ommons, of a council of
state, to consist of forty-one members, with powers limited in duration
to twelve months. They were charged[a] with the preservation of domestic
tranquillity, the care and disposal of the military and naval force, the
superintendence of internal and external trade, and the negotiation of
treaties with foreign powers. Of the persons selected[b] for this office,
three-fourths possessed seats in the house; and they reckoned among them
the heads of the law, the chief officers in the army, and five peers, the
earls of Denbigh, Mulgrave, Pembroke, and Salisbury, with the Lord Grey
of Werke, who condescended to accept the appointment, either through
attachment to the cause, or as a compensation for the loss of their
hereditary rights.[2] But at the very outset a schism appeared among the
new counsellors. The oath required of them by the parliament contained
an approval of the king's trial, of the vote against the Scots and their
English associates, and of the abolition of monarchy and of the House of
Lords. By Cromwell and

[Footnote 1: Journals, 1649, Jan. 30, Feb. 6, 7. Cromwell voted in favour
of the House of Lords.--Ludlow, i. 246. Could he be sincere? I think not.]

[Footnote 2: The earl of Pembroke had the meanness to solicit and accept
the place of representative for Berkshire; and his example was imitated by
two other peers, the earl of Salisbury and Lord Howard of Escrick, who sat
for Lynn and Carlisle.--Journals, April 16, May 5 Sept. 18. Leicester's
Journal, 72.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 13.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 14.]

eighteen others, it was taken cheerfully, and without comment; by the
remaining twenty-two, with Fairfax at their head, it was firmly but
respectfully refused.[a] The peers alleged that it stood not with their
honour to approve upon oath of that which had been done in opposition to
their vote; the commoners, that it was not for them to pronounce an opinion
on judicial proceedings of which they had no official information. But
their doubts respecting transactions that were past formed no objection
to the authority of the existing government. The House of Commons was
in actual possession of the supreme power. From that house they derived
protection, to it they owed obedience, and with it they were ready to
live and die. Cromwell and his friends had the wisdom to yield; the
retrospective clauses were expunged,[b] and in their place was substituted
a general promis