which he was educated, created a disgust in the ambitious boy for all prescribed tasks. While at school, he performed with great enthusiasm, in the old play of Lingua, the part of Tactus, who finds a crown and purple mantle. He retained an impression, in after life, of having seen, in his youth, an apparition of a gigantic woman at his bedside, who told him that he would become the greatest man in the kingdom. In his 17th year, he went to Cambridge, where he studied with zeal, but, at the same time, carried his fondness for athletic exercises even to a love of orawls and combats. After staying there a year, his mother sent him to study law in London, where he became a member of Lincoln's Inn, and spent most of his time in dissipated company. After remaining here a short time, he returned to reside upon his paternal property, where he continued his dissolute habits, and had a quarrel with his uncle. There was a restlessness in his nature, which made strong excitements necessary to him; but he early renounced the vices and follies of his youth, when, at 21, he espoused Elizabeth, daughter of sir James Bourchier, a woman whose conduct was ever irreproachable. His change of character was owing, however, in a great measure, to his close connexion with a religious sect, which afterwards became formidable, in a political view, under the name of Puritans and Independents. At the same time, he became a student of theological and military works. In 1625, he was member of parliament, under the reign of Charles I, from the borough of Huntingdon. Here he saw, with indignation, the abuses of public administration, and, by the per-. suasion of the famous Hampden and St. John, his relations, took the side of the opposition. Both of them hated the established church, and their sentiments were embraced by Cromwell, whose spirit was early inclined to enthusiasm. His heated imagination often made him believe that he was dying, and the physicians pronounced him a 66 vaporous and fanciful hypochondriac." No one but the penetrating Hampden had a correct idea of his great talents. In the parliament of 1628, he distinguished himself by his zeal against popery. After this, he retired to a farm, made restitution of some money that he had won in earlier years by gaming, and, from 1635, devoted himself wholly to agriculture at Ely, where he had inherited an estate. While in this place, ne prevented the draining of the fens, and hereby made himself so popular with the

people of the place, that they gave him the title of "lord of the fens." He afterwards patronised this measure during his protectorate. The storm was already at hand which was to shake the repose of England. The king wished to reign without a parliament, and the arbitrary manner in which he imposed taxes, assisted by the prevailing religious feeling and sectarian animosity, inflamed the passions of men, and urged them into political conflict. The opponents of the arbitrary measures of the government had so little idea of the impending convulsion, that several of them were making arrangements to embark, with their families, for New England. Among those already engaged in this. scheme were Cromwell, Hampden, Pym, Haselrigg and other men, afterwards so formidable in the revolution; but the government forbade their emigration, as the king was fearful that they would help to widen the breach that already existed between the colonies and the English church. Thus did Charles himself counteract the movements of fortune in his favor. Cromwell returned to Ely, where he lived, for a time, a quiet and pious life. It was at this period that he wrote to his friend St. John, that "he was ready to do and to suffer for the cause of his God." He also held meetings of the sectaries at his house, and not unfrequently preached and prayed himself before them. At length, the king was compelled, by the state of affairs in Scotland, to summon a parliament. Cromwell (who was returned member by the town of Cambridge) and others were so loud in their complaints of abuses in church and state, that Charles prorogued the parliament, but, six months after, November, 1640, was obliged to reassemble it. In this parliament, called the long parliament (from November, 1640, to April, 1653) Cromwell attracted notice chiefly by his rustic and slovenly dress, and by the vehemence of his oratory, often degenerating into coarseness. "That sloven," said Hampden of him, "that sloven hath no ornament in his speech, but he will be the greatest man in England, if we should ever come to a breach with the king." In the declaration of grievances called the Remonstrance, which was passed by a small majority, and which brought on the civil war, Cromwell took an active part. He was at this time a sincere Puritan; but his crafty nature soon led him into the windings of intrigue. On the breaking out of the war in 1642, being appointed captain, and afterwards colonel, he raised a troop of horse composed of

