to dispute what God could do, so it was presumption and high contempt to dispute what a King could do, or say that a King could not do this or that: and an unimpeachable witness, who was present at the Hampton Court Conference, has shown with what peculiar emphasis, upon occasion, he could adorn and recommend these principles by his graces of speech. At that conference he affected to sit in judgment as moderator between the High Church Party and the Puritans; and it was after having heard the high churchmen at great length, and with much graciousness, that he interposed with scurrilous abuse as soon as the Puritans began to speak. He "bid them awaie with "their snivellinge; moreover, he wished those who would "take away the surplice might want linen for their own "breech. The bishops," it is added naively, "seemed "much pleased, and said his majestie spake by the power "of inspiration." One of the bishops present, indeed, Bancroft of London, flung himself on his knees, and protested his heart melted for joy "that almighty God "had, in his singular mercy, given them such a King as "had not been seen since Christ's time." Chancellor Ellesmere cried out that for his part he had now seen what he had never hoped to see, King and Priest united fully in one person; and Archbishop Whitgift asseverated that his Majesty spoke by the Spirit of God. “I wist "not what they mean," adds the reporter of the conference, "but the spirit was rather foul-mouthed." And it was cruel. Impelled and sustained by such blasphemy, the next character in which this deified Scotch pedant presented himself was that of burner of two Unitarian ministers, Bartholomew Legat and Edward Wrightman, who perished by the stake at Smithfield; of torturer and murderer of the white-haired old puritan Peachem; and of persecutor to the death of the Dutch reformer Vorstius, against whose wise and tolerant views he penned that memorable declaration, which was inscribed to " our Lord "and Saviour Jesus Christ by his most humble and most obliged servant James." In the presence of such acts

and utterances, it is barely an act of justice to the memory of their perpetrator to say that sins of this complexion were only half expiated by the blood of his unhappy son. The records of civilised life offer no other instance of such pretensions amid a society of rational men. We have to turn for a parallel to the pestilential swamps of Africa, where one of those prodigious princes whom we bribe with rum and trinkets to assist us in suppressing the slave trade, announced not long ago to an English officer, "God made "me after His image: I am all the same as God: and He appointed me a King." This was James I's creed precisely; and after delivering it to his subjects in words exactly similar, he might be publicly seen of them, as Harrington describes him at a masque given by Cecil, "wallowing in beastly delights."

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It will suffice perhaps if I simply add to all this the opinion of their ruler which was meanwhile becoming generally prevalent among the English people. An intelligent foreigner will describe it for us. "Consider "for pity's sake," says M. de Beamont in one of his despatches, "what must be the state and condition of a prince, whom the preachers publicly from the pulpit "assail; whom the comedians of the metropolis covertly bring upon the stage; whose wife attends those repre"sentations in order to enjoy the laugh against her "husband; whom the Parliament braves and despises; "and who is universally hated by the whole people.' The Frenchman's great master, Henri Quatre, shortly before he fell by the hand of an assassin, had spoken of the effects of such contempt when directed against the person of a Sovereign, as marvellous and horrible and in this case marvellous and horrible were they destined to prove also, in the second generation.

THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL.1

Histoire de la République d'Angleterre et de Cromwell. Par M. GuIZOT. Richard Cromwell. Par M. GUIZOT.

History of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth. By M. GUIZOT. Translated from the French.

The Story of Corfe Castle, collected from ancient Chronicles and Records; also from the private Memoirs of a family resident there in the time of the Civil Wars. By the Right Hon. GEORGE BANKES, M.P. for the county of Dorset.

THE Volume by the member for the county of Dorset illustrates the private memoirs of an English family in the time of the civil wars. The more important work by the great French statesman presents that portion of our history which succeeded to the civil wars, and for a time embodied their results. But what we have to say of M. Guizot's book and its hero, we are not sorry to have the opportunity of prefacing by some remarks upon the actors in the preceding struggle; and so much of what the English memorialist relates of those earlier stages of the conflict requires correction, that we could offer perhaps no introduction so appropriate to such celebration of its later scenes as will invite our criticism in the French historian.

From an address prefixed to Mr. Bankes's book we learn its origin. It appears that in the borough and neighbourhood of Corfe Castle there is a society established for purposes of mutual improvement; that Mr. Bankes is its patron: and that in compliance with the

1 From the Edinburgh Review, January 1856. With additions.

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wish of its members to have subjects suggested for lecture and discussion, he was induced to gather together as materials for such a purpose, "from rare books and "original family papers," a volume full of historical facts. relating to persons who at former times have inhabited or possessed the castle which gives its name to the district. He adds that his collections refer especially to a period of history wherein their particular neighbourhood was much concerned, and the interest of which will not soon pass away.

Mr. Bankes so speaks of the civil wars of the seventeenth century, and most truly. They have an interest which still concerns not only particular neighbourhoods, but every particular family and fireside in the kingdom; for under Heaven we owe it mainly to them that all English homes are now protected and secure. The result has answered to their origin. They began in no sordid encounter of selfishness or faction, they involved no vulgar disputes of family or territory, and personal enmities formed no necessary part of them. They were a war, as one of their leaders said, without an enemy. In the principles they put to issue we continue ourselves to be not less interested than were our forefathers; and hardly a question of government has arisen since, affecting human liberty or the national welfare, which has not included a reference to this great conflict, and some appeal to the precedents it established. Nothing can be unimportant that relates to it, therefore, nor any service small that may clear up a doubt of the motives and conduct of its leaders; and if these, as the winter evenings have again arrived, should again be discussed in the Corfe Castle or any other improvement society, such hints as we are now about to offer will not be without their use.

We do not object to Mr. Bankes that he shows throughout his book a leaning to the Royalist party; for, believing that justice remained with the Parliament, we think not the less that high and noble qualities were