denham rose.
He reviewed[b] all the proceedings of the parliament, condemned them as
calculated to injure almost every interest in the state, and, declaring
that he would no longer sit in so useless an assembly, moved that the house
should proceed to Whitehall, and deliver back the supreme power into the
hands of him from whom

[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 442, 534, 545, 560, 591, 621.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Dec. 6.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. Dec. 12.]

it was derived. The motion was seconded and opposed; but the Independents
had come to act, not to debate. They immediately rose: the speaker, who was
in the secret, left the chair; the sergeant and the clerk accompanied him,
and near fifty members followed in a body. The reformers, only twenty-seven
in number (for most of them had not yet arrived), gazed on each other
with surprise; their first resource was to fall to prayer; and they were
employed in that holy exercise, when Goff and White, two officers, entered,
and requested them to withdraw. Being required to show their warrant,
they called in a company of soldiers. No resistance was now offered; the
military cleared the house, and the keys were left with the guard.[1]

In the mean while the speaker, preceded by the mace, and followed by
Sydenham and his friends, walked through the street to Whitehall. In the
way, and after his arrival, he was joined by several members, by some
through curiosity, by others through fear. At Whitehall, a form of
resignation of the supreme power was hastily engrossed by the clerk,
subscribed by the speaker and his followers, and tendered by them to
Cromwell. The lord-general put on an air of surprise; he was not prepared
for such an offer, he would not load himself with so heavy a burthen. But
his reluctance yielded to the remonstrances and entreaties of Lambert and
the officers, and the instrument was laid in a chamber of the palace
for the convenience of such members as had not yet the opportunity of
subscribing their names.

[Footnote 1: Exact Relation, 25, 26. True Narrative, 3. Thurloe, i. 730. I
adopt the number given by Mansel, as he could have no motive to diminish
it.]

On the third day the signatures amounted to eighty, an absolute majority
of the whole house; on the fourth, a new constitution was published,
and Cromwell obtained the great object of his ambition,--the office and
authority, though without the title, of king.[1]

On that day, about one in the afternoon, t