THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 COMMODORE BYRON MCCANDLESS
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL, 
 
 &c. &c. ,
 
 BY THE SAME A0THOK, 
 
 'THE IRISH HARP ON THE WILLOWS; 
 
 OR, THOUGHTS AN D SOLICITUDES RESPECTING THE CAUSE 
 OF CHRIST IN IRELAND. 
 
 Third thousand, price 4d. 
 
 " An earnest, eloquent, and truthful appeal, by a well-known and successful 
 advocate of Irish evangelization." Christian Witnett. 
 
 Also a Tract, 
 
 IS MR. O'CONNELL IN PURGATORY 
 
 Twentieth thousand. 
 
 LONDON: JOHN SNOW, PATERNOSTER-RO\V.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL; 
 
 in tjje 
 
 VIEWED IN RELATION TO 
 
 ENGLAND IN THE PRESENT. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. JOSEPH DENHAM SMITH, 
 
 Spirit of freedom, on, 
 
 And pause not in thy flight, 
 Till every clime be woo, 
 
 To worship in the light. 
 Then, where the valleys sink, 
 
 And where the mountains rise, 
 The beacon lights of liberty 
 
 Shall kindle to the skies." 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN SNOW, PATERNOSTER. ROW. 
 
 DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON, 3, GRAFTON-STREET. 
 1851.
 
 Dublin : rrinteJ by EDWARD BriL, 6, Bachelor's- walk.
 
 DA 
 
 i-sn 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS Lecture was delivered during a season of 
 intense excitement, occasioned by the Papal 
 aggression.* After its delivery numerous friends 
 and citizens became urgent for publication. 
 It has been prepared for the press during brief 
 seasons secured from pressing pastoral and official 
 engagements, and may be expected to bear marks 
 of evident imperfection. 
 
 Besides the urgency of the request alluded to, 
 other circumstances have induced the writer to 
 give circulation and permanency to the Lecture. 
 He knows of no shilling book favourable to Oli- 
 ver Cromwell. The large and valuable works 
 of Vaughan, Carlyle, D'Aubigne, and Macau- 
 
 * At the Rotunda, Dublin, February, 1851, before " The Young 
 Men's Christian Association," M. POLLOCK, Esq., in the Chair. 

 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 lay, are not accessible to the poorer classes. 
 Considerable extracts, however, from their writ- 
 ings are embodied in this Lecture, with the hope 
 that they may create a desire for the works 
 themselves. The beautiful portrait of the Pu- 
 ritans, drawn by the hand of Macaulay, is of 
 exquisite interest and worth. Scarcely less so 
 is that of England during the Commonwealth, 
 from the pen of the greatest of uninspired men, 
 John Milton. 
 
 The author need offer no apology for his strong 
 leaning towards those views of liberty and reli- 
 gion held by the Puritans. He avows himself a 
 decided Protestant, and has been at no pains to 
 conceal his sentiments. The times are such as 
 to demand an opinion from every man. In this 
 modern Papal movement we are expressly told 
 by Dr. Wiseman, " that the Canon law of Rome 
 is inapplicable to England under vicars-apostolic, 
 and that therefore the English Catholics must 
 have a hierarchy." To have an hierarchy, then, 
 is no spiritual step merely, for it involves " THE
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 OUR great topic this evening will be Oliver Crom- 
 well. When invited to its consideration I was pain- 
 fully conscious that any qualification I possessed was 
 but too inadequate to justify my consent. Notwith- 
 standing this, and though open to the charge of great 
 presumption, I felt more than a willingness to renew 
 my study of a character whose influence, after a lapse 
 of two hundred years, is so visibly manifest, and 
 whose actions have given a new development to the 
 cause of human nature. And now, surrounded in 
 this vast assembly by all the exciting realities of 
 having given my consent, I am filled with a sense of 
 responsibility. I mean, however, to speak freely of 
 Oliver Cromwell ; and the more so because, having 
 been bred in the midst of conflicting opinions, I am 
 conscious of exemption from every feeling of ani- 
 mosity. My only request of my auditory is, that 
 they would manifest a similar exemption. In esti- 
 mating the character of Oliver Cromwell we are liable 
 to fall into one of two extremes the extreme of excess, 
 or the extreme of deficiency. His friends, many of 
 them, have given him an unmixed approbation ; and
 
 2 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 his enemies, not considering the character of the cri- 
 sis in which he acted, have heaped upon him an un- 
 mixed execration. We shall seek to strike the happy 
 medium, and, as has been eloquently expressed, "roll 
 along the highway of uncontested facts." The dis- 
 covery of such facts, relative to the subject before us, 
 has formed an important era in our history. Clouds 
 and darkness have for a long time hung over the period 
 of the Commonwealth of England. It was a terra 
 incognita, an unknown region for nearly two hundred 
 years. Cromwell and the men who took part with 
 him in the struggle of the seventeenth century were 
 but obscurely understood. They were looked upon 
 from a wrong point of observation. The light, how- 
 ever, which now shines upon us may prove of incal- 
 culable use in this solemn age, an age perhaps as 
 pregnant with evils, which mightily strive for mastery 
 and permanence, as was the great formative age of the 
 Commonwealth itself. 
 
 We are among those who think that unspeakable 
 wrong has been done to the memory of Oliver Crom- 
 well. The thing is easy of explanation, though it 
 reflects little credit on the justice of human nature. 
 At the Restoration an utter abjuration of the name, 
 principles, and deeds of the Protector was the high 
 road to preferment. Any vindication of him was 
 menaced by the loss of liberty, and even of life. The 
 Star-Chamber had scarcely gone out of memory. How, 
 under such circumstances, could a right estimate be 
 formed? The delusion became the inheritance of 
 subsequent generations. Not only was his memory 
 ignored, but the material works in which his policy
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 6 
 
 was recorded were, as far as possible, consigned to in- 
 famy ; every possible device was taken to blacken 
 his character ; the spirit of a fiend-like hate made 
 havoc at his very grave ; his bones were exposed and 
 execrated ; his mutilated remains were affixed to a 
 gallows at Tyburn, a spectacle of ridicule. This, 
 however, was no proof of his badness. It will be re- 
 membered that the immortal Wickliffe, the star of the 
 Reformation, was similarly treated. His historian 
 tells us that his ashes were exhumed and then thrown 
 into a neighbouring brook. But where did the brook 
 convey the sacred deposit ? Where, but to the bright 
 waters of the " gentle Avon." The Avon again con- 
 veyed them to the Severn, the Severn bore them in 
 its limpid folds onwards to the channel-waters ; the 
 channel-waters mingled with the great and general 
 ocean. How symbolic this of the principles of the 
 noble reformer ! Small in their influence at the 
 beginning, first the brook, then the Avon, then the 
 channel-waters. Blessed, blessed principles ! they 
 are the pure and progressive principles of the Gospel 
 of Christ. And what is now our prayer, is it not 
 that of the sainted Heber ? 
 
 " Waft, waft, ye winds, its story, 
 
 And you, ye waters, roll, 
 Till, like a sea of glory, 
 
 It spreads from pole to pole." 
 
 Our own times have not been altogether purged of 
 the disgrace which marks the treatment of Oliver 
 Cromwell. The commoners of England, in their wis- 
 dom, have recently refused him a niche in that new- 
 senate house, where our great men are to be held in
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 a perpetual remembrance. This they do though his 
 morality is unimpeached, though his love of equity, 
 of liberty, and of his country is undoubted, and though 
 his abilities as a statesman are confessedly great. 
 This they do, though he was successful in guiding the 
 bark of British interests up from unparalleled dan- 
 gers to a condition of halcyon tranquillity, of national 
 prosperity, of foreign respect, and of unprecedented 
 influence, so that the following eulogium is still 
 fresh from the pen of our latest historian. " Eng- 
 land, under Cromwell, was supreme on the ocean. 
 She was the head of the Protestant interest. All 
 the reformed Churches scattered over Roman Ca- 
 tholic kingdoms acknowledged him to be their 
 guardian. The Huguenots of Languedoc, the shep- 
 herds who, in the hamlets of the Alps, professed a 
 Protestantism older than that of Augsburg, were 
 secured from oppression by the mere terror of his 
 great name. The Pope himself was forced to preach 
 humanity and moderation to Popish princes. For a 
 voice, which seldom threatened in vain, had declared, 
 that unless favour were shown to the people of God, 
 the English guns should be heard in the Castle of 
 Saint Angelo." As a Protestant ruler he never sur- 
 rendered in the least wise to Papal encroachments, 
 domestic or foreign. On this ground alone he de- 
 served a niche in Westminster. The refusal, indeed, 
 would well become the Castle of Saint Angelo. It 
 reflects disgrace on the parliament and people of Pro- 
 testant England. But an immortality of mere statu- 
 ary, in this matter, signifies little. Sooner or later 
 Oliver Cromwell will have a more honourable niche
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. O 
 
 in the hearts and memories of myriads in our own 
 and in all lands who value constitutional liberty, and 
 are blessed with a pure, unadulterated Gospel. 
 
 But our own population are not free of the evil. 
 That " the curse of Cromwell " should be the com- 
 mon form of imprecation at the foot of the Galtee, 
 or in the five counties west of the Shannon, need not 
 excite much surprise. That Roman Catholic Ireland 
 should have a horror of his name we can easily 
 imagine, but that the Protestant mind is not yet 
 purged is matter for astonishment and regret. Is it 
 not the fact that even Protestant Dublin still trem- 
 bles in the balance as to an opinion? With some 
 noble exceptions, Oliver Cromwell yet remains to be 
 known. The books used in the nurseries of our 
 metropolitan homes form a criterion of the views of 
 our people ; some of these, sold by our Protestant 
 publishers, and now in their fourteenth edition, repre- 
 sent the man as a common murderer and a hypocrite. 
 A. shilling book for the million, a small work for the 
 young, is our great desideratum. 
 
 But although his memory for two hundred years 
 has not been under the patronage of any particular 
 party, yet justice and truth are beginning their 
 triumph. Almost every day adds shame to the ene- 
 mies of Oliver Cromwell. Who now can write a 
 history of our ancestors without doing some honour 
 to the man who, as it were, on horseback or in the 
 field, instituted a great dynasty, and laid the foun- 
 dation of one of the best constitutions the world ever 
 knew. It would matter little were we to form 
 wrong ideas of the man, considered simply as an indi-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 vidual. His vast policy is involved ; our laws, our 
 liberties, and our religion are deeply interested. All 
 the energies of his great nature were adjusted against 
 the enemies of these. This is the one point of view 
 in which an enlightened mind should survey his ca- 
 reer. The sequel of this lecture is intended to shew, 
 that, with such enemies in view, his course, allowing 
 for many mistakes incidental to our nature, was yet a 
 righteous course ; and that his path, so far as it was 
 the path of the just, will shine brighter and brighter 
 until the perfect day. Among the names who have 
 recently protected the Protector, we may mention Dr. 
 Robert Vaughan of Manchester, Thomas Carlyle, Dr. 
 Merle D'Aubigne, Robert Wilson of Edinburgh, and 
 Thomas Babington Macaulay. The writings of the 
 last named historian form an epoch in our history : 
 they are read in transalpine and transatlantic lands ; 
 they are discussed on the rail, in the saloon, on the 
 ocean, in the coffee-room of the hotel, and in the 
 parliamentary club. Kings and priests, nations, at 
 home and abroad, may now possess a better under- 
 standing of the men to whom we owe so large a por- 
 tion of what is truly valuable in our constitution, and 
 also of the times in which they struggled and suffered 
 to effect for it a permanence. And what heart does 
 not beat with pleasurable emotion when we remember 
 that facts and principles are being evolved under the 
 immediate notice, -and perhaps the admiration, of our 
 beloved monarch, whom may God govern and bless 
 principles equitable, glorious, and luminous, not un- 
 worthy of that illustrious " throne on which the great 
 Alfred sat."
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 7 
 
 Men naturally shudder at the name of a revolution. 
 With some a revolution and a blind destruction are 
 synonymous. The revolution of the seventeenth 
 century must be looked upon more in the light of a 
 renovation, A REGENERATION. It was pregnant 
 with good to England ; it produced national greatness. 
 There was vast confusion, there was blood. These 
 were among the strange designs of an overruling Pro- 
 vidence. The work was more than human. An 
 expectant emigrant, a country gentleman of mature 
 age and peaceful habits, is desirous of quietly leaving 
 his own land for the calm seclusion of some far off 
 wilderness, and without any design or forecast on his 
 part, having been denied the liberty of emigration, he 
 is thrown back on his country, where his actions are 
 suddenly productive of a momentous change. The 
 multitude may discover only an individual ; they may 
 or they may not wish that he had been allowed free- 
 dom of emigration, but the condition and destinies 
 of millions of human beings could not turn on the 
 mere caprice or disposition of a man. God's hand is 
 always and everywhere supreme ; all other hands are 
 but instruments. Too long, indeed, have we denied 
 the Divine Being a presence in history. " I have 
 gone down," remarks the author of the Reformation, 
 "into the lists whither the recitals of our historians 
 have invited me. There I have witnessed the actions 
 of men and of nations, developing themselves with 
 energy, and contending in violent collision. I have 
 heard a strange din of arms, but I have been nowhere 
 shown the majestic countenance of the presiding 
 Judge. Say do not those revolutions which hurl
 
 8 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 kings from their thrones, and precipitate whole na- 
 tions to the dust, do not those wide-spread ruins 
 which the traveller meets with among the sands of the 
 desert, do not those majestic relics which the field 
 of humanity presents to our view, do they not all de- 
 clare aloud a God in history ? Gibbon, seated among 
 the ruins of the Capitol, and contemplating its august 
 remains, owned the intervention of a superior destiny- 
 He saw it ; he felt it. In vain would he avert his 
 eyes ; the shadow of a mysterious power started from 
 behind every broken pillar, and he conceived the de- 
 sign of describing its influence in the disorganization, 
 decline, and corruption of that Roman dominion which 
 had enslaved the world. Shall not we discern amidst 
 the great ruins of humanity that almighty hand which 
 a man of noble genius one who never bent the knee 
 to Christ perceived amid the scattered fragments of 
 the monuments of Romulus, the sculptured marbles 
 of Aurelius, the busts of Cicero and Virgil, the statues 
 of Caesar and Augustus, Pompey's horses, and the 
 trophies of Trajan and shall not we confess the hand 
 of God?" That Divine Providence was purging Eng- 
 land, and His Church in England, of great evils in the 
 seventeenth century there can be no reasonable doubt. 
 Many of the measures were awfully severe. The body 
 politic underwent terrific amputation. The several 
 members were subjected to great pain ; some were 
 altogether sacrificed. " But God was the Judge. He 
 putteth down one and setteth up another." 
 
 A fulfilment of these truths will be seen in the re- 
 markable life and times of Oliver Cromwell, a brief 
 sketch of which we now proceed to give.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 9 
 
 Oliver Cromwell was born on the 25th April, 1599. 
 He was born when, as now, most remarkable times 
 were passing over England. The attention of Europe 
 was directed towards that land. Interests of an infi- 
 nite moment were at stake. The Protector was a babe 
 only three years of age when the great Queen Eliza- 
 beth died. All England had been lying under the 
 excommunication and curse of the man at Rome. 
 With heroic spirit Elizabeth had hurled defiance to 
 both the curse and the man. Many had trembled 
 for the effect of this wickedness. From Rome to the 
 Orkneys there were superstitious minds which foretold 
 the approach of some horrible doom. Elizabeth, 
 however, whilst she lived, proved a mighty breakwater 
 to the power of the Pope in England. That monarch 
 once gone, the tide of the Papacy may roll in upon 
 the nation with unmitigated horror. It is wonderful, 
 however, to think that though no curse from the Va- 
 tican had been pronounced over Italy, its fair fields 
 have fallen into a state of barrenness and waste ; its 
 " Eternal City" into a fourth-rate market-town, and 
 its once spirited people into penury, slavery, and mi- 
 sery ; whilst England, over whose comparatively bar- 
 ren acres the blight and the mildew of the Pontifical 
 curse had rested, has, from the very date of the fol- 
 lowing " Bull," risen into a condition of commercial 
 greatness and national prosperity. The document is 
 headed, " The Condemnation and Excommunication 
 of Elizabeth Queen of England and of her Adherents, 
 with the addition of other punishments by Pope Pius 
 the Fifth." Among other passages are the following : 
 
 " He who reigns on high, to whom all power is given
 
 10 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 in heaven and in earth, delivered one holy Catholic 
 and Apostolic Church, without the pale of which is no 
 salvation, to one only person in earth, namely, to the 
 prince (or chief, principi) of the Apostles, to Peter, 
 and to Peter's successor, the Roman Pontiff, to be 
 governed in the plenitude of power. This one person 
 he appointed prince (or chief) over all nations and all 
 kingdoms, to pluck up, to destroy, to scatter abroad, 
 to disperse, to plant, and to build [Is this only SPIRI- 
 TUAL power ?] that he might, in the unity of the 
 Spirit, keep together the faithful people, bound by 
 the tie of mutual charity, and present them safe and 
 
 unhurt to their Saviour But the number of 
 
 impious men has so increased in power, that no place 
 in the world is now left which they have not tried to 
 corrupt by the worst doctrines : among others, Eliza- 
 beth, the servant of wickedness, the pretended Queen 
 of England, adding her endeavours ; with whom, as 
 their asylum, the most hostile of all have found a re- 
 fuge We, by necessity, driven to the arms of 
 
 justice against her, cannot soothe our grief that we 
 are led to punish one whose ancestors deserved so well 
 of the Christian commonwealth. Wherefore, upheld 
 by the authority of Him who willed to place us (though 
 unequal to such a work) on this supreme throne of 
 justice, we, of the plenitude of the Apostolic power, 
 declare that the aforesaid Elizabeth being a heretic 
 and the favourer of heretics [What less is Victoria ?], 
 and those who adhere to her in the matters aforesaid, 
 have incurred the sentence of cursing, and are cut off 
 from the unity of Christ's body ; and moreover that 
 she herself is deprived of her pretended right to the
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 11 
 
 kingdom aforesaid, and also of all and every kind of 
 dominion, dignity, and privilege ; and likewise that 
 the nobles, subjects, and people of the said kingdom, 
 and all others who have in any way whatever sworn 
 to her, are for ever absolved from such oath, and ut- 
 terly from all obligation of dominion, fealty, and obe- 
 dience, as we by authority of these presents do absolve 
 them ; and we deprive the same Elizabeth of her pre- 
 tended right of the kingdom, and of all others afore- 
 said [What less could Victoria expect ?] ; and we charge 
 and forbid all and singular the nobles, subjects, peo- 
 ple, and others aforesaid, that they dare not obey her 
 or her admonitions, commands, and laws. Whosoever 
 shall act otherwise, them WE BINDBYLIKE SENTENCE 
 
 OF CURSING." 
 
 Is this the Bishop of Rome who now, to serve a 
 purpose, tells the English nation, in behalf of Cardinal 
 Wiseman, that his system is only a spiritual system ? 
 What cool effrontery is here ! A spiritual system, 
 forsooth ! What saith its Canon law ? 
 
 " The Bishop of Rome may give authority to arrest 
 men, and imprison them in manacles and fetters." 
 
 "The Bishop of Rome may excommunicate empe- 
 rors and princes, depose them from their states, and 
 assoil their subjects from their oath of obedience to 
 them, and so constrain them to rebellion." 
 
 What said the enlightened Cranmer ? " It is well 
 known, as well by all histories as by daily experience, 
 that none have more ambitiously aspired above empe- 
 rors, kings, and princes, nor have more perniciously 
 moved the ignorant people to rebellion against their 
 princes than certain persons who falsely challenge to
 
 12 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 themselves to be only counted and culled SPIRI- 
 TUAL." 
 
 The men of the sixteenth century, and the Man of 
 the seventeenth century Oliver knew better than 
 to treat the Papacy as simply a religious system. 
 They knew it as a huge instrument by which liberty, 
 religion, and life had been put to every sort of tor- 
 ture. Nevertheless, the "Bulls" fall harmless enough 
 where there is no power to enforce them : notwith- 
 standing the curse England flourished. 
 
