CHAPTER I.

THE INDEPENDENTS DURING THE PERIOD OF THE

WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.

1643-1649.

WHILE civil war wasted the land, and the councils of the State were distracted by conflicting interests, the advocates of scriptural liberty and order were not uninterested spectators of the general scene. Their patriotism was nurtured by their religion. Their principles, or principles akin to theirs, lay, as they thought, at the basis of all those living influences by which society was to be regenerated. They shrank not from the lofty responsibilities to which providence was apparently calling them. Too much in advance of the age, in many respects, to be altogether successful, the Independents became, nevertheless, the nucleus of a party unmatched in history for attachment to the cause of just, impartial, and progressive liberty, for skill in controversy, heroism in war, and sagacity in statesmanship.

A rapid sketch of the general course of events will prepare the way for the details of our subject, during the period embraced by this chapter.

After the battle of Edgehill, the war was carried on with little vigour on the side of the parliamentary troops, mainly in consequence of the undefined purposes of the Earl of Essex, commander in chief, and of those who acted in concert with him. He had enVOL. IV.

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gaged in the contest more from pique than principle, and was not prepared to push matters to an extremity. Many opportunities of pursuing the war with success were therefore thrown away. On more than one occasion, the very parliament was in jeopardy, through the near advances of the royalists. This stigma does not attach to such men as Lord Brooke, Hampden, and Cromwell, all of whom were resolutely bent upon the defence of the liberties of England, and the deliverance of the nation from its oppressors. The two former prevented Charles from marching into the metropolis, by the timely succour they afforded to the regiment of Holles at Brentford;* and the last had been occupied from the commencement of the war in raising and disciplining his famous Ironsides, a troop of warriors, one thousand strong, the like to which the world has never seen in any age, either before or since.

Unhappily for their country, Brooke and Hampden were numbered among the earliest victims of the war; the former at the siege of Lichfield, on the 2nd of March, 1643, after having reduced nearly all Warwickshire; and the latter in the following June, in the skirmish at Chalgrove, near Oxford, while recruiting in the neighbourhood. The loss of two such men at such a time, was a great blow to the popular cause. The death of Hampden, in particular, excited as much consternation in parliament as if

* Essex was roused to a sense of danger, only by the roaring of the cannon, which reached his ears in the House of Lords. † See an able sketch of “The brave Lord Brooke," in Stoughton's Spiritual Heroes.

Hampden was wounded between the shoulders by a random shot, on his fiftieth birthday, and died on the 24th of June, or six

their whole army had been destroyed. For a moment it was paralyzed; and even hesitated whether to proceed with the war or no. In a little time, however, the braver spirits of the day recovered from the recoil, and pursued their object with fresh determination. An opportunity had been afforded of ascertaining the real position of their party. The more timid and time-serving had revealed themselves in the season of disaster, and the cowardly and the courtly were henceforth distinguished from the patriotic. The people, moreover, came in to their aid, and impelled them forwards. When the peers proposed to the commons an immediate accommodation with the king, the whole city was up in remonstrance. The clergy and the common council alike denounced the overture, and a petition was presented against it by the Lord Mayor, at the head of the populace. From this time, the House of Lords lost much of the respect it had formerly received, and parliament was shut up to the course which its leaders had marked out. Notwithstanding the defection of some peers to the camp of the king, the Pyms and St. Johns were staunch, and led on the commons with fresh earnestness. They brought the wavering Essex round to a course of more decided hostility, and were repaid by the relief of Gloucester, and the victory at Newbury. Still, great danger impended, and new methods were devised for strengthening the popular days after. His dying words were,-" O Lord, save my bleeding country. Have these realms in thy special keeping. Confound and level in the dust those who would rob the people of their liberty and lawful prerogative. Let the king see his error, and turn the hearts of his wicked counsellors from the malice and wickedness of their designs. Lord Jesus, receive my soul !"

cause against the hostility and treachery of the common foe.

We are thus brought to the period when the assistance of Scotland was solicited by parliament. This step was not taken without reluctance. It was already evident to many of the patriots, that the presbyterians of the north were ambitious of conferring their own ecclesiastical system on the people of England, in place of the now abolished hierarchy. For some time, their fears on this score prevented their seeking aid likely to be accompanied by unwelcome conditions. On the other hand, the liberties of England were in jeopardy, and it was not quite so plain, that presbyterianism might not be a suitable religion for both countries. It was determined, therefore, to try how far the matter might be adjusted, and eventually a compact was entered into between the two nations, known by the name of the "Solemn League and Covenant." For the purposes of the mere emergency, the measure was apparently successful. On the 19th of January, 1644, the Scotch army, 21,000 strong, entered England by Berwick, joined the armies of the parliament, and had its share in several engagements, with various success. In the end, however, England had to fight and win its own battles, and afterwards, to turn its arms against its temporary ally. The experiment of a religious adjustment proved a failure. Instead of fastening the yoke of their religious system upon the necks of the people of England, the Scotch people found themselves, after many provocations, at the foot of a conqueror, as generous as he was brave-a conqueror and a ruler who, while retaining possession of their country by a