But the Republicans made what haste they could to put an end to that anomaly.

Their difficulty lay in their yet unadjusted differences with the Army-officers conjoined with them in the Restoration of the Rump.

Towards the removal of these differences something was done on the 13th of May, when the House appointed Fleetwood "Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-chief of the land-forces in England and Scotland" (Ireland reserved), and associated with him Lambert, Desborough, Berry, Ludlow, Hasilrig, and Vane, in a commission of seven empowered to nominate, for approval by the Parliament, the commissioned officers of the whole Army.

Even with, this arrangement, however, the Army-magnates were not satisfied; and it left other differences over, which were restated that very day in a petition and address from the whole Council of Officers.

This Petition and Address, presented to the House by a deputation of eighteen chief officers, headed by Lambert and Desborough, consisted of fifteen Articles, the last three of which contained the points of most vital debate with the pure Republicans.
In Article XIII.