on this event. “The catastrophe of De Witt, the wisest, best, and most
truly patriotic minister that ever appeared upon the public stage, as it
was an act of the most crying injustice and ingratitude, so likewise it
is the most completely dis-encouraging example that history affords to
the lovers of liberty. If Aristides was banished, he was also recalled:
if Dion was repaid for his service to the Syracusans by ingratitude,
that ingratitude was more than once repented of: if Sidney and Russell
died upon the scaffold, they had not the cruel mortification of falling
by the hands of the people; ample justice was done to their memory, and
the very sound of their names is still animating to every Englishman
attached to their glorious cause. But with De Witt fell also his cause
and his party; and although a name so respected by all who revere virtue
and wisdom when employed in their noblest sphere, the political service
of the public, yet I do not know that even to this day any public
honours have been paid by them to his memory.”
After De Witt’s death, all his papers were submitted to the most
rigorous examination, in hope of discovering something which should
confirm the popular notion of his being traitorously in league with
France. One of the persons appointed to perform this service being asked
what had been found in De Witt’s papers, replied, “What could we have
found? Nothing but probity.” To the moral qualities of integrity,
intrepidity, and patience, he added intellectual endowments of the
highest order: his perception was acute, his judgment solid; he
possessed great skill and readiness in transacting business, and that
persuasive influence over those who came in contact with him, which is
perhaps the most serviceable gift of a statesman. His manners, we are
told by Sir William Temple, (Observations on the United Provinces, c.
11), were such as befitted his station and his principles. “His habit
was grave, plain and popular; his table, what only served turn for his
family or a friend; his train was only one man, who performed all the
menial service of his house at home, and upon his visits of ceremony,
putting on a plain livery cloak, attended his coach abroad; for upon
other occasions he was seen usually in the streets on foot and alone,
like the commonest burgher of the town. Nor was this manner of life
affected; but was the general fashion and mode among all the magistrates
of the state.”
De Witt cultivated mathematics, and published a Treatise on Curves.
Burnet says, “Perhaps no man ever applied algebra to all matters of
trade so nicely as he did. He made himself so entirely master of the
state of Holland, that he understood exactly all the concerns of their
revenue, and what sums, and in what manner, could be raised upon any
emergent of state. For this he had a pocket book full of tables, and was
ever ready to show how they could be furnished with money.” The most
remarkable of his works are his Memoirs, published during his life in
1667, in which, after examining the principles which govern the
prosperity and decline of states, he proceeds to apply them to Holland,
and to review the condition and prospects of the country. They have been
translated into French by Mad. Zoutelandt, who has also written a life
of the two brothers. De Witt’s correspondence with the plenipotentiaries
of France, England, Sweden, Denmark, and Poland, has also been
published, and translated into French.
[Illustration: [Murder of the brothers De Witt, from a Dutch print in
Wagenaar’s ‘Vaterlandsche Historie,’ 1770.]]
[Illustration:
_Engraved by J. Posselwhite._
HAMPDEN.
_From a Print by J. Houbraken 1740._
Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.
_London, Published by Charles Knight & C^o. Ludgate Street._
]
[Illustration]
HAMPDEN.
