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While Cromwell was thus completing his usurpation over his fellow-subjects, he did not neglect the honour or the interests of the nation. did England appear more formidable than during his administration. fleet of a hundred sail was fitted out, under the command of Monk and Dean. They met with the Dutch fleet, equally numerous, near the coast of Flanders; and the officers and seamen on both sides, fired with emulation, and animated with the desire of remaining sole lords of the ocean, disputed the victory with the most fierce and obstinate courage. Though Dean was killed in the heat of the action, the Dutch were obliged to retire, with great loss, after a battle of two days; and as Blake had joined his countrymen with eighteen sail, towards the close of the engagement, the English fleet lay off the coast of Holland, and totally interrupted the commerce of the republic.

But the states made one effort more to retrieve the honour of the flag; and never, on any occasion, did their vigour appear more conspicuous. They not only repaired and manned their fleet in a few weeks, but launched and rigged some ships of a larger size than any they had hitherto sent to sea. With this new armament Tromp issued forth, determined again to fight the victors, and to die rather than yield the contest. He soon met with the English fleet, commanded by Monk; both sides rushed into the combat; and the battle raged from morning till night, without any sensible advantage in favour of either party. Next day the action was continued, and the setting sun beheld the contest undecided. The third morning the struggle was renewed; and victory seemed still doubtful, when Tromp, while gallantly animating his men, with his sword drawn, was shot through the heart with a musket ball. That event at once decided the sovereignty of the ocean. The Dutch lost thirty ships; and were glad to purchase a peace, by yielding to the English the honour of the flag, and making such other concessions as were required of them.(1)

This successful conclusion of the Dutch war, which strengthened Cromwell's authority both at home and abroad, encouraged him to summon a free parliament, according to the stipulation in the instrument of government. He took the precaution, however, to exclude all the royalists who had borne arms for the king, and all their sons. Thirty members were returned from Scotland, and as many from Ireland. But the protector was soon made sensible, that even this circumscribed freedom of election was incompatible with his usurped dominion. The new parliament began its deliberations with questioning his right to that authority which he had assumed over the nation. Cromwell saw his mistake, and endeavoured to correct it. Enraged at the refractory spirit of the commons, he sent for them to the painted chamber; where, after inveighing against their conduct, and endeavouring to show the absurdity of disputing the legality of that instrument by which they themselves were convoked, he required them to sign a recognition of his authority, and an engagement not to propose or consent to any alteration in the government, as it was settled in a single person and a parliament: and he placed guards at the door of the lower house, who allowed none but subscribers to enter.(2) Most of the members, after some hesitation, submitted to this despotism; but retained, notwithstanding, the same independent spirit which they had discovered at their first meeting. Cromwell, therefore, found it necessary to put an end to their debates. He accordingly dissolved the parliament, before it had sat five months-the time prescribed by that instrument of government which he had lately sworn to observe.

The discontents of the parliament communicated themselves to the nation; sir Henry Vane and the old republicans, who maintained the indissoluble authority of the long parliament, encouraged the murmurs against the protector; and the royalists, observing the general dissatisfaction, without considering the diversity of parties, thought every one had embraced the same views with themselves. They accordingly entered into a conspiracy throughout every part of England; and the most sanguine hopes were enter

(1 Whitlocke. Clarendon

(2) Thurloe, vol. ii.

tained of success. But Cromwell, having information of their purpose, was enabled effectually to defeat it. Many of them were immediately thrown into prison, and the rest were generally discouraged from rising. In one place only the conspiracy broke out into action. Jones, Penruddock, and other gentlemen of the west, proclaimed the king at Salisbury; but they received no accession of force equal to their expectations, and were soon suppressed. The chief conspirators were capitally punished: the lower class were sold for slaves, and transported to Barbadoes.(1)

The early suppression of this conspiracy more firmly established the protector's authority. It at once showed the turbulent spirit and the impotence of his enemies, and afforded him a plausible pretext for all his tyrannical severities. He resolved no longer to keep any terms with the royalists. With consent of his council, he therefore issued an edict for exacting the tenth penny from the whole party: and in order to raise that imposition, which commonly passed by the name of decimation, he constituted twelve majorgenerals, and divided the whole kingdom of England into so many military jurisdictions.(2) These officers, assisted by commissioners, had power to subject whom they pleased to decimation, to levy all the taxes imposed by the protector and his council, and to imprison any person who should be exposed to their jealousy or suspicion. They acted as if absolute masters of the liberty and property of every English subject and all reasonable men were now made sensible, that the nation was cruelly subjected to a military and despotic government.

