Star.
London, England, 1829-11-05 00:00:00

FOR THE STAR.

48 Heroes are still the same, the point's screed.
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede."—Pon.
When HENRY IV. of France was, on one occasion,
recapitulating before all the Court, the names of the
most distinguished warriors, he placed his hand upon
CR I LLON'S shoulder, and said, " Messieurs, voici le
premier Capitaine du Monde." " Vous en avez menti,
Sire,—teat vous,"—was CRILLON'S bold yet mo-
dest reply. The character of HEN RY, em-
blazoned as we are told it has been by fifty
historians, and five hundred panegyrists, poets and orators,
maintains no exclusive pre-eminence in the temple of
Fame ; whilst the manly frankness, the unaffected sin-
cerity, and unassuming deportment of CRILLON • have
been but indifferently emulated by " the great Captains"
.of succeeding times, or even of our own age ; who, when
it has been their " cue to speak," have indulged in the
self-complacent practice of echoing back the praises
heaped upon them—and betrayed an open and indecent
contempt of the very land that gave them birth. Some
of them, indeed, not content with giving to the world a
poor reflection of the worst qualities of COROLI ANU S—
hia dangerous self-sufficiency—his scorn of his humbler
fellow subjects—and his love of oppression,—ape " the
fantastic tricks"of ALExAwnza,—and aspire with CRoar-
e
ELL to the undivided and uncontrolled exercise of the
executive power. When POPE; who was no mean politi-
cian, nor ordinary observer of mankind, said that" party
was the madness of many for the gain of a few ;" he might
have added that " inordinate ambition was the madness of
a few for the ruin of the many." I shall hereafter illus-
trate this position more fully, not by an elaborate discus-
sion, but by a more minute reference to the lives of the
most memorable MILITARY AND MINISTERIAL MAD-
MEN—those of them, at least, who stand distinguished
from their moon-stricken brethren by State-influenza—
that extraordinary aberration of the intellect produced by
. _
for-
•

the delusive notion of their exclusive fitness wielding
the destinies of all the world this mode of treating
the subject I have resolved upon, in compliance with the
dictum of the Poet, who tells us
" The argument most apt and ample.
For COMMA use is the example."
But it would ill become those who affect to write " for
all time," to let slip such an occasion of " reading a great
moral lesson" to posterity, whilst they inculcate upon our
own generation, the imperious necessity of setting bounds
to the vainglorious wishes of every spoiled child of For-
tune—to some one of whom, this page may prove
a glass, " where they may see the inmost part of
them," and contemplate, at one view, the growth of
their wild desires—the consummation of their most
towering hopes, and the slow but certain fate of that
" vaulting ambition which doth o'erleap itself, and fall on
the other side."—The catalogue of our Heroes com-
mences, par excellence, with " Macedaisia's Madman"
—though, to confess the truth, his case is marked by so
few of the worst symptoms of the disease—such as dissimu-
lation, hypocrisy—treachery, and usurpation ;—and he
was beside " every inch a King" by birth as well as
conquest, that I should pass by ALEXANDER THE
GREAT, were there not an incident involved in his his-
tory, which ought to be read once a month at least, by
all who aspire to thrust themselves into the Chair of
State before 'tis empty ;—unbidden and unworthy occu-
pants.—Thus then is the affair narrated by Pt..u-
acii :—" One day ALEXANDER having stripped
for the refreshment of oil, and to play at ball,
when his attendants went to fetch his clothes,
they beheld a man sitting in profound silence upon
his throne, dressed in the Royal robes, and with the
diadem upon 'his head. They demanded who he was ?
and it was a long time before he would give them any
answer.. At last, recovering his senses, he said, " My
name is Mow vs tus, and I am a native of Messene.
Upon a criminal process being instituted against me, I
left that place, and embarked for Babylon. There I have
been kept in chains a long time; but this day the God
Serapis appeared to me, and broke my chains, after
which he conducted me hither,and ordered me to put on this
robe and diadem, and sit here in silence." After the man
had thus explained himself, ALEXANDER, by the advice
of his soothsayers, put him to death."—Now, rational as
the poor man's speech appears to be, yet be was mad :
and, mercy on us ! if all men who make rational speeches,
even when predicating their own madness, were to be
put to death, there is one head at least that would sit un-
easily upon its shoulders.—The next victim of the insatiate
thirst of power, has claims to attention founded upon
something more than even his own demerits ; since in
him we recognise the guilty prototype of many a more
successful betrayer of Royal confidence : ALVAREZ DE
LUNA, a favourite of Joix 11. King of Castille, was
celebrated for the prodigious ascendancy which he gained
over that Prince, and Tendered still more notorious by
the exemplary punishment which closed his career. Of
the forty-five years which he passed at Court, he enjoyed
for upwards of thirty, such absolute power over the King
that nothing could be done without his express command;
nay, it is related by MARIANA, that the King could not
change an officer or a servant, or even his clothes or diet,
without the approbation of ALVAREZ. At length, this
arbitrary Dictator became so obnoxious, and his designs
were so palpably developed, that he was seized, on a
charge of having madly invaded the rights of kingly
Majesty, reduced the whole Court into his power, and
made himself absolute master of the State. He was
tried—found guilty—and condemned to lose his head.
—Be it known to all ambitious favourites, that Atv .4 REZ
DE Mr): A was executed on the 4th day of June, 1453.
And now, like the figures which scared Macbeth, even
in the spectral mirror,—l might bid
" The line stretch out to the crack of doom."—
but I shall close my descriptive catalogue with a sketch
of OLIVER CROMWELL—A sketch taken from
the details of History, as ZEUXIS painted his
celebrated picture of HELEN, from the description
of HOMER. If there be found in the mental attri-
butes of any living Personage, some traits which conjure
up unpalatable recollections of the " fortunate madman,"
as the PROTECTOR has been styled, far be the applica-
tion from my thoughts :—Like Costard in that pleasant
Comedy of " Love's Labour's Lost, he may read so far and
exclaim " not a word of Costard yet ;" but if he read on
to the end, let him not fit the cap to his own head, and
cry out at the close of every " untoward" sentence, " Me
—me'—still me'—oh me !"—And so proceed we •
—Om vER CROMWELL, at the onset of his career

