peril. The voice of disaffection resounded in the camp. On one side were gathered the Anabaptists, with Harrison, once the staunchest and most intrepid friend of the Protector; on the other side lay the Royalists, ever ready to spring upon the uзurper. The political Argus needed all his hundred eyes.

Even in his chamber the sword hung over his head. But Cromwell possessed, in an eminent degree, that crowning quality of a soldier and a politician-decision of character. His sudden dissolution of the Parliament, in the January of 1655, was a master-blow of policy. By that single stroke he severed the head of the Opposition, and left it only a paralyzed and powerless body. It was well remarked by Warburton, that Cromwell is distinguished from other enslavers of their country; they vanquished it when sunk in luxury and pleasure; he, when every village swarmed with eager and undaunted champions. They crept upon her overcome with the weariness of voluptuous riot; he chained her awake and in perfect vigour. The shadow of his name was not confined to England. 'He had no sooner made himself sovereign,' said one who spoke with authority, though with something of hyperbolical praise, than all the kings of the earth prostrated themselves before him.' Mazarine flattered his ambassador, while the exiled Charles was treated with contempt; Spain congra

tulated him; Holland struck a medal in his honour; Sweden stretched out her arms to him; Italy, says Burnet, trembled at his name; the pride of the Osmanlis' bowed before him. For the sufferings of the church during the period of puritanical domination no heart bleeds more than mine. But let the saying of Montesquieu be remembered,-every religion which is persecuted, becomes itself persecuting; for the moment when by any accidental change of fortune it rises from the persecution, it attacks the religion from which that persecution came; not as a religion, but as a tyranny. It was not so much against the church, as against the intemperate zeal of her servants, that the fury of the people burst forth. Of the real sentiments of the Protector, it would be idle to attempt an examination in this place. It was the opinion of Baxter, who had the best means of forming a correct judgment, that at one period of his life, at least, he was sincere. But, sir, I believe that a thirst for personal aggrandizement never yet accompanied true religion. The Christian aims at power-if he aim at it at all-not for his own sake but for others. Cromwell might, at some seasons, have been influenced by religious feelings; but the great Idol of his heart was Ambition; this, like the Ur of the Chaldeans, devoured all the rest. The greatness of his character every one must admit. The drama in which he played so terrible

a part closed as it opened. Cromwell on his deathbed was the Cromwell of Marston-Moor. The eyes of the dying man rested with feverish anxiety upon that Pillar of Renown, which he had erected at such a fearful cost. His last dreams were of glory; his last thoughts upon the opinions of Posterity."

LORD STRAFFORD.

"WHO ever dashed himself with a more reckless madness from the golden pinnacles of a high and noble fortune, than this Apostate from the Commonwealth of England? He appears to have been in politics what his friend Laud was in religion; equally impetuous, equally haughty, equally careless of consequences.. The Strafford Letters might be called the Confessions of a Tyrant. There we see the qualities of his mind depicted as clearly as the dark pencil of Vandyke has written them upon canvass. This overbearing arrogance was the characteristic of his associates; and they became its first victims. They despised the lawyers, and the Church fell by the Law. The phantastic apparitions of Prynne and of Eliot*, from which they

* See the Strafford Letters.

thought it the meanest folly in the world to start aside, were among the most terrible appearances that glared upon them in their night of danger and of death.

"Strafford was the victim of a pusillanimous master. What a subject for an historical picture is furnished by the visit of the Secretary Carleton to the chamber of this unfortunate minister, for the purpose of communicating to him the king's signature of the bill. His incredulity, his confidence in the promise of the monarch, and then his final conviction of his Master's weakness; his uplifted eyes, his hand upon his heart, and that indignant exclamation of scorn and sorrow, Put not your trust in Princes, nor in the sons of men, for in them there is no salvation. Here are hints for a painter, if, indeed, his trial do not offer a still more inspiring theme. The power of his mind and the invincible strength of his courage, supported him to the end. During seventeen days, under all the depression of sickness, and in the midst of relentless and triumphant enemies, he continued to defend himself with undaunted valour.

"Sir John Denham, in his noble verses, has worthily recorded this heroic and affecting behaviour.

While single he stood forth, and seemed although Each had an army, as an equal foe,

Such was his force of eloquence, to make

The hearers more concerned than he that spake:
Each seemed to act that part he came to see,
And none was more a looker-on than he;

So did he move our passions, some were known
To wish for the defence, the crime, their own.
Now private pity strove with public hate,
Reason with rage, and eloquence with fate.

"Thus much I have felt myself bound to declare respecting this extraordinary individual. Would that I could love his character as I admire his genius! But I have done. Far from me, and from this assembly, be the impious bigotry which delights to dig up the skeletons of the departed, only to mutilate and insult them. Never-never— shall the rabid fierceness of polemical hatred cheer me on to such a desecration of the grave; never— never-will I forget what I owe to the cause of truth, and the sanctity of our Faith. I will strip the dead of nothing but their arms.”