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Untitled Article
our modern opinions . " " That it was a tragedy may be allowed . " Bot ( mark the balance again !) " all public punishments are tragical , because the unhappy persons are sufferers . ' * " I hold that no part of this sentence was severe , except the cutting off the ears , which it must not be forgotten , at the same time , was the custom of the age . " ** Men were then only advancing in civilization , " and therefore , we suppose , cared little for such trifles
as ears . Lawyers plead their " ancient and laudable customs , " but we believe this is the first time that such a usage has been pleaded in justification of a practice like the one before us . Our author is , however , not quite satisfied with this defence . He seeks to evade , not the Archbishop ' s participation , for this cannot be denied , —but his being the contriver and head manager . " It is evident that he * acted merely as a private member of the court , " What is meant by a private judge ? It was in this part of the history very judicious in Mr . Lawson to keep out of view Laud ' s
correspondence , from which it constantly appears that his every-day complaint was , that he was restrained from adopting measures of greater severity . It is somewhat amusing ( after further tracing the Archbishop through his proceedings to ruin his " enemy" Bishop Williams , his jurisdiction in licensing books , and the wild projects which drove Scotland into revolt ) to find our biographer drawing a moving picture of the force of Laud ' s eloquence and " vigorous genius" in converting John Hales from " those pFejudices which he had imbibed against the apostolic constitution of the church . "
Almost the only apparently honourable act of Laud ' s life is his promotion of Hales , notwithstanding their theological differences , though it should be recollected that to a certain extent such men as Hales and Chillingworth were auxiliaries so far as regarded opposition to the strictness of Calvinism . Mr . Lawson has borrowed the fable which he has dressed up so handsomely , from Heylin , who can hardly be acquitted of wilful fabrication , considering that the subsequent letter of Hales to the Archbishop repeats the very same sentiments which he is supposed to have abjured .
After what we have read , we are not surprised to find that the Archbishop ' s share in the convocation of the Parliament of 1640 , and his motives in so acting , are made the subject of praise . At the same council it was settled , that if the Parliament " proved peevish , " ( Lord Clarendon has told us enough to shew that no honest man could be otherwise , ) that is , if it chose not to . do Laud ' s and Wentworth ' s bidding , nor to sanction some of the ' customary" practices which our author palliates , the King should be encouraged and assisted in every way to set the law at defiance—in other
words , if tyranny could not be established through Parliament , it should bj so against it . *« Here , " says Mr . Lawson " was a display of virtue—a preference of public good to private safety . " Of course the erection of the Coil vocation into a Parliament has its share of praise . Even the et-caetera oath finds favour . " Though these canons are not only judicious , but positively unobjectionable , yet they occasioned much trouble to the Archbishop . " The people of England certainly evinced great ingratitude in questioning his Mwht
to become their lawgiver . The next Parliament brought ruin , and at length death , to the Archbishop . Enthusiasts , whom he had goaded to madness , and then made desperate by TO $ i ^ ting * e « en the means of quiet escape from the contest , followed up a bitter Revenge . Had they consigned this middling priest to retirement and € f ^ Sfi ? h . TO ? 9 ^ j ^ Vie disp %$ d more magnanimity than perhaps was !? £ ffi ^ l 5 W ° f W . ? ge ;¦ " but they would have £ revenf £ d hihi ftdnV scaring A $ , \ Wl 3 Bpr |*> f merciful indemnity which saVes the victim ^ of persecutiqfl ,
Untitled Article
488 Life and limes of jirMishop Laud ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 488, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/40/
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