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POLITICAL THEORISTS OF THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH.

"Great men have been among us: hands that penned
And tongues that uttered wisdom, better none:
The later Sidney, Marvel, Harrington,

Young Vane, and others who called Milton, friend."

Or certain of these great names we propose, in the following paper, to revive the memory, and attempt a characteristic sketch. The era of the Protectorate, perhaps the most exciting period in English history, may also be regarded as an epoch in political writing. The minds of men about that time began to be turned, almost of necessity, to examining the original of all right, and the abstract principles of government. Speculative philosophers and active politicians, both exerted their abilities, either in framing ideal commonwealths or in advocating certain political doctrines that were then hotly discussed. From this active collision of minds were produced the standard authorities of the statesman, and the text-books of the philosopher, -the noble popular defences and truly democratic addresses of Milton, combining Homeric fire and Socratic wisdom with the stern dignity of Stoicism: the slighter, but not less patriotic, appeals of his friend Marvel: the "Discourses" of Algernon Sidney: the "Oceana" of Harrington. The writings of Milton are by much the best known of these, owing, in no inconsiderable degree, to the fame his poetical genius had procured for him. It is to be lamented, however, that they are not still more widely known. In this country they should be studied with zeal by those who remember the noble exertions made by other great English minds and admirable authors, at the struggle of our own Revolution-exertions of which we have a traditional reverence, and a traditional remembrance, in the speeches of Chatham and his noble compeers, and exertions that produced such classic works as the great speech of Burke and the caustic pamphlet, "Common Sense."

MILTON is more accessible than the other republicans we have undertaken to invoke; and as our canvas is limited,

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RETURN FROM IRELAND.

The forward youth that would appear,
Must now forsake his Muses dear;
Nor in the shadows sing
His numbers languishing.

"Tis time to leave the books in dust,
And oil the unused armor's rust;
Removing from the wall
The corslet of the hall.

searches into the history of the civil war and of the commonwealth, have "AN HORATIAN ODE UPON CROMWELL'S rescued many bright reputations and saved not a few excellent books. But as a poet, Marvell can hardly be said to occupy а very exalted station, though he has left behind him some half-dozen choice copies of verse, fanciful, tender and musical; and one fine poem, that we shall extract presently. Most of his poetical attempts come under the general rank of political squibs, intended to point a rebuke or enliven a piece of scandal; they are local and temporary. Too much of his prose also might be criticised in similar terms, consisting of pamphlets and addresses to his constituents. Marvell, though an inflexible patriot, and one of the purest of men, was no philosopher, discovered no new principle, and has originated no political maxim of lastting importance.

He was more fitted for action than for speculation. For twenty years he represented the town of Kingston-uponHull, and during an active life held several offices of importance. Marvell first became acquainted with Milton in Italy, where the bard of Paradise was filling his mind with ideas and images for his glorious epic. We believe, by his influence, or at all events through the mediation of a friend, he was appointed tutor to Cromwell's nephew, which was the stepping-stone to future advancement. But this elegant wit owed less to patronage than to the love of his townsmen. In Hull, he was an universal favorite, and received many marks of public regard. He was the last political pensioner we read of; we mean the last politician who received for his parliamentary services an annual acknowledgment after retirement from the House. Marvell was the friend of Harrington, and pronounced by Rochester the Coryphæus of court wits, a man of true wit himself. He was, also, a great favorite with Charles II., gaining that monarch's heart by his elegant manners and lively conversation. Numerous advances were made to him by the royalists, but he was incorruptible. It is unnecessary to repeat the famous anecdote, which displays in so strong a light both the systematic bribery of the day, and his perfect integrity. We take the liberty of inserting instead, Marvell's fine ode upon Cromwell :

So restless Cromwell could not cease
In the inglorious arts of peace,

But through adventurous war
Urged his active star;

And like the three-fork'd lightning, first
Breaking the clouds wherin it nurst,
Did through his own side
His fiery way divide.

For 'tis all one to courage high,
The emulous, or enemy;

And with such to enclose
Is more than to oppose.

Then burning through the air he went,
And palaces and temples rent;

And Cæsar's head at last
Did through his laurels blast.

'Tis madness to resist or blame
The face of angry Heaven's flame;
And, if we would speak true,
Much to the man is due,

Who from his private gardens, where
He lived reserved and austere,
(As if his highest plot
To plant the bergamot,)

Could by industrious valor climb
To ruin the great work of time,
And cast the kingdoms old
Into another mould!

Though justice against fate complain,
And plead the ancient rights in vain—
But those do hold or break,
As men are strong or weak.

Nature, that hateth emptiness,
Allows of penetration less,

And therefore must make room
Where greater spirits come.