zealous Puritans, who were ready to risk all for the cause of God. The address with which he infused his own spirit into his soldiers, and the strict discipline which he maintained, gave proof of the sagacity with which he afterwards ruled three kingdoms. His first military exploit was the occupation of Cambridge, where, with puritanical zeal, he seized the university plate, in the name of God, to defray the expenses of the war. He then routed the royalists, and made himself master of their supplies. This success very much facilitated the parliament's levies, while it had the opposite effect on those of the royalists. His troops behaved with remarkable order, except on occasions when their religious feelings were excited. He laid the foundation of his military fame by the relief of Gainsborough. From that time, he rivalled in boldness, in decision, and in presence of mind, the most practised warriors. At Marston Moor, July 2, 1644, the cavalry which he had trained, and which was commanded by Fairfax and himself, decided the victory. And now his political influence began. Both a Puritan and a republican, he thought with Ireton and Hampden, but spoke out more boldly and distinctly, and thus became the prominent leader of the party that was resolved to carry matters to the last extremity. But amid all his real and feigned honesty, he was already beginning to play the secret part, for which his sagacity and knowledge of buman nature soon suggested the most politic course. He constantly served, as Hobbes remarks, the strongest party, as well as he was able, and carried matters with it as far as it wished. Once, indeed, when he had charged lord Manchester with cowardice, before parliament, because, after the battle of Newbury (1643), ne would not permit the cavalry to charge the enemy on their retreat, from fear that, if routed, they would all be treated as rebels and traitors, the earl publicly accused him of an intention of putting himself at the head of the army, and giving the law to king and parliament. Fortunately for Cromwell, the influence of the Independents (q. v.) prevented a thorough investigation of the matter. From that time, however, the English Presbyterians regarded him as a dangerous man; and the commander-in-chief, Essex, joined with the Scots, who hated Cromwell for his contemptuous treatment of them, in seeking his downfall. Upon this, Cromwell, in concert with his friends, planned ■ measure which may be regarded as the

masterstroke of his political e inning. On fast day, he induced the London clergy to preach on the necessity of the parliament freeing itself from the charge of selfish ends, which could be done only by its members resigning all their lucrative offices, civil and military, and leaving it to the Lord to choose other instruments for bringing to a conclusion so glorious a work. In consequence of this, the par liament passed what was called the selfdenying ordinance, in accordance with which sir Harry Vane, Cromwell, and others, gave in their resignations, because the army, as they said, stood in need of a stricter discipline, and, above all, of more Christian leaders. The project was carried through; Essex was dismissed, and the zealous, but irresolute sir Thomas Fairfax was put in his place. As the honorable but weak Fairfax did not feel himself qualified for the duties of general, he obtained an exemption from the abovementioned ordinance for Cromwell, who, uniting ability with boldness, was again placed under him, with the command of the cavalry. Cromwell now introduced into the whole army the excellent discipline in which he had already trained a part of it, and gained the decisive battle of Naseby (June 14, 1645), in which the king was routed with great loss. Cromwell got possession of the correspondence of Charles I with the queen, from which the parliament published all the passages which would injure the king and queen in public opinion. After this victory, and the capture of Bristol, Cromwell wrote to the parliament, in that affectedly humble and sanctified strain, with which he disguised his ambitious designs; "This is none other but the hand of God, and to him alone belongs the glory." The spirit in the army, which the officers, and especially Cromwell, excited by their sermons and prayers, had now risen to fanaticism; at the same time that good order and morality were so well maintained, that profanity, drunkenness, robbery, and the like offences, hardly ever occurred. By this course, Cromwell succeeded in crushing the last efforts of the royal party, which he persecuted with fanatical bitterness. Charles I at last took refuge with the Scotch army; but was sold by them to the parliament (May 5, 1646) for their arrears of pay, on which occasion Cromwell was one of the commissioners. Contrary to the expectation of the people, Charles was treated as a prisoner by the leaders of the war party and the Indopendents, who carried their cruelty so far

