SIR HENRY VANE.*

THE author of this valuable and judicious work says with truth that " very few general readers know more about Vane than that Milton addressed a sonnet to him, and that Cromwell on a celebrated occasion prayed to be delivered from him." Mr. :Willcock's book ought to do something to make him better known. Sir Henry Vane, "statesman and mystic," was prominent and-notable among the worthies of the heroic .age of Englisk history, and certainly deserves a good biography, :although not .much information has come down to us about his private life, and the atoll, of his public career inevitably merges itself to a great extent_ in the general political annals of his era. The title of statesman can hardly be denied to one who was eminently distinguished both as a revolutionary leader and as a practical administrator. In the Long Parlia- ment, at,the time of its meeting, he was the only recognized representative of that principle of Independency which was .afterwards to become the dominant power in the State. On the death of Ppm he. succeeded to the leadership of the Parliamentary party,.and for two years from that time " he occupied a position of extraordinary influence." .Mr. Willcock quotes Beater es saying that Vane "was that within the House 'which Cromwell was without." At the Reitoration, although he bad not been a regicide, his reputation for ability procured iiim the honour of political martyrdom. " The great share he had in the .attainder of the Earl of Strafford," Says Burnet, " and in the Whole turn of affairs to the total change of gOvernment, but,.above all, the great opinion that was had Of his parts and capacity to embroil matters again, made the Court think it necessary to put hini out of the way." As Charles II. expressed it With brutal candour in a letter to. ClarendOn, ""Certainly-he is too dangerous a man tolet live if we can honestly put hini out of the way."

Carlyle, as 'might have been expected, treats Vane with a sort of rough.contetupt. He could not find much to admire in a man who in practical genius fell far short of Cromwell, who adhered with a fidelity which some thought pedantic to his principles and theories, and whose political career was certainly not crowned with signal success. His high personal character and disinterested devotion to what he Considered the cause of right have' always been acknowledged by his opponents and critics: •We must refer our readers to Mr. Willcock's hook for particulars'Of two interesting episodes of Tane's career -his` short tenure of the post of Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts, to Which he was • appointed at the age of -twenty-three, and his administration of the English Navy Under the Commonwealth. As treasurer of the Navy, he was instrumental'in carrying out a reorganisation which largely contributed to the glorionswictoriee of -Admiral Blake. Why Cromwell; whmi he was forcibly dissolving • the Long * .Life_ql_Bir Beery Vane the Younger, Statesman and Mystic (1813-1062). py .icrhu Willcock,_ M.A., Hist, Soc. St. Cathare.e Mresa. Dos. net'

Parliament,.prayed to be delivered from Sir Harry Vane not very clear. Apparently he was under the impression that Vane had failed to keep a pledge be had given in connexion with a Bill for a new scheme of Parliamentary represeutatimn It seems likely that there was some misunderstanding. The two men had previously been intimate friends; and it is interesting to note that shortly afterwards Cromwell offered Vane a seat in the Little or Barebones Parliament. Later, as is well known, Vane felt bound to oppose Oliver's assumption of supreme power.

Students of Professor T. H. Green's Four Lectures on the English Revolution (republished separately, 1912) will remember—perhaps they were somewhat surprised at-Lthe prominent position given to Vane in those discourses. He figures there, it may almost be said, as the hero of the great Puritan revolution, or at any rate as its representative on the speculative, as Cromwell was on the practical side, and Milton in literature. Green takes very seriously the mystical philo- sophy contained in those writings of Vane which have hitherto been regarded as not worthy of much attention. According to Baxter, Vane's "doctrines were so cloudily formed and expressed that few could understand them." Clarendon and

Burnet likewise complain of their obscurity, and Hume roundly pronounces them to be " absolutely unintelligible." Burnet's words are : "I have sometimes taken pains to see if I could find out his meaning in his works, yet I could

never reach it; and, since many others have said the same, it may be reasonable to believe that he hid somewhat that

was a necessary key to the rest." Mr. Willcock slightly-

obscures the meaning of this passage by printing "had" for " hid " (page 254). His own opinion on Vane's theosophy is that it "seems to illustrate the aberration of a great

mind," and he prudently has recourse to T. H. Green for an exposition of Vane's system of thought. Green goes so far as to say that in Vane's writings " we find, under a most involved

phraseology and an allegorizing interpretation of scripture, a strange intensity of intellectual aspiration, which, if his

secondary gifts had been those of a poet instead of a politician.

might have made bins the rival of Milton." Mr. Willcock tells us that " Vane's theological opinions were largely influenced_

by the mystical writings of Jacob Boehme" (p. 254). In the absence of definite evidence on the point, this is perhaps asserted too positively, and is in fact qualified three pagee, later by the statement that " whence Vane derived his theosophy is doubtful, but it is closely akin to that of Jacob Boehme, some of whose works had already been translated into English." It was a striking feature of Vane's theology, and one which at any rate is not open to the charge of,

obscurity, that, " though lie set up_ a_ form of a religion in a

way of his own, yet it consisted rather in a withdrawing from all other forms [he was styled by his contemporaries 'the man above ordinances'] than in any new or particular

opinions or forms ; from which he and his party were Called Seekers, and seemed to wait for some new and 'clearer

manifestations" (Burnet). He was one of those who were

"persuaded that the Lord has more truth yet to break 'forth out of His holy word." The connecting libk. between Vane's' theology and his politics is to be found in the great doctrine' of liberty of conscience which was the ruling prineiple of his life, and in which he was entirely at one with' Cromwell and with Milton.

On page 195 of the present biography the famous republican:

and regicide Henry Marten appears as "Sir Henry Marten." Curiously enough, it is recorded that Cromwell one day in debate spoke of Mr. Marten accidentally as "Sit Harry " ; whereupon the latter, who was well known for his ready wit, interrupted him by saying, with a low bow, "I-always expected, when your Majesty became King, you would make me er Knight" (Green's Lectures, page 81).