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ing the space that separates these two great divisions of society; by seizing hold of every opportunity for bringing them into contact; and by converting every opportunity, so acquired, into an occasion for making the people understand and feel the important truth, that their interests and welfare are integral parts of the interests and welfare of an order of persons, and of a state of things, which it is the great business of revolutionary demagogues to describe, not only as adverse in their very nature to the good of the whole, but as practically operating to its disadvantage.

We have alluded to the high intellectual standard of the speeches delivered at this meeting. In this enconium, we do not include what fell from the Earl of WINCHILSEA, the Earl of RODEN, or Sir Edward KNATCHBULL: they are public men, and the public voice has long since pronounced upon their merits. And it might appear invidious to single out others, were it not that the duties which devolved on them, presented an occasion for the display of talent, that was not enjoyed by the rest. We feel no delicacy, therefore, in selecting for especial approbation, the speeches of W. O. HAMMOND, Esq., Lord Viscount MAIDSTONE, and the Rev. I. E. N. MOLESWORTH. The first, was as fine an argumentative disquisition, combined with research, and delivered with fluent eloquence, upon the civil and religious benefits of an Established Church, as it has ever been our good fortune to listen to, while the elegant and impressive turn which the speaker gave to the toast he had to propose, the manner in which he said, "I shall not therefore propose in the usual terms the Archbishop of Canterbury,' but I propose that we drink the long-continued health-and if it please the Almighty, the long-continued existence, of WILLIAM-and in these times I may emphatically add-by Divine Providence, Lord Archbishop of this province!' would not have disgraced the happiest peroration of an harangue from the lips of CANNING. Lord MAIDSTONE was surrounded by many circumstances which would have bespoken a favourable interpretation of what fell from him, even had he spoken less ably than he did. His age-his rising to return thanks for the honour done to his noble mother-the presence of his father, sitting at the head of a company who had already lavished upon him so many testimonies of regard, were all in favour of the young orator. But he proved, that without these adjuncts, he could entitle himself to the attention of those he was addressing, by the intrinsic recommendations of the matter of his speech, no part of which struck us as more happy, than the allusion to what had recently taken place at Oxford, during the ceremony of the installation, and the prospect of deriving from that illustrious seminary, a band of true conservatives, ready to take the field, when the present race, either from age or infirmity, shall be no longer in a condition to keep it.

Mr. MOLESWORH's speech was characterised by strong, deep sense, and by a fearless grappling with a question which it is of the highest importance, in these times more particularly, should be distinctly understood. Ought the clergy to be precluded, by their spiritual functions, from taking any part in political matters? We say not, because we are prepared to maintain, that the state can ill afford to be deprived of the influence of a body, and a very large body, whom education, talents, character, and their allotted station in the social system, eminently qualify to take a useful part in public affairs. We say not, because it can can never be for the advantage of a well regulated community, to have such a class as the clergy of this country, moral, pious, enlightened, and conscientious persons, divided off from their fellow countrymen,as if they had no interests in common with them, or as if that branch of the state to which the argument would exclusively consign them, could thrive and flourish amid the ruin of every other branch. It would be difficult to shew, we think, that a clergyman is so insulated," so solitary a being, that neither his own welfare, nor the welfare of his family, friends, and dearest connexions, can be affected by events which affect the welfare of all the rest; and if we allow that he is bound up in one common destiny with

them, for weal or for woe, it would be still more difficult to shew that he ought not to exercise the same right as is vested in every other individual, that of using the best means his judgment may direct, for watching over what equally concerns him and all. As to the cry that has been raised of "political parsons," we are to consider that it comes either from infidels who, having no sense of religion, cannot be expected to have any regard for its ministers, or from demagogues who have the sagacity to discern, that the influence of "political parsons," is a formidable one in obstructing their licentious and revolutionary designs. Others there are, we know, a very different description of men, who entertain honest scruples, not perhaps quite divested of timidity in their origin, upon this subject. With such, a fair, rational and intelligible argument may be held, and them, therefore we invite to read the speech of Mr. MOLESWORTH, and after they have read it, to state their own case, if they shall still remain of opinion that they have a case to state; a result which we confess we do not anticipate.

