| | | | | The world has now got, in an authentic form, the letters | and speeches of Wellington, of Nelson, of Chatham, of | Washington, and a hundred more of lesser repute, then | why not those of "The Man Oliver Cromwell?" He | was surely of not less mark than the greatest of them. | So, and rightly, thinks Mr. Carlyle; who, treating very | cavalierly the vulminous all that has for two hundred | years been said of this prince of Puritans, girds on his | armour, and sets himself to the Herculean task of | clearing away whole cart-loads of the rubbish which | has overwhelmed the character and memory of his hero, | and of exhibiting the "Man Oliver" by the light of his | own unquestioned writings and performances; which | may best show the true man, and also, surely, much of | the genuine history of the Cromwellian period. | Into this rich mine we cannot in the passing month | drive a deep shaft; but leaving, or nearly so, Cromwell's | Letters and Speeches, untouched, we shall, however | cursorily, notice how Mr. Carlyle has

"elucidated" |

them, and made of the Protector a hero yet greater | than his Odin or his Mahomet. He sets out, in the first | place, with an introduction, entitled "Anti-Dryasdust," | and which is just another chapter of "Sartor Resartus;" | bearing upon the seventeenth century, as well as the | present degenerate age; which | no-one has a better knack | of tickling in a peculiar way ~~ of piquing, and yet | pleasing, than the commentator on Cromwell ~~ no, not | even his Master, Jean Paul. In the second chapter, "On | the Biographies of Oliver," we have a dim or oracular | intimation, that Mr. Carlyle may one day add another |

"dull book" "to the thousand, dull every one of | them,"

that have been issued on this subject. And | then we have a few sharp shots at the

"wretched | old books"

about

"Oliver,"

and their | framers; at Noble and

"Carrion Heath";

