STATESMEN

OF THE

COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND;

WITH

A TREATISE ON THE POPULAR PROGRESS

IN

ENGLISH HISTORY.

BY JOHN FORSTER,

OF THE INNER TEMPLE.

EDITED BY J. O. CHOULES,

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,

No. 82 CLIFF-STREET.

1846.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1815, by

HARPER & BROTHEES,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern Dist.c o Now. Yo.k

то

THOMAS COLLEY GRATTAN,

HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL AT BOSTON,

THIS EDITION

OF THE LIVES OF

THE STATESMEN OF THE COMMONWEALTH

Is Dedicated,

WITH SENTIMENTS OF ATTACHMENT AND RESPECT, BY

THE EDITOR.

History triumpheth over Time, which, besides it, nothing but Eternity hath triumphed over; for it carrieth our knowledge over vast and devouring space for many thousands of years, and giveth to our mind such fair and piercing eyes, that we plainly behold living now, as if we had lived then, that great world, MAGNI DEI SAPIENS OPUS. . . . It is not the least debt which we owe

...

unto History, that it hath made us acquainted with our dead ancestors, and out of the depth and darkness of the earth delivered us their memory and fame. Out of History we may gather a policy no less wise than eternal, by the comparison and application of other men's forepast miseries with our own like errors and ill deservings.-WALTER Raleigh.

PREFACE

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

AMERICAN citizens can never be indifferent to the history of the struggles for freedom in the land of their fathers; and there is no more appropriate study for our youth than a careful examination of the men and measures of that period which constituted the transition state of England, from the oppressive reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts, to the Constitutional liberty which it afterward enjoyed. The close sympathy which was felt by our pilgrim ancestors with Eliot, Hampden, Milton, and Vane, gave an origin to our national existence, and planted the institutions of piety and learning on our shores. The Puritans were the conservators of civil and religious freedom, and to the days of the civil war we are indebted for the assertion of those political truths which we now cherish as our dearest inheritance. The glories of the English nation in the seventeenth century are our rightful patrimony, and New-Englanders, when they indulge a justifiable pride in the patriotism and statesmanship of Adams and Webster, may remember with exultation that they are the guardians of the same precious ark once watched over by Sidney, Russel, and their compeers.

The great merit of Mr. Forster's Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth is, that he has afforded a life-like sketch of characters that will continue to appear more extraordinary to those who, by the march of time, are removed farther from the era in which they appeared on the stage of action. I mistake if this volnme does not quicken much thought into activity, for it holds up to view the real life-the stirring, glowing, argumentative life of the days of the Protectorate. The thoughtful reader feels that he knows quite as much of the doings in St. Stephens at this period, as he does of the wrangling and personalities in the House of Representatives at Washington; and if it were possible for old Noll, or Eliot, or Pym to walk our globe again, he would not fail to recognise them. A perusal of this biography compels to the reflection, that faith in eternal verities is as important to nations as to individuals. The strong, earnest faith of England made her revolution at the death of Charles what it was, a blessing, then and forever, while the skepticism of France rendered the revolution at the death of Louis a living curse, a widespread damnation. The large sale of this work in America, not