and we are not aware that there is any direct evidence to fix this guilt on any one, certainly not personally on that distinguished monarch. But that there was culpable neglect, even acquitting those in power of wilful connivance, seems certain; and the proceedings of the court which sentenced Cornelius show that the government was not delicate in finding means to remove those whom it disliked. And William's subsequent conduct may almost be said to have merited the imputation which he incurred; for, though the States of Holland voted the murder detestable in their eyes and the eyes of all the world, and requested the Stadtholder to take proper measures to avenge it, none of the murderers were ever brought to justice. The flimsy pretext for this neglect was, that it would be dangerous to inquire into a deed in which the principal burghers of the Hague were concerned. Mr. Fox, in his History of James II., has made the following reflections on this event:- "The catastrophe of De Witt, the wisest, best, and most truly patriotic minister that ever appeared upon the public stage, as it was an act of the most crying injustice and ingratitude, so likewise it is the most completely disencouraging example that history affords to the lovers of liberty. If Aristides was banished, he was also recalled: if Dion was repaid for his service to the Syracusans by ingratitude, that ingratitude was more than once repented of: if Sidney and Russell died upon the scaffold, they had not the cruel mortification of falling by the hands of the people; ample justice was done to their memory, and the very sound of their names is still animating to every Englishman attached to their glorious cause. But with De Witt fell also his cause and his party; and although a name so respected by all who revere virtue and wisdom when employed in their noblest sphere, the political service of the public, yet I do not know that even to this day any public honours have been paid by them to his memory." After De Witt's death, all his papers were submitted to the most rigorous examination, in hope of discovering something which should confirm the popular notion of his being traitorously in league with France. One of the persons appointed to perform this service, being asked what had been found in De Witt's papers, replied, "What could we have found? Nothing but probity." To the moral qualities of integrity, intrepidity, and patience, he added intellectual endowment of the highest order: his perception was acute, his judgment solid; he possessed great skill and readiness in transacting business, and that persuasive influence over those who came in contact with him, which is perhaps the most serviceable gift of a statesman. His manners, we are told by Sir William Temple (Observations on the United Provinces, c. 11), were such as befitted his station and his principles. "His habit was grave, plain, and popular; his table, what only served turn for his family or a friend; his train was only one man, who performed all the menial service of his house at home, and upon his visits of ceremony, putting on a plain livery cloak, attended his coach abroad; for upon other occasions he was seen usually in the streets on foot and alone, like the commonest burgher of the town. Nor was this manner of life affected; but was the general fashion and mode among all the magistrates of the state." De Witt cultivated mathematics, and published a Treatise on Curves. Burnet says, "Perhaps no man ever applied algebra to all matters of trade so nicely as he did. He made himself so entirely master of the state of Holland, that he understood exactly all the concerns of their revenue, and what sums, and in what manner, could be raised upon any emergent of state. For this he had a pocket-book full of tables, and was ever ready to nished with money." works are his Memoirs, published during his life in 1667, in which, after examining the principles which govern the prosperity and decline of states, he proceeds to apply them to Holland, and to review the condition and prospects of the country. They have been translated into French by Mad. Zoutelandt, who has also written a life of the two brothers. De Witt's correspondence with the plenipotentiaries of France, England, Sweden, Denmark, and Poland, has also been published, and translated into French. show how they could be furThe most remarkable of his MOLIERE, the contemporary of Corneille and Racine, whose original and real name was Jean Baptiste Poquelin, was born at Paris on the 15th January, 1622. His father and mother were both in trade; and they brought up their son to their own occupation. At the age of fourteen young Poquelin could neither read, write, nor cast accounts. But the grandfather was very fond of him; and, being himself a great lover of plays, often took his favourite to the theatre. The natural genius of the boy was, by this initiation, kindled, into a decided taste for dramatic entertainments: a disgust to trade was the consequence, and a desire of that mental cultivation from which he had hitherto been debarred. His father consented at length to his becoming a pupil of the Jesuits at the College of Clermont. He remained there five years, |