The Siege of Colchester

The authorities for the history of the memorable Siege of Colchester, in the summer of 1648, are not, on the whole, so complete as those for some of the other great events during the Parliamentary War.The only eyewitness who has told the story in anything like satisfactory detail is Matthew Carter, the Quarter-Master-General of the insurgent forces, under the command of the Earl of Norwich.He, of course, gives an account of the siege from the point of view of his own side.The people of Colchester have a very different story to tell, which is condensed into the curious tract entitled " Colchester's Teares."This tract, with its quaint title, was re-printed in 1843 by Mr. W. Wire, of this town.Three tracts, describing separate events in the siege, will be found among the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum.The particulars of the siege, from the Parliamentary point of view, may be gathered from the pages of Hush worth, and some additional facts of importance from the Tanner MSS., from letters in the Fairfax Correspondence, and from Lord Fairfax's own short memorial.The real searcher after truth will confine himself to these contemporaneous sources of information.I fear that it is too frequently the case that Goldsmith or Hume are the authorities of those who form and express opinions on events of the Civil War.If we desire to do justice to both sides-to the besiegers as well as to the besieged-we must banish from our minds all political bias ; the two sides must be to us, not Royalists and Roundheads, but the forces of Lord

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