inconvenient. If it was to be improved, | visable to correspond with the Governmany of the buildings belonging to reli- ments interested in the subject, but this gious corporations must disappear in or- ought to be done unofficially, and merely der to let in light and air, and to make as an act of courtesy. The corporations new streets possible, and to give accom- are to be dispossessed of their buildings modation to the legion of national offi- if public utility so requires. Their lands cials. A large portion of the district are to be sold, and they are to hold the round Rome is held by these corpora- proceeds invested in the funds; and they tions, and they possess much urban prop- are to have two years in which to make erty. The number of persons leading a proposals to the Government as to the purely monastic life is of course consid- purposes which they are henceforth to erable in the capital of Catholicism. The serve, and the rules to which they are to Italian Government had, however, no be subjected. If these proposals are not hesitation in applying its principles to all satisfactory, the Government will, at the Roman religious corporations that were end of two years, have power to make of a merely local character, assemblages schemes for them. of persons who are now Italians settled These recommendations of the Comon what is now Italian soil. But many of mission are bold and logical, but statesthe religious corporations of Rome con- men have got to think of something else sisted of foreigners, had been founded by than of being bold and logical. They foreigners, and formed the chief machin- have to think of safety and prudence, and ery by which foreign adherents of the of not running their country into dangers Pope associated themselves with the life greater than those from which boldness and work of the head of their faith. How and logic propose to relieve it. The irto treat these foreign corporations was a resolution of the Italian Government puzzle which for a year baffled the wits of arose, not from their hesitation as to what the Ministry, and at last they could ar- they would like to do, but from their hesirive at nothing better, in proposing a Bill tation as to what they could dare to do. to Parliament, than an enactment that Would foreign Governments be disposed during two years the corporations should to allow that Rome was merely an Italian be at liberty to make proposals to the city like any other, and that a new body of Government, and, if those proposals were law should be imposed on their subjects not satisfactory, then that the Govern- who had for generations been encouraged ment should be at liberty to negotiate on to hold a position in harmony with a totalthe subject with the foreign Governments ly different system? It is certain that interested. A Commission was appointed unconquered France, even if the original by the Chamber to consider this Bill, and ideas of the late Emperor had been carit is only after the lapse of some months ried out, and the Italians had been perthat the Commission has been able to ar-mitted to occupy Rome, would never have rive at a conclusion. Those who served tolerated the treatment which the Comon it have had the merit of really thinking over the matter which they had in hand. The Commission could not satisfy itself with the vague and timid proposal of the Government. It asked itself what was the basis on which the Italian Parliament proposed to deal with these corporations at all. This basis was that these corporations were established on Italian soil, possessed Italian lands as their property, and formed part of Italian society. No foreign Government could have a right to say that any of its subjects were entitled to live on Italian soil, hold Italian lands, and form a part of Italian society, if they thereby prejudiced the interests or evaded the law of Italy. The Commission, therefore, decided that the bold line was the only line that could be taken, and that foreign Governments must be held to have no claim to negotiate with Italy as to these corporations. It will be ad mission wishes to see applied to these corporations. Even now it is nothing but the quarrel of the Pope with Prince Bismarck that gives the Italians a chance of uniting safety with boldness and logic. A year ago Italian statesmen might well hesitate, for they could not tell how far this quarrel would proceed. Even a few months or a few weeks ago it was not easy to say whether domestic opposition might not cripple the action of Prince Bismarck. The Commission has the advantage of making its Report at a moment when it is known that the policy of Prince Bismarck has been successful, that he has made the Prussian House of Lords bow before his will, and accept the ecclesiastical changes he has proposed; and that the nature of these changes is such as to make it impossible that there can be a reconciliation between Germany and Rome. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year, nor when we have to pay commission for forwarding the money; nor when we club the LIVING Age with another periodical. An extra copy of THE LIVING AGE is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & GAY. THE EXILED MOUNTAINEER. (From the French of Châteaubriand.) How sweet the memory of that spot of earth, The happy fatherland that gave me birth! Sister, they never knew, those early days, One thrill of dearth. My France, my country! thy remembrance stays My sister, can it be thou hast forgot Embraced us while we kissed her silver hair- The castle 'neath whose walls, long, long ago, The matin-bell the worshippers would warn A soldier may genius or dunce be; Punch. O THE wild days of youth! the dear dead days! Dark are the lights and all the chorus dumb, And cold and faintly through the gath'ring haze Of this sad twilight time thin echoes come, And wand'ring voices haunt the glimmering ways. Sitting alone in these last empty years, Life, starved and dwindled, tells its old tales o'er, And, like a wind, the Past sings in mine ears, And, like a wind, goes by. Alas! no more For me the glad green Spring of smiles and tears! Oft from the dreamland of the Long Ago, Pale faces seek me with their eager eyes, And fain I'd follow them, and fain would know, How fares it with them 'neath the starless skies That brood above the silent shades below. Brave souls and beautiful! to what forlorn Mute fields of Death's cold kingdom are ye passed? O dreary Death, that hath nowhere forborne, To pluck earth's fairest flowers and o'ercast Sweet scents and colours with relentless scorn! Ah me! A little while the evening light The pallid day shall glimmer ere it die. Then, dumbly-dark, shall fall all-ending night. All The Year Round LIFE'S LITTLE DAY. HOPES, like dew-drops, pearl its morning, Airy visions, fancies gay; Soon they fade, youth's dreamland scorning, Work and toil come swiftly, aching Onwards creep long twilight shadows; Fairest suns must seek the West; Glories die from flower-bright meadows, Then comes night, and with it Rest. Chambers' Journal From Fraser's Magazine. THE STORY OF THE DEATH OF THOMAS, EARL OF STRAFFORD. A.D. 1641. It needs some courage to tell again the oft-told story of the death of the Earl of Strafford; by an easy stretch of memory twenty-two narratives describing the closing months of that statesman's life may be reckoned up. And though these many story-tellers vary in ability, from Macaulay to Oldmixon, and though according to some Strafford was both "good and great," and to others "that wicked Earl," still all so far agree, that they ascribe his death to the overpowering authority of Pym and his associates, all ascribe the passage through the House of Lords of the Attainder Bill to threats from a Lon don mob; all aver that Charles I. did what he could to save his minister. Instead, however, of attempting another version of Stratford's trial, and with absolute indifference about his guilt, we propose to show that these two-and-twenty narratives are throughout untrue, that the impeachment of Strafford was a failure, his Attainder Bill a blunder, and that his condemnation by the Upper House was due solely to the King; that he, and he alone, brought death on his . As our story is not based on mere surmise, or on the comparison of one received account with another, but is what may be called "self-contained" and selfsupported, we shall not contradict, step by step, the statements of our predecessors, or show how they are misled; nor shall we venture on a minute investigation into the King's motives as regards Strafford. First shall be exhibited - and it must be at some length the true position occupied by the popular party between November 11, 1640, and May 12, 1641, the dates of Strafford's arrest and execution; then it will be shown that the Attainder Bill but increased the chances of his safety; and then, that the King's actions, dictated by Strafford's enemies, overthrew all prospect of his escape, at the very time when his acquittal was confidently expected. A false impression has been created about the opening scene of this tragedy. King Charles, it must be remembered, renewed in 1640 his attempt to force the Scottish nation to a conformity in Church government, and the failure of that attempt must be recalled: the royal army being stationed in Yorkshire, and the English frontier wholly unguarded, the Scottish army advanced, defeated a Our story is not a pleasant one; it is small body of our troops at Newburn, ocnot agreeable to an Englishman to tar-cupied Newcastle, and all the northern nish the renown of the "popular party" counties. This took place in August. in the Long Parliament, or to add gloom September was spent in negotiation; the to the shadows upon the character of Long Parliament was summoned; and Charles I. It is distressing to think that such a man as Strafford fell before the faithful servant. on the 26th of October a cessation of arms between England and Scotland being intrigues of those "old subtle foxes "he agreed to, the final settlement of peace justly called "the Court vermin." Still was adjourned to London. During this this is the impression forced on us, almost lull in public events Strafford returned against our will, by a long-continued to his Yorkshire home- "Old Wentstudy of all the authorities at the Rolls worth Woodhouse." He was full of genOffice and in the British Museum, both eral anxiety, he noticed the " rare art in MS. and in print, relating to the years and malice" of the Earl of Bristol and 1639-41; and arising especially from the his other associates, and their evident examination of diaries which Sir S. D'Ewes and his brother note-takers in Parliament scribbled on their knees, descriptive of events which took place before their eyes.