 But now Elizabeth had died when Oliver was three 
 years of age. At the very commencement of the reign 
 of the Stuarts, from causes too numerous for even a 
 mention, "a republican spirit began to manifest 
 itself strongly in the Parliament and in the country ; 
 the claims of the monarch, James, took a monstrous 
 form, which would have disgusted the proudest and 
 most arbitrary of those who had preceded him on the 
 throne." A slavish condition was sought to be en- 
 forced on the nation. This was at a time when the 
 human mind was making rapid progress in England. 
 The souls of good and great men were stirred to their 
 depths ; public affairs, however, were in that apocry- 
 phal state which fill the ignorant with fear and trem- 
 bling. It was a homely, secluded mansion in which 
 Oliver was born. It stood on the banks of the Ouse, 
 not far from St. Ives, a town situated in the flat 
 county of Huntingdon. Often in their retirement 
 did the parents of the young Oliver speak of the events 
 which were looming, and of the remarkable times 
 through which their children were likely to pass. 
 How little is known of what will happen ! Little did 
 his mother think, as the babe slumbered on the bend
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 13 
 
 of her arm who or what he was destined to be. But 
 little is known of his childhood. Rivers are always 
 attractive. On the slow and solemn surface of the 
 Ouse the image of young Cromwell was often mir- 
 rored, as he sported on its banks, sometimes plucking 
 at its edge a "forget-me-not" to carry to the mansion 
 of his widowed mother. 
 
 Much has been said to depreciate his family : only 
 ignorance could make the attempt. His father was 
 son to Sir Richard Cromwell. His mother was born 
 to an opulent citizen of Ely. She was, we are told, 
 indubitably related to the Stuarts, being some sort of 
 cousin about the ninth! to Charles Stuart him- 
 self. His uncle was " the Golden Knight of Hitch- 
 inbrook," a stately mansion situate on the banks of 
 the Ouse. It was there that King James lodged, on 
 his way to London to take possession of the English 
 crown. Many knights, on that occasion, were made 
 in the great hall of Hitchinbrook. Among Oliver's 
 relatives, moreover, was the gallant Earl of Essex. 
 This, then, is a first fact to be fixed in the memory, 
 that no more be said about the low, the mean, the 
 vulgar origin of that blood which flowed in the veins 
 of the man who afterwards became Protector of the 
 Commonwealth of England. 
 
 His education has been traduced. But he was not 
 only well-bred, considering his times he was well 
 educated. At the age of seventeen, he was a student 
 in Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge, a college of 
 respectable repute. He there became familiar with 
 the historians of Greece and Rome, and, as is after- 
 wards seen in his dealing with foreign ambassadors,
 
 14 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 could freely converse in the Latin tongue. On com- 
 pleting his studies at Cambridge, he proceeded to 
 London, where he became a student of the law. 
 
 Whilst a student in London, he became acquainted 
 with Sir James Bourchier. In that acquaintance, he 
 studied more than the law ! His heart was won by the 
 beautiful Elizabeth, a daughter of Sir James. With 
 such powerful emotions as those, which were consti- 
 tutional with young Cromwell, and with so loving a 
 prize as it is evident Elizabeth was, it is little wonder 
 that his affection was so ardent and true. Peaceful and 
 happy were the days of their courtship : it is a green 
 spot in Oliver's history. Who can walk by the old 
 church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and look up at the 
 venerable pile, without thinking that there, in Au- 
 gust, 1620, the young Elizabeth and Oliver were 
 married. Ah ! little did he imagine that the heart 
 and the mind which in that spot he betrothed to his 
 sweet bride, would, in after-days, become absorbed 
 with the government of all England at Whitehall, or 
 with such bloody conflicts and rapid conquests, at 
 Naseby, at Preston, at Marsden Moor, atDunbar, and 
 at numerous other places on either side of the Tweed 
 and on both sides of the channel. 
 
 For the present, however, he retires with his young 
 wife to the mansion of his mother, who is now twice 
 a widow. As a son, as a husband, as a father, as a 
 well-respected head of a country property worth a 
 sum equal to twelve hundred a-year of our money, 
 he had nothing farther to desire. He had retirement, 
 and he loved it well ; he had the merited esteem and 
 confidence of all who knew him. The most that he
 
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 15 
 
 knew of the affairs of the nation came to him through 
 the weekly papers and the occasional visits to St. Ives 
 of good and devoted men, who, acting on a sort of 
 " home mission," preached to Oliver's household, and 
 others, the unsearchable riches of Christ. An occa- 
 sional visit also from his illustrious kinsman, John 
 Hampden, informed him how things were going at 
 head quarters, where he and the friends of liberty 
 were carrying on a sore conflict with evil. 
 
 It will be expected that I should say something 
 of the religious character of Oliver Cromwell. It 
 may appear strange to some to speak of his con- 
 version to God ; the documents, however, attesting 
 the fact, speak for themselves. On such a point 
 no uninspired documents could be more satisfactory. 
 We have the same sort of evidence which is supplied 
 respecting Martin Luther, John Knox, John Bunyan, 
 John Wesley, or John Newton. Conversion is a turn- 
 ing of the soul to God ; it is a great spiritual change 
 a change rendered absolute by our depravity and guilt, 
 and by our Lord's great declaration " Ye must be 
 born again" As it is a change in which a soul is 
 born for heaven, so it is from Heaven. "It is the 
 Spirit that quickeneth ; it is the Spirit that maketh 
 alive" Oliver Cromwell was a man of strong con- 
 victions, of powerful emotions. When he saw the 
 law of God condemn him, he felt its terrors. When 
 the peace of acceptance with God, and pardon, beam- 
 ed upon his troubled soul, like Bunyan, he was filled 
 with unspeakable joy. He had a nature never sa- 
 tisfied with doubts. His conversion was decided. 
 The following will convey some idea of the greatness
 
 16 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 and reality of his change, for mere assertion con- 
 cerning the simplicity and genuineness of his conver- 
 sion is not enough. " He was wounded and dejected 
 under the influence and burden of sin. Often had 
 he to send for his physician ; so terribly did his sins 
 oppress him that the effect was evident not only upon 
 his mind, but also on his strong frame." " It was 
 in the seclusion of Huntingdon," writes Thomas 
 Carlyle, " that we must place what Oliver, with un- 
 speakable joy, would call his conversion his deli- 
 verance from the jaws of eternal death ; certainly a 
 grand epoch for a man, properly the only one epoch. 
 He was henceforth a Christian man ; not on Sun- 
 days only, but on all days, in all places, and in all 
 cases." Illustrative of this are his own letters. We 
 shall be content with one : 
 
 " TV my beloved Cousin, Mrs. St. John, at Sir William 
 
 Marsham his house called Otes in Essex .- 
 
 Present these. 
 
 "Ely, 13th October, 1638. 
 
 " DEAR COUSIN, I thankfully acknowledge your 
 love in your kind remembrance of me upon this op- 
 portunity. Alas, you do too highly prize my lines 
 and my company. I may be ashamed to own your 
 expressions, considering how unprofitable I am, and 
 the mean improvement of my talent. 
 
 " Yet to honour my God, by declaring what He 
 hath done for my soul, in this I am confident, and I 
 will be so. Truly, then, this I find : that He giveth 
 springs in a dry barren wilderness where no water is. 
 I live, you know where in Meshec, which they say 
 signifies prolonging ; in Kedar, which signifies Hack-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 17 
 
 ness : yet the Lord forsaketh me not. Though He 
 do prolong, yet He will, I trust, bring me to His ta- 
 bernacle, to His resting-place. My soul is with the 
 congregation of the First-born, my body rests in hope : 
 and if here I may honour my God either by doing or 
 by suffering, I shall be most glad. 
 
 " Truly no poor creature hath more cause to put 
 himself forth in the cause of his God than I. I have 
 had plentiful wages beforehand ; and I am sure I 
 shall never earn the least mite. The Lord accept me 
 in His Son, and give me to walk in the light ; and give 
 us to walk in the light, as He is the light ! He it is 
 that enlighteneth our blackness, our darkness. I dare 
 not say, He hideth his face from me. He giveth me 
 to see light in His light. One beam in a dark place 
 hath exceeding much refreshment in it : blessed be 
 His name for shining upon so dark a heart as mine ! 
 You know what my manner of life hath been. Oh, 
 I lived in and loved darkness, and hated light ; I was 
 a chief, the chief of sinners. This is true : I hated 
 godliness, yet God had mercy on me. O the riches 
 of His mercy ! Praise Him for me ; pray for me, 
 that He who hath begun a good work would perfect 
 it in the day of Christ." 
 
 Elsewhere, in his early experience, we find him 
 bemoaning himself thus, "O wretched man that 
 I am, who shall deliver me from this body of siii 
 and death," language which his enemies have not 
 failed to pervert from its true meaning. The natural 
 man cannot discern the high import such words 
 had in the experience of Oliver Cromwell. How iin- 
 
 c
 
 18 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 portant then is it to fix this fact also in our minds ; 
 it lies at the foundation of all that was morally great 
 and sublime in his remarkable character. As to his 
 being a hypocrite, the times in which he lived were 
 too perilous for a mind like his to be contented with 
 so useless and so terrible a sham. He needed a 
 reality beyond anything human, on which to found 
 a confidence, which no created power or danger 
 could shake. Well then may Milton say concern- 
 ing this period of his life : *' He had grown up in 
 peace and privacy at home, silently cherishing in his 
 heart a confidence in God, a magnanimity well adapt- 
 ed for the solemn times that were approaching. 
 Although of ripe years he had not yet stepped for- 
 ward into public life, and nothing so much distin- 
 guished him from all around as the cultivation of a 
 pure religion, and the integrity of his life." Mil- 
 ton himself was no sham, and of a hypocrite he 
 would not have written thus, or have so disgraced 
 the pen from which flowed his "Paradise Lost." 
 The following is the testimony of Dr. Merle D'Au- 
 bigne : " Oliver was a Christian in earnest. He had 
 been called by God to the knowledge of Jesus Christ ; 
 his mind had been enlightened and his heart renewed 
 by the Divine Word. To this call from on high, 
 this great call from God, which so many souls des- 
 pise, or at least neglect, he had replied from the 
 depths of his heart, and had laid hold of the grace pre- 
 sented to him, with a new and unalterable will. He 
 had believed in the name of the Lord, in the blood of 
 Jesus Christ : he had been delivered from the penalty 
 of sin, and from the dominion of evil. A new birth
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 19 
 
 had given him a new life. He was at peace with 
 God : he possessed the spirit of adoption, and an 
 easy access to the throne of Grace. From that time 
 he became a man of prayer, and so he remained for 
 the rest of his life. He lived and he died in prayer. 
 It was not he who loved God first : he had been 
 loved by him, and had believed in this love. He had 
 not acted like those who, enchanted by the world, 
 always defer the moment of their conversion, and 
 thus become guilty of the greatest sin and the great- 
 est folly. 
 
 " ' Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis, at ille 
 Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.' 
 
 In regard to the kingdom of heaven, he had learned 
 that it is the violent who take it by force ; and with 
 the whole energy of his soul, regenerated by the Holy 
 Ghost, he had seized upon it. Oliver was now a real 
 Christian : he remained one to his latest breath ; 
 and, if we except a few moments of trouble, to which 
 the most godly men are subject, he persevered in faith 
 and confidence till his course of mortality was com- 
 pleted." I again repeat it, here is a great fact to be 
 borne in mind by all who would come to a just esti- 
 mate of Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Such then were the private and personal elements 
 at the foundation of his character. There were, 
 however, events transpiring in the nation, which, in 
 their direct influence over his mind, speedily formed 
 the man for " the solemn times that were ap- 
 proaching." 
 
 Before, however, we launch out into this wider field,
 
 20 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 let me record a fact not generally known and too sel- 
 dom considered, but which bears a most important 
 influence on our estimate of Cromwell. 
 
 The idea of war and blood had, it appears, never 
 entered into his mind until late in life. He had 
 never looked on either until he was forty years of 
 age ; nor had he seen a skirmish until then. As a 
 private Huntingdonshire gentleman he could have 
 had no idea at all of the mighty enterprise of ruling 
 England. It was not until with horror and sorrow 
 he saw a revolution coming on which no man could 
 stop, but which a God in heaven and his people could 
 guide to a tranquil issue, that he consented to leave 
 his retirement and stand forth first of all with the 
 moral weapon, and afterwards, that failing, with the 
 carnal weapon, which, whenever used, became at 
 once a fountain of blood. Take the following as an 
 illustration: The Thames, in the seventeenth century, 
 was rolling along its ancient course as now ; on its 
 banks were only a few of those huge stores which, in 
 the nineteenth century, make London, along the river, 
 a perfect solitude at night. The city had risen into 
 greatness. Time was when only a few fishermen dwelt 
 where it now stands. On either side of the river 
 were green meadows, with cowslips and daisies, and 
 here and there were spread the nets of the fisher- 
 men. No sound was heard but the lowing of the 
 distant cattle, the voice of the sea-fowl, or the splash- 
 ing of the oar on the waters. Now nearly 3,000,000 
 of our race live along its banks. At the time to 
 which I refer in the seventeenth century, London 
 was the size of Dublin, in the nineteenth ; its popu-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 21 
 
 lation the same as ours. There were early ideas of 
 emigration in England ; seven emigrant vessels were now 
 lying near London bridge. Among their numerous 
 passengers were two gentlemen ; one of them appeared 
 from the country, the other bore marks of being 
 accustomed to the city ; they were evidently on terms 
 of close intimacy. They were now on board, and 
 many were the countenances on shore that looked 
 towards them with sorrowful eye. They had said, 
 Farewell home ! farewell kindred ! farewell friends ! 
 The moorings were being loosened, and they were 
 about to utter a melancholy fare-thee-well to old 
 England, their much-loved, but much-oppressed fa- 
 therland. Ah ! it is an interesting story ; it is as if in 
 ourown times of greatest trouble two of our best friends 
 were leaving us. One of those gentlemen was the 
 high-minded Oliver Cromwell ! The bystanders that 
 looked upon the emigrants observed him to be a man 
 of grave and solemn countenance. He was of few 
 words ; occasionally, only, he and his companion were 
 in close conversation. His attire attracted some no- 
 tice. He wore a broad-brim hat ; not, certainly, as 
 a religious act, like a Father Ignatius, for such hats 
 were common in the more sequestered counties of 
 England. His stockings, too, folded over heavily at 
 the knees, were of a substance that would seldom, if 
 ever, come under the influence of a darn. His eye 
 was decided. Never did a broad leaf cover a more 
 determined visage : seldom were doubts upon it. His 
 entire make was stalwart. His manners with his 
 companion were easy, subdued, calm. The other gen- 
 tleman was his illustrious kinsman, John Hampden.
 
 22 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 What opinion was entertained of him by the best men 
 of his time we learn from Baxter. "That eminent 
 person," remarks the author of the papers in the 
 Edinburgh Review, " eminent not only for his piety 
 and his fervid devotional eloquence, but for his mode- 
 ration, his knowledge of political affairs, and his skill 
 in judging of characters, declared, in the ' Saints' 
 Rest,' that one of the pleasures which he hoped to 
 enjoy in Heaven was the society of Hampden." In 
 the editions printed after the Restoration the name 
 of Hampden was omitted. " But I must tell the 
 reader," says Baxter, "that I did blot it out not as 
 changing my opinion." A friend of the pious Baxter 
 also declared, " If I might choose the person I might 
 be in the world I would be John Hampden." Tired 
 of the harassing condition of the nation, these two 
 kinsmen, like peaceful, honest, Christian men, were 
 about to retire from their country, and end their days 
 in the far-off wilderness of Connecticut. But, strange 
 to say, they were prevented. CHARLES in his folly, 
 hearing of their design, refused them emigration. It 
 was a hard case : fearing persecution in one city, they 
 were about to flee to another, according to the dictates 
 of a Word they mutually loved. It was no small trial 
 for high-minded men who had made, in a peaceful, 
 legal manner, all needful arrangements for a depar- 
 ture, to be summarily prevented by the common offi- 
 cers of the city, and that in open day ; but thus 
 Charles would have it. Charles, did I say? more 
 than Charles was here. Had they gone, humanly 
 speaking, our laws, our liberties, and our religion 
 would have perished in England. Better, far better,
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 23 
 
 had it been for Charles had they gone, but not better 
 for England, not better for us. Charles intended no 
 good. This is the way of Providence. "He can 
 turn the nature and tendencies of things contrary to 
 themselves, and out of things the most perverse and 
 intractable, he can bring forth the very opposite. It 
 is his prerogative to bend sin, and devils themselves, 
 into his service. In this respect how true it is, that 
 ' out of the eater ' he can bring forth meat ! Little, 
 indeed, can the myriads of insects that rear up those 
 stupendous coral palaces from the depths of ocean, 
 think that they are preparing fields for the luxurian- 
 cies of tropical climes and habitations for men. Little 
 do the insects that feed on the mulberry-leaves think, 
 when they are wrapping themselves up in the soft 
 silken shroud that has been spun out of their own 
 bowels, that they are preparing gay raiment for 
 multitudes in every land. Little did Cyrus of old 
 think, when he came along the tide of conquest to 
 great Babylon, that he was led by the hand of God to 
 fulfil ancient prophecies, and realise the visions of 
 Isaiah. Little did Alexander think, when he sub- 
 verted the thrones of the East, that he was only fol- 
 lowing the course that had been chalked out to him 
 ages before, and thus verifying the inspired oracles of 
 Daniel. Little did the Romans think, in their career 
 of ambition and conquest, breaking down one kingdom 
 after another, till the whole earth became one country 
 and empire highways being formed through all the 
 ruggedness of earth, and doors of access opened up 
 into the heads and hearts of previously lawless and 
 untamed hordes little did they think that they were
 
 24 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 all the while only preparing a way for the advent of 
 the Prince of peace, and the rapid diffusion of the 
 Gospel in all lands."* 
 
 Thus was it with the unhappy Charles. God had 
 other work for Oliver Cromwell. Any other hand 
 could lift the axe or the hammer on the hitherto un- 
 broken solitudes of the West. The ark containing 
 all that was goodly and precious in Britain was being 
 lost among the breakers of an angry nation. Only 
 one hand was destined to seize the helm, and steer 
 through the desolation to an asylum of rest. Let this 
 fact, then, of emigration, be borne in mind. Let it 
 be graven on your memories that Oliver Cromwell 
 sought not the rule of England, but rather that Eng- 
 land sought him. 
 
 And now our field must widen. Under any circum- 
 stances life is responsible and solemn. It is momen- 
 tous in all its influences ; it is eternal in its issues 
 and dependencies. None should lightly esteem it ; 
 none can over-estimate it. Its worth can be counted 
 by no vulgar cost. Well has this been put by our 
 American bard : 
 
 " Tell me not in mournful numbers 
 
 Life is but an empty dream ! 
 For the soul is dead that slumbers, 
 And things are not what they seem. 
 
 " Life is real ! Life is earnest ! 
 
 And the grave is not its goal ; 
 Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 
 Was not spoken to the soul. 
 
 * Dr. Duff.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 25 
 
 " Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 
 
 Is our destined end or way ; 
 But to act that each to-morrow 
 Finds us farther on our way.'' 
 
 This is true of ordinary life, it is more especially 
 so of that amazing life which now opens to our view. 
 To have lived at all in the first half of the seventeenth 
 century was a serious matter, but to have lived the life 
 of Oliver Cromwell the conception is overwhelming. 
 Thrown back on his country, despite his own inten- 
 tions, he found himself in the midst of labour and 
 sorrow. 
 
