This was thought to savour too much of royalty.[2]
[Footnote 1: Compare the official copy printed by G. Sawbridge, 1654, with
the abstract by Whitelock (599, 600), and by Bordeaux (Thurloe, ii. 518).
See also Journals, Sept. 3, 4.]
[Footnote 2: It appears from the Council Book (1654, Aug. 21), that, on
that day, letters were despatched to the sheriffs, containing the names of
the members who had been approved by the council, with orders to give them
notice to attend. The letters to the more distant places were sent first,
that they might all be received about the same time.]
It was not long before the relative strength of the parties was
ascertained. After a sharp debate,[a] in which it was repeatedly asked
why the members of the long parliament then present should not resume the
authority of which they had been illegally deprived by force, and by what
right, but that of the sword, one man presumed to "command his commanders,"
the question was put, that the house resolve itself into a committee, to
determine whether or not the government shall be in a single person and a
parliament; and, to the surprise and alarm of Cromwell, it was carried[b]
against the court by a majority of five voices.[1] The leaders of the
opposition were Bradshaw, Hazlerig, and Scot, who now contended in the
committee that the existing government emanated from an incompetent
authority, and stood in opposition to the solemn determination of a
legitimate parliament; while the protectorists, with equal warmth,
maintained that, since it had been approved by the people, the only real
source of power, it could not be subject to revision by the representatives
of the people.
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