PART 11. BOOK THE FIRST.

Otago Witness, Issue 931, 2 October 1869, Page 19

PART 11. BOOK THE FIRST.

The Everxastino Presence of the Past. Man Reflects Man. Chapter I. LORD CLANCHARLIE. I. There was in those days an old tradition. That tradition was Linnteus Lord Clancharlie. Linnreus Baron Clancharlio, a contemporary of Cromwell, was ono of tho peers of England, fow in number be it said, who accepted tho republic Strictly spuaking, tho reason of his -acceptance might have been found in the fact that for tho timo being the republic was triumphant. It was n mattor of courso that Lord Clancharlie should adhoro to tho republic, as long as tho republic had tho upper hand ; but aftor the cloao of tho revolution nnd tho fall of the parliamoiit iry government, Lord Clancharlio had porsistod in his fidelity to it. It would havo boon easy for tho noblo patrician to ro-ontor tho ro> constituted uppor houso, ropontanco boing evor woll rocoivod on restorations, and Oharlos 11. a kind princo onough to those who rotttrnod to their allegiance to him ; but Lord Olancharlio had failed to understand whnt was duo to ovonta. Whilo tho nation ovorwholmod with acclamation the king came to re-take possession of England ; whilo unanimity was recording its vordiot, while the peoplo wero bowing their salutation to the monarohy, while tho dynasty was rising anew amidst a glorious and triumphant recantation, at tho time whon the pant was becoming the fnturo, and the futnro boooming tho put, this nobleman remained refractory. Ho turned his head away from all that joy ; he exilod j himself voluntarily. While he oould havo | been a peer, he preferred boing an outlaw. Yean had paood thus. He had grown

old' in hia ' fidelity to the dead republic; and therefore he was crowned with the ridicule whiohvia'the natural reward of such folly. . He had retired into, Switzerland, and dwelt in a sort of lofty ruin on the 1 borders of the Lake of Geneva. He had chosen •that dwelling in the most rugged nook of the lake between Chillon,, where is the dungeon of Bonriivard and Vevay, where is Ludlow's tomb. The rugged Alps, filled with twilight, winds, and clpuds, enveloped him ; and there he lived hidden in the great shadows that fall from the mountains. He was rarely met by any passer-by. This man was out of hia country, almost out of his century. At that time, to those who understood and were posted in the affairs of the period, no resistance to established things was justifiable. England was happy- : a restoration is as the reconcilement of- husband and wife ; prince and nation have ceased to occupy separate beds ; no state could be more gracious or more pleasant ; Great Britain beamed ; to have a king at all was a great deal— but furthermore, the king was a good one. Charles 11. was amiable ; a man of pleasure yet able to govern, and gand after the fashion of Louis XIV. c was essentially a gentleman. Charles 11. was admired by his subjects. He had made war in Hanover for reasons best known to himself, certainly no one else knew them. He had sold Dunkirk to France, a manoeuvre of state policy. The Whig peers, concerning whom Chamberlain says, " The cursed republic, infected with its stinking breath several of the high nobility," had had the good sense to bow to the inevitable, to conform to the times, and to resume their seatß in tho House of Lords. To do so it sufficed that they should take the oath of allegiance to the king. When these realities were considered, this fine reign, this excellent king, these august princes given back by divine mercy to the people's love ; when it was remembered that persons of suoh consideration as Monk, and, later, Jeffries, had rallied round the throne ; that they had been properly rewarded for their loyalty and zeal by the most splendid appointments and the most lucrative functions ; that Lord Clancharlie could not be ignorant of this, and that it only depended on himself to be seated by their side, glorious in his honours; that England had, thanks to her king, risen again to the summit of prosperity ; that London was all banquets and carousals ; that everybody was rich and enthusiastic, that the court was gallant, gay, and magnificent ; —if by chance, far from these splendours, in some melancholy, indescribable halflight, like nightfall, that old man, olad in the same garb as the common people, was Been pale, absent-minded, bent towards the grave, standing on the shore of the lake, scarce heeding the storm and the winter, walking as thoughjat random his eye fixod, his white hair toßsed by the wind of the shadow, silent, pensive, solitary, who could forbear to smile ? It was tho sketch of a madman. Thinking of Lord Clanoharlie, of what he might have been and what ho was, a smile was indulgent ; some laughed out loud, others could not restrain their anger. It is easy to understand that men of sense were muoh ahocked by Buch insolence of isolation. One extenuating circumstanoe : Lord Clanoharlie hadnevor had any brains. Everyone agreed about that. «•

