ment to the office of Latin Secretary, Mil

having shewed you how, it remains to tell you what I believe in relation to these present miserable distractions.

"No one thing made me more reverence the reformation of my mother, the Church of England, than that it was done (ac cording to the Apostle's defence, Acts xxiv. 18) neither with multitude, nor with tumult,' but legally and orderly, and by those whom I conceive to have only the reforming power; which with many other inducements, made me always confident that the work was very perfect as to essentials, of which number church government being undoubtedly one, I put no question but that would have been likewise altered if there had been cause; which opinion of mine was soon turned into more than a confidence, when I perceived that in this particular (as I must say of all the rest) we retained nothing but according as it was deduced from the apostles to be the constant universal custom of the primitive church; and that it was of such consequence, as by the alteration of it we should deprive ourselves of a lawful priesthood, and then, how the sacraments can be duly administered, is easy to judge these are the principal reasons, which make me believe that bishops are necessary for a church, and I think sufficient for me (if I had no more) not to give my consent for their expulsion out of England: but I have another obligation, that to my particular is a no less tie of conscience, which is, my * coronation oath: now if (as S. Paul saith, Rom. xiv. 23.) 'He that doubleth is damned if he eat,' what can I expect, if I should, not only give way knowingly to my people's sinning, but likewise be perjured my self?'

"Now consider, ought I not to "keep my self from presumptuous sins?' and you know who says, What doth it profit a man, though he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Wherefore my constant maintenance of episcopacy in Eng

*This coronation oath, unhappily misunderstood, has since obstructed the accomplishment of some just and beneficial

measures.

ton removed in the first instance to a lodging in the house of one Thompson at Charing-Cross, and afterwards to apartments in Scotland-yard. Here his wife produced her third child, a son, who died in his infancy on the 16th of March 1650; and in 1652 our author shifted his residence to Petty France, where he occupied for eight years, till the crisis of the Restoration, a handsome house, opening into St. James's park and adjoining to the mansion of lord Scudamore.

No sooner had Milton finished his masterly reply to the posthumous work, as it was then generally considered, of the late King's, than he was again called upon to enter the lists as the assertor of the Commonwealth of England: but he was now opposed to a more formidable antagonist, and was to contend on a far more ample field.

land, (where there was never any other government since christianity was in this kingdom,) methinks should be rather commended than wondered at; my conscience directing me to maintain the laws of the land; which being only my endeavours at this time, I desire to know of you, what warrant there is in the word of God for subjects to endeavour to force their King's conscience? or to make him alter laws against his will? If this be not my present case, I shall be glad to be mistaken; or, if my judgment in religion hath been misled all this time, I shall be willing to be better directed: till when you must excuse me to be constant to the grounds which the King my father taught me. Newcastle, May 29, 1646. "C. R."

His refutation of the Icon Basilikè had been confined nearly within the pale of his own country: but the powers of his mind were now to be exhibited to Europe, and the whole circle of the civilized and christian community was to witness his triumph or his defeat. Charles, the son of the deceased monarch, eager to blend his own with the general cause of kings and desirous perhaps of evincing by the same act the fervor of his filial piety, determined on engaging the abilities of some great literary character to urge his appeal to the world against the victorious enemies of his house; and, for the accomplishment of his purpose, the voice of fame immediately directed his attention to Salmasius, at that time an honorary professor in the university of Leyden.

Claudius Salmasius, or Claude de Saumaise, was of an honourable, or, as it has been termed, a noble family seated near the town of Semur in the old province of La Bourgogne, of the parliament of which his father was a member. From his mother he

h

The orthography of this celebrated scholar's name fluctuates between " Saumaise," and "Soumaize." By his friend Sarrau it is written in the former mode; and by Vorstius in his Eloge funèbre in the latter.

h Now in the Department of Còte d'Or.

contracted a strong bias to the religious principles of the protestants; and an extraordinary proficiency in literature, at an early period of his life, soon advanced him to a foremost place among the eminent scholars of that age, the Casaubons, the Gothofreds, the Gruters and the De Thous. The vast erudition and the superior critical acumen which he displayed in some of his publications, in his treatise" De linguâ Hellenisticâ," and particularly in his large work, the “Plinianæ exercitationes in Solinum," so increased and propagated his renown that different powers are said to have contested for the honour of his residence in their states. The Pope, the Venetians, and the two successive governors of his own country, Richlieu and Mazarin, attempted to fix him, as it is affirmed, in their service by the most liberal offers: but, preferring principle to interest and independence to promotion, he declined these inviting prospects, and resigned himself to the unrestrained indulgence of his own literary and religious inclinations. The papacy and the whole fabric of the hierarchy had been made the objects of his vehement attack; and now, in the full pride of his reputation, with the substantial enjoyment of a pension from the government, he

was reposing in the bosom of a protestant republic, when his assistance was courted by the letters and the presents' of the English prince.

It had been well for the professor if on this occasion he had not relinquished that wise and virtuous abstinence which had formerly regulated his conduct. But when a king sued to be his client, and the cause of sovereigns to be supported by his pen, the appeal to his vanity was too powerful to be resisted, and, in an hour the most inauspicious to his future fame and happiness, he undertook the defence of prelacy, royalty, and Charles.

The result of this engagement, a bulky volume entitled" Defensio Regia pro Carolo primo ad Carolum secundum," made its appearance before the conclusion of 1649, and is reported to have generally disappointed the expectation of the learned. The work, which

A hundred jacobuses accompanied the prince's application. The inconsistency and venal accommodation, of which it convicted its author, were unquestionably distressing to some, who were personally attached to him. Claude Sarrau, one of his confidential friends, a learned member of the parliament of Paris, having previously warned him of the danger and impropriety of the undertaking, expostulated very freely and strongly with him on his conduct in its execution. Not having the epistles of Sarrau, an edition of which was published