A MODEST VINDICATION OF Oliver Cromwell From the Unjust ACCUSATIONS OF Lieutenant-General LUDLOW IN HIS MEMOIRS.  
Together with some Observations on the MEMOIRS in general.  
LONDON:  
Printed in the Year 1698.   

The PREFACE.  
WHere the Policy of the Republicans lay, to expose, as they have done, their Embitterment against Monarchy at such a time as this, for it is to be supposed that Ludlow is now Spokesman for 'em all, is a thing so unaccountable, that none but a Saffold can unfold it. Nor is it less difficult to understand why Oliver's Manes should be disturbed after a deep Sleep of so many Years, for no End that generally men propose to themselves upon such Occasions. For if 'twere to revive the Embers of their Faction, what signified the rekindling a Fire that wanted Fuel to maintain it? If it were to defame the Memory of the Dead, it was a Mean and Unworthy Act. We will therefore judge more favourably of 'em, and believe it was only to get Money. For it was imagined the World would believe that such a Man as Ludlow would have brought to light strange Mysteries and hidden Secrets, never known before. But 'tis pleasant to think how they were cheated; the Purchasers had nothing for their Money, but the Rags and Tatters of Old Stories, worn as Threadbare as a Usurer's Cloak. As for Ludlow, he had not a Genius nor an Elocution to do Oliver any great harm, especially considering the Method he took. Oliver was a Great Man, let his Detractors say what they please. We read but of Two in the Roman Story that raised themselves by Intestine Wars, Sylla and Caesar; and I look upon Cromwell to have been as great as either. He fought with Caesar's Fortune, vanquished Pompey in England; subdued Petreius and Afranius, at Dunbar and Preston; the Sons of Pompey at Worcester, and Scipio and Cato in Ireland. Caesar once fought for his Life, which Cromwell never did; he never was in danger of a Foil: And if he ascended by the Steps that others built for him, 'tis no more than what many others who had they had the same Temptations, would have done. Lastly, Caesar by usurping the Roman Commonwealth, was in many things beneficial to the Public; so is Cromwell allowed to have done as many things for the Good of the English Commonwealth. I do not undertake to defend all Cromwell's Actions, but only such as Ludlow's Book, and Disgusts against him, assume a Liberty to condemn. And then I may justly hope the world will take it for a Piece of Generosity to undeceive Posterity, and prevent their being misguided by the False Relations and Reflections of Passion and Prejudice.   


A Modest Vindication of Oliver Cromwell, from the Unjust Aspersions of Lieutenant-General Ludlow, in his Memoirs, etc.  
COnsidering how Lieutenant-General Ludlow has stated the Grounds and Reasons of his Disgust against Oliver Cromwell, the Question, as to Ludlow's particular, is not so much whether Oliver's Actions were just and laudable, or no; but whether the Lieutenant-General, who as it plainly appears was a Person swayed by a violent Bigotry to his own Party, were a competent Judge of the Goodness or Badness of those Actions which he so vehemently reproaches in Cromwell. As for his own Personal Parts, he was never looked upon to be a Man of such an Extraordinary Headpiece, as to render him eminently distinguished in the Management of Civil Affairs. Neither did his Military Employments ever rear him up those Monuments to his Glory, which Others raised themselves by their Prowess and Conduct. And then for these Memoirs of his, They likewise were writ in the Decline of his Years, when Age had riveted into his Mind those Sentiments of past Transactions, which younger Discontents and Animosities had imprinted in his Thoughts, and now had made the Objects of a half crazed Judgement to make such Reflections on, as are usually the effects of morose and sour Misunderstandings. For when Blood was in his Prime of Action, and sent over to Geneva by a Party then meditating Disturbance of the Government, as believing Ludlow the most proper Person to Head and Command 'em, that Man of a quick and penetrating Judgement, brought over but a very slender Account of that Great Lieutenant-General of Horse. For Blood's Report, which he often upon other occasions signified to others, was, That he found him very unable for such an Employment; only that he was writing a History, as he called it, which as he told the Colonel would be as True as the Gospel; and which in all probability were these Two Volumes of Memoirs now lately printed. Nor indeed did the Character which then he gave his little Embryo of a History, show him to be other then what the Colonel spoke him. But perhaps the Lieutenant-General thought it necessary for him to believe himself Inspired, when he was defending and writing the History of the Sacred R U M P. However, as certain as these Memoirs are, there is one Truth more which must be added to the rest, That his Truths are of very little value; such minute Stories, the greatest part of 'em that concern himself, of his Military Performances in Wardour-Castle, and other parts of Wiltshire, that all of 'em put together would never have procured him so much as a petty Ovation in Old Rome. Nevertheless he seems to have crowded 'em together on purpose to make out his extraordinary Devotion to the Rump, and his Sincerity to the Cause; and from thence takes an occasion to insinuate his own high Deserts, and Oliver's Contempt and 'Slight of those that were most zealous for the Public Good, by which he means the Republican Interest, the peculiar Darling of his most Ardent Affections. Tho' all this while I can discover nothing so much through the whole Contexture of these Memoirs, as a continued Prosecution of Envy and Revenge, ripened into Invective by the Sullenness of his Age: Yet such a sort of Envy, that I could not have expected to have found in a Man of Lieutenant-General Ludlow's Principles; that repines more at the Merits of Cromwell's Actions, than the Glory of his Trophies: As if the High Commands and Power which he was deemed worthy of, and for which he was culled out by those that knew not where else to supply their pressing Wants of such another, had been the Acquisitions of his Ambitious Industry and overreaching Politics, rather than conferred upon him for the sensible Benefits of his continued Victories and Successes. This seems to imply, that L. G. Ludlow was willing enough that the Republiccan Party should have enjoyed the Fruits of Cromwell's unwearied Labours, no less than Grandeur equal to Royal, and Supreme Authority; but in the height of his Gratitude, the L. G. of the Horse would have had 'em kicked down the Instrument of their Glorious Fruitions, when they were out of Danger. He complains that his petty Skirmishes at Wardour Castle, and in other parts of Wiltshire, where Fortune was as frequently unkind as gracious to him, and suffered him to be taken Prisoner, were never sufficiently recompensed: But he mentions with Regret a Donative of Four or Five Thousand a Year given to Cromwell, for the Conquest of Three Kingdoms, and saving the Common Cause from utter Downfall. Such a sort of Envy as this it was, that plagued the Famed Polonian Tarnovius, of whom Thumus reports, that after he had subdued the Moldavians and Russians, and freed his Country from the frequent Incursions of the Tartars, it was incredible how he was envied at home by those that suspected the very Name of General, which he had merited by his great Achievements. But there are a great many people of the Lieutenant-General's Humour, whatever is above their own Merit displeases 'em; though there are not many so inadvertent to show it with so much formal Sincerity as the Lieutenant-General has done. When such people behold an extraordinary Merit in any person, they look upon it as an Object that reproaches their Imperfections, an Object that affronts 'em, and renders 'em so much the more Contemptible. These are the true reasons that kindled the Lieutenant-General's Anger against Cromwell; so that after long Meditation, he at length found out the usual way of laying hold upon the common pretences of Justice and Equity to condemn him according to the motions of his own passion.  
His desire of Revenge is no less apparent, and very unbecoming a Soldier; whose part it is to Combat his Enemy living, and if he can, to Kill him fairly in the Field; but thus to assail and quarrel with a dead Man in his Tomb, to Stigmatize the Fame of one Deceased, for only having been more fortunate in the same Cause, which his own Sword had weakly Defended, is an Act of Malice so much the more unworthy and misbecoming a Man of Honour, by how much it is altogether insignificant, and gratifies only an inveterate and ignorant Passion, condemned by all magnanimous and heroic spirits. For I can never believe that ever they who took up Cromwell's Carcase, to hang it ignominiously upon the Gallows, and poorly insulted over the Bones of a Man who had so often Vanquished 'em in Battle, gained any great Honour by such a Pusillanimous Act; much less did it become our L. G. to rake into the Ashes of One who had never been his Enemy, but by his own Confession had given him such a Character in Public, as raised him to his highest Preferment; however, the Lieutenant-General was pleased to put an ill interpretation upon it. But Men of his Maligning Temper have many times this Misfortune attending 'em, That while they are labouring and delving to the Prejudice of others, they do themselves the greatest harm. For assuredly when the world shall observe him so frequently interlacing his own Murmurs and Discontents, with his disgusts against Cromwell, for only disappointing the Party which himself had so nearly espoused, never blaming him for Fight against his Sovereign, nor bringing him to the Block; it must be thought that his Memoirs must smell very strong of the Garlic of Self-Interest, which will very much enervate the credit of his Recriminations upon Cromwell, especially in the Sentiments of remoter Posterity, that will judge of those Transactions with a more sincere Impartiality. And here the Question may not be unseasonably put, What the Aim and Design of Publishing these Memoirs could be? For if it were to gratify the expiring Remains of that same Party, against whom Cromwell Fought with such Success; What favour can our Lieutenant-General of the Horse in Ireland, gain among them, by telling 'em a long Story of Cromwell's Dismounting the Rumponians from the Saddles of their Authority? Who had they been sent to the Crows some years before, that Party would not have repined at it: rather he merits their severest Indignation, for justifying and approving Cromwell all the while he contributed to the Downfall of their Martyr, and Reproaching him for so much as offering to Treat with him. On the other side, if these Relations were set forth to endear the Memory of the Lieutenant-General to his own Party, What kindness can it be to them, to be revived for a Company of Fools that could not keep the Government, when they had it in their own hands, but suffered themselves to be baffled, outwitted, and turned out of doors by their own Underling and Servant, as they called him? But what cared the Lieutenant-General and Commander in Chief of the Forces in Ireland? for so he could but inculcate into the world a bad Opinion of Cromwell and his Actions, though it were to the Disgrace of his own Party, he values not to what Censures and Sarcasms he exposes the foundlings of his Devotion: Which being the main drift of his Memoirs, they cannot choose but be infinitely beholding to him for it. He pretends to have had a prospect of Cromwell's Ambitious Designs, as he calls'em, long before they were brought to perfection: To much purpose; for had he been a true Emulator of Cromwell's Gallantry, he might, perhaps, have made a much better use of his Lieutenant-Generalship, and his Command of the Forces in Ireland in the Rescue of his distressed Minions, then to sit an Exiled Scribbler of Trivial Memoirs, that dropped from his Pen, more to the shame of his own Darlings, than the Defamation of Cromwell in those Matters where the Stress of his Reproaches lie. And thus much for the Memoirs in general.  
To come to Particulars: There is little worth Observation in the First Volume, which is no more than a succinct Relation of the Military Transactions of those Times, both in England and Ireland, for the greatest part, from the Beginning of the Combustions, to the first Dutch War: Wherein however, he is very particular and tedious in the Account which he gives of his own Exploits when he was Governor of Wardour Castle, and High Sheriff of the County of Wilts, larded with such Impertinent Circumstances, of a dozen Pasties of p 62 his Father's Venison, which the Enemy had just baked, and would have carried away, had he not come in timely and manfully with Forty Horse to their Rescue. He holds out Wardour Castle in his Relation, almost as long as the Enemy lay before it, enlarging his Recital on purpose to magnify his Courage, his Resolution, and Zeal to the Cause, even to Vanity. The rest of the Pages, after he had delivered the Castle, and was become a Prisoner of War, from 92 to 112, are all no less a Panegyric upon himself. Not considering, that the Praises which come from Others, are pleasing to the Ear; but the Eulogies which a man ascribes to himself, are ever most troublesome. He omits not to tell ye how he took up one of p 116 his Troopers behind him, lest he should be taken by the pursuing Enemy; which was doubtless to notify his Charity and Compassion. He gives ye a just and exact Account of the Death of his Cousin Gabriel Ludlow, and of the Misfortunes that befell his two Servants, p 129 Stint, and Henry Coals; with a world of p 141 other minute Stories of the same nature; a plain demonstration of the Narrowness of his Soul, and the Lowness of his Genius.  
But the main thing remarkable in his First Volume is, That because he would make the World believe him to be a Man of Parts, and one that was able to balance a Party, he takes great Care to display his Intimacy with Lieutenant p 185 General Cromwell. One Morning, says he, as I was walking with L. G. Cromwell in Sir Robert Cotton's Garden, he inveighed bitterly against those that accompanied the Earl of Essex to his Grave; saying in a familiar way to me, If thy Father were alive, he would let some of 'em hear what they deserve; adding farther, That it was a miserable thing to serve a Parliament; to whom let a Man be never so faithful, if one Pragmatical Fellow rise up and asperse him, he shall never wipe it off. Whereas, said he, when one serves under a General, he may do as much Service, and yet be free from all Blame and Envy.  
From these words Ludlow it seems persuaded himself that Cromwell had at that time conceived the Design of destroying the Civil Authority, and setting up himself; and that he took that Opportunity to feel his Pulse, whether he were a fit Instrument to be employed to those Ends.  
We shall not dispute the Truth of this Discourse, nor will we deny but that the Author of the Memoirs Conjecture might be as true, That Cromwell might speak the Words, to take the Dimensions of Ludlow's Capacity. But seeing there is not the least Ground for the drawing of any such Inference as he makes from the Words, we must rather believe that the Lieutenant-General in Ireland's Surmise was of a later date; like those who pretend to have prophesied of things after they are come to pass. Nevertheless, that Cromwell upon his Canting Answer had enough of him, we look upon as a thing beyond all Controversy: For Cromwell was a Person who never sounded the Breast of any Man, but he soon reached the Depth of it.  
However, soon after this, the Author of p 189 the Memoirs tells ye of another great piece of Familiarity between him and Cromwell. For he says, That the Parliament being displeased with the Carriage of the Army, some menacing Expressions fell from some of the Members; upon which Cromwell took an Occasion to whisper the following Words in his Ear, These Men will never leave, till the Army pull 'em out by the Ears. But here I am afraid the Lieutenant-General in Ireland a little forgets himself: For after he had told us but two Pages before, That Cromwell not finding him fit for his purpose, He never heard from him any more upon that Point; meaning the Point of Destroying the Civil Authority, and setting up for himself: Here he introduces Cromwell altering his Mind, and whispering to him a Secret of far greater Importance; and a much clearer Demonstration of the Evil Design which the Lieutenant General suspected him to be meditating against the Civil Authority, than any he could gather from his former Discourse. I must confess this does not hang well together. Cromwell did but feel the Lieutenant General's Pulse before; now he begins to be downright, and to open his Heart: And yet Cromwell was never taken to be a Blab of his Tongue. Neither is it probable that Cromwell, a Person so reserved as he was, would have uttered such a dangerous Expression in the midst of his Enemies, to a Man whose Imbecilities and Bigotry he had so lately tried. Why did not the Lieutenant-General in Ireland immediately charge him with it? It would have been the best piece of Service he could have done for those, who, as he says himself, were at the same time for securing Cromwell; and who from hence might p 190 have taken a just Occasion to prosecute their Design, which would have been the best day's Work that e'er they did in their Lives, for their own Security. But Ludlow believing that this would be objected against him, tells ye, That he would have resented it, if the p 189 state of his Parties Affairs would have permitted. A very lame excuse, and which lays the total Overthrow of his Party at his own door: For if this be true, That Cromwell should be so inadvertent to whisper those words into his Ear, 'tis plain that Fortune put an Opportunity into Ludlow's hands to have preserved his Party; but he was so simple that he knew not how to make use of it. And now I appeal to all unbias'd Men, whether this manifest slip be not sufficient to invalidate the whole Testimony of the Irish Lieutenant-General, and to render suspected what he shall henceforward advance in the Derogation of Cromwell's Proceedings, as being only the Murmurs of Self-interest.  
But this great Familiarity between the English and the Irish Lieutenant-Generals, broke off on the part of the Author of the Memoirs, upon Cromwell's and the Armies Treating with p 223 the King; which Ludlow calls, A driving on a Bargain for the People's Liberty by Oliver alone: For it was the Opinion of the Author of the Memoirs, that which way soever the King had been Restored, he might easily have gratified his Friends, and revenged himself upon his Enemies. So that the Lieutenant-General in Ireland was clearly for a Republic, and he knew that so long as there was a King, there could be no Republic in Israel. But in regard that Cromwell's Treating with the King was imputed to him as a Crime by none but Ludlow's Republicans, while the Presbyterians and Scots did the same; and if Cromwell made any Bargains with his Royal Prisoner for his own Advantage, it was no more than what General Monk did afterwards, we shall pass from our Author's Memento's upon those Transactions, which bring a far more general Odium upon himself then upon Cromwell, while he was one of those, who under the Name of Commonwealthsmen, declared, That Monarchy was neither p 238, 239 good in itself, nor for the Nation; that the King had broken his Oath, and thereby dissolved our Allegiance; and that the King having appealed to the Sword for the decision of the Dispute, and thereby caused the Effusion of a deludge of the People's Blood, it seemed to be a Duty incumbent upon the Representatives of the People to call him to an account, and then proceed to the Establishment of an Equal Commonwealth founded upon the Consent of the People, as being most just, and in all respects most conducing to the Happiness and Prosperity thereof. Now that Ludlow was one of this Cabal is plain, by the same token, as he says himself, that Cromwell, after he had learned what he could of the Principles and Inclinations of those present at the p 240 Conference, he took up a Cushion, and flung it at the Irish Lieutenant-General's Head, and then ran down Stairs: But the undaunted Commander in Chief of the Forces in Ireland, soon overtook him with another, which made him hasten down faster than he desired. And here certainly after such a Victory as this, the Irish Lieutenant-General ought to have closed his Memoirs, and set up his Herculeses Pillars; for after such an Achievement as this, no less than the putting to Flight one of the most Victorious Captains of his Age, and till then Invincible, What could he expect to do greater, or that could more Eternize his Fame? At least, it is to be wondered, that his Party did not take from hence a prosperous Omen to set so valiant a Champion up in Opposition to Cromwell; since they had great reason to hope, that he who had put the famous Cromwell to Flight with a Cushion, would easily subdue him with his Arms in his Hand.  
In the mean time this Passage is of that nature, as evidently demonstrates Ludlow to be as deep in the Mud, as Cromwell was in the Mire; nay, he may rather be thought the worse of the Two: For Ludlow was one of those that were already Premeditating to call the King to an Account, and then to alter the Monarchical Government of the Kingdom, and set up a Commonwealth. These disdained all manner of Treaty with the King; whereas Cromwell designed his Restoration, and may be said to have acted not so much by premeditated Design, as by the impulse of a driving Fate, that pushed him on by degrees, by the encouragement of concurring Events, and conduct of opportune Prosperities. And therefore it is much to be admired that the Publishers, or at least the Over-viewers of these Memoirs did not strike out this and many other Passages of the same nature, before they let 'em see the Light. Certainly they did not consult the Honour of the Author, to let such an Antimonarchist as Ludlow to appear in England with his Helvetian Commonwealth Meditations, barefaced and in all his Republican Colours, at a Time when Monarchy had recovered her Ancient Splendour in the Kingdom. His best Friends most certainly could never believe that either his Person or his Works could be acceptable or welcome here, or procure him any Esteem in a Nation wholly Monarchical. And all this to blacken the Actions of Cromwell, who was so far from being a Hater of Monarchy, that he at length set up for a Monarch himself; chiefly too by those Actions which to this day are no way displeasing to the greatest Asserters of Monarchy. So that if these Memoirs were published to prejudice Cromwell's Memory, they will miss very much of their Aim; seeing that the Reputation of a Bad Man can never receive much damage from the Accusations of one that is worse than himself. And it is to be feared that all the Recompense that Ludlow will get by these Memoirs of his, will be only the Sarcasm of Juvenal, Clodius accusat Moechos, Catilina Cethegum.  