but | no mention whatever of modern or living writers on | Cromwell and his era, save one, which is highly | complimentary to Mr. Forster, author of the "Statesmen | of the Commonwealth". | "The Cromwell kindred" brings forth nothing new, | where, indeed, nothing new was to be found. The old | story is merely set forth in the Carlyle characters or | hieroglyphics; ~~ which many people pretend they | cannot understand; though nothing can be more easily | read, or is really more simple, after one has, through | five sentences or so, sought the key. No style could, in | fact, be more easily imitated than that of Mr. Carlyle, | by such wags as the authors of "The Rejected | Addresses;" though some of the ideas lie far beyond | their reach, which he so quaintly and fantastically, and, | to say all in a word, so affectedly dresses up; for nearly | the same purpose which makes itinerant and other | showmen attire their walking or riding human | advertisements in extravagant and obsolete garbs and | costumes, to attract the general gaze, and draw gaping | spectators to their wonderful performances. | Mr. Carlyle has personally, as we infer, visited | Huntingdon and St. Ives, and other places connected | with the personal history of "Oliver," since he gives | very graphic pen-and-ink sketches of the old English | town and its vicinity, and of St Ives, which we take to | be one of the very ugliest and most sluggish small | market towns in all broad England. He imagines that | the mother of Cromwell, Elizabeth Steward, may, as is | always asserted, have been . Nor does he | strenuously deny that Oliver’s father, as a matter of | thrifty management, may have malted and actually | brewed part of the grain raised on his own land; and | that thus Cromwell may have merited the contumelious | charge of being . It is enough that Oliver’s | father, Robert, was a respectable country gentleman, the | son of the knight of Hinchinbrook, and connected with | the best gentry of the neighbouring Fens; and, which is | far more to the purpose, the cousin-german of John | Hampden. Nor has Mr. Carlyle a doubt but that | "Oliver's" family was related to that of the "Thomas | Cromwell" of Henry VIII. though Cromwell himself | disowned the connexion. Mr. Carlyle labours as hard, | and as minutely, to clear up such points, as if this | account of "the Cromwell kindred" formed a finished | chapter of the Life which he half promises ~~ and gives | as much of birth and genealogy as the unheraldic plain | reader can well bear. But, at last, we get to the early | boyhood of "Oliver," which reads exactly as if Jean | Paul Richter had written it, and Mr. Carlyle made a free | translation. It runs thus: ~~ | | | | Like Mr. Knight, in his very pleasing | conjectural biography of the childhood and | boyhood of Shakspere, Mr. Carlyle often adverts to | contemporary public events; and, among other | movements, to the first germ and development of | Puritanism, and its probable effects on the dawning | mind of young Oliver. As a specimen of this vivifying | mode of writing biography, inaccurate as it may be, we | must indulge in an extract, still imagining that here we | are copying from what must have been originally | intended for part of a complete Life of the Protector; so | ample is the scale on which it is composed. | | Oliver, born in 1599, in 1616 was entered at Cambridge. | | Mr. Carlyle, in his own quaint involuted fashion of | connecting his words, denies roundly that Cromwell, | coming early to his patrimony, was a wild youth, | addicted to gaming and other vices, of which there is, at | all events, no better evidence than the assertion of | "Carrion Heath;" and he sees no satisfactory evidence | of Oliver ever having studied law, or being of any | "Inn." But if it so happened that Oliver was in London | upon Thursday the 29th October, 1618, he might, very | probably, have been eye-witness to a great and striking | scene. There is no denying this; and so, | apropos des bottes, we see, | and are right well-pleased to see, the last hours of | Raleigh painted by Mr. Carlyle: ~~ | | Whether Oliver saw Raleigh beheaded or not, | | he certainly did, about this time, both see and wood | Elizabeth Bourchier, daughter of a city knight, to whom, | at the age of twenty-one, he was married in St. Giles's | Church, Cripplegate. The young couple went to keep | house with Oliver’s mother. | | In these years Cromwell was subject to hypochondriac | maladies, and his physician was often sent for at | midnight to the patient, who as often thought | and had fancies about ~~ upon | which Mr. Carlyle thus dilates ~~ | | Is this to be held as the one distinct progression of his | own religious opinions, his own belief, which, amidst a | world of the vague, the formless, and shadowless, | which, on the question of religion, lie scattered | throughout his writings, may henceforth be assumed as | the creed of one who has in turns praised and denounce | the good and the evil in every sect under the sun ~~ | Odinism and Mahomedanism, with Papistry? Some of | Mr. Carlyle's late productions made the High Church | party, ~~ actually the Puseyites, fancy that he was | veering round to the right side, and welcome a potent | auxiliary. The present work will set them right; but | neither must the Scottish True-blue Presbyterians and | their Free Church, fancy that their ancestors have | gained him. No, no: it is thus he treats them ~~ | | | | Whatever Mr. Carlyle may be, his "Oliver" was now an | avowed Puritan, and he ~~ | | There is a blank of several years in the life of "Oliver", | when we find him a captain in the army of the | Parliament, and King Charles plunged into a sea of | troubles with that refractory body. | | The letter of Thomas Alured is not for us, who must not | lose view of the other, the modern "True Thomas", and | his commentary on the scene of "weeping." | | In the same desultory style, the History of the period is | continued. Buckingham is assassinated, and his | murdered, Felton, executed with Mr. Carlyle's own | touch; and the session is opened with "Tonnage and | Poundage," and all that grew out of those cabalistic | words. | | | | This Parliament, forcing the Speaker to keep his place, | passed their memorable protest against | Arminianism, Papistry, and illegal | Tonnage and Poundage; and, | when it was abruptly dissolved, Cromwell may once | more be presumed to have gone home to Huntingdon; | and no more Parliaments were summoned for many | years, while the Bishops as they pleased worked out | their fancies. | | During this long interval, "Oliver" had sold his | properties at Huntingdon and commenced grazier and | farmer, on a large scale, at St. Ives. | | By framing the narrative somewhat like the Almanac | Chronicles, which tell that on this day such and such a | thing happened, the most remarkable events of the | period are recorded in the "Elucidations" and are | welcome enough in themselves, though occasionally | somewhat away from the matter in hand. Thus, in the | same year that Cromwell's seventh child was born, at St. | Ives, Prynne, we are told, incurred the peril of having | his ears cropt; and further, | | The reader will, by this time, perceive that if M. Carlyle | can make a hit, he never foregoes the opportunity, | though he may turn back, wheel far enough round, or | fly off at a tangent, to strike the blow effectually. That | dealt in the extract below is not far amiss, however, in | these times of revival and conversions to Romanism. | Charles the First, in a northern progress, had visited the | establishment of Little Gidding, on the western border | of the same county in which Oliver was now a farmer. | Little Gidding, the very model for a Puseyite or | Newmanic Institution, was | | These little, quaint, and pithy extracts might be | multiplied abundantly, but our readers must already | have tolerable clear idea of the character of M. | Carlyle's work. | The Ship-money Writ, now, in 1634, had just come out, | and "Cousin Hampden" had decided not to pay it; and | now we first get hold of Oliver's own letters, and the | eccentric "Elucidations" of his Editor. | It must, by his own showing, have cost Mr. Carlyle | incredible pains to collect the Letters and Speeches of | Cromwell, which lie scattered, in print and manuscript, | in a hundred repositories. Of the Speeches, he | considers himself the first reader | for nearly two centuries past; but with so many | "Histories of England," and of "the Commonwealth" | and its Statesmen, this is surely improbable; | | or else History is indeed but the Old Almanac it has | been called. But the hard task was not ungrateful; and | now Mr. Carlyle tells us: ~~ | | Surely the reader has here sufficient encouragement to | enter upon this extraordinary collection. If farther | stimulant is required, it may be found in the parallel | instituted between the old Puritanic Reformers ~~ who | believed that England should become , | presided over, not by , but by some order of | Spiritual Heroes, destined to lead and guide their | fellowmen, and put to shame this insincere and | Unheroic Age of Corn-Law Leagues and Repeal | Associations. We would fain hope that Mr. Carlyle's | opinion of his own age is not quite so bad, so | contemptible, as he is for ever telling us it is. | The First Letter that is given ~~ the first extant, so far | as is known ~~ is addressed by Oliver, at St. Ives, to Mr. | John Storie, at . It is about the means of | supporting a Dr. Wells in a Lectureship established at | Huntingdon, when to withdraw the pay was . | The "Elucidation" of this first epistle is ominously | lengthy: nor can we much admire | the tone in which the commentator speaks of his | predecessor. Noble, which might better beseem a | captious weekly journal, than a grave and dignified | historical dissertation on dates, and facts, and the | opinions of a poor forgotten creature, gone to his grave | in generations long past. In the same false tone is the | notice of the execution of Laud, the passion for | singularity, for saying things like nobody else, | betraying Mr. Carlyle into instances of questionable | taste. | | This refers to ceremonial forms of worship which Laud | had introduced in the chapel of Holyrood, to the bitter | indignation of the Presbyterians. The second letter of | Oliver is to Mrs. St. John, and is a rare | specimen of the spiritual epistolary style of that age; | and upon it Mr. Carlyle hangs whole pages of | conjectural narrative, and a most graphic sketch of the | outbreak of the famous Jenny Geddes. The Elucidation | of this said letter contains other things, wrapt up in a | haze of words, which the profane may be apt to | designate as cant ~~ of a new | mintage, indeed; but not the less cant, of which, | however, in all its forms, Mr. Carlyle professes himself | the irreconcileable foe. | As Cromwell gets involved in public affairs, and finds | something to tell in his correspondence that is worth | hearing, his commentator becomes less diffuse, though | he diligently carries forward the thread of public and | personal history, which connects and renders the Letters | intelligible. The plan is, in short, exactly that of Mr. | Twiss in the late Life of Lord Eldon; and that of the | sons of Sir Samuel Romilly and Mr. Wilberforce in | compiling the memoirs of their respective fathers. | One of the best of Oliver's letters of an early date, | though he was forty-five when it was written, is that | addressed to his brother-in-law, Colonel Walton, whose | son had fallen at the battle of Marston. It