Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

(October, 1829.)

Memoirs of Larr FANSHAWE, Wife of the Right Honourable Sir Richard Fanshawe, Baronet, Ambassador from Charles the Second to the Court of Madrid in 1665. Written by herself. To which are added, Extracts from the Correspondence of Sir Richard Fanshawe. 8vo. pp. 360. London: 1829.

THERE is not much in this book, either of voted attachment, and participated not unindividual character, or public story. It is, worthily in all his fortunes and designs, was, indeed, but a small affair-any way; but yet consequently, in continual contact with the pleasing, and not altogether without interest movements which then agitated society, and or instruction. Though it presents us with no had her full share of the troubles and trips traits of historical importance, and but few of which belonged to such an existence. Her personal passion or adventure, it still gives us memoirs ought, therefore, to have formed an a peep at a scene of surpassing interest from interesting counterpart to those of Mrs. Hutcha new quarter; and at all events adds one inson; and to have recalled to us, with equal other item to the great and growing store of force and vivacity, the aspect under which those contemporary notices which are every those great events presented themselves to a day familiarizing us more and more with the female spectatress and sufferer, of the oppoliving character of by-gone ages; and without site faction. But, though the title of the book, which we begin, at last, to be sensible, that we and the announcements of the editor, hold can neither enter into their spirit, nor even un- out this promise, we must say that the body of derstand their public transactions. Writings it falls far short of performance: and, whether not meant for publication, nor prepared for it be that her side of the question did not admit purposes of vanity or contention, are the only of the same force of delineation or loftiness of memorials in which the true "form and pres- sentiment; or, that the individual chronicler sure" of the ages which produce them are has been less fortunately selected, it is certain ever completely preserved; and, indeed, the that, in point both of interest and instruction; only documents from which the great events in traits of character, warmth of colouring, or which are blazoned on their records can ever exaltation of feeling, there is no sort of combe satisfactorily explained. It is in such parison between these gossiping, and, though writings alone,-confidential letters-private affectionate, yet relatively cold and feeble, diaries-family anecdotes-and personal re- memoranda, and the earnest, eloquent, and monstrances, apologies, or explanations, that graphic representations of the puritan heroine. the true springs of action are disclosed-as Nor should it be forgotten, even in hinting at well as the obstructions and impediments, such a parallel, that, in one important respect, whether in the scruples of individuals or the the royalist cause also must be allowed to general temper of society, by which their have been singularly happy in its female repoperation is so capriciously, and, but for these revelations, so unaccountably controlled.They are the true key to the cipher in which public annals are almost necessarily written; and their disclosure, after long intervals of time, is almost as good as the revocation of their writers from the dead-to abide our interrogatories, and to act over again, before us, in the very dress and accents of the time, a portion of the scenes which they once guided or adorned. It is not a very striking portion, perhaps, that is thus recalled by the publication before us; but whatever interest it possesses is mainly of this character. It belongs to an era, to which, of all others in our history, curiosity will always be most eagerly directed; and it constantly rivets our attention, by exciting expectations which it ought, in truth, to have fulfilled; and suggesting how much more interesting and instructive it might so easily have been made.

resentative. Since, if it may be said with some show of reason, that Lucy Hutchinson and her husband had too many elegant tastes and accomplishments to be taken as fair specimens of the austere and godly republicans; it certainly may be retorted, with at least equal justice, that the chaste and decorous Lady Fanshawe, and her sober diplomatic lord, shadow out rather too favourably the general manners and morals of the cavaliers.

After all, perhaps, the true secret of her inferiority, in all at least that relates to political interest, may be found in the fact, that the fair writer, though born and bred a royalist, and faithfully adhering to her husband in his efforts and sufferings in the cause, was not naturally, or of herself, particularly studious of such matters; or disposed to occupy herself more than was necessary with any public concern. She seems to have followed, like a good wife and daughter, where her parents or Lady Fanshawe was, as is generally known, her husband led her; and to have adopted the wife of a distinguished cavalier, in the their opinions with a dutiful and implicit conHeroic Age of the civil wars and the Protec-fidence, but without being very deeply moved torate; and survived till long after the Resoration. Her husband was a person of no mean figure in those great transactions; and she, who adhered to him with the most de

by the principles or passions which actuated those from whom they were derived; while Lucy Hutchinson not only threw her whole heart and soul into the cause of her party

but, like Lady Macbeth or Madame Roland, | years, to see my daughter a woman: to which they answered. It is done: and then, at that instant, 1 awoke out of my trance; and Dr. Howlsworth did there affirm, that that day she died made just fifteen years from that time."-pp. 26—23.

