France." Upon which the merchant came and told me what had passed between them; and thereby found myself under a necessity of trusting him. But I took no kind of notice of it presently to him; but thinking it convenient not to let him go home, lest he should be asking advice of his wife, or anybody else, we kept him with us in the inn, and sat up all night drinking beer and taking tobacco with him. And here I also ran another very great danger, as being confident I was known by the master of the inn, for as I was standing, | after supper, by the fireside, leaning my hand upon a chair, and all the rest of the company being gone into another room, the master of the inn came in, and fell a talking with me, and just as he was looking about and saw there was nobody in the room, he, upon a sudden, kissed my hand that was upon the back of the chair, and said to me, "God bless you wheresoever you go; I do not doubt, before I die, but to be a lord, and my wife a lady:" so I laughed and went away into the next room, not desiring then any further discourse with him, there being no remedy against my being known by him, and more discourse might have but raised suspicion. On which consideration, I thought it best for to trust him in that manner, and he proved very honest. About four o'clock in the morning, myself and the company before named went towards Shoreham, taking the master of the ship with us, on horseback, behind one of our company, and came to the vessel's side, which was not above sixty ton. But it being low water, and the vessel lying dry, I and my Lord Wilmot got up with a ladder into her, and went and lay down in the little cabin, till the tide came to fetch us off. But I was no sooner got into the ship, and lain down upon the bed, but the master came in to me, fell down upon his knees, and kissed my hand; telling me that he knew me very well, and would venture life, and all that he had in the world, to set me down safe in France. CROMWELL'S USURPATION. (Compiled from Contemporary Accounts.) A.D. 1553. No character affords to historians and moralists more ground of discussion than that of Cromwell; and seldom are the springs of action so little clear, as in the case of his high-handed dismissal of the fag-end of the famous Long Parliament. It is, perhaps, as difficult for us to be certain of his real motives, as it was for less able men of that time to discern the necessities of the situation. Reading his life in any other than a partisan light, we are perplexed by the way in which love of power, religious enthusiasm now apparently bordering upon fanaticism now upon hypocrisy, natural force of will, and impatience of incapacity, seem to shift and blend in him like the hues of a chameleon. But whether his proceedings were dictated wholly by ambition, or wholly by zeal for the welfare of his country, or wholly, as is more probable, by neither; whether, after the king's death, the dislocation of the Constitution was too serious to be reduced by other than an heroic operation; there can be little question that the last scene of the Lord-General's disputes with the parliament displays only too plainly the coarseness and violence which were part of his nature, as of the nature of most men who in troubled times have put themselves at the head of affairs, and which, in his instance, have gone unusually far towards obscuring the brilliant services unquestionably rendered by him to the cause of our liberties. After the battle of Worcester, Cromwell called a meeting of prominent members of parliament and officers of the army, to consider and advise upon the settlement of the nation. In Whitelocke's account of this meeting, we have the varying opinions expressed as to the form of government which seemed most desirable to each, the civilians inclining to a limited monarchy, the soldiers to a republic. The most sensible thing said was by Colonel Fleetwood :— I think that the question, whether an absolute republic or a mixed monarchy be best to be settled in this nation, will not be | ed on him, and he began the disvery easy to be determined." course between us, which was to this effect. And, indeed, nothing was determined. The breach between the army and the parliament went on widening. The latter, as is the nature of all such bodies, was divided, dilatory, hesitating. The former, rendered audacious by victory and united to maintain its influence in the State, found a fit representative in Cromwell, who knew his own mind, and probably hiding a clear purpose under the cloud of suggestions, promptings, and doubts with which he affected to discuss the settlement of affairs, awaited the proper moment to interfere in the scene of confusion and uncertainty. Towards the end of next year, a most remarkable conversation is reported as taking place between Cromwell and Whitelocke. He was one of these cautious, compliant men who are the servants, as Cromwells and Napoleons are the masters of revolution; and no one else could be more fitly sounded as to the probable attitude of public opinion towards the step which, if he speaks the truth, Cromwell was already meditating. This is his account: "It was about this time, in a fair evening, I being walking in St. James's Park to refresh myself after busi- | ness of toil and for a little exercise, that the Lord-General Cromwell meeting with me, saluted me with more than ordinary courtesy, and desired me to walk aside with him, that we might have some private discourse together; I wait "My Lord Whitelocke, I know your faithfulness and engagement in the same good cause with myself and the rest of my friends, and I know your ability in judgment, and your particular friendship and affection for me, indeed I am sufficiently satisfied in these things; and therefore I desire to advise with you in the main and most important affairs relating to our present condition." Whitelocke describes himself and the general as bandying compliments with each other in this strain for a little; but soon the flattered Lord Commissioner such was his office- comes to business, touching on a point which is not what Cromwell wants to come to. My lord, I look