Art. 22. In case any misunderstanding shall hereafter arise between the states and subjects of Sweden and Russia, it shall by no means prejudice this treaty of perpetual peace; which shall nevertheless always be and remain in full force agreeable to its intent, and commissaries shall without delay be appointed on each side to inquire into and adjust all disputes.

Art. 23. All those who have been guilty of high treason, murder, theft, and other crimes, and those who deserted from Sweden to Russia, and from Russia to Sweden, either singly or with their wives and children, shall be immediately sent back, provided the complaining party of the country, from whence they made their escape, shall think fit to recall them, let them be of what nation soever, and in the same condition as they were at their arrival, together with their wives and children, as likewise with all they had stolen, plundered, or taken away with them in their flight.

Art. 24. The exchange of the ratifications of this treaty of peace, shall be reciprocally made at Nystadt within the space of three weeks after the day of signing the same, or sooner if possible. In witness whereof, two copies of this treaty, exactly corresponding with each other, have been drawn up, and confirmed by the plenipotentiary ministers on each side, in virtue of the authority they have received from their respective sovereigns; which copies they have signed with their own hands, and sealed with their own seals. Done at Nystadt, this 30th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1721. O. S.

JEAN LILIEnsted.

OTTO REINHOLD STROEMfeld.
JACOB DANIEL BRUCE.

HENRY-JOHN-FREDERIC OSTERMAN.

Ordinance of the Emperor Peter I. for the Crowning of the Empress Catherine.

WE, Peter the first, emperor and autocrator of all the Russias, &c. to all our officers ecclesiastical, civil, and military, and all others of the Russian nation, our faithful subjects.

No one can be ignorant that it has been a constant and invariable custom among the monarchs of all Christian states, to cause their consorts to be crowned, and that the same is at present practised, and hath frequently been in former times by those emperors who professed the holy faith of the Greek church; to wit, by the emperor Basilides, who caused his wife Zenobia to be crowned; the emperor Justinian, his wife Lucipina; the emperor Heraclius, his wife Martina; the emperor Leo, the philosopher, his wife Mary; and many others, who have in like manner placed the imperial crown on the head of their consorts, and whom it would be too tedious here to enumerate.

It is also well known to every one how much we have exposed our person, and faced the greatest dangers, for the good of our country, during the one and twenty years course of the late war, which we have by the assistance of God terminated in so honourable and advantageous a manner, that Russia hath never beheld such a peace, nor ever acquired so great glory as in the late war. Now the empress Catherine, our dearly beloved wife, having greatly comforted and assisted us during the said war, and also in several other our expedients, wherein she voluntarily and cheerfully accompanied us, assisting us with her counsel and advice in every exigence, notwithstanding the weakness of her sex, particularly in the battle against the Turks, on the banks of the river Pruth, wherein our army was reduced to twenty thousand men, while that of the Turks amounted to two hundred and seventy thousand, and on which desperate occasion she signalized herself in a particular manner, by a courage and presence of mind superior to her sex, which is well known to all our army, and to the whole Russian empire: therefore, for these reasons, and in virtue of the power which God has given us, we have resolved to honour our said consort Catherine with the imperial crown, as a reward for her painful services; and we propose, God willing, that this ceremony shali be performed the ensuing winter at Moscow. And we do hereby give notice of this our resolution to all, who are faithful subjects, in favour of whom our imperial affection is unalterable.

In the introduction to this work it has been explicitly stated, that though from the era of the Norman conquest there were never wanting bands of mercenary soldiers to occupy the castles and fortified towns belonging to the king, no traces of a standing army, similar in its composition to those which now exist throughout the whole of Europe, can be discovered in this country prior to the middle of the 17th century. Down to that date, wars, whether of defence or conquest, were carried on either by the feudal militia, or by troops raised under a commission of array; which, being enrolled for some particular service, were, on its conclusion, disbanded, and sent again to their own homes. The great struggle between Charles I. and his parliament led, almost unavoidably, to a different arrangement. Though begun, and to a certain extent concluded, by the yeomen of the counties and the trained bands of cities, that contest may be said to have produced a new order in the body politic; for the men who waged it successfully, becoming soldiers by profession, laid aside neither their arms nor their discipline after peace was restored. As a necessary consequence a standing army sprang up, the first, indeed, which England had ever maintained; nor from that era to the present time have circumstances permitted that an engine so powerful in itself, yet so eminently conducive to tranquillity, should be laid aside.

Of this vital change in the military system of his country, the reader need scarcely be informed that Oliver Cromwell was the author. Raised to the highest eminence by the influence of the soldiery, that extraordinary man found himself compelled, not merely to depend upon them for continued support, but to keep them in such a condition as that the check of military discipline should never for a moment be relaxed. Of him, therefore, one of the most profound statesmen as well as successful soldiers whom England has ever produced, we propose to give an account; avoiding as far as possible all speculations on points purely religious or political, that we may bring more prominently into notice his exploits and tactics as a great military commander.

Oliver Cromwell was born at Huntingdon on the 25th of April, 1599. Both by father's and mother's side his family was respectable, for he was the son of Robert, the grandson of sir Henry, a great-grandson of sir Richard Cromwell; the last a Welsh gentleman of an ancient stock, who exchanged the name of Williams for that of Crom

well, on his marriage with a sister of Thomas earl of Essex.* His mother again claimed, upon ground far from fanciful, to be a scion of the royal tree of Stuart. She was the daughter of Walter Stewart, of the isle of Ely, a lineal descendant, according to North, from James I., lord high steward of Scotland, and a cousin, not very distantly removed, of Charles, the unfortunate opponent of his grandson. Other genealogies are indeed given, some of them more, some less gratifying to the family pride of the protector; but they all agree in attesting, that with the blood of the monarch, whom he ultimately dethroned, that of Cromwell was allied.

With this admitted fact before us, it is not easy to suppress a smile at the anxiety evinced by the personal and political enemies of the protector, to undervalue even the lineage of their great oppressor. One of the favourite sarcasms thrown out against him is, that he was the son of a brewer, and that in his own person he followed the same humble occupation. There seems good ground for admitting that both assertions are correct, though there is surely none, in a country like England, for regarding the facts as disgraceful; unless, indeed, the disgrace attach to the individuals by whom they were brought forward in a spirit of paltry because posthumous hostility. The father of Oliver, being a second son, was somewhat slenderly provided for. He endeavoured to improve his circumstances by embarking in business, a measure the reverse of discreditable either to his judgment or his gentility; and he succeeded, as the representatives of many of the first families in the nation have done, both before and since, in obtaining an honest livelihood by exercising an honest trade. This, as it is by far the most satisfactory, is likewise the most manly reply that can be offered to the supposed calumny; for the insinuations of such as would shift the opprobrium from the shoul.. ders of the husband to those of the wife, are not more hollow in argument than they are despicable in design.

There are many curious anecdotes on record

*To the policy of Henry VII. the general adoption of surnames by the Welsh families is owing. Partly with a view to blot out all remembrance of national distinctions, and partly that the business of the courts of law might be facilitated, that politic monarch prevailed upon his Cambrian subjects to drop their original patronymic, ap. Morgan ap William, or the son of William, became henceforth Morgan Williams; though, in the particular case before us, a Morgan ap William was persuaded to assume the name of Cromwell,

relative both to the childhood and early youth of Oliver Cromwell. It is stated that on one occasion, when his uncle sir Henry Cromwell sent for him, he being then an infant, a monkey snatched him from the cradle, leaped with him through a garret window, and ran along the leads. The utmost alarm was of course excited, and a variety of devices proposed, with the desperate hope of relieving him from his perilous situation. But the monkey, as if conscious that she bore the fortune of England in her paws, treated him very gently. After amusing herself for a time, she carried the infant back, and laid him safely on the bed from whence she had removed him. Some time later, the waters had well nigh quenched his aspiring genius. He fell into a deep pond, from which a clergyman, named Johnson, rescued him. Many years afterwards the loyal curate, then an old man, was recognised by the republican general, when marching at the head of a victorious army through Huntingdon. "Do you remember that day when you saved me from drowning?" said Cromwell. "I do," replied the clergyman; " and I wish with all my soul that I had put you in, rather than see you in arms against your sovereign." A third story we cannot refuse to give, because it made a more than common impression at the time.

