kind.' 'Cromwell was emphatically a man. He possessed, in an eminent degree, that masculine and fullgrown robustness of mind, that equally diffused intellectual health, which... has peculiarly characterised the great men of England. Never was any ruler so conspicuously born for sovereignty' (Macaulay). Destruction of one &c. The commons voted (Feb. 7, 1649) that the office of king was 'unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous to the liberty, safety, and public interests of the people of the kingdom, and therefore ought to be abolished.' Death. Charles I. was beheaded Jan. 30, 1649. The truth is, no modern reader can conceive the then atrocity, ferocity, unspeakability of this fact. First, after long reading in the old dead Pamphlets does one see the magnitude of it. . I reckon it perhaps the most daring action any Body of Men to be met with in history ever, with clear consciousness, deliberately set themselves to do' (Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, Part IV., end). To trample... and spurn &c. Finding that the Rump Parliament were breaking faith with him and secretly attempting to thwart his plans, he marched down a detachment of soldiers, cleared the house, and had the door locked (April 20, 1653). (See Carlyle). New and unheard-of monster. Cromwell now formed a Council of State, consisting of himself, eight officers of high rank, and four civilians (April 29). The disturbed state of the country rendering it inexpedient to summon a new parliament in the constitutional form, the council chose some 140 members, with religious qualifications, partly inferior men, but mostly persons of good position: 'a real Assembly of the Notables in Puritan England' (Carlyle). They met on July 4. To stifle that &c. This assembly fell into public contempt, and surrendered back their powers into the hands of Cromwell (Dec. 12), who was then declared Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Dec. 16). To set up himself &c. Those soldiers who would not suffer him to assume the title stood by him when he ventured on acts of power as high as any English king has ever attempted. The government, therefore, though in form a republic, was in truth a despotism, moderated only by the wisdom, the sobriety, and the magnanimity of the despot' (Macaulay). All things that ever &c. Emphatic circumlocution heightens the effect. To oppress &c. 'Those elements of force which, when the civil war broke out, had appeared arrayed against each other were combined against him; all the Cavaliers, the great majority of the Roundheads, the Anglican Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Yet such was his genius and resolution that he was able to overpower and crush everything that crossed his path, to make himself more absolute master of his country than any of her legitimate kings had been,' &c. (Macaulay). To serve all parties &c. Cromwell had recourse to independent action only when he could not get his impracticable parliaments to do useful work towards 'the settlement of the nation.' To overrun &c. 'England had already ceased to struggle.' 'In a few months (1649-50) he subjugated Ireland as Ireland had never been subjugated during the five centuries of slaughter which had elapsed since the landing of the first Norman settlers.' 'In two great battles [Dunbar and Worcester, 1650-1: see Milton's Sonnet to Cromwell, notes] Cromwell annihilated, the military force of Scotland' (Macaulay). To be feared. . . . foreign princes. 'After half a century during which England had been of scarcely more weight in European politics than Venice or Saxony, she at once became the most formidable power in the world, dictated terms of peace to the pirates of Barbary, vanquished the Spaniards by land and sea, seized one of the finest West Indian islands [Jamaica], and acquired on the Flemish coast a fortress [Dunkirk] which consoled the national pride for the loss of Calais. She was supreme on the ocean.' 'He taught every nation to value her friendship, and to dread her enmity' (Macaulay). When the Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames in Charles II.'s time, 'everywhere it was remembered how, when Oliver ruled, all foreign powers had trembled at the name of England, how the States-General, now so haughty, had crouched at his feet, and how, when it was (known that he was no more, Amsterdam was lighted up as for a great deliverance, and children ran along the canals, shouting for joy that the Devil was dead' (Macaulay). To bequeath &c. 'It is certain that he was, to the last, honoured by his soldiers, obeyed by the whole population of the British Islands, and dreaded by all foreign powers; that he was laid among the ancient sovereigns of England with funeral pomp such as London had never before seen; and that he was succeeded by his own son Richard as quietly as any king had ever been succeeded by any Prince of Wales' (Macaulay). 'Not a murmur of opposition was heard' (Lingard, History of England, Vol. VIII. chap. viii.). To leave a name &c. Macaulay calls him 'the greatest prince that has ever ruled England.' Qualify him, declare him to be, by enumeration of his qualities. His equals and betters. On the omission of the nouns, which are obvious, the adjectives take their place and inflection. Give the full and natural form. Cf. 