3-074-916 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Father of the Regiment, drawn by Davidson Knowles, 1883. 'The officers...of the Puritan Commonwealth, the Army of the "New Model," constructed by Oliver Cromwell...were accustomed to exercise their "gift of preaching," and their "gift of prayer," for the edification of their comrades wherever they halted on the march. Macaulay, in the first chapter of his graphic and lively History, describes one of these religious meetings of soldiery, "at which a Corporal, versed in Scripture, would lead the devotions..." He remarks that such a practice as this (which is the subject of our Illustration) might seem quite incompatible with military discipline, but that the men who distinguished themselves, off duty, as demagogues and field preachers, were the steadiest, the most orderly, and the most obedient, on drill, on the watch, and in the field of battle. It is true that they behaved as good soldiers during the war; but Macaulay forgets that they afterwards broke out in frequent mutinies, conspiracies, and military insurrections...The rapid depravation and corruption of the whole Puritan Commonwealth establishment proved that it was founded on wrong principles, and essentially adverse to the sentiments of the English nation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.