" IT IS HIGH TIME FOR ME TO PUT AN END TO YOU SITTING IN THIS PLACE WHICH YOU HAVE DISHONOURED BY YOUR CONTEMPT OF ALL VIRTUE, AND DEFILED BY YOUR PRACTICE OF EVERY VICE; YE ARE A FACTIOUS CREW, AND ENEMIES TO ALL GOOD GOVERNMENT;

YE ARE A PACK OF MERCENARY WRETCHES AND WOULD, LIKE ESAU, SELL YOUR COUNTRY FOR A MESS OF POTTAGE AND, LIKE JUDAS, BETRAY YOUR GOD FOR A FEW PIECES OF MONEY.

IS THERE A SINGLE VIRTUE REMAINING AMONG YOU? IS THERE ONE VICE YOU DO NOT POSESS?

YE HAVE NO MORE RELIGION THAN MY HORSE; GOLD IS THY GOD; WHICH OF YOU HAVE NOT BARTERE'D YOUR CONSIENCE FOR BRIBES? IS THERE A MAN AMONGST YOU THAT HAS THE LEAST CARE FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH?

YE SORDID PROSTITUTES, HAVE YOU NOT DEFILED THIS SACRED PLACE AND TURNED THE LORDS TEMPLE INTO A BED OF THIEVES BY YOUR IMMORAL PRINCIPLES AND WICKED PRACTICES?

YOU WERE DEPUTED HERE BY THE PEOPLE TO GET GRIEVANCE REDRESSED; YOUR COUNTRY THEREFORE CALLS UPON ME TO CLEANSE THE AUGEAN STABLE, BY PUTTING A FINAL PERIOD TO YOUR INIQUITOUS PROCEEDINGS, AND WHICH WITH GOD'S HELP AND STRENGTH HE HAS GIVEN ME, I NOW COME TO DO.

I COMMEND YE THEREFORE UPON THE PERIL OF YOUR LIVES TO DEPART IMMEDIATELY, OUT OF THIS PLACE.

TAKE AWAY THAT SHINING BAUBLE THERE, AND LOCK THE DOORS. YOU HAVE SAT HERE TOO LONG FOR THE GOOD YOU DO.

IN THE NAME OF GOD, GO."

Westminster, at 11 a.m. 20th April 1653.

Oliver Cromwell

" Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Winston Churchill, 10th November 1942.