Cromwell resolved henceforth to employ a more subtle policy,
and to place a spy on every one whom he entrusted with an important
command, whose interest it should be to watch and report all their
actions. He had formed a determination not only to annihilate the
ancient nobility, but also to create a new house of peers, consisting of
men raised by what he called personal merit, in reality a selection from
his own creatures, which is often the true explanation of the word
merit, when used for party-purposes. No expedient could better serve
such a purpose, than that of exhibiting birth and rank, self-degraded in
the person of one, who he knew would prove himself unworthy of the trust
reposed in him.
When a system of _espionage_ and secret influence becomes the ruling
principle of government, it follows that the governed must counteract
its designs by a similar process, and thus venality and treachery become
legalized by the acknowledged laws of self-defence. Lord Bellingham had
his agents in the army, as well as Cromwell, and soon discovered that
the sword of Damocles was suspended over his head.
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