was killed, and his army defeated by the English. Henry Sidney, his only surviving son, was from his infancy the companion and bosom-friend of Edward VI., who conferred upon him the honour of knighthood, constituted him ambassador to France, and afterward promoted him to several appointments near his person. He was at this time universally beloved and admired, as the most accomplished gentleman in Edward's court. This young prince died at Greenwich, on the fifth day of July, 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age, and the seventh of his reign. When the pangs of death came upon him, he said to Sir Henry Sidney, who was holding him in his arms: "6 I "am faint: Lord, have mercy on me, and receive my "spirit." And thus he breathed out his innocent soul (5)., To indulge in privacy that unaffected sorrow, which overwhelmed him on this occasion, Sir Henry retired to his seat at Penshurst; foreseeing probably the calamities in which his father in law, John Dudley, Duke of Northum berland, (5) The excellent prayer which this good prince uttered three hours before his death, with his eyes closed, thinking that no one heard him, is inserted in Hollingshed's Chronicle, Vol. II. p. 1084: and Burnet's History of the Reformation, Vol. II. p. 224. berland, was soon to be involved, from his solicitude to place Lady Jane Grey on the vacant throne. He certainly did not incur the displeasure of Queen Mary, at this critical juncture. During the whole of her reign, he experienced repeated instances of her royal favour and to his eldest son gave the name of PHILIP, out of compliment to her husband the King of Spain (6). He was appointed by her vice-treasurer, and general governor of all the King and Queen's revenues in the kingdom of Ireland. But in the succeeding reign, his great abilities were more immediately called forth into action with infinite credit to himself, and to the honour and advantage of his sovereign. Indeed a more exalted character, than that of Sir Henry Sidney, can scarcely be found in the volume of history, It deserves to be better known. In him we behold the brave soldier, the consummate general, the able counsellor, the wise legislator; while in the recesses of private life, he was no less estimable as a husband, a father, and a friend: (6) It was principally through the influence of Philip and his Spanish Nobles, that the royal mercy was extended to Ambrose Dudley, Robert Dudley, the Lady Mary Sidney, and the Lady Catherine Hastings their sisters, the children of the Duke of Northumberland, in whose attainder they were implicated. friend: firmly attached to the church of England, and adorning his Christian profession by his temperance and exemplary piety. He was Lord President of Wales, and for the space of eleven years discharged the administration of Lord Deputy of Ireland, with extraordinary justice and probity. Though labouring under the frequent attacks of a painful and dangerous malady (7), he was indefatigable in his exertions to crush rebellion. Nothing could be more desolate and forlorn than the state of Ireland in the middle of the sixteenth century:-a country which was inhabited by men addicted to robbery and massacre, sunk in brutality, in ignorance, and the lowest superstition (8). To this distracted land, Sir Henry Sidney endeavoured (7) See a curious memoir in the Sidney papers relative to Sir Henry Sidney's state of health, with the medical directions prescribed for his diet, &o. Memoirs of the Lives and Actions of the Sidneys, &c. p. 93-95. (8) Spenser praises England by contrasting it with Ireland: "No wailing there, no wretchedness is heard, "No bloody issues, nor no leprosies; "No griesly famine, nor no raging sweard ; "No nightly bod-rags, nor no hues and cries. "On hills and downs, withouten dread or danger! Colin Clout's come home again, deavoured to conciliate the blessings of peace and order; conducting himself with such sweetness and affability of manners, or rather with such an evangelical humility, as to engage the affections of all ranks of society. Conscious of the necessity of having the laws made known, he was the first who caused the ordinances and statutes of the realm to be printed and published. "Thus he brought "them out of the shadow into the sunshine (9): whereas formerly they were only in manuscript, scarce ever seen by one in an hundred subjected thereto." 66 His disposition was rather to examine the antiquities and to promote the public weal of those countries which he governed, than to obtain lands and revenues within the same: “For I know not," saith Dr. Powel in his History of Wales, "one foot of land that he had either in Ireland or Wales.” In short, he has left to provincial governors an example of integrity, moderation, and wisdom, which was never surpassed in any subsequent or preceding age. Learned himself, he was the favourer of learned men. "Science," (9)" Ex umbrâ in solem eduxit." he Ware. he often said, 66 was to be honoured in whomsoever it "was found." His favourite motto was, "I will never "threaten." If I menace my enemy, I instruct him: to threaten a superior, is to endanger my own person to threaten an inferior, is to disparage myself. Nothing more deeply offended him than ingratitude; 'that marble-hearted fiend;' especially when he hoped, or the world thought, that he had deserved otherwise. If the warmth of resentment, enkindled in the human breast, be ever excusable; it is then particularly so, when the repeated accumulation of benefits is returned by unkindness, when the hand that has received a favour, is rudely lifted up against its benefactor: "I hate ingratitude more in a man "Than lying, vainness, babbling drunkenness, Shakespeare. SUCH was the father of Mr. Philip Sidney. Nor was his mother less illustrious or less amiable,-Mary, the eldest daughter of the unfortunate Duke of Northumberland. Alienated from the follies and vanities of life, by those tragical events in her own family, of which she had been C |