網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

queft of Jamaica; as if a defeated army fhould have the impudence to brag afterwards of the victory, becaufe, though they had fled out of the field of battle, yet they quartered that night in a village of the enemies. The war with Spain was a neceffary confequence of this folly; and how much we have gotten by it, let the custom-house and exchange inform you; and, if he please to boat of the taking a part of the filver fleet (which indeed nobody elfe but he, who was the fole gainer, has cause to do), at leaft, let him give leave to the reft of the nation (which is the only lofer) to complain of the lofs of twelve hundred of her fhips.

But because it may here perhaps be answered, that his fucceffes nearer home have extinguished the difgrace of fo remote mifcarriages, and that Dunkirk ought more to be remembered for his glory, than St. Domingo for his difadvantage; I must confefs, as to the honour of the English courage, that they were not wanting upon that occafion (excepting only the fault of ferving at least indirectly against their mafter), to the upholding of the renown of their warlike ancestors. But for his particular fhare of it, who fate ftill at home, and expofed them fo frankly abroad, I can only fay, that, for lefs money than he in the short time of his reign exacted from his fellow-fubjects, fome of our former princes (with the daily hazard of their own perfons) have added to the dominion of England, not only one town, but even a greater kingdom than itself. And this being all confiderable as concerning his enterprizes abroad, let us examine, in the next place, how much we owe him for his juftice and good government at

home.

And, first, he found the commonwealth (as they then called it) in a ready stock of about 800,000 pounds; he left the commonwealth (as he had the impudent raillery fill to call it) fome two millions and an half in debt. He found our trade very much decayed indeed, in comparison of the golden times of our late princes; he left it as much again more decayed than he found it: and yet not only no prince in England, but no tyrant in the world, ever fought out more bafe or infamous means to raise monies. I fhall only inftance in one that he put in practice, and another that he attempted, but was frightened from the execution (even he) by the infamy of it. That which he put in practice was decimation*; which was the most impudent breach of all public faith that the whole nation had given, and all private capitulations which himself had made, as the nation's general and fervant, that can be found out (I believe) in all history, from any of the most barbarous generals of the moft barbarous people. Which, because it. has been moft excellently and moft largely laid open by a whole book written upon that fubject, I fhall only defire you here to remember the thing in general, and to be pleafed to look upon that author, when you would recollect all the particulars and circumftances of the iniquity. The other defign, of raising a prefent fum of money, which he violently purfued, but durft not put in execution, was by the calling in and eftablishment of the Jews at London; from which he was rebuted by the univerfal outcry of the divines, and even of the citizens too, who took it ill, that a confiderable number at leat anongit themfelves were not thought Jews enough by their own Herod. And for this defign, they fay, he invented (oh Antichrift! long and i Пongs!) to fell St. Paul's to them for a fynagogue, if their purfes and devotions could have reached to the purchase. And this, indeed, if he had done only to reward that nation, which had given the first noble example of crucifying their king, it might have had fome appearance of gratitude: but he did it only for love of their mammon; and would have fold afterwards for as much more St. Peter's (even at his own Westminster) to the Turks for a mofquito. Such was his extraordinary piety to God, that he defired he might be worshipped in all manners, excepting only that heathenish way of the Common-prayer book. But what do I fpeak of his wicked inventions for getting money; when every penny, that for almoft five years he took every day from every man living in England, Scotland and Ireland, was as much robbery, as if it had been taken by a thief

upon

By decimation, is here meant, not the putting to death of every tenth man (which is the ufual fenfe of this term), but the levying of the tenth penny on the eftates of the Royalifts. The word is so used by Sir John Denham. HURD.

the highways? Was it not fo? or can any man think that Cromwell, with the affiftance of his forces and mols-troopers, had more right to the command of all men's purfes, than he might have had to any one's, whom he had met and been too ftrong for upon a road? And yet, when this came, in the cafe of Mr. Coney, to be difputed by a legal trial, he (which was the highest act of tyranny that ever was feen in England) not only difcouraged and threatened, but violently imprifoned the counsel of the plaintiff; that is, he shut up the law itfelf close prifoner, that no man might have relief from, or accefs to it. And it ought to be remembered, that this was done by those men, who a few years before had fo bitterly decried, and openly oppofed, the king's regular and formal way of proceeding in the trial of a little fhip-money.

