6 On Party-Prejudice. 
and dispraise, in danger and in triumph, with the 
fanatical usurper Cromwell. Johnson was educa- 
ted a party-bigot. His father who excited his re- 
- suaserim tum mihi etiamnum persuasus sim, idque nulla 
ambitione, lucro aut gloria ductus; sed officii, sed honesti, 
sed pietatis in patriam ratione sola.” Denfens, 2da, 
pag. 88. But that the mist of prejudice had concealed 
from him the ambitious and traitorous designs of Crom- 
well, cannot, in truth, be denied by his warmest panegyr- 
ists. Indeed, it requires a large portion of enthusiastic 
admiration of his character and talents, not to treat with 
indignation, his flagrant pay to Cromwell. What 
incense has Milton offered up to him in his ‘* Second De-' 
fence,” for not assuming the title of King, but modestly 
contenting himself with the less pompous and less invidi- 
ous appellation of Lord-Protectors; or, as Milton terms it, 
** Pater Patria !”” Fatherof his Country! This panegyrical 
address to Cromwell, although seasoned with the most elo- 
quent and spirited advice, recommending moderation and 
the establishment of a well-ordered commonwealth, was 
written at the time when the author was Latin-Secretary 
to the Tyrant, who had, in person, ignominiously expel- 
led one parliament, by whose authority he had acquired 
power, and soon after dissolved another, packed by him- 
self; but which he considered as not sufficiently devoted 
to his interest. Indeed, such was Milton’s over-heated 
zeal and prejudice, as to lead him to bestow extravagant 
praise on the Usurper, who had dismissed a parliament 
with indecent violence, and of his own authority; and 
yet to condemn, with unrelenting asperity, the similar 
arbitrary, but, certainly, far less atrocious conduct, in the 
deceased—ill-fated monarch ! 
