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A parliament, modelled according to the late act of government, is summoned on the 3d of September. All the small boroughs, places most exposed to influence and corruption, had been deprived of their right of election. Of four hundred members who represented England, two hundred and seventy were chosen by the counties. The rest were elected by London and the most considerable corporations. The lower populace too, so easily guided or deceived, were excluded from the electoral assemblies; an estate of two hundred pounds value was necessary toe entitle any one to a vote. The elections were conducted with perfect freedom, excepting that such of the royalists as had borne arms against the parliament, and all their sons, were excluded.

On the opening of the session Cromwell came to Westminster Abbey in the same state as the king used to go to the parliament house, and having heard a sermon, he went to the painted chamber, where seating himself in a chair of state, and the members sitting uncovered upon benches, he addressed them with a specch three hours long, in which he principally expatiated on the advantages the nation had already reaped from his administra

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The house of commons having chosen their speaker entered immediately into great debates about the legality of the present convention, and of the late instrument of government. The authority which Cromwell, by the title of protector, had assumed over the nation, and even his personal character and conduct, escaped not without censure. The utmost that could be obtained by his partizans, was to protract the debate by their long speeches, and prevent the decision of questions which they clearly saw would be decided against him. The protector, no less surprised than enraged at this refractory spirit in a parliament of his own creation, sent

for them to the painted chamber, and with the most imperious tone, inveighed against the absurdity of their conduct in disputing his title, since the same instrument of government which made them a parliament had invested him with the protectorship. In the mean time he placed a guard at the door of the house, and would suffer none to enter who would not subscribe a recognition, "that he would "be true and faithful to the lord protector; and "that he would not propose or give consent to "alter the government as it is settled in one single

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person and a parliament." Whereupon one hundred and thirty of the members signed it the first day, and many more afterwards, to the number of three hundred. But these subscribers at their next meeting resolved, that the recognition they had been compelled to sign, did not extend to the whole of the forty-two articles contained in the instrument of government, but only to that which declared the government to be in a single person and successive parliaments.

A great debate whether the protectorship should be hereditary or elective. They declare Cromwell to be lord protector during life, and vote for choosing successive protectors. They vote likewise that there will be a new parliament every third year, which will not sit above six months unless prolonged by act of parliament; and that no law should be altered or repealed, or new laws made, or any tax imposed, but by assent of parliament.

A quaker came to the door of the house of commons, drew his sword and wounded several persons around him. Being examined by a committee on this extravagance, he answered that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to kill every man that sat in that house.

Ann. 1655.

This parliament not answering the protector's expectation, and even attempting to deprive him of the power of levying taxes without their consent, he thought fit to dissolve them, though by the instrument of government to which he had sworn, no parliament could be dissolved till it had sitten five months. But he pretended that this instru→ ment having been framed by a council of officers, a month, according to their computation, was only twenty-eight days, as it was practised in paying the fleet and the army. The full time, therefore, according to this reckoning, being elapsed, the parliament was ordered to attend the protector, who made them a tedious, confused, angry harangue, and dismissed them. It was constantly observed, indeed, that Cromwell, who was so luminous in his conceptions, so decisive and judicious in all his actions, was ever tiresome, dark, and unintelligible, either in his speeches or in his writings, even when he had no intention to disguise his meaning.

The more Cromwell had done to secure the complete freedom of the late elections, the more he was anxious about the refractory spirit which the parliament had discovered towards him, as he was well aware that the necessary consequence of free and uninfluenced elections is to exhibit in the disposition of the representatives an exact counterpart of the actual dispositions of the nation. He was equally conscious that his authority would never be relished, and could not be consolidated but by a constant vigilance, activity, and severity, and he acted accordingly.

The members of the dissolved parliament returning to their counties, propagated and encouraged the murmurs against the present usurpation. The

royalists, observing this general discontent, fancied that every one who was dissatisfied like them, would also embrace the same cause, and, in concert with the king, they entered into a general conspira cy, which at a fixed day was to break out throughout England. Cromwell was informed of this plan. Theveloe, his secretary, had spies every where, and kept a regular correspondence with Manning, who had access to the king's family; and is was not difficult to obtain intelligence of a confederacy so gene rally diffused among a party, who, proud of their cause, and indulging in the exaggerated hopes of its success, valued themselves more on zeal and courage, than on prudence and secresy. Many of them were thrown into prison; others, on the approach of the appointed day, were terrified and remained at home. In one place alone the conspiracy broke into action. Perruddoe, Jones, Groves, and some other gentlemen of the west, entered Salisbury with about two hundred horse, took prisoners the sheriff and the judges, who were holding their assizes, and they proclaimed the king; but having wandered about for some time without receiving any accession of force, they were totally discouraged, and one troop of horse was sufficient to suppress them. Those of the leaders who were taken prisoners were capitally punished, the rest were sold for slaves and trans ported to Barbadoes.

Cromwell resolves to keep no longer any terms with the royalists, and issues an ordinance for exacting the tenth penny from that whole party; in order, as he pretended, to make them pay the expenses to which their mutinous disposition continually exposed the public. This exorbitant tax commonly passed under the name of decimation. In order to raise it, the protector instituted twelve majors general, and divided the whole of England into so many military districts. These men, assisted by

commissioners, had power to subject whom they pleased to decimation; to levy all the taxes imposed by the protector and his council; and to imprison every person against whom they should have any suspicion; nor was there any appeal from them but to the protector and his council. Thus was entirely thrown aside the deceitful mask of liberty, and the nation enslaved under a military and despotic government, exercised according to the forms and maxims of eastern tyranny; a consequence commonly attending the successful attempts of any democratical faction against the established government, particularly when the success is owing to those popular commotions, so easily excited by the prospect of plunder, and the word liberty. The triumphant populace never failing, in the overthrow of the existing government, to establish on its ruins their own despotism, the most horrible of all; a despotic military government becomes absolutely necessary to suppress it; and as military despotism itself is still too violent to be of long duration, it generally subsides after the full restoration of order and tranquillity, and is succeeded by a more or less moderate monarchy, which lasts for ages, until moderation, sinking into indolence and weakness, encourages new popular commotions, and paves the way to their usual consequences.

No sooner was peace concluded with Holland, than Cromwell began to deliberate what new enemy he should attack, as his active and warlike disposition, his restless temper, his inordinate ambition, and avidity of glory, made him incapable of repose. Perhaps also he was induced by his own situation to consider a foreign war as constantly necessary, the better to secure the fidelity of his troops, who being idle at home, and so much exposed to the suggestions and briberies of his enemies, might become, sooner or later, the dangerous instruments of some

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