The noble stand made by Hampden, relative to ship-money, had occurred two years pre

the completion of these 400,000 acres, when Cromwell interested himself in the business, and that it there stopped; the Protector's enemies would persuade us, that his opposition to Charles's interference arose out of the popular objection, supported by him, to the project itself; and that the end he proposed to himself, and obtained, was its hindrance; forgetting, that if his, or the general wish, had been to impede the work, the time that would have been chosen for the attempt would have been at the revival of the idea some seven or eight years previously, and not, that when so large a portion of it was accomplished in the completion (nearly) of the real Bedford Level. But the obvious utility of the undertaking would alone render the idea of extended opposition to it, grounded on its own merits, unlikely; and particularly as to Cromwell, from his known approbation and encouragement afterward afforded to all such public-spirited schemes, and the thanks he actually received from William, the next Earl of Bedford, for his promotion of this identical one. It is proper to observe, that though the above given account of this whole transaction is from Nalson Cole, who, as 'Register to the Corporation of the Bedford Level,' was, doubtEss, generally well informed, yet that it differs from that vriter, in stating the drainage of the Level to have been nearly, and not fully, completed at the time of the King's interpoition. That it was not then fully completed, appears from n act, much forwarded by Cromwell, in 1649, which runs: 'And whereas Francis, late Earl of Bedford, did undertake he said work, and had ninety-five thousand acres, parcel of he said great level, decreed and set forth, in the thirteenth

vious. A majority of the judges, it is true, declared against that renowned oppositionist, and sentenced him to pay his assessment: but his undaunted conduct on the occasion induced all, who befriended the popular rights, to rally round him; and among the foremost of these, since his boldness and ability had appeared to such advantage in the matter of the fens, was reckoned Cromwell. Happy, perhaps, had it been for our future statesman and hero, if the applauses that thus raised him a step on the unstable ladder of popular esteem, had not also sown in his breast the seeds of that fatal ambition, through the growth of which, his ef

now

year of the late King Charles, in recompense thereof; and he and his participants, and their heirs and assigns, had made a good progress therein," &c. Probably, as before stated, the Earl of Bedford had advanced to the very eve of accomplishing the original project, when the King stept in, and would have procured for himself all the honour and advantages to be de rived from it. And, probably, as observed, it was from see ing that the effect of his majesty's interference, and of Crom well's opposition, was to delay, for a time, the full comple tion of the enterprize, that so many writers have assigned to the latter the obloquy of throwing impediments in the way o an undertaking every way so advantageous to the country when he really set himself to oppose, not the drainage, bu Charles's unjustifiable attempt to profit by the unrewarded industry of his subjects in carrying it on.

forts, hitherto in humble and undazzling earnestness directed to the service of his country, continued indeed to be so directed, but always in connection with views toward the elevation of himself. The calm of privacy had now for ever passed. Those peaceful years, devoted to the improvement of his property by honourable occupations, and to the superintendance of his amiable family, and which, even beneath the purple of the protectorate, it is probable, he often sighed over as the happiest of his existence, were to be succeeded by others, incessantly occupied by the turmoil of political intrigue, or the bustle of military adventure. And, once fairly embarked on the ocean of national conflict, his character, almost of necessity, such is human weakness, became of a more mixed complexion than formerly. The intervals, unmarked by religious predominancy, might not be more frequent; but they began to be more strongly distinguished, either by the re-appearance of some one of his earlier characteristics, or by the birth of some politic quality to meet some special occasion: and, while the number and versatility of these aberrations from his latter sanctity, were in the ratio of his unsubdued infirmities, and, we may even add, of his genius and general powers, his piety yet existed only in that of his remaining sincerity of heart.

Henceforth, was he a compound of such virtues and vices, of qualities so various and so opposed, that a mind and powers exactly similar to his own, were alone perhaps capable of literally developing his career. Religious, to the last, in his private and domestic conduct, he accustomed himself to the practice of a greater or less degree of dissimulation throughout his public life. Enthusiastic to a high degree in the cause he had espoused, he yet calculated consequences one by one as they occurred, with almost unfailing exactness. So simple were his language and manners, that he appeared incapable of disguising a purpose that had arisen in his mind; yet, by penetration and address the most exquisite, did he at the same time so read the hearts, and so accommodate himself to the humours, of all with whom he associated, as at once to make them his firm friends, and footstools to his future elevation over them. His existence became a perpetual harlequinade: his expressions shifting from the spiritual to the coarsely jocular; his conduct, from the pliant to the overbearing, from the submissive, to the most vehement contradictions and the boldest opposition. He could be gentle, almost to effeminacy; or rude, almost to brutality: the protector of an insect, or a savage

presiding at a human massacre! He was found to have faculties, tempers, tastes, nay, even apparent habits, adapted to all seasons and occasions. Hence, he could pursue an object by the most concealed and devious tracks, or pounce upon it, like the eagle, by a single flight and stoop: he could charm and wile impediments from his path, or shiver them to fragments at a blow he could enter with an equal zest into the occupations of preaching, fighting, and reigning; was equally at home in the prayermeeting, the camp, and the palace and, as hitherto he had brewed, and farmed, with all a tradesman's tact for the arts of business and acquiring wealth, he now bestrode his warhorse with a grace entirely chivalric, and vaulted from the saddle but to sit the throne with an ease, that made royalty seem a portion of his nature. Meanwhile, in every change of time and circumstance, religion, be it once again peculiarly observed, far from contracting, enlarged her hold upon his feelings; but, gradually deserting his judgment, while her sphere of influence was lamentably abridged in fact, the success that attended all his undertakings taught his enthusiasm so greatly to ex tend it in idea, that, finally, his every action appeared to him directed by a heavenly guidance, and his very crimes the offspring of