* * Among these authorities I include "A Brief and Perfect Relation of the Trial of Thomas, Earl of Strafford." Though published in 1647, evidently this pamphlet was written in 1641, and by one in the Earl's service. This Relation is the stock from which the compilers of the State Trials, and of Rushworth's and Nalson's Collections, drew their narratives: passages from it are inserted in Heylin's Laud, and Ratcliffe's Memoirs of Strafford; this Relation is, in fact, the sole origin of all the descriptions of the closing scenes of that statesman's life. Reference will be made to it as, Narrative, 1647. intention to make him the scapegoat for And so again, to create the impression the wide-spread misery of the year 1640. that unthinking haste and over-masterful He also was aware of the fierce malignity power governed Parliament at the very of his enemies, and apprehensive about outset of Strafford's trial, we are told that "the great matters" against him they ex- Pym, rising suddenly from his seat in the pected to hear "out of Ireland;" and House of Commons, the doors being though unwilling to leave Yorkshire, not locked, drove them, by a long-continued because he dreaded quitting the shelter blast of invective directed against the of the army, but because he wished to Earl, to accuse him of high treason: and fulfil the duty there entrusted to him; that the Lords were surprised, by equal still, according to his own description, he rapidity of action, into his committal. was "hastened up" to London, by fellow- The Commons, in truth, acted on procouncillors whom he evidently distrusted. ceedings extending over four days, and But he never, it would seem, shrank from on the report of a select committee.* meeting his adversaries; certainly he was They even prefaced the impeachment at not ordered up from Yorkshire by the the bar of the Upper House by a previKing. He was sent for to correct a blun- ous message, "touching things against der made by the Lord Keeper, told "that the Earl of Strafford." Nor had that there was a great want" of him at West- charge been justified by an enumeration minster, and that if he "had been there of his "high and imperious actions in that folly had not been committed." And England and Ireland," and his "passionhis last impression was one of cheerful-ate advices: " that was expressly reness, he thought that "to the best of my served. The accusation was founded on judgment, we gain much rather than lose."my Lord Mountnorris his cause, and The Irish business is past, and papists suffered in England to increase better than I expected, their proofs being under arms." § These were the sole scant. . . All will be well, and every charges: the first was an act of severity, hour gives more hope than the other." * perhaps of injustice, committed in 1635 upon a subordinate in the Irish Government; the second, as might be expected from its vague character, was "set aside" in Westminster Hall. ... Strafford, then, was, on the 11th of November, 1640, impeached of high treason, on the deliberate verdict of Parliament, for actions which, supposing they were crimes, certainly were not treasons. But these petty charges were only the excuse for his arrest. He was, in truth, placed at the bar that day as the author of the quarrel between the King and his people, of the dissolution of the Short Parliament, the injuries caused by the preparations for war with Scotland, and of the These are Strafford's words and feelings, expressed in a letter written the very night before he quitted Yorkshire for London, to his intimate friend, Sir. G. Ratcliffe; and they make it impossible to believe the statements of the sham-contemporary chronicler, who asserts that the Earl was forced by the King to place himself within the power of his enemies, and that he journeyed to London expecting certain death, trusting for safety to his monarch's solemn pledge. This gives a far more picturesque idea for an opening chapter in Strafford's impeachment than the reality, which was that he quitted the army reluctantly "but not very unwillingly;" that he came up in good disasters of that war. On him was hope, merely on the call of his official colleagues. The object of the invention, however, is plain: it is to create the feeling, that from the very beginning Strafford foresaw the scaffold, and looked to the King alone as his protector. Letter to Sir G. Ratcliffe, begun November 5, and ended Sunday, November 8, 1640. Ratcliffe Correspondence, 214-223. charged England's disgraceful defeat by So little was secrecy attempted, that Sir W. Penny man, an intimate friend of Strafford's, was placed upon † Nov. 11. 1640. D'Ewes, Harleian MSS. (162), pp. 5, 6. + Clarendon, ed. 1838, p. 73. § November 11, 1640. D'Ewes, Harleian MSS. (162), 4-7. |