CHAPTER XXI

"A Retired Man's Meditations." The Healing Question. Vane imprisoned and persecuted. Cromwell's Third Parliament. His Anxieties and Nervous Troubles. His Death. Choice of a Successor.

AFTER the expulsion of the Long Parliament, Sir Henry had quietly betaken himself to Raby Castle, where he had a rest which could scarcely have been unwelcome after the strain and toil of so many years. He now gave up his mind to those mystical musings recorded in a book entitled A Retired Man's Meditations, which will be noticed farther on. On his father's death, in 1654, as the elder son, Sir Henry fell heir to Raby Castle, and Belleau in Lincolnshire. The northern estate had suffered much during the civil war, and as he had while in office paid little attention to his private affairs there were debts and incumbrances to clear off.

In the hopes of advancing his project of making himself king, Cromwell issued a proclamation calling upon the people to hold a fast, and apply themselves to the Lord to discover the Achan, who had so long obstructed the settlement of these distracted kingdoms, declaring that he and others associated in the government earnestly longed for light, that they might discern their errors and faults, and that they were ready with a mind open to conviction to receive counsel and

direction in whatever methods providence might adopt. Sir Henry took advantage of the invitation and wrote a treatise entitled: "A Healing Question propounded and resolved upon occasion of the late publique and seasonable Call to Humiliation in order to Love and Union amongst the Honest Party, with a desire to apply Balsam to the Wound before it become incurable," by Henry Vane, Knight. A title containing a prophecy only too well fulfilled. A copy of the work was sent through General Fleetwood to Cromwell. Being returned without comment it was published in March 1655. The treatise is so carefully constructed, one part supporting the texture of the whole, that a few extracts give no adequate idea of the wisdom and prescience shown in its composition.

It is addressed to "the honest party," those who took up arms in defence of public liberty. Vane reminded them that the cause has still the same goodness in it as ever, not to be less valued now than when neither blood nor treasure were thought too dear to carry it on and hold it up from sinking. The persons concerned were still the same. In the management of the war it pleased God, the righteous judge, to make them complete conquerors over their common enemy, thus strengthening their just claim to be governed by national councils and successive representations of their own election and setting

up.

This they thought they had been in possession of; but a great interruption had happened to their expectations, something rising up that seems rather

1 This treatise may be found in Somers' Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts, second edition, volume vi., p. 308, and in the appendix to Forster's British Statesman, Sir Henry Vane, vol. iv,

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accommodated to the private and selfish interest of a particular part than truly adequate to the common good. "Hence it is," the writer goes on, "if these breaches be not timely healed, and the offences (before they take too deep root) removed, they will certainly work more to the advantage of the common enemy than any of their own unwearied endeavours and dangerous contrivances in foreign parts put all together."

He claims that the whole party of honest men, by the success of their arms, have a right to set up meet persons in supreme judicature and authority, and to shape and form all subordinate actings and administrations of rule and government, so as shall best answer the public welfare and safety of the whole.

In this he eloquently observes, "All the particulars of our civil right and freedom are comprehended, conserved in, and derived from their proper root; in which whilst they grow, they will ever thrive, flourish, and increase; whereas, on the contrary, if there be ever so many fair branches of liberty planted on the root of a private and selfish interest, they will not long prosper, but must, within a little time, wither and degenerate into the nature of that whereinto they are planted."

With fervid eloquence Vane proclaims the right and blessing of freedom in matters of religion, as he had done eighteen years before in Massachusetts: "The magistrates should content themselves with what is plain in their commission in giving protection and punishment in matters of outward practice, converse, and dealing in the things of this life between man and man," "Why shouldest thou," he asks, “set at

naught thy brother in matters of his faith and conscience, and herein intrude into the proper office of Christ, since we are all to stand at the judgment seat of Christ, whether governors or governed, and by His decision only are capable of being declared with certainty to be in the right or in the wrong ?

He observes that since the fall of the bishops and persecuting presbyteries, the same spirit is apt to arise in the next sort of clergy that can get the ear of the magistrates, though he admits that in the matter of religious toleration, "the present governors have been willing very eminently to give their testimony, in their public declaration, however, in practice there is much of grievance yet found among us, though more, in probability, from the officiousness of subordinate ministers, than any clear purpose or designs of the chief in power."

He warns the army of the danger to the freedom contended for by themselves of having a divided interest from the rest of the commonwealth. "The offence lies in this, that the whole body is denied the exercise of the right of freely disposing of themselves in such a constitution of righteous government, as may best answer the ends held forth upon pretence that they are not in capacity as yet to use it; which, indeed, have some truth in it, if those that are now in power, and have the command of the arms, do not prepare all things requisite thereunto, as they may, and like faithful guardians to the commonwealth, admitted to be in its nonage, they ought."

"But if the bringing of true freedom into exercise amongst men, yea, so refined a party of men, be impossible, why has this been concealed all this

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while? and why was it not thought on before so much blood was spilt, and treasure spent? Surely such a thing as this was judged real and practicable, not imaginary and notional."

He skilfully conveys to the reader's mind who was the Achan whose sin obstructed the settlement of the kingdoms, and instead of favouring and promoting the public good, aimed at self-interest and private gain. Anxious to conciliate and gain over the military party, the author finds excuses for the usurpation: "Since what hath been done amongst us may probably have been more the effect of temptation than the product of any malicious design; and this sort of temptation is very common and incedent to men in power (how good soever they may be) to be overtaken in, and thereupon do sudden unadvised actions, which the Lord pardons and overrules for the best; evidently making appear that it is the work of the weak and fleshy part, which his own people carry about with them too much unsubdued."

For recruiting the party he suggests “a convention of faithful, honest, and discerning men chosen for that purpose by the free consent of the whole body of adherents to this cause in the several parts of the nations, and observing the time and place of meeting appointed to them (with other circumstances concerning their election) by order from the present ruling power, but considered as generall of the army. Which convention is not properly to exercise the legislative power, but only to debate freely, and agree upon the particulars; that by way of fundamental constitutions shall be laid and inviolably observed, as the conditions upon which the whole body so