CHAP. XII.

they are right; where they differ we must elicit truth from the collision. Thus the Important æras of English history. royal pupil, when engaged in the perusal of As the annals of our own country furnish Clarendon, should also study some of the best an object on which a royal student should be writers, who are favourable to the parlialed to dwell with particular interest, it may mentary cause, A careful perusal of Ludbe necessary to call the attention to certain low and Whitlock; a general survey of important periods of our history and consti- Rushworth, or occasional reference to that tution, from each of wluch we begin to rec-author and to Thurloe; and a cursory rekon a new æra; because, from that epoch, some new system of causes and effects begins to take place!

view of their own lives and times by Laud and Baxter, will throw great light on many of the transactions of the eventful period of It will be proper, however, to trace the the first Charles. They will show how difshades of alteration which intervene between ferent the same actions appear to different these wras; for though the national changes men, equal in understanding and integrity. appear to be brought about by some one They will inforce mutual candour and mugreat event, yet, the event itself will be tual forbearance, repressing the wholesale found to have been slowly working its way conclusions of party violence, and teaching a by causes trivial in their appearance, and prince to be on his guard against the intemgradual in their progress. For the minds of perate counsels of his interested or heated the people must be previously ripened for a advisers. They will instruct a monarch in change, before any material alteration is the important lesson of endeavouring to asproduced.—It was not the injury that Lu-certain and keep in view the light in which cretia sustained, which kindled the resent- his actions and motives will appear to his ment of the Romans; the previous miscon- people. They will teach him to attend careduct of the Tarquins had excited in the peo- fully to the opinions and feelings, and even ple the spirit of that revolution. Amo-to the prejudices of the times; and in obedimentary indignation brought a series of ence to a precept enjoined by divine authodiscontents to a crisis, and one public crime rity for private life, and still more important was seized on as the pretence for revenging to be observed in public,-to provide things a long course of oppression. The arrival, honest in the sight of all men.' however, of these slowly produced æras makes a sudden and striking change in the circumstances of a country, and forms a kind of distinct line of separation between the manners which precede and those which follow it.

Again, while the narratives of the contemporary historians furnish facts, they who live in the succeeding age have the additional advantages first, of a chance of greater impartiality; secondly, of a comparison with corresponding events, and, thirdly, of having A prince (whose chief study must be poli-the tendencies of the events related, appretics) ought in general to prefer contempora-ciated by the evidence of their actual effects. ry historians, and even ordinary annalists, to How imperfect, for example, would be the the compilers of history who come after philosophical and political remarks, and how them. He should have recourse to the docu- false the whole colour belonging to any hisments from which authors derive their history of the French revolution which might tory, rather than sit down satisfied with the have immediately appeared. Much lapse history so derived. Life, however, is too of time is necessary in order to reflect back short to allow, in all cases, of this laborious light on the original tendency of events. The process. Attention, therefore, to the mi- fermentation of political passions requires nuter details of contemporary annalists, and a long time to subside. The agitation conto the original records consisting of letters tinues till the events have nearly lost their and state papers, must be limited to periods interest, by the occurrence of a fresh class of of more than ordinary importance. Into events; which, in their turn, raise a new these the attentive politician will dive for party, and excite a new interest; so that an himself, and he will often be abundantly re-impartial distribution of praise and censure paid. The periods, for example, of the un-is seldom made till those who are concerned happy contests in the reign of the first in it have been long out of hearing. And it Charles, of the restoration, and more espe- is an inconvenience inseparable from human cially of the revolution, are the turning things that when writers are least able to points of our political constitution. A prince, come at the truth, they are most disposed by examining these original documents, and to tell it. by making himself master of the points then at issue, would be sure to understand what are his own rights as a sovereign.

It will be necessary to understand the political system of Europe, since that period particularly, when the two powers of France It is not by single, but by concurrent tes-and Austria having arisen to a greatness, timiony, that the truth of history is establish- • The French revolution, with its consequences, seem ed. And it is by a careful perusal of differ- intended practically to contradict what Thucydides deent authors who treat of the same period, clared to be his design in writing history; namely, by a that a series of historic truth will be extract-faithful account of past things to assist mankind in coned. Where they agree, we may trust that jecturing the future!

