GROM 
thus fecurcd his intered in that'country. The time at 
length came for throwing off the made. The long par¬ 
liament was become unpopular, and though they had 
talked of diffolving themfelves, they ftill found pretexts 
for delay. Cromwell, after having called a council of 
officers, in April, 1653, refolved upon a decifive ftroke. 
Placing a-guard of three hundred men about the parlia- 
ment-houfe, he entered, and after fitting for a time to 
hear the debates, he halted up, bade the fpeaker leave 
the chair, and told the houfe they had fitten long enough 
unlefs they had done more good. He then addreffed 
himfelf to fome individual members in terms of coarfe 
abufe ; and when they attempted a reply, “ Come, come, 
faid he, I will put an end to your prating : You are no 
parliament: I fay you are no parliamentand, (lamp¬ 
ing with his foot, he bade them for ffiame begone, and 
give place to honeffer men. The foldiers at this fignal 
entering the houfa, he commanded one of them to “ take 
away that bauble,” meaning the mace. An officer at 
the fame time took the fpeaker by the arm, and led him 
down from his feat. Then Cromwell, addreffing the 
members, faid, “ It is you that forced me to this, for I. 
have befougbt the Lord night and day, that he would 
rather (lay me than put me upon the doing of this work.” 
In conclufion, he feized their, papers, turned the mem¬ 
bers out of tlie houfe, and locked the doors. With 
fuch a vulgar mixture of rudenefs and cant did he a< 5 t in 
this extraordinary and important feene, in which he 
feems rather to have given way to his naturahhabits, 
than to have ftudied any political' refinements. The 
affront Charles I. had offered to the houfe of commons 
cofi him his throne ; but Cromwell poffeffed real power 
enough to commit a much more audacious aftion with 
impunity. With equal eafe he diifolved the council of 
ffate, and for fome time he governed the nation by means 
of his council of officers. Defiring, however, a more 
fpecious fource of authority, he fummoned, by warrants 
under his own hand, a pretended reprefentative of the 
nation, confiding of 142 perfons, ^vho, from the name of 
one of their members, have been contemptuoufly fiyled 
Barcbcncys Parliament. This body, confiding for the 
greater part of ignorant fanatics, were foon thrown into 
fuch perplexities, that the majority agreed to refign their 
power into the hands of Cromwell; and the refractory 
remainder were forcibly difmiffed. The council of offi¬ 
cers again taking upon them the fupreme power, drew up 
an infirument of government, placing the adminiftration 
in the general and a feleCt council, conferring on the 
former the office of ProtcBor of the Commonwealth of Eng. 
land, Scotland, and Ireland-, and he was accordingly, on 
December 16, 1653, folemnly invefted with this high 
trufi, in Wedminlter-hall, being then in the fifty-fourth 
year of his age. It may be obferved, as a lingular coin¬ 
cidence, that jud at the fame age, Julius Caefar was 
created' Perpetual Dictator. 
Cromwell, from this time, is to be viewed as the fove- 
reign of a great nation, and in many refpeCts it appears 
as if he was capable of filling this high dation with ade¬ 
quate fplendour and ability. But it mud ever be the 
£rd concern of an ufurper. to maintain himfelf in his 
ufurpation ; whence we need not wonder to find a great 
part of his policy directed to this point. The public 
trnnfaCtions of the protectorate belong rather to our na¬ 
tional hidory than to biography ; we (hall therefore no¬ 
tice them no farther than is neceffary to elucidate the 
character of the protector. He immediately concluded 
a peace with the dates of Holland, between whom and 
the Englilh republic a bloody naval war had for fome 
time been carried on ; and whatever in this peace there 
was favourable to the honour and intered of the nation, 
may judly be placed to the account of his prcdeccflbrs 
in power. He like wife made treaties with Denmark and 
Portugal, and cultivated a clofe friendlhip with Sweden. 
The rivalry of France and Spain caufed both powers to 
make advances to him, which proved how readily the 
VPL. V. No. 2§o. 
