n their choice; and the armament of Hamilton's party, though
seconded by all the civil power, went on but slowly. The royalists he
would not as yet allow to join him, lest he might give offence to
the ecclesiastical party; though he secretly promised them trust and
preferment as soon as his army should advance into England.

While the Scots were making preparations for the invasion of England,
every part of that kingdom was agitated with tumults, insurrections,
conspiracies, discontents. It is seldom that the people gain any thing
by revolutions in government; because the new settlement, jealous and
insecure, must commonly be supported with more expense and severity than
the old: but on no occasion was the truth of this maxim more sensibly
felt, than in the present situation of England. Complaints against the
oppression of ship money, against the tyranny of the star chamber, had
roused the people to arms: and having gained a complete victory over
the crown, they found themselves loaded with a multiplicity of taxes,
formerly unknown; and scarcely an appearance of law and liberty remained
in the administration. The Presbyterians, who had chiefly supported the
war, were enraged to find the prize, just when it seemed within their
reach, snatched by violence from them. The royalists, disappointed in
their expectations by the cruel treatment which the king now received
from the army, were strongly animated to restore him to liberty, and to
recover the advantages which they had unfortunately lost. All orders of
men were inflamed with indignation at seeing the military prevail over
the civil power, and king and parliament at once reduced to subjection
by a mercenary army. Many persons of family and distinction had, from
the beginning of the war, adhered to the parliament: but all these were,
by the new party, deprived of authority; and every office was intrusted
to the most ignoble part of the nation. A base populace, exalted above
their superiors; hypocrites, exercising iniquity under the visor of
religion: these circumstances promised not much liberty or lenity to the
people; and these were now found united in the same usurped and illegal
administration.

Though the whole nation seemed to combine in their hatred of military
tyranny, the ends which the several parties pursued were so different,
that little concert was observed in their insurrections. Langhorne,
Poyer, and Powel, Presbyterian officers, who commanded bodies of