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«conclufion faid to him: "Mr. Quin, you "have done very well: What fhall I do for you?" To which Quin made answer with

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great compliments (of which he had command) with a great grace, "that your High"nefs would be pleased to restore me to my stu"dent's place:" which the Protector did ac

cordingly, and fo he kept it to his dying day."

It is mentioned in Spence's MS. Anecdotes, that a few nights after the execution of King Charles the First, a man covered with a cloak, and with his face muffled up, fupposed to have been Oliver Cromwell, marched flowly round the coffin, covered with a pall, which contained the body of Charles, and exclaimed, loudly enough to be heard by the attendants on the remains of that unfortunate Monarch, " Dreadful "neceffity!" Having done this two or three times, he marched out of the room, in the fame flow and folemn manner in which he came into it.

Cromwell and Ireton faw the execution of Charles from a fmall window of the Banqueting Houfe of Whitehall.

Provost Baillie, who was in London at the time of Oliver's death, says :

"The

"The Protector, Oliver, endeavoured to settle "all in his family, but was prevented by death "before he could make a teftament. He had "not fupplied the blank with his fon Richard's "name by his hand; and fcarce with his mouth "could he declare that much of his will. There "were no witnefles to it but Thurloe and "Goodwin. Some did fearfully flatter him as "much dead as living. Goodwin, at the Fast "before his death, in his prayer is faid to have fpoke fuch words: Lord, we pray not for thy fervant's life, for we know that is granted, "but to haften his health, for that thy people "cannot want. And Mr. Sterry faid in the

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chapel, after his death, O Lord, thy late fer"vant here is now at thy right hand, making "interceffion for the fins of England.---Both "thefe are now out of favour, as Court para

fites. But the moft fpake, and yet speak, "very evil of him; and, as I think, much "worfe than he deferved of them."

RICHARD CROMWELL

is faid to have fallen at the feet of his father, Oliver Cromwell, to beg the life of his Sovereign Charles the Firft. In the fame spirit of 6 humanity,

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humanity, when Colonel Howard told him, on his father's death, that nothing but vigorous and violent measures could fecure the Protectorate to him, and that he should run no risk, for that he himself (Howard) would be anfwerable for the confequences; Richard replied," Everyone fhall fee that I will do nobody any "harm: I never have done any, nor ever will. "I fhall be much troubled if anyone is injured " on my account; and instead of taking away "the life of the leaft perfon in the nation for "the preservation of my greatnefs, (which is a "burthen to me,) I would not have one drop of "blood fpilt."

Richard, on his difmiffion from, the Protectorate, refided some time at Pezenas, in Languedoc, and afterwards went to Geneva. Some time in the year 1680 he returned to England, and refided at Chefhunt in Hertfordshire.

In 1705 he loft his only fon, and became in right of him poffeffed of the manor of Horsley, which had belonged to his mother. Richard, then in a very advanced age, fent one of his daughters to take poffeffion of the estate for him. She kept it for herself and her fifters, allowing her father only a small annuity out of it, till she was difpoffeffed of it by a fentence of one of the Courts of Westminster-Hall. It was requi

VOL. I.

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fite

fite for this purpofe that Richard fhould appear in perfon; and the Judge who prefided, tradition fays, was the elegant and eloquent Lord Chancellor Cowper, who ordered a chair for him in court, and defired him to keep on his hat.

As he was returning from this trial, curiofity led him to fee the House of Peers, when being afked by a perfon, to whom he was a stranger, if he had ever feen anything like it before; he replied, pointing to the throne," Never, fince I "fat in that chair."

Richard Cromwell enjoyed a good state of health to the age of eighty-fix, and died in the year 1712. He had taken, on his return to England, the name of Richard Clark.

SIR HENRY VANE, JUN.

THERE feems never, in the Hiflory of Mankind, to have been a more complicated character than that of Sir Henry Vane, fo fagacious and refolute as to daunt and intimidate even Cromwell himself, yet fo vifionary and fo feebleminded as to be a Seeker and Millennist. His fpeech refpecting Richard Cromwell is a mafter

piece

piece of good fenfe and of eloquence. His writings on religious fubjects are beneath contempt. His behaviour on the fcaffold was dignified and noble, and he appears to have been executed contrary to the word of his Sovereign.

The following Letter addreffed to Lord Clarendon is printed in Harris's "Life of Charles "the Second."

"Hampton Court, Saturday, "Two in the Afternoon.

"The relation that has been made to me of "Sir Henry Vane's carriage yesterday in the "Hall*, is the occafion of this letter, which (if "I am rightly informed) was fo infolent, as to justify all he had done, acknowledging no fu

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preme power in England but a Parliament, "and many things to that purpose. You have "had a true account of all, and if he has given new occafion to be hanged, certaynlye he is too dangerous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way. Think of this, and give me some accounte of it to-morrowe, 'till "when I have nothing to fay to you. C."

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Sir Henry oppofed the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell, in the following fhort and impreffive speech in the Houfe of Commons:

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