ajor-General Browne (London). But Thurloe was there to represent
the Government in chief (returned by Cambridge University, but by
several other places also); and he could count about a hundred sure
English adherents on the benches; among whom were Sir Edmund
Prideaux (Saltash), Sir William Ellis (Grantham), together with his
own subordinate in the Council-office, William Jessop (Stafford), and
Milton's assistant in the Foreign Secretaryship, Andrew Marvell
(Hull). There were not a few Army-officers of the Wallingford-House
party; but, on the whole, this element did not seem to be
particularly strong in the House. Among the members for Scottish
constituencies were the Marquis of Argyle (Aberdeenshire), Samuel
Desborough (Midlothian), the Earl of Tweeddale (East Lothian),
Colonel Adrian Scroope (Linlithgow group of Burghs), Swinton of
Swinton (Haddingtonshire), Colonel Whetham (St. Andrews, &c.), and
Monk's brother-in-law, Dr. Thomas Clarges (Aberdeen, Banff, and
Cullen). Ireland had returned, among her thirty, Sir Hardress Waller
(Kerry, &c.), Sir Jerome Zanchy (Tipperary and Waterford), Sir
Charles Coote (Galway and Mayo), and two Ingoldsbys. The Scottish and
Irish representatives were, almost to a man, Government nominees.
Altogether, Thurloe's anxiety must have been about the yet unknown
mass of 300 or so, some scores of them lawyers, others
country-gentlemen, and many of them young, that formed the neutral
stuff to be yet operated upon. Among these, in spite of the oath of
fidelity to the Lord Protector, there were indubitably not a few who
were Stuartists at heart; but most wavered between Republicanism and
the Protectorate, and it was hopeful for Thurloe in this respect that
so much of the mass was Presbyterian. Ludlow, who did not at first
take his seat, tells us that he at last contrived to do so furtively
without being sworn, and seems to hint that Vane did the same. There
was negligence on the part of the doorkeepers, or they were confused
by the multitude of strange faces; for a stray London madman, named
King, sat in the House for some time, in the belief that, as one of
that name had been elected for some place, he might possibly be the
person.[1]

[Footnote 1: List in _Parl. Hist._ III. 1530-1537; Ludlow, 619
et seq.]

Richard's opening speech was in a good strain. It assumed loyalty to
the memory of his father and to the _Petition and Advice_, and
recommended immediate attention to the arrears of the A