SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BroanAFRY,

Memoirs of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Kut.; containing his Speeches and Poems. To which are added, the Letters of his Great-great grandson. Benjamin Rudyerd, Esq., Captain in the Coldstream Guards at the Battle of Fontenoy. Edited by James

Alexander Manning, of the Inner Temple B40136. ILLUSTRATED Portal,

Ancient Spanish Ballads, Historical and Romantic. Translated, with Notes, by J. G. Lockhart, Esq.' A new edition, revised. With numerous Illustrations from Drawings by William Allen, R.A., David Roberts, R.A., William Simson, Henry Warren, C. E. Aubry, and William Harvey; the Borders and ornamental

Vignettes by Owen Jones. Architect. Murray. PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF THE USEFUL ARTS, Illustrations of Arts and Manufactures; being a selection from a Series of Papers read before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures. and Com- merce. By Arthur Aikin, F.L.S., F.G.S., 8.:c., late Secretary to that Institution.

Vas Vaunt.

PHILANTHROPY,

Proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery Convention, called by the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and held is London, from Friday June 12th to Tuesday June 23d 1840. ,...Published by the Society, The Second Annual Report of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society for the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave-trade throughout the World; presented to the General Meeting held in Exeter Hall on Friday May 14th 1841.

Put& shed by the Society.

SIR BENJAMIN RUDTERD'S SPEECHES AND POEMS.

THE RUDYERDS are reputed to have been a distinguished family in Staffordshire in the time of CANUTE and EDWARD the Confessor. Under the Conqueror their property was forfeited, but subse- quently redeemed, and the race continued to bear a part in public affairs throughout our annals ; family tradition reporting that " Rudulphus Lord of Rudyerd having joined Lord Stanley with a body of men," slew Richard the Third at the battle of Bosworth.

Sir BENJAMIN RUDYERD, the subject of the volume before us, was born in 1572, and educated at Oxford ; but it is not known whether he took a degree. In 1590 he entered the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1600. From his connexions and the verses he left behind him, he appears to have cultivated poetry in his youth ; and if the complimentary lines of BEN JONSON are to be believed, was distinguished for manners and criticism. Of his private life little, however, appears to be known, except that he travelled on the Continent ; married Miss HARRINGTON, daughter and coheiress of Sir JOHN HARRINGTON; and disinherited his son in favour of his grandson—for what reason, family tradition is silent and research has not discovered. The leading events of his public life are better known. In 1616-17, he was appointed, by JAMES the First, Surveyor or Second Judge of the Court of Wards and Liveries—an oppressive tribunal, by which the Crown claimed the guardianship as well of the property as of the person of all minors, bestowing the wardship on its favourites, who administered the estate for their own advantage, and married the minors to their connexions. In 1620, RUDYERD was elected for Portsmouth ; and he continued to sit in every succeeding House of Commons till towards the end of the Long Parliament, when he was among the Members seized and imprisoned by the Army in "Pride's Purge." His duress, however, was short; the notorious HUGH PETERS, the Independent preacher, and Chaplain to Lord FAIRFAX, releasing him "by the power of the word," as he said, but in reality by the power of CROMWELL. This took place in 1649; and immediately afterwards, Sir RICHARD retired to his seat of Westwoodhay, in Berkshire ; where he lived a retired life, till his death in 1658, in his eighty-sixth year. Of his private character not much appears to be known : if a judgment be formed from his verses, (though verses are by no means evidence of conduct,) he fell into the licentiousness of the times during his youth. As a public man in maturer life, be was highly respected for his prudence, moderation, liberal opinions, and justice. Though holding office under the Court, and himself in some sense a courtier, he opposed its measures, and sometimes very boldly ; but at times his reputation for Liberalism appears to have enabled him to serve CHARLES the First much more than an avowed partisan could have done. We have seen that his release from prison was immediately ordered or permitted by CROMWELL, though he knew him for an opponent ; and when the Long Parlia- ment abolished the Court of Wards, they voted RUDYERD 6,0001. as a compensation—a considerable sum in those days. As a speaker, be had a great reputation in his own time ; a con- temporary styling him "the silver trumpet," and some of his speeches are referred to by historians of the period. In those days, however, reporters existed not, and it was only on very great oc- casions that a single speech was published. The orations of RIM-. YERD, like those of his contemporaries, have mostly perished ; and those which the industry of individuals preserved appear to be rather the impression of what he said than the actual speech. From these scattered fragments, which have been collected with great industry by Mr. MILNER, nothing but a conjectural judg- ment, perhaps, can be formed. So far as the materials go, how- ever, we should say that Sir BENJAMIN RUDYERD had two q' /les- one early, one mature. His early style, from the two or three re- maining specimens, appears to have been rather commonplace, in matter, illustration, and diction. His hitter speeches support his reputation. His views were sensible, though too much bounded by custom and precedent ; his style terse, with the strength and manliness which seem to have been an intellectual feature of the age ; his illustrations quaint, but often striking ; and his thoughts not unfrequently rising to broad truths or general principles. RUDYERD was not, however, in the first class either of statesmen or orators,—as no merely moderate man can ever be ; for unless a man can clearly see when the nature of affairs requires urging, and when quiescence is the necessary principle, he is only half a states- man, and will very often be labouring against the very nature of things. Hence, though respected and influential, the power of RUDYERD only operated on secondary questions, about which ad- versaries might be indifferent, or which they might be disposed to grant as enabling them to resist the more essential matters. In oratory he was surpassed by PYM IIAMPDEN and Ex.r.ror' and equalled by some others. His moderation, when the time for a middle course was past, prevented him from rising to leadership ; and he had not sufficient sagacity to forestal, or strength of charac- ter or fertility of resources to resist, the first shock of violence. This moderation, as it always is perhaps, seems to have been united with something of timorousness : it was a pretty frequent argument of his not to push matters too far, lest Parliaments should be "rooted out."

Judging from what we have before us, we should say that the mind of Runyzan was rather judicial than senatorial ; more fitted to decide absolutely in matters submitted to his decision, than to influence the decision of others amid the storms of party ; and still less fitted to lead on followers to victory through a doubtful strife. His very best passages are descriptive or annunciative, reasoning rather than exciting, but sometimes powerful. Here is a picture of

FAVOURITES MINISTERS.

They are men that talk largely of the King's service, have done none but their own ; and that's too evident. They speak highly of the King's power, but they have made it a miserable power' that produceth nothing but weakness both to the King and kingdom. They have exhausted the King's revenue to the bottom, nay, through the bottom and beyond. They have spent vast sums of money, wastefully, fruitlessly, dangerously; so that more money, without other counsels, will be but a swift undoing. They have always peremptorily pursued one obstinate pernicious course. First, they bring things to an ex- tremity; then they Make that extremity, of their own making, the reason of their next action, seven times worse than the former ; and there we are at this instant. They have almost spoiled the hest-instituted government in the world for sovereignty in a king, liberty to the subject ; the proportionable temper of both which makes the happiest state for power, for riches, for dura- tion. They have unmannerly and slubberingly cast all their projects, all their machinations, upon the King ; which no wise or good Minister ever did, but would still take all harsh, distasteful things upon themselves, to clear, to sweeten their master. They have not suffered his Majesty to appear unto his people in his own native goodness. They have eclipsed him by their own in- terposition. Although gross, condense bodies may obscure and hinder the sun from shining out, yet is he still the same in his own splendour ; and when they are removed, all creatures under him are directed by his light, comforted by his beams. But they have framed a superstitious maxim of state for their own turn-4 That if a king will suffer men to be torn from him, he shall never have any good service done him "; when the plain truth is, that this is the surest way to preserve a king from having ill servants about him.

TRUTHS.

Alliances do serve well to make up a present breach, or mutually to strengthen those states who have the same ends ; but politic bodies have no natural affections; they are guided by particular interests, and beyond that are not to be trusted.

Let us not think that we have nothing because we have not all we desire ; and though we had, yet we cannot make a mathematical security ; all human caution is susceptible of corruption and failing ; God's providence will not be bound, success must be His. He that observes the wind and rain will neither sow nor reap; if he do nothing until he can secure the weather, he shall have but an ill harvest. • Same men are so violent and strong in their own conceits, that they think all others dishonest who are not of their opinion ; but he that calls me knave be- cause I differ from him in opinion, is the verier knave of the two.

The following, though for the most part personal, is powerfully expressed-

" Let no man think what I have said is the language of a private end: my aim is only for the good success of the whole; for I thank God, my mind stands above any fortune that is to be gotten by base or unworthy means. No man is bound to be rich or great ; no, nor be wise ; but every man is bound to be honest. Out of my heart have I spoken."

His speech in the Court of Wards, when its abolition was pro- posed, is of a narrow and personal nature. But it may be taken as a fair instance of his mind, which was that of a Conservative Reformer ; one who would improve, but not willingly abolish, however evil the nature of the institution, or unfitted to the circum- stances of the times.

"Mr. Speaker—I am sure the best of ne all may be amended, and therefore I will not say but the Court of Wards, as other courts, may need reformation ; towards which, in whatever shall be just and equal between the King and the subject, I shall willingly and clearly contribute my beat assistance. Only, Sir, I shall humbly claim this indifference of the House, that what hath always been the constant course of the Court from the first erection of it, which is the law of a court, may not be imputed to the present officers, who never knew other, neither had the means to know it. If in any part of it there be any thing unfit, or exorbitant, it may be reduced and rectified by a better law ; bat if there be found corruption, extortion, or bribery in any of the officers, let them be pro-

secuted and punished to the utmost ; let him be judged guilty that evinces the • least favour. •

"Although, Mr. Speaker, I have always endeavoured to perform my best service to the King, yet my tenderness bath been to the subject, because we do meet with many estates sore bruised and broken with debts and children. But if a better course may be invented, which will be more easy to the subject and profitable to the King, I shall be so far from being a hindrance, that I shall be a furtherer of it, the King's leave being first asked and granted ; for it will be manners in us to know whether his Majesty will compound for that which Is his own already."

The poetry of RITDYERD seems to have been merely the amuse- ment of his youth and leisure ; nor does he appear to have paid such regard to his effusions as to have published or at least to have collected them. Trifles of this kind are not a subject for criticism; and his was a mind that did not reach early excellence : had he continued the habitual practice he might have succeeded better. It is probable, however, that he wanted the fire and animation of a poet, though he possessed the grace. There is much both of neatness in the expression and of happiness in the thoughts of the following lines. The theme perhaps inspired him. VERSES,

Written by one that was a suitor to a gentlewoman more virtuous than fair, to a friend of his that disliked her. The lady here alluded to was Miss Harrington, afterwards Lady Rudyerd. Why slightest thou her whom I approve ? Thou art no peer to try my love, Nor canst discern where her form lies,

Unless thou saw'st her with my eyes.

Say she were foul, or blacker than The night, or sun-burnt Indian, Yet, rated in my fiuscy, she Is so as she appears to me: It is not feature, nor a face, That doth my free election grace ; Nor is my fancy only led By a well-temper'd white and red: Could I enamour'd be on those, The lily and the blushing rose United in one stock might be

As dear unto my thoughts as she.

But I search further, and do find A richer treasure in her mind, Where something is so lasting fair, That art nor age cannot impair.

Hadst thou a perspective so clear That thou could view my object there; When thou her virtue shall espy, Then wonder, and confess that I Had cause to like her ; and learn thence To love by judgment. not by sense.

The letters of the great-great-grandson of Sir BENJAMIN, who was a "Captain in the Guards at the Battle of Fontenoy," as the titlepage informs us, exhibit the Captain in the light of a lively, well-bred, and not unliterary man. In his account of personal troubles in the Low Countries during the campaign, and his sketch of the garrison during a subsequent sojourn at Gibraltar, there is nothing, however, which was worth printing. The only general point is the alternate hardship and idleness of a military life. The volume altogether appears to have originated in some feelings of family regard for a distinguished ancestor ; and much industry and pains have been displayed in collecting the materials. Equal skill, however, has not been exhibited in presenting them. The progress of the biography is sometimes interrupted by matters which have no relation to it : the biographer, Mr. MANNING, is constantly digressing from the life of Sir BENJAMIN RUDYERD to the history of the period, without writing that history succinctly or completely : his style is verbose and his judgment feeble. An introduction of a dozen or twenty pages would have told all there was to tell of Sir BENJAMIN RUDYERD ; a note would have sufficed to state the occasion of each speech ; and the poems would speak for themselves. Compressed to less than half its bulk, the volume would have been an agreeable book enough for those who might feel an interest in its subject. As it is, the useful matter is so involved in topics so feebly and dilutedly expressed, that it will be quite inaccessible to all but very patient readers.