John Hampden was the head and representative of an ancient and opulent
family, which had received the lands of Hampden in Buckinghamshire from
Edward the Confessor, and boasted to have transmitted its wealth,
honours, and influence, unimpaired and increasing, in direct male
succession, down to this the most illustrious of the house. The date of
his birth is 1594; the place of it is generally believed to have been
London. Under four years of age, he came, by the death of his father,
into possession of the family estates, which, besides the ancient seat
and extensive domain in Buckinghamshire, comprehended large possessions
in Essex, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire. Our knowledge of his early life
may be summed in a few facts and dates. He was brought up at the
free-school of Thame, in Oxfordshire; entered as a commoner at Magdalen
College, Oxford, in 1609; and was admitted student of the Inner Temple
in 1613, where he made considerable progress in the knowledge of common
law. His classical attainments also seem to have been respectable, since
he was associated, oddly enough, with Laud, then Master of St. John’s,
in writing the Oxford gratulatory poems on the marriage of the Elector
Palatine and the Princess Elizabeth; from which sprung Prince Rupert,
who led the Royalist troops when Hampden received his death-wound. In
1619, he married his first wife Elizabeth Symeon. Inheriting a noble
property, he devoted himself, without suffering his literary habits to
fall into desuetude, principally to the business and amusements of a
country life, having, says Lord Clarendon, “on a sudden retired from a
life of great pleasure and licence, to extraordinary sobriety and
strictness, and yet retained his usual cheerfulness and affability.” His
first entrance into public life was in January, 1620–1, when he took his
seat in the Parliament then convened, for Grampound, at that time a
borough of wealth and importance: a prevalent error, that he sat for the
first time in the first Parliament summoned by Charles I. in 1625, is
corrected by Lord Nugent, who in his Memorials of Hampden has shown that
he sat in the Parliaments of 1621 and 1624; that he was active and
diligent in his attendance, and intimately connected himself with
Selden, Pym, St. John, and other leaders of the popular party; and that,
though he seldom spoke, his capacity for business was known and
respected, as appears from the employments in committees and
conferences, imposed on him by the House.
In the first Parliament of Charles I., Hampden sat for Wendover, an
ancient borough of Buckinghamshire, which with two others had lately
regained their dormant privilege of returning members, chiefly by his
exertions, and at his expense. In this and in the following Parliament,
summoned in February, 1627, Hampden still appears to have taken no
leading part. After the dissolution of the latter, he was called upon to
contribute to a general loan, which he refused, and was in consequence
imprisoned for a time in the Gate House, and then sent still under
restraint to reside in Hampshire. The order for his release, with many
others, is dated March, 1627–8. On this occasion, he made the remarkable
reply to the demand, why he would not contribute to the king’s
necessities, that “he could be content to lend as well as others, but
feared to draw upon himself that curse in Magna Charta, which should be
read twice a year against those who infringe it.”
In the new Parliament which met in March, 1628, Hampden again sat for
Wendover, and having become more generally known by the part which he
had taken in resisting the demands of the crown, from this time forward,
says Lord Nugent, “scarcely was a bill prepared, or an inquiry begun,
upon any subject, however remotely affecting any one of the three great
matters at issue—privilege, religion, or the supplies—but he was thought
fit to be associated with St. John, Selden, Coke and Pym, on the
committee.”
That Parliament, after framing the Petition of Right, voting supplies,
and taking resolute steps towards procuring a redress of grievances, was
hastily and angrily dissolved in May, 1629. Previous to this, Hampden,
“although retaining his seat for Wendover, had retired to his estate in
Buckinghamshire, to live in entire privacy, without display, but not
inactive; contemplating from a distance, the madness of the Government,
the luxury and insolence of the courtiers, and the portentous apathy of
the people, who, amazed by the late measures, and by the prospect of
uninterruptedly increasing violence, saw no hope from petition or
complaint, and watched, in confusion and silence, the inevitable advance
of an open rupture between the King and the Parliament. The literary
acquirements of his youth he now carefully improved; increasing that
stock of general knowledge which had already gained him the reputation
of being one of the most learned and accomplished men of his age: and
directing his attention chiefly to writers on history and politics.
Davila’s History of the Civil Wars of France became his favourite study,
his vade mecum, as Sir Philip Warwick styles it; as if forecasting from
afar the course of the storm which hung over his own country, he already
saw the sad parallel it was likely to afford to the story of that work.
In his retirement, he bent the whole force of his capacious mind to the
most effectual means by which the abuses of ecclesiastical authority
were to be corrected, and the tide of headlong prerogative checked,
whenever the slumbering spirit of the country should be roused to deal
with those duties to which he was preparing to devote himself.”
(Memorials of Hampden, p. 175.) It may here be added that Hampden’s
religious opinions were those of the Independent party, who were
honourably distinguished, no less from the Presbyterians than the
Episcopalians, by granting to all persons that freedom of conscience and
full toleration which they claimed for themselves. While thus awaiting,
with study and patient observation, the time when the active service of
a real patriot might benefit his country, his domestic happiness
received a severe blow by the death of his wife, Aug. 20, 1634.
