The Works of Thomas Carlyle/Volume 6/Letter 82
Jenner Member for Cricklade, and Ashe Member for Westbury; these two, sitting I think in the Delinquents’ Committee at Goldsmiths’ Hall,—seem inclined for a milder course. Wherein the Lieutenant-General does by no means agree with the said Jenner and Ashe; having had a somewhat closer experience of the matter than they!
‘Colonel Owen’ is a Welsh Delinquent; I find he is a Sir John Owen,—the same Sir John who seized my Lord Archbishop’s Castle of Conway, in that violent manner long since.[1] A violent man, now got into trouble enough; of whom there arises life-and-death question by and by. ‘The Governor of Nottingham’ is Colonel Hutchinson, whom we know. Sir Marmaduke Langdale we also know,—and ‘presume you have heard what is become of him?’ Sir Marmaduke, it was rigorously voted on the 6th of this month, is one of the ‘Seven that shall be excepted from pardon’; whom the King himself, if he bargain with us, shall never forgive.[2] He escaped afterwards from Nottingham Castle, by industry of his own.
TO THE HONOURABLE MY HONOURED FRIENDS ROBERT JENNER AND JOHN ASHE, ESQUIRES, “AT LONDON”: THESE
Gentlemen,—I received an Order from the Governor of Nottingham, directed to him from you, To bring up Colonel Owen, or take bail for his coming up to make his composition, he having made an humble Petition to the Parliament for the same.
If I be not mistaken, the House of Commons did vote all those “persons” Traitors that did adhere to, or bring: in, the Scots in their late Invading of this Kingdom under Duke Hamilton. And not without very clear justice; this being a more prodigious Treason than any that had been perfected before; because the former quarrel was that Englishmen might rule over one another; this to vassalise us to a foreign Nation. And their fault who have appeared in this Summer’s business is certainly double to theirs who were in the first, because it is the repetition of the same offence against all the witnesses that God has borne,[3] by making and abetting a Second War.
And if this be their justice[4], and upon so good grounds, I wonder how it comes to pass that so eminent actors should so easily be received to compound. You will pardon me if I tell you how contrary this is to some of your judgments at the rendition of Oxford: though we had the Town in consideration,[5] and “our” blood saved to boot; yet Two Years perhaps was thought too little to expiate their offence.[6] But now, when you have such men in your hands, and it will cost you nothing to do justice; now after all this trouble and the hazard of a Second War,—for a little more money[7] all offences shall be pardoned!
This Gentleman was taken with Sir Marmaduke Langdale, in their flight together:—I presume you have heard what is become of him. Let me remember you, that out of the “same” Garrison was fetched not long since (I believe while we were in heat of action) Colonel Humphrey Mathews, than whom this Cause we have fought for has not had a more dangerous enemy;—and he not guilty only of being an enemy, but he apostatised from your Cause and Quarrel; having been a Colonel, if not more, under you, and “then” the desperatest promoter of the Welsh Rebellion amongst them all! And how near you were brought to ruin thereby, all men that know anything can tell;[8] and this man was taken away by composition, by what order I know not.
Gentlemen, though my sense does appear more severe than perhaps you would have it, yet give me leave to tell you I find a sense among the Officers concerning such things as “the treatment of” those men, to amazement;—which truly is not so much to see their blood made so cheap, as to see such manifest witnessings of God, so terrible and so just, no more reverenced.
