The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 998 pages of information about The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660.

The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 998 pages of information about The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660.
an unexpected point.  But the Republicans had done themselves no good by their style in the main discussion, A miscellaneous assembly always resents the ungenerous, and the sneers at the existing composition of the Other House had seemed ungenerous.  “They have gone through wet and dry, hot and cold, fire and water; they are the best officers of the best army in the world; their swords are made of what Hercules’s club was made of”:  such were the terms in which one speaker defended the military veterans of the Other House; and they were received with cheers.  Nor did the next step of the Republicans improve their position.  Having observed what a considerable proportion of Thurloe’s majorities consisted of the members from Scotland and Ireland, Cromwellians nearly to a man, they tried to sweep these from the House in anticipation of future votes.  First, they raised the question about the Scottish members, contending that their presence in an English Parliament was unconstitutional, that the de facto incorporation of Scotland with the Commonwealth had never been legally consummated, &c.  On this subject, the House having first negatived the proposal that the Scottish members should withdraw during the debate, it was decided, March 21, by a majority of 211 (Thurloe one of the tellers) to 120 (Vane one of the tellers), “That the members returned for Scotland shall continue to sit as members during this present Parliament,” A like vote, March 23, retained the Irish members.  The Republicans had again lost character by this piece of tactics.  Not only was it offensive to Scotland and Ireland; but to many disinterested English members it seemed a mean attempt to depreciate, for a mere party purpose, those great achievements of recent years which had made the British Islands, as if by miracle, one body-politic at last.  On the 28th of March the principal debate came to an end in this two-claused Resolution:  “That this House will transact with the persons now sitting in the Other House, as an House of Parliament, during the present Parliament; and that it is not hereby intended to exclude such Peers as have been faithful to the Parliament from their privilege of being duly summoned to be members of that House.”  The final division was 198 to 125; but there had been a preceding division on the question whether the words “when they shall be approved by this House” should be inserted after the word “Parliament” in the first clause.  This very ingenious amendment of the Anti-Cromwellians had been rejected by 183 votes to 146, the tellers for the Cromwellian majority being the Marquis of Argyle and Thurloe, and for the minority Lord Fairfax and Lord Lambert.—­Thus, at the end of the second month of the Parliament, the victory was clearly with Thurloe and the Government.  The Protectorship had been recognised; and the Other House also had been recognised, rather grudgingly indeed, and not by the desired name of “The House of Lords,” but with a proviso that seemed to
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The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.