CHAPTER V.

THE COMMONWEALTH (_concluded_).

Naval Victory over the Dutch--Death of Van Tromp--_Quasi_-Royal

State of the Lord-Protector--Disaffection against Cromwell--His

Vigorous Rule--Charles II. offers a Reward for his

Assassination--Rebellions in Scotland--Cromwell's Dealings with the

Portuguese Ambassador--Reform of the Court of Chancery--Commission

for Purgation of the Church--The Reformed Parliament--Exclusion of

the Ultras--Dissolution of Parliament--Danger from Plots--Accident

to the Protector--Death of Cromwell's Mother--Royalist

Outbreaks--Cromwell's Major-Generals--Foreign Policy--War with

Spain--Massacre of the Piedmontese--Capture of Jamaica--The

Jews Appeal for Toleration--Cromwell's Third Parliament--Plots

against his Life--The Petition and Advice--Cromwell Refuses the

Royal Title--Blake's Brilliant Victory at Santa Cruz--Death of

Blake--Successes against Spain--Failure of the Reconstructed

Parliament--Punishment of Conspirators--Victory in the

Netherlands--Absolutism of Cromwell--His Anxieties, Illness, and

Death--Proclamation of Richard Cromwell--He calls a Parliament--It

is Dissolved--Reappearance of the Rump--Richard Retires--Royalist

Risings--Quarrels of the Army and the Rump--General Monk--He

Marches upon London--Demands a Free Parliament--Royalist

Reaction--Declaration of Breda--Joyful Reception of Charles.

In May, 1653, the fleets of England and Holland, each amounting to

one hundred sail, put to sea. That of England was under the command

of Monk, Dean, Penn, and Lawson; that of Holland under Van Tromp, De

Ruyter, De Witt, and Evertsens. At first they passed each other, and

whilst Monk ravaged the coast of Holland, Van Tromp was cannonading

Dover. At length, on the 2nd of June, they met off the North Foreland,

and a desperate conflict took place, in which Dean was killed at the

side of Monk. Monk immediately threw his cloak over the body, to avoid

discouraging the men, and fought on through the day. In the night Blake

arrived with eighteen additional sail, and at dawn the battle was

renewed. The result was that the Dutch were beaten, lost one-and-twenty

sail, and had thirteen hundred men taken prisoners, besides great

numbers killed and wounded. The English pursued the flying vessels

to the coast of Holland, and committed many ravages amongst their

merchantmen. But the undaunted Van Tromp, on the 29th of July, appeared

again at sea, with above a hundred sail. Monk stood out to sea for

more battle-room, and one of the Dutch captains, seeing this, said to

Van Tromp that they were running; but Van Tromp, who knew the English

better, replied curtly, "Sir, look to your own charge, for were there

but twenty sail, they would never refuse to fight us." Monk, on his

part, ordered his captains to attempt making no prizes, but to sink

and destroy all the ships they could. The battle, therefore, raged

furiously, from five in the morning till ten; but at length the gallant

Van Tromp fell dead by a musket-shot, and the courage of the Dutch gave

way. In this fight the Dutch lost thirty ships, about one thousand

prisoners, besides great numbers of slain, the English losing only two

vessels.

These splendid victories enabled Cromwell to conclude advantageous

treaties with Holland, France, Denmark, Portugal, and Sweden. Most

of these Powers sent over ambassadors to congratulate him on his

elevation, and these were received at Whitehall with much state. The

royal apartments were furnished anew in very magnificent style, and in

the banqueting-room was placed a chair of State raised on a platform

with three steps, and the Lord-Protector gave audience seated in it.

The ambassadors were instructed to make three obeisances, one at the

entrance, one in the middle of the room, and the third in front of the

chair, which the Protector acknowledged with a grave inclination of the

head. The same ceremony was repeated on retiring. Cromwell received

the ambassadors of Holland to dinner, sitting on one side of the table

alone, and the ambassadors with a few of the lords of the Council on

the other. The Lady-Protectress at the same time entertained their

ladies. In his appearances abroad the Protector assumed very much the

state of a king with State coaches, Life Guards, pages, and lacqueys

richly clothed. He took up his abode instantly in the royal palaces,

quitting the Cockpit altogether, Whitehall being his town house, and

Hampton Court his country one, where he generally went on Saturday

afternoon, and spent the Sunday.

It was not, however, without many heartburnings and some plots for his

destruction that his wonderful elevation was witnessed by many of his

old comrades, as well as his natural enemies.

The Anabaptists and Fifth-Monarchy men, who carried their notions of

political liberty as far beyond Cromwell as the Chartists of more

modern times carried theirs beyond the Whigs, were exceedingly

violent, and denounced him as an apostate and deceiver. Feak and

Powell, two Anabaptist preachers in Blackfriars, thundered from their

pulpits against him as the "beast in the Apocalypse," the "old dragon,"

and the "man of sin." "Go, tell your Protector," they cried, "that

he has deceived the Lord's people, and is a perjured villain." They

declared that he was worse than the last tyrant usurper, the crookback

Richard, and would not reign long.

Having borne the violent abuse of these men for some time, he at

length sent them to the Tower. But amongst his own generals and former

colleagues were men not less exasperated. Harrison and Ludlow were

Fifth-Monarchy men, who believed that none but Christ ought to reign,

and they joined the most disaffected. Harrison being asked if he would

own the new protectoral government, answered fiercely, "No!" and

Cromwell was obliged to send him to his own house in the country, and

afterwards to commit him also to the Tower. Vane and others were not

less angered, though less openly violent.

Cromwell expressed much sorrow at these symptoms of resentment

amongst his old friends, and declared that he would much rather, so

far as his own inclinations were concerned, have taken a shepherd's

staff than that of the Protector. In Scotland and Ireland there was

much dissatisfaction at the new revolution, as it was called. Even

Fleetwood, his son-in-law, scarcely knew how to receive it, and Ludlow

and Jones expressed no unequivocal discontent. Colonel Alured had been

sent to Ireland to conduct certain forces to Monk in the Scottish

Highlands, but he was an Anabaptist, and became so insubordinate that

Cromwell dismissed him both from his commission and from the army.

Ludlow refused to continue on the Irish Civil Commission. Cromwell,

however, sent over his son Henry on a visit to Fleetwood, so that

he might learn the true state of the army, and the most active or

formidable of the malcontent officers were removed to England, or by

degrees dismissed from the service.

In Scotland similar disaffection was apparent, but there active service

against the Royalists, who were also astir with fresh vigour on this

occasion, tended to divert their attention from their discontents.

Charles II., from Paris, about Easter, issued a proclamation, supposed

to be drawn up by Clarendon, offering five hundred pounds a year

and a colonelcy in the army to any one who would take off by sword,

pistol, or poison, "a certain base, mechanic fellow, by name Oliver

Cromwell," who had usurped his throne. His partisans in Scotland

seized the opportunity to renew the war. The Earls of Glencairn and

Balcarres, Angus, Montrose, Seaforth, Atholl, Kenmure, and Lorne, the

son of Argyll, were up in arms. Charles sent over General Middleton

to take the chief command, and Cromwell ordered Monk again from the

victorious fleet to hasten to the Highlands to oppose him, Colonel

Robert Lilburne having in the meantime made a successful assault upon

them. Monk speedily defeated Middleton and his associates, and the

Scots lords lost no time in making their submission. Cromwell had

subdued the rebellion completely by August, but still earlier he had

abolished all separate rule in Scotland. In April he published three

ordinances, by which he incorporated England with Scotland, abolished

the Monarchy and Parliament in that country, and absolved the people

from their allegiance to Charles Stuart, erecting courts baron instead

of those suppressed. The people who contended through so many bloody

wars against English monarchs who had attempted the same thing, now

quietly submitted to this plebeian but energetic conqueror, and the

Kirk only defied his authority by meeting in assembly in Edinburgh on

the 20th of July. But there presently appeared amongst them Colonel

Cotterel, who bade them depart, and marched them a mile out of the city

between two files of soldiers, to the astonishment and terror of the

inhabitants, where he informed them that if any of them were found in

the capital after eight o'clock the next morning, or attempted to sit

or meet more than three together, he would imprison them as disturbers

of the public peace. Our old acquaintance, Baillie, beheld this amazing

spectacle with consternation. "Thus," he exclaimed, "our General

Assembly, the glory and strength of our Church upon earth, is by your

soldiery crushed and trodden under foot. For this our hearts are sad

and our eyes run down with water." Yet it does not appear that real

religion suffered at all by Cromwell's innovations, either in Scotland

or in England, for Kirkton says of the Kirk, "I verily believe there

were more souls converted unto Christ in that short period of time than

in any season since the Reformation. Ministers were painsful, people

were diligent. At their solemn communions many congregations met in

great multitudes, some dozens of ministers used to preach, and the

people continued, as it were, in a sort of trance, so serious were they

in spiritual exercises, for three days at least." Baxter, in England,

though a decided enemy of Cromwell, confessed that, by his weeding out

scandalous ministers, and putting in "able, serious preachers, who

lived a godly life," though of various opinions, "many thousands of

souls blessed God" for what was done.

