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    gland . " It might have been more correct to say that the church suffered martyrdom for his follies and passions . To call such an incendiary a martyr to the interests of the community to which he belonged , is as much to the purpose as it would be to call a servant who should in a mad freak blow himself and his roaster ' s house about his ears with gunpowder , a martyr to his fidelity in sticking to his post .

    In his biographer ' s eyes every thing is sanctified by Laud ' s zeal for the ecclesiastical system of uniformity which it was the business of his life to build up by any and every means , with an utter disregard of consequences , and with all the stupid infatuation of a madman who chose to dash in pieces the whole frame of society , rather than give up any whim of his own , or tolerate any contempt of his tyranny . All the means which he adopted for the promotion of his ends become virtuous and praiseworthy , or at least

    excusable , in the eyes of his historian , who is surprised at nothing but the weak and wicked infatuation of those misguided rebels to lawful authority , who were so unreasonable as to prefer wearing their ears and noses in their natural state , to submitting to have them cropt and slit by priests and knaves , who had the impudence at the same time to call themselves the true champions of the Protestant Reformation . Such violent operations upon the gifts of nature they were perverse enough to resist , even from the popes of

    " the Church of England ; " and vfhat wonder that many became but too apt scholars of such a system ? Cropping of ears leads somewhat naturally ( and perhaps happily , so far as the fear of retribution keeps tyrants in order ) to cropping of heads ; and we must say that those who begin with " the minor offence , " have little reason to complain ( though the world may have some cause for rejoicing ) if they sooner or later suffer the penalty inflicted upon them by the reaction of outraged humanity . " Persecution , " our author

    acknowledges , ** is detestable , under whatever form and by whomsoever inflicted ; " yet it is plain that unless this sentiment be limited , the reasonings of his book and his estimate of Laud ' s character are utterly false . It is clear that he does not intend to call by so ugly a name as persecution the wholesome severities which Laud rejoiced to employ in support , of his church , and indeed he qualifies the apothegm so as to keep out of view any share on the part of the church in the precept or its performance , by adding , " whether it proceed from Popish conclaves , Parliamentary committees on religion , Presbyterian Synods , or general assemblies , " Poor suffering rulers of the Church of England , that sustained interruption in the innocent occupation of mutilating your fellow-creatures !

    If any one ' s curiosity should be excited as to the causes which have seduced the worthy biographer into such a chivalrous attempt as that of patching up the broken reputation of Archbishop Laud , the clue to their discovery may be found in the preface , by which we learn that a bold flight of the Quarterly Review has been the ignis fatuus which has danced him over the quagmire , and left him floundering and bewildered in the vain attempt at filling up the picture which the Reviewer was wag enough onl y to sketch in outline . We shall repeat the quotation , because its spirit will be the best interpreter of our author ' s plans and objects : " Did our limits permit , we would shew what has been well observed by a most diligent and meritorious author , * intimately conversant with the history of that age , and better acquainted than Uny other person with what were then the bearing's and effects of religious opinions upon ecclesiastical affairs , that ¦ •<¦ ' -- .... ¦¦ . ... . - . —

    * " Mr . James Nichols , iu his ' Calvinism and Arm ' mianism compared . ' "

    Untitled Article

    370 Life and Times of Archbishop Laud .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 370, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/2/