him to the scaffold, tapped softly at the chamber-door, to say they were ready. They went together from St. James's through the park towards Whitehall, in the front of which the scaffold had been erected. Charles walked erect and very fast, having on the right hand Bishop Juxon, and on the left Colonel Tomlinson, and being followed by a guard of halberdiers and by some of his own gentlemen and servants, who walked bareheaded. There was no shouting, no gesticulating, no turmoil of any kind: the troops, men and officers, the spectators of all ranks, were silent as the grave, save now and then when a prayer or a blessing escaped from some of them. At the end of the park Charles entered Whitehall, and, passing through the long gallery, went into his own old cabinet chamber. There he was delayed, for the scaffold was not quite ready: he passed the time in prayer with the bishop. At last all was ready; and he was led out to the scaffold, which was hung round with black. Vast multitudes of people had come to be spectators: they were all silent, respectful, or awe-stricken; and so were the soldiers. Perceiving that the people could not approach near enough to hear him, he addressed a speech to the gentlemen upon the scaffold. He called God to witness that it was not he but the parliament who had begun the war; he deplored having assented to the death of Strafford, saying that he was now punished by an unjust sentence upon himself; he declared that he pardoned his enemies, and died a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England, as he found it left by his father. Turning to bishop Juxon he said "I have a good cause and a gracious God on my side." He took off his cloak, gave his George to Juxon, with the single word "Remember!" then laid his head across the block, and stretched out his hands as a signal. The masked executioner let fall the axe, which severed the neck at one blow; and another man wearing a mask took up the head, and shouted, "This is the head of a traitor!" The bloody deed was accompanied by a "dismal universal grown."*

*Whitelock.-Herbert.-Warwick.-Nalson.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

A.D. 1649.—On the day of the king's execution, the Independents prohibited, under pain of high treason, the proclamation of the Prince of Wales, or any other, to be king or chief magistrate. On the same mournful day, Duke Hamilton escaped with the Lord Loughborough out of Windsor Castle. The house or Rump immediately debated how to bring some of the chief royalists to a speedy trial, and ordered that the vacillating and unprincipled Earl of Holland should be removed to London. Duke Hamilton was retaken the day after his flight. On the 1st of February it was voted that Hamilton and Holland, with Goring, Lord Capel, and Colonel Owen, should be "the next persons to be proceeded against for justice." Capel escaped out of the Tower, but was apprehended two days after.

On the 5th of February the Commons debated till six o'clock at night whether the house of Lords should be continued a court of judicature or a court consultatory only. On the 6th the debate was renewed; and it ended that night in the vote, "that the House of Peers in parliament is useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished." Other votes were rapidly passed for demolishing the statues of kings, and for converting England into a republic.

For some time past the real executive had resided in the committee of government at Derby house; and this, with some very immaterial changes, was now converted into the "Executive Council of State." The president of this Council was Bradshaw, the king's judge; and

its secretary for foreign correspondence was Bradshaw's friend and relative, the immortal Milton, who employed his learning and genius in defending the judgment and execution of Charles. Although they had pronounced the doom of the Upper house, the Independents admitted five carls and three lords into this council, which also included Cromwell, Fairfax, Skippon, Sir Harry Vane, General Ludlow, St. John, Harry Martin, Whitelock and four other commoners.

The army remained under the command of the men who had created it and made it the best army then in the world; and Fairfax, though he had abstained from committing himself upon the king's trial, continued to be commander-in-chief. But in the navy an important change was made immediately; the Earl of Warwick was removed, and Blake was appointed, with Dean and Popham, to command the feet.

The trial of Duke Hamilton, the Lord Capel, Goring, and Sir John Owen, was probably hastened by the hostile demonstrations made in Scotland. Goring pleaded not guilty, and was dismissed for the present, "behaving himself with great respect to the Court. On the 6th of March, that court pronounced judgment against the rest. Owen was respited, and ultimately spared. Duke Hamilton, the Lords Holland and Capel were beheaded in Palace yard on the 9th of March.

