Cromwell now urged the necessity of dissolving the "Rump Parliament"
(S450) and of electing a Parliament which should really represent the
nation, reform the laws, and pass a general act of pardon. In his
despatch to the House of Commons after the victory of Worcester, he
called the battle a "crowning mercy." Some of the republicans in that
body took alarm at this phrase, and thought that Cromwell used it to
foreshadow a design to place the crown on his own head. For this
reason, perhaps, they hesitated to dissolve.
But at last they could not withstand the pressure, and a bill was
introduced (1653) for summoning a new Parliament of four hundred
members, but with the provision that all members of the present House
were to keep their seats, and have the right to reject newly elected
members.
Cromwell, with the army, believed this provision a trick on the part
of the "Rump" (S450) to keep themselves in perpetual power.
Sir Harry Vane, who was a leading member of the House of Commons, and
who had been governor of the colony of Massachusetts, feared that the
country was in danger of falling into the hands of Cromwell as
military dictator. He therefore urged the immediate passage of the
bill as it stood. Cromwell heard that a vote was about to be taken.
Putting himself at the head of a squad of soldiers, he suddenly
entered the House (1653). After listening to the debate for some
time, he rose from his seat and charged the Commons with injustice and
misgovernment. A member remonstrated. Cromwell grew excited, saying:
"You are no Parliament! I say you are no Parliament!" Then he called
in the musketeers. They dragged the Speaker from his chair, and drove
the members after him.
As they passed out, Cromwell shouted "drunkard," "glutton,"
"extortioner," with other opprobrious names. When all were gone, he
locked the door and put the key in his pocket. During the night some
Royalist wag nailed a placard on the door, bearing the inscription in
large letters, "The House to let, unfurnished!"
455. Cromwell becomes Protector; the "Instrument of Government"
(1653).
Cromwell summoned a new Parliament, which was practically of his own
choosing. It consisted of one hundred and thirty-nine members, and
was known as the "Little Parliament."[1] The Royalists nicknamed it
"Barebone's Parliament" from one of its members, a London leather
dealer named Praise-God Barebone. Notwithstanding the irregularity of
its organization and the ridicule cast upon it, the "Barebone's
Parliament" proposed several reforms of great value, which the country
afterwards adopted.
[1] A regularly summoned Parliament, elected by the people, would have
been much larger. This one was chosen from a list furnished by the
ministers of the various Independent churches (S422). It was in no
true sense a representative body.
A council of Cromwell's leading men now secured the adoption of a
constitution entitled the "Instrument of Government."[1] It made
Cromwell Lord Protector of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
[1] "Instrument of Government": The principal provisions of this
constitution were: (1) the government was vested in the Protector and
a council appointed for life; (2) Parliament, consisting of the House
of Commons only, was to be summoned every three years, and not to be
dissolved under five months; (3) a standing army of thirty thousand
was to be maintained; (4) all taxes were to be levied by Parliament;
(5) the system of representation was reformed, so that many large
places hitherto without representation in Parliament now obtained it;
(6) all Roman Catholics, and those concerned in the Irish rebellion,
were disfranchised forever.
Up to this time the Commonwealth had been a republic, nominally under
the control of the House of Commons, but as a matter of facct governed
by Cromwell and the army. Now it became a republic under a Protector,
or President, whowas to hold his office for life.
A few years later (1657), Parliament offered the title of King to
Cromwell, and with it a new constitution called the "Humble Petition
and Advice." The new constitution provided that Parliament should
consist of two houses, since the majority of influential men felt the
need of the restoration of the Lords (S450). For, said a member of
"Barebone's Parliament," "the nation has been hopping on one leg"
altogether too long. Cromwell had the same feeling, and endeavored to
put an end to the "hopping" by trying to restore the House of Lords,
but he could not get the Peers to meet. He accepted the new
constitution, but the army objected to his wearing the crown, so he
simply remained Lord Protector.