from all these, excited enthusiasts gathered together in various quarters of the city, to predict a speedy advent for those halcyon days which would at last fulfil God's promises to man. In one street signatures were solicited to a petition for the re-establishment of the ancient Constitution; in another, for a pure republic, with the government of successive Parliaments; in a third, for welcome to that " Lamb of the Lord," which had exhibited itself in the new military councils. All this was to have been expected in the state of society and of parties already described. Some addresses declared the conviction of their subscribers that the late dissolution was a crime, some that it was a blessing; some were for having the statesmen back, some were rather impatient, and not very implicit, about the assembling of the saints. From the country, too, various rumours arrived in quick and startling succession. Here there was "gathering of hands" for the fallen Commonwealth, there for the rising king;* and only one thing reigned alike everywhere, THE SPIRIT OF CONFUSION. And thus arose the instrument of Cromwell's vast design! "Sure," wrote Hyde from Paris a few weeks later, "sure the confusion is very high in England, and you must declare for Cromwell, that his single influence may compose these distractions, which the multitude cannot do." It is good to make our giants first, since it is certain that we kill them then more easily. The time had certainly arrived, if not for that of a declaration in behalf of Cromwell, at least for his own trial of the last grand cheat he had been so long preparing. It was observed for some weeks that he had never seemed to wear such gracious aspects of humility and godliness as at this peculiar time; his prayers had peculiar relish in them, and a most extraordinary fervour; his preachings were also very frequent in the council; and it was the report of men more immediately about his person in confidential relations, that he had certainly, of late, received absolute communications from the Holy Spirit.t * I refrain from overlaying the text with details on these matters, which might be multiplied to an interminable extent. I give another curious letter, however, which bears upon the subject generally, and sufficiently illustrates the view I have given of the state of society: it is to be found in Thurloe, vol. i., p. 249, 250: "We talk merrily of a petition coming out of Surrey for making their general king. The foolish, senseless, stupid citizens were so sottish as to petition their lord-general to have at least some who were thought good men of the Parliament to sit again; but he gave them an answer no ways to their desire. He intends to be king in effect, though loth to take upon him the title. The apparition of the city's petition was seen a fortnight ago in several places of this town; but it soon vanished in the thoughts of wise men. The council often are at a nonplus, for they know not what to do; they have added three more to their number. The general's picture was set up at the Exchange, with verses under it, tending much to his honour: it was brought to him by the lord-mayor, who, it is thought, was the contriver of the setting of it up. Whitelocke declareth that the Parliament is not dissolved, and there is a gathering of hands to that purpose. On the other side, there is a gathering of hands for a king. This is both in town and country. Essex and Buckinghamshire are sending a petition for a king. Thus things stand in a great confusion. As things stand now, we know not what to think or say. The time was, when the challenging of five members was cried out upon for an unheard-of breach of privilege of Parliament; but afterward the impeaching of eleven members was a greater, and made a mighty noise among the Presbyterians. What think you now of turning them all out of doors?" ↑ The assertion is thought worthy of grave contradiction The secret of these spiritual throes and heavings made its appearance in due course. It had been immediately preceded by eight days' close consultation between Cromwell and his military divan: a circumstance duly noted with all kinds of lofty and indistinct surmises by the Whitehall newspapers,* and for the result of by one of Cromwell's common-sense partisans: M. de Bor deaux, for example, the French resident in England, and for many reasons well affected to Cromwell, thus writes to Monsieur de Brienne, the French secretary of state: "Les bruits, qu'on fait courir du général (Cromwell] ne sont pas vrais; if affecte bien une grande piété, mais par une particulière communication avec le St. Esprit; et n'est par si foible, que de se laisser prendre par des flateries. Je scais que l'amb. de Portugal lui en aiant fait sur ce changement, il en fait raillerie." An extract from