There was a rumour prevalent in Huntingdon, that Oliver Cromwell and Charles I., when children nearly of the same age, met at Hinchinbrooke House, the seat of sir Oliver Cromwell, the uncle and godfather of the former. "The youths had not been long together," says Noble, "before Charles and Oliver disagreed; and as the former was then as weakly as the latter was strong, it was no wonder that the royal visitant was worsted; and Oliver, even at this age, so little regarded dignities, that he made the royal blood flow in copious streams from the prince's nose. This," adds the same author, "was looked upon as a bad presage for that king, when the civil wars commenced."*

It seems to have been the wish of his mother, by whom he was greatly beloved, to bestow upon Oliver an education strictly domestic; and a Mr. Long, a clergyman of the established church, was accordingly engaged to act as his private tutor. Mr. Long, however, who possessed little influence over his pupil, soon resigned his charge; upon which Oliver was placed in the free grammar school at Huntingdon, then taught by Dr. Thomas Beard. Very various and contradictory accounts are given of his progress under his new master. A foreign writer, who delights in the marvellous, has represented the future protector as a prodigy of

*The account of this pugilistic encounter between Charles and Cromwell is, to say the least of it, by no means improbable. It is well known that sir Oliver, a true and loyal knight, sumptuously entertained king James on more than one occasion; and the young prince, being twice, at least, of the party, such a falling out is not unlikely to have occured.

learning; while of his countrymen not a few speak of him as an incorrigible dunce, as well as a rebellious and headstrong reprobate. The truth appears to be, that with a more than ordinary share of quickness, Oliver took no particular delight in the routine of his scholastic studies, though he was ever foremost in the performances of such exploits as required the exercise of reckless daring or patient courage. There was not an orchard within seven miles of the town which failed to receive from him periodical visits; while the dovecotes of the neighbouring gentry were likewise laid under contribution, as often as a marauding party could be arranged. For these misdeeds, as well as for other delinquencies, he received, when detected, the most savage chastisement; Dr. Beard's reputation standing very high, not more on account of his great learning, than on account of the severe discipline which he maintained among his scholars. Nevertheless, such excessive harshness produced no good effect upon Cromwell. Of a bold and obstinate temper, he endured these merciless floggings without the utterance of a complaint, and returned to his former habits, not only with indifference, but with a dogged, and, as it appeared, a triumphant hardihood.

While a pupil atthis school,two circumstances are related to have taken place, to one of which,after he rose to his high estate, Cromwell himself frequently reverted. "On a certain night, as he lay awake in his bed, he beheld, or imagined that he beheld, a gigantic figure, which, drawing aside the curtains,told him that he should become the greatest person in the kingdom,but did not employthe wordking." Cromwell mentioned the circumstance both to his father and his uncle; the former of whom caused Dr. Beard to reward the communication with a sound flogging, while the latter rebuked his nephew for stating that "which it was too traitorous to relate." Nevertheless, the dream or vision adhered to Oliver's memory, and was, as we have just said, often reverted to, after events had worked out its exact accomplishment. On another occasion, whether prior to the occurrence of the vision or the reverse, authorities are not agreed, a play called "Lingua, or the Combat of the Five Senses for Superiority," was enacted in the school. In this quaint but striking masque, of which the author remains unknown, though the comedy itself was printed in 1607, it fell to the lot of Cromwell to perform the part of Tactus, a personification of the sense of touch, who coming forth from his tiring-room with a chaplet of flowers on his head, stumbled over a crown and royal robe, cast purposely in the way. The soliloquy into which Tactus breaks forth is certainly very striking :

Tactus, thy sneezing somewhat did portend.
Was ever man so fortunate as I

To break his shins at such a stumbling-block?
Roses and bays, pack hence! this crown and robe,
My brows and body circles and invests.
How gallantly it fits me sure the slave

Measured my head that wrought this coronet.
They lie, that say complexions cannot change;
My blood's ennobled, and I am transformed
Unto the sacred temper of a king.
Methinks I hear my noble parasites
Styling me Cæsar or great Alexander,
Licking my feet, and wondering where I got,
This precious ointment. How my pace is mended,
How princely do I speak, how sharp I threaten :
Peasants, I'll curb your headstrong impudence,
And make you tremble when the lion roars;
Ye earth-bred worms!- for a looking-glass!
Poets will write whole volumes of this change.
Where's my attendants? Come hither, sirrah! quickly,
Or by the wings of Hermes, &c. &c.

