ell may thus have
thought: "I will not support the parliament, for it will not maintain
law; it will not legislate wisely or beneficently; it seeks its own,
not the nation's good. And therefore I take away its existence, and
rule myself; for I have the fear of God before my eyes, and am
determined to rule by his laws, and to advance his glory." Deluded he
was; blinded by ambition he may have been but he sought to elevate his
country; and his efforts in her behalf are appreciated and praised by
the very men who are most severe on his undoubted usurpation.

[Sidenote: The Rump Parliament.]

[Sidenote: Dispersion of the Parliament.]

Shortly after the Long Parliament was purged, at the instigation of
Cromwell, and had become the Rump Parliament, as it was derisively
called, it appointed a committee to take into consideration the time
when their powers should cease. But the battle of Worcester was fought
before any thing was done, except to determine that future parliaments
should consist of four hundred members, and that the existing members
should be returned, in the next parliament, for the places they then
represented. At length, in December, 1651, it was decided, through the
urgent entreaties of Cromwell, but only by a small majority, that the
present parliament should cease in November, 1654. Thus it was obvious
to Cromwell that the parliament, reduced as it was, and composed of
Independents, was jealous of him, and also was aiming to perpetuate
its own existence, against all the principles of a representative
government. Such are men, so greedy of power themselves, so censorious
in regard to the violation of justice by others, so blind to the
violation of justice by themselves. Cromwell was not the man to permit
the usurpation of power by a body of forty or sixty Independents,
however willing he was to assume it himself. Beside, the Rump
Parliament was inefficient, and did not consult the interests of the
country. There was general complaint. But none complained more
bitterly than Cromwell himself. Meeting Whitelock, who then held the
great seal, he said that the "army was beginning to have a strange
distaste against them; that their pride, and ambition, and
self-seeking; their engrossing all places of honor and profit to
themselves and their friends; their daily breaking into new and
violent parties; their delays of business, and design to perpetuate
themselves, and continue the power in their own hands; their me