:

Smollet, who, as he was known to have no small attachment to the high prerogative, we may suppose not to be partial to him, comes probably nearest to the truth. It runs thus"Oliver Cromwell was of a robust make and conftitution, and his aspect manly, though clownish. His education extended no farther than a fuperficial knowledge of the Latin tongue; but he inherited great talents from nature, though they were such as he could not have exerted to advantage at any juncture but that of a civil war, inflamed by religious contests. His character was formed, from an amazing conjunction of enthusiasm, hypocrify, and ambition. He was poffefsed of courage and refolution, that overlooked all dangers, and faw no difficulties. He dived into the characters of mankind with wonderful fagacity, whilst he concealed his own purposes under the impenetrable shield of diffimulation. He reconciled the most attrocious crimes to the most rigid notions of religious obligations. From the severest exercise of devotion, he relaxed into the most ludicrous and idle buffoonery. He preferved the dignity and distance of his character, in the midst of the coarsest familiarity. He was cruel and tyrannic from policy, just and temperate from inclination, perplexed and defpi

cable in his discourse, clear and confummate in his designs, ridiculous in his reveries, respectable in his conduct; in a word, the strangest compound of villainy and virtue, baseness and magnanimity, abfurdity and good fenfe, that we find upon record in the annals of mankind.""

In

The Protector married, August 22d, 1620, at St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate, London, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier, of Felsted, in Effex, knight, who, notwithstanding the has been greatly traduced by the enemies of her husband, appears to have been a virtuous and deferving woman. her person she was certainly very ordinary, and was usually denominated by the Royalifts, on account of the plainness of her perfon, Joan Cromwell. She bore him nine children, five fons and four daughters, most. of whom were very amiable characters; particularly Elizabeth, the fecond, and favourite child of Oliver, who was married to John Claypole, Efq. and died a short time before her father; and Henry, who was appointed, by Oliver, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; where he not only, by the wisdom and equity of his adminiftration, foon procured the love of the Irith, so that they regarded him as a bleff

ing, but was constantly treated with every mark of esteem, even by the cavaliers of both kingdoms. What is remarkable in Oliver's children is, that most of them disapproved of the violent steps their father was taking, and were warm partizans for Charles the First, as well as for his son, whose restoration they greatly approved of, and lived quietly under his government.

Befides the foregoing children by his wife, Oliver is supposed to have had several illegitimate children; for though a great devotee, and affecting an outward sanctity of manners, he is known to have indulged himself, after he arrived at power, with the company of ladies, and that not in the most innocent

4

INSTANCE THE SEVENTEENTH.

RICHARD CROMWELL*,

SON OF OLIVER.

The tottering bark with skilful care to guide,
Through the rough billows of AMBITION'S tide,
A heart undaunted, head ferene, demands;
She's loft, if steer'd with inexperienc'd hands.

R

ICHARD CROMWELL exhibits a no less fingular instance of the mutability of fortune, than his father has done. By a most unparalleled revolution, Oliver attained the fovereignty of these kingdoms: by a viciffitude nearly as extraordinary, did Richard, though he had peaceably fucceeded to the fame grand elevation, fall from the towering height, and left not to any of his name or kindred, a beam of that grandeur which had shone round his father and himself.

*

History of England, Noble's Anecdotes of the Cromwell

family, &c.

Cc

Richard,

Richard, the third, but eldest surviving son of the Protector Oliver, was born at Huntingdon, October 4th, 1626; and received his education, at least the latter part of it, at Felsted, in Effex; to which place he was sent, that he might be under the eye of his maternal grandfather, Sir James Bourchier, who refided there.

In the year 1647, he was admitted to the fociety of Lincoln's-inn, having then nearly completed his twenty-first year. While he was here, he took very little pains to gain a knowledge of the law, but spent his time chiefly in the pursuit of pleasure; and it is remarkable, that when the nation was torn in pieces by faction and civil war, he lived inactively in the temple. What is still more obfervable is, that at the time his father was fighting the battles of the parliament, he was the companion of the most loyal cavaliers, and frequently drank health and success to the fovereign whom Oliver was endeavouring to dethrone. And when that unhappy monarch was condemned to die, he was fo struck with horror at the cruel and unprecedented fentence, that he threw himself upon his knees before his father, and pleaded the cause of fallen majesty, with all the