passed off with a laugh, was wanting in
fulfilment, for he lived to witness the Restoration and to earn the
universal hatred of his countrymen.

(M540)

On Friday, the 12th September, Cromwell himself reached London, being
brought on his way by the Speaker, the Lord President and many members of
parliament and Council of State, as well as by the lord mayor, sheriffs
and aldermen of the city, amid shoutings and vollies of ordnance and
muskets. The modesty and affability of the Lord General was much marked.
Of the part he had himself taken in the battle of Worcester he seldom made
mention, but of the gallantry of the officers and soldiers he was full of
praise, "and gave (as was due) all the glory of the action unto God." On
the 16th he and his companions in arms received the thanks of the House,
and were afterwards entertained by the City.(1062) Cromwell's sword was
now sheathed never to be drawn by him again; the rest of his life was
devoted to work requiring weapons of a different kind.

CHAPTER XXVII.

(M541)

The attempt made to cripple the carrying trade of the Dutch by the passing
of the Navigation Act (Oct., 1651) found little favour with the merchants
of the city. What they of all things desired to see was free trade in the
port of London; and to this end they presented a petition to the Council
for Trade, and appointed (9 Dec.) a committee to maintain it "with the
best reasons they could."(1063)

(M542)

This Act failed in its purpose, and only led to retaliation and war. In
the spring of the following year (1652) the fleet was got ready to put to
sea. On the 26th March the Council of State wrote to the mayor and
aldermen and Militia Committee of the city(1064) asking that certain brass
guns laid up at Gresham College and other places in the city should be
forthwith delivered to the ordnance officer, as the guns formerly used in
the fleet during the late wars had been dispersed among various garrisons.
By way of postscript--as if an afterthought--the council added: "As there is
a pretension of right made to such guns on behalf of the city we shall be
ready to receive and consider any claim which they shall make to them; and
if it appear that they belong to the city we will take care, after the
service is past to which they are designed, that they are either restored
or satisfaction made according to their value." In May it was found that
the store of gunpowder in the Tower was likely to run