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Chapter XXXVI

THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE.

1649-1660

LEADING DATES

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 1649-CROMWELL IN IRE-
LAND, 1649-BATTLE OF DUNBAR, SEPT. 3, 1650-BATTLE OF WORCES-
TER, SEPT. 3, 1651-THE LONG PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED BY CROMWELL,
APRIL 20, 1653-THE SO-CALLED BAREBONES PARLIAMENT, JULY 4 TO
DEC. 11, 1653—ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROTEctorate, Dec. 16, 1653—
THE FIRST PROTECTORATE PARLIAMENT, SEPT. 3, 1654, TO JAN. 22, 1655-
TREATY OF ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE, OCT. 24, 1655-THE SECOND PRO-
TECTORATE PARLIAMENT, SEPT. 17, 1656, TO FEB. 4, 1658-DEATH OF
OLIVER CROMWELL, SEPT. 3, 1658-RICHARD CROMWELL'S PROTECTORATE,
SEPT, 3, 1658, TO APRIL 22, 1659-THE LONG PARLIAMENT RESTORED,
MAY 7 TO OCT. 13, 1659-MILITARY GOVERNMENT, OCT. 13 TO DEC.
26, 1659-THE LONG PARLIAMENT A SECOND TIME RESTORED, DEC. 26,
1659, TO MARCH 16, 1660-THE DECLARATION OF BREDA, APRIL 4, 1660—-
MEETING OF THE CONVENTION PARLIAMENT, APRIL 14, 1660-RESOLUTION
THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS BY King, Lords, and COMMONS, MAY 1, 1660

T was not to be expected that the men in Parliament or in the army by whom great hopes of improvement were entertained

them to do. They believed it to be still in their power to regenerate England. The House of Commons declared England to be a Commonwealth, “without a king or House of Lords,” and, taking the name of Parliament for itself, appointed forty-one persons to be a Council of State, charged with the executive government, and renewed annually. Most members of the Council of State were also members of Parliament; and, as the attendance in Parliament seldom exceeded fifty, the Councilors of State (if they agreed together) were able to command a majority in Parliament, and thus to control its decisions. Such an arrangement was a mere burlesque on Parliamentary institutions, and could hardly have existed for a week, if it had not been supported by the ever-victorious army. In the army, indeed, it had its opponents, who, under the name of Levelers, called out for a more truly democratic government, but they had no man of influence to lead them. Cromwell had too

1649-1650

much common sense not to perceive the difficulty of establishing a democracy in a country in which that form of government had but few admirers, and he suppressed the Levelers with a strong hand. In quiet times, Cromwell would doubtless have made some attempt to place the constitution of the Commonwealth on a more satisfactory basis, but for the present it needed to be defended rather than improved. After the king's execution, Charles II. was proclaimed in Ireland. Ormond, Charles I.'s lieutenant, himself a Protestant, having now an army in which Irish Catholics and English Royalist Protestants were combined, hoped to be able to overthrow the Commonwealth both in Ireland and in England. To Cromwell such a situation was intolerable, and he set out to conquer Ireland. On August 15 he landed at Dublin. On September II he stormed Drogheda, where he put 2,000 men to the sword, a slaughter which was in strict accordance with the laws of war of that day, which left garrisons refusing, as that of Drogheda had done, to surrender an indefensible post, when summoned to do so, to the mercy or cruelty of the enemy. Cromwell had a half-suspicion that some further excuse was needed. "I am persuaded," he wrote, "that this is a righteous judgment of God upon those barbarous wretches who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future-which are the satisfactory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret." At Wexford there was another slaughter. Town after town surrendered. In the spring of 1650 Cromwell left Ireland. The conquest was prosecuted by his successors, and when, in 1652, the war came to an end, a great part of three out of the four provinces of Ireland was confiscated for the benefit of the conquering race.

In 1650 Cromwell's services were needed in Scotland. On June 24 Charles II. landed in Scotland, and, on his engaging to be a Presbyterian king, found the whole nation ready to support him. Fairfax declined to lead the English army against Charles, on the plea that the Scots had a right to choose their own form of government. Cromwell had no such scruples, knowing that, if Charles were once established in Scotland, the next thing would be that the Scots would try to impose their form of government on England. Cromwell, being appointed General in the room of Fairfax, marched into Scotland, and attempted to take Edinburgh; but he was outmaneuvered by David Leslie, who was now the Scottish com

1650-1651

mander, and, to save his men from starvation, had to retreat to Dunbar.

Cromwell's position at Dunbar was forlorn enough. The Scots seized the passage by which alone he could retreat to England by land, while the mass of their host was posted inaccessibly on the top of a long hill in front of him. If he sailed home, his flight would probably be the signal for a rising of all the Cavaliers and Presbyterians in England. The Scots, however, relieved him of his difficulties. They were weary of waiting, and, on the evening of September 2, they descended the hill. Early on the morning of the 3d Cromwell, crying "Let God arise; let His enemies be scattered," charged into their right wing before the whole army had time to draw up in line of battle, and dashed them into utter ruin. Edinburgh surrendered to him, but there was still a large Scottish army on foot, and, in August, 1651, its leaders, taking Charles with them, pushed on into England, where they hoped to raise an insurrection before Cromwell could overtake them. On they marched, with Cromwell following hard upon their heels. Fear kept those who sympathized with Charles from rising, and, at Worcester, on September 3-the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar-Cromwell absolutely destroyed the Scottish army. Those who were not slain were taken prisoners, and many of the prisoners sent as slaves to Barbadoes. Charles succeeded in making his escape to France. Cromwell was never again called on to draw sword in England.

Ever since the days of James I. there had existed a commercial rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic, and disputes relating to trade constantly arose. Latterly these disputes had been growing more acute. Early in 1648 Spain came to terms with the Dutch by acknowledging their independence, and later in the same year the Thirty Years' War in Germany was brought to an end by the Peace of Westphalia. In 1650 the Stadtholder, William II.-the son-in-law of Charles I.-died, and the office which he held was abolished, the government of the Dutch Republic falling completely under the control of the merchants of the Province of Holland, in which were situated the great commercial ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Dutch had got into their hands the carrying trade of Europe. In 1651 the English Parliament passed the Navigation Act, to put an end to this state of things. English vessels alone were to be allowed to import goods

1651-1653

into England, except in the case of vessels belonging to the country in which the goods which they carried were produced.

War with the Dutch soon followed. Vane, the leading man in the Committee of the Council of State which managed the navy, had put the fleet into excellent condition. Its command was given to Blake, who had been noted as a soldier by the defense of Taunton in the Civil War, but who never went to sea till 1649, when he was over fifty. Yet Blake soon found himself at home on board ship, and won the confidence of officers and men. Battle after battle was fought between the English and Dutch fleets. The sturdy antagonists were well matched, though the English ships were larger and more powerfully armed. In November, 1652, Tromp (the Dutch Admiral) got the better of Blake, but in February, 1653, there was another battle, in which Blake got the upper hand; but it was no crushing victory, like Dunbar and Worcester. In the summer of 1653 the English gained two more victories, but though they attempted to blockade the Dutch ports, they were obliged to give up the attempt.

At home the truncated Parliament was becoming increasingly unpopular. Ever since the end of the first Civil War Parliament had supplied itself with money by forcing Royalists to compound -that is to say, to pay down a sum of money, without which they were not allowed to enjoy their estates; and these compositions, as they were called, were still exacted from men who had joined in the second Civil War, or had favored the invasion by Charles II. The system, harsh in itself, was not fairly carried on. Members of Parliament took bribes, and let the briber off more easily than they did others who neglected to give them money. Those who were not Royalists had grievances of their own. Many of the members used their power in their own interest, disregarding justice, and promoting their sons and nephews in the public service.

For a long time Cromwell and the officers had been urging Parliament to dissolve itself and to provide for the election of a new Parliament, which would be more truly representative. Vane had, indeed, brought in a Reform Bill, providing for a redistribution of seats, depriving small hamlets of the franchise, and conferring it upon populous towns and counties; but the discussion dragged on, and the army was growing impatient. Yet, impatient as the army was, officers and politicians alike recognized that a freely-elected Parliament would probably overthrow the Common

1653

wealth and recall the king. Cromwell suggested that a committee of officers and politicians should be formed to consult on securities to be taken against such a catastrophe. The securities which pleased the members of Parliament were, that all members then sitting should continue to sit in the next Parliament, without fresh election, and should be formed into a committee having power to reject any new member whom they considered it desirable to exclude.

Cromwell, who disliked this plan, was assured, on April 19, by one of the leading members of Parliament that nothing would be done in a hurry. On the next day, April 20, he heard that the House was passing its bill in the form which he disliked. Going to the House, when the last vote on the bill was about to be taken he rose to speak. Parliament, he said, had done well in its care for the public good, but it had been stained with “injustice, delays of justice, self-interest." Being interrupted by a member, he blazed up into anger. "Come, come!" he cried; "we have had enough of this. I will put an end to this. It is not fit you should sit here any longer." He called in his soldiers, and bade them clear the House, following the members with words of obloquy as they passed

out.

Cromwell and the officers shrank from summoning an elected Parliament. They gathered an assembly of their own nominees, to which men gave in derision the title of the Barebone's Parliament, because a certain Praise-God Barebone sat in it. In a speech at its opening, on July 4, Cromwell told them that England ought to be governed by godly men, and that they had been selected to govern it because they were godly. Unfortunately, many of these godly men were crotchety and unpractical. A large number of them wanted to abolish the Court of Chancery without providing a substitute, and a majority resolved to abolish tithes without providing any other means for the support of the clergy. At the same time enthusiasts outside Parliament-the Fifth Monarchy men, as they were called-declared that the time had arrived for the reign of the saints, and that they were themselves the saints. All who had anything to lose were terrified, and turned to Cromwell for support, as it was known that no man in England had stronger common sense, or was less likely to be carried away by such dreamers. In the Parliament itself there was a strong minority which thought it desirable that, if tithes were abolished, support should be provided for the clergy in some other way. These men, on December 11,

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