from the general to the ranks, or from | be himself the founder of a new dynasty, the ranks to the general; whether it was plain that Charles the First was it is to be ascribed to policy using a less formidable competitor than fanaticism as a tool, or to fanati- Charles the Second would be. At the cism bearing down policy with headlong impulse, are questions which, even at this day, cannot be answered with perfect confidence. It seems, however, on the whole, probable that he who seemed to lead was really forced to follow, and that, on this occasion, as on another great occasion a few years later, he sacrificed his own judgment and his own inclinations to the wishes of the army. For the power which he had called into existence was a power which even he could not always control; and, that he might ordinarily command, it was necessary that he should sometimes obey. He publicly protested that he was no mover in the matter, that the first steps had been taken without his privity, that he could not advise the Parliament to strike the blow, but that he submitted his own feelings to the force of circumstances which seemed to him to indicate the purposes of Providence. It has been the fashion to consider these professions as instances of the hypocrisy which is vulgarly imputed to him. But even those who pronounce him a hypocrite will scarcely venture to call him a fool. They are therefore bound to show that he had some purpose to serve by secretly stimulating the army to take that course which he did not venture openly to recommend. It would be absurd to suppose that he, who was never by his respectable enemies represented as wantonly cruel or implacably vindictive, would have taken the most important step of his life under the influence of mere malevolence. He was far too wise a man not to know, when he consented to shed that august blood, that he was doing a deed which was inexpiable, and which would move the grief and horror, not only of the Royalists, but of nine tenths of those who had stood by the Parliament. Whatever visions may have deluded others, he was assuredly dreaming neither of a republic on the antique pattern, nor of the millennial reign of the saints. If he already aspired to

moment of the death of Charles the First the loyalty of every Cavalier would be transferred, unimpaired, to Charles the Second. Charles the First was a captive: Charles the Second would be at liberty. Charles the First was an object of suspicion and dislike to a large proportion of those who yet shuddered at the thought of slaying him: Charles the Second would excite all the interest which belongs to distressed youth and innocence. It is impossible to believe that considerations so obvious, and so important, escaped the most profound politician of that age. The truth is that Cromwell had, at one time, meant to mediate between the throne and the Parliament, and to reorganise the distracted State by the power of the sword, under the sanction of the royal name. In this design he persisted till he was compelled to abandon it by the refractory temper of the soldiers, and by the incurable duplicity of the King. A party in the camp began to clamour for the head of the traitor, who was for treating with Agag. Conspiracies were formed. Threats of impeachment were loudly uttered. A mutiny broke out, which all the vigour and resolution of Oliver could hardly quell. And though, by a judicious mixture of severity and kindness, he succeeded in restoring order, he saw that it would be in the highest degree difficult and perilous to contend against the rage of warriors, who regarded the fallen tyrant as their foe, and as the foe of their God. At the same time it became more evident than ever that the King could not be trusted. The vices of Charles had grown upon him. They were, indeed, vices which difficulties and perplexities generally bring out in the strongest light. Cunning is the natural defence of the weak. A prince therefore, who is habitually a deceiver when at the height of power, is not likely to learn frankness in the midst of embarrassments and distresses. Charles was not only a most unscrupulous but a most unlucky dissembler.

There never was a politician to whom so many frauds and falsehoods were brought home by undeniable evidence. He publicly recognised the Houses at Westminster as a legal Parliament, and, at the same time, made a private minute in council declaring the recog-of such treason. Those who had him nition null. He publicly disclaimed all in their gripe were not midnight stabthought of calling in foreign aid against bers. What they did they did in order his people: he privately solicited aid that it might be a spectacle to heaven from France, from Denmark, and from and earth, and that it might be held Loraine. He publicly denied that he in everlasting remembrance. They enemployed Papists: at the same time joyed keenly the very scandal which he privately sent to his generals direc- they gave. That the ancient constitutions to employ every Papist that tion and the public opinion of England would serve. He publicly took the were directly opposed to regicide made sacrament at Oxford, as a pledge that regicide seem strangely fascinating to a he never would even connive at Popery: party bent on effecting a complete pohe privately assured his wife, that he litical and social revolution. In order intended to tolerate Popery in England; to accomplish their purpose, it was and he authorised Lord Glamorgan to necessary that they should first break promise that Popery should be esta- in pieces every part of the machinery blished in Ireland. Then he attempted of the government; and this necessity to clear himself at his agent's expense. was rather agreeable than painful to Glamorgan received, in the royal hand- them. The Commons passed a vote

