laft, ftruck with remorfe, folicited the forgiveness of Cromwell, and confeffed by whom he had been suborned. These are the principal charges, except those to which I have replied above, which are brought forward against this noble deliverer of his country. Of how little force they are, is very apparent. But, in fpeaking of fuch a man, who has merited fo well of his country, I fhould do nothing, if I only exculpated him from crimes; particularly fince it not only fo nearly concerns the country, but even myself, who am fo clofely implicated in the fame difgrace, to evince to all nations, and as far as I can, to all ages, the excellence of his character, and the splendour of his renown. Oliver Cromwell was sprung from a line of illustrious ancestors, who were distinguished for the civil functions which they fuftained under the monarchy, and ftill more for the part which they took in restoring and establishing true religion in this country. In the vigour and maturity of his life, which he paffed in retirement, he was confpicuous for nothing more than for the ftrictness of his religious habits and the innocence of his life; and he had tacitly cherished in his breaft that flame of piety which was afterwards to ftand him in fo much ftead on the greatest occafions, and in the most critical exigencies. In the last parliament which was called by the king, he was elected to represent his native town; when he foon became distinguished by the juftness of his opinions, and the vigour and decifion of his counfels. When the sword was drawn, he offered his services, and was appointed to a troop of horse, whofe numbers were foon increased by the pious and the good, who flocked from all quarters to his standard; and in a fhort time he almost furpaffed the greatest generals in the magnitude and the rapidity of his atchievements. Nor is this furprifing; for he was a foldier difciplined to perfection in the knowledge of himself. He had either extinguished, or by habit had learned to fubdue, the whole host of vain hopes, fears, and paffions, which infeft the foul. He firft acquired the government of himself, and over himself acquired the moft fignal victories; so that on the first day he took the field against the external enemy, he was a veteran in arms, confummately practifed in the toils and exigencies of war. It is not poffible

poffible for me in the narrow limits in which I circumfcribe myself on this occafion, to enumerate the many towns which he has taken, the many battles which he has won. The whole furface of the British empire has been the scene of his exploits, and the theatre of his triumphs; which alone would furnish ample materials for a history, and want a copiousness of narration not inferior to the magnitude and diverfity of the tranfactions. This alone feems to be a fufficient proof of his extraordinary and almost supernatural virtue, that by the vigour of his genius, or the excellence of his difcipline, adapted, not more to the neceffities of war, than to the precepts of christianity, the good and the brave were from all quarters attracted to his camp, not only as to the beft fchool of military talents, but of piety and virtue; and that during the whole war, and the occafional intervals of peace, amid fo many viciffitudes of faction and of events, he retained and still retains the obedience of his troops, not by largeffes or indulgence, but by his fole authority, and the regularity of his pay. In this inftance his fame may rival that of Cyrus, of Epaminondas, or any of the great generals of antiquity. Hence he collected an army as numerous and as well equipped as any one ever did in fo fhort a time; which was uniformly obedient to his orders, and dear to the affections of the citizens; which was formidable to the enemy in the field, but never cruel to those who laid down their arms; which committed no lawless ravages on the perfons or the property of the inhabitants; who, when they compared their conduct with the turbulence, the intemperance, the impiety and the debauchery of the royalists, were wont to falute them as friends, and to confider them as guests. They were a ftay to the good, a terror to the evil, and the warmeft advocates for every exertion of piety and virtue. Nor would it be right to pafs over the name of Fairfax, who united the utmost fortitude with the utmost courage; and the fpotlefs innocence of whofe life feemed to point him out as the peculiar favourite of heaven. Juftly indeed may you be excited to receive this wreath of praife; though you have retired as much as poffible from the world, and seek those fhades of privacy which were the delight of Scipio. Nor VOL. VI. Ff

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was it only the enemy whom you fubdued; but you have triumphed over that flame of ambition and that luft of glory, which are wont to make the best and the greatest of men their flaves. The purity of your virtues and the fplendour of your actions confecrate those sweets of ease which you enjoy; and which conftitute the wifhed-for haven of the toils of man. Such was the eafe which, when the heroes of antiquity poffeffed, after a life of exertion and glory, not greater than yours, the poets, in defpair of finding ideas or expreffions better fuited to the fubject, feigned that they were received into heaven, and invited to recline at the tables of the gods. But whether it were your health, which I principally believe, or any other motive which caufed you to retire, of this I am convinced, that nothing could have induced you to relinquifh the fervice of your country, if you had not known that in your fucceffor liberty would meet with a protector, and England with a stay to its fafety, and a pillar to its glory. For, while you, O Cromwell, are left among us, ne hardly fhews a proper confidence in the Supreme, who diftrufts the fecurity of England; when he fees that you are in fo fpecial a manner the favoured object of the divine regard. But there was another department of the war, which was destined for your exclufive exertions.

