to his lodging at Whitehall, and told the council of On the morrow, the 21st of April, Cromwell and officers, still assembled there, what he had done. his party were busied in consultations about a new "When I went to the House," said he, "I did not government and governors; on the 22d they orthink to have done this; but, perceiving the spirit dered that all courts of justice should sit as formerof God strong upon me, I would no longer consult ly, and they put forth a declaration of the grounds flesh and blood." But he had still work to do which and reasons for their dissolving the late parliament, required a masterly command over flesh and blood; "which declaration, being sent abroad into all the for there still remained the council of state, which dominions of the commonwealth, was readily ashad been chosen by, and in great part out of, the de- sented to by all the chief officers both by land and stroyed parliament. And on the afternoon of the sea." In this paper Cromwell spoke of the dilasame memorable day he proceeded to Derby House, toriness, the wavering, the selfishness, the corrupccompanied by Harrison and Lambert, and told the tion, and the jealousies of the late members, who members of the council, at his entrance, "Gentle- could never answer those ends which God, his peomen, if you are met here as private persons, you ple, and the whole nation expected from them. shall not be disturbed; but if as a council of state," All this," the declaration continued, "being sadly this is no place for you; and since you can not 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 Hazelrig, 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." 1 Ludlow. 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 righteousness 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 ment. successive parliaments; that so the government | idences of the Almighty, saying, that even their might be set upon a right basis, without hazard to enemies had many times confessed that God himthis glorious cause, or necessitating to keep up self was engaged against them. He then spoke of arms for the defense of the same." After men- the reasons which had forced him and his officers tioning his unsuccessful conferences "with about to dissolve the Long Parliament, which was as twenty members of parliament," which convinced necessary to be done as the preservation of this him that they intended "to perpetuate them- cause;" and he then told his little parliament that selves," Cromwell continued: "For preventing the truly God had called them to the work by as wonconsummating whereof, and all the sad and evil con- derful providences as ever passed upon the sons of sequences, which upon the grounds aforesaid must men; that he meant to be a servant to them who have ensued, and whereby at one blow the interest were called to the exercise of the supreme authorof all honest men and of this glorious cause had ity, and he reminded them of what had been much been endangered to be laid in the dust, and these upon his spirits, that " Judah ruleth with God, and nations embroiled in new troubles, at a time when is faithful among the saints." "This speech," says our enemies abroad are watching all advantages a friendly biographer, "was pronounced in so exagainst, and some of them actually engaged in war cellent a manner, as sufficiently manifested (as the with us, we have been necessitated (though with lord-general himself was thoroughly persuaded) much reluctance) to put an end to this parliament." that the spirit of God acted in and by him."1 Two other proclamations followed this; but it was When he had ended he produced an instrument in not till nearly three months had elapsed that the writing, whereby he did, with the advice of his people saw what sort of "known persons, fearing officers, devolve and intrust the supreme authority God and of approved integrity," Cromwell chose and government of the commonwealth into the to hold under him the legislative power of the na- hands of the persons then met, but stipulating that tion. One hundred and thirty-nine persons for the they should not sit longer than the 3d of Novemcounties and towns of England, six for Wales, five ber, 1654, and that three months before the dissofor Scotland, and six for Ireland, were summoned lution they were to make choice of other persons by writ, running simply in his own name, to meet to succeed them, who were not to sit longer than a in the council-chamber at Whitehall, and take upon year, and then to dissolve themselves after providing them the trust of providing for the future govern- in like manner for a succession and government. And on the 4th of July about one hundred And, delivering this instrument into their hands. and twenty of these individuals of his own selecting his excellency commended them to the grace of met at the place appointed. It was, on the whole, God, and retired with his officers. The Little an assemblage of men of good family or of military Parliament adjourned until the morning, when it distinction, "many of them being persons of fortune was appointed that they should meet at Westand knowledge" but, mixed with these, were minster, where the late parliament had sat, there to some persons of inferior rank, who were recom- keep that day in fasting and prayer. About eight mended by their religious enthusiasm, their dislike o'clock the next morning they met in the old Parof the Presbyterians, and their influence over the liament House, and prayed and preached-"not common people and sectarians. Of these the most finding any necessity to call for the help of a minnoted was one Barbone, a dealer in leather, whose ister"-till about six o'clock in the evening, when name, converted into Barebone, was afterward ap- they proceeded to business, by appointing Francis plied to the whole parliament, though the more Rouse, esq., to be their speaker, and by nominacommon appellation for that assemblage was “ The ting a committee to go to the lord-general and Little Parliament." 2 These members being seated desire him to afford his presence and assistance as round the council-table, Cromwell and the officers a member of the House. On the 6th of July, the of the army standing about the middle of the table, second day of their sitting, the question was put, the lord-general made a very long and very devout "that the House go on in seeking the Lord this speech, showing the cause of their summons, and day;" but it was negatived, and Monday, the 11th, that they had "a clear call to take upon them the was fixed for that holy exercise. They then desupreme authority of the commonwealth," and bated about the style and titles they should assume, quoting scripture most copiously to admonish and and resolved to call themselves The Parliament encourage them to do their duties. He related of the Commonwealth of England." On the 9th the wonders of God's mercy shown to himself in they reappointed the late council of state, adding the battles he had fought from the beginning of the to it some new members, among whom was Sir civil war," down to the marvelous salvation wrought Antony Ashley Cooper, and of which Cromwell at Worcester;" he insisted (and, as we are con- was of course the head. If the Long Parliament vinced, believed) that he and his friends had been had been too slow, this Little Parliament was soon eminently and visibly protected by the special prov- found to be too quick. They voted the abolition of the High Court of Chancery, a measure proNearly all the ridiculous names given to the Independents at voked by its insufferable delay, its ingrossing of this time, as "Redeemed Compton," "Fight-the-good-fight-of-Faith almost all suits, and the uncertainty of its decisWhite,"If-Christ-had-not-died-thou-hadst-been-damned Barebones," ions;" they nominated a set of commissioners to 1 Whitelock. 1 are pure inventions made fifty years after by a clergyman of the estab lished church. Sir Antony Ashley Cooper, afterward so celebrated as Earl of Shaftesbury, was a member of this parliament. 1 Carrington, Life of Cromwell. preside in courts of justice, among whom they | than five months after their first meeting, they with difficulty admitted two of the legal profession; they enacted, for the relief of Dissenters, that marriages should be solemnized before justices of the peace; and they aimed a death-blow at tithes, Then the lord-general held a council of officers, without taking much care to provide an equivalent. and, certain other persons being joined with them They entertained also other projects which alarmed to advise, it was resolved to have a commonwealth their nominator, who could never command a steady in a single person-"which person should be the majority either in this or in any other of his parlia- Lord-general Cromwell, under the title and dignity ments; and on the 12th of December, little more of Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ire were prevailed upon by the maneuvers of Cromwell, to dissolve themselves, and surrender their trust into his hands. THE PROTECTOR OLIVER CROMWELL. From a Painting by Vandyke. Picture in the British Museum. land, and the dominions and territories thereunto | and the people assembled in parliament; that all belonging, to be advised and assisted by a council writs, processes, commissions, patents, &c., which of godly, able, and discreet persons, to be not more then ran in the name and style of the keepers of than twenty-one." And, accordingly, as lord the liberty of England, should run in the name and protector, Oliver Cromwell, on the 16th of Decem- style of the lord protector, from whom, for the fuber, proceeded from Whitehall to the Chancery ture, should be derived all magistracy and honors, Court, attended by the lords commissioners of the and all pardon, except in cases of murder and great seal of England, the barons of the Exchequer, treason; that he should govern in all things by the and the judges all in their robes, the council of advice of the council, and according to the present state, and the lord mayor, aldermen, and recorder instrument and laws; that the militia and all forces of the city of London, in their scarlet gowns, and both by sea and land should, during the sitting of many of the chief officers of the army. A chair of parliament, be in his and their hands, but, in the state was set in the midst of the Court of Chancery, intervals of parliament, in his and the council's and there, Cromwell, in a plain suit of black velvet, only; that he and the council should have the stood on the left hand of the chair uncovered, till a power of making war and peace with foreign prinlarge writing in parchment was read, containing the ces; that the laws should not be altered, suspended, power with which he was to be invested, and the abrogated, or repealed, nor any new law made, nor rules for his governing the three nations. This any tax, charge, or imposition laid upon the people, parchment declared that the supreme legislative except by common consent in parliament; that a authority should be and reside in the lord protector parliament should be called within six months, and afterward every third year, and if need oftener, | in the exercise of theirs; provided that (for Cromwhich the protector should not dissolve without its well was either unwilling or unable to extend this own consent till after five months; that the parlia-wide toleration to the church of Rome and the ment should consist of four hundred English mem- Anglican episcopal church) this liberty were not bers, thirty Scotch members, and thirty Irish, to extended to popery or prelacy, or to such as under be chosen by equal distribution in counties and the profession of Christ held forth and practiced boroughs; that none that had borne arms against licentiousness. Such were the principal clauses the parliament, no Irish rebels, or papists, should of the instrument of government which the lord be capable of being elected; that none should be protector swore to, and to which he put his signaelected under the age of twenty-one years, or that ture, promising, in the presence of God, not to were not persons of known integrity, fearing God, violate or infringe the matters and things contained and of good conversation; that all persons seized therein. And hereupon he sat down, covered, in or possessed, of any estate, real or personal, to the the chair of state, and the lords commissioners value of £200, should have votes in county elec- delivered to him the great seal of England, and the tions; that sixty members should be deemed a lord mayor his sword and cap of maintenance, all quorum; that bills offered to the protector, if not which the lord protector returned immediately to assented to by him within twenty days, should pass them again. The court then rose, and Cromwell into, and become law, notwithstanding; that Philip went back in state to the Banqueting-House at Lord Viscount Lisle, Charles Fleetwood, esq., Whitehall, the lord mayor carrying the sword John