Geet fouthfull Gwent & affectionalfiord Such Pampden FAC-SIMILE OF HAMPDEN'S AUTOGRAPH. as first session of the Long Parliament; though such a review would fill us with deeper admiration of the steady firmness well as the guarded and wise moderation of the friends of liberty. Nothing thwarted or diverted them from their purpose. They formally vacated the judgment of the court against Hampden, and all other writs and proceedings for levying shipmoney, and enacted that no impost, customs, or taxes, should be imposed except by act of Parliament. They abolished the tribunal of the Star Chamber and established the writ of Habeas Corpus as the sacred principle of English liberty, which Blackstone calls "the bulwark of the constitution," and which has ever been recognized by the people of America as a common right, not established but guarantied by our own Federal Constitution. They introduced the practice of appointing judges to hold office during good behavior, instead of at the king's pleasure, and they completed the circle of safeguards around the liberties of the nation. Hallam has well remarked that these acts gave the Parliament "a higher claim to the gratitude of the nation, and effected more for English liberty than any which had gone before or has followed it;" and that it is from this "era of 1640-1, rather than from the revolution of 1688, or any other epoch, we must date the full legal establishment of the liberties of England." The conduct of the king during all these transactions, and in the following parliamentary recess, assured Hampden and his | compatriots that the danger was not over; and on the reassembling of Parliament, they introduced the "Grand Remonstrance," or declaration of the grievances of the country from the king, evidently designing this as a first step towards disarming him, and of probably working forward to the ultimate abolition of royalty itself. The debates on this measure were very furious, and protracted till midnight. Sir Philip Warwick, who was a member, says: "We had sheathed our swords in each other's bosoms, had not the sagacity and great calmness of Mr. Hampden prevented it, and led us to defer our angry debate until the next morning." But the result was decisive: the remonstrance was carried by a majority of nine votes, and the Rubicon was passed. The king saw the desperateness of his case, and as a last resort, framed an accusation of high treason against Hampden and four other members, and proceeded in person to the House, with a company of armed men to arrest them. This roused the country, and in a few days the armed patriots were escorted back to their seats by an immense body of freeholders, each wearing in his hat a declaration of their zeal for the legal privileges of their representatives, “in the just defense of which, as essential to the very being of Parliaments, they declared themselves resolved to live and die." From this day, January 6th, 1642, Lord Clarendon says of Hampden, that "his nature and carriage seemed much fiercer than it did before; and without question, when he first drew the sword, he threw away the scabbard." A Committee of Public Safety was organized, and Parliament proceeded to pass an act for placing the militia of the several counties under the command of their own commissioners instead of officers appointed by the king; and when Charles refused to sign it, they passed it into an ordinance by their own authority, as the representatives of the people of England. The king made some feeble efforts to avert the crisis, but at length issued his commission of array, and on the 22d of August set up his standard against the people at Nottingham. Hampden was at once the master-spirit of the war, raised a regiment of troops in his own county, of which he was the commander, and passed from point to point to organize, and animate, and counsel the nation for the struggle. Having moderated the ardor of the less prudent through all the preparatory proceedings, he now became the foremost in courage and energy to bring the conflict to a speedy and decisive close. Here let us pause to admire the declaration put forth by Lord Nugent at the opening of the monument to Hampden in 1842: "When I speak of the right of resistance to unconstitutional and unjust infringements of public liberty, I am sure there is no man in England that would dispute it. Why, the crown of our queen-and may He who wears the crown of universal and eternal dominion establish hers and to all her lawful successors forever-is established by an act of Parliament, founded upon the doctrine of resistance; and he who propounds a doctrine contrary to this, propounds treason against the stability of the crown, by subverting the principles of public liberty on which it rests.' Hampden ought to have been made at the outset commander of the parliamentary army, instead of Essex, who, though a brave and experienced soldier, was no general, and proved wholly wanting in that breadth of view which the crisis demanded. This was the capital mistake of the patriotic party, and it was irretrievable, and led to all their subsequent misfortunes, missteps, and final defeat by the restoration. Although wholly without experience, Hampden showed by his conduct at the head of the Buckingham troops, that he had admirable capacities for the leadership. He used his utmost exertions to arouse Essex to activity, in order to put a check upon the devastations carried on by Prince Rupert, from his head-quarters at Oxford. The impatient and admiring people already began to call upon Parliament to give the command to their beloved and trusted leader. But while the members were hesitating, because there was no second