CROMWELL EXPELS THE PARLIAMENT 351 fool's bauble." He then addressed himself to the members of the House and said, "It's you that have forced me to this, for I have sought the Lord night and day, that He would rather slay me than put me upon the doing of this work." "After this he went to the clerk, and snatching the act of dissolution, which was ready to pass, out of his hand, he put it under his cloak, and having commanded the doors to be locked up, went away to Whitehall." As the members passed out, between 80 and 100, he addressed them in abusive language, some of which has been recorded. He accused Alderman Allen of embezzling, and Whitelocke of injustice, and called Sir Peter Wentworth an adulterer, and Challoner a drunkard. As his old friend, Harry Marten, passed, he asked him if a whoremaster was fit to sit and govern. He is said to have called to Sir Henry Vane that he "might have prevented this; but he was a juggler, and had not so much as common honesty." Such invective, indicating a mind perturbed to frenzy, were scarcely fit for his audience, the musketeers. Indeed, Whitelocke tells us that some of them were ashamed of his language. Cromwell then went to the council of officers, still in debate about this weighty business, and told them what he had done. On the afternoon of the same day he went to the council of state, accompanied by Lambert and Harrison, and told them at his entrance: "Gentlemen, if you are met here as private persons, you shall not be disturbed; but if, as a council of state, this is no place for you; and since you can't but know what was done at the House in the morning, so take notice that the parliament is dissolved." To this Sergeant Bradshaw answered: "Sir, we have heard what you did at the House in the morning, and before many hours all England will hear it; but, sir, you are mistaken to think that the parliament is dissolved ; for no power under Heaven can dissolve them but themselves; therefore, take you notice of that.' Something more was said to the same purpose by Sir Arthur Hesilrige, Mr Lowe, and Mr Scot; and the council of state, perceiving themselves to be under the same violence, departed.1 Thus fell by the treachery and violence of a military junto the commonwealth of England, which during a brief time of four years and three months, had done more and accomplished more than any government that had ever ruled England. It is needless to repeat the enconiums of friends and the unwilling testimony of enemies to the mighty work of these great men. The facts themselves cry out, though posterity has been marvellously reluctant to listen. They had subdued inside and outside enemies, united the three kingdoms of the British Islands under one rule, had changed the scorn and hostility of the princes and courts of Europe into a wholesome fear and involuntary respect, had given a new dignity to the cause of freedom, and had, above all, sustained that incomparable exaltation of mind, that intellectual activity, that unselfish energy and public spirit, which makes nations truly great. It is not at all surprising that the parliament should have hesitated to risk the fortunes of the country and their own fates upon the outcome of the 1 Ludlow, vol. ii., p. 461. A SERVICEABLE ACCUSATION 353 polls. At the time, however, it was a serviceable accusation to hurl at them, that they desired to prolong their own power. The eagerness of the admirers of Cromwell, to get this assumption accepted, seems to imply that it constitutes, to their minds, a valid excuse for his violently seizing upon the supreme power, and retaining it during the rest of his life. Well, perhaps this excuse is as good as any which they are able to offer. N CHAPTER XX Peace with Holland. Attempts to reform His Domestic Policy. The Republicans in Suspense. Further Sea Fights. "We do not even hear a dog bark at their going," said Cromwell in his joy at his triumph. Colonel Hutchinson, we are told,' found divers of the members of parliament consulting together in London. They had friends enough in the army, city, and country, to have disputed the matter; but they thought, that if they should vex the land by war amongst themselves, the royalists and Presbyterians would have an opportunity to prevail to the ruin of both. One thing was clear, the parliament had willed a new election, and were prevented by Cromwell from accomplishing it, and Cromwell could have accomplished it and would not. If he really wished the voice of the country to be taken, it was now in his power at once to call for an election, and to see that neither the old parliament nor the other parties should enjoy any unfair advantage. As long as he was chief of the army, Cromwell had a force sufficient to quell all opposition, but the army of the commonwealth was not a tool to be used 1 Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 206. MANAGEMENT OF THE ARMY 355 to do anything like the mercenaries of a Sicilian tyrant or the janissaries of the East, where the downfall of one despot but meant the elevation of another. The very soldiers had their own opinions and their objects which they expected the lord-general to fulfil and they were averse to be led in the very direction he wanted to go. Indeed, the first difficulty came from some of the officers. Colonel Okey, distinguished for his skill and gallantry during the civil war, repaired to the general to desire satisfaction about his proceedings. Cromwell professed himself resolved to do much more good, and that with more expedition than could be expected from the parliament. This put most of the officers to silence, and they determined to wait to see what further he should do ; but Colonel Okey inquired of Colonel Desborough what his meaning was to give such high commendations to the parliament, when he endeavoured to dissuade the officers of the army from petitioning them for a dissolution, and so short a time after to eject them with so much scorn and contempt, who had no other answer to make, but that, if ever he had drolled in his life, he had drolled then.' The time was most opportune for the usurper occupying the high position attained by the parliament: all enemies within the British Isles were reduced, the Dutch much weakened, and the public treasury full. The Dutch ambassadors had welcomed the usurpation in hopes of getting better terms from Cromwell; but finding themselves mistaken, they did their best to continue the struggle, counting at least on divided action. In this, too, they found themselves mistaken, for 1 Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 460. |