“ HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.” 371 
all control, the scaffold'* would immediately have reeked with his 
blood, since, according to an emphatic observation of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, “if all the patterns of a merciless prince had been lost to 
the world, they might have been found in this one king.” Living, 
then, as it were, near the den of a furious tiger, ready to spring 
upon him in any fit of caprice—for the brutal Henry, in some of his 
sudden acts of passion and vengeance, can only be compared to such 
an animal—it has ever struck us that Cranmer’s protection of the 
Princess Mary'® from the wrath of her father, his endeavours to 
save Sir Thomas More,?° Bishop Fisher, and Cromwell (efforts all 
18 Tf all the other acts of Henry’s life had been free from reproach, his 
consigning so many of his subjects to a violent death would alone be sufficient 
to bring down upon his memory the curses of posterity. Lord Herbert mar- 
shals the number of his victims in the following order :—“ And for testimo- 
nies of this kind, some urge two queens, one cardinal (in procinctu, at least) 
or two—for Pole was condemned, though absent—dukes, marquisses, earls 
and earls sons, twelve barons and knights, eighteen abbots, priors, monks, and 
priests, seventy-seven ; of the more common sort, between one religion and 
another, huge multitudes.”—-See Life of Henry, vol. iii, p. 267. And yet 
Mr. Turner, instead of laying him under ban and anathema for these judici- 
al murders, can invest him with a false and imposing greatness. The honor, 
however, if honor it be, of endowing him with virtues which his acts prove 
he never could haye possessed, cannot be claimed by this pourtrayer of histo- 
rical character, since a Mr. Lewis has been beforehand with him in this re- 
spect, who has braved all enlightened and impartial criticism in the follow- 
ing delineation of the Tudor king. “ Having thus done justice to the un- 
grateful rebel, the English cardinal, let us return to the English patriot 
king, whose character I shall recapitulate in few words, with entire impartia- 
lity, every article of which is founded upon undeniable facts recorded in this 
treatise. Henry, then, was a person of great sagacity and judgment, of un- 
_wearied application to business, knowing men and how to manage them. 
Hence that constant harmony with his parliaments, through a reign of almost 
forty years; parliaments freely chosen, freely acting; not bribed, not bullied, 
not biassed by any thing but the native dignity of this prince, his acknow- 
ledged prudence, probity, and good designs; deliberate in council, singularly 
patient and persevering to bring to effect things once resolved on; of considera- 
ble learning himself, a friend and patron to learned men, and to every useful 
and ornamental art and science; social, magnificent, magnanimous ; a ten- 
der husband and indulgent father ; a faithful friend, a generous master; not 
lewd, not cruel, not voluptuous; an honest, open-hearted man, a sincere 
Christian, and a patriot king !”—See The Life and Reign of Henry VIII, or 
the Patriot King, by Edward Lewis, p. 242-43. London, 1769. 
'® He is said to have persuaded Henry not to put his daughter Mary to 
death, which we must in charity hope, adds Mr. Hallam, she did not know. 
—Const. Hist. vol. i, p. 131. 
*° His tender heart and abhorrence from blood-shedding propounding 
