[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 668, 681, 685. Whitelock, 607. Journals, Nov. 30. Though the house was daily occupied with the important question of the government, it found leisure to inquire into the theological opinions of John Biddle, who may be styled the father of the English Unitarians. He had been thrice imprisoned by the long parliament, and was at last liberated by the act of oblivion in 1652. The republication of his opinions attracted the notice of the present parliament: to the questions put to him by the speaker, he replied, that he could nowhere find in Scripture that Christ or the Holy Ghost is called God; and it was resolved that he should be committed to the Gatehouse, and that a bill to punish him should be prepared. The dissolution saved his life; and by application to the Upper Bench, he recovered his liberty; but was again arrested in 1655, and sent to the isle of Scilly, to remain for life in the castle of St. Mary. Cromwell discharged him in 1658; but he was again sent to Newgate in 1662, where he died the same year.—See Vita Bidelli, the short account; Journals, Dec. 12, 13, 1654; Wood, iii. 594; and Biog. Brit.]
to break the designs of his adversaries. They proceeded with the revision of "the instrument;" their labours were embodied in a bill,[a] and the bill was read a third time. During two days the courtiers prolonged the debate by moving a variety of amendments; on the third Cromwell summoned the house to meet him in the Painted Chamber. Displeasure and contempt were marked on his countenance; and the high and criminatory tone which he assumed taught them to feel how inferior the representatives of the people were to the representative of the army.
They appeared there, he observed, with the speaker at their head, as a house of parliament. Yet, what had they done as a parliament? He never had played, he never would play, the orator; and therefore he would tell them frankly, they had done nothing. For five months they had passed no bill, had made no address, had held no communication with him. As far as concerned them, he had nothing to do but to pray that God would enlighten their minds and give a blessing to their labours. But had they then done nothing? Yes: they had encouraged the Cavaliers to plot against the commonwealth, and the Levellers to intrigue with the Cavaliers. By their dissension they had aided the fanatics to throw the nation into confusion, and by the slowness of their proceedings had compelled the soldiers to live at free quarters on the country. They supposed that he sought to make the protectorship hereditary in his family. It was not true; had they inserted such a provision in "the instrument," on that ground alone he would have rejected it. He spoke in the fear of the Lord, who would not be mocked, and with the satisfaction that his conscience did not belie his assertion. The
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1655. Jan. 19.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1655. Jan. 22.]
different revolutions which had happened were attributed to his cunning. How blind were men who would not see the hand of Providence in its merciful dispensations, who ridiculed as the visions of enthusiasm the observations "made by the quickening and teaching Spirit!" It was supposed that he would not be able to raise money without the aid of parliament. But "he had been inured to difficulties, and never found God failing when he trusted in him." The country would willingly pay on account of the necessity. But was not the necessity of his creation? No: it was of God; the consequence of God's providence. It was no marvel, if men who lived on their masses and service-books, their dead and carnal worship, were strangers to the works of God; but for those who had been instructed by the Spirit of God, to adopt the same language, and say that men were the cause of these things, when God had done them, this was more than the Lord would bear. But that he might trouble them no longer, it was his duty to tell them that their continuance was not for the benefit of the nation, and therefore he did then and there declare that he dissolved the parliament.[1]
This was a stroke for which his adversaries were unprepared. "The instrument" had provided that the parliament should continue to sit during five months, and it still wanted twelve days of the expiration of that term. But Cromwell chose to understand the clause not of calendar but of lunar months, the fifth of which had been completed on the preceding evening. Much might have been urged against such an interpretation; but a military force was ready to
[Footnote 1: Printed by Henry Hills, printer to his highness the lord-protector, 1654. Whitelock, 610-618. Journals, Jan. 19, 20, 22.]
support the opinion of the protector, and prudence taught the most reluctant of his enemies to submit.
The conspiracies to which he had alluded in his speech had been generated by the impatience of the two opposite parties, the republicans and the royalists. Of the republicans some cared little for religion, others were religious enthusiasts, but both were united in the same cause by one common interest. The first could not forgive the usurpation of Cromwell, who had reaped the fruit, and destroyed the object of their labours; the second asked each other how they could conscientiously sit quiet, and allow so much blood to have been spilt, and treasure expended, so many tears to have been shed, and vows offered in vain. If they "hoped to look with confidence the King of terrors in the face, if they sought to save themselves from the bottomless pit, it was necessary to espouse once more the cause of Him who had called them forth in their generation to assert the freedom of the people and the privileges of parliament."[1] Under these different impressions, pamphlets were published exposing the hypocrisy and perjuries of the protector; letters and agitators passed from regiment to regiment; and projects were suggested and entertained for the surprisal of Cromwell's person, and the seizure[a] of the castle of Edinburgh, of Hull, Portsmouth, and other places of strength. But it was not easy for the republicans to deceive the vigilance, or elude the grasp of their adversary. He dismissed all officers of doubtful fidelity from their commands in the army, and secured the obedience of the men by the substitution of others more devoted to his interest; by his order, Colonel Wildman was surprised in the very act of dictating
[Footnote 1: See Thurloe, iii. 29; and Milton's State Papers, 132.]