Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/636

602 under the chief direction of Cromwell. That country was now united to the Commonwealth by Act of Parliament; a small army distributed in garrisons preserved the peace of the country; justice was strictly administered; the affairs of the church were committed to a commission of pious and judicious ministers ; and during the whole period of Cromwell s government Scotland prospered under a strict but beneficent rule. In the interval between the battle of Worcester and the dismissal of the " Rump " Parliament, Cromwell took no continuously visible part in public affairs. The general opinion among historians seems to be that during these nineteen months the ambitious general was busily occupied in the course of profound dissimula tion and intrigue which had marked his whole career, and that as the premeditated result of the selfish scheme of iisurpation which had lurked darkly in his bosom even on the banks of the Ouse, he entered the House of Commons on 20th April 1653, expelled the Parliament, and assumed the reins of power. These views may be left untouched ; certain it is that the great assembly that moulded the Com monwealth had now, at the end of twelve years, exhausted its vitality, and dwindled intoanumerical fragment of a Par liament, and a mere mockery of representative government. It had become in fact an oligarchy, which absorbed to itself not merely the whole administration of public affairs, but the control of many private interests. Their " only serious occupation to maintain themselves in power, and defend themselves against their enemies," 1 these men wasted months in debating questions of mere technicality, and prolonged time after time the duration of their power, after the voice of the nation, so far as it was capable of being interpreted, had pronounced it intolerable. After months of discussion and delay, they had completed their measure for electing a new Parliament, professedly with the view of laying down their power into the hands of their successors, when it was found that by this act the members of tli3 existing Parliament were to be de jure members of the new, and to constitute a committee for deciding on the admission of their successors ! On the morning of 20th April, Cromwell, being informed that this measure was getting hurried through the House, entered with his troopsrs, and dissolved the Parliament. By that daring act he became the sole head of power in the nation, and nothing was left him but to use it as wisely and firmly as he could. The consequences of that act left him thenceforth no honourable retreat had he desired it. One strong hand was needed to give consist ency and unity to the action of the state, alike in its inter nal and its foreign relations ; and, from the hour that Cromwell seized the helm, the ship of the Commonwealth rode the waves, if not without straining or accident, yet with a proud and steady inarch. Few tears were shed for the departed " statesmen ;" the nation quietly submitted, if it did not positively approve ; the business of the state went on without interruption ; the leaders of the army and navy, many of them ardent republicans, continued at their posts, sinking their private opinions in their concern for the country s good. As soon as possible, summonses were issued in Cromwell s name to 140 "persons of approved fidelity and honesty," selected from the nation by himself and his council to act as a Parliament in the exist ing emergency. This extraordinary assembly met on the 4th of July. The old and vulgar charge against them, as a herd of mean and contemptible fanatics, is of a piece with the general run of historic portraitures of Cromwell himself, and has been sufficiently answered even by writers who have little favour for him. They were in fact a body of most sincere and earnest men, only too eager and compre hensive in their efforts to accomplish a national reformation. 1 Quizot, History of Cromwell and the English Commonwealth. They attempted too much ; they aroused a storm of hos tility from the classes whose interests they threatened ; they bowed before it; internal dissensions and intrigue hastened their fall ; and on 12th December they resigned their power into the hands of Cromwell, who now found himself in the solemn position of being the uncontrolled arbiter of the peace and safety of Britain. Earnestly desirous, as he throughout evinced himself, of giving his country a stable and constitutional government, he was willing now, rather than that England should sink into the abyss of anarchy, to brave the dangers and the odium that attach to the name of a usurper. Four days after the resignation of the " Little Parliament," it was openly pro claimed that Oliver Cromwell had been invested with the office of supreme governor of the British Commonw ealth under the title of " Lord Protector ; " and on 1 6th Decem ber 1653 he was solemnly installed in Westminster Hall. All the chief courts of Europe sent their congratulations to the new sovereign, and soon they were made to feel and bow to his power. A Parliament was summoned for the 3d of September 1654 ; and in the meantime Oliver and his council proceeded with vigour in the settlement of domestic and foreign affairs. " In less than nine months," says M. Guizot, " eighty-two ordinances, bearing upon almost every part of the social organization of the country, bore witness to the intelligent activity and to the character, at once conservative and reformatory, of the Government." Of these it is sufficient to mention the partial reform cf the Court of Chancery, and the settlement of ecclesiastical affairs by the commission of " Triers," a body of able and pious men who, by the impartial testimony of Baxter, " did abundance of good to the church." A plot, the first of many, to assassinate the Protector, was discovered in the month of July. The principal conspirators, Gerard and Vowel, were executed; and on the same day, as a terrible example to Europe of British justice, Don Pantaleon Sa, brother of the Portuguese ambassador, was publicly beheaded fcr his share in the murder of an English citizen. Cn the 3d September the Parliament mot. The Protector had already concluded peace vith the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal ; and a treaty with France was proceeding hope fully towards settlement. The Parlian.ent began business by deliberating whether they should approve the newly established frame of government in other words, by calling in question the authority which had called them together. Oliver at cnce hastened to set them right. "I told you," he said, " that you were a free Parliament, but I thought it was understood withal that I was the Protector, and the authority that called you !" He con cluded an earnest and powerful address by requiring tLtm to sign a document pledging themselves to acknow ledge the existing Government. One hundred and fifty of the republican men;bers refused to sign, and itlidrew. The rest resumed their sitting ; but their subsequent pro ceedings were scarcely more satisfactory than their in auspicious commencement. Instead of accepting as a fact the power of the Protector, and aiding him in the work of government, they occupied themselves in interposing as many checks as they could to his influence. Deeply grieved at the failure of each successive attempt to govern by con stitutional means, Cromwell was not therefore discouraged. If Parliaments would not help him, lie was determined to govern without them. His scheme of "Major-generals" followed, " a little poor invention," as he called it, for preserving order in the country, and crushing the now imminent attempt at a combination between the Royalists and the Levellers. Though arbitrary, and in many instances oppressive, this scheme accomplished the great end of its establishment the preservation of the country s peace.

But while the enemies of peace and order at home were