]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Oct. 18.]
that crime might be impartially punished without any distinction of high or
low, rich or poor; that all who had contrived or abetted the late war might
receive their just deserts; and that whosoever should speak or act in
favour of Charles, before that prince had been acquitted of shedding
innocent blood, should incur the penalties of treason. The immediate object
of this paper was to try the general disposition of the army. Though it did
not openly express, it evidently contemplated the future trial of the
king, and was followed by another petition[a] from the regiment of Colonel
Ingoldsby, which, in plainer and bolder terms, demanded that the monarch
and his adherents should be brought to justice; condemned the treaty
between him and the parliament as dangerous and unjust; and required the
appointment of a council of war to discover an adequate remedy for the
national evils. Fairfax had not the courage to oppose what, in his own
judgment, he disapproved; the petitions were laid before an assembly of
officers; and the result of their deliberation was a remonstrance[b] of
enormous length, which, in a tone of menace and asperity, proclaimed the
whole plan of the reformers. It required that "the capital and grand author
of all the troubles and woes which the kingdom had endured, should be
speedily brought to justice for the treason, blood, and mischief of which
he had been guilty;" that a period should be fixed for the dissolution of
the parliament; that a more equal representation of the people should be
devised; that the representative body should possess the supreme power, and
elect every future king; and that the prince so elected should be bound to
disclaim all pretentions to a negative voice in the passing of laws, and to
subscribe to that form of government which he
[Sidenote a: A.
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