 Let us, however, turn aside for a moment and sur- 
 vey the scene. England is like one dreadful sea, 
 rolling to and fro in darkest commotion. The shat- 
 tered vessel of liberty and religion is seen, now with 
 the billows breaking over her, and now suffering tre- 
 mendous loss. Every moment is forcing a breach ; on 
 peaceful grounds we see no hope of relief. Oliver 
 saw none. Sent home to his own reflections deep 
 ones some of them he ponders over affairs. Loud 
 voices from Scripture, it is said, came into his soul. 
 " Watchman, what of the night? Morning cometh : 
 also the night." " Night " first, said Oliver : all 
 dark, all gloomy. Yes, the night first ; a fearful one, 
 too. The clouds everywhere portend blackness. 
 The King and his Cabinet are evidently determined 
 on the overthrow of the nation ; the Queen is an 
 avowed Roman Catholic. The godly Protestants are 
 being mutilated in open day, or are dying in remote 
 dungeons. Preaching is no longer safe; and as 
 for preachers, the laws are no more a protection.
 
 26 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 Then the Star-Chamber, the Tower, the executions, 
 dark chapters concerning these come to him through 
 the daily press. They fill his soul with horror. 
 " These sheep," said he, " what have they done ? 
 and what am I better than they ? My turn next." 
 The countenances, the prayers, the holy lives and 
 powerful preaching of some who were doomed to a 
 public mutilation crowded on his imagination, and 
 filled him with bitterness and grief. The Parliament, 
 too, had lost all control ; the King and the Star- 
 Chamber were supreme. This, said he, is but the 
 beginning of the end. If all this be done in the green 
 tree, what will not be done in the dry ? What, when 
 the man at Rome is about to supply foreign princes 
 with means to sustain an army intended to subdue and 
 recover England? These and a thousand other 
 thoughts gained a complete mastery over him, and so 
 oppressed his great soul as to lead him to resolve that 
 to live, to labour, to sacrifice, and even to die for a 
 better state of things, would be little enough. But 
 these, you say, are assertions : you want evidence. 
 
 Consider, then, the case of the Puritans. Take 
 the following brief but truthful statement : " The 
 Puritans were persecuted with cruelty worthy of the 
 Holy Office, i.e. of the horrible Inquisition. They 
 were forced to fly from their country ; they were im- 
 prisoned ; they were whipped ; their ears were cut 
 off ; their noses were slit ; their cheeks were branded 
 with red hot iron. But the cruelty of the oppressors 
 could not tire out the fortitude of the victims. The 
 mutilated defenders of liberty again defied the ven- 
 geance of the Star-Chamber ; came back with undi-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 27 
 
 minished resolution to the place of their glorious in- 
 famy, and manfully presented the stumps of their 
 ears to be grubbed out by the hangman's knife. . . . 
 The hardy sect grew up and flourished in spite of 
 everything that seemed likely to stunt it, struck its 
 roots deep into a barren soil, and spread its branches 
 wide to an inclement sky. The multitudes thronged 
 around Prynne in the pillory with more respect than 
 they paid to Mainwaring in the pulpit, and treasured 
 up the rags which the blood of Burton had soaked, 
 with a veneration such as mitres and surplices had 
 ceased to inspire."* Laud had long since de- 
 parted from the very profession of Protestant prin- 
 ciples. Those who opposed him had their reward. 
 " They were placed in the pillory, they were heavily 
 fined ; they were doomed to die. On one occasion, 
 as the executioner was driving back the crowd, the 
 martyr, foreseeing the evils that Charles would bring 
 upon the people, interfered, exclaiming, " Let them 
 come and spare not, that they may learn to suffer." 
 Dr. Leighton, father of the Archbishop, had written 
 " Zion's Plea." Think of the men that could dare to 
 originate and determine the sentence which followed. 
 He "was condemned to pay a fine of 5610,000 ; to be 
 set in the pillory at Westminster, and publicly whip- 
 ped ; to lose his ears, have his nostrils slit, and his 
 cheeks branded with the letters S. S. Sower of Sedi- 
 tion a sentence which was executed in all its seve- 
 rity." " As Dr. Bastwick ascended the scaffold on 
 
 * Macaulay.
 
 28 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 which he was to suffer mutilation, his wife rushed up 
 to him, and kissed the ears he was about to lose. 
 Upon her husband's exhorting her not to be fright- 
 ened, she made answer : ' Farewell, my dearest, be of 
 good comfort : I am nothing dismayed.' The sur- 
 rounding crowd manifested their sympathy by loud 
 acclamations. 
 
 " On descending from the scaffold he drew from 
 his ear the sponge soaked with his blood, and, hold- 
 ing it up to the people, exclaimed : ' Blessed be my 
 God, who hath counted me worthy, and of his mighty 
 power hath enabled me to suffer anything for his 
 sake ; and as I have now lost some of my blood, so 
 I am ready and willing to spill every drop that is in 
 my veins in this cause, for which I have now suffered : 
 which is for maintaining the truth of God, and the 
 honour of my King against Popish usurpations. Let 
 God be glorified, and let the King live for ever.' "* 
 
 Here were scenes well calculated to exasperate the 
 nation. No words can convey any adequate ideas of 
 the emotions, which, indeed, were irrepressible, in 
 the more godly portion of the people. They knew 
 and loved the sufferers ; they had sat under their 
 ministry, had been converted under their preaching ; 
 had oftentimes admired their courage and fidelity in 
 denouncing the "superstitious mummeries" of the 
 Papacy ; and had rejoiced in the holiness, consis- 
 tency, and usefulness of their lives. How could they 
 look on but with burning indignation ? Such scenes, 
 
 * Prynne, quoted by D'Aubign^, p. 52.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 29 
 
 were they to occur now, would, we venture to assert, 
 issue in another revolution. Conceive for a moment 
 that the best men of your own city were doomed to 
 similar torture. Dragged from their homes to the 
 dungeons of our prisons, then placed a first and se- 
 cond time in a pillory, then exposed to the public 
 with the blood still flowing from the amputation of 
 their ears. They are once again brought forth for 
 further humiliation. Their noses are slit ; they are 
 whipped ; they are branded with red-hot iron : S. S. 
 is burned deep into their flesh. You recognise the 
 men ; they are men whom you have revered and 
 loved. The thousands who thronged their churches 
 behold them with utter dismay. But when the hang- 
 man is seen grubbing out the stumps of their ears, 
 the sight is unbearable ; flesh and blood cannot en- 
 dure so terrific a spectacle. The multitudes retire to 
 pray, and plead for deliverance. But only a revolu- 
 tion can bring it. Oliver Cromwell knew this, and 
 so also did the thousands who had stood by the 
 mangled remains of the Puritan martyrs. 
 
 But who were the men thus cruelly treated ? Were 
 they rebels? Were they in league with foreign 
 princes for the overthrow of England ? were they 
 men whom their country could not tolerate ? Verily 
 no. They were men of whom the world was not 
 worthy. What well-informed mind can think of them 
 but with veneration and wonder ? When I consider 
 their fervent piety, their devotional eloquence, their 
 life of labour, their calm endurance of suffering, 
 their meetness for death and heaven, and withal their 
 fidelity to truth even in their greatest torture, I am
 
 30 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 filled with unearthly emotions. I say, with the great 
 Milton 
 
 " Give me now my lyre ! 
 I feel the stirrings of a gift divine ; 
 Within my bosom glows unearthly fire, 
 Lit by no skill of mine." 
 
 "The Puritans were men whose minds had de- 
 rived a peculiar character from the daily contempla- 
 tion of superior beings and eternal interests. Not 
 content with acknowledging in general terms an over- 
 ruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every 
 event to the will of the Great Being, for whose power 
 nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing 
 was too minute. To know Him, to serve Him, to 
 enjoy Him, was with them the great end of existence. 
 They rejected with contempt the ceremonious ho- 
 mage which other sects substituted for the pure wor- 
 ship of the soul. Instead of catching occasional 
 glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they 
 aspired to gaze full on his intolerable brightness, and 
 to commune with Him face to face. Hence originated 
 their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. The dif- 
 ference between the greatest and meanest of mankind 
 seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless 
 interval which separated the whole race from Him 
 on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. They 
 recognised no title to superiority but his favour ; and 
 confident of that favour, they despised all the accom- 
 plishments and all the dignities of the world. If they 
 were unacquainted with the works of philosophers 
 and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of 
 God. If their names were not found in the registers
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 31 
 
 of heralds, they were recorded in the Book of Life. 
 If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid 
 train of menials, legions of ministering angels had 
 charge over them. Their palaces were houses not 
 made with hands, their diadems crowns of glory 
 which should never fade away. On the rich and the 
 eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down 
 with contempt ; for they esteemed themselves rich in 
 a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sub- 
 lime language nobles by the right of an earlier crea- 
 tion, and priests by the imposition of a mightier 
 hand. The very meanest of them was a being to 
 whose fate a mysterious and terrible importance be- 
 longed, on whose slightest action the spirits of light 
 and darkness looked with anxious interest ; who had 
 been destined, before heaven and earth were created, 
 to enjoy a felicity which should continue when hea- 
 ven and earth should have passed away. Events 
 which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly 
 causes, had been ordained on his account. For his 
 sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed ; 
 for his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will, by 
 the pen of the Evangelist and the harp of the Pro- 
 phet. He had been wrested by no common deliverer, 
 from the grasp of no common foe. He had been ran- 
 somed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood 
 of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun 
 had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, 
 that the dead had risen, that all nature had shud- 
 dered at the sufferings of her expiring God." 
 
 Such were the men who endured this great fight 
 of affliction against themselves. How they did it, we
 
 32 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 may easily know. It was not of man. " The inten- 
 sity of their feelings on the one subject of religion 
 made them tranquil on every other." 
 
 It should never be forgotten that the war which 
 the sufferings of the Puritans were in a measure in- 
 strumental in forcing upon England was, for the 
 most part, a religious war. A religious war would 
 naturally call out a class of men which any other war 
 would leave uninterested. Men who, under other cir- 
 cumstances, would never dream of a sword, would 
 rather die than outlive their liberties and religion. 
 The terrible onslaught of the seventeenth century on 
 both liberty and religion supplied a considerable ele- 
 ment in the formation of that determined character, 
 which soon began to show itself at St. Ives. " The 
 terror of that great name " would never have been so 
 palpable, had it not been for the terror of that great 
 massacre, by which, in a large measure, his character 
 was formed. In Oliver's invincible army, when en- 
 gaged in achieving one of their tremendous victories, 
 a voice might be heard " No more massacre of the 
 people of God." And with the death-blow of every 
 sword might be uttered " Our lives, our liberties, 
 and the Gospel of Christ must be placed on a safe 
 foundation." Rightly or wrongly, this was, doubt- 
 less, the case. Here, then, in this matter of the Pu- 
 ritans, is a great fact, which supplies an important 
 point of observation from which we may the better 
 understand the character 'of the man, who, in his se- 
 clusion, for a long time pondered the question 
 " What can be done to put an end to the infamy ?"
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 33 
 
 Another thing to be noticed is the conduct of 
 Charles himself. " Charles," remarks Macaulay, 
 " bore no resemblance to his father. His talents for 
 business were respectable, his demeanour kingly. 
 But he was false, imperious, obstinate, narrow-mind- 
 ed, ignorant of the temper of his people, unobservant 
 of the signs of the times ; the whole principle of his 
 government was resistance to public opinion ; nor did 
 he make any real concession to that opinion, till it 
 mattered not whether he resisted or conceded till 
 the nation, which had long since ceased to love him 
 or to trust him, had at last ceased to fear him." 
 Charles was an unreasonable and unhappy prince. 
 Even Clarendon cannot exonerate him. The light 
 which discovers to us the goodness of the real Pro- 
 testants of his kingdom, makes manifest the badness 
 of their monarch. At the Restoration, Baxter dare 
 not mention, in his "Saints' Rest," even the name of 
 the pious Episcopalian, John Hampden, though he 
 had no other opinion of him than that recorded in 
 an earlier edition of that work, in which he had ex- 
 pressed the joy he anticipated in meeting him in 
 heaven. Hence no good thiny could be published of 
 him or of others of a like faith and conduct. The 
 spirit which prevented this freedom of opinion was 
 equally at work in preventing the liberty of reflecting 
 on Charles. The power which kept John Bunyan in 
 Bedford gaol was set for a forcible defence of the 
 entire policy pursued by the Stuarts. It is only now 
 that the true light is beginning to shine either on the 
 genuine Protestants of that age, on Oliver Cromwell 
 or on Charles. Still it is evident that the Royalist 
 
 D
 
 34 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 historian, Clarendon, is obliged to confess to the ill- 
 advised policy of large portions of his administration. 
 Guizot remarks, treating of this epoch : " The time 
 had now come when good and evil, salvation and peril, 
 were so obscurely confounded and intermixed, that 
 the firmest minds, incapable of disentangling them, 
 had become mere instruments in the hand of Provi- 
 dence, who alternately chastised kings by their peo- 
 ple, and people by their kings." 
 
 Wanting money, one of his first acts was to dis- 
 solve his Parliament, and in a most imperious way 
 raise supplies simply on his own responsibility. This 
 act was in direct violation of the constitution. Nearly 
 one hundred gentlemen refused to comply, and were 
 accordingly thrown into prison. The nation rose in 
 terrible discontent. At length the King, to satisfy 
 the people and get the money, called together a Par- 
 liament; in that Parliament of 1628, after many 
 delays and much equivocation, the king gave his full 
 and solemn consent to that celebrated instrument, the 
 second great charter of the liberties of England, 
 known by the name of " the Petition of Right." By 
 agreeing to this act, the King bound himself to raise 
 no taxes without the consent of Parliament, to im- 
 prison no man except by legal processes, to billet 
 no more soldiers on the people, and to leave the cog- 
 nizance of offenders to the ordinary tribunals. 
 
 All these conditions the King speedily violated. 
 The Parliament met and remonstrated. The King, 
 scorning the remonstrance, came down to the house 
 and dissolved it. Many of the members were lodged 
 in the Tower. Here was provocation which no peo-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 3. 
 
 pie, accustomed to constitutional liberty and self-res- 
 pect, could endure. Even Clarendon, and the most 
 devoted loyalists, gave up a prosperous issue as hope- 
 less. " Ship money was now exacted with more 
 rigour than ever. The mayor and sheriffs of London 
 were prosecuted before the Star-Chamber for slackness 
 in levying it. Wentworth, it is said, observed that 
 things would never go right until all the aldermen 
 were hanged." But this was not all; as the money 
 did not come in, forced loans were extorted. The 
 people, still constitutional in their acts, again called 
 for a Parliament. They addressed petitions against 
 this conduct of the government. " The petitioners, 
 it was proposed, should be shot by martial law." 
 
 By these and various other means, "the debt of 
 vengeance was swollen by all the usury which had 
 been accumulating for years, and payment was at 
 length made to be full." Among the many evils 
 which put forth every energy for mastery and 
 permanence, three only of their number require a 
 mention to be abhorred : the Northern Council, 
 the Hiyh Commission, and the STAR-CHAMBER. 
 These were enough to goad on the nation to the atti- 
 tude of a terrible resentment, and " the time was now 
 at hand when constitutional liberty was about to be 
 won for all future ages." That Charles, in many 
 things, may have received more blame than was his 
 due, we readily admit, he certainly received more 
 praise than his career could warrant. An evil spirit 
 seemed to preside over all he did. Never had any 
 prince fairer prospects, and never were prospects 
 more criminally lost ; and the fault rested not with
 
 36 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 the nation but with himself. " That the fair pros- 
 pects which had begun to open before the king were 
 suddenly overcast, that his life was darkened by ad- 
 versity, and at length shortened by violence, is to be at- 
 tributed to his own faithlessness and contempt of law. 
 
 "The truth seems to be, that he detested both the 
 parties into which the House of Commons was di- 
 vided. Nor is this strange ; for in both those parties 
 the love of liberty and the love of order were mingled, 
 though in different proportions. The advisers whom 
 necessity had compelled Charles to call around him 
 were by no means men after his own heart. They 
 had joined in condemning his tyranny, in abridg- 
 ing his power, and in punishing his instruments. 
 They were now indeed prepared to defend by strictly 
 legal means his strictly legal prerogatives ; but they 
 would have recoiled with horror from the thought of 
 reviving Wentworth's projects of Thorough. They 
 were, therefore, in the King's opinion, traitors who 
 differed only in the degree of their seditious malignity 
 from Pym and Hampden. 
 
 " He accordingly, a few days after he had promised 
 the chiefs of the constitutional royalists that no step 
 of importance should be taken without their know- 
 ledge, formed a resolution the most momentous of 
 his whole life, carefully concealed that resolution from 
 them, and executed it in a manner which overwhelm- 
 ed them with shame and dismay. He sent the 
 Attorney-General to impeach Pym, Hollis, Hampdeu, 
 and other members of the House of Commons of 
 high treason at the bar of the House of Lords. Not 
 content with this flagrant violation of the great char-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 37 
 
 ter and of the uninterrupted practice of centuries, he 
 went in person, accompanied by armed men, to seize 
 the leaders of the opposition within the walls of 
 Parliament. 
 
 " The attempt failed. The accused members had 
 left the House a short time before Charles entered it. 
 A sudden and violent revulsion of feeling, both in the 
 Parliament and in the country, followed. The most 
 favourable view that has ever been taken of the King's 
 conduct on this occasion by his most partial advo- 
 cates is, that he had weakly suffered himself to be 
 hurried into a gross indiscretion by the evil counsels 
 of his wife and of his courtiers. But the general voice 
 loudly charged him with far deeper guilt. At the very 
 moment at which his subjects, after a long estrange- 
 ment produced by his mal-administration, were re- 
 turning to him with feelings of confidence and affec- 
 tion, he had aimed a deadly blow at all their dearest 
 rights, at the privileges of Parliament, at the very 
 principle of trial by jury. He had shown that he 
 considered opposition to his arbitrary designs as a 
 crime to be expiated only by blood. He had broken 
 faith, not only with his great council and with his 
 people, but with his own adherents. He had done 
 what, but for an unforeseen accident, would probably 
 have produced a bloody conflict round the Speaker's 
 chair. Those who had the chief sway in the Lower 
 House now felt that not only their power and popula- 
 rity, but their lands and their necks, were staked on the 
 event of the struggle in which they were engaged. "* 
 
 * Macaulay.
 
 38 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 A still farther fact must be borne in mind, in order 
 to a right estimate of Oliver Cromwell, and the part 
 which he took in the Revolution preceding the Com- 
 monwealth : it is the leaning of the King towards the 
 Papacy. 
 
 The Church of Rome has been uniform in its deter- 
 mination tore-possess England. The determination, 
 however, became more intense during the times of the 
 Stuarts. Popery, ever grasping, now waxed bolder 
 than ever in its deep-laid schemes of aggression. 
 Every concession which England made, civilly, spiri- 
 tually, or ecclesiastically, had the two-fold effect of 
 weakening the cause of religion, and strengthening 
 the cause of Rome. The principle of a considerable 
 portion of the Puritan party was that of religious li- 
 berty and equality, in which party Oliver Cromwell 
 ranked. But they never considered that Rome was 
 entitled to such liberty or equality ; and for the plain 
 reason that they viewed the Papacy as not simply a 
 thing of religion. They knew that it held the sword 
 as an undoubted tenet. They knew that it was a 
 received doctrine that the Bishop of Rome might 
 exterminate all heretics. This doctrine was more 
 prominent than any other during several ages prior 
 to the seventeenth century. It was avowed in the 
 Bulls of the Popes ; it was recorded in the Canons 
 of the Church ; it was ratified in the blood of a 
 countless multitude of Protestant and Puritan mar- 
 tyrs. All history was loud in the testimony that the 
 system, legitimately and fully carried out, was a dark 
 instrument of torture to all who dared to think and 
 act contrary to its own dogmas. Many Roman Ca-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 39 
 
 t holies seek to cajole, stultify, and deceive their igno- 
 rant Protestant neighbours by a flat denial of this, 
 but with how little reason is sufficiently evident. 
 