as even to deny him the consolation of having one of his chaplains with him. The parliament was now in possession of the supreme power. It distributed rewards to its adherents, and Cromwell received £2500 a year, from the estates of the marquis of Worcester. But when the parliament wished to disband the army, which was infected with the fanatical spirit of the Independents, the soldiers appointed, from the creatures of Cromwell and the wildest visionaries, a council of officers and a body of subalterns and privates, called agitators, who insolently declared to the parliament, that they would not lay down their arms till the freedom of the nation was established. Some of the soldiers conducted with so much boldness, that the parliament ordered their arrest; on which occasion Cromwell not only supported the house, but, with tears in his eyes, deplored the seditious temper of the troops, which, he said, had even put his own life in danger. Some of the members, however, saw in him the secret mover of those measures, and accordingly proposed his apprehension; but, on that very day, Cromwell repaired to the army, in order, as he wrote to the lower house, to restore the deluded soldiers to their duty, and, at the same time, requested that Fairfax and the other officers would cooperate with him to this end. On the same day (June 3, 1647), one of the agitators, Joyce, forcibly carried off the king from Holmby, and delivered him into the hands of the army. Cromwell seems at this time to have contemplated the restoration of the king. But he was convinced, on a nearer view of the fanatical spirit that reigned in the army, that he could not venture such a measure without danger of his life; besides, he was only second in command, and could not reckon on the assistance of the most influential men, some of whom, as Vane and St. John, were his equals in cunning, and others, as Ludlow, Haselrigg, and many more, his equals in courage. They were all zealous republicans, and firmly resolved to destroy monarchy with the monarch. Cromwell seems, too, to have feared the political principles of his son-in-law, Ireton. Thus he was finally obliged to continue in the course which he had begun, and, in order to preserve the favor of the army, to make a hypocritical show of sentiments which he no longer felt. He personally respected the king as an upright and conscientious man. He is said to have connived at his flight from Hampton court, and to have wished

that he might escape from the kingdom and spoke with tears of his first meeting with his children; for Cromwell, in private life, was mild and noble in his temper. At last, yielding to the force of circumstances, he united himself entirely to the commonwealth party, and, in their deliberations about the future form of government, feebly advocated a monarchy, which this party called a mischief and a sin, because they regarded God alone as their Lord and King. Cromwell had now learned the disposition of his people, and, with that coarse levity which was a leading trait in his character, he concluded a conference by throwing a cushion at Ludlow's head, and running down stairs, where another was thrown after him in return. The next day, he said to Ludlow, that he thought the abolition of the monarchy was desirable, but hardly practicable. Soon after, Cromwell had a proof of the strength of his party. Major Huntingdon accusing him, in parliament, of a design to raise, in concert with Ireton, an army against the parlia ment, and establish a military government under the name of the king, the influence of the Independents outweighed that of the Presbyterians; and, as the insurrections of the Welsh and Scotch were to be subdued, the parliament did not dare to condemn or dismiss a general whose services were so necessary. Upon this, Cromwell reduced Wales by a sudden attack; and, as Fairfax, from Presbyterian scruples, declined the command of the expedition against Scotland, he undertook it with the more eagerness, as he knew the weak condition of the Scotch army, and had, for many years, heartily hated the Scotch people. With a much inferior force, he defeated them at Preston, and was received in Edinburgh as a deliverer. Now followed the tragedy of the king's execution (see Charles I), who was beheaded Jan. 29, 1649. Cromwell was induced to consent to this act by the advice of Ireton, and took a conspicuous part in it, as he had not the courage or the power to prevent it. He carried his want of feeling so far, as not only to be a spectator of the execution from a window fitted up for him, but even to have the body in the coffin shown to him. The republic was established, and Cromwell, as a proof of his republican virtue, resolved on the death of lord Capel, because, as he said, the friendship which he felt for this loyal adherent of the king must be sacrificed to public duty. Yet Cromwell was not naturally cruel. He shed blood from

