THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ALGERNON SYDNEY.* THE judicial murder

of Algernon Sydney and his brave and digni- fied demeanour at the trial and on the scaffold have secured for him an immortal name. It is in no grudging disparagement of his title to remembrance that we suggest his high birth and fine- sounding name as aiding his hold on the memories of an aristo- cracy-loving nation. His writings on politics, not suited in them- selves for popularity or fame, have justly strengthened belief in his. sincerity and added interest to his martyrdom. Apart from his. sad and cruel death, he was an uninteresting and unlovable man. He was the favourite child of his mother, the Countess of Leicester,. born a Percy ; but the quick-minded, sweet-tempered boy, whom the mother till death loved most of all her children, led a con- tinually wrangling life with his father, was at enmity with his- brothers, and was regarded by his sister, Lady Sunderland, the Sacharissa of Waller, as a moody, capricious, self-willed: man, to be lived with only by treating him as a spoilt child. The family steward, who loved his brother Henry (ultimately Earl of Romney), looked askance at Algernon. The- eldest brother, Lord Lisle, till he succeeded as Earl of Leices- ter, -probably not more amiable than Algernon, writing once to his father to complain of undue favour to Algernon, said what may be taken at least as founded on some genera/ opinion, that " his estremest vanity and want of judgment are se well known that there will be some wonder at it." Algernon was headstrong and hectoring, unable long to agree with any party or individual. He broke off from the Regicide tribunal,—why, it is not easy from his own explanation to understand, but evidently on technical grounds ; he did not take part in the King's trial, but immediately after the execution he acted cordially and thoroughly with Cromwell and the Rump. Fours years after, when Crom- well violently ejected the Rump and summoned the Barebones Parliament, Algernon Sydney was in opposition to the Protector, was himself forced out of the House, and quarrelled with Cromwell irreconcilably : yet Cromwell had on this occasion sufficient support to give justification to this act. Algernon's elder brother, Lord Lisle, sided with Cromwell, and accepted a summons for the Bare- bones Parliament. Algernon remained in retirement till Oliver was dead, his son Richard fallen from his high estate, and the Rump brought together again. Now he became a Councillor of State, and he was soon selected as one of three Commissioners to• go abroad to mediate a peace between Sweden and Denmark. Whitelocke, asked to be one of these three Commissioners, declined, and he gives as one of his reasons for declining that he- " knew well the overruling temper and height of Colonel Sydney." He had ultimately for colleagues Sir Robert Honey wood and Thomas Boone, a merchant. He was the leading spirit of the diplomatic Commission, showed great ability, and carried his mission to success by a high and haughty tone, which concealed from foreign, eyes the weakness of that series of rapidly succeeding Govern- ments in England, filling the interval of a twelvemonth between Richard Cromwell's fall and the Restoration. Sydney was at Stockholm when the Restoration broke upon England. His lettere to his father show him anxious to be well received by the restored Government, and ready loyally to submit to it ; he was free from * The Life and Times of the Hon. Algernon Sydney, 1622-1683. By Ales. Charles Ewald, F.B.A. 2 vols. London: Tinsley Brothers. 1833. actual part in the King's death ; he hoped to be included in the general pardon and indemnity, but was determined to refuse to acknowledge that he had done anything wrong. His friends judged for him that he was not more likely to be par- doned than Vane, who was also free from part in the King's death. Sydney accepted these judgments and remained in exile on the Continent. A few years after the Restoration he signi- fied to his father, a Privy Councillor of Charles IL, his readiness to raise a regiment of old Commonwealth soldiers for the Emperor of Germany, if the English Government would sanction the pro- ject; he desired profitable employment for himself, and would gladly aid the English Government by ridding them of a number of disaffected or suspected men. The English Goverament refused consent. We next hear of Sydney, after the breaking out of the war between England and Holland, offering his services first to Holland, and afterwards to the King of France, Holland's ally, against his own country. He offered De Witt the aid of a large body of English Republicans, on the condition that be would follow up a successful invasion of England by the re-erection of a Republic. De Witt refused, and Sydney then betook himself to Paris, had an audience of Louis XIV., and promised the King a formidable rebellion in England if he would place a hundred thousand crowns at his disposal. Louis shrank from this large sum, but offered him twenty thousand crowns for unpatriotic mischief. This Sydney did not find enough, and he abandoned his project. Sydney, an exile and a Repub- lican, mourned and, we will believe, sincerely disapproved mis- government in England, which, however, yet was far from being extreme; but can any one, with but moderate notions of patriotism, and without any severe views as to rebellion, justify the moody exile, brooding over his own misfortunes and nursing vindictively his republican theories, in taking his own country at a disadvan- tage in war, and seeking to conspire with her enemies to help invasion and excite rebellion ? Russell would never have done this. Sydney remained in France an exile till the autumn of 1677. Lord Leicester, now eighty-two, and within a few months of death, wishing to see once again his refractory son, managed, through the influence of Sunderland, his grandson, and of Henry Savile, (brother of Lord Halifax, who had married his grand- daughter), who was now acting as English representative at Paris, to get permission for Algernon to come to England for three months. Lord Leicester died soon after Sydney's arrival. Once in England, Sydney continued there without difficulty or molestation. Mr. Ewald, who does his best to make out Lord Leicester always in the wrong in his treatment of his son Algernon, observes that the latter must have been greatly disap- pointed on his father's death if he had expected much to be left to him. "The only legacy," he says, "bequeathed him by the Earl of Leicester was the trifling sum of five thousand one hundred pounds." That was not so trifling a sum in those days for a younger son of not a small family. But Sydney himself took a more cheerful view of the legacy. He wrote to his friend Benjamin Furley, merchant at Rotterdam, whose advice and assistance he sought for profitably putting out the fortune which had come to him from his father,—" It is good that I let you know my father hath left me a considerable sum of money, of which some part is in ready coin, and more in such lands as I think will readily pay it." Mr. Ewald does not seem to have been aware of the little collection of Algernon Sydney's letters to Furley, published in 1830. They are not of very great value, but not without interest, ranging through three years, 1677-1679, and Sydney's biographer should have known them. We observe also that Mr. Ewald is equally ignorant of Algernon's brother Henry's Diary and Correspondence, and of Algernon's sister, Lady Sunderland's letters, containing several stray notices which give useful contributory knowledge of him for the years 1679 and 1680.

