CHAP. X, promised never to elect the Prince of Orange for their stadtholder, nor to suffer him to have the chief command of the army and navy. Cromwell's object in this was to make the prince incapable of benefitting the royal cause; and he obtained the agreement through the influence of the Louvestein, or republican party in Holland.* Relative positions of Spain in 19. Cromwell's foreign policy. When the republican government was established in England, the two chief powers of the continent, France and Spain, were in eager rivalry with each other, were placed in very different positions, and animated by very different sentiments. Spain, though still retaining the prestige of her former greatness, was rapidly declining; the empire of Germany no longer belonged to her; she had lost the United Provinces; her dominion in Italy was limited; a conspiracy had, in one day, robbed her of Portugal; only in the New World did her possessions still continue to be immense. The France and Spanish government felt itself to be weak, and, therefore, European cultivated a peaceful policy. France and the house of politics. Bourbon, on the contrary, were advancing together, with bold and rapid progress; a potent spirit of activity and ambition animated both the counsels of the crown, and the various classes of the citizens; a fondness for great designs and striking enterprises everywhere prevailed; and Cardinal Mazarin, the prime minister, constantly observed the same policy that Henry IV. and Cardinal Richelieu had practised. Between these two powers England might have held the position she did when Henry VIII. and Wolsey ruled her destinies; but the statesmen of the Commonwealth failed to hold the balance; and, although they affected neutrality, they displayed neither firmness, ability, nor good sense, in their relations with the two powers. Cromwell, however, adopted a more prudent policy. Knowing that the war between them was the sole cause of their anxiety for his good will, he was in no haste to conclude with either; he was fully aware that he held the balance in his hands, and that it was in his power, at any time, to incline it in favour of either of the two crowns; he, therefore, acted accordingly. To all the flattering messages and promises of the Spanish King (Philip IV.) he Negotia tions between Cromwell and the returned no answer; but when a treaty of alliance was offered him to sign, he demanded that the trade to the West Indies should be free; that Englishmen in the Spanish dominions should be protected in the exercise of their religion against the Inquisition; and that English * Lingard, XI., 32-35; Guizot, 249-259. King of 1654 merchants should have the pre-emption of the Spanish wool. were, principles foreign policy. 20. The Protector's first parliament. With his foreign relations thus established on a satisfactory foundation, and civil order restored at home, Cromwell deemed himself in a position to face, without danger, the trial imposed upon him by the seventh article of the Instrument of Government. He, therefore, issued writs for the election of a new parliament, to meet on the 3rd of September, 1654, the anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester, and his fortunate day. He opened its proceedings in an elaborate speech, in which he explained all his measures, and gave an account of the state of the country, past and present. At the close of the last parliament, the kingdom was agitated by the principles of the Levellers, tending to reduce all to an equality; by the doctrines Cromwell's of the Fifth-monarchy men, subversive of civil government; by religious speech at the opening of theorists, who, pretending to be the champions of liberty of conscience, the session. condemned an established ministry as Babylonish and Antichristian; and by swarms of Jesuits, who had settled in England an episcopal jurisdiction to pervert the people. At the same time, the naval war with Holland absorbed all the pecuniary resources, while a commercial war with France and Portugal cramped the industry of the nation. Now, however, the taxes were reduced; judges of talent and integrity sat upon the bench; the Court of Chancery was purified, and many descriptions of causes were transferred from it to the ordinary courts; "a stop had been put to that heady way for every man who pleased to become a preacher;" the war with Holland had terminated in an advantageous peace; treaties of commerce and amity had been concluded with Denmark and Sweden; a similar treaty, which would place the British trader beyond the reach of the Inquisition, had been concluded with Portugal, and another was in progress with the ambassador of the French monarch. Besides all which, there had now assembled, for the first time these fourteen years, a free parliament. Thus the government had brought them by hasty strides to the Land of Promise; it was for them to enter in. CHAP. X. He spoke not as their lord, but as their fellow servant in the same good work. And so he desired them to repair to their house, elect their own speaker, and proceed freely.* temper But there were among the members many Republicans and Presbyterians, who were violently opposed to the Protector, and upon whom his words, marked by so much good sense, had no impression. His exhortation that they had met for the purpose of "healing and settling" had no influence upon them; there was one sore which they considered would admit of no healing— the supremacy of one man in the state. Their idea of a Commonwealth was that of a permanent assembly, like the Long Parliament, in which all the elementary principles of government Refractory should be perpetually discussed; all the relations of the of the state to foreign powers debated and re-debated; all the house. religious animosities of unnumbered sects continually inflamed by alternations of intolerance and liberality, according to the vote of the hour, The leaders of this opposition were Bradshaw, Haselrigg, and Scott; and, as soon as the speaker (Lenthall) had been elected, they brought forward the question, whether the house should approve of the government being in a single person, or in the parliament. According to the Instrument of Government and the terms of the writ for election, the members had no power to consider this question, or to alter the existing form of government, nevertheless they continued to debate it for three days, and, by a majority of 146 votes against 141, resolved to go into committee, and deliberate still further upon this fundamental proposition. But Cromwell now interfered, and summoned them to attend him in the Painted Chamber, where, Cromwell laying aside that tone of modesty he had hitherto strates with assumed, he frankly told the members that his calling was from God, his testimony from the people; and that no one but God and the people should ever take his office from remon them. him. He then reviewed the past, showing how, on every occasion, power had thrust itself upon him; and that God was his witness above, his conscience a witness within, and the people witnesses without, that he did not bring himself into his present position. Even they themselves were his witnesses, for they came there in obedience to his writs, and under the express limitation that they were to have no power to alter the government. He would, therefore, have them know that four things were fundamental: 1. That the supreme power should be vested in a single person and parliament. 