a Royalist pamphlet of the day will show, however, the peculiar interests that now subsisted between this Frenchman and Cromwell. Alluding to the addresses which were got up after the fall of the Parliament "to strengthen the hands of this dictator in carrying on the work of Sion," it thus proceeds: "He was also complimented by the French ambassador Bordeaux, who had made applications to the Parliament, but was doubtful of effecting his errand with those highest and mightiest states who were grown formidable not only to the Dutch, but to his master, who willingly courted them to prevent their closing with his rebels of Bordeaux; only Oliver, as we have seen, valued them no more than scoundrels or rake-shames, nor would give ear to any more enemies of monarchy." A vice in the foreign policy of the Protectorate is here glanced at. It is needless to observe that the breathless interest with which intelligence of each new incident or circumstance of the war was looked for, had greatly tended to the increase of newspapers, both in numbers and influence. About twelve were now regularly published, all of them popular party which came out in the shape of Royalist weekly newspapers, besides those occasional assaults on the journals. On Monday appeared the Perfect Diurnal, and the Moderate Intelligencer; on Tuesday, Several Proceed ings in Parliament, a publication of authority; the Weekly Intelligencer, and the Faithful Post; on Wednesday, Mercurius Democritus, and the Perfect Account; on Thursday, Several Proceedings in State Affairs, a publication of some and on Friday, the Moderate Publisher, the Faithful Post, authority, and Mercurius Politicus, a sort of state gazette; by a different publisher from that of Tuesday, and the Faithful Scout. There was no newspaper on Saturday, probably because that would have been considered as too nearly trenching on the Lord's Day. Among the various writers whose names have come down to us, that of Marchmont Needham, the editor of the Mercurius Politicus, best deserves mention. He had written against the liberal cause in the commencement of the war, yet the statesmen not only pardoned him this, but extended to his undoubted talents the patronage they loved to bestow universally on literature and learned men. Eventually he "was induced to become an advocate for them and liberty." He was a writer worth gaining. This is his character by Anthony & Wood: "His Mercurius Politicus, which came out by au thority, and flew every week into all parts of the nation for more than ten years, had very great influence upon num. bers of inconsiderable persons, such as have a strong presumption that all must needs be true that is in print. He was the Goliath of the Philistians, the great champion of the late usurper, whose pen, in comparison of others, was like a weaver's beam. And certainly he that will or can peruse those his intelligences called Merc. Politici, will judge that, had the devil himself (the father of all lies) been in this Goliath's office, he could not have exceeded him; as having with profound malice calumniated his sovereign, with scurrility abused the nobility, with impudence blasphemed the Church and members thereof, and with industry poisoned the people with dangerous principles." The reader will know how to translate this into an admission of Needham's great talents, and his power of making them available. He may still wish to judge for himself, however, as to the quality of the newspaper-writing in that age, and I therefore subjoin a passage from the 108th number of " Mercurius Politicus," on what are called "Reasons of State :" "The regulation of affairs by reason of state, not the strict rule of honesty, has been an epidemical one. But, for fear I be mistaken," continues he, "you are to understand, that by reason of state here we do not condemn the equitable result of prudence and right reason-for upon determinations of this nature depends the safety of all states and princesbut that reason of state which flows from a corrupt principle to an indirect end; that reason of state which is the statesman's reason, or, rather, his will and lust, when he admits ambition to be a reason-preferment, power, profit, revenge, which all parties in the metropolis appear to have waited with an extreme intensity of interest. It was early in June when its disclo*sure appeared, and it announced a Parliament. A Parliament! That name which a short month past was said to have become hateful to the English people, was now confessed to be the one feasible mode of inducing satisfaction and content. A Parliament of statesmen ! Some hearts, it might be, leaped high again with the generous hope, which in generous nature survives distrust and fear, and saw the men of the army powerless, and the Commonwealth restored. A