Other debates issued in important consequences. Republicans and the advocates of a mixed Government came into collision upon their particular points of difference. Sir Arthur Haselrig openly arraigned the acts of Oliver Cromwell, condemned the dismissal of the Long Parliament, and most irreverently compared the extinction of Monarchy and of the Upper House to the effect of the crucifying of our Saviour on the Cross. Haselrig proclaimed England to be a theocracy. "God," said he, "is the King of this Great Island." Haselrig acknowledged no power under God but that of the Parliament; the Protector he utterly ignored. Scott and Ludlow also gloried in their regicidal deeds. Vane, in a calmer strain, upheld Republicanism. On the other side the friends of the Protectorate contended for the "petition and advice" as "the Boaz and Jachin of Solomon's temple." The hand of Providence, they said, had set up the Protector, Richard. He was Protector before the House assembled; the House had owned him in that capacity, and had taken an oath of allegiance. A Royalist, amidst the expression of these opinions, exclaimed, "I am for the Constitution we lived under--for building up the ancient fabric."[16] Thus early, certain of the senators of England showed their determination to plunge at once into the vortex of a new revolution. [Sidenote: 1659.] Questions touching foreign affairs, the Army, and finance came under debate at the same time; the Republicans, led by Vane, deploring, in a spirit of infatuation, the late peace with Holland, and wishing that the war had been perpetuated until the Dutch had been conquered, and forced into union with this country. They contended also that the control of the military should be placed in the hands of the Parliament, not in the hands of the Protector; and they inveighed against the extravagance of the Government, declaring that the deficiency in the revenue would produce a national debt enough to sink the country in ruin. But what proved of still more serious consequence, the Republicans not only canvassed, but set aside certain acts of the late Protector. Oliver had left behind him many State prisoners, committed for political offences. They were now liberated. Major-General Overton, one of these prisoners, appeared before the House as a martyr, being escorted on his return from imprisonment--like Burton, Prynne, and others, nearly twenty years before--by "four or five hundred men on horseback, and a vast crowd bearing branches of laurel."[17] [Sidenote: PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES.]