matter to effect, considering the nearness of relation between the King and his subjects, is such, that neither can have existence without the other. As concerning the bill brought in by that honourable and reverend person (Sir Edward Coke), it is no doubt necessary for the preservation of the liberty of the subject; for this I speak resolutely, he that is not safe in his person and his goods dwells not at home."

This appears to us to have been a delicate handling of an exceedingly delicate subject; or, rather, delicate complication of conflicting interests and opinions. And yet the speech dexterously combines loyalty with a distinct and equal regard to constitutional principles. The only thing to be remarked is, that Sir Benjamin was more clear and decided in language prospectively, than capable of action or of bold decision when a desperate crisis arrived.

In another speech which concerned Magna Charta and the other six statutes, which the King by his ministers acknowledged, declaring that the House should never thereafter have cause to complain of any breach of the laws, Sir Benjamin used these striking words,— "For my own part, I shall be very glad to see that good old decrepit law Magna Charta, which hath been kept so long, and lien bed-rid as it were; I shall be glad, I say, to see it walk abroad again with new vigour and new lustre, attended by the other six statutes; for questionless it will be a great heartening to all the people." The speech which we shall now extract is remarkable in several ways. It was delivered on the second reading of the bill that was brought in for the attainder of the Earl of Strafford, after the discovery of certain minutes of the proceedings of the Privy Council, which contained traitorous advice tendered to the King in his lordship's capacity of a state minister. It shows that Sir Benjamin shrunk from the shedding of blood, although he was no renegade from his party. He was convinced of the Earl's guilt; but, although the time had come when the great principles of constitutional liberty appear to have been at stake, and to have depended upon decision and firmness, yet the orator proposed "an agreement and settlement." Still he must have voted at last for the attainder; for his name does not appear in the list of the minority. This is the speech in question,

"Mr. Speaker, I was not in the House at the first reading of this bill, although I staid here till it was past six o'clock. There hath not been in all this Parliament any business that was little but we could swell it up till it became a great one before we left it. Let us take heed we do not make this which is the greatest a little one indeed.

"We have wrapt up the three quarters-head cause of the Earl of Strafford in a bill, and are now in preparation to go up with it to the Lords. I am afraid this bill will prove but brutum fulmen-a lost blow. For I believe (and I am bound to speak what I think) the Lords will not pass it upon the notes they have taken already, and then the Earl of Strafford

is acquitted of all. We may please ourselves, that we may demand further judgment, which will breed a contestation, which will make a division, which will bring a confusion; and this by Parliament.

"Justice must be done justly: it is an outward public act, and, therefore, ought to give a fair satisfaction to the world. But, principally it is an inward private conclusion of the conscience to every man that hath a hand in it. A sentence of death rightly given is justice; if otherwise, it is murder, and to a doubting conscience it is the same, which unrepented, is no less than damnation; for blood is a crying sin.

"I do believe that the Earl of Strafford is as wicked, a flagitious, facinorous malefactor, as was ever brought before a Parliament: but we find withal that he is ingenississimi nequam, et malo publico facundus-full of artificial delusions. Therefore, it behoves us to be the more exact in wiping off his deceitful paintings, that he may appear to the world in his own foulness beyond all contradiction, which we cannot so well do unless we return to the way we were in, notwithstanding the great disadvantages of time and money.

"Wherefore, Mr. Speaker, my humble motion is, 'That we may desire a present conference with the Lords for an agreement and settlement in that course.' I pray God direct us in the best way, for this kingdom had never more need of his help than at this instant."

When things were proceeding to extremities between the King and the Parliament, Rudyerd made the following speech, which is the only other specimen that we shall quote. It will be seen that Sir Benjamin was still for conciliatory and moderate measures, even when the exigences of both contending parties were such that either one or other must have triumphed; or when the antagonistic principles would have remained quiescent only for a short space, again to return to a more bitter and vengeful strife.

"Mr. Speaker,-In the way we are now, we have gone as far as words can carry us; we have voted our own rights and the King's duty. No doubt there is a relative duty between king and subjects, obedience from a subject to a king, protection from a king to his people. The present unhappy distance between his Majesty and the Parliament makes the whole kingdom stand amazed in a fearful expectation of dismal calamities to fall upon it. It deeply and considerably concerns this House to compose and settle these threatening and ruining destructions. Mr. Speaker, I am touched-I am pierced with an apprehension of the honour of the House and success of this Parliament. The best way to give a stop to these desperate, imminent mischiefs is to make a fair way for the King's return hither; it will likewise give best satisfaction to the people, and be our best justification. Mr. Speaker, that we may better consider the condition we are now in, let us set ourselves three years back. If any man then could credibly have told us that within three years the Queen shall be gone out of England into the Low Countries for any cause whatsoever; the King shall remove from his Parliament, from London to York, declaring himself not VOL. IIL (1841.) NO. II.

T

to be safe here; that there shall be a total rebellion in Ireland; such discords and distempers both in Church and State here as we now find,--certainly we should have trembled at the thought of it: wherefore it is fit we should be sensible now we are in it. On the other side, if any man could have credibly told us that within three years we shall have a Parliament, it would have been good news; that ship-money should have been taken away by act of Parliament, the reasons and grounds of it so rooted out as that neither it, nor anything like it, can ever grow up again; that monopolies, the High Commission Court, the Star Chamber, the bishops' votes, shall be taken away; the council-table regulated and restrained, the forests bounded and limited; that we should have triennial parliaments; and more than that, a perpetual parliament, which none shall have power to dissolve without yourselves, we should have thought this a dream of happiness; yet we are now in the real possession of it; we do not enjoy it, although his Majesty has promised and published he will make all this good to us. There is more security offered even in this last answer of the King's, by removing the personal votes of the Popish lords, by the better education of the Papists' children, and by supplying the laws against recusants; besides what else may be enlarged and improved by a select committee of both Houses named for that purpose. Wherefore, sir, let us be