universal sentiment of the nation, the King should expiate his crimes with his blood. He for a time expected a death like that of his unhappy predecessors, Edward the Second and Richard the Second. But he was in no danger

writing, reprimands intended to be tending to accommodation with the read by others, and eulogies which King. The soldiers excluded the mawere to be seen only by himself. To jority by force. The Lords unanimously such an extent, indeed, had insincerity rejected the proposition that the King now tainted the King's whole nature, should be brought to trial. Their house that his most devoted friends could not was instantly closed. No court, known refrain from complaining to each other, to the law, would take on itself the with bitter grief and shame, of his office of judging the fountain of justice. crooked politics. His defeats, they A revolutionary tribunal was created. said, gave them less pain than his in- That tribunal pronounced Charles a trigues. Since he had been a prisoner, tyrant, a traitor, a murderer, and a there was no section of the victorious public enemy; and his head was His exeparty which had not been the object severed from his shoulders be- cution. both of his flatteries and of his machi-fore thousands of spectators, in front of nations: but never was he more un- the banqueting hall of his own palace. fortunate than when he attempted at In no long time it became manifest once to cajole and to undermine Crom-that those political and religious zealots,

well.

to whom this deed is to be ascribed, Cromwell had to determine whether had committed, not only a crime, but he would put to hazard the attachment an error. They had given to a prince, of his party, the attachment of his hitherto known to his people chiefly by army, his own greatness, nay his own his faults, an opportunity of displaying, life, in an attempt, which would pro- on a great theatre, before the eyes of bably have been vain, to save a prince all nations and all ages, some qualities whom no engagement could bind. With which irresistibly call forth the admimany struggles and misgivings, and ration and love of mankind, the high probably not without many prayers, spirit of a gallant gentleman, the pathe decision was made. Charles was tience and meekness of a penitent left to his fate. The military saints Christian. Nay, they had so contrived resolved that, in defiance of the old their revenge that the very man whose laws of the realm, and of the almost life had been a series of attacks on the

to

liberties of England now seemed to the great majority of the Roundheads, die a martyr in the cause of those the Anglican Church, the Presbyterian liberties. No demagogue ever produced Church, the Roman Catholic Church, such an impression on the public mind England, Scotland, Ireland. Yet such as the captive King, who, retaining in was his genius and resolution that he that extremity all his regal dignity, was able to overpower and crush everyand confronting death with dauntless thing that crossed his path, to make courage, gave utterance to the feelings himself more absolute master of his of his oppressed people, manfully re- country than any of her legitimate fused to plead before a court unknown Kings had been, and to make his to the law, appealed from military vio- country more dreaded and respected lence to the principles of the consti- than she had been during many genetution, asked by what right the House rations under the rule of her legitimate of Commons had been purged of its Kings. most respectable members and the England had already ceased House of Lords deprived of its legis- struggle. But the two other kingdoms lative functions, and told his weeping which had been governed by the Stuarts hearers that he was defending not only were hostile to the new republic. The his own cause, but theirs. His long Independent party was equally odious misgovernment, his innumerable per- to the Roman Catholics of Ireland and fidies, were forgotten. His memory to the Presbyterians of Scotland. Both was, in the minds of the great majority those countries, lately in rebellion of his subjects, associated with those against Charles the First, now acknowfree institutions which he had, during ledged the authority of Charles the many years, laboured to destroy: for Second. those free institutions had perished with him, and, amidst the mournful silence of a community kept down by arms, had been defended by his voice alone. From that day began a reaction in favour of monarchy and of the exiled house, a reaction which never ceased till the throne had again been set up in all its old dignity.

