To save his
life, Lilburne submitted; but his residence on the continent was short: the
reader will soon meet with him again in England.[1]
The Levellers had boldly avowed their object; the royalists worked in the
dark and by stealth; yet the council by its vigilance and promptitude
proved a match for the open hostility of the one and the secret
machinations of the other. A doubt may, indeed, be raised of the policy of
the "engagement," a promise of fidelity to the commonwealth without king or
house of lords. As long as it was confined to those who held office under
the government, it remained a mere question of choice; but when it was
exacted from all Englishmen above seventeen years of age, under the penalty
of incapacity to maintain an action in any court of law, it became to
numbers a matter of necessity, and served rather to irritate than
to produce security.[2] A more efficient measure was the permanent
establishment of a high court of justice to inquire into offences against
the state, to which was added the organization of a system of espionage by
Captain Bishop, under the direction of Scot, a member of the council. The
friends of monarchy, encouraged by the clamour of the Levellers and the
professions of the Scots, had begun to hold meetings,
[Footnote 1: Journals, 1651, Dec.
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