and orderly distribution. We are very strict and curious to uphold our own property; and there is great reason for it. Are the clergy only a sort of men who have no property at all in that which is called theirs? I am sure they are Englishmen, they are subjects. If we pull down bishopricks, and pull down cathedral churches, in a short time we must be forced to pull down colleges too; for scholars will live and die there as in cells, if there be not considerable preferment to invite them abroad: and the example we are making now will be an easy temptation to the less pressing necessities of future times. This is the next way to bring in barbarism, to make the clergy an unlearned, contemptible vocation, not to be desired but by the basest of the people; and then where shall we find men able to convince an adversary? A clergyman ought to have a far greater proportion to live upon than any other man of an equal condition. He is not bred to multiply threepences; it becomes him not to live mechanically and sordidly; he must be given to hospitality. I do know myself a clergyman, no dignitary, whose books have cost him 10007., which, when he dies, may be worth to his wife and children about 2007. It will be a shameful reproach to so flourishing a kingdom as this to have a poor, beggarly clergy. For my part, I think nothing too much, nothing too good, for a good minister, a good clergyman. They ought least to want who best know how to abound. Burning and shining lights do well deserve to be set in good candlesticks. Mr. Hyde, I am as much for reformation, for paying and maintaining

religion, as any man whatsoever: but I profess, I am not for innovation, demolition, nor abolition."

This admirable speech of our author Rudyerd is another proof, were any wanting, of his unflinching integrity. The difficulty of his position, with a majority of the House opposed to him, at a period, too, when a difference of opinion was regarded as heretical, treasonable, and damnable, may be conceived; but he was too honourable, too conscientious, to permit any feeling of personal danger to sway his opinions in matters of such vital importance, and he proudly and manfully stood forward as the champion of the ancient, but purified government of the Church. The part taken by Sir Benjamin Rudyerd on on this occasion does infinite honour to his memory; and it would be an act of injustice were his biographer not to acknowledge how loud in his praise have been all historians and friends of the Church, who, living at a subsequent period, remote from such scenes of destructive excitement, have leisurely and impartially considered all the bearings of the case against the bishops, deans, and chapters, and who hailed with delight their happy restoration to those ecclesiastical rights so necessary and essential for

the good government and welfare of the Church.

That admirable author, Southey, in his "Book of the Church," p. 460, when alluding to the able manner in which Dr. Hacket refuted many of the charges brought against the dignified clergy upon his admission to speak before the House in their behalf, pays a high compliment also to Sir Benjamin Rudyerd's exertions in favour of the Church, the good qualities of his mind, and his powers of oratory; for not only does he declare him to have been “one of the most able and upright of his time, but one of the most eloquent men in that best age of English eloquence." And certainly, the foregoing speeches (making allowance for the change of style, and the use of a succession of sonorous words, now obsolete), will bear comparison with many of the oratorical effusions of the nineteenth century; whilst they possess the greater merit of conciseness, for they are seldom diffuse, and, generally speaking, they contain neither a word more nor less than is absolutely necessary to convey the spirit of the author's meaning.

Since the preceding pages went to press, several autograph speeches of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd upon various subjects of interest have

been most obligingly forwarded to the Editor by the Rev. H. Robinson, D. D., Rector of Warley, near Brentwood in Essex.* Among others, three (not mentioned by any of the old chroniclers, nor alluded to in the " Parliamentary History,") which establish his opinion as to the guilt of the Earl of Strafford.

It appears by the journals of the House, that Sir B. Rudyerd was appointed one of the commissioners for taking evidence against this unhappy statesman, whose misfortunes have, by reason of his general acquirements, obtained for him the sympathies of all succeeding generations; so much so, indeed, that it is considered almost heresy at this day even to suggest a doubt, if not of his guilt, at least of the injustice of his sentence, while many even go so far as to assert his entire innocence. According to the definition of treason as it is found in the statute-book, Lord Strafford could not have been legally convicted of that crime; but there was abundant evidence of great guilt in his maladministration of the Irish affairs, as well as in his pernicious counsels to the King; and though the amiableness of his manners towards his

*This circumstance will account for their not having been introduced under their proper dates.

friends, his affectionate feelings towards his family, his accomplished mind, to which may be added his personal appearance, high birth and fortune, must all have conspired to raise him a host of friends who would unceasingly lament his fate,-it cannot be denied that there was sufficient criminality in his conduct, if not adequately to excuse the part taken by the Parliament, at least to withhold the insertion of his name in the catalogue of mere political victims, of which the history of this country affords too many examples.

The charges against this unfortunate nobleman, who is admitted by Hume and other historians to have been proud, haughty, and severe in his government, are too well known to require any specific mention in these memoirs.

During the debate upon the evidence taken to substantiate the charge of treason, Sir Benjamin Rudyerd thus addressed the House in the month of November :

"Mr. Speaker, -There is all the reason in the world that we should add as much honour and lustre to our justice as we possibly can. Honour is a multitudinous attestation of opinions by tongues, as a petition may be a multitudinous attestation of desires by hands. We have entertained divers of this kind