nd the governors of the
land all busy shooting partridges and passing corn-laws the while! It
is a thing no man with a speaking tongue in his head is entitled to be
silent about.' The outcome of all his soul-burnings and cogitations was
_Past and Present_, which appeared at the beginning of April. The
reviewers set to work, 'wondering, admiring, blaming, chiefly the last.'

Carlyle then undertook several journeys, chiefly in order to visit
Cromwellian battlefields, the sight of which made the Oliver enterprise
no longer impossible. He found a renovated house on his return, and Mrs
Carlyle writing on November 28th, describes him as 'over head and ears
in Cromwell,' and 'lost to humanity for the time being.' Six months
later, he makes this admission in his journal--'My progress in
"Cromwell" is frightful. I am no day absolutely idle, but the confusions
that lie in my way require far more fire of energy than I can muster on
most days, and I sit not so much working as painfully looking on work.'
Four months later, when _Cromwell_ was progressing slowly, Carlyle
suffered a severe personal loss by the death of John Sterling.
'Sterling,' says Froude, 'had been his spiritual pupil, his first, and
also his noblest and best. Consumption had set its fatal mark upon him.'
Carlyle drowned his sorrow in hard work, and in July 1845 the end of
_Cromwell_ was coming definitely in sight. In his journal under date
August 26th, is to be found this entry: 'I have this moment _ended_
Oliver; hang it! He is ended, thrums and all. I have nothing more to
write on the subject, only mountains of wreck to burn. Not (any more) up
to the chin in paper clippings and chaotic litter, hatefuller to me than
most. I _am_ to have a swept floor now again.' And thus the herculean
labours of five years were ended. His desire was to be in Scotland, and
he made his way northwards by the usual sea route to Annan and
Scotsbrig. He did not remain long away, and upon his return _Cromwell_
was just issuing from the press. It was received with great favour, the
sale was rapid, and additional materials came from unexpected quarters.
In February 1846 a new edition was needed in order to insert fresh
letters of Oliver according to date; a process, Carlyle said 'requiring
one's most excellent talent, as of shoe-cobbling, really that kind of
talent carried to a high pitch.' When completed, Carlyle presented a
copy of it to the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, a step he nev