clear majority of
the property, intelligence and numbers of the people on its side. The
king, in breaking the fundamental laws of the kingdom, made war on the
community, and was to be resisted just as much as if he were king of
France or Spain, and had invaded the country. It is easy to trace the
progress of this resistance, until by the action of religious bigotry
and other inflaming passions, the powers of the opposition became
concentrated in the hands of a body of military fanatics, commanded by
an imperious soldier, and representing a small minority even of the
Puritans. The king, a weak and vacillating man, made an attempt at
arbitrary power, was resisted, and after years of civil war, ended his
days on the scaffold; Cromwell, without any of those palliations which
charity might urge in extenuation of the king, on the ground of the
prejudices of his station, took advantage of the weakness of the
country, after it had been torn by civil war, usurped supreme power,
and became the most arbitrary monarch England had seen since William
the Conqueror. No one doubts his genius, and it seems strange that any
one should doubt his despotic character.

The truth is that Cromwell's natural character, even on the hypothesis
of his sincerity, was arbitrary, and the very opposite of what we look
for in the character of a champion of freedom. It seems to us
supremely ridiculous to talk of such a man as being capable of having
his conduct determined by a parliament or a council. He pretended to
look to God, not to human laws or fallible men, for the direction of
his actions. In the name of the Deity he charged at the head of his
Ironsides. In the name of the Deity he massacred the Irish garrisons.
In the name of the Deity he sent dragoons to overturn parliaments. He
believed neither in the sovereignty of the people, nor the sovereignty
of the laws, and it made little difference whether his opponent was
Charles I. or Sir Harry Vane, provided he were an opponent. In regard
to the inmost essence of tyranny, that of exalting the individual will
over every thing else, and of meeting opposition and obstacles by pure
force, Charles I. was a weakling in comparison with Cromwell. Now if,
in respect to human governments, democracy and republicanism consist
in allowing any great and strong man to assume the supreme power, on
his simple assertion that he has a commission from Heaven so to do; if
constitutional liberty is a government of will