$77. Another Character of JAMES. The principal thing which is made to ferve for matter for king James's panegyric, is the conftant peace he caufed his fubjects to enjoy. This cannot be faid to be the effects of chance, fince it clearly appears, it was hi fole, or at leaft his chief aim in the whole courfe of his adminiftration. Nothing, fay his friends, is inore worthy a great king than fuch a defign. But the fame defign lefes all its merit, if the prince difcovers by his conduct, that he preferves peace only out of fear, careleffacfs, exceffive love of cafe and repofe; and king James's whole behaviour thews he acted from thefe motives, though he coloured it with the pretence of his affection for the people. His liberality, which fome praife him for, is exclaimed against by others as prodigality. Thefe laft pretend he gave without meafure and difcretion, without any regard to his own wants, or the merit of thofe whom he caped his favours upon. faw themfelves expofed to the infults and jefts of other nations, and all the world in general threw the blame on the king. Rapin. § 78. Character of CHARLES I. Such was the unworthy and unexampled fate of Charles I. king of England, who fell a facrifice to the most attrocious infolence of treafon, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and in the twenty-fourth of his reign. He was a prince of a middling ftature, robust, and well proportioned. His hair was of a dark colour, his forehead high, his complexion pale, his vifage long, and his afpect melancholly. He excelled in riding, and other manly exercifes; he inherited a good understanding from nature, and had cultivat ed it with great affiduity. His perception was clear and acute, his judgment folid and decifive; he poffeffed a refined tafte for the liberal arts, and was a munificent patron to thofe who excelled in painting, fculpture, mufic, and archite&ure. In his private morals he was altogether unblemished and exemplary, He was merciful, modeft, chaste, temperate, religious, perfonally brave, and we may join the noble hiftorian in faying, "He was the "worthieft gentleman, the beft mafter, the As to his manners, writers are no lefs divided: fome will have him to be locked on as a very wife and virtuous prince; whilft others fpeak of him as a prince of a diffolute life, given to drinking, and a great fwearer in coinmon converfation, efpecially when in a paf-"best friend, the beft hutband, the beft fafion. He is likewife taxed with diffolving the "ther, and the beft chriftian of the age in Earl of Effex's marriage, and pardoning the "which he lived." He had the misfortune Earl and Countefs of Soinerfet, the death of to be bred up in high notions of the preroga. Sir Walter Raleigh, and the confidence where- tive, which he thought his honour and his with in full parliament he called God to wit-duty obliged him to maintain. He lived at a nefs, that he never had any thoughts of giv-time when the fpirit of the people became too ing the Papifts a toleration, which he could not affirin but by means of fome mental refervation. But whatever may be faid for or against James's perfon, it is certain England never Bourithed lefs than in his reign: the English mighty for thofe reftraints which the regal power derived from the conftitution; and when the tide of fanaticifm began to overbear the religion of his country, to which he was confcientiously devoted. He fuffered himself to be guided by counsellors, who were not only only inferior to himself in knowledge and judgment, but generally proud, partial, and inflexible; and from an excess of conjugal affection that bordered upon weaknefs, he paid too much deference to the advice and defires of his confort, who was fuperftitiously attached to the errors of popery, and importuned him inceffantly in favour of the Roman Catholics. ance from aufterity, and his frugality from avarice; all thefe virtues in him maintained their proper bounds, and merited unreferved praife. To fpeak the most harshly of him, we may affirm, that many of his good qualities were attended with fome latent frailty, which, though feemingly inconfiderable, was able, when feconded by the extreme malevolence of his fortune, to disappoint them of Such were the fources of all that mifgo- all their influence. His beneficent difpofition vernment which was imputed to him during was clouded by a manner not gracious, his the first fifteen years of his reign. From the virtue was tinctured with fuperftition, his beginning of the civil war to his fatal cata-good fenfe was disfigured by a deference to ftrophe, his conduct fems to have been unexceptionable. His infirmities and imperfections have been candidly owned in the courfe of this narration. He was not very liberal to his dependants; his converfation was not eafy, nor his address pleafing; yet the probity of his heart, and the innocence of his manpers, won the affection of all who attended his perfon, not even excepting thofe who had the charge of his confinement. In a word, he certainly deferved the epithet of a virtuous prince, though he wanted fome of thofe fhining qualities which conftitute the character of great monarch. Beheaded January 30, perfons of a capacity much inferior to his own, and his moderate temper exempted him not from hafty and precipitate refolutions. He deferves the epithet of a good rather than of a great man; and was more fitted to rule in a regular established government, than either to give way to the encroachments of a popular affembly, or finally to fubdue their pretenfions. He wanted fuppleness and dexterity fufficient for the first meafure; he was not endowed with vigour requifite for the fecond. Had he been born an abfolute prince, his humanity