The number of the members was fixed according to the plan projected
by Vane at the close of the long parliament, at four hundred for England,
thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland. Most of the boroughs were
disfranchised, and the number of county members was increased. Every person
possessed of real or personal property to the value of two hundred pounds
had a right to vote,[1] unless he were a malignant or delinquent, or
professor
[Footnote 1: During the long parliament this qualification had been
adopted on the motion of Cromwell, in place of a clause recommended by the
committee, which gave the elective franchise under different regulations
to freeholders, copyholders, tenants for life, and leaseholders,--See
Journals, 30th March, 1653.]
of the Catholic faith; and the disqualifications to which the electors were
subject attached also to the persons elected. 2. The executive power was
made to reside in the lord-protector acting with the advice of his council.
He possessed, moreover, the power of treating with foreign states with the
_advice_, and of making peace or war with the _consent_, of the council.
To him also belonged the disposal of the military and naval power, and
the appointment of the great officers of state, with the approbation of
parliament, and, in the intervals of parliament, with that of the council,
but subject to the subsequent approbation of the parliament.
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