Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/698

* CROMWELL. 602 CROMWELL. ■wilds of Connaught in order to make way for English settlors. Croiinveirs treatment of Ire- land was pilifuUy liavsli. but it was caused prin- cipally by his complete ignorance of Irish affairs, tlu)ugh liis ignorance was not greater than that of his countrj-nien. The problem which now confronted the leaders of the Comnionwealth was the substitution of a I)ernianpnt constitutional government in the place of the provisional Rump. The withdrawal of the Cavalier party on the outbreak of the Civil Wai', and the e.vpnlsion of tlie Presbyterian members in the Pride's Purge, had left only sixty or seventy nicmbers in liabitual attendance in Parliament, whose power depended solely upon the support of the victorious army. Not only had they made themselves very unpopular by their harsh measures, but they refused to give waj to a newly elected and more truly representative Parliament which the army desired, unless they were made members of the new Parliament without election, and clothed with power to exclude undesirable new members, especially' those of royalist sympathies. In the course of the prolonged "dispute, they were guilty of what Cromwell considered a breach of good faith, whereupon he angrily dissolved them on April 20, 16.51, to the great satisfaction of the English nation. According to Cromwell's view, the army was the only constitutional authority left standing, and as the head of the army, he and liis officers constituted the Nominated or Bare- bones Parliament (q.v.) of 149 members (of whom five represented Scothind: and six Ireland), who had been nominated for the purpose by the Con- gregational churches. This Parliament soon showed such a readiness to adopt radical and im- possible measures, and was so torn asunder by party strife, that when the Moderates rose, early on tiie morning of December 12, 10.53, and voted its dissolution, Cromwell was greatly relieved, though he had no previous knowledge of the con- spiracy. Tlie officers thereupon adopted a written Constitution, called the Instrument of Govern- ment (q.v.), which is of great interest from the point of view of institutional history, under which Cromwell, on Peeember 16. assumed the title of Protector. An elected Parliament of one House was provided for, whose powers were de- fined by the Instrument. The first Parliament which met under its provisi(5ns. on September 3, 16.54, is of great importance to a correct under- standing of the Protector's treatment of his Par- liaments. He invited a revision of the Instru- ment, but in the debates on it the Parliament showed signs of making itself perpetual, of taking away liberty of conscience, and of reducing both the army and the Protector to its exclusive con- trol, thus brealcing down the balance of power between the Protector and Parliament which the Instrument had sought to establish. Cromwell interfered by force and excluded from the House all who refused to sign an agreement not to alter the Instrument in these 'four fundamentals.' This incident is crucial in the appreciation of Cromwell's Parliamentary difficulty. It should be remembered that he was never, like Pym and Hampden, a champion of Parliamentary institu- tions as such, but rather of Puritanism. He op- posed the King, not because he believed in the rights of the majority, a conception foreign to his point of view, but because he was opposed to the Laudian ecclesiastical system. There is therefore nothing inconsistent in his opposing a Parliament which was trying to make itself supreme, or which was endangering religious tol- eration and the highest interests of Puritani.-,m. Furthermore, liis demands were moderate, for, says Mr. Gardiner, "his four fu>id(i>nentals have been accepted l)y the Nation and are at this day as firmly rooted in its conscience as Parliamen- tary snjireniaey itself." The problem was in- soluble in liis da.y, for the reason that there was no nation standing back of both Protector and Parliament to which appeals miglit be made, partly because the nation was disafl'ectcd, and partly because it was not sufficiently educated in political thought. Cromwell dissolved the Parliament without coming to an agreement with it, and without receiving the necessary supplies. In the year following, Penruddock's rising drove the Protector to acts as illegal as any of which Cliarles 1. had been guilty. He divided England into ten military districts, over which he placed major-generals, with extensive police powers backed liy military force, the estates of royalists being taxed by his own arbitary power to support the scheme. It was a success as a police meas- ure, but the nation groaned when Cromwell used this method to enforce a stricter standard of Puritan morality than the people were ready to accept. The foreign Aars made new supplies necessary, and in 1656 the Protector called his last Parliament, from which his council first ex- cluded one hundred undesirable membei-s. Upon the discovery of a plot against the Protector's life, ParlianTent drew up a new Constitution called the TlumhJe Petition and Advice, pro- viding for an Upper House and offering Crom- well the title of King. Cromwell hesitated for some weeks, btit finding the title unpopular with the army, he at last declined it. The Petition and Advice was then passed with the title Pro- tector sulistituted for that of King, and was adopted in place of the Instrument of Govern- ment. Upon the second session of the Parlia- ment in January, 1658, it was found that the promotion of Cromwell's supporters to the Upper House had given the republicans a majority in the Lower House. They not only insisted upon revising the Constitution anew, but were form- ing conspiracies of a dangerous sort, whereupon Cromwell dissolved them, February 4. He had failed to transform the militarv into a civil State. The vigor with which Cromwell conducted England's foreign affairs has been much admired. He had little to do with the Dutch War, which he disliked as a war against a Protestant power. This he brought to a successful conclusion April 5, 1054. The two leading nations of Europe were at war and bidding for liis alliance. He was at first inclined to favor Spain, partly from his sympathy for the French Huguenots and partly Iieeause France supported Henrietta Maria and the Stuart cause. Spain, however, had prohibited English ships from sailing in West Indian waters, even though bound for an English colony. In December. 1654. Cromwell sent out a badly equipped expedition under Penn and A'enables. which suffered a disastrous repulse in an attack against Santo Domingo, but seized Jamaica, whose importance was little appre- ciated at that time. This attack naturally pre- cipitated a war with Spain in Europe in which Blake, having previously brought the Bey of