Parliament of saints! At that rapt announcement, enthusiasts who walked the city with their faces too much fixed on heaven to see ordinary wants or human fears, beheld the prayed for movements in the clouds that were to sweep away forever iniquity and sorrow, but were, alas! struck blind to movements reviving on the earth, which, in a few brief years, would sweep themselves away with a most triumphant scorn. A Parliament of saints it was indeed to be! The ignorant and enthusiast still believed; the poor were obliged to hope, since it was something still to cling to; the statesmen grieved or smiled; the indifferent calculated chances; while the irreverent exultation of the Royalists scattered questions along the streets, to ask if the image of him who rode into Jerusalem upon an ass's foal were any more than a type of the new deliverer, who was about to ride into his throne upon the backs of a hundred and twenty asses, selected out of several counties for the especial purpose.* But were the people to return these saints? Were the asses to be of popular selection? The pretences urged against the statesmen would surely, at least, be permitted to survive so far. It would be hardly credible, that within a month of the violent destruction of a Parliament on the plea that it had refused to place faith in the people, its destroyers should take on themselves to call another Parliament together without even the semblance of a popular appeal. And yet this was what was now done, as any other thing equally monstrous might have been done and opportunity, to be reasons sufficient to put him upon any design or action that may tend to present advantage, though contrary to the law of God, or the law of common honesty and of nations. Reason of state is the most sovereign command and the most important counsellor. Reason of state is the card and compass of the ship. Reason of state is many times the religion of a state--the law, the life of a state; that which answers all objections and quarrels about mal-government; that which wages war, imposes taxes, cuts off offenders, pardons offenders, sends and treats ambassadors. It can say and unsay; do and undo; balk the common road, make high-ways to become by-ways, and the farthest about to become the nearest cut. If a difficult knot come to be untied, which neither the divine by Scripture, nor lawyer by case or precedent can untie, then reason of state, or an hundred ways more which idiots know not, dissolve it. This is that great empress which the Italians call Raggione di Stato; it can rant as a soldier, compliment as a monsieur, trick it as a juggler, strut it as a statesman, and is as changeable as the moon in the variety of her appearances." This is admirable satire, expressed with admirable correctness and ease. I should not omit to add that one of the ablest works produced by Needham was written at the request of the Parliamentary leaders, and thus entitled: "The Case of the Commonwealth of England stated, with a Discourse of the Excellencie of a Free State above a Kingly Government." I shall have an opportunity of returning to this work. Lord Somers's Tracts by Scott, vol. vii., p. 97. Placards containing such sneers as these were dropped in various places throughout the city. in that condition of affairs. When men have been induced, no matter by what disunion or distraction, to countenance one great falsehood, they have then surrendered the privileges with the protection of truth. A lie can only generate a lie, and he who has acknowledged the parent, dares not deny or reject the offspring. The first result of the pernicious fraud which perverts the intellect is the habitual indifference or insincerity which debases and corrupts the heart. 시 The new Parliament was to be summoned on principles unheard of in all time before. The qualification of its members was to be sanctity of principles and holiness of life, and their election was to proceed, heaven-directed, from the choice of the council of officers. With this view, ministers in various parts of the country, on whom the council could rely, had been directed to take the sense of the "Congregational churches" in their several counties, and to send up to the lord-general and his officers returns containing the names of persons "able, loving truth, fearing God, and hating covetousness," whom they judged qualified to manage a trust in the ensuing government."* Out of these, with the assistance of various names selected for their own more immediate ends, the council of officers, in the presence of the lord-general,† now proceeded to select a convention of 139 repreI subjoin from Thurloe a specimen of one of these Congregational documents. "Letter from the people of Bedfordshire to the Lord-general Cromwell and the council of the army. May it please your lordship and the rest of the council of the army, We (we trust), the servants of Jesus Christ, inhabitants in the county of Bedford, having fresh upon our hearts the sad oppressions we have (a long while) groaned under from the late Parliament, and now eyeing and owning (through grace) the good hand of God in this great turn of providence, being persuaded it is from the Lord that you should be instruments in his hand at such a time as this, for the electing of such persons who may go in and out before his people in righteousness, and govern these nations in judgment, we having sought the Lord for you, and hoping that God will still do great things by you, understanding that it is in your hearts (through the Lord's assistance) to establish an authority, consisting of men able, loving truth, fearing God, and hating covetousness; and we having had some experience of men with us, we have judged it our duty to God, to you, and to the rest of his people, humbly to present two men, viz., Nathaniel Taylor and John Croke, now justices of peace in our county, whom we judge in the Lord qualified to manage a trust in the ensuing government. All which we humbly refer to your serious considerations, and subscribe our names, this 13th day of May, 1653." A memorandum of the "Dutch deputies in England," dated the 12th of August, 1653, states that the new council, "by the direction and the name of the Lordgeneral Cromwell, against the 4th of July, 1653, have summoned a new representation of 120 English, five Scotch, and five Irish commissioners, out of the respective counties and a few towns; who, upon the letter of the said general, after a foregoing communication with the ministers of the Independent party, which are spread through all England under the name of the gathered churches, and do keep a mutual correspondence, were chosen, and have appeared here." It is worthy of remark, at the same time, that the lord-general and his council exercised their own right of choice at all times when it happened to differ from their Congregational advisers; and that, for example, though Nathaniel Taylor in the above recommendation was “called," John Croke was not. "Edward Cater" was sUmmoned in his stead. + It is a singular circumstance, that what was called the council of state took no authoritative share in this proceeding, and, accordingly, no notice of the subject is to be found in their order book: it was solely the work of Cromwell and his officers. A characteristic circumstance should also be noted. Major Salway, though not a member of the mil itary council, was present at these meetings, invited there by Cromwell, who thus, by an extreme appearance of confidence and favour, disarmed the suspicions of a gentleman equally credulous and troublesome. sentatives, divided thus: for England, 122; for | Wales six; six for Ireland; and five for Scotland; and to all these, summonses were at once sent out. The form of the summons was as extraordinary as its origin. It was issued in the sole name of Oliver Cromwell, as though in these two words already lodged the sovereign authority of England; and it ran thus: "Forasmuch as, upon the dissolution of the late Parliament, it became necessary that the peace, safety, and government of this Commonwealth | should be provided for; and in order thereunto, divers persons fearing God, and of approved fidelity and honesty, are by myself, with the advice of my council of officers, nominated, to whom the charge of trust of so weighty affairs is to be committed; and having good assurance of your love to, and courage for, God and the interest of this cause, and of the good people of this Commonwealth, I, Oliver Cromwell, captain-general and commander-in-chief of all the armies and forces raised and to be raised within this Commonwealth, do hereby summon and require you, —, Esquire (being one of the persons nominated), personally to be and appear at the council-chamber at Whitehall, within the city of Westminster, upon the 4th day of July next ensuing the date hereof, then and there to take upon you the said trust, unto which you are hereby called and appointed to serve as a member for the county (or city) of And hereof you are not to fail. Given under my hand and seal, the 6th day of June, OLIVER CROMWELL."