disinherit, the men who had suffered so
severely, and bled so profusely, in the contest.

These complaints had probably been suggested, they were certainly fomented,
by Fleetwood and his friends, the colonels Cooper, Berry, and Sydenham.
Fleetwood was brave in the field, but irresolute in council; eager for the
acquisition of power, but continually checked by scruples of conscience;
attached by principle to republicanism, but ready to acquiesce in every
change, under the pretence of submission to the decrees of Providence.
Cromwell, who knew the man, had raised him to the second command in the
army, and fed his ambition with distant and delusive hopes of succeeding
to the supreme magistracy. The protector died, and Fleetwood, instead
of acting, hesitated, prayed, and consulted; the propitious moment was
suffered to pass by; he assented to the opinion of the council in favour of
Richard; and then, repenting of his weakness, sought to indemnify himself
for the loss by confining the

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Sept. 14.]

authority of the protector to the civil administration, and procuring
for himself the sole, uncontrolled command of the army. Under the late
government, the meetings of military officers had been discountenanced and
forbidden; now they were encouraged to meet and consult; and, in a body of
more than two hundred individuals, they presented to Richard a petition, by
which they demanded that no officer should be deprived, but by sentence of
a court-martial, and that the chief command of the forces, and the disposal
of commissions, should be conferred on some person whose past services
had proved his attachment to the cause. There were not wanting those who
advised the protector to extinguish the hopes of the factious at once by
arresting and imprisoning the chiefs; but more moderate counsels prevailed,
and in a firm but conciliatory speech,[a] the composition of Secretary
Thurloe, he replied that, to gratify their wishes, he had appointed his
relative, Fleetwood, lieutenant-general of all the forces; but that to
divest himself of the chief command, and of the right of giving or resuming
commissions, would be to act in defiance of the "petition and advice," the
instrument by which he held the supreme authority. For a short time they
appeared satisfied; but the chief officers continued to hold meetings in
the chapel at St. James's, ostensibly for the purpose of prayer, but in
reality for the convenience of delib