22

OLIVER CROMWELL.

CHAP. "he alone could save them from the levellers, men more

XI.

ready to destroy than to reform.” Did the sincere
levellers, the true commonwealth's men, make their
way into his
into his presence, he assured them "he preferred
a shepherd's crook to the office of protector; he would
resign all power so soon as God should reveal his
definite will;" and then he would invite them to pray.
"For," said he one day to the poet Waller, "I must
talk to these people in their own style." Did the
passion for political equality blaze up in the breasts of
the yeomanry, who constituted his bravest troops, it
was checked by the terrors of a military execution.
The Scotch Presbyterians could not be cajoled; he
resolved to bow their pride; and did it in the only way
in which it could be done, by wielding against their
bigotry the great conception of the age, the doctrine
of Roger Williams and Descartes, freedom of con-
science. "Approbation," said he, as I believe, with
sincerity of conviction, "is an act of conveniency, not
of necessity. Does a man speak foolishly? suffer him
gladly, for ye are wise. Does he speak erroneously?
stop such a man's mouth with sound words, that can-
not be gainsaid. Does he speak truly? rejoice in the
truth." To win the royalists, he obtained an act of
amnesty, a pledge of future favor to such of them as
would submit. He courted the nation by exciting and
gratifying national pride, by able negotiations, by vic-
tory and conquest. He sought to enlist in his favor
the religious sympathies and enthusiasm of the people,
by assuming for England a guardianship over the
interests of Protestant Christendom, and burying all
the mutual antipathies of sects in one common burning
hatred against the court of Rome.

1 Thurloe, i. 161.

CROMWELL'S PARLIAMENTS.

23

XI.

Seldom was there a less scrupulous or more gifted chap. politician than Cromwell. But he was no longer a leader of a party. He had no party. A party cannot exist except by the force of common principles; it is truth, and truth only, that of itself rallies men together. Cromwell, the oppressor of the Independents, had ceased to respect principles; his object was the advancement of his family; his hold on opinion went no farther than the dread of anarchy, and the strong desire for order. If moderate and disinterested men consented to his power, it was to his power as high constable, engaged to preserve the public peace. He could not confer on his country a fixed form of government, for that required a concert with the national affections, which he was never able to gain. He had just notions of public liberty, and he understood how much the English people are disposed to deify their representatives. Thrice did he attempt to connect his usurpation with the forms of representative government; and always without success. His first parliament, convened by special writ, and mainly composed of the members of the party by which he had been advanced, represented the movement in the English mind which had been the cause of the revolution. It July indulged in pious ecstasies, laid claim to the special enjoyment of the presence of Jesus Christ, and spent whole days in exhortations and prayers. But the delirium of mysticism was not incompatible with clear notions of policy; and amidst the hyperboles of Oriental diction, they prepared to overthrow despotic power by using the power a despot had conceded. The objects of this assembly were all democratic: it labored to effect a most radical reform; to codify English law, by reducing the huge volumes of the common law into a

1653.

4.

24

XI.

ten.

CROMWELL'S PARLIAMENTS.

CHAP. few simple English axioms; to abolish tithes; and to establish an absolute religious freedom, such as the United States now enjoy. This parliament has for ages been the theme of unsparing ridicule. Historians, with little generosity towards a defeated party, have sided against the levellers; and the misfortune of failure in action has doomed them to censure and contempt. Yet they only demanded what had often been promised, and what, on the immutable principles of freedom, was right. They did but remember the truths which Cromwell had professed, and had forgotCromwell feared their influence; and, finding the republican party too honest to become the dupes of his ambition, he induced such members of the parliament as were his creatures to resign, and scattered the rest with his troops. The public looked on with much indifference. This parliament, from the mode of its convocation, was unpopular; the royalists, the army, and the Presbyterians, alike dreaded its activity. With it expired the last feeble hope of the republican party. The successful soldier, at once and openly, pleading the necessity of the moment, assumed supreme power, as the highest peace-officer in the realm.

Cromwell next attempted an alliance with the property of the country. Affecting contempt for the regicide republicans, who, as his accomplices in crime, could not forego his protection, he prepared to espouse the cause of the lawyers, the clergy, and the moneyed interest. Here, too, he was equally unsuccessful. The moneyed interest loves dominion for itself; it sub1654, mits reluctantly to dominion; and his second parliaSept. ment, chosen on such principles of reform as rejected 1655, the rotten boroughs, and, limiting the elective franchise 22. to men of considerable estate, made the house a fair

*to

Jan.

CROMWELL'S PARLIAMENTS.

25

XI.

representation of the wealth of the country, was CHAP. equally animated by a spirit of stubborn defiance. The parliament first resisted the decisions of the council of Cromwell on the validity of its elections, next vindicated freedom of debate, and, at its third sitting, called in question the basis of Cromwell's authority. "Have we cut down tyranny in one person, and shall the nation be shackled by another?" cried one of the members. "Hast thou, like Ahab, killed and taken possession?" exclaimed another. At the opening of this parliament, Cromwell, hoping for a majority, declared "the meeting more precious to him than life." The majority favored the Presbyterians, and secretly desired the restoration of the Stuarts. The protector dissolved them, saying, "The mighty things done among us are the revolutions of Christ himself; to deny this is to speak against God." How highly the public mind was excited by this abrupt act of tyranny, is evident from what ensued. The dissolution of the parliament was followed by Penruddoc's insurrection.

A third and final effort could not be adventured till the nation had been propitiated by naval successes, and victories over Spain had excited and gratified the pride of Englishmen and the zeal of Protestants. "The Red Cross," said Cromwell's admirers, "rides on the sea without a rival; our ready sails have made a covenant with every wind; our oaks are as secure on the billows as when they were rooted in the forest to others the ocean is but a road; to the English it is a dwelling-place." The fleets of the protector returned rich with the spoils of Peru; and there were those who joined in adulation ;

1 Waller, of a War with Spain, verses 23-30. VOL. II.

4

26

CHAP.
XI.

CROMWELL'S DESIRE TO BECOME KING.

"His conquering head has no more room for bays:
Let the rich ore forthwith be melted down,
And the state fixed by making him a crown;
With ermine clad and purple, let him hold
A royal sceptre, made of Spanish gold."

For a moment the question of a sovereign for Eng-
land seemed but to relate to the Protector. Cromwell
and the army, or King Cromwell and the army; and,
for the last time, Cromwell hoped, through a parliament,
to reconcile his dominion to the English people, and
to take a place in the line of English kings. For a
season the majority was not unwilling; the scruples
of the more honest among the timid he overcame by
levity. Our oath, he would say, is not against the
three letters that make the word REX.
"Royalty

remonstrance.

is but a feather in a man's cap; let children enjoy their rattle." But here his ambition was destined to a disappointment; the Presbyterians, ever his opponents, found on this point allies in many officers of the army; and Owen, afterwards elected president of Harvard College, draughted for them a powerful and effectual In view of his own elevation, Cromwell had established an upper house; its future members to be nominated by the protector, yet in concurrence with the peers. But the wealth of the ancient hereditary nobility continued; its splendor was not yet forgotten; the new peerage, exposed to the contrast, excited ridicule without giving strength to Cromwell ; the house of commons continually spurned at their power, and controverted their title. This last parliaFeb. ment was also dissolved. Unless Cromwell could exterminate the Catholics, convert the inflexible Presbyterians, chill the loyalty of the royalists, and corrupt

1658.

4.