led, in procession, by his partisans to the church at Scone, and
there solemnly crowned. There, on his knees, he swore to maintain
the Covenant, to establish Presbyterianism, and embrace it himself,
to establish it in his other dominions as soon as he recovered them.
Argyll then placed the crown on his head, and Douglas, the minister,
read him a severe lecture on the calamities which had followed the
apostacy of his grandfather and father, and on his being a king only by
compact with his people. But the fall of the Western army had weakened
the rigid Presbyterian party. Argyll saw his influence decline, that
of the Hamiltons in the ascendant, and numbers of the old Royalists
pouring in to join the army. Charles's force soon displayed the
singular spectacle of Leslie and Middleton in united command, and the
army, swelled by the Royalists, was increased to twenty thousand men.
Having fortified the passes of the Forth, the king thus awaited the
movements of Cromwell. But the lord-general, during the spring, was
suffering so much from the ague, that he contemplated returning home.
In May, however, he grew better, and advanced towards Stirling. Whilst
he occupied the attention of Charles and his army by his manœuvres in
that quarter, he directed Lambert to make an attempt upon Fife, which
succeeded, and Cromwell, crossing the Forth, advanced to support him.
The royal army quickly evacuated Perth, after a sharp action, in which
about eight hundred men on each side fell, and the Parliament colours
were hoisted on the walls of that city.
If Cromwell's movement had been rapid and successful, he was now in
his turn astonished by one as extraordinary on the part of the Prince.
Charles saw that all the south of Scotland and a great part of England
was clear of the enemy, and he at once announced his determination to
march towards London. On the 31st of July his army was actually in
motion, and Argyll, denouncing the enterprise as inevitably ruinous,
resigned his commission and retired to Inverary.
On discovering Charles's object, Cromwell put the forces to remain in
Scotland under the command of General Monk, sent Lambert from Fife
to follow the royal army with three thousand cavalry, and wrote to
Harrison in Newcastle to advance and harass the flank of Charles's
army. He himself, on the 7th of August, commenced his march after it
with ten thousand men.
Charles advanced at a rapid rate, and he had crossed the Mersey before
Lambert and Harrison had formed a junction near Warrington, and
attempted to draw him into a battle on Knutsford Heath. But Charles
continued his hasty march till he reached Worcester, where he was
received with loud acclamations by the mayor and corporation, and by a
number of county gentlemen, who had been confined there on suspicion
of their disaffection, but were now liberated. But such had been the
sudden appearance of Charles, that no expectation of it, and therefore
no preparation for it, had been made by the Royalists; and the bigoted
ministers attending his army sternly refused all who offered to join
them, whether Presbyterians, Episcopalians, or Catholics, because
they had not taken the Covenant. It was in vain that Charles gave
orders to the contrary, and sent forward General Massey to receive
and bring into order these volunteers; the Committee of the Kirk
rejected them, whilst Cromwell's forces on their march were growing by
continual reinforcements, especially of the county militias. Colonel
Robert Lilburne met with a party of Charles's forces under the Earl of
Derby, between Chorley and Wigan, and defeated them, killing the Lord
Widdrington, Sir Thomas Tildesley, and Colonels Boynton, Trollope, and
Throgmorton. Derby himself was wounded, but escaped.
Charles issued a proclamation for all his male subjects between the
ages of sixteen and sixty to join his standard on the 26th of August;
but on that day he found that the whole of his forces amounted to only
twelve thousand men, whilst Cromwell, who arrived two days after, was
at the head of at least thirty thousand. On the 3rd of September, the
anniversary of the battle of Dunbar, Cromwell determined to attack the
royal army. Lambert, overnight, crossed the Severn at Upton, with ten
thousand men, and the next morning Cromwell and Fleetwood, with the
two other divisions of the army, crossed, Cromwell the Severn, and
Fleetwood the Teme. Charles, who had been watching their progress from
the tower of the cathedral, descended and attacked Fleetwood before he
had effected his passage; but Cromwell was soon up to the assistance
of his general, and after a stout battle, first in the meadows, and
then in the streets of the city, the forces of Charles were completely
beaten. Charles fought with undaunted bravery, and endeavoured to rally
his soldiers for a last effort, but they flung down their weapons and
surrendered. It was with difficulty that he was prevailed upon to fly,
and save his life. Three thousand of the Royalists were slain, and
six or seven thousand made prisoners, including a considerable number
of noblemen--the Duke of Hamilton, but mortally wounded, the Earls
of Rothes, Derby, Cleveland, Kelly, and Lauderdale, Lords Sinclair,
Kenmure, and Grandison, and the Generals Leslie, Massey, Middleton, and
Montgomery. The Duke of Buckingham, Lord Talbot, and others, escaped
with many adventures.
It was an overthrow complete, and most astonishing to both conquered
and conquerors. Cromwell, in his letter to the Parliament, styled
it "a crowning mercy." The Earl of Derby and seven others of the
prisoners suffered death as traitors and rebels to the Commonwealth.
Derby offered the Isle of Man for his ransom, but his letter was read
by Lenthall to the House too late, and he was executed at Bolton, in
Lancashire.
As for Charles himself, the romance of his escape has been celebrated
in many narratives. After being concealed for some days at White-ladies
and Boscobel, two solitary houses in Shropshire, and passing a day in
the boughs of an oak, he made his way in various disguises, and by the
assistance of different loyal friends, to Brighton, whence he passed in
a collier over to Fécamp in Normandy, but this was not till the 17th of
October, forty-four days after the battle of Worcester.
On the 12th of September Cromwell arrived in town; Bulstrode,
Whitelock, and three other gentlemen had been sent down to meet him and
conduct him to London. They met him near Aylesbury, and they all joined
a hawking party by the way. At Aylesbury they passed the night. Oliver
was very affable, and presented to each of the commissioners a horse
taken in the battle and a couple of Scottish prisoners. At Acton, the
Speaker of the Commons, the Lord President, and many other members of
Parliament and of the Council, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs,
and crowds of other people, met him, and congratulated him on his
splendid victory and his successes in Scotland. The Recorder, in his
address, said he was destined to "bind kings in chains and their nobles
in fetters of iron." In London he was received with immense shoutings
and acclamations. Parliament voted that the 3rd of September should
be kept ever after as a holiday, in memory of his victory; and, in
addition to twenty-five thousand pounds a year already granted in land,
they settled on him another forty thousand pounds a year in land.
Thus the royal party was for a time broken and put down. In Ireland
Cromwell had left his son-in-law Ireton as his deputy, who went on
with a strong hand crushing all opposition. The Roman Catholic party
growing weary of Ormond, he had resigned his lord-deputyship, and
Clanricarde had succeeded him. Still the Catholic party was divided in
itself, and Ormond, and after him Clanricarde, entered into a treaty
with the Duke of Lorraine, who agreed to send an army to Ireland to
put down the Parliament, on condition that he should be declared
Protector-royal of Ireland, with all the rights pertaining to the
office; an office, in fact, never before heard of. The Irish Royalists
obtained, however, at different times, twenty thousand pounds from
Lorraine, and his agents were still negotiating for his protectorship,
when the defeat of Charles at Worcester showed Lorraine the folly of
his hopes. Disappointed in this expectation of assistance from abroad,
the Irish Royalists found themselves vigorously attacked by Ireton. In
June he invested Limerick, and on the 27th of October it surrendered.