is dated | "Leaguer before York," which city fell a few days | afterwards. We give it entire, inviting our readers to | contrast the style of the Puritan Commander ~ who sent | to glory all who fell in the cause, as confidently as | Mahomet promised Paradise to his warlike followers ~ | with that of Napoleon, Nelson, or Wellington. | | | | We copy out Mr. Carlyle's closing sentence on this | letter: ~~ | | Mr. Carlyle finds nothing to condemn, and much to | extol, in Cromwell's subsequent proceedings in Ireland; | and boldly asserts, that if that unfortunate country had | escaped the blessings of the Restoration, and remained | as Oliver left it settled, it would now have been | peaceful and flourishing; and we may infer, not Roman | Catholic. Of this terrible campaign, it is said: ~~ | | But we make over Oliver's Editor to the of | Ireland. He waxes wilder and more wild, as the "Irish | Papists" must inevitably think; who, in the premises | even as laid down by himself, will perceive little to | justify this conclusion: ~~ | | And thus closes volume first of "The Letters and | Speeches of Cromwell," who, up to this point, is still | speechless. | Volume second, contains ample material for two goodly | tomes. First there is the war with Scotland, and | "Oliver's" Letters written during his campaign there, | with the "Covenanted People," and their Covenanted | head Charles II. Down to the decisive battle of | Worcester; together with Mr. Carlyle's copious | annotations, and "Elucidations;" and next, the "Little | Parliament," and the subsequent history | | of the whole period of the Protectorate, to the death of | the Protector; including of course many letters, and the | whole of Oliver’s long orations. He was not in general | one of your reasoners and debaters. No rhetorician he: | he told what he wanted to be done, or what he had done, | and that pretty plainly, "unintelligible" as he is | described; and all he had done was right. For this | strong self-will, Mr. Carlyle chuckles so triumphantly | over the dismissal of "the Rump" of the long Parliament, | deeming it rare sport, that we should almost fear the | same temperament might lead him to admire the "Iron | Duke" and a handful of the Guards, turning Lord John | and Sir Robert to the door, while "prating" with Mr. | Cobden over questions about "provender." The | dismissal of Parliaments, like the decapitation of kings, | is not perhaps so far amiss, once in a thousand yeas, | though the historian, even in the single instance, should | either intimate caution, or enter his protest in form. The | kicking out of the Rump, is justified by arguments or | reasons drawn from Oliver’s long speech in vindication | of that strong measure. Now, on this one point at least, | Mr. Carlyle should have held "Oliver's" questionable | authority. This passage in Cromwell's history, affords | us a highly characteristic extract, and we should confess, | in extenuation of Cromwell's act and our | commentator’s triumph in it, that the Rump had | certainly displayed equivocal tendencies. | | And so all was over, and the door locked, ~~ not even | , ~~ and Mr. Carlyle winds up: ~~ | | | | An admirable argument were this in the mouth of | Cortes or Robespierre, or of Sawaroff giving "Glory to | God," after he had sacked a city; or of any Grand | Inquisitor, ~~ all of them being men led of the | "Supreme Wisdom," ~~ all giving God thanks for their | achievements. | The "Spirit of the Lord," had in like manner inspired | Oliver in setting forth to the wars in Scotland. He | spoke of the good to be done, , ~~ and to | Ludlow, whom he wished to go to Ireland, he talked for | an hour together of the hundred-and-tenth psalm; and so, | says Mr. Carlyle ~~ | | Oliver’s Scottish Despatches, and Family Letters, and | also his curious correspondence with the Edinburgh | clergy on points of theology and policy, fill much space. | There would be rare work here for Dr. McCrie were he | happily still alive; but he has, we believe, some, | however unworthy, controversial successors. At the | time Oliver held possession of Edinburgh, and was | besieging its castle, he thus closes an account of the | proceedings of the campaign, given to the President of | the Council of State: ~~ | | One of "Oliver's" priests now regularly held forth in St. | Giles on Sundays; "the Scots clergy," Mr. Carlyle | remarks, | | Cromwell's speeches ~~ and very able speeches they | are, when their object is kept in view, which is, in | general, to vindicate his own conduct, to bear out | foregone conclusions ~~ are of great length: in fact, | spoken pamphlets at the close or opening of a | Parliament; vindicatory or apologetic, and occasionally | rather mystifying than explanatory. Those who, with | Mr. Carlyle, take the trouble to peruse them, will find | the "Protector" a very fair Conservative of those times, | and by no means the latitudinarian in the great matter of | liberty of conscience for which he has with one party | incurred odium, and with another obtained credit. "Our | Oliver" Protector would not, assuredly, long have | suffered the magistrate "to wear the sword in vain." | Mr. Carlyle interpolates the speeches with numerous | quaint remarks, in the manner of the | asides and stage directions in a dramatic scene; a | liberty with "Oliver's" text which would hardly be | tolerated in an ordinary editor, who must modestly have | restricted his own fancies and illuminations to the | margin or the foot of the page. At all events, we trust | modern reporters will not adopt this new practice, as it | would be an intolerable nuisance. | In the assumed character of "a certain Commentator," | whose remarks are of course given with marks of | quotation, Mr. Carlyle throws in here and there | passages in explanation