almost necessary to the preserving the peace and safety of this great city, by giving advantage to them to put themselves into a regular posture of defence, and such an encouragement to the sober party among them as would through God's mercy have utterly defeated the designs of the common enemy. Sir, let us tell you this design was not so vain but that we had by the blessing of God possessed that place some weeks since, had we not been frustrated by our mistake in the courage and fidelity of a person, whose opportunity, interest, and duty, if not principles, gave us better hopes.1 But in this age we are to complain and wonder at nothing; yet we cannot but highly resent the confidence of sending for one of our number by a party of soldiers, as if red coats and muskets were a non obstante to all laws and public privilege. Not as if that person or any of us are afraid or ashamed to own the enterprise before any that have a lawful authority to demand an account of it; which we are sure no single person, junto, or pack of men at Whitehall or Wallingford House have a pretence to. Sir, we have the witness with our own spirits, that we have and do cordially wish the preservation and good of you and your family: but if the Lord hath said, "You shall not hearken, but be hardened in your way," we must acquiesce in His providence, and with sorrow look upon that ruin which is flowing in upon you, as upon one in whom we thought we had seen some good.

Sir, consider that in the day of trouble, which is certainly coming upon you, what support you will have to your spirit, when you shall be assaulted with the shame you have brought upon God's people; with the breach of faith to the Parliament

1 Compare Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 763: "The Parliament party was not wanting to promote their interest, and to that end formed a design to get the Tower into their hands. Colonel Fitz, who was then Lieutenant of the place, had consented that Colonel Okey with three hundred men should lie dispersed about the town, prepared for the enterprise, promising that on a certain day he would cause the gates to be opened early in the morning, to let him pass in his coach; which opportunity Colonel Okey with his men taking, might easily seize the guards and possess himself of the place; and their attempt might have succeeded, had it not, by I know not what accident, been discovered to the Lord Mayor, who informed the army of it the night before it was to be put in execution. Whereupon Colonel Desborow with some forces was sent thither, who changed the guards, seized the Lieutenant of the Tower, and left Colonel Miller to command there till further order."

1

from whom you received your commission; with the ruin you have brought upon your native country (unless the Lord by His own Almighty arm prevent it); and with the misery you have led the poor soldiers into, who, instead of being the instruments of renewing and settling the peace and liberty of these nations, enjoying the honour and quiet thereof, their arrears fully paid, future pay and advancement settled and established in order and with the blessing of their countrymen, are now become the instruments of nine men's ambition,1 have made the whole nation their enemies, and are exposed again to the hardship and hazard of a new unnatural war, without prospect of our hoping that the issue of these affairs can leave their new masters so rich as to satisfy their arrears, or so secure as to trust preferments in any hands, but such whose fanatic principles or personal relations make them irreconcilable to the public interest. But God, we trust, has raised up a deliverer, having by admirable providence put an opportunity and power into the hands of General Monck, the ablest and most experienced commander of these nations; whom he hath also spirited to stand firm for the interest of this Commonwealth, as well against a rebellious party of our own forces, as the designs of the common enemy, notwithstanding all causeless and false aspersions maliciously cast upon him; being warranted in his present actings by especial commission and authority from the Council of State, whereas yours is that only of the sword. Our prayers and earnest request for you and all honest men amongst you are that you may timely join with him, and partake of the honour and blessing of his actions, and your true repentance shall be a greater rejoicing than your desertion was trouble; when Providence shall have separated the precious from the vile, and not have suffered our scum to boil in, but shall have placed the sword and civil authority in the hands of men of the best and soberest principles. Sir, be not so far deceived as to think sober men see not through the mask of this strange new parliament, whose liberty and safety either of meeting or debating must be at your pleasure, who, having taken upon you to be conservator of the cause, will only make

1 The nine men here referred to are probably the nine officers who subscribed the circular letter which, produced by Colonel Okey in the Parliament, caused the commotion which brought on Lambert and Fleetwood's revolution of October. See p. 189 of the "Life."

use of them as your assessors and tax-gatherers; the present interrupted parliament being the sole lawful authority, and which can only be hoped to make the sword subservient to the civil interest, and settle the government in the hands of the people by successive and free parliaments unlawfully denied to them. Sir, we have in sincerity given you our sense, and shall leave you to Him that disposes of all men's hearts, and remain,

Your servants,

So far as you shall be found to serve the public,

AN. ASHLEY COOPER.

THO. SCOT.

Jos. BERNERS.

JOHN WEAVER.

APPENDIX VI.

A Proviso for the Bill of Uniformity, presented to the House of Peers from the King by the Lord Chancellor, March 17, 1662.1

PROVIDED always that, notwithstanding anything in this Act in regard of the generous offers and promises made by His Majesty before his happy restoration of liberty to tender consciences, the intention whereof must be best known to His Majesty, as likewise the several services of those who contributed thereunto, for all whom His Majesty hath in his princely heart as gracious a desire of indulgence as may consist with the good and peace of the kingdom, and would not have a greater severity exercised towards them than what is necessary for the public benefit and welfare thereof, it be enacted. And be it therefore enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the King's Majesty by any writing and in such manner as to his wisdom shall seem fit, so far to dispense with any such Minister as upon the nine-and-twentieth day of May, 1660, was and at present is seised of any benefice or ecclesiastical promotion, and of whose merit towards His Majesty, and of whose peaceable and pious disposition, His Majesty shall be sufficiently informed and satisfied, that no such Minister shall be deprived or lose his benefice or other ecclesiastical promotion for not wearing the surplice, or for

1 This Proviso is here printed for the first time from the Rolls of the House of Lords. Though presented by Clarendon, the Lord Chancellor, from the King, it was rejected by the House of Lords. See Chapter IX. of "Life;" and Lords' Journals, March 17, 18, and 19; Rawdon Papers, pp. 141-143, and Pepys's Diary, March 21, 1662.

not signing with the sign of the cross in baptism: so as he permit and bear the charge of some other licensed minister to perform that office towards such children whose parents desire the same, and so as such Ministers shall not deprave the Liturgy, rites, or ceremonies established in the Church of England, or any person for using them, by preaching, writing, speaking, or otherwise, upon pain of forfeiting the benefit of the dispensation.

And be it further enacted, that such dispensations as aforesaid being granted by His Majesty shall be a sufficient exemption from such deprivation in the cases aforesaid. Always understood, that this indulgence be not thought or interpreted to be an argument of His Majesty's indifferency in the use of those ceremonies when enjoined, though indifferent in their own nature, but of his compassion towards the weakness of the Dissenters, which he hopes will in time prevail with them for a full submission to the Church and to the example of the rest of their brethren.

A Bill, entitled "An Act concerning His Majesty's power in Ecclesiastical Affairs," presented to the House of Peers, February 23, 1663, by Lord Roberts, Lord Privy Seal.1

WHEREAS divers of His Majesty's subjects through error of judgment and misguided consciences (whereunto the licentiousness of these late unhappy times have much contributed) do not conform themselves to the order of divine worship and service established by law; and although His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament are fully satisfied that those scruples of conscience from whence this non-conformity ariseth are ill-grounded, and that the government of the Church with the service thereof, as now established, is the best that is anywhere extant, and most effectual to the preservation of the Protestant religion: yet, hoping that clemency and indulgence may in time wear out those prejudices and reduce the Dissenters to the unity of the Church; and considering that this indulgence, how necessary soever,

1 This Bill, which caused considerable public excitement in 1663, is now printed for the first time from the Rolls of the House of Lords. See Chapter IX. of "Life; " also Lords' Journals, February 23, 25, 27, 28, March 5, 6, 12, 13. The bill was dropped in committee.