THE PROTECTORATE 
had made themselves conspicuous—*“'‘ lucky draymen and 
shoemakers ”— and on these members he bestowed the 
title of “Lords.” It was the least happy of all his 
expedients, and the one most displeasing to all parties, 
No sooner had the session opened, than the Commons 
began to attack the “ Upper House,” They not only 
refused to transact any business with them, but absolutely 
ignored their existence, Their contumacious conduct threw 
the Protector ‘‘ into a rage. and passion like unto madness,” 
All his attempts at constitutional government had failed, 
and, it is not to be wondered at that he was weary of 
the task, “ God knows,” he said with some bitterness, “I 
would have been glad to have lived under my woodside, 
and to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than to have 
undertaken such a government as this,” He summoned 
the two Houses into his presence, and in a speech *‘ mingled 
with sadness and irritation,” dissolved Parliament. “ The 
Lord,” he exclaimed at parting, ‘be judge between you 
and me.” But no other course was open to him. Had he 
not done so, anarchy and bloodshed must have followed, 
‘* Believe me,” writes a contemporary, “that dissolution 
was of such necessity, that if their session had continued 
but a few days longer, all had been blood, both in the city, 
and in the country, on Charles Stuart’s account,” For the 
vemainder of his life Cromwell ruled without a Parliament, 
Cromwell’s Death and Character. Cromwell was only 
fifty-nine when he died, but he was prematurely old. The 
strain of sixteen years’ conflict in the field and in the council, 
the failure of his plans for establishing a permanent govern- 
ment, the plots against his life, and the constant fear of 
assassination, together with {he knowledge that he was hated 
by his enemies and deserted by many of his old friends, 
preyed upon his mind and weakened his bodily strength. 
The death of his eldest and best-beloved daughter, Mrs, 
Claypole, whom he attended with unremitting care during 
her last illness, still further undermined his already shattered 
health, In the summer of 1658, he was seized with an 
attack of ague, and laid upon a bed of sickness, from which 
he never rose again. Two days before he died, a mighty 
storm of wind and rain swept over England, long remembered