1657 all buildings which had been erected in and about London from before the beginning of the troubles; by all which ways vast sums of money were to be, and afterwards were, exacted and raised. And all these Acts they presented solemnly to his highness, to be confirmed by his royal authority; and he as June 26. graciously confirmed them all, and told them, that as it had been the custom of the chief governors to acknowledge the care and kindness of the Commons upon such occasions, so he did very heartily and thankfully acknowledge their kindness.

30. But notwithstanding all this, he was far from being satisfied with the method of their proceeding; for there was nothing done to confirm his personal authority; and notwithstanding all that was done, they might, for ought appeared, remove him from being both Protector and general. There had been for some time jealousy between him and Lambert, who had been the principal adviser of the raising those major generals; and being one of them himself, and having the government of the five northern counties committed to him, he did desire to improve their authority, and to have it settled by authority of Parliament. But Cromwell, on the other hand, was well contented that they should be looked upon as a public grievance, and so taken away, rather upon the desire of Parliament than to appear to be out of his own inclination. But there yet appeared neither that design in Lambert, nor the other in Cromwell, nor [any 1] difference between them.

31. The Protector himself seemed to desire nothing more than to have the authority they had formerly given him, at least that he had exercised from the time he was Protector, confirmed and ratified by Act of Parliament. And if it had been so, it had been much greater than any king ever enjoyed. But he had used to speak much, that it was pity the nobility should be totally suppressed, and that the government would be better if it passed another consultation besides that of the House of Commons. In matter of religion, he would often speak that there was much of good in the order of bishops, if the dross were scoured off. He courted very much many of the nobility, 1 1 ['no,' MS.]

and used all the devices to dispose them to come to him, and 1657 they who did visit him were used with extraordinary respect by him; all which raised an opinion in many, that he did in truth himself affect to be king; which was the more confirmed when many of those who had nearest relation to him, and were most trusted by him, as soon as the Parliament had despatched those Acts which are mentioned before, and that complaints came from all parts against the major generals, inveighed sharply against the temper and composition of the government, as if it was not capable to settle the several distractions and satisfy the several interests of the nation; and by degrees proposed, in direct terms, that they might invest Cromwell with the title, rights, and dignity of the king; and then he [would know 1] what he was to do towards the satisfaction of all parties, and how to govern those who would not be satisfied.

32. This proposition found a marvellous concurrence; and very many who used not to agree in any thing else were of one mind in this, and would presently vote him king. And it was observed that nobody was forwarder in that acclamation than some men who had always had the reputation of great fidelity to the King, and to wish his restoration: and it cannot be denied that very many of the King's party were so deceived in their judgments, as really to believe that the making Cromwell king for the present was the best expedient for the restoration of his majesty, and that the army and the whole nation would then have been united rather to restore the true than to admit a false sovereign, whose hypocrisy and tyranny being now detected and known would be the more detested.

33. But the more sober persons of the King's party, who made less noise, trembled at this overture, and believed that it was the only way utterly to destroy the King, and to pull up all future hopes of the royal family by the roots. They saw all men even already tired in their hopes; and that which was left of spirit in them was from the horror they had of the confusion of the present government; that very many who had sustained the King's quarrel in the beginning were dead; that the present 1 ['knew,' MS.]

1

1657 King by his long absence out of the kingdom was known to very few; so that there was too much reason to fear that much of that affection that appeared under the notion of allegiance to the King was more directed to the monarchy than to the person, and that if Cromwell were once made king, and so the government ran again in the old channel, though those who were in love with a republic would possibly fall from him, he would receive abundant reparation of strength by the access of those who preferred the monarchy, and which probably would reconcile most men of estates to an absolute acquiescence, if not to an entire submission; that the nobility, being1 excluded to a man, and deprived of all the rights and privileges which were due to them by their birthright, and so enemies irreconcilable to the government, would by this alteration find themselves in their right places, and be glad to adhere to the name of a king, how unlawful a one soever; and there was an Act of Parliament still in force, that was made in the eleventh year of king Harry the Seventh, which seemed to provide absolute indemnity to such submission. And there was without doubt at that time too much propension in too many of the nobility to ransom themselves at the charge of their lawful sovereign. And therefore they who made these prudent recollections used all the ways they could to prevent this design, and to divert any such vote in the House.

