The Works of Thomas Carlyle/Volume 6/Letter 20

by Thomas Carlyle

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LETTER XX

About the end of next month, February 1644, the Lieutenant-General, we find, has been in Gloucester, successfully convoying Ammunition thither; and has taken various strong-houses by the road,—among others, Hilsden-House in Buckinghamshire, with important gentlemen, and many prisoners; which latter, ‘Walloons, French, and other outlandish men,’ appear in Cambridge streets in a very thirsty condition; and are, in spite of danger, refreshed according to ability by the loyal Scholars, and especially by ‘Mrs Cumber’s maid,’ with a temporary glass of beer.^[1] In this expedition there had gone with Cromwell a certain Major-General Crawford, whom he has left behind in the Hilsden neighbourhood; to whom there is a Letter, here first producible to modern readers, and connected therewith a tale otherwise known.

Letter Twentieth, which exists as a Copy, on old dim paper, in the Kimbolton Archives, addressed on the back of the sheet, with all reverence, To the Earl of Manchester, and forms a very opaque puzzle in that condition,—turns out, after due study, to have been a Copy by that Crawford of a Letter addressed to himself: Copy hastily written off, along with other hasty confused sheets still extant beside it, for the Earl of Manchester’s use, on a certain Parliamentary occasion, which will by and by concern us too for a moment.

A ‘Lieutenant-Colonel,’ Packer I dimly apprehend is the name of him, has on this Hilsden-and-Gloucester expedition given offence to Major-General Crawford; who again, in a somewhat prompt way, has had Packer laid under arrest, under suspension at Cambridge; in which state Packer still painfully continues. And may, seemingly, continue: for here has my Lord of Manchester just come down with a Parliamentary Commission ‘to reform the University,’ a thing of immense noise and moment, and ‘is employed in regard of many occasions’; is, in fact, precisely in these hours,^[2] issuing his Summonses to the Heads of Houses; and cannot spare an instant for Packer and his pleadings. Crawford is still in Buckinghamshire; nevertheless the shortest way for Packer will be to go to Crawford, and take this admonitory Letter from his superior in command

“TO MAJOR-GENERAL CRAWFORD: THESE”

Cambridge, 10th March “1643.”^[3]

Sir,—The complaints you preferred to my Lord against your Lieutenant-Colonel, both by Mr. Lee and your own Letters, have occasioned his stay here:—my Lord being “so” employed in regard of many occasions which are upon him, that he hath not been at leisure to hear him make his defence: which, in pure justice, ought to be granted him or any man before a judgment be passed upon him.

During his abode here and absence from you, he hath acquainted me what a grief it is to him to be absent from his charge, especially now the regiment is called forth to action: and therefore, asking of me my opinion, I advised him speedily to repair unto you. Surely you are not well advised thus to turn-off one so faithful to the Cause, and so able to serve you as this man is. Give me leave to tell you, I cannot be of your judgment; “cannot understand,” if a man notorious for wickedness, for oaths, for drinking, hath as great a share in your affection as one who fears an oath, who fears to sin,—that this doth commend your election of men to serve as fit instruments in this work!—

Ay, but the man ‘is an Anabaptist.’ Are you sure of that? Admit he be, shall that render him incapable to serve the Public? ‘He is indiscreet.’ It may be so, in some things: we have all human infirmities. I tell you, if you had none but such ‘indiscreet men’ about you, and would be pleased to use them kindly, you would find as good a fence to you as any you have yet chosen.

Sir, the State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it,—that satisfies. I advised you formerly to bear with men of different minds from yourself: if you had done it when I advised you to it, I think you would not have had so many stumblingblocks in your way. It may be you judge otherwise; but I tell you my mind.—I desire you would receive this man into your favour and good opinion. I believe, if he follow my counsel, he will deserve no other but respect from you. Take heed of being sharp, or too easily sharpened by others, against those to whom you can object little but that they square not with you in every opinion concerning matters of religion. If there be any other offence to be charged upon him,—that must in a judicial way receive determination. I know you will not think it fit my Lord should discharge an Officer of the Field but in a regulate way. I question whether you or I have any precedent for that.

I have not farther to trouble you:—but rest, your humble servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.^[4]

Adjoined to this Letter, as it now lies,—in its old repository at Kimbolton, copied and addressed in the enigmatic way above mentioned,—there is, written in a Clerk’s hand, but corrected in the hand which copied the Letter, a confused loud-spoken recriminatory Narrative, of some length, about the Second Battle of Newbury; touching also, in a loud confused way, on the case of Packer and others:—evidently the raw-material of the Earl’s Speech in defence of himself,^[5] in the time of the Self-denying Ordinance; of which the reader will hear by and by. Assiduous Crawford had provided the Earl with these helps to prove Cromwell an insubordinate person, and what was equally terrible, a favourer of Anabaptists. Of the Letter, Crawford, against whom also there lay accusations, retains the Original; but furnishes this Copy;—of which, unexpectedly, we too have now obtained a reading.

