HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. VOL. IV.*
AFTER going from bad to worse in the previous volumes, it is refreshing to find a retrograde movement all in Mr. Dixon's favour. On finishing Vol. III. we sat down with strong misgivings as to the last of the series, hopeless as to what it might contain. But we have been agreeably surprised, and can speak favourably
of its essential parts from beginning to end. Even the opening chapter promised well, and encouraged us to persevere, for it was really about the Tower, and the long roll of illustrious inmates who occupied the Lieutenant's house. Not since the earlier part of Vol. I., where all else was made subsidiary to the Tower and its associations, has Mr. Dixon written so much pertinent and con- secutive matter on this interesting subject, as in this concluding volume ; whilst we may add that it is correct, and free from a carelessness of detail that marked the earlier portions of the work.
Full of dramatic and historical material, and rich in traditions sup- ported by State records, the scenes are described with a power and originality that add new charms to their inherent attractions. "A Political Romance," "Fate of an Idealist," "Killing not Murder," "Crown Jewels," "Escaped," are headings to excite the interest of readers of light literature ; the first of them has a little bit of description in allusion to the Oceana of Harrington the Idealist, which we quote :—
" When Charles was gone, and every one was toiling after Ideal Com- monwealths, he slipt from public sight., forgot that men are men, and in a court of books—Hesperides, Utopias, Cities of the Sun—lay down and dreamt a dream. He thought him of a green and golden isle, where 'Ceres and Bacchus are perpetual twins ;' an islet rising in the Western seas, in which the verdure hides no snake, the woods conceal no beasts of prey, in which the cooling breezes bring no frost, the ripening sunshine darts no fire. Soft hills and lovely lakes adorn this Eden of the West. Great herds of sheep and cattle browse upon her slopes, from which her shepherdesses shear the fleece, and bands of milkmaids carol at the pails. A race of brave men, nursed by gentle mothers, dwell upon this isle ; brave men, and free, and who know the arts of life and put them into practice day by day ; not only for the good of one, but for the good and love of all. This isle is Oceans,—England; not the country of our civil strife, with one Big Bashaw called a Lord-Protector, and ten Lesser Bashaws called his Major-Generals, ruling it; but an Ideal Common- wealth, with citizens who fight no Naseby, cut off no king's head, and shoe their horses in no church; but bask in peace, like children of one house, in loyal confidence that what is best for all is in the long life best for each."
* Her Majesty's Tower. By William Hepworth Dixon. Vol. IV. London : Hurst and Blackett. 1871.
'Of course, Mr. Dixon has given his version of those familiar inci- dents the attempt of Colonel Blood upon the Crown jewels and the escape of Lord Nithisdale from the Tower. The former he has told as ably and graphically as the author of the clever novel of modern date Whitefriars, and his account is as close and accurate in detail as that of Sir Gilbert Talbot, master of the jewel house when the occurrence took place. As to Lord Nithisdale, Mr. Dixon's de- scription of the "scheme of baffling, personation, and disguise" contrived by Lady Nithisdale for her husband's escape is beyond our ken ; we would not venture to question the minutim of the pro- ceedings throughout, but if the scheme was as puzzling in reality as it appears on paper, we can rea lily understand the bewilder- znent of the guards and sentries and the escape of their prisoner.
Mr. Dixon has not been able to clear up the mystery of the death of Lord Essex in the Tower, but he leans to the opinion that he was murdered, and has taken some pains to show, by the contra- dictory nature of the evidence, how improbable it was that the earl fell by his own hand. He states that when Clarendon left the latter the day before his death he was a little grave, but well in health and firm in spirit, and that nothing suggested the mood, the means, the motive for an act of self-destruction. But titre is quite as much to be urged against the probability of murder *superintended by the King. A visit of the King to the Tower was not of common occurrence. He had not been there for years. It was, therefore, most improbable he should go with designs against the earl's life, go, too, in the Royal barge, and at an hour when he generally was not awake. The risk was enormous. The fact of the Earl's death occurring at the very time the King was within the Tower walls would at once throw suspicion upon himself and compel him to stay his hand. Besides, his motive could not be stronger against Essex than against Russell and Sydney, who were also in close imprisonment. But Mr. Dixon has omitted much that may be said to exonerate the King from suspicion. It was well known (at the time) that the Earl of Essex used frequently to justify self-murder, and that he was subject to fits of deep melancholy. Strangely, too, his death happened close to the spot where be took leave of his father, who, then on his way to the scaffold, solemnly charged him to adhere to the Royal cause ; it is not unlikely the memory of this scene was revived by the presence of the King, from whom he had received many favours, and that remorse for his recent treasonable conduct affected him so strongly that in a fit of despair he destroyed himself. In the jury's verdict of suicide, his widow, his brother Sir Henry Capel, and his nearest relations all acquiesced, and the jury were unanimous. The King, who appears to have been much distressed on hearing the news, is said to have -remarked with a sigh, "My Lord of Essex needed not to have despaired of mercy, for I owed him a life;" and he afterwards declared that no man in his dominions was more deeply afflicted than himself at the deplorable end of the late earl, but Mr. Dixon merely remarks that "Charles supped pleasantly that night," and that " junketing,s were heard at Court the very night before a batch of Rye-House plotters were to die." Mr. Dixon has headed his description of the matter Murder,' and he may be right in his opinion as to the way in which the earl met with his death, but it was not fair to suppress so much that could be given against the greater crime. It is not likely the truth will ever 'out,' but we think the majority of writers differ with Mr. Dixon. Mr. Dixon displays plenty of zeal on behalf of Algernon Sydney, but his views on the wholesale packing of the jury are rather overdrawn. lie says :— " The first step was to name the under-sheriffs, who would have to draw the panel. Now the under-sheriffs were appointed by the sheriffs ; the sheriffs were appointed by the wards. These popular appointments must be set aside, if Sydney was to be destroyed by legal forms. The City franchise was attacked. Dashwood and Daniel were appointed Sheriffs by the King. These nominees of the Court appointed Rouse and Hargraves as their under-sheriffs, wretches who were but too glad to earn their wage by any act which Jeffreys might dictate. They drew a jury list as they were told."
