don and by many other persons of quality, who all expressed their own and the nation's great obligations to him. The speaker in an elegant speech gave him the thanks of the house.

In the spring of this year (1650) Montrose, the precursor of Prince Charles or King Charles II., crossed from the Continent over to the Orkneys, with a few hundred foreign soldiers. In a short time he disembarked on the shores of Caithness, with the design of penetrating into the Highlands, and calling his former followers to his standard. But Montrose was a royalist such as the Presbyterian royalists could not tolerate; the committee of estates were well prepared, and Strachan, their general, surprised and thoroughly defeated the Marquis just as he had advanced beyond the pass of Invercarron. Montrose fled from this his last fight, leaving his cloak and star, his sword, and the garter with which he had been lately invested, behind him. An old friend with whom he sought refuge basely betrayed him to the Covenanters, who bound him with ropes, carried him to Edinburgh, and there, in virtue of a former attainder, hanged him on a gallows thirty feet high. Such was the wretched end of Montrose, in the 38th year of his age, in the middle of the month of May.

Charles II. landed in the Frith of Cromarty about a month after Montrose was hanged, being constrained to swallow the Covenant as best he could ere he was allowed to set foot on shore, and was joined by the Presbyterian Covenanting army. But he was allowed small time to recruit that army or to do anything else. By the 29th of June Cromwell had left London and was on his march to the Borders, having, three days before, been appointed commander-in-chief of all the forces of the Commonwealth. On the 22d of July, having concentrated his troops on the Borders, he crossed them and marched into Scotland. The whole country between Berwick and Edinburgh had been swept as with a broom; nothing was left that could yield any comfort or succour to the invaders. He advanced to Dunbar, where he received provisions from English ships. He then proceeded to Haddington, and from Haddington to Edinburgh. He ᎦᎸᎳ

no

1 The political principles of the Scotch Presbyterians at this time may be learned from Dr. Douglas's sermon at the coronation of Charles II., at Scone, on the 1st of January, 1651:-"It is clear from this Covenant that a king hath not absolute power to do what he pleaseth; he is tied to the conditions by virtue of a covenant. It is clear from this Covenant that a people are bound to obey a king in the Lord; that the king's power is not absolute, as flattering courtiers apprehend; it is subject to a threefold limitation:-1. In respect of subordination. There is a power above him, even God's power, whom he is bound to obey, and to whom he must give an account of his administration. Kings not only have their crowns from God, but must reign according to his will. He is called the minister of God, he is God's servant. 2. In regard of laws; a king is sworn at his coronation to rule according to the standing received laws of

troops on his way, and none would come out from Edinburgh to meet him. Want of provisions, and a sickness which had broken out in his army, compelled him to retreat for Dunbar. The Scots then sallied from their capital, and some of them did not a little mischief to Cromwell's rear. He, however, reached Dunbar, and having shipped his heavy baggage and his sick men, he designed to return into England. But David Leslie and the army of the kirk had gotten between Dunbar and Berwick, and possessed themselves of all the hills and passes. He had only 12,000 men, while Leslie had 27,000. It was Sunday, the 31st of August, when Cromwell drew up on the fields and braes near Dunbar, to gaze at the still increasing numbers and the formidable positions of Leslie's host. Nothing was done that day, but, on the Monday morning, the Scots, urged on it is said by their impatient preachers, who proved by Scripture that their victory was certain, drew down part of their army and their train of artillery towards the foot of the hills; and then Cromwell, who had ever as much Scripture at command as any Presbyterian preacher of them all, exclaimed joyously, “The Lord hath' delivered them into our hands." At an opportune moment a thick mist was dispersed by the rising sun. Cromwell shouted to his Ironsides, "Now let God arise, and his enemies shall be scattered!" And before the sun was much higher the army of the kirk was scattered, with the tremendous loss of 4000 slain and 10,000 prisoners. | The conqueror ordered the 107th Psalm to be sung on the field, and then marched again to Edinburgh, which threw wide its gates at his approach.

Glasgow followed the example; and the whole of the south of Scotland quietly submitted. The young king fled towards the Highlands, with the intention of quitting Scotland, or at least the Covenanters, for ever; but the chiefs of that party made him stay, and prepared to crown him at Scone.'

A.D. 1651.

But while Cromwell was besieging Edinburgh Castle, disputing upon points of theology with the Presbyterian preachers, and suffering from a fit of the ague, Charles collected another army, and took up a

the kingdom. 3. In regard of government; the total government is not upon the king. He hath counsellors, a parliament, or estates in the land, who share in the burthen of government. No king should have the sole government; it was never the mind of those who received a king to rule them, to lay all government upon him to do what he pleaseth without control." On the delicate point of a king abusing his power, he says:"A king abusing his power, to the overthrow of religion, laws, and liberties, which are the very fundamentals of this contract and covenant, may be controulled and opposed; and if he set himself to overthrow all by arms, then they who have power as the estates of the land, may and ought to resist by arms, because he doth, by that opposition, break the very bonds, and overthrow all the essentials of this contract and covenant He then inculcates the duties of the subject with equal faithfulness.

shelter and concealment. This the Earl of Derby, one of the fugitives, assured them could be found at Boscobel House,' between Tong Castle and Brewood, a mansion belonging to Papists, and abounding in hiding-places where he had himself

BOSCOBEL HOUSE.-From a view by J. Walker.

been harboured in his flight from Wigan to Worcester. In their route, they passed through the town of Stourbridge, conversing in French, that they might be mistaken for foreigners; but after a ride of twenty-six miles north from Worcester, they thought it more prudent to halt for the night at a house called White - Ladies, once a convent of Cistercian nuns, within half a mile of Boscobel. Here, Lord Derby sent for William Penderill, the servant in charge of Boscobel House, who came, accompanied by his brother, Richard Penderill, and to their tried fidelity as guides the king was committed, while the company endeavoured to protect his flight from the parliamentary troopers, who were soon upon his track, in which resistance several of the king's escort were slain, and others taken prisoners. In the meantime, Charles, accompanied by Lord Wilmot and the Penderills, had removed himself from immediate danger.

The romantic escape of the king, his wanderings from place to place, the disguises he assumed and the shifts he adopted, with the thousandand-one chances of detection and apprehension which he daily and hourly underwent, form altogether one of the most interesting episodes of English history, and are only to be paralleled by the adventures of the last representative of the Stuart dynasty, Charles-Edward, the Young Chevalier. His first places of concealment were in the woods near Boscobel, and afterwards in the mansion itself, until he was obliged to adopt 1 So called from bosco bello, or "fair wood," because it stood in a beautiful grove, by which it was almost concealed.

a wider circuit. On one occasion, the night was so dark that he could not see his guide, and was obliged to direct his course by the rustling of the calf-skin breeches which the peasant fortunately wore. He spent a whole day in an oak, ac

commodated with a pillow and some scanty fare, while the rustics hovered about in its neighbourhood, ready to advertise him of danger. When victuals failed, he was obliged to become a sheep-stealer, and help himself to collops that were supplied from a neighbouring flock. But although many were acquainted with his places of concealment, while a reward of £1000 was offered for his apprehension, no one could be found to betray him. His aim was to escape to France; but in consequence of the proclamations denouncing all who aided him, no master of a vessel would take any person on board unless he certainly knew beforehand that he was not the king. At last, after eight weeks had been spent in this critical life of dangers expedients, he was enabled to embark at Brighthelmstone in Sussex, at the end of October, and reach Dieppe in safety; after which, he was received by the French king at Paris with every expression of sympathy and regard.

and

Cromwell was met, at his approach to London, by the speaker, by the whole parliament, by the lord-mayor and aldermen, and by an immense concourse of people. The royal palace of Hampton Court was prepared for his reception; and shortly after, an estate worth £4000 a-year was voted to him. As he had left Ireton to complete the settlement of Ireland, so-had he left General Monk, who enjoyed an unusual degree of his favour, to reduce the king's party in Scotland; and both these generals were successful. Both Scotland and Ireland were speedily incorporated, by mutual acts, with the English Commonwealth, and all signs of royalty were effaced in those countries.

Ever since the unavenged massacre at Amboyna, the English sailors and people had borne great ill-will to the Dutch. Moreover, the government of the United Provinces had treated the new Euglish Commonwealth with marked disrespect. On their side the Commonwealth men had passed the memorable Navigation act, which established as national law, that no goods from any quarter beyond Europe should be imported into England except by vessels belonging to England or to English colonies; and that no production of Europe should be imported except by English ships, or ships belonging to the | country which furnished the production. This

deadly blow was aimed at the carrying trade of the Dutch, one of the most fruitful sources of their commercial prosperity. There were many other grounds of quarrel between the two commonwealths, and a collision was inevitable. Van Tromp, the best of the Dutch admirals, sailed up the Channel with forty sail. Blake was in

