"were no witneffes to it but Thurloe and "Goodwin. Some did fearfully flatter him as "much dead as living. Goodwin, at the Fast "before his death, in his prayer is faid to have

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spoke fuch words: Lord, we pray not for thy "fervant's life, for we know that is granted, but "to haften his health, for that thy people cannot And Mr. Sterry faid in the chapel, after " his death, O Lord, thy late fervant here is "now at thy right hand, making interceffion for "the fins of England.---Both these are now out "of favour, as Court 'parafites. But the most fpake, and yet fpeak, very evil of him; and, "as I think, much worse than he deferved of " them."

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RICHARD CROMWELL,

Is faid to have fallen at the feet of his father, Oliver Cromwell, to beg the life of his Savereign Charles the Firft. In the fame fpirit of humanity, when Colonel Howard told him, on his father's death, that nothing but vigorous and violent measures could fecure the Protectorate to him, and that he should run no rifk, for that he himself (Howard) would be anfwer

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able for the confequences; Richard replied, Everyone shall fee that I will do nobody any "harm: I never have done any, nor ever will. "I fhall be much troubled if anyone is injured "on my account; and instead of taking away "the life of the leaft perfon in the nation for "the preservation of my greatness, (which is a "burthen to me,) I would not have one drop of "blood fpilt."

Richard, on his difmiffion from the Protectorate, refided fome time at Pezenas, in Languedoc, and afterwards went to Geneva. Some time in the year 1680 he returned to England, and refided at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire.

In 1705 he loft his only fon, and became in right of him poffeffed of the manor of Horfley, which had belonged to his mother. Richard, then in a very advanced age, fent one of his daughters to take poffeffion of the eftate for him. She kept it for herself and her fifters, allowing her father only a small annuity out of it, till fhe was difpoffeffed of it by a fentence of one of the Courts of Westminster-hall. It was requifite for this purpofe that Richard fhould appear: in perfon; and the Judge who prefided, tradition fays, was the elegant and eloquent Lord Chancellor Cowper, who ordered a chair for him in court, and defired him to keep on kis hat.

As he was returning from this trial, curiofity led him to fee the Houfe of Peers, when being asked by a person, to whom he was a stranger, if he had ever seen anything like it before; he replied, pointing to the throne, "Never, fince I fat in that "chair."

Richard Cromwell enjoyed a good state of health to the age of eighty-fix, and died in the year 1712. He had taken, on his return to England, the name of Richard Clark.

SIR HENRY VANE, JUN..

THERE feems never, in the Hiftory of Mankind, to have been a more complicated character than that of Sir Henry Vane, fo fagacious and refolute as to daunt and intimidate even Cromwell himself, yet fo vifionary and fo feeble-minded as to be a Seeker and Millennift. His fpeech refpecting Richard Cromwell is a mafter-piece of good fenfe and of eloquence. His writings on religious fubjects are beneath contempt. His behaviour on the fcaffold was dignified and noble, and he appears to have been executed contrary to the word of his Sovereign.

The

The following Letter addreffed to Lord Claren

don is printed in Harris's" Life of Charles the "Second."

The relation that has been made to me of Sir Henry Vane's carriage yesterday in the Hall*, is the occafion of this letter, which (if "I am rightly informed) was fo infolent, as to justify all he had done, acknowledging no fu

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preme power in England but a Parliament, and "many things to that purpose. You have had a "true account of all, and if he has given new oc"cafion to be hanged, certaynlye he is too danger

ous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him "out of the way. Think of this, and give me fome "accounte of it to-morrowe, 'till when I have no

Sir Henry opposed the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell, in the following fhort and impreffive fpeech in the Houfe of Commons:

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"One would (faid he) bear a little with Oliver Cromwell, though, contrary to his oath of fidelity to the Parliament, contrary to his duty "to the public, contrary to the refpect he owed "that venerable body from whom he received

• Westminster-Hall,

"his authority, he ufurped the goverment. "His merit was fo extraordinary, that our judg"ments, our paffions, might be blinded by it. "He made his way to empire by the most illuf"trious actions. He had under his command "an army that had made him Conqueror, and "a people that had made him their General. "But as for Richard Cromwell his fon, Who is "he? What are his titles? We have seen that " he had a fword by his fide, but, Did he ever "draw it? and, what is of much more import"ance in this cafe, Is he fit to get obedience "from a mighty nation who could never make "a footman obey him? Yet this man we must recognize under the title of Protector; a man without worth, without courage, and without "conduct. For my part, Mr. Speaker, it fhall "never be faid that I made fuch a man my "mafter."

Provoft Baillie, in one of his letters to his wife in Scotland, thus defcribes Cromwell and Sir Henry Vane:

"They be of nimble hot fancies for to put all "in confufion, but not of any deep reach. St. John and Pierpont are more stayed, but not great heads. Say and his fon not-albeit wiser, "yet of fo dull, four, and fearful a tempera"ment, that no great atchievement in reafon "could be expected from them. The reft, "either

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