New-York tribune., 1900-10-28

10 De desired in = DiOgrapher OF Cromwell. The
facts are generally known. There is nothing TO
be added. there is nothing 20 take away. Dis
agreement in this field has little scope Mr.
Morley questions the accuracy Of Gardeners es-
innate Of the number Of corabatauts at Naseby
II does not matter What we look for in a new
biography of the Lord Protector is the authors
conception OF his heTO's character. The present
historian must disappoint those who look 70
him for either euIogy or condemnation With the
caImness and impartiauty that have always
been his strongest qualities he seeks to hold the
balance true. disdainug 10 take sides lie is
pitess toward the King, if to tell the truth with
out waverng. where truth is bitter is Co be-
pitiIess. He is as candid in his treatment os
Oliver. and if here there are brighter touches in
the portrait they are due to the sitter not To
any favorable prejudice on the painters part
Only once does Mr. Morley seem to vave- and
then it is hard to blame him, for anv writer
who has followed CromweU's career from begin
ming to end is bound to find his Judgment OF the
Irish campaign somewhat shaken. How is II
possible, after you have Witnessed Cron1v-aIrs
noble conduct in year after year Of public LIE.
to forget his virtues and deECunce the DroghetIa
massacre with the fervor that it ought to in
spire? 1t was the deed Of a savage. but one
shrinks from admitting that Cromwell al any
time could quite have deserved that epithat
However. the biographer must pay the penalty
of his resolve TO be just and Justice in this case
demands something more than the placid pages
which Mr. Morley devoJes To the subject. Trav-
ersng the atrocities of the Parliamentary troops
the long list Of legalized murders called execu-
tions the wicked coniscation of estates and the
still more abominabIe transportation Of Irish
folk, AIR Morley adds: "Of all these 5oiugs in
CromwelTs Irish chapter. each of US may say
what he will" Hardly. To come 10 a c0nc-1-
sion like this is really To abdiCaJe the right
and. in the case of an historian the duty-5r
judgment; it is TO sink impartiallty in tindiry.
The Irish blot on Cromweus history may well
kindle the wrath OF even his coolest bi1gra7h=r
But Mr.. Morley might reJort that he is appra.s-
ing a career as a whole, that DrosheGa and
Wexford were episodes.
Cromwell himself once said-to the scauIaIiza-
ton of De Retz-that he goes furrh-st who
knows not where he is going The principle. 10
which ne was constant all his life long. at least
relieves him from the obloquy OF generalization
not only in respect TO his Irish crimes but in
! respect TO his assumption of the dictatorship.
The popular imagination conceives Of the grim
soldier as upheld through all his political as
we'll as military acts by great religious ferv0r.
That there was d moral force behind him is
not to be doubted But when Mr.. Morley states
that Cromwell established himself on the solid
AoOh VI Od4N LAAlSllc IdItll ne II CdIrAu4 20 pD-
serve also that he never ascended to "those
clOuded and frOwning heights Of speculation
which were beloved of the earlier Calvinistic
theOlOgians. In other words, Cromwell took his
religion as he found it. and ne took war. the
State. life itself. in the same way We have heard
much of his failure to leave any constructive
ideas behind him, This was natural. He was
not OF creative genius he was not a pro-
found thinker. His own words on the motives
which had driven him 10 make his way To power
are conclusive on this point L have often
thought" he said, chat I could not tell what
my business was nor what I was in th= place
constable set TO keep the peace Of the parish
Mr.. Morley is content 10 abide by this vi=H Il
the matter. The Protec.orate he admits was
no system, but only an expedient of individual
supremacy. OF course the question thar flows
from this Judgment is one demanding a jus-.t-
cation of the expedient itself rather than ot
Cromwelrs relation TO it. One must reckon with
the circumstances and find out whether the Com
monwealth stands for CromwelTs personality
or for conditions in which he was only an
actor, only a constable" It is in his solution
of this problem that Mr. Morley IS most salts
factory
His book is really history of the English pe1-
pie in one of the great crises of their existence.
He shows how the limitations Of Charles as a
statesman were gradually communicaciuE Ill