Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/157

 nised the necessity of professional assistance (ib. i. 492). He held regular councils of war, and one of his officers describes him as telling his assembled flag-officers, in a meeting held after Deane's death, that their joint advice should be as binding to him as an act of parliament (, p. 64).

These three great battles practically ended the Dutch war, though peace was not concluded till the following year. The parliament voted Monck a gold chain of the value of 300l., and a medal commemorating his victories (Commons' Journals, vii. 296; cf., i. 58). On 1 Oct. 1653 he received the formal thanks of the house on taking his seat there as one of the members for Devonshire (Commons' Journals, vii. 328).

During Monck's absence at sea Cromwell forcibly dissolved the Long parliament (20 April 1653). In the 'Declaration of the generals at sea, and captains under their command' (23 April 1653), Monck and his colleague Deane accepted the change, and replied simply that it was 'set upon their hearts' that they were called and entrusted by the nation to defend it against its enemies at sea, whether Dutchmen or others, and were resolved unanimously to prosecute that end (, Memoirs of General Deane, p. 618 ; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1652-3, p. 289). It is evident that Monck did not share the enthusiastic hopes with which many of his fellow-soldiers regarded this revolution. In 1659, when he was taunted with his acquiescence in 1653, he explained that 'the variety of times doth much vary the nature of affairs, and what might then patiently be submitted unto, we being engaged with a foreign enemy in a bloody war, cannot be drawn into a precedent at this time, after our repentance' (Letter to Vice-admiral Goodson, 4 Nov. 1659). According to Gumble, Cromwell did not venture to act till he had sounded Monck, and discovered that he had no concern for the Long parliament, nor any obligation to them (p. 73). But this is improbable, for Monck had hitherto taken no part at all in political matters.

In the spring of 1654 Monck again took the command of the army in Scotland. A royalist insurrection with which his successor, Robert Lilburne, was unable to cope had broken out in the preceding summer, and was at its height when Monck arrived (Monck's commission, dated 8 April 1654, is printed in, ii. 222). His first act was to issue a proclamation offering an amnesty to all persons who laid down their arms within twenty days, and promising a reward of 200l. for Middleton [see, first ], and four other leaders of the insurrection, dead or alive (4 May 1654, , ii. 261). As he received considerable reinforcements from England, and was assisted by an expedition from the north of Ireland, he was able to undertake a skilfully combined campaign in the highlands. His plan was to burn the corn, to destroy the strongholds of the enemy, and to establish garrisons at strategic points. SoLclosely were the royalists pressed that Middleton's army rapidly diminished, and on 19 July Colonel Morgan overtook him at Lochgarry (Mercurius Politicus, 27 July-3 Aug., and 10-17 Aug. 1654;, iii. 255). He followed up his victory by 'destroying,' as he terms it, 'those parts of the country where the enemy usually harboured in winter.' 'By this means,' he reported, 'and by the sending some of them to the Barbadoes, their spirits do begin to fail them ' (, ii. 526, 555). Before the summer ended the submission of the royalists made rapid progress. The Earl of Glencairn made terms on 29 Aug., Lord Kenmure on 14 Sept., and Middleton escaped to the continent about February 1655 (, Letters and Papers addressed to Cromwell, 1743, p. 130).

In December 1654 the success of Monck's work was threatened by widespread dissatisfaction among the English troops in Scotland. A portion of the officers were in close communication with the parliamentary opposition to Cromwell, and were spreading seditious pamphlets in the army. Some of the non-commissioned officers were conspiring with the Levellers in England, and a plot had been formed to seize Monck and march into England to overthrow the Protector. Overton, Monck's second in command, who was believed to sympathise with the movement, was to be placed at its head. What made the danger greater was that the pay of the soldiers was many months in arrear. Monck, with his usual promptitude, suppressed the incendiary pamphlets, arrested the conspirators, cashiered the minor offenders, and shipped off the leaders to England. 'My opinion is,' he wrote, 'that unless his highness be very severe with those that are disturbers of the peace, we shall never have any certain settlement' (, iii. 45, 76, 179). During the later years of his government he carefully purged his army of anabaptists and quakers.

From July 1655 Monck was assisted in the civil government of Scotland by a council, to which very extended powers were granted. Its most important member was Lord Broghill [see and first ], and it contained two Scots, John Swinton and