cried out, "That he was compelled to do a thing that made the very hair of his head stand on end." Then hastening to the house with three hundred soldiers, and with the marks of violent indignation on his countenance, he entered, took his place, and attended to the debates for some time. When the question was ready to be put, he suddenly started up, and began to load the parliament with the vilest reproaches for their tyranny, ambition, oppression, and robbery of the public; upon which, stamping with his foot, which was the signal for the soldiers to enter, the place was immediately filled with armed men. Then addressing himself to the members; "For shame," said he, "get you gone. Give place to honester men; to those who will more faithfully discharge their trust. You are no longer a parliament; I tell you, you are no longer a parliament; the Lord has done with you." Sir Henry Vane exclaiming against this conduct," Sir Harry," cried Cromwell with a loud voice, “O sir Harry Vane! the Lord deliver me from sir Harry Vane!" Taking hold of Martin by the cloak, he said, "Thou art a whore-master;" to another," thou art an adulterer;" to a third, "thou art a drunkard;" and to a fourth, "thou art a glutton." "It is you," continued he to the members, "that have forced me upon this. have sought the Lord night and day, that he would rather slay me than put me upon this work." Then pointing to the mace, "Take away," cried he, "that bauble." After which, turning out all the members, and clearing the hall, he ordered the doors to be locked, and, putting the key in his pocket, returned to Whitehall.

Thus, by one daring exploit, the new republic was abolished, and the whole command, civil and military, centred in Cromwell only. The people, however, who were spectators in silent wonder of all these precipitate transactions, expressed no disapprobation, at the dissolution of a parliament that had overturned the constitution, and destroyed the king. On the contrary, the usurper received congratulatory addresses from the fleet, the corporations, and the army, for having dismissed a parliament that had subjected them to the most cruel impositions.

But this politic man was too cautious to be seduced by their praise, or driven on by their exhortations. Unwilling to put forth all his power at once, he resolved still to amuse the people with the form of a commonwealth, which it was the delusion of the times to admire, and to give them a parliament that would be entirely subservient to his commands. For this purpose, consulting with some of the principal officers, it was decreed that the sovereign power should be vested in one hundred and thirty-nine persons, under the denomination of a parliament; and he undertook himself to make the choice. 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. He was well apprized that, during the administration of such a group of characters, he alone must govern, or that they must soon throw up the reins of government, which they were unqualified to guide. Accordingly,

their practice justified his sagacity. To go farther than others into the absurdities of fanaticism was the chief qualification which each of these valued himself upon. Their very names, composed of cant phrases borrowed from Scripture, and rendered ridiculous by their misapplication, served to show their excess of folly. Not only the names of Zerobabel, Habakkuk, and Mesopotamia, were given to those ignorant creatures, but sometimes whole sentences from Scripture. One of them particularly, who was called Praise-God Barebone, a canting leather-seller, gave his name to this odd assembly; and it was called Barebone's parliament.

Their attempts at legislation were entirely correspondent to their stations and characters. As they were chiefly composed of antinomians, a sect that, after receiving the Spirit, supposed themselves incapable of error, and of fifth-monarchy men, who every hour expected Christ's coming on earth, they began by choosing eight of their tribe to seek the Lord in prayer, while the rest calmly sat down to deliberate upon the suppression of the clergy, the universities, the courts of justice; and, instead of all this, it was their intent to substitute the law of Moses.

To this hopeful assembly was committed the treaty of peace with the Dutch; but the ambassadors from that nation, though themselves presbyterians, were quite carnal-minded to these. They were regarded by the new parliament as worldly men, intent on commerce and industry, and therefore not to be treated with. The saintly members insisted that the man of sin should be put away, and a new birth obtained by prayer and meditation. The ambassadors, finding themselves unable to converse with them in their way, gave up the treaty as hopeless.