ware that we do not contend for such a hazardous, unsafe security as may endanger the loss of what we have already. Let us not think that we have nothing because we have not all we desire; and though we had, yet we cannot make a mathematical security; all human caution is susceptible of corruption and failing; God's providence will not be bound, success must be His. He that observes the wind and rain will neither sow nor reap; if he do nothing until he can secure the weather, he shall have but an ill harvest. Mr. Speaker, it now behoves us to call up all the wisdom we have about us, for we are at the very brink of confusion and combustion; if blood begin once to touch blood, we shall presently fall into a certain misery, and must attend an uncertain success, God knows when, and God knows what. Every man here is bound in conscience to employ his uttermost endeavours to prevent the effusion of blood. Blood is a crying sin, it pollutes a land; let us save our liberties and our estates, as we may save our souls too. Now I have clearly delivered my own conscience, I leave every man freely to his."

Mr. Manning has done well in correcting certain misstatements found in the histories of the Civil War, concerning the death of Sir Benjamin, and its cause. In the Chronicles of Heath it is stated that though Parliament was intent on levying arms, yet that several of the Patriots, among whom Rudyerd was one of the chief, gave warning of the miseries of civil war; and that, "he died soon after the first blood was drawn ;" insinuating that the miseries of the Civil War killed him. This anecote is also related,—“ Mr. Pym and Mr. Hampden told me,' saith Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, 'that they thought the King so ill-beloved by his subjects, that he would never be able to raise an army to oppose them;" and in

Echard's History of England the anecdote is repeated; both chroniclers asserting that the words were uttered on the death-bed of Sir Benjamin. The statements, however, are fabrications; for not only did Rudyerd live many years after the period in question, but he acted, although not so prominently and efficiently as before, still in concert with Pym and the rest; conciliation and compromise, however, being still his texts. He at length suffered a short imprisonment, along with some others who had been beaten upon the question as to "whether the King's answers to the propositions of both Houses were satisfactory;" "the little Napoleon of that day," as Mr. Manning is pleased to designate Cromwell, carrying with a high hand all before him. On his release Sir Benjamin retired to his seat in Berkshire, and reached the age of eighty-six.

We must now present a few specimens of the Knight's poetry, which is not only remarkable for being polished in a style agreeable to the taste of a much later age, but which has other merits of a very high order. These poems are the more worthy of admiration, if, as the editor assures us, they were written merely for amusement to a few, and without the least intention of having them published. As we have before intimated, Mr, Manning had no need to indulge in any apology for giving them along with the speeches. Indeed, as an editor he appears not at all to appreciate the beauties and the riches of the compositions. He even wards off the charge which he anticipates, viz., that the poems are " unworthy the gravity and statesmanlike character of his (Rudyerd's) parliamentary career," by saying that they were "the effusions of his younger days." No occasion for this, Mr. Editor. None of our living or our dead statesman would take shame to themselves on the score. But now for the specimens, as reprinted from Donne's edition of them, where they appear with such of Lord Pembroke's as were written in conjunction with those of the good Knight.

The first in the list presents us with a contest between Love and Reason, his Lordship gallantly being the champion of the former, which, however, Sir Benjamin vigorously depreciates and dispraises. The Knight is often original, and not less seldom exquisitely graceful. How spirited is this!

"Base Love, the stain of Youth, the scorn of Age,

The folly of a man, a woman's rage,

Order's confounder, Secret's light discloser,
Disturber of all sorts, a king's disposer;
The canker of a froward wit thou art,
The business of an idle, empty heart;
The rack of jealousy and sad mistrust,
The smooth and justified excuse of lust;
The thief which wastes the taper of our life,
The quiet name of restless jars and strife;

The fly which doth corrupt and quite distaste
All happiness, if thou therein be cast;
The greatest and the most conceal'd impostor
That ever vain Credulity did foster:
A mountebank, extolling trifles small;
A juggler, playing loose (not fast) with all;
An alchymist, whose promises are gold,
Payment but dross, and hope at highest sold ;-
This, this is Love, and worse than I can say.
Where he a master is, and bears the sway,

He guides like Phaëton, burns and destroys.
Parches, and stifles what else would be joys."

And is not this well reasoned in behalf of Reason?

"Man unto man both text and comment is:
They that best read this character of his,
His body, and they that most understand
The sense thereof, his soul, do both command.
This as a firm rule infallibly true,

Not be chang'd for one more weak, more new;
That Reason holds the head and highest part;
The affections lower are placed in the heart,
To show that they must serve and still obey;
Reason must ruler be, and bear the sway.
From this pure fountain see how pure the streams
Do run, from this bright sun how fair the beams!
Anger, whilst he a servant true persisteth,

Whetteth mild Justice' sword; Valour assisteth:

But when his power to himself he taketh,

He naught but brawls, and wars, and slaughters maketh;
Furthereth revenge, injustice, wrong, and hate;

Nothing but blood his fury can abate :

And that but for a while; for hot and dry,
He thirsteth oft, as oft for blood doth cry.
And so of all the affections of the mind,
When them we do in due obedience find,
Great helps they are, and ministers of good;
But else to vice a fierce and headlong brood."

We have spoken of originality: see how it can unite with tenderness and simplicity, with solid and condensed thought :

"OF TEARS.

"Who would have thought there could have been

Such joy in tears wept for our sin ?

Mine eye hath seen, my heart hath proved,

The most and best of earthly joys;

The sweets of love, and being loved,

:

Masks, feasts, and plays, and suchlike toys: