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CRO resolution, would certainly have attained a much more prominent place in the history of England. Ireland, again, was completely in favour of the Stuarts, and Scotland had proclaimed Charles II. immediately after the death of his father. General Cromwell wisely began at home. He soon settled the Levellers, and put out the smouldering fire of social anarchy like a man who neither trifled nor jested, trifling being almost the only thing that Oliver could not do. Having settled England he went to Ireland. On the 22nd of June, 1649, his commission was made out. This, however, arranged only the military part of the business. The parliament then "considered of settling the civil power of the nation of Ireland, whether by commissioners or otherwise. The house, after a short debate, voted that Lieutenant-general Cromwell be chief governor of Ireland, and likewise that the civil and military power of that nation be settled on him during the time of his commission"—three years. General Cromwell thus became lord-lieutenant of Ireland, with plenary power to do what he pleased. What he did please to do was perhaps severe enough—terrible knocking of every body on the head when they resisted, under the belief that "this bitterness will save much effusion of blood"—a belief verified in fact, and even in the opinion of those who have written against Cromwell. Drogheda (Tredah) and Wexford were taken by storm and the garrisons slaughtered. The example was successful: the other towns surrendered upon easier terms. In less than a year the country was subdued, and Cromwell leaving his son-in-law, Ireton, in command, returned to England, was met in triumph at Hounslow heath, and had the palace of St. James' allotted for his residence.

Soon after the death of the king, Prince Charles, who had taken refuge at the Hague, assumed the title of Charles II. In the spring of 1650 the commissioners from the Scots negotiated with him at Breda. In June he repaired to Scotland, but before landing was obliged to undergo the process of taking the covenant. The parliamentarians at once resolved to attack him, and General Fairfax ought from his rank to have taken the command; but his wife, a presbyterian, persuaded him to withdraw from public life, whereupon "Oliver Cromwell, esquire, was constituted captain-general and commander-in-chief of all the forces raised, or to be raised, by authority of parliament within the commonwealth of England" (26th June, 1650). The Lord-general Cromwell instantly fell to work with his new commission. On the 29th June, three days after his appointment to the supreme command, he set out for Scotland. On the 22nd July the army passed through Berwick, thence to Cockburnspath, Dunbar, Haddington, and Musselburgh, the Scottish army under General David Lesley lying between Edinburgh and Leith. Cromwell could not attack Lesley in his fastnesses, and in a fortnight he found that sickness and want of provisions compelled him to retreat. He fell back on Dunbar, Lesley following him at once. Cromwell was blocked up and surrounded, as he himself expresses it, "at the pass of Copperspath, through which we cannot get without almost a miracle." His faith, however, did not fail him. "All shall work for good," he said—"Our spirits are comfortable, praised be the Lord." On the 2nd of September Oliver observed that Lesley was altering his position, coming down the hill, and moving his left wing of horse over to his right wing—dangerous experiments, it would seem, in the face of the lord-general. A council of war was held. It was resolved not to wait for Lesley's attack, but before break of day to begin the battle of Dunbar. "The enemy's whole numbers," says Oliver, "were very great, almost six thousand horse, as we heard, and ten thousand foot at least, ours drawn down as to sound men to about seven thousand five hundred foot, and three thousand five hundred horse." "The enemy's word was, which it had been for divers days; ours was ." In an hour the lord-general utterly demolished the presbyterian army, with a loss to himself, as he says, of "about twenty or thirty men" (3rd September, 1650).

From Dunbar Cromwell returned to Edinburgh to besiege the Castle, which was surrendered to him by Colonel Walter Dundas, the governor, on the 24th of December. He remained in Scotland till August, 1651. He had taken possession of Perth, and being thus to the north of the Scottish royal forces, which were stationed with Charles at Stirling, Charles ventured a desperate game—a sort of double or quits for the whole stake that Oliver had gained and Charles had lost Charles broke up his quarters, and marched southward into England. On the 22nd of August the royal standard was raised at Worcester, and there on the 28th the lord-general was in presence of the king. Cromwell went to work without delay, threw a bridge of boats over the Severn, and another across the Teme. These boat-bridges were ready on the afternoon of the 3rd September—the same day on which had been fought the battle of Dunbar a year before; "whereupon," say the papers of the time, "the general presently commanded Colonel Inglesbie's and Colonel Fairfax's regiments, with part of his own regiment and the life-guards, and Colonel Hacker's regiment of horse, over the river—his excellency himself leading them in person, and being the first man that set foot on the enemy's ground." The battle of Worcester ended in a total route; and about seven in the evening the king, with various dukes, earls, and lords, fled from the city by St. Martin's gate to find a refuge with the Penderels, and to take shelter in the royal oak and across the sea. Cromwell behaved magnificently. "My lord-general did exceedingly hazard himself—riding up and down in the midst of the shot, and riding himself in person to the enemy's foot offering them quarter, whereto they returned no answer but shot." This was Oliver's last battle, and the last occasion on which Scotland ever appeared in a national capacity. Scotland had gone to wreck with factions and dissensions, and her individuality as an independent kingdom had no longer a place in history. At Aylesbury, on his return to London, Cromwell was met by a deputation from the commons and council of state. Hampton Court was prepared for his residence, and an estate of four thousand pounds a year, in addition to his former grant, was voted to him.

We now briefly review this military career of Oliver. Nine years before we found him an English squire, engaged in the cultivation of his lands; now we find him the incomparable soldier who has achieved in fair and open war the conquest of England, the conquest of Ireland, and the successful invasion and annexation of Scotland; and this without anything that could be called a reverse. His progress was ever onward, forward, upward. However the fortunes of others might fluctuate, Oliver was always making way, always driving definitely toward a single point, and that point the supreme power. He was not only the man of supreme ability, but acknowledged to be so—the man to whom the nation was obliged to apply; for he alone had the master-hand that could guide the vessel of the state through the storms, the troubles, the quicksands, and the dangers which on every side beset the commonwealth. No sooner had the military operations terminated than it became necessary to settle the form of government, and it was here in all probability that Cromwell first allowed the ambition of personal aggrandizement to mix with what he conceived to be his duty to his country. The power was virtually in his own hand, and there can scarcely be a doubt that he desired its legal recognition. If the nation had placed the crown on his head at this period, he would probably have allowed it to remain there without farther question. But the parliament was jealous of his influence, and war with Holland once more withdrew the attention of the nation from the settlement of the constitution. It was absolutely necessary, however, that there should be an executive government, and Cromwell resolved to take the power into his own hands by the forcible dismissal of the members. He took a file of musketeers, went down to the house, ordered the speaker out of the chair, told the members they had sat there long enough for all the good they had done, and, waxing vehement, cried out—"You are no longer a parliament; I say you are no longer a parliament; the Lord has done with you—he has chosen other instruments for carrying on his work." He told Vane he was a juggler, Chaloner that he was a drunkard, Allan that he cheated the public, Martin and Wentworth that they were exceeding improper persons; told one of the soldiers to "take away that fool's bauble"—the mace; and finished by turning out the members and locking the door. This was on the 20th April, 1653, and in July he summoned by his own authority the little or Barebone's parliament, so called from one Praise-God Barebone, a leather-seller of Fleet Street, who was one of the honourable members.—(See .) On the 12th December of the same year the Barebone parliament resolved to resign its power into the hands of Cromwell, having possibly been chosen for that purpose; and on the 16th December the Lord-general became Lord-protector of the Commonwealth of