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Within twelve months she bore him a son, who was afterwards Louis XIV. the proudest monarch France has ever seen. On the death of Louis XIII., La Porte was rewarded for his fidelity by being appointed gentleman of the bed-chamber to the young king, whom he used to regard as the child of his obstinate reticence.

gion are unhesitatingly ignored and cast aside; deceit, delusion, falsehood, and treachery are the weapons of either party; and the contest on which depend the life and the honor of a gentleman and a queen, is won at last by persistent mendacity against courtly cruelty and hatred, and suspicions for which, baffled as they were, What a fearful picture does the above there were yet ample grounds. Yet such narrative present of the corrupt state of must ever be the poisoned atmosphere of society in France two hundred years ago! courts where the pure principles of ChristAll the obligations of morality and reli-ianity are not adopted and acted upon.

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ENGLISH MELODIES.-Of all our songwriters there is none more lovable, none more musical, than Charles Swain. There is life in his verse, and so much soul, that excellent mechanism is the least valuable quality. He never tries to tinker Nature, never decks her out in spangled patches of harlequinade, for he has felt, what every true poet feels how utterly ridiculous it is to attempt to "paint the lily." We should as soon think of catching a thrush by walking openly up to it and

VOL. XLIV.-NO. L.

strewing salt upon its tail—as children are told they may do-as to decoy Charles Swain from his natural path by showing him the acrobatic feats of some of his brother rhymers. He is the last man in the world who would take the trouble to climb the steep ascent of Parnassus, up to its sacred top, to the great danger of his best clothes and of his more precious limbs, for no other reason than to stand upon his head in order to astonish the gods!

9

THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.*

ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, the seventh | and the present Earl of Shaftesbury, was born in the year 1801. Though descended from a line distinguished for talent, the present Earl has never been equaled by any one of his progenitors, for all the qualities which constitute true greatness in man, and entitle him to the admiration and confidence of his fellow-men. The title by which he was known as the eldest son of his father, and which has been inseparably connected in the public mind with the true elevation which his character gave to it, was Lord Ashley. From his early maturity he has been seen foremost in all the works of Christian benevolence and public philanthropy. Turning away from those pursuits of mere sensual dissipation which so habitually ensnare the younger members of noble houses, as the attendants on their wealth and idleness, and their exposure to the sycophancy of the cringing agents of sin around them, Lord Ashley early embraced the obligations and the privileges of true Christianity. He at once gave the fine powers of his mind, and his accomplished education to the welfare of his fellowmen. To seek out and relieve the distress of the suffering classes of mankind, and to unite in an earnest effort to spread the principles and influence of the Gospel in its power and its purity, were selected by him as the employment of his time, and the occupation of his mind.

He was elected to the House of Commons as a representative of Dorsetshire, the county in which his paternal estates were owned, and from his entrance into Parliament devoted himself, like his eminent predecessor, Wilberforce, and his cotemporary, Buxton, to the consideration and relief of the real wants and sufferings of his countrymen. No case of need or

* The Rev. Dr. TYNG, by request of the Editor, has kindly drawn this very beautiful and eloquent sketch of his personal friend, the Earl of Shaftesbury. Of very few men, living or dead, can so much be justly said: greatness and goodness are strikingly

united in this truly Christian nobleman -EDITOR OF ECLECTIC.

oppression was beneath or beyond his determined and persevering examination. Endowed with singular penetration and calmness, perfectly fearless and determined, and remarkably commanding and attractive in personal deportment, he had great ability as an advocate, and most important qualifications as a friend. He has never been a partisan in politics, though acting and sympathizing with the more liberal section of the conservatives, in their desires to unite appropriate improvement in the social and political system with the great fundamental securities of the settled order of the nation. The mere questions of political advancement and arrangement, however, rarely awakened his effort or his interest. He was in the House of Commons the friend of the friendless. The oppressed hirelings in their wagesthe women and children toiling in degradation and darkness in the coal minesthe feeble little ones compelled to premature and excessive labor in the factoriesthe poverty and sickness of the neglected crowds in the large cities of the kingdomand any proposal that seemed just and righteous for the melioration of human sorrow and want, were the themes which aroused his attention, and which with indomitable resolution, and unsurpassed skill, he would press upon the House, and compel their attention to his claims. Rarely did he fail in attaining the end for which with so much wisdom and earnestness he labored. These were the habitual characteristics of his parliamentary career.