It will form no unfit conclusion of these reflexions upon the commemoration of our present King's Declaration, to lay before the reader the following letter of CHARLES I. to the Marquis of ORMOND, which may be regarded, in some measure, as the Declaration of that monarch, to" support the Constitution in Church and State,” in times not very dissimilar from those in which we now live.

Cardiff, July 31, 1645.

It has pleased God, by many successive misfortunes, to reduce my affairs of late, from a very prosperous condition to so low an eb, as to see a perfect tryall of all men's integrities to me and you being a person whom I consider as most entyrly and generously resolved to stand and fall with your King; I doe principally rely upon you for your utermost assistance in my present hazards: I have commanded Digby to acquaint you at large with all particulars of my condition: what I have to hope, trust too or feare; wherein you will fynde, that if my expectation of relief out of Ireland, be not in some good measure and speedily answered, I am lykely to be reduced to great extremities. I hope some of those expresses I sent you since my misfortune by the bataile of Nazeby, ar come to you, and am therefor confident, that you ar in a good forwardness, for the sending over to me, a considerable supply of men, artillery and ammunition: all that I have to add is, that the necessety of your speedy performing them is made much more pressing by new disasters; so that I absolutely command you (what hazard soever that Kingdome may run by it) personally to bring me all the forses, of what sort soever you can draw from thence, and leave the Government there (during your absence) in the fittest hands, that you shall judge, to discharge it; for I may want you heere to command those forces which will be brought from thence and such as from hence shall be joyned to them: But you must not understand this as a permission for you to grant to the Irish (in case they will not otherwise have a peace) anything more, in matter of religion, than what I have allowed you alreddy: except only in some convenient parishes wher the much greater number ar Papists, I give you power to permitt them to have some places which they may use as Chapels for their devotions, if there be no other impediment for obtaining a peace: but I WILL RATHER CHUSE TO SUFFER ALL EXTREMITIES, THAN EVER TO ABANDON MY RELIGION AND PARTICULARLY EITHER TO ENGLISH OR IRISH REBELS: to which effect I have comanded Digby to wryt to thine agents that were employed hither, giving you power, to cause deliver, or suppresse the letter, as you shall judge best for my service: To conclude, if the Irish shall so unworthily take advantage of my weake condition as to press me to that which I cannot grant with a safe conscience, and without it to reject a peace: I command you if you can, to procure a further cessation, if not, to make what divisions you can among them; and rather leave it to the chance of war between them and those forces which you have not power to draw to my assistance than to GIVE MY CONSENT TO ANY SUCH ALLOWANCE OF POPERY, AS MUST EVIDENTLY BRING DESTRUCTION TO THAT PROFESSION, WHICH BY THE GRACE OF GOD I SHALL EVER MAINTAINE, THROUGH ALL EXTREMITIES: I know Ormond, that I impose a very hard task upon you; but if God prosper me you will be a happy and glorious subject: if otherwais you will perish nobly and generously with him and for him who is

Your constant, real, faithful, frend,

CHARLES R.

THE

CANTERBURY

MAGAZINE:

By Geoffrey Oldcastle, Gent.

No. 5.]

"AT THAT TRIBUNAL STANDS THE WRITING TRIBE,

WHICH NOTHING CAN INTIMIDATE OR BRIBE:

TIME IS THE JUDGE TIME HAS NOR FRIEND NOR FOE
FALSE FAME MUST WITHER--AND THE TRUE WILL GROW:
ARM'D WITH THIS TRUTH, ALL CRITICS I DEFY :
FOR IF I FALL, BY MY OWN PEN I DIE."

YOUNG.

NOVEMBER, 1834.

[VOL. I.

THE ENGLISH REGICIDES.

No. II.

