BOOK VI. GOVERNMENT OF CROMWELL WITHOUT A PARLIAMENT-ROYALIST AND REPUBLICAN CONSPIRACIES-DIFFERENT ATTITUDE OF CROMWELL TOWARDS THE TWO PARTIES-INSURRECTIONS IN THE WEST AND NORTH OF ENGLAND ATTEMPTS AT LEGAL RESISTANCE-APPOINTMENTS OF MAJOR-GENERALS-TAXATION OF THE ROYALISTS-CROMWELL'S RELIGIOUS TOLERATION HIS CONDUCT TOWARDS THE JEWS, TOWARDS THE UNIVERSITIES, AND TOWARDS LITERARY MEN— GOVERNMENT OF MONK IN SCOTLAND, and of HENRY CROMWELL IN IRELAND— CROMWELL'S CONVERSATIONS WITH LUDLOW. CROMWELL'S indignation was not feigned; he returned to Whitehall, dissatisfied but confident; he was conscious of his strength, had implicit faith in his good-fortune, and heartily despised the adversaries who attempted to prevent him from governing. Were they capable of taking the government themselves? Whom had they to substitute in his stead? He alone could preserve them from the return of Charles Stuart, by maintaining order and peace throughout the country. Besides, theoretically, he did not aspire to absolute power; he did not set it up as a legal and durable system; he was well acquainted with the conditions of government in England—a monarch, a Parliament, and the law. But he, personally, required a Parliament that would admit his past conduct and present authority as indisputable facts; and that would act as his accomplice, not as his rival. He had once hoped that the Parliament which he had just dissolved would understand this position, and satisfy both the requirements of the new Prince, and the ancient traditions of the country. This had proved an utter miscalculation; and he resented it with that irritated pride which pervades great hearts that have been deceived in their expectations, and are determined not to endure a reverse. To this miscalculation was added danger. Cromwell spoke the truth when he reproached the Parliament with having revived the hopes and conspiracies of the Royalists and Levellers by their opposition to the Protectorate. The royalist party was in motion throughout England, Scotland and Ireland: in the counties, the gentlemen frequently visited one another or met together, to kindle their loyalty by an exchange of their plans, and of the news they had received: between them and the little court of Charles II. at Cologne, correspondence was constantly kept up, and messengers were continually passing. The central committee, which alone in England had instructions and secret powers from the proscribed king, were opposed to any armed outbreak; nothing was ripe, nothing was ready yet, they said; it would be better to wait until the internal dissensions of the army and the unfavorable feelings of the country had received further development; by too much precipitancy, they might lose their opportunity. The high-spirited Cavaliers, the men of action, complained, on the other hand, of the lukewarmness of the committees, which allowed every opportunity to escape, and gave Cromwell time to discover every plot. Beyond the limits of their own party, circumstances, in the opinion of the boldest, seemed favorable to their cause: a feeling of republican dissatisfaction, more violent than general, was fermenting in the army. Among the troops stationed near his residence or within his reach, Cromwell was easily able to dispel or crush these symptoms of opposition; but at a distance, the ill-will was more undisguised, and men were not wanting to head the malcontents. Ludlow was still in Ireland, and though not at all an enterprising man, he was a blunt, rough soldier, openly opposed to the Protector, and had formally refused to promise not to engage in any movement against him. Cromwell had sent back to his command in Scotland, Colonel Overton, a brave and pious officer, rash with mystic gentleness, who possessed the confidence of the saints in the lower ranks of the army, and believed it his duty, if they required it, to make himself the faithful instrument of the Lord, in the midst of so many worldly backslidings. Colonels Okey, Alured, Cobbett and Mason shared the sentiments of Overton, but like him, they were full of hesitation and uneasiness when the moment drew near for acting against their general, who was Protector still of the name of the Commonwealth. But they were swayed and hurried on by some old comrades, such as Major Wildman and Colonel Sexby, men who had risen altogether from the ranks, who were passionate enemies of Cromwell, uncompromising inheritors of Lilburne's hostility and fanaticism, and who lived in intimate and permanent conspiracy with the adherents of Charles Stuart: either because, from hatred to the Protector, they were resigned to accept the old