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complished those designs without the assistance of a great spirit, an admirable circumspection and sagacity, and a most magnanimous resolution.

When he appeared first in the parliament, he seemed to have a person in no degree gracious, no ornament of discourse, none of those talents which use to conciliate the affections of the stander-by. Yet as he grew into place and authority, his parts seemed to be raised, as if he had concealed faculties, till he had occasion to use them; and when he was to act the part of a great man, he did it without any indecency, notwithstanding the want of custom.

After he was confirmed and invested Protector by the humble petition and advice, he consulted with very few upon any action of importance, nor communicated any enterprise he resolved upon with more than those who were to have principal parts in the execution of it; nor with them sooner than was absolutely necessary. What he once resolved, in which he was not rash, he would not be dissuaded from, nor endure any contradiction of his power and authority, but extorted obedience from them who were not willing to yield it. . . .

Thus he subdued a spirit that had been often troublesome to the most sovereign power, and made Westminster Hall as obedient and subservient to his commands as any of the rest of his quarters. In all other matters, which did not concern the life of his jurisdiction, he seemed to have great reverence for the law, rarely interposing between party and party. As he proceeded with this kind of indignation and haughtiness with those who were refractory, and durst contend with his greatness, towards all who complied with his good pleasure, and courted his protection, he used great civility, generosity, and bounty.

To reduce three nations, which perfectly hated him, to an entire obedience to all his dictates; to awe and govern those nations by an army that was indevoted to him, and wished his ruin, was an instance of very prodigious address. But his greatness at home was but a shadow of the glory he had abroad. It was hard to discover which feared him most, France, Spain, or the Low Countries, where his friendship was current at the value he put upon it. As they did all sacrifice their honour and their interest to his pleasure, so there is nothing he could have demanded that either of them would have denied him.

To conclude his character: Cromwell was not so far a man of blood as to follow Machiavel's method; which prescribes, upon a total alteration of government, as a thing absolutely necessary, to cut off all the heads of those, and extirpate their families, who are friends to the old one. It was confidently reported, that in the council of officers it was more than once proposed that there might be a general massacre of all the royal party, as the only expedient to secure the government,' but that Cromwell would never consent to it; it may be, out of too great a contempt of his enemies. In a word. as he was guilty of many crimes against which damnation is denounced, and for which hell-fire is prepared, so he had some good qualities which have caused the memory of some men in all ages to be celebrated; and he will be looked upon by posterity as a brave wicked man.

BULSTRODE WHITELOCKE.

BULSTRODE WHITELOCKE (1605-1676), an eminent lawyer, who wrote Memorials of English Affairs' from the beginning of the reign of Charles I. to the Restoration, was of principles opposite to those of Lord Clarendon, though, like Selden and other moderate anti-royalists, he was averse to a civil war. Whitelocke was the legal adviser of Hampden during the prosecution of that celebrated patriot for refusing to pay ship-money. As a member of parliament, and one of the commissioners appointed to treat with the king of Oxford, he advocated pacific measures; and, being an enemy to arbitrary power both in church and state, he refused, in the Westminister Assembly for settling the form of church-government, to admit the assumed divine right of presbytery. Under Cromwell he held several high appointments; and during the government of the Pro

tector's son Richard, acted as one of the keepers of the great seal. At the Restoration, he retired to his estate in Wiltshire, which continued to be his principal residence till his death in 1676. Whitelocke's 'Memorials' not having been intended for publication, are almost wholly written in the form of a diary, and are to be regarded rather as a collection of historical materials than as history itself. In a posthumous volume of Essays, Ecclesiastical and Civil,' he strongly advocates religious toleration.

BISHOP BURNET.

GILBERT BURNET, Bishop of Salisbury, was one of the most remarkable men of his age, equally active and equally eminent as an historian, a politician, and a theologian. He was a native of Edinburgh, born September 18, 1643. His father, a lawyer, was a royalist and an Episcopalian, and after the Restoration, was raised to the bench as a Scottish judge. His mother was a no less decided Presbyterian, being a-sister of the famous Covenanting leader and republican, Johnston of Warriston, who was created a peer by Cromwell, and in the subsequent reign of Charles, was, by a mockery of legal forms and of justice, put to death. Young Gilbert Burnet adhered to the Episcopalian side of his house, but his divided parental allegiance in church matters probably first taught him the value of religious toleration. He was an M.A. of Aberdeen University before he was fourteen years of age, and he afterward studied Hebrew under a learned rabbi in Holland. Entering the church, he was five years minister of Salton, in Haddingtonshire, whence he removed to Glasgow as professor of divinity. Always zealous and ambitious, Burnet wrote pamphlets in favour of reconciling the churches, remedying abuses, and vindicating the authority and constitution of the church and state in Scotland. He was offered, but refused, a bishopric; and opposing the Scottish administration of Lauderdale, he removed to London, where he obtained the appointment of preacher at the Rolls Chapel, and lecturer at St. Clement's.

