of England was, in his hands, uniformly exerted to shield the Protestant churches all over Europe.

His administration was marked by the strength of his own steady and vigorous mind. He had no fear of his power, and was not, therefore, jealous of popular encroachments. He gave the country a constitution far more liberal than any which had preceded it; equalized the representative system in a manner which even Clarendon commends; gave parliament a voice in the appointment of his ministers; yielded up the entire legislative authority without even reserving the veto power; and was the first statesman who conceived the idea of religious toleration. It is worthy of remark, too, that his institutions became more and more liberal as his power was established; and, had he lived, we doubt not that the arbitrary features of his government would have entirely disappeared.

No administration was ever more respected abroad. "The lord protector's government," writes a Brussels correspondent in Thurloe, "makes England more formidable and considerable to all nations than ever it has been in my time." His acute mind readily discovered where lay the great source of England's prosperity and power, and his zeal for commerce surpassed that of all the sovereigns who had preceded him. The impulse given by his potent hand to the prosperity of England is felt, even down to the present time.

His "besotted fanaticism," as his enemies are pleased to call his attachment to religion, never clouded his perceptions of the public good. He surrounded himself with men of the highest ability and integrity, and his court combined regal dignity and state with the strictest sobriety, temperance, and good order. He was also tolerant toward his opponents, and, where no doubts were entertained respecting their integrity, he often raised them to place and power. Blake, who made the English flag so terrible during his ascendency; Hale, the renowned and incorruptible judge; Burnett, the Scotch jurist; and Lockhart, the celebrated French ambassador, were all stanch opponents of the protectorate, but owed their elevation to his favor.

The cup of power, which so intoxicated Napoleon, produced no such effect on Cromwell. Those successes which seduced the Frenchman into endless wars, and finally led to his overthrow, had no power over the practical mind of the great Englishman. Although he never looked on war till more than forty years old, yet he never fought a battle without gaining a victory, and never gained a victory without annihilating his foe. Although no states

man till he was thrust at the head of the English government, yet his eagle eye watched over every department of the public business, and he was as successful in his foreign negotiations and foreign wars as he had been at the head of an army. No prosperity made him vain, no adversity fretted him; but in the storm of battle and on a bed of sickness he was equally ready to ascribe all to the favor and goodness of God; and he went down to the grave in the fullness of his power, in his own house, and surrounded by his family and friends.

Although the government ultimately fell back into the hands of the Stuarts, yet Cromwell's splendid administration was remembered, and the revolution of 1688, regarded as so glorious an era in English history, was the direct fruit of his labors. The people were never entirely satisfied with his government; yet when the weak and corrupt sons of the late king returned to power, followed by retinues of profligate and debauched courtiers; "when the Dutch cannon startled an effeminate tyrant in his own palace; when the conquests which had been made by the armies of Cromwell were sold to pamper the harlots of Charles; when Englishmen were sent to fight under the banners of France against the independence of Europe and the Protestant religion; many honest hearts swelled in secret at the thought of one who had never suffered his country to be ill used by any but himself." The comparison was too humiliating to the honest heart of the English people, and they arose in their wrath and expelled the tyrant from their throne, and invited a foreign prince to take his place.

One of the greatest faults of the work of M. Guizot, placed at the head of this article, is the flippancy with which it speaks of Cromwell's hypocrisy, fanaticism, and ambition. At one time he is a "fanatic;" then he is "devoured by ambition and doubt;" then he "hypocritically affects moderation," &c., &c. It is true that words like these are so familiar in all English history, that a foreigner may well be excused for using them; but we have looked through his pages with great care to find facts to sustain such language, and have looked in vain. We have already expressed our opinion in regard to the charges of ambition; and, although our article is unreasonably long, yet we cannot part with the reader till we have said a word as to his "hypocrisy."

Mr. Carlyle has, we think, given to the world the materials for making up an intelligent opinion on this subject. We refer to Cromwell's letters. It is in his family, in private intercourse with familiar friends, and in hasty notes and letters, that a man breathes

• Macauley.

out his soul. It is impossible for any one always to sustain an assumed character. He may do so in his robes of office, in his state papers and public correspondence; but to confidential friends, and in the bosom of his family, nature will speak out-the true man will be revealed. Hence the public are always desirous to get hold of the private correspondence of statesmen and politicians. Hence the rapid sale of the late work of William Lyon M'Kenzie, containing private letters from Mr. Van Buren, Mr. Butler, &c. We have seen Laud tried in this way, and condemned. His letters to Strafford are said to be free from even the ear-marks of piety. Charles was notorious for the discrepancy between his public acts and his private thoughts-his solemn negotiations and his letters to his queen. Even Washington, in his letters to his brother, expressed apprehensions respecting the termination of the American war which were breathed to no other individual.

Now we have looked carefully through all the letters of Cromwell, contained in Carlyle's book, written to his wife, his daughters, his sons, &c., &c., with the view of detecting the cant and hypocrisy about which we have heard so much; and the conclusion to which we have come is, that he was a man eminently earnest and sincere, deeply imbued with a sense of his responsibility to God and his duty toward his fellow-man, and looking to the great tribunal in another world as the place to which he was to render his account and receive his reward.

