with his army was invited to the capital.  Amidst the public rejoicing, private conferences of which the subject never transpired, were repeatedly held; and Cromwell returning to[d] England, left Lambeth with two regiments of horse, to support the government of his friends till they could raise a sufficient force among their own party.[2] His progress through the northern counties was slow;[e] nor did he reach the capital till the day after the exclusion of the Presbyterian members.  His late victory had rendered him the idol of the soldiers:  he was conducted with acclamations of joy to the

[Footnote 1:  This was called the inroad of the Whiggamores; a name given to these peasants either from whiggam, a word employed by them in driving their horses, or from whig (Anglice whey), a beverage of sour milk, which formed one of the principal articles of their meals.—­Burnet’s History of his Own Times, i. 43.  It soon came to designate an enemy of the king, and in the next reign was transferred, under the abbreviated form of whig, to the opponents of the court.]

[Footnote 2:  Memoirs of the Hamiltons, 367-377.  Guthrie, 283-299.  Rushworth, vii. 1273, 1282, 1286, 1296, 1325.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1648.  Sept. 26.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1648.  Sept. 30.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1648.  Oct. 4.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1648.  Oct. 11.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1648.  Dec. 7.]

royal apartments in Whitehall, and received the next day the thanks of the House of Commons for his distinguished services to the two kingdoms.  Of his sentiments with respect to the late proceedings no doubt was entertained.  If he had not suggested, he had at least been careful to applaud the conduct of the officers, and in a letter to Fairfax he blasphemously attributed it to the inspiration of the Almighty.[1]

The government of the kingdom had now devolved in reality on the army.  There were two military councils, the one select, consisting of the grandees, or principal commanders, the other general, to which the inferior officers, most of them men of levelling principles, were admitted.  A suspicion existed that the former aimed at the establishment of an oligarchy:  whence their advice was frequently received with jealousy and distrust, and their resolutions were sometimes negatived by the greater number of their inferiors.  When any measure had received the approbation of the general council, it was carried to the House of Commons, who were expected to impart to it the sanction of their authority.  With ready obedience[a] they renewed the vote of non-addresses, resolved that the re-admission of the eleven expelled members was dangerous in its consequences, and contrary to the usages of the house, and declared that the treaty in the Isle of Wight, and the approbation given to the[b] royal concessions, were dishonourable to parliament, destructive of the common good, and a breach of the public faith.[2] But these were only preparatory measures: