again a miscellaneous State-clergy, in place of the
old Anglicans, by studied encouragements and augmentations of
stipend. So Milton thought, and very much in that language; and here,
above all, must have been his dissatisfaction with Cromwell's
Government. But what could be done? What other Government could there
be? What would the Commonwealth have been without Cromwell, and in
what condition would it be if he were removed? On the whole, what
could a blind private thinker do but, in his occasional interviews
with the great Protector on business, or his rarer presences perhaps
in a retired place at one of the Protector's musical entertainments
at Whitehall, keep all such thoughts to himself, reserving frank
expression of them for his intimates, and meanwhile behaving as a
loyal Oliverian and performing his duty? In such a state of mind, as
I believe, did Milton pass from the First Protectorate into the
Second.

BOOK II.

JUNE 1657-SEPTEMBER 1658.

HISTORY:--OLIVER'S SECOND PROTECTORATE.

BIOGRAPHY:-MILTON'S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE SECOND
PROTECTORATE.

CHAPTER I.

OLIVER'S SECOND PROTECTORATE: JUNE 26, 1657--SEPT. 3, 1658.

REGAL FORMS AND CEREMONIAL OF THE SECOND PROTECTORATE: THE
PROTECTOR'S FAMILY: THE PRIVY COUNCIL: RETIREMENT OF LAMBERT: DEATH
OF ADMIRAL BLAKE: THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AND SUCCESSES IN FLANDERS:
SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF MARDIKE: OTHER FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE
PROTECTORATE: SPECIAL ENVOYS TO DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND THE UNITED
PROVINCES: AIMS OF CROMWELL'S DIPLOMACY IN NORTHERN AND EASTERN
EUROPE: PROGRESS OF HIS ENGLISH CHURCH-ESTABLISHMENT: CONTROVERSY
BETWEEN JOHN GOODWIN AND MARCHAMONT NEEDHAM: THE PROTECTOR AND THE
QUAKERS: DEATH OF JOHN LILBURNE: DEATH OF SEXBY: MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE
OF BUCKINGHAM TO MARY FAIRFAX: MARRIAGES OF CROMWELL'S TWO YOUNGEST
DAUGHTERS: PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER SESSION OF THE PARLIAMENT: WRITS
FOR THE OTHER HOUSE: LIST OF CROMWELL'S PEERS.--REASSEMBLING OF THE
PARLIAMENT, JAN. 20, 1657-8: CROMWELL'S OPENING SPEECH, WITH THE
SUPPLEMENT BY FIENNES: ANTI-OLIVERIAN SPIRIT OF THE COMMONS: THEIR
OPPOSITION TO THE OTHER HOUSE: CROMWELL'S SPEECH OF REMONSTRANCE:
PERSEVERANCE OF THE COMMONS IN THEIR OPPOSITION: CROMWELL'S LAST
SPEECH AND DISSOLUTION OF THE PARLIAMENT, FEB. 4, 1657-8.--STATE OF
THE GOVERNMENT AFTER THE DISSOLUTION: THE DANGERS, AND CROMWELL'S
DEALINGS WITH THEM: HIS LIGHT DEALINGS WITH THE DISAFFECTED
COMMONWEALTH'S MEN: THREATENED SPANISH I