fels in the end of the year 1663, whence he wrote to his father, with relation to tranfporting a body of the best officers and foldiers of the old army into the fervice of the emperor. * In 1665, upon the breaking out of the war between England and the United Provinces, ten perfons were fent by king Charles II. to Augfburg in Germany to affaffinate colonel Sydney; and probably might have affected their defign, if he, having undertaken a journey to Holland, upon bufinefs relating to the public, had not removed from that city before their arrival. He continued abroad till the year 1677, when he procured leave to return to England; and obtained a particular pardon, † according to bifhop Sprat, "upon repeated "promifes of conftant quiet and obedience for the future." Bishop Burnet affirms, that he came back when the parliament was preffing the king into a war. The court ⚫ of France obtained leave for him to return. . He did all 'he could to divert people from the war; so that ‡ fome took him for a penfioner of France. But he faid, our Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, p. 404. Hift. of the Rye-house plot. [Some took him for a Penfioner of France.] The following anecdote having been communicated to Dr. Hutcheson of Glasgow, was frequently related by him to his friends, "That during Mr. Sydney's ftay in France, one day hunting with the French King, and being mounted on a fine English horfe, whofe form and fpirit caught the King's eye, he received a meflage that he would pleafe to oblige the King with his horfe at his own price. He answered that he did not chufe to part with him. The King determined to have no denial, and gave orders to tender him money or to feize the horfe; which being made known to Mr. Sydney, he inftantly took a pistol and hot him, faying, That his horfe was born a free creature, had ferved a free man, and thould not be mastered by a King of Daves." ' court court was in an entire confidence in France, and had no • other defign in this fhew of a war, but to raise an army and keep it beyond-fea till it was trained and modelled.' But it is evident from a letter of his * to Henry Savile, the [* To Henry Savile, the English ambassador in France,] English Mr. Savile is faid to have replied to a Frenchman, who exulted upon the fine writings of his countrymen, That there were but two fubjects in nature worth a wife man's thoughts, namely religion and government, and they durft Speak of neither. The Independent Whig, numb. I. The celebrated Monf. Voltaire, in his "Ode fur la mort de Madame de Barcith, avec une lettre, etc." feems to have entertained, nearly, the fame idea as Mr. Savile; and fixes the fuperiority of the English nation, where alone it centers, VPON ITS LIBERTY. "Les Italiens, ces peuples ingénieux, ont craint de penfer; les Français n'ont ofé penfer qu'à demi, et les Anglais qui ont volé jufqu'au ciel, PARCE QU'ON NE LEVR A POINT COVPE LES AILES, font devenus les précepteurs des nations. Nous leur devons tout, depuis les bix primitives de la gravitation, depuis le calcul de l'infini et la connaiffance précife de la lumière fi vainement combat:ues, jufqu'a la nouvelle charue, et à l'infertion de la petite vérole, combattues encore." Il Signor Martinelli, has a note alfo to the fame effect in his elegant edition of the Decamerone di Giouanne Boccacio." venti. "La lingua Tofcana, può dirfi il miracolo delle lingue sì morte come viElla nacque, fi può dir, come rofa infra le fpine della perfecuzione; perche Dante e il Petrarca le loro belle opere in efilio compofero, e il Boccaccio il fuo Decamerone terminò, ficcome nel proemio alla quarta giornata dichiara, faettato dall'invidia e dalla calunnia. Il Machiavelli fù martoriato dalla fazione dei Medici, per cfferfi ingegnato d'impedir loro d'occupare la tirannide della fua patria Il Guicciardini fi prefe un volontario efilio in una fua villa, per non vedere fpirare la libertà della Republica Fiorentina nelle mani di Cofimo primo, e quivi terminò di fcrivere la fua Istoria d'Italia. Al Segni e al Varchi, proibirono i Granduchi di publicare le loro Iftorie di Il Galileo, tra le perfecuzioni con le quali convenne combattere, ebbe quella d'Impoftore che fi arregarono le fue mirabili invenzioni, con le quali ha aperto ai mortali la via d'indagare l'indole e movimenti de' corpi celefti; e finalmente l'Ariofto vifle povero e Torquato Taffo morì poveriflimo. Parlando dei Latini, Ennio fù produzione del favore di Caton maggiore, Terenzio di quello di Scipione, Lucrezio fù l'ammirazione e la delizia dei Grandi, e Cavalier riguardevole egli fteffo, e Cicerone fù l'Arbitro un tempo della Repubblica; Virgilio e Orazio ebbero uno Augufto che gli colmò di benefizj, e Cornelio Tacito ebbe FImperator Traiano per protettore e per Fir. ze. amico. English ambaffador in France, that it was that gentleman who obtained leave for him to return. The letter is dated from Nerac, December 28, 1682, but the year erroneously printed. *He was at Penshurst on the 13th of November, 1677, and then gave a discharge to the executors of his father's will, Robert earl of Sunderland, Henry Sydney his brother, and Sir John Pelham, bart. for the legacy left him therein of 5000 and 100l. The year following, he flood candidate for the town of Guildford, in Surrey; but the court oppofing his election, he loft it: and though he drew up an account of the irregular proceedings in it, yet he did not think proper to purfue his claim. In 1679, he ftood likewife candidate for the borough of Bramber, in Suffex ; but was not chofe, the intereft being before made by Sir John Pelham and the Sydney