SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

HISTORICAL ME110111.14,

The Fairfax Correspondence : Memoirs of the Reign of Charles the First. Edited by

George W. Johnson, Esq., Barrister-at-law. In two volumes Bentley.

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The Bible Revised. A carefully corrected Translation of the Old and New Testaments. By Francis Barham, Editor of the " Hebrew and English Bible," "Collier's Eccle- siastical History," &c. Part I. The Book of Ecclesiastes. Houleton and Stoneman. FicrioN,

The Two Baronesses ; a Romance. In three parts. By Hans Christian Andersen,

Author of "The Improvisatore," &c. In two volumes Bentley.

THE FAIRFAX CORRESPONDENCE.

THE family of Fairfax " was seated at Towee.ster in Northumberland at or before the Conquest, and derived their blood from a Saxon stock,"—the name Fairfax signifying fair-hair. During the course of five centuries, they contributed a couple of judges, several sheriffs, and a fair proportion of military men, to the service of their country. The first Lord Fair- fax, who was born in 1560 and died in 1640, was a shrewd diplomatist and man of the world, after the fashion of the times of the Tudors and the Stuarts. His son Ferdinand, the second Lord, does not appear to have been so apt at a bargain, whether for a wife or a peerage, as his father, and was altogether a more worthy man, though not without some of the family weakness—infirmity of purpose in troubled times. Unless we consider the translator of Tasso as a legitimate member of the house, its only true historical character was the third Lord Fairfax, the Parliamentary General ; though his daughter, who married the second Villiers Duke of Buckingham, and died childless, may claim an historic niche in right of her husband. The

. . . "victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame,"

managed also to embroil the property of his wife. A collateral descend- ant received the title, and the wealth of the house of Fairfax was eventu- ally increased by a marriage. Among the estates then acquired was a large domain in Virginia, containing no less than one million seven hun- dred thousand acres ; and this, or such part of it as circumstances and the American law may have permitted, is all that remains to the Lords Fairfax. The title, a Scotch creation, still stands in our Peerage books: the present Lord is believed to have sons ; and the closing line of the record indicates his domicile on the shores of a distant continent- " Seat—Woodburne, Maryland, United States of America."

The brief effulgence of the family glory is analogous to that of its great- est member. Scarcely any one in history occupied so high a position as Sir Thomas Fairfax, yet has inspired so little historical interest or so entirely quits the scene by a mere exit without a denouement of any kind. Excepting Lepidus, the leaders during the Roman civil commotions are traced onward to their death, either from its nature, as that of Crassus, or from their force of character, SS in the case of Sylla. The commanders in the religious wars of modern Europe and of Revolutionary France, even when they were merely soldiers, are known to the historical student in their lives and their deaths. The General of the Long Parliament, one of the first men who met his Sovereign in the field as a distinct representa- tive of the cause of the Commons, and who commanded the army which in regular campaigns and after a series of actions entirely destroyed the power of the Crown, is not merely thrust aside, but vanishes from the historic page and the reader's mind. The mere superiority of Cromwell will not explain this : men much less conspicuous in station whom Cromwell overshadowed, have made themselves remembered. 'The conscientious scruples of Fairfax will not explain it; for though he declined to sit upon the trial of the King, he continued to hold the (nominal) command of the army till it was taken away from him. Brave in the field he undoubtedly was, and skilled in the common duties of his profession ; but his success as a captain seems to have been owing to the energy and comprehension of Cromwell both in conception and action. In the qualities by which dis- cipline is established, confidence inspired, and means steadily directed to an end not clearly visible to common people, Cromwell stood alone: Fairfax was not so much deficient as altogether wanting. When the final victory was attained, be was surprised at his own success. That he had formed no definite plan in contemplation of such a result, is scarcely mat- ter of surprise : perhaps no one had, except the zealous Republicans, or those fanatics who looked for a theocracy, of which themselves were to be the administrative organs. The fault of Fairfax was, that he could not adapt himself to new circumstances' and that he shrank from the diffi- culties of success. But .after all this explanation, his small importance in history is surprising ; and can only be accounted for on the notion that he never was a leader, but only an instrument in the hands of Crom- well and the more determined opponents of Charles and of kingly and ecclesiastical tyranny. But if not so remarkable in family history as some houses, and failing to achieve historical greatness when it seemed fairly within grasp, the Fairfax correspondence ought to be rich. For nearly seven hundred years the family was settled in England in a safe and highly respectable position, without much mutation of property except the loss of the pater- nal acres in the time of Henry the Eighth; a Romanist father baring disinherited his son (the father of the first Lord) for assisting at the sack of Rome. Some of the Fairfaxes, especially a lawyer of the seventeenth century, were given to genealogy, and compiled regular accounts of the family and its characteristics, while the whole race seem to have been careful about its papers. These papers, too, have been preserved and brought before the public in a manner so singular as to look suspicious, if there were any conceivable object for suspicion to fasten upon. Among the property acquired by the fifth Lord Fairfax on his marriage, towards the close of the seventeenth century, was Leeds Castle, a place not far from Maidstone in Kent. Thither, at some time or other, the whole of the Fairfax papers seem to have been brought from Denton the family seat since the reign of Henry the Eighth. The seventh Lord Fairfax, dying without issue, "bequeathed Leeds Castle and its appendages to the Reverend

