Neal - Houston-Packer Collection BX9333 .N4 1754

Chap. I. Tbe HIS T 0 RY of the PuRITANS. II trufl: them were fuch as they could confide in. To which the king re- K. C6 harles I. ffi fi ~ . r: • d 'f h 1 42· 3· plied, that the oaths of the o cers were a UlllCient 1eet~nty, an . 1. t ey ~ ;;bnfed their trufi he would leave them to the law. T.1e comm1fl10ners then went upon the other articles, and fpun out the treaty till the 12th of .April, without concluding one fingle point. The king would be :e· flared to the condition he was in before the war, upon a bare prom1fe, that he would govern for the future according to law; but the parliament were refolved not to trufl: themfelves nor the confl:itution in his hands, without the redre(s of fome grieva nces, and a better fecuri ty. Mr. Wbit- !ock f;1ys, that the commiffioners (of which he was one) having been with the king one evening till midnight, r,ave his majefiy fuch rea!ons to confent to a very material point, which would have much conduced to an happy iffue, and fuccefs of the treaty, th at be told them, he waJfully fa- Whit!. , tisjied, and prom:fi'd to let them have his anfwer in writing, according to Mem. P· 65· their dejire, next morning. But when the commifiioners were withdrawn, fame of the king's bed-chamber, and they went higher, fearing the king's conceffions would tend to peace, never left pcrfwading him, till he had altered his refolution, and gave orders for the following anfwer to be drawn up direCtly contrary to what be had promifed the commiffioners. " As foon as his majefiy is fatisfied 'concerning his own revenue, ma- Rufhw. "gazines, {hips and forts, in which he delires nothing, but that the jufl: Vol. V. " known legal rights of his majefl:y devolved to him from his progenitors, P· 259• 260 • "and of the perfons trufl:ed by him, which have violently been taken " from both, be refl:ored to him and them - " As foon as all the members of both houfes lhall be refl:ored to tbe '' fame capacity of fitting and voting in parliament, as they had on the " t fl: of Jan. I 74 I. the fame right belongiDg unto them by their birth– " rights, aild the free eleCtions of thofe that fent them ; and having " been voted from them for adhering to his majefiy in thefe dillraetions; " his majefiy not intending that this fhould extend either to the bifhops, " whofe votes have been taken away by bill; or to fuch in whofe places " upon new writs new eleCtions have been made. ' " As foon as his majefl:y and both houfes may be fecured from fuch tu. " multuous affemblies, as to the great breach of the privileges, and the "high difhonour of parliaments, have formerly affembled about both "houfes, and awed the members. of the fame; and occaGoned two fe– " vera! complaints from the houfe of lords, and two feveral deGres of " that houfe to the houfe of commons, to join in a declararion againfl: " th:m, the ~ompl_ying with which deGre might have prevented all the "m1ferable d1fl:raetwns which have enfued; which fecurity his majefiy Cz oon-

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=