XVII. If the instruction of great masters was capable of making a man a
politician, Richard Cromwel, the son of Oliver, should have been one
of the greatest the world ever produced. The same Oliver, who after the
tragical death of Charles the First of England, which he had a principal
hand in accomplishing, erected himself into the tyrant of that kingdom,
under the title of a Protector; and without doubt, Cromwel the father
was one of the most able politicians which either that, or any other age
had ever seen. His industry and his valour, raised him from a middling
station of life, to the highest degree of military and magisterial rank.
His address and resolution, enabled him to accomplish that unexampled
attempt, of trying, and with all the formality of a legal process,
condemning his own Sovereign to an ignominious death. When the King
was dispatched, he abolished the house of Lords, and vested the whole
authority of parliament in the Commons; whom he afterwards divested
of all their power, by driving the members when they were assembled,
ignominiously out of their house; and as a testimony of the arbitrary
authority with which he acted, and to shew that was not a transitory
expulsion, he caused a board to be nailed on the outside of the door, on
which was the following inscription, _This house to be let_. In fine, he
ruled that kingdom to his last gasp, with a more absolute sway, than any
King who had ever gone before, or since his time has succeeded to the
throne; bringing about, that a parliament being convened by himself for
the purpose, should declare the title and office of Protector hereditary
in his family. All this he executed in a nation, so fierce and zealous
of their liberties as the English, which is the clearest proof that can
be given, of his supreme political abilities. In reality, I am disposed
to believe all circumstances considered, that there never to this day,
has appeared a man, who did so much, or has shewed so many, and so great
marks of political ability, as Oliver Cromwel.
XVIII. In the school of this great man, his son Richard was tutored
many years, and not only with instructions purely theoretical or
verbal, but practical and executive. He saw all the movements, and
various expedients, which his father exerted and played off, according
to the various exigencies of his affairs; neither was the reason of
proportioning these means, to attain particular ends, concealed from him.
And of what use was all this to the disciple? Of none, because instead
of teaching him how to acquire something more than he possessed, it
did not so much as instruct him how to preserve that which his father
had left him firmly established in; and before a year had passed over
his head after his father’s death, notwithstanding it had been secured
to him by act of parliament, he found himself deposed from the rank
of Protector, and obliged to live retired like a private gentleman, in
a country house. If within the same kingdom, and negotiating with the
same people, and in the same situation of affairs, where the views were
directed to the same objects, all the lessons both of theory and practice
which he had received from his father, were unprofitable to this man, who
did not retain one political arcanum, of the great number that had been
communicated to him from the vast fund of knowledge and penetration of so
able a master; and if a school of politics so circumstanced, was of no
use to him who studied in it for so many years, what occasion have we to
expect, that by the simple reading of books, a man should ever attain the
art, of skilfully directing the business of a state?
XIX. Nor is there any reason to suppose, that Richard was a stupid man,
and totally incapable of receiving instruction; for nobody has described
him as such; nor is it credible, if he had been such a sort of person,
that the English would have permitted him to have continued with the
rank of Protector as the successor to his father, for the little time
he enjoyed it. The truth is, that he was much inferior to his father
in natural talents; and that no political instructions were capable
of supplying this defect. Oliver was not only a man of great capacity,
but of a genius that was apt and suitable to every thing, and equally
understood how to command an army, or to direct a state. Over and above
this, he was magnanimous, and possessed a stout heart. There was not
known a more courageous soldier, in the age in which he lived. When
the town of Hull was besieged by King Charles, and in a weak state of
defence, Oliver at the head of only twelve horsemen, threw himself into
the place, by breaking through the centre of the royal army, exposed
to the fire of showers of bullets; and the preservation of the town,
was owing to the many prodigies of valour which Oliver exerted in its
defence. In one of the battles in which he was engaged, he took with his
own hands, two standards of cavalry, and the colours of a regiment of
infantry. In another battle, where one wing of the parliament army was
totally routed, and the Earl of Manchester the general put to flight,
Oliver, without giving himself scarce time to have a dangerous wound
he had received in the battle bound up, flew to stop the earl and the
fugitive troops, on whom his ardour and eloquence had so much weight,
that they returned with him to the charge, and intirely put to flight and
dispersed the royal army. These and other acts of extraordinary valour,
joined to the many victories he obtained by dint of his intrepid courage,
gained him the respect and esteem of the English, who are naturally
enamoured with bravery, and idolizers of military glory.
XX. To these great talents, Oliver added the lure of hypocrisy, which
has vast influence on the populace. At the same time that he was bathing
his hands in the blood of Great Britain, and striving to dethrone his
legitimate prince, in order to usurp the sovereign power, the name of God
was constantly in his mouth; who he endeavoured to make it believed, was
the especial director of his conduct, and that he himself was nothing
more than an instrument, who in obedience to the divine will, executed
the decrees of heaven for the public good, and to advance the prosperity
of the kingdom.
XXI. These good and bad qualities, were united in Oliver Cromwel, and all
conspired, to enable him to deprive a powerful monarch of his crown and
life, and to overturn a great state. But of what advantage was it to his
son Richard, to hear his father’s lessons, and to see these examples, if
he did not inherit his father’s talents?
XXII. I am already aware, that there will be some, who will be prepared
to urge as an excuse for Richard, the apology which Dionysius the
younger made for himself; who, when he was asked, how it came to pass
that his father from being a private man, acquired the principality of
Sicily, and that he who succeeded to him as a prince, found himself
reduced to live as a common subject; replied, my father left me his
crown, but did not leave me heir to his fortune. But with all this,
there is no doubt, that the fall of Richard was owing to his want of
ability to conduct himself, and it is very probable, that the disgrace
of Dionysius originated from the same cause. There is no indiscreet
man whatever, who does not impute to fortune, the mischiefs he brings
on himself by his imprudence. Dionysius the younger, was more cruel
than his father, and was nothing near equal to him in the capacity of
a warrior. Thus, the Syracusians experienced from him, severities that
irritated them, and also found, that he wanted the necessary power to
keep them in subjection. Between the Cromwels, this inequality was much
more conspicuous. The father had an able head, and a great heart. The
son had neither head nor heart; and it was for want of resolution, that
at the beginning of the revolt, he suffered himself to be overpowered by
the leaders of the opposite faction; and it was for want of judgment or
a head, that he placed such excessive confidence in the ties of kindred,
and relied wholly on his uncle and brother-in-law, who in their hearts
were unfriendly to him, and in the end were those who deposed him.