Denny Martin, who subsequently took the name of Fairfax." A nephew of this gentleman having come into possession of the property, determined, in 1822, to make some alterations in the castle ; and set apart for sale a quantity of useless furniture.

"Amongst the lumber which was thus to be swept away was an old oaken chest, filled apparently with Dutch tiles. It was purchased for a few shillings by Mr. Gooding, a shoemaker in the neighbouring village of Lenham. Upon the in- spection of its contents, expecting perhaps to light upon treasures of another kind, me. Gooding found an enormous quantity of MSS., carefully arranged and depo- sited beneath the Dutch tiles, which were piled up to the lid of the box. Mr. Gooding, not attaching any special value to treasures of this description, consign- ed the papers to a cellar, to be destroyed as occasion served for waste paper. "It was fortunately suggested to Mr. Gooding to offer the MSS. to Mr. New- ington Hughes, a banker at Maidstone, and well known as a collector of anti- quities. By this lucky accident the whole collection was preserved, Mr. Hughes becoming their purchaser. Bat in the mean while some havoc had been commit- tad amongst them. Some of the parchments,' says Mr. Johnson, under whose editorship the first two volumes of the Correspondence are now issued, 'had been cut into strips for shoemakers' measures; and a fragment of one, a grant of lands to Sir Anthony Saint Leger, is now before me in the form of a child's dram-pelt. Some of the letters Mr. Hughes recovered from the thread-papers of the village mantuamakers; others had been taken by a gentleman's servant, and had found their way into the collections of Mr. Jadis, of the Board of Green Cloth, and of Mr. Upcot, the well-known collector of autographs. These were nearly all re- covered; and the whole form that valuable and richly-illustrated series of manu-

scripts from which this work has been prepared.'

•

"The earliest date in the Fairfax MSS. is the year 1535; and the first docu- ment in the collection is a memorandum in the handwriting of the first Lord Fair- fax, tracing his ancestry back to the Conquest. Eighty or ninety letters and papers of a miscellaneous and desultory character follow, carrying us over a period of ninety yearsy and having reference at irregular intervals to personal and family matters, and to the public duties in which the Fairfaxes were engaged, chiefly concerning the local affairs of Yorkshire, where their influence mainly lay. The historical interest opens at the accession of Charles I., on the 27th March 1625. From this point the correspondence increases in bulk and value and presents a continuous view of the important events which ultimately terminated in the esta- blishment of the Commonwealth."

The correspondence thus strangely preserved appears to have been placed in the hands of Mr. Johnson, a barrister, and of some heraldic writer. The latter has compiled an "Historical and Biographical Me- moir of the Fairfax Family,' from their first emergence to the present day, using up such documents as might be available. Mr. Johnson has taken up the Fairfax Correspondence at the death of James the First, and made it the basis for writing a sort of history of the Reign and Times of Charles the First ; dropping in the letters by or to the Fairfaxes as illus- trations, but by no means confining his text to the topics of the Corre- spondence. The real interest attached to that great epoch in the history of England and of the world, (for it is difficult to conceive the result to freedom of every kind had Charles triumphed, or the Commons suc- cumbed after a wordy struggle,) the moral and intellectual greatness exhibited by some of the principal actors, and the peculiarities of charac- ter in all, render the subject attractive in itself, told as often as it may be. Yet the times of Charles the First have been exhibited so frequently on every side, and on all kinds of scale, that A new view of them was by no means wanted—at any rate, such a view as Mr. Johnson gives ; albeit he is read in the original authorities of the time, takes a tolerably impartial view, though with a leaning in favour of the popular side, is skilful in the selection of his facts, and fluent in presenting them, with- out being verbose. In reality, however, Mr. Johnson's narrative has more interest than the Correspondence which has been the means of producing it ; at least as far as it goes in the two volumes before us, which is only to the commencement of the civil war. Any gentleman's family whose cadets had served abroad and whose principal members had been engaged in county and Parliamentary business could produce such a series of letters. No doubt, had the dates carried us back to a time antecedent to the Paston Letters, the collection would have been valuable from its rarity, and the light it would throw upon the domestic manners, feelings, and epistolary forms and style of the age. But this was not wanted for the times of Elizabeth and the Stuarts. Small facts re- lating to the wars in Flanders, having rarely more than a temporary family interest, and never rising beyond some individual instance of courage and endurance, matters of domestic account and economy, com- monplace descriptions of county business in reference to the views and interests of the parties especially in elections, form the staple matter of the Fairfax Correspondence thus far. The exceptions to this criticism are some strong traits on the part of the first Lord Fairfax, shown in his different bargainings—for most things seem to have taken that form in his mind ; a few letters relating to Strafford, who had a Yorkshire connexion with the Fairfaxes, having stood an election with them against the Saviles ; a good many passages in the letters of Mr. Stockdale, a zealous partisan of the Parliament, descriptive of the con- dition and feelings of his part -of Yorkshire from the time the troubles began, with miscellaneous traits of the age occurring here and there' which though not new have character. It is highly probable that the Corre- spondence will have much, more interest and importance when Sir Tho- mas Fairfax is fairly placed in important office, and engaged in great affairs. Should this be so, we doubt whether Mr. Johnson's full narrative of an often-told story will be of an advantage proportioned to the length. It certainly has somewhat damped expectation, to present the reader with nearly a thousand pages called "The Fairfax Correspondence," when all c it that has a semblance of interest might have been contained in one- fourth of the space, if not in less. On the present scale of proceeding, it is quite impossible to say to what length the publication may extend. The barony of Fairfax of Cameron was a matter of what the lawyers call "bargain and sale." The price was 1,500/. sterling, the fees to be thrown in. The canny officers of Scotland tried to overreach the new Peer, not only about fees but other after-claps. Yorkshire, however, was not to be done, even by further North.

"THOMAS LORD FAIRFAX TO LORD COLVILLE.

"My very good Lord—I did about six weeks since write to your Lordship by the Postmaster of Borowbridge, in answer of letters which I received from Mr.

James Colville, your kinsman; who did signify unto me that the hes for my pa- tent were undischarged, and that his Majesty's officers did expect thou from me; which is directly against my agreement, both as I did signify to your Lredship in my letters from Stilton, and to Mr. Colville himself, when he came by my house in his journey towards London. At which time he seemed to more requile a gelding of me than the 1,5001. promised towards the charges of the patent Whereunto I answered, that if the patent were not freely delivered into my hand without one penny charges more for fees, soliciting, or whatsoever, I would refuse it, for I was then offered a better title for the same sum; yet because of the noble respect which I have long time borne to your Lordship, I would perform my word with you; which Mr. Colville undertook on year Lordship's behalf, desiring that I would advance the second payment a little sooner' which was the 5001. promised by my letters to your Lordship, within six months after 1,0001. were paid. I told him I had sorne moneys, which, if I might spare, I would pay with the first pay- ment. Coming from .London, be did show me the bill assigned. Afterwards he and a worthy gentleman, one Mr. Calunder, brought me the patent; upon receipt of which I did deliver unto them to your Lordship 1,5001., for which I have their acquittances.

