who had been intrasted with a strong fort in the same country, performed the same act of treachery. Alan, no longer the conscientious controversialist, wrote a defence of this base proceeding, and sent several priests to Stanley, in order to instruct those he had drawn over to the king of Spain's service. Alan's defence, which appeared the year after these transactions, 1588, was first printed in English in the form of a letter, and afterwards in Latin, under the title of "Epistola de Daventriæ ditione," Cracov. His only argument, if it deserve the name, was, that sir William Stanley was no traitor, because he had only delivered to the king of Spain a, city which was his own before; and he exhorts all Englishmen, in the service of the states, to 'follow his example. Such writings, however, were too valuable to the popish cause, to go unrewarded. Accordingly on July 28, 1587, Alan was created cardinal by the title of St. Martin in Montibus; and soon after, the king of Spain gave him an abbey of great value in the kingdom of Naples, with assurances of greater preferment. In April 1588, he composed that work, entitled The Admonition, which rendered him most famous abroad, and infamous at home. It consisted of two parts; the first explaining the pope's bull for the excommunication and deprivation of queen Elizabeth; the second, exhorting the nobility and people of England to desert her, and take up arms in favour of the Spaniards. It contains the grossest abuse of the queen, and threatens the nobility with judgments from heaven, and devastation by the Spaniards, unless they joined the forces of Philip; it boasts of the vast strength of these forces, and asserts that they had more good captains than Elizabeth had soldiers; that the saints in heaven all prayed for victory, and that the holy angels guarded them. Of this libel, well calculated at that time to effect its purpose, many thousand copies were printed at Antwerp, in order to have been put on board the Armada, and circulated in England. But the Armada, it is well known, completely failed, and covered its projectors with disgrace and destruction; and these books were so carefully destroyed, that a genuine copy was scarcely to be found. No part of the failure of this vast enterprize, however, was attributed to Alan, to whom the king of Spain now, gave the archbishopric of Mecklin, and would have had him reside there, as a place where he might more effectu ally promote the popish and Spanish interests in England; but the pope had too high an opinion of his merit to suffer him to leave Rome, where, therefore, he continued to la-. bour in the service of his countrymen, and in promoting the Catholic faith. Some have asserted, that he and sir Francis Inglefield assisted Parsons, the Jesuit, in composing his treasonable work concerning the succession, which he published under the name of Doleman, in 1593, and which was reckoned of such dangerous consequence, that it was made capital by law for any person to have it in his custody. Others, however, maintain that he had no hand in it, and that he even objected to it, because of its tendency to promote those dissentions which had for so many years distracted his native country; and this last opinion is probable, if what we have been told be true, that towards the close of his life he had changed his sentiments, as to government, and professed his sorrow for the pains he had taken in promoting the invasion of England. It is even asserted, by a very eminent popish writer (Watson), that when he perceived that the Jesuits intended nothing but desolating and destroying his native land, he wept bitterly, not knowing how to remedy it, much less how to curb their insolence. Such conduct, it is added, drew upon him the ill-will of that powerful society, who chose now to represent him as a man of slender abilities, and of little political consequence. On his death-bed, he was very desirous of speaking to the English students then at Rome, which the Jesuits prevented, lest he should have persuaded them to a loyal respect for their prince, and a tender regard for their country. He is generally said to have died of a retention of urine; but, as the Jesuits had shown so much dislike, they have been accused of poisoning him. Of this, however, there is no proof. He died Oct. 6, 1594, in the sixty-third year of his age; and was buried with great pomp in the chapel of the English college at Rome, where a monument was erected to his memory, with an inscription setting forth his titles and merits. What these merits were, the reader has been told. We have seen cardinal Alan in three characters: that of a zealous propagandist; of a political traitor to his country; and lastly, repenting the violence of his endeavours to ruin his country on pretence of bringing her back to popery. In the first of these characters he seems to have acted from the impulse of a mind firmly persuaded that every devia tion from popery was dangerous heresy; and the only wea pons he employed were those of controversy. As a writer, the popish party justly considered him as the first champion of his age; and both his learning and eloquence were certainly of a superior stamp. But in his But in his worst character, as a traitor, there is every reason to think him influenced by the Jesuits, who at that time, and ever while a society, had little scruple as to the means by which they effected their purposes. Yet even their persuasions were not suf ficient to inspire him with permanent hostility towards the political existence of his country. Some writers, not suf ficiently attending to his history, have called him a Jesuit; but in all controversies between the Jesuits and the secular priests, the latter always gloried in cardinal Alan, as a man to whom no Jesuit could be compared, in any respect. At Rome, and every where abroad, he was styled Cardinal of England, and regarded as the protector of the nation. After his death, however, and when all hopes of conquering England had vanished, less notice was taken of English priests, and few of them were made bishops; nor was it until the reign of Charles II. when the popish interest was supposed likely to gain the ascendancy in England, that Philip Thomas Howard, younger brother to the duke of Norfolk, was created cardinal, and sometimes called the Cardinal of England. Of his works, besides those already mentioned, there are extant, 1. "A defence of the lawful power and authority of the Priesthood to remit Sins," with two other tracts on Confession and Indulgences, Louvain, 1567, 8vo. 2. "De Sacramentis in genere, de sacramento Eucharistiæ, et de Missæ Sacrificio, libri tres," Antwerp, 1576, 4to, and Doway, 1605. 