They first (Sept, 14) declared that it should not be construed to comprehend the whole Constitutional Instrument of the Protectorate, but only the main principle of the first Article; and then (Sept.

18) they converted the Recognition into a resolution of their own, requiring all members to sign it, Next, in order to get rid of the stumbling-block of the First Article altogether, they resolved (Sept.

19) that the Supreme Legislative authority was and did reside in "One Person and the People assembled in Parliament," and also (Sept.

20) that Oliver Cromwell was and should he Lord Protector for life, and that there should be Triennial Parliaments.
Thus free to advance through the rest of the Forty-two Articles at their leisure, they made that thenceforward almost their sole work.
Through the rest of September, the whole of October, and part of November, the business went on in Committee, with the result of a new and more detailed Constitution of the whole Government in sixty Articles instead of the Forty-two.

A Bill for enacting this Constitution, passed the first reading on the 22nd of December, and the second on the 23rd; it then went back into Committee for amendments; and in January 1654-5 the House was debating these amendments and others.[1] [Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates given and of Nov.