Part 10

A BATTLE WITH THE DUTCH (1652).

=Source.=--_An Exact and Perfect Relation of the Terrible and Bloody Fight between the English and the Dutch Fleets in the Downs on Wednesday, May 19, 1652._ Brit. Mus., E. 665.

_To Mr. Richard Bostock of London, Merchant._

WORTHY SIR,

My service to you, wishing all happiness. On the 18th of May inst. the Hollanders' fleet, consisting of 42 sail of stout ships, all men of war, came by the Eastward, and lay by the lee of the South Foreland, and from thence sent two of their fleet into the Downs to Major Bourn, who was then Admiral (General Blake being absent). The Captains of those ships, coming aboard, desired leave of him to anchor their ships in the Downs. The Admiral asked them why they came into our seas with their flags up, so near our Navy. They answered they had orders not to strike their flags to any they should meet with; whereupon the Major answered them, that within two days' time they should know whether there was room enough for them to anchor in or not. Yet notwithstanding this the Hollanders anchored in Dover road, and rode there till the 19th. About two of the clock in the afternoon, Major Bourne came out of the Downs into Dover road with 10 sail, and Col. Blake from the rest with 13 sail more: the Dutch Fleet, seeing this, weighed anchor, and stood up to the coast of France with their flags up, near upon two hours, and then bore up to Gen. Blake, each ship having a man at the topmast head, as if they intended to have struck their flags.

When they came within shot of our Admiral, he made one shot at them for to strike, but they refused, still coming towards him, whereupon he made two shot more at them, and then the Hollanders gave him one shot, still making nearer to him; and coming up to him, saluted our Admiral with a whole volley of small shot and a broadside of gunshot, and Col. Blake returned him the like, and bearing up after him, they two charged three or four broadsides at each other. Thirteen of the Hollanders gave our Admiral each of them a broadside, before any of our ships came up to second him; then the _General of Folkestone_ came up between the Hollanders and our Admiral, and gave them a breathing time, and in an hour's time the ship called the _Triumph_ came up to them and fell up into the whole fleet.

About six of the clock at night the Dutch Admiral bore away, and Gen. Blake after him; but Van Tromp went better than our Admiral, insomuch that he could not come up with them, but followed them within shot till nine of the clock, in which time the Hollanders had so shattered our General's sails and rigging, that they had neither sheets, tacks, nor brace, and his foresail was all torn in pieces; by means whereof Van Tromp sailed away and all his fleet after him; only one of our Frigates boarded one of them who had 150 in her; whereof 50 were slain and the rest wounded and taken: we also shot another Dutch ship's mainmast overboard and took her, she having 37 guns in her, but finding six foot of water in her hold, we only took out the Captain and two more, and left her not able to swim, but sank shortly afterwards....

Our ships are all now (God be praised) safe in the Downs, and have brought in two Hollanders, one of them thought to be an Adviser. I was aboard our fleet in the Downs, and there came six Hollanders that were merchantmen within a league of our fleet, whereupon a Frigate of ours came up to the Admiral, and asked leave to fetch them in; but the Admiral answered that they were men about honest occasions, and he had no order from the Council of State to meddle with them, and so let them pass about their occasions.

While I was aboard the Admiral, there came a Dutch man-of-war, supposing it to be Van Tromp, but the _Speaker_ Frigate quickly fetched him up, and brought him into our fleet.

There were 36 of the Hollanders ships that engaged with our fleet in the aforesaid fight, that ride about deep, every one of them being about 1,000 or 1,500 tons, most of them pitifully torn and battered, and many of them without either mast, sails, or flags, having lost the company of their Admiral.

Sir, your assured friend, THOMAS WHITE.

DOVER, _May 22, 1652_.

CROMWELL AND THE RUMP (1653).

=Source.=--Carlyle, _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_, September 12, 1654.

I pressed the Parliament, as a member, to period themselves--once, and again, and again, and ten, nay twenty times over. I told them--for I knew it better than any one man in the Parliament could know it, because of my manner of life which led me everywhere up and down the nation, thereby giving me to see and know the temper and spirits of all men, and of the best of men,--that the nation loathed their sitting. I knew it. And, so far as I could discern, when they were dissolved, there was not so much as the barking of a dog, or any general or visible repining at it! You are not a few here present that can assert this as well as myself.

And that there was high cause for their dissolution, is most evident; not only in regard there was a just fear of that Parliament perpetuating themselves, but because it was their _design_. Had not their heels been trod upon by importunities from abroad, even to threats, I believe there never would have been thoughts of rising or of going out of that room, to the world's end. I myself was sounded, and by no mean persons tempted; and proposals were made to me to that very end: that the Parliament might be thus perpetuated; that the vacant places might be supplied by new elections;--and so continue from generation to generation.

