manding the highest respect amid the coarsest familiarity.(1) By these talents, together with a coincidence of interests, he was able to attach and to manage the military fanatics; and by their assistance, to subdue the parliament, and to tyrannise over the three kingdoms. But in all this there was nothing extraordinary; for an army is so forcible, and at the same time so rude a weapon, that any hand which wields it may, without much dexterity, perform any operation, and attain any ascendant in human society.(2) The moral character of Cromwell is by no means so exceptionable as it is generally represented. On the contrary, it is truly surprising, how he could temper such violent ambition, and such enraged fanaticism, with so much regard to justice and humanity. Even the murder of the king, his most atrocious measure, was to him covered under a cloud of republican and fanatical illusions; and it is possible that, like many others concerned in it, he considered it as the most meritorious action of his life. For it is the peculiar characteristic of fanaticism to give a sanction to any measure, however cruel and unjust, that tends to promote its own interests, which are supposed to be the same with those of the Deity; and to which, consequently, all moral obligations ought to give place.

LETTER X.

The Commonwealth of England, from the Death of the Protector to the
Restoration of the Monarchy.

It was generally believed, that Cromwell's arts and policy were exhausted with his life; that having so often, by fraud and false pretences, deceived every party, and almost every individual, he could not much longer have maintained his authority. And when the potent hand, which had hitherto conducted the government of the commonwealth, was removed, every one expected that the unwieldy and ill-constructed machine would fall to pieces. All Europe, therefore, beheld with astonishment his son Richard, an inexperienced and unambitious man, quietly succeed to the protectorship. The council recognised his authority: his brother Henry, who governed Ireland with popularity, ensured him the obedience of that kingdom; and Monk, who still possessed the chief command in Scotland, and who was much attached to the family of Cromwell, there proclaimed the new protector without opposition. The fleet, the army, acknowledged his title: he received congratu

(1) Among his ancient friends, we are told, he would frequently relax himself by trifling amusements -by jesting, or making burlesque verses: and that he sometimes pushed matters to the length of rustic buffoonery and horse-play; such as putting burning coals into the boots and hose of the officers who attended him, blacking their faces, or throwing cushions at them, which they did not fail to return.— (Whitlocke. Ludlow. Bates.) We are also informed by the same authors, that when he had any par ticular point to gain with the army, it was usual for him to take some of the most popular sergeants and corporals to bed with him, and to ply them there with prayers and religious discourses.

(2) Mr. Cowley expresses himself admirably on this subject. "If craft be wisdom, and dissimulation wit," says he, "I must not deny Cromwell to have been singular in both: but so gross was the manner in which he made use of them, that, as wise men ought not to have believed him at first, so no man was fool enough to believe him at last; neither did any man seem to do it, but those who thought they gained as much by their dissembling as he did by bis. His very actings of godliness grew at last so ridiculous, as if a player, by putting on a gown, should think that he excellently represented a woman, though his beard at the same time were seen by all the spectators. If you ask me why they did not hiss and explode him off the stage, I can only answer, that they durst not do so; because the actors and the doorkeepers were too strong for the company." (Discourse concerning the government of Oliver Cromwell.) The military establishment, during Cromwell's administration, seldom consisted of less than forty thousand men. The foot soldiers had commonly a shilling, and the horsemen two shillings and sixpence a day. (Thurloe, vol. i. p. 395, vol. ii. p. 414. This desirable maintenance, at a time when living was much cheaper than at present, induced the sons of farmers and small freeholders to enlist in the army, and proved a better security to the protector's authority, than all his canting, praying, and insidious policy. Men who followed so gainful a profession were naturally attached to the person who encouraged it, and averse against the re-establishment of civil government, which would render it unnecessary.

Cromwell is said to have expended sixty thousand pounds annually, in procuring private intelligence; and it was long supposed that he was intimately acquainted with the secret councils of all the courts of Europe; but since the publication of Thurloe's State Papers, it appears that this money was chiefly employed in procuring information of the intrigues of the royalists, and that the protector had little intelligence of foreign councils, except those of Holland, which are not expected to be concealed.

latory addresses from the counties and most considerable corporations, in terms of the most dutiful allegiance, and foreign ministers were forward in paying him the usual compliments; so that Richard, whose moderate temper would have led him to decline any contest for empire, was tempted to accept of a sovereignty which seemed tendered to him by universal consent.

