when the tide of royal favour turned. Į secution, Jane was to be seduced into He conformed backwards and forwards treason. No transaction in our annals as the King changed his mind. He is more unjustifiable than this. If a heassisted, while Henry lived, in con- reditary title were to be respected, Mary demning to the flames those who denied possessed it. If a parliamentary title the doctrine of transubstantiation. He were preferable, Mary possessed that found out, as soon as Henry was dead, also. If the interest of the Protestant that the doctrine was false. He was, religion required a departure from the however, not at a loss for people to ordinary rule of succession, that inburn. The authority of his station and terest would have been best served by of his grey hairs was employed to over-raising Elizabeth to the throne. If the come the disgust with which an intel- foreign relations of the kingdom were ligent and virtuous child regarded per- considered, still stronger reasons might secution. Intolerance is always bad. be found for preferring Elizabeth_to But the sanguinary intolerance of a Jane. There was great doubt whether man who thus wavered in his creed Jane or the Queen of Scotland had the excites a loathing, to which it is dif- better claim; and that doubt would, in ficult to give vent without calling foul all probability, have produced a war names. Equally false to political and both with Scotland and with France, to religious obligations, the primate was if the project of Northumberland had first the tool of Somerset, and then the not been blasted in its infancy. That tool of Northumberland. When the Elizabeth had a better claim than the Protector wished to put his own brother Queen of Scotland was indisputable. to death, without even the semblance To the part which Cranmer, and unforof a trial, he found a ready instrument | tunately some better men than Cranmer, in Cranmer. In spite of the canon took in this most reprehensible scheme, law, which forbade a churchman to much of the severity with which the take any part in matters of blood, the Protestants were afterwards treated archbishop signed the warrant for the must in fairness be ascribed. atrocious sentence. When Somerset had been in his turn destroyed, his destroyer received the support of Cranmer in a wicked attempt to change the course of the succession.

The apology made for him by his admirers only renders his conduct more contemptible. He complied, it is said, against his better judgment, because he could not resist the entreaties of Edward. A holy prelate of sixty, one would think, might be better employed by the bedside of a dying child, than in committing crimes at the request of the young disciple. If Cranmer had shown half as much firmness when Edward requested him to commit treason as he had before shown when Edward requested him not to commit murder, he might have saved the country from one of the greatest misfortunes that it ever underwent. He became, from whatever motive, the accomplice of the worthless Dudley. The virtuous scruples of another young and amiable mind were to be overcome. As Edward had been forced into per

The plot failed; Popery triumphed; and Cranmer recanted. Most people look on his recantation as a single blemish on an honourable life, the frailty of an unguarded moment. But, in fact, his recantation was in strict accordance with the system on which he had constantly acted. It was part of a regular habit. It was not the first recantation that he had made; and, in all probability, if it had answered its purpose, it would not have been the last. We do not blame him for not choosing to be burned alive. It is no very severe reproach to any person that he does not possess heroic fortitude. But surely a man who liked the fire so little should have had some sympathy for others. A persecutor who inflicts nothing which he is not ready to endure deserves some respect. But when a man who loves his doctrines more than the lives of his neighbours, loves his own little finger better than his doctrines, a very simple argument à fortiori will enable us to estimate the amount of his benevolence.

