[2] It contained a tedious enumeration of all the
charges, founded or unfounded, which had ever been made against the king
from the commencement of his reign; and thence deduced the inference that,
to treat with a prince so hostile to popular rights, so often convicted of
fraud and dissimulation, would be nothing less than to betray the
trust reposed in the two houses by the country. But the framers of the
vindication marred their own object. They had introduced much questionable
matter, and made numerous statements open to refutation: the advantage
was eagerly seized by the royalists; and, notwithstanding the penalties
recently enacted on account of unlicensed publications, several answers,
eloquently and convincingly written, were circulated in many parts of
the country. Of these the most celebrated came from the pens of Hyde the
chancellor, and of Dr. Bates, the king's physician.[3]
But, whilst the royal cause made rapid progress among the people, in the
army itself the principles of the Levellers had been embraced by the
majority of
[Footnote 1: King's Works, 130. Parl. Hist. iii. 863.]
[Footnote 2: Journals, v. Feb. 10, 11. Parl. Hist. iii. 847. Perrinchiefe,
44.]
[Footnote 3: Ibid. Parl. Hist. iii. 866. King's Works, 132.
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