But this consent, as Richard had soon after occasion to experience, was only a temporary acquiescence, until each party could concert measures, and act effectually for its own interest. On the meeting of the parliament, which it was found necessary to summon, in order to furnish supplies, the new protector found himself involved in inextricable difficulties. The most considerable officers of the army, and even Fleetwood his brother-in-law, and Desborow his uncle, who were extremely attached to republican principles, if not to the fifth monarchy or dominion of the saints, began to enter into cabals against him. Overton, Ludlow, Rich, and other officers whom Oliver had discarded, again made their appearance, and also declaimed against the dignity of protector; but above the rest, Lambert, who was now roused from his retreat, inflamed by his intrigues all those dangerous humours, and threatened the nation with some great convulsion.(1) As the discontented officers usually met at Fleetwood's apartments, the party was denominated, from the place where he lived, The Cabal of Wallingford-house.

Richard, who possessed neither vigour nor superior discernment, was prevailed upon, amid these commotions, to give his consent inadvertently to the calling of a general council of officers, who might make him proposals, as was pretended, for the good of the army. But they were no sooner assembled than they voted a remonstrance, in which they lamented that the good old cause, as they termed it, was utterly neglected; and proposed, as a remedy, that the whole military power should be vested in some person in whom they could all,confide. The protector was justly alarmed at these military cabals, and the commons had no less reason to be so. They accordingly voted, that there should be no future meeting or general council of officers, except with the protector's consent, or by his orders. This vote brought matters to extremity. The officers hastened to Richard, and rudely demanded the dissolution of the parliament. Unable to resist, and wanting resolution to deny, the protector complied with their request. With the parliament his authority was supposed to expire, and he soon after signed his resignation in form. His brother Henry, though endowed with more abilities, also quietly resigned the government of Ireland. (2) Thus, my dear Philip, fell from an enormous height, but, by rare fortune, without bloodshed, the family of the Cromwells, to that humble station from which they had risen. Richard withdrew to his estate in the country; and as he had done hurt to no man, so no man ever attempted to hurt him:(3) a striking instance, as Burnet remarks, of the instability of human greatness, and of the security of innocence!

The council of officers, being now possessed of supreme authority, began to deliberate what form of government they should establish. Many of them seemed inclined to exercise the power of the sword in the most open manner; but as it was apprehended the people would with difficulty be induced to pay taxes levied by arbitrary will and pleasure, it was thought safer to preserve some shadow of civil authority. They accordingly agreed to revive the rump, or that remnant of the long parliament which had been expelled by Cromwell; in hopes that these members, having already felt their own

(2) Id. ibid.

(1) Whitlocke. Ludlow. (3) Even after the restoraton he remained unmolested. He thought proper, however, to travel for some years; and had frequently the mortification, while in disguise, to hear himself treated as a blockhead, for reaping no greater benefit from his father's crimes. But Richard, who was of a gentle, humane, and generous disposition, wisely preferred the peace of virtue to the glare of guilty grandeur. When some of his partisans offered to put an end to the intrigues of the officers by the death of Lambert, he rejected the proposal with horror. "I will never," said he, " purchase power or dominion by such sanguinary measures!" He lived, in contentment and tranquillity, to an extreme old age, and died towards the latter part of queen Anne's reign. He appears to have had nothing of the enthusiast about him: for we are told, that when murmurs were made against certain promotions in the army, he smartly replied, "What! would you have me prefer none but the godly? Now here is Dick Ingoldsby, who can neither pray nor preach; yet will I trust him before ye all!" Ludlow's Mem.

weakness, would thenceforth be contented to act in subordination to the military commanders.

But in this. expectation they were deceived. Though the parliament, exclusive of the officers of the army, consisted only of about forty independents (for the presbyterians, who had formerly been excluded, were still denied their seats), yet these being all men of violent ambition, and some of them of experience and abilities, resolved, since they enjoyed the title of supreme authority, not to act a subordinate part to those who acknowledged themselves their servants. They therefore elected a council, in which they took care that the members of the cabal of Wallingford-house should not be the majority. They appointed Fleetwood lieutenant-general, but inserted an express article in his commission, that it should continue only during the pleasure of the house. They chose seven persons, who were to fill up such commands as became vacant; and they voted, that all commissions should be received from the speaker, and signed by him in the name of the house.(1) These precautions, the purpose of which was visible, gave great disgust to the principal military officers; and their discontent would, in all probability, have immediately broke out in some resolution fatal to the parliament, had it not been checked by apprehensions of danger from the common enemy. The bulk of the nation now consisted of royalists and presbyterians. To both these parties the dominion of the pretended parliament, and of the army, was become equally obnoxious: a secret reconciliation, therefore, took place between them; and it was agreed, that, burying former animosities in oblivion, every possible effort should be made for the overthrow of the rump, and the restoration of the royal family. A resolution was accordingly taken, in many counties, to rise in arms; and the king, attended by the duke of York, had secretly arrived at Calais, with a resolution of putting himself at the head of his loyal subjects.

