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

| The difference of opinion entertained by
such distinguished writer's as Hume, Claren-
don, Carlyle, Macauley and Guizot to the
character of Cromwell, is hardly greater than
| rs to the cause of the melancholy which over
shadowcd the latter part Of his life. Was it
| remorse for the execution of the King7 Was
it dread of assassination Was it grief for
the loss of his favorite daughter7 Was it the
| disappointment of his hope of founding dy-
| nasty 2 To all these questions we have now to
add another, Was it fever and ague? One
person at least, we think he must be a physi-
clan, suggests this physical solution OF the rid
die. He says
aCromwell 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 wo-
/ men able to gather the crop. Assuming the
epidemic form, it periodically ravaged Lon
don, until the surrounding marshes, Moorfelds,
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 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.
ssA 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 Cromwells
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 predisposition to ague accompanied Crom-
well through life, to the last scene of all. Az
ter the battle of Dunbar, he had severe at
tack, and the subsequent exposure during an
unusually inclement winter, nearly proved ia
tai. In March of the following year, he
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 O coach, but relapsed,
and another month went over before he was
restored TO health.
eAbout seven years afterwards, the Protec-
tor, worn and harrassed in body and mind,
watched by the death bed of his favorite daugh-
ter, Mrs. .Claypole. For fortnight, she scarce
ly LETT the chamber, till at last her excruca-
ting sufferings were terminated by her death.
Intense grief for this amiable woman, proba-
bly, not unmixed with feelings of remorse, ac-
ting on an already enfeebled and predisposed
system, brought on 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 1868, 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 pillows rolled
The approaching fate of their great ruler told.
t'It is an interesting fact connected with the
last illness of this remarkable man, that pre-
judice 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-
testdnt prejudice arose against its use. Even
SO late as the great no-popery professions that
TOOK place in London after the discovery Of
the pretended Meal-tub Plot. in 1879. a b,x of
Jesuits' bark was carried in mock state. and
ANONYMOUSLY burned with the pope's efficy.
Nor was it till the commencement of the eieh-
teenth century, that by the strenuous exertions
of Sir Hans Sloane, that this truly excellent
medicine became POPULAR
One other extract from the same writer is
instructive as showing the revelations which
time effects in public opinion. The most de-
voted admirer of the "blessed martyr" at the