projected so dangerous a design against his new Utopia,* as giving the opening and shutting of it to any one prince. I am not ignorant, that this error is excused, by pretending that we were to have had Elsinore and Cronenburg Castle (the first, the town, upon the narrow entrance of the Baltick, called the Sound, where all ships ride, and pay toll to the king of Denmark; and the latter, the fortress, that defends both town and ships) by which we should have been masters of the Sound, and consequently of the Baltick; but they that know those countries, and how great a prince the Swede would have been, had he obtained all the rest; besides, these two bawbles must confess, we should have been at his devotion, in our holding of any thing in his countries: And further, if the dangerous consequence of setting up so great a prince had not been in the case, it had been against the interest of England, to have had an obligation upon us, to maintain places so remote, against the enmity of many states and princes; and that for these

reasons:

First, because the ordinary tolls of the Sound would not have defrayed half the charge, and, to have taken more than the ordinary tolls, we could not have done, without drawing a general quarrel upon us, from most of the princes and states of the northern parts of Europe.

Secondly, because the experience of all former times sheweth us, that foreign acquisitions have ever been chargeable and prejudicial to the people of England, as Sir Robert Cotton makes it clearly appear, That not only all those pieces of France, which belonged to us by rightful succession, but also those we held by conquest, were always great burthens to our nation, and cause of much poverty and misery to the people. And it is not our case alone, to be the worse for conquests (though more ours, than other countries, because of the charge and uncertainty of the winds and weather, in the transportation of succours and relief by sea; which contiguous territories, which are upon the Main, are not subject to) but the case also of (I think I may say) all other kingdoms. In France their burthens and oppressions have grown in all ages, with the greatness of their kings: Nay, even after their last peace with Spain, by which they had given them peace with all the world, besides many places in the Spanish Netherlands, and Catalonia, to boot: Upon which the poor people promised themselves, though vainly, an unquestionable abatement of taxes; instead of that, they found their pressures increased daily, and their king, though overgrownly great and rich, himself, yet the people so poor, that thousands are said to die in a plentiful year, for want of bread to their water, nothing being free there, but fresh water and air: For, except in some few privileged places, wherever they have the conveniency by their situation of sea-water (lest they should make use of the benefit of that, which God and nature hath given them, for saving the charge of salt) every family is forced to take so much salt of the king, at his own rate (which is above ten Meaning his own new sort of government,

times the price it is sold for to strangers, for transportation) as is judged they may spend in a year; the Lord deliver all other countries from their example. In Sweden, that king, court, and their military officers are the better for their conquests in Germany, Denmark, Russia, and some places anciently belonging to Poland; but the commons the worse: Spain is undone, by the great number of people sent thence to the West-Indies, which hath depopulated the country, France reaping more benefit by keeping their people at home to manufactures, than Spain doth by sending theirs abroad for silver and gold; and now, though by these instances it may appear to be the interest of the people of other nations, as well as ours, to live in peace, without coveting additions; yet it is more our true interest, because, by reason of our situation, we have no need of foreign frontier towns, our ships, well ordered, being better than other princes bordering garisons, than any other kingdoms, to neglect especially European acquisitions, and colonies, and apply ourselves,

First, to the improving of our own land, of which we have more than we have people to manage.

Secondly, to the increasing our home and foreign trades, for which we have natural advantages above any other nation.

Thirdly and Lastly, by our strength, which trade will increase. To make use of it, together with the helps that God and nature hath given us in our situation, and otherwise, in keeping the balance amongst our neighbours. For, if the province of Holland, which is but four-hundred-thousand acres of profitable ground, is, by the benefit of trade, able to do so much as we experienced the last war, what might we do, if trade were improved, who have much more advantages for it, than they have. I ascribe what was done by the Netherlands, in the late war, to the province of Holland; because that, though the provinces are seven in number, Holland's due proportion of all charges is 58, in a hundred, to all the others 413, of which 413, Holland gets little more than 20 honestly paid them, insomuch that it alone may be reckoned to bear four fifths in a hundred, to one fifth that all the other six bear; and how prodigious a thing is it, that Holland, no bigger than as before-mentioned, should be able to coap with England, Scotland, and Ireland; and, that, though their charges in the late war was abundantly greater than ours, yet, by their good management, to be so little the worse for it, as, at the conclusion of the war, to have their credit so high, that they could have commanded what money they had pleased at three in the hundred, and all this by the meer additional benefit of trade and good order; and how by Cromwell's indiscreet neglecting of trade, and choosing war, when he was in peace, did he miss the true interest of England, as, by his ill-founded designs, he did the interest of the reformed religion. For, if he had succeeded in his unjust invasion of the Spanish territories in the West-Indies (as God seldom prospereth dishonest undertakings) it being intended for a state acquisition, the benefit would not have been diffusive, but chiefly to himself and

favourites, and prejudicial to the people in general, though, at the expence of their substance, the acquests would have been made. For, had he met with so much success in the gaining those countries, and in them, that plenty of gold and silver as he vainly hoped for, we should have been as unhappy in them (in the depopulating of our countries, by the loss of the multitude of people that must have been sent thither, and in impoverishing our nations by the vast charges of a continual war) as Spain is, and to no other end, than the making of him only rich, able to inslave the remaining people, and to make himself absolute over them; for the preventing of which, in such tyrants as Cromwell, surely Moses had an eye, when he said that they should not greatly multiply silver and gold. And thus, as Cromwell's designs must, to an impartial judgment, appear to have been laid, some dishonestly, others impolitickly, and all contrary to the interest of the kingdom, so the issue of them was damageable to the people of England: As,

First, in his sudden making a peace with Holland, so soon as he got the government, without those advantages for trade, as they who beat them did intend to have had, as their due, and just satisfaction for their charges in the war.

Secondly, in his war with Spain; by the loss of that beneficial trade to our nation, and giving it to the Hollanders, by whose hands we drove, during the war, the greatest part of that trade, which we had of it, with twenty-five in the hundred profit to them, and as much loss to us.

Thirdly, by our loss, in that war with Spain, of 1500 English ships, according as was reported to that assembly, called Richard's parliament.

Fourthly, in the disgracefullest defeat at Hispaniola, that ever this kingdom suffered in any age or time.

Fifthly and Lastly, in spending the great publick stock he found, and yet leaving a vast debt upon the kingdom, as appeared by the accounts brought into Richard's assembly; which had, I believe, been yet much higher, but that they, who under him managed the affairs, were a sort of people, who had been long disciplined, before his time, to a principle of frugality, and against cheating; though at cousening the poorer people, for their masters benefit, some of them were grown as dexterous, as if they had been bred in the court of Spain. For, besides imposing Richard upon the people, after his father's death, by a forged title, according to the very law they took to be in being, when, by his assembly, they were ordered to bring in an account of the receipts, and payments of the kingdom; they made above sixty-thousand pounds spent in intelligence, whereas it cost not above three or four-thousand at most; and, calculating the rest by these, it may well be concluded, that they were expert in their trades.

It is confessed, that Oliver's peace and league with France was upon honourable articles; but, as the tottering affairs of France then stood, much more could not have been sooner asked, than had. For Mazarin, being a man of a large and subtle wit, appre

