Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-04-09
CROMWELL.

The difference oil opinion ehtertdlneu ot
such distinguished writer's as Hume, Ciaren-
don, Carlyle, Macauley and Guzot as to the
character of Cromwell, il hardly greater than
as to the cause of the melancholy which over
shadowed the latter part of his life. Was 1t
remorse for the execution OF the King! Was
it dread of assassination Was it grief for
the loss of his favorite daughter Was it the
disappointment of his hope of founding dy-
nasty To all these questions we have now TO
add another: Was it fever and ague? One
person at least, we think he must be physi-
clan, suggests this physical solution Of the rid
die. He says
ssCromwell died of intermittent fever or a.
que; next to the plague, one of the most vir-
ulent scourges of England in the olden time.
Bishop Burnet tells us, it destroyed and weak
ened so many in one season, that part Of the
harvest was lost, from the lack of men or wo-
men able to gather the crop. Assuming the
epidemic form, it periodically ravaged Lon
don, until the surrounding marshes, Moorfields,
Mapping, and Lambeth, were drained; since
then, the disease has almost totally disappear
ed from the metropolis. Cromwelfs father
died of the sscruel ague" himself, when his
son was a young man his mother, brothers,
sisters and servants were grievously afflicted
by it. and his first appearance in public life
was to oppose the crown commissioners, who,
with reams of parchment and rolls of red tape,
attempted to obstruct the drainage of the un-
healthy fens surrounding his native town Of
huntingdon.
GA well-known psychological fac., connect
ed with the baneful effects of marsh malaria,
is supposed to throw considerable light on the
less understood peculiarities of Cromwelfs
| character. Hypochondriasis, like ague, is fire.
quently caused by atmospheric influence in
the form Of malaria, and the peculiar debility
| produced by both these diseases, predisposes
the human frame to subsequent attacks. So
the gloomy shadow of an apparently perverted
| religious fervor, that ever enveloped the great
man, was probably occasioned by his youthful
residence in the marshes of Huntingdonshire.
| The prsdisposition to agIe accompanied Crom-
well through life, to the last scene of all. At
ter the battle of Dunbar, he had severe at
| tack, and the subsequent exposure during an
| unusually inclemcnt winter, nearly proved fa-
I tal In March Of the following year, he
ssthought he should have died, - but recovered
| till May, when, utterly prostrated, he returned
| to Edinburgh, where he became so much
worse that at one time his army really believed
| he was dead. In June he was SO far recovered
as to be able to go out in coach, but relapsed,
| and another month went over before he was
| restored to health. G1f
"About seven years afterwards, the ,tec-
| tor, worn and harrassed in body and .,iind,
watched by the death bed of his favorite daugh-
| far Mrs. a
| " lett the chamber, till at last her excrucia-
| ting suiferings were terminated by her death.
| Intense grief for this amable woman, proba-
| bly, not unmixed with feelings of remorse, ac-
ting on an already enfeebled and predisposed
| system, brought on q return of the ague-a
| last attack of the lifelong. insidious enemy,
so often repulsed, but now to conquer aud in
| the memorable tempest of 1858, in the turmoil
| of the conflicting elements, Cromwell died.
As Waller, in the inflated style of the period
/ tells US:
Nature herself took notice of his death,
| And ,sighing ,swelled the sea with such breath.
| That to remotest shores her billows rolled
! The approaching fate Of their great ruler told
| eIt is an interesting fact connected with the
| last illness of this remarkable man, that pre-
iudice prevented his physicians from admins
tering to him that invaluable medicine, the
Jesuits' or Peruvian bark. The drug had been
introduced into England about three years be-
fore but, one Underwood, London alder
man, having died after taking it, a strong Pro
festant prejudice arose against its use. Even
so late as the great no-popery PROFESSIONS tnai
took place in London after the discovery OF
the pretended Meal-tub Plot, in 1879, box o.
Jesuits' bark was carried in mock state, and
ignomiuiously burned with the pope's sftgy
Nor was il till the commencement of the eigh
teenth century, that by the strenuous exertion
of Sir Hans Sloane, that :his truly e1ceiicn
medicine became popular"
One other extract from the same writer ]
instructive as showing the revolutions which
: time effects in public opinion. The most de
) yoted admirer of the .sblessed martyr" at tn