carried in this tumultuous procession; the roads
were strewed with flowers; and amidst the highest exultations of joy,
were intermingled loud and virulent invectives against the prelates,
who had so cruelly persecuted such godly personages.[*] The more ignoble
these men were, the more sensible was the insult upon royal authority,
and the more dangerous was the spirit of disaffection and mutiny which
it discovered among the people.

Lilburne, Leighton, and every one that had been punished for seditious
libels during the preceding administration, now recovered their liberty,
and were decreed damages from the judges and ministers of justice.[**]

Not only the present disposition of the nation insured impunity to all
libellers: a new method of framing and dispersing libels was invented by
the leaders of popular discontent. Petitions to parliament were drawn,
craving redress against particular grievances; and when a sufficient
number of subscriptions was procured, the petitions were presented to
the commons, and immediately published. These petitions became secret
bonds of association among the subscribers, and seemed to give undoubted
sanction and authority to the complaints which they contained.

It is pretended by historians favorable to the royal cause,[***] and is
even asserted by the king himself in a declaration,[****] that a most
disingenuous, or rather criminal, practice prevailed in conducting many
of these addresses. A petition was first framed; moderate, reasonable,
such as men of character willingly subscribed. The names were afterwards
torn off and affixed to another petition which served better the
purposes of the popular faction. We may judge of the wild fury which
prevailed throughout the nation, when so scandalous an imposture, which
affected such numbers of people, could be openly practised without
drawing infamy and ruin upon the managers.

* Clarendon, vol. i. p. 199, 200, etc. Nalson, vol. i. p.
570. May p. 80.

** Rushworth, vol. v. p 228. Nalson, vol. i. p. 800.

*** Dugdale. Clarendon, vol i. p. 203.

**** Husb. Col. p. 536.

So many grievances were offered, both by the members and by petitions
without doors, that the house was divided into above forty committees,
charged each of them with the examination of some particular violation
of law and liberty which had been complained of. Besides the general
committees of religion, trade, privileges, laws, many subdivisions