round about. To have our peace and interest,
whereof those were our hopes the other day, thus shaken, and
put under such a confusion; and ourselves rendered hereby
almost the scorn and contempt of those strangers who are
amongst us to negotiate their masters' affairs!... Who shall
answer for these things to God or to men? To men, to the people
who sent you hither? who looked for refreshment from you; who
looked for nothing but peace and quietness, and rest and
settlement? When we come to give an account to them, we shall
have it to say, 'Oh, we quarrelled for the _Liberty of
England_; we contested, and went to confusion for
that!--_Wherein, I pray you, for the Liberty of England?_ I
appeal to the Lord, that the desires and endeavours we have
had--nay, the things will speak for themselves,--the liberty of
England, the liberty of the people, the avoiding of tyrannous
impositions either upon men as men, or Christians as
Christians,--is made so safe by this act of settlement, that it
will speak for itself."

The Protector then tells them that, "seeing the authority which
called them is so little valued and so much slighted, he had
caused a stop to be put to their entrance into the Parliament-house,"
until a certain "somewhat," which would be found "in the lobby
without the Parliament-door"--an adhesion to the government in its
fundamentals--should be signed.

This extract, as will be readily supposed, would lead to a far too
favourable opinion of Cromwell's oratory, if understood as a specimen of
his usual manner of speaking; but our readers will probably confess,
that they did not expect that the speeches of Cromwell would have
yielded such an extract.

Oliver has, it will be observed, a singularly modest way of speaking of
his political remedies and projects. In referring, on a later occasion,
to his major-generals, he says, "Truly when that insurrection was, we
did find out a _little poor invention_, which I hear has been much
regretted. I say there was _a little thing_ invented, which was the
erecting of your major-generals, to have a little inspection upon the
people thus divided, thus discontented, thus dissatisfied." On the
present occasion, the "somewhat which was to be found at the lobby of
the Parliament-door," was, after a little demur, accepted and signed by
all but a certain number of declared republicans. The parliament
a