On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (6)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
AlUiEST OP THE FrVE MEMBERS BY ClIUiLES . TIIE . FIRST; *
-
TJI.W .KDIN-MUItOU llliVIKW.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
exceeds anything we have before seeii ' in any book pretending' to a scientific tone . His reproaches . against geologists are sometimes so broad and , as -his countrymen would say , so " loud , that we are apt to question the author ' s Christian charity and even- ¦ ¦ mental sanity . Here is a man who stands up defiantly against a body of educated men and gentlemen , and brands them as idolaters worshipping " fossil gods , " as " hair-brained , " as double-dealers , and dishonourable equivoo . ntors , all leagued against the Mosaic account of creation . Yet this same man does not spell correctly , and several times speaks of the " catapi ' llar ' . 'V He cannot or does not write common grammar , but . bursts out with a " Move on tliou rolling orbs . " Many of his sentences are incomplete , some have false concords , others no kind of . concord , while a ridiculous style of metaphor pervades the whole . The Bible , says Mr . Davies , "is not a leaky hull , that any skilful calkcr or mechanic , with his stone hammer and graver , can either make tight or loosest his option . " But , in one sentence , this book is far below all literary and scientific criticism . Is there no American Hunwell ?
Untitled Article
THE title of this book is something- of a misnomer . The arrest of the five members fejust the event which 'fortunately did not take place . Had that arrest been made , the whole current of English history might have : been turned , and the decisive triumph of our freedom postponed a century and a-half . If Charles had succeeded , in possessing himself of the great leaders of the English Commons , his own devoted adherents , so ' narrowly beaten on the Grand Remonstrance , would have revived their drooping courage , and , yaininif the upper . hand in Parliament , might have forced the moieVxiheme-iit . of ; their opponents to a premature , and consequently unsuccessful , appeal to arms , or given the king the aid of Parliamentary subserviency in any pretended attempt ,, on his part , to
govern ' constitutionally ,- —ii pretence he would have dispensed with the . ' moment it seemed * iio longer . requisite , and which a parliament that had submitted to so gross an iivFracticm of its privileges , would have lost all moral power to impose upoii him . Mr , Forster , therefore , has not overrated the importance of that ever-memorable Mb January , 1 GL-2 , in devoting to its history this book of great re . s . vurch , a peculiarly appropriate sequence to his previous ' ¦ Essay on the Grand Remonstrance , " to which . terrible'indictment . of - the Piirljament this impeachment of and attempt to seize Pyni , Hampden , Holies , Haslerig , and Strode ,, must be taken as the royal reply . It was the only answer Charles could make , but it was the liiost fatal of his many blunders , and completely dispelled every chance of reconciliation between king and people .
Upon this day , and the oeeunonecs leading up to and following it , Hr . Forster has thrown a flood of light . _ . Hitherto the attempt to seize the members has always been considered as the act of the king himself , ' determined . upon' by him in direct opposition to or without the . knowledges of his trusted adherents— sin qutburdt of passion , an act of solf-wil'led indiscretion . Mr . Forster assorts that it was no suieh rash fancy , bub a deliberate and settled resolve ; that precautions had been ' . taken to ensure its ? success ; and that , so far froia Lord Digby being the only counsellor of the king to whom it was known , Falkland , Culpeppit " , n . nd Hyde , who had jn those very days goneover to the king ' s side , were at least privy to it . Theso assertions , he supports by the testimony of Sir Symonds P'E ' wes ; upon whoso journal , in the Ilarleinii MSS . ho largely as well
