On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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
tfonal improvements which they who suffered resisted ; which resistance on their part was voluntary and wilful , and for which alone they were molested * The historical fact may be therefore again repeated , that changes so mighty in the opinion of all , and so beneficial in the judgment of most , have never been achieved in any country , when so opposed , with such little bloodshed and individual cruelty . The personal imputation presses most on Henry in his sanctioning the execution of women and of his friends , even though not guiltless , because in their cases , whatever may have been the offence , the sympathies and charities of the heart ought not to have been ineffective .
** Yet we ought not to infer any natural cruelty in this King , because these benign feelings had not a more suasive influence in his bosom . It is too much the case with us all , that the understanding , the reason alone—without that other appendage of our being , which all ages , all classes , and all nations , even in central Africa , concur to call the heart—tends from its very energies to be tyrannical , violent and stern . It is the essence and character of mental power to be active , and to act with force and determination in proportion to
its vigour ; to allow no resistance to its sovereignty ; to combat with all its strength what opposes it , and , identifying from its very sincerity its own conclusions with truth and right , to see only falsehood and mischief in what is contrary and in those who support it . Hence our intellectual energy is naturally intolerant , zealous , impatient and severe ; and even becomes so in proportion to its theoretical philanthropy , unless it associates itself intimately and inseparably with the cultivated feelings of a softened , softening , impressed , impressible , benevolent , affectionate , benign and sensitive heart . "
If we ri g htly understand this apology , ( of which we by no means feel assured , ) Mr . Turner means to say , that if we obey the dictates of our " understanding and reason alone , " we shall become " tyrannical , violent and stern ; " in other words , that if we follow our reason we shall be unreasonable ; for certainly nothing can be more contrary to reason than tyranny and violence . Such is the logical theory which Mr . T . has devised to palliate the cruelties of as remorseless a man as ever doomed a fellow-creature to
death . When the blood of the wise and the brave and the beautiful was poured out like water at his bidding , we are " not to infer any natural cruelty in this King , " but to attribute it to the operation of his energetic ' * understanding and reason alone . " In the second chapter of his work , Mr . Turner has collected all the encomiums which friends or flatterers have bestowed upon Henry .
' " If / ' says Mr . T ., " Henry had died after this length of reign ( twenty-six years ) , before the Act of Parliament for abolishing the papal supremacy in England , the mortal and yet unpardoned offence of this applauded Prince , had been carried into resolute execution , no king since Alfred the Great would have descended to his tomb with such lavish encomiums and universal admiration from the literature of that period . If he had died the day before he signed the death-warrant of Fisher and decided on that of Sir Thomas More , he would have nearly rivalled our great Saxon benefactor in his historical praise , and perhaps in the public gratitude . "
This singular mode of estimating character appears to us at once false and puerile . Nero , before he became Emperor , was not distinguished for his cruelties , and before the French Revolution no one imagined that Robespierre could be guilty of the atrocities which he afterwards committed . Had Thurtell died before he murdered Mr . Weare , no odium would have attached to his memory . But was Nero the less a tyrant , or Robespierre the less a monster , or Thurtell the less a murderer , on these accounts ? And i » it any apology for the cruelties which stained the later years of Henry ' s reign , that the earlier portion of it is free from the charge 01 blood ?
Untitled Article
Revletr . —Englhh Reformation . 431
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 431, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/39/
-