1649 LILBURNE'S ACTIVITY 47 Orderly procession there was nothing to provoke opposition. and silently, save for the sound of trumpets announcing a soldier's funeral, the long column tramped through the streets, a body of women closing up the rear. At last the Army's Martyr, as his admirers styled him, was laid in a grave at Westminster.1 Motives of those who took part in it. The thousands of law-abiding citizens who took part in the procession were assuredly not moved by any sympathy with mutineers. Their protest was against military interference with political affairs. "England," Lilburne had said when he was brought before the Council of State, "is a nation governed, bounded, and limited by laws and liberties." Lockyer was held to be a martyr, because it was suspected that those who had condemned him to death were of a contrary opinion. The tragedy of the situation lay in this, that those who attempted the suppression of the Levellers were as desirous as Lilburne could possibly be that England should be governed, bounded, and limited by laws and liberties.' It was not, however, in human nature that the men who had the sword in their hands should throw away the results of their toil, in the hope that at some future day laws and liberties might again revive under softer influences than could proceed from the armed ranks of soldiers. May 1. Lilburne's new Agree ' As long as possibility of speech or writing remained Lilburne would be a thorn in the sides of the men whom he regarded as the worst of usurpers. On May 1 he issued yet another version of the Agreement of the ment of the People, in which he showed himself as distrustful of People. the existing Parliament as he had hitherto been of the executive government. The new representative body, he held, was to be annually elected by manhood suffrage; servants, persons in receipt of alms, and those who had fought on the King's side being alone excluded from voting. No one in receipt of public money nor any treasurer, receiver, or practising 1 Merc. Pragm. E, 552, 15; The Moderate, E, 552, 20; The Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer, E, 552, 21. The Moderate was the Levellers' organ. lawyer might be elected. Members of any one Parliament were to be incapable of sitting in the next, which was to take the place of its predecessor with but one night's intermission. Each Parliament was to name a Committee of its members to carry on business in times of adjournment, and to bind it by suitable instructions. Not only was there to be complete religious liberty, but each parish was to choose its minister, on the understanding that he was to be maintained by voluntary offerings alone.1 On May 2 fresh bodies of petitioners urged Parliament to liberate the four prisoners and to provide for the speedy May 2. Another Lilburnian petition. May 1. Declaration of Scrope's regiment. election of its successor.2 Far more serious was the news that Scrope's regiment, which had advanced as far as Salisbury on its way to Ireland, had refused to leave England till the liberties of the country were secured. With the exception of two troops, Ireton's regiment concurred with that of Scrope, and the greater part of Reynolds's regiment quartered round Bristol was of the same opinion. A similar declaration was apprehended from those of Harrison and Skippon.3 Another centre of resistance was formed at Banbury, where, on May 6, a body of local forces rallied to a manifesto issued under the title of England's Standard Advanced. Its author was a certain William Thompson, who Advanced. had formerly been a corporal, but who had been. cashiered for taking part in a tavern broil. May 6. England's Standard following the regiment from which he had Having insisted on been dismissed, he was condemned to death by a court-martial for provoking to The Agreement of the Free People of England, E, 552, 23. 2 C.J. vi. 199. 3 The Moderate Intelligencer, E, 555, 3; England's Standard Advanced, E, 553, 2. There is a second and enlarged edition, published on May 12, E, 555, 7. The title-page is missing in the Museum copy, but Mr. Firth tells me that his copy has, in bold black type, For a New Parliament by the Agreement of the People,' and that if the tract were doubled up and stuck in the hat, as the Agreement was at the rendezvous on Corkbush Field (Great Civil War, iv. 25), these words would show out well. 1649 PRECAUTIONS AGAINST MUTINY 49 mutiny, though he had finally been pardoned by Fairfax.1 A kind of military Lilburne, he inveighed loudly against the tyranny of courts-martial, and called for the execution of the new Lilburnian Agreement of the People. Thomp suppressed. The Banbury rising was not of long duration. Before the day was over Colonel Reynolds, at the head of three troops which had remained faithful out of his mutinous regiment, son's rising fell upon the mutineers. Thompson resisted to the uttermost, killing with his own hand a lieutenant who pressed him hard. The bulk of his followers, however, had little mind to fight against their old comrades, and finding himself about to be deserted, he took to flight, whilst about twenty of his men rode off to join Scrope's regiment at Salisbury." For some days Parliament had been striving to find means to satisfy the material demands of the soldiers. On April 30 April 30. Deans and Chapters abolished. May 8. the City. an Act was passed for the abolition of Deans and Chapters, as the first step towards the appropriation of their estates.3 Landed property, however, could not speedily be converted into money, and as the London citizens persisted in refusing a loan they were ordered, on May 8, to pay immediately 27,400/. due for the Demands on arrears of former assessments. By this time the case was urgent, as news had arrived that the discontent of the regiment at Salisbury was about to pass into actual mutiny.5 Prompt measures were taken to avert the danger. Four hundred soldiers who could be trusted were sent to occupy the Tower,6 and on the 9th Parliament ordered that no one should have access to Lilburne and his three companions except their wives, children, and servants. panions. days later even this relaxation of their close imprison News from The Tower occupied. May 9-12 Restric tions on the liberty of Lilburne and his com Three England's Freedom, Soldiers' Rights, E, 419, 23; A Vindication of L. G. Cromwell, E, 431, 7; A True and Impartial Relation, E, 432, 23; The Prisoners' Mournful Cry, E, 441, 17. 2 The Impartial Intelligencer, E, 530, 8. 4 Ib. vi. 204. 3 C.J. vi. 198. 5 The Moderate Intelligencer, E, 555, 3. 6 Merc. Elencticus, E, 556, 9. VOL. I. E May 4. Order for ment was forbidden,1 doubtless in order to make it impossible for them to send fresh manifestoes to the press. On the 9th, too, an Act was brought in for charging the soldiers' arrears on the estates of the late King and his family.2 For the present at least nothing could be done to satisfy the more ideal aims of the soldiers. On May 4, indeed, the House had ordered that a debate on due elections and equal representation should be opened on the morrow; but when the morrow came the debate was postponed to the 9th, on which day the House might fairly plead that it was justified in deferring the consideration of such far-reaching changes to a season of greater tranquillity.3 a debate on elec tions. May 9. Debate postponed. May 9. A review in Hyde Park. Cromwell's address. He It was for Fairfax and Cromwell to hasten the arrival of such a season. On the 9th they reviewed their own two regiments of horse in Hyde Park. Cromwell addressed the men, telling them that any who wished to leave the army were at liberty to do so with the assurance of ultimate payment of all that was due to them. begged them not to be unmindful of the labours of the House or of its care for the provision of an adequate navy for the defence of the country. He further announced that it was resolved to find a way of paying the soldiers' arrears, and that Parliament intended to bring its sittings to a close, and to provide as soon as possible for the election of a more representative successor. Cromwell, in short asked the soldiers to trust Parliament to do all that could reasonably be required of it, and not to give the victory to the common enemy because a new constitution could not be brought into existence at a moment of imminent peril. Language so eminently sensible could not fail of its effect with the men whom he had so often 1 C.J. vi. 205, 208. A Discourse between Lilburne and Hugh Peters (E, 556, 26), in which Peters is made to give his opinion that there is no law in England but the sword, is manifestly, in the face of this order, a pure invention, and is declared to be such in Merc. Pacificus, E, 557, 7. 3 Ib. vi. 201, 202. 2 C.J. vi. 205. 4 Heads of Cromwell's speech are given in A Perfect Summary, E, 530, 3, |