fill up all our ideas of consummate greatness. In a word, Alfred seems to have been sent into the world to realize the beautiful fiction, which poets, philosophers, and patriots, have formed of a perfect king. It is also worth

which made them mutually, as well as generally formidable, other countries, seeing the necessity for their own safety, of opposing the stronger, and supporting the weaker, conceived the idea of that balance of power, that just equiponderance, which observing, that all those various plans were might preserve the security of all.

both projected and executed by a monarch But there is a far earlier epoch to which who, as all historians agree, had suffered attention ought perhaps, in the very first in- more hardships than any ordinary adventustance, to be directed, I mean the reign of rer, had fought more battles than most geneAlfred. This is eminently a study forkings. rals, and was the most voluminous author of -In Alfred, the most vigorous exertion of his day. * And, if it should be asked by public justice was united with attachment to what means a single individual could accompublic liberty. He eagerly seized every in-plish such a variety of projects, the answer terval of tranquillity, from the convulsions is simply this: It was in a good measure by with which the state was torn, to collect ma- an art of which little account is made, but terials for the most salutary institutions, which is perhaps of more importance in a which he afterwards established; he em-sovereign than almost any other, at least it ployed every moment he could snatch from is one without which the brightest genius is the wars in which he was inevitably enga- of little value, a strict economy of time. ged, in introducing the arts of peace, and in Between the earlier life of Alfred and that turning the minds of his harassed and disor- of Charles II. there was, as must be observderly subjects to virtuous and industrious ed, a striking similarity. The paths of both pursuits; in repairing the mischievous con- to the throne were equally marked by such sequences of past insurrectious, and wisely imminent dangers and hair-breadth 'scapes' guarding against their return. He had to as more resemble romance than authentic correct the habits of a people who had lived history. What a lesson had Alfred prepawithout laws, and without morals; and to red for Charles! But their characters as reduce to civilization men who had been kings, exhibited an opposition which is as driven to subsist by chance or rapine. By strong as the resemblance of their previous a system of jurisprudence, which united mo- fortunes. With an understanding naturally ral discipline with the execution of penal good, with that education which Alfred laws, he undertook to give a new direction wanted,-with every advantage which an to habits inveterately depraved.

improved state of society could give over a barbarous one; such, notwithstanding, was the uniform tenor of the Stuart's subsequent life, as almost to present the idea of an intended contrast to the virtues of the illustri

Another epoch to which the pupil's attention should be pointed, is the turbulent and iniquitous reign of king John; whose oppression and injustice were, by the excess to which they were carried, the providential means of rousing the English spirit, and of obtaining the establishment of the great

The royal pupil will be taught to ascribe the origin of some of our best usages to these sagacious regulations; above all, the conception of that unparalleled idea which so beautifully reconciles the exact adminis-ous Saxon. tration of justice with individual liberty; the origin of our juries evidently appearing to have first entered the mind of Alfred. The effects on the people seem to have been proportioned to the exertions of the prince. Crimes were repressed. The most unexampled change took place in the national manners. Encouragement was held out to the charter. This famous transaction, so dereformed, while punishment kept in order the more irreclaimable. Yet, with all these strong measures, never was a prince more tenderly alive to the liberty of the subject. And while commerce, navigation, ingenious inventions, and all the peaceful arts were promoted by him, his skill in the military tactics of that day was superior, perhaps, to that of any of his contemporaries.

servedly interesting to Englishmen, bestowed or secured the most valuable civil privileges; chiefly indeed to the barons and clergy, but also to the people at large. The privileges of the latter had, antecedently, been scarcely taken into the account, and their liberties, always imperfect, had suffered much infringement by the introduction of the feudal law into England under the NorTo form such vast projects, not for distur-man William. For, whether they were vasbing the world, but for blessing it,-to re-sals under the barons, or vassals under the duce those projects, in many instances, to king it made little difference in their condithe most minute detail of actual execution; -to have surmounted the misfortune of a neglected education so as to make himself a scholar, a philosopher, and the moral as well as civil instructor of his people;-all this implies such a grandeur of capacity, such an exact conception of the true character of a Sovereign, such sublimity of principle, and such corresponding rectitude of practice, as

tion; which was, in fact, to the greater part, little better than a state of absolute slavery. The barons, liberal, perhaps, through policy rather than humanity, in struggling for their own liberty were compelled to involve in one common interest the liberty of the people;

See the character of Alfred in Hume, from which

the preceding part of this account, in substance, is chiefly taken.

