. To reconcile the
disputants, a compromise between the parties had been planned; but Cromwell
would not suffer the experiment to be tried.[1] Having ordered[b] Harrison,
whose partisans were collecting signatures to a petition, to be taken into
custody, he despatched three regiments to occupy the principal posts in the
city, and commanded the attendance of the house in the Painted Chamber.
There, laying aside that tone of modesty which he had hitherto assumed, he
frankly told the members that his calling was from God, his testimony from
the people; and that no one but God and the people should ever take his
office from him. It was not of his seeking; God knew that it was his
utmost ambition to lead the life of a country gentleman; but imperious
circumstances had imposed it upon him. The long parliament brought their
dissolution upon themselves by despotism, the little parliament

[Footnote 1: See introduction to Burton's Diary, xxiv.-xxxii.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 12.]

by imbecility.[1] On each occasion he found himself invested with absolute
power over the military, and, through the military, over the three nations.
But on each occasion he was anxious to part with that power; and if, at
last, he had acquiesced in the instrument of government, it was because it
made the parliament a check on the protector, and the protector a check on
the parliament. That he did not bring himself into his present situation,
he had God for a witness above, his conscience for a witness within, and a
cloud of witnesses without; he had the persons who attended when he took
the oath of fidelity to "the instrument;" the officers of the army in the
three nations, who testified their approbation by their signatures; the
city of London, which feasted him, the counties, cities, and boroughs, that
had sent him addresses; the judges, magistrates, and sheriffs, who acted by
his commission; and the very men who now stood before him, for they came
there in obedience to his writ, and under the express condition that "the
persons so chosen should not

[Footnote 1: It is remarkable that, in noticing the despotism of the long
parliament, he makes mention of the very same thing, which his enemy
Lilburne urged against it: "by taking the judgment, both in capital and
criminal things, to themselves, who in former times were not known to
exercise such a judicature." He boldly maintains that they meant to
perpetuate themselves by filling up vacancie