man having a greater zeal to see Religion settled, and preserved in Truth, Unity, and Order, than Myself, whom it most concerns both in Piety and Policy; as knowing that, No flames of civil Dissentions are more dangerous than those which make Religious pretentions the grounds of Factions.

I resolved to reform what I should by free and full advice in Parliament be convinced of to be amiss, and to grant whatever my Reason and Conscience told Me was fit to be desired.

son, afterward

Son, if these Papers, with some others, wherein I have set The king's down the private reflections of my Conscience and my most appeal to his impartial thoughts touching the chief passages which have Charles II been most remarkable or disputed in my late Troubles, come to Your hands, to whom they are chiefly design'd, they may be so far useful to You, as to state your Judgment aright in what hath passed; whereof a Pious is the best use can be made. . . .

In these two points, the preservation of established Religion and Laws, I may (without vanity) turn the reproach of my Sufferings as to the worlds censure into the honour of a kind of martyrdom as to the testimony of My own Conscience; the Troublers of my Kingdoms having nothing else to object against Me but this, That I prefer Religion and Laws establisht before those Alterations they propounded.

And so indeed I do and ever shall, till I am convinced by better Arguments than what hitherto have been chiefly used towards Me, Tumults, Armies, and Prisons. . .

But if you never see my face again, and God will have Me The king's buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and Obscurity (which devotion to the Anglican the perfecting some mens Designs requires), wherein few hearts church that love Me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me; I do require and entreat you as your Father and your King, that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England. I tell you I have tried it, and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world; not only in the Community as Christian

The king's prayer

but also in the special notion as Reformed, keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious Tyranny and the meanness of fantastic Anarchy. . . .

As I have leisure enough, so I have cause more than enough to meditate upon, and prepare for my Death; for I know there are but few steps between the Prisons and Graves of Princes. . . .

That I must dye as a Man is certain: that I may dye a King by the hands of my own Subjects, a violent, sudden, and barbarous death, in the strength of my years, in the midst of my Kingdoms, my Friends and loving Subjects being helpless Spectators, my Enemies insolent Revilers and Triumphers over Me, living, dying, and dead, is so probable in humane reason, that God hath taught Me not to hope otherwise as to man's Cruelty; however I despair not of God's infinite mercy. .

Nor do I wish other than the safe bringing of the Ship to shore, when they have cast Me over-board: though it be very strange, that Mariners can find no other means to appease the Storm themselves have raised, but by drowning their Pilot.

O Lord, Thou knowest I have found their Mercies to Me, as very false, so very cruel; who pretending to preserve Me, have meditated nothing but my Ruine.

O deal not with them as bloodthirsty and deceitful men; but overcome their Cruelty with Thy Compassion and My Charity. And when Thou makest inquisition for my Bloud, O sprinkle their polluted yet penitent Souls with the Blood of thy Son, that thy destroying Angel may pass over them.

Though they think my Kingdoms on Earth too little to entertain at once both them and Me; yet let the capacious Kingdom of thy infinite Mercy at last receive both Me and my Enemies; when being reconciled to Thee in the Blood of the same Redeemer, we shall live far above these Ambitious desires, which beget such mortal Enemies.

When their hands shall be heaviest and cruellest upon Me, O let Me fall into the arms of thy tender and eternal Mercies; that what is cut off of my Life in this miserable moment, may be repayed in thy ever-blessed Eternity.

Lord, let Thy servant depart in Peace, for my eyes have seen thy Salvation.

V. THE COMMONWEALTH

After the execution of the king, the House of Commons proceeded to pass ordinances abolishing the kingship and the House of Lords, and then by the following statute declared England to be a republic, or wealth and free state"; after which it appointed a Council of State, to take charge of executive affairs.

common

wealth

(May 19,

Be it declared and enacted by this present parliament, and 302. An act by the authority of the same, that the people of England and declaring England of all the dominions and territories thereunto belonging are to be a and shall be, and are hereby constituted, made, established, commonand confirmed to be a commonwealth and free state; and shall from henceforth be governed as a commonwealth and free state 1649) by the supreme authority of this nation, the representatives of the people in parliament, and by such as they shall appoint and constitute as officers and ministers under them for the good of the people, and that without any king or House of Lords.