and the same laws which they demanded to the highest consideration, their genius has secure their own protection, in some mea-never been called to its loftiest exercise.sure necessarily extended their benign influ- France is perhaps the only country which ence to the inferior classes of society.has never been governed by a woman.Those immunities, which are essential to the The mothers, however, of some of her sovewell-being of civil and social life, gradually reigns, when minors, have, during their rebecame better secured. Injustice was re-gencies, Blanche of Castile* especially, disstrained, tyrannical exactions were guarded covered talents for government not inferior against, and oppression was no longer sanc- to those of most of her kings. tioned. This famous deed, without any vio- Anne of Austria has had her eulogists; lent innovation, became the mound of pro- but in her character there seems to have perty, the pledge of liberty, and the guaran- been more of intrigue than of genius, or at tee of independence. As it guarded the least, than of sound sense; and her virtues rights of all orders of men, from the lowest were problematical. If her talents had to the highest, it was vigorously contended some splendor, they had no solidity. They for by all; for, if it limited the power of the produced a kind of stage effect, which was king, it also confirmed it, by securing the al- imposing, but not efficient, and she was legiance and fidelity of the subject. It was rather an actress of royalty than a great of inestimable use by giving a determinate queen. She was not happy in the choice of form and shape, such a local habitation and a friend. The source of all Mazarin's a name,' to the spirit of liberty; so that the greatness, she supported him with inflexible English, when, as it often happened, they attachment, and established him in more claimed the recognition of their legal rights, than regal power. In return, he treated her were not left to wander in a wide field, with- with respect as long as he stood in need of out having any specific object, without limi- her protection, and set her aside when her tation, and without direction. They knew support was become no longer necessary to what to ask for, and, obtaining that, they his confirmed power, were satisfied. We surely cannot but be sensible of the advantages which they derived from this circumstance, who have seen the effects of an opposite situation, in this very particular, illustrated so strikingly in the earlier period of the French revolution.

The best queens have been most remarkable for employing great men. Among these, Zenobia, Elizabeth, and Anne stood foremost. Those who wish to derogate from the glories of a female reign, have never failed to urge, that they were owing to the wisdom But, rapidity of progress seems, by the of the ministers, and not to that of the very laws of nature, to be precluded, where queen; a censure which involves an eulothe benefit is to be radical and permanent.- gium. For, is not the choice of sagacious It was not, therefore, until our passion for ministers the characteristic mark of a sagamaking war within the territory of France cious sovereign? Would, for instance, Mawas cured, nor until we left off tearing the ry di Medici have chosen a Walsingham; bowels of our own country, in the dissensions she who made it one of the first acts of her of the Yorkists and Lancastrians, after ha- regency to banish Sully, and to employ Conving, for near four hundred years, torn those cini? Or, did it ever enter into the mind of of our neighbours; in a word, it was not un- the first Mary of England to take into her til both foreign and civil fury began to cool, councils that Cecil, who so much distinthat in the reign of Henry VII. the people guished himself in the cabinet of her sister? began to enjoy more real freedom, as the Elizabeth's great natural capacity was, as king enjoyed a more settled dominion, and has been before observed, improved by an the interests of peace and commerce sub-excellent education. Her native vigour of stantially prevailed. Without ascribing to mind had been early called forth by a series this king virtues which he did not possess, of uncommon trials. The circumspection the view of his reign, with all its faults, af- she had been, from childhood, obliged toexfords a kind of breathing time, and sense of ercise, taught her prudence. The difficulrepose. It is from this reign that the history ties which beset her, accustomed her to selfof the laws, and civil constitution of Eng-control. Can we, therefore, doubt that the land become interesting; as that of our ec- steadiness of purpose, and undaunted resoclesiastical constitution does from the subse-lution which she manifested on almost every quent reign. A general acquaintance with occasion during her long reign, were greatly the antecedent part of our history may suf- to be attributed to that youthful discipline? fice for the royal pupil, but from these pe-She would probably never have acquired riods she cannot possess too detailed a know-such an ascendancy over the mind of others, ledge of it. had she not early learned so absolute a command over her own.

CHAP. XIII.
Queen Elizabeth.

