Through all these proceedings of the first month there had been signs of a curious abatement of that thorough-going Republican fervency which had characterized the House in its previous session.  The essential Republican principle had indeed been at once re-proclaimed.  It had been resolved that each member of the new Council of State, before assuming office, should take an oath renouncing “the pretended title or titles of Charles Stuart and the whole line of the late King James, and of every person, as a single person, pretending or which shall pretend,” &c.  The very next day, however, when Hasilrig brought in a Bill enacting that every member of the House itself, or of any succeeding House, should take the same oath, a minority, among whom were Ingoldsby, Colonel Hutchinson, Colonel Fielder, and Colonel Fagg, opposed very strongly.  Not, of course, that they were other than sound Commonwealth’s men; but that oaths were becoming frightfully frequent, and this one would be “a confining of Providence,” &c.!  The first reading of the Bill was carried only by a majority of twenty-four (Neville and Garland tellers) against fifteen (Colonel Hutchinson and Colonel Fagg tellers).  The effect was that, after a second reading, the Bill went into Committee and remained there, the members meanwhile sitting on without any engagement.  About a half of those nominated to the Council of State, including Fairfax, St. John, Morley, Weaver, and Fagg, remained out of the Council rather than submit to the qualification made essential in their case.  This was symptomatic enough; but it was also evident that, on such important questions as Tithes, an Established Church, and Liberty of Conscience, the House was in no disposition to persevere in what had hitherto been believed to be radical and necessary articles of the Republican policy.  The instructions given to a Committee on the 21st of January indicate very comprehensively the prevalence of a conservative temper in the House on these and other questions.  The Committee were to prepare a declaration for the public “That the Parliament intends forthwith to proceed to the settlement of the government, and will uphold a learned and pious Ministry of the nation and their maintenance by Tithes:  and that they will proceed to fill up the House as soon as may be, and to settle the Commonwealth without a King, Single Person, or House of Peers; and will promote the Trade of the nation; and will reserve due Liberty to tender consciences:  and that the Parliament will not meddle with the executive power of the Law, but only in cases of mal-administration and appeals, &c.”  Such a declaration was adopted and ordered to be published on the 23rd.  It was of a nature to conciliate the Presbyterian and Independent clergy of the Establishment and the conservative mass of the people generally, but to disappoint grievously those various sectarian enemies of the Church Establishment who had hitherto been the most enthusiastic exponents of the “good old cause.”  The very phrase “the good old cause,” one observes, was now passing into disrepute, and the word “fanatics” as a name for its extreme supporters was coming into use within the circle of the Rump politicians themselves.  Hasilrig, Neville, and the rest of the ultra-Republicans, mast have felt the power going from their hands.[1]