The evening times., 1895-12-19

What former British government did is
a matter of history. That was the govern
ment of the Restoration, which, II may be
remarked was about the worst aud most
corrupt in the history OF England
Cromwell was dead, aud human liberty
seemed to have sunk with him into the
grave. The minioDs of royalty therefore
lid what they could TO heap insult and
coutumeiy upon the memory of him who
had driven them forth like rats.
The first thing they did was TO dig up
his body. Cromwell had been buried with
the highest honors I'm Henry Wis chapel
at Westminster. The Royalists when they
came into power dug up his remains and
scattered them to the four winds.
They first cut off the head. in order to
make their condemnation of the man and
his life the more dramatic and telling in
its effects on the popular mind. Many OF
! the regicides had fled to America. already
known as a refuge for the oppressed. but
Ireton and Bradshaw had been buried in
England.
Their bodies were dug up and their heads
cut off. Then the heads of these three great
men were stuck on pixies and put before the
public gaze as a anobjectlesson in government
to let democrats know what they would get
| IF they dared to think.
For a quarter of century the head OF
Oliver Crom well grinned CHASTITY and
=
where be had once been the all-powcrfui
Lord Protector. a terror to kings and cour-
| tiers. For a quarter of a century 1t was
beaten by the wind and the weather.
| CrOniwelIs' body had been crematetl and
| his head was preserved. The bodies of
Ireton and Bradshaw had not been cremated
| and their heads rotted away.
Cromwell's head looked down upon the
| apparent death OF liberty. 1t was ieered at
| by people in the street by day aud insulted
by the guards who paced the palace yard at
| night.
1t was one OF these guards who secured
the head of Oliver Cromwell. aud from
whom it has come down TO posterity. like
the spirit of liberty stepping out from the
dim regions OF the past. to pnzzie ie the royalist
government now in power. Perhaps this
Royaiist soldier. when he picked up hc head
with the pike sticking through il which n
storm had blown down. was animated by
! cupitiity. aud when he hid il and carried it
| to his home thought merely of gain
But IL is more likely that he was a former
Roundhead. an admirer of the man of the
| people. masquerading under tie cloak OF y
| Royalist sentinel. who desired to save from
| further stigma the memory OF his idol.
| This soliiercarried the head TO bishome and
hid it up the chimney.
| Twas only on hisdcathbed that he revealed
| It's preSenCc 10 HIS iisihs. bs EtS ttiiic tHc
mystery of its disappearance from the top
| OF Westminster Hall had been forgotten.
] ard the sentinel's wife and daughter sold
it to cambridgcshre family named Rus
SELL who were intimately connected with
the Cromwells by marriage.
| The head continued In the Russell fam
| lily for many generations, and about 1880
| 1t was sold to one Cox for $500. Cox kept
| q museum and exhibited cromweirs head
| as an .attraction." As such ne sold 1t for
| 81. $50 to three men.
/ These three men used Cromwelfs head
as dime museum exhibit about the time
OF the French revolution, when IT proved
popular" The last Of them was friend
| of Josiah Henry wilkinson, the grand
father Of the present owner Of the head.
4 1t was about 1912 that the last of the