That government, however, directed by the vigorous spirit of Cromwell, gave England a degree of consequence among the European powers which it had never enjoyed since the days of Elizabeth. France and Spain at the same time courted the alliance of the protector; and had Cromwell understood and regarded the interests of his country, it has been said he would have endeavoured to preserve that balance of power, on which the welfare of England so much depends, by supporting the declining condition of Spain against the dangerous ambition and rising greatness of the house of Bourbon.(3) But the protector's politics, though sound, were less extensive. An invasion from France, in favour of the royal family, which he had reason to apprehend, or a rupture with that court, he foresaw might prove ruinous to his authority, in the present dissatisfied state of England. From Spain he had nothing of equal danger to fear; while he was tempted to begin hostilities, by the prospect of making himself master of her most valuable possessions in the West Indies, as well as of her plate fleets, by means of the superiority of his naval force. He therefore entered into a negotiation with Mazarine, who, as a sacrifice to the jealous pride of the usurper, gave the English princes notice to leave France. They retired to Cologne: and a closer alliance was afterward concluded between the rival powers; in consequence of which, England, as we have already seen, obtained possession of Dunkirk.

Having resolved on a war with Spain, Cromwell fitted out two formidable fleets, while the neighbouring states, ignorant of his intentions, remained in anxious suspense, no one being able to conjecture where the blow would fall. One of these fleets, consisting of thirty ships of the line, he sent into the Mediterranean, under the famous admiral Blake; who, casting anchor before Leghorn, demanded and obtained, from the duke of Tuscany, reparation for some injuries which the English commerce had formerly sustained from that prince. Blake next sailed to Algiers, and compelled the dey to restrain his piratical subjects from further depredations on the English. He presented himself also before Tunis; and having there made the same demand, the dey of that place desired him to look to the castles of Porto Farino and Goletta, and do his utmost. Blake, who needed little to be roused by such a defiance, drew his ships close up to the castles, and tore them in pieces with his artillery; while he sent a detachment of sailors in long-boats

(1) Whitlocke. Clarendon."

(2) Parl. Hist. vol. XX.

(3) Hume, vol. vii

into the harbour, and burned every ship that lay there. The coasts of the Mediterranean, from one extremity to the other, rung with the renown of English valour; and no power, Christian or Mahometan, dared to oppose the victorious Blake.

The other fleet, commanded by admiral Penn, and which had four thousand troops on board, under the direction of general Venables, sailed for the West Indies; where Venables was reinforced with near five thousand militia, from the islands of Barbadoes and St. Christopher. The object of the enterprise was the conquest of Hispaniola, the most valuable island in the American Archipelago. The commanders accordingly resolved to begin with the attack of St. Domingo, the capital, and at that time the only place of strength in the island. On the approach of the English fleet, the intimidated Spaniards abandoned their habitations, and took refuge in the woods; but observing that the troops were imprudently landed at a great distance from the town, and seemed unacquainted with the country, they recovered their spirits, and falling upon the bewildered invaders, when exhausted with hunger, thirst, and a fatiguing march of two days, in that sultry climate, they put the whole English army to flight, killed six hundred men, and chased the rest on board their ships.(1) In order to atone for this failure, Penn and Venables bent their course to Jamaica, which was surrendered to them without opposition: yet, on their return to England, the protector, in the first emotions of his disappointment, ordered them both to be sent to the tower. But Cromwell, although ignorant of the importance of the conquest he had made, took care to support it with men and money;(2) and Jamaica became a valuable accession to the English monarchy.