 None could cajole, stultify, or deceive Oliver Crom- 
 well and the men of the Reformation doctrines in the 
 seventeenth century. The system, they knew, may 
 feign gentleness, meekness, humility, submission, and 
 self-denial (even as it is now seeking to do in the 
 cunning representations of Cardinal Wiseman) ; it 
 had once and again come before the nation with the 
 inoffensive bleatings of the lamb, but they knew it 
 to be a ravening wolf. They knew that though 
 the voice was the voice of Jacob, the hands were 
 the hands of Esau. As well may a ravening wolf 
 claim liberty, as the man whose system had already 
 become drunk with the blood of the saints. In 
 the reign of Elizabeth, and during the time of the 
 Stuarts, the Church of England had become guilty of 
 a cruelty towards Nonconformists worthy of Rome, 
 but the " Petition of Right" is now a part of our 
 constitution : the Revolution of 1688 gave it to Eng- 
 land. But where is the " Petition of Right" in the 
 constitution of the Papacy ? It is now in England 
 illegal to put a Nonconformist to death for his reli- 
 gion. According to the Popish system, taking its 
 own laws as our guide, it is perfectly legal. This is a 
 serious difference. It is all the difference to a man 
 who values his liberty, his religion, his life. In this 
 vast assembly are many Roman Catholics ; let them 
 understand that our abhorrence is not of them but of 
 their system. Let them know that it is not of their 
 system, in the meek form which it assumes under our
 
 40 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 protective and restrictive laws, but the system as if 
 exists in history, and as it is in the Canons of their 
 own Church. Does any Romanist inquire what have 
 we to do with such Canons ? What ? why hear the 
 Church : " The Bishop of Rome is not bound by any 
 decrees ; but he may compel, as well the clergy as the 
 laymen, to receive his decrees and canon laivs."* 
 
 Now of the entire system of the Papacy Oliver 
 Cromwell had imbibed an enlightened abhorrence. It 
 is said of Lord Nelson that in every encounter with 
 the enemy he felt himself urged on to victory by a 
 ball of glory which was ever suspended in his imagi- 
 nation. The idea of that mystic orb led him to 
 brave the greatest danger, and inspired him with the 
 greatest hope. It was this black ball of an intolerant 
 and persecuting Papacy which was ever before Crom- 
 well. From history and from conviction he had an 
 utter hatred to its principles. His first speech in 
 Parliament in 1628 was a masterly complaint, that as 
 things were going in Church and State, the high road 
 to preferment was by the preaching of what, in true 
 Saxon language, he called fiat Popery. Now it was 
 during the first half of Oliver's lifetime that Rome 
 made its master-effort to repossess England. Among 
 the instruments employed we are compelled to place 
 the first Charles. Little as the Stuarts were to be 
 trusted with the civil liberties of the English people, 
 they were, if possible, less so in regard to religion. 
 The second Charles absolutely abjured what he called 
 the heresy of his (Protestant) education, and pro- 
 
 * Cranmer's Extracts from Canon Laws.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 41 
 
 fessed himself as reconciled to Rome. The first 
 Charles was in doubtful correspondence with cardinals 
 and Romish princes, and rallied for friendly alliance 
 around the Pope himself. It was too evident by the 
 best friends of the nation, that, both politically and 
 religiously, he could not be trusted. " The vices of 
 Charles had grown upon him. They were, indeed, 
 vices which difficulties and perplexities generally bring 
 out in the strongest light. Cunning is the natural 
 defence of the weak. A prince, therefore, who is 
 habitually a deceiver when at the height of power, is 
 not likely to learn frankness in the midst of embar- 
 rassments and distresses. Charles was not only a most 
 unscrupulous but a most unlucky dissembler. There 
 never was a politician to whom so many frauds and 
 falsehoods were brought home by undeniable evidence. 
 He publicly recognised the Houses at Westminster as 
 a legal Parliament, and, at the same time, made a 
 private minute in council, declaring the recognition 
 null. He publicly disclaimed all thought of calling 
 in foreign aid against his people: he privately solicited 
 aid from France, from Denmark, and from Lorraine. 
 He publicly denied that he employed Papists : at the 
 same time he privately sent to his generals directions 
 to employ every Papist that would serve. He publicly 
 took the sacrament at Oxford, as a pledge that he 
 never would even connive at Popery : he privately 
 assured his wife that he intended to tolerate Popery 
 in England ; and lie authorised Lord Glamorgan to 
 promise that Popery should be established in Ireland. 
 Then he attempted to clear himself at his agent's ex- 
 pense. Glamorgan received, in the royal handwriting,
 
 42 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 reprimands intended to be read by others, and eulogies 
 which were to be seen only by himself. To such an 
 extent, indeed, had insincerity now tainted the King's 
 whole nature, that his most devoted friends could not 
 refrain from complaining to each other, with bitter 
 grief and shame, of his crooked politics. His defeats, 
 they said, gave them less pain than his intrigues."* 
 
 Thus crooked was the policy of Charles. Little 
 else could be expected from him, surrounded as he 
 was by avowed Roman Catholics. He had given to 
 England a Papist Queen, in the person of Henrietta 
 of France. Twelve priests, a Mother Magdalene, a 
 Carmelite nun, all under a father superior, came over 
 with the Queen. They were followed by twelve friars. 
 Many Roman Catholics, moreover, were zealous in 
 the Queen's cabinet. The King did not actually join 
 the Church of Rome ; but the facts were remarkable, 
 that whilst every kind of liberty and favour was being 
 shown to the members of that communion, the Star- 
 Chamber, the pillory, and kindred evils, were unceas- 
 ingly at work, harassing and reducing the best friends 
 of the Reformation. 
 
 Moreover, many proofs might be adduced to show 
 that the King and his court were secretly encourag- 
 ing the dreadful massacre of the Protestants in Ire- 
 land. 
 
 In that country, writes a great historian (Guizot), 
 " the Protestants were attacked unawares, ejected 
 from their houses, hunted down, slaughtered, exposed 
 to all the perils, all the tortures that religious and 
 
 * Macaulay.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 43 
 
 patriotic hatred could invent A half- 
 savage people, passionately attached to its barbarism, 
 eager to avenge in a day ages of outrage and misery, 
 with a proud joy committed excesses which struck 
 their ancient masters with horror and dismay." 
 
 " In fact, the Catholics burned the houses of the 
 Protestants, turned them out naked in the midst of 
 winter, and drove them, like herds of swine, before 
 them. If, ashamed of their nudity, and desirous of 
 seeking shelter from the rigour of a remarkably se- 
 vere season, these unhappy wretches took refuge in a 
 barn, and concealed themselves under the straw, the 
 rebels instantly set fire to it, and burned them alive. 
 At other times, they were led without clothing to be 
 drowned in rivers ; and if, on the road, they did not 
 move quick enough, they were urged forward at the 
 point of the pike. When they reached the river or 
 the sea, they were precipitated into it in bands of se- 
 veral hundreds, which is doubtless an exaggeration. 
 If these poor wretches rose to the surface of the 
 water, men were stationed along the brink to plunge 
 them in again with the butts of their muskets, or to 
 fire at and kill them. Husbands were cut to pieces in 
 presence of their wives; wives and virgins were abused 
 in the sight of their nearest relations ; and infants of 
 seven or eight years were hung before the eyes of 
 their parents. Nay, the Irish even went so far as to 
 teach their own children to strip and kill the children 
 of the English, and dash out their brains against the 
 stones. Numbers of Protestants were buried alive, 
 as many as seventy in one trench. An Irish priest, 
 named Mac Odeghan, captured forty or fifty Protes-
 
 44 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 tants, and persuaded them to abjure their religion on 
 a promise of quarter. After their abjuration, he 
 asked them if they believed that Christ was bodily 
 present in the host, and that the Pope was the head 
 of the Church ? and on their replying in the affirma- 
 tive, he said, ' Now, then, you are in a very good 
 faith ;' and, for fear they should relapse into heresy, 
 cut all their throats."* 
 
 " I have heard it credibly reported," says John 
 Cooke, of Gray's Inn, barrister (see Ludlow's papers), 
 " that the King should say that nothing more 
 troubled him, but that there was not as much Pro- 
 testant blood running in England and Scotland as in 
 Ireland. And when that horrid rebellion began to 
 break forth, how did the Papists here triumph and 
 boast that they hoped, ere long, to see London streets 
 run down in blood. And yet I do not think that the 
 King was a Papist, or that he designed to introduce 
 the Pope's supremacy in spiritual things in this king- 
 dom. But thus it was ; a Jesuitical party at court 
 was too prevalent in his councils, and some mongrel 
 Protestants that less hated the Papists than the Pu- 
 ritans, by the Queen's mediation, joined all together 
 to destroy the Puritans." How much Protestant 
 blood was running in Ireland at this time is difficult 
 to say. Among the dozen historians who have writ- 
 ten on the subject, the number massacred varies from 
 50,000 to 250,000. Carlyle calls this massacre " a 
 black, unutterable blot." As we shall presently see, 
 only the terror of Cromwell could stay this horrible 
 
 * Sir J. Temple, Irish Rebellion, p. 109. London, 1646.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 45 
 
 onslaught. Why the unfortunate Charles connived 
 at it may appear evident from the fact, that the Pro- 
 testant interest of the nation was the breakwater to 
 the tide of the ill-determined policy of the Stuarts : 
 and to remove that obstacle, the aid of Rome was re- 
 quired. Ireland was to do her part in Ireland, and 
 then cross the channel into England, where a com- 
 plete extermination was contemplated. Both sides of 
 St. George's Channel were already red with the blood 
 of Protestants. 
 
 Equally ominous of coming events was a letter 
 found on its way to Dover. It preshadowed " a black 
 unutterable blot" for England. Cromwell and Ireton 
 found the letter concealed in the saddle, on which a 
 special messenger was proceeding on his journey. 
 They retired to read it ; it was a letter from Charles 
 to his queen. " I understand," he says, "my po- 
 sition. Be quite easy as to the concessions I may 
 make. When the time comes I shall know how to 
 deal with them. Instead of a silken garter (which, 
 to carry his point, he had deceitfully promised), I 
 will treat them with a hempen halter." The sub- 
 stance of the letter was well understood by Cromwell. 
 The King will promise a garter, he is determined on 
 a rope. He will concede, but oaly with a view to de- 
 stroy. Had he carried his plan, all England would 
 have been as Ireland. That he was in direct corres- 
 pondence with the Irish for the subjugation and de- 
 struction of the English and Irish Protestants of this 
 land, is evident from the following " Copy of Com- 
 mission produced by the Irish for justification of their 
 rebellion :
 
 46 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 " Charles, by the grace of God King of England, 
 Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, 
 &c. To all our Catholic subjects within our kingdom 
 of Ireland, greeting. Know ye, that we, for the safe- 
 guard and preservation of our person, have been en- 
 forced to make our abode and residence in our king- 
 dom of Scotland for a long season, occasioned by the 
 obstinate and disobedient carriage of our parliament 
 in England against us, who have not only presumed 
 to take upon them the government, and disposing 
 of those princely rights and prerogatives that have 
 justly descended upon us from our predecessors, both 
 kings and queens of the said kingdom, for many 
 hundred years past, but also have possessed them- 
 selves of the whole strength of the said kingdom, in 
 appointing governors, commanders, and officers in all 
 parts and places therein, at their own will and plea- 
 sure, without our consent ; whereby we are deprived 
 of our sovereignty, and left naked without defence. 
 And forasmuch as we are in ourself very sensible that 
 these storms blow aloft, and are very likely to be 
 carried, by the vehemency of the Puritan party, into 
 our kingdom of Ireland, and endanger our regal 
 power and authority there also ; know ye, therefore, 
 that we, reposing much care and trust in your duty 
 and obedience, which we have for many years past 
 found, do hereby give unto you full power and au- 
 thority to assemble and meet together with all the 
 speed and diligence that a business of so great conse- 
 quence doth require, and to advise and consult to- 
 gether by sufficient and discreet numbers, at all times, 
 days, and places, which you shall in your judgments
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 47 
 
 hold most convenient and material, for the ordering, 
 settling, and effecting of this great work (mentioned 
 and directed unto you in our letters) ; and to use all 
 politic ways and means possible to possess yourselves 
 (for our use and service) of all the forts, castles, and 
 places of strength and defence within the said king- 
 dom (except the places, persons, and estates of our 
 loyal and loving subjects the Scots) ; and also to ar- 
 rest and seize the goods, estates, and persons of all 
 the English Protestants within the said kingdom, to 
 our use. And in your care and speedy performance 
 of this our will and pleasure, we shall perceive your 
 wonted duty and allegiance to us, which we shall ac- 
 cept and reward in due time. Witness ourself, at 
 Edinburgh, the first day of October, in the seven- 
 teenth year of our reign." 
 
 Thst in some sort Charles was in league with the 
 Pope himself there can be no reasonable doubt. Me- 
 diately or immediately he was buying the aid of that 
 ambitious power at the expense of all that was valu- 
 able in our constitution, civilly as well as religiously. 
 The following letter is found in the works of the Ro- 
 man Catholic historian, Lingard. The writer, Gla- 
 morgan, says: "One army of 10,000 men was to 
 have come out of Ireland, through North Wales ; an- 
 other, of a like number at least, under rny command- 
 in-chief, have expected my return in South Wales, 
 which Sir Henry Gage was to have commanded as 
 lieutenant-general ; and a third should have consisted 
 of a matter of 6000 men, 2000 of which were to have 
 been Liegois, commanded by Sir Francis Edmonds ; 
 2000 Lorraincrs, to have been commanded bv Colonel
 
 48 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 Browne ; and 2000 of such French, English, Scots, 
 and Irish, as could be drawn out of Flanders and 
 Holland. . . . The maintenance of this array of fo- 
 reigners was to have come from the Pope and such 
 Catholic princes as he should have drawn into it, 
 having engaged to afford and procure ^630,000 a- 
 month ; out of which the foreign army was first to be 
 provided for, and the remainder to be divided among 
 the other armies. And for this purpose had I power 
 to treat with the Pope and Catholic princes, with 
 particular advantages promised to Catholics for the 
 quiet enjoying their religion, without the penalties 
 which the statutes in force had power to inflict upon 
 them. And my instructions for this purpose, and 
 my powers to treat and conclude thereupon, were 
 signed by the King under his pocket-signet, with 
 blanks for me to put in the names of Pope or princes, 
 to the end the King might have a starting-hole to deny 
 the having given me such commissions, if excepted 
 against by his own subjects ; leaving me as it were at 
 stake, who, for his Majesty's sake, was willing to 
 undergo it, trusting to his word alone." 
 
 Now place yourselves in the midst of this eventful 
 age. Imagine your country thus circumstanced. 
 Conceive that foreign princes are under the pay of 
 Rome with a view of subduing and repossessing Eng- 
 land. Laws, liberties, and religion are of little worth 
 if that power gains the ascendancy. The wolf was 
 upon the fold with a vengeance. The time was now 
 come for the man who had cursed Elizabeth, who had 
 warmed his hauds at the fire which had burned John 
 Huss ; who had illuminated the Castle of St. Angelo
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 49 
 
 for very joy when the faggots were blazing at Smith- 
 field, Oxford, and Winchester, where Protestant flesh 
 and blood melted like wax in the furnace. The time, 
 too, was come for the friends of liberty the die is 
 cast. It is evident that the Protestant interest must 
 be victorious against this foe, or perish. With 
 that event liberty would expire ; religion itself, the 
 religion of the Bible, would, so far as England was 
 concerned, become extinct. In this responsible 
 epoch are life and death. We feel that our own 
 lives and liberties are deeply interested. Do you not, 
 then, long for deliverance? Do you not as it were pray 
 to the God of Heaven for a deliverer ? Without a 
 deliverance England must become a huge Golgotha of 
 Protestants ; the favoured isle of the Reformation 
 must become an island grave, with its head at one sea 
 and its foot on the other ; whilst on its gloomy stone 
 would be chiselled the terrible inscription, " Here lie 
 the Puritans. Here lie the followers of Howe, of 
 Owen, and Baxter. Here lie the followers of John 
 Calvin and John Knox. Here lie the followers of 
 Cranmer, of Ridley, and of Latimer. Here, too, lie the 
 followers of George Fox and William Penn." 
 
 Alongside this grave of religion is another grave, 
 extending also from shore to shore. It is the grave 
 of Liberty, bearing this terrible inscription : 
 " Here lie the followers of John Hampden. Here lie 
 the followers of John Milton. Here lie the followers 
 of Oliver Cromwell." 
 
 But is England thus the grave of religion ? Is she 
 the grave of liberty ? Is she not rather the fount, 
 the island-fount of both? Long, long may she so
 
 50 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 continue ! We and our time-honoured fathers have 
 tasted of its sweets. We, their sons, cannot, will not 
 live without it. Let us hand it down amended to the 
 generations to come ! Let nothing prevent or pollute 
 its flow ! But to whom are we indebted ? To whom ? 
 You anticipate the man. I answer in one word. We 
 are indebted, under Providence, to the much-abused, 
 the much-maligned, the much-misunderstood, but ter- 
 rible and triumphant name of OLIVER CROMWELL! 
 All honour, then, to his name ! All honour to the 
 man who stood forth in this greatest epoch of our 
 history ; and who saved his country from this two- 
 fold destruction. It is more than due to him ; and 
 this metropolitan assembly will not fail to repeal the 
 judgment of the past, and declare that the falsehoods 
 of two hundred years have done their work. 
 
 " Truth crushed to earth will rise again 
 
 The eternal years of God are hers ; 
 But error, wounded, writhes hi pain, 
 And dies amid her worshippers."* 
 
 Let us now look at the part which Oliver Cromwell 
 took in this eventful struggle. Bred to peaceful oc- 
 cupations he had, at more than forty years of age, 
 accepted a commission to serve for his country. " On 
 the 7th of February, Cromwell contributed 36300, a 
 large sum for his small fortune, towards the salvation 
 of Protestantism and of England. He then joined 
 the Parliamentary army with his two sons, respectively 
 twenty and sixteen years of age ; and shortly after 
 
 * Bryant.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 51 
 
 raised two companies of volunteers at Cambridge. 
 The departure of his sons Oliver and Richard must 
 have caused great sorrow in the peaceful abode of the 
 Huntingdon farmer. With difficulty could these 
 young men tear themselves from the embraces of 
 their mother and of their sisters. But the hour was 
 come when their country called for the greatest sacri- 
 fices. All must now be prepared either to stretch 
 their -necks to the sword, or to bow them beneath the 
 yoke of the Pope. Cromwell's domestic society was 
 a pleasing one. He had a wife whom he loved most 
 tenderly ; his good mother was still living ; he had 
 passed the age of ambition ; yet he became a soldier. 
 ' You have had my money : I hope in God I desire 
 to venture my skin. So do mine,' said he, with noble 
 simplicity, on a later occasion. For the space of 
 seventeen years, from this day until that of his death, 
 all his thoughts, however well or ill conceived, were 
 for Protestantism and for the liberty of his fello.w- 
 citizens. 
 
 "It is from this moral point of view that we must 
 study Cromwell ; this was his ruling principle ; and 
 this alone explains his whole life. 
 
 "Can we look upon the departure of the Hunting- 
 don volunteer as an insignificant event? 
 
