ABSTRACT
Historical research during the nineteenth century has removed many of the distortions which hitherto disfigured the image of Cromwell as handed down by his contemporaries. During the period from 1646 to 1648, in every respect a revolutionary epoch, he is inferior, in perceiving the political measures required and grasping a new situation, to others, more especially to the Levellers. In a revolution, where others argued about the respective rights of King and Parliament, he spoke of the rights of the people. His dauntless courage and his powers of speech made him the idol of the mob. The times were troubled, and whoever championed, as Lilburne did, the cause of the common people “could not but attack, one by one, all the constituted authorities”. The Moderate was one of the first papers to publish explanatory leading articles, or at least the embryo of such.
