Oliver Cromwell The Government of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland & Ireland thereto belonging as it was publickly declared at Westminster the 16 day of December 1653...at which time and place His Highness OLIVER LORD PROTECTOR of the said Commonwealth, took a Solemn Oath for observing the same... London printed by William du-Gard and Henry Hills, Printers to His Highness the Lord Protector 1653. Folio, modern boards, 46pp, two pages a little scuffed, but otherwise good. One of the most important documents in English History. This was the first constitution every written in the English speaking world and forms the basis of written constitutions throughout the World – and is particularly the basis upon which the American Constitution was written. The Instrument of Government was drafted by Major-General John Lambert in 1653 and adopted by the Council of Officers when the Nominated Assembly surrendered its powers to Oliver Cromwell in December of that year The Instrument was intended to provide a legal basis for government after the parliamentary failures of the Civil War its immediate effect was to legitimise the power of Cromwell and his generals. Parliament ultimately refused to accept the Instrument as the basis of its authority and it was superseded in 1657 by the Humble Petition and Advice. Cromwell’s Oath is contained in the final two pages of the document, and once he had taken it he became the head of what was in effect of Military Dictatorship. Far from creating a commonwealth of freedom, Britain descended into a repressed regime of fear, and although Cromwell refused at a later date to accept the Crown, he was in effect the King – passing on the mantle of power to his son Richard. On the restoration of Charles II all written constitutions were torn up and ever since this nation has existed without a formal written constitution – but with a well defined understanding of the rule of law as created by Parliament, in its constitutional relationship with the Monarch – which is summed up in the sentence ‘The Queen Reigns, but she does not Rule’.