He was commanded to take care that the Republic
suffered no detriment, and Machiavelli calculates that that was the
thing that purified the social system from time to time, and enabled
it to hang on as it did--an extremely likely thing if it was composed
of nothing but bad and tumultuous men triumphing in general over the
better, and all going the bad road, in fact. Well, Oliver Cromwell's
Protectorate, or Dictatorate if you will, lasted for about ten years,
and you will find that nothing that was contrary to the laws of Heaven
was allowed to live by Oliver. (A laugh, and applause.) For example,
it was found by his Parliament, called "Barebones"--the most zealous
of all Parliaments probably--the Court of Chancery in England was in
a state that was really capable of no apology--no man could get up and
say that that was a right court. There were, I think, fifteen thousand
or fifteen hundred--(laughter)--I don't really remember which, but
we shall call it by the last (renewed laughter)--there were fifteen
hundred cases lying in it undecided; and one of them, I remember, for
a large amount of money, was eighty-three years old, and it was going
on still.
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