80 The LIFE of the Y. t B. Iá feemed very ferious in it , and the lownefs of hisCondition 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 Kingpublithed 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 thereinhe 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, andnot 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 byhis CourtsofJuftice, 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 performhis Office, he is ne- verthelefi to go on : Alto that for the Defenceof 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 theprefent 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 Libertiesof 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 Warsof thofe Times, but only to remember fuch Generals with the Reafons and Connexionof Things, as may belt make the hate ofthofe Times un- derftood b, them that knew it not perfonally themfelves, I (hall here annex a brief Account ofthe 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 theKing; but that was for the molt of them, after Edghil Fight,when the Kingwas at Oxford. A verygreat 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 thereas it wasin 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. TheReafons which the Party themfelves gave was, Becaufe ( fay they) the Tradefinen have aCorrefpondency with London, and fo are grown m be a far more Intelligent fortof 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'
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