Hampden in council to press the appointment of Hampden in the field, the fatal fight of Chalgrove occurred, and death removed the only man in England who was then competent to gain permanent security for her liberties. What would have been the effect in our own revolutionary struggle had not Washington had an Adams in the Congress of 1776, with wisdom to discern and courage to effect the right choice of a commander of our armies? In the spring of the year 1643, Prince Rupert, the commander of the king's troops at Oxford, busied himself almost weekly in laying waste villages and hamlets in all that region, while poor Essex was at his wits' end to know how to bring such anomalous proceedings within those old rules of strategy with which he was fami liar, and Hampden labored in vain to obtain some movement by the patriot forces to check the wanton ravages of the royalists. On Saturday, the 17th of June, Prince Rupert marched a body of about two thousand troops out of Oxford at three o'clock P. M., across the narrow stone bridge at Chislehampton, and by three in the morning reached and attacked Portcombe and Chinner. The country is much cut up by lanes between the fields, narrow, bounded on each side by bridges, and worn often to a considerable depth. It is also intersected by deep chalky hollows, so as to be almost impracticable for cavalry, except along the main roads-two old Roman ways called Upper and Lower Ikenild. Hampden was familiar with all the passes of the country, but finding it impossible to get the Lord General to act with promptness, he set forth with a squadron of mounted dragoons, and proceeded to harass the Prince and impede his flight till the army could intercept and prevent his return to Oxford. The forces met on Chalgrove Field, Hampden put himself at the head of the attack, and at the first charge was mortally wounded in the shoulder, the troops retreated, and Hampden rode back to Thame in great weakness, and there ended his life after six days of terrible suffering. Having felt from the first that his hurt was mortal, he diligently occupied the few days that remained to him in corresponding with the leaders of the country, to urge them to break up the irresolute and lazy spirit that presided over the army, to rouse them from the despondency produced by their many recent disasters, and prepare to strike some blow that might be decisive. This was his last counsel for his country. About seven hours before his death, he received the Lord's Supper from his two attending ministers and friends, Dr. Giles, the Episcopal rector of Chinner, and Dr. Spurstow, the Independent chaplain of his own regiment. At length, being well nigh gone, and laboring for breath, he prayed audibly : "O Lord God of Hosts, great is thy mercy, just and holy are thy dealings unto us sinful men. Save me, O Lord, if it be thy good will, from the jaws of death. Pardon my manifold transgressions. O Lord, save my bleeding country. Have these realms in thy special keeping. Confound and level in the dust all those who would rob the people of their liberty or lawful prerogative. Let the king see his error, and turn the hearts of his wicked counselors from the malice and wickedness of their designs. Lord Jesus, receive my soul. O Lord, save my country. O Lord, be manifest to Here his speech failed, he fell back on his pillow and expired-justifying the reputation he had long enjoyed for courage, patience, piety, and love of country. A general mourning followed his decease. As a newspaper of the time declares, "The memory of this deceased colonel is such, that in no age to come but it will more and more be held in honor and esteem; a man so religious, and of that prudence, valor, and integrity, that he hath left few his like behind him." Richard Baxter says of him, "Mr. John Hampden was one that friends and enemies acknowledged to be most eminent for prudence, piety, and peaceable counsels, having the most universal praise of any gentleman that I remember of that age." And Lord Clarendon bears testimony that "his reputation for honesty was universal, and his affections seemed so publicly guided that no corrupt or private ends could bias them." There was nothing with which to repair the loss to the patriot cause. Essex became more irresolute than before, being no longer under the ascendency of a mind greater than his own. Fairfax lacked the firmness which a statesman can derive only from the depth of his convictions as to the justice of his course, and the soundness of the principles he seeks to establish. The leadership was forced upon Cromwell, a cousin of Hampden, as the only man who had the requisite earnestness and energy to carry on the contest. But he lacked the varied and vast political resources for the government of men, in which Hampden's mind was so rich, and so was unable to train the newly emancipated nation to the practical enjoyment of repulican liberty. Hence the Protectorate, the Restoration, the Revolution of 1688, the House of Hanover, American Independence, the French struggle and its failure, the outbreak of 1848, the reaction, the present. In the year 1843, the two hundredth anniversary of the battle at Chalgrove Field was commemorated by the erection of a small and unembellished monument on the spot where Hampden received his wound. The monument is of freestone. On the eastern side is inserted a medallion portrait of Hampden, carved in marble. On the western side are the Hampden And here, Within a few paces of this spot, He received the wound of which he died, And ancient liberties of England, In the Two HUNDRETH YEAR from that day, In reverence to his memory. Of all the memorable places in England that