the sanction of the chief magistrate.  The inauguration followed.[a] On the platform, raised at the upper end of Westminster Hall, and in front of a magnificent chair of state, stood the protector; while the speaker, with his assistants, invested him with a purple mantle lined with ermine, presented him with a Bible superbly gilt and embossed, girt a sword by his side, and placed a sceptre of massive gold in his hand.  As soon as the oath had been administered, Manton, his chaplain, pronounced a long and fervent prayer for a blessing on the protector, the parliament, and the people.  Rising from prayer, Cromwell seated himself in a chair:  on the right, at some distance, sat the French, on the left, the Dutch ambassador; on one side stood the earl of Warwick with the sword of the commonwealth, on the other, the lord mayor, with that of the city; and behind arranged themselves the members of the protector’s family, the lords of the council, and Lisle, Whitelock, and Montague, each of the three bearing a drawn sword.  At a signal given, the trumpets sounded; the heralds proclaimed the style of the new sovereign; and the spectators shouted, “Long live his highness; God save the lord-protector.”  He rose immediately, bowed to the ambassadors, and walked in state through the hall to his carriage.[1]

That which distinguished the present from the late form of government was the return which it made towards the more ancient institutions of the country.

[Footnote 1:  Whitelock, 622.  Merc.  Polit.  No. 369.  Parl.  Hist. iii. 1514, and Prestwick’s Relation, App. to Burton’s Diary, ii. 511.  Most of the officers took the oath of fidelity to the protector.  Lambert refused, and resigned his commissions, which brought him about six thousand pounds per annum.  Cromwell, however, assigned to him a yearly pension of two thousand pounds.—­Ludlow, ii. 136.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1657.  June 26.]

That return, indeed, had wrung from Cromwell certain concessions repugnant to his feelings and ambition, but to which he probably was reconciled by the consideration that in the course of a few years they might be modified or repealed.  The supreme authority was vested in the protector; but, instead of rendering it hereditary in his family, the most which he could obtain was the power of nominating his immediate successor.  The two houses of parliament were restored; but, as if it were meant to allude to his past conduct, he was bound to leave to the House of Commons the right of examining the qualifications and determining the claims of the several representatives.  To him was given the power of nominating the members of the “other house” (he dared not yet term it the House of Lords); but, in the first instance, the persons so nominated were to be approved by the house of representatives, and afterwards by the other house itself.  The privilege of voting by proxy was abolished, and the right of judicature restrained within reasonable limits.  In the appointment of