tion, could not conform
their speech and countenance to the present necessity, or pretend
attachment to a form of government which they generally regarded with
such violent abhorrence. It was requisite to change the magistracy of
London, and to degrade, as well as punish, the mayor and some of the
aldermen, before the proclamation for the abolition of monarchy could
be published in the city. An engagement being framed to support the
commonwealth without king or house of peers, the army was with some
difficulty brought to subscribe it; but though it was imposed upon the
rest of the nation under severe penalties, no less than putting all
who refused out of the protection of law, such obstinate reluctance was
observed in the people, that even the imperious parliament was obliged
to desist from it. The spirit of fanaticism, by which that assembly had
at first been strongly supported, was now turned, in a great measure,
against them. The pulpits, being chiefly filled with Presbyterians
or disguised royalists, and having long been the scene of news and
politics, could by no penalties be restrained from declarations
unfavorable to the established government. Numberless were the
extravagancies which broke out among the people. Everard, a disbanded
soldier, having preached that the time was now come when the community
of goods would be renewed among Christians, led out his followers to
take possession of the land; and being carried before the general, he
refused to salute him, because he was but his fellow-creature.[*]
What seemed more dangerous, the army itself was infected with like
humors.[**] [21]

* Whitlocke.

** See note U, at the end of the volume.

Though the levellers had for a time been suppressed by the audacious
spirit of Cromwell, they still continued to propagate their doctrines
among the private men and inferior officers, who pretended a right to
be consulted, as before, in the administration of the commonwealth. They
now practised against their officers the same lesson which they had been
taught against the parliament. They framed a remonstrance, and sent five
agitators to present it to the general and council of war: these were
cashiered with ignominy by sentence of a court martial. One Lockier,
having carried his sedition further, was sentenced to death; but this
punishment was so far from quelling the mutinous spirit, that above a
thousand of his companions showed their adherence to him, by atten