any military command or civil appointment. Hum E.
tells us, that the whole military autlunity was bestowed
in appearance upon FAIRFAX but in reality upon
CROMWELL ;—of whom he says " The strokes of his
character are as openly and strongly marked, us the
schemes of his conduct were, during the time, dark and
impenetrable. Carried by his natural temper to mag-
nanimity, to grandeur, and to an imperious and ebnni-
neering policy ; i.e yet knew, when necessary, to employ
the most profound dissimulation, the most oblique and
refined artifice, the semblance of the greatest mode-
ration and simplicity." FA lItFAx, or more prcoerly
speaking, CROMWELL, under his name, introduced at last
the new model into the army, and threw the troops into a
different shape.—The Council of Officers and Agitators
were moved altogether by CROMWELL'S direction, and
conveyed his whole will to the army. Though one vizor
fell off, another still remained to cover his natural coun-
tenance. Where delay was requisite, he could employ
the most indefatigable patience ; where celerity was
necessary, he flew to a decision. And by thus uniting
in his person the most opposite talents, he was enabled to
combine the most contrary interests in a subserviency to
his secret purposes.—With the negociations at St. Al-
ban's, " commenced the encroachments of the military
upon the civil authority. The Army in their usurpations
on the Parliament, copied exactly the model which the
Parliament itself had set them, in their recent usurpations
on the Crown."—When CROMWELL has obtained full
controul of the Sovereign's person, " that artful politi-
cian,. as well as the leaders of all parties, paid court
to the King"—who " had no suspicion that one
born a private 'gentleman could entertain the daring
ambition of seizing a sceptre transmitted through a long
line.of monarchs. While CROMWELL allured the King
by these expectations, he still continued his scheme of
reducing the Parliament to subjection, and depriving them
of all means of resistance." It was even demanded that
the militia of London should be changed. So far
H :—another writer, tells us that " CuomwELL's
forte lay in watching and seizing opportunities, not in
creating or inventing them." And Mrs. HuTCHINSON,
in her portrait of his government, says, " He at last ex-
ercised such an arbitrary power that the whole land grew
weary of him, while he set up a company of mean silly
fellows, called MAJOR GENERALS, as governors in every
county. These ruled, according to their own wills, by
no law but what seemed good in their own eyes." In
Jonwsox's life of WALLER, we are told that " CROM-
WELL was very desirous, as appears from his conversa-
tion, related by WHITLOCK, of adding the title, to the
power, of monarchy ; and is supposed to have been
withheld from, it partly by fear of the army, and
partly by fear of the laws, which when he should
govern by the name of king, would have re-
strained his authority. When therefore a deputation
was solemnly sent to invite him to the crown, he, after a
long conference, refused it, but is said to have fainted iu
his coach, when he parted from them." Let us pass
briefly to the close of his guilty greatness. Soon after his
second inauguration as Protector (which took place at
Westminster Hall with all the pomp of a coronation,) he
was much annoyed by a pamphlet called " Killing no
Murder," in which the author boldly maintained that one
who had violated all law bad forfeited all right to life.—
The troubles of OLt vEn accumulated daily, and the
death of his daughter Mrs. CLAYPOLE, and her re-
proaches, made a deep impression upon his mind. He
fell into a deep melancholy, and at last became delirious.
What a fate was his, as COW LEY has described it, " by
the severest judgment of ALMIGHTY GOD, to die HAR-
DENED, and MA D, and UNREPENTANT, with the cu RSES
of the present age, and the DETESTATION of all
to succeed ?" . .

