“Resolved, That by the original compact the Government of this Realm is by a junto, and a K[ing] or Qu[een]; but the Administration solely in the junto.

“Ordered, That a Bill be brought in for further limiting the Prerogative.

“Ordered, That it be a standing order of this H[ouse] that the merit of elections be not determined by the number of voices, or right of electors, but by weight; and that one Whig shall weigh down ten Tories.

“A motion being made, and the question being put, that when a Whig is detected of manifest bribery, and his competitor being a Tory, has ten to one a majority, there shall be a new election; it passed in the negative.

“Resolved, That for a K[ing] or Q[ueen] of this Realm, to read or examine a paper brought them to be signed by a j[un]to Minister, is arbitrary and illegal, and a violation of the liberties of the people.”

* * * * *

These and the like reformations would, in all probability, be the first fruits of the Whigs’ resurrection; and what structures such able artists might in a short time build upon such foundations, I leave others to conjecture.  All hopes of a peace cut off; the nation industriously involved in further debts to a degree, that none would dare undertake the management of affairs, but those whose interest lay in ruining the constitution.  I do not see how the wisest prince under such necessities could be able to extricate himself.  Then, as to the Church, the bishops would by degrees be dismissed, first from the Parliament, next from their revenues, and at last from their office; and the clergy, instead of their idle claim of independency on the state, would be forced to depend for their daily bread on every individual.  But what system of future government was designed; whether it were already digested, or would have been left for time and incidents to mature, I shall not now Examine.  Only upon this occasion I cannot help reflecting on a fact, which it is probable, the reader knows as well as myself.  There was a picture drawn some time ago, representing five persons as large as the life, sitting at council together like a Pentarchy.  A void space was left for a sixth, which was to have been the Qu[een], to whom they intended that honour:  but her M[ajest]y having since fallen under their displeasure, they have made a shift to crowd in two better friends in her place, which makes it a complete Heptarchy.[9] This piece is now in the country, reserved till better times, and hangs in a hall, among the pictures of Cromwell, Bradshaw, Ireton, and some other predecessors.