Ireton tried and put to death seven of the leaders of the party. The
court-martial refused to condemn the brave O'Neil, though Ireton urged
his death for his stubborn defence of Clonmel. When Terence O'Brien,
Bishop of Emly, was condemned, he exclaimed to Ireton, "I appeal to the
tribunal of God, and summon thee to meet me at that bar." These words
were deemed prophetic, and were remembered with wonder when, about a
month afterwards, Ireton fell ill of fever and died (Nov. 15, 1651).
Cromwell appointed General Lambert his deputy in Ireland. The
appointment was cancelled before Lambert could pass over to that
country, as it is said, through the management of Ireton's widow,
Cromwell's daughter Bridget. The handsome wife of Lambert had
refused--her husband being now Lord-Deputy--to give precedence to
Mrs. Ireton in St. James's Park, where they met one day. Mrs. Ireton
took offence, and prevailed on her father to revoke the appointment,
and give it to Fleetwood, whom she soon after married, and so Lambert
returned to Ireland in his former position. It is believed that Lambert
never forgave the affront, though Cromwell endeavoured to soothe him,
and made him compensation in money; for he was found to be one of the
first to oppose Richard Cromwell after his father's death, and depose
him from the protectorate. Ludlow and three others were joined with
Fleetwood, so far as the civil administration of Ireland was concerned,
and they were ordered to levy sufficient money for the payment of the
forces, not exceeding forty thousand pounds a month; and to exclude
Papists from all places of trust, from practising as barristers, or
teaching in any kind of school. Thus the bulk of the natives were
deprived of all participation in the affairs of their own country, and,
what was worse, might be imprisoned or removed from one part of the
country at the will of these dictators.
[Illustration: CROMWELL ON HIS WAY TO LONDON AFTER THE BATTLE OF
WORCESTER. (_See p._ 107.)]
In Scotland Monk carried matters with the same high hand. On the 14th
of August he compelled Stirling to surrender, and sent off the royal
robes, part of the regalia, and the National Records to London. He then
commenced the siege of Dundee, and whilst it was progressing he sent
Colonels Alured and Morgan to Alyth in Angus, where he surprised the
two Committees of the Estates and the Kirk, with many other noblemen
and gentlemen, to the number of three hundred, amongst them poor old
Leslie, Earl of Leven, met on Royalist affairs, and sent them after the
regalia to England. On the 1st of September Monk stormed Dundee, and
gave up the town to the plunder and violence of the soldiery. There
were said to be eight hundred soldiers and inhabitants killed, of whom
three hundred were women and children. The place had been considered
so safe that many people had sent their property there for security,
and this and the ships in the harbour all fell into the hands of the
conquerors. They are said to have got two hundred thousand pounds in
booty, and perpetrated the most unheard-of atrocities. The fate of
Dundee induced Montrose, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews to open their gates.
The Earl of Huntly and Lord Balcarres submitted, and scarcely any
noblemen of note, except Argyll, held out; and he did so merely for the
purpose of making good terms with the Parliament.
The most vigorous means were adopted to keep the country in check.
Military stations were appointed throughout the Highlands, and sites
fixed upon for the erection of strong forts at Ayr, Leith, Perth,
and Inverness. The property and estates of the Crown were declared
forfeited to Parliament, as well as the lands of all who had taken
arms under the Duke of Hamilton or the king against England. English
judges were sent to go the circuits, assisted by Scottish ones, and
one hundred and thirty thousand pounds a year were voted for the
maintenance of the army in Scotland, which was raised to twenty
thousand men. These were galling measures for the Scots, who had hoped
to subject England again to the king, but they were far from the most
humiliating. Vane, St. John, and six other commissioners were appointed
to settle a plan for the incorporation of Scotland with England. They
met at Dalkeith, and summoned the representatives of the counties
and the burghs to assemble and consult with them on the matter. The
ministers thundered from their pulpits against a union, and especially
against putting the Kirk under the power of the State; but twenty-eight
out of thirty shires, and forty-four out of fifty-eight burghs
complied, and sent up twenty-one deputies to sit with the Parliamentary
commissioners at Westminster, to settle the terms of the union. The
power of the English Parliament, or rather of the army, was now so
supreme, that both in Scotland and Ireland resistance was vain.
[Illustration: HENRY IRETON. (_After the Portrait by Cooper._)]
The all-absorbing interest of the events of the last several unexampled
years within the kingdom, has prevented our noticing the transactions
of the Commonwealth with the other kingdoms of Europe. We must now
recount these. Prince Rupert, by his cruising on the coasts of England
and Ireland, had not only kept the nation in alarm, but had inflicted
great injury on the coasts and commerce of the realm. In the spring
of 1649 he lay in the harbour of Kinsale, keeping the way open for
the landing of the foreign troops expected to accompany Charles
II. to Ireland. But Vane, to whom was entrusted the naval affairs,
commissioned Blake, Dean, and Monk, three army officers, who showed
themselves as able at sea as on land, to look after him, and the
victories of Cromwell in Ireland warned him in the autumn to remove.
He found himself blockaded by the English fleet, but in his impetuous
way he burst through the enclosing squadron with the loss of only three
ships, and took refuge in the Tagus. In the following March Blake
presented himself at that river, and demanded of the King of Portugal
permission to attack the pirate, as he termed him, at his anchorage.
The king refused; Blake attempted, notwithstanding, to force his way
up the river to Rupert's fleet, but he was assailed by the batteries
from both shores, and was compelled to retire. This was deemed a
declaration of war by the Republic, and Blake was ordered to seize
any Portuguese ships that fell in his way. Don John thereupon seized
the English merchants in his dominions, and confiscated their goods.
But the ravages committed by Blake on his subjects soon induced him
to order Rupert to retire from the Tagus, who sailed thence into the
Mediterranean, where he continued to practise open piracy, capturing
ships of almost all nations. He afterwards sailed to the West Indies to
escape the English admirals, and inflicted there great injuries both
on the English and Spanish. His brother Maurice was there lost in a
storm, and in 1652 Rupert, beset by the English captains, made his way
again to Europe, and sold his two men-of-war to Cardinal Mazarin. The
Portuguese, freed from the presence of Rupert, soon sent Don Guimaraes
to London to treat for a pacification, but the treaty was not finally
concluded till after Cromwell had attained to supreme power.
The King of Spain, who never forgave Charles I. the insult put upon his
sister and the whole kingdom, acknowledged the Republic from the first
moment of its establishment by continuing the presence of Cardenas, his
ambassador. The King of Spain made use of his ambassador in London to
excite the Commonwealth against Portugal and the United Provinces, but
an unlucky accident threatened to disturb even this alliance, the only
one between the Commonwealth and the Courts of the Continent. As Spain
kept an ambassador in London, the Parliament resolved to send one to
Madrid, and for this purpose they selected a gentleman of the name of
Ascham. He did not understand Spanish, and therefore he employed three
friars, who accompanied him and informed him of all that he wanted to
know regarding Spain. But he was no sooner arrived than half a dozen
Royalist English officers, who had served in the Spanish army against
Portugal, and in Calabria, went to his inn, and finding him at dinner,
exclaimed, "Welcome, gallants, welcome!" and ran him and Riba, one of
the friars, through with their swords. This was precisely what some
Royalists had done to Dorislaus, the Parliamentary ambassador to the
Hague, in 1649; for these Cavaliers, with all their talk of honour,
had no objection to an occasional piece of assassination. One of the
servants of Charles II.'s ambassadors, Hyde and Cottington, was one of
the assassins, which brought the ambassadors into suspicion; but they
protested firmly against any participation in so base a business. The
assassins fled to a church for sanctuary, except one who got to the
Venetian ambassador's, and so escaped. The other five were brought
from their asylum, tried, and condemned to die, but the courtiers
sympathised so much with the Royalists, that they were returned again
to their asylum, except a Protestant of the name of Sparkes, who,
being taken a few miles from the city, was put to death. This matter
blowing over, the peace with Spain continued. With Holland the case was
different.
Holland, being itself a Republic, might have been expected to
sympathise and fraternise with the English Commonwealth, but the
circumstances of the Court prevented the spread of this feeling. The
Stadtholder, William II., had married the Princess Royal of England,
the daughter of Charles I., and sister of Charles II. From the first
of the contest, therefore, Holland had supported the claims of both
the Charleses. The second Charles had spent much of his exile at the
Hague, not being at all cordially received in France, where his mother
resided. His brother, the Duke of York, had long resided there, as
Rupert and Maurice had done before. There was thus a great league
between the family of the Stadtholder and the Stuart faction, and the
Stadtholders themselves were gradually making themselves as despotic
as any princes of Europe. All the money which enabled the Stuarts in
England to make head and invade it from Scotland came from the Hague.
On the other hand, the large Republican party in Holland, which was
at strife with the Stadtholder on account of his regal and despotic
doctrines, looked with favour on the proceedings of the English
Parliament, and thus awoke a deep jealousy in the Stadtholder's Court
of the English Parliament, which entertained ideas of coalescing with
Holland into one great Republic.
From these causes no satisfaction could ever be obtained from the
Stadtholder for the murder of Dr. Dorislaus, nor would he admit
Strickland, the ambassador of the Parliament, to an audience. But on
the 6th of November, 1650, William died of small-pox, and on the 14th
of that month his widow gave birth to William III., who afterwards
became King of England. The infancy of the Stadtholder now encouraged
the Republican party to abolish that office, and to restore the more
democratic form of government. On this, the Parliament of England,
in the commencement of 1651, determined to send ambassadors to the
States, and in addition to Strickland sent St. John, the Chief Justice
of the Common Pleas. But no good was done. There were numbers of
English Royalists still hanging about at the Hague, and the Dutch,
through the internal wars of England, France, and Spain, had grown so
prosperous that they were become proud and insolent, and had come to
regard the English Parliament, through the misrepresentation of their
enemies, as a power that they might treat with contempt. St. John found
insurmountable difficulties in negotiating with the rude, haughty
States-General. He was openly insulted in the streets of the Hague;
the ignorant populace hooted and hissed him and his colleague, and the
Royalists were suffered to annoy them with impunity.
The Parliament of England had in good faith proposed their scheme
of confederacy against their common enemies both by sea and land,
but the States-General made so many objections and delays that the
term fixed for the negotiation expired, and the English ambassadors
took their leave in disgust. The battle of Worcester awoke the Dutch
to their mistake, and they then sent in haste to propose terms of
alliance on their part, but it was too late. St. John, strong in
his feelings as he was deep in his intellect, had represented their
conduct in such terms that the English Parliament received them with
a cool haughtiness the counterpart of their own in the late attempt
at treaty. St. John had also employed himself in a measure of revenge
on the Dutch which was in its effects most disastrous to them. Owing
to the embarrassments of the other European States, the Dutch had
grown not only to be the chief merchants of the nations, but the great
carriers of all mercantile goods. Parliament passed a Navigation Act,
by which it was forbidden to introduce any of the products of Asia,
Africa, or America into England, except in English vessels, or any of
the manufactures of Europe, except in English ships or the ships of the
countries which produced them. This at one blow lopped off the greater
part of the commerce of Holland, and the demands of the ambassador
that this terrible Act should be repealed, or at least suspended till
the conclusion of a treaty, were totally disregarded. But this was
not the only offensive weapon which St. John's resentment had found.
Letters of marque had been issued against French vessels, and they
were permitted to be used against Dutch ones, on pretence that they
had French property on board. Still more, the massacre of the English
at Amboyna, which had been lightly passed over, owing to the desire of
the English Court to maintain the alliance of Holland against Spain,
had never been forgotten by the English people, and there were now loud
demands, especially from the sailors, that all survivors of the Dutch
concerned in that murder should be given up. In fact, a determined
spirit of hostility had sprung up between the two maritime nations.
The Dutch, at the call of their merchants for protection, prepared a
fleet, and placed at the head of it the three greatest admirals that
their nation ever produced--Van Tromp, De Ruyter, and De Witt. The
English Parliament, on their part, ordered their admirals to insist on
the same homage being paid to their flag in the narrow seas as had been
paid to that of the king. They also demanded indemnification for the
losses sustained in the East Indies from the Dutch, and insisted on the
stipulated contribution of the tenth herring from the Dutch fishermen
in the British seas.
It was impossible, under such circumstances, that hostilities should be
long deferred. Commodore Young was the first to call on the convoy of
a fleet of Dutch merchantmen to salute the British flag. They refused,
and Young attacked them so smartly that in the end they complied. In a
few days Van Tromp, who was a zealous partisan of Orange, and therefore
of the house of Stuart, appeared in the Downs with two-and-forty sail.
To Commodore Bourne, whom he found there, he disclaimed any hostile
intentions, but pleaded the loss of several anchors and cables for
putting in; but the next day, being the 19th of May, he encountered
Blake off Dover, and that commander, though he had only twenty ships,
demanded that Van Tromp should do homage to his flag. Van Tromp
refused, and sailed right on till he came nearly opposite Blake, when
the English admiral fired a gun three successive times at the Dutch
admiral's flag. Van Tromp returned the compliment by firing a broadside
into Blake's ship; and the two fleets were instantly engaged, and a
desperate battle was fought from three in the afternoon till darkness
separated them. The English had taken two ships, one of which, on
account of the damage done it, was allowed to sink.
There was much dispute between the two countries which was the
aggressor; but it appears the most probable fact that Van Tromp
sought an occasion to resist the demand of lowering the Dutch flag
to the English one, and found an admiral as prepared to assert that
superiority as he was to dispute it.
The English Parliament immediately issued strict orders to all its
commodores to pursue and destroy all the ships of the Dutch fleet that
they could find on the seas; and in the space of a month they took
or burnt seventy sail of merchantmen, besides several men-of-war.
The Dutch protested that the battle had not been sought by them, and
proposed inquiry, and the punishment of whichever of the commanders
should be proved the aggressor; but the Parliament replied that it was
satisfied that the States were bent on usurping the rights of England
on the seas, and on destroying the fleets, which were the walls and
bulwarks of the nation, and therefore that it was necessary to stand
on the defensive. The States sent De Pauw to reiterate the assurances
of their peaceful intentions, and to urge the court of inquiry; but
the Parliament was now as high as the States had been before, and
insisted on reparation and security. De Pauw demanded what these terms
meant, and was answered, full compensation for all the expense that the
Commonwealth had been put to by the hostile preparations of the States,
and a confederation for the mutual protection of the two nations. De
Pauw knew that the first of these terms would be declined, and took his
leave. On the 19th of July the Parliament proclaimed war against the
States.
The Dutch were by no means afraid of the war, though they dreaded the
destruction of their trade which it would occasion. They had acquired
a great reputation as a naval people, and the sailors were eager to
encounter the English, and revenge their defeat upon them. Van Tromp
once more appeared with seventy sail of the line, and boasted that he
would sweep the English from the face of the ocean. The Vice-Admiral
Sir George Ayscough (or Ayscue), had just returned victorious from the
reduction of Barbadoes, and was left in charge of the Channel whilst
Blake went northward, in quest of the squadron which protected the
Dutch fishermen. Van Tromp could not come up with Ayscough, owing to
a change of wind; he, therefore, went northward after Blake, who had
captured the Dutch squadron, and made the fishermen pay the tenth
herring, but a storm dispersed Van Tromp's fleet, several of his ships
falling into the hands of the English. When he again returned to port,
he was received with great indignation by the people, who had expected
wonders from him, and in his mortification he resigned.
De Ruyter was advanced into his post, and put to sea in charge of a
merchant fleet, and in return fell in with Ayscough off Plymouth, who
broke through his line, but was not followed up vigorously by the
captains of the other vessels, and the Dutch ships escaped. Ayscough
was superseded, the Parliament suspecting him of a royal tendency.
De Ruyter joined De Witt, and attacked Blake, who had under him
Admirals Bourne and Penn, and a fierce engagement took place, which
lasted the whole of the 28th of September. The next morning the Dutch
were seen bearing away for their own coasts, several of their vessels
having gone down, and one of them being taken. Blake gave chase as far
as Goree, but could not pursue them amongst the shoals and sandbanks,
where the small vessels of the Dutch had taken refuge. Wherever English
and Dutch ships now met, there was battle. There was an affray between
them in the Mediterranean, where Van Galen, with a greatly superior
force, attacked and defeated Captain Baily, but was himself slain; the
King of Denmark also joined the Dutch with five ships, laid an embargo
on English merchandise in the Baltic, and closed the Sound against
them. There were, moreover, numerous vessels under the French flag
cruising about in quest of merchantmen.
As winter, however, approached, Blake, supposing the campaign would
cease till spring, dispersed a number of his vessels to different
ports, and was lying in the Downs with only thirty-seven sail, when
he was surprised by a fleet of eighty men-of-war, and ten fire-ships.
It was Van Tromp, whom the States had again prevailed on to take
the command, and who came vehement for the recovery of his tarnished
reputation. Blake's stout heart refused to shrink from even so unequal
a contest; and he fought the whole Dutch fleet with true English
bulldogism, from ten in the morning till six in the evening, when the
increasing darkness led to a cessation of hostilities on both sides.
Blake took advantage of the night to get up the Thames as far as the
quaint fishing village of Leigh. He had managed to blow up a Dutch
ship, disable two others, and to do much damage generally to the Dutch
fleet; but he had lost five ships himself. Van Tromp and De Ruyter
sailed to and fro at the mouth of the river, and along the coast
from the North Foreland to the Isle of Wight, in triumph, and then
convoyed home the Dutch and French fleets. There was huge rejoicing in
Holland over the great English admiral, which, considering the immense
inequality of the fleets, was really an honour to Blake, for it showed
how they esteemed his genius and courage. The whole of Holland was full
of bravado at blocking up the Thames, and forcing the English to an
ignominious peace. Van Tromp was so elated, that he stuck a besom at
his masthead, intimating that he would sweep the English from off the
seas.
[Illustration: ROYAL MUSEUM AND PICTURE GALLERY, THE HAGUE.]
The English Parliament, during the winter, made strenuous efforts to
wipe out this reverse. They refitted and put in order all their ships,
ordered two regiments of infantry to be ready to embark as marines,
raised the wages of the seamen, ordered their families to be maintained
during their absence on service, and increased the rate of prize money.
They sent for Monk from Scotland, and joined him and Dean in command
with Blake.
The Dutch navy was estimated at this period at a hundred and fifty
sail, and was flushed with success; but Blake was resolved to take down
their pride, and lay ready for the first opportunity. This occurred on
the 18th of February, 1653. Van Tromp appeared sailing up the Channel
with seventy-two ships of war and thirty armed traders, convoying a
homeward-bound merchant fleet of three hundred sail. His orders were,
having seen the merchantmen safe home, to return and blockade the
Thames. Blake saved him the trouble, by issuing from port with eighty
men-of-war, and posting himself across the Channel. Van Tromp signalled
the merchant fleet under his convoy to take care of themselves, and the
battle between him and Blake commenced with fury. The action took place
not far from Cape La Hogue, on the coast of France. Blake and Dean, who
were both on board the _Triumph_, led the way, and their ship received
seven hundred shots in her hull. The battle lasted the whole day, in
which the Dutch had six ships taken or sunk, the English losing none,
but Blake was severely wounded.
The next day the fight was renewed off Weymouth as fiercely as before,
and was continued all day, and at intervals through the night; and
on the third day the conflict still raged till four o'clock in the
afternoon, when the wind carrying the contending fleets towards the
shallow waters between Boulogne and Calais, Van Tromp, with his lesser
ships, escaped from the English, and pursued his course homewards,
carrying the merchant fleet safely there. In the three days' fight
the Dutch, according to their own account, had lost nine men-of-war
and twenty-four merchantmen; according to the English account, eleven
men-of-war and thirty merchantmen. They had two thousand men killed,
and fifteen hundred taken prisoners. The English had only one ship
sunk, though many of their vessels were greatly damaged, and their
loss of killed and wounded was very severe. But they had decidedly
beaten the enemy, and the excitement in Holland, on the return of the
crest-fallen though valiant boaster Van Tromp, was universal. It was
now the turn of the English sailors to boast, who declared that they
had paid off the Dutch for Amboyna. But the defeat of their navy was
nothing in comparison to the general mischief done to their trade
and merchant shipping. Their fisheries employed one hundred thousand
persons: these were entirely stopped; the Channel was now closed to
their fleet, and in the Baltic the English committed continual ravages
on their traders. Altogether, they had now lost sixteen hundred
ships, and they once more condescended to seek for accommodation with
the English Parliament, which, however, treated them with haughty
indifference; and it was, therefore, with great satisfaction that they
now beheld the change which took place in England.
The Reformers of various shades and creeds had at first been combined
by the one great feeling of rescuing the country from the absolute
principles of the Stuarts. They had fought bravely side by side for
this great object; but in proportion as they succeeded, the differences
between themselves became more apparent. The Presbyterians, Scots and
English, were bent on fixing their religious opinions on the country
as despotically as the Catholics and Episcopalians had done before
them. But here they found themselves opposed by the Independents,
who had notions of religious freedom far beyond the Presbyterians,
and were not inclined to yield their freedom to any other party
whatever. Their religious notions naturally disposed them towards the
same equalising system in the State, and as the chiefs of the army
were of this denomination, they soon found themselves in a condition
to dictate to the parliament. Pride's Purge left Parliament almost
purely independent, and it and the army worked harmoniously till the
sweeping victories of Cromwell created a jealousy of his power. This
power was the more supreme because circumstances had dispersed the
other leading generals into distant scenes of action. Monk and Lambert
were in Scotland till Monk was called to the fleet, Fleetwood was in
Ireland, Ireton was dead. The Long Parliament, or the remnant of it,
called the Rump, ably as it had conducted affairs, was daily decreasing
in numbers, and dreaded to renew itself by election, because it felt
certain that anything like a free election would return an overwhelming
number of Presbyterians, and that they would thus commit an act of
_felo de se_.
At no period did what is called the Commonwealth of England present
any of the elements of what we conceive by a republic, that is, by
a government of the free representatives of the people. Had the
people been allowed to send their representatives, there would have
been a considerable number of Catholics, a much greater number of
Episcopalians, and both of these sections Royalists. There would have
been an overwhelming number of Presbyterians, and a very moderate one
of Independents. The Government was, therefore, speedily converted
into an oligarchy, at the head of which were the generals of the army,
and some few of the leaders of Parliament. The army, by Pride's Purge,
reduced the Parliament to a junto, by turning out forcibly the majority
of the representatives of the people, and the time was now fast
approaching when it must resolve itself into a military dictatorship.
Cromwell had long been accused by his own party of aiming at the
possession of the supreme power. At what time such ideas began to
dawn in his mind is uncertain; but as he felt himself rising above all
his contemporaries by the energy and the comprehensive character of
his mind, there is no doubt that he secretly indulged them. Ludlow,
Whitelock, Hutchinson, and others, felt that such was the spirit
growing in him; and many of those who had most admired his genius fell
away from him, and openly denounced his ambitious intentions as they
became more obvious. The excellent Colonel Hutchinson and Sir Henry
Vane charged him with the ruin of the Commonwealth. But Cromwell must
have long felt that nothing but a military power could maintain the
ascendency of those principles which he and his fellow Independents
entertained and held sacred. The world was not prepared for them. The
roots of royalty were too deeply struck into the heart of the nation by
centuries of its existence, to be torn out by the follies and tyrannies
of one family. But if a free Parliament, which it had been the proud
boast of the Reformers to be the sole seat of the national power, could
not exist; if the sitting body calling itself a Parliament could not
even add to its members without endangering its own existence either
from itself or from the jealousy of the army--what could exist? Clearly
nothing but a dictatorship, and the strongest man must come uppermost.
That strongest man was without a question Cromwell.
As early as 1649 two Bills had been brought in to settle questions
urgently demanded by the people, an act for a general amnesty, and
for the termination of the present Parliament. On his return from the
battle of Worcester, Cromwell reminded Parliament that these essential
measures had not been completed. He carried the amnesty, so that all
acts of hostility against the present Government previous to the battle
of Worcester were pardoned, and the Royalists relieved from the fear of
fresh forfeitures. The termination of Parliament was fixed for the 3rd
of November, 1654, and the interval of three years was to be zealously
employed in framing a scheme for the election of a new Parliament
on the safest principles. At the same time Cromwell was living at
Whitehall, in the house of the beheaded king, and with almost the state
and power of a sovereign. He summoned, therefore, the council of the
army, and discussed amongst them what they deemed necessary to be done.
In this council it was agitated as to the best form of government for
England, whether a pure republic, or a government with something of
monarchy in it. The officers were for a republic, the lawyers for
a limited monarchy. Cromwell agreed that the government must have
something of monarchy in it, and asked who they would choose if that
were decided? The lawyers said Charles Stuart, or if they found him
too much bent on power, his brother the Duke of Gloucester. There can
be little doubt but that this was a feeler on the part of Cromwell,
and as he was never likely to acquiesce in the restoration of a family
which they had put down at so much cost, it would have the effect of
causing him to proceed with caution. He had ascertained that the army
was opposed to a king; the lawyers thought of no king but one from the
old royal line. These were facts to be pondered.
Meanwhile the Parliament, without proceeding to lay a platform for its
successor, evidenced a jealousy of the ascendency of the army; it voted
a reduction of one-fourth of the army, and of the monthly assessment
for its support from one hundred and twenty thousand pounds to ninety
thousand pounds. In June, 1652, it proposed a fresh reduction, but
this was opposed by the military council, and in August the officers
appeared at the bar of the House with a petition, calling the attention
of the Parliament to the great question of the qualifications of
future parliaments, to reform of the law and religious abuses, to the
dismissal of disaffected and scandalous persons from office, to the
arrears due to the army, and to reform of malpractices in the Excise
and the Treasury.
The contest between the army and the Parliament was evidently growing
every day more active. The Commons had no desire to lay down their
authority and, to retain their existence, even showed a leaning towards
introducing a number of Presbyterians under the name of "Neuters."
To such a project the army was never likely to assent, and Cromwell
proposed, in the council at Whitehall, that Parliament should be at
once dissolved, and a national council of forty persons, with himself
at their head, should conduct affairs till a new Parliament could be
called on established principles. The opinion, however, was that such
a proceeding would be dangerous, and the authority of the council be
looked upon as unwarrantable.
Whilst these matters were in agitation, Whitelock says that Cromwell,
on the 8th of November, 1652, desired a private interview with him, and
in this urged the necessity of taking prompt and efficient measures for
securing the great objects for which they had fought, and which he
termed the mercies and successes which God had conferred on the nation.
He inveighed warmly against the Parliament, and declared that the army
began to entertain a strange distaste to it; adding that he wished
there were not too much reason for it. "And really," he continued,
"their pride, their self-seeking, their engrossing all places of honour
and profit to themselves and their friends; their daily breaking
forth into new and violent parties and factions; their delays of
business, and designs to perpetuate themselves, and to continue the
power in their own hands; their meddling in private matters between
party and party, contrary to the institution of Parliament; their
injustice and partiality in these matters, and the scandalous lives
of some of the chief of them, do give much ground for people to open
their mouths against them, and to dislike them." He concluded by
insisting on the necessity of some controlling power over them to check
these extravagances, or else nothing could prevent the ruin of the
Commonwealth.
Whitelock admitted the truth of most of this, but defended the
Parliament generally, and reminded Cromwell that it was the
Parliament which had granted them their authority, and to Cromwell
even his commission, and that it would be hard for them, under those
circumstances, to curb their power.
But Cromwell broke out--"We all forget God, and God will forget us. God
will give us up to confusion, and these men will help it on if they
be suffered to proceed in their ways." And then, after some further
talk, he suddenly observed, "What if a man should take upon him to
be king?" Whitelock saw plainly enough what Oliver was thinking of,
and replied as if he had directly asked whether he should assume that
office himself. He told him that it would not do, and that he was much
better off, and more influential as he was. "As to your person," he
observed, "the title of king would be of no advantage, because you have
the full kingly power already concerning the militia." He reminded
him that in the appointment of civil offices, though he had no formal
veto, his will was as much consulted as if he had, and so in all other
departments, domestic and foreign. Moreover, he now had the power
without the envy and danger which the pomp and circumstance of a king
would bring.
Cromwell still argued the point; contending that though a man usurped
the title without royal descent, yet the possession of the crown was
declared by an Act of Henry VII. to make a good title, and to indemnify
the reigning king and all his ministers for their acts. Whitelock
replied that, let their enemies once get the better of them, all such
bills and indemnifications would be little regarded; and that to assume
the crown would at once convert the quarrel into one not between the
king and the nation, but between Charles Stuart and Oliver Cromwell.
Cromwell admitted this, but asked what other course he could propose.
Whitelock said that of making a good bargain with Charles, who was now
down, and might be treated with just on what terms they pleased; or if
they thought him too confirmed in his opinions, there was the Duke of
York or the Duke of Gloucester. Cromwell did not appear pleased with
this suggestion; in fact, he had resolved to seize the chief power
in some shape himself--and even had he not, he had too much common
sense to agree to admit any one of the deposed family again to the
throne, which would be to put their necks in the certain noose of royal
vengeance. The death of Charles I. could never be forgiven. From this
time, Whitelock says, though he made no accusation against Cromwell,
yet "his carriage towards me from that time was altered, and his
advising with me not so frequent and intimate as before."
Cromwell again, however, broached the subject amongst the officers and
members of the Council--St. John, Lenthall the Speaker, Desborough,
Harrison, Fleetwood, and Whalley, not in so direct a manner, but
as that "a settlement, with something of the monarchical in it,
would be very effectual." It does not appear that the project was
very unanimously received by them, but they were agreed that a new
representation must take place, and no "Neuters" should be admitted.
Cromwell said emphatically, "Never shall any of that judgment who
have deserted the cause be admitted to power." On the 19th of April
the debate on this subject was continued very warmly till midnight,
and they separated, to continue the discussion on the next day. Most
of the officers had argued that the Parliament must be dissolved "one
way or another;" but the Parliament men and lawyers, amongst them
Whitelock and Widdrington, contended that a hasty dissolution would be
dangerous, and Cromwell appeared to lean towards the moderate view. But
scarcely had they met the next morning, and found a strange absence of
the members of Parliament, and an almost equal absence of officers,
when Colonel Ingoldsby hastened in and informed them that the Commons
were hard at work pushing forward their Bill for increasing their own
numbers by the introduction of Neuters; and that it was evident that
they meant to hurry it through the House before the Council could be
informed of their attempt. Vane and others, well aware of Cromwell's
design, were thus exerting themselves to defeat it.
[Illustration: CROMWELL ADDRESSING THE LONG PARLIAMENT FOR THE LAST
TIME. (_See p._ 118.)]
At this news Cromwell instantly ordered a file of musketeers to attend
him, and hastened to the House of Commons, attended by Lambert,
Harrison, and some other officers. He left the soldiers in the lobby of
the House, and entering, went straight to his seat, where he sat for
some time listening to the debate. He first spoke to St. John, telling
him that he was come for a purpose which grieved him to the very soul,
and that he had sought the Lord with tears not to impose it upon him;
but there was a necessity, and that the glory of God and the good of
the nation required it. He then beckoned Harrison to him, and said
that he judged that the Parliament was ripe for dissolution. Harrison,
who was a Fifth-Monarchy man, and had been only with much persuasion
brought over to this design, replied, "Sir, the work is very great and
dangerous; I desire you seriously to consider before you engage in it."
"You say well," answered the general, and sat yet about a quarter of
an hour longer. But when the question was about to be put, he said to
Harrison, "This is the time; I must do it;" and starting up, he took
off his hat, and began speaking. At first he spoke of the question
before the House, and commended the Parliament for much that it had
done, and well he might; for whatever its present corruption, it had
nobly supported him and the fleet and army in putting down all their
enemies, and raising the nation in the eyes of foreigners far beyond
its reputation for the last century. But soon he came round to the
corruption and self-seeking of the members, accusing them of being at
that moment engaged in the very work of bringing in the Presbyterians
to destroy all that they had suffered so much to accomplish. Sir Harry
Vane and Peter Wentworth ventured to call him to order, declaring that
that was strange and unparliamentary language from a servant of the
House, and one that they had so much honoured. "I know it," replied
Cromwell; then stepping forward into the middle of the floor, and
putting on his hat, and walking to and fro, casting angry glances at
different members, he exclaimed, "I tell you, you are no Parliament. I
will put an end to your prating. For shame! get you gone! Give place to
honest men; to men who will more faithfully discharge their trust. You
are no longer a Parliament. The Lord has done with you. He has chosen
other instruments for carrying on His work."
With that he stamped upon the floor, and the soldiers appearing at
the door, he bade Harrison bring them in. The musketeers instantly
surrounded him, and laying his hand on the mace, he said, "What shall
we do with this bauble? Take it away," and he handed it to a soldier.
Then looking at Lenthall the Speaker, he said to Harrison, "Fetch him
down!" Lenthall declared that he would not move from his proper post
unless he was forced out of it. "Sir," said Harrison, "I will lend you
a hand," and taking hold of him, he brought him down, and he walked out
of the House. Algernon Sydney, then but a young member, happened to
sit next to the Speaker, and Cromwell said, "Put _him_ out!" Sydney,
like the Speaker, refused to move, but Cromwell reiterated the command,
"Put him out!" and Harrison and Worsley, the lieutenant-colonel of
Cromwell's regiment of Ironsides, laying each a hand on his shoulder,
the young patriot did not wait for the ignominy of being dragged from
his seat, but rose and followed the Speaker. Cromwell then went on
weeding out the members, with epithets of high reproach to each of
them. Alderman Allen bade him pause and send out the soldiers, and
that all might yet be well; but Cromwell only replied, "It is you that
have forced me upon this. I have sought the Lord day and night that
He would rather slay me than put me upon this work." He then charged
the alderman with embezzlement, as treasurer to the army; and taking
first one and then another by the cloak, he said to Challoner, "Thou
art a drunkard!" To Wentworth, "Thou art an adulterer!" To Martin,
"Thou art a still more lewd character!" Vane, as he was forced past
him, exclaimed, "This is not honest; yea, it is against morality
and common honesty." "O, Sir Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane!" exclaimed
Cromwell, "the Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane!" Thus he saw the
House cleared, no one daring to raise a hand against him, though, says
Whitelock, "many wore swords, and would sometimes brag high." When all
were gone, Cromwell locked the door, and put the key in his pocket.
He then returned to Whitehall, and told the Council of officers, who
yet remained sitting, what he had done. "When I went to the House,"
he said, "I did not think to do this, but perceiving the spirit of the
Lord strong upon me, I resolved no longer to consult flesh and blood."
Such was the manner in which the last vestige of representative
government was swept away by Cromwell. Charles I. roused the fiery
indignation of Parliament, and of all England, as a violater of the
privileges of Parliament, by entering the House to seize five members
who had offended him. Cromwell, who had been one of the first to resist
and to avenge this deed, now marched in his soldiers and turned out the
whole Parliament, about fifty members, with impunity. "They went away
so quietly," said Cromwell, "that not a dog barked at their going."
Such is the difference between a private man with a victorious army
at his back, and one who, though with the name of a king, has lost a
nation's confidence by his want of moral honesty. The act of Cromwell
was the death of all constitutional life whatever, it was in opposition
to all parties but the army; yet no man dared assume the attitude of a
patriot; the military Dictatorship was accomplished (April 20, 1653).
Cromwell's whole excuse was necessity; that without his seizure of
the supreme power, the Commonwealth could not exist. It ceased to
exist by his very deed, and if he saved the faint form of a republic,
it was only for five years. As we have seen the great example to the
nations of the responsibility of kings, we have now to see an equally
significant one of the impossibility of maintaining long any form of
government that is not based on the mature opinion and attachment
of the people. Republicanism was not the faith of England in the
seventeenth century, and therefore neither the despotism of Charles
could create a republic with any permanence in it, nor the strenuous
grasp of Cromwell maintain it beyond the term of his own existence.
On the afternoon of this celebrated _coup d'état_, Cromwell proceeded
to Derby House, accompanied by Harrison and Lambert, where the Council
was still sitting, and thus addressed the members:--"Gentlemen, if you
are here met as private persons, you shall not be disturbed; but if as
a Council of State, this is no place for you; and since you cannot but
know what was done at the House this morning, so take notice that the
Parliament is dissolved." Bradshaw, who was presiding, said that they
knew, and that all England would soon know; but that if he thought
that the Parliament was dissolved, he was mistaken, "for that no power
under Heaven could dissolve them, except themselves. Therefore take you
notice of that." Sir Arthur Haselrig and others supported this protest,
and then the Council withdrew.
Cromwell and his party immediately held a council as to what steps were
to be taken, and on the 22nd they issued a declaration in the name of
the Lord-General and his council of officers, ordering all authorities
to continue their functions as before; and in return, addresses of
confidence arrived from generals and admirals. On the 6th of June
Oliver, in his own name as Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief of
all the armies and forces, issued a summons to one hundred and forty
persons to meet and constitute a Parliament. Six were also summoned
from Wales, six from Ireland, and five from Scotland. On the 4th of
July about one hundred and twenty of these persons, of Cromwell's
own selection--persons, according to his summons, "fearing God,
and of approved fidelity and honesty"--met in the Council-chamber
at Whitehall. Many of these were gentlemen of good repute and
abilities--some of them were nobles, others of noble families--as
Colonel Montague, Colonel Howard, and Anthony Ashley Cooper. Others,
however, were of little worldly standing, but had been selected on
account of their religious zeal and character. Amongst them was one
Barbon, a leatherseller in Fleet Street, who had acquired the cognomen
of Praise-God, and whose name being purposely misspelled became
Praise-God Barebone, and the Royalist wits of the time, therefore,
dubbed the Parliament Barebone's Parliament.
The more common appellation of this singular Parliament was "The
Little Parliament." Cromwell opened their session with a very long and
extraordinary speech, in which he gave a history of the past contest
with the monarchy, and the mercies with which they had been crowned
at Naseby, Dunbar, Worcester, and other places; of the backslidings
of the Long Parliament, and the "necessity" to remove it and call
this assembly. He quoted a vast quantity of Scripture, and told them
that they were called of God to introduce practical religion into
State affairs; and he then delivered into their hands an instrument,
consigning to them the supreme power in the State till the 3rd of
September, 1654, three months previous to which date they were to elect
their successors, who were to sit only for a year, and in turn elect
their successors.
This resignation of the supreme power once in his hands, has been
described by historians as a gross piece of hypocrisy, used to avoid
the odium of seizing for himself the power of the Parliament, which
he had forcibly dissolved. Whether that were the case or not, it
certainly was a prudent policy, and a safe one, for he knew very well
that he possessed supreme power as head of the army, and could, if
necessary, dismiss this Parliament as he had done the former one.
In their character of pietists or saints, as they were called, this
Parliament opened its session by electing Francis Rouse their Speaker,
and by exercises of devotion, which continued from eight in the morning
till six at night. Thirteen of the most gifted members preached and
prayed in succession, and they adjourned, declaring that they had never
enjoyed so much of the spirit and presence of Christ in any meetings
for worship as they had done that day. It was moved the next morning
that they "should go on seeking the Lord" that day too, but this was
overruled, and Monday, the 11th, was fixed for that purpose. They then
voted themselves the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, invited
Cromwell and four of his staff to sit as members amongst them, and on
the 9th of July re-appointed the Council of State, amongst whom we
find the names of Colonel Montague, afterwards Earl of Sandwich, the
uncle of the poet Dryden, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Lord Viscount Lisle,
brother of Algernon Sydney, Sir Ashley Cooper, and other names of equal
note; and however they might be ridiculed on account of their religion,
they soon showed that they were conscientious and independent men. The
strongest proof of this was that they did not shrink from opposing the
power and interests of Cromwell, who had selected them. Scarcely were
they met, when they were appealed to to decide upon the case of John
Lilburne, who, on the dissolution of the Long Parliament, petitioned
Cromwell to allow him to return from his banishment. Cromwell gave no
reply, but independent John took the liberty of appearing in London.
He was at once seized and committed to Newgate. Lilburne, supported by
his friends, petitioned the House to hear and decide the case, though
it was the proper business of a jury. They might now have gratified
their patron, whom Lilburne had continually assailed as a "robber," a
"usurper," and a "murderer;" but they declined to interfere, and left
him to the ordinary criminal court. There Lilburne so ably defended
himself that he was acquitted; but he was again seized on the plea of
libellous and seditious language used on his trial, and the House could
then no longer refuse, at the instigation of the Council, to imprison
him. Being removed from the Tower to Elizabeth Castle, in Jersey, and
thence to Dover Castle, he there became a convert to the principles of
George Fox, a remarkable end for so fiery and democratic a character.
The Parliament lost no time in proceeding to assert that divine
commission, which Cromwell, in his opening speech, had attributed to
their call through him. They declared that they were appointed by the
Lord, and would have greatly alarmed Cromwell had he not taken care to
include amongst them a sufficient number of his staunch adherents. But
they excited the same alarm in a variety of other classes. They set to
work resolutely in cutting down the expenditure of the Government; they
abolished all unnecessary offices; they revised the regulations of the
Excise; reformed the constitution of the Treasury; reduced exorbitant
salaries, and examined thoroughly the public accounts; they adopted
measures for the sale of the confiscated lands, and enacted rules for
the better registration of births, deaths, and marriages. They went
further; they made marriage by a civil magistrate valid, and, indeed,
necessary for the enjoyment of the civil effects of marriage. Marriage
by a clergyman was left optional still.
They next attacked the unequal and oppressive modes of raising the
one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a month for the maintenance of
the army; the assessments in some cases amounting to two, in others,
to ten shillings in the pound. From taxation they proceeded to law,
and prepared a Bill to abolish the Court of Chancery, in which the
abuses and delays had been a constant source of complaint in petitions
to Parliament for years. But they were not content with destroying
the Court of Chancery, they set about a general reform of the laws.
They contended that every Englishman should understand the laws of
his country, and that by a proper digest they might be reduced to the
compass of a pocket volume. They, in fact, anticipated Napoleon in
his Code, and appointed a committee to make the necessary revision,
and to weed the real and useful statutes out of the chaotic mass of
contradictory, obsolete, and unjust laws which overlaid them; the
dicta of judges in many cases superseded and prevented the original
enactments, so that men's lives and properties were at the mercy, not
of the decrees of Parliament, but the opinions of individuals. It
may be imagined what a consternation this daring innovation excited
throughout Westminster Hall, and all the dusky, cobwebby cells of the
lawyers. A terrible cry was raised that a set of ignorant men were
about to destroy the whole noble system of British jurisprudence, and
to introduce instead the law of Moses!
But the projects of these radical Reformers were cut short by the
universal outcry from lawyers, churchmen, officials, and a host of
interested classes. They were represented as a set of mad fanatics, who
in Parliament were endeavouring to carry out the wild doctrines which
the Anabaptists and Fifth-Monarchy men were preaching out of doors.
Borne down by public opinion, Cromwell was compelled to dissolve them,
in fact to resume the supreme power which he had committed to them.
Accordingly, on the 12th of December, Cromwell's friends mustered in
full strength, and Colonel Sydenham moved that, as the proceedings
of Parliament were regarded as calculated to overturn almost every
interest in the country, they could not proceed, and that they should
restore their authority to the hands whence they had received it.
The motion was vehemently opposed, but the Independents had adopted
their plan. The mover declared that he would no longer sit in an
assembly which must be rendered abortive by general opposition. He
therefore rose: the Speaker, who was one of the party, rose too, and
the Independents, forming a procession, proceeded to Whitehall, and
resigned their commission into the hands of Cromwell. The staunch
dissentients remained and engaged in prayer, in which act two officers,
Goffe and White, sent to close the House, found them. White asked
them what they did there. They replied, "We are seeking the Lord."
"Then," said he, rudely, "you may go somewhere else, for to my certain
knowledge, the Lord has not been here these many years."
[Illustration: TOKEN OF THE COMMONWEALTH (COPPER).]
[Illustration: BROAD OF THE COMMONWEALTH (GOLD).]
[Illustration: CROWN OF THE COMMONWEALTH (SILVER).]
Cromwell affected to receive with reluctance the onerous charge of the
supreme power and responsibility; but the officers urged its necessity,
and the document being soon signed by eighty members, he acceded to it.
The council of officers and ministers decided that it was necessary to
have "a commonwealth in a single person;" and a new constitution was
drawn up; and on the 16th of December Cromwell, dressed in a suit and
cloak of black velvet, with long boots and a broad gold band round his
hat, proceeded in his carriage from Whitehall to the Court of Chancery.
The way was lined by files of soldiers, consisting of five regiments
of foot and three of horse. A long procession followed, including the
Lord Mayor, aldermen, and City officers, the two Commissioners of the
Great Seal, the judges, the councillors of State and of the army. On
reaching the Court of Chancery, Cromwell took his place before a chair
of State, which had been placed on a rich carpet, the Commissioners
of the Great Seal standing on his right and left, the judges ranging
themselves behind, and the civil and military officers disposing of
themselves on each hand. Lambert then stepped forward and addressed
the Lord-General. He spoke of the dissolution of Parliament, and of
the necessity of a strong Government, not liable to be paralysed by
contending opinions; and he prayed the Lord-General, in the name of the
army and of the official authorities of the three kingdoms, to accept
the office of Lord-Protector of the Commonwealth, and to govern it for
the public good by a constitution already drawn up. Cromwell assented,
and thereupon Jessop, a clerk of the council, read what was called "The
Instrument of Government," consisting of forty-two articles. The chief
of these were, that the legislative power should be invested in the
Lord-Protector and the Parliament; but chiefly in the Parliament, for
every Act passed by them was to become law at the end of twenty days,
though the Protector should refuse it his consent. Parliament should
not be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved without its own consent, for
five months; and there was to be a new Parliament called within three
years of the dissolution of the last. The members of the Parliament
were adopted from a plan by Vane, brought forward during the Long
Parliament--namely, three hundred and forty members for England and
Wales, thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland. The members were to
be chosen chiefly from the counties, and no papist, Malignant, or any
one who had borne arms against the Parliament, was admissible. In the
Protector resided the power of making war or peace with the consent of
the Council; he held the disposal of the militia, and of the regular
forces and the navy, the appointment of all public offices with the
approbation of Parliament, or during the recess of Parliament with that
of the Council, subject to the after-approval of Parliament; but he
could make no law, nor impose taxes without consent of Parliament. The
civil list was fixed at two hundred thousand pounds, and a revenue for
the army capable of maintaining thirty thousand men, with such a navy
as the Lord-Protector should deem necessary. The elective franchise
extended to persons possessed of property worth two hundred pounds, and
sixty members of Parliament should constitute a quorum. All persons
professing faith in Jesus Christ were to enjoy the exercise of their
religion except papists, prelatists, or such as taught doctrines
subversive of morality. Cromwell was named Lord-Protector for life,
and his successor was to be elected by the Council, and no member of
the family of the late king, or any of his line, should be capable of
election. A Council was specially named by the Instrument, to consist
of Philip, Lord Viscount Lisle, brother of Algernon Sydney; Fleetwood;
Lambert; Sir Gilbert Pickering; Sir Charles Wolseley; Sir Anthony
Ashley Cooper; Edward Montague; John Desborough, brother-in-law of
Cromwell; Walter Strickland; Henry Lawrence; William Sydenham; Philip
Jones; Richard Mayor, father-in-law of Richard Cromwell; Francis Rouse;
Philip Skipton, or any seven of them, with power in the Protector,
and a majority of the Council, to add to their number. Thurloe, the
historian, was secretary of the Council, and Milton Latin secretary.
This Instrument being ready, Cromwell swore solemnly to observe it, and
to cause it to be observed; and then Lambert, kneeling, offered the
Protector a civic sword in the scabbard, which he took, laying aside
his own, as indicating that he thenceforward would govern by the new
constitution, and not by military authority. He then seated himself,
covered, in the chair of State, all besides standing uncovered; he
then received from the Commissioners the Great Seal, and from the Lord
Mayor the sword and cap of maintenance, which he immediately returned
to them. On this the court rose, and the Lord-Protector returned in
state to Whitehall, the Lord Mayor bearing the sword before him, amid
the shouting of the soldiers and the firing of cannon. The next day,
the 17th of December, the Lord-Protector was proclaimed by sound of
trumpet in Westminster and in the City, and thus had the successful
general, the quondam farmer of Huntingdon, arrived at the seat of
supreme power, at the seat of a long line of famous kings, though not
with the name of king, to which many suspected him of aspiring. Yet
even without the royal dignity, he soon found the position anything but
an enviable one, for he was surrounded by hosts of men still vowed to
his destruction and the restoration of the monarchy; and amongst those
who had fought side by side with him towards this august eminence, were
many who regarded his assumption of it as a crime, to be expiated only
by his death. Though there is no reason to believe that the bulk of the
nation was otherwise than satisfied with the change, his supporters
were lukewarm while his enemies were ardent. There was no disguising
the fact that until Parliament met his government was one of naked
absolutism. The Protector forthwith established a body of "Triers" who
proceeded to examine the religious beliefs of candidates for vacant
benefices, and promptly presented them if the result of the examination
was satisfactory. Before we proceed, however, to notice his struggles
with his secret or avowed enemies, and with his new Parliament, we must
notice what had been doing meanwhile in the war with Holland, which had
still been raging.