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THE GREAT REBELLION . Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion . By John iangton Sanfbrd , of Lincoln ' s Inn , Barrister-at-Law . John W . Parker and Son . For fifteen years and more , it would appear , Mr . Sanford has pursued an historical investigation- of the Great Rebellion with the acumen of a lawyer and the devotion of an antiquavv . I * was his original intention to write a life of Oliver Cromwell , but he was to a certain extent anticipated by Mr . Garlyle , who in 1845 published his collection of the fetters and Speeches of Cromwell , the result , of a
similar and independent course of inquiry , lo that gentleman Mr . Sanford communicated the existence of many Cromwelliana of interest , which found a place in the second ( 1 S 46 ) edition of the Letters and Speeches . He thus partly took the edge from novelties he might at first have introduced to the public , but continued in good hear . t to explore the mines of information at the British . Museum , the Bodleian Library , and Dublin Castle , in the confident expectation of at length obtaining those public thanks for new historical discoveries , of which circumstances and , it , may be , his own generosity had on the former occasion balked him . But while- immersed in Sir S . D'Ewes ' s MS . Journal of the Long Parliament at the British
Museum , rewriting the lives of Cromwell , Pym , Hampden , and other Commonwealth statesmen , and gloating over the treasures of the Tanner MSS . and the Irisn Council Books , Mr . Sanfbrd omitted to consult the sages of the publishing world , and to calculate that another " Old Mortality" was hard upon his heels , for Mr . John Forster , the able author of the Eminent British Statesmen of the Commonwealth , a biographical scries , comprising a liifo of Cromwell , and whom , by the way , Mr . Sanford somewhat harshly charges by inference with having sanctioned a large mass of calumnious anecdote as history , was in the field , and the Sanford papers were of a bulk that appalled " the trade . *'
My new materials ( says the author ) had so enlarged my original plan , that when , in 1850 , I -went through the usual ordeal with the London publishers , they shrank from incurring any risk in such a speculation , find my MS . was consigned again to the shelves , whore it slumbered peacefully for the next five years . I then made another and equally unsuccessful attempt to bring it before the public in a reduced and modified form . I should , perhaps , have Accepted this last judgmont as final , if the publication of Air . Fora tor ' s Jlistoricul Essays , In the present year , had not called my nttootion to tho fact that I had already lost the credit of historical discoveries , in which I had anticipated that gentleman by several years ; and t accordingly considered , that , in justice to myself , I ought no longer to delay placing before the public some portion of my labours .
with society at large imply the probable absence of higher social rank , and of the social influences connected with formal membership of the established church S cial disabilities of this kind ( fertile sources of infidelitv to conscience and silly assumption on one ^ ide , and one rulous , self-sufficient rudeness on the ottiw ) , which are the crying evil of our present religious divisions , did not attach necessarily to tho Puritan then , and indeed scarcely existed at all . A considerable minority amongthe peers and landed gentry were ' socially , as well as no litically " Puritans . " The wealthier merchants were generally of that caste ; and a strong body of the beneficed clergy , who had their representatives in the national
universities , were openly identified with that -epithet . There was , therefore , little occasion for that gaucheric often and very naturally resulting from isolation in one small circle of associations ; or for the feeling ( sotuetimea unwarranted ) of being , beyond the boundaries of that circle , a social " pariah . " Nor , again , was there the resulting tendency on the part of the excluded to exaggerate their points of difference from the exclusives , and to assume an attitude of defiant want of sympath y with society on trifling points of ceremonial observance . Puritanism and " Cavalierism" ( if 1 may coin such a -word ) were two rival principles , contending for the regulation of social habits as much as for political ascendancy , and in both respects on something like equal terms .
