ends to serve, and as little true regard to the public welfare; and they prayed that God would take his own work in hand; and, if the instruments employed were indeed unworthy to complete the glorious task, to make use of others, and fit them for the work. The next day sir Harry Vane opened the debate, insisting chiefly upon the wonderful unanimity (if we may credit Clarendon's* minute and apparently accurate relation) which had appeared in the discourses and lamentations of all the godly ministers in so many churches, "which could therefore proceed," he said, "only from the immediate Spirit of God." He deplored the sins of the parliament, and admitted its selfishness. He, for one, was ready to accuse himself. He was joint-treasurer of the navy: he would resign his office; and apply its emoluments to carry on the war. The ice thus broken, Cromwell followed. His eloquence was obscure and vulgar but still it was effective. It has been usual to regard the * Clarendon, viii. p. 566. IV. CHAS. I. A.D. 1645. style and matter of his speeches as proofs of a CHAPTER consummate hypocrisy: they were rather perhaps the utterance of a deep fanaticism. He now spoke like one in whom every feeling of personal ambition was subservient to the cause of God. He commended the preachers for their faithfulness; acknowledged the sins of parliament and his own; and enlarged on the vices and corruptions of the army, its profaneness and impiety, and the absence of all religion. Unless it were remodelled, and governed under a stricter discipline, success, he said, could not be expected. God had so blessed their army notwithstanding, that it contained excellent officers, capable of higher command than they now possessed: nay, if the highest offices were vacant, they could be filled up at once. To believe that the success of the army depended on its present leaders, (whose valour he highly praised,) was to trust in an arm of flesh,—as if such a cause as this depended on one man! He proposed, at length, an ordinance that no member of either house of parliament should retain office or command in the army, or any place or employment in the state; and, in proof of his sincerity, he offered to lay down his own commission. The motion thus introduced was long debated. It was vehemently opposed by the Scotch commissioners then in London, and by the whole force of the presbyterians, including the house of lords. But the proposal was plausible with the people, who are seldom indeed displeased when those in power renounce their honours. Zouch Tate led the way in the house of commons, and moved the adoption of the self-denying ordinance, |