d now have with the Protector in
matters of Scottish Government must have been small; but it was
understood that, such as it was, it would be on the side of the Kirk
party of the Protesters. And this had become of some consequence. In
and through 1656, if not earlier, it had become obvious that the
inclinations of the Protector to that party had been considerably
shaken. The change was attributed partly to Lord President Broghill.
Almost from his first coming to Scotland, this nobleman had found it
desirable to win over the Resolutioners. "The President Broghill,"
says Baillie, "is reported by all to be a man exceeding wise and
moderate, and by profession a Presbyterian: he has gained more on the
affections of the people than all the English that ever were among
us. He has been very civil to Mr. Douglas and Mr. Dickson, and is
very intime with Mr. James Sharp. By this means we [the
Resolutioners] have an equal hearing in all we have ado with the
Council. Yet their way is exceeding longsome, and all must be done
first at London." So far as Broghill's communications with London
might serve, the Resolutioners, therefore, might count on him as
their friend. And by this time he had reasons to show. Had he not
succeeded, where the stern Monk had failed, in inducing the
Resolutioner clergy to give up public praying for King Charles and
otherwise to conform; and was it not on this ground that Monk was
believed still to befriend the Protesters? But perhaps it hardly
needed Broghill's representations to induce Cromwell to reconsider
his Scottish policy in regard to the Kirk. That same Conservatism
which had been gaining on him in the English department of his
Protectorate, leading him rather to discourage extreme men while
tolerating them, had begun to affect his views of Kirk parties in
Scotland. The Resolutioners were numerically the larger party: if
they would be reconciled, might they not be his most massive support
in North Britain? It is possible that the institution of the new
Scottish Council under Broghill's Presidency may have been the result
of such thoughts, and that Broghill thus only took a course indicated
for him by Cromwell. At all events, various relaxations of former
orders, about admission to vacant livings and the like, had already
been made in favour of the Resolutioners; and, in and from 1656, it
was noted that extreme men in Scotland too were not to his Highness's
taste, and that, contrary to what might ha