OLIVER CROMWELL.

New Zealand Mail, 18 January 1900, Page 13

OLIVER CROMWELL.

LORD ROSEBERY'S ESTIMATE. The colossal statue of Cromwell by Mr ■ Ramo Lx ernycroft, whien ha-s oeen erected on the lawn before the west front of Westminster hail, was unveiled on i.uesdaji, Nov. 14, not ny a public man in the presence ot_a brilliant assembly, box by a foreman cf the Office of Works, watched. on W by a policeman on duty and a few labourers. This strange opening ceremony took place between seven and eight o’clock in the morning. The statue fifc&XlU.iS UpQjTV Ct ECASSIV© b-3.-59 iHiC*.. pOC+ Qgfcol or Portland, stone and' shews out bclctly against the buttresses of Westminster hall. Cromwell is in military attire but bareheaded,his hat being underneath his arm. in fur. reft hand ne clasps a Bffiic whilst with his right he holds the hilt o' : his sword planted on the roudi *rou">< A crouching lion, also of gun-metal, forms a prominent object in treat ci the "pedestiix; v/iiicii besrs inscriDticn Cromwell, 1599-1650.” " In d. very different manner the Gromwelf Tercentenary was celebrated in the evening, wnen a distinguished company meo at the Queen's. Hall to hear; Lord, itosdbeij- 3 appreciation cf the Lord Proteccor. _ Lord. Weiby was in the chair. Lord Jtiosebery said they were commemorating the erection of the first statue or Cromwell in London—a statue that ought to have, been erected long £0 A csirtaia individual who felt that such a memorial should not be made a football tor oontenumg factions, in the House of Lemmons offered to bear the cost of the memorial, ana tne Government of the day accepted, that offer, and it was ratified by the Government that was now ir, power, femes that time a new opposition haa sprung up, and had carried bv a majority m the House of Lords a resolution denouncing, so mr as he reeolleccedL ;,“ 9 Present position of the statue, and though the Government loyally stood to Mem p.eages they were unfortunate! v dereaoea by a majority of six to four (la'uvh tern He for one did not complain'd uuuu opposition, but he would mention thou oiere haa been placed by the present Government a bust of Cromwell ir ft® T TO4? art of thp Hau3G of Commons luSezf. W itn regard to the Protector’s policy towards Ireland, Lord Rosebery was ■boo.na. _ro say that that demanded an explanation, but .it hardly demanded an excuse. To _their Irish friends he would omy say this, that as they did not inter.ere with the statue they put up in Duhuu ,_ tne Insh sneufa refrain from iiite l ’- fornig with the statue they put up in regard to the trouble wnh King Charms, it must be recollected' that Cromwell had found out by painful experience that Charles held out no half measures to his opponents, that he was m no respect to be trusted, that they must remember that it was not possible tor a monarch to bo Ms constitutiona. successor. There was only one rurth.3. remark he would make on this subject. Happy was the dynasty that couid. permit, wifciiout offence or without tear, the memory of a regicide to* b« honoured in its capital; happv the Sow> roign and happy the dynasty that, secure in their constitutional guarantees and in the world wide love of their subjects, coma anow _such a ceremonial as this to ffia-ke place without a.shadow af annoyance °I k^ trasfc - Everyone had his own theory Oi Cromwell. • There was a papular, hut a very illiterate view, that lie was a damned psalm-singing humbug who out off the head of his king (laughter). He must quote_two or three testimonies on the other side. Lord Macaulay said he was the greatest prince that ever ruled England. The greatest living authority or that period—Gardner—said Cromwell was in the world of action what Shakespeare was in the world of thought—the greatest and most typical Englishman of all time. Then Southey, the great Tory historian of the day, described him as the most poweful prince in Europe—the grGatost man in an age in which the race of err eat men was not extinct. He would balance these testimonies against the ma-

•jority of the House of Lords. He regarded Cromwell from three points of view, firstly, as a great soldier; secondly, as a great ruler; and thirdly, as a great raiser and maintainer of British influence and. British power abroad. There was this great peeuiariay about Cromwell.- that iie won every battle that ne fought. Then he was the first ruler wno reaLiy understood practical toleration, and he was the first prince who reigned.in England -who welcomed and admitted’ tne Jews. The one answer which, doubtless, nearly everyone would give as to the secret of CroinweH’3 strength would b that he rested in nis religious faith. (Lord Rosebery) discarded that answer, because it would be begging the question, and his answer was tuat he was a practical mystic—the most formidable ana terrible of all. combinations —a man whocombined the inspiration, apparently derived, and in his judgment really derived, from close communion with the spiritual and the celestial, a man who had that inspiration, and adaed to it the energy of tho“:mighty man or action. Such a man. livc-d in . communion with a Sinai of his own, and appeared to come down to the . world armed with no less than the terrors and the decrees of the Almighty Himself. Lord Rosebery next proceeded, to give his audience a glimpse of the man of action from the records and portraits of contemporary writers, iie comes tramping down to us through the ages in hut great wading-boots, his countenance swollen and his voice sharp and untuneful, his eloquence full of fervour, with a country-made suit and hat, with doubtful linen with a stain of bloo-d on it. He tramped over England; ho tramped dyer Scotland, ho tramped over Ireland, with the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other. And then ne tramped back to London, from wnen.ee he put forth that heavy, foot into_ Europe, and all Europe bowed before him. When he was not scattering enemies and battering castles he was scattering parliaments and battering general assemblies. He seemed to be a very spirit of destruction, an Angel ot Vengeance permitted to run for a season to efface what ought to be effaced, and then to disappear. On the field of battle he was a great captain, ready, resourceful, and overwhelming. Oil the field he seemed. to- be the creature or invisible energies, marciung with sudden volition, ana under their guidance and under their -spell. It was the great mixture of a strong spiritual nature with a sort of invisible fatalism, with a kind of supernatural means—that strange combination it was which, in his judgment, made the strength 0? Cromwell. After ail, the whole of the controversey and debate as to Cromwell hinged upon the one ques tiom—was he a hypocrite, or was he not? If he had.’ been a hypocrite he could riot have _ wielded the enormous force -that he did.. If he had, been a hypocrite he would not have been able to have maintained: the dazzling position that he acnieved, and! if he had been a hypocrite he could, not have formed that army which was indubitably’’ the greatest army in Europe at the time cf his death. Nor could a hypocrite have written the letters that Grom well wrote to his children. Sa far from tarnishing the memory of Cromwell, we could find employment for a few Cromwells now. _ bo- long as his influence pervaded the nation the; memory of Cromwell was not likely to- suffer dispara°’meat from the want of an effigy. In the pantheon of English _ hearts would be found eternally ingrained the monument and the memory of the great Protector (j.oud. cheers).