liament omitted no opportunity of rewarding him. They voted him an extra grant of £4000 a year, and invited him to assist in the settlement of the

nation.

How that "settlement" was effected is a matter of history. The parlia ment had sat for thirteen years, and still manifested no sign of an inclination to deliver up their authority to the nation. They had become reduced to a fifth of their original number. No supreme head had control over their deliberation; and to all men it was evident that they were solely sustained against anarchy by the genius of Cromwell. Even in the election of a new legislature there was danger lest a majority of Presbyterians should be returned, and so the work of the revolution have all to be done over again. But whatever might be the chances of the future, it was clearly time to get rid of the present governing body, and the soldiers loudly murmured at this delay, and began to show signs of ill temper. All signs of opposition on the part of the royalists had disappeared, and Cromwell had introduced and passed an "Act of Oblivion," which greatly increased his influence with the members of the fallen party. But a year and a half from the time of the battle of Worcester had rolled on, and still the parliament never vacated their seats; and at length Cromwell met Mr. Whitelock in St. James's Park, and having stated all the grievances of the army and the nation, with the conduct evinced by the parliament, brought the subject of his thoughts uppermost by asking, "WHAT IF A MAN SHOULD TAKE UPON HIM TO BE A KING?"

Whitelock offered various reasons why Cromwell should not take upon him the kingly office, and showed how he had, by his declared authority, and the influence of his position, the full power of a sovereign in actual possession. Cromwell enlarged upon the hereditary respect of the people for the title and the air of legality which it gave to all the acts of the supreme power; but Whitelock recommended him, if he thought a monarchy absolutely essential, to send for Charles, and restore him to the throne upon conditions. After a lengthened conversation, they parted, but Whitelock tells us that Cromwell was displeased with him, and soon after contrived to get rid of him by sending him as ambassador to Sweden.

On all sides it now began to be rumoured that a change in the mode of government was necessary. In the army the discontents were openly expressed, and the pulpits resounded with the efforts of the preachers to bring about so desirable a result. As for Cromwell, he at first affected to oppose the general feeling, and declared that "he was pushed on by opposing parties to do that the consideration of the issue whereof made his hair to stand on end." The impatient spirits of some would not wait the Lord's leisure, but hurried him on to an action of which all honest men would have cause to repent. It was quite time that measures should be taken to bring the question to an issue, for the leading men of all parties had united against him, and he must either become all or nothing. Many of the officers were opposed to his advancement; Major Streater declaring in public, that the general intended to set up for himself. General Harrison, in reply, said he did not believe it; that the general's aim was only to make way for the kingdom of Jesus; to which Streater somewhat profanely answered, "unless Jesus comes very quickly, then, he will come too late."

On the 10th of April, 1653, Cromwell summoned a meeting of many members of the house, and the principal officers, and proposed the dissolution of the parliament, and that the government should for a time be devolved upon

known persons, men fearing God, and of approved integrity, as the most hopeful way to encourage and countenance all God's people, reform the law, and administer justice and impartiality; the conference lasted two days, producing nothing but words, and, at the end of that time, the parliament, instead of proceeding to take measures for dissolving themselves legally, as was expected, ordered that writs should be issued out to fill the vacant seats, and plainly intimated an intention to perpetuate themselves. This decided the matter. Commanding a body of soldiers to be brought together, Cromwell marched as their leader to the house, and stationing the main body in the lobby, he led a file of musketeers to the door, and entering the chamber, sat down for a few moments. It was an awful attempt which he was about essay, no less than to break up the foundations of authority, and reduce all order again to chaos. Addressing himself to the Lord Chief Justice, to whom he said, "that he was come to do that which grieved him to the very soul, and that he had earnestly with tears prayed to God against; nay, that he had rather be torn in pieces than do it, but there was a necessity laid upon him therein, in order to the glory of God and the good of the nation." The chief justice answered, that he knew not what he meant, but did pray that what it was which must be done might have a happy issue for the general good." Next Cromwell addressed himself to Harrison, and told him that "he judged the parliament ripe for a dissolution, and this to be the time of doing it." Harrison rejoined, Sir, the work is very great and dangerous, therefore I desire you seriously to consider of it before you engage in it." well," replied Cromwell, and relapsed into silence.

66

"You say

Another quarter of an hour, and still he was but the highest servant in the land, instead of being the fountain from which proceeded all power and authority. The bill was about to be put to the vote which would have silenced him after awhile, perhaps for ever, when he suddenly rose up, and exclaiming to Harrison, "This is the time, I must do it," startled the speaker with the accents of imperial authority. Bending upon them his look of sternest displeasure, he shouted to the members, "You have long cheated the country by your sitting here under pretext of settling the commonwealth, reforming the laws, and promoting the common good; whilst, in the meantime, you have only invaded the wealth of the state, and secured yourselves your relations into all places of honour and profit to feed your own luxury and impiety."

