to
many disinterested English members it seemed a mean attempt to
depreciate, for a mere party purpose, those great achievements of
recent years which had made the British Islands, as if by miracle,
one body-politic at last. On the 28th of March the principal debate
came to an end in this two-claused Resolution: "That this House will
transact with the persons now sitting in the Other House, as an House
of Parliament, during the present Parliament; and that it is not
hereby intended to exclude such Peers as have been faithful to the
Parliament from their privilege of being duly summoned to be members
of that House." The final division was 198 to 125; but there had been
a preceding division on the question whether the words "when they
shall be approved by this House" should be inserted after the word
"Parliament" in the first clause. This very ingenious amendment of
the Anti-Cromwellians had been rejected by 183 votes to 146, the
tellers for the Cromwellian majority being the Marquis of Argyle and
Thurloe, and for the minority Lord Fairfax and Lord Lambert.--Thus,
at the end of the second month of the Parliament, the victory was
clearly with Thurloe and the Government. The Protectorship had been
recognised; and the Other House also had been recognised, rather
grudgingly indeed, and not by the desired name of "The House of
Lords," but with a proviso that seemed to put that and more within
reach. It had also been ascertained in general that, in a House of
Commons larger than had been seen in Westminster for many years,
Richard's Government was stronger, on vital questions, than the
Republicans and all other Anti-Cromwellians together. For there had
been discussions affecting the foreign policy of the Protectorate,
and in these the Republicans and Anti-Cromwellians had been equally
beaten. It had been, carried, for example, on Thurloe's
representation, to persevere in the despatch of a strong fleet to the
Baltic in the interest of the Swedish King; and such a fleet, now
under Admiral Montague's command, had actually sailed before the end
of March. It was in the Sound early in April.[1]

[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates, and Guizot, I. 46-72 (where
the extracts from speeches are from _Burton's Diary_); also
Commons Journals of Feb. 21 and 24; and Thurloe, VII. 636-637 and
644-645.]

In minor matters the House had shown some independence. On the 23rd
of February they had ordered the release of the Duke of Buckingham