been shown to have been a like fabrication to ruin Cromwell.

The confusion and irresolution of Cromwell, described by Lord Clarendon, upon his appointment to the chief command in Ireland, and inability to command his temper and countenance, ill describe an hypocritical character. Nor is his supposed declaration to his troop (which is not remembered to be mentioned by any other writer), of the conditions of permission to enlist under his command, a very well chosen instance of this hypocrisy.

Mrs. Hutchinson's account of Cromwell's conduct towards Colonel Hutchinson, in the appointment of Major Saunders to the command of the late Colonel Thornhaugh's regiment, if told correctly, has certainly the appearance of insincerity. But great allowance must be made for Mrs. Hutchinson's affectionate partiality for her husband, who appears, from her narrative, to have been a most amiable and excellent man. She describes Cromwell as having assented to the appointment, and as having promised to send to the General for a commission, and then procuring it for Major Saunders. It is impossible, now, to come at the knowledge of the real circumstances of this transaction. Although Cromwell might have, and probably had, a very favourable opinion of the Colonel, as a person of integrity and ability, and great personal worth, he might not, upon consi

deration, think him qualified to take the command of a regiment, nor might he think it consistent with strict discipline to permit the subaltern officers and privates to take upon themselves to dictate to their commanders. He (Cromwell) has been uni. versally allowed to excel in deep knowledge of men, appointing those only of ability to fill the stations to which he appointed them. The situation of men in power must be very trying: the insincerity of courtiers is a favourite subject of declamation with disappointed expectants; they are apt to construe into promise a civil speech or a smile, from a dislike, in a feeling, kind disposition, to distress by an absolute denial. This may have been Cromwell's situation, he might have been taken by surprise to think and speak favourably of the Colonel's appointment; but finally, upon further consideration, determine Major Saunders to be the most proper person for the situation. It was very important that Cromwell should have a man at the head of a regiment upon whom, in arduous situations, he could rely. Saunders was a tried man, and had, according to Mrs. Hutchinson's own account, brought into the regiment a troop of Derbyshire horse: he might think this, and his then command of Major in the regiment, a good ground of superior claim to the Colonel's. Mrs. Hutchinson speaks favourably of his private character, but not so of his abilities as a soldier. Cromwell thought otherwise of him, and therefore

gave him the command of the regiment; for which Mrs. Hutchinson and the Colonel appear never to have forgiven him, and expresses herself disrespectfully of his family, though not of him, other than upon this occasion.

Little need be said upon Bishop Burnet's account of the principle upon which Cromwell is alleged to have acted, by some who pretended to know Cromwell well: that great occasions would excuse from the common rules of morality; from · which, the Bishop says, he might be easily led into all the practices, both of falsehood and cruelty. This principle is certainly a most mischievous one, and is an opening to all crime: but Cromwell's actions have not yet appeared to have been influenced by it, or to need this iniquitous apology. Who were the Bishop's informers, he does not say. Cromwell has not thought it necessary thus to defend his actions; they needed no such defence. Where the Bishop speaks from his own knowledge, there can be no doubt of his veracity; but he seems to lend too ready an ear to others' information, particularly as relating to Cromwell. appears to receive and relate every story told him without examination; not considering the person and the circumstances by and under which they are related. He does not seem to recollect that these stories are told immediately after the Restoration, by persons, in many instances, implicated in the occurrences they relate, and in the hope to re

He

commend themselves to the then powers by defaming Cromwell's memory, by stories and anecdotes, whether true or false, of no consequence, having no fear of contradiction or confutation. Of this description is the following passage:- the Bishop says, that, during Cromwell's absence in Scotland, the treaty of the Isle of Wight was set on foot by the Parliament, who, seeing the army at such a distance, took that occasion of treating with the King that Sir Henry Vane and others, who were for a change of government, had no mind to treat any more; but that both city and country were.so desirous of a personal treaty, that it could not be resisted that Vane, Pierpoint, and some others, went to the treaty on purpose to delay matters till the army could be brought to London: that all that wished well to the treaty prayed the King, at their first coming, to dispatch the business with all possible haste, and to grant the first day all that he could bring himself to grant on the last: that Holles and Grimston told him (Burnet) that they had both on their knees begged this of the King : they said they knew Vane would study to draw out the treaty to a great length, and that he who declared for an unbounded liberty of conscience, would try to gain on the King's party by the offer of a toleration for the Common Prayer, and the episcopal clergy: that his design in that was to gain time till Cromwell should settle Scotland and the North: but that they (Holles and Grimston)

said, if the King would come frankly in, without the formality of papers backward and forward, and send them back next day with the concessions that were absolutely necessary, they did not doubt but he should in a very few days be brought up with honour, freedom, and safety to the Parliament, and that matters should be brought to a present settlement: that Titus, who was then much trusted by the King, and employed in a negotiation with the Presbyterian party, told him (the Bishop) that he had spoke often and earnestly to him in the same strain; but that the King could not come to a resolution; still fancying that in the struggle between the House of Commons and the army, both saw they needed him so much, to give them the superior strength, that he imagined, by balancing them, he would bring both sides into a greater dependence on himself, and force them to better terms: that, in this, Vane flattered the episcopal party to the King's ruin as well as their own: but that they still hated the Presbyterians as the first authors of the war, and seemed unwilling to think well of them, or to be beholden to them: that thus the treaty went on with a fatal slowness, and by the time it was come to some maturity, Cromwell came up with his army and overturned all.

All the Bishop says respecting the Parliament's motive for setting on foot the Isle of Wight treaty, namely, Cromwell's and the army's absence in Scotland, and Sir Henry Vane's and Mr. Pier