to several of his correspondents for the originals or copies of such as were in their possession. It is hoped, that by these and further communications, the means will be secured of perpetuating the remembrance of his public 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.

Holland House, April 25th, 1808.

VASSALL HOLLAND.

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, 66 (as I hope,) before the end of the week. I go to town and shall be in the House on Tuesday.

"to-morrow,

"I remember most of the passages in Madame de Se"vigné, and will trouble you or Mrs. Heywood to hunt "for another, which I also remember, and which in some "views is of importance. If my memory does not deceive 46 me, in one of the early volumes, while Barillon is in 66 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 notwith"standing the violence against the Prince of Orange, Ma"dame de Sevigné's good sense and candor 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 deficient 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 hand, he is very far from being the devil he is de"scribed. 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 Catholics as fel"low-creatures; a feeling very common in those times. "Locke was probably caught by his splendid qualities, 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, Arbitra(6 ry, 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 conduct in the Popish Plot, can never "be wiped off. The second Dutch war is a bad business, "in which he engaged heartily, and in which (notwith"standing all his apologists say,) he would have persever"ed, if he had not found the King was cheating him. Your's ever,

σε

Sunday, St. Ann's Hill,

Chertsey, November 20, 1803.

Serjeant Heywood, Harpur Street.

"C. J. FOX."

A HISTORY, &c.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

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

tions.

IN reading the history of every country, there are CHAP. I. certain periods at which the mind naturally pauses, to Introductory meditate upon, and consider them, with reference, not Observaonly 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.

First Period, cession of

from the ac

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 Lancas- Henry VII. to the year ter, and attends to the regulations effected by the po- 1588.

JAH

CHAP. I. licy of that prince, must see they would necessarily

Second Period, from

1588 to 1640.

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 immediate, and liberty their remote, consequence; but he must have great confidence in his own sagacity, who can satisfy himself, that, unaided by the knowledge of subsequent events, he could, from a consideration of the causes, have foreseen the succession of effects so different.

Another period, that affords ample scope for speculation of this kind, is that which is comprised between the years fifteen hundred and eighty-eight, and sixteen hundred and forty; a period of almost uninterrupted tranquillity and peace. The general improvement in all arts of civil life, and above all, the astonishing progress of literature, are the most striking among the general features of that period; and are in themselves causes sufficient to produce effects of the utmost importance. A country whose language was enriched by the works of Hooker, Raleigh, and Bacon, could not but experience a sensible change in its manners, and in its style of thinking; and even to speak the same language in which Spenser and Shakespeare had written, seemed a sufficient plea to rescue the Commons of England from the appellation of Brutes, with which Henry the Eighth had addressed them. Among the more particular effects of this general improvement, the most material, and worthy to be considered, appear to me to have been the fre