Note 356 — Chapter X
Reading edition
Jan. 15. This vote was carried by 141 to 92. Id. 831. And see Append. to 2nd vol. of Clar. State Papers. Cromwell was now vehement against the king, though he had voted in his favour on Sept. 22. Journals, and Berkley, 372. A proof that the king was meant to be wholly rejected is, that at this time, in the list of the navy, the expression "his majesty's ship," was changed to "the parliament's ship." Whitelock, 291.
The four bills were founded on four propositions (for which I refer to Hume or the Parliamentary History, not to Clarendon, who has mis-stated them) sent down from the Lords. The lower house voted to agree with them by 115 to 106; Sidney and Evelyn tellers for the ayes, Martin and Morley for the noes. The increase of the minority is remarkable, and shows how much the king's refusal of the terms offered him in September, and his escape from Hampton Court, had swollen the commonwealth party; to which, by the way, Colonel Sidney at this time seems not to have belonged. Ludlow says, that party hoped the king would not grant the four bills (i. 224). The Commons published a declaration of their reasons for making no further addresses to the king, wherein they more than insinuate his participation in the murder of his father by Buckingham. Parl. Hist. 847.