Her snowy battlements and towers- The hammer of the man-thief falls- On all the winds that southward blow. Or those which sad Esaias hurled Its wizard-leaves the Press shall fling, The fire-sign on the palace wall! To note her tardy justice doneHer captives from their chains unbound, Her prisons opening to the sun. But tearfully her arms extending Over the poor and unoffending; Her regal emblem, now no longer A bird of prey with talons reeking, Above the dying captive shrieking; But spreading out her ample wing, A broad, impartial covering The weaker sheltered by the stronger!' 348 Literary Entelligence. Preparing for Publication. Under the direction of the Directors of the London Missionary Society, The Life of the Rev. John Williams, Missionary to the South Sea Islands. By Rev. E. Prout. Just Published. A Dialogue between a Romish Priest and Rev. Richard Knill, Missionary. Wesleyan Takings: or Centenary Sketches of Ministerial Character; as exhibited in the Wesleyan Connexion, during the first hundred years of its existence. One volume. Narrative of a Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, and Mesopotamia, with Observations on the Condition of Mahommedanism and Christianity in those Countries. By the Rev. Horatio Southgate. 2 vols. The Life of Luther, translated from the German of Gustavus Pfizer. By T. S. Williams, Johanneum College, Hamburgh, with an Introductory Essay by the Author of Natural History of Enthusiasm.' An Essay on the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. By the late Rev. John Dick, D.D. Fourth Edition. Memoirs and Select Remains of the Rev. Thomas Rawson Taylor. By James Montgomery, Esq. Second Edition. Ancient Christianity. No. 5. A General Outline of Animal Kingdom and Manual of Comparative Anatomy. By Thomas Rymer Jones, F.Z.S. Nos. 9, 10, 11. A History of British Birds. By William Yarrell, F.L.S., V.P.Z.S. Parts 18 and 19. The Sanatorium. A Self Supporting Establishment for the Lodging, Nursing, and Cure of Sick Persons of the Middle Classes of both Sexes. The Eton Latin Grammar; translated into English, with Notes and an Appendix. By the Rev. John Green. Fourth Edition. Memoirs of the Life and Character of Mr. Robert Spence, late Bookseller, with Notices of the Early Introduction of Methodism into York. By Richard Burdekin. Second edition enlarged. The Pleasures of Piety, a Poem in Ten Books by the Rev. Robert Wilson, A.M. Second Edition. A Brief History of the Rise and Progress of the Lancashire Congregational Union and of the Blackburn Independent Academy. By R. Slate. The Awakening. A Memorial of the year of Revived Religion. Ward's Library of Standard Divinity. Christ Crucified; to which are added Three Discourses by the Rev. Richard De Courcy. The Honeymoon. By John Fisher, A.M. The Harrowing of Hell, a Miracle-Play, written in the Reign of Edward the Second, now first published from the original Manuscript in the British Museum, with an Introduction, Translation, and Notes. By James Orchard Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S. THE ECLECTIC REVIEW FOR SEPTEMBER, 1840. Eminent British Statesmen: Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia. Vol. IV. HENRY MARTEN. BY JOHN FORSTER, Esq. London: Longman and Co. 1838. WE doubt not but that many of our readers must have paid a visit to Chepstow Castle. In wandering over its magnificent and picturesque ruins, they may have been struck with a round tower at the south-east angle of the first court, where the place of confinement is still shown, in which, as the guide-books tell us, one of the regicides was most undeservedly allowed by 'the son of the murdered monarch to live, after being found legally guilty of the crime!' A nobler writer, however, once thought differently; exclaiming in his early days of hope and enthusiasm, For twenty years, secluded from mankind, Here MARTEN lingered. Often have these walls He had rebelled against a king, and sat In judgment on him; for his ardent mind Shaped goodliest plans of happiness on earth As Plato loved; such as with holy zeal The subject of our present article was born at Oxford in the year 1602, opposite Merton College, where his father then VOL. VIII. S resided, who was an eminent civilian. This gentleman, after carrying off all the honors of Alma Mater, became successively a Doctor of Laws, judge of the Admiralty, twice Dean of the Arches, and in 1624, a judge of the Prerogative. He was also knighted, represented his university once in parliament, served afterwards as one of the members for St. Ives in Huntingdonshire, and ultimately bequeathed his son, yet more celebrated than himself, a handsome estate in Berkshire of £3000 per annum. No blessing accompanied the inheritance. It descended indeed upon a successor endowed with pregnant parts, and raised by Providence to a position in which he magnanimously served his country. Yet piety formed no feature of his character. It possessed wit, erudition, and that sparkling perspicacity which makes a jovial companion so agreeable to the mere men of a false and hollow world. But the fine gold was wanting. That precious foundation upon which Vane and Eliot built for eternity will be sought for and not found, even by those who are in no respect disposed to depreciate the real patriotism of our hero. His biographer has imposed upon us the necessity of being very candid on this point, through a light and reprehensible indifference as to principles which will alone survive, when learning, eloquence, genius, or politics, shall have become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor. We are liberals to the backbone. We admire mercurial spirits,-flashing humor,-generous philanthropy, and unshaken energies, quite as much as any amongst our contemporaries. Yet there is no reason upon earth why all these, and more also, should not be found in connexion with that fear of the Lord which is the beginning and end of true wisdom: nor, whilst we render most cheerfully and cordially every just honor to the civil memory of Henry Marten, will we fail in entering an indignant protest against the profligacy of his morals, which proved him unworthy of the cause he professed and intended to advance, as well as of those illustrious companions in whose counsels he mingled, but in whose virtues he had unfortunately so little share. He acquired a respectable portion of credit in his academical career; having the degree of bachelor of arts conferred upon him before he was eighteen. He then travelled through France and on his return married a rich wife, it is said, to oblige his father more than his own inclinations: which some persons perhaps are ready to urge as a poor excuse for his wicked devotedness to wine and women. Mr. Forster nevertheless with more correct feeling observes, after the birth of a daughter, they rarely 'met again but it is a touching circumstance to record, that in 'the last lonely years of his wretched imprisonment, this wife and 'daughter were the only persons in the world that seemed to ' recollect his existence, or that to his own mind, gave him still some interest in life.' He was chosen member of parliament for Berkshire in April 1640, by an immense majority; glorying even thus early in the friendship of such men as John Pym, Nathaniel Fiennes, Hyde afterwards Lord Clarendon, and the immortal Hampden : 'Men wondered at first, in those times of solemnity and precision, when they saw a man so free in living and so liberal in speech, admitted to the intimacy of the gravest and most religious men of the age. They had yet to learn, what to the penetrating glance of the leaders of this parliament had been already revealed, that under the condemned habits of recklessness and dissipation lurked in this case one of the most active and useful dispositions, one of the most frank, liberal, and benevolent spirits,-in a word, one of the best and most serviceable politicians, that the country had produced.'-p. 243. All this, we presume, is urged in the way of exposition rather than justification. However, as matters turned out, Henry Marten by no means disappointed, but on the other hand, even exceeded the fond hopes of those who brought him forward. The shafts of his sarcasms on the court were shot from a quarter of the House of Commons whence people expected nothing beyond grave orations, somewhat heavy through the very weight of their wisdom; and when graced with flowers at all, presenting such as adversaries declared to be neither more nor less than somniferous poppy-heads. The member for Berkshire kept every one awake. He was a Merry Andrew, discoursing felicitously about plain things; uttering homely truths amidst so much mirth, that no one could forget afterwards what he had said; and with his quips, and cracks, and wanton wiles,' instructing an entire nation just beginning to appreciate the sublime of common sense. King Charles accordingly honored him with his resentment, which helped to elevate not a little, what the royal dulness conceived, its frown must necessarily extinguish. In the short interval between the two parliaments of 1640 the monarch, meeting the patriot in Hyde Park, applied a gross expression to the latter; who knowing well that hard words break no bones, only presented himself with greater confidence before his county at the next election, as the insulted victim of a pusillanimous sovereign. Supported, therefore, by an augmented majority, he again took his seat, when that famous assembly met, which has no parallel in our national history. He was among the first to avow, if not to hold republican opinions. His name appears prominently in nearly every memorable struggle, throughout that period of preliminary logomachy which ushered in the civil war. On the 4th of July, 1642, when Charles had retired from London, and was on the eve of setting up his standard at Nottingham, Marten |