(_From the Buccaneer.--By Mrs. S.C. Hall_.)
There are two things that to a marvellous degree bring people under
subjection--moral and corporeal fear. The most dissolute are held in
restraint by the influence of moral worth, and there are few who would
engage in a quarrel if they were certain that defeat or death would be
the consequence. Cromwell obtained, and we may add, maintained his
ascendancy over the people of England, by his earnest and continually
directed efforts towards these two important ends. His court was a
rare example of irreproachable conduct, from which all debauchery
and immorality were banished; while such was his deep and intimate
though mysterious acquaintance with every occurrence throughout the
commonwealth, its subjects had the certainty of knowing that, sooner or
later, whatever crimes they committed would of a surety reach the ear
of the protector. His natural abilities must always have been of the
highest order, though in the early part of his career he discovered
none of those extraordinary talents that afterwards gained him so
much applause, and worked so upon the affections of the hearers
and standers-by. His mind may be compared to one of those valuable
manuscripts that had long been rolled up and kept hidden from vulgar
eyes, but which exhibits some new proof of wisdom at each unfolding. It
has been well said by a philosopher, whose equal the world has not known
since his day, "that a place sheweth the man." Of a certainty Cromwell
had no sooner possessed the opportunity so to do, than he showed to the
whole world that he was destined to govern. "Some men achieve greatness,
some men are born to greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon
them." With Cromwell greatness was achieved. He was the architect of
his own fortunes, owing little to what is called "chance," less to
patronage, and still less to crime, if we except the one sad blot upon
the page of his own history, as connected with that of his country.
There appears in his character but a small portion of that which is
evil, blended with much that is undoubtedly good. Although his public
speeches were, for the most part, ambiguous--leaving others to pick out
his meaning--or more frequently still, having no meaning to pick out,
being words, words, words--strung of mouldy sentences, scriptural
phrases, foolish exclamations, and such-like: yet when necessary, he
showed that he could sufficiently command his style, delivering himself
with so much energy, pith, propriety, and strength of expression, that
it was commonly said of him under such circumstances, "every word he
spoke was a thing." But the strongest indication of his vast abilities
was, the extraordinary tact with which he entered into, dissected, and
scrutinized the nature of human kind. No man ever dived into the manners
and minds of those around him with greater penetration, or more rapidly
discovered their natural talents and tempers. If he chanced to hear
of a person fit for his purpose, whether as a minister, a soldier, an
artisan, a preacher, or a spy, no matter how previously obscure, he sent
for him forthwith, and employed him in the way in which he could be made
most useful, and answer best the purpose of his employer. Upon this most
admirable system (a system in which, unhappily, he has had but few
imitators among modern statesmen,) depended in a great degree his
success. His devotion has been sneered at; but it has never been proved
to have been insincere. With how much more show of justice may we
consider it to have been founded upon a solid and upright basis, when we
recollect that his whole outward deportment spoke its truth! Those who
decry him as a fanatic, ought to bethink themselves that religion was
the chivalry of the age in which he lived. Had Cromwell been born a few
centuries earlier, he would have headed the crusades, with as much
bravery, and far better results than our noble-hearted, but wrong-headed
Coeur de Lion. It was no great compliment that was passed on him by the
French minister, when he called the protector "the first captain of the
age." His courage and conduct in the field were undoubtedly admirable:
he had a dignity of soul which the greatest dangers and difficulties
rather animated than discouraged, and his discipline and government of
the army, in all respects, was the wonder of the world. It was no
diminution of this part of his character, that he was wary in his
conduct, and that, after he was declared protector, he wore a coat of
mail concealed beneath his dress. Less caution than he made use of, in
the place he held, and surrounded as he was by secret and open enemies,
would have deserved the name of negligence. As to his political
sincerity, which many think had nothing to do with his religious
opinions, he was, to the full, as honest as the first or second Charles.
Of a truth, that same sincerity, it would appear, is no kingly virtue!
Cromwell loved justice as he loved his own life, and wherever he was
compelled to be arbitrary, it was only where his authority was
controverted, which, as things then were, it was not only right to
establish for his own sake, but for the peace and security of the
country over whose proud destinies he had been called to govern. "The
dignity of the crown," to quote his own words, "was upon the account of
the nation, of which the king was only the representative head, and
therefore, the nation being still the same, he would have the same
respect paid to his ministers as if he had been a king." England ought
to write the name of Cromwell in letters of gold, when she remembers
that, within a space of four or five years, he avenged all the insults
that had been lavishly flung upon her by every country in Europe
throughout a long, disastrous, and most perplexing civil war.
Gloriously did he retrieve the credit that had been mouldering and
decaying during two weak and discreditable reigns of nearly fifty years'
continuance--gloriously did he establish and extend his country's
authority and influence in remote nations--gloriously acquire the real
mastery of the British Channel--gloriously send forth fleets that went
and conquered, and never sullied the union flag by an act of dishonour
or dissimulation. Not a single Briton, during the protectorate, but
could demand and receive either reparation or revenge for injury,
whether it came from France, from Spain, from any open foe or
treacherous ally; not an oppressed foreigner claimed his protection but
it was immediately and effectually granted. Were things to be compared
to this in the reign of either Charles? England may blush at the
remembrance of the insults she sustained during the reigns of the first
most amiable, yet most weak--of the second most admired, yet most
contemptible--of these legal kings. What must she think of the treatment
of the elector palatine, though he was son-in-law to king James? And let
her ask herself how the Duke of Rohan was assisted in the Protestant war
at Rochelle, notwithstanding the solemn engagement of king Charles under
his own hand! But we are treading too fearlessly upon ground on which,
in our humble capacity, we have scarcely the right to enter. Alas! alas!
the page of history is but a sad one; and the Stuarts and the Cromwells,
the roundheads and the cavaliers, the pennons and the drums, are but
part and parcel of the same dust--the dust we, who are made of dust
animated for a time by a living spirit, now tread upon! Their words,
that wrestled with the winds and mounted on the air, have left no trace
along that air whereon they sported:--the clouds in all their beauty cap
our isle with their magnificence, as in those by-gone days; the rivers
are as blue, the seas as salt; the flowers, those sweet things! remain
fresh within our fields, as when God called them into existence in
Paradise, and are bright as ever. But the change is over us, as it has
been over them: we, too, are passing. O England! what should this teach?
Even three things--wisdom, justice, and mercy. Wisdom to watch
ourselves, and then our rulers, so that we neither do nor suffer wrong;
justice to the memory of the mighty dead, whether born to thrones or
footstools; mercy, inasmuch as we shall deeply need it from our
successors.
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