160

PUBLIC OPINION ON THE DISSOLUTION.

[1653. "We do not hear even a dog bark at their going." The republican leaders were indignant; but they were powerless. This great change had been effected without a single drop of blood being shed. It was followed by no severities against those who were known to be most hostile to the one man

who was regarded in many things as the real ruler of England. Many knew and avowed, as he himself knew, "that a settlement with somewhat of monarchical power in it would be very effectual." Speaker Lenthall, who was handed down from his chair, on the 20th of April, had expressed his opinion that "something of monarchy" was wanting for the government of this nation. Many rejoiced at this approach to an authority more direct, less vacillating and less contentious, than the supreme government by a Parliament. Even the republicans, who had a natural dread of Cromwell's ambition, acquiesced in the instant change

which had been produced by his commanding will. Mrs. Hutchinson writes of her husband, who for nearly a year had been absent from his place in the House: "He was going up to attend the business of his country alone, when news met him upon the road, near London, that Cromwell had broken the Parliament. Notwithstanding, he went on, and found divers of the members there, resolved to submit to the providence of God; and to wait till He should clear their integrity, and to disprove these people who had taxed them of ambition; by sitting still, when they had friends enough in the Army, City, and Country, to have disputed the matter, and probably vanquished these accusers. They thought that if they should vex the land by war among themselves, the late subdued enemies, royalists and presbyterians, would have an opportunity to prevail on their dissensions, to the ruin of both. If these should govern well, and righteously, and moderately, they should enjoy the benefit of their good government; and not envy them the honourable toil."+ The republican Colonel and Independent submitted, as the majority submitted, to an usurpation which seemed not wholly unlikely to increase "good government." Suspected as Cromwell was of aspiring to monarchical power, there was nothing in his character to make the people dread that he would rule cruelly and tyrannously instead of "righteously and moderately." The government went on without the slightest interruption. "The Lord-General and his Council of Officers" issued two

* See ante, p. 148.

忄 Memoirs," vol. ii. p. 205.

1653.]

SUMMONS FOR A PARLIAMENT.

161

declarations, in which it was promised that a certain number of persons should be summoned from all parts of the kingdom-God-fearing men, and of approved integrity,-who should have the direction of affairs. Meanwhile, a Council of State, consisting of thirteen, was appointed,--nine military men and four civilians, with Cromwell as their president. The country remained in perfect tranquillity. The four Commissioners to whom the government of Ireland had been entrusted since the death of Ireton in November, 1651, "continued to act in their places and stations as before," Ludlow, one of them, recording their hope that all would be for the best. Blake called together the puritan captains of his fleet to consider their change of masters. He was urged by some to take part against Cromwell. "No," was his reply, "it is not for us to mind affairs of state, but to keep foreigners from fooling us." Amidst this general submission to what was regarded as a probable blessing, or an inevitable evil, there was sent out, on the 6th of June, a summons to serve as a Member of Parliament, addressed to each of one hundred and thirty-nine persons. These had been selected, some after consultations of ministers with their congregations, others by their known public qualifications, and all by the approval of Cromwell and his Council. Very different was this from a Representation; but it was such an Assembly as had been proposed by Cromwell and his officers at the conferences which preceded the dissolution of April 20th. "That the government of the nation being in such condition as we saw, and things being under so much ill-sense abroad, and likely to end in confusion, we desired they would devolve the trust over to some well-affected men, such as had an interest in the nation, and were known to be of good affection to the Commonwealth. Which, we told them, was no new thing when this land was under the like hurlyburlies. And we had been labouring to get precedents to convince them of it; and it was confessed by them it was no new thing." * The following is the Summons by which the members of "the Little Parliament" were called together:

"Forasmuch as, upon the dissolution of the late Parliament, it became necessary, that the peace, safety, and good government of this Commonwealth should be provided for: And in order thereunto, divers persons, fearing God, and of approved fidelity and honesty, are, by myself with the advice of my council of officers, nominated; to whom the great charge and trust of so weighty affairs is to be committed: And having good assurance of your love to, and courage for, God and the interest of His cause, and 'that' of the good people of this Commonwealth: I, Oliver Cromwell, Captain General and Commander in Chief of all the Armies and Forces raised and to be raised within this Commonwealth, do hereby summon and require you, being one of the persons nominated, personally to be and appear at the Council-Chamber, commonly known or called by the name of the Council-Chamber at Whitehall, within the city of Westminster, upon the fourth day of July next ensuing the date hereof; Then and there to take upon you the said trust; unto which you are hereby called, and appointed to serve as a member for the county of --- And hereof you are not to fail. "Given under my hand and seal the 6th day of June, 1653, "OLIVER CROMWELL."

Cromwell's Speech, July 4. Carlyle, vol. ii. p. 346.

VOL. IV.

M

Defeat of Van Tromp-Character of the Little Parliament-Cromwell's Address to this Assembly -Its Provisional Constitution-Their proceedings and tendencies-Resignation of the Little Parliament-Oliver inaugurated as Protector-Social Condition of the Kingdom.

THE summons which Cromwell sent throughout the country for the assembling of a body of men that should, in some degree, though not wholly as a parliament, represent the interest of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was made public at a propitious season of national triumph. On the 4th of June, Blake and Monk had sent a despatch to Cromwell, announcing a great victory over the Dutch fleet. Monk and Dean were cruising, with a portion of the English fleet, between the North Foreland and Nieuport; Blake was on our northern coasts. Van Tromp decided to encounter the fleet thus separated from their great admiral. The engagement continued all through the day of the 2nd of June. Dean had been killed by a cannon-shot at the

1653.1

CHARACTER OF THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT.

