, and
disorderliness generally. They were to keep a register of all
disaffected persons, remove arms from their houses, note their
changes of residence, and take security for the good behaviour of
themselves, their families, and servants. All travellers and
strangers were bound to appear before them, and give an account of
themselves and their business. They were to arrest vagabonds and
persons with no visible means of living. Above all, they were to see
to the execution of a certain very severe and far-reaching measure
which the Protector and the Council had determined to adopt in
consequence of the late Royalist insurrection and conspiracy.

Either from information that had been received, or merely _in
terrorem_, there had, during the past summer and autumn, been
numerous arrests of persons of rank and wealth that had hitherto been
allowed to live quietly in their country mansions, on the
understanding that, though Royalists, they had ceased to be such, in
any active sense. The Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of Lindsey, the
Earl of Newport, the Earl of Northampton, the Earl of Rivers, the
Earl of Peterborough, Viscount Falkland, and Lords Lovelace, St.
John, Petre, Coventry, Maynard, Lucas, and Willoughby of Parham, with
a great many commoners of distinction, had been thus arrested. There
was a general consternation among the peaceful Royalists throughout
the country. It looked as if their peacefulness was to be of no
avail, as if the Act of Oblivion of Feb. 1651-2 was to be a dead
letter, as if Cromwell had suddenly changed his policy of universal
conciliation. In reality, Cromwell had no intention of reversing his
policy of universal conciliation; but he wanted to teach the lesson
that Royalist insurrections and conspiracies would fall heavily on
the Royalists themselves, and he wanted particularly, at that
moment, to make the Royalists pay the expenses of the police kept up
on their account. Under cover of the consternation caused by the
numerous arrests, he introduced, in fact, a _Decimation_ upon
the Royalists, i.e. an income tax of ten per cent, upon all Royalists
possessing estates in land of L100 a year and upwards or personal
property worth L1500. It was to be the main business of the
Major-Generals to assess this tax within their bounds, and to collect
it strictly and swiftly. It is astonishing with what ease they
succeeded. It seems to have been even a relief to the Royalists to
know definitely what their