This gift of dreaming dreams, or seeing visions, seems, indeed, to have been hered. tary in the family; for the following is given on the credit of the fair writer's own experience. When she and her husband went to Ireland, on their way to Portugal, they were honourably entertained by all the distinguished royalists who came in their way. Among others, she has recorded that,

imparted her own fire to her more phlegmatic helpmate,-"chastised him," when neces sary, "with the valour of her tongue," and cheered him on, by the encouragement of her high example, to all the ventures and sacrifices, the triumphs or the martyrdoms, that lay visibly across her daring and lofty course. The Lady Fanshawe, we take it, was of a less passionate temperament; and her book, accordingly, is more like that of an ordinary woman, though living in extraordinary times. She begins, no doubt, with a good deal of love and domestic devotion, and even echoes, from that sanctuary, certain notes of loyalty; but, "We went to the Lady Honor O'Brien's, a lady in very truth, is chiefly occupied, for the best that went for a maid, but few believed it! She part of her life, with the sage and serious was the youngest daughter of the Earl of Thomond. business of some nineteen or twenty accouche- There we staid three nights. The first of which I mens, which are happily accomplished in dif- was surprised by being laid in a chamber, where, about one o'clock, I heard a voice that wakened ferent parts of Europe; and seems, at last, to me. I drew the curtain, and, in the casement of be wholly engrossed in the ceremonial of the window, I saw, by the light of the moon, a diplomatic presentations, the description of woman leaning into the window, through the casecourt dresses, state coaches, liveries, and ment, in white, with red hair, and pale and ghastly jewellery, the solemnity of processions, and complexion. She spoke loud, and in a tone I had receptions by sovereign princes, and the due never heard, thrice, A horse!' and then, with a sigh more like the wind than breath, she vanished, interchange of presents and compliments with and, to me, her body looked more like a thick cloud persons of worship and dignity. Fully one- than substance. I was so much frightened, that third of her book is taken up with such goodly my hair stood on end, and my night-clothes fell off. matter; and nearly as much with the geneal-I pulled and pinched your father, who never woke ogy of her kindred, and a faithful record of during the disorder I was in; but at last was much their marriages, deaths, and burials. From surprised to see me in this fright, and more so when I related the story and showed him the window the remainder, however, some curious things opened. Neither of us slept any more that night, may be gathered; and we shall try to extract but he entertained me with telling me how much what strikes us as most characteristic. We more these apparitions were usual in this country may begin with something that preceded her than in England! and we concluded the cause to own recollection. The following singular le- be the great superstition of the Irish, and the want gend relates to her mother; and is given, it from the power of the devil, which he exercises of that knowing faith, which should defend them will be observed, on very venerable authoramong them very much." ity:

[ocr errors]

Ingenious and orthodox as this solution of the mystery must be allowed to be, we con fess we should have been inclined to prefer that of the fair sleeper having had a fit of nightmare; had it not been for the conclusive testimony of the putative virgin of the house of Thomond, who supplies the following astonishing confirmation; and leads us rather to suspect that the whole might have been a trick, to rid herself the sooner of their scrupulous and decorous company.

Dr. Howlsworth preached her funeral sermon, in which, upon his own knowledge, he told, before many hundreds of people, this accident following: That my mother, being sick to death of a fever three months after I was born, which was the occasion she gave me suck no longer, her friends and servants thought, to all outward appearance, that she was dead, and so lay almost two days and a night but Dr. Winston, coming to comfort my father, went into my mother's room, and looking earnestly on her face, said she was so handsome, and now looks so lovely, I cannot think she is dead; and suddenly took a lancet out of his pocket, and with it cut the sole of her foot, which bled. Upon this, he immediately caused her to be laid upon the bed again, and to be rubbed, and such means, as she came to life, and opening her eyes, saw two of her kinswomen stand by her, my Lady Knollys and my Lady Russell, both with great wide sleeves, as the fashion then was, and said, Did not you promise me fifteen years, and are you come again already? which they not understanding, persuaded her to keep her spirits quiet in that great weakness wherein she then was; but, some hours after, she desired my father and Dr. Howlsworth might be left alone with her, to whom she said, I will acquaint you, that, during the time of my trance, I was in great quiet, but in a place I could neither distinguish nor describe; but the sense of leaving my girl, who is dearer to me than all my children. remained a trouble upon my spirits. Suddenly I We shall close this chapter, of the supersaw two by me, cloathed in long white garments, natural, with the following rather remarkable and methought I fell down with my face in the dust; and they asked me why I was troubled in so ghost story, which is calculated, we think, to great happiness. I replied, Olet me have the same make a strong impression on the imagination. grant given to Hezekiah, that I may live fifteen | Our diligent chronicler picked it up, it seems

