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Untitled Article
even though " martyrs' * in a bad cause , from the full measure of the indignation of posterity . Our author has wisely sunk all detailed notice of the correspondence between Wentworth and Laud , so necessary to a right understanding of the latter ' s powers of mind and the extent of hW unconstitutional projects , and
at the same time so utterly destructive of his biographer ' s theories . Mr . Hallam has well analyzed this correspondence , which it is impossible that any one can read without being convinced that the plans of the writer , if successful , must have established arbitrary and irresponsible power , in utter defiance of every principle of the constitution . Yet , after reading this , Mr . Lawson has the effrontery to say , that " the name of Laud will not cease to be venerated by all who revere the institutions of their country . " Really , it is high time , before he proceeds to the further historical labours which he
announces as in his view , that he and the public should come to some explanation as to the proper objects of an English statesman ' s administration . If the overthrow of all our popular privileges , the establishment of merciless despotism and of blind devotion to the caprices of tyrants and priests , be desirable and praiseworthy , the subjects of Mr , Lawson ' s panegyrics will probably be successfull y displayed to public admiration ; but it is impossible
to conceive that any such institutions as we have been accustomed to consider part and parcel of our commonwealth , are understood by him , or that their destruction is in his eyes in any way criminal . Words certainly bear a different meaning in his vocabulary from that which is ordinarily affixed to them , or we could hardly be amused with chapter after chapter , magnifying a drivelling , spiteful priest , who did nothing but at the expense of some constitutional right , into a wise statesman , the martyr to " moderation , " the chosen pattern of " liberality . " * ' . ,
Can Mr . Lawson believe that he is serving the cause of his Church by putting forward as its pattern and ornament one of the most questionable of characters ; whose public career was marked in every stage by the ruinous consequences of perpetual imprudencies ; whose only refuge lies , in the extension of a candid consideration for the passions and infirmities of the age ; as marring the best qualities of those who were engaged on either side of the
great contest ? And yet it is difficult to find an excuse for Laud even in the bigotry or religious prejudices of the age ; for he was no'bigot ; jSe was a cold , calculating , unforgiving politician . Can Mr . Lawson hope , ojt can he think it desirable , apart from the comparatively unimportant details of personal character , to persuade Englishmen that it would have , been better if Charles and his courtiers had triumphed over all popular resistance ; or that
it is not ( after every allowance for the fullest animadversion on the . violence of partizans ) honourable to the page of our history , as opposed & that of almost every other European country , to have it recorded that our jeountrymen fought out the great contest which the growing power of kings rendered necessary wherever representative institutions were to be maintained , and that they triumphed in the assertion of a great and just principle ? Jt would
i i B "it i i i ' ' ¦ ¦ / ¦ - May has drawn Laud '? character -as fairly and f&ithfully a * any ofte \ ' ** The Archbishop" ( if Catiferbury was a maju agent in thi ^ . ^(^ , if « oiA ; 3 '' a > n 9 iui - 'tf || iUnit enough ; 6 f an active , or rather of a " reatleas , ni i « d J . njOfjB ambltiou * jo undeitake than ; politic > w isart # on % *> f a disposition tod ^ eree and' cipet * % ** & P ° M £ fflthfcii , M otwithstfa ^ ng ^ bto wa »* « o » fac ifoom eonteafit > j ? in a ftrtrtfe tiriay . ttfat heiucreasei the enyy of it , by , jft * oU ^ c . e .. Jtfe hadUew vulgar and private victh , as Wttifr neither taxed of covetousnesa , lnten ^ raupe , w incPUrtiotnco t and , in a w 6 rd , ^ nmn uoe ^ together so' bad in fos personal character as unfit for the State of £ 4 iglaad . "
Untitled Article
Life and limes of Archbishop Land . 489
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 489, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/41/
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