The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-04-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

■I9TORT OP TILE CO4WONWY•I.TH Or INGLAND.
BY W1L1.1“4 GODWIN.

Mr. Goslwin's object in compiling this valuable addition
to the history of our country, has professedly been " to at-
tend to the neglected. and to remember the forgotten."
Calaisly' no portion of our national annals has been more
disfigured by party rage than the narratives that bare been
pnblisheel respecting the contest between Charles the First
and the Long Parliament, and the succeeding interregnum.
Mr. Godwin states with too much troth, that the swamies
of the leaders of the Commonwealth have for the most
part, been " composted after the manner of the Newgate
Calendar." We perfectly agree with Mr. Gotlwin, that
the proceedings of that period constituted " a series of
tmnctetiona, perhaps not ta be surpassed in importance by
any thing that has occurred on the theatre of the world.
It was much to be desired that an able and faithful history
of those transactions should be compiled. When we un-
derstood that Mr. Godwin was employed in the task, we
anticipated that it would be well performed, and we have
hail the satisfaction of finding that in this instance our an-
ticipations have been fully justified by the result. Mr.
Godwin's History of Me Commuoireolfh is unquestionably
OW of the best historical works is the English language.
The style is suited to the sobriety of the historian's office.
He hes passed judgment on the actors of that memorable
epoch with perfect impartiality. The secret of his success
in this respect is obvious. Ile writes without the trammels
of party or faction. He has in view neither to become the
apologist of the Stuarts, nor the panegyrist of those who
temporarily subverted their authority. Ile has not contented
himself with looking to what would favour the designs of
a partisan ; but, with " an honest and undcbaucheiCeense
of moral right," he has diligently searched every reversible
source of information. In consequence, one of the princi-
pal features of his work is, that he has placed many of the
moat important transactions of that period in a singularly
novel pant of view. We are surprised at the combined
negligence and dishonesty of his predecessors, and we
should, in the first instance, be inclined to accuse him of
sacrificing their reputation to his own thirst for origina-
lity, if he did not everywhere found his statements on
undeniable authority. The printing of the journals of the j
Houses of Lords and Consumes, has given Mt. Godwin an
opportunity, of which he has diligently availed himself, to
state with precision the order and dates of the chief' oc-
currences of the civil war, and of the proceedings of Par-
liament. Lord Clarendon, and Hume, (who has borrowed
so largely from the historian of the " Great Rebellion,")
stand on this evidence convicted of grossly misrepresenting
several of the moat interesting transactions which they have
recorded. Clarendon has been too long in possession of
an undeserved character. Dr. Felton, in his dissertation
on the classics, praises him highly for his " noble negli-
gence of phrase. It would appear, from the following ex-
ample, that he was not more ready ,to " make his words
wait everywhere upon his subject, ' than he was some-
times to make his facts wait upon his argument. His
negligence of truth is at least as apparent as his noble neg-
l*enoe of phrase !
The history of this bill, (the bill foe abolishing episcopacy) as
given by Clarendon, is extremely worthy of our attention. He
says, " The utterly rejecting it at its first introduction was pressed
by very many: but it was at last read; and, no question being
put upon the first reading, it was hid by, and not called upon for
a long time after. At length, when every body expected some-
thing else, they called in a morning for this bill, that had so long
before been brought in, and gave it a second reeding, and resolved
that it should be committed to a Committee of the whole House
the new day.
" It was a very long debate the next morning who should be
put in the chair. They who wished well to the bill having re-
solved to put Mr. Hyde (Clarendon) is the chair, that he might
rot give them trouble by frequei t speaking, and so too much
obstruct the expediting the bill; and in conclusion it was so com-
manded. However, the Chairman gave some stop to their haste :
for, besides that at the end of his report every day to the House,
before the question was put, he always enlarged himself against
every one of the votes, and so spent them much time, he did fre-
quently report two or three votes directly contrary to each other;
so that, alter near twenty days spent in that manner, they found
themselves very little advanced towards a conclusion, and that they
must review all they had done. At length, other occurrences in-
tervening, they were forced to discontinue their beloved bill, and
let it rest ; Sir Arthur Haaehig declaring in the House, that he
would never hereafter put an enemy into the chair."
It is scarcely worth obeerviug, that the bill against episcopacy
was read twice on the day of its introduction, except tor the sake
of illustrating the occurnoy of ear historian. The Commium on
the bill sat on the 11th of June, exactly fifteen days alter.
The historian takes great pain to persuade us that nobody ap-
proved of the bill, that every body scouted it. In that case
all his craft was a gratuitous exhibition, merely to shew how
he excelled in the character." 'Would not any man who re-
vered episcopary, or who wanaspable of feeling in the smallest
