BOOK III. 1653. 538 CHAPTER XXXI. CHARACTER OF BARBONE'S PARLIAMENT.-COUN CIL OF STATE.-COMMITTEES OF PARLIAMENT. DEATH OF VAN COUNCIL OF state, Installed July the Fourteenth. Oliver Cromwel, Lord General. Lord Viscount Lisle. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Bart. Col. Matthew Tomlinson. Sir Gilbert Pickering, Bart. John Carew. Samuel Moyer. Lieut. Gen. Charles Fleetwood. Col. Henry Lawrence. Hugh Courteney. Richard Salway. Thomas St. Nicholas. Character of Bar bone's parliament. Dennis Hollister. Andrew Broughton. John Williams. WHITLOCKE has remarked, "It was much won dered at by some, that these gentlemen, many of XXXI. them being persons of fortune and knowledge, CHAP. would, at this summons, and from these hands, take upon them the supreme authority of the nation." But surely they reasoned rightly. The maxims of ordinary times are by no means suited to cases of singular emergence. The old forms of the constitution, so far as related to legislative and executive authority, were broken up; and it would have been a sort of political pedantry for these persons to have refused to serve their country, when the power of doing so seemed to be put into their hands. Men must not always nicely enquire whence the means of public good, whether money, or any other instrument of great utility, are derived to them; but rather how they may be made productive of general advantage. If, by my declining authority, the consequence will arise that it will be placed in better and more legitimate hands, I ought to decline it. We will not now enquire into the solidity of the considerations, which deterred the late parliament first, and afterwards Cromwel, from referring to the nation at large the choice of their representatives in the way of a general election. It is certain that, if the members of Barbone's parliament, demurring to the authority by which they had been called together, had refused to sit, this would not have led to the calling a full and free house of representatives. It was by no means to be desired that the whole authority of the govern 1653. Reasontheir proamined. ableness of ceeding ex III. 1653. BOOK ment should remain with Cromwel and his council of officers. The persons now summoned, looking over the list of their colleagues, felt convinced that they were competent to the conferring great and lasting benefits on the nation. Providence, or the system of the universe, by whatever name we shall think fit to call it, yielded to them, as it seemed, the opportunity of doing much good. It was theirs to calm the perturbed spirits of the nation, and compose the jarring interests by which it was divided. Were they, because they were not elected by the people, and seeing that, if they withdrew themselves, no such election would take place, to throw away the opportunity which was thus given them? They enter The supreme authority being thus constituted, on business. and Cromwel and his officers having withdrawn, the only determinations of the assembly on that day, were, to adjourn, and to fix their place of meeting for the following day at the house where the parliament had been previously held. Accordingly, on the fifth of July, they called Francis Rous, provost of Eton, to the chair of the assembly, appointed Scobel to be their clerk, and, by a deputation consisting of sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and such members as were already of the council of state, invited Cromwel, the three majorgenerals, and colonel Tomlinson, to assist as members of the house, thus making their entire number one hundred and forty-four. On the following day they resolved that all addresses should be CHAP. made to them under the name of the parliament". XXXI. 1653. They pub ration. On the twelfth they agreed upon a declaration, inviting the people of England to pray to God for lish a declahis blessing on their counsels and proceedings. In this paper they abstain from all accusation or reflection on the late parliament, and no otherwise refer to the summons by which they had been brought together, than simply by saying, that, being in an extraordinary manner called together, and required to assume the supreme government, they had judged it meet and requisite to take upon themselves the charge assigned. They further remark, that, though they were tender of pressing covenants and engagements on the people, yet they expected and believed that all peaceable and good citizens would conduct themselves suitably to the protection they looked for from the present authority. They were ample in expressing their purpose to proceed in all things as might best conduce to the good of all, and declaring the watchfulness and tenderness they would exercise as to the life, liberty, and estate of every member of the commonwealth b. Their next considerable measure was to appoint Elect a a council of state to exercise the executive autho council of state. a Journals. Journals. Parliamentary History, Vol. XX, p. 184, et seqq. III. 1653. BOOK rity. They determined that the number of the council should be thirty-one. On the eighth they nominated the members of the late council with the addition of Salway to be members of the new council: and, six days afterwards, they filled up the number with the names of Fleetwood, Montagu, Howard, lord viscount Lisle, sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, and others d: all of them, except Fleetwood, members of the present parlia Power which re the hands of Crom wel. ment. Thus Cromwel, after the lapse of a few days, mained in became once again an integral member of the government, both legislative and executive. Add to which, thirteen of the thirty-one counsellors were those expressly of his own nomination. It may further easily be supposed, as the list of the whole parliament was formed by him, that, whatever rigour and conscientious strictness he might profess to employ in the selection, his influence over such a body must necessarily be extensive. Temper of the assem bly. The assembly proceeded early and diligently in the consideration of such questions as seemed most intimately connected with the public welfare. The principles with which they were animated, were strikingly similar to those of the last parliament; but they had not the motives for procrastination which prevailed in that assembly. Their duration was limited, by the instrument of govern c Journals. d Journals. Sce above, p. 538. |