The Rump Parliament was succeeded by another mock one, of Cromwell and Harrison's own nominating; sometimes called the Little Parliament, in contra-distinction to its predecessor the Long Parliament (the former having sat but five months and eight days), and sometimes the Praying Parliament, but more commonly Praise-God Barebone's Parliament; a man whose name was Praise-God Barebone, a leather-seller in Fleet Street, being one of its members, and most frequent speakers. This Parliament, which did not consist of more than about one hundred and twenty persons, the "major part" says Clarendon," of no quality or name, artificers of the meanest trades, known only by their gifts in praying and preaching, which was now practised by all degrees of men, except scholars, throughout the kingdom," being got rid of, much after the same fashion as the Rump had been, Cromwell began to manifest his real designs, which were to get himself proclaimed king. The project, however, which was found to be attended with too much danger, ended, as we know, in his assuming all the essential attributes of royalty, under the less distasteful title to his followers, of Protector. Harrison was the most resolute and dogged of his opponents, because he saw in his success a seeming denial of his own faith, a confounding of his fanatical belief, that the kingdom of Christ was at hand, and not the domination of an earthly ruler. He therefore laid down his commission, seceded altogether from the Protector's councils, and in the year 1657 engaged in a formidable plot, for an insurrection of the Fifth Monarchy-men, which was discovered. by Thurloe, secretary of state to Oliver. About the time of the king's restoration he endeavoured to raise forces to prevent it; but his designs were discovered, and himself apprehended and committed to the Tower, where he remained till he was brought to trial as one of the regicides.

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The speech of Sir Heneage Finch, the Solicitor-General, upon opening the proceedings against Harrison, was suited to the temper of the times, when men's minds, by the enthusiasm which the restoration had kindled in behalf of monarchy, were ready for the reception of the most extravagant doctrines respecting the sacred and inviolable attributes of majesty. Not that we are disposed to shade or soften the hideous features of the regicidal act; but, while we have a just sense of its enormity, we have not so read the British Constitution either in theory or practice, as to hold that kings, by virtue of their station merely, have any resemblance to the Godhead. A trial in these days for imagining or compassing the death of the sovereign, would not elicit from the public prosecutor such a view of the offence as is contained in the following opening of Sir Heneage Finch's address to the jury.

"We bring before your lordships, this day, the murtherers of a king. A man would think the laws of God and man have so fully secured these sacred persons, that the sons of violence should never approach to hurt them; for, my Lord, the very thoughts of such an attempt hath ever been represented by all laws, in all ages, in all nations of the world, as a most unpardonable treason. My Lord, this is that that brought the two Eunuchs in the Persian court, to their just destruction; voluerunt insurgere, says the text; and yet that was enough to attaint them. And so, my Lords, it was by the Roman laws too, as Tacitus observes; qui deliberant desciverunt: to doubt or hesitate in a point of allegiance, is direct treason and apostacy. And upon this ground it is, that the statute upon which your lordships are now to proceed, hath these express words, if a man do compass or imagine the death of the king, &c. Kings, who are God's vicegerents upon earth, have thus far a kind of resemblance of the divine majesty, that their subjects stand accountable to them for the very thoughts of their hearts. Not that any man can know the heart, save God alone; but because, when the wicked heart breaks out into any open expressions, by which it may be judged, 'tis the thoughts of the heart that make the treason: the overt act is but the evidence of it. My Lords, this care and caution is not so to be understood, as if it were the single interest of one royal person only; the law doth wisely judge and foresee, that upon the life of the king depend the laws and liberties, the estates and properties, the wealth and peace, the religion, and in sum, the glory of the nation. My Lords, this judgment of the law hath been verified by a sad experience: for when that blessed king whose blood we are now making inquisition for, was untimely taken away, religion and justice both lay buried in the same grave with him; and there they had slept still, if the miraculous return of our gracious sovereign had not given them a new ressurrection.

After some further observations in the same strain, he proceeded to lay before the jury the circumstances of the case, as they would be detailed by the witnesses, and upon which they were to pronounce their verdict. Adverting to the trial and condemnation of the king, the manner in which the court was formed before whom he was arraigned, and the character of its proceedings, he thus continued:

The judges, officers, and other immediate actors in this pretended Court, were in number about fourscore; of these some four or five and twenty are dead, and gone to their own place. The God of recompenses hath taken the matter so far, into his own hands: and who knows, but that it might be one dreadful part of his vengeance that they died in peace? Some six or seven of them, who are thought to have sinned with less malice, have their lives spared indeed, but are like to be brought to a severe repentance, by future penalties. Some eighteen or nineteen are fled from justice, and wander to and fro about the world, with the mark of Cain upon them, and are perpetually trembling, lest every eye that sees them, and every hand that meets them, should fall upon them. Twenty-nine persons do now expect your justice. Amongst them, the first that is brought, is the prisoner at the bar; and he deserves to be the first; for if any person now left alive ought to be styled the conductor, leader, and captain of all this work, that's the man. He, my lord, brought the King up a prisoner from Windsor; but how, and in what manner, with how little duty, nay, with how little civility to a common person, you will hear in time. He sat upon him; sentenced him; he signed the warrant, first to call that court together, then the bloody warrant to cut off his sacred head.