and good fenfe had rendered his reign happy, and his memory precious. Had the limitations on the prerogative been in his time quite fixed and certain, his integrity had 79. Another Character of CHARLES Į. made him regard as facred the boundaries of The character of this prince, as that of the conftitution. Unhappily his fate threw moft men, if not of all men, was mixed, but him into a period, when the precedents of his virtues predominated extremely above his many former reigns favoured ftrongly of arbivices; or, more properly fpeaking, his imper- trary power, and the genius of the people ran fections: for fcarce any of his faults arofe to violently towards liberty. And if his politithat pitch, as to merit the appellation of vices. cal prudence was not fufficient to extricate him To confider him in the most favourable light, from fo perilous a fituation, he may be excufit may be affirmed, that his dignity was ex-ed; fince, even after the event, when it is empted from pride, his humanity from weak- commonly eafy to correct all errors, one is at nefs, his bravery from rathnefs, his temper- a lofs to deterinine what conduct in his cir 1648-9. Smollett. cumftances § 8o. Another Character of CHARLES I. cumftances would have maintained the authority of the crown, and preferved the peace of the nation. Expofed without revenue, In the character of Charles, as reprefented without arms, to the affault of furious, im- by his panegyrifts, we find the qualities of plicable, and bigoted factions; it was never temperance, chastity, regularity, piety, equity, permitted him, but with the moft fatal confe- humanity, dignity, condefcenfion, and equaquences, to commit the fmalleft miftake; animity; fome have gone fo far as to allow condition too rigorous to be impofed on the greatest human capacity. Some hiftorians have rafhly queftioned the good faith of this prince: but, for this reproach, the most malignant ferutiny of his conduct, which in every circumftance is now thoroughly known, affords not any reafonable foundation. On the contrary, if we confider the extreme difficulties to which he was fo frequently reduced, and compare the fincerity of his profeffions and declarations, we thall avow, that probity and honour ought justly to be numbered among his moft fhining qualities. In every treaty, thofe conceffions which he thought in confcience he could not maintain, he never would by any motive or perfuafion be induced to make. And though fome violations of the petition of right may be imputed to him; thofe are more to be afcribed to the neceffity of his fituation, and to the lofty ideas of royal prerogative which he had imbibed, than to any failure of the integrity of his principles. This prince was of a comely prefence; of a fweet and melancholy afpect; his face was regular, handfome, and well complexioned; his body ftrong, healthy, and juftly proportioned; and being of middle ftature, he was capable of enduring the greatest fatigues. He excelled in horfeinanfhip and other exercifes; and he poffeffed all the exterior, as well as many of the effential qualities, which form an accomplished prince. Hame. him integrity, and many writers, who condemn his political principles, give him the title of a moral man. In the comparison of this reprefentation with Charles's conduct, accurately and juftly defcribed, it is difcernible that vices of the worst tendency, when fhaded by a plausible and formal carriage, when concordant to the interefts of a faction, and the prejudices of the vulgar, affume the appearances of, and are impofed on the credulous world as, virtues of the first rank. Pallion for power was Charles's predominant vice; idolatry to his regal prerogatives, his governing principle. The interefts of the crown legitimated every meafure, and fanctified in his eye the wideft deviation from moral rule. Neither gratitude, clemency, humanity, equity, nor generofity have place in the fair part of Charles's character; of the virtues of temperance, fertitude, and perfonal bravery, he was undeniably poffeffed. His manners partook of diffipation, and his converfation of the indecency of a court. His chastity has been called in queftion, by an author of the higheft repute; and were it allowed, it was tainted by an excefs of uxorioufnefs, which gave it the properties and the confequences of vice. The want of integrity is manifeft in every part of his conduct; which, whether the corruption of his judgment or heart, loft him fair opportunities of reinstatement in the throne, and was the vice for which above all others he paid the tribute of of his life. His intellectual powers were naturally good, and fo improved by a continua! 81. Character of OLIVER CROMWELL. Oliver Cromwell was of a robust make and conftitution, his afpect manly though clownith. His education extended no further than a fuperficial knowledge of the Latin tongue, but he inherited great talents from nature; exercife, that, though in the beginning of his reign he fpoke with difficulty and helitation, towards the clofe of his life he difcovered in his writings purity of language and dignity of ftyle; in his debates elocution, and quickness of perception. The high opi-though they were fuch as he could not have nion he entertained of regal dignity, occafioned him to obferve a ftatelinefs and imperiouínefs in his manner; which, to the rational and intelligent was unamiable and offenfive; by the weak and formal it was mistaken for dig nity. In the exercife of horsemanship he excelled, had a good tafte, and even skill, in feveral of the polite arts; but though a proficient in fome branches of literature, was no encourager of useful learning, and only patronized adepts in jargon of the divine