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chief rulers of Connecticut, through nearly a score of its earliest years, had never lost for an hour that public confidence which was won by their sterling worth and wisdom, their generous, active public spirit, and their eminence in all Christian graces. Haynes was a man of family as well as of fortune; and the dignified and courteous manners, which testified to the care bestowed on his early nurture, won popularity by their graciousness, at the same time that they diffused a refining influence by their example. Deliberate, unimpassioned, firm, secured against solicitude and fear by the consciousness of a mind competent in its resources and consecrated to the pursuit of worthy ends, he acquitted himself of his great task with uniform manliness, discretion, and serenity. His colleague, resembling him in substantial merits, appears to have been a person, if not more impetuous, more fond of action. Hopkins, rather than Haynes, was prominent in the combinations and disputes among the sister Colonies. His previous occupation, that of a merchant in London, while it accumulated for him a fortune which he bountifully dispensed in public uses, had exercised and ripened that practical talent for which, in the trio of the great early names of Connecticut, he was conspicuous. Engagements occasioned by Hopkins. the death of a brother caused him to make what 1653. he intended for a short visit to England. But he did not return. Cromwell bespoke his services. He was made a Warden of the Fleet and Commissioner of the Admiralty, and was a member of the Protector's last

Departure of

His death. 1657. March.

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Parliament when he died, four years after recrossing the water. By his will he dedicated nearly the whole of his property in New England, besides five hundred pounds from his estate elsewhere, to "the breeding up of hopeful youths in a way of learn

Nameaug in the Pequot country; but been considered as within the limits of his settlement had only very recently Connecticut. See above, p. 379, note.

ing, both at the grammar school and College, for the public service of the country, in future times;" and the public grammar schools of New Haven, Hartford, Hadley, and Cambridge do their part in keeping alive his memory at this day. The residue of his property in America he bequeathed to other charitable uses.

1658.

Jan. 7.

The distinguished career of Hopkins's friend and relative,1 Governor Eaton of New Haven, came to its close in the following winter. Through the nineteen Death of years since the foundation of that settlement, he Eaton. had always been at the head of its government. The abilities which in England had raised him to fortune and to diplomatic station, in America found exercise, sufficient to content him, in building up what he hoped would be perpetuated as a pure community of Christians. Other good and able men shared in the labors which provided for New Haven its inheritance of honor and of prosperity; but no element of its honor and prosperity can be dissociated from the names of Eaton and Davenport. The accounts which have been transmitted to us of the Governor testify with one voice to the perfect confidence which was reposed in the uprightness and wisdom of his public administration, and to the admiration entertained for the virtues and accomplishments which were exhibited by him in all relations and offices of private life. The Colony voted to defray the charges of his burial; to relieve his estate from taxes for a year; and to commemorate his worth by the erection of a monument. "Eaton,”—such is part of the inscription upon it, more affectionate than tuneful,

"Eaton, so famed, so wise, so meek, so just,

The Phoenix of our world, here hides his dust;
This name forget New England never must."

'See Vol. I. 537, note 2.

CHAPTER XI.

THE autocracy called the English Commonwealth scarcely survived the great Protector. Whether he would have been able to maintain it much longer, may well be questioned. At all events, no arm less vigorous than his was equal to the task.

Accession of Richard Cromwell.

Yet this was not at once apparent. It was said that Cromwell, as he approached his end, named his oldest son as successor to his dignity. Richard was proclaimed accordingly, and assumed the government without opposition. In Ireland, his brother was Lord Lieutenant; and in Scotland General Monk, who commanded there, acknowledged his title. The fleet and the army were obsequious; addresses of congratulation flowed in from all quarters of the kingdom; and the ministers of foreign courts paid the compliments customary on the accession of a monarch.1

Unlike his younger brother Henry, who had distinguished himself in the field and in civil trusts, the new Protector, now thirty-two years old, was a man of moderate abilities and of a sluggish nature. Not deficient in

1

May 25th, 1657, the Protector Oliver gave leave to the Independent ministers to hold a national Council. The delegates to it, about two hundred in number, met at the Savoy, in the fourth week after his death, and were a fortnight in session. In a "Declaration " which was the fruit of their consultations, they avowed their "full assent" to the Confession of Faith of the Westminster Assembly "for the substance of it." An Appendix, treating" of the Institution of Churches, and the Order

appointed in them by Jesus Christ," contains an exposition and defence of the Independent plan. "We have endeavored to follow Scripture light," says the Declaration, "desirous of nearest uniformity with Reforming churches, as with our brethren in New England, so with others that differ from them and us." The spirit of this assembly was eminently tolerant. The "Declaration" is in Hanbury, "Historical Memorials," III. 315–549.

the qualities which procure respect and good-will in private life, he had done nothing to attract general favor to his name; and he had no hold on the affections of that army, which, ever since his childhood, had been the instrument for governing England. In short, his personal attributes and position were not such as to qualify him to control the boisterous element on which he was launched.

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It does not belong to the purposes of this work to describe in detail the steps which led to a new submission of the people of England to the baneful family of the Stuarts. The royalist churchmen-Romanists and Laudists had never ceased to be numerous. The State of Presbyterians, who began the civil war, had been parties. degraded and angered. Familists, Ranters, Fifth-Monarchy men, sectaries of many names,— divided as to the changes they respectively hankered after, were agreed in disaffection to the existing order of things. Republicans were dissatisfied that there should be any Protector; and fortunate soldiers thought, each for himself, that the inheritance of Cromwell's honors properly belonged to them. At all times there is a large portion of every community which cares for nothing so much as for present repose. The mass of the people of England were weary, to disgust, of uncertainty, of strife, of political novelties, and of heavy taxes. With bitter mortification many of the best men of England found themselves compelled to the conclusion, that the less evil of the hard alternative which existing circumstances presented was the re-establishment of the throne; many other men desired it merely that they might have quiet; and many, that they might have remuneration and revenge.

One of the first things brought to the knowledge of the new sovereign was that he needed money; and to obtain it he convoked a Parliament. The writs for elections to the House of Commons recognized the ancient constituencies of the realm; "the other House" was that which

Parliament of Richard.

1659.

Jan. 27.

had been constituted by the late Protector. The forces prepared for conflict were brought into each other's presence. The royalists could not as yet avow their objects, but might not the less effectively pursue them by interjecting embarrassments and fomenting jealousy. Besides them, three parties appeared. One consisted of the friends of the Protector. Another composed of the strict Republicans, and called the Wallingford-House party, from the place of its meeting - desired to establish a divided authority by restricting him to the civil administration, and placing his brother-in-law, General Fleetwood, at the head of the army. A third, which avowed no more definite object than that of maintaining "the good old cause" and the rights of the soldiery, was under the influence of General Lambert, who aspired to the supremacy which had lately belonged to his companion in arms.

April 22.

This party, having obtained the Protector's inconsiderate consent to establish a standing council of officers, had raised itself to a condition to dictate his course; and, under a threat from it of being deserted by the troops, he dissolved the Parliament, which had given it offence by demanding some engagements of allegiance.1 Such a confession of weakness discouraged his friends, and thenceforward he exercised no real authority. Fleetwood, whom he had made Lieutenant-General, also found it unavoidable to yield to the dictation of the military council. After unsatisfactory discussions as to what should next be done, the council concluded to reinstate the Long Parliament; and seventy members of May. that body were brought together. They assumed the supreme authority, and appointed a Committee of Safety and a Council of State. Agreeably to a respectful request of theirs,- softened by a promise, which was not

1 Burton, Parliamentary Diary, &c., IV. 472-483; Ludlow, Memoirs, &c., II. 641, 642.

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