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money distributed to Lord Russell and Colonel Sidney , Mr . Hallam thus proceeds : ' " Sidney was , indeed , as there ia reason to think , a distressed man : he had formerly been in connexion with the Court of France , and had persuaded himself that the countenance of that power might one day or oilier be afforded 10 his darling scheme of a Commonwealth ; he had contracted a dislike to the
prince of Orange , and , consequently , to the Dutch alliance from the same governing motive . Is it strange that one so circumstanced should have accepted a small gratification from the King of France , which implied no dereliction of his duty as an Englishman or any sacrifice of political integrity ? And I should be glad to be informed by the idolaters of Algernon Sidney ' s name , what we know of him from authentic and contemporary sources which renders this incredible . "
In a note Mr . Hallam adds , " I must fairly confess that , in my opvriion , all those who believe that Sidney took the money at all , believe that he took it for himself . " And again , " It has been the fashion for a long time { chiefly , I am persuaded , through the influence of the ear , the name of Algernon Sidney having so specious a sound ) to exaggerate his merits , so that those who are best able to form an estimate of them are carried away ; and I have no doubt that such as know very little will be dissatisfied with
what I have said of their idol . " Now , even at the hazard of being reckoned by Mr . Hallam amongst " those who know very little , " ( not a very candid description , it must be confessed , of such as may be pleased to differ from him , ) we admit that we are dissatisfied with what Mr . Hallam has said , and we are inclined to believe that in saying it he has suffered his usually cool and excellent judgment to be warped by a desire of ultra-impartiality . Is there , we would ask , any danger to be apprehended from an aTdent
admiration of such a character as Sidney ' s , that Mr . Hallam thinks it necessary to subdue it with his doubts , and to damp it with his insinuations ? Wie are asked what authentic and contemporary evidence there is to shew that Sidney did not receive these monies for his own use ; to which we answer , that the whole of his conduct and character disprove it . Can it be supposed that the man who could not be induced to supplicate even his own father for money , * would become a willing pensioner upon the bounty of the French
king ? " Whilst I live , " says Sidney , in a letter to one of his mends m England , " I will endeavour to preserve my liberty , or , at least , not consent to the destroying it . I hope I shall die in the same principles in which I have lived , and I will live no longer than they can preserve me . I have in my life been guilty of many follies , but , as I think , of no meanness . I will not blot and defile that which is passed by endeavouring to provide for the future . I have ever had in my mind , that when God should cast me into such a condition as that I cannot save my life but by doing an indecent
thing , he shews me the time is come wherein I should resign it , " Is this the language of a man who , to use an unworthy expYession of Mr . Hallam ' s , was " most happy to pocket the pistoles" ? That Sidney did in fact receive money frdm Banllon , there seems to be sufficient evidence ; but that he teceived it as a personal pension , we do not believe . It was doubtless expended in forwarding those great but ill-directed designs in which Sidney had so devotedly engaged himself , and if Mr . Hallam had looked attentively into his trial he might have found tiotae Jwof of this fact . " After this , "
* See tire Letters to the Earl of Leicester Itt the 4 th editioiiof Mb Work *; aiid see Dr . Towers ' * pamphlet on this subject .
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254 * Review .- ^ H&ttt im ' s Constitutional History of England .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/38/
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