is his conduct strictly in agreement with that deep and resolute selfishness, for which we have already given, and shall again find ample cause to give him credit." P. 227.

The method employed by Cromwell to try the firmness of his troops, is amusing and highly characteristic of the subtlety of his mind: this is particularly mentioned by Heath. United with the bold features of Cromwell's character, we find a chivalrous daring which threw off the common disguise assumed by many of the parliamentary leaders, who affected to fight for "King and Parliament," even while the first was in the field against them; unwilling to mislead his men by this subterfuge of expression, he tells them that "if the king chanced to be in the body of the enemy, he would as soon discharge his pistol upon him as upon any private man, and, if their consciences would not let them do the like, he advised them not to list themselves under him." Thus did this great leader win the hearts of his followers, and convey to their individual feelings the properties of his own enthusiastic and vigorous mind. At Grantham, a flying corps of cavalry, of double his own number, were routed with considerable loss; and meeting the main body of a light and independent army under General Cavendish, of which the corps of cavalry already routed formed a part, the impetuosity of his attack completely disordered them, and they were all, including the general himself, put to the sword. The battle of

Marston Moor next followed, the result of which forms an important epoch in the history of Cromwell, whose successes upon this occasion appear to have excited the jealousy of the Scottish generals Crawford and Hollis, who claimed for themselves the merit of the victory, and accused Cromwell of personal cowardice. To investigate the conflicting statements respecting these dissensions, would lead us out of our present views, and to whichever of the generals the greatest merit may be awarded, the results were fatal to the interest of Charles in the north.

The defeat of Waller at Copsedy Bridge, and the surrender of the army of Essex in Cornwall, discomfited the parliamentarians, although it did not depress their ardour, and they hastened once more to place the forces of the latter in a state to renew the contest: we cannot help here alluding to the unfortunate lenity of Charles, in granting such easy terms to his vanquished opponents. Actions such as these eventually ruined him. His personal friends, Warwick and Clarendon, attribute the act to constitutional clemency, while our author assigns the event to a mistaken and shortsighted policy; but, with deference to each of these authorities, we go further, and attribute such an oversight to that natural imbecility of character which prevented the unhappy monarch from acting with the firmness and decision which the events of that period so particularly required.

While the royal army was retreating secretly towards Oxford,

after their defeat at Newbury, Cromwell urged the Earl of Manchester to allow him to make a forward movement with his cavalry, and, in consequence of the earl's refusal to comply with his request, a "bitter recrimination" and distrust arose between them. This occurrence produced some very important civil, as well as military, results, as will be seen in the following extract:

"Cromwell was not remiss in endeavouring to counterwork those whom, with great truth, he regarded as his natural enemies. By the exercise of extraordinary finesse, he brought forward and successfully carried through the Self-denying Ordinance, a measure which deprived of military authority every individual belonging to the peerage, by declaring it inexpedient for any member of the great council to absent himself, under any pretext whatever, from his duties in parliament. The principle of the bill was not, indeed, admitted till after much bitter recrimination had passed between Cromwell and his late commander, the earl of Manchester; during the progress of which they mutually accused one another of disaffection to the great cause, and even of backwardness in the hour of danger; but it received, at length, the sanction of both houses, and the men of greatest experience hitherto employed under the parliament, the earls of Essex, Manchester, and Denbigh, laid down, in consequence, their commissions." P. 249.

Dissimulation formed a strong trait in the character of Cromwell, and sometimes a low cunning appears to have affected his judgment. We can understand well how ordinary men act under such mean impulses, but we expect and even feel disappointed and angry with human nature, when ambition unites with despicable malice, and the hero condescends to maim his enemy by treachery and guile. We regard Cromwell's character as one of the most striking combinations of dissimilar qualities that history can afford us: human nature seems to have been capricious at his birth, and to have been undetermined whether she would produce a monster or a god; for his mind exhibited a power, majesty, and resolution almost more than human, while, at the same time, there existed deformities that ought to be the qualities of only the lowest classes of mind. The age was one of fanaticism and hypocrisy: for although in many was found the purest enthusiasm, in others was seen the vilest deceit. It probably was a fashion of the time to be mysterious and unmeaning, and, therefore, it may be that greatness, like that of Cromwell, fell into the error of its opposite, of employing obscure means when its own more illustrious principles would have sought the brightest paths that truth and sincerity could have afforded.