draws , and by some correspimdoiice of royalist partisan ^ as original documents in the 1 / andvvriiing of Chnrjos and his secretaries , which he has discovered in that mine of historical wealththe Slate Pnpir Office , Mr . Forstor ' * essay is , in fact , an impeachment of Clarendon ' s veracity as n historian , and his honesty and patriotism us a politician . Ho charges him , as n member of . tho House of Commons , with privily to this attack of tlie king upon tho privileges of Parliament , and consequent attempt to overthrow tho legitimate power of that body ; ami as an historian , with elaborate , ingenious , nnd studied misrepresentation of tlio incident , mill its attendant ciivmnatancus . Mr . Fordtur oven , goes so far in'his antipathy t (> tho historian us to attack hid stylo , but the very success which Clarondon lias had in spreading a wrong idea of these transactions is one evidonoo of the charum of that stylo , Wo cannot tell the story as Mr . Korstor write * it in tho limited ppiu : o at our disposal . Tho ordinary version i . s familiar to all our readers , and it bookthat ho
is enough to say , referring ( hem t > Mr . Foster ' s , aconinulutos proof upon proof that Charles had for Soino dii . vs been preparing 1 ' or this grand coup , and did not ovon doi'isl from his hopo of capturing his enemies alter tho aiynal dofeat ho unstained ill . hi « attempt to arrest thorn in tho ITouho itaolf . Of tho ' complicity of Culpopper , Falkland , and Hydo in tho atlomut , anything like absolute proof is wanting ; but tho col la turn 1 ovidonoots onlloi tod by Mr . Forstu ' r go far to justify 1 ho conviction , that although tlioy might nob havo ndvi « ed or approved tho sohomo , I hoy wore nt least privy to it , and would havo boon content to havo nceeptod tho responsibility if it l » id provod Hucci'rtaful . How nearly it wns HUcoeRsful ban nover boon nhown so dourly as by Mv , Forst ' or . Could Honriotta'Murla have rowtrainort hor foolish exultation ovoi- hor anticipated triumph , ' Lady CnrlMo could not hnvo warnod Pyw of tho king ' s intention ; and if tho IiYonoh Court had not chosen , fur onus of its own , to koep up a connexion with
I the patriotic party , just ' as it did afterwards in the days' of the Second Charles , Morvtreuil , the French Ambassador , could not have given ; the . popular leaders those intimations of coming , danger which induced their precautionary measures . Had the five members beeii in the ¦¦ ' House : whon Charles , arrived with the desperadoes who followed him , it would have been impossible-to . have ' .. protected them against him , and . how the other members might have fared , afc the hands of the reckless cavaliers after the . king had departed with his " birds" it is hard to tell . It was fortunate , therefore , Fur - the popular cause that Lady Carlisle was on such good terms with Pym , but the friend * of the popular cause are not , therefore , bound to vindicate , without rhyme or reason , as does Mr . Forster , tlie virtue of tier ladyship . The- charge that the countess hud changed Ii 6 r " gallant" . from Strafford to Pym rests certainly upon , no very good authority , but surely Mr . Forster lets his , i ' nthsisiasu ' i get the . better of his judgment when he assigns as a conclusive reason to the coiitrarvthe eircmnstanca that her ladyship was then more than forty ; and certainly it is more natural to account for her 'b e trayal of the Court upon this ground , usually suggested , than to do so , as Mr . Forster , by saying that she was so much disgusted with tin ; king and queen for consenting to tho exeei + tibn . ' of StrafFord , that she . had actually tin-own herself into the party of their bitterest enemies , those enemies boing the very men . . who had with such bloodhound pertinacity and . inflexible . ' love of justice or rcMior-seless greed of ven ^ eaiiee clamoured for Stratford ' s blood . Ifc is possible , however , tlmt Lady Carlisle , as suggested by Mr . Jj orster , was the agent through whom the king , offered ± ym , a Few davs before that very attempt to arrest him , the post of Ciiancelior of the Exchequer . The authority for this strange mstaiicfrqt Charles ' s vacillation , his swaying to Jind fro . , between the opposite poles of conciliation ati . d crushing , now for the first time brought to ll '' "h . t by Mr Forster , is a letter from Sir Ed Ward Denn # , the then member for Kent , , a ' . noted , realist , to his wife . It may be doubtful whether any authority , however ' generally credible ,, is alone suilicieivt ta justifv a belief in the f ; u-t of such an olfer ¦ hay-ui . ir been . made- but the whole cliaracter of Charles , as well asthe l . ujt ( ,-t his previous attempts to win over Pym , and the great importance which both he and the queen properly attached to tho power and