 " There was a great work to be accomplished : no 
 less than the settlement of England upon its double 
 foundations of Protestantism and liberty ; for on these 
 depended her future destinies."* 
 
 No sooner had he become a soldier than he saw it 
 
 * D'Aubign&
 
 52 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 necessary to re-construct the forces. It was necessary 
 to look for recruits of decent station and grave cha- 
 racter, fearing God, and zealous for public liberty. 
 He then " made haste to organise the whole army on 
 the same principles on which he had organised his own 
 regiment." Such an army the world has seldom 
 seen. Their personal qualities and their great success 
 render them a remarkable spectacle in British history. 
 Take the following graphic description : 
 
 "The army which now became supreme in the state 
 was an army very different from any that has since 
 been seen among us. At present the pay of the com- 
 mon soldier is not such as can seduce any but the 
 humblest class of English labourers from their calling. 
 A barrier almost impassable separates him from the 
 commissioned officer. The great majority of those 
 who rise high in the service rise by purchase. So 
 numerous and extensive are the remote dependencies 
 of England, that every man who enlists in the line 
 must expect to pass many years in exile, and some 
 years in climates unfavourable to the health and vigour 
 of the European race. The army of the Long Parlia- 
 ment was raised for home service. The pay of the 
 private soldier was much above the wages earned by 
 the great body of the people; and, if he distinguished 
 himself by intelligence and courage, he might hope to 
 attain high commands. The ranks were accordingly 
 composed of persons superior in station and education 
 to the multitude. These persons, sober, moral, di- 
 ligent, and accustomed to reflect, had been induced 
 to take up arms, not by the pressure of want, not by 
 the love of novelty and license, not by the arts of re-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 53 
 
 cruiting officers, but by religious and political zeal, 
 mingled with the desire of distinction and promotion. 
 The boast of the soldiers, as we find it recorded in 
 their solemn resolutions, was, that they had not been 
 forced into the service, nor had enlisted chiefly for the 
 sake of lucre ; that they were no janissaries, but free- 
 Lorn Englishmen, who had, of their own accord, put 
 their lives in jeopardy for the liberties and religion of 
 England, and whose right and duty it was to watch 
 over the welfare of the nation which they had saved. 
 
 " A force thus composed might, without injury to 
 its efficiency, be indulged in some liberties which, if 
 allowed to any other troops, would have proved sub- 
 versive of all discipline. In general, soldiers who 
 should form themselves into political clubs, elect de- 
 legates, and pass resolutions on high questions of 
 state, would soon break loose from all control, would 
 cease to form an army, and would become the worst 
 and most dangerous of mobs. Nor would it be safe, 
 in our time, to tolerate in any regiment religious 
 meetings, at which a corporal versed in Scripture 
 should lead the devotions of his less gifted colone 
 and admonish a backsliding major. But such was the 
 intelligence, the gravity, and the self-command of the 
 warriors whom Cromwell had trained, that in their 
 camp a political organisation and a religious organisa- 
 tion could exist without destroying military organisa- 
 tion. The same men who, off duty, were noted as 
 demagogues and field preachers, were distinguished 
 by steadiness, by the spirit of order, and by prompt 
 obedience on watch, on drill, and on the field of 
 battle.
 
 04 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 " In war this strange force was irresistible. The 
 stubborn courage characteristic of the English people 
 was, by the system of Cromwell, at once regulated and 
 stimulated. Other leaders have maintained order as 
 strict ; other leaders have inspired their followers with 
 a zeal as ardent. But in his camp alone the most 
 rigid discipline was found in company with the fiercest 
 enthusiasm. His troops moved to victory with the 
 precision of machines, while burning with the wildest 
 fanaticism of crusaders. From the time when the 
 army was remodelled to the time when it was dis- 
 banded, it never found, either in the British islands, 
 or on the Continent, an enemy who could stand its 
 onset. In England, Scotland, Ireland, Flanders, the 
 Puritan warriors, often surrounded by difficulties, 
 sometimes contending against threefold odds, not only 
 never failed to conquer, but never failed to destroy and 
 break in pieces whatever force was opposed to them. 
 They at length came to regard the day of battle as a 
 day of certain triumph, and marched against the most 
 renowned battalions of Europe with disdainful confi- 
 dence. Turenne was startled by the shout of stern 
 exultation with which hisEnglish allies advanced to the 
 combat, and expressed the delight of a true soldier 
 when he learned that it was ever the fashion of Crom- 
 well's pikemen to rejoice greatly when they beheld the 
 enemy ; and the banished Cavaliers felt an emotion 
 of national pride, when they saw a brigade of their 
 countrymen, outnumbered by foes and abandoned by 
 allies, drive before it in headlong rout the finest in- 
 fantry of Spain, and force a passage into a counter-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 55 
 
 scarp which had just been pronounced impregnable by 
 the ablest of the marshals of France. 
 
 " But that which chiefly distinguished the army of 
 Cromwell from other armies was the austere morality 
 andfear of God which pervaded allranks. Itisacknow- 
 ledged by the most zealous royalists that, in that sin- 
 gular camp, no oath was heard, no drunkenness or gam- 
 bling was seen, and that, during the long dominion of 
 the soldiery, the property of the peaceable citizen and 
 the honour of woman were held sacred. If outrages 
 were committed, they were outrages of a very different 
 kind from those of which a victorious army is gene- 
 rally guilty. No servant girl complained of the 
 rough gallantry of the redcoats. Not an ounce of 
 plate was taken from the shops of the goldsmiths. 
 But a Pelagian sermon, or a window on which the 
 Virgin and Child were painted, produced in the Pu- 
 ritan ranks an excitement which it required the utmost 
 exertions of the officers to quell."* 
 
 No Christian can look on war with feelings of ap- 
 probation and complacency. The present dispen- 
 sation is one of peace. The New Testament forbids 
 the principle of " eye for eye, and tooth for tooth." 
 Yet, as we have intimated, were a religious war now 
 to break out in which liberty and our Protestant faith 
 were likely to suffer a defeat, and in which the lives 
 of our most godly Protestants would be placed in 
 imminent danger, it would be hard indeed to prevent 
 many a person, now holding and preaching " peace 
 principles," from aiding, abetting, secluding, and 
 
 * Macaulay.
 
 56 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 even joining such as were engaged in the conflict. 
 There are Christian ministers who would take the 
 sword. There are men, like Oliver Cromwell, at 
 forty years of age, now cultivating their fields, or 
 secluded in homes of domestic bliss, who would start 
 as by a sort of irrepressible conviction into the midst 
 of the fight. It is scarcely human for a man to see 
 his people and his principles perishing by the wea- 
 pons of a foe panting for a religious ascendancy, such 
 as the Church of Rome has never yet possessed but 
 in order to persecute, without any attempt at pre- 
 vention. Men would pray to the God of Heaven for 
 help. They would sink or swim with the ark of 
 liberty. They would employ means. They would, 
 perhaps, like Oliver Cromwell, seek at first a peace- 
 ful retirement from a land that denied them their 
 rights. But if compelled like him to remain, they 
 would resist, conquer, or die. Rightly or wrongly, 
 all this they would do. Thus circumstanced was 
 Oliver Cromwell in the midst of the religious war of 
 the seventeenth century. He could pray on the eve 
 of the most momentous onslaught. Before the horri- 
 ble conflict at Dunbar, his entire army the invinci- 
 ble ironsides laid every man his sword on the 
 hether, pressed his knee on the solid earth, and with 
 a calm, determined heart, called upon God to defend 
 and prosper his cause. Then, standing erect, a 
 myriad swords moved for blood. Three thousand of 
 the enemy were slain. On the eve of this slaughter 
 many an earnest prayer was ejaculated, and many an 
 aspiration uttered which foretold a terrible foundation 
 laid for the demands of the dreadful encounter. Here
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 57 
 
 and there in solemn, earnest, tones was heard the 
 well-known martial psalm, which, indeed, had often 
 floated far and wide over the dread scene of pre- 
 paration : 
 
 " Let God arise, and scattered 
 
 Let all his enemies be ; 
 And let all those that do him hate 
 Before his presence flee." 
 
 And now the opposing forces having been mowed 
 down in slaughter, or " driven as chaff before the 
 wind," another psalm is sung. It is a strange se- 
 quel to the noise, and din, and desolation of the field. 
 Oliver and his lion-hearted multitude, with some 
 brave men missing, draw up, for a moment's pause, 
 ere they pursue the vanquished, at the foot of the 
 Boon Hill. There they sing the hundred-and-seven- 
 teenth Psalm, old version : 
 
 " give ye thanks unto the Lord 
 
 All nations that be, 
 Likewise ye people all accord, 
 His name to magnify." 
 
 From the blue waters of the German Ocean, along 
 the shore, and for miles in an inland direction, were 
 the voices of this multitude heard. Like the voice 
 of many waters, one mighty volume of sound is sent 
 forth as from an unfailing orchestra, and rolled in 
 strength and majesty along the heavens and the 
 earth. Terrible, beyond conception, was the issue of 
 this encounter. Besides the dead, ten thousand men 
 were taken prisoners. In all this, we may here
 
 58 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 mention, Oliver Cromwell deemed he was saving re- 
 ligion and serving the nation. With our ideas of the 
 blessed character of the dispensation under which we 
 live, we can scarcely imagine a genuine believer in 
 Christ thus circumstanced. Christ in the heart and 
 the sword in the life, appear to us altogether incom- 
 patible the one with the other. Yet whoever ^keeps 
 in his dwelling a weapon of destruction, whereby in 
 a night of dark need he may preserve his life, is ma- 
 nifesting a like inconsistency. To use the sword at 
 all is to adopt the principle of this great soldier. 
 The most renowned believers in the old dispensation 
 were men of blood. Moses was a soldier. Joshua 
 was amazingly gifted with the power of slaughter. 
 David was an invincible general, as well as king 
 to the Commonwealth of Israel. Saul had slain his 
 thousands, but David his tens of thousands. The 
 fact of an individual being a believer, and holding the 
 sword, cannot be doubted. The fact remains though 
 the dispensation is gone. Oliver Cromwell constantly 
 adverted to the fact. He never, we think, thought 
 of the dispensation. His study of David was com- 
 plete. Often did he utter his language in the closet 
 and in the field, as if he had obtained from God an 
 equal commission with that of David or Joshua for 
 the shedding of blood. What mind has not wonder- 
 ed at the warlike descriptions of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures. Here is the song of Deborah, which not 
 only appears beautiful but natural. How does she 
 triumph in the slaughter of the enemy ! How does 
 she chide those who joined not the hosts of the Lord ! 
 " Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds to hear
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 59 
 
 the Heatings of the flock ?" How does she deprecate 
 those who were altogether neutral ? " Curse ye 
 Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, 
 because they came not to the help of the Lord, to 
 the help of the Lord against the mighty." How does 
 she celebrate the praise of those who did undertake 
 the salvation of her people? "My heart is among 
 the governors of Israel, that offered themselves wil- 
 lingly among the people. Bless ye the Lord." How 
 does she exult in this deliverance as a pattern of all 
 future triumphs? " So let all thine enemies perish, 
 O Lord, but let them that love him be as the sun 
 when he goeth forth in his might." See Judges, v. 
 
 All this, however, is only natural and right when 
 viewed, as we have said, in relation to the past dispen- 
 sation. But the kingdom of the Lord Jesus is not of 
 this world. That Oliver Cromwell may not have 
 fully understood this is no proof that he was no be- 
 liever in the Lord Jesus himself, but a hypocrite. 
 Yet do multitudes thus decide when they inquire, 
 how could a man, so desperate in blood, by any pos- 
 sibility be a Christian ? 
 
 The following letter from Oliver, written in the 
 midst of these engagements, will manifest the sort of 
 Christian feeling which he was enabled to preserve. 
 It manifests his love to the Lord, and his readiness 
 to suffer for his poor despised people ; and this, too, 
 when his strong frame had become shaken by what 
 appeared to him to have been " the sentence of 
 death :" 
 
 " London, 7th March, 1647. 
 
 "SiR, It hath pleased God to raise me out of a 
 dangerous sickness ; and I do most willingly acknow-
 
 60 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 ledge that the Lord hath, in this visitation, exercised 
 the bowels of a Father towards me. I received in 
 myself the sentence of death, that I might learn to 
 trust in Him that raiseth from the dead, and have 
 no confidence in the flesh. It 's a blessed thing to 
 die daily. For what is there in this world to be ac- 
 counted of ! The best men, according to the flesh 
 and things, are lighter than vanity. I find this only 
 good, to love the Lord and his poor despised people ; 
 to do for them, and to be ready to suffer with them : 
 and he that is found worthy of this hath obtained 
 great favour from the Lord; and he that is established 
 in this shall (being confirmed to Christ and the rest 
 of the Body) participate in the glory of a Resurrec- 
 tion which will answer all. 
 
 " Sir, I must thankfully confess your favour in 
 your last letter. I see I am not forgotten ; and truly to 
 be kept in your remembrance is very great satisfac- 
 tion to me ; for I can say in the simplicity of my 
 heart, I put a high and true value upon your love, 
 which when I forget, I shall cease to be a grateful 
 and an honest man. 
 
 " I most humbly beg my service may be presented 
 to your lady, to whom I wish all happiness, and es- 
 tablishment in the truth. Sir, my prayers are for 
 you, as becomes 
 
 " Your Excellency's most humble servant, 
 
 "OLIVER CROMWELL." 
 
 And now take a brief anecdote, which may tend 
 farther to show the presence of mind and steady will 
 of this great soldier. It is of Hibernian interest.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 61 
 
 In Ireland, from the Giant's Causeway to Cape 
 Clear, from the Bay of Kingstown to the Cape of 
 Connemara, there is an old saying, prevalent as a 
 household word, but the origin of which is seldom 
 known. The incident with which that saying origi- 
 nated occurred just as Oliver and his army had ar- 
 rived at the border of one of our towns in the south. 
 Many Protestants had perished there, and they had 
 come to stay the farther shedding of blood. Not know- 
 ing, as yet, the stern Saxon stuff of which the new- 
 comer was made, the leader of the rebel forces, Gene- 
 ral Flanigan, forwarded to him, by special messenger, 
 a hastily-written paper, by which he told Cromwell 
 that unless he and his army were withdrawn from 
 their present quarters, within the space of three hours, 
 he would open his guns upon them. Oliver read the 
 paper, looked round upon his ironsides, a brave, well- 
 conditioned army, who had come to put this king- 
 dom of Ireland into what it very much needed, and, 
 indeed, has needed almost ever since a better con- 
 dition. He then took his pen, and with characteristic 
 calmness, promptitude, and courage, wrote on the 
 back of the same paper, the very brief, but signifi- 
 cant words, every one of which was like a "chain- 
 shot" on the rebels: "FiRE AWAY, FLANIGAN. 
 Yours, OLIVER CROMWELL." " Take that to your 
 general," said Oliver to the messenger. Meanwhile 
 he moved a little nearer the town. Such a note was 
 unmistakeably plain, and long enough for the pur- 
 pose. It sent terror into the heart of Flanigan, as 
 also in a brief time did the encounter which followed. 
 His army, as may be supposed, became everywhere
 
 62 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 victorious ; its onslaughts and its triumphs need not 
 a recital. So vast was its success, that events which 
 would suffice for centuries were crowded as it were 
 into a day. The Queen fled. London arose in defiance 
 of the extraordinary demands of Charles. The King 
 fled. The nation is in the mid-hour of a mighty re- 
 volution. Oliver repeats his words " Night cometh, 
 also the day ; night first, then the day." And now, 
 perhaps, we have " the darkest moment which pre- 
 cedes the dawn ;" for just at this juncture news is 
 circulated that an immense (foreign) army is about 
 to rally round the fugitive Charles, and put a full end 
 to the sectaries. 
 
 From this, and from numerous other causes, it ap- 
 pears plain to Cromwell and the Parliamentary army 
 and to others, that to place the nation on a sound and 
 peaceful basis there remains but one alternative. And 
 now surely we have " the darkest moment which pre- 
 cedes the dawn." For the moment was DARK ! All 
 capital punishments are naturally dark. They that 
 are given to violent deeds regarding the lives of others 
 usually meet with a violent end. They that use the 
 sword (unjustly) will perish by the sword. We cannot 
 but regret the melancholy event which terminated the 
 life of Charles Stuart. Poor Charles ! who does not 
 feel sad at the thought of his end? And Cromwell, too, 
 how do we regret that a career marked with so much 
 goodness and greatness was shaded by so dark a 
 scene as that which occurred opposite the banqueting- 
 room at "Whitehall ? As we have already said, no 
 Christian can delight in blood. My own mind, as 
 already intimated, is opposed to all capital punish-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 63 
 
 ments. Yet have not men always so felt. The great 
 Protestant Reformers never for a moment hesitated, 
 in the reign of Edward VI., to behead Lord Seymour 
 without a legal conviction. " The pious Cranmer 
 voted for that act, the pious Latimer preached for it, 
 the pious Edward returned thanks for it." Precious 
 life, and the continuance of a man's head on his 
 shoulders, did not in former days appear so sacred as 
 now. Were Rome exercising its ancient power, my 
 own head, perhaps, would be little worth for so free a 
 discussion as the present. The Puritan party, under 
 the stings of a resentful exasperation, impeached 
 Strafford, and Laud, and many others. Strafford was 
 sentenced to die. On Monday, 10th May, 1641, 
 Charles signed the death-warrant of his minister, who 
 was beheaded on the following morning. " Put not 
 your trust in princes," exclaimed poor Straiford, rais- 
 ing his hands to heaven, when he was told of the part 
 the King had taken in the deed. The Stuarts, after 
 the Protector's death, exhumed 100 corpses; among 
 them was Oliver, also his venerable mother, and many 
 others of his connexions. Their mouldering bodies 
 were hung on the three corners of the gallows at 
 Tyburn. Such of his friends as were alive had 
 their ears cut off, their noses slit, and their entrails 
 taken out. It should be remembered that when 
 Charles was beheaded Oliver was not Protector, he 
 was an officer in the army. He did not singly demand 
 the death of the King. He was one of sixty who 
 signed the death-warrant : those sixty bowed to the 
 voice of a multitude of others, who were aroused to 
 demand a terrible retribution. Even such men as
 
 64 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 Howe, Owen, and Baxter, felt that the nation could 
 never be placed on a tranquil basis whilst Charles 
 ruled on the throne. As to others, his death was a 
 matter of simple equity and justice. It was only 
 small satisfaction for all the blood which he himself 
 had caused to be shed. They had no conscience; 
 they felt no horror. On severing the head from the 
 body the executioner calmly said, " This is the head 
 of a traitor." And Cromwell sought the room where 
 the body lay. Imagine the scene. It is night : Lon- 
 don rests in repose after the excitement of a terrible 
 day. The lifeless head of Charles has been adjusted 
 to the corse, and is now lying in the midst of a room 
 in Whitehall. Oliver folds back the sheet which 
 hides the face of the dead. The guards observe that 
 his hand is without trembling as he thus discloses 
 " the calm and bloodless countenance of him whom 
 he had faced in the council, on the battle-field, and 
 at the judgment bar." They look significantly at each 
 other. They mark the calm tranquillity of Crom- 
 well they mark him narrowly and they see no 
 doubt, no remorse, no misgiving depicted on his 
 visage. " Three days of solemn prayer," it is said, 
 preceded the event. In a similar exercise he departed 
 the room. 
 
 To my own mind almost a cloudless glory had 
 rested on the memory of the men who ruled the 
 Commonwealth of England, had they sentenced 
 Charles as no longer fit to govern a free nation, and 
 had given him a home in some remote region of the 
 globe, where his probationary career might have been 
 occupied for his good, and where his end might have
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 65 
 
 come under circumstances more natural and more 
 hopeful. 
 