Cromwell, after a series of successes, for a particular detail of which we must refer the reader to the memoir itself, returned, with the warm welcome of his party, to his seat in parliament;—we will give the writer's own words:

"We shall not pause to describe the nature of the reception with which Cromwell was welcomed back to his place in the house of Commons. Let it suffice to state that, in addition to a grant of £25000 a year, to be paid to him and his children for ever, out of the lands lately belonging to the Marquess of

Winchester, it was ordered that the lieutenant-general be recommended as a fit person to receive the honour of the peerage; and that the king be requested to create him a baron, with a right of succession to the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten. This was, indeed, a strange decree for an assembly to pass which bore arms against the very sovereign whom they still treated as the fountain of honour; and it fell, as indeed it could not but fall, absolutely to the ground. Nevertheless, it stands on record a veritable witness of the respect in which Cromwell was then held by all parties; more especially by that which, within a brief space afterwards, was doomed to suffer total annihilation at his hands." P. 262.

How much we are reminded by this passage of the inconsistency of human character; the Self-denying Ordinance act is here set at nought in spirit and in deed, by the creation of the lieutenant general to be a baron of the realm. The republican Cromwell becomes a peer, a member of that aristocracy which he contemned, and had taken every opportunity of humiliating during the whole course of his career. These inconsistencies of conduct, however, occur so frequently upon our pages of history that, although they cease to create our surprise, they cannot fail to excite our regret that patriotism and public duty should commonly yield to the dictates of self-interest.

The king, after a series of disasters, shut himself up in Oxford; from whence, being closely pressed on all sides, he escaped, on the 5th of May, 1656, either from the treachery of Rainsburgh, or, more probably, through the connivance of Cromwell. Attended only by two humble friends, he arrived at the head-quarters of the Scottish army, before Newark, which led to a dispute between the Scotch and English parties, as to the disposal of the royal captive; but a vote of the house, and a bribe of £100,000 brought him into the hands of the enemy, to the eternal disgrace of Leslie, the Scottish general.

Retaining more strongly than ever the affection of the army, Cromwell could bid defiance to his enemies; and for his own protection, and the furtherance of his ambitious views, he excited in their minds a jealousy of the government, and induced them to assert their rights, and, "as the champions of public freedom, to take part in the deliberations of government."

While the king was deliberating upon the overtures of the three parties, and foolishly making no concealment of the contempt in which he held them, the circumstance occurred which was the forerunner, and probably the cause, of his ultimate unhappy fate. The narrative is taken from the memoirs of Lord Broghil, and is stated to be written in Cromwell's own words.

"The reason of an inclination to come to terms with him, (the king), said Cromwell, ‘was, we found the Scots and Presbyterians began to be more powerful than we, and were strenuously endeavouring to strike up an agreement with the king, and leave us in the lurch; wherefore we thought to prevent them, by offering more reasonable conditions. But while we were

busied with these thoughts, there came a letter to us from one of our spies, who was of the king's bedchamber, acquainting us that our final doom was decreed that day: what it was he could not tell, but a letter was gone to the queen with the contents of it, which letter was sewed up in the skirt of a saddle; and the bearer of it would come with the saddle on his head, about ten o'clock the following night, to the Blue Boar inn, in Holborn, where he was to take horse for Dover. The messenger knew nothing of the letter in the saddle, but some one in Dover did. We were then in Windsor; and, immediately on the receipt of the letter from our spy, Ireton and I resolved to take a trusty fellow with us, and, in troopers' habits, to go to the inn; which, accordingly, we did, and set our man at the gate of the inn to watch. The gate was shut, but the wicket was open, and our man stood to give us notice when any one came with a saddle on his head. Ireton and I sat in a box near the wicket, and called for a can of beer, and then another, drinking in that disguise till ten o'clock, when our sentinel gave us notice that the man with the saddle was come; upon which we immediately rose; and when the man was leading out his horse saddled, we came up to him with our swords drawn, and told him that we were to search all that went in and out there; but that, as he looked like an honest fellow, we would only search his saddle, which we did, and found the letter we looked for. On opening it, we read the contents, in which the king acquainted the queen that he was now courted by both the factions—the Scots, the Presbyterians, and the army; that which of them bid fairest for him should have him; that he thought he could close sooner with the Scots than with the other. Upon which we speeded to Windsor; and, finding we were not likely to have any tolerable terms with the king, we resolved to ruin him.'" P. 268.

