never be able to do if they are made to a fenfe of the injuries done to a conquered people. I am very glad your patrons at London are conftant in their unmercifulness to the excepted, a mongst whom I will not leave my place to be lifted amongst the compounders. For my part, let him want mercy that will afk or take it from them. I remember my old acquaintance Cato, when he was told that Cæfar had a defire to have friendship with him, and was willing to give him a pardon, grew into a paffion, and faid, he was a tyrant to offer him a pardon, for by it he affumed to himself a power over the lives of the citizens of Rome. I affure you, Mr. Secretary, 1 will not receive a pardon from the King and Parliament when I am not guilty; and when I am, I will receive it only from him who can grant it. their neighbours, I have given over any hope that way; and the rather, becaufe the cafe cannot be prefented with the liveliness and vivacity to them, as by thofe inftances which might be really perverted, and would be paffionately refented against those who profefs that religion in thofe ftates. And the truth is, there is naturally that absence of the chief elements of chriftian religion, charity, humility, justice, and brotherly compaffion, in the very police and inftitution of princes and fovereign ftates, that as we have long found the civil obligations of alliance and marriage to be but trivial circumftances of formality towards concord and friendship, fo thofe of religion and juftice, if urged for confcience fake, are equally ridiculous; as if only the individuals, not any ftate itself, were perfect Chriftian. And I affure you, I have not been without many melancholy thoughts, that this juftice of God, which of late years hath feemed to be directed against empire itself, hath proceeded from the divine indignation against thofe principles of empire, which have looked upon confcience and religion itself, as more private, fubordinate, and fubfervient faculties, to conveniency and the intereft of kingdoms, than duties requifite to the purchase of the kingdom of heaven. And therefore God hath ftirred up, and applied the people, in in whom princes thought it only neceffary to plant religion, to the deftruction of principalities, in the inftitution whereof religion hath been thought unneceffary. The following excellent Letter places the noble Writer in a very exalted point of view. Sir Edward Hyde to the Lord Digby. My dear Lord, Yo OU can impute it only to the reftleffness and folicitude of my friendship (which, how unprofitable and ufelefs foever, certainly will always attend you in any miffortune, and almost in any fault) that I am exceedingly perplexed with what you write to me concerning yourself. Alas! what fub fiftence moderately honourable is that you aim to establish to yourfelf and your friends; and can it be done with that innocence and honour which you ought to pre ferve? Believe it, many things which many other men, and of your own quality and rank, may jutily and honeftly do, will be crimes in you. You can no more be a fervant or penfioner to another crown, than you can marry ano. ther wife; and the number and fe veral fpecies of your enemies, ought to fupply you with great caution that you should be provided against reproaches as well as impeachments. If you want providence and difcretion to difcern coafequences, as well what may be milinterpreted, as what is fimply unlawful, your reputation will not be preferved; for God's fake, think not, affect not, an honourable fubfiftence, which cannot be without fcandal, whilst the honour of your mafler, of your country, and of all honourable perions of it, is clouded, and almost eclipfed. Borrow or beg (it is very honeft) fo much as will keep you alive and cleanly for one year; and withdraw into a quiet corner where you are not known, and where not above two or three friends may hear of you. If you can but live one year without being spoken of at all, without being in a capacity of having your own or other men's errors imputed to you, you will find a strange refurrection of a good fame. In that retirement you will revolve the rare accidents and misfortunes of your life; in the confideration whereof i fear you have been too negligent. And it may be, you may believe you have encountered new and unufual dangers, because you have not duly weighed paft, and unufual deliverances. You will find as much of the immediate hand of God in both, as can be observed in the courfe of a man's life much fuperior to you in age, and it may be in action. You may in this dif quifition confider by what forward. nefs of fortune it comes to pafs, that a man of the most exquifite parts of nature and art, that this age hath brought forth, hath been without fuccefs in those very actions, for which meaner men have been highly commended; that a man of the moft candid, and obliging difpofition, of the most unrevengeful, and inoffenfive temper, and conftitution, fhould not only have fewer friends, in the general crowd of lookers-on, than many ftubborn and infociable complexions ufe to find, but more enemies amongst thofe, whofe advancement and profperity he hath contributed to, than ever man hath met with. And without doubt you will difcover fomewhat, no man elfe can discover, and enjoy an ample benefit by the difcovery, throughout the long courfe of your life, that is to come. I do not in vite you to any morofe or melancholy fequeftering yourself from the world; if I am not mistaken it will be as cheerful and pleafant a part of your life as ever you enjoyed. And after you have given your mind this diet, exercife, and repofe, you will return with greater vigour upon the ftage; and any fhift you thall be then neceffitated to, will be more juftifiable to the world, and comfortable to your felf. If this advice be either too Jate, or too low, I beseech you fix upon fome bounds beyond which you will not país, even to fave your life, or (which, it may be, is a greater temptation) to preferve it fplendid for whosoever obeys the invitations of convenience, or the very injunctions of necefity, cannot poffibly continue innocent. And take a measure, from the hours of indifpofition and melancholick, and trouble of mind, you have under. gone, after an eafy tranfgreffion or error in difcretion, or extravagancy God of heaven bless you, and bring us well again together! I am entirely, &c. 16th January, 1649. THE following Letters, with fome others, particularly one to the King and another to the Prince, together with his Will, and a defence of his principles and conduct, were written at a time when Lord Clarendon thought his life in the greatest danger from an attempt which it was expected the Parlia ment were to make upon Jersey. The whole packet was fealed up, and depofited in the hands of Secretary Nicholas (who was then in France) with directions not to open it, except în cafe of the writer's death. Richmond. May it please your Grace, TH of paffion, and by the difquiet and Sir Edward Hyde to the Duke of unpleasantnefs of that fhort time, whilft the memory is fresh of that particular, judge what kind of a life you fhall live after a deliberated ill act, which all other men's memories as well as your own will continually obtrude to you: and think what price can be vile enough for twenty or thirty years of fuch a life. I pray let your Secretaries collect all material paffages concerning Ireland, you think fit to impart to me. I would be glad you could yourfelf collect as many particulars of Count Harcourt's negotiation in England, of Duke Hamilton's commitment, and of the Marquis of Montrofe's managery in Scotland, and any other things you imagine conducing to my work. not being to come to your hands till I am dead, no man can fufpe&t that it carries flattery in it, when it tells you, that nothing but the knowledge of your juftice and honour, and the opinion and hope of your goodness and in clination to me, could have brought this trouble to you. And there cannot be a greater evidence of my integrity and faithfulness to your Grace, than that I dare prefume to afk favours from you, when I am out of this world, and digefted thofe petitions when I was belt prepared to leave it. But truly, my Lord, when I remember the whole P z frame and conftitution of your nature, and thofe noble expreffions you have vouchfafed to me of your good opinion, and confider, that how unworthy foever I am of those favours, that I have not by any act or demerit of my own made myself unworthy, I cannot but have the courage to hope (and very much the more comfort from that hope) that your Grace will still retain a gracious memory of me; and in that confidence, I prefume to beg your Grace's favour and mediation on the behalf of my poor wife and children, when they fhall, or any other charitable perfon on their behalf, present their fupplications to you. I know their mifery will be very great, and therefore fit objects for great companion; and they may grow up to fome capacity of ferving your Grace, by which you will receive comfort, for they will be then looked upon as the work of your hands; and that is a kind of reward. God preserve your Grace! minions from him, and therefore the great probability that I may not be long a man of this world; and then, the miferable condition my poor wife and children must inevi tably undergo, by the rage and fury of those who have oppreffed all men elfe, as well as by the ftraitnefs of my own fortune: I do not think I have done my part, without befpeaking and begging for them fuch countenance and protection, as may moft reasonably preferve them, or under which they must reasonably perish. They who have been witneffes of the fingular value and reverence I have always had of your Lordship's admirable judg ment, confcience, juftice, and good nature, and of the unspeakable joy I have had in the opinion that you have vouchfafed a reafonable acceptance of my service and devotion, will not much wonder, that amongst the few men I choose to fpeak with after my death, I fhould importune your Lordship, to continue the care you had of me, towards my poor wife and children; and to do thofe favours for them, by your mediation and mention of them to the King and Prince, as their mifery and innocence will extremely need. If I had had the misfortune to have outlived your Lord. fhip, and enjoyed any liberty in my own country, though I could not have hoped to have been in a Sir Edward Hyde to the Earl of condition to have protected any Southampton. My Lord, WHEN I confider the temper and conftitution of my own health, the condition of the place wherein I am, which is threatened with the whole power of thofe, who have taken all the king's other do thing that had relation to your Lordship, yet I would have been a fervant and a folicitor for your fa mily, and for any thing that might have concerned your memory and I cannot leave a greater evidence of the integrity of my confcience to God and the world, than that I dare appeal to you for favour, in whom whom no ill man can have confidence. I have lived, and shall die, most faithfully, My Lord, Your Lordship's moft affectionate Servant, Jerfey, this 3d of April 1647. Sir Edward Hyde to the Lady Hyde. My dearest, TH HIS being not like to come to thee 'till I am dead, I cannot begin better to thee, than to charge and conjure thee to bear my death with that magnanimity and chriftian patience, as becomes a woman, who hath no caufe to be ashamed of the memory of her husband, and who hath fuch precious pawns left to her care, as thou haft, in our poor children; which must be moft completely miferable if through thy paffion thou shalt either fhorten thy days, or impair thy health. And therefore thou must remember, thau haft no other arguments to give of thy conftant affection to me, than by doing that which thou knoweft I only defire thou should ft do. Be not troubled at the smallnefs or diftraction of thy fortune, fince it proceds neither from my fault or folly, but by the immediate hand of God, who, I doubt not, will recompence thee fome other way. He knows how entire my heart hath been to h, and that, if it had not been out of the confcience of my duty to him, and the King, I might have left thee and thine a better portion in this world. But I am confident thou doft in thy foul abhor any wealth fo gotten, and thinkelt thyself and thy children happier in the memory of thy poor honeft husband, than any addition of an ill gotten, or ill kept eftate could have made you. Continue the fame thou hait been, and God will requite and reward thee. I have in my other paper, which is parcel will, parcel decla ration, fuch as I thought in these times neceffary, faid as much to thee of my estate and my children as I can think of. I doubt not thou wilt find fome friends, who will remember and confider how just I would have been to their me. mory it I had outlived them. My letters to the King, Prince, Duke of Richmond, and Earl of Southampton, thou mayst deliver or fend as thou shalt be advifed. Thy own father, mother, and brother, will I am fure never fail thee in any office of kindness, nor be unjust to the memory of him, who always held them in fingular efteem. From my friends I am confident thou wilt receive all poffible kindne.s. Befides thofe I have mentioned in the other paper, I prefume my Lord Seymour will be ready to do thee good offices, and my Lord Keeper and Sir Thomas Gardiner too affift thee; and I hope many more that I think not neceffary to name. I do from the bottom of my heart thank thee for all tny kindness and affection, which upon my faith I have always returned rom my foul, having ne ver committed the lealt faol against thee, but promited myfelt the only happiness and conter tment, to live with thee in any condition. Sin e it hath pleafed God not to admit that, he will, I doubt not, bring |