more formidable. In this respect Andrew was a fortunate man, for he partakes fully in the fame of his illustrious friend, as a defender and promoter of true liberty, while he escaped all participation in the more questionable parts of his career. As tour-writing was not quite so indispensable in the seventeenth century as at present, our account of Marvell's travels is necessarily scanty, the few incidental notices that may occur in his miscellaneous works not being sufficient to compose a regular narrative. He returned, however, between 1642 and 1643, and while at Paris, on his way homeward, he found occasion to exercise his satirical vein in a Latin Poem upon Lancelot Joseph de Maniban, a whimsical Abbè, who, by a new sort of Cheiromancy, pretended to forbode the fortunes of individuals, not by the lines of the hands, but by those of their hand writing.* Little information can be obtained of Marvell's proceedings from his return to England, till the year 1652, one of the most important intervals in human history. How he thought and felt during this period we may easily conjecture, but we are at a loss to find out what he was doing. It is probable that he acted no conspicuous part, either civil or military, as he is not mentioned in the parliamentary papers, or other public documents, nor does he appear to have employed his pen on either The race of the Manibans is not extinct; and, indeed, however absurd it may be to form a prognosis of future contingencies from the curves and angles of a MS., we will and do maintain, that a correct diagnosis of the actual character of an individual may be drawn from his autograph. The goodness or badness of the writing contributes nothing to its physiognomy, any more than the beauty or homeliness of a countenance influences its expression. Expression has nothing to do with beauty; and those who say that a good expression will make the plainest face beautiful, do not say what they mean. Goodness, shining through ordinary features, is not beauti ful, but far better, it is lovely. So, too, with regard to the expression of writing; Caligraphy, as taught by writing masters to young ladies, is in truth a very lady-like sort of dissimulation, intended, like the Chesterfieldian politeness of a courtier, to conceal the workings of thought and feeling-to substitute the cold, slippery, polished opacity of a frozen pool, for the ripple and transparency of a flowing brook. But into every habitual act, which is performed unconsciously, earnestly, or naturally, something of the mood of the moment, and something of the predominant habit of the mind, unavoidably passes:-the play of the features, the motions of the limbs, the paces, the tones, the very folds of the drapery (especially if it have long been worn), are all significant. A mild, considerate man hangs up his hat in a very different style from a hasty, resolute one. A Dissenter does not shake hands like a High Churchman. But there is no act into which the character enters more fully, than that of writing; for it is generally performed alone or unobserved, seldom, in adults, is the object of conscious attention, and takes place while the thoughts, and the natural current of feeling, are in full operation. D'Israeli, in his "Curiosities of Literature," second series, has two interesting chapters on autographs, writing-masters, and hand-writing. side. Some incidental notices we may glean from a letter of Milton to the President Bradshaw, that chief of the regicide Judges, who shared with Cromwell, Blake, and Ireton, the honour of being hanged after his death. It is inscribed to the Honourable the Lord Bradshaw. No apology can be required for inserting it entire. "MY LORD, "But that it would be an interruption to the public, wherein your studies are perpetually employed, I should now or then venture to supply this my enforced absence with a line or two, though it were onely my business, and that would be noe slight one, to make my due acknowledgments of your many favoures; which I both doe at this time, and ever shall; and have this farder, which I thought my parte to let you know of, that there will be with you to-morrow, upon some occasion of business, a gentleman whose name is Mr. Marvile; a man whom, both by report, and the converse I have had with him, of singular desert for the state to make use of; who alsoe offers himselfe, if there be any imployment for him. His father was the Minister of Hull; and he hath spent four years abroad, in Holland, France, Italy, and Spaine, to very good purpose, as I believe, and the gaineing of those four languages; besides, he is a scholler, and well read in the Latin and Greek authors; and no doubt of an approved conversation, for he comes now lately out of the house of the Lord Fairfax, who was Generall, where he was intrusted to give some instructions in the languages to the Lady his daughter. If, upon the death of Mr. Weckkerlyn, the Councell shall think that I shall need any assistance in the performance of my place (though for my part I find no encumbrances of that which belongs to me, except it be in point of attendance at Conferences with Ambassadors, which I must confess, in my condition, I am not fit for,) it would be hard for them to find a man soe fit every way for that purpose as this Gentleman, one who I believe, in a short time, would be able to doe them as much service as Mr. Ascan. This, my Lord, I write sincerely, without any other end than to perform my dutey to the publick, in helping them to an humble servant; laying aside those jealousies, and that emulation, which mine own condition might suggest to me, by bringing in such a coadjutor; and remaine, Feb. 21, 1652. My Lord, Your most obliged, and JOHN MILTON." The silence of this letter as to any diplomatic experience of Marvell B sufficiently refutes the statement of certain biographers, that he was employed by the Commonwealth as Envoy to Constantinople. A diligent examination of the epistolary correspondence and private diaries of that eventful period would probably throw some further light on our subject's proceedings. Milton's recommendation to Bradshaw did not gain an appointment for his friend. As the times turned, it is probable that the patronage of the Lord President would rather have been injurious than beneficial to his prospects, for Bradshaw was opposed to Cromwell, by whom he was deprived of the Chief-justiceship of Chester. In 1654, when Milton's famous second defence of the People of England in reply to Salmasius appeared, Marvell was commissioned to present the book to the Protector. How he was received may be conjectured from his letter to Milton on that occasion, which we give entire : "HONOURED SIR, I did not satisfy myself in the account I gave you of presenting your book to my Lord; although it seemed to me that I wrote to you all which the messenger's speedy