The proclamation of Charles, rendered abortive in the Highlands, was

not without its effects in England. One Major Henshaw came over from

Paris, and proposed to assassinate Cromwell as he went to Hampton

Court. His plan was to get thirty stout men for the purpose. A young

enthusiastic gentleman named Gerard undertook to procure twenty-five

of them, and Colonel Finch and Henshaw were to bring the other five.

Vowel, a schoolmaster of Islington, was very zealous in the plot,

and aided in procuring arms; Billingsley, a butcher of Smithfield,

engaging to seize the troopers' horses grazing in Islington fields.

The soldiers were then to be fallen upon at the Mews, Charles II.

was to be proclaimed, Rupert was to appear with a large force of

Royalists, English, Irish, and Scots, and there was to be a general

rising. Saturday, the 20th of May, was the day fixed for Cromwell's

assassination; but before this wild scheme could be commenced, forty

of the conspirators were seized, some of them in their beds. Vowel was

hanged, and Gerard was beheaded on the 10th of July--the manner of the

latter's punishment being thus changed at his own request, as being a

gentleman and a soldier.

[Illustration: THE GREAT HALL, HAMPTON COURT PALACE.]

The same day, and on the same scaffold as Gerard, was executed Don

Pantaleone Sa, the brother of the Portuguese Ambassador. Sa had a

quarrel with this same Gerard, who was called "Generous Gerard," an

enthusiastic Royalist. They came to fighting at the Royal Exchange,

where Gerard, drawing his rapier, forced the Don to fly, whereupon the

next day he returned to the Exchange in search of Gerard, with a body

of armed followers, and mistaking a man of the name of Greenway for

Gerard, they killed him, wounded Colonel Mayo, and were not subdued

without much riot. Sa was seized, tried, and condemned for this

deliberate murder. He pleaded that he belonged to the embassy, and

was therefore exempt from the tribunals of this country, but neither

this nor the zealous exertions of his brother, the ambassador, could

save him; he was condemned to die. Cromwell, though on the verge of

concluding a treaty with Portugal, would not concede a pardon to

the bloodthirsty Portuguese, who had been found guilty by a jury

of half Englishmen and half foreigners. He went to Tower Hill in a

coach and six, attended by numbers of the attachés of the embassy in

mourning, and his brother signed the treaty and left the country.

Such an exhibition of firmness and impartiality, refusing to make any

distinction in a murderer, whether noble or commoner, evinced great

moral courage in Cromwell; but another execution, which took place a

short time before--namely, on the 23rd of June--was not so creditable

to him. This was the hanging of an old Catholic priest, named

Southworth, who had been convicted thirty-seven years before, under the

bloody laws of James against Popish priests, and had been banished.

Being now discovered in the country, he was tried for that offence

and put to death. On the scaffold he justly upbraided the Government

with having taken arms for liberty, yet shedding the blood of those

who differed from them on religious grounds. The stern persecution of

Popery was, in fact, a blot on Cromwell's character; he had not in that

respect outgrown his age.

Whilst these and other plots were exacting from the Protector a severe

compensation for his high position, he was yet steadily prosecuting

measures for the better administration of the national government.

Being empowered by the Instrument of government, with his Council, not

only to raise sufficient money for the necessary demands of government,

but also "to make laws and ordinances for the peace and welfare of

these nations," he actually made no less than sixty ordinances,

many of them of singular wisdom and excellence. He and his Council,

in fact, showed that they were in earnest to make the execution of

justice cheap and prompt, and to revive a pure and zealous ministry

of the gospel. In one of these ordinances they effected the Herculean

labour which Barebone's Parliament had aimed at--the reformation of

the Court of Chancery, the ordinance for this purpose consisting of no

less than sixty-seven articles. Well might Cromwell, on the opening of

Parliament, refer with pride to this great event, an event which would

have taken our modern law-makers twenty years to accomplish, which,

in fact, they have not accomplished yet. "The Chancery," he said in

his speech, "is reformed." What a speech in four words, sufficient to

have made the reign of any king famous! "The Chancery is reformed--I

hope to the satisfaction of all good men." This had partly been

done by distributing the causes through the other "courts of law at

Westminster, where Englishmen love to have their rights tried." In

order, too, to effect a most just and speedy discharge of the laws,

he put better judges on the Bench, amongst them the pious Sir Matthew

Hale, and made Thurloe, the friend of Milton, Secretary of State.

Two others of his ordinances were intended to purify the Church of

unfit ministers, and to introduce fit and pious ones. This established

two commissions, one for the examination of all clergymen offering

themselves for the incumbency of any church living, and the other

for inquiring after and expelling any "scandalous, ignorant, or

insufficient ministers who already occupied such." These commissioners

were to be permanent, so that the Church in all parts of the country

should be purged of improper preachers, and supplied with able and

good ones. The supreme commission for the trial of public preachers

consisted of thirty-eight members--twenty-nine clergymen, nine

laymen--and these were both Presbyterians and Independents, some even

Anabaptists, for the Protector was less interested in what sect they

belonged to, than in the fact that they were pious and able men. The

commission for purging the Church consisted of from fifteen to thirty

Puritan gentlemen and Puritan clergymen for each county; and when

they dismissed a minister for unfitness, his family had some income

allowed them. Many of the members of these last boards were chosen

indiscriminately from the friends or enemies of the Protectorate,

provided they were known men of real piety and judgment. Amongst these

were Lord Fairfax, Thomas Scott, a zealous Republican, Admiral Blake,

Sir Arthur Haselrig, Richard Mayor, the father-in-law of Richard

Cromwell, for whom Cromwell entertained a high regard and respect, and

had him in both Parliament, Council, and various commissions. Baxter

was one of them, and, as we have said, spoke well of the operation of

the system.

But the 3rd of September arrived, Oliver's fortunate day, on which

he had appointed the meeting of Parliament. As the day fell on a

Sunday, the members met in the afternoon for worship in Westminster

Abbey, where they waited on the Protector in the Painted Chamber,

who addressed them in a speech, and they then went to the House and

adjourned to the next morning. Cromwell went that day to the House

in great State, in his carriage, with his Life Guards, a captain of

the guard walking on each side, and the Commissioners of the Great

Seal and other State officers following in coaches. After a sermon

in the Abbey Church they proceeded to the Painted Chamber, where the

Protector made a speech of three hours in the delivery. A chair of

State, marvellously resembling a throne, raised on steps, and with a

canopy, was placed for the Protector, who sat with his hat on, whilst

the members sat bareheaded. On rising to speak he took off his hat,

and made what Whitelock styles "a large and subtle speech." It was

largely illustrated by Scripture quotations, it is true, for that was

inseparable from the religious temperament of Cromwell; but it gave

a clear review of the causes which had led to the overthrow of the

monarchy, the rise of the Commonwealth, and particularly of its then

form, as well as of the measures which he had adopted in Council, in

the interim between his appointment and the meeting of Parliament. He

told them that he regarded their greatest functions to be at that time

"healing and settling;" a profound truth--for the nation, and in it

every class of men, had been so torn and rent in every fibre, that to

soothe and heal was the highest art and policy. Every man's hand, and

every man's head, he justly observed, had been against his brother,

and no sooner had they put down despotism, than liberty itself began

to grow wild, and threaten them with equal danger. The Levellers, the

Fifth-Monarchy men, the Communists of St. George's Hill, had compelled

them to put the drag on the chariot wheels of freedom, or it would

soon have taken fire. In all such revolutions, the principles of human

right are pushed on by sanguine men, beyond all chance of support from

a settled public opinion; and Oliver truly told them that had they

gained their object for a moment, it could not have lasted long, but

would have in the meantime served the turn of selfish men, who, having

obtained public property, would have "cried up property and interest

fast enough."

He referred with satisfaction to the means taken to insure a pure

ministry, and argued for the necessity of State interference in

religion, but such interference should only be for promoting a good and

virtuous ministry, and by no means infringe on "liberty of conscience

and liberty of the subject, two as glorious things as any that God

hath given us." His fears of religious license were chiefly excited by

Fifth-Monarchists; yet he did not deny that such a monarchy must come

in process of time. "It is a notion," he said, "that I hope we all

honour, and wait and hope for the fulfilment of, that Jesus Christ

_will_ have a time to set up a reign in our hearts, by subduing those

lusts, and corruptions, and evils that are there, which now reign more

in the world that I hope in due time they shall do. And when more

fulness of the Spirit is poured forth to subdue iniquity, and bring in

everlasting righteousness, then will the approach of that glory be.

