of publick affairs, by the dreadful massacres of Ireland, in 1641, set himself diligently to read and consider all the disputes which were then set on foot between the king and parliament; the result of which was, a steady conviction of the justice of the pretensions maintained by the latter, with a strong anxiety for the preservation of peace. His first achievement was, to persuade the parson of his parish to deface the images, and break the painted class in the windows of his church, in obedience to an injunction of the parliament. His next, to resist lord Newark in an illegal attempt to carry off the ammunition belonging to the county, for the use of the king. His deportment upon this occasion, when he was only twenty-five years of age, affords a very singular proof of temper and firmness, good breeding, and great powers of reasoning.

When the king set up his standard at Nottingham, Mr. Hutchinson repaired to the camp of Essex, the parliamentary general; but "did not then find a clear call from the Lord to join with him." His irresolution, however, was speedily dissipated, by the persecutions of the royalists, who made various efforts to seize him as a disaffected person. He accordingly began to consult with others in the same predicament; and having resolved to try to defend the town and castle of Nottingham against the assaults of the enemy, he was first elected governour by his associates, and afterwards had his nomination confirmed by Fairfax and by the parliament. A great deal too much of the book is occupied with an account of the petty enterprises in which this little garrison was engaged; the various feuds and dissensions which arose among the different officers and the committees who were appointed as their council; the occasional desertion and treachery of various individuals, and the many contrivances, and sacrifices, and exertions, by which colonel Hutchinson was enabled to maintain his post till the final discomfiture of the royal party. This narrative contains, no doubt, many splendid examples of courage and fidelity on both sides; and for the variety of intrigues, cabals, and successful and unsuccessful attempts at corruption which it exhibits, may be considered as a complete miniature of a greater history. But the insignificance of the events, and the obscurity of the persons, take away all interest from the story; and our admiration of colonel Hutchinson's firmness, and disinterestedness and valour, is scarcely sufficient to keep our attention alive through the languishing narrative of the obscure warfare in which he was employed.

It has often been remarked, and for the honour of our country can never be too often repeated, that history affords no example of a civil contest carried on for years at the point of the sword, and yet producing so little ferocity in the body of the people, and so few instances of particular violence or cruelty. No proscriptions-no executions-no sacking of cities, or laying waste of provinces-no vengeance wreaked, and indeed scarcely any severity inflicted upon those who were notoriously hostile, unless found actually in arms. Some passages in the wars of Henry IV. as narrated by Sully, approach to this character; but the horrible massacres with which that contest was at other stages attended, exclude it from all parallel with the generous hostility of England. This book is full of instances, not merely of mutual toleration, but of the most cordial friendship subsisting between individuals engaged in the opposite parties. In particular, sir Allan Apsley, Mrs. Hutchinson's brother, who commanded a troop of horse for the king, and was frequently employed in the same part of the country where colonel Hutchinson commanded for the parliament, is represented throughout as living on a footing of the greatest friendship and cordiality

with this valiant relative. Under the protection of mutual passes, they pay frequent visits to each other, and exchange various civilities and pieces of service, without any attempt on either side to seduce the other from the cause to which his conscience had attached him. In the same way, the houses and families of various royalists are left unmolested in the district commanded by colonel Hutchinson's forces; and officers conducting troops to the siege of the castle, are repeatedly invited to partake of entertain ments with the garrison. It is no less curious and unique to find Mrs. Hutchinson officiating as a surgeon to the wounded; and the colonel administering spiritual consolation to some of the captives who had been mor tally hurt by the men whom he had led into action.

After the termination of the war, colonel Hutchinson was returned to parliament for the town which he had so resolutely defended. He was appointed a member of the high court of justice, for the trial of the king; and after long hesitation and frequent prayer to God to direct him aright in an affair of so much moment, he deliberately concurred in the sentence which was pronounced by it; Mrs. Hutchinson proudly disclaiming for him the apology afterwards so familiar in the mouths of his associates, of having been overawed by Cromwell. His opinion of the protector, and of his government, has been pretty fully explained in the extracts we have already given. During that usurpation, he lived in almost unbroken retire. ment, at Owthorpe; where he occupied himself in superintending the education of his children, whom he himself instructed in musick and other elegant accomplishments; in the embellishment of his residence by building and planting; in administering justice to his neighbours, and in making a very choice collection of painting and sculpture, for which he had purchased a number of articles out of the cabinet of the late king. Such were the liberal pursuits and elegant recreations of one whom all our recent histories would lead us to consider as a gloomy fanatick, and barbarous bigot.

Upon the death of the protector, he again took his seat in parliament, for the county of Nottingham; and was an indignant spectator of the base proceedings of Monk, and the headlong and improvident zeal of the people in the matter of the restoration. In the course of the debate on the course to be followed with the regicides, such of them as were members of the house rose in their places, and made such a defence of their conduct as they respectively thought it admitted of. The following passage is very curious, and gives us a high idea of the readiness and address of colone! Hutchinson in a situation of extraordinary difficulty.

