1490.] Three days after the great dinner in Whitehall, i.e.on Monday, Feb.
23, 1656-7, there was an incident in the House which turned all the future proceedings of this Second Parliament of the Protectorate into a new channel.

It is thus entered in the Journals:-- " ...

Sir Christopher Pack [Ex-Mayor of London, knighted by Cromwell, Sept.

25, 1655, and now one of the members for the City] presented a Paper to the House, declaring it was somewhat come to his hand tending to the Settlement of the Nation and of Liberty and Property, and prayed it might be received and read; and, it being much controverted whether the same should be read without farther opening [preliminary explanation] thereof, the Question being propounded _That this Paper, offered by Sir Christopher Pack, be further opened by him before it is read,_ and the Question being put _That this Question be now put,_ it passed in the Negative.

The Question being propounded _That this Paper, offered by Sir Christopher Pack, be now read,_ and the Question being put _That that Question be now put,_ the House was divided.