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fend the actual oppreffions of their rulers; and men, otherwise confcientious, we are afraid, too often impose upon themselves by no better reafonings than the following- This measure, to be fure, is bad and tyrannical ;-but men are not angels ;—all human government is imperfect; and on the whole, ours is still too good to be quarrelled with. Befides, what good purpose could be answered by my individual oppofition? I might ruin my own fortune, indeed, and blaft the profpects of my children; but it would be too romantic to imagine, that the fear of my difpleasure would produce an immaculate adminiftration-fo I will hold my tongue, and fhift for myself as well as poffible.' When the majority of those who have any influence in the country reafon in this man ner, it furely cannot be unneceffary to remind us, now and then, of the great things that were done when the people roused themfelves against their oppreffors.

In aid of these actual temptations of interest and indolence, come certain speculative doctrines, as to the real value of liberty, and the illusions by which men are carried away who fancy themselves acting on the principle of patriotism. Private happiness, it is discovered, has but little dependence on the nature of the government. The oppressions of monarchs and demagogues are nearly equal in degree, though a little different in form; and the only thing certain is, that in flying from the one, we shall fall into the other, and suffer tremendously in the transition. If ambition and great activity therefore be not necessary to our happiness, we shall do wisely to occupy ourselves with the many innocent and pleasing pursuits that are allowed under all governments, instead of spreading tumult and discontent, by endeavouring to realize some political conceit of our own imagination, Mr Hume, we are afraid, is chiefly responsible for the prevalence of this Epicurean and ignoble strain of sentiment in this country, an author from whose dispositions and understanding, a very differ, ent doctrine might have been anticipated. But, under whatever authority

* Few things seem more unaccountable and indeed absurd, than that Hume should have taken part with high church and high mo, narchy men. The persecutions which he suffered in his youth from the Presbyterians, may perhaps have influenced his ecclesiastical partialities. But that he should have sided with the Tudors and the Steuarts against the people, seems quite inconsistent with all the great traits of his character. His unrivalled sagacity must have looked with contempt on the preposterous arguments by which the jus divinum was maintained. His natural benevolence must have suggested the cruelty of subjecting the enjoyments of thousands to the caprice of one unfeeling individual; and his own practical inde

pendence

anthority it is maintained, we have no scruple in saying, that it seems to us as obviously false as it is pernicious. We need not appeal to Turkey or to Russia to prove, that neither liberal nor even gainful pursuits can be carried on with advantage, where there is no political freedom; for, even laying out of view the utter impossibility of securing the persons and properties of individuals in any other way, it is certain that the consciousness of independence is a great enjoyment in itself, and that without it, all the powers of the mind, and all the capacities of happiness, are gradually blunted and destroyed. It is like the privation of air and exercise, or the emasculation of the body;-which, though they may appear at first to conduce to tranquillity and indolent enjoy ment, never fail to enfeeble the whole frame, and to produce a state of oppressive languor and debility, in comparison with which, even wounds and fatigue would be delicious.

To counteract all these enervating and depressing causes, we have the increasing opulence of the lower and middling orders of the people, naturally leading them to aspire to greater independ ence, and improving their education and general intelligence. Thus, public opinion, which is in all countries the great operating check upon authority, has become more extensive and more enlight ened; and might perhaps have been found a sufficient corrective of all our other corruptions, had things gone on around us in their usual and accustomed channels. Unfortunately, however, the French revolution came to astonish and appal the world; and, originating with the people, not only subverted thrones and establishments, but made such havock on the lives and properties and principles of individuals, as very naturally to excite the hor ror and alarm of all whose condition was not already intolerable. This alarm, so far as it related to this country, was always excessive, and in a great degree unreasonable; but it was impossible perhaps altogether to escape it; and the consequences have been incalculably injurious to the interests of practical liberty. During the raging of that war which Jacobinism in its most disgusting form carried on against rank and royalty, it was natural for those who apprehended the possibility of a similar conflict at home,

S4

pendence in private life, might have taught him the value of those feelings which he has so mischievously derided. Mr Fox seems to have been struck with the same surprise at this strange trait in the character of our philosopher. In a letter to Mr Laing, he says, He was an excellent man, and of great powers of mind; but his partiality to kings and princes is intolerable. Nay, it is, in my opinion, quite ridiculous; and is more like the foolish admiration which women and children sometimes have for kings, than the opinion, right or wrong, of a philosopher.'

home, to fortify those orders with all that reason and even preju dice could supply for their security, and to lay aside, for the time, those jealouses and hereditary grudges, upon which, in better days, it was their duty to engage in contention. While a raging fever of liberty was epidemic in the neighbourhood, the ordinary diet of the people appeared too inflammatory for their constitution; and it was thought adviseable to abstain from articles, which, at all other times, were allowed to be necessary for their health and vigour. Thus, a sort of tacit convention was entered into, to say nothing, for a while, of the follies and vices of prin ces, the tyranny of courts, or the rights of the people. The revolution of 1688, it was agreed, could not be mentioned with praise, without giving some indirect encouragement to the revolu tion of 1789; and it was thought as well to say nothing in favour of Hampden, or Russel, or Sydney, for fear it might give spirits to Robespierre, Danton or Marat. To this strict regimen the greater part of the nation submitted of their own accord; and it was forced upon the remainder by a pretty vigorous system of proceeding. Now, we do not greatly blame either the alarm, or the precautions which it dictated; but we do very seriously lament, that the use of those precautions should have degenerated into a sort of national habit, and should be continued and approved of so very long after the danger which occasioned them has ceased.

