whether the origin was amiable or unamiable, the effect was equally to be dreaded. A monarch, against whom his subjects have been once driven to resistance, must go out of the contest with too much, or too little power! Had I therefore engaged in that cause, for which Col. Hutchinson's view of it was at least an honest and a generous justification, I think I should have departed from it, as he seems to have done, a stern Republican! If it be pleaded that there were many artifices used to inflame the people, and many leaders engaged, whose views were apparently private and selfish; and that these things, which could not escape the notice of a man of sagacity, and virtue, should in his eyes have damned their cause, it may surely be answered, that in the imperfect condition of human affairs, we are not to refuse to seek a paramount good, because, in its progress, there may be mingled with it some evil instruments, whose motives or actions are impure! For the same reason a strict Loyalist might have deserted the defence of the Crown, because he must have observed that there were many on the same side, who were actuated by ambition, or love of power, or desire to retain emoluments extorted from the oppression of the people! There must indeed have been something in the cant of the Puritans, and other Sectarists, extremely disgusting to a liberal spirit. But on the other hand, what noble and indignant mind could bear the scoffs, and insults, and tyranny, and injuries, and follies of profligate and abandoned courtiers, the minions of state, raised from obscurity without merit, and fattening in the spoils of the land? Henry VII. had began systematically to break the power of the Feudal Nobility; and the Constitutional check, which they formed, upon the Crown, was now nearly extinguished. The families of Vere, and Stafford, and Grey, and Hastings, and Clinton, and Stanley, and Percy, and Howard, and others of that stamp, were in poverty or oppression. New lords, sprung from favouritism, or enriched within half a century From the harvest of the Reformation, or just emerged from North of the Tweed, swarmed both in the metropolis, and in every county: Buckingham, and his brothers, and cousins to the fourth degree, shone in a splendour surpassing royalty! But these, as they had lately risen from the hot-bed of the regal prerogative, could neither be any controul upon it, nor have any interests or sentiments in common with the people. Necessity, therefore, operating upon the expansion of mind created by navigation and commerce, raised up a spirit and a power in the people themselves to combat and countervail the growing encroachments of the sceptre. To fan this flame, there was intermingled much false enthusiasm, much horrid hypocrisy, much unjust depreciation of well-acquired rank, and much sophistical and half-witted reasoning on natural equality, and the rights of man. But the collision of the contest struck out also many important truths, and dissipated many artful or servile prejudices which had long enchained or overawed the intellects of the Commonalty. At a period so critical, the cowardly or the imbecile alore could remain neutral. A man of stern virtue, who abominated the luxuries and dissipations of courts, and had a head fond of busying itself in all the severe ingenuity ingenuity of abstract politics, was exempt from the force of seductions, which, however amiable, must be admitted to operate by other powers than those of reason. To him the splendour of a palace, the imposing dignity of titles, and all the outward brilliance which surrounds them, put forth their rays ineffectually. Could not such a man, especially if resident in the country, like Col. Hutchinson, as virtuously have embraced the cause of the Parliament as of the King? The event proved whither the fury of the mob, once roused, will lead and late events in a neighbouring kingdom have too fatally confirmed it. Indeed every man of sagacity must at all times have been aware, how dangerous it is to appeal to the passions of the populace. But this is no reason for forbearing such appeal in extreme cases: otherwise, what can stop despotism, when it is inclined, as it too often is, to extend its encroachments beyond endurance? There are some evils, of which in the pursuit of a remedy, we must incur the chance of other evils. In common cases patience may be a virtue; but there are points, at which it becomes a contemptible weakness. Charles I. was a monarch of many attractive accomplishments, and many virtuous qualities, as Mrs. Hutchinson herself confesses. He was a man, undoubtedly, whose speculative talents were of no common order; he drew around him men of genius and literature, and loved, and understood, and patronized the arts; he possessed therefore, for the most part,* * I have not forgot the exception of Milton, whose praise of Cromwell is now among the best testimonies in his favour. the hearts of those, who could best embalm his of his cause; memory, and the memory "Quique pii vates, et Phæbo digna locuti, men, whose cultivated talents, acquainted with the general traits of human nature, and possessed of a command of elegant language, not derived from the narrow and factitious fountain of a temporary and accidental state of opinion, could give to the history of their actions a colour of permanent interest and celebrity. Thus the pages of Clarendon may have operated in favour of the party of his Royal Master, beyond what truth and justice would have exacted of posterity. Clarendon, it must be allowed, has drawn the characters of most of those who remained faithful and active to the Crown, in hues so glowing and delightful, that it 'may be doubted whether we are not more influenced by respect for them, than by the examination of their measures, or the reasonings by which they are justified. In truth, at this distance of time, it does raise a strong, and, perhaps, not a very fallible argument in their favour. The virtuous Earl of Newcastle, to whose integrity Mrs. Hutchinson bears testimony, had been out of the atmosphere of the Court; nay, he had been slighted and disobliged by it; yet he broke front his beloved ease and the luxury of a princely retirement, and embarked his immense property, and his life, in favour of the monarch; and (not to be tedious) the enlightened, the conscientious, the heroic, the admirable Lord Falkland, engaged on the same side, and sealed Sealed his sincerity by his blood. It is true they were men deeply interested in the preservation of aristocratical privileges, which, in the rude dispute that had now commenced, were thrown into jeopardy. If then personal example be admitted as a powerful guide of opinion on the rectitude of this contest, no book has for years been published, calculated to weigh so strongly in this question as the Life of Col. Hutchinson now presented to the public. And for this reason it is extremely essential that the character of the writer should in the first place be established. Indeed she has on many other accounts a full claim to the most conspicuous notice; and more especially in such a work as this, of which it is a prime object to rescue the memory of those who have been eminent for their intellectual attainments, from undeserved oblivion, The fair and exemplary author appears to have possessed an understanding of uncommon vigour and extent, cultivated with great industry, and adorned not only with all the politest literature of her sex, but with an entire familiarity with classical erudition. To these she added an heroic and virtuous heart, which sometimes exalted her language, always pure and vigorous, into strains of high eloquence! How capricious is that fame, which we are too apt to suppose the constant attendant of eminent virtue, or great attainments of the mind! The memory of Mrs. Hutchinson has slept for a century and an half, in an obscure MS. the sport of carelessness or stupidity, thrown about in corners of deserted mansions, exposed, perhaps, to the rats; to the weather; to the dirty lighters of fires. But it has survived all these chances; and at length, by the pions care of a collateral relation and representative of |