CONTENTS

OF THE PROTECTORAL INSTRUMENT

1. OLIVER CROMWELL, Commander of the Army, becomes Protector of Britain.
2. He shall choose for himself some Councilors, whose number shall not be less than 13, nor exceed twenty-one.
3. The Councilors shall provide good counsel in all business.
4. Every three years a Parliament shall be convened, the first of which shall have its beginning this coming September.
5. The same number shall convene in Parliament as was convened in the recent Parliament, and which has been inserted into the register, namely 400.
6. No Parliament shall continue its deliberations beyond five months.
7. Whatever acts or Decrees such an established Parliament shall make, they shall have the force of law if they have previously been approved by the Lord Protector and the greater part of his Councilors; if not, those decrees shall be deferred to the next Parliament.
8. If that next Parliament approves those acts and decrees, they shall then have the force of laws.
9. If the Parliament dares to prolong consultations beyond five months, it shall be the right of the Lord Protector to dissolve and break it up.