The New York Packet

To form Great Britain and the United Provinces into one republic, was a very favorite project of Oliver Cromwell's. The following speech of his on that subject to the Dutch Ambassador, is translated from the French of Banage—Annales des Provinces Unies:

'We enjoy the same religion, nor can we do any thing more agreeable to the Deity, or better resist the enemies of our holy reformation, than by uniting ourselves strictly together. No personal interest engages me to propose the union of the two republics; the avowed object of all my actions has been the glory of God, a sufficient test of my sincerity. Satisfied with being the instrument of Heaven in performing a work of such consequence to religion, I desire no individual advantage from it. Let the two nations constitute one & the same people. Let them be governed by one Sovereign Parliament, in which the United Provinces shall have their deputies. I, in the same degree with every other subject, will obey this august tribunal; I will retain no authority but what they shall think proper to delegate to my hands.'

We have given the above curious fact, as it is little known in this country, and hardly mentioned by any of our historians.