were the grounds of his inflexible patronage: as on this fingle inftance therefore, thus circumftanced and oppofed by the whole tenor of Charles's public and private con duct, it is impoffible to agree with the duke of Buckingham, that this prince was even inclined to justice; or with the rest of his panegyrifts, to found on the merits of the act of indemnity, extorted from the ne ceffity of the times, a propenfity in his difpofition to clemency and forgiveness; we must conclude, that the harsh picture drawn of Charles the Second, by bishop Burnet, is a juft likeness, viz. that he had enormous vices without the tincture of any virtue to correct them; that under the appearance of gentlenefs, he concealed a cruel and unrelenting heart; and under the mafk of fincerity, the highest degree of hypocrify and diffimulation; that he was void not only of every princely, but every manly fentiment; that he was as incapable of friendship as of integrity; that he confidered power and the truft which accompany it, in no other light, than as the means to gratify his criminal and selfish paffions; that he acted as the foe rather than the protector of his people; and that it was lewdness, indolence, and the love of eafe, which were the fingle correctors to that rage for abfolute power which infects almost all princes: and which, but for the predominancy of lefs exalted paffions, Charles would have purfued with a vigilance equal to the importance of the undertaking; and which, notwithstanding the unconquerable indolence of his temper, the depravity of the times had in a great measure enabled him to ef fect." CHARACTER of KING JAMES the SECOND.. [From the fame Work.] "TH HE oppofition of James's religious principles to thofe of his fubjects; his unpopular connexion with the court of France; but, above all, the permanent eftablishment of a rival family on the throne of England, has formed in his disfavour fuch an union of prejudice and intereft as to deftroy in the minds of pofterity all that fympathy which on fimilar occafions, and in fimilar misfortunes, has fo wonderfully operated in favour of other princes; and whilst we pay the tribute of unavailing tears over the memory of Charles the First; whilft, with the church of England, we venerate him as a martyr to the power and office of prelates; whilft we fee with regret, that he was ftripped of his dignity and life at the very time when the chaftening hand of affliction had in a great meafure corrected the errors of a faulty education; the irrefiftible power of truth must oblige us to confefs that the fame adherence to religious principle which cost the father his life, deprived the fon of his dominions; that the enormous abuse of power with which both fovereigns are justly accused, owed their origin to the fame fource, the errors arifing from a bad education, aggravated and extended by the impious flattery of defigning priests: we fhall alfo be obliged to confefs that the parliament itself, by an unprecedented fervility, helped to con firm James in the exalted idea he had termined votaries of freedom to have re-established the government on its ancient foundation. From this ir remediable evil England owes its deliverance alone to the bigotted fincerity of James; a circumstance which ought, in fome measure, to conciliate our affections to the me had entertained of the royal office, and that the doctrines of an abfolute and unconditional fubmiffion on the part of fubjects, which, in the reign of his father, was in a great meafure confined to the precepts of a Laud, a Sibthorpe, and a Mainwaring, were now taught as the avowed doctrines of the church of Eng-mory of the fufferer, and to treat land, were acknowledged by the two thofe errors with lenity, which have univerfities, and implicitly avowed led to the enjoyment of privileges by the large majority of the nation. which can never be entirely loft, but So great indeed was the change in by a general corruption of principle, the temper, manners, and opinions and depravity of manners. of the people, from the commencement of the reign of Charles the First to the commencement of the reign of his fon James, that at this hameful period, the people gloried in having laid all their privileges at the foot of the throne, and execrated every generous principle of freedom, as arifing from a fpirit totally incompatible with the peace of fociety, and altogether repugnant to the doctrines of Christianity. "This was the fituation of affairs at the acceffion of the unfortunate James: and had he been equally unprincipled as his brother the deceafed king; had he profeffed himfelf a proteftant, whilft he was in his heart a papift; had he not regarded it as his duty to ufe his avowed omnipotent power for the reftoring to fome parts of its ancient dignity a church which he regarded as the only true church of Chrift; or had he, instead of attacking the prerogatives of the prelacy, fuffered them to fhare that regal defpotifm which they had fixed on the bafis of confcience, the moft flagrant abufes of civil power would never have been called in judgment against him; and parliaments themfelves would have lent their conftitutional authority to have rivetted the chains of the empire in a manner as fhould have put it out of the power of the moft de1783. "It was faid by the witty duke of Buckingham, that "Charles the Second might do well if he would," and that "James would do well if he could:" an obfervation