without faith, and a king without a conscience, we have ever witnessed. Those who claim such a champion forget all the king would have done, had not death cut short his career. Sympathy, rather than principle, has converted him into a martyr. A martyr he indeed died—not to the church, but to the love of arbitrary power. Yet withal, he was a weak rather than a bad man; and excites our contempt, more than hatred. He wrought his own ruin; and forced the republicans to every act they committed against him, but the last. That was impolitic and wrong: but who can expect years of exasperation to end, in the moment of triumph, in moderate justice? Sad and melancholy as was the king's fate, it was not without its lesson. That, together with the execution of Louis XVI., has stood, and still stands, as a perpetual warning to monarchs who would trample on the rights of their subjects. The scaffold of Charles I. and the guillotine of Louis XVI. are the ghosts which at this day frighten the despots of Europe from their oppressions.

CHAPTER IX.

CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND-FROM 1649 TO MAY, 1650.

Establishment of a Republic-Milton Chosen Secretary of the Executive Council-The Levellers-Cromwell Appointed to Command the Expedition to Ireland-Insurrection Quelled by Him-Pomp and Splendor of His Departure-Marriage of His Son RichardArrives at Dublin-Cruelties of the Irish-Storming and Massacre of Drogheda-Of Wexford-History of His Movements-Recalled to Resist the Scotch Invasion-Character of the Campaign-Defence of Cromwell-Final Settlement of Ireland.

THE dispersion of parliament by the army, and the execution of the king, rendered any compromise of the republicans with the royalists, impossible. The revolution could no longer stand still, and negotiate—it must go forward or downward. Heretofore, men's minds had been too much engaged in the struggle, to forecast clearly what the state of things would be, when these mighty obstacles in the way of progress should be removed. But now, as the smoke of the conflict cleared away, they saw what had been done:royalty had disappeared-a republic become inevitable, while Cromwell, as chief of the army, was the actual ruler of England.

Immediate action was, therefore, necessary; and, on the very day the king's execution took place, the commons resumed their sittings, and voted that the post

should be delayed till the next day morning, and the trumpets, in the meantime, be sounded through London, declaring those traitors who should proclaim Charles II., or any other person, king of England. The House of Lords also met, and sent a message to the commons, proposing to consult with them upon a plan of government. They however, paid no attention to the message or the messengers; and allowed the latter to stand unheeded, at the door, until wearied out, they returned to the lords. Message after message was sent, until, at length, about a week after (on the 6th of February), the peers of England succeeded in attracting the notice of their haughty rivals. It was moved and carried, "That the House of Peers was useless, dangerous, and ought to be abolished; and that an act be brought in for that purpose." The lords received this decision while in session; and after having heard prayers, and disposed of a rectory, adjourned to next morning but, they never met again, till Charles II. ascended the throne.

The next day, "kingship" was abolished, by a deliberate vote; and immediately afterwards, in accordance with the motion of Marten, the king's statues, at the Royal Exchange, and other places, were torn down ; and the day following, an inscription placed on their pedestals-" Exit tyrannus regum ultimus"-" The tyrant, the last of the kings, is gone;" and beneath it, "Anno libertatis Anglica restitutæ primo. Anno Domini, 1648-9.

The government of England was then settled on the

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basis of a republic, and the decree sent abroad over Europe. Marten next introduced a bill for the sale of the royal property-lands, houses, regalia, furniture, jewels, paintings, &c. France, Spain, Sweden, and the Spanish Netherlands, purchased most of them. On the 9th, the courts of law were arranged, the great seal broken, and the new one substituted. The next step was still more important, viz., the formation of an executive-council, to take the place of the king. It was composed of forty members, who were to hold their places for a year. Among them, we find the names of Pradshaw, Fairfax, Cromwell, Marten, Ludlow, Whitelocke, and others, who had been leaders in the last great movements.. Bradshaw was made president; and John Milton, his kinsman, chosen secretary for foreign languages. The poet and the scholar, thus became a part of the republic of England.

The first step was to settle the religious government. This was done by retaining the Presbyterian form, after depriving it of all temporal power. In a spirit of true charity, the episcopal clergy were allowed a portion of the tithes, and some toleration was shown towards the Papists.

It was no slight task which these severe republicans had taken upon themselves. A commonwealth, torn by internal feuds, distracted by conflicting theories, and filled with discontented men, was not easily to be kept steady and firm by persons without the sanction of regal authority, or the reverence rendered to legitimate power. True, such men as Cromwell, Ireton, Vane, and

Marten, commanded respect as well as fear; but the elements around them were too wild and stormy, to subside at a breath. Soon disturbances arose among the levellers and radicals, to whom a republican government was not liberty enough, and who wished a sort of community-system, or a return to a state of absolute freedom. Lilburn-restless, jacobinical-living in a semi-frenzied state, and unable to keep his tongue or pen still, brought out pamphlets, called "England's New Chains Discovered," that is, its new government; and "The Hunting of the Foxes from Triploe Heath to Whitehall, by Five Small Beagles;" or the chasing of Cromwell, and his coadjutors, from their grand rendezvous, previous to the first march of the army on London, to their assumption of the government by these insignificant levellers. He, however, soon found it was no fox he had to deal with, and that " England's chains" were, indeed, heavy.

The great danger was from this radical party, which embraced all the strange sects which now made England like a foaming cauldron. They first denounced the king, and then, when the parliament, with whom they acted, usurped his place, denounced parliament, helping Cromwell to curb it;--and, now, when the latter attempted to wield the power they had put in his hands, they turned fiercely on him. Like the French Jacobins, there was no limit to the liberty, or, rather, no bounds to the license they demanded.

At this time, too, there sprung up a literary war. The hurricane had passed, and men began to discuss