But this confederacy was disconcerted by the treachery of sir Richard Willis; who, being much trusted by sir Edward Hyde, the king's chief counsellor, and by the principal royalists, was led into all the designs of the party. He had been corrupted by Cromwell, whom he enabled to disconcert every enterprise against his usurped authority, by confining, beforehand, the persons who were to be the actors in it: and he continued the same traitorous correspondence with the parliament, without suspicion or discovery.(2) The protector, and Thurloe his secretary, now secretary to the parliament, were alone acquainted with this treachery ;(3) and by the penetration and craft of Moreland, Thurloe's under-secretary, the whole was at last discovered in sufficient time to put the king on his guard, though not to prevent the failure of the concerted insurrection. Many of the conspirators, in the different counties, were thrown into prison; and the only considerable party that had taken arms (under sir George Booth, by reason of his not being seasonably informed of the treachery of Willis), and which had seized Chester, was dispersed by a body of troops under Lambert.(4)

Lambert's success hastened the ruin of the parliament. At the request of his officers, whom he had debauched by liberalities, he transmitted a petition to the commons, demanding that Fleetwood should be appointed commanderin-chief, himself lieutenant-general, Desborow major-general of the horse, and Monk of the foot. The parliament, alarmed at the danger, voted that they would have no more general officers; vacated Fleetwood's commission, and vested the command of the army in seven persons, of whom he was one. Sir Arthur Hazelrig even proposed the impeachment of Lambert. But that artful and able general, despising such impotent resolutions, advanced

(1) Whitlocke. Ludlow. Clarendon.

(2) Burnet, vol. i.

(3) Id. ibid. This was one of the master-strokes of Cromwell's policy. Having all the king's party in a net, and pleased that the superior lenity of his administration should be remarked, he let them dance in it at pleasure; and when he confined any of them, as he afterward restored them to liberty, his precaution passed only for the result of general jealousy and suspicion. For he never brought any of them to trial, except for conspiracies that admitted of the fullest proof.

(4) Burnet, ubi sup.

with his hardy veterans to London; and taking possession, early in the morning, of all the streets that led to Westminster-hall, intercepted the speaker, and excluded the other members from the house. (1)

Finding themselves thus once more possessed of the supreme authority, the substance of which they intended for ever to retain, though they might bestow on others the shadow, the officers elected a committee of twentythree persons, of whom seven were of their own body. These they pretended to invest with sovereign power, under the name of a committee of safety. They frequently spoke of summoning a parliament chosen by the people, though nothing could be farther from their intentions; but they really took some steps towards assembling a military parliament, composed of officers elected from every regiment in the army.(2) The most melancholy apprehensions prevailed among the nobility and gentry, throughout the three kingdoms, of a general massacre and extermination; and among the body of the people, of a perpetual and cruel servitude under those sanctified robbers, who threatened the extirpation of all private morality, as they had already expelled all public law and justice, from the British dominions.(3)

While England and her sister-kingdoms, Scotland and Ireland, were thus agitated with fears and intestine commotions, Charles II., their lawful sovereign, was wandering on the continent, a neglected fugitive. After leaving Paris, he went to Spa, and thence to Cologne, where he lived two years, on a small pension paid him by the court of France, and some contributions sent him by his friends in England. He next removed to Brussels, where he enjoyed certain emoluments from the Spanish government. Sir Edward Hyde, who had shared all his misfortunes as well as those of his father, and the marquis of Ormond, were his chief friends and confidants. At last, reduced to despair, by the failure of every attempt for his restoration, he resolved to try the weak resource of foreign aid, and went to the Pyrenees, when the two prime ministers of France and Spain were in the midst of their negotiations. Don Lewis de Haro received him with warm expressions of kindness, and indicated a desire of assisting him, if it had been consistent with the low condition of the Spanish monarchy; but the cautious Mazarine, pleading the alliance of France with the commonwealth of England, refused so much as to see him.(4)

At this very time, however, when Charles seemed abandoned by all the world, fortune was paving the way for him, by a surprising revolution, to mount the throne of his ancestors in peace and triumph. It was to general Monk, commander-in-chief in Scotland, that the king was to owe his restora- . tion, and the three kingdoms the termination of their bloody dissensions. Of this man it will be proper to give some account.

