Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/375

A.D. 1658.] of the attempts to overthrow the acts passed by the Long Parliament, and the encouragement thereby given to the royalists, who were flocking over from Flanders, and exciting discontent against "the good old cause," and against the persons and interests of those who had shed their blood for the commonwealth. This address was presented on the 14th of April by Fleetwood, with no less than six hundred signatures. Though it did not even mention the name of this parliament, that body felt that it was directed entirely against them, and immediately voted that no meeting or general council of officers should be held without the consent and order of the protector, and that no person should hold any command by sea or land who did not immediately sign an engagement that he would not in any way disturb or prevent the free meeting and debates of parliament, or the freedom of any member of parliament. This was certain to produce a retort from the army—it was an open declaration of war upon it—and accordingly Fleetwood and Desborough waited on Richard and assured him that it was absolutely necessary to dissolve the parliament; and Desborough, who was a bold, rough soldier, declared that if he did not do it, he felt sure the army would soon pull him out of Whitehall.

Richard Cromwell signing his Abdication.

It may be questioned how far this declaration was warranted by the real facts of the case. The majority of the army was probably opposed to any violence being shown to the son of the great protector, but in critical times it is the small knot of restless, unscrupulous spirits who rule the inert mass, and impose their own views upon the sluggish and the timid; and Desborough well knew the irresolute and impressionable character of Richard Cromwell.

On the other hand, many members of parliament protested that they would stand by him, that if he allowed the army to suppress the parliament, he would find it immediately his own roaster, and would he left without a friend. Ingoldsby, Goffe, and Whalley supported this view, and