* 1653. Nor did any fail excepting two. Two men only refused to answer to the summons. The rest, in wonder or enthusiasm, obeyed. It is indeed recorded of the majority that they took the very extraordinary manner of their election as a sufficient proof that the call was from heaven! This was natural enough, since men who have been fed with prodigies once, will feed themselves with prodigies still; nor is a falsehood itself more self-productive than a miracle and thus did everything work to the usurper's wish. Temporal and spiritual pride went hand in hand to the work, trusting each to the blindness of the other, and both resolved to get what they could, of their respective yet most opposite desires, out of the "mysterious knack," as one of the Royalist papers not inaptly called it, "of a new, unheard-of legislative authority, who, by the name of men of in * Lord Somers's Tracts, vol. vi., p. 247. The author of "An Exact Relation of the Proceedings and Transactions of the late Parliament, their beginning and ending; by a Member" (printed in the year 1654, and to be found in Somers's Tracts, vol. vi., p. 266), tells us, It is very observable, that of all that were chosen and summoned to appear for the end aforesaid, being 140 persons, there were but two that refused the call and work, so unanimous a concurrence was there found as to the service, though they knew well their call was not according to ancient formality and the way of the nation. There seemed to be two reasons wherein there was satisfaction: first, that Divine Providence had cast it on them, without their seeking in the least; secondly, the necessity, as the case of the Commonwealth stood, of having some to act and carry on affairs in way of government till there might be an attainer to a better way of settlement, by the choice of the good people of this nation, which was not to be denied to be their just and dearly-purchased liberty." The last passage proves that a certain set of men in this Parliament had been able to combine a conscientious sense and care of public liberty with even the rapt and excited phrensies of religious enthusiasm. Y Y Y tegrity and fidelity to the cause of God, were by a bare summons from Oliver called to the settlement of the state-that was, to be stirrups or footsteps to the throne whereon Cromwell should tread."* Faithful to the day appointed in the summons, these wonderfully-selected, able, truthloving, God-fearing, covetousness-hating, and Cromwell-obeying men, presented themselves on the 4th of July, 1653, at the council-chamber in Whitehall. A more extraordinary assemblage had assuredly never been seen within the walls of any place of power. Mean men were among them, and for this they have been flung aside in the mass as a set of ignorant mechanics and adventurers, low born, low bred, illiterate, and vile; indifferent and reckless men were among them, and for this they have been scorned and branded by history as hypocrites and madmen.t Yet were they none of these. De * It will be worth quoting another Royalist comment of the time on the present proceedings, more especially as it contains a curious illustration of the origin of the slanders against the quality and condition of the men who composed this convention. "As for news here, we have none but good, for the lord-general goes on like himself, a conqueror and a king, as it is hoped he will shortly be; for there is a privy seal made, a sword with three crowns upon it, to know in Whitehall, that there is brought in there a borrow moneys with it. And it is told me by some that royal crown and a sceptre; and I wish him as much joy with it as you do, or can do. His excellency and his privy council, which consist of as many Christ and his apostles, all godly men, have made two acts lately, equal to the former acts of Parliament: the one for the continuance of our monthly tax; the other for the convening of a new representative at Whitehall, on purpose, as is expected, to crown his excellency. They are elected out of all counties, but not by the counties of England, but by the special appointment of him and his council; and his warrant to thein runs thus: I and my council do will and command you to appear at Whitehall,' &c.; and I assure you we shall have a blessed government, for though all the elected are mean men, yet they are godly men, and the most of them gifted men, fit to govern both in Church and government. By the next I shall give you their names. In the mean time, take the names of some good and gracious, elected for Westminster and London: Mr. Squib, some time clerk to Sir Edward Powel; another, a leather-seller, over Ram Alley, in Fleet-street, a very ram, a man well known to your bedfellow; another, a scrivener in St. Thomas Apostle's, a pure apostle, Mr. Colburne by name; another, an aqua vita man, near Aldgate, to furnish the state with a dram out of the bottle to comfort their hearts." The "leather-seller" referred to here was the notorious Barbone, and it is singular that there is no such attempt to play the same trick with his name on the part of this scurrilous Royalist as our grave historians have since played. Much the major part of them," Lord Clarendon tells us, "consisted of inferior persons of no quality or name, artificers of the meanest trades, known only by their gifts in praying and