Four years after the foundation of the Commonwealth a written constitution was adopted, for the first time in English history. It was described as the Instrument of Government. It gave high powers to Cromwell, with the title of Protector. The government for the next four years is therefore known as the Protectorate.

from the

The government of the Commonwealth of England, Scot- 303. Extracts land, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging. Instrument I. That the supreme legislative authority of the Common- of Governwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions ment thereunto belonging shall be and reside in one person and the people assembled in parliament; the style of which person shall be the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

II. That the exercise of the chief magistracy, and the administration of the government over the said countries and

A parliament every three years

Cromwell to

be Protector for life

dominions and the people thereof shall be in the Lord Protector, assisted with a council, the number whereof shall not exceed twenty-one nor be less than thirteen. . .

V. That the Lord Protector, by the advice aforesaid, shall direct all things concerning the keeping and holding of a good correspondency with foreign kings, princes, and states; and also, with the consent of the major part of the council, have the power of war and peace.

...

VII. That there shall be a parliament summoned to meet at Westminster upon the third day of September, 1654, and that successively a parliament shall be summoned once in every third year, to be accounted from the dissolution of the present parliament.

VIII. That neither the parliament to be next summoned, nor any successive parliaments, shall, during the time of five months, to be accounted from the day of their first meeting, be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without their own

consent. . . .

XXIV. That all bills agreed upon by the parliament shall be presented to the Lord Protector for his consent; and in case he shall not give his consent thereto within twenty days after they shall be presented to him, or give satisfaction to the parliament within the time limited, that then, upon declaration of the parliament that the Lord Protector hath not consented nor given satisfaction, such bills shall pass into and become laws, although he shall not give his consent thereunto; provided such bills contain nothing in them contrary to the matters contained in these presents. . .

XXXIII. That Oliver Cromwell, Captain General of the forces of England, Scotland, and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, for his life.

XXXVII. That such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, though differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship, or discipline publicly held forth, shall not be restrained from, but

Christians ex

shall be protected in the profession of the faith and exercise of Freedom of their religion; so as they abuse not this liberty to the civil religion to all injury of others and to the actual disturbance of the public cept Roman peace on their parts; provided this liberty be not extended Catholics and to Popery or Prelacy, nor to such as, under the profession of Episcopalians Christ, hold forth and practice licentiousness.

The encouragement of shipping by act of parliament was one of the few points of policy that remained the same under all forms of government, and survived all later changes for almost two hundred years. The first important act was the following, adopted by the House of Commons in the year 1651.

Act (1651)

For the increase of the shipping and the encouragement of 304. Extracts the navigation of this nation, which, under the good provi- from the first Navigation dence and protection of God, is so great a means of the welfare and safety of this commonwealth; be it enacted by this present parliament and the authority thereof, that from and after the first day of December, one thousand six hundred fifty one, and from thenceforwards, no goods or commodities whatsoever, of the growth, production, or manufacture of Asia, Africa, or America, or of any part thereof; or of any islands. belonging to them or any of them, or which are described or laid down in the usual maps or cards of those places, as well of the English plantations as others, shall be imported or brought into this commonwealth of England or into Ireland or any other lands, islands, plantations, or territories to this commonwealth belonging or in their possession, in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but only in such as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of this commonwealth, or the plantations thereof, as the proprietors or right owners thereof; and whereof the master and mariners are also, for the most part of them, of the people of this commonwealth, under the penalty of the forfeiture and loss of all the goods that shall be imported contrary to this act; as also of the ship, with all her tackle, guns, and apparel, in which the said goods and commodities shall be so brought in and imported..