lar, (honouring them so much as we both do,) that they should envie this ladye; or should have so much malice or emulation, to cast such false aspersions on her, that she did not write those books that go forth in her name. They will hardly finde out who else writ them; and I protest, none ever writ them but herself. Here's the crime: a lady writes them; and to intrench so much upon the male prerogative, is not to be forgiven but I know gown-men will be more civil to her, because she is of the gown too. I had not troubled you with this, but that a learned doctor, our very noble friend, writ us word of the infidelity of some people in this kinde. Whatsoever I have writ is absolutely truth; which I here (as a man of honour) set my hand to.

"W. NEWCASTLE:"

The Harl. MS. 6988, contains a letter from the duke to his pupil prince Charles.

In 1642, was printed at York, and reprinted at Oxford,

"An Answer of the Right Honourable the Earle of Newcastle, his Excellency, &c. to the six groundlesse Aspersions cast upon him by the Lord Fairfax, in his late Warrant bearing date Feb. 2, 1642."

This gallant vindication of the royalists thus concludes:

"The lord Fairefax requires all parties to appeare; and I command them all, upon their allegiance, to stay at home. They may perhaps come thither without danger, but the difficulty will be to get safe back againe; sed revocare gradum, hic labor hoc opus est.

It were a more conscionable and discreet part of them, to repaire all as one unanimous body to their sovereign's standard, and drive out those incendiaries from among them, who have beene the true authors of all the pressing grievances and miseries of this county.

"Withall, his lordship talks of driving me and mine army out of the country. He knowes this cannot be done without a meeting. If it be not a flourish, but a true sparke of undissembled gallantry, he may doe well to expresse himselfe more particularly for time and place. This is more conformable to the examples of our heroicke ancestors, who used not to spend their time in scratching one another out of holes, but in pitched fields determined their doubts. This would quickly set a period to the sufferings of the people, unlesse he desire rather to prolong those miserable distractions, which were begun with breach of promise. It were pitty if his desires leade him this way, but he should be satisfied: and let the God of hattels determine the right of our English lawes and liberties."]

GEORGE DIGBY,

EARL OF BRISTOL,

A SINGULAR person, whose life was one contradiction. He wrote against Popery, and embraced it; he was a zealous opposer of the court, and a sacrifice for it; was conscientiously converted in the midst of his prosecution of lord Strafford, and was most unconscientiously a prosecutor of lord Clarendon. With great parts, he always hurt himself and his friends; with romantic bravery, he was always an unsuccessful commander3. He spoke for the

• [He was secretary of state and privy-counsellor to Charles the second, but forfeited both these offices, by reconciling himself to the church of Rome, against which he had written several pieces of controversy. Swift called him the prototype of lord Bolingbroke. It seems that his lordship, after the wreck of his fortune in the civil war, had formed a design of applying to the crown of France for employment and subsistence. Biog. Hist. vol. iii. p. 22.]

[In Biog. Brit. vol. v. a copious article is allotted to this nobleman by Dr. Kippis, which closes with this general inference; "The life of the earl of Bristol affords a striking proof that the brightest genius, the most splendid talents, the most extensive knowledge, and the richest eloquence, are of little advantage to the possessor, and of little benefit to the world, unless they be accompanied with steadiness of principle and