idity of the captain.[1]

At home the public attention was absorbed by a new and most interesting
spectacle. The parliament met on the day to which it had been adjourned,
but it was now divided according to the ancient form into two houses.
Sixty-two individuals had been summoned[b] to the upper house, and the
writs, as they were copies of those formerly issued by the sovereign, were
held to confer in like manner the privileges of an hereditary peerage,
subject to certain exceptions specified in the "petition and advice."[2]
The Commons, at the call of the usher of the black rod, proceeded to the
House of Lords, where they found his highness seated under a canopy of
state. His speech began with the ancient address: "My lords and gentlemen
of the House of Commons." It was short, but its brevity was compensated by
its piety, and after an exposition of the eighty-fifth psalm, he referred
his two houses for other particulars to Fiennes, the lord-keeper, who, in a
long and tedious

[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 231, 287, 426, 512, 538, 542, 580, 637, 665, 676,
731. Memoirs of James, i. 317-328.]

[Footnote 2: Thurloe, vi. 752.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Dec. 5.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658. Jan. 20.]

harangue, praised and defended the new institutions. After the departure of
the Commons, the Lords spent their time in inquiries into the privileges of
their house. Cromwell had summoned his two sons, Richard and Henry, seven
peers of royal creation, several members of his council, some gentlemen of
fortune and family, with a due proportion of lawyers and officers, and a
scanty sprinkling of persons known to be disaffected to his government. Of
the ancient peers two only attended, the lords Eure and Falconberg, of whom
the latter had recently[a] married Mary, the protector's daughter; and of
the other members, nine were absent through business or disinclination. As
their journals have not been preserved, we have little knowledge of their
proceedings.[1]

In the lower house, the interest of the government had declined by the
impolitic removal of the leading members to the House of Lords, and by
the introduction of those who, having formerly been excluded by order of
Cromwell, now took their seats in virtue of the article which reserved to
the house the right of inquiry into the qualifications of its members.
The opposition was led by two men of considerable influence and undaunted
resolution, Hazlerig and Scot. Both had been exclude