[c] The attempt, however, though it failed of success,
produced its effect. It served to countenance a belief that the sitting
members were mere tools of the military, and supplied the royalists with
the means of masking their
[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 179-186. Whitelock, 677. England's Confusion, 9.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. May 7.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. May 7.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1659. May 9.]
real designs under the popular pretence of vindicating the freedom of
parliament.[1]
By gradual additions, the house at last amounted to seventy members, who,
while they were ridiculed by their adversaries with the appellation of the
"Rump," constituted themselves the supreme authority in the three kingdoms.
They appointed, first, a committee of safety, and then a council of state,
notified to the foreign ministers their restoration to power, and, to
satisfy the people, promised by a printed declaration[a] to establish a
form of government, which should secure civil and religious liberty without
a single person, or kingship, or house of lords. The farce of addresses
was renewed; the "children of Zion," the asserters of the good old cause,
clamorously displayed their joy; and Heaven was fatigued with prayers for
the prosperity and permanence of the new government.
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