vile bigots, crouching under the lash of a foreign master, and turning pale at the frown of a foreign priest.

After the death of Charles the First, in which Cromwell had no greater share than the other members of the court which sat in judgment on him, the sovereign authority was exercised by the Parliament, which consisted in fact of less than two thirds of the House of Commons only, and by an executive council of thirty-eight persons. This Parliament, which first voted the continuance of its own power, and then declared every person incapable of office or trust who did not engage to support it, sustained itself in its usurpation nearly four years. But they were four years of dissension, strife, and bloodshed. The Presbyterians, who constituted a majority of Parliament, were secretly royalists, and would gladly have reëstablished the monarchy, if presbyterianism had been made the established church. This fact will explain a remark, which was made, at that time, on their new coinage, and which deserves to be repeated. The Parliament ordered the coin of the kingdom to be stamped anew, with the words "The Commonwealth of England" on one side, and the motto "God is with us on the other; which gave occasion to one of the preachers to remark, that God and the Commonwealth were not on the same side.

Cromwell was at this time subduing Ireland, where the terror of his name (in the language of Neal) carried victory on its wings. It is worthy of remark, that at this time, at the head of a victorious army, which was exasperated even to madness against the Catholics, Cromwell sent a petition

to Parliament, recommending the repeal of all penal laws in matters of religion, and a free toleration of every sect. How much this was in advance of his age, appears from an anecdote related in the life of Richard Baxter. When that great and good man, after the restoration of Charles the Second, was pleading with the king for the toleration of the Presbyterians, Lord Clarendon remarked, that the king had received a similar petition from the Baptists, and proposed a general declaration which should include several sects; upon which Baxter replied with some warmth, "that His Majesty should distinguish the tolerable parties from the intolerable; that for the former he craved lenity and favor; but that nobody could desire the toleration of Catholics and Unitarians, who were altogether intolerable."

"When Cromwell, in 1653, forcibly dissolved the Parliament, it had entirely lost the confidence of the nation, and was regarded every where with contempt and derision. It probably could not have maintained its authority six months longer. The nation was again on the eve of anarchy and civil war. The Royalists, though subdued and silenced, were not disheartened. They were scattered every where through the kingdom; and kept up a constant correspondence with Prince Charles, and with each other. Presbyterians were, in principle, for the King and Covenant, and hated the Independents, both as Republicans and heretics. The Republican party itself was composed of the most discordant materials. The Deists, under Algernon Sidney and Harrington, were desirous of establishing a commonwealth on the classical models of Greece and Rome.

The

The Anabaptists, and Fifth Monarchy men, expecting the immediate appearance of the Saviour on earth, regarded all human institutions in church and state as vain and nugatory; while the Independents, with more rational views of civil and religious liberty, had no fixed plan of action, and but little political power. These three classes agreed in nothing, but in their abhorrence of tyranny and ecclesiastical usurpation. Had Cromwell permitted a new Parliament to be called, it would have contained a majority of Presbyterians and Cavaliers, and the civil war would have been at once renewed. Constituted as the English Parliament then was, it could not have been a fair representative of the wishes of the people; and the plan of submitting a constitution of government to the decision of the people themselves, was the invention of later and happier times. What then was to be done? The vessel was on a stormy ocean, driven about, the sport of the winds and waves,-no subordination among the crew, no skilful hand at the helm. The gale was even now rending her canvass, and the billows making breaches over her side, when a skilful mariner sprung upon deck; his voice restored order, his eye inspired hope and confidence, his hand seized the helm. The vessel rode out the gale; and was soon pursuing a prosperous voyage. Was the conduct of this mariner justifiable? or must he be hung for mutiny?

I will not compare the administration of Cromwell with that of his immediate predecessor; for it may be said perhaps (though not with justice), that much of its success arose from the gradual progress of the nation, from the de

velopement of its resources, and the greater diffusion of light and knowledge; yet there are points of contrast too striking to be omitted. In the reign of Charles the First, England held but a secondary rank among the nations of Europe; Cromwell made her at once the head of the civilized world. In the first treaty which he signed with France, he claimed precedence of Louis the Fourteenth, and what is more extraordinary, that proud monarch was obliged to yield it. In his domestic administration, Cromwell had the same advantage of his predecessor. While Charles the First was the passive instrument of those whom accident or caprice had placed around him, of the gay and profligate Buckingham, the choleric Laud, and the subtile Cottington; Cromwell sought out and attached to his service the masterspirits of the age. Milton and Marvell and Thurloe were his secretaries; Sir Mathew Hale, his chief justice; Maynard, his counsellor ; Blake, his admiral; Waller and Prynne, his leaders in the House of Commons; Selden, Usher, and Walton, his theological advisers and friends.

Soon after the death of Cromwell, England thus prosperous and happy at home, illustrated by learning and the arts, and equally feared and respected abroad, was delivered into the hands of Charles the Second. "Negligent of the interests of the nation, careless of its glory, averse to its religion, jealous of its liberty, lavish of its treasure, sparing only of its blood," he lost, one by one, all the advantages which the wisdom and energy of Cromwell had acquired. When he had squandered the treasures and alienated the affections of his people, he became a mean pensioner upon the

bounty of France; and received a quarterly stipend from Louis the Fourteenth, to enable him to pursue his profligate pleasures.

"When the legal constitution was restored," says Bishop Kennet, himself a royalist, "there returned with it a torrent of debauchery and wickedness. The times which followed the restoration were the reverse of those that preceded it; for the laws which had been enacted against vice, for the last twenty years, being declared null, and the magistrates changed, men set no bounds to their licentiousnes. A proclamation was indeed published against those loose and riotous Cavaliers, whose loyalty consisted in drinking healths, and railing at those who would not revel with them; but in reality the king was at the head of these disorders, being devoted to his pleasures, and having given himself up to an avowed course of lewdness. There were two play-houses erected in the neighbourhood of the court; the most lewd and indecent plays were brought on the stage; and the more indecent, the better was the king pleased, who graced every new play with his royal presence. From court the contagion spread like wild-fire among the people; so that men threw off the very profession of virtue and piety."-But enough of this disgusting picture; the profligacy of those times is but too well known.

I rest then the justification of Oliver Cromwell, first, upon the anarchy which prevailed in England, when he first came forward in public life; secondly, upon the necessity of establishing a more efficient and liberal government; thirdly, upon his peculiar talents for the art of government, of which