of thirty-eight members, to execute the laws, receive all addresses, give orders to all generals and admirals, and digest all business, before submitting them to the consideration of the parliament, who pretended to be now entirely employed in framing a plan of a new representation, and professed that as soon as it should be ready, they would restore the power to the people, from whom they acknowledged to have entirely derived it.

The enmity of the Scots against the independents, who had prevented the settlement of the presbyterian discipline in England, induces them to reject the republican form of government which the English parliament invited them to adopt. They resolve still to adhere to monarchy, and proclaim Charles II. but on condition" of his good behaviour and strict "observance of the covenant, and his entertaining "no other persons about him but such as were "godly men, and faithful to that obligation." The parliament having no pretence to interpose in their affairs, allows them for the present to settle their government according to their political maxims. The actual state of things in Ireland required more immediately the attention of the commonwealth, and proper measures for subduing that country.

In support of the royal authority, Ormond had concluded a league with the Irish catholics, but the pope's nuncio had prevailed on them to break all alliance with protestants; and Ormond, pressed both by the forces of the parliament and the Irish rebels, had, agreeably to the orders of Charles, surrendered. Dublin and the forts he still held, and retired into France, where he joined the royal family. The earl of Clanricard, who had ever preserved his loyalty, having succeeded in expelling the nuncio out of Ireland, sent a deputation to Ormond, inviting him to return and take possession of his govern

ment,

Ormond, on his arrival, assembles an army of sixteen thousand men, proclaims the king, recovers many places from the parliament, and threatens Dublin with a siege. Dundalk, where Monk commanded, was delivered up by the garrison, who mutinied against the governor.

The earl of Pembroke is elected knight of the shire for Berks, April 16th, and sits in the house of commons; the first instance of this kind.

Order of the parliament for the duke of Gloucester and the princess Elizabeth, the late king's children, to be under the tuition of the countess of Carlisle, and three thousand pounds per annum allowed for their maintenance, May 24th.

The English commonwealth being brought to a tolerable settlement, began to be sensible of the necessity of no longer postponing the appointment of a lieutenant for Ireland. The presbyterians endeavoured to obtain that situation for Waller, the independents for Lambert, and Cromwell secretly aspired to a command, where he saw so much glory might be won and so much authority acquired. He did not, however, form the demand openly, but took care to have his name proposed to the council of state as by chance, and without his knowledge. His enemies no less eagerly concurred than his friends to appoint him to that important office, as they desired to remove him to a distance, and take advantage of his absence to gain the ascendant over Fairfax, whom he had so long deceived by his hypocritical professions. Cromwell, when informed of his election, affected to be surprised, and to hesitate with regard to the acceptance of the lieutenancy, Before he set out for Ireland, he thought it necessary to compose many disorders which had crept in in England, and particularly the dangerous humours of the army. The levellers, though they had been for a time suppressed by his audacious spirit, still

continued to propagate their doctrines among the private men and inferior officers. They had framed a remonstrance, and sent five agitators to present it to the general and council of war; these deputies were all cashiered with ignominy by sentence of a court-martial. Another having carried sedition farther was sentenced to death. But his execution was so far from quelling the mutinous spirit, that above a thousand of his companions shewed their adherence to him by attending his funeral, with black and sea-green ribbons in their hats. A disbanded soldier having preached, that the time was now come when the community of goods would be renewed among christians, led out his followers to take possession of the land, and being carried before the general he refused to salute him, because he was but his fellow creature. About four thousand assembled at Burford, under the command of a man who had been formerly condemned for sedition, but pardoned by the general. Colonel Reynolds, and afterwards Fairfax and Cromwell, fell upon them while unprepared for defence, and took four hundred prisoners, some of whom were capitally punished, and the rest pardoned. This tumultuous spirit, though it still lurked in the army, and broke out, seemed however to be suppressed for the present.

Petitions, framed in the same spirit of insurrection, were presented to the parliament by lieutenantcolonel Lilburn, who had been formerly prosecuted before the star-chamber for dispersing seditious libels. He was thrown into prison as a promoter of disturbances in the commonwealth. The marketwomen applied by petition for his release, but were now desired to mind their household affairs, and leave the government of the state to the men. Petitions from all quarters strongly manifested the sense of the people, and their ardent wishes for the restora

tion of their laws and liberties. The laws on high treason were enlarged and extended to verbal offences, and even to suspicious intentions, though they had never appeared in any overt act against the state. The power of imprisonment, of which the petition of rights had bereaved the king, was restored to the council of state, and all the jails in England were soon filled with men, whom the jealousies and fears of the ruling party represented as dangerous. The heavy taxes which the new government had continued, increased the ill-will under which it laboured. Besides the customs and excise ninety thousand pounds a month were levied on land for the subsistence of the army. The sequestrations and compositions of the royalists, the sale of the crown lands and of the dean and chapter lands, though they yielded great sums, were not sufficient to support the vast expences and, as was suspected, the great depredations of the parliament and of their

creatures.

Amidst all these difficulties Cromwell collects an army of twelve thousand men in the west of England, and sends a reinforcement of four thousand horse and foot to strengthen Jones, an excellent officer, formerly a lawyer, which enables him to resist the marquis of Ormond, who threatened Dublin, and had begun the reparation of an old fort which lay at the gates of the town. Being exhausted with continual fatigue for some days, he had retired to rest after leaving orders to keep his forces under arms. He was suddenly awakened by the noise of firing, and starting from his bed, saw every thing already in disorder and confusion. Jones had sallied out with the reinforcement newly arrived, and attacking the party employed in repairing the fort, he totally routed them, pursued the advantage, fell in with the army, put them to flight, seized all their tents, baggage, ammunition, and re-entered Dublin, after

.

killing one thousand men and taking above four thousand prisoners. Cromwell soon after arrived at Dublin, hastened to Tredah, a well fortified town with a strong garrison. Having made a breach he immediately gives a general assault, takes the town, and puts the whole garrison to the sword. Even a few who were saved by the soldiers satiated with blood, were next day miserably butchered by his orders; a barbarous policy intended to terrify the other garrisons from resistance, and it had the desired effect.

From Tredah, Cromwell led immediately his army to Wexford. The garrison after a slight defence offered to capitulate; but before having obtained a cessation they imprudently neglected their guards, and the English army rushed in upon them. The garrison was treated with the same severity as that of Tredah,

Every town now opened its gates to Cromwell without any resistance; and he had no other obstacle to encounter than those arising from the advanced season and the fatigue of his troops. He had so far advanced with his army, though decayed by fluxes and contagious distempers, that he began to find it difficult either to subsist in the enemy's country or to retreat to his own garrisons. But while he was in these straits, Cork, Kinsale, and all the English garrisons in Munster deserted to him. Ormond, whose power was now at an end, left the island, and delegated his authority to Clanricard, who found affairs so desperate as to admit of no remedy. The Irish were glad to embrace banishment as a refuge. Above forty thousand of them passed into foreign service; and Cromwell, well pleased to free the island from enemies who never could be cordially reconciled to the English, gave them full liberty and leisure for their emigration.