| | | To those who read the early struggles of the British people, and | watch the balance of despotism and liberty often trembling on the | turn, with the intense interest of persons whose fate in life has been | stamped by the acts of those critical moments, and who may again | possibly live to see the same powers to endure and struggle called | into existence, the abstractions of the German philosopher, in his | study at Berlin, seem vapid and unsatisfactory. The events of that | great struggle of which Lord Chatham justly said, | ~~ | have, in their own original forms, a surpassing interest, to which no | varnish of cold and formal philosophy can give lustre or beauty; | and we thank not the German meta-physician for melting down the | goodly, though sometimes rude, forms of the events and characters | of the seventeenth century, in the fluent of certain pre-established | and minutely defined principles of politics, which leave no room | for all the noble enthusiasm which happened occasionally to stray | from the right path, and the intrepid struggles for freedom which | sometimes levelled despotism with too severe a shock. | Some historians have boldly supported Charles and his minions, in | their efforts to extend and fortify the prerogative ~~ have viewed | the opposing efforts as crimes, and the final end of the | | drama as the consummation of atrocity and injustice. Others have | linked their feelings with some one of the opposition parties ~~ the | Parliament, the Presbyterians, or the Army ~~ justifying all their | acts, and supporting all their opinions. Von Raumer, probably | sketching out to himself a path of lofty impartiality, has designed, | in the solitude of his own mind, an abstract code of political | conduct, departure from which, on either side, must call forth his | censure. He, probably, commenced his task with little prejudice | against the individuals on either side; but to support such a | principle, amidst the crowd of great actions and startling opinions | with which the history of the time is rife, required more | qualifications than a perusal of our ordinary historians. A man to | be fit for the task of impartiality, must not only have looked on the | outward events of the time, but, like Hallam, have embued his | mind with the sentiments and impulses of the men who figured in | these events. When we read of the repeated risings of the mob of | London, and their intimidating shouts, we must reflect that they | consisted so the same persons, who saw Prynne, Bastwick, Burton, | and Leighton, men of worth and learning, exposed in the pillory, | with their bleeding and branded cheeks. The conduct of such men | as Ireton, Harrison, and Ludlow, cannot be judged according to | abstract rules of morality, when we reflect on the conviction they | must have formed, that the return of their adversary to power | would seal their death-warrant; and the reluctance of the leading | men, in the latter period of the conflict, to treat with Charles on | such terms as they would have gladly accepted before, must be | viewed in conjunction with the repeatedly proved perfidy of the | monarch, and the moral certainty, that it was not in his nature to | keep treaties, unless they were supported by force. In viewing the | whole aspect of the struggle, too, it must be recollected, that the | English people, who, for five years, carried on a war against the | King, had, during the previous twenty years, smarted under a | complicated and ingenuous system of exaction and torture, which | directed itself, not only to the subversion of their remaining public | rights, but penetrated to their domestic hearths, snatching at the | wages of honest industry, and rendering personal liberty as | uncertain as in an Eastern despotism. Of this nature were the | notorious tax of ship-money ~~ the scale of duties adopted without | the sanction of Parliament ~~ the arbitrary levying of soldiers, in | defiance of protecting laws, which, centuries before, had been | exacted from unwilling sovereigns, and jealously confirmed ~~ the | practice of purveyance, equally illegal, which let loose a predatory | army, to prey where it listed ~~ the sale of monopolies, by which | the honest trader might be suddenly deprived of his means of | livelihood, and his customers compelled to pay enormous profits | on the necessaries of life, for the benefit of the Exchequer and its | favoured contractor. Such were the evils concentrated and fortified | by that array of secret tribunals, the Star Chamber, the High | Commission, and the Marshal's Courts, each vying with the other | in trampling on all public rights and individual justice, while the | more unbending courts of law were gradually taught to rival them | in iniquity. | Von Raumer does not justify the infringements of the law which | had taken place previously to the sitting of the Long Parliament; | and he even admits that Finch and Windebank ~~ the busy | instruments in overawing the Parliament and undermining the | laws, who had fled in guilty terror from the justice of a roused | people ~~ | It has pleased the author, in the application of his preconceived | system of political morality, to consider the King in the wrong up | to the time of Strafford's death and the act to prevent the | dissolution of the Parliament, and from that moment to cast all | blame on the other side. | he observes, And | thenceforth ~~ overlooking the circumstance that the divisions and | bloodshed which followed, were nourished and reared by the | resistance to and that, | when parties are ranged against | each other in actual civil warfare, they can no more be expected to | deal out to each other an exact measure of equal justice than the | troops of opposing nations can be expected to practice the | amenities of peaceful life on the field of battle ~~ he gives us on | one side all the encroachments and violent acts of the Parliament | and the army, as if they had risen causelessly against a merciful | and just government; suppressing or smoothing over the equally if | not more unjustifiable acts of the other party in the war. This | method of considering the subject, has not the merit of originality. | It was adopted by one who had far more cogent motives than the | German philosopher. Clarendon is seldom the defender of the | encroachments of the crown, and treats its adversaries gently, till | the assembling of the Long Parliament, in order that he may gain a | character of impartiality, large enough to cover a multitude of | misstatements in the rest of his narrative. We are not prepared to | defend the Parliament from considerable oligarchical assumption | in the exercise of the power which it acquired; we heartily agree in | censuring the selfish bigotry and spiritual ambition of the | Presbyterians, the insolence of the army, the folly of many fanatics | of different hues, the harsh measures sometimes adopted by the | republican leaders towards their enemies, and, above al, the savage | cruelty displayed by Cromwell, Ireton, and Ludlow, among the | Irish Catholics; but the author who dwells on these things should | have told us, that, during the pending of a treaty, Charles attacked | and pillaged Brentford; that Prince Rupert stripped the prisoners | taken at Cirencester naked, driving them, | | tied together by cords, to Oxford; and plundered Bristol, in breach | of capitulation; and that, on very few occasions indeed, did the | royalists respect the private property of neutrals. It has been always | observed with justice, that the Parliamentary party broke up the | treaty of Uxbridge, to all outward appearance, with unnecessary | haste. Raumer's remarks on the subject are as follows: ~~ | | This appears to be a very candid view, having for its result a proof | of the unreasonableness of the Parliamentary party. The treaty, | however, was only one of the King's manoeuvres ~~ part of | to use his own words. He was elated with | the success of Montrose in Scotland; while solemnly protesting | that he would not employ Papists, he was engaged in a clandestine | negotiation with the Irish Roman Catholics; and the Queen, to | whom he was writing that he had no hopes of a peace, was busily | procuring assistance from the continent. Nothing seems, at that | time, to have been so much dreaded by Charles, as that his friends | should compel him to agree to a peace, on terms very different | from those he would have exacted at the head of a conquering | army. The breaking off of the treaty was a relief to him, and he, | writes to the Queen with an easy mind: ~~ | With such views it | was, with grave mockery, that Charles objected to the abolition of | Episcopacy, because it affected "his conscience" | ~~ a monitor | afterwards equally convenient on the other side, when, in the midst | of a treaty with the Parliament and army of England, he conducted | clandestine negotiations for obtaining the support of the Scotch, | the fundamental conditions of which were the establishment of | Presbyterianism. Of the King's Letters, found after the battle of | Naseby, which exposed the specific insincerities, of which the | Parliament acted on the suspicion, the author remarks, | The complicated expression, "a changeableness | of views and passions, deficient in veracity," | is a gentle way of telling what the good old English | term a "teller of lies," would | have more distinctly announced. Whether the want of veracity was | criminal or not, is a question to be solved by some higher analysis | of morality than we comprehend; but it does seem to us, that the | confirmation of designs against the country being conducted under | the mask of treaties of peace, afforded some justification to the | Parliament for treating with the King as if he were a person whose | honour was not to be very implicitly relied on. Von Raumer and | his translator