if he distinguished
himself by intelligence and courage, he might hope to attain high
commands. The ranks were accordingly composed of persons superior in
station and education to the multitude. These persons, sober, moral,
diligent, and accustomed to reflect, had been induced 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
free-born 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 demagogs 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