COOPER'S LIFE OF WENTWORTH.* THE life of Strafford presents many

attractions to a biographer. The materials are ample, and the subject full of interest. There are men whom we wish to know for some special action, which is the only break in an uneventful life ; there are others whose record of services is long, but monotonous. Strafford's life is at once full and varied. Had he died in comparatively early life, before he gave himself up to the service of an unworthy master, he would have won himself a name among the band of patriots whose courage and ability kept alive English freedom. Or if that earlier time were dropped from sight, there would be enough to attract us in the history of the ablest administrator of his time, one of the few rulers who have known how to make Ireland a source of strength to the English Government. In his efforts to promote its material advancement he had a smaller field than Richelieu and Colbert, but his methods deserve study as well as theirs. Again, the close of Strafford's life is such as to give full play - -to the powers of a worthy biographer. There are few more tragic scenes in history than this, when the statesman who, if Charles could have trusted him, might have established a despotism in England, falls beneath the power of the Commons, whose chief adversary he had been. Even those who most hate his political aims cannot refuse their pity—scarcely their sympathy—in those

* The Lift of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford and Lord-Liatienant of Ireland. By Elizabeth Cooper. London: Tinsley Brothers. 1874.

last moments when his proud self-devotion contrasts with the meanness of the King, who had ruined, and now deserted hint.

So attractive a subject has, however, its dangers, and needs great powers to do it justice. We do not think Miss Cooper's book reaches to the level of its argument. She has industry and care, but she wants the grasp of imagination which are needed for her difficult task. One question of supreme interest has to be answered in every Life of Strafford, and we turn naturally to see what Miss Cooper has to say as to the motives which led him to enter into the King's service. Was he an apostate who, with reason and heart on the side of the people, sold himself to the Court ; or an ambitious man, careless whether it were Parliament or King from whom he won his advancement ; or lastly, did he, however ambitious, take the course which he believed to be the right one?

Miss Cooper's view seems to be that Wentworth was an apos- tate, but that he sold himself, so to speak, " without considera- tion ;" that his payment was literally the smiles of the King :— " But at any rate, it is sure that Wentworth was won. Not, I be- lieve, by any title or hope of worldly reward. If that had been able to subdue or allure him, he never could have taken the part he did with regard to the Loan and the Petition of Right From a belief in the King's unsolicited, yet given love, Wentworth was won. He pas- sionately returned the substance of his whole life, and gave his very soul to tho King, for what was, after all, a mere shadow. And only by remembering that not rank or wealth, but the King, and the fulfilment of the King's wishes, reigned supreme over every other feeling from henceforth in his heart, shall we be able to comprehend and justly to measure the future career of Lord Wentworth."

We believe Miss Cooper is quite right in rejecting the supposition that Wentworth yielded to a mere bribe, whether of wealth or position. There is no ground for accusing him of sordid avarice, and very little for fancying that he would have changed the course of his life for the sake of a title. But is it likely that the effect which wealth and honour were too weak to bring about was pro- duced by a few soft words from the King? Indeed those soft words would never have been spoken, if Wentworth had not already shown that he was not heart and soul with the leaders of the Commons. His alliance with them had been half-hearted from the first.

Smarting under a sense of neglect, he might very well resent an infringement of his rights, and would find no difficulty in adopting the language of the Opposition, who attacked on public grounds the wrongs which angered him. Moreover, his indignation was sharpened by his dislike to the enterprises for the support of which money was unlawfully demanded. But he had no genuine sympathy with the popular cause. He was an aristocrat to the

core, and his masterful temper and great administrative gifts led him naturally to the side of absolute government. The difference between his tone and that of Eliot, even during the Session in which they worked together, has been well shown by Mr. Gardiner in his recent book, England under the Duke of Buckingham.

