answer a charge of having, in 1642, condemned to death persons who had taken up arms against the King in the Welsh country. When desired to kneel at the bar of the House, the old judge peremptorily refused, saying, "Since you, Mr. Speaker, and this House have renounced all your duty and allegiance to your sovereign and natural liege lord, the King, and are become a den of thieves, should I bow myself in this house of Rimmon, the Lord would not pardon me in this thing." Intense excitement and confusion broke out amongst the members upon this plain speaking, and both prisoners were condemned to suffer death for high treason. Then uprose Harry Marten, and said, "Mr. Speaker, everyone must believe that this old gentleman here is fully possessed in his head that he is pro aris et focis mori, that he shall die a martyr for this cause, for otherwise he never would have provoked the House by such biting expressions; whereby it is apparent that if you execute him, you do what he hopes for and desires, and whose execution might have a great influence upon the people, since not condemned by a jury. Wherefore my motion is that this House would suspend the day of execution, and in the meantime force him to live in spight of his teeth." This motion restored the House to good humour; they agreed to it, and sent both prisoners off to Newgate. Marten had rightly divined the mind of the old judge. Mr. Jenkins in the retirement of his prison occupied himself in devising the details of the manner in which he should go to the scaffold. "He would eat much liquorice and gingerbread, thereby to strengthen his lungs, that he might extend his voice far and near; he would come with Bracton's book hung upon his left shoulder, with the statutes at large hung upon his right shoulder, and the Bible with a riband put round his neck and hanging on his breast. So that when they should see him die, thousands would inquire into these matters, and having found all he should tell them to be true, they would come to loath and detest the present tyranny.” The elaborate programme of the old judge was, however, rendered nugatory, for his day of execution never arrived.

OLIVER CROMWELL.

(1599-1658.)

His First Speech.-Cromwell was returned for Huntingdon to the Parliament which met in March, 1628. The first record of his addressing the House occurs in February of the following year. The House was receiving a report of committee concerning pardons granted by the King to certain persons censured by Parliament, when Cromwell, who had been of the committee, stood up and said, "He had heard by relation from one Dr. Beard (his old schoolmaster at Huntingdon) that Dr. Alablaster had preached flat Popery at Paul's Cross, and that the Bishop of Winchester had commanded him as his diocesan he should preach nothing to the contrary. Mainwaring, so justly censured in this House for his sermons, was by the same bishop's means preferred to a rich living. If these are the steps to church preferment, what are we to expect?" The House ordered, "That Dr. Beard of Huntingdon be written to by Mr. Speaker to

come up and testify against the bishop; the order for Dr. Beard to be delivered to Mr. Cromwell."

His Personal Appearance. The first time (writes Sir Philip Warwick)" that ever I took notice of him was in the very beginning of the Parliament held in November, 1640, when I vainly thought myself a courtly young gentleman, for we courtiers valued ourselves much upon our good clothes. I came one morning into the House well clad, and perceived a gentleman speaking, whom I knew not, very ordinarily apparelled, for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed to have been made by an ill country tailor. His linen was plain, and not very clean; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band, which was not much larger than his collar. His hat was without a hat-band; his stature was of a good size; his sword stuck close to his side, his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice sharp and untunable, and his eloquence full of fervour. For the subject-matter would not bear much of reason, it being on behalf of a servant of Mr. Prynne's who had dispersed libels against the Queen for dancing, and suchlike innocent and courtly sports; and he aggravated the imprisonment of this man by the Council-table unto that height that one would have believed the very Government itself had been in great danger by it."

A Prophecy.-One day, when Cromwell had spoken warmly in the House, Lord Digby asked Hampden who he was; and Hampden is said to have replied, "That sloven whom you see before you, hath no ornament in his speech; that sloven, I say, if we should ever come to a breach with the King (which God forbid!)-in such a case, I say, that sloven will be the greatest man in England."