which fays little for the understanding of James, but a great deal for his heart; and with all the blemishes with which his public character is ftained, he was not deficient in feveral qualities neceffary to compofe a good fovereign. His induftry in bufinefs was exemplary, he was frugal of the public money, he cherifhed and extended the maritime power of the empire, and his encouragement of trade was attended with fuch fuccefs, that, according to the obfervation of the impartial hiftorian Ralph, as the frugality of his administration helped to increase the number of malecontents, fo his extreme attention to trade was not lefs alarming to the whole body of the Dutch than his refolution not to rush into a war with France was mortifying to their ftadtholder. In domeftic life, the character of James, though not irreproachable, was comparatively good: it is true, he was in a great meafure tainted with that licentioufnefs of manners, which, at this time, pervaded the whole fociety, and which reigned triumphant within the circle of the court; but he was never carried into B any any exceffes which trenched deeply on the duties of focial life; and if the qualities of his heart were only to be judged b his conduct in the different characters of husband, father, mafter, and friend, he might be pronounced a man of a very amiable difpofition. But thofe who know not how to forgive injuries, and can never pardon the errors, the infirmities, the vices, or even the virtues of their fellow-creatures, when in any respect they affect perfonal intereft or inclination, will arm against them the fenfibility of every humare mind, and can never expect from others that juftice and commiferation which themselves have ne ver exercited. But whilft we execrate that rancorous cruelty with which James, in the fhort hour of triumph, perfecuted all thofe who endeavoured to thwart his ambitious hopes, it is but justice to obferve, that the rank vices of pride, malice, and revenge, which fo deeply blacken his conduct, whilst he figured in the ftation of prefumptive heir to the crown, and afterwards in the character of fovereign on the fuc. cefsful quelling the Monmouth rebellion, were thoroughly corrected by the chaftening hand of affliction; that the whole period of his life, from his return from Ireland to the day of his death, was spent in the exercife of the firft Chriftian virtues, viz. patience, fortitude, humility, and refignation. Brettonneau, his biographer, records, that he always fpoke with an extreme moderation of the individuals who had acted the most fuccefsfully in his disfavour; that he reproved thofe who mentioned their conduct with feverity; that he read, even with a Stoical apathy, the bittereft writings which were publifhed against him; that he regarded the lofs of empire as a neceffary correction for the mif demeanors of his life, and even rebuked thofe who expreffed any concern for the iffue of events which he refpected as ordinations of the Divine will. According to the fame biographer, James was exact in his devotion, moderate even to abftinence; in his life, full of fenti ments of the highest contrition for paft offences; and, according to the difcipline of the Romish church, was very fevere in the aufterities which he inflicted on his perfon. As this prince juftly regarded himfeif as a martyr to the Catholic faith, as his warmest friends were all of this perfuafion, as his converfation in his retirement at St. Germains, was entirely in a great meafure confined to priests and devotees, it is natural that his fuperftition fhould increase with the increafe of religious fentiment; and as he had made ufe of his power and authority, whilft in England, to enlarge the number of profelytes to popery, fo in a private ftation he laboured inceffantly by prayer, exhortation, and example, to confirm the picty of his popifh adherents, and to effect a reformation in those who fill continued firm to the doctrines of the church of England. He visited the monks of la Trappe once a year, the fevereft order of religionifts in France; and his con. formity to the difcipline of the convent was fo strict and exact, that he impreffed thofe devotees with fenti ments of admiration at his piety, humility, and conftancy. Thus having spent twelve years with a higher degree of peace and tranquillity than he had ever experienced in the most triumphant part of his life, he was feized with a palfy in September, 1701, and after languihing fifteen days, died in the fixty eighth year of his age, having filled up the interval, between his firft feizure and final exit, with the whole whole train of religious exercifes enjoined on fimilar occafions by the church of Rome, with folemn and repeated profeffions of his faith, and earnest exhortations to his two children, the youngest of whom was born in the fecond year of his exile, to keep ftedfaft to the religion in which they had been educated. Thefe precepts and commands have acted with a force fuperior to all the temptations of a crown, and have been adhered to with a firmnefs which obliges an hiftorian to acknowledge the fuperiority which James's defcendants, in the nice points of honour and confcience, have gained over the character of Henry the Fourth, who, at the period when he was looked up to as the great hero of the protestant caufe, made no fcruple to accept a crown on the difgraceful terms of abjuring the principles of the reformation, and embracing