He gave the Parliament a voice in the appointment of ministers, and left to it the whole legislative authority, not even reserving to himself a veto on its enactments; and he did not require that the chief magistracy should be hereditary in his family.  Thus far, we think, if the circumstances of the time and the opportunities which he had of aggrandizing himself be fairly considered, he will not lose by comparison with Washington or Bolivar.  Had his moderation been met by corresponding moderation, there is no reason to think that he would have overstepped the line which he had traced for himself.  But when he found that his parliaments questioned the authority under which they met, and that he was in danger of being deprived of the restricted power which was absolutely necessary to his personal safety, then, it must be acknowledged, he adopted a more arbitrary policy.

Yet, though we believe that the intentions of Cromwell were at first honest, though we believe that he was driven from the noble course which he had marked out for himself by the almost irresistible force of circumstances, though we admire, in common with all men of all parties, the ability and energy of his splendid administration, we are not pleading for arbitrary and lawless power, even in his hands.  We know that a good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.  But we suspect that, at the time of which we speak, the violence of religious and political enmities rendered a stable and happy settlement next to impossible.  The choice lay, not between Cromwell and liberty, but between Cromwell and the Stuarts.  That Milton chose well, no man can doubt who fairly compares the events of the protectorate with those of the thirty years which succeeded it, the darkest and most disgraceful in the English annals.  Cromwell was evidently laying, though in an irregular manner, the foundations of an admirable system.  Never before had religious liberty and the freedom of discussion been enjoyed in a greater degree.  Never had the national honor been better upheld abroad, or the seat of justice better filled at home.  And it was rarely that any opposition which stopped short of open rebellion provoked the resentment of the liberal and magnanimous usurper.  The institutions which he had established, as set down in the Instrument of Government, and the Humble Petition and Advice, were excellent.  His practice, it is true, too often departed from the theory of these institutions.  But had he lived a few years longer, it is probable that his institutions would have survived him, and that his arbitrary practice would have died with him.  His power had not been consecrated by ancient prejudices.  It was upheld only by his great personal qualities.  Little, therefore, was to be dreaded from a second protector, unless he were also a second Oliver Cromwell.  The events which followed his decease are the most complete vindication of those who exerted themselves to uphold his authority.  His death dissolved