365 bene employ'd to tamper with him told me, that he found him so unmooveable, tha t one time he and a certeine lord being in the collonell's company, and having begun their vaine insinuations, he, to decline them, seeing Cooper, went away with him ; upon which this lord, that had some tendernesse for the collonell: " Well,:' sayd he, to this gentleman, " the collonell is a rnin'd man, he believes that /' traytor, which will ruine him." ·when they could not worke into him one way, some, that were most kindly concern'd in him, perswaded him to a bsent himselfe and not act for the parliament, and undertooke with their lives to secure him, but he would not. He foresaw the mischiefe, and resolv'd to stay in his duty, waiting upon God, who accordingly was good to him. Some, when they saw Monke had betrey'd them, would have fallen in with Lambert, but the collonel l thought any des truction was to be chosen before t he sin of ioyning with such a wretch.' that some conditions were Imposed. 1-lis moderation jn a time of phrenzy was surely a suffici ent a rgument, and was probably that which Cooper used in support of the man whom he was forced to esteem, though he did not choose to imitate him. Y This was the point whereupon the heads of the republican party di vided , but probably at this day the wannest friends of the liberties of the· people will think that it was better ·to re turn to a monarchy, though not suffic i<'n t ly limited. and defi ned, than to fall under n stratocracy, or gove rnme_nt of the army, ·which thi:) would have been more compl e tely than e \·en that which existed unde r Cromwell : indeed it is not: easy to see which way it would have -differed from that of Alg iers. Accordingly we do not find :Mrs . Hnt chinsou ever to have repined that the king had been restored in preference to the establi shing of such a power; but there Wf' re many pther modes which might have bC:!cn adopted, without fly ing to either of these extremes, had not their passions overpowered the reason of some of the g reat men of that day. In. page 705 of the th ird volume of Clnrcndon 's State Papers, a spy of Charles 1L say ;: the Lords Bedfo rd and 1\'Janchester, Mr. P ierre pont, Popham, 'Vallcr, and St. John, made a junto to treat \rith the king before his restituti on. ut. the most obvious method for obtaining a better settlement was tl1t1t proposed by \Vhi telock to Fleet- \vood, of an off~r of their se rvices to the king upon reasonabl e cond itions : this opportunity was lost by hesitation, and an easy tri umph left to Monk, whose dete rmi ned . conduct gave efficilC,Y to th ~ small force he possessed.
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