d abhor the giving or occasioning
the least countenance to persons of such opinions and practices, or
who are guilty of the crimes commonly imputed to the said person:
Yet, We, being intrusted in the present Government on behalf of the
People of these Nations, and _not knowing how far such Proceeding,
entered into wholly without Us, may extend in the consequence of
it_, Do desire that the House will let Us know the grounds and
reasons whereupon they have proceeded." Two things are here to be
perceived. One is that Cromwell did not approve of the course taken
with Nayler. The other, and more important, is that he regarded this
action of the House, without his consent, as an intrenchment on that
part of his prerogative which concerned Toleration. He thought
himself, by the constitution of his Protectorate, entrusted with a
certain guardianship of this principle, even against Parliament; and
he did not know how far Nayler's case might be made a precedent for
religious persecutions. What may have been the exact reply to
Cromwell from the House we do not know; but the House was not in a
mood to spare Nayler. He had not satisfied the clergymen sent to
confer with him. Accordingly, on the 27th, a motion to respite him
for another week having been lost by 113 to 59, the second part of
his punishment was inflicted to the letter; after which he was
removed to Bristol to receive the rest. All that one can say is that,
though Cromwell was far from pleased with the business, and even
thought it a horrible one, he did not feel that he could at that time
make it the occasion of an actual quarrel with the Parliament.[1]

[Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Carlyle III, 213-215; Sewel's
_History of the People called Quakers_ (ed. 1834) I. 179-207.]

Another matter in which a disagreement might have been feared between
Cromwell and his Parliament was that of _The
Major-Generalships._ This "invention" of Cromwell's for the police
of England and Wales generally, and specially for the collection of
the Decimation or Militia Tax from the Royalists, had been so
successful that he had congratulated himself on It in his opening
speech to the Parliament. He, doubtless, desired that Parliament
should adopt and continue it. On the 7th of January, 1656-7,
accordingly, there was read for the first time "a Bill for the
continuing and assessing of a Tax for the paying and maintaining of
the Militia forces in England and Wales," i.e. for prolongi