are peculiarly happy in the choice of soothing | epithets for the double dealing of the King. At the time when he | was selfishly exulting in the hope, that the various parties might, | by artful management, be urged to each other's destruction, and | afford room for him to rise with double power on their ruins he | | How much more animated is the language used, four | pages further on, towards the Scotch, who, finding the King by no | means a convenient visiter, agreed to transfer him to the English on | being paid their arrears. | Charles, in disclosing his own views, was | far more frank than his commentator has proved. | he says, in a letter to Lord Digby, | | Afterwards, at the treaty of Newport, his last chance | for his safety, he wrote to his friends ~~ | We have the following view of the merits of the condemnation of | the King: ~~ The intended inference | from this is, that Charles was an innocent man, and his trial a | mockery of justice. It does not infer a sanction of the extent of the | punishment to say, that Charles was a great criminal, who merited | severe castigation. That what he received exceeded the due | medium is to be regretted; but it was the fortune of war ~~ the | catastrophe of the contest in which he was engaged with | individuals, and a circumstance which, as far as it affected the | public or any great party, might be called accidental. Such as the | crimes were ~~ and we have given an instance or two of them ~~ | they were proved against the King, by evidence too | "loud and trumpet-tongued," | in the recollection of every man who had lived | from the commencement of his reign. Nor was there entirely | wanting personal evidence of his perfidy, in addition to the | damning deductions necessarily made from his intercepted | correspondence, and the papers found at Naseby. A witness was | adduced, who stated facts to shew that, during the treaty of | Newport, he had authorized the Prince to carry on clandestine | negotiations. says Mr. Brodie, very | justly, | On the self-denying ordinance, the author adopts the common | view, that it was a subtle design to advance Cromwell. We never | could see anything to make us believe that so shrewd a man would | have raised his hopes of aggrandizement on his chances of being | excepted from the operation of a measure in the design of which he | was included. It seems to have escaped the notice of most | historians that there must have been a practical utility in this | ordinance, clearly seen by its promoters, though the grounds on | which they proceeded may not be easily discoverable at the present | day. Undoubtedly the measure immediately produced a market | effect in raising the character of the army. Although the author | does not attempt, in Cromwell's character, to trace the origin of | motives so deeply as Hume ~~ who seems to have thought that the | career of that great man arose in his mind almost at the moment of | his birth, as the trunk and branches of the oak are said to be | modelled in the acorn ~~ he infuses into his mind certain subtle | principles of action, the justice of which will hardly be | acknowledge in this practical and unphilosophical country. | | We are not of those who can view Cromwell's mind as containing | anything peculiar and contrary to the ordinary routine of nature, | farther than that he was one whose talents, in some departments, | have been hardly ever equalled. He was a man of vast powers of | disciplining and organizing, deeply read in the human heart, and | prompt in taking advantage of the opportunities of | aggrandizement, which the troubled surge of revolutionary events | was ever casting up at his feet ~~ qualities which are often in a | more or less degree united with the fanatical enthusiasm which so | strongly characterized him. | The rigid fidelity of this translation is more striking than gratifying | to a reader. About a third of the work consists of quotations from | speeches and pamphlets, which, after having been diluted into | German, have been restored to us in such words as we should be | sorry to think our worthy ancestors were so barren as to have used. | We cannot but wonder at the taste and judgment of the man, who, | instead of the reputed testimony of Morton to the courage of Knox | ~~ ~~ chooses to give us | There are several mistakes, or | rather lapses, involving confusion of persons and of the periods at | which particular institutions (chiefly in Scotland) had their origin, | which an intelligent translator should have amended. We need not | notice these, as we have no doubt the Quarterly | Review has now several active hands employed in the | charitable labour of investigating the accuracy of every sentence. | On the whole, we cannot help giving our hearty testimony to the | vast erudition of the author in British history, and to the accuracy, | characteristic of this country, which appears in his discussion of all | important events.