Cromwell Reprehended.-Lord Clarendon was often heard to mention one private committee in which he (when Mr. Hyde) was put accidentally into the chair, upon an enclosure which had been made of great wastes, belonging to the Queen's manors, without the consent of the tenants; against which as well the inhabitants of other manors, who claimed common in those wastes, as the Queen's tenants of the same, made loud complaints, as a great oppression, carried upon them with a very high hand, and supported by power. The committee sat in the Queen's Court, and Oliver Cromwell, being one of them, appeared much concerned to countenance the petitioners, who were numerous together with their witnesses. Cromwell ordered the witnesses and petitioners in the method of the proceedings, and seconded and enlarged upon what they said with great passion; and the witnesses and persons concerned, who were a very rude kind of people, interrupted the counsel and witnesses on the other side with great clamour when they said anything that did not please them, so that Mr. Hyde was compelled to use some sharp reproofs and some threats to reduce them to such a temper that the business might be quietly heard. Cromwell, in great fury, reproached the chairman for being partial, and that he discountenanced the witnesses by threatening them; the other appealed to the committee, which justified him, and declared that he behaved himself as he ought to do; which more inflamed him, who was already too much angry. In the end, his whole carriage

G

was so tempestuous, and his behaviour so insolent, that the chairman found himself obliged to reprehend him, and to tell him that if he proceeded in the same manner, he would presently adjourn the committee and the next morning complain to the House of him.

Cromwell's Official Speeches.-My Lord General (says Carlyle) always spoke extempore; ready to speak, if his mind were full of meaning; very careless about the words he put it into. And never, except in one instance, does he seem to have taken any charge as to what report might be published of it. One of his Parliaments asking him for a correct report of a certain speech, spoken some days before, he declared "he could no remember four lines of it."

His Dissolution of the Long Parliament.-Mr. Carlyle, from several sources, gives a picturesque narrative more suo, which (with the liberty of slight abbreviation) will best represent this scene:-" April 20, 1653: Young Colonel Sidney, the celebrated Algernon, sat in the House this morning; a House of some fifty-three. Algernon has left distinct note of the affair; less distinct we have from Bulstrode, who was also there. Solid Ludlow was far off in Ireland, but gathered many details in after years; and faithfully wrote them down, in the unappeasable indignation of his heart. Combining these three originals, we have obtained the following: The Parliament sitting as usual, and being in debate upon the bill (for Parliamentary Reform), with the amendments, which it was thought would have been passed that day, the Lord General Cromwell came into the house, clad in plain black clothes and grey worsted stockings, and sat down, as he used to do, in an ordinary place.' For some time he listens to this interesting debate on the bill; beckoning once to Harrison, who came over to him, and answered dubitatingly. Whereupon the Lord General sat still for about a quarter of an hour longer. But now the question being to be put, That this bill do now pass, he beckons again to Harrison, says This is the time I must do it'-and so 'rose up, put off his hat, and spake. At the first, and for a good while, he spake to the commendation of the Parliament for their pains and care of the public good; but afterwards he changed his style, told them of their injustice, delays of justice, self-interest, and other faults'-rising higher and higher, into a very aggravated style indeed. An honourable member, Sir Peter Wentworth by name, rises to order, as we phrase it; says, 'It is strange language this; unusual within the walls of Parliament this! And from a trusted servant too; and one whom we have so highly honoured; and one 'Come, come!' exclaims my Lord General, in a very high key. We have had enough of this,'—and in fact my Lord General, now blazing all up into clear conflagration, exclaims, I will put an end to your prating,' and steps forth into the floor of the House, and 'clapping on his hat,' and occasionally stamping the floor with his feet,' begins a discourse which no man can report. He is heard saying, It is not fit that you should sit here any longer! You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing lately. You shall now give place to better men. Call them in!' adds he briefly, to Harrison, in word of some twenty or thirty' grim musketeers enter, with

command; and

'You call

bullets in their snap-hances; grimly prompt for orders. yourselves a Parliament,' continues my Lord General, in clear blaze of conflagration: You are no Parliament; I say, you are no Parliament ! Some of you are drunkards,' and his eye flashes on poor Mr. Chaloner, an official man of some value, addicted to the bottle; some of you are,-' and he glares into Harry Marten, and the poor Sir Peter, who rose to order, lewd livers both-living in open contempt of God's commandments.' Corrupt, unjust persons; scandalous to the profession of the Gospel: how can you be a Parliament for God's people? Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God-go!' The House is of course all on its feet-uncertain almost whether not on its head: such a scene as was never seen before in any House of Commons. History reports with a shudder that my Lord General, lifting the sacred mace itself, said, What shall we do with this bauble? Take it away!'-and gave it to a musketeer. And now, 'Fetch him down!' says he to Harrison, flashing on the Speaker. Speaker Lenthal, more an ancient Roman than anything else,* declares he will not come till forced. 'Sir,' said Harrison, I will lend you a hand;' on which Speaker Lenthal came down, and gloomily vanished. They all vanished, flooding gloomily, clamorously out, to their ulterior business and respective places of abode: the Long Parliament is dissolved! It's you that have forced me to this,' exclaims my Lord General: 'I have sought the Lord night and day that He would rather slay me than put me upon the doing of this work." "

