iver in the first place, it turned out to be not
at all like the beginning of heaven upon earth, and Oliver said it really
was not to be borne with. So he cleared off that Parliament in much the
same way as he had disposed of the other; and then the council of
officers decided that he must be made the supreme authority of the
kingdom, under the title of the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.

So, on the sixteenth of December, one thousand six hundred and
fifty-three, a great procession was formed at Oliver's door, and he came
out in a black velvet suit and a big pair of boots, and got into his
coach and went down to Westminster, attended by the judges, and the lord
mayor, and the aldermen, and all the other great and wonderful personages
of the country. There, in the Court of Chancery, he publicly accepted
the office of Lord Protector. Then he was sworn, and the City sword was
handed to him, and the seal was handed to him, and all the other things
were handed to him which are usually handed to Kings and Queens on state
occasions. When Oliver had handed them all back, he was quite made and
completely finished off as Lord Protector; and several of the Ironsides
preached about it at great length, all the evening.

SECOND PART

Oliver Cromwell--whom the people long called OLD NOLL--in accepting the
office of Protector, had bound himself by a certain paper which was
handed to him, called 'the Instrument,' to summon a Parliament,
consisting of between four and five hundred members, in the election of
which neither the Royalists nor the Catholics were to have any share. He
had also pledged himself that this Parliament should not be dissolved
without its own consent until it had sat five months.

When this Parliament met, Oliver made a speech to them of three hours
long, very wisely advising them what to do for the credit and happiness
of the country. To keep down the more violent members, he required them
to sign a recognition of what they were forbidden by 'the Instrument' to
do; which was, chiefly, to take the power from one single person at the
head of the state or to command the army. Then he dismissed them to go
to work. With his usual vigour and resolution he went to work himself
with some frantic preachers--who were rather overdoing their sermons in
calling him a villain and a tyrant--by shutting up their chapels, and
sending a few of them off to prison.

There was not at that time, in England or anyw