Royalist adherents in England, as to the means by which these different
parties in Parliament might be used to involve the Government of Richard
in trouble, to accentuate such discontent as existed, and, if possible, to
steal an occasional adverse vote. But such schemes had little success.

Opposition to the Government, however, came from a source more powerful
than a divided Parliament. Lambert had been cashiered by the late
Protector; but he still retained an enormous influence in the army, and
the army had no mind to submit tamely to extinction by Parliament. A
council of the officers met to air their grievances, and Lambert, although
no longer an officer, had a place amongst them. They complained that their
pay was in arrear; that their services were neglected; that "the good old
cause was traduced by malignants"; and that Parliament must be moved to
redress their wrongs. With strange impolicy, Parliament passed a
resolution against any council of officers, and sought to impose its
authority upon a power greater than itself. The ready answer was a demand
for the dissolution of Parliament. Richard Cromwell was allowed no choice
in the matter; if he did not do it, the army, he was told, would do it for
him. He gave an involuntary assent. On April 22nd the dissolution took
place, and Richard found himself virtually deposed. For another year there
was little but anarchy in England, and any semblance of a constitution was
virtually in abeyance.

As the creature of the army, the old Rump Parliament was restored on May
7th. That was the name given to that section of the Long Parliament which
sat from 1648 (when "Pride's Purge," as it was called, was applied) to
1653, when Cromwell ejected the remaining members and summarily closed the
doors of Parliament. Of 213 members of the Long Parliament only ninety
were thus permitted to sit, and of these only seventy actually did sit.
Those who were not pronounced Republicans were excluded by the rough-and-