A Speech by Cromwell

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 18, 11 August 1891, Page 4

A Speech by Cromwell

The following is Cromwell's speech | on dissolving the Long Parliament t — "It is h\-\\ time for me toijput an end' to your sittings m this House, - wbich you havo dishonored by your contempt of all virtue,. and denied by your.practice of every vice. Ye are a .factious crew and enemies to all good government. Ye are a pack \ of] mercenary wretches, and would, like Esau, sell your couutryvfor a mess of postage, aud like Judas, betray your God for a lew pieces of money. Is there a single virtue now remaining among you ? Is there one vice you do not possess V You have uo more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of have not bartered away your consciences for bribes ? Is there a man among you who would haye the least care for the good of the Common-wealth ? Ye sordid prostitutes! . .have ye not defiled this sacred place and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves? By your' immoral principles and wicked practices ye are ■. grown intolerable, odious to the whole of the nation. Ye' who were deputed here by the people to get their grievances repressed, are yourselves become their greatest grievance. Your country, therefore, calls upon rae to clear this Augean stable by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings ih»;this~ House, and which by God's help and- the strength, he has given me, I am now come to do. I command you, therefore, upon the peril •of your lives, to depart immediately outof this place Go, get you out ! Make haste 1 Ye vassal slaves begone! Go! Take away that shining there, and look up the door!"