land and

But every thing yielded to the vigour and ability of Cromwell. In a Subjuga few months he subjugated Ire- tion of Ire land, as Ireland had never been Scotland. subjugated during the five centuries of slaughter which had elapsed since the landing of the first Norman settlers. He resolved to put an end to that conflict of races and religions which had At first, however, the slayers of the so long distracted the island, by making King seemed to have derived new the English and Protestant population energy from that sacrament of blood decidedly predominant. For this end by which they had bound themselves he gave the rein to the fierce enthuclosely together, and separated them-siasm of his followers, waged war reselves for ever from the great body of sembling that which Israel waged on their countrymen. England was de- the Canaanites, smote the idolaters with clared a commonwealth. The House of Commons, reduced to a small number of members, was nominally the supreme power in the state. In fact, the army and its great chief governed everything. Oliver had made his choice. He had kept the hearts of his soldiers, and had broken with almost every other class of his fellow citizens. Beyond the limits of his camps and fortresses he could scarcely be said to have a party. Those elements of force which, when the civil war broke out, had appeared arrayed against each other, were combined against him; all the Cavaliers,

the edge of the sword, so that great cities were left without inhabitants, drove many thousands to the Continent, shipped off many thousands to the West Indies, and supplied the void thus made by pouring in numerous colonists, of Saxon blood and of Calvinistic faith. Strange to say, under that iron rule, the conquered country began to wear an outward face of prosperity. Districts, which had recently been as wild as those where the first white settlers of Connecticut were contending with the red men, were in a few years transformed into the likeness of Kent and

Norfolk. New buildings, roads, and | The Speaker was pulled out of his chair, plantations were everywhere seen. The the mace taken from the table, the room rent of estates rose fast; and soon the English landowners began to complain that they were met in every market by the products of Ireland, and to clamour for protecting laws.

From Ireland the victorious chief, who was now in name, as he had long been in reality, Lord General of the armies of the Commonwealth, turned to Scotland. The young King was there. He had consented to profess himself a Presbyterian, and to subscribe the Covenant; and, in return for these concessions, the austere Puritans who bore sway at Edinburgh had permitted him to assume the crown, and to hold, under their inspection and control, a solemn and melancholy court. This mock royalty was of short duration. In two great battles Cromwell annihilated the military force of Scotland. Charles fled for his life, and, with extreme difficulty, escaped the fate of his father. The ancient kingdom of the Stuarts was reduced, for the first time, to profound submission. Of that independence, so manfully defended against the mightiest and ablest of the Plantagenets, no vestige was left. The English Parliament made laws for Scotland. English judges held assizes in Scotland. Even that stubborn Church, which has held its own against so many governments, scarce dared to utter an audible murmur.

cleared, and the door locked. The nation, which loved neither of the contending parties, but which was forced, in its own despite, to respect the capacity and resolution of the General, looked on with patience, if not with complacency.

King, Lords, and Commons, had now in turn been vanquished and destroyed; and Cromwell seemed to be left the sole heir of the powers of all three. Yet were certain limitations still imposed on him by the very army to which he owed his immense authority. That singular body of men was, for the most part, composed of zealous republicans. In the act of enslaving their country, they had deceived themselves into the belief that they were emancipating her. The book which they most venerated furnished them with a precedent which was frequently in their mouths. It was true that the ignorant and ungrateful nation murmured against its deliverers. Even so had another chosen nation murmured against the leader who brought it, by painful and dreary paths, from the house of bondage to the land flowing with milk and honey. Yet had that leader rescued his brethren in spite of themselves; nor had he shrunk from making terrible examples of those who contemned the proffered freedom, and pined for the fleshpots, the taskmasters, Thus far there had been at least the and the idolatries of Egypt. The obExpulsion semblance of harmony between ject of the warlike saints who surthe warriors who had subju-rounded Cromwell was the settlement liament, gated Ireland and Scotland and of a free and pious commonwealth. For the politicians who sate at West- that end they were ready to employ, minster: but the alliance which had without scruple, any means, however been cemented by danger was dissolved violent and lawless. It was not imby victory. The Parliament forgot that possible, therefore, to establish by their it was but the creature of the army. aid a dictatorship such as no King had The army was less disposed than ever ever exercised: but it was probable to submit to the dictation of the Par-that their aid would be at once withliament. Indeed the few members who made up what was contemptuously called the Rump of the House of Commons had no more claim than the military chiefs to be esteemed the representatives of the nation. The dispute was soon brought to a decisive issue. Cromwell filled the House with armed men.

