[To THE EDITOR OF TRH "SPECTATOR:'] SIE, — I note a lady
calls attention in the. Spectator of April 29th to the opinions held of the great Protector by con- temporary members of the Society of Friends. Any one with a knowledge of the disturbed political and religious state of England between the years 1642-1658 is aware that. very strong, and often inaccurate, language was used by well- meaning people against or about each other, and I would class both Margaret Fell's and Francis Howgill's letters as such. The " persecutions" Friends endured during Parliamentary and Protectorate rule was mainly imprisonment for not swearing. This question of the lawfulness or otherwise of taking judicial oath was "sprung" on the nation (after an interval of, say, twelve hundred years) in a time, as I have said, of . fierce religious and political excitement. I may con- clude by saying Francis Howgill was arrested with other Friends on suspicion of being concerned in an insurrection of the Fifth Monarchy men, and subsequently died in gaol (not in Oliver's ti e) for refusal to take the oath of allegiance to Charles II. As a member of the Society of kriends, I believe if(I may wrong) that the great bulk of them revere the memory of the great Protector, and believe, as I do, he was the gieater ruler ever sat on the British throne.--I ant, Sir .A.mieuV
Previous page
