ress between the two
Kings, or, if they should fail in that, to secure peace with Spain
independently. This was the main business on which Lockhart had been
re-commissioned as ambassador to the French Court, From Paris he went
to St. Jean de Luz, at the foot of the Pyrenees, where Mazarin and
the Spanish Prime Minister Don Luis de Haro were then holding their
consultations. He arrived there on the 1st of August, in such
ambassadorial pomp as he thought likely to credit his difficult
mission. The business of that mission, was to undo the work he had
done for Cromwell. Such was the will of his new masters. Dunkirk and
the rest of Cromwell's acquisitions on the Continent were only a
trouble; and, if any decent arrangement could be made for selling
them either to France or back to Spain, why not be satisfied? War
with Continental Papacy and championship of Continental Protestantism
were but expensive moonshine.[1]

[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, from May to the end of July 1659; Parl.
Hist. for same term; Commons Journals of dates; Guizot, I.
165-172.]

In nothing was the Republican energy of the new Rumpers more
conspicuous than in their determination to subject all forms of the
public service to direct Parliamentary control. They would have all
rigorously in the grasp of the little Restored House itself, until
the power should be handed over to a duly constituted successor.
Hence their precaution, while nominating Fleetwood Lieutenant-General
and Commander-in-chief of the Forces in England and Scotland, of not
giving him supreme power in appointing his officers, but making him
only one of a Commission of Seven for recommending officers to the
House (May 13). Persevering in this policy, and becoming even more
stringent in it, notwithstanding the complaints of the Army-magnates
that it showed want of confidence in their integrity, the House
proceeded, May 28, to a vast remodelling of the entire Armies of
England. Scotland, and Ireland. Fleetwood was confirmed in the
Commandership-in-Chief for England and Scotland by a special Bill,
passed June 7; and by another Bill, passed June 8, reconstituting the
Commissioners for nominations of officers, it was secured not only
that such nominations should require Parliamentary approval, but also
that each commission to an officer should be signed by the Speaker in
the name of the Parliament, and delivered, if possible, to the
officer personally from the Speaker's own hands. Accordingly, o