MR. LISTER'S LIFE OF CLARENDON.

As impartial life of Lord CLARENDON is one of the desiderata of English literature; or rather, we want a searching and enlarged estimate of his character and career, for the paucity of materials renders a complete biography impossible. Few statesmen so little distinguished as the leaders of a party, or the avowed movers of great events, have been so praised and attacked as CLARENDON. After his fall, and indeed for some time preceding it, his character was given up to the vituperation of his political and personal ene- mies. But these feelings died away in time ; and on the publica- tion of his Apology for Charles the First, which he nicknamed a History, he became a sort of sacred ark, not only with Tories and Churchmen, but even with many Whigs, who professed veneration for the " Royal Martyr," and horror at his life-taking. Few, ex- cept sturdy persons of wrong opinions, dared raise a voice against him; for it was a mark of deficiency in taste and breeding to be insensible to the merits of the " illustrious CLARENDON;'—a not uncommon fallacy confounding the character of the artfully- agreeable writer with that of the pernicious statesman. A cant of another kind has sprung up in our day, which, endowing itself with the title of philosophical, proceeds very unphilosophically to judge CLARENDON by the standards of the present age, pretty deeply modified by the notions and pursuits of the individual pronouncing judgment. EDWARD Mum was born in 1609 ; and at fourteen was sent by his father—a country gentleman of sufficient fortune—to the Uni- versity. Here he at first studied for holy orders,—whence pro- bably his zeal for the Church • but family circumstances induced him to turn his attention to law, lie became a student of the Middle Temple ; in due time he was called to the bar, and gradu- ally rose to practice,—family influence perhaps aiding him, for his uncle was a judge. In 1690, he was elected a Member of Parliament, and continued for some time to act in opposition to the Court ; his practical sagacity, industry, and a style of speak- ing at once sensible and attractive, rendering him of con- siderable service to the friends of the people; though his caution, and perhaps his penetration as to the objects of some of them, kept him hanging loose upon the party. His first difference with his friends was upon Church questions; and a message from the King, followed by a private and flattering interview, confirmed his change. In this there was no breach of political morality ; but it seems not consistent with common honesty to maintain, as HYDE did, the appearance of an independent Member of Parlia- ment, while lie was the secret and irresponsible adviser of the King, the writer of his public manifestoes, and no doubt the fur- nisher of such intelligence as his position enabled him to obtain. On the breaking out of the civil war, lie remained in London as a sort of spy, until the King required his counsels ; when he escaped. During a considerable part of the troubles, lie was zealously occupied in the Royal cause, till the successes of the Republicans in the West of England compelled him to fly, first to Scilly and subsequently toJersey, with the Prince of %Vales, to whom he had been appointed a kind of political tutor or dry-nurse, Throughout the exile, he partook of all the privations of CHARLES and his courtiers: and besides acting generally as a kind of Mentor to the young King, he underwent the grievance of an embassy to Spain ; where lie was treated with civil con- tempt, and exposed to the galling bitterness of the hardships cf poverty, as well as the appearance of it. lie was also the centre of the Royalist plots and correspondence; and was appointed Chancellor,—a sinecure perforce. from the want of suits. With the Restoration came his reward. He was retained in his high office ; created a Peer ; his daughter was married to the Duke of YORK (JAmes the Second); whilst his influence with the King made him virtual Prime Minister. And now the de- fects of his character came into play. He exhibited the arrogance of a parvenu and the ostentation of the noreau riche. Overlook- ing the lapse of years and the change of circumstances, he as- sumed the pedagogue over the man CHARLES King of England de facto, as if he were still a stripling vagabond Monarch de jure. This might, or perhaps must have been borne, had CLARENDON possessed the nerve and commanding genius of CHATHAM; or been like SHAFTESBURY, versatile and unscrupulous, and ready to throw himself into opposition ; or even had lie been consistent in his virtue : but " he wound his way between right and wrong." He lectured the King on his amours; lie sermonized upon his conduct to his wife; lie refused to put the great seal to grants to mistresses, or to allow Lady CLARENDON to visit Lady UASTLESTAINE. Yet he undertook the decent and delicate rills- slen of persuading the Queen to receive the King's mistress as a Lady of the Bedchamber ; he managed secret intrigues for pecu- niary assistance with France ; and he was not only a willing in- strument, but even, according to his own account, a forward ad- viser upon stretching the prerogative, in a manner which he must have known to be illegal. These inconsistencies were not likely to escape so quick-sighted a man as CHARLES the Second; so that, after a time, CLARENDON, in addition to a censor, became a bore and a butt. He pertinaciously annoyed the King with busi- ness, and, CHARLES said, with his "temper ;" and he is reported to have required the Monarch to meet him at an earlier hour than he himself would see any body. His old-fashioned habits and his ostentation also exposed him to that most fatal of weapons, just ridicule. Amongst other weaknesses of display, CLARENDON seems to have had the seal and mace carried about with him even on private occasions; and BUCKINGHAM used to mimic the solemn and swelling demeanour of the gouty Chancellor, with the shovel and tongs borne before him to represent those insignia. Whilst thus declining in Court favour, he had no other re- source to fall back upon. His loyalty, his prejudices, his regard to appearances, and to do him justice, his honesty, prevented him from uniting with a hostile party to force his way into power. And the same juste.milieuism, which bad weakened him at court, had left him without supporters in the public. As a minister, he had done enough to make enemies of his friends, but not enough to make friends of his enemies, or to enforce the moral respect of all parties. The Catholics and Dissenters were united against him for his persecuting acts ; the Churchmen were angry because he would not let them persecute more. Refusing to do any thing in the settlement of property which had been sold during the Commonwealth, the whole was left to the law ; which decided that individual transactions should not. be disturbed, but all purchases from the State should be restored. The Roundheads, whose property was thus in a measure confiscated for the " Church and King," were naturally indignant ; while the Cavaliers, many of whom had been forced by persecution or circumstances to sell their estates very unfavourably, and even had applied the purchase- money to the purposes of the Royal cause, were equally dissatis- fied, if not with such good reason. The friends of absolute power were offended with his opposition to some arbitrary measures; he did enough, and perhaps said more, to alarm the friends of liberty. His unwillingness to sacrifice more of the Regicides than he could help, exposed him to the suspicion of the Royalists, from revenge and party feelings anxious for blood ; the zealous Republicans bore him a grudge for those who were executed.

While the power of the Minister was thus baseless, popular in- dignation was turned against him by the distress consequent upon the Fire of London, the Great Plague, and the disasters of the Dutch war; and he heightened this, as well as gave scope to the charge of corruption, by having built a very magnificent house. Refusing to resign the seals, he was forced to give them up; and his enemies turned their Parliamentary power against him. He was impeached by the Commons on seventeen ellieles, some of them general, but all intelligible and capable of proof. They, perhaps, neither individually nor collectively amounted to treason, (except a charge put in afterwards,) but involved corruption, breach of law, and the exercise of arbitrary power. The Lords, however, demurred to receive an impeachment without some evidence in support of it ; and to prevent a " collision " between the Houses. and on a message from the King, (so runs the story,) CLARENDON withdrew, in November 1667, to the Continent : there he died in 1674; having solaced the broken fortunes of his declining years by study, by finishing his " History," and by composing some other works.

As a minister and a statesman, Lord CLARENDON was only of the second class—fully up to his age, but not a step in advance of it ; possessing great experience, foresight, and worldly sagacity, but without any principles founded in the nature of politics, or, it would really appear, of morals, to guide him in difficulties. This intel- lectual deficiency was increased by his truly English prejudices, and even by his sense of honesty and right. It was made conspi- cuous by the unfavourable circumstances in which he was placed as a minister ; his conscientious feelings urging Win one way, his sense of loyalty another ; whilst his want of firmness, or perhaps a lurking love of power and profit, induced him to choose the loyalty when it came to a pinch. His fate has been a theme with moralists; but the fall of

" Hyde,

By kings protected, and to kings allied," does not so much display the instability of power, as the folly of attempting to unite incongruities—to exhibit moderation in right, to carry the principles of the juste-milieu between vice and virtue, especially when a mercenary self-interest seems tube the prompter of the course. The moral of his fate is, that neither abilities, acquirements, nor even a good degree of virtue, can uphold a poli- tician who halts midway between conflicting principles.

As an author, CLARENDON was deficient in depth, and in that grasp and comprehension which, enabling the historian to pre- sent the whole of his subject to the reader, secures his own pre- eminence by preventing even the approach of others,—a natural deficiency, increased in him by his bias, and purposed partiality. But as a chronicler or memoir-writer lie is unrivalled. His style has been called diffuse, and critically speaking is so; but to the bulk of readers it is merely a dilution, just sufficient to enable theta to bear and palate the spirit of the matter,—for condensation, requiring thought to read, is distasteful to the vulgar of all ranks. As a delineator of characters, Mr. LISTER truly remarks, he Is admirable : SALLUST only excels him in strength and brevity. As an advocate, he has perhaps no equal for artfulness without the appearance of art his easy, attractive narrative, halt' verging upon the gossipy style. both lulls the judgment and disposes the assent. The long and almost fanatical regard for the " misfor- tunes " of his treacherous and faithless master, is attributable in a great degree to CLARENDON'S History ; as that and the autobio- graphy are the cause of his own fame and repute. People like to get at results by the easiest process : it was much easier to read the agreeable pages of CLARENDON than to inquire into the filets; so his character and merits were taken upon his own warranty. Such is the power of a pleasant pen. A good deal of his reputation, however, arises from his personal, or rather his native character ; which, strongly resembling his countrymen's in general, strongly appeals to their sympathies and prejudices. Lord CLARENDON was a " most respectable man," and his very failings all leaned to the side to which respectable men themselves incline. His morals were strict ; his mode of lit ing regular and decorous ; he paid great regard to appear- ances ; and lie would not do any thing criminal for the world,—but then, he had a lax and accommodating conscience when the wrong was required by greatness. He does not deny that he sold offices; but all Chancellors had done so before him—it was only a per- centage or perquisite in the regular way of business. He had a truly English aversion to change and theory ; much of the prac- tical soundness of the middle classes ; and a deep veneration for things established—yet not approaching to idolatry, especially if interest required that they should go. He wished to be, and was, a safe man ; but, like all very cautious people, in novel difficulties he looked only to the present, and the neglected future was too much for him. He was religious, and personally tolerant, for his own theology was large met Scriptural but his politics drove him to religious persecution. His practical morality was conventional, and dependent upon the greatness of the object. He was horrified at some Royalists, who in Spain murdered a Parliamentary agent,— for it alienated still further an ill disposed Court ; but he himself could be privy to plots for the assassination of Caomweee,—a crime, however, which nothing would have induced him to engage in tor any personal advantage, or against a man whom he did not consider a public criminal. Mr. LISTER'S work, professing to narrate the "life and adminis- tration" of this very remarkable man, is in outward seeming all that could be desired. Tee volumes are of the right size ; portly, well-clothed, and well-printed, with a good portrait of CLAREN- DON. The time is scrupulously noted in the margin, the autho- rities at the foot ; and some notes on genealogy and family history are added, which show that Mr. Lime is not ill-read in that de- partment of letters. But to entitle the book a life, is a delusion. Mr. LISTER does not seem to have a notion of what biography is. All that really relates to CLARENDON might have been pat iee, half of one of the three volumes. The greater part of the rest consists of a narrative, strongly W higgish, but not disagreeable further than being out of place, of the events which had any re- lation to the events with which CLARENDON was connected : thus, when he is elected a Member of Parliament, Mr. LISTER favours his readers with a precis of the history of the Parliaments of CHARLES the First.

Nor dive the biographer, in despite of his labours in libraries and public offices, tell any thing very new. Little personally cha- racteristic or historically important is brought out, beyond what may be found in CLARENDON'S own writings, or in memoirs and histories ; though, had this information been properly put toge- ther, it would have been an acquisition. But in addition to lite- rary- defects, Mr. LISTER is an apologist of his hero, to an extent which might be called dishonest, were it not that a family con- nexion by marriage suggests a solution of another kind. He has "always an excuse ready : " he does not deny, but he glosses. This, however, is chiefly in the narrative : his estimate of CLA- RENDON, both personal and literary, is just ; though throughout the book Mr. LISTER exhibits great deficiency in that discrimina- tion which marks by a touch the nicer and characteristic points. The third volume consists of selections from the yet unpub- lished manuscripts of CLARENDON, preserved at Oxford. They are curious and informing to the historical student or minute in- quirer, but have little popular attraction. Perhaps the most interesting passages in the publication are from the pen of CLARENDON himself, though well dovetailed by Mr. LISTER. Such is this account of his privations during exile. We wonder whether royalty ever reflects, or whether reflection ever profits ? Had not the STUARTS been a doomed race, the distresses noted in the following graphic passages would surely have taught them wisdom from experience.

In August 1632, Ilyde states, in a letter to Sir Richert' Browne, that " a sumo lately receaved at Paris for the Kinge," "which is all the money he bath teceaved since he came hither, sloth not inable his cooks and back-stayree men to goe ou in provydinge his dyett ; but they protest they can undertake it no longer." In December 1652, Hyde says, the King is " reduced to greater dis. tresse than you can believe or imagyne." In June 1653, he says, iu a letter to Nicholas, with respect to the distresses of the King anti his adherents, " I do not know that any man is yet dead fur want of bread, which really I wonder at. I am sure the King himself owes fur all he hath eaten since April; and I am not acquainted with one servant of his who bath a pistule in his pocket. Five or six of us eat together one meal a day, for a pistols a week ; but all of us owe for God knows how many weeks to the poor woman that feeds us. I believe ray Lord of Ormond bath not had five livres in his purse this month, and hath fewer clothes of all sorts than you have; and yet I take you to be no gallant."

Hyde was severely exposed not merely to the nomival distresses of pecuniary embarrassment, but to the real privations of poverty, as is apparent from many of his letters. " At this time," (November 9, 16320 " I have neither clothes nor file to preserve me from the sharpness of the season." " I am so cold that I am scarce able to hold my pen, and have not three sous in the world to buy a faggot." " I have not been muter of a crown these many months, am cold for want of clothes ans(lwfihriec,habtdreoakw: which I have eaten these three months, and to a poor woman wl o is no loulele- Ittlrite) rt

able to trust ; and my poor family at Antwerp

as sad estate as I am." It appears, too, that his offieial duties as Secrete ys the place of Nicholas, instead of being a lettuce of profit, caused what, irn. hie destitute state, was a serious addition to other burdens. " I cannot,^ be sees " avoid the constant expense of seven or eight livres the week for postageof letters, which I borrow scandalously out of my friends' pockets; or else my letters must more scandalously remain still at the post-house ; and I sin sure all those which concern my own private affiirs would be received for tea soul a week ; so that all the rest are for the King, from wham I have not received one penny since I Caine hither, end am pet to all this charge." la another letter, he mentions that he is 'seduced to wot of decent clothing; and, in Mar 1653, tells Nicholas—" I one so much money here, to all suits of people, tbit I would not wonder if I were cast into a prison to-morrow ; and if the Kieg should remove, as I hope he will shortly have oeeesinn to do, and not enable lei to pay the debt I have contracted for his service, I must look for that portion, and starve there."

Here is a specimen of CLARENDON's own account of his mode of dealing with the Kin : the subject was his wife's visiting Lady CASTLEMAINE.

Ile told him, " that as it would reflect upon his Majesty himself, if his Chancellor was known or thought to be of die-et:lute and debauched mannen, which would make biro as incapable as unworthy to do him justice; me it would be a blemish and taint upon him to give any countenance, or to pay more titan ordinary courtesy and unavoidable civilities to persons infunous for any vice, for which, by the laws of God and man, they ought to be odious, and to be exposed to the judgment of the church and state ; and that he would not for his own sake, and for his own dignity, to how low a condition soever he "night be reduced, stoop to such a condescension as to have the least cono fierce, or to make the application of a visit to any such person, for any benefit or advantege that it might bring to him. He did beseech I.is Majesty not to believe that he Lath a prerogative to declare vice virtue, or to qualify any per- son who lives in a sin and actors it, against which Col himself both pro- nounced detonation, for the company and conversation of innocent and worthy persons: and that whatever low obedience, which was in truth gross flattery, some people might pay to whet they believed would be grateful to his Majesty, they had in their hearts a perfoct iletestation of the persons they made address to; and that for his part he was !,.:1c: reeolostel that his wife should not lo one of those courtiers ; awl that he .would 'himself much less like her company, if she put herself into theirs who had not the some innocence."

Turning from CLARENDON, we will close with an extract from Mr. Limn, descriptive of the state of things after the Chancels

tar's dismissal. The anecdotes are all of them old enough, but they are agreeably grouped, and furnish a fair sample of the author's composition—well-studied commonplace.

Charles signalized his emancipation from Clarendon's control, by making, within a month after that :Minister had retired from office, a grant of plate to

Lady Castlemaine; and afterwards by all indulgent!a more open and unbridled

in reckless extravagance and licentious pleasures. Ili, :Minister, Buckingham, encouraged in bin' that contempt of decamsy whiell Clarentlaa had been ewe to reprove ; and, at Buckingham's instigation, Chat ks installed in Lady Castle. maine's post of ;Iishonuttr an actress of moot h.1.11 frailty, who, in allusion to two preceding paramours of the same name, called the King- her "Charles the Third." The few years following Clarendon's expulsion were the most glaringly profligate in that age of protligacy—the most corrupt and degraded in that toga of political degradation. Morality had fallen so lew that it could scarcely ob-

tain even the homage of the shallowest hypeci isy from those whose position, making them conspicuous, ought to have !urine them also mindful of the example they were setting ; and the grossest crimes were sometimes pardoned if they assumed the character of frolic. Two Court favourites, he King's recent compattime in an indecent revel, "tun up and down all the night, almost naked, thieueli the streets," and are Om n into custody ; "the King takes their parts," and a Lori Chief Justice imprisons the constable who had done his duty in apprehending them. The liveurite :Minister kills in a duel the husband of a woman whose paramour he is, and who assists at the combat in the disguise of a page. The King's illegitimate son 3Iontnouth, in company with the young Duke of Albemarle and others, kills a watehmati, who begs for mercy, and the King pardons all the murderers. A dating ruffian, named Blood, attempts to ass urinate the Duke of °linen!, and soon afterwards to steal the regalia ; Cherie,' admits the felon to his presence—hears with amuse- ment the boastful C011feAS:011 of his committed and intended crimes, and not only pardons but rewards him. The son of Ormond tells the King's Minister, be- fore the King, that he believes him the instigator of the recent attempt toms- sinate his father; and that aluello any such attempt succeed, he shall regard that Minister ae the secret inst....mom, and kill him even in the King's pre- sence. Sir John Coventry, a Member of Parliament, its the course of a debate in reply to an argument against taxing playlionees, namely, that the ellen were the King's servants and a part of his pleasure, asked, whether the King's pleasure lay amongst the men or the women who assay? Charles stung by Ce- ventry's allusion to what everybody knew, eenee some officers of the Guards to waylay and maim him ; which they do by cutting hie nose to the bone. Aa mining that these facts were monstrous exceptions, and not average examples 01 the state of society, it may still be urged that they could not have been pooffile except in a period of uuparalleled corruption.