(p) ThurJoe, Vol. i.

P. 759752.

cumstances should alter. But, be this as it may,

befiege Graveling or Dunkirk; and either being taken, to deliver it with all the forts into the English hands, viz. Dunkirk abfolutely, and Graveling by way of 'caution, until Dunkirk fhould be taken and delivered. That the priviledges of the town and the religion 'fhould remayne in the fame ftate as before; and that no peace or truce be made with Spayne by either during that yeare. The French that year took only Mardyke fort, fo that the treaty was in February 1657-8 renewed for another yeare; and, according thereto, • Dunkirk was taken and put into the English hands. • Further treaties were intended for the joint management of the war in Flanders, but the death of Oliver ' prevented it (p).’————— These were the motives of Cromwell's preferring the friendship of France, and making war with Spain, of which the intelligent reader will form his own judgment. The world, for the most part, however, has blamed his conduct in this affair, as will appear by the following quotations. Cromwell, fays Mr. Bethell (for he, I believe, was the author of the World's Miftake in Oliver Cromwel) contrary to our intereft, made an unjust war with Spain, and an impolitic league with France, bringing the first thereby under, and making the latter too great for Chriftendome; and, by that means, broke the ballance betwixt the two crowns of Spain and France, which his predeceffors, the long parliament, had always wifely preferved. In this difhoneft war with Spain, he pretended and endeavoured to impofe a belief on the world, that he had nothing in his eye, but the advancement • of the proteftant cause, and the honour of the nation; but his pretences were either fraudulent, or he was ignorant in foreign affairs (as I am apt to think, that he was not guilty of too much knowledge in them.) For he that had known any thing of the temper of the Popish prelacie, and the French court-policies, ⚫ could not but fee, that the way to increafe, or pre• ferve,

honour and profit accrued hereby to

the

ferve, the reformed intereft in France, was by ren⚫dering the proteftants of neceffary ufe to their King; < for, that longer than they were fo, they could not be free from perfecution, and that the way to render them fo, was by keeping the ballance betwixt Spain and France even, as that which would confequently make them ufeful to their King: but by overthrowing the ballance in his war with Spain, and joining with • France, he freed the French King from his fears of • Spain, enabled him to fubdue all factions at home, and thereby to bring himself into a condition of not ftanding in need of any of them, and from thence hath proceeded the perfecution that hath fince been, and ftill is, in that nation, against the reformed there; fo that Oliver, instead of advancing the reformed intereft, hath, by an error in his politicks, been the author of deftroying it. The honour and advantage •he propounded to this nation in his pulling down of Spain, had as ill a foundation: for, if true, as was • faid, that we were to have had Oftend and Newport, fo well as Dunkirk, (when we could get them) they bore no proportion, in any kind, to all the reft of the 'King of Spain's European dominions, which must neceffarily have fallen to the French King's fhare, becaufe of their joining and nearness to him, and re'moteness from us, and the increafing the greatness of 'fo near a neighbour, must have increased our future dangers (9).—Mr. Burrish, after mentioning the The offers made to Cromwell from France and Spain, in or- Miftake, der to obtain his friendship, fays, 'in these circum- &c. p. 4. ftances, perhaps, the wifeft courfe had been to have fate ftill, and entertained both fides in fufpence, un• der favour of which the commerce of Great Britain could not fail to have flourished. But the protector ⚫ was not eafy at home. Some of those who had been the means of his elevation, either from envy, or a true • republican principle, were become his enemies; the

" na

World's

the English nation, and fuch too as it has,

and

• nation was accustomed to war, and feemed to take pleasure in it; all which induced Cromwell to break with fome of his neighbours, that he might find employment abroad for those bufy fpirits, which, if left at home, would certainly have engaged in popular • commotions. Thus the protector having refolved a war from a motive of felf-intereft, the fame principle made him prefer the alliance of France to that of Spain; because Philip IV. was neither fo redoubtable an enemy as Lewis XIV. nor fo capable of ferving Cromwell in the quality of a friend. The principal dominions of Spain were fituated at a great distance from England; and, as to the naval power of that crown, which had lately been the terror of the universe, it was now fo reduced, that when, in confequence of • the forementioned treaty, monfieur de Turenne formed the fiege of Dunkirk with the confederate troops of • France and England, a small squadron of English fhips ferved to block up the port, and prevent the garrifon ⚫ from receiving any relief by fea. In these circumftances the Spaniards run a very great rifque of having their flota fall into the hands of the English, and to this we may add, that the ill condition of their affairs in the Weft-Indies, gave the protector hopes of annexing Hifpaniola to the dominions of Great Britain. But this weaknefs of the Spaniards, which invited • Cromwell into the war, and feemed to affure him of 'fuccefs, was a very ftrong reason why he ought not ⚫ to have broke with them; because he could not continue to deprefs the crown of Spain without deftroying the equality of power, that ought to fubfift between the feveral great ftates of Europe, and elevating France to fuch an exorbitant degree, as would enable her to lord it at pleasure over all her neigbours. The pro⚫tector knew this extremely well, and there are thote who have affirmed, that, before his death, he had taken a ⚫ refolution to reconcile himself with the court of Madrid. • After

