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. Death of 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 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; 1 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. 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 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 Parliament 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. 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 mili tary 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. kept, of a yearly income of ten thousand pounds, Richard withdrew from the palace of Whitehall, to pass the rest of his many years as a private gentleman, His abdicaHe lived to be successively the subject of three tion. July. dynasties after his own. Aug. 20: Oct. 12. Oct. 13. The Parliament and the army were not long in getting up another quarrel. Lambert, who was the more feared for a victory which he had lately won over the Earl of Derby and other royalist insurgents, and Desborough, the late Protector's brother-in-law, with seven field-officers, were cashiered by a vote of Parliament, for signing what was accounted a seditious petition; and Fleetwood was degraded from the chief command to be one of seven commissioners invested with that trust. Parliament surrounded its place of meeting with a military guard. Lambert mustered a larger force, with which he turned the members back, as they were proceeding to their places. The sol diers of the contending parties fraternized; and, at a conference between the leaders, it was agreed that a council of officers should digest a new plan of government, to be submitted to the consideration of a new Parliament. Lambert believed the long dream of his ambition to be near its fulfilment. He was made MajorGeneral of the forces in Great Britain, though the titular dignity of Lieutenant-General was conferred on Fleetwood. A Committee of Safety, consisting of twenty-three persons, was provisionally invested with the civil authority. 1 "Honest George Monk," as he was fancifully called, now commanded seven or eight thousand troops in Scotland. In the beginning of the civil war he fought George for the King; but, being made prisoner by Fair- Monk. fax at Nantwich, as the royal prospects grew dark, he is dated October 25th of this year, twelve days after the expulsion of the Rump by Lambert. 1 Here comes to an end the Journal of the Council of State, which fills twenty-four volumes. The last entry |