BOOKS.

THE HOUSE OF CROMWELL.* IN his House of Cromwell, Mr. Waylen has given us a delightful book on a delightful subject. Let no potential reader expect from the title that there is nothing here but a bare chronicle of the names of those in whose veins has run, and still runs, the blood of the Protector. Mr. Waylen gives us that, but he gives us a great deal more. His book is full, from the first page to the last, with matter illustrating that most fascinating of historic problems,—the personality of Cromwell The book, then, is one which has an interest not only for the few who love to trace the links in the chain of flesh that binds the present to the past, and to contemplate them- selves and their fellows as but the latest manifestations of posterity it appeals to every Englishman who loves and venerates—and who is there, if he will but "give his heart its rights," who does not love and venerate the greatest captain-in-arms and the noblest wielder of sovereign power that ever held sway in these islands? There is no name in the long and splendid story of our race, unless. it be that of Mr. Lincoln, which can claim more respect for wisdom, for true patriotism, and for dutifulness in the highest sense, than the Protector's. His figure is a beacon-light for Englishmen in its strength, in its wide tolerance, in its gentle- ness, and in its liberalism. And more especially can the remembrance of Cromwell help the England of to-day. He was the first, though most cruel, of Unionists. His prescience and statesmanship realised that the two great islands of the Atlantic are linked indissolubly by fate, and that the more perfect and complete is made their union, the better for both countries. He it was who first summoned Members from Scotland and Ireland to meet with those of England in one Parliament at Westminster. He, too, gave us one flag,— the flag which he ordered to bear " the arms of England, Scotland, and Ireland," united. Hence no record of Cromwell and those who derive their descent from him can be un welcome or unworthy of the study of his countrymen.

It is curious to note how many members of the governing class in modern times have Cromwell's blood in their veins. His descendants have given England a Prime Minister, Lord Goderich ; a Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir George Cornewall Lewis ; a Foreign Secretary, Lord Claren- don; a great reformer and champion of Free-trade, Mr. Charles Villiers ; a Governor-General of India, Lord Ripon ; a Viceroy of Ireland, Lord Cowper. It is true that Lord Goderich- " the transient and embarrassed phantom" of Mr. Disraeli —was not a very Cromwellian figure, but considering the manner in which the Cromwell family was " kept under " during the first hundred years after the Restoration, this record of eminence in the service of the country is very re- markable. If we were to recapitulate the Peers and Baronets, the Admirals and Generals, and the persons distinguished in law or divinity, who had or have the blood of Cromwell, we should require space for a very formidable list. The living de- scendants of Cromwell already number many hundreds, and in another twenty years it is not impossible that they may have increased to thousands. Hence all fear that the line will ever

become extinct may be banished. These descents are, of course, all through the female, the last male descendant, Mr. Cromwell

of Cheshunt, having died in 1821. Since, however, the Queen only represents the kin of Cedric, of Alfred, of William the Conqueror, of Henry Tudor, and of Charles Stuart through the female, it is absurd to speak of a Cromwellian descent through the female as something too remote to be worth remembering. It may be mentioned that, but for a piece of

• The House of Cromwell and the Story of Dunkirk : a Genealogical History of the Descendants of the Protector; with Anecdotes and Letters. By James Waylen- Illustrated by Engravings, Portraits, and Plans. London : Elliot Stook. 1891 mean-spiritedness on the part of George III., we should still have a Cromwell by name as well as by blood. The last Mr. Cromwell was anxious that his daughter and heiress should take his name and transmit it to her children. The following is Mr. Waylen's account of the circumstances which prevented his wish being carried out. After recounting the deaths of Mr. Cromwell's two sons, Mr. Waylen continues :— " Under these circumstances it is not surprising that Mr. Crom- well of Cheshunt should wish his daughter to carry it on, in accordance with the course usually pursued in such cases, by her husband's adopting the surname and arms of Cromwell either in addition to or in exchange for those of Russell. Such a procedure is technically said to be by royal permission ;' and though royalty seldom interferes in such matters, yet here was a case in which royalty's instincts seemed suddenly awakened to the sus- ceptibility of an unaccustomed chord. True, it was a chord whose vibrations responded to the mere ghost of a name. But what a name ! Has it ever been other than a word of omen to royal ears during the last two centuries ? The issue of the affair is thus recorded by Mr. Burke the herald := Mr. Cromwell wishing to perpetuate the name of his great ancestor, applied, it is said, in the usual quarter for permission that his son-in-law should assume the surname of Cromwell ; when to his astonishment, considering that such requests are usually granted on the payment of certain fees as a matter of course, the permission was refused. Such a -course of proceeding is too contemptible for comment '—History of the Commoners, Vol. I.. p. 433. The credit of the refusal has been variously ascribed to the old King, to the Prince Regent, and to William IV. Sir Robert Heron writing in 1812 makes mention of it thus,' Within the last two or three years died the last male direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell. He was well known to my father and to Sir Abraham Hume, who lived near him. They represented him as a worthy man of mild manners, much resembling in character his immediate ancestor Henry the Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland. Early in life his pecuniary circumstances were narrowed, but latterly he possessed a comfortable income. He was desirous of leaving his name to his son-in-law Mr. Russell, and applied for His Majesty's permission that Russell should assume it ; but the old King positively refused it, always saying, " No, no—no more Cromwells." '—Sir Robert Heron's Notes. Another version of the affair is, that Mr. Cromwell becoming apprehensive that the change of name might, after all, prove a hindrance rather than otherwise to his grandchildren's advance in life, allowed the matter to remain in abeyance ; but that the scheme was revived by another member of the family in a memorial addressed to William IV.; • and that it was this King and not George III. who uttered the energetic veto above recorded."

