an entry of fome kind or other made, but it was expunged by order of parliament, January 7th, 1659. In Mercurius Politicus, which was published by authority at that time, there is an article, dated Westminster, April 20, in the following words: The lord general ⚫ delivered in parliament divers reasons wherefore a prefent period should be put to the fitting of this parliament; and it was accordingly done; the fpeaker and the members all departing. The grounds of which proceedings will (its probable) be fhortly made publick.' Writers of Gazettes in all ages and countries are pretty much the fame. If the reader will turn (x) Hiftory to Mr. Hume, he may fee this ftory of the diffolution of Great of the parliament highly embellifhed (x). It may well Britain, vol. enough be thought a tranfaction of this nature muft i. p. 44. have been variously cenfured. The common people, delighted with change, were far enough from being difpleafed; the Cavaliers and the other Royalists with pleasure faw those men difplaced from that power they judged they had no right to affume; the Dutch were in hopes of obtaining peace on better terms than thofe fteady and refolute men ever would willingly have given them; whilft the true Republicans could not help crying out on Cromwell, who had interrupted the parliament in their career of glory. Mr. Whitlock's cenfure we have just seen. Another author thus exclaims against him. His falfenefs and ingratitude, fays he, appeared fuperlatively in turning out his mafters, who had not only advanced him, but made themselves more odious by their partial affection towards him, and in his doing it with the breach of a pofitive ne'gative oath, taken once a year, when made a counfellor of ftate, befides the breach of all other engagements, voluntary imprecations, proteftations and oaths, taken frequently upon all occafions in difcourfe and declarations; and yet further (when • he had turned them out, and left them void of pro- World's tection, and expofed them to the fury of the people) miftake in in purfuing them with falfe reproachful declarations, Oliver enough to have ftirred up the rude multitude to have P. 15. 4to. deftroyed them, wherever they had met them (y). Lond. 1668, Mr. Y 2 (1) The Cromwell, to justify it, as well as his apologifts (xx). The grounds and reasons of this proceeding be ing Mr. Ludlow talks much in the fame ftrain. Cromwell's defence will be found in the following note. 6 (xx) Oliver attempted to justify it, as well as his apologifts. On the twenty-fecond of April, two days after the interruption or diffolution of the parliament, a declaration was published in the name of the lord-general and his council of officers, fhewing the grounds and reasons thereof. In this the neglect of the parliament, in fettling a due liberty in reference both to civil and fpiritual things, is lamented, and a defire of perpetuating themselves in the fupream government afferted. For which purpose,' fays the general and his officers, the corrupt party [the majority] long oppofed, and frequently declared themselves against having a new • representative: and when they faw themselves neceffitated to take that bill into confideration, they re• folved to make use of it to recruit the house with perfons of the fame fpirit and temper: and the better to effect this, divers petitions preparing from several ⚫ counties for the continuance of this parliament were ⚫ encouraged, if not fet on foot by many of them.' They go on to fay, That, having a meeting with about twenty members of parliament, they laid before them their judgment, that the fupream authority should be by the parliament devolved upon known perfons, men fearing God, and of approved integrity, and the government of the commonwealth committed unto them for a time, as the moft hopeful way to encourage and countenance all God's people, reform the law, and adminifter juftice impartially." This, it feems, found no acceptance: but, instead thereof, "it was offered, that the way was to continue ftill this prefent parliament, as being that from which we might reasonably expect all good things. And this being vehemently infifted upon, did much confirm us in our apprehenfions, that not any love to a repre• fentative, ་ ༦ 6 ing published, they were approved by the chief fentative, but the making use thereof to recruit, and fo perpetuate themselves, was their aim. They being plainly dealt with about this, and told, that neither the nation, the honeft intereft, nor we ourselves, ⚫ would be deluded by fuch dealings, they did agree to meet again the next day in the afternoon for mutual fatisfaction, it being confented to by the members prefent, that endeavours fhould be ufed, that nothing ⚫ in the mean time should be done in parliament that might exclude or fruftrate the propofals above mentioned. Notwithstanding this, the next morning the parliament did make more hafte than usual, in carrying on their faid act, being helped on therein by fome of the perfons engaged to us the night before; none of them which were then prefent endeavouring to oppose the fame and being ready to put the main queftion for confummating the faid act, whereby