in different counties, who demanded that a new parliament should be holden every year; that during the intervals the supreme power should be exercised by a committee of the house; that no member of the last should sit in the succeeding parliament; that the self-denying ordinance should be enforced; that no officer should retain his command in the army for more than a certain period; that the High Court of Justice should be abolished as contrary to law, and the council of state, as likely to become an engine of tyranny; that the proceedings in the courts should be in the English language, the number of lawyers diminished, and their fees reduced; that the excise and customs should be taken away, and the lands of delinquents sold for compensation to the well-affected; that religion should be “reformed according to the mind of God;” that no one should be molested or incapacitated

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1649.  Jan. 20.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1649.  Feb. 26.]

on account of conscience; that tithes should be abolished; and that the income of each minister should be fixed at one hundred pounds per annum, to be raised by a rate on his parishioners.[1]

Aware of the necessity of crushing the spirit of opposition in the military, general orders were issued[a] by Fairfax, prohibiting private meetings of officers or soldiers “to the disturbance of the army;” and on the receipt[b] of a letter of remonstrance from several regiments, four of the five troopers by whom it was signed were condemned[c] by a court-martial to ride the wooden horse with their faces to the tail, to have their swords broken over their heads, and to be afterwards cashiered.  Lilburne, on the other hand, laboured to inflame the general discontent by a succession of pamphlets, entitled, “England’s New Chains Discovered,” “The Hunting of the Foxes from Newmarket and Triploe Heath to Whitehall by five small Beagles” (in allusion to the five troopers), and the second part of “England’s New Chains.”  The last he read[d] to a numerous assembly at Winchester House; by the parliament it was voted[e] a seditious and traitorous libel, and the author, with his associates, Walwyn, Prince, and Overton; was committed,[f] by order of the council, to close custody in the Tower.[2]

It had been determined to send to Ireland a division of twelve thousand men; and the regiments to be employed were selected by ballot, apparently in the fairest manner.  The men, however, avowed a resolution not to march.  It was not, they said, that they

[Footnote 1:  Walker, 133.  Whitelock, 388, 393, 396, 398, 399.  Carte, Letters, i. 229.]

[Footnote 2:  Whitelock, 385, 386, 392.  Council Book in the State-paper Office, March 27, No. 17; March 29, No. 27.  Carte, Letters, i. 273, 276.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1649.  Feb. 22.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1649.  March 1.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1649.  March 3.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1649.  March 25.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1649.  March 27.] [Sidenote f:  A.D. 1649.  March 29.]