law, levied a tax, to be collected seize the license of wholesale theft. at the point of the bayonet, of Thus the peculations of the perone-tenth, per annum, of the in- sons connected with the governcome of all the royalists who had ment were infinite in number and a hundred pounds a year. But infamy, and enormous in amount. this iniquitous exaction was butas There is but too much evidence, a scourge of whips, when com- that the picture given by Sir W. pared with the scorpion lash of Scott, in the Introduction to the compositions in money ex- Woodstock, of the thefts, oppresacted for pretended political of- sions and lies of the Rota, is far more fences, and the sweeping confis- of history than romance. Doubtcations of royalists' estates. The less, the Lord Protector's treasury Long Parliament, when under the suffered as much by the light lead of the Presbyterian party, fingers of his friends, as did the had set the evil example of these pockets of Cavaliers. One notable fines and compositions. The instance, illustrating the morals

of the party, is presented by the fate of the coin and bullion captured by the fleet of Drake, off Cadiz, in the famous Galleons from the West Indies. Thurloe states, that while the rumors as to the amount actually captured,

saintly Independents were apt scholars, and carried the art to the greatest height. Many of the noblest royalist houses were utterly impoverished for the time. The pages of Thurloe, Cromwell's minister, show that scarcely a letter passed between him and the varied exceedingly, it could not major-generals commanding the have been less than about a mildistricts, which did not detail lion sterling. Of this, only about some job of royalist plunder, the two hundred and fifty, or three attempt to arrest the person of hundred thousand, sterling, ever some 'malignant' in order to reached the treasury,* the recompel him, by illegal imprison- mainder was stolen by the saints. ment, to disclose his revenues, or The mention of Spain suggests the punishment of some unfortu- the only remaining fact needed to nate, for attempting to reserve a substantiate our charge: Crompittance for the maintenance for well's attack upon this power a helpless family from the all-de- showed that his foreign adminisvouring man of confiscation.*- tration was as unprincipled as A very little knowledge of human his domestic. Having equipped nature suffices to convince us, a great fleet under Admiral Penn, that the majority of Cromwell's and General Venables, he sent it military and civic instruments clandestinely to attack the Spanwould not fail to imitate the ish West Indies, without declaracrimes of their government.- tion of war, or demand of redress When plunder was thus made for supposed grievances, or intirespectable by the supreme power, mation of his purpose; while the personal avarice was not slow to Spanish Court was in peaceful relations with his government, and With the ultraists constitutional the Spanish ambassador quietly right is simply the will of the facresiding in London. No purer tion he prefers, when clothed with act of piracy was ever committed physical power. Now, this theoby a Bucaneer in the Spanish

Main.

ry of freedom is simply a theory of self-will: and self-will is selfishness; and selfishness is unrighteousness. It may be easily seen from this point of view, that the natural affinities of this school of partizans are with despotism.

It thus appears that the "Extreme Left" of the English Revolution, like that of France, hastened to practise every oppression for which they had assailed the constituted authorities: and that, Here we have one solution of the in more aggravated forms. Their historical fact, that their dominaguilt was greatly darker than that tion always ends in a Cromwell or of the deposed rulers: because it Napoleon. Another may be found was more inconsistent. They in their radical incompetency for professed to attack abuses, in the the duties of impartial governinterest of popular right. When ment, and the obvious tendency they, in turn, violated popular of their system of power to anrights, by forcing the government archy. Not only are their founof a factious minority over an un- dation dogmas disorganizing; their willing majority, they are con- method of rule is intrinsically a demned out of their own mouths. warfare. They establish the The established rules had at least mere will of the dominant faction possessed the established forms of as supreme law: the consequence precedent: the ultraists trampled is that their government, instead of on those prescriptive forms, and making itself felt, in the general, on popular right at once. The as an equitable and impartial prorationale of this crime is not dif- tection to the recognized rights of ficult to read. The true conception of liberty, upon which all equitable and beneficent government rests, is, that liberty, for the several orders in the state, means the privilege of each one's doing what he has a moral right to do. ernment become a series of aggresIts principle is in that noble sions and resistances, a virtual apophthegm of the Scotch divine, civil war. The passions of moral Rex Lex. But the liberty intend- indignation at conscious wrong, ed by the Independents in Church fear, resentment, revenge and State, is far different: it is perpetually awakened by the acts privilege to do what he pleases. In of the ruling faction, in one and the noble words of Milton's son- another segment of the community, until the whole becomes a "License they mean, when they cry thundercloud, overcharged with For who loves that, must first be wise electricity, and breaks out again, despite the sternest repression,

the several orders in the State, is known and felt perpetually as a hostile assault of a part of the citizens, (usually a minor part) on the privileges of another part.Thus, the very functions of gov

are

into tumult and tempest. Thus, probation of the great bulk of the the government of the extreme several classes, as, on the whole, left, after usurping the revolution- fair, and possible, and beneficent. ary forces, shows itself powerful This distribution must have been and energetic to depress its do- embodied, in some form, in the mestic rivals, to pull down and sacred enactments of a recognized destroy, to harass its enemies with constitution. And this constituexcess of miseries, and to aggra- tion must be upheld by the virtue vate confusions: It is impotent to and good sense of the people, as restore any form of order. It is supreme ruler and king, [under destined, in its turn, to give place God) before whose venerated to some other form of power, voice, the personal will of legislastrong enough to crush down and tors and rulers, and the desires of punish its excesses, and which both majorities and minorities, probably finishes, by establishing shall alike bow. Then, the exersome stable order more onerous cise of goverment is felt by the and less beneficent than the old. general heart to be, in the main, That true liberty may be enjoyed, protective, and not aggressive; it it is as essential that this popular gathers around it the strong ramself-will be curbed, as that the in- parts of popular approbation and dividual despot be excluded.- affection; it is received as the exSome practical distribution of po- pression of the recognized ethical litical privileges must have been right, and not as the expression of agreed upon, which, although not the caprice or lust of a rival and believed to be perfect, (what is hostile faction.

DRAMATIC SKETCH.

(SCENE-The Corridor of a Palace. PERSONS-A young Knight and

his Mentor. TIME-the 14th Century.)

MENTOR.

"With what a grace she passed us by just now!,
Her delicate chin half raised, her cordial brow
A cloudless Heaven of bland benignities!;
What tempered lustre too in her dove's eyes,
Just touched to archness by the eyebrow's curve,
And those quick dimples which the mouth's reserve
Stir and break up, as sunlit ripples break
The cool clear calmness of a mountain lake!:
A woman in whom majesty and sweetness
Blend to such issues of serene completeness,
That to gaze on her were a prince's boon!;
The calm of evening, the large pomp of noon,
Are her's; soft May morns melting into June,
Hold not such tender languishments as those
Which steep her in that dew-light of repose,
That floats a dreamy balm around the full-blown rose:-
And yet, 'tis not her beauty tho' so bright,
(Clear moon-fire mixed with sun-flame,) nor the light,
Transparent charm we feel so exquisite,
Whereby she's compassed as a wizard star
By its own life-air! 'tis not one, nor all
Of these, whereby we're mastered, Sir, and fall
Slave-like before her: doubtless such things are
Potent as spells-still there's a something fine,
Subtler than hoar-rime in the faint moonshine,
More potent yet!, -an undefinéd art,

'Twere vain to question: your whole being, heart,
Brain-blood-seem lapsing from you, fired and fused
In her's-a terrible power, and if abused
But by St. Peter! 'tis not safe to talk
Of yon weird woman! turn now! watch her walk
'Twixt the tall tiger lilies-there's a free,
Brave grace in every step,- but still to me,
It hath-I know not what-of covertness,
Cunning, and cruel purpose!; can you guess

The picture it brings up? -a lonely rock
From which a young Bedouin guards his flock,
In the swart desert:-there's a tawny band,
A curved and tangled pathway of loose sand,
Winding above him; the tranced airs make dim
His slumberous senses!, -his great brown eyes swim
In th' mist of dreams, when gliding with mute tread
Forth from the thorn trees, o'er his nodding head,
Moves a lithe-bodied panther; - (Lo! how fair
The beast is, with her moony-spotted hair,
And her deft desert paces!); - one breath more!
And you'll behold the spouting of fresh gore,
Heart-blood that's human!;-can aught save him now?-
Hist! the sharp crackle of a blasted bough,
Whence flies a huge hill-eagle, rustling
O'er the boy's forehead his vast breadths of wing,
And sweeping as a half-seen shade, 'twould seem,
Betwixt his startled spirit, and its dream;
He's roused! espies his danger!, at a bound
Leaps into safety where the low-set ground
Is buttressed 'neath two giant crags thereby:-
(Now hark ye! 'tis no pictured phantasy,
This scene, my Anslem!, but all's true and clear
Before me, tho' full many a weary year
Has waxed and waned since then:-
My meaning pryth'ee? foolish youth, beware!,
There's Treachery lurking in the gay parterre,
As in the hoary desert's silentness-,
And dreams with danger, death perchance behind,
May lull young sleepers in the perfumed wind,
Which hardly lifts the tiniest truant tress
It toys with coyly, of a woman's hair:-
Our sternest fates have risen in forms as fair,
As-let us say for lack of similes,
As-her's, who bends now with such gracious ease,
O'er her rich tulip beds!-

Were I the bird,

Wert THOU the shepherd ANSLEM, of my tale, (And that thou hast not hearkened, boy, unstirred, Is clear, albeit thou need'st not wax so pale), What would true wisdom whisper-now 'tis done, My warning, and thy day-dream in the sun-? What! why her mandate's plain:, -I hear her say, 'Young Knight! to horse!, leave the Queen's Court to-day!!" "