principles of our constitution, or rather what ought to be its principles (for our constitution was not practically established until after the expulsion of the Stuarts), are clearly laid down; the legal authority of the kings of England is nicely ascertained and defined; and the glory of the monarch, and the happiness of the people, are proved equally to depend upon a veneration of the laws, and a strict observance of their respective obligations. He gives the consoling proof that the constitutional monarch of a free country may, and indeed must be, more glorious and far more happy than the absolute monarch of an enslaved people. He says, in his happiest man ner "The kings of England are in nothing inferior to other princes, save in being more abridged from injuring their own subjects; but have as large a field as any, of external felicity, wherein to exercise their own virtue, and to reward and encourage it in others. In short, there is nothing that comes nearer the divine perfection than where the monarch, as with us, enjoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to mankind, under a disability to do all that is evil." He likewise drew a striking contrast of the miseries of a nation living under a degrading Popish administration, and the blessings enjoyed under a liberal Protestant government. The king, or the ministers of the day, were so irritated that a large' reward was offered for the discovery to one of the secretaries of state of the printer, publisher, author, or hander to the press of either of those two libels- An Account of the Growth of Popery,' &c., and 'A seasonable Argument to the Grand Juries,' &c.; and the better to encourage informers, a promise was given that their names should be kept secret.* gather from a private letter which Marvell wrote to a friend on the 10th of June, 1678, that still larger rewards were offered in private, that he was shrewdly suspected by government to be the author, and that his We * Extract from the Gazette, as given in Life of Marvell' by John Dove. mind was not at all disturbed by this suspicion, or by the danger to which it exposed him. To his friend, who was probably in the secret, he says pleasantly-Three or four books, printed since, have described, as near as it was proper to go, the man, Mr. Marvell, a member of parliament, as the author; but if he were, surely he would not have escaped being questioned in parliament, or some other place." No prosecution was attempted; but Marvell had now rendered himself so obnoxious to the heir-presumptive, James Duke of York, and his bigoted party; to the king's mistresses; and to others who united the greatest dissoluteness of life to a devotion to the Roman Church, that he was beset on all sides by powerful enemies, who threatened to beat and maim him (as they had done by others), if not to take his very life. It is said that in his latter days he could not venture into the streets by night; that he was obliged to conceal himself in obscure lodg ings, and to change his abode frequently. Yet, within a few weeks of his death, he attended a public court in the Town Hall of Hull; for, in the books there kept, is the following entry:-"This day (29th July, 1678), the court being met, Andrew Marvell, esquire, one of the burgesses of parliament for this borough, came into court, and several discourses were held about the town affairs." He returned to London, and, with scarcely any previous illness, or visible decay of constitution, died there on the 16th of August. From the suddenness of his death some of the enemies of the court surmised that he had been poisoned; and the dark suspicion has been kept alive by biographers and warm political writers. There appears, however, to be no foundation for it; and without very strong presumptive evidence, such foul reports, which were once so common that hardly any prince or public man would have been supposed to die a natural death, ought surely to be discarded. As soon as the death of Marvell was known in his native town, which he had so long and so faithfully represented in parliament, the Corporation of Hull assembled in Common Hall and unanimously voted fifty pounds towards defraying the expenses of his funeral; and in the year 1688, when the Revolution gave them liberty to express their sentiments, the inhabitants of Hull subscribed a sum of money for the purpose of raising a monument to his memory in the church of St. Giles-inthe-Fields, London, where his remains were interred. The epitaph was written, and the monument prepared ; but the majority of the clergy of the Established Church were already dissatisfied with the revolution they had helped to make, and were in no humour to honour an enemy to the divine right of kings, a friend to the Dissenters, and a thorough Whig like Marvell; and the rector of St. Giles's would not suffer the monument to be placed in his church. Yet was the epitaph far from being offensive, or obnoxious to any prejudice: it was a manly composition; it praised the wit, learning, judgment, virtuous life, incorruptible honesty, and courageous patriotism of the man, without saying one word of his opinions in church matters. The citizens of Hull ought to place the inscription on a golden