Empire in 1620; and he then assumed his grandfather's title, that of Duke of Northumberland. He died at his country-seat near Florence, in 1639, leaving a great character in the learned world for his skill in philosophy, chemistry, and medicine; and in the means of applying them for the benefit of mankind. He was an author of some repute; and his principal work, entituled, Del Arcano del mare, &c. printed at Florence in 1630, and again in 1646, in two volumes, folio, is highly valuable and very scarce. He was also the inventor of a sudoric, powder, for a long time known under the name of the Earl of Warwick's Powder.

ANDREW MARVELL.

THIS inflexible patriot was the son of Mr. Andrew Marvell, schoolmaster of Hull, where he was born in 1620. Discovering a genius for letters, he was admitted (at thirteen years of age) in Trinity-College, Cambridge, and took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1638.

"On

About this time he lost his father, by a melancholy accident. the shore of the Humber, lived a lady between whom and Mr. Marvell a close friendship subsisted; and this lady had an only daughter, whom she could scarcely bear to go out of her sight. Yet, upon the earnest request of her friend, Mr. Marvell, she permitted her to go to Kingston to stand godmother to one of his children. The next day, when the young lady came down to the water-side, in order to return home, she found the wind very high, and the passage so dangerous, that the watermen dissuaded her from crossing. But having never willingly disobliged her mother, she resolved to go: upon which Mr. Marvell, having with difficulty prevailed on some watermen to attempt the passage, accompanied the young lady; but the boat soon overset, and they both perished. The mother of the young lady was for some time inconsolable, but when her grief subsided, she reflected on young Marvell's loss, and determined to supply to him the want of a father; his future education therefore was at her expense, and she made him her heir.

With the assistance of this lady's fortune the young gentleman was enabled to travel through Europe. It appears by his satirical poem, intituled, "Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome," that he visited that city. He was likewise in Franee, where he exercised his poetical talents upon Lancelot Joseph de Maniban, a French abbot, who pretended to characterise persons he had never seen, and to prognosticate their good or ill fortune from their hand-writing.

In 1653, he was employed by Oliver Cromwell as preceptor to a young gentleman; and, in 1657, he was appointed assistant Latin secretary to the protector, in conjunction with Milton. A short time before the

restoration, he was chosen to represent his native town in parliament, in which station, being constantly re-elected upon the calling of new parliaments, he served till his death; and it was his custom to send the particulars of the proceedings of the house of commons, on subjects of consequence, to the principal townsmen of Hull. His constituents entertained so high a sense of their obligations, that they allowed him a pension all the time that he represented them.

Mr. Marvell had rendered himself obnoxious to government, both by his actions and his writings; and notwithstanding his proceedings were all contrary to his private interest, nothing could ever shake his resolution. Having one night been entertained by the king, who took great delight in his company, his majesty, the next day, sent the lord-treasurer Danby to find out his lodging. Mr. Marvell, who then lodged up two pair of stairs in a court in the Strand, was writing when the lord-treasurer opened the door abruptly upon him. Surprized at the sight of so unexpected a visitor, he told him, he believed he had mistaken his way. Lord Danby replied, "Not now I have found Mr. Marvell;" telling him he came with a message from his majesty, which was, to know what he could do to serve him. But then coming to a serious explanation of his meaning, he told the lord-treasurer he knew the nature of courts full well, and was sufficiently sensible, that whoever is distinguished by a prince's favour, is expected to vote in his interest. Lord Danby told him, his majesty had only a just sense of his merits, in regard to which alone he desired to know whether there was any place at court he could be pleased with. These offers had no effect on him, though urged with the greatest earnestness. He told the lord-treasurer, he could not accept them with honour; for he must be either ungrateful to the king in voting against him, or false to his country in giving into the measures of the court; therefore the only favour he begged of his majesty was, that he would esteem him as dutiful a subject as any he had, and more in his proper interest in refusing his offers, than if he had embraced them. Lord Danby, finding no arguments could prevail, told him, that the king his master had ordered a thousand pounds for him, which he hoped he would receive, till he could think what farther to ask of his majesty. The last offer was rejected with the same steadiness as the first; though, as soon as the lord-treasurer was gone, he was forced to send to a friend to borrow a guinea.

In 1672, Mr. Marvell, with public spirit, engaged in a controversy with Dr. Samuel Parker, at that time archdeacon of Canterbury, and afterwards bishop of Oxford. This divine had signalized himself by his zeal for the hierarchy of the church of England, by defending and encouraging prosecutions against all Non-conformists. In 1670, he had published a book, intituled, "Ecclesiastical Polity," which being warmly

opposed, the following year he published, "A defence of it;" but what particularly excited Mr. Marvell to attack him, was his preface or dedication to bishop Bramhall, in which he favours unlimited monarchy, and recommends a rigorous prosecution of all Dissenters from the established church.

As a steady and active friend to the interests of religious and civil liberty he attended closely to the duties of his parliamentary trust till 1676, his hours of avocation from his attendance in parliament being chiefly employed in writing to his constituents, and to his particular friends, the most instructive and entertaining accounts of the affairs of the nation, and of the intrigues of the court. These epistles, which are very curious, make part of his works, and highly merit the attention of every friend to the constitution of his country.