At the same time that he was giving unceasing attention and energy to these great interests of humanity in Parliament, he was occupied with numerous associations for benevolent and religious objects in the community and the Church. His own heart was deeply and really interested in the Gospel, and he adopted and maintained the most thorough and decided evangelical sentiments in his stand in relation to it. There was never any halting or hesitation in his opinions, purposes, or course. Let him see that a cause was really the cause of his Lord, in the faithful

maintenance of Evangelical, Scriptural,
Protestant truth, and that it really filled
a place unoccupied by similar and ade-
quate provision, and he grasped it imme-
diately, and pursued it with a zeal and
purpose which were never relaxed. So
well did he become known to the Christ-
ian world in this early aspect of his ele-
vated career, that his name was the pass-
port of a cause among all the Christians
of Europe, and the public even regretted
to lose their connection with a title which
had been so honored, and became so en-
deared. We go back to our first acquaint-
ance with him when yet young man,
only to recall the cheerful delight which
he inspired, and with which he was wel-
comed in every religious circle into which
he came.
Some affected to think him
fanatical. But no one ever questioned or
doubted the transparent and disinterested
sincerity of Lord Ashley, even in those
early days. For twenty-five years his
name has been publicly associated in the
respectful confidence of Christian men
with the great interests of benevolence
and truth.

were

mine the established renown which his
character has given to his name in the
view of mankind. In his present position
in the House of Lords, he fails not to em-
brace every proper occasion to avow the
sentiments, and to plead the cause of the
Gospel of his Lord. And he never speaks
but in a condensed, enlarged, and most
influential style of expression and of
thought. His speech on the Russian war,
comparing the different relations of Rus-
sia and Turkey to the propagation of the
Gospel, with each other; on the iniqui-
ties of the opium trade in China; on the
claims of religious liberty for the dissent-
ers and other subjects of Britain
nothing less than master efforts of noble
thought and eloquence. His stand is
never to be mistaken. You know in
every moral and religious question where
he is to be found. He never skulks be-
hind the avowed interests of a party, nor
suffers himself to be entrapped to an ad-
vocacy of wrong and error to gratify his
friends. Repeatedly has he been invited
to the cabinet, but he could never sustain
all the measures of any ministry, and has
never been willing to hamper his higher
work with the snares of office.
grants to Maynooth College which have
made a part of every programme of po-
litical arrangement, he could never de-
fend. Accordingly he has never been
willing to occupy an office under any min-
istry which has yet attempted the govern-
ment of the Empire.

The

The death of his father, perhaps six or seven years since, removed Lord Ashley from the Lower to the Upper House of Parliament. Becoming thus the Earl of Shaftesbury, the habit of myriads had to undergo the change to which we have scarcely yet become familiar, of connecting these great works of benevolence with a new title. But in his new position as the head of one of the oldest and most Lord Shaftesbury's labors out of Parliahonored of the families of the aristocracy, ment are intense. We have often thought Lord Shaftesbury has relaxed none of his the accomplishment of them was a marvel determination and none of his diligence of human power. He is at the head of in the great interests of his Redeemer's every thing which labors for man's real kingdom. He stands out boldly and advancement and benefit. At the death purely, the uncompromising advocate of of Lord Bexley, he was elected the third every righteous cause, the imperturbable President of the British and Foreign Biopposer of human violence, oppression, and ble Society, the crowning office of Engcrime. Such is the purity of his personal lish voluntary Christianity. In many character, the dignity of his own bearing, other of the leading religious and benevothe accuracy and accumulation of his lent societies he occupies the same posiknowledge on the subjects to which he tion. Over a multitude of minor enterdevotes his time and mind, the decision of prises of Christian and social benevolence, his judgment and his choice, that no man he also presides. And in them all, he furcan despise him, and no one dares to in-nishes an effectual aid in actual labor, as sult him. It is not too much to say that well as the highest influence in the power he commands and compels the reverence of patronage of his name. His labor and and confidence even of those who most industry in all these works is almost indislike his opinions, and most differ from credible. Ragged-schools and lodgingthe choice and stand which he assumes. houses for the poor, efforts for social imThey vainly affect to sneer at his tri-provement running out even to schemes umphs, and as vainly attempt to under- for better ventilation of crowded dwell

ings, and many more such plans of domestic benevolence, claim his constant efforts. The Protestant college at Malta, the varied Church efforts for the evangelizing of the Jews, the exertions of British Christians for every scheme of aid to continental Protestants, besides scores of kindred temporary committees and associations, in every conceivable variety of application and demand, find him a willing and a most efficient participant. Wherever you see him, you find him perfectly at home, and what men call "thoroughly posted." We have met him at the Bible Committee in Earl Street, and no man better understood the minutest details of the vast concern. We have seen him in the common Sunday evening exercise of the Ragged-School in Field Lane-where every poor child knew him, and he sung with them in deep emotion their hymns of praise and where he entered into minute explanation to us of the whole detail of the school and the lodging-rooms, and the various tickets bestowed. The red-coated shoe-blacks of the street pride themselves in the title of Lord Shaftesbury's Brigade. And then sometimes in a single day you may follow him from scenes like these, to the presidency of a monster meeting in Exeter Hall for some grand object of the Saviour's kingdom. How many times we have heard him speak in the twenty years past, it would be impossible to tell. But it has been upon nearly all subjects, and on all occasions connected with these great and varied works of usefulness to man. And we have never ceased to wonder at the endurance of fatigue involved, and at the accumulation of labor and toil actually and satisfactorily accomplished.

