Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-12-12
WE'RE THEY GENTLEMEN?
Noted Men Whose Right to the Title
Has Been Questioned.

Noted Men whose Right to the Title
Has Been Questioned.
The most persistent accusation made
against Cromwell, even down to the
time when Carlyle published his mon
umental work, was that the protector
was not a gentleman The same
charge was repeatedly Ieveled against
the first Napoleon, and it was even re-
peated on many occasions by the great
duke of Wellington.
Probably there was not much refine
ment about "Old Noll'' Cromwell He.
was decidedly a religious man: still,
from the severest exercise of devotion
he could relax into the coarSeSt buf-
foonery. The horseplay which took
place in the council chamber at West
minister when the warrant for the exc
cution of Charles |. was being signed.
and when Cromwell smearad with ink
the face of reluctant signatOry is
alike a reproach to his manners ard
morals. He was, nevertheless, by
birth a gentleman, being the son of
Robert Cromwell, a country esquire,
by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard
Stuart, and was named after his uncle
and godfather, Sir Oliver Cromwell,
the chief of an ancient and honorable
family. The fact of the mothers
maiden name being Stuart created the
tradition that Oliver had royal blood
in his veins. He went to Cambridge,
and left the university to enter as
student at Lincoln's Inn, but fell into
profigate habits and became addicted
to gambling. Two or three years
afterward he still continued to lead Sc
dissolute a life that he forfeited the
friendship of his uncle, Sir Oliver
Cromwell. His mind, however, SOON
became uneasy. The diminution of
his fortune and conjunction for his
conduct weighted upon his spirits, and
on a sudden there appeared a great
alteration in his life, and he devoted
his thoughts chiefly to religion. The
change restored to him the counte-
nance Of his friends and his relations.
the Barringtons and the Hampdens,
married him to Elizabeth, the daugh-
ter of Sir James Bourchier. 1t Will
thus be seen that divers household
was on both sides gentle. Nor was he
the only Englishman of good family
who took part with the puritans
against the court. He owed his for
tune to Sir Thomas Stuart, his uncle,
who left him property amounting to
$500 a year in the isle of Ely. When
he came up TO London to serve as
member of the long parliament, his
appearance and demeanOr were, it is
said those of a boOr. Sir Phillip War
wick, who saw him on this occasion,
has described the member for Hunt
ingdon as wearing a plain cloth suit,
which seemed to have been made by
an ell country tailor" his linen was
plain and not very clean, MS hat was
without hatband, his sword stuck close
to his side, his cOuntenance was sW0i-
len and reddish and his eloquence full
of fervor.
The witty and ultra-royalist divine,
Dr. South, has exaggerated and dis
torted Sir Philip Warwicks portrait
"Who,' he asks in an Incorporate ser
mon. chat had beheId such a bank
rupt, beggarly fellow as Cromwell first
entering the parliament house with q.
threadbare torn cloak and greasy
hat-and perhaps neither of them paid
for-could have expected that in the
space of so few years he should, by the
murder of one king and the Danish
ment of another, ascend the throne, be
invested in the royal robes, and want
nothing of the state Of a king but the
changing Of his hat into crown? 2"
Whence and how he acquired his vast
military capacity is a mystery. Napo-
leon had been carefully trained from
his youth upward in soldering, but
Cromwell had reached middle age be-
fore he had seen a shot fired in anger
He had, indisputably, many natural
gifts; he was born to be ruler 0f
men; he was possessed of courage and
resolution that overlooked all periis
and acknowledged no difficulties. His
character was a wonderful compound
of enthusiasm, Hypocrisy and ambl-
tion; he was cruel and tyrannicaI
from polity, but just and temperate
from inclination; and, although so
closely linked with bigoted religion
lists, ever took an interest in ART