junctions in cases of waste, timber might be felled, houses pulled down, meadows and ancient pasture ploughed up, to the irreparable loss of the plaintiffs and the Commonwealth."*

The Lords Commissioners went on for a whole term after the making of the "ordinance," refusing to observe it. Whitelock said, "that he had taken an oath to execute the place of Commissioner of the Great Seal legally and justly, and for him to execute that ordinance' as the law, when he knew that those who made it had no legal power to make law, could not be justified in conscience, and would be a betraying of the rights of the people of England."

The day after term they were summoned before the Lord Protector and the Council, and ordered to bring the Great Seal with them,-which they knew was the signal of

[JUNE 6.] their dismissal. His highness told them "that every one was to satisfy his own conscience in a matter to be performed by himself, and that he had not a worse opinion of any man for refusing to do that which he was dubious of; but that the affairs of the Commonwealth did require obedience to authority, and that the Great Seal must be put into the hands of others who might be satisfied that it was their duty to perform that command."

Whitelock and Widdrington both tried to justify themselves; but the Protector required them to lay down the Seal, and to withdraw. Having, after the example of the Kings, kept the Seal some days in his own possession and personally directed the sealing of various instruments, without any Lord Chancellor, or Lord Keeper, or Lords Commissioners, he delivered it to a new Lord Commissioner,-Colonel FIENNES, a soldier,-and to the noted Major LISLE, a man for all assays, who had no other knowledge of the business he undertook beyond the little he had learned by accompanying the late Commissioners." "In presence of his Highness and his Council, they took the oaths appointed by his Highness and his Council to be taken."†

Thus," says Whitelock, "my fortunes and interest decreased; and now my pretended dear friends and frequent visitors withdrew themselves from me, and began neither to own nor to know me : such is the course of dirty worldlings."

He returned to the bar, and at once got into full practice; but Oliver soon made him and Widdrington Commissioners of the Treasury, with a salary of 1000l. a year.§

* I find one regulation, however, more reasonable, "that the Masters in Chancery shall sit in public; to which the only objection was, "that it was so worded as to take away the power of excepting to their Report.

† Cl. R. 1625, p. 8. n. 26.

Mem. 627. This is but an indifferent specimen of republican manners, and affords a great contast with our own times, when loss of office does not imply loss of friends. See Carlyle's Cromwell, iii. 126.

The following year Whitelock officiated at Oliver's installation-“ having a drawn sword in his hand."-Mem. 661.

Nathaniel Fiennes, the new Lord Keeper,-placed the first in the commission, I presume, on account of his superior military rank,—was the second son of Viscount Say and Seal. Having left the University, he passed a short time in the Inns of Court, but merely to finish his general education without any view to the profession of the law. He sat for Banbury in the parliament which met in the beginning of 1640, and again in the Long Parliament, and was much in the confidence of Pym and the popular leaders. When hostilities began he had a commission given him, first to be a captain, and afterwards a colonel of horse, under the Earl of Essex, General of the parliamentary forces. Inspiring great confidence by his military ardour, he was made Governor of Bristol; but, to the great disappointment and indignation of his whole party, he surrendered that city to Prince Rupert, after a feeble defence. He was brought to trial before a court-martial for cowardice, and condemned to death*; but by the intercession of his father, he was pardoned, and he afterwards published a justification of his conduct, which very much reinstated him in public opinion. Although not afterwards trusted with any command in the army, he obtained considerable influence in the House of Commons, and was a very active committee-man. He was, for a long time, a violent Presbyterian, and supporter of the Solemn League and Covenant. In consequence, he was expelled from the House by Pride's purge. But he then made a sudden wheel, -struck in with the Independents,-favoured the ascendancy of the army, and became a tool of Cromwell. Hence his present promotion to the Bench; and the highest civil office in the state was committed jointly to a Colonel and a Major.

I do not find any particular account of the manner in which Lords Commissioners Fiennes and Lisle discharged their judicial duties, although there were loud complaints of their general incompetency. However, their appointment was sanctioned by Oliver's third parliament, and they remained in office till his death. * 4 St. Tr. 186,

† On the 10th of October, 1656, there came the following message from his Highuess, addressed "To our right trusty and right well beloved Sir Thomas Widdrington, Knight, Speaker of the Parliament:"

"OLIVER, P.