influence : of the -Teat patriot leader - make it highly probable . ¦ 1-lic pllive L yai declined was i ? iven ti > -Culpepi >' i ! i \ Pym covild , in ( net , Ho lon-er place the slightest faith i" the kind ' s promises ; and the kiiig , itsulmg it impossible to cajole , ' determined , to . ' . crush , him . He fulled , aivl from that momeiit " civil war became inevitable . . The Umvq of ComniOiis answered the impeachment by branding its articles , as a susmdalous rni'ver , and -mot the intrusion of tic king with his arnwydbaiul ^ into the saered precincts of their hall by raising the city trainbands ni their own defeuce . Then really commenced the war . It is impossible to look back riot only upon tHia episode , but on the whole history of this great struggle , without feelin- how near the popular party often stood to its own destruction . Had Charles the Inrst been a little better * o r a little worse , he might , in all human probability , have retained his vvoxyn and his power to a peacpful death . Weafc and irresolute when action was demanded , obstinate when compliance was his only policy , he could never concede in time , and never act against " his foes with vi four and unsparing determination . We appreciate so highly the labour uwd research expended upon this book , the grave , earnest , plain , and often noble style in which it is written—contrasting so pleasantly with that so-called picturosquestylo with which we are now surfeited by would-be historians —and the ardent 'belief in the great principlesaflinuc-d by tins slutesmen of the Commonwealth which breathes in every pa ^ e , tlmt wo unwillingly draw attonl ion to one delect which , we buliovo greatly impairs " tlie value of this book ad " a chapter of history ^ Mr . Forster is too vehement * partisan . ¦ O »« s « w »' tw « w ' . y attempting , wo are confident , to heucounitc , ho yut writofl too . inuch hky an advueato who does not sift tho evidence to got at tho truth , but to obtain the verdict for his client . Ho has so intense an luliim-uliou |«> r 1 yni , Humpdon , and their ¦ iollowrt , that ho will not nlhnv that thoy could co . niuit ; a bluador , or bo actuated in any - notion by other than ( . ho purest motives This vehement partisanship is a sad mistake in u man who aspire- ) to vu-writo history . Jt ro . H his labours , however learnod nnd otruful , of that merit . <>{ impartmlity , which alono can set tho soul to thorn . Ib is a snd mwtuku , too , oven for tho advocate who desires tho numo of his dionU to bo cherished bv his uounlrymon , When L ' ym is prosuntcd m IiuiUohs , the render i ' s apt to oiimieivo that ho in quite tlm rovcr . su , and utlribute ovon a junt nulogium to the prejudiced fervour » l a / . unions udmirer . The title of the tjrcjat defenders of English liberty who bruvod Charles the VirAb nuoils no such sorry HUpi > orf . 1 hw woro num with the , ordinary pivstuuna of mt-n , tliov woro pollticiiins with tho ordinary passing of politicians , and d thuy now and thQU bhiMder , d , or woro u ., w and then g . udod rath « r by imaruun and nrivato intorost tl . an mison and tliu jiubho go ,. ! , all 1 . 1 ,, ^ i ,. i i w LluinhhoH aro lost in . the groat wholo ul tho . r patn «> Uc ourooi . Ihoy did a great work ; it i » no dolractiuu from thuir just tuiuo to any that thoy svero not perfect inon .
Untitled Article
rnjXIS thoroughly Whig publiealiou rctnins itH oharaotur in a ro-- *¦ ' tmirlcfiblti nmwHtc , both for iW « toliility anU ill * talent , Kuiuurous Quartorlv HovIowh liavo arwon whero this oitou bloomed ulono ; ana its voiinu'oi' auinputitwi'rt luivfi ox (! ul ) od it in Hpirlt , in UbomUiy , ami , in Homo roaiH-ctH , in talont ; Htill tho do ^ od pBrMUy « miioo in its political croud , mid itfl oommoiJ' » onso viuws even in r « utry and Phjloaophy , have ovQutdd a rospect for tliiti tho original ot Us class .
Untitled Article
April 31 . I 860 . 1 The Leader and . Saturday -Analyst , 379
Untitled Article
* Ari'ost up tho ' Fivo NembcvA ft , t / O / inrh-n t / io FIi-n / . A < 'lmpti-i' ifJ ^ iff . finh JZisColy jio ' wi'ltttu . By John Foasauw . London ; Murnvy .
Aluiest Op The Frve Members By Cliuiles . Tiie . First; *
AlUiJEST ' OP . THE FIVE IMEMBERS BY CHVKLES . TliEJ-lRBT ;*
Tji.W .Kdin-Muitou Lllivikw.
Tirn KI ) IN . imit « U llliVIKW .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1860, page 379, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2344/page/15/
-