What field of all the civil war,
Where his were not the deepest scar?
And Hampton shows what part
He had of wiser art;

Where, twining subtle fears with hope,
He wove a net of such a scope,

That Charles himself might chase
To Carisbrook's narrow case;

That hence the royal actor borne, The tragic scaffold might adorn, While round the armed bands Did clap their bloody hands.

HE nothing common did or mean
Upon that memorable scene,
But with his keener eye
The axe's edge did try:

Nor called the gods, with vulgar spite,
To vindicate his helpless right;
But bowed his comely head,
Down, as upon a bed.

This was that memorable hour,
Which first assured the forced power;
So when they did design
The capitol's first line,

A bleeding head, where they begun, Did fright the architects to run; And yet in that the state Foresaw its happy fate.

And now the Irish are ashamed
To see themselves in one year tamed;
So much one man can do,
That does best act and know.

They can affirm his praises best,
And have, though overcome, confest
How good he is, how just,
And fit for highest trust.

Nor yet grown stiffer by command,
But still in the Republic's hand,
How fit he is to sway
That can so well obey.

He to the Commons' feet presents
A kingdom for his first year's rents,
And, what he may, forbears
His fame to make it theirs.

And has his sword and spoils ungirt,
To lay them at the public's skirt;
So when the falcon high
Falls heavy from the sky,

She, having killed, no more does search
But on the next green bough to perch,
Where when he first does lure,
The falconer has her sure.

What may not then our isle presume,
While victory his crest does plume?
What may not others fear,
If thus he crowns each year?

As Cæsar, he, ere long, to Gaul;
To Italy an Hannibal,

And to all states not free
Shall climacteric be.

The Pict no shelter now shall find
Within his parti-contour'd mind;
But from this valor sad
Shrink underneath the plaid,

Happy if in the tufted brake
The English hunter him mistake,
Nor lay his hands in near
The Caledonian deer.

But thou, the war's and fortune's son,
March indefatigably on;

And, for the last effect,
Still keep the sword erect.

Besides the force it has to fright
The spirits of the shady night,
The same arts that did gain
A power, must it maintain."

This is a noble eulogy-equal to Cowley's prose flattery; and so nearly equal, that we find it difficult to settle the point of precedence. When both are, of their kind, equally good, perhaps the diviner character of poetry should decide the predominance. The mere music of Marvell's ode may alone, perhaps, give it a superiority.

HARRINGTON had a natural feeling for politics, and was a republican in his very nature. His education refined and courtly, his natural sympathies were all on the side of the people. The queen of Bohemia, a strong admirer of our philosopher, was bred in his father's family, at least, there she was educated during her early years,-but neither that circumstance, nor a strong personal affection for Charles I., would allow him to change a principle, or quench the instinctive bias of his disposition. At the commencement of his career, Harrington affected a turn for poetry, but, like many others, (Paley is an instance), who have excelled in solid pursuits, his genius was unfitted for the lighter departments of composition. Of this he was advised by an intimate friend, who pointed out the true line of his pursuit and urged him to adopt it. The son of a nobleman, his first entrance into life was in the character of courtier. At the age of thirty-five he was one of the gentlemen of his Majesty's bed-chamber. He had a sincere affec

tion for the king, who loved his company, but could not endure to hear of Harrington's favorite Commonwealth. They had, notwithstanding, many discussions together of government, though we may naturally expect the arbitrary will of the monarch could ill stomach the independent notions of his companion. On the scaffold, Harring ton attended the king, and grieved greatly at his death.

The "Oceana," which Hume, in a long critical essay, allows to be the most practicable of all imaginary republics, and which in many respects resembles our own, is the principal work of the author. It made many proselytes, who formed a sort of political junto, that met regularly at a noted coffee-house kept by one Miles. The conversation was almost wholly political, as might be expected from the objects of the society, which included Cyriack Skinner and other leading men. Representation and rotation are the main features of Harrington's plan; the ballot decided all discussions; to remedy the evil of senators for life, he introduced a maxim that no magistrate should hold his office for a longer period than three years. The whole House was newly organized once every nine years, a third part of the Senators going out every three years. All England was mapped out into representative districts. Altogether, his plan was in most respects rational and clear.

In 1660, he was confined by his friends, having contracted a peculiar species of madness, in which he was generally mild and rational, but entertained a strange fancy, that his natural perspiration turned into flies and bees. In his political career, he latterly ran into fanaticism and became a severe censurer of Cromwell. He died, 1667. Among his friends he numbered L'Estrange, who became notorious about this time by his virulent pamphlets, and Marvell, who wrote a fine epitaph upon him. This slight sketch of Harrington, which we abstract from old Aubrey's entertaining account, could not be concluded more fitly, than by recalling a celebrated saying of his, full of practical wisdom. "Right Reason in contemplation, is virtue in action, et vice versa. Vivere secundum natur am, is to live virtuously; the Divines will not have it so; and where

the Divines would have it an inch above virtue, we fall an ell below it."