degree the deep sentiment and the vast importance of all that was
now at make, have been anxious that the question should be tried
upon its intrinsic merits? lie was certain of success, as he as-
sure, us, by the direct method (it is clear the bill would not at this
time have passed the House of Lords); but he had an invincible
instinct impelling him to prefer the low, the indirect, and the dis-
honest : and It is a fitting retribution for such conduct, that five-
and-twenty years afterwards, is old age and retirement, he felt no
shame to record it.
It may not be improper to consider a little how it will that the
bill weld dim be defeated. On the first day the preamble was
voted: on the second it was resolved, that the taking away the se-
veral offices of archbishops, bishops, chancellors, and commits*.
ries, should be one clause of the bill : on the third, a similar reso-
lution was made against deans, archdeacons, prebendaries, and
moons, only reserving a competent maintenance for such as should
not be found personally delinquent. On the subsequent days va.
ACM questions arose respecting the maintenance to be allotted for
the support of a fit number of preaching ministers for the service
of the cathedrals, and the appointment of certain commissioners to
exercise such ecclesiastical power as might be necessary, and which
on the removal of bishops should not otherwise be provided for ;
and a ub -to mmit tee was named to report to the principal Corn-
alinee on these points. On the 17th of July a new form of
eburekt eroverninent was voted in the Committee of the whole
Reese, that every shire in England should be s several diocese
<Yorkshire being allowed three), that there should be a presbytery
of twelve divines in each shire, with a president In each, in the na-
tun of a bishop that these presidents, assisted by some of the
presbytery, should have power to ordain, suspend, deprive, and
=communicate ; that the presidents should be incapable of being
translated from cue diocese to another; and, lastly, that a diocesan
synod should be held once in a year, and a national synod once in
three years !
Another striking and scandalous instance of Lord Cia-
Pandas's " negligence,' so to term it, occurs in his account
of the debate on the self-denying ordinance which Hume
has espied into his history. The whole is a forgery. The
journals of the Houses of Parliament interfere rather awk-
wardly with the facts of Clarendon 's " vindication" of the
ging•
If, is any part of Mr. Godwin's History, we are inclined
to suspect that his political feelings have biassed his judg-
ment, and induced him to deliver himself less as an histo-
rian than as au advocate, it is in his considerations of the
ilustice of the sentence upon Lard Strafford. it is manifest
in the fallowing paasege that he relies snore confidently on
the integrity of Hampden and Pm, and the other great
nice who then consulted together for the public welfare,"
than on any arguments that be can adduce to justify that
exeerable legislative murder.
if Noma • putt queritkm, is what manner the prosecution of
the Earl of Strafford ought to have terminated. The enormity of
his prat, assuming that it is criminal to invade, and meditate to
destiny, the liberties of a melon, will hardly be questioned. The
ootrtryy .• of the pantie of Edward the Third is to defend the King
If Ms sans* ever been contemplated by any law to defend the
grow body of the people as under him. Are their interests,
therefore, always to be assailed with impunity ? These are prin-
ciples undeobtedly, more binding than, and which disdain to be
confined within she letter of, any positive statute.
It is questionless desirable in alt ordinary cases, wherever positive
law le mieblished, so restrain ourselves within the letter of that
law, and to allow the criminal all the benefit, it' benefit to him shall
• of awy evasion or escape that the law shall afford him. A
Condo( James ought net to strain or wrench the commandment
to the elenensetion of the person arraigned ; it abide an ill ex-
ample; and when lace a relaxation at this sort is admitted into
she memmumites of a law, there is no foreseeing where it will end.
Law is that which restrains the individual, and even restrains
the wide aseninanny, him exercising their natural liberty, of
bean the judge and the chastiser of their own wrongs. But there
are egg of as extraordinary nsture, which reinvest the community
in the satire rights they peasessed befall, particular laws were
established.

Ns one, as I have said, who is a friend to public liberty, can
question the guilt of the Earl of Strafford ; his accusation and his
eseviedoe were of the substance of eternal right ; his defence was
teeltsidel. Several conscientious men in those days were on the
whale*, hie acquittal ; more have been so since. We argue the
case In cool blood ; and are not made elear-sighted by the actually
and esissinir light of the public welfare, which then dis-
whet was requisite to be done.
Law is made for man ; and not man for the law. Wherever we
mis loss
_re Mat the most 'Amble interests of a nation require tho
ilidald decide one way, that way we ought to decide. titre,:
vast that day the most dangerous man to the liberties of
then present, and to tome, that euidd live. rz.bens suggested, into-140On to this case, that " when once
a man is in a situation to be tried, and his person in the power of
his accusers and his judges, he can no longer be formidable in that
decree which alone can justify (if any thing con) the violation of
the substantial rules of crimtral proceedings." Hampden and