1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



303 



mity. The first step was the Corporation 

 Act in 1661, by which every member was 

 required to make a declaration against 

 the lawfulness of taking up arms against 

 the king on any pretence whatever, and 

 to qualify b communion and thus all 

 non-conformists that is, those who were 

 not of the church were deprived of a 

 large portion of their civil rights. Then 

 followed the Act of Uniformity directed 

 against the ministers, by which 2,000 

 were rejected from their livings. Sheldon, 

 the archbishop, a close friend of Claren- 

 don's, in reply to Dr. Allen's " pity the 

 door is so strait," answered, " if we had 

 thought so many would have conformed, 

 we would have made it straiter." 



This measure was entirely Clarendon's 

 and the bishops, Even Southampton said, 

 " If a similar oath were exacted from the 

 laity, he would refuse." But this was not 

 enough for the Chancellor ; he wanted to 

 entrap the laity as well ; and, in 1664, 

 accordingly brought in the Conventicle 

 Act, by which five or more persons, be- 

 yond the family, were forbidden to as- 

 semble for worship in any private house 

 otherwise than according to the liturgy 

 and practice of the Church of England 

 under a penalty of five pounds, and three 

 months imprisonment; doubled the second 

 time ; transportation the third ; and death 

 for returning. And this hideous law was 

 enforced with extraordinary severity 

 though nothing surely was ever less called 

 for. 



Clarendon and the bishops were not 

 yet satisfied. In 1665 came forth the 

 Five-mile Act, by which non-conformist 

 ministers were prohibited from coming 

 within five miles of any place, where they 

 had ever preached, unless on taking the 

 corporation oath, with the additional 

 clause against any attempt to change the 

 government either in church or state. 

 The lords were vehement against the bill, 

 but the bishops, a compact body, carried 

 it. The oath was generally refused. Un- 

 der these persecutions 60,000 suffered, and 

 5,000 died in prison. " After Clarendon's 

 fall," Baxter says, " though the laws were 

 rendered even more severe, yet they were 

 more tolerable, because they were no 

 longer executed so unrelentingly and im- 

 placably." 



So much also for the Chancellor's cruelty 

 and tyranny. But Mr. Ellis still sticks 

 close to his skirts; and dwells upon his 

 encouraging the attempts to assassinate 

 Cromwell, particularly Colonel Titus's; the 

 act he passed on the subject of Charles 

 ll.'s religion; and the blasphemous com- 

 parison he makes on his speaking of 

 Charles I. &c. With respect to the se- 

 cond matter, he knew Charles II. was a 

 Catholic ; and yet in July 1661, he passed 

 an act subjecting to the penalty of prae- 



munire, any who should affirm the king- 

 was a Catholic. 



We have thus given the pith of Mr. 

 Ellis's book, which is a very respectable 

 performance superior to his former pro- 

 duction, where he was indebted to De 

 Lort for his materials. Here every thing 

 is the fruit of his own researches. 



Tales of the Harem, by Mrs. Pickers- 

 gill ; 18-27. The fair inmates of the Ha- 

 rem, like monks and nuns, are well known 

 to the writers and readers of oriental 

 fancies, to be the especial victims of ennui. 

 The voluptuary dedicated to raptures, and 

 the devotee to penance, illustrate, once 

 more, how closely extremes conduct to 

 the same result. The lord of the seraglio 

 was once absent on a hostile expedition, 

 and the many beautiful creatures, whose 

 mournful destiny it was to derive all their 

 excitement from his casual smiles, were 

 languishing in their monotony of sweets. 

 Story-telling, the immemorial resort of 

 indolence, was at length determined ou 

 by the drooping party to cheat the creep- 

 ing hours ; and the present volume is pre- 

 sumed to have been the fruit of the ex- 

 periment. 



The versification of this little produc- 

 tion is of the smoothest, easiest, and most 

 flowing description the very milk and 

 honey of language and a considerable 

 degree of interest is thrown over the 

 event of each tale. The sentiments are 

 all of the unexceptionable kind, and the 

 descriptions of scenery distinct and vivid 

 the execution is often brilliant mate- 

 riam super at opus. 



Spring and summer are the only seasons 

 for this kind of thing to be fairly appre- 

 ciated, while all our feelings are attuned 

 to the soft and enervating the publica- 

 tion is therefore well-timed. We cannot 

 bear even Lallah Rookh before May, nor 

 later than July ; and Lallah Rookh must 

 be considered as the great exemplar of a 

 school of which this little volume is a 

 very close and successful imitation. 



It is no easy matter to select a morsel 

 possessed of that distinct, insulated beau- 

 ty, which is requisite for such as would 

 run while they read, and are too impa- 

 tient to have to master the whole plot of 

 a story for the sake of estimating the sam- 

 ple. We must content ourselves therefore 

 with the commencement of the Witch of 

 Hymlaya : 



Fair was the eve ; the sun's last beam 

 Shone gently on the dark-blue stream, 

 Mingling his tender streaks of red 

 With the pure rays the pale moon shed. 

 Ne'er, save beneath an eastern sky, 



Is seen so fair, so sweet an hour, 

 When Nature's self rests silently, 



In soft repose, on shrub and flower ; 



