N° LXXII.

Bishop Warburton's Characters of the Historians of the Civil Wars.

I CANNOT fill this paper better, or more to the purpose of my present work, than by extracting the following very interesting literary notices from Bishop Warburton's correspondence with Bishop Hurd, lately published.

"In studying this period," (the Civil Wars of the Sixteenth Century) "the most important, the most wonderful in all history, I suppose you will make Lord Clarendon's incomparable performance your ground-work. I think it will be understood to advantage, by reading as an introduction to it, Rapin's Reign of James I. and the first fourteen years of Charles I.

"After this will follow Whitlock's Memoirs. It is only a journal or diary, very ample and full of

x First published 1682; and again with many additions; and a better index, 1732. Bulstrode Whitelock, son of Sir James Whitelock, a judge of the Common Pleas, who died 1632, was born 1605; was educated to the law; and was one of Cromwell's Lords, 1657. He died at Chilton, Wilts, 1676.

important matters.

The writer was learned in his

own profession; thought largely in religion by means of his friendship with Selden: for the rest, he is vain and pedantic, and on the whole, a little genius.

"Ludlow's Memoirs ; as to its composition, is below criticism: as to the matter, curious enough. With what spirit written, you may judge by his character, which was that of a furious, mad, but I think, apparently honest republican, and independent.

"May's History of the Parliament is a just composition, according to the rules of history. It is written with much judgment, penetration, manliness, and spirit, and with a candour, that will greatly increase your esteem, when you understand, that he wrote by order of his masters, the Parliament. It breaks off (much to the loss of the history of that time) just when their armies were new modelled by the self-denying ordinance: this loss was attempted to be supplied by

y Printed at Vevay, in the canton of Berne, 1698, 2 vols. Svo. and a 3d vol. with a collection of original papers, 1699, 8vo. Edmund Ludlow was born 1620; educated to the law; and died at Vevay in Switzerland, 1693, ætat. 73.

z 1647, Fol. lately reprinted by Baron Maseres. Thomas May is well known as a poet.

"Sprigge's History of Fairfax's Exploits, anon passibus æquis. He was chaplain to the general, is not altogether devoid of May's candour, though he has little of his spirit. Walker says it was written by the famous Col. Fienes, though under Sprigge's name. It is altogether a military history, as the following one of Walker, called The History of Independency, is a civil one; or rather of the nature of a political pamphlet against the Independents. It is full of curious anecdotes; though written with much fury, by a wrathful Presbyterian member, who was cast out of the saddle with the rest by the Independents.

"Milton was even with him in the fine and severe character he draws of the Presbyterian Administration, which you will find in the beginning of one of his books of the History of England, in the late uncastrated editions. In the course of the study of these writers, you will have perpetual occasion to verify or refute what they deliver, by turning over the authentic pieces in Nalson's, and especially

• Anglia Rediviva; England's Recovery, &c. 1647. Fol. Sprigge was born 1618; married about 1674, the widow of James Fienes, Viscount Say and Sele, daughter of Edward, Viscount Wimbledon, and died 1684. Wood's Atb. II. 761.

b See Cens. Lit. III. 241

Rushworth's voluminous collections, which are vastly curious and valuable.

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"The Elenchus Motuum of Bates, and Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs may be worth reading. Nor must that strange thing of Hobbes be forgot, called The History of the Civil Wars: it is in dialogue, and full of paradoxes, like all his other writings. More philosophical, political,- or any thing rather than historical; yet full of shrewd observations. When you have digested the history of this period, you will find in Thurloe's large collection f many letters, which will let you thoroughly into the genius of those times and manners.”

e

In a letter, a few years afterwards on the publication of Lord Clarendon's Continuation, or Life, the Bishop says, "It is full of a thousand curious anecdotes, and fully answers my expectations, as much

c Paris, 1649, Franc. ad. Mæn. 1650, 4to. George Bate the author was a physician, born 1606, died 1669. Wood's Ath. II. 422.

d See Cens. Lit. III. 245.

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In the mind of the learned bishop, as is frequently the case with men of warm fancies, objects sometimes shift their hues. In a letter a few weeks before he had said, "there is little or nothing in that enormous collection of Thurloe worth notice," p. 146.

f Published by Dr. Birch in 7 vols. Fol. John Thurloe was secretary of State to the Cromwells. He was born 1616, and died 1668, aged 51.

as Butler's Remains fell short of it. I was tired to death, before I got to the end of his characters, whereas I wished the history ten times longer than it is. Walpole in reading the former part of this will blush, if he has any sense of shame, for his abuse of Lord Falkland.

"Mr. Gray has certainly true taste. I should have read Hudibras with as much indifference, perhaps, as he did, was it not for my fondness of the transactions of those times, against which it is a satire. Besides, it induced me to think the author of a much higher class, than his Remains shew him to have been. And I can now readily think the comedies he wrote were as excusable, as the satirists of that age make them to be!"

Again" What made the Continuation of the History not afford you all the entertainment which perhaps you expected, was not, I persuade myself, (when you think again) the subject, but the execution. Do not you read Tacitus, who had the worst, with the same pleasure as Livy, who had the best · subject? The truth is, in one circumstance, (and but in one) but that a capital, the Continuation is not equal to the History of the Rebellion; and that is in the composition of the characters. There is not the same terseness, the saine elegance, the same sublime and master-touches in these, which make those superior to every thing of their kind.