434 The HIS T 0 R Y of the PuRITANs. VoL. II. Oliver unblan:leable converfation. He died of a quartan ague December· 1 8. P";~~~~r. 1653 in an advanced age, very much lamented by his acquaintance and ~ brethren. C H A P. Ill. From the beginning of the proteEtorjhip of 0 L I v E R C R 0 M W E L L to his death. Sta!t of the I F the reader will carefully rev.iew the divided fiate of the nation at natton. this time, the firength of the feveral parties in oppofite interefis, and almofi: equal in power, each fanguine for his own fcheme of fettlement, and all confpiring againfi: the prefent, he will be furprized that any wife man lhould be prevailed with to put himfelf at the head of fuch a dif– tratled body; and yet more that fuch a genius lhould arife, who without any foreign alliances, lhould be capable of guarding againfi: fo many fo– reign and dome!l:ic enemies, and of fieering the commonwealth through fuch an hurricane, clear of the rocks and quickfands which threatened its ruin. Protellor This was the province that the enterprizing 0LIVER CROMWELL gives peace undertook, with the title and fiile of lord proretlor of the common– to the dutch. wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He affumed all the fiate and' ceremony of a crowned !Jead ; his houlhold officers and guards attended in their places, and his court appeared in as great fplendor, and more or– der, than had been feen at Whitehall lince queen Elizabeth's reign. His fir!l: concern was to fill the courts of jufi:ice with the ablefi: lawyers; Sir Matthew Hale was made lord chief ju!l:ice of the Common-PJeas; Mr. MaJ•nard, 'l'wifden, Newdigate, and Windham, ferjeants at law; Mr.. 'Ihurloe fecretary of fiate ; and Monk governor of Scotland. His next care was to deliver himfelf from his foreign enemies; for this purpofe he gave peace to the dutch; which the fame of his power enabled him to ac– complilh without the ceremony of a formal treaty ; he therefore fent his fecretary 'Ihur/oe with the conditions to which they were to fubmit; the . dutch pleaded for abatements, but his HIGPiNEss was at a point, and ob– liged them to deliver up the ifland of Polerone in the Eaft Indies, to pay three hundred thoufand pounds for the affair of Amboyna, to abandon the inte~
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