succeeded in restoring the continental relations of England, which had been almost entirely dissolved, and regulated them so as to promote the interests of commerce. The navigation act, from which may be dated the rise of the naval power of England, was framed upon his suggestion, and passed in 1651. At the same time, the general, who was honored by the city of London as the father of his country, was aiming at sole sovereignty. The only man whom he feared, Ireton, was dead. At á consultation with some members of parliament, and the most distinguished officers, on the form of government to be established, he recommended a species of monarchy, but was silent when some lawyers in the convention proposed the young duke of Gloucester for king. Meantime the long parliament, which was aiming to establish its own power, was growing more and more unpopular, in consequence of its undisguised tyranny, the war which it had provoked with the Dutch, and its treatment of the prisoners taken at Worcester, some of whom were put to death in prison, and others sold for slaves in the colonies. A frightful tempest, too, which occurred on the day of the execution of a London clergyman by the name of Love, made a deep impression on the people. And now Cromwell broke silence. He spoke openly to his friends of the ambition, the godlessness and injustice of the parliament. Encour aged by their support, he at last hazarded a decisive step, and, with 300 soldiers, dispersed that body, "for the glory of God and the good of the nation." He then summoned a council of war, in which the officers finally chose a parliament of 128 persons, selected from the three kingdoms, which, from Praise-God Barebone, one of the principal characters in it, by trade a leather-seller, was nicknamed Praise-God Barebone's parliament. Cromwell himself opened the session with a speech, in which he said, that the day had come, on which the saints were to commence their reign upon earth. Fifteen months after, a new annual parliament was chosen; but, after a session of five months, Cromwell prevailed on this body, who were totally incapable of governing, to place the charge of the commonwealth in his hands. The chief power now devolving again upon the council of officers (Dec. 12, 1653), they declared Oliver Cromwell sole governor of the commonwealth, under the name of lord protector, with an assistant council of 21 men. The new protector behaved with dignity and firmness. With

a politic calculation of his own interest. He was more afraid of his old friends, the levellers, than of the royalists. At last, he succeeded in putting down the former by strong measures, and then, to the astonishment of his enemies, who wished for nothing more than his absence, he led his army to Ireland. Victory was now to raise him still higher in the favor of the people. He took Drogheda by storm (Sept., 1649), where he gave orders that nothing should be spared. "This bitserness," he said, "will save much effusion of blood, through the goodness of God." Most of the cities opened their gates without resistance, and Cromwell, trusting to the terror of his name, though his army was greatly weakened by sickness, marched boldly into the interior,where cowardice and treachery every where yielded him a submissive welcome. Within six months, the royalist party in Ireland was wholly crushed. Resigning the command to Ireton, he now undertook, at the request of the parliament, a similiar expedition against Scotland, where Charles Stuart, afterwards Charles II, had been proclaimed king. Cromwell had, at first, desired that Fairfax should take the command of the army; but Fairfax had taken the covenants (see Covenant), and would not fight against the Scotch. Cromwell was therefore appointed commander-inchief, and marched into Scotland. Being ignorant of the nature of the country, and of the situation of the Scotch forces, his supplies were cut off, his army became sickly, his retreat was intercepted, and he must have been forced to surrender at Dunbar, had the Scotch avoided a battle. When he saw them advance, he exclaimed, "The Lord hath delivered them into our hands!" The victory at Dunbar (Sept. 3, 1650) rid the fortunate general of his enemies the Presbyterians. He then marched into Edinburgh. Meanwhile king Charles had collected new forces; but Cromwell, by skilful marches near Stirling, cut him off from his points of support, when, contrary to his expectation, the king entered England, and threatened London itself. Every thing was done to strengthen the army of Cromwell, who conducted like an active and resolute general, while, in the royal camp, irresolution and discord prevailed. Charles was totally defeated at Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651. This victory, which Cromwell called the crowning mercy of God, gave the commonwealth party full power over three kingdoms. Cromwell already exerted a weighty influence on the supreme direction of public affairs. He

