We leave the sentence to be pronounced on the first Earl of Shaftesbury to wiser heads than ours, but one remark we feel authorised to make,—that we are not called on to believe him as black as Dryden has painted him, since we cannot but question the justice of the pen that described Charles II. as the God-like David, in the far-famed poem of ‘Absalom (the Duke of Monmouth) and Achitophel’ (Shaftesbury), which loads the latter with invective:—
‘A name to all succeeding ages curst, For close designs and crooked counsels fit, Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit, Restless, unfixed in principles and place, In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace; A fiery soul, which working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to decay.... Great wits are sure to madness close allied;... Oh! had he been content to serve the Crown With virtues only proper to the gown,’ etc. etc.
There spoke the Laureate, and woe indeed to the man who had such a poet as Dryden for his censor! Yet for all this abuse, which he had written to order, Dryden could not help bearing testimony as follows:—
‘Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge, The Statesman we abhor, but praise the Judge; In Israel’s courts ne’er sate an Abbethdin With more discerning eyes or hands more clean, Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress, Swift of despatch, and easy of access.’
Lord Shaftesbury was kind and charitable to the poor in his neighbourhood, and was very hospitable. In 1669 Cosimo de’ Medici, being in England, went to St. Giles’s, and was so much pleased with his reception, that he kept up a correspondence with his English friend, and sent him annually a present of Tuscan wine. It has been adduced by some, in evidence of his immorality, that on one occasion, while still in favour with Charles, the King said to him, ‘I believe, Shaftesbury, you are the greatest profligate in England.’ The Earl bowed low, and replied, ‘For a subject, sire, I believe I am.’ It would be hard to condemn a man on the testimony of a repartee.
WILLIAM, FIRST EARL COWPER, FIRST LORD CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN.
JOHN, FIRST LORD SOMMERS, LORD CHANCELLOR.
_Violet velvet coat. Lace cravat. Fall wig._
THE fine old cathedral city of Worcester is so justly proud of its noble citizen, the first Lord Sommers, that different districts have contested the honour of his birthplace; but the best evidence goes to prove that he was born at his father’s estate of Whiteladies, which at that period was not included in the precincts of the city.