cure, Henry determined to devise some means of extricating himself, without an open violation of the pledge so publicly given. With this design, either the keeper of the Tower was instructed to relax for a time the vigilance of his guard, and allow him to hold intercourse with the earl of Warwick, in order that a plea might be afforded for the trial and condemnation of both these dreaded rivals or else the rigour of Perkin's imprisonment was rendered so severe, that he was induced to concert with the earl of Warwick a mode of escape.

Information having been given of this confederacy, Henry pretended that this new offence released him from his promise to spare the offender. Both these state prisoners were now brought from their cells, to pass through the mockery of a trial for high treason, though the utmost crime with which they were charged was that of having attempted to effect their escape from confinement. Having been found guilty, and condemned to suffer death, Warbeck was hung at Tyburn, together with the mayor of Cork, his most faithful partisan, on the twenty-third of November, 1499; and the unhappy earl of Warwick, (almost the whole of whose life had been spent in confinement, though free from every political crime,) was beheaded on Tower-hill, on the twenty-eighth of the same month. Thus ignobly fell the last of the Plantagenets, a family which had occupied the throne of England, in one or other of its branches, more than 330 years.

Bacon's Henry VII. Hall's ditto. Walpole's Historic Doubts. Rymer Foed. Polyd. Virgil. Cont. Hist. Croyl. &c. &c.

REFLECTIONS.

The termination of a sanguinary and destructive war, must ever be hailed as a joyful event by the humane and sympathetic mind. Welcome are the tidings of peace to those who have long groaned under the pressure of public calamity, or who have witnessed the anarchy and miseries consequent on civil discord and lawless ambition. We

cannot therefore wonder, that the accession of Henry VII. should have been highly acceptable to a people, who had drank so deeply of the cup of bitterness; and that, notwithstanding the doubtfulness of his title to the throne, that title should have been cheerfully recognised, since it afforded a pledge of the re-union of two parties, which had long cherished the most rancorous hatred against each other, and exhausted themselves in efforts at mutual destruction. The blessings of peace can scarcely be purchased at too dear a rate; and he who is the instrument of effecting a reconciliation between inveterate foes, justly claims to be ranked amongst the benefactors of mankind.

Yet while the consequences of Henry's accession were thus beneficial, as affording a respite from the horrors of war, it must be acknowledged that there were many unamiable and forbidding traits in the public character of that sovereign. The suspicious jealousy with which he viewed all those who had the most distant title to the crown, the cruel neglect with which he treated an amiable and most affectionate consort, to whom he was chiefly indebted for his elevation to the throne,—the ingratitude which marked his conduct towards several of those friends of his youth, who had hazarded their lives in his service, and the sentiments of malevolence and revenge which inflamed his breast towards all the former adherents of the house of York, however firm might be their present attachment to his person and government,these are qualities which must render the character of this prince hateful to posterity, even if the latter years of his reign had not developed others still more degrading and offensive. Thus it is not unfrequently seen, that persons are raised to confer signal benefits on mankind, which are not only remote from their intentions, but foreign to their general character. Like the Assyrian monarch, spoken of in ancient prophecy, they are the instruments of accomplishing the gracious purposes of the Universal Sovereign, though they mean not so, neither do their hearts think so.

The portion of the reign of Henry VII., which has been sketched, was chiefly occupied with the frustration

and exposure of various impostures. Whether the latter and more formidable of the two, which have been adverted to in the preceding pages, were really such or not, has never yet been fully determined. It may, however, furnish an occasion to remark, that the period is not far distant, when every delusion will be finally and for ever removed. However men may now be deceived, and however long that system of deception may be continued, there is a day approaching, in which every mask will be torn off, and every deceiver, stripped of his disguise, will stand confessed in his true character before angels and meu. Then that grand impostor, the human heart, will be made manifest, and all those secret devices and artifices, which prove it to be "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," will be exposed to view.

Amidst the uncertainty and obscurity which attend the records of past ages, derived from mere human testimony, it is matter of thankfulness, that we have "a more sure word of prophecy"-that the facts recorded in the volume of inspiration are infallibly true-and that the utmost reliance can be placed on them, because they rest not on human but divine authority; they are the testimony of the Faithful and true Witness. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not the minutest portion of the divine word can fail of its accomplishment. "We have not followed "cunningly-devised fables;" for the "prophecy came not "in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

ESSAY II.

The Reign of HENRY VII. concluded.

A. D. 1499-1509.

THE administration of Henry VII. had hitherto been incessantly disturbed by a series of plots, conspiracies and

partial insurrections; but the cautious and vigilant policy of that monarch had frustrated all the designs, and counteracted all the efforts of his political adversaries. He had even managed so adroitly, as to derive from the defeated projects of his enemies an augmentation of wealth and authority. The execution of Perkin Warbeck and of the earl of Warwick, gave a degree of stability to his government, and of repose to the empire, which could not otherwise have been attained. They exposed him for a time, it is true, to popular indignation,-they rendered his administration more especially odious to the partisans of the house of York, who were still numerous and powerful,they scattered widely the seeds of disaffection and sedition: yet they afforded also such demonstrative evidence of the vigour and resistless authority of this sovereign, that the secret enemies to his person and government were deterred from breaking out into open rebellion.

was

The external condition of the empire during the latter years of this reign was flourishing and prosperous. This prosperity arose from the combined influence of two causes, either of which would sufficiently account for the result. These were, the long continuance of peace, and the rapid extension of commerce. Previously to Henry's accession, England had long been a stranger to the blessings of peace. An arduous and protracted struggle for the sovereignty of France, was immediately succeeded by a still more disastrous conflict between two rival factions. By these ruinous wars, the resources of the kingdom had been exhausted, and its commerce almost annihilated. But Henry resolved, from the commencement of his reign, to pursue a contrary line of policy to that which had been adopted by his predecessors. He abandoned all thoughts of enlarging his empire by foreign conquests, and manifested, on all occasions, an extreme reluctance to cominence hostilities. Sometimes, indeed, he made a feint, by which both his own subjects and his enemies were deceived; he assumed a threatening attitude, obtained pecuniary supplies, levied military or naval forces, and issued declarations of war; but these formidable preparations generally terminated in diplomatic arrangements and commercial treaties.

It is recorded to the honour of this prince that his