_ end of a fortnight. 
1828.] 
[ 297 
J 
MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 
Burton’s Diary. 4 vols. 8vo. ; 1828.— 
Here are four goodly volumes of parlia- 
mentary debates during the Protectorate, 
not an atom respecting which was ever sup- 
posed to have been preserved, and of the re- 
covery of which, of course, no mortal could 
ever have dreamt. To Mr. Upcott, of the 
London Institution, and his passion for old 
papers, are the public indebted for these 
inestimable treasures—inestimable they are, 
for they introduce us directly, and most in- 
timately, to a conference on scores of sub- 
jects, with scores of distinguished men, 
whose names and general achievements are 
as well known to us as “‘ our own houses,’’ 
but of whose specific sentiments on any one 
topic we had scarcely any memorial. 
Here then we are, we had almost said, 
suddenly deluged with such information— 
the supply is not only unexpected, but 
abundant, and almost superabundant. It 
is cut and come again to satiety—but to a 
Satiety contrary to the common course of 
things—which quickly reproduces an appe- 
tite—if it does not exactly grow by what it 
feeds upon. We have read them, and shall 
read them over and over again—for really 
no conceivable mode of communication 
could be so directly calculated to give a 
thorough acquaintance with the characters of 
men, who had, numbers of them, played 
distinguished parts on the theatre of the 
world, and whose inextinguishable energies, 
though kept down for a time by the strong 
pressure of a powerful and iron hand, were 
continually bursting forth. 
But the reader is yet very much in the 
dark, and can have little sympathy with us ; 
and it is our sole business to tell him what 
he has to expect in the volumes before us. 
—The Diary then consists of the debates 
of Oliver Cromwell’s last parliament, and 
Richard’s only one. Oliver’s parliament 
assembled on the 17th of September 1656, 
and sat till the 26th of the following June 
—about nine months. The Diary com- 
mences on the 3d December, has a gap 
from January to April, and then resumes— 
proceeding uninterruptedly to the end of 
the session. The same parliament, the 
reader will know, re-assembled, according 
to the terms of its prorogation, on the 20th 
of January, 1658, and was dissolved at the 
Of this short session 
n’s reports are complete and minute. 
In the September of this year Oliver died; 
and on the 27th January, 1659, Richard 
assembled a new parliament, which sat 
about three months—the debates of this 
also are complete and minute. 
The MS. of these debates were placed by 
the discoverer in the hands of Mr. Towill 
Rutt, who has in numerous places illus- 
trated them with biographical and historical 
notes, collected with great research and 
ability. In the course of his labours he 
M.M. New Series.—Vouw. VI. No. 33. 
had the good fortune to unearth, from the 
piles of MSS. in the British Museum, a 
considerable volume, containing another 
Diary, written by Guibon Goddard, a mem- 
ber of the 1654 parliament, which record 
the discussions through the whole session, 
but without individualizing the speakers. 
The substance of the debates is given col- 
lectively, while Burton exhibits the senti- 
ments, speaker by speaker—regularly, and 
very much after the supposed improved 
manner of our own days. This MS. of 
Goddard’s contained several speeches of 
Cromwell’s, which, as is believed, were 
never published—bearing upon them the 
stamp of unquestionable authenticity. 
The possession of all these treasures 
prompted the editor to present the public 
with a complete view of the whole of the 
Protectorate parliaments, and accordingly, 
in the volumes before us, the reader will 
find, first, the proceedings of the Little Par- 
liament, or Barebone’s Parliament, as Hume 
ridiculously calls it—but taken literally— 
there was no other source—from the com- 
mon journals. Then follow those of the 
second parliament, which assembled under 
the sanction and authority of the Instri- 
ment, on the third of September, 1654, and 
sat till it was abruptly broken up by Crom- 
well in the following January. The mate- 
rials are supplied wholly by Goddard’s MS. 
—who was himself member for King’s 
Lynn, and colleague of Gen. Skippon, and 
one of those who accepted a certificate of 
approval from Cromwell’s council, to enable 
him to retain his seat through the session— 
** though condemning,’’ he says, ‘ the 
breach of privilege (é. e. being excluded 
from admittance into the House, but upon 
submitting to receive a certificate of ap- 
proval) as much as any, yet he doubted not 
but to acquit himself to God and his coun- 
try, in so doing, rather than put the nation 
in another combustion and confusion.””— 
Next follows Cromwell’s third parliament, 
the proceedings of which are taken from the 
journals from the opening of the first ses- 
sion till Burton’s Diary begins, and from 
the same common source is supplied the 
middle of the session—the remainder, and 
the whole of the succeeding session, and the 
whole of Richard’s parliament, are, as we 
said, all furnished by Burton’s Diary. 
This, then, is the feast which is ready for 
the reader’s enjoyment—we assure him he 
will find a rich repast. Let him not sup- 
pose, for a moment, that, because Cromwell 
kept a tight hand over his institutions, 
there is a lack of freedom of debate. He 
had turbulent and energetic spirits to deal 
with. There is abundance of plain speak- 
ing, and that by men of eminent abilities— 
much, indeed, upon topics of private in- 
terests, but more, and for the most part, on 
subjects of permanent importance. Oliver’s 
2Q 
