ent instructions to the general, ordered all members
of parliament holding commands to repair to the army, and issued a
declaration,[a] in which, after a promise to take no notice of what was
past, they admonished the subscribers that to persist in their illegal
course would subject them to punishment "as enemies to the state and
disturbers of the public peace."[1]

The framers of this declaration knew little of the temper of the military.
They sought to prevail by intimidation, and they only inflamed the general
discontent. Was it to be borne, the soldiers asked each other, that the
city of London and the county of Essex should be allowed to petition
against the army,

[Footnote 1: Journals, ix. 66, 72, 82, 89, 95, 112-115. Commons', v. March
11, 25, 26, 27, 29.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647 March 29.]

and that they, who had fought, and bled, and conquered in the cause of
their country, should be forbidden either to state their grievances or
to vindicate their characters? Hitherto the army had been guided, in
appearance at least, by the council of officers; now, whether it was a
contrivance of the officers themselves to shift the odium to the whole body
of the military, or was suggested by the common men, who began to distrust
the integrity of their commanders, two deliberating bodies, in imitation
of the houses at Westminster, were formed; one consisting of the officers
holding commissions, the other of two representatives from every troop and
company, calling themselves adjutators or helpers; a name which, by
the ingenuity of their enemies, was changed into that of agitators or
disturbers.[1] Guided by their resolves, the whole army seemed to be
animated with one soul; scarcely a man could be tempted to desert the
common cause by accepting of the service in Ireland; each corps added
supernumeraries to its original complement;[2] and language was held,
and projects were suggested, most alarming to the Presbyterian party.
Confident, however, in their own power, the majority in the house[a]

[Footnote 1: Hobbes, Behemoth, 587. Berkeley, 359. This, however, was not
the first appearance of the agitators. "The first time," says Fairfax, "I
took notice of them was at Nottingham (end of February), by the soldiers
meeting to frame a petition to the parliament about their arrears. The
thing seemed just; but not liking the way, I spoke with some officers
who were principally engaged in it, and got it suppressed for that
time."