II. 1647. The pivot of BOOK power of tracing and unfolding the complexities of human affairs and human life. But all these attributes would have availed him nothing, withhis success. out the talent of which we speak. There have been men, who could see every thing, and from whom no secret of the human heart has been hid, to whom the faculty of exciting sympathy has been denied, who could not emit a spark from their own bosoms that should light up a kindred fire in the breasts of others, who could not utter a sound which should instantly string the nerves, and brace the arm, of every one whose assistance they desired. Such persons live as it were in a field of dead men's bones: the light of heaven is upon every object around them: nothing escapes their observation:-but all this is to no purpose: they do not possess the transcendant power of saying to those dry bones, Live. His extraordinary talent of The gift of Cromwel consisted in such apparent frankness and honesty of speech, as did not allow persuasion. in the hearer the possibility of doubt.. He seemed to be telling you exactly the thing it was most important for you to know, and that with a clearness and sincerity that carried its own evidence along with it. He could be brief, when a few words would tell all that it was in his mind to tell; he could be copious, when it was necessary that a full stream of sentiment should loosen your hold the anchor of calmness and deliberation. Bluntness was a main engine with upon XIII. 1647. which he worked; he spared for no fervour CHAP. and emphasis of asseveration, when his purpose demanded that. He was polished with the polished, and coarse with the coarse, always adapting himself with incredible felicity to the persons whom at the moment it was his hint to address. His religion, as he understood it, and according to the mode of the times, was of marvellous advantage to him. He spoke to those whom it concerned in the name of the Almighty, and displayed an entire prostration of soul to the will of God. The language of pious enthusiasm never fell more consummate from the lips of a human being, than from those of Cromwel. And it is a vulgar mistake to suppose that in all this he played the hypocrite: as the great Roman critic says, "If wish me to weep, the first tears that are shed must be your own:" Cromwel could never have made a dupe of others (though, in the case of his fellow-soldiers and fellow-citizens at present, this is not the name of what he did), if he had not first made a dupe of himself. you confidence But, admirable as Cromwel was in penetration, Cromwel's and in powers of persuasion, he appears, on the too great occasion to which our narrative has now brought in his adheus, to have overreached himself through too much confidence in his own strength and his means of、 success. He felt, what is always felt by men of an elevated mind, a generous contempt of calum- ny. rents de ceives him. BOOK opinion, founded on long and varied experiments, II. 1647. Cause of implanted of him in the minds of his fellowsoldiers. When the idle stories were propagated all round him, of his being to be made earl of Essex, knight of the garter, and vicar-general of the realm, he just condescended to mention to Berkeley, that lady Carlisle said these stories came from him; but we know not of any other notice he took of them. In all this perhaps Cromwel was right. But his mistake. he should have recollected the plausibility which his conduct gave to the tale. He and Ireton were apparently upon confidential terms with the king. They had held back in the period of the first discontents of the army, had appeared to suffer the early seeds of opposition to be nursed by the agitators, and had occasionally expressed themselves in parliament as though they were of a different sentiment on the subject of those discontents. They now frequented the society of Berkeley, Ashburnham, and others, the most obnoxious and distasteful of the followers of Charles. Nor was this all. They held both to these men and their master, the language of sincere attachment to his cause. They were frequent and vehement in their protestations of a desire to serve him. Surely Cromwel ought to have been aware that in so doing he was treading on dangerous ground. He ought to have been aware too, that men of slender capacities and narrow observa tion are always illiberal and intolerant in their CHAP. construction of the conduct of their superiors. XIII. the enemy In addition to all these disadvantages there was Lilburne one individual who at this time had sworn the of Cromdestruction of Cromwel, a man formidable in his wel. intellectual resources, of the most unwearied activity, and of invincible courage, John Lilburne. To understand his purposes and proceedings, it is necessary again to take up the thread of his story. 1645. Ordinance sation to of compen him for his sufferings chamber. Lilburne, by his conduct in the years 1644 and 1645, his contention with Prynne, and his accusations of colonel King and the earl of Manchester, had raised to himself many formidable by the Staradversaries in the presbyterian party. Prynne was the most unremitting and active of these. After his liberation however in the October of the latter year, Lilburne was comparatively quiet, and applied himself principally to the obtaining such indemnification as he could for his past sufferings. He presented a petition to the house of commons for arrears due to him as a soldier: but his claim was referred to a committee, of which Prynne was chairman; and Lilburne, refusing to swear to his accounts, could obtain no redress b. In the same petition he prayed for compensation for the illegal sentence which had been pronounced upon him * Journals, Nov. 10. Innocency and Truth Justified, Appendix. b Resolved Mans Resolution, p. 36. II. 1646. He is arrested by colonel King. April 14. BOOK in the Star-chamber; and in the April following an ordinance was sent down from the lords, awarding to him a payment of two thousand pounds on that ground. But Prynne, with that vindictiveness of disposition which seems to have charactised him, and being anxious that Lilburne should derive no benefit from this, proceeding, alleged as chairman of the committee of accounts, that the state, instead of being his debtor, had a just claim of credit against him for an amount somewhat greater than that decreed him by the ordinanced. At the same time colonel King arrested him for the sum of two thousand pounds, which was afterwards explained to mean that this was the amount of the damages to which King held himself entitled for Lilburne's having called him a traitor *. An impeachment of treason had been presented to the house of commons against King; and Lilburne was one of the witnesses to prove these charges. But he was informed, that this accusation could not be pleaded in bar of King's action, and that therefore, unless the trial of the party accused could be so accelerated as to precede his own, he would infallibly be cast. In this dilemma Lilburne had recourse to his ordinary expedient; he printed a letter to Reeve, the senior judge of the Common Pleas in which his cause was to be tried, June 6. Journals, Apr. 27. |