After the country and its dependencies had been thoroughly settled
under the new government, the republican leaders resolved upon
commencing hostilities against Holland, which, during the civil war,
had manifested a decided leaning towards the king, and had recently
treated the triumphant party with marked disrespect. In the summer of
1652, the Dutch fleet, under its famous commanders Van Tromp, De
Ruyter, and De Witt, had several encounters with the English ships,
under Admirals Blake and Ayscue, without any decided success on either
side. But in the ensuing spring, an action was fought between Blake
and Van Tromp, in which the latter lost eleven ships. The Dutch then
sued for peace, which the Rump Parliament, for various reasons, were
little inclined to grant. Their principal motive for prosecuting the
war, was a conviction that it tended to restrict the power of
Cromwell, to whom they now paid by no means a willing obedience.
Cromwell, perceiving their design, proceeded with 300 soldiers to the
House (April 1653), and entering with marks of the most violent
indignation, loaded the members with reproaches for their robbery and
oppression of the public; then stamping with his foot, he gave signal
for the soldiers to enter, and addressing himself to the members, ‘For
shame!’ said he; ‘get you gone! give place to honester men! I tell you
you are no longer a Parliament: the Lord has done with you!’ He then
commanded ‘that bauble,’ meaning the mace, to be taken away, turned
out the members, and locking the door, returned to Whitehall with the
key in his pocket.
Being still willing to keep up the appearance of a representative
government Cromwell summoned one hundred and forty-four persons in
England Ireland, and Scotland, to assemble as a Parliament. These
individuals chiefly remarkable for fanaticism and ignorance, were
denominated the _Barebones Parliament_, from the name of one of the
members, a leather seller, whose assumed name, by a ridiculous usage
of the age, was Praise-God Barebones. As the assembly obtained no
public respect, Cromwell took an early opportunity of dismissing it.
His officers then constituted him PROTECTOR of the Commonwealth of
Great Britain and Ireland, with most of the prerogatives of the late
king.
The war against Holland was still carried on with great spirit. In the
summer of 1653, two naval actions, in which both parties fought with
the utmost bravery, terminated in the triumph of the English, and the
complete humiliation of the Dutch, who obtained peace on the condition
of paying homage to the English flag, expelling the young king from
their dominions, and paying a compensation for certain losses to the
East India Company. In a war which he subsequently made against Spain,
the fleets of the Protector performed some exploits of not less
importance. The respect which he thus gained for the English name
throughout Europe, is one of the brightest points in his singular
history. But while generally successful abroad, he experienced
unceasing difficulties in the management of affairs at home. Of the
various Parliaments which he summoned, no one was found so carefully
composed of his own creatures as to yield readily to his will: he was
obliged to dissolve them all in succession, after a short trial. He
also experienced great difficulty in raising money, and sometimes
applied for loans in the city without success. His own officers could
scarcely be kept in subordination, but were constantly plotting a
reduction of his authority. The Royalists, on the other hand, never
ceased to conspire for his destruction; one named Colonel Titus, went
so far as to recommend his assassination in a pamphlet entitled
‘Killing no Murder,’ after reading which he was never seen again to
smile.
The last Parliament called by Cromwell was in January 1656; when,
besides the Commons, he summoned the few remaining peers, and
endeavored, by ennobling some of his officers, to make up a kind of
Upper House. This assembly proved as intractable as its predecessors,
and he contracted such a disgust at the very nature of a
representative legislature, as to resolve, like Charles I, never to
call another. His health finally gave way, and he died on the 3d
September 1658, a day which was thought to be propitious to him, as it
was the anniversary of several of his victories. His eldest son,
Richard, a weak young man, succeeded him as Protector, and was at
first treated with all imaginable respect; but he could not long
maintain a rule which even his father had ultimately failed in
asserting. He quietly sunk out of public view, leaving the supreme
authority in the hands of the Rump, which had taken the opportunity to
reassemble.