2

34. On the other side, Lambert, who was the second man of the army, and many other officers of account and interest, besides the country members, opposed this overture with great bitterness and indignation; and some of them said directly, that if, contrary to their oaths and engagements, and contrary to the end for obtaining whereof they had spent so much blood and treasure, they must at last return and submit to the old government, and live again under a king, they would choose much rather to obey the true and lawful heir to the Crown, who was descended from a long succession of kings who had managed the sceptre over the nation, than to submit to a person who at best was but their equal, and raised from the same degree of 1 1 ['which being,' MS.] 2 ['irreconciliable,' MS.]

which they all were by themselves, and by the trust they had 1657 reposed in him had raised himself above them. That which put an end to the present debate was, (and which was as wonderful as any thing,) that some of his own family, who had grown up under him, and had their whole dependence upon him, as Desborough, Fleetwood, Whaley, and others, as passionately contradicted the motion as any of the other officers, and confidently undertook to know that himself would never consent to it, and therefore that it was very strange that any men should importune the putting such a question before they knew that he would accept it, except they took this way to destroy him. And upon this, (for which the undertakers received no thanks) the first debate was put off till farther consideration.

Feb. 23.

35. The debate was resumed again the next day with the Feb. 24. same warmth, the same persons still of the same opinion they had been before; most of the officers of the army, as well [as] they who were the great dependents upon and creatures of Cromwell, as passionately opposed the making him king as Lambert and the rest did, who looked to be successive protectors after his decease; only it was observed that they who the day before had undertaken that he himself would never endure it, which had especially made the pause at that time, urged that argument no more, but inveighed still against it as a monstrous thing, and that which would infallibly ruin him. But most of those of his privy council, and others nearest his trust, were as violent and as positive for the declaring him king, and much the major part of the House concurred in the same opinion 1; March 25. and notwithstanding all was said to the contrary, they appointed

a committee of six or seven 2 of the most eminent members of March 27. the House to wait upon him, and to inform him of the very earnest desire of the House that he would take upon him the title of king; and if they should find any aversion in him, that they should then enlarge in giving him those reasons which had been offered in the House, and which had swayed the House to that resolution, which they hoped would have the same influence upon his highness.

[by 123 against 62.]

2 [fifty-nine, Journals, vii. 514.]

1657

36. He gave them 1 audience in the Painted Chamber 2, when March 31. they made the bare overture to him as the desire of his Parlia

Apr. 3.

ment; at which he seemed surprised, and told them he wondered how any such thing came into their minds; that it was neither fit for them to offer, nor him to receive; that he was sure they could discover no such ambition in him, and that his conscience would not give him leave ever to consent to own that title 3. They who were well prepared to expect such an answer told him, that they hoped he would not so suddenly give a positive denial to what the Parliament had desired upon such long and mature deliberation; that they knew his modesty well, and that he more affected to deserve the highest titles than to wear them; that they were appointed to offer many reasons which had induced the House to make this request to him; which when he had vouchsafed to hear, they hoped the same impression would be made upon him that had been made by them in the House. He was too desirous to give the Parliament all the satisfaction he could with a good conscience to refuse to hear whatever they thought fit to say unto him, and so appointed Apr. 7, 8. them another day to attend him in the same place; which they accordingly did.

Apr. 11, 13, 16, 20.

37. When they came to him again, they all successively entertained him with long harangues, setting out the nature of the English people, and the nature of the government to which they had been accustomed, and under which they had flourished from the time they had been a people: that though the extreme sufferings they had undergone by corrupt ministers, under negligent and tyrannical kings, had transported them to throw off the government itself, as well as to inflict justice upon the persons of the offenders, yet they found by experience that no other government would so well fit the nation as that to which it had been accustomed: that, notwithstanding the infinite pains his highness had taken, and which had been crowned even with

2

1 [the whole House.] [the Banqueting House; Journals, VII. 516.] 3 [The speech of the Speaker, and Cromwell's reply, desiring time for deliberation, are printed in Rutt's Diary of Thomas Burton, 1828, i. 397-416.]