S I D 



his Difcourfcs on Government. 



retire 



in writnig 



But when the 



Tr'^rh^m^nr^gah^d its power, Sidney hopmg for 



t'iiriabiii t of^f repubhc, I which forrn of govern- 



ardently attached, became an adive partifan, 



;„,.„^ -,n,. of tlie council of ftate. He alfo 



of tlie couni 

 of the commiffioners for mediatmg 

 d Sweden, and was aftually 



ment he was 

 and was nominated 

 accepted the office of one 



3 peace between Denmark anu tt ., „.r 



enkaged in this embaffy at the period of Char lesll. s ref- 

 tofatin. Although he was folic.ted by general Monk and 

 Xs to return to lingland, he could repofe no confidence 

 °n the royal party, but^emained in ex,le for feventeen years, 

 findmg that the Lv fupphes which he receded from home 

 were mfufficient to fupport hnn m a manner fu.table to h.s 

 birth and rank. He was, however, treated with refped 

 and civility in various places, and particularly at Rome ; 

 and he employed his many leifure hours in making addition 

 to the ample ftock of knowledge which he had already 

 acquired. In 1677 Ins father, being advanced in lite, was 

 anxious to fee him, and employed his intereft in obtaining 

 the king's permiflion for his return, to which permi lion was 

 annexed a pardon for all his pail offences. When he after- 

 wards ioined in cabals againll the court, he incurred the 

 cenfure of thofe who were difpofed to take offence ; and 

 Mr. Hume has charged him with ading counter to the 

 moral principles of gratitude and with a breach ot taith : 

 others, however, have vindicated him, alleging that un- 

 confcious of guilt he might confider the royal permiffion to 

 return, after fo long an abfence, as a reparation of mjullice 

 rather than an aft of clemency, and that perfonal obligation 

 ought not to influence his public conduft, when he con- 

 ceived the great interells of his country in danger. At the 

 time of his return, parliament was urging the king to com- 

 mence a war with France ; but Charles, being a penfioner 

 of the French court, wifhed from felfifli motives to avoid 

 it ; but as he was aduated by no found principles, it was 

 apprehended that he would appear to concur with the 

 wiihes of the nation, th.it he might have a plea for raifing 

 fupplies, for his own perfonal gratification, in the profecu- 

 tion of his pleafures or his dehgns to render himfelf arbi- 

 trary. The Enghfli patriots were averfe from war, and 

 fome of their leaders intrigued with Barillon, the French 

 ambaffador, for preventing it. In the lift of thofe per- 

 fons in England who were at this time penfioners in 

 France, the name of Sidney appears. When this difco- 

 very was made by fir J. Dalrymple's publication of Baril- 

 lon's papers, th.e friends of liberty were aftoniflied and 

 grieved j and they heiitated in admitting this dilVionourable 

 charge. In vindication of Sidney fome have fuggefted, that 

 Barillon falfilied liis accounts of the money with which he 

 had been entruiled ; whilft others have fatisfied themfelves 

 with that perfuafion of Sidney's honour and integrity which 

 was founded on his general conduft, and with the affurancc 

 that he always adopted and purfued thofe political meafures 

 which appeared to him, all circumftances confidered, moil 

 beneficial to his country. Upon his father's death, he 

 joined the oppofition party without difguife, and offered 

 himfelf for a leat in parliament ; but he was twice defeated 

 by the influence of the court. Thus exafperated, and ap- 

 prehending the liberty of his country to be in danger, as 

 well as dreading a popifh fucceffor, the ardour of his 

 mind urged him to affociate with the duke of Monmouth 

 and his party ; and in the hillory of the Rye-houfe plot 



S I L 



he was charged with being one of fix who were promoting 

 an infurreftion. But the part which he was fuppofed to 

 have taken in a confpiracy for affaffinating the king was 

 the plea for arrefting him, together with Ruffell and feveral 

 others, in June 1683. When lord Ruffell was facrificed, 

 the next viftim felefted by the court was Sidney ; and he 

 was brought to trial for high treafon, before that judge 

 whofe infamous charafter is indelibly recorded in the page 

 of hiftory, chief-juftice Jefferies. Lord Howard, who was 

 a difgrace to the title he bore and to that rank in fociety 

 with which he was connefted, was the only direft evidence 

 againft him ; but the law required two witneffes for convic- 

 tion on a charge of treafon. In order to fupply this defeft, 

 the attorney-general produced fome paffages from difcourfes 

 found in maiuifcript in his clofct, in which the writer main- 

 tained the lawfulnefs of refifting tyrants, and his preference 

 of a free to an arbitrary government ; and without decifive 

 proof that they were written by him, or that they were 

 even communicated to any living pcrfon, this kind of evi- 

 dence was admitted, in defiance of law and common fenfe, 

 as equivalent to the teftimony of a fecond witnefs. His 

 defence was of no avail, and a fervile jury pronounced him 

 guilty. From refpeft to his family, the difgraceful part of 

 his fentence was omitted, and exchanged for beheading. 

 On the 7th of December he was executed on Tower-hill, at 

 the age of about fixty-one years, delivering to the Iheriffs a 

 paper which proved the injuftice of his condemnation, and 

 offering a prayer for that " old caufe" in which he had 

 been from his youth engaged. This paper was afterwards 

 printed, and made great impreffion on the public mind. It 

 is given at full length in the Memoirs ot his Life. He 

 fuftered with the firmnefs, as it is faid, of an old Roman. 

 After the revolution one of the firft afts was the reverfal of 

 his attainder, and his name has been held in high efteem and 

 veneration by all the avowed friends of free government. 

 The following flcetch of his charatler is given by bifhop 

 Burnet. " He was a man of moft extraordinary courage, 

 fteady even to obftinacy, fincere, but of a rough and boif- 

 terous temper that could not bear contradiction. He feemcd 

 to be a Chriftian, but in a particular form of his own ; he 

 thought it was to be like a divine philofophy in the mind, 

 but he was againft all public worfliip, and every thing that 

 looked like a church. He was ftiff to all republican prin- 

 ciples, and an enemy to every thing that looked like mo- 

 narchy. He had ftudied the hiftory of government in all 

 its branches beyond any man I ever knew ; and had a par- 

 ticular way of infinuating himfelf into people that would 

 hearken to his notions, and not contradict him." Of this 

 charafter, it is faid, in the Notes to the Memoirs of his 

 Life, that it was roughly and inaccurately drawn. Sidney's 

 " Difcourfes on Government" were firit printed in 1698, 

 fol. reprinted in 1704 and 1751, and in 410. 1772 at the 

 expence of Thomas Hollis, etq., with his letters, trial, and 

 memoirs of his life prefixed. Lord Orrery fays of them, 

 " they are admirably written, and contain great hiftorical 

 knowledge, and a remarkable propriety of dittion ; fo that 

 his name, in my opinion, ought to be much higher eita- 

 blifhed in the temple of literature than I have hitherto 

 found it placed." Biog. Brit. Gen. Biog. Memoirs, &c. 

 prefixed to HoUis's edition. 

 SIFEED Rook. See Rood. 



SILENI, 1. 20, for faccho r. Jaccho ; 1. 33, for fecond 

 r. fixth. 



SILICA, Silicon, in Chemijlry. From the recent ex- 

 periments of Berzehus and Stromeyer, the bafis of lihcon 

 does not appear to be a metal as formerly fuppofed, but a 

 fubftance analogous to boron and carbon ; hence it has been 



named 