preaching, which was now practised by all degrees of men, but scholars, throughout the kingdom. In which number, that there may be a better judgment made of the rest, it will not be amiss to name one, from whom that Parliament itself was afterward denominated, who was Praise-God (that was his Christian name) Barebone, a leather-seller in Fleet-street; from whom, he being an eminent speaker in it, it was afterward called Praise-God Barebone's Parliament. In a word, they were a pack of weak, senseless fellows, fit only to bring the name and reputation of Parliaments lower than it was yet." Another contemporary styles them, "A set of men for the most part of such mean and ignoble extraction, that so far were they from. being taken notice of by their shires, each of whom (but two or three) represented, that they were scarce known in the very towns wherein they were born, or afterward inhabited, till the excise, then committees for sequestration, and the war in the respective counties, made them infamously known. The rest were of Cromwell's partisans in the Parliament and high Court of Justice." Whitelocke remarks, however, "That many of this assembly being persons of fortune and knowledge, it was much wondered by some that they would at this summons, and from such hands, take upon them the supreme authority of this nation, considering how little authority Cromwell and his officers had to give it, or these gentlemen to take it." It may be worth scribe them, as such an assemblage claims to so true it is that men are not made less conbe described, by the general characteristics of temptible because their nickname happens to the great majority of its members-and let be nonsense. It is all the better for revealing laughter still flow freely as it will at the mon- no shadow of the qualities they may have, strous origin of their authority, and the ludi- whether vile or great, since it only flings the crous pretences of their sanctity, the more more insignificance over them in expressing, as grave and the more respectful will be our men- it were, a very abstraction of the contemptible. tion of the personal qualities of the men. They The return of Praise-God Barbonet as one of were earnest and sincere. They had great the members for the city of London hath had truth of purpose, unquestionable good faith, and truly a portentous influence on the memory of a zeal that set life and labour at naught in the this Parliament ! service to which they had been called. They believed much, and they acted as men who believed. They wildly thought themselves, indeed, the heralds of a new and glorious era of unearthly happiness to earth, and of immortal peace and good-will to mortal men; but to this service of overheated imaginations they brought the aid of judgment, upon various and most essential things, at once sober, correct, and practical, which should for itself alone command the admiration and respect of all reasoning or reflecting persons. Finally, they were men of no common worldly esteem, "It was much wondered at by some," says Whitelocke, "that these gentlemen, many of them being persons of fortune and knowledge, would, at this summons and from these hands, take upon them the supreme authority of the nation." There were many more things wonderful which Whitelocke's philosophy preferred to leave undreamed of, though it might, perchance, have explained them. It was possibly much wondered at by some, for example, that such gen-er, are said to have omitted the former part of the sentence, tlemen as these, many of them being persons of knowledge, would have been called upon, under a summons from such hands, to assume the supreme authority of the nation; yet none knew better than Whitelocke and his class what Cromwell's objects were, and none better than they could have told how even such men as these would be made the instruments to advance them. This will speedily become manifest. Thus, then, assembled in this Whitehall council-chamber the celebrated Barebone's Parliament: a title by which grave historians, taking advantage of the lucky accident of the name of one of its members, have sought to make it ridiculous in history. A cheap thing is ridicule; and a most precious instrument of unprincipled power, the facility of coining nicknames! The ingenious device of changing Barbone into Barebone, and the constant repetition of the latter word in its most ridiculous sense, have been successful in persuading historical readers for nearly two centuries that this assemblage of men, wealthy, high born, wise, as many of them were, was little better, to all sensible or rational purposes, than an assemblage of literal bare bones* might have been! subjoining, also, the character of the members of this convention from Ludlow, who tells us, "That many of the members