2. That the parliament should be successive, and not perpetual. 3. That neither Protector nor parliament alone should possess the uncontrolled command of the military force. And 4. That liberty of conscience should be fenced round with such barriers as might exclude both profaneness and * Carlyle, III., 18-37. + Knight's Pop. Hist., IV., 184. 1655 persecution. The other articles of the instrument were less essential, and might be altered with circumstances; but he would not permit them to sit, and yet disown the authority by which they sat. For this purpose, he had prepared a recognition for them to sign; those who refused, would be excluded from the house; the rest would find admission, and might exercise their legislative power without his control, so long as they observed the new constitution. he gives a Cromwell had no other The recognition was placed at the lobby door of the house; it pledged the subscribers neither to propose nor consent No one to to the alteration of the government, as it was settled in it except one person and the parliament. In the course of a few pledge. days 300 signed it; but the republican leaders refused to give any pledge; and the parliament was thereby reduced to little more than two-thirds of the members returned. The parliament, thus mutilated, resumed its duties; but its first act showed that all opposition had not been removed, and it was resolved, that the pledge they had taken did not extend beyond the first article of the Instrument. They then went on to discuss the remaining articles, with such heat and prolixity, that after five months, the limited term of their session, the Protector having been further disappointed by the great majority of 200 to 60, which voted the protectorate to be elective and not hereditary, dissolved the parliament, with no small marks of dissatisfacton (January 22nd, 1655). It is impossible that any impartial inquirer can arrive at any other conclusion, than that Cromwell's dissolution of this parliament, was the only course open to him. It was natural enough that attempts should be made to apply alternative every check to arbitrary authority in the Lord Protector; dissolve the but he had not yet shown any disposition to govern parliament. absolutely, or to rule with tyranny; his genius was too well fitted for governing, and he knew the art of good government too well, for that. Yet they showed a marked distrust of him, and a strong disposition to nullify his authority, and this at a time when very large questions were depending with foreign powers, and when their legislative sanction to the necessary reforms which he had proposed, and partly effected, was peremptorily required. Instead of considering these measures, they suspended them, that they might dispute about the institution of government, and thus stultify the executive by perpetually discussing the grounds of its authority. Although bills for the celebration of marriage; the treatment of lunatics; the relief of prisoners for debt; and the equalisation of the taxes, were introduced, none were adopted; they outraged the principles of toleration which Cromwell had established, by appointing a committee to consider what was "faith in God by Jesus Christ," and to settle what were "damnable heresies"; but to The army CHAP. X. they even ordered several heretics to be imprisoned, one of them being John Biddle, a schoolmaster, and the reputed father of the English Unitarians. They voted the supplies tardily, and with an impolitic economy, as if the foreign affairs of the country had been conducted with dishonour, instead of a dignity before which all nations bowed. It was thus manifest that the parliament had blindly set itself to obstruct the honest exercise of authority; but Cromwell was conscious of his own strength; he had faithful public servants, like Blake, whose devotion to their country was not weakened by the quarrels of factions; and whatever difficulties, he said, when he dissolved the parliament, should beset him, he trusted to God, who had never yet failed him, to overcome them.* 21. Republican and Royalist conspiracies. In his speech dissolving the parliament, Cromwell alluded to certain conspiracies which had been generated by the impatience of the two opposite parties, Republicans and Royalists. The first embraced projects for the surprise of the Protector's person, and for the seizure of Edinburgh Castle, Hull, Portsmouth, and other fortresses. But spies, employed by Thurloe, the secretary, were in every regiment, and no movement occurred that was not previously known. All officers of doubtful fidelity were at once dismissed; every is “purged." regiment was purged of its questionable men; Colonel Wildman was surprised in the very act of dictating to his secretary a hostile and inflammatory declaration against the government; and Lord Grey, of Groby, Colonels Alured, Overton, and others, were arrested, of whom some remained long in confinement, while others were permitted to go at large on their giving security for their good behaviour (February, 1655). The The Royalist plot, though more extensive, proved equally Royalist harmless in the result. It was headed by Wilmot, just Wilmot and then created Earl of Rochester, Sir Joseph Wagstaff, and Wagstaff. others. The first was to raise the northern Royalists, the second the western; and it was arranged that Charles should proceed from Cologne, where he was then residing, to Middleburg, there to hold himself in readiness to cross over to England. Clarendon insinuates that the existence of all these designs, without the knowledge of Cromwell, was a proof of the general aversion in which he was held. But Cromwell knew all about them, and it was his policy, as it is of all sagacious rulers, not to be too prompt with measures of repression-not to alarm and irritate the peaceful portion of the community by fears and suspicions, which rather tend to influence insurrection than to Guizot, 276-284; Knight's Pop. Hist., IV., 188-189. conspiracies under |