"Cromwell had now dismissed the Parliament by the authority of which he had destroyed monarchy, and commenced monarch himself, under the title of Protector, but with kingly and more than kingly power. That his authority was lawful never was pretended; he himself founded his right only upon necessity; but MILTON having now tasted the honey of public employment, would not return to hunger and philosophy, but continuing to exercise his office under a manifest usurpation, betrayed to his power that liberty which he had defended. Nothing can be more just, than that rebellion should end in slavery; that he who had justified the murder of his king, for some acts whieh seemed to him unlawful, should now sell his services and his flatteries to a tyrant, of whom it was evident he could do nothing lawful."-P. 111.

Against these virulent charges let MILTON himself be heard, from the work which Dr. J. calls "flatteries to a tyrant."

"A Letter written to a gentleman in the country, touching the Dissolution of the late Parliament, and the Reason thereof.*

"SIR,

"Yours of the 27th past came safe, and with it your admiration of this great change which hath happened in the dissolution of the late Parliament, which I not at all wonder at; for as this Island hath afforded the greatest Revolutions that I think any memory can afford us, of any time or place, so I believe this to be the greatest of them and so much the greater, as that it was done, in a manner, in an instant, without contestation, without effusion of blood, and for any thing I can perceive, without the least resentment of those whom it generally concerns. But when I shall put you in remembrance of what I have often enforced to you, (or to say better, discoursed, for the other is needless,) that the ways of Providence are inscrutable, and such as though, unexpected and temararius, yet are carried on by such a strange and supreme kind of design, it will be easy for an humble and an acquiring mind to see, that by several invisible degress, they bring forth their last and proposed intendments, yea, with those instruments which seem and intend to do the contrary.

"What man could have supposed, after the dissolution of the Parliament preceding the last, to have had another so soon? And for this last, who could have imagined that by Act it should have continued, much more gloriously have undertaken the defence of an injured people by open arms against an oppressor, and that these undertakings, with admirable variety of success, should have been crowned with the extirpation of tyranny, and the decollation of the person of a

* London: printed by F. Leach, for Richard Baddeley, at his shop within the Middle Temple Gate, 1653.

tyrant; that this great Omniscience should so bless the endeavors of a Commonwealth, now as I may say, in its very swaddling-clouts, as by them absolutely to reduce those dominions in three years, which a series of proud and lusty monarchs could not in six centurys do? Besides that navall opposition so fortunately and gloriously made against the greatest maritime enemy in Europe, or to speak with due acknowledgment, in the earth. Yet are these men, with all their vigorous and happy actions, suddenly dispersed like down blown off a thistle, and their power devolved into such hands, which as God hath made instrumentall in these strange emanations of his Divine Will, so we may humbly conceive, he intends to make further use of to the finishing of that great work, which by such visible signs he had mad appeare he hath in hand for the glory of his name, the felicity of these nations, and I believe for the blessed alteration of all Europe.

"I am neither Stoick to believe that all things are limited by such a strong chain of fate, as that there is nothing left to man but mechanically to act; nor yet can I resign myself to an absolute belief of that saying of Plato, that 'To pray or fear is needless, it being out of our power to prevail by either; but I shall modestly affirm it, that as I ever used to send up my prayers for the best things I could, upon the emergencies of the severell times, so upon the breaking out and discovering of every hidden councill of above by some illustrious accident, I have thrown my face upon the ground and submitted to it, never examining the means by which it was brought to pass, but the end to which it was brought; for I cannot deny unto you, that I have that reverence and resignation to my great Lord and Maker, that as I believe every dispensation affords to me in particular (be it bitter or be it sweet) a means of that grand consummation of felicity, which I am hereafter to endeavor and expect ; so even in politick bodies, wherein so many dear to Him are concerned, he suffers not any turn or revolution, but, his Omnisciency directs it, to the bettering or more happyfying of that people.

"And truly, in my apprehension, this is done at this season, and though you seem to stare at it, being unwilling to acknowledge that his hand is wise and powerful; yet methinks it were an argument worthy of an atheist, to say that irregular actions proceed from a carelessness above, than for a Christian to imagine that his designations in altering the affairs of any state, should not tend to the bettering of that state, and that that power into which he puts it, is not, in my mind, more fit and proper to manage it than that from which he took it; for if a fly fall not to the earth without his consent, I beseech

you, what shall we consider of his care in the disposition of millions of men, things of his own image, without a high disbelief and contempt of his providence.

"Though I am not ignorant what some people ignorantly, or peradventure, splenetically and maliciously say, that He may suffer such things for the punishment of a people, and for their reduction: yet when I seriously consider it, that as nothing but good can flow from that pure and simple fountain of goodness, so are his ways of providence, so far as purblind we can see. He chastises private men differently from public bodies; some that he dearly loves, he afflicts, purges and refines, gives them heaviness for a day, that they may hereafter have an everlasting weight of glory. States he sometimes afflicts for their own sins, sometimes for those of their governors, but still out of his mercy considers those who are dear unto him, and searches out if there be ten good in Sodom, which if there be, he carries them out of their captivity into the land of promise.

"Out of these considerations, I, for my part, humbly submit to this mysterious and sudden action; and because I perceive you not so well satisfied with it, am content with what present reasons I can, and out of my little intelligence, and small understandings of things, to give you an account. And therefore we are to consider,

First, The means of government by the last Parliament; then the right of obedience to superior powers; and lastly, the effects, or events, that may come upon the late change."