of this assembly had manifested a good affection to the public cause; but some there were among them who were brought in as spies and trepanners; and though they had been always of the contrary party, made the highest pretensions to honesty and the service of the nation. This assembly, therefore, being composed, for the most part, of honest and well-meaning persons (who, having good intentions, were less ready to suspect the evil designs of others), thought themselves in full possession of the power and an. thority of the nation, and therefore proceeded to the making of laws relating to the public." Voltaire gravely translates Barbone's name into os décharné! Besides Barbone, however, it will become us to recollect in this narrative that Henry Cromwell, à man of no insignificance any way, was summoned; that the whole of what was called the council of state, with the exception of the * Mr. Godwin (in the Hist. of the Commonwealth, vol in, p. 524) first exposed the trick of this altered name, and, ca the authority of four undisputed contemporary lists of this Parliament, published by the council of the state, wrote it Barbone. He suggested, at the same time, as to the Christian prefix, that it was scarcely more fanatical than Deodatus, a name to be found in the records of most of the coun tries of Europe. He might have said more for the name itself, which is capable of the classic translation of Timotheless vulgar slanders and ridiculous fictions that have sprung us. It would be scarcely necessary to refer to the numberout of this notorious name, but that it too well expresses the spirit in which the history of these times has (until of late) been written, to be altogether omitted. For example, one historian talks of "Praise-God Barebone" having had two brothers, the Christian name of the first of whom was Christ came into the world to save, and of the second, If Christ had not died, thou hadst been damned. He introduces his anecdote with the suspicious words, "I have been informed that there were three brothers," and adds, that "some people, tired of the long name of the younger brothother writer, according to Mr. Godwin, the Reverend James and to have called him familiarly Damned Barebone." AnBrome, in a book of Travels over England, Scotland, and Wales, second edition, 1707, has endeavoured to render the turned in the county of Sussex, in the late rebellious, troub satire more complete by giving the names of a "jury relesome times, as follows (p. 279): Accepted Trevor, of, Norsham: Redeemed Compton, of Battel; Faint-not Hewet, of Heathfield; Make-peace Heaton, of Hare; God-reward Smart, of Tisehurst; Stand-fast-on-high Stringer, of Crowhurst, Earth Adams, of Warbleton; Called Lower, of the same; Kill-sin Pimple, of Witham; Return Spelman, of Watling Be-faithful Joiner, of Britling; Fly-debate Rob Etner; More-fruit Fowler, of East Hodley; Hope-for Bend erts, of the same; Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith White, of ing, of the same; Graceful Harding, of Lewes Weep-not Billing, of the same; Meek Brewer, of Okeham." It is really scarcely credible that this list should have been copied into Hume's History of England: so it is, however, and Dr. Zachary Grey had previously given it the authority of his name, if his name had been capable of bearing author ity in matters which involved hatred to the Puritans. Unblinded by such hatred, these men would have been the first to see that this notable list was a mere piece of mauvaise pleasanterie. If any doubt remained about it, however, it fortunately happens, from Mr. Godwin's researches, that the Rev. James Brome (the original reporter) has furnished a sufficiently satisfactory clew to the whole, by premising to this list of the Sussex jury that it was given him "by the same worthy hand" that had supplied him with the names of the Huntingdon jury in a preceding page. The story of the Huntingdon jury runs thus: "The following is the copy of a jury taken before Judge Doddridge at the assizes holden in this place, July, 1619, which is the more remarkable, because the surnames of some of the inhabitants would seem to make them at first sight persons of very great renown and quality (p. 56): Maximilian King, of Poseland; Henry Prince, of Godmanchester; George Duke, of Somers ham; William Marquess, of Stukeley; Edmund Earl, of Hartford; Richard Baron, of Bythorn; Stephen Pope, of Newton; Stephen Cardinal, of Kimbolton; Humphrey Bishop, of Bugden; Robert Lord, of Waseley; Robert Knight, of Winwick; William Abbot, of Stukeley; Robert Baron, of St. Neot's; William Dean, of Old Weston; John Archdeacon, of Paxton; Peter Esquire, of Easton ;* Edward Friar, of Ellington: Henry Monk, of Stukeley: George Gentleman, of Spaldech; George Priest, of Graffan; Rich ard Deacon, of Catworth; Thomas Yeoman, of Barham It is altogether a joke, the reader perceives, and, what is worse, by no means a good one! no love for Anthony Cooper, and at no great distance from the sad scene, the brutal and wicked orgies of the Restoration! He who now cants for tyranny under Cromwell with pious breath, will soon practise it under Charles II. with iron heel.