= forward we may pronounce the civil compact between him and his subjects dissolved. Neither Pym, nor Cromwell, was among the imprisoned members. Upon the dissolution of this parliament, he returned into the country, where he continued to express much concern for religion, and to frequent silenced ministers, inviting them often likewise to lectures and sermons at his house. This involving him in considerable expenses, with a view of repairing his fortune he took a farm at St. Ives; which however only increasing his difficulties, after five years of mismanagement he was obliged to give it up. The King now resolved to govern without parliaments, the soul of the constitution; and having devised various means of levying money as well for the support of his household as for the administration of his civil government, all equally illegal,* many gentlemen resolved to dispose of their property real and personal, and to leave the kingdom. To this voluntary exile, they were farther impelled by the severe proceedings of the Courts of Star-Chamber and High-Commission, the sentences of which were most degrading and oppressive. To intercept their emigration, a proclamation was issued in 1637, laying an embargo on all ships outwardbound having passengers on board, till they should obtain a licence for quitting the realm from the Lords of the Council appointed for the business of Foreign Plantations. The intention of the emigrants was, to settle in New England, for the purpose of * Such as, monopolies of salt, soap, leather, coals, pins, &c. and assessments for ship-money, the payment of which was exacted under the penalty of fine and imprisonment. enjoying their religious and civil rights, without any design of disturbing the government at home; which they thought would in time be reformed, either by the natural death of the King, or by the usual operation of enormous tyranny. Of this party, beside Hampden, was Oliver Cromwell, who from his scanty fortune could have no other prospect in the wilds of America than that of peaceable retirement.* He had even meditated this migration, we are told, before he quitted Lincoln's Inn. Out of parliament, Cromwell seems to have acted with signal prudence and caution: accordingly, though the nation was in a general ferment, and he probably deemed this embargo a fresh infringement of personal liberty, he passed his time quietly in the Isle of Ely, devoting himself to religious rather than to political studies, frequenting the meetings of the non-confor mists, and distinguishing himself only by his 'gifts' (as they were then called) of praying, preaching, and expounding. At last the misguided Monarch, having exhausted all his miserable expedients for raising money, found himself in April 1640 under the necessity of calling a parliament. In this Cromwell, by a series of intrigues not then alas! practised for the last * Yet this man thus embarked, if we may believe some writers of his life, had conceived hopes of a crown from the time that he acted the character of Tactus, at Huntingdonschool, in a play entitled LINGUA, in which the hero is supposed to have stumbled accidentally against a crown and a robe! The emphatical lines are; Was ever man so fortunate as I, To break his shins at such a stumbling-block? By the result of this fatal inhibition, the classical reader will inevitably be reminded of the Turno tempus erit, &c. of the Mantuan bard. time in corporate bodies, was chosen to represent the town of Cambridge. This parliament however, although it assembled with great appearances of a tendency to accommodation, upon a mutual misapprehension occasioned by Sir Henry Vane,* was abruptly dissolved; Charles contenting himself with the subsidies granted by the Convocation, and the voluntary contributions of some of the nobility and gentry, with which he raised an army of 20,000 men to prosecute the Scottish war. But one of his detachments being defeated by the enemy at Newcastle, and all his magazines falling into their hands, a council of peers, which he had summoned at York, advised him to enter into a treaty, and a cessation of arms took place. The unsettled state of the kingdom occasioning petitions from the city of London and other corporations for a new parliament, his Majesty complied; and in the memorable Long Parliament, which met in November 1640, Cromwell was again returned for Cambridge. His attendance on the house now became extremely close, his speeches frequent, and his activity in opposition to the court singularly conspicuous. Nor was he less zealous in promoting petitions against the Bishops, for their severe prcceedings in the ecclesiastical courts. He had, likewise, a principal share in the Remonstrance upon the state of the nation, in which the enormities of the government were strongly pointed out. This remonstrance was carried † after several warm debates, and ordered to be printed, December 15, 1641. * See the Life of Laud. t Upon this occasion, Cromwell again determined to leave England for ever, if it should not pass. At length, upon the breaking out of the civil war, Cromwell exhibited a new character; for having obtained a captain's commission from the Commons, and raised a troop of horse in the country, both in the choice of his men, and in his manner of disciplining them, he displayed the strongest evidences of military genius. His followers were remarkable for their sobriety, industry, and bravery. They were chiefly the sons of freeholders, who being taught to believe that they were fighting for the defence of their property, and acting upon principles of conscience, could not fail to vanquish common mercenaries. His first military exploit of consequence was, his securing the town of Cambridge for the parliament.* Not long afterward, he seized Sir Thomas Coningsby, High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, on his road to St. Alban's, where he was about to proclaim the parliamentary officers traitors. For these services he received the thanks of the House, and was promoted to a colonelcy. He now enlarged his plan of operations, and with his regiment of a thousand horse overawed the recruiting parties of the royalists in several counties; having not only made himself in the space of a few months a good officer, though he did not assume the military character till he was in his fortythird-year, but also converted his new-raised men * He very narrowly missed seizing the University-plate, which had but just been sent off to the King. About this time, probably, he visited his uncle and godfather, Sir Oliver Cromwell, at Ramsey (as the old gentleman himself told Sir Philip Warwick) "with a good strong party of horse, and exhibited a strong trait of his character in asking his blessing, refusing to be covered in his presence, and-plundering him of his arms and "all his plate." 66 into excellent soldiers within the same short period. The means he employed are detailed in one of his own speeches, in which he relates a conversation between Hampden and himself on the inferiority of the parliamentary forces. "Your troops," said I, are most of them old decayed serving men, and tapsters, and such kind of fellows; and their troops are gentlemen's younger sons, and persons of good quality. And do you think, that the mean spirits of such base and mean fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen, that have honour and courage and resolution in them? You must get men of a spirit; and, take it not ill what I say, of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentlemen will go, or else I am sure you will be beaten still:" I told him so. He was a wise and worthy person, and he did think that I talked a good notion, but an impracticable one. I told him, "I could do somewhat in it:" and I accordingly raised such men, as had the fear of God before them, and made some conscience of what they did. And from that time forward they were never beaten, but wherever they were engaged against the enemy, they beat continually.' Here we perceive the master-mind, applying to the best advantage the instruments and principles, with which he was to act. His levies consisted of his countrymen, substantial yeomen or their sons, all acquainted with him and with one another. He trained them in excellent discipline, and inspired them with the true pride of soldiers. By way of trying their steadiness, he placed at their first muster a dozen troopers in ambuscade, who suddenly rushed out upon them. About twenty of his recruits instantly fled. These he cashiered, and enlisted |