The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

1090

man has ever advanced himself to a wonderful
height of power, and ruled his fellow-men
with almost sovereign sway? And we must
remember that the greatness of individuals is
often but a sign of the weakness of the people
Mr. Carlyle utterly derides " constitution-
mongers," " speechmakers," and " empty par-
liamentary logic-mills." One hundred years after
Cromwell flourished, there was an Englishman
of about the same social rank as Cromwell ori-
ginally was, and by the mere force of his
energy, eloquence, and public spirit he made
himself Minister, in defiance of Court and
aristocracy. He was at once the greatest
orator of his age, and its greatest War Minister.
He restored the drooping heart of England,
and, by the boldness of his designs and the
prompt energy of his plans, he made the name
of England as great abroad as ever Cromwell
did. The person who did so was called " the
Great Commoner," and, without encroaching
one hair's breadth on the power of the Crown
or the liberty of the subject, he "smote the
" House of Bourbon with one hand, and
" wielded in the other the democracy of Eng-
" land ."Would any three of Cromwell's overrated
battles make up one equal to Clive's " Plassy ?'
Were not the countless difficulties, the plots,
conspiracies, abroad and at home, which,
in the early years of her reign. beset
Queen Elizabeth equal to the difficulties
of Cromwell? Had not some of our Henrys
and Edwards as good stuff of manhood in
them as ever appeared in Cromwell? We
might carry these questions still further.
But it will be said " that Cromwell rose
" from so low a station." There is ignorance
of the subject shown in such a comment, and
also the class-feeling which prevails upon it.
Cromwell was by rank and birth an English
gentleman, with first-rate connections. He
was the consin•german of Mr. Hampden
of Great Hampden, and another cousin
(daughter of his uncle Henry) married Oliver
St. John, the shipmoney barrister, and a mein-
her of the famous old stock of the St. Johns.
An aunt of Oliver Cromwell was married to
the heir of the eminent family of the Whalleys
of Notts. In the Fen district the Cromwells
had extensive possessions; and it is literally
true, as we have always read his history, that
Cromwell was a gentleman " by birth, property,
" and education.' He had not the personal merit
of rising from so low a condition as popular
prejudice ignorantly and absurdly supposes :
he was a man of position at the commencement
of the troubles. These points are worth
noting; and as there is still some ignorant
delusion on the subject, we shall extract from
Mr. Carlyle's interesting ana. But first we
shall of ourselves cite the testimony of
Waller, which Mr. Carlyle and others have
overlooked. In his lines to the Protector,
Waller says :

The only care which could from }leaven come down
Was so much pin and clemency in one,—
One whose extraction from a noble him
Gives hope again that well born men May shine

The meanest in your nature, milli amigood,
The noblest rest secured in your blood.
Surely Waller, himself a " well-born man," and
a most skilful writer, would never have been
so silly as to allude to Cromwell's extraction
if the Protector had really been a man of mean
condition But as we so often have heard and
read of " fetid Cockneyism " exulting malig-
nantly in the fact of " the brewer's son " having
crushed tile King and Aristocracy, we shall
cite Mr. Carlyle's statement :

Oliver Cromwell, afterwards Protector of the Common-
wealth of England, was born at Huntingdon, in St. John's
Parish there, on the ':sth of April 1599. Christened on
the '29th of the same month ; as the old Parish-registers
of that Church still legibly testify.
His Father was Robert Cromwell, younger son of Sir
Henry Cromwell, and younger brother of Sir Oliver Crom-
well. •Knights both ; who Ilweh successively, in rather
stinipttious fashion, at the Mansion of Hinchinbrook hind
by. His Mother was Elizabeth Steward, daughter of
William Steward, Esquire, in Ely ; an opulent man, a kind
of hereditary Farmer of the Cathedral Tithes and Church
lands round that city ; in which capacity his son, Sir
Thomas Steward, Knight, in due time succeeded him,
resident also at Ely.

After tiacking his pedigree with minuteness.
Mr. Carlyle thus describes the Protector's
father :
For the rect., as documents still testify, this Robert
Cromwell did Burgh and Quarter• Session duties ; was not
slack but tuoderately active as a country gentleman: sat
once in Parliament in his younger years; is found with