any that had ever been seen in our feas; and having declared war against the Dutch, who were till' then thought invincible on the ocean, they made the High and Mighty ftrike to the British flag.

However different in other refpects we find the annals of those times, according to the distinct prejudices and party views of each hiftorian, they all agree in this, that after the execution of Charles, England acquired more refpect from foreign powers than she had been treated with fince the reign of Elizabeth. Her land forces, including the militia, confifted of eighty thousand men: her fleets, under the command of Blake and other brave admirals, had established her superiority in every quarter of the globe and all this was ef fected without any increase of the national burthens: on the contrary, the revenue exceeded the expenditure; and when Cromwell feized the reins.

of

government, there were five hundred thoufand pounds in the public treasury; the ftores in the magazines and dock-yards were worth feven hundred thousand pounds more; the army had received four months' pay in advance; and trade was in fo flourishing a condition that the interest of money had fallen two per cent. The authors of all these bleffings, having compleated their work, were going to mix with the mass of the people whom they had made happy; and were paffing an

act

act for their own diffolution, when the ufurper, attended by a party of mufqueteers rushed into their house, and difmiffed them with the most audacious violence and indignity.

The following outlines of Cromwell's character and conduct are delineated in fo mafterly a manner, that it would be the effect of the fillieft vanity to make any new attempt, at least at a miniaturelikeness of that juftly detefted ufurper. The first of these sketches was drawn by the late earl of Chatham, and bears the ftrong marks of his original genius. "Cromwell," faid the earl, "was a faint-like thief, who, under the double cloak of religion and patriotifin, committed a burglary in the conftitution, and robbed the people of their title to liberty." It is impoffible to conceive a ftronger idea of Cromwell's ufurpation, or to express it with concifenefs and greater It also perenergy. fectly correfponds with the account given of him by major Wildman, one of his cotemporaries. "His pretended zeal for God and his people;" fays the major," his high profeffions of piety, fimplicity, and integrity; his hypocritical prayers and days of fafting; his diffembled humility and meeknefs; and his frequent compaffionate tears upon every occafion, rocked us afleep with the pleafing dreams of liberty and juftice, till he made a facrifice of all our laws, liberties, and properties to his own ambition."

The

The late king of Pruffia, in his Memoirs of the House of Brandenburgh, takes occafion to fhew the impropriety of granting the furname of GREAT to fuch a man as Cromwell:-" to Cromwell," he observes," for having facrificed every civil duty to the defire of reigning; for having prostituted his talents, which, instead of being useful to his country, were fubfervient only to his ambition; for having concealed his impoftures under the mafk of fanaticifm; for having enflaved his country, under a pretence of fighting for her liberties:to Cromwell, a bold, cunning, and ambitious man, but unjuft, violent, and void of virtue; a man, in fine, who had great qualities, but never a good one." His majesty adds, "Cromwell therefore did NOT deferve the furname of GREAT, which is due ONLY to VIRTUE."

But the pernicious effects of Cromwell's ambition are more forcibly depicted in a few bold touches by Mrs. Macauley, that eloquent enthufiaft for the rights of mankind. "He deprived," The fays, "his country of a full and equal fyftem of liberty, at the very inftant of fruition; ftopped the course of her power in the midst of her victories; impeded the progrefs of reformation, by deftroying her government, and limiting the bounds of her empire; and, by a fatal concurrence of circumstances, was enabled to obftruct more good, and occafion more evil than has been the lot of any

other

other individual." She farther afferts," that we cannot form any high opinion of his talents, or his wisdom, when we confider, that he facrificed not only the welfare of his country, but the durable interests of himself and his pofterity, to the temporary gratification of reigning a few years, at the expence of honour, confcience, and repofe."

With respect to the paffive and unaspiring Richard, we may fafely affirm, that the general acquiefcence in his acceffion was not owing to the influence of his father's name, nor to any respect for the expiring voice of a dreaded, yet much more hated ufurper; but rather to the fuddenness of Oliver's death, which found no party prepared for an immediate infurrection; and to poor Richard's well-known imbecility, which removed the fears, and flattered the hopes of the turbulent and ambitious. The new protector wanted activity to reprefs, and policy to conciliate the leaders of faction. The iron fcepter, which the father had fcarcely been able to wield, fell from the weak grasp of the impotent fon; and the fame army, to which the one was indebted for his elevation, became the inftrument of the other's downfall.

The fudden fubverfion of a government founded on terror and force involved the state in all the horrors of anarchy. The foldiers, corrupted under Cromwell's

VOL. I.

d

Cromwell's ufurpation, had long ceased to be citizens; and the principal officers, excited by the example of his fuccefs, aimed at nothing lefs than fovereign power. The royalifts were eager to feize every opportunity of fomenting discord, and of increafing the public confufion. The prefbyterians, notwithstanding their former enmity to the king, and to the church of England, were inclined to concur in the re-establishment of both; rather than facrifice their own pride and caprice to the fuperior controul of the independents. Even the wellwishers to the cause of freedom, alarmed at the apprehenfion of another civil war, were unwilling to take a decifive part; and fought refuge in filence and neutrality, How few men are to be found of minds fo fuperior to the ordinary checks of indolence and fear, as to ftand forward, in the moment of danger, the avowed champions of their country's caufe, and to prefer the tumults and perils of a glorious struggle for liberty to the dead and fullen repofe of defpotifm!

The parliament, indeed, that Cromwell had dif folved with fuch unmerited ignominy, was reftored by the military leaders, and made some spirited efforts to ftem the torrent of corruption, fervility and baseness. But this small band of virtuous patriots, opposed by the very officers who brought them back, dreaded by the royalifts, hated by the. prefbyterians