which the House of Commons voted to him a hundred pounds.

It has been observed, that Cromwell, while he resided at St Ives, continued to attend the established church; and there is evidence on record, that he was occasionally intrusted with the civil business of the parish. But it is clear, at the same time, that he was not on good terms with the clergy. He exerted all the influence which he possessed for the encouragement of fanatical lecturers, both there and at Huntingdon; and it appears that he used the power with which he was invested as one of the Committee of Religion in the Long Parliament, to persecute the regular incumbents under the most frivolous pretences. The Rev. Henry Downett, was vicar of St Ives at the period in question, who, in the year 1642, was taken into custody by the Sergeant-at-arms, for refusing to admit a factious lecturer, and forthwith sequestered. Mr Reynolds, the curate, was silenced by the same tyrannical authority, the exercise of which, on this occasion, has usually been attributed to the instigation of their late townsman, who, if he had been favourably disposed towards them, could easily have prevented so severe a punishment.* The industrious compiler of the Memoirs suspects, that by procuring complaints against them, he was the direct and immediate cause of the sufferings of these two orthodox and loyal divines. I am the more apt to believe this to be the case, says he, as Cromwell seems to have harboured revenge against such

* Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy.

as had displeased him, and taken it when he became possessed of the means; for, in 1641, he, with his relation, Mr Valentine Walton, informed the Parliament against a gentleman of Huntingdonshire, only for words which were pretended to be spoken by him, of high and dangerous consequence, for which the poor man suffered many hardships.*

Dr Harris obtained from the trustees of the British Museum permission to copy the following letter from Cromwell to his very loving friend, Mr Storie, at the Sign of the Dog, in the Royal Exchange, London. It is dated St Ives, January 11, 1635, and throws so favourable a light on the religious motives of the author, that as a contrast to the above statement, it ought not to be withheld :—

"Mr Storie, among the catalogue of those good workes which your fellowe citycenes and our cuntrie men have doun, this will not be reckoned for the least that they have provided for the feedinge of soules: buildinge of hospittals provides for mens bodyes; to build materiall temples is judged a worke of pietye; but they that procure spirituall food, they that build up spirituall temples, they are the men trulye charitable, trulye pious. Such a work as this was your erectinge the lecture in our cuntrie, in the which you placed Dr Welles, a man of goodnesse and industrie, and abilitie to do good every way: not short of any. I know in England, and I am persuaded, that sithence his cominge, the

Noble, vol. i. p. 258. Journals of the House of Commons.

Lord by him hath wrought much good amongst us. It only remains now, that he whoe first moved you to this, put you forward to the continewance therof; it was the Lord, and, therefore, to him lift we up our harts that he would perfect itt. And surely, Mr Storie, it were a piteous thinge to see a lecture fall in the hands of soe manie able and godly men, as I am perswaded the founders of this are, in theise times wherin we see they are suppressed with too much hast and violence by the enemies of God his truth; far be it that so much guilt should sticke to your hands, who live in a citye so renowned for the clere shininge light of the gospell. You know, Mr Storie, to withdrawe the pay is to lett fall the lecture, for whoe goeth à warefare on his own cost? I beseech you, therefore, in the bowells of Jesus Christ, putt it forward, and let the good man have his pay. The soules of God his children will bless for it, and soe shall I ; and ever rest, your lovinge servant in the Lord,

you

"OLIVER CROMWELL."

The estates to which the nephew of Sir Thomas Steward succeeded, were certainly far from being inconsiderable, although they consisted rather of long leases and tithes held under the Dean and Chapter, than of any very extensive freehold or independent possession. It was in the year 1636 that he removed thither; and the auspices under which he commenced his new career promised to him ample and uninterrupted success. The clergy, willing, perhaps, to purchase his friendship, renewed the greater part of his leases for twenty-one years, and ap

pointed him to several important trusts, as a freeman in the Episcopal city. But Cromwell, stimulated by an ambition which rendered him discontented, and being, at the same time, the victim of extravagance or thoughtlessness in the management of his private affairs, could find no happiness in the peaceful retreat to which his good fortune had conducted him.

It was in the course of the following year that Oliver, despairing of his fortunes in England, or indignant at the tyranny which, according to his views, prevailed both in Church and State, resolved to quit his native land, and accompany his cousin Hampden and other adventurers in a voyage to America. The settlements in the new world, which were fast increasing in popu lation and wealth, presented a desirable asylum to those who thirsted for greater liberty than could at that time be enjoyed in the British islands. Lord Warwick had obtained a grant of the sea coast of New England, extending from Naraganset river a hundred and twenty miles towards the south-west, which he assigned in 1631 to several noblemen and commoners, among whom were Nathaniel Rich, Pym, and John Hampden; forbidding all colonization along this particular tract, until his political friends should be supplied with lands. The government, actuated by that absurd policy which appeared in almost all its public deeds meant to check the rising spirit of the people, issued a proclamation, prohibiting every one from leaving the country who had not obtained a royal license. This being found insufficient, an order in council was set forth, commanding the Lord Treasurer "to take speedy and effec

tual course for the stay of eight ships, then inTM the river of Thames, prepared to go to New England, and for putting on land all the passengers and provisions therein intended for the voyage." In these vessels were embarked Sir Arthur Hazelrig, Hampden, Pym, and Oliver Cromwell. It has been well observed, that the King had afterwards full leisure to repent this exercise of his authority!

Disappointed in the relief which he had expected to find in a foreign land, he returned to Ely a prey to melancholy and the most violent fanaticism. Sir Philip Warwick relates, on the authority of Dr Simcott, who was Cromwell's physician, that "his patient was a most splenetic man, and had fancies about the cross which stood in the town, and that he had been called up to him at midnight and such unseasonable hours, very many times, upon a strong fancy which made him believe he was then dying." The letter already quoted, addressed to Mrs St John, was written at this period, and expresses the strong feeling of remorse and self-abasement with which he was then agitated. Nor were his views of the future more cheerful than his retrospect of the past. He brooded over the evils which his diseased imagination created, and saw no recovery for his affairs spiritual or temporal in the distant perspective which opened up before him.

His active mind, however, soon afterwards found a more congenial employment, in opposing a measure patronised by the Crown, and universally regarded as fraught with the greatest advantage both to the public and to the individual proprietors. A scheme had been pro