When it came to Inglesbies turne, he, with many teares, profest his repentance for that murther and told a false tale, how Cromwell held his hand, and forc'd him to subscribe the sentence, and made a most whining recantation; after which he retir'd, and another had almost ended, when Coll. Hutchinson, who was not there at the beginning, came in, and was told what they were about, and that it would be expected he should say something. He was surpriz'd with a thing he expected not; yet neither then, nor in any the like occasion, did he ever faile himselfe, but told them, "That for his actings in those dayes, if he had err'd, it was the inexperience of his age, and the defect of his iudgement, and not the malice of his heart, which had ever prompted him to pursue the generall advantage of his Country more then his owne; and if the sacrifice of him might conduce to the publick peace and settlement, he should freely submit his life and fortunes to their dispose; that the vain expence of his age and the greate debts his publick employmenta had runne him into, as they were testimonies that neither avarice nor any other inte rest had carried him on, so they yielded him iust cause to repent that he ever forSooke his owne blessed quiett, to embark in such a troubled sea, where he had made shipwrack of all things but a good conscience; and as to that particular action of the king, he desir'd them to believe he had that sense of it that befitted an Englishman, a VOL. I.

Ee

Christian, and a gentleman. Assoone as the collonell had spoken, he retir'd into a roome, where Inglesbie was, with his eies yet red, who had call'd up a little spirit to succeed his whinings, and embracing Coll. Hutchinson, "O collonell," say'd he, “did I ever imagine wee could be brought to this? Could I have suspected it, when I brought them Lambert in the other day, this sword should have redeem'd us from being dealt with as criminalls, by that people, for whom we had so gloriously exposed ourselves." The collonell told him, he had forseene, ever since those usurp ers thrust out the lawfull authority of the land, to enthrone themselves, it could end in nothing else; but the integrity of his heart, in all he had done, made him as chearfully ready to suffer as to triumph in a good cause. The result of the house that day was, to suspend Coll. Hutchinson and the rest from sitting in the house. Monke, after all his greate professions, now sate still, and had not one word to interpose for any person, but was as forward to sett vengeance on foote as any man. p. 367-369.

He was afterwards comprehended in the act of amnesty, and with some difficulty obtained his pardon; upon which he retired to the country; but was soon after brought to town, in order to see if he could not be prevailed on to give evidence against such of the regicides as it was resolved to bring to trial. The Inglesby who is commemorated in the preceding extract, is known to have been the chief informer on that occasion; and colonel Hutchinson understood that it was by his instigation, that he had been called as a witness. His deportment, when privately examined by the attorney general, is extremely characteristick, and includes a very fine and bitter piece of irony on his base associate, who did not disdain to save himself by falsehood and treachery. When pressed to specify some overt acts against the prisoners

the collonell answered him, that in a businesse transacted so many years agoe, wherein life was concern'd, he durst not beare a testimony; having at that time bene so little an observer, that he could not remember the least title of that most eminent circumstance, of Cromwell's forcing Coll. Inglesbie to sett to his unwilling hand, which, if his life had depended on that circumstance, he could not have affirm"And then, sir," say'd he, "if I have lost so great a thing as that, it cannot be expected lesse eminent passages remaine with me." p. 379.

ed.

It was not thought proper to examine him on the trial; and he was allowed, for about a year, to pursue his innocent occupations in the retirement of a country life. At last he was seized, upon suspicion of being concerned in some treasonable conspiracy; and though no formal accusation was ever exhibited against him, and no sort of evidence specified as the ground of his detention, was conveyed to London, and committed a close prisoner to the tower. In this situation, he was treated with the most brutal harshness; all which he bore with great meekness of spirit, and consoled himself in the constant study of the Scriptures, and the society of his magnanimous consort, who, by the powerful intercession of her brother, was at last admitted to his presence. After an imprisonment of ten months, during which the most urgent solicitations could neither obtain his deliverance, nor the specification of the charges against him, he was suddenly ordered down to Sandown castle in Kent, and found, upon his arrival, that he was to be closely confined in a damp and unwholesome apartment, in which another prisoner, of the meanest rank and most brutal manners, was already established. This aggravated oppression and indignity, however, he endured, with a cheerful magnanimity; and conversed with his wife and daughter, as she expresses it," with as pleasant and contented a spirit as ever in his whole life." Sir Allan Apsley at last procured an order for permitting him to walk a certain time every day on the beach; but this mitigation came too late. A sort of aguish fever, brought on by damp and confinement, had settled on his constitution; and, in little more than a month after his removal from the tower, he was delivered by death

1

from the mean and cowardly oppression of those whom he had always disdained either to flatter or betray.

England should be proud, we think, of having given birth to Mrs. Hutchinson and her husband; and chiefly because their characters are truly and peculiarly English, according to the standard of those times in which national characters were most distinguishable. Not exempt, certainly, from errours and defects, they yet seem to us to hold out a lofty example of substantial dignity and virtue; and to possess most of those talents and principles by which publick life is made honourable, and privacy delightful. Bigotry must at all times debase, and civil dissension embitter our existence; but, in the ordinary course of events, we may safely venture to assert, that a nation which produces many such wives and mothers as Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, must be both great and happy.

