biography, every proper occasion is embraced for holding up both parties -those who persecuted, as well as the objects of their resentment and injustice,—in a strong and a contrasted light. And we should be doing a manifest injury to Mr Crichton, were we not to permit him to sum up his opinions upon the subject, in his own very expressive and appropriate terms:

We are aware, that the attacks recently made on the character of the Covenanters excited much sensation in the public mind, and provoked discussions which contributed to set that character in a fairer light. They have suffered much from ignorance, prejudice, and wilful misrepresentation; from having their foibles exaggerated, and their better qualities suppressed, or studiously thrown into the shade. Their virtucs have been tarnished and debased, by being associated with the worst principles and vilest passions in human nature. They were traduced by hireling and slanderous writers in their own age, when the means and opportunity of vindicating themselves were placed beyond their reach. These calumnious assertions have been adopted even by sober historians, who have given a distorted caricature, instead of a faithful image of the times. Fiction has assailed them with the weapons of wit and ridicule, at the expense of disguising truth and perverting facts. Actions have been attributed to them which they never committed, and which they would have abhorred; the extravagances of a few have been maliciously and injurious ly imputed to the whole.

The best corrective of these aspersions is a better knowledge of their history. The illusions of fancy would dissolve and vanish, when approached under a just apprehension of their real merits; and their character would assume fairer colours, and a natural proportion, if viewed through an impartial medium. We are far from wishing to hold them up as men of unsullied and immaculate excellence, as exempt from the common weaknesses of humanity. Their reputation is not without blemish; and their conduct was, in many instances, rash and indefensible. But we say it is unfair to contemplate them exclusively through their faults and peculiarities, while their redeeming attributes, and their brighter qualities, are quenched and buried in the sink of calumny. And we are persuaded that, with all their exceptionable points, a nearer acquaintance

would greatly soften and reduce even the sternnest and harshest of their features. Many of their errors were those of the age in which they lived. Much of their conduct, which ignorance would be disposed to censure, will admit of a satisfactory explanation, from the circumstances in which they were placed. What appears stubbornness and obstinacy was only a firm adherence to what they be lieved to be truth and right. If their zeal sometimes exceeded the bounds of discretion, we ought to make allowance for the intensity of their feelings, the irritation of their spirits, and the want of leisure for cool and dispassionate reflection. Besides, a degree of enthusiasm was necessary in their case. It inspired them with a boldness and resolution which no man will ever assume who is merely convinced of the justice of his claims. If they were deficient in reverence or respect for their rulers, to what is it to be attributed? We know that cruelty and oppression may create aversion, but will never beget esteem. Even their excesses are explicable,-many of them justifiable, from the peculiarity of their situation; and may be reckoned the natural consequences of their treat

ment.

It is said they disowned the king, and denied the Government. These sentiments ought not to be approved, and cannot be defended; but they afford no pretext to brand the body of the Covenanters as enemies to monarchy and civil subordination. This was the crime of a few, (not one in five hundred,) who, after they had endured oppression to the last extremity, and saw no hopes of redress left, adopted that step as a desperate resource. They ventured down from the mountains, at the dead of night, to fix their declarations on the church doors, publishing their grievances to the world in the language of despair, and threatening vengeance on their persecutors. They did not disown the king until they were persuaded, that, by violating his oaths and engagements, he had forfeited all claim to their allegiance: and if they called Charles Stuart a tyrant, it was not until they had some reason to think him So. The presbyterians, in general, had no factious design to overturn the throne, or trample royalty contemptuously under their feet; they only wished to reduce its prerogatives within safe and reasonable limits. The experience of a century and a half has proven, that there is nothing in the genius of presbytery incompatible with monarchic principles; and the allegation, that the ancient leaders of our church were republicans or de

mocrats, needs no other refutation than referring to the standards of the church, to her Confessions and Apologies, and even to the Solemn League and Covenant itself. They felt themselves compelled to take arms in defence of their liberties, when these were unjustly assailed and infringed; but their opposition was not the random concurrence of fiery and discontented spirits. They had considered the grounds of their resistance, and justified theuse of defensive arms, from the law of Nature, and from the precepts and examples of Scripture.

In opposing Prelacy, the Covenanters were not merely contending about a few abstract points in religion, or a particular ecclesiastical system: they were struggling for the civil and political rights of their country against the inroads of despotical and superstitious kings. They were the champions of a national cause; and though they had not the most refined notions of rational liberty, they were the only persons that made a firm and consistent stand in its defence. Their devoted courage not only preserved the independence of their religion, but proved a useful barrier to the nation, when the bulwarks of liberty were falling prostrate before the march of a dark and gloomy despotism. Their efforts have left a noble monument to the world, what unshrinking and persevering fortitude may accomplish. The triumph of their cause affords an instructive lesson on the futility of those legislative measures, that would subdue conscientious opinions by force, or extinguish religious principles by cruelty. When we reflect on these invaluable privileges, on the freedom of conscience, and the protection of laws, let us not forget the men by whom they were secured. Barbarous nations admire the heroic deeds of their forefathers, though they inherit no other benefit than the glory of their achievements. And are not those entitled to our gratitude, to whose patriotic zeal we are indebted for so many blessings, civil and religious? If it is reckoned ungenerous and unmanly to tread with insult on the ashes of a fallen adversary, what are we to think of those who wantonly revile the virtues of their ancestors, or load with reproaches the memory of their BENEFACTORS?

