A cafe

more per

plexing.

emerged, whofe "rude tempeftuous" qualities, perplexing in early days to Mr. Hyde, were hardly lefs to perplex and trouble all future hiftorians. And it is lefs with the hope of contributing anything to its illustration that should be entirely worthy of the fubject, than to confefs how much in former years it perplexed and troubled myself, that I have lately taken occafion to exprefs to what extent the views I once held have fuffered change in regard to the conduct and character of Cromwell,

Limited

scope of present work :

XXX. CONCLUSION.

THE Confequences hinted at by Holborne (in the debate of the 20th December on the right of the Minority on the Remonstrance to protest against the decifion of the Majority), which had fo fatal a recoil upon the King, do not fall within the scope of this work. The Arreft of the Five Members is a fubject too large in itself to be treated as a portion of that theme which I now bring to a clofe. My object was to restore a page of the English history of some importance, which time had been permitted to to restore efface; and this has been accomplished. It is an effaced for the reader to apply the details here given History. to their further ufe, in illuftration of already existing records, and determination of their value. It would lead the writer too far from

page in

In the Edinburgh Review, January, 1856. See Biographical Effays (Oliver Cromwell, Daniel De Foe, Sir Richard Steele, Charles Churchill, and Samuel Foote), now published by Mr. Murray in a separate volume,

the defign to which he had purposely restricted himself, to attempt in this place any fuch application. Every one may do it, within the range of his acquaintance with the general hiftory of Object of the time; and to help to extend this range for notes appended. all, fome pains have here been taken to render the notes appended to the Abstract of the Remonftrance, as well as to the Debates, both a guide to research out of the common track of hiftories, and a warning against too ready or implicit belief in the most respected authorities. It is not defirable, even if it were poffible, that Clarendon's History of the Rebellion fhould be Clarendepofed from the place it holds in our literature. don's Its rare beauties of thought and charm of ftyle, History. the profound views of character and life which it clothes in language of unfurpaffed variety and richness, its long line of noble and deathlefs portraits through which its readers move as through a gallery of full-lengths by Vandyke and Velasquez, have given and will affure to Its beauit its place as long as literature remains. But, ties. for the purpose to which it has mainly been applied by many party writers fince Clarendon's death, as well as by writers not prejudiced or partial, it should never have been used. The authority of its writer is at no time fo worth- Its deless, as when taken upon matters in which he merits. played himself the most prominent part; and his imputations against the men with whom he was once leagued as clofely as he was afterwards bitterly opposed to them, are never to be fafely relied upon. With the very facts he laboured to mifrepresent, he has been here confronted; and with the antagonists to whom he

Its author ftood actually oppofed upon the floor of the confront- Houfe of Commons, he has been here again contempo- brought face to face. The Grand Remonftrance

ed with

raries.

Refult

decifive

against him.

has itself been heard after long and unmerited oblivion, and Sir Simonds D'Ewes has spoken to us after a filence of more than two centuries. The refult is decifive against Clarendon. It is not merely that he turned King's evidence against his old affociates, but that his evidence is completely difproved.

An opinion has been expreffed, in the course of this Work, upon the importance of the Grand Remonftrance merely as a contribution to hiftory, and upon the improbability of its being again difplaced from the position here affigned to it. Certainly it is impoffible that any one should speak of it hereafter as it has been described heretofore. In Mr. D'Ifraeli's Misftate- Commentaries, for example, a book which after ments no his death was with final and fcrupulous corlonger rection republished by his fon, it is characterpoffible. ifed as an hiftorical memoir of all the infelicities of the reign, "with a very cautious omiffion "that all those capital grievances had no longer

any existence."* That fuch an affertion fhould be hazarded again is at least not conceivable. Amid much, too, that in the fame book is as gravely paffed off for truth, the Remonftrance is faid to have been smuggled Ludicrous through the Houfe of Commons by a trick.

errors.

Its authors, we are informed, "affured the "moderate men that its intention was purely

Commentaries on the Reign of Charles I.

D'Ifraeli. Ed. 1851, ii. 290.

By Ifaac

"prudential; it was to mortify the Court, " and nothing more; after having been read, "it would remain in the hands of the Clerk, "and never afterwards be called for; and fo, D'Ifraeli's "when it was brought forward, to give it the Commenappearance of a matter of little moment, ii. 294. "the morning was fuffered to elapfe on ordi"nary bufinefs, and it was produced late; but

taries,

they overfhot the mark," &c. &c. with much more to the fame incredible purport! Surely not again can Clarendon lead his followers into fuch a quickfand of "history as that; nor, with the Remonftrance itself in evidence, can the fignal mifrepresentation he left of its contents, and of the conduct and Effect of objects of its authors, be in future accepted trance on against his own frequent and unconfcious tefti- the people: mony to its deep and ineradicable impreffion upon the mafs of the English people.

Remon

That, after all, is its final and lasting vindi- its vindication. It had become a neceffity fo to make cation: appeal to the people. It may be true, or it may be falfe, that Cromwell would have fold all he had the next morning if the Remonftrance had been rejected, and would never have feen England more: but that Falkland heard him fay fo would feem to be undoubted, and the fact is a fingular proof of the gravity of the conjuncture which had arifen. Measured and meaalfo by the effects produced, the fame conclu- fure of its importfion is forced upon us; though in the prefence ance. of the document itself, thefe may well appear lefs furprifing. To do Clarendon justice, he never affects to conceal the momentous influence exerted by the Remonftrance over the

EE

Its fubfe- fubfequent courfe of affairs. He puts it in quent in-his own language indeed: but when he refers fluence. to "that dreadful," "that fatal," Remon

Confeffed

ftrance; when he speaks of it as having "poi"foned the heart of the people; " when he recurs to it as "the firft inlet to the inunda"tions that overwhelmed " his party; when again and again he dwells upon it, as "the first "vifible ground and foundation of that rage by Hyde." and madnefs in the people of which they "could never fince be cured;" no glofs or comment is needed for fuch expreffions. They are fo many tributes to the vigour and capacity of his opponents, and to the largenefs and Recruit- wisdom of the outlook they had taken when ing-fer they launched that Great Remonftrance. Pargeant for liament had no fuch recruiting-fergeant through civil war. the after years of civil war. It might have fallen, indeed, comparatively without effect, if Charles the Firft had been able at any time to accept honeftly the confequences of his own acts; but its authors knew that this was not in his nature, and if we would condemn in Motives that refpect their policy, we must have satisfied ourfelves, that, with a man fo effentially and deliberately falfe as the King was to all the engagements made with him, it was in any manner poffible, without direct appeal to the People as a part of the State, to bring about a lafting adjustment of right relations between the Commons and the Crown. The Remonftrance constituted that appeal; and not the leaft of the claims which in my judgment it poffeffes to the attention and refpect of all ftudents of history, is the proof which it affords

of its authors:

in fo appealing to the people