when the tide of royal favour turned. | secution, Jane was to be seduced into He conformed backwards and forwards treason. No transaction in our annals as the King changed his mind. He is more unjustifiable than this. If a heassisted, while Henry lived, in con-reditary title were to be respected, Mary demning to the flames those who denied possessed it. If a parliamentary title the doctrine of transubstantiation. He were preferable, Mary possessed that found out, as soon as Henry was dead, also. If the interest of the Protestant that the doctrine was false. He was, religion required a departure from the however, not at a loss for people to ordinary rule of succession, that inburn. The authority of his station and terest would have been best served by of his grey hairs was employed to over-raising Elizabeth to the throne. If the come the disgust with which an intel- foreign relations of the kingdom were ligent and virtuous child regarded per- considered, still stronger reasons might secution. Intolerance is always bad. be found for preferring Elizabeth to But the sanguinary intolerance of a Jane. There was great doubt whether man who thus wavered in his creed Jane or the Queen of Scotland had the excites a loathing, to which it is dif- better claim; and that doubt would, in ficult to give vent without calling foul all probability, have produced a war names. Equally false to political and both with Scotland and with France, to religious obligations, the primate was if the project of Northumberland had first the tool of Somerset, and then the not been blasted in its infancy. That tool of Northumberland. When the Elizabeth had a better claim than the Protector wished to put his own brother Queen of Scotland was indisputable. to death, without even the semblance To the part which Cranmer, and unforof a trial, he found a ready instrument tunately some better men than Cranmer, in Cranmer. law, which forbade a churchman to much of the severity with which the In spite of the canon took in this most reprehensible scheme, take any part in matters of blood, the Protestants were afterwards treated archbishop signed the warrant for the must in fairness be ascribed. atrocious sentence. When Somerset had been in his turn destroyed, his destroyer received the support of Cranmer in a wicked attempt to change the course of the succession.

and Cranmer recanted. Most people The plot failed; Popery triumphed; look on his recantation as a single blemish on The apology made for him by his in fact, his recantation was in strict an honourable life, the admirers only renders his conduct more accordance with the system on which frailty of an unguarded moment. But, contemptible. He complied, it is said, he had constantly acted. It was part against his better judgment, because of a regular habit. It was not the first he could not resist the entreaties of recantation that he had made; and, in Edward. A holy prelate of sixty, one all probability, if it had answered its would think, might be better employed purpose, it would not have been the by the bedside of a dying child, than in last. We do not blame him for not committing crimes at the request of choosing to be burned alive. It is no the young disciple. If Cranmer had very severe reproach to any person that shown half as much firmness when he does not possess heroic fortitude. Edward requested him to commit But surely a man who liked the fire so treason as he had before shown when little should have had some sympathy Edward requested him not to commit for others. A persecutor who inflicts nomurder, he might have saved the thing which he is not ready to endure country from one of the greatest mis- deserves some respect. fortunes that it ever underwent. He man who loves his doctrines more than became, from whatever motive, the ac- the lives of his neighbours, loves his But when a complice of the worthless Dudley. The own little finger better than his docvirtuous scruples of another young and trines, a very simple argument à foramiable mind were to be overcome. tiori will enable us to estimate the As Edward had been forced into per- amount of his benevolence.

But his martyrdom, it is said, re- | ficult to see from what motives, and on deemed every thing. It is extraor- what plan, such persons would be indinary that so much ignorance should exist on this subject. The fact is that, if a martyr be a man who chooses to die rather than to renounce his opinions, Cranmer was no more a martyr than Dr. Dodd. He died, solely because he could not help it. He never retracted his recantation till he found he had made it in vain. The Queen was fully resolved that, Catholic or Protestant, he should burn. Then he spoke out, as people generally speak out when they are at the point of death and have nothing to hope or to fear on earth. If Mary had suffered him to live, we suspect that he would have heard mass and received absolution, like a good Catholic, till the accession of Elizabeth, and that he would then have purchased, by another apostasy, the power of burning men better and braver than himself.

