1659.
Questions touching foreign affairs, the Army, and finance came under debate at the same time; the Republicans, led by Vane, deploring, in a spirit of infatuation, the late peace with Holland, and wishing that the war had been perpetuated until the Dutch had been conquered, and forced into union with this country. They contended also that the control of the military should be placed in the hands of the Parliament, not in the hands of the Protector; and they inveighed against the extravagance of the Government, declaring that the deficiency in the revenue would produce a national debt enough to sink the country in ruin. But what proved of still more serious consequence, the Republicans not only canvassed, but set aside certain acts of the late Protector. Oliver had left behind him many State prisoners, committed for political offences. They were now liberated. Major-General Overton, one of these prisoners, appeared before the House as a martyr, being escorted on his return from imprisonment—like Burton, Prynne, and others, nearly twenty years before—by "four or five hundred men on horseback, and a vast crowd bearing branches of laurel."[17]
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES.
Richard could not be held responsible for the arbitrary proceedings of Oliver. He had not been privy to his father's deeds; he had not entered into his father's purposes; he had not adopted his father's opinions; he had befriended the Royalists, and was still supposed to have sympathies with them; at the same time also his moderation and urbanity attracted towards him some of his father's companions and allies. "Though perhaps you will not believe it," wrote Broderick to Hyde, "they really are more affectionate to the present than the late Protector, whose temper so differed from theirs that it was usually averse to the deliberate caution they advised, running hazards they trembled to think of upon a sudden violent suggestion, of which they could give themselves no account, which precipices this young Prince doth prudently, as well as naturally avoid, and is thereby rendered more agreeable to those wary statesmen."[18] Yet personal popularity did not suffice to defend him from the disaffection of Republicans, and the discontent and intrigues of Army officers. Late in the month of March, Fleetwood and Desborough reported to Richard that agitation prevailed amongst the troops; that they complained of not having received their pay; that they were angry at the conduct of Parliament towards some of their old generals; and that these circumstances afforded encouragement to the Cavalier party. The two officers proceeded to employ these facts for the purpose of enforcing the advice that His Highness should immediately summon a Council of Officers to consider the state of affairs. Such a Council was held; and, after prayer, by Dr. Owen, deliberations commenced. Desborough recommended the application to the Army of a political test, the test to be—approval of the execution of Charles I. The proposition shocked the Lords Howard and Falconbridge. Broghill suggested a different method—that every one should be turned out of the Army who would not swear allegiance to the Protectorate, a proposition supported by Whalley and Goffe. At last it was resolved to separate the command of the Army from the civil power; a resolution afterwards presented to His Highness, who forwarded it to the House of Commons. Such discussions only served to widen the breach between the House and the Army, in the end diminishing the influence of the former, and leaving it in a position of weakness, so as to compel its submission to the assumption of the latter. The resolution sent to the Protector, and by him forwarded to the Commons, tended to throw the greatest influence into the hands of the officers, and to promote Desborough's Republican views.
Petitions from the Army followed these proceedings, the soldiers saying, "Because our consciences bear us witness that we dipped our hands in blood in that cause; and the blood of many thousands hath been shed by our immediate hands under your command in that quarrel, we are amazed to think of the account that we must render at the great and terrible day of the Lord, if by your silence the freedom of these nations should be lost, and returned into the hands of that family, which God hath so eminently appeared against in His many signal providences little less than miracles."[19]
1659.
The Commons, although weak, assumed the semblance of strength, and upon the 18th of April resolved that no Council of Officers should be held without permission of the Protector and the Parliament; and that no one should have command in the Army or Navy who did not engage to leave the two Houses uninterrupted in their deliberations. The Protector, still more feeble than Parliament, proceeded to dissolve the Council; the officers asserted their authority by continuing to meet for conference.
As it was in the father's days so it was in the son's: when argument failed violence took its place. Violence, like that which had been employed by Oliver against the Parliament, was now threatened against Richard by the Army. The officers, clutching at their old weapons, seeing how things were likely to proceed, fearing the Presbyterian ascendancy, and the destruction of their liberties, determined to put an end to the sitting of the two Houses; and told His Highness that if he did not dismiss them he might expect to be dismissed himself. Richard was no soldier, and had not, like Oliver, secured the attachment of the military, so that resistance by him to martial chiefs could avail nothing. He, therefore, allowed the Parliament to be dissolved by Commission, upon the 22nd of April. After this act had been accomplished, not without opposition from some members, the party in power summoned to the resumption of their trust, such of the Long Parliament as had continued to sit until the year 1653. They amounted in number to ninety-one; out of these forty-two obeyed the new order, and took their places on the 7th of May. Fourteen of the old Presbyterians, including Prynne,[20] who had sat in St. Stephen's before Pride's purge, were refused admittance.
INTERREGNUM.