Nothing was said about the wickedness of resistance till resistance had done its work, till the anointed vicegerent of Heaven had been driven away, and till it had become plain that he would never be restored, or would be restored at least under strict limitations. The clergy went back, it must be owned, to their old theory, as soon as they found that it would do them no harm.

It is principally to the general base

honour in comparison of it. The perfidy of Arnold approaches it most nearly. In our age and country no talents, no services, no party attachments, could bear any man up under such mountains of infamy. Yet, even before Churchill had performed those great actions which in some degree redeem his character with posterity, the load lay very lightly on him. He had others in abundance to keep him in countenance. Godolphin, Orford, Danby, the trimmer Halifax, the rene-ness and profligacy of the times that gade Sunderland, were all men of the Clarendon is indebted for his high resame class. putation. He was, in every respect, a Where such was the political mora- man unfit for his age, at once too good lity of the noble and the wealthy, it for it and too bad for it. He seemed may easily be conceived that those to be one of the ministers of Elizabeth, professions which, even in the best transplanted at once to a state of sotimes, are peculiarly liable to corrup-ciety widely different from that in tion, were in a frightful state. Such a which the abilities of such ministers bench and such a bar England has had been serviceable. In the sixteenth never seen. Jones, Scroggs, Jefferies, century, the Royal prerogative had North, Wright, Sawyer, Williams, are scarcely been called in question. A to this day the spots and blemishes of Minister who held it high was in no our legal chronicles. Differing in danger, so long as he used it well. constitution and in situation, whether That attachment to the Crown, that blustering or cringing, whether per- extreme jealousy of popular encroachsecuting Protestants or Catholics, they ments, that love, half religious half powere equally unprincipled and in-litical, for the Church, which, from the human. The part which the Church beginning of the second session of the played was not equally atrocious; but Long Parliament, showed itself in Clait must have been exquisitely divert-rendon, and which his sufferings, his ing to a scoffer. Never were principles long residence in France, and his high so loudly professed, and so shamelessly station in the government, served to abandoned. The Royal prerogative strengthen, would, a hundred years had been magnified to the skies in earlier, have secured to him the favour theological works. The doctrine of of his sovereign without rendering him passive obedience had been preached odious to the people. His probity, his from innumerable pulpits. The Uni- correctness in private life, his decency versity of Oxford had sentenced the of deportment, and his general ability, works of the most moderate constitu- would not have misbecome a colleague tionalists to the flames. The accession of Walsingham and Burleigh. But, in of a Catholic King, the frightful cruel- the times on which he was cast, his ties committed in the west of England, errors and his virtues were alike out of never shook the steady loyalty of the place. He imprisoned men without clergy. But did they serve the King trial. He was accused of raising unfor nought? He laid his hand on lawful contributions on the people for them, and they cursed him to his face. the support of the army. The aboHe touched the revenue of a college lition of the act which ensured the and the liberty of some prelates; and frequent holding of Parliaments was the whole profession set up a yell one of his favourite objects. He seems worthy of Hugh Peters himself. Ox- to have meditated the revival of the ford sent her plate to an invader with more alacrity than she had shown when Charles the First requested it.

Star Chamber and the High Commission Court. His zeal for the prerogative made him unpopular; but it

both by the Court and by the Opposition.

would not secure to him the favour of a master far more desirous of ease and pleasure than of power. Charles would rather have lived in exile and privacy, with abundance of money, a crowd of mimics to amuse him, and a score of mistresses, than have purchased the absolute dominion of the world by the privations and exertions to which Clarendon was constantly urging him. A councillor who was always bringing him papers and giving him advice, and who stoutly refused to compliment Lady Castlemaine and to carry messages to Mistress Stewart, soon became more hateful to him than ever Cromwell had been. Thus, considered by the people as an oppressor, by the Court as a censor, the Minister fell from his high office with a ruin more violent and destructive than could ever have been his fate, if he had either respected the principles of the Constitution or flat-tertains towards those domestic foes tered the vices of the King.

