onquest of that country, and his firmness by insisting on the terms offered to the Portuguese, who had incurred his displeasure by aiding Prince Rupert. These were finally signed on the very day Foreign Affairs. when Dom Pantaleone Sa, the ambassador's brother, was beheaded in London for the murder of an Englishman. Thus, both at home and abroad, Cromwell proved himself to be a vigorous and successful administrator. On September 3, 1654, the first Protectorate parliament met. According to the plan devised by the Long Parliament, and embodied in the Instrument of Government a complete redistribution of Protectorate seats had been carried out; and the four hundred members First Parliament. for England had been allotted according to population : Yorkshire and Essex returning respectively fourteen and thirteen members, as against their former two, and other counties and boroughs in proportion; while the thirty members for Scotland and thirty for Ireland represented the unity of the three kingdoms. The elder republicans, however, such as Sir Harry Vane and Henry Marten, refused to take part in it; Lord Grey of Groby, Ludlow, and Wildman the Leveller, were debarred from election; but Sir Arthur Hazelrig, Bradshaw, and Scot were members, and insisted on debating the advisability of 'government by a single person,' taking as their principle that the powers of the Protector ought to emanate from parliament. This was to strike at the very root of the settlement embodied in the Instrument of Government, which made the powers of the parliament and the Protector co-ordinate; and Cromwell found it necessary, after addressing the members in the Painted Chamber, to exact a pledge from each of them that he would not attempt to alter the existing form of government. About two hundred and thirty members accepted the pledge, but even they continued to debate the Instrument clause by clause, to the exclusion of other business, even that of voting supplies for the army and navy. Indeed, the only other business for which they found leisure was that of persecuting two unfortunate men-Biddle, a Unitarian, and Naylor a Quaker, whose views gave umbrage to the members. So unsatisfactory was their attitude that, on the very day they had sat five lunar months, Cromwell dismissed them-on January 22, 1655. The evidence which the sittings of the first Protectorate parliament had given of the want of agreement between the republicans and the Royalist Cromwellians encouraged the royalists and the levellers, Plots. and a series of plots followed. In March, at Salisbury, Penruddock and Wagstaffe attempted to seize the judges on circuit; Sir Henry Slingsby, a Yorkshire knight, was involved in another plot; and Wildman was arrested in the act of dictating an address designed for an army of insurgent levellers. Difficulties also were raised by lawyers, such as Whitelock, nervously apprehensive of an unconstitutional position; while practical men, like Cony and Sir Peter Wentworth, refused to pay taxes which had not received parliamentary sanction. In these circumstances, Cromwell practically assumed the powers of a dictator. He crushed the rising by force; Penruddock, Wagstaffe, and Slingsby were executed for treason; the objections of Cony and Wentworth were overridden by courts of law selected by the Protector. To provide against future disorder, England was divided into eleven military districts, over each of which a friend of his own was placed with the title of major-general; and, in defiance of the Act of Indemnity, a ten per cent. tax for the maintenance of them and their soldiers was exacted from the royalist gentry. By these measures peace at home was again secured. But Cromwell's arbitrary acts were condemned as well by the royalists as by the parliamentary republicans; and it was made clearer than ever that the real basis of his power was the devotion and efficiency of the army, and that his rule was nothing more or less than military despotism. Besides these severe measures against the royalists, Cromwell also increased the stringency of the regulations affecting the dispossessed Episcopalian clergy, whom he naturally suspected of organising opposition to his rule. It was now made penal for any dispossessed minister to hold the office of private chaplain, to preach, to administer the sacraments, to use the Prayerbook, or to teach in a public or private school Meanwhile, war had begun with Spain. Actuated partly by religious bigotry, partly by the desire of expanding English trade, Cromwell had demanded of the king of Spain the right of free trade with war with the West Indies, and exemption of Englishmen from the Spain. laws of the Inquisition—a demand which elicited from the Spanish ambassador the reply: "That his master had but two eyes, and that Cromwell had asked him to put out both at once.' Though war was not formally declared against England by Spain till February 1656, hostilities began at once; and in the autumn of 1654 two expeditions were sent out-one, under Penn and Venables, for the West Indies, and a second, under Blake, for the Mediterranean Sea. San Domingo, against which Penn and Venables sailed, beat off the English; but the rich sugar island of Jamaica was captured, and has remained in our hands ever since. Blake first gave his attention to the Barbary Blake at pirates of Algiers and Tunis. After bringing the Dey of Algiers to terms, he sailed into Tunis harbour, dismantled the forts, and Tunis. burnt every one of the Dey's nine cruisers, thus showing the whole world what an efficient thing naval artillery was in enforcing attention to the commands of a maritime power. The Plate No sooner was war formally declared, than Blake made it his business to intercept the Plate fleet, which annually sailed across the Atlantic with the spoils of the Spanish mines, and formed as important an event in Spanish commerce as the safe arrival of the spice fleet was for that of the Dutch. The fleet sailed from Panama to Teneriffe, and there waited in the harbour of Santa Cruz till word was brought that the road was clear to Cadiz. In 1628 Peter Hein, the Dutchman, had been lucky enough to capture this treasure fleet, and to repeat his exploit was the dream of successive generations of Dutch and English sailors. After a long and fruitless wait, however, Blake returned to England; but in March 1656 he was again at sea, having as his colleague Edward Montague, afterwards earl of Sandwich. After insisting on the king of Portugal's paying the indemnity due for his aid to Rupert, they took up their station off Cadiz, and waited events. At last, in September, nine galleons appeared, and were furiously attacked by Captain Stayner's ship and two frigates, who sunk or burnt or took at least six of them, with no less than £600,000 worth of gold and