We do not mean, however, to represent him as a monster of wickedness. He was not wantonly cruel or treacherous. He was merely a supple, timid, interested courtier, in times of frequent and violent change. That which has always been represented as his distinguishing virtue, the facility with which he forgave his enemies, belongs to the character. Slaves of his class are never vindictive, and never grateful. A present interest effaces past services and past injuries from their minds together. Their only object is self-preservation; and for this they conciliate those who wrong them, just as they abandon those who serve them. Before we extol a man for his forgiving temper, we should inquire whether he is above revenge, or below it.

Somerset had as little principle as his coadjutor. Of Henry, an orthodox Catholic, except that he chose to be his own Pope, and of Elizabeth, who certainly had no objection to the theology of Rome, we need say nothing. These four persons were the great authors of the English Reformation. Three of them had a direct interest in the extension of the royal prerogative. The fourth was the ready tool of any who could frighten him. It is not dif

clined to remodel the Church. The
scheme was merely to transfer the full
cup of sorceries from the Babylonian
enchantress to other hands, spilling as
little as possible by the way. The Ca-
tholic doctrines and rites were to be
retained in the Church of England.
But the King was to exercise the con-
trol which had formerly belonged to the
Roman Pontiff. In this Henry for a
time succeeded. The extraordinary
force of his character, the fortunate si-
tuation in which he stood with respect
to foreign powers, and the vast re-
sources which the suppression of the
monasteries placed at his disposal,
enabled him to oppress both the re-
ligious factions equally. He punished
with impartial severity those who re-
nounced the doctrines of Rome, and
those who acknowledged her juris-
diction. The basis, however, on which
he attempted to establish his power
was too narrow to be durable. It
would have been impossible even for
him long to persecute both persuasions.
Even under his reign there had been
insurrections on the part of the Ca-
tholics, and signs of a spirit which was
likely soon to produce insurrection on
the part of the Protestants. It was
plainly necessary, therefore, that the
Crown should form an alliance with
one or with the other side.
To re-
cognise the Papal supremacy, would
have been to abandon the whole de-
sign. Reluctantly and sullenly the go-
vernment at last joined the Protestants.
In forming this junction, its object was
to procure as much aid as possible for
its selfish undertaking, and to make
the smallest possible concessions to the
spirit of religious innovation.

From this compromise the Church of England sprang. In many respects, indeed, it has been well for her that, in an age of exuberant zeal, her principal founders were mere politicians. To this circumstance she owes her moderate articles, her decent ceremonies, her noble and pathetic liturgy. Her worship is not disfigured by mummery. Yet she has preserved, in a far greater degree than any of her Pro

testant sisters, that art of striking the | by considering conformity and loyalty senses and filling the imagination in as identical, at length made them so. which the Catholic Church so emi- With respect to the Catholics, indeed, nently excels. But, on the other hand, the rigour of persecution abated after she continued to be, for more than a her death. James soon found that hundred and fifty years, the servile they were unable to injure him, and handmaid of monarchy, the steady that the animosity which the Puritan enemy of public liberty. The divine party felt towards them drove them of right of kings, and the duty of passively necessity to take refuge under his obeying all their commands, were her throne. During the subsequent confavourite tenets. She held those tenets flict, their fault was any thing but disfirmly through times of oppression, loyalty. persecution, and licentiousness; while hated the Puritans with more than the On the other hand, James law was trampled down; while judg-hatred of Elizabeth. ment was perverted; while the people them was political; his was personal. were eaten as though they were bread. The sect had plagued him in Scotland, Her aversion to Once, and but once, for a moment, and where he was weak; and he was debut for a moment, when her own termined to be even with them in Engdignity and property were touched, land, where he was powerful. Perseshe forgot to practise the submission cution gradually changed a sect into a which she had taught. the religious opinions of the Puritans faction. which rendered them hostile to moThat there was any thing in narchy has never been proved to our

her own.

