King say, it might have been better for the King to have had his hands a
little bound for the present, than be forced to bring such a crew of poor
people about him, and be liable to satisfy the demands of every one of
them. He told me that to his knowledge (being present at every meeting at
the Treaty at the Isle of Wight), that the old King did confess himself
overruled and convinced in his judgement against the Bishopps, and would
have suffered and did agree to exclude the service out of the churches,
nay his own chappell; and that he did always say, that this he did not by
force, for that he would never abate one inch by any vyolence; but what he
did was out of his reason and judgement. He tells me that the King by
name, with all his dignities, is prayed for by them that they call
Fanatiques, as heartily and powerfully as in any of the other churches
that are thought better: and that, let the King think what he will, it is
them that must helpe him in the day of warr. For as they are the most, so
generally they are the most substantial sort of people, and the soberest;
and did desire me to observe it to my Lord Sandwich, among other things,
that of all the old army now you cannot see a man begging about the
street; but what? You shall have this captain turned a shoemaker; the
lieutenant, a baker; this a brewer; that a haberdasher; this common
soldier, a porter; and every man in his apron and frock, &c., as if they
never had done anything else: whereas the others go with their belts and
swords, swearing and cursing, and stealing; running into people's houses,
by force oftentimes, to carry away something; and this is the difference
between the temper of one and the other; and concludes (and I think with
some reason,) that the spirits of the old parliament soldiers are so
quiett and contented with God's providences, that the King is safer from
any evil meant him by them one thousand times more than from his own
discontented Cavalier. And then to the publique management of business:
it is done, as he observes, so loosely and so carelessly, that the kingdom
can never be happy with it, every man looking after himself, and his owne