Page images
PDF
EPUB

marquis of Hertford, and the earl of Lindsay, generously offered to lay down their own lives to save that of their master. Having with great difficulty prevailed on his murderers to allow him to be buried in the royal chapel at Windsor, lord Southampton, and the three other noblemen above mentioned, went thither, and on the 9th February 1648-9, performed the last melancholy office of seeing the royal body interred; but colonel Whitchcot, the governor of Windsor castle, would not permit Dr. Juxon, bishop of London, who attended, to read the service for the dead appointed in the book of Common Prayer, insisting that the Directory alone should be followed; in consequence of which the corpse was interred in the vault of king Henry the Eighth, without any form of sepulchre whatever.

After the restoration of king Charles the Second, lord Southampton, whose great integrity and ability rendered him highly acceptable to the nation, was on the 8th of September, 1660, raised to the high office of lord treasurer of England, which he held till his death, which happened on the 16th of May, 1667. In the dissolute court of Charles the Second, when lord Clarendon's credit was on the decline, and the king began to alienate himself from a minister, whose virtues he feared, but did not reverence, the amiable Southampton shewed on all occasions an inviolable attachment to the Chancellor, and the last time he appeared at the council-board, when his infirmities would hardly allow him to speak, he generously exerted himself in his friend's behalf; and with great animation delivered himself to this effect: "This man is a true protestant, and an honest Englishman, and while he is in place, we are secure of our laws, liberties, and religion: but whenever he shall be removed, England will long feel the ill effects of it:" a prediction which the subsequent events of that reign fully confirmed.

"He was, (says lord Clarendon) indeed a great man in all respects, and brought very much reputation to the king's cause. He had great dislike of the high courses which had been taken in the government, and a particular prejudice to the earl of Strafford, for some exorbitant proceedings; but as soon as he saw the ways of reverence and duty towards the king de

( 130 )

clined, and the prosecution of the earl of Strafford to exceed the limits of justice, he opposed them vigorously in all their proceedings. He was a man of great sharpness of judgment, a very quick apprehension, and that readiness of expression upon any sudden debate, that no man delivered himself more advantageously and weightily, and more efficaciously with the hearers; so that no man gave them more trouble in his oppositions, or drew so many to a concurrence with him in opinion. He had no relation to or dependence upon the court [of Charles I.] or purpose to have any, but wholly pursued the public interest. He was not only an exact observer of justice, but so clear-sighted a discerner of all the circumstances which might disguise it, that no false or fraudulent colour could impose upon him; and of so sincere and impartial a judgment, that no prejudice to the person of any man made him less awake to his cause, but believed that there is aliquid et in hostem nefas, and that a very ill man might be very unjustly dealt with. On the happy return of his majesty he seemed to recover great vigour of mind, and undertook the charge of high treasurer with much alacrity and industry, as long as he had any hope to get a revenue settled proportionable to the expence of the crown, (towards which his interest and authority and council contributed very much,) or to reduce the expence of the court within the limits of the revenue. His person was of a small stature; his courage, as all his other faculties, very great, having no sign of fear or sense of danger, when he was in a place where he ought to be found."

M m

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »