told them that as the parliament was dissolved so was the council; a protest being made by Bradshaw, the members withdrew.

Thus fell this celebrated Long Parliament, without the regret of any party, and yet their government since the death of Charles, had been successful in the reduction of Ireland and Scotland, and had carried on a vigorous contest with the powerful navy of the Dutch. Perhaps the amount of business which pressed upon them, was more than they could get through; certain it is that questions of national importance were postponed, neglected, and then forgotten. In this way, the hopes of the country were disappointed, and a reasonable excuse furnished for putting an end to its authority.

3. Cromwell calls the Little or Barebones parliament, 1653. After the dissolution of the Rump parliament, the supreme power rested in a new Council of State, consisting of Cromwell, eight other officers, and four civilians. The public mind during this period was so agitated by various rumours with respect to the future government of the country, that the council deemed it necessary to call a parliament, June 8. The members were selected by the council, from names forwarded to them by the congregational churches in the several counties, as being those of persons "faithful, fearing God, and hating covetousness". Of the persons thus recommended, a hundred and twenty-eight were chosen for England and Wales, five for Scotland, and six for Ireland. London returned seven members, from one of which PraiseGod Barebones, a leather-seller of Fleet Street, this parliament received its ludicrous nickname. It met for the first time, July 4, at Whitehall. Cromwell was present, supported by a numerous body of officers; having made a long address, he placed on the table an instrument under his own hand and seal, entrusting to them the supreme authority for fifteen months. If the lordgeneral calculated on having gathered men who would do his bidding, he was soon undeceived. They were most of them of independent fortunes, and accustomed to weigh for themselves the questions which agitated the nation; and their strong religious feelings led them to make their decisions a matter of conscience, from which it would be a sin to swerve.

Many of the proceedings of this parliament were good. Such were the revised regulations for the excise: the abolition of unnecessary offices, and the reduction of salaries; subjecting the public accounts to rigid scrutiny; making facilities for the sale of lands; and providing for the future registration of marriages, births, and deaths. But there were other measures which procured for them the hatred of the most powerful classes in the state-the army, lawyers, gentry, and clergy. They offended the

army by seeking to reduce its numbers, and lessen the power of the lord-general; the lawyers, by proposing to abolish the entire system of Chancery courts, and to improve the administration of law generally, by composing a new body of law, in a single volume; and the other classes named, by proposing to abolish advowsons and rest the appointment of ministers in the parishioners, and that tithes should give place to a settled stipend. These proceedings, together with the close connexion of many of the members with two Anabaptist preachers, who delivered weekly political lectures at Blackfriars, determined Cromwell to put an end to its existence. For the purpose of preparing the way, the lord-general met his friends on the Sunday, and on the day following, Dec. 13, his party mustered in the House at an early hour; colonel Sydenham, an Independent, arose, and having condemned their proceedings as injurious to the Commonwealth, proposed that the parliament should proceed to Whitehall, and resign its power into the hands of Cromwell. This was at once done. Those who refused to join in Sydenham's movement were expelled by the soldiers, and the House then locked up. Cromwell expressed his surprise at what had been done, and made as though he would have declined the offer, but a formal resignation being signed by a majority of the members, he consented to waive his objections.

PERIOD II. THE PROTECTORATE. 1653-1659.

SECTION VI.-THE PROTECTORATE OF OLIVER CROMWELL, 1653–1658.

1. Cromwell is made Protector, Dec. 16, 1653. On the fourth day after the resignation of the Little Parliament, a new constitution was published. Its author is not known with certainty, but it is said to have originated with Lambert and a council of field officers. It was embodied in a document called the "Instrument of Government", and published in Westminster Hall, whither Cromwell had gone in procession with the lord-mayor and aldermen, the judges, the commissioners of the great seal, and the two councils of the state and army. When the lord-general had taken his place, surrounded with civil and military officers, Lambert made an address on the necessity of a strong and stable government, and then prayed the general to accept, in the name of the army and the three nations, the office of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. Cromwell, after a slight demur, expressed his consent, and one of the clerks of the council read the forty articles contained in the Instrument. His Highness then swore to observe the articles, and his acceptance of the Protectorate

was announced to the public by proclamation. The times were evil, and though Cromwell might propose to himself to confine his government within constitutional limits, the unmanageable character of his parliaments, and the frequent plots against his government, drove him to act rather as a military dictator.

Hallam remarks on this transaction :-" It can admit of no doubt that the despotism of a wise man is more tolerable than that of political or religious fanatics; and it rarely happens that there is any better remedy in revolutions which have given the latter an ascendant. Cromwell's assumption, therefore, of the title of protector was a necessary and wholesome usurpation, however he may have caused the necessity; it secured the nation from the mischievous lunacy of the anabaptists, and from the more cool-blooded tyranny of that oligarchy which arrogated to itself the name of commonwealth's men. Though a gross and glaring evidence of the omnipotence of the army, the Instrument, under which he took his title, accorded to him no unnecessary authority. The sovereignty still resided in the parliament; he had no negative voice on their laws. Until the meeting of the next parliament, a power was given him of making temporary ordinances; but this was not, as Hume, on the authority of Clarendon and Warwick, has supposed, and as his conduct, if that were any proof of the law, might lead us to infer, designed to exist in future intervals of the legislature."

