officers in the militia, was a figual for the commencement of hostilities; and the royal fword was finally drawn for the maintenance of what the King deemed a juft prerogative, long after the parlia ment had recourse to arms. The laft fcene of this tragical period is fuch as the humane hiftorian muft lament to record, and the friend to regal govern ment must perufe with reluctance and horror; for it was clofed with the folemn mockery of an illegal trial, and the murder of a monarch upon the scaffold.

The violent convulfion, which fubverted the throne, afforded an ample field of action to the

Excidat illa dies avo, nec poftera credant
Sæcula, nos certe taceamus, & obruta multâ

Nocte tegi propria patiamur crimina gentis.

Lord Clarendon concludes his character in these words; "He was the worthieft gentleman, the best master, the best friend, the beft husband, the best father, and the best Christian, that the age he lived in produced."Clarendon's History, vol. iii. p. 199. This eminent Writer is supposed by some to have recorded rather a vindication of Charles, than an impartial Hiftory of the Rebellion, but a proper examination of his work will show that he was not much influenced by any unfair bias in favour of the unfortunate Monarch. There are, it is true, fome palliations and foft. ening expreffions with refpect to the King, but Clarendon has given as free an opinion of the origin of the Civil War, as any Republican could have done. Speaking of the illegal proceedings of the Star Chamber, he fays, "thofe foundations of right by which men valued their fecurity, to the apprehenfion and understanding of wife men, were never more in danger of being destroyed." Book I. p. 67.

abilities

abilities of the politic and hypocritical CROMWELL. He not only fought his fafety in the destruction of the King, but established a complete defpotism upon the ruins of the regal power. Under his conduct the army, as the prætorian bands had acted in the Roman empire, overawed the clamours of contending factions, and gave a mafter to their diftracted country. The talents, courage, and political skill of the Protector fhone equally in his conduct at home, and in his tranfactions abroad; and no prince who ever fwayed the fceptre of this nation impreffed the potentates of Europe with a more lively fenfe of the energy of the English councils, and the terror of the English arms. To add to the wonders of his extraordinary hiftory, amidst the alarms and the exertions of returning loyalty, he died a natural death, while he was attempting to convert a military government into one more permanent and more congenial to the temper of his countrymen.

The conduct of the parliament after the Reftoration at first fight appears to have been highly inconfiftent. In the former part of the reign of Charles II. he was flattered by their most abject

"In a

His character by Lord Clarendon is thus concluded : word, as he was guilty of many crimes, against which damnation is denounced, and for which hell-fire is prepared; fo he had fome good qualities, which have caufed the memory of some men in all ages to be celebrated; and he will be looked upon by pofterity as a brave wicked man." History of the Rebellion, vol. iii. p. 509. * A. D. 1660.

(T

devotion

devotion to his will; and towards the conclufion of it, he was affailed. by their determined oppofition. But the apparent inconfiftency of their conduct may be reconciled by adverting to the alteration of circumstances. The people, refcued from the defpotifin of Cromwell, and the oppreffion of his emiffaries, were led, by the extravagance of their joy, after the re-establishment of the ancient family, to exprefs the most complete fubmiffion to the will of their Sovereign, and to teftify the most ardent wishes to exalt the crown above the attack of popular rage. But when the projects of the King to introduce popery and arbitrary government were detected, they fuddenly awoke to a full fenfe of a danger, alarming as that which they had recently escaped.ex

་

The tide of popular opinion therefore turned with violence against the King, who with his brother, the Duke of York, was nearly carried away by its current. The Commons boldly exerted their privileges. To the attention, which they paid to the oppreffion of an obscure individual, England is indebted for the final improvement of the act of Habeas Corpus, which refcues the prisoner as well from the delay of trial, which the minifters of the crown may devife, as from the hardship of confinement out of his native country. This ftatute may be regarded as an invaluable fupplement to

f A. D. 1679. Hume, vol. viii. p. 107. Letters of Junius, p. 226. De Lolme, p. 192. 362. 486. Rapin, vol. ii. p. 675. 707. Earl of Danby. Hume, vol. viii. p. 86.

Magna

Magna Charta; and the attentive reader of our hiftory will not fail to remark, that fuch measures as these were taken to extend the fphere of liberty, during the reign of arbitrary princes. This fpirited Houfe of Commons impeached the Earl of Danby, who had bafely been inftrumental in making his mafter a penfioner of France; they declared their hoftility to Popery, and deliberated upon the exclufion of the Duke of York from the Crown, in confequence of his avowed attachment to that religion, and his marriage with a Papift.

The death of the witty and diffipated Charles II. while annulling the charters of great towns, and meditating fchemes in order to make future parliaments obfequious to his inclination, faved him from the refentment of an incenfed people. The conduct of James II. congenial in his principles, and more bold in the avowal and the execution of his defigns than his brother, niet with its due reward". The established religion of the country was infulted by the erection of a Popish chapel in the midft of the royal camp; the rights of election were infringed by the defpotic appointment of a Popish prefident to Magdalen College in the University of Oxford; the privileges of parliament were violated by a standing army, maintained in the time of profound peace, without their confent; and the exercife of the right of fubjects to prefent petitions to the King was punifhed by the imprisonment

• A. D. 1684.

A. D. 1684.

of

of fix bishops in the tower. Popery and flavery feemed to be again returning with hafty steps; and the fpirit of determined oppofition was roused to check their advances. WILLIAM, prince of Orange, defcended from the illuftrious houfe of Naffau, grandfon of Charles I. was invited to fhare the throne with Mary, the daughter of James. The King, ftruck with confternation at the desertion of his army, his fleet, and even his own children, threw up the reins of government, and was indebted to the clemency, or perhaps the policy of his enemies, for a fecure escape into France.

"The reign of the Stuarts confifted in a continued ftruggle for power between the Monarch and his fubjects. The public mind was kept in a conftant ftate of fermentation; and the times, however favourable to the exercife of political fkill and courage, feemed to allow no leifure for the cultivation of the intellectual powers, or the growth of knowledge, which is ufually the improvement of tranquillity and repose. Yet amid the turbulence

of this period was founded the Royal Society, an inftitution, which has been particularly favourable to the promotion of fcience and genuine philofophy. The revolution was a moft diftinguishing epoch in the hiftory of England, as it altered the line of fucceffion by a power immediately derived from the people, and gave fuch an afcendant to their liberty, ás to extend its influence, fecure its continuance, and place it upon a folid and durable foundation. The means by which it was accomplished, without