thing more. His tract is an elaborate apology for the learned body which has ever been distinguished for high church principles and political toryism. Professor Stewart, referring to the decree passed by the University of Oxford, in full convocation, on the very day of Lord Russell's execution, observes, that he should be truly happy for the honour of learning, if it could 'be shewn, that this decree was the consequence of an equally 'imperative interference on the part of Government.' Can that be shewn? A negative answer awaits the question. That decree at least was the spontaneous act of the University, which, in ample demonstration of its servility and intolerance, condemned as impious and heretical, the principles upon which 'the constitution of this, and of every free country, maintains itself.' What accordance can be found between the dogmas which were inculcated and honoured at Oxford, and the doctrines inculcated by Locke?

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We are, however, much delighted with the homage which Lord Grenville has offered to the merits and the memory of the illustrious Author of the "Two Treatises of Government" and the "Letters on Toleration." It is most gratifying to us to receive from the pen of the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, so exalted a eulogy as that which pronounces him to have been a 'wise and good man',-'one of the brightest orna'ments of the University',' a philosopher famous to all ages 'for the improvement of science, and the assertion of civil and ' religious freedom',-whose voice has spoken in imperishable accents to Europe, and to posterity.' The Letters on Toleration are pronounced to be unanswerable'; a sentence which we should be happy to consider as an indication, that the mind of this celebrated statesman has felt the full influence of the spirit which pervades those Letters, and of the arguments by which the sacred principles of them are sustained. We are unable to dismiss from our recollections the fact, that Lord Grenville's public declarations and conduct have not always been in agreement with the unanswerable' positions and reasonings of Locke, pleading the inalienable rights of conscience; and we regret that the tract before us does not assist us to reach the conclusion in which we should most happily rest, that the maxim of Locke, Absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty', has been adopted by his Lordship in his retirement. Of the claims of the Roman Catholic subjects of the empire, Lord Grenville was ever a warm and efficient advocate; but his voluntary declaration, when asserting and urging their rights, was not wanting, that the relief sought by another class of subjects, certainly not less entitled to consideration, ought not to be conceded. While Lord Grenville was the advocate of the Catholic claims, he opposed himself to the

repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. In the tract before us, (p. 23, Note,) the noble Author has referred with warm and joyous feeling to the tardy recognition of the rights of the Catholic part of the community; but he has not enabled us to discover that the previous act of justice to Protestant Dissenters was equally acceptable to him. It is a very striking fact, in the history of the great transactions which are making way for human freedom to attain its full measure of rights, and its perfect and beneficent exercise, that the repeal of the disgraceful and dishonouring statutes which affected the Protestant Dissenters, notwithstanding that it was resisted most strenuously by Churchmen, and declared by some of the most devoted advocates for the removal of Catholic disabilities, to be inadmissible,-while, by many most friendly to the object, it was viewed only as an ulterior measure to wait the disposal of the other, should have been the first accomplished! Let not the wise man glory in 'his wisdom.'

The persecution which had driven Locke from his own country, followed him into Holland. The English minister at the Hague demanded of the States General, that he should be given up, together with eighty-three others. He was obliged, therefore, to use great caution; and on one or two occasions, he requested information from his friends, which seems to indicate his sense of danger. Amsterdam, Cleves, Utrecht, and Rotterdam, were, at different times, the places of his residence. At Amsterdam, he became acquainted with Limborch, to whom many of his Familiar Letters' are addressed, Le Clerc, Guenelon, and a few others. The last-named person was the first physician of Amsterdam, and was the father-in-law of M. Veen, in whose house, at the same place, he was concealed for two or three months in 1685. It was during this seclusion, that his 'Letter on Toleration' was finished. During his residence in Holland, Locke kept up a regular correspondence with his friends in England; and from some of the letters before us, received by him, he appears to have been regularly apprised of the passing events.

At length, Locke was restored to his native land. The Revolution, which Lord King calls a happy accident, but to which we must give a higher name, regarding it as a most signal instance of the Divine goodness vouchsafed to our country and to the world, an event ever to be remembered, as the time when it became the business of patriotic men to undo the heavy burdens, and to break the galling yoke of despotism, this bright change enabled the exiles to return from a foreign soil, to benefit their own, by enriching it with the fruits of their matured wisdom and experience. An offer of diplomatic employment was almost immediately made to Locke by King Wil

liam; which he declined. He endeavoured to be re-instated in his studentship at Christ Church, but without effect: terms were probably proposed as a condition of his restoration, to which he could not submit. The Essay on Human Understanding, and the Letter on Toleration, were now published. The former production is one of those works which stand as the land-marks of literature, and furnish the means of ascertaining the great eras in the history of the intellectual improvement of mankind. It was more fatal to the systems to which men had been enslaved by the authority of great names, than any previous publication. It laid the axe to the root of prejudices which were become inveterate, and to which no effective opposition had previously been made. The object of its Author was, not to impose one set of dogmas in the place of another, but to conduct the mind to the point from which inquiries should proceed that may enable the examiner to separate truth from error, and to repose only on the evidence which truth presents. In utility, it transcends the most elaborate treatises of the most celebrated masters of the ancient schools. A higher character scarcely can be conferred on any work, than that which an accomplished writer of our own times has bestowed upon the "Essay on Human Understanding." Few books have contri'buted more to rectify prejudice, to undermine established errors, to diffuse a just mode of thinking, to excite a fearless 'spirit of inquiry, and yet to contain it within the boundaries 'which Nature has prescribed to the human understanding.' This last excellence is a most distinguishing feature in Locke's investigations. He possessed the sagacity in which so many who had attempted to make discoveries in the same regions, were so signally deficient, which, while suggesting the proper methods of conducting the understanding in its several inquiries into the objects of knowledge, and supplying practical rules to the inquirer, warns him also of his approach to the confines of that bleak and barren region of speculation from which he could bring back no remunerating gains. But it is unnecessary for us to enlarge our remarks on this celebrated work. Its merits have been largely discussed, and its tendencies in all directions acutely examined; its blemishes and its errors have also been detected and exposed; and the student who may now sit down to the serious perusal of it, is most abundantly supplied with the means of benefitting by its instructions, while he is guarded against its mistakes and its defects. The utmost purity of intention is unquestionably to be claimed for its Author; and he is fully entitled to be credited when he declares: Whatever I ' write, as soon as I shall discover it not to be truth, my hand 'shall be forwardest to throw it in the fire.'