3. "A true, sincere, and modest defence of English Catholics," without place, 1583. This was an answer to the "Execution of Justice in England," written by lord Burleigh, the original of which, Strype says, is yet preserved. It is esteemed the best of Alan's works, 4. "An apology and true declaration of the institution and endeavours of the two English colleges, the one in Rome, the other now resident in Rheims, against certain sinister insinuations given up against the same," Mons, 1581. Besides these, he wrote some other small treatises, without his name, of which we have nowhere seen a correct account. That in the Athenæ is perhaps the best. Foppen, on the authority of Possevin in his "Apparatus Sac." says, that he translated the English Bible printed at Rheims, in conjunction with Gregory Martin and Richard Bristow, two English divines; and that he wrote a letter to the bishop of Liege, "de miserabili statu et calamitate regni Angliæ; fervente schismate," which is printed in the "Gesta Episcoporum Leodiensium," vol. III. p. 588. Le Long, who also mentions his translation of the Bible, adds, that he was employed by pope Gregory XIV. in reforming the Vulgate.1 ALAND (SIR JOHN FORTESCUE), lord Fortescue of the kingdom of Ireland, a baron of the exchequer, and puisne judge of the king's bench and common pleas in the reigns of George I. and II. was born March 7, 1670, being the second son of Edmund Fortescue, of London, esq. and Sarah, daughter of Henry Aland, of Waterford, esq. in honour of whom he added Aland to his name. He was descended from sir John Fortescue, lord chief justice and lord high chancellor of England under king Henry VI. He was educated probably at Oxford, as that university, in complimenting him with a doctor's degree, by diploma, in 1733, alluded to his having studied there. On leaving the university he became a member of the Inner Temple, where he was chosen reader in 1716, 2 Geo. I. as appears by a subscription to his arms, and was called to the bar about the time of the Revolution. For his arguments as pleader in the courts of justice, the reader is referred to the following authorities; viz. the Reports of Mr. justice Fortescue Aland; Mr. serjeant Carthew; Mr. recorder Comberbach; lord chancellor (of Ireland) Freeman; lord chief baron Gilbert's Cases; Mr. justice Levintz; Mr. justice Lutwyche; lord chief justice Raymond; Mr. serjeant Salkeld; Mr. serjeant Skinner; and Mr. justice Ventris. We may presume our barrister shone as an advocate with meridian lustre, since the celebrated Pope has recorded his name, by prefixing it to his Imitation of Horace, Sat. II. 1. and distinguished his legal abilities, by asking his opi, nion, as to libels, in the following lines: "Tim'rous by nature, of the rich in awe, I come to counsel learned in the law; You'll give me, like a friend both sage and free, 1 Biog. Brit. Gen. Dict. art. Alan.-Strype's Annals.-Wood's Athenæ.Tanner's Bibl.-Erythræi Pinacotheca, I. 90.-Foppen Bibl. Belg, I. 388, The reader is informed in a note on the first line, that the delicacy of the address does not so much lie in the ironical application to himself, as in seriously characterising the person for whose advice the poet applies. On Friday, October 22, 1714, he was appointed solicitorgeneral to his royal highness the prince of Wales, afterwards king George the Second; and on December 21, 1715, he was constituted solicitor-general to the king, in the room of Nicholas Lechmere, resigned; which arduous and important office he executed so much to the satisfaction of his majesty and the people, that he was thought deserving of a higher post; and accordingly, 24th January, 1716-7, Hilary term, the king appointed him one of the barons of the exchequer, in which court he succeeded sir Samuel Dodd, the late lord chief baron, deceased. In the office of solicitor-general he was himself succeeded by sir William Thompson the recorder of London. The reader is referred to the reports of the lord chief baron Comyns, and of the lord chief baron Gilbert, sir John Strange and Bunbury, for our baron's resolutions and opinions while he sat in this court. In May 1718, he was constituted one of the justices of the court of king's bench; but after the accession of king George II. all the judges had new patents, except Mr. justice Aland, whose commission was superseded, for reasons which have not transpired. It appears, however, that he regained his majesty's favour, as in January 1728 he was appointed one of the justices of the court of common pleas. He continued on this bench from Michaelmas vacation, 2 Geo. II. 1728, until Trinity term 19 and 20, A. D. 1746, when he resigned the same, having sat in the superior courts of Westminster for the long period of thirty years, and eighteen of them in the court alluded to. majesty, in further testimony of his judicial integrity and abilities, was pleased to create him a peer of Ireland, by the style and title of John lord Fortescue Aland, baron Fortescue of Credan, in the kingdom of Ireland, by privy seal, dated at Kensington, June 26, 1746, 19 Geo. II. and by patent dated at Dublin, August 15. But he did not enjoy this honour long, dying Dec. 19 of the same year, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. The family is now extinct. His The juridical writings of sir John Fortescue Aland are: "The Difference between an absolute and limited Mo |