George Monk, descended from an ancient and honourable family in Devonshire, but somewhat fallen to decay, was properly a soldier of fortune. He had acquired military experience in Flanders, that great school of war to all the European nations; and though alike free from superstition and enthusiasm, and remarkably cool in regard to party, he had distinguished himself in the royal cause, during the civil wars of England, as colonel in the service of Charles I. But being taken prisoner, and committed to the tower, where he endured, for above two years, all the rigours of poverty and imprisonment, he was at last induced by Cromwell to enter into the service of the parliament, and sent, according to his agreement, to act against the Irish rebels; a command which, he flattered himself, was reconcilable to the strictest principles of honour. Having once, however, engaged with the parliament, he was obliged to obey orders, and found himself necessitated to act both against the marquis of Ormond in Ireland, and against Charles II. in Scotland. On the reduction of the latter kingdom, Monk, as we have already had occasion to observe, was vested with the supreme command; and, by the equality and

(1) Whitlocke. Ludlow. Clarendon.
(3) Hume, vol. vii.

(2) Ludlow's Mem.

(4) Clarendon

justice of his administration, he acquired the good-will of the Scots, at the same time that he kept their restless spirit in awe, and secured the attachment of his army.(1)

The connexions which Monk had formed with Oliver kept him faithful to Richard Cromwell; and not being prepared for opposition, when the long parliament was restored, he acknowledged its authority, and was continued in his command. But no sooner was the parliament expelled by the army, than he protested against the violence; and resolved, as he pretended, to vindicate the invaded privileges of that assembly, though in reality disposed to effect the restoration of his sovereign, he collected his scattered forces, and declared his intention of marching into England. The Scots furnished him with a small but seasonable supply of money, and he advanced towards the borders of the two kingdoms with a body of six thousand men. Lambert, he soon learned, was coming northward with a superior army; and, in order to gain time, he proposed an accommodation. The committee of safety fell into the snare. A treaty was signed by Monk's commissioners; bat he refused to ratify it, under pretence that they had exceeded their powers, and drew the committee into a new negotiation.

In the mean time, Hazelrig and Morley took possession of Portsmouth, and declared for the parliament. The parliament was restored: and, without taking any notice of Lambert, the commons sent orders for the forces under his command immediately to repair to certain garrisons which were appointed them as quarters. In consequence of these orders Lambert was deserted by the greater part of his troops, was taken prisoner, and sent to the tower. The other officers, who had formerly been cashiered by the parliament, but who had resumed their commands, were confined to their houses; and sir Henry Vane, and some other members, who had concurred with the committee of safety, were ordered into a like confinement. Monk, though informed of the restoration of the parliament, continued to advance with his army; and, at last, took up his quarters in Westminster. When introduced to the house, he declared, that while on his march he observed an anxious expectation of a settlement among all ranks of men; that they had no hope of such a blessing but from the dissolution of the present parliament, and the summoning of a new one, free and full; which, meeting without oaths or engagements, might finally give contentment to the nation.

And it would be sufficient, he added, for public security, as well as for liberty, if the fanatical party and the royalists were excluded. (2)

This speech, though little agreeable to the assembly to which it was addressed, diffused universal joy among the people. The hope of peace and concord broke, like the morning sun, from the darkness in which the nation was involved, and the memory of past calamities disappeared. The royalists and the presbyterians, forgetting former animosities, seemed to have but one wish, and equally to lament the dire effects of their calamitous divisions. The republican parliament, though reduced to despair, made a last effort for the recovery of its dominions. A committee was sent with offers to the general. Proposals were even made by some, though enemies to a supreme magistrate, for investing him with the dignity of protector; so great were their apprehensions of the royal resentment, or the fury of the people! refused to hear them except in the presence of the secluded members; and having, in the mean time, opened a correspondence with the city of London, and placed its militia in sure hands, he pursued every measure proper for the settlement of the nation, though he still pretended to maintain republican principles.

He

The secluded members, encouraged by the general's declaration, went to the house of commons, and, entering without obstruction, immediately found

(1) Gamble's Life of Monk. Ludlow's Memoirs. Monk is said to have advised Cromwell to attack the Scots at Dunbar, even before they had left their mountainous situation. "They," observed he, in support of his opinion, "have numbers and the hills;-we, discipline and despair!" (Id. ibid.) A sentiment truly military, and utterly devoid of that fanaticism which governed Cromwell on the occasion. (2) Gumble's Life of Monk.