Ibid. Burnet. Fairfax was much distracted in his mind, and changed purposes often every day.—­Swift. Fairfax had hardly common sense.

P. 49. Burnet. I will not enter farther into the military part:  For I remember an advice of Marshal Schomberg’s, never to meddle in the relation of military matters.—­Swift. Very foolish advice, for soldiers cannot write.

P. 50. Burnet. [Laud’s] defence of himself, writ ... when he was in the Tower, is a very mean performance. ...  In most particulars he excuses himself by this, that he was but one of many, who either in council, star-chamber, or high commission voted illegal things.  Now though this was true, yet a chief minister, and one in high favour, determines the rest so much, that they are generally little better than machines acted by him.  On other occasions he says, the thing was proved but by one witness.  Now, how strong soever this defence may be in law, it is of no force in an appeal to the world; for if a thing is true, it is no matter how full or how defective the proof is.—­Swift. All this is full of malice and ill judgement.

Ibid. Burnet, speaking of the “Eikon Basilike,” supposed to be written by Charles the First, says:—­There was in it a nobleness and justness of thought with a greatness of style, that made it to be looked on as the best writ book in the English language.—­Swift. I think it a poor treatise, and that the King did not write it.

P. 51. Burnet. Upon the King’s death the Scots proclaimed his son King, and sent over Sir George Wincam, that married my great-aunt, to treat with him while he was in the Isle of Jersey.—­Swift. Was that the reason he was sent?

P. 53. Burnet. I remember in one fast-day there were six sermons preached without intermission.  I was there myself, and not a little weary of so tedious a service.—­Swift. Burnet was not then eight years old.

P. 61. Burnet, speaking of the period of the usurpation in Scotland:—­Cromwell built three citadels, at Leith, Ayr, and Inverness, besides many little forts.  There was good justice done, and vice was suppressed and punished; so that we always reckon those eight years of usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity.—­Swift. No doubt you do.

P. 63. Burnet, speaking of the Scotch preachers at sacrament times during the civil wars, says:—­The crowds were far beyond the capacity of their churches, or the reach of their voices.—­Swift. I believe the church had as much capacity as the minister.

P. 64. Burnet. The resolutioners sent up one Sharp, who had been long in England, and was an active and eager man.—­Swift. Afterwards archbishop, and murdered.

P. 66. Burnet. Thus Cromwell had all the King’s party in a net.  He let them dance in it at pleasure.  And upon occasions clapt them up for a short while.—­Swift. Pox of his claps.