explain whether he meant the men or the women players. Hereupon it is imagined that, the House adjourning from Tuesday before till Thursday after Christmas day, on the very Tuesday night of the adjournment, twenty-five of the Duke of Monmouth's troop, and some few foot, laid in wait from ten at night till two in the morning, by Suffolk-street, and as he returned from the Cock, where he supped, to his own house, they threw him down and cut off almost all the end of his nose." Feeble attempts were made by the court to protect the actors in this cowardly piece of loyalty, but the House of Commons displayed a proper spirit, and not only insisted on the punishment of the present offenders, but passed an act which makes cutting and maiming capital without benefit of clergy. From this incident alone, we might credit what Andrew says at the conclusion of his letter-" the court is at the highest pitch of want and luxury, and the people full of discontent.” The circumstance is often alluded to in the ballads and epigrams of the time, and is the subject of one which has been given to Marvell. We hope he had too much decency and dignity to have written it, as he certainly had too much wit and good taste to have approved of it. It contains nothing worth extracting, and much that is unfit to be read. Not but that the court deserved every word of it.

In another letter, about the same date,* he mentions to Mr. Ramsden, (whom he calls dear Will,) how Monmouth, Albemarle, Dunbane, and seven or eight gentlemen, fought with the watch, and killed a poor bedle. They have all their pardons for Monmouth's sake; but it is an act of great scandal." In the same letter:-" The King of France is at Dunkirk. We have no fleet out, though we gave the subsidy-bill, valued at £800,000, for that purpose. I believe indeed he will attempt nothing on us, but leave us to die a natural death. For indeed never had poor nation so many complicated, mortal, incurable diseases."

We have more than once had occasion to allude to Charles's disposition to mitigate the rigour of the conformity laws, which may be ascribed part to his good nature, more to his good sense, and most to his secret Romanism. But a letter of Marvell's (private of course,) suggests a fourth influence, not weaker than the rest:-"The King had

The letter, containing this information, is in the printed edition, without date; but it must have been written between the end of March and the 22nd of April, 1671; for it mentions the Duchess of York's death, (Ann Hyde's) which took place March 31, and speaks of Parliament as still sitting, which, on the 22nd of April was prorogued. The King continues to honour the Lords with his presence, against which Lord Clare declared in the royal presence. Lord Lucas also made a "fervent bold speech" against the Houses' "prodigality in giving, and the weak looseness of government," the King being present.

occasion for £60,000, sent to borrow it of the City. *

Could not get above £10,000. The Fanatics, under persecution, served his Majesty. The other party, both in court and city, would have prevented it. But the King protested money would be acceptable. So the city patched up, out of the chamber and other ways, £20,000. The Fanatics, of all sorts, £40,000.” This was just after a sanguinary attack of the "bold train-bands" upon a congregation of non-resisting Quakers, of whom they killed some and wounded many.* But it is more worthy of remark, that the Protestant Dissenters, like the Jews of the middle ages, however harassed by fines, double taxes, and civil disabilities, have always had more ready money than other persons of the same station, and unlike the Jews, have generally been ready to part with it on public occasions.

With all this orthodoxy on one side, and saintship on the other, there was little respect even for the external forms of the established religion. The following would appear, in these days, utterly incredible." Feb. 7, 1670-71: Yesterday, upon complaint of some violent arrests made in several churches, even during sermon time, nay, of one taken out betwixt the bread and the cup in receiving the sacrament, the House ordered that a bill be brought in for better observing the Lord's day."

The letters from this time to the prorogation of the 22d of April, are chiefly taken up with financial details, and dissensions between the two Houses, originating in alterations made by the Lords in a moneybill, which the Commons contended was an infringement of their privilege:"To speak in short, the two Houses were so directly contradictory in their assertions concerning the power of the Lords in altering of rules, &c., that his Majesty (there being no present medium of reconciliation to be found) thought fit to-day to prorogue us, so that the bill of foreign commodities is fallen to the ground." Andrew announces this to his constituents the very same evening; and this (the 126th) is the last public communication extant before Oct. 20th, 1674, an interruption of nearly three years.

