Há tory of thePuritans, exa,nin'd. 25 3 't Wifdom of your Majefty and the Parliament, " not only be vindicated from precedent Innova- " tions, but fecur'd from the future that are threat- " ned, and more likely to procure more dangerous " Effeéts than the former ; and we,/lall pray, &c." -* ' His Majefty having read the Petition, and conceiving that the Authority of the Army might feem ofas great Importance for the good Recepti- on offo much Reafon and Juftice, as the Subfcrip- tionof a Rabble, had been alledg'd often to be, ' for the Countenance of what in truth was Mu- ' tinous and Seditious, faid, " That he approved " well enough of it, and was content that it might " be fubfcrib'd by the Officers of the Army if they " delred it." ' The Officer, who prefented the Draught to his Majefty, told him, " That very " few of the Army had yet feen it ; and that it " would be a great Countenance to it, if, when " it was carried to the Principal Officers, who " were firft to fign it, any Evidence might " be given to them, that it had paffed his Maje- fty's Approbation ; otherwife they might poífi- " bly make fcruple, for fear of offending him." Thereupon his Majefly took a Pen, and writ at the bottom of the Petition C. R. as a Token that he had perus'd and allow'd it : And fo the Peti- tion was carried down into the Country where the ' Army lay, and was fign'd by fome Officers, but was loon quafh'd, and no more heard of, till the difcovery of the pretended Plot, &c. Ac the firft Meeting, one of the Perfonsthat was introduc'd, after he had heard the calm Propoíì- ' dons of the reft ; and that their Defign was only to obferve and defend the Laws, that neither the Arguments of the Scots, nor the Reputation of ' their Army, might compel the King to confent * Ib. p. 194. to
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