with admirable sagacity the dominant interests and passions of the time, so as to make them the instruments of his own rule,-careless whether he belied his antecedent conduct, so long as he triumphed in concert with the popular instinct, and explaining the inconsistencies of his conduct by the ascendant unity of his power. He is, perhaps, the only example which history affords of one man having governed the most opposite events, and proved sufficient for the most various destinies. And in the course of his violent and changeful career, incessantly exposed to all kinds of enemies and conspiracies, Cromwell experienced this crowning favour of fortune, that his life was never actually attacked; the sovereign against whom Killing had been declared to be No Murder, never found himself face to face with an assassin. The world has never known another example of success at once so constant and so various, or of fortune so invariably favourable, in the midst of such manifold conflicts and perils. Yet Cromwell's death-bed was clouded with gloom. He was unwilling not only to die, but also, and most of all, to die without having attained his real and final object. However great his egotism may have been, his soul was too great to rest satisfied with the highest fortune, if it were merely personal, and, like himself, of ephemeral earthly duration. Weary of the ruin he had caused, it was his cherished wish to restore to his country a regular and stable government-the only government which was suited to its wants, a monarchy under the control of Parliament. And at the same time, with an ambition which extended beyond the grave, under the influence of that thirst for permanence which is the stamp of true greatness, he aspired to leave his name and race in possession of the throne. He failed in both designs: his crimes had raised up obstacles against him, which neither his prudent genius nor his persevering will could surmount; and though covered, as far as he was himself concerned, with power and glory, he died with his dearest hopes frustrated, and leaving behind him, as his successors, the two enemies whom he had so ardently combated -anarchy and the Stuarts. God does not grant to those great men, who have laid the foundations of their greatness amidst disorder and revolution, the power of regulating at their pleasure, and for succeeding ages, the government of nations. APPENDIX. MONSIEUR, APPENDIX I. (Page 37.) M. DE BORDEAUX TO M. DE BRIENNE. Londres, 29 Décembre, 1653. Vous aurez pu reconnaître dans mes dernières lettres une grande disposition à l'établissement d'un nouveau régime dans l'Angleterre. La résolution en étant prise par les officiers de l'armée ; ils s'assemblèrent Vendredi au matin dans le logi ordinaire du Roi où se tient le Conseil d'Etat, en y mandèrent le maire de Londres, les conseillers de la ville, les juge. et les chanceliers, si peu informés qu'ils rendaient chacun la justice dans leurs tribunaux. Après que la lecture leur eut été faite de la résolution de l'armée, qu'ils se levèrent sau résistance et qu'ils eurent pris leur robe de cérémonie, tout la compagnie monta en carosse et en forme de cortège marchan devant celui de M. le général, l'infanterie en haie dans les rue et même les colonels à pied à la tête de son carosse, se rendi au palais où siège le Parlement; et dans une tribune élevée lecture fut faite de la déclaration de l'armée. Elle expose dès le commencement la nécessité qu'il y a d'établir un pro tecteur pour conserver la république, nomme M. le général à cette charge, lui ordonne un conseil de vingt-quatre personnepar l'avis desquelles il gouvernera, lui donne pouvoir de fair la paix et la guerre; et dans la nécessité pressante de leve jusqu'à deux millions si le Parlement n'en point établi, l'oblig de maintenir la religion réformée et de réformer les abus qu se commettent par les hérétiques; lui permet d'avoir de officiers pour la conservation de son bien, et lui assigne pour son entretien les domaines du Roi non aliénés, ordonne en |