It was, however, taken as no favourable omen, that when the protector, at the opening of parliament, commanded the attendance of the Commons in the House of Lords, nearly one-half of the members refused[a] to obey.  They were unwilling to sanction by their presence the existence of an authority, the legality of which they intended to dispute; or to admit the superior rank of the new peers, the representatives of the protector, over themselves, the representatives of the people.  As soon as the lower house was constituted, it divided itself into three distinct parties. 1.  The protectorists formed about one-half of the members.  They had received instructions to adhere inviolably to the provisions of the “humble petition and advice,” and to consider the government by a single person, with the aid of two houses, as the unalterable basis of the constitution. 2.  The republicans, who did not amount to fifty, but compensated for deficiency in number by their energy and eloquence.  Vane, Hazlerig, Lambert, Ludlow, Nevil, Bradshaw, and Scot, were ready debaters, skilled in the forms of the house, and always on the watch to take advantage of the want of knowledge or of experience on the part of their adversaries.  With them voted Fairfax, who, after a long retirement, appeared once more on the stage.  He constantly sat by the side, and echoed the opinions of Hazlerig; and, so artfully did he act his part, so firmly did he attach their confidence, that, though a royalist at heart, he was designed by them

[Footnote 1:  Thurloe, vii. 541, 550.  Ludlow, ii. 170.  Bethel, Brief Narrative, 340.  England’s Confusion (p. 4), London, 1659.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1659.  Jan. 27]

for the office of lord-general, in the event of the expulsion or the abdication of Richard. 3.  The “moderates or neuters” held in number the medium between the protectorists and republicans.  Of these, some wavered between the two parties; but many were concealed Cavaliers, who, in obedience to the command of Charles, had obtained seats in the house, or young men who, without any fixed political principles, suffered themselves to be guided by the suggestions of the Cavaliers.  To the latter, Hyde had sent instructions that they should embarrass the plans of the protector, by denouncing to the house the illegal acts committed under the late administration; by impeaching Thurloe and the principal officers of state; by fomenting the dissension between the courtiers and the republicans; and by throwing their weight into the scale, sometimes in favour of one, sometimes of the other party, as might appear most conducive to the interests of the royal exile.[1]

The Lords, aware of the insecure footing on which they stood, were careful not to provoke the hostility of the Commons.  They sent no messages; they passed no bills; but exchanging matters of state for questions of religion, contrived to spend their time in discussing the form of a national catechism, the sinfulness of theatrical entertainments, and the papal corruptions supposed to exist in the Book of Common