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and ashes his former compliances, and had heartily repented him of the murder of his majesty, into a seeming acquiescence in which he had been cheated by Cromwell. For this impostor, with long prayers and many tears, held him employed in seeking advice from God, what to do, till the mischief was consummated. But though Fairfax will not accept the commission, yet Cromwell, who has been long time gaping for it, is ready to swallow the bait. And now is Oliver triumphant, judging it but a short step from the supreme command of the army, to absolute rule over the nation. And he goes down with an army of horse and foot, equipped at all points, and is accompanied by his darling Colonel Monk, without whom, indeed, he was unwilling to stir, and without whose advice he took no measure of importance. Some say, good men are bettered by bad company, as roses and lilies planted by garlick smell sweeter; but it is a dangerous experiment." Whether it was that he had not yet digested the Scottish affront in the North of Ireland, or that he had an aversion to that people in consequence of their having begun the troubles of his native country, or that he was spirited by the general opinion of the king's party, that they deserved to feel the rod, it is certain that our colonel did now engage himself with Cromwell, "but with little content, I dare affirm." Having entered the English army, he soon began to be accounted, by the wisest observers, the tutelar angel thereof; and shewed what the difference was between a professor of the art of war, well studied in all its rules, and a fanatic soldier, who fights by inspiration. Those, who would undervalue his merit, prove themselves better acquainted with their pens than their swords. Cromwell being now at Dunbar, and in a mood of mind to give up all hopes of the Protectorship to be once again safe at Whitehall, is pleased to call a council of war. Monk urges to give the enemy battle, and assault them in the position they occupy on the surrounding heights. Great opposition is made to this proposal, but he offers to undertake the assault, and, at the head of three regiments of foot, with pike in hand he charges up the hill. A single regiment of Highlanders alone stood its ground, and awaited the push of the pike; the rest of the Scotch infantry took to flight, and ran away over the sands, to Bell-haven. Lambert, with the horse, did excellent service that day in the pursuit ; but the victory was entirely Monk's, and made him of great credit with all the forces, and especially with Oliver. The reputation he had acquired drew upon him the envy of all the old officers; but Oliver, who was of a spirit" too big and presumptuous to be ruled by his underlings," when "he took his march after the King's most excellent Majesty, unto Worcester," left him commander in chief of all the forces in Scotland.

The first attempt he made, towards the reduction of the country, was upon Sterling, a maiden castle of great strength: over the door of the chapel, belonging to the castle, is to be read this proud motto: "J. R. nobis hæc invicta miserunt centum sex proavi. 1617." But General Monk, another "great destroyer of that sort of reputation," took this invincible fortress, within three days after he had sat down before it. In like manner, the maiden castle of Edinburgh twice yielded to the persuasion of the great guns of the English; once in the time of Queen Elizabeth; and again, in these unhappy wars; when it was delivered up to Cromwell, principally by the conduct of Monk, his chief engine, and lieutenant-general of ordnance. But I have no pleasure to write these things, as he had no pleasure to remember them, or to act them, but as they were the means tending to enable him to do the king service, which was his chief intention, as shall be farther shewn. An agent that does not make a good election of right methods, will never make a prosperous conclusion."

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He next attacked Dundee, into which the Scots had conveyed their richest moveables and all the wealth of Edinburgh. Being summoned to surrender, the governor, Robert Lumsdaine, a gentleman of a brave spirit, returned answer," that if the commander, and the rest of the English forces, would lay down their arms, he would give them passes to their homes." A piece of gallantry over-malapert and presumptuous, it was, to tender safety to those who were able to give it, and this reply did much irritate the besiegers. So that the general, having good intelligence that the soldiers of the garrison did use at nine o'clock to take such large morning draughts, that, before the twelfth, they were most of them well drenched with their cups, fell on, September the first, with horse and foot; and, though it is supposed there were more fighting men within, than enemy without, after a short but sharp resistance, did fairly master the town. Here was gotten the richest plunder that was taken in these wars. But see the just judgment of God :—the greater part of it having been shipped for England, upon some vessels taken in the harbour, they were cast away within sight of the town. The same have I read of the pillage of the Swedes in Germany, which being to be transported into their own country, was wrecked in the narrow seas between Sweden and Germany. Thus "the burden of salt returned to the sea whence it came; ill got, soon lost; he that is possessed of plundered and sacrilegious goods, like Thoulouse gold and Seius his horse, rideth post to ruin and poverty."

The general was equally fortunate in an attack upon Ellit, in the county of Perth, where he surprised the committee of estates and of the kirk therein assembled. Here were taken

many of the nobility, together with old General Lesley, who, some say, was found hid in a cupboard. But they do the gentleman wrong, for it was a Dutch bed, which hath shutters. He was bred from his childhood in the German wars, under the Swede; and he had there acquired great honour and 'riches. At his return, he was employed by the covenanters against Charles I., who, at the general pacification, was pleased to set a mark of grace upon him by creating him Earl of Leven. With what gratitude he afterwards requited his majesty, I had rather others should report. "For all generals were not of the complexion of our honest general." The general, who had been so long busied in assaulting others, was at length attacked himself by a sickness, from which he with great difficulty recovered. Whether it proceeded from uneasiness of mind, our general being engaged in a cause in which his heart was not present, or from the great toils he endured, I cannot undertake But it was the pleasure of God to reserve him for the loyal work he had yet to do, which was of a kind very different from the drudgery of the service he was now engaged in. And, certainly, he must always have intended right, who ends his business like a complete workman."

to say.

