G. (_Page 130._) ON THE CHARACTER OF CROMWELL.
It is a curious fact, that two of our great poets, writing in prose, have exerted their genius to paint, the one the character of Cromwell, the other the character of Charles I, in the darkest possible colours. Cowley, in his “Vision,” has heaped on the Protector as many reproachful epithets, and as stern expressions of reprobation, as the most unrelenting royalist could desire; but the bolder wing of the Author of “Paradise Lost,” has soared far above him in the region of invective. In his famous answer to the Icon Basilica, Milton has put together for the purpose of defaming the memory of his Sovereign, a piece of writing perhaps as vituperative and scornful as is to be found in the English language. But it is not in brochures, such as these, that we are to look for just delineations of character; and as I should consider it very unwarrantable to bring an accusation against King Charles on the authority of Milton, I should feel it to be equally so to found a charge of hypocrisy against Cromwell, on statements made in “The Vision” of Cowley, or in any writing of the kind. Unhappily the charge of hypocrisy against Cromwell rests on less questionable evidence. The following letter, written by him to Robert Hammond, Governor of the Isle of Wight, plainly convicts him of it; and affords melancholy proof of how unscrupulously he could adopt the most sacred phraseology when he had a point to gain, and enter on the discussion of the most deeply spiritual subjects, when his real purpose all the while was to win over his correspondent to his party, and to secure his co-operation in furthering his own schemes. The letter to Hammond is so curious an illustration of this, that I think it right to lay the whole of it before the reader. The occasion of his writing it was this:—King Charles had been induced by Cromwell’s machinations to make his escape from Hampton Court, and to fly to the Isle of Wight, and there to entrust himself to Hammond, the Governor. This man, when he was required by the Army to surrender the person of the King to them, felt strong scruples of conscience against doing so, and for a while refused. In order to remove his scruples, both Ireton and Cromwell wrote to him. Cromwell’s letter[80] is written with consummate skill, but no one surely can avoid seeing how deeply it is tainted with the odious sin of hypocrisy—all the more odious for venturing so far on holy ground, and soiling with its touch things so precious as the things of the Spirit of God.