For the reverend Julius Hutchinson, the editor of these Memoirs, it is easy to see that he is considerably perplexed and distracted, between a natural desire to extol these illustrious ancestors, and a fear of being himself mistaken for a republican. So he gives us alternate notes in laud of the English levellers, and in vituperation of the atheists and jacobins of France. From all this, our charity leads us to infer, that the said reverend Julius Hutchinson has not yet obtained that preferment in the church which it would be convenient for him to possess; and that, when he is promoted according to his merits; he will speak more uniformly, in a manner becoming his descent. In the mean time, we are very much obliged to him for this book, and for the pains he has taken to satisfy us of its authenticity, and of the accuracy of the publication. We do not object to the old spelling, which occasions no perplexity; but when the work comes to another edition, we would recommend it to him to add a few dates on the margin, to break his pages into more paragraphs, and to revise his punctuation. He would make the book infinitely more saleable, too, if, without making the slightest variation in what is retained, he would omit about 200 pages of the siege of Nottingham, and other parish business especially as the whole is now put beyond the reach of loss or corruption by the present full publication.

FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.

The History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. By T. Clarkson, M. A. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1808. Philadelphia, republished, James P. Parke, 1808. 2 vols. $ 3.

THERE are works of so much moral worth, that it would imply a deadness of feeling in the critick, if, in reviewing them, he did not abate some part of his wonted attention to the minutia of style or arrangement, That which a deep sense of the importance of his subject had withheld from the author's notice during the composition, should gain only a subordinate degree of attention from the reader. Not unfrequently, indeed, the style itself will become more noble and affecting on the whole, in consequence of this neglect of rhetorical accuracy. There are beauties of style, which, like night violets, send forth their odours, themselves unnoticed. The traveller receives the gentle refreshment as he hurries on, without knowing or asking whence it proceeds.

In this class, we do think, that the present publication may be included, if any work might dare to advance such claims. It contains the history of the rise and progress of an evil the most pernicious, if only because the

most criminal, that ever degraded human nature. The history of a war of more than two centuries, waged by men against human nature; a war too carried on, not by ignorance and barbarism, against knowledge and civilisation; not by half famished multitudes against a race blessed with all the arts of life, and softened and effeminated by luxury; but, as some strange nondescript in iniquity, waged by unprovoked strength against uninjuring helplessness, and with all the powers which long periods of secu rity and equal law had enabled the assailants to develop; in order to make barbarism more barbarous, and to add, to the want of political freedom, the most dreadful and debasing personal suffering. Thus, all the effects and influences of freedom were employed to enslave; the gifts of knowledge to prevent the possibility of illumination; and powers, which could not have existed but in consequence of morality and religion, to perpetuate the sensual vices, and to ward off the emancipating blow of Christianity; and as if this were not enough, positive laws were added by the best and freest nation of Christendom, and powers intrusted to the basest part of its popu lation, for purposes which would almost necessarily make the best men become the worst.

Nor are the effects of this strange war less marvelous than its nature. It is a war in which the victors fall lower than the vanquished; in which the oppressors are more truly objects of pity than the oppressed; while, to the nation which had most extensively pursued and most solemnly authorized it, it was an eating ulcer into the very vitals of its main resources as to defence, and a slow poison acting on that constitution which was the offspring, and has continued to be the protector, of its freedom and prosperity. In short, the present work is the history of one great calamity, one long continuous crime, involving every possible definition of evil; for it combined the wildest physical suffering, with the most atrocious moral depravity.

Were these the whole contents of this work, it would command the conscientious attention of every good man; for we must know, abhor, and pity the evil, before we can have light to guide, or vital warmth to propel us towards its removal. But this is not all. It is the history of its removal; of the means employed; of the patience exerted; of the fears and prudential sophistries which incessantly tempted virtuous hope to despondency; and of the glorious success which at length rewarded its perseve rance. Finally, this interesting tale is related, not by a descendant, but a contemporary; not by a distant spectator, but by a participator of the cons test; and, of all the many participators, by the man confessedly the most efficient; the man whose unparalleled labours, in this work of love and peril, leave on the mind of a reflecting reader the sublime doubt, which of the two will have been the greater final gain to the moral world, the removal of the evil, or the proof thereby given what mighty effects single good men may realize by self-devotion and perseverance.

To those who have not considered the nature of the slave trade in its detail, or examined the evidences which were acted upon by the late legislature of Great Britain, our expressions may appear forced and extravagant. But if the perusal of this work, together with the evidences adduced before the committee of the house of commons, and the earlier masterly pamphlet of our author, "On the impolicy of the Slave Trade," do not furnish them with facts giving full and appropriate meaning to each word of each sentence we have used, we must either suppose obstinate prejudices, or ap pear to ourselves to wander in a world of enigma.