RUMP PARLIAMENT. In order to bring about the condemnation of Charles I., Oliver Cromwell, on Dec. 6, 1648, sent two regiments, under the command of col. Pride, to coerce the House of commons. Forty-one members of the "long parliament" who were favorable to accommodation were imprisoned iu a lower room of the house, 160 were ordered to go home, and only 60 of the most violent of the independents were admitted. The clearance was called Pride's purge, and the privileged members ever afterward passed by the name of the rump, forming, as it were, the fag-end of the " long parliament." Thin assembly, in conjunction with the army, brought about the arraignment, trial, and con demnation of Charles I. Five years later the "romp pa moot," forgetting that it was but the creature of the army, attempted to make a stand i.; ai ist certain demands on the part of the soldiers. The result was that Cromwell lined Lc house with armed men; the speaker was pulled out of the chair, the mace taken from the table, the room cleared, the door locked, and the parliament declared to be dissolved. Supreme in the three kingdoms, Cromwell convoked an assembly which assumed the title of parliament, and acquired from the name of one of its most prominent members, a leather-seller, called Praisegnd Barebones, the name of the Barebones parliament. The Barebones parliament, after subsisting five months, was dissolved, and Cromwell, raised to the dignity of pro tector, convoked two parliaments, and dissolved them for refusing to sanction his measures. On Oliver Cromwell's death, and Richard's succession to the protectorate,
the military malcontents, coalescing with the independents in Richard's parliament, declared the expulsion of the rump illegal, and restored that assembly to its functions. With the revival of the rump, its quarrel with the army revived; and the troops, again surrounding Westminster hall, expelled it on Oct. 30, 1659, a provisional government of officers assuming the direction of affairs. But the general dissatisfaction having led to a coalition between the Presbyterians and royalists, the army, unable to carry on the government, was reduced to the necessity of once more restoring the rump, which bad been twice ignominiously expelled. The advance of Monk, however, with the army of Scotland led to a general cry throughout the country for a free parliament. A number of the members who had been excluded by Pride's purge reappearing in the house. placed the independents in the minority; and on Mar. 16, 1660. the despised and derided rump at last solemnly decreed its own dissolution. The most prominent members of the rump parliament were Vane and Hazlerig.