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April 4/1857..] THE X^A^IR. 331
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MISCELLANIES. A " Ramble through the Uni...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Reign Of James Ii. History Of The Co...
therefore , reprinted it verbatim from the original edition , to which Mr . Alacaulay makes such , frequent reference . Sir John Lowrther was a Baronet of Westmoreland , and took an active part in the peaceful revolution . King William , upon coming to the throne , appointed him a Privy Councillor and Vice-Chamberlain of the Honsehold . He was afterwards First Lord of the Treasury , then held the Privy Seal , and in 1700 became one of the Lords Justices to govern the kingdom during William ' s absence in Holland . Mr . Macaulay has drawn at large upon this singularly characteristic jMemoir ; but it should be read through by those -who care for close views of history . Lonsdale was a spirited actor in the Revolution ; from the date of James ' s accession he took up an attitude of independent resistance to the aggressions of the ' prerogative ; he was a Whig when Whiggery meant patriotism ; but he conducted himself -with so much dignity and moderation that , although ; impeached by the purchased libellers of the Tory party , he gained the approval of all his respectable contemporaries , and was valued by the King as one of the steadiest and safest supporters of his constitutional throne .
The Memoir runs rapidly through the events of the last Stuart ' s reign . In the month of September , 1688 , lonsdale proposed , "by God ' s permission , " to write concerning the public events of the peilod , and hoped to find an innocent enjoyment in the task , " for without innocence no enjoyments are satisfactorie ; no crirninall pleasure in the world is either perfect or lasting . ' In this admirable frame of mind he reverts to February , 1684 , when , in the dead of the night , a messenger awakened him with news that apoplexy had assailed the first king of the Restoration . Four days afterwards the death of Charles the Second was announced , James ascended the throne , said gracious things concerning the Churcli of England , and " within
lessethan a moneth we had an account that he went publicklie to masse . " Lord Lonsdale accurately represents , in his language , and in the solemnity of his recital , the public feelings of the day , the apprehensions of the Church , the unflinching firmness of the political class , whose energy afterwards bore fruit in the Bill . of Rights , the Protestant succession , and the national privileges , siirmounting the golden arches of the Crown . Parliament was called ; . and Lonsdale 3 -with his cousin Bellingham , stood for the county of Buckingham and ' ¦ " was chosen knight . " But James soon allowed his councillors to detect the Roman lining to his mantle , and the conspiracy he had formed against the liberties-of the commonwealth . Danger was manifest "in some things done alreadie , and in some things then proposed "—
The flirst of these was , the destroying the antient method of elections in burroughs by prescription : by obliging them to accept charters w ' vested the power of election in some perticuJar people named ffor the purpose . This seemed to strike at the root of the goyerment ; ffor tis manifest the hous of commons will retain , nothing but the name , the vertue will be gone when the king ehall have the power of nominating all the citizens and hurgessos . I therefore was one of those that was desirous to have the antient custome re-established ; thinking that we were chosen to sitt there to no purpose , if we tamelie suffered such , an alteration in the fundamentals of the government , without endeavouring any reparation of so Tnateriall an alteration . Lonsdale moved the House of Commons in a courtly yet resolute speech ,
to inquire into this innovation ; the motion -was stifled . But , on the other hand , a , monarchical plan for exasperating the severity of the laws against treason was so mutilated , that James thought it not "worth passing into law . Meanwhile , Argyll ' s insurrection took place , and Lonsdale , recording the incidents of the Duke ' s trial and execution , bursts into bitter sarcasms against Lord Grey , wlio turned king ' s evidence , and who , when Argyll complained of a cold , alluded mockingly to his inevitable fate , and promised him an effectual cure within a few days . Major Holmes , three days before the battle of Sedgemore , had suspected the courage and the fidelity of this miserable nobleman : —
Tha courage of this Major was remarkable : He had his arm broke in tho battle , wns brought irp ito London , had his life offered him by the King , if he would promise to . live quietlie , and endeavour no disturbance . His answer was , that hia principles had . ever been republicarian , as thinking that Sorm . of government best for this nation ; that he was still of that raind ; that he was now an old man , and hia life as little worth asking as t ' was worth his Majestie ' s giveing ; and t ' was indifferent to him whether his Majestic pardoned him or not . He was therefore sent into tho countrie and hanged , whilst my Lord G-ray had his pardon , and became an evidence against severall . Besides those that were killed in the ffeild there were about seven hundred sentenced to death and executed , insomuch that all the high ways of that countrie were no longer to be travailed , whilst the horrour of bo many quarters of men and the offensive s tenon of them lasted .