of the

Long Par

drawn from a ruler who, even under strict constitutional restraints, should venture to assume the kingly name and dignity.

The sentiments of Cromwell were widely different. He was not what he had been; nor would it be just to consider the change which his views had

take any part in public affairs, would, when summoned to their House by the writ of a King in possession, gladly resume their ancient functions. Northumberland and Bedford, Manchester and Pembroke, would be proud to bear the crown and the spurs, the sceptre and the globe, before the restorer of aristocracy. A sentiment of loyalty would gradually bind the people to the new dynasty; and, on the decease of the founder of that dynasty, the royal dignity might descend with general acquiescence to his posterity.

undergone as the effect merely of selfish ambition. He had, when he came up to the Long Parliament, brought with him from his rural retreat little knowledge of books, no experience of great affairs, and a temper galled by the long tyranny of the government and of the hierarchy. He had, during the thirteen years which followed, gone through a political education of no common kind. He had been a chief actor in a succession of revolutions. He had been long the soul, and at last the head, of a party. He had commanded armies, won battles, negotiated The ablest Royalists were of opinion treaties, subdued, pacified, and regu- that these views were correct, and that, lated kingdoms. It would have been if Cromwell had been permitted to strange indeed if his notions had been follow his own judgment, the exiled still the same as in the days when his line would never have been restored. mind was principally occupied by his But his plan was directly opposed to fields and his religion, and when the the feelings of the only class which he greatest events which diversified the dared not offend. The name of King course of his life were a cattle fair or was hateful to the soldiers. Some of a prayer meeting at Huntingdon. He them were indeed unwilling to see the saw that some schemes of innovation administration in the hands of any for which he had once been zealous, single person. The great majority, whether good or bad in themselves, however, were disposed to support their were opposed to the general feeling of general, as elective first magistrate of the country, and that, if he persevered a commonwealth, against all factions in those schemes, he had nothing before which might resist his authority: but him but constant troubles, which must they would not consent that he should be suppressed by the constant use of assume the regal title, or that the digthe sword. He therefore wished to nity, which was the just reward of his restore, in all essentials, that ancient personal merit, should be declared constitution which the majority of the hereditary in his family. All that was people had always loved, and for which left to him was to give to the new rethey now pined. The course after-public a constitution as like the conwards taken by Monk was not open to Cromwell. The memory of one terrible day separated the great regicide for ever from the House of Stuart. What remained was that he should mount the ancient English throne, and reign according to the ancient English polity. If he could effect this, he might hope that the wounds of the lacerated State would heal fast. Great numbers of honest and quiet men would speedily rally round him. Those Royalists whose attachment was rather to institutions than to persons, to the kingly office than to King Charles the First or King Charles the Second, would soon kiss the hand of King Oliver. The peers, who now remained sullenly at their country houses, and refused to

stitution of the old monarchy as the army would bear. That his elevation to power might not seem to be merely his own act, he convoked a council, composed partly of persons on whose support he could depend, and partly of persons whose opposition he might safely defy. This assembly, which he called a Parliament, and which the populace nicknamed, from one of the most conspicuous members, Barebone's Parliament, after exposing itself during a short time to the public contempt, surrendered back to the General the powers which it had received from him, and left him at liberty to frame a plan of government.

His plan bore, from the first, a considerable resemblance to the old