Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/347

] effects of marriage. Marriage by a clergyman was left optional still.

They next attacked the unequal and oppressive modes of raising the one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a month for the maintenance of the army; the assessments in some cases amounting to two, in others, to ten shillings in the pound. From taxation they proceeded to law, and prepared a bill to abolish the court of chancery, in which the abuses and delays had been a constant source of complaint in petitions to parliament for years. The enormities of that court equalled what they have been in our own times, and there were said to be no less than twenty-three thousand causes undecided, some of which had been ten, twenty, and even thirty years before it, involving enormous costs, and the utter ruin of many families. This parliament voted the abolition of the whole system, and had a bill in progress for the removal of the causes to a more efficient tribunal, when it was suddenly dissolved.

But they were not content with destroying the court of chancery, they set about a general reform of the laws. They contended that every Englishman should understand the laws of his country, and that by a proper digest they might be reduced to the compass of a pocket volume. They, in fact, anticipated Napoleon in his code, and appointed a committee to make the necessary revision, and to weed the real and useful statutes out of the chaotic mass of contradictory, obsolete, and unjust laws which overlayed them; the dicta of judges in many cases superseded and prevented the original enactments, so that men's lives and properties were at the mercy, not of the decrees of parliament, but the opinions of individuals. It may be imagined what a consternation this daring innovation excited throughout Westminster Hall, and all the dusky, cobwebby cells of the lawyers. A terrible cry was raised that a set of ignorant men were about to destroy the whole noble system of British jurisprudence, and to introduce instead the law of Moses!

The church was in equal terror. In the first place, these zealous reformers indulged their bigotry, for even the independents had only made half the discovery of toleration. Cromwell, whilst professing to allow the enjoyment of all, forms of Christianity in Ireland, refused to allow the catholics to celebrate mass, and his Little Parliament now passed an act for the extirpation of popish priests and Jesuits, and for seizing two-thirds of the real and personal property of recusants. They then advanced to the more just and enlightened war on advowsons and tithes. They contended that no individual ought to possess the power of imposing a minister on his neighbours, but that every man had a right to choose for himself. They therefore voted that advowsons should be abolished. As for tithes, they contended that they ought to be abolished, and a proper maintenance provided for the clergy by other means. They appointed a committee to consider the necessary step towards this end.

But the projects of these radical reformers, who were centuries before their time, were cut short by the universal outcry from lawyers, churchmen, officials, and a host of interested classes. They were represented as a set of mad fanatics, who in parliament were endeavouring to carry out the wild doctrines which the anabaptists and fifth-monarchy men were preaching out of doors. They were assailed by every species of ridicule and calumny, most of which had travelled unmolested down to our own time, and the Barebone's Parliament became a byword for everything fanatic and absurd, though they were in reality only too far a-head of their age, and were attempting what our most philosophic reformers are yet indicating and endeavouring to establish. Borne down by public opinion, Cromwell was compelled to dissolve them, in fact, to resume the supreme power which he had committed to them. Accordingly, on the 12th of December, Cromwell's friends mustered in full strength, and colonel Sydenham moved, that as the proceedings of parliament were regarded as calculated to overturn almost every interest in the country, they could not proceed, and that they should restore their authority to the hands whence they had received it. The motion was vehemently opposed, but the independents had adopted their plan. The mover declared that he would no longer sit in an assembly which must be rendered abortive by general opposition. He therefore rose: the speaker, who was one of the party, rose too, and the independents, forming a procession, proceeded to Whitehall, and resigned their commission into the hands of Cromwell. The stanch dissentients remained and engaged in prayer, in which act two officers, Goffe and White, sent to close the house, found them. White asked them what they did there. They replied, "We are seeking the Lord." "Then," said he, rudely, "you may go somewhere else, for to my certain knowledge, the Lord has not been here these many years."

Cromwell affected to receive with reluctance the onerous charge of the supreme power and responsibility; but the officers urged its necessity, and the document being soon signed by eighty members, he acceded to it. The council of officers and ministers decided that it was necessary to have "a commonwealth in a single person;" and a new constitution was drawn up; and on the 16th of December Cromwell, dressed in a suit and cloak of black velvet, with long boots and a broad gold band round his hat, proceeded in his carriage from Whitehall to the court of chancery. The way was lined by files of soldiers consisting of five regiments of foot and three of horse. A long procession followed, including the lord mayor, aldermen, and city officers, the two commissioners of the great seal, the judges, the councillors of state and of the army. On reaching the court of chancery, Cromwell took his place before a chair of state, which had been placed on a rich carpet, the commissioners of the great seal standing on his right and left, the judges ranging themselves behind, and the civil and military officers disposing of themselves on each hand. Lambert then stepped forward and addressed the lord-general. He spoke of the dissolution of parliament, and of the necessity of a strong government, not liable to be paralysed by contending opinions; and he prayed the lord-general, in the name of the army and of the official authorities of the three kingdoms, to accept the office of Lord-Protector of the Commonwealth. and to govern it for the public good by a constitution already drawn up. Cromwell assented, and thereupon Jessop, a clerk of the council, read what was called, "The Instrument of Government," consisting of forty-two articles. The chief of these were, that the legislative power should be invested in the