Govern three mighty States by thy counsels

Govern three mighty States by thy counsels

To recall the people from their corrupt institutions to a purer and nobler discipline, to extend thy thoughts and send out thy mind to our remotest shores, to foresee all and provide for all, to shrink from no labour, to trample under foot and tear to pieces all the snares of pleasure and all the entangling seducements of wealth and power — these are matters so arduous that, in comparison of them, the perils of war are but the sports of children. These will winnow thy faculties, and search thee to the very soul; they require a man sustained by a strength that is more than human, and whose meditations and whose thoughts shall be in perpetual commerce with his Maker.’ [203]

THE PROTECTOR’S IDEAL. Cromwell, who from the first had fought in defence of liberty in Church and State, and who came of the same breed of men as Eliot, Pym, Vane, and Milton himself, would have scorned to rule a race of enslaved people. “Of the two greatest concernments,” he says, “that God hath in this world, the one is that of religion, and of the just preservation of the professors of it, to give them all due and just liberty; the other is the civil liberty and interest of the nation, which though it is, and, indeed, I think ought to be, subordinate to the more peculiar interest of God, yet it is the next best God hath given men in this world, and, if well cared for, it is better than any rock to fence men in their other interests. Besides, if any whosoever think the interest of Christians and the interest of the nation inconsistent, I wish my soul may never enter into their secrets.” [204] Such was Cromwell’s ideal of government — one which, while leaving a people free, was to work at once for their material and moral improvement. In Cromwell’s mouth, the words’ interest of religion’ did not mean the interests of any sect: in his use of the term, he comprehended the whole moral life of the nation; a good education, the suppression of cruel sports, a reform of the criminal law — all that could tend to elevate the minds of men, he classed under the category of the interest of God.

ENEMIES OF PROTECTORATE. The protector certainly could not reasonably be accused of having overthrown the free institutions of his country. Except during the dictatorship of the first few months, the powers he possessed were instead those belonging to the chief magistrate of [p. 330]a republican state than those exercised by former Kings of England. The executive was placed under the control of the legislature; the chief magistrate was denied a veto on laws; his office was rendered elective. “For myself,” he said to his first Parliament, “I desire not to keep my place in this government an hour longer than I may preserve England in its just rights, and may protect the people of God in a just liberty of their consciences.” [205] Yet there was much to hinder Cromwell in achieving his cherished object of establishing a free and constitutional government. Too much hung on a single life, and that one was past its prime. Time, the great conciliator, could not do much for one who was already fifty-five. The mass of the people were sure to be long prejudiced in favour of their old line of princes. Except for his own immediate supporters, no political party favoured his government. Old Royalists and Presbyterians denounced him as guilty of treason and rebellion. The Republicans, Vane, Bradshaw, Hutchinson, and Ludlow, did not scruple to avow their hostility and their intention of rising whenever a good opportunity should offer for the restoration of the Commonwealth. Fanatical Levellers and Fifth-Monarchists joined with Royalists in plotting against the new government, deluded enough to think that, after they had overthrown it, they should be able to crush their allies and set up a Parliament of their own. There was, however, a surer and readier means than insurrection by which the protector’s enemies might attempt the accomplishment of their wishes — assassination. “There remains nothing for him to do,” said the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstiern, when he heard of the establishment of the Protectorate, “but to get him a back and breast-plate of steel.” A proclamation was drawn in the name of Charles Stuart, and secretly dispersed amongst malcontent Royalists, Fifth-Monarchists, and Anabaptists, to the effect that a particular base mechanic fellow, by name Oliver Cromwell, having usurped the throne, whosoever killed him by sword, pistol, or poison should receive a reward of £500 a year (1654). The plots of Royalists and Levellers constantly endangered the life and government of the protector, or of both parties united. Cromwell, however, proved himself more than a match for his enemies. He made use of his insight into character to find the right men to serve as spies, and was generally in full possession of the plans of his [p. 331]enemies. Conspirators, after having advanced with their preparations until within a few hours of the moment of action, found themselves suddenly swooped upon by the officers of justice and lodged securely in prison.

When the protector met his first Parliament, at the appointed date (3 September), he was prepared with a good account of his nine months of rule. Much to the indignation of Republicans and Anabaptists, who still clung to the ambitious project of reducing the States and incorporating the two Republics, Cromwell had ended the ruinous war with Holland by granting peace on relatively moderate terms. The Dutch agreed to lower their flag to the English navy; to banish from their territories enemies of England; to restore to England the island of Poleron, in the East Indies, seized by them during James’ reign; to pay £170,000 damages to the East India Company; and to give to the heirs of those massacred at Amboyna (p. 253) during the same reign a sum amounting to near £4000, together with a compensation of nearly £100,000 to English traders to the Baltic. With the Danes (July, 1654) and with the Swedes (April, 1654) the protector had also concluded treaties favourable to the interests of English merchants, Portugal, long in disgrace for harbouring Rupert’s fleet of privateers, had only obtained a treaty by consenting both to refund the expenses incurred by the English government in consequence of this unfriendly act, and also to allow English merchants liberty of conscience to worship in chapels of their own, and to have unrestricted use of Bibles and other Protestant books throughout the Portuguese dominions.

