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THE

ECLECTIC MUSEUM

OF

FOREIGN LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

AUGUST, 18.4 3.

LORD STRAFFORD.

From the British Critic.

Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia, Vol. II. Eminent British Statesmen. By John Foster, Esq. London: Longman and Co.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

principles they are supposed to have something to say for themselves, and that, with peculiar significancy, they being dead yet speak. The deaths of such men are great facts, which, amid the shadows and uncertainties of history, posterity lay hold of, recognize, and feel, beacons in her troubled We cannot withhold from our readers an arti- and stormy atmosphere which fix the eye. cle so interesting as the following, although Look to the end, says the moralist; the there are some sentiments in it we do not ad- historian says the same; and as the orator mire. As might be expected, there are a few severe hits at the Puritans; but their descend-placed the essence of his art in action, ants well know how to bear such things with-action, action, just so between a nation and out offence. The reader will find many elo- her great man the end, the end, the marquent passages, and much graphic description, tyr consummation, concentrating the enerespecially in the latter portion of the article. gies of a life in one grand blow, is the apWe feel ourselves, however, compelled to di-peal which staggers and overcomes her, vide it, as it occupies nearly ninety pages of the which vibrates through her frame for ages. British Critic. Those who prefer to read it Facts like these are the arms and engines unbroken, need only postpone it until the issue of history, her two-handed swords and bat

of the next number.-ED.

tle-axes, her sledge-hammers and batterWe have no fear of opening, in the pre-ing-rams, that beat down prejudices, crush sent article, on what our readers will con- subtleties, level the pasteboard argument sider a stale or threadbare subject. It is into a high road for her truths. These and with pleasure we observe, that if ever the these only can meet the inextinguishable decies repetita placebit has applied to any appetite in human nature for the distinct, portion of history, it does to the times of the definite and positive, in truth or error the great Rebellion, and antecedent to them. as it may be; that aching void which It may be, that that was the last break up clamors for supply, and which the teacher, of the old system in Church and State; political or religious, must somehow fill, of the hierarchical pretensions in the one, or must give way. No cause can prevail, of the feudal and chivalrous in the other. no principle conquer without them; a sysIt may be again, that times of danger and tem that has not these must crumble and commotion are most favorable for great die. Happy and glorious that highborn and noble manifestations of human charac- regal line, who from the foundation of the ter. It may be, that when men die for their world have one and one been singled out VOL. II. No. IV. 28

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for this especial office, who in evil and continued fight with the aristocracy, no stormy days, when the flood was coming feudal baron, prince of the empire, or lord in, have filled the frightful gap up with them- of the isles, had ever more of the genuine selves, and given to justice and truth the aristocrat. The feudal relation of the lord testimony of their being. More, far more to the tenant of the soil was just to his than recompensed are they for what the taste; nor was he without pride in the rehand of violence and the tongue of calumny gal part of his pedigree, and the corner of inflicted during their brief sojourn, if ena- his escutcheon, which bore the three lions. bled to bequeath to the cause for which The compliment might have been returnthey fought the splendid patronage of a ed:-nec imbellem feroces progenerant aquilœ name; if history adopts them for her own; columbam, often a deceptive proverb, was if around their footsteps linger the fascina- not balked in his case; and a heathen tions of poetry, and upon their brow sits poet might have drawn, in old epic style, honor crowned sole monarch of the univer- crusading Kichard in the Elysian fields, and sal earth. the seer directing his eye through the vista We need go no further for reasons why of ages to the unborn shade of the last of the names of Laud, Charles, and Strafford, the Plantagenets. Difficult it might have still maintain that interest in the public been to persuade the royal fighter that parmind, which even their appearance in the liaments were as awkward bodies as armies picture-gallery and the shop-window shows of Saracens, and orders of council as hard them to possess. It is a fact in the trade, weapons as two-handed swords. But doubtwe believe, that the demand for engravings less convinced of this, the shade of Cœur of Charles has almost drained the stocks of de Leon would have stalked the prouder the dealers in the metropolis and other over the plains of Asphodel, as his cye places; and the artist at the elder univer- caught the vision of the second "Lion" sity has recently supplied casts of the three (so nicknamed) of the Plantagenet stock. heads for lack of older memorials. We are Of his youthful days we know little. He disposed to connect these and many other early attained proficiency in the fashionsymptoms with the general longing which able accomplishments of the day, and on has begun to be felt for a deeper ethics the ample Wentworth manors imbibed that and religion than what the last century taste for field sports, especially hawking supplied us; and not aspiring to the re- and fishing, which he always retained. To search of those generous travellers who the last he was a keen sportsman; and have lately threaded with such skill the thought himself too happy if from the toil forest gloom of medieval antiquity, shall and cares of his Irish administration, he content ourselves with a nearer and more could only escape for a week or two at cognate age over which, notwithstanding a time to Cosha, his "park of parks," in a tremendous revolution, the shadow of Wicklow county, and hawk or fish for former things still brooded — a -an age in hours ankle deep in mud and wet. His which Shakspeare wrote and Strafford act- correspondence with Laud, at some of ed; and without further preface shall beg these seasons, contains an amusing mixto renew the reader's acquaintance with one, in spite of alloy and extravagance, a genuine great man, a statesman and a hero of whom we may be proud.

