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my mouth in the dust, and say, 'It is the Lord!' "It is not to be said, what affection the army and all people shew to his late Highness: his name is already precious. Never was there any man so "prayed for as he was, during his sickness; solemn assembly-meetings every day, to beseech the Lord "for the continuance of his life; so that he is gone

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to heaven, embalmed with the tears of his people, "and upon the wings of the prayers of the saints. "He lived desired, and died lamented; every body

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bemoaning themselves, and saying, 'A great man is "fallen in Israel!" In a letter of condolence and consolation, dated, Ballymallo, September 17th, Lord Broghill thus wrote to the afflicted secretary, in the style of the Protectoral court: "I think sorrow for "friends less tolerable when they are a-dying, than "after they are dead. David's servants reasoned as

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ill, as he did well; they concluded, if his grief were "such when the child was but in danger of death, "what would it be when he knew it was dead? He "took and considered the thing another way: whilst "there was life, that is, whilst the will of God was "not declared, he thought it a duty to endeavour to "move the mercy of God by his prayers and sorrow;

but, when God's pleasure was declared, he knew it "was a duty cheerfully to yield unto it. I know, in "the 'cause of grief now before us, I am the unfittest "of any to offer comfort, which I need as much as

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any; and I know 'tis as unfit to offer to present it "to you, who, as you need it most of any, so you are "able to afford it others above any; however, this one

"consideration of David's actings I could not but lay "before you, it having proved an effectual consola❝tion to me, in the death of one I too much loved."1 The consolation it wrought in Broghill, was indeed most effectual, and lasting.

"The 22d of October (says the unjesting and "veridical Evelyn) I saw the superb funeral of the "Protector: it was the joyfullest funeral I ever saw, "for there were none that cried but dogs, which the "soldiers hooted away with a barbarous noise, drinking and taking tobacco in the streets as they "went."

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Yet, when abstracted from the usurper, and dispossessed for the moment of the demon of ambition, and of the artifice, violence, and cruelty to which it drove him, and which seared the tears of the public; he appears, like Napoleon, to have had some qualities that could attach individuals to his person, and let loose the tears of filial affection and of friendship. To his family, in all its members, he was kindly attached; and bore with singular temper the remonstrances, and even reproaches, of those amongst them who dared to profess to his face their affection for the august family which he excluded from the throne. He was the father of some estimable children, who inherited whatever good qualities he had received from nature; without any of those which overgrew and smothered them in him.

These letters of Thurloe and Broghill, are in the "Select Collection," &c., cited above, vol. i. pp. 235 and 243.

1659.

There is no period in the history of any country more embroiled with perplexity, than the year which followed Cromwell's death, and immediately preceded the Restoration of the kingdom. The cause of that perplexity, was the endeavour of those contemporary historians whose writings acquired the chief ascendency, to tell a whole story, omitting one moiety of the facts which alone can render it intelligible. As the omission was not accidental, or any result of ignorance in those historians, but proceeded from a deliberate desire to suppress the share which the navy of the parliament took in bringing about that great work, I shall, in justice to that truly patriotic service, here bring forward into prominent view all the governing facts which those writers have excluded from their records.

The absence of all regular government, after the compulsory abdication of the protectorate by Richard Cromwell, and the assumption of the power usurped by the army, which had sprung up like a hydra from the blood of their late chief, kept the country, in all its parties, in a state of ceaseless ebullition, and proportionately excited a thirst for tranquillity and repose; but, the means of obtaining that repose was not within the horizon of ordinary discernment. A general longing prevailed, that the key-stone should at length be restored to the shattered arch of the kingdom; but this was rather an ideal wish, than a

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practical counsel. Though the king himself was an object of the most earnest desire, the party of the cavaliers was an object of equal offence and dread. These wished to identify themselves with the king, but the sound bulk of the nation viewed them with a very wide distinction; indeed, a distinction as great, as between the husbandman who wishes for the sun that it may ripen his corn, and the lazzarone who wishes for it that he may bask in its beams. Every thought, therefore, that tended to the bringing back the king, was neutralised in ovo by the fear of giving triumph to an exasperated party, who might wreak and glut their vengeance on those whom they regarded as having excluded them, either from home, estate, or power. In this perplexing state of things, some sound heads were found in the nation who sought for a means of settlement that should be free from the intrigues and violences both of the cavaliers and of the army. Only one such means existed, in the nature of things, and it revealed itself to the intelligence of those gifted individuals; namely, to reduce all the authority of the state again into the hands of a legitimate parliament, from whence the regeneration of the kingdom might issue forth.

But, how was this to be effected? Four successive assemblies, assuming the name of parliaments,' had, 1 The first of these, denominated Barebone's parliament, met July 5th, and dissolved themselves Dec. 12th, 1653.

The second met September 3d, 1654, and held to January 22d following.
The third met September 17th, 1656, sat to June 26th, 1657, adjourned to
January 20th, and, after fifteen days, was dissolved February 4th, 1657-8.
The fourth was called by R. Cromwell, January 27th, 1658, and by him dis-
solved April 22d, 1659.-Notitia, &c.

indeed, been convened during the late usurpation; but all these, the principles of our ancient government repudiated, as altogether spurious in their origin and nature.

But the parliament, legally called and constituted in 1640, whilst that ancient government still subsisted, had been endued by law with continuance of existence, until it should determine its own duration by its own act. The forcible dispersion of the members of that parliament by Cromwell, first in 1648, and finally in 1653, could not affect its vital principle; and, as it had not yet determined its own duration by dissolving itself, and Cromwell's improvidence had neglected to induce it to do so, it still continued to exist. Cromwell had induced the first spurious parliament which he himself had afterwards assembled, to dissolve itself; and upon the ground of that self-dissolution, he had founded his protectorate. "Whereas (said his proclamation) the late parlia"ment dissolving themselves, and resigning their powers and authorities, the government of the "commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, by a Lord Protector, and successive triennial parliaments, is now established," &c. But with respect to the Long Parliament, whose self-dissolution was alone of legal importance, he neglected to do this; and had improvidently contented himself with driving its members from their seats, closing their house against them, and leaving them still undissolved. Hence, they laid a just claim to the continuance of their corporate existence; and when they afterwards

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