during the thirteen years which followed, gone through a political
education of no common kind. He had been a chief actor in a succession
of revolutions. He had been long the soul, and at last the head, of a
party. He had commanded armies, won battles, negotiated treaties,
subdued, pacified, and regulated kingdoms. It would have been strange
indeed if his notions had been still the same as in the days when his
mind was principally occupied by his fields and his religion, and when
the greatest events which diversified the course of his life were a
cattle-fair, or a prayer-meeting at Huntingdon. He saw that some schemes
of innovation for which he had once been zealous, whether good or bad in
themselves, were opposed to the general feeling of the country, and
that, if he persevered in those schemes, he had nothing before him but
constant troubles, which must be suppressed by the constant use of the
sword. He therefore wished to restore, in all essentials, that ancient
constitution which the majority of the people had always loved, and for
which they now pined. The course afterward taken by Monk was not taken
by Cromwell. The memory of one terrible day separated the great regicide
forever from the house of Stuart. What remained was that he should mount
the ancient English throne, and reign according to the ancient English
polity. If he could effect this, he might hope that the wounds of the
lacerated state would heal fast. Great numbers of honest and quiet men
would speedily rally round him. Those Royalists, whose attachment was
rather to institutions than to persons, to the kingly office than to
King Charles I. or King Charles II., would soon kiss the hand of King
Oliver. The peers, who now remained sullenly at their country houses,
and refused to take any part in public affairs, would, when summoned to
their House by the writ of a king in possession, gladly resume their
ancient functions. Northumberland and Bedford, Manchester and Pembroke,
would be proud to bear the crown and the spurs, the sceptre and the
globe, before the restorer of aristocracy. A sentiment of loyalty would
gradually bind the people to the new dynasty, the royal dignity might
descend with general acquiescence to his posterity.

The ablest Royalists were of opinion that these views were correct, and
that, if Cromwell had been permitted to follow his own judgment, the
exiled line would never have been restored. But his plan was directly
opposed to the fe