As a preacher, Burnet was highly popular. His appearance and action were commanding, his manner was frank and open, and he was a great master of extemporaneous eloquence. It was then customary for congregations admiring their ministers to express approbation of particular passages by a deep hum, and Burnet's hearers, it is said, used to hum so long and loud that he would, during the pause, sit down and wipe the perspiration from his forehead. The hour-glass was also used in the pulpit, and when the stated time for the sermon was exhausted, Burnet's hummers would encourage him to turn up the glass, and run off the sand once more. His reputation was raised still higher by the publication, in 1679, of the first volume of his History of the Reformation of the Church of England,' of which the second volume appeared in 1681, and a supplementary volume in 1714. This able work is still the best history of the im

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portant period of which it treats. 'Some Passages in the Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester '-the libertine peer and poet, whom Burnet had attended on his death-bed-appeared in 1680, and added to the impression of Burnet's talents and piety. Such services seemed to call for church preferment, and Charles would have pressed a bishopric on the popular divine; but Burnet declined court favour. He even went the length of writing a strong remonstrance to the king on the errors of his government and his personal vices. Charles threw the letter into the fire; but when Burnet attended Lord William Russell to the scaffold, and wrote an account of the noble sufferer's last moments, the profligate monarch was so incensed that he discharged Burnet from his lectureship, and prohibited him from preaching at the Rolls Chapel.

The divine, however, went on writing treatises and sermons in favour of toleration, and he compiled Lives of Sir Matthew Hale and Bishop Bedell (1682 and 1685). He next travelled in Switzerland and Italy, of which he wrote a narrative; and settling at the Hague in 1686, became one of the counsellors and adherents of the party of William of Orange. In the revolution of 16 8, he was one of the chief actors, accompanying William to England in the capacity of chaplain. He was rewarded with the bishopric of Salisbury. As a prelate, Burnet was distinguished for liberality and devoted attention to his duties. He was never indifferent, never idle, and besides discharging the duties of his see, and originating various schemes, he wrote his 'Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles,' which is still a standard theological work. He died in 1715. Burnet left for publication the work by which he is now most popularly known, the History of his Own Time,' giving an outline of the events of the Civil War and Commonwealth, and a full narrative of the succeeding period down to 1713. As he had, under various circumstances, personally known the conspicuous characters of a whole century, and penetrated most of the state secrets of a period nearly as long, he was able to relate events in his memoirs with a fulness and authority not inferior to Clarendon, and in a more easy, idiomatic style, though allowance must also in his case be made for the influence, unconsciously, of political and personal prejudices. Foreseeing that the freedom with which he delivered his opinions and strictures would give offence in many quarters, Burnet left an injunction in his wil that his History should not be published till six years after his death, so that it did not make its appearance till 1723, and even then some passages—now restored—were omitted by his sons. Its publication, as might have been expected, was a signal for numerous attacks on the reputation of the author, whose candour and veracity were loudly impeached.

All the Tory and Jacobite pens of the age were pointed against the History. Swift, Dartmouth, Lansdowne, and numerous others, proclaimed it to be grossly partial and inaccurate. Pope and Arbuth

not ridiculed the egotistic style of Burnet, but Pope asserted that the humorous Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of this Parish,' were written during Burnet's lifetime, though not published before 1727. Hume and later historians continued the depreciatory attacks, and, indeed, they cannot yet be said to have ceased. Whoever writes of the period included in Burnet's History, or of its leading public characters, must consult that work; and it presents many points for assault on the part of those who differ from the theological and political views so broadly and complacently advanced by the author. Burnet was a strong partisan, somewhat credulous, and a minute, garrulous describer of events, great and small. But he was emphatically an honest, generous, and good-natured man. He appealed to the God of truth that he had on all occasions in his work told the truth, and, however mistaken he may be on some points, he is justly entitled to the praise of having been a faithful chronicler. That he is a lively and interesting one, has never been disputed. His book is one of the few histories of which the reader never tires. It is a gallery of pictures-some overshaded, some too bright, but all lifelike. 'It seems,' as Horace Walpole says, 'as if he had just come from the king's closet, or from the apartments of the men whom he describes, and was telling his readers, in plain, honest terms, what he had seen and heard.' The diaries of Evelyn and Pepys may be considered as supplements to Burnet, completing part of the period over which he ranges.

Death and Character of Edward VI-From the History of the Reformation.'