No sooner was the king of Spain informed of these unprovoked hostilities than he declared war against England, and ordered all the ships and goods belonging to the English merchants to be seized throughout his extensive dominions. The Spanish commerce, so profitable to England, was cut off, and an incredible number of vessels fell into the hands of the enemy. Nor were the losses of the Spaniards less considerable. An English squadron, being sent to cruise off Cadiz for the plate fleet, took two galleons richly laden, and set on fire two others, which had run on shore. (3) This success proved an incentive to a bolder, though a less profitable, enterprise. Blake, having got intelligence that a Spanish fleet of sixteen sail, much richer than the former, had taken shelter among the Canaries, immediately steered his course thither; and found them in the bay of Santa Cruz, in a very strong posture of defence. The bay was secured by a formidable castle and seven inferior forts, in different parts of it, all united by a line of communication. Don Diego Diagues, the Spanish admiral, had moored his smaller vessels near the shore, and stationed the larger galleons farther out, with their broadsides to the sea. Rather animated than intimidated by this hostile appearance, Blake, taking advantage of a favourable wind, sailed full into the bay, and soon found himself in the midst of his enemies. After an obstinate dispute, the Spaniards abandoned their galleons, which were set on fire, and consumed with all their treasure; and the wind fortunately shifting, while the English fleet lay exposed to the fire of the castle and of all the other forts, Blake was enabled to weather the bay, and left the Spaniards in astonishment at his successful temerity.(4)

These vigorous exertions rendered Cromwell's authority equally respected at home and abroad: and to his honour it must be owned, that his domestic administration was as mild and equitable as his situation would permit. He again ventured to summon the parliament; but not trusting, as formerly, to

(1) Burchet's Naval History. Thurloe, vol. iii.

(4) Burchet, ubi sup. This was the last and greatest action of this gallant naval commander, who died in his way home. He was, by principle, an inflexible republican; and zeal for the interests of his country only made him serve under the usurper. Though past fifty years of age before he entered into military service of any kind, and near sixty before he commanded at sea, he raised the naval glory of England to a greater height than it had ever attained to in any former period. Cromwell, fully sensible of his merit, ordered him a pompous funeral at the public expense; and people of all parties, by their tears, bore testimony to his valour, generosity, and public spirit. Life of Admiral Blake, by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Lives of the Admirals, vol. ii.

the good-will of the people, he employed all his influence to fill the house with his own creatures, and even placed guards at the door, who permitted none to enter but such as produced a warrant from his council. A majority in favour of the protector being procured by these undue means, a motion was made for investing him with the dignity of king; and notwithstanding the opposition of the republicans, a bill to this purpose was voted, and a committee appointed to reason with him, in order to overcome his pretended scruples. The conference lasted for several days; and although Cromwell's inclination, as well as his judgment, was wholly on the side of the committee, he found himself obliged to refuse so tempting an offer. Not only the ambitious Lambert, and other officers of the army, were prepared to mutiny on such a revolution, the protector saw himself ready to be abandoned even by those who were most intimately connected with him by family interest. Fleetwood, who had married his daughter, and Desborow, his brother-in-law, actuated merely by principle, declared, if he accepted the crown, that they would instantly throw up their commissions, and should never have it in their power to serve him more.(1)

Cromwell having thus rejected the regal dignity, his friends in parliament found themselves obliged to retain the name of a commonwealth and protector; and as the government was hitherto a manifest usurpation, it was thought proper to sanctify it by a seeming choice of the people and their representatives. A new political system, under the name of An humble Petition and Advice, was accordingly framed by the parliament, and presented to the protector. It differed very little from the Instrument of Government; but that being the work of the general officers only, was now represented as a rotten plank, upon which no man could trust himself with safety. Cromwell, therefore, accepted the humble petition and advice, as the voluntary deed of the whole people of the three united nations; and was anew inaugurated in Westminster-hall, with great pomp and ceremony, as if his power had just taken its rise from this popular instrument.(2)

Emboldened by the appearance of legal authority, the protector deprived Lambert and other factious officers of their commissions. Richard, his eldest son, a man of the most inoffensive, unambitious character, who had hitherto lived contentedly in the country, on a small estate, which he inherited in right of his wife, was now brought to court, introduced to public business, and generally regarded as heir to the protectorship. But the government was yet by no means settled. Cromwell, in consequence of that authority with which he was vested by the humble petition and advice, having summoned a house of peers, or persons who were to act in that capacity, soon found that he had lost his authority among the national representatives, by exalting so many of his friends and adherents to the higher assembly. A decided majority, in the house of commons refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of that other house, which he had established, and even questioned the legality of the authority by which it was constituted; as the humble petition and advice had been voted by a parliament, which lay under constraint, and was deprived by military force of a considerable number of its members. Dreading a combination between the commons and the malecontents in the army, the protector, with many expressions of anger and disappointment, dissolved the parliament.(3) When entreated by Fleetwood, and others of his friends, not to precipitate himself into so rash a measure, he swore by the living God that they should not sit a moment longer, be the consequences what they might.