hending the greatness of England at that time, which was then dreadful to the world, and the vast advantages France would have in pulling down, by their help, of Spain, granted him, not only any thing for the present that he demanded, but disregarded also even his party's making their boasts of the awe he had him under: considering, that when Cromwell had helped him to do his work, in bringing under the house of Austria, and therein casting the balance of Christendom on his side, he should afterwards have leisure to recover what then he seemed to part with. And though nothing is more ordinary, than to hear men brag, how Oliver vapoured over France, I do esteem Mazarin's complying with him, for his own ends, to be the chief piece of all his ministry; for, by that means only, and no other, is his master become so great at this day, that no factions at home can disturb his peace, nor powers abroad frighten him. Which is more than any king of France, since Charles the Great, could say: And, when his neighbour nations have, too late I fear, experienced his greatness, they will find cause to curse the ignorance of Oliver's politicks; and therefore, when a true measure is taken of Cromwell, the approbation, that he hath in the world, will not be found to have its foundation in sense, or reason, but proceeding from ignorance and atheism : From ignorance, in those that take all that was done by him, as a servant, and whilst under the direction of better heads than his own, to be done by him alone; and from atheism, in those that think every thing lawful that a man doth, if it succeed to his advancement. But they that shall take an impartial view of his actions, whilst he was a single person*, and at liberty to make use of his own parts without controul, will find nothing worthy commendations, but cause enough from thence to observe, that the wisdom of his masters, and not his own, must have been that by which he first moved; and to attribute his former performances, whilst a servant, as is truly due, to the judgment and subtlety of the long-parliament, under whose conduct and command he was. And now, from Cromwell's neglecting to live in peace, as, if he had pleased, he might have done with all the world, to the great inriching of this nation: The improvement of our victory over Holland in his peace with them; his being the cause of the loss of our Spanish trade, during all his time; of the loss of 1500 English ships in that war; besides, by it breaking the balance of Europe; of the expence of the publick stock and stores he found, with the contracting a debt of nineteen-hundred-thousand pounds, according to his own account (which, for aught I know, he left behind him, but am apt to think the debt was not altogether so great, though made so to his son Richard's assembly, as a means to get the more money from the poorer people:) And lastly, of the dishonourable overthrow we met with at Hispaniola. It may be well concluded, that he laid the foundation of our present want of trade, to what we formerly enjoyed; and that the reason, why

Protector.

his miscarriages were not sooner under observation, is, because our stock of wealth and honour, at his coming to the government, being then unspeakably great, stifled their appearance, until, having since had some unhappy additional losses, they are now become discernible as first losses, to a merchant, who concealedly bears up under them, are afterwards discovered by the addition of second losses, that sink him. When I contemplate these great failings, I cannot but apprehend the sad condition any people are in, whose governor drives on a distinct contrary interest to theirs ; for, doubtless, Cromwell's over-weening care to secure his parti cular interest, against his majesty, then abroad, and the long-par liament, whom he had turned out, with a prodigious ambition of acquiring a glorious name in the world, carried him on to all his mistakes and absurdities, to the irreparable loss and damage of this famous kingdom.

To prove the second assertion, that Oliver's time was full of op pression and injustice, I shall but instance in a few of many particulars, and begin with John Lilburne; not that I think him, in any kind, one that deserved favour or respect, but that equal justice is due to the worst as well as best men, and that he comes first in order of time.

1. John, in 1646, was, by order of the then Parliament, tried for his life, with an intent, I believe, of taking him away; but, the jury not finding him guilty, he was immediately, according to law, generously set at liberty by those, that had quarrel enough against him. This example in the parliament of keeping to the laws in the case of one, who was a professed implacable enemy to them, ought to have been copied by Cromwell; but, on the contrary, to shew that there was a difference betwixt him and his predecessors (the long-parliament's) principles, when the law had again, upon a second tryal, occasioned by Oliver, cleared Lilburne, the parliament's submitting to the law was no example to him: For, contrary to law, he kept him in prison, until he was so far spent in a consumption, that he only turned him out to die.

2dly, Mr. Coney's case is so notorious, that it needs little more than naming. He was a prisoner at Cromwell's suit, and being brought to the King's Bench bar, by a Habeas Corpus, had his council taken from the bar, and sent to the Tower, for no other reason, than the pleading of their client's cause; an act of violence, that, I believe, the whole story of England doth not parallel.

3dly, Sir Henry Vane, above any one person, was the author of Oliver's advancement, and did so long and cordially espouse his interest, that he prejudiced himself, in the opinion of some, by it; yet so ungrateful was this monster of ingratitude, that he studied to destroy him, both in life and estate; because he could not adhere to him in his perjury and falseness. The occasion he took was this; He, appointing a publick day of humiliation, and seeking of God for him, invited all God's people in his declaration, to offer him their advice in the weighty affairs then upon his shoul