No. II. The fubstance of Cromwell's first conference with the Boks Doncerning fettling sand 731488 A the nation, 234 No. II. A remarkable conference between General Cromwell and sŸbitelock on sherfame fubject, 236 No. IV. LifeILDEN FOODfTropfentatives chofen in Cromwell'saft parliament for the counties, cities, and boroughs, 242 No. V. A debate between the committee of the House of Commons in 1657, and O. Cromwell, upon the humble petition and advice of Parliament, by which she was defired to affume the title of King, No. VI. Poems on Oliver Cromwell, by Mr Waller, Mr Dryden, Mr Sprat, Mr Locke, &c. 1. A panegyric on Oliver Cromwell, by Edward Waller, Efq; 244 276 2. A war with Spain, and fight at fea, by Mr Waller, 281 3. To Oliver Cromwell, by Mr John Locke, 284 4. Heroic ftanzas on Oliver Cromwell, written after his death by Mr Dryden, ib. 5. To the memory of the Protector Oliver Cromwell, by Mr Sprat, 288 6. Upon the late ftorm, and the Protector's death, by Mr Waller, 298 7. In obitum feriniffimi domini, Olivarii Cromwelli, hujus, reipublicæ Protectoris, 299 No. VII. Subitance of a panegyric of the Lord-general Oliver Cromwell, as prefented to him by the Portugefe ambaffador Don John Roderiguez de Saa Meneles, Conde de Feneguaia. Written in Latin, as pretended, by a learned Jefuit, his Excellency's chaplain; but, as more probably fuppofed, by the celebrated Mr John Milton, Latin fecretary to O. Cromwell, 500 Reflections on party prejudices. Effects of them with regard to the parties concerned in the troubles of King Charles. CROMWELL'S defcens, alliances, and firft advances to popularity; with a view of the motives to the civil war, and the fentiments of Mr Locke and a British parliament concerning refiftance. * UBLIC heats and animofities are very aptly compared, by an author of the first reputation, to the heat contracted by a comet, in its approach to the fun. When a people have been fo unhappy as to fall into them, it is long before they recover their natural temper. We cannot judge, with any certainty, either of the merits of a caufe, or of the perfons engaged in it, from the reprefentations of authors, who write while that fervour continues, by which themfelves have been generally affected. Hence it is, that the characters of men who act in a high capacity, are feldom impartially drawn till a long time after their fphere of action is over, especially by writers of their own country. Former concurrence and prefent appro A * Mr Addison, in the Spectator. bation on the one hand; contracted prejudice and inveterate enmity on the other; opinion, intereft, and the remains of paffion on both, make it a task impoffible, at least too difficult for human nature in general, to enter fincerely on the matter in question. Affection rifes into reverence, refentment dwindles into contempt, and hiftories of the times immediately paft are ufually either panegyric or fatire. The common people receive the impreffions made by the party which fucceeds in power, and even reafon and experience are found too weak, till after many years, to make things appear in their genuine light." From thefe confiderations, which have the experience of all ages to fupport them, we may account for the different pictures that are left us, of men who acted on the fame principles, and with the fame views; nay more, we may learn, why the villain in defign, who has profpered, has been called the father of his country, and the unprofperous hero and patriot neglected or martyred. How many brave and virtuous perfons, who boldly contended for the liberties of their fellowcitizens, have been branded with public infamy, and fuffered as rebels and traitors, only because they have not fucceeded in attempts, which would otherwife have crowned them with immortal honour? How many enemies of public liberty, who had nothing in view but the gratification of their own ambition, and no pretence to fuperiority but from their wealth and influence, have been complimented by thofe very people, whose rights they had invaded and fubverted, with pompous titles and extravagant conceffions; which have afterwards, by their defcendants, been made the foundation of another fort of claim; that of divine appointment, and hereditary, indefeafible right? It is true, future ages generally do juftice to particular merit, where the traces of it are by any means preferved. But when it has been fashionable, for whole centuries together, to infult the memory of any great perfon, it will not be eafy for the moft impartial writer, who can have only fuch partial materials, to draw a picture worthy the original. It is therefore neceffary, that we should be as careful as poffible in preferving fuch lineaments of public characters, while they can be known, as may enable posterity to imitate the whole features, when truth shall venture to appear, and party and prejudice are no more. The revolutions in England, between the years 1640 and 1660, which, indeed, can hardly be paralleled in history, have been the fource of more virulent parties than any other circumftance in our chronicle. We need not wonder, if we are fenfible of these divifions, even at the distance of fourfcore years. We need not wonder, if the leading men on the country-fide, though in reality perfons of great abilities and fortune, were reprefented as a fet of hypocritical fcoundrels and blind enthufiafts, by the partizans of King Charles II. after that prince was restored to the dignity which he thought his natural inheritance, but which he had long been deprived of by the prevailing party. And, as the notions of divine right, and abfolute unlimited power, were afterwards carried to a great height during his and his brother's reign, by the court and the corrupt part of the clergy, it is not ftrange, that the friends of liberty fhould fall into contempt, and be ftigmatized as fo many enemies to government; that all the mischiefs of a civil war, which a weak and misguided king had been led into by his ambitious minifters, fhould be charged on thofe principles which alone could preferve a harmony between the fovereign and his people. And while the accufation ran thus high in general; it was not likely that particular characters fhould efcape. Thofe, efpecially, who had been any way concerned in the adminiftration of affairs during the king's exile, were to be ftript of every human virtue, and made to appear worse than cannibals. Their fobriety, tempe rance, juftice, moderation, piety, were to be reprefented only as hypocrify and affectation. Oliver Cromwell, to be fure, muft ftand foremoft in the black lift. It was not enough to call him ufurper, tyrant, traitor; but even those very perfonal qualities, which enabled him to affume and fupport the first character in the age, were to be rendered ridiculous and contemptible, as well as odious. A very odd method of procedure this to perfuade us that a man, without the capacity requifite in a common juftice of peace, fhould be, not only too hard for the whole royal family, but even for his own mafters, and all the minifters and crowned heads with whom he had any thing to do: That a man without principle, or whofe ftanding principle was no better than this*, "that moral laws are binding only on ordinary occafions," fhould be more exact and circumfpect in the adminiftration of juftice than any fovereign who had gone before him; fhould feek out capable and worthy men for all employments, more efpecially for thofe of the law, fo as to give a general fatisfaction. Yet all this, however, we have been taught to believe. Cromwell, it feems, was poffeffed of no real virtues, either civil or military; yet acted more like a perfon poffeffed of them all, than almost other we can meet with in our ancient chronicles. But facts are very ftubborn things, and it is vain to refift their evidence. The moft prejudiced hiftorians on the other fide, have related fuch actions of our British hero, as fhew their characters of him to be partially drawn; nay, even in the pictures of their own invention, they have not been able to avoid fome lineaments that contradict the general idea they give of him, and fhew him to be another fort of a man than they are willing we fhould believe. The prefent age begins to fee through all this, and the name of Cromwell is now thought no difhonour to the English nation. At this favourable juncture, therefore, when there are not wanting those who with our public conduct, in particular with regard to a certain haughty, though contemptible people, were copied from that of this great man, I fhall venture to draw together fuch paffages of his life, and range them under proper heads, * Burnet's history. any |