Oliver Cromwell Author:Michael Russell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Comprehending the Incidents which occurred from the meeting of the Long Parliament, in November 1640, until the new-modeling of the Army, at the ... more »suggestion of Cromwell, in the year 1644. ALTHOUGH the abilities of Cromwell were better suited to the active duties of the field than to the deliberations of a legislative body, the figure which he made in parliament prior to the commencement of the civil war entitles him to a place among those patriots whose exertions imposed permanent and constitutional limits upon the royal prerogative. The zeal which he had already manifested in the cause of religion recommended him as a member of several committees, appointed from time to time by the House to inquire into the state of the church, and to devise means for its further reformation. He forthwith found himself among men not less inclined than he was to incur all the perils of innovation on the chance that some advantages might accrue to the public, or to their individual interests. The unfortunate dissolution in the preceding April had infused into their minds a deep sentiment of indignation, suspicion, and alarm; and they met in November, resolved not to separate until they had deprived the king both of the means and the power to resist or to punish their encroachments. " There was perceived," Lord Clarendon remarks, " a marvellous elated countenance in many of the members of parliament before they met together in the House; the same men who, six months before, were observed to be of very moderate tempers, and to wish that gentle remedies might be applied, talked now in another dialect, both of things and persons. They used much sharp discourse, and said that they must not only sweep the house clean below, but also pull down all the cobwebs which hung in the tops and c...« less