It is now at least ten years since Jacobinism was prostrated at Paris; and it is still longer since it ceased to be regarded with any thing but horror in this country. Yet the favourers of power would still take advantage of its name to shield authority from question, and to throw obloquy on the rights and services of the people. The power of habit has come unfortunately to their aid and it is still unfashionable, and, we are afraid, not very popular, to talk of the tyranny of the Stuarts, and the triumph of the Revolution, in the tone that was universal and established within these last twenty years. For our parts, however, we see no sort of reason for this change; and we hail, with pleasure, this work of Mr Fox's, as likely to put an end to a system of timidity so apt to graduate into servility, and to familiarize his countrymen once more to speak and to think of Charles, of James, and of Strafford;-and of William, and Russell, and Sydney, as it becomes Englishmen to speak and to think of such characters. To talk with affected tenderness of oppressors, may suit the policy of those who wish to bespeak the clemency of an imperial conqueror; but must appear peculiarly base and inconsistent in all who profess an anxiety to rouse the people to great exertions in the cause of their independence.

The volume itself, which has given occasion to these reflec

tions, and from which we have withheld our readers too long, consists of a preface or general introducion from the pen of Lord Holland; an introductory chapter, comprising a review of the leading events, from the year 1640 to the death of Charles II.; two chapters of the history of the reign of James, which include no more than seven months of the year 1685, and narrate very little but the unfortunate expeditions of Argyle and of Monmouth; and a pretty long appendix, consisting chiefly of the correspondence between Barillon, the French confidential minister at the court of England, and his master Louis XIV.

Lord Holland's part of the volume is written with great judgement, perspicuity, and propriety; and though it contains less anecdote and minute information with regard to his illustrious kinsman than every reader must wish to possess, it not only gives a very satisfactory account of the progress of the work to which it is prefixed, but affords us some glimpses of the character and opinions of its author, which are peculiarly interesting, both from the authenticity of the source from which they are derived, and from the unostentatious simplicity with which they are communicated. Lord Holland has not been able to ascertain at what period Mr Fox first formed the design of writing a history; but, from the year 1797, when he ceased to give a regular attendance in Parliament, he was almost entirely occupied with literary schemes and avocations. The following little sketch of the temper and employments of him who was pitied by many as a disappointed politician, is extremely amiable; and, we are now convinced by the fragment before us, correctly true.

During his retirement, that love of literature, and fondness for poetry, which neither pleasure nor bufinefs had ever extinguished, revived with an ardour, fuch as few in the eagernefs of youth, or in purfuit of fame or advantage, are capable of feeling. For fome time, however, his ftudies were not directed to any particular object. Such was the happy difpofition of his mind, that his own reflections, whether fupplied by converfation, defultory reading, or the common occurrences of a life in the country, were always fufficient to call forth the vigour and exertion of his faculties. Intercourfe with the world had fo little deadened in him the fenfe of the fimpleft enjoyments, that even in the hours of apparent leifure and inactivity, he retained that keen relish of exiftence, which, after the first impreffions of life, is fo rarely excited but by great interests and ftrong paffions. Hence it was, that in the interval between his active attendance in Parliament, and the und rtaking of his Hiftory, he never felt the tedium of a vacant day. A verse in Cowper, which he frequently repeated,

How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle !'

was an accurate defcription of the life he was then leading; and I am

perfuaded

perfuaded, that if he had confulted his own gratifications only, it would have continued to be fo. The circumstances which led him once more to take an active part in public difcuffions, are foreign to the purposes of this preface. It is fufficient to remark, that they could not be forefeen, and that his notion of engaging in fome literary undertaking was adopted during his retirement, and with the profpect of long and uninterrupted leisure before him.' p. iii. iv.

He seems to have fixed finally on the history of the Revolution, about the year 1799; but even after the work was begun, he not enly dedicated large portions of his time to the study of Greek literature and poetry in general, but meditated and announced to his correspondents a great variety of publications, upon a very wide range of subjects. Among these were, an edition of Dryden -a Defence of Racine and of the French stage--an Essay on the Beauties of Euripides-a Disquisition upon Hume's history-and an Essay or Dialogue, on Poetry, History, and Oratory. In 1802, the greater part of the work, as it now stands, was finished; but the author wished to cousult the papers in the Scotch College, and the Depot des Affaires etrangeres at Paris, and took the opportunity of the peace to pay a visit to that capital accordingly. After his return, he made some additions to his chapters; but being soon after recalled to the duties of public life, he never afterwards found leisure to go on with the work to which he had dedicated himself with so much zeal and assiduity. What he did write, was finished, however, for the most part, with very great care. He wrote very slow; and was extremely fastidious in the choice of his expressions; holding pedantry and affectation, however, in far greater horror than carelessness or roughness. He commonly wrote detached sentences on slips of paper, and afterwards dictated them off to Mrs Fox, who copied them into the book, from which the present volume has been printed without the alteration of a single syllable.

There are some pleasing letters of Mr Fox interspersed with this narrative. The most important is that in which he gives Mr Laing an account of the result of his inquiries after the Scotch College manuscripts.

"I have now ascertained beyond all doubt, that there were in the Scotch College two distinct manuscripts, one in James's own hand, consisting of papers of different sizes bound up together, and the other a sort of historical narrative, compiled from the former. The narrative was said to have been revised and corrected, as to style, by Dryden * the poet, (meaning probably Charles Dryden, the great

poet's

*It is the opinion of the present possessor of the narrative, that it was compiled from the original documents by Thomas Innes, one of the Superiors of the College, and author of a work, entitled, A Critical Essay on the ancient Inhabitants of Scotland.'

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