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He stamped on the floor, and the house was filled with armed men. furious tone he then ordered the speaker to leave the chair, and, looking round upon the members, exclaimed, "For shame get ye gone; give place to honester men, and those that will more faithfully discharge their trust. The Lord has done with ye, and has chosen other instruments for the carrying on his work that are more worthy."

Hitherto the members had remained paralysed by the extraordinary character of the scene, but some of them now mustered breath to remonstrate with and upbraid him. Sir Peter Wentworth cried, "It ill suits your Excellency's justice to brand us all promiscuously and in general without proof of a crime." But Cromwell, carried away by the vehemence of his thought, silenced all attempts at reply, and stepping into the centre of the house, continued his insulting remarks, 'Come, come," said he, "I will put an end to your prating. You are no parliament; I say you are no parliament; I will put an end to your sitting."

The friend of so many years, Sir Harry Vane, protested against the gross tyranny of the general. "This is not honest; yea, it is against morality and common honesty." "Sir Harry Vane! Sir Harry Vane!" cried Cromwell, with a loud voice, "the Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane!" He took the speaker by the cloak, and shaking him, muttered, "Thou art a juggling fellow." Alderman Allen, a goldsmith, he accused of having enriched himself by cozening the state, and gave him into custody of the guard. He then ordered the musketeers to clear the place, and bade the members turn out, still heaping upon them his vehement reproaches. There were in the house many men of undoubted reputation for courage; but not one of them dared to lay his hand upon his sword, and resist the illegal act of the common servant of the state. As Sir Henry Martin and John Challoner sullenly retired from their places, Cromwell apostrophised the rest of the house, and asked, "Is it fit those fellows should govern?-the one a noted whoremaster, the other a drunkard?" He told them that they had sold the cavaliers' estates for their own profit, and had kept no faith with them.

General Harrison, who by this time had become persuaded that Cromwell was doing the work of the Lord, requested the speaker to come down from his place, but that functionary declined to do so unless he was forced upon which, Harrison lent him his hand and helped him down. Whilst this was going on, Cromwell remained in the body of the house, and continued to exclaim, "It is you that have forced me to this: I have sought the Lord night and day, that he would not put me on this work." The members at last left the place, and Cromwell, pointing out the mace to his soldiers, told them to take away the fools' bauble, and, locking the door after him, put the key into his pocket, and returned to Whitehall.

The council of state yet remained to be dissolved, and he accordingly repaired to the place where they met, and, accosting them, said, that if they were met there on private business they should not be disturbed, but if otherwise, as they could not but know what had been done that morning, he begged them to take notice that they were no longer a council. Bradshaw, who had presided at the king's trial, rebuked him for his violence, and threatened that in a few hours all England should hear of it. No power under heaven, he said, could dissolve the parliament but the members themselves. In a letter afterwards, their courage appeared to have forsaken them, as this speech of Mr. Bradshaw's is the last which history takes notice of.

The following paragraph appeared in the Mercurius Politicus next day: "Westminster, April 20th, the Lord General delivered to parliament divers reasons, wherefore a present period should be put to the sitting of this parliament, and it was accordingly done; Mr. Speaker and the members all departing, the grounds of which proceedings will (it is probable) shortly be made public."

The triumph of Cromwell over the constitution has found an illustrious imitator in Napoleon Bonaparte; but, though the result and the mode of the attempt are almost identical in both cases, yet the features of the times are as distinct as were the characters of the chief actors. The project of Cromwell was carried out in opposition to the will of all the leading members of his own party, and his success was the cause of all his after unhappiness. His ambition was not sufficiently selfish to overbear all opposition. It wanted the strength of internal egotism. Had he but chosen to make all things bend to the purpose of his own advancement, the family of the first Oliver might at this hour have been seated on the throne of England.

The assumption by Cromwell of the supreme power affords both to friends and enemies a key to the understanding of his actual character. The conduct of the civil war, the constant interruption of the frequent negociations, the death of the king, and the fatuity of the parliament, all are clearly traced to the influence and the acts of Cromwell. His professions of religion were but a part of his useful policy; his enthusiasm but hypocrisy. He conquered not by real, but supposed qualities of greatness. The men with whom he lived and grew into power were all deceived in him. His success was the consequence of a trick. He ruled the kingdom in defiance of the reason of every man capable of rightly estimating the nature of things. Such of the commentators upon the time, as confess themselves on the whole favourably disposed towards him, decline all advocacy of his cause from this moment. Till the period when he became what they term the assassin of public liberty, he was worthy of all admiration, as the virtuous and successful soldier and citizen. His subsequent career more than balances on the contrary side all the merit of his good actions.

