some good time, until it shall please God to quiet and compose men's minds, and bring the Nation to some better consistency. So that, considering the Pay of the Army, which comes to upwards of 1,100,000l. per annum, and the "Support of the Government" 300,000l., it will be necessary for some convenient time,-seeing you find things as you do, and it is not good to think a wound healed before it be,— that there be raised, over and above the 1,300,000l., the sum of 600,000l. per annum; which makes up the sum of 1,900,000l. And likewise that the Parliament declare, How far they will carry on the Spanish War, and for what time; and what farther sum they will raise for carrying on the same, and for what time. [Explicit, and undeniable!] And if these things be not ascertained, as one saith "Money is the Cause," and certainly whatever the Cause is, if Money be wanting, the business will fall to the ground,—all our labour will be lost. And therefore I hope you will have a care of our undertakings !—[Most practical paragraph.]

And having received expressions from you which we may believe, we need not offer these things to you; 'we need not doubt' but these things will be cared for. Those things have already in Parliament' been made overture of to you; and are before you:-and so has likewise the consideration of the Debts, which truly I think are apparent.

And so I have done with what I had to offer you,—I think I have, truly, for my part. ["Nothing of the Kingship, your Highness?" Committee of Ninety-nine looks expectant— And when I shall understand where it lies on me to do farther; and when I shall understand your pleasure in these things a little farther ;—we have answered the Order of Parliament in considering and debating of those things that were the subject-matter of debate and consideration;-and when you will be pleased to let me hear farther of your thoughts in these things, then I suppose I shall be in a con

dition to discharge myself [Throws no additional light on the Kingship at all!], as God shall put in my mind. And I speak not this to evade; but I speak in the fear and reverence of God. And I shall plainly and clearly, I say,—when you shall have been pleased among yourselves to take consideration of these things, that I may hear what your thoughts are of them,-I do not say that as a condition to anything-but I shall then be free and honest and plain to discharge myself of what, in the whole and upon the whole, may reasonably be expected from me, and 'what' God shall set me free to answer you in.*

Exeunt the Ninety-nine, much disappointed; the Moderns too look very weary. Courage, my friends, I now see land!——

This Speech forms by far the ugliest job of buckwashing (as Voltaire calls it) that his Highness has yet given us. As printed in the last edition of Somers, it is perhaps the most unadulterated piece of coagulated nonsense that was ever put into types by human kind. Yet, in order to educe some sense out of it as above, singularly few alterations, except in the punctuation, have been required; no change that we could detect has been made in the style of dialect, which is physiognomic and ought to be preserved; in the meaning, as before, all change was rigorously forbidden. In only one or two places, duly indicated, did his Highness's sense, on earnest repeated reading, continue dubious. And now the horrid buckbasket is reduced in some measure to clean linen or huckaback: thanks be to Heaven!—

For the next ten days there is nothing heard from his Highness; much as must have been thought by him in that space. The Parliament is occupied incessantly considering how it may as far as possible fulfil the suggestions offered in this Speech of his Highness; assiduously perfecting and new-polishing the Petition and Advice according to the same. Getting Bills ready for 'Reformation of Manners,'--with an eye on the idle fellows about Piccadilly,' who go bowling and gambling, with much tippling too, about 'Piccadilly House' and its green spaces.6 64 * Somers Tracts, vi. 389-400.

64 Dryasdust knows a little piece of Archæology: How 'piccadillies' (quasi Spanish pecadillos, or little-sins, a kind of notched linen-tippet) used to be sold in a certain shop there; whence &c. &c.

Scheming out how the Revenue can be raised :—' Land-tax,' alas, in spite of former protest on that subject; 'tax on new buildings' (Lincoln's Inn Fields for one place), which gives the public some trouble afterwards. Doing somewhat also in regard to 'Triers for the Ministry;' to 'Penalties' for taking Office when disqualified by Law; and very much debating and scrupling as to what Acts and Ordinances (of his Highness and Council) are to be confirmed.

Finally, however, on Friday 1st of May, the Petition and Advice is again all ready; and the Committee of Ninety-nine wait upon his Highness with it,65—who answers briefly, 'speaking very low,' That the things are weighty, and will require meditation; that he cannot just at present say On what day he will meet them to give his final answer, but will so soon as possible appoint a day. 'By

But to

So that the Kingship remains yet a great mystery! the generality' it is understood that he will accept it. the generality, and to us, the interior consultations and slowformed resolutions of his Highness remain and must remain entirely obscure. We can well believe with Ludlow, sulkily breathing the air in Essex, who is incorrect as to various details, That in general a portion of the Army were found averse to the Title; a more considerable portion than the Title was worth. Whereupon, 'for the present,' as Bulstrode indicates, his Highness did decide to'-in fact speak as follows:

SPEECH XIV.

BANQUETING-HOUSE, Whitehall, Friday forenoon 8th May 1657, the Parliament in a body once more attends his Highness; receives at length a final Answer as to this immense matter of the Kingship. Which the reader shall now hear, and so have done with it.

་

The Whitlocke Committee of Ninety-nine had, by appointment, waited on his Highness yesterday, Thursday May 7th; gave him a Paper,'-some farther last-touches added to their ultimate painfully-revised edition of the Petition and Advice, wherein all his Highness's suggestions are now, as much as

65 Burton, ii. 101.

possible, fulfilled ;—and were in hopes to get some intimation of his Highness's final Answer then. Highness, "sorry to have "kept them so long," requested they would come back next morning. Next morning, Friday morning : We have been there; his Highness will see you all in the Banqueting-House "even now. "66 Let us shoulder our Mace, then, and go.'Petition of certain Officers,' that Petition which Ludlow67 in a vague erroneous manner represents to have been the turningpoint of the business, is just 'at the door :' we receive it, leave it on the table, and go. And now hear his Highness.

MR. SPEAKER,

I come hither to answer That that was in your last Paper to your Committee you sent to me 'yesterday;' which was in relation to the Desires that were offered me by the House in That they called their Petition.

I confess, that Business hath put the House, the Parliament, to a great deal of trouble, and spent much time.68 I am very sorry for that. It hath cost me some 'too,' and some thoughts: and because I have been the unhappy occasion of the expense of so much time, I shall spend little oí it now.

I have, the best I can, revolved the whole Business in my thoughts: and I have said so much already in testimony to the whole, I think I shall not need to repeat what I have said. I think it is an 'Act of' Government which, in the aims of it, seeks the Settling of the Nation on a good foot, in relation to Civil Rights and Liberties, which are the Rights of the Nation. And I hope I shall never be found one of them that go about to rob the Nation of those Rights; but 'always' to serve it what I can to the attaining of them. It has also been exceedingly well provided there for the safety and security of honest men in that great

66 Report by Whitlocke and Committee: in Commons Journals (8th May 1657), viii. 531.

67 ii. 588, &c., the vague passage always cited on this occasion.

68 23d Feb.-8th May: ten weeks and more.

natural and religious liberty, which is Liberty of Conscience. -These are the great Fundamentals; and I must bear my testimony to them; as I have done, and shall do still, so long as God lets me live in this world: That the intentions and the things are very honourable and honest, and the product worthy of a Parliament.

I have only had the unhappiness, both in my Conferences with your Committees, and in the best thoughts I could take to myself, not to be convinced of the necessity of that thing which hath been so often insisted on by you,-to wit, the Title of King,—as in itself so necessary as it seems to be apprehended by you. And yet I do, with all honour and respect, testify that, cæteris paribus, no private judgment is to be in the balance with the judgment of Parliament. But in things that respect particular persons,-every man who is to give an account to God of his actions, he must in some measure be able to prove his own work, and to have an approbation in his own conscience of that which he is to do or to forbear. And whilst you are granting others Liberties, surely you will not deny me this; it being not only a Liberty but a Duty, and such a Duty as I cannot without sinning forbear, to examine my own heart and thoughts and judgment, in every work which I am to set my hand to, or to appear in or for.

I must confess therefore, though I do acknowledge all the other 'points,' I must be a little confident in this, That what with the circumstances which accompany human actions, whether they be circumstances of time or persons [Straitlaced Republican Soldiers that have just been presenting you their Petition], whether circumstances that relate to the whole, or private and particular circumstances such as compass any person who is to render an account of his own actions, I have truly thought, and I do still think, that, at the best, if I should do anything on this account to answer