ADMIRAL BLAKE.- From a print by T. Preston.

the Downs with only twenty sail, but he insisted that the Dutch should strike their top-masts to his flag, in acknowledgment of the old sovereignty of England over the narrow seas. Van Tromp refused, and kept his course. When he came abreast of him Blake fired a gun at the

1 "At sea the parliament felt,its strength, and had made it felt; its flag floated proudly on the breeze-feared by its enemies and respected by its rivals. But its success and skill, in matters of foreign policy, extended only thus far: though in its maritime affairs it displayed great ability and energy, in its diplomatic relations and undertakings it was equally deficient in sagacity and good sense, in moderation and firmness. It was in presence of two powers, in eager rivalry with each other, but placed in very different positions, and animated by very different tendencies. Spain, still glorying in her recent greatness, which Europe had not yet ceased to dread, was rapidly declining; the empire of Germany belonged to her no longer; notwithstanding protracted and sanguinary efforts, she had lost the United Provinces; her dominion in Italy was limited; a conspiracy had in one day robbed her of Portugal; afar off, and in the New World only, her possessions continued immense; she was, to use the pithy expression of Sully, 'one of those states which have strong arms and legs, but a weak and debilitated heart.' Amid the splendour of its court, and the pomposity of its language, the Spanish government felt itself really weak, and sought to conceal its weakness by immobility. Philip IV. and Don Luis de Haro, both of them sensible and moderate men-the one from idleness, the other from prudence-and tired of conflicts which resulted only in defeat, aspired solely to the security of peace, and devoted their utmost care to avoiding all questions and circumstances which would have imposed upon them efforts of which they felt themselves incapable. Divided and enervated, the house of Austria retained perhaps less ambition than power, and, except in cases of absolute necessity, pompous inertness was the policy of the successors of Charles V.

Dutch flag: Van Tromp replied by pouring a whole broadside into Blake. Then the action commenced in earnest. It lasted from three o'clock in the afternoon till nightfall, when the Dutch sheered off, with the loss of two ships. This was on the 19th of May, 1652. On the 19th of July the English parliament put forth an open and spirited declaration of war. The English seamen supported the honour of their new flag in many obstinate and sanguinary engagements. Blake was a second Drake. On the 29th of November, when he had been obliged to divide his fleet, and when he had only thirty-seven ships with him, Van Tromp faced him in the Downs with eighty men-of-war, and ten fire-ships. The battle lasted from ten in the morning till six at night, when darkness put an end to it. The Dutch had taken a frigate, had burned another, and had sunk three more; but one of their flagships had been blown up, and the ships of Van Tromp and De Ruyter greatly damaged. Van Tromp claimed the victory, and clapped a broom to his mast-head to intimate that he meant to sweep the English navy from the seas.'

On the 18th of February, Blake A.D. 1653. again brought Van Tromp to action in the Channel. They fought nearly the whole of that day-they renewed the fight on the morrow they fought again the day after that. At the end of this three days' fight the English admiral had taken or destroyed eleven ships of war and thirty merchantmen. Upon the return of the humbled Van Tromp, the common people in the Dutch provinces fell all into uproar and tumult.

"France, and the house of Bourbon, on the contrary, were advancing together with bold and rapid progress; a potent spirit of activity and ambition animated both the counsels of the crown and the various classes of citizens; a taste for great designs and striking enterprises everywhere prevailed, without any fear of the labours and responsibilities which they entail. Thus, notwithstanding civil dissensions and fruitless endeavours after political liberty, the state grew stronger and more extended; the national unity and the royal authority received simultaneous development. No less persevering than supple, a conqueror and a fugitive by turns, but always a favourite and premier-minister, whether in exile or at Paris, Mazarin continued the work of Henry IV. and of Richelieu, through alternations of success and failure, in war and at court. Government and country displayed simultaneously the characteristics of youth and age, were guided by powerful traditions in the midst of a movement entirely new, and yet were replete with vigour and athirst for greatness.

"Between these two powers England might either have chosen an ally at her will, or have firmly held the balance: notwithstanding their repugnance to the regicide Commonwealth, so violent were their jealousy and dread of each other, that all other feelings became subordinated to the desire that each felt to deprive the other of so important a stay. The republican parliament adopted neither of these courses; imperfectly appreciating the real strength and future prospects of the two powers, and swayed by old habits of routine, it remained wavering but not impartial between Spain and France-affecting neutrality without knowing how either to abandon it opportunely or to maintain it honourably."-Guizot, History of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth.