lents of Cromwel as a statesman, which indeed are sufficiently evinced by the countless difficulties he struggled with and conquered. The favourable side of the picture has fixed the attention of mankind; and the parts which most shock propriety, have been left unharmonised and unexplained. How far what was so apparently wanted to give sense and consistency to the narrative, has been supplied in the following pages, every reader will judge for himself. It has also been said, that Cromwel's life and all his arts were exhausted together, and that, if he had lived a short time longer, he must have lost the ascendancy he so surprisingly acquired. This assertion is here controverted. The contents of the present volume will probably to the majority of readers be more interesting than those of its immediate predecessor. The object of the preceding was to describe the unavailing efforts of virtuous and magnanimous men in the perhaps visionary attempt to establish a republic in England. The business of this is to delineate the reign of a usurper, who seems also to a Burnet. Hume, Beginning of Chapter LXII. have had the idea of becoming a public benefactor, but who was not less unsuccessful in the issue of his design than they were. Readers in general are better disposed to interest themselves in the attempts of a daring individual to achieve heroic exploits, than in those of a band of senators engaged in a similar design. Cromwel was a man of great virtues, sincere in his religion, fervent in his patriotism, and earnestly devoted to the best interests of mankind. He had a frame of mind that no complication of difficulties could ever succeed to inspire with a doubt of his power to conquer them. The fertility of his conceptions, like the intrepidity of his spirit, was incapable of being exhausted. We seek in romance for characters, with qualities enabling them to achieve incredible adventures. In the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England we find a real personage, whose exploits do not fall short of all that the wildest imagination had ever the audacity to feign. The obstacles which Cromwel had to encounter, were of a magnitude the most serious and appalling: a young prince of promising talents and engaging manners, the un doubted heir of the preceding sovereigns of England, whose claims a vast majority of the people regarded as sacred; a multitude of fanatics of various denominations, whose resolved purpose it was not to endure a master; and the good sense and independent spirit of a large portion of the inhabitants, who regarded liberty and a government by equal laws as an inheritance never on any account to be allowed to escape from their grasp. All these he held in exemplary subjection: his reputation, as a man born to rule over his fellow-men, increased every day; and the awe and reverence of the English name that he inspired into all other states, can find no parallel in any preceding or subsequent period of our history. October 20, 1828. ERRATA. Page 83, Note, for 199, read 109. 394, line 18, side note, read Observations of Cromwel on cer tain defects in the Petition and Advice. 463, line 3, for England, read Scotland. CONTENTS. Parentage and alliances of Cromwel.-His early life.-Re- Position in which Cromwel was placed. His anticipations of Cromwel's proceedings as to the judges.-Station and autho- Disaffection of the anabaptists.-Cabals of the royalists.- Henry Cromwel sent into Ireland.-Monk into Scotland- Conspiracy of Gerard and Vowel.-Projects of assassination Condition of the governments of France and Spain.-Cha- racter of cardinal Mazarine.-He favours the conspiracy of Conspiracy against the universities.-Account of it by Owen Preparations for a new parliament.-Elastic and confiding Formidable character of the opposition.-Incessant debates. -Question of the protectorate, hereditary or elective.- |