But whatever Jealousies and Suspicions the Republicans had of Cromwell, when they thought themselves secure, yet whenever any imminent Danger threaten'd'em, they flew to him for Refuge. And therefore by the Confession of the Author of the Memoirs himself, when Hamilton was upon his March into England with Twenty thousand Scots, and Langdale ready to join him with Five thousand p 258 English more, several who had opposed his Proceedings as Arbitrary and Selfish, then thought themselves obliged to strengthen his hands, in a Work which they called necessary, and assured him of all the Assistance they could give him.  
And now you have the Lieutenant-General of the Horse in Ireland making another Confession, That it was not Cromwell who broke off the Treaty with the King in the Isle of Wight, but that he himself was one of the main Instruments that did the King that kind Office. p 262, 263 For he tells ye, that the Treaty with the King being pressed on with more Heat than ever, which he calls a visible Design to render all their Victories useless, he went to Sir Thomas Fairfax, and told him, That a Design was driving on to betray the Cause, in which so much of the People's Blood had been shed; and that the King being under Restraint, would not think himself obliged to any thing he should promise under such Circumstances; assuring him at the same time, That they who were most eager for the Treaty, never intended that the King should be bound to the performance of his word, only they designed to use his Authority to destroy the Army, which ought to be his care to prevent. Nay, that he might ascribe all the Honour of this Enterprise to himself and his Party, to the Exclusion of Cromwell, the Lieutenant-General of the Horse in Ireland tells ye a Story some Pages before, how that Cromwell, being inclined to close with the Commonwealth Party, invited some of 'em to confer with him at his Chamber: with which when he acquainted our Author of the Memoirs, he affronted him with a very rude and uncivil Answer, telling him, That when he had an occasion p 241 to make use of the Republicans, he knew how to cajole 'em and give 'em good words; which put Cromwell into such a Passion, that he gave him as rude a Reply, That the Republicans were a proud sort of People, and only considerable in their own conceits. And thus the Irish Lieutenant-General would seem to insinuate that Cromwell could be none of their Cabal, but only that they made use of him as their Plantain Tree, whose spreading shade might secure 'em from the Swelter of Trouble and Danger. Tho' 'tis not rational to believe, but that they were influenced altogether by his Counsels and Directions; however, Cromwell knowing their Humour, let 'em alone, and played with 'em as an Angler does with a Pike, when he has the unruly Fish fast in his Hook. More than that, as our Author says, he was so complaisant, as to declare at his arrival from Scotland, p 272 that he was not acquainted with the Design; only since it was done he was glad of it: And thus far he was still their Friend, in conceding 'em the Honour which they so ardently desired.  
It farther appears that Ludlow would seem to make himself more then ordinarily busy in this Transaction. For finding Fairfax Irresolute, he presently repaired to Ireton to Negotiate their Grand Affair; and still he would make the World believe that he was the main Instrument of the Revolution. But what was the effect of all his Labour? Why, the Army having wonderfully dispersed their Enemies on every side, began to consider how to secure themselves and the Common Cause against those Counsels that were carried on in Opposition to 'em, and to that end drew up a Declaration at St. Alban, etc. and so the Irish Lieutenant-General was turned out of his Employment. However, tho' Cromwell and the Army had laid him aside, yet still in exaltation of himself, he would make ye believe, they were afraid of displeasing him. And therefore he now pretends to be a Confident of Ireton's, who upon the Armies drawing towards London, in order to purge the Parliament, wrote to the Irish Lieutenant-General, that now he hoped they should please him; which as he acknowledges, they did, not from any particular Advantages that he expected from it, if you will believe him, but that the People of England might be preserved in their just Rights from the Oppression of Violent men; being fully persuaded that an Accommodation with the King was unsafe to the People of England, and unjust and wicked in the nature of it. And thus you see, the Irish Lieutenant-General writes with a two-edged Pen, with one side to gash the Reputation of Cromwell; and with the other to Sliver the Devotion of those who venerate Charles the I. for a Martyr.  
And now we are come to the last Act considerable in the first Volume; wherein our Author is very Industrious by extenuating, to advance his own worth, to show the continuance of his Familiarity with Cromwell, and display his own Ingratitude to his Friend. And here it is observable in the first place, that he still made Cromwell the Aggressor in his Discourses with him: An evident Sign that he affected to have it believed by all the World that Cromwell had a high Opinion of him for his Abilities, and the Infallible Counsels of his Oracular Forefight: Whereas all Judicious Men that read his Memoirs will find, that Oliver, who was a Man of a deep reach indeed, had quite another Aim. For Cromwell well knowing that his Bigotry to the Party had gained him a Reputation for his fidelity to the Cause among 'em, and that he was for that reason entrusted with all their Secrets, addressed himself to the Irish Lieutenant General as one of the weakest among 'em; that by sifting his Thoughts, he might understand the Judgement of the rest of the Party, or at least of the more Cunning sort.  
He tells us, That Cromwell, after the Parliament had voted him General, as our Author was sitting by him in the House, expressed an Extraordinary Sorrow to observe an Alteration in his looks and carriage towards him, by which p 316 he apprehended that his dear Friend Ludlow had entertained some Suspicions of him. Which Address of Cromwell's might be very probable; not that it is to be thought that Cromwell cared a rush for his Looks or his Carriage; but it was a Compliment proper to draw an Easy man into the Noose that better Cunning was preparing for him. After this, nothing would serve Cromwell but a Meeting with this same Seraskier of the Irish spahis, to remove the Grounds of their Mistakes and Misapprehensions, and accordingly they met in the Queen's Guard-Chamber; where, as he says, Cromwell endeavoured p 317 to persuade him of the Necessity incumbent upon him of doing several things that appeared extraordinary in the Judgement of some Men, who in opposition to him, would bring Ruin upon themselves, as well as Him and the Public Cause. Presently Ludlow consters these Extraordinary Things, to be Cromwell's Treating with the King, and shooting to death one of the Soldiers, and imprisoning the rest, that mutinyed at Ware upon the account of that Treaty, and testifies his dislike of those Actions, as being done for sinister ends. However, since the Army and He had manifested themselves convinced of their Errors by their Adherence to the Commonwealth, he was willing to wait for the accomplishment of those good things which he expected from him, so soon as he should return with Victory home again (for Cromwell was then going to invade Scotland) but p 318 then he hoped, that the General's Interests and Principles would lead him to do what was most agreeable to the Constitution of a Commonwealth, and the good of Mankind. Nor did he forget his own particular Grievance by the buy, which was the too partial Hand of the Parliament and General in their Distributions of Gratuities; considering how he had held out Wardour Castle, and exposed his Life in Wiltshire, and never got any thing for his pains. Now if you will believe our Author, nor is it material to contradict him, can any man of sense persuade himself that Cromwell, at that time a General, and a Man oppressed with Ponderous Affairs, would have spent his time in soothing up the Humour of an Empty Bigot, and wasted above an hour in preaching upon the 110th Psalm, p 319 to tickle his Fancy, had it not been for some other Reason then our Author first pretended. 'Tis a vanity to think it. But Cromwell was then ready to march for Scotland, and wanted a Journyman for his Son Ireton in Ireland. Some he thought too nimble and cunning, some too faithless to be trusted; but here was one for his turn, stout of his Hands, a weak Head-piece, and one that would be easily ruled, if well managed; but for want of Understanding, displeased with his Extraordinary Proceedings, and for that reason to be fondled into a good Humour again. And therefore so soon as the General saw him mollified, he not only propounded the Preferment he designed him for the foremention'd Reasons, to himself, but proposed him to the Council of State, and they to the Parliament, and so got him chosen in a manner in despite of his teeth; when others far more deserving and experienced in the Irish Affairs, such as the Lord Broghil, and Sir Hardress Waller, solicited for the same Employment at the same time. And indeed he would make ye believe it was really so: For as he says, he not only pleaded the common Excuses, and Goodly good Morrows of Inability and Unfitness, but the apparent Emergencies of his Estate and Family. But Cromwell, who knew he had committed a proper Tool into the hands of a good Workman, would admit of no denial.  
However, he had no sooner received his Commission, but his Advancement puffing him up with a high Opinion of himself, he so ordered it, that his Friends gave out; That the Opportunity was taken by the General to remove p 303 him out of the way, lest he should prove an Obstruction to his Designs; yet himself still standing upon his guard of Modesty, and telling the world, that he could not think himself so considerable. Nor could his Friends believe it, whate'er they Published, who knew so well it was not Cromwell's way to remove, but quite to lay aside those Persons whom he acccounted Dangerous, or looked upon as Obstructors of his Designs. Besides, that such affected selfdebasements seldom find belief with Men of Sense, as being incompatible with Truth, in Men that so often complain of unrewarded Merit, as our Author does.  
Seeing then, that this great Preferment was not forced upon him, lest he should obstruct the General's designs, as our Author himself pretends, but as he rather conceives, for his Merit, it follows that the world must conclude him guilty of a great share of Ingratitude, so to bespatter, as he does, with the Epithets of Ambitious, Wicked and Impious (for in such Heats and Passions we shall find the Lieutenant General of the Forces in Ireland in the next Volume) his only Benefactor, and the very Person that exalted him to the highest Dignity that ever he attained to in this world, and Higher than e'er he could have expected from his own Deserts. So that whatever hard Opinion the worst of Cromwell's Enemies may have of him himself, they can never be so ungenerous to have any kind thoughts of the Author of these Memoirs, who has so unbeseemingly trampled upon the dust of his Benefactor.  
It may be Objected, That Ludlow had no Enmity or Hatred against the Person of Cromwell in his private Capacity; but that he condemns his Public Actions only, his Violation of the Laws, his Subversion of the Government, his Arbitrary Proceedings, his Treachery to those from whom he derived all his Authority, and his Assuming to himself the Supreme Power out of the hands of those who were invested with it; and no man is bound to retaliate the Benefits of an Enemy of his Country.  
But 'tis readily answered, that this Objection had been of some force indeed, if Ludlow had been in the undoubted Right, and Cromwell in the unquestionable Wrong. But general Opinion concludes, that Both were in the Wrong; and than Ludlow's Accusations and Impeachments of Cromwell's Actions are Unjust and Injurious, as being grounded upon no true Foundation. For the Subjects of praise or dispraise must be such as are universally taken pro Concesso; otherwise he that condemns another for that which is not certainly Evil in itself, or by the Fundamental Laws of the Land, condemns him only upon the Instigations of Passion and Prejudice, and makes that a Crime, which others at the same time may look upon as a Virtue. But granting that Ludlow did firmly believe himself and his Party to be in the Right, yet he could not be so infatuated to his Bigotry, as not to see that Two of the Principal and most numerous Judgements of the Nation were against him; and than it was a high piece of Ingratitude to lay general imputations of Impious, Wicked, and Arbitrary, upon his Friend that had been so kind to him, for acts committed against his particular Party, where the Controversy was so dubious, and the Balance so unequal against him.  
Upon these wrong foundations Ludlow proceeds, and taxes Cromwell, for that after the Battle of Worcester he took upon him a more stately p 365 Behaviour, chose new Friends, and after the Fight, frowned upon and dismissed those who had assisted him against the common Enemy, though he knew they had deserved as much Honour as himself and the standing Army. And wherefore was it? Because he knew that a Useful and Experienced Militia was more likely to obstruct, then second him in his Ambitious Designs. But these are the Murmurs of Envy and Prejudice. For what would our Commander in Chief of the Forces in Ireland have had the English General have done with the Militia when there was no farther use of 'em? He that pretended to have been always so tender of burdening the Nation. He would have had the General, instead of Frowning upon 'em (for which we have only his bare word) have Kissed 'em Man by Man, and Rewarded 'em every one with so many Points and a White Loaf, like the Procession Boys at Whitsuntide. But he should have blamed the Parliament for that Omission; that was none of the General's business. He would have had the Parliament have kept 'em up to obstruct the General's Ambitious Designs. But to their Misfortune they were not so quicksighted as our foreseeing Author of the Memoirs, and therefore they sent 'em home again to their Wives and Children; whither, no question, they were as willing to return, as the General was to send 'em away. However, afterwards the same Militia Petitioned for bringing Delinquents to speedy Punishment; and then, I hope, they pleased our Commander in Chief of the Irish Forces, as well as if they had kept the Field. Now for the Ambitious Designs of Cromwell, with which our Author often makes a great noise, I would fain know, What was the difference between the Ambitious Design of setting up a Tyrannical Republic, and the Ambitious Design of advancing a single Usurpation? The latter I'm sure was more consonant to the Ancient Government of the Nation; for that restored the Monarchy, though not the Person; but the other would have pulled down the very Fabric and Constitution of the English Government. And now let him cry out as much as he pleases against our Ambitious Design, we will not exchange with him; because our Ambitious Design was better than his. Nay, they were so fond of this Ambitious Design of theirs, that they would have Bribed the General to have let 'em alone to sit still, till they had reared their Triumphant Arch of a Commonwealth. But they were such narrow-souled People, that their stingy Avarice would not suffer 'em to offer any more than p 371 Four thousand Pound a Year for the Disposal of the whole Revenue os the Nation, besides what they might have added to it. Now I appeal to any Conscionable Man, whether that were enough to oblige a General, who had the Power of the Sword in his hands, to the Performance of his Duty.  
However, while he is thus degrading the Reputation of the Father in Law, no sooner is the Son in Law dead, but he extols him to the Skies, and raises him a Monument as high as his slender Elocution will permit him. A clear Argument that Lieutenant-General Ludlow was no other than a thick-skulled Officer of Horse, who might have entered into Battle invulnerable in the Forehead; so to extol as he does the Son in Law, who was the Framer and Contriver of many of those very Designs, which he calls Impious and Wicked, at the same time that he expends all the small Shot of his Indignation against the Father in Law, for putting 'em prudently and resolutely in execution. He applauds his departed Friend for his Affection to his Country, his Abilities of Mind, p 381 his Impartial Justice, and his Diligence in the Public Service; and at length embalms his Memory in a Venomous Effluvium against the generality of Kings both past and to come; affirming that his Virtues were a far greater Honour to it, than a Dormitory among the Ashes of Kings, who as they governed Others by their Passions, so were they Themselves no less governed by 'em.  
And now you shall find the sincere and upright Compiler of these Memoirs in a second palpable Contradiction of himself. For he tells ye before, That when his Friends would have persuaded him that Cromwell took the Opportunity of preferring him; to remove him out of the way, lest he should prove an Obstruction to his Designs; he made'em answer, p 303 That he could not think himself so considerable, and therefore could not concur with'em in their Opinion. But now upon Lambert's Refusal to go over without any Character into Ireland, less than that of Deputy, a certain Speech of Mr. Weaver, tending to continue him in his p 414 Military Command, increased Oliver's Jealousy of him, that he might prove an Obstruction to the Design he was carrying on, to advance himself by the Ruin of the Commonwealth; and therefore resolved to place Lieutenant-General Fleetwood at the Head of Affairs in Ireland. Before, he denied that his Preferment by Oliver proceeded from any Suspicion that the General had of being disturbed by him in his Designs, because he knew himself uncapable to do him any harm. Here he affirms that the Increase of that Suspicion, meaning doubtless that Suspicion which he had before denied, was the reason that Oliver resolved to place another above him. Now all men know, what never was, can never increase. To salve then this same slip of the Lieutenant-General's Memory, we must believe that either Cromwell was not so cunning as the World took him to be, or else that the Lieutenant-General dissembled with his best Friends. But 'tis to be hoped that the Lieutenant-General may be pardoned for forgetting himself a little, provided he might gain the Honour of being thought an Antagonist capable to prevent the Ambitious Designs of a Man so formidable as Cromwell. 'Tis the nature of such Aspirers as the Lieutenant-General, to be like Bladders, sometimes shrivelled up with Self denial, and by and by swollen up with the Wind of Vanity and Self-Conceit; or otherwise, like Prospective Glasses, that lessen at one end, and magnify at the other.  
But it seems Cromwell was too nimble for him, and soon rid himself from all his Fears of the Lieutenant-General's obstructing his Designs; which the disappointed Lieutenant-General loudly bemoans. For upon Fleetwood's Arrival in Ireland, he fetches a deep Sigh, and with the Cobbler cries out, Perdidi Operam, finding all his Cares and Fatigues recompensed only with p 425 Envy and Hatred. Which was, no doubt, the reason that afterwards he resolved to repay Cromwell in his own Coin. Nevertheless, as much rejected as he was, he will not forego the high Opinion he always had of himself; and because he had no other Witnesses, cunningly brings in Envy and Hatred to be the Testimonies of his Great Performances. For Envy and Hatred among Great Personages, never attend little matters. I must confess he tells ye of many things he did in Ireland; among the rest, how he smoked a Party of p 423 the Irish to death in a hollow Rock; and how out of his great Ingenuity, perceiving the Smoke that went into the Cavity of the Rock, came out again at other Crevices, he, as Lieutenant-General of the Horse in Ireland, caused those places to be closely stopped, and another Smother to be made; and then conceiving the Work to be done, by the same Authority as before, he sent in his Men armed with Back, Breast, and Head-piece, to fetch out the dead people. But this was no such mighty Act to deserve the Hatred and Envy of any Man. And therefore seeing the Lieutenant-General gives us no account who they were that envied and hated him; and for that we see no ground to believe it; more especially, if he means Cromwell to be one; for Men of Cromwell's Temper never hate or envy those that they know can do 'em no harm, unless the Lieutenant-General mistook Contempt and 'Slight for Envy and Hatred; we can only believe it to be a Stratagem of the Lieutenant-General's himself, to insinuate the Grandeur of his own Achievements and Merits, which others either could not, or were unwilling to do to that degree as he was desirous they should. More than this, it is observable that notwithstanding all the Great Actions in Ireland, which the Lieutenant-General assumes to himself to have so gloriously performed; Whitlock, so particular in relating the Actions of other Great Officers in Ireland, as Broghil, Waller, Jones, Axtel, Zanchy, etc. makes no mention at all of the Lieutenant General, till after Ireton's death; and then he says no more of him, but that he was appointed to command the Forces in Ireland, till the farther Pleasure of the Parliament was known.  
This is the Substance of the First Volume of Ludlow's Memoirs, so far as they relate to his Inconsiderable Quarrels and Dissatisfactions with Cromwell's Proceedings; which may be reduced to three particular Heads: His private Treaty with the King; his suspected Designs to ruin the Republican Party, and set up for himself; and his neglect of recompensing the Lieutenant-General according to his Merits. Which are Accusations so far from doing any Injury to Oliver's Memory, that they rather ingratiate him with the most considerable part of the Nation. So that, as I have already once or twice repeated, I admire to what purpose these Memoirs were printed in England, unless it were to expose the Author to be a Person that hated Monarchy, and consequently the present Government, with such an Inveterate Abomination, that it may be questioned whether he had any Kindness for Adam, because he reigned single in Paradise. They might indeed have served to show his Gratitude to the Canton of Bern, to which purpose they were written: But to print 'em so unseasonably here in England, with a Noisy Title, and himself standing in his Ornamental Iron at the Entrance into the Booth of his Memoirs, like a Charlatan and Three Trumpeters solus in a Bartlemew-Fair Balcony, was an Act that wanted so much Consideration, as aught to have preceded their being thus sent to Farce it abroad in the World. Besides, that when you expect a Gaudy Show, there is nothing to be seen, but Relations of things long since Lippis & Tonsoribus nota, and already recited by others with much clearer Exactness, and a more pertinent Fidelity.  
Nevertheless, the Gentleman-Usher to these precious Memoirs applauds his Author for a Person that served his Country with that Indefatigable Care, Diligence, and Fidelity, as no man more; which he does upon a false Notion of Ludlow's Services, and for want of well distinguishing between the nature of Public Services. For it is one thing for a man to serve his Country, another thing to serve a particular Party. Now I do not find by the Preamble, that he ever did any Service for his Country, otherwise then by expending his Care and Diligence for the Service of the Republican Party; (which, by the way, the Writer of the Preamble calls his going through innumerable Hazards for the Liberties of England,) for he never acted under Cromwell's single Power, and he hated Royalists and Presbyterians both alike. But whether he served his Country in serving the particular Party of the Republicans, is a Question that lies wholly at the Writer of the Preamble's door to decide. I am apt to believe, if he will be so adventurous to assert it, he will meet with Champions enough that will undertake him. Certain it is, there were some, and those no mean Persons, nor few in number, among whom there were some Judges of the Land, who never believed the Writer of the Preamble, that ever Ludlow did any Service for his Country; and therefore tho' the Lieutenant General so frequently complains that he could never be gratified according to his Merits, they would have recompensed him to the full of his Deserts in fight for his Country, had the Lieutenant-General not fled from his reward. And so we proceed to his Second Volume.   

VOLUME II.  
THE Second Volume begins very tartly and roundly indeed, and displaying a kind of Billingsgate Passion against Cromwell for dissolving that part of the Parliament, which the People afterwards in Derision called the Rump; and which the Lieutenant-General calls a Villainous Attempt, and a Barbarous Usage of p 458, 461 the Parliament; which they who well consider will find to be the Language only of Prejudice and Self-Interest, and in the Lieutenant-General to be no way justifiable, 'Tis true, his Charge against Cromwell is very high, and very plausible; but whither the Accusations will fix a real Gild upon the Party accused, is the Question. For this is an Axiom in Logic, that nothing is to be admitted for Truth, but what is acknowledged to be certainly such. That is to say, all Precipitancy and Prejudice in judging is to be avoided; and nothing is farther to be absolutely concluded, then as it is so clearly and distinctly Evident to Reason, that it can no way be called in Question. Now there is no Body will deny but that Cromwell turned out the Rump; yet there are Thousands will deny that he did amiss in doing it. But to show how Partiality blinds the Reason of some People, I would fain know, where lay the Difference between purging the House, and turning out the Members that were treating with the King in the Isle of Wight, and dissolving the Republican Rump: for Oliver was as much a Servant to the one as the other. Yet the Lieut. Gen. could approve the first Act, whatever Exclamations he makes against the Latter. Then Oliver was faithful and an Assertor, now a perfidious Invader of the Liberties of the People. Neither did Cromwell owe 'em that Obedience which the Lieutenant General pretends: He was a Member of the same Body, equal in Authority, superior in Power, and fought for himself as well as for them; and if they aided him with Money, and their Counsels, he assisted them with his Counsels and his Sword. They sat under his Protection, and owed their Grandeur to his Victories; and he might be said to have given 'em their Being in a Political Sense; and to support that Being of theirs, he ran all the Hazards Abroad, while they enjoyed the Fruits of his Labours at Home. Their Power was only precarious, and while they ruled by Laws only of his and their own making, he was not Circumscribed to any limits of Obedience, to Acts and Ordinances made only for present Conveniences; which in an unstable Government there may be as great a necessity to alter or repeal upon new Emergencies.  
In this Confusion of Popular Anarchy, Cromwell resolved to be governed by the only standing Law in the Kingdom at that time; which was the Law of Self-Preservation: And the ejected Republicans may thank the E. of Essex when General, and the Scotch Commissioners for teaching him that Lesson. Mr. Whitlock in his Memoirs tells the Story thus.  
Colonel Cromwell being made Lieutenant-General of Manchester's Army, gave such an Account of the Miscarriages of the Parliaments Forces before Donnington Castle, as made great Impressions of Jealousy in the Earl of Essex's Breast, than Captain General for the Parliament: Insomuch that he was advised to put his strength to rid Cromwell out of the way; and the means to effect it was supposed to be by the Scots Commissioners, who were not well pleased with Cromwell for certain words which he had spoken, as they apprehended Derogatory to the Honour of their Nation. So early did Cromwell begin to be both Eminent and Formidable.  
One Evening Mainard and Whitlock were Summoned to Essex House, whither they went to attend the Lord General, not knowing the occasion of their being sent for, and found already come before 'em, the Scots Commissioners, Mr. Hollis, Sir Philip Stapleton, Sir John Meyrick, and some others. After the usual Compliments, the Lord General addressing himself to Mainard and Whitlock, told 'em, he had sent for 'em upon a special occasion, to have their Advice and Counsel in a matter of great Importance, wherein the Lords Commissioners of Scotland were concerned as well for their own, as the state of England; and referred himself to the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, as a much better Orator than himself, to acquaint 'em with the Business.  
Upon which, the Lord Chancellor, after he had assured 'em of the good Opinion that himself and his Brethren had of their Worth and Abilities, You ken vary we'll, said He, that Lieutenant-General Cromwell is no Friend of ours, and since the advance of our Army into England, he has used all underhand and cunning means to take off from our Honour and Merit of this Kingdom. Therefore, it is thought requisite for us, and for the carrying on of the Cause of the twain Realms, that this Obstacle or Remora may be removed out of the way, whom otherwise we foresee will be no small impediment to us, and the good design we have undertaken.  
He not only is no Friend to us and the Government of our Kirk, but he is also no well-willer to his Excellency, whom we have all cause to love and honour: so that if he be permitted to go on in his way, it may, I fear, endanger the whole Business; therefore we are to advise of some course to be taken for prevention of that Mischief.  
You ken vary we'll the Accord betwixt the two Kingdoms, and the Union between the two Kingdoms by the solemn League and Covenant, and if any be an Incendiary between the two Nations how he is to be proceeded against. Now the matter is, wherein we desire your Opinions, what you take the meaning of this word Incendiary to be, and whicher the Lieutenant-General Cromwell be not sike an Incendiary, as is meant thereby; and whilk way would be best to proceed against him if he be proved sike an Incendiary, and that will clepe his wings from soaring to the Prejudice of our cause.  
Now you may ken that by our Law in Scotland we clepe him an Incendiary, wha kindleth Coals of Contention, and raiseth Differences in the State to the public Damage, and he is, tanquam Publicus Hostis Patrioe. Whether your Law be the same or not, you ken best who are much Learned therein; and therefore with the Favour of his Excellency, we desire your Judgements in these Points.  
Whitlock replied, That the sense of the word Incendiary was the same in England as his Lordship had expressed it to be by the Law of Scotland, One that raiseth the fire of Contention in a State, or that kindles the burning hot flames of Contention; but whether Lieutenant-General Cromwell were such an Incendiary between the two Kingdoms, could not be known but by proof of his particular Words and Actions tending to the kindling of such a Fire of Contention between the Two Nations.  
That it was not for the Lord General and the Lords Commissioners of Scotland to appear in any accusation of this nature, unless they were certain it could be made out by sufficient proofs.  
That they were to consider the Condition, Parts, and Interest of the Person who was to be accused as an Incendiary.  
That Lieutenant General Cromwell was a Gentleman of quick and subtle Parts, and one who had gained no small Interest in the House of Commons, and wanted not Friends in the House of Peers, nor Abilitles in himself to manage his own Defence to the best advantage.  
And therefore since neither his Excellency, nor the Lord Chancellor had mentioned any particulars, nor that he knew of any by his own private Observations, that could amount to a clear proof that would satisfy the House of Commons that Lieutenant General Cromwell was an Incendiary, his advice was, That they should desist from any further prosecution of this matter, till they were certain of evident Proofs to make out their Accusation.  
Maynard gave the same Answer, only varied in words. However, Mr. Hollis, Sir Philip Stapleton, and some others, spoke smartly to the Business, and mentioning some particular Passages and Words of Cromwell, tending to prove him an Incendiary, would willingly have been upon the Accusation. But the Scots Commissioners were not so forward to adventure upon it, for the reasons alleged by Maynard and Whitlock. Nevertheless, this business was not carried so privately, but that Cromwell was informed of it: Which Mr. Whitlock gathers from hence, That though Cromwell took no notice of any particular Passages at this Conference, yet he seemed more kind to Whitlock and Maynard then formerly he had been, and carried on his Design more actively of making way for his own Advancement.  
