of the government after the Restoration. The decree declared that no delinquents after the 1st of January, 1655-6, should keep as chaplain or schoolmaster any sequestered minister, or permit their children to be taught by him. Nor should an ejected clergyman keep a school, or preach publicly or privately, or baptize, or administer the Lord's Supper, or celebrate marriages, or use the Prayer Book. This declaration was intended to strike terror into the Royalist party; and so it did. And it would appear that with this effect the Protector was satisfied. The last clause in the document plainly shewed that he did not mean to carry it out in the case of persons who were disposed to remain quiet; and in point of fact, we know that, after this declaration had been published, the worship of Episcopalians continued, in some instances, to be winked at. The document ended in these words: "Nevertheless, his Highness doth declare that, towards such of the said persons as have, since their ejection or sequestration, given, or shall hereafter give, a real testimony of their godliness and good affection to the present government, so much tenderness shall be used as may consist with the safety and good of the nation."[106] [Sidenote: _Major-Generals._] Between the first and second Protectorate Parliaments, Cromwell ruled England by Major-Generals. The country was divided into ten districts, each superintended by one of these military satraps. In short, the whole realm was placed under martial law; as we should say in modern phrase, the _Habeas Corpus Act_ was suspended. Such a step, perhaps, had become a political necessity. Of course, the proceeding laid Cromwell open to the awkward charge of absolutism, tyranny, and espionage; and all he could urge in reply was the logic of a cruel necessity, "If not good, yet best." The carrying out of such a policy made England look for awhile too much like France and Austria in our own times, and it sanctioned the practice of employing spies--a practice which prevailed after the Restoration. [Sidenote: 1655.]