Of a truth, that same sincerity, it would appear, is no kingly virtue!

Cromwell loved justice as he loved his own life, and wherever he was

compelled to be arbitrary, it was only where his authority was

controverted, which, as things then were, it was not only right to

establish for his own sake, but for the peace and security of the

country over whose proud destinies he had been called to govern. "The

dignity of the crown," to quote his own words, "was upon the account of

the nation, of which the king was only the representative head, and

therefore, the nation being still the same, he would have the same

respect paid to his ministers as if he had been a king." England ought

to write the name of Cromwell in letters of gold, when she remembers

that, within a space of four or five years, he avenged all the insults

that had been lavishly flung upon her by every country in Europe

throughout a long, disastrous, and most perplexing civil war. Gloriously

did he retrieve the credit that had been mouldering and decaying during

two weak and discreditable reigns of nearly fifty years'

continuance--gloriously did he establish and extend his country's

authority and influence in remote nations--gloriously acquire the real

mastery of the British Channel--gloriously send forth fleets that went

and conquered, and never sullied the union-flag by an act of dishonour

or dissimulation!

Not a single Briton, during the Protectorate, but could demand and

receive either reparation or revenge for injury, whether it came from

France, from Spain, from any open foe or treacherous ally;--not an

oppressed foreigner claimed his protection but it was immediately and

effectually granted. Were things to be compared to this in the reign of

either Charles? England may blush at the remembrance of the insults she

sustained during the reigns of the first most amiable, yet most weak--of

the second most admired, yet most contemptible--of these legal kings.

What must she think of the treatment received by the Elector Palatine,

though he was son-in-law to King James? And let her ask herself how the

Duke of Rohan was assisted in the Protestant war at Rochelle,

notwithstanding the solemn engagement of King Charles under his own

hand! But we are treading too fearlessly upon ground on which, in our

humble capacity, we have scarcely the right to enter. Alas! alas! the

page of History is but a sad one! and the Stuarts and the Cromwells, the

Roundheads and the Cavaliers, the pennons and the drums, are but part

and parcel of the same dust--the dust we, who are made of dust, animated

for a time by a living spirit, now tread upon! Their words, that

wrestled with the winds and mounted on the air, have left no trace along

that air whereon they sported;--the clouds in all their beauty cap our

isle with their magnificence, as in those by-gone days;--the rivers are

as blue, the seas as salt;--the flowers, those sweet things! remain

fresh within our fields as when God called them into existence in

Paradise--and are bright as ever. But the change is over us, as it has

been over them: we, too, are passing. O England! what should this teach?

Even three things--wisdom, justice, and mercy. Wisdom to watch

ourselves, and then our rulers, so that we neither do nor suffer

wrong;--justice to the memory of the mighty dead, whether born to

thrones or footstools;--mercy, inasmuch as we shall deeply need it from

our successors.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024