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his escape from prison, to which he had been unjustly doomed by the dominant Calvinistic faction, he applied himself on his arrival at Paris to the task of promoting the peace of the Church,

even to be canonized. For to her we owe the great number of excellent works which her husband has published, and which would never have emerged out of the gloom of Louvestein, had he been confined there his whole life,-as some judges, chosen by his enemies, intended."

The following extract from a congratulatory letter addressed to Grotius, by Erycius Puteanus, one of the greatest wits of that age, is exceedingly amusing: "You have opened a passage for yourself when every avenue was closed; and who would have believed, that in the chest a man was concealed? When you were in that manner lifted up [on the shoulders of the guards] you would appear like a corpse inclosed in a coffin; but the comparison will not hold, for you were then coming out from your sepulchre. All men may wonder at this: The whole of Grotius was not contained in that chest. Your body was in the chest, the chest in the boat, the boat in the river; you seemed to me to be in all these, and yet beyond them all, for you had filled the world. This was the reason why your genius could not be detained in the prison in which your body was confined. Inclosed within walls, immured in a dungeon, and surrounded with guards, you shewed yourself free though in such circumstances of difficulty, and proved that no obstacle can successfully oppose the progress of virtue. Proceed, great_man! You have performed an achievement in the course of a few hours, that will more than counterbalance all the sufferings which you endured in the three years preceding; for, the hands of those who employed the most strenuous endeavours to detain you, were the very hands that were raised up to effect your deliverance. They believed the whole of their burden to consist of books: and in this conjecture they were correct,-for your genius is a library in itself. While others therefore call you a learned and famous individual, I style you a brave man, worthy not only to be saved [from the wrath of your enemies,] but to obtain glory and immortality. Have you not already related the splendid acts of other men? Other men will now describe this feat of yours, which will not suffer when placed in comparison with that of Dædalus. Wings bore him out of the place of his confinement, but books served you instead of pinions : He led forth his own son [Icarus] with him, but it proved destructive to the youth; you have left your wife behind you, but it is with the intention of preserving her existence. For she could not endure any longer to witness your confinement; but now, when she beholds you at large, she blesses her shackles. Alas! that true conjugal affection should thus be dissevered! She was delighted as soon as she ceased to be at liberty, and has thus undoubtedly shewn herself worthy of regaining her freedom. Cherish the firm persuasion, that she will soon again enjoy her liberty; and that she, who has not been afraid of the horrors of a prison, will never attempt to avoid any of the inconveniences of exile,-for she will consider the place of her banishment her country, because it contains her husband! And you will yourself acknowledge, that the country from which you fled was not your mother; but that it was a harsh step-mother, from whom you were compelled to escape." The answer of Grotius to this ingenious effusion is among the finest modern specimens of chaste and elegant Latin composition with which I am acquainted: It is necessary to premise this remark, that Grotius may not suffer through my inability to transfuse his spirit into this translation of that part which relates to the conduct of Madam De Groot: "Literature possesses the property of powerfully recommending even those who are in a moderate degree imbued with its spirit (among whom I wish I were worthy to be ranked!) to others who are completely subject to its influence, in which number you have attained to deserved eminence. Yet I think the very injustice of a few individuals has served still more effectually [than Literature] to ingratiate me into the affections of several of the best of mankind: For that is not a foolish proverb which says, ' A man under misfortunes, especially an innocent man, is a sacred object.' But look how propitiously the providence of God has recompenced my troubles with blessings of an opposite description! I have

Among the numerous congratulatory epistles which he received on that occasion from some of the most learned and eminent persons in Europe, the following, which was written in June 1621, by the famous Du Vair, Chancellor of France, will be perused with interest:-" Sir, Well-bred and ingenuous men, like yourself, feel themselves to stand little in need of the professions of politeness. At all times, or, to express myself with greater propriety, ever since I heard others talk about you,-I have admired your eminent genius and rare erudition; and I afterwards pitied your calamity, when I saw your sufferings on account of your excessive attachment to the liberties of your

found in my wife that fidelity which I had myself displayed towards my country. While I was striving to maintain the liberty of the people, I lost my own; and my good wife in return lost her freedom in securing my enlargement. And it is not without reason you are surprised at the manner in which my escape was effected. For who could hope to gain his liberty from a wellguarded prison; or to enjoy again the unconstrained and heavenly draughts of vital air, after being pent up within such narrow bounds as scarcely admitted air enough for respiration? Who could have indulged hopes of the practicability of avoiding the keen inspection of such a number of guards, by means of the hands and the feet of those very guards themselves? In another respect, however, it was just, that a person, who had been oppressed with such an unexpected calamity, should be preserved in a manner that was equally unexpected.-For who would ever have believed that such acts as these would have been perpetrated? I had endeavoured with my best powers, both in prose and verse, to elevate to the skies the glory of my native land, and of the most eminent of my countrymen: For this meritorious attempt my fellow-citizens have rewarded me with extreme ignominy. By my patronage I defended the wealth of the Republic, and by my counsels I augmented its resources, while I lost my own private property. I have acted as guardian to the liberty of my country, which has cost me a most afflicting imprisonment.-In one view it is a fortunate occurrence that I have left my wife in durance, and guarded with greater strictness on account of my emancipation; for no one will now indulge a doubt concerning the seizure and captivity of innocent persons, and of such as have the greatest claims on the gratitude of their friends. When I was conveyed out of prison, that was the only circumstance with which my wife was acquainted; and while the issue of the enterprize remained undetermined, in a state of the most exquisite anxiety she revolved within her breast various conjectures, and breathed forth such wishes as no one would expect from a wife who is passionately attached to her husband, she wished that husband to be then at the greatest possible distance from her! It was at that juncture too I first perfectly understood from what an excellent wife I had taken my departure; and I began to feel such grief at her absence, that, rather than be any longer deprived of her company, I preferred a return to my former confinement. It is matter of congratulation to the age, that shame, and the reverence entertained for its own reputation, have potency enough to wrest a defenceless female out of the hands of those men who have now no other object on which to wreak their vengeance. But she is entitled to the greater commendation for this very reason, because, after she had suffered me to be carried away, she dared not to hope for such an easy exit and prosperous termination; for she was as conscious as myself of my innocence, and understood from that fact the kind of men into whose hands we should have fallen, had her scheme miscarried. To no other woman could the following verses be so appropriately applied :

For me thou didst not fear thyself to pledge,
And in a certain risk thy life engage;

This act, if aught from death could hope to free,
Deserves to screen thee from mortality."

country, and the patronage which you extended to those who had begun to recal the truth from obscurity. In the situation which I hold, and as far as the service of my master has permitted, I have solaced your distress and obtained your deliverance. It is the will of God, that you should be indebted entirely to HIM for this your enlargement, and not to the intervention of any merely human powers; and the Divine Purpose in this seems to be, that, since you are thus separated from human cares, you should employ the mass of uncommon endowments He has bestowed on you in advancing that work which is without doubt most pleasing to HIM-the common peace of Christendom, by the re-union of the members that have separated themselves from their spiritual mother,* in whom either they or their fathers were conceived and born again unto salvation. Therefore, since I perceive this to be a matter about

*That such a remark as this should escape from Du Vair, will excite no surprise, when it is recollected, that he was a French Bishop, and that there was at that period a great apparent desire on the part of the Gallican Church to be still more independent of the Papal See. However, the note in page 550 will shew the sound views of Grotius respecting the Popish religion.

It is not improbable that the custom of placing Protestant ecclesiastics in some of the higher offices of state, was, among other bad fashions, imported from the Court of France when our Charles the First married the beautiful daughter of Henry the Fourth, and with his royal bride introduced many novelties. In this, as well as in some other things, there was too great a conformity to the practice of Popish courts, which was checked before it had become a great evil; and it undoubtedly was one of the chief circumstances which excited the odium of the Nobility against Archbishop Laud, and accelerated his downfall. His Majesty had indeed been cursed with many unfaithful servants; and the Archbishop in the unsuspecting integrity of his soul, forgetting that the proper business of Churchmen lies in matters ecclesiastical, thought he could find among those who officiated before the altar some excellent men, who would prove faithful both to their God and their king, and who would thus be qualified to execute the highest duties of government. In conformity with this opinion, he recommended Dr. Juxon, then Bishop of London, to be Lord High Treasurer of England, to whose acceptance of office a curious allusion is made in page 286, and who did as great credit by his upright conduct to his patron's discernment, as Archbishop Williams had previously been a discredit to the Duke of Buckingham by his pragmatical behaviour as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, the stigma of which was not effaced by his subsequent republican achievements at Conway Castle during the Civil Wars. Laud's solicitude for the honour of the Church is well expressed in his Diary, under the date of March 6, 1635: William Juxon, Lord Bishop of London, made Lord HighTreasurer of England. No Church-man had it since Henry the Seventh's time. I pray God bless him to carry it so, that the Church may have honour, and the King and the State service and contentment by it. And now if the Church will not hold up themselves under God, I can do no

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The Archbishop's pious wishes were ultimately answered in this exemplary Prelate, who survived the civil troubles, was elevated at the Restoration to the see of Canterbury, died three years afterwards, and was buried in St. John's College Oxford. One of the historians of that period says: "The king of Spain is not prouder of the sun's rising and setting in his dominions, than that house may be that Dr. Juxon and Dr. Laud were bred there. As he [Juxon] had gone on in the same course, acted on the same principles, enjoyed the same honours, so he lieth in the same grave, with his friend and patron Archbishop Laud."

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which all men of reputation form large expectations from you, I cannot avoid uniting with them in rejoicings on this account, and accelerating by my plaudits such a blessed pursuit." This letter, composed with consummate art, concludes with a promise of the king's bounty, and of an honourable employment in the State, the latter of which was never fulfilled, because the independence of this illustrious exile could never be purchased. Grotius returned the following very elegant reply: "I do not know whether I ought to manifest a greater degree of pleasure or of displeasure towards fame, since she has traduced my character in my own country by imputing to me false crimes, while she has ennobled me in foreign countries with praises which I have never deserved. I have always felt a desire to devote myself to literary pursuits; but the authority of my friends prevented the attainment of my wishes, and before my studies had reached any degree of maturity, the application of them was at first directed to the bar and afterwards to the affairs of government. But when called into the service of the Republic, it was my infelicity to be employed at such a juncture as would not allow a man, who loved repose, to indulge himself in that security without which it is scarcely possible to make progress in learning. But my mind bears testimony to the truth of the judgment which you have formed— 'that the public liberty was defended by me according to those laws which I had received,* and that neither by the promises

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"In vain did Monsieur De Barneveldt complain to his natural and only sovereigns the States of Holland and West Frizeland; and in vain did these take him under their protection. The Prince was deaf to privileges that opposed his designs, and resolved to make his own power, which he cunningly masqued under the name of the States General, superior to that of the particular provinces. Agreeable to this, Monsieur De Barneveldt was arrested by an extraordinary order in the name of the States General, signed only by eight members of that assembly, all of them dependents and creatures of Prince Maurice. Three of his friends were seized at the same time, and committed to different prisons; Monsieur HOGERBEIS, Pensionary of Leyden, a man of known capacity and integrity; Monsieur LEYDENBERG, Secretary to the Provincial States of Utrecht; and the great Hugo GROTIUS, Pensionary of Rotterdam. They were accused of enormous crimes against the State, and, amongst the rest, of having formed a design to plunge the country in blood, and deliver it up to the Spaniard. This heavy charge was posted up at every corner, in order to render them odious to the people; but their real crime was that of having opposed the ambitious designs of Prince Maurice, who, a little before their detention, had entirely broken through the constitution of the republic, by arbitrarily changing the magistrates of several places in Holland, as well as in the city of Utrecht where he likewise disbanded the garrison, newly raised and maintained by that town agreeable to her privileges. This he did in the name of the States General as conservators of the Republic, which was no more than a veil artfully drawn, to hide the truth of his designs from the populace at home, and the neighbouring Princes abroad; who, being ignorant of the constitution, might falsely imagine the sovereignty of the seven provinces to be lodged in that assembly.

"Whilst the above-mentioned gentlemen were in prison, the Prince and his party convened a general Synod at Dort, which they termed NATIONAL, as if the Seven Provinces made but one people, in prejudice to their distinct

́ nor the threatenings with which I was assailed, could I be in'duced to become accessary to the oppression of those who held ́ correct sentiments, and such as accord with the ancient creeds, "on the subjects of Grace and Free-will.' God will, I hope, preserve me in this spirit, not to be seduced by any hope or fear to swerve either in words or deeds from the real sentiments of my heart. But should I be deceived in these particulars, my confidence is, that the same gracious God will either instruct his erring child, or will pardon my ignorance. He is acquainted with the grief which I formerly felt, as often as I instituted a comparison between this our degenerate age, and the early days of PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY-a name which is full of importance in itself! For, in this age, persons who perfectly agree with each other in the chief articles of belief, but who differ in some rites and opinions, are forced into factions, and into wars of which even the profane heathen would be asham ed. Yet it cannot be doubted, that many, who are weary of these evils, cherish within their breasts charity towards all christians, and ardently desire an external appearance of unity, -being prepared, for the sake of such a good cause, to accommodate themselves to the infirmities of the weak, according to the apostolic exhortation, and to extend their patience and moderation as far as the extreme limits of the Divine Law will admit. But, it seems, there are some men who oppose and frustrate these attempts, and whose desire of receding to the farthest possible distance from others drives them onward to the greatest extremes. My prayer is, that God would be pleased

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liberties, which reserve to each of them the right of regulating religion within their respective districts. This assembly, to outward appearance, was extremely solemn. Besides the members of the several provinces, it consisted of deputies from our King James I, from the Elector Palatine, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland, and the towns of Geneva, Bremen and Embden. But it was soon evident, from the conduct of these Divines, that they met together to condemn their opponents rather than refute them; and accordingly the doctrines of Arminius were declared heretical and scandalous, tending to introduce Popery into the United Provinces; and, in consequence of this, all those Divines who were either known to be Arminians, or suspected for such, were suspended from officiating in their functions, banished the United Provinces, and forbid to return under severe penalties.

"The decisions of the Synod of Dort may justly be said to have fixed the fate of Monsieur De Barneveldt, who was now brought to his trial and condemned to death on the 12th of May, 1619, by a set of Commissioners, cho. sen in reality by the Prince of Orange, though nominated by the States General, in manifest violation of the rights and privileges of the Provincial States of Holland, his natural and lawful judges. And, to prevent the complaints of that Assembly, (who some time before, by an authentic resolution of State, had taken Monsieur De Barneveldt into their protection,) the Prince, by another insult on their privileges, removed several of their members, and substituted others in their room that were entirely devoted to him. In pursuance of this sentence, Monsieur De Barneveldt was beheaded at the Hague, in the 76th year of his age, after having long served the State with great abilities, and been the principal means of Prince Maurice's early elevation."-Batavia Illustrata by Onslow BURRISH Esq.

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