/Sir Harry Vane 155 



young man had written his name indelibly upon 

 one of the earliest pages in the history of the 

 American people. It is pleasant to remember 

 that this admirable man was once the chief magis- 

 trate of an American commonwealth. Thorough 

 republican and enthusiastic lover of liberty, he was 

 spiritually akin to Jefferson and to Samuel Adams. 

 His career furnishes an excellent illustration of Mr. 

 Doyle's remark, that " by looking at the colony of 

 Massachusetts, we can see what sort of a common- 

 wealth was constructed by the best men of the Puri- 

 tan party, and to some extent what they would 

 have made of the government of England if they 

 could have had their way unchecked." 



An adequate biography of this great statesman 

 was a thing much to be desired. Half a century 

 ago Mr. C. W. Upham contributed to Sparks' s 

 " American Biography " an interesting life of 

 Vane ; and about the same time Mr. John Forster, 

 in his " Statesmen of the Commonwealth," made a 

 sketch characterized by his usual brilliancy. But 

 both these writers indulged themselves in that kind 

 of indiscriminate eulogy which used in those days 

 to be thought necessary for biographers ; and by 

 way of foil to their hero they seemed to feel bound 

 to underrate and misinterpret Cromwell, even as 

 Carlyle seemed to think he was exalting the great 