Elizabeth clearly discerned the advantages which were to be derived from a close connection between the monarchy and the priesthood. At the satisfaction. time of her accession, indeed, she evi- it became the fashion to say that Presdently meditated a partial reconciliation byterianism was connected with ReAfter our civil contests, with Rome; and, throughout her whole publicanism; just as it has been the life, she leaned strongly to some of the fashion to say, since the time of the most obnoxious parts of the Catholic French Revolution, that Infidelity is system. But her imperious temper, connected with Republicanism. It is her keen sagacity, and her peculiar situation, soon led her to attach herself completely to a church which was all which she joined it, she attempted to On the same principle on drive all her people within its pale by persecution. She supported it by severe penal laws, not because she thought conformity to its discipline necessary to salvation; but because it was the fastness which arbitrary power was making strong for itself; because she expected a more profound obedience from those who saw in her both their civil and their ecclesiastical chief, than from those who, like the Papists, cribed spiritual authority to the Pope, or from those who, like some of the asPuritans, ascribed it only to Heaven. To dissent from her establishment was to dissent from an institution founded with an express view to the maintenance and extension of the royal prerogative.

perfectly true that a church, constituted on the Calvinistic model, will not strengthen the hands of the sovereign of several ranks, differing in dignity so much as a hierarchy which consists and emolument, and of which all the members are constantly looking to the Government for promotion. But experience has clearly shown that a Calvinistic church, like every other church, is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favoured and cherished. Scotland has had a Presbyterian establishment during a century and a half during that period, given half so much trouble to the government as the ConYet her General Assembly has nc, vocation of the Church of England gave during the thirty years which followed the Revolution. That James and Charles should have been mistaken in this point is not surprising. But we men of our own time, men who have are astonished, we must confess, that

This great Queen and her successors,

Hyde extols its loyal and

before them the proof of what tolera- | wonderful. tion can effect, men who may see with conciliatory spirit. Its conduct, we their own eyes that the Presbyterians are told, made the excellent Falkland are no such monsters when government in love with the very name of Parliais wise enough to let them alone, should defend the persecutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as indispensable to the safety of the church and the throne.

ment. We think, indeed, with Oliver St. John, that its moderation was carried too far, and that the times required sharper and more decided councils. It was fortunate, however, How persecution protects churches that the King had another opportunity and thrones was soon made manifest. of showing that hatred of the liberties A systematic political opposition, vehe- of his subjects which was the ruling ment, daring, and inflexible, sprang principle of all his conduct. The sole from a schism about trifles, altogether crime of the Commons was that, meetunconnected with the real interests of ing after a long intermission of parliareligion or of the state. Before the ments, and after a long series of cruelclose of the reign of Elizabeth this op-ties and illegal imposts, they seemed position began to show itself. It broke inclined to examine grievances before forth on the question of the mono- they would vote supplies. For this inpolies. Even the imperial Lioness was solence they were dissolved almost as compelled to abandon her prey, and soon as they met. slowly and fiercely to recede before the assailants. The spirit of liberty grew with the growing wealth and intelligence of the people. The feeble struggles and insults of James irritated instead of suppressing it; and the events which immediately followed the accession of his son portended a contest of no common severity, between a king resolved to be absolute, and a people resolved to be free.

The famous proceedings of the third Parliament of Charles, and the tyrannical measures which followed its dissolution, are extremely well described by Mr. Hallam. No writer, we think, has shown, in so clear and satisfactory a manner, that the Government then entertained a fixed purpose of destroying the old parliamentary constitution of England, or at least of reducing it to a mere shadow. We hasten, however, to a part of his work which, though it abounds in valuable information and in remarks well deserving to be attentively considered, and though it is, like the rest, evidently written in a spirit of perfect impartiality, appears to us, in many points, objectionable.

We pass to the year 1640. The fate of the short Parliament held in that year clearly indicated the views of the King. That a Parliament so moderate in feeling should have met after BO many years of oppression is truly

Defeat, universal agitation, financial embarrassments, disorganization in every part of the government, compelled Charles again to convene the Houses before the close of the same year. Their meeting was one of the great eras in the history of the civilised world. Whatever of political freedom exists either in Europe or in America, has sprung, directly or indirectly, from those institutions which they secured and reformed. We never turn to the annals of those times without feeling increased admiration of the patriotism, the energy, the decision, the consummate wisdom, which marked the measures of that great Parliament, from the day on which it met to the commencement of civil hostilities.

