Jealous, however, of his designs, “the statesmen” had begun to fight him with his own weapons.  As the commonwealth had no longer an enemy to contend with on the land, they proposed[a] a considerable reduction in the number of the forces, and[b] a proportionate reduction of the taxes raised for their support.  The motion was too reasonable in itself, and too popular in the country, to be resisted with safety:  one-fourth of the army was disbanded,[c] and the monthly assessment lowered from one hundred and twenty thousand pounds to ninety thousand pounds.  Before the expiration of six months, the question of a further reduction was brought forward;[d] but the council of war took the alarm, and a letter from Cromwell to the speaker[e] induced the house to continue its last vote.  In a short time[f] it was again mentioned; but the next day[g] six officers appeared at the bar of the house with a petition from the army, which, under pretence of praying for improvements, tacitly charged the members with the neglect of their duty.  It directed their attention to the propagation of the gospel, the reform of the law, the removal from office of scandalous and disaffected persons, the abuses in the excise and the treasury, the arrears due to the army, the violation of articles granted to the enemy, and the qualifications of future and successive parliaments.  Whitelock remonstrated with Cromwell on the danger

[Footnote 1:  Whitelock, 516.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1651.  Oct. 2.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1651.  Oct. 7.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1651.  Dec. 19.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1652.  June 5.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1652.  June 15.] [Sidenote f:  A.D. 1652.  August 12.] [Sidenote g:  A.D. 1652.  August 13.]

of permitting armed bodies to assembly and petition.  He slighted the advice.[1]

Soon afterwards[a] the lord-general requested a private and confidential interview with that lawyer.  So violent, he observed, was the discontent of the army, so imperious the conduct of the parliament, that it would be impossible to prevent a collision of interests, and the subsequent ruin of the good cause, unless there were established “some authority so full and so high” as to be able to check these exorbitances, and to restrain both the army and the parliament.  Whitelock replied, that, for the army, his excellency had hitherto kept and would continue to keep it in due subordination; but with respect to the parliament, reliance must be placed on the good sense and virtue of the majority.  To control the supreme power was legally impossible.  All, even Cromwell himself, derived their authority from it.  At these words the lord-general abruptly exclaimed, “What, if a man should take upon him to be king?” The commissioner answered that the title would confer no additional benefit on his excellency.  By his command of the army, his ascendancy in the house, and his reputation, both at home and abroad, he already enjoyed, without the envy of the name, all the power of a king.  When Cromwell insisted that the name would give security to his followers, and command the respect of the people, Whitelock rejoined, that it would change the state of the controversy between the parties, and convert a national into a personal quarrel.  His friends had cheerfully fought with him to establish a republican in place of monarchical government; would they equally