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cares, and spar'd no cost to improve me in my education, which procur'd me the admiration of those that flatter'd my parents.' pp. 15. 16.

Mrs. Hutchinson's next fragment addressed to her children concerning their father, is, according to the fashion of the age, a formal panegyric on the virtues of her departed husband. Though hard laboured, minute, and even extravagant, it contains many noble passages, displays great delicacy of discernment, and breathes sublime devotion. The magnificent metaphors and solemn reflections abounding in this address, frequently remind us of the burning eloquence of Bishop Taylor. Restricted as we are, by our limits, we must quote one short passage only, where we should be willing to transcribe pages.

In the head of all his vertues, I shall sett that which was the head and spring of them all, his Christianity-for this alone is the true royall blood that runs through the whole body of vertue, and every pretender to that glorious famely, who hath no tincture of it, is an imposter, and a spurious bratt. This is that sacred fountaine which baptizeth all the gentile vertues, that so immortalize the names of Cicero, Plutarch, Seneca, and all the old philosophers; herein they are regenerated, and take a new name and nature; dig'd up in the wildernesse of nature, and dipt in this living spring, they are planted and flourish in the paradice of God.' p. 7.

The Memoirs of the life of Colonel Hutchinson form the bulk of this volume. We cannot even exhibit a skeleton of them. He was prematurely born in the year 1616, and was the eldest surviving son of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, of Owthorp, in Nottinghamshire. His education was worthy of his honourable birth. In very early youth he learned the use of arms, though it does not appear that he ever held any military commission under the King. In 1639, he was married to the author of these Memoirs. His romantic presentiment of love to her, whom he had never seen, and her love at first sight to him, with the few circumstances of their courtship, are most ingenuously and delightfully told. On the rupture between Charles I. and his Parliament, Mr. Hutchinson, then residing at Owthorp, espoused the popular cause, as the cause of God and liberty. We need not deliver any opinion concerning the balance of justice between the parties in this murderous quarrel, in which a tyrannical King, and a refractory Parliament, laid their country in blood and ashes. The greatest virtues and vices of the age were enlisted 'under' the banners of either faction. Disinterested loyalty and mercenary servility, on the one hand, fought against conscientious patriotism and fanatic democracy, on the other On both sides were offered the noblest and the basest sacri

fices; fortune, friends, and life, for public advantage; and honour, truth, and humanity, for private gain: but with each the evil prevailed over the good, and neutralized where it could not transform it. Civil war is national suicide, and God forbid that our country should ever again attempt it! During this horrible anarchy, Colonel Hutchinson was entrusted with the command and defence of the town and castle of Nottingham, which he governed and protected with signal ability and success. After the surrender of the King, he resigned his authority, and devoted himself to his parliamentary duties, having been elected representative of Nottinghamshire on the death of his father. In the disputes between the Parliament and the army, he boldly advocated the rights. of the latter, as the rights of the people of England themselves; great part of the army being composed of yeomen and volunteers, who had fought their own battles at their own expense, having at best had very inadequate pay, and often no pay at all. But Cromwell by silent and subtle policy imperceptibly changed the character of the soldiery, gradually re moving the independent officers, and mingling the privates among mercenaries devoted not to the country, but to their commander. Colonel Hutchinson then, with equal ardour and propriety, resisted the encroachments which that army, thus debased below the sterling standard, attempted on the legisla ture. On the trial of the King, Colonel Hutchinson sat as a member of the court. His conduct on this awful occasion, for which he is no longer responsible to man, was regulated by the firm conviction of his mind, that, if they did not execute justice upon him (the King), God would require at their hands all the blood and desolation which should ensue, by their suffering him to escape when God had brought him into their hands." Mrs. Hutchinson further says of her husband, that

Being called to an extraordinary action, whereof many were of seve rall minds, he addressed himselfe to God by prayer, desiring the Lord, that, if through any humane frailty, he were led into any error or false opinion in these greate transactions, he would open his eies, and not suffer him to proceed, but that he would confirme his spiritt in the truth, and lead him by a right enlightened conscience; and finding no check, but a confirmation in his conscience, that it was his duty to act as he did, he, upon serious debate, both privately and in his addresses to God, and in conferences with conscientious, upright, unbiassed persons, proceeded to sign the sentence against the King.

During the time of the Common-wealth, Colonel Hutchinson maintained independence both in politics and religion. He had been among the first, to discover the ambition of Cromwell, and to anticipate its consequences; but equally

disdaining to bow to the rising or the risen sun, instead of sneaking into his favour while he was low, or crouching at his footstool when he was enthroned in power, he several times told him, with a hardihood of frankness that never was relished or forgiven, both his own and other people's suspicions concerning him. On one occasion Colonel Hutchinson saved the Protector's life, by disclosing a conspiracy against him but, notwithstanding this service, Cromwell, unable to make a tool of him, determined to make him harmless, by imprisoning him for life, as a suspected person; but the infamy of such an act was reserved for Cromwell's enemy, for the profligate Charles II.; and Cromwell himself was saved by death, from adding that to his other crimes. After the resignation of Richard Cromwell, though Colonel Hutchinson was a member of the Parliament that restored the Stuarts, yet he consented to that act only by silent acquiescence, having no further faith in republicans and religionists who had alternately fought for truth and freedom, slavery and error. By the interest of his friends, or rather by the tried integrity of his character, he escaped death as a regicide, and was included in the act of oblivion, with no other stigma than being disqualified to hold any public office. Hereupon he retired to his estate at Owthorp, where he led a most quiet and exemplary life for several years. But he was too great, too good a man for "the wicked to cease from troubling," till they had hunted him to that sanctuary" where the weary are at rest." Under a false pretence, or rather under no pretence at all, for no charge was ever exhibited against him, he was suddenly plucked from the bosom of his family, and imprisoned to death. Let not the violence of this expression alarm our readers: the fact is literally true, if we believe the testimony of this book. His first place of confinement was the Tower, in one of those dens of midnight murder, that were never warmed but with the effusion of human blood. After being denied the privilege even of a traitor, to know his offence and be confronted with his accusers, and after suffering insults and injuries to which guilt itself ought not to be exposed, he was removed to Swandown Castle in Kent; where his miseries were soon consummated by the dampness of his dungeon, and the inhumanity of his jailor. He was seized with a violent ague and fever, of which he died, after an imprisonment of eleven months, in the 48th year of his age.

From this slight sketch, no adequate idea can be formed of the grandeur of Colonel Hutchinson's character: that can only be discovered by an acquaintance with his actions recorded in these Memoirs, by the hand of affection, and the

heart of sincerity. His suprenie devotion to the will of God, and his fervent Christianity, having already been mentioned and exemplified, need no further illustration here; nor will we attempt to determine how far that religion, which was originally promulgated at the point, not with the edge, of the sword, was ever benefited by weapons of worldly warfare; but it will hardly be doubted, at this day, that we enjoy many privileges, for which we are principally indebted to the resistance, even to blood, of the patriots and puritans of that age, against the temporal and spiritual tyranny of Charles I. and his clergy. Colonel Hutchinson was not a saint in profession only; in every situation of life he proved the honesty of his zeal for what he believed to be the cause of God, by his disinterestedness. No man made greater sacrifices, re. ceived less recompence, or resisted stronger temptations to treachery than he. He always refused his share of the booty won by his troops; he did more, he rejected every bribe held out to him by the Royal party, and in one instance spurned an offer of ten thousand pounds," (an immense sum in those days)" and to be made the best Lord in the Country ;”—at a time too, when he was draining his private purse in support of the public service. He never held, because he never sought, any great public employment; had he been ambitious, such military and political talents, as he evidently possessed, would have made him, instead of the impoverished Governor of Nottingham Castle, the companion and the rival of Fairfax and Cromwell. The storming of Shelford was an example of romantic enterprize and admirable generalship. In the exercise of his authority he displayed a firm ness that abashed, and a moderation that enraged his enemies, who were thereby compelled either to continue such without a cause, or to become his friends. Though incessantly harrassed in his government by intriguing demagogues and headstrong fanatics, these vipers licked the dust from his feet before his face, with the very tongues that were ready to sting him in the heel the moment he turned his back. He knew the reptiles, yet forbore to tread upon them. In the issue he triumphed over them all; he was not overcome of evil, but he overcame evil with good:" by deeds of kindness, forbearance, and mercy, he so often subdued his foes, that his friends were wont to say, "if they could in justice and conscience forsake him, they would become his adversaries, for that was the next way to engage him to obligations." That magnanimity which is above revenge, and which is the greatest feature of the greatest characters, was transcendantly conspicuous in Colonel Hutchinson. To the noble qualities.

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which we have mentioned, he united in an eminent degree, a taste for the fine arts, music, engraving, and painting, very rare indeed among his compatriots. But those who would know him must read him in his widow's book, fondly and faithfully transcribed from the dear memorials of his love and excellence treasured up in her heart.

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As we have already exceeded our limits, we must omit some observations which we intended to have made on the character of Mrs. Hutchinson's writings. One strong mark of candour and truth they certainly bear ;-there is to be found ⠀ in them very little violent invective against the Royalists, and very little extravagant praise of the Republicans: the faults of the former, (her enemies) are seldom and slightly noticed; those of the latter, (her partizans) are frequently and severely condemned. We regret that we cannot offer ample specimens of her talents. The following account of Sir John Gell and his men, is drawn with masterly discrimination.

About this time Sir John Gell, a Derbyshire gentleman, who had been Sheriffe of the county, at that time, when the illegall tax of ship mony was exacted, and so violent in the prosecution of it, that he sterv'd Sr. John Stanhope's cattle in the pound, and would not suffer any one to relieve them there, because that worthy gentleman stood out against that uniust payment, and who had by many aggravating circumstances, not only concerning his prosecution of Sr. John Stanhope, but others, so highly misdemean'd himselfe that he lookt for punishment, from the parliament, to prevent it, very early putt himselfe into their service, and after the king was gone out of these countries, prevented the cavalier gentry from seizing the toune of Derby, and fortified it, and rays'd a regiment of foot. These were good, stout, fighting men, but the most licentious ungovernable wretches, that belonged to the parliament. He himselfe, no man knows for what reason, he chose that side; for he had not understanding enough to judge the equity of the cause, nor pietie or holinesse, being a fowle adulterer all that time he serv'd the parliament, and so uniust, that, without any remorse, he suffered his men indifferently to plunder, both honest men and cavaliers; so revengefull, that he persued his mallice to Sr. John Stanhope, upon the fore-mention'd account with such barbarisme after his death, that he, pretending to search for arms and plate, came into the church and defac'd his monument that cost six hundred pounds, breaking of the nose and other parts of it; he digg'd up a garden of flowers, the only delight of his widdow, upon the same pretence; and then woo'd that widdow, who was by all the world believ'd to be the most prudent and affectionate of woman kind, but deluded by his hypocrisies, consented to marry him, and found that was the utmost poynt to which he could carrie his revenge, his future carriage making it apparent, he sought her for nothing elce but to destroy the glory of her husband and his house. This man kept the diurnall makers in pension, so that whatever was done in the neighbouring counties, against the enemy, was attributed to him; and thus he hath indirectly purchas'd himselfe a name in story, which he

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