CHAP. XLVIII. 1647 May 15. A second officers. May 16. tion of the Army. each troop or company elected representatives. As however, a body composed of all these representatives would be too numerous for efficient action, it was now arranged that the combined representatives of each regiment should elect two or more to whom alone the name of Agitators was now given. These Agitators, when collected, could speak in the name of the whole army, and were capable of impressing, in turn, their own views upon their military constituency. In troublous times the most decided and energetic come to the front; and, little as it was intended at the time, nothing was more calculated than the existence of this elected body of Agitators to give to the army that distinctive political and religious character which it ultimately bore. On May 15, after long conferences with the Agimeeting of tators, the officers had a second interview with the commissioners, and on the following day they gave A Declara in a Declaration of the Army, which bore the signatures of 223 commissioned officers. The Declaration opened with a narrative of the late proceedings of the soldiers, with whom the officers avowed themselves to be fully in accord. The men, they said, had resolved to send to Parliament that petition which had been so summarily condemned,2 but had been dissuaded by the officers from doing so, as well as from listening to anyone attempting to induce them 1 In The Declaration of the Army (E. 390, 26) we are told that the soldiers chose a certain number of every regiment or troop or company.' This is vague, but there is a clearer statement in A Solemn Engagement of the Army, p. 6 (E. 392, 9): "The soldiers . . . were forced . . . to choose out of the several troops and companies, several men, and those out of their whole numbers to choose two or more for each regiment." 2 See p. 39. A DECLARATION OF THE ARMY. 65 XLVIII. 1647 to take part in politics. The practical proposal CHAP made by the officers was that the vote for paying ‘a considerable part' of the arrears should be made more definite. It was generally understood, as the officers declared, to mean no more than the six weeks' pay already offered;" an offer which was generally looked upon as very inconsiderable,' most of the horse and many of the foot having large arrears due to them for service in former armies, in addition to arrears due to them for service in the New Model. This very reasonable demand was followed by complaints of the imprisonment of Ensign Nichols by the former commissioners without Fairfax's concurrence; of the toleration by Parliament of calumnies uttered against the soldiers in the press and in the pulpit; and also of the thanks which had been given by the Houses to petitioners who had reviled the army. Finally, the Declaration asked that Parliament should acknowledge that the soldiers had a right to petition their general on military matters; should take into consideration the original petition. which had been condemned,3 and should allow them to publish a sober vindication of their own conduct.1 Cromwell's With the spirit of this Declaration Cromwell May 17. appears to have been entirely satisfied. He and his reply. fellow-commissioners were able to announce that the Indemnity Ordinance had already passed the Commons, and that the six weeks of arrears were to be 1 "We perceive there have not wanted some in all quarters, upon their dissatisfaction in those things," i.e. their pay, &c., "ready to engage them in an implication of things of another nature, which, though not evil in themselves, yet did not concern them properly as soldiers." The authors of the Declaration, perhaps, had their eye on such papers as A Second Apology, E. 385, 18. 2 By the vote of April 27; see p. 59. 3 See pp. 39, 43. CHAP. XLVIII. 1647 Language of Cromwell and Ireton. The Com give their pro 1 extended to eight. "Truly, gentlemen," said Cromwell to the officers, "it will be very fit for you to have a very great care in the making the best use and improvement that you can both of the votes and of this that hath been last told you, and of the interest which all of you or any of you may have in your several respective regiments-namely, to work in them a good opinion of that authority that is over both us and them. If that authority falls to nothing, nothing can follow but confusion.” 2 So far Cromwell had prevailed by his strong sympathy with the soldiers and his equally strong desire to hinder them from bringing the kingdom into anarchy through their efforts to obtain justice for themselves. Ireton, indeed, had in private told the soldiers that till justice had been obtained they ought not to disband, but there is no reason to believe that Cromwell used any words of the kind.3 The work of the commissioners was now accommissioners plished. In a joint letter to the Speaker they conaccount of tented themselves with painting the situation in ceedings. general terms. "We must acknowledge,” they wrote, "we found the army under a deep sense of some sufferings, and the common soldiers much unsettled." They therefore suggested that it would be well for Parliament to recall them in order that they might give a verbal report of all that they had learnt.a There could be little doubt that Cromwell would plead energetically for justice to the soldiers; but all that he could say would be of little avail unless the Presbyterians at Westminster were prepared to meet the Declaration in a spirit of conciliation. Will the Presbyterians accept the Declaration ? 1 The Commissioners to Lenthall, May 17, Cary's Memorials of the Civil War, i. 214. 2 Clarke Papers, i. 72. 3 See p. 63, note I. 4 The Commissioners to Lenthall, May 17, Cary's Mem. of the War, i. 214. CHAPTER XLIX. THE ABDUCTION OF THE KING. CHAP. 1647 May 17. situation Militia demanded City. THE action of the commissioners had at least so far cleared the situation that it could no longer be doubted that Parliament must either redress the material grievances of the army or be prepared to The fight it; and for some time there had been signs cleared. that the Presbyterians were ready to venture on the latter and more desperate course. In March the City had asked that a new Militia Committee of its own choosing might be substituted for the existing A new Committee which had been named by Parliament, and Committee which contained many Independents. Though an by the Ordinance authorising the City to choose a new Committee was passed by the Lords, it had received no support from the Commons till the dispute with the army opened the eyes of the Presbyterian leaders to the advantage of having the military force of the City entirely at the disposal of their own party. The Lords' Ordinance was therefore at last taken in hand, and on April 16 it passed both Houses.2 The Common Council, taking advantage of the permission thus obtained, at once nominated a new committee, to appoint consisting exclusively of Presbyterians. On May 4, Commitin Cromwell's absence, another Ordinance was passed tee. giving Parliamentary authority to the nominees of the City.3 No immediate objection was raised on any side April 16. giving the Ordinance City power a Militia L.J. ix. 82. 2 Ib. ix. 143. 3 Ib. ix. 143. CHAP. 1647 The militia Indepen dents. to intrusting the municipal authority with the control of the City trained bands, but the manner in which the new committee exercised its powers soon gave purged of offence. Every officer tainted with Independency was excluded from the service.1 It looked as if the Presbyterians were to have an army of their own. The London militia, which numbered 18,000 men,2 was not to be despised as a military force, even if its quality was not equal to that of the tried warriors who had served under Fairfax and Cromwell. A Parliamentary army. Ill-feeling in the army. The Scottish army under David Leslie. Huntly's strongholds taken. Scottish jealousy of the English army. 2 This remodelling of the City force was certain to rouse an angry spirit in the army, and the difficulty of keeping this anger within bounds would be much increased if it once came to be known that the Presbyterians were seeking for military support in Scotland as well as in the City. In Scotland, too, there was a new-model army formed out of the larger force which had returned from England in February, and this army, consisting of 5,000 foot and 1,200 horse, had been placed under David Leslie, who was a warm partisan of Argyle and the extreme Presbyterians. In the course of the spring David Leslie had captured all Huntly's strongholds, and as soon as he had accomplished the not very difficult task of crushing Alaster Macdonald in the West, he and the force which he commanded would be available for a campaign in England. 3 For the present there was room for diplomacy, and Argyle, reflecting the sentiments of every Scottish politician, watched with jealousy the growth of a strong military power in England. In April, with 1 Perfect Occurrences, E. 390, 7. 2 List of the London Trained Bands, communicated by the Hon. H. A. Dillon, Archæologia, vol. iii. 3 Patrick Gordon, 199. Much information on the state of Scottish parties at this time is to be derived from the despatches of Montreuil, of which there are |