silver. After this Montague returned home; but Blake remained, and, in April 1657, he heard that sixteen Spanish galleons were anchored in the harbour of Santa Cruz, under the Peak of Teneriffe. Thither he sailed, and on April 20, in defiance of the forts which commanded its entrance, he took his ships into the harbour, and in a few hours captured the galleons. As it was impossible to take them out for want of men, he burnt the whole of them, and sailed out of the harbour without the loss of a single ship. Such a splendid exploit roused the enthusiasm of Englishmen of all parties. Clarendon, the royalist historian, described it as miraculous, and quoted it as an example of what could be done by the 'strong resolution of bold and courageous men.' It was Blake's crowning victory, and on his way home he died, leaving behind him a noble reputation for bravery, ability, and devotion to his country, unsullied by any taint. Blake at Second In 1656 Cromwell again called a parliament, as he did not wish to be thought an arbitrary ruler, and was desirous of securing for the Protectorate something of a parliamentary sanction. He also required Protectorate money for the Spanish war. To avoid the difficulties Parliament. of the last parliament, Vane, Bradshaw, and Ludlow were cautioned not to interfere, and after the elections Sir Arthur Hazelrig and Scot, with about ninety other elected members, were debarred from taking their seats. On the other hand, to conciliate public opinion, the military districts were abolished. Parliament met in September 1656. For some months business proceeded quietly, and in January Cromwell's supporters brought forward the idea of making him king. The suggestion was adopted by the House, as it would have the advantage of restoring the old framework of government and law, of which a king was assumed to be the head, and also because it would have secured Cromwell's officials from prosecution for high treason in event of a restoration, since they would have been protected by the de facto statute of Henry VII. (see page 384), according to which no one could be prosecuted for treason for holding office under a king who was actually reigning. The resolution for kingship was carried by 123 to 62, and the new constitution was embodied in a document called the Humble Petition and Advice. By it Petition and the old political constitution of England, with the changes introduced by the Long Parliament before the war, was practically restored. In addition to the House of Commons, Cromwell was also authorised to create a second chamber. The Advice. From the first, however, it is probable that Cromwell was aware that it would never do for him to accept the petition as it stood. The idea of reviving monarchy pleased the lawyers and the civilians, but it was most offensive to the soldiers, who felt that they would indeed have shed their blood in vain to pull down King Charles to set up 'King Noll'; and without the support of the army, he well knew that he could not reign a day. Accordingly, while he accepted the proposed constitution, he declined the title of king; and the new form of government was solemnly inaugurated on June 26. According to the Petition and Advice, Cromwell was allowed to name his successor. This annoyed Lambert, the chief author of the Instrument of Government, and as he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Cromwell, he was deprived of his command. Vane, on the other hand, was released from custody. Parliament. In January 1658 parliament, which had been adjourned, reassembled in a reorganised form, including not only those members who had been prevented from taking their seats in 1656, but also a new House of Lords, nominated by the protector. The new Lords had among them the earl of Manchester, Viscount Lisle, Whitelock, Nathaniel Fiennes, Fleetwood, Desborough, Pride, Skippon, Monk, and Oliver St. John; but it never secured recognition from the other House; and Hazelrig, who had himself declined to sit in it, led an attack on its position. Finding, therefore, that there was no prospect of a peaceful session, Cromwell dissolved the house on February 4. Alliance with France. He was now at liberty to return to foreign affairs. Under the mistaken idea that Spain was the power whose predominance was to be feared, Cromwell joined France in its struggle against Spain. So desirous however were Louis XIV. and Mazarin to secure his aid, that every honour was shown to Lockhart, the English ambassador; and when Cromwell declared that he would have no dealings with the duke of Savoy until he desisted from the persecution of his Protestant subjects, whose cause had been pleaded by Milton in a stirring sonnet, Mazarin took care that Cromwell's demands received complete satisfaction. Accordingly in March 1657 an offensive and defensive alliance was made with France. The object of the alliance was to capture from the Spaniards the frontier towns of Mardyke and Dunkirk; and to aid in the attack, 6000 English soldiers, 'in new red coats,' commanded by Morgan, Monk's right-hand man in the Highland wars, and directed by Lockhart, were sent over to join the French. The New Model soldiers Battle of gave a proof of their capacity at the storming of Mardyke ; the Dunes. and in the battle of the Dunes, fought near Dunkirk in June 1658, the chief share both of fighting and glory fell to their share. As a fruit of this victory, Dunkirk was taken and placed in the hands of the English, giving England thereby not only a foothold on the continent, but an excellent place from which to strike a blow at the flank of any French force which designed to march through the Netherlands against Holland. Ever since he This achievement was the last in Cromwell's career. had suffered from ague, in the Scottish campaign, his health had been Cromwell's on the decline; and, though only between fifty and sixty, Death. he had for some years looked an old man. In the summer of 1658 his favourite daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, died. His unremitting attention to her during her illness still further undermined his strength, so that when his ague returned in September he was unable to rally, and, on September 3, the anniversary of his victories of Dunbar and Worcester, in the midst of a fearful tempest of rain and wind, the great Protector passed away. Oliver Cromwell, though not gifted with one of those rare intellects which grasp the whole significance of political events, showed himself pre-eminently capable of grasping the situation at any given moment, and seeing what, under the circumstances, ought to and could be done. His military genius was shown rather in his organisation of a fighting force, and in a pre-eminent ability for tactics, than in far-sighted strategy. He never saw far ahead |