In the same autumn the scheme of raising a revenue by ship-money was
devised. Confined in the first instance to seaport towns, it proved so
profitable that the levy was soon extended to inland places. In 1636,
the charge was laid, by order of council, upon all counties, cities, and
corporate towns, and the sheriffs were required, in case of refusal or
delay, to proceed by distress. Here Hampden resolved to make a stand.
The sum demanded of him was but thirty-one shillings and sixpence; but
the very smallness of the sum served to show that his opposition was
directed against the principle of the exaction, and rested on no ground
of personal inconvenience, or individual injustice. Proceedings being
instituted in the Exchequer for recovery of the money, the case was
solemnly argued before the twelve judges, who severally delivered their
opinions, and by a majority of eight to four, determined in favour of
the crown. “But the judgment,” says Lord Clarendon, “infinitely more
advanced him, Mr. Hampden, than the service for which it was given. He
was rather of reputation in his own country, than of public discourse,
or fame in the kingdom, before the business of ship-money: but then he
grew the argument of all tongues, every man inquiring who or what he
was, that durst, at his own charge, support the liberty and property of
the country, as he thought, from being made a prey to the court. His
carriage, throughout this agitation, was with that rare temper and
modesty, that they who watched him narrowly to find some advantage
against his person, to make him less resolute in his cause, were
compelled to give him a just testimony.”
These measures, which placed at the king’s disposal the property, were
accompanied by equally stringent attacks on the liberties of the
country. Tutored by the lofty spirit of Wentworth, Charles resolved, and
seemed likely to succeed, to rule independently of Parliaments: and in
the sycophancy of the judges, and the unlimited and illegal severities
of the courts of the Star-Chamber and High Commission, he had ample
means of suppressing murmur, and punishing the refractory. We need not
dwell upon the state to which the country was reduced, during the eleven
years which elapsed without the meeting of a Parliament: so unpromising
did it appear, that even the most resolute of that party comprehended by
the Royalists under the general name of Puritans, meditated a withdrawal
from the tyranny which they had almost ceased to hope to restrain. Even
this however was denied to them by the infatuated jealousy of popular
principles entertained by the king and his advisers, who issued an
order, April 6, 1638, by which masters of ships were prohibited to carry
passengers to America, without special licence. It has often been dwelt
on as a very remarkable circumstance, that Hampden, and his cousin
Oliver Cromwell, were at this time actually embarked for New England on
board one of eight ships then lying in the river and freighted with
emigrants, and that these eight ships were specially ordered to be
detained.
A dawn of better times appeared, when in consequence of the king’s rash
attempt to impose the English ritual upon Scotland, and restore
Episcopacy, that country rose in rebellion. The expenses of the war
rendered it imperative to obtain supplies; and Charles, fearing at this
juncture to resort to fresh impositions, saw no resource except in
summoning that which is commonly called the Short Parliament, which met
in April, 1640. Hampden was returned for Buckinghamshire. About this
time he had married his second wife, Letitia Vachell, but the quiet
happiness of his home was henceforth entirely broken up by the
disturbances of the times, and he never returned to any settled
residence at his paternal mansion. In the short and energetic session of
this spring he displayed his usual diligence and activity; and his
influence was much increased in consequence of his resistance to the
demand of ship-money, which had attracted such notice, that Clarendon,
in speaking of the opening of the Long Parliament in November following,
observes, “the eyes of all men were fixed upon him as their Pater
Patriæ, and the pilot that must steer the vessel through the tempests
and rocks which threatened it. And I am persuaded his power and
interest, at that time, was greater to do good or hurt, than any man in
the kingdom, or than any man of his rank hath held in any time: for his
reputation of honesty was universal, and his affections seemed so
publicly guided, that no corrupt or private ends could bias them.”
