record. He was the eldest son of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria of France, and was born at St. James's in 1630. He was chiefly brought up by his mother until he was twelve years of age. In his ninth year he was created Prince of Wales: when the Civil War broke out, he accompanied his father to the battle of Edgehill; and in 1645, he served with the royal troops in the west with the title of general. Next year, on the ruin of the royal cause, he joined the Queen, his mother, at Paris, and he afterward took up his residence at the Hague. This must have been almost the earliest opportunity that the Prince could have had for study, which must have been of a practical turn. Evelyn describes Charles as "a lover of the sea, and skillful in shipping; not affecting other studies; yet he had a laboratory, and knew of many empirical medicines, and the easier mechanical mathematics; he loved planting and building, and brought in a politer way of living, which passed to luxury, and intolerable expense." But this is the language of a courtier.

a

Charles's love of the sea led him early in his reign to entertain the suggestions of certain governors of Christ's Hospital for the institution and endowment of the Royal Mathematical School. With Sir Robert Clayton, it is believed, originated this school; and his project being backed by Sir Jonas Moore, then Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, and by Sir Christopher Wren and Samuel Pepys; and having in its favor the mediation of the Duke of York, then Lord High Admiral of England,royal charter was granted, and the school was opened for 40 boys, under the auspices of the King, in the year 1673. Beyond the grant of the charter, however, little was done by Charles toward the maintenance of his new foundation. His endowment did not extend beyond an annuity of 10007., terminating at the expiration of seven years. The King reserved as many of the boys as might be required for his own services; and a grant was obtained from the Government by Pepys to be given as premiums to merchant-masters for taking the other boys. The revenue was also increased by a gift, which it was thought the King would not approve of, but, on being consulted, he replied, that "so far was he from disliking, that he would be glad to see any gentleman graft upon his stock." The school flourished: for several years Pepys constantly attended the examination of the boys; and Sir Jonas Moore, one of the first practical mathematicians of the day, commenced for the master's use a system of mathematics, which was completed by Halley and Flamsteed.

Another service which Charles rendered to the higher class of studies was his incorporation of the Royal Society, by royal

charter, in 1663, when the King signed himself in the charterbook as the founder;* and his brother, the Duke of York, signed as Fellow. Charles also presented the Society with a mace. Another advantage conferred on science in this reign was Charles's foundation, in 1676, of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, for the benefit of astronomy and navigation; and the appointment of Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal.

After the Restoration, the first steam-engine is commonly believed to have been constructed by the Marquis of Worcester, which he, in his Century of Inventions, describes as "an admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire." He used a cannon for his boiler, and he describes the water as running "like a constant fountain-stream, 40 feet high; one vessel of water rarified by fire, driveth up 40 of cold water." engine was seen at work in 1663, at Vauxhall, by Sorbiere, who foretold that the invention would be of greater use than the machine above Somerset House, to supply London with

water.

This

NONCONFORMIST SCHOOLS AT ISLINGTON AND NEWINGTON GREEN.

In the latter part of the seventeenth century, the village of Islington appears to have been a refuge for Nonconformist ministers. Here, after the Act of Uniformity was passed, in 1662, some of the ministers then ejected from the Church of England opened schools. For a time, however, they were prohibited from teaching; but eventually they succeeded in establishing academies in different places. The Rev. Thomas Doolittle, formerly Rector of St. Alphage's, London Wall, had a school at Islington about the year 1682, and prepared several young men for the ministry, among whom were the pious Matthew Henry and Dr. Edmund Calamy; here the Rev. Ralph Button, of Merton College, Oxford, kept school, and had for one of his pupils Sir Joseph Jekyll. Several ministers also opened schools at Newington Green; and at one of them, kept by the Rev. Charles Morton, previously a rector in Cornwall, some score of young ministers were educated, as well as many other good scholars." Defoe was a pupil of Mr. Morton's: he says of his instructor, that he was a polite and profound scholar, and a master who taught nothing either in politics or science, which was dangerous to monarchical government, or which was improper for a diligent scholar to know. "Defoe was originally

66

*The first charter (in Latin) has ornamented initials, and a finely executed portrait Charles II. in Indian ink. The charter empowers the president to wear his hat while in the chair; and the fellows addressed the president bareheaded, till he made a sign for them to put on their hats; but these customs are now obsolete.

intended for the ministry: he tells us, it was his disaster first to be set apart for, and then to be set apart from, the honor of that sacred employ. At Newington he had for his school-fellow the father of the celebrated John Wesley. Another Islington notoriety of this period was Robert Ferguson, the Judas of Dryden's great satire, and conspicuous as an unprincipled politician. By birth a Scotsman, he came to England, and being ejected from his living in Kent, got to be master of a school at Islington, which the Dissenters had set up as a rival to the schools of Westminster and the Charterhouse. At length he strayed into politics-was deeply engaged in the Rye House Plot-was the shameless adviser of the Duke of Monmouth in his rebellion—and was deservedly discarded by the sagacious Prince of Orange. His end, no doubt, was miserable." Lord Macaulay, in his History, devotes several pages to him.

BOYHOOD OF JAMES II.

The early life of this prince was clouded by the political troubles of the time, which, as they greatly tended to his personal discomfiture, must have materially interfered with his instruction. James was the second surviving son of Charles I., by his queen Henrietta Maria, and was born at St. James's in 1633. He was immediately declared Duke of York, but not formally created to that dignity till 1643. After the surrender of Oxford to Fairfax, in 1646, the duke, with his younger brother, Henry, afterward created Duke of Gloucester, and his sister Elizabeth, was committed by the Parliament to the care of the Earl of Northumberland, and he continued in the custody of that nobleman till the 21st of April, 1648, when he made his escape from St. James's Palace, disguised in female attire, and took refuge with his sister Mary, Princess of Orange. Here he joined a part of the English fleet, which had revolted from the Parliament, and was then lying at Helvoetsluys; but although at first received on board as an admiral, he soon after resigned that post to his brother, the Prince of Wales, on the arrival of the latter from Paris, and returned to the Hague. When Charles, now styled King by his adherents, came to Jersey, in September, 1649, he was accompanied by the duke, who remained with him during his stay of three or four months. He then returned to the Continent, and resided some time with his mother at Paris.