Popery and arbitrary government had made a considerable progress lately in England. This gave birth to his admired historical and political treatise on the growth of Popery and arbitrary government in England; particularly from November 1675, when the parliament was prorogued, to the meeting of that national council in July, 1677. In this work, the principles of our excellent constitution are clearly laid down, and the limited, legal authority of the kings of England is ascertained; and it is proved, that the glory of the monarch, and the happiness of the people, depend on a strict, mutual observance of the laws prescribed by the constitution. In comparing the sovereigns of England with other potentates, he has this remarkable passage; "The kings of England are in nothing inferior to other princes, save in being more abridged from injuring their own subjects, but have as large a field as any of external felicity, wherein to exercise their own virtue, and to reward and encourage it in others. In short, there is nothing that comes nearer the divine perfection, than where the monarch, as with us, enjoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to mankind, under a disability to do all that is evil."

Mr. Marvell had now rendered himself so obnoxious to administration, to the venal friends of a corrupt court, and to the heir-apparent to the crown, James, duke of York, afterwards James II., who was himself a bigotted Roman Catholic, that he was beset on all sides by powerful enemies, who watched all his motions, and even proceeded so far as to menace his life; which obliged him to use great caution, to appear seldom in public, and frequently to conceal the place of his abode; yet it is presumed all his care proved ineffectual to preserve him from their vengeance, for he died in August, 1678, not without strong suspicions of being poisoned.

In 1688, the inhabitants of the town of Kingston upon Hull, to testify their grateful remembrance of Mr. Marvell's patriotic services, collected

a sum of money to erect a monument over his grave, in the parish church of St. Giles in the Fields, London; but the bigotted rector would not suffer any monument, or inscription, to be placed there; so that this laudable design was laid aside. The epitaph drawn up on the occasion is a manly composition.

Near this place

Lieth the body of ANDREW MARVELL, Esq.
A man so endowed by nature,

So improved by education, study, and travel,
So consummated by experience and learning;
That, joining the most peculiar grace of wit
With a singular penetration and strength of judgment,
And exercising all these in the whole course of his life,
With unalterable steadiness in the ways of virtue,
He became the ornament and example of his age;
Beloved by good men, feared by bad, admired by all;
Though imitated, alas! by few;

And scarce paralleled by any.

But a tomb-stone can neither contain his character,
Nor is marble necessary to transmit it to posterity:
It is engraved on the minds of this generation,
And will be always legible in his inimitable writings.
Nevertheless,

He having served near 20 years successively in parliament,
And that with such wisdom, dexterity, integrity, and courage,
As became a true Patriot;

The town of Kingston upon Hull,

From whence he was constantly deputed to that assembly,
Lamenting, in his death, the public loss,

Have erected this monument of their grief and gratitude,

1688.

He died in the 58th year of his age,
On the 16th day of August, 1678.

ALGERNON SYDNEY.

THIS illustrious patriot was the second son of Robert, Earl of Leicester, by Dorothy, eldest daughter of Henry Piercy, Earl of Northumberland, and was born about the year 1622. When his father went ambassador to Denmark, he took his son with him; and also to the court of France in 1636. His father, upon being appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, procured him a commission for a troop of horse in his own regiment, in 1641.

In 1643, he had the King's permission to return to England, with his

brother, Lord Lisle, but with express orders to repair to his Majesty at Oxford; of which the parliament having intelligence, they were taken into custody upon their landing in Lancashire. The King suspected that they had thrown themselves voluntarily into the hands of his enemies, and expressed his resentment at their behaviour, and the event seemed to justify the King's surmises; for from this time they adhered to the interest of the parliament, and Algernon accepted a captain's commission in the Earl of Manchester's regiment of horse, in 1644; and, in 1645, he was raised to the rank of colonel of a regiment of cavalry by General Fairfax.

In a short time his brother, Lord Lisle, being appointed by the parliament lieutenant-general of Ireland, and commander in chief of the parliamentary forces in that kingdom, he served on an expedition there, under his brother, where he performed such signal military exploits, that he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general of the horse in Ireland, and made governor of Dublin. Upon his return to England, he received the thanks of the House of Commons for his services in Ireland, and was soon after made governor of Dover-Castle. In 1648, he was nominated one of the members of the High Court of Justice appointed to try Charles I.; but he did not act in that capacity, for he neither sat in judgment upon the King, nor does his name appear in the warrant for his execution; yet he was a zealous republican, and always professed to make Marcus Brutus his model; so that, when Cromwell usurped the supreme authority, he opposed him, and could not be prevailed upon to accept of any employment, civil or military.

After Richard Cromwell had resigned the protectorship, Sydney believing that the remnant of the Parliament would establish a republican form of government, engaged in the administration of public affairs; and, in May, 1659, was nominated, by the parliament, to be one of the council of state; and, the following month, he was appointed one of the three commissioners who were sent to the Sound to meditate a peace between the Kings of Denmark and Sweden.

Upon the restoration of Charles II. he was advised to avail himself of his father's interest, and to get his name inserted in the act of oblivion; but he refused it, and continued an exile in different parts of Europe for seventeen years. His longest residence was at Rome, where he received great civilities from persons of the first rank, and was highly esteemed for his courage and learning. He left Italy, and went to Switzerland, where he staid a short time with General Ludlow, and his other friends and companions in exile.

In the year 1677, the Earl of Leicester, being desirous to see his son Algernon before he died, obtained from the King a special pardon, and he returned home at the very critical juncture when the parliament urged