the aid of general Lambert, he formed a constitution, called the Instrument of Government, by which the protector was invested with the power of peace and war, and was to summon a parliament once every three years, which he should not dissolve under five months; bills presented to him were to have the force of laws if not ratified by him within 20 days; and, on the other hand, he had power to enact laws, with the consent of his council, which should be binding in the intervals of the sessions of parliament. In case of his death, the council were immediately to choose a new protector; but no protector after him was to command the army. Cromwell, having concluded peace with Portugal, turned the resources of the state to the enlargement of its navy and commerce. France and Spain courted the friendship of the fortunate protector, who at length united with cardinal Mazarin, in order to increase the colonial power of England. To make a thorough reduction of Scotland, he gave orders to general Monk to plunder every place that made resistance, and put the garrison to the sword-orders which were so rigorously executed by Monk, that terror ensured the most implicit submission. The nobles feared, the clergy hated the protector, while the people, whom he treated with equity and kindness, loved him, because they enjoyed much more liberty under him than before. The protector treated Ireland with great severity. His act of pardon was, in reality, a desperate remedy for a desperate evil. The surviving inhabitants of an island wasted by fire, sword and pestilence, were compelled to remove, on penalty of death, to a barren tract of the province of Connaught, which was divided among them; the rest of the island became the property of the conquerors. Such was the bitter hatred occasioned by the unceasing quarrels of the Protestants and Catholics. Here, however, as in Scotland, the protector established an equitable form of government, which, in the course of a few generations, would have very much improved the state of the island. But, in England, the situation of the protector was far from being secure. A member of parliament loudly declared, that he could not brook, after the overthrow of one tyrant, to see the liberties of the nation shackled by another, whose prerogative had no measure but the length of his sword; and Cromwell met with so much opposition, that, after the first five months, he dissolved the parliament. On the whole, his political

administration was masterly, and adapted to the circumstances of his situation. He established large magazines of provisions; the pay of the soldiers was regu larly delivered to them a month in advance; the public revenues were strictly and economically managed, without any additional imposts. He appointed for judges the most upright and distinguished men. Among these was the famous sir Matthew Hale. He never interfered with the proceedings of the courts of justice. In religion, he acted on the principle of toleration. Every man had liberty of conscience. In other things, too, Cromwell, as his own correct judgment prompted, would have governed with mildness and justice, promoted the arts and su ences, and healed the wounds of the nation; but he was obliged to maintain his power, as he had acquired it, against his better will, by a severity often amounting to tyranny. Equally afraid of the royalists and the levellers, he could not rely upon the officers of the army; he did not place confidence even in the soldiers, and would have taken a regiment of Swiss for his body-guard, had he not been fearful of making himself unpopular, and betraying his suspicions, by so doing. With the help of the fanatics, he kept the royalists in check; and the latter served as a counterpoise to the former. For this reason he rejected, as much from policy as from principle, the proposition, which was repeatedly made in the council of war, to massacre all the royalists. They were obliged, however, to give up a tenth part of their property, were always looked upon as enemies, and were denied the common privileges of a court of justice. In order to collect the fines imposed on the royalists, to prosecute those whom he suspected, perhaps also to disunite the army, the protector divided England into 12 military jurisdictions, and placed over each a major-general with absolute power, from whose decisions there was no appeal, except to the protector himself; but he speed ily broke up this odious government of pachas. On the other hand, he strengthened the British navy. The famous admiral Blake, and other naval heroes, fought several well-contested battles with the Dutch fleets, under De Ruyter, Tromp and others. In the peace with Holland (April 15, 1654), England maintained the honor of her flag, and the navigation act gave a

new impulse to the colonial trade. The skilful and fortunate conduct of the war with Spain, from 1655 to 1658, in which Jamaica and Dunkirk were taken, made the new par