King, or because they hoped easily to set him aside and establish the republic, when they had overthrown the Protector.' Left sole master of the field, and free from all restraint in the government, amid such a host of enemies, Cromwell placed himself at once in readiness for the struggle, and extended the range of his power to its utmost limit. He issued ✔ an ordinance for the levying of the various taxes, including the sixty thousand pounds a month which the Parliament had assigned for the payment of the army and fleet, though it had come to no final vote on the subject. As soon as the rumor of a royalist conspiracy began to spread, the Protector Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. vii. pp. 33—35, 41–44, 129— 134; Clarendon's State Papers, vol. iii. p. 265; Ludlow's Memoirs, pp. 217221; Cromwelliana, p 149; Thurloe's State Papers, vol. iii. pp. 47, 55, 185, 217; Whitelocke, pp. 606, 618. summoned the Lord Mayor and all the municipal authorities of the city of London to attend him, communicated to them the information which he had obtained, and enjoined them to maintain order with the strictest severity, giving them power to raise a body of troops, of which Major-General Skippon was to have the command. He revived the laws which enacted judicial prosecutions and banishment against all Jesuits, Catholic priests, and Popish recusants. He published a proclamation commanding all known royalists to leave London, Westminster, and the suburbs, within six days; horse-races and all popular meetings were prohibited for six months. The measures taken against suspected republicans were of a different character; for some time, they had been under the surveillance of a vigilant police: but no steps had been publicly taken against them; some had been warned, some directed to change their residence, some deprived of their employments, and some quietly arrested. Orders had been sent to Fleetwood, in Ireland, that "whereas Major-General Ludlow has declared himself dissatisfied with the present government, Lieutenant-General Fleetwood is hereby required to take care that his charge in the army be managed some other way, and to send him prisoner to England, if necessary." Thurloe, and Cromwell himself, maintained a constant correspondence with Monk, in Scotland, regarding the disaffected officers in the army under his command, and Monk faithfully devoted his silent but effectual vigilance to the service of the Protector. He was informed that Overton, who commanded at Aberdeen, was the centre of a network of combined royalist and republican intrigues, the object of which, it was said, was to surprise Dalkeith, where Monk resided, to seize his person, and to march immediately towards the north of England, where an insurrection was to break out under the direction of Bradshaw and Haslerig. The conspirators expected they would be able to dispose of about two thousand cavalry and several regiments of infantry. They were in communication also with the fleet, and particularly with Vice-Admiral Lawson. It was even affirmed that Fairfax, then quietly residing at his seat at Nun Appleton, was favorable to their plan, and would bestir himself in Yorkshire on their behalf, when they arrived in that county. Cromwell, in London, and Monk, at Dalkeith, followed the development of this conspiracy step by step, for the plot was betrayed on every hand. Monk sent orders to Overton to come to him; Overton hesitated to obey; Monk at once superseded him in his command, assigned him Leith as a residence, and shortly afterwards (on the 10th of January, 1655), had him arrested, and sent him to London, where he was confined in the Tower. Among his papers, proofs were found of his dealings with the Cavaliers, and some lines against the Protector, written in his own hand: "A Protector! what's that? 'Tis a stately thing, A golden effigy, with a copper nose .... In fine, he is one, we may Protector call, From whom the King of kings protect us all!'"'! Overton had been confined in the Tower for about three weeks, when Major Wildman, the most violent of the republican conspirators, was sent thither also. He had been arrested on the 10th of February, while dictating a “Declaration of the free and well-affected people of England, now in arms against the tyrant Oliver Cromwell." In this manifesto he recapitulated the hopes of liberty, in whose name Cromwell had formerly roused England to revolt, the falsehoods 1 Old Parliamentary History, vol. xx. pp. 431, 432; Thurloe's State Papers, vol. iii. pp. 46, 47, 55, 67, 75, 76, 110, 185, 217, 280; Whitelocke, pp. 618, 625; Cromwelliana, pp. 149-152; Ludlow's Memoirs, p. 221. |