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sure of their work , they gave him five stabs of which he instantly died . Whereupon Jo . Bap . Riva , his interpreter , thinking to retire to his chamber , four others that were without
the chamber gave him four wounds , whereof he presently expired . Afterwards five of the Englishmen took sanctuary , but were hnled thence , imprisoned , and Spark suffered . The sixth person named , Hen . Progers , fled to the Venetian Ambassadors
house and so escaped . Ascham was slain 6 th June , 1650 . " Henry Progers was a servant of l ^ ord Clarendon , who then resided at Madrid , as ambassador from Charles 11 . The noble historian professing to have " abhorred the action , " yet
disgraces himself , and violates the decorum of history , by his manner of treating the subject . Having described the Envoy as ' one Ascham , a scholar , who had been concerned in drawing up the King ' s trial , " he mentions , 1
" officers and soldiers , ' who consulted among themselves how they might kill that fellow , who came as an agent from the new republic of England , ' * and in the sequel commLsserates the assassins as ** unhappy gentlemen who had involved themselves
by their rashness in so much peril /' iii . S 69 » &c \ The author of this volume from the following passage , which forms the beginning of his Preface , appears to have studied the character of the
Roman government , and to have duly appreciated that unjustly applauded patriotism which is opposed to philanthropy . * ' If L might have enjoyed St . Augustine ' s wish , and have seen Rome in its glory , it should have been only
to liave heard the great kings /> f the world , like private persons , ct sepositis sceptris , examined and plead , pro ct , contra , at the senate-bar , about the <\ nc administration of their royal functions . For there was a true sovereign jurisdiction , and to be admired , if the ? Senate itself had been free from
misgovern men ts , depopulations and usurpations . But as the overboiling of their ambition shed itself over the whole earth , so the sigjis and groans of Hast and West met and echoed perpetually betwixt their walls . And if it had been likewise possible , that all the blood which by their commissions was drawn from the sides of man-
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kind , could have met at Rome , tfa source was capacious enough to ha \( made a river pass before their senatedoor , as big as their Tyber . Tlms they commerced with the peoplebut Caesar afterwards , by a co
mmission derived from himself , made the people all the world over , and the Senate likewise pay tribute to liim . For which he repaid again no lessthail his own life , as a tribute due to them . Here therefore I shall be so bold , m the people ' s behalf especially , as to examine both Csesar and the Senate
that is , I shall lay the facts of su . premest powers to the rules of right , and not their facts only but our own also , as we are all moved , or rather hurried , by their rapid motions . Tlie original and inherent rights of the society of mankind is that which I here search after ; not those fights of this or that country , of which there
is no determined end , no , not betwixt the lawyers of any one dominion ; that so finding out and afterwards holding to our own native rights as men , wt may be sure to do others no wrong as subjects , be it either in . acting with them or dissenting from them . *
At the conclusion of his preface the author thus unmasks military glorv amidst all its pomp and circumstance . " The magnificentest triumphs did certainly , by a reflection represent to some eyes nothing but horror , because they were always proportioned to the extent of desolations brought on thosr
who had the souls and faces of men . But policy had need of all its strata gems to confound the judgment of a souldier , by excessive praises , recompenses and triumphs ; that so the opinion of wounds and of wooden legs might raise m him a greater esteem ot himself than if he had an in tir e body .
To allure others something also m « v be found out to cover wounds and tlKaffright meats of death handsomely ; and without this a Caesar , in his triumph , with all his garlands and music , would look but like a victim . But
what sorrow of heart is it to see passionate man , a ray of divinity , and the joy of angels , scourged thus with l& own scorpions , and so fondly to give himself alarms in 1 he midst of his w * - ¦ . m-m . * * - » wv > . m . m . * v * »* . <* m . « . * ¦ * j mm . n kjlji ^ v - ¦ ** - # .
nocent contentments ? The chofcncKnessofwar , whereby the lustful »<* of so many henrts is redoubled , st n ^ up the Ices of a commonw ealth , a »« tempest doth weeds and slimy sear
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432 Book-Worm . No . XXII .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1815, page 432, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1762/page/32/
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