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290 word to your father, or mother, or anyone else. Ascertain the balance at Soames s, and let me know."

"My father had fallen into ill-health of late years. The barbarous execution of the King had been a heavy blow to him, and he almost accused himself of having been one of his murderers. He certainly would not admit that Charles was fit to reign over a free and enlightened nation like the English. A King of England, he was in the habit of saying, should be like Caesar's wife, and as she should not be even suspected of unchastity, so he should be above the suspicion of unfaithfulness to his people. The days of the false King John, and the bloodthirsty Henry the Eighth, were gone by for ever. The nation was not to be suffered to fall back into the barbarism of Richard the Third, or the religious tyranny of Queen Mary. England was not to be insulted with impunity by any other Power before a scornful world. Cromwell was a favourite with my father, but he did not approve of making him King. He had read enough of history to know that men who were taken from amongst the people and made kings were frequently changed for the worse in the transformation. Under him as Protector, and through the genius and bravery of Robert Blake and his gallant men, England resumed her proper place in the world. The insolence of Holland, France, Spain, and Portugal was deservedly punished, and changed into respect, if not admiration. And as time rolled on, and comparative tranquillity began to be restored to the hitherto distracted kingdom, right-thinking men confessed that it was much better, in times of popular ebullition, to be ruled by a strong and vigorous, if severe, hand, than by one weak, as it were, as water, who would allow every puffed-up agitator and brewer of sedition to become a dictator.

'In painfully watching the progress of events, and in dread uncertainty as to what might happen next, the time