addest Stuart or Tudor. One would suppose
that a period which represented the supremacy of the common people
would be marked by a mass of popular legislation. Quite the contrary
is the fact. In the first place, the Instrument of Government,
prepared by the so-called Barebones Parliament, was supposed to be a
sort of constitution; as a symbol of the change from absolute personal
government to constitutional government under this Instrument,
Cromwell exchanged his military sword for the civil common sword
carried by General Lambert, who was at the head of the deputation
praying the Lord General to accept the office of protector. It vested
the supreme power in him, acting with the advice of the Council, with
whose consent alone he could make war, and that Council was to choose
future protectors. The legislative power resided in a single chamber,
upon which he had a veto. There was an ordinary property qualification
for voting, and religious liberty was guaranteed, except as to the
papists. Only one Parliament, as a matter of fact, assembled under
this Instrument of Government, and the very first legislative function
it endeavored to exercise seemed to offend Cromwell, who promptly
dissolved it with a file of soldiers. That was the end of
constitutional government under the protector. The laws of the Rump
Parliament, and the Barebones Parliament, are entirely omitted from
the official Statutes of England, and only to be found in a rather
rare volume. They mostly concern military affairs. The real reforms of
government, like the abolition of the Star Chamber and feudal tenures,
had in fact been carried out under Charles I.

A further word should be given to the origin of the business
corporation, an almost accidental event, which has affected the world
of trade and affairs more than the invention of printing, of the
bill of exchange, and the Law Merchant combined. It would have been
perfectly possible for the world to get on and do business without
the modern corporation--without the invention of a fictitious person
clothed with the enormously powerful attributes of immortality
and irresponsibility. That is to say, men can act together or in
partnership, but they are mortal, and at their death their personal
powers end. The corporation may be immortal, and its powers, as well
as its acquisitions, increase forever. Men are liable with all their
estates for their contracts and obligations. Men in corporations are
only liable