"Never little family" (says Clarendon, who had an interview with him at Breda, in 1650) "was torn into so many pieces and factions. The duke was very young, yet loved intrigues so well that he was too much inclined to hearken to any men who had the confidence to make bold propositions to him. The king had appointed him to remain with the queen, and to obey her in all things, religion only excepted. The Lord Byron was his

governor, ordained to be so by his father, and very fit for that province, being a very fine gentleman, well bred both in France and Italy, and perfectly versed in both languages, of great courage and fidelity, and in all subjects qualified for the trust; but his being absent in the king's service when the Duke made his escape out of England, and Sir John Berkley being then put about him, all pains had been taken to lessen his esteem of the Lord Byron; and Sir John Berkley, knowing that he could no longer remain governor, when the Lord Byron came thither, and hearing that he was on his journey, infused into the Duke's mind that it was a great lessening of his dignity at that age (when he was not above fourteen years of age, and backward enough for that age), to be under a governor ; and so, partly by disesteeming the person, and partly by reproaching the office, he grew less inclined to the person of that good lord than he should have been."-Life, vol. i. p. 284.

A singular circumstance now occurred, which well bespeaks the character of James. Shortly before his meeting with Clarendon, it had been reported that Charles was dead; upon which the duke, looking upon himself as already King, made several journeys to take counsel with his friends; and, upon the falsehood of the intelligence respecting Charles being discovered, James was so childish that he was rather delighted with the journeys he had made, than sensible that he had not entered upon them with reason enough; observing that "they had fortified him with a firm resolution never to acknowledge that he had committed any error." In the end he was obliged to return to his mother at Paris, where he chiefly resided until he had attained his twentieth year. He served with reputation in both the French and Spanish armies; but his great aptitude was for sea affairs, and after his return to England in 1660, he for some time acted as Lord High Admiral. His exertions, assisted by the indefatigable Pepys, the Secretary of the Navy, raised the fleet which afterward won the battle of La Hogue; as his camp at Hounslow was the nursery for the victorious army of Marlborough. James employed part of the leisure of his retirement in writing an account of his own life, the original manuscript of which extends to nine folio volumes. The manuscript was burnt by the person to whom it had been confided; but a digest of the royal autobiography had been long before drawn up by an unknown hand, apparently under the direction either of James or his son; and this digest being preserved among the papers belonging to the Stuart family, which were obtained by George IV., when Regent, has been printed.

LITERATURE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

It is now time to glance at the literary characters of this period, reserving their personal characteristics for another portion of the present volume.

Foremost in the rank is Milton, though he obtained not in his life the reputation he deserved. Edmund Waller was the first refiner of English poetry, or at least of its rhyme. Cowley was more admired during his life than Milton, and more celebrated

after his death. Sir John Denham had a loftiness and vigor, which had scarcely been attained by any previous poet that wrote in rhyme. The Oceana of James Harrington was a political romance, well adapted to astonish when the systems of imaginary republics occupied so much attention.

There was also much admirable writing in the English language, both under Charles I. and II.,-by William Chillingworth, in his "Religion of Protestants, a safe way to Salvation;" in Cleveland's noble letter to Cromwell; in the famous histories of Lord Clarendon, and the pious eloquence of Jeremy Taylor; in the abstract philosophy of Dr. Henry More; in the orthodox. and learned divinity of Dr. Isaac Barrow; in the Exposition of Bishop Pearson; in the still popular works of Tillotson; in the courtly volumes of Sir William Temple; and even in the wild and perverted philosophy of Thomas Hobbes.

The reign of Charles II. has sometimes been considered the Augustan age of English literature, though more frequently the honor has been adjudged to the eighteenth century, as having still greater purity and simplicity of language. The authors of this period exhibit much fine genius, though corrupted by the bad taste to which they were forced to conform, as may be seen in the eloquent and spirited works of Dryden, the comic talent of Wycherley, and the pathetic powers of Otway. There were other authors of the time, who wrote with good taste, as the Marquis of Halifax, and the Earls of Mulgrave, Dorset, and Roscommon, though their productions are more limited in extent, or slighter in the character of their composition.

་

The few female autobiographists who have graced the literature of England were confined to the stirring times of the Commonwealth, when the pressure of circumstances, by acting upon the strongest and finest feelings of woman, developed her intellect, and forced her upon active and even perilous existence. The two most brilliant instances of this charming genre of egotism are to be found in the memoirs of the fantastic Duchess of Newcastle, and in those of the heroic Mrs. Hutchinson, both admirable illustrations of their respective classes at the epoch in which they flourished: the one of the pure, unmixed aristocracy of England; and the other of its gentry, or highest grade of

middle life.

Mrs. Evelyn was one of the most accomplished women of the court of Charles the Second, and one of the few virtuous women who frequented it. She was a celebrated linguist and artist, and her works in oil and miniature are frequently quoted with pride by her husband.-Lady Morgan.

RISE OF FREE-SCHOOLS, OR CHARITY SCHOOLS.

We have already shown that the endowed grammar-schools were the natural successors of the schools and charities of the Church before the Reformation. They contemplated none but the most liberal education. Children were to be brought up as scholars, or to be taught nothing. The grammar-schools were the nurseries of the learned professions, and they opened the way for the highest honors of those professions to the humblest in the land.