the principles of a religion, which, from his early infancy, he had been taught to regard as idolatrous and prophane. "The dominion of error over the minds of the generality of mankind is irresistible. James, to the laft hour of his life, continued as great a bigot to his political as his religious errors: he could not help confidering the strength and power of the crown as a circumstance neceffary to the preservation and hap pinefs of the people; and, in a let ter of advice, which he wrote to his fon, whilft he conjures him to pay a religious obfervance to all the du ties of a good fovereign, he cautions him against fuffering any entrench. ment on royal prerogative. Among feveral heads, containing excellent inftructions on the art of reigning happily and juftly, he warns the young prince never to attempt to difquiet his fubjects in their property or their religion; and, what is very remarkable, to his laft breath he perifted in afferting, that he never intended to fubvert the laws, or procure more than a toleration and an equality of privilege to his catholic fubjects. As there is great reafon to believe this affertion to be true, it fhews, that the delufion was incurable under which the king laboured, by the truft he had put in the knavifh doctrines of lawyers and pricfts; and that neither himself, nor his proteftant abettors, could fathom the confequences of that enlarged fyftem of toleration which he endeavoured to establish.” CHARACTER of LORD CHATHA M. [From the History of the Life of WILLIAM PITT, Earl of Chathamn.] "SUCE UCH was the life of lord Chatham. Never perhaps was any life fo multifarious; never did any comprife fuch a number of interesting fituations. It is difficult to bring the fcattered features of fuch a character into one point of view and accordingly I have en deavoured to illuftrate them fepa rately, as they rife; and have not feared, as digreffive, or impertinent," any thing, of however extensive range, that might throw new light upon my fubject. Something, howe ever, in the way of fummary, will probably be expected; and however B 2 rude rude and undigested, it may not perhaps be unproductive, either of ufe, or entertainment. "One of the first things that ftrikes us, in the recollection of this ftory, is the fuperior figure our hero makes, among his contemporaries. Like the first king of the Jews, he walks, elevated by the head, above his compatriots; who feem as they were born his fubjects. Men of genius and attraction, a Carteret, a Townshend, and, I had almost faid, a Mansfield, however pleafing, in a limited view, appear evidently, in this comparifon, to fhrink into narrower dimensions, and walk a humbler circle. All that deferves to arreft the attention, in taking a general furvey of the age in which he lived, is comprifed in the history of Chatham. "No character ever bore the more undifputed itamp of originality. Unrefembled and himself, he was not born to accommodate to the genius of his age. While all a round him were depreffed by the uniformity of fashion, or the contagion of venality, he ftood aloof. He confulted no judgment but his own; and he acted from the untainted dictates of a comprehentive . foul. He loved fame too much: but it was the weakness of a noble mind. He loved power too much: but it was power of a generous ftrain; and he had paffions that had nothing selfish in their texture. No fpirit ever burned with a purer flame of patriotifm. The native royalty of his mind is eminently confpicuous. He felt himfelf born to command; and the free fons of Briton implicitly obeyed him. In him was realifed the fa ble of Orpheus; and his genius, his fpirit, his eloquence, led millions in his train, fubdued the rugged favage, and difarmed the fangs of ma lignity and envy. Nothing is, in its nature, fo inconfiftent, as the breath of popular applaufe: and yet that breath was eminently his, during the greater part of his life. Want of fuccefs could not divert it; inconfiftency of conduct could not change its tenoura "The aftonishing extent of his views, and, if I may be allowed the expreflion, the mysterious comprehenfion of his plans, did not, in one refpect, fet him above httle things. Nothing that was neceffary to the execution of his defigns was beneath him: and, in a far humbler walk, like Omnipotence, the complication and minutenefs of the lefler motions that were effential to his grand machine, could not distract him. In one refpect, he was infinitely eftranged to little things. Swallowed up in the bufinefs of his country, he did not think of the derangement of his private affairs. Even the management of the pecuniary affairs, and the finances of the nation, he was obliged to leave to other hands. In the commencement of his political carcer, he learned the art of independence, by the very laudable means of confining his dif burfements within the limits of his income; at the fame time, the na tive bent of his mind difqualified him for arithmetical calculation, and laborious frugality. Indifpofed, therefore, as he was, to all the modes of diffipated expence, his affairs, even when his circumftances were much improved, were always deranged. "But the features that feem moft' eminently to have characterised him, were fpirit and intrepidity. 1 believe, there never exifted a perfon that came within many fhades of our hero, in thefe beautiful attributes. They are confpicuous in every action, and every turn of his life. A few |