will somewhat overpower you. Some general idea must be formed of them by some sort of general perusal ; but the king's cause may, from this time, be rested on this very remonstrance alone, a paper drawn up by the parliament itself, and quite decisive of the comparative merits of the king and the House of Commons, from the moment that it was delivered.

Once more, therefore, and finally, to recall to your minds what I conceive are the points of this great question.

During the first interval of four years, the conduct of the king seems infatuated, and highly reprehensible; and during the second interval of eleven years, even more and more to be reprobated, I had almost said to be abhorred. During the third interval, of little more than a year, the blame still remains with the king, and the praise with the commons; clearly, however, with one exception, the execution of Strafford; and perhaps with another, their vote for their own continuance. During the fourth interval, however, from the journey to Scotland in August, 1641, to the commencement of hostilities, the commons, in their turn, became wrong; but the question of their conduct is still for some time, in the opinion of many, somewhat difficult; the question is, whether they were pushing their victory too far, or only securing their ground. Hyde decided one way, and Hampden another; and perhaps the student may, at this distance of time, and after the event, on the whole perceive that Hyde was the more rational patriot of the two.

I have thus proposed, not to your acquiescence, but to your examination, such general conclusions upon the different intervals which I have selected, as the transactions which they exhibit, appeared to me fairly to suggest. But these transactions were so numerous, yet all so important, that not only was it impossible for me to give any detail of them, but it was impossible to state all the observations to which they successively gave rise, even in my own mind. What I have alone been able to offer to your consideration has been general results, founded on such observations.

I would recommend a similar course to each of my hearers; let such reflections as strike him, while he reads the history, be immediately noted down at the time; let the whole chain

be then surveyed, and general results and estimates formed, otherwise the later impressions which the mind receives in the course of the perusal, will have an effect more than proportionate to their comparative weight and importance.

Do not turn away from investigations of this nature; there are those, no doubt, who proceed not in this manner; practical men, men of the world, and respectable and even laborious writers with them every thing on the one side is right, and on the other is wrong. This is not the way, in my opinion, to read history. It is not the way to judge of our fellowcreatures, or to improve ourselves.

LECTURE XVI.

CIVIL WAR.

In my two last lectures, I offered to your consideration the results of such observations as had occurred to me on the great contest that subsisted between the king and parliament, prior to the breaking out of the civil war, more particularly with regard to their comparative merits and demerits.

The military transactions of the civil war that ensued, may be collected from Hume, and still more in the detail from Clarendon. In the former author will also be found a philosophic estimate of the strength and resources of the contending parties, and of their separate probabilities of success. Disquisitions of this kind, more particularly from such an author, are highly deserving of your attention. The entertainment and instruction of history can never be properly felt or understood, as I cannot too often remark, unless you meditate upon the existing circumstances of the scene; suppose them before you, and estimate the probabilities that they present; then marking the events that really take place, thus derive a sort of experience in the affairs of mankind, which may enable you to determine, with greater precision and success, on occasions when you may yourselves be called upon to act a part, and when the happiness of your country and your own may, more or less, be affected by the propriety of your decisions.

Materials for such disquisitions, and such exercise of the judgment, are often supplied by Clarendon, and they constitute, indeed, one material and appropriate part of the value of all original writers of history. In original writers, the real scene is presented to you in colors more vivid and more exact.

The king seems to have been every way unfortunate. With

sufficient courage and ability to make him the proper general of his own forces, he was still not possessed of that military genius which is fitted to triumph over difficulties, which can turn to its own purposes the dispositions of men, and the opportunities and unsuspected advantages of every situation : which can seem by these means to control the decisions of chance, and to command success. That a soldier, however, of this description, should arise against him on the popular side, was to be expected; a captain like Cromwell was sure to appear, at least to exist, in the ranks of his opponents. But that such a general as Fairfax should be found among the men of distinction in the country, and yet be opposed to his cause, this might surely be considered by the king as a hard dispensation of fortune. Still harder, if it be considered, that Fairfax was, of all other men that history presents, the most fitted for the purposes of a soldier like Cromwell: too honest to have criminal designs of his own; too magnanimous to suspect them in those around him; superior to every other in the field; inferior in the cabinet; enthusiastic enough to be easily deceived, but not enough to be a hypocrite, and to deceive others.

The character of Cromwell seems the natural production of the times, though, it must be confessed, the most complete specimen of their influence that can well be imagined; still, the character itself consists but of the common materials, courage, fierceness, decisive sense, clear sagacity, and strong ambition; all, no doubt, given in a very eminent degree, added to such qualities as resulted from an age of religious dispute; and the whole nourished and drawn out in the most extraordinary manner, by the temptations and urgencies of a revolutionary period. Hampden early predicted his future eminence, on one supposition, the breaking out of a civil war.

From the moment that the sword was drawn, all wise and good men must, with Lord Falkland, have been overpowered with the most afflicting expectations. One of two alternatives, equally painful, could alone have occurred to them as probable; either that the king would conquer, and the privileges of the subject, and all future defence of them, be swept away in his triumph; or that the parliament would prevail, and

the result be, that the whole government, for want of some proper constitutional head, would fall into the disposal of the army, and be seized upon by some of its great captains, to the total degradation, and probably to the destruction, of the existing monarch; perhaps even of the ancient forms of monarchy itself.

I must leave you to examine for yourselves the various events of the civil war, the military operations in the field, and the transactions in parliament, all of them very interesting. They may be found in the regular historians (particularly Clarendon), and in the accounts that have come down to us of the debates in the long parliament.

I can only make a few observations on some of the leading transactions, chiefly those of a civil nature.

Among other objects of attention, the self-denying ordinance should be noticed. On this occasion, the two parties came to issue, the Presbyterians and Independents; the one who wished for Presbytery and monarchy; the other, who had abondoned themselves to their own imaginary schemes of perfection in religion and government; most of them, probably, without any settled notions in either. Violence and enthusiasm, the great banes of all public assembles in times of disorder, at last prevailed, and the self-denying ordinance was carried.

By this ordinance, the members of both houses were excluded from all the important civil and military employments. The Presbyterians, who were in power, were, by this contrivance, obliged to resign it. Yet, when the evasion of the ordinance by Cromwell is also considered, a more barefaced, political expedient cannot easily be imagined the very idea of it, not to say the success of it, as described by Lord Clarendon, and as seen in the speeches and subsequent conduct of Cromwell, who contrived to elude it, and retain his command, are quite characteristic of this strange period of our history. It in truth, an expedient to clear the army from all the more moderate men who were then in command.

was,

After the self-denying ordinance, the treaty of Uxbridge must be considered, as the next principal object of attention. The proceedings are very fully detailed by an actor in the scene, Lord Clarendon; and as this was quite a crisis in the