" I did accommodate them with bags and other commodities to pack the mo- neys in. I sent my horses and servants to Borowbridge to carry the money and attend them; for which Mr. Colville promised me some remembrances of pistol* and other things which I am careless to mention. " The next news which I heard from Mr. Colville after his arrival in Scotland, was a letter that! must be made denizen of that kingdom; also that I must con,. tribute towards the plantation of New Scotland in America; and that his Ma- jesty's officers and servants had put me in the Senate for the fees of my patent, but he had taken course to stay proceeding until I were advertised. Truly, my Lorcl, I dare adventure my life that your Lordship is not acquainted with these things; and I assure myself that the letter which I did lately write unto you was not &- livered, though I think it came to Mr. Colville's hands. But having now sent my servant for a certain messenger' I doubt not but your Lordship is SO noble as to take that care for discharge of these fees as I would do in the like if it did cow- cern you. Thus kissing year Lordship's hands, I take leave. "Your Lordship's humble servant, T. FAIRFAX. "Denton, 12th April 1628."

"THOMAS LORD FAIRFAX TO LORD COLVILLE "My very good Lord—Some letters which I received from Mr. James Colville is the cause of my now sending to your Lordship. The contents of one was, first that I must be made denizen of that kingdom; secondly, that I must contribute to the plantation of New Scotland; thirdly, that I must pay fees to his Majesty's officers for my patent. To the first! answer, the patent enables me; for the se- cond, my dwelling exempts me from the necessity; and the third is directly against my covenant; for your Lordship knows, and none better than Mr. Colville, that I did refuse, if I might not have it freely delivered upon payment of the sum agreed upon. My letter from Stilton did intimate so much to your Lordship (a copy of which I have): my speeches with Mr. Colville, when be went for the bill assigned, expressed the same. How I have performed, both Mr. Colville and that worthy gentleman Mr. Cullender do know, and their acquittances will show. I did, not long since, write to your Lordship from my house at York, but I have received no answer; so, as I think, the letters have miscarried; and also I do assure myself that your Lordship doth not know of these letters of Mr. Colville's. I know you are too noble not to perform with any man, much more with an old friend, who, if he had hearkened to another's motion, might have had better pennyworths. Thus, not doubting but to find you as you have ever been, truly noble, I take leave. Resting, "Your .Lordship's brother and humble servant, T. FAIRFAX. "Denton, this 16th of April 1628. "I pray your Lordship let my servant bring some testimony that the officers be satisfied, because Mr. Colville writes that they have put me in suit for the fees. I forbear to write of some tokens which Mr. Colville did promise to send me from your Lordship and himself, in regard of some accommodation which he had of me, besides the advancing of the payment before the time agreed upon."

These letters appear to have brought this disgraceful negotiation to a close; for Sir Thomas remained Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and we find no further re- monstrance against attempted extortion.

Wentworth's second wife, "that departed saint now in heaven," to whom he alluded with such effect on his trial, was the favourite of the three; and some sort of mystery has been attached to her death, which the following letter clears up.

"TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY VERY GOOD FATHER THE LORD FAIRFAX, AT MS HOUSE, DENTO.N.