This sharp Letter may be fancied to procure the Lieutenant-Colonel’s reinstatement; who, we have some intimation, does march with his regiment again, in hopes to take the Western Towns of Lincolnshire. Indeed Lieutenant-Colonel Packer, if this were verily Packer as he seems to be, became a distinguished Colonel afterwards, and gave Oliver himself some trouble with his Anabaptistries.^[6] In the Letter itself, still more in the confused Papers adjoined to it, of Major-General Crawford’s writing, there is evidence enough of smouldering fire-elements in my Lord’s Eastern-Association Army! The Lieutenant-General Cromwell, one perceives, is justly suspected of a lenity for Sectaries, Independents, Anabaptists themselves, provided they be ‘men that fear God,’ as he phrases it. Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburn (Freeborn John), Lieutenant-Colonel Fleetwood risen from Captaincy now: these and others, in the Crawford Documents, come painfully to view in this Lincolnshire campaign and afterwards; with discontents, with ‘Petitions,’ and one knows not what; all tending to Sectarian courses, all countenanced by the Lieutenant-General.^[7] Most distasteful to Scotch Crawford, to my Lord of Manchester, not to say criminal and unforgivable to the respectable Presbyterian mind.

Reverend Mr. Baillie is now up in Town again with the Scotch Commissioners,—for there is again a Scotch Commission here, now that their Army has joined us: Reverend Mr. Baillie, taking good note of things, has this pertinent passage some six months hence · ‘The Earl of Manchester, a sweet meek man, did formerly permit Lieutenant-General Cromwell to guide all the Army at his pleasure: the man Cromwell is a very wise and active head’—yes, Mr. Robert!—‘universally well beloved as religious and stout; but a known Independent or favourer of Sects,’—the issues of which might have been frightful! ‘But now our countryman Crawford has got a great hand with Manchester, stands high with all that are against Sects;’ which is a blessed change indeed,^[8]—and may partly explain this Letter and some other things to us!

Of Major-General Crawford, who was once a loud-sounding well-known man, but whose chance for being remembered much longer will mainly ground itself on a Letter he copied with very different views, let us say here what little needs to be said. He is Scotch; of the Crawfords of Jordan-Hill, in Renfrewshire; has seen service in the German Wars, and is deeply conscious of it;—paints himself to us as a headlong audacious fighter, of loose loud tongue, much of a pedant and braggart, somewhat given to sycophancy too. Whose history may sum itself up practically in this one fact, That he helped Cromwell and the Earl of Manchester to quarrel; and his character in this other, That he knew Lieutenant-General Cromwell to be a coward. This he, Crawford, knew; had seen it; was wont to assert it, and could prove it. Nay once, in subsequent angry months, talking to the Honourable Denzil Holles in Westminster Hall, he asserted it within earshot of Cromwell himself; ‘who was passing into the House, and I am very sure did hear it, as intended’;—who, however, heard it as if it had been no affair of his at all; and quietly walked on, as if his affairs lay elsewhere than there!^[9] From which I too, the knowing Denzil, drew my inferences,—ignominious to the human character!—Poor Crawford, after figuring much among the Scotch Committee-men and Presbyterian Grandees for a time, joined or rejoined the Scotch Army under Lesley; and fell at the Siege of Hereford in 1645, fighting gallantly I doubt not, and was quiet thenceforth.^[10]

 

In these same weeks there is going on a very famous Treaty once more, ‘Treaty of Uxbridge’: with immense apparatus of King’s Commissioners and Parliament and Scotch Commissioners;^[11] of which, however, as it came to nothing, there need nothing here be said. Mr. Christopher Love, a young eloquent divine, of hot Welsh blood, of Presbyterian tendency, preaching by appointment in the place, said, He saw no prospect of an agreement, he for one; ‘Heaven might as well think of agreeing with Hell’;^[12] words which were remembered against Mr. Christopher. The King will have nothing to do with Presbyterianism, will not stir a step without his Surplices at Allhallowtide; there remains only War; a supreme managing ‘Committee of Both Kingdoms’; combined forces, and war. On the other hand, his Majesty, to counterbalance the Scots, had agreed to a ‘Cessation in Ireland,’ sent for his ‘Irish Army’ to assist him here,—and indeed already got them as good as ruined, or reduced to a mere marauding apparatus.^[13] A new ‘Papist’ or partly ‘Papist Army,’ which gave great scandal in this country. By much the remarkablest man in it was Colonel George Monk; already captured at Nantwich, and lodged in the Tower.

 

But now the Western Towns of Lincolnshire are all taken; Manchester with Cromwell and Fairfax are across the Humber, joined with the Scots besieging York, where Major-General Crawford again distinguishes himself;^[14]—and we are now at Marston Moor.

1. Querela (in Cooper’s Annals, iii. 370); Cromwelliana, p. 8 (5th March 1643).
2. 11th March (Cooper, iii. 371; details in Neal, ii. 79-89).
3. In Appendix, No, 6 (infrà, vol. iv.): Letter from Oliver, notably busy, and not yet got to Cambridge.
4. Communicated, with much politeness, by the Duke of Manchester, from Family Papers at Kimbolton
5. Rushworth, v. 733-6.
6. Ludlow (London, 1721), ii. 599.
7. MS. by Crawford at Kimbolton.
8. Baillie, ii. 229 (16th Sept. 1644).
9. Holles’s Memoirs: in Maseres’s Select Tracts (London, 1815), i. 199.
10. Wood’s Athenæ (Life, p. 8); Baillie, ii. 235 and sæpius (correct ib. ii. p. 218 n. and Godwin, i. 380); Holles; Scotch Peerages; etc., etc.
11. 29th Jan.—5th March, Rushworth, v. 844-946; Whitlocke, p. 122-3.
12. Wood, iii. 281. Commons Journals, etc.
13. Rushworth, v. 547 (Cessation, 15th September 1643); v. 299-303 (Siege of Nantwich, and ruin of the Irish Army, 21st November).
14. Fires a mine without orders; Storms-in, hoping to take the City himself; and is disastrously repulsed (Rushworth, v. 631; Baillie, ii. 200).