In the beginning of 1679, when the Parliament which had sat from the Restoration was at last dissolved, and there were hopes of a new order of things and a better administration, Algernon Sydney was a candidate for Guildford for the new Parliament. William Penn bestirred himself eagerly for his election. Sydney was not returned ; he petitioned for the seat ; nothing came of the petition. This Parliament, which met in March, was prorogued in May, soon after to be dissolved, and the Committee of Privileges to which Sydney's petition was referred on March 28, had not got on so far in their work as to report on it when the proro- gation came. Another Parliament was called to meet in October. Now Sydney stood for Amersham (Agmondesham), and there was a double return. This Parliament, originally called for October, 1679, did not assemble till October, 1680. The double return seems to have prevented Sydney from then taking

his seat, although he was apparently in the first return. Orr December 11 his election was declared void. The Parliament was

prorogued with a view to dissolution on January 10; and another• Parliament was called to meet at Oxford on March 22, 1681.. Sydney again contested Amersham, and was not returned. It has been necessary to state these facts as to Sydney's candidatures, as Mr. Ewald has gone very wrong. He says nothing of Amenham„ and tells along imaginary story of Algernon's standing for Bramber, and being opposed there by his brother Henry at the instigation

of the Court, and being baulked there, as he actually was at Amersham, by a double return. If Mr. Ewald had consulted the-

Commons' Journals he would have learnt the facts. Henry Sydney- was the candidate for Bramber, Algernon bad only had some thought of standing there, and he gave his support to Mr. Charles Wolseiey, an old Commonwealth man, against his brother. Mr. Ewald might have learnt the truth as to Bramber in Blencowe'er Diary of Henry Sydney, Earl of Romney ; and the facts are also

correctly stated in one of Mr. Cooper's notes to the Savile Cor- respondence, published by the Camden Society, a book evidently not known to Mr. Ewald.

It does not appear that the Court took trouble, so Mr. Ewald' says, to oppose Algernon Sydney in his candidatures. Local'

influences, unscrupulously used, carried the day against him at Guildford and Amersham. He was now on friendly, if not cor- dial, terms with his nephew Sunderland and his nephew Halifax, both highly influential in the Cabinet. Ralph Montague wrote to Henry Sydney that when the King heard of Algernon's election for Amersham, he said "he did believe Mr. Algernon Sydney- would prove an honest man " (H. Sydney's Diary and Corre spondence, p. 71). Algernon was never a Monmouthite. H was an avowed Republican. Russell disliked him as a Republican .. He was busy and great among the Protestant sectaries ; one of4

his chief friends was William Penn. " Mr. Algernon," writes his sister, Lady Sunderland, to her son-in-law, Lord Halifax, July 19, 1680, "is busy, about what God knows. Last night he was called out of my chamber ; I asked by whom, and my man said' a Quaker." He had an angry quarrel with Shaftesbury, which- lasted, because he heard that Shaftesbury had said of him that he was a French pensioner and Lord Sunderland's spy. " French- pensioner " he unfortunately was. We learn most of him and' his ways of thinking at this time from the despatches of the French Ambassador, Barillon. Mr. Ewald, for what cannot be dignified by the name of reasons, but for fancies frivolous and not fresh, repudiates the idea of Sydney receiving money from Barillon, and contests the calm and moderate judgments on this matter against Sydney of Hallam and Macaulay. After this any biographer may deny anything which goes against his preconceived' hero. Barillon's object in giving money to Parliament men and others was to prevent an Union between England and Holland to the pre- judice of France, and to prevent the King going to war with France.

On December 14, 1679, Barillon wrote to his royal master. :— " Mr. Sydney has boon of great use to me on many occasions. Ho is a man who was in the first wars, and who is naturally an enemy to the• Court. He has for some time been suspected of being gained by Lord Sunderland, but he always appeared to me to have the same sentiments, and not to have changed maxims. Ho has a great deal of credit amongst the independents, and is still intimate with those who are the most opposite to the Court in Parliament. He was elected for the present one— I gave him only what your Majesty permitted me. He would willingly- have had more, and if a new gratification was given him, it would be easy to engage him entirely. However, he is very favourably disposed to what your Majesty may desire, and is not willing that England an the States-General should make a league. He is on bad terms with his. brother, who is in Holland, and laughs at the Court's making use of him as a negotiator. I believe he is a man who would be very useful if the affairs of England should be brought to extremities."

Now, if this is not truth, it looks uncommonly like it. Barillon• gave Sydney, at this time, five hundred guineas, —£543 15s. sterling.. On another occasion, i.e., a year later, December 5, 1680, Barillon• wrote to Louis XIV. :—

"Few were to be found who would directly treat with or have any- commune with me, by which they might have exposed their fortune& and their lives. I made use of Mr. Montagu and Mrs. Harvey, his. sister, of Mr. Harbord, Algernon Sydney, and the Siour Baber [Sir John. Baber], from all of whom I had already received great help in the affair of the Earl of Danby. The Sieur Algernon Sydney is a man of great views and very high designs, which tend to the establishment of Republic. He is in the party of the Independents and other sectaries, and this party were masters during the last troubles ; they are not at present very powerful in Parliament, but they are strong in London, and it is through the intrigues of the Sieur Algernon Sydney that one of the two sheriffs, named Bethel. has been elected. The service which I may draw from Mr. Sydney does not appear, for his connections are- with obscure and concealed persons, but he is intimate with the Sieur Jones [Sir William Jones], who is a man of the greatest knowledge of the laws of England."

This, again, looks uncommonly like truth. Russell exprease

to Lady Sunderland hie sorrow for Bethel's election, because he was as great a Commonwealth man as Algernon Sydney. On this occasion Barillon sends a second list of recipients of money from him, in which Sydney again figures for five hundred guineas.

These two statements of Barillon are in despatches published a hundred years ago by Sir John Dalrymple. Mr. Christie in his Life of Shaftesbury mentions a third despatch of Barillon, of July 22, 1680, in which Sydney is mentioned in a list of persons to whom qualifications may be given, and is recommended for five hundred guineas, with a promise of more ; and while Russell's name is not in this list, it appears in another list, contained in the name despatch, of persons influential in Parliament. The five hundred guineas here suggested are probably the same as were accounted for in Barillon's list of December 5, 1680.

It is pretended in answer to these circumstantial statements, confirmed by such incidental notices as we have of Sydney in con- temporary memoirs, that Barillon was likely to have pocketed, or Mr. Ewald is carried so far by zeal as to say actually did pocket, the money which he asserts he gave Sydney, and scraps are quoted from Madame de Sevigne's letters about Barillon getting rich, which he might have done on his salary, and there are assertions that the French diplomatic agents were allowed to pay themselves out of the moneys entrusted to them, and that they rendered no accounts of secret-service money. We do not believe either of these assertions ; both are unproved. In this case, Barillon, and Courtin before him, render minute accounts. They would be made out necessarily by a secretary, which would be a check, and Barillon would always have the fear of a suc- cessor before his eyes. If, as is suggested, Sydney did not get the money, and his name was taken in vain, he might have let the truth out in Paris. He was in Paris for some time in 1679, which Mr. Ewald does not know, for the fact transpires in one of Lady Sunderland's letters, and there he might have seen Louis XIV., who would have spoken to him as an ally. And why should Sydney alone have been maligned by Barillon ; he is one of six pensioners named in his first list, and one of twenty- one in his second ? Did Barillon pay none of these ? It is due to Barillon to say that he confesses not succeeding with others. It is Barillon who reported that Russell, when sounded by Ruvigny, properly replied that he would have no intercourse with men to be gained by money. Barillon reports many failures to persuade the venerable Holies to accept a present of Louis's picture set in diamonds. Barillon never reports a payment to Shaftesbury ; he often says he has hopes of gaining him ; success with Shaftesbury would have given great joy to Louis. The wily old politician kept Barillon in good humour and in hope, but he never took a farthing.

It may be thought that we have made too much of this very inferior biographical performance. But Algernon Sydney is an interesting subject, and if a biography is to be written, it should be written carefully and truly, by one who has independent know- ledge of the history of the period, and makes it his business to exhaust sources of special information. Minor inaccuracies, dis- playing want of knowledge of the times and of contemporary men, are many. Heneage Finch, the Solicitor-General, who apppeared against Sydney on the great trial, is described as the same who, twenty years before, had pleaded against Vane ; he was son of that Heneage Finch, who had died a twelvemonth before Sydney's trial, being Earl of Nottingham, and having been Lord Chancellor. In mentioning Sydney's appointment as mediating commissioner for Sweden and Denmark, Mr. Ewald writes :—" Sydney, in con- junction with Bulstrode, Whitelocke, and Sir R. Honeywood, was appointed," &c. The comma between Bulstrode and Whitelocke might be taken as a misprint, but that Mr. Ewald goes on, " with one exception, all gladly agreed to undertake these new duties." Now all would do well for three out of four, but will not do for two of three ; and Bulstrode Whitelocke is but one man. Henry Savile is always wrongly styled Sir Henry Savile. The learned Sir John Hawkes may be a misprint for Sir John Hawks. Mr. Ewald being announced as " of His Majesty's Record Office," there will be disappointment for all who have expected new information from our Records. It is fair to state that Mr. Ewald has had the industry to wade through the series of Domestic Papers for the period of Sydney's life, and and it is his misfortune, not his fault, that he has found nothing.