right, and utility of kings and bifhops. His underftanding in thus point was fo depraved by the prejudice of las education, the flattery of pricfts, and the affections of his heart, that he would never endure converfation which tended to inculcate the principals of equal right in men; and htanding that the particularity of his fration enforced his attention to doétrines of thi kind, he went out of the world with the lame fond prejudices with which he had been foftered in his nursery, and cajoled in the zenith of his power. Charks was of a middle ftature, his body frong, healthy, and jufly proportioned; and his afpcct melancholy, yet not unpicafing. His furviving iffuc, were three fons and three daughters. He was executed in the 49th year of his age, and buried, by the appointment of the Parliament, Windtor, decently, ye: without pomp. Macaulay. at exerted to advantage at any juncture than that of a civil war, enflamed by religious contests. His character was formed froin an amazing conjuncture of enthufiafm, hypocrify, and ambition. He was poffeffed of courage and refolution, that overlooked all dangers, and faw no difficulties. He dived into the characters of mankind with wonderful fagacity, whilft he concealed his own purpofes, under the impenetrable fhield of diffimulation. He reconciled the moft atrocious crimes to the moft rigid notions of religious obligatious. From the fevereft exercife of devotion, he relaxed into the most ridiculous and idle buffoonry: yet he preferved the dignity and diftance of his character, in the midst of the coarfeft familiarity. He was cruel and tyrannic from policy; juft and temperate from inclination; perplexed and despicable in his difcourfe: clear and confummate in his defigns; ridiculous in his reveries; refpe&table in his conduct; in a word, the ftrangeft compound of villainy and virtue, bafenefs and magnanimity, abfurdity and good fenfe, that we find on record in the annals of mankind†. Nable. § 82. houfe of Cromwell. * From Noble's Memoirs of the Protectoral Cromwell died more than five millions in debt; though the parliament had left him in the treafury above five hundred thousand pounds and § 82. Charaller of CHARLES II. In the duties of private life, his conduct, though not face from exception, was in the main laudable. He was an eafy generous lover, a civil obliging hufband, a friendly brother, an indulgent father, and a goodnatured mafter. The voluntary friendships, however, which this prince contracted, nay, even his fenfe of gratitude, were feeble: and he never attached himself to any of his mini He believed them to have no other motive for ferving him but felf-intereft, and he was ftill ready, in his turn, to facrifice them to prefent cafe and convenience, If we furvey the character of Charles the Second in the different lights which it will admit of, it will appear very various, and give rife to different and even oppofite fentiments. When confidered as a companion, he appears the most amiable and engaging of men; and Indeed, in this view, his deportment must be ailowed altogether unexceptionable. His lovefters or courtiers with a very fincere affection, of raillery was To tempered with good-breeding, that he was never offenfive. His propenfity to fatire was fo checked with difcretion, that his friends never drea fed their becoming the object of it. His wit, to ufe the expreffon of one who knew him well, and who was hanfelf an exquifite judge, could not be faid fo much to be very refined or elevated, qualities apt to beget jealoufy and apprehenfion m company, as to be a plain, gaining, well-preferably to public, that he even poffeffed bred, recommending kind of wit. And though perhaps he talked more than ftrict rules of behaviour might permit, ich were fo pleated with the affable communicative deportment of the monarch, that they always went away contented both with him and with themfelves. This indeed is the moft fhining part of the king's character, and he feems to have been fentible of it; for he was fond of dropping the formalities of ftate, and of relaphing every moment into the companion, in ftores to the value of feven hundred thoufand pounds. Richard the fon of Cromwell, was proclaimed protector in his room; but Richard, being of a very different difponition to his father, refignedhis authority the 22d of April 1659; and foon after figned his abdication in form, and retired to live feveral years after his refignation, at first on the Continent, and afterwards upon his paternal forat home, Marquis of Halifax. With a detail on his private character we muft fet bounds to our panegyric on Charles, The other parts of his conduct may admit of fome apology, but can deferve fmall applause, He was indeed fo much fitted for private life, order, frugality, economy in the former; was profufe, thoughtlefs, negligent in the latter. When we confider him as a fovereign, his character, though not altogether void of virtues, was in the main dangerous to his people and difhonourable to his felf. Negligent of the intereft of the nation, carclefs of its glory, averfe to its religion, jealous of its liberty, lavish of its treafure, and fparing only of its blood; he expofed it by his meafures (though he appeared ever but in fport) to the danger of a furious civil war, and even to the ruin and ignominy of a foreign contest. Yet may all thefe enormities, if fairly and candidly examined, be imputed, in a great measure to the indolence of his temper: a fault, which, however unfortunate in a monarch, it is impoffible for us to regard with great feverity. It has been remarked of this king, that he never faid a foolish thing, nor ever did a wife one: a cenfure, which, though too far carried |