ed to wait and have Monk's
advice, but they were overborne. On the 5th of October Desborough and
some others were in the House with a petition signed by 230 officers
then about London. It consisted of a long preamble and nine
proposals. The preamble complained generally of the
misrepresentation, by some, "to evil and sinister ends," of the
petition and proposals of the faithful officers of Lambert's brigade,
and avowed the continued fidelity of the Army officers to
Commonwealth principles, their repudiation of single-person
Government, and their desire to be at one with the Parliament. The
articles did not repeat the exact demands of the petition of the
Lambert brigade, but asked for an immediate settlement somehow of the
Commandership-in-chief, for justice in all ways to the Army, and
especially for a guarantee that no officer or soldier should be
cashiered "without a due proceeding at a court-martial." The debate
on this Petition was begun on the 8th of October. The House was still
in a most resolute mood. They had received assurances from Monk of
his decided sympathies with them rather than with the
Wallingford-House Council, and they believed still in the
disinclination of many of the officers in England to follow Lambert
and Desborough to extremities. Accordingly, taking up the proposals
of the Petition one by one, they formulated answers to the first and
second on Oct. 10, and answers to the next three on the 11th, all in
a strain of high Parliamentary authority. At this point, however, the
House interrupted its consideration of the Petition to hurry through
a Bill of very vital consequence at such a juncture. It was a Bill
annulling, from and after May 7, 1659, all Acts, Orders, or
Ordinances passed by any Single Person and His Council, or by any
pretended Parliament or other pretended authority between the 19th of
April 1653 (the day before Cromwell's dissolution of the Rump) and
the 7th of May 1659 (the day of the Restoration of the Rump), except
in so far as these had been confirmed by the present Parliament, and
farther declaring it high treason for any person or persons, after
Oct. 11, 1659, to assess, levy, collect, or receive, any tax, impost,
or money contribution whatsoever, on or from the subjects of the
Commonwealth, without their consent in Parliament, or as by law might
have been done before Nov. 3, 1640. This comprehensive Act,
calculated to overawe the Army Magnates by debarring them from all
powe