Whether such a peerage should be hereditary or for life only might be in doubt; but there were symptoms that, even if the Legislative Peerage should be only for life, Cromwell had convinced himself of the utility, for general purposes, of at least a Social Peerage with, hereditary rank and titles.

In his First Protectorate he had made knights only; in his Second he created a few baronets.

Nay, besides favouring the courtesy appellation of "lords," as applied to all who had sat in the late Upper House and to the great officers of State, he had added at least two peers of his own making to the hereditary peerage as it had come down from the late reign.[1] [Footnote 1: In continuation of a former note giving a list of the Knighthoods of Cromwell's First Protectorate so far as I have ascertained them (ante p.

303), here is a list of the Knighthoods of the Second:--William Wheeler (Aug.

26, 1657); Edward Ward, of Norfolk (Nov.