Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/342

328 terms all but royal. By universal consent he stood before the nation the ruling spirit of the time. From the army, from the parliament, and from the people he was appealed to in language of the profoundest deference and flattery. The general officers laid their despatches "humbly at his excellency's feet"; petitioners presented their "lowly addresses to his godly wisdom," and besought his interest, seeing that "God had put the sword into bis hand."

So early as 1649 two bills had been brought in to settle questions urgently demanded by the public, an act for a general amnesty, and for the termination of the present parliament. On his return from the battle of Worcester, Cromwell reminded parliament that these essential measures had not been completed. He carried the amnesty, so that all acts of hostility against the present government previous to the battle of Worcester were pardoned, and the royalists relieved from the fear of fresh forfeitures. The termination of parliament was fixed for the 3rd of November, 1654:, and the interval of three years was to be zealously employed in framing a scheme for the election of a new parliament on the safest principles. At the same time Cromwell was living at Whitehall, in the house of the decapitated king, and with almost the state and power of a king himself. He summoned, therefore, the council of the army, and discussed amongst them what they deemed necessary to be done.

In this council it was agitated as to the best form of government for England, whether a pure republic, or a government with something of monarchy in it. The officers were for a republic, the lawyers for a limited monarchy. Cromwell agreed that the government must have something of monarchy in it, and asked who they would choose if that were decided? The lawyers said Charles Stuart, or if they found him too much bent on power, his brother the duke of Gloucester. There can be little doubt but that this was a feeler on the part of Cromwell, and as he was never likely to acquiesce in the restoration of a family which they had put down at so much cost, it would have the effect of causing him to proceed with caution. He had ascertained that the army was opposed to a king, the lawyers thought of no king but one from the old royal line. These were facts to be pondered.

Meantime the parliament, without proceeding to lay a platform for its successor, evidenced a jealousy of the ascendancy of the army; it voted a reduction of one-fourth of the army, and of the monthly assessment for its support from one hundred and twenty thousand pounds to ninety thousand pounds. In June, 1652, it proposed a fresh reduction, but this was opposed by the military council, and in August the officers appeared at the bar of the house with a petition, calling the attention of the parliament to the great question of the qualifications of future parliaments, to reform of the law, of religious abuses, to the dismissal of disaffected and scandalous persons from office, to the arrears due to the army, and to reform of mal-practices in the excise and the treasury.

The contest betwixt the army and the parliament was evidently growing every day more active. The commons had no desire to lay down their authority, and to retain their existence, even showed a leaning towards introducing a number of presbyterians under the name "neuters." To such a project the army was never likely to assent, and Cromwell proposed, in the council at Whitehall, that parliament should be at once dissolved, and a national council of forty persons, with himself at their head, should conduct affairs till a new parliament could be called on established principles. The conclusion, however, was that such a proceeding would be dangerous, and the authority of the council looked upon as unwarrantable.

Whilst these matters were in agitation, Whitelock say a that Cromwell, on the 8th of November, 1652, desired a private interview with him, and in this urged the necessity of taking prompt and efficient measures for securing the great objects for which they had fought, and which he termed the mercies and successes which God had conferred on the nation. He inveighed warmly against the parliament, and declared that the army began to entertain a strange distaste to it; adding that he wished there were not too much reason for it. "And really," he continued, "their pride, their self-seeking, their engrossing all places of honour and profit to' themselves and their friends; then- daily breaking forth into new and violent parties and factions; their delays of business, and designs to perpetuate themselves, and to continue the power in their own hands; their meddling in private matters between party and party, contrary to the institution of parliament; their injustice and partiality in these matters, and the scandalous lives of some of the chief of them, do give much ground for people to open their mouths against them, and to dislike them." He concluded by insisting on the necessity of some controlling power over them, to check these exorbitances, or that nothing could prevent the ruin of the commonwealth.

Whitelock admitted the truth of most of this, but defended the parliament generally, and reminded Cromwell that it was the parliament which had granted them their authority, and to Cromwell even his commission, and that it would be hard for them, under those circumstances, to curb their power.

But Cromwell broke out—"We all forget God, and God will forget us. God will give us up to confusion, and these men will help it on if they be suffered to proceed in their ways." And then, after some further talk, he suddenly observed, "What if a man should take upon him to be king?" Whitelock saw plainly enough what Oliver was thinking of, and replied as if he had directly asked whether he should assume that office himself. He told him that it would not do, and that he was much better off, and more influential as he was. "As to your person," he observed, "the title of king would be of no advantage, because you have the full kingly power already concerning the militia." He reminded him that in the appointment of civil offices, though he had no formal veto, his will was as much considered as if he had, and so in all other departments, domestic and foreign. That he now had the power without the envy and danger which the pomp and circumstance of a king would bring.

Cromwell still argued the point; contending that though a man usurped the title without royal descent, yet the possession of the crown was declared by an act of Henry VII. to make a good title, and to indemnify the reigning king and all his ministers for their acts. Whitelock replied that, let