At the risk of being amenable to a charge of compound heresy, we feel ourselves compelled to differ from both sides. Human patience will not sustain cheerfully the endurance of unnecessary toil, and as the oxide of calumny will naturally grow upon such a character, and, as it has not yet reached beyond the surface of the metal, we must respectfully decline any attempt at a reply to the Clarendons, and even Humes, in their estimation of the true nature of Cromwell; besides, the greater always involves the lesser duty, and, in imparting some comfort to his mistrustful friends, we shall have done all that is necessary on the part of a biographer.

Who originated the civil war? not Cromwell, for at its breaking out the man was unknown to all but a few of the more sagacious of his own party. Had the suffrages of any portion of the malcontents been required in favour of any proposed leader, most assuredly it would not have been given for the mastership of the brewer of Huntingdon. The war and its consequences grew out of the conduct of the king, out of star chamber atrocities, ship money, taxation without the authority of parliament, and authorised iniquities of all kinds. A king's sceptre is never snatched from his hand, examine the matter fairly, and you will find that in all such cases as these the staff of power has dropped from his nerveless grasp, and been picked up by some one whom the bystanders have recognised as its more lawful owner. We obey the uplifted baton of the constable, because we recognise the propriety of the obedience. The king's army is not needed to enforce the rule of authority; but, in the time of Charles, the idol was broken, and the divinity derided,-order was at an end. So far from protecting all others, the supreme ruler was not even able to guard himself from captivity, and death by the executioner. All authority is but a sign, a willingness to obey on the one hand, a something which is, or which seems worthy of being submitted to on the other. The worthiness in the case of Charles was brought to the test and found to be defective: and, although in the instance of his eldest son, the counterfeit was still more glaring, yet the base coin proved current, from the circumstance that its genuineness was not questioned, and the cost of the "assaying" was recollected to be so very great.

Charles abolished as a king, from natural causes, in whose hand was the highest power to be lodged? Surely not in the hands of the parliament, now decimated, and at all times divided. Each fresh election would have been the

signal for a new attempt at revolution, and the nation must have sunk back into anarchy or despotism of the unnatural kind. Looking at the Robespierres and the Dantons of a later date, with the spectacle of slaughtered millions in the cause of liberty, and a whole world in arms for the right and the wrong, one is justified in saying that the existence and the sway of Cromwell were blessings for which Englishmen cannot be adequately thankful; that the man who, intended by Nature for command, guided, not created, a revolution to the noblest ends, and without the necessity of heading a single troop of horse to sustain his power against opposition, is entitled to the lasting gratitude of all generations, and has the homage, cheerfully rendered, of the present writer.

Cromwell proceeded, with characteristic rapidity, to impart a permanence to the authority which he had thus seized. After having, with the assistance of a council of officers, set forth in a declaration the cause of his late proceedings, he then, with a most daring contempt of old forms, resolved upon summoning a parliament, the members of which were chosen by himself, and which was accordingly done by the following ordinance :

"Forasmuch as, upon the dissolution of the late parliament, it became necessary that the peace, safety, and good government of this commonwealth should be provided for; in order whereunto divers persons, fearing God, and of approved fidelity and honesty, are, by myself, with the advice of my council of officers, nominated, to whom the great charge and trust of so weighty affairs is to be committed. And having good assurance of their love to, and courage for God, and interest for his cause, and of the good people of this commonwealth, I, OLIVER CROMWELL, Captain-General and Commander-inchief of all the armies and forces raised and to be raised in this commonwealth, do hereby summon and require you, A. B. (being one of the said persons nominated) personally to be and appear at the council-chamber in Whitehall, within the city of Westminster, upon the fourth day of July next ensuing the date hereof, then and there to take upon you the said trust unto which you are hereby called and appointed to serve as a member for the county ofand hereof you are not to fail. Given under my hand and seal, the 6th day of June, 1653. O. CROMWELL."

Notwithstanding the strangeness of the call, about a hundred and twenty of those to whom the letters of nomination were addressed, met at Whitehall on the day appointed, where the lord-general, who was there with a large body of officers, addressed them, giving a brief history of the progress of events, and setting forth the clearness of their call to take upon them the government of the nation, and desiring that a tenderness might be used towards all godly and conscientious persons, of what judgment or under what form soever. Having ended his speech, he produced what was termed the instrument of government, which was a document under his own hand and seal, and which set forth, that, with the aid of his council of officers, he devolved the supreme power upon the members then present, or any forty of them, to whom all persons within the realms or the countries in subjection to it were to yield obedience. They were not to sit longer than fifteen months, and, three months before their dissolution, were to make provision for the election of their successors, who, as well as the members of all future parliaments were to sit but a twelvemonth. The ceremony being over, Cromwell commended them to the grace of God, and retired.

He had thus, it would seem, surrendered up his power almost as soon as it