is a fpecimen of the dryness and prolixity of that artful demagogue. The authors of the Biographia fay, that the moft authentick account of this plot is given by Mr. Pym; as if the world did not know that he was a moft prejudiced, and bigoted partizan, and was watchful and industrious to aggravate any fact which tended to make the royal caufe more unpopular.

In his fpeeeh to the citzens, he gave a dreadful account of the plot; he faid it was contrived for the deftruction of the army, the parliament, and the city.

The commons, having raifed a general alarm, appointed a day of public thanksgiving for their great delivery; to make the people imagine that their caufe was espoused by heaven, that their pious gratitude entitled them to its protection ;--and, as Lord Clarendon obferves, to make the great delivery unquestionable.

To ratify these proceedings, and to give them effect, they drew up a folemn league and covenant, which was taken by every member of both houses, by the army, and by the city. To many people the tenour of it gave qualms, which were fuppreffed by example, and by fear. Lord Clarendon, in his hiftory, hath tranfmitted us a copy of this league and covenant; they who framed it, accumulate guilt, while they express a whining forrow for paft offences; the preamble is falfehood and hypocrify; the oath is fedition and rebellion.

All this religious grimace was portentous to the confpirators, and threw a gloom over their trial. Mr. Tomkins, Mr. Chaloner, and Mr. Hambden, a gentleman who carried meffages, and letters between the confpirators, and the court at Oxford, were tried by a council of war. Haffel, another

messenger,

meffenger, died in prifon the night before the trial. Tomkins was condemned to be hanged before his house in Holborne, where he had long lived, and maintained an excellent character. Chaloner was

to fuffer the fame fate in Cornhill. Their sentences were executed with many circumftances of barbarity. As Waller was the only evidence against Mr. Hambden, they spared his life; but he died in confinement: though that lenity, perhaps, was shown him because he was related to the patriot. Some gentlemen, too, whofe names were in the commiffion of array, and who were tried at this time, had the good fortune not to fuffer capitally, as it did not appear that their names had been ufed with their confent, or knowledge. But they were branded with the title of malignants, and their eftates were confifcated.

The commons were very defirous to proceed with equal feverity against the earl of Portland, and lord Conway, who were in close confinement. But Waller was their only accufer; he and they were often confronted before the committee; and they as repeatedly, and peremptorily denied the charge of privacy to the plot, as he retorted it upon them. They were kept in prifon a confiderable time; but were, at length, enlarged upon bail.

The earl of Northumberland obtained his freedom with more ease. The commons were violently incenfed against him, for they knew that he was much difgufted with their meafures. Their prudence, however, checked their refentment. For the earl was a favourite of the publick.

Waller was a more active offender against the commons than his two friends who fuffered capital punishment. But he met with a gentler fate than theirs by means which have fullied his memory.

The

The excellence of the poet fhall not redeem the meanness of the man.

He was now a prifoner of the council of war, by whom he was to be tried. His trial had been put off out of pity to his fituation: for he expreffed, in his confinement, the most abject, and vehement repentance for his crime. He even feigned diftraction to molify his judges: though, from his exceffive fear, there was, perhaps, little imitation in his madness. He fent to the fanatical minifters of the fectaries, and requested their ghoftly affittance. The elegant foul of Waller, formed for poetry, and for love, feemed to imbibe their ruftick jargon, and thanked them with humility and ardour for the fpiritual illumination which they poured upon his mind. He neglected not to make confiderable prefents to thofe holy men, by which probably he won more upon their hearts than they gained upon his by their pious exhortations. He likewife gave great fums to the leading members in the houfe of commons; who were very fenfible to this pathetic application, and, in confequence of it, were induftrious to fave him. Their influence operated firongly in his favour. The preachers too, whom he had bought, warmly recommended him to mercy; and their recommendation had much weight; for fanaticifm was then ora ular.

After his repeated requests, which were supported by powerful intereft, he was admitted to the bar of the house of commons on the fourth of July, 1643, to fpeak in his own defence. The fpeech, which he then made, does honour to his learning, and eloquence, while it convicts him of the moft timid, and fervile pufilanimity. In it he intreats the commons that they would try him, and not expose him to the fanguinary decision of a council of war; he fhows

the

the inconveniences which might befall themselves, if they should fuffer his fate to be determined by military arbitration; and laments the crime which he had committed in the vulgar, and blafphemous cant of a prefbyterian minifter. In his fpeech against judge Crawley, he made an artful, and striking application from Roman history to the argument he was inforcing; in his fpeech for himself he makes an application of the fame kind.

"I dare confidently say, you shall find none, either "ancient, or modern, whoever expofed any of their ❝own order to be tried for his life by the officers of "their armies abroad, for what he did while he re"fided among them in the fenate.

Among the Romans the practice was fo contrary, that fome inferiour officers in the army, far "from the city, having been fentenced by their "general, or commander in chief, as deferving death by their discipline of war, have, neverthelefs, because they were fenators, appealed thither, aud the caufe has received a new hearing in the "fenate."

In the following extract he apologizes for his conduct in the true ftrain of a fanatick.

"What it was that moved me to entertain dif"courfe of this bufinefs (the plot) fo far as I did, I "will tell you ingenuously, and that rather as a

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warning for others, than that it makes any thing "for myfelf; it was only an impatience of the in"conveniences of the prefent war, looking on things "with a carnal eye, and not minding that which "chiefly, if not only, ought to have been confidered, "the inestimable value of the cause you have in "hand, the cause of God, and of religion, and the "neceffities you are forced upon for the maintenance of the fame. As a juft punishment for this

"neglect,

neglect, it pleafed God to defert, and fuffer me with a fatal blindness, to be led on, and engaged in fuch counfels as were wholly difproportioned "to the rest of my life. This, fir, my own conscience tells me was the caufe of my failing, and "not malice, or any ill habit of mind, or difpofition toward the commonwealth, or to the parliament." To this fpeech, his other interceffions, and his bribes, he owed his life. He was fined the fum of ten thousand pounds by the parliament, and banished the kingdom for life.

I muft beg leave to make an obfervation or twở On this account of Waller's plot.

I have been principally guided by lord Clarendon's relation of the affair; because it seemed preferable, in the main, to thofe of the other hiftorians. We are not however to rely implicitly upon his authority.

He is fatished that Mr. Waller's fcheme, and Sir Nicholas Crifpe's were not at all connected with each other. His reafon for this opinion, is, that Waller, and the principal perfons concerned in his plot, were not named in the commiffion of array. This argument, I think, is not conclufive. Waller and his friends might act in conjunction with Crifpe's correspondents in London, and yet might not chuse to have their names inferted in the commiffion of array, left it should be intercepted by the parfiament.

The commiffion of array was made publick when Waller, Tomkins, and Chaloner were examined. Lord Clarendon fays, it was then discovered to the committee, or they kept it concealed till that time. But about that time they must have been informed of it. For, is it probable that they would be dilatory in publishing it, as the intelligence, when divulged,

would