OLIVER CROMWELL,

after he had run through his youthful career of amusement and diffipation, became fo hypochondriacal, that he ufed occafionally to have his physician called up in the middle of the night to attend him, as he imagined himself to be dying. In one of these fits of melancholy he is faid to have seen a gigantic female figure, that told him he fhould be a King.

Sir Philip Warwick thus defcribes Oliver Cromwell:

"The first time that I ever took notice of him "was in the very beginning of the Parliament "held in November 1640. I perceived a gen"tleman fpeaking, whom I knew not, very or"dinarily apparelled; for it was a plain cloth "fuit, which feemed to have been made by an "ill country taylor. His linen was plain, and "not very clean, and I remember a fpeck or "two of blood upon his little band, which was

not much larger than his collar: his hat was "without a hat-band.---His ftature was of a good "fize; his fword stuck close to his fide; his

countenance fwoln and reddifh; his voice "fharp and untunable, and his eloquence full "of fervor, for the fubject-matter would not "bear

"bear much of reason, it being in behalf of a "servant of Mr. Prynne's who had dispersed "libels against the Queen for her dancing, and "fuch like innocent and courtly fports; and he "aggravated the imprisonment of this man by "the Council-table unto that length, that one "would have believed that the very govern"ment itself had been in great danger by it. I "fincerely profess it leffened very my re"verence for that great Council, for he was cc very much hearkened unto. And yet I lived "to fee this very Gentleman whom (out of no "ill-will to him) I thus defcribe, by multiplied

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much

fucceffes, and by real but ufurped power, having had a better taylor, and more converse "amongst good company, in mine own eye,

when, for fix weeks together, I was a pri"foner at Whitehall, appear of a great and ma"jestic deportment and comely presence.

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"The first years," adds Sir Philip, "Cromwell's manhood were spent in a diffolute "courfe of life, in good fellowfhip and gaming, "which afterwards he feemed very fenfible of, "and very forry for; and as if it had been a "good spirit that had guided him therein, he "ufed a good method upon his converfion; for " he declared that he was ready to make resti"tution unto any man who would accufe him, or whom he could accufe himself to have

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"wronged.

"wronged. (To his honour I fpeak this," con tinues Sir Philip; "for I think the public acknowledgments men make of the public evils they have done, to be the moft glorious trophies that can be affigned to them.) When " he was thus civilized, he joined himself to men "of his own temper, who pretended to transports "and revelations."

Lord Hollis, in his Memoirs, accufes Cromwell of behaving cowardly in two or three actions; and adds, that as he was going in proceffion to the High Court of Juftice in Westminster-hall, to try the King, fome of the foldiers reproached him openly, and in the hearing of the people, with want of courage.

Oliver's fpeeches to his Parliament appear perplexed and embarraffed. He had, most probably, his reafons for making them unintelligible.

Mr. Spence, in his MS. Anecdotes, fays, that a Dean of Peterborough told him, that he once heard Cromwell, in Council, deliver an opinion upon fome commercial matter with great precifion, and great knowledge of the subject *.

"Anecdotes by the Rev. Mr. Spence," (Author of Polymetis,) in MS. which contain feveral very curious particulars of the great men of the laft and of the prefent age. The publication of them would afford great inftruction and amusement to the lovers of the history and literature of this country.

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In his cheerful hours Cromwell appears to have laughed at the fanatics who supported him and his government. The jeft of the cork-fcrew is well known; and when, on his having dispatched a fleet upon fome fecret expedition, one of the fanatics called upon him, and had the impudence to tell him that the Lord wanted to know the destination of it; "The Lord fhall know," fays Cromwell," for thou fhalt go with the fleet." So ringing his bell, he ordered fome of his foldiers to take him on board one of the fhips belonging to it.

Cromwell, like many other reformers of government, was very apt to cenfure grievances in Church and State, though he had not framed to himself any particular or specific plan of amending them. On the fubject of ecclefiaftical affairs he once frankly and ingenuously faid, to fome perfons with whom he was difputing, "I can tell "what I would not have, though I cannot tell "what I would have."

Cromwell, like fome other politicians, thought very flightingly of the will and of the power of the people; for when he was told by Mr. Calamy, the celebrated Diffenting Minifter, that it was both unlawful and impracticable that one man fhould affume the government of the country,

*

he faid to him, " Pray, why is it impracticable?" And on Mr. Calamy replying, " O, it is the "voice of the Nation; there will be nine in ten

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against you:”—“ Very well," rejoined Cromwell; but what if I fhould difarm the nine, "and put the fword into the tenth man's hand, "would not that do the business?" The French proverb fays, "A man never goes fo far as "when he does not know where he is going." This was, moft probably, Cromwell's cafe: he had, indeed, gone fo far, that, with Macbeth, he might have faid,

Returning were as tedious as go o'er.

Marshal Villeroy, Louis the XIVth's Governor, afked Lockhart, Cromwell's Ambassador, "Why "his mafter had not taken the title of King?"— "Monfieur," replied Lockhart, "we know the "extent of the prerogatives of a King, but know "not thofe of a Protector."-D'ARGENSON, P. 347.

Oliver's fears for his perfonal fafety carried him on in his career of wickedness when once he had begun it, and particularly when he found that he could not truft the affurances of his Sovereign. The latter part of his life was embittered by fear and remorfe, and after the publication of that celebrated work "Killing no "Murder,"