writings which were published against him; that he regarded the lots of empire as a neceffary correction of the mifdemeanors of his life, and even rebuked those who expreffed any concern for the iffue of events, which he refpected as ordinations of the divine will. According to the fame biographer, James was exact in his devotion, moderate even to obstinence in his life; full of fentiments of the higheft contrition for past offences; and, according to the difcipline of the Romish church, was very fevere in the aufterities which he inflicted upon his perfon. As this prince juftly regarded himself as a martyr to the Catholic faith, as his warmeft friends were all of this perfuafion, as his converfation in his retirement at St. Germains was entirely, in a great meafure, confined to pricfts and devotees, it is natural that this fuperftition fhould increafe with the increafe of religious fentiment; and as he had made fe of his power and authority, whilft in England, to enlarge the number of profelytes in popery, fo in a private station, he laboured inceffantly, by prayer, exhortation, and example, to confirm the piety of his Popith adherents, and to effect a reformation in thofe who ftill continued firm to the doctrines of the church of England. He vifited the monks of La Trappe once a year, the fevereft order of religionis in France; and his conformity to the difcipline of the convent was fo ftrict and exaft, that he impreffed thofe devotees with fentiments of admiration at his piety, humility, and conftancy. а a palfey in September 1701, and after having languished fifteen days, died in the fixtyeighth year of his age, having filled up the interval between his firft seizure and final exit with the whole train of religious exercifes enjoined on fimilar occafions by the church of Rome, with folemn and repeated profeffions of his faith, and carneft exhortation to his two children, the youngest of whom was born in the fecond year of his exile, to keep stedfast to the religion in which they had been educated. Thefe precepts and commands have acted with a force fuperior to all the temptations of a crown, and have been adhered to with a firmness which obliges an hiftorian to acknowledge the fuperiority which James's defcendants, in the nice points of honour and confcience, have gained over the character of Henry the Fourth, who, at the period when he was looked up to as the great hero of the Proteftant cause, made no fcruple to accept a crown on the dif graceful terms of abjuring the principles of the Reformation, and embracing the principles of a religion, which, from his early infancy, he had been taught to regard as idolatrous and profane. The dominion of error over the minds of the generality of mankind is irrcfiftible. James, to the laft hour of his life, continued as great a bigot to his political as his religious errors: he could not help confi dering the strength and power of the crown as a circumftance neceffary to the prefervation and happinefs of the people; and in a letter of advice which he wrote to his fon, whilft he Thus having spent twelve years with a conjures him to pay a religious obfervance to higher degree of peace and tranquillity than all the duties of a good fovereign, he cautions he had ever experienced in the moft trium-him against fuffering an entrenchment on phant part of his life, he was feized with the royal prerogative. Among feveral heads, containing Containing excellent inftructions on the art of to eftablish. depofing his own father-in-law and uncle; and this he gratified at the expence of the nation that raised him to fovereign authority. He afpired to the honour of acting as umpire in all the contefts of Europe; and the fecond object of his attention was, the profperity of that country to which he owed his birth and extraction. Whether he really thought the interests of the continent and Great Britain were infeparable, or fought only to drag England into the confederacy as a convenient ally; certain it is, he involved thefe kingdoms in foreign connections, which, in all probability, will be productive of their ruin. In order to eftablish this favourite point, he fcrupled not to employ all the engines of corruption, by which means the morals of the nation were totally debauched. He procured a parliamentary fanction for a ftanding army, which now feems to be interwoven in the conftitution. He introduced the pernicious practice of borrowing upon remote funds; an expedient that neceffarily hatched a brood of ufurers, brokers, and stock-jobbers, to prey upon the vitals of their country. He entailed upon the nation a growing debt, and a fyftem of politics big with mifery, defpair, and deftruction. To fum up his character § 88. Character of WILLIAM III. William III. was in his perfon of the middie ftature, a thin body, and delicate confitution, fubject to an asthma and continual ough from his infancy. He had an aquifine nofe, sparkling eyes, a large forchead, and grave folemn afpect. He was very fparing of speech; his converfation was dry, difgufting, except in battle, was free, fpirited, and and his manner when his deportment animating. In courage, fortitude, and equa- in a few words, William was a fatalift in of antiquity; and his natural fagacity made in politics, dead to all the warm and genenimity, he rivalled the moft eminent warriors religion, indefatigable in war, enterprising amends for the defects of his education, rous emotions of the human heart, a