"May it please your Lordship—I waited yesternight on my Lord President; whom! found in a very pensive case, and sufficiently sensible of his loss, which at that instant was more stirred by reason of those newly returned that attended the body to its burial, which was embalmed, and the child taken out and wrapped beside it, and sent to Woodhouse to be buried. His Lordship told me the OCCA- sion, much after the manner it was related to you by my brother. The strange fly he brought out of the garden upon his breast unperceived into my lady's chamber, who hastening to wipe it off, it spread a pair of large wings, somewhat fearful to her at which she stepped back and gave a little wrench of foot; but my Lord did not think that any occasion of her sickness, but rather the fright, not being used to the sight of such vermin. I staid above half an hour with him, and would have staid longer, but that the discourse of his loss bred bat his fur- ther sorrow; and alter I had seen his sweet children I came awry. I presented your service to him, and made known your intentions, had there been any possible means, of coming to wait on him. He gives you many thanks, and said he could not expect it and did wish me to remember his service: in truth he is much cast down by this great loss; and the whole city generally has a face of mourning, never any woman so magnified and lamented even of those that never saw her face. There is no certain time known when my Lord goes towards London, which will be some day the next week; in the mean time, he settles the businesses here for a longer absence than was intended. I thank God, the fear of the sick- ness is not great here; no house within the walls infected, nor doubt of those which are shut up. Our churchmen now conclude that Vrnichester will be the Archbishop. "Your Lordship's humble and obedient son, FER. FAIRFAX. "York, this 8th of October 1631."

Another letter from Ferdinand Fairfax, the second Lord, exhibits Straf- ford when engaged in public business that he seems to have mislikel He shows less arbitrary in manner than might have been looked for.

" TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY VERY GOOD FATHER THE LORD FAIRFAX, AT DENTON, THIS PRESENT.

"May it please your Lordship—I was yesterday to attend my Lord President (Wentworth) concerning Mr. Steele's business; but, by reason of despatches of greater matters by Mr. Attorney, who was ready for London, I was forced to at- tend. In the middle of dinner his Lordship came, and as soon as meat was taken away he basted to his business: yet upon my importunity to know his pleasure, he was pleased to tell me that the Justices in the Sessions had proceeded beyond their authority in the censure of Steele, in giving damage to the country ; the power of sessions being only to floe to the King, and give corporal punishments, tind therefore being done, (coram non judice,) it was in his choice whether he would pay it or no, and not in our power to compel him; adding also, that if we had acquainted his Lordship and the rest with our intended proceedings, they would kave gone along with us, and enabled us with the strength of that court to have done what we did aim at. He said also, the fine to his Majesty was too little; but the chief thing that was offensive was, that in so public and important a business we proceeded without making them acquainted. This with divers circumsranePs was very moderately urged: to which I answered, that the money to the country was not given by way of fine nor damage, but a restoring of what himself confessed, and was partly proved, he had cozened the country of; which, if he did not voluntarily pay, we have time enough to sue him for it, and seek the just favour of that court. For the other part, of making the Council acquainted and advise with them in public matters ,I thought it a most fit course, and would be ever ready to observe it; but to make it a thing of absolute necessity, and solely to depend on their directions, had not been formerly done. For my own part, as I had always, so I would continue to give all due respects. And thus we parted.

"Though the discourse and reprehension from his Lordship was in a most friendly manner, yet thought I it not fit to discover that the directions of the sentence came from the Judge. Sir H. Goodrick and Mr. Mankverer went on Sa- turday, and were mildly reprehended: his Lordship told them he had rather have spoke with me than them; which made me expect some tartness from him, but I was deceived. He is at this time much perplexed with many businesses."

Mr. Stoekdale, the Yorkshireman we have already alluded to, appears to have constituted himself a sort of general adviser to the second Lord Fairfax, as well as commentator upon public affairs. There is some shrewdness in these remarks on Strafford.

"And I assure your Lordship, it will be no small encouragement to the subject, to see justice done upon that great engine the Lord Strafford, who hath in a, manner battered down their laws and liberties, and levelled them with the most servile nations. His friends are all hopeful and almost confident of his deliverance; yet methinks it is impossible that good language and elocution can wipe off the guilt of his crimes. Rich apparel makes not beauty—it only dazzles weak sights. Injustice and corruption have been punished in this land with death; and certainly o wression and tyranny, in such a high strain as they are charged on him, are ..; ces of a transcendent nature and deserve punishment (if any there were greater than death and confiscation of estate. The country generally, and especially those well affected in religion, are sensible that to bring him to trial for his offences hath already cost them 600,0001.; and now (your Lordship will conceive) if he should by any artifice escape a deserved censure of the crimes proved against him, the people will be extremely discontent and murmur against it; and Widow, it is hoped that the confiscation of his estate and others that are delinquents will either pay the Scots or stop some other gap made by these tur- bulent times."