Puritanism , therefore , was not in the former respect the enforced attitude of a sullen inferiority , any more than it was in the latter the more reckless desperation of a defeated faction . Such critics as we have alluded to , forgetful that books are not written for them alone , inaj deem it as superfluous thus to apologise for the Puritans , as to heap up evidence of Charles's recognised faithlessness , or—as indeed it is—to prove the pedigree of Oliver and to disconnect him from the brewery business . But it must be remembered that these were no postulates a few
years ago , even iii educated circles . The face of educational authorities when we were young was for the most part set against any estrayal from the good old belief that King Charles was a blessed martyr , Oliver Cromwell a base-born charlatan , and the Puritan party a set of villaiious fanatics . And it must also be remembered that though the child of to-day plants his political ladder where the lowcaste politician of 1820 was used to culminate his radicalism , the likeness of Oliver is still absent from the Pailiamcut-house and his name from the
Sic vos non vobis was the thorn that rankled in the side of our learned Dryasdust , and to his impatience we are indebted for the publication of the elaborate body of minutiae relative to the history ot the Grand Rebellion , which he was at the pains to store up , in the fond belief that he alone had access to the hoard , and could dole it out to the public at his leisure . , , , . , The result is a work that will be barely welcomed by the historical student , who is already familiar with the last new facts promulgated by Forster and Carlyle , or who already has definite views shaped in conformity with Hallam or Macaulay , but on the other hand , conceived as it is in a spirit of liberty that harmonises with the present tendencies of men s minds , and embodying also an immense and recent collation of historical data—many of them new ones ^—it should not miss , in our opinion , to become a standard work of reference for future historians
and compilers . The first of Mr . Sanford ' s ten studies , essays , or chapters , surveys the position among European nations occupied by England during the sixteenth century , noticing the growth of the national power under the Plautagcnets and the progressive front presented by popular freedom to the power of the Crown . Then tracing the reaction which took place under the stem but subtle rule of the Tudors , he
shows how the sovereigns of that dynasty , the power of the barons having been crushed , would have tightened the yoke of monarchy upon the people , even with the assistance of amended popular institutions had they only been able to exclude the political ray when they opened the windows of the Reformation to admit religious light . On the dilettante King James I . Mr . Sanford pours fresh phials of contempt in the following spirit : —
He lias been called ( he says ) a " learned fool , and his lucubrations on government and royal authority , when we consider the position in which he was practically placed , certainly entitle him to the epithet . Royal despotism seems to have possessed for him all the attractions of forbiddeu fruit , and the mortifications which he was constantly compelled to undergo from insolent nobles and presuming preachers appear to have had only the effect of impressing more strongly on Ins mind a sense of the theoretical irresponsibility of the Crown . To England his eyes were continually turned as to the land of promise in -which all these cherished dreams of royal autocracy were to be realised . .
Statute-book ; that millions of us have not yet understood or reaped the proper fruit of the Revolution for want of proper teaching . When the clerk , the shopman ,- and the artisan , their appetites sharpened by newspaper allusions to the rights and liberties purchased for them by the Puritans , turn to the bookshelves of their gymnasia , for information about prerogative , divine right , the doc-? trine of resistance , aud the - martyrdom of King Charles , they find cither colourless narratives or -the ponderous tomes of the great party historians from which they cannot winnow out the truth . Liberal handbooks to various periods of our history arc surely wanted , and we should choose the writer of the following passage to supply one upon the English Revolution and Protectorate : —
The author sketches the position to which England , distraqted at home and despised abroad , sank under this cowardly , vain , dissembling prince , whose Popish tendencies are to our minds better accounted for by his yearnings after absolutism than by his passionate desire for the Spanish alliance , and proceeds , in his second essay , to treat of " Puritanism . " lie traces the progress of that movement from the period when , under Elizabeth , it was of a religious character only , to that when its stream was swollen by the adhesion of the social and political reformers , and when it represented , in fact , the advanced liberalism of the age . It may appear to many readers in 1 S 5 S that Mr . Sanford takes needless pains in the following vindication of Puritanism " : —
