In October, 1647, the army, fearing that their effort for a freer England was to be in vain, had mutinied. The mutiny had been promptly at mans subdued, but the spirit out of which it s grew was destined to prevail for a time. The mutineers had worn in their hats a paper which had been drawn up and printed among the Agitators, the lower council of the Army. It was called the Agreement of the People; at this, and at another manifesto of the Army, The Case of the Whole Army, it is now time for us to cast a glance. It was not unnatural, perhaps, that seeing their generals on intimate terms with the King, who lived in splendor while the world did homage to him, the soldiers should suspect them of lukewarmness, or indeed treachery, as regarded things the soldiers felt to be essential. This they express, and at the same time they declare to their general as follows: “We presume that your Excellency will not think it strange, or judge us disobedient or refractory, that we should state the case of the Army, how declined from its first principles of safety, what mischiefs aro threatened thereby, and what remedies are suitable. For, sir, should you, yea, should the whole Parlia ment or Kingdom exempt us from this service, or should command our silence and forbearance, yet could not they nor you discharge us of our duty to God, or to our own natures. . . If our duty bind us when we see our neighbors' houses on fire, 1 The citations which follow have been previously used in the writer's "Life of Young Sir Henry Vane" (p. 277, etc.), where the reader will find the action of the Army and the Rump Parliament more fully detailed. to waive all forms, ceremonies, or compliments forthwith (not waiting for order or leave) to attempt the quenching thereof, without farther scruple as thereunto called of God, . . . then much more are we obliged and called, when we behold the great mansion-house of the Commonwealth, and of this Army, on fire, all ready to be devoured with slavery, confusion, and ruin, and their national native freedom (the price of our treasure and blood) wrested out of their hands, as at this present appeareth to our best understanding," etc.1 This letter was dated at Hempstead, October 15, 1647, and signed by the Agitators, for the regiments of horse of Cromwell, Ireton, Fleetwood, Rich, and Whalley, the core of the Ironsides. Though prolix, it contains no cant or superstition. Is there not, indeed, much beauty and pathos here? And now let us see what is recommended in a paper of proposals received in Parliament, November 1, from the Army. "Having by our late labors and hazards made it appear to the world at how high a rate we value our just freedom; and God having so far owned our cause as to deliver the enemies thereof into our hands, we do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other, to take the best care we can for the future, to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition, and the changeable remedy of another war.... That hereafter our Representatives [Parliaments] be neither left to an uncertainty for the time, nor made useless to the ends for which they were intended, we declare, I. That the people of 1 From the letter to Fairfax accompanying "The Case of the Whole Army." Rushworth: Historical Collections, VII, p. 846, etc. England being at this day very unequally distributed by counties, cities, and boroughs, for elections of their deputies in Parliament, ought to be more indifferently [impartially] proportioned, according to the number of inhabitants." The clause goes on to demand the arrangement of this before the end of the present Parliament, which, in the 2d article, the soldiers request may take place in September, 1648, to prevent the inconvenience arising from the long continuance of the same persons in authority. After providing in the 3d article that Parliament shall be chosen biennially, every second March, we find in article 4, a most significant declaration: "That the power of this and all future Representatives [Parliaments] of this nation is inferior only to theirs who chuse them, and extends, without the consent of any other person or persons, to the enacting, altering, and repealing of laws, to appointments of all kinds, to making war and peace, to treating with foreign states," etc.; with the following limitations, however: "I. That matter of religion, and the ways of God's worship, are not at all intrusted by us to any human power, because therein we cannot admit or exceed a tittle of what our consciences dictate to be the mind of God, without wilful sin: nevertheless, the public way of instructing the nation, so it be not compulsive, is referred to their discretion." Other limitations are, that there shall be no impressing of men for service; that after the present Parliament no one is to be questioned for anything said or done in the late disturbances; that laws are to affect all alike, and to be equal and good. "These things we declare to be our native rights," the document concludes, and to waive all forms, ceremonies, or compliments forthwith (not waiting for order or leave) to attempt the quenching thereof, without farther scruple as thereunto called of God, . . . then much more are we obliged and called, when we behold the great mansion-house of the Commonwealth, and of this Army, on fire, all ready to be devoured with slavery, confusion, and ruin, and their national native freedom (the price of our treasure and blood) wrested out of their hands, as at this present appeareth to our best understanding," etc.1 This letter was dated at Hempstead, October 15, 1647, and signed by the Agitators, for the regiments of horse of Cromwell, Ireton, Fleetwood, Rich, and Whalley, the core of the Ironsides. Though prolix, it contains no cant or superstition. Is there not, indeed, much beauty and pathos here? And now let us see what is recommended in a paper of proposals received in Parliament, November 1, from the Army. "Having by our late labors and hazards made it appear to the world at how high a rate we value our just freedom; and God having so far owned our cause as to deliver the enemies thereof into our hands, we do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other, to take the best care we can for the future, to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition, and the changeable remedy of another war. ́... That hereafter our Representatives [Parliaments] be neither left to an uncertainty for the time, nor made useless to the ends for which they were intended, we declare, I. That the people of 1 From the letter to Fairfax accompanying "The Case of the Whole Army." Rushworth: Historical Collections, VII, p. 846, etc. England being at this day very unequally distributed by counties, cities, and boroughs, for elections of their deputies in Parliament, ought to be more indifferently [impartially] proportioned, according to the number of inhabitants." The clause goes on to demand the arrangement of this before the end of the present Parliament, which, in the 2d article, the soldiers request may take place in September, 1648, to prevent the inconvenience arising from the long continuance of the same persons in authority. After providing in the 3d article that Parliament shall be chosen biennially, every second March, we find in article 4, a most significant declaration: "That the power of this and all future Representatives [Parliaments] of this nation is inferior only to theirs who chuse them, and extends, without the consent of any other person or persons, to the enacting, altering, and repealing of laws, to appointments of all kinds, to making war and peace, to treating with foreign states," etc.; with the following limitations, however: "I. That matter of religion, and the ways of God's worship, are not at all intrusted by us to any human power, because therein we cannot admit or exceed a tittle of what our consciences dictate to be the mind of God, without wilful sin: nevertheless, the public way of instructing the nation, so it be not compulsive, is referred to their discretion." Other limitations are, that there shall be no impressing of men for service; that after the present Parliament no one is to be questioned for anything said or done in the late disturbances; that laws are to affect all alike, and to be equal and good. "These things we declare to be our native rights," the document concludes, and |