WELL. 381 
prouded courts can doop to humiliations fubfervient to 
their political purpofes. The general dam of Europe 
was indeed highly favourable to the relative confequence 
of England ; and Cromwell is judged to have deferved 
lefs praife for die lofty fipirit which he difplayed on fome 
occafions of national conted, than cenfure for the fhort- 
fightednefs of his politics in aiding that preponderance 
of the French intered in Europe, which now began to 
manifed itfelf, and has lince been fo feverely felt. In 
his domedic adminidration, he is to be commended for 
the diflike he always (bowed to religious perfecution, and 
his refpeCt for the rights of confidence, as far as was 
compatible with the fecurity of his government. He is 
allowed to have filled the courts with able judges, and 
to have entertained liberal ideas of the reformation of 
the law. He difplayed great zeal for judice, and refufed 
all folicitations for pardoning the brother of the Portu- 
guefe ambalfador, who was legally convicted of murder. 
He was at lead equally fevere in punidling confpiracies 
againd himfelf, and at different times' caufed feveral per- 
fions to be executed on charges of that kind ; yet he was 
never wantonly cruel, and on various occafions behaved 
with great moderation towards thofe whom he knew to 
be difaffedted to his perfon and government. Finding 
that the fandtion of parliament was neceffary to him in 
his projedts for raffing money, and doing other adts of 
power, he fummoned one according to a very enlarged 
plan. In this, Scotland and Ireland were united with 
England by the right of fending reprefentatives, and the 
greater part of the members were elected by counties. 
So much did this fchenre conduce to parliamentary inde¬ 
pendence, that notwithftanding Scotland and Ireland re¬ 
turned chiefly military officers, the protedtor found him¬ 
felf at their meeting in danger of being depofed ; whence 
he was obliged to pradtife the arbitrary meafure of fta- 
tioning a guard at the door of the parliament-houfe, to 
prevent the entrance of members till they had taken an 
oatli of fidelity to him. After all, he was fo dilfatisfied 
with this affemhly, that he diffolved it, after a feffion of 
five months. His mother dying about this time, he bu¬ 
ried her, contrary to her defire* in king Henry VII.’s 
chapel ; and it may perhaps be reckoned one of his 
weakneffes, that on all public occalions he affedted a per- 
fonal (tale, equal to that of the greateft monarchs, by 
which he gave additional offence to the republicans, 
without dazzling the eyes of the royalifts. In 1655 an 
infurredtion broke out in the weft of England among tire 
king’-s friends, which Cromwell, who, by means of Iris 
fpies, was acquainted with all their proceedings, fuffered 
to go to a certain length, and then quelled in the blood 
of the principal contrivers. No fovereign, indeed, ever 
eftablifhed a more perfect fyfiem of efjnonnage, and won¬ 
derful (lories are told of his fecret intelligence, and the 
confuirimate (kill with which perfons, without any know¬ 
ledge of each other, were made to a <51 in concert. The 
fums expended in fervices of this nature were almoft in¬ 
credible. His adminidration was by no means a frugal" 
one, and tire want of money led him to the unjuftifiable 
meafure of feizing 400,000!. belonging to the king of 
Spain. This was followed by a war, of which an ex- 
pefiled remuneration by pillage is fuppofed to have been 
the chief motive. In the fpring of this year the im¬ 
portant ifland of Jamaica was taken, which has ever fince 
remained in the pofteflion of the Englilh. The glorious 
fuccelfes of Blake in the .Mediterranean, alfo gave a fplen¬ 
dour to the protector’s government, and railed him high 
in the opinion of foreigners; one confequence of which 
was, a treaty with France, whereby the Englilh royal 
family were compelled to quit that country. It was alfo 
ilipulated, that a body of Englilh troops fnould join the 
French in the Low-countries, who were adting againft 
the Spaniards ; and a reward for their fervices, which is 
confidered as one of the mod honourable events in the 
protestor’s reign, was the delivery of Dunkirk to Eng¬ 
land, when taken by the united forces, A lplendid e*ru 
5 E baffjr 
