BRITAIN. 



:hard re- 

 nt. 



sassination would be meritorious. The usurper read 

 tills spirited production, and it is said was never seen 

 to smile afterwards. He was haunted with perpe- 

 tual fears of assassination ; he wore armour under 

 his clothes, and always kept pistols in his pocket. 

 His aspect was clouded by a settled gloom, and he 

 regarded every stranger with suspicion. He travel- 

 led with a numerous guard, and with the hurry of 

 alarm ; never returned from any place by the road 

 he went, nor slept above three nights successively in 

 the same chamber. At last he was delivered from 

 this life of horror by a tertian ague, of which he 

 died, September 3d, 1G58, after having usurped the 

 government nine years. A deputation from the 

 council asked Rim, in his last moments, to name his 

 successor, but his senses were gone, and a simple af- 

 firmdtiou was, or seemed to be extorted from him, 

 when they mentioned his son Richard. (For his 

 character, see CHOMWELL. ) 



The council recognized the succession of Richard. 

 Fleetwood, in whose favour it was supposed that 

 Cromwell had formerly made a will, renounced all 

 pretension to the protectership. Henry, Richard's 

 brother, who governed Ireland witii popularity, 

 ensured him the obedience of that kingdom. Monk, 

 who was powerful in Scotland, immediately proclaim- 

 ed him Protector ; the army and the fleet acknow- 

 ledged his title ; the counties and corporations ad- 

 dressed him in terms of allegiance j and foreign mi- 

 nisters crowded to pay him compliments. Richard 

 accepted an empire, which was so fairly tendered to 

 him. A parliament being assembled, the commons 

 signed an engagement not to alter the present go- 

 vernment ; but, in all their proceedings, there was 

 so much opposition, as to alarm the partizans of the 

 new protector. Dangers were arising also from other 

 quarters. Fleetwood, and other republican leaders of 

 the army, aided even by Desbrowe, the father-in- 

 law of Richard, and Lambert, a dismissed officer of 

 great influence, were forming cabals, and united into 

 a faction, which, from the place of Fleet wood's 

 abode, where it met, was called the party of Wal- 

 lingford house. The city militia were brought over 

 to tfieiriesigns. The parliament was no less alarm- 

 ed at the military cabals than Richard, and passed a 

 resolution against their meetings ; but the officers 

 hastened to Richard, and demanded of him the dis- 

 solution of parliament. Richard complied ; and be- 

 ing thus effectually deposed, soon after signed his 

 resignation. 



The officers being thus left with authority su- 

 preme for the present, however unstable, recalled 

 the Rump parliament, which had been expelled by 

 Cromwell, whose numbers little exceeded 70 mem- 

 bers. The first use which this assembly made of its 

 power, was to change and cashier some of the mili- 

 tary leaders, who had appointed them. The officers 

 immediately resolved to dissolve them. Gtneral 

 Lambert drew up some chosen troops in the streets 

 leading to Westminster Hall, and ordering thehorsea 

 to b' taken from the carriage of the Speaker, Len- 

 thai civilly conducted him home. A military go- 

 vernment v as i/ow established, over which the offi- 

 cers appointed a committee of 23 to preside. Pre- 



597 



to thia dissolution, ths army under Lambert 

 had suppressed, in concert with parliament, an in- 

 surrection of the royalists at Chester, where Booth, 

 their leader, was routed and taken prisoner, with 

 numbers of his undisciplined followers. The parlia- 

 ment, also, while it preserved its authority, mediated 

 by force, and in unison with the Dutch republic, 

 between the conquering King of Sweden and his 

 enemies. Admiral Montague sailed to the Baltic, 

 and Algernon Sidney, as ambassador, commanded 

 the Swedish monarch to desist from the siege of Co- 

 penhagen, who exclaimed, with a vain indignation, 

 at the interference of parricides and pedlars ; so he 

 chose to designate the British and Dutch. 



Monk, who wa> in Scotland with 8000 veteran sol- 

 diers, no sooner heard of the forcible dissolution of 

 parliament, than he protested against it ; and summon 

 ing a convention of estates in Scotland, received a 

 seasonable though small supply of money, which ena- 

 bled him to march into England. Naturally reserved 

 in his temper, and probably undecided hi.nself what 

 course he should pursue, he concealed those inten- 

 tions which he cherished, beyond the mere support of 

 parliament, with so much address, that when his own 

 brother came to Scotland, to sound his intentions, he 

 would not entrust him with his confidence. Fleet- 

 wood, who was nominally at the head of the army in 

 England, was a weak superstitious man. Lambert, 

 without the highest abilities, but active and ambi- 

 tious, was really the first, with the name of the se- 

 cond in command ; but as the troops were every 

 where revolting to parliament, he was unable to op- 

 pose the progress of Monk, and only treated with 

 him as that wary general advanced to the south. The 

 military government, in despair, summoned again 

 that parliament which they had dismissed in contempt ; 

 and the parliament, as before, acting in hostility to 

 the military government, cashiered its officers. Un 

 able, however, to overawe or resist Monk, they sent 

 deputiesto be spies upon him, under pretence of con- 

 gratulations. Monk, in the mean time, proceeded 

 with his army to London ; the gentry, on his march, 

 flocking round him with addresses, and expressing 

 their desire of a new parliament : but the general 

 still preserved his inflexible taciturnity, and arrived 

 within a few miles of St Albans, without dispelling 

 the suspense of the public mind respecting his de- 

 signs. From St Albans he sent a message to the 

 parliament, desiring them to remove such forces as 

 remained in London to country quarters. Some of 

 the regiments willingly obeyed this order, and such as 

 did not, Monk turned out by force ; after which, he 

 took up hio quarters, with his army, in Westminster. 

 The house voted him thanks for his services : he de- 

 sired them to call a free parliament, and this soon in- 

 spired the citizens to refuse submission to the par- 

 liamentary government. They resolved to pay no 

 taxes, till the members who had been excluded by 

 colonel Pride should be replaced : for they were per- 

 mitted to do this by Monk at the desire of parliament. 

 He arrested eleven of the ruling common-council- 

 men, brpke the gaits and p^riculli^es of the city, and 

 returned in triumph to his quartrrs at Westminster. 

 The next day, however, he made an apology for hit 



Ji.-it.un. 



Proceed- 

 ings and 

 views of 

 General 



Monk. 



The old 



parliament 

 recalled. 



Monk ad- 

 vances to 



Louder, 



