"Like the vain curlings of the watery maze Which in smooth streams a sinking weight does raise, So man, declining always, disappears In the weak circles of increasing years, And his short tumults of themselves compose, While flowing Time above his head does close. Cromwell alone with greater vigour runs, Sun-like, the stages of succeeding suns; And still the day which he doth next restore Is the just wonder of the day before. Cromwell alone doth with new lustre spring, And shines the jewel of the yearly ring; 'Tis he the force of scattered Time contracts, And in one year the work of ages acts."[1] [Footnote 1: Marvell's Works, edited by Dr. Grosart, I. 169-170.] But the most far-blazoned eulogy at the time, and the smoothest to read now, was one in forty-seven stanzas, which appeared May 31, 1655, with the title _A Panegyric to my Lord Protector of the present greatness and joint interest of his Highness and this Nation, by E. W., Esq._ The author was Edmund Waller, still under a cloud for his old transgression, but recovering himself gradually by his wealth, his plausibility and fine manners, and his powers of versifying. Here are four of the stanzas:-- "Your drooping country, torn by civil hate, Restored by you, is made a glorious state, The seat of Empire, where the Irish come, And the unwilling Scots, to fetch their doom. "The sea's our own; and now all nations greet, With bending sails, each vessel of our fleet; Your power extends as far as winds can blow, Or swelling sails upon the globe may go. "Heaven, that hath placed this Island to give law To balance Europe and its states to awe, In this conjunction doth on Britain smile,-- The greatest Leader and the greatest Isle .... "Had you some ages past this race of glory Run, with amazement we should read your story; But living virtue, all achievements past, Meets envy still to grapple with at last."[1] [Footnote 1: Waller's Poems: date of this from Thomason's Catalogue.] Waller's verses, if nothing else, would suggest that we ought to know something more, at this point, of the state of Scotland, Ireland, and even the Colonies, under Cromwell's Protectorate. SCOTLAND. After August 1654, when the Glencairn-Middleton insurrection had been suppressed (Vol. IV, p. 532), the administration of Scotland had been again for some time wholly in the hands of Monk, as the Commander-in-chief there, with assistance from the four resident English Judges and minor officials. Cromwell and his Council in London, however, had been thinking of a more regular method for the Government of Scotland; and, at length, in the end of July 1655, the following was the arrangement: I. CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT. COUNCIL, SITTING IN EDINBURGH. _President of Council_ (£2000 a year): Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill.