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CHAP. XIII.

State of the Nation under Cromwell's Usurpation.—Barebone's Parliament.-Cromwell made Protector.-Peace with Holland.Another Parliament.-Insurrection of the Royalists-State of Europe, and war with Spain.Cromwell's third Parliament.-Humble Petition and Advice.-Dissolution of Parliament.-State of the Nation. -Conquest of Jamaica.-Success and death of Blake.Capture of Dunkirk.-Sickness and Death of Cromwell.

THOUGH Cromwell usurped the sovereign power, he was not in a condition to become absolute. The immense diffusion of political knowledge, with the more equal distribution of property, had so deeply fixed the principles of freedom in the public mind, that he never could expect to eradicate them; and he was well aware that his army, without the support of a considerable portion of the community, would be soon inadequate to preserve his pre-eminence. It was by traducing the late parliament, as occupied only with contemplating the means to perpetuate their own power, and to

promote the individual interests of the members, and by his ardent professions of patriotism, and real or affected zeal for a general liberty of conscience, that he succeeded in blinding the public eye to his selfish views of aggrandizement, while he does not seem himself to have projected more than to establish himself on the throne, under limitations short of the theory of the old government, and sanctioned by new parliaments. By balancing partles, he retained power for five years; but, even during that period, he was exposed to endless plots, and obliged to delude the people, with, at least, the semblance of liberty, while, by the selection of eminent lawyers to fill the bench, he, (till the appointment of the major-general of the twelve districts marred his plans,) endeavoured to attach the great body of the population, by the strict dispensation of justice, and the most ample enjoyment of civil, though not of political liberty. To the royalists he held out the hope of enjoying under him, the exclusive privileges which they possessed under the late dynasty, and insinuated his dislike of measures pursued by the parliament, as tending to confound ranks: the presbyterians he flattered with the prospect of securing them fully in their tithes, as well as in the ecclesiastical power: to the independents he inveighed against the parliament's slowness to reform abuses, civil and ecclesiastical, accusing them of carnal self-seeking, and undue attachment to the intolerant form of presbyteries. Many of the republicans he for some time deceived, by assurances that his only object was the es

tablishment of that pure commonwealth for which they had struggled, but which he represented as unattainable under the late parliament. The very catholics, against whom he had railed so furiously, were now assured that the penal laws would be suspended. In the progress of his government, as one party aimed at his destruction, he endeavoured to alarm all the others, and terrify them into a union with him, in order to crush a faction whose success would be so pernicious to themselves. To the presbyterians, he insinuated, that as the success of the royalists, on the one side, would be attended with the re-establishment of episcopacy and the service-book, they would not only lose their livings, but be exposed to severe vengeance for having so long enjoyed them, to the exclusion of the others; and, on the other hand, that the success of the independents and commonwealth's men would probably lead to some arrangement prejudicial to their right of tithes. To the independents he held out the prospect of intolerance under the presbyterians, and, if the royalists succeeded, under the hierarchy, with the danger of vengeance from the ascendency of men who had been so long infuriated by successful opposition. The republicans, whom he most dreaded, he alarmed with the terror of an unconditional restoration of the exiled family, accompanied with murders, banishments, and confiscations. The royalists stood thus much alone, and he inspired them with fear of joining the presbyterians,

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The convention,

liament,

(as he had done the presbyterians of joining with them,) representing that, how much soever the presbyterians might be disposed to restore the exiled family, it was only on condition of the king's submitting to their terms, which were absolutely intolerant to all the cavaliers. The balancing of parties was his safety; and able coadjutors performed the ostensible part.

Many consultations were held by Cromwell and called a par- his officers about the future form of government; summoned. and he pretended at first to lament that he had Meets 4th incurred a responsibility beyond his powers, and July, 1653. which exposed him to many temptations. The reply of Major Saloway evinces the spirit of the man, and was not calculated to flatter the general; "The way to free you from these temptations, is for you not to look upon yourself to be under them; but to consider that the power is in the good people of England, as it formerly was." Various plans for the executive were proposed: Lambert was for vesting it in twelve councillors, Harrison în seventy, in imitation of the Jewish Sanhedrim; but, after much consultation, the extraordinary device was adopted of summoning a person from every county, to whom should be submitted the plan and constitution of the future government. The writs were directed in the name of the general, as if he had been a sovereign prince; and such elected as might be consonant to his views; but though this device was adopted, there seems to be little ground for the ridicule cast upon the assembly, as composed merely of men raised from the

lowest walks of life, and altogether destitute of the intelligence necessary for their situation. There were in the assembly several men of known distinction, and it would have defeated Cromwell's own scheme to have brought forward so inferior a class, when it was his object to obtain such a recognition of his power, as might remove the odium of usurpation, and make his government respected*.

When this assembly met, Cromwell addressed Meets 4th July, 1653. them in a long and artful speech, though in some things he seems to have laboured to be unintelligible, while he desired them to encourage a pious ministry, and congratulated them as introductory to the reign of the saints. To this assembly was proposed an instrument of government, by which the executive was to be vested in a council of forty, afterwards limited to thirty-one, of whom nine were

*Ludlow, vol. ii. p. 461, et seq. "Many of the members of this assembly," says this author, " had manifested a good affection for the public; but some there were among them who were brought in as spies and trepanners; and though they had been always of the contrary party, made the highest pretensions to honesty and the service of the nation. This assembly, therefore, was composed, for the most part of honest and well-meaning persons," and Clarendon allows there were some men of distinction amongst them; but alleges the rest were all low. We shall afterwards try his correctness on this subject. Whitelocke says, and his impartiality is admitted by all, while his opportunities were questionless the best," It was much wondered by some that these gentlemen, many of these being persons of fortune and knowledge, would at this summons, and from these hands, take upon them the supreme authority of the nation," p. 559. Were Clarendon's account, which has been so adopted by Hume, correct, the conclusion would just be, that Cromwell was insane-since, instead of advancing his object, that would have inevitably ruined it.

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