SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Martinis, Diary of the Times of Charles the Second, by the Honourable Henry Sidney, after- wards Earl of Romney ; includiug his Correspondeuce with the Countess of Sutherland, and other distinguished Persons at the English Court. To which are added. Letters illustrative of the Times of James II. and William III. Edited,

with Notes. by R. W. Blencowe, Esq., A.M. In two volumes Colburn.

PRINCIPLES OF POLITICS,

Political Philosophy. By Henry Lord Brougham. P.R.S., Member of the National Institute of France, &c. Part 11.—Of Aristocracy : Aristocratic Governments.

TRAVELS, Chapman and Hall. Egypt and the Holy Land in 1842; with Sketches of Greece. Constantinople, and the Levant. By W. Drew Stent, B.A., of Wadbam College, Oxford. to two volumes Bentley.

THE DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY SIDNEY, EARL OF ROMNEY.

THE publication of these volumes has originated in the money- value which is now attached to family papers relating to historical persons or events. The most popularly telling point connected with the hero of the present work, is that he was the brother of ALGERNON SIDNEY. In his own day, however, be was a person of some note and influence, and an active if secret spring in the Revo- lution of 1688; although both his name and actions have long ceased to be familiar to the general reader. HENRY SIDNEY, a younger son of the Earl of LEICESTER, was born at Paris, in the year 1640, during his father's embassy to the court of France. Of his youth nothing seems to be known ; but in 1665 be lost his post of Groom of the Bedchamber in the Household of the Duke of YORK, in consequence of an aspiring passion for the Dutchess. Another blank interval of ten years occurs ; when he was appointed Master of the Robes to CHARLES the Second ; the year following he obtained a regiment ; and soon after, (1679,) was sent to the Hague as Envoy. His ostensible business was to nego- tiate the scheme of a " guarantee,"—a species of union by England, Holland, and Spain, to make France keep the peace : his real ob- ject probably was to forward the intriguing views of ■SUNDERLAND and the Prince of ORANGE; for the latter, even at that early time, had his eye directed towards the throne of England,—an object which the Country party aimed at achieving by the exclusion of the Duke of YORK. Be this as it may, SIDNEY contrived so to ingratiate himself with WILLIAM, that he ap- pointed him on the death of the gallant Earl of OSSORY, com- mander of the English troops in the service of Holland, and that in the teeth of CHARLES'S recommendation of another person. Re- called from his embassy about the time of this event, if not in conso- quence of it, he was civilly received by the King : but JAMES on his accession deprived him of the command of the Dutch troops ; and though he afterwards sent him to Holland, SIDNEY'S position or his conduct was so equivocal that he thought it better to travel, and went to Italy. As the preliminary movements of the Revo- lution thickened, he returned to Holland ; came over to England, at some risk, in June 1688; and carried back to WILLIAM the in- vitation and declaration of adherence, signed by the Association. With the success of the Revolution came his reward.

"The day after the proclamation of the King and Queen, he was appointed one of the Privy Council and Gentleman of the Bedchamber' soon afterwards he was made Colonel of the King's Regiment of Foot Guards and upon the coronation of William and Mary he was created Viscount Sidney and Baron Milton ; and in the following year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant, Vice- Admiral, and Commissary of the County of Kent.

"He accompanied the King in his campaign in Ireland, and was with him at the battle of the Boyne; and on the King's leaving that country, he was made one of the Lords Justices of Ireland. Soon afterwards he was recalled, and appointed one of the chief Secretaries of State having, if Lord Dartmouth is correct in his statement, received grants of the confiscated estates in that country to the value of seventeen thousand pounds a year. "In 1692, he was again sent as Lord-Lieutenant-General and Governor to Ireland ; a post of great difficulty, in the management of which he seems to have entirely failed. • • " Sidney's ill success in Ireland was no bar to his further honours. Upon Ins return he was made Master. General of the Ordnance ; and in the following year he was created Earl of Romney, and Lieutenant-General of the Forces ; and on the resignation of the Earl of Portland, Groom of the Stole and First Gentleman of the Bedchamber."

These honours, and the more substantial grants, he did not long enjoy ; for he died of the smallpox in 1704, two years after his master.

The manners of SIDNEY were pleasing, and his disposition amiable, or, as BURNET describes it, "sweet without malice." His person was handsome ; and his habits, as might be expected from a fine-looking courtier of CHARLES the Second, licentious. His capacity was small for great affairs, and more adapted, perhaps, for intrigues of politics or gallantry than for actual business. In either case, however, he would seem to have rather been influenced himself than to have influenced others. SUNDERLAND appears to have made him a political instrument ; and a Mrs. WORTH- LET, a widow of respectable connexions, who had lived with him as a mistress, annoyed him for many years. Under CHARLES the Second, she rendered him notorious by presenting a petition to the King complaining of Mr. SIDNEY'S not having kept his "word" or his " solemn promises" in respect to her allow- ance; and when he became a Lord, on the expulsion of the &emirs, she still stuck to him like the leech, with a similar burden of "Give, give!" The following letter is a fine example of oil of bitters ; and the composition very good for a woman of the seventeenth century.

18th June 1689.

"My Lord-1 wish some good angel would instruct my pen to express some- thing that would incline your Lordship to moderate your hate towards me, that have loved you only too well, and would increase that slender portion ,of love you have for your own honour. " Could your Lordship make cripples of my tongue and pen, by confining

me to a jail, as well as my limbes, you might then hope for a conquest; but, my Lord, though I am perfectly lame, and have in a manner quite lost the use of my limbs, yet my pen will never lose its vigour, nor will my tongue be silent. How happy should I now esteem myself if I could say or do anything that would make you reassume your former good-nature ! but do not miscon- strue me, my Lord; I mean only that part of your good-nature that would oblige you to do what is reasonable, and not to return to your embraces. Your Lord- ship must pardon me if I still am perfectly yours without desiring your con- versation. I am the best-natured fool living; but it is not to that degree as to be a silent fool neither. I would willingly, if your Lordship pleases, take a little fresh air between this time and Michaelmas; and all that at present I desire your Lordship to do is, to let me have half a year's money next Monday. You know that I have lately begged that you would be pleased to send me a 1001. to pay sonic small debts "Pray, my dear Lord, do not deny me so poor a business as a little money now at Midsummer, for fear it may again transport me to do something that will go very much against the grain with me to do towards the man that in my soul I do adore, and still love too well. I wish I did not. I am sure you never loved money well enough to deny me or any body any reasonable sum out of a meanly miserable esteem for dross; but you have no other way to be revenged on me but to strip me naked and confine me. But, my Lord, how poor and how ignoble a revenge is this of yours to me, a poor deluded woman, that bath loved you above myself, nay, above heaven or honour, and bath generously spent my youth with you in discontent and suffering; whereas I might have had plenty and ease with others : and if my too great confidence in your great worth and honour and generosity has betrayed me to irrecoverable ruin, yet, my Lord, you must certainly pity me, though you hate me. But I will not yet despair but that I may live to hear my Lord Sidney say, that he hates himself because he hated her, without any just cause, who is sincerely yours,

"G. WORTHLEY.

" P.S. My Lord, though there was too much noise in King Charles's and King James's court, let me humbly beg of your Lordship not to be, by your continued cruelty to her, who is not envious, but happy in seeing you so, the author of any new noise in King William's and Queen Mary's court ; for I assure your Lordship I do not desire it, for I am now wholly inclined to peace, love, and Christian amity. I hope you do not forget your hopeful soil in Holland ; and that you had my letter, with the inclosed bill, that came to me from him."

The materials of these volumes have been chiefly selected from the family papers of the Earl of CHICHESTER, descendant of THOMAS PELnAm, a nephew of SIDNEY, to whom they were be- queathed. They consist of SIDNEY'S diary, or extracts from his diary, during his embassy in Holland, and of his correspondence about the same period, together with a few letters previous to and after the Revolution. The date of the first period extends from June 1679 to January 1682; that of the latter from 1684 to 1689. The general character of the diary is meagre, often mere jottinp to refresh the writer's own memory, and commonly little more than the enumeration of the business in which he had been engaged, for the journal is almost confined to his diplomatic business. The cor- respondence is more various, from the number of persons and their different characters, which induce different topics with a difference of treatment. The Dowager Lady SUNDERLAND, an elder sister of SIDNEY by many years, writes on scandal and family matters ; her daughter-in-law mixes politics and domestic economy, in a man- ner more curious than in (modern) good taste, and shows strong signs of the female manager; but, with a few exceptions, the letters of the statesmen and men of business are dry. Mr. BLENCOWS, and some other editors who get hold of family docu- ments, are sadly deficient in the taste and skill of Lord Merlon when publishing the Stanhope Correspondence : the idea of a critical selection never seems to enter their heads. Mr. Rims- COWE has rather aggravated this fault by the introduction of letters already published, or by manuscript epistles furnished to him by Mr. Urcorr, which have no direct relation to the Sidney Corres- pondence.

In essentials the publication is well edited : short biographical notices of the principal writers are given in an introduction ; and foot-notes illustrate with sufficient copiousness the persons or allu- sions that occur in the text. To minor or business points less attention has been paid. The letters are not always separated to the eye with sufficient distinctness from the diary ; and Mr. BLEN Cows has not supplied the absence of the date of the year to many of the letters, and to the journal, or corrected it according to the modern computation. The reader has to turn back for the chronology, and will not always succeed.

The work does not contain historical illustration in proportion to its bulk. From a passing notice or two it would seem, that CHARLES the Second, when he chose to apply, formed a juster estimate of personal character than his Ministers ; and that WILLIAM exhibited much more sagacity than his English ad- visers: or the solution may be that the princely opinions were

less prompted by concealed interests. So far as lamentations go, the disturbed condition of England, and the risk of the expul-

sion of the STUARTS to establish a commonwealth, were greater than mere historical narrative would teach us : the Republican party would appear to have been more powerful than has been con- jectured—powerful to destroy if not to set up. It is also evident that the crown of England was always present to the mind of WILLIAM of Nassau. The "glorious Revolution" was much like a conspiracy, though no doubt a necessary one to get rid of the race. Here, as early as September 1679, is the DAWN OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1688.

I dined at Hounslerdyke ; after dinner, I walked with the Prince above an hour. I told him several reasons shy he should go into England : he was unapt to believe it would do any good ; but I told him the Monarchy was absolutely lost unless he recovered it. He is convinced the Duke will never have the crown, and I find would be very willing to be put into a way of having it himself. He desired me to write to Lord Sunderland, to know what was the best time for him to come over, and if there was any expedient to be found to absolve him from taking the oaths of allegiance.

A MINISTER ON A ICING'S MISTRESS, 1679.

Lord Sunderland told me that the Duchess of Portsmouth was unsatisfied with the Prince [of ORANGE); and desired me to advise him to write to her, and make some application to her, for that she will be of great use tom, particularly against the Duke of Monmouth :and I am to let him know how instrumental she bath been in changing the Council, and in several other things. In short, I am to tell him that she is one Lord Sunderland does make use of, and that he must do so too if he intends to do any good with the King. She bath more rower over him than can be imagined. Nobody can excuse what she bath done, but I hope well from her for the future.

THE MISTRESS IN COUNCIL.

At night, the Duchess of Portsmouth and I had some discourse together of :Mr. Harbord ; and afterwarda I asked her when she would give me her in- structions. She said, she did not like to make advances. I told her I hoped she would receive them well, if they were made to her. She then fell to make several expressions of kindness to the Prince, and told me she believed he and several others loved her the worse because they thought her too much in the interest of France. She confessed she had so much kindness to her own country that she would be glad to do it any good, but when it came into any competition with England she would show that she thought her stake here was much greater than there.

It was not enough in those times for officers of state to pay

court to the mistress ; they were expected to compliment her maid. The following is an extract from a letter to SIDNEY by MOUNT- STEVENS, private secretary to SUNDERLAND.

"Mrs. Wall is become your fellow-servant; being sworn yesterday into the place of laundress to the King, in the room of Mrs. Chiffinch, who died last Wednesday, the day the Court returned from Newmarket ; but does not intend to quit her Dutchess. If you think fit to compliment her upon this prefer- ment yourself, or to commission me to do it for you, let me know by the next, and I shall punctually observe your commands in this and all other matters to the best of my power."

The Dowager Lady SUNDERLAND gives this description of

A CITY DINNER.

His Majesty and his city of London are upon very good terms. When he supped this week at the Mayor's, the people showed as much of affection and duty as the expressions at such a time could be. The Lady Mayoress sat next to the King, all over scarlet and ermine, and half over diamonds. The Alder- men drank the King's health over and over upon their knees, and wished all 'banged and damned that would not serve him with their lives and fortunes. They attended him to Whitehall at two o'clock in the morning: they would not trust him with his guards, who were all drunk, but brought some of their own ; and they all went merry out of the King's cellar. The next day they came in a full body to give both the King and Duke thanks for the honour they had done them. The Mayor is now as well affected as any body, and was as ill.

AN AMBASSADOR OF LOUIS LE GRAND.

AU the discourse we have here at present is, of what happened a Wednesday night at Court. The French Ambassador had, in the morning, sent Monsieur Odyke word that he intended to wait upon the Princess that evening : he forgot to give notice of it ; so that the Princess sat down as she uses to do, about eight o'clock, to play at Is Basset. A quarter of an hour after, the Ambassador came in. She rose up, and asked him if he would play, and sat down again : be made no answer, but, looking about, he saw a chair with aims in the corner, which he drew himself and sat down. After he had sat a little while, he rose and went to the table to play. The Prince came in shortly -after, and did also seat himself to play. The next day he told some of his friends that he was not to be wondered at, for be had positive orders from his master, that, whenever the Princess sat in a great arm-chair, he should do so too; and that if there was but one in the room, he should endeavour to take it from the Princess and sit in it himself.

Notwithstanding Srozar's " sweetness" of temper, he seems to have been quick. His reply to a reprimand for some papers he had transmitted looks rather unofficial to modern eyes : and the form of the reprimand was as mild as it could be ; running thus— "On Sunday I produced your letter and the pensioner's paper at the Com- -mittee of Intelligence, and both were read before his Majesty. All my Lords took exceptions to the paper, as taking too much upon it to advise in our great affairs. It was the general sense, that where memoirs or papers are harsh in their language, or nnpleasing in the subject matter, a minister may well de- bate and take his exceptions to them ; and if he cannot get them reformed to his mind, he may excuse himself from handing them to his own master, and leave it to the Court he resides in to do it by their own ministers at his master's Court. This I am commanded to say by way of caution to yon, in case the ministers there should hereafter press such papers upon you that you would have ro reason to be satisfied with. That which I have further in com- mand to tell you is, that if they come to you for an answer to their paper, you would let them know that you have received no answer upon it."

To which our diplomatist replied— "I received yours of the 7th, with a reprimand, which I confess I did not expect. I hope those who succeed me will deserve it less. I am sure none will ever serve his Majesty with more zeal and affection than I have done : that is all I will say of that matter. Time will show whether I have done well in my negotiations or no. I have sent you a printed paper : you will tell me If I have not done well; if I have, I will henceforth only send you the Ga- settee. I desire you will be pleased to let me know whether it be the opinion of the Lords, as )(Ai please to call them, of Intelligence, that I shall acquaint his Majesty only with what is done at the plays and the balls ; and as soon as I receive your orders thereupon, I will observe them most punctually. This night the Prince and Princess of Orange and Prince of Hanover do me the honour to come to my house. They shall have music and dancing, and the beat entertainment I can give them; which is aU I have to tell you from home,

but that I am yours."

It is said that there was an intrigue between SIDNEY and Lady SUNDERLAND his nephew's wife : we see no trace of it in the cor- respondence published by Mr. BLENCOWE' although he rather gives into the opinion. The expressions of kindness seem to us to partake of cant ; and, as we read the letters, both SUNDERLAND and his wife appear to have used SIDNEY as their medium with the Prince of ORANGE. Nor is there any thing in the shape of gal- lantry in the diary, beyond some meagre allusions to a marriage he contemplated with a Dutch fortune of 120,0001., but in which he did not succeed.