 But the fact is evident, the interests of England 
 were not safe in his hands. Wherever he had lived, 
 near or remote, foreign princes, with a sovereign pon- 
 tiff at their head, would have reassured his designs, 
 and lent their aid in their full accomplishment. If 
 wrong is to be attached to the men who would have 
 destroyed the rule of Charles over England, so must 
 wrong also be charged on William of glorious memory 
 for expelling the miserable James. Weighed in the 
 balance of our constitution they are found equally 
 wanting. Nor is there a vast difference between the 
 general policy pursued by the man of the Hague 
 and the man of St. Ives. As to the question was it 
 lawful to behead a king ? There was a law of Henry 
 VII., " That if a king shall kill a man, it is no felony 
 to make him suffer death." There are, moreover, 
 cases in old English law in which kings have been 
 sued even in civil actions. The trial of Charles was by 
 a high court of justice, which contained some of the 
 most remarkable men in England, and sat through 
 the long memorable month of January, 1649. Three 
 times the unhappy Charles appears at the bar. Three 
 times he treats them with disdain. He " smiles at 
 them contemptuously, looks with austere countenance, 
 and does not seem, until the very last, to have fairly 
 believed that they would dare to sentence him. But 
 they were men sufficiently provided with daring : men, 
 we are bound to see, who sat there as in the presence 
 of the Maker of all men, as executing the judgments 
 of heaven above, and had not the fear of any man or 
 
 F
 
 66 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 king on the earth below."* The clerk, however, 
 read the sentence. It convicted this ill-advised and 
 ill-determined prince of " being attainted and con- 
 demned of high treason and other high crimes. To 
 this conviction we add nothing. Concerning an opi- 
 nion, however, after all that has been written, most 
 men v/i\\form their own. The following are the remarks 
 of D'Aubigne : 
 
 " We will not attempt to describe the death of the 
 unhappy Charles. Whose heart would not be wrung 
 by the contemplation of those mournful scenes ? Our 
 feelings revolt against the fanaticism which led a 
 prince to the scaffold ; we burn with indignation 
 against those feet swift to shed Mood ; we desire to 
 arrest the deadly axe, and spurn away the fatal block. 
 And yet we cannot be blind to the conviction that the 
 divorce between England and the Stuarts was inevi- 
 table that it was the decree of God himself. Suc- 
 ceeding ages have branded the scaffold ; but they 
 have also ratified the solemn sentence." 
 
 We now take a glance at Oliver Cromwell's ca- 
 reer subsequent to the overthrow of Charles. The 
 death of the king marks the mid-hour of the re- 
 volution of 1649. The ten years which followed 
 manifest the good or evil of that event. But few 
 have ever inquired what were the evils it introduced? 
 Yet when have revolutions appeared without bringing 
 with them a sad amount of disaster and wrong ? This 
 event was brought about by means of the sword, as 
 seized by multitudes unaccustomed to its use. May 
 
 * Carlyle.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 67 
 
 we not naturally look for all those vices of a reac- 
 tionary character usually attendant on revolutions ; 
 and which, so woefully at the present, are bring- 
 ing misery and ruin on that country which, in 
 its third revolution, has driven the Bourbons from 
 the throne of France and substituted a republic, as 
 disgraceful in its actions as it is inadequate in its 
 power. Why may not the Parliamentary army of 
 1649, with its million coadjutors among the people, 
 fall back from the toils and dangers of their warfare 
 into a disgraceful ease, or a still more disgraceful 
 licentiousness, by which the evils of their lawless rule 
 may be far greater than the evils which they have de- 
 feated ? Feeling no tenderness for the fallen, may 
 not the conquerors, at their expense, satiate their 
 thirst for a lawless grandeur and an inglorious su- 
 premacy ? Who can affirm that these debasing evils, 
 usually attendant on such an epoch, had an existence 
 in the revolution by Oliver Cromwell ? There was, 
 in fact, under Providence, a mighty power at work 
 controlling that revolution. Many reasons for the 
 glorious fruits which grew out of the Commonwealth 
 may be found in Cromwell himself, and many also in 
 the people of England, who, at heart, were not a law- 
 less but a religious people. Oliver Cromwell, from 
 this period, may be looked upon as a great prince in 
 England, ruling well the interest and destinies of a 
 great Protestant dynasty. Virtually the three king- 
 doms bestowed upon him their crowns. The earlier 
 portion of his rule made considerable demands on his 
 sword. Fountains of blood were yet being opened in 
 England and Ireland. In the latter country in par-
 
 ()8 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 ticular, he had to use his own terrible weapon in 
 order to stay the havoc made by the weapons of 
 others. The credit of having stayed the shedding of 
 much precious blood in Ireland is not sufficiently 
 awarded to him. Passing over these sanguinary 
 events, how glorious are the times which now open- 
 ed upon England ! Long, long had that remarkable 
 country, in its pursuit after progress, been looking 
 for a constitution, in the goodly soil of which the 
 tree of liberty may strike deep its roots, and around 
 whose steadfast stem, and beneath whose verdant 
 branches the weary and the heavy-laden may find 
 their rest ; and where they may eat of that fruit of 
 religion which should grow there for the healing and 
 nourishment of the nation. The search and the ex- 
 pectation, however, were alike in vain. Progress, it 
 is true, had often been made, but it was as often lost. 
 Seldom can we look with much satisfaction on that 
 England which preceded the Revolution of 1649. 
 Until then, to change our illustration, our forefathers 
 seem like the worn and weary pilgrims passing over 
 a burning desert, to be ever and anon reaching for- 
 ward to what, at first sight, appeared to be refreshing 
 waters, but which invariably, in the issue, turned out 
 to be only a mirage. We see a sort of hopelessness 
 for ages settling on England. It gave way, however, 
 during those ten wonderful years in which, under 
 Cromwell, that country was supreme at home and 
 abroad. During that period his aim was not of that 
 low, secondary character which ignorance has so long 
 attributed to him. To secure for the nation political 
 rights only was not enough for him. Nor did he
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 69 
 
 seek his own. He might have worn the material 
 crown, but for that honour he was in nowise am- 
 bitious. The great end which, in common with the 
 illustrious Hampden and others, he had, in his seclu- 
 sion at St. Ives, desired for England, is that which 
 he steadily pursues now that he is at Whitehall. 
 Oftentimes did he ask, " Why did I seek expatria- 
 tion amidst the forests of distant Connecticut ? Was 
 it not because, at home, religion and liberty had been 
 put to restraint and torture? It shall not be so now." 
 Thus did he feel. Thus also felt the multitude of 
 the Puritan worthies. Their aim was not merely to 
 obtain a constitution or " privileges of Parliament," 
 it was to see God's own law made good to England 
 and the world. 
 
 In many respects the age of the Commonwealth 
 was better for liberty and religion than our own. 
 Never did so brief a time do so much for England ; 
 never so much for us. It strongly and favourably 
 contrasts with those periods of our history which im- 
 mediately preceded and followed. In it, the saying, 
 so frequently on the mind of Oliver, of " the morning 
 cometh" had been brought to pass, for now, in many 
 important things, the morning had indeed come. Of 
 the chief instrument in the production of this period 
 our historian remarks, " Cromwell was emphatically 
 a man. He possessed in an eminent degree that 
 masculine and full-grown robustness of mind, that 
 equally diffused intellectual health, which, if our 
 national partiality does not mislead us, has peculiarly 
 characterised the great men of England. Never was 
 any ruler so conspicuously born for sovereignty. The
 
 70 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 cup which has intoxicated almost all others, sobered 
 him. His spirit, restless from its own buoyancy in a 
 lower sphere, reposed in majestic placidity as soon as 
 it had reached the level congenial to it. He had 
 nothing in common with that large class of men who 
 distinguish themselves in subordinate posts, and 
 whose incapacity becomes obvious as soon as the pub- 
 lic voice summons them to take the lead. Rapidly 
 as his fortunes grew his mind expanded more rapidly 
 still. Insignificant as a private citizen, he was a 
 great general ; he was a still greater prince. His 
 administration was glorious, but with no vulgar glory. 
 It was not one of those periods of overstrained and 
 convulsive exertion which necessarily produce debility 
 and languor. Its energy was natural, healthful, 
 temperate. He placed England at the head of the 
 Protestant interest, and in the first rank of Christian 
 powers. He taught every nation to value her friend- 
 ship and to dread her enmity. But he did not squan- 
 der her resources in a vain attempt to invest her with 
 that supremacy which no power, in the modern sys- 
 tem of Europe, can safely effect or long retain. This 
 noble and sober wisdom had its reward." Such was 
 the administration. Such was the man. In keeping 
 with his own goodness and greatness, were the men 
 by whom he was surrounded. There were no monks, 
 or friars, or father-superiors, or mother Magdalenes, 
 or Carmelite nuns at Whitehall now. As well may 
 light and darkness agree as such society and the men 
 that surrounded the throne of the Protector. Around 
 that throne stood the sublimest of uninspired men, 
 John Milton, who was private secretary. Here also
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 71 
 
 stood those master-minds, Hall and Blake. Here too 
 frequents the serene and majestic John Howe, who 
 may be best known from the unearthly conceptions 
 embodied in his "living temple." Here too was 
 John Owen, a giant in learning and piety, and vice- 
 chancellor of Oxford. Here too, as well as in the 
 more retired services of the palace, was seen John 
 Goodwin, who was a man after Cromwell's best 
 affections, and who shed his serene light over the 
 hour in which the great soul of the Protector de- 
 parted to its rest. But time would fail to tell the 
 names of those bright stars of the Commonwealth 
 times, who shed their glorious lustre over England 
 when almost all other lands were in a state of dark- 
 ness and gloom. Ah favoured nation ! Owen and 
 Goodwin at the court, Bunyan and Baxter among the 
 people. It is the golden age of England of which we 
 speak. Take the following eulogium pronounced on 
 the nation by a noble among the nobles : 
 
 " Lords and Commons of England ! consider what 
 a nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are 
 governors : a nation not slow and dull, but of a 
 quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit ; acute to invent, 
 subtile and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the 
 reach of any point the highest that human capa- 
 city can soar to. Yet that which is above all this 
 the favour and the love of Heaven we have great 
 argument to think, in a peculiar manner, propitious 
 and propending towards us. Why else was this nation 
 chosen before any other, that out of her, as out of 
 Zion, should be proclaimed and sounded forth the 
 first tidings and trumpet of Reformation to all 
 Europe ? And had it not been the obstinate perverse-
 
 72 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 ness of our (Romish) prelates against the divine and 
 admirable spirit of Wickliffe, to suppress him as a 
 schismatic and innovator ; perhaps neither the Bo- 
 hemian Huss nor Jerome ; no ! nor the name of 
 Luther or of Calvin, had been ever known : the glory 
 of reforming all our neighbours had been completely 
 ours. Now, once again, by all concurrence of signs, 
 and by the general instinct of holy and devout men, 
 as they daily and solemnly express their thoughts, 
 God is decreeing to bring some new and great period 
 in his Church, even to the reforming of Reformation 
 itself ; what does he, then, but reveal himself to his 
 servants, and, as his manner is, first to his English- 
 men ? I say, as his manner is, first to us, though 
 we mark not the method of his counsels, and are un- 
 worthy. Behold, now, this vast city, a city of 
 refuge, the mansion-house of liberty, encompassed 
 and surrounded with his protection : the shop of war 
 hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to 
 fashion out the plates and instruments of armed 
 justice, in defence of beleaguered truth, than there be 
 pens and heads there, sitting by their studious lamps, 
 musing, searching, revolving new notions and ideas 
 wherewith to present, as with their homage and their 
 fealty, the approaching Reformation ; others, as fast 
 reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of 
 reason and convincement. What could a man re- 
 quire more from a nation so pliant and so prone to 
 seek after knowledge ? What wants there to such a 
 towardly and pregnant soil, but wise and faithful 
 labourers, to make a knowing people, a nation of 
 prophets, of sages, and of worthies."* 
 
 Milton.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 73 
 
 As illustrative of the great glory of Oliver Crom- 
 well's administration, let us consider the following 
 facts ; they are only a few out of a multitude which 
 might be advanced : 
 
 1 . England itself, under Cromwell, was in a high state 
 of general prosperity. Its domestic commerce pros- 
 pered. Cromwell was the chief founder of our mari- 
 time greatness. The seas were swept of all obstruc- 
 tion, to an unprecedented freedom of trade. The 
 merchants who had ordered the most costly goods 
 from abroad, could rest in quiet and contentment until 
 the appointed time for their expected arrival ; or, hav- 
 ing shipped some of their most costly produce for distant 
 lands, they could indulge in a well-grounded confidence 
 that, at the appointed time, the needful equivalent 
 would arrive. This wonderful confidence derived its 
 chief strength from the fact, that the great name of 
 Cromwell was a mighty safeguard to property both at 
 home and abroad; a very terror toall evil-doers as well 
 on sea as on the land. Learning prospered. In illus- 
 tration of this it will be enough to contemplate the 
 state of Oxford under the vice-chancellorship of Dr. 
 Owen. The following is from the works of that emi- 
 nent man, as edited by Goold : 
 
 " In the midst of his multifarious public engage- 
 ments, and the toils of a most ponderous authorship, 
 Owen's thoughts had never been turned from the uni- 
 versity, and his efforts for its improvement, encou- 
 raged by the Protector and his council, as well as by 
 the co-operation of the heads of colleges, had been re- 
 warded by a surprising prosperity. Few things, in- 
 deed, are more interesting than to look into the records 
 of Oxford at this period, as they have been preserved
 
 74 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 by Anthony Wood and others, and to mark the con- 
 stellation of great names among its fellows and stu- 
 dents ; some of whom were already in the height of 
 their renown, and others, with a strangely varied des- 
 tiny awaiting them, were brightening into a fame 
 which was to shed its lustre on the coming age. The 
 presiding mind at this period was Owen himself, who 
 from the combined influence of station and character, 
 obtained from all around him willing deference ; 
 while associated with him in close friendship, in fre- 
 quent conference, and learned research, which was 
 gradually embodied in many folios, was Thomas 
 Goodwin, the president of Magdalen College. Stephen 
 Charnock had already carried many honours, and 
 given token of that Saxon vigour of intellect and ripe 
 devotion which were afterwards to take shape in his 
 noble treatise on the ' Divine Attributes.' Dr. Po- 
 cock sat in the chair of Arabic, unrivalled as an Ori- 
 entalist ; and Dr. Seth "Ward taught mathematics, 
 already noted as an astronomer, and hereafter to be 
 less honourably noted as so supple a time-server, that 
 'amid all the changes of the times he never broke 
 his bones.' Robert Boyle had fled hither, seeking 
 in its tranquil shades opportunity for undisturbed 
 philosophic studies, and finding in all nature food for 
 prayer ; and one more tall and stately than the rest 
 might be seen now amid the shady walks of Magda- 
 len College, musing on the ' Blessedness of the 
 Righteous,' and now in the recesses of its libraries, 
 ' unsphering the spirit of Plato,' and amassing that 
 learning, and excogitating that divine philosophy, 
 which were soon to be transfigured and immortalized 
 in his ' Living Temple.' Daniel Whitby, the acute
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 75 
 
 annotator on the New Testament, and the ablest 
 champion of Arminianism, now adorned the roll of Ox- 
 ford ; Christopher Wren, whose architectural genius 
 has reared its own monument in the greatest of Eng- 
 land's cathedrals ; William Penn, the founder of Penn- 
 sylvania, and one of the fathers of the gentlest and most 
 benignant of all our Christian sects ; John Locke, the 
 founder of the greatest school of English metaphy- 
 sics, to whom was to belong the high honour of basing 
 toleration on the principles of philosophy ; William 
 South, the pulpit-satirist, whom we alternately admire 
 for his brawny intellect and matchless style, and de- 
 spise for their prostration to the lowest purposes of 
 party ; Thomas Ken, the future bishop of Bath and 
 Wells, whose holiness drew forth the willing homage 
 of the Puritans, and whose conscientiousness as a 
 nonjuror was .long afterwards to be proved by his suf- 
 ferings in the 5 Tower ; Philip Henry, now passing to 
 the little conference of praying students, and now re- 
 ceiving from Dr. Owen praises which only make him 
 humbler, already delighting in those happy allitera- 
 tions and fine conceits which were to be gathered from 
 his lips by his admiring son, and embalmed in the 
 transparent amber of that son's immortal commen- 
 tary ; and Joseph Alleine, who, in his ' Alarm to the 
 Unconverted,' was to produce a work which the Church 
 of God will not willingly let die, and was to display 
 the spirit of a martyr amid the approaching cruelties 
 of the Restoration, and the deserted hearths and 
 silent churches of St. Bartholomew's day." 
 
 In the seventeenth century, under Cromwell 
 2. There was liberty at home and abroad. Of the 
 principles of equity and toleration which the Protector
 
 76 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 had established in England, he became the great 
 champion and defender in foreign lands. Few are 
 the victims who ever came out of an Inquisition 
 without confessing. An English subject, however, 
 was confined in Madrid. A special messenger pro- 
 duced at its Holy Office a document from the Lord 
 Protector of England demanding his liberty. There 
 was no alternative save the planting of the English 
 guns, and he was accordingly liberated. When, either 
 before or since, were the victims of intolerance so be- 
 friended ? More than once recently our own British 
 subjects have been lying, unheeded by their Govern- 
 ment, in the remote dungeons of Rome and Madrid, 
 and that, too, for their religion ! Tahiti, with its 
 Protestant queen, was equally at the mercy of in- 
 triguing Jesuits. See the greatness, the nobleness, 
 and the true kindness of Oliver Cromwell in his con- 
 duct towards the poor persecuted Protestants of the 
 valleys of Piedmont. The following beautiful history 
 is from the graphic pen of Mr. Wilson : 
 
 " On the 3rd of June, 1655, the sad news reached 
 England that the Protestants of Piedmont were sub- 
 jected to the sternest persecutions by the Duke of 
 Savoy, having no means of escape offered to them but 
 the abandonment of their faith. Churches filled with 
 the wretched fugitives were given to the flames. 
 Whole families were put to the sword, or hunted down 
 in the Savoy Alps like beasts of prey, and men, wo- 
 men, and children hurled over the cliffs. The most 
 revolting atrocities were perpetrated on these sufferers 
 for conscience sake by the soldiers who were sent to 
 drive them into banishment, or compel them to apos- 
 tatize by horrible tortures. Milton's sonnet is known
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 77 
 
 to all. It only embodies the indignant feeling that 
 prevailed throughout England, when the people 
 learned of the sufferings of their Protestant brethren. 
 Cromwell took up a position in which policy can 
 hardly be said to have had a part. It was a noble and 
 generous stand for the oppressed such as England 
 will never cease to be proud of ; such as may make 
 every reader who remembers it was the act of a Bri- 
 tish ruler, proudly claim the affinity of a common 
 country, and say, ' I, too, am a Briton !' Cromwell 
 was moved to tears when he learned of the sufferings 
 of the people of the valleys. He sent immediately 
 the sum of 2000 from his own purse, to aid the 
 poor exiles, and appointed a day of humiliation to be 
 held throughout the kingdom, and a general collection 
 to be made on their behalf. The people heartily re- 
 sponded to this call, and testified their sympathy 
 with their oppressed brethren, by raising the sum of 
 ,4 0,000 for distribution among them. 
 
