Each party expressed
its satisfaction. The republicans had still the field open for the advocacy
of their favourite doctrines; the protectorists had advanced a step,
and trusted that it would lead them to the acquisition of greater
advantages.[1]
From the office of protector, the members proceeded to inquire into the
constitution and powers of the other house; and this question, as it was
intimately connected with the former, was debated with equal warmth and
pertinacity. The opposition appealed to the "engagement," which many of the
members had subscribed; contended that the right of calling a second
house had been personal to the late protector, and did not descend to
his successors; urged the folly of yielding a negative voice on their
proceedings to a body of counsellors of their own creation; and pretended
to foretel that a protector with a yearly income of one million three
hundred thousand pounds, and a house of lords selected by himself, must
inevitably become, in the course of a few years, master of the liberties of
the people. When, at the end of nine days, the speaker was going to put the
question, Sir
[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 1, 14. Thurloe, 603, 609, 610, 615, 617. Clar.
Pap. iii. 424, 426, 429. In Burton's Diary the debate occupies almost two
hundred pages (iii.
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