onscience, alteration of the Constitution, and
other things of the last importance to the State. Some were of
opinion that it would be most conducive to the public happiness if
there might be two Councils chosen by the People, the one to consist
of about 300, and to have the power only of debating and proposing
laws, the other to be in number about 1000, and to have the power
finally to resolve and determine--every year a third part to go out
and others to be chosen in their places." There were differences,
Ludlow adds, as to the proper composition of the body that should
consider and frame the new Constitution. Some were for referring the
deliberation to twenty Parliament men and ten representatives of the
Army, and proposed that, when these had agreed on a model, it should
be submitted first to the whole Army in a grand rendezvous.
Parliament, however, had settled the method of procedure so far by
appointing the present Committee.[1]

[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of Sept. 8, 1659; Thomason Catalogue of
Pamphlets; Ludlow, 674-676.]

Of the varieties of political theorists glanced at by Ludlow the most
famous at this time were the Harringtonians or Rota-men. Some account
of them is here necessary.

Their chief or founder was James Harrington, quite a different person
from the "Sir James Harrington" now of the Council of State. He was
the "Mr. James Harrington" who had been one of the grooms of the
bedchamber to Charles I. in his captivity at Holmby and in the Isle
of Wight (Vol. III. p. 700). Even then he had been a political
idealist of a certain Republican fashion, and it had been part of the
King's amusement in his captivity to hold discourses with him and
draw out his views.--After the King's death, Harrington, cherishing
very affectionate recollections of his Majesty personally, had lived
for some years among his books, writing verses, translating Virgil's
Eclogues, and dreaming dreams. Especially he had been prosecuting
those speculations in the science of politics which had fascinated
him since his student days at Oxford. He read Histories; he studied
and digested the political writings of Aristotle, Plato,
Macchiavelli, Bacon, Hobbes, and others; he added observations of
his own, collected during his extensive travels in France, Germany,
and Italy; he admired highly the constitution of the Venetian
Republic, and derived hints from it; and, altogether, the result was
that he came forth from his seclusion wit