THE INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT (1653).

=Source.=--_Old Parliamentary History._ Vol. xx., p. 248.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND, AND THE DOMINIONS THEREUNTO BELONGING.

I. That the supreme legislative authority of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, shall be and reside in one person, and the people assembled in Parliament: the style of which person shall be the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

II. That the exercise of the chief magistracy and the administration of the government over the said countries and dominions, and the people thereof, shall be in the Lord Protector, assisted with a council, the number whereof shall not exceed twenty-one, nor be less than thirteen.

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IV. That the Lord Protector, the Parliament sitting, shall dispose and order the militia and forces, both by sea and land, for the peace and good of the three nations, by consent of Parliament; and that the Lord Protector, with the advice and consent of the major part of the council, shall dispose and order the militia for the ends aforesaid in the intervals of Parliament.

V. That the Lord Protector, by the advice aforesaid, shall direct in all things concerning the keeping and holding of a good correspondency with foreign kings, princes, and states; and also, with the consent of the major part of the council, have the power of war and peace.

VI. That the laws shall not be altered, suspended, abrogated, or repealed, nor any new law made, nor any tax, charge, or imposition laid upon the people, but by common consent in Parliament, save only as is expressed in the thirtieth article.

VII. That there shall be a Parliament summoned to meet at Westminster upon the third day of September, 1654, and that successively a Parliament shall be summoned once in every third year, to be accounted from the dissolution of the present Parliament.

VIII. That neither the Parliament to be next summoned, nor any successive Parliaments, shall, during the time of five months, to be accounted from the day of their first meeting, be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without their own consent.

IX. That as well the next as all other successive Parliaments shall be summoned and elected in manner hereafter expressed; that is to say, the persons to be chosen within England, Wales, the Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, to sit and serve in Parliament, shall be, and not exceed, the number of four hundred. The persons to be chosen within Scotland, to sit and serve in Parliament, shall be, and not exceed, the number of thirty; and the persons to be chosen to sit in Parliament for Ireland shall be, and not exceed, the number of thirty.

[Here follows a detailed schedule of redistribution.]

XIV. That all and every person and persons, who have aided, advised, assisted, or abetted in any war against the Parliament, since the first day of January, 1641 (unless they have been since in the service of the Parliament, and given signal testimony of their good affection thereunto), shall be disabled and incapable to be elected; or to give any vote in the election of any members to serve in the next Parliament, or in the three succeeding Triennial Parliaments.

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XVII. That the persons who shall be elected to serve in Parliament, shall be such (and no other than such) as are persons of known integrity, fearing God, and of good conversation, and being of the age of twenty-one years.

XVIII. That all and every person and persons seised or possessed to his own use, of any estate, real or personal, to the value of £200, and not within the aforesaid exceptions, shall be capable to elect members to serve in Parliament for counties.

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XX. That in case writs be not issued out, as is before expressed, but that there be a neglect therein, fifteen days after the time wherein the same ought to be issued out by the Chancellor, Keeper, or Commissioners of the Great Seal; that then the Parliament shall, as often as such failure shall happen, assemble and be held at Westminster, in the usual place, at the times prefixed.

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XXIV. That all Bills agreed unto by the Parliament, shall be presented to the Lord Protector for his consent; and in case he shall not give his consent thereto within twenty days after they shall be presented to him, or give satisfaction to the Parliament within the time limited, that then, upon declaration of the Parliament that the Lord Protector hath not consented nor given satisfaction, such Bills shall pass into and become laws, although he shall not give his consent thereunto; provided such Bills contain nothing in them contrary to the matters contained in these presents.

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XXVII. That a constant yearly revenue shall be raised, settled, and established for maintaining of 10,000 horse and dragoons, and 20,000 foot, in England, Scotland and Ireland, for the defence and security thereof, and also for a convenient number of ships for guarding of the seas; besides £200,000 per annum for defraying the other necessary charges of administration of justice, and other expenses of the Government, which revenue shall be raised by the customs, and such other ways and means as shall be agreed upon by the Lord Protector and the Council, and shall not be taken away or diminished, nor the way agreed upon for raising the same altered, but by the consent of the Lord Protector and the Parliament.

