The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-08 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Mr. Macaulay says, " He [Sidney] asked how,
" if there were no plot, the letters and minutes
" which were found upon Ashton, were to be
" explained ? This question Penn evaded."
Mr. Dixon says, " Sidney does not say that he
" asked how the letters and minutes found on
" Ashton were to be explained." Surely this
is trifling. Lord Sidney certainly does not
use those words, but he as certainly implies
that he asked the question in some shape.
" He would not give any positive answer." To
what? How does Mr. Dixon explain these
words, except on the hypothesis that some
such question had been put? But even if it
had not been asked—and we have every reason
to suppose that it was—the charge of perjury
would not have been touched. The question
is, did a knowledge of Preston's and Ashton's
papers necessitate a knowledge of the plot?
And had Penn that knowledge of their papers ?
Neither of these two points are decided ; but
until they are, Mr. Macaulay's accusation is as
groundless as Mr. Dixon's defence is feeble.
The other six charges are in our opinion
utterly frivolous. Mr. Dixon labours hard to
make them formidable :
Among the persons whom he wished to conciliate was
William Kitfin, a pious and good man, a leader among his
sect, and a controversialist, with whom Penn had debated
in public the most subtle dogmas in theology. James
offered a city magistracy to Kittin ; but two of his grand-
sons had fallen in the western rebellion : their death had
wounded the old man's heart ; and it was doubtful whether
he would accept the proffered honours. At this point Mr.
Macaulay introduces Penn:—

The heartless and veunl sycophants of Whitehall, judging by
themselves, thought that the old man would be easily propitiated
by an alderman's gown, and by some compensation in money
fur the property which his grandsons had forfeited. Penn was
employed in the work of seduction, but to no purpose.

In his autobiography, lately published from the original
manuscript, Kiffin says :

In a little after, a great temptation attended me, which was a
commission from the King to be one of the aldermen of the
City of Londoc • which, as soon as I heard of it, I used all the
diligence 1 could to be excused, both by some lords near the
King, and also by Sir Nicholas Butler and Mr. Penn. But it
was all in vain.

Penn did not go to Kiffin ; Kiffin went to Penn. Instead
of being employed by the King or by the Court in the
work of seduction, he was engaged at the instance of Kiffin
himself in the task of intercession. Mr. Macaulay makes
Kiffin refuse the magistracy ; Kittin says he accepted it.

What does all this amount to ? James wished
to conciliate the Dissenters, and many of the
Dissenters doubtless believed in the sincerity
of his professions. Penn was sent to treat
with one of their leaders. Why not? But
Mr. Macaulay entitles it a work of seduction ;
and his commentator, at once swallowing the
phrase, proceeds to disprove the fact. He
is not very successful, for it by no means
follows, because Kiffin asked Penn to get
him excused the gown, that Penn might not
first have asked Kiffin to accept it. The
charge of his having been employed to
" terrify, bribe, or caress the fellows of Mag-
" dalene " is of the same description, and
answered by Mr. Dixon in a similar fashion.
Mr. Dixon's comments on Penn's reputed
Jacobitism are of a piece with the rest. Here
is an extract from a letter which Avaux,
Louis the Fourteenth's agent at Dublin, wrote
to his master :
Le commencement des nonvelles datees d'Angleterre,

est la copie d'une lettre de M. Pen que j'ay veue en ori-
ginal. On pent juger pars tout ces ►nemoires que si Sa
Maieste Britannique estoit en estst d'entrer en Angleterre
elle recouvreroit bientost cette courunne, mais it ne le
peut sans la protection de vostre Maieste, que verra mieux
que moy par ces relations cy, ce qu'il y sunlit a faire, pour
le Roy d'Angleterre, si neantmoins vostre Ma►este me
permet de luy diro mon sentiment, je trouve qu'un secours
d'argent avec un bon corps de troupes Francoises, est le
plus court moyen qu'il y ait de remettre le Roy &Angle-
terra en estst de se restablir sur le throsne, et cet effort
qu'onferoit a cette heure, delivreroit vostre Maieste dans la
suitte d'une plus grands despense qu'elle sera peutestre
obligee de faire.

A Frenchman employed in the Jacobite cause,
writing to his own Court, says that he has
received a letter which has induced him to
make certain reflections. The letter must have
contained something to give rise to them : it
can hardly have been a dissuasion from the
measure indicated. For Penn was a man of
ability, and all King James's adherents pos-
sessed of the least common sense had only
one conviction on the subject. But, suppose
we admit the accusation that Penn " did his
" best to bring a foreign army into the heart
" of his country," is this necessarily a crime ?
Mr. Dixon, led away as usual by an imposing

SATURDAY,

generality, taxes his ingenuity to wrest their
obvious meaning from the words of Avaux's
letter. A readier answer was at hand. IN
not the Whigs themselves bring a foreign
army into the heart of their country? Was not
the hero of Mr. Macaulay's epic at the head of
it? Did not the French Legitimists—who,
whatever we may think of their cause, were
individually men of honour and spirit—bring
a foreign army into the heart of their country;
Did not the Spanish Liberals, with the sane
tion of the English Whigs, introduce a foreign
army into the heart of their country? Alr.
Macaulay must know very well, if Mr. Dixon
does not, that his words are mere high-sound.
ing nonsense, that cannot be seriously main.
tained for a moment.

We have left ourselves no space for criticism
of the life of Penn. It is, however, now well
known to the public, and we have much plea-
sure in recording our sense of its value. It
is well written, and the narrative interesting
and not too long.