In exactly the same way was the Navy to be brought within Parliamentary grasp.  John Lawson, an assured Commonwealth’s man, having been appointed Vice-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief in the narrow seas (to counterbalance the Cromwellian Montague), received his commission from the Speaker’s hands on the 8th of June; such captains and other officers for Lawson’s Fleet as were at hand received their commissions in the same manner; and commissions signed by the Speaker were sent out to the flag-officers, captains, and lieutenants in Montague’s Baltic Fleet.—­More a matter of wonder still was the re-organization of the Militia of the Cities and Counties of all England and Wales.  The regular Army could not but remark the extreme attention of the Parliament to the recruiting and re-officering of this vast civilian soldiery.  A Bill for settling the Militia, brought in on the 2nd of July, passed on the 26th; and from that time there was a stream of Militia officers from the counties, just as of the Regulars, to receive their commissions from the Speaker.  Old Skippon was re-appointed in his natural position as Major-General of the Militia for the City of London (July 27) and Commander-In-Chief of all the Forces within, the Weekly Bills (Aug. 2); and Lord Mayor John Ireton was one of the City Colonels.[1]

[Footnote 1:  I have compiled these lists of names, with some labour, from the Commons Journals of May-Sept. 1659, aided by references to Ludlow’s Memoirs and other authorities for some particulars.  There may be one or two omissions in the lists of actually appointed Colonels.  Possibly also the distribution of the regiments between England and Scotland, or between Great Britain and Ireland, may not be absolutely correct.  Perhaps that is hardly possible; for there were shiftings of regiments between England and Ireland within the few months under notice, and shiftings of regiments, or of parts of regiments, between England and Scotland.  I have put Overton among the Colonels in England, because he was made Governor of Hull; but the larger part of the regiment to which he was appointed was with Monk in Scotland, and Overton’s former military experience in high command had been chiefly in Scotland.]

The energetic little Rump and its Council were in the midst of all this re-organizing and re-officering of the Forces of the Commonwealth when a demand suddenly burst upon them for the actual service of a portion of those forces, such as they were.

After a long period of judicious quiet, Hyde and the other Councillors of Charles abroad, in advice with the Royalists at home, had resolved on testing the King’s improved chances by a general insurrection.  The arrangements had been made chiefly by Mr. John Mordaunt (see ante p. 337), Sir John Greenville, Sir Thomas Peyton, Mr. Arthur Annesley, and Mr. William Legge.  These five had been the authorized commissioners for the King in England since March last in place of the former secret commissioners of the Sealed Knot;