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be made to the parliament, yet the good or bad success in it is from your excellency; and particular solicitations of foreign ministers are made to you only; so that I apprehend, indeed, less envy, and danger, and pomp, but not less power and real opportunities of doing good in your being general, than would be if you had assumed the title of king." [And, indeed, if all this were true, Cromwell was almost as much a sovereign before destroying the Rump as he was after that great coup d'état.] But Cromwell, still clinging to the notion of kingship, told Whitelock that he had heard. some lawyers observe that he who was actually king, whether by descent or merely by election, yet, being once king, all acts done by him as king were, by an act of parliament in Henry VII.'s time, as lawful and justifiable as if they had been done by any king that had the crown by inheritance from his forefathers; so that it was safer for those who acted under a king, be his title what it might, than for those who acted under any other power. And, surely," continued Cromwell, "the power of a king is so great and high, and so universally understood and reverenced by the people of this nation, that the name of it might not only indemnify in a great measure those that act under it, but likewise be of great use and advantage in such times as these, to curb the insolencies of those whom the present powers cannot control." Whitelock rejoined, that, if their enemies should come to get the upper hand of them, that act of parliament of Henry VII. would be little regarded. "But what do you apprehend would be the danger of taking this title ?" asked Cromwell. Whitelock replied, that the danger was simply this-that the main controversy between them and their adversaries was, whether the government should be established in monarchy or in a free state or commonwealth, most of their friends having engaged with them, and undergone all their hazards and difficulties, upon the hopes of having the government settled in a free state, they being persuaded that under the government of a commonwealth they should enjoy more civil and religious liberty than they should under a monarchy, the evils and abuses of which were so fresh in their memories and sufferings: but the question would then be whether Cromwell or Stuart should be king and monarch. Cromwell confessed that there was reason in these objections; but he asked Whitelock what other thing he could propound to obviate the present danger; and Whitelock, after a long discourse, in which he spoke of the busy and turbulent spirits of many men in the army, that wanted not counsel and encouragement, it might be, from some members of the very parliament, begged "a little to consider the condition of the King of Scots,"-as he correctly designated Charles the Second. "That prince," continued the man of the long robe, "is reduced to so very low a condition, that both he and all about him cannot but be very inclinable to hearken to any terms whereby their lost hopes

VOL. III.

Other

may be revived of his being restored to the crown, and they to their fortunes and native country. By a private treaty with him you may secure yourself, and your friends, and their fortunes; you may make yourself and your posterity as great and permanent, to all human probability, as ever any subject was, and provide for your friends. You may put such limits to monarchical power as will secure our spiritual and civil liberties; and you may secure the cause in which we are all engaged by having the power of the militia continued in yourself, and whom you shall agree upon after you. I propound, therefore, for your excellency to send to the King of Scots, and to have a private treaty with him for this purpose." But the man of the sword could not but remember the private negotiations he had with Charles I.-could not but entertain the doubt that duplicity and insincerity were family vices of the Stuarts-could never expect that the son should forgive the death of the father. He broke off the conference, "seeming, by his countenance and carriage, to be displeased with what had been said; yet he never objected it against Whitelock in any public meeting afterwards: only his carriage towards him from that time was altered, and his advising with him not so frequent and intimate as before."* conferences took place between Cromwell, St. John, Lenthall the Speaker, Desborough, Harrison, Fleetwood, and Whalley; and to all these men the potent lord-general openly declared that a settlement with somewhat of monarchical power in it would be very effectual." Other conferences were held between the chief officers of the army and certain members of the parliament, with respect to the dissolution of the present House, and the provisions to be made in order that a "new representative" might be convened, consisting solely of members friendly to liberty. unshackled election was out of the question;-the Presbyterians so returned would alone have more than doubled the number of the Independents or Republicans, who would have been voted to the Tower and the scaffold, or again obliged to call in Cromwell's pikes and muskets. Yet, notwithstanding this certainty, a committee of the House adopted the resolution of bringing into the new parliament a number of Presbyterians under the name of "Neutrals," and this, too, in spite of Cromwell and his officers, who had told them that none of the Presbyterians who had deserted their cause and interest should have any power in parliament, -that they would as soon deliver up their cause to the royalists," that it was one thing to love another in matters of religion, and another thing to set him in the saddle so as to command all his

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An

brethren." And here Cromwell decidedly spoke the sense of the whole body of the Independents (excepting such as were blind to facts in their eagerness to retain power), who well knew that the Presbyterians were as remote as ever from any notion of a large religious toleration.

• Memorials.

3 G

On the 19th of April there was a great meeting, at Cromwell's lodgings in Whitehall, of parliamentmen and officers of the army, who had been summoned on purpose by their general; and it was there debated at length what expedient might be found for carrying on the government and putting a period to the present parliament,-for, as things then stood, the dissolution of the House of Commons was nothing less than the dissolution of the government. Most of the parliament-men represented that it would be a most dangerous thing to dissolve the present parliament; but St. John and several others with him, and all the officers, "who stuck close to their general," were for an instant dissolution, declaring that it was necessary the thing should be done one way or other, and the members of parliament not permitted to prolong their own power. This conference lasted till late at night, when Widderington and Whitelockand, may suppose, most of the members-" went home, weary and troubled." On the morrow morning (the 20th) there was another meeting, according to appointment, in Cromwell's lodgings, but few parliament-men attended, and not many officers. "A point was again stirred, which had been debated the last night, whether forty persons, or about that number, of parliament-men and officers of the army, should be nominated by the parliament, and empowered for the managing the affairs of the commonwealth till a new parliament should meet, and so the present parliament to be forthwith dissolved." But, while they were debating this question, news was brought from the House, by Colonel Ingoldsby, that the Commons were hurrying through their own obnoxious bill, with all its clauses about Neuters, &c.; and, in fact, the majority of the House hoped, by indecent speed, to pass this important bill in the form upon which they had privately agreed, before the meeting at Whitehall should be aware of their proceedings. But, now, on Ingoldsby's warning, the members present at that meeting ran down to the House, and Cromwell, greatly excited, commanded some of the officers to fetch a party of soldiers to accompany him. He then marched away to the House, attended by Lambert, a few other officers, and a file of musketeers, whom he left at the doors and in the lobby of the House. Going, then, straight to his seat, he sat for some time in silence, listening to the discussion; but, when the Speaker was about to put the motion, he beckoned Harrison to him, and said, "Now is the time-I must do it." Harrison, a religious enthusiast, a Fifth Monarchy man, who had been weaned with difficulty from his republicanism, advised him to consider what he was doing. He sat down, paused for a minute, then rose, and, removing his hat from his head, began a speech to the question before the House. Soon growing warm, he told them, in violent language, that they were denyers of justice; oppressors; openly profane men, who intended their own aggrandisement; who were planning, at that very moment, to bring in the

Presbyterians; who would lose no time in utterly destroying the cause which they had deserted. Sir Harry Vane or Sir Peter Wentworth, or both, rose to remonstrate, and told him that this was not parliamentary language. "I know it," cried Cromwell; who then rushed from his seat to the stage or floor in the midst of the House, where he walked up and down, with his hat on his head, reproaching the members personally, not naming them, but showing by his gestures who it was he meant. Pointing at Vane, he said, "One person might have prevented all this, but he is a juggler, and hath not so much as common honesty. The Lord hath done with him, however, and chosen honester and worthier instruments for carrying on his work." Vane, Wentworth, and Harry Marten raised their voices. "I'll put an end to your prating," shouted Cromwell; "you are no parlia ment; I'll put an end to your sitting. Get ye gone! Give way to honester men." And stamping with his foot heavily upon the floor, the door opened, and his musketeers rushed in and surrounded him. Then pointing to the Speaker in his chair, he said to Harrison, "Fetch him down." Harrison went to the Speaker, and bade him come down; but the Speaker sat still, and said nothing. "Take him down," cried Cromwell; and then Harrison pulled at his robe, and the Speaker came down. Algernon Sydney, that staunch republican, and then a young member, happened that day to be seated next to the Speaker. "Put him out," cried Cromwell to Harrison, who was as active in ending the parliament as Pride had been in purging it. Harrison instantly ordered Sydney to go out. But Sydney said he would not go out; and sat still till the general said, again, “Put him out;" and Harrison and Worsley, who commanded Cromwell's own regiment of foot, laid their hands upon his shoulders, as if they would force him. Then Sydney rose, and went towards the door; and Cromwell went up to the table where the mace lay, and, pointing to it, cried, "Take away that bauble." As the members withdrew, Alderman Allen said that, if he would send out the soldiers, all might yet be repaired; but Cromwell replied by accusing the alderman of embezzlement and dishonesty in his office as treasurer to the army. And, pointing to them as he spoke, he called Challonor a drunkard, Sir Peter Wentworth an adulterer, and his old friend Harry Marten a whoremaster. As Vane passed he said aloud to Cromwell, "This is not honest; yea, it is against morality and common honesty." "Sir Harry Vane! Sir Harry Vane! the Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane!" was the general's retort to the wisest and greatest of all the commonwealthmen. And thus the House was soon cleared: "for," says Whitelock, who was present, and who is said to have come in for a share of the abuse, "among all the parliament, of whom many wore swords, and would sometimes brag high, not one man offered to draw his sword against Cromwell, or to make the least resistance against him, but