tablet in their Town Hall. Honest Andrew was in his fifty-eighth year when he died. Aubrey, who was personally acquainted with him, says, "He was of a middling stature, pretty strong set, roundish faced, cherry-cheeked, hazel eyed, brown haired. In his conversation he was modest, and of very few words. He was wont to say, he would not drink high or freely with any one with whom he would not trust his life." From other authorities we learn that he was always very temperate and of a healthful constitution to the last; that he was altogether a handsome man with an expressive countenance; very strong and very active; of a reserved disposition among strangers, but easy, lively, facetious, and instructive with his friends. There is an original portrait of him in the British Museum presented by his grand-nephew, Mr. Nettleton; and a copy of his picture adorns the Council Chamber of the Trinity House at Hull, together with a very bombastical and indiscreet inscription, wherein it is confidently asserted that he fell "for a victim to the jesuitical machinations of the state; what vice and bribery could not influence was perpetrated by poison.” It appears probable that the patriot's poverty has been somewhat exaggerated. As the son of a poor schoolmaster and clergyman, who had other children, it is not likely that he inherited anything from his father except his principles and virtuous example; but the good old lady who lived" on that shore of the Humber opposite to Kingston," and whose daughter perished with the worthy lecturer of Trinity Church, appears to have been at least in easy circumstances, and whatever she had at her death she bequeathed to Master Andrew. Moreover, the old custom of members of parliament receiving a stipend from their constituents, was not, as yet, altogether obsolete; and it should seem that Andrew occasionally received other things from Hull than casks of good ale. Mr. Hartley Coleridge remarks, "It has been said, that Marvell was the last member that received wages from his constituents. Others, however, his contemporaries, maintained the right, and suffered their arrears to accumulate, as a cheap resource at the next election. More than once in the course of Marvell's correspondence, he speaks of members threatening to sue their boroughs for their pay." The good people of Hull could scarcely have made a better use of their superfluous cash than in sending a little of it to their honest and indefatigable representative. No doubt Andrew Marvell was but a poor man compared with the majority of those who sat in Parliament with him, and whose palms were ever open for money from France, or from Holland, or from the ministry; but such evidence as we have to this point seems to establish the fact that he was never reduced to any serious straits or pecuniary difficulties: he had neither the pleasures nor the expenses of a family, for he was never married; and with his contented cheerful nature, he was the man to "Say in his heart (what poets do but sing), * William Stewart Rose, Epistle to John Hookham Frere. His mode of living was simple and frugal, but not sordid. His company was long sought by the great as well as the witty. In spite of his politics he was admitted into the company of Charles II., before that merry monarch turned the despot that he was in the latter part of his reign. Prince Rupert, whose pride and impetuosity had been moderated by time and a severe experience, and who concluded a life which had been begun in war and blood, in the quiet pursuits of experimental philosophy and of the fine arts, was Marvell's frequent visitant. So much was this the case, that when Rupert dissented from any court measure, it was usual for the courtiers to say that he had been with his tutor Marvell. No doubt can be entertained that efforts were made to corrupt the patriot, and that all these efforts failed. The dramatic example commonly cited may be incorrect in detail, and there seems to be no contemporary authority for it; but it neatly embodies the traditionary reputation for integrity which Marvell left behind him, and, indisputably, the essence of it is a truth. "At all events," says Mr. Coleridge, “a Life of Andrew Marvell would be as imperfect without it as a History of King Alfred without the neat-herd's cottage and the burnt cakes." It is related with various circumstances, but we shall follow the narrative of a pamphlet printed in Ireland, A. D. 1754:-"The borough of Hull, in the reign of Charles II., chose Andrew Marvell, a young gentleman of little or no fortune, and maintained him in London for the service of the public. His understanding, integrity, and spirit, were dreadful to the then infamous administration. Persuaded that he would be theirs for properly asking, they sent his old schoolfellow, the lord treasurer Danby, to renew acquaintance with him in his garret. At parting, the lord treasurer, out of pure affection, slipped into his hand an order upon the Treasury for 10007., and then went to his chariot. Marvell, looking at the paper, calls after the treasurer, 'My Lord, I request another moment.' They went up again to the garret, and Jack, the servant boy, was called. 'Jack, child, what had I for dinner yesterday ?' |