TEMPORARY DICTATORSHIP. So much for foreign affairs; at home, the protector had made active use of the powers granted him by the Instrument of Government. He had had the right to make ordinances and impose taxes, with the assistance of his council, until the meeting of Parliament. No less than eighty-two ordinances had been passed. Among other things, there were two proposals for the reform of the Church. The first empowered thirty-eight commissioners, a body of laymen and ministers commonly called ‘triers,’ to examine and approve every person, whether presented by a patron or in any other way introduced to a living, before allowing them to take possession (20 March 1654). The second appointed from fifteen to thirty commissioners in every county to expel from their offices any ministers or schoolmasters who set the people a bad example by neglecting their duties, and passing [p. 332]their time in taverns, playing at cards and dice (28 August). Cromwell’s principles of toleration made him desirous of uniting Protestant sects, and he named, as commissioners upon these ordinances, Presbyterians, Independents, and Anabaptists. To their political opinions, he was indifferent, so long as he thought them the right men to do the work required, and amongst them sat, not only Fairfax, though now at heart almost a Royalist, but Republicans who were bitter enemies of the protector. The great Presbyterian, Baxter, was a ‘trier’ himself, and, though he could never forgive Cromwell’s usurpation, he admitted that good resulted from this reform. “And with all their faults,” he says, “thus much must be said of these triers, that they saved many a congregation from ignorant, ungodly, drunken teachers, that sort of men who intend no more in the ministry than to patch a few good words together to talk the people asleep on Sunday, and all the rest of the week go with them to the alehouse and harden them in sin; so that, though many of them were somewhat partial to the Independents, Fifth-Monarchy men, and Anabaptists, many thousands of souls blessed God for the faithful ministers whom they let in.” [206] By another of his ordinances, Cromwell reduced the costs of suits in Chancery by simplifying the procedure and cutting down the fees of counsel and solicitors, one of those acts which few subsequent governments have been found strong enough to repeat.

REFORM IN REPRESENTATION. A reform was carried out in the system of representation. This reform had been proposed by the Republicans and was laid down in the Instrument of Government. In early times, when the Lower House was summoned solely for the purpose of granting the king subsidies, attention had naturally been paid to allotting members to places in proportion to population and wealth. However, over the years, inequalities emerged. Towns that returned members lost their trade, and decreased in the number of their inhabitants, while unrepresented villages became large and thriving cities. This evil was increased by the practice of the princes of the Houses of Tudor and Stuart, who, to maintain their authority in the Commons, created new boroughs out of mere villages, which returned members according to the directions of servants of the crown. Thus Elizabeth added sixty members to the House of Commons, the loyalty of petty [p. 333]Cornish hamlets being especially favoured in the distribution of these seats. An inequality had existed from the first in county representation, since counties, however unequal in size, such as Yorkshire and Rutland, had always returned two members each. According to the current reform, the number of members returned for England and Wales has been reduced from 500 to 400. The county members, or knights of shires, were increased to 261, Yorkshire returning twelve members, Essex thirteen, Warwickshire four, and other counties in like proportion. A large number of rotten boroughs, some of which contained only a few houses, were disfranchised, while members were given to a few rising places, such as Leeds, Manchester, and Halifax; 149 members were returned in all for the towns and boroughs.[207] The county franchise, formerly confined to freeholders possessing lands or tenements to the annual value of 40s., was extended to any resident in the county whose capital value of property, real or personal, amounted to £200.[208] As the value of money is now one-fourth of what it was then, the constituency was not as democratic as it is now; when owners of freeholds with an annual value of 40s. and occupiers of property with a rateable value of £12 are qualified as county electors.[209]

CROMWELL’S FIRST PARLIAMENT. The reformed Parliament was imperial, representing the three nations, with thirty members summoned to sit for Scotland and thirty for Ireland. Those who had borne arms against the Parliament since 1641 were rendered, by the Instrument of Government, incapable of voting at elections for the present Parliament or the three following triennial Parliaments. This disfranchised not only the Royalists, but also some of the Presbyterians who had joined in Hamilton’s invasion or that led by Prince Charles. The House, however, contained many Presbyterians, as well as Republicans and others opposed to the government. These proceeded to debate the question whether they should approve the government by a single person and a Parliament; in other words, to attack the Instrument of Government [p. 334]by authority of which they, as well as the protector, ruled. More than a week had been spent upon this subject of debate, when Cromwell summoned the members to the Painted Chamber, and there informed them that he had the government by a good right from God and man; by Divine right, because it was by his hand that God had saved the nation; by human right, because they had come to sit there in virtue of his writ, and, therefore, could not call in question the authority by which the Parliament itself existed. They would now, before again entering the House, be required to sign their names to an engagement to be accurate and faithful to the lord protector and Commonwealth, and not to propose or consent to any alteration of the government as it was settled in one person and a Parliament (12 September 1654).