163

first broadside. Each of the fleets had been sorely crippled when night separated them. The action re-commenced on the 3rd. On that morning the sound of cannon from the north told the welcome news to Monk that the Sea-king was at hand. Blake's ships broke through the Dutch line. Van Tromp fought with desperation. His ship, the Brederode, was boarded by the crew of Penn's flag-ship, the James, after having repulsed Van Tromp's boarders. The Dutch admiral, resolved not to be a prisoner, threw a lighted match into his own powder-magazine. The explosion blew up the deck, but he himself escaped, to renew the battle in a frigate. He at last felt that he was beaten; retreated to his own coasts; and left with the triumphant English eleven vessels and thirteen hundred and fifty prisoners. The Council of State ordered a thanksgiving for the victory. Cromwell's Little Parliament met, on the 4th of July, under prosperous auspices.

The character of this Little Parliament has been studiously misrepresented. We are taught to believe, especially in histories addressed to the youthful understanding, that "the persons pitched upon for exercising this seemingly important trust were the lowest, meanest, and most ignorant among the citizens, and the very dregs of the fanatics."* Clarendon's statement, "there were among them divers of the quality and degree of gentlemen," is wholly suppressed in the usual narratives. Hume's chief objection to them is a characteristic one-" They began with seeking God by prayer." The great scandal of this Assembly was that amongst them " was Praise-God Barebones, a leather-seller of Fleet Street; as Clarendon mentions, to enable men to form a judgment of the rest. It has no great historical interest to discuss, as some have done, whether the leather-merchant was named Barebones, or Barbone. There he is, sitting by the side of Robert Blake, when Robert has no fighting on his hands; and with Francis Rouse, Provost of Eton, and sundry men, not altogether the lowest, meanest, and most ignorant, bearing the aristocratic names of Montagu, Howard, and Anthony Ashley Cooper. To Cromwell's Summons only two answered by non-attendance. Whitelocke, not at that exact time in good humour with Cromwell, expresses his surprise that "many of this Assembly being persons of fortune and knowledge" they would accept the supreme authority of the nation from such hands. The "persons of fortune and knowledge" the leather-seller of Fleet Street-might justly think that it became them, at a crisis when most men perceived that it would have been dangerous to summon a regular Parliament, to accept a trust which might avert the two extreme evils of military despotism or popular outrage. And so, on the 4th of July, they came to the Council-Chamber at Whitehall; and sitting in chairs round a table, the Lord-General, surrounded by his officers, made a speech to the Assembly-" full of the same obscurity, confusion, embarrassment, and absurdity, which appear in almost all Oliver's productions," says Hume: "All glowing with intelligibility, with credibility; with the splendour of genuine veracity, and heroic depth and manfulness," says one who is not scandalised, as Hume is, at Cromwell's words of rejoicing that a body of men was there come to supreme authority upon the principle of "owning God and being owned by Him." That this principle was to involve the exercise

-even

164

CROMWELL'S ADDRESS TO THIS ASSEMBLY.

[1653.

of justice and mercy to the people, according to Oliver's notion, may be collected from a passage or two in his speech, which is characteristic enough of his style of oratory. "He was an entire stranger to oratorical art, to harmony of composition, and to elegance of language," says a great writer and orator; but he adds, "he impelled his auditors with resistless force towards the object which he wished to attain, by exciting in their minds, at every step, the impression which it was his object to produce." What, we ask, can the highest oratorical art effect beyond this?

After going through a narrative of the circumstances which preceded the dissolution of the Long Parliament, and accounted for his participation in that act, Cromwell says, "Having done that we have done upon such ground of necessity as we have declared, which was not a feigned necessity but a real,-it did behove us, to the end we might manifest to the world the singleness of our hearts and our integrity who did these things, not to grasp at the power ourselves, or keep it in military hands, no, not for a day; but, as far as God enabled us with strength and ability, to put it into the hands of proper persons that might be called from the several parts of the nation. This necessity, and I hope we may say for ourselves, this integrity of concluding to divest the Sword of all power in the Civil Administration,-hath been that that hath moved us to put you to the trouble of coming hither; and having done that, truly we think we cannot, with the discharge of our own consciences, but offer somewhat to you on the devolving of the burden on your shoulders. * * *

"I think, coming through our hands, though such as we are, it may not be ill taken if we do offer somewhat as to the discharge of the trust which is now incumbent upon you. And although I seem to speak of that which may have the face and interpretation of a charge, it's a very humble one; and if he that means to be a servant to you, who hath now called you to the exercise of the supreme authority, discharge what he conceives to be a duty to you, we hope you will take it in good part. And truly I shall not hold you long in it; because I hope it's written in your hearts to approve yourselves to God. ***

"It's better to pray for you than to counsel you in that matter, that you may exercise the judgment of mercy and truth. It's better, I say, to pray for you than counsel you; to ask wisdom from Heaven for you; which I am confident many thousands of Saints do this day, and have done, and will do, through the permission of God and His assistance. I say it's better to pray than advise yet truly I think of another Scripture, which is very useful, though it seems to be for a common application to every man as a Christian,wherein he is counselled to ask wisdom; and he is told what that is. That's 'from above,' we are told; it's 'pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits;' it's 'without partiality and without hypocrisy.' Truly my thoughts run much upon this place, that to the execution of judgment (the judgment of truth, for that's the judgment) you must have wisdom from above,' and that's 'pure.' That will teach you to exercise the judgment of truth; it's without partiality.' Purity, impartiality, sincerity: these are the effects of wisdom,' and these will help

Guizot, vol. ii. p. 16.