For some days following the battle of Worcester the streets of the city were filled with Scottish prisoners of every degree passing on their way to the Tower or to the new artillery ground at Tothill[pg 342] Fields. Among those conveyed to the Tower were the Earls of Cleveland and Lauderdale. As they passed along Cornhill in their coaches, with a guard of horse, the Earl of Lauderdale was addressed by a by-stander—"Oh, my lord, you are welcome to London! I protest, off goes your head as round as a hoop!"[1061] The ill-timed jest, which the earl 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.
Cromwell's reception in London on his return from Worcester, 12 Sept., 1651.
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.
The Navigation Act, 1651.
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]
The war with Holland, 1652-1653.
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[pg 344] 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 short owing to a breach of contract, and again application for assistance was made to the City, who were asked to lend such gunpowder as lay in the Companies' halls.[1065] In March of the following year (1653) the request for guns in the City's magazines to be delivered to the ordnance officers for the public service was repeated,[1066] and by November they were all in the custody of the lieutenant of the Tower.[1067] By that time a victory had been gained over the Dutch admirals Tromp and De Ruyter off Portland (18 Feb., 1653) by Blake and Monk, the latter having for a time exchanged land service for the sea. This success was the more welcome inasmuch as Blake had previously suffered a signal defeat (28 Nov., 1652) at the hands of the Dutch admirals and had himself been wounded. Moreover Tromp had been so elated at his victory that in bravado he had fixed a broom to his masthead, in token of his resolution to sweep the sea of English vessels.