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as, on the other, from hypocrisy. It is certainly not necessary that we should accept it as proof of fanaticism, that, on the day before setting out to the war with Scotland, he enlarged to Ludlow upon the great providences of God then abroad upon the earth, and in particular talked to him for almost an hour upon the hundred and tenth psalm. We have but to remember it as the psalm in which God's promise was given to make his enemies his footstool, to make his people willing, and to strike through kings in the day of his wrath,-to understand why Cromwell so recalled it on the eve of his last entrance into battle. It is as little necessary that we should accept, as proof of hypocrisy, the proof M. Guizot offers of his rejecting and even ridiculing the report set about by the fanatical officers after the dissolution of the Parliament, to the effect that he had undergone special and supernatural revelations. "The reports spread about "the Lord General," writes M. de Bordeaux to M. de Brienne, are not true. He does not affect any special "communication with the Holy Spirit, and he is not so "weak as to be caught by flattery. I know that the Portuguese ambassador having complimented him on "this change, he made a jest of it." But the French ambassador does not omit to accompany his statement with a careful tribute to the Lord General's zeal and great piety. Nor do we think M. Guizot justified in the belief he appears to entertain, that Cromwell's toleration of differences in religion proceeded from the merely politic spirit, and was due only to his wisdom as a ruler of men. To his profound knowledge of the art of government may indeed be referred such projects as were started in the Protectorate,-for a synod to bring the different sects into peaceful agreement, for ensuring a complete legal toleration to the Jews, and for receiving in England even a bishop of the Church of Rome to preside over the religious communion of the Catholics. But from the depth of true piety in his own soul must have proceeded that larger personal charity, which was so ready, with

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listening ear and helping hand, for any form of honest belief that claimed from him sympathy and protection. Let any one read his noble correspondence with the governor of Edinburgh Castle, when, having defeated the army of the Covenant in battle, he proceeded in argument to overthrow its preachers-and entertain any further doubt of this if he can. Those are the incomparable letters in which he reasoned out a perfect scheme of sublime toleration; in which he vindicated the execution of Charles Stuart as an act which Christians in after times would mention with honour, "and all tyrants in "the world look at with fear;" in which he warned the Presbytery that their platform was too narrow for them to expect "the great God to come down" to such minds and thoughts; in which he told them that he had not himself so learned Christ as to look at ministers as lords over, instead of helpers of, God's people; and in which he desired them specially to point out to him the warrant they had in Scripture for believing that to preach was their function exclusively. "Your pretended fear lest error should step in, is like the man who would keep "all the wine out of the country lest men should be "drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy "to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon a suppo"sition he may abuse it. When he doth abuse it, judge." And then, within some six months or so, Edinburgh having meanwhile surrendered, and the Presbytery, recovered from its sulks, having accepted permission again to open its pulpits, you see this same Cromwell respectfully himself attending their services and sermons, and taking no other notice of the latter being specially directed against himself and his fellow "sectaries," than to desire friendly discourse with the ministers who had so railed. against them, to the end that, if possible, misunderstandings might be taken away.

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Neither had Cromwell, before he evinced this spirit, waited until authority fell to him as Lord General, at which time, in M. Guizot's view, considerations altogether

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politic and worldly began largely to operate with him. There is a very remarkable letter decisive as to this, which the Gentleman's Magazine first published three quarters of a century ago, but which Mr. Carlyle has been able to confirm by proof and adjust to the right place in his life,—the year after the battle of Naseby. Not long before the date of it, he had entered Ely cathedral while the Reverend Mr. Hitch was "performing " the choir service, and with a "leave off your fooling, and "come down, sir," had turned the reverend gentleman sheer out of the place, intoning, singing, and all. But this was because Mr. Hitch had become a nuisance to a godly neighbourhood, and had treated with deliberate disregard a previous warning of Oliver's to the very plain and legible effect, that, "lest the soldiers should in "any tumultuous or disorderly way attempt the refor"mation of the cathedral church, I require you to forbear altogether your choir service, so unedifying and offensive; and this as you shall answer it, if any disorder should arise thereupon." And notwithstanding the prompt procedure by which he kept his word in this case, he shows himself, in the letter we have named and are now about to quote, not less ready to protect any honest people differing completely from himself in regard to choir or other services, provided always they so exercised their unedifying faith as not to be offensive to others. He intercedes with a Royalist gentleman, in the adjoining (Norfolk) county, for liberty of conscience to certain of his tenants. "And," he writes, "And," he writes, "however the "world interprets it, I am not ashamed to solicit for such "as are anywhere under pressure of this kind; doing even "as I would be done by. Sir, this is a quarrelsome age, and the anger seems to me to be the worse, where "the ground is difference of opinion; which to cure, to "hurt men in their names, persons, or estates, will not be "found an apt remedy." Over and over again he insists and enlarges on these views. He started life with them, and they remained with him to its close. Over and over

