Through the whole kingdom not one Pratt was found. 495 From the first moments of his giddy youth He hated senates, for they told him truth: At length against his will compell'd to treat, Those whom he could not fright he strove to cheat, With base dissembling every grievance heard, And often giving, often broke his word. Oh where shall hapless Truth for refuge fly, If kings, who should protect her, dare to lie? 500 Those who, the general good their real aim, Sought in their country's good their monarch's fame; Those who were anxious for his safety; those Their truth suspected and their worth unknown, Of saving him was gone and past; till power of such supply, and of the quantity to be imposed for it: and that he might imprison as well as distrain in case of refusal. Croke and Hutton were the only judges who ventured to dissent from this doctrine. 500 John, King of France, being dissuaded by his council from his intended journey to England, where he had formerly been captive, under an apprehension that advantage might be taken by Edward, in the treaty then negotiating, of the circumstance of his enemy being in his power, made this noble reply: "That though good faith were banished from the rest of the earth, she ought still to retain her habitation in the breast of princes." 510 Making their faith and his repentance vain. name; Rebellion, raising high her bloody hand, 515 Friend against friend, brother 'gainst brother stood, 525 Unhappy Stuart! harshly though that name Grates on my ear, I should have died with shame To see my king before his subjects stand, And at their bar hold up his royal hand; At their commands to hear the monarch plead, By their decrees to see that monarch bleed! 528-528 Wilkes left the following remark on these lines:Sydney and Milton considered the death of Charles the First in a different light. In the Memoirs of Algernon Sydney is a letter of the Earl of Leicester to his son, in which is the following passage: "It is said that a minister who hath married a Lady Lawrence here at Chelsea, but now dwelling at Copenhagen, being there in company with you, said, 'I think you were none of the late king's judges nor guilty of his death.''Guilty!' said you,' do you call that guilt? why it was the justest and bravest action that ever was done in England, or any where else; with other words to the same effect." What though thy faults were many and were great? What though they shook the basis of the state? In royalty secure thy person stood, And sacred was the fountain of thy blood. Vile ministers, who dared abuse their trust, There is scarcely any thing in the Roman classics superior to the following passage of Milton, conveying his sentiments of the transaction. "Eam animi magnitudinem vobis, ô Cives, injecit Deus ut devictum armis vestris et dedititium regem judicio inclyto judicare et condemnatum punire primi mortalium non dubitaretis. Post hoc facinus tam illustre, nihil humile aut augustum, nihil non magnum atque excelsum et cogitare et facere debetis-amore libertatis, religionis, justitiæ, honestatis, patriæ denique charitate accensos, tyrannum punisse." Johannis Miltoni, Angli, pro populo Anglicano defensio. Cicero's words relative to the death of Cæsar may in a good measure be applied to the second of the Stuarts, Charles I. Milton, in another place, says that he "was Ipso Nerone Neronior." Istius gloriosissimi facti conscientiâ, omnes boni, quantum in ipsis fuit, Cæsarem occiderunt. Aliis consilium, aliis animus, aliis occasio, defuit; voluntas nemini. It was the favourite maxim of Brutus, that those who live in defiance of the laws, and cannot be brought to a trial, ought to be taken off without a trial. He therefore first planned, executed and justified the death of Cesar. The conduct of the English nation, with regard to Charles I. is still clearer. His death can never be pretended to be an assassination. Our genius shudders at a practice, too frequent among our polite neighbours. The king had a legal solemn trial; attended with all the fairness, and even candour, which the circumstances of a people, still in arms for their liberties. could permit.- Wilkes. Had nobly crush'd "The king could do no wrong." Yet grieve not, Charles! nor thy hard fortunes blame; 540 They took thy life, but they secured thy fame. 545 On the four winds, had been in pieces torn. 548 Warburton, in a sermon he preached before the House of Lords, on the 30th January, thus ably delineates the character of Charles. "The king had many virtues, but all of so unsociable a turn as to do him neither service nor credit. "His religion, in which he was sincerely zealous, was overrun with scruples; and the simplicity if not the purity of his morals was debased by casuistry. "His natural affections (a rare virtue in that high situation) were so excessive, as to render him a slave to all his kin; and his social, so moderate, as only to enable him to lament, not to preserve, his friends and servants. "His knowledge was extensive though not exact, and his courage clear though not keen; yet his modesty far surpassing his magnanimity, his knowledge only made him obnoxious to the doubts of his more ignorant ministers; and his courage to the irresolutions of his less adventurous generals. "In a word, his princely qualities were neither great enough nor bad enough to succeed in that most difficult of all attempts, the enslaving a free and jealous people.", Ye Princes of the earth! ye mighty few! Who worlds subduing, can't yourselves subdue; Who, goodness scorn'd, wish only to be great, Whose breath is blasting, and whose voice is fate Who own no law, no reason, but your will, And scorn restraint, though 'tis from doing ill; Who of all passions groan beneath the worst, 558 Then only bless'd when they make others curst; Think not, for wrongs like these, unscourged to live; 560 564 Long may ye sin, and long may Heaven forgive; 570 57 |