or extenuation of the course of | his hero in trying emergencies. In the preface to | Cromwell's third Speech, at the opening of the first | Parliament of the Protectorate, Mr. Carlyle treats, as | very insignificant or impertinent, debates about | "Governments" and "Constitutions," and about | "Parliaments and Single Persons," and their distinct or | co-ordinate power, and authority, and other "bottomless | subjects;" but Cromwell, now "His Highness," was | compelled to speak out about such trifles, and, in | September 1654, to make the best defence possible for | what he had done to the "Rump" in April, 1553. | , says Mr. Carlyle, . | | There is much more of this; and when all is concluded, | we are forced to believe that great men, yea, Heroes, | may shuffle and equivocate and lie very much like | small men; but then it is for grand and godlike purposes, | in fulfilment of their destinies as the appointed Rulers | of men; every man being sent into the world, we | presume, to | | fulfil his one proper function, whether that shall be the | office of a "flunkey" or of a "Lord Protector." This is | Mr. Carlyle's fundamental principle; but men of plain | understanding, who go some length with him, will | require tosee the rare men-children born into the world, | with the letters HERO plainly charactered round the iris, | before they can go much farther on this misty road. | Throughout his whole annotations, the Editor finds | hardly one word to say for Cromwell's fellow-workers, | for the high-minded and truly great men, the noble band | who, in the field and the council, had paved his way, or | aided him, heart and hand, while his objects seemed | pure, disinterested, and patriotic. Nay, there are even | some gentle sneers pointed at them, as somewhat | pragmatical persons, obstructing a Hero's path with | their pribbles and prabbles. Even Mrs. Hutchinson, | "the Heroine" of the period, has not altogether escaped. | But some day or other, Mr. Carlyle may do justice to | the patriot and republican Heroes of the | Commonwealth. | We would fain give a snatch of "Oliver's" Speeches; | but where there is little space, selection is difficult. The | Parliament which assembled in 1656, contained a | strong leaven of men, having, a Mr. Carlyle phrases it, | . But the Protector was able for them. They | were the Brissotins of that day; | but he was in himself a "Mountain." The speech opens | with a tirade against the avowed, of the nation, | Spain; but glances, in side hits, at secret enemies at | home. Getting over the Spanish part, after a very | curious and truly Oliverian | handling of it, the Lord Protector advances a stage, in | which the reader sees both "Oliver" and his Elucidator, | in their natural lineaments. We pass Cromwell's | exposition of the late insurrectionary movements of | Cavaliers and Jesuits, and come to another kind of | danger: ~~ | | Oliver proceeds to unfold the intrigues set on foot | against himself and his government; and goes over | much ground in a roundabout way, before he gets to | LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE: ~~ | | , into . | There are , , , | etcetera, | etcetera, which Mr. Carlyle | does not stop to denounce. The Protector had to seek | and obtain an answer from the Most High before he | could either consent to be a King, and have the | substantial power of one, or refuse; and a very few days | elapsed before Oliver was enabled to pronounce the | kind of nay which all men read | yea : ~~ | | The young lady said No ; but | the courtship was not broken off. Though long | coquetting with the title, it was that Oliver | looked after; but he would also submit to the name, | . And so he said, ~~ | | | | These speeches about the Kingship are throughout | highly illustrative of the character of Cromwell. He | would, and he would not; he longed, yet was afraid; and | finally leaves Mr. Carlyle in doubt of his real wishes, | and, we should imagine, him alone. | Some more of Cromwell's Opening Speeches, his "last | speeches," as they proved, occur upon such topics, as | , and . One paragraph is not inapt is | indeed very apt, to the present crisis: | | Look to that, demagoques! | | But this whole speech is a noble and brave one, and | makes one forgive in "Oliver" a multitude of | speechifying sins. And if farther reconcilement if | wanted with him, before he goes hence, comes Mr. | Carlyle's section of "The Death of the Protector;" and | Oliver stands forth, not alone, the great man which he | ever was, but a sore-tried, a humbled, and an afflicted | man. | | These closing scenes, and the death of Cromwell's | favourite daughter, Mrs. Clapole, are related in Mr. | Carlyle's peculiar manner, and made effective and | touching; but not more so than the simple narrative, | which is borrowed from Maidston, one of the | Protector’s household, who wrote down these passages | as they occurred: | | | and the great want of our time ~~ of all time ~~ is a | Hero. And where are we to look for "the coming | Man?" Not, we are certain, to the Treasury Benches, | not the Bench of Bishops, not yet to Conciliation Hall. | Is it not cruel, then, to taunt us in this way with our | grovelling, cowardly desires for "provender" and "a | whole skin," and never to say one plain, specific word | as to how we may rise to something higher and more | worthy of Mr. Carlyle's aspirations, and of Cromwell's | countrymen? | We may have more to say upon the spirit and the | execution, but above all, upon those constituents of this | book which Mr. Carlyle has with so much pains and | care dug up, and furbished anew; but, meanwhile, let | this cursory and not uncandid exhibition of beauties and | blemishes suffice. Cromwell despised those "flunkey" | artists, who, in painting him, left out his "warts."