Yhe HIS T 0 R Y of the PuRITANS. VoL. II. K. Charles I. 11 the king, while a treaty with him was fubfifting ; they remonfl-ranced ~ " againft the parliament for their proceedings ; they feized upon his royal '' perfon while the commiffioners were returned to London with his an– " fwers, which were voted a fufficient foundation for peace; they then fe– " cluced and imprifoned feveral members of the houfe of commons, and " then there being lift but a .fmall number of their own creatures (not a "tenth part of the whole) they jheltered them)i:lves under the name and au– " thority of a parliament, and in that name prepared an.ordinance for the " trial of his mqjejty; which being rejected by the lords they paffed alone " in the name of the commons of England, and purfued it with all pof– " fible force and cruelty till they murdered the king, before the gates of his " own palace. Thus (fay they) the fanatic rage of a Jew mifcreants, " who were neither true proteC.ants nor good fuhjeCls, fiands imputed by " our adverfaries to the whole nation; we therefore renounce, abominate, " and protefr againfl: it --" If this be a true fl:ate of the cafe, it is evident from the highefl: authority in this kingdom, that the king's death was not chargeable upon any reli– gious party, or feel of chrifiians; nor upon the people of England af– fembled in a fi·ee parliament, but upon the council of qfficers and agitators, who having become defperate by the refilefs behaviour of the cavaliers, and ill conduCl of the feveral parties concerned in the treaty of Neuport, plotted the overthrow of the king and confiitution, and accomplilhed it by an act of lawlefi violence; that it was only a fmall part of the army who were feduced into a compliance, and thefe kept the refi in fubjection till the others had executed their defperate purpofes; fo that though the wifdom of the nation has thought fit to perpetuate the memory of this fatal day by an anniverfary fafl:, as that which may be i'!ftruClive both to prinm andfub– jeCls, yet if we may believe the declaration of his majefiy at his trial, or of the act of parliament which refiored his family, the king's murder was not the act of the people of England, nor of their legal reprefentatives, and therefore ought not to be lamented as a national fin. CHAP.
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