St. John's College, Cambridge, a great defender of ecclesiastical tyranny, and the imposition of human creeds, in a pamphlet entitled "Animadversions on the Naked Truth." This pamphlet was penned, like all the rest of the writings of the same author, in an affected, but flowing style. It was replied to with great vivacity by Marvell, in a work entitled "Mr. Smirke, or the Divine in Mode." He made him a second Bayes, as he had done Parker before, in "The Rehearsal Trans-prosed." Marvell, in speaking of Bishop Croft's works, says, "it is a treatise which, if not for its opposer, needs no commendation: being writ with that evidence and demonstration of truth, that all sober men cannot but give their assent, and consent to it unasked. It is a book of that kind, that no Christian can peruse it without wishing himself to have been the author, and almost imagining that he is so the conceptions therein being of so eternal idea, that every man finds it to be but a copy of the original in his own mind.” Marvell had a peculiar knack of calling names: it consisted in appropriating a ludicrous character in some popular comedy, and dubbing his adversaries with it. In this spirit he ridiculed Dr. Turner, by giving him the name of a chaplain in ETHEREGE's "Man of Mode,” and thus, with a stroke of the pen, conveyed an idea of "a neat, starched, formal, and forward divine." This application of a fictitious character to a real one, this christening a man with ridicule, though of no difficult invention, will prove not a little hazardous to inferior writers ; for it requires not less wit than Marvell's, to bring out of the real character, the ludicrous features which mark the prototype. In return for this defence of his work, the Bishop of Hereford wrote the following letter to Marvell:- : SIR, I choose to run some hazard of this, (having noe certain information), rather than incurre your censure of ingratitude to the person who hath set forth Mr. Smirke in so trim and proper a dresse, unto whose hands I hope this will happily arrive, to render him due thanks for the humane civility, and christian charity shewed to the author of Naked Truth, so bespotted with the dirty language of foule-mouthed beasts, whoe, though he feared much his own weaknesse, yet, by God's undeserved grace, is so strengthened, as not at all to be dejected, or much concerned with such snarling curs, though sett on by many spightfull hands and deanery of Windsor, which he held together with the bishopric of Rochester. He was deprived for not taking the new oaths, 1st February, 1689–90. The next year, he was accused of being a conspirator in a plot of Nonjurors, for restoring King James, for which some of that party were imprisoned; but he thought it prudent to abscond. A proclamation was soon after issued for apprehending him as a traitor. hearts, of a high stamp, but as base alloy. I cannot yet get a sight of what the Bishop of Ely (Turner) hath certainly printed; but keeps very close, to put forth, I suppose the next approaching session of Parliament, when there cannot be time to make a reply; for I have just cause to feare the session will be short. Sir, this assures you, that you have the zealous prayers, and hearty service of the author of Naked Truth, your humble Servant. July, 1676. In answer to this Letter from Bishop Croft, Marvell says :— "MY LORD, H. C. Upon Tuesday night last I received your thanks for that which could not deserve your pardon; for great is your goodnesse to professe a gratitude, where you had a justifiable reason for your clemency; for notwithstanding the ill-treatment you received from others, 'tis I that have given you the highest provocation. A good cause receives more injury from a weak defence, than from a frivolous accusation; and the ill that does a man no harm, is to be preferred before the good that creates him a prejudice: but your Lordship's generosity is not, I see, to be reformed by the most exquisite patterns of ill-nature; and while perverse men have made a crime of your virtue, yet 'tis your pleasure to convert the obligation I have placed upon you into a civility. Indeed, I meant all well, but 'tis not every one's good fortune to light into hands where he may escape; and for a man of good intentions, lesse than this I could not say in due and humble acknowledgment, and your favourable interpretation of me; for the rest, I most heartily rejoice to understand, that the same God who hath chosen you out to beare so eminent a testimony to his truth, hath given you also that Christian magnanimity to hold up, without any depression of spirit, against its and your opposers: what they intend further, I know not, neither am I curious; my soul shall not enter into their secrets; but as long as God shall lend you life and health, I reckon our church is indefectible; may he, therefore, long preserve you to his honour, and further service, which shall be the constant prayer of, My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble London, July 16, 1676. and most faithful Servant, ANDREW MARVELL." To this work of Marvell's was added a short "Historical Essay concerning general Councils, Creeds, and Impositions, in Matters of Religion, by Andreas Redivivus, Jun., 1675, quarto." This is a con F tinuation of The defence of Naked Truth, to show the absurdity of imposing articles of faith. He gives a full account of the general Council of Nice, and the ill consequences of such unhappy debates. A persecuting spirit in the times drives the greatest men to take refuge in the arts of subterfuge. Compelled, indeed, to disguise their sentiments, they will not, however, suppress them; and hence all their ambiguous proceedings, all that ridicule and irony, with which inge. nious minds, when forced to, have never failed to try the patience or the sagacity of intolerance. SHAFTESBURY has thrown out, on this head, some important truths.