330 
OLIVER CllOMAVELL. 
was then the retreat of the disaffected and persecuted nonconformists, 
where they found a shelter from archbishop Laud’s impolitic and 
eruel severity. 
Bnf his intention of leaving the kingdom was prevented by govern- 
jnent, which, jealous of so many opulent subjects transplanting them- 
selves, issued a proclamation, forbidding any person to leave the 
kingdom without a royal license. This was followed by an order of 
council for sto})ping the ship in which Mr. Cromwell and his family 
had embarked, and likewise many other Vessels bound on the same 
expedition. 
Disappointed in this plan, which would have frustrated the more 
flattering one that was imperceptibly carrying on, he retired again to 
Ely; where, his mind being now disengaged from everything but 
religious melancholy, heightened by dissatisfaction, both with the 
religious and civil establishments of the kingdom ; constantly reflect- 
ing upon some disappointment in his fortunes, which were never, 
through a want of economy, in a flourishing state ; and magnifying, 
by the force of his imagination, the foibles of his youth into the 
greatest of crimes ; he became sour and gloomy in the extreme. 
Such was his prejudice against the established church and liturgy, 
especially against the cathedral service, that he once entered the col- 
legiate church of Ely during the performance of it, and being attended 
by some soldiers and rabble, put a stop to it, and drove away the 
congregation. 
In 1640 king Charles s^ummoned a parliament, in order to obtain 
pecuniary assistance from them ; but the commons rather wishing to 
procure redress for many real, and some supposed grievances, the 
mistaken monarch dissolved them, in hopes of getting money some 
other w'ay than contending with an angry assembly. But scarcely were 
they dismissed, than he found himself obliged to call another parlia- 
ment. In both of these, Oliver obtained a seat as member for Cam- 
bridge, where his opposition to the draining scheme, before mentioned, 
had rendered him very popular. Thus did Oliver get seated in the 
long parliament, to the proceedings of which he afterwards put a 
stop by his own authority. 
Let us now take a view of the personal and mental qualifications 
of this celebrated man, in order to examine how far he might be supposed 
capable of making a shining figure in so august an assembly, and 
likewise what prospect is exhibited thereby of his future exaltation. 
He was now arrived at the middle age of life, which undoubtedly is 
the most proper for deliberation, and his judgment and capacity were 
certainly great : but in these qualifications he was only on a par with 
very many in the house at that time, consequently there could be but 
little prospect of his attaining a pre-eminence. In the next place, his 
estate, even at the best of times, was too inconsiderable for a man to 
set himself up, on the strength of it, as the leader of a party in a 
great nation, and, when compared to what the generality of his fellow 
members enjoyed, it might be considered as a mere bagatelle. 
In his advantages as a gentleman, there appears to have been a 
still greater disproportion between him and most of the members of 
the house of commons. Instead of being versed in the dead and 
