CHAPTER XIV. LAST PARLIAMENT AND DEATH OF THE PROTECTOR. The Installation-Two Houses of Parliament-The grand DesignPetty Quarrels-Parliament dissolved-Conspiracies-Death of Lady Claypole-Consolations—Fever-George Fox at Hampton Court— Cromwell's Words on his Deathbed-Confidence-The StormCromwell's Successor-His Prayer and Last Words-His DeathMourning-Cromwell's Christian Character--Oliver and the PopeRestoration of Mankind-The Protestant Way-Oliver's PrinciplesThe Pope's Policy-Conflicts and Dangers of the State-The Two Men of the Seventeenth Century-Conclusion. On the 26th of June, 1657, Cromwell, after his refusal of the kingship, was again solemnly inaugurated Protector. The Speaker in the name of the Parliament presented to him in succession a robe of purple velvet, a bible, a sword, and a sceptre of massive gold. The parliament was afterwards prorogued until the 20th of January in the following year. On its re-assembling it consisted of two houses. The Protector had told the Commons that he would not undertake the government unless there was some body which, by interposing between him and the lower house, would be able to keep seditious and turbulent persons in check. This was readily granted; and as soon as the regulating power was established, Oliver thought himself bound to revoke the exceptional measure by which he had supplied its place at the time of the first meeting of the Commons. Their number was augmented by the hundred excluded members, . . . . a bold and dangerous concession. The other house (as the Lords were called) consisted of sixty-one hereditary mem 1 bers, nominated by the Protector, among whom were his two sons and his two sons-in-law. Cromwell opened this new Parliament on the 20th of January, 1658, beginning with the usual form, My Lords and Gentlemen of the House of Commons. He returned thanks to God for His favors, at the head of which he reckoned peace and the blessings of peace, namely, the possession of political and spiritual liberty. As religion was always the first of interests in his estimation, Oliver, when speaking of this power, which is the strength of nations, called to their remembrance "that England had now a godly ministry [clergy], a knowing ministry; such a one as, without vanity be it spoken, the world has not. . . . . . If God," added he in conclusion, "should bless you in this work, and make this meeting happy on this account, the generations to come will bless us." The proceedings of this Parliament did not answer to the Protector's expectations. The Commons would have no other house. One republican, Haselrig, refused to be made a peer, and took his seat in the Commons. Cromwell endeavored to raise the attention of parliament above all these trivialities, and direct it to the great questions which concerned the country. Summoning both houses before him on the 25th of January, the Protector said to them :- "Look at affairs abroad. The grand design now on foot, in comparison with which all other designs are but low things, is, whether the Christian world shall be all Popery? Is it not true that the Protestant cause and interest abroad is quite under foot, trodden down? The money you parted with in that noble charity which was exercised in this nation, and the just sense you had of those poor Piedmonts, was satisfaction enough to yourselves of this, That if all the Protestants in Europe had had but that head, that head had been cut off, and so an end of the whole. "But is this of Piedmont all? No. Look how the house of Austria, on both sides of Christendom, both in Austria Proper and in Spain, are armed and prepared to destroy the whole Protestant interest."* After demonstrating his thesis, Oliver continued thus:"And look to that that calls itself the head of all this-a pope! He influences all the powers, all the princes of Europe to accomplish this bloody work. So that what is there in all the parts of Europe but a consent, a co-operating, at this very time and season, of all popish powers to suppress everything that stands in their way?" All this was perfectly true. The statesmen of England did not then give way to fatal delusions. The Protector had eyes to see, and ears to hear. Cromwell, after pointing out the dangers abroad, examined next into those at home; inquiring what blessings ought to be preserved, and what precautions should be taken for that purpose. All his thoughts were for the happiness of his people. “We have,” said he, "two blessings: Peace and the Gospel. Let us have one heart and soul; one mind to maintain the honest and just rights of this nation. If you run into another flood of blood and war, this nation must sink and perish utterly. I beseech you and charge you in the name and presence of God, and as before Him, be sensible of these things, and lay them to heart. If you prefer not the keeping of peace, that we may see the fruit of righteousness in them that love peace and embrace peace,—it will be said of this poor nation: Actum est de Anglia, It is all over with England.§ "While I live, and am able, I shall be ready to stand and fall with you. I have taken my oath to govern according to the laws, and I trust I shall fully answer it. And know, I sought not this place. I speak it before God, angels, and * Burton, ii. 351. Carlyle's Cromwell, iii. 405, 406. § Ibid. 424. + Ibid. 423. men; I DID NOT. it."* You sought me for it, you brought me to This noble language did not produce the effect that might have been expected from it. The Commons had not the Protector's piercing eye. Instead of embracing, like him, all Europe and its destinies, they squabbled about paltry interests and petty rivalries. The house lost itself in useless and dangerous discussions. Quarrels, dissension, and civil war were at the door, and "the English hydra," says Carlyle, "cherished by the Spanish Charles Stuart invasion, would have shortly hissed sky-high again, had that continued."t There was a rumor of an army of 20,000 men appearing with a petition for the re-establishment of Charles Stuart, and of another force of 10,000 landing in England; "by the jealousy (to say no worse) of our good neighbors," wrote Hartlib, Milton's friend, to Pell. "Besides," continues he, "there was another petition set on foot in the city for a commonwealth, which would have gathered like a snowball." The well-disposed members endeavored, but without effect, to maintain order, and to direct the attention of the house to useful objects of legislation. Many violent attacks were made upon the members of the other house, who were resolved to defend themselves. They forgot the great aims of the Protector, . . . . . . the liberty, prosperity, and glory of his country, and gave way to wretched personalities. Cromwell had far outstripped his age: his contemporaries could not follow him. The public men of England required that constitutional education which genius and the Gospel had given the Protector. This they have now received, and for it they are in an especial manner indebted to him. Yet for a time the nation was again placed between the democracy of the levellers and the despotism of the Stuarts, -between the hammer and the anvil. It was necessary for such a state of things to be brought to a speedy termination. * Carlyle's Cromwell, iii. 424. † Ibid. 426. Vaughan's Protectorate, ii. 442 On the 4th of February, 1658, while the lower house was forgetting its dignity in some idle discussion, the usher of the Black Rod announced that his Highness, the Protector, was in the House of Lords, and desirous of speaking with the Commons. The first house (for such was their title) hastily complied with the summons. "My Lords and Gentlemen," said the Protector, "I would have been glad to have lived under my woodside, to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than undertaken such a government as this. But undertaking it by the advice and petition of you, I did look that you who had offered it unto me should make it good. "Yet, instead of that, you have not only disjointed yourselves but the whole nation, which is in likelihood of running into more confusion in these fifteen or sixteen days that you have sat, than it hath been from the rising of the last session to this day. They are endeavoring to engage the army, which is nothing else but playing the King of Scots' game (if I may so call him); and I think myself bound before God to do what I can to prevent it. I think it high time that an end be put to your sitting. And I do dissolve this parliament; and let God be judge between you and me. These were the last words uttered by him in public. He was then pidly approaching that solemn moment when the judgment the Almighty, to which he had appealed, was to be acco ›lished. The most enlightened men thought with Cromwell. Hart"Believe me, it was lib wrote a few days after to Mr. Pell: of such necessity that, if their session had continued but two or three days longer, all had been in blood, both in city and country, upon Charles Stuart's account." As Oliver felt convinced that these disturbances originated chiefly with the principal officers of the army, he set aside Harrison and Ludlow, recalled Fleetwood from his govern * Burton, ii. 465. Carlyle's Cromwell, iii. 427-432. |