Cromwell at Drury Lane. 215 



of Cromwell's place in the hearts of the people of Eng- 

 land. The pantomime at Drury Lane had a scene in 

 which all the Kings and Queens of England marched 

 across the stage in gorgeous procession. Each was 

 greeted with cheers or hisses or with more or less cordial 

 greeting as the audience thought deserved. When Crom- 

 well appeared in the line a few hisses were answered by 

 round after round of cheering, and the Lord Protector 

 nightly received a popular ovation far beyond that ac- 

 corded to any other ruler. That the manager of the 

 leading theatre in London should have thought it ad- 

 missible to introduce the Republican among the Kings 

 is a straw which shows a healthy breeze blowing in the 

 political currents of English life. 



He was truly a host in himself ; besides, his men were 

 fighting for something better than had been, the others 

 only for maintaining what had before existed. It is this 

 which drives Conservatives to the wall when radicalism 

 moves in earnest upon them. The aspirations of the 

 race for further and higher development nerve the arm 

 which strikes down the barriers of an ignorant past. 

 Who could battle enthusiastically only for such incom- 

 plete and unsatisfactory development as we have already 

 reached and pronounce it good ! The prize is not worth 

 it. What the race is capable of achieving in the broad 

 future is the mainspring of our assault upon every abuse 

 or privilege, the heritage of the past which disgraces 

 the present. 



