Note 151 — Chapter X

This great blot on the proceedings was well hit by a remonstrance addressed to Ireton. “The godly and moral jealousy, I have over you and others related to the lieutenant-general, makes me present these few lines.... Surely of all others the change of laws and government had need to be done in full Parliament. But that it may be as near as possible the act of the whole people, as many as may be should be present, lest it fails of the esse of magnum consilium, or that the absence of many by a forced or legal impediment be not judged a just impediment to proceedings. And whether this Parliament be either a free or impartial one will abide disputed at least, and if ever time shall come in which examination may be of things and present transactions in reference to this Parliament, who can tell if it may not be judged beyond the Earl of Strafford’s fault, which was but arbitrary government, which is but a slighting of laws—much of this a total abolition of them?... It may, perhaps, come to be said of your many dangerous ends and extraordinary actings, as the Romans of Pompey the Great, his daughter, it was a fair and happy daughter, brought forth of an ugly and odious mother; I wish it may be so—only thus much, if you save the people of this land in the way you are in, it must be both against their wills and prayers.” “This I delivered to Ireton about a fortnight before the king’s trial. Signed, John Clayton.” See an unpublished pamphlet among Clarendon Papers in Bodleian, entitled, “State Colours and Complections, in which are reasons against the proceedings to try the king.”