The next day, after another division, it was resolved thus: "That this Bill entitled _An Act Declaring and Settling the Government of the Commonwealth_, &c., be engrossed in order to its presentment to the Lord Protector for his consideration and assent," and that, if "the Lord Protector and the Parliament shall not agree thereunto and to every Article thereof, then the Bill shall be void and of none effect." Cromwell having thus been shut up to accept all or none, the Bill passed the third and conclusive reading on Friday, Jan.19.Then all depended on Cromwell, who would have twenty days to make up his mind.

He had made up his mind already, and did not mean to wait for the parchment.

The Bill included provisions striking, as he conceived, at the root of his Protectorate, e.g.one for depriving him and the Council of State of that power of interim legislation which they had hitherto exercised with so much effect, and others withholding the negative he thought his due on future Bills affecting fundamentals.

He was, besides, wholly disgusted with the spirit and conduct of the Parliament.

Accordingly, having bethought himself that, in the payment of the soldiers and sailors, a month was construed as twenty-eight days only, he let the Saturday and Sunday after the third reading of the Bill pass quietly by, and then, on Monday the 22nd, having summoned the House to meet him in the Painted Chamber, addressed them in what counts as the Fourth of his Speeches, told them their time was up that day, and dissolved them.