The name of ALGERNON SIDNEY is one hallowed by the noblest exertions, ending in martyrdom, in the cause of liberty. Justly and with an honest enthusiasm might Wordsworth exclaim, in one of his noble sonnets dedicated to Liberty,

"Ungrateful country, if thou e'er forget The sons who for thy civil rights have

bled!

How like a Roman, Sidney bowed his head."

Sidney realizes our idea of Brutus, whom he took for his model. The same irascible temper, a similar devotion to liberty, the same contempt of death distinguish the two patriots. Though most zealous for a commonwealth, he must not be confounded with the devoted adherents of Cromwell, for he became a strong enemy of the Protector on his assumption of supreme power. Like the admirers of Napoleon the First Consul, but the determined opponents of Napoleon the Emperor, he left Cromwell, when he thought he saw his ambition predominating over his regard to public good. From his earliest years Sidney was imbued with republican principles, almost romantic in their scope and tendency; and on the scaffold, though denying to the last the justice of his sentence, he delighted to suffer for the" good old cause." Though appointed one of the judges who condemned Charles I., for some reason or other he was not present, nor did he sign the death-warrant. Shortly after, he was appointed a captain in the Parliamentary army; but after the nomination of Cromwell to the Protectorate, he threw up his commission, and would receive no employment from him, or his son Richard. Under the Parliament, which assumed the powers of the government on the retirement of the Protector's successor, Sidney was sent as a commissioner to Sweden, to mediate in a negotiation between that nation and Denmark. From this he soon after returned, and on the Restoration passed over to France. Here he remained until an act of oblivion sheltered him from the royal displeasure, upon which he returned to his native country. In England, his active mind kept him busy in agitating political schemes and discussing points of

policy. At Penshurst, celebrated as the family seat of the Sidneys, he composed his Discourses upon Government. Upon these his reputation as a political writer depends. The sentiments they contain are purely republican, drawn from the most enlightened historical reflections; and as for his style, we have the eulogium of Coleridge, who speaks of him as disclosing the gentleman in every line.

His trial and execution appear with out any sufficient ground of justice, and must be ascribed to a desire to crush one of the noblest spirits of his time; and were almost as flagrant as the trial and execution of the admirable Lord Russell. It is possible, however, that mistaken ardor may have led him into intrigues, at the consequences of which his soul would naturally have revolted, had he seen them with a temperate eye. His character has been drawn by Burnet, with such accuracy of coloring, as to supersede the necessity, if it did not rebuke the presumption, of a new portrait. "He was," says the Bishop, "a man of most extraordinary courage; a steady man even to obstinacy; sincere, but of a rough and boisterous temper that could not bear contradiction. He seemed to be a Christian, but in a particular form of his own; he thought it was to be like a divine philosophy in the mind but he was against all public worship, and everything that looked like a church. He was stiff to all republican principles; and such an enemy to everything that looked like monarchy, that he set himself in a high opposition against Cromwell when

he was made Lord Protector. He had studied the history of government in all its branches, beyond any man I ever knew."

One author, who was of the same cast as Sidney and Harrington, but who, living later, can hardly be classed as a contemporary and a commonwealth man, remains to be mentioned-ANDREW FLETCHER of Saltoun, a Scotch republican. He is chiefly known to general readers, as the author of that saying, "Give me the making of a nation's ballads, and let who pleases make the laws." He was singular in another respect, as a patriot, hating the English as much as Dr. Johnson did the Scotch; and warmly opposed to the union. His personal character was admirable, with the exception of great irascibility; and this appears a defect common to all partizans, of which all the great men we have mentioned had a large share, unless, perhaps, Marvell be excepted. This heat of disposition is fed by the warmth of discussion, and invariably accompanies that sanguine temper and ardent genius which in the first instance incline a man to embrace republican principles.

In future papers, we meditate an account of the rise and history of political pamphletering in England, which commenced with L'Estrange, and a

catalogue raisonnée' of the most eminent Poets who have been deeply occupied in politics. Both topics grow out of the one we have just left, but deserve more than a mere supplementary notice.

WEALTH, FAME, LOVE, AND TRUTH.

“ Оí, give me Wealth!”—he said, and lo!
The pebble caught the diamond's glow;
And mountain crag and valley mould
Burned with the hues of gem and gold:
He had his prayer-'twas his, the whole-
But grief sat heavy on his soul.

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