XI. 1655. Government of the Commonwealth the parliament CHAP. was entitled to sit uninterrupted for five months; and those who led the majority in that assembly, believed that at worst they were secure till the third of February. What they would have done or attempted in that time we can only conjecture. Cromwel however thought proper to apply to the case a rule that he borrowed from the mode of paying the English soldiers and sailors, according to which a month was construed to mean twenty-eight days only. He therefore inferred that the five months during which the parliament was entitled to sit, expired on the twenty-second of January. What difference this short interval of twelve days would have made to him we know not. At all events he gained what the kings of England have since been accustomed to gain by the uncertainty of the period at which parliaments are dissolved; he baffled the measures of his opponents. And he did this the more completely in the present case, because they in no sort anticipated the surprise at which they were taken. lution in The dissolution of the parliament under all the The dissocircumstances appears to have been a matter of dispensibly indispensible necessity. The majority of its necessary. members were presbyterians, that is, friends to the restoration of the house of Stuart, But they had no talents qualifying them for so arduous an IV. 1655. BOOK undertaking. They therefore began with confirming the protectorate of Cromwel, though they next sought to shape and limit it to their fancy. One of their most formidable ideas was that of prolonging their own power; and, if Cromwel had submitted to them in that respect, his character, the mighty ascendancy of his genius, which was the soul of the present system, would have been gone. It is difficult to say what would have succeeded. His was an infant reign, which could not have been preserved by halves, and could not have lived amidst the doubts, the sceptical scrutinies, and the contempt of its subjects. What then would the parliament have done? Would they have opened a negociation with Charles the Second? This would only have Importance produced "confusion worse confounded." The of the army. army in reality was at this time the great power in England, that, united, was able to effect whatDisposition ever it pleased. It was not united. But it is a of its members. singular circumstance, that there was scarcely a presbyterian in all its roll. A great part of the army adhered to its illustrious general; they loved him for his personal qualities; they contemplated with astonishment and admiration the unrivalled powers of his mind; they believed in the sincerity of his love for the cause of liberty, however circuitous and indirect were the ways he pursued in its support. Another, and a very XI. 1655. considerable part of the army regarded him as CHAP. an apostate; they had sworn, as well as he, eternal hostility to the government by a single person; and they were prepared to encounter all extremities, rather than not fulfil that oath to the very letter. 158 1655. CHAPTER XII. REVIVED HOPES OF THE ROYALISTS.-COALITION STAFF.-INSURGENTS CUTION OF PENRUDDOCK AND OTHERS.-SE- BOOK. CROMWEL addressed the parliament at its disIV. solution in a speech of considerable indignation. He felt with keenness in how much a worse situation they were about to leave public affairs of the pro- than they had found them. They had sat completely or nearly for five months, and in all that Diminished authority tector. time had not tendered one bill for his assent. They had suffered even laws of taxation to expire without being replaced. During the period from the dissolution of the Little Parliament, the government had been perpetually acquiring character, had been respected by foreign nations, and had administered internal affairs with a mild, yet firm policy. But now, there was a second power CHAP. XII. 1655. hopes of the in existence, the representatives of the people, who it was conspicuous were not in accord with the executive government, and the public seemed called upon to consider in which of the two they should place their confidence. This situation obscured as with a cloud, and cast an appearance of contempt upon, the authority of the protector. The consequence of this, as Cromwel told the Revived parliament, was, that all discontented parties felt royalists. themselves prompted to improve the opportunity thus thrown into their hands, to overturn the government. At the time of their meeting all was peace and tranquillity; but now it was much otherwise. The partisans of the house of Stuart had for a considerable time been making preparations, collecting arms and money, and issuing commissions for regiments of horse and foot, that war might be at once commenced in different counties and parts of England, for the purpose of restoring the old government. Nor was this all; but a party the most opposite to this, the adherents of the pure principles of a commonwealth, had entered into correspondence with the royalists, to join their forces for the destruction of the present system. Coalition of royalists and repub licans. tions of the cans. The more fully to understand this, we must Provocaconsider that the genuine republicans were in the republihighest degree exasperated against Cromwel. Certainly a more flagrant usurpation is not to be found upon the records of the history of any coun |