Lord Shaftesbury is a commanding speaker. His personal aspect is serious and engaged. He is a tall and slender man, pallid in countenance, wearing the features of intense earnestness and sincerity, perfectly natural and unassuming in manner, and appearing at once so really superior to other men, that it would be impossible not to attend to him, or to treat him with disrespect. His voice is clear, though not loud. His extemporaneous utterance is free and chaste. He is never weak or verbose, and no man in England more surely commands the attention of an audience, on any subject of public address. But what has been always a wonder to us is his fullness of knowledge, and his readiness in the com

mand of his particular subject. We have heard him day after day, sometimes twice in one day, on subjects entirely differing from each other. But he is always ready, always informed, and always full. There are few speakers of higher attainment or more controlling power in actual address. And then there is unlimited confidence in his righteous character, and his discreet judgment. When he undertakes a cause, in the view of the great Christian public of Great Britain its claims are already established and acknowledged. A higher illustration of this confidence in character we have never seen, than in the case of Lord Shaftesbury. To his friends he is almost an object of adoration, such is their reverence for him, and such their delight in him. And for ourselves, we can truly say, that years and observation and knowledge have but served to increase our admiration of his character, and our conviction that he is justly entitled to all the exalted influence of his position, and to all the Christian confidence and renown which this position gives him.

Lord Shaftesbury's personal relations are most attractive and agreeable to those who meet him. His house and household are the unpretending exhibition of his own principles and cause. Consistency is the ruling attribute of his life and of his establishment. His paternal seat of St. Giles in Dorsetshire is a large domain in a flat and not a striking country. His house is abundant, though old and not elegant. His village and his little church with its rectory adjoining, are the monuments of his kindness and his care. The venerable and excellent minister of the church, the Rev. Mr. Moore, is a faithful helper and agent in all his plans for the welfare of the people, and on the walls of the quiet rural sanctuary are the mural tablets in various styles, of all the preceding Earls to whose name and titles his Lordship has so worthily succeeded. His town residence in Grosvenor Square is equally simple and unostentatious. And all that one sees of Lord Shaftesbury, in his person, his influence, or his style of life, combines to increase and perpetuate the affection with which he must be regarded by every good and just man who becomes acquainted with him.

At fifty-seven years of age he is in English habits in the prime of life, and should he live like Lord Lyndhurst, or Lord Campbell, to be active in his great works

for these thirty years to come, surely no human mind can estimate the influence for benefit to mankind that will have flowed from such a life. The engraving which we give of him is a copy from a late subscription engraving of large size, which is in the Managers' room in the American Bible House, and is remarkably accurate and effective.

BRIEF FAMILY SKETCH.

We subjoin a brief sketch of the noble family of Shaftesbury, as a matter of in terest and information to our readers, in connection with the portrait which embellishes our present Number, and the sketch by Dr. Tyng.

of the third Earl of Exeter. The memoirs of the Earl of Shaftesbury, valuable to history, were committed in manuscript to Locke, who, frightened at the execution of Algernon Sidney, destroyed them.

The third Earl of Shaftesbury was born at Exeter house in London, February, 1671. He was the pupil of Locke. He was a member of Parliament and acted a conspicuous part in public affairs. He became a man of letters-wrote much, and collected and published an edition of his works. Lord Shaftesbury's writings excited great attention and admiration in his own day, and his name still remains a considerable one in the history both of English philosophy and English eloquence. Late in life he was compelled by impaired health to repair to Naples, where he died, Febuary 15, 1713. This is but a glimpse of the renounced ancestry of the eminently great and good Earl of Shaftesbury, whose portrait adorns our present number.

The first Earl of Shaftesbury was born July 22, 1621. His father was created a baronet in 1622. His mother was the only daughter and heiress of Sir Anthony Ashley, who was secretary of war to Queen Elizabeth. He was elected to Parliament at the age of nineteen-was a We only add a remarkable anecdote of member of the first Parliament of Oliver the first Earl of Shaftesbury, who originatCromwell, April 28, 1652, and also a ed the celebrated law of Habeas Corpus, member of the last Parliament of Crom- so valuable to the rights of personal liberwell. He was a member of the Conven- ty, and secured its passage in the House tion Parliament, and of the Select Com- of Commons. "The third reading of the mittee who invited the return of King bill is said to have been carried by an acCharles, and had the credit of bringing cident; though strongly opposed by the about the Restoration; after which under court of King Charles and by the House Charles, he was Lord Lieutenant, Chan- of Lords. Bishop Burnet says, Lords cellor of the Exchequer and privy-Coun- Grey and Norris were named to be telselor, and sat in judgment as one of the lers. Lord Norris being a man subject Commissioners at the trial of the regicides to vapors, was not at all times attentive October, 1670. In 1672 he was created to what he was doing. So a very fat Earl of Shaftesbury. He acted a distin- lord coming in, Lord Grey counted him guished part in the history of the times, for ten, as a jest, at first; but seeing Lord in opposition to the papal tendencies of Norris had not observed it, he went on Charles-was imprisoned in the Tower- with his miss-reckoning of ten. So it was was released-was acquitted by acclama- reported to the house, and decided that tion which lasted a full hour. He died they who were for the bill were the maJune 21, 1683. He was three times mar-jority, though it indeed went on the other ried, and left a son who succeeded him in side."-Lives of Lord Chancellors, Vol. his titles. His mother was the daughter III., page 276.

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