We cannot wonder if, in an age remarkably prone to superstition, this scene should have been regarded both by the friends and enemies of the protector as affording a palpable prognostication of his after fortunes. Had Cromwell lived and died on his brewery, doubtless the whole matter would have been forgotten: but his ultimate rise to more than kingly power, gave to an incident, in itself purely accidental, an air of mysterious, we had almost said of prophetic, import.

From the grammar school of his native town Cromwell was removed to Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge, where, on the 23d of April, 1616, he entered as a fellow commoner. There, as at Huntingdon, he is said to have led an exceedingly irregular life, applying himself at intervals with great intensity to his studies, but much more frequently indulging in rude and boisterous pastimes. At football, cricket, cudgelling, and wrestling, few of his companions could compete with him; his manners, moreover, assumed a rough, and, occasionally, a boorish tone, till he became at last better known by the nickname of Roysterer, than by any other appellation. Yet were it unjust towards the memory of one of the most extraordinary men whom England has produced, did we accuse him, at this stage in his career, of more than the common follies of youth. A contemner of the excessive refinements of polished life he unquestionably was, nor any ways averse to drink first, and afterwards to fight; but we can discover no proof that his conduct merited the load of obloquy which Dugdale has unsparingly heaped upon it. The case is somewhat different as we proceed onwards in our narrative.

Cromwell had resided at Cambridge little more than a year when his father died; an event which produced an important change both in his present circumstances and future prospects. He was immediately removed from the university, and, after a brief interval, sent to London, where he became a member of one of the inns of court, and professed to study the law. It is a curious fact, that though common tradition represents him to have kept terms at Lincoln's Inn, there is no entry of his name in the books of that society. From this circumstance an attempt has recently* been made

*See Memoirs of the Protector, by Oliver Cromwell, his descendant.

VOL, V.-5.

to throw discredit upon the stories which have hitherto obtained circulation relative to his general conduct while in the metropolis; but the weight of contemporary evidence appears to be such as to overwhelm all arguments depending upon analogy or abstract reasoning. "The most probable solution of the difficulty," says the author of Cromwell and his Times, " is, that he actually became a student of law in the metropolis, but was entered at some other inn of court;" to which we may add, that the registers of the legal societies have not always been kept with the accuracy which now belongs to them. Be this, however, as it may, we are assured by a professed panegyrist, who wrote in the year immediately succeeding the protector's death, that "he came to Lincoln's Inn, where he associated himself with those of the best rank and quality, and the most ingenious persons; for though he was of a nature not averse to study and contemplation, yet he seemed rather addicted to conversation and the reading of men and their several tempers, than to a continual poring upon authors." There seems, therefore, no ground to doubt that he did actually enroll himself among the members of one or other of the law societies; while of his manner of life during the period of his residence there, we possess tolerably accurate information. He is represented on all hands as learning nothing except "the follies and vices of the town." Wood asserts explicitly, that "his father dying whilst he was at Cambridge, he was taken home and sent to Lincoln's Inn to study the common law; but making nothing of it, he was sent for home by his mother, became a debauchee, and a boisterous and rude fellow." In like manner, Noble, an impartial, if not a friendly chronicler, records, that he not only returned from the capital a libertine and a rake, but that he supported the characters to admiration in his native town; while sir Philip Warwick states, that "the first years of his manhood were spent in a dissolute course of life, in good fellowship and gaming, which afterwards he seemed very sensible of, and sorrowful for." But the asseverations of these witnesses though perfectly credible in themselves, are not without a corroborative authority, of a still higher value. The following letter from Oliver himself, dated from Ely on the 13th of October, 1638, refers manifestly to this period of his life, and fully justifies the weightiest charges which his biographers have brought against him.

"To my beloved Cousin, Mrs. St. John, att sir William Markham, his house, called Oates, in Essex, present these.

"Dear cozen, I thankfully acknowledge your love in your kind remembrance of mee upon this opportunitye. Alas! you do too highly prize

* Portraiture of his Royal Highness Oliver.