The English constitution , orig inating as vro have Seen , partly in the class privileges of tho Saxon , partly on the rights and requirements of Norman fuiulalisni > had been defined by traditionary charters , or feudal relations . Its maintenance was secured by the warime and independent spirit of the nation , or by tho weakness and crimes of the sovereign . Its infringements arc landmarks of the depreasion of the people ami the superior talents or fortuitous position of the king . J > e \ v charters were irranted , meeting particular cases of
op-Incredible indeed as it may appear to some , it is not too much to say that ( if we except a few honourable names among the Koyalists—such , for instance , as the Earl of Derby ) the Puritan gentleman alone would be appreciated and sympathised with by modern society . Of course it is not meant to affirm that peculiarities of manner nncl language would not occasionally raise a smile of wondering amusement at his expense ; but the / prevalent feeling would bo one of sympathising respect . He might be judged by some over-strict and scrupulous ;
pression as they rose , and incidentally and i ^ qwnuy without any intention laying down general principles which included in their grasp many other poswwe abuses , As tho Crown or tho nation gained the upper hand , these precedents of liberty and' oppressiou were produced on either bide as warrants for their !>««» £ ings . When society , therefore , began to be less \ lovcrncd by temporary force , and more by « okm . and permanent law , it became necessary to «» " ? " ™ on competent authority the ouinparatlvo value oi • conflicting precedents . During the reigns of Ww iw » , James , and Charles , A contort to secure » uc » a ««•» "
but by them also the complete absence of coarse vulgarity in his manners would no ? be unappreciated . His " preciseness" oven would bo in many respects less marked and offensive to the world at large than is the cuse with " strict" people of the present day . It would be " strictness" in comparison with a much l ' axer state of general nociety , and would , therefore , in many of its once salient features , harmonise with the received canons of propriety of a more advanced age .
In referring to these and similar characteristics of tho Puritan , it has been generally forgotten , that in tho reign of Charles I . tho great majority of the Puritans were not separatists from the communion of the Church of England , but formed a party wlihin tho national church . Although , therefore , their enruent opinions gave a certain peculiarity to thoir manners , there w »» not tho broad social difference which ( far more than any religious creed ) severs tlvo churchman and dinsenter of tho present day . Tho Puritan waB not , as the modern dissenter , hardly to be found except in tho middle and lower clastic ?; and within these , still more restricted in his social' intercourse by the special demarcations of his creed . His peculiarities of religious opinion did not
prevailed to a greater or less extent . Uy a W ™* » opposing claims stood in more distinctly n"t * S ° » Vj attitudes . Tho Crown widened its pretensions so « a v include every succcsaful act of royal encronchnion , « Commons widened theirs , bo as to deduce broad on general principles from the particular precedents « "' freedom . There can bo no Uoubt on « hoser » K o right lay ; and wo have just aeon in whoso »" ° 'ir ! contest had apparently been decided . Irani the any when Charles I . assented to the Petition of 1 ' « M , *] are relieved , so far aa tha Stuart * are «« nw'n 0 '' 'J , or any roinoto inquiries as to precedents for royalP "" . popular liberties . Tho inquiry Ima been uhmw »
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? Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws ^ -they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . ?
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of cleanliness , with dwellings notorious for the prevalence of both : and his conclusions are at variance " with , the results of observations made under circumstances very similar to those that exist in barracks . 1 must add , that Mr . JNeison is certainly in error in alleging that the barrack accommodation for the different branches of the service does not contract in the order in which the general mortality , as . well as that from consumption , increases . Mr . Neison even says that " it happens to be quite otherwise . " But , in saying this , he overlooks or forgets the somewhat striking coincidence that the infantry of ihe line and- foot-guards are more subject to consumption than the cavalry , and that the latter have from one-fourth to one-fifth more air to breathe . .
I now take leave of Mr . JNeisou ' s elaborate ana ingenious paper , believing that T have assigned some good reasons for doubting the soundness of his inferences , and supplied the not too zealous army authorities , if not with motives to activity on behalf of the soldier , at least with reasons for not allowing their improvements in barracks to be stopped by want of faith in the " hypothesis " the Commission . I am , sir , Your obedient servant , William : A . Guy . 26 , Gordon-street , September 30 , 1858 .
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-rtQrt THE LEADER . [ No . 44 . 5 , October 2 , 1 S 58 . . ± \) OA - . ¦ ¦ : ¦ .. ' : ^_ — ¦ ¦ ' —~ " " - —¦ , —
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1858, page 1032, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2262/page/16/
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