Lambert, esq., Sir Gilbert Pickering, baronet, before him all the way, the soldiers shouting, and Sir Charles Wolsey, baronet, Sir Antony Ashley the great guns firing. On the following day (the Cooper, baronet, Edward Montague, John Desbor- 17th of December) the lord protector was proough, Walter Strickland, Henry Lawrence, William claimed by sound of trumpet in the Palace-yard at Sydenham, Philip Jones, Richard Major, Francis Westminster, at the Royal Exchange, and other Rouse, Philip Skipton, esquires, or any seven of places in the city; and soon after, the lord mayor them, should be a council of government, with and corporation invited him to a great feast at power in the lord protector and the majority of the Grocers' Hall.1 council to add to their number; that a regular yearly revenue should be settled for the mainte- | nance of ten thousand horse and fifteen thousand foot, and that the navy should not be altered or lessened but by advice of the council; that the office of lord protector should be elective, and not hereditary-care being taken that none of the children of the late king, nor any of his line or family, should ever be elected; that Oliver Cromwell, captain-general of the forces of England, Scotland, and Ireland, should be declared to be lord protector of the commonwealth for life; that all the great officers, as chancellor, keeper or commissioner of the great seal, treasurer, admiral, chief governors of Ireland and Scotland, and the chief justices of both the benches, should be chosen by the approbation of parliament, and in the intervals of parliament, by the majority of the council, whose choice was to be afterward approved by the parliament; that the Christian religion, as contained in the Scriptures, should be held forth and recommended as the public profession of these nations; that as soon as might be, a provision less subject than tithes to scruple, and contention, and uncertainty, should be made for the encouragement and maintenance of able and painful teachers, and that until such provision were made, the present maintenance should not be taken away or impeached; that none should be compelled to consent to the public profession of faith by fines or penalties or otherwise, but that endeavors should be used to win them by persuasion and example, and that such as professed faith in God by Jesus Christ, though differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or discipline publicly held forth, should not be restrained from, but protected in the exercise of their religion, so that they did not quarrel with and disturb others Thus was the government of England converted into a republic with a chief magistrate at its head. In the interval which had elapsed since the forcible expulsion of the Long Parliament, the maritime war had been conducted with vigor and successthe English fleet having, according to a pun of those days, out-trumped Van Tromp. This Neptune of the Dutch had again presented himself in the Downs on the 25th of May, and that, too, with a fleet of 108 ships. On the 2d of June Monk and Dean engaged him; on the 3d the gallant Blake came up and decided the action, in which the Dutch lost seventeen of their ships, which were sunk or taken, and, beside the slain, more than 1300 men that were made prisoners. The English lost none of their ships, but General Dean unfortunately fell by a great shot on the first day of the action. After the battle the English went and lay off the ports of Holland, taking prizes at their pleasure. But by the 29th of July Van Tromp again got to sea with 120 sail, and put all in a fighting posture to engage the English the next day. As the night was foul, and flats and shoals close under his lee, Monk, who now commanded in chief, hoisted sail and stood out to sea. "This sight made the Dutch suppose a flight, insomuch that one of their captains desired Van Tromp to pursue: for, said he, these Schellums dare not stand one broadside from your excellency; you may see them plainly running home, and therefore, my lord, miss not the opportunity. This was not the first time that Tromp had seen the English at sea, and he therefore returned the captain this short answer: Sir, look to your charge; for, were the enemy but twenty sail, they would never refuse to fight us. So it fell out; for, the weather proving 1 Whitelock.-Perfect Politician.-Carrington. sent him for another world, being shot with a musket-bullet into the left breast near the heart. . . . And no sooner was his life spent, but the hearts of his men were broken, a general consternation suddenly possessing the whole fleet, so that the seamen had more mind to carry home the news of their renowned admiral's death than to take vengeance on the English for killing him." This tremendous battle, in which the Dutch lost thirty ships, and the English only two, put an end to the war, and allowed the protector time to attend to business fair and calm, the English contracted their fleet DEFEAT OF THE DUTCH FLEET BY BLAKE, DEAN, AND MONK. From a Painting by Cleverly. A.D. 1654. Whenever Cromwell, who would frequently bemoan the animosities among the people, caused by diversity in religion, was pressed by preachers and zealots to put an end to them by enforcing a settlement and conformity to one creed, he represented that his power in the nation was merely that of a constable, who was to keep peace and quietness among all parties, and misuse none; but he thought himself obliged to imprison for a month some expounders of the gospel who represented him as a tyrant, and a worse protector than Richard III. In the courts of law he made some new appointments, among which was that of the great Sir Matthew Hale, who was put on the Bench of the Common Pleas. Thurloe, the friend VOL. III.-26 The of Milton, was made secretary of state; and a higher tone was noticeable in the state-papers of the country than had ever been known before, not excepting even the productions of Elizabeth's time. French government made haste to congratulate the lord protector, and engaged to dismiss the family of the late King Charles from France; Spain made a tender of friendship and alliance; and Portugal, which had, in effect, been at war with the commonwealth ever since the affair of Prince Rupert, sent over an ambassador extraordinary to negotiate for a peace with Cromwell. Don Pantaleon Sa, brother to the Portuguese envoy, was insulted one day in London by an Englishman of the name of Gerrard, commonly called "Generous Gerrard," an |