of which have been to unfold the events which gradually produced the awful contest; to lay a ground for inferences to be drawn from them by others of the true character of the unfortunate Monarch; and to shew, by a succinct but faithful outline of facts, that Charles, throughout the whole of the collision between himself and his Parliaments, was rather " sinned against than sinning ;" and that he fell at length a sacrifice to his endeavours to support the integrity of that ever fluctuating system called " the constitution," in the state in which he found it when he ascended the Throne. To answer these purposes enough has been already

shewn.

Indeed a detail of the circumstances of the seven years war, if these sheets could allow scope for it, would be almost impertinent. Such, in strictness, belong to the general history of a country, and have, with some few modern exceptions of dazzling effect, little actual concern with the personal memoirs of the Prince who rules it. If he appear with his army in the field, the connection is, singularly enough, yet more remote, for he becomes then merely the dignified organ of his military councils, and the exalted encourager by his presence of the confidence and the prowess of his legions. That such was the station in which Charles appeared during nearly the whole of the war is well known to all historical readers; nor is it less notorious that, after its sad termination, when the authors of the rebellion had, according to the almost fatal progress of revolutions, given place to the wretched herd by which they were overpowered, he fell a captive into those base and bloody hands, sold for money by his Scottish subjects. Here, thrown wholly on his own resources, his true character at length shone forth in all the splendor of virtue, piety, perfect heroism, and almost wisdom. Such was the Prince who, through the ambition, the folly, or the malignity of a few of his subjects; and the ignorance, the fanaticism, the groundless fears, or the low interests, of the rest, was consigned by the vilest of them to a violent death, on the thirtieth of January, 1648.