Mr. Gardiner answers the
question: "He stands forth as the typical Englishman of the modern
world.... It is in England that his fame has grown up since the
publication of Carlyle's monumental work, and it is as an Englishman
that he must be judged.... With Cromwell's memory it has fared as with
ourselves. Royalists painted him as a devil. Carlyle painted him as the
masterful saint who suited his peculiar Valhalla. It is time for us to
regard him as he really was, with all his physical and moral audacity,
with all his tenderness and spiritual yearnings, in the world of action
what Shakespeare was in the world of thought, the greatest because the
most typical Englishman of all time. This, in the most enduring sense,
is Cromwell's place in history."

The idea most difficult for me to relinquish is that of Cromwell as a
link in that historic chain which led to the Revolution of 1688, with
its blessed combination of liberty and order. I have loved to think, as
Carlyle expressed it: "'Their works follow them,' as I think this Oliver
Cromwell's works have done and are still doing! We have had our
'Revolution of '88' officially called 'glorious,' and other Revolutions
not yet called glorious; and somewhat has been gained for poor mankind.
Men's ears are not now slit off by rash Officiality. Officiality will
for long henceforth be more cautious about men's ears. The tyrannous
star chambers, branding irons, chimerical kings and surplices at
Allhallowtide, they are gone or with immense velocity going. Oliver's
works do follow him!"

In these two volumes of Gardiner it is not from what is said, but from
what is omitted, that one may deduce the author's opinion that
Cromwell's career as Protector contributed in no wise to the Revolution
of 1688. But touching this matter he has thus written to me: "I am
inclined to question your view that Cromwell paved the way for the
Revolution of 1688, except so far as his victories and the King's
execution frightened off James II. Pym and Hampden did pave the way,
but Cromwell's work took other lines. The Instrument of Government was
framed on quite different principles, and the extension of the suffrage
and reformed franchise found no place in England until 1832. It was not
Cromwell's fault that it was so."

If I relinquish this one of my old historic notions, I feel that I must
do it for the reason that Lord Auckland agreed with Macaulay after
reading the first volume of his history. "I had