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��OLIVER CROMWELL.
��pressive as that of Charles ; what, then, had the people gained by ten years of suffering, toil and bloodshed? I answer, much, every way. The two administra- tions, though both were despotic, were as unlike as light and darkness. I do not assert this without authority.
Of Charles. Macaulay, than whom no man is better versed in English history, says : " All the promises of the king were violated without scruple or shame. The Petition of Right to which he had in con- sideration of money's duly numbered, given a solemn assent, was set at naught. Taxes were raised by the royal authori- ty. Patents and monopoly were granted. The old usages of feudal times were made preetxts for harrassing the people with exactions unknown during many years. The Puritans were persecuted with cruelty worthy of the Holy Office. They were forced to fly from their coun- try. They were imprisoned. They were whipped. Their ears were cut off. Their noses were slit. Their cheeks were brand- ed with red-hot iron." Another able crit- ic observes : " The sovereign was, in fact, a Rob Roy on a large scale ; the Richard Turpin of the nation ; and his represent- atives were licensed highwaymen and freebooters, levying an abominable black- mail from their fellow subjects." Such, in brief, was the reign of the faithless tyrant, Charles I. England was bleed- ing at every pore. The rights of her cit- izens were all abrogated. The land, the property, the lives of the people, accord- ing to the prevailing politics and religion, belonged to the king by divine right. Nothing but resistance to oppression could arrest the encroachments of the government. Resistance was made. The tyrant was defeated. The abuses of many years were reformed ; and even under the usurper Cromwell England was essen- tially free. Listen to some brief testi- mony on this point. Bancroft says: " Cromwell was one of those rare men whom even his enemies cannot name without acknowledging his greatness. The farmer of Huntingdon, accustomed only to rural occupations, unnoticed till he was more than forty years of age, en- gaged in no higher plots than how to im-
��prove the returns of his farm, and fill his orchard with choice fruit, of a sudden became the best officer in the British ar- my, and the greatest statesman of his time> subverted the English constitution, which had been the work of centuries, held in his own grasp the liberties which the English people had fixed in their affections, and cast the kingdoms into a uew mould. Religious peace, such as England, till now, has never again seen, flourished under his calmer mediation ; justice found its way even among the re- motest Highlands of Scotland; com- merce filled the English marts with pros- perous activity under his powerful pro- tection ; his fleets rode triumphant in the West Indies ; Nova Scotia submitted to his orders without a struggle; the Dutch begged of him for peace as for a boon ; Louis XIV. was humiliated; the pride of Spain was humbled ; the Protestants of Piedmont breathed their prayers in secu- rity ; the glory of the English name was spread throughout the world."
Such, too, is the concurrent testimony of all historians, both friends and foes. Even Clarendon admits his ability as a statesman and his successful administra- tion. He applies to him what was said of China, k% Ausum eum qua3 nemo aude- ret bonus, perfecisse qu88 a nullo nisi for- tissimo perfici possent." The same prej- udiced historian adds: "He reduced three nations to obedience at homp, and it is hard to say which feared him most, France, Spain or the Low Countries;" and while he thinks that he will be look- ed upon by posterity as " a brave, wick- A ed man," he admits that " he had some good qualities which have caused the memory of some men, in all ages, to be celebrated." The best men and the wis- est men in the kingdom admitted the equity of Cromwell's administration. Such men as Milton, Locke, and Cud- worth eulogized, and we trust, sincerel}' too, the virtues of the Protector. Never had England been so prosperous. Never had her subjects before enjoyed such freedom of worship. Cromwell was far, very far in advance of the religious men of his own times in toleration. He al- ways maintained that men had a right to
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