they intended concerning theft; and after to have afcertained and fecured property, as also the executive part of the law, fo as a perfon fhould not need to part with one property to fecure and keep another, as now it is; perfons being forced to lofe the property of their cow to keep the property of their horfe, or one parcel of land to preferve and keep another. This body of law, when modelized, was to have been reported to the house, to be confidered of and paffed by them as they fhould fee caufe; a work of itself great, and of high efteem with many for the good fruit and benefit which would arife from it; by which means the huge volumes of the law would come to be reduced into the bignefs of a pocket-book, as it is proportionably in New England; a thing of fo great worth and benefit as England is not yet worthy of, nor likely in a fhort time to be fo bleffed as to enjoy. And that was the true end and endeavour of thofe members who laboured in that committee; although it was moft falfely and wickedly reported, that their endeavours tended to deftroy the whole laws, and pulling them up by the roots.'

"The houfe fet apart Friday in very week to debate on the important bufinefs above mentioned."

We have made thefe quotations to remove an error which is generally prevalent at prefent among perfons of little information, viz.-that the fcience of politics is a new science invented by the Rouffeaus, the Briffots, the Condorcets, of a neighbouring nation, and never adverted to by our ancestors, even when they undertook the hazardous operation of effecting a change in their own form. of government. Mr. Hume himself admits, that in these times, "every man had framed the model of a republic;" but, because these models were framed by religious men, he bafely infinuates that they could not be rational.

Perhaps one of the foundest and beft-informed politicians of the republican party was fir Henry Vane; but his life was too active to admit of his engaging deeply in fpeculative difquifitions; and the writings of his which

remain to pofterity, are chiefly fpeeches or pamphlets compofed upon particular occafions; but even these contain matter from which there are few statesmen who may not derive information. The following fhort character of this great man, by Mrs. Macaulay, is written with a degree of fpirit and energy which few hiftorians can equal.

"Among the foremost rank of these heroic characters ftands fir Henry Vane, whofe honefty was too pure to be corrupted by the rigour of perfecution, or the emoluments of office, and the enjoyment of power; whofe judgment was too found to be depraved by that high enthuliafm in religion into which a fine imagination is fo apt to deviate, when, in contemplating divine fubjects, it ranges beyond the bounds of human knowledge and experience; whofe refolution was fo philofophical, as, in the fufferance of his martyrdom, to conquer the almoft irrefiftible influence of natural timidity, and whofe abilities were fo eminent, as, when reduced to the state of a. prisoner, to give terror to a powerful government."

Mr. Hume has affected to speak with difrefpect of the political writings of Milton; and we fufpect, in this inftance, as in many others, he haftily condemns what he has never read. From our own knowledge we can af firm, that, in many paffages of his controverfial writings, the fpirit and fancy of the author of Paradife Loft may be difcovered; and the whole of them are written with acutenefs and energy. His Difcourfe on the Liberty of the Prefs is a very fine compofition.-There is fomewhat of the pedantry of the age in his style; and his periods, like thofe of Clarendon, are frequently too long. His arguments, however, are folid and well arranged; and there is the fame richness and copioufnefs in his diction in profe, that is fo eminently confpicuous in his poetical compofitions. It is not true, moreover, as Mr. Hume infinuates, that Milton was but little regarded during the prevalence of his own party; on the contrary, the circumstance related by Whitlocke, and to which he refers, is calculated to evince the particular respect in which

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he was held. The ftate paper which was to be translated into Latin, required particular accuracy; and though Milton, on account of his blindness, had retired from public bufinefs, it could be trufted in no other hands but his; and the negotiation with Sweden was actually delayed to afford him time to perform his task.

After the names of Vane and of Milton, it may appear an anti-climax to mention that of colonel John Lilburn; yet this eventful period fcarcely offers to our ob fervation a character more extraordinary, or a writer more voluminous. To run through his hiftory, from the unjuft and cruel fentence which was inflicted on him by the star-chamber, to his breach with the ufurper Cromwell, would be to detail the hiftory of the times at large; for there was fcarcely an event of any importance in which he was not concerned. To enumerate the pamphlets which he published, would now be impoffible; fuffice it to fay, that they were moftly written on the fpur of the occafion; and though no writer was ever more in favour with the populace, they are now defervedly, we believe, configned to oblivion. He difobliged all parties; and, after a life of perfecution, embraced the quaker perfuafion; in which he died, affording a proof that good principles can reduce to a peaceable difpofition the moft unquiet fpirit, and that real piety can infure more of real happiness, than the full indulgence of the boldest projects of ambition. Mrs. Macaulay feems to confider Lilburn as a man who, in al! his conduct, was actuated by honeft motives.

