T. HE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For MA Y, 1758.

The Parliamentary Hiftory of England, &c. Vol. XVI. XVII. and XVIII. See Review for February laft, p. 129.

IN

N our last account of this accurate and voluminous compilement, we left the unhappy King Charles in the hands of the English army. We are now brought to a period of our hiftery, in which this kingdom experienced all the calamities of anarchy. The Monarchy and Peerage were abolished. The House of Commons aflumed the fupreme authority of the nation. That Houfé itfelf was modelled at the will of the Army, who admitted or fecluded the members, juft as they found them difpofed to be obedient to their dictates. Even the Army, which governed the Legislature, was divided and rent in factions. Independents and Levellers ftrove for fuperiority. All was horror and confufion. There was no law but force: till at length, One crafty and daring Ufurper, taking advantage of the divifions which he helped to foment, raised himself to the fupreine feat of power, and ruled with arbitrary fway. So true it is, that anarchy is always the forerunner of tyranny.

The fixteenth volume opens this fcene of tumult, with a remonftrance from the Army to the Parliament. It must be remembered, that the Army had prefented a petition and reprefentation to their General, Sir Thomas Fairfax, of which the Parliament being informed, they iffued a declaration, and fent it

These remonftrances were penned by Colonels Ireton and Lambert, who were bred up to the law, and were men of fubtle imaginations, and indefatigable induftry.

VOL. XVIII.

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to the General; in which they expreffed their high diflike of that petition in very warm terms, concluding, That all those who should continue in promoting that petition, should be looked on, and proceeded against, as enemies to the state, and ⚫ difturbers of the public peace.' But this declaration, which was made the 30th of March 1647, was expunged in June following; the Parliament now plainly perceiving, that they were in the power of their own Army: and, indeed, in the remonftrance at the opening of this volume, the latter talk altogether in the language of masters.

After taxing the Parliament with having acted in an oppreffive and arbitrary manner, they proceed in the following terms.

And here, if we may, we should humbly offer to confideration, whether it were not a neceffary expedient, for prevention or remedy of fuch evils in future, that, in things fo clearly deftructive to the common rights and liberties of the people, and fafety of the kingdom, there be a liberty for diffenting members in the Houfe of Commons, as it is allowed in the House of Peers, to enter their diffent, and thereby acquit themfelves from the guilt or blame of what evils may enfue; that fo the kingdom may regularly come to know, who they are that perform their truft faithfully, and who not: and this provifion for the future, as also our defires for remedy in the prefent cafes, as it were clearly good and neceffary in the refpects premised, fo, we think, the fame may well be, without future prejudice or difcouragement, in any other refpects, to 'fucceeding members of Parliament; provided always, that no ⚫ man fhall be queftioned or cenfured for any thing faid or done in Parliament, any further than to exclufion from that truft, which is all that in the prefent cafe we should defire upon any fuch grounds. And that future liberty of entering diflents we do not here propose as a thing we any way infift on, to the prejudice of Parliament privileges; we only offer it to confi deration, and that from good wishes to the privileges of Parliament, to render them more lafting by being less nocent. And, indeed, whoever moft adores, or tenders those privileges, ⚫ will beft exprefs his zeal towards them, in taking care they be not abused, or extended to private wrongs, or public mifchiefs; for we clearly find, and all wife men may fee it, that Parlia<ment Privileges, as well as Royal Prerogative, may be perverted and abufed, or extended to the deftruction of those greater ends, for whofe protection and preservation they were admitted or intended, viz. the rights and privileges of the people, and fafety of the whole; and in cafe it be fo, the abule, evil, or danger of them is no lefs to be contended againft,

and

and a remedy thereof no lefs to be endeavoured, than of

⚫ the other.

And whereas the injustice in that particular of the declara⚫tion against the Army, for their juft and innocent petition, may feem to have been recompenced in the late expunging thereof out of the Journal-books, we confess it hath been fo in great. measure, as to the particular or prefent injury done the army therein; and we cannot but acknowlege fo far, the juftice that lies in thofe votes for expunging thereof; but for our own or the Army's particular reparation, we fhould never with more, nor fcarce have infifted on fo much, to any dishonour ⚫ of Parliament in future; we should rather have been fatisfied with the Parliament's declaring how, and by whom, they have been mifinformed, furprized, or otherwife abused, int framing the propofal, or paffing thereof, as it was: but as to that particular, or any other of that nature, we fay as fol ⚫ loweth :

1. We never did, nor do, value or regard our own injury or reparation, in any comparison to the confequence of the one, or the prejudice of the other, but to the future fecurity of ⚫ the common right and freedom of this nation; and accordingly · we do not account any reparation confiderable, that extends but to ourselves in the present cafe, and does not, in some fort, ⚫ fecure ourselves, and all others, from danger of the fame or worfe injuries or oppreffions, as private men, from the wills or paffions of the fame perfons that have offered and acted fuch things against us while an army.

2. We cannot but imagine and confider, according to general report, how the expunging of that declaration was car • ried and obtained, and upon what grounds and intentions it was given way to; but had thofe that procured it been all for expunging it, and that freely, yet how can we expect better but that the fame men, who at one time carried fuch a decla ⚫ration, and another time expunged it, may the next day ob ⚫tain the like or worfe, upon any occafion wherein it may serve their private ends or interefts, if they continue in the fame power and fway, and be let pafs in deluding and furprizing the Parliament, as they have done in the paft particulars?

3. The apparent difhonour and prejudice brought upon the Parliament, in having fuch a declaration fo patied, as that they should foon after, without any alteration in the pretended ground of it, find caufe, for fhame of the world, to expunge, ⚫ we think should engage thofe members that love Parliaments, in point of honour, to find out and discover how, and by whom the Parliament had been abused, or otherwife brought

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into fuch an inconveniency. And the Parliament may in this fee the temper, as by-ftanders do the prevalence, of those members that abufed the Parliament in that declaration, who will and can make the authority of Parliament ftill lie under the difhonour of it, in a bare expunging or retracting, rather • than admit of any confideration to acquit the authority of • Parliament, that would tend to fix the blame on those parti•cular members that had deserved it: and this certainly would be admitted and done, rather than to flight it over with a bare expunging, were not fome men more tender of, and more fwayed with, fuch confiderations and confequences as may tend to the prejudice of perfons, than fuch as tend to the general • prejudice and dishonour of Parliaments.

We have here a ftriking inftance of the bad confequences which attend irrefolution in government. If the Legiflature be awed by menaces to fufpend or vacate their own acts, there is an end of their authority. Their weak conceffions will only ferve to embolden oppofition, and to retard their ruin, which must inevitably enfue. Perhaps it would be more adviseable, in a political fenfe, for them to perfift in the wrong, than to let the world fee that they rectify their errors by compulfion. Their timidity will expofe them to contempt. Inftead of giving laws, they will be forced to receive them; and they will be upbraided with the irregularity of their pufilanimous proceedings, even by thofe who frightened them into a compliance with their lawlefs defires.

This we find was the cafe between the Parliament and the Army. But it must be allowed, that the remonftrance of the latter contains fome bold truths, expreffed in a very fpirited diction. Their reflections on the abufes of Parliamentary Privileges, are juft and animated. We may venture to fay, that the extension of thofe privileges is more dangerous, because less alarming, than ftretches of the prerogative. The latter is immediately relented, as an attempt against the People; but the former is often patiently endured, under the flattering appearance of being an act of the people. Cafes have been refolved into breaches of privilege, which appeared to have been no ways fubject to parliamentary jurifdiction; by which means a judicial power has been exercifed in a fummary, way to the oppreffion of the fubject, and the infringement of the law of the land. It is our happiness, that we are not acquainted with any fuch inftances of tyrannic ufurpation from our own experience; nevertheless, we ought to be conftantly vigilant, and ufe every precaution to limit the encroachments of that monfter PRIVILEGE.

The

The Parliament had invited the King to his houfe at Richmond; but, in compliance with the Army, they fent to defire his Majefty to defer his coming thither. Eleven members of the Houfe of Commons, who were charged by the Army, thought proper to withdraw themfelves, rather than expofe their perfons to hazard. By these means, the Army having made themselves many enemies, they began to enlarge their conceffions to the King, who ftill continued in their cuftody. They acknowleged that dominion was in the King, and property in the subject; they undertook to restore his Majefty to his crown and dignity, and made many other advances, by which, in a great meafure, they drew the people on their fide, and brought a reproach on the Parliament. Thus did thefe artful men make a fhew of loyalty, to answer the purposes of revenge and ambition.

The kingdom was now grown a dreadful scene of confufion. Mobs affembled about the House on behalf of the King, and forced the members to vote according to their liking; whereupon both the Speakers, with many members, withdrew to the Army: and the General refolved to march to London, to prevent any future riots.

The great ftruggle now lying between the Parliament and the Army, the former began, in their turn, to fhew particular marks of favour to the King, and invited him to come among them, declaring that he should abide with honour, freedom, and fafety. Perhaps they were as little fincere in their advances, as the army afterwards fhewed themselves. Indeed it would have been highly impolitic and abfurd, to have reftored the King to his crown and dignity, after fuch a bloody contest between him and his fubjects. It is evident from the whole tenor of the King's conduct, that he would have thought himself bound by no restrictions whatever, when the leaft hope prefented itself of getting free from a reftraint, impofed upon him by those whom he deemed rebels. He would have been continually plotting, both at home and abroad, for the recovery of that arbitrary power which he longed to exercise, and all the horrors of a civil war would probably have been renewed.

But perhaps it would have been indifferent, both to the King and the nation, whether the Parliament or the Army had prevailed. The favours which they alternately fhewed to his Majefty, proceeded from their mutual jealoufy, and each endeavoured to make head against the other, by gaining the King and his adherents over to their party,

The truth is, no doubt, that the leading men, both in the Parliament and the Army, originally oppofed their Sovereign from the truly noble and difinterefted principles of patriotifm.

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