This refusal may be regarded as the last attempt on the part of the Tories and the Crown to depress the Protector's family. Throughout the eighteenth century it is clear that the family suffered a good deal, and that it was usually thought safer for its members to keep quiet. A pleasant story of the great Lord Hardwicke's conduct in checking the petty persecution of the Cromwells is worth quoting :—

" Lord Chancellor Hardwicke once heard a suit in which the grandson of the Protector Oliver was a party. The opposing -counsel thinking to make way with the jury by scandalising Oliver's memory, was running on in the accustomed style, when Lord Hardwicke effectually checked him by saying, I perceive Mr. Cromwell is standing outside the bar and inconveniently pressed by the crowd. Make way for him that he may come and sit on the bench.' The representative of the family accordingly took his place beside the Judge, and the orator changed his tone."

Before leaving the subject of Cromwell's descendants, we may note that Sir William Harcourt and the late Lord Lytton are both connected with the House of Cromwell. The first Lady Harcourt was descended from the Protector, as is the widow of the late Ambassador in Paris. We must also mention the curious circumstances of "the intermarriage in the fourth descent of Oliver's posterity and King Charles's," and of the intermixture of Hyde and Cromwell blood.

What misery and humiliation would not the first Lord Clarendon have suffered, could be have known that his descendants would intermarry with those of the Usurper, and that the children of this intermixture would regard their descent from the Protector with far greater pride than that from the Chancellor of Charles II. !

We have left ourselves little apace to speak of the in- teresting account of the exploits of " the immortal six thousand "—the body of redcoats lent by Cromwell to llazarin—at the Battle of the Dunes before Dunkirk, and elsewhere, or of the curious anecdotes and " scraps" which Mr. Waylen has collected in regard to Cromwell and his

family. His account of the Cromwellian " afflatus " is worth quoting

" There can be no doubt that throughout his public career Oliver was powerfully sustained by his soundness of heart. It is also on record that this confidence not unfrequently broke silence and found expression in what eye-witnesses were in the habit of terming 'impulses,' and which he himself cared neither to sup. press nor to conceal. Let us hear what John Aubrey, the Wilt- shire antiquary, has to say about it. Under the head of Impulses,' he writes,—' Oliver Cromwell had certainly this afflatus. One that I knew, and who was present at the battle of Dunbar, told me that Oliver was carried on with a divine impulse. He did laugh so excessively as if he had been drunk, and his eyes sparkled with spirits. He obtained on that occasion a great victory, though the action was said to be contrary to human prudence. The same fit of laughter seized him just before the battle of Naseby, as a kinsman of mine and a great favourite of his, Colonel J. P. [Points ?] then present, testified!—Aubrey's Miscellanies. Singularly enough, Oliver's own account in after days of what was passing in his mind at Naseby, amply corro- borates the above.= I can say this of Naseby,' says he, `that when I saw the enemy draw up and march in gallant order towards us ; and we a company of poor ignorant men to seek how to order our battle (tbe General having commanded me to order all the horse), I could not, riding alone about my business, but smile out to God in praises, in assurance of victory ; because God would by things that are not bring to nought things that are ; of which I had great assurance ; and God did it.' This serene reliance on an ever present power is discoverable in his corre- spondence from the first. To the Committee of the Cambridge Association in 1642, he says,—' Verily I do think the Lord is with me. I undertake strange things, yet do I go through with them to great profit and gladness. and furtherance of the Lord's great work. I do feel myself lifted on by a strange force, I cannot tell why. By night and by day I am urged forward in the great work.' And well did he need this buoyancy of spirit to carry him over the bogs and rough places of his life's campaign. Withal, unexpectedly enough,' says Carlyle concerning the Scottish King of men, ' this Knox has a vein of drollery in him, which I like much, in combination with his other qualities ; he has a true eye

for the ridiculous They go far wrong who think this Knox was a gloomy, spasmodic, shrieking fanatic. Not at all : he is one of the solidest of men.' And they go equally far wrong to whom the English King of men is no other than a gloomy brewer."

In spite, however, of this " afflatus," Cromwell was a very " human " person. He loved a good horse and a good picture as well as any man of his time, and, in a musical age, he was accounted as specially fond of music,—the first operas ever given in England were played under his licence. Of his love for pictures, a curious story is given in an intercepted letter :— " When the Dutch envoys arrived in March, 1653, to settle the terms of peace, they seem to have brought over with them some of Titian's paintings. The intercepted letter of a royalist (name unknown) has the following One that was present at the audience given in the banquetting-house told me that Cromwell spent so much time looking at the pictures that he judged by it that he had not been much used heretofore to Titian's hand!— Thurioe, II. 144."

This is truly delightful. As Cromwell looked at the pictures, it showed his brutal ignorance ; if he had not looked, it would have shown his utter disregard of things beautiful. The Cavalier has him both ways. The story of Cromwell's saving the Cartoons for the nation at the King's sale is well known. It is less well known that Charles II. tried to sell them to Louis XIV., and was only prevented by the fear of his Parlia- ment. So much for Royal patronage of the arts.

Before leaving Mr. Waylen's book, we would ask him a question. What was Richard Cromwell's speech to Lord Bathurst, and what Fanny Russell's reply to the Prince of Wales ? Mr. Waylen quotes Horace Walpole's allusion to them, but not the stories themselves. Let us hope that in a second edition he will give them both. Another addition to his book would be welcome to lovers of Croinwell's memory,— a pocket containing a chart or series of charts showing all the living descendants of Cromwell. A table pedigree is a great boon to the student.