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INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 656 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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INSTRUMENT OF See also:GOVERNMENT , the name given to the See also:decree, or written constitution, under which See also:Oliver See also:Cromwell as " See also:lord See also:protector of the See also:commonwealth governed See also:England, See also:Scotland and See also:Ireland from See also:December 1653 to May 1657. The See also:Long See also:Parliament was expelled in See also:April 1653 and the See also:council of See also:state dissolved; the Little, or Nominated, parliament which followed ended its existence by See also:abdication; and Cromwell, officially lord See also:general of the See also:army, with a new council of state, remained the only recognized authority in the See also:country. It was in these circumstances that the Instrument of Government, See also:drawn up by some See also:officers in the army, prominent among whom was See also:John See also:Lambert, was brought forward. The document appears to have been under See also:consideration since the See also:middle of See also:October 1653, but See also:Ludlow says it was " in a clandestine manner` carried on and huddled up by two or three persons," a remark probably very near the truth. The nominated parliament abdicated on the 12th of December 1653, and after certain emendations the Instrument was accepted by Cromwell on the 16th. Consisting of See also:forty-two articles, the Instrument placed the legislative See also:power in the hands of "one See also:person, and the See also:people assembled in parliament "; the executive power was See also:left to the lord protector, whose See also:office was to be elective and not hereditary, and a council of state numbering from thirteen to twenty-one members. The councillors were appointed for See also:life; fifteen were named in the Instrument itself; and Cromwell and the council were empowered to add six. To fill vacancies parliament must name six persons, of whom the council would select two, the choice between these two being left to the protector. A parliament was to meet on the 3rd of See also:September 1654, and until that date the protector with the consent of the council could make ordinances which would have the force of See also:laws. After the See also:meeting of parliament, however, he had no power of legislation, nor had he any See also:veto upon its acts, the utmost he could do being to delay new legislation for twenty days. A new parliament must be called "once in every third See also:year," elaborate arrangements being made to prevent any failure in this respect, and for five months it could not be dissolved See also:save with its own consent. The parliament, composed of a single chamber, was to consist of 46o members—400 for England and See also:Wales, and 30 each for Scotland and Ireland—and the representative See also:system was entirely remodelled, growing towns sending members for the first See also:time, and many small boroughs being disfranchised.

A large See also:

majority of the See also:English members, 265 out of 400, were to be elected by the counties, where voters must possess See also:land or See also:personal See also:property of the value of £200, while in the boroughs the See also:franchise remained unaltered. In Scotland and Ireland the arrangement of the See also:representation was left to the protector and the council. See also:Roman Catholics and all concerned in the Irish See also:rebellion were permanently disfranchised and declared incapable of sitting in parliament, and those who had taken See also:part in the See also:war against the parliament were condemned to a similar See also:disability during the first four parliaments. The protector was empowered to raise a See also:revenue of £200,000 in addition to a sum sufficient to maintain the See also:navy and an army of 30,000 men, and religious See also:liberty was granted " provided this liberty be not extended to Popery or Prelacy." The See also:chief officers of state were to be chosen with the consent of parliament, and a parliament must be summoned at once in See also:case of war. The See also:practical effect of the Instrument was to entrust the government of the three countries to the parliament for five months out of every three years, and to the protector and the council for the See also:remainder of the time. Although the Instrument bristled with possibilities of difference between parliament and protector, " it is impossible," as See also:Gardiner says, " not to be struck with the ability of its framers." Having issued many ordinances and governed in accordance with the terms of the Instrument, Cromwell duly met parliament on the 3rd of September, and on the following See also:day he urged the members to give it the force of a See also:parliamentary enactment. Many representatives objected to the See also:provision placing the supreme power in the hands of a single person and of parliament, a discussion which was futile, as clause XII. of the Instrument declared that "the persons elected shall not have power to alter the government as it is hereby settled in one single person and a parliament." The proceedings were soon stopped by Cromwell, who on the 12th of September explained that there was a difference between " fundamentals " which they might not, and " circumstantials " which they might, alter. He concluded by stating that they would be excluded unless they subscribed a recognition to be true to the protector and the commonwealth, and to respect the terms of clause XII. Over three See also:hundred members took the required step; but they proceeded to alter the Instrument in other ways, and over the question of the See also:control of the army they were soon in See also:sharp conflict with the protector. At length, on the 22nd of See also:January 1655, Cromwell, counting twenty See also:weeks as five months, dissolved parliament. Regarding the Instrument as still in force the protector sought for a time to See also:rule in accordance with its provisions; but new difficulties and growing discontent forced him to govern in a more arbitrary See also:fashion. However, in See also:July 1656 he issued writs for a second parliament which met in the following September.

Many members, men of advanced views, were excluded by the council of state, acting on the strength of clause XVII., which declared that those elected must be " persons of known integrity, fearing See also:

God, and of See also:good conversation." The remainder discussed the question of the future government of the country,and in May 1657 Cromwell assented to the Humble See also:Petition and See also:Advice, which supplanted the Instrument of Government. Gardiner says the Instrument was " the first of hundreds of written constitutions which have since spread over the See also:world, of which the See also:American is the most conspicuous example, in which a barrier is set up against the entire predominance of any one set of See also:official persons, by attributing strictly limited functions to each." The See also:text of the Instrument is printed in S. R. Gardiner's Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution (See also:Oxford, 1899). See also S. R. Gardiner, See also:History of the Commonwealth and See also:Protectorate, vols. ii. and iii. (See also:London, 1897—1901); L. von See also:Ranke, Englische Geschichte (1859—1868) ; and T. See also:Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (London, 1897-1901). (A. W.

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