who had overheard them. Ludlow, in confirmation of this account, says, that Mr. Holles, thinking some expressions used by Ireton, respecting himself and others of the secluded members, to be injurious to them, passing by him in the House, whispered him in the ear, telling him it was false, and that he would justify it to be so, if he would follow him; and thereupon immediately went out of the House, with the other following him: that some members who had observed their passionate carriage to each other, and seen them hastily leaving the House, acquainted the House with their apprehensions; whereupon they sent their sergeantat-arms to command their attendance, which letting them understand as they were taking boat to go to the other side of the water, they returned, and the House enjoined them to forbear all words or actions of enmity towards each other, which they promised to do. These two relations must be deemed of themselves a sufficient contradiction of Lord Clarendon's narrative of this transaction; nor is it probable that Mr. Holles would have omitted to mention this affair with the circumstances related by His Lordship, so creditable to his own courage and disgraceful to Ireton, had His Lordship's account been correct.

This misunderstanding of Holles and Ireton would not have been here noticed, but for the purpose of showing the small degree of credit to which

these narratives are entitled, where they are manifestly introduced for the sole purpose of vilifying and destroying those characters that wese most obnoxious to the writers, and of building upon the ruins of them their own fabricated histories, to serve a party purpose.

CHAPTER XII.

LUDLOW'S OBSERVATIONS UPON HIS ACCOUNT OF CROMWELL'S CONDUCT AT A MEETING FOR THE ENDEAVOURING A RECONCILIATION OF THE PRESBYTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS, ABOUT THE TIME OF THE SCOTS PREPARATIONS FOR INVADING ENGLAND, IN PERFORMANCE OF THEIR TREATY WITH THE KING. -WHITELOCK'S OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE REPUBLICANS TO BRING THE KING TO TRIAL. PRIVATE MEETINGS OF WHITELOCK AND OTHERS, WITH CROMWELL AND others, TO ENDEAVOUR A SETTLEMENT OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE NATION, SUBSEQUENT TO THE TERMINATION OF THE TREATY OF NEWPORT, AND BEFORE THE TRIAL OF THE KING, WHICH WAS NOT THE SUBJECT OF THEIR DELIBERATION. CONSIDERATIONS OF THAT MEASURE, AND UPON THE KIng's denial of the jurisdiction of tHE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE, AND THE OBSERVATIONS THEREON OF RAPIN, JUDGE BLACKSTONE, AND OTHERS.

LUDLOW, referring to the Scots preparations for raising an army, in pursuance of their treaty with the King, wherein he says the Presbyterians and cavaliers joined, though with different designs, says, that in the mean time Lieutenant-general Cromwell, not forgetting himself, procured a meeting of divers leading men amongst the Presbyterians and Independents, both members of Parliament and ministers, at a dinner in Westminster, under a pretence of endeavouring a reconciliation between the two parties; but that he found it a

work too difficult for him to compose the differences between these two ecclesiastical interests; one of which would endure no superior, the other no equal; so that this meeting produced no effect: that he contrived another conference to be held in King-street, (he does not say when, seldom giving dates,) between those called the grandees of the House and army, and the commonwealth's men; in which the grandees, of whom Lieutenantgeneral Cromwell was the head, kept themselves in the clouds, and would not declare their judg ments either for a monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical government; maintaining that any of them might be good in themselves, or for them, according as Providence should direct them: that the commonwealth's men declared that monarchy was neither good in itself nor for us: that it was not desirable in itself, they urged from the 8th chapter and 8th verse of the first book of Samuel, where the rejection of the judges and the choice of a king was charged upon the Israelites by God himself as a rejection of him; and from another passage in the same book, where Samuel declares it to be a great wickedness; with divers more texts of Scripture to the same effect: and that it was no way conducing to the interest of this nation, was endeavoured to be proved by the infinite mischiefs and oppressions we had suffered under it and by it that, indeed, our ancestors had consented to be

that he should govern according to the direc tion of the law, which he always bound himself by oath to perform that the King had broken this oath, and thereby dissolved our allegiance, protection and obedience being reciprocal: that having appealed to the sword for the decision of the things in dispute, and thereby caused the effusion of a deluge of the people's blood, it seemed to be a duty incumbent upon the representatives of the people to call him to an account for the same; more especially, since the controversy was determined by the same means which he had chosen ; and then to proceed to the establishment of an equal commonwealth, founded upon the con, sent of the people, and providing for the rights and liberties of all men, that we might have the hearts and hands of the nation to support it, as being most just, and in all respects most conducing to the happiness and prosperity there. of that, notwithstanding what was said, Lieutenant-general Cromwell, not for want of conviction, but in hopes to make a better bargain with another party, professed himself unresolved; and having learned what he could of the principles and inclinations of those present at the conference, took up a cushion and flung it at his (Ludlow's) head, and then ran down the stairs; but he overtook him with another, which, made him hasten down faster than he desired: that the next day, passing by him (Ludlow) in the House, he told