ADVICE TO HIS PRESENT MAJESTY. (Continued from p. 546, and concluded.) Such was the form of the protectoral Government, of which I thought myself bound to speak; I shall only add, that when on one side we consider the vast ambition of Cromwell and the means he used to arrive at his ends, together with the violent and arbitary acts of his Government, regardless either of oaths or authority, I ́say, when we consider these things, we are almost compelled to look upon him as a tyrant and to treat him as an usurper.

On the other hand, if we speak of him without passion or preju dice, we must confess he had many great qualities, and that he performed many things for the inte rest and glory of England; which are not only worthy of remembrance, but deserve to be preserved as a model to the best of Princes. The care that he took to introduce good morals, and the exemplary manner in which he himself lived in this respect, were highly laudable. If he was that hypocrite that some paint him, so much the worse for himself;-however, it is undeniable that the good appear auce which he always kept up, and which he so well knew how to preserve, had a very considerable influence. I do not think I deceive myself in saying, that the English were never better governed with respect to morals, nor more disposed to virtue and sobriety, than in his time; and the natural consequences of these measures were, prosperity and abundance.—It is, therefore, not astonishing that people are still to be found both in

VOL. III.

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England and Scotland, who speak of the time of Cromwell, as an age of gold.

To the honour of Cromwell it must be confessed, that more able and upright Judges were never seen in the Courts of Justice; that suits and causes were never de termined with more equity; that the Admiralty-affairs were never better managed, nor soldiers or sailors in a better state of disci pline, than in his time. In a word, Cromwell appears to have been one of those superior geniuses born to command.-Without speaking of his military abilities, in which he may be compared to some of the most famous Captains of antiquity, the admirable talent he had in the knowledge of men, and his ability in assigning them to their proper stations, his readiness ́in reconciling men of different inte rests and making them all subservient to the advancement of his particular designs, with the impenetrable secrecy of his enterprizes, and his address in discovering those of his enemies; the solid views which he entertained for the glory of the Nations which he governed; all these, I say, could not be other wise than the result of extraordinu“ ry abilities.

By the establishment of Charles the Second, the English Govern ment was restored to is ancient footing as it had been before the civil wars but with this remarkable difference, that some of the rights of the Crown, which they had contested the most with his Father, were granted to the Son without scruple or difficulty.-These, indeed, were then supposed to have

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been absolutely necessary for the preservation of the public tranquillity. Such is the instability of the minds of men, or to speak more justly, so true it is, that present impressions often carry us away, and render us equally incapable of reflecting, either upon the past or the future; otherwise, how is it possible that people should pass from one extreme to another? What other excuse can we allege in favour of the English, who under the reign of Charles I. had conceived such an opinion of Royalty, that nothing but the death of this Prince, and the total overthrow of the monarchy, would content them; and yet a few years after, these same English in order to withdraw themselves from the anarchy of popular Governments deliver themselves over, as I may say, bound hand and foot to the Son of the same King, whom they had treated with such ignonimy! This too, was done by them without their requiring any security on their parts against that arbitrary power, which soon after again appeared to them so insupportable. This was what they might naturally expect from a Prince recalled from a long exile. Could they possibly think that Charles II. taught by his own misfortunes and those of his Father, would use his power solely for the good of the state? If they indulged that hope events soon taught them that they had quite mistaken the new Monarch's character. Undoubt

edly, the happiness of his Subjects was the least in the thoughts of Charles; for, whatever the flatterers. of this Prince may allege from the very beginning of his reign he seemed to have no other care than to idemnify himself for the fatigues he had suffered by a life of voluptuousness and effiminacy. So, that provided, he had money to recompence his mistresses

and the Minister of his pleasures; he took but little thought for the rest. Some time after, when he perceived that the People began to dislike him, and to disapprove of his conduct, it is certain that he aspired to arbitrary power, and made use of many means to attain it, which were neither just nor honourable. For some time the Parliament scarcely made difany ficulty in conceding him any thing; for, besides granting him the revenues of the excise and the customs, they were once upon the point of voting a perpetual income of great amount. This project, it was said, was laid aside through. the remonstrances of Lord Claren don, who though a zealous loyalist, could not think of granting the King such a salary as would have placed him beyond the control of Parliament. The Lord Treasurer (Southampton,) and others soon came into the same way of thinking with Lord Clarendon; but, however, Charles never cordially forgave him for his interference.

After the Parliament had secur

ed His Majesty's revenue they took measures for the safety of his person; they not only permitted him to have foot, but horse guards also; and they invested him with the whole and sole direction of all the militia in the Kingdom.

They framed new oaths, prohi biting all persons from taking arms against the King, under any pretext whatever, and expressing that they ought to hold the prin ciples of those seditious persons in detestation, who say, that, in certain cases, subjects have a right to reduce Monarchs to reason. They also framed penal laws in matters of religion, by which every person was obliged, under heavy penalties, to conform to the worship of the Church of England; and, as it depended entirely on the King to put these laws into exe

gion or their liberty.-Relative to what is called the balance of power, the English had much reason to complain of Charles, because, far from opposing the grow ing power of Frauce, he leut himself to increase it. The fact is, that he sacrificed every thing to his pleasures; therefore, not con tent with having sold Dunkirk to France, he entered into an alliance with Louis Le Grand, so that, while Charles assisted or winked at the French King's power, he was to have money, or rather a pension, the better to enable him to become an absolute Monarch. The first thing that Charles did in concert with His Most Christian Majesty, was to break the alliance concluded be tween England, Sweden, and Holland. The object of this league was to arrest the progress of the French in the Low Countries belonging to Spain; by this means they not only saved a part of Flanders, but also compelled the French King to make some resti-i tutions. To effect his design upon® Charles, Louis knowing his foible, sent the Duchess of Orleans to Dover in 1670, under the pretext of paying a visit to his brother, the King of England, but in reality to treat of affairs of much greater importance. This Prin cess sncceeded but too well in her negociation, as Charles, for the. money, or, as report goes, for thes sake of a mistress, consented not only to abandon his Allies, but to take measures conjointly with France for ruining the Dutch. All Europe knows the frivolous pretences under which the war of. 1672 was begun, and by what means Holland was brought inte the most imminent danger. The, most glaring crime on the part of Charles was his causing the fleet of Dutch merchantmen to be attacked on their return from Smyr

tution, His Majesty seized this opportunity to engage the NonConformists in his interest, or o therwise to put them in a situation out of their power to prejudice him. In a word, it seemed as if the English thought the only method to make them tranquil and happy was that of augment ing the Royal Authority and Prerogative as much as possible, so that only to speak of the Privileges of the People at that time was enough to cause any person to be looked upon as a Republican, or disaffected. However, this great zeal for the rights of the Crown was not lasting: Charles wanted money too often, and made too bad a use of that which was granted him, for the Parliament and the Crowu to remain friends long.-Besides, the faults of his Government were so considerable, and so directly op posite to the conduct which the King of England ought to have pursued, both at home and abroad, that it is by no means surprizing that the English should so soon lose the good opinion they once entertained of their new King, or that, in the long run, they should endeavour to impose some limits to that power, which they saw was abused. In the same case, I believe every other nation would have done the same, and therefore nothing but ignorance or malice could have led some authors to assert that the troubles under Charles the Second and those under his brother James, were to be ascribed to a degree of levity and inconstancy peculiar to the British nation. Very little informa tion will convince us that they had but too much reason to be displeased with the conduct of both these Princes; and that it would be difficult to act otherwise than they did, without giving up all manner of concern for their reli