THE CASE OF THE SOLDIERS. 39 CHAP. XLVII. not homo arrears of the army to baffle the restrictive policy of the Presbyterians. Yet it was only by placing the 1647 material interests of the soldiers in the foreground that they could hope to keep the army united. On all other matters it was far from homogeneous. The army Large numbers of the soldiers cared little for politics geneous. or religion. On a question of the pocket they were ready to stand up as one man, and the question of the pocket was, in a very real sense, a pressing one. The pay of the foot-soldiers was now eighteen weeks Long in arrear, and that of the horse and dragoons no less owing. than forty-three.1 The need of indemnity for injuries to life or property done in time of war was even more important. A soldier named Freeman had recently been subjected to an action on account of his conduct as a soldier; and though the House of Commons had promptly interposed on his behalf, and had ordered the judges to dismiss all similar actions in future,2 those who were exposed to danger were well-advised in asking that the question might be settled in their favour in some way more binding on the courts than the order of a single House. Need of an indemnity. petition. Under these circumstances the attitude of the A soldiers' officers was certain to have a powerful effect in the ranks. The soldiers, knowing that they had most to lose if the interests of the army were neglected, drew up a petition of their own, differing in many respects from the petition of the officers, and couched in somewhat violent language; and it was not without difficulty that the officers, as soon as they became It is toned aware of its existence, induced the men to tone it the officers. down, and to address it, not to Parliament, but to Fairfax. 1 C.J. v. 126. 2 The Moderate Intelligencer, E. 386, 3. down by CHAP. 1647 Its demands. Indignation at Westminster. The soldiers' petition, in its final shape, was not unreasonable. Besides a request for indemnity and for the payment of arrears, it contained demands that those soldiers who had formerly volunteered to serve Parliament might be exempted from impressment in any future war; that the widows and orphans of soldiers killed in service might receive pensions; that such soldiers as had in any way suffered through their adherence to Parliament might be compensated for their losses; and that, finally, the whole army might, up to the time of its disbandment, be supplied with enough ready-money to meet the expenses incurred in the quarters of the soldiers.2 Moderate as these demands were, they provoked a storm of indignation at Westminster, where it was held that soldiers were bound to unquestioning Cromwell obedience. It is especially noteworthy that even Cromwell looked on the petition3 with dissatisfaction, as an attempt of soldiers to dictate to Parliament with arms in their hands. Yet Cromwell, if he had dissatis fied. 1 This demand would therefore not apply to the pressed men who formed a large part of the infantry. 2 The Declaration of the Army, E. 390, 26. Waller in his Vindication, p. 51, says that the petition was 'pretended to come from the soldiers, but framed and minted by some of the principal officers.' The account given in the Declaration, that it was first drawn up by the soldiers and afterwards put into shape by the officers is probably true. 3 The officers' petition may be defended on the ground that Parliament by asking them to volunteer for Ireland gave them a right to state the terms on which they were willing to do so. The soldiers' petition was a request for fair treatment whether they volunteered or not; but its being addressed to Fairfax ought to have been accepted as bringing it within the bounds of military discipline. 4 On this point the evidence of John Lilburne is conclusive. "O dear Cromwell," he wrote to him, "the Lord open thine eyes and make thy heart sensible of those snares that are laid for thee in that vote of the House of Commons of 2,500l. per annum (C.J. v. 57). As poor Mordecai . . said unto Queen Esther, so say I to thee... Thou great man, Cromwell! Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the Parliament House more than all the rest of the Lamb's poor THE SOLDIERS' PETITION TO BE SUPPRESSED. 41 CHAP. XLVII. 1647 A report Commis had his way, would surely have dealt with the offenders in a gentle spirit, and have avoided any word or act which might render them desperate of obtaining justice. The very contrary course was taken by the Presbyterian majority. On the 27th March 27. Clotworthy, after making a report of the proceed- from the ings of the commissioners, produced a copy of the sioners. soldiers' petition, which the House abruptly ordered The Fairfax to suppress. The whole matter was then petition referred to a committee, but beyond a cold acknow- pressed. ledgment that, notwithstanding any information this day given to the House, they have a good despised redeemed ones, and therefore, O Cromwell, if thou altogether holdest thy peace, or stoppest and underminest, as thou dost our and the army's petitions at this time, then shall enlargement and deliverance arise to us poor afflicted ones, that have hitherto doted too much on thee, O Cromwell, from another place than you silken Independents; ... and therefore, if thou wilt pluck up thy resolutions, and go on bravely in the fear and name of God, and say with Esther, If I perish, I perish'; but if thou