the republic, and fhare with them in the confequences of a refolution, which he fhould love and admire. He contended, that they were now to confider themselves as affembled, not in Utica, but Rome; "That the force of the republic was yet great, and might ftill, as on former occafions, rife again from its ruins; that the forces of Cæfar must ftill be diftracted or separate, to make head against enemies who were appearing in different parts of the empire; that in Spain his own army had deferted from him, and the whole province had declared for the fons of Pompey; that Rome, the head of the commonwealth, was yet erect, and would not bend under the yoke of a tyrant; that his enemies were multiplying while he feemed to destroy them; that his own example fhould inftruct them; or rather, that the courage which he exerted in the paths of guilt and of infamy, fhould animate thofe who were about, either to die with honour, or to fecure for their country bleffings in which they themfelves were to share." At this af fembly a refolution was accordingly taken to defend the city of Utica, and numbers of flaves, who were et free by their mafters for this purpofe, were armed and inrolled. But it foon appeared, that the affembly confifted of perfons unable to perfift in this refolution, and who were preparing feparately to merit the favour of the conqueror by an entire and early fubmiffion. They foon made a general profeffion of this defign, expreffed their veneration of Cato; but confeffed, that they were not qualified to act with him in fo arduous a fcene; affured him that if they were permitted to fend a meffage to Cæfar, the first object of it hould be to intercede for his fafety; and that, if they could not obtain it, they fhould accept of no quarter for themfelves. Cato no longer oppofed their intentions; but faid, that he himself must not be included in their treaty; that he knew not of any right Cæfar had to difpofe of his perfon; that what had hitherto happened in the war only ferved to convict Cæfar of defigns which were often imputed to him, and which he always denied. He will now, at leaft, own, he faid, that his opponents had reafon for all the fufpicions they fuggefted against him. "While matters were in this ftate, a party of Scipio's horse, which had escaped from the field of battle, appeared at the gates of the town, and were with difficulty, by Cato's intreaties, hindered from putting every Roman, who offered to fubmit to Cæfar, as well as the inhabitants of the place, to the fword. Being diverted from this act of violence, and furnished with some money for their immediate fubfiftence they continued their retreat. Molt of the fenators who were prefent took fhipping, and efcaped. Lucius Cæ. far undertook to carry to his kinfman a petition from fuch of the Ra man citizens as remained; and said to Cato, at parting, that he would gladly fall at the victor's feet to make his peace. To which Cato anfwered," If I were difpofed to make my peace with Cæfar, I fhould repair to him in perfon; but I have done him no wrong, I am not an object of his pardon, and fhall not request what it were infolence in him to offer me as a favour." He, however, on this occafion, observed to his own fon, that it would not become him to leave his father. "At a fit time, he faid, you will put yourself on the victor's mercy, but do not take part in public affairs; the times do not afford a fta. tion in which it would be proper for you you to act" " And why, faid the "Cato died in the vigour of life, young man, will you not take the under fifty: he was naturally warm benefit of the victor's clemency for and affectionate in his temper; comyourself, as well as for me?" "I prehenfive, impartial, and ftrongly was born to freedom, he said, and poffeffed with the love of mankind. cannot in my old age, be reconcil- But, in his conduct, probably beed to fervitude. For you thefe came independent of paffion of any times were deftined; and it may be- fort, and chofe what was juft on its come you to fubmit to your fate." own account. He profeffed to beHaving paffed the day in aiding his lieve, with the fect whofe tenets he friends to procure the means of their embraced, that it might or might efcape, he went to the bath, and not, in particular circumftances, be fupped as ufual, without any marks expedient for a man to preserve or of dejection or affectation of eafe; lay down his life; but that, while and being retired to his chamber, he kept it, the only good or evil after fome time, which he employed competent to him confifted in the in reading, he killed himself. His part which he took, as a friend or attendants, upon hearing a noife an enemy to mankind. He had which alarmed them, burst open the long forefeen the dangers to which door, and would have dreffed the the republic was expofed, and dewound, but he tore it up with his termined to live only while he could hand, and expired in making this counteract the defigns that were effort. Every one, through the formed against it. The leader of day, had been anxious to know what the fuccefsful party thought prowas the design which Cato covered per to apologize for himself, by under the appearance of fo much con- decrying the virtues of Cato; but cern for others, and of fo little care the bulk of mankind, in his own for himself. On the first report of and fubfequent ages, were equally his death, multitudes crowded to pleased to extol them; and he the door of his quarters, and gave is a rare example of merit, which the most unfeigned demonftrations of received its praise even amidft dejection and forrow. The colony the adulation that was paid to of Utica, though originally hostile his enemies; and was thought, to his caufe, and still in the intereft by the impartial, equally above of Cæfar, ordered a public funeral, the reach of commendation or cenand erected his ftatue in the place of fure." interment. "T CHARACTER of AUGUSTUS. [From the Third Volume of the fame Work.] HE civil wars for fome time retarded the progrefs of letters; but when brought to an end, left the public in poffeffion of the bias it had received. Octavius himself having, in his youth, re. ceived this bias, was probably in his patronage of the learned, more led by inclination, and lefs by mere policy, than he was in other parts of the conduct with which he gained the favourable opinion of the A 4 world. world. He loved correctness and accuracy in all his compofitions, and never delivered his mind on any ferious matter, even in his own family, without memorials or written notes. "Although the effects of this reign, therefore, in many of the particulars we have mentioned, were the fequel of mere peace, and of the refpite which the world began to enjoy from the diforders with which it had been lately afflicted, much likewife may be afcribed to the perfonal character of the prince. After the fecure eftablishment of his power, his government began to be diftinguished by appearances of moderation and juftice, fupported in this part of his life with a regular and ordinary tenor, which does not warrant any doubt of his fincerity, or any fufpicion of an intention to impofe upon the world, fome purpofe different from that which he profeffed to have in view. "In his character of legiflator he generally fubmitted his intended acts to public infpection, encouraged perfons of every defcription to offer amendments, and fometimes adopt ed those which were offered to him. In the exercife of the executive power, he took the affistance of a chofen council, with whom he deliberated on the ordinary meafures of ftate. In accepting of the honours which were offered to him, he checked inftances of extreme fervility, and acquitted himself with great liberality or moderation in the ufe of the powers, which the flattery of dying perfons frequently gave him over their families and eftates. He became the guardian, rather than the coheir, of the orphans, with whom he was joined in the father's will. Some he put in the immediate poffeffion of the whole inheritance; others, while under age, he treated as his wards, and brought up with every advantage to the enjoyment of their fortunes, which they often received with confiderable additions, made either by his care or by his bounty. "But what is of all other circumftances moft peculiarly characteristic of this reign, was the judg ment and addrefs with which the emperor repreffed the licence of the military, to whom he owed his own elevation; the artful policy by which he affected to reitore fome fragments of the civil government that he himself had broken down ; and the caution with which he retained the character and profeffion of a civil magiftrate and of a citizen, while he governed as mafter. Joined to thefe, we may reckon the able choice which he made of officers fit to be trufted in the different departments of the public fervice; the conftancy with which he perfevered in employing them, and the liberality with which he made them feel that the profperity of his fortunes was their own. While he gave these indications of a great mind, and poffeffed thefe powerful fupports of a profperous life, he difpenfed with much of the flattery that is paid to princes, and in converfation encou raged the manners of a free and equal fociety. How then are we to decide upon his character, marked by ap pearances of perfidy, cruelty, and even of cowardice in fome parts of his life, diftinguifhed by moderation, clemency, and fteadiness in other parts of it? Are we to fuppofe what the emperor Julian infinuates, that Octavius received in the later period of his life new lights, was become a new man, and that, by the leffons of Zeno, at an earlier period, this cameleon might have fixed his colour, and been been from the first, what he appeared to be in the laft ftate of his fortunes, a real friend to mankind ? The authority of Julian, no doubt, is highly refpectable; but if a perfon in youth carry the marks of a bad difpofition, and deliberately commit atrocious actions when his intereft required them, we are still warranted to queftion the fincerity of his converfion, though, in a different state of his intereft, even the whole tenor of his life fhould change. "Octavius