"ticular Acts before mention'd, that they might receive Con"dign Punishment.

THIS ftrange Declaration, fo contrary to the known rules and judgements of Law, and to the known practife and proceedings of Parliament, was no fooner framed and agreed upon in the Committee, than it was Printed, and Published throughout the City, and Kingdom, before it was Confirm'd by, or Reported to the Houfe, which is against the custom of Parliament. For, by that cuftom, no Act done at any Committee fhould be divulged before the fame be Reported to the House.

THE truth is, it cannot be expreffed how great a Change there appear'd to be in the countenance and minds of all forts of People, in Town and Country, upon these late proceedings of the King. They, who had before even loft their Spirits, having loft their Credit, and Reputation, except amongst the meaneft People, who could never have been made ufe of by them, when the greater fhould forfake them; and fo defpaired of ever being able to compafs their defigns of Malice, or Ambition (and fome of them had refumed their old refolutions of leaving the Kingdom) now again recovered greater Courage than ever, and quickly found that their Credit and Reputation was as great as ever it had been; the Court being reduced to a lower Condition, and to more difesteem and neglect than ever it had undergone. All that they had formerly faid of Plots and Confpiracies against the Parliament, which had before been laughed at, was now thought true and real; and all their fears, and jealoufies looked upon as the effects of their greit Wifdom and Forefight. All that had been Whispered of Ireland, was now talked Aloud and Princ- X ed; as all other Seditious Pamphlets and Libels were. The Shops of the City generally fhut up, as if an Enemy were at their Gates ready to enter, and to plunder them; and the People in all places at a Gaze, as if they looked only for directions, and were then difpofed to any undertaking.

On the other fide, They, who had, with the greatest Courage and Alacrity, oppofed all their Seditious practifes, between Grief and Anger were confounded with the confideration of what had been done, and what was like to follow. They were far from thinking that the accufed Members had receiv'd much wrong, yet they thought it an unfeasonable time to call them to an Account for it. That if any thing had been to be done of that kind, there should have been a fitter choice of the Perfons, there being many of the Houfe, of more mischievous inclinations, and defigns against the King's Perfon, and the Government, and who were more expofed to the Publick Prejudice, than the Lord Kimbolton was; who was

a Civil,

Book IV. a Civil, and well natured Man, and had rather kept ill Company, than drank deep of that infection and poifon, that had wrought upon many others. Then Sr Arthur Haflerig, and Mr Strode, were Perfons of too Low an account and elteem; and though their Virulence, and Malice, was as confpicuous, and tranfcendent as any Man's, yet their Reputation, and Intereft to do mifchicf otherwife than in concurring in it, was fo fmall, that they gained Credit and Authority by being joined with the reft, who had indeed a great influence. However, fince there was a Refolution to proceed against Thofe Men, it would have been much better to have caused them to have been all feverally Arrefted, and fent to the Tower, or to other Prifons, which might have been very cafily done before fufpected, than to fend in that manner to the Houfes with that Formality, which would be liable to fo many exceptions. At least, they ought fo far to have imparted it to Members in both Houles, who might have been trufted, that in the inftant of the Accufation, when both Houses were in that Confternation (as in a great Confternation they were) fomewhat might have been preffed Confidently towards the King's fatisfaction; which would have produced fome oppofition and contradiction, and might have prevented that Univerfal concurrence and dejection of Spirit, which feized upon, and poffeffed both Houles.

BUT above all, the anger, and indignation was very great and general, that to all the other overfights and prefumptions was added the expofing the Dignity, and Majefty, and Safety of the King, in his coming in Perfon, in that manner, to the Houfe of Commons; and in going the next day, as he did, to the Guild Hall, and to the Lord Mayor's, which drew fuch Reproaches upon him to his Face. All which was juftly imputed to the Lord Digby, who had before fewer true Friends than he deferv'd, and had now almost the whole Nation his Enemies, being the moft Univerfaily odious of any Man

in it.

WHEN the House of Commons had Paffed fuch Votes from the Committee at Merchant-Taylors-Hall, as they thought neceffary, and had once more Adjourn'd thither, the Committee asked the advice of the Houfe, whether the accufed Members might be prefent with them (who had in truth directed, and governed all their proceedings from the time they Sate there) which was not only approv'd, but thofe Members required to attend the Houfe the next day it was to Sit, and fo to continue the Service of the Houfe, which was then Adjourn'd for three or four days, that the City might appear in fuch a pofture, as fhould be thought convenient.

THE noife was fo great of the preparations made in the

Ciry to bring the accufed Members in Triumph to the Parliament, and that the whole Militia would accompany them, whilst the Sea-men and Mariners made an appearance in Barges, and other Veffels, upon the Thames to Westminster, that the King thought it convenient to remove again from White-Hall, and fo on the tenth of January, which was the Eve to that great Feftival, his Majefty, the Queen, and the Royal Chil- The King and the Royal dren, went from White-Hall to Hampton Court, waited on by Family, refome few of their own Houfhold Servants, and thirty or forty of thofe Officers, who had attended at White-Hall for fecurity Hamptonagainst the Tumults.

BEFORE His going, he fent to the Earls of Effex and Holland to attend him in his Journey; who were both. by their Places, the one being Lord Chamberlain of his Houfhold, the other the firft Gentleman of his Bed-Chamber or Groom of the Stole, obliged to that Duty. The Earl of Effex refolved to go, and, to that purpose, was making himfelf ready, when the Earl of Holland came to him, and privately dif fwaded him; affuring him, that if they two went, they fhould be both Murther'd at Hampton-Court; whereupon they left the King to his fmall retinue in a moft difconfolate, perplexed Condition, in more need of Comfort and Counfel, than they had ever known him; and inftead of attending their Mafter in that exigent, they went together into the City, where the Committee Sate, and where they were not the less wellcome for being known to have been invited to have waited upon their Majefties. They who wished the King beft, were not forry that he then withdrew from White-Hall; for the infolence, with which all that People were transported, and the animofity, which was infufed into the Hearts of the People in general against the Court, and even against the Perfon of the King, cannot be expreffed.

WHILST the Committee Satc in London, the Common Council likewife met, as hath been faid, to the end they might be ready to comply in any particulars fhould be defired from the City; and fo the Committee having Refolv'd, "that "the actions of the Citizens of London, or of any other Per"fon whatsoever for the defence of the Parliament, or the "Privileges thereof, or the Prefervation of the Members there"of, were according to their Duty, and to their late Protesta"tion, and the Laws of this Kingdom: and if any Perfon hould Arreft, or Trouble any of them for fo doing, he was declared "to be a publick Enemy of the Common-wealth: and in the next place having Refolv'd, "that That Vote fhould "be made known to the Common Council of the City of "London, the Accufed Members about two of the Clock in the Afternoon on the eleventh of January, being the next day

after

move to

Court.

The accused after the King went to Hampton-Court, came from their LodgMembers are ings in the City to Westminster, guarded by the Sheriffs, and brought in Train'd-bands of London and Westminster, and attended by a Triumph to Weftmin- conflux of many thousands of People befides, making a great fter jan. 11. clamour against Bifhops, and Popilh Lords, and for the Pri

vileges of Parliament; fome of them, as they paffed by WhiteHall, asking with much contempt, "what was become of the "King and his Cavaliers? and whither he was gone?

FROM London Bridge to Westminster, the Thames was guarded with above a hundred Lighters and Long-boats, laden with fmall pieces of Ordnance, and dreffed up wih Waft-cloaths and Streamers, as ready for Fight. And that the Train'd-bands of London might be under the Command of a Perfon fit to lead them, they granted a Commiffion to Captain Skippon, who was Captain of the Artillery Garden, to be Major-General of the Militia of the City of London; an Office never before heard of, nor imagined that they had Authority to conftitute. The Man had ferv'd very long in Holland, and from a Common Soldier had railed himself to the degree of a Captain, and to the reputation of a good Officer; he was a Man of order and fobriety, and untainted with any of thofe Vices which the Officers of that Army were exercised in; and had newly given over that Service upon fome exceptions he had to it, and, coming to London, was by fome Friends preferred to that Command in the Artillery Garden, which was to teach the Citizens the exercife of their Armes. He was altogether illiterate, and having been bred always abroad, brought difaffection enough with him from thence against the Church of England, and fo was much careffed and trufted by that Party.

THIS Man marched that day in the head of their Tumultuary Army to the Parliament Houfe; where the accufed Members were no fooner enter'd, than they magnified "the c great kindness and affection they had found in the City, "and their zeal to the Parliament; and if their expreffions of "it, upon this extraordinary occafion, had been fomewhat "unufual, that the Houfe was ingaged in honour to Protect "and Defend them from receiving any damage. Whereupon the Sheriffs of London were called into the House of Commons, and thanked by the Speaker for their extraordinary care, and love expreffed to the Parliament; and told, "That they "fhould have an Ordinance of Parliament for their Indem"nity, declaring that all their actions of refpect and kindness, "which they had fhew'd to the Lords and Commons in Lon"don, and their attending them to, and at Westminster, was "legal and juftifiable. The Mafters and Officers of Ships were likewife called in, and moft heartily thanked for their

kindness;

kindnefs; and Serjeant Major-General Skippon appointed every day to attend at Westminster, with fuch a Guard as he thought fufficient for the two Houfes. There was one circumftance not to be forgotten in the march of the Citizens that day, when the fhew by Water was little inferior to the other by Land, that the Pikemen had faften'd to the tops of their pikes, and the reft in their hats or their bofoms, printed Papers of the Proteftation which had been taken, and enjoined by the Houfe of Commons the year before for the defence of the Privilege of Parliament; and many of them had the printed Votes of the King's breaking their Privileges in his coming to the House, and demanding their Members.

thire mens

ASSOON as the Citizens and Mariners were discharged, The Buckfome Buckingham-fhire men, who were faid to be at the Door, inghamwith a Petition, and had indeed waited upon the Triumph with Petition to a train of feveral thousand men, were called in; who deli-the House of vered their Petition in the name of the Inhabitants of the Commons. County of Buckingham, and faid it was brought to the Town by about fix thoufand men. "They commended the unwearied pains of the Houfe of Commons, for the redress of "the preffures they had lain under, but complained that the "fuccefs was not anfwerable, their endeavours being frustrated or retarded by a Malignant faction of Popith Lords, "Bishops, and Others; and now of late, to take all that lit"tle hope, was left, from them, of a future reformation, the very Being of the Parliament was flaken, the Privileges "thereof broken in a defperate and unexampled manner, and "the Members thereof unaffured of their lives, in whofe fafc"ty, the fafety of Them, and their Pofterity was involved. "They held it therefore their duty according to their late Pro"teftation to defend, and maintain the Perfons and Privileges "thereof, to the utmoft power of their Lives and Estates; to which purpofe, they faid, they were then come to make "the humble tender of their Service, and would remain in "expectation of their Commands and Order; to the execu❝tion whereof they would with all alacrity addrefs them"felves, ready to live by them, or to dye at their feet, a"gainft whomfoever fhould in any fort illegally attempt upon "them.

"THEY befought them therefore to affift the ardent Pray"ers of the Petitioners, that the Popish Lords and Bifhops might be forthwith outed the House of Peers; that all Privi"leges of Parliament might be confirmed to them, and that "all evil Counfellors, the Achans of the Common-wealth, might be given up to the hands of Juftice; without all "which, they faid, they had not the left hope of Ifraels peace, "or to reap thofe glorious advantages, which the fourteen

"Months