shawe, the lady of the house came to see us, "About five o'clock," continues Lady Fansaying she had not been in bed all night, because a cousin O'Brien of hers, whose ancestors had owned that house, had desired her to stay with him in his chamber, and that he died at two o'clock, and she said, I wish you to have had no dis turbance, for 'tis the custom of the place, that, when any of the family are dying, the shape of a woman appears in the window every night till they be dead. This woman was many ages ago got with child by the owner of this place, who mur dered her in his garden, and flung her into the river under the window, but truly I thought not of it when I lodged you here, it being the best room in the house. We made little reply to her speech, but disposed ourselves to be gone suddenly."

on her way through Canterbury in the year | ink, and paper, which was your father's trade, and 1663; and it is thus nonourably attested: by it, I assure you, we lived better than those who were born to 2000l. a year, as long as he had his liberty."-pp. 37, 38.

"And here I cannot omit relating the ensuing tory, confirmed by Sir Thomas Batten, Sir Arnold Breames, the Dean of Canterbury, with many more The next scene presents both of them in so gentlemen and persons of this town. amiable and respectable a light, that we think There lives not far from Canterbury a gentle-it but justice to extract it, thougn rather long, man, called Colonel Colepeper, whose mother without any abridgment. It is, indeed, one was widow unto the Lord Strangford: this gentle of the most pleasing and interesting passages man had a sister, who lived with him, as the world said, in too much love. She married Mr. Porter. in the book. They had now gone to Bristol, This brother and sister being both atheists and in 1645. living a lite according to their profession, went in a frolick into a vault of their ancestors, where, before they returned, they pulled some of their father's and mother's hairs! Within a very few days after, Mrs. Porter fell sick and died. Her brother kept her body in a coffin set up in his buttery, saying it would not be long before he died, and then they would be both buried together; but from the night after her death, until the time that we were told the story, which was three months, they say that a head, as cold as death, with curled hair like his sister's, did ever lie by him wherever he slept, notwith standing he removed to several places and countries to avoid it; and several persons told us they also had felt this apparition."

We may now go back a little to the affairs of this world. Deep and devoted attachments are more frequently conceived in circumstances of distress and danger than in any other: and, accordingly, the love and marriage of Sir Richard Fanshawe and his lady befel during their anxious and perilous residence with the court at Oxford, in 1644. The following little sketch of the life they passed there is curious and interesting:

My father commanded my sister and myself to come to him to Oxford, where the Court then was; but we, that had till that hour lived in great plenty and great order, found ourselves like fishes out of the water, and the scene so changed, that we knew not at all how to act any part but obedience; for, from as good a house as any gentleman of England had, we came to a baker's house in an obscure street; and from rooms well furnished, to lie in a very bad bed in a garret, to one dish of meat, and that not the best ordered, no money, for we were as poor as Job, nor clothes more than a man or two brought in their cloak bags: we had the perpetual discourse of losing and gaining towns and men: at the windows the sad spectacle of war, sometimes plagues, sometimes sicknesses of other kind, by reason of so many people being packed together, as, I believe, there never was before of that quality; always in want, yet I must needs say, that most bore it with a martyr-like cheerfulness. For my own part, I began to think we should all, like Abraham, live in tents all the days of our lives. The king sent my father a warrant for a baronet, but he returned it with thanks, saying he had too much honour of his knighthood, which his majesty had honoured him with some years before, for the fortune he now possessed."-pp. 35-37.

They were married very privately the year after; and certainly entered upon life with little but their mutual love to cheer and support them; but it seems to have been sufficient.