The very vulgar began now to exclaim against so foolish a legislature; and they themselves seemed not insensible of the ridicule which every day was thrown out against them. Cromwell was probably well enough pleased to find that his power was likely to receive no diminution from their endeavours; but he began to be ashamed of their complicated absurdities. He had carefully chosen many persons among them entirely devoted to his interests, and these he commanded to dismiss the assembly. Accordingly, by concert, they met earlier than the rest of their fraternity; and, observing to each other that this parliament had sitten long enough, they hastened to Cromwell, with Rouse, their speaker, at their head, and into his hands they resigned the authority with which he had invested them.

Cromwell accepted their resignation with pleasure; but being told that some of the number were refractory, he sent colonel White to clear the house of such as ventured to remain there. They had placed one Moyer in the chair by that time the colonel had arrived; and being asked what they did there, he replied very gravely, that They were seeking the Lord." "Then you may go elsewhere," cried White; "for, to my certain knowledge, the Lord has not been here these many years."

66

This shadow of a parliament being dissolved, the officers, by the own authority, declared Cromwell protector of the commonwealth of England. Nothing now could withstand his authority; the mayor and aldermen were sent for, to give solemnity to his appointment; and he was instituted into his new office at Whitehall, in the palace of the kings of England. He was to be addressed by the title of highness; and his power was proclaimed in London and other parts of the kingdom. Thus an obscure and vulgar man, at the age of fifty-four, rose to unbounded power, first by following small events in his favour, and at length by directing great ones.

It was, indeed, in a great measure necessary that some person should take the supreme command; for affairs were brought into such a situation by the furious animosities of the contending parties, that nothing but absolute power could prevent a renewal of bloodshed and confusion. Cromwell, therefore, might have said with some justice, upon his installation, that he accepted the dignity of protector merely that he might preserve the peace of the nation; and this, it must be owned, he effected with equal conduct, moderation, and success. The government of the kingdom was adjusted in the following manner. A council was appointed, which was not to exceed twenty-one, nor to be under thirteen persons. These were to enjoy their offices for life, or during good behaviour; and, in case of a vacancy, the remaining members named three, of whom the protector chose one. The protector was appointed the supreme magistrate of the commonwealth, with such powers as the king had possessed. The power of the sword was vested in him jointly with the parliament when sitting, or with the council at intervals. He was obliged to summon a parliament every three years, and to allow them to sit five months without prorogation. A standing army was established of twenty thousand foot and ten thousand horse, and funds were assigned for their support. The protector enjoyed his office during life; and on his death the place was immediately to be supplied by the council. Of all those clauses the standing army was alone sufficient for Cromwell's purpose; for while he possessed that instrument, he could mould the rest of the constitution to his pleasure at any time.

Cromwell chose his council among his officers, who had been the companions of his dangers and his victories, to each of whom he assigned a pension of one thousand pounds a year. He took care to have his troops, upon whose fidelity he depended for support, paid a month in advance; the magazines were also well provided, and the public treasure managed with frugality and care: while his activity, vigilance, and resolution, were such, that he discovered every conspiracy against his person, and every plot for an insurrection, before they took effect.

His management of foreign affairs, though his schemes were by no means political, yet well corresponded with his character, and, for a while, were attended with success. The Dutch having been humbled by repeated defeats, and totally abridged in their commer

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1654.

cial concerns, were obliged at last to sue for peace, which he gave them upon terms rather too favourable. He insisted upon their paying deference to the British flag. He compelled them to abandon the interests of the king, to pay eighty-five thousand pounds as an indemnification for former expenses, and to restore to the English East-India company a part of those dominions of which they had been dispossessed by the Dutch during the former reign in that distant part of the world.

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He was not less successful in his negociations with the court of France. Cardinal Mazarine, by whom the affairs 1655. of that kingdom were conducted, deemed it necessary to pay deference to the protector; and, desirous rather to prevail, by dexterity than violence, submitted to Cromwell's imperious character, and thus procured ends equally beneficial to both.

