grounds of complaint, and adequate time allowed for explanation or redress. The messenger by whom the letter was brought was therefore directed to wait fifteen days for an answer to his communication. The things required by the Scottish parliament from the parliament of England were, first, that an effectual course should be taken for enjoining the covenant on all the subjects of the English crown, that the presbyterian church government should be settled and fully established, and all heresies and schisms suppressed and extirpated; secondly, that the king should be brought with freedom, honour and safety, to some one of his houses in or near London, the better to receive the applications that the parliaments of both kingdoms should make to him; and thirdly, that all members of both houses of the English parliament should freely return to their charges, that the city of London should be restored to its liberty and privileges, and that the army of sectaries under Fairfax should be disbanded c. rations. As it was anticipated that these requisitions Their miliwould not be granted, it was voted in the Scottish tary prepaparliament, on the very day on which this letter was delivered in London, that an army should be raised of thirty thousand foot, and six thousand horse, and that the younger Monro should be c Journals. BOOK 1648. Insurrection at Norwich. at Bury and in other places. called home from Ireland with his army, to join in the expedition d. While these things were doing in the north, various parts of England were convulsed with the attempts of the royalists. At Norwich a petition was set on foot for the restoration of the king, and the disbanding of the army; and the house of commons, having received notice, sent for the mayor in custody to give an account of his conducte. His partisans resisted the execution of the order, and it was found necessary to march a part of Fleetwood's regiment from Dereham to put down the disturbance, which they effected, but not without bloodshed. In the midst of the tumult, a magazine of gunpowder was accidentally blown up, by which one hundred and twenty persons were computed to have been destroyed. A scene of a similar nature occurred at Bury St. Edmunds, where six or seven hundred persons got together in arms, crying for God and king Charles. The soldiers in the place retired; and the town held out for one night; but the next day, finding the rashness of their undertaking, and that some troops of horse were marched against them, they surrendered at discretion 8. Drums beat to arms in the Guthry, p. 268. e Journals, Apr. 18. Rushworth, p. 1072. Rushworth, p. 1119. Whitlocke, May 18. Journals of Lords, May 19. same cause at Thetford and Stowmarketh; and it was referred to the committee of the university of Cambridge to consider of the tumult and insurrection that had broken out in that town. Fairfax speaks, in a letter to the committee of Derby House on the subject, of the disposition of forces that would be necessary, in a time and place (the counties of the eastern association) of so general distemper and disposition to rise k. And sir Hardress Waller, who commanded in the counties of Devon and Cornwall, writes to the commander in chief, "These two counties are so extensively either for the king's party, or, if possible, worse enemies, that I admire they are not all in one flame k." CHAP. XVII. 1648. b Journals of Lords, ubi supra. 526 CHAPTER XVIII. II. 1648. Petition of jury of Essex for PETITION OF THE GRAND JURY OF ESSEX FOR THE BOOK BUT the most formidable danger arose in the counties of Kent and Essex. On the twentysecond of March opportunity was taken of the the grand assizes at Chelmsford, for drawing up a petition of the grand jury to the two houses of parliament, the king. praying that, as the absence of the king from the parliament had been one main cause of increasing jealousies and misunderstandings between them, that obstacle might be speedily removed, and a personal treaty entered upon, and that the army might without delay be satisfied and disbanded". This petition was in circulation, and the signatures of the freeholders and inhabitants of the county were collected to it for several weeks, till at length a meeting of the petitioners was appointed to be held at Stratford, three miles from London, for the purpose of their proceeding from thence, and in a body presenting the petition to parliament. This intention however was announced in the house of commons one week before its proposed execution, and proper measures were taken to prevent such a tumultuous assemblage. The petition therefore was quietly introduced on the appointed day, and received a civil and evasive answer c. СНАР. 1648. A similar proceeding was adopted by the mem- Petition of bers of the great inquest and grand jury of the Surrey. county of Surrey, and a meeting was appointed to take place at Leatherhead on the second of May, for the purpose of presenting their petition, in the same manner as had been planned in the case of the petition of the county of Essex. Notice was brought into the house of lords of this affair, and orders were in consequence issued by both houses to the deputy-lieutenants and justices of peace in Surrey, to take care to prevent tumults and preserve the peace. An order was also given to the executive administration at Derby House to • Journals of Lords, May 4. c Journals. b Journals of Commons, Apr. 27. |