"Right trusty and well-beloved, We greet you well. It being expressed in the 34th article of the government that the Chancellor, Keeper, or Commissioners of the Great Seal, shall be chosen by the approbation of parliament, and in the intervals of parliament by the approbation of the major part of the Council, to be after approved by the parliament, and We having before the meeting of the parliament appointed with the approbation of the Council, Our right trusty and right well-beloved Nathaniel Fiennes and John Lisle, Commissioners of the Great Seal of England, I have thought it necessary to transmit to you their names, to the end that the resolution of parliament may be known concerning their approbation, which I desire may be with such speed as the other public occasions of the Commonwealth will permit, and so I bid you heartily farewell." The required approbation was given forthwith. Serjeant Glynne was approved of the same day as Chief Justice of the Upper Bench, from which it has been erroneously supposed that he was made a Commissioner of the Great Seal.-See Hardy's Chancellors 74.

It may be presumed that they continued the practice of calling in the assistance of the Judges; and we must remember that the common-law bench never was better filled, the Protector not only having said that he wished to govern by "red gowns rather than red coats," but having actually appointed Hale and the most distinguished and honorable lawyers in the profession to preside in the Upper Bench, the Common Bench, and the Exchequer. The Equity business in Chancery must have had valuable assistance from Lenthal, who released from his duties as Speaker of the House of Commons, continued Master of the Rolls, and was noted for his assiduity and ability as a Judge.

The two Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal were, at all events, very active politicians, and unscrupulously exerted themselves in fulfilling all the wishes of their master. When pressed for money, and trusting to the popularity he thought he had acquired by his successes against Holland and Spain and the submissive manner in which his alliance was courted by France, he ventured to call another parliament,-Colonel Fiennes and Major Lisle regulated the preliminary proceedings of the Council of State, by which, to secure a majority in spite of the unfavourable result of the elections, nearly one hundred of the members returned were pronouced disqualified and incapable of sitting, under the pretext of "immorality" or "delinquency." On [SEPT. 17.] the day of meeting, when the members had returned to their own House from the Painted Chamber after the Protector had harangued them, none were allowed to enter without a certificate of being "approved by his Highness's Council;" and loud complaints being made of the exclusions, Lord Commissioner Lisle put them in mind, that their first work was to choose a Speaker, and proposed Sir Thomas Widdrington, Ex-commissioner of the Great Seal (now devoted to Cromwell), as a person of great integrity and experience in relation to parliamentary business, and every way qualified for that service. Widdrington being placed in the chair, a motion was made, that the excluded members be permitted to take their places, as it was for the House to decide upon the qualifications of its members; but here Lord Commissioner Fiennes pointed out that by the "Instrument," which now regulated the constitution of the government, the Lords of the Council were to see that no papists or delinquents should be returned to serve parliament, and asserted that this trust being vested in them, they had discharged it according to the best of their judgment. It could not be denied that such was the provision of the "Instrument;" but that the Council should decide on secret information, and without the knowledge of the constituents or representatives, was alleged to be contrary to the first principles of justice. By dint of numbers, a motion was carried, "that the House should pass to the business of the nation."

Under such management, an act was easily carried [A. D. 1657.] for excluding Charles Stuart and his family from the

Crown, and the House was prepared for the motion, that the title of King should be offered to Cromwell. This motion was to have been made by Ex-commissioner Whitelock; but he quailed when the day for it arrived, and the task devolved on Alderman Pack, one of the representatives for the city of London.* The resolution being carried without difficulty, the two Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, with Whitelock, Lenthal, Lord Broghill, and others, were appointed to communicate it to his Highness, and to solicit his concurrence. The conferences lasted several days, during which, Lords Commissioners Fiennes and Lisle repeatedly addressed his Highness, and, in trying to remove his affected scruples, certainly display more legal acuteness and constitutional learning than could possibly have been expected from their military breeding.†

There was no difficulty in convincing the person to whom their arguments were addressed, as the scheme was his own, and he ardently wished to accomplish it. The negotiation was prolonged in the hope of softening the opposition to it among the officers of the army, who aspired to the office of Protector in their turn,— among the determined republicans, who had sworn never again to submit to hereditary rule, and among the members of the Protector's own family, several of whom were zealous royalists, and were constantly urging him to restore the ancient family. After long hesitation, his apprehensions of insurrection or assassination prevailed, and we do not find the name of Oliver I. in the list of the Kings of England.

But his answer being merely that "he would not undertake the government with that title of King," the parliament remodelled the constitution by "the Petition and Advice" in such a way as might lead to hereditary limited monarchy, under "Protectors; and if Richard had possessed any portion of his father's energy, there might have been a change of dynasty, and, with the advantage of the incorporating union which had been forcibly accomplished with Scotland and Ireland, the nation might sconer have reached the freedom, prosperity, and happiness which it has enjoyed under the mild sway of the House of Brunswick. The Protector was now empowered to name his successor, and "to call parliaments consisting of two Houses," which he construed into a right to create Peers. As soon as his grand inauguration was over‡, he

Some time before, by way of a feeler, Jephson, during a debate in the House of Commons, had thrown out this suggestion in a random manner, and it was not ill received. When Cromwell afterwards asked him in private what could induce him to do so. "As long," said Jephson, as I have the honour to sit in parliament, I must follow the dictates of my own conscience, whatever offence I may happen to give to your Highness." "Get thee gone," said Cromwell, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder, "Get thee gone for a mad fellow as thou art.

†The most eloquent speaker on this occasion was Lord Broghill, afterwards famous as Earl of Orrery, and he was ably supported by Whitelock and Lenthal. See the specches at length in the Life of Whitelock, pp. 275–295., and an admirable summary of them in Hume, vol. vii. 271.

At this ceremony Lord Commissioner Whitelock acted a conspicuous part,

prorogued parliament, without dissolving it,—that he might have time to model his new House of Lords, which was to be brought into action at the commencement of the following session.

After long deliberation, the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal were directed to iusse writs of summons to the new Lords in the terms of the writ of summons to Peers under the monarchy; and the Judges gave it as their opinion that those who sat under these writs would gain a peerage in fee descendible to their posterity.* At the top of the list of those summoned were the names of the Protector's two sons-the Lord Richard and the Lord Henry Cromwell (as Princes of the Blood), and, next, Lord Fiennes and Lord Lisle, the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal. Afterwards follow the names of Lord Whitelock, of Lord Morpeth, ancestor of the present Earl of Carlisle, and of Lord Monk (the Restorer). Four or five of the old nobility were summoned, but they refused to attend; and Sir Arthur Hazelrig, and two or three other members of the House of Commons who were included, wisely preferred to continue to sit there.†

On the day appointed for the re-assembling of parliament, the session was opened by the Lord Protector with [JAN. 20. 1658.] all the forms and all the pomp of the ancient sovereigns. The new Lords met in the old chamber which was ornamented with the tapestry of the Armada. A chair of state was there placed for his Highness, resembling the throne. There were no Bishops, for they had been excluded by Charles; but in their place the Judges, in scarlet and ermine, were seated on the right of the throne. The Lord Protector, in splendid attire, and wearing a hat with a gold band, attended by his great officers, and surrounded by his Life Guards, having come from Whitehall in a carriage more splendid than Stuart ever sat in, and scated himself under the "cloth of state," the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod was sent to command the immediate attendance of the Commons, in the name of his Highness. They soon appeared at the bar, headed by Widdrington, their Speaker; and the two Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, with the other great officers standing by his side, his Highness, to the great scandal of true republicans, thus began:

assisting the Speaker to clothe the Protector in his purple robe, to gird the sword about his Highness, and to deliver into his hand the sceptre of massy gold,—and when the trumpets sounded and the heralds proclaimed him, joining in the shouts of God save the Lord Protector!!!— Whit 662. Carlyle's Cromwell, iii. 273—316. * The original warrant was "for the Commissioners of the Seal, with the advice of the Judges, to prepare and frame a writ for summoning the members of the other House of parliament to meet at such time and place as shall be appointed by his Highness, and the Commissioners are to seal such writs and to issue them out to such persons as his Highness, under his sign-manual, shall direct and appoint." - Whit 662.

For an analysis of this House of Peers, see Carlyle's Cromwell, iii. 390. Cromwell likewise created knights and baronets, by what authority I know not, for it is not given by the "Instrument of Government," or the "Petition and Advice." Not being a knight himself, he could not deal according to the ancient usages of