two countries which had been renewed from year to year, was suffered to expire at the appointed time. But in the north of Europe there was much to claim the attention of the new protector: the king of Sweden, after a short Aug. peace, had again unsheathed the sword against his enemy, the king of Denmark. The commercial interests of the maritime states were deeply involved in the issue of the contest; both England and Holland prepared to aid their respective allies; and a Dutch squadron joined the Danish, while an English division, under the command of Ayscue, sailed to the assistance of the Swedish monarch. The severity of the winter forced Ayscue to return; but as soon as the navigation of the Sound was open, two powerful fleets were despatched to the Baltic: one by the protector, the other by the States; and to Montague, the English admiral, was entrusted the delicate and difficult commission, not only of watching the proceedings of the Dutch, but also of compelling them to observe peace towards the Swedes, without giving them occasion to commence hostilities against himself. In this he was successful: but no offer of mediation could reconcile the contending monarchs; and we shall find Montague. still cruizing in the Baltic at the time when Richard, from whom he derived his commission, will be forced to abdicate the protectorial dignity.*

Nov. 30.

In a few days after the funeral of his father, to New par- the surprise of the public, the protector summoned liament. a parliament. How, it was asked, could Richard hope to control such an assembly, when the genius and authority of Oliver had proved unequal to the attempt? The difficulty was acknowledged; but the arrears of the army, the exhaustion of the treasury, and the necessity of seeking support against the designs of the officers, compelled him to hazard the experiment; and he flattered himself with the hope of success, by avoiding the rock on which, in the opinion of his advisers, the policy of his father had split. Oliver had adopted the plan of representation prepared by the long parliament before its dissolution, a plan which, by disfranchising the lesser boroughs, and multiplying the members of the counties, had rendered the elections more independent of the government: Richard, under the pretence of a boon to the nation, reverted to the ancient system; and, if we may credit the calculation of his opponents, no fewer than one hundred and sixty members were returned from the boroughs by the interest of the court and its sup

Burton's Diary, iii. 576. Thurloe, vol. vii. passim. Carte's Letters, ii. 157-182. Londorp, viii. 635. 708. Dumont, vi. 244. 252. 260.

porters. But to adopt the same plan in the conquered countries of Scotland and Ireland would have been dangerous : thirty representatives were therefore summoned from each; and, as the elections were conducted under the eyes of the commanders of the forces, the members, with one solitary exception, proved themselves the obsequious servants of government.*.

Parties in parlia

ment.

1659.

June 27.

It was, however, taken as no favourable omen, that when the protector, at the opening of parliament, commanded the attendance of the commons in the house of lords, nearly one-half of the members refused to obey. They were unwilling to sanction by their presence the existence of an authority, the legality of which they intended to dispute, or to admit the superior rank of the new peers, the representatives of the protector, over themselves, the representatives of the people. As soon as the lower house was constituted, it divided itself into three distinct parties. 1. The protectorists, about one half of the members, had received instructions to adhere inviolably to the provisions of the "humble petition and advice," and to consider the government by a single person, with the aid of two houses, as the unalterable basis of the constitution. 2. The republicans, who did not amount to fifty, compensated for the deficiency of number by their energy and eloquence. Vane, Hazlerig, Lambert, Ludlow, Nevil, Bradshaw, and Scot, were ready debaters, skilled in the forms of the house, and always on the watch to take advantage of the want of knowledge or of experience on the part of their adversaries. With them voted Fairfax, who, after a long retirement, appeared once more on the stage. He constantly sat by the side and echoed the opinions of Hazlerig; and, so artfully did he act his part, so firmly did he attach their confidence, that, though a royalist at heart, he was designed by them for the office of lord-general, in the event of the expulsion or the abdication of Richard. 3. The "moderates or neuters" held in number the medium between the protectorists and republicans. Of these, some wavered between the two parties; but many were concealed cavaliers, who, in obedience to the command of Charles, had obtained seats in the house, or young men who, without any fixed political principles, suffered themselves to be guided by the suggestions of the cavaliers. To the latter, Hyde had sent instructions, that they should embarrass the plans of the protector, by denouncing to the house the illegal acts

* Thurloe, vii. 541. 550. Ludlow, ii. 170. Bethel, Brief Narrative, 340. England's Confusion, p. 4. London, 1659.

committed under the late administration; by impeaching Thurloe and the principal officers of state; by fomenting the dissension between the courtiers and the republicans, and by throwing their weight into the scale, sometimes in favour of one, sometimes of the other party, as might appear most conducive to the interests of the royal exile.*

Recognition of

The lords, aware of the insecure footing on which they stood, were careful not to provoke the hostility Richard. of the commons. They sent no messages; they passed no bills; but, exchanging matters of state for questions of religion, contrived to spend their time in dicussing the merits of a national catechism; the sinfulness of theatrical entertainments; and the papal corruptions supposed to exist in the Book of Common Prayer. In the lower house, the first subject which called forth the strength of the different parties was a bill which, under the pretence of recognizing Richard Cromwell for the rightful successor to his father, would have pledged the parliament to an acquiescence in the existing form of government. The men of republican principles instantly took the alarm. To Richard personally they felt no objection; they respected his private character, and wished well to the prosperity of his family: but where, they asked, was the proof that the provisions of the "humble petition and advice" had been observed ? where the deed of nomination by his father? where the witnesses to the signature? -Then what was the "humble petition and advice" itself? An instrument of no force in a matter of such high concernment, and passed by a very small majority in a house, out of which one hundred members lawfully chosen had been unlawfully excluded. Lastly, what right had the commons to admit a negative voice, either in another house or in a single person? Such a voice was destructive of the sovereignty of the people exercised by their representatives. The people had sent them to parliament with power to make laws for the national welfare, but not to annihilate the first and most valuable right of their constituents. Each day the debate grew more animated and personal charges were made, and recrimination followed; the republicans enumerated the acts of misrule and oppression under the government of the late protector; the courtiers balanced the account with similar instances from the proceedings of their adversaries during the sway of the long parliament; the orators, amidst the multi

