the Rump, i. e. before that famous Pride's Purge of Dec. 6-7, 1648, which excluded 143 of the Presbyterians and other Royalists from their seats, and so converted the Long Parliament into the more compact body wanted for the King's Trial and the formation of the Republic (Vol. III. pp. 696698). The fourteen, among whom were the Presbyterians Sir George Booth and William Prynne, had insisted on being admitted, but had been kept out by the officers after some altercation. But now, on Monday, several of them were back, to see the issue of a protest that had been meanwhile sent to the Speaker on behalf of 213 members of the Long Parliament who were in the same general predicament of "Secluded Members" to wit, the 143 excluded by Pride's Purge and seventy more who had been excluded at various times before for Royalist contumacy. Finding the doors open, three of these unwelcome visitors went in, of whom two came out again and were not re-admitted, but one remained. That one was William Prynne. He sat like a ghoul among the Rumpers. No persuasion on earth could induce him to leave. Hasilrig stormed at him, and Vane coaxed him; but there he sat, and there he would sit! He was a member of the Long Parliament, and no other Parliament was or could be rightfully in existence but that: if they turned him out, it should only be by carrying him out by his feet and shoulders! Unwilling to resort to that method, those present got rid of the intruder by postponing their meeting to a later hour, and taking care that, when Prynne reappeared, he should be turned back. The House that day passed an order that none should sit in it but genuine Rumpers, appointing a committee to ascertain who these were and to report on dubious cases; and the order was affixed to the doors outside. For a day or two Prynne and others still haunted the lobbies; but at length they desisted, Prynne taking his revenge by at once printing The Republicans' and Others' spurious Old Cause briefly and truly anatomized, and then One Sheet, or, if you will, a Winding Sheet, for the Good Old Cause.1 1 Guizot, I. 138-141; Commons Journals, May 9, 1659; Catalogue of Thomason Pamphlets. The first of the two named pamphlets of Prynne ap For eighteen days after the resuscitation of the Rump, and notwithstanding their distinct announcement in their public declaration that they were to "endeavour the settlement" of the Commonwealth "without a Single Person, Kingship, or House of Peers," Richard still lingered in Whitehall and his Protectorship remained nominally in existence. But the Republicans made what haste they could to put an end to that anomaly. Their difficulty lay in their yet unadjusted differences with the Army-officers conjoined with them in the Restoration of the Rump. Towards the removal of these differences something was done on the 13th of May, when the House appointed Fleetwood "Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-chief of the land-forces in England and Scotland" (Ireland reserved), and associated with him Lambert, Desborough, Berry, Ludlow, Hasilrig, and Vane, in a commission. of seven empowered to nominate, for approval by the Parliament, the commissioned officers of the whole Army. Even with this arrangement, however, the Army-magnates were not satisfied; and it left other differences over, which were restated that very day in a petition and address from the whole Council of Officers. This Petition and Address, presented to the House by a deputation of eighteen chief officers, headed by Lambert and Desborough, consisted of fifteen Articles, the last three of which contained the points of most vital debate with the pure Republicans. In Article XIII. it was petitioned that, for the Legislative, there should be, in addition to the Popular or Representative House, "a select Senate, co-ordinate in power." Article XIV. required also, peared, with his name in full, May 13; the second, "by W. P.," May 30.Prynne continued, in subsequent pamphlets, to attack the Rumpers for the wrong done to him and the other secluded members in still debarring them from their seats. One was entitled A True and Perfect Narrative of what was done, spoken, by and between Mr. Prynne, the old and newly-forcibly late Secluded Members, the Army Officers, and those now sitting both in the Commons Lobby, House, and elsewhere, on Saturday and Monday last (the 7 and 9 of this instant May). Though so entitled, it did not appear till June 13. VOL. V. It contained this passage against the Rumpers:-"Themselves in divers of "their printed Declarations, and their "instruments in sundry books (as JOHN "GOODWIN, MARKHAM NEEDHAM, "MELTON, and others), justified, main"tained, the very highest, worst, trea"sonablest, execrablest, of all Popish, "Jesuitical, Unchristian, tenets, prac"tices, treasons, as the murthering of "Christian Protestant Kings." This is a sample at once of Prynne's style and of his accuracy. He does not take the trouble to know the names of the persons he writes about, but plods on like a rhinoceros in blinkers. G g for the Executive, a separate Council of State. Article XV. concerned the Cromwell family. It did not demand a continuation of the Protectorate, but it demanded the payment by the State of all debts contracted by Oliver or Richard in their Protectorates, the settlement of £10,000 a year on Richard and