" It is not possible," says JOHNSON, " to read with-
out some contempt and indignation, the poems of the
same Author (WALLER) ascribing the highest degree of
power and piety to CHARLES the First,—then trans-
ferring the same power and piety to OLIVER CROM-
WELL; now inviting OLIVER to take the crown, and
then congratulating CHARLES the Second on his re-
covered right. Neither CROatwELL nor CHARLES
could value his testimony as the effect of conviction, or
receive his praises as effusions of reverence ; they could
consider them but as the labour of invention, and the
tribute of dependence."—But, were Jon :ism; now
living, what would he say of the " labours of invention,
and the tributes of dependence" which debase and degrade
the " leading Journal of all Europe ?" To-day ad-
vocating the rights of the legitimate QUEEN OF PORTU-
GAL—and to-morrow pleading the expediency of recog-
nising as KING of that country—a blood-stained tyrant
—a perjurer—and usurper:—

••••ma." A vice of Kings,
A cut-purse of the Empire and the rule ;
A thief, that from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!"
Can it be, that having deserted the public service for
the service of despotism, the apostate veils beneath his
" damnable dissimulation" an atrocious design to sap the
very foundations of public principle by palliating the
guilt of usurpation, which he dares to tell us " is purged
of the vices of its origin by long continuance, and be-
comes, as far as national intercourse is concerned, legiti-
mate authority,"—and justifying, on the ground of poli-
tical expediency, the foulest treason against GOD and
man ? Can it be, that the slave has thus " thrown up a
straw to see which way 'the wind sets"—that he may
prepare us to recognise usurpations neare, home.
Nov. 4, 1829. JOHN OLDHAM.

The Duke of BUCKINGHAM arrived in town last
evening about eight o'clock, by the Lord Liverpool
Steam Vessel from Ostend, and this day proceeded to
join his amiable family at his Grace's seat, Avington.
This day being the Anniversary of the Gunpowder
Plot, the bells in London and Westminster rung a fre-
quent peal ; and at one o'clock the Park and Tower guns
were fired on the occasion.

VACANT FELLOWSII IP.—There is a Fellowship vacant
on the original foundation of Brasenose College, Oxford,
which will shortly be filled up in rather a peculiar manner.
The first class of candidates will consist of natives of the
parishes of Prescot in Lancashire, and Prestbury in
Cheshire ; the second of natives of such parts of Lan-
cashire and Cheshire as were formerly within the ancient
diocese of Lichfield and Coventry ; the third of natives of
all parts of that diocese ; the fourth of the old diocese of
Lincoln ; and the fifth of the members of the University
at large. The natives of Prescot and Prestbury will have
the first chance, but, if none of them should obtain it, the
natives of the parts of Lancashire and Cheshire men-
- will

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