With ready
obedience[a] they renewed the vote of non-addresses, resolved that
the re-admission of the eleven expelled members was dangerous in its
consequences, and contrary to the usages of the house, and declared that
the treaty in the Isle of Wight, and the approbation given to the[b] royal
concessions, were dishonourable to parliament, destructive of the common
good, and a breach of the public faith.[2] But these were only preparatory
measures:
[Footnote 1: Journals, Dec. 8. Whitelock, 362. Rushworth, vii. 1339.]
[Footnote 2: Journals, Dec. 3, 13, 14, 20. Whitelock, 362, 363. Clarendon
Papers, ii. App. xlix.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Dec. 12.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Dec. 13.]
they were soon called upon to pass a vote, the very mention of which a few
years before would have struck the boldest among them with astonishment and
terror.
It had long been the conviction of the officers that the life of the king
was incompatible with their safety. If he were restored, they would become
the objects of royal vengeance; if he were detained in prison, the public
tranquillity would be disturbed by a succession of plots in his favour. In
private assassination there was something base and cowardly from which the
majority revolted; but to bring him to public justice, was to act openly
and boldly; it was to proclaim their confidence in the goodness of their
cause; to give to the world a splendid proof of the sovereignty of the
people and of the responsibility of kings.
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