does not appear to have had from nature, in any high degree, thofe difpofitions to benevolence or malice which are the great diftinguishing principles of virtue and vice. He feems to have been indifferent to mankind; but defirous of confideration and power, as objects of intereft to himself. His ruling paffion was a defire to reign. In his way to this end, he committed many crimes; but having once effected his purpofe, he had no other criminal difpofitions to gratify or, after he was fovereign, ftanding in awe of a free fpirit which he durft not infult, he, either from inclination or policy, and probably in part from both, preferred, as it is furprifing that every one else does not prefer, the proper ufe of his power to the abufe of it. "Upon this principle, in a life fo varied as that of Octavius, appearances of cruelty and of clemency, of caution and of enterprife, of violence and of moderation, may have equally found a place in the courfe of his actions. And in his perfon, we may read the fame character of ambitious defign, when he affected to join the fenate in restoring the republic, or when he figned a warrant for the murder of those who were inclined to fupport that form of government; when he courted the protection of Cicero against Anthony, or when he facrificed the life of Cicero to the refentments of his enemy; when he made or broke off his treaties of marriage, and fought for aids to his ambition, even in the choice of his licentious amours; when he pardoned, and when he executed thofe who were detected in defigns against his own life. "If we ftate ourselves therefore as judges on the folemn appeal which Auguftus on his death-bed made to the fenfe of the world, it is probable, that as he was in fome degree able to redeem, in the adminif tration of his fovereignty, the enormities which he had committed in obtaining it, we fhall not bestow upon him neither the epithets of reproach and of infamy, which he appears to have deferved in the early period of his life, nor thofe terms of encomium and praife, which he feems to have merited in the longer and more elevated parts of his reign. Neither the friend nor the enemy of mankind, he was, by his perfonal and interested ambition, the caufe of harm and of good; but upon the whole, if the history of the establishment made by him were to terminate with his own life; if the tranquillity of his reign be compared with the troubles of the preceding period; it will furnifh, to those who contend for the preference of def potical government, an occafion of triumph." 1 CHA CHARACTER of Archbishop CHICHELE. [From Mr. SPENCER'S Life of Henry Chichelé, Archbishop of Can terbury.] Chichelé on the characters of men, we ought "WE have nove fettuations in to try them by the maxims and prin in feveral which a long and active life placed him. It is from his conduct in these that we are to collect his character. Of the early part of his life we know little more, than that his acquire ments in it are indifpurable proofs of his not having paffed it unprofitably. "As he grew into public notice by flow and gradual advances, his talents had time to acquire their full ftrength and maturity before they were brought into ufe: and it is to this circumstance probably that he owes the uninterrupted courfe of his fuccefs in the management of repeated negotiations. As he was able to acquit himself in these important commiffions with the favour of his fovereign, and the approbation of his country, we may infer, that he poffeffed, befides extenfive erudition, clear difcernment, fertility of refources, folid judgment, and cool perfeverance, recommend ed by general urbanity and politenefs of manners. If we view him in the discharge of his ecclefiaftical office, we fhall find him to have been a man of undiffembled piety, and who bore a fincere affection to the church. If his religion was tinctured with the fuperftition of the times in which he lived, we fhould recollect, that in paffing judgment ciples of their own age. "Fully perfuaded of the truth of thofe doctrines which the catholic church profeffed, he maintained them with confcientious zeal. He knew the danger of innovation, and was vigilant to reprefs it; but he does not at any time appear to have been actuated by the fpirit of perfecution. "Though warmly attached to the authority of the fee of Rome in fpiritual matters, and even to its exercife of civil rights founded on an cient ufage, he ftill ftrenuoufly fup. ported the liberties of the English church, and never forgot the refpect due to the laws and constitution of his country. Thus the doctrines and the privileges of the church were guarded by him with fcrupul ous fidelity; and, in whatever light we fee his religion, there will fearcely be two opinions concerning his integrity. "Of his benefactions a particular account has been already given; and if in fumming up his character, to excellent natural abilities, liberal accomplishments, and strict piety and integrity, we add a charitable and benevolent heart, we shall not be guilty of exceffive or blind partiality to his memory." CHA |