so hath He brought the things to pass! Therefore it is that men yet slip, and engage themselves against God. And for that very cause, saith David (Psalm Twenty-eighth), "He shall break them down, and not build them up!"

If, therefore, you would know upon what foundation you stand, own your foundation 'to be' from God. He hath set you where you are: He hath set you in the enjoyment of your Civil and Spiritual Liberties.

I deal clearly with you, I have been under some infirmity; [His Highness still looks unwell] therefore dare not speak farther to you ;—except to let you know thus much, That I have with truth and simplicity declared the state of our Cause, and our attainments in it by the industry and labour of this Parliament since they last met upon this foundation-You shall find I mean, Foundation of a Cause and Quarrel thus attained-to, wherein we are thus estated.2 I should be very glad to lay my bones with yours; [What a tone!]-and would have done it, with all heartiness and cheerfulness, in the meanest capacity I ever yet was in, to serve the Parliament.

If God give you, as I trust He will,-[" His blessing” or strength" but the Sentence is gone.]—He hath given it you, for what have I been speaking of but what you have done? He hath given you strength to do what you have done! And if God should bless you in this work, and make this Meeting happy on this account, you shall all be called the Blessed of the Lord. [Poor Oliver!]-The generations to come will bless us. You shall be the "repairers of breaches, and the restorers of paths to dwell in !" And if there be any higher work which mortals can attain unto in the world, beyond this, I acknowledge my ignorance of it.'

As I told you, I have some infirmities upon me. I have not liberty to speak more unto you; but I have desired an Honourable Person here by me-[Glancing towards Nathaniel Fiennes, him with the Purse and Seal] to discourse, a little more par

1 Means "Give me leave to say."

2 This Parliament's 'foundation,' the ground this Parliament took its stand upon, was a recognition that our Cause had been so and so, that our attainment' and 'estate in it were so and so; hence their Petition and Advice, and other very salutary labours.

3 Isaiah, lviii. 12.

ticularly, what meeting.*

may

be more proper

for this occasion and this

Nathaniel Fiennes follows in a long highflown, ingenious Discourse, characterised by Dryasdust, in his Parliamentary History and other Works, as false, canting, and little less than insane; for which the Anti-dryasdust reader has by this time learned to forgive that fatal Doctor of Darkness. Fiennes's Speech is easily recognisable, across its Calvinistic dialect, as full of sense and strength; broad manful thought and clear insight, couched in a gorgeous figurative style, which a friendly judge might almost call poetic. It is the first time we thoroughly forgive the Honourable Nathaniel for surrendering Bristol to Prince Rupert long ago; and rejoice that Prynne and Independency Walker did not get him shot, by Court-Martial, on that occasion.

Nathaniel compares the present state of England to the rising of Cosmos out of Chaos as recorded in Genesis: Two firmaments' are made, two separate Houses of Parliament; much is made, but much yet remains to be made. He is full of figurative ingenuity; full of resolution, of tolerance, of discretion, and various other good qualities not very rife in the world. "What shall be done to our Sister that hath no breasts?" he asks, in the language of Solomon's Song. What shall we do with those good men, friends to our Cause, who yet reject us, and sit at home on their estates? We will soothe them, we will submit to them, we will in all ways invite them to us. Our little Sister,-" if she be a wall, we will 'build a palace of silver upon her; if she be a door, we will en"close her with boards of cedar:"—our little Sister shall not be estranged from us, if it please God!—

There is, in truth, need enough of unanimity at present. One of these days, there came a man riding jogtrot through Stratfordat-the-Bow, with a green glazed cover over his hat,' a 'nightcap under it,' and 'his valise behind him;' a rustic-looking man; recognisable to us, amid the vanished populations who take no notice of him as he jogs along there, for the Duke of Ormond, Charles Stuart's head man! He sat up, at Colchester, the night before, 'playing shuffleboard with some farmers, and drinking hot ale.' He is fresh from Flanders, and the Ex-King; has arrived here to organise the Spanish Charles-Stuart Invasion, and see what Royalist Insurrection, or other domestic mischief there may be hopes

* Commons Journals, vii. 579: that is the Original,-reported by Widdring. ton next day. Burton (ii. 322), Parliamentary History (xxi. 170) are copies. Reported, Commons Journals, vii. 582-7, Monday 25th Jan. 1657-8.

of. Lodges now, 'with dyed hair,' in a much disguised manner, ' at the house of a Papist Chirurgeon in Drury Lane;' communicating with the ringleaders here.1

The Spanish Charles-Stuart Invasion is again on foot, and no fable. He has Four English-Irish Regiments; the low-minded Dutch, we understand, have hired him Two-and-twenty ships, which hope to escape our frigates some dark night; and Don John has promised a Spanish Army of Six-thousand or Ten-thousand, if the domestic Royalists will bestir themselves. Like the waves of the sea, that cannot rest; that have to go on, throwing up mire and dirt! Frantic-Anabaptists too are awakening; the general English Hydra is rallying itself again, as if to try it one other last time.

