CHAP. themselves confiderably weakened by his death: LVIII. And the small remains of authority, which ftill adhered to the house of peers, were, in a manner, wholly extinguished ". 1647. CHAP, LIX. Mutiny of the army The king feized by Joyce The army march against the parliament fubdue the parliament The army The king flies to the isle of Wight Second civil war Invafion from Scotland -The treaty of Newport The civil war and invafion repreffed -The king feized again by the army The boufe purged The king's trial And execution And character. THE dominion of the parliament was of short CHA P. duration. No fooner had they fubdued their fovereign, than their own fervants rose against them, and tumbled them from their flippery throne. The facred boundaries of the laws being once violated, nothing remained to confine the wild projects of zeal and ambition. And every fucceffive revolution became a precedent for that which followed it. In proportion as the terror of the king's power, diminished, the divifion between independent and prefbyterian became every day more apparent; and the neuters found it, at laft, requifite to feek fhelter in one or the other faction. Many new writs were iffued for elections, in the room of members, who had died, or were difqualified by adhering to the king; yet still the prefbyterians retained the fuperiority among the commons LIX. 1647. LIX. 1647. CHAP. And all the peers, except Lord Say, were efteemed of that party. The independents, to whom the inferior fectaries adhered, predominated in the army and the troops of the new model were univerfally infected with that enthusiastic fpirit. To their affiftance did the independent party, among the commons, chiefly truft, in their projects for acquiring the afcendant over their antagonists. SOON after the retreat of the Scots, the prefbyterians, seeing every thing reduced to obedience, began to talk of diminishing the army: And, on pretence of eafing the public burthens, they levelled a deadly blow at the oppofite faction. They purposed to embark a ftrong detachment, under Skippon and Maffey, for the fervice of Ireland: They openly declared their intention of making a great reduction of the remainder. It was even imagined, that another new model of the army was projected, in order to regain to the prefbyterians, that fuperiority, which they had fo imprudently loft by the former 2. THE army had fmall inclination to the fervice of Ireland; a country barbarous, uncultivated, and laid waste by maffacres, and civil commotions: They had lefs inclination to disband, and to renounce that pay, which having earned it through fatigues and dangers, they now pur I Fourteen thousand men were only intended to be 2 LIX. 1647./ pofed to enjoy in cafe and tranquillity. And moft c A P. of the officers, having rifen from the dregs of the people, had no other profpect, if deprived of their commiffion, than that of returning to languifh in their native poverty and obfcurity. THESE motives of intereft acquired additional influence, and became more dangerous to the parliament, from the religious fpirit, by which the army was univerfally actuated. Among the generality of men, educated in regular, civilized focieties, the fentiments of shame, duty, honor, have confiderable authority, and ferve to counterbalance and direct the motives, derived from private advantage: But, by the predominancy of enthusiasm among the parliamentary forces, these falutary principles loft their credit, and were regarded as mere human inventions, yea moral inftitutions, fitter for heathens than for chriftians'. The faint, refigned over to fuperior guidance, was at full liberty to gratify all his appetites, disguised under the appearance of pious zeal. And, befides the ftrange corruptions engendered by this fpirit, it eluded and loofened all the ties of morality, and gave entire fcope, and even fanction, to the selfishness and ambition, which naturally adhere to the human mind. THE military confeffors were farther encouraged in difobedience to fuperiors, by that fpiritual pride, to which a mistaken piety is fo fubject. They were not, they faid, mere janizaries; 'Rufh. vol. vi. p. 134. LIX. 1647. CHA P. mercenary troops inlifted for hire, and to be disposed of at the will of their paymasters. Religion and liberty were the motives, which had excited them to arms; and they had a fuperior right to fee thofe bleffings, which they had purchafed with their blood enfured to future generations. By the fame title, that the prefbyterians, in contradiftinction to the royalifts, had appropriated to themselves the epithet of godly, or the well-affected; the independents did now, in contradiftinction to the prefbyterians, affume this magnificent appellation, and arrogate all the afcendant, which naturally belongs to it. HEARING of parties in the house of commons, and being informed, that the minority were friends to the army, the majority enemies; the troops naturally interested themselves in that dangerous distinction, and were eager to give the fuperiority to their partifans. Whatever hardships they underwent, though perhaps derived from inevitable neceffity, were afcribed to a fettled design of oppreffing them, and resented as an effect of the animofity and malice of their adverfaries. NOTWITHSTANDING the great revenue, which accrued from taxes, affeffments, fequeftrations, and compofitions, confiderable arrears were due to the army; and many of the private men, as well as officers, had near a twelvemonth's pay ftill owing them. The army fufpected, that this Ibid. vol. vii. p. 474. Rufh. vol. vii. p. 565. |