"Both his fortune and my promised portion, which was made 10,000, were both at that time in expectation; and we might truly be called merchant adventurers, for the stock we set up our trading with did not amount to twenty pounds betwixt us; but, however, it was to us as a little piece of armour is against a bullet, which, if it be right placed, though no bigger than a shilling, serves as well as ■ whole suit of armour; so our stock bought pen,

[ocr errors]

"My husband had provided very good lodgings for us, and as soon as he could come home from the council, where he was at my arrival, he with all expressions of joy received me in his arms, and gave me a hundred pieces of gold, saying, I know thou that keeps my heart so well, will keep my fortune, which from this time I will ever put into thy hands as God shall bless me with increase;' and now I thought myself a perfect queen, and my husband so glorious a crown, that I more valued myself to be called by his name than born a princess; for I knew him very wise and very good, and his soul doated on me,-upon which confidence I will tell you what happened. My Lady Rivers, a brave woman, and one that had suffered many thousand pounds loss for the king, and whom I had a great reverence for, and she a kindness for me as a kinswoman, in discourse she tacitly commended the knowledge of state affairs; and that some thereof, as my Lady Aubigny, Lady Isabel Thynne, women were very happy in a good_understanding and divers others, and yet none was at first more capable than I; that in the night she knew there came a post from Paris from the queen, and that she would be extremely glad to hear what the queen commanded the king in order to his affairs; saying, if I would ask my husband privately, he would tell me what he found in the packet, and I might tell her. I, that was young and innocent, and to that day had never in my mouth What news?' began to think there was more in inquiring into public affairs than I thought of; and that it being a fashionable thing would make me more beloved of my husband, if that had been possible, than I was. When my husband returned home from council, after welcoming him, as his custom ever was, he went with his handful of papers into his study for an hour or more; I followed him; he turned hastily, and said, What wouldst thou have, my life?' I told him, I heard the prince had received a packet from the queen, and I guessed it was that in his hand, and I desired to know what was in it; he smilingly replied, My love, I will immediately come to thee; pray thee go, for I am very busy: when he came out of his closet I revived my suit; he kissed me, and talked of other things. At supper I would eat nothing; he as usual sat by me, and drank often to me, which was his custom, and was full of discourse to company that was at table. Going to bed I asked again; and said I could not believe he loved me if he refused to tell me all he knew; but he answer. ed nothing, but stopped my mouth with kisses. So we went to bed; I cried, and he went to sleep! Next morning early, as his custom was, he called to rise, but began to discourse with me first, to which I made no reply; he rose, came on the other side of the bed and kissed me, and. drew the curtains sofily, and went to court. When he came home to dinner, he presently came to me as was usual, and when I had him by the hand, I said,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Thou dost not care to see me troubled;' to which he, taking me in his arms, answered, My dearest soul, nothing upon earth can afflict me like that: But when you asked me of my business, it was wholly out of my power to satisfy thee; for my life and fortune shall be thine, and every thought of my heart in which the trust I am in may not be revealed: But my honour is my own; which I cannot preserve if I communicate the prince's

affairs; and, pray thee, with this answer rest satis- | darings of Mrs. Hutchinson,--though we can fied.' So great was his reason and goodness, that, not say that the occasion called so clearly for upon consideration, it made my folly appear to me their display. During their voyage to Portuso vile, that from that day until the day of his death, I never thought fit to ask him any business, gal, and— but what he communicated freely to me, in order to his estate or family."

After the ill success of the royal arms had made it necessary for the Prince to retire beyond seas, Lady Fanshawe and her husband attended him to the Scilly Islands. We give this natural and simple picture of their discomforts on that expedition:—

"The next day, after having been pillaged, and extremely sick and big with child, I was set on shore, almost dead, in the island of Scilly; when we had got to our quarters near the castle, where the prince lay, I went immediately to bed, which was so vile that my footman ever lay in a better, and we had but three in the whole house, which consisted of four rooms, or rather partitions, two low rooms, and two little lofts, with a ladder to go up: in one of these they kept dried fish, which was his trade, and in this my husband's two clerks lay; one there was for my sister, and one for myself, and one amongst the rest of the servants; but when I waked in the morning, I was so cold knew not what to do; but the daylight discovered that my bed was near swimming with the sea, which the owner told us afterwards it never did but at spring tides.”

We must not omit her last interview with her unfortunate Sovereign, which took place at Hampton Court, when his star was hastening to its setting! It is the only interview with that unhappy Prince of which she has left any notice; and is, undoubtedly, very touching and amiable.