Now, the fact is the Lord Mayor made his selection of Sheriffs this year (1683) as usual (except that it was in September, instead of June), and the "Liverymen assembled at Guildhall confirmed the Lord Mayor's choice, and the election was performed with the ancient gravity and moderation." The King afterwards approved; be further commissioned them to hold office during pleasure, and they took the usual oaths. As Mr. Dixon makes the whole result of the trial hinge on the venality of the jury who were nominated through the Sheriffs, it seems important to notice that the latter were chosen not by the King, but by the City authorities in the usual way. The mockery and illegality of this trial have never
been questioned, and in the first Parliament of William and Mary the attainder of Algernon Sydney was reversed, it being enacted that he had been most wrongly and unjustly convicted" 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 eyi- deuce of any treasons committed by him." Mr. Dixon has drawn an interesting epitome of his life and character, which will not fail to enlist the reader's sympathy. In striking contrast to this patriot of the 'good old cause' stands out the closing scene in the career of Jeffreys, the unjust judge. After his seizure in attempt- ing to leave the country in the disguise of a common sailor and after narrowly escaping a fearful death from an infuriate mob, he was lodged in the Bloody Tower. Here he was visited occlusion- ally by the victims of his hateful misrule, who taunted and reproved him for his cruel sentences, and to whom he now cringed
and excused himself
"Bat the fiery demon does his work. In three months, Jeffreys, who was fat and full of strength when brought into the Tower, is like a ghost. The Bloody Tower is damp and cold. A wintry fog lies heavily on the Thames, when, racked with pain, he flies to the keg of brandy for relief. He dares not eat. His strength is gone. No food will pass his stomach ; only sack—hot sack—and brandy will go down. No skill can save him for a public death. One day he craves a little &h- a salmon, once his favourite food, but nature will not answer to his call. He droops and faints ; his mind gives way ; he gulps more liquor ; and his flesh being well-nigh wasted from his bone; he drinks more brandy, shivers in his bed, and dies."
When we arrived about half way through the book our attention began to flag, and we observed that the Tower scenes became few and far between. There is a gap of nearly thirty years from Jeffreys' death in the Bloody Tower to the imprisonment of the Scottish lords, and then a jump of fourscore years to Horne
Tooke's committal on a charge of treason ; thence we go to the Cato Street conspiracy and the last prisoner in the Tower. Interest waned as we thought of the change in the class of persons latterly held there as State prisoners, and of its sinking to the level of a common gaol. It was irritating to remember that where Raleigh wrote and Eliot died and the noble-hearted Sydney waited for his death, low adventurers shouted with merriment at the novelty and abundance of their prison fare.
We have little fault to find with this book; on the contrary, there is much to be said in its favour. The causes of complaint in the previous volumes have disappeared. We have dates to help us as landmarks through the long intervals of events. There are not many relationship-titles, and there are no nick-names, in fact we cannot understand how Mr. Dixon resisted such an oppor- tunity as presented itself when he spoke of the mother of the second Duke of Buckingham ; in the last volume he never alluded to her but as "the Parent ;" surely when her grandson came to the front, she should have been known as "the Aged P." There is nothing in the tone that is objectionable, and the style throughout is, of course, lively, piquant, and entertaining. There is a nearer approach to history, without any tendency to dryness or dulness, and with less sensation writing than in Mr. Dixon's other works, whilst the Tower itself is kept more constantly in view. The book will be welcomed as a refresher to many a vacant half-hour, and will no doubt tempt new enthusiasts to go and see for themselves the cell where Raleigh wrote his famous History of the IVorld, the spot where Anna Boleyn fell, and the chamber where the Nine..
days Queen was lodged.
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