To the other work, we shall give more of our attention, be

cause it is less generally known than the Essay; and on account of the importance of its principles and design, we should be happy to promote its increased circulation.

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Locke's "Letter on Toleration", which has been characterised as the most original, perhaps, of all his productions, and which the noble Biographer pronounces to be the most useful, because the most practical of all his works, was written during his secluded residence in Holland. It was first printed in Latin, at Tergou, with the title, "Epistola de Tolerantia ad Clarissimum Virum. T. A. R. P. T. O. L. A. Scripta a P. A. P. O. J. L. A.;" a very cabalistical-looking inscription, but meaning nothing more than, Theologiæ apud Remonstrantes Professorem, Tyrannidis Osorem, Limburgium Amstelodamensem -Pacis Amico, Persecutionis Osore. Joanne Locke, Anglo. (A Letter on Toleration, to the very excellent Limborch of Amsterdam, Professor of Theology among the Remonstrants, a hater of Tyranny, by John Locke, an Englishman, a friend of peace, and an enemy of persecution.). The subject had engaged his attention many years previously; as appears from a long article in his Common Place Book, dated 1667, the conclusion of which Lord King has extracted. Locke's earliest connections and domestic education were adapted to produce impressions on his mind in favour of the freedom of religious profession and worship; and the evils which he had observed as resulting from the denial of it, only tended to strengthen and mature them. His residence in Holland too, where the consequences of religious intolerance had been so afflictive, and where he had become acquainted with men of liberal genius and habits, was not without its advantages in preparing him to become the assertor of religious rights. He was fortunate in the crisis of events with which the publication of his "Letter on Toleration" was coincident. It was printed in England in the year following the Revolution, when the distractions of the Church, not less than the agitations in the State, were forcing on the public attention the consideration of the primary questions which interest society. The exclusion of one sovereign whose maxim of government was the substitution of will for law, and the accession of another whose pretensions were founded on the acknowledgement of popular rights, requiring great changes for their security, furnished the occasion of discussing in all its bearings on the interests of conflicting parties, the principles which were comprised in Locke's immortal work.

Locke, however, is not to be considered (nor does he ever put forth such a claim) as the first writer by whom the true principles of religious liberty have been propounded and explained. During the whole period which intervened between the commencement of the sittings of the Long Parliament, and

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the Revolution, the subject was in agitation, and many admirable arguments and illustrations in vindication of the rights of conscience and the obligation of mankind to exercise them, were adduced by contemporary and successive writers; and in some instances, entire treatises were published in assertion of religious toleration. Locke had many predecessors, who, if they must yield to him the pre-eminence in respect to the comprehensive and luminous treatment of this great subject, were not less the enlightened and devoted advocates of religious liberty. His greater and brighter name has eclipsed the splendour of some inferior lights, for whose memory a place may be demanded in the remembrance of every friend of the hallowed rights of conscience. We should be happy to enable our readers to do justice to forgotten names, by endeavouring to trace out the progress of opinion on this subject; but at present, we have neither the opportunity nor the means of gratifying our own wishes in this respect. In such an inquiry, great care must be taken to avoid the bias of party and the prejudices which proceed from our connections; prejudices of which we are not always conscious. But for ourselves we hope we may say, it is a point which we deem of no importance, among what denomination first sprang up the true light which illuminates the most vital inquiry ever proposed to Governments or to subjects.

Milton, whose exertions in the cause of freedom were sustained and directed by the very highest influence of that spirit which inspires great minds in their resistance to enslaving principles, boldly took the field in 'liberty's defence', and displayed the prowess of his mighty genius in the awful conflict which was to determine the differences between the oppressors and the oppressed. A mind like his, which felt the love of liberty as its ruling passion, and was so deeply embued with religious truth, could make no compromise with its convictions of duty. Existence seemed, in his view, to have been given to him at the period in which he lived, in order that he might redress the injuries of suffering consciences, and purify the institutions of his country from the corruptions which had tainted and impaired them. In the first periods of his life, the atrocities of the High Commission and the Star Chamber furnished excitements to his zeal; and in the later periods of it, his spirit was stirred by the tyrannies of the men who, having abolished prelacy, substituted in its place a system of ecclesiastical rule not less rigourous in its intolerance. New Presbyter' was not less odious to him than 'old priest.' No service was more inviting to him, than the defence of that 'liberty of conscience which, above all other things, ought to be to all men dearest and most precious.' In one brief sentence, he has included the whole subject of religious right; and the numerous powerful and beautiful portions