return the same night would permit me: and I perceive that, by reason of that haste, I did not give you satisfaction, neither concerning the delivery of your letter at the same time. Be pleased, therefore, to pardon me, and know that I tendered them both together. But my Lord read not the letter while I was with him; which I attributed to our dispatch, and some other business tending thereto, which I therefore wished ill to, so far as it hindered an affair much better, and of greater importance,-I mean that of reading your letter. And to tell you truly mine own imagination, I thought that he would not open it while I was there, because he might suspect that I, delivering it just upon my departure, might have brought in it some second proposition, like to that which you had before made to him, by your letter, to my advantage. However, I assure myself that he has since read it with much satisfaction. Mr. Oxenbridge, on his return from London, will, I know, give you thanks for his book, as I do, with all acknowledgment and humility, for that you have sent me. I shall now study it, even to getting it by heart. When I consider how equally it turns and rises, with so many figures, it seems to me a Trajan's column, in whose winding ascent we see embossed the several monuments of your learned victories; and Salmasius and Morus make up as great a triumph as that of Decebalus ; whom, too, for ought I know, you shall have forced, as Trajan the other, to make themselves away, out of a just desperation. I have an affectionate curiosity to know what becomes of Colonel Overton's business, and am exceeding glad to think that Mr. Skinner has got near you: the happiness which I at the same time congratulate to him, and envy, there being none who doth, if I may so say, more jealously honour you than, ETON, June 2, 1654. Honoured Sir, Your most affectionate humble Servant, For my most honoured friend, John Milton, Esq., At his house in Petty France, Westminster." Grace and ease in letter writing is one of the last accomplishments at which literature arrives. Marvell's letters, from which we shall make copious extracts, are not cited as examples of composition, in which respect they are hardly worthy of his talents, but for the historical intelligence they convey, and the testimony which they bear to the writer's integrity. Seldom, however, was he guilty of such bad taste, as in the allusion to Trajan's Column, and never again uttered so uncharitable a surmise as that with regard to Morus and Salmasius. It is some consolation that neither of those grammarians followed the example of the Dacian Monarch, though Milton himself is said to have ascribed the death of Salmasius to chagrin at his defeat. Even good men seldom enter a controversy without making wreck of their peace of mind. In 1657 Marvell became tutor to Cromwell's nephew. There is extant a letter of his to the Protector, rather more respectful than would please either a royalist or a determined republican. What part he took in the confused passages that ensued on Cromwell's death, we are not informed. He was elected member for his native town in 1660in that parliament which was destined to see the restoration of royalty. Though it is probable that he corresponded regularly with his constituents from his first election, whatever he may have written previous to the triumphal 29th of May, or in the busy æra of intoxication which followed, has never been discovered. We cannot tell how far he approved the recal of Majesty, which he must have seen it vain to oppose, or whether he laboured to obtain those securities against the encroachments of prerogative which the treacherous counsels of Monk induced the Convention to forego,-what he felt on the violent revulsion of public feeling whereby Charles the Second was enabled to establish a sway which nothing but his own indolence hindered from being despotic,-or how he judged of the vindictive proceedings of the reinstated royalists, which had well * Overton was Governor of Hull, and became a fifth-monarchy-man. nigh bereft the world of Milton, and of Paradise Lost. He might not choose to trust his sentiments on such subjects to paper, or he might sedulously reclaim and destroy writings which endangered others as well as himself. It may be necessary to remind the reader, that it was only by the communications of Members, that provincial constituents could then be made acquainted with what passed in Parliament. The publication of debates was at that time, and long after, really and strictly forbidden. Even in Dr. Johnson's day, the standing order was evaded by reports under feigned names or initials. The Doctor himself published (if he did not compose) 'Debates in the Senate of Lilliput.' Has the publication of debates ever yet been legalised by exprsss enactment? We fear not. Middleton composed his life of Cicero, Jortin, his life of Erasmus, almost entirely from the epistles of their respective subjects. We shall make as free a use, though we cannot construct so regular a narrative, of the parliamentary epistles of Andrew Marvell. The earliest of these is dated November, 1660, in which he laments the absence of his partner, Mr. John Ramsden, and tells them he "writes but with half a pen, which makes his account of public affairs so imperfect; and yet he had rather expose his own defects to their good interpretation, than excuse thereby a total neglect of his duty." Two of the most difficult questions that occupied the government immediately after the restoration, were, how to dispose of the standing army, which, during the suspension of the monarchy, had become a deliberative and most influential member of the body politic; and whether to continue or abrogate the excise, a financial offspring of the Long Parliament, which the restored monarch was not unwilling to adopt. Confiding in the unorganised valour of the English nation, and in the capacity of discipline which exists in every people, he once and for ever opposed a standing army, a species of force, which, had Charles the First possessed, he might have been as despotic as he would; which Cromwell possessing, kept the realm at nurse for a Prince who, with equal means, could have done more than the worst of his legitimate or illegitimate predecessors. The purpose of the Puritans was, to turn the whole blessed island into a Presbyterian Paradise, in which there was to be nothing but churches, and church-yards;—one to be filled with the living bodies of the saints, and the other with the hanged carcases of their adversaries. The apostate royalists of the Restoration would have made England a bear garden, in which all vices were free, and from which nothing but piety was exiled. Marvell had seen a standing army, composed of more respectable materials than could easily be replaced, the instrument of one tyranny; and most wisely he |