He intimates that the Presbyterians were the most offended. "Besides," says he, "the Presbyterian party, which is merely a Jesuit in a Genevah cloak, but somewhat more unsupportable."

After having shown the illegal practices of some members of the Long Parliament, and the impropriety that their existence should be perpetual, he says:

"And therefore, since we are in a tempest, let us come to this rock, (to speak at the harshest,) rather than perish. For you cannot conceive but the worst government in the world is infinitely better than none at all, or to speak a little closelyer, an ill government well managed, people still judging of their safety, or liberty, or civill advantages, the effects not only of their government, but rulers.

"I know your objection beforehand, that the action of the Lord Generall in the Dissolution was somewhat rough and barbarous, and I shall not trouble you with a long answer. That, as to his person, as he hath in the field declared himself one of the noblest assertors of our liberty, and as great an enlarger of our territories as ever was, so

as to any particular designs of his own in point of government, it must be a something greater than human, that can discover how he either intended to invade us, or to make us a prey to any ambition of his. And therefore, if, upon this grand Revolution, he might appear to his enemies passionate, yet considering the extremities that great minds fall into, and the great trust committed to him, it will appear to be nothing but the discharge of that duty that lay upon him. To have done such a thing as a single generall, wants neither example nor president, (but I would not injure an argument, by the by, which I could make good in a whole treatise.) For you may remember that of Cæsar to Metellus the Tribune: 'Young man, (says he,) 'twas easier for me to say this than to do it ;' a speech, says Sir Francis Bacon, both the proudest and the mildest that ever came out of the mouth of For at that time he was breaking open the sacred treasury, which by the laws was not to be broken open. But it is otherwise here: this was not a rash and precipitate act of his, [Cromwell,] but a trust and result of those under him. 'Twas fit he that was most eminent should appear, and he as civilly, without noise and disturbance, did it. And therefore acting by their votes, and by their consents, it was their action as well as his; and it is no more his action, than it is the action of the head moved by the tendons and muscles, which are parts of the body, and without which the head itself could not possibly at all move.

man.

"So that it here comes to a question, Whether, it be better for us to be in slavery under the name of liberty, or in liberty under the effects of slavery? I have told my thoughts before, in what condition I thought our liberty was, and I repeat it once again, that I think this present is the better expedient.

"I am no member of their councills, and by a late infirmity, lesse able to attend them ;* yet, if I can believe any thing, or understand men, when they make the clearest professions, they intend all noble things, both as to the glory of our good God, the making happy this poor nation, settling the liberties of it, and reducing of us into one mind, and one way. But these are not only wishes of mine, but hopes and certain expectancies, and I believe they will convince these men to be liars that speak against them. But now I think I have put you to all the trials of your patience, which if my infirmity had not been, which confined me to my chamber, I could not have done; but I rely so much on your candor, and I believe you think so well of my vera

*It will be seen from this, that he had just now lost his eye-sight.

city, as I want not the impudence to affirm myself, (however you take it.)

"Your affectionate Servant,

"N. L. L.

"London, May 3, 1653."

Now let the candid reader say whether this is the language of flattery? whether there is any thing in it which contradicts any of his sentiments on former or later occasions? whether there is any proof of his having sold his services to a tyrant, because he "tasted of the honey of public employment, and would not return to hunger and philosophy?" Why, though MILTON's office as Latin Secretary to the Council of State was most honourable, he did not receive more than two hundred a year it is said; not greatly superior to Dr. Johnson's pension, for which he rendered no services to the commonwealth. Whatever difficulties MILTON might have felt in reconciling this bold step of Cromwell and his Council of Officers, with the rights which the Long Parliament had received by the consent of the late king not to be dissolved but by their own consent, it is evident he considered it a choice of difficulties, whether tyranny should be exercised under the title of Parliament or of Protector: he thought, whether justly or not, that the people would have more liberty, and less slavery, under the latter than the former; and that even the government of the army was to be preferred to an inefficient power, which could protect the interests of the whole community.

Speaking of MILTON'S Latin Defence of the People of England, published in 1652, Dr. Johnson says:

"In his Second Defence, he shows that his eloquence is not merely satirical: the rudeness of his invective is equalled by the grossness of his flattery. Cæsar, when he assumed the perpetual dictatorship, had not more servile and elegant flattery. A translation may show its servility, but its elegance is less attainable. Having exposed the unskilfulness or selfishness of the former government, We are left,' says MILTON, 'to ourselves; the whole national interest fell into your hands, and subsists only in your abilities. To your virtue, overpowering and resistless, every man gives way, except some, who, without equal qualifications, aspire to equal honours, who envy the distinctions of merit greater than their own, and who have yet to learn, that in the coalition of human society, nothing is more pleasing to God, or more agreeable to reason, than that the highest mind should have the sovereign power. Such, Sir, are you by general confession; such are the things achieved by you, the greatest and most glorious of our countrymen, the director of our public councils, the leader of unconquered armies, the father of your country; for by that title does every good man hail you with sincere and voluntary praise."-p. 113.

Now, I ask whether there is any appearance of servility or flattery in this eulogium of Cromwell? Is it not the truth? Could he have