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ing, by a majority of one hundred and twenty- CHAP. four to eighty-eight'.

XXI.

The inva

The threatened invasion, which Cromwel had 1657. dwelt on in his speech at the opening of the par- sion postliament, had for various reasons been suspended. poned. It was an undertaking of serious import, and could not hope to be attended with success, unless every preliminary step was managed with the nicest observation, and the whole affair conducted with exact judgment and concert. One of the points upon which the levellers, Assassinathe court of Spain, and we may doubtless add Cromwel the royalists attendant on Charles the Second m designed to most relied, was the assassination of Cromwel. The whole system of the present government of England was bound up in the life of the protector: and, if he were by any unexpected stroke removed, and if the different parties that were

1 Journals, Jan. 29. The exceeding familiarity of Cromwel's manner on certain occasions, was a prominent feature of his character. He delighted to unbend, and indulge himself in a playful vein. Whitlocke relates that, when the question of his taking the title of king was debating, he would sometimes shut himself up with the memorialist, Broghil, Pierrepoint, Wolseley and Thurloe, for three or four hours at a time, and advise as to the then state of public affairs, and the resolution to be adopted-then suddenly turn to divert himself, to make extemporary verses with his counsellors, and insist upon each of them trying his hand in turn-and afterwards fall again upon the business of the state, and determine upon the most serious results. Whitlocke, May 2.

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tion of

IV.

1657.

BOOK prepared to land on our shores, could effect their purpose nearly at that moment, they were not disposed to doubt of a prosperous success. Who was there, in the shock of two so alarming events, to take upon himself the direction of affairs? All would be anarchy; the vessel of the state would be without a pilot; and the men who had foreseen, and had themselves produced the crisis, would be able to direct the issue of events at their pleasure.

Sindercombe.

Sexby, who had been in England in the preceding summer, seems to have been the principal person employed to set this business afoot". Next to him in the affair, was Miles Sindercombe, who, Sexby having passed over to join his friends in Flanders, was relied upon to conduct this first and indispensible step in the undertaking, in person. Sindercombe had been a quarter-master in Monk's army in Scotland, and had been disbanded on account of his concern in colonel Overton's plot. He, as well as Sexby, had been deeply penetrated with the principles of republicanism. -It appears however that there was a considerable deficiency either of determination or contrivance in the proceeding; and the whole affair, after having been several months in agitation,

was rendered abortive.

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Clarendon, State Papers, Vol. III, p. 325.

Thurloc, Vol. V, p. 774. Mercurius Politicus, Jan. 22.

XXI.

Thurloe's

the subject.

On the nineteenth of January, Thurloe, the CHAP. secretary of state, laid before parliament the particulars he had collected respecting the conspi- 1657. racy. Sindercombe and two others were already report on in custody P. The first attempt was designed to have taken place on the day of the meeting of parliament. Three or four times Sindercombe and his colleagues had been on the road, with the intention to dispatch Cromwel as he went to Hampton Court. They hired a house at Hammersmith, for the purpose of shooting him from a window as he passed in his coach. And, lastly, they laid combustibles and a train of gunpowder, to fire the chapel at Whitehall. This last project was detected the very day it was to have been executed". Sindercombe was brought to Death of his trial before chief justice Glyn and a London combe. jury on the ninth of February, and, being ordered for execution on the fourteenth, was found dead in his bed on the night preceding. A coroner's inquest sat on the body; and, a verdict being returned of felo de se, he was buried, according to the forms prescribed by law in such cases, on Tower Hills.

› Burton's Diary, p. 355.

Clarendon, State Papers, Vol. III, p. 325. Thurloe, Vol. V,

p. 777.

r

Journals, Jan. 19. Thurloe, p. 774, et seqq.

Vol. I, p. 332, 354.

Burton's Diary,

'Mercurius Politicus, Feb. 12, 19. Cobbet, State Trials, Vol. V.

Sinder

334

IV.

1657.

Humble
Address

CHAPTER XXII.

PROJECT ENTERTAINED FOR RENOVATING THE
OLD CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT. — FOR
CONFERRING ON CROMWEL THE TITLE OF KING.
-FOR REVIVING THE INSTITUTION OF TWO
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. AND FOR SECURING
THE INTEGRITY OF THE REPRESENTATIVE sy-
STEM. IT IS COUNTENANCED, WITH SINISTER
VIEWS OR OTHERWISE, BY THE ROYALISTS.—
IT IS FAVOURED BY THE LAWYERS.—AND BY
THE PRESBYTERIANS.-AND FINALLY ADOPT-
ED AND CONCURRED IN BY CROMWEL.-IT IS
DISAPPROVED BY THE REPUBLICANS.

BY THE OFFICERS OF THE ARMY.

-AND

BOOK IN the course of the month of February a totally new scene is opened upon us. On the twentythird, sir Christopher Pack, who had been lord mayor of London in the year 1655, submitted to the house a bill, entitled, The Humble Address and Remonstrance of the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses assembled in Parliament, which was immediately ordered to be taken into consideration. Whitlocke had previously been desired

and Remonstrance brought forward.

a Journals.

XXII.

to be the person to offer this business to the at- CHAP. tention of the house, but had declined the office". He refused to be the mover of the question, but readily consented to support it in its principal features.

1657.

sed object.

by the

This measure had its origin in the ambition of Its propoCromwel, and the suggestions of the lawyers. Its object was, as far as might be practicable, to bring back the old constitution of government, under a new line of kings. Men, educated to the Favoured profession of the law, will always have a strong lawyers. partiality to the forms handed down from our ancestors. It had been continually urged by the race of lawyers at this time existing, that the office and name of a king were every where interwoven with our old institutions, and that, unless our whole scheme of legislation were changed, the course of affairs could never run smooth, till that office were restored. It was an easy and obvious measure in the present state of affairs, to alter the race and blood of those who in succession should inherit the throne. It was the opinion of the republicans, the adherents of the Long Parliament, and the supporters of Cromwel, that the family of Stuart, by their multiplied delinquencies, and their inexpiable war against the liberties and wishes of the people, had forfeited all pretensions to the crown. No alternative

b Whitlocke, May 1.

Presumed the house

forfeiture of

of Stuart.

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