cold which had not been properly fuperintended. | relation, an indifferent husband, a difagreeable and fincere, a stranger to violent tranfports of fovereign. religious, temperate, generally juft man, an ungracious prince, and an imperious best princes of the age in which he lived, had reigned 13 years. paffion, and might have paffed for one of the he never afcended the throne of Great Bri He was Died March 8th, 1701, aged 2, having Smollett. tain. But the diftinguished criterion of his $ Sg. Another Character of WILLIAM III, character was ambition; to this he facrificed the punctilios of honour and decorum, in William the Third, king of Great Britain and Ireland, was in his perfon of middle fire, ill-fhaped in his limbs, fomewhat round in his shoulders, light brown in the colour of his hair, and in his complexion. The lines of his face were hard, and his nose was aquiline; but a good and penetrating eye threw a kind of light on his countenance, which tempered its feverity, and rendered his harth features, in fome measure, agreeable. Though his conftitution was weak, delicate, and infirm, he loved the manly exercifes of the field; and often indulged himself in the pleafures, and even fometimes in the excelles, of the table. In his private character he was frequently harth, paffionate, and fevere, with regard to trifles; but when the fubject rofe equal to his mind, and in the tumult of battle, he was dignified, cool, and ferene. Though he was apt to form bad impreffions, which were not cafily removed, he was neither vindictive in his disposition, nor obftinate in his resentment. Neglected in his education, and, perhaps, deftitute by nature of an elegance of mind, he had no tafte for literature, none for the fciences, none for the beautiful arts. He paid no attention to mufic, he understood no poetry; he difregarded learning; he encouraged no men of letters, no painters, no artifts of any kind. In fortification and the mathematics he had a confiderable degree of knowledge. Though unfuccefsful in the field, he underftood military operations by land; but he neither poffeffed nor pretended to any skill in maritime affairs. In the diftribution of favours he was cool and injudicious. In the punishment of crimes, often too cafy, and fometimes too fevere. He was parfumonious where he fhould have bech liberal; where he ought to be fparing, frequently profufe. In his temper he was filent and referved; in his addrefs ungraceful; and though not deftitute of diffimulation, and qualified for intrigue, lefs apt to conceal his paflions than his defigns: thefe defects, rather than vices of the mind, combining with an indifference about humouring mankind through their ruling paffions, rendered him extremely unfit for gaining the affections of the English nation. His reign, therefore, was crowded with mortifications of various kinds; the difcontented parties among his fubjects found no difficulty in eftranging the minds of the people from a prince poffeffed of few talents to make him popular. He was trufted, perhaps, lefs than he deferved, by the moft obfequious of his parliaments; but it seems, upon the whole, apparent, that the nation adhered to his government, more from a fear of the return of his predeceffor, than from any attachment to his own perfon, or respect for his right to the throne. Macpberfon. § 90. Character of MARY, Queen Confort of WILLIAM III. Mary was in her perfon tall and well proportioned, with an oval vifage, lively eyes, agreeable features, a mild afpect, and an air of dignity. Her apprehenfion was clear, her memory tenacious, and her judgment folid. She was a zealous Proteftant, fcrupulousy exact in all the duties of devotion, of an even temper, of a calm and mild converfation; the was ruled by no paffion, and feems to have been a ftranger to the emotions of natural affection, for the afcended the throne from which her father had been depofed, and treated her fifter as an alien to her blood. In a word, Mary feems to have imbibed the cold difpofition and apathy of her husband, and to have centered all her ambition in deferving the epithet of an humble and obedient wife. Smollett. Died 28th December, 1694, aged 33. $91. Character of ANNE. The queen continued to dofe in a lethargic infenfibility, with very fhort intervals, till the first day of Auguft in the morning, when she expired, in the fiftieth year of her age, and in the thirteenth of her reign. Anne Stuart, queen of Great Britain, was in her perfon of the middle fize, well proportioned; her hair was of dark brown colour, her complexion ruddy, her features were regular, her counteLance was rather round than oval, and her afpet more comely than majeftic; her voice was clear and melodious, and her prefence engaging; her capacity was naturally good, but not much cultivated by learning; nor did the exhibit any marks of extraordinary genius, or perfonal ambition; fhe was certainly deficient in that vigour of mind by which a prince ought to preferve her independence, and avoid the fnares and fetters of lycophants and favourites; but, whatever her weakness in this particular might have been, the virtues of her heart were never called in queftion; fhe was a pattern of conjugal affection and fidelity, a tender mother, a warm friend, an indulgent miftrefs, a munificent patron, a mild and merciful princefs; during whofe reign no blood was thed for treafon. She was zealously attached to the Church of England, from conviction rather