The Harleian Miscellany, Or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and ...

There can be no objection against the prefixing of the reasons for creating the Right Honourable Robert Harley, Esq. a Peer of Great Britain, and Earl of Oxford; especially, as the valuable collection, intended to be published in this form, was made by the greatness of his knowledge in all branches of learning, and at the vast expence of that noble family. He, that noble peer, who always encouraged learning, and was the Mecenas of learned men in his time; whose patent of creation extols him, and ennobles him with the title of the University of Oxford on that particular account; and whose chiefest delight, in his leisure, from the care he took of the good of the nation in general, was to be constantly among his books; by which familiarity, he is said to have acquired so particular a knowledge of them all, as to be able, without a catalogue, to go immediately to the least of them, upon hearing of it named, though his library consisted of more than 100,000 different authors. He, I say, cannot be denied the first place in this Miscellany, which esteems it an honour to bear his name. A name, that, when alive, gave life to learning; and, by this monument of learning, shall live for ever, in the real esteem of learned men.

WHATEVER favour may be merited from a just prince, by a man

born of an illustrious and very ancient family, fitted by nature for great things, and by all sorts of learning qualified for greater; constantly employed in the study of state affairs, and with the greatest praise, and no small danger, exercising variety of offices in the government: 80 much does our well-beloved and very faithful counsellor Robert Harley deserve at our hands; he, who in three successive parliaments, was unanimously chosen speaker; and, at the same time that he filled the chair, was our principal secretary of state: in no wise unequal to either province. Places, so seemingly disagreeing, were easily reconciled by one, who knew how, with equal weight and address, to mode

rate and govern the minds of men: one who could preserve the rights of the people, without infringing the prerogative of the crown: and who thoroughly understood how well government could consist with liberty. This double task being performed, after some short respite, he bore the weight of our exchequer as chancellor, and thereby prevented the further plundering † the nation, and also provided for the settling a new trade to the South Seas, and (by rescuing public credit ‡) so opportunely relieved the languishing condition of the treasury, as to deserve thanks from the parliament, blessings from the citizens, and from us (who never separate our own interests from the public) no small approbation. Therefore, we decree to the man that has so eminently deserved of us, and of all our subjects, those honours which were long since due to him and his family, being induced thereto by our own good pleasure, and the suffrage of all Great Britain. For we take it as an admonition, that he should not in vain be preserved, whom the states of our realms have testified to be obnoxious to the hatred of wicked men, upon account of his most faithful services to us, and whom they have congratulated upon his escape from the rage of a flagitious parricide. || We gladly indulge their wishes, that he who comes thus recommended to us by so honourable a vote of both houses of parliament, should have his seat among the peers, to many of whom his family have been long allied, and that he who is himself learned, and a patron of learning, should happily take his title from that city where letters do so gloriously flourish.

Now know ye, &c.

• His prudence kept quiet, and brought to temper, the heats and passions of parties; and saf fered not the two sides of whig and tory to meet together in a storm; but caused them to ebb gently, and to lose themselves insensibly in the great ocean of moderation.

His conduct rescued the church from danger; protected the dissenters in their toleration liberty; preserved the union from the infractions of jacobites and the pretender, and quieted the minds of the people in matters of religion, and the Hanover succession. See the Spectator's Address, page 10, 11.

+ His wisdom overthrew a management, that, under the pretence of keeping up credit, concealed the circumstances of the nation, till it ran seven millions in debt, and knew nothing of the matter. Id. page 9.

At that time the creditors of the government gave 22 per cent. discount for money on the government's bills. Id. ib..

The Marquis de Guiscard, who was a French refugee, and, in consideration of his noble birth and misfortunes, was at that time supported with a pension of £400 per annum, from the crown of England; but held secret correspondence with the French ministry; which being detected by Mr. Harley, this Guiscard was seized by the queen's messengers, in St. James's Park, on the 8th of March, 1711, and brought before the committee of cabinet council at the cock-pit; where, the fact being clearly proved by Mr. Harley, the villain stooped down, and saying, j'en veux donc a'toy; then have at thee; stabbed the honourable Mr. Harley. Redoubling the stroke, the peaknife broke, which he was not sensible of; but, rushing on towards Mr. St. John, overthrew the clerk's table that stood between. Mr. St. John, seeing Mr. Harley fall, cried out, "The villain has killed Mr. Harley." Then Mr. St. John gave him a wound, as did the Duke of Ormond, and the Duke of Newcastle. But, Mr. Harley getting up, and walking about, they left the villain's execution to them to whom it more properly belonged; hoping that Mr. Harley was slightly hurt. But, when Bussier, the surgeon, searched the wound, the penknife was found struck a slant, and buried in the wound. Had it been an inch lower, it had touched the diaphragmu, and then all the world could not have saved his life: and, if it had pierced a nail's breadth deeper, it must have reached his heart. Mr. Harley took the broken blade out himself, and, having wiped it, called for the handle, and said, They belong to me." And then, being dressed, ordered the surgeon to take care of Monsieur de Guiscard. See this more at large, in the true narrative of this fact, published by John Morphew, 1711.

