into his head, that in committing the act of killing the duke he should do his country a great good service; yet the paper sewed in his hat, thinking he might have fallen a victim in the attempt, was different from that described by Clarendon, and is thus preserved in this letter to the queen by Sir D. Carleton.  “If I be slain, let no man condemn me, but rather condemn himself.  Our hearts are hardened, and become senseless, or else he had not gone so long unpunished.[252] He is unworthy the name of a gentleman or soldier, in my opinion, that is afraid to sacrifice his life for the honour of God, his king, and country.  JOHN FELTON".[253]

Felton’s mind had however previously passed through a more evangelical process:  four theological propositions struck the knife into the heart of the minister.  The conscientious assassin, however, accompanied the fatal blow with a prayer to Heaven, to have mercy on the soul of the victim; and never was a man murdered with more gospel than the duke.  The following curious document I have discovered in the MS. letter.

Propositions found in Felton’s trunk, at the time he slew the duke.

“1.  There is no alliance nearer to any one than his country.

“Except his God and his own soul, said the divines.

“2.  The safety of the people is the chiefest law.

“Next to the law of God, said these divines.

“3.  No law is more sacred than the safety and welfare of the commonwealth.

“Only God’s law is more sacred, said the divines.

“4.  God himself hath enacted this law, that all things that are for the good profit and benefit of the commonwealth should be lawful.

“The divines said, We must not do evil that good may come thereon.”

The gradual rise in these extraordinary propositions, with the last sweeping one, which includes everything lawless as lawful for the common weal, was at least but feebly parried by the temperate divines, who, while they were so reasonably referring everything to God, wanted the vulgar curiosity to inquire, or the philosophical discernment to discover, that Felton’s imagination was driving everything at the duke.  Could they imagine that these were but subtle cobwebs, spun by a closet speculation on human affairs?  In those troubled times did they not give a thought to the real object of these inquiries? or did they not care what befel a minion of the state?

There is one bright passage in the history of this unhappy man, who, when broken down in spirits, firmly asserted the rights of a Briton; and even the name of John Felton may fill a date in the annals of our constitutional freedom.