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The
L
IFE
of
the
Y.
t
B.
Iá
feemed very ferious
in
it
,
and
the
lownefs
of
his
Condition upon
fo
much
Trial of
his
People,
was very like
to
have
wrought much
with
him.
But
the
Parliament
was
perfwaded
that hedid it but to
get time to
fill
up
his
Army,and to hindertheir
Proceedings,
and therefore accepted
not
of
his
Offer for
a
Treaty,
but in(tted of
it
feat himNineteen
Propofals
of
their own
;
viz. That
if
he
would Disband
his
Army,
come
to
his
Parliament,
give
up Delinquentsto
a
Legal Courfe
of
Juflice,
&c. he
fhould find
them dutiful, Oc. And the King
publithed an Anfwer
to
there
Nineteen
Propofitions
;
in which
he aftirtneth the
Government to
be
mixt, having
in it
the belt
of
Monarchy, Ariftocracy and Democracy, and that
the
Legiflative
Power
is
in the King,
Lords
and Commons
conjun&,
and that the Lords
are
a
fufficient skreen
tohinder the King
fromwronging the Commons
,
and to
keep
off
Tyranny,
five.
And he adhereth only to the Law which giveth him the power
of
the Militia
!
Out
of
this Anfwer
of
the King's to
thefe
Nineteen Propofals, force
one
drew up
a
Political Catechifm, wherein the Anfwers
of
every
Queftion were
verbatim
the words
of
the King'sDeclaration,
as
if
therein
he had fully jultified
the
Parliaments
Caufe.
The
great Controverfie now
was
the prefent power
of
the Militia:.
The King
faid
that the
Supreme Executive Power, and particularly the Power
of
the Mili-
tia, did
belong to
him, and
not
to the
Parliament, and
appealed to the Law.
The
Parliament
pleaded
that
as
the Execution
of Juttice
againft Delinquents did belong
to
him ;
but
this he
is
bound by Law to
do
by
his
Courts
of
Juftice, and their Ex-
ecutionsare to
be
in
his
Name
;
and by
a Stat. Edw.
;.
if
the King by the Little
Seal,
or
the
Great
Seal,
forbid a
Judge in Court to perform
his
Office, he
is
ne-
verthelefi
to
go
on
:
Alto
that
for the Defence
of
his
Kingdoms againft their Ene-
mies,
the Militia
is
in
his
power
;
but not
at
all
againft
his
Parliament and Peo-
ple,
whom Nature
it felf
forbiddeth to
ufe
their
Swords againft themfelves.
And
they
alledged
molt the
prefent danger
of
the Kingdoms,
Ireland
almoft loft,
Scotland
diflurbed,
England
threarned
by
the
Irifb,
and
theRuine
of
the
Parliament fought
by
Delinquents, whom they
Paid
the King, through
evil
Counfel did prole&
:
And
that they
muff either fecure
the Militia,
or
give
up
the
Protellant
Religion
, the
Laws and Liberties
of
the Land, and their own Necks to the Will
of
Papifts
and
Delinquents.
1
49
And
becaufe
it
is
my purpofehere, not to write
a full
Hiftory
of
the
Ca-
lamitiesand Wars
of
thofe Times, but only
to
remember
fuch
Generals with
the
Reafons and
Connexion
of
Things,
as
may belt make the hate
of
thofe Times un-
derftood
b,
them that
knew
it not
perfonally themfelves,
I
(hall
here annex
a
brief
Account of
the
Country's
Cafe about thefe Differences
:
not
as
a
Juftiner
or
De-
fender
of
the Affertions,
or
Reafons,
or A
&ions
of
either Party which I
rehearse ;
but only in fathfulnefs Hiftorically to relate things
as
indeed they were.
And r.
It h of
very
great moment here to underhand the Quality of the Per
-
fons
which
adhered
to the King
,
and
to
the Parliament
,
with their Rea-
Ions.
A
great part
of
the
Lords forfook the Parliament
,
and
fo did many
of
the
Houfeof
Commons, and came to the
King;
but that
was for
the molt
of
them,
after Edghil Fight,when the
King
was at
Oxford.
A very
great part
of
the Knights
and Gentlemen of
England
in the
feveral Counties
(who
were
not Parliament Men)
adhered
to
the King
;
except in
Middlefex,
Efes
, Siffalk
,
Narfolk,
Carnbridgefbire,
&c. wherethe King with
his
Army never came
:
And could
he
have
got footing
there,
it's like that
it
would
have
been
there
as
it
was
in other
places
:
And
molt
of
the Tenants of
there
Gentlemen, and
alto
molt
of
the
pooreft
of
the
People,
whom the other
called
the Rabble, did follow the
Gentry,
and were for the
King.
On
the Parliaments
fide
were (befides themfelves) the
(mailer
part
(
as
tome
thought)
of
the Gentry in molt
of
the Counties, and the greateft part
of
the
Tradetmen, and Free
-
holders, and
the middle fort
of
Men
;
efpecially in
chofe
Corporations and Countries which dependon Cloathing and fuch Manufa
&ures.
If
you
ask
the Reafons
of
this Difference,
ask
alto,
why in
France
it
is
not com-
monly the Nobility nor the
Beggars,
but the Merchants and middle fort
of Men,
that
were Proteftants.
The
Reafons
which the Party
themfelves gave was, Becaufe
(
fay
they)
the
Tradefinen
have a
Correfpondency with
London,
and
fo
are
grown
m
be
a
far
more Intelligent
fort
of
Men
than
the ignorant Peafants
that
are like
Bruits,
who will
follow any that they think the
tìrongeft,
or
look
to
get by
:
And
the
Freeholders,
fay
they, were not
enslaved
to their Landlords
as
the
Tenants
are
:
The Gentry, (fay
they)
are wholly by their
Effaces
and Ambition more
dependent'