1645. The battle of Naseby, between the royalists under Charles I., and
the parliament troops under Fairfax, was decided this day by the entire
rout of the king’s army, and the seizure of all his artillery and
ammunition. Among the spoil was the king’s cabinet with his letters,
which the parliament afterwards published. Hume says, “they give an
advantageous idea both of the king’s genius and morals.” Yet it is a
fact, which every person who reads the correspondence must inevitably
arrive at, that the king purposed deception, when he professed good
faith, and that, as true genius never exists with fraud, these letters
do not entitle him to reputation for common honesty, or real ability.
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