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OPINIONS ON ENGLISH HISTORIANS.

II. Lord Clarendon.

     “This great historian is always too free with his judgments.  But the
     piety is more eminent than the superstition in this great man’s
     foibles.”—­Bishop Warburton, note, last edition, vol. vii. p. 590.

“It is to be hoped no more chancellors will write our story, till they can divest themselves of that habit of their profession, apologising for a bad cause.”—­H.  Walpole, Note in Historic Doubts.

“Clarendon was unquestionably a lover of truth, and a sincere friend to the free constitution of his country.  He defended that constitution in Parliament, with zeal and energy, against the encroachments of prerogative, and concurred in the establishment of new securities for its protection.”—­Lord Grenville, Note in Chatham Correspondence, vol. i. p. 113.

“We suffer ourselves to be delighted by the keenness of Clarendon’s observations, and by the sober majesty of his style, till we forget the oppressor and the bigot in the historian.”—­Macaulay, Essays, vol. ii. p. 281.

     “There is no historian, ancient or modern, with whose writings it
     so much behoves an Englishman to be thoroughly conversant, as
     Lord Clarendon.”—­Southey, Life of Cromwell.

“The genuine text of the history has only been published in 1826,” says Mr. Hallam, who speaks of “inaccuracy as habitual to him;” and further, “as no one, who regards with attachment the present system of the English constitution, can look upon Lord Clarendon as an excellent minister, or a friend to the soundest principles of civil and religious liberty, so no man whatever can avoid considering his incessant deviations from the great duties of an historian as a moral blemish on his character.  He dares very frequently to say what is not true, and what he must have known to be otherwise; he does not dare to say what is true, and it is almost an aggravation of this reproach, that he aimed to deceive posterity, and poisoned at the fountain a stream from which another generation was to drink.  No defence has ever been set up for the fidelity of Clarendon’s history; nor can men, who have sifted the authentic material, entertain much difference of judgment in this respect; though, as a monument of powerful ability and impressive eloquence, it will always be read with that delight which we receive from many great historians, especially the ancient, independent of any confidence in their veracity.”—­Hallam, Constitutional History, 8vo. vol. ii. p.502.

“His style is a little long-winded; but, on the other hand, his characters may match those of the ancient historians; and one thinks they would know the very men if you were to meet them in society.  Few English writers have the same precision, either in describing the actors