VIII. 1654. thought and sublime and glorious goings-forth of CHAP. the soul, which the republics of Rome and Greece have bequeathed us. Such persons would not consent even to the risk of the injury that might have resulted from the annihilation of the universities, such as they were in the middle of the seventeenth century. 106 CHAPTER IX. IV. 1654. Preparations for a ment. PREPARATIONS FOR A NEW PARLIAMENT.-ELAS- BOOK AN affair of the highest importance which demanded the attention of Cromwel, was the assembling a new parliament. The instrument of the Government of the Commonwealth required, that new parlia- the parliament should meet on the third of September, and that the writ of summons for electing the members should issue on or before the first of June. The meeting of a new parliament might naturally be looked to as a memorable epoch. The last general election had taken place in 1640. And the continued existence of the parliament then elected, had long been regarded as the great security for public liberty and the honourable fortunes of England. Cromwel had at length put a violent end to that illustrious assembly. The Little Parliament, so called, that had sat, nominated by the principal officers of the army, not elected, in 1653, had been scarcely more than the mockery of the name of a parliament. IX. Circum of England. New circumstances had arisen, new principles CHAP. of political government been developed, a new constitution promulgated, a new sovereign (such 1654. we must style him), taken as it were from the stances of ranks of the people of England, placed on the the people throne. It was well known that the nation was split into many parties, exasperated against each other by the long struggle in which they had been engaged. One party was triumphant, that of the army, or rather of a section of the army; the rest had been defeated, some earlier, some later. To make use of a trite, but extremely apposite illustration, the tempest had apparently been stilled, but the waves were in that tumultuous, unquiet situation, that seemed, not obscurely, to prognosticate a storm to come. freedom of Cromwel had courage enough, with a serene Actual temper to meet this fortune. Conscious of his good election. intentions and his virtues, he dared to encounter the representatives of the people. It has been observed that, except in relation to confirmed and unquestionable royalists, men who had borne arms under the royal standard and their sons, these elections were conducted with singular freedom®. in which It may be instructive to pause here for a mo- Situation ment, and observe the view that this circumstance Cromwel opens to us into the character of Cromwel. He was placed. had had an opportunity, if ever human being had, ■ Hume, ad annum. IV. 1654. of man. BOOK of practically forming a judgment of the nature He had encountered all the storms of civil contention; he had been exposed to the utmost virulence of successive parties; there was no sort of contumely that had not been heaped upon him. He was execrated by the royalists, for he had brought their sovereign to the scaffold with all the mockeries (so they termed them) of justice; he was detested by the presbyterians, for he stood up for liberty of conscience, and opened a door to all the varieties of heresies and sects; he was abhorred by the republicans, for he had put a close upon their favourite form of government, and restored the exploded dogma of an executive authority to be vested in a single person. Plots and conspiracies, pistols and daggers, had been preGenerosity pared to destroy him. In the midst of these things of his sen- he stood, as a man of true magnanimity always does, uncorrupted, unsoured, free from the smallest intermixture of spleen and misanthropy. He knew mankind; and, in the result of his knowledge, he felt impelled to trust and confide in them. timents. Advantages he ed. ment. Cromwel conceived that he had sufficiently prehad obtain. pared the way for this grand epoch of his governHe had made treaties with Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal. France and Spain, with the assiduity and jealousy of rivals, were courting his alliance. gerous conspiracy. He had just quelled a danHe had to a considerable degree removed the anabaptists from the army. IX. 1654. He had furnished the courts of justice with excel- CHAP. lent judges; his internal administration was every where prosperous. Clarendon says, "The protector had nothing now to do, but at home: Holland had accepted peace on his own terms; Portugal had bought it at a full price, and upon a humble submission; Denmark was contented with such an alliance as he was pleased to make with them; and France and Spain contended by their ambassadors which should render themselves most acceptable to him. Scotland lay under a heavy yoke by the strict government of Monk, who, after the peace with the Dutch, was sent back to govern that province. And Ireland was confessedly subdued, so that commissions were sent to divide the lands which had belonged to the rebels or to the king's adherents, and one province only was reserved for the Irish to resort to." And Ludlow c adds to this picture, that Cromwel was now master of "a considerable army by land, and a powerful fleet at sea; all the soldiers fully paid, with a month's advance; the stores sufficiently sup-. plied with all provisions both for sea and land; three hundred thousand pounds of ready money in England, and one hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the treasury of Ireland." C The assem It must be remembered however, that in calling this parliament Cromwel had no choice. The Go- parliament bling a new unavoidable. |