From his letter "to a friend in Persia," we are tempted to make

The following passage of the same letter, (Nov. 28, 1670,) may be interesting to some:"The other was the trial of Penn and Mead, Quakers, at the Old Baily. The Jury not finding them guilty, as the Recorder and Mayor would have had them, they were kept without meat or drink some three days, till almost starved, but would not alter their verdict, so fined and imprisoned. There is a book out which relates all the passages, which were very pertinent on the part of the prisoners, but prodigiously barbarous by the Mayor and Recorder. The Recorder, among the rest, commended the Spanish Inquisition, saying it would never be well till we had something like it."

some extracts, though we cannot inform the reader who that friend was. It is dated August 9, 1671,-no place specified. It begins in a strain of pious friendship, expressed in terms of the mystic philosophy:"God's good providence, which hath through so dangerous a disease, and so many difficulties preserved and restored you, will, I doubt not, conduct you to a prosperous issue, and the perfection of your so laudable undertakings, and under that, your own good genius, in conjunction with your brother here, will, I hope, though at the distance of England and Persia, in good time, work extraordinary effects; for the magnetism of two souls rightly touched, work beyond all natural limits, and it would indeed be too unequal, if good nature should not have at least as large a sphere of activity as malice, envy, and detraction, which are, it seems, part of the returns from Surat and Gombroon.

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In this world a good cause signifies little unless it be well defended. A man may starve at the feast of a good conscience.

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I know your maxim, Qui festinat ditescere, non erit innocens.* Indeed, while you preserve that mind, you will have the blessing both of God and man, * I am sorry to perceive that mine by the Armenian miscarried. Though there was nothing material in it, the thoughts of friends are too valuable to fall into the hands of a stranger." Scanty as are the notices of Marvell's domestic history, it is delightful to read these issues of a wise and noble heart, not corrupted by the necessity of evil communications, nor hardened by the duty of striving against corruption. But the patriot could not long forget politics, and, as Swift confessed that he could preach nothing but pamphlets, so Marvell declares himself fit for nothing but a Gazetteer. It must have been with painful sensations that an Englishman in Persia perused the following account of his Fatherland:-"The King having, upon pretence of the great preparations of his neighbours, demanded £800,000 for his navy, (though in conclusion he hath not sent out any,) and that the Parliament should pay his debts, which the ministers would never particularize to the House of Commons, our House gave several bills. You see how far things were stretched beyond reason, there being no satisfaction how these debts were contracted, and all men foreseeing that what was given would not be applied to discharge the debts, which I hear are at this day risen to four millions. Nevertheless, such was the number of the constant courtiers increased by the apostate patriots, who were bought off for that turn, some at six, others at ten, one at fifteen thousand pounds, in money; besides what offices, lands, and reversions, to others, that it is a mercy they gave not away the whole land and liberty of England. The Duke of Buckingham is again £140,000

i. e. He that is in haste to be rich, shall not be without sin.

