BOOKS.
GENERAL MONK.*
GENERAL MONK has probably obtained as much fame as he deserves when he figures in the popular mind all over the world as the Restorer of the Stuarts. He lives in history in that niche. He is the tough soldier who struck clear through the chaos of parties and brought back King, Lords, and Commons ; who won renown as General Monk and sank into obscurity as the Duke of Albemarle. Such is the popular conception of one of the most singular characters to be found in English annals, the notion of Monk which lives in European memory. All the rest of his career is clean for- gotten, and that one great stroke alone remembered. He seems to rise suddenly in Scotland, to blaze in the heavens for a few months, and to set at Dover in the splendours of a dukedom. The students, and they need not be very profound, know, of course, that Monk was not a "happy accident," that he had a considerable record behind him when at the age of fifty-two he did his stroke of statecraft, that he was an original personage, and that he certainly, from youth to old age, established his claim to- be called a "man of action." Mr. Julian Corbett has just called attention to George Monk, and his lively biography may help to enlarge the ordinary estimate of this seventeenth-century "soldier of fortune," and make his character and labours better known.
He was a son of North Devon, fertile in valiant men. He had wide connections among the county families, and his biographer reckons two Plantagenet ladies among his ancestors. So that he came of a fighting stock, and, being a younger soy, bred up in an atmosphere of war and adventure, he was certain to become a soldier. Having publicly cudgelled an under- sheriff in Exeter for treachery to his father—the man had taken a bribe to withhold a writ, and broke his word— the boy was hurried off to sea, when only seventeen, as a volunteer in Borough's regiment, part of the disastrous expedi- tion against Cadiz. Two years later, that utter absence of fear, which was a life-long characteristic, and some address, for which he is not credited, carried him safely through France, and through the army blockading Rochelle, with a message from the King to the English in the Isle of Rhe. It was a notable exploit in all respects, for the youth was ignorant of French, and Borough made him at once an ensign. He escaped from the slaughter of defeat when Buckingham's troops were driven to their ships ; peace soon followed, and Monk then sought a career in the Low Countries, embarking, as ensign, in Lord Oxford's regiment, with the force under Vere, sent to aid the Prince of Orange. Here he had his first real lessons in regular warfare, as it was then practised, a warfare of sieges. He seems to have won his company at Maastricht, to have established his repute for valour of the forward, un- hesitating kind at Breda, to have studied his profession always, in quartera as well as in the field, and to have gained a name as a just but rigorous enforcer of discipline. That, also, is one of his shining characteristics. He had the instinct of command, and the gift of making himself obeyed. He quitted the Dutch service because the States-General would not allow him to punish, by court-martial, some of his soldiers
who had broken the peace in Dort. The decision offended his lively sense of military honour; he resigned his commis- sion, and went home.
And here the peculiarities of the man came out still more strongly. He had so many friends that he soon got a com- mission in the King's Army, and he never forgave Charles for not fighting the Scots when they twice went into armed opposition. On the second occasion, after he had saved the
guns at Newburn ford, being no politician, he chafed at inaction, but he would take no part in a military plot to crush the Parliament. When the Irish troubles broke out in rebellion and massacre, Monk was appointed to command a • English Men of Action: Monk. By Julian Corbett. London: Macmillan and Co.
foot-regiment raised by Lord Leicester, and in the confused con- flict of factions, military, political, and religious, he continued to play a soldier's part, and played it well. Ormond made an armistice with "the Rebels" in order to spare troops for the King. He thought fit to demand a sort of pledge from the officers that they would be faithful to Charles. Monk resented this as an insult, because it implied that he could be untrue to his flag. Ormond sent him home under arrest, but with handsome letters testifying to his worth, and he was passed on to Oxford, where the King was. Then, again, his character came out, for on Charles saying something to the effect that good military advice would be useful to him, Monk made him a little speech. The silent man spoke on his own subject, and the King must have been startled to hear that if he wanted to succeed he should get rid of "the rabble of gentility ". which composed his army, raise, arm, equip, and supply a really good little force, under Low-Country officers, and put away the "high-born amateurs," as Mr. Corbett phrases it. It was wise advice, which could not be accepted ; and though it does honour to the frankness of Monk, it shows that he did not in the least understand the political situation. Nevertheless, they sent him to aid in the siege of Nantwich, where his old comrades were ; but Fairfax coming sharply on to relieve the place, he found the troops would not fight, and he was carried prisoner to London. And here we come on another striking event in his career. He was placed in the Tower, where he remained three years, because he could not get himself properly exchanged. Until that was done, at all events, his code of honour forbade him to take a commission from the Parliament. Nothing could move him from that position, and he did not obtain leave to quit until the King's cause had gone to ruin. It was when Ormond agreed to give up Dublin to the Parliament rather than surrender it to the Catholic rebels, and advised the House to send out Monk, that he took service on that side. There was one obstacle. He would not, and did not, accept the covenant ; but that was got over by reporting that he was ready to take it, and he went forth after pledging his honour to serve the Parliament in Ireland. On most points he was indifferent ; no political question was worth a civil war, a very crude state of mind; but on the question of keeping compacts, he was obdurate. And he kept them.