upon our present danger as greater than ever it was in the field, and (as your Excellency truly observes) our proneness to destroy ourselves when our enemies could not do it. It is no strange thing for a gallant army (as yours is) to grow into factious and ambitious designs, and it is a wonder to me that they are not in high mutinies, their spirits being active, and few thinking their services to be duly rewarded, and the emulation of the officers breaking out daily more and more, in this time of their vacancy from employment." Cromwell declared hereupon, that he did his best to keep the army in order; and tried to turn and to effect that, have undergone all difficulties and hazards," says Whitelocke, mindful perhaps of Hampden's grave. the blame of the bad state of us on the hopes of having the affairs upon the parliament, bit-government settled in a free state, terly complaining of their selfseeking, their factiousness, their delays of business, and the scandalously immoral lives of some of the chief of them. And the worst of it was, that being the supreme power of the nation, they could not be called to account. "So that unless there be some authority and power so full and high as to restrain and keep things in better order, it will be impossible in human reason to prevent our ruin." Whitelocke agrees, deplores, but points out that this is the difficulty, that the parliament is the supreme power, "your commission being from them." Then Cromwell ceases to beat about the bush. "What if a man should take on him to be king?" "I think," said Whitelocke promptly, and without showing any surprise, "that remedy would be worse than the disease." "Why do you think so?" asks the Lord-General, and his counsellor goes on to give reasons which look like the fruit of previous reflection on the subject. To assume the crown is impossible, but the cunning lawyer has an idea of his own, which with due apology and introduction he will disclose, with a little preface of apology and self-depreciation. "You are environed with secret enemies," he tells Cromwell. "The officers of your army account themselves all victors, and to have had an equal share in the conquest with you. The success which God hath given us hath not a little elated their minds, and many of them are busy and of turbulent spirits, and are not without their designs how they may dismount your Excellency, and some of themselves get up into the saddle." Cromwell thanks him for his frankness, reminds him that their interests are bound up together, and that "those that plot my ruin will hardly bear your continuance in any condition worthy of you.” With this spur to his zeal for Cromwell's cause, will Whitelocke come to the point and say in plain words what he proposes? Then in plain words Whitelocke relates himself as proposing that Cromwell should treat with "the King of Scots," who, being in a low condition, would doubtless be willing to guarantee the lives and fortunes of Cromwell and "As to your own person, the title of king would be no advantage, because you have the full kingly power in you already concerning the militia, as you are general. Cromwell is in reality the chief power of the State; but his power will be jeopardised if he seeks to make it too apparent by the use of the royal title. Most his friends. Let Charles be king of our friends have engaged with | in name, and let Cromwell keep the power of the militia in his | tion of another with the same own hands," and whom you may powers. The provisions of this agree upon afterwards." Thus "you may make yourself and your posterity as great and permanent, to all human probability, as ever any subject was." The report of this conversation was not published by Whitelocke till after the Restoration, and some historians do not scruple to say that it did not take place at any earlier period. Let this be as it may, we can imagine that such a proposal would not be likely to commend itself to a man of Cromwell's character, and in Whitelocke's account, he is represented as finishing the discussion by remarking that the matter was too important to be fully considered at that time. Clearly no help was to be got from men like Whitelocke, however they might protest their devotion to the leader on whom the state of affairs had put such a weight of authority. Cromwell must seek other means of putting down the remnant of the parliament against which the soldiers clamoured louder and louder, admonishing them of their duties in a petition which read more like a command and a rebuke. Sir Henry Vane, and the best of the republican party, strove hard against this new power, which thus assumed the right of dictation. They at last succeeded in pushing on, almost to completion, a bill by which the present parliament was to dissolve itself, but only after providing for the elec bill are not fully known; but it is clear that Cromwell thought them dangerous either to the welfare of the State or to his own influence, or to both. At length the blow fell on the 20th of April 1653. 66 Yesterday," writes Whitelocke on that day," there having been a great meeting at Cromwell's lodgings, in Whitehall, of parliament men, and several officers of the army, sent to by Cromwell to be there, and a large discourse and debate having been amongst them touching some expedient to be found out for the present carrying on of the government of the Commonwealth, and putting a period to this present parliament; it was offered by divers as a most dangerous thing to dissolve the present parliament, and to set up any other government, and that it would neither be warrantable in conscience or wisdom so to do, yet none of them expressed themselves so freely to that purpose as Sir Thomas Widrington and I then did. "Of the other opinion as to putting a period forthwith to this parliament, St. John was one of the chief, and many more with him, and generally all the officers of the army, who stuck close in this likewise to their general; and the better to make way for themselves and their ambitious design of advancing them to the civil government, as well as they were in the military power, they and their |