At the same time that we make these favourable admissions, we are bound in justice to the public, as well as to ourselves, to state, that we esteem Mr Crichton's zeal at least equal to his prudence, and his anxiety to rescue the character of

the Covenanters from aspersion, as well as to overwhelm that of their oppressors with infamy, more than a match for his information and historical research. The "monstrum nullis virtutibus a vitiis redemptum," is of as rare occurrence, perhaps, as the monster of perfection. Who, for example, save one, like our biographer, bit with the cacoëthes of invective, could swallow the following quotation from an American Journal, as historical evidence? The author is speaking of Graham of Claverhouse as engaged in the battle of Drumclog :

-

Here I distinctly saw the features and shape of this far-famed man. He was small of stature, and not well formed→→ his arms were long in proportion to his legs he had a complexion unusually dark-his cheeks were lank, and deeply furrowed his eye-brows were drawn down, and gathered into a kind of knot at their junction, and thrown up at their extremities; they had, in short, the strong expression given by our painters to those on the face of Judas Iscariot-his eyes were hollow; they had not the lustre of genius, nor the fire of vivacity; they were lighted up by that dark fire of wrath which is kindled and fanned by an eternal anxiety, and consciousness of criminal deeds-his irregular and large teeth were presented through a smile,—very unusual on his set of features his mouth seemed to be unusually large, from the extremities being drawn backward and downward, as if in the intense application to something cruel and disgusting— in short, his upper teeth projected over his under lip; and, on the whole, presented to my view the mouth of the image of the Emperor Julian the Apostate." (Copied from Christ. Inst. for Nov. 1822.) This portrait sets the original very distinctly before the eye of the imagination; and, if there be any truth in the observation, that the face is an index to the mind, it exhibits an exterior altogether befitting the dark and sanguinary spirit that inhabited it.

Now, we happen to know, that the whole of this character, as well as of the very powerful description of the battle itself, of which this forms a part, is a fiction; and that the author of the paper had no other object in view, in the narratives which he published, than an exhibition of his own powers as a writer !

At page 220, we have a fearful,

and a particular account, of the atrocities said to have been practised by the garrison stationed at Dalswinton, in Dumfriesshire-to every iota of which the most implicit confidence is lent; whilst, at the same time, in page 249, the story of the gallows said to have been erected by the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, though supported by several creditable authors, is rejected as altogether absurd and ridiculous. Now, we neither mean to assert nor to deny upon the subject; our observation amounts merely to this-that where people are divided in opinions, and in political opinions in particular, this loose way of going to work will not convince them. It is not enough to satisfy us of the truth of every surmise or allegation, however improbable, that is to be found in Wodrow, or Naphtali, or the Cloud of Witnesses-nor are we disposed to think every allegation false which Arnot, or Crichton, (Captain,) or Sharp, have ventured to make. The

fact is, that this Life of Blackader bears too much the aspect of special pleading; a circumstance which, though it may recommend it to the perusal of the populace, will undoubtedly injure its usefulness amongst the better informed and more considerate.

Upon the whole, however, we are inclined to shake hands with our author most cordially at parting. In plain, and exceedingly perspicuous language, he has favoured us with a very interesting narrative, interspersed with excellent reflections upon subjects of the very last importance, to Scotsmen in particular, as well as to the world at large. His heart, and all his moral affections, are evidently in a proper state of training; and if he has allowed his zeal to master, in some instances, his cooler judgment, he is, we know, a young man; and we shall conclude with applying to him the words of Seneca facile est remedium ubertatis, sterilia nunquam vincuntur.”

MR EDITOR,

THE golden, brazen, and iron age, having now become hackneyed appellations, a celebrated misanthropic poet has recently sung the "Age of Bronze." With all due deference to this superlative genius, it occurs to me, that the" Age of Wonders" would have been more applicable, if not to his poem, at any rate to the times we live in.

I ask him, you, Mr Editor, and your many thousand readers, was there ever an era so resplendent in science and discovery? We have authors who write of the philosophy of mind, in a style incomprehensibly sublime, and others who have proved, to their own satisfaction, that the system of Newton is equally irreconcilable with revelation and common sense. To enumerate the discoveries, inventions, and improve ments, would be an arduous, if not endless task; but a few may be no ticed, which strike the eye of the most careless observer. On the left of the Forth, do not spinning-mills rise up as thick, and nearly as fast, as mushrooms in a hot-bed? We see water carried through hills, over deep glens; and on every sea, river, or canal, steam-boats, that defy wind and tide, swarming like whales in the Arctic Sea. I am told that the streets of Auld Reekie, every night, display a blaze of light, that would shame the illuminations which were lighted up on extraordinary occasions in former days, and that by burning an impalpable and invisible substance, which would rise to the clouds, and could be carried to John o' Groat's House. But looking at what is, I am lost in wonder at what may yet be; for I consider Science as only still in her cradle; and as I am still a young man, in the noon of life, I expect in a few years to see steamcoaches and waggons crowding our public roads, as numerous as coalcarts in the vicinity of Edinburgh

VOL. XIII.