* The 4th of July was a very sultry day, and the council-chamber at Whitehall was of mod four general officers and Colonel Thomlinson, appeared; and that among the names of influence and consideration which were to be found among them were those of Viscount Lisle; George lord Eure; Major Salway; Lockhart, afterward French ambassador; Montague, afterward Earl of Sandwich; Howard, afterward Earl of Carlisle; Sir Robert King, of Dublin; Sir Charles Wolseley, of Oxfordshire; Sir Will-erate dimensions, but upward of 130 of the iam Brownlow, of Lincolnshire; Sir William "elect" legislators had on that day assembled Roberts, of Middlesex; Sir James Hope, of in that place, to receive into their own hands the Hopetown; and Colonels Duckenfield, Bennet, supreme authority of the nation; and, " seatFenwick, Barton, Sydenham, Bingham, Law-ed round the room on chairs," waited for the rence, Blount, Kenrick, West, Danvers, Jones, entrance of the lord-general and his officers. Pyne, Norton, Clark, James, and Hutchinson; After a brief delay, Cromwell appeared, followwith Majors Saunders and Horseman, Captained by the chiefs of his military council. Every Stone, and others that had served with singular credit in the war. The illustrious name of Robert Blake appeared also in the list, with eleven others, including Francis Rouse, the provost of Eton College, who had sat with him in the Long Parliament itself.* Two names remain to be mentioned, whose appearance may now be held to have been truly ominous of the crisis to which the public cause was approaching fast, and of the strange and sad prospects that were in wait for liberty. These were George Monk, and Anthony Ashley Cooper- the "scoundrel of fortune" who restored Charles II., and the renegade who sat in judgment on the judges of Charles I. From this period both date their fortunes. Monk had already been selected by Cromwell to supersede Blake in the naval command; and Cooper, whose "venal wit" had hiterto been aptly used for royalty, now recognised the period of his great advancement come, and set that wit to work to profit by it. "He cast himself into the saint-like mould, Groan'd, sigh'd, and pray'd, while godliness was gain, No surer mark can we find of the present aspect of affairs than in the rise of such men as these. They determine, with an almost unerring accuracy, from the distance at which we regard them, the character of the crisis which suddenly gave them power. England had become little better than a wide theatre for the struggle of selfish passions. With no paramount principle to bind men together-with no ties of acknowledged allegiance to restrain them, the intrepid and the bold; the men who had sufficient daring to execute what they had craft enough to plan; the unscrupulous and the restless; the souls for close designs and crooked counsels, for storm, for confusion, for anything but calm-all these would naturally start above the surface. We see the types of such men in George Monk and Anthony Ashley Cooper. We see the demoralizing action on the people, in the state to which they had been brought, and can discern, "as in a map, the end of all." Policy measured by passion; rules of government, various as the various temperaments of men, set up each day; plots and conspiracies, unheard of during the sway of the statesmen, hatched each night; but George Monk still faithful to George Monk, Anthony Cooper losing These were Lisle, Pickering, Christopher Martin, Francis Rouse, Harrison, George Fleetwood, Carew Strickland, Richard Norton, Sydenham, and Jones. one present at once rose and uncovered. Upon this, Cromwell also removed his hat, and, advancing up the room to the "middle window," took his station there with a considerable body of his officers on either hand, and, "leaning upon the back of a chair, with his own back to the window," proceeded to address that remarkable meeting in a speech of profoundest art. It occupied upward of an hour in deliv Not to acquaint the reader with a satire which he has no doubt admired, but to place on record a noble delineation of the kind of qualities which were now, as in a hot-bed, nursed in England, I subjoin the character of Shaftesbury from Dryden's great hand: "Of these the false Achitophel was first, And o'er-informed the tenement of clay. Pleased with the danger when the waves went high, He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit, And thin partitions do their bounds divide; |