454.  Cromwell expels Parliament.

Cromwell now urged the necessity of dissolving the “Rump Parliament” (S450) and of electing a Parliament which should really represent the nation, reform the laws, and pass a general act of pardon.  In his despatch to the House of Commons after the victory of Worcester, he called the battle a “crowning mercy.”  Some of the republicans in that body took alarm at this phrase, and thought that Cromwell used it to foreshadow a design to place the crown on his own head.  For this reason, perhaps, they hesitated to dissolve.

But at last they could not withstand the pressure, and a bill was introduced (1653) for summoning a new Parliament of four hundred members, but with the provision that all members of the present House were to keep their seats, and have the right to reject newly elected members.

Cromwell, with the army, believed this provision a trick on the part of the “Rump” (S450) to keep themselves in perpetual power.

Sir Harry Vane, who was a leading member of the House of Commons, and who had been governor of the colony of Massachusetts, feared that the country was in danger of falling into the hands of Cromwell as military dictator.  He therefore urged the immediate passage of the bill as it stood.  Cromwell heard that a vote was about to be taken.  Putting himself at the head of a squad of soldiers, he suddenly entered the House (1653).  After listening to the debate for some time, he rose from his seat and charged the Commons with injustice and misgovernment.  A member remonstrated.  Cromwell grew excited, saying:  “You are no Parliament!  I say you are no Parliament!” Then he called in the musketeers.  They dragged the Speaker from his chair, and drove the members after him.

As they passed out, Cromwell shouted “drunkard,” “glutton,” “extortioner,” with other opprobrious names.  When all were gone, he locked the door and put the key in his pocket.  During the night some Royalist wag nailed a placard on the door, bearing the inscription in large letters, “The House to let, unfurnished!”

455.  Cromwell becomes Protector; the “Instrument of Government” (1653).

Cromwell summoned a new Parliament, which was practically of his own choosing.  It consisted of one hundred and thirty-nine members, and was known as the “Little Parliament."[1] The Royalists nicknamed it “Barebone’s Parliament” from one of its members, a London leather dealer named Praise-God Barebone.  Notwithstanding the irregularity of its organization and the ridicule cast upon it, the “Barebone’s Parliament” proposed several reforms of great value, which the country afterwards adopted.

[1] A regularly summoned Parliament, elected by the people, would have been much larger.  This one was chosen from a list furnished by the ministers of the various Independent churches (S422).  It was in no true sense a representative body.

A council of Cromwell’s leading men now secured the adoption of a constitution entitled the “Instrument of Government."[1] It made Cromwell Lord Protector of England, Ireland, and Scotland.