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other instruments for carrying on his work.", Sir Harry Vane exclaiming against this proceeding, he cried with a loud voice, "O Sir Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane, the Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane." Taking hold of Martin by the cloak, "Thou art a whoremaster," said he. To another, "Thou art an adulterer." To a third, "Thou art a drunkard and a glutton. And thou an extortioner," to a fourth. He commanded a soldier to seize the mace. "What shall we do with this bauble? here, take it away." It is you," said he, addressing himself to the house, "that have forced me upon this. I have sought the Lord day and night, that he would rather slay me than put me upon this work." Having commanded the soldiers to clear the hall, he himself went out the last, and, ordering the doors to be locked, departed to his lodging in Whitehall.

In this furious manner, which so well denotes his genuine character, did Cromwell (says Hume) without the least opposition, or even murmur, annihilate that famous assembly which had filled all Europe with the renown of its actions, and with astonishment at its crimes, and whose commencement was not desired more ardently by the people than was its final dissolution. All parties now reaped successively the melancholy pleasure of seeing the injuries which they had suffered revenged on their enemies; and that too by the same arts which had been practised against them. The King had, in some instances, stretched his prerogative beyond its just bounds; and, aided by the church, had well nigh put an end to all the liberties and privileges of the nation. The Presbyterians checked the progress of the court and clergy, and excited, by cant and hypocrisy, the populace, first to tumults, then to war, against the King, the Peers, and all the Royalists. No sooner had they reached the pinnacle of grandeur, than the Independents, under the appearance of still greater sanctity, instigated the army against them, and reduced them to subjection. The Inde

pendents, amidst their empty dreams of liberty, or rather of dominion, were oppressed by the rebellion of their own servants, and found themselves at once exposed to the insults of power and the hatred of the people. We may add here a reflection, that by recent, as well as all ancient example, it has become evident that illegal violence, with whatever pretences it may be covered, and whatever objects it may purane, must inevitably end at last in the arbitrary and despotic government of a single person.

One of the first measures of Cromwell was to call a Parliament of his own. In this assembly there were some persons of the rank of gentlemen; but the far greater part were low mechanics; fifth, monarchy men, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Independents; the very dregs of the fanatics. They began with seeking the Lord with prayer. This office was performed by eight or ten gifted men of the assembly; and with so much success, that according to the confession of all, they had never before, in any of their devotional exercises, enjoyed so much of the holy spirit as was then communicated to them. Among the fanatics of the House, there was an active member, much noted for his long prayers, sermons, and harrangues, who took upon himself the appellation of Praise God Barebone. This ridiculous name, which one would almost imagine had been chosen by some wicked wit to suit so ridiculous a personage, struek the fancy of the people; and they commonly affixed to this assembly the appellation of Barebone's Parlia ment.

After setting about four months, without passing any extraordinary laws, except that which established the legal solemnization of marriage by the civil magistrate alone, without the interposition of the clergy, this Parliament, with Rouse their Speaker at their head, waited on Cromwell, and formally assigned their anthority into his hands. Some of them remained behind in the house, and wanted to protest against this act of

the majority, but they were interrupted by Colonel White, with a party of soldiers, who asked them what they did there? "We are seeking the Lord," said they. "Then you may elsewhere," replied he: "for to my certain knowledge he has not been here these many years.

Cromwell was now proclaimed Lord Protector, and invested with all the regal prerogatives. He had the absolute direction of the army and navy, the appointment of officers: he coined money with his effigy; summoned a Parliament; created Feers; and in all things acted like a crowned head, though in all public deeds the name of the commonwealth was still preserved.

The writers, attached to the memory of Cromwell, make his character, with regard to abilities, bear the air of the most extravagant panegyric: his enemies form such a representation of his moral qualities as resembles the most virulent invective. Both of them, it must be confessed, are supported by such striking cirenmstances in his conduct and fortune as bestow on their representation a great air of probability. "What can be more extraordinary (says Cowley), than that a person of private birth and education, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body which have sometimes, no shining talents of mind which have often, raised men to the highest dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the abilities to execute, so extraordinary a design as the subverting one of the most ancient and best established monarchies in the world? that he should have the power and boldness to put his prince and master to an infamous death? should banish that numerous and strongly allied family? cover all these temerities under seeming obedience to Parliament, in whose service he pretended to he retained? trample too upon that Parliament in their turn, and scornfully expel them so soon as they gave him ground of dis satisfaction: erect in their place the dominion of the saints, and give reality to the most visionary idea,

which the heated imagination of any fanatic was ever able to entertain? suppress again that monster in its infancy, and openly set himself up above all things that were ever called sovereign in England? overcome, first, all his enemies by arms, and all his friends afterwards by artifice? serve all parties patiently for a while, and command them victoriously at last! overrun each corner of the three nations, and subdue with equal felicity both the riches of the south, and the poverty of the north? be feared and courted by all foreign princes, and be adopted a brother to the gods of the earth? call together Parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter them again with the breath of his mouth? reduce to subjection a warlike and discontented nation, by means of a mutinous army? command a mutinous army by means of seditious and factious officers? be humbly and daily petitioned, that he would be pleased, at the rate of a million a year, to be hired as master of those who had hired him before to be their servant? have the estates and lives of three nations ás much at his disposal as was once the little inheritance of his father, and be as noble and liberal in the spending of them? and, lastly; (for there is no end of enumerating every particular of his glory) with one word bequeath all his power and splendor to his posterity? be buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity? and leave a name behind him not to be extinguished but with the whole world; which as it was too little for his praise, so it might have been for his conquests, if the short line of his mortal life could have stretched out to the extent of his immortal designs."

On the death of Cromwell, on the 3d of September 1658, his eldest son Richard succeeded him in the Protectorship, and received addresses of congratulation from all parts of the kingdom. Historians have represented him as a man of a gentle, humane, and generons disposition, without the least tincture of his father's dissimulation or spirit. The republican party, whom

the firmness of Oliver had repressed, now began to fortn eabals, and, joining with the factious officers of the army, voted a remonstrance, lamenting that the good old cause was entirely neglected. Richard, who was no fanatic, disregarded this remonstrance; and soon after gave them additional grounds of discontent, for murmurs being thrown out against some promotions he had made, "Would you have me," said he, "prefer none but the godly? Here is Dick Ingoldsby," continued he, "who can neither pray nor preach; yet I will trust him before you all." The saints were so severely stung with this sarcasm, that they immediately set about the dismission of Richard, and having prevailed on him to dissolve the parliament, on which alone he could have relied for assistance, three days afterwards they compelled him to sign his resignation.

Of the events which led to the overthrow of the fluctuating governments, cabals, and parties, that succeeded each other so rapidly after the dismission of Richard, and in a few months led to the restoration of the royal family, the reader will find so ample an account in Canto II. Part HI. and the notes attached to it, that it would be superfluous here to enlarge upon them.

The object of this discourse is not so much to write. the history of those times, as to give detached views of individuals, and sketches of the character of the age. Butler is sometimes neglected as an obscure writer, because the vices and follies which he lashed are almost forgotten. Indeed it is scarcely possible to understand his humour without a very intimate acquaintance with the transactions of the era in which he lived. When that is attained, every difficulty then vanishes, and we no longer doubt the resemblance of the pictures he has drawn.

The philosophic Hume, speaking of the state of manners and arts under the commonwealth, says, "No people could undergo a change more sudden and entire in their manners than did the English nation during this period. From tranquillity, coucord, sub

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