Europe was to behold a spectacle then without a parallel. One of the ablest, but most sanguinary pontiffs, had envied our queen Elizabeth the honor of decapitating a sovereign in the case of her unfortunate cousin but what would he have said to this dread triumph of popular power, which, after having dethroned the monarch of three realms, deliberately conducted him to an execution ominous both to crowns and tiaras! John Bradshaw, chief justice of Chester, presided in a scarlet robe, on a crimson velvet chair, and in a broad brimmed hat, over the tribunal in Westminster Hall. A desk and velvet cushion stood before him; Say and Lisle were on each side of him; and two clerks sat below at a table, covered with rich Turkey carpet, on which were laid the sword of state and a mace.

The rest of the court, with their hats on, and, according to Rushworth, in their best habits, took their seats on side benches, hung with scarlet. A numerous guard of gentlemen carrying partizans divided themselves on either hand. Such was the simple appearance of this memorable court. When its members had all taken their seats, the great gates of the hall were thrown open, and the vast area below was at once filled with crowds of the English people, eager to witness the astonishing spectacle of a monarch brought to account for crimes committed in the period of his delegated authority. This presence of the people was the grandest feature of the scene. Surrounding galleries were also filled with spectators. Charles entered and advanced up that side of the Hall next the Thames, from the house of Sir Robert Cotton. He was attended by Colonels Tomlinson and Hacker, by thirty-two officers holding partizans, and by his own servants. The serjeant-atarms with his mace received him and conducted him to the bar, where a crimson velvet chair was placed for him, facing the court. After a stern and stedfast gaze on the court, and on the people in the galleries on each side of him, Charles placed himself in the chair; and the moment after, as if recollecting something, rose up and turned about, looking down the vast hall, first on the guards which were ranged on its left or western side, and then on the eager waving multitude of the people, which filled the space on the right. No visible emotion escaped him; but as he turned again, his eye fell upon the escutcheon which bore the newly designed arms of the Commonwealth, on each side of which sat Oliver Cromwell and Henry Marten ;-and he sank into his seat !' -p. 306.

More than eight, and indeed nearly nine years, had now elapsed since the potentate and the patriot had encountered each other in Hyde Park, as before related. How were their relative circumstances changed in Westminster Hall! Whilst the indictment was being read, his majesty is said to have smiled at the terms applied to himself in the course of it, not feeling himself to have been either tyrant or traitor.' The lesson, pregnant with wisdom for kings, was then only in its rehearsal: the end had not yet come, nor could it be believed, even by that party most con

cerned in it. Yet two or three minutes afterwards, a trivial incident more forcibly impressed upon his mind the precipice on which he stood. In touching Coke gently on the shoulder with his cane, its golden head dropped off! None stooped to pick it up even for royalty; so metamorphosed had all minds become : yet the superstition of those who looked on awoke; nor did the soul of the Stuart himself fail, though perhaps for the first time, to tremble. On went the solemn trial, which Marten closely attended throughout the seven days, and which of course formed the most remarkable incident of his life. To him, with Scot, Ireton, Harrison, Say, Lisle, and Love, was entrusted the duty of preparing the draft of a final sentence, with a blank for the manner of death.' On the 26th of January, this was engrossed at a private meeting; and on the 27th of January the court sat for the last time.

6

On that memorable and most melancholy day, the king was brought for the last time to Westminster Hall. As he proceeded along the passages, some of the soldiers and rabble set up a cry of Justice,Justice, and Execution!' This, as Godwin justly remarks, exactly corresponds with the spirit of the mutiny which took place amongst the army in November, 1647. These men distrusted the good faith of their leaders; and seeing that six days had now passed without any conclusion, suspected as the manner of rude and ignorant men is, that there was some foul play and treachery. One of the soldiers upon guard said, 'God bless you, sir.' The king thanked him; but his officer struck him with his cane. The punishment,' said. Charles, 'methinks exceeds the offence.' The king, when he had retired, asked Herbert, who had attended him, whether he had heard the cry for justice; who answered, he did and wondered at it. So did not I,' said Charles: the cry was no doubt given them by their officers, for whom the soldiers would do the like, were there occasion.''

-p. 309.

The other and more brutal outrages, which have been copied into so many of our histories, are now known to have been gross fabrications. Charles, when placed for the last time at the bar, requested that before an ugly sentence' should be pronounced upon him, he might be heard before the two houses of parliament, since he had something to communicate, which nearly concerned the welfare of the kingdom. His petition, however, whatever this proposed communication might have related to, was ultimately rejected; and sentence was pronounced by Bradshaw, all the commissioners having stood up to declare their assent to the same. The famous warrant for his execution received the sign manual of fifty-nine memorable individuals. Henry Marten was watching every signature closely, when up came Oliver Cromwell, splashing the ink of his pen in Marten's

face, who at once returned the practical jest in good earnest. Hume quotes this anecdote, and we think justly, as an instance of indecent buffoonery: our biographer imagines that it was a mere desperate relief from temporary nervous excitement. The whole was a dark duty gone through by a mixed medley of men, some truly conscientious like Colonel Hutchinson,-others weak and insincere, like John Downes, who burst into tears on the occasion, and others worldiy ungodly persons, like the too humorous member for Berkshire. Then ensued the solemn scene on the awful 30th of January, 1649, in the open street fronting Whitehall. Through every part of it there appeared the most serene composure on the part of the royal sufferer:

He addressed the crowd from the scaffold, forgave all his enemies, protested that the war had not been begun by him, declared that the right of the people was only to have their lives and goods their own, a share in the government being nothing pertaining to them,-and concluded with words, which perhaps expressed a sincere delusion, that he died the martyr for his subjects. When his head fell, severed by the masked executioner at a single blow, one dismal, universal groan issued from the crowd;

He nothing common did, nor mean,
Upon that memorable scene;
But with his keener eye

The axe's edge did try:

Nor called on God with vulgar spite
To vindicate his helpless right;
But bowed his comely head
Down as upon a bed!'

