[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 30.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 6.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Feb. 7.]

to be ingrafted on them were postponed, proved sufficient; from that hour
the kingship (the word by which the royal dignity was now designated),
with the legislative and judicial authority of the peers, was considered
extinct, and the lower house, under the name of the parliament of England,
concentrated within itself all the powers of government.[1]

The next measure was the appointment, by the Commons, of a council of
state, to consist of forty-one members, with powers limited in duration
to twelve months. They were charged[a] with the preservation of domestic
tranquillity, the care and disposal of the military and naval force, the
superintendence of internal and external trade, and the negotiation of
treaties with foreign powers. Of the persons selected[b] for this office,
three-fourths possessed seats in the house; and they reckoned among them
the heads of the law, the chief officers in the army, and five peers, the
earls of Denbigh, Mulgrave, Pembroke, and Salisbury, with the Lord Grey
of Werke, who condescended to accept the appointment, either through
attachment to the cause, or as a compensation for the loss of their
hereditary rights.[2] But at the very outset a schism appeared among the
new counsellors. The oath required of them by the parliament contained
an approval of the king's trial, of the vote against the Scots and their
English associates, and of the abolition of monarchy and of the House of
Lords. By Cromwell and

[Footnote 1: Journals, 1649, Jan. 30, Feb. 6, 7. Cromwell voted in favour
of the House of Lords.--Ludlow, i. 246. Could he be sincere? I think not.]