all of them tamely departed the House." When they were all gone the doors were locked, and Cromwell, with the keys in his pocket, walked back to his lodging at Whitehall, and told the council of officers, still assembled there, what he had done. "When I went to the House," said he, "I did not think to have done this; but, perceiving the spirit of God strong upon me, I would no longer consult flesh and blood." But he had still work to do which required a masterly command over flesh and blood; for there still remained the council of state, which had been chosen by, and in great part out of, the destroyed parliament. And on the afternoon of the same memorable day he proceeded to Derby House, accompanied by Harrison and Lambert, and told the members of the council, at his entrance, "Gentlemen, if you are met here as private persons you shall not be disturbed; but if as a council of state, this is no place for you; and since you cannot but know what was done at the House in the morning, so take notice that the parliament is dissolved." Bradshaw, who was in the chair, replied, "Sir, we have heard what you did at the House in the morning, and before many hours all England will hear it. But, Sir, you are mistaken to think that the parliament is dissolved, for no power under

heaven can dissolve them but themselves; therefore, take you notice of that." Sir Arthur Haselrig, Mr. Love, and Mr. Scot said something more to the same purpose; but they all rose and departed, nevertheless, "perceiving themselves to be under the same violence."*

On the morrow, the 21st of April, Cromwell and his party were busied in consultations about a new government and governors; on the 22nd they ordered that all courts of justice should sit as formerly, and they put forth a declaration of the grounds and reasons for their dissolving the late parliament, "which declaration, being sent abroad into all the dominions of the commonwealth, was readily assented to by all the chief officers both by land and sea." In this paper Cromwell spoke of the dilatoriness, the wavering, the selfishness, the corruption; and the jealousies of the late members, who could never answer those ends which God, his people, and the whole nation expected from them.

All this," the declaration continued, "being sadly and seriously considered by the honest people of the nation, as well as by the army, it seemed a duty incumbent upon us, who had seen so much of the power and presence of God, to consider of some effectual means whereby to establish right

• Ludlow.

eousness and peace in these nations. And, after much debate, it was judged necessary that the supreme government should be by the parliament devolved upon known persons, fearing God, and of approved integrity, for a time, as the most hopeful way to countenance all God's people, reform the law, and administer justice impartially: hoping thereby the people might forget monarchy, and understand their true interest in the election of successive parliaments; that so the government might be set upon a right basis, without hazard to this glorious cause, or necessitating to keep up arms for the defence of the same." After mentioning his unsuccessful conferences" with about twenty members of parliament," which convinced him that they intended "to perpetuate themselves," Cromwell continued: "For preventing the consummating whereof, and all the sad and evil consequences, which upon the grounds aforesaid must have ensued, and whereby at one blow the interest of all honest men, and of this glorious cause had been endangered to be laid in the dust, and these nations embroiled in new troubles, at a time when our enemies abroad are watching all advantages against, and some of them actually engaged in war with us, we have been necessitated (though with much reluctance) to put an end to this parliament." Two other proclamations followed this, but it was not till nearly three months had elapsed that the people saw what sort of "known persons, fearing God and of approved integrity," Cromwell chose to hold under him the legislative power of the nation. One hundred

and thirty-nine persons for the counties and towns of England, six for Wales, five for Scotland, and six for Ireland, were summoned by writ, running simply in his own name, to meet in the council-chamber at Whitehall, and take upon them the trust of providing for the future government. And on the 4th of July about one hundred and twenty of these individuals of his own selecting met at the place appointed. It was, on the whole, an assemblage of men of good family or of military distinction, "many of them being persons of fortune and knowledge;"* but, mixed with these, were some persons of inferior rank, who were recommended by their religious enthusiasm, their dislike of the Presbyterians, and their influence over the common people and sectarians. Of these the most noted was one Barbone, a dealer in leather, whose name, converted into Barebone, was afterwards applied to the whole parliament, though the more common appellation for that assemblage was "The Little Parliament."+ These members being seated round the council-table, Cromwell and the officers of the army standing about the middle of the table, the lord-general

