Why is Cromwell contumeliously called the protector of an insect? Not, we presume, because he protected the Protestants against the sanguinary persecutions of the Duke of Savoy, and made France tremble at his threats. It was not his character to busy himself about little things: the insect of which he was the protector was the commonwealth of England; and to what effect its energies were roused and exerted under his auspices, all Europe testified.-Was he a 'savage?? Nature gave him no taste for blood; and the author of the passage which we are now noticing has himself enumerated, with just commendation, several instances during the civil wars in which he manifested a mild, liberal, and courteous behaviour towards the enemies whom he had subdued; at the capture of Devizes, for instance, of Berkeley Castle, Basing House, &c. If any particular allusion be intended by representing Cromwell as a savage presiding at a human massacre,' it can only refer, we imagine, to his conduct at the sieges of Drogheda and Wexford, which were the first towns in Ireland that experienced the vengeance of the republican arms after the death of Charles. Drogheda was garrisoned by two thousand infantry and one regiment of horse, the flower of the Irish army; and its fortifications were in such good repair that Sir Arthur Aston, the Governor, undertook to stop the farther progress of the enemy for that season of the year. Cromwell, however, obtained the town in the third assault, sword in hand, and inflicted on it a dreadful punishment by slaying the whole garrison and its inhabitants, except a small number who were sent to the English settlement at Barbadoes. Heaven forbid that we should be guilty of justifying so dreadful a massacre, or of exculpating the perpetrator: nothing can justify the one, and consequently nothing can exculpate the other. Conquerors, however, are never at a loss to excuse their own military severities; and it must be acknowleged that the barbarities committed by the Irish in the beginning of the Rebellion, and during the course of the war, excited such horror in every English heart, that even "the humane and gentle Fairfax" expressed in warm and severe terms his disapprobation at granting them quarter. Whether Cromwell intended by this execution to retaliate the cruelty of the Irish massacre, or whether (which seems more probable) it was for the purpose of terrifying all other garrisons from resistance, it leaves the stain of blood on his character. His barbarous policy in these instances, however, had the desired effect; for every town before which he presented himself afterward opened its gates without resistance, and the authority of the Duke of

Ormond

We

Ormond was in consequence absolutely annihilated. cannot think that Cromwell was by nature of a sanguinary disposition, and it is melancholy that he could have fancied so merciless an effusion of blood to be necessary. Many instances of his clemency are on record; and the Earl of Clarendon himself acknowleges that, when a general massacre of the Royalists was proposed in a council of officers, Oliver could never be brought to consent to it, but rejected with horror the atrocious suggestion. The author before us seems aware that some particular circumstances excited Cromwell to the severities to which we have just alluded. Being recalled from Ireland, Cromwell marched towards Scotland, where the young King" was reported to have landed.

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On his arrival at Berwick-upon-Tweed, the General published second declaration to the people of Scotland, recapitulating the arguments of the former; and, after taking notice of some aspersions unjustly cast upon his troops, assuring both the gentry and commonalty that he would not offer the least violence or injury to their persons, goods, or possessions, they being innocent in his opinion; and inviting them to stay and abide in their habitations, where, he tells them, they might and should enjoy what they had in peace. Nor were these empty professions; for, as upon a former occasion, he treated the unoffending inhabitants with all possible kindness, supplied even their wants, and most severely punished all who injured them. - Did he then use harshness towards none, but the Catholic and rebellious natives of every way unfortunate Ireland?'

-

Mr. Hume, it is well known, has made himself rather merry, and his readers also, by his critique on Cromwell's eloquence, and the specimen which he has given of it. The great defect, says that historian,-who in spite of his prejudices is never to be mentioned without the greatest respect, the great defect in Oliver's speeches consists not in his want of elocution, but in his want of ideas: the sagacity of his actions and the absurdity of his discourse form the most prodigious contrast that ever was known. The collection of all his speeches, letters, sermons, would make a great curiosity, and, with a few exceptions, might justly pass for one of the most nonsensical books in the world. (Hume, vol. vii. ch. 61.) — After the dissolution of the Long Parliament, which merits all and more than all the eulogy that has ever been bestowed on it, Cromwell summoned another; and, receiving the members in the Painted Chamber, he addressed them in a speech, a small portion of which we shall extract for the sake of a comment on the character of the Protector's eloquence which it gives the present writer an opportunity of making:

"When

"When this was so, (speaking of the late Parliament's resignation,) we were exceedingly to seek how to settle things for the future. My power, again, by this resignation, was as boundless and unlimited as before; all things being subjected to arbitrariness, and myself a person having power over the three nations, boundlessly, and unlimited; and, upon the matter, all government dissolved, all civil administrations at an end, &c.

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They (the ostensible framers of the instrument of government) told me, that except I would undertake this government, they thought things would hardly come to a composure and settlement; but blood and confusion would break in upon us. I denied it again and again, as God and those persons know; not complimentingly, as they also know, and as God knows. I confess, after many arguments, and after the letting of me know, that I did not receive any thing that put me into any higher capacity than I was in before, but that it limited me, and bound my hands to act nothing to the prejudice of these nations, without consent of a council, until the Parliament, and then limited by the Parliament, as the act of government expresseth, I did accept it. I might repeat this again to you if it were needful; but I think I need not. I was arbitrary in power, having the armies in the three nations under my command; and truly not very ill-beloved by them, nor very ill-beloved then by the people, by the good people; and I believe I should have been more, if they had known the truth, as things were before God, and in themselves, and before divers of those gentlemen I but now mentioned unto you."