2. The Instrument of Government, 1653. This Instrument was the authority by which Cromwell became invested with the office of Lord Protector, and was also considered as the charter of public liberties. It is interesting now, as embodying what were then considered the essential elements in a government, which should have for its object the general welfare of the nation. The reform which it made in the system of representation, Clarendon speaks of "as an alteration fit to be more warrantably made, and in a better time". Lingard gives the following summary of the forty-two articles contained in the Instrument :

"1. By it the legislative power was invested in a lord-protector and parliament, but with a provision that every act passed by the parliament should become law at the expiration of twenty days, even without the consent of the protector; unless he could persuade the House of the reasonableness of his objections. The parliament was not to be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without its own consent, within the first five months after its meeting; and a new parliament was to be called within three years after the dissolution of the last. The number of the members was fixed according to the plan projected by Vane at the close of the long parliament, at four hundred for England, thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland. Most of the boroughs were disfranchised, and the number of county members was increased. Every person possessed of real or personal property to the value of two hundred pounds, had a right to vote, unless he were a malignant or delinquent, or professor of the Catholic faith; and the disqualifications to which the electors were subject, attached also to the persons elected.

"2. The executive power was made to reside in the lord-protector acting with the advice of his council. He possessed, moreover, the power of treating with foreign states with the advice, and of making peace or war with the consent, of the council. To him also belonged the disposal of the military and naval power, and the appointment of the great officers of State, with the approbation of parliament, and in the intervals of parliament, with that of the council, but subject to the subsequent approbation of the parliament.

"3. Laws could not be made, nor taxes imposed, but by common consent in parliament.

"4. The civil list was fixed at two hundred thousand pounds, and a yearly revenue ordered to be raised for the support of an army of thirty thousand men, two-thirds infantry, and one-third cavalry, with such a navy as the lord-protector should think necessary.

"5. All who professed faith in God by Jesus Christ were to be protected in the exercise of their religion, with the exception of prelatists, papists, and those who taught licentiousness under the pretence of religion.

"The lord-general Cromwell was named lord-protector; his successors were to be chosen by the council. The first parliament was to assemble on the 3rd of the following December; and till that time the lord-protector was vested with power to raise the moneys necessary for the public service, and to make ordinances which should have the force of law, till orders were taken in parliament respecting the same."

3. Cromwell's first parliament, Sept. 3, 1654—Jan. 31, 1655. The Protector opened this his first parliament on the 4th, with regal state. Notwithstanding the great efforts that had been made to influence the elections, the returns showed that choice had been made of some noted republicans; these Cromwell ordered to be excluded. In a few days the incompliant character of this assembly manifested itself, by a majority of votes being given in favor of discussing the question-whether, or not, the government shall be in a single person and a parliament? Bradshaw and his party maintained that the existing government emanated from an incompetent authority. When the debate had lasted several days, the Protector commanded the attendance of the House Being met, he delared to them that his calling was of God and the people, and that no other than God and the people should take the office from him; that the long parliament was dissolved for its despotism, the little parliament for its imbecility; that he would not permit them to sit, and disown the authority by which they sat; and that those who refused to sign a recognition would be excluded. On their return to the House, the members found a parchment which they were required to sign, pledging themselves not to propose or alter the government, as it was settled in one person and a parliament. About three hundred ultimately subscribed, and even then the House proved

not so manageable as was expected. The "Instrument" was examined in detail, some articles were rejected and others amended, and a new bill drawn embodying these changes. The bill was being read a third time, but before the debate was concluded, the members were again summoned to meet Cromwell. The Protector charged them with wasting five months, and doing nothing but encourage the malcontents; and that as their continuance was not for the benefit of the nation, he declared the parliament dissolved. With respect to the dissolution of this parliament Hallam has this note :-"Ludlow insinuates that this parliament did not set out its legal term of five months; Cromwell having interpreted the months to be lunar instead of calendar. Hume has adopted this notion; but it is groundless, the month in law being always of twenty-eight days, unless the contrary be expressed."

4. Cromwell's second parliament. Sept. 17, 1656Feb. 4, 1658. During the time the elections were being made, the whole nation was in a ferment, by reason of pamphlets which were circulated, calling on the electors to make a last struggle for their liberties. Every effort was made by the Protector to influence or overawe the electors, yet many of the elections were against him. He then ordered all the returns to be examined, and on various pretexts nearly a hundred members were excluded; among others were Ashley Cooper afterwards Earl of Shaftsbury, and Grimstone who became Speaker of the convention parliament which recalled Charles II. Cromwell made a long speech to his new parliament, showing the necessity of ample supplies because of the war with Spain, the projected invasion in favor of Charles Stuart, and the numerous enemies of the Commonwealth within the realm. As no member was allowed to take his seat in the House without a certificate from the council, a sharp discussion ensued; it was however found that by the Instrument, the council had power to determine on the fitness of the members. The great difficulty of the session was the question of supply, £400,000 was unanimously voted, but months were spent and no decision come to, as to the means of raising it. Much time was occupied with private bills, and the prosecution of James Naylor, once a quartermaster in the army, but now a fanatic, upon whom the House ordered the infliction of the most barbarous punishment. For this interference with the ordinary courts of law, and the infliction of so arbitrary a punishment, Cromwell severely censured the members.

Shortly after, by a side wind, a paper was introduced and read to the House protesting against the existing form of government, and suggesting that the Protector should assume a higher title,