abandoned; or, could I allow myself to presume on "life's futurities," postponed, as extending too far, and unavoidably delaying, the present publication.

It would have been difficult, nor indeed, has it been attempted, to conceal the opinions which I have been able to form, on the theory or administration of government; great questions, which, in the age of the Protectorates, as they must continue in every age, were intimately connected with the happiness and improvement of human society. I have also allowed myself to expose, with a freedom for which I should be ashamed to apologize, that time-serving versatility, too often discovered in the story of the period which these volumes are designed to illustrate. Yet, even if charged with a disposition to "extenuate nothing," I shall not, I trust, be found to have " set down aught in malice.”

J. T. R.

Clapton, Jan. 25, 1828.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. I.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AS IN 1656.

VOL. II.

FRONTISPIECE.

FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.—FRONTISPIECE.

VOL. III.

PLATE OF AUTOGRAPHS.

FRONTISPIECE.

No. 1, 2, 3. OLIVER CROMWELL IN 1642,-IN 1649,-AND

EARLE. No. 8. SIR ARTHUR HASLERIGGE. No. 9. SIR JO.

NORTHCOTE. No. 10. SIR HENRY VANE.

APRIL 20, 1653. The Lord General, having interrupted the Parliament, by an act of military violence, frequently described and censured in the ensuing pages,* proceeded to disperse the Council of State, unmoved by the just rebuke of their President Bradshaw. He next convened a council of officers, with whose professed concurrence he nominated a legislative assembly, who might afford to his sovereignty in possession, at least, the semblance of a Parliamentary authority. The debates in that assembly, are probably lost irrecoverably, if they were ever reported. From the journals, I select a summary of the Parliamentary proceedings.

Tuesday, July 5. Mr. Rous was called to the Chair.

Resolved, that some members of this House be sent to the Lord General, to desire him to afford his presence and assistance in this House, as a member thereof.

Wednesday 6. Resolved, that the title of Parliament be given to this Assembly.

Thursday 7. Resolved, that no person shall be employed, or admitted into the service of this House, but such as the House shall be first satisfied of his real godliness.

That the Lord General do sit as a member of the Council of State.

Saturday 9. The House took into debate the instructions formerly given to the Council of State, by Act of the 30th of November, 1652, in order to settling instructions for a Council of State.

* See vol. ii. pp. 397, iii. 56, 73, 98, 177, 209.

† See Mr. Godwin's " History of the Commonwealth," (1827,) iii.

456-458.

See vol. ii. p. 67, note; iv.
p. 499.

VOL. I.

§ Yeas 65, Noes 46.

a

The eighteenth Instruction being read; the first clause, touching the Library at St. James's* was agreed.

Resolved, that the members now chosen to be of the Council of State, be authorized and required to act forthwith, according to the instructions now passed.

That a Committee be appointed to consider the affairs of Ireland; and are to meet at the Chair-chamber in Whitehall.

That there be a Committee named, to consider the affairs of Scotland; and are to meet at the House, commonly called the Lords' House.

Monday 11. The House spent this day in seeking the Lord, in a special manner, for council, and a blessing on the proceedings of Parliament.

Tuesday 12. Resolved, that a Committee be appointed to consider of the state of all the treasuries, and how a check may be put upon them; and to consider of any other matter, which may conduce to the advancement and best managing of the treasure of the Commonwealth.

Resolved, that the mace shall be made use of as formerly; and that the serjeant do also attend the Speaker for the time being, from time to time from the House, to the entrance into the old or new Palace; and there again receive him, and bring him to the House.

Ordered, that a Bible be provided for the service of the House.

Thursday 14. Resolved, that this Council of State now chosen,† shall continue till the third of November next.

The humble petition of John Lilburne, Esquire, now prisoner in Newgate, was this day read.‡

The question being put, that the House will suspend the proceedings in law, against Lieutenant-colonel John Lilburne, it passed in the negative.

See vol. iv. p. 452, note.

+ Among these were Mr. Montague and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper. See vol. iii. p. 506, note. A petition was also presented in his behalf from "divers well-affected people, inhabiting the Cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and places adjacent."