Thomas Wentworth was born in London, April, 1594, of an ancient and knightly family, that had been seated at WentworthWodehouse, in the county of York, ever since the Conquest. The paternal line had gradually absorbed into it many of the first families of the north. Wentworth represented, as the eldest son, the ancient blood of the Wodehouses, Houghtons, Fitzwilliams, Gascoignes, and alliances with the noble houses of Clifford, De Spencer, Darcy, Quincy, Ferrars, Beaumont, Grantmesnil, Peveril, and finally, through Margaret, grandmother of Henry VII., mounted up to the Lancasters and Plantagenets. Though his whole political career was one

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ture of political, ecclesiastical, and sporting intelligence. Presents of dried fish, of the Lord-deputy's catching, went up for the Lent table at Croydon, but the announcement of the intended generosity mingles with a lament over the decay of hawks and martins in Ireland," which deficiency he consoles himself he shall be able to supply by establishing woods for their especial protection. Nevertheless there is an imperfection attending on human schemes, sporting as well as other; if the martins are encourged, the "pheasants must look well to themselves:" meantime the archbishop shall have all the martin skins that can be procured either for love or money. Laud keeps up the pleasantry—is duly grateful for the fish, but entreats him to send no more hung beef from the Yorkshire larder; the last having been posi

tively too tough to eat. Strafford apolo- | Johnnism of yours till the rights of the gizes, but will not give up the merits of pastors be a little more settled? You his hung beef; no, the beef of Wentworth-learned this from old Alvye or Billy NelWodehouse was not to be despised; he son? Well, I see the errors of your breedwas certain, if the General Assembly (the ing will stick by you; pastors and elders, Scotch were just invading) once got a taste, all will come in if I let you alone." Greentheir mouths would water for it ever after, wood remained his intimate and constant and there would be no getting them out of adviser till he left for Ireland, whither Wentthe country. worth endeavored to bring him, but could Such is the playful cover under which he not prevail upon him to leave his cure. disguises the feeling for his ancestral home Though separated, however, they kept up and the scene of his youth. Strafford had an affectionate correspondence. Greenin a remarkable degree that habit of mind wood was confided with all plans and sewhich, if not peculiar to English states- crets of the family, and "one who, on a good men, may still be called highly English, occasion, would not deny his life to you,” did which subordinates entirely to the original the Lord-deputy, with heartfelt gravity of of the private, the aftergrowth of the pub-gratitude, subscribe himself to his old tutor. lic man; disdaining the pomp which iden- His university education and continental tifies the man with the station. With the travels completed, introduced him a scholar same mixture of pride and humility, with and a cavalier into political and fashionwhich Warren Hastings left his native able life. He had a tall and graceful perDaylesford with the noble ambition of be- son, which, even when bowed by years of ing its squire, conquered India in the in- sickness, retained its symmetry; aristoterval, and became squire of Daylesford, cratical features not handsome, but full of he ever in the thick of public life clung to dignity and command: a head of thick dark his Yorkshire association, and to the circle hair which he wore short, and a singular of his home-to others, what the world complexion at once "pallid" and "manly had made him to himself, himself, Went- black," like polished armor, heightened the worth of Wodehouse. And when he tore Strafford physiognomy. The cares of state himself from their endearments, to embark and his terrible illness added a ruggedness for the last time for Ireland, and enter on he had not naturally; and his enemies, in the wind-up scene of his life, it was the allusion to the savage character which they parting consolation with which he braced were so fond of attributing to him, discovhis mind, "I shall leave behind me as a ered a likeness in his face to the lion. truth never to be forgotten, the full and per- Strafford had a disgust for this resemblance, fect remembrance of my being.' which an assumed carelessness and aThe field sports and other kindred re-never-mind leonis facies facies hominis, as miniscences of Wentworth-Wodehouse the proverb says-ill concealed. were thus not without their more serious effect on Strafford's character. Mean time a solid education was going on, in Latin, French, and the best English authors. From his early days he paid great attention to his English style, and in writing common notes and letters would take pains to do them well. Nor when he entered at When with all the advantages, however, a very early age at St. John's College, of connexion, wealth, talent, and educaCambridge, was he at all backward in ap- tion, Sir Thomas Wentworth (for he had preciating the advantages and the pleasures succeeded to the baronetcy) found himself of a place of learning. On leaving the col- at the age of twenty fairly launched into lege he travelled abroad with a tutor, Mr. London life, the possessor of a paternal Greenwood, a member of the sister univer- estate of six thousand a year-an immense sity. For both college and tutor he re-income in those days-representative of tained ever after the warmest affection. In the Strafford correspondence with Laud we glance over a variety of facetious challenges to one another upon their rival St. John's, and their respective "Johnnisms." "What means this Johnnism of yours?" is the laugh of the primate at a puritanical slip of his friend's pen-" What means this

