CONCLUSION OF THE FAIRFAX CORRESPONDENCE. * Tintsz volumes contain the conclusion

of the Fairfax Correspondence, which our readers may remember broke off at the commencement of the Civil War.t The greater number of letters in the volumes before us relate to that period-1642-1649; for although the correspondence is nominally continued to the death of the Parliamentary General in 1671, the letters after the King's execution and Fairfax's retirement are few in number, and, with the exception of some papers relating to the Restora- tion, of scanty interest. This, indeed, may be said of the whole col- kmtion. Considering the high office which the third Lord Fairfax filled, the great events in which he was engaged, and the great characters with whom he was connected, the paucity of epistolary attraction or historical value is extraordinary. The letters of Fairfax himself are few, and only characterized by military brevity and clearness ; but several epistles and documents relating to his daughter, wife of the " witty " Duke of Buckingham, have attraction in their subject and for their indication of the business-like closeness with which all the Fairfaxes looked after their affairs. A narrative of Brian Fairfax's secret journey from York to Scotland to communicate with Monk, when Monk and Lambert were opposite each other and the Restoration de- pended upon which leader the soldiery would follow, contains some his- tOrical facts of a small kind, but is chiefly remarkable for its picture of winter travelling in 1660, and its glimpses of the Borderers and their mode of living. Some of the letters give an account of the state of pri- vate families during the Civil War; but the bulk of the correspondence is trivial and particular. The unity the letters would have possessed as family papers is sometimes marred by the editor's insertion of epistles from another collection in Mr. Bentley's possession, which have only a chronological connexion. At the same time, a continuation or appendix, consisting mainly of documents in the publisher's collection, are more various and interesting than much of the Fairfax Correspondence itself.

Mr. Robert Bell has superseded Mr. Johnson in the editing of these volumes ; and with advantage in some points. Mr. Bell does not wander so much into the general history of the period, but, sticking closer to his text, confines his labours to an illustration of the documents. His chro- nological divisions are more distinctly presented, though with rather too much of display, and the technical art of the litterateur meets us every. where. Mr. Bell's mind is hardly equal to his subject. There is undue assumption in the mode in which he summons historical persons to his judgment-seat, and a flippancy in the manner of pronouncing his deci- sion. His style is somewhat inflated, yet his epithets are almost vulgar.

This is a sample of his historical narrative.

"The King being still at York, appeared before Hull at the head of upwards of three bandied horse, and demanded admittance. The Governor refused to open the gates, unless his Majesty consented to dismiss his troops, and enter with only twelve followers. This was the first time his Majesty met with a flat resistance. Hitherto we have had only evasions and state-paper formalities; but here the mat- ter was stripped of taphito9 and ceremonials, and reduced to a sword's point. The negotiationilietween the Governor and the-King lasted from eleven o'clock in the morning until five o'clock in the evening; when poor royalty, finding all threats and persuasions fail, took refuge in the arms of two heralds, who on the spot pro- claimed Sir John 4otham a traitor. This was all the satisfaction his Majesty got."

We are wont to pique ourselves_ on the courtesy and humanity dis- played by all parties in the Civil. War, and on the little outrage that took place. Compared with the excesses practised on the Continent at that period, and by most armies at all times, the opinion may be true ; though much licence might have been practised without being published. Yet it was not at all pleasant times daring the Great Rebellion. Want of :stoney to pay the troops induced the custom of requisition and billet; and these, in the hands of hungry soldiers or rapacious officers, led to considerable extortion and annoyance. Here is the complaint of a York- shire squire to Ferdinaudo Lord Fairfax, the father of the Generalissimo,

in his capacity of General of the North.

"I was resolved not to have been more troublesome to your Lordship for any- thing concerning myself; but now I see myself lie open not only to be undone by plunder, but myself, wife, children, and servants, subjected to the violence and rapine of disordered soldiers, before and in the presence of your captains and offi- cers who commanded them, find plunder in part justified to be allowed the soldier by the captain, when he had no commission to enter my house; two of my ser- vants sore wounded who did nothing to them, in my wife's presence, and she forced to flee to her chamber for rescue, and there a naked sword tendered her by a young ruffian, who called for her and told her he came for money, and with fear- ful oaths that money he would have; and calling all Romish whores, wherein I thank God none with me are guilty. He had his desire in part, for he snatched a purse with a gold ring and a seal in it, from a servant that was giving some to quiet him. By the way I beseech your Lordship to take into consideration, that the sequestrator gave this commission to one Captain Swaine, to sequester and appraise all my cattle, but not to bring them away; yet he not only drove them away, but gave divers of my coach-horses to one Captain Wood, who set km on work first to do this, and who the last week plundered the same horses and two others, notwithstanding I showed him your Lordship's proclamation against it. I made my address to his colonel, a very civil man, and he caused &me coach-horses and a mare to be restored; but the other coach-horse, and a pacing nag for my own saddle the captain keeps still; and now by Captain wawe's means he may set up a coach, for he bath all four; and your Lordship is well acquainted with our dirty country, that I need not acquaint your Lordship that my wife cannot serve God at church with the congregation but in frosty weather."

The following account of the death of Buckingham is worth quoting, not so much as contradicting the narrative of Pope—" in the worst inn's worst room with mat half-hung "—but as an authentic picture of the dying moments of "that life of pleasure and that soul of whim." The * Memorials of the Civil War: comprising the Correspondence of the Fairfax Faintly with the most distinguished Personages engaged in that memorable Contest. Now first published from the Original Manuscripts. Edited by Robert Bell, Author of the History of Runts," "Life of Canning," &c. Forming the concluding volumes of the Fairfax Correspondence. In two volumes. Published by Bentley.

t 8pedalor, ; page 972.

private e,ontradiotibu did not stop the public report of the death in the "alehouse "; for PoPe'a Character was written many years afterwards.

a For Brian Fairfax, Erg., at his House, near the Abbey of Westminster.

"Sir—I am this evening obliged with the favour of yours of the 20th instant, and your kind inquiries after the health of your old schoolfellow, who, wishes yours, and has all service for my Lord Fairfax. r "As it fell to my share to know as much of the last moments of the late Doke of Buckingham as any then about him, so at your instance I shall readily give answer to satisfy any, that he &ell in the best house in Kirkby Moorside, (which neither is nor ever was an alehouse); and that when he was moved to receive the sacrament he consented to it, and received it from the hands of the minister of the parish, with great decency and seeming devotion; while we' who received with him, were somewhat doubtful of his swallowing the bread, because of his weakness and pain. Hence we bad reason to conclude he had died in the ewe- minion of the Church of England, and none about him at that time ever ques- tioned it that I heard of. Indeed, my Lord of Arran (who was then there) could not be prevailed with to communicate with his Grace and us. What my Lard,s reasons were for that unwillingness I know not; but my Lord (now Date of Hamilton) is a witness of the truth of his Grace's thus receiving, his Lordship being (if I am not much mistaken) in the room then. "I omit at present many particulars which I could give some account of, as to making his will, his naming his heir, &c., which his Grace would not be per- suaded to. If you please to command any farther account of the very last passages of his life, the respect and honour I had from him, and for him, engage me to answer you in favour of his memory. I had not the honour to converse with him any long time before his dying days; but, so far as I ever had any discourse with his Grace, he was always pleased to express a love for good ineu and good things, how little able soever he was to live lip to what he knew.

" You may please to let me hear of your receiving this, and wherein I can any way serve you: for I am,

"Sir, your faithful humble servant, J. GIBSON. " Welblune, 27th February 1706. [N.S. 1701.]" The contradiction, however, is merely formal. The "best house in Kirkby Moorside" was probably bad enough; and the moral is, unfor- tunately, incapable of being affected.

"No wit to flatter, left of all his store! No fool to laugh at, which he valued more; There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends."

An idea of the style of living in the North about fifty years before this letter was written, and less than thirty before Buckingham's death, as well as the difficulties of travelling across country, may be gleaned from Brian Fairfax's narrative of his journey to Monk.

"We had now escaped Lambert's army, and were to steer our course on our right hand, North-east, to Coldstream, Liddesdale, and Tweedale. My guide knew the coast, though he knew not the way. We were to pass the hills of Lid- desdale, and go to the banks of the river Tweed, which would bring us to Kelso and Coldstream. The moonshine and the snow made the nights as clear as day. About midnight, we came to a village called Castletown, in Scotland, upon the hills.