AN ESSAY

UPON THE

ORIGINAL AND DESIGN OF MAGISTRACY;

OR,

A MODEST VINDICATION

OF THE

LATE PROCEEDINGS IN ENGLAND.

As to the author of this excellent tract, we can say no more, than that he was equally an hater of rebellion and tyranny; an impartial and judicious writer; that he had the public peace and prosperity more at heart, than any private view to serve himself; and, if it may be allowed to guess, by his expression in several places, he seems to have been a North Britain.

As to the design of it; it was to prove the just rights of the prince and people; to expose tyranny and rebellion; to explode the doctrine of absolute non-resistance; to clear the Prince of Orange, and the English nation that adhered to him in the revolution, from all imputation of rebellion, &c. to prove that king James the second was a tyrant; and the necessity of preserving the succession to the crown of Great Britain in the protestant line. All which is done with that conciseness and perspicuity, and so free from passion and faction, that, I presume, will recommend it to every true lover of our present happy constitution.

S the right knowledge of the supreme magistrate is the basis and foundation of our submissions, and the cause of all the blessings which flow from a well-tempered government; so the misapprehensions, and false notions, that many people, either through ignorance, or the prejudice of education, frame to themselves of his power, are no less remarkable for their contrary effects.

We fall into extremes equally dangerous, if either we give the people so much liberty, that the magistrate cannot go about these great ends, for which he was designed, but like a weather-cock, is turned about at the pleasure of the mobile; or such a boundless power to the magistrate, as makes the property of the subject altogether precarious, depending on the caprice of an insatiable monarch.

Concerning King James II. in the year 1688.

To keep a just balance, we must consider magistracy, as it was first instituted by God Almighty, before it was depraved by the ambition, pride, and avarice of those who were invested in it. So that, in its original, it may be defined, a power delegated from God, for maintaining order, rewarding the virtues, and punishing the crimes of mankind; the application of which power is left free to any independent people or nation.

It cannot be doubted, but that God, as creator of all things, might, in his own person, have exercised a sovereign power over all his creatures, which, since he was not pleased to do, he thought fit, in his infinite wisdom, to appoint his lieutenants here on earth, to whom he communicates some rays of his divine majesty, both to beget a greater reverence for their persons, and procure a chearful obedience from those that were to be subject; so that the profound deference, and blind submission, 'which millions of men pay to a mortal, perhaps, subject to as many infirmities as the most part of those he rules over, can be ascribed to nothing else but the firm persuasion of a divine institution: but, that we may the more admire the goodness of God in ordaining magistracy, he hath no less proposed man's happiness, than his own glory, that we might find it our interest, as well as duty, in obeying. For though man was born free, and, consequently, by nature, desirous of liberty; yet, an unbounded freedom could have done him very little service in a natural state, when innocency was no protection from the oppression of the stronger; but rapines, violence, and murder were the chief ways of acquiring right; in this universal chaos, where homo was homini lupus, nothing was thought unlawful that ambition, malice, or cruelty, could propose; so that the weaker were driven to a necessity of uniting their forces against the stronger. Then began they to erect societies, and make laws for regulating them; the executing of which laws was committed to one or more persons, as the major part of the society thought fit to trust, who had the name of captain, general, or king it was he who led them out to battle, who disposed of prizes, and punished malefactors; his commands were easily obeyed, because but few; and all just, honest, and profitable. These had not learned the arcana imperii, or secret ways to enslave their people; but their eminent virtue and singular valour both procured their dignity, and maintained them in it; and having no sycophant flatterers about them, to abuse their easy credulity, they had not forgot that the people's liberty was resigned for no other end, but for obtaining a greater happiness under their protection, than what they could have proposed, if every individual had retained it in his own person.

There is no other original of magistracy to be learned from sacred or profane history; for though the patriarchs had the government of their own families (which, by reason of their long age, were very numerous) yet that right was derived from the law of nature, and not from any civil obligation. They had for the most part no fixed habitation, but lived as strangers and sojourners, by the favour of other princes, and were never modeled into a commonwealth.

When dominions were enlarged, and empires began to be erected, different forms of government were established, according to the vari

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The Harleian Miscellany, Or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and ..., Band 1