• Salmasius had presumptuously undertaken,

by Burman, immediately to refer to, I shall content myself with an extract respecting them from the learned and accurate (Account of the Life and writings of Milton,

Dr. Birch.

p. xxxiv.)

"Claudius Sarravius, counsellor in the parliament of Paris, and an intimate friend of Salmasius, in a letter to him dated at Paris, Feb. 18, 1650, expresses his surprise that he should write in the preface to his Defensio with so much zeal in defence of the bishops of England, when he had in another work of his 'De Presbyteris et Episcopis,' printed at Leyden 1641, in 8vo. under the fictitious name of Wallo Messalinus, attacked them with the utmost acrimony; which he observes might expose him to the imputation of a time-server, who paid no regard to truth itself. • Hoc sane dicent esse τῷ καιρῷ δελεύειν potius quam τῇ ἀληθείᾳ πείθεσθαι. And in another letter, dated Paris, March 5, of the same year, he reminds him of this inconsistency, which would make his sincerity questioned. 'De necessitate episcopatûs Anglicani quod obiter dixeras in præfatione, ut jam monui, fortius adhuc urges ipso opere, contra dictata Wallonis Messalini; quod tibi vitio vertetur, diceturque te calidum et frigidum eodem ex ore efflare, nec generositati tuæ id convenire existimabitur.' Salmasius having wrote an answer to Sarravius upon this point, the latter replied to him thus in a letter dated March 12, 1650. Te ergo habemus reum fatentem: sive enim tempori servias sive causa, nobis perinde est. Atqui dicebatur antea te argelov vev xs, qui ne ipsi quidem Jovi, Termini in modum, cederet. Præterea credo non licere Advocato yel Regio, in causâ domini sui, aliter dicere publice quam privatim loquatur et sentiat: quemadmodum non sunt diversæ leges, quibus domi utimur, ab illis, juxta quas in foro placita decernuntur. At scripsisti, inquis, ex imperio. Ergo potest tibi imperari ut sententiam mutes: Epictetus tamen tuus docet hoc esse Tv έp juiv, atque ita esse in potestate nostrâ ut invitis non eripiatur. Sed hæc ingrata omitto, &c. We have now your own confession of your fault; for it is the same thing to us, whether you adapt yourself to the times or to the cause,

lie was not perhaps qualified to execute; and he might at length be made sensible that, with the tenacious memory, the quick combination, the acute and microscopic vision of the scholar and the critic, a man might be des

But before this, it was said, that you was a man of an inflexible disposition, who, like the god Terminus, would not give way to Jove himself. Besides, I am of opinion that even a king's advocate ought not, in his master's cause, to speak in public differently from what he speaks and thinks in private; as the laws which we use in private life are not at all different from those, upon which decrees are made in courts of judicature. But you wrote, you say, "by command." And was it possible for any commands to prevail on you to change y ur opinion? Your favourite Epictetus tells us, that our opinion is one of those things in our power, and so far in our power, that nothing can take it away from us without our consent."

I have Sarrau's Epistles now in my hand: but I find Dr. Birch's extracts from them so correct as to make it unnecessary for me either to write a new note or to alter my former one. I have only supplied the whole of his last citation, that the translation may be verified by the original. Sarrau was a man of much learning, talents, and integrity. His ability and erudition are unquestionably proved by his letters, and his probity-by his remonstrances against the inconsistency of his friend, Salmasius: for whom his respect was nearly boundless. With Sarrau it was amicus Socrates sed magis amica veritas. The distich, which he wrote under a portrait of Salmasius, will bear ample testimony to the exalted opinion, which the Parisian Counsellor entertained of the Leyden professor.

Quantum scire hominem Divina Potentia vellet,

Ostendit terris, SALMASIUMQUE dedit.

The estimable Sarrau died of a fever at Paris on Easter Eve in 1651. [See Burm. Syll. iii. 266.]

⚫titute of that span and grasp of mind which are requisite to wield the large and complex system of political wisdom. There is certainly a pervading littleness throughout the whole of "the Royal Defence." Its author, like Martha in the Gospel, "is troubled about many things," and seems to be overwhelmed with trifles. For argument he frequently applies to frivolous etymology: he accumulates quotations, suggested to him by the officiousness of his memory, very often without judgment or felicity; and he puts together his unequal and ill-assorted materials without the arrangement and the plan of a master. After all however, "the Royal Defence" is no contemptible production. It amasses nearly all that can be obtained on the subject: in its management it is sometimes skilful' and artificial, as in its execu

In the following passages may be distinguished the heightening and the aggravation of a masterly hand.

"Si agendi modus inspiciatur, plurimi non siccâ morte reges ad generum Cereris, ut cum poëtâ loquar, descenderunt. Aut gladius privati parricidæ aliquem luce privavit, aut miles ab aliquo procerum subornatus vitæ principis insidias fecit, aut potio veneni alium exanimavit, aut carceris mala mansio pædore et fame alium cruciatum sustulit, alium in carcere carnifex strangulavit. Sed quis unquam audivit, quis legit, regem legitimum, hæreditarium regnum possidentem, Christianum, reformatum, accusatum à suis subjectis, causam capitis dicere coactum, condemnatum, securi percussum? Causa etiam com

tion it is sometimes happy and even eloquent. It presents us with arguments generally subtle and specious; and with diction, occasionally indeed poor and debased with modern idioms, but on the whole perspicu

missæ in regiâ personâ cædis aut summæ sceleris detrahit aut ad summam addit, quod minus aut magis sceleratum existimari queat quod actum est. Si per tumultum aliquis interemptus est militarem, si per seditionem popularem, si per factionem optimatum extinctus, non alia causa qnæri solet quam quæ oculis patet, tumultus, factionis, seditionis. Furor iraque rebellium mentes præcipites egit in tale facinus. Irati milites ob gravem militiam, infensi populi ob tributorum onera, proceres vel odio, vel metu, vel studio dominandi incitati in regem conspirant. Causa furoris in his omnibus partes suas agit. Post factum eos qui fecere plerumque pœnitentia capit.

"Non rebellio concitati populi ea simplex fuit, subitâ seditione et factione vel procerum vel militum ad regem suum occidendum inflammata. Torserunt prius variis crucibus ac morte gravioribus suppliciis, quem tandem ignominioso et ultimo conficerent. De carcere in carcerem eum traduxerunt, custodiis sæpe mutatis, sæpe novatis, libertatis interdum spe ostensâ, interdum et restitutionis per pactionem inter partes faciendam. Dum de hac tractatur, et cum jam rex omnia proinisisset quæ ab ipso postulabantur, repente totum negotium disturbatur. E carcere rex educitur, in regiam adducitur, coram judicibus selectis sistitur, causam dicere tanquam reus cogitur, non respondens condemnatur, securi percutitur. Sed quo modo? Eo certe modo quo nullus unquam rex supplicium capitis passus memoratur. Vt latro, ut sicarius, ut parricida, ut proditor, ut tyrannus ante domum suam, id est regiam suam, populo suo spectante, infami pegmati impositus, inter duos carnifices constitutus et quidem larvatos, quasi ad rem faceret hoc in duobus his servatum esse ut personati starent, cum tot alii carnifices ore non tecto, palam locum supplicii armis circumdatum custodirent, quot nempe pedites et equites armati circumstabant."

ous and pure. It satisfies us, in short, that its author was no common man; and it would prove him, without the testimony of his other works, not to have been the fortuitous possessor of that high reputation which he enjoyed.

But the circumstance, which will principally recommend this work of Salmasius's to a numerous party in the present day, is the vivid recollection, which it forcibly awakens, of some of the political writings of the late Mr. Burke. The same dark arsenal of language seems to have supplied the artillery, which in the seventeenth century was aimed at the government of England, and in the close of the eighteenth at that of France; and many of those doctrines," which disgust us

m" Dicet fanatica natio, ita in regem à populo transire (potestatem) ut ad populum possit redire, immo et debeat, quandocunque hoc velit, aut si ita expedire judicet bono ac saluti reipublicæ. Atqui salus reipublicæ semper postulat, ut data à populo principi potestas nunquam ad populum revertatur, qui ita eam deponit, ut principem semel illâ donatum non privare possit in posterum dato imperio. Quippe cum ad salutem populi reperta sint omnia genera gubernationis quibus respublica constituitur et administratur, boni publici maxime interest ut potestas à populo regi semel concessa et donata, nunquam revocetur. Nisi enim hoc esset, et si pro lege id observaretur, ut quotiescunque populo placuisset, imperium regi, quem elegisset, ablatum ad populum rediret, nulla pax unquam firma in republica sperari posset, sed ad singula momenta quies ejus