Historical and Political Notes on the Life of Oliver Cromwell

And he is not unjustly to be compared to Julius Caesar in the glory of war, the invasion of the kingdom, and the agility of his genius, just as he is to the others in simulation, dissimulation, and cruel preservation.

Regarding §. XII.

It must be counted among the rarest happiness that, amidst so many hatreds, envies, jealousies, and rancors of nations, and so many most subtle as well as atrocious conspiracies, envied by all the Magnates of the world (although they pretended otherwise), he ascended to a late old age unscathed. Since a thousand examples of kings, even those unconquered in war and fortitude, who finally succumbed to a mind stirred by anger and maddened by extreme desperation, are still before the eyes: And

Few kings descend to the grave without slaughter and blood,
And tyrants [die] a dry death.

But my Author, I ask, what do those royal insignia—the sword, the crown, the scepter, the royal bed—which he displayed more than royally after his life had ended, indicate? Did he not lead the liberty of Britain to its triumph with these very things? Did you not see your Parliament—alas, once a shadow of license—which he convened, scolded, dissolved, and rendered decrees and consultations void as often as it pleased him, falling to its knees? Did you not see your liberty, miserably groaning under the weight of the sword, crown, and scepter, and anxiously attempting to withdraw itself but in vain, subject to the soles of your Protector's feet? Did you not see that miserable [liberty] with a mournful wail, by which even the undertakers original: "sandapilarii" (the English army) themselves were almost moved, together with their Guardian, by whom it was trampled underfoot with impunity throughout his whole life, now buried in death, as it were, as a most splendid trophy, and placed in the same urn?

I truly pity you if, beguiled by the sweet name of Protector, you believed that you were serving liberty and an Aristocratic state, when it was the most absolute servitude through serving, and you labored so strenuously to persuade others so audaciously. But if perhaps, as I conjecture, being lifted from a humble situation by the favorable breeze of Cromwell, you had no other return gift and token of a grateful mind than foul flattery; or you praised him because he bestowed favor upon you, and you capture praise from there—since such a demi-god seems to have judged that only those who transcend the common lot of men were worthy of his love—I forgive you; or because of the multitude of those sinning in this kind, I need not be angry with everyone.