The pretended commonwealth, having now reduced both Scotland and Ireland, fall upon a project for uniting the three nations in one government, under one parliament; and this, by the advantages of conquest and the extorted consent of some elected deputies, they carried into execution. This union was first contemplated by King James of blessed memory, and has lately been renewed by our glorious sovereign King Charles, whom God direct to a happy conclusion of the work. But the commonwealth's men, like children of this world, wiser in their generation than the children of light, were able, by the superiority they had acquired, to procure members to be sent to the English parliament, by which means the commerce of the three countries, which has since been prohibited, received great augmentation. To gain this point, they published an act of indemnity, to forget all injuries, and to forgive all hostilities."God hath made us one in many respects, as religion, language and country, being one island, and happy under one government now it would be our sin and weakness to neglect a perfect union to all ends and purposes; such a conjunction will augment the reputation of both." To effect this, the pretended parliament sent down commissioners into Scotland, among whom was General Monk; without whose interposition little good could have been done. For though St. John, Vane, and Saloway could talk more, yet none were able to persuade that nation so much as he, who, though regarded by them, in times of hostility, as a severe enemy, was, nevertheless, trusted by

them in this business more than all the rest. Upon his giving them hopes of better days,-for all the comfort honest men then had was, to expect something better in future, they submitted to the present necessity. The loyal party of Montrose -men, who, in the late war with England, had not been permitted to bear arms,-were the especial objects of General Monk's care and patronage; such even then was his sympathy with loyalty! Afterwards, when he was governor in chief, if he reposed any confidence in any, it was in those generous souls, who had given so great assurance of their fidelity to the king and his family. For the truth of this I may appeal to the testimony of all Scotland, where, I believe, he will always be held in honourable remembrance.

Ever since the battle of Dunbar the kirk had been divided into two parties, known by the names of Resolutioners and Remonstrators; the former from having resolved in a committee of the kirk, that at so important a crisis it was expedient, upon their repentance, to employ the persons who had served in Duke Hamilton's engagement;-the latter, from having remonstrated against this resolution, as a backsliding from the good old cause, and a betrayal of the interest of Jesus Christ. This was the chief source of the division among the people, and did much prejudice the king's affairs, as well as enable the English, by balancing the several interests and fomenting jealousies, to keep the country so long in quiet subjection. They who ordained these ministers of the kirk—I mean the remonstrators-needed not have wished that they had rather laid their hands upon briers and thorns; for such indeed they were; and being now ablaze with zeal they did put all into a flame. Of these two factions, the latter was espoused by Cromwell, from a similarity of principles and temper; but Monk supported the resolutioners, as men that held secret correspondence with his majesty," whom he himself intended to serve. This intention of his some contradict, but with weakness enough, for the heart of man is inscrutable to man; God only keepeth the key-but those who knew him, did always observe his inclination was to his old principles."

When the negociations relative to the union of the two nations were concluded, the junto at Westminster were alarmed by some proceedings on the part of the kirk, which they liked the less, as coming from men of their own temper. A general assembly was convened, wherein was a medley of resolutioners and remonstrators; but the parliament, not choosing to wait the result of their debates, caused the meeting to be dissolved. A lieutenant colonel was sent to dismiss the assembly, "which he did roundly," charging them on their peril not to presume to meet again, or ever be seen, any three of them

together. Thus what the king could not do by his proclamations, by force of law, or by his viceroys, was effected by a single armed officer. But the ministers of the kirk must be allowed to have had wisdom, who, knowing themselves to have been set up, both at home and abroad, by an unlawful power, submitted quietly to be dethroned by the same. "Many of them, I doubt not, have lived to give a public testimony of their repentance: for, doubtless, a churchman, while he keeps within the sphere of his duty to God and his people, is an angel from heaven;" but when he mistakes his proper calling, and mixes in political intrigues," he becomes a devil, and, from a star in the firmament of heaven, turns a sooty coal in the blackest hell." I must needs confess, that there was in Scotland a grave and reverend ministry; but they were unequally yoked with some, to whose youth and inexperience I impute all the extravagances of which they were guilty. "I have reason to believe that these men have so experienced the vanity of contending with sovereign authority, that they will henceforth study to be quiet, and acknowledge nothing to be safer for magistracy and ministry than to support one another."

The scene now shifts, and a new stage is introduced, whereon General Monk acted a brave part, to the glory of the English nation and his own everlasting renown. The English statesmen thought it scorn, to have their proffered alliance slighted by the Dutch, their agent Dorislaus assassinated, and their ambassadors affronted. But all was patiently endured till they had composed their divisions at home, when they resolved to call the Dutch to an account, and, as a preface to war, out comes an act, entituled, for the encouragement of navigation," wherein they prohibit the importation, except in English bottoms, of all foreign commodities. The Dutch, willing to decline the storm, sent over one embassy, and then another; but meeting with nothing save high demands, they took heart, and resolved manfully to abide the issue of a contest. The conduct of the war was first intrusted to General Blake, a person, whatsoever he was otherwise, never to be named without honour; who by his actions in this Dutch war, and at Algiers, Tunis, and Santa Cruz, did make the English courage to be both remembered and admired by all the neighbouring nations, "if we do not teach them to forget it by the cowardice. and idleness of our times." Van Tromp, as he was conveying the Bourdeaux fleet through our channel, set up a broom high on the poop of his ship, and threatened to sweep the narrow seas. But upon his return, our Blake, speeding out a competent fleet, did compel him to leave much of his broom behind him and gather up many of his ships of war and merchantmen. In the heat of the war, General Monk is made one of the