to take up arms, not by the
pressure of want, not by the love of novelty and license, not by the
arts of recruiting-officers, but by religious and political zeal,
mingled with the desire of distinction and promotion. The boast of the
soldiers, as we find it recorded in their solemn resolutions, was that
they had not been forced into the service, nor had enlisted chiefly for
the sake of lucre, that they were no janizaries, but freeborn
Englishmen, who had, of their own accord, put their lives in jeopardy
for the liberties and religion of England, and whose right and duty it
was to watch over the welfare of the nation which they had saved.

A force thus composed might, without injury to its efficiency, be
indulged in some liberties which, if allowed to any other troops, would
have proved subversive of all discipline. In general, soldiers who
should form themselves into political clubs, elect delegates, and pass
resolutions on high questions of state, would soon break loose from all
control, would cease to form an army, and would become the worst and
most dangerous of mobs. Nor would it be safe in our time to tolerate in
any regiment religious meetings, at which a corporal versed in Scripture
should lead the devotions of his less gifted colonel, and admonish a
backsliding major. But such was the intelligence, the gravity, and the
self-command of the warriors whom Cromwell had trained that in their
camp a political organization and a religious organization could exist
without destroying military organization. The same men, who, off duty,
were noted as demagogues and field preachers were distinguished by
steadiness, by the spirit of order, and by prompt obedience on watch, on
drill, and on the field of battle.

In war this strange force was irresistible. The stubborn courage
characteristic of the English people was, by the system of Cromwell, at
once regulated and stimulated. Other leaders have maintained order as
strict. Other leaders have inspired their followers with zeal as ardent.
But in his camp alone the most rigid discipline was found in company
with the fiercest enthusiasm. His troops moved to victory with the
precision of machines, while burning with the wildest fanaticism of
crusaders. From the time when the army was remodelled to the time when
it was disbanded, it never found, either in the British Islands or on
the Continent, an enemy who could stand its onset. In England, Scotland,
Ireland, Flanders, the Puri