OF THE CHARACTERS OF CHARLES I. AND II. AND OLIVER CROMWELL. CONTAINED IN THE "INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER" TO THE "HISTORY OF THE EARLY PART OF THE REIGN OF BY THE LATE RIGHT HON. CHARLES JAMES FOX. REPRINTED FROM THE EDITION (QUARTO), 1808. LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, 18, BISHOPSGATE STREET; SMALLFIELD & SON, 69, NEWGATE STREET. all things; earth was in their possession, and heaven they pretended was their champion. Here are securities and advantages enough to put truth out of countenance, had truth been amongst them. In reality, she wants not so many; but falsehood can never have enough. The craftsmen knew this, and shewed that they did so by their outrageous behaviour. Let us now view Paul, and see what terrible arms he bears, that are so frightful to the craftsmen. He was a stranger, he was a Dissenter; he had no equipage to dazzle people's eyes, no pompous garments to win their reverence, nor wealth to bribe their affections; he sought no popularity by indulging men in their vices or encouraging them in their errors. In short, all the numerous advantages of his adversaries, the priests, were so many obstacles and disadvantages to him, the apostle. To conclude, he had only truth on his side, which rendered him. an over-match for all the priests then in the world. All the privilege, all the advantage, which he desired was, a fair hearing. This, it seems, he had obtained of the town; and it had its effect. Here was his crime, and here began the priestly fury, the fiercest, the most brutish of all others. Shameless men! Was it not enough that reason and religion were both against you, and that you would neither be proselytes to them yourselves, nor suffer, with your wills, that others should; but must you likewise be proclaiming their invincible power and your own imbeciÎity and nakedness, by virulently using direct, undisguised force to stop their mouths? What impudence! what folly! What! you that boasted your conformity to the law and your establishment by the law!-you that were the possessors of all scholarship!—that were proprietors of the arts and sciences, and of the great endowments given for their support!-you that instructed the young and the old, and controled the consciences of both!-you that were the sacred administrators of religion!-you that shut and opened heaven and hell!-you that were the privy-counsellors of the gods!-in the name of amazement what could undermine you, what could annoy you? Or, if you are not hurt yourselves, why do you oppress others? By this method you do but shew your cloven feet. "Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye ?" OF THE CHARACTERS OF CHARLES I. AND II. AND OLIVER CROMWELL. CONTAINED IN THE "INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER" TO THE "HISTORY OF THE EARLY PART OF THE REIGN OF BY THE LATE RIGHT HON. CHARLES JAMES FOX. REPRINTED FROM THE EDITION (QUARTO), 1808. LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, 18, BISHOPSGATE STREET; SMALLFIELD & SON, 69, NEWGATE STREET. SKETCHES. Introductory Observations.- First Period, from Henry VII. to the Year 1588.-Second Period, from 1588 to 1640.-Meeting of Parliament.-Redress of Grievances.-Strafford's Attainder. -The commencement of the Civil War.-Treaty from the Isle of Wight. -The King's Execution.-Cromwell's Power;-his Character.Indifference of the Nation respecting Forms of Government.-The Restoration.Ministry of Clarendon and Southampton.—Cabal.— Dutch War.-De Witt.-The Prince of Orange.-The Popish Plot. The Habeas Corpus Act.-The Exclusion Bill.-Dissolution of Charles the Second's last Parliament.-His Power;-his Tyranny in Scotland; in England.-Exorbitant Fines.-Executions. Forfeitures of Charters.-Despotism established.-Despondency of good Men.-Charles's Death.-His Character.— Reflections upon the probable Consequences of his Reign and Death. IN reading the history of every country, there are certain periods at which the mind naturally pauses, to meditate upon and consider them with reference, not only to their immediate effects, but to their more remote consequences. After the wars of Marius and Sylla, and the incorporation, as it were, of all Italy with the city of Rome, we cannot but stop, to consider the consequences likely to result from these important events; and in this instance we find them to be just such as might have been expected. The reign of our Henry the Seventh affords a field of more doubtful speculation. Every one who takes a retrospective view of the wars of York and Lancaster, and attends to the regulations effected by the policy of that prince, must see they would necessarily lead to great and important changes in the government; but what the tendency of such changes would be, and, much more, in what manner they would be produced, might be a question of great difficulty. It is now the generally received opinion, and I think a probable opinion, that to the provisions of that reign we are to refer the origin, both of the unlimited power of the Tudors, and of the liberties wrested by our ancestors from the Stuarts; that tyranny was their imme |