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After

all, to look like a lion is not to look like a fool, a knave, or a coward; but he could not bear the imputation which it implied. One article of beauty he had on the highest authority-a pair of delicate white hands, pronounced by Queen Henrietta Maria to be "the finest in the world."

his native county in parliament, and husband of the eldest daughter of the Earl of Cumberland, far from aiming at the character of a public man, he does not seem even to have regarded his education as finished. He continued it only with the differences that distinguish the grown up person's from the boy's tasks. There is

something highly significant in that year after year's patient attendance on the proceedings of the Star Chamber, which commenced from this time. The Star Chamber in those days, besides being the highest in point of rank and of ultimate appeal, had the most comprehensive and miscellaneous routine of business of any court in the kingdom a crowd of causes, civil, political, ecclesiastical, fiscal, daily rolled in; a mixed and parti-colored body of judges, bishops, lawyers, secretaries of state, and lords of the household, presided. The names of Bacon and Coke, Car and Buckingham, Abbot and Laud, Weston and Coventry, reigned during this period. Seven long years did Strafford devote to this attendance; and, out of this rich and intricate scene, the great facts of law, politics, and human nature, gradually submit ted themselves to his observation, formed into groups, fixed upon rules, subsided into principles.

con and Middlesex, and was dismissed in anger after the celebrated "Protestation,' for which Sir Edward Coke, Pym, and Selden, were imprisoned, and others of its most distinguished members banished on the king's service to Ireland. The romantic journey of Prince Charles to the Spanish court, the rupture with Spain in consequence, and Buckingham's transient gleam of popularity, gave it additional interest and animation. Throughout these movements, which extended over a period of ten years, we look in vain for any speech of Strafford's in the journals of the House. He was active as a country gentleman, and paid the greatest attention to his duties as Custos Rotulorum, which he was glad to do for practice and county feeling's sake ; but on the great theatre of the world he was silent-contented apparently to bide his time, to work under ground till he came up naturally to the surface, and mounted by the force of events to the position for which nature intended him.

His private exercises were of the same practical character. He would often com- The movement which did eventually lift pose speeches on subjects on which some him to this position is a part of his life distinguished specimen of rhetoric or argu- which has been much canvassed, but of ment was extant, and afterwards compare which neither the facts or the motives have his own with the classical model, noting been fairly given. The ordinary statement accurately the different points in which his is, that having been throughout his parlia came short of it: a practice by the way mentary career a member and leader of the highly illustrative of his general habit of democratical party, he all at once went over mind. He was always a severe judge of to the Court, and accepted office. This is his own performances of whatever kind, not true. Strafford was always a royalist, great or small, and would have criticised which King James showed his sense of by his whole career of statesmanship, from its giving him a high appointment in his own opening to its close, with the same candor county. He was moreover silent throughand coolness with which he saw the de- out the period mentioned, the speeches fects of half a morning's task at compo- that have been attributed to him being sition. General literature, poetry and the spoken by a different person of the same fine arts came in as a relief to his severer name-a Mr. Thomas Wentworth, repretasks. Chaucer and Donne were his favorite sentative for Oxford. True, however, it is, poets; the metaphysical or internal char that after a long career of silence we find acter of Donne's pieces, so descriptive of him suddenly, in the parliament of 1628, at a struggling, melancholy, uneasy mind, the head of a party with whom he never seems to have constituted their charm. acted before and never after. Ten years He was fond too of the pastoral poetry of of suspense and neutrality, a momentary the classics. In his letters we come across alliance with the republicans, and then war various traits of a taste for painting and with them to the knife-this requires exarchitecture; and he enjoyed the acquaint-planation, but is not to be explained upon ance of the two illustrious masters of those arts, Inigo Jones and Vandyke, which he found time to cultivate, even in the very thick of his Irish administration.

It should not be forgotten, that the parliaments of which he was throughout this period a member, were as exciting and a arming ones as England had yet seen. The first entered into the famous contest with James about the royal imposts on merchandize; the second impeached Ba

the ordinary ground of political inconsistency and self-interested ambition.

The nation was at that time in a transition state, divided between the two great principles of authority and liberty, monarchical and popular power. The former, however, was in possession of the field, and had a right to consider itself the legal constitutional principle, if the precedents and the sanctions of a thousand years are to go for any thing. Whereas now the

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