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permiffion to return, and obtained it by the intereft of colonel Scroop, to whom his fifter was married. Upon the remains of a fortune, which the danger of his life had very much diminished, he lived at Hillburn, a house built by himself, very near to Beconsfield, where his mother refided. His mother, though related to Cromwell and Hampden, was zealous for the royal cause, and when Cromwell vifited her ufed to reproach him; he, in return, would throw a napkin at her, and fay he would not difpute with his aunt; but finding in time that fhe acted for the king, as well as talked, he made her a prisoner to her own daughter, in her

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own house. If he would do any thing,

he could not do lefs.

Cromwell, now protector, received Waller, as his kinfman, to familiar converfation. Waller, as he used to relate, found him fufficiently versed in ancient hiftory; and when any of his enthufiaftick friends came to advife or confult him, could fometimes overhear him difcourfing in the cant of the times. but, when he returned, he would fay, "Coufin Waller, I muft talk to "these men in their own way ;" and refumed the common ftile of converfation.

He repaid the Protector for his favours (1654), by the famous panegyrick, which has been always confidered as the firft of his poetical productions.

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ductions.

His choice of encomiaftick

topicks is very judicious; for he con-fiders Cromwel in his exaltation, with

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out enquiring how he attained it; there is confequently no mention of the rebel or the regicide. All the former part of his hero's life is veiled with fhades, and nothing is brought to view but the chief, the governor, the defender of England's honour, and the enlarger of her dominion. The act of. violence by which he obtained the fu preme power is lightly treated, and decently justified. It was certainly to be defired that the deteftable band fhould be diffolved, which had deftroyed the church, murdered the king and filled the nation with tumult and oppreffion;

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preffion; yet Cromwel had not the right of diffolving them, for all that he had before done, could be juftified only by fuppofing them invefted with lawful authority. But combinations of wickednefs would overwhelm the world by the advantage which licentious principles afford, did not thofe who have long practifed perfidy, grow faithlefs to each other.

In the poem on the war with Spain, are fome paffages at least equal to the beft parts of the panegyrick; and in the conclufion, the poet ventures yet a higher flight of flattery, by recommending royalty to Cromwel and the nation. Cromwel was very defirous, as appears from his converfation, related

by

by Whitlock, of adding the title to the power of monarchy, and is fuppofed to have been with-held from it = partly by fear of the army, and partly by fear of the laws, which, when he hould govern by the name of king, would have reftrained his authority. When therefore a deputation was folemnly fent to invite him to the Crown, he, after a long conference, refused it; but is faid to have fainted in his coach, when he parted from them.

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The poem on the death of the Pro-tector seems to have been dictated by real veneration for his memory. Dry-den and Sprat wrote on the fame occa-fion; but they were young men, ftruggling into notice, and hoping for fome

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