y were a gathering of the most
representative men of all the three nations that could be regarded as
in any sense adherents of the Commonwealth. All the Council of State,
except the Earl of Mulgrave and Lord Lisle, had been returned, some
of them by two or three different constituencies. Secretary Thurloe
had been returned; Cromwell's two sons, Richard and Henry, had been
returned, Henry as member for Cambridge University; several gentlemen
holding posts in his Highness's household had been returned. Of the
old English peers, there had been returned the Earl of Salisbury, the
Earl of Stamford, and Lord Dacres; and of the titular nobility there
were Lord Herbert, Lord Eure, Lord Grey of Groby, and the great
Fairfax. Among men of Parliamentary fame already were ex-Speaker
Lenthall, Whitlocke, Sir Walter Earle, Dennis Bond, Sir Henry Vane
_Senior_, Sir Arthur Hasilrig, Thomas Scott, William Ashurst,
Sir James Harrington, John Carew, Robert Wallop, and Sir Thomas
Widdrington; and of Army or Navy men, of former Parliamentary
experience or not, there were Colonels Whalley, Robert Lilburne,
Barkstead, Harvey, Stapley, Purefoy, Admiral Blake, and
ex-Major-General Harrison. Some of these had been returned by two
constituencies. Bradshaw was a member, with two of the Judges, Hale
and Thorpe, and ex-Judge Glynne. Lawyers besides were not wanting;
and Dr. Owen, though a divine, represented Oxford University. One
missed chiefly, among old names, those of Sir Henry Vane
_Junior_, Henry Marten, Selden, Algernon Sidney, and Ludlow; but
there were many new faces. Among the thirty members sent from
Scotland were the Earl of Linlithgow, Sir Alexander Wedderburn,
Colonel William Lockhart, the Laird of Swinton, and the English
Colonels Okey and Read. Ireland had also returned military Englishmen
in Major-General Hardress Waller, Colonels Hewson, Sadler, Axtell,
Venables, and Jephson, with Lord Broghill, Sir Charles Coote, Sir
John Temple, Sir Robert King, and others, describable as Irish or
Anglo-Irish.[1]

[Footnote 1: Complete list gives in Parl. Hist, III. 1428-1433.]

The 3rd of September, selected as Cromwell's "Fortunate Day,"
chancing to be a Sunday, the Parliament had only a brief meeting with
him that day, in the Painted Chamber, after service in the Abbey, and
his opening speech was deferred till next day, On Monday,
accordingly, it was duly given, but not till after another sermon in
the Abbey, preached by Thomas Goodwin, in w