even at this early period, Essex, Manchester,
and the Scottish commissioners suspected Cromwell with his friends of a
design to obtain the command of the army, to abolish the House of Lords,
divide the House of Commons, dissolve the covenant between the two nations,
and erect a new government according to his own principles. To defeat this
project it was at first proposed that the chancellor of Scotland should
denounce him as an incendiary, and demand his punishment according to the
late treaty; but, on the reply of the

[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 732. Journals, Nov. 22, 23, 25. Lords' Journals,
vii. 67, 78, 80, 141. Whitelock, 116.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Nov. 25.]

lawyers whom they consulted, that their proofs were insufficient to sustain
the charge, it was resolved that Manchester should accuse him before the
Lords of having expressed a wish to reduce the peers to the state of
private gentlemen; of having declared his readiness to fight against the
Scots, whose chief object was to establish religious despotism; and of
having threatened to compel, with the aid of the Independents, both king
and parliament to accept such conditions as he should dictate.[a]This
charge, with a written statement by Manchester in his own vindication, was
communicated to the Commons; and they, after some objections in point of
form and privilege, referred it to a committee, where its consideration
was postponed from time to time, till at last it was permitted to sleep in
silence.[1]

Cromwell did not hesitate to wreak his revenge on Essex and Manchester,
though the blow would probably recoil upon himself.[b]He proposed in the
Commons what was afterwards called the "self-denying ordinance," that the
members of both houses should be excluded from all offices, whether civil
or military. He would not, he said, reflect on what was passed, but suggest
a remedy for the future. The nation was weary of the war; and he spoke
the language both of friends and foes, when he said that the blame of its
continuance rested with the two houses, who could not be expected to bring
it to a speedy termination as long as so many of their members derived from
military commands wealth and authority, and consideration. His real object
was open to every eye; still the motion met with the concurrence of his own
party,

[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 76, 77. Journals, Dec. 2, 4; Jan. 18. Lords'
Journals, 79, 80. Whitelock, 116, 117. Hollis, 18.]

[Sidenote a: A.D.