The first attack that was made upon the new government proceeded from a part of that army which had raised them to their pre-eminence. "Free-born John," who thought that the revolution had not gone half far enough, put forth a vehement pamphlet entitled "England's New Change." Mutinies broke out at Salisbury and Banbury; but they were presently crushed by Fairfax and Cromwell: Lilburne was shut up in the Tower, and some few leaders of a set of madmen, who were sighing after something very like the Republic of the illustrious Trinculo, were committed to meaner prisons.

But the Rump took some of the worst pages out of the book of despotism, entirely losing sight, in several cases, of the principles of liberty they professed. They

made it treason to deny the supremacy of parliament; words spoken were made capital; and simple sedition was converted into high treason. The press was put into its shackles, and extreme penalties were declared against such as printed or published anything against the new Commonwealth, the Council of State, &c.

In the mean time the late king's eldest son had been proclaimed, as Charles the Second, both in Scotland and in Ireland. On the 15th of August, Cromwell, with his son-in-law Ireton, landed near Dublin to suppress the formidable insurrection, and, if possible, to give peace to a country which had never been quiet. His army did not exceed 6000 foot and 3000 horse; but it was an army of Ironsides. When these men landed hardly anything was left to the Protestants except Dublin and Derry; but now town after town was recaptured with the utmost rapidity. Drogheda was stormed on the 11th of September, Cromwell himself fighting in the breach. Wexford was taken in the same manner; Cork, Kinsale, and numerous other places opened their gates. Before the month of May of the following year the Irish papists and royalists were completely subdued by Cromwell and his brave and able son-in-law. Leaving Ircton to organize the country, Cromwell took his departure for London, where his presence was eagerly looked for. He was received with respect by the people and with enthusiasm by the army. He was conducted to the House called the Cockpit, near St. James's, which had been appointed_and prepared for him. Here he was visited by the Lord Mayor of London and by many other persons of quality, who all expressed their own and the nation's great obligations to him. The speaker in an elegant speech gave him the thanks of the House.

In the spring of this year (1650) Montrose, the precursor of Prince Charles or King Charles II., crossed from the continent over to the Orkneys with a few hundred foreign soldiers. In a short time he disembarked on the shores of Caithness with the design of penetrating into the Highlands, and calling his former

followers to his standard. But Montrose was a royalist such as the Presbyterian royalists could not tolerate; the Committee of Estates were well prepared, and Strachan, their general, surprised and thoroughly defeated the Marquess just as he had advanced beyond the pass of Invercarron. Montrose fled from this his last fight, leaving his cloak and star, his sword, and the Garter with which he had been lately invested, behind him. An old friend with whom he sought refuge basely betrayed him to the Covenanters, who bound him with ropes, carried him to Edinburgh, and there, in virtue of a former attainder, hanged him on a gallows thirty feet high. Such was the wretched end of Montrose, in the 30th year of his age, in the middle of the month of May.

Charles landed in the Frith of Cromarty about a month after Montrose was hanged, being constrained to swallow the Covenant as best he could ere he was allowed to set foot on shore. He was joined by the Presbyterian Covenanting army. But he was allowed small time to recruit that army or to do anything else. By the 29th of June, Cromwell had left London and was on his march to the borders, having, three days before, been appointed commander-in-chief of all the forces of the Commonwealth. On the 22nd of July, having concentrated his troops on the borders, he crossed them and marched into Scotland. The whole country between Berwick and Edinburgh had been swept as with a broom; nothing was left that could yield any comfort or succour to the invaders. He advanced to Dunbar, where he received provisions from English ships. He then proceeded to Haddington, and from Haddington to Edinburgh. He saw no troops on his way, and none would come out from Edinburgh to meet him. Want of provisions, and a sickness which had broken out in his army, compelled him to retreat for Dunbar. The Scots then sallied from their capital, and some of them did not a little mischief to Cromwell's rear. He, however, reached Dunbar, and having shipped his heavy baggage and his sick men, designed