The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

1064 I. l iteraturt. Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: with Elucidations. By Thomas Carlyle. In Three Vols. London : Chapman and Hall. As this work now stands in its new form, it is certainly a most valuable addition to the Cromwell library. It contains a great portion of solid materials for the biography of the Protector. There is an " Introduction" of con siderable length, with much condensed detail, and most of the letters are annotated by Mr. Carlyle. Not only the private letters of Crom well, but also his parliamentary "speeches" as Protector are given. " The Squire Papers " are adjoined to the first volume, being reprinted from Fraser's Magazinf. There are several interesting documents set forth in this edition, amongst which we would specially mention the " List of the Long Parliament ;" and there is a very fair index at the end of the third volume. Mr. Carlyle has not been sparing of his " elucidations," and his mode of dealing with Cromwell's character is in his usual style of panegyric on high, wild, and vehement natures associated with historical successes. There is the customary quantity of " coagulated jargon," to use one of his own expressions ; and there are several passages of word.paint ing, in which effects ate produced that recall Rembrandt and Cruikshank. The work has an indisputable value as a copious collection of authentic " Cromwell Papers," and consider able service has been done by Mr. Carlyle in exposing the n.' -.takes of Noble and preced ing coni:nentato. s on Cromwell. How Englishmen should feel towards the memory of Oliver Cromwell might be made an interesting subject for moral disquisition. The posthumous fame of the Protector has undergone significant vicissitudes. Between the Restoration and the Revolution his name was as anathema, and subsequently to 1688, and for a great part of the eighteenth century, a pall of oblivion was flung over his memory. Voltaire, it is true, recounts in his " Letters on England " that Englishmen spoke proudly of the " Great Oliver," and he contrasted the public men of the Walpolian era with the times of the Commonwealth ; but Voltaire, though a brilliant writer, was not a close observer, and his stay in England was brief. The feeling must hove been strong against Cromwell when Pope in his "Essay on Man" could venture on such a couplet as— Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name, See Cromwell damned to everlasting fame. And in one of the most pointed stanzas of th " Elegy," Gray, an ardent Whig, " and some thing more," has the line, teeming with im putation— Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood. In the parliamentary records of the last cen tury we do not now recollect any notable in stances in which the memory of Cromwell is either praised or vilified; and we could quote anecdotes and facts to show that Cromwell was not a favourite name amongst the courtiers of the first and second Georges, although, oddly enough, a Miss Cromwell, one of the Protector's family, was a Maid of Honour to one of the Hanoverian Princesses. In his " Letter to a Member of the National Assem bly," Burke, in later times, gives a skilfully measured verdict on Cromwell. "Cromwell," he writes, "knew how to separate the institutions " expedient to his usurpation from the admi " nistration of the public justice of his country. " For Cromwell was a man in whom ambition " had not wholly suppressed, but wholly sus " pended the sentiments of religion, and the " low! (a+ fur as it could exist with his designs) of " fair and honourable reputation, &c. &c." With the growth of a taste for the study of the seventeenth century a change about forty years since occurred. Wiiters attached to the Liberal connection took the memory of the Protector under their especial patronage, and Lord Macaulay, in particular, wrote au elabo rate panegyric on Cromwell (" Essay on Hal law's Constitutional History"). It is not a THE PRESS, OCTOBER 31, 1857. little curious that Lord Macaulay, who has always so studiously disparaged Dryden, should have unconsciously repeated the sub stance of some of Dryden's lines on " The Death of Oliver Cromwell." Where in fervent words Lord Nlacaulay writes of " the greatest " prince and captain of the age, before whom " the young pride of Lewis and the veteran " craft of Mazarin stood rebuked, who had " humbled Spain on the land and Holland on " the sea, &c. &c.," it is impossible not to think of the stanzas by Dryden : To suppliant Holland he vouchsafd a peace, Our once bold rival of the British Main, Now tamely glad her unjust claim to cease, And buy our friendship with her idol gain. Fame of the asserted sea through Europe blown Made France and Spain ambitious of his love; Each knew that side must conquer he would own, And for him fiercely as for empire strove. When Lord Macaulay, writing in 1828, alluded to Cromwell as " the greatest prince and cap " thin of the age," the expression was thought overstrained and inappropriate. It is curious that Dryden had used the term. His thirty second stanza runs : Such was our Prince, yet owned a soul above The highest acts it could produce to show, &c. And the opening of another stanza might have been recollected by Lord Macaulay where the brilliant essayist contrasted the fact of Crom. well dying in power, with Napoleon lingering in a remote island : Nor died he when his ebbing fame went less, But when fresh laurels wanted him to live, &c. Those who wish to " write up " the memory of Cromwell will find in the thirty-seven stanzas by Dryden an historical epitome and exact catalogue of the Protector's exploits, in which the topics chosen for panegyric are selected with great judgment and care. It is time, in our opinion, that the memory of Cromwell should be discussed with more justice than has been accorded to it. We concur neither with the damnatory sentence of Pope (already cited), nor with the excessive laudation by Lord Macaulay, nor with Mr. Carlyle's rabid enthusiasm for the Protector. We believe that the English character would undergo a change for the worse if a nature so intensely ambitious and so extremely unscru pulous as Cromwell was set up for a great historical idol, to which the nation should bow down. The fact is, that no rational Con servative nor patriotic Liberal could ever give his applause to a career like that of Cromwell, whose system of rule was that of making " right " and " might " synonymous in poli tics. Cromwell had