and yet continues to enjoy. For though

the

illuftrata,

After having acquired Dunkirk and Jamaica, during his alliance with France, he had a mind to poffefs himself of Calais by the affiftance of the Spaniards; but, as he did not live to effect this, he left the French (r) Batavia very great gainers by the measures they had taken vol. ii. p. with him (r).' Lord Bolingbroke cenfures Oliver in 483. Hear him. Cromwell either frong terms likewife. Hear him. • did not difcern, fays his lordship, this turn of the ballance of power [from Spain to France]-or, difcerning it, he was induced by reafons of private interest to act against the general intereft of Europe. • Cromwell joined with France against Spain, and tho' • he got Jamaica and Dunkirk, he drove the Spaniards into a neceffity of making a peace with France, that • has disturbed the peace of the world almost fourscore years, and the confequences of which have well nigh beggared in our times the nation he enflaved in his. There is a tradition, I have heard it from persons who lived in those days, and, I believe, it came from Thurloe, that Cromwell was in treaty with Spain, and ⚫ ready to turn his arms against France, when he died. If this fact was certain, as little as I honour his memory, I fhould have fome regret that he died fo foon. But whatever his intentions were, we must charge the Pyrenean treaty, and the fatal confequences of it, in great measure, to his account. The Spaniards abhorred the thought of marrying their Infanta to Lewis XIV. It was on this point that they broke the negotiation Lionne had begun: and your lordship will perceive, that if they refumed it afterwards, and of fered the marriage they had before rejected, Crom- (s) Letters well's league with France was a principal inducement on the study ⚫ to this alteration of their resolution (s).'-——Mr. Hume hiftory, vol. joins in the cry against Cromwell, and peremptorily de- i. p. 258. clares, That, if he had understood and regarded the in- 8vo. Lund. tereft of his country, he would have fupported the declining condition of Spain against the dangerous

and ufe of

1752.

() Hiftory

of Great

Britain, vol.

ii. p. 65.

the expedition to Hifpaniola, under the joint

ambition of France, and preferved the ballance of power, on which the greatness and fecurity of Eng• land fo much depends. Had he ftudied only his own interefts, he would have maintained an exact neutrality betwixt those two great monarchies; nor would he ever have hazarded his ill acquired and unfettled power, by provoking foreign enemies, who might lend affiftance to domeftick faction, and overturn his tottering throne. But his magnanimous courage undervalued danger: his active difpofition and avidity of extenfive glary made him incapable of repose (t).'" Thefe are the principal objections to Cromwell's entering into the war with Spain, and leaguing with France: objections it must be owned at this diftance of time, and in our view of things, extreamly plaufible, but which poffibly would have been deemed but of little force had they been urged when these important affairs were under deliberation. For let it be confidered that Cromwell was at liberty to wage war with Spain, on account of its cruelties to the English in America, and the reftrictions laid on their commerce. To avenge innocent blood, procure fatisfaction for injuries paft, and fecurity for the time to come, is worthy a fovereign, and merits praife from all -Again; with France the Protector had no quarrel. Calais was too old an affair to ground a war on; and the making use of it as a pretence for it, would have been deemed ridiculous and unjuft.— France, 'tis true, was capable of hurting Oliver more than Spain; but it must be very idle to make it criminal in him to prefer her friendship for that among other reasons. 'Tis fufficient the public good is not facrificed to private intereft: to expect men in power, how wife and good foever, will have no regard to their own prefervation and fafety, is perhaps too much. I do not remember many inftances of it in latter times. But the great objection we fee is, the ballance of power between the two crowns was by Cromwell's means broken,

and