 " At this very time a treaty with France had been 
 matured, after long and tedious negotiation. One 
 demand after another had been conceded to Cromwell 
 by Louis and his crafty adviser, the- Cardinal Mazarin. 
 Milton had conducted the negotiation to a successful 
 issue, and the French ambassador waited with the 
 treaty ready for signature, when Cromwell learned of 
 the sufferings of the Vaudois. He forthwith de- 
 spatched an ambassador on their behalf to the Court 
 of Turin, and refused to sign the treaty with France 
 till their wrongs were redressed. The French ambas- 
 sador was astonished and indignant. He remon- 
 strated with Cromwell, and urged that the question
 
 78 
 
 bore no connexion with the terms of the treaty ; nor 
 could bis sovereign interfere on any plea with the 
 subjects of an independent state. Mazarin took even 
 bolder ground. He did not conceal hit syaspatby 
 with the efforts of the Duke of Savor to coerce these 
 Protestant rebels ; declared his convictMei dial; in 
 truth, ' the Vaudois had inflicted a hundred tinea 
 worse cruelties on the Catholics than they had suf- 
 fered from them ;' and altogether took up a very 
 high and haughty position. Cromwell remained un- 
 moved. New protestations met with no better recep- 
 tion. He told his Majesty of France, in reply to hit 
 assurances of the impossibility of his interfering, that 
 he had already allowed his own troops to be employed 
 as the tools of the persecutors ; which, though some- 
 thing very like giving his Christian Majesty the lie, 
 was not without its effect. Cromwell would not move 
 from the sacred duty he had assumed to himself, as 
 the defender of the persecuted Protestants of Europe. 
 The French ambassador applied for an audience to 
 take his leave, and was made welcome to go. Louis 
 and Mazarin had both to yield to his wishes, at bat, 
 and became the unwilling advocates of the heretic* of 
 the Valleys. On the interference of the King of 
 France, the Duke of Savoy was forced to grant an 
 amnesty to the Yaudois, and restore to them their 
 ancient privileges. Many attempts were afterwards 
 made to set at nought this tieaty, but while Crom- 
 well lived these persecuted descendants of the Wai- 
 den ses 
 
 liven them who kept thy truth to part of old, 
 When all our fathers wonhipp'd stocks and stoat*'
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 79 
 
 were never without a champion, ready, at every sacri- 
 fice, to turn aside from them the sword of the de- 
 stroyer, and to protect the weak and defenceless 
 remnant from the malevolence of their enemies. But 
 the prejudiced narration of Clarendon may better il- 
 lustrate the effect of Cromwell's policy on those who 
 were incapable of appreciating the high principles 
 that influenced his conduct, even than the impartial 
 narrations of later historians. ' To reduce three na- 
 tions,' says that historian, ' which perfectly hated 
 him, to an entire obedience to all his dictates ; to awe 
 and govern those nations by an army that was unde- 
 voted to him and wished his ruin, was an instance of 
 a very prodigious address. But his greatness at home 
 was but a shadow of the glory he had abroad. It 
 was hard to discover which feared him most, France, 
 Spain, or the Low Countries, where his friendship 
 was current at the value he put upon it. As they 
 did all sacrifice their honour and their interests to his 
 pleasure, so there is nothing he could have demanded 
 that either of them would have denied him. To ma- 
 nifest which there needs only an instance. It is 
 that when those of the Valley of Lucerne had un- 
 warily rebelled against the Duke of Sa\oy, which 
 gave occasion to the Pope, and the neighbour princes 
 of Italy, to call and solicit for their extirpation, and 
 their prince positively resolved upon it. Cromwell 
 sent his agent to the Duke of Savoy, a prince with 
 whom he had no correspondence or commerce, and 
 so engaged the Cardinal, and even terrified the Pope 
 himself, without so much as doing any grace to the 
 English Roman Catholics (nothing being more usual
 
 80 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 than his saying, " that his ships in the Mediterranean 
 should visit Civita Vecchia, and that the sound of his 
 cannon should be heard in Rome "), that the Duke ot 
 Savoy thought it necessary to restore all he had taken 
 from them, and did renew all those privileges they 
 had formerly enjoyed, and newly forfeited.' " 
 
 3. Ireland under Cromwell was fast recovering from 
 its poverty and misery. It was just after the death 
 of Charles that Oliver came over to Ireland, with a 
 view to stay its bloody massacre. Little have the 
 past generations known of the wisdom and liberality 
 which marked his policy towards this country. His 
 terrible sword, of two great evils, was surely the least. 
 It was the salvation of what number of Protestants 
 survived the bloody onslaught which progressed for 
 nine years prior to Cromwell's visit. God had once 
 and again appeared for poor Ireland. The remarkable 
 means which He employed for the purpose of saving 
 it from massacre, towards the close of Queen Mary's 
 reign, is worthy of being held in grateful remem- 
 brance by all who mark the finger of Providence : 
 
 The Queen had signed a commission, command- 
 ing her officers in Ireland to proceed with vigour in 
 their persecution of her Protestant subjects there, as 
 had been done in England. A Doctor Cole had 
 charge of this paper, to bring it to Ireland. When 
 he came to Chester, the mayor of the town called 
 upon him, at the inn where he lodged ; and as they 
 talked together, Doctor Cole showed him a little 
 leather box, in which the commission was contained, 
 saying : " Here is what will lash the heretics of 
 Ireland." The woman of the house heard this ex-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 81 
 
 pression of Doctor Cole ; and as she was herself a 
 Protestant, and had a brother living in Dublin, who 
 was of the same faith, she was much troubled at the 
 doctor's words. But she soon thought of what she 
 would do. She watched for the time when the mayor 
 took his leave ; and when Doctor Cole left the room 
 with him to see him down stairs, she quickly opened 
 the box, took out the paper, and put in place of it a 
 pack of cards. The doctor, not suspecting what was 
 done, put up his box as before, and the next day 
 sailed, with a fair wind, for Ireland, and landed at 
 Dublin on the 7th October, 1558. 
 
 As soon as he landed, he went to the Castle, 
 where the Lord Lieutenant called the Privy Council 
 together. Cole made a speech, telling them the object 
 of his journey, and handed the box to the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant, who ordered it to be opened, that the secre- 
 tary might read the Queen's commission. To their 
 surprise, there was nothing in the box but a pack of 
 cards, with the knave of clubs uppermost. The doctor 
 was confounded ; he could not tell what had become 
 of the paper. He was sure he had it when he left 
 London ; but how it was taken out of the box, and 
 the cards put in its place, he knew not. The Lord 
 Lieutenant told him to go back to London, and get 
 another commission from the Queen : " and in the 
 meantime," said he, " we will shuffle the cards till 
 you return." 
 
 Cole, much troubled in mind, hurried back to 
 London, and got another paper from the Queen, of 
 which you may be sure he took good care. But when 
 he reached the sea-side he had to wait some days, as 
 
 G
 
 82 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 the wind was contrary ; and during that delay, news 
 came to him that Queen Mary was dead. Thus God, 
 at that time, saved the Protestants of Ireland. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth was so pleased with this story 
 that she sent for Elizabeth Edmunds for that was 
 the name of the woman who took the paper out of 
 Doctor Cole's box and gave her a pension of forty 
 pounds a-year.* 
 
 The finger of Providence was equally manifest in 
 the salvation of the country at the period to which 
 we have adverted. " Murder, pillage, conflagration, 
 tortures, and cruelties of every kind, had deluged the 
 green island with blood ; and enacted, in its smiling 
 valleys, and in the name of Christ's religion, scenes 
 scarcely paralleled in the tortures of the red Indian 
 or the hideous feasts of South Sea savages. It 
 had seemed as if the land was peopled with tigers 
 and wolves, rather than men." Cromwell's presence 
 soon put an end to this infamy ; at Drogheda and 
 elsewhere, a terrible retribution prevented all further 
 havoc. Knowing that the religion of Rome was at 
 the root of the evil, his first effort was to exert his 
 moral weapon, in a piece of clear, sharp, convincing 
 argumentation, contained in a letter. When, before 
 or since, did Lord Lieutenant of Ireland pen such a 
 document ? Here is a specimen : 
 
 " I wonder not at differences in opinion, at discon- 
 tents and divisions, where so antichristian and divid- 
 ing a term as ' Clergy and Laity ' is given and re- 
 ceived. A term unknown to any save the antichristian 
 
 * See Nangle's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. cap. 18.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 83 
 
 Church, and such as derive themselves from her ; Ab 
 initio non fuit sic. The most pure and primitive 
 times, as they best know what true union was, so, in 
 all addresses to the several Churches they wrote 
 unto, not one word of this. The members of the 
 Churches are styled ' Brethren, and Saints of the 
 same household of Faith :' and, although they had 
 orders and distinctions amongst them for administra- 
 tion of ordinances, of a far different use and charac- 
 ter from yours, yet it nowhere occasioned them to 
 say, contemptim, and by way of lessening in contra- 
 distinguishing, ' Laity and Clergy.' It was your 
 pride that begat this expression. And it is for filthy 
 lucre's sake that you keep it up ; that by making the 
 people believe that they are not so holy as yourselves, 
 they might, for their penny, purchase some sanctity 
 from you ; and that you might bridle, saddle, and 
 ride them at your pleasure ; and do (as is most true 
 of you) as the Scribes and Pharisees of old did by 
 their ' Laity,' keep the knowledge of the Law from 
 them, and then be able in their pride to say, ' This 
 people that know not the Law are cursed.' " 
 
 The prelates had declared that they were " as 
 one body united," to forward by their counsels and 
 actions " the advancements of his Majesty's rights 
 and the Catholic religion." Oliver will not allow that 
 men should have recourse to carnal means for the 
 advancement of religion. In this he shows himself 
 superior to his age, and almost to himself: 
 
 " And now surely if these [the rights of the 
 Church], that are outward things, may not thus be 
 contended for, how much less may the doctrines of
 
 SI OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 faith, which are the works of grace and the Spirit, 
 be endeavoured by so unsuitable means ? He that 
 bids us ' contend for the faith once delivered to the 
 Saints,' tells us that we should do it by ' avoiding 
 the spirit of Cain, Corah, and Balaam ;' and by 
 ' building up ourselves in the most holy faith,' not 
 pinning it upon other men's sleeves. Praying ' in 
 the Holy Ghost ;' not mumbling over matins. Keep- 
 ing ' ourselves in the love of God ;' not destroying 
 men because they will not be of our faith. ' Waiting 
 for the mercy of Jesus Christ;' riot cruel, but mer- 
 ciful ! But, alas ! why is this said ? Why are these 
 pearls cast before you ? You are resolved not to be 
 charmed from ' using the instrument of a foolish 
 shepherd !' You are a part of Antichrist, whose 
 kingdom the Scripture so expressly speaks should be 
 ' laid in blood ;' yea, ' in the blood of the Saints.' 
 You have shed great store of that already ; and ere 
 it be long, you must all of you have ' blood to drink ;' 
 ' even the dregs of the cup of the fury and the wrath 
 of God, which will be poured out unto you.' " 
 
 Having succeeded in reducing the island to a state 
 of order and rest, making his own great name a terror 
 to evil-doers, he now adopted a policy for its culti- 
 vation and improvement, which, during the brief ten 
 years of his reign, covered the more sterile parts with 
 verdure, and made the smiling valleys to teem with 
 a produce, a plenty, and a contentment hitherto un- 
 known. He saw it was a region of untold natural 
 resources, a mine of wealth which only required 
 digging, a crown of beauty, which would be the fair- 
 est gem in the three crowns of its monarch. He ob-
 
 OMVER CROMWELL. 8.. 
 
 served that God had done everything, and man worse 
 than nothing. It was a rule with him, perhaps of 
 doubtful propriety, that if any of the people did not 
 come into his system of order and industry, they 
 should be shipped to other regions, not at their own 
 expense, but at the expense of the Commonwealth 
 of England, which was carrying on a system of emi- 
 gration, and that others, of a better disposition, should 
 take their place. " That country," said Cromwell, 
 " so doomed to bad handling, must be put under a 
 different treatment, and such as remain in it must not 
 do so at the expense of its betterment." 
 
 Even Connaught that Connaught which, in the 
 nineteenth century, remains one scene of desolation 
 and misery, had commenced to compete with Kent 
 and Hampshire, in the corn it sent over into the 
 English market, so much so that our neighbours 
 across the channel began just like them ! to com- 
 plain ! The English farmer is an emphatic John 
 Bull ; and only touch his market, or in other words, 
 his pocket, and he will not fail to be impressed ! But 
 what was this Connaught of the seventeenth century ? 
 It contained, as now, the five counties west of the 
 Shannon ; and included, as now, the wild but sublime 
 region of Connemara. It was so covered with vast 
 boulders of rock that the opinion of its poor cottiers 
 is, that when God Almighty made the world, He 
 top-dressed the soil, by shaking over it the contents 
 of a mighty sieve. On all other parts of the land, 
 the fine earth was shaken ; but on their own loved 
 Connaught He had thrown out ONLY the riddlinys ! 
 
 Yet in Connaught, under Cromwell, " corn and 
 cattle," and not merely the potato, flourished in
 
 86 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 abundance. " Historians, even those most opposed 
 to Cromwell, acknowledge that no statesman ever 
 did so much for the good of that poor country. 
 Public order and security, such as had not been known 
 for many years, revived. That desolate province, 
 then a vast desert district, was soon changed into a 
 fruitful country, and the rest of Ireland was every- 
 where cultivated with activity and confidence. In the 
 space of little more than two years, the whole king- 
 dom was covered with elegant and useful buildings, 
 fine plantations, and new enclosures. Peace, ease, 
 and industry had returned to that unhappy land. 
 Clarendon, and M. Villemain after him, cannot con- 
 ceal their astonishment at it ; and there is no impro- 
 priety in applying the rule of Scripture to Cromwell's 
 conquest of Ireland : the tree is known by its fruit.'''' 
 Whilst, in its general condition, the country was thus 
 improving, Owen was " employed within the friendly 
 walls of Dublin preaching to 'a numerous multi- 
 tude of as thirsting people after the Gospel as ever 
 he conversed with,' investigating the condition of the 
 University, and devising measures for its extension 
 and efficiency. His preaching was ' not in vain,' 
 while his representations to parliament led to mea- 
 sures which raised the University from its half-ruinous 
 condition, and obtained for it some of its most valua- 
 ble immunities." Poor Ireland! The sentiment of 
 Wordsworth, addressed to his own England, may, 
 with even greater propriety, be spoken concerning 
 this bright age, to thee : 
 
 " Thou hast seen 
 
 Fair seed- time ; better harvests might have been 
 But for thy trespasses."
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 87 
 
 Many other matters might be mentioned ; but we 
 must here pause, and ask, is not much of this what 
 we want at the present ? As for Oxford, what Prince 
 cares for its real soundness or greatness ? As to the 
 liberty of our subjects in other lauds, but for private 
 enterprise, such as that which emancipated Achilli, 
 they may die and rot in the dungeons of Italy or 
 Spain. As to Ireland, take one of a legion of wrongs : 
 thousands upon thousands of men are being trained 
 at the Government's express direction, and at the 
 people's cost, who, when sent out over the globe, 
 seek only to undo the work of liberty, and are laying 
 the axe close to the tree of the Protestant religion, 
 the wide world over. It is not the voice of bigotry, 
 it is not the dictum of persecution ; but there is a 
 deeper and a worthier meaning in the minds of en- 
 lightened men, when, despairing of all modern state 
 jobbing, they anxiously exclaim " We want another 
 Cromwell" Yes ; England at this moment wants 
 him. Her weighty topic of Popish aggression wants 
 him. Ireland wants him ; our colonies want him ; 
 the persecuted and down-trodden sons of Italy, who 
 are longing for liberty of opinion and religion, want 
 him. Abating many things which marked his career, 
 and which, if he now lived, might wear another as- 
 pect, Oliver Cromwell is just the man which is re- 
 quired by the nineteenth century. 
 
 Such was the life of Oliver Cromwell. We may 
 now ask how did he die ? This is a natural question. 
 To ponder death, under ordinary circumstances, is 
 an interesting employment, but to meditate on the 
 end of such an individual as Oliver Cromwell, is a
 
 88 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 duty we owe to him, and a means of mucli per- 
 sonal instruction. We may, in fact, learn more of 
 what, as a Christian, he really was from his closing 
 scene, than from whole volumes concerning the peri- 
 lous times in which he lived. We do not hesitate 
 to affirm, that only a believer in Jesus, with a soul 
 well adjusted to the momentous claims of immortality, 
 could have died so privileged a death as that which 
 now awaited him. His vast mind, which had ruled 
 one of the most powerful dominions on which the sun 
 ever shone, had learned in the school of a rigo- 
 rous and holy discipline to hold it with so loose a 
 hand, that at any hour he was willing to commence 
 the conflict with the last enemy, and enter into rest. 
 Of all his foes this of death was the last. Of all 
 the floods that had risen around him this only re- 
 mained. His faith had often surveyed it, and as the 
 end drew nigh he was ready to depart. Faith was 
 uppermost. It surveyed the glorious adventure with 
 a calm delight. 
 
 " Such is the soul that leaves this mortal land, 
 Fearless when the great Master gives command ; 
 Death is the storm : she smiles to hear it roar, 
 And bids the tempest waft it from the shore. 
 Then with a skilful helm she sweeps the seas, 
 And manages the raging storm with ease ; 
 Her faith can govern death, she spreads her wings 
 Wide to the wind, and as she sails she sings, 
 And loses by degrees the sight of mortal things. 
 As the shores lessen, so her joys arise, 
 The waves roll gentler, and the tempest dies. 
 Now vast eternity fills all her sight, 
 She floats on the broad deep with infinite delight, 
 The seas for ever calm, the skies for ever bright"
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 89 
 
 So sings, with his accustomed truthfulness and 
 beauty, our immortal Watts. The sentiment, we 
 have no doubt, is descriptive of that solemn yet peace- 
 ful departure for a nearer communion with the Eternal 
 and the Infinite, which, on the second day of Septem- 
 ber, 1658, occurred at Whitehall. 
 
 It was there this great labourer went to his rest ; 
 it was there he uttered those glorious sayings pertain- 
 ing to the foundation of his hope in Christ, to his 
 interest in that covenant which is ordered in all 
 things and sure, and to that blessed mansion, not 
 made with hands, for which, as a child for his home, 
 he so ardently longed. It was there the dark messen- 
 ger, which stood by him in his declining hours, was 
 welcome to him as is the shore to the tempest-tossed 
 voyager, or the sweet "breath of evening to one who 
 has borne the heat and burden of the day." Yes it 
 was there WHITEHALL the very place from which 
 his soul would have shrunk with horror, had he not 
 felt a conscious integrity respecting a different sort of 
 death, which had marked the palace as one of great 
 import to all subsequent generations. 
 
 Among the many events which tended to reduce 
 the strong frame of the Protector, and secure for him 
 a premature grave, was one of too tender and lovely 
 a character to be left unnoticed. His favourite 
 daughter, Elizabeth, Lady Claypole, was seized with 
 a dangerous illness. She lay in dying circumstances 
 at Hampton Court. " When he saw his favourite child 
 threatened by the grim tyrant he had so often faced 
 in the field ; when death knocked at the palace gate, 
 not for the weary and toil-worn soldier, but for his
 
 90 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 beloved daughter, then all else was forgotten in the 
 terrible trial. It was an attack made on his strongest 
 citadel, wherein all his jewels lay treasured, and by a 
 stronger foe than those his victorious sword had so 
 oft beat down. "When the storm raged most fiercely 
 abroad, his home was the sanctuary to which he 
 always had turned, sure of finding there loving looks 
 and faithful hearts to share his sorrows, or give new 
 zest, by their sympathy, to his joys. But now this 
 stronghold too was shaken. For fourteen days the 
 fond father, unable to attend to any public business, 
 refused to quit her bed-side. On the sixth day of 
 August she lay in her last sleep, and the weeping 
 circle, among whom was her noble mother and her 
 sisters, sought consolation where they had oft be- 
 fore found it in less trying hours of bereavement." 
 Though the noble nature of Cromwell was meekly 
 resigned, yet this severe affliction broke his heart. 
 When a strong man totters under too heavy a bur- 
 den, the least thing will overthrow him. Once 
 loosen the roots of the imperial oak, and the slightest 
 wind will lay it even with the ground. Thus was it 
 with Oliver Cromwell. Who can think of his life 
 without saying the burden was more than can be long 
 carried. At the very beginning of life he was absorb- 
 ed in deepest sorrow for his nation. Then came in- 
 cessant toil and peril, after that inconceivable respon- 
 sibility. No wonder, at sixty years of age, he can 
 stand no longer. 
 
 Hampton Court is his favourite palace. Here he 
 loved to be at home with his family. But a change 
 is desirable, and where shall his physicians recom-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 91 
 
 mend him to go ? Where would you think ? Sup- 
 posing that they believed their illustrious patient 
 guilty of all that crime so unreasonably attributed to 
 him : concerning the act which, on the 30th January, 
 1649, left Charles Stuart a lifeless corpse, they never 
 would, in so precarious a moment, have advised a 
 removal to Whitehall. Oliver, too, on such a suppo- 
 sition, would have refused the advice. " Ah, no !" 
 he would say, feeling a horror stronger than that of 
 death ; any where but Whitehall, the house of my 
 foulest deeds!" It was, however, with calm composure 
 and conscious integrity that he responded to the ad- 
 vice. He felt no remorse ; he saw no need for repen- 
 tance. His going there, moreover, and for the good 
 of his sinking health, appeared natural enough to his 
 friends and the people. This one fact, then, charac- 
 terizes the opinions of his age. It sheds the charm 
 of a strong integrity over the mind that now ponders 
 the mighty past, amidst associations and convictions 
 likely to be awakened by the very walls of that death- 
 room, where, only ten years before, he had steadily 
 gazed on the pale countenance of Charles. 
 