This violent breach with the parliament left Cromwell no hopes of ever being able to establish, with general consent, a legal settlement, or to temper the military with any mixture of civil authority and to increase his uneasiness, a conspiracy was formed against him by the millenarians in the army, under the conduct of Harrison and other discarded officers of that party. The royalists, too, in conjunction with the heads of the presbyterians, were encouraged to attempt an insurrection. Both these conspiracies, by his vigi

(1) Thurloe, vol. vi. Ludlow, vol. ii. Burnet, vol. i. (2) Whitlocke. Clarendon. (3) Id. ibid

lance and activity, the protector was enabled to quell; but the public discontents were so great, that he was under continual apprehensions of assassina tion. He never moved a step without strong guards: he wore armour under his clothes, and farther secured himself by offensive weapons. He returned from no place by the direct road, or by the same way which he went : he performed every journey with hurry and precipitation: he seldom lay above three nights together in the same chamber, and he never let it be known beforehand in which he intended to pass the night; nor did he trust himself in any that was not provided with a back-door, where sentinels were carefully placed.(1) Equally uneasy in society and solitude, the protector's body began to be affected by the perturbation of his mind, and his health seemed visibly to decline. He was seized with a slow fever, which changed into a tertian ague, attended with dangerous symptoms; and he, at length, saw the necessity of turning his eye towards that future state of existence, the idea of which had at one time been intimately present to him, though lately somewhat obscured by the projects of ambition, the agitation of public affairs, and the pomp of worldly greatness. Conscious of this, he anxiously asked Goodwin, one of his favourite chaplains, if it was certain that the elect could never suffer a final reprobation. "On that you may with confidence rely," said Goodwin. "Then I am safe," replied Cromwell; " for I am sure that I once was in a state of grace!" Elated by new visitations and assurances, he began to believe his life out of all danger, notwithstanding the opinion of the most experienced physicians to the contrary. "I tell you," cried he to them, with great emotion," I tell you I shall not die of this distemper! Favourable answers have been returned from heaven, not only to my own supplications, but also to those of the godly, who carry on a more intimate correspondence with the Lord."(2)

Notwithstanding this spiritual consolation, which proves that Cromwell, to the last, was no less an enthusiast than a hypocrite, his disorder put a period to his life and his fanatical illusions, while his inspired chaplains were employed in returning thanks to Providence for the undoubted pledges which they received of his recovery (3)—and on the third of September, the day that had always been esteemed so fortunate to him, being the anniversary of the battles of Dunbar and Worcester. The most striking features of his character I have already had occasion to delineate, in tracing the progress of his ambition. It can, therefore, only be necessary here to combine the separate sketches, and conclude with some general remarks.

Oliver Cromwell, who died in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and who had risen from a private station to the absolute sovereignty of three ancient kingdoms, was of a robust but ungraceful make, and of a manly but clownish and disagreeable aspect. The vigour of his genius and the boldness of his spirit, rather than the extent of his understanding or the lustre of his accomplishments, first procured him distinction among his countrymen, and afterward made him the terror and admiration of Europe. His abilities, however, had been much overrated. Fortune had a considerable share in his most successful violences. The self-denying ordinance, and the conscientious weakness of Fairfax, led him, by easy steps, to the supreme command; and the enthusiastic folly of the covenanters served to confirm his usurped authority. But that authority could neither be acquired nor preserved without talents and Cromwell was furnished with those that were admirably suited to the times in which he lived, and to the part he was destined to act. He possessed, in an eminent degree, the power of discerning the characters of men, and the rare felicity of employing their abilities to advantage; of discovering the motives of others, and of concealing his own; of blending the wildest fanaticism with the most profound policy; of reconciling a seeming incoherence of ideas with the most prompt and decisive measures, and of com

(1) Ludlow. Whitlocke. Bates.

(2) Bates. Sce also Thurloe, vol. vii.

(3) Id. ibid. Goodwin, who but a few minutes before the protector expired, says Burnet, had pretended to assure the people, in a prayer, that he was not to die, had afterward the impudence to say to God, "Thou hast deceived us! and we are deceived!" Hist, of his Own Time, vol. i.