"Here we had the misfortune to have my guide's horse fall lame, that he could but go foot-pace, which would not do my business; and what to do without him I knew not. We went into a house, which we saw had a fire in it. I believe it was the best in the town. The firestead was in the middle of the room; the COW8 at one end, and hogs at the other. The folks lay near the fire, the smoke of which helped to keep them warm, and a fiat stone over it to bake au oaten cake on. .Ifere we rested two or three hours, hoping the horse would recover his lame- ness; but he was rather worse. I had got a nap in a chair by the fireside, and when Israked was impatient to be gone."—, - - 'Tifter being assaulted by a moss-trooper tif the clan Elliott, whom he threw from his horse (and who, he believes, was hanged next year at Newcastle„) Brian reached Coldstream, and got access to Monk. "1 bid the groom go directly to the head-quarters. There I alighted, and de- sired to be brought to the General, for I bade message to deliver to hiin. It was a poor little thatched house in a poor town upon the river Tweed, upon a little brook that runs into the river, called by that name, over against Wark Castle, that gives title to my Lotd Gray, and twelve miles above Berwick. I was brought up into the room where General Monk was, with four or five persons with him. I knew none of them, nor they me; but since they themselves have told me, there was Dr. Barrow the Judge-Advocate, Colonel Knight, Mr. Lock, and I think Mr. Clerk his secretary, Messrs. Gumble and Price chaplains, and Major Miller. I said to him, If it please your Excellency, I desire to deliver a mes- sage to you in private.' He took me into a little hole—we must call it a closet: I told him I came from my Lord Fairfax with an answer to his letter, that he would on the first day of January appear at the head of what force he could in Yorkshire and declare against Lambert's army. But he desired him to watch Lambert, that no part of his army came down upon him.' General Monk em- braced me, and thanked my Lord Fairfax, and said he would watch Lambert as a cat watches a mouse—it was his own expression; and that a troop of horse should not move but he would follow them. I had DOW done my errand, and received my answer, and desired his Excellency's leave to return immediately ; telling him I had lost some time by reason of my guide's lame horse, and another guide I took upon the Borders that would have robbed me. Me made me tell the story, and would have had me tell his name if I knew; but that I scrupled and concealed, after he bad said he would send immediately to have him and others thereabouts hanged, for he had lost several men about that place."

There are some curious papers from Mr. Bentley's collection relating to the Popish Plot. A letter from Coleman proves that some scheme was afoot ; though of what kind, or whether really shaped, is uncertain- " Some truth there was, but &sled and brew'd with lies." Another is a draft affidavit (for it does not seem to have been sworn) of one Francis Caryl!, a hackney-coachman, who was taken up on suspicion, and thus describes his treatment before the Council.

"The next day this deponent was with Captain Richardson carried to Walling- ford House, where there was the Duke of Buckingham, the Marquis of Winches- ter, the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Lord Halifax, and another lord unknown to this deponent; who gave this deponent his oath, and then examined him what he knew concerning Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey's death ; to which this deponent answered, that he knew nothing concerning that matter but what was the common report. Then the Earl of Shaftesbury called him bloody-minded rogue, and threatened him with a cruel death, by being rolled down a hill in a barrel of nails; but the Duke of Buckingham declared he should not be so long a dying, for he would run him (this deponent) through presently; and so, first striking him and calling hilt' bloody rogue and dog, he then drew his sword and ran it several times at this de- ponent's breast, but seemed to be prevailed with by the Earl of ShaftesburLtlet to kill him presently, but to preserve him alive for some more cruel death. Men the Earl of Shaftesbury, saying it was time to go to Parliament, whispered Rich- ardson in the ear and sent him back, having first menaced this deponent with the certainty of death: and in answer to the several protestations of this deponent of his innocency, he replied, 'Which was to be believed, such a murdering villain as this deponent, or a man of such credit as Mr. Fowler?' Then this deponent was carried back to Newgate, and laid in a thing like a trough, in some place in the vras.room; and there, with something laid upon him, he was in torrid torment kept for the space of three hours; the pain whereof, together with the expecta- tion of certain death, almost stapified this deponent, so that being at last taken out and put into a coach by Captain Richardson, he fainted away, so that they Tare forced, with brandy and some other things poured down this deponent's hreat, to fetch him to life again."