 His experience at this crisis is that of a true Chris- 
 tian. Harvey is now our biographer. He remarks, 
 "that a few days after the death of the Lady Eliza- 
 beth, which touched him nearly, being then himself 
 under bodily distempers, forerunners of that sickness 
 which was to death, and in his bed-chamber, he called 
 for a Bible, and desired an honourable and godly per- 
 son there, with others present, to read unto him that 
 passage in Philippians, fourth: 'Not that I speak 
 in respect of want : for I have learned in whatsoever
 
 92 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 state I am, therewith to be content. I know both 
 how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Every- 
 where, and by all things, I am instructed ; both to be 
 full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer 
 need. I can do all things, through Christ which 
 strengtheneth me.' Which read, said he, to use his 
 own words as near as I can remember them : ' This 
 Scripture did once save my life ; when my eldest son 
 (poor Oliver) died ; which went as a dagger to my 
 heart, indeed it did.' And then repeating the words 
 of the text himself, and reading the tenth and eleventh 
 verses of Paul's contentation, and submission to the 
 will of God in all conditions, said he : ' It's true, Paul, 
 you have learned this, and attained to this measure of 
 grace : but what shall 7 do ? Ah, poor creature, it 
 is a hard lesson for me to take out ! I find it so !' 
 But reading on to the thirteenth verse, where 
 Paul saith, ' I can do all things through Christ that 
 strengtheneth me,' then faith began to work, and his 
 heart to find support and comfort, and he said thus 
 to himself, ' He that was Paul's Christ is my Christ, 
 too r And so he drew waters out of the well of 
 salvation." 
 
 Often during his illness did he speak of " the two 
 Covenants," the one of works, and the other of grace. 
 He would tell of "unspeakable mercy," of "gracious 
 engagements," of " the two Covenants, by Christ's 
 death put into one." " They were two," he was 
 heard ejaculating, " but put into one before the foun- 
 dation of the world." These precious words fell from 
 his lips whilst his wife, the once-beautiful and still- 
 tenderlv attached Elizabeth, and his children stood
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 93 
 
 weeping around him. On one occasion he remarked, 
 " All the promises of God are in Him : yes, and in 
 Him, amen ; to the glory of God by us ; by us in 
 Christ Jesus. The Lord hath filled me with as much 
 assurance of His pardon and His love as my soul can 
 hold." On the night before the Lord took him to 
 his long-desired rest, he was heard thus speaking : 
 
 " ' Truly God is good ; indeed He is ; He will 
 not ' Then his speech failed him, but as I appre- 
 hended, it was, ' He will not leave me.' This saying, 
 ' God is good,' he frequently used all along; and would 
 speak it with much cheerfulness and fervour of spirit 
 in the midst of his pains. Again he said : ' I would 
 be willing to live to be farther serviceable to God and 
 His people : but my work is done. Yet God will be 
 with His people.' 
 
 " He was very restless most part of the night, 
 speaking often to himself. And there being something 
 to drink offered to him, he was desired to take the 
 same, and endeavour to sleep. Unto which he an- 
 swered : ' It is not my design to drink or sleep ; but 
 my design is, to make what haste I can to be gone.' 
 
 " Afterwards, towards morning, be used divers holy 
 expressions, implying much inward consolation and 
 peace. Among the rest he spake some exceeding 
 self-debasing words, annihilating and judging himself. 
 And truly it was observed, that a public spirit to God's 
 cause did breathe in him, as in his lifetime, so now 
 to his very last." 
 
 How calm the confidence ! how blessed the assu- 
 rance ! As in life, so now, his mind was made up to a
 
 94 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 decided course. " My design is, to make what haste 
 I can to be gone." 
 
 " His time was come," says Harvey ; " and neither 
 prayers nor tears could prevail with God to lengthen 
 out his life and continue him longer to us. Prayers 
 abundantly and incessantly poured out on his behalf, 
 both publicly and privately, as was observed, in a 
 more than ordinary way. Besides many a secret 
 sigh, secret and unheard by men, yet like the cry of 
 Moses, more loud, and strongly laying hold on God, 
 than many spoken supplications. All which, the 
 hearts of God's people being thus mightily stirred up, 
 did seem to beget confidence in some, and hopes in 
 all ; yea, some thoughts in himself, that God would 
 restore him." 
 
 " Prayers public and private : they are worth 
 imagining to ourselves. Meetings of preachers, 
 chaplains, and godly persons ; ' Owen, Goodwin, 
 Sterry, with a company of others, in an adjoining 
 room ;' in Whitehall, and elsewhere over religious 
 London and England, fervent outpourings of many a 
 loyal heart."* 
 
 O how beautiful, how goodly is this departure ! 
 We could linger over it with a sincere gratitude. 
 Long since have we discovered his goodness, but it is 
 palpable now. Here is the true Christian, not ob- 
 scurely seen, as through a glass darkly, but face to 
 face. The sun shines forth in all its glorious lustre 
 and benignity at its going down, leaving a sorrowing 
 
 * Carlyle.
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 95 
 
 nation to deplore its departure, or to gaze with me- 
 lancholy forebodings on the long wilderness of clouds 
 which remain in his stead. And how beautiful is this 
 ebbing of so great a life! It " makes what haste it 
 can to be gone," yet is the exit calm and cheerful. 
 And no wonder, for it ebbed on those "two Covenants 
 made one in Christ," a suitable resting-place, the 
 only suitable one affording a suitable sleep after^o 
 arduous a task. 
 
 " So fades a summer cloud away, 
 
 So sinks the gale when storms are o'er ; 
 So gently shuts the eye of day, 
 So dies a wave along the shore." 
 
 Such, then, was the death of this great man. The 
 event, as may be expected, was attended by the grief 
 of a nation, who, whilst he lived, never ceased to re- 
 vere and love him. It has often been affirmed, but 
 apparently with little reason, that he died at a time 
 fortunate for his renown, and that if his life had been 
 spared, it would probably have closed amidst disgrace 
 and disaster. " It is, however, certain," remarks 
 Macaulay, "that he was to the last honoured of his 
 soldiers, obeyed by the whole of the British popula- 
 tion, and dreaded by all foreign powers ; that he was 
 laid among the ancient sovereigns of England with 
 funoral pomp such as London had never seen ; and 
 that he was succeeded by his son, Richard, as quietly 
 as any king had ever been succeeded by any Prince 
 of Wales." 
 
 And now for a practical application : first to our- 
 selves. Let us imitate the piety of Oliver Cromwell.
 
 96 tfLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 Let us imitate his moral goodness and greatness ; let 
 us be enamoured of bis domestic virtues. Let us, 
 however, know our dispensation ; that it is not that 
 of David or Joshua, but that of Christ. In the spirit 
 of Christ, let us copy the zeal of His great servant, 
 who, as we have seen, had his heart set towards the 
 advancement of divine truth in the world, and the 
 prosperity of the Lord's people. His course is replete 
 with the noblest lessons to young men. His moral 
 greatness may be theirs ; it is ready at hand. What 
 Cromwell learned by the visits of the godly men at 
 St. Ives, and which was at the foundation of all that 
 was truly great and morally grand in his character, 
 may be theirs. Why should they despair of the pos- 
 session ? The highway to the best of all greatness 
 is that of goodness, which comes of conversion to 
 God and communion with eternal realities. Thus 
 
 " Lives of great men all remind us 
 
 We may make our lives sublime, 
 And departing, leave behind us 
 Footprints on the sands of time 
 
 Footprints that perhaps another, 
 
 Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother 
 
 Seeing, might take heart again." 
 
 Further, our monarch, our rulers, our senators, 
 and the people of these united kingdoms may learn 
 from Oliver Cromwell. They are all vitally interested 
 in the great questions which agitated the seventeenth 
 century ; none more so than our beloved monarch. It 
 were a day never to be desired in Great Britain, when
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 97 
 
 the Protestants of the nation can feel that their So- 
 vereign and constitution are no longer a safeguard 
 against the encroachments of a system whose his- 
 tory in England has been written in lines of blood. 
 The Papacy in England is now like the returning 
 tide, which only as yet covers certain parts of the 
 sands ; the approach is by " piecemeal :" here a little 
 and there a little : only a safe and sound constitution 
 can be a breakwater to its political encroachments. 
 For all spiritual evils the Gospel of truth is enough ; 
 but when once a persecuting " canon" can take 
 effect in England, the nation is thrown back into 
 the midst of the dark times of Mary. There is light 
 on these matters of late ; but it must shine on the 
 high places of the land, as well as among the people. 
 The papers of the day are, for the most part, sound 
 and bold. Glimpses of what Cromwell did are here 
 and there appearing on their pages ; and the com- 
 ments of thinking, inquiring, earnest, godly men are 
 natural enough. " This" they say, " is like the 
 present ; and such a man we want now" 
 
 I certainly could not divine what Oliver Cromwell 
 would do, were he now at the head of the Govern- 
 ment of these kingdoms ; but it were easy to know 
 what he would not do. 
 
 1. He would NOT have submitted your institutions 
 to Rome, for the consideration, revision, and appro- 
 val of an Italian priest. As well may light go forth 
 on a mission of darkness, as for Oliver Cromwell to 
 have written the following document :
 
 98 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 Letter from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to the 
 Most Rev. Dr. Murray, Roman Catholic Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin : 
 
 (Private.) " Castle, March 19, 1848. 
 
 " MY DEAR Lord, Your Grace had the goodness 
 to promise me that you would convey to Rome, for 
 the consideration of the Pope, the amended statutes 
 of the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, as the British 
 Government has no official organ of communication 
 with the Holy See. 
 
 " I was happy of having the opportunity to con- 
 sult your Grace before any alteration was made, be- 
 cause as a Catholic prelate you well know what gua- 
 rantees and provisions were requisite for ensuring re- 
 ligious instruction to the Catholic youths who might 
 frequent those Colleges, and I was anxious that such 
 securities should be given with the most entire good 
 faith, and in a manner perfectly satisfactory to the 
 Irish prelates, who, like yourself, desired to see the 
 true interests of morality and the CATHOLIC RE- 
 LIGION PROMOTED BY THESE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 " I regret very much the delay that has taken 
 place in the revision of the statutes ; but I need hardly 
 tell you that the attention of the Government was 
 last year wholly devoted to alleviating the calamity 
 with which it was the will of Providence that this 
 country should be visited ; moreover, this delay was 
 of no importance, as the Colleges would not be ready 
 for occupation before the end of the year 1849. 
 
 " The whole of the statutes are at your disposal 
 now or at any future period that your Grace or any
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 99 
 
 other bishop may wish to see them ; but as they are 
 very voluminous, and relate entirely to the course of 
 instruction and the duties of the different officers of 
 the Colleges, I propose at present only to trouble you 
 with the religious portion of them. 
 
 " Accordingly, I herewith send all that part of the 
 statutes which affect, as to religious points, both pro- 
 fessors and students, as well as an extract from the 
 Report of the Board with reference to religious in- 
 struction. 
 
 " The list of Visitors is not yet settled ; but I can 
 have no hesitation in stating that it will include the 
 Catholic Archbishop of the province and Bishop of 
 the diocese in which the College is situated, and that, 
 moreover, in the Council, Professorships, and other 
 posts of each College, the Catholic religion would be 
 fully and appropriately represented ; for these Col- 
 leges are instituted for the education of the middle 
 classes, and the Government would fail in its object of 
 training up the youth of Ireland to be good men and 
 loyal subjects, if their religious instruction and moral 
 conduct were not duly provided for and guarded by 
 every precaution that the most anxious solicitude can 
 devise. 
 
 " As 1 entertain a profound veneration for the 
 character of the Pope, and implicitly rely upon his 
 upright judgment, it is with pleasure that I now ask 
 your Grace to submit these statutes to the considera- 
 tion of his Holiness, believing, as I do, that they may 
 be advantageously compared with those of any other 
 similar institution in Europe ; and that by exhibiting 
 the care and the good faith with which they have been
 
 100 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 framed, they will furnish a simple but conclusive 
 answer to those misrepresentations which have been 
 so industriously circulated, and which, if they had 
 been founded in truth, would have justly excited the 
 alarm and called forth the reprobation of his Holi- 
 ness. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with great esteem, my 
 clear Lord, your Grace's very faithful servant, 
 
 " CLARENDON. 
 
 " To his Grace Archbishop Murray, 
 Of Dublin." 
 
 The following is from the Tablet, one of the organs 
 of the priesthood : 
 
 " Calm your perturbations, ye excellent individuals, 
 and submit with decent dignity to the inevitable. It 
 is even so it must be so it will be so yet more and 
 more. You are only at the beginning of your perplex- 
 ity. The Pope will speak more loudly than ever, and, 
 what is more, he will be listened to. He will turn 
 over your musty Acts of Parliament with finger and 
 thumb, scrutinizing them with a most irreverent au- 
 dacity, examining those which concern him ; and 
 when he has found these, rejecting some and tolerat- 
 ing others, with as much freedom as you use when 
 you handle oranges in a shop, selecting the soft and 
 sweet, contemptuously rejecting the sour and rotten. 
 And then oh, dreadful thought ! he will insist upon 
 being obeyed. The very slates at Exeter Hall must 
 erect themselves in horror at the bare thought of such 
 a thing. What ! the Bill was read three times in 
 each House of Parliament it was twice passed en-
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 101 
 
 grossed on parchment garnished with a waxen ap- 
 pendage by way of seal and had over it, pronounced 
 by royal lips, the mysterious words and creative fiat, 
 La reine, le veut. The Queen wills it ; her Lords 
 will it ; her Commons will it. What does it want to 
 complete the perfect fashion of a law ? Nothing of 
 solemnity, nothing of force which the Imperial sceptre 
 of this kingdom could give, is wanting to it. But, 
 truly, it may want the sanction of religion. The 
 Pope snuffs disdainfully at it ; an Italian priest will 
 have none of it ; it trenches upon his rights, or rather 
 upon his duties ; it violates the integrity of those 
 interests which he is set to guard : and, therefore, 
 Commons, Lords, Queen, wax, parchment, and all, 
 avail it very little. You may call it law, if you please ; 
 you may note it on your roll. You may print it in 
 the yearly volume of your statutes. But before long 
 you will have to repeal or alter it, in order to procure 
 the sanction of a foreign potentate, without which it 
 has not, in the end, the value of a tenpenny nail." 
 
 2. He would NOT compel the people of Great 
 Britain, out of their hard earnings, to pay thirty 
 thousand pounds a-yearfor the support ofMaynooth. 
 Yes, ^630, 000 a-year, free from all examination or 
 superintendence whatever on the part of the donor, 
 and left altogether to the administration of men whose 
 system, if rightly carried out, would be subversive of 
 our very Constitution ! What was thus done in 1846 
 would never have been done in 1656. What! 
 Oliver Cromwell consent to give ^630, 000 a-year for 
 the express object of training men by hundreds 
 and by thousands, whose work it would be to propa-
 
 102 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 gate the un-English and un-Protestantizing dogmas of 
 Romanism, not only throughout the United Kingdom, 
 but broadcast over the world. 
 
 3. He would NOT have meddled with the foundation 
 of those new empires now rising up in our colonial 
 dominions, by supporting, at the cost of England, Ro- 
 mish priests and bishops, and by erecting from the 
 same source Popish chapels and schools. Bad enough 
 for them to be there, but unspeakably bad to be there 
 by the direct conveyance and constant support of the 
 people of England. The number of the men is im- 
 mense ; the amount of money expended is deplorable ; 
 the principle by which the traffic is encouraged is 
 most unenlightened and unjust ; and the wrong done 
 to the colonies themselves is not only for the present, 
 but for ages and centuries to come. 
 
 4. He would NOT have allowed of any unconstitu- 
 tional Papal aggression. The Lord Protector of the 
 Commonwealth of England would have exercised his 
 moral weapon on this matter in first, second, and 
 third. Reasons strong enough. If not, however, 
 other means may follow. He would have spoken of 
 his own supremacy, not believing in the Pope's. He 
 would have remarked on the supremacy of the Con- 
 stitution of England, not believing in that of the 
 Papal Constitution. He would have spoken of a 
 higher sovereign than sovereign pontiffs, and would 
 have shown how that in England, at least, no aggres- 
 sion was to be suffered on Him. Back to the Vatican, 
 then, would he have thrown the "Bull," declaring 
 " that no foreign prince or potentate should have any 
 authority whatever in this kingdom of England."
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 103 
 
 5. He ivould NOT allow British subjects to suffer 
 persecution, or lie unbefriended in remote Inquisitions 
 on account of their religion. The terror of his great 
 name swept sea and land, at home and abroad, of all 
 obstructions to liberty. A small document, with his 
 name affixed, would have opened, if needful, all the 
 prisons in Europe ! Under him Tahiti would have been 
 free ; Pomare, a queen in her own right ; Achilli and 
 Gavazzi preaching at Rome ! 
 
 6. He ivould NOT be at a loss to know whether the 
 Papal system was a religious system or a secular system, 
 halfreligiousor half secular. He knew "the Canons;" 
 he had studied history ; he had seen men mutilated 
 for conscience sake. Over England a voice had more 
 than once been heard, that attempted to strip its 
 monarchs of their crown, deprive them of their king- 
 dom, and absolve the people of their oath of allegiance. 
 He knew without a doubt the meaning of the short 
 syllables, "TO PLUCK UP," " TO DESTROY," "TO 
 
 DISPERSE," "TO PLANT," "TO BUILD," "TO ROOT 
 
 OUT." On all such words a few sentences from head- 
 quarters would shed quite enough light. " THE 
 
 BlSHOP OPROME MAY EXCOMMUNICATE EMPERORS 
 AND PRINCES, DEPOSE THEM FROM THEIR STATES, 
 AND ASSOIL THEIR SUBJECTS FROM THEIR OATH 
 OF OBEDIENCE TO THEM, AND SO CONSTRAIN THEM 
 TO REBELLION. THE BlSHOP OF ROME MAY AR- 
 REST MEN, AND IMPRISON THEM IN MANACLES 
 AND FETTERS." 
 
 7. He would NOT have been at a loss to know how to 
 dealwithCardinalWiseman. With a far less degree of 
 sagacity than belonged to him, he would have under-
 
 104 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 stood the maneuvering which praised the people of 
 England for their "gentleness," and "meekness," 
 and non-persecuting spirit. He would have declared 
 at once that outside the constitution no foreign prince 
 should bear rule in England. He would have followed 
 up the " I NICHOLAS, CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP or 
 WESTMINSTER, BY THE GRACE OF GOD AND THE 
 SOVEREIGN PONTIFF ; I GOVERN," &c., with " I 
 OLIVER CROMWELL, THE PROTECTOR OF THE 
 COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, do give you timely 
 warning that in three days from this date you leave 
 these shores of England for the Castle of St. Angela, 
 ivhere (if you desire to return as plain Dr. Nicholas 
 Wiseman, preacher of righteousness and truth), you 
 must, leaving behind you all such ' baubles,' change 
 your mitre, your stockings, and your hat ; and for 
 the purpose of the voyage, a safe conveyance will be 
 (jiven by means of a vessel provided by the state, which 
 will bear you, free of all expense, from the banks of 
 the Thames to the banks of the Tiber" 
 
 Such is what Oliver Cromwell would not have done 
 in England of the seventeenth century; and such, in 
 some respects, is what he would have done. Say, DO 
 we or do we NOT want a man of similar policy, and of 
 a kindred fortitude for England of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury ? Do we, or do we not, is the question. Let 
 the remarkable times, now passing over us, declare. 
 
 THE END.
 
 A 000 947 225
 
 104 OLIVER <r 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORMA 
 LOS ANGELES