Jessop, one of the clerks of the council, was next ordered to read the
"instrument of government," consisting of forty-two articles. 1. By it the
legislative power was invested in a lord-protector and parliament, but with
a provision that every act passed by the parliament should become law at
the expiration of twenty days, even without the consent of the protector;
unless he could persuade the house of the reasonableness of his objections.
The parliament was not to be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without
its own consent, within the first five months after its meeting; and a new
parliament was to be called within three years after the dissolution of the
last. The number of the members was fixed according to the plan projected
by Vane at the close of the long parliament, at four hundred for England,
thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland. Most of the boroughs were
disfranchised, and the number of county members was increased. Every person
possessed of real or personal property to the value of two hundred pounds
had a right to vote,[1] unless he were a malignant or delinquent, or
professor

[Footnote 1: During the long parliament this qualification had been
adopted on the motion of Cromwell, in place of a clause recommended by the
committee, which gave the elective franchise under different regulations
to freeholders, copyholders, tenants for life, and leaseholders,--See
Journals, 30th March, 1653.]

of the Catholic faith; and the disqualifications to which the electors were
subject attached also to the persons elected. 2. The executive power was
made to reside in the lord-protector acting with the advice of his council.
He possessed, moreover, the power of treating with foreign states with the
_advice_, and of making peace or war with the _consent_, of the council.
To him also belonged the disposal of the military and naval power, and
the appointment of the great officers of state, with the approbation of
parliament, and, in the intervals of parliament, with that of the council,
but subject to the subsequent approbation of the parliament. 3. Laws could
not be made, nor taxes imposed, but by common consent in parliament. 4. The
civil list was fixed at two hundred thousand pounds, and a yearly revenue
ordered to be raised for the support of an army of thirty thousand men,
two-thirds infantry, and one-third cavalry, with such a navy as the
lord-protector should think necessary. 5. All who professed faith in God