- -“If men are forbid to speak their minds seriously, they will do it ironically. If they find it dangerous to do so, they will then redouble their disguise, and talk so as hardly to be understood. The persecuting spirit raises the bantering one-the higher the slavery, the more exquisite the buffoonery." To this cause we owe the strong raillery of MARVELL, the cloudy "Oracles of Reason" of BLOUNT, and the formidable though gross burlesque of HICKERINGILL. Besides these, were two other compositions," A seasonable Question and an useful Answer, between a Parliament Man in Cornwall, and a Bencher in the Temple, by A. M., 1676." Also,"A seasonable Argument to the Grand Juries of England, to petition for a new Parliament, or a List of the principal Labourers in the great Design of Popery and Arbitrary Power, who have betrayed their Country." The last work of Marvell's published before his death, was,—“ An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England." Printed in 1678: re-printed in the State Trials, 1689. In this work, the principles of our excellent constitution are clearly laid down; the legal authority of the Kings of England is precisely ascertained; and the glory of the monarch, and the happiness of the people, are proved equally to depend upon a strict observance of their respective obligations. In comparing the sovereigns of England with other potentates, he observes :-" 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.” He likewise draws a striking contrast of the miseries of a nation living under a Popish administration, and the blessings enjoyed under a Protestant government; nor can a stronger proof be adduced of the complexion of the reigning politics of that era, than the disgust excited at court by the free sentiments contained in this work. It has been denied by some historians, that Charles II. either encouraged Popery, or governed arbitrarily; and yet the following advertisement appeared in the Gazette, respecting Marvell's work :- "Whereas there have been lately printed and published, several seditious and scandalous libels, against the proceedings of both Houses of Parliament, and other his Majesty's Courts of Justice, to the dishonour of his Majesty's government, and the hazard of the public peace: These are to give notice, that what person soever shall discover unto one of the Secretaries of State, the printer, publisher, author, or hander to the press, of any of the said libels, so that full evidence may be made thereof to a jury, without mentioning the informer; especially one libel, entitled " An Account of the Growth of Popery," &c., and another called "A seasonable Argument to all Grand Juries," &c.; the discoverer shall be rewarded as follows:-he shall have £50 for the discovery of the printer, or publisher, and for the hander of it to the press, £100," &c. This reward of the court did not move the calm disposition of Marvell; for, in a letter to his friend, Mr. Popple, dated 10th June, 1678, he pleasantly says,—“ There came out, about Christmas last, a large book, concerning 'The Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government.' There have been great rewards offerred in private, and considerable in the Gazette, to any who would inform of the author. Three or four books, printed since, have described, as near as it was proper to go, the man, Mr. Marvell, being a member of Parliament, to have been the author; but if he had, surely he would not have escaped being questioned in Parliament, or some other place." No prosecution, however, ensued. Marvell had now rendered himself so obnoxious to the venal friends of a corrupt court, and to the heir presumptive, James, Duke of York (himself a bigotted Papist), that he was beset on all sides by powerful enemies, who even proceeded so far as to menace his life. Hence he was obliged to use great caution, to appear seldom in public, and frequently to conceal the place of his abode: but all his care proved ineffectual to preserve him from their vengeance; for he died on the 16th August, 1678, aged 58 years, not without strong suspicions, (as his constitution was still entire and vigorous) of having suffered under the effect of poison. He appears to have attended at a public Court, in the Townhall of Hull, a few weeks previously to his death; for in an extract from their books, we find the following entry :-"This day (29th July, - 1678) the Court being mett, Andrew Marvell, Esquire, one of the burgesses of Parliament for this Borough, came into Court, and several discourses were held about the town affaires." The public, however, reaped the benefit of his patriotism the follow ng year. His writings had opened the eyes of several members of the House of Commons; and, those who had long been obsequious to government, now found so strong an opposition to its measures, that the King found himself under the necessity, in the beginning of 1679, of dissolving his favourite assembly, which, with the exception of one prorogation, had sat for eighteen years, under the odious epithet of "The Pensionary Parliament." The new Parliament, which met in March 1679, seemed to have imbibed the sentiments of the deceased Marvell; the growth of Popery, the arbitrary measures of the ministry, and the expediency of excluding the Duke of York from the succession, being the chief objects which engaged their attention. This produced their dissolution in the following July. But the spirit of civil liberty, having now gone forth among the people, the next Parliament which assembled in 1680, still more steadily opposed the Popish succession, and was therefore like its predecessor, prematurely dissolved in 1681. From the ashes of Marvell had sprung up, as it were, a new race of patriots, whose hostility to the court made the ministry dread a new election; and though some of them fell a sacrifice to their zeal, it may with truth be asserted, that their vigorous integrity laid the foundation of the glorious Revolution. Marvell left a small paternal estate, on which, and the allowance given him by his constituents, during the sitting of Parliament, he subsisted, being neither extravagant nor expensive. At his death the Corporation of Hull immediately assembled in Common-hall, and unanimously voted fifty pounds towards defraying the expense of his funeral. To Marvell have been ascribed, by Dr. Wharton and others, the celebrated Latin lines, sent with a portrait of the Protector, to Christiana, Queen of Sweden, which have been thus translated by Dr. Symmons: 66 Imperial maid, great arbitress of war, But as the lines must have been written before 1654, when Christiana abdicated her throne, it is not probable that they were written by Marvell, as Milton could hardly, by the disuse of a few lost his facility in the construction of Latin verse. years, have In 1688, the inhabitants of his native town, who had not dared to declare their feelings under the two preceding Princes, to testify their |