277 



VANE, SIR. HENRY. 



VAN HELMONT, SEGRES JACOB. 



278 



comptroller of the household and secretary of state to King Charles I 

 He received the first part of his education at Westminster School 

 About the sixteenth year of hia age Sir Henry Vane became a gentle 

 man commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford ; but Wood says, that when 

 he should have matriculated as a member of the university, and taken 

 the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, he quitted his gown, put on 

 cloak, and studied notwithstanding for some time in that hall. On 

 leaving Oxford he spent some time in France, and more in Geneva 

 where he contracted an unconquerable aversion towards the govern 

 ment and liturgy of the Church of England. After his return home 

 his father, being then comptroller of the household and a privy coun 

 cillor, was greatly displeased on discovering the heterodox state of hie 

 son's opinions. The interference of Laud in the work of recalling 

 him to the doctrines of the Church of England produced the effect o 

 confirming him in his sectarianism. In 1635 he went, for conscienc 

 sake, to the infant colony of New England, where he remained abou 

 two years. On his return to England he married ; and, through his 

 father's interest, was joined with Sir William Russell in the office o 

 treasurer of the navy. In 1640 he was knighted. He sat for th( 

 borough of Kingston-upon-Hull in the parliament which met at West 

 minster, April 13, 1640, and again in the Long Parliament, which 

 began November 3, the same year. During Strafford's trial young 

 Vane, in searching for some papers for his father, found in his father' i 

 cabinet some notes, which were used as material evidence again s 

 Strafford on the trial. Having been appointed sole treasurer of the 

 navy, and considering the fees, which by reason of the war amountec 

 to nearly 30,000. a .year, as too much for a private subject, he gave 

 up his patent, which he had for life from Charles L, to the parliament 

 only desiring that 2000Z. a year should go to a deputy whom he hac 

 bred to the business. When the Independents sprung up, he declared 

 himself one of their leaders. He did not approve of the force put 

 upon the parliament by the army, nor of the king's execution, with- 

 drawing for some time for public affairs. 



Upon the establishment of the Commonwealth, in February 1648-49. 

 he was appointed one of the council of state ; and in 1652 he was for 

 a time president of the same council, and also at the same time one oi 

 the commissioners of the navy. On the 9th of January 1649-50, he 

 made the Report to the House of Commons from the Committee 

 appointed to consider the manner of electing future Parliaments. 

 Towards the end of 1651 he was nominated one of the commissioners 

 that were to be sent into Scotland in order to introduce the English 

 government there. 



Vane was one of those who would not submit to the usurpation of 

 Cromwell. When Lieutenant-Colonel Worsley entered the House of 

 Commons, on the 20th of April 1653, with two files of musqueteers, 

 to drive out the Commons, Vane exclaimed, "This is not honest ! yea, 

 it is against morality and common honesty : " whereupon Cromwell 

 fell a railing at him, crying put with a loud voice, " 0, Sir Henry 

 Vane ! Sir Henry Vane ! the Lord deliver me from Sir Henry Vane ! " 

 In 1656, as Vane persevered in his hostility to Cromwell's government 

 which hostility he displayed in a book published by him, entitled 

 'A Healing Question propounded and resolved' he was imprisoned 

 for some time in Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight. But not 

 withstanding this and other means to shake his resolution, he remained 

 inflexible both under Oliver and his son and successor Richard. 



After Richard's abdication the Long Parliament, which had been 

 restored by a general council of the officers of the army, constituted 

 Sir Henry one of the Committee of Safety, and also a member, and 

 afterwards president, of the council of state. But he afterwards 

 seems to have fallen under the displeasure of the parliament, for it 

 was voted that he should repair to his house at Raby, and remain 

 there during the pleasure of the parliament. 



On the king's restoration, the House of Commons resolved, on the 

 llth -of June 1660, that Sir H. Vane should be one of the twenty 

 persons to be exceptcd out of the Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, 

 for and in respect only of such pains, penalties, and forfeitures, not 

 extending to life, as should be thought fit to be inflicted on him. In 

 July he was committed to the Tower. In January 1660-61 an insur- 

 rection of the Fifth-Monarchy Men broke out, and Sir Henry Vane, 

 being almost the only person of station who had countenanced them, 

 was removed from one prison to another, and at last to the Isle of 

 Scilly. In August 1660 the Lords and Commons had joined in a 

 petition to the king, that " if he were attainted, yet execution as to 

 his life might be remitted," to which his majesty returned a favourable 

 answer. But in July 1661 the Commons had so far altered their 

 sentiments as to order that he should be proceeded against according 

 to law, and for that purpose be sent for back to the Tower of London. 



On Monday the 2nd of June 1662, Vane was arraigned, having been 

 indicted of high treason before the Middlesex grand jury the preceding 

 term. He pressed much for counsel, and the court assured him that 

 after pleading counsel should be assigned him ; which assurance, after 

 his pleading not guilty, we are informed the court thought fit to 

 violate. On Friday the 6th of June, the attorney-general having 

 addressed the jury, Sir Henry was required to make his defence, and 

 to go through with his case all at once, and not to reply again upon 

 the crown lawyers. Vane spoke in his defence with great spirit and 

 courage. After he had finished, Finch, the solicitor-general, addressed 

 the jury, who, having then retired for about half an hour, returned 



with their verdict, which found the prisoner guilty of high treason 

 from the 30th of January 1648 (the day of Charles I.'B execution). 