I have directed the Governor to acquaint the Lord-General herewith; and rest, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant,
Here is a sour morsel for Jenner and Ashe; different from what they were expecting! It is to be hoped they will digest this piece of admonition, and come forth on the morrow two sadder and two wiser men. For Colonel Owen, at all events, there is clearly no outlook, at present, but sitting reflective in the strong-room of Nottingham Castle, whither his bad Genius has led him. May escape beheading on this occasion; but very narrowly. He ‘was taken with Sir Marmaduke in their flight together’: one of the confused Welshmen discomfited in June and July last, who had fled to join Hamilton, and be worse discomfited a second time. The House some days ago had voted that ‘Sir John Owen,‘ our ‘Colonel Owen,‘ should get off with ‘banishment’; likewise that Lord Capel, the Earl of Holland, and other capital Delinquents should be ‘banished;‘ and even that James Earl of Cambridge (James Duke of Hamilton) should be ‘fined 100,000l.‘ Such votes are not unlikely to produce ‘a sense amongst the Officers,‘ who had to grapple with these men, as with devouring dragons lately, life to life. Such votes—will need to be rescinded.[10] Such, and some others! For indeed the Presbyterian Party has rallied in the House during the late high blaze of Royalism; and got a Treaty set on foot as we saw, and even got the Eleven brought back again.—
Jenner and Ashe are old stagers, having entered Parliament at the beginning. They are frequently seen in public business; assiduous subalterns. Ashe sat afterwards in Oliver’s Parliaments.[11] Of this Ashe I will remember another thing: once, some years ago, when the House was about thanking some Monthly-fast Preacher, Ashe said pertinently, ‘What is the use of thanking a Preacher who spoke so low that nobody could hear him?‘[12]
Colonel Humphrey Mathews, we are glad to discover[13], was one of the persons taken in Pembroke Castle by Oliver himself in July last: brought along with him, on the march towards Preston, and left, as the other Welsh Prisoners were, at Nottingham;—out of which most just durance some pragmatical official, Ashe, Jenner, or another, ‘by what order I know not,’ has seen good to deliver him; him, ‘the desperatest promoter of the Welsh Rebellion amongst them all.’ Such is red-tape even in a Heroic Puritanic Age! No wonder ‘the Officers have a sense of it,’ amounting even ‘to amazement.’ Our blood that we have shed in the Quarrel, this you shall account as nothing, since you so please; but these ‘manifest witnessings of God, so terrible and so just,’—are they not witnessings of God, are they mere sports of chance? Ye wretched infidel red-tape mortals, what will or can become of you? By and by, if this course hold, it will appear that ‘you are no Parliament’; that you are a nameless unbelieving rabble, with the mere title of Parliament, who must go about your business elsewhither, with soldiers’ pikes in your rearward!—
This Lieutenant-General is not without temper, says Mr. Maidston: ‘temper exceeding fiery, as I have known; yet the flame of it kept down for most part, or soon allayed;—and naturally compassionate towards objects in distress, even to an effeminate measure. Though God had made him a heart wherein was left little room for any fear but what was due to God Himself, yet did he exceed in tenderness towards sufferers,[14]—yes, and in rigour against infidel quacks and godless detestable persons, which is the opposite phasis of that, he was by no means wanting!
- ↑ Antea, p. 283.
- ↑ Commons Journals, vi. 70.
- ↑ From Naseby downwards, God, in the battle-whirlwind, seemed to speak and witness very audibly.
- ↑ House of Commons’s.
- ↑ Town as some recompense.
- ↑ Sentence unintelligible to the careless reader, so hasty is it, and over-crowded with meaning in the original. ‘Give me leave to tell you that, if it were contrary to some of your judgments, that at the rendition of Oxford, though we had the Town in consideration, and blood saved to boot; yet Two years perhaps,’ etc.—Oxford was surrendered 20th-24th June 1646 (antea, p. 241); the Malignants found there were to have a composition, not exceeding Two-Years revenue for estates of inheritance (Rushworth, vi. 280-5),—which the victorious Presbyterian Party, belike Jenner and Ashe among the rest, had exclaimed against as too lenient a procedure. Very different now, when the new Malignants, though a doubly criminal set, are bone of their own bone!
- ↑ Goldsmiths’ Hall has a true feeling for Money; a dimmer one for Justice, it seems!
- ↑ Witness Chepstow, St. Fagan’s, Pembroke :—‘this man’ is Mathews.
- ↑ Sloane MSS, 15 19, fol. 94.
- ↑ Passed, 10th November 1648 (Commons Journals, vi. 3); repealed, 13th December (with a Declaration; Somers Tracts, v. 167).
- ↑ Parliamentary History, xxi. 3.
- ↑ D’Ewes MSS. p. 414.
- ↑ Cromwelliana, pp. 41, 42.
- ↑ Maidstone’s Letter to Winthrop (Thurloe, i, 766).