He did serve the Parliament well in Ireland, and although forced to surrender to Inchiquin, his military credit remained unshaken. Mr. Corbett says that to shield Cromwell and the Independents, Monk told a lie, when he affirmed that he made his armistice, or whatever it was, with O'Neill on his own responsibility. So it does not appear to us. Reporting to Cromwell he says, "since there was great necessity for me to do it [and there was], I hope it will.beget no ill construction." And to the Speaker he said, "I did it on my own score ;" but he admitted that Colonel Michael Jones had told him it would be a good service to keep Ormond and O'Neill apart. "I did it on my own score, for the preservation of the English interest there, and it has had some fruits accordingly," is the plain statement of the soldier who understood his business, and did not understand or care about politics. He considered that such a move on the board was warranted by" the duty of his place," meaning the fulfilment of his trust, and though the arrangement was a bad political one, it was a good military move in the wild game played by all in Ireland. Monk's capacity as a soldier seems to have been very considerable. He was a remarkable compound of the dashing and the solid officer. He was swift, adroit, hard-hitting, always undaunted, no matter what the peril, yet he left as little to chance as possible. We may guess what stuff he had in him, when, although he had broken the seventh commandment, Cromwell made up a regiment for him, and took him to Scot- land. He had his part in manceuvres about Edinburgh, in the retreat at Dunbar, about Torwood and Stirling ; and when left in command, his march on Dundee and dexterous capture of Leslie and "the Government" at Alyth, are there to prove his merits. But the sack of Dundee smells of the "soldier of
• fortune." Later, his plan, and execution of his plan for the reduction of the Highlands, are good examples of his soldierly ability. At sea, for he was employed afloat, he had to contend with masters in naval warfare, knowing nothing of it himself; and he won, in the end, by sheer hammering, obstinacy, and a determination not to be beaten. He would have been a grand Admiral, had he been brought up "to follow the sea." His government of Scotland appears to have been excellent. He kept order, but made friends with the disaffected all round, and did it all himself. His mode of dealing with conspirators,. or persons accused of plots, was original. He put them in gaol, sent men or went himself to threaten all kinds of woes, even torture. Those who gave way to that treatment he set free with a warning ; those who held out "were asked to dinner at Dalkeith." He knew the first were not to be feared,. and he conciliated the fearless. He even made a friend of Cameron of Lochiel. Such a man may have been " thick- witted " and "dull" on the surface, but the deeper strata of his nature must have been rich in sound sense, as well as that inborn courage which no peril could surprise or subdue. He was one of the few who are born brave.
That such a man should be plunged headlong into an enter.- prise like that of bringing back the King is one of the ironies of history. The burden did not fall upon him all at once, it grew by degrees; but when we see his character as it was, we are less surprised to find that he succeeded. His fine business. faculties, his ignorance of politics, and his taciturnity fitted him, to play the part he did; and the fact that he played it out to- the end without making any serious mistake, should be taken as evidence of inherent capacity for great actions marred by a. sluggish temperament and a narrow or no education. Espe- cially was he troubled by the changes of masters at the seat of power. He seems always to have been desirous as a soldier to obey the civil power, and could not endure a military despotism. Cromwell was a civil power, but Lambert and Fleetwood were not. Down to the last he tried to obey those from whom he held his commission, but was virtually driven from that stronghold, and had to decide for himself. "I think myself obliged by the duty of my place," he said in Scot, land, "to keep the military power in obedience to the civil. Since we have received our pay and commissions from. the Parliament, it is our duty to defend them." And he tried the experiment; but at length events were too strong for him, he had to coerce, morally, the Parliament he had defended, and bring back the King. It has been said that his chief offence was a neglect to make any terms with or impose any conditions on Charles II. The criticism overlooks the fact that he had not the sort of ability which enables men to exact terms, that, indeed, he did not understand the need for them. The defect makes him a very im- perfect character, but hardly detracts from the merit of his service, if it was a merit, in restoring a monarchy without shedding a drop of blood. At all events, he made no terms for himself, and if he gained riches and honours, it was the least the King could do to bestow them. He had plenty of faults, no doubt, and he was not—who is—without ambi- tion; but he was clearly a tough, from his standpoint an honourable, and certainly an able man. In the field he quietly chewed tobacco when food was wanting, and none should forget how finely he disbanded the Parliamentary army, how he did not retreat before the Plague, and how, near his deathbed, something of his old energy fired up when. he tried at Chatham to beat off the Dutch with such means as a careless and corrupt administration had left wherewith to defend the nation. He was not a great man, but we should be the better for more who had his best qualities.
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