Surely this last reproach comes with a very ill grace from an Englishman of Cromwell's days. Marvell returned to his parliamentary duties in 1665, when the Parliament was sitting at Oxford, on account of the plague then raging in London. On the 23d of October, in that year, he thus writes:"There is a bill in good forwardnesse to prohibit the importation of Irish cattle; the fall of lands and rents being ascribed to the bringing them over into England in such plenty." And again, a few days after, he writes :-" Our bill against the importation of Irish cattle was not passed by his Majesty, as being too destructive to the Irish interest." But it appears the bill did afterwards pass, for he writes,-" Our House has returned the bill about Irish Cattle to the Lords, adhering to the word nuisance, which the Lords changed to detriment, and mischief: but at a conference, we delivered the reasons of our adhering to the word nuisance. November 2, he says,-" The bill for preventing the increase of the plague could not pass, because the Lords would not agree that their houses, if infected should be shut up!!!" The short sessions of 1665 was closed on the 31st of October. Marvell thus enumerates the ten bills passed, to some of which, particularly the five-mile act as it was called, he must have been strenuously opposed. But the high-church faction had all their own way." For £1,250,000 to his Majesty; for £120,000 to his Majesty to be bestowed on his Royal Highness (qr. the Duke of York?) for attainder of Bamfield, Scott, and Dollman, Englishmen that acted in Holland against his Majesty; for debarring ejected Nonconformists from living in or neare corporations, unless taking the new oath and declaration; for speedier recovery of rents; for preventing suits and delays in law (a very inefficient act); for taking away damage clear after three years; for restraining of printing without license; and for naturalizing some particular persons." But with his customary reserve, Andrew makes no allusion to the proposal for making the non-resistance oath obligatory on the whole nation, which was rejected by a majority of three voices only. We may be sure that Marvell was among them. The autumn of 1666, Dryden's Annus Mirabilis, distinguished by several indecisive actions against the Dutch, which the poet magnifies into great victories; and far more memorably by the fire of London, which was so merciful in its severity, that we are more inclined to attribute it to Divine goodness than to the malice of Papist or Puritan, seeing that it fairly burned out the plague, and only destroyed six lives, found Marvell at his post in Parliament, and corresponding as usual with his grateful constituents, whom he has to thank for another present of Yorkshire ale. The principal business transacted in this session was financial. A supply of £1,800,000 was voted, to be raised partly by assessment, and partly by a poll-tax. It may not be wholly "It was enacted that no dissenting teacher who took not the non-resistance oath above-mentioned, should, except upon the road, come within five miles of any corporation, or of any place where he had preached since the act of oblivion. The penalty was a fine of fifty pounds, and six months' imprisonment. By ejecting the non-conforming clergy from their churches, and prohibiting all separate congregations, they had been rendered incapable of gaining any livelihood by their spiritual profession. And now, under colour of removing them from places where their influence might be dangerous, an expedient was fallen upon to deprive them of all means of subsistence. Had not the spirit of the nation undergone a change, these violences were preludes to the most furious persecution."-Hume. The spirit of the peers, notwithstanding the presence of the Bishops in their house, was then much more tolerant than that of the Commons. This wicked bill was strongly opposed in the Lords, particularly by the Earl of Southampton, a firm friend of Clarendon. The Lords had also the credit of endeavouring to procure some portion out of the ecclesiastical revenues for the ejected ministers, arguing that they were entitled to the same indulgence which the Commonwealth had granted to the episcopal clergy, i. e. a fifth of each living. D uninteresting to state how the latter was apportioned." Then for the poll-bill the committee hath prepared these votes-that all persons shall pay one shilling per poll; all aliens two; all Nonconformists and Papists two; all servants one shilling in the pound of their wages ; all personal estates for so much as is not already taxed by the land tax shall pay after twenty shillings to the hundred ; cattel, corn, and household furniture shall be excepted, and all such stock for trade as is already taxed by the land tax, but 'the rest to be liable." Some alterations were subsequently admitted. The Lords, to their great honour, rejected the double taxing of Nonconformists, and made an effort to deliver Aliens also from that oppressive impost. Some discussion took place between the houses on the power of the purse; the Lords endeavouring to insert a clause, implying a right in the nobility to tax themselves independent of the Commons, which clause the Commons of course rejected. This Parliament, notwithstanding their intolerant and ultra-royalist principles, had a laudable care for the property of the subject, which was indeed very needful in that age of public poverty and court extravagance. The depreciated value of estates and personal effects may appear from the circumstance, that the poll-tax, heavy as it was, was not expected to raise above £540,000. The fire must have ruined thousands; the Dutch war was doubtless injurious to trade; the prodigality of the nobility could not be supported without oppressing agriculture; and the distressful effects of the civil wars were still keenly felt in the country. Never was economy more necessary, and yet the necessary expenses of Government were yearly increasing. England was then at war with Holland, France, and Denmark, and the Scotch Covenanters were once more in arms. The fatal experience of so many years of blood and misery had not taught the nation the folly and wickedness of interfering between man and his Maker. The law against conventicles, sufficiently tyrannical even in England, where a large portion of the population, wealth, and intelligence were sincerely attached to the episcopal church, was forced with additional cruelty and insult upon Scotland, where the best part of the people were dutifully affectionate to their Presbyterian pastors, and where the curates or prelatical clergy were, by the admission of all parties, too often low, ignorant, profligate, and brutal. In fact, so mercilessly had the Church of Scotland been stripped at the Reformation, that she could not afford an episcopal establishment. If ever it be lawful to use the sword against the powers that be, the Covenanters of the Raid of Pentland were justified in their resistance; and it might have been expected that Andrew Marvell would have sympathized with their sufferings, and admired, if he could not approve, their enterprize. But whatever his real sentiments might be, he did not think fit to communicate them to the corporation of Hull; for in his letter of the 1st December, 1666, he says,-" For the Scotch business, truly, I hope this night's news is certain of their total rout." But his cautious manner of writing is ever remarkable. He never mentions how he himself or any other member voted; but speaks of the proceedings of the House as if he had always been of the majority. He even talks in one place of the princely prudence of Charles. This might be necessary; but we are afraid that Andrew entered more heartily than might have been wished, into the scheme of fixing on the Papists the guilt of the great fire. By the 35th letter, which relates to an exchange of prisoners taken in the Dutch war, it would seem that Marvell had renewed his intercourse with Colonel Gilby, for both names are subscribed to it. The Parliament of 1666-7 was prorogued on the 8th of February, but re-assembled on the 25th of July, to consider the articles of the peace of Breda. The Dutch war, commenced without necessity, and prosecuted, bravely indeed, but with ill-judged parsimony, and a striking want of combination, had closed with a greater disgrace than England had suffered since the days of Bannockburn. The Dutch Fleet entered the Thames, took Sheerness, advanced with six men of war and five fire ships as far as Upnore Castle, where they burned the Royal Oak, the Loyal London, and the Great James, and then fell down the Medway, with almost perfect impunity. Not that the English courage failed; but improvidence or treachery had left our shores defenceless. The loss was considerable, the consternation fearful, the affront intolerable. Yet was there no reprisal; for by the end of July the treaty of Breda was concluded, whereby we obtained the territory of New-York, so named from the King's brother. Marvell's correspondence contains scarce an allusion to these occurrences; but among his poems is a tribute to the memory of Captain Douglas, the commander of the Royal Oak, who, sacrificing life to honour, had refused to quit the vessel when it was in flames, declaring, that “ never had a Douglas been known to leave his port without orders." Marvell's address is entitled, "The Loyal Scot, by Cleveland's* Ghost" upon the death of Captain Douglas, who was burned on his ship at Chatham. Like most copies of verses produced on the spur of some public wonder, or last week's heroism, it is very indifferent. There is something humorous, certainly, in putting a panegyric on Scotch loyalty into the mouth of Cleveland, who had been as severe on our northern neighbours Cleveland wrote a Poem in Latin and English, called Scotus Rebellis,-the Rebel Scot. as Churchill or Byron; but almost all that relates to the subject consists of conceits, neither new nor good, and extravagancies strangely out of keeping with the subject. About the best lines are these: That precious life he yet disdains to save Or with known art to try the gentle wave: Much him the honour of his ancient race Inspir'd, nor would he his own deeds deface; And secret joy in his calm soul does rise, That Monk looks on to see how Douglas dies. But their effect is sadly marred by what follows: Like a glad lover the fierce flames he meets, And as on the angels' heads their glories shine, His burning locks adorn his face divine. We fear that Andrew was more inspired by aversion for prelacy than by admiration for the young Douglas, and only chose the latter for his theme, in order to lay the whole blame of certain national antipathies on the Bishops. We do not quote the following passages for the rea_ der's approbation, but to show the utter inefficiency of licencing laws, (for such were then in force,) to restrain the licentiousness of the Pen: Prick down the point, whoever has the art, Where nature Scotland does from England part, Where life resides, and understanding dwells, But this we know, tho' that exceeds our skill, |