The anecdote of the old " republicarian , " and the p icture of the highways hung with dead " traitors , " could not be more effectively presented . Alter the acquittal of the bishops , Lonsdale , by a few graphic words , revives the great scene of popular excitement . " There arose a shout , and a noise so loud and so continuing , the like of which had never before been heard . It went out of the hall , which was crowded with people , and was taken up by the watermen , and in a moment like a train of gunpowder , sett on Hire , went both up and down the river , and along the streets , to the astonishment even of those that contributed to it . " From this incident the JVleinoir digresses to Hudson ' s Bay , and to Algeria , and then to " the case of my Lord Devonshire"
"Who was struck by one Coll . Culpepcr , in the little room next tho King ' s bedchamber ; ffor which ffuct , he was tryed before the Green Cloth , and condemned to loos his hand , there fceing blood drawn ; but was pardoned upon promise tlwt he would make I 113 submission to my Lord ; which ho not doeing , my Lord meeting him in the great ffane room , asked him the reason of that omission . Ho giving no answer , but some scornful action , my Lord was so provoked , that he fell upon him there and boat him much ; but no blood being drawn , he was onlio prosecuted by information in tho King ' s Bench , where they ffined him JJO thousand pound , imprisoned him fl ' or ir , and ffbrced him to give bond flbr the money , othenvays they would have extended his estate to the ruin of it .
speculates soberly on comets , " ffor if they be onlie exhalations , as our phi losophers imagin , ' t 5 s not easy to imagin Low they should occasion wars ; they may , indeed , so far © Sect the aer as to create diseases , but hardlie to begett quarrels . " And yet , he argues , the prodigious comet Which appeared in 1681 bred no epidemics , no pestilence , no famines , but animosities multiplied among men and nations ; wars were prolonged , persecutions were embittered , and earthquakes ensued " which , whether they had anie relation to it , whether it was a sign or a caus of these things , the author of all things only knows . " This grave annalist , guessing at truth , and
reverentially discussing the possible effects of comets on the moral constitutions of men , was afterwards Prime Minister , Privy Seal , and one of the three Lords Justices . " This is certain , " he adds , " no age or time ever produced a comet equal to it . It appeared in the west ; its beard , or rather streamer , reached to a third part of the heavens ; it made its revolution in months , quite round the heavens , by the pole , and disappeared in the east . " Strange , that with such a monster in the sky , the Turks should coincidentally devastate the borders of Europe , that religious wars should drench France in the blood of her own children , that England should be terrified by rumours of cruelty without a precedent : —
They fibund out torments not hefore heard of by the crueltie of man : they would sometimes lett them up and down , into a well , tied by the arms , till there was no appearance of life ; they would row them naked upon broken glass ; they would make them swallow hott water , and infinite other such things , according to tho various notions of crueltie , w * those tormentors ffranied to themselvs . However , the heavens were so troubled that Lonsdale could not devote his Memoir exclusively to events passing on the earth . : —• On Tuesday the SO * ' att night , not onelie three of ray own" ffamilie , but severall people in divers parts of the countrie saw certain phenomena in the aer of clouds that turned into firre , and which dividing , mett again with that swiftnesse , which is
naturall to that element . That they appeared like armies . flighting or musketts as they imagined , I suppose to be rather such ftbrmations as are apt to be in the minds of timorous and superstitious mankind , in times of publick ffears , than anie real ffigurea those meteors have ; the appearances of which are not very unfrequent . The philosophers give no " very satisfactorie account in their ghessing about these matters , and-yett what they . say hath as good a ^ foundation as the divines , who would hava them cxtraordinarie indications of G-od Almightie ' s anger ; -which term how ffar it 13 applicable to the puritie of his nature , I shall not determine . But wherever such accidents are made use of more to magnilie the authoritie of the Church than to enforce moralitie , 'tis no doubt a crime .
He then sails , stem on , among the arrogant philosophers of the period , " who , like the Turks of late , take anie coin lor current that is but well guilt . " linally he follows the revolution rapidly until the accession of William and the attainder of Monmouth , at which point the . relation .-. is suddenly broken off . As an . illustration of the style and spirit of the times , this Memoir is well worth perusal . It forms a fitting addition to the interesting literature of the Standard Library .
Lord Lonsdale was not a man of a doubting mind . He believed in invisible links connecting great events on the earth with signs in the heavens ; the five years before 1088 , he says , wore prolific in " accidents of importance of revolutions of empires , violent and umuxing carthqunkes , persecution for religion , and a fearful comet . We who live in the dread of June may profitably study the reflections of the eighteenth century statesman , who
April 4/1857..] The X^A^Ir. 331
April 4 / 1857 .. ] THE X ^ A ^ IR . 331
Miscellanies. A " Ramble Through The Uni...
MISCELLANIES . A " Ramble through the United States , Canada , and- the West Indies . By John Shaw , M . D ., T . G . S ., F . L . S . ( Hope . )—Dr . Shaw , while travelling , accompanies himself on the flute . His title-page informs us that lie ia the " author of several pieces of music " ¦ for that instrument . We have always kept at a careful distance from ilute-players in private life ; but Dr . Shav * insists on being familiar and confidential . We should say that he is a selfsatisfied gentleman , with an appetite for the smallest of small-talk , and a notion that readers in general participate in bis tendency , lla rambles with an innocent swagger through the West Indies , Canada , and the United States , indites condescending notices of the various gentlemen encountered in railway carriages or hotels , and occasionally drawing forth his oaten pipe , performs in character . Excessively garrulous , he is at the same time uncommonly vague , and ftfes off upon a curious variety of topics generally contrived to suggest a vast deal of consequence enjoyed in this world by Dr . Shaw . With all his egotism and frivolity , however , he manages at times to write agreeably and instructively .
Aldcrshoi , and All About It : with Gossijp , Literary , Military , and Pictorial By Mrs . Young , Author of " Our Camp in Turkey . " ' Wifcli Illustrations . ( Routledgo and Co . )—Mrs . Young , once known us Mrs . Postans , has contrived to compile a very readable little book , upon the " Manual " scale , concerning Aldcrshot and its neighbourhood . To a neat and lively account of the camp she has added many pleasant sketches of tradition , and of historical incidents associated with JFurnhnm Castle , Wnverley Abbey the cottage of Stella , Selbournc , and other pluces of note in the vicinity . They that dwell in Aldershot , and they that visit it , will assuredly place the volume on their shelves , or among their holiday equipments .
GollhoUVs ISmblems ; or , Ititrisi fj le Things Understood by Things that Arc . B y Christian Scriven . Translated by the llov . liobort Menzics . ( Edinburgh : T . and T . Clark . )—Twenty-eight editions of this book have been published in Germany , and it is a wonder that this should be the first translation of ifc in ISnghincI . It loelongH , 119 Mr . Menzies sayH , to tlie class of Htoraturo of which Uogatsky ' s Golden Treasury in a conspicuous illustration . We have musses of German scientific theology , ecclesiastical histories , and embodied doctrines ; we have more than one of Krummucher's works ; but of such publications as we alluilcd to , scarcely any have been introduced to English readers . Seriven was , towardstho close of the seventeenth century , a
pastor of Magdeburg , and later a eoiisistorial councillor at Quedlinburg ; he w « s reverenced by his countrymen almost as an apostle . The Queen of Sweden invited him to bocomu her court prouuhur , and wept whun ho refusud . Spener mul l'ritius pi'aincd him as one excellent beyond all iiin contemporaries . Yot his works had nearly disappeared from the booksellers * shops , when certain pious men selected them for republicution , and kindled unejv their ancient popularity . The " emblems" are anecdote /) in the life of an ideal Gothold , or rather imaginary Oestu , narrated in a grave , sweet , fascinating style , and pointing , in every case , some wise and salutary moral . Conversations on Toj > ic & of Interest between Two Friends . ( Saunders and
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 4, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04041857/page/19/
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