question was put, that the house resolve itself into a committee, to
determine whether or not the government shall be in a single person and a
parliament; and, to the surprise and alarm of Cromwell, it was carried[b]
against the court by a majority of five voices.[1] The leaders of the
opposition were Bradshaw, Hazlerig, and Scot, who now contended in the
committee that the existing government emanated from an incompetent
authority, and stood in opposition to the solemn determination of a
legitimate parliament; while the protectorists, with equal warmth,
maintained that, since it had been approved by the people, the only real
source of power, it could not be subject to revision by the representatives
of the people. The debate lasted several days,[c] during which the
commonwealth party gradually increased in number. That the executive power
might be profitably delegated to a single individual, was not disputed;
but it was contended that, of right, the legislative authority belonged
exclusively to the parliament. The officers and courtiers, finding that the
sense of the house was against them, dropped[d] the question of right,
and fled to that of expediency; in the existing circumstances, the public
safety required a

[Footnote 1: Journals, Sept. 8. Many of those who voted in the majority did
not object to the authority of the protector, but to the source from which
it emanated,--a written instrument, the author of which was unknown. They
wished it to be settled on him by act of parliament.--Thurloe, ii. 606.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 7.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. Sept. 8.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. Sept. 9.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1654. Sept. 11.]

check on the otherwise unbounded power of parliament; that check could be
no other than a co-ordinate authority, possessing a negative voice; and
that authority was the protector, who had been pointed out to them by
Providence, acknowledged by the people in their addresses, and confirmed by
the conditions expressed in the indentures of the members. It was replied,
that the inconveniency of such a check had induced the nation to abolish
the kingly government; that the addresses of the people expressed their joy
for their deliverance from the incapacity of the little parliament, not
their approbation of the new government; that Providence often permits what
it disapproves; and that the indentures were an artifice of the court,
which could not have force to bind the supreme power