SIR HENRY VANE.
(1612-1662.)

Respected and Feared.-Sir Henry Vane, commonly called Vane the Younger, was son to one of the same name who was Secretary of State and Treasurer of the Household to Charles I. He appears to have adopted republican principles in early life, and when little more than twenty years of age he left his native land for America, to join a people whose sentiments in politics and in religion more nearly approached his own, than did those of the circle in which he had been educated. He was elected Governor of Massachusetts before he had reached his twenty-fourth year, but he returned to England in 1637, and was sent to Parliament for Kingston-upon-Hull in April, 1640. Charles, courting his abilities, knighted him, and made him joint treasurer of the navy; but he joined the party of Pym and Hampden in the Long Parliament, and thenceforward was one of the leading spirits of that side. On the restoration of Charles II. he was indicted for "helping to exclude the King from the exercise of his royal authority," and sent to the scaffold. Milton's lines— "Vane, young in years, but in sage council old, Than whom a better senator ne'er held

The helm of Rome "

expressed the general opinion as to Vane's abilities, and Charles himself * See page 32, "Attempt to Arrest the Five Members."

wrote to his Chancellor (Clarendon), “he is too dangerous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way."*

On the Bill against Episcopacy.-Sir Henry Vane's speech in committee on the Bill against Episcopal Government, June 11, 1641, is printed in the "Speeches and Passages" of that year, previously quoted, and is remarkable for the logical closeness of its argument. The following were the opening passages: "Master Hyde,-The debate we are now upon is whether the government by archbishops, bishops, chancellors, &c., should be taken away out of the church and kingdom of England. For the right stating whereof we must remember the vote which passed yesterday, not only by the committee, but the House, which was to this effect: That this government hath been found by long experience to be a great impediment to the perfect reformation and growth of religion, and very prejudical to the civil state. So that then the question will lie thus before us, Whether a government which long experience hath set so ill a character upon, importing danger not only to our religion but the civil state, should be any longer continued amongst us, or be utterly abolished? For my own part, I am of the opinion of those who conceive that the strength of reason already set down in the preamble to this bill by yesterday's vote is a necessary decision of this question. For one of the main ends for which church government is set up is to advance and further the perfect reformation and growth of religion, which we have already voted this government doth contradict; so that it is destructive to the very end for which it should be, and (which) is most necessary and desirable; in which respect certainly we have cause enough to lay it aside, not only as useless in that it attains not its end, but as dangerous in that it destroys and contradicts it. In the second place, we have voted it prejudicial to the civil state, as having so powerful and ill an influence upon our laws, the prerogative of the King, and liberties of the subject, that it is like a spreading leprosy, which leaves nothing untainted and unaffected which it comes near. May we not therefore well say of this government, as our Saviour in the fifth of Matthew speaks of salt(give me leave upon this occasion to make use of Scripture, as well as others have done in this debate)—where it is said that salt is good, but if the salt hath lost its savour, wherewith will you season it? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.' So church government, in the general, is good, and that which is necessary, and which we all desire; but when any particular form of it hath once lost its savour, by being destructive to its own ends for which it is set up (as by our vote already passed we say this hath), then surely, Sir, we have no more to do but to cast it out, and endeavour, the best we can, to provide ourselves a better. But to this it hath been said that the government now in question may be so amended and reformed that it needs not be pulled quite down or abolished, because it is conceived it hath no original sin or evil in it, or if it have, it is said regeneration will take that away. Unto which I answer, I do consent that we should do with this government as

*The letter is given in Forster's "Statesmen of the Commonwealth."