there being three opposite interests in the nation; the republicans, who were for an absolute commonwealth; the presbyterians, who were for restoring things to the condition they were in, in 1648; and the cavaliers, who were for setting the king upon the throne, as before the civil wars; it was by no means possible (says he*) to reconcile the three parties, and if they had been let loose they would have destroyed each other, and thrown the whole nation into blood and confusion; nothing therefore but giving a forcible superiority to one, was capable to hold the other two in subjection. The king was no way interested in the change, for it was not Charles Stuart, but a republican usurpation that was dispossessed of the supreme power. If the general had failed in his design, and lost his life in the attempt, the king would have received no manner of advantage, for the nation was by no means disposed to restore him at this time. Supposing then it was not practicable to choose a free parliament, nor fit to let the old one perpetuate themselves, Oliver Cromwell had no other choice, but to abandon the state, or to take the administration upon himself; or put it into the hands of some other person who had no better title. How far private ambition took place of the public good in the choice, must be left to the judg ment of every reader; but if it was necessary that there should be a supreme authority,capable of enforcing obedience,it cannot be denied, but that general Cromwell was more capable of governing the state in such a storm, than any man then living. No objection can be raised against him, which might not with more justice have been urged against any other single person, or body of men in the nation except the right heir. However, all the three parties of cavaliers, presbyterians, and republicans, were displeased with his conduct, loaded him with invectives, and formed conspiracies against his person, though they could nev er agree in any other scheme, which in the present crisis was more practicable. The parliament being thus violently dispersed, the sov creign power devolved on the council of officers, of which Cromwell was head, who published a declaration, justify * Rapin, p. 149. ing his dissolution of the late parliament, and promising to put the administration into the bands of persons of approved fidelity and honesty, and leave them to form it into what shape they pleased. Accordingly, April 30, another declaration was published, signed by Oliver Cromwell, and thirty of his officers, nominating a new council of state to take care of the government, till a new representative body of men could be called together; and June 8, the general, by the advice of his council, sent the following summons to one hundred and forty select persons, out of the several counties of England, to meet at Westminster, in order to settle the nation: "I Oliver Cromwell, captaingeneral, &c. do hereby summons and require you- -being one of the persons nominated by myself, with the advice of my council, personally to appear at the council chamber at Whitehall, upon the fourth of July next ensuing the date hereof, to take upon you the trust of the affairs of the commonwealth; to which you are hereby called and appointed to serve as a member for the county of; and hereof you are not to fail. Given under my hand this 8th of June 1653. O. Cromwell.” These were high acts of sovereignty, and not to be justified but upon the supposition of extreme necessity. The dissolution of the long-parliament was an act of violence, but not unacceptable to the people, as appeared by the numerous addresses from the army, the fleet, and other places, approving the general's conduct and promising to stand by him and his council in their proceedings; but then for the general himself, and thirty officers to choose representatives for the whole nation, without interesting any of the counties or corporations of England in the choice, would have deserved the highest censui. under any other circumstances. About one hundred and twenty of the new representatives appeared at the time and place appointed, when the gener al, after a short speech, delivered them an instrument in parchment under his hand and seal, resigning into their hands, or the hands of any forty of them, the supreme authority and government of the commonwealth, limiting the time of their continuance to Nov. 3, 1654, and empowering them, three months before their dissolution, to make choice of others to succeed them for a year, and they to provide for a future succession. It was much wondered, says Whitlocke, that these gentlemen, many of whom were persons of fortune and estate,† should accept of the supreme authority of the nation, upon such a summons, and from such hands. Most of them were men of piety, but no great politicians, and were therefore in contempt called sometimes the little parliament; and by others, Barebone's parliament, from a leatherseller of that name, who was one of *Memoirs, p. 534. † Dr. Grey, after Lord Clarendon and others, and Mr. Hume since them, have spoken in severe and contemptuous terms of this assembly and their proceedings. "The major part of them," says his lordship, "consisted of inferior persons, of no quality or name, artificers of the meanest name, known only by their gifts in praying and preaching." But many of Cromwell's after counsellors, many of the chief officers of the army, were in this assembly. They were treated as the supreme authority of the nation by sovereign princes, and had the most humble applications made to them by the chief cavaliers, as by the Earls of Worcester, Derby, and Shrewsbury, Lord Mansfield, and the Countess of Derby; and they were during their short session, employed about points of the highest national concernment; such as abolishing