So in a few years after wrote a most generous adversary, whose name is dear to every lover of literature or of liberty, Andrew Marvel, and in an ode too to Oliver Cromwell himself! The lapse of two centuries has confirmed the poet's praise.'-p. 315.

On the 6th of the ensuing February it was moved in the House of Commons, that the House of Peers in parliament was ' useless, dangerous, and ought to be abolished, and that an act should be brought in for that purpose.' Henry Marten, never having loved the lords, yet now proposed, as an amendment, that they were useless but not dangerous. It was indeed an exquisite sarcasm. Only the day before, their lordships having desired a conference, sent their messengers to the Commons requesting one; but the latter allowed them to wait at the door, until fatigue or tedium overcame them, without deigning to take the slightest notice. The upper chamber soon had information that a vote of forty-four against twenty-nine set aside its constitutional existence.

Prayers were then read; a vacant rectory was disposed of; earls and barons adjourned to the next morning, as though nothing had happened; and that adjournment lasted until the Restoration.

Monarchy was now formally abolished. Marten even proposed that the royal statues should be taken down; and the following inscription be placed upon their several sites; Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus, Anno libertatis Angliæ restitutæ primo, Anno domini 1649. This was done accordingly; after which, he introduced a bill for selling all crown property, as well the palaces, lands, and forests, as the regalia, costly furniture, and works of art. The courts of Spain, France, the Spanish Netherlands, and Sweden, were the principal purchasers. On the first day of term he also brought forward an act for maintaining the fundamental laws of England, whilst the oaths were repealed of allegiance and supremacy. Arrangements had been made with the learned sages of the Bench. Six consented to serve; but six resigned. The great seal was broken in pieces, and a new one made. The Council of State comprised all the leading republicans, and of course Henry Marten amongst them. He there signalized himself as being the first to propose a repeal of the statute of banishment against the Jews. That he proved unsuccessful was no fault of his and much good ensued even from his noble attempt; since it opened the way for the Protector to achieve the point, although by a subsequent exertion of arbitrary power. It was now urged by many patriots that the executive should dissolve parliament; but Marten spoke decidedly for avoiding an appeal to the nation, under its present excited circumstances. He told the House of Commons that they might find the best advice from scripture, as to what ought to be done; for when the infant Moses was discovered on the banks of the river, the charge of nursing him fell to none other than his own mother. He observed that their commonwealth was as yet of very weak growth, 'with a very tender constitution: therefore his opinion was that 'nobody could be so fit to look after it as the parent, who brought 'it forth; nor should they think of putting it under fresh hands 6 until it had obtained more years and vigor.' He further glanced at the war with Holland as another reason against running risks, since the royalists would be sure to seize upon every possible advantage. He once again befriended and assisted John Lilburne about the same time; both his power and purse being always open to such calls, come from whatever quarter they might. Yet we regret having to add, that lands were granted to himself and his heirs, to the amount of one thousand pounds per annum, out of the public property. His regiment of horse, too, became part of the standing army: so that of the glory of having served his country for nought his memory stands inevitably deprived.

His good sense appears to have worn better than his professed disinterestedness; since he resisted almost single-handed allowing fornicators, adulterers, or incestuous persons to becapitally punished for their crimes: nor even with regard to his apparent selfishness may we forget, that he claimed the national bounty for arrears due to him as a military officer, as well as for the pecuniary losses sustained by him during the civil wars. Meanwhile Ireland and Scotland had now bowed before the sanguinary and irresistible prowess of Oliver Cromwell. Henry Marten began to perceive that the egg of ambition was already laid in the bosom of the conqueror, waiting for the warmth of popular prosperity to hatch it into an eagle or a cockatrice! The world had not then seen a Washington; nor could there fail to be ten thousand curious eyes upon the hero of Preston and Dunbar. Our undaunted member for Berkshire said openly in the house, that if government were to be invested in any single person, the last king would have been as proper a gentleman for it as could be ' had in England, for his faults lay not in his person, but in his office' an instance of inaccuracy, into which we surmise he would not have fallen before the act for settling his parliamentary estates had been obtained. Divisions nevertheless between the leaders waxed more and more frequent. The public newspapers even noticed them: and on one occasion, Cromwell, having addressed Marten in the heat of a debate, as Sir Harry, the wit rose and bowed, adding 'I thank your majesty; I always thought that when you should become king, I should be knighted Oliver quickly contrived to elbow so formidable an antagonist to his schemes out of the Council of State. In February 1650, he with two others were rejected in the annual re-election. Persecution always sharpens humor, unless it altogether extinguishes it. Marten could not be excluded again from the House of Commons: and accordingly there he labored with all his eloquence, his sarcasms, and his humanity, to save the freedom of his country. He fought manfully under the banners of Vane to procure a reform in the representation. Some of the Puritans, with more piety than penetration, had been excited by the future Protector against the profligate colonel; and an occasion happened, when one of them proved weak enough to move that all profane and unsanctified persons' should be expelled from their seats. The real object of this motion rose in a moment, to propose as an addition, that all fools might be put ' out likewise;' in which case, he could not help remarking, that 'the House would probably be thin enough!' His repartees at this period seem to have possessed all the influence ascribed to such trifles under the regime of Louis the Fourteenth amongst our volatile French neighbours. They defied, and to a certain extent overcame, for a season, the force of the sword itself.

In