I. CHAS. I. A.D. 1642. cathedral churches died thus fearfully in the assault CHAPTER of a cathedral: a fearful manner of death in such a quarrel. Secondly, that this happened upon St. Chad's day, of which saint the cathedral bears the name. Thirdly, that this lord, coming from dinner about two years since from the lord Herbert's house in Lambeth, upon some discourse of Paul's church, then in their eye upon the water, said to some young lords that were with him, that he hoped to live to see that one stone of that building should not be left upon another; but that church stands yet, and that eye is put out that hoped to see the ruins of it."* But in an age of great men, Hampden was perhaps the first. His character will never perish. It is enshrined in the magnificent portraiture of Clarendon; it has been drawn afresh, and some of its less noticed or more questioned honours placed in a clearer light, by the most brilliant of living writers. But had no historian embalmed his memory, even tradition would have been loath to part with so great a name. Hampden, a country gentleman, residing on his ancient estate in Buckinghamshire, the representative in parliament of the neighbouring borough of Wendover, was amongst the first to resist the unconstitutional exactions of the court. The king had been advised to impose a tax under the name of ship-money, without the consent of parliament. Thousands murmured, but * In Neal, Hist. Puritans, iii. p. 16. Macaulay, Essay on Hampden, &c. The character of Hampden given by Hume, Hist. vol. vii. p. 521, and note G G, scarcely deserves even this brief notice. A.D. 1612. CHAPTER Hampden refused to pay the illegal impost, which amounted to no more than twenty shillings. He CHAS. I. was prosecuted, and the question was argued in the exchequer court at Westminster. Four of the judges were in his favour, the majority decided that the tax was legal. But, in the public discussion of the subject, Hampden had gained a great victory, the honours of which no adverse decision could tarnish. The calmness and self-possession he maintained on this occasion at once placed him high in the opinion of all parties. He seemed rather to meet the prosecution as a lofty patriot than as the factious leader of a discontented party; as if he were anxious to defend the law, rather than to shield or justify himself. He appeared to plead on behalf of the constitution, the rights and liberties of England, and he was equal to the task. It concentrated all his powers, but he was without agitation or disturbance. Nothing so much affects us with the notion of true greatness as tranquillity in the heat of argument or the midst of danger. Even ordinary lookers on perceived in his unaffected courtesy and perfect repose of mind, when he himself was most exposed and when all around him was a hurricane, that Hampden was a great man. His influence was now unbounded, both in parliament and with the nation. He was returned for his native county, and the voice of England saluted him as the father of his country, the pilot who must steer the vessel through the storm. No man living had such influence, no man of his rank had ever attained to such an eminence. His reputation for honesty was universal; it was clear he sought I. CHAS. I. A.D. 1643. no private ends; he had sacrificed himself to serve chapter his country. In parliament he was equally revered. He is a rare instance of one whose popularity was unbounded both with the people and the house of commons; whose weight as a senator was even greater than his weight amongst the populace; for it rarely happens that the qualities which charm the multitude are valued in the house of commons; or that the idol of the senate retains his influence with the common people. Had he been merely eloquent, Hampden would scarcely have been distinguished in the long parliament. He possessed other endowments, which qualified him to be the leader of that assembly. He had a wonderful affability and command of temper in debate; he appeared to be modest and submissive, as though he sought for information, while in fact, by suggesting his own doubts, he infused his opinions into those from whom he seemed to learn them. It was no slight advantage to him even in the house of commons, that nature had formed him in one of her finest moulds. While his mind was powerful, his person was elegant and his manners were refined. Slender and of the middling height, his head was covered with a profusion of dark brown hair which fell gracefully upon his shoulders.* His features were the index to his mind; they commanded respect, and yet invited * It is well known that Hampden's grave was opened about twenty years since, when the body was found in a perfect state. The intelligent head gardener at Hampden, who was present, and from whose lips I had the story, was struck with the resemblance the countenance bore to an old neglected and unknown portrait in the mansion; he represented this to the late earl of Buckinghamshire, the owner of Hampden house, and D I. CHAS. I. A.D. 1643. CHAPTER Confidence; there was nothing in them either to abash the timid or to encourage the familiar. An air of thoughtful dignity presided, as though he were occupied, but not oppressed, with weighty cares. After the king's attempt to seize him, as one of the five proscribed members, in the house, his firmness in opposing the court began to assume a sternness to which he had hitherto been a stranger; yet during the first year of the parliament, he seemed rather to moderate and soften the violent tempers which he observed in others than to inflame them. His opponents thought his moderation a disguise, and that he was rather cautious than irresolute. He begot many opinions, they said, and suggested motions the education of which he committed to other men; and he sometimes withdrew before the division when he himself had suggested the debate. Still they detected neither malice nor duplicity; the impression he always left was that of an ingenuous and conscientious person: "he was indeed," says lord Clarendon, who wrote of him, not without a tinge of prejudice," a very wise man and of great parts, and possessed with the representative of the Hampden family, who was then abroad. The picture was cleaned in consequence, and proved to be a portrait of John Hampden, having his initials, and the date 164- upon it. The profusion of hair was such, that the labourers who assisted at the disinterment spread a report (which I have heard repeated in the neighbourhood) that the body was that of a female. An abundance of hair was then fashionable. Nothing can be further from the truth than the half-savage slouch and air with which modern sculptors and engravers choose to disguise the leaders of the puritans during the civil war. I apprehend it would be difficult to meet with two more refined gentlemen in any society in the present day than Hampden and the earl of Essex, not to mention others. most absolute spirit of popularity and the most CHAPTER absolute faculties to govern the people, of any man I. A.D. 1643. I ever knew." When the question of resisting the CHAS. I. king in arms was at length debated, he was resolute for war; and when the war had once begun, he was the advocate of the most vigorous measures. He raised and took the command of a regiment composed of the neighbouring yeomen, his tenants and constituents; and Hampden's "green coats " were famous for valour and good conduct. He fell wounded in a severe skirmish with prince Rupert within a few miles of his house at Hampden. He returned home in great pain, and lingered through a week of mortal agony. But he was tranquil, and his soul was not dismayed. His thoughts were divided between his unhappy country and his own eternal prospects. He dictated letters to the parliament, urging the necessity of a more vigorous prosecution of the war; and he again and again expressed his happiness in God, and the blessed hope he possessed, through the merits and passion of his Son, of soon exchanging his bed of anguish for a mansion in the world of peace.* The great minister of the last aget expired with a prayer for his country upon his lips. Hampden in his latest moments uttered the same petition nearly in the same words " O Lord, save my bleeding country." Enlarging on the thought he had thus expressed, he added, "Have these realms in thy especial keeping. Confound and level in the dust those who would rob the people of their liberty and * Lord Nugent's Memorials of Hampden, ii. p. 439. † William Pitt. |