On the 25th of June, 1657, all the details of the _Humble Additional and Explanatory Petition and Advice_ having been at length settled by the House, that supplement to the original _Petition and Advice_ was also ready for his Highness's assent. The two documents together, to be known comprehensively as _The Petition and Advice_, were to supersede the more military Instrument, called _The Government of the Commonwealth_, to which Cromwell had sworn in Dec. 1653, at his first installation, and were to be the charter of his new and constitutionalized Protectorate. The Articles of this new Constitution were seventeen in all, and deserve some attention:--Article I., as we know, confirmed Cromwell's Protectorship and empowered him to choose his successor.--Article II. provided for the calling of Parliaments of Two Houses once in three years at furthest.--Article III. stipulated for all Parliamentary privileges and the non-exclusion of any of the duly elected members except by judgment of the House of which they might be members.--Article IV., which was much the longest, determined the classes of persons who should be disqualified from being elected or voting in elections. _Universally_, all Roman Catholics were to be excluded, and all who had abetted the Irish Rebellion. Farther, in _England_, were to be excluded all who had been engaged in any war against Parliament since Jan. I, 1641-2, unless they had afterwards given "signal testimony" of their good affections, and all who, since the establishment of the Protectorate, had been engaged in any plot or insurrection against _it_. In _Scotland_ were to be excluded all who had been in arms against the Parliament of England or against that of Scotland before April 1, 1648 (old _Malignants_ and _Montrosists_), except such as had afterwards given "signal testimony," &c., and also all who, since April 1, 1648, had been in arms against the English Parliament or the Commonwealth (the _Hamiltonians_ of 1648, and the _Scottish Royalists of all varieties_ who had fought for Charles II. in 1650-51), except such as had since March 1, 1651-2, "lived peaceably"--but with the supplementary proviso, required by his Highness, that, while "having lived peaceably" since Worcester would suffice for the miscellaneous Royalists of 1650-51, who were indeed nearly the whole population of Scotland, the less pardonable _Hamiltonians_ of 1648 would have to pass much stricter tests. In _Ireland_, though Protestants generally were to be qualified, there was to be like caution in admitting such as, though faithful before March 1, 1649-50, had afterwards opposed the Commonwealth or the Protector. These disqualifications affected both voting and eligibility; but eligibility was restricted still farther. Ineligible were to be all atheistic persons, scoffers at Religion, unbelievers in the divine authority of the Bible, or other execrable heretics, all profaners of the Lord's Day, all habitual drunkards or swearers,