129

my lines and my companie! I may be ashamed to own your expressions, considering how unprofitable I am, and the meane improvement of my talent; yett, to honour my God by declaringe what he hath done for my soull, in this I am confident, and will be soe. Truly then, this I finde, that he giveth springes in a dry and barren wildernesse where no water is. I live (you know) in Meshedra, which they say signifies prolonginge; in Kedar, which signifies blacknesse; yet the Lord forsaketh me not. Though he doth prolonge, yett he will (I trust) bringe me to his tabernacle, and his restinge place. My soull is with the congregation of the first-borne; my bodye rests in hope; and if heere I may honour my God either by doeinge or by sufferinge, I shall be more glad. Truely noe poore creture hath more cause to putt forthe himself in the cause of his God than I. I have had plenteful wadges beforehand, and I am sure I shall never earne the least mite. The Lord accept me in his service, and give me to walk in the light, and give us to walk in the light as hee is in the light! He it is that enlightineth our blacknesse, our darknesse. I dinnot say he hydeth his face from me: he giveth mee to see light in his light. One beame in a dark place has exceeding much refreshment in it: blessed be his name for shining on so dark a hart as mine. You know what my manner of life hathe been! O, I lived in, and loved darkness, and hated the light. I was a chiefe, the chiefe of sinners. This is true; I hated godlinesse, yet God had mercye on mee. O the richnesse of his mercye! praise him for mee; pray for mee, that he who hath begun a good work, would perfect it to the day of Christ. Salute all my good friends of that family whereof you are yett a member. I am much bound unto them for their love': I bless the Lord for them, and that my sonn, by their procurement, is so well. Lett him have your prayers, your councill; let mee have them. Salute your husband and sister from mee; hee is not a man of his word; he promised to write about Mr. Wrath, of Essinge, but as yett I received no letters; put him in minde to doe what with conveniency may be done for the poore cozen I did solicit him about. Once more farewell; the Lord be with you, soe prayeth your trulye lovinge cozen,

"OLIVER CROMWELL."

We have inserted this characteristic letter, as well as the statements of Wood, Noble, and Warwick, without the smallest feeling of rancour towards the subject of our present memoir, on whose memory we desire to cast no other reproach than truth may compel us to award. That he was dissipated, during the period of his sojourn in London, seems established beyond the possibility of contradiction; nevertheless, when the circumstances of his age and peculiar temperament are duly considered, the language of censure will scarcely degenerate into that of absolute condemnation. Cromwell, a youth of decided genius and

ardent disposition, is thrown, at the early age of eighteen, as it were, loose upon the world: we cannot be surprised to find that his very ardour led him into practices, which, to the eyes of a less gifted individual, might have held out no allurements. But the best apology which can, after all, be offered for him is, that ere he had attained to the years of legal discretion, his dissipated habits were wholly laid aside. His mother, a pious and sensible woman, spoke to him in the language of admonition; he received her advice in good part, corrected the whole line of his manners, and became as remarkable for a strict attention to decorum as he had formerly been the reverse.

The consequences of this reformation in his manners were, first, a reconciliation with his relatives, the Hampdens and Barringtons, from whom his previous excesses had alienated him, and next, his marriage, through their interference, with Elizabeth the daughter of sir James Bourchier, of Fitsed, in Essex. The latter event, which took place in St. Giles's church, Cripplegate, on the 22d of August, 1620, proved exceedingly conducive to his future respectability. The lady, though boasting but few personal attractions, possessed both good sense and a fair share of accomplishments; and as she brought with her a considerable addition to his patrimony, the union began under very favourable auspices. Nor were the promises thus held out doomed to end in disappointment. Throughout many years, during which she presented him with nine children, of whom five only survived their father, Cromwell and his wife lived happily together; neither the cares of public life, nor frequent and unavoidable separation, being permitted on either side to loosen the ties of conjugal attachment.

It is impossible to ascertain with perfect accuracy, at this distance of time, how Cromwell spent the interval between his marriage and his first appearance in parliament in 1628: that he dwelt almost constantly in Huntingdon seems to be generally agreed; and that he carried on the business which his father had conducted before him, is in the highest degree probable. The latter fact, as it is supported chiefly by the assertions of the satirical ballads of the day, has indeed been called in question. But without pausing to discuss a point of very little moment, however determined, we may observe, that the author of the Panegyric, usually attributed to Milton, clearly sanctions the statements of the hostile party. "Being now arrived," says he, "to a mature and ripe age, all which time he spent as a private person, noted for nothing so much as the culture of pure religion and an integrity of life, he was grown rich at home, and had enlarged his hopes, relying upon God and a great soul, in a quiet bosom, for any the most exalted times." Omitting all present consideration of the rather remarkable concluding words, does not the expression, 'grown rich at home,' seem to allow the inference that it was by