From hence it is apparent, that there was a Party in the Parliament that bore an early spleen against Cromwell, and fain would have nipped him in the Bud; but his eminent Service at Naseby procuring him to be appointed and continued Lieutenant General under Fairfax; the continual Successes that attended him from that time forward, set him above their Machinations. Nevertheless, they did not erase out of his Breast the remembrance of the kindnesses they would have done him; nor did their Flatteries of his Prosperity make him the more neglectful of standing upon his Guard. And it was as warrantable for Cromwell to secure himself from the Contrivances of his Enemies in a shattered Parliament, of which he had so long before such timely notice, as it was for them to seek his Ruin. For they were not his Sovereigns, but his Equals. This I urge to throw off that common aspersion from Cromwell, That he sought his own Advancement from the beginning, more than by enlarging his Fortune by acts of Prowess, and joining with others to procure the general good of the Kingdom. For Baxter confesses, that at first he took extreme care to get as many Religious Men into the Regiment that was 
Baxter's Life, Part 1.  to serve immediately under him, as possibly he could; who being People of more understanding p 98 then common Soldiers, were the more apprehensive of the Importance and Consequence of the War, and being conscious that they Fought for the Public Felicity, became the more Valiant; and he instances Airs, Berry, Desborough, and the rest of that Troop, that they proved so Valiant, that as far as he could learn, they never turned their backs to an Enemy. He adds farther, That at Cromwell's first making choice of such Men, it was the very Esteem and Love of Religious Men that principally moved him; and the avoiding those Disorders, Mutinies, Plunderings and Grievances of the Country, which Debauched Men in Armies are usually guilty of. Now it is not easy to believe, that a Man of such Principles should be guilty of that inordinate Ambition which his Maligners lay to his Charge. But when he found that his Prosperous Achievements raised him Enemies on every side; that they who were most beholding to his Victorious Successes, combined with the greatest Animosity to his Destruction, 'twas time for him then to look about him, and to oppose their undermining Devices with countermines of the same nature. Nor does it appear by any proof that carries Authority with it, that he pretended to single Greatness till he was forced to it for his own safety. It is agreed by the Author of the Memoirs himself, that Cromwell offered more candid and easy Conditions to the King than the Presbyterian Party did; which if the King had accepted (and it does not appear to be Cromwell's fault that he did not) Cromwell himself had then put a stop to all his single Advancement; whereas he would surely have taken another course, had he at that time meditated single Sovereignty; but the King, who was designed by Fate to be a Victim to Evil Counsel, refused those Offers, trusting to vainer hopes. On the other side, it was manifestly apparent that the Presbyterian Party aimed at nothing more than their own Advancement by their Selling the Bishop's Lands, and when they came to Treat with the King, by their so stiffly adhering to their Proposition for the Abolishing of Episcopacy, knowing there could be no Bishops without Maintenance, and that then they must be the Paramount Clergy of the Kingdom. But then (indeed) Cromwell perceiving that it was not safe to rely upon the King, nor willing to truckle under a Party that were Treating for their own Advancement upon his Ruins, 'tis rational to believe, that from that time forward he began to look upon the King as a Conquered Prince, and that none could better supply his room then the Person who had Subdued him.  
The Motives and Provocations that incited Cromwell to Dissolve the Rump, were somewhat different; for before the Presbyterian Party was Expelled, though the Royal Party had deserted the House, there was a Number still left sufficient to take upon 'em the Name of a Parliament; and there was some face of that Authority which the Law of the Land had invested in the Representatives of the People; besides, that the King had acknowledged 'em to be a Parliament, upon the Treaty at Uxbridge. But they being Ejected, the small Remainder was only a Junto, which derived their Authority from the Power of the Sword; their Votes and Acts were no farther Laws than the Sword constrained Obedience to 'em; they were only continued in their Seats by Cromwell for a present Convenience; and therefore as they were only countenanced and supported by the Power of the Sword, which was then in the hands of Cromwell, they were to be looked upon as no other than a Party set up by him, and owing their Authority to him. So that when they began to extend that Authority beyond its Limits, and assumed to themselves a Democratical Power in opposition to him from whom they derived their subsistence, they were rather Rebels to Cromwell, then Cromwell to them; and as he set 'em up in hopes that they might be serviceable to him for the good of the Nation, might pull 'em down again, when he saw 'em exceeding their Commission. Now whether the design, for the bringing of which to pass, Cromwell fixed 'em in their Seats pro tempore, were good or bad, is not the Question: But whether they who were no lawful Authority, but only acted under the safeguard of another unlawful Authority, had power to make any act good or evil, as it suited with their Interest, or opposed their Designs. For if they had not, which is most probable, Cromwell is ne'er a jot the more Impious, the more Perjured, the more a Villain, because they call him so. For being a Junto of his own erecting, upon such and such Considerations, he might without any fear of those Reproaches, send 'em a grazing when he found 'em deviating from those ends for which he had suffered 'em to keep their Places. Now it is plain, that Cromwell never intended they should sit long, or thought 'em able to accomplish his main Design, which was to settle the Nation. For Whitlock in his Memorials gives ye an Account, how that aftter the Battle of Worcester, Cromwell desired a Meeting with several Members of Parliament, and some Chief Officers of the Army at the Speaker's House, where in the presence of a great many that met, he proposed to 'em, That since the Old King was Dead, and his Son Defeated, he held it necessary to come to a Settlement of the Nation, and therefore he had desired that Meeting to Consider and Advise what was fit to be done.  
Whitlock offered, Whether it were not requisite to be understood in the first place, in what way such a Settlement was desired; whether of an Absolute Republic, or of any Mixture of Monarchy.  
Cromwell concurred with Whitlock, that his meaning was, that it should be considered, Whether a Republic or a mixed Monarchy would be best to be settled; and if any thing Monarchical, then in whom that Power to be placed.  
Sir Thomas Widdrington was of Opinion, That a mixed Monarchical Government was the most suitable to the Laws and People of the Nation; and if Monarchical, that it would be most just to place it in one of the Sons of the late King.  
Fleetwood thought that the Question whether a mixed Monarchy, or a Republic, would not be very easily determined. But,  
St. John, the Chief Justice, was of the same Opinion with Sir Thomas Widdrington, and so was the Speaker; but they did not mention where it was proper to be placed.  
Widdrington again proposed the Duke of Gloucester; and Whitlock propounded that a Day might be fixed for the King's Eldest Son and the Duke of York to come into the Parliament, that so upon such Terms as should be thought fit and agreeable, both to the Civil and Spiritual Liberties, a Settlement might be made with them.  
Cromwell replied, That it would be a business of more than ordinary difficulty; however, he really thought, that if it could be done with safety to the preservation of the English Rights, a Settlement with something of Monarchical Power in it, would be very effectual.  
In short, the Soldiers were against any thing of Monarchy, as Desborough and whaley, who were present at the Meeting; but the Lawyers were for a mixed Monarchy.  
Hence it is apparent, that the Dissolution of the Rump, in order to the setting up a Government with a mixture of Monarchy in it, had a truer and more noble Aim, as being more conformable to the Laws of the Land, than the continuance of a Republic.  
The Point is not here, Whether Cromwell did ill in setting up himself; but whether he did amiss in setting up himself above the Republican Rump; and for that, he has of his side the Opinions of the Greatest and most Learned Lawyers of that Time: And Whitlock testifies, That St. John, the then Chief Justice, with many others, advised him to Dissolve the Rump. So that Ludlow's Outcries of Villainous, Wicked, and Perfidious, are False and Scandalous, as being grounded upon Ignorance, Passion, and Partiality. He could not be taxed with Wickedness or Villainy, because he pursued the Constitutions of the Nation, at least much closer than they who had designed the Subversion of the National Government: Nor could he be charged with Perfidiousness, because he never promised to perpetuate their Session, but had often desired 'em to Dissolve themselves, which they foreslowing by a thousand cunning delays, he took the liberty to dismiss 'em by force.  
But how highly soever Ludlow was offended with the Dissolution of his Republican Brethren, many others were not of his Opinion. For Whitlock tells ye, that their Dissolution caused much rejoicing among the King's Party; and that among the Parlament's Party several Pastors of Churches and their Congregations were pleased at it; and that several Acknowledgements of the Justice of that Action were sent up to Cromwell and his Council of Officers, not only from several Parties of the Army, but from others in various Countries, with Engagements to stand by him; and Baxter tells ye, that no sort of People expressed any great Offence at their being cast out. Though he closes his advantageous Testimonial of the general Approbation of the Action, with a lash of his Satirical Pen, upon the score of his old Friends, the Exterminated Members. For Mr. Baxter does not appear in his descants upon Cromwell to be a Man without Gall. However, he serves as a good Witness against Lieutenant General Ludlow, to show that Oliver's Dissolution of the Rump was no such Crime, as he proclaims it to be. And thus it is observable how strangely Falsehood is imposed upon the world in the various dresses and disguises of Truth. If you will believe the Affirmations of Self-interest and Partiality, there as many Truths, as there are Waistcoats of the Virgin Mary among the Papists; at least there is no Champion of a Party but has his Wardrobe of Prerences, and Dresses of Justice, Piety, Virtue, and whatever is reveared and esteemed among Men, to prank and trick up their Minion Falsehood, that it shall not be possible to distinguish her from Truth; nor are they at the same time without as many Magazines of deformed Vizors and Disguises to render Truth the most odious and monstrous of all things, and ungrateful to Mankind. One cries up this for Truth; another asserts for Truth that which is diametrically opposite; a third steps in, and charges 'em both for Impostors. And the generality of Men, too lazy to examine which is Truth and which is Falshood, refer themselves to him, who having got something of a Name in the World, either for his Learning or Piety, or it may be sometimes for both, has the greatest Authority over their Persuasion.  
This is Cromwell's Case; of whom it was said, That no Man was higher Extolled, no Man more basely vilified; no Man Worse, no Man Better spoken of; as Interest led the Judgements of Men. The Presbyterians, with Baxter at their Head, affirm it was an Act of Rebellion, Perjury, Perfidiousness, and Impudence, to turn so many of their Members out of the House at once: The Republican Party say, No; that was no Crime at all; but it was a Villainous, Barbarous, Perfidious Act to Dissolve the Rump. Whence it is naturally concluded, that until Both Parties can make out their diametrical Infallibility in these Points, Cromwell's Reputation stands Irreproachable, as to those Acts with which they charge him committed against themselves. Add to this, that being all Parties and Accomplices, they were no competent Judges of the Justice or Injustice of their own Cause; consequently neither of Cromwell's Proceedings against themselves. So that having no Right to Judge, they had no Power to Condemn. Quis tulerit Graechos de Seditione querentes?  
