For nearly five months there had been this tug of parties at Whitehall round poor Richard.  Naturally, all his own sympathies were with the Dynastic Party; and he had made this apparent.  He had proposed to bring Falconbridge and Broghill, perhaps also Whitlocke, into the Council; and, when he found that the Army party would not consent, he had declined to bring in Whalley, Goffe, Berry, and Cooper, proposed by that party in preference.  In the matter of the limitation of his Protectorship by the surrender of his headship of the Army he had been even more firm.  The matter having come before him formally by petition from the Council of Officers, after having been pressed upon him again and again by Fleetwood and Desborough in private, he had, in a conference with all the officers then in town (Oct, 14).  Fleetwood at their head, explained his sentiments fully.  The speech was written for him by Thurloe.  After some gentle preliminaries, with dutiful references to his father, it came to the main subject.  “I am sure it may be said of me,” said Richard, “that not for my wisdom, my parts, my experience, my holiness, hath God chosen me before others:  there are many here amongst you who excel me in all these things:  but God hath done herein as it pleased Him, and the nation, by His providence, hath put things this way.  Being then thus trusted, I shall make a conscience, I hope, in the execution of this trust; which I see not how I should do if I should part with any part of the trust which is committed to me unto any others, though they may be better men than myself.”  He then instanced the two things which he understood to be demanded of him by the Army.  “For instance,” he said, “if I should trust it to any one person or more to fill up the vacancies of the Army otherwise than it is in the Petition and Advice—­which directs that the commanders-in-chief of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the other field-officers, should be from time to time supplied by me, with the consent of the Council, leaving all other commissioned officers only to my disposal—­I should therein break my trust and do otherwise than the Parliament intended.  It may as well be asked of me that I would commit it to some other persons to supply the vacancies in the Council, in the Lords’ House, and all other magistracies.  I leave it to any reasonable man to imagine whether this be a thing in my power to do....  There hath also been some discourse about a Commander-in-chief.  You know how that stands in the Petition and Advice, which I must make my rule in my government, and shall through the blessing of God stick close to that.  I am not obliged to make any Commander-in-chief:  that is left to my own liberty, as it was in my father’s; only, if I will make any, it must be done by the consent of the Council.  And by the Commander-in-chief can be meant no other than the person who under me commands the whole Army, call him what you will—­’Field-Marshal,’ ‘Commander-in-chief,’