'Some portions of this speech, which we might be warranted in supposing were more sincere, or which are less exceptionable, may not, perhaps, prove less interesting.

"This government (let men say what they will, I can speak with comfort before a greater than you all, as to my intentions, and let men judge out of the thing itself) is calculated for the in-` terest of the people, for their interest alone, and for their good, without respect had to any other interest. It hath endeavoured to reform the laws; it hath taken care to put into seats of justice men of the most known integrity and ability; it hath put a stop to that heady way, for every man that will to make himself a preacher; having endeavoured to settle a way for approbation of men of piety and fitness for the work; and the business committed to persons, both of the Presbyterian and Independent judgment, men of as known ability and integrity as (I suppose) any the nation hath; and who (I believe) have laboured to approve themselves to God, and their own consciences, in approving men to that great function. One thing more; it hath been instrumental to call a free parliament: blessed be God, we see here, this day, a free parliament; and that it may continue so, I hope is in the heart of every good man of England: for my own part, as I desired it above my life, so to keep it free I shall value it above my life.

"This is a narrative, that discovers to you the series of Providence, and of transactions leading me into this condition wherein I now stand. -I shall conclude with my persuasion to you, to

have a sweet, gracious, and holy understanding one of another, and put you in mind of the counsel you heard this day thereunto. And I desire you to believe, that I speak not to you as one that would be a lord over you, but as one that is resolved to be a fellow-servant with you to the interest of this great affair.”

In these passages, as the reader will see, nothing is ambiguously or imperfectly expressed; all is manly, candid, and (for the times) masterly; and, in fact, such was almost always the character of Cromwell's speeches, unless the statements he was under a conceived necessity to make in them were such, as, being opposed either to his conscience or his real judgment, were intentionally wrapped in words leading from a subject that it was not safe fully to unveil, and thus naturally produced hesitation, and a laboured circumlocutory method of expressing them. His assertion, that his government, up to that moment, had been calculated "for the interest of the people, for their interest alone, and for their good, without respect had to any other interest," was nearly literally true. It might not be too much to affirm, that never, since the days of Alfred, had a prince ruled over England who so conspicuously united in himself all the qualities of a great, wise, and good governor. The national character abroad had, under him, attained to an elevation it had never previously known; and yet, he had not been more distinguished for the daring and majestic attitude he assumed towards the rest of the world, than for his connecting with the prosecution of his warlike affairs the most exact and rigid economy. At the close of a civil war, in the course of which so many religious heats had been generated, and were yet far from having ceased to effervesce, he insisted upon the maintenance of a neutrality between the conflicting religious sects, by all to whom his authority could extend; and, though a zealous supporter of the Protestant interest thoughout Christendom, "he suspended penal laws against Romish priests, and protected several of them under his hand and seal;" and, indeed, bestowed marks of his favour upon all of that persuasion who fell in his way, and who appeared to deserve it. He had caused justice to be administered with undeviating impartiality; promoted learning and learned men; and more particularly regarded the welfare of the University of Oxford, of which he was Chancellor ; preferred men of ability and integrity to public employments and honourable offices, without respect to their religious creeds, provided that their practice appeared sincere; and scarcely enquiring even whether they were of his own political party, or royalists, or republicans, provided only that their demeanour was peaceable.'

For the sake of brevity, and because they do not refer to the subject immediately before us, we have been obliged to omit the notes attached to the above quotation, which contain much matter that is highly creditable to Cromwell's character. With respect to his eloquence, it is very much under-rated: when he had a plain story to tell, he could give it in a plain. intelligible manner, as in the present instance: on the con

trary,

trary, when he had any thing to conceal, to disguise, or to misrepresent, when his object was to confuse and perplex,no one will deny that the jargon which he used set the utmost subtlety of human intellect at defiance to unravel it. He could lead or mislead; could explain, or wrap in mystery most impenetrable! and is not this the very perfection of oratory? While the Protector argued in contradiction to his judgment and inclination, says Hume, it is no wonder that his elocution, always confused, embarrassed, and unintelligible, should be involved in tenfold darkness, and discover no glimmering of common sense or reason. We have seen that his elocution was not always unintelligible; it was involved in darkness only when he purposely extinguished the light.

Having so lately expatiated on the character and conduct of this extraordinary man in various periods of his political career, we may be excused from going over the ground again. The reader will find his history impartially detailed in the present volume; at the close of which is drawn a parallel of coincidences and contrasts between his character, actions, and fortunes, and those of another great and uncommon man, who lately finished his career on a barren rock: but the parallel is feebly executed.

ART. IV. The Croisade; or, the Palmer's Pilgrimage, a Metrical Romance. By Charles Kerr, Esq. 8vo. pp. 352. 10s. 6d. Boards. Hurst and Co. 1821.

THE

HE motto chosen for this work recalls to our remembrance, very forcibly, a valuable person now no more, to whom the cause of real scholarship was most largely indebted while he lived. We allude to the late Dr. George Heath, canon of Windsor, and formerly head-master of Eton school. It will be in the recollection of some of the numerous pupils of that excellent instructor, that the line in question,

"Triste sonant pulsa nostra testudine chorda,"

was, with a few others of similar strength and character, attributed playfully but not incongruously to Dr. G. H. in the "Pursuits of Literature." Much ill-nature, however, was mixed with the passage in which these peculiar Latin verses occurred; and, not liking such a style of talking on such matters as are there discussed, we do not think that we have referred to the lines for a long series of years: until the extraordinary quotation of one of them, as the motto of a ' Metrical Romance,' brought the whole circumstance to our minds,