urs
suggested--the axe and the gallows displayed no terrors; and it was as
impossible to oblige as it was to intimidate them. They despised
temporal possessions, and braced their iron-nerves with misapplications
of the texts and examples of Scripture, believing that, in performing
the actions of banditti, they were proving themselves to be chosen
captains of the host of the Lord.

As the labours of the itinerant preachers already described had
converted thousands of the lower orders into ignorant and desperate,
and, it might be added, insane, enthusiasts, a mind less indefatigable
than Cromwell's would have been wholly engrossed in securing his person
and government from their violence and hostile machinations; but his
fear of his new enemies did not make him forget his hatred of his old
ones. The fanatical conspirators and insurgents being more inimical to
the general good sense of the nation, he often submitted them to the
ordinary courts of justice, contenting himself (as in the case of
Lilburn) with making acquittal issue in more rigorous imprisonment, when
a jury had the presumption to decide in favour of a prisoner whom the
Protector had resolved to punish. Desirous of conciliating the good
opinion of well-informed people, he preserved the fountain of justice
uncontaminated. The judges who presided in the several courts were in
general an honour to their country; and many of them (especially the
immortal Hale) accepted the office, in order to be better able to
restrain oppression, "knowing that in every form of government justice
must be administered between man and man, and offenders against the
universal laws of society punished." By such judges, a Gerrard, a Hewet,
a Hyde, and other illustrious Loyalists, would not have been condemned.
Against such persons, therefore, Cromwell was compelled to rearrange his
pantomimic High Court of Justice, that contemptible but bloody engine,
by which he had destroyed the King and the nobles, and to whose
authority, as anomalous to the constitution, his victims generally
refused to submit, and were thus condemned without any public
discussion.

Had Cromwell determined to try Dr. Beaumont for sending pecuniary
assistance to the King (an offence which he had the means of proving),
he would have immediately collected his creatures and erected one of
these executive courts; but if the suspicion of assassinating an
officer, who bore a parliamentary commission, could be supported