We shall give one more extract, illustrative of the inflexibility of Cromwell's character, and of his determination to obtain the highest station in the realm, at the sacrifice of those virtues and principles which are supposed to be the attributes of a sincere Christian, or of a humane man.

"The reasons which have induced us to remain silent respecting events so memorable, operate to hinder our giving any detail of the numerous and pressing attempts made by individuals and nations to bring over the subject of this memoir, even in part, to the royal cause. It is well known how his cousin, Colonel Cromwell, laid before him a sheet of paper, with the signature of the Prince of Wales alone inscribed on it, leaving it to himself to supply the blank, provided only the king's life were saved. It is equally well known how powerfully the proposal moved him; and how desperate was the struggle between a lesser and a greater ambition, before the latter prevailed. But Cromwell felt, or fancied that he had already gone so far, that to retreat in safety was impracticable. The envoy, who had withdrawn to his inn, to await there the decision of his relative, received a message, long after midnight, that he might retire to rest; and on the day following, Charles I. perished upon the scaffold." P. 273.

We know that mildness, and benevolence and mercy, are found in unison with a dauntless heart; that the hero who has witnessed unmoved the streams overflowing with the mingled blood of friends and foes, and that desolation and misery which are ever the offspring of war, is often possessed of the most tender traits of character, and combines all the qualifications of mind and of disposition to render him the centre of domestic bliss, and the warm

and generous friend; but we seek in vain, in the cold and stoical heart of Cromwell, for some general display of that benignant feeling which is indicative of philanthropy, or even of common sympathy. The warrior appears to have thrown aside the scabbard, and ever to have retained within his grasp the uplifted sword.

The character of Cromwell, and the circumstances which marked his career of glory correspond, in some particulars, with that of the great Napoleon. Raised from a comparatively low sphere upon the ruins of hereditary greatness, they both achieved their triumphs, and immortalized their names. Absolute empire was their ruling passion, making desolation its shadow: jealousy towards their most devoted adherents, and distrust of their most faithful servants clung to both; causing them to denounce or banish those who were ready to risk every hazard in their service. The progress of "the lion," and the flight of "the eagle," were alike arrested. Cromwell, at last, distrusted all mankind, even his nearest and dearest connexions; while the once proud emperor of many nations died on an isolated rock, and was buried by Britons, to whom, alone, amongst his numerous enemies, he would surrender himself. Both had been great; both fell; the one a prey to religious scruples, acting upon a shaken constitution; the other a victim to his mad and untameable ambition.

We have been very much instructed and pleased with the perusal of Mr. Gleig's memoir of Oliver Cromwell, and we are unwilling to make any remark which should in the least degree detract from the merit of so useful a publication as the one before us; but history generally has been a distorter of facts, and our present historians prefer the old and beaten track in preference to candour and originality. We are led to make these observations because, in perusing them, as well as other memoirs of the times, no mention has been made of the services of Lord Byron, an ancestor of our illustrious deceased poet, whose efforts on behalf of the royal cause, were great and successful upon many occasions; and we have, in former numbers, published an old narrative of the civil war in Wales, as well as some letters relating to the siege of Chester, wherein he appears to have taken a distinguished part; in fact, in many manuscript accounts, such mention has been made of his name, as to place it beyond doubt that, in the western parts of the country, he must have been a faithful and gallant leader on the side of Charles.

In the lives of eminent statesmen, we shall welcome the name of Cromwell, because a review of him under that character will, we conceive, afford us a more extended field for reflection upon his intellect and habits, than on his military life, as well as a more interesting subject for the perusal of our readers. With these remarks we close our cursory examination of the martial career of Oliver Cromwell.

NO. XIII.

*No. 1. p. 60. No. II. p. 150.

K