[ocr errors]

During his stay at Hampton Court, my husband was with him; to whom he was pleased to talk much of his concerns, and gave him three credentials for Spain, with private instructions, and letters for his service: But God, for our sins, disposed his Majesty's affairs otherwise. I went three times to pay my duty to him, both as I was the daughter of his servant, and wife of his servant. The last time I ever saw him, when I took my leave, I could not refrain from weeping, When he had saluted me, I prayed to God to preserve his majesty with long life and happy years; he stroked me on the cheek, and said, Child, if God pleaseth it shall be so! both you and I must submit to God's will, and you know in what hands I am in;' then turning to your father, he said, 'Be sure, Dick, to tell my son all that I have said, and deliver those letters to my wife; pray God bless her! I hope I shall do well;' and taking him in his arms, said, Thou hast ever been an honest man, and I hope God will bless thee, and make thee a happy servant to my son, whom I have charged in my letter to continue his love, and trust to you;' adding, "I do promise you, that if ever I am restored to my dignity, I will bountifully reward you for both your service and sufferings. Thus did we part from that glorious sun, that within a few months after was murdered, to the grief of all Christians that were not forsaken by God."

These are almost sufficient specimens of the work before us; for it would not be fair to extract the whole substance of it. However, we must add the following striking trait of heroism and devoted affection, especially as we have spoken rather too disparagingly of the fair writer's endowment of those qualities. In point of courage and love to her husband it is quite on a level, perhaps with any of the

"When we had just passed the Straits, we saw coming towards us, with full sails, a Turkish galley, well manned, and we believed we should be all carried away slaves, for this man had so laden his ship with goods for Spain, that his guns were usefor brandy, and after he had well drunken, and all less, though the ship carried sixty guns. He called his men, which were near two hundred, he called for arms, and cleared the deck as well as he could, resolving to fight rather than lose his ship, which was worth 30,000l. This was sad for us passengers: but my husband bid us be sure to keep in the cabin, and not appear, the women, which would make the Turks think that we were a man-of-war, but if they saw women, they would take us for merchants, and board us. gun and bandoliers, and sword, and, with the rest He went upon the deck, and took a of the ship's company, stood upon deck expecting the arrival of the Turkish man-of-war. This beast, the captain, had locked me up in the cabin; I knocked and called long to no purpose, until at length the cabin-boy came and opened the door. I, all in tears, desired him to be so good as to give me his blue thrum cap he wore, and his tarred coat, which he did, and I gave him half-a-crown, and putting them on, and flinging away my night-clothes, I crept up softly and stood upon the deck by my husband's side, as free from sickness and fear as, I confess, from discretion; but it was the effect of that passion which I could never master. parley, and so well satisfied with speech and sight "By this time the two vessels were engaged in of each other's forces, that the Turks' man-of-war tacked about, and we continued our course. But when your father saw it convenient to retreat. looking upon me, he blessed himself, and snatched me up in his arms, saying, 'Good God, that love can make this change! and though he seemingly chid me, he would laugh at it as often as he remembered that voyage.'

What follows is almost as strong a proof of that "love which casteth out fear;" while it is more unexceptionable on the score of prudence. Sir Richard, being in arms for the King at the fatal battle of Worcester, was afterwards taken prisoner, and brought to London; to which place his faithful consort immediately repaired, where, in the midst of her anxieties,

"I met a messenger from him with a letter, which advised me of his condition, and told me he was very civilly used, and said little more, but that I should be in some room at Charing Cross, where he had promise from his keeper that he should rest there in my company at dinner-time; this was meant to him as a great favour. I expected him with impatience, and on the day appointed provided a dinner and room, as ordered, in which I was with about eleven of the clock, we saw hundreds of my father and some more of our friends, where, poor soldiers, both English and Scotch, march all naked on foot, and many with your father, who was very cheerful in appearance; who, after he had spoken and saluted me and his friends there, said, little I have to spare; this is the chance of war; Pray let us not lose time, for I know not how nothing venture, nothing have; so let us sit down and be merry whilst we may; then taking my hand in his, and kissing me, Cease weeping, no other thing upon earth can move me; remember we are all at God's disposal.'

