497 



SIDNEY, ALGERNON, 



SIDNEY, ALGERNON. 



father with irregular and scauty remittances ; and during his wander- 

 ings on the Continent he was often in groat straits. 



It ia commonly stated that Sidney's pardon was obtained through 

 the interest of the Earl of Sunderland, who was the son of his sister 

 Dorothy (Waller's ' Sacharissa ') ; but he himself, in a letter to the 

 Hon. Henry Savile, then the English ambassador at the court of 

 France, appears to attribute it to that gentleman's exertions. " My 

 obligation unto you," ho says, " I so far acknowledge ... to be the 

 greatest that I have in a long time received from any man, as not 

 to value the leave you have obtained for me to return into my 

 country, after so long an absence, at a lower rate than the saving of 

 my life." 



We are indebted for the strongest light that has been cast upon the 

 conduct of Sidney after his return, to the despatches of the French 

 minister, Barillon, published from the originals in the foreign office at 

 Versailles, by Sir John Dalrymple, in his ' Memoirs of Great Britain 

 and Ireland,' 4to, Lond., 1773. In a despatch dated 5th December 

 1680, Barillon writes, "Tho Sieur Algernoon Sydney is a man of 

 great views and very high designs, which tend to the establishment of 

 a republic. He is in the party of the Independents and other secta- 

 ries ; and this party were masters during the last troubles. They are 

 not at present very powerful in parliament, but they are strong in 

 London; audit is through the intrigues of the Sieur Algernoon Sidney 

 that one of the two sheriffs, named Bethal, has been elected. The 

 Duke of Buckingham is of the same party, and believes himself at the 

 head, &c. . . . The service which I may draw from Mr. Sidney does 

 not appear, for his connections are with obscure and concealed 

 persons ; but he is intimate with the Sieur Jones [Sir William Jones, 

 lately attorney-general], who is a man of the greatest knowledge in 

 the laws of England, and will be chancellor, if the party opposed to 

 the court shall gain the superiority, and the Earl of Shaftesbury be 

 contented with any other employment." And in the account of his 

 disbursements among the patriots, from the 22nd December 1678, to 

 the 14th December 1679, Barillon sets down "To Mr. Sidney 500 

 guineas, which makes 543Z. 15s. sterling." See also the despatch of 

 September 30th, 1680, for an account of the arguments Sidney was 

 accustomed to use with Barillon to show that it was for the interest 

 of France that England should be converted into a republic. Mr. 

 Hallam has some remarks which will be found worth attention upon 

 the conduct imputed to Sidney as to this matter, in his ' Constitutional 

 History,' vol. ii. 



Sidney was a candidate for the representation of Guildford, at the 

 general election in 1678, and for Bramber at that in 1679; but was 

 defeated both times, although on the first occasion he petitioned 

 against the return of his opponent, and on the second he was only 

 unseated after a double return. He had thus openly taken his stand 

 as the opponent of the court ; and he was looked upon as leagued with 

 Monmouth, Shaftesbury, Russell, Essex, and the other popular leaders, 

 who may have differed among themselves in their principles and 

 views, but the designs of the most moderate of whom certainly 

 extended to such a change of government as would have amounted to 

 a revolution. When the Rye-House Plot was announced [RUSSELL, 

 WILLIAM, LORD], in June 1683, Sidney was immediately arrested, 

 along with his friend Lord Russell, and committed to the Tower on 

 a charge of high treason. He was brought up to the bar of the 

 King's Bench to plead, on the 7th of November, and his trial took 

 place on the 21st, before Sir George Jefferies, lately promoted to the 

 place of Lord Chief Justice. Jefferies exhibited less than usual of his 

 wonted coarseness and passion on this occasion ; but his demeanour 

 was very determined and inflexible, and he bore down every objection 

 of the prisoner with an authority that nothing could shake or impress. 

 The only evidence in support of the principal facts charged was the 

 vile Lord Howard of Escrick, who had, according to his own account 

 been a party to the plot, and now came to swear away the lives of his 

 associates in order to save his own ; and as the law of high treason 

 required two witnesses to prove the crime, the other was supplied by 

 bringing forward a manuscript found among Sidney's papers, and 

 asserted, no doubt with truth, to be his handwriting, which, it was 

 pretended, contained an avowal and defence of principles the same, or 

 of the same nature, with those involved in the alleged plot. He was 

 on this imperfect evidence found guilty ; and being again brought up 

 on the 26th, was sentenced to be put to death after the manner of 

 execution then enjoined by law in cases of high treason. He twice 

 petitioned the king for pardon ; but all that could be obtained for 

 him was the remission of the degrading and brutal parts of his 

 sentence ; and on Friday, the 7th of December, he was beheaded on 

 Tower Hill. No one ever suffered with moro firmness or with less 

 parade. He did not even address the people ; but when asked to 

 speak, replied that he had made his peace with God, and had nothing 

 to say to man. A paper which he delivered to the sheriff, and which 

 was afterwards printed, concluded as follows : " The Lord sanctify 

 these my sufferings unto me ; and though I fall as a sacrifice unto 

 idols, suffer not idolatry to be established in this land. . . . Grant 

 that I may die glorifying thee for all thy mercies, and that at the last 

 thou hast permitted me to be singled out as a witness of thy truth, 

 and, even by the confession of my very opposers, for that old cause, 

 in which I was from my youth engaged, and for which thou hast 

 often and wonderfully declared thyself." 

 BIOQ. D1V. VOL. V, 



The trial and condemnation of Algernon Sidney seem very naturally 

 to have shocked the public feeling of the time in no ordinary degree. 

 Even the cautious Evelyn, after stating that he was executed " on the 

 single witness of that monster of a man, Lord Howard of Escrick, 

 and some sheets of paper taken in Mr. Sidney's study, pretended to be 

 written by him, but not fully proved, nor the time when, but appear- 

 ing to have been written before his majesty's restoration, and then 

 pardoned by the Act of Oblivion," adds, that " though Mr. Sidney 

 was known to be a person obstinately averse to government by a 

 monarch (the subject of the paper was in answer to one of Sir E. [R. ?] 

 Filmer), yet it was thought he had very hard measure." He describes 

 Sidney as " a man of great courage, great sense, great parts, which 

 he showed both at his trial and death ; " and he appears to have been 

 looked upon universally in the same light by his friends as one of 

 the ablest, by his enemies as ono of the most dangerous of his party. 

 While he was yet in exile, Charles himself, in 1670, described him to 

 Colbert, the French minister, as one who could not be too far from 

 England, where his pernicious sentiments, supported with so great 

 parts and courage, might do much hurt : and there can be little 

 doubt that Charles's personal enmity contributed to this manifest 

 perversion of the law. With the exception of Shaftesbury Sidney was 

 the only person of eminent ability in the particular knot of patriots 

 to which he belonged. Yet he must not be confounded in intellec- 

 tual, any more than in moral character, with that brilliant and 

 versatile politician. A man of talents and accomplishments be was, 

 but narrow-minded, opinionative, and egotistical, to the point of utter 

 impracticability. Burnet describes him "as a man of most extra- 

 ordinary courage, a steady man, even to obstinacy, sincere, but of a 

 rough and boisterous temper, that could not bear contradiction, but 

 would give foul language upon it. He seemed to be a Christian," 

 adda the bishop, " but in a particular form of his own : he thought it 

 was to be lik a divine philosophy in the mind ; but he was against 

 all public worship, and everything that looked like a church. He 

 was stiff to all republican principles, and such an enemy to everything 

 that looked like monarchy, that he set himself in a high opposition 

 against Cromwell when he was made Protector. He had studied the 

 history of government in all its branches beyond any man I ever knew." 



Sidney's ' Discourses concerning Government ' were first published 

 in 1698, with a short preface by John Toland ; again in 1704, and a 

 third time in 1751, at the expense of Mr. Thomas Hollis, who pre- 

 fixed a Life of the Author, and also printed for the first time his 

 ' Apology ' already mentioned. This edition of the works of Algernon 

 Sidney was reproduced in 1772 by Mr. Brand Hollis, to whom Mr. 

 Thomas Hollis left his property, with notes and corrections by Mr. J. 

 Robertson, and the addition of some letters and other short pieces of 

 Sidney's, all previously published, together with a tract entitled 'A 

 General View of Government in Europe,' first printed in James Ralph's 

 anonymous publication entitled ' Of the Use and Abuse of Parlia- 

 ments,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1744, and there attributed to Sidney, but 

 which Robertson says he is convinced ' is the production of a different 

 hand.' In fact there is no doubt that it is spurious. The two edi- 

 tions of 1751 and 1772 both contain 'Letters of the Honourable 

 Algernon Sydney to the Honourable Henry Savile, Ambassador in 

 France, in the year 1679, <fec., now first printed from the Originals in 

 Mr, Sidney's own Hand,' which originally appeared ia an octavo 

 volume at London in 1742. See also Arthur Collins's ' Memoirs of the 

 Lives and Actions of the Sydneys,' prefixed to his ' Letters and 

 Memorials of State,' &c., 2 vols. fol., London, 1746 ; and Blencowe'a 

 ' Sidney Papers,' 8vo, London, 1825. Collins states that several 

 treatises by Sidney in Latin and Italian, and also an ' Essay on 

 Virtuous Love,' in English, remain in his own handwriting at 

 Penshurst. There is a Life of Algernon Sydney, by George Wilson 

 Meadley, 8vo, London, 1813. 



Sidney's trial was printed in 1684, but is said to have first passed 

 through the hands of Jefferies, who struck out whatever he pleased. 

 It is given, along with the other trials connected with the Rye-house 

 Plot, in Howel's 'State Trials,' vol. ix., pp. 357-1000. See also the 

 ' True Account and Declaration of the Horrid Conspiracy against the 

 late King,' &c., written by Bishop Sprat, and published by order of 

 James II. in 1685; and 'The Secret History of the Ryehouse Plot, by 

 Ford, lord Grey,' first printed in 1754. 



The attainder of Algernon Sidney was reversed after the Revolutioa 

 by the 7th Private Act of the first session of the first parliament of 

 William and Mary, the preamble of which declared that Sidney had 

 been most unjustly and wrongfully convicted and attainted " by means 

 of an illegal return of jurors, and by denial of his lawful challenges to 

 divers of them for want of freehold, and without sufficient legal 

 evidence of any treasons committed by him ; there being at that time 

 produced a paper found in the closet of the said Algernon, supposed 

 to be his handwriting, which was not proved by the testimony of any 

 one witness to be written by him, but the jury was directed to believe 

 it by comparing it with other papers of the said Algernon ; besides 

 that paper so produced, there was but one witness to prove any matter 

 against the said Algernon ; and by a partial and unjust construction of 

 the statute declaring what was his treason." It is observable, that 

 neither ha this Act nor in that passed in the same session reversing 

 the attainder of Lord Russell is there any assertion of the innocence 

 of the convicted party. 



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