On the 13th of December of the preceding year, the artifice of Cromwell had procured the self-dissolution of his first spurious parliament with the same facility with which his audacity had effected the interruption and dispersion of the remnant of the Long Parliament, eight months before; and, three days after, on the 16th of December, he accomplished the erection of his nominal Protectorate, by the constitution of which it was declared, that the legislative authority should reside" in one person, and the people assembled in

"parliament." And having now enthroned himself in supreme power, his avarice urged his ambition towards the Spanish wealth in the west; and he determined to force a quarrel with Spain, that he might create an occasion for seizing on a portion of it. Accordingly, in the autumn of the present year, 1654, he fitted out a large fleet, which he placed under the command of General Penn, and which was to receive on board an army under General Venables, to be employed against the Spanish possessions in America.

But, a great aversion towards the Protector's new scheme of government (soon increased by indignation at the manifest iniquity of the present measure) spread speedily and widely in the naval service. The supremacy of Cromwell was the supremacy of the army, and the supremacy of the army was the execration of the navy. Cromwell had not a friend among the sea-commanders, only amongst his land-admirals; and of these last, none were very cordially attached to his person except Colonel Edward Mountagu, whom he now created General at Sea. Principles and sentiments, which had remained inactive only through restraint, but which had never been extinguished in the hearts of the seamen, began to ferment. Both officers and men (together with a large portion of the nation) had their eyes silently turned toward their exiled prince, to whom their unsophisticated minds were the more naturally and strongly attracted, in consequence of the declared necessity of again placing the supreme authority in the hands of

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one person, with a parliament." They had, from the first, honestly stood for king and parliament; that is to say, for some such mode of settling the balance between prerogative and freedom, as was afterwards completed in 1688; from which period we are all king-and-parliament-men, according to the pure, original intention of those terms. The spectacle of mock-royalty exhibited to their view, only rendered more vivid in their imagination, and more venerable to their contemplation, the true royalty which it excluded. The state of things had essentially changed since 1648; it was no longer the case of a Prince of Wales without any regal authority acknowledged by the constitution of the realm, it was that of a king, on whom had unquestionably devolved the full and perfect title to his ancestorial crown; to whom no one could charge any portion of the calamities under which the country had so long laboured; and who had distinctly made public his sentiments, as king, in the following Declaration.

"October 21st, 1649.

His Majesty's Declaration to all his Subjects of his Kingdom of England, and Dominion of Wales.

"Charles, the Second of that name, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c.: To all persons within our kingdom of England, and dominion of Wales, to whom these presents shall come, greeting:

"We cannot, without unspeakable grief and sorrow, call to mind, nor without horror express, that our dear and royal father, King Charles of ever-blessed memory, hath been most

barbarously and most cruelly murdered by the hands of bloody traitors and rebels within our kingdom of England, with proceedings and circumstances so prodigious, that the particulars induce rather amazement than expression. And although we have hitherto seemed silent in a matter so highly concerning us, as not publicly to express to the people of England our grief of heart and high detestation of that heinous act; yet, being now safely arrived in a small part of our own dominions at the Island of Jersey, we have thought fit rather from hence, where our kingly authority takes place, than from any foreign country where we have been hitherto necessitated to reside, publicly to declare, that, out of a bitter sense and indignation of those horrid proceedings against our dear father, we are, according to the laws of nature and justice, firmly resolved, by the assistance of Almighty God (though we perish alone in the enterprise), to be a severe avenger of his innocent blood, which was so barbarously spilt, and which calls so loud to Heaven for vengeance. And we shall therein, by all ways and means possible, endeavour to pursue, and bring to their due punishment, those bloody traitors who were either actors or contrivers of that unparalleled and inhuman murder.

"And since it hath pleased God so to dispose, as, by such an untimely martyrdom, to deprive us of so good a father, and England of so gracious a king; we do further declare, that, by his death, the crown of England, with all privileges, rights, and preliminaries belonging thereunto, is, by a clear and undoubted right of succession, justly and lineally descended upon us, as next and immediate heir and successor thereunto, without any condition or limitation, without any intermission or claim, without any ceremony or solemnity whatsoever. And that, by virtue thereof, we are now in right lawfully seised of the said crown, and ought, by the laws of God and of that nation, to enjoy a royal power there, as well in church as commonwealth, to govern the