at the same men who made the frame, should make it good unto
me. _I can say, in the presence of God, in comparison with whom
we are but like poor creeping ants upon the earth, I would have
been glad to have lived under any woodside, to have kept a
flock of sheep, rather then have undertaken such a government
as this._ But, undertaking it by the advice and petition of
you, I did look that you who had offered it unto me, should
make it good."

He concludes thus:--

"It hath been not only your endeavour to pervert the army while
you have been sitting, and to draw them to state the question
about a 'Commonwealth;' but some of you have been listing of
persons, by commission of Charles Stuart, to join with any
insurrection that may be made. And what is like to come upon
this, the enemy being ready to invade us, but even present
blood and confusion? And if this be so, I do assign it to this
cause--your not assenting to what you did invite me to by your
petition and advice, as that which might prove the settlement
of the nation. And if this be the end of your sitting, and this
be your carriage, I think it high time that an end be put to
your sitting. And I do dissolve this Parliament! And let God be
judge between you and me!"

It is at this latter period of his career that the character of
Cromwell, to our apprehension, stands out to greatest advantage, becomes
more grave, and solemn, and estimable. Other dictators, other men of
ambitious aims and fortunes, show themselves, for the most part, less
amiable, more tyrannous than ever, more violent and selfish, when they
have obtained the last reward of all their striving, and possessed
themselves of the seat of power. It was otherwise with Cromwell. He
became more moderate, his views more expanded, his temper milder and
more pensive. The stormy passions of the civil war were overblown, the
intricate and ambiguous passages of his political course had been left
behind; and _now_, whatever may have been the errors of the past, and
however his own ambition or rashness may have led him to it, he occupied
a position which he might say with truth he held for his country's good.
Forsake it he could not. Repose in it he could not. A man of religious
breeding, of strong conscientiousness, though tainted with superstition,
he could not but feel the great responsibility of that position. A