that if he did not grant it within twenty days, the bills should then become law notwithstanding. Each Parliament was to sit five months and if an intermediate Parliament was called by the Lord Protector, it was not to be prorogued nor dissolved within three months, unless with its own consent. It was fixed that every person, possessing an estate in lands or goods to the value of two hundred pounds annually, should have a vote at the election of members of Parliament, except such as had been concerned in the war against the Parliament, or in the rebellion in Ireland. It was ordered that the keeper of the seal, the treasurer, the admiral, the chief justices of the two benches, and the chief governors of Scotland and Ireland, should be nominated by Parliament, and in the intervals of Parliament, by the Protector and council. It was determined, that, as soon as might be, a provision should be made for the maintenance of the clergy, more certain and less contentious than the way of tithes; and that no person should be compelled to conform to the established church, nor be any way restrained in the profession and exercise of his religion, except the adherents of popery and prelacy. It was agreed that Oliver Cromwell should be declared Lord Protector for life, and that in case of his demise, the Council of State should assemble, to the number of not fewer than thirteen, and immediately elect his successor.*

In forming an estimate of the motives which

induced Cromwell to dissolve the Long Parliament, it ought not to be forgotten, that he himself immediately afterwards acted upon the very principles which he loudly condemned in the leaders of that celebrated assembly. Vane and his friends maintained that the country was not yet sufficiently settled to be intrusted with the irritating duty of a general election; and, therefore, it was necessary that a certain number of the old members should remain, not only for the purpose of conducting the government in the meantime, but also for instructing, in the forms of business, the new representatives who might be returned. For the same reason, it was provided by the bill which was about to be passed when the grenadiers entered the House, that there should not at any future period be a complete dissolution of the Commons, but that only a part of the members at one time should be returned to their constituents. It is remarkable, that in constituting his first Parliament, he proceeded on the very ground now explained, and obviously for the same considerations; a proof, if any were wanted, that his anger was kindled against the Rump, not for their practical errors in the conduct of affairs, but for showing too much political wisdom, and for arranging a scheme of government which would soon have deprived the army of the dangerous power which had fallen into their hands.

Barbone's Parliament, in like manner, was dismissed for being too honest. There were in it, no doubt, several hot-headed fools who aimed at impracticable improvements, and laboured

to bring the English people to a condition of simplicity and innocence which has never been attained in the social state. But, with few exceptions-the "trepanners and spies" whom Cromwell had introduced-they had the good of their country at heart, and would have forced on some changes, which, by reducing the army, must have precluded the despotism on which the Council of Officers meant to establish their power. Finding, too, that they were disposed to assert a degree of independence which he never intended they should possess, the General joined in the calumnies with which they were assailed; increased the ridicule which was directed against their proceedings; and, finally, by creating a schism in their body, drew over the venal and ambitious to his own ranks, and exposed the honest fanatics to everlasting contempt. By these means, however, he attained the rank and authority which were conferred upon him on the 16th of December, 1653; when he found himself in the possession of a more ample treasury, a finer navy, and more numerous land forces, than had ever supported the throne of England, or commanded the respect of foreign states.

CHAPTER IV.

From the Accession of Cromwell to the Protectorate, to his Death in September 1658.

IT has been asserted, that in the Institute of Government under which Oliver assumed the supreme power, the title of King was originally engrossed, and that it was only in compliance with the scruples of certain individuals whose ambition had not yet been gratified, that the word Protector was afterwards substituted. But the appellation in such cases is a mere sound; and Cromwell had determined to exercise the full rights of sovereignty, in the civil as well as in the military department. As is usual on the accession of a hereditary monarch, he issued new patents to the judges, and commissions to the principal officers of the army; obtaining, at the same time, a statute declaring it high treason to compass or imagine any violence to the person or government of the Lord Protector, or to revive the claims and title of Charles Stuart.

He accepted, on the same occasion, the congratulations of foreign princes through the medium of their ambassadors; whom he received at his palace with all the form and etiquette of

the most ancient court. He had removed with his family to the apartments formerly occupied by the King, which were newly furnished in the most costly and magnificent style; and in the banqueting room was placed a chair of state on a platform raised a few steps above the floor. Here the Protector stood to receive the ambassadors. These functionaries were instructed to make three reverences; one at the entrance, the second as they advanced up the room, and the third at the lower step of the elevation on which the Protectoral throne was erected,—to each of which his lordship answered by a slight inclination of the head. When they had delivered their speeches and heard the reply of his Highness, they retired, observing the same ceremonial with which they had entered.

But Cromwell felt that, by ministering to his own ambition, he had lost the confidence of his first and most ardent friends. The republican party now became his bitterest enemies. He had deceived them in the tenderest point, while he employed them as instruments for accomplishing his personal views, at every stage of his advancement. Some of the more violent preachers did not hesitate to denounce him from the pulpit as a "dissembling, perjured villain, and to threaten him with a worse fate than had befallen the last tyrant." To check such freedoms, he threw several individuals into prison, and committed to the Tower that long subservient and unscrupulous partisan-Major-General Harrison. Alarmed with menaces of assassination, too, he let loose his fury against the royalists, whom he charged with the intention of putting