eland was more severe and violent.
The government of that island was first intrusted to Fleetwood, a
notorious fanatic, who had married Ireton's widow; then to Henry
Cromwell, second son of the protector, a young man of an amiable,
mild disposition, and not destitute of vigor and capacity. Above five
millions of acres, forfeited either by the Popish rebels or by the
adherents of the king, were divided, partly among the adventurers, who
had advanced money to the parliament, partly among the English soldiers,
who had arrears due to them. Examples of a more sudden and violent
change of property are scarcely to be found in any history. An order
was even issued to confine all the native Irish to the province of
Connaught, where they would be shut up by rivers, lakes, and mountains,
and could not, it was hoped, be any longer dangerous to the English
government: but this barbarous and absurd policy, which, from an
impatience of attaining immediate security, *must have depopulated all
the other provinces, and rendered the English estates of no value, was
soon abandoned as impracticable.

Cromwell began to hope that, by his administration, attended with so
much lustre and success abroad, so much order and tranquillity at home,
he had now acquired such authority as would enable him to meet the
representatives of the nation, and would assure him of their dutiful
compliance with his government. He summoned a parliament; but not
trusting altogether to the good will of the people, he used every art
which his new model of representation allowed him to employ, in order
to influence the elections, and fill the house with his own creatures.
Ireland, being entirely in the hands of the army, chose few but
such officers as were most acceptable to him. Scotland showed a like
compliance; and as the nobility and gentry of that kingdom regarded
their attendance on English parliaments as an ignominious badge of
slavery, it was on that account more easy for the officers to prevail
in the elections. Notwithstanding all these precautions, the protector
still found that the majority would not be favorable to him. He set
guards, therefore, on the door, who permitted none to enter but such as
produced a warrant from his council; and the council rejected about a
hundred, who either refused a recognition of the protector's government,
or were on other accounts obnoxious to him. These protested against so
egregious a violence, subversive of all liberty;