In the beginning of January this year [1553], he was seized with a deep cough, and all medicines that were used did rather increase than lessen it. He was so ill when the parliament met, that he was not able to go to Westminster, but ordered their first meeting and the serion to be at Whitehall. In the time of his sickness, Bishop Ridley preached before him, and took occasion to run out much on works of charity, and the obligation that lay on men of high condition to be eminent in good works. This touched the king to the quick; so that, presently after the sermon, he sent for the bishop. And, after he had commanded him to sit down by him, and be covered, he resumed most of the heads of the sermon, and said he looked upon himself as chiefly touched by it. He desired him, as he had already given him the exhortation in general, so to direct him to do his duty in that particular. The bishop, astonished at this tenderness in so young a prince, burst forth in tears, expressing how much he was overjoyed to see such inclinations in him; but told him he must take time to think on it, and craved leave to consult with the lord-mayor and court of aldermen, So the king writ by him to them to consult speedily how the poor should be relieved. They considered there were three sorts of poor: such as were so by natural infirmity or folly, as impotent persons, and madmen or idiots; such as were so by accident, as sick or maimed persons; and such as, by their idleness, did cast themselves into poverty. So the king ordered the Greyfriars' church, near Newgate, with the revenues belonging to it, to be a house for orphans; St. Bartholonew's, near Smithfield, to be an hospital; and gave his own house of Bridewell to be a place of correction and work for such as were willfully idle. He also confirmed and enlarged the grant for the hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark, which he had erected and endowed in August last. And when he set his hand to these foundations, which was not done before the 5th of June this year, he thanked God that had prolonged his life till he had finished that design. So he was the first

founder of those houses, which, by many great additions since that time, have risen to be amongst the noblest in Europe.

Death thus hastening on him, the Duke of Northumberland, who had done but half his work, except he had got the king's sisters in his hands, got the council to write to them in the king's name, inviting them to come and keep him company in his sickness. But as they were on the way, on the 6th of July, his spirits and body were so sunk, that he found death approaching; and so he composed himself to die in a most devout manner. His whole exercise was in short prayers and ejaculations. The last that he was heard to use was in these words: Lord God, deliver me out of this miserable and wretched life, and take me among thy chosen; howbeit, not my will, but thine be done; Lord, I commit my spirit to thee. O Lord, thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee; yet, for thy chosen's sake, send me life and health, that I may truly serve thee. O my Lord God, bless my people, and save thine inheritance. O Lord God, save thy chosen people of England; O Lord God, defend this realm from papistry, and maintain thy true religion, that I and my people may praise thy holy name, for Jesus Christ his sake.' Seeing some about him, he seemed troubled that they were so near, and had heard him; but with a pleasant countenance, he said he had been praying to God. And soon after, the pangs of death coming upon him, he said to Sir Henry Sidney, who was holding him in his arms: I am faint; Lord, have mercy on me, and receive my spirit; and so he breathed out his innocent soul.

Thus died King Edward VI. that incomparable young prince. He was then in the sixteenth year of his age, and was counted the wonder of that time. He was not only learned in the tongues and other liberal sciences, but knew well the state of his kingdom. He kept a book, in which he writ the characters that were given him of all the chief men of the nation, all the judges, lord-lieutenants, and justices of the peace over England: in it he had marked down their way of living and their zeal for religion. He had studied the matter of the mint, with the exchange and value of money; so that he understood it well, as appears by his journal. He also understood fortification, and designed well. He knew all the harbours and ports both of his own dominions and of France and Scotiand; and how much water they had, and what was the way of coming into them. He had acquired great know ledge of foreign affairs; so that he talked with the ambassadors about them in such a manner, that they filled all the world with the highest opinion of him that was possible; which appears in most of the histories of that age. He had great quickness of apprehension; and, being mistrustful of his memory, used to take notes of almost everything he heard; he writ these first in Greek characters, that those about him might not understand them; and afterwards writ them out in his journal. He was tender and compassionate in a high measure; so that he was much against taking away the lives of heretics; and therefore said to Cranmer, when he persuaded him to sign the warrant for the burning of Joan of Kent, that he was not willing to do it, because he thought that was to send her quick to hell. He expressed great tenderness to the miseries of the poor in his sickness, as hath been already shewn. He took particular care of the suits of all poor persous; and gave Dr. Cox special charge to see that their petitions were speedily answered, and used oft to consult with him how to get their matters set forward. He was an exact keeper of his word; and therefore, as appears by his journal, was most careful to pay his debts, and to keep his credit, knowing that to be the chief nerve of government; since a prince that breaks his faith, and loses his credit, has thrown up that which he can never recover, and made himself liable to perpetual distrusts and extreme contempt.

Character of Archbishop Leighton-Account of his Death-From Bur

net's History of his Own Time.

He was the son of Dr. Leighton, who had in Archbishop Laud's time writ 'Zion's Plea against the Prelates,' for which he was condemned in the Star-chamber to have his ears cut and his nose slit. He was a man of a violent and ungoverned heat. He sent his eldest son Robert to be bred in Scotland, who was accounted a saint from his youth up. He had great quickness of parts, a lively apprehension, with a charming vivacity of thought and expression. He had the greatest command of the purest Latin that ever I knew in any man. He was a master both of Greek

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