The remainder of the Long Parliament, although sneered at and hated, were the flower of the patriots, whose energy had begun and continued the contest, and well they supported the character of able rulers to the end of their domination: but their time was come. Cromwell, finding himself in reality the most powerful man in his country, was desirous of putting the key-stone to the structure of his ambitious fortunes. Without notice of his intention, he closed up the avenues of the House of Commons, surrounded it with his soldiers, and, entering the House, upbraided the members severally with their ingratitude, besides launching at them other idle charges of a personal kind: then stamping with his foot, the signal for his soldiers who were in the lobby, “Let them come in,” he cried, and they entered. At his command they took away the mace, and forcibly removed the Speaker from his chair. Then, turning out the members, Cromwell shut up the doors, and declared the Parliament at an end. Having completed this extraordinary performance, he is said to have put the key into his pocket, and walked quietly away to his lodgings at Whitehall. After this he issued a commission for calling together a new Parliament, which proved equally unfavourable to his views of government, but finally resigned its powers into his hands. On December 16, 1653, he was installed Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, not daring to accept the proffered title of “King,” as it was opposed to the feelings and opinions of his most powerful friends. The first act of his reign was to make peace on honourable and advantageous terms with the Dutch: soon after he broke off a treaty with Spain, and entered into an agreement with France. In these transactions he was blamed by some, but his genius was of a stamp not to be lightly judged. The Spanish war was conducted under the captainship of Admiral Blake, whose name will ever stand in the first rank of the prudent, the daring, and the free. Judgment in the choice of men was one of Cromwell’s most peculiar talents: witness the names of Milton, Hale, and Ludlow, of Ireton, Blake, Monk, and Henry Cromwell; with a crowd of lesser men, all exactly suited to the stations in which he placed them. He concluded peace with Denmark and Sweden, dictated advantageous terms of reconciliation and alliance to Portugal, and caused the name and flag of England to be respected throughout Europe during his Protectorate. His court was grave and orderly; and as it is plain, from several passages of history, that he would willingly with the power have assumed the name and ensigns of a king, so in his mode of life he adopted something not far short of kingly state. After having tried to govern England by the unpopular Major-Generals of Districts, and by the constitutional method of Parliaments, his only obstacle to success seeming to be the want of the name and hereditary strength of royalty; after having passed through many private dangers and public