CLARENDON.

33

Hampden, he says that "he was a man of much greater cunning, or it may be" (he says sneeringly) "of the most discerning spirit, and of the greatest address and insinuation, to bring anything to pass which he desired, and who laid the design the deepest." Again: "He made a show of civility, and modesty, and humility, but afterwards appeared to be everybody when he cared less to keep on the mask." Clarendon's characters of Lord Falkland, and of Charles I., which are both celebrated portraits, are drawn in a much more favourable way. Cromwell stands out as one guilty of many crimes, against which damnation is denounced, and for which hell-fire is prepared; and, while great credit is given to him for his ability, the best that Clarendon can say of him is, that "he was a brave, wicked man." Read, however, with a knowledge of this bias, the History is valuable and exceedingly entertaining. Its faults are verbosity, want of arrangement, prolixity, and involution. The pages also are encumbered with a great quantity of matter which should be incorporated with the notes. Here is Clarendon's estimate of

Charles the First :*

"To speak first of his private qualifications as a man, before the mention of his princely and royal vir

* I confine myself, in this part of the volume, to giving one specimen; and that is from Clarendon. My reasons for this are the following. The nature of historical writing renders it unsuitable for brief extraction, and, were an excerpt properly given, it would need to embrace some complete episode, which in its entirety would require more space than could fairly be allotted to it. In addition to this, extracts from the old historians would be to little purpose. Their individual style is of minor consideration; and the leading facts they have chronicled have been discriminately incorporated by our modern historians. Finally, to quote from these latter would in many cases be invidious, and, as has been already stated, attended with more or less difficulty.

D

tues he was, if ever any, the most worthy of the title of an honest man; so great a lover of justice that no temptation could dispose him to a wrongful action, except it was so disguised to him that he believed it to be just. He had a tenderness and compassion of nature which restrained him from ever doing a hardhearted thing; and therefore he was so apt to grant pardon to malefactors, that the judges of the land represented to him the damage and insecurity to the public that flowed from such his indulgence. And then he restrained himself from pardoning either murders or highway robberies, and quickly discerned the fruits of his severity by a wonderful reformation of these enormities. He was very punctual and regular in his devotions; he was never known to enter upon his recreations or sports, though never so early in the morning, before he had been at public prayers; so that on hunting days his chaplains were bound to a very early attendance. He was likewise very strict in observing the hours of his private cabinet devotions, and was so severe an exactor of gravity and reverence in all mention of religion, that he could never endure any light or profane word, with what sharpness of wit soever it was covered; and, though he was well pleased and delighted with reading verses made upon any occasion, no man durst bring before him anything that was profane or unclean. That kind of wit had never any countenance then. He was so great an example of conjugal affection that they who did not imitate him in that particular did not brag of their liberty; and he did not only permit, but direct his bishops to prosecute those scandalous vices in the ecclesiastical courts against persons of eminence and near relation to his service.

CHARACTER OF CHARLES I. 35

"His kingly virtues had some mixture and alloy that hindered them from shining in full lustre, and from producing those fruits they should have been attended with. He was not in his nature very bountiful, though he gave very much. This appeared more after the Duke of Buckingham's death, after which those showers fell very rarely; and he paused too long in giving, which made those to whom he gave less sensible of the benefit. He kept state to the full, which made his court very orderly; no man presuming to be seen in a place where he had no pretence to be. saw and observed men long before he received them about his person; and did not love strangers, nor very confident men. He was a patient hearer of causes, which he frequently accustomed himself to at the council-board; and judged very well, and was dexterous in the mediating part: so that he often put an end to causes by persuasion, which the stubbornness of men's humours made dilatory in courts of justice.

He

"He was very fearless in his person, but not very enterprising. He had an excellent understanding, but was not confident enough of it; which made him oftentimes change his own opinion for a worse, and follow the advice of men that did not judge so well as himself. This made him more irresolute than the conjuncture of his affairs would admit: if he had been of a rougher and more imperious nature, he would have found more respect and duty. And his not applying some severe cures to approaching evils proceeded from the lenity of his nature, and the tenderness of his conscience, which in all cases of blood made him choose the softer way, and not hearken to severe counsels, how reasonably soever urged. This only restrained him from pursuing his advantage in the first Scottish ex

pedition, when, humanly speaking, he might have reduced that nation to the most slavish obedience that could have been wished. But no man can say he had then many who advised him to it, but the contrary, by a wonderful indisposition all his council had to fighting or any other fatigue. He was always an immoderate lover of the Scottish nation, having not only been born there, but educated by that people, and besieged by them always, having few English about him till he was king; and the major number of his servants being still of that nation, who he thought could never fail him. And among these no man had such an ascendant over him, by the humblest insinuations, as Duke Hamilton had.

"As he excelled in all other virtues, so in temperance he was so strict that he abhorred all debauchery to that degree that at a great festival solemnity where he once was, when very many of the nobility of the English and Scots were entertained, being told by one who withdrew from thence what vast draughts of wine they drank, and that there was one earl who had drank most of the rest down, and was not himself moved or altered,' the king said that 'he deserved to be hanged;' and that earl coming shortly after into the room where his majesty was, in some gaiety, to show how unhurt he was from that battle, the king sent one to bid him withdraw from his majesty's presence; nor did he in some days after appear before him.

"To conclude, he was the worthiest gentleman, the best master, the best friend, the best husband, the best father, and the best Christian that the age in which he lived produced. And if he were not the best king, if he were without some parts and qualities which have made some kings great and happy, no other

WHITELOCK.—BURNET.

37

prince was ever unhappy who was possessed of half his virtues and endowments, and so much without any kind of vice."

Whitelocke's "Memorials of English Affairs," from the beginning of the reign of Charles I. to the Restoration, will correct many of Clarendon's mis-statements. The book is in the form of a diary. The author (b. 1605, d. 1676), was the legal adviser of Hampden during his ship-money prosecution.

66

Two important histories, similar to those mentioned above, are "The History of the Reformation of the Church of England," by Gilbert Burnet (b. 1643, d. 1715), and "The History of his own Time," by the same bishop. These, although the latter especially has been ridiculed, contradicted, and pooh-poohed by Swift in the most admirable manner, as also by his allies, Pope and Arbuthnot, are living works, spirited and vigorous, and written with a rapid ease which always makes them light and charming. "It seems," says Walpole, 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 reader, in plain, honest terms, of what he had seen and heard." Burnet has been charged with dishonesty; but, although he is a partisan, there is no reason to suppose that he wilfully suppressed or warped the truth. Johnson said of him that "he would set his watch by a certain clock, and did not care whether that clock were right or wrong ;" and this sufficiently indicates the style in which the honest bishop proceeds when he has made up his mind about

a matter.

Two other books, which are excellent in their kind, and, though not historical, serve as Court pages to history, are "Pepys' Diary," and the "Diary of