Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/195

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house, as a house of parliament, during this present session’ (Burton, iv. 293). It was also resolved that the Scotch and Irish members should be admitted to sit and vote during the present parliament (21 and 23 March, ib. iv. 219, 243). Moreover, in the debates on foreign affairs, though the republicans made a damaging attack on the foreign policy of the late protector, and raised the whole question of the right of peace and war, the disposal of the fleet to be set out was eventually left in the hands of the Protector, instead of being entrusted to a committee (ib. iii. 376, 493). At the end of March a fleet was accordingly despatched to the Sound under the command of Admiral Montague. By these repeated victories the essential principles of Richard's government had obtained parliamentary sanction, but in two respects he was less successful. The debates on the question of supplies were long and bitter. The existence of the fixed revenue of 1,300,000l. established by the petition and advice was attacked, and, when a bill was introduced to settle certain taxes on the Protector for life, it was defeated by a resolution that, after the termination of the present parliament, no tax should be levied under any previous law or ordinance, unless expressly sanctioned by the present parliament (ib. iv. 327, 1 April). Still more serious were the proceedings of the committee of grievances. The cases of Fifth-monarchy men imprisoned without legal trial, cavaliers deported to Barbadoes, and persons oppressed by the major-generals, gave rise to excited discussion. One of the major-generals was impeached, and a committee was appointed to consider of a course of proceeding against him, and against other delinquents (ib. iv. 412, 12 April). From the first these proceedings threatened the soldiers who had executed the orders of the late government and roused the hostility of the army. About the end of March Fleetwood and Desborough contrived to obtain the consent of Richard to the meeting of the council of the army, but the history of this transaction is obscure (Morris, Orrery State Papers, i. 64, ed. 1743 ; Ludlow, p. 242, ed. 1751). On 6 April the council presented a declaration to the Protector setting forth the dangers of the cause and the grievances of the army. It concluded with the demand for a public assertion of the good old cause, a justification and confirmation of all proceedings in the prosecution of it, and a declaration against its enemies (Parliamentary History, xxi. 345; Guizot, i. 116). The Protector forwarded the declaration to the House of Commons, who replied to it ten days later by a vote that no general council of officers should be held without the permission of the Protector and both houses of parliament, and that no person should hold a commission in the army or navy unless he signed an engagement not to interrupt the meetings of parliament (Burton, iv. 461, 18 April). The Protector, who was requested to acquaint the officers with this vote, immediately sent for them, and ordered them to repair to their commands (Thurloe, vii. 658; Guizot, i. 364; Ludlow, p. 243). The council professed obedience, but continued their meetings and prepared for action. It was believed that an attempt would be made to seize the Protector at Whitehall. Colonel Charles Howard and Colonel Ingoldsby offered to arrest the chief conspirators, but Richard is traditionally reported to have answered, ‘I will not have a drop of blood spilt for the preservation of my greatness, which is a burden to me’ (Heath, Chronicle, p. 744; Noble, i. 330). He sent for Fleetwood to Whitehall, but Fleetwood did not even answer his summons, and ordered a rendezvous of the army at St. James's for 21 April. The Protector ordered a rendezvous at Whitehall at the same time, but nearly all the regiments in London obeyed Fleetwood, and even the greater part of regiments held trustworthy deserted their commanders and marched to St. James's. On the afternoon of the 21st Desborough came to Richard at Whitehall and told him ‘that if he would dissolve his parliament the officers would take care of him; but that if he refused so to do they would do it without him, and leave him to shift for himself’ (Ludlow, p. 244). After some hours' hesitation Richard decided to throw in his lot with the army. Bordeaux, in a despatch written the day before, had predicted that he would do so, and had given the reasons. ‘He will yield to the wishes of the army leaders, and prefer this to placing himself in the hands of the parliament, which is composed of men of no solidity who would desert him at a pinch, and some of whom are on his side only so long as they believe it to be consistent with the design of restoring the king’ (Guizot, i. 367). After resisting for several hours Richard gave way, and late on the night of the 21st signed an order dissolving the parliament (Burton, iv. 482; Guizot, i. 371). Fleetwood and Desborough seem to have really intended to maintain Richard in the dignity of protector. ‘The chief officers would have left the Protector a duke of Venice, for his father's sake, who raised them, and their relation to him which they had forgotten till now’ (‘England's Confusion,’ 1659, Somers Tracts, vi. 520; Lublow, 244; Guizot, i. 373). But the inferior officers and the republican party in