nkled with quotations from Scripture to refresh the piety
of the saints, and seasoned with an affectation of modesty to disarm the
enmity of the republicans. He described the state of the nation at the
close of the last parliament. It was agitated by the principles of the
Levellers, tending to reduce all to an equality; by the doctrines of the
Fifth-monarchy men, subversive of civil government; by religious theorists,
the pretended champions of liberty of conscience, who condemned an
established ministry as Babylonish and antichristian;

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 4.]

and by swarms of Jesuits, who had settled in England an episcopal
jurisdiction to pervert the people. At the same time the naval war with
Holland absorbed all the pecuniary resources, while a commercial war with
France and Portugal cramped the industry of the nation. He then bade them
contrast this picture with the existing state of things. The taxes had been
reduced; judges of talent and integrity had been placed upon the bench; the
burthen of the commissioners of the great seal had been lightened by the
removal of many descriptions of causes from the court of Chancery to the
ordinary courts of law; and "a stop had been put to that heady way for
every man, who pleased, to become a preacher." The war with Holland had
terminated in an advantageous peace; treaties of commerce and amity had
been concluded with Denmark and Sweden;[1] a similar treaty, which would
place the British trader beyond the reach of the Inquisition, had been
signed with Portugal, and another was in progress with the ambassador of
the French monarch. Thus had the government brought the three nations by
hasty strides towards the land of promise; it was for the parliament to
introduce them into it. The prospect was bright before them; let them not
look

[Footnote 1: That with Sweden was negotiated by Whitelock, who had been
sent on that mission against his will by the influence of Cromwell. The
object was to detach Sweden from the interest of France, and engage it to
maintain the liberty of trade in the Baltic, against Denmark, which was
under the influence of Holland. It was concluded April 11. After the peace
with Holland, the Danish monarch hastened to appease the protector; the
treaty which, though said by Cromwell to be already concluded, was not
signed till eleven days afterwards, stipulated that the English traders
should pay no other customs or dues than the Dutch. Thus they