our aforefaid propofals would have been rendered. void, and the way of bringing them into a fair and full debate in parliament obftructed; for preventing whereof, and all the fad and evil confequences, which muft, upon the grounds aforefaid, have enfued, and whereby, at one blow, the intereft of all honeft men, and of this glorious caufe, had been in danger to be laid in the duft, and these nations embroiled in new troubles, at a time when our enemies abroad are watching all advantages against us, and fome of them actually engaged in a war with us; we have been neceffitated, though with much reluctancy, to put an end to this parliament; which yet we have done (we hope) out of an honeft heart, preferring this caufe above our names, lives, families, or interefts, how dear foever; with clear intentions and real purposes of heart, to call to the government perfons of approved fidelity and honeft, believing, that as none wife will expect to gather grapes of thorns, fo good men will hope, that, if perfons fo qualified be Y 3 • chofen, 325 (z) Declaration of the Lord Gene- Irinted by Bewfter, printers to the army. 4to. 1653. chief officers in the fleet and army, and 6 * the chofen, the fruits of a juft and righteous reformation, fo long prayed and wifhed for, will, by the bleffing of God, be in due time obtained, to the refreshing of all thofe good hearts who have been panting after those things (z).'-Mr. Maidfon, fteward of the household to Cromwell, a member of his parliaments, and well acquainted with his actions, fpeaking and Thomas of his return to London from the victory at Worcester, adds, He had not long continued here, before it was ftrongly impreft upon him by thofe, to whom he had no reafon to be utterly incredulous, and ftrengthned by his own obfervation, that the perfons then called the parliament of the commonwealth of England, as from whom he had derived his authority, and by vir6 tue whereof he had fought fo many holy men in Scotland into their graves, were not fuch as were spirited 6 to carry the good intereft to an end, wherein he and they had jeoparded all that was of concern to them in this world; and I wifh cordially, that there had . not been too great a ground for those allegations. The ⚫ refult of them, after many debates betwixt the members then fitting, and the general, with fome who 'joined with him, was the diffolution of that parliament by a military force fince called by a fofter word, loc, vol. i. interruption (a).'--Thefe were the pleas in the defence of the diffolution by thofe who had accomplished Since this others have taken up the argument, and in behalf of Cromwell obferve, That the prefbyterian party being expelled the house, the fmall re'mainder was only a junto, which derived their authority from the power of the fword; their votes and acts were no farther laws than the fword conftrained • obedience to them; they were only continued in their feats by Cromwell for a prefent convenience; and therefore as they were only countenanced and supported by the power of the fword, which was then in the • hands of Cromwell, they were to be looked upon as no • other (a) Thur P. 765. it. 6 the general thereupon proceeded to nomi nate other than a party fet up by him, and owing their authority to him. So that when they began to extend that authority beyond its limits, and affumed to them⚫ felves a democratical power in oppofition to him from whom they derived their subsistence, they were rather rebels to Cromwell, than Cromwell to them; and as he fet them up in hopes that they might be ferviceable to him for the good of the nation, might pull them down again, when he faw them exceeding their commiffion. Now whether the defign for the bringing of which to pass, Cromwell fixed them in their seats pro tempore, were good or bad, is not the question: but whether they who were no lawful authority, but only acted under the fafeguard of another unlawful authority, had power to make any act good or evil, as it fuited with their intereft, or oppofed their defigns. For if they had not, which is most probable, Cromwell is never a jot the more impious, the more perjured, the more villain, because they call him fo. For being a junto of his own erecting, upon fuch and 'fuch confiderations, he might without any fear of those ' reproaches, fend them a grazing when he found them ⚫ deviating from those ends for which he had fuffered (¿) Modeft them to keep their places (6).'-Mr. Rapin is an Vindication advocate on the fame fide of the question. The re publicans, fays he, were enraged against Cromwell, p. and deemed him the most perfidious of men. This is not very ftrange, fince he had wrefted from that parliament the fovereign power, feized by thefe republicans without any lawful authority. But what was this parliament? It was an affembly of independents, anabaptifts, fanaticks, enthufiafts, and others of no religion, who under colour of establishing a free commonwealth, held the nation in fervitude; who, to ⚫ confirm their own authority, had treated their fellow members with unheard of violence, and dared to "embrue their hands in the blood of the late King, of Oliver Cromwell, |