Hudibras.

in a winter morning,-a full-sized oak raised from an acorn, in the course of a summer,-and cabbages and carrots between sun-rising and setting: further, I expect to see, or at any rate hear, of the stones for the Parthenon on the Calton Hill being all cut and carved by clock-work, and all disposed in their proper places by a self-moving steam-engine. Yes; the philosophy of the new school will again rear its head, when mind is triumphant over matter! When I look along the vista of Time, I see, what I will not venture to unfold: Visions of glory, spare my aching sight! Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul !

Nor is the present age less remarkable for literature than science; never had we so many authors, male and female; never were their brains more fertile, from the ponderous quarto, exhibiting " a rivulet of text in a meadow of margin," and illustrated with plates, whose light and shade are so judiciously disposed, that the figures seem to start from the Indian paper in alto relievo, down to the halfpenny tract, ornamented with a wooden cut. He who is afraid, or unable, to publish at his own risk, contrives to occupy a page in a magazine, or creeps into a corner of a newspaper; for even these are vehicles of polite literature,-almost every newspaper editor being also a reviewer, and a moiety of his readers critics. The press teems with volumes on all subjects, and suited to all capacities; if the fields of fancy and fiction are of boundless extent, so those who explore them

are

"in numbers numberless." But among them is one who stalks like Gulliver among the inhabitants of Lilliput, and his speed is commensurate to his strength; he outstrips the toiling press, while

Edina saddens at the long delay.

Ꭰ

But for the peace of his "own romantic town," it will be prudent in him to slacken his pace. I understand you have already had the devil among the tailors; and if the imp that occupies Ballantyne and Co.'s printing-office should inspire compositors and pressmen with the spirit of insubordination, and should they strike work about the middle of the last volume of Quentin Durward's successor, some dreadful catastrophe would ensue the Porteous mob, or the Radicals at Bonnymuir, might be considered as a flea-bite in comparison; not only Britain, but all the civilized world, deprived of the eagerly-anticipated intellectual banquet! It makes me shudder to think on it. But there is a storm brewing of an opposite kind, and should it burst, it will create a great sensation in the literary world. The author of Waverley has already discovered the Philosopher's stone; and, should his inexhaustible imagination and profound research stumble on the elixir vitæ, then every novel-writer in Britain and Ireland, including the Transatlantic Washington Irving, may say, "Othello's occupation's gone!" But let this man of matchless might look to himself. It has come to my knowledge, that a conspiracy against him is already forming, consisting of disappointed and distressed authors, whom he has plunged in ruin, by engrossing the trade; the confederacy is gaining accession of numbers daily, and he will ere long be served with official notice from the Captain Rock of the band, that if he persist in living, or, which is just the same thing, writing, for more than three years after that intimation, he may expect the utmost vengeance that thousands, under the influence of the furor scribendi can inflict; for they have sworn that this idol, which all the people worship, shall be cast down, broken in pieces, and utterly destroyed. Should he calculate upon his gigantic strength, let him recollect that Polyphemus was overcome by the cunning of Ulysses, and that wasps and hornets may sting the lion to death. Let him not trust to the elixir vitæ, should he be fortunate enough to discover it; the eagle, which nature endows with powers to

soar to the sun, and strength to brave the fury of a hundred winters, may, as he proudly looks from his mountain eyry, be shot in his youth by the hand of some pigmy urchin, that he could have carried through the air in his talons. Neither let him confide in his invisibility, although it may be said of him, as of Junius, stat magni nominis umbra; ways and means can be found to ascertain his identity; and here let Constable and Co. beware; they neither know where the attack will be made, nor how soon the mine may explode. But a word to the wise is enough ;— I have discharged my duty!

When I penned the first paragraph of this letter, I believed it would lead me directly into the very bowels of my subject; but by a strange association of ideas, I have rambled over an extensive track, and am still as far distant as when I first started, with the disadvantage of having also played over the symphony best suited as an introduction to the piece. From noticing the great number of authors and readers in this age, it would have been a natural and easy transition to introduce the Harum-Scarum Club, of which I have the honour to be Secretary. But that opportunity being lost, I must now bring it forward, as Willie Jack brought his bride before the minister, when he harled her ben by the lug and the horn.

Know, then, that in our bit of a borough, which you great folks of the metropolis would designate a populous village, there has arisen a taste for polite literature, or, as Miss Broomwort, the brewer's daughter, persists in naming it, the Belles Lettres, which she says is the fashionable phrase, and quite according to the new nomenclature. My father recollects when only two weekly newspapers came to the town, one to the Bailie, and another to the Minister; and the only ephemeris found within the borough was the Aberdeen Prognostication, at the annual cost of one penny, and bearing the appropriate emblem of the Man in the Moon on the title-page: this useful publication was superseded by the Belfast Almanack, on an improved plan, and among much incongruous matter, containing, at least, a page of