gospel, the reform of the law, the removal from office of scandalous and
disaffected persons, the abuses in the excise and the treasury, the arrears
due to the army, the violation of articles granted to the enemy, and the
qualifications of future and successive parliaments. Whitelock remonstrated
with Cromwell on the danger

[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 516.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 2.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 7.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Dec. 19.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. June 5.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1652. June 15.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1652. August 12.]
[Sidenote g: A.D. 1652. August 13.]

of permitting armed bodies to assembly and petition. He slighted the
advice.[1]

Soon afterwards[a] the lord-general requested a private and confidential
interview with that lawyer. So violent, he observed, was the discontent
of the army, so imperious the conduct of the parliament, that it would be
impossible to prevent a collision of interests, and the subsequent ruin of
the good cause, unless there were established "some authority so full and
so high" as to be able to check these exorbitances, and to restrain both
the army and the parliament. Whitelock replied, that, for the army,
his excellency had hitherto kept and would continue to keep it in due
subordination; but with respect to the parliament, reliance must be placed
on the good sense and virtue of the majority. To control the supreme power
was legally impossible. All, even Cromwell himself, derived their authority
from it. At these words the lord-general abruptly exclaimed, "What, if a
man should take upon him to be king?" The commissioner answered that the
title would confer no additional benefit on his excellency. By his command
of the army, his ascendancy in the house, and his reputation, both at home
and abroad, he already enjoyed, without the envy of the name, all the power
of a king. When Cromwell insisted that the name would give security to his
followers, and command the respect of the people, Whitelock rejoined, that
it would change the state of the controversy between the parties, and
convert a national into a personal quarrel. His friends had cheerfully
fought with him to establish a republican in place of monarchical
government; would they equally

[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 541. Journals, 1651; Dec. 19; 1652, June 15, Aug.
12, 13.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Nov. 8.]

fight with him in favour of the house of Cromwell against the house of
Stuart?[1] In c