Commonwealth

Proximus ardat u calagon.

The flames which were raging against the old royalty and the nascent Presbyterian Church of England would soon attack the Scottish Church and Commonwealth.

but for the constancy of charles in defence of his religion the summer of sixteen forty seven would hardly have passed away without a combined attack by the royalists and presbyterians of both countries on the victorious army which had stricken down the isolated english royalists at naseby the invasion of england by the duke of hamilton in sixteen forty eight was however not the work of united scotland the party of the kirk headed by argyll kept aloof from it holding the danger from charles to be greater than the danger from the english army and the english sex after hamilton's army had been destroyed at preston cromwell came to an understanding with argyll and the party of the kirk on the simple basis that neither country was to meddle with the internal affairs of the other even if charles i had died from natural causes his removal from the scene would probably have been followed by misunderstandings between the dominant parties in the two countries the mode of his death widened the breach devout presbyterians forgot his hostility to the kirk and remembered his scottish birth no longer divided between their apprehensions of an attack on the covenant by charles and their apprehensions of an attack upon it by the english army they threw all their weight into the scale of the monarchy and charles the second was proclaimed at edinburgh as the lawful sovereign not of scotland alone but of england and ireland as well the english parliament and army could but take up the challenge and after charles the second had landed in scotland and had been received at edinburgh as king of the three nations war was the inevitable result the claim of scotland to dispose of the government of england was dashed to the ground by cromwell at dunbar and worcester In Scotland, as in England and Ireland, Cromwell had been prompt with his emphatic negative.

Scotland, it was settled once for all, was not to determine the form of the government of England without the consent of Englishmen.

To build up again harmonious relations between the countries was the work of time, and neither Cromwell nor the statesmen of the Commonwealth could put an end to the estrangement of hearts which had followed upon the late war.

To hinder a fresh outbreak of war, English troops had to be quartered in the country, and in 1653 and 54, Glencairn's rising showed that the necessity was not simulated.

in england indeed it was vainly supposed that the hearts of the scots would be drawn to the commonwealth by effecting a legislative union between the nations by improving the administration of the law and more especially by weakening the oppressive powers of the great landowners yet in sixteen fifty three the government was driven to put an end to the meetings of the general assembly as they would have had to put an end to any other body of men which claimed to represent the scottish nation on the political field the english government of scotland as long as it lasted was a good example of the government which fails in spite of its excellent intentions and excellent practice simply because it pays no heed to the spirit of nationality in one important respect there is a striking similarity between the action of the commonwealth in scotland and its action in ireland the most prominent of the causes leading to the military occupation of both countries was the alarm which prevailed in england lest they should throw their swords into the balance of english parties there is therefore at least one point of view from which the invasion of ireland can be regarded as a measure of self-defence and after preston and worcester the same might without fear of contradiction be said of scotland yet here the resemblance ceases the religious contrast between english and irish was at that age far too wide to be bridged over even by an agreement to differ whilst the confiscation of lands carried the hostility between the races into the field of material antagonism thus it came about that england as a whole without distinction of party was opposed to the irish claims the english settlers in ireland were therefore not indissolubly wedded to the commonwealth whether England was a republic or a monarchy mattered little to them, and a restoration would meet with no resistance if, as there was every reason to suppose, England under any form of government would support their claims.

Both Ireland and Scotland were poor countries, and the burden of holding them down fell mainly on the English Treasury.

Absolutely, and he's involved in the League of the Nations.

He's a fantastic Commonwealth figure, a remarkable figure.

And yet, you know, this very bitter campaign ends up with a very loyal, in the end, apart from the rugby and the cricket, you know, and all that sort of thing, a very loyal... dominion and part of the British Empire and then Commonwealth.

Quite remarkable, actually.

We'll hold all those thoughts because it's time to get into our counterfactuals because that is the real history of what happened during the First and Second Boer Wars.

In other words, it shielded domestic British industry from foreign competition.

And basically, yeah, you had this, This protectionism the Empire provided where people within the colonies and the Commonwealth and so would have to buy up British goods, even if they were at higher prices.

And this basically was a form of protectionism that prevented UK industry from facing competition abroad and actually allowed them to become complacent and lazy, if you like, not having to invest and modernize and keep up with the latest developments that were happening abroad.

And so, yeah, all of this together meant that the British capitalists, they got fat, but they also got lazy, right? They got complacent.

And the Americans said, yeah, none of that, the dollar.

And that became the center of the world financial system and continues to be today, even with the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement.

Now, it was also in this post-war period that, of course, you saw also the colonial revolutions and these mass movements for national independence in the old British Empire, which started to crumble and officially became the Commonwealth in 1949, following the independence of India, of what was known as Ceylon and Burma and other places at the time.

And American imperialism, again, very strategic in this period, very confident, swept into these places and took these newly independent countries as markets and spheres of influence for itself, and started using exactly the techniques that the British imperialists had used in the 19th century, that of divide and rule, to try and carve out its own influence and sway, in particular, obviously in the Middle East with the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel, which America wholesalely backed, understanding the value that would have for maintaining and advancing its interests in the region and striking a blow against British imperialism, which had been dominant in this region.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Pamela Nagami.

Lecture three, The Commonwealth and the Three Nations, part one.

For the understanding of Cromwell's character, the glimpses afforded by the report of the proceedings of the Army Council in 1647 have a special interest.

Only a few accounts of the many discussions in which he took part have been handed down to us, and of those few, this is by far the most remarkable.

Into the debates of the Council of State after the establishment of the Commonwealth, or of the Council of the Protectorate in later years, scarcely a ray of light has penetrated.

The result of our ignorance has been that though Cromwell's moderating influence has been sufficiently revealed in his actions, his long hesitations, his patience in the face of opposition, and his reluctance to break loose from established authority have been obscured in the popular imagination.

In the place of the true image of the man has arisen one of a high-handed despotic ruler, winning his way to power as some think by his force of character, as others think by the unscrupulousness of the methods he adopted, but at all events, wielding with a heavy hand the power he had gained and swiftly brushing opposition from his path.

Section six of Cromwell's Place in History by Samuel Ross and Gardiner.

I am so excited about this series because it's going to correct some things regarding God's concept of wealth and prosperity.

I'm going to focus on kingdom Commonwealth economy.

This is part two.

I want you to get a new book and new pages and take notes every session, apply what you learn every week and watch God bring those to pass.

Come on, Freeport, give God a praise.

This is God's plan.

at this next verse because I want to focus in this last few minutes on why we got to depend on God we have to understand what a Commonwealth is please take notes this is new stuff the Commonwealth is a concept that is completely different from democracy it's matter of fact Commonwealth was invented by God not by Great Britain Commonwealth began in Genesis chapter one, when God told Adam, you are free to eat from every tree in the garden.

So God's solution to Earth's problem of ownership is Lordship.

In general, this time period is called the Interregnum.

The Interregnum, that word Interregnum means time without king, and there was a time period here that can be broken down into two subsections known as the Commonwealth and the Protectorate.

And the Interregnum, in general, was this time period where England just tries to go at it without a king, and well, let's go look at the first phase of the Interregnum, the Commonwealth, and let's look at why it doesn't work out so well.

Like I told you, this Commonwealth period was a rule by the Rump Parliament, and the Rump Parliament is going to try and do this between 1649 and 1653, and Parliament is just really ineffective at running a government.

Now, at this time, Oliver Cromwell is s- still leading the military, and remember that military's name is the New Model Army, and we have to remember that he has really brought about a Puritan military, and they're highly, highly influenced by his Puritan Calvinist ideals.

And essentially, there's gonna be a lot of rebellions in England after the beheading of the king.

And you also are going to have pockets of Catholics in England that Cromwell and his people just do not tolerate at all.

And then you're gonna have Ireland, and Ireland is very much a Catholic ethnic group.

Now let's adjust our crowns.

I want to speak today on this session, write it down, understanding Kingdom Commonwealth.

Let's begin.

Understanding Kingdom Commonwealth.

Most of us don't understand what the word or the concept of Commonwealth means.

So we want to rediscover the original concept of Kingdom prosperity.

Commonwealth has to do with prosperity, but the prosperity is common.

There's no rich people and poor people in God's kingdom.

There were, of course, a lot of other countries doing, it turns out, a whole bunch of other things, um, doing cooperation in some senses, diplomacy.

We're gonna talk about kind of what development means in this context, um, and why different countries are getting involved, how organizations like the Commonwealth were involved.

Um, so a whole lot to discuss in this sort of mid-20th century moment.

Uh, David, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.

So there are a number of threads that contribute towards the development of The Colombo Plan.

You'd have to say that a lot of the impetus came from the British.

They were the ones who really wanted this meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers.

It was the first and really the only meeting of its kind where foreign ministers rather than prime ministers gathered.