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Home From the Civil War to the Restoration, 1645-1660 The rule of Cromwell, 1653-1658 |
The rule of Cromwell, 1653-1658We come now to our Third Period, the five and a half years that elapse between the dissolution of the "Rump", in April, 1653, and the death of Cromwell, in September, 1658. The monarchy, the Extremists, the Irish, the Scottish army, and the remnants of the Long Parliament had been in turn suppressed. Cromwell and the army, with their Independent opinions, were at last supreme. They had destroyed everything that could rival them, including most of the Constitution.But they were still anxious that their rule should be constitutional, and subject to the control of the English people as expressed in a freely elected Parliament. They wished, as it has been humorously put, to fix a legal wig upon the point of the soldier's sword. Unfortunately for them, however, their rule was not based upon great popular support. Consequently the wig fell off, and the naked sword only was visible. Parliaments were frequently called, but they were bound, unless nominated by the army leaders or purged of hostile elements, to be unmanageable. The first experiment of the army was an assembly of persons selected by the Council of Army Officers. This Parliament, known as " the Little" or Barebones’ Parliament- after the name of one of its members, known as "Praise-God Barebones" (Otherwise "Barbon". He was a leather-seller of Fleet Street, and after the Restoration his windows were on more than one occasion the subject of attention from the youth of that neighbourhood) -contained many notable Puritans, and it possessed, as the Speaker, the Provost of Eton (His name was Rouse, and he is traditionally supposed to have planted the elms in the playing fields of Eton). But unfortunately this Parliament was too visionary and unpractical. It wished to reduce the law into the "bigness of a pocket book", and therefore angered the lawyers; it proposed to find money for the army in a way which the army thought made the chances of being paid exceedingly remote. Finally, its projects with regard to the religious system raised such a hornet's nest that Cromwell was only too thankful when the moderate element in the Assembly, by getting up early one morning, before their opponents were ready, carried a motion (As a matter of fact, Provost Rouse left the chair without stopping to hear the opponents of the motion, or actually putting it to the vote; and then he and the supporters of the motion walked off to Whitehall and gave up their powers) that the Assembly should surrender its power to Cromwell, and dissolve (December, 1653). The next experiment was a new Constitution, drawn up by Ireton, who was Cromwell's son-in-law, and a distinguished officer. It was known as the Instrument of Government. Cromwell was to be called Protector, and to have the executive power and a fixed sum for the purposes of government. Parliament, consisting of one House, was to possess the legislative power. But Parliament was controlled by the Protector, because he alone could summon it, he could veto any of its acts which were contrary to the principles of the new (Constitution, and could dissolve it after it had sat five months. Cromwell himself was to be controlled, to a certain extent, by a Council of State which was created under the Instrument, and by the fact that, if he wanted additional money over and above the fixed sum allowed him, Parliament alone could grant it (In some respects Cromwell's powers were very similar to those possessed by the Pre-11 km of the United States to-day). |
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