There remained a third expedient,--an application to
parliament. But Cromwell, like the first Charles, had learned to dread
the very name of a parliament. Three of these assemblies he had moulded
according to his own plan, and yet not one of them could he render
obsequious to his will. Urged, however, by the ceaseless importunities of
Thurloe, he appointed[a] nine councillors to inquire into the means of
defeating the intrigues of the republicans in a future parliament; the
manner of raising a permanent revenue from the estates of the royalists;
and the best method of determining the succession to the protectorate. But
among the nine were two who, aware of his increasing infirmities, began to
cherish projects of their own aggrandizement, and who, therefore, made it
their care to perplex and to prolong the deliberations. The committee sat
three weeks. On the two first questions they came to no conclusion; with
respect to the third, they voted, on a division, that the choice between
an elective and an hereditary succession was a matter of indifference.
Suspicious of their motives, Cromwell dissolved[b] the committee.[2] But he
substituted no
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vii. 662.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid. 146, 176, 192, 269. The committee consisted, in
Thurloe's words, of Lord Fiennes, Lord Fleetwood, Lord Desborow, Lord
Chamberlayne, Lord Whalley, Mr.
Pages:
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778