IT is remarkable that in France, a nation in which women have always been held in

On coming to the crown, she found herself surrounded with those obstacles which display great characters, but overset ordinary minds. The vast work of the reformation,

• Mother of Louis IX.

which had been undertaken by her brother It is not from the splenetic critic in retired Edward, but crushed in the very birth, as life, from the declaimer, ignorant of the dufar as was within human power, by the bigot ties and the requisitions of princes, that we Mary, was resumed and accomplished by should take our sentiments on the point of Elizabeth; and that, not in the calm of se- royal economy; but from men, who, howev curity, not in the fulness of undisputed power possessing different characters and views, er, but even while that power was far from yet agree in this one respect, that their exbeing confirmed, and that security was lia-alted public situations, and great personal ble, every moment, to be shaken by the experience, enable them to give a fair and most alarming commotions, She had pre-sound opinion. The judgment even of the judices, apparently insurmountable, to over- emperor Tiberius was not so impaired by his come; she had heavy debts to discharge; vices, but that he could insist, that an exshe had an almost ruined navy to repair; chequer, exhausted by prodigality, must be she had a debased coin to restore; she had replenished with oppression. Cicero, versed empty magazines to fill; she had a decay-in public business, no less than in the knowing commerce to invigorate; she had an ex- ledge of mankind, affirms, that a liberal hausted exchequer to replenish.-All these, prince loses more hearts than he gains, and by the blessing of God on the strength of her that the resentment of those from whom he mind, and the wisdom of her councils, she takes the money, is much stronger than the accomplished. She not only paid her own gratitude of those to whom he gives it.' debts; but, without any great additional And, on another occasion he says, that 'men burdens on her subjects, she discharged are not aware what a rich treasury frugality those also which were due to the people is.' The same sentiments seem to have from her two immediate predecessors. At been adopted by another Roman statesman, the same time, she fostered genius, she en- a royal favourite too. Pliny affirms, that 'a couraged literature, she attracted all the prince will be pardoned, who gives nothing great talents of the age within the sphere of to his subjects, provided he takes nothing her own activity. And, though she con- away from them.'

stantly availed herself of all the judgment Those princes, who despising frugality, and talents of her ministers, her acquies- have been prodigal for the sake of a little cence in their measures was that of convic-temporary applause, have seldom achieved tion, never of implicit confidence. lasting good. And, allowing that this lavish

Her exact frugality may not, by superfi- generosity may be for the moment a popular cial judges, be reckoned among the shining quality, yet, there is scarcely any thing parts of her character. Yet, those who see which has contributed to bring more calamiinore deeply, must allow, that it was a quali- ties on a state, than the means used for enaty from which the most important benefits bling the prince to indulge it. It was not in were derived to her people; and without Rome alone, as recent instances testify, that which all her great abilities would have been when the government has wanted money, comparatively inefficient. The parsimony the rich have been always found to be the of her grandfather was the rapine and exac- guilty. A prodigal generosity, as we have tion of an extortioner; hers, the wise econo-seen in the case of Cesar, and in our own my of a provident parent. If we are to time, may be a useful instrument for paving judge of the value of actions by their con- the way to a throne; but an established sequences, let us compare the effects upon sovereign will find economy a more certain the country, of the prodigality, both of her means of keeping him in it. The emperor father, and of her successor, with her own Nero was extolled for the felicity which he frugality. As it has been asserted by Plu- was diffusing by his bounty, while Rome tarch, that the money idly thrown away by was groaning under the burthen of his exthe Athenians on the representations of two actions. That liberality which would make dramatic poets only, amounted to a larger a prince necessitous, and a people poor, sum than had been expended on all their would, by hurting his fame, weaken his inwars against the Persians, in defence of their fluence; for reputation is power. After all, hoerty; so it has been affirmed, that the such a care and improvement of the revenue, first James spent more treasure on his favou- as will enable him to spare his subjects, is rites, than it had cost Elizabeth to maintain the truest liberality in a prince. all her wars. Yet, there have not been want- But, to return.-The distinguishing qualiing historians, who have given the praise of ties of Elizabeth appear to have been econoliberality to James, and especially to Henry, my, prudence, and moderation. Yet in while Elizabeth has suffered the imputation some instances, the former was rigid, not to of avarice. But we ought to judge of good say unjust, Nor had her frugality always

and evil, by their own weight and measure, the purest motives. She was, it is true, and not by the specious names which the very unwilling to trouble parliament for latter can assume, nor by the injurious money, for which, indeed, they were exterms which may be bestowed on the for-tremely unwilling to be troubled; but her desire to keep herself independent of them

mer.

• In his inquiry whether the Athenians were more eminent in the arts of war or peace.

VOL. II.

• Particularly her keeping the see of Ely vacant nineteen years, in order to retain the revenue.

seems to have been her motive for this forbearance. What she might have gained in supplies she must have lost in power.

Vanity was, too probably, the spring of some of Elizabeth's most admired actions; but the same vanity also produced that jeal To her moderation and that middle line of ousy, which terminated in the death of Mary. conduct which she observed, much of her It was the same vanity which led her first success may be ascribed. To her modera-to court the admiration of Essex, and then tion in the contests between papists and to suffer him to fall a victim to her wounded puritans, it is chiefly to be attributed, that pride. Her temper was uncontrolledthe reformation issued in a happier medium While we pardon her ignorance of the prin in England, than in any other country.- ciples of liberty, we should not forget how To her moderation, in respect to foreign little she respected the privileges of pariawar, from which she was singularly averse, ment, claiming a right of imprisoning its may be ascribed that rapid improvement at very members, without deigning to give any home, which took place under her reign.- account of her proceedings. If we were to estimate Elizabeth as a private Policy was her favourite science, but in female, she would doubtless appear entitled that day a liberal policy was not understood; to but little veneration. If as an instrument and Elizabeth was too apt to substitute both raised up by Divine Providence to carry simulation and dissimulation for an open and through the most arduous enterprises in the generous conduct. This dissimulation at most difficult emergencies, we can hardly length lost her the confidence of her subjects, rate her too highly. We owe her much as and while it inspired her with a distrust, it Englishmen. As protestants, what do we also forfeited the attachment of her friends. not owe her? If we look at the woman, we Her insincerity, as was natural, infected shall see much to blame; if at the sovereign, those around her. The young Cecil himwe shall see almost every thing to admire.- self was so far alienated from his royal misHer great faults, though they derogated tress, and tainted with the prevailing spirit from her personal character, seldom deeply of intrigue, as to be secretly corresponding affected her administration. In one instance with her rival James.

only, her favouritism was prejudicial to the That such mortifying occurrences were state; her appointment of Leicester to the too likely to arise, from the very nature of naval command, for which he was utterly existing circumstances, where the dying unfit. On many occasions, as we have else- prince was the last of her race, and the nearwhere observed, her very passions supplied ly vacant throne about to be posesssed by a what was wanting in principle. Thus, her stranger, must assuredly be allowed. But violent attachments might have made her in- it may still be asserted, that nothing but dediscriminately lavish, if they had not been counteracted by that parsimoniousness which never forsook her. Accordingly, in the midst of her lamentations for the death of Leicester, we see her grief did not make her forget to seize his goods, and to repay herself for what she had lent him.

Our censures, therefore, must not be lost in our admiration, nor must our gratitude warp our judgment. And it may be useful to inquire how it came to pass that Elizabeth, with so much power, so much prudence, and so much popularity, should at length become completely miserable, and die, neglected and forsaken, her sun setting ingloriously after so bright a day of prosperity and honour. May we not venture to attribute it to the defectiveness, not to say unsoundness, of her moral principles? Though corrupt principles for a certain period may conceal themselves, and even dazzle, by the success of the projects to which, in the view of superficial reasoners, they may have appeared conducive; they will, in a long course of action, betray their intrinsic weakness.-They may not entirely have prevented the public good effects of other useful qualities with which they were associated; but they do most fatally operate against the personal honour of the individual; and against her reaping that harvest of gratitude and respect, to which she might otherwise have been so justly entitled.

ficiency of moral character could have so desolated the closing scene of an illustrious princess. Real virtue will, in every rank, draw upon it disinterested regard; and a truly virtuous sovereign will not be shut out from a more than ordinary share in this ge neral blessing. It is honourable to human nature to see the dying William pressing to his bosom the hand of Bentick; but it will be still more consolatory as well as instructive to compare, with the forsaken deathbed of Elizabeth, the exemplary closing scene of the second Mary as described by Burnet, an eye-witness of the affecting event which he relates.

CHAP. XIV.

Moral advantages to be derived from the study of history, independent of the exam ples it exhibits.-History proves the cor ruption of human nature.-It demonstrates the superintending power of Providence-illustrated by instances.

THE knowledge of great events and splendid characters, and even of the customs, laws, and manners of different nations; an acquaintance, however accurate, with the state of the arts, sciences, and commerce of those nations, important as is this knowledge, must not however be considered as of primary importance in the study of history,