Cromwell professed to be a Christian; he attended to the public and private duties of religion; he had his daily hours for reading the Scriptures, and for meditation and prayer; he was blameless in his deportment; a strict observer of the sabbath; spoke publicly in religious meetings, and contributed immense sums annually in charities: but it is contended that all these observances were put on for sinister purposes, and used to preserve the favor of his party and assist him in his ambitious projects.

But hypocrisy, however perfect the cloak may be, will not sustain a man in sickness and other trials; it will not give him confidence in God; it will not make him solicitous about the spiritual life of his wife and children; it will not support him in the hour of death. Did Cromwell feign all these things? Was his earnestness played off for long years by way of effect? Did he carry the deception into the bosom of his family and among his children? Did it go with him down to the grave? The thing is too absurd to admit of belief for a moment.

That Cromwell was often mistaken, we do not doubt. His character, like that of Luther, Knox, Calvin, and the other early

reformers, partook of the enthusiasm of the times; and he regarded himself as fighting for the success of religion, and deliverance from Popish and ecclesiastical tyranny, and looked upon his successes as evidences of the divine favor: but surely these errors, if errors they were, are no proof of his insincerity, but show rather that he is everywhere, and in all things, conscious of the pervading presence of the Most High.

His mother was an eminent servant of God, and his children generally manifested a deep interest in the subject of religion. They all came to him for advice and counsel, and formed together a most affectionate and agreeable household. The industrious Thurloe, in one of his diplomatic dispatches, casually remarks: "My lord protector's mother, of ninety-four years old, died last night. A little before her death she gave my lord her blessing in these words: 'The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and comfort you in all your adversities, and enable you to do great things for the glory of your most high God, and to be a relief unto his people. My dear son, I leave my heart with you. Good night!' and thus sunk into her last sleep."

The subject of religion appeared ever to be uppermost in his thoughts, and pervades his entire correspondence. Whether he wrote to Bradshaw, the president of council; to Blake, the great sea-king; to Lenthall, speaker of the commons; to Fleetwood, his general-in-chief in Ireland; or to his wife and children at home, he is always the same-always urging the importance of the spiritual life, and the transient and unsatisfactory nature of all worldly good. In a letter to Bradshaw he says:

-

"Indeed, my lord, your service needs me not. I am a poor creature, and have been a dry bone, and am still an unprofitable servant to my Master and to you. I thought I should have died of this fit of sickness, but the Lord seemeth to dispose otherwise. Truly, my lord, I desire not to live unless I may obtain mercy from the Lord to approve my heart and life to him in more faithfulness and thankfulness."

"We have been lately taught that it is not in man to direct his way. Indeed, all the dispensations of God, whether adverse or prosperous, do fully read that lesson. We can no more turn away the evil, as we call it, than attain the good; and therefore Solomon's counsel of doing what we have to do with all our might, and getting our hearts wholly submitted, if not to rejoicing, at least to contentment with whatever shall be dispensed by him, is worthy to be received by us."

To Fleetwood, who married his daughter, and was now his general in Ireland, he says:—

"My heart is for the people of God; that the Lord knoweth, and will in due time manifest. Yet thence are my wounds; which, though it grieve me, yet, through the grace of God, doth not discourage me totally.... Dear Charles, my dear love to thee and to my dear Biddy, [his daughter,] who is a joy to my heart for what I hear of the Lord in her.... Pray for me, that the Lord would direct and keep me his servant. I bless the Lord I am not my own. But my condition, to flesh and blood, is very hard. Pray for me."

Carlyle, in copying this letter, exclaims, in his own peculiar way :

66

Courage, my brave Oliver! thou hast but some three years more of it, and then the coils and puddles of this earth, and of its unthankful doggery of a population, are all behind thee; and Carrion Heath, and Chancelor Hyde, [Clarendon,] and Charles Stuart, the Christian king, can work their will; for thou hast done with it; thou art above it in the serene azure for evermore."

In a letter to his wife, he thus speaks of another of his daughters :

"Mind poor Betty, of the Lord's great mercy. O! I desire her not only to seek the Lord in her necessity, but in deed and in truth to turn to him, keep close to him, and take heed of a departing heart, and of being cozened with worldly vanities and worldly company, which I doubt she is too subject to. I earnestly and frequently pray for her, and for him, [her husband.] Truly they are dear to me, very dear, and I am in fear lest Satan should deceive them."

To his daughter, Mrs. Ireton, who afterward married Fleetwood, he says:

"Who ever tasted that the Lord is gracious without some sense of self, vanity, and badness? Who ever tasted that graciousness of his and became less desirous, less anxious, to press after full enjoyment? Dear heart, press on. Let not husband, let not anything, cool thy affection after Christ. I hope he will be an occasion to inflame them. That which is best worthy of love in him is the image of Christ he bears. Look on that and love it best, and all the rest for that."

Another letter to his wife, written after the battle of Dunbar, has these words :

"The Lord hath showed us an exceeding mercy: who can tell how great it is! my weak faith hath been upheld. I have been in my inward man marvelously supported, though I assure thee I grow an old man, and feel the infirmities of age stealing upon me. Would my corruptions did as fast decrease! Pray on my behalf!"

At a still later period he writes:

"It joys me to hear thy soul prospereth. The Lord increase his favors to thee more and more. The greatest good thy soul can wish