counsel a conduct, certainly, highly repugnant to that strict impartiality, which ought to be expected from a judge.

MARVELL, (ANDREW) a very ingenious political and critical writer was born in England, in the year 1620, and bred at the university of Cambridge. He travelled, through the most polite parts of Europe, and was secretary, to the embassy at Constantinople. His first appearance in public business, in England, was as assistant to the celebrated John Milton, Latin secretary to the protector Cromwell. A little before the restoration, he was chosen by his native town, Kingston upon Hull, to sit in that parliament which began at Westminster in April 1660, and is recorded as the last member of parliament, who received the wages or allowance anciently paid to representatives by their constituents. He is also one

of the finest examples of genuine patriotism ever mentioned in history. After the restoration, he manfully supported the civil and religious liberties of his country, by his writings and his parliamentary interest, against the arbitrary encroachments of the crown on both.

The tendency of the ruling powers to popery, appearing to be countenanced and encouraged by some time-serving bishops, and other dignitaries of the church of England, he most deservedly lashed, in satirical writings, and, at the same time, to check the measures taken by government to introduce it again, he published an anonymous account of the growth of popery and arbitrary power in England,

In this famous tract he asserted, that the war with the Dutch was owing to the influence of the French and popish party on the public councils. It gave great offence to the ministry; but it opened the eyes of the people, and had a sensible effect in parliament.

Notwithstanding this, king Charles II. took great delight in his conversation, and tried all means to gain him over to his side; but in vain, nothing being ever able to shake his resolution.

There were many instances of his firmness in resisting the offers of the court; but he was proof against all temptations. The king having one night entertained him, sent his lord treasurer the next morning, to visit him in his obscure lodgings, and to make him the most ample offers of honors and emoluments, if he would come over to the court party. His answer upon this occasion deserves to be recorded: that "he could not, with honor, accept his majesty's offers; since, if he did, he must either be ungrateful to the king, in voting against him, or false to his country, in giving in to the measures of the court. The only favor, therefore, he had to request of his majesty was, that he would esteem him as dutiful a subject as any he had, and more in his proper interest, by refusing his offers, than if he had embraced them." The treasurer, knowing his distressed circumstances, likewise, offered him 1000!. sterling, in money, as an unconditional present from the king, and only a tribute to his great merit; but this temptation he withstood, with the same noble firmness, though, as soon as the lord treasurer was gone, he was forced to apply to a friend to borrow a guinea.

He died in the year 1678, not without strong suspicions of being poisoned, being then in the 58th year of his age. He wrote many ingenious pieces, as "The Rehearsal transposed." "A Short Historical Essay concerning General Councils, Creeds, and Impositions in Matters of Religion, &c." also po

ems and letters.

MARIE ANTOINETTE, (QUEEN OF FRANCE) See ANTOINETTE,

MARY, (QUEEN OF SCOTS) famous for her wit, her beauty, her learning, and her misfortunes, daughter of James V., was born in the royal palace of Linlithgow, 8th Dec. 1542. Her mother was Mary, the eldest daughter of Claude, duke of Guise, and widow of Louis, duke of Longueville, in France. Her father dying a few days after her birth, she scarcely existed before she was hailed queen.

The government of a queen was unknown in Scotland; and the government of an infant queen could not command much respect from martial and turbulent nobles, who looked upon the most warlike of their monarchs, in hardly any other light, than as the chief of the aristocracy; and who, upon the slightest disgusts, were ever ready to fly into rebellion and carry their arms to the foot of the throne. James had not ever provided against the disorders of a minority, by committing to proper persons the care of his daughter's education and the administration of affairs in her name. The former of these objects, however, was not neglected, though the regency of the kingdom was entrusted to very feeble hands. At six years of age, Mary was conveyed into France, where she received her education in the court of Henry II. The opening powers of her mind, and her natural disposition afforded early hopes of capacity and merit. After being taught the usual female accomplishments, she was instructed in the Latin tongue, and she is said to have understood it with an accuracy, which is, in this age, very uncommon in persons of her sex and elevated rank; but which was not then surprising, when it was the fashion among great ladies to study the ancient languages. In the French, the Italian, and the Spanish tongues, her proficiency was still greater, and she spoke them with equal ease and propriety. She was, likewise, qualified by nature, as by art, to attain to distinction in painting, poetry and musiq. To accomplish the woman was not, however, the sole object of her education, either she was taught,

or she very early discovered, the necessity of acquiring such branches of knowledge as might enable her to discharge with dignity and prudence the duties of a sovereign; and much of her time was devoted to the study of history, in which she delighted to the end of her life.

Whilst Mary resided in the court of Henry II. her personal charms made a deep impression on the mind of the Dauphin. It was in vain, that the lord constable Montmorency opposed their marriage with all his influence. The importance of her kingdom to France; and the power of her uncles, the princes of Lorraine, were more than sufficient to counteract his intrigues; and the Dauphin obtained the most beautiful princess in Christendom.

Though this alliance placed the queen of Scotland in the most conspicuous point of view, in the politest court of Europe, and drew to her those attentions which are in the highest degree pleasing to a female mind in the gaiety of youth; it may yet be considered as having accidentally laid the foundation of the greatest part of her future misfortunes. Elizabeth, who now swayed the sceptre of England, had been declared illegitimate by an act of parliament; and, though the English protestants paid no regard to a declaration, which was compelled by the tyrannic violence of Henry VIII. and which he himself had, indeed, rendered null by calling his daughter to the throne after her brother and elder sister; yet the catholics, both in England and on the Coutinent, had objections to the legitimacy of Elizabeth's birth, found. ed on principles, which with them had greater weight than the acts of any human legislature. Mary was unquestionably the next heir in regular suecession to the English throne, if Elizabeth should die without legitimate issue; and, upon her marriage to the Dauphin, she was induced by the persuasion of her uncles, by the authority of the French king, and, no doubt, partly by her own ambition, to assume the ti

tles and arms of queen of England and Ireland. These, indeed, she forbore, as soon as she became her own mistress; but her having at all assumed them was an offence, which Elizabeth could never forgive, and which, rankling in her bosom, made her, many years afterwards, pursue the unhappy queen of Scotland to the block.

Henry II. dying soon after the marriage of the dauphin and Mary, they ascended the throne of France. In that elevated station, the queen did not fail greatly to distinguish herself. The weakness of her husband served to exhibit her accomplishments to the greatest advantage; and in a court where gallantry to the sex, and the most profound respect for the person of the sovereign were inseparable from the manners of a gentleman, Mary learned the first lessons of royalty. But this scene of successful grandeur was of short duration; her husband, Francis, died unexpectedly, after a short reign of sixteen months. Regret for his death, her own humiliation, the disgrace of her uncles, the princes of Lorraine, which immediately followed, and the coldness of Catharine de Medicis, the queen-mother, who governed her son, Charles IX. plunged Mary into inexpressible sorrow. She was invited to return to her own kingdom, and she tried to reconcile herself to her fate.

She was now to pass from a situation of elegance and splendor, to the very reign of incivility and turbulence, where most of her accomplishments would be entirely lost. During her minority and absence, the protestant religion had gained a kind of establishment in Scotland; obtained; indeed, by violence, and, therefore, liable to be overturned by an act of the sovereign and of the states in parliament. queen, too, was, unhappily, of a different opinion from the great body of her subjects, upon that one topic which, among them, actuated almost every heart, and directed almost every tongue. She had been

The