liberal use of this power. This was the creative period of his government. All the leading principles of the Protector’s domestic policy are to be found in the collection of ordinances issued by him between December 1653 and September 1654, and all the more important of the eighty-two ordinances published in it were ratified by parliament in 1656. The union of the three kingdoms which Cromwell’s arms had begun his laws now completed. One series of ordinances reorganised the administration of justice in Scotland, abolished feudal courts and feudal servitudes, and settled the details of that incorporation of Scotland with England which had been planned by the Long parliament. Scotland, impoverished by long wars, began now to revive under the influence of free trade and good government, and Cromwell dwelt with pride on the ‘thriving condition’ of the meaner sort and ‘the middle sort’, of people ‘in that country’ under his rule (Speech xiii.) Other ordinances regulated the interests of the adventurers for Irish lands, extended the privileges of the new colonists, and determined the representation of Ireland in the British parliament. In England itself Cromwell’s chief care was the reorganisation of the church. The efficiency of the clergy was secured by the establishment of committees to eject the unfit from their livings, and the institution of a central board of triers to examine into the fitness of all new candidates for benefices. Other ordinances provided for the visitation of the universities, the better support of ministers, and the propagation of the gospel in Wales. Of the triers Cromwell boldly asserted ‘there hath not been such service to England since the christian religion was perfect in England.’ He was proud also of the comprehensiveness of his church: ‘Of the three sorts of godly men, presbyterians, baptists, and independents, though a man be of any of these three judgments, if he have the root of the matter m him he may be admitted’ (ib.) Another great object of Cromwell’s legislation, and an object in which he was thoroughly at one with the whole of the puritan party, was the reformation of manners. ‘Make it a shame to see men bold in sin and profaneness,’ he said to his second parliament. ‘These things do respect the souls of men, and the spirits which are the men. The mind is the man; if that be kept pure, a man signifies somewhat; if not, I would very fain see what difference there is betwixt him and a beast. He hath only some activity to do more mischief’ (Speech v.) Ordinances against duelling, cock-fighting, horse-racing, and swearing showed Cromwell’s zeal for social reform.
At the same time Cromwell attempted the reform of the law. The court of chancery was reorganised and its fees much reduced; a scheme was devised for the relief of poor debtors, and a committee appointed to consider ‘how the laws might be made plain, and short, and less chargeable to the people.’ The administration of justice was improved by the appointment of new judges ‘of known integrity and ability,’ one of whom was Matthew Hale. The revision of the severe criminal code, ‘wicked and abominable laws;’ as Cromwell termed them, he did not at present undertake, but recommended it urgently to parliament in 1657. Another reform, however, which is frequently attributed to Cromwell—the reform of the system of parliamentary representation—was not his work at all. It was embodied in the ‘instrument of government,’ and the credit of it is due to the council of officers who drew up that document. It had been demanded in all the great manifestos of the army since 1647, had been worked out by Ireton in the ‘agreement of the people,’ and further elaborated by the Long parliament during its last sittings.
During the same few months a complete change took place in the position of England in Europe. Even before the expulsion of the Long parliament Cromwell had been an important factor in European politics. His return from Ireland was regarded as the prelude to some great enterprise in Europe, and that not only in Marvell’s verses, but in the secret reports of Mazarin’s agents (Guizot, Cromwell, i. 237; Marvell, Poems, ed. Grosart, p. 161).
His victories in Scotland secured the recognition of the republic by foreign states. ‘The wise and faithful conduct of affairs where you are,’ wrote Bradshaw to Cromwell, ‘gives life and repute to all other actions and attempts on the Commonwealth’s behalf’ (Nickolls, Letters addressed to Cromwell, p. 39). According to De Retz, Cromwell entered into communication with him through Vane directly after the battle of Worcester (Memoirs, pt. ii. cap. xxi.) In the spring of 1652 Cromwell was engaged in some mysterious negotiations for the acquisition of Dunkirk (Chéruel, Histoire de France sous le Ministère de Mazarin, i. 57 ; Revue historique, iv. 314). The agents of Condé and the frondeurs of Bordeaux made special application to Cromwell, as well as to the council of state, and the envoys of Mazarin were personally accredited to Cromwell as well as to council and parliament (1652; Guizot, Cromwell, i. 264–6). The state in which Cromwell found the foreign relations of England in 1653 is described by him in his