These pecuniary transactions are commonly considered as the most disgraceful part of the history of those times; and they were no doubt highly reprehensible. Yet, in justice to the Whigs and to Charles himself, we must admit that they were not so shameful or atrocious as at the present day they appear. The effect of violent animosities between parties has always been an indifference to the general welfare and honour of the State. A politician, where factions run high, is interested not for the whole people, but for his own section of it. The rest are, in his view, strangers, enemies, or rather pirates. The strongest aversion which he can feel to any foreign power is the ardour of friendship, when compared with the loathing which he en

with whom he is cooped up in a narrow Mr. Hallam has formed, we think, a space, with whom he lives in a constant most correct estimate of the character interchange of petty injuries and inand administration of Clarendon. But sults, and from whom, in the day of he scarcely makes a sufficient allow their success, he has to expect seveance for the wear and tear which ho- rities far beyond any that a conqueror nesty almost necessarily sustains in the from a distant country would inflict. friction of political life, and which, in Thus, in Greece, it was a point of hotimes so rough as those through which nour for a man to cleave to his party Clarendon passed, must be very con- against his country. No aristocratical siderable. When these are fairly esti- citizen of Samos or Corcyra would have mated, we think that his integrity may hesitated to call in the aid of Lacebe allowed to pass muster. A high- dæmon. The multitude, on the conminded man he certainly was not, trary, looked every where to Athens. either in public or in private affairs. In the Italian states of the thirteenth His own account of his conduct in the and fourteenth centuries, from the same affair of his daughter is the most ex- cause, no man was so much a Pisan or traordinary passage in autobiography. a Florentine as a Ghibeline or a Guelf. We except nothing even in the Con- It may be doubted whether there was fessions of Rousseau. Several writers a single individual who would have have taken a perverted and absurd scrupled to raise his party from a state pride in representing themselves as of depression, by opening the gates of detestable; but no other ever laboured his native city to a French or an Arrahard to make himself despicable and gonese force. The Reformation, diridiculous. In one important parti-viding almost every European country cular Clarendon showed as little regard to the honour of his country as he had shown to that of his family. He accepted a subsidy from France for the relief of Portugal. But this method of obtaining money was afterwards practised to a much greater extent and for objects much less respectable,

into two parts, produced similar effects. The Catholic was too strong for the Englishman, the Huguenot for the Frenchman. The Protestant statesmen of Scotland and France called in the aid of Elizabeth; and the Papists of the League brought a Spanish army into the very heart of France. The

commotions to which the French Re- | from the foreign powers favourable to volution gave rise were followed by the Pretender. the same consequences. The Repub- Never was there less of national licans in every part of Europe were feeling among the higher orders than eager to see the armies of the National during the reign of Charles the Second. Convention and the Directory appear That Prince, on the one side, thought among them, and exulted in defeats it better to be the deputy of an absowhich distressed and humbled those lute king than the King of a free whom they considered as their worst people. Algernon Sydney, on the enemies, their own rulers. The princes and nobles of France, on the other hand, did their utmost to bring foreign invaders to Paris. A very short time has elapsed since the Apostolical party in Spain invoked, too successfully, the support of strangers.

other hand, would gladly have aided France in all her ambitious schemes, and have seen England reduced to the condition of a province, in the wild hope that a foreign despot would assist him to establish his darling republic. The King took the money of The great contest which raged in France to assist him in the enterprise England during the seventeenth cen- which he meditated against the liberty tury extinguished, not indeed in the of his subjects, with as little scruple as body of the people, but in those classes Frederic of Prussia or Alexander of which were most actively engaged in Russia accepted our subsidies in time politics, almost all national feelings. of war. The leaders of the Opposition Charles the Second and many of his no more thought themselves disgraced courtiers had passed a large part of by the presents of Lewis, than a gentheir lives in banishment, living on the tleman of our own time thinks himself bounty of foreign treasuries, soliciting disgraced by the liberality of powerful foreign aid to re-establish monarchy in and wealthy members of his party who their native country. The King's own pay his election bill. The money which brother had fought in Flanders, under the King received from France had the banners of Spain, against the En- been largely employed to corrupt glish armies. The oppressed Cavaliers members of Parliament. The enemies in England constantly looked to the of the court might think it fair, or even Louvre and the Escurial for deliverance absolutely necessary, to encounter bri and revenge. Clarendon censures the bery with bribery. Thus they took continental governments with great bit- the French gratuities, the needy terness for not interfering in our in- among them for their own use, the rich ternal dissensions. It is not strange, probably for the general purposes of therefore, that, amidst the furious con- the party, without any scruple. If we tests which followed the Restoration, compare their conduct not with that the violence of party feeling should of English statesmen in our own time, produce effects which would probably but with that of persons in those fohave attended it even in an age less reign countries which are now situated distinguished by laxity of principle and as England then was, we shall proindelicacy of sentiment. It was not bably see reason to abate something of till a natural death had terminated the the severity of censure with which paralytic old age of the Jacobite party it has been the fashion to visit those that the evil was completely at an end. proceedings. Yet when every allowThe Whigs long looked to Holland, ance is made, the transaction is suffithe High Tories to France. The former ciently offensive. It is satisfactory to concluded the Barrier Treaty; the find that Lord Russell stands free from latter entreated the Court of Versailles any imputation of personal participato send an expedition to England. tion in the spoil An age so miserably Many men, who, however erroneous poor in all the moral qualities which their political notions might be, were render public characters respectable unquestionably honourable in private can ill spare the credit which it derives life, accepted money without scruple from a man, not indeed conspicuous

for talents or knowledge, but honest ashamed to do. Through the whole even in his errors, respectable in every transaction no commanding talents relation of life, rationally pious, steadily were displayed by any Englishman; and placidly brave. no extraordinary risks were run; no sacrifices were made for the deliverance of the nation, except the sacrifice which Churchill made of honour, and Anne of natural affection.

would produce an equally violent reaction, than that too little would be done in the way of change. But narrowness of intellect, and flexibility of principle, though they may be serviceable, can never be respectable.

The great improvement which took place in our breed of public men is principally to be ascribed to the Revolution. Yet that memorable event, in a great measure, took its character It was in some sense fortunate, as from the very vices which it was the we have already said, for the Church means of reforming. It was assuredly of England, that the Reformation in a happy revolution, and a useful revo- this country was effected by men who lution; but it was not, what it has cared little about religion. And, in often been called, a glorious revolution. the same manner, it was fortunate for William, and William alone, derived our civil government that the Revoluglory from it. The transaction was, tion was in a great measure effected in almost every part, discreditable to by men who cared little about their England. That a tyrant who had vio-political principles. At such a crisis, lated the fundamental laws of the splendid talents and strong passions country, who had attacked the rights might have done more harm than of its greatest corporations, who had good. There was far greater reason begun to persecute the established to fear that too much would be atreligion of the state, who had never tempted, and that violent movements respected the law either in his superstition or in his revenge, could not be pulled down without the aid of a foreign army, is a circumstance not very grateful to our national pride. Yet this is the least degrading part of the story. The shameless insincerity If in the Revolution itself, there was of the great and noble, the warm assur- little that can properly be called gloances of general support which James rious, there was still less in the events received, down to the moment of ge- which followed. In a church which neral desertion, indicate a meanness of had as one man declared the doctrine spirit and a looseness of morality most of resistance unchristian, only four disgraceful to the age. That the enter-hundred persons refused to take the prise succeeded, at least that it suc- oath of allegiance to a government ceeded without bloodshed or commo-founded on resistance. In the pretion, was principally owing to an act of ungrateful perfidy, such as no soldier had ever before committed, and to those monstrous fictions respecting the birth of the Prince of Wales which persons of the highest rank were not The churchmen, at the time of the ashamed to circulate. In all the pro- Revolution, justified their conduct by ceedings of the convention, in the con- all those profligate sophisms which are ference particularly, we see that little- called Jesuitical, and which are comness of mind which is the chief charac-monly reckoned among the peculiar teristic of the times. The resolutions sins of Popery, but which, in fact, are on which the two Houses at last every where the anodynes employed agreed were as bad as any resolutions by minds rather subtle than strong, for so excellent a purpose could be. to quiet those internal twinges which Their feeble and contradictory lan- they cannot but feel and which they guage was evidently intended to save will not obey. As the oath taken by the credit of the Tories, who were the clergy was in the teeth of their ashamed to name what they were not principles, so was their conduct in the

ceding generation, both the Episcopal and the Presbyterian clergy, rather than concede points of conscience not more important, had resigned their livings by thousands.

teeth of their oath. Their constant | harvest of vices sown during thirty machinations against the Government years of licentiousness and confusion to which they had sworn fidelity was gathered in; but it was also the brought a reproach on their order and seed-time of great virtues. on Christianity itself. A distinguished prelate has not scrupled to say that the rapid increase of infidelity at that time was principally produced by the disgust which the faithless conduct of his brethren excited in men not sufficiently candid or judicious to discern the beauties of the system amidst the vices of its ministers.

The press was emancipated from the censorship soon after the Revolution; and the Government immediately fell under the censorship of the press. Statesmen had a scrutiny to endure which was every day becoming more and more severe. The extreme violence of opinions abated. The Whigs learned moderation in office; the Tories learned the principles of liberty in opposition. The parties almost constantly approximated, often met, sometimes crossed each other. There were occasional bursts of violence; but, from the time of the Revolution, those bursts were constantly becoming less and less terrible. The severity with which the Tories, at the close of the reign of Anne, treated some of those who had directed the public affairs during

But the reproach was not confined to the Church. In every political party in the Cabinet itself, duplicity and perfidy abounded. The very men whom William loaded with benefits and in whom he reposed most confidence, with his seals of office in their hands, kept up a correspondence with the exiled family. Orford, Leeds, and Shrewsbury were guilty of this odious treachery. Even Devonshire is not altogether free from suspicion. It may the war of the Grand Alliance, and well be conceived that, at such a time, such a nature as that of Marlborough would riot in the very luxury of baseness. His former treason, thoroughly furnished with all that makes infamy exquisite, placed him under the dis- ders had disgraced our history toadvantage which attends every artist wards the close of the reign of Charles from the time that he produces a mas- the Second. At the fall of Walpole terpiece. Yet his second great stroke far greater moderation was displayed. may excite wonder, even in those who And from that time it has been the appreciate all the merit of the first. practice, a practice not strictly accordLest his admirers should be able to ing to the theory of our Constitution, say that at the time of the Revo- but still most salutary, to consider the lution he had betrayed his King from loss of office, and the public disapproany other than selfish motives, he pro-bation, as punishments sufficient for ceeded to betray his country. He errors in the administration not impusent intelligence to the French court table to personal corruption. Nothing, of a secret expedition intended to we believe, has contributed more than attack Brest. The consequence was this lenity to raise the character of pubthat the expedition failed, and that lic men. Ambition is of itself a game eight hundred British soldiers lost sufficiently hazardous and sufficiently their lives from the abandoned villany deep to inflame the passions without of a British general. Yet this man adding property, life, and liberty to the has been canonized by so many emi- stake. Where the play runs so despenent writers that to speak of him as he rately high as in the seventeenth cendeserves may seem scarcely decent. tury, honour is at an end. Statesmen instead of being, as they should be, at once mild and steady, are at once ferocious and inconsistent. The axe is for ever before their eyes. A popular outcry sometimes unnerves them, and some

the retaliatory measures of the Whigs, after the accession of the House of Hanover, cannot be justified; but they were by no means in the style of the infuriated parties, whose alternate mur

The reign of William the Third, as Mr. Hallam happily says, was the Nadir of the national prosperity. It was also the Nadir of the national character. It was the time when the rank