Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For DECEMBER, 1781.

ART. I. The History of England from the Acceffion of James I. to the Revolution. Vols. VI. and VII. By Catharine Macaulay Graham. 4to. 11. 10s. Dilly. 1781.

WH

HILE the prejudices and partialities of mankind are fuffered to operate (and it is well known that their operation can never be restrained), it will be impoffible for the hiftorian, whofe narrative is confined to events in which every one fancies himself interested, to give fatisfaction to all.

The truth of this obfervation has been fufficiently experienced by the Authorefs of the prefent volumes. Thofe, who differ from her in the complexion of their political tenets, fail not to charge her with principles, which are not only not to be found in her writings, even by implication, but which the invariably dif avows. This difingenuous procedure, at the fame time that it. is injurious to the individual, too frequently fuppreffes the spirit of liberal enquiry, and has an indirect tendency to fap the foun dations of truth.

In the Preface to the prefent volumes, the Authorefs not only explains the motives, but enters into a full vindication of her literary conduct. Her vindication is animated, and appears to be juft. The candid Reader will not be difpleafed with an extract from this part of her performance.

I well know what perfonat difadvantage I fet out with, from that impartiality which I had determined to obferve on the conduct of the different factions, which have haraffed the internal peace of this em pire; and when I gave up the emoluments of favour, the countenance of the great, and the gratification of popular applaufe, on a principle of public utility, I had fome reafon to expect esteem for my integrity and induftry, and especially as I have never thrown any perfonal abuse on any individual, in or out of power; nor have ever fullied my pen with those anonymous writings calculated to anguish VOL. 'LXV. Dd the

the feeling heart, to fix an indelible stain on the manners of Englishmen, and to inflict the poignancy of mental Tufferings not only on the defamed perfons, but on all those who are attached to them, either by the ties of blood, or the yet ftronger ties of affection. I have endeavoured, with the most indefatigable pains, to make my History ufeful to men of all conditions; and I am perfuaded that no moderate churchman, or honeft lawyer, can, on cool reflection, be offended with the hiftorian's free obfervations on the conduct of men who have been the authors of much public and private mischief, and whofe violent counfels, and difhoneft practices, have frequently difturbed the peace, and endangered the liberties of the empire. If I have been fevere on misguided princes, and bad ministers, it is with a view only to the interests of the people; and if all hiftorians would preferve the fame honeft rule, inftead of varnishing, with falfe colours, the vices of the powerful, it would, from that general defire which all men have of preferving fome degree of reputation after death, form a kind of literary tribunal, productive of a very useful reformation in the conduct of those favoured sons of fortune, on whose good or bad qualities the happiness and welfare of focieties depend. The candid and the generous will, undoubtedly, from thefe confiderations, behold, without malice or refentment, the wicked or weak conduct of their ancestors reprefented in its proper light; and efpecially when they reflect that it would be very unbecoming the character, and contrary to the duty of an hikorian, to fpare even the memory of a parent, if he was found defective in thofe patriotic virtues which eminently affect the welfare of society.

If the warmth of my temper has occafioned me to be guilty of any petulancies in my first productions, they arofe from the inexperience of the hiftorian, and the early period of life in which the began to write hiftory; but though I have been pursued with virulent invectives, I have never yet been made acquainted with my literary faults. Criticifms formed with judgment and temper command attention; but when perfonal invective fupplies the place of argument, and the reputation of authors are attacked in order to decry their writings, it is a very ftrong fymptom in favour of those productions against which the battery of abuse is levelled; and in this cafe an individual, in the full enjoyment of that internal fatisfaction which a faithful exertion of mental abilities affords the rational mind, must look down with contempt on the angry crowd, nor fuffer their fierce and loud clamours, in any respect, to divert him from purfuing the grand object of his honeft ambition.'

Equally fpirited is her vindication of the glorious Sidney. The invidious and illiberal attacks that have been levelled at the character of that exalted patriot are fresh in the memory of every one.

