526 JOHN MILTON. 



Milton is the sophist of government ; he is recommending a measure 

 of finance with the arguments of fanaticism ; at least, there is a one- 

 sidedness in his point of view, a cold overlooking of the comforts of 

 the clergy, of the rights of property, and of the interests of learning, 

 which in our opinion does not result from a sour bigotry, but from 

 a statesmanlike resolution to conceal the wrong side of the question. 



" Letter to a Friend concerning the Ruptures of the Common- 

 wealth." This letter does not display to advantage the political 

 opinions of Milton. He writes, no doubt, to General Monk, in a 

 moment of anarchy ; he says to the leader of the army, which was, 

 in fact, omnipotent, " The things to be insisted on are (1.) Liberty 

 of conscience, and (2.) The abjuration of a single person: but 

 whether the government be an annual democracy, or a perpetual 

 aristocracy, is not a consideration." An oath of hatred to loyalty is 

 here, as well as in the three following essays, made of more im- 

 portance than a provision for the periodical influence of popular 

 choice on the constitution of parliament. There is a false sense of 

 proportionate value in this estimate ; and a contempt for the multi- 

 tude, as if it were incapable of any other liberty than liberty of 

 conscience. Dissent from the Church of England, and oligarchic 

 republicanism, are principles from which Milton never swerves ; the 

 importance of an elective constitution to the stability of liberty he 

 seems not to have perceived, nor the importance of a constitution 

 partially hereditary to the stability of an hereditary one. 



He recommends the establishment of a " Grand or General Council 

 of the Nation," whose existence is to be perpetual, and whose wis- 

 dom is to be exercised in the arrangement of peace or war, in the 

 formation of general laws, &c. As a check upon this body, and as 

 a local administrating power, is to be formed " a standing council in 

 every city and great town," whose authority, within a certain bound, 

 is to extend to all matters, social as well as judiciary, even to the 

 " ornaments of public civilities, academies, and such like." Popular 

 opinion, however, was now reverting to its bias in favour of mo- 

 narchy ; Milton, therefore, in an agony of despair, lest his country- 

 men should obstinately determine to return to what seemed to him 

 worse than Egyptian bondage, resumed his pen, a few months after 

 the publication of the letter on a Free Commonwealth, and endea- 

 voured to infuse in the nation at large his own stern anti-monarchical 

 spirit. His manner of writing in this piece, partakes of the strength 

 and fervidness of his feelings. 



" Accidence commenced Grammar." The Latin grammar of Milton 

 may claim rank for its conciseness, for the command displayed of 

 classical example, for the original notice of some laws of language 

 not usually recorded, and for greatly surpassing the grammars then 

 extant. 



His " History of Britain to the Norman Conquest" still remains the 

 best extant account of that obscure period of our annals. In general 

 the execution of his task is every way so worthy of his learning, of 

 his eloquence, and of his moral spirit, that patriotism and posterity 

 must alike regret the early termination of his toil. A national his- 



