472 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



there appears the slightest evidence 

 to prove that he received. It would 

 have been inconsistent with his ar- 

 dent feelings, to remain a calm 

 spectator ot his country's wrongs; 

 and, however anxiously be might 

 geek to redress them, a solemn act 

 of the legislature has long since 

 rei>cued his memory from the im- 

 putation of all legal, and all moral 

 guilt. He fell, indeed, a martyr 

 to his principles, and a victim to 

 the vengeance of a tyrant, whose 

 life he had generously preserved. 



Regarding religion solely as a 

 divine philosophy, Sydney placed 

 no reliance on the efficacy of ex- 

 ternal forms. He was a firrp be- 

 liever in tiie wisdom and benevo- 

 lence of the Deity ; in the truth 

 and obligations of the christian 

 scheme : but he was averse to pub- 

 lic worship, and to every descrip- 

 tion of ecclesiastical influence in 

 the state. He was devoid of all 

 intolerance and bigotry, where re- 

 ligion alone was concerned, and 

 his aversion to popery was chiefly 

 grounded on its supposed connec- 

 tion with arbitrary power. 



As a writer on government, Syd- 

 ney was eminently qualified to ex- 

 cel, no less from his cultivated taste 

 and genius, than from his intimate 

 acquaintance wilh the theory and 

 prucliie of pnllticdl institutions, 

 and his aidour in defending the 

 common rights and freedom of 

 mui^kind. A master at once of 

 reason and of expression, he wrote 

 from his judgment and his heart; 

 and conveyed the result of his prin- 

 ciples and knowledge, in a cle^r, 

 flowing and nervous style. Cot)- 

 versant «ith the bes-t writers of an- 

 tiquity, and the jiurest models of 

 more recent times, he had studied 



the history of nations, as it tended 

 to unfold the evils of despotism, 

 and the advantages of popular con- 

 trol. And his expedients for the 

 preservation or establishment of 

 civil liberty, are few, simple, and 

 practical, wherever public virtue, 

 its only effectual safeguard, can be 



found 



But the approbation bestowed on 

 Sydney, by the historian or the pa- 

 triot, has been by no means con- 

 fined to the speculations of his re- 

 tirement: it has accompanied him 

 amid the tumults and dissensions 

 of his active life. Above all, the in- 

 justice of his sentence has been al- 

 most universally condemned ; and 

 " the production of papers, con- 

 taining speculative opinions upon 

 government and liberty, as a sub- 

 stitute for a second witness, depre- 

 cated, as a system of wickedness 

 and nonsense, hardly to be paral- 

 leled in the history of juridical ty- 

 ranny." He has been regarded as 

 innocent even of political crimes ; 

 as a victim to the sanguinary ven- 

 geance of his profligate and perfi- 

 dious king. 



Such was Algernon Sydney : 

 such, by the liberal and enlighten- 

 ed, has he ever been esteemed.— 

 His little errors are lost in the 

 blaze of transcendant genius, of 

 virtues such as fall not to the com- 

 mon lot of man. Let those, who 

 CHlumniate his character and revile 

 his principles,remember, that tp the 

 practical assertion of those very 

 priijciples at the revolution, Eug-^ 

 land has owed h^r best superiprity 

 over the nations of ^prope. If h^ 

 formed too favourable an opjnjon 

 of the dignity of humar« nat^ire, 

 and recpincnepded n freedooo too 

 pure a|id too lofty for t^ie passionn 



