[Footnote 1:  Mr. Rutt has added this speech to Burton’s Diary, ii. 351-371.  I may remark that, 1.  The protector now addressed the members by the ambiguous style of “my lords and gentlemen of the two houses of parliament.” 2.  That he failed in proving the danger which, as he pretended, menaced Protestantism.  If, in the north, the two Protestant states of Sweden and Denmark were at war with each other, more to the south the Catholic states of France and Spain were in the same situation. 3.  That the vessels sold by the Dutch were six flutes which the English cruisers afterwards destroyed. 4.  That from this moment he was constantly asserting with oaths that he sought not his present office.  How could he justify such oaths in his own mind?  Was it on the fallacious ground that what he in reality sought was the office of king, not of protector?]

[Footnote 2:  Journals, Jan. 25, 29, Feb. 1, 3.  Burton’s Diary, ii. 371-464.  Thurloe, i. 766; vi. 767.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1658.  Jan. 22.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1658.  Feb. 3.]

kingdom were preparing to join his standard; the leaders of opposition in parliament had combined with several officers in the army to re-establish the commonwealth, “without a single person or house of lords;” and a preparatory petition for the purpose of collecting signatures was circulated through the city.  Cromwell consulted his most trusty advisers, of whom some suggested a dissolution, others objected the want of money, and the danger of irritating the people.  Perhaps he had already taken his resolution, though he kept it a secret within his own breast; perhaps it might be the result of some sudden and momentary impulse;[1] but one morning[a] he unexpectedly threw himself into a carriage with two horses standing at the gates of Whitehall; and, beckoning to six of his guards to follow, ordered the coachman to drive to the parliament house.  There he revealed his purpose to Fleetwood, and, when that officer ventured to remonstrate, declared, by the living God that he would dissolve the parliament.  Sending for the Commons, he addressed them in an angry and expostulating tone.  “They,” he said, “had placed him in the high situation in which he stood; he sought it not; there was neither man nor woman treading on English ground who could say he did.  God knew that he would rather have lived under a wood side, and have tended a flock of sheep, than have undertaken the government.  But, having undertaken it at their request, he had a right to look to them for aid and support.  Yet some among them, God was his witness, in violation of their oaths, were attempting to establish a commonwealth

[Footnote 1:  “Something happening that morning that put the protector into a rage and passion near unto madness, as those at Whitehall can witness.”—­Second Narrative, p. 8.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1658.  Feb. 4.]

interest in the army; some had received commissions to enlist men for Charles Stuart; and both had their emissaries at that moment seeking to raise a tumult, or rather a rebellion, in the city.  But he was bound before God to prevent such disasters; and, therefore,” he concluded, “I think it high time that an end be put to your sitting; and I do dissolve this parliament; and let God judge between me and you.”  “Amen, amen,” responded several voices from the ranks of the opposition.[1]