'whose like' (Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 8). Loss of three or four ears. Mutilation, which had rarely been inflicted by law in England, excited very strong feeling in Charles I.'s reign. For his book entitled An Appeal to Parliament, or A Plea against Prelacy, Dr Alexander Leighton was condemned by the Star-Chamber (1630) 'to be degraded of his ministry,' then 'for further punishment and example to others, be brought into the pillory at Westminster,. and there whipped, and after his whipping be set upon the pillory for some convenient space, and have one of his ears cut off, and his nose slit, and be branded in the face with a double SS, for a Sower of Sedition; and shall then be carried to the prison of the Fleet, and at some other convenient time afterwards shall be carried into the pillory at Cheapside, upon a market-day, and be there likewise whipped, and then be set upon the pillory, and have his other ear cut off, and from thence be carried back to the prison of the Fleet, there to remain during life, unless his Majesty shall be graciously pleased to enlarge him' (Rushworth). So in 1633, William Prynne, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, underwent similar barbarous treatment for writing Histriomastix, a 'collection of divers arguments and authorities against common stageplays;' he lost both his ears. His own general, Lord Fairfax, who would not fight the Scots, and resigned his commission, 1650. Cromwell's enemies thought that, for all his earnestness to persuade Fairfax N Hume (Hist. of England, ch. 61) substantially adopts the angel's character of Cromwell 'altered in some particulars from the original.' The alterations are chiefly in the style, which, Hurd thinks, surely wanted no improvement.' The pupil should be enabled to compare Hume's altered form with the original. EDWARD HYDE, EARL OF CLARENDON.-1609-1674. EDWARD HYDE, the son of a country gentleman of Wiltshire, on leaving Oxford, studied law under his uncle, Nicholas Hyde, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He attached himself to the party of the king, and accompanied the royal family into exile. He did much to bring about the Restoration; and, after having spent fourteen years abroad (1646-60), he returned to become Lord Chancellor and chief minister of Charles II. His greatness was still further heightened by the marriage of his daughter Anne with the Duke of York (1660), and by his elevation to the earldom of Clarendon (1661). After a few years he became unpopular, and being impeached of high treason (1667), he went again into exile. He died at Rouen. The History of the Rebellion was written at various times during his life abroad, and was not published till 1704. Among his other works are his Life and a Continuation of the History. "The respect which we justly feel for Clarendon as a writer must not blind us to the faults which he committed as a statesman. Some of those faults, however, are explained and excused by the unfortunate position in which he stood' (Macaulay). ADMIRAL ROBERT BLAKE. (From The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England.) [Robert Blake, general and admiral at sea, the greatest sailor of his age, was the man who, next to Cromwell, was the foremost personage in England during the most troubled and glorious part of the seventeenth century' (W. H. Dixon). He was born in 1598 at Bridgewater in Somersetshire, the son of an energetic merchant, who had more than once been chief magistrate. He went to Oxford in 1615, and remained there nine years, taking the degree of M.A. In the civil war, he took the side of the parliament and greatly distinguished himself by land and sea. On land, his most brilliant achievements were connected with the capture and stubborn defence of Taunton (1644-5). At sea, his career was yet more glorious (1649-57): he crushed the power of Prince Rupert in the Mediterranean and in the Scilly Isles (1651); in several terrible battles. (1652-3), he humbled the Dutch, who at that time possessed the greatest naval power in the world, under some of the most famous admirals that ever lived; he exacted reparation (1654) from the Grandduke of Tuscany (60,000 pistoles), and from the Pope Alexander VII. (20,000 pistoles)-'probably the only money ever brought from Roman coffers to enrich the public treasury of England' (Dixon); he punished the Deys of Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers (1655); and he sent home to England much gold taken from the wrecks of Spanish treasure fleets (1656-7). Again and again he was publicly thanked and rewarded by parliament. Blake died as his ship the St George was entering Plymouth Sound on August 17, 1657; and he was buried (Sept. 4) with great pomp in Henry VII.'s Chapel in Westminster Abbey, 'amidst the tears and prayers of a grateful and admiring nation.' In 1661, Charles II., to his eternal disgrace, ordered Blake's body to be exhumed (with many others), and cast out of the Abbey. It was reburied in the churchyard of St Margaret's.] ENCOUNTER WITH VAN TROMP. (From Book XIII.) It was about the beginning of May in the year 1652, that the Dutch fleet, consisting of above forty sail, under the command of Van Tromp, rode at anchor in Dover road, being driven by a strong wind, as they pretended, from the Flanders coast, when the English fleet, under the command of Blake, of a much less number, appeared in view; upon which the Dutch weighed anchor, and put out to sea, without striking their flag; which Blake observing, caused three guns to be fired without any ball. It was then observed that there was an express ketch came at the very time from Holland on board the admiral; and it was then conceived that he had by that express received more positive orders to fight; for, upon the arrival of that express, he tacked about, and bore directly towards the English fleet; and the three guns were no sooner fired, but, in contempt of the advertisement, he discharged one single gun from his poop, and hung out a red flag, and came up to the English admiral, and gave him a broadside, with which he killed many of his men, and hurt his ship. With which, though Blake was surprised, as not expecting such an assault, he deferred not to give him the same rude salutation; and so both fleets were forthwith engaged in a very fierce encounter; which continued for the space of four hours, till the night parted them, after the loss of much blood on both sides. On the part of the Dutch, they lost two ships, whereof one was sunk and the other taken, with both the captains, and near two hundred prisoners. On the English side there were many slain, and more wounded, but no ship lost, nor officer of name. When the morning appeared, the Dutch were gone to their coast. NOTES. About the beginning &c. May 19. Van Tromp. Marten Harpertzoon van Much less number. Van Tromp had forty-two men-of-war and frigates ; Describe the encounter in your own language. |