The causes of the dissolution of the Short Parliament, and the history
of the second Scottish war which compelled Charles I. to summon the Long
Parliament, hardly form a part of our subject: it is to be observed
however that during the summer and autumn, Hampden, with other leading
persons of the popular party, was engaged in active correspondence with
the leaders of the Scottish insurrection, in whose success, as tending
to the further embarrassment of the king, they placed their best hope of
obtaining security for the maintenance of the liberties and privileges
of the English people. Of the first great act of that Parliament, the
impeachment of Strafford, he was a zealous supporter, and a member of
the committee of twelve appointed to arrange the evidence, and to
conduct that memorable trial. After the Commons, for reasons which have
never been satisfactorily explained, thought fit to change the method of
proceeding by introducing a bill of attainder, the name of Hampden
appears in none of the records: and it is probable that he abstained
from taking any part in the business. It is important to keep this in
mind, because the censure, which has justly been cast upon the
proceedings of the House of Commons against Lord Strafford, applies
solely to the attainder, not to the impeachment. To the question, why,
if Hampden disapproved of the attainder, he did not as resolutely oppose
it as he had supported the impeachment, the following hypothetical
answer is supplied by Lord Nugent. “In a case doubtful to him only as
matter of precedent; but clear to him in respect of the guilt of the
accused person; in a case in which the accused person, in his
estimation, deserved death, and in which all law, except that of the
sceptre and the sword, was at an end if he had escaped it; when all the
ordinary protection of law to the subject throughout the country was
suspended, and suspended mainly by the counsels of Strafford himself,
Hampden was not prepared to heroically immolate the liberties of England
in order to save the life of him who would have destroyed them. Hampden
probably considered the bill which took away Strafford’s life (and
indeed it must in fairness be so considered) as a revolutionary act
undertaken for the defence of the Commonwealth.”
He was an active supporter of two important measures which occupied the
Parliament simultaneously with Strafford’s impeachment, the Triennial
Bill, for securing the convocation of Parliaments, and the bill for
excluding bishops from the House of Lords. After the rejection of the
latter, he adopted the views of that more violent party who urged the
necessity of abolishing episcopacy altogether. But, notwithstanding his
recognised position as a leader of his party, and his known weight in
determining the line of conduct to be pursued by it, he was not a
frequent speaker, and his name therefore occurs less frequently than
would be expected in the records of this eventful period. “His practice
was usually to reserve himself until near the close of a debate; and
then, having watched its progress, to endeavour to moderate the
redundancies of his friends, to weaken the impression produced by its
opponents, to confirm the timid, and to reconcile the reluctant. And
this he did, according to the testimony of his opponents themselves,
with a modesty, gentleness, and apparent diffidence in his own judgment,
which generally brought men round to his conclusions.”—(Memorials of
Hampden, ii. 47.) He was one of the five members accused of treason, and
demanded personally by Charles in the House of Commons, January 6, 1642;
“and from this time,” says Clarendon, “his nature and carriage seemed
much fiercer than it did before.” Unquestionably that ill-advised step
was not likely to conciliate those whose life was aimed at, but it is
also clear that before that event, the party, with whom he acted, were
preparing for a struggle more serious than that in which they were as
yet engaged. A Committee of Public Safety was formed, of which Hampden
was a member, the power of the sword was claimed by the Ordinance of
Militia, the king on his part issued his Commission of Array, and at
last raised his standard at Nottingham, August 22.
In the military events of the first year of the war, Hampden took an
active, but subordinate share, as colonel of a regiment of infantry,
which he himself raised in Buckinghamshire. Nor did he intermit, as the
exigencies of war allowed him, to continue his attendance in Parliament,
and to urge there that decisive course of action, which he knew to be
necessary to the success of the cause, and laboured in vain to recommend
to the Parliamentary general. At the battle of Brentford, his troops,
and those of Lord Brook, in support of the London regiment under Hollis,
bore the brunt of the day against superior numbers, until the army
arrived from London in the evening: and on this occasion (as before at
Edge Hill, where he arrived too late to take part in the fight,) he in
vain urged Essex to convert, by a decisive forward movement, the
doubtful issue of the day into victory. During the winter months, while
the king held his court at Oxford, and a Parliamentary army lay between
London and that city, Hampden’s regiment was quartered in
Buckinghamshire, and his own time was divided between the seat of war
and the House of Commons.
To this period also, is to be referred the association of six midland
counties for the purposes of the war, Bedford, Buckingham, Hertford,
Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Northampton; a step which proved of material
service in giving strength and union to the Parliamentary cause, and
which probably would not have been carried into operation but for
Hampden’s peculiar talent of allaying jealousies, reconciling
conflicting interests, and smoothing away the obstacles to any business
which he undertook.
From March 1, to April 15, a cessation of arms was agreed on in
Oxfordshire and Bucks, while an attempt was made to arrange terms of
pacification. The treaty having been broken off, war recommenced with an
incessant and generally successful series of predatory incursions,
conducted by Prince Rupert, on the Parliamentary outposts, which lay
widely dispersed in the intricate country on the borders of
Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. In this district, with which his early
habits of the chase had made him familiar, Hampden’s regiment was
quartered. He had laboured incessantly, but in vain, to promote some
great enterprise, which might give lustre to the seemingly declining
cause, and confidence to the adherents, of the Parliament. Failing in
this, he manifested no less alacrity in performing his duty than if his
views and his suggestions had been adopted: indeed it would be consonant
to his character to suppose, that a strict sense of what is due to
military discipline, and a desire to avoid even the appearance of
slighting his commanding officer, led him to still more zealous
exertions. It was in a matter beyond the strict line of his duty that he
received his death-wound. On the evening of the 17th of June, Rupert set
out from Oxford with about 2000 men, and surprised and burnt two
villages, Postcombe and Chinnor, which were occupied by the
Parliamentary troops. When the alarm reached Hampden, he instantly set
out at the head of a small body of cavalry, which volunteered to follow
him, in hopes of being able to delay the Royalists sufficiently to
enable Essex to occupy the passes of the Cherwell, and cut them off from
Oxford. Strengthened by the accession of four troops of horse, he
overtook Prince Rupert, who drew up to receive the attack on
Chalgrove-field. Early in the action Hampden received two bullets in the
shoulder, which shattered the bone, and in an agony of pain he rode off
the field; “a thing,” says Clarendon, “he never used to do, and from
which it was concluded he was hurt.” Two others of the chief
Parliamentary officers present were killed or taken, and the Royalists
made good their retreat. Hampden expired at Thame, after six days severe
suffering. His last words are thus given from a contemporary
publication. “O Lord God of Hosts, great is thy mercy, just and holy are
thy dealings unto us sinful men. Save me, O Lord, if it be thy good
will, from the jaws of death. Pardon my manifold transgressions, O Lord,
save my bleeding country. Have these realms in thy especial keeping.
Confound and level in the dust those who would rob the people of their
liberty and lawful prerogative. Let the king see his error, and turn the
hearts of his wicked counsellors from the malice and wickedness of their
designs. Lord Jesu, receive my soul!” He then mournfully uttered, “O
Lord, save my country—O Lord, be merciful to” ... and here his speech
failed him. He fell back in the bed, and expired.
His death, according to Sir Philip Warwick, was regretted even by the
king, “who looked on his interest, if he could gain his affections, as a
powerful means of begetting a right understanding between him and the
two Houses.” To his own party it was irreparable. It removed the fittest
person for the chief command of their troops, which it is not
unreasonable to suppose would, upon the removal of Essex, have been
vested in him; deprived them of a leader and adviser, who, of all, was
the most likely to have confined his wishes to the establishment of a
secure peace, on the basis of a strictly limited monarchy; and opened
way to the ambition of Cromwell, which probably would never have been
developed if Hampden had lived to direct the counsels of the Parliament.
We have already given a portion of Clarendon’s character of Hampden; for
the rest of that celebrated passage, we must refer to the History of the
Rebellion, book vii. It describes a man of rare virtues, though the
political bias of the noble author has thrown a dark colouring over the
whole. The latest, and we believe the most elaborate account of this
eminent patriot, is that of Lord Nugent, from which the greater part of
our memoir is derived. But the memoirs and pamphlets of the time must be
intimately studied by those who wish for full information concerning
Hampden’s parliamentary life.
[Illustration:
_Engraved by W. Holl._
JOHNSON.
_From a Picture by Sir J. Reynolds, in the possession of Sir Robert
Peel Bar^t._
Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.