William the Conqueror. The arms of the English were more successful in the 17th century than Harold's had been. There was not then a battle of Hastings, but there was, alas! a battle of Whitehall; and in this struggle also a king perished. The king of Hastings contended with his people against the foreigner; the king of Whitehall fought with the foreigner against his own people. The result of the one was the subjugation of England; of the other, its deliverance. The contest which ruined the Stuarts was the defeat of modern despotism, of the French spirit, and of the papal supremacy. The history of absolutism in England was an ephemeral romance, a French novel, which has served as the ground-work of other romances and graphic novels in more recent days.

But was this its only use?......Undoubtedly not; there were others certainly of greater importance. The onset of absolutism awoke English liberty, which lay sleeping, and which would have slept longer still, and all Europe with it. But this violent blow aroused her: she rose, she stood erect, as she is to this day, and will remain so, Deo juvante, until the end of time. Liberty did more than simply awake from her slumbers. Retempered in modern times, she started up stronger, more complete, and more profound. This awakening was almost a new creation. Perhaps this interlude of despotism, accompanied à la Française with music and dancing, was destined to be placed between these two liberties,......of the Middle Ages

and of modern times, in order to decide their transformation.

It was necessary that all the elements of feudality, of corporations, of classes, whose rights and privileges constituted the liberty of the Middle Ages, should be mingled and confounded together, in order that a new power,......the power of the common-law, should rise above and rule over them. The liberty of the Great Charter and of the Middle Ages was, in an especial manner, that of the aristocracy. The liberty of the people was now to be inaugurated. The charter of the thirteenth century was the emancipation of the barons; the revolution of the seventeenth century was the manumission of the commons. Freedom is as necessary for the people as for the peers. The commons had been too long trodden under foot alike by prince and baron. They then took their place at the side of these two powers, and there Westminster still beholds them seated and enjoying great influence. The nobles had often been more despotic over the people, than the king. Do we not see this, even in the present day, in Scotland, where, while the crown asserts and nobly maintains religious liberty, a small number of landed proprietors, among whom are men of noble character and of great respectability, refuses to a portion of the poor the liberty of assembling in peace to sing their psalms and worship God?*

* The refusal of sites, against which some of the chiefs of the present ministry have protested in the Commons.

Notwithstanding the revolution of the seventeenth century and the two centuries which have since elapsed, aristocratic despotism is not entirely effaced in Great Britain; and while, generally speaking, liberty has no more noble defenders than the powerful lords who are to be found immediately below the throne, there are still here and there in certain castles a few dark recesses, in which absolutism lies concealed. But it is at its last gasp; it can no longer defend itself, and the attack made upon it by the progress of the age will no doubt soon drive it from its gloomy lair, to be sacrificed in the open light of day. I may be mistaken, but I hope the victim will fall by the hands of these noble lords themselves.

Thus the French absolutism, thrust by the Stuarts on the people of England, produced the effect of those iced waters which, being poured over the body, excite immediately a powerful reaction, increase the circulation of the blood, and give to the entire man a new warmth and a new life.

The despotism of Charles I. brought on the transition from an imperfect state which still lived on privileges, to a real and rational state in which liberty was proclaimed a common good.

If Charles began this transformation by following the lessons of despotism, which he had learnt of a popish court, Oliver Cromwell accomplished it by the principles of Christianity and true liberty, which he had found in the Gospel.

He accomplished it not only by spurring the coursers so long as they had to climb the hill, but by holding them back when the summit was reached and they had to descend. It will no doubt be urged that he sometimes had recourse to the same means as Charles I., and that he also could dismiss the Commons. We do not absolve him from all blame; but it should be remembered, that the same act in different circumstances may have very contrary meanings. By sad experience in our age, the idea has become a truism, that liberty may be preserved, not only by combating despotism, but also by saving it from its own excesses. The soldier who defends his flag against the enemies who attack him in front, may afterwards face round and defend it from those who attack him from behind. He has certainly turned his back; but he still wields his sword in the same cause; he is still faithful to the same colours.

CHAPTER IX.

ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.

Necessity of Organization-Ecclesiastical Commission-Errors-Impartiality-Baxter's Testimony-Cromwell's-The State-Discontents-Letter to Fleetwood-Bridget's Anxiety-Indulgence-The Major-Generals-Cromwell's System in Ireland-Official and Popular Protestantism-Puritan Mannerism-A better Christianity.

CROMWELL was not the only one who thought he had received a call from heaven many of the greatest men of the kingdom were of the same opinion. Milton in particular believed that the Protectorate was a thing required by the necessities of the times and the everlasting laws of justice, and that the Protector ought now to fulfil the duties of the charge to which he had been summoned by the nation, like a christian hero, as he had been used to do in things of less importance. It is an honour to Oliver to have received this testimony of respect and approbation from the