on whose support he could
depend, and partly of persons whose opposition he might safely defy.
This assembly, which he called a Parliament, and which the populace
nicknamed, from one of the most conspicuous members, Barebonesa's
Parliament, after exposing itself during a short time to the public
contempt, surrendered back to the General the powers which it
had received from him, and left him at liberty to frame a plan of
government.

His plan bore, from the first, a considerable resemblance to the old
English constitution: but, in a few years, he thought it safe to proceed
further, and to restore almost every part of the ancient system under
hew names and forms. The title of King was not revived; but the kingly
prerogatives were intrusted to a Lord High Protector. The sovereign
was called not His Majesty, but His Highness. He was not crowned and
anointed in Westminster Abbey, but was solemnly enthroned, girt with
a sword of state, clad in a robe of purple, and presented with a rich
Bible, in Westminster Hall. His office was not declared hereditary: but
he was permitted to name his successor; and none could doubt that he
would name his Son.

A House of Commons was a necessary part of the new polity. In
constituting this body, the Protector showed a wisdom and a public
spirit which were not duly appreciated by his contemporaries. The vices
of the old representative system, though by no means so serious as they
afterwards became, had already been remarked by farsighted men. Cromwell
reformed that system on the same principles on which Mr. Pitt, a hundred
and thirty years later, attempted to reform it, and on which it was at
length reformed in our own times. Small boroughs were disfranchised
even more unsparingly than in 1832; and the number of county members
was greatly increased. Very few unrepresented towns had yet grown into
importance. Of those towns the most considerable were Manchester, Leeds,
and Halifax. Representatives were given to all three. An addition
was made to the number of the members for the capital. The elective
franchise was placed on such a footing that every man of substance,
whether possessed of freehold estates in land or not, had a vote for
the county in which he resided. A few Scotchmen and a few of the English
colonists settled in Ireland were summoned to the assembly which was to
legislate, at Westminster, for every part of the British isles.

To create a House of Lords was a less easy task.