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XXXII. That the office of Lord Protector over these nations shall be elective and not hereditary; and upon the death of the Lord Protector, another fit person shall be forthwith elected to succeed him in the Government; which election shall be by the Council, who, immediately upon the death of the Lord Protector, shall assemble in the Chamber where they usually sit in Council; and, having given notice to all their members of the cause of their assembling, shall, being thirteen at least present, proceed to the election; and, before they depart, the said Chamber shall elect a fit person to succeed in the Government, and forthwith cause proclamation thereof to be made in all the three nations as shall be requisite; and the persons that they, or the major part of them, shall elect as aforesaid, shall be, and shall be taken to be, Lord Protector over these nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging. Provided that none of the children of the late King, nor any of his line or family, be elected to be Lord Protector or other Chief Magistrate over these nations, or any the dominions thereto belonging. And until the aforesaid election be past, the Council shall take care of the Government, and administer in all things as fully as the Lord Protector, or the Lord Protector and Council are enabled to do.

XXXIII. That Oliver Cromwell, Captain-General of the forces of England, Scotland and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging, for his life.

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XXXVII. That such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ (though differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship or discipline publicly held forth) shall not be restrained from, but shall be protected in, the profession of the faith and exercise of their religion; so as they abuse not this liberty to the civil injury of others and to the actual disturbance of the public peace on their parts: provided this liberty be not extended to Popery or Prelacy, nor to such as, under the profession of Christ, hold forth and practise licentiousness.

THE CHOICE OF A HUSBAND (SEPTEMBER, 1653).

=Source.=--_Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple._ British Museum, Add. MSS. 33,975. Letter 39.

There are a great many ingredients must go to the making me happy in a husband; first, as my Cousin F. says, our humours must agree; and to do that he must have that kind of breeding that I have had, and used that kind of company; that is, he must not be so much a country gentleman as to understand nothing but hawks and dogs, and be fonder of either than of his wife; nor of the next sort of them whose aim reaches no further than to be Justice of Peace, and once in his life High Sheriff, who reads no books but statutes, and studies nothing but how to make a speech interlarded with Latin that may amaze his disagreeing poor neighbours, and fright them rather than persuade them into quietness. He must not be a thing that began the world in a free school, was sent from thence to the University, and is at his furthest when he reaches the Inns of Court, has no acquaintance but those of his form in these places, speaks the French he has picked out of old laws, and admires nothing but the stories he has heard of the revels that were kept there before his time. He may not be a town gallant neither, that lives in a tavern and an ordinary, that cannot imagine how an hour should be spent without company unless it be in sleeping, that makes court to all the women he sees, thinks they believe him, and laughs and is laughed at equally. Nor a travelled Monsieur whose head is all feather inside and outside, that can talk of nothing but dances and duels, and has courage enough to wear slashes, when everybody else dies with cold to see him. He must not be a fool of no sort, nor peevish, nor ill-natured, nor proud, nor covetous, and to all this must be added that he must love me and I him as much as we are capable of loving. Without all this, his fortune, though never so great, would not satisfy me; and with it a very moderate one would keep me from ever repenting my disposal....

I have been thinking of sending you my picture till I could come myself; but a picture is but dull company, and that you need not; besides I cannot tell whether it be very like me or not, though 'tis the best I ever had drawn for me, and Mr. Lely will have it that he never took more pains to make a good one in his life, and that was it, I think, that spoiled it. He was condemned for making the first that he drew of me a little worse than I, and in making this better he has made it as unlike as t' other. He is now, I think, at my Lord Paget's at Marlow, where I am promised he shall draw a picture of my Lady for me--she gives it me, she says, as the greatest testimony of her friendship to me, for by her own rule she is past the time of having pictures taken of her. After eighteen, she says, there is no face but decays apparently: I would fain have had her except such as had never been beauties, for my comfort, but she would not.

A PRESBYTERIAN VIEW OF THE TRIERS (1653).

=Source.=--Richard Baxter, _Reliquæ Baxterianæ_. Vol. i., p. 72.

One of the chief works which he [Cromwell] did was the purging of the Ministry; of which I shall say somewhat more. And here I suppose the reader to understand that the Synod of Westminster was dissolved with the Parliament; and therefore a society of ministers with some others were chosen by Cromwell to sit at Whitehall, under the name of Triers, who were mostly Independents, but some sober Presbyterians with them, and had power to try all that came for institution or induction, and without their approbation none were admitted. This assembly of Triers examined themselves all that were able to come up to London, but if any were unable, or were of doubtful qualification between worthy or unworthy, they used to refer them to some ministers in the country where they lived, and to approve them if _they_ approved them.

And because this assembly of Triers is most heavily accused and reproached by some men, I shall speak the truth of them, and suppose my word shall be the rather taken, because most of them took me for one of their boldest adversaries as to their opinions, and because I was known to disown their power, insomuch that I refused to try any under them upon their reference, except a very few, whose importunity and necessity moved me (they being such as for their episcopal judgment, or some such cause, the Triers were like to have rejected). The truth is that, though their authority was null, and though some few over busy and over rigid Independents among them were too severe against all that were Arminians, and too particular in enquiring after evidences of Sanctification in those whom they examined, and somewhat too lax in their admission of unlearned and erroneous men that favoured Antinomianism or Anabaptism; yet to give them their due, they did abundance of good to the church. They saved many a congregation from ignorant ungodly drunken teachers; that sort of men that intended no more in the ministry than to say a sermon, as readers say their Common Prayers, and so patch up a few good words together to talk the people asleep with on Sunday; and all the rest of the week go with them to the alehouse and harden them in their sin. And that sort of Ministers that either preached against a holy life, or preached as men that never were acquainted with it; all those that used the ministry but as a common trade to live by and were never likely to convert a soul, all these they usually rejected, and in their stead admitted of any that were able serious Preachers, and lived a godly life, of what tolerable opinion soever they were. So that though they were many of them somewhat partial for the Independents, Separatists, Fifth Monarchy men and Anabaptists, and against the Prelatists and Arminians, yet so great was the benefit above the hurt which they brought to the Church, that many thousands of souls blessed God for the faithful ministers whom they let in, and grieved when the Prelatists afterwards cast them out again.

CROMWELLIAN SAYINGS (1643-1658).

=Source.=--Carlyle, _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_.

I. _To Sir William Spring and Maurice Barrow, Esq., Cambridge, September, 1643._

I had rather have a plain russet coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else. I honour a gentleman that is so indeed!

II. _To the Speaker after Naseby, June 14, 1645._

... Sir, this is none other but the hand of God; and to Him alone belongs the glory, wherein none are to share with Him. The General served you with all faithfulness and honour; and the best commendation I can give him is, that I dare say he attributes all to God and would rather perish than assume to himself. Which is an honest and a thriving way:--and yet as much for bravery may be given to him, in this action, as to a man. Honest men served you faithfully in this action. Sir, they are trusty; I beseech you in the name of God, not to discourage them. I wish this action may beget thankfulness and humility in all that are concerned in it. He that ventures his life for the liberty of his country, I wish he trust God for the liberty of his conscience, and you for the liberty he fights for.

III. _To the Speaker, September 14, 1645._

For being united in forms, commonly called Uniformity, every Christian will for peace' sake study and do, as far as conscience will permit. And for brethren, in things of the mind we look for no compulsion, but that of light and reason. In other things, God hath put the sword into the Parliament's hands--for the terror of evil-doers and the praise of them that do well.

IV. _To the Lord Mayor of London, June 10, 1647._

The sum of our desires as soldiers is no other than this; Satisfaction to our undoubted claims as soldiers; and reparation upon those who have, to the utmost, improved all opportunities and advantages, by false suggestions, misrepresentations and otherwise, for the destruction of this army with a perpetual blot of ignominy upon it.

V. _To Oliver St. John, September 1, 1648._

Remember my love to my dear brother, H. Vane. I pray he make not too much, nor I too little, of outward dispensations:--God preserve us all, that we, in the simplicity of our spirits, may patiently attend upon them. Let us all be not careful what men will make of these actings. They, will they, nill they, shall fulfil the good pleasure of God; and we--shall serve our generations. Our rest we expect elsewhere: that will be durable. Care we not for to-morrow, nor for anything.

VI. _To Col. R. Hammond, November 25, 1648._

My dear Friend, let us look into Providences; surely they mean somewhat. They hang so together: have been so constant, so clear, unclouded. Malice, swoln malice against God's people now called "Saints": to root out their name;--and yet they getting arms, and therein blessed with defence and more!

VII. _To Mr. Speaker, September 4, 1650._

If there be any one that makes many poor to make a few rich, that suits not a Commonwealth.

VIII. _To Lord Wharton, September 4, 1650._

I have known my folly do good, when affection[3] has overcome my reason.

IX. _To the Little Parliament, 1653._

"The hand of the Lord hath done this"--it is He who hath wrought all the salvations and deliverances we have received. For what end! To see and know and understand together, that he hath done and wrought all this for the good of the whole flock. Therefore I beseech you--but I think I need not,--have a care of the whole flock! Love the sheep, love the lambs; love all, tender all, cherish and countenance all, in all things that are good. And if the poorest Christian, the most mistaken Christian, shall desire to live peaceably and quietly under you,--I say if any shall desire but to live a life of godliness and honesty, let him be protected.

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And indeed this hath been the way God dealt with us all along, to keep things from our eyes all along, so that we have seen nothing in all his dispensations long beforehand;--which is also a witness, in some measure, to our integrity.

X. SPEECH V. _September 12, 1654_.

Indeed that hath been one of the vanities of our contest. Every sect saith, "O, give me liberty!" But give it to him and to his power he will not yield it to anybody else....

XI. _To the First Protectorate Parliament, January 22, 1654-55._