* Thurloe, i. 766; vii. 562. 604. 5. 9. 615. 6. Clarend. Pap. iii. 423. 4, 5, 8. 432. 4. 6. There were forty-seven republicans; from one hundred to one hundred and forty counterfeit republicans and neuters, seventy-two lawyers, and above one hundred placemen. Ibid. 440.

+ Thurloe, 559. 609. 615.

Feb. 14.

tude of subjects incidentally introduced, lost sight of the original question; and the speaker, after a debate of eight days, declared that he was bewildered in a labyrinth of confusion, out of which he could discover no issue. Weariness at last induced the combatants to listen to a compromise, that the recognition of Richard as protector should form part of a future bill; but that, at the same time, his prerogative should be so limited as to secure the liberties of the people. Each party expressed its satisfaction. The republicans had still the field open for the advocacy of their favourite doctrines; the protectorists had advanced a step, and trusted that it would lead them to the acquisition of greater advantages.*

;

And of the

From the office of protector, the members proceeded to inquire into the constitution and powers other of the other house; and this question, as it was in house. timately connected with the former, was debated with equal warmth and pertinacity. The opposition appealed to the " engagement," which many of the members had subscribed; contended that the right of calling a second house had been personal to the late protector, and did not descend to his successors; urged the folly of yielding a negative voice on their proceedings to a body of counsellors of their own creation and pretended to foretel that a protector with a yearly income of 1,300,000l., and a house of lords selected by himself, must inevitably become in the course of a few years master of the liberties of the people. When, March 10. at the end of nine days, the speaker was going to put the question, Sir Richard Temple, a concealed royalist, demanded that the sixty members from Scotland, and Ireland, all in the interest of the court, should withdraw. It was, he said, doubtful from the illegality of their election whether they had any right to sit at all; it was certain that, as the representatives of other nations, they could not claim to vote on a question of such high importance to the people of England. Thus another bone of contention was thrown between the parties; eleven days were consumed before the Scottish and Irish members could obtain permission to vote, and then five more expired before the question respecting the other house was determined. The new lords had little reason to be gratified with the result. They were acknowledged, indeed, as a house of parliament for the present; but there was no admission of their claim to the

*

March 23.

March 28.

Journals, Feb. 1. 14. Thurloe, 603. 9. 10, 5. 7. Clar. Pap. iii. 424. 6. 9. In Burton's Diary the debate occupies almost two hundred pages, iii. 87.

-287.

peerage, or of a negative voice, or of a right to sit in subsequent parliaments. The commons consented "to transact business with them" (a new phrase of undefined meaning), pending the parliament, but with a saving of the rights of the ancient peers, who had been faithful to the cause; April 8. and, in addition, a few days later they resolved that, in the transaction of business, no superiority should be admitted in the other house, nor message received from it, unless brought by the members themselves.*

In these instances, the recognition of the protector Charles and of the two houses, the royalists, with some exagainst the ceptions, had voted in favour of the court, under late government. the impression that such a form of government was one step towards the restoration of the king. But on all other questions, whenever there was a prospect of throwing impediments in the way of the ministry, or of inflaming the discontent of the people, they zealously lent their aid to the republican party. It was proved that, while the revenue had been doubled, the expenditure had grown in a greater proportion: complaints were made of oppression, waste, embezzlement, and tyranny in the collection of the excise; the inhumanity of selling obnoxious individuals for slaves to the West India planters was severely reprobated ;† instances of extortion were daily denounced to the house by the committee of grievances; an impeachment was ordered against Boteler accused of oppression in his office of majorgeneral; and another threatened against Thurloe for illegal conduct in his capacity of secretary of state. But while these proceedings awakened the hopes and gratified the resentments of the people, they at the same time spread alarm through the army; every man conscious of having abused the power of the sword, began to tremble for his own safety; and an unusual ferment, the sure presage of military violence, was observable at the head quarters of the several regiments.

* Journals, Feb. 18. Mar. 28: April 5, 6. 8. Thurloe, 615. 26. 30. 36. 40. 47. Clar. Pap. iii. 429. 432. Burton's Diary, iii. 317-69, 403.-24. 51094; iv. 7-41. 46-147. 163-243. 293. 351. 375.

+ Clar. Pap. iii. 429. 32. Thurloe, 647. Burton's Diary, iii. 448; iv. 255. 263. 301. 403. 429. One petition stated that seventy persons, who had been apprehended on account of the Salisbury rising, after a year's imprisonment, had been sold at Barbadoes for "1,550 pounds' weight of sugar a-piece, more or less, according to their working faculties." Among them were divines, officers, and gentlemen, who were represented as "grinding at the mills, attending at the furnaces, and digging in that scorching island, being bought and sold still from one planter to another, or attached as horses or beasts for the debts of their masters, being whipped at the whipping posts as rogues at their master's pleasure, and sleeping in sties worse than hogs in England." Ibid. 256. See also Thurloe, i. 745.