The cardinal divisions and contentions, among Christians so common,

are not the symptoms of that kingdom. But for men on this principle

to betitle themselves, that they are the only men to rule kingdoms,

govern nations, and give laws to people, and determine of property and

liberty, and everything else, upon such a pretension as this is, truly

they had need to give clear manifestations of God's presence with them,

before wise men will receive or submit to their conclusions." Still he

recommended tenderness towards them, and that if their extravagances

necessitated punishment, this should "evidence love, and not hatred."

He next referred to the treaties with foreign nations, amongst which,

he said, that with Portugal had obtained "a thing which never before

was since the Inquisition was set up there--that our people who trade

thither have liberty of conscience, liberty to worship God in chapels

of their own."

He finally inculcated on them the necessity for maintaining as much

peace as possible, not only that they might restore the internal

condition of the nation, and reduce the excessive taxation occasioned

by the war on land and sea, but also to prevent foreign nations from

depriving us of our manufacturing status, as they had been busily doing

during our internal dissensions.

To one of his assertions we are bound to demur. "One thing more

this Government hath done--it had been instrumental to call a free

Parliament, which, blessed be God, we see here this day. I say a free

Parliament, and that it may continue so, I hope is in the heart and

spirit of every good man in England, save such discontented persons

as I have formerly mentioned. It is that which, as I have desired

above my life, so I shall desire to keep it above my life." The truth

was that it was as free a Parliament as the circumstances of the

times would admit; indeed, as was soon seen, it was much too free.

A free Parliament would have brought back royalty in the State, or

Presbyterian absolutism in religion. Republicanism and Independency,

though in the ascendant through the genius of Cromwell and the

power of the army, was in a minority. Republicanism even was divided

against itself, divided into moderate Republicanism and Levelling,

Fifth-Monarchy and Communism in alliance. From this so-called free

Parliament, Episcopalians and Catholics were excluded; this so-called

free Parliament had been carefully watched during the elections, the

lists of the returned had been sent up to the Council, and such as

were deemed too dangerous were disallowed, amongst others Lord Grey of

Groby. But even then it was found too free, and the very first thing

that it set about was to call in question the Government which had

authorised it.

There was a stiff contest for the Speakership, but Lenthall was chosen

instead of Bradshaw, who was also nominated, because Lenthall had

been Speaker of the Long Parliament, and its old members had still

hope of restoring it. Amongst the members were old Sir Francis Rouse,

Lord Herbert, the son of the Earl of Worcester, Fleetwood, Lambert,

the Claypoles, one of whom had married a daughter of the Protector's,

Cromwell's two sons, his friends the Dunches, Sir Ashley Cooper, and

Lord Fairfax. Amongst the Republicans there were Bradshaw, Haselrig,

Scott, Wallop, and Wildman, old Sir Henry Vane, but not the younger;

and amongst the Irish members were Lord Broghill, who had fought so

stoutly against Charles, and Commissary-General Reynolds. No sooner

did they begin business than they opened a debate on the question of

sanctioning the present form of government, a question from which they

were precluded by the very Instrument which had made them a Parliament.

The debate was carried on for no less than eight days, during which

Bradshaw, Scott, Haselrig, and other Republicans contended that the

members of the Long Parliament had been illegally deprived of their

right, and that the Government in one person and a Parliament was but

another form of tyranny. One speaker declared that he had fought to

put down one tyrant, and was ready to fight to put down another. What

right but the sword, it was asked, had one man to put down a legal

Parliament, to command his commanders? They moved to go into committee

on the subject, and carried it.

Cromwell was not the man to suffer this. He sent to the Lord Mayor,

and ordered him to take measures to preserve the peace of the City,

marched three regiments into it, and then summoned Lenthall, and bade

him meet him in the Painted Chamber, on Tuesday, the 12th of September,

with the Commons. Harrison, who was zealously getting up petitions for

the support of the inquiry into the constitution, was clapped into the

Tower. When Cromwell met the Commons, he expressed his surprise that

a set of men from whom so much healing management had been expected,

should immediately attempt to overturn the Government which called them

together. The Instrument consisted of incidentals and fundamentals. The

incidentals they were at liberty to discuss, but the fundamentals--of

which the article that the power resided in one person and a Parliament

was one--were out of their range. He very zealously asserted that he

had been called to the head of the nation by God and the people, and

that none but God and the people should take his office from him.

His own wish had been to lead the life of a country gentleman, but

necessity had forced him thence, and three several times he had found

himself placed by the course of events at the head of the army, and

by them at the head of the Government. As to the dismissal of the

Long Parliament, he had been forced to that by its endeavouring to

perpetuate itself, and by its tyranny and corruption. He said "that

poor men, under its arbitrary power, were driven like flocks of sheep,

by forty on a morning, to the confiscation of goods and estates,

without any man being able to give a reason why two of them had

deserved to forfeit a shilling." He had twice resigned the arbitrary

power left in his hands, and having established a Government capable of

saving the nation, he would sooner lie rotting in his grave and buried

with infamy than suffer it to be broken up. They had now peace at home

and abroad, and it would be a miserable answer to give to the people,

"Oh, we quarrelled for the liberty of England; we contested and went to

confusion for that."

To prevent any such evil consequences, he informed them that he had

caused a stop to be put to their entrance into the Parliament House; he

did not turn them out this time, he shut them out--and that none would

be readmitted that did not first sign an Engagement to be true and

faithful to the Protector and Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and

Ireland, not to propose or consent to alter the Government, as settled

in a single person and Parliament.

On hearing this, the honourable members looked at one another in

amazement, but one hundred and forty thought well to sign the

Engagement, which lay in the lobby of the House that day, and within a

month three out of the four hundred had signed. Of course all the ultra

Republicans refused to sign, and were excluded--Bradshaw, Haselrig,

Scott, Wildman, and the rest.

[Illustration: JOHN MILTON. (_After the Miniature by Samuel Cooper._)]

This summary dealing did not cure the Parliament of considering the

question for touching which they had thus been purged of a hundred

members. On the 19th of September, only a week after the check they

had received, they went into committee to discuss the "Instrument of

Government." They took care not to touch the grand point which they

had now pledged themselves not to meddle with--the government by a

Protector and Parliament; but they affected to consider all the other

articles as merely provisional, decreed by the Protector and the

Council, but to be confirmed or rejected by Parliament. They discussed

these one by one, and on the 16th of October proceeded to the question,

whether the office of Protector should be elective or hereditary.

Lambert advocated the office being hereditary, and pointed out the

many disadvantages of the elective form. He strongly recommended the

office being confined to the Cromwell family, and this, of course,

was attributed to the instigation of Cromwell himself. They decided

for the elective form. On the 11th of December they voted that the

Protector should have a veto on Bills touching liberty of conscience,

but not such as suppressed heresies, as if what they called suppressing

heresies were not direct attacks on liberty of conscience. Thus they

crept round the very roots of the Protectoral authority, nibbling at

the powers he had forbidden them to discuss, and they proceeded to give

proof of their intention to launch into all the old persecutions for

religion, if they possibly could, by summoning before them John Biddle,

who may be regarded as the father of the Unitarians. He had been

thrice imprisoned by the Long Parliament, for holding that he could not

find in Scripture that Christ or the Holy Ghost was styled God. The

Parliament committed him to the Gatehouse, and ordered a Bill to be

prepared for his punishment.

It was high time that they were stopped in their incorrigible spirit of

persecution; and by now proceeding to frame a Bill to include all their

votes on the articles of the Instrument they were suddenly arrested

in their progress. The Instrument provided that Parliament should not

be adjourned under five months. On the 22nd of January, 1655, the

Protector chose to consider that the months were not calendar but lunar

months, which then expired. The Parliament, counting the other way,

deemed themselves safe till the 3rd of February, but on the 22nd of

January Oliver summoned them to the Painted Chamber, and observed to

them, that though he had met them at first with the hope that their

hearts were in the great work to which they had been called, he was

quite disappointed in them. He complained that they had sent no message

to him, taken no more notice of his presence in the Republic than if

he had not existed, and that with all patience he had forborne teasing

them with messages, hoping that they would at length proceed to some

real business. "But," added he, "as I may not take notice of what you

have been doing, so I think I have a very great liberty to tell you

that I do not know what you have been doing; that I do not know whether

you have been dead or alive. I have not once heard from you all this

time. I have not, and that you all know."

He then reminded them that various discontented parties--the Royalists,

the Levellers, and others--had been encouraged by their evident

disposition to call in question the Government, to raise plots, and

that if they were permitted to sit making quibbles about the Government

itself, the nation would soon be plunged again into bloodshed and

confusion. He, therefore, did then and there dissolve them as a

Parliament.

The plots to which the Protector alluded had been going on for some

time, and even yet were in full activity. We shall trace their main

features, but we may first notice an incident which showed that

Cromwell was prepared for them, resolved to sell his life manfully if

attacked. On the 24th of September, 1654, immediately after compelling

the Parliament to subscribe the Engagement, the Protector was out in

Hyde Park, taking dinner under the shade of the trees, with Thurloe,

the secretary, a man whom he constantly consulted on the affairs of

the nation. After this little rural dinner, which gives us a very

interesting idea of the simplicity of the great general's habits and

tastes, he tried a team of six fine Friesland coach horses, presented

to him by the Duke of Oldenburg. Thurloe was put into the carriage,

Cromwell mounted the coachman's seat, and a postillion rode one of

the fore horses. The horses soon became unruly, plunged, and threw

the postillion, and then, nearly upsetting the carriage, threw the

Protector from his seat, who fell upon the pole and had his legs

entangled in the harness. On went the mad horses at full gallop, and

one of Cromwell's shoes coming off, which had been held by the harness,

he fell under the carriage, which went on without hurting him, except

by some bruises. In the fall, however, a loaded pistol went off in his

pocket, thus revealing the fact that he went armed.

And indeed he had great need. His mother, who died just now, on the

16th of November, and who was ninety-four years old, used, at the sound

of a musket, says Ludlow, to imagine that her son was shot, and could

not be satisfied unless she saw him once a day at least. Her last words

to him do not give us any idea of hypocrisy in mother or son--"The Lord

cause His face to shine upon you, and enable you to do great things for

the glory of the Most High God, and to be a relief unto His people. My

dear son, I leave my heart with thee. A good night!"

Amongst the plotters were both Royalists and Republicans. The ejected

members of Parliament, in their different quarters, were stirring up

discontent against Cromwell, and even declaring that it were better

to have Charles Stuart back again. Colonel Overton, who had been

questioned at the time of Colonel Alured's dismissal, was once more

called up and questioned. In Scotland, where he lay, the Protector

discovered an agitation to supersede Monk, and make the Republican

Overton Commander-in-chief, and leaving only the garrisons, to

march the rest of the army into England on the demand of pay and

constitutional reform. Overton was committed to the Tower.

Allen--who, with Sexby and another agitator, in 1647 presented a

remarkable petition from the army to the Long Parliament, and had

become adjutant-general--was arrested at his father-in-law's house,

in Devonshire, at the end of January, 1655, on a charge of plotting

disturbances in Ireland, and exciting discontent in Bristol and Devon.

Allen was a zealous Anabaptist, and the excitement amongst them

and other army republicans was great and extensive. Pamphlets were

published, letters and agitators passed from one regiment to another,

and a general rising was planned, with the seizure of Edinburgh Castle,

Hull, Portsmouth, and other strong places. Cromwell was to be surprised

and put to death. Colonel Wildman, one of these fanatics, who had been

ejected from Parliament by refusing to sign the Recognition, was taken

on the 12th of February at Exton, near Marlborough, in Wilts, by a

party of horse, as he was in his furnished lodgings upstairs, leaning

on his elbows, and in the act, with the door open, of dictating to his

clerk, "A Declaration of the free and well-affected people of England,

now in arms against the tyrant Oliver Cromwell." He was secured in

Chepstow Castle, and his correspondents, Harrison, Lord Grey of Groby,

and others, were secured in the Tower. Colonel Sexby for the time

escaped.

About the same time a Royalist plot was also in progress. Charles

Stuart, who had removed from Paris to Cologne--the French Government

not wishing to give offence to Cromwell--had concocted a plot with

Hyde, his Chancellor, to raise the Royalists in various quarters at

once, fancying that as Cromwell had given so much offence to both

people and Parliament, there was great hope of success. Charles

went to Middelburg, on the coast of Holland, to be ready at a call,

and Hyde was extremely confident. In Yorkshire there was a partial

outbreak under Lord Mauleverer and Sir Henry Kingsby, which was

speedily quelled, Kingsby being seized and imprisoned in Hull. This

abortive attempt was under the management of Lord Wilmot, now Earl

of Rochester, who was glad to make his escape. Another branch of the

plot, under the management of Sir Joseph Wagstaff, who came over with

Rochester, fared no better. Wagstaff attempted to surprise Winchester

on the 7th of March, during the assizes. Penruddock, Grove, and Jones,

Royalist officers, were associated with him, and about two hundred

others entered Salisbury about five o'clock on the morning of the 11th,

posted themselves in the market-place, liberated the prisoners from the

gaol, and surprised the sheriff and two judges in their beds. Wagstaff

proposed to hang the judges, but Penruddock and the rest refused to

allow it; he then ordered the high sheriff to proclaim Charles Stuart,

but neither he nor the crier would do it, though menaced with the

gallows. Hearing that Captain Unton Crook was after them with a troop

of horse, and seeing no chance of a rising, they quitted the town

about three o'clock, and marched through Dorsetshire into Devonshire.

At South Molton Captain Crook came up with them, and speedily made

himself master of fifty of the insurgents, including Penruddock,

Grove, and Jones, but Wagstaff escaped. They had expected a body of

conspirators from Hampshire to join them at Salisbury, and these were

actually on their way when they heard of the retreat of Wagstaff's

band, and immediately dispersed. Similarly feeble outbreaks took

place in the counties of Northumberland, Nottingham, Shropshire, and

Montgomery. Penruddock, Grove, and Jones were beheaded at Exeter, and

about fifteen others suffered there and at Salisbury; the rest of the

deluded prisoners were sold to Barbadoes. Charles returned crest-fallen

to Cologne, and Hyde, convinced that his plans had been betrayed,

attributed the treason to Manning, whom, having secured, they had shot

in the following winter, in the territory of the Duke of Neuburg.

To prevent more of these outbreaks, Cromwell planned to divide the

whole country into military districts, over each of which he placed

an officer, who was to act chiefly with the militia, and not with

the Levelling regulars. These officers he created major-generals,

beginning first with Desborough in the south-west, and, before the

year was out, he had despatched, each to his district, the other

major-generals--Fleetwood, Skippon, Whalley, Kelsey, Goffe, Berry,

Butler, Wortley, and Barkstead, who effectually preserved the peace of

the nation. During the spring also, undaunted by these disturbances,

Cromwell progressed with his internal reforms, and with the greatest of

all, the reform of Chancery. This was no easy matter. The lawyers were

as turbulent as the Anabaptists in the army. Two of the Commissioners

of the Great Seal, Whitelock and Widdrington, refused to enforce the

reform, and were obliged to resign. Lisle and Fiennes, the other

Commissioners, dared to carry out the change. Lenthall, the Speaker,

now Master of the Rolls, protested that he would be hanged at the Rolls

gate before he would obey; but he saw fit to alter his mind, and the

Protector, so far from bearing any ill-will to the two conscientious

Commissioners, Whitelock and Widdrington, soon after made them

Commissioners of the Treasury.

We may now look back a little, to observe what Cromwell had been doing

beyond the shores of the kingdom. We have seen that almost all the

nations of Europe sent embassies to congratulate him on his elevation

to the Protectorate. The vigour of his rule speedily made them more

anxious to stand on good terms with him. He soon made peace with Sweden

as a Protestant country, and from natural sympathy with the Protestant

fame of the great Gustavus. He concluded peace also with Holland, but

with France and Spain there were more difficulties.

France had, both under Richelieu and Mazarin, lent continual aid and

refuge to the Royalist cause against the Reformers. The queen, whom the

Republicans had chased from the throne, was a princess of France, and

was living there with numbers of the Royalists about her. Charles, the

heir to the throne of England, was pensioned by France, and maintained

a sort of court in Paris, whence continual disturbances and alarms were

coming. It is true, the French Court had never been very munificent

to the exiled Queen of England and her family. Henrietta was found by

Cardinal Retz without fire, and almost without food, and Charles and

his countrymen were so poor, that Clarendon, in June, 1653, wrote, "I

do not know that any man is yet dead for want of bread, which I really

wonder at. I am sure the king owes all that he has eaten since April,

and I am not acquainted with one servant who hath a pistole in his

pocket. Five or six of us eat together one meal a day for a pistole

a week; but all of us owe, for God knows how many weeks, to the poor

woman that feeds us." He adds that he wanted shoes and shirts, and that

the Marquis of Ormond was in no better condition. The Court of Charles

was as much rent with divisions and jealousies as it was poor. His

brave conduct in England raised great hopes of him, but on his return

to France he relapsed into all sorts of dissipations and intrigues,

which made him contemptible. Amongst a troop of mistresses, Lucy

Walters, or Barlow, as she was called, the mother of the afterwards

celebrated Duke of Monmouth, was the most notorious.

[Illustration: THE ROYALIST PLOTTERS AT SALISBURY INSULTING THE

SHERIFF. (_See p._ 131.)]

As Mazarin saw the growing power of Cromwell, he was glad to get

Charles removed from Paris, and his abode transferred to Cologne; but,

being still the pensioner of France, Charles was equally capable of

annoying England from that place, as the late outbreaks showed. These

circumstances no doubt rendered it very difficult for the conclusion

of a peace between Cromwell and France, for Cromwell insisted on the

withdrawal of the French support from the exiled family, and though

France was fully disposed to abate the evil as far as possible, it

could not in honour entirely abandon them. Mazarin made every possible

concession on other points, and the French ambassador, Bordeaux,

urged the progress of the treaty with all earnestness. But besides

the grand obstacle, there were others raised by Spain. France and

Spain were at war: Spain was supporting the Prince of Condé and the

French insurgents, and the Spanish ambassador was indefatigable in

representing that whilst Spain had been the very first to acknowledge

the English Commonwealth, France had been constantly supporting the

Royalist power, and in 1653 he offered to seize Calais and make it over

to England as the price of the Commonwealth making peace with Spain,

and common cause against France.

[Illustration: THE PAINTED CHAMBER, WESTMINSTER.]

But there were motives which always weighed heavily with

Cromwell--religion and the honour of the English flag. He had an

enduring repugnance to the Catholic faith, and Spain was essentially

Catholic, and at the same time was maintaining an insolent domination

in the waters of the West Indies. The fame of her exclusion thence

of the flags of all other nations from her colonies, and of her many

atrocities committed on English colonies--as at St. Kitts in 1629,

at Tortuga in 1637, and Santa Cruz in 1650--was an irresistible

provocative to the combative spirit of the Protector. He demanded of

the Spanish ambassador that Spain should abolish the Inquisition, and

admit the English flag to the West Indian seas. De Leyda replied that

he was asking from his king his two eyes, and as Cromwell would not

concede either point, he demanded his passports in June, 1654, and took

his leave.

Cromwell lost no time in enforcing his views on Spain--as no doubt he

felt bound conscientiously to do on the great principle of suppressing

Popish cruelties, and spreading the triumph of Protestantism. He

sent Blake with a powerful fleet in October of that year into the

Mediterranean, and another powerful armament under Admirals Penn

and Venables, with secret orders which were not to be opened till

they arrived in certain latitudes. This fleet, whose preparation and

destination kept all Europe in wonder and anxiety, sailed west, and

was, in fact, destined for the West Indies. Blake, with his fleet,

passed the Straits of Gibraltar, and presented to the inhabitants

of the shores of the Mediterranean a spectacle such as they had

not seen since the days of the Crusades--a powerful English fleet.

It consisted of thirty sail, and its commission was to seize the

French vessels wherever it could find them, especially to seek out

and attack the fleet under the Duke of Guise. It was besides this to

demand satisfaction from various offending Powers. The Grand Duke of

Tuscany had, whilst Parliament was struggling with Charles, allowed

Prince Rupert to sell English prizes in his ports. The Pope was, as

the Antichrist, an object to be humbled, or at all events impressed

sensibly with the fact that England could at any moment visit him in

his capital, and that the British power was in hands both able and

ready to do it. There were many injuries to our merchantmen to be

avenged on the pirates of Tunis and Algiers. Cromwell's favourite

maxim was, that a ship of the line was the most effective ambassador.

Blake sailed along the Papal shores, exciting a deep terror, but he

passed on and cast anchor before Leghorn, and demanded compensation for

the offence against English honour and shipping, which was speedily

granted. Not being able to discover the Duke of Guise, he proceeded

to Algiers, and compelled the Dey to sign an engagement not to permit

further violences by his subjects on English vessels. Thence he sailed

to Tunis, and sent in the same demand, but the haughty barbarian of

that place sent him word to give a look at his ports of Porto Farina

and Goletta, with their fleets, and take them if he could. Blake sailed

away as if in despair, but suddenly returning, he entered the harbour

of Porto Farina, silencing the castle and batteries as he advanced,

and set fire to the whole fleet. Both Tunis and Tripoli now found it

the best policy to give the required engagement, and Blake left the

Mediterranean, having given those lawless pirates a specimen of the

power of England, which was not likely to be soon forgotten.

Blake had orders to look out for the next Spanish Plate fleet coming

home, and he lay for some time off Cadiz; but there was now at the

Court of Madrid Colonel Sexby, the Leveller, who had long been engaged

with Allen, Wildman, and the Anabaptists. He had gone over to the

Continent to raise some force either in conjunction with Charles or

with Spain, to invade England and kill Cromwell. Sexby revealed to the

Spaniards not only the object of Blake, but the real design of the

fleet under Venables and Penn. More than thirty sail were mustered by

the Spanish under Don Pablos de Contretras, which kept close watch on

Blake. Blake longed to attack them, but his orders did not sanction it;

and after hearing that the Plate fleet was detained at Carthagena, he

returned to England to refit, his ships being in a sorry plight, and

his men suffering from bad provisions.

During the absence of Blake, great excitement had been occasioned in

England by the news of dreadful atrocities committed on the Protestants

of the mountains of Piedmont. The Protestants called the Vaudois were

a race who, through all ages, had, in the obscurity of their Alpine

valleys, retained the doctrines of the Primitive Church, and had

set at defiance both the persuasions and the persecutions of Rome.

They were said to be descended from the ancient Waldenses, and were

a bold, independent race of mountaineers. It was pretended that the

Duke of Savoy, whose subjects they chiefly were, had granted them the

free exercise of their religion so long as they remained in their

ancient places of abode, the valleys of the sources of the Po, in the

Savoy Alps; but that being found in Lucerna and other places, these

were decided to be beyond their bounds, and they were ordered to be

conformed to the Church of Rome, or sell their lands and retire from

these territories. They refused to be driven from their homes on

account of their religion, and being always an eyesore to the Court

of Rome, the fury of persecution was let loose upon them. Friars were

sent amongst them to convert them, or to denounce their destruction;

they disregarded the friars, and then six regiments of soldiers were

sent to drive them into the mountains. Amongst these were two regiments

of refugee Irish. These fellows, ardent Catholics, smarting under the

Protestant scourge which had driven them from _their_ native land, did

their work _con amore_. From the district of Lucerna they were driven

into the higher Alpine fastnesses and pursued with the most terrible

ferocities of fanatic savagery, with fire and sword and extermination.

These horrors were aggravated by winter and famine, and the news of

this fearful butchery rang through Protestant England with a sensation

which revived all the memory of the Popish horrors in the Marian time.

There was one loud outcry for interference on their behalf. Press and

pulpit resounded with demands of sympathy and redress: the ministers of

all classes waited on Cromwell in a body to solicit his protection of

the Vaudois: the army in Scotland and Ireland sent up addresses. No one

appeared, however, more excited than Cromwell himself. He immediately

gave two thousand pounds, and appointed a day of general humiliation,

and a collection on their behalf, which was observed, and thirty-eight

thousand two hundred and twenty-eight pounds were speedily raised, and

sent by envoys to Geneva, to be conveyed to the sufferers. Nor did

Cromwell satisfy himself with having done this. The day of the arrival

of the news, June 3rd, 1655, he was about to sign a treaty of peace

with France; but he refused to sign it till he had seen whether the

French king and Mazarin would heartily unite with him in extorting

protection from the Duke of Savoy for the sufferers. Mazarin was loth

to stir in such a business, but Cromwell soon let him see that there

would be no peace for France unless he did, and he consented. Three

Latin letters were written by Milton at the order of the Protector to

different States of Europe, calling on them to co-operate for this

great end, and the mighty poet sent forth also his glorious sonnet,

commencing--

"Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold!"

which shall remain like a perpetual trumpet-blast through all time. The

astonished Duke of Savoy was soon compelled to give ample guarantee for

the religious liberty and security of his Protestant subjects.

The expedition to the West Indies, in its commencement, did not

meet with that success which the Protector generally experienced.

The fleet, consisting of sixty sail, was bound for Hispaniola, and

carried four thousand troops; and in Barbadoes and other English

settlements the force was augmented by volunteers, incited by promise

of plunder, to ten thousand. But these fresh forces were of the worst

possible description, being prisoners of a loose description shipped

thither; the commanders were divided in opinion, and the attack was so

wretchedly managed, that it failed with great loss. St. Domingo, which

they intended to take, was deserted on their approach, but instead of

entering it at once, they landed their forces forty miles off, and

marched them through woods towards the town. The heat of the weather,

the want of water, and the consequent disorder of the troops, prepared

them for what ensued. They were suddenly attacked in a thick wood, and

repulsed with great slaughter. Nothing could bring these ragamuffin

forces to renew the attempt, and the commanders sailed away, but

afterwards fell on Jamaica and took it. That island was then, however,

considered of so little value, that it did not satisfy the Government

for the loss of Hispaniola, and on their return Venables and Penn

were committed to the Tower. Notwithstanding this, however, Cromwell

determined to make secure the conquest of Jamaica, and extend, if

possible, the West Indian possessions. Vice-admiral Goodson was ordered

to take the command at Jamaica, and with him General Fortescue, Serle,

Governor of Barbadoes, and General Sedgwick, from New England, were

appointed Commissioners for the management of the island.

Cromwell's letters to these officers that autumn inform us that

there were twenty-eight men-of-war on that station, and people from

Barbadoes, from New England, and from England and Scotland, were being

sent to occupy and settle the island. A thousand Irish girls were sent

out. Cromwell pointed out to the Commissioners how advantageously the

island lay for keeping in check the Spanish Main, and the trade with

Peru and Carthagena. His comprehensive glance was alive to all the

advantages of the conquest, and his resolution engaged to make the

most of it. Whatever is the value of Jamaica now, we owe it to him.

He believed that he was not only serving the nation but religion by

humbling Spain. He wrote to the Commissioners, "The Lord Himself hath

a controversy with your enemies, even with that Roman Babylon of which

the Spaniard is the great underpropper. In that respect we fought the

Lord's battles, and in that respect the Scriptures are most plain."

Spain, of course, proclaimed war against England, to her further loss,

and the glory of Cromwell and his invincible Puritan admiral, Blake.

Penn and Venables resigned their commissions, and were set at liberty.

On October 24th, the day after the Spanish ambassador quitted London,

Cromwell signed the treaty of peace with France, by which Condé and the

French malcontents were to be excluded from the British dominions, and

Charles Stuart, his brother the Duke of York, Ormond, Hyde, and fifteen

others of the prince's adherents, were to be excluded from France.

Cromwell opened the year 1656 amid a multitude of plots and

discontents. The enemies of the Republic--Royalists, Anabaptists,

Levellers--were all busy in one quarter or another. Cleveland, the

poet, who had been taken prisoner nine years before by David Leslie, at

Newcastle, and expected to be hanged for his tirades against the Scots,

but had been dismissed by Leslie with the contemptuous words, "Let the

poor knave go and sell his ballads," was now seized by Colonel Haynes

for seditious writings at Norwich; but Cromwell also dismissed him with

like indifference.

At the close of the year the Jews, who had been forbidden England,

hopeful from the more liberal mercantile notions of Cromwell,

petitioned to be allowed to reside in this country, under certain

conditions. Cromwell was favourable to the petition, which was

presented by Manasseh Ben Israel, a leading Portuguese Jew, of

Amsterdam, though his Council was against it on Scriptural grounds;

but Cromwell silently took them under his protection. There was also

a Committee of Trade in the House, under the earnest advocacy of the

Protector, for promoting commerce. Meanwhile, Cromwell vigorously

prosecuted the war against Spain. Blake and Montague were ordered to

the coast of Spain, to destroy the shipping in the harbour of Cadiz,

and to see whether Gibraltar could not be seized, which Cromwell,

in his letters to the admirals, pointed out as admirably adapted

to promote and protect our trade, and keep the Spaniard in check.

Yet even this project was not carried out without trouble from the

Malcontents. Some of the captains of the fleet, tampered with by

Charles's emissaries, declared their disapproval of the enterprise,

contending that we, and not the Spaniards, were in fault. Cromwell

sent down Desborough to them, who weeded them out, and put others

in their places. Blake and Montague then set sail, and reached the

neighbourhood of Cadiz and Gibraltar in April, but found their defences

too strong; they then proceeded to Lisbon, and brought the treaty with

the Portuguese to a termination, and afterwards made an alarming visit

to Malaga, and to Sallee, to curb the Moors. In July they returned to

the Tagus, and in September a part of the fleet, under Captain Stayner,

fell in with and defeated a fleet of eight sail, coming from America.

He destroyed four of the vessels, and captured two, containing treasure

worth from two hundred and fifty thousand pounds to three hundred

thousand pounds.

Before this treasure reached England, Cromwell, who had exhausted his

finances to fit out the fleet and prosecute the war with Spain, was

compelled to call a Parliament, not only to obtain supplies, but to

take measures for the security of the nation against the designs of the

Royalists and their coadjutors, the Levellers. This met on the 17th of

September, 1656. But Cromwell did not allow all the members elected to

sit in this Parliament, any more than in the former ones. He knew well

that his Government and such a Parliament could not exist together.

The members elected, therefore, were not admitted to sit except they

had a certificate of their approval by the Council from the Chancery

clerk. By the withholding of such certificates nearly one-fourth of

the members were excluded. This created a terrible outcry of invasion

of Parliamentary privileges. Haselrig, Scott, Ashley Cooper, and many

other violent Republicans were excluded. The excluded members signed an

indignant protest, and circulated it in all parts of the country, with

the list of their names appended.

The Protector opened this purged Parliament with a very long speech,

which was one of the most remarkable speeches ever addressed to

Parliament by any ruler. It displayed a depth and breadth of policy,

an active, earnest spirit of national business, a comprehension of

and desire for the establishment of such principles and prosperous

measures, a recognition of the rights of the whole world as affected by

the conduct of this one great nation, which have no parallel for true

Christian philosophy since the days of Alfred. We have since then had

great and valiant warriors, our Edwards and Henrys, but not a man who

combined with the highest military genius and success a genuine, lofty,

and loving Christian sentiment, and an earnest business-like mind like

Cromwell. He at once laid down the principle that all hostility to

the Commonwealth originated in the hatred of its free and Christian

character; and he showed that all these enemies, of whatever theories,

had united themselves with Spain, which was the grand adversary of

this country, and had been so from the Reformation, because she was

bigotedly wedded to the system of Popery, with all its monks, Jesuits,

and inquisitors. He recapitulated its attempts to destroy Elizabeth and

her religion; the vain attempts of the Long Parliament to make peace

with it, because in any treaty where the Pope could grant absolution,

you were bound and they were loose; the murder of Ascham, the Long

Parliament's ambassador, and no redress obtained: and now he informed

them, and offered to produce the proofs, that Charles Stuart had

put himself in league with Spain, and, still more strange, that the

Levellers, pretending to demand a freer and more Republican Government,

had entered into the unnatural alliance with Charles and Spain to

murder him and destroy the Commonwealth.

[Illustration: ADMIRAL BLAKE.]

All this was perfectly true. Sexby, the Leveller, had gone over to

Charles, and thence to Spain, to solicit aid towards a Popish invasion,

offering first to kill Cromwell himself. He obtained forty thousand

crowns for the use of his party, and a promise of six thousand men when

they were ready to land in England, who should wait in Flanders. Some

of this money, when remitted to the accomplices in England, Cromwell

intercepted, as he assured the Parliament. Sexby followed to accomplish

his design of assassinating the Protector, as we shall find anon.

Cromwell proceeded to remind Parliament of the insurrections excited

by Charles's emissaries, Wagstaff and Rochester, and the conspiracy

of Gerard and Vowel, the outbreaks at Salisbury, Rufford Abbey, and

a score of other places; of Wildman taken in the act of penning his

call to rebellion, of the design to destroy Monk in Scotland, and of

similar instigations in the army in Ireland; of the plottings of the

Lord Taaffe with Hyde at Antwerp; and, finally, that there had been an

attempt to blow him up with gunpowder in his own house, and an officer

of the Guard had been engaged to seize him in his bed. These last he

characterised as "little fiddling attempts not worth naming," and which

he regarded no more than he did "a mouse nibbling at his heel." But

he told them that the animus altogether was of that un-English and

un-Christian character, that it became them to fight manfully against

it, and though they were low in funds, they should still put forth all

their energies to crush this malignant power of Spain, whence the other

enemies drew their strength. He informed them that France was well

disposed to them, and that all the rest of the world was at peace with

them.

He then assured them that the major-generals had done good service

in every quarter, that the improvement of the ministry had become

manifest through the exertions of the Commissioners, and that the

Presbyterians had themselves expressed their approbation of what had

been done in that respect. He strongly recommended to them further

equalisation and improvement of the laws, so that every one should have

cheap and easy justice, and that the purification of the public morals

should be carefully attended to--"the Cavalier interest, the badge and

character of continuing profaneness, disorder, and wickedness in all

places," having worked such deplorable effects. "Nobility and gentry

of this nation!" he exclaimed; "in my conscience it was a shame to be

a Christian, within these fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen years in this

nation; whether 'in Cæsar's house' or elsewhere! It was a shame, it

was a reproach to a man, and the badge of 'Puritan' was put on it." As

they would maintain nobility and gentry, he told them they must not

suffer these classes "to be patronisers or countenancers of debauchery

and disorders! And therefore," he concluded, "I pray and beseech you,

in the name of Christ, show yourselves to be men; quit yourselves

like men! It doth not infer any reproach if you do show yourselves

men--_Christian_ men, which alone will make you quit yourselves."