But his martyrdom, it is said, re-ficult to see from what motives, and on deemed every thing. It is extraor- what plan, such persons would be indinary that so much ignorance should clined to remodel the Church. The exist on this subject. The fact is that, scheme was merely to transfer the full if a martyr be a man who chooses to cup of sorceries from the Babylonian die rather than to renounce his opinions, enchantress to other hands, spilling as Cranmer was no more a martyr than little as possible by the way. The CaDr. Dodd. He died, solely because he tholic doctrines and rites were to be could not help it. He never retracted retained in the Church of England. his recantation till he found he had But the King was to exercise the conmade it in vain. The Queen was fully trol which had formerly belonged to the resolved that, Catholic or Protestant, Roman Pontiff. In this Henry for a he should burn. Then he spoke out, time succeeded. The extraordinary as people generally speak out when force of his character, the fortunate sithey are at the point of death and have tuation in which he stood with respect nothing to hope or to fear on earth. to foreign powers, and the vast reIf Mary had suffered him to live, we sources which the suppression of the suspect that he would have heard mass monasteries placed at his disposal, and received absolution, like a good enabled him to oppress both the reCatholic, till the accession of Elizabeth, ligious factions equally. He punished and that he would then have pur- with impartial severity those who rechased, by another apostasy, the power nounced the doctrines of Rome, and of burning men better and braver than those who acknowledged her jurishimself. diction. The basis, however, on which he attempted to establish his power was too narrow to be durable. would have been impossible even for him long to persecute both persuasions. Even under his reign there had been insurrections on the part of the Catholics, and signs of a spirit which was likely soon to produce insurrection on the part of the Protestants. It was plainly necessary, therefore, that the Crown should form an alliance with one or with the other side. cognise the Papal supremacy, would have been to abandon the whole design. Reluctantly and sullenly the government at last joined the Protestants. In forming this junction, its object was to procure as much aid as possible for its selfish undertaking, and to make the smallest possible concessions to the spirit of religious innovation.

We do not mean, however, to represent him as a monster of wickedness. He was not wantonly cruel or treacherous. He was merely a supple, timid, interested courtier, in times of frequent and violent change. That which has always been represented as his distinguishing virtue, the facility with which he forgave his enemies, belongs to the character. Slaves of his class are never vindictive, and never grateful. A present interest effaces past services and past injuries from their minds together. Their only object is self-preservation; and for this they conciliate those who wrong them, just as they abandon those who serve them. Before we extol a man for his forgiving temper, we should inquire whether he is above revenge, or below it.

It

To re

From this compromise the Church of England sprang. In many respects, indeed, it has been well for her that,

Somerset had as little principle as his coadjutor. Of Henry, an orthodox Catholic, except that he chose to be his own Pope, and of Elizabeth, who certainly had no objection to the theo-in an age of exuberant zeal, her prinlogy of Rome, we need say nothing. These four persons were the great authors of the English Reformation. Three of them had a direct interest, in the extension of the royal prerogative. The fourth was the ready tool of any who could frighten him. It is not dif

cipal founders were mere politicians. To this circumstance she owes her moderate articles, her decent ceremonies, her noble and pathetic liturgy. Her worship is not disfigured by mummery. Yet she has preserved, in a far greater degree than any of her Pro

testant sisters, that art of striking the | by considering conformity and loyalty senses and filling the imagination in as identical, at length made them so. which the Catholic Church so emi- With respect to the Catholics, indeed, nently excels. But, on the other hand, the rigour of persecution abated after she continued to be, for more than a her death. James soon found that hundred and fifty years, the servile they were unable to injure him, and handmaid of monarchy, the steady that the animosity which the Puritan enemy of public liberty. The divine party felt towards them drove them of right of kings, and the duty of passively necessity to take refuge under his obeying all their commands, were her throne. During the subsequent confavourite tenets. She held those tenets flict, their fault was any thing but disfirmly through times of oppression, loyalty. On the other hand, James persecution, and licentiousness; while hated the Puritans with more than the law was trampled down; while judg-hatred of Elizabeth. ment was perverted; while the people were eaten as though they were bread. Once, and but once, for a moment, and but for a moment, when her own dignity and property were touched, she forgot to practise the submission which she had taught.

Her aversion to them was political; his was personal. The sect had plagued him in Scotland, where he was weak; and he was determined to be even with them in England, where he was powerful. Persecution gradually changed a sect into a faction. That there was any thing in Elizabeth clearly discerned the ad- the religious opinions of the Puritans vantages which were to be derived which rendered them hostile to mofrom a close connection between the narchy has never been proved to our monarchy and the priesthood. At the satisfaction. After our civil contests, time of her accession, indeed, she evi- it became the fashion to say that Presdently meditated a partial reconciliation byterianism was connected with Rewith Rome; and, throughout her whole publicanism; just as it has been the life, she leaned strongly to some of the fashion to say, since the time of the most obnoxious parts of the Catholic French Revolution, that Infidelity is system. But her imperious temper, connected with Republicanism. It is her keen sagacity, and her peculiar perfectly true that a church, constisituation, soon led her to attach herself tuted on the Calvinistic model, will not completely to a church which was all strengthen the hands of the sovereign her own. On the same principle on so much as a hierarchy which consists which she joined it, she attempted to of several ranks, differing in dignity drive all her people within its pale by and emolument, and of which all the persecution. She supported it by severe members are constantly looking to the penal laws, not because she thought Government for promotion. But exconformity to its discipline necessary perience has clearly shown that a Calto salvation; but because it was the vinistic church, like every other church, fastness which arbitrary power was is disaffected when it is persecuted, making strong for itself; because she quiet when it is tolerated, and actively expected a more profound obedience loyal when it is favoured and cherished. from those who saw in her both their Scotland has had a Presbyterian estabcivil and their ecclesiastical chief, than | lishment during a century and a half. from those who, like the Papists, as-Yet her General Assembly has not, cribed spiritual authority to the Pope, during that period, given half so much or from those who, like some of the trouble to the government as the ConPuritans, ascribed it only to Heaven. vocation of the Church of England To dissent from her establishment was gave during the thirty years which to dissent from an institution founded followed the Revolution. That James with an express view to the mainte- and Charles should have been mistaken nance and extension of the royal pre-in this point is not surprising. But we rogative. are astonished, we must confess, that This great Queen and her successors, men of our own time, men who have

before them the proof of what tolera- | wonderful. Hyde extols its loyal and tion can effect, men who may see with conciliatory spirit. Its conduct, we their own eyes that the Presbyterians are told, made the excellent Falkland are no such monsters when government in love with the very name of Parliais wise enough to let them alone, should ment. We think, indeed, with Oliver defend the persecutions of the six- St. John, that its moderation was teenth and seventeenth centuries as carried too far, and that the times indispensable to the safety of the church and the throne.

required sharper and more decided councils. It was fortunate, however, that the King had another opportunity of showing that hatred of the liberties of his subjects which was the ruling principle of all his conduct. The sole crime of the Commons was that, meeting after a long intermission of parliaments, and after a long series of cruelties and illegal imposts, they seemed inclined to examine grievances before they would vote supplies. For this insolence they were dissolved almost as soon as they met.

How persecution protects churches and thrones was soon made manifest. A systematic political opposition, vehement, daring, and inflexible, sprang from a schism about trifles, altogether unconnected with the real interests of religion or of the state. Before the close of the reign of Elizabeth this opposition began to show itself. It broke forth on the question of the monopolies. Even the imperial Lioness was compelled to abandon her prey, and slowly and fiercely to recede before the Defeat, universal agitation, financial assailants. The spirit of liberty grew embarrassments, disorganization in with the growing wealth and intelli-every part of the government, comgence of the people. The feeble pelled Charles again to convene the struggles and insults of James irritated instead of suppressing it; and the events which immediately followed the accession of his son portended a contest of no common severity, between a king resolved to be absolute, and a people resolved to be free.

The famous proceedings of the third Parliament of Charles, and the tyrannical measures which followed its dissolution, are extremely well described by Mr. Hallam. No writer, we think, has shown, in so clear and satisfactory a manner, that the Government then entertained a fixed purpose of destroying the old parliamentary constitution of England, or at least of reducing it to a mere shadow. We hasten, however, to a part of his work which, though it abounds in valuable information and in remarks well deserving to be attentively considered, and though it is, like the rest, evidently written in a spirit of perfect impartiality, appears to us, in many points, objectionable.

We pass to the year 1640. The fate of the short Parliament held in that year clearly indicated the views of the King. That a Parliament so moderate in feeling should have met after so many years of oppression is truly

Houses before the close of the same year. Their meeting was one of the great eras in the history of the civilised world. Whatever of political freedom exists either in Europe or in America, has sprung, directly or indirectly, from those institutions which they secured and reformed. We never turn to the annals of those times without feeling increased admiration of the patriotism, the energy, the decision, the consummate wisdom, which marked the measures of that great Parliament, from the day on which it met to the commencement of civil hostilities.

The impeachment of Strafford was the first, and perhaps the greatest blow. The whole conduct of that celebrated man proved that he had formed a deliberate scheme to subvert the fundamental laws of England. Those parts of his correspondence which have been brought to light since his death place the matter beyond a doubt. One of his admirers has, indeed, offered to show "that the passages which Mr. Hallam has invidiously extracted from the correspondence between Laud and Strafford, as proving their design to introduce a thorough tyranny, refer not to any such design, but to a thorough

reform in the affairs of state, and the thorough maintenance of just authority." We will recommend two or three of these passages to the especial notice of our readers.

all to be governed by their year-books, you in England have a costly example." We are really curious to know by what arguments it is to be proved, that the power of interfering in the law-suits of individuals is part of the just authority of the executive government.

It is not strange that a man so careless of the common civil rights, which even despots have generally respected, should treat with scorn the limitations which the constitution imposes on the royal prerogative. We might quote pages: but we will content ourselves with a single specimen:-"The debts of the Crown being taken off, you may govern as you please: and most resolute I am that may be done without borrowing any help forth of the King's lodgings."

Such was the theory of that thorough reform in the state which Strafford meditated. His whole practice, from the day on which he sold himself to the court, was in strict conformity to his theory. For his accomplices various excuses may be urged, ignorance, imbecility, religious bigotry. But Wentworth had no such plea. His intellect was capacious. His early prepossessions were on the side of popular rights. He knew the whole beauty and value of the system which he attempted to deface. He was the first of the Rats, the first of those statesmen whose patriotism has been only the coquetry of political prostitution, and whose profligacy has taught governments to adopt the old maxim of the slave-market, that it is cheaper to buy than to breed, to im

All who know any thing of those times, know that the conduct of Hampden in the affair of the shipmoney met with the warm approbation of every respectable Royalist in England. It drew forth the ardent eulogies of the champions of the prerogative and even of the Crown lawyers themselves. Clarendon allows Hampden's demeanour through the whole proceeding to have been such, that even those who watched for an occasion against the defender of the people, were compelled to acknowledge themselves unable to find any fault in him. That he was right in the point of law is now universally admitted. Even had it been otherwise, he had a fair case. Five of the Judges, servile as our Courts then were, pronounced in his favour. The majority against him was the smallest possible. In no country retaining the slightest vestige of constitutional liberty can a modest and decent appeal to the laws be treated as a crime. Strafford, however, recommends that, for taking the sense of a legal tribunal on a legal question, Hampden should be punished, and punished severely, "whipt," says the insolent apostate, "whipt into his senses. If the rod," he adds, "be so used that it smarts not, I am the more sorry." This is the maintenance of just authority. In civilised nations, the most arbi-port defenders from an Opposition than trary governments have generally suffered justice to have a free course in private suits. Strafford wished to make every cause in every court subject to the royal prerogative. He complained that in Ireland he was not permitted to meddle in cases between party and party. "I know very well," says he, "that the common lawyers will be passionately against it, who are wont to put such a prejudice upon all other professions, as if none were to be trusted, or capable to administer justice, but themselves; yet how well this suits with monarchy, when they monopolise

to rear them in a Ministry. He was the first Englishman to whom a peerage was a sacrament of infamy, a baptism into the communion of corruption. As he was the earliest of the hateful list, so was he also by far the greatest; eloquent, sagacious, adventurous, intrepid, ready of invention, immutable of purpose, in every talent which exalts or destroys nations preeminent, the lost Archangel, the Satan of the apostasy. The title for which, at the time of his desertion, he exchanged a name honourably distinguished in the cause of the people, reminds us of the appellation