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made a very long and very devout speech, showing the cause of their summons, and that they had 'a clear call to take upon them the supreme authority of the commonwealth," and quoting scripture most copiously to admonish and encourage them to do their duties. He related the wonders of God's mercy shown to himself in the battles he had fought from the beginning of the civil war, "down to the marvellous salvation wrought at Worcester;" he insisted (and, as we are convinced, believed) that he and his friends had been eminently and visibly protected by the special providences of the Almighty, saying, that even their enemies had many times confessed that God himself was engaged against them. He then spoke of the reasons which had forced him and his officers to dissolve the Long Parliament, "which was as necessary to be done as the preservation of this cause;" and he then told his little parliament that truly God had called them to the work by as wonderful providences as ever passed upon the sons of men; that he meant to be a servant to them who were called to the exercise of the supreme authority, and he reminded them of what had been much upon his spirits, that "Judah ruleth with God, and is faithful among the saints." "This speech," says a friendly biographer, "was pronounced in so excellent a manner, as sufficiently manifested (as the lord-general himself was thoroughly persuaded) that the spirit of God acted in and by him.”* When he had ended he produced an instrument in writing, whereby he did, with the advice of his officers, devolve and intrust the supreme authority and government of the commonwealth into the hands of the persons then met, but stipulating that they should not sit longer than the 3rd of November, 1654, and that three months before the dissolution they were to make choice of other persons to succeed them, who were not to sit longer than a year, and then to dissolve themselves after providing in like manner for a succession and government. And, delivering this instrument into their hands, his excellency commended them to the grace of God, and retired with his officers. The Little Parliament adjourned until the morning, when it was appointed that they should meet at Westminster, where the late parliament had sat, there to keep that day in fasting and prayer. About eight o'clock the next morning they met in the old Parliament House, and prayed and preached-" not finding any necessity to call for the help of a minister" till about six o'clock in the evening, when they proceeded to business, by appointing Francis Rouse, Esq. to be their speaker, and by nominating a committee to go to the lord-general and desire him to afford his presence and assistance as a member of the House. On the 6th of July, the second day of their sitting, the question was put, "that the House go on in seeking the Lord this day," but it was negatived, and Monday, the 11th, was fixed for that holy exercise. They then Carrington, Life of Cromwell,

debated about the style and titles they should assume, and resolved to call themselves "The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England." On the 9th they re-appointed the late council of state, adding to it some new members, among whom was Sir Antony Ashley Cooper, and of which Cromwell was of course the head. If the Long Parliament had been too slow, this Little Parliament was soon found to be too quick. They voted the abolition of the High Court of Chancery; "a measure provoked by its insufferable delay, its ingrossing of almost all suits, and the uncertainty of its decisions;"* they nominated a set of commissioners to preside in courts of justice; among whom they with difficulty admitted two of the legal profession; they enacted, for the relief of Dissenters, that marriages should be solemnised before justices of the peace; and they aimed a deathblow at tithes, without taking much care to provide an equivalent. They entertained also other projects which alarmed their nominator, who could never command a steady majority either in this or in any other of his parliaments; and on the 12th of December, little more than five months after their first meeting, they were prevailed upon by the manœuvres of Cromwell, to dissolve themselves, and surrender their trust into his hands.

Then the lord-general held a council of officers, and, certain other persons being joined with them to Hallam, Constitutional History..

advise, it was resolved to have a commonwealth in a single person-" which person should be the LordGeneral Cromwell, under the title and dignity of Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions and territories thereunto belonging, to be advised and assisted by a council of godly, able, and discreet persons, to be not more than twenty-one." And, accordingly, as Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, on the 16th of December, proceeded from Whitehall to the Chancery Court, attended by the lords commissioners of the great seal of England, the barons of the Exchequer, and the judges all in their robes, the council of state, and the lord mayor, aldermen, and recorder of the city of London in their scarlet gowns, and many of the chief officers of the army. A chair of state was set in the midst of the Court of Chancery, and there Cromwell, in a plain suit of black velvet, stood on the left-hand of the chair uncovered, till a large writing in parchment was read, containing the power with which he was to be invested and the rules for his governing the three nations. This parchment declared that the supreme legislative authority should be and reside in the lord protector and the people assembled in parliament; that all writs, processes, commissions, patents, &c., which then ran in the name and style of the keepers of the liberty of England, should run in the name and style of the lord protector, from whom, for the future, should be derived all magistracy and ho