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Sir Heneage Finch was followed by Sir Edward Turner, attorney-general to the Duke of York (afterwards James II.), and a few passages from his speech, will illustrate the still popular tendency of that age, to view all great public transactions in connexion with, and by the light of, the Scriptures. He commenced thus:

The service of this day doth call to my memory the story of good King Amaziah. We read, in Holy Writ, that his father, King Joash was murthered, and murthered by his own subjects. But we read further, that when Amaziah had regained the crown, and was settled in the government, he slew those that slew his father. He did go down into Edom, the valley of Salt, and there he did slay ten thousand. The work of this day doth very much resemble that action. Our good and gracious King, his father of blessed memory, and our father, his natural and our political father, to whom our natural allegiance was due, was murthered, and by his own subjects. But, my Lords, this was not a national crime; and our good and gracious Sovereign hath done us that honor and right to vindicate us in foreign nations; and now he is come home in power and glory, he does continue in the same mind; that's the reason we are not now slain by thousands, but that those miscreants are gathered up here and there, that did commit the offence, and would have involved the nation in a common infamy.

When the witnesses were called, Harrison addressed the court, in a much humbler tone than on his arraignment; requesting to be informed whether that was the time to offer what he wished to say; "for," added he, " I would go the best way, and would not willingly offend you." "What was promised you, yesterday, God forbid but you should have it," replied the Lord Chief Baron," but I think it will be best for you to hear evidence, and then you shall be fully heard." "I am content," answered Harrison.

Two witnesses, (Masterson and Kirk) having deposed to the fact of the prisoner being present at the King's trial, and assenting to the sentence of decapitation, a third was called (Mr. Nutley), a portion of whose evidence is exceedingly interesting, letting us a little behind the scenes, where we see the actors in this tragedy preparing it for exhibition. He is asked whether he "knows any thing more of the prisoner at the bar?"

Nutley. Thus much I know concerning him. The first day that they sat in public, was the 20th of January, 1648. Some few days afore that, there was a Committee that sat in the Exchequer Chamber, and of that Committee the prisoner at the bar was one. I do remember well it was in the evening; they were lighting of candles; they were somewhat private. This gentleman was there; I saw him; for through the kindness of Mr. Phelps, who was then clerk to that Committee, I was admitted, pretending first to speak with the said Mr, Phelps, and that I had some business with him; and so I was admitted into the Committee Chamber. Being there, I did observe some passages fall from the prisoner at the bar; the words were to this purpose; he was making a narrative of some discourse that passed between his late Majesty and himself, in coming between Windsor and London, or Hurst Castle,* I know not well whether. My Lord, that passage that

* Hurst Castle is a fortress in Hampshire, four miles from Lymington, built in the reign of Henry VIII. on a neck of land which shoots two miles into the sea towards the Isle of Wight, from which it is distant about one mile. To this place the King was forcibly conveyed (Nov. 30, 1648) from Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of Wight, in obedience to an order received from the General and Council of the Army, (they prayed heartily before they issued the order!) and contrary to that of the parliament, who was now at the mercy of its own rebellious troops.Sir Philip Warwick, describing the place as it was in those days, and as he himself had seen it, says, "it contained only a few dog-lodgings for soldiers, being chiefly designed for a platform to command the ships." In a small volume, published at the commencement of the last century (1703) entitled "Miscellanies Historical and Philological: being a curious collection of private papers found in the study of a nobleman lately deceased," there is a very interesting narrative, by Sir John Bowring, knight, of many private transactions relating to the unhappy monarch during his abode in Carisbrook Castle. The title of this narrative is, itself, a curiosity. "To the high and mighty monarch, Charles the Second, and to the

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