875 



hail I. 



CXOfUtlVC QBOei BM 



though lie 



well, ' 



state. Ireland, the i 

 tlejiloral-!,-. I'.-rhapS, t 



brought to trial in Weatmin- a sentence 



ho was 



January, 1648-9. Then WM no other way in the state to 



ani}/-, hud conn-; it win \\.ir to th<- l.iiit<-, and SO wide 



'ho difference in political and 

 opposed parties, i '.tolerant absolutism of 



i was inevitable. 



years after i the government of England 



.ui, and really a sort of parliamentary 

 nder the control ot tho army. '1 mover, 



tlf in the background, wan Oliver < 



I itself law, and whose policy :-i::d .1 I:.,- 



state of which ua- i. d and 



.iin- in In r In tory, was 

 and Croiuwi-il niar.-h.'d through it in 

 putting wli. 1'iirn- 



. killing, and destroying, in pur.-iiianco of what his t 

 strong nature enm-i-hi-d to bo tho only efficacious way of 

 dealing with i d \vas trail. piil in thu sleep of death, 



and never agnia was able to trouble the Bister island with her 

 asp :.T life. It was an awful opiate the Puritan 



leader gave In r, and deadly and bitter was the hatred with which 

 she woke from the etl'eets of it. With no worse malediction can 

 an Irishman curse to-day than with " the e.ur.-e of Crom'cll." 



The Dutch won; punished for the aid they gave to tho king's 

 cause by a naval war, which was nhitfularly brilliant, and in 

 which the names of De Ruyter, De Witt, Van Troinp, Blake, 

 -cue, Venabh.'s, and Monk, shine out in bold relief. Scotland, 

 which had espoused tho cause of Charles II., and had proclaimed 

 him king, was overrun by the same irresistible man who had 

 crushed the opponents of the Commonwealth and Puritai.i-m 

 in. Ireland. At Dunbar, at Stirling, and then at Worcester, 

 whither the Scots' army had penetrated in order to bo over- 

 11, the strong 1 hand and wise head of Oliver Cromwell pre- 

 vailed, and the royal cause was irretrievably lost. 

 . In 1653 it became obvious to tho army, or to the man who 

 commanded it, that parliamentary government must cease in 

 form as well as in reality. Tho exceptional state of England 

 rendered it impossible to have a divided government, and in 

 divisions and petty squabbles the Parliament, mutilated as it 

 as only strong. Every day the civil and the military 

 powers were coming into collision. In tho face of mouldering 

 war at home, avowed hostility abroad, and tho still unset tied 

 state of the realm, this sort of thing would not do. Cromwell 

 resolved to take the heln? himself, and alone to steer the 

 ship of the state. On the 20th of April, 1G53, he di>iii! 

 shorn Parliament, over which Praise God Barebones presided, and 

 was forthwith made Protector of the Commonwealth of England. 

 From that moment England rose to be a first-rate power in 

 Europe. The Dutch were ruinously beaten in a two days' naval 

 battle, in which Van Tromp, their great admiral, was killed. 

 Spain, the greatest power in Europe, was victoriously with- 

 stood, and lost, among other possessions, the island of Jamaica ; 

 France, under Cardinal Mazurin, was glad to be well with the 

 Republic of England ; and Portugal received condign punish- 

 ment for some assistance she gave to tho exiled king. At home 

 a firm and disinterested rule served to heal many of the 

 wounds from which poor England bled ; and with a commerce 

 protected afloat, and industry encouraged on shore, the English 

 people prow prosperous, wealthy, and in some sort contented. 

 Now and airain tho royalists, and those enemies of theirs who 

 were enemies of the Commonwealth also, gave the government 

 trouble ; and it was seriously proposed, in order to put an end to 

 their hopes, that Cromwell should make himself king, and found 

 a new dynasty. In 1657 the crown was actually offered to him, 

 but ho firmly refused it, and accepted instead " the humble peti- 

 tion and advice,' 1 wherein were laid down rules for his guidance 

 in the government, and in which his axithority was defined. 