his heirs for ever, the settlement of a farther £10,000 a year on Richard for his life, and the settlement of £8,000 a year for life on "his honourable mother," the Protectress-dowager,-all this to the end that there might remain to posterity "a mark of the high esteem this nation hath of "the good service done by his father, our ever-renowned "General." The House was not then prepared to answer the demands of Articles XIII. and XV., but only that of Article XIV. after a certain fashion. It was agreed that day that there should be an executive Council of State, to consist of thirty-one persons, ten of them not members of Parliament, the Council to hold office till Dec. 1 next ensuing; and at that meeting and the two next the thirty-one Councillors were duly chosen. Then, on the 21st of May, various addresses of confidence in the new Government having by this time come in from London and other parts, the Republicans felt themselves strong enough to discuss the petition of the officers, article by article, accepting most of them, but postponing the three last and another. Without saying what they meant to do for the Cromwell family, they had in the interim (May 16) appointed a committee to "take into consideration the present "condition of the eldest son of the late Lord-General Crom"well, and to inform themselves what his estate is, and what "his debts are, and how they have been contracted, and how "far he doth acquiesce in the government of this Common"wealth." There were interviews with Richard in Whitehall accordingly, with the result that there was brought to the House on the 25th of May a paper signed by him, together with a schedule of his means and debts. The paper was, in fact, an abdication, in these terms: "Having, I hope, in some 'degree, learnt rather to reverence and submit to the hand "of God than to be unquiet under it, and, as to the late providences that have fallen out amongst us, however, in แ respect of the particular engagements that lay upon me, "I could not be active in making a change in the government "of these nations, yet, through the goodness of God, I can "freely acquiesce in it, being made." He promised, in conclusion, to live peaceably under the new government, and to do all in his power to induce those with whom he had any interest to do the same. From the accompanying schedule it appeared that his debts, incurred by his father or himself in the Protectorship, amounted to £29,640, and that his own clear revenue, after deduction of annuities to his mother and others of the family, was but £1299 a year, and that encumbered by a private debt of £3000. The House accepted the abdication, undertook the discharge of the debts as stated, voted £2000 at once to Mr. Richard, referred it to a committee to consider what more could be done towards his "comfortable and honourable subsistence," and, for the rest, requested him to retire from Whitehall, and "dispose of himself as his private occasions shall require." He lingered still a little, fearing arrest by his creditors, but did at length retire to Hampton Court, and thence into deeper and deeper privacy, to live fifty-three years more and become very venerable, though the more rude of the country-people would persist in calling him "Tumble-Down Dick." In the week of his abdication there was on the London book-stalls a rigmarole poem on the subject, called The World in a Maze, or Oliver's Ghost. It opened with this dialogue between father and son : Oliver P.: Richard! Richard! Richard! Richard: Who calls "Richard"? "Tis a hollow voice; And yet perhaps it may be mine own thoughts. Oliver: No 'tis thy father risen from the grave; Nor would I have thee fooled, nor yet turn knave. Richard: I could not help it, father.1 1 Commons Journals of dates; Parl. Hist. III. 1551-1557; Pamphlet, of given title, dated May 21 in MS. in the Thomason copy. CHAPTER I. Second Section. THE ANARCHY, STAGE I. OR THE RESTORED RUMP: NUMBER OF THE RESTORED RUMPERS AND LIST OF THEM: COUNCIL OF STATE OF THE RESTORED RUMP: ANOMALOUS CHARACTER AND POSITION OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT: MOMENTARY CHANCE OF A CIVIL WAR BETWEEN THE CROMWELLIANS AND THE RUMPERS: CHANCE AVERTED BY THE ACQUIESCENCE OF THE LEADING CROMWELLIANS: BEHAVIOUR OF RICHARD CROMWELL, MONK, HENRY CROMWELL, LOCKHART, AND THURLOE, INDIVIDUALLY: BAULKED CROMWELLIANISM BECOMES POTENTIAL ROYALISM: ENERGETIC PROCEEDINGS OF THE RESTORED RUMP: THEIR ECCLESIASTICAL POLICY AND THEIR FOREIGN POLICY: TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN LOCKHART AT THE SCENE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS AS AMBASSADOR FOR THE RUMP: REMODELLING AND REOFFICERING OF THE ARMY, NAVY, AND MILITIA: CONFEDERACY OF OLD AND NEW ROYALISTS FOR A SIMULTANEOUS RISING: ACTUAL RISING UNDER SIR GEORGE BOOTH IN CHESHIRE: LAMBERT SENT TO QUELL THE INSURRECTION: PECULIAR INTRIGUES ROUND MONK AT DALKEITH: SIR GEORGE BOOTH'S INSURRECTION CRUSHED: EXULTATION OF THE RUMP AND ACTION TAKEN AGAINST THE CHIEF INSURGENTS AND THEIR ASSOCIATES: QUESTION OF THE FUTURE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH: CHAOS OF OPINIONS AND PROPOSALS: JAMES HARRINGTON AND HIS POLITICAL THEORIES: THE HARRINGTON OR ROTA CLUB: DISCONTENTS IN THE ARMY: PETITION AND PROPOSALS OF THE OFFICERS OF LAMBERT'S BRIGADE: SEVERE NOTICE OF THE SAME BY THE |