And now we come to the Accomplishment of the Southsaying and Conjectures of our Irish Lieutenant-General, That after all was done, Cromwell would certainly fool the Rump, and set up for himself. And here with the Painter-Stainers Brush of his overweening Malice, he strives to render Oliver as deformed as possibly he can, to the end he may make his Rump appear the more sleek and immaculate. To this intent, his main pretence is violent Usurpation, but his chief Reasons, which he displays too inconsiderately to the World, were his own Discontents, and the Abatement of his Pay, and his being at length turned quite out of Commission: For, says he, p 465 the Pay of some of the Officers of the Army was also reduced; among whom it fell heavier on me, than any other; for I was obliged to keep a more plentiful Table than the rest, and Twenty Horses continually in my Stable ready for Service: And indeed it would have vexed a Saint, to have been thrown down like Lucifer, from so much Glory all of a sudden. Then for his Commission, he himself acknowledges that it was not taken from him, till he was discovered to be a p 522, &c Disperser of Petitions and Memento's against the Person who procured it for him, and in whose Name it was given. And here his pretended tender Conscience being pricked and goaded with a hundred scruples and niceties, 'tis very pleasant to see how it capered and curveted upon the demand of that Commission. However it is apparent, that he was used with a world of Civility, more than he deserved, and that great care was taken to recover him from those Pious frenzies and fegaries, with which his Celestial Bigotry was led astray.  
As for his Charge of Usurpation and Tyranny upon Oliver; we must take him for a Person abstracted from all other Parties but his own, and deal with him as one that boasted that he had Subscribed the Engagement to be true to the Rump, without King or House of Lords, with his Hand and his Heart; and then we must affirm, that he has gone all along upon a wrong ground; seeing there could be no greater Proof of usurpation, than that very Engagement which the Lieutenant General Signed with his Hand and his Heart. For it was a demand of Fealty by those who had no Legal Authority to require it, and a perfect Invasion upon the Prerogatives of the King and the Lords, and erecting a spurious Commonwealth upon their Ruins. So that the Confidence of the Lieutenant-General is greatly to be wondered at; who being an Accomplice in so signal a usurpation, durst adventure to call Cromwell a usurper, who did no more than what they had done before him with much more Injustice and Illegality. For the Lieutenant and his Copartners usurped upon the Fundamental Constitutions of the Nation; whereas Oliver was only a usurper upon usurpers, if it might be called a usurpation. However, to make it out, the Lieutenant-General conjectures this, and surmises that, according as his own idle Fancy prompted him; and would make the world believe that he knew Cromwell's Thoughts, and all the reasons of his Actions, which he takes so much care to bespatter with his fond Reflections and Interpretations, to the best advantage of his undefiled Rump. Whereas there be some who reckon that Action of Cromwell's among the most Glorious of his Performances, and which came the nearest to one of the most famous Achievements of Hercules himself, to cut off that many-headed Geryon of Anarchy, Folly, and Tyranny, at one Blow.  
But notwithstanding all his stroking and clapping his Republican Rump, there are others that write with more Impartiality, who give us a better account of things; and from those bare Relations of Matters of Fact, we find that Cromwell always advised with the Greatest Lawyers in the Nation, before he put his Determinations in Execution. In an accidental Conference between Cromwell and Whitlock, the latter agreed with the former, That Ludlow's spotless Rumponians were a Proud, Ambitious, and Selfseeking sort of People, engrossing all Places of Honour and Profit to themselves and their Friends, and daily breaking out into new and violent Parties and Factions; that they were delayers of Business, and Men that designed to perpetuate the Power in their own hands. So that it was then concluded between 'em, that there ought to be some Authority and Power so Full and so High, that might restrain their Exorbitances, and reduce things to better Order.  
Certainly these were Inducements for Cromwell to Dissolve the Rump, much more Just and Honest, and far more Beneficial to the Nation, than those Figments which Ludlow charges him withal. Had they been those By ends, and that Ambition which Ludlow would pretend to discover in him, it was well known, and Whitlock put him in mind at the same Conference, that he had all the Kingly Power in him already; that of the Militia as he was General: That as to the Nomination of Civil Offices, those whom he recommended were very seldom refused; and that though he had not a negative Vote in passing the Laws, yet what he disliked was not easy to be carried; and that it was in his Power to dispose of the Public Money: Then as to Foreign Affairs, though the Ceremonial Application were made to the Parliament, yet the expectation of good or bad Success was from himself; and particular Solicitations of Foreign Ministers, were only made to him.  
But Cromwell well knowing that the Power of a King was universally understood and Reverenced by the People of this Nation, and that a single Person under what Title soever, was more agreeable to the Constitutions of the Kingdom, in all probability believed that it would be much better to destroy the Republican Hydra, past recovery, then to be guilty of so many foreseen Miscarriages, by suffering the unruly Monster any longer to domineer under the Protection of his Power. For certain it is, that whatever the Nation had suffered, though it had passed in their Names, would have been all laid upon his Shoulders. And by the Event it may be justly thought, that these were the real Motives that swayed Oliver to assume a Single Title, rather than the Fictions of Ludlow's Malice and Discontent. However, Ludlow pretends, that his Rump was dockt in the full career of their good Intentions for the Good of the Nation; to which some Credit might have been given, had some indifferent Person spoke it: But as the Praises and Encomiums of a Bigot gain little Belief, so neither are his Defamations and Reproaches any more to be regarded among Men of Sense. More than this, Cicero will not allow that any Man should accuse another for that which he is as much, or more guilty of himself. Now it is apparent that Oliver, as has been said, so far as concerned the Rump, was much less a Usurper, than Ludlow and his Party, who had Usurped all the Authority in the Kingdom to themselves, and were going about to Subvert the Fundamental Government of the Nation; whereas Oliver did but dissolve a Conventicle of a Parliament, out of a firm belief that they were meditating the Ruin of the Kingdom; which having no Legal Authority, might easily be Dissolved by the same Power that Supported it. So that there is not the least pretence for Ludlow's Outcries of Usurpation against Oliver, who had as much right, if he saw cause, to Dissolve 'em, as they had to Sat; more especially seeing neither Ludlow, nor any of his Party could claim any redress from the Law of the Land, to which they were all sworn Enemies by virtue of their Engagement; nor was there any other Law to make it Usurpation, unless they meant some petty Votes of their own, which signified nothing.  
The Lieutenant-General's next Charge upon Cromwell, is an Accusation of Tyranny; not that the Lieutenant General ever felt the effects of it, unless it were his being turned out of Commission for endeavouring to raise the Posse Comitatus upon him, as we told ye before, by dispersing Petitions and Memento's against Oliver and his Government, which he p 524 thought, in his silly Conscience, to be a Duty incumbent upon him: But because the Lieutenant-General having read or heard that Usurpation and Tyranny were generally Concomitants, he thought it a Duty incumbent upon him to give Oliver a double scratch, and because he had charged him with Usurpation, that therefore it behoved him to accuse him of Tyranny, by reason they were so near a kin. Such Blunders do Men commit that are swayed by Prejudice and Disgust. Now therefore we are to examine who were the greatest Tyrants, the Rump, or Cromwell. The definition of Tyranny, according to Aristotle, is the Domination of one or more Men, with regard to nothing else but their own proper Interest and Advantage.  
Now you have heard the Characters of the generality of the Rump; that they were Proud, Ambitious, and Self-seekers: Endowments so tempered by Original Sin to qualify Men in Authority for Tyranny, that 'tis a difficult thing for those that possess 'em to avoid the Temptations of Despotic Dominion. But to come to particulars; their Despotic Votes, from which there was no Appeal; the Sequestrations, Decimations, their Committee-Men Bassa's, and Sangiacs in every Corner of the Kingdom to Extirpate the Ancient Gentry and Nobility of the Nation; their designing the very Annihilation of Kingship, by Exposing the Palaces of Royalty to Sale; their Lording it over the Episcopal Clergy to that degree, that they would not suffer 'em to have Two or Three gathered together in their Saviour's Name, as if the Cavaliers had had no right to Heaven; Taxes imposed ad Libitum, by a Usurped Authority, to maintain Wars with Holland, Wars with Portugal, that signified nothing to England, but tended all to the advancement of their own Grandeur: And all this while the Nation rend and torn, Family against Family, Parents against their Children, Foreigners increased in the Staple Manufactures of the Kingdom, and Confusion, that always nurses Anarchy and Tyranny, as the Wolf did Romulus and Remus, raging uncontrolled from Dover to Berwick.  
While the Kingdom was in this disastrous Condition, Cromwell steps in and puts a stop to these precipitant Phaeton's, that had quite overturned the Chariot of Government, and finding no other way but to restore the ancient Establishment of a Single Person and a Parliament, takes the Reins into his own Hands. And this is that which our Lieutenant General of the Forces in Ireland snorts and fumes at with so much Indignation, and calls, though very improperly, his own Circumstances considered, a betraying of the precious Cause, and a Sacrificing of all their Victories and Deliverances to his Pride and Ambition, contrary to his former solemn p 471 Vows and Professions. A Charge of a high nature, but which has been sufficiently answered already. However, Cromwell would not be overhasty in this Affair of so great Importance; he first calls an Assembly of Men, the Best and most Able, as he thought, to find out an Expedient to rescue the Nation from the growing Confusions that were like to overwhelm it. But these Persons, after they had for some time laid their Heads together, proved as arrant Bunglers, as the others were Fools and Knaves; however, they had the honesty to acknowledge it, and so unwilling to go beyond their Last, resigned up their Power into his Hands who had called 'em together. Now whether this were done out of Policy for form and fashions sake, or out of sincere Intention, is not here to be disputed; we are only to clear it from Ludlow's Aspersion of Tyranny, as being a Method that looked with a much better face of moderation and reason, and carried a fairer pretence of satisfaction to the Nation, than the Lawless Violence of the Rump in taking Possession of their several Thrones, and Voting themselves into an Arbitrary and Despotic Domination, without the least Consent of the People, but imposing themselves upon 'em for their Representatives, without any regard to the Laws and Constitutions of the Land.  
On the other hand, Cromwell and the Gentlemen before mentioned, had resigned their Authority up to him, before he would intrude himself upon the Nation, draws up a certain Instrument, containing several Covenants and Compacts between him and the People, which he took an Oath in the Presence of God, never to Violate or Infringe, but to Govern the Three Nations according to the Laws, Statutes, and Customs thereof, seeking Peace, and causing Justice to be equally Administered.  