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in debt, and, by this prorogation, his creditors have time to tear all his lands in pieces. The House of Commons has run almost to the end of their time, and are grown extremely chargeable to the King, and odious to the people. They have signed and sealed £10,000 a year more to the Duchess of Cleveland, who has likewise near £10,000 out of the excise of beer and ale; £5,000 a year out of the post-office; and, they say, the reversion of all the King's leases; the reversion of all places in the custom-house; and, indeed, what not? All promotions, spiritual and temporal, pass under her cognizance. We truckle to France in all things, to the prejudice of our alliance and honour. Barclay is still Lieutenant of Ireland, but he was forced to come over to pay £10,000 rent to his landlady Cleveland." The letter concludes with a brief statement of one of the most extraordinary, if not most important incidents, in English history; one of those stories which we should imagine to be impossible, if we did not know them to be true. "One Blood, outlawed for an attempt to take Dublin Castle, and who seized on the Duke of Ormond here last year, and might have killed him, a most bold, and yet sober fellow, some months ago seized the crown and sceptre in the Tower, took them away, and, if he had killed the keeper, might have carried them clear off. He, being taken, astonished the King and court with the generosity and wisdom of his answers. and all his accomplices, for his sake, are discharged by the King, to the wonder of all." Andrew does not seem to be very angry with Blood for stealing the crown, nor (what is more extraordinary) with King Charles for pardoning him. In an epigram, found both in Latin and English, he even commends the desperado, but it is for the sake of a stab at an order of men, against whom he entertained an unfortunate prejudice :

When daring Blood, his rent to have regain'd,

Upon the English diadem distrain'd;

He chose the cassock, circingle, and gown,
The fittest mask for one that robs the crown:

But his lay-pity underneath prevail'd,
And whilst he sav'd the keeper's life, he fail'd.
With the priest's vestment had he but put on
The prelate's cruelty, the crown had gone.

He

Whether admiration of "his wise and generous answers" had much to do with Blood's pardon and pension, (for he was rewarded with an estate of £500 in Ireland, may justly be doubted. Charles was likely enough to be amused with his audacity, and was as void of resentment as of gratitude. Having persuaded himself that all men, in all their actions, are equally constrained by interest or appetite, he consistently made no difference between friend and foe, and would prefer the man

who stole his crown, to him who had preserved it, if the latter happened to be the pleasanter companion. But we suspect something deeper in the favour shewn to Blood than mere caprice. He was rumoured, on good grounds, to be a creature of Buckingham, and, at his instigation, to have made his desperate attempt upon the Duke of Ormond. What motive either could have for seizing the Regalia, it is difficult, at this time, to conjecture, but it is exceedingly probable that Blood, who in England could not be immediately silenced with the bowstring, knew more than it was convenient for either the favourite or the monarch to have known. For though dead men tell no tales, dying men, even felons at the gallows, may tell horrible tales, and the words of dying men are heard afar, and long remembered, and deeply believed, without much consideration of previous character. Besides, a hanged villain is of no use but to the dissectors: a living one, properly managed, may be of a great deal to a bad government.

One other epistle, addressed to William Ramsden, Esq.,* occurs in this interval of Marvell's public correspondence, dated June, 1672. It is short, and not important, though it mentions the assassination of the Pensionary De Wit, and the low state of the Dutch Republic:-" No man can conceive the condition of the state of Holland, in this juncture, unless he can, at the same time, conceive an earthquake, an hurricane, and the deluge." Of the last it did indeed present a pretty tolerable miniature, for the sluices being cut, a great part of the country was under water.

We have not the means of determining whether Marvell's correspondence with the Borough was actually discontinued during these years, whether the papers have been carelessly lost, or, which is most probable, purposely destroyed. For when we consider the character of public measures in that interval, the infamous Dutch war, in which the pensioned Charles and ministers conspired with the French despot to extinguish the poor remains of liberty in Holland, and to destroy the strength of protestantism in Europe, on an implied condition of receiving French assistance to bring about the same end in England,-the prospect of a reign of Jesuits succeeding a reign of harlots,-of absolute power transmitted from the good-natured, unprincipled Charles, to the vindictive, superstitious James, and the other monstrous abuses of that calamitous

William and John Ramsden, Esqrs. were the sons of John Ramsden, who was Mayor of Hull, and died, in 1637, of the plague, and was buried by the Rev. Andrew Marvell, father of our author, who delivered from the pulpit, on this mournful occasion, a most pathetic oration. His eldest son, Mr. John Ramsden, was twice member for Hull. William was a spirited and successful commercial adventurer. Is any of the family left in Hull at present?