not constantly to go, when the clock struck four in "During the time of his imprisonment, I failed the morning, with a dark lantern in my hand ai

atone and on foot, from my lodging in Chancery | coach, the soldiers stood to their arms, and the Lane, at my cousin Young's, to Whitehall, in at lieutenant that held the colours displaying them, the entry that went out of King Street into the which is never done to any one but kings, or such bowling green. There I would go under his window as represent their persons: I stood still all the and softly call him; he, after the first time except while, then at the lowering of the colours to the ed, never failed to put out his head at the first call; ground, they received for them a low courtesy from thus we talked together, and sometimes I was so me, and for himself a bow; then taking coach, with wet with the rain, that it went in at my neck and very many persons, both in coaches and on foot, 1 out at my heels. He directed how I should make went to the duke's palace, where I was again re my addresses, which I did ever to their general, ceived by a guard of his excellency's, with the Cromwell, who had a great respect for your father, same ceremony of the king's colours as before. and would have bought him off to his service, upon Then I was received by the duke's brother and any terms. near a hundred persons of quality. I laid my hand upon the wrist of his excellency's right hand; he putting his cloak thereupon, as the Spanish fashion

[ocr errors]

the duchess and her daughter, who received me with great civility, putting me into every door, and all my children, till we came to sit down in her excellency's chamber, where she placed me upon her right hand, upon cushions, as the fashion of this court is, being very rich, and laid upon Persian carpets.'

Being one day to solicit for my husband's liberty for a time, he bid me bring, the next day, a certificate from a physician that he was really ill.is, went up the stairs, upon the top of which stood Immediately I went to Dr. Batters, that was by chance both physician to Cromwell and to our family, who gave me one very favourable in my husband's behalf. I delivered it at the Council Chamber, at three of the clock that afternoon, as he commanded me, and he himself moved, that seeing they could make no use of his imprisonment, whereby to lighten them in their business, that he might have his liberty upon 40007. bail, to take a course of physic, he being dangerously ill. Many spake against it; but most Sir Henry Vane, who said he would be as instrumental, for ought he knew, to hang them all that sat there, if ever he had opportunity; but if he had liberty for a time, that he might take the engagement before he went ont; upon which Cromwell said, I never knew that the engagement was a medicine for the scorbutic! They, hearing their general say so, thought it obliged him, and so ordered him his liberty upon

bail."

These are specimens of what we think pest in the work; but, as there may be readers who would take an interest in her description of court ceremonies, or, at least, like to see how she manages them, we shall conclude with a little fragment of such a description. "This afternoon I went to pay my visit to the Duchess of Albuquerque. When I came to take

The two dukes embraced my husband with great kindness, welcoming him to the place, and the Duke of Medina Celi led me to my coach, an honour that he had never done any but once, when he waited on your queen to help her on the like occasion. The Duke d'Alcala led my eldest daughter, and the younger led my second, and the Governor of Cadiz, Don Antonio de Pimentel, led the third. Mrs. Kestian carried Betty in her arms."

There is great choice of this sort for those who like it; and not a little of the more solemn and still duller discussion of diplomatic of these, and of the genealogies and obitua etiquette and precedence. But, independent there is enough both of heart, and sense, and ries, which are not altogether without interest, observation, in these memoirs, at once to repay gentle and intelligent readers for the trouble of perusing them, and to stamp a character of amiableness and respectability on the memory of their author.

(November 1825.)

Memoirs of SAMUEL PEPYS, Esq. F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty in the Reign of Charte II. and James II., comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, deciphered by the Rev. John Smith, A. B., of St. John's College, Cambridge, from the original Shorthand MS. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from his Private Correspondence. Edited by RICHARD LORD BRAYBROOKE. 2 vols. 4to. London: 1825.

We have a great indulgence, we confess, and tastes, and principles, have been com for the taste, or curiosity, or whatever it may monly found associated or disunited: And be called, that gives its value to such publica- as, in uncultivated lands, we can often judge tions as this; and are inclined to think the of their inherent fertility by the quality of the desire of knowing, pretty minutely, the man- weeds they spontaneously produce- - so we ners and habits of former times,-of under- may learn, by such an inspection of the moral standing, in all their details, the character and growths of a country, compared with its sub ordinary way of life and conversation of our sequent history, what prevailing manners are forefathers a very liberal and laudable de- indicative of vice or of virtue-what existing sire; and by no means to be confounded with follies foretell approaching wisdom what that hankering after contemporary slander, forms of licentiousness give promise of com with which this age is so miserably infested, ing purity, and what of deeper degradation— and so justly reproached. It is not only curi- what uncertain lights, in short, announce the ous to see from what beginnings, and by what rising, and what the setting sun! While, in steps, we have come to be what we are:-like manner, we may trace in the same records Bat it is most important, for the future and the connection of public and private morality, for the present, to ascertain what practices, and the mutual action and reaction of govern

« AnteriorContinuar »