Without entering into any length of detail, I will if poffible, defcribe fome of the moft memorable actions, with as much brevity as you performed them with celerity. After the lofs of all Ireland, with the exception of one city, you in one battle immediately difcomfited the forces of the rebels: and were bufily employed in fettling the country, when you were fuddenly recalled to the war in Scotland. Hence you proceeded with unwearied diligence against the Scots who were on the point of making an irruption into England with the king in their train: and in about the space of one year you entirely fubdued, and added to the English dominion, that kingdom which all our monarchs during a period of 800 years, had in vain ftruggled to fubject. In one battle you almost annihilated the remainder of their forces who, in a fit of defperation had made a fudden incurfion into England, then almoft deftituţe

deftitute of garrifons, and got as far as Worcester; where you came up with them by forced marches, and captured almoft the whole of their nobility. A profound peace enfued; when we found, though indeed not then for the first time, that you was as wife in the cabinet as valiant in the field. It was your conftant endeavour in the fenate either to induce them to adhere to those treaties which they had entered into with the enemy, or speedily to adjuft others which promised to be beneficial to the country. But when you faw that the bufinefs was artfully procraftinated, that every one was more intent on his own selfish interest than on the public good, that the people complained of the difappointments which they had ex perienced, and the fallacious promises by which they had been gulled, that they were the dupes of a few overbearing individuals, you put an end to their domination. A new parliament is fummoned: and the right of election given to those to whom it was expedient. They meet; but do nothing; and, after having wearied themfelves by their mutual diffentions, and fully expofed their incapacity to the observation of the country, they confent to a voluntary diffolution. In this ftate of defolation, to which we were reduced, you, O Cromwell! alone remained to conduct the government, and to fave the country. We all willingly yield the palm of fovereignty to your unrivalled ability and virtue, except the few among us, who, either ambitious of honours which they have not the capacity to fuftain, or who envy those which are conferred on one more worthy than themselves, or else who do not know that nothing in the world is more pleafing to God, more agreeable to reafon, more politically juft, or more generally useful, than that the fupreme power fhould be vested in the best and the wifest of men. Such, O Cromwell, all acknowledge you to be; fuch are the fervices which you have rendered, as the leader of our councils, the general of our armies, and the father of your country. For this is the tender appellation by which all the good among us falute you from the very foul. Other names you neither have nor could endure; and you defervedly reject that pomp of title which attracts the gaze and admiration of the multitude. For what is a title but

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a certain definite mode of dignity; but actions fuch as yours furpass, not only the bounds of our admiration, but our titles; and like the points of pyramids, which are loft in the clouds, they foar above the poffibilities of titular commendation. But fince, though it be not fit, it may be expedient, that the highest pitch of virtue fhould be circumfcribed within the bounds of fome human appellation, you endured to receive, for the public good, a title most like to that of the father of your country; not to exalt, but rather to bring you nearer to the level of ordinary men; the title of king was unworthy the transcendant majesty of your character. For if you had been captivated by a name over which, as a private man, you had fo completely triumphed and crumbled into duft, you would have been doing the fame thing as if, after having fubdued fome idolatrous nation by the help of the true God, you should afterwards fall down and worship the gods which you had vanquished. Do you then, fir, continue your course with the fame unrivalled magnanimity; it fits well upon you ;-to you our country owes its liberties, nor can you fuftain a character at once more momentous and more august than that of the author, the guardian and the preferver of our liberties: and hence you have not only eclipfed the achievemets of all our kings, but even those which have been fabled of our heroes. Often reflec what a dear pledge the beloved land of your nativity has entrusted to your care; and that liberty which the once expected only from the chofen flower of her talents and her virtues, fhe now expects from you only, and by you only hopes to obtain. Revere the fond expectations which we cherish, the folicitudes of your anxious country;- revere the looks and the wounds of your brave companions in arms who, under your banners, have fo ftrenuously fought for liberty; revere the fhades of those who perifhed in the conteft; revere also the opinions and the hopes which foreign ftates entertain concerning us, who promife to themselves so many advantages from that liberty, which we have fo bravely acquired, from the establishment of that new government, which has begun to fhed its fplendour on the world, which, if it be fuffered to vanish like a dream, would involve us in the deepest abyfs of fhame;

and