Foreign Affairs also look altogether questionable to a Protestant man. Swede and Dane in open war; inextricable quarrels bewildering the King of Sweden, King of Denmark, Elector of Brandenburg, all manner of Foreign Protestants, whom Oliver never yet could reconcile; and the Dutch playing false; and the Spaniards, the Austrians, the Pope and Papists, too well united! -Need enough that this Parliament be unanimous.

The hopes of Oliver and Fiennes and all practicable Puritans may have naturally stood high at this meeting :—but if so, it was not many hours till they began fatally to sink. There exists also an impracticable set of Puritan men, the old Excluded Members, introduced now, or now first admitted into this Parliament,— whom no beautifullest two firmaments' seen overspanning Chaos, no Spanish Invasion threatening to bring Chaos back, no hopefullest and no fearfullest phenomenon of Nature or Constitutional Art, will ever divorce from their one Republican Idea. Intolerability of the Single Person: this, and this only, will Nature in her dumb changes, and Art in her spoken interpretations thereof, reveal to these men. It is their one Idea; which, in fact, they will carry with them to-the gallows at Charing Cross, when no Oliver any more is there to restrain it and them! Poor windy angry Haselrig, poor little peppery Thomas Scott-And yet these were not the poorest. Scott was only hanged: but what shall we say of a Luke Robinson, also very loud in this Parliament, who had to turn his coat that he might escape hanging? The history of this Parliament is not edifying to Constitutional men.

1 Carte's Ormond, ii. 176-8.

SPEECH XVII.

WE said, the Two Houses, at least the First House, very ill fulfilled his Highness's expectations. Hardly had they got into their respective localities after his Highness's Opening Speech, when the New House, sending the Old a simple message about requesting his Highness to have a day of Fasting, there arose a Debate as to What answer should be given; as to What' name,' first of all, this said New House was to have,-otherwise what answer could you give? Debate carried on with great vigour; resumed, re-resumed day after day;-and never yet terminated; not destined to be terminated in this world! How eloquent were peppery Thomas Scott and others, lest we should call them a House of Lords,-not, alas, lest he the peppery Constitutional Debater, and others such, should lose their own heads, and entrust their Cause with all its Gospels to a new very curious Defender of the Faith! It is somewhat sad to see.

On the morning of Monday January 25th, the Writer of the Diary called Burton's,-Nathaniel Bacon if that were he,—finds, on entering the House, Sir Arthur Haselrig on his feet there, saying, “Give me my Oath!" Sir Arthur, as we transiently saw, was summoned to the Peers House; but he has decided to sit here. It is an ominous symptom. After Mr. Peters' has concluded his morning exercise,1 the intemperate Sir Arthur again demands, "Give me my Oath!"—"I dare not." answers Francis Bacon, the official person; Brother of the Diarist. But at length they do give it him; and he sits: Sir Arthur is henceforth here. And, on the whole, ought we not to call this pretended Peers House the 'Other House' merely? Sir Arthur, peppery Scott, Luke Robinson and Company, are clearly of that mind.

However, the Speaker has a Letter from his Highness, summoning us all to the Banqueting-House at Whitehall, this afternoon at three; both Houses shall meet him there. There accordingly does his Highness, do both Houses and all the Official world make appearance. Gloomy Rushworth, Bacon, and one Smythe,' with Notebooks in their hands, are there. His High

ness, in the following large manful manner, looking before and after, looking abroad and at home, with true nobleness if we consider all things,—speaks:

1 Burton, ii. 347.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN OF THE TWO HOUSES OF
PARLIAMENT,

(For so I must own you), in whom together with myself is vested the Legislative Power of these Nations !— The impression of the weight of those affairs and interests for which we are met together is such that I could not with a good conscience satisfy myself, if I did not remonstrate to you somewhat of my apprehensions of the State of the Affairs of these Nations; together with the proposal of such remedy as may occur, to the dangers now imminent upon us.

I conceive the Well-being, yea the Being of these Nations is now at stake. If God bless this Meeting,-our tranquillity and peace may be lengthened out to us; if otherwise,-I shall offer it to your judgments and considerations, by the time I have done, whether there be, as to men,1 'so much as' a possibility of discharging that Trust which is incumbent upon us for the safety and preservation of these Nations! When I have told you what occurs to my thoughts, I shall leave it to such an operation on your hearts as it shall please God Almighty to work upon you. [His Highness, I think, looks earnest enough today. Oppressed with many things, and not in good health either. In those deep mournful eyes, which are always full of noble silent sorrow, of affection and pity and valour, what a depth today of thoughts that cannot be spoken! Sorrow enough, depth enough, —and this deepest attainable depth, to rest upon what “it shall please God Almighty" to do!]

I look upon this to be the great duty of my Place; as being set on a watch-tower to see what may be for the good of these Nations, and what may be for the preventing of evil; that so, by the advice of so wise and great a Council as this, which hath in it the life and spirit of these Nations, such "good" may be attained, and such evil," whatever it is, may be obviated. [Truly!] We shall hardly set our shoulders to this work, unless it shall please God to work some conviction upon our hearts that there is need of our most serious and best counsels at such

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1 humanly speaking.