than from prepoffeffion, unaffectedly pious, juft, charitable, and compaffionate. She felt mother's fondness for her people, by whom fhe was univerfally beloved with a warmth of affection which even the prejudice of party could not abate. In a word, if fhe was not the greateft, fhe was certainly one of the beft and moft unblemished fovereigns that ever fat upon the throne of England, and well deferved the expreffive, though fimple epithet of, the "good queen Anne." Smollett. She died in 1714. § 92. Another Character of ANNE. Thus died Anne Stuart, queen of Great Britain, and one of the best and greatest monarchs that ever filled that throne. What was most remarkable, was a clear harmonious voice, always admired in her graceful delivery of her speeches to parliament, infomuch that it used to be a common faying in the mouth of every one," that her very specch was mufic." Good-nature, the true characteriftic of the Stuarts, predominated in her temper, which was a compound of benevolence, generofity, indolence, and timidity, but not without a due fenfibility of any flight which the thought was offered to her perion or her dignity; to these all her actions, both as a monarch and as a woman, may be afcribed; these were the fources both of her virtues and her failings; her greatest bleffing upon earth was that entire union of affections and inclinations between her and her royal confort; which made them a perfect pattern of conjugal love. She was a fond and tender mother, an eafy and indulgent miftrefs, and a moft gracious fovereign; but the had more than once reafon to repent her giving up her heart, and trusting her fecrets without refcrve to her favourites. She retained to the last the principle of that true religion which fhe had imbibed early; being. devout without affectation, and charitable without oftentation. She had a great reverence for clergymen eminent for learning and good lives, and was particularly benefi cent to the poorer fort of them, of which the left an evidence which bears her name, M and and will perpetuate both that and her bounty [ fupported her authority amidst the ferment to all fucceeding generations. of thofe diftracted times. Macpher fon. § 94. The Character of MARY Queen of Chamberlaine. SCOTS. $93. Another Character of ANNE. Thus died Anne Stuart, queen of Great To all the charms of beauty, and the utBritain and Ireland, in the fiftieth year of her most elegance of external form, Mary added age, and thirteenth of her reign. In her per- thofe accomplishments which render their imfon the was of a middle ftature, and, be- preflion irrefiftible. Polite, affable, infinuat fore the bore children, well made. Her hair ing, fprightly, and capable of fpeaking and was dark, her complexion fanguine, her fea of writing with equal cafe and dignity. Sudtures ftrong, but not irregular, her whole den, however, and violent in all her attachcountenance more dignified than agreeable. ments; because her heart was warm and unIn the accomplishments of the mind, as a wo- fufpicious. Impatient of contradiction, beman, fhe was not deficient; the understood cause the had been accustomed from her inmufic; he loved painting; the had even fancy to be treated as a queen. No ftranger, fome tafte for works of genius; the was on fome occafions, to diffimulation; which, always generous, fometimes liberal, but never in that perfidious court where the received profufe. Like the reft of the family, fhe was her education, was reckoned among the negood-natured to a degree of weaknefs; indo- ceffary arts of government. Not infenfible Lent in her difpofition, timid by nature, de- flattery, or unconfcious of that pleafure, with voted to the company of her favourites, cafily which almoft every woman beholds the inled. She poffeffed all the virtues of her fa- fluence of her own beauty. Formed with the ther, except political courage; fhe was fub- qualities that we love, not with the talents ject to all his weakneffes, except enthufiafim that we admirc; fhe was an agreeable woin religion? fhe was jealous of her authority, man rather than an illuftrious queen. The and fullenly irreconcilable towards thofe who vivacity of her fpirit, not fufficiently tempered treated either herfelf or prerogative with difre- with found judgment, and the warmth of her fpect; but, like him alto, the was much bet- heart, which was not at all times under the ter qualified to difcharge the duties of a pri- reitraint of difcretion, betrayed her both into vate life than to act the part of a fovereign. errors and into crimes. To fay that he was As a friend, a mother, a wife, the deferved always unfortunate, will not account for that every praife. Her conduct as a daughter long and almost uninterrupted fucceffion of could fcarcely be exceeded by a virtue much calamities which befel her; we muft likewile fuperior to all thele. Upon the whole, though add, that the was often imprudent. Her pafher reign was crowded with great events, fion for Dainly was rath, youthful, and exfhe cannot, with any justice, be called a great ceffive. And though the fudden tranfition to princefs. Subject to terror, beyond the con- the oppofite extreme, was the natural effect of ftitutional timidity of her fex, the was alt ge- her ill-requited love, and of his ingratitude, ter incapable of decifive counfels, and no-infolence, and brutality; yet neither theft, thing but her irrefiftible popularity could have nor Bothwell's artful addrefs and important |