such modifications of the Protectoral Constitution as might consist
with the fact that the chief magistrate was now no longer Oliver, but
the feeble and unmilitary Richard. In especial, they were for
limiting the Protectorship by taking from Richard the control of the
Army, and re-assuming it for the Army itself in the name of the
Commonwealth. It was their proposal, more precisely, that Fleetwood
should be Commander-in-chief independently, and so a kind of military
co-ordinate with the Protector.[1]

[Footnote 1: Falconbridge's Letters (deciphered) in Thurloe, VII.
365-366 et seq., with other Letters in Thurloe and Letters of the
French Ambassador, M. de Bordeaux, chiefly to Mazarin, appended to
Guizot's _Richard Cromwell and the Restoration,_ I. 231 _et
seq._]

For nearly five months there had been this tug of parties at
Whitehall round poor Richard. Naturally, all his own sympathies were
with the Dynastic Party; and he had made this apparent. He had
proposed to bring Falconbridge and Broghill, perhaps also Whitlocke,
into the Council; and, when he found that the Army party would not
consent, he had declined to bring in Whalley, Goffe, Berry, and
Cooper, proposed by that party in preference. In the matter of the
limitation of his Protectorship by the surrender of his headship of
the Army he had been even more firm. The matter having come before
him formally by petition from the Council of Officers, after having
been pressed upon him again and again by Fleetwood and Desborough in
private, he had, in a conference with all the officers then in town
(Oct, 14). Fleetwood at their head, explained his sentiments fully.
The speech was written for him by Thurloe. After some gentle
preliminaries, with dutiful references to his father, it came to the
main subject. "I am sure it may be said of me," said Richard, "that
not for my wisdom, my parts, my experience, my holiness, hath God
chosen me before others: there are many here amongst you who excel me
in all these things: but God hath done herein as it pleased Him, and
the nation, by His providence, hath put things this way. Being then
thus trusted, I shall make a conscience, I hope, in the execution of
this trust; which I see not how I should do if I should part with any
part of the trust which is committed to me unto any others, though
they may be better men than myself." He then instanced the two
things which he understood to be demanded of him by the Army. "For
instance,