Willing to relieve his government, if possible, from the character of “arbitrariness” it had so long borne, Cromwell had at last resolved on calling another Parliament.  The matter had been secretly deliberated in Council in May and June 1656, and the writs were out on July 10.  There had ensued, throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland, a great bustle of elections, the Major-Generals in England and the Councils in Scotland and Ireland exerting themselves to secure the return of Oliverians, and the Protector and his Council by no means easy as to the result.  Two recent Republican pamphlets had caused agitation.  One, which had been called forth by a Proclamation of a General East a month or two before, was by Sir Henry Vane, and was entitled A Healing Question Propounded and Resolved. It was temperate enough, approving of the government in some respects, and even suggesting the continuance of some kind of sovereignty in a single person, but containing censures of the “great interruption” of popular liberties, and appeals to the people to do their part.  The other and later pamphlet (Aug. 1), directly intended to bear on the Elections, was called England’s Remembrancer, and was virtually a call on all to use their votes so as to return a Parliament that should unseat Oliver.  The author of this second pamphlet evaded detection; but Vane was brought to task for his.  He was summoned to London from his seat of Belleau in Lincolnshire, July 29; by an order of Aug. 21 he was required to give security in L5000 that he would do nothing “to prejudice the present government”; and, on his refusal, there issued a warrant, signed by Henry Lawrence, as President of the Council, for his committal to King Charles’s old prison, Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight.  About the same time, precautions were taken with Bradshaw, Harrison, Ludlow, Lawson, Rich, Okey, Alured, and others.  Bradshaw was suspended for a week or two from his Chief-Justiceship of Chester; Harrison was sent to Pendennis Castle in Cornwall; Rich to Windsor; security in L5000 was exacted from Ludlow, or rather arranged for him by Cromwell; and the others were variously under guard.  Nor did leading royalists escape.  Just before the meeting of the Parliament, a dozen of them, including Lord Willoughly of Parham and Sir John Ashburnham, were sent to the Tower.  The Republican Overton was still there.  All this new “arbitrariness” for the moment was for the purpose of sufficiently tuning the Parliament.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Council Order Books through July, Aug. and Sept. 1656; Godwin, IV. 261-277; Ludlow, 568-573; Catalogue of Thomason Pamphlets.]