would not, know that here before God, I arraign thee at his dreadful bar, and there accuse thee of delusions and false words deceitfully, for betraying us, our wives and children, into the Haman-like tyrannical clutches of Holles and Stapleton, against whom we are sufficiently able to preserve ourselves if it were not for thee, O Cromwell, that art led by the nose by two unworthy covetous earthworms, Vane and St. John-I mean, young Sir Henry Vane and solicitor St. John, whose baseness I sufficiently anatomatised unto thee in thy bed above a year ago. . . . O Cromwell, I am informed this day by an officer out of the army and by another knowing man yesterday that came a purpose to me out of the army, that you and your agents are likely to dash in pieces the hopes of our outward preservation-their petition to the House, and will not suffer them to petition till they have laid down their arms whensoever they shall command them, although I say no credit can be given to the House's oaths and engagements to make good what they have promised. And if this be true, as I am too much afraid it is, then I say, Accursed be the day that ever the House of Commons bribed you with a vote of 2,500l. per annum to betray and destroy us. Sir, I am jealous over you with the height of godly jealousy."-Lilburne to Cromwell, March 25, Jonah's Cry out of the Whale's Belly; E. 400, 5. The ordinary notion that Cromwell said one thing in the House and another thing in the army is thus disposed of, at least up to March 25. soldiers' to be sup XLVII. CHAP opinion of the army,' no effort was made to convince the soldiers that the Commons were in any way ready to listen to their complaints.1 1647 Amount of arrears claimed. Suicidal policy of the Presbyterians. March 29. Two letters No doubt it was difficult to comply even with the justifiable wishes of the army. The arrears of the New Model amounted to no less than 331,000l.," and it would not be easy to raise so large a sum. Yet it can hardly have been financial difficulties alone which actuated the Presbyterians in their high-handed contempt of the army. Whatever their motives may have been, the course which they adopted was absolutely suicidal. Their one chance of obtaining the quiet disbandment of the army lay in a determination to satisfy the demands for arrears and indemnity, which were all that the greater number of the soldiers really cared for, thus leaving the religious enthusiasts without support. This chance they deliberately threw away, thus knitting together in a common bond against themselves all the various elements of which the army was composed. Worse was yet to come. If the Presbyterians had read in the acted unwisely on the 27th, at least they had kept House. their temper. On the 29th two letters were read in the House which fairly drove them off their balance. In these it was stated that not only was the petition still in circulation amongst the soldiers, but that a committee of officers had been formed to take it in charge as soon as it had been fully signed in the ranks, thus establishing a connection between the soldiers and the officers. It was further alleged that Colonel 1 C.J. v. 127. In his Vindication Waller says that Ireton denied the existence of the petition, and afterwards admitted it on the receipt of a letter from the major of Rossiter's regiment. We have not, however, Ireton's own words before us to enable us to judge how far this charge was true. It does not seem likely that Ireton should have told a gratuitous lie. 2 C.J. v. 126. A DECLARATION AGAINST THE ARMY. 43 CHAP. XLVII. 1647 sent for. Pride had obtained eleven hundred signatures by threatening to cashier all who refused to sign; and that every regiment at a distance from head-quarters was, with the single exception of Skippon's, on the march towards Saffron Walden.1 Instead of directing Fairfax to inquire into the truth of these allegations, the House summoned the two Hammonds, Robert Officers Lilburne, and Pride-Ireton being already in his place at Westminster-to attend at the bar.2 Protests were even heard against this resolution as too lenient, and it was asked that the petitioners might be declared traitors, and that Cromwell might be Attack on arrested. The debate was prolonged into the night, and after many of the Independents had left the House under the impression that nothing would be done till the following morning, Holles seizing the opportunity, scribbled a declaration on his knee, and at once obtained its acceptance by the House.3 Cromwell. March 30. claration The De of the This Declaration, to which the Lords gave their adherence on the following day, was issued as the manifesto of the whole Parliament. "The two Houses. Houses of Parliament," it announced, "having received information of a dangerous petition with representations annexed, tending to put the army into a distemper and mutiny, to put conditions upon the Parliament, and obstruct the relief of Ireland, which had been contrived and promoted by some persons in the army, they do declare their high. 2 C.J. v. 128. 1 L.J. ix. 115. 3 Ludlow's story (Memoirs, ed. 1751, i. 164) evidently fits in here, though he jumbles it up with Cromwell's leaving the House, which really took place on June 3. Another observation ascribed by Ludlow to Cromwell: "These men will not leave till the army pull them out by the ears "was really spoken under very different circumstances, in the following August; see p. 183. |