In the early days of the sitting of this Parliament--that is, in the

beginning of October--came the news of Stayner's victory over the

Spanish Plate fleet, and the capture of the treasure; and in the

beginning of November the money arrived, and thirty-eight waggon-loads

of silver were sent up from Portsmouth to the Mint to be coined, amid

universal rejoicings. Before the year closed, also, Cromwell, by the

help of Mazarin, effected a temporary separation of interests between

Charles Stuart and the Duke of York; but it did not last long. But by

this time Colonel Sexby was in England, watching his opportunity to

murder Cromwell. He was daring enough to introduce himself amongst the

Protector's escort in Hyde Park, and he and his accomplices had filed

nearly through the hinges of the gates through which the Protector was

accustomed to pass, so that they might create a sudden obstruction and

confusion, during which Sexby might shoot Cromwell. But not being able

to succeed to his mind, Sexby returned to Flanders to consult with the

royal party, and left sixteen hundred pounds in the hands of one Miles

Sindercomb, a cashiered quartermaster, who was to carry out the bloody

design. Sindercomb took a house in Hammersmith, where the road by

which the Protector passed to and from Hampton Court was very narrow,

and there he prepared an "infernal machine," consisting of a battery

of seven blunderbusses, which was to blow Cromwell's coach to atoms

as it passed; but the machine did not answer, or could not be used

from the crowd of Guards; and then Sindercomb resolved to set fire to

Whitehall by night, and kill Cromwell as he came out in the confusion.

He had bribed a great number of accomplices, many of them in the palace

itself, and had probably a considerable number of fellow conspirators,

for he had a hundred swift horses in stables in the neighbourhood, on

which he and his confederates might escape, the deed being done. All

this was with the privity and approbation of Charles, Clarendon, and

the rest of that Court, and shows the state of moral principle in it,

and which, after the Restoration, broke over England like a pestilence.

They were constantly dabbling in attempts at assassination, and in the

Clarendon papers themselves we have Clarendon's own repeated avowals of

his satisfaction in them. He styles these base assassins "brave fellows

and honest gentlemen," and thinks it a pity that any agent of the

Protectorate abroad should not have his throat cut.

But Sindercomb's wholesale bribery led to the detection of the plot.

Amongst those tampered with was Henry Toope, a Life Guardsman, who

revealed the scheme. On the 8th of January, 1657, Sindercomb attended

public worship in the evening at Whitehall Chapel. Toope, Cecil--who

had been engaged in the construction of the infernal machine--and

Sindercomb were arrested, and having been seen about General Lambert's

seat, it was examined, and there was found a basketful of the most

inflammable materials--strong enough, it was said, to burn through

stones--and a lighted slow-burning match, calculated to reach the

combustibles about midnight. There were found also holes bored in the

wainscot, to facilitate the communication of the fire, and of draughts

to encourage it. Toope and Cecil gave all the information that they

could, but Sindercomb was obstinately silent, and being found guilty by

a jury of high treason, was condemned to die on Saturday, the 13th. But

the evening before, his sister taking leave of him, contrived to carry

some poison to him, and the next morning he was found dead in his bed.

Parliament adjourned a week for the trial and examination of the plot,

and appointed a day of thanksgiving on Friday, the 23rd. But though

Sindercomb was dead, Sexby was alive, and as murderously inclined as

ever, and to prevent interrupting other affairs, we may now follow him

also to his exit. Though neither fleet nor money was ready to follow

up the blow if successful, the gloomy Anabaptist once more set out for

England with a tract in his possession, called "Killing no Murder,"

which was no doubt his own composition, though Colonel Titus, after

the Restoration, claimed the merit of it. This tract, taking it as a

settled fact that it was a noble piece of patriotism and virtue to kill

a tyrant, pronounced Cromwell a tyrant, and therefore declared that it

was a noble deed to kill him. It eulogised Sindercomb as the Brutus

or Cato of the time. Sexby, disguised like a countryman, and with a

large beard, travelled about distributing this pamphlet, but he was

tracked, discovered, and lodged in the Tower. There he either went mad

or pretended it, made a voluntary confession, found to be intended only

to mislead, and, falling ill, died in the following January.

One of the first things which this second Parliament of the

Protectorate did was to abolish the authority of the major-generals.

Cromwell had assured them that they were doing good service in

suppressing disturbances, and he told them so again; but there were

many complaints of their rigour, especially of levying heavy fines on

the Royalists; and Parliament, on the 29th of January, voted their

withdrawal. The next matter, which occupied them for above three

months, was the case of James Naylor, the mad Quaker, whom they

sentenced to a punishment that was simply diabolical in its inhumanity.

Before this was settled, Parliament entered on a far more momentous

question--no less than whether they should not make Cromwell king.

Those who take an unfavourable view of the character of Cromwell, who

regard him as a base mixture of hypocrisy and ambition, accuse him of

having planned and manœuvred for this object; but there appears no

evidence of this, but rather that the continual uneasiness created by

the Royalist and Anabaptist assassins led many seriously to consider

the peculiar position of the nation, and the great dangers to which

it was exposed. There was nothing between the nation and all its old

confusions but the life of one clear-headed, and strong-hearted, and

strong-handed man, a life which was environed with perils. They deemed

these dangers would be diminished by altering the form of government,

and returning to a House of Lords and a Monarchy--but not to the

corrupt and murder-seeking Stuarts. Had they their honest and earnest

Protector converted into a king, and the succession settled on his

family, the nation would jealously guard his life, and the hopes of the

exiled family be diminished by the prospect of a successor of his own

blood, even if he fell.

On the 23rd of February, 1657, suddenly Sir Christopher Pack, late

Lord Mayor of London, craved leave to read a paper, which turned out

to be drawn up in the form of a Remonstrance from Parliament to the

Protector on the state of the country, and proposing a new form of

government, including a House of Lords and himself as king. No sooner

did the officers of the army, who had just lost their pro-consular

dignity, and the other Republicans hear the proposition, than they

rose, seized Pack, and hurried him from his seat to the bar of the

House as a traitor. But those who were friendly to the proposition rose

also in his defence, and after much commotion, the paper was not only

read but debated. From this moment this subject occupied the House,

with little intermission, till the 9th of May, or between two and three

months. The title of the paper was changed from "A humble Address and

Remonstrance," to "The humble Petition and Advice of the Parliament of

England, Scotland, and Ireland." Its clauses were debated and carried

one by one by a majority of a hundred to forty-four, and on the last

day of the debate, March 26th, the blank left for the word king was

filled in by a majority of one hundred and twenty-three to sixty-two.

On the 31st of March an address was carried to the Protector at

Whitehall by the Speaker and the House, praying that his Highness would

be pleased to adopt their resolutions, and take upon him the state and

title of king.

Unquestionably, this was the greatest temptation which had ever been

thrown in the way of Cromwell. To have made his way by his energy

and talent from the simple condition of a gentleman-farmer to the

Dictatorship of the nation, and now to have the crown and succession

of these great kingdoms offered to him and his family by Parliament,

was a matter which would not have been much opposed by an ordinary man.

But Cromwell was not of a character lightly to accept even a crown.

He showed clearly that he had a strong inclination to place himself

and his posterity in that august position, but he knew too well that

the honour had also its dangers and its black side. His acceptance

would at once darken his fair fame by settling it in the conviction

of three-fourths of the kingdom that he had only fought and put down

the Stuarts to set up himself. There was, moreover, a formidable

party opposed to kingship, and especially decided against it were his

generals and the army. A deputation of a hundred of them had waited

on him on the 27th, with an address on the subject, in which they

assured him that such a thing would be "a scandal to the people, would

prove more than hazardous to his person, and would pave the way for

the return of Charles Stuart." Let the nation but become once more

accustomed to the name of king, and it would recall the ancient race on

the first opportunity.

Cromwell felt too well the truth of these representations, and

therefore he required of the House time to reflect on their important

offer, though he had watched carefully the progress of the debate.

He desired that a committee might be appointed to confer with him

on all the articles of the new Instrument of Government proposed to

him. A committee of ninety-nine persons was accordingly appointed,

amongst them Whitelock, Glynn, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Broghill,

Nathaniel Fiennes, one of the Keepers of the Great Seal, etc. They had

many meetings, but Cromwell, instead of giving his opinion upon the

subject, desired to know their reasons for recommending this change.

The chief reasons advanced were, the ancient habits of the nation; that

the people were proud of the honour of their monarchs; that that form

of government had prevailed from the most ancient period, and what no

doubt weighed greatly with them was that, by the 9th of Edward IV. and

the 3rd of Henry VII., it was enacted that all who took up arms for or

obeyed the king _de facto_, were held guiltless; but not so they who

served a protector _de facto_.

Cromwell admitted that this was a matter of precaution which demanded

serious consideration, and that he regarded the proposal to him as "a

very singular honour and favour," and would return such an answer as

God should give him, or as he should arrive at through discussion

with them; but that his conscience yet was not clear upon the subject,

and they must examine the grounds for it further. Whitelock says the

Protector often advised about this matter of the kingship, and other

great businesses, with a select number of the committee--Lord Broghill,

Mr. Pierpoint, brother of the Earl of Kingston, Thurloe, Whitelock,

and Sir Charles Wolseley,--and would be shut up three or four hours

together, and none else were admitted to him. He sometimes would be

very cheerful with them, and, laying aside his greatness, would be

exceedingly familiar; and, by way of diversion, would make verses and

play at crambo with them, when every one had to try his fancy. He

commonly called for tobacco, pipes, and a caudle, and would now and

then take tobacco himself. Then he would fall again to his serious and

great business of the kingship.

They were interrupted, however, in their colloquies, by a fresh

outbreak of the Fifth-Monarchy men. These religionists, who admitted

the idea of no king but Christ, were especially exasperated at this

attempt to set up an earthly king, and determined to rise and prevent

it. They fixed Thursday, the 9th of April, for the rising. They issued

a proclamation called "A Standard set up," ordered Mile End as the

place of rendezvous, and, headed by one Venner, a wine merchant, and

other persons of the City, calculated on introducing the reign of

the Millennium. They encouraged each other, says Thurloe, with the

exhortation that though they were but worms, yet they should be made

instrumental to thresh mountains. They spoke, he says, great words of

the reign of the saints, and the beautiful kingdom of holies which they

were to erect, and talked of taking away all taxes, excise, custom, and

tithes. They had banners painted with the device of the lion of the

tribe of Judah, and the motto, "Who shall raise him up?"

But the wide-awake Thurloe had watched all their motions. That morning

at daybreak he marched a troop of horse down upon the meeting at

Mile End, seized Venner and twenty other ringleaders, with chests of

arms, many copies of the proclamation, and the famous war-flag of

the lion-couchant of Judah. Major-General Harrison, Admiral Lawson,

Colonel Rich, and others of the leaders of the Fifth-Monarchy men were

also seized, and with these men shut up in the Tower, but no further

punished. Venner ended his days for a similar attempt in the reign of

Charles II.

[Illustration: CROMWELL REFUSING THE CROWN. (_See p._ 142.)]

The discussions of Cromwell and the committee were resumed, and,

without coming to any conclusion, on Tuesday, the 21st of April, the

Protector suddenly left the consideration of the kingship, and examined

the other articles of the Instrument. The chief of these were, that

men of all classes should be capable of electing and being elected to

Parliament or to offices of State, excepting Papists and Royalists,

styled Malignants, at least such Royalists as had been in arms against

the Parliament since 1642, unless they had since given signal proof

of repentance by bearing arms for the Parliament; all who had been

concerned in the Irish rebellion since 1650, or in any plot in England

or Wales since December, 1653; all in Scotland who had been in arms

against the Parliament of England or Parliament of Scotland, except

such as had lived peaceably since the 1st of March, 1652. Besides those

thus excluded, all freeholders of counties, and all burgesses and

citizens of towns--constituting in fact a household suffrage--could

vote for members of Parliament.

All who were atheistical, blasphemous, married to Popish wives, or who

trained children, or suffered their children to be trained in Popery,

or consented that their children should marry Papists, who scoffed at

religion or at religious people, who denied the Scriptures to be God's

Word, who denied the Sacraments, ministers, or magistracy to be divine

ordinances (like the Fifth-Monarchy men), who were Sabbath-breakers,

swearers, haunters of taverns and alehouses--in short, all who were

unchristian men--were excluded from electing or being elected. All

public preachers were excluded, as better employed in their own

vocation, but at the recommendation of Cromwell this was restricted to

such preachers as had fixed livings, and did not affect mere voluntary

occasional preachers, like himself and many other officers.

A second House of Parliament was to be organised, to consist of

not less than forty members, nor more than seventy, who were to be

nominated by the Protector, and approved by the Commons. It was not

to be called the House of Lords, nor the Upper, but the Other House.

The same qualifications and disqualifications applied to it as to the

Commons. All judges and public officers, as well as those of the army

and navy, were to be approved of by the two Houses; or if Parliament

were not sitting, by the Council. Another article settled the revenue,

and all relating to it and--the most important one to the Protector--he

was authorised to name his successor before his death. These matters

being settled, and the Instrument revised by Parliament, on the 8th of

May Cromwell summoned the House to meet him in the Banqueting-house,

Whitehall, where he ratified the rest of the Instrument, but gave them

this answer as to the kingship--that having taken all the circumstances

into consideration, both public and private, he did not feel at liberty

in his conscience to accept the government with the title of king;

that whatever was not of faith was sin; and that not being satisfied

that he could accept it in that form to the real advantage of the

nation, he should not be an honest man if he did not firmly--but

with every acknowledgment of the infinite obligations they had laid

him under--decline it. This was his answer to that great and weighty

business.

Whitelock assures us that Cromwell at one time had been satisfied in

his private judgment that he might accept the royal title, but that the

formidable opposition of the officers of the army had shown him that it

might lead to dangerous and deplorable results, and that therefore he

believed it better to waive it. Whatever the motives, whether those of

conscience or prudence, or both, inciting the Protector, he surmounted

his temptation, and decided with the firmness characteristic of him.

Major-Generals Whalley, Goffe, and Berry are said to have been for

his acceptance of the crown; Desborough and Fleetwood were strenuous

against it, but Lambert, temporising, appearing to approve whilst he

was secretly opposing, and at length coming out strong against it, was

the only one whom Cromwell visited with his displeasure. He dismissed

him, but with a pension of two thousand pounds a year, and Lambert

retired to Wimbledon, where it had been happy for him had he remained

in quiet.

On the 26th of June, 1657, the grand ceremony of the inauguration

of the Protector as the head of this new Government took place in

Westminster Hall. The Protector went thither from Whitehall by

water, and entered the hall in the following manner:--First went his

gentlemen, then a herald, next the aldermen, another herald, then

Norroy, the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, and the Great Seal

carried by Commissioner Fiennes, then Garter, and after him the Earl

of Warwick, with the sword borne before the Protector, bareheaded,

the Lord Mayor carrying the City sword at his left hand. Being seated

in his chair, on the left hand of it stood the Lord Mayor and the

Dutch ambassador; on the right the French ambassador and the Earl of

Warwick; next behind him stood his son Richard and his sons-in-law

Claypole and Fleetwood, and the Privy Council. Upon a lower platform

stood the Lord Viscount Lisle, Lord Montague, and Whitelock, with drawn

swords. As the Protector stood under the cloth of State, the Speaker

presented him with a robe of purple velvet, lined with ermine, which

the Speaker and Whitelock put upon him. Then the Speaker presented him

with a Bible richly gilt and bossed, girt the sword about his Highness,

and delivered into his hand the sceptre of massy gold. Having done

this, he made the Protector an address, and finally administered the

oath. Then Mr. Manton, one of the chaplains, in prayer recommended

his Highness, the Parliament, the Council, the forces by land and

sea, and the whole Government and the people of the three nations to

the blessing and protection of God. On that the trumpets sounded, the

heralds proclaimed his Highness Protector of England, Scotland, and

Ireland; and again the trumpets sounded, and the people shouted, "God

save the Protector!" This closed the ceremony, and the Protector and

his train returned to Whitehall as they came.

The ceremony, it is clear, fell little short of a royal ceremony, with

the exception of the crown and the anointing. Charles Stuart might have

used the words of James of Scotland to Johnny Armstrong--"What lacks

this knave that a king should have?" With the exception of the name of

king, Cromwell, the farmer, was become the monarch of Great Britain and

Ireland. He had all the power, and inhabited the palaces of kings. He

had the right to place his son in the supreme seat after him; and one

whole House of Parliament was of his own creation, while the other was

purged to his express satisfaction.

Cromwell had not enjoyed his new dignity more than about six weeks,

when he received the news of the death of his great Admiral Blake.

His health had been for some time decaying. Scurvy and dropsy were

fast destroying him, yet to the last he kept his command at sea, and

finished his career with one of the most brilliant victories which had

ever been achieved. During the winter and spring he maintained the

blockade of Cadiz, but learning that the Plate fleet had taken refuge

in the harbour of Santa Cruz, in the Island of Teneriffe, he made sail

thither. He found the fleet drawn up under the guns of seven batteries

in the harbour, which was shaped like a horseshoe. The merchantmen,

ten in number, were ranged close inshore, and the galleons, in number

and of greater force than any of his own ships, placed in front of

them. It was a sight--seven forts, a castle, and sixteen ships--to have

daunted any man but Blake. Don Diego Darques, the Spanish admiral, was

so confident of the impregnable nature of his position, that he sent

Blake word to come and take his vessels. "But," says Clarendon, "the

illustrious genius of Blake was admired even by the hostile faction of

his countrymen. He was the first man that declined the old track, and

made it manifest that the science might be obtained in less time than

was imagined; and despised those rules which had been long in practice,

to keep his ship and men out of danger, which had been held in former

times a point of great ability and circumspection, as if the principal

art requisite in the captain of a ship had been to be sure to come safe

home again; the first man who brought the ships to contemn castles on

shore, which had been thought ever very formidable; the first that

infused that portion of courage into the seamen, by making them see

what mighty things they could do if they were resolved, and taught them

to fight in fire as well as upon water."