are as sacred shrines of liberty to be visited with reverence by the American traveler, there is no spot more worthy of attention than this of Chalgrove Field. There is another place containing more numerous memorials of the illustrious patriot, which has hardly begun to be made known to American pilgrims. It is Hampden House, in Buckinghamshire, on the estate which for at least seven hundred years has belonged to the Hampden family, and the little stone church which contains John Hampden's grave. The writer of this article had the honor of receiving, some years since, a copy in marble of the monument at Chalgrove Field, with a cast of the medallion portrait, sent over by the excellent Dr. Lee, of Hartwell, a descendant of the Hampdens, to be presented to the college in America which had adopted the name of Hampden, viz., to Hampden Sidney College, Prince Edward County, Virginia. The present was fully appreciated by the trustees of the college, who assigned it a suitable place in the chapel of the institution. At the suggestion of the writer, that "the reception and placing of these memorials might be made the opportunity of fixing some salutary impressions upon the young men, through a commemorative address in honor of the glorious martyr whose name is known by the college," the Honorable William C. Rives, then a distinguished Senator of the United States, was invited to deliver an oration on the character and services of John Hampden. The service was performed on the 12th of November, 1845, and the discourse, which was in admirable keeping with the occasion, was published by the trustees. This article cannot have a more fitting conclusion than by quoting a few paragraphs from the elegant production of Mr. Rives :- "The age of Hampden was the age of private, as well as public virtue. We are told by a writer, distinguished for his searching and philosophical investigations of the past, that it was 'an age more eminent for steady and scrupulous conscientiousness in private life than any, perhaps, that has gone before, or has followed.' Under the control of this high tone of national morals, the part which the middle and more numerous classes of society acted, in the busy and troubled drama of the times, was the result of sober and honest conviction-not the suggestion of heedless impulse, of passion, or of personal interest. "The age of Hampden, too, was an age of extraordinary intellectual development and of the general spread of knowledge. Never before had the national literature shone forth with such sudden and amazing splendor. Bacon, Raleigh, Milton, lighted it up with the blaze of their immortal genius. The English language itself, employed now as the instrument of grand parliamentary debates and of appeals to the nation on the mightiest questions which can agitate the minds of men, became instinct with the new spirit of liberty, and throwing off the pedantry and jargon of the schools, exhibited a flexibility, compass, and force which it had never before discovered. The general improvement of the popular mind kept pace with the advance of literature and science; and the great body of the Commons of England were trained to the comprehension and enlightened decision of the momentous issues then for the first time submitted to their arbitrament. The wise men and patriots of that day knew and felt the vital connection between popular liberty and popular intelligence, and the hazards which must ever attend their unnatural sepa ration. "Let us not be unmindful of their wise instruction. Let us be profoundly thankful that by the virtuous struggles of our glorious ancestors we are now in the peaceful enjoyment Hallam's Const. History, ch. ix.-Also, Hume's History of England, ch. lv. of the blessings of free government, without having to seek them, as they did, through the foreign or domestic, or for whatever cause unbloody scenes of civil strife. War, whether dertaken, is the saddest ordeal through which human nature can pass, and but rarely repays in its results (however successful) the havoc, calamities, and crimes which mark its dreary footsteps. A gracious Providence has set before us a happier and a nobler destiny. Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than war.' To these lofty and enduring triumphs let us address ourselves, treasuring up in our hearts the lesson so impressively taught by the inspired genius whose words have just cited, himself a Republican, who had traversed the scenes of the mighty conflict for British freedom, and who had learned, by fearful experience, to distinguish true liberty from false." The statue of "the patriot Hampden," by Mr. Foley, is one of the most interesting of those in the new Houses of Parliament, not only for its associations with the place, but also on account of its artistic excellence as a great historical portrait. We give a good engraving of it. your hand; make it the companion of your way. In the thirsty desert of this world it will supply you with the water of life; in the darkness of doubt and apprehension it will cast a gleam of heaven over your path; in the struggle of temptation and the hour of affliction it will lift up the voice of warning, encouragement, and comfort. It is the only helm that can guide you through the ocean of life and bring you safely to the immortal shores. It is the only star that leads the wandering seaman by the rocks, and breakers, and fiery tempests of utter destruction, and points him a way to the heights of everlasting blessedness. The Bible contains the only food that can satisfy the hungerings of the soul; and it is the Bible alone which can introduce us at last to the glories of immortality.-Robert Pollok. |