Speaking of the noble ideas on which Mr. Sidney, after his

Viz. In the hopes either of regulating the English monarchy on more correct principles, or of re-enablishing that mode of government, which, he conceived, would more naturally produce the fecurity of the subject, and the honour of the nation.

return

[ocr errors]

return to England, joined the popular party, our Hiftorian proteeds:

Such fentiments carried into practice, and fealed with the blood of this illuftrious Englishman, it is to have been imagined, would have rendered his memory facred to that country on which his writings and heroic virtues have reflected luftre; but there is a spirit of bitterness, of rancour, of envy, and the worst fpecies of levelling gone forth among us, which even the crown of martyrdom cannot efcape. We are told, that when the Romans once beheld their Cato in a fituation not quite agreeable to that confiftent dignity which graced the public and the private virtues of this godlike man, they modeftly ftepped afide, and inflead of triumphing over humanity, by proclaiming aloud this fmall blemish in an exalted character, they turned their eyes from the wounding fight. This was the generosity of ancient manner; but what was the conduct of Englishmen on the affertion of the French minifter, Barillon, published near a hundred years after the martyrdom of their laft eminent patriot, that he had received two feveral fums from the court of France? Why, inflead of turning their eyes from the fcandalous page, or even of examining into the nature of an affertion which, inaccurately confidered, carries the form of an act fomewhat derogatory to the honour of their hero, they exulted in the weakness of humanity, and confequently in their own fhame. In the fancied corruption of the most perfect pattern of human excellence they found an authority for enormous deviations from common honefty, and by inculcating the doctrine of an irrefillible depravity, and levelling every human character, they imagined they had, in fome meafure, conciliated reputation with the mammon of unrighteoufnefs; for if every man is a villain in his heart, there can furely be no infamy. Thus whilft England has been confidered and refpected by foreigners as the mother of heroes, legiflators, patriots, and martyrs, her own fons take a fatisfaction in convincing the admiring world, that they were under a grofs mistake, and that England never produced any character confiderably above the ftamp of vulgar life; but there is a glaring impolicy as well as meanness and wickedness in thefe attempts. Let the man who fattens on the spoils of corruption, who wantons in the parade of illgötten riches, who feals on the bread of the deluded, let him fuffer the honeft man to reap that meagre harvelt which he disdains; let him be fuffered to enjoy his poverty and his honeft fame; let him at leaft reft fecure in the fanctuary of martyrdom, left by perfuading all mankind that virtue is a non-entity, the market fhould be everftocked with villains; that the price of his commodity fhould be lowered; and that abler politicians fhould attain the object of his defires, for this he may be affured, that all thofe eminent talents which are neceffary to conflitute a truly great man, could never fail of meeting with an unlimited fuccefs in the ways of a corrupt ad

vancement.

• There is, undoubtedly, much of malice and of falsehood in the party-writings of our ancestors; but that general spirit of levelling which pervades modern fociety, is a new circumftance of corruption among us, and takes its rife from an excess of vanity, which is indeed common to the human character, but which owes its luxuriant growth

Dd 2

[ocr errors]

growth to circumftances which help to deftroy that humility which muft ever rationally attend on infignificance, and feduces every man into a falfe perfuafion of felf-importance. What with the opportunity of puffing in the public newspapers, a feather well adjufted, a title, a ribbon, unexpected riches acquired in the Ealt, or a fuccefsful monopoly, every individual becomes of confequence; and when the mountains are levelled, the mole-hills will appear: but if with the breath of calumny and flander, if with the poisonous ink of detraction, we fully the characters of the illuftrious dead, what hope can we reasonably entertain, that the prefent degeneracy of manners should not increafe with a rapid courfe through all fucceeding ages! The contemplation of a great character never fails to warm the young and generous ftudent into the noble attempt of imitative virtue, and helps to guard the mind against the impulfe of felfish paffions, and the contagion of example. It is indeed only by dwelling on the fublime beauties of heroic character, that we can difcover that amazing oppofition of the hateful and the lovely in moral excellence and moral deformity, and that we can be animated into a paffion for difinterefted virtue; but what patterns fhall we felect for the model of youthful emulation, if we admit of modern fcepticifm in regard to the reality of that virtue which we have long adored in the facred memories of our forefathers; befides, it must deaden all generous attempts to an exalted conduct, when one fuppofed error in the judgment, one failing of humanity brought to public view by accident, or private malice, fhall obfcure the luftre of a life of glory, and level a great character to the base standard of common humanity; for as no individual, whilft he continues in a state of frailty, can be certain that he shall always enjoy his understanding free from any alloy of error, or any cloud of infanity; or that he fhall every moment of his existence bear the fovereign rule over his temper, his paffions, and his prejudices; he will never, with all the labour and the forbearance neceffary to build up an eminent virtue, be induced to purchase that tranfitory fame which may only ferve to render him a more confpicuous object of the contempt of the multitude.

That a man of Sidney's rank, acknowledged abilities, and unftained character, would have been received with open arms by the English government, had he been willing to render his talents fubfervient to his private intereft, and the giving ftrength and permanence to the prerogatives of the crown, or to forward the criminal defigns of the court, is, I think, a matter of fo felf-evident a nature, that all arguments tending to prove the pofition would be useless and ridiculous. That Sidney had rejected the importunities of his family, and the invitations of his friends; that he had refufed to avail himself of the advantage which attends great parts and endowments, to establish an intereft with the prefent government equal to what he had enjoyed with the laft, appears from the whole tenour of his condect, and from his letters of correfpondence; and can the rankeft partywriter, who poffeffes any particle of common fenfe, or any degree of modefy, deny that the firmet principles of honour and integrity muft regulate the defires and inclinations of that man who, from motives of confcience and opinion, could reject the opportunity of acquiring diftinction and riches in his own country, and fubmit to a

voluntary

.

voluntary banishment and precarious fubfiftence from the favour of a foreign prince!

If I was addreffing a public renowned for candour and for dif cernment, I should fay, that fuch a life as that of Sidney's, fupported by his writings, and fealed with his blood, was more than fufficient' to counterbalance any affertion which could be made in his disfavour: I fhould obferve, that the inflexibility of his temper in matters in which he believed himself to be in the right, would not fuffer him meanly to fupplicate his own father for money, or in the fmalleft point to recede from principle, though reduced to great ftraits and difficulties in a foreign country: I fhould affert, that it was more probable that Barillon might charge his mafter with money which was never paid, than that a man of Sidney's high spirit and inflexibility of temper fhould be prevailed on to take money from the court of France for any mean and difhoneft purpose: but in the present ftate of manners and opinions, I fhall exclude every fuppofition and every argument which might rationally be drawn from eftablished character, and an incorrupt and active integrity, manifefted by a long fucceffion of repeated acts of forbearance, felf-denial, and perfonal danger. I fhall allow in its fulleft latitude Mr. Barillon's affertion, that Algernon Sidney, who had been fome years fupported in those extremities which his integrity had brought him into, by a penfion from the French King, received two feveral fums of money from the fame prince after his return to England, and "I believe, fays the minifter, he may be gained to your Majefty's fervice:" but what was this fervice? Was it betraying the liberties of his country to a foreign' or domeftic tyrant? was it to increase the power of France to the prejudice of his native country? No; it was to procure the diffolution of a base and venal Parliament; it was to difband an army raised on the defign of establishing defpotifm in England; it was to pull down a minifter who had been the principal agent in concluding the King's infamous money-negociations with the court of France, and who had been the promoter of corruption in Parliament, and of arbitrary power in the flate. "The Sieur Algernon Sidney, writes Barillon to his master, is a man of very high defigns, which tend to the re-establishment of a republic: he is in the party of the independents and other fectaries, and this party were mafters during the late troubles; they are not at prefent very powerful in Parliament, but they are strong in London; and it is through the intrigues of the Sieur Algernon Sidney, that one of the two Sheriffs, named Bethel, ' has been elected." Let that party, who inveigh against Sidney for his prejudices in favour of a republic, fay if this conduct was a deviation from principle; and if not, what becomes of the affertion that Sidney was bribed by the court of France? Does not bribery confit in the engaging a man to do that for money which is not agreeable to his inclinations, his opinions, and his principles; and which he would not otherwife have done without it? If any part of Lord Howard's evidence is to be credited, he faw Sidney take fixty guineas out of his pocket for the purpofe of forwarding the defigns of the popular party against Charles. It is highly probable, that as the faction in England, on whom Sidney had any in-' fluence, were compofed of Independents, the generality of whom

Dd 3

were

3

« PreviousContinue »