the court of chancery on account of its expensiveness and delays, the forming a new body of the law, the union of Scotland with England, the regula tions of marriages, and the investing of the solemnization and cognizance of them in the civil magistrate, with other matters of moment. Harris's Life of Oliver Cromwell, p. 335-387. Ed. There were three brothers of this family, each of whom had a sentence for his name, viz. "Praise God Barebone; Christ came into the world to save Barebone; and, if Christ had not died thou had'st been damned Barebone." In this style were the christian names of very many persons formed in the times of the civil wars. It was said, that the genealogy of our Savior might be learnt from the names in Cromwell's regiments; and that the muster-master used no other list than the first chapter of Matthew. A jury was returned in the county of Sussex of the following names: Accepted, Trevor of Norsham. Redeemed, Compton of Battle. Faint not, Hewet of Heathfield. Make peace, Heaton of Hare. God-reward, Smart of Fivehurst, Stand fast on High, Stringer of Crowhurst. Earth, Adams of Warbleton. | Return, Spelman of Watling. More Fruit, Fowler of East Hadley. the most active members. When the general was withdrawn, they chose Mr. Rouse an aged and venerable man, member in the late parliament for Truro in Cornwall, their speaker, and then voted themselves the parliament of the commonwealth of England. Mr. Baxters places them in a contemptible light, and says, "they intended to eject all the parish ministers, and to encourage the gathering independent churches; that they cast out all the ministers in Wales, which, though bad enough for the most part, were yet better than none, or the few itinerants they set up in their room; and that they attempted, and had almost accomplished the same in England." But nothing of this appears among their acts. When the city of London petitioned, that more learned and approved ministers might be sent into the country to preach the gospel; that their settled maintenance by law might be confirmed; and their just properties preserved; and that the universities might be zealously countenanced and encouraged; the petitioners had the thanks of that house; and the committee gave it as their opinion, that commissioners should be sent into the several counties, who should have power to eject scandalous and insufficient ministers, and to settle others in their room. They were to appoint preaching in all vacant places, that none might live above three miles from a place of worship. That such as were approved for public ministers should enjoy the maintenance provided by the laws; and that if any scrupled the payment of tithes, the neighboring justices of peace should settle the value, which the owner of the land should be obliged to pay; but as for the tithes themselves they were of opinion, that the incumbents and impropriators had a right in them, and therefore they could not be taken away till they were satisfied. July 23, it was referred to a committee, to consider of a repeal of such laws as hindered the progress of the gospel; that is, (says bishop Kennet) to take away the few remaining rules of decency and order; or, in other language, the Granger's History of England, vol. iii. p. 68, 8vo. note, and Dr. Grey, p. 286, 7, note. Mr. Hume has also given this list of the Sussex jury. But the ridicule, which falls on this mode of naming children, belongs not to these times only: for the practice was in use long before. Harris's Life of Oliver Cromwell, p. 342, the note. Ed. VOL. IV. § P. 70. 180. penal laws. This was done at the instance of the independents, who petitioned for protection against the presbyteries; upon which it was voted, that a declaration should be published, for giving proper liberty to all that feared God; and for preventing their imposing hardships on one another. Mr. Eachard, and others of his principles, write, that this parliament had under deliberation the taking away the old English laws, as badges of the Norman conquest, and substituting the Mosaic laws of government in their place; and that all schools of learning, and titles of honor, should be extinguished, as not agreeing with the christian simplicity. But no such proposals were made to the house, and therefore it is unjust to lay them to their charge. The solemnizing of matrimony had hitherto been engross ed by the clergy; but this convention considered it a civil contract, and put it into the bands of justices of peace, by an ordinance, which enacts, "that after the 29th of September, 1653, all persons who shall agree to be married within the commonwealth of England, shall deliver in their names and places of abode, with the names of their parents, guardians, and overseers, to the register of the parish where each party lives, who shall publish the bans in the church or chapel three several Lord's days, after the morning service; or else in the market-place three several weeks successively, between the hours of eleven and two, on a market-day if the party desire it. The register shall make out a certificate of the due performance of one or the other, at the request of the parties concerned, without which they shall not proceed to marriage. "It is further enacted, that all persons intending to marry shall come before some justice of peace within the coun ty, city, or town corporate, where publication has been made, as aforesaid, with their certificate, and with sufficient proof of the consent of the parents, if either party be under age, and then the marriage shall proceed in this manner: "The man to be married shall take the woman by the hand, and distinctly pronounce these words, I A. B. do here in the presence of God, the searcher of all hearts, take thee C. D. for my wedded wife; and do also, in the |