without the assistance of any chaplain, and affirming that they had never before enjoyed so much of the presence and spirit of Christ, they at last worked themselves up to the belief that they were divinely inspired, and that the reign of the saints on earth had begun.

In this notable assembly were some persons of the rank of gentlemen; but the far greater part were low mechanics, fifth monarchy men, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Independents -the very dregs of the fanatics.

Having given but an indifferent specimen of their regard to liberty, by prosecuting Lilburne for questioning their authority, and when he had been acquitted by a jury, confining him in the Tower, with an injunction that no obedience should be paid to any writ of habeas corpus in his behalf, they set about reforming the law. Petitions having been presented complaining of undue delays, vexations, and expenses in the conduct of Equity suits, they disdained to apply palliatives and correctives to such an evil, and resolved that the High Court of Chancery of England shall be forthwith taken away, and that a bill be brought in for that purpose, and that it be referred to a committee to consider how the causes now depending in Chancery may be determined.”

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However, more difficulty was experienced in this root-andbranch reform than had been anticipated. Not only was there a great clamour among the lawyers, "the sons of Zeruiah," as they were called, but all men of sense who attended to the subject were aware that there were many most important rights for which the Courts of law afforded no remedy, and that the proposed measure would be the triumph of fraud and injustice. These considerations were so palpable, that, by degrees, some members of parliament were made to understand them, and to express doubts whether, in this instance, they were not under a delusion of Satan. give farther time for illumination, a resolution was passed to suspend all proceedings in Chancery for one month, the Lords Commissioners for the Great Seal, notwithstanding, being empowered to issue forth, under the Great Seal, original writs, writs of covenant, and writs of entry," for the purpose of originating actions at law; but a bill for this purpose being introduced, it was finally rejected by the casting vote of the Speaker, the numbers on the division being, yeas 39, noes 39.8

8 For the Proceedings of Barebones' Parliament, see 3 Parl. Hist. 1381-1414.

To

A.D. 1653.

GOES ON AN EMBASSY TO SWEDEN.

361

The abolitionists, however, nothing daunted by this defeat, two days after carried a vote "that the bill for taking away the High Court of Chancery and constituting Commissioners to hear and determine the causes now depending therein, formerly ordered by the House, should be forthwith proceeded with," and it thereupon was read a first and second time, and ordered to be committed. This bill was thrown out on the report; but there was a reference to a select committee to consider what was fit to be done. The committee being nominated by an abolitionist, and composed almost entirely of his party, reported "that another bill should be brought in for taking away the Court of Chancery, and appointing Commissioners to hear and determine as well causes now pending, as also future matters of Equity, and putting in order matters of law which were within the jurisdiction of that Court." Such a bill was accordingly introduced, read a first and second time, and referred to a select committee, who recommended that the famous General Harrison should be added to their number.

But there the bill slept till the members of Barebones' Parliament, themselves convinced of their own insufficiency, voluntarily resigned their authority into the hands of him from whom they had received it, without having passed one single act since they met."

In the meanwhile Whitelock had set out on an embassy to Christina, Queen of Sweden. Cromwell was desirous of having him out of the way during the execution of the scheme now nearly matured; and the Lord Commissioner himself, despairing of being able to ward off the dangers which threatened his Court, was not displeased to submit to this honourable exile, although he had, some months before, peremptorily refused the offer that he should go to Ireland at the head of a Commission to settle the affairs of that island.

h A tract on the abuses of the Court of Chancery, published soon after, describes with much drollery the consternation of the legal profession while the bill was depending for abolishing the Court of Chancery: "how sad and sorrowful were the lawyers and clerks for the loss of their great Diana, with their great joy and making of bonfires and drinking of sack, when they were delivered

from their fears by the dissolution of the parliament."-The imaginative and graphic, but quaint and fantastical Carlyle, in the middle of the nineteenth century defends the respectability of Barebones' Parliament, and the wisdom of all its proceedings,-particularly praising the Bill for the abolition of the Court of Chancery.-Letters and Speeches of Cromwell, vol. ii. 351-434.

CHAPTER LXXI.

LORDS KEEPERS DURING THE PROTECTORATE OF OLIVER CROMWELL.

1654.

WHITELOCK remained absent from England till the 6th of July July 6, in the following year, and on his return found Cromwell regularly installed in the office of Lord Protector, and about to meet a parliament called on the soundest principles of representative government. Scarcely had the Lord Commissioner landed at Gottenburgh on his way to Upsal, when Cromwell, with ill-affected reluctance, agreed to take upon him the office of Chief Magistrate of the State, with the power, though without the name of King,-pretending that it was forced upon him by the army, and that the public tranquillity required that he should accept it. Lords Commissioners Lisle and Keble attended the procession to Westminster Hall when this pageant was enacted-jointly carrying the Great Seal before him as he passed through two lines of military, accompanied by the Judges and the Lord Mayor of London; and they administered to him an oath that he would be faithful to the commonwealth, and rule according to the Instrument of Government and other laws of this land. In recompense they were allowed, without molestation, to discharge their judicial duties and to receive their salaries. On the 4th of April, 1654, on the death of Lord Commissioner Keble, Sir Thomas Widdrington, whose scruples were now quieted, was appointed in his place; and on account of the illness of Lisle, on the 30th of May, by warrant under the hand of the Lord Protector, he was appointed to act as sole Commissioner.k

i

Whitelock, now styled Sir Bulstrode, having been created by Christina Knight of the order of Amarantha,- that he might resume his place as first Lord Commissioner, made no difficulty in recognising the Protector; and at a grand audience vouchsafed to him at Whitehall, gave "his Highness

i Whit. 571, 577.

