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pamphlet to the Committee of Examinations. On the 4th of May, Mr. Whittacre and some other members of that committee were directed to send for Wither, and to inquire into the truth of his allegations. The following extract from the Journal of the House of Commons for the 7th of August, 1646, will not be uninteresting:—

"Mr. Whittacre reports the state of the examinations concerning a pamphlet written and published by Mr. George Withers, intituled Justiciarius Justificatus; and concerning a practice informed of in Mr. Withers, and one Mr. Andrewes Burrell, of accusing Sir Richard Onslow that he sent monies to the King at Oxon; and the several examinations, and the instances and inferences out of them, were all read by the Reporter.

"The humble petition of George Wither was read, desiring further time to prove what he suggested in his book.

"Another humble petition of George Wither was read, expressing his sorrow for his error in transgressing against the privileges of this House."

It having been resolved that the reflections upon Onslow in the Justiciarius Justificatus were unfounded, 'false and scandalous,' the question was "propounded, that Mr. George Wither should pay unto Sir Richard Onslow the sum of five hundred pounds for his damages."

"The question being put, the House divided, and there appeared for the question 65; against it 54; leaving a majority of 11 in favour of the fine.

It was then resolved, "That the book called Justiciarius Justificatus shall be burned at Kingston upon Thames, and at Guildford, upon the market days there, by the Marshal attending the Committee at Kingston aforesaid."

According to Wood, our poet was, at the time of this debate, in prison for the libel; and he afterwards asserted that he knew nothing of the impeachment until he was startled by the news of the conviction. The accusation, he says, in the Fragmenta Prophetica, was brought on early in the morning, but so many members "abominated what they perceived to be intended, that the whole day was spent, before the author's enemies could prevail against him." That he had many friends in the House is proved by the small majority; and it may be remarked that Lieutenant General Cromwell was Teller for the Noe." After a confinement of nearly twelve months, he was released without "petitioning or mediation for it," and, we may conclude, without paying the fine.

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His imprisonment neither taught him discretion, nor improved his fortunes.

Much of the disquiet which imbittered so many years of his life, was occasioned by the difficulty he experienced in obtaining compensation for the plunder of his estate by the Royalists, and the liquidation of the debt due to him from the Parliament. A great portion of his time was wasted in fruitless attendance upon various Committees. On one petition, he tells us, he bestowed two months; on another, ten; and on a third, a year and nine months. Milton, in a passage supposed to refer to his own sufferings, bitterly complained that the truest friends of the republic, after having afforded the aid of their labours and fortunes, were tossed from one Committee to another with petitions in their hands.

The various methods employed by Wither to attract the notice of Parliament were very ingenious. On the 12th of November, 1646, he placed an humble memoran

dum in the hands of several members as they entered It was in these words :

the House.

Sir,

:

Mind your faithful servant; for my need
Requires compassion, and deserveth heed.
Though I have many rivals at your door,
Vouchsafe me justice, and I'll ask no more.

His efforts were not altogether ineffectual. On the 15th of March, 1647, an order was agreed to by the Lords and Commons, for payment of 18007. out of Discoveries at Haberdashers' Hall; and on the 22nd of the same month, a further order was made for the payment of 16817. 15s. 8d. out of the Excise. Nothing, however, was gained by these orders, which do not seem to have been ever enforced, and the House was at length induced to appoint some selected members" to provide him with a temporary employment until his claims could be adjusted. When he published his Si Quis*, in 1648, he stood recommended to a situation of considerable value, which he does not appear to have obtained.

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About this time, he says, when he was living upon the charity of friends, "God providentially, beyond his hope, enabled him to purchase a considerable estate, by means of their acting against him who thereby intended their own benefit and his ruin;" and the Parliament also sold him a Manor, worth 3007. per annum, in consideration of "his debt of 16007. and more by him paid." I suppose the property alluded to belonged to the See of Win

• Weaver, in his Life and Death of Sir John Oldcastle, says, "Set up a Si Quis, give intelligence." A Si Quis was formerly a term for what we now call a hand-bill.—Brit. Bib., vol. i, p. 314.

I'll fix a Si Quis (or it may be mo)

Upon the postern gate before I go.

Wither's Perpetual Parliament, p. 72.

chester. Wither's purchases of church-lands are detailed in Gale's History of Winchester Cathedral:

The Manor of North Walton, in Hampshire, sold to George Wither and Thomas Allen, July 5, 1648, for 9647. 13s. 6d.

The Manor of Bentley and Alverstock, and Borough of Gosport, sold to George Wither and Elizabeth his wife, for 11857. 4s. 5d., September 25, 1648.

The Manor of Itchinswell and Northampton Farm, sold to Nicholas Love and George Wither, for 1756l. 9s. 1d., September 28, 1648.

The Manor of Hantden, sold to George Wither for 37967. 18s. 11d., March 23, 1650.

Misfortunes still followed him: the "estate was lost again," and the Manor, after he had “enjoyed it awhile,” was resold by the Parliament to a member of their own, who pretended to have a mortgage upon it, and the poet was ejected "by a Suit in Law," without any satisfaction for the loss of his purchase-money, and was even compelled to pay the expenses of the suit, with other charges, amounting to several hundred pounds.

His calls for relief, however, were not entirely disregarded. In 1649, a few members of Parliament, “without his seeking," endeavoured to provide him with some occupation in order to satisfy his "just demands," and he acknowledged their kindness in A Thankful Retribution. The office which they sought, unsuccessfully, to procure, seems to have been that of Register in the Court of Chancery. Instead of this, Park thinks he was appointed one of the Commissioners for levying assessments in Surrey, as appears from the Usurpation Acts of 1649-50. A gentleman of the name of Lloyd possessed a certificate, attested by Wither on the 10th of December, 1651, while acting under this Commission, and entitled, "The report of Colonel John Humphreys, and Major George Wither,

touching the demands and accounts of M. René Angier, made upon a reference to them by the Committee for the sale of the King's goods." M. Angier had been agent in France both for the King and the Parliament.

In 1649, the poet hailed the victory of General Jones in Dublin over the troops of the Marquis of Ormond, with a Thank-Oblation, which occupies six quarto pages. This ode of gratulation is alluded to in one of the periodicals of the day. "At Westminster they are very lazy, and have done very little more of public concernment; but as it appears, George Withers has been very much busied in composing a Hymn of Praises for their great achievement and victory against Ormond, which he presented most of the members with on Thursday last, in hopes they would have sung it the day after, being the thanksgiving day appointed*."

We have already seen that the orders made for Wither's relief were productive of no benefit to him, and on the 2nd of January, 1650, a Report upon his case was delivered to the House by Colonel Dove, from which it appeared that 39587. 15s. 8d., with interest, were then due. The Report recommended that for the 16817. charged upon the Excise, eight per cent. should be paid every six months; and that for the remainder of the sum of 39581. the Manor of Little Horksley, in Essex, should be settled on Wither and his heirs. This estate, which was valued by the sequestrators at a yearly rent of 2407., formed a part of the inheritance of Sir John Denham, whom the Report calls the poet's "chief plunderer." Colonel Dove's suggestions were only partially adopted. The 16817. were secured, according to the recommendation of the Report, upon the Excise; but

* Mercurius Elencticus, Monday, August 27, to September 3, 1649.

M

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