 On the llth of June, the sentence-day, the court finally refused to 

 hear hid reasons for an arrest of judgment, though they had promised 

 him, before the verdict, that they would hear anything of that kind he 

 had to offer ; as they had also, before his pleading not yuilty, promised 

 him counsel. The sentence was, that he should be hanged, drawn, 

 and quartered, at Tyburn ; but in the order for his execution the 

 manner of his death was altered into a beheading only on Tower 

 Hill, which order was accordingly carried into execution on the 14th 

 of Juno. 



Sir Henry Vane left only one son, who was knighted by King 

 Charles II., and created, by King William, Lord Barnard of Barnard 

 Castle. 



Sir Henry Vane was the author of various publications, both 

 political and theological. Of the latter, the most remarkable bears 

 the following strange title : ' The Retired Man's Meditations, or the 

 Mysterie and Power of Godlines shining forth in the Living Word, 

 to the unmasking the Mysterie of Iniquity in the most Refined and 

 Purest Forms. In which Old Light is restored, and New Light 

 justified, being the Witness which is given to this Age. By Henry 

 Vane, Knight,' 4to, 1655, in which, amongst other subjects equally 

 dark, he discusses the " creation, nature, and ministry of angels," 

 " the tree of knowledge of good and evil," the " fall of man," and 

 "the thousand years' reign of Christ;" which last discussion, though 

 it might be supposed to be the Fifth-Monarchy Man's strong subject, 

 we found the most unintelligible of the whole. 



(The Life and Death of Sir Henry Vane, Knt., Lond., 1662 ; Bwg. 

 Brit., art. ' Vane ;' Ath. Oxon., art. 'Vane;' Birch's Lives ; Ludlow's 

 Memoirs; Vane's Speeches in Brit. Mus. ; Whitelock; Trial of Sir 

 Henry Vane, Knt,, 1662; State Trials, vol. ii.) 



VAN EFFEN, JUSTUS, a writer who has been called the Addison 

 of Holland, was born at Utrecht in 1684, and was intended by his 

 father for the same profession as his own, namely, the military service. 

 But Justus felt no inclination for the army : he preferred study, and 

 applied himself to that of jurisprudence, in which faculty he obtained 

 a Doctor's degree at Leyden in 1727. He does not however appear 

 to have practised law much as a profession ; for he was at first suc- 

 cessively employed as private teacher in several families of rank, and 

 afterwards occupied in literary pursuits. In the first-mentioned 

 capacity he was brought into contact with superior society, and had 

 the opportunity of forming advantageous connections, owing to one 

 of which he was appointed to accompany Van Duivenvoorde as his 

 second secretary when he was sent by the States, in 1714, to con- 

 gratulate George I. on his accession. He afterwards visited England 

 a second time iu 1727, in the quality of first secretary to Count Van 

 Weldereu, who was then ambassador to this country. On the former 

 of these occasions he became acquainted with Swift's writings, and 

 translated his ' Tale of a Tub,' not however into Dutch, but into 

 French, which language he wrote as easily as his own, under the title 

 of ' Conte du Tonneau.' On the other, he was elected a member of 

 the Royal Society of London. In 1719 he visited Sweden, in company 

 with a German nobleman, and there received many marks of attention 

 from the highest persons at court. A place of some emolument was 

 bestowed upon him by his patron Van Welderen ; but as its duties 

 did not accord with his inclination, he put in a substitute, to whom 

 he gave up a considerable part of the salary, and occupied himself 

 with his pen, not only more congenially, but so successfully as to 

 acquire a high literary reputation. 



Many years before (1711) he had published a French work, under 

 the title of ' Le Misanthrope,' upon the plan of our English ' Spectator,' 

 and he now commenced a similar one, but every way superior to the 

 former. The ' Hollandsche Spectator,' begun in 1731, 'and continued 

 till 1735, the year of the author's death, was not only the first attempt 

 of the kind in the language, but has become a classical work. It is 

 stamped by easy elegance of style, by pleasantry and wit, attempered 

 by judgment and correct feeling. Like his English model, Van Effen 

 both instructs and pleases ; and if time has deprived their pictures of 

 life and manners of the charm of freshness, it has also imparted to 

 them no little historic value. 



(Van Kampen, Beknopte Qeschiednis van der Letter en en Wetenschap- 

 pen in de Nederlanden.) 



VAN HELMONT, SEGRES JACOB, a Flemish historical painter, 

 was born at Antwerp in 1683. He was the son of Matthew Van 

 ffelmont, a painter of Brussels, and was instructed in his art by his 

 'ather : he followed however a very different line. The father painted 

 markets, fairs, shops, alchemists at work, and similar scenes; the son 

 distinguished himself for religious compositions in the great style. 

 The younger Van Helmont settled at Brussels : he was of a weak con- 

 stitution, and never left his own country. He excelled in composition 

 and in colouring, and was considered ono of the best Flemish painters 

 of his time. He painted many works for the churches and for private 

 )ersons at Brussels. Descamps has enumerated many of his works. 

 The Triumph of Elijah over the Priests of Baal, in the church of the 

 Carmelites ; the Martyrdom of St. Barbara, in St. Mary Magdalen ; 

 and the Triumph of David, in St. Michael's church, at Brussels, are 

 considered his masterpieces. He died at Brussels in 1736, aged fifty- 

 hree. 