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again he used the noble language which was among the last he addressed to the last parliament that assembled in his name. He would have freedom for the spirits and souls of men, he said, because the spirits of men are the men. The mind was the man. If that were kept pure and free, the man signified somewhat; but if not, he would fain see what difference there was betwixt a man and a beast. Nay he had only some activity to do some more mischief. Upon these principles he would have established, and connected inseparably, government and religion.

The religion which teaches us our duty to others is not very likely to fail us in regard to ourselves. Watch Cromwell in any great crisis of his life, and judge whether the faith he held could have rested on any doubtful or insecure foundation. Take him at the moment of his greatest triumph, or in the hour of his darkest peril, and observe whether the one so unduly elates or the other so unworthily depresses him, as to cause him to lose the sense either of his own weakness or of his Creator's power, either of the littleness of time or of the greatness of eternity. In the very majesty of his reception after the Worcester battle," he would seldom mention anything "of himself," says Whitelocke, describing their meeting at Aylesbury; "mentioned others only; and gave, as was due, the glory of the action unto God." In his last extremity at Dunbar, when Lesley, with an army of double his numbers, flushed with victory, had so hemmed him in with his sick, starving, and dispirited troops, as they retreated and were falling back upon their ships, that, to use his own expression, "almost a miracle" was needed to save them, there is, in the tone of the letter he sent to Haselrig on the Newcastle border, such a quiet and composed disregard of himself, such a care only for the safety of the cause, such a calm and sustained reliance upon God, as we doubt if the annals of heroism can elsewhere parallel. Whatever becomes of us," he wrote, "it will be well for you to get what forces you can together; and the south to help what they can. If

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your forces had been in readiness to have fallen upon "the back of Copperspath, it might have occasioned supplies to have come to us. But the only wise God knows "what is best. All shall work for good. Our spirits are comfortable, praised be the Lord; though our present condition be as it is. Let Henry Vane know "what I write. I would not make it public, lest danger "should accrue thereby."

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Whatever else might desert this man, hope and faith never did. There was one who stood afterwards by his death-bed, while a worse storm shook the heavens than even that which had swept along the heights of Dunbar, and who recalled these days in testimony of the strong man he had been. "In the dark perils of war, in the "high places of the field, hope shone in him like a pillar "of fire, when it had gone out in all the others." Nor in the high places only, but in the solitude or service of his chamber, he impressed in like manner all who had intercourse with him. It was ever they who stood nearest to him who had reason to admire him most; and to the eyes even of valets and chamber-grooms, the heroic shone out of Cromwell. It is from one who held such office in his household we have a picture of him handed down to us which Vandyke or Velasquez might have painted. A body well compact and strong; his stature under six foot ("I believe about two inches "); his head so shaped as you might see it both a storehouse and shop, of a vast treasury of natural parts; his temper exceeding fiery ("as "I have known"), but the flame of it kept down for the most part, or soon allayed with those moral endowments he had; naturally compassionate towards objects in distress, even to an effeminate measure, though God had made him a heart, wherein was left little room for any fear; "a larger soul, I think, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his was." What Englishman may not be proud of that written portrait of Oliver Cromwell, still fresh from the hand of worthy Mr. John Maidstone, cofferer and gentleman-in-waiting on the Lord Protector of England?

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