ranks, ages, and sexes, willingly offered themselves to work; and by digging and carrying earth and other materials, they scon completed their barricadoes and fortifi cations. The royalists, called Cavaliers, looking upon them with an air of contempt, made a ballad upon them and their seasonable industry, in the opprobrious stile, "Round headed cuckolds come dig*."

The next step taken by the citizens was an order of com mon council to fortify London by outworks at certain places. It was also enacted by the same common council, "That all the passages and ways leading to the city should be shut up, except those entering at Charing Cross, St. Giles's in the Fields, St. John's Street, Shoreditch, and Whitechapel; and that the exterior ends of the said streets should be fortified with breast works and turnpikes, musket proof; that the several courts of guard, and rails at the extreme parts of the liberty of the city, be fortified with turnpikes, musket proof; that all the sheds and buildings contiguous to London Wall Without, be taken down ; and that the city wall, with its bulwarks, be not only repaired and mounted with artillery; but likewise divers new works be added to the same at places most exposed. For the performance whereof the said common council imposed eight whole fifteenths upon the several wards of the city. All which was confirmed by an ordinance of parliament; and in pursuance thereof the works was begun immediately, and carried on with such expedition, that in a very short time the whole compass of London, Westminster, and Southwark, was inclosed by an earthen rampart wall, strengthened with forts, bastions, redoubts, &c."

The fervour of fanaticism kept pace with treason, and to evince what effect it produced, on the 27th of April 1642, the common council ordered the city members to apply to parliament for leave to demolish the cross in Cheapside,

* The first application of this name to the anti-courtiers was by Captain Hide, who, by way of contempt, called the London appren. tices Round Heads, alluding to their hair being cut close and round to the shape of their heads.

and

and the superstitious figures thereon. Thus was one of the most elegant antient structures which had ornamented the city, sacrificed to the rancour of a selfish, lawless class of beings, who, when the regular government was destroyed, soon felt the rigour with which their new rulers maintained their authority.

The deluded Charles, on the other hand, not finding it practicable to regain the friendship and confidence of those whom he had so wantonly offended, and that they were more strongly attached to the parliament his enemies, issued a proclamation next year to forbid all commerce with London. Such also, was the spirit of faction at this time, that the common council on the 18th of July 1643, the day after the date of the said proclamation, made an act for raising the sum of 50,000l. by way of loan, on the security of the city seal, to be employed in defence of the city, and passed an order at the same time, to move the parliament for an ordinance to compel all monied men within the bills of mortality to advance money on this occasion, according to their respective abilities; and upon a rumour that the parliament were disposed to accommodate matters with the king, the lord mayor, Sir Isaac Pennington, called a common council; they presented a petition to the house of commons, in the strongest terms, against an accommodation; his lordship, who delivered it on the 7th of August, was attended by such a vast concourse of citizens, that many of the members withdrew from the house with fear; and though such as continued and received the petition approved its contents, and rejected the proposition for peace with the king, they recommended the lord mayor to obviate such riotous proceedings for the future.

The ill-fated monarch, at length urged on the destruction which awaited him, and effectually broke with the city, by prohibiting trade, commerce, and all communication. Unwilling however that reconciliation should be hopeless, some well disposed patriots contrived to bring about a treaty of reconciliation, and prevailed on the king to write a letter for that purpose, directed to the lord mayor, aldermen,

aldermen, and all other well affected subjects of the city, with an expectation of having it read and approved of in a common hall, to be called for that purpose by the contrivance of Sir Basil Brook, and others. But the matter being disclosed to the parliament, Sir Basil, &c. were secured, the king's letter seized upon them, and a committee of eight lords and sixteen commoners attending the common hall, the Earl of Northumberland spoke so effectually against an accommodation, that an end was put to all hopes of reconciliation. The city forces consequently joined with the parliament, and behaved with great bravery against the royalists, during the next campaign; and the parlia ment from this time looked upon the citizens of London as the soul of their cause: for had it not been for the powerful assistance of the Londoners, both with their persons and purses, the parliament could never have been in a condition to oppose the king in the field.

The royal party, on the other hand, took the only way they thought to distress the citizens, which was to prevent its trade by water, and deprive it of coals. The western navigation was therefore almost totally interrupted by the garrisons of Greenland and Basing House; which, however, were attacked and obliged to retire, by a body of city forces, under the command of Colonel Brown. The Marquis of Newcastle, then in possession of the coal trade in the river Tyne, having prohibited the loading of coals for London; the parliament instantly issued an ordinance for supplying the metropolis with turf and peat, and granted power to the lord mayor, &c. "to nominate and appoint persons to enter into and get and dig any quantity of turf and peat in and upon any ground except orchards, gardens, and walks, to be sold at easy rates."

The anarchy in the political, had brought in also the like confusion in the ecclesiastical, state, which induced the city clergy to petition for redress of their religious grievances, in which they gave a most dismal picture of the church. "The orthodox ministry, said the petitioners, is neglected, the people seduced, congregations torn asunder, families VOL. I. No. 8. distracted,

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