Of all the troubles of those turbulent times, that which came most home-to Yorkshiremen was the billeting of the soldiers, who formed part of the army that Charles had drawn together to oppose the Scotch, and who could not be disbanded because the money was wanting to pay them. Mr. Stockdale had reached the Doke of Wellington's ideas of" discipline" nearly two centuries before the Great Captain recorded them at large. The picture of military licence is curious, and must have had its share in exasperating the Northern counties against the King; for he brought the soldiers there, if he did not keep them there.

"I know the work of that House is not yet at an end: there are yet many good ordinancies abused that must be explained, and many general evils that must be taken away, and many grieved subjects whose particular wrongs most be redressed; and amongst these, the least is not the abuse of the soldiery, under which burden this part of Yorkshire now groans, and cannot long subsist with- out ruin. It is true that if money were constantly paid them every week, the sufferance and wrong would be unto many less sensible, though the oppression and injury be still the same; for the want of pay is most grievous to the country, who are forced to credit the soldier with all necessaries, and trust to the King and Parliament for their payment in the end. "But the insolency of the soldiers is such, as they do not only abusively use all s whatsoever, and beat, affront, and vilify them; but also by stealth, and Toren force and robbery, they take all men's goods, and consume them as they p lase, or sell them and spend the money in lewdness; and if any resistance be made, the parties resisting have ill language and blows, and always greater mis- chiefs attempted on them. And if complaint be made to the commanders, some- times, but rarely, they imprison the offenders, but never make restitution of the pas taken nor recompence for them; and the complainers have sometimes been beaten, sometimes neglected, and sometimes for recompence,s threatened to have soldiers laid upon them; so that partly through the imperious carriage of the cap- tains, and partly for fear of the soldier's revenges, which they ever threaten, and assuredly execute upon complainers, no man, in a manner, dares now complain, nor resist the soldiers doing him wrong. And for searching for stolen goods no man dare attempt it; for the soldiers beat both constables and proprietors that offer to search. The insolencies and oppressions are so infinite, and of such several kinds, that to relate them would rather seem a volume than a letter: and the cause of them all, as I conceive, is not want of pay, as they pretend, but want of discipline • the soldiers being suffered to range all over the country with- out control, and being never called to give any account of their wanderings. I do not think that any of this regiment about Knaresborough have been exercised these eleven weeks; so that we must raise subsidies to pay them, and yet they spoil us !

"Methinks it were not unfit to move in Parliament, that the hosts in the country should be paid for their billet, and that speedily, for they have trusted till they have not means to give further credit. But before either commander or soldier be paid the rest of their entertainment, it seemeth reasonable that there should be examination what wrong and spoil hath been done to the civil subject by them, and by what encouragement, sufferance, or occasion, it bath been done; and thereupon some reasonable reparation made to every man according to the proportion of his losses and that to be done out of the remainder of their pay. It would be an act of great justice becoming that House; and it would both beget confidence in the subject of reformation, and also terror in those that here- after had any desire to offend in the like kind. But this and all other my con- ceptions I submit to your Lordship's more grave and judicious consideration; yet with all this confidence, thatyour Lordship and the rest of your worthy assistants of this country will advise of some way to send comfort to your oppressed neigh- bours."

Although Mr. Johnson is of coarse acquainted with the original writers of the epoch he is illustrating, he sometimes falls into errors so strange that they can only be imputed to laxity of composition or temporary for- getfulness. For example, he seems to say that Louis the Fourteenth and Richelieu were justified by the example of Charles in fomenting disputes in England : forgetting that Richelieu was dead before Louis ascended the throne; that Louis, at his accession, was a child of five years old ; and that the date under which Mr. Johnson is writing preceded the death of Louis the Thirteenth by two or three years.