in chief of all the forces of the parliament, being repealed, that high truft was immediately committed to Oliver Cromwell; who was glad to fee him removed, as being no longer neceffary, but rather an obftacle to his farther ambitious defigns.

For a kind of compenfation, the parliament fettled an annual revenue of five thousand pounds upon his lordship.

Being thus releafed from all public employment, he went and lived quietly at his own houfe in Nun-Appleton, in Yorkshire; always earnestly wishing and praying, as we are affured, for the reftitution of the royal family; and fully refolved to lay hold of the first good opportunity to contribute his part towards it; which made him always looked upon with a jealous eye by the ufurpers of that time. As foon as he was invited by general Monk to affift him against Lambert's army, he chearfully embraced the occafion, and appeared, on the third of December, 1659, at the head of a body of gentlemen of Yorkshire; and, upon the reputation and authority of his name, the Trith brigade, of one thousand two hundred horfe, forfook Lambert's army, and joined him.

The confequence was, the immediate breaking of all Lambert's forces; which gave general Monk an easy march into England. On the first of January, 1659-60, his lordship made himself mafter of York; and, on the fecond of the fame month, was chofen by the

rump

rump parliament one of the council of ftate, as he was again on the twenty-third of Febru ary enfuing. On the twenty-ninth of March he was elected one of the knights for the county of York, in the healing parliament;. and was at the head of the committee appointed, on the third of May, by the house of commons, to go and attend king Charles II. at the Hague; to defire him to make a speedy return to his parliament, and to the exercife of his kingly office.

On the fixteenth of May he waited upon his majefty with the reft, and attoned, in fome measure, for all paft offences, by readily concurring and affifting in his restoration. After the diffolution of the fhort healing parliament, he returned again to his feat in the country; where he lived in a private manner till his death, which happened on the twelfth of November, 1671, in the fixtieth year of his. age.

Several letters, remonftrances, and other papers, fubfcribed with his name, are preTerved in Rufhworth, and other collections, being published during the time he was general; but he difowns most of them. After his decease, Some Short Memorials, written by Himself, were published; which do him no great honour.

The lord Fairfax, as to his perfon, was tall, but not above the juft proportion; and of a gloomy and melancholy difpofition. He

F 6

fam

flammered a little, and was a bad orator in the most plaufible occafion.

As to the qualities of his mind, he was religious in the way he profeffed, which was prefbyterianifm; of a good natural disposition; a great lover of learning, having contributed to the edition of the Polyglott, and other large works; and a particular admirer of the history and antiquities of Great-Britain; witnefs the encouragement. he gave to Mr.

Dodfworth. He was of a meek and humble carriage, and but of few words in discourse and council; yet, when his judgment and reason were fatisfied, he was unalterable; and often ordered things exprefly contrary to the judgment of all his council.

His valour was unquestionable. He was daring, and no felf-feeker; and, in action in the field, he appeared fo highly transported, that fcarce any one durft speak a word to him, and he would feem like a man diftracted and furious:

His being outwitted by Cromwell, in fuffering himself to become the tool and property of that wicked and ambitious man, was his greatest blemish. Happy would it have been for the nation, happy for himself, if he had retired fooner.

THE

THE LIFE OF

JOHN MILTON.

Ja

OHN MILTON was defcended of an antient family of that name, at Milton, near Abingdon, in Oxfordshire. He was the fon of John Milton, a money-fcrivener, and born on the ninth of December, 1608. The family from which he defcended had been long feated there, as appears by the monuments ftill to be seen in the church of Milton, till one of them, having taken the unfortunate fide in the contefts between the houses of York and Lancaster, was deprived of his eftate, except what he held by all his wife. Our author's grandfather, whofe name was John Milton, was under-ranger, or reaper of the foreft of Shotover, near Halton, in Oxfordshire but a man of Milton's genius. needs not have the circumstances of birth called in to render him illuftrious, he reflects the highest honour upon his family, which receives from him more glory, than the longest defcent of years can give.

Milton was both educated under a domeftic tutor, and likewife at St. Paul's school, under Mr. Alexander Gill, where he made, by his indefatigable application, an extraor

dinary progress in learning. From his twelfth year he generally fat up all night at his Audies, which, accompanied with frequent headachs, proved very prejudicial to his eyes. In the year 1625 he was entered into Chrift's College in Cambridge, under the tuition of Mr. William Chappel, afterwards bishop of Rofs in Ireland, and even before that time, had diftinguished himself by feveral Latin and English poems.

After he had taken the degree of mafter of arts, in 1632, he left the univerfity, and. for the fpace of five years lived with his parents at their house at Horton, near Colbrook in Buckinghamshire, where his father having acquired a competent fortune, thought proper to retire, and fpend the remainder of his days.

In the year 1634 he wrote his mafque of Comus, performed at Ludlow-caftle, before John earl of Bridgewater, then prefident of Wales: it appears from the edition of this mafque, published by Mr. Henry Lawes, that the principal performers were, the lord Barclay, Mr.Thomas Egerton, the lady Alice Egerton and Mr. Lawes himself, who reprefented an attendant fpirit. In 1637 our author published his Lycidas; in this poem he laments the death of his friend Mr. Edward King, who was drowned in his paffage from Chefter, on the Irish feas, in 1637; it was printed the year following at Cambridge, in quarto, in a collection of Latin and English poems upon Mr. King's

death,