The framers of this declaration knew little of the temper of the military.  They sought to prevail by intimidation, and they only inflamed the general discontent.  Was it to be borne, the soldiers asked each other, that the city of London and the county of Essex should be allowed to petition against the army,

[Footnote 1:  Journals, ix. 66, 72, 82, 89, 95, 112-115.  Commons’, v.  March 11, 25, 26, 27, 29.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1647 March 29.]

and that they, who had fought, and bled, and conquered in the cause of their country, should be forbidden either to state their grievances or to vindicate their characters?  Hitherto the army had been guided, in appearance at least, by the council of officers; now, whether it was a contrivance of the officers themselves to shift the odium to the whole body of the military, or was suggested by the common men, who began to distrust the integrity of their commanders, two deliberating bodies, in imitation of the houses at Westminster, were formed; one consisting of the officers holding commissions, the other of two representatives from every troop and company, calling themselves adjutators or helpers; a name which, by the ingenuity of their enemies, was changed into that of agitators or disturbers.[1] Guided by their resolves, the whole army seemed to be animated with one soul; scarcely a man could be tempted to desert the common cause by accepting of the service in Ireland; each corps added supernumeraries to its original complement;[2] and language was held, and projects were suggested, most alarming to the Presbyterian party.  Confident, however, in their own power, the majority in the house[a]

[Footnote 1:  Hobbes, Behemoth, 587.  Berkeley, 359.  This, however, was not the first appearance of the agitators.  “The first time,” says Fairfax, “I took notice of them was at Nottingham (end of February), by the soldiers meeting to frame a petition to the parliament about their arrears.  The thing seemed just; but not liking the way, I spoke with some officers who were principally engaged in it, and got it suppressed for that time.”—­Short Memorials of Thomas Lord Fairfax, written by himself.  Somers’s Tracts, v. 392.  Maseres, 446.]

[Footnote 2:  Several bodies of troops in the distant counties had been disbanded; but the army under Fairfax, by enlisting volunteers from both parties, royalists as well as parliamentarians, was gradually increased by several thousand men, and the burthen of supporting it was doubled.—­See Journals, ix. 559-583.]

[Sidebar a:  A.D. 1647.  April 27.]