The Works of Thomas Carlyle/Volume 6/Letter 47
FOR HIS EXCELLENCY SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX: THESE
Sir,—The case concerning Captain Middleton hears[1] ill; inasmuch as it is delayed, upon pretences, from coming to a trial. It is not, I humbly conceive, fit that it should stay any longer. The Soldiers complain thereof, and their witnesses have been examined. Captain Middleton, and some others for him, have made stay thereof hitherto.
I beseech your Excellency to give order it may be tried on Friday, or Saturday at farthest, if you please; and that so much may be signified to the Advocate.
Sir I pray excuse my not-attendance upon you. I feared “to” miss the House a day, where it’s very necessary for me to be. I hope your Excellency will be at the Head-quarter tomorrow, where, if God be pleased, I shall wait upon you. I rest, your Excellency’s most humble servant,
Captain Middleton and his case have vanished completely out of the records; whether it was tried on Saturday, and how decided, will never now be known. Doubtless Fairfax ‘signified’ somewhat to the Advocate about it, but let us not ask what. ‘The Advocate’ is called ‘John Mills, Esquire, Judge-Advocate’;[3] whose military Law-labours have mostly become silent now. The former Advocate was Dr. Dorislaus; of whom also a word. Dr. Dorislaus, by birth Dutch; appointed Judge-Advocate at the beginning of Essex’s campaignings; known afterwards on the King’s Trial; and finally, for that latter service, assassinated at the Hague, one evening, by certain high-flying Royalist cut-throats, Scotch several of them. The Portraits represent him as a man of heavy, deep-wrinkled, elephantine countenance, pressed down with the labours of life and law; the good ugly man here found his guietus.
The business in the House, ‘where it’s necessary for me to be’ without miss of a sitting, is really important, or at least critical, in these October days: Settlement of Army arrears, duties and arrangements; Tonnage and Poundage; business of the London Violence upon the Parliament (pardoned for the most part); business of Lieutenant-Colonel John Lilburn, now growing very noisy;—above all things, final Settlement with the King, if that by any method could be possible. The Army-Parliament too still sits; ‘Council of War’ with its Adjutators meeting frequently at Putney.[4] In the House, and out of the House, Lieutenant-General Cromwell is busy enough.
This very day, ‘Wednesday 13th October 1647,’ we find him deep in debate ‘On the farther establishment of the Presbyterial Government’ (for the law is still loose, the Platform, except in London, never fairly on foot); and Teller on no fewer than three divisions. First, Shall the Presbyterian Government be limited to three years? Cromwell answers Yea, in a House of 73; is beaten by a majority of 3. Second, Shall there be a limit of time to it? Cromwell again answers Yea; beats, this time, by a majority of 14, in a House now of 74 (some individual having dropt in). Third, Shall the limit be seven years? Cromwell answers Yea; and in a House still of 74 is beaten by 8. It is finally got settled that the limit of time shall be ‘to the end of the next Session of Parliament after the end of this present Session,’—a, very vague Period, ‘this present session’ having itself already proved rather long! Note, too, this is not yet a Law; it is only a Proposal to be made to the King, if his Majesty will concur, which seems doubtful. Debating enough!—Saturday last there was a call of the House, and great quantities of absent Members; ‘ægrotantes,’ fallen ill, a good many of them,—sickness being somewhat prevalent in those days of waiting upon Providence.[5]