and on it were to be seen the block, the axe, and two executioners in masks. The people, in great crowds, stood at a greater distance, in dreadful expectation of the event. The king surveyed all these solemn preparations with calm composure; and as he could not expect to be heard by the people at a distance, he addressed himself to the few persons who stood round him. He there justified his own innocence in the late fatal war; and observed, that he had not taken arms till after the parliament had shewn him the example. That he had no other object in his warlike preparations than to preserve that authority entire, which had been transmitted to him by his ancestors; but, though innocent towards his people, he acknowledged the equity of his execution in the eyes of his Maker. He owned that he was justly punished for having consented to the execution of an unjust sentence upon the earl of Strafford. He forgave all his enemies, exhorted the people to return to their obedience, and acknowledge his son as his successor; and signified his attachment to the protestant religion, as professed in the church of England. So strong was the impression his dying words made upon the few who could hear him, that colonel Tomlinson himself, to whose care he had been committed, acknowledged himself a convert.

While he was preparing himself for the block, bishop Juxon called out to him, "There is, Sir, but one stage more, which, though turbulent and troublesome, is yet a very short one. It will soon carry you a great way. It will carry you from earth to heaven, and there you shall find, to your great joy, the prize to which you hasten, a crown of glory."—" I go," replied the king," from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can have place."-" You exchange," replied the bishop," a temporary for an eternal crown; a good exchange." Charles having taken off his cloak, delivered his George to the prelate, pronouncing the word, "Remember." Then he laid Lis neck on the block, and, stretching out his hands as a signal, one of the executioners severed his head from his body at a blow, while the other, holding it up, exclaimed, "This is the head of a traitor!" The spectators testified their horror of the sad spectacle in sighs, tears, and lamentations; the tide of their duty and affection began to return, and each blamed himself either with active disloyalty to his king, or a passive compliance with his destroyers.

Jan. 30,

Charles was executed in the forty-ninth year of 1649.- his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. He was of a middling stature, robust, and well proportioned. His

visage was pleasing, but melancholy; and it is probable that the continual troubles in which he was involved might have made that impression on his countenance. As for his character, the reader will deduce it with more precision and satisfaction to himself from the detail of his conduct, than from any summary given of it by the historian.

A. D. CROMWELL, who had secretly solicited and con

trived the king's death, now began to feel wishes to which he had been hitherto a stranger. His prospects widening as he rose, his first principles of liberty were all lost in the unbounded stretch of power that lay before him.

Having been appointed to command the army in Ireland, he prosecuted the war in that kingdom with his usual success. He had to combat against the royalists, commanded by the duke of Ormond, and the native Irish, led on by O'Neal. But such ill-connected and barbarous troops could give very little opposition to Cromwell's more numerous forces, conducted by such a general, and emboldened by long success. He soon overran the whole country; and, after some time, all the towns revolted in his favour, and opened their gates at his

approach. But in these conquests, as in all the rest of his actions, there appeared a brutal ferocity, that would tarnish the most heroic valour. In order to intimidate the natives from defending their towns, he, with a barbarous policy, put every garrison that made any resistance to the sword.

After his return to England, upon taking his seat, he received the thanks of the house, by the mouth of the speaker, for the services he had done the commonwealth in Ireland. They then proceeded to deliberate upon choosing a general for conducting the war in Scotland, where they had espoused the royal cause, and placed young Charles, the son of their late monarch, on the throne. Fairfax refusing this command upon principle, as he had all along declined opposing the presbyterians, the command necessarily devolved upon Cromwell, who boldly set forward for Scotland, at the head of an army of sixteen thousand men.

A. D. 1650.

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The Scots, in the mean time, who had invited over their wretched king to be a prisoner, not a ruler among them, prepared to meet the invasion. A battle ensued, in which they, though double the number of the English, were soon put to flight, and pursued with great slaughter; while Cromwell did not lose above forty men in all.

In this terrible exigence, young Charles embraced a resolution worthy a prince, who was willing to hazard all for empire. Observing that the way was open to England, he resolved immediately to march into that country, where he expected to be reinforced by all the royalists in that part of the kingdom.

But he soon found himself disappointed in the expectation of increasing his army. The Scots, terrified at the prospect of so hazardous an enterprize, fell from him in great numbers. The English, affrighted at the name of his opponent, dreaded to join him but his mortifications were still more increased as he arrived at Worcester, when informed that Cromwell was marching with hasty strides from Scotland, with an army increased to forty thousand men. The news scarce arrived when that active general himself appeared, and falling upon the town on all sides, broke in upon the disordered royalists. The streets were strewed with slaughter; the whole Scots army was either killed or taken prisoners; and the king himself, having given many proofs of personal valour, was obliged to fly.

Imagination can scarce conceive adventures more romantic, or distresses more severe, than those which attended the young king's escape from the scene of slaughter. After various scapes, and one-and-forty days concealment, he landed safely

at Feschamp, in Normandy; no less than forty men and women having, at different times, been privy to his escape.

In the mean time, Cromwell, crowned with success, returned in triumph to London, where he was met by the speaker of the house, accompanied by the mayor of London, and the magistrates, in all their formalities. His first care was to take advantage of his late success, by depressing the Scots, who had so lately withstood the work of the gospel, as he called it. An act was passed for abolishing royalty in Scotland, and annexing that kingdom, a as conquered province, to the English commonwealth. It was empowered, however, to send some members to the English parliament. Judges were appointed to distribute justice; and the people of that country, now freed from the tyranny of the ecclesiastics, were not much dissatisfied with their present government. The prudent conduct of Monk, who was left by Cromwell to complete their subjection, served much to reconcile the minds of the people, harassed with dissentions, of which they never well understood the cause.

With

In this manner, the English parliament, by the means of Cromwell, spread their uncontested authority over all the British dominions. Ireland was totally subdued by Ireton and Ludlow. All the settlements in America, that had declared for the royal cause, were obliged to submit; Jersey, Guernsey, Scilly, and the Isle of Man, were brought easily under subjection. Thus mankind saw, with astonishment, a parliament composed of sixty or seventy obscure and illiterate members, governing a great empire with unanimity and success. out any acknowledged subordination, except a council of state, consisting of thirty-eight, to whom all addresses were made, they levied armies, maintained fleets, and gave laws to the neighbouring powers of Europe. The finances were managed with œconomy and exactness. Few private persons became rich by the plunder of the public: the revenues of the crown, the lands of the bishops, and a tax of a hundred and twenty thousand pounds each month, supplied the wants of the government, and gave vigour to all their proceedings.

The parliament having thus reduced their native dominions to perfect obedience, next resolved to chastise the Dutch, who had given but very slight causes of complaint. It happened that one doctor Dorislaus, who was of the number of the late king's judges, being sent by the parliament as their envoy to Holland, was assassinated by one of the royal party, who had

taken refuge there. Some time after, also, Mr. St. John, appointed their ambassador to that court, was insulted by the friends of the prince of Orange. These were thought motives sufficient to induce the commonwealth of England to declare war against them. The parliament's chief dependence lay in the activity and courage of Blake, their admiral; who, though he had not embarked in naval command till late in life, yet surpassed all that went before him in courage and dexterity. On the other side, the Dutch opposed to him their famous admiral Van Tromp, to whom they never since produced an equal. Many were the engagements between these celebrated admirals, and various was their success. Sea-fights, in general, seldom prove decisive; and the vanquished are soon seen to make head against the victors. Several dreadful encounters, therefore, rather served to shew the excellence of the admirals, than to determine their superiority. The Dutch, however, who felt many great disadvantages by the loss of their trade, and by the total suspension of their fisheries, were willing to treat for a peace; but the parliament gave them a very unfavourable answer. It was the policy of that body to keep their navy on foot as long as they could; rightly judging, that, while the force of the nation was exerted by sea, it would diminish the power of general Cromwell by land, which was now become very formidable to them.

This great aspirer, however, quickly perceived their designs; and, from the first, saw that they dreaded his growing power, and wished its diminution. All his measures were conducted with a bold intrepidity that marked his character, and he now saw that it was not necessary to wear the mask of subordination any longer. Secure, therefore, in the attachment of the army, he resolved to make another daring effort; and persuaded the officers to present a petition for payment of arrears and redress of grievances, which he knew would be rejected by the commons with disdain. The petition was soon drawn up and presented, in which the officers, after demanding their arrears, desired the parliament to consider how many years they had sat; and what professions they had formerly made of their intentions to new model the house, and establish freedom on the broadest basis.

A. D. 1653.

The house was highly offended at the presumption of the army, although they had seen, but too lately, that their own power was wholly founded on that very presumption. They appointed a committee to prepare an act, ordaining, that all persons who presented such petitions, for the future, should be