The Republican leaders, who had now obtained the guidance of the Lower House, were deaf to these arguments. They were pledged by oath to be true and faithful to the Lord Protector, and not to contrive anything against his lawful authority, and they were careful to keep the word of promise to the ear. But they insisted on discussing the Petition and Advice over again, taking nothing for granted which had been done during their absence. “Unless you make foundations sure, it will not do your work,” said Haslerig. “We who were not privy to your debates upon which you made your resolutions should have liberty to debate it over again,” added another. With great acuteness they fixed upon the authority of the new Second Chamber as the point of attack, denied it to be a House of Lords as Cromwell styled it, and insisted that its proper title, according to the Petition and Advice, was “the other House.”
If it were suffered to call itself a House of Lords, it would claim all the legislative and judicial powers the old Lords had possessed: and then what would become of the rights of the people? The people, said Scot, had been by the providence of God set free from any authority which could exercise a veto on their resolutions. “Will they thank you, if you bring such a negative upon them? What was fought for, but to arrive at a capacity to make your own laws?” “The Commons of England,” chimed in Haslerig, “will quake to hear that they are returning to Egypt.” For seven whole sittings these debates continued, and the Lower House refused to have any dealings with the Upper House till this question was decided. To the republicans the title meant everything. “Admit Lords and you admit all,” argued Ashley Cooper. “I can suffer to be torn in pieces,” cried Haslerig, “I could endure that; but to betray the liberties of the people of England, that I cannot.”
The Republican leaders did not confine their opposition to words. Some of them entered into communication with the malcontents in the city and the army. It was arranged that a petition should be presented, signed by ten thousand persons in London, demanding the limitation of the Protector’s power over the army, and the recognition of the House of Commons as the supreme authority in the nation. In reply, the House was to vote an address asserting both these principles, and if need be to appoint Fairfax commander-in-chief instead of Cromwell. The Republicans expected to be backed by part of the army, for there were rumours of disaffection in the ranks. Soldiers had been heard to say that under pretence of liberty of conscience they had been fooled into betraying the civil liberties of their country, and all to make one family great. And nowhere was the hostility to the new House of Lords stronger than amongst the officers of the Protector’s own regiment of horse.
The scheme came to Cromwell’s ears, and the next morning he sent a sudden summons to both Houses to meet him (February 4, 1658). He was Protector, he told them, by virtue of the Petition and Advice. “There is not a man living can say I sought it, no, not a man nor woman treading upon English ground.” They had petitioned and advised him to undertake his office, and he looked to them to make their engagements good. Then, addressing himself to the members of the Commons, he complained that, instead of owning the settlement made by their consent, they were attempting to upset it. “The nation 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. Through the intention of devising a Commonwealth again, that some people might be the men that might rule all.” Some were “endeavouring to engage the army to carry that thing,” others “to stir up the people of this town into a tumulting.” These things tended “to nothing else but the playing of the King of Scots’ game,” and could end in nothing but blood and confusion. “I think it high time,” he concluded, “that an end be put to your sitting, and I do dissolve this Parliament. And let God be judge between you and me.”
“Amen,” responded the defiant Republicans.
THE GREAT SEAL OF THE PROTECTOR.
(From Henfrey’s “Numismata Cromwelliana.”)
