UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND.

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to be either a persecutor or a meddler. But Oliver, the headof a party, and consequently, to a great extent, the slave'of a party, could not govern altogether according to his owninclinations. Even under his administration many magis-trates, within their own jurisdiction, made themselves asodious as Sir Hudibras, interfered with all the pleasures of theneighbourhood, dispersed festive meetings, and put fiddlersin the stocks. Still more formidable was the zeal of thesoldiers. In every village where they appeared there wasan end of dancing, bell-ringing, and hockey. In Londonthey several times interrupted theatrical performances atwhich the Protector had the judgment and good nature toconnive.

With the fear and hatred inspired by such a tyranny con-tempt was largely mingled. The peculiarities of the Puritan,his look, his dress, his dialect, his strange scruples, had been,ever since the time of Elizabeth, favourite subjects withmockers. But these peculiarities appeared far more gro-tesque in a faction which ruled a great empire than in obscureand persecuted congregations. The cant which had movedlaughter when it was heard on the stage from TribulationWholesome, and Zeal-of-tlie-Land Busy, was still morelaughable when it proceeded from the lips of Generals andCouncillors of state. It is also to be noted that during thecivil troubles several sects had sprung into existence, whoseeccentricities surpassed anything that had before been seenin England. A mad tailor, named Lodowick Muggleton,wandered from pot-house to pot-house, tippling ale, anddenouncing eternal torments against those who refused tobelieve, on his testimony, that the Supreme Being was onlysix feet high, and that the sun was just four miles from theearth. * George Fox had raised a tempest of derision by

* See Penn’s New Witnesses proved Old Heretics, and Muggleton’sWorks, passim..

Macaulay, History. 1. 11

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II.