none of the scruples which troubled and restrained the natures of Fairfax and Algernon Sidney, both men of no ordinary spirit, and each endowed with great though different kinds of ability. The Whig party, if their great leaders are to be heard on the point, could never give their approval to the man who indecently vilified Magna Charta, and no genuine I,onservative could applaud Cromwell's dictatorial course, and his over throw of all settled government. Neither could Whig or Tory approve of Mr. Carlyle's mode of looking at Cromwell as a sort of Heaven-sent hero. Mr. Carlyle writes : That this man Oliver Cromwell was, as the popular fancy represents him, the soul of the Puritan Revolt, with out whom it had never been a revolt transcendently memorable, and an Epoch in the World's History ; that in fact he, more than is common in such cases, does deserve to give his name to the Period in question, and have the Puritan Revolt considered as a "Cromwelliad," which issue is already very visible tnr it. The " Cronmeilind" had only a brief suc cess ; for, if we were asked to name what was the most popular event in England for the last three hundred years, we should answer, the Restoration. If Cromwell really deserved all the extravagant praise heaped on him by Lord Macaulay and Mr. Carlyle, we might fairly ask why his power had not a longer root in the nation ; and if he were sent from Hea ven to chastise the sins of kingcraft, from whence did Charles 11. and James 11. come? There can be no doubt that Oliver Crom well was a man of amazing energy, of ruling instincts, and of raro address. He had, doubt less, a master• faculty for subduing other men, and ho had all, or nearly all, the quali ties requisite for heading a party. But the execution of Strafford and the early death of Hampden left him a clear stage. M. Guizot, in his brief but luminous characterisation of Cromwell (in the " Lectures on Civilisation in Europe "), has happily observed of Cromwell that "he was the only man in history who, in a " great political revolution, was first agitator, " then victorious general in the field, and after " wards the triumphant ruler.' That is nearly true, and it could not be predicated of Napo leon 1., who came late upon the stage of revo lution, and was not a political "agitator." Yet it is overstating the case as to Cromwell who was by no means the agitator in the pre liminary scenes of the drama. The political " agitation" had been going on ever since the time when Wentworth, in his early days, had espoused the popular side, prior to his deser tiou to the Court; and Mr. Carlyle does great injustice in concentrating his gaze merely on Cromwell and overlooking the actions and con duct of Pym, Hampden, Vane, and many others. Into the latter mistake ➢I. Guizot does not fall. It was when the nation's passions boiled, and when it wanted a practical director, that a man with Cromwell's faculties became truly powerful. His practical ability was his greatest characteristic, and he never showed it to more advantage than in his formation of the famous " Ironsides." Here is his own account of the way in which he thought of them. In his eleventh speech, 13th April, 1657, ho says : I was a person who, from my first employment, was suddenly preferred and lifted up from lesser trusts to greater ; from my first being a Captain rf a Troop of Horse; and did labour as well as I could to discharge my trust ; an I God blessed me " therein " as it pleased Him. And did truly and plainly—and in a way of fooltsh as it was judged by very great and wise men, and good men too—desire to make my instruments help me in that work. And I will deal plainly with you I had a very worthy Friend then, and he was a very noble person, and know his memory is very grateful to all—Mr.John Hampden. [Hear, hear—a notable piece of history !] At my first going out into this engagement, I saw our men were beaten at every hand. I did indeed ; and desired him that he would make some additions to my Lord Essex's Army of some new regiments ; and I told him I would be serviceable to him in bringing such men in as I thought had a spirit that would do something in the work. This is very true that I tell you ; God knows I lie not. " Your troops," said I, " are most of them old decayed serving-men, and tapsters, and such kind of fellows; and," said I, " their troops are gentlemen's sons, younger sons, and persons of quality: do you think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen, that have honour and courage and resolution in them ?" Truly I did represent to him in this manner con scientiously, and truly I did tell him: " You must get men of a spirit; and take it not ill what I say—l know you will not—of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentlemen will go ;or else you will be beaten still." I told him so; I did truly. He was a wise and worthy person ; and be did think that I talked a good notion, but an impracti cable one. Cromwell's appreciation of " gentlemen," and their " honour" and " courage" and "reso lution," shows deep political sagacity. He thoroughly understood social dynamics. How was the difficulty to be overcome in meeting such men ? Hampden appeared to give no suggestion on the point, and Mr. Carlyle has a characteristic fling at Hampden : Very natural in Mr. Hampden, if I recollect him well, your Highness ! With his close thin lips, and very vigi lant eyes ; with his clear official understanding, livel) sen sibilities to " unspotted character," " safe courses," itc.S:c. A. very brave man, but formidably thick-quilted, and with pincer-lips, and eyes very vigilant. Alas ! there is no pos sibility for poor Columbus at any of the Public Offices, till opce he become an Actuality, and say, " Here is the Ame rica I was telling you of!" Cromwell then narrated how ho solved the difficulty : Truly I told him I could do somewhat in it. I did so— " did this somewhat ;" and truly I must needs say this to you, " The result was "—impute it to what you please—l raised such men as had the fear of God before them, as made some conscience of what they did ; [The Ironsides ; yea !] and from that day forward, I must say to you, they were never beaten, and wherever they were engaged against the enemy, they beat continually. That is to say, he encountered " the spirit of " a gentleman" by exciting " the spirit of " religion," and using religions enthusiasm for purely political purposes. Truly, a man of stern purposes, and of masterly method in car• rying them out. (To be continued.)