Miss Cooper, with all her anxiety to be impartial, is, we think unjust, where she speaks of Wentworth's tendency to strong government as if it proved a want of conscientiousness in him; as if it were impossible to choose the King's side except from

personal motives. It must always be kept in mind that in the early part of the seventeenth century the powers of the king and people were ill-defined, and that a struggle sooner or later-

was inevitable. While we give due honour to those who had faith enough to stand up for freedom, we must acknowledge that it was possible for statesmen honestly to doubt how the King's government was to be carried on, if all his actions had to approve

themselves to Parliament. Nor may we forget the state of Continental politics. Not only was there no model of Parlia- mentary Government to be seen abroad, but constitutional freedom had quite died out in all the great States of Europe. In France an able ruler was displaying the advantages of a strong monarchy, while Germany, for want of leadership, was help-

less and distracted. Could Charles have trusted Wentworth as Louis XIII. trusted Richelieu, there can be little doubt that

his policy would have resembled that of the great Cardinal. In Ireland, where he had free play, or something like it, he worked upon the same lines, crushing remorselessly all who tried to set themselves up against his authority, but not oppressing the

people, putting down religious squabbles, and doing everything in his power to develope the material prosperity of the kingdom. Had England been governed with as much thrift and efficiency, it may be doubted whether the defenders of freedom would have been backed by the nation. The ambition to rule a nation de- spotically for its own good is not the highest, but it is not ignoble, and there is good ground for ascribing it to Wentworth. But Miss Cooper not only does not admit this, she does not think it

of enough importance to be denied. Her key to Wentworth's every action is simply his desire to please the King

" Wentworth's impulse, slie says, led him to gratify the wishes of his friend, good or bad, at any cost, and thus this mighty stream, that might have fertilised wherever it flowed, producing immortal flowers of virtue and honour, too often proved a power that bore destruction in its tide."

This rather rhetorical condemnation might have been qualified, if Miss Cooper had recalled several instances of Wentworth's firm remonstrance when Charles interfered with the details of his government, or pressed unduly on the people under his c'targe.

The passage last quoted is a fair example of a weakness which pervades the book. Miss Cooper frequently indulges in edifying reflections which she tags on to her mention of Wentworth's faults, but it never enters into her mind to ask what was Went- worth's own view of his conduct. When he does what she dis- approves, she complains that "his conscience was hardly worthy of the name," or exclaims, " 0 that in such a soul conscience should have found no dwelling !" But it does not occur to her to ask what his conscience would have directed him to do if he had listened to it. That an act which seems wrong to her should seem right to Wentworth is inconceivable. She quotes a very interesting letter, in which Wentworth expresses his opinion on the question of ship-money :—

" I do conceive," he says, "that the power of levies of forces at sea and land for the very—not the feigned—relief and safety of the public is such a property of sovereignty, as were the Crown willing, yet can it not divest itself thereof. Salus populi supreme lex ; nay, in cases of extremity, even above Acts of Parliament."

He goes on to say that the ship-money had been " chastely bestowed" in setting forth a fleet, and that the King must be allowed to act on knowledge which it may not be safe for him to divulge. A bio- grapher who was more careful to understand his hero, might inquire low far this letter was a frank expression of the writer's thoughts, low far an attempt to influence his correspondent. But to Miss Cooper this is a matter of but small importance ; she only seizes the opportunity for a little declamation about the coro- nation oaths, in which it appears that the King "confesses himself to be a mortal, bound by precisely the same obli- gations of morality as the rest of mankind." While Miss Cooper cannot excuse errors in opinion, she is careful to make allowance for Wentworth's bad health, and for its probable effect upon his temper. His relations as a husband and father she sets before us in a pleasant light, and with evident sympathy. But lest we should be warped in our judgment by this amiable trait, she thinks it necessary to warn us that lc nothing can be more ridiculous than to single out this as a special virtue in any man."

We have not hesitated to point out Miss Cooper's faults. It is only fair to add that her work has real merits. Her account of Wentworth's government of Ireland is clear and full, and her style improves when she comes to the close of his life. She is there touched by the story she has to tell, and she tells it directly, and with fewer moral digressions. We are rather surprised that she has not printed Charles's letter to the Peers, asking their approval of a pardon, from the exact copy given in the first report of the historical Manuscripts Connnission. The very erasures in it are characteristic, some of them made evidently from the fear that too much had been admitted as to the rights of Parliament.