"[2]
[Footnote 1: Printed by Henry Hills and Thomas Brewster, printers to the
army, 1653.]
[Footnote 2: Ludlow, ii. 24. Thurloe, i. 289, 395. Sir H. Vane, after all
the affronts which he had received, was offered a place in the council; but
he replied that, though the reign of the saints was begun, he would defer
his share in it till he should go to heaven.--Thurloe, i. 265.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. April 22.]
They next proceeded to establish[a] a council of state. Some proposed that
it should consist of ten members, some of seventy, after the model of the
Jewish Sanhedrim; and others of thirteen, in imitation of Christ and his
twelve apostles. The last project was adopted as equally scriptural, and
more convenient. With Cromwell, in the place of lord president, were joined
four civilians and eight officers of high rank; so that the army still
retained its ascendancy, and the council of state became in fact a military
council.
From this moment for some months it would have embarrassed any man to
determine where the supreme power resided. Some of the judges were
superseded by others: new commissioners of the treasury and admiralty were
appointed; even the monthly assessment of one hundred and twenty thousand
pounds was continued for an additional half-year; and yet these and similar
acts, all of them belonging to the highest authority in the state, appeared
to emanate from different sources; these from the council of war, those
from the council of state, and several from the lord-general himself,
sometimes with the advice of one or other, sometimes without the advice of
either of these councils.
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