with whatever pretences it may be covered, and whatever objects it may pursue, must inevitably end at last in the arbitrary and despotic government of a single person.

One of the first measures of Cromwell was to call a Parliament of his own. In this assembly there were some persons of the rank of gentlemen; but the far greater part were low mechanics; fifth-monarchy-men, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Independents; the very dregs of the fanatics. They began with seeking the Lord with prayer. This office was performed by eight or ten gifted men of the assembly; and with so much success, that, according to the confession of all, they had never before, in any of their devotional exercises, enjoyed so much of the holy spirit as was then communicated to them. Among the fanatics of the House, there was an active member, much noted for his long prayers, sermons, and harangues, who took upon himself the appellation of Praise God Barebone. This ridiculous name, which one would almost imagine had been chosen by some wicked wit to suit so ridiculous a personage, struck the fancy of the people; and they commonly affixed to this assembly the appellation of Barebone's Parliament.

After sitting about four months, without passing any extraordinary laws, except that which established the legal solemnization of marriage by the civil magistrate alone, without the interposition of the clergy, this Parliament, with Rouse their Speaker at their head, waited on Cromwell, and formally assigned their authority into his hands. Some of them remained behind in the house, and wanted to protest against this act of the majority, but they were interrupted by Colonel White, with a party of soldiers, who asked them what they did there? "We are seeking the Lord," said they. "Then you may elsewhere," replied he, " for to my certain knowledge he has not been here these many years."

Cromwell was now proclaimed Lord Protector, and invested with all the regal prerogatives. He had the absolute direction

of the army and navy; the appointment of officers: he coined money with his effigy; summoned a Parliament; created Peers; and in all things acted like a crowned head, though, in all public deeds, the name of the commonwealth was still preserved.

The writers attached to the memory of Cromwell, make his character, with regard to abilities, bear the air of the most extravagant panegyric: his enemies form such a representation of his moral qualities as resembles the most virulent invective. Both of them, it must be confessed, are supported by such striking circumstances in his conduct and fortune as bestow on their representation a great air of probability. "What can be more extraordinary," says Cowley, "than that a person of private birth and education, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, which have sometimes no shining talents of mind, which have often raised men to the highest dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the abilities to execute, so extraordinary a design as the subverting one of the most ancient and best established monarchies in the world? that he should have the power and boldness to put his prince and master to an infamous death? should banish that numerous and strongly-allied family? cover all these temerities under seeming obedience to Parliament, in whose service he pretended to be retained? trample too upon that Parliament in their turn, and scornfully expel them so soon as they gave him ground of dissatisfaction; erect in their place the dominion of the saints, and give reality to the most visionary idea, which the heated imagination of any fanatic was ever able to entertain? suppress again that monster in its infancy, and openly set himself up above all things that were ever called sovereign in England? overcome, first, all his enemies by arms, and all his friends afterwards by artifice? serve all parties patiently for a while, and command them victoriously at last? overrun each corner of the three nations, and subdue,

with equal facility, both the riches of the south, and the poverty of the north? be feared and courted by all foreign princes, and be adopted a brother to the gods of the earth? call together Parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter them again with the breath of his mouth? reduce to subjection a warlike and discontented nation, by means of a mutinous army? command a mutinous army by means of seditious and factious officers? be humbly and daily petitioned, that he would be pleased, at the rate of a million a-year, to be hired as master of those who had hired him before to be their servant? have the estates and lives of three nations as much at his disposal as was once the little inheritance of his father, and be as noble and liberal in the spending of them? and, lastly, (for there is no end of enumerating every particular of his glory) with one word bequeath all his power and splendor to his posterity? be buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity? and leave a name behind him not to be extinguished but with the whole world; which as it was too little for his praise, so it might have been for his conquests, if the short line of his mortal life could have stretched out to the extent of his immortal designs."

On the death of Cromwell, on the 3d of September, 1658, his eldest son Richard succeeded him in the Protectorship, and received addresses of congratulation from all parts of the kingdom. Historians have represented him as a man of a gentle, humane, and generous disposition, without the least tincture of his father's dissimulation or spirit. The republican party, whom the firmness of Oliver had repressed, now began to form cabals, and, joining with the factious officers of the army, voted a remonstrance, lamenting that the good old cause was entirely neglected. Richard, who was no fanatic, disregarded this remonstrance; and soon after gave them additional grounds of discontent, for murmurs being thrown out against some promotions he had made. "Would you have

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me," said he, prefer none but the godly? Here is Dick Ingoldsby," continued he, "who can neither pray nor preach; yet I will trust him before you all." The saints were so severely stung with this sarcasm, that they immediately set about the dismission of Richard, and having prevailed on him to dissolve the parliament, on which alone he could have relied for assistance, three days afterwards they compelled him to sign his resignation.

Of the events which led to the overthrow of the fluctuating governments, cabals, and parties, that succeeded each other so rapidly after the dismission of Richard, and, in a few months, led to the restoration of the royal family, the reader will find so ample an account in Canto II. Part III. and the notes attached to it, that it would be superfluous here to enlarge upon them.

The object of this discourse is not so much to write the history of those times, as to give detached views of individuals, and sketches of the characters of the age. Butler is sometimes neglected as an obscure writer, because the vices and follies which he lashed are almost forgotten. Indeed it is scarcely possible to understand his humour without a very intimate acquaintance with the transactions of the era in which he lived. When that is attained, every difficulty then vanishes, and we no longer doubt the resemblance of the pictures he has drawn.

The philosophic Hume, speaking of the state of manners and arts under the commonwealth, says, "No people could undergo a change more sudden and entire in their manners than did the English nation during this period. From tranquillity, concord, submission, sobriety, they passed in an instant to a state of faction, fanaticism, rebellion, and almost frenzy. The violence of the English parties exceeded any thing which we can now imagine: Had they continued but a little longer, there was just reason to dread all the horrors of

the ancient proscriptions and massacres. The military usurpers, whose authority was founded on palpable injustice, and was supported by no national party, would have been impelled by rage and despair into such sanguinary measures; and, if these furious expedients had been embraced on one side, revenge had naturally pushed the other party, after a return. of power, to retaliate upon their enemies. No social intercourse was maintained betwixt the parties; no marriages or alliance contracted. The Royalists, though oppressed, harassed, and persecuted, disdained all affinity with their masters. The more they were reduced to subjection, the greater superiority did they affect over those usurpers, who, by violence and injustice, had acquired an ascendant over them. The manners of the two factions were as opposite as those of the most distant nations. "Your friends, the Cavaliers," said a Parliamentarian to a Royalist, 66 are very dissolute and debauched."-"Yes," replied the Royalist," they have the infirmities of men: but your friends, the Roundheads, have the vices of devils, tyranny, rebellion, and spiritual pride." Riot and disorder, it is certain, notwithstanding the good example set them by Charles the First, prevailed very much among his partizans. Being commonly men of birth and fortune, to whom excesses are less pernicious than to the vulgar, they were too apt to indulge themselves in all pleasures, particularly those of the table. Opposition to the rigid preciseness of their antagonists increased their inclination to good-fellowship; and the character of a man of pleasure was affected among them as a sure pledge of attachment to the church and monarchy. Even when ruined by confiscations and sequestrations, they endeavoured to maintain the appearance of a careless and social jollity. "As much as hope is superior to fear," said a poor and merry cavalier," so much is our situation preferable to that of our enemies. We laugh while they tremble."