11. It is disogreeablo to see one's fellows practice obstinacy. Imitations of Regulus are not popular, and publio opinion holds them in some derision. Stubborn people resetnblo reproaches, and wo ivre rijtht to laugh at them. Besides, to sum up, ore these perversities, those ruggod notches, virtues ? Is there not in those oxcossivo advertise* monts of solf-abnogation and of honour, % good doil of ostentation I It is all par.ulo moro than anything else Why such oxnggorntion of solitude and oxile ? to carry nothing to oxtromos is tho wiso man's maxim. Bo in opposition if you chooso, blamo if yon will, but decently, and cryinir all tho whilo " Long livo tho King." Tho true virtuo is common «on«o —what falls oir,'ht to fall, what auccoods ought to succood. Providonco acts advisedly, it crowns him who doservox tho crown ; do you protond to know bettor f — whon mattora are sottlod— whon ono rule has replaced an»thor — when succgm is tho soalo in which truth and falsohood are woighod, on this sido tho cat&ntropho, j on tho otltor tho triumph ; in nuoh oaso doubt is no longer possible ; tho honost man rallies to tho winning side ; and although it may happon to sorvo his fortuno ! and his family, ho does not allow hlmiolf to bo influenced by that oooßirloration, but thinking only of tho publio weal, holds out his strong hand to tho oonqueror. What would bocomo of tho stato if no ono contonted to aorvo ft? Would not everything oomo to a •tandatiil I To koop hia place U the duty of a good dtiicn. L«am (o taorifto* jour secret pwfownoes.

? kps>intm&tfl ! "WußC'lie':"fiUi)cli r; some ; one miist necessarily sacrifice Himself., ', To be faithfulto public functions is' true fidelity. The, retirement of public "officials . would paralyse the Btatet What ! banish yourself ?— how pitiful 1 J * ,Ab an - example ?—? — what vanity ! ,As a defiance,?— what audacity ! ' What do you set yourself up tb ! be, I wonder ? Learn that we are juat as good as you. If we -chose, we too could be intractable and uritameable, and do worse things than you ; but we prefer to be sensible people. Because lam Trimalcion, you think that I could not be Oato ? What nonsense ! Ill 1 Never was a situation more clearly defined, or more decisive than that of 1660. Never had a. course of conduct been more plainly indicated to a well-ordered mind. England was out of Cromwell's grasp. Under the republic many irregularities had been committed. British preponderance had been created. With the aid of the Thirty- Yeara' War, Germany had been overcome; with, the aid of the Fronde, France had been humiliated ; with the aid of the Duke of Braganza, Spain had been lessened ; Cromwell had tamed Mazarin ; in signing treaties the Protector of England wrote his name above that of the King of France. The United-Provinces had been put under a fine of eight millions ; Algiers and Tunis had been attacked ; Jamaica conquered ; Lisbon humbled ; French rivalry raised in Barcelona, and Masaniello in Naples ; Portugal had been made fast to England ; the seas had been swept of Barbary pirates from Gibraltar to Crete ; maritime domination had been founded under two forms, Victory and Commerce. On the 10th of August, 1653, the man of thirty-three victories, the old Admiral who called himself the sailor's grandfather, Martin Happertz ran Tromp, who had beaten the Spanish, had been destroyed by the English fleet. The Atlantic had been cleared of the Spanish navy, the Paoifio of the Dutch, the Mediterranean of the Venetian, and by the patent of navigation, England had taken possession of the sea coast of the universe. By the ocean she commanded the world ; at sea the Dutch flag humbly saluted the British flag. France, in the person of the Ambassador Mancini, bent the knee to Oliver Uromwell ; this same Cromwell played with Calais and Dunkirk as with two shuttlecocks on a battledore. The continent had been made to tremble, peace had been dictated, war declared, the British Ensign raised on every pinnacle. By itself the Protector's regiment of Ironsides weighed in the fears of Europe against an army. Cromwell used to say, " I wish the Republic of England to be respected, as was respected the Republic of Borne. " No longer were delusions held saored ; speech was free, the press was free. In the public street men said what they listed, they printed what they pleased without control or censorship. Tho equilibrium of thrones had been destroyed. The whole order of European monarohy, in which the Stuarts formed a link, had been overturned. But at last England had emerged from thin odiotw order of things, and had won it* pardon. The indulgent Charles JOE. hod granted the declaration* of Breda. He had conceded to England oblivion of the pnriod in which the son of the Huntingdon brewer placed his foot on the neokof Louis XIV. England said its mea culpa, and breathed again. The cup of joy was, as ws have just said, full ; the gibbets of the regicides adding to the univorsal delight. A restoration is a smile ; but a few gibbets are not out of place, and satisfaction is due to the conscience of tho public To be good subject* was thenceforth tho people's solo ambition. Tho spirit of lawlessness hod been expollod Royalty was reconstituted. Men had roooverod from the follies of politics. Thoymookod at revolution, they jeered at the republic, and as to those times whon such stranito words as Right, Liberty, Progress had boon in tho mouth, —why they laughed at suoh bombast ! Admirable was the return to common senso. England had been in a dream. What joy to bo quit of such errors. Was ever anything ao mad ? Where should wo bo if evoryono hud hia rights ? Fanoy everyone's having a hand in tho govornment ? Oan you imagino to voursolf tho city ruled by its citizens? Why, tho citizom aro tho toarn, and tho team cannot be driver. To put to the voto is to throw to the wind*. Would you have states driven like olouria ) Disordor cannot build up order. With chaos for an architect the odifico would bo Babe). And, besides, what tyranny it this pwtendod liberty ! As for mo, 1 with to enjoy myself ; not to govern. It is * boro to havo a voto, I want to danco. A prinoo is ft providence, and takes car© of us all. Truly tho king is goneroas to toko so muoh trouble for our lakes. Bo•ldos, he Uto tho mannor born. Ho know* what it v. It'« his business. Peace, War, Legislation, Finance,— what havo th§ ptoplo to do with suoh things ? Of course the peoplo hare to pay ; of oouno tb« people haw to wnre ; but that should sttmoa them. They hart a plaoo in policy ; from them oomo two eatntiai thiags, tho

contribute. no't^aff e%igh* f#^oK#jM ■ ' they I Vant V'^t $€ #^$#W'W the •finaiicial f arm; & ma^iiecent;^(c. The' liing\r&gfcs;fGr them; and;they, must, reward him accordingly. ( r f Taxation and tlie oiv^l listare' tlie wldHei paid b^ people,, andVakedby^&ces* The pepple give blood andtheirnioneyitoeturnfor which they are led. To wish to leadthemselves ; what ah absurd idea'!' They require , a guide ; being ignorant they* are , blind. Has' not' the bliiid man, his dog ? . Only people have a lion, the king, who conBents to act the dag. How kind of him. But why are people ignorant ? because it is good for them. Ignorance is the guardian of Virtue. Where there is no perspective there is no ambition. The ignorant man is in useful darkness, which, suppressing sight, suppresses ,covetousneas: whenceinriqcence. He.whq reads, ( thinks ; who thinks, reasons'. But not to reason is duty ; it is also happiness. These, truths are incontestable ; society is based on them. Thus were sound social dbc-trines-re-established in England ; thus had the nation been re-inßtated. At the same time a correct taste in literature was reviving.: Shakspeare was despised, Dryden admired. " Dryden is the greatest poet of England, and of , the , century," said Atterbury,'"the translator of" Ackvtophel. It was about the time when M. Huet, Bishop of Avranches, wrote to Sayumaise, who had done the author of Paradise Lost the honour to refute and abuse him — " How can you trouble yourself about so mean a thing as that Milton ?" Everything was falling into its proper place : Dryden above, Shakspeare below ; Charles 11. on the throne, Cromwell on the gibbet. England was raising herself out of the shame and the exoesses of the past, It is a great happiness for nations to be led back by monarchy to good order in the state, and good taste in letters. That such benefits should be misunderstood, is difficult to believe. To turn the cold shoulder to Charles IT. l to reward with ingratitude the magnanimity which he displayed in ascending the throne—was not such conduct abominable? Linneeus Lord Clancharlie had inflicted tbia vexation upon honest men. To sulk at his country's happiness, alack, what aberraWe know that in 1650 Parliament had drawn up this form of declaration :— " I promise to remain faithful to the republic, without king, sovereign, or lord." Under pretext of having taken this monstrous oath, Lord Chanoharlie was living out of the kingdom, and, in the face of the gen-e-al joy, thought that he had the right to be si>d He had a morose esteem for that which was no more, and was absurdly attached *o thing* which had been. To excuse him was impossible. The kindest-hearted abandoned him ; his frionda had long done him the honour to believe that he had enterod tne republican ranks only to observe the more olosely the flaws in the republican armour, and to uraite it the more surely, when the day B hould,,£pme for the sacred cause of the king. Those, lurkings in ambush for the convenient hour to.strik^.the enemy a death blow in the bwk,,; are ftttabpM of loyalty. Such a line of conduokfcs&Reeflb expected of Lord Chancharlie, so strong was the wish to judge him favourably ; but, in the f«c© of his Btrange persistence in republicanism, people were obliged to lower their estimate. Evidently Lord i Chancharlie was confirmed m hw convictions—that is to say, an idiot! The explanation given by the indulgent wavered between puerile stubborness and senile obstinacy. The severe and the just went further , they blighted the name of the renegade. Folly has ito rights, but it has alw its limits. A man may be a brute, but he has no right to be a rebeL And, after all, what was this Lord Chftncharho? A deserter. He had fled hia camp, the aristocracy, for that of the enemy, the people. This faithful man was a traitor. It is true that ho was a traitor to the utronttor, and faithful to the weaker ; it is truo that the civmp repudiated by htiUi win the conquering camp ; and the camp adopted by him, the conquered j i it i» ■ true that by hi* teeMon ho lo«t all-lus ' political privileges and hw domest.o k«rth, hi" titlo and his country. He J» nod nothing but ridioule, ho ottamed So tinea* but emit. But what doei all tha prove I— that ho wm a fool. Granted. PlSy * dupe und a traitor mono. Let imatt be £ great a fool m he like* «o that he Sm not. eet » bad example. Foohneed July bo civil, and in consideration thereof the/ may rjn »t being the "baie* of monarohie*. . - Tho narrownwa of tGliftnchtrho'* tain* vu incomprohenMbie. Hit eyes wero «till dnxßlad by the ph*ntMm*»on» of the revoluUon. Ho had allowed Mwtelf to be taken in by the wpubHo—yaa { *n«t <3Mt out. Ho wat an affront to hit ooim--try. Th« atUtudo ho awamod wm downright felony. AJbwnco was an lnjult. He h«ld aloof from the pittio joju from iheplagot. In hii rolunttry t*ni»h»«t

-he-found-Bom^indßsoribabl^refu^frOiM 1 ,tho > He treated? loyalty/ a*coriiagipn{:<^ ;^Vi^ed€monarchyi n denpuncedi'by. ( hiraias< arlazarett'6, lie was the, black flag. What? 'could he lopb thus askance at order reconstituted—a nation exalted,, and a religion resided ? / Over , such serenity , why sdast' hisiahadow? ..Take, umbrage at England's contentment ! Must, he b^.the, one blot in th'eclearblue Bk'y !„ <Bp ,as\a- threat ! Protest! against a nation's will ! refuse his Yes to' the universal consent ! „It would be odious, if, it were not foolish. • Clanchailie had not taken into account jthat it ( did not .matter if one had, taken the, wrong turn with Cromwell, as long as one found one's way back into the right path with Monk. Take Monk's, case. > - He commands the repuplioan army. Charles 11, having been informed of his honesty, writes to him. , Monk, who combines virtue with tact, dissimulates at first, then suddenly, at the head of his troops, dissolves the rebel , parliament, and re-establishes the king on the throne. Monk is created Duke of Albemarle, has the honour of having saved society, becomes very rich, sheds a glory, over his own time, ia created Knight of the Garter, and has the prospect of , being buried in Westminster I Abbey. Such glory is the reward of British -fidelity ! Lord Olancharlie could never rise to sense of duty thus carried out. He had the infatuation an obstinacy of an exile. He contented himself with hollow phrases. He was tongue-tied by pride. The words . conscience and dignity are but words, after all. One must penetrate to the depths. These depths Lord Clancharlie had not reached. His "eye was single,!' and before; committing an act, he wished to observe it so closely as to be able to judge it by more senses than one. Hence arose absurd disgust to the facts examined. £To man can be a statesman who gives way to such overstrained delicacy. Excess of conscientiousness degenerates into .infirmity. Scruple is one-handed-when a sceptre is to be Beized, and an eunuch when fortune is to be wedded. Distrust soruples ; they lead too far. Unreasonable fidelity is like a ladder leading into a cavern — one step down, another, still another, and there you are in the dark. The clever re-ascend ; fools remain in it. Conscience must not be allowed to practise such, austerity. If it be, it will fall, until, from transition to transition, it at length reaches the deepest shadows of political prudery. Thus it was with Lord Olancharlie. Prinoiples terminate in a precipice. He was walking, his hands behind him, along the shores of the Lake of Geneva. A fine way of getting on ! In London they sometimes spoke of this exile. He was acoused before the tribunal of public opinion. They pleaded for and against him. The cause having been heard, he was acquitted on the ground of stupidity. Many zealous friends of the former republio had given their adherenoe to the Stuarts. For this they deserve praise. These naturally calumniated him a little. The obstinate are repulsive to the complaint. Men of sense, in favour and good places at Court, weary of his disagreeable took pleasure in saying, "If he has not rallied to the throne, it is because he has not been sufficiently paid," &o. "He wanted the chancellorship which the king has given jbo Hyde." One of his old friends went so far as to whisper, "He told me so himself." Remote as was the solitude of Linnqous Olancharlie, something of this jbalk would reach him through the outlaws he met, such as old regicides, like Andrew Broughton, who livod at Lausanne. Olancharlie confined himself to an imperceptible shrug of the shoulders, a sign of profound deterioration. On one occasion ho added to the shrug a few words, murmured in a low voice, "I pity (hose who believe such things."