This the Rump never did, they broke the Laws and Statutes of the Realm every day in the year; and required that all People should Swear to them, but they Swore to no Body: They gave no reason of their Actions, but called themselves, Custodes Libertatis Angliae, and as such, they locked it up with their Great Seal, and would never part with it to the People: They were only ingenuous in one thing, that they acknowledged what God they served by their Deus Nobiscum upon their Coin. And this same Mammonish Deity seems to have had a great influence upon the Conscience and Piety of our Lieutenant-General, by his Complaint for the Abatement of his Pay, and the Viol of his Wrath poured out upon Cromwell, for distributing a Thousand Pounds a Year to p 479 the Members of his Council, when he himself was turned out of the Council of State, and his Lieutenant-Generalship in Ireland, and sent a Grazing into Wiltshire, after all his great Services at Wardour-Castle, and against the Bogtrotters, and his obstructing the Proclaiming the Instrument of Government in Ireland, in Obedience to the squeamishness of his crazy Conscience. Which put him into such a heat every time he thought of it in Switzerland, that he was resolved to be even with Cromwell for it; and therefore lays it as a heavy Charge upon him, his allowing a 1000 l. a Year to his Privy Council, to tell the World, That he 
Ibid.  did it as a Public Robber who had possessed himself of the Purse of the Nation, because nothing of Conscience or Honour could be presumed would ever keep 'em steady in their Fidelity to him. Never considering that his Spotless Rumponians were of the same Opinion, which made 'em carve the Wealth of the Nation so profusely one to another, to cement their mutual Union, that Martin was reported to have spent a Hundred Thousand Pounds of their Liberality upon his Concubines, of which the Donative of Derby House was a part. And they who desire to see a farther List of the Munificent Gratuities of their Fidelity to each other, may find it in the History of Independency, unless my Memory fail me.  
But to return to Cromwell, it is apparent that still he gave reasons for what he did. He tells the world, That having had sufficient Experience of the Inconveniences of a Republican Dominion, which was altogether dissonant from the Temper of the Nation, he had reduced it to the Ancient Form of a Single Person and a Parliament, as being most agreeable to the Sense of the Nation, judging it to be the most likely means to avoid the extremes of Monarchy on the one hand, and Democracy on the other, yet not so neither as to found Dominium in Gratia. And to show how far he was from intending a Tyrannical and Despotic Rule, he drew up an Instrument containing several Covenants and Agreements with the People, with the Form of an Oath to be taken by him for the Performance of the several Articles.  
The chief of these Covenants were, That the Laws should not be altered, suspended, repealed, or abrogated, nor any new Law made, nor any Tax or Imposition laid upon the People, but by common Consent of Parliament.  
That there should be a Triennial Parliament, not to be dissolved before they had sat Five Months; which should be summoned sooner, if the Necessities of the State required it.  
That the Office of the Single Person should be Elective, and not Hereditary.  
That Liberty of Conscience should be allowed to all Professors of the Christian Faith: But the Public and open Profession of Popery and Prelacy not to be allowed.  
That every successive Single Person should take and subscribe a solemn Oath to seek the Peace, Quiet, and Welfare of the Nations, and to cause Law and Justice to be equally administered.  
Now, with our Major-General's leave, I would fain know what Tyranny there was in all this? More than this, as to the Sincerity of Cromwell's Intentions, if we may believe him, as there is certainly much more reason to believe him speaking as it were in the Presence of God, then to give Credit to an exasperated Bigot jabber to the Canton of Bern, he assures the Parliament which he had called, That he desired not to keep the Government any longer than he might preserve England in its just Rights, and the People in their just Liberty of Conscience. To this we may add, that at another time in his Speech to his Parliament, speaking of his Government, he has this Expression, That let men say what they would, he could speak it with Comfort before a greater than any of 'em, as to his own Intentions, it was a Thing calculated for the Interest of the People alone, and for their Good, and without Respect had to any other Interest.  
I do not find in all Ludlow's Memoirs any such League made for the Welfare of the Nation by the Rump, or any such Tenderness so much as pretended by Ludlow's Republican Patriots. Ludlow takes no notice of all this, but runs on, hunting after all the Riffraff of Defamation and Reproach which he can rake together, on purpose to pull down his Memory, and bury it under the Rubbish of his Memoirs. He scrapes together with an implacable Malice, all the Bad, or will admit of bad Interpretation concerning him; but he omits every thing that might be justly said in his Favour: Which, if we may believe Cicero, is the greatest Proof of the Injustice of an Accusation that can be.  
Baxter, though no Friend to Cromwell, was in this particular more Ingenious; he mixes what he thought bad, and what he esteemed good in Cromwell, both together; and his Words are worth reciting, as bearing a signal Testimony against the Virulency of Ludlow. I did in open Conference, says he, declare Cromwell 
Baxter's Life, Part 1.  and his Adherents to be guilty of Treason and Rebellion, yet I did not think it my duty to rave against p 71 him in the Pulpit; the rather, because as he kept up his Approbation of a Godly Life in the general, and of all that was good, except that which the Interest of his sinful Cause engaged him to be against; so I perceived that it was his design to do good in the main, and to promote the Gospel, and the Interest of Godliness, more than any had done before him; and it was the principal means that he trusted to for his own Establishment, even by doing G O O D; that the People might love him, or at least be willing to have his Government, for that Good. And speaking of his Carriage after he had assumed the Protectorship, He had the Policy, says he, not to detect or exasperate the Ministers or others that consented p 74 not to his Government, having seen what a Stir the Engagement made before; but he let men live quietly, without putting any Oath of Fidelity upon any but his Parliaments.  
From whence it is obvious, that it was a piece of Tyranny in the Rump, that they would let no body rest in quiet, that did not swallow their Engagement; which was a Tyranny not only over the Bodies, but the very Souls and Consciences of men; of which Ludlow in the height of his Partiality says nothing.  
By the way, there is one Accusation which Baxter and Ludlow both charge upon Cromwell, That he permitted many things, to necessitate the Nation to take him for their Governor: Which Cromwell taking notice of, gives this solemn Answer, in his Second Speech to his Parliament; And I say this, says he, not only to this Assembly, but to all the World, That that man lives not, who can come to me and charge me that I have in these great Revolutions created Necessities: I challenge even all that fear God. After all this, I must leave it to Judgement, whether it be fair to favour the Suppositions and Conjectures of Bigotry, against so solemn a Challenge as this.  
And now we are to compare the Benefit which the Nation received by the Rump, with the Advantages of the Protector's Government. As for the Actions of the Rump, the chiefest of Remark was their War with the Dutch. A War by which the Nation reaped no Benefit, and which the Dutch declined as much as possibly they could, disowning the rash Action of Trump, and taking God to witness, that his fight the English Fleet was against the Knowledge and Will of the States-General. But the Rump, who then thought themselves the Lords of Three Kingdoms, and were setting up for a Commonwealth, and flushed up with Cromwell's Victories at Dunbar and Worcester, resolved to let the Dutch know, that as they were the largest, so they would be the Topping Republic in Europe, and would not have the Point of Precedency disputed with 'em. Which was the Reason that most people, because they could find no better, gave for their entering into a War impertinently expensive to the Nation, and altogether against the Protestant Interest, which ought to have been much more dear to those pretended Zealots, than a Punctilio of Honour. As for their War with Portugal, it had somewhat a better pretence, because that King protected Prince Rupert's revolted Ships in his Harbours; but it caused a great Cessation of Trade.  
On the other side; Cromwell made Peace with the Dutch, and made 'em pay for it. He renewed the Leagues with Sweden and Denmark, by which he kept the Sound open to his Merchants, and strengthened the Protestant Interest. He relieved the distressed Protestants of Savoy with considerable Sums. And if he erred in closing with the French instead of the Spaniard, yet thereby he added Jamaica and Dunkirk to the British Dominions; the Loss of the last of which Places has been too sadly lamented in these our last Wars with France. At home he took care to fill the Seats of Justice with Men of known Integrity and Ability; and he went a great way in reforming the Abuses of the Law. Lastly, he kept the Nation in Peace, Trade flourished, and Money was plentiful under his Government.  
But he was no sooner laid in his Grave, but the Rump, which was enough to show the Nature of the Beast, broke in upon his Son Richard, and put all into Confusion again; and by that means made good the Truth of all the Remonstrances and Declarations that the Army and Cromwell put forth in Justification of their Proceedings against him. This Baxter says, as done by them, was as barbarous a Perfidiousness as ever History did declare; that they should so suddenly, so scornfully, and proudly pull down him whom they had so lately set up and sworn to, and that for nothing; they could scarce tell why themselves; nor were ever able to give the world a fairer reason for their Villainy, than the Munster fanatics had for their Bedlam Outrages and Rebellion; as if Perjury and Rebellion had been newly put into the Commandments.  
And here it is time to make a stop, that I may not trouble the Reader with Repetitions and Impertinences, which would certainly be the consequence of any farther tracing the remainder of his Memoirs, wherein he seems to be only in a pleasing Trance, gratifying his own Humour, and talking of old Stories, like old weatherbeaten Officers in the Chimney-corner of a Lame Hospital.  
From the whole there is only this one Observation farther to be made, How great a Prejudice Posterity receives from such Mountebanks in History as the Author of these Memoirs. For the Supreme Law of History is, That there be no suspicion of Favour or Affection; none of Envy or Partiality, nor any thing of Ostentation in the Writer; of all which Crimes these Memoirs are apparently guilty. And therefore such Commentaries as these, are better committed to the Flames, then transmitted to future Ages, which are thereby led into Error, and altogether deprived of making a right Judgement of preceding times. Truth is darkened either Libidine Affentandi, or odio Adversus Dominantes; and so between Folly and Knavery there is no care of Posterity. And therefore in regard that Men for Scandals and Defamations of the Living, are many times punished with severe Penalties, How much more do all passionate and misguiding Histories, that murder the Fame and Reputation of the Dead, deserve the Condemnation of all the Rational part of Mankind?   
THE END.