Of the political writers on the oppofite fide, the first place is undoubtedly due to Dr. John Gauden, afterwards bishop of Exeter. His firft appearance in public was on the fide of the parliament. He took the folemn league and covenant, conformed to the ordinances for the difufe of the liturgy, and was appointed one of the affembly of divines:-but here he ftopped;-for when the parliament and army, or rather the latter, proceeded to the trial of the king, he published "The Religious and Loyal Pro

teftation

teftation of John Gauden, D. D." against that proceed ing; and, after the king's death, he wrote a molt daring piece, which he called " A Juft Invective against those of the Army and their Abettors who murdered king Charles the First," but to the credit of the doctor's prudence at least, this was not published till after the reftoration. During the king's imprisonment, however, he committed to the prefs the celebrated pamphlet entitled "Eina Barikian, or The Portraiture of his Sacred Majefty in his Solitude and Sufferings;" which, however, did not appear till after the execution of the ill-fated Charles.

The only argument that Mr. Hume has advanced for his favourite opinion that it was written by the king, is, that the ftyle more refembles the known productions of that monarch, than the highly figurative and inflated style of Gauden. Againft this prefumption we have the affer tion of Dr. Gauden himfelf, and the claims to preferment which he founded on being the author of this piece. We have a certificate prefixed to the latter editions of Milton's Eixovexλars, under the hand of lord Anglesey, in which that noble lord pofitively afferts, that, upon fhewing to king Charles the Second and the duke of York a MS. of the work wherein were fome alterations in the late king's hand, they folemnly affured him that " it was none of the faid king's compiling, but made by Dr. Gauden, bishop of Exeter;" and this teftimony was afterwards confirmed to bishop Burnet by the duke of York himself. Added to thefe pofitive teftimonies, we have the negative proof that no evidence ever was found that could pofitively affert it to be the king's writing; and yet it is not eafy to imagine that he could have been fo employed without the privity of fome perfon or other. And the filence of lord Clarendon, who certainly would not have omitted to infift on a circumftance fo much te the credit of his mafter, is a ftrong prefumption in Dr. Gauden's favour. With refpect to the fuppofed analogy to the style of the king, every man who is accustomed to compofition muft know that it is not impombe for a writer of a luxuriant fancy to chaften and curb his imagination,

gination, and occafionally to adopt a style lefs ornamented than ufual. Nothing indeed is more certain than that the most vigorous genius can feldom produce highly figu rative compofition without a confiderable effort.

Though Dr. Gauden lived quietly and enjoyed his preferments under the commonwealth and the ufurpation, yet he ftill occafionally employed his pen in favour of the rights of the church; and, in 1659, published 'Ispa Aaxpux, a work which bears no light refemblance to the Em

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The reputation of the author of Eix Barixin is at least equalled by that of the author of the no lefs celebrated pamphlet entitled "Killing no Murder;" the defign of which was to prove, that to affaflinate a public offender, who by his fuccefsful crimes had fet himself above the reach of law and juftice, was not finful but meritorious and the effect which it wrought upon the mind of Cromwell himself, was not lefs extraordinary than that which it had upon the public at large. Not only the ufurper's apprehenfions were excited, but even his remorfe, by the ftrong picture which it exhibited of his crimes; and from the time of its publication he fell into a ftate of defpondency, which ended only with his life. The public voice has long given the credit of this pamphlet to colonel Titus; but, according to lord Clarendon, colonel Sexby, one of the levelling party, who had formerly been an intimate of Cromwell, afferted that he was the author; and it is a remarkable fact, that Sexby foon after died in the Tower, as is fuppofed, by poifon. If, indeed, we con fider the abject and flavih principles which were held by molt of the cavalier party at this period, we fhall not eafily conceive how fuch fervid fentiments of liberty as the pamphlet contains, fhould proceed from any of the partizans of Charles. The picture which the author draws of the torpor and venality in which the people of England were funk at this period, is ftriking; and we believe it juft." Can any man," fays this fpirited writer, "with patience think upon what we have profeffed, when

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