Altogether, the Parliament had handsomely cleared Cromwell in respect of his Interim Dictatorship and what was past of his Protectorate, and he had every reason to be satisfied.
But, besides this all-comprehensive Act of retrospection, several of the other Acts presented for his assent at the same time must have been very much to his mind .-- There was an Act for settling lands in Scotland upon General Monk, with similar Acts for settling lands in Ireland on Fleetwood, Dr.Owen, Sir Hardress Waller, and other persons of desert; there were several Naturalization Bills in favour of a great number of foreigners and English aliens; there was "An Act for limiting and settling the prices of Wines"; and there was "An Act against Vagrants, and wandering, idle, dissolute Persons." Most welcome to Cromwell, and drawing from him a few words of special acknowledgment after his assent to all the Bills (_Speech XV._), were "Two Bills for an Assessment towards the defraying of the charge of the Spanish war and other occasions of the Commonwealth." One was for L60,000 a month from England for the three months ending June 24; the other for an assessment of L20,000 from Ireland for the same three months.

These were instalments of a lump sum of L400,000, which the House had voted as long ago as Jan.

30, 1656-7, for the carrying on of the Spanish war, and the remainder of which was to be raised in other ways.

The House had already before it a general Bill for the continued assessment of England, Scotland, and Ireland, for Army and Navy purposes, beyond the period specified; but that Bill had not yet passed.[1] [Footnote 1: Commons Journals of dates; Scobell's Acts and Ordinances of 1656, given in mass in his book, Part II.p.371 et seq.

See especially there, pp.