The impeachment of Strafford was the first, and perhaps the greatest blow. The whole conduct of that celebrated man proved that he had formed a deliberate scheme to subvert the fundamental laws of England. Those parts of his correspondence which have been brought to light since his death place the matter beyond a doubt. One of his admirers has, indeed, offered to show "that the passages which Mr. Hallam has invidiously extracted from the correspondence between Laud and Strafford, as proving their design to introduce a thorough tyranny, refer not to any such design, but to a thorough

reform in the affairs of state, and the thorough maintenance of just authority." We will recommend two or three of these passages to the especial notice of our readers.

all to be governed by their year-books, you in England have a costly example." We are really curious to know by what arguments it is to be proved, that the power of interfering in the law-suits of individuals is part of the just authority of the executive government.

All who know any thing of those times, know that the conduct of Hampden in the affair of the ship- It is not strange that a man so caremoney met with the warm approbation less of the common civil rights, which of every respectable Royalist in Eng- even despots have generally respected, land. It drew forth the ardent eulo- should treat with scorn the limitations gies of the champions of the preroga- which the constitution imposes on the tive and even of the Crown lawyers royal prerogative. We might quote themselves. Clarendon allows Hamp- pages: but we will content ourselves den's demeanour through the whole with a single specimen:-"The debts proceeding to have been such, that even of the Crown being taken off, you may those who watched for an occasion govern as you please: and most resoagainst the defender of the people, were lute I am that may be done without compelled to acknowledge themselves borrowing any help forth of the King's unable to find any fault in him. That lodgings." he was right in the point of law is now Such was the theory of that thorough universally admitted. Even had it reform in the state which Strafford been otherwise, he had a fair case. meditated. His whole practice, from Five of the Judges, servile as our Courts the day on which he sold himself to the then were, pronounced in his favour. court, was in strict conformity to his The majority against him was the theory. For his accomplices various smallest possible. In no country re- excuses may be urged, ignorance, imtaining the slightest vestige of consti- becility, religious bigotry. But Wenttutional. liberty can a modest and worth had no such plea. His intellect decent appeal to the laws be treated as was capacious. His early prepossessions a crime. Strafford, however, recom- were on the side of popular rights. He mends that, for taking the sense of a knew the whole beauty and value of legal tribunal on a legal question, the system which he attempted to deHampden should be punished, and face. He was the first of the Rats, the punished severely, "whipt," says the in- first of those statesmen whose patriotism solent apostate, "whipt into his senses. has been only the coquetry of political If the rod," he adds, “be so used that prostitution, and whose profligacy has it smarts not, I am the more sorry." taught governments to adopt the old This is the maintenance of just au- maxim of the slave-market, that it is thority. cheaper to buy than to breed, to imIn civilised nations, the most arbi-port defenders from an Opposition than trary governments have generally to rear them in a Ministry. He was suffered justice to have a free course in the first Englishman to whom a peerage private suits. Strafford wished to make was a sacrament of infamy, a baptism every cause in every court subject to into the communion of corruption. As the royal prerogative. He complained he was the earliest of the hateful list, that in Ireland he was not permitted to so was he also by far the greatest; elomeddle in cases between party and quent, sagacious, adventurous, intrepid, party. "I know very well," says he, ready of invention, immutable of pur"that the common lawyers will be pose, in every talent which exalts or passionately against it, who are wont destroys nations preeminent, the lost to put such a prejudice upon all other Archangel, the Satan of the apostasy. professions, as if none were to be trusted, The title for which, at the time of his or capable to administer justice, but desertion, he exchanged a name hothemselves; yet how well this suits nourably distinguished in the cause of with monarchy, when they monopolise | the people, reminds us of the appellation