But, though we lot the benefit of our old courts of justice, it cannot be denied that he fet up new ones; and fuch they were, that as no virtuous prince before would, fo no ill one durft, erect., What, have we lived fo many hundred years under such a form of juftice as has been able regularly to punish all men that offended againft it; and is it fo deficient juft now, that we muft feek out new ways how to proceed against offenders? The reafon, which can only be given in nature for a neceffity of this, is, because thofe things are now made crimes which were never efteemed fo in former ages; and there mult needs be a new court fet up to punish that, which all the old ones were bound to protect and reward. But I am fo far from declaiming (as you call it) against thefe wickednefes (which if I fhould undertake to do, I fhould never get to the peroration), that you fee I only give a hint of fome few, and pafs over the reft, as things that are too many to be numbered, and must only be weighed in grofs. Let any man fhew me (for, though I pretend not to much reading, I will defy in all hiftory), let any man fhew me (I fay) an example of any nation in the world (though much greater than ours), where there have, in the fpace of four years, been made fo many prifoners, only out of the endlefs jealoufies of one tyrant's guilty imagination. I grant you, that Marius and Sylla, and the accurfed triumvirate after them, put more people to death; but the reafon, I think, partly was, becaufe in thofe times that had a mixture of fome honour with their madness, they thought it a more civil revenge against a Roman, to take away his life, than to take away his liberty. But truly in the point of murder too, we have little reafon to think that our late tyranny has been deficient to the examples that have ever been fet it in other countries. Our judges and our courts of justice have not been idle and, to omit the whole reign of our late king (till the beginning of the war), in which no drop of blood was ever drawn but from two or three ears, I think the longeft time of our worst princes fcarce faw many more executions, than the short one of our bleft reformer. And we faw, and fmelt in our open ftreets (as I marked to you at first) the broiling of human bowels as a burnt-offering of a fweet favour to our idol; but all murdering, and all torturing (though after the fubtileft invention of his predeceffors of Sicily) is more humane and more fupportable, than his felling of Chriftians, Englishmen, gentlemen; his felling of them (oh monftrous! oh incredible!) to be flaves in America. If his whole life could be reproached with no other action, yet this alone would weigh down all the multiplicity of crimes in any of our tyrants; and I dare only touch, without ftopping or infifting upon, fo infolent and fo execrable a cruelty, for fear of falling into fo violent (though a juít) paffion, as would make me exceed that temper and moderation, which I refolve to obferve in this difcourfe with you.

These are great calamities; but even these are not the most infupportable that we have endured; for fo it is, that the fcorn, and mockery, and infultings of an enemy, are more painful than the deepeft wounds of his ferious fury. This man was wanton and merry (unwittingly and ungracefully merry) with our fufferings: he loved to fay and do fenfelefs and fantastical things, only to fhew his power of doing or faying any thing. It would ill befit mine, or any civil mouth, to repeat thofe words which he fpoke concerning the most facred of our English laws, the Petition of Right, and Magna Charta To-day, you should fee him ranting fo wildly, that nobody durft come

• Which the reader may fee in Lord Clarendon, H. R. vol. iii. fol. p. 596. HURD.
In the Cafe of Coney, before mentioned.

hear him; the morrow, flinging of cushions, and playing at fnow-balls, with his fervants. This month, he affembles a parliament, and profeffes himself with humble tears to be only their fervant and their minifter; the next month he fwears by the living God that he will turn them out of doors, and he does fo, in his princely way of threatening, bidding them, "Turn the buckles of their girdles behind them." The reprefentative of whole, nay of three whole nations, was in his esteem fo contemptible a meeting, that he thought the affronting and expelling of them to be a thing of fo little confequence, as not to deferve that he thould advife with any mortal man about it. What fhall we call this? boldness or brutishness; rafhness or phrenfy? There is no name can come up to it; and therefore we must leave it without one. Now a parliament must be chofen in the new manner, next time in the old form, but all cafhiered ftill after the newelt mode. Now he will govern by major-generals, now by one houfe, now by another house, now by no house; now the freak takes him, and he makes feventy peers of the End at one clap (extempore, and fans pede in uno); and, to manifeft the abfolute power of the putter, he choofes not only the worft clay he could find, but picks up even the &t and wire, to form out of it his veffels of honour. It was faid anciently of Fortune, that, when he had a mind to be merry and to divert herfelf, the was wont to raise up fuch kind of people to the higheft dignities. This fon of Fortune, Cromwell (who was himself one of the primelt of her jeits), found out the true baut gouft of this pleaface, and rejoiced in the extravagance of his ways, as the fulleft demonitration of his controlable fovereignty. Good God! What have we feen? and what have we fered? what do all thefe actions lignify? what do they fay aloud to the whole nation, but this (even as plainly as if it were proclaimed by heralds through the streets of London), You are flaves and fools, and fo I will use you!"

[ocr errors]

Thele are briefly a part of those merits which you lament to have wanted the reward of mure kingdoms, and fuppofe that, if he had lived longer, he might have had them: which I am to far from concurring to, that I believe his feafonable dying to have been a greater good-fortune to him, than all the victories and profperities of his life. For he fremed evidently (methinks) to be near the end of his deceitful glories; his own army grew at lait as weary of him as the rest of the people; and I never paft of late before palace (his, do I call it? I afk God and the king pardon), but I never passed of ate before Whitehall, without reading upon the gate of it, " Mene Mene, Tekel Upharfin." But it pleafed God to take him from the ordinary courts of men, and juries of his peers, to his own high court of justice; which being more merciful than dars below, there is a little room yet left for the hope of his friends, if he have any ; though the outward unrepentance of his death afford but small materials for the work of charity, efpecially if he defigned even then to entail his own injuftice upon his children, zad, by it, inextricable confulions and civil wars upon the nation. But here's at lait on end of him. And where's now the fruit of all that blood and calamity, which his ambition has coft the world? Where is it? Why, his fon (you will fay) has the whole crop; I-doubt, he will find it quickly blaited; I have nothing to fay against the gentleaat, or any living of his family; on the contrary, I with him better fortune than to a long and unquiet poffeflion of his master's inheritance. Whatsoever I have poken against his father, is that which I fhould have thought (though decency, perhaps, might have hindered me from faying it) even against mine own, if I had been fo unhappy, as that mine, by the fame ways, fhould have left me three Kingdoms"

have

66

Here I ftopt; and my pretended protector, who, I expected, would have been very angry, fell a laughing, it feems at the fimplicity of my difcourfe, for thus he replied: You feem to pretend extremely to the old obfolete rules of virtue and confcience, which makes me doubt very much whether, from this vaft profpect of three kingdoms you can fhew me any acres of your own. But thefe are fo far from making you a prince, that I am afraid your friends will never have the contentment to fee you fo

• Dan. v. 25.

↑ A remarkalie testimony to the blameless character of Richard Cromwell.

much as a juftice of peace in your own country. For this, I perceive, which you ca virtue, is nothing else but either the frowardness of a Cynic, or the lazinefs of an Epi curean. I am glad you allow me at leaft artful diffimulation and unwearied diligence in my hero; and I affure you, that he, whofe life is conftantly drawn by thofe two, fhall never be mifled out of the way of greatness. But I fee you are a pedant and Platonical ftatefman, a theoretical commonwealth's-man, an Utopian dreamer. Was ever riches gotten by your golden mediocrities? or the fupreme place attained to by virtues that muft not ftir out of the middle? Do you ftudy Ariftotle's politics, and write, if you pleafe, comments upon them; and let another but practife Machiavel and let us fee then which of you two will come to the greatest preferment. If the defire of rule and fuperiority be a virtue (as fure I am it is more imprinted in human nature than any of your lethargical morals; and what is the virtue of any creature, but the exercise of thofe powers and inclinations which God has infused into it?) if that (Ifay) be virtue, we ought not to efteem any thing vice, which is the most proper, if not the only, means of attaining of it;

It is a truth fo certain, and fo clear,

That to the first-born man it did appear;
Did not the mighty heir, the noble Cain,
By the fresh laws of nature taught, disdain
That (though a brother) any one should be
A greater favourite to God than he?
He ftrook him down; and fo (faid he) fo fell
The fheep, which thou didst facrifice fo well.
Since all the fulleft fheaves, which I could bring,
Since all were blafted in the offering,

Left God should my next victim too defpife,
The acceptable prieft I'll facrifice.

Hence, coward fears; for the first blood so spilt,
As a reward he the firft city built.
'Twas a beginning generous and high,
Fit for a grand-child of the Deity.

So well advanc'd, 'twas pity there he staid;

One step of glory more he should have made,

And to the utmoft bounds of greatnefs gone;

Had Adam too been kill'd, he might have reign'd alone.
One brother's death, what do I mean to name,

A fmall oblation to revenge and fame?

The mighty-foul'd Abimelec, to fhew
What for high place a higher fpirit can do,
A hecatomb almoft of brethren flew,
And feventy times in neareft blood he dy'd
(To make it hold) his royal purple pride.
Why do I name the lordly creature man?
The weak, the mild, the coward woman, can,
When to a crown fhe cuts her facred way,
All that oppofe with manlike courage flay.
So Athaliah, when fhe faw her fon,
And with his life her dearer greatnefs, gone,
With a majestic fury flaughter'd all
Whom high-birth might to high pretences call:
Since he was dead who all her power fuftain'd,
Refolv'd to reign alone; refolv'd, and reign'd.
In vain her fex, in vain the laws, withstood,
In vain the facred plea of David's blood;

}

A noble and a bold contention, fhe

(One woman) undertook with deftiny.
She to pluck down, deftiny to uphold
(Oblig'd by holy oracles of old)

The great Jeffaan race on Judah's throne;
Till 'twas at laft an equal wager grown,

Scarce Fate, with much ado, the better got by one.
Tell me not, fhe herself at laft was flain;

Did fhe not firft feven years (a life-time) reign?
Seven royal years t' a public fpirit will feem
More than the private life of a Methufalem.
'Tis godlike to be great; and, as they fay,
A thoufand years to God are but a day,

So to a man, when once a crown he wears,

The coronation-day's more than a thousand years."

}

He would have gone on, I perceived, in his blafphemies, but that by God's grate I became fo bold, as thus to interrupt him: "I understand now perfectly (which I gueffed at long before) what kind of angel and protector you are; and, though your tyle in verfe be very much mended* fince you were wont to deliver oracles, yet your doctrine is much worse than ever you had formerly (that I heard of) the face to publish; whether your long practice with mankind has increafed and improved your malice, or whether you think us in this age to be grown fo impudently wicked, that there needs no more art or disguises to draw us to your party."

[ocr errors]

My dominion (faid he haftily, and with a dreadful furious look) is fo great in this world, and I am fo powerful a monarch of it, that I need not be afhamed that you fhould know me; and, that you may fee I know you too, I know you to be an obstinate and inveterate malignant; and for that reafon I fhall take you along with me to the next garrison of ours; from whence you fhall go to the Tower, and from thence to the court of juftice, and from thence you know whither." 1 was almoft in the very pounces of the great bird of prey :

When, lo, ere the laft words were fully fpoke,
From a fair cloud, which rather op'd than broke,
A flash of light, rather than lightning, came,
So fwift, and yet fo gentle, was the flame.
Upon it rode (and, in his full career,
Seem'd to my eyes no fooner there than here)
The comelieft youth of all th' angelic race;

Lovely his fhape, ineffable his face.

The frowns, with which he ftrook the trembling fiend,

All fmiles of human beauty did tranfcend;

His beams of locks fell part difhevel'd down,

Part upwards curl'd, and form'd a natural crown,
Such as the British monarchs us'd to wear;
If gold might be compar'd with angels' hair.
His coat and flowing mantle were fo bright,
They feem'd both made of woven filver light:
Acrofs his breast an azure ruban went,
At which a medal hung, that did present,
In wondrous living figures, to the fight,

The mystic champion's, and old dragon's, fight;

*This compliment was intended, not fo much to the foregoing, as to the following verfes; of which the author had reafon to be proud, but, as being delivered in his own perfon, could not fo properly make the panegyric. HueD.

VOL. II.

X

« 上一頁繼續 »