family, fearing the ardour and intrepidity of his temper in fuch times, for his brother Henry Sydney, afterwards earl of Romney. In 1683, he was accused of being concerned in the Rye-house plot; and after the lord Ruffel had been examined, he was brought before the king and council. +He told them, that he would make the beft defence he could, if they had any proof against him, but he would not for E venendo alle lingue viventi, la lingua Francefe ebbe varj governi, che premiarono grandemente quelli fcrittori che in effa in qualche maniera fi ditinfero; nondimeno non oltrepassò, il figurar nel Teatro, e divenire la lingua franca di alcune Nazioni d'Europa per il militare e la mercatura: e fe la lingua Inglefe e divenuta la lingua della filofofia e di ogni altra fcienza lo deve AL CENIO LIBERO e inquifitivo della Nazione, fecondato dalle vaftiffime ricchezze che le ha fomminiftrate il commercio, mezzo efficacciffimo a condur gl'ingegni a gran cole non meno che alla corruzione.”“a * Collins's Memoirs. + Burnet, vol. i. p. 548. tify their evidence by any thing he fhould fay; fʊ that his examination was very fhort. He lay fome time in the tower, and was brought thence by habeas corpus, on the 7th of November 1683, to the king's-bench-bar, where he was arraigned on an indictment of high-treafon. On the 21ft of November he was tried. For the particulars of the tryal, the reader will be pleafed to refer to it. The Colonel being found guilty, when he was brought into court to receive fentence, he repeated his objections to the evidence against him; in which judge Withins interrupted him, and by a strange indecency gave him the lie in open court, which he bore patiently. His execution was refpited for three weeks; the tryal being univerfally exclaimed against, as a piece of most enormous injustice. After conviction he sent to the lord Halifax, who was his nephew by marriage, a paper to be laid before the king, containing the main points of his defence, upon which he appealed to his majefty, and defired he would review the whole matter. Whereupon the lord chief juftice Jefferies, who had tried him, faid, f That either Sydney muft die or he muft die.'. During his imprisonment, he fent for fome independent preachers, and expreffed to them a deep remorfe for his past fins, and a great confidence in the mercies of God. When he faw the warrant for execution, he expreffed no concern at it, and the change that was in his temper amazed all who went to him. He told the fheriffs who brought the warrant, See the note in the Tryal.. + Burnet, vol. i. p. 572. This indenture made the feventh day of December, in the five and thirtieth year of the reign of our fovereign Lord Charles the Second, by the grace warrant, that he would not 'expoftulate upon any thing on his account, for the world was now nothing to him, but he defired they would confider, how guilty they were of his blood, who had not returned a fair jury, but one packed and as they were directed by the king's folicitor; he fpoke this to them, not for his own fake, but for their fake. One of the fheriffs was ftruck with this and wept. grace of God king of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the faith, &c. and in the year of our Lord 1683, between the honourable Thomas Checke, Efq. Lieutenant of his Majefty's Tower of London, of the one part, and Peter Daniel Efq. and Samuel Dashwood, Efq. Sheriffs of the county of Middlefex, of the other part: Whereas Algernoon Sydney, Efq. by warrant of the Right Honourable Sir Leolin Jenkins, Knight, his Majefty's principal Secretary of State, bearing date at Whitehall the five and twentieth day of June, in the five and thirtieth year of the reign of King Charles the Second aforefaid, was committed to the custody of the faid Lieutenant of the Tower for High Treafon in compaffing the death of the King, and confpiring to levy war against him, by him the faid Lieutemant to be fafely kept until he should be delivered by due courfe of law: and whereas, by writ iffuing out of his Majefty's Court of King's Bench, under the feal of the faid Court, bearing date the eight and twentieth day of November laft paft, reciting the judgment of the faid Court against the faid Algernoon Sydney for divers high treafons touching his Majesty's perfon, whereof he then flood convicted and attainted, the faid Lieutenant of the Tower was commanded, that upon Friday the feventh day of December then next coming, he the faid Lieutenant fhould meet the Sheriffs of Middlefex at Tower-Hill, and there caufe the faid Algernoon Sydney to be delivered to the faid Sheriffs, to the intent that the faid Sheriffs might caufe execution to be made of him the faid Algernoon Sydney, in fuch manner as in the said writ is recited. Now this indenture witneffeth, that the faid Thomas Checke, in obedience to the faid writ, and in performance of his Majefty's command therein fpecified, doth, the day of the date of thefe prefent indenture, deliver unto the faid Peter Daniel and Samuel Dashwood, the body of the faid Algernoon Sydney, in the faid writ mentioned according to the form and effect of the faid writt; and the faid Peter Daniel and Samuel Dashwood do hereby acknowledge to have received, on the day of the date of this prefent indenture, of and from the faid Thomas Cheeke, the body of the faid Algernoon Sydney, and of him do acquit and discharge the faid Thomas Cheeke by these prefents; in witness whercof the parties to thefe prefents have hereunto interchangeably fet their hands and feals, the day and year firft above written. Sealed and delivered in the prefence of Rich. Bradborne. Peter Daniel. |