"'It is now a time to speak,' he said, 'or for ever hold the tongue. The important occasion now is no less than to save a nation out of a bleeding, nay, almost dying condition, which the long continuance of this war hath already brought it into; so that without a more speedy, vigorous, effectual prosecution of the war--casting off all lingering proceedings like those of soldiers of fortune beyond sea to spin out a war--we shall make the kingdom weary of us, and hate the name of a Parliament. "'For what do the enemy say? Nay, what do many that were friends at the beginning of the Parliament? Even this, that the members of both Houses have got great places and commands, and the sword into their hands, and what by interest in Parliament, what by power in the army, will perpetually continue themselves in grandeur, and not permit the war speedily to end, lest their own power should determine with it. This that I speak here to our own faces, is but what others do utter abroad behind our backs. I am far from reflecting on any. I know the worth of those commanders. Members of both Houses who are still in power; but if I may speak my conscience without reflection on any, I do conceive if the army is not put into another method, and the war more vigorously prosecuted, the people can bear the war no longer, and will enforce you to a dishonourable peace. "'But this I would recommend to your prudence. Not to insist upon any complaint or oversight of any commander-in-chief upon any occasion whatsoever, for as I must acknowledge myself guilty of oversights, so I know they can rarely be avoided in military affairs. Therefore, waiving a strict inquiry into the issues of these things, let us apply ourselves to the remedy, which is most necessary. And I hope we have such true English hearts, and zealous affections towards the general weal of our mother-country, as no members of either House will scruple to _deny_ themselves and their own private interests for the public good, nor account it to be a dishonour done to them, whatever the Parliament shall resolve upon in this weighty matter.' "Another member followed and said,-- "'Whatever be the cause, two summers are passed over, but we are not saved. Our victories (the price of blood invaluable) so gallantly gotten, and (which is more pity) so graciously bestowed, seem to have been put into a bag with holes; what we won one time, we lost another; the treasure is exhausted, the country wasted, a summer's victory has proved but a winter's story; the game, however, shut up with autumn, was to be played again the next spring, as if the blood that had been shed were only to manure the field of war for a more plentiful crop of contention. Men's hearts have failed them with the observation of these things.'