were at last obliged to be content with a simple resolution of recognition, to be afterwards qualified by restraining clauses'. Even this moderate success drove the Republicans to extreme methods. "All that could be done," says Ludlow, "was only to lengthen out their Debates and to hang on the Wheels of the Chariot, that they might not be able to drive so furiously." It was the first instance of methodical obstruction, the obstruction which knows that it can do nothing else but obstruct. The House was wonderfully inconsistent in its action. It expelled several members, on the ground that they had acted against the Parliament, though the only authorities for the expulsion were contained in documents which it refused to recognise. Then it discussed for a fortnight the question of the Scotch and Irish members, and at length allowed them to sit in a purely temporary capacity, as members of the existing Parliament. It disturbed the revenue by bringing in a bill to take away the Customs and Excise, and only after great delay resolved to transact with the "other House"." It never reached the length of deciding upon the ceremonies to be used on such occasions. Meanwhile, the adversary was not idle. "Our enemies," said Mr Reynolds in the House on the 30th March, "are flocking to town, and take an 1 Burton, III. 287. 3 Whitelock, 677. 5 Burton, Iv. 219, 242. 7 Burton, Iv. 293. 2 Memoirs, II. 624. 4 Burton, Iv. 193, 195. 6 Whitelock, 677. 8 Cf. Debates, April 5-7, in Burton, IV. advantage of a Parliament sitting, to act all their plots1." On the 6th of April the army resolved to interfere, Action of to prevent the threatened disturbances. The chiefs the army. presented to Richard a petition complaining of the encouragement afforded by the quarrels of the Parliament to the Royalist plotters, the want of pay, and the absence of decided policy. the Par liament. The Parliament met these proceedings by open Defied by defiance. On the 18th April they voted "that during the sitting of Parliament, there shall be no general council or meeting of the officers of the army, without the direction, leave, and authority of His Highness the Lord Protector and both Houses of Parliament," and added a resolution that no officer should continue to hold his command unless he would sign an undertaking not to interrupt the meetings of Parliament1. Richard the Par The resolution of the army was quickly taken. The army At the opening of the Parliament there had been persuades three parties among the officers--the Republicans, to dissolve the Wallingford House party, headed by Fleetwood, liament. Desborough, Sydenham and Berry, who had at first been supporters of Richard, but who had grown lukewarm as time went on, and Richard's own party, consisting of men whom his father had promoted, men such as Ingoldsby, Goffe, Whalley, Broghill, and Philip Jones. On the defiance of the Parliament 1 Burton, Iv. 302. 2 Whitelock, 678. Cf. copy of Petition in T. P. ix. 57. 3 Burton, Iv. 457. 5 Ludlow, 11. 631. 4 Burton, Iv. 461. Retirement of Richard. the Wallingford House party joined the Republicans1, and waited on Richard in the month of April urging him to dissolve the Parliament. To this persuasion Richard yielded, and the dissolution was proclaimed on the 22nd3. The Commons made some attempt at resistance, but were easily overpowered. On the reappearance of the Rump, which soon followed, Richard retired with a pension, and the Protectorate was over. 1 Ludlow, 11. 634. 2 Ludlow, II. 642. Calendar, XII. 336. Cromwelliana, 183. 3 Cromwelliana, 183. 4 England's Confusion, Somers Tracts, vi. 519. 5 Cromwelliana, 184. Whitelock, 680. Journals, May 25, 1659. CHAPTER IV. THE YEAR OF ANARCHY. 1659-60. FROM April 22, 1659, when Richard's Parliament The year was dissolved, until April 25, 1660, when the Convention Parliament met, there was no accepted government in England. During this memorable year the political history of England is a confused mass of personal struggles for power, illuminated only by the steady persistence of the main body of the army in its great political ideas. All the petty jealousies and pedantic bickerings, which had been kept in check by the firm hand of Cromwell, reappeared like Furies let loose, and a tolerable existence can only have been possible in England on the hypothesis previously stated, that the great bulk of the nation had by this time become profoundly indifferent to the struggle. So long as the army held to the cause of the Revolution there was an insuperable barrier against the return of the Stuarts, but when it gave up the cause in despair there was nothing for it but a return to the status quo. It may seem hardly worth while to go into the details of the petty revolutions which filled up the period, but apart from the interest that The officers invite the Rump to return. The Committee of Safety. always attaches to the most minute facts, there is some special instruction to be gained by tracing the steps by which Charles, who at the beginning of 1659 was a vagabond on the face of the earth, became within sixteen months, and without striking a blow, undisputed monarch of the three kingdoms. On May 6, 1659, a committee of fifteen officers, including Fleetwood, Haselrig, Berry, and Cooper, presented to Lenthal, the old Speaker of the Rump, a declaration inviting the members expelled on April 20, 1653, to return to their seats1. After some demur Lenthal and 41 other members' complied, and on the following day issued letters to the rest of the Independent members of the Long Parliament, calling upon them to return. The secluded Presbyterians claimed admittance, but without success*. The first act of the recalled Parliament had been to appoint a Committee of Safety of seven persons, Fleetwood, Haselrig, Vane, Ludlow, Sydenham, Salwey, and John Jones, four of whom were to be a quorum. The committee was only appointed for eight days, but it went on sitting at least till May 19o, and in an informal way was in existence much later'. On the 9th, a rumour having arisen of an immediate invasion by Charles, four new members, 1 Whitelock, 678. Declaration in T. P., Ix. 125. 5 Journals, May 7, 1659. 4 Somers Tracts, vi. 522. Whitelock, 678. 7 Journals, July 19, 1659. |