For twelve months he continued to carry on his work, hoping 

 against hope that it might be an abiding one ; welding the dis- 

 integrated mapses of English society into a strong, united com- 

 munity; striving to do justice to all, though many would not 

 suffer him ; making the country he had been called upon to 

 govern prosperous at home and respected abroad. Space fails 

 to tell of all he did. or to seek out a knowledge of the intentions 

 he was not allowed to fulfil. Regarded with respectful hatred 

 by the royalists, with envy by those whom he had outstripped 



in the race, with admiration by those who lored their country 

 more than themselves, and prised the objeoU for which England 

 uggled and >ved by very few, unhappy in him* 

 >mwell wink to re*t ; and enough ha* been Mid bare to 

 make it intelligible why to many of hi* countrymen a funeral 

 and a tomb ls* than the most Hplendid seemed all unworthy of 

 him, and aUo why, when Charles II. was restored to hi* father* 

 throne, there were found men to suggest and approve the sense- 

 lew barbarity which led to the exposure of hi* dead body on 

 Tyburn gallows. Perhaps even these men, after "the merry 

 monarch " had reigned a few yean, might hare looked back and 

 aaid .:w the Dutch in the Medway, the French all- 

 powerful through money, the Spaniards insulting- the Kngiiah 

 flag in all places in the world, and the revenue* of the kingdom 

 squandered on mistresses and frivolity, while the servants of the 

 state died of hunger that sombre, harsh, ungenial as Cromwell 

 nii-hi hare been, be never allowed an Englishman to have cause 

 to blush for hw nationality, never made the state interest* sub- 

 servient to his own, never gave the people such provocation as 

 did the restored line of prince*, that in less than thirty years 

 after the day of their unfortunate restoration they buried them 

 off the throne, and forbade firmly and for ever their rci snnosaion 

 to it. 



SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS IN THE LIFE or OLIVES CROHWELL, 

 LORD PKOTECTOU OF THE ENGLISH COMMONWEAL 



Oliver Cromwell, who virtually held supreme sway over 

 England from the sujrender of Charles I. by the Scotch in 1647, 

 was the son of a gentleman of Huntingdonshire, and grandson 

 of Sir Henry Cromwell, of Hinchinbrook. By his wi: 

 Bourchier, daughter of Sir John Bourchier, he had two 

 and six daughters. 



Born at Huntingdon April 25, 1599 '. " Long Parliament " ended 



Elected Member of Parlia- 

 ment for Huntingdon . . 1628 



Prevented from emigrating 1 to 

 New England by Charles I. 1637 



Elected Member of Parlia- 



ment for Cambridge 



1640 



Civil War between the King 

 and Parliament began 



August 25, 1642 

 [Par Event* and Hattlc* in 



Civil War, seepage 122.] 

 Members expelled from the 

 House of Commons by 

 " Pride's Purge" . Dec. 6, 1648 

 "Rump" or Bureboues' Par- 

 liament 1648 



Charles I. executed. Jan. 30, 1C49 

 T. -inji orary abolition of House 



of Lords 1649 



('n.inwi.'ll goes to Ireland . 1649 

 rr'>.-laii>iitii.]i (if Charles II. 



by the Scots .... 1649 

 Execution of Montrqse.Mu. 



: Duultar . Sept. 3, 1650 

 Charles II. crowned at Scone 



January 1, 1651 



Battle of Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651 

 Navigation Laws enacted, 



October. 1651 



Dutch Admiral Van Tromp 

 is the English 1 



riiunnel . .\..v J9, 1652 

 Blake defeat* the Dutch Fleet 

 off Portsmouth, Feb. 18-20, 1653 



by Cromwell . April 2<>, 1653 

 Blake defeat* the Dutch off 



the North Foreland, June 2. 1653 

 Blake defeats the Dutch off 



the coast of Holland. Julv, 1653 

 Cromwell made Lord Pro- 

 tector . . December 16, 1653 

 Expedition under Blake sent 

 against the pirates of the 

 Mediterranean . . . .1654 

 War declared against Spain . 1054 

 Defeat of Penn and Venables 



at Hispaniola, or Hayti . 1654 

 Capture of Jamaica . . . 1655 

 Cromwell refuses the Crown . 1657 

 Destruction of the Spanish 

 Fleet at Santa Crux by 

 Blake . . . April 20, 1657 

 Capture of Dunkirk . June, 1658 

 Death of Blake . August 27, 1658 

 Cn.ii.well dies at Whitehall 



Septembers, 1658 

 RICHARD CBOMWKLL, LORD 



PHOTKCTOR. 



Born at Huntingdon . . . 1635 

 Became Lord Protector, 



September 3, 1658 

 Deposed by the Army, 



April 22, 1659 

 Restoration of Charles II. 



May 29, 1660 



Richard Cromwell dies 

 at Hartley, Hampshire. 



July 17, 1713 



