tions, the means will be secured of perpetuating the remembrance of his publick and private virtues, and of conveying a faint, but just notion of his character to posterity. In the mean while, his friends will contemplate with some satisfaction this monument, however imperfect, of his genius and acquirements; they will recognize throughout the work those noble and elevated principles, which animated his own conduct in life, and in the simplicity of the thoughts, as well as in the nature of the reflections, they cannot fail to discover a picture of his candid and amiable mind. VASSALL HOLLAND. Holland House, POSTSCRIPT. May 4. SINCE the preceding pages were printed, Serjeant Heywood has obligingly communicated to me copies of several letters which he received from Mr. Fox, on subjects connected with his History. They evince the same anxiety about facts, and the same minuteness of research, which have been remarked in his correspondence with Mr. Laing. But some of his readers may be gratified with the perusal of the following, as it contains his view of the character of Lord Shaftesbury, upon which so much difference of opinion has existed among historians. ' DEAR HEYWOOD, I am much obliged to you for your letter; of "the hints in which I shall avail myself, when I "return to this place, (as I hope,) before the end "of the week. I go to town to-morrow, and “shall be in the House on Tuesday. "I remember most of the passages in Madame "de Sevigné, and will trouble you or Mrs. Hey"wood to hunt for another, which I also re"member, and which in some views is of im 66 66 66 66 portance. If my memory does not deceive me, in one of the early volumes, while Barillon is " in England, she mentions the reports of his being getting a great deal of money there; but "I have not lately been able to find the passage. Pray observe, that notwithstanding the violence against the Prince of Orange, Madame de Sevigné's good sense and candour make her allow, that there is another view of the matter, "in which the Prince of Orange, fighting and conquering for a religion, qu'il croit la vraye, "&c. &c. appears a hero. Her account of James, "both for insensibility and courage, is quite at "variance with his apparent conduct before he "went off. Here he appears to have been de"ficient in courage, and by no means in sensibility. "I am quite glad I have little to do with Shaftesbury; for as to making him a real patriot, or friend to our ideas of liberty, it is impossible, at least in my opinion. On the other g 66 σε 66 66 66 66 66 66 hand, he is very far from being the devil he "is described. Indeed, he seems to have been strictly a man of honour, if that praise can be given to one destitute of public virtue, and who did not consider Catholicks as fellow-creatures; a feeling very common in those times. Locke was probably caught by his splendid qualities, " his his courage, his openness, his party zeal, his eloquence, his fair dealing with his friends, and his superiority to vulgar corruption. Locke's partiality might make him, on the other hand, blind to the indifference with which he "(Shaftesbury,) espoused either Monarchical, Arbitrary, or Republican principles, as best "suited his ambition; but could it make him "blind to the relentless cruelty with which he persecuted the Papists in the affair of the Popish Plot, merely, as it should seem, because it suited the purposes of the party "with which he was then engaged?-You "know that some of the imputations against “him are certainly false; the shutting up the Exchequer, for instance. But the two great "blots of sitting on the Regicides, and his con"duct in the Popish Plot, can never be wiped off. 66 66 66 66 66 66 "The second Dutch war is a bad business, in " which he engaged heartily, and in which (notwithstanding all his apologists say,) he would " have persevered, if he had not found the King was cheating him. 66 66 Your's ever, Sunday, St. Ann's Hill, (Chertsey, November 20, 1803. Serjeant Heywood, Harpur Street.) C. J. FOX." |