The court of Spain was not less assiduous in its endeavours to gain his friendship, but was not so successful. This vast monarchy, which but a few years before had threatened the liberties of Europe, was now reduced so low as to be scarcely able to defend itself. Cromwell, however, who knew nothing of foreign politics, still continued to regard its power with an eye of jealousy, and came into an association with France to depress it still more. He lent that court a body of six thousand men to attack the Spanish dominions in the Netherlands; and, upon obtaining a signal victory by his assistance near Dunkirk, the French put that town, which they had just taken from the Spaniards, into his hands, as a reward for his attachment.

But it was by sea that he humbled the power of Spain with still more effectual success. Blake, who had long made himself formidable to the Dutch, and whose fame was spread over Europe, now became still more dreadful to the Spanish monarchy. He sailed with a fleet into the Mediterranean, whither, since the time of the crusades, no English fleet had ever ventured to advance. He there conquered all that ventured to oppose him. Casting anchor before Leghorn, he demanded and obtained satisfaction for some injuries which the English commerce had suffered from the duke of Tuscany. He next sailed to Algiers, and compelled the dey to make peace, and restrain his piratical subjects from farther injuring the English. He then went to Tunis, and having made the same demands, he was desired by the dey of that place to look at the two castles, Porto Farino and Goletta, and do his utmost. Blake showed him that he was not slow in accepting the challenge; he entered the harbour, burned the shipping there, and then sailed out triumphantly to pursue his voyage. At Cadiz, he took two galleons, valued at nearly two millions of pieces of eight. At the Canaries he burned a Spanish fleet of sixteen ships; and, returned home to England to enjoy the fame of his noble actions, as he came within sight of his native country, he expired. This gallant man, though he fought for an usurper, yet was averse to his cause; he was a zealous republican in principle, and his aim was to serve his country,

not to establish a tyrant.

"It is still our duty," he would say to "to fight for our country, into whatever hands the fall."

the seamen, government may

At the same time that Blake's expeditions were going forward, there was another carried on under the command of admiral Penn and Venables, with about four thousand soldiers, to attack the island of Hispaniola. Failing, however, in this, and being driven off by the Spaniards, they steered to Jamaica, which was surrendered to them without a blow. So little was thought of the importance of this conquest, that, upon the return of the expedition, Penn and Venables were sent to the Tower, for their failure in the principal object of their expedition.

All these successes might rather be ascribed to the spirit of the times than the conductor of them. Cromwell was possessed of but two arts in perfection, that of managing the army, by which he ruled, and obtaining the secrets of his enemies that were plotting against him. For the first, his valour and canting zeal were sufficient; for the latter, it is said he paid sixty thousand pounds a year to his spies, to procure intelligence. But he took care to make the nation refund those extraordinary sums which he expended for such information. One or two conspiracies entered into by the royalists, which were detected and punished, served him as a pretext to lay a heavy tax upon all of that party, of a tenth penny on all their possessions. In order to raise this oppressive imposition, ten majorgenerals were instituted, who divided the whole kingdom into so many military jurisdictions. These men had power to subject whom they pleased to a payment of this tax, and to imprison such as denied their jurisdiction. Under colour of these powers, they exer cised the most arbitrary authority; the people had no protection against their exactions; the very mask of liberty was thrown off, and all property was at the disposal of a military tribunal. It was in vain that the nation cried out for a free parliament; Cromwell assembled one, in consequence of their clamours; but as speedily dissolved it, when he found it refractory to his commands.

In this state of universal dejection, in which Scotland and Ireland were treated as conquered provinces, in which the protector issued his absolute orders, without even the mask of his former hypocrisy, and in which all trust and confidence were lost in every social meeting, the people were struck with a new instance of the usurper's am

bition. As parliaments were ever dear to the people, it was A. D. resolved to give them one; but such as should be entirely 1656. of the protector's choosing, and chiefly composed of his own creatures. Lest any of a different complexion should presume to enter the house, guards were placed at the door, and none admitted but such as produced a warrant from his council. The principal design of convening this assembly was, that they should offer him the crown, with the title of king, and all the other ensigns of royalty.

His creatures, therefore, infused into this assembly a high opinion of the merits of the protector, and hinted that confusion prevailed