_Richard's late Parliament_ had been the murmur of some outside, perhaps not the least sensible in the main; but the suggestion passed, as meaningless without Richard himself.

_The Long Parliament as it was before it became the Rump, i.e.with all the survivors of the illegally secluded members of 1642-1649 restored to their seats_, was a third proposal, of more tremendous significance, that had been heard outside, and indeed had become a wide popular cry.

Inasmuch as this meant the bringing back of the Parliament precisely as it had been before the King's trial and the institution of the Commonwealth, with all those Presbyterians and Royalists in it that it had been necessary to eject in mass in order to make the King's trial and a Commonwealth possible, little wonder that the present junto shuddered at the bare suggestion.

_A new Parliament, called by ourselves_, was the conclusion in which they took rest.

But here their debates only began.