life.  It should, however, be observed, that he made his religion harmonize with his ambition.  If he believed that the cause in which he had embarked was the cause of God, he also believed that God had chosen him to be the successful champion of that cause.  Thus the honour of God was identified with his own advancement, and the arts, which his policy suggested, were sanctified in his eyes by the ulterior object at which he aimed—­the diffusion of godliness, and the establishment of the reign of Christ among mankind.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The Venetian ambassador observes that during the protectorate London wore the appearance of a garrison town, where nothing was to be seen but the marching of soldiers, nothing to be heard but the sound of drums and trumpets.  Il decoro et grandezza di Londra ha molto cangiato di faccia, la nobilta, che la rendeva conspicua, sta divisa per la campagna, et la delecatezza della corte la piu sontuosa et la piu allegre del mondo, frequentata da principali dame, et abundante nelli piu scelti trattenementi, e cangiata al presente in una perpetua marchia et contramarchia, in un incessante strepito di tamburri, e di trembe, et in stuoio numerosi di soldati et officiali diversi ai posti.—­Sagredo.  See also an intercepted letter in Thurloe, ii. 670.]

CHAPTER VIII.

Richard Cromwell Protector—­Parliament Called—­Dissolved—­Military
Government—­Long Parliament Restored—­Expelled Again—­Reinstated—­Monk In
London—­Re-Admission Of Secluded Members—­Long Parliament Dissolved—­The
Convention Parliament—­Restoration Of Charles II.

By his wife, Elizabeth Bourchier, Cromwell left two sons, Richard and Henry.  There was a remarkable contrast in the opening career of these young men.  During the civil war, Richard lived in the Temple, frequented the company of the Cavaliers, and spent his time in gaiety and debauchery.  Henry repaired to his father’s quarters, and so rapid was his promotion, that at the age of twenty he held the commission of captain in the regiment of guards belonging to Fairfax, the lord-general.  After the establishment of the commonwealth, Richard married, and, retiring to the house of his father-in-law, at Hursley in Hampshire, devoted himself to the usual pursuits of a country gentleman.  Henry accompanied his father in the reduction of Ireland, which country he afterwards governed, first with the rank of major-general, afterwards with that of lord-deputy.  It was not till the second year of the protectorate that Cromwell seemed to recollect that he had an elder son.  He made him a lord of trade, then chancellor of the university of Oxford, and lastly a member of the new house of peers.  As these honours were far inferior to those which he lavished on other persons connected with his family, it was inferred that he entertained a mean opinion of Richard’s abilities.  A more probable conclusion is, that he feared to alarm the jealousy of his officers, and carefully abstained from doing that which might confirm the general suspicion, that he designed to make the protectorship hereditary in his family.[1]