k Rot. Claus. 1564, p. 22. When Cromwell was installed Protector, he re-appointed the

Commissioners of the Great Seal with the advice of his Council.

A.D. 1655. WHITELOCK, LISLE, AND WIDDRINGTON SWORN IN. 363

an elaborate account of his reception at the Swedish Court by the Queen and the Chancellor Oxenstern, and how he had escaped shipwreck by embarking in one of his Highness's frigates in the Baltic.m

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On the 14th of July, Whitelock, Lisle, and Widdrington were sworn in before the Council; and the Lord Protector, after the royal fashion, delivered the Great Seal to them as Lords Commissioners."

Cromwell's second parliament met on the 3rd of September, —a day he considered so auspicious to him. The session was opened with royal splendour, the Protector proceeding to Westminster in a grand state carriage, attended by his life guards. He was followed by the Commissioners of the Great Seal, Whitelock carrying the purse, and by the other officers of state and of the household, all in coaches, bearing swords and other emblems of sovereignty. In his speech he boasted much of the appointment of Commissioners to consider how the laws could be made plain, short, and easy,-of putting into the seat of justice men of the most known integrity and ability, and that the Chancery had been reformed to the just satisfaction of all good men."

The Lord Commissioner Whitelock was returned by three constituencies, the county of Buckingham, the city of Oxford, and the borough of Bedford. He chose to sit for Buckinghamshire, but does not appear to have taken any prominent part in the debates. Other members more adventurous questioned the title of the Lord Protector, and considered whether the government should be in the hands of one individual,-so that, in the month of January, he thought fit, after the manner of the Stuarts, abruptly to dissolve the parliament before it had passed a single act. A bill had been brought in to regulate-not to abolish-the Court of Chancery; but it had not proceeded further than the committee, and we are not informed of its contents.

A.D. 1655.

Cromwell now for a while assumed legislative power to himself with the advice of his Council, and, under the name of "Ordinances," issued proclamations which he enforced as law. Among these was an ordinance for the better limit

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m See Whitelock's "Journal of his Swedish Embassy"-an amusing book-containing, besides his adventures abroad, some interesting notices of Barebones' Parliament.

n Rot. Cl. No. 62, in Petty Bag Office. ° Carlyle's Cromwell, iii. 22.

P Mem. 600.

q Com. Jour. vii. 414.

ing the jurisdiction of the High Court of Chancery," which had been framed without the slightest communication with the Lords Commissioners, and displayed such ignorance that it might have been the production of General Harrison. The Lords Commissioners were summoned before the Council, where the ordinance was delivered to them, and " they were gravely admonished to be careful not to oppose his Highness's intentions for the common good." Lisle, who was an exceedingly illiterate person as well as very subservient, promised obedience; but Whitelock and Widdrington saw that

many parts of the " ordinance" were quite impracticable, and

that they should expose themselves to derision if they attempted to put it in execution. Lenthal, the Master of the Rolls, likewise joined them in a remonstrance against it. They represented that it would deprive many persons of their freehold without offence or legal trial, contrary to the Great Charter and various acts of parliament, and they presented a memorial on the proposed rules, showing that in many instances they could not be obeyed, and in others the most mischievous consequences would follow from obeying them. Two of the rules, with the objections to them, may serve by way of specimen of this Chancery Reform:- Rule. "Every cause shall be heard and determined the same day it is set down, and for this purpose the Lords Commissioners shall sit if necessary in the afternoon as well as the forenoon, except upon Saturdays." Objection:-"This is impossible, for Equity causes depend upon so many circumstances in cases of fraud, that ofttimes three or four days are not sufficient for the orderly hearing of one single cause, and the Commissioners cannot sit at the times appropriated to the sittings at the Rolls, as counsel and solicitors cannot do their duty in two places at the same time."

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Rule."No injunction shall be granted to stay the mortgagee from his suit at law, and no injunction shall be granted but upon motion in open court after hearing the merits.” Objection: The mortgagor would often be unjustly turned out of possession, and there is more reason for allowing the interference of a Court of Equity on mortgages than on bonds and other securities, where it is and must be allowed. the negation to the granting of injunctions in cases of waste, timber might be felled, houses pulled down, meadows and

By

It was not then foreseen that there would be five courts of Equity sitting together in Westminster Hall.