The very existence of his Protectorate was at peril; and that meant, he declared, the existence of the Commonwealth.[1] [Footnote 1: Godwin, IV.

174-183; Whitlocke, through April, May, June, and July, 1655.] For such "arbitrariness" in some of the Protector's home-proceedings there was, most people allowed, a splendid atonement in the marvels of his foreign policy.

Never had there been on the throne of England a sovereign more bent upon making England the champion-nation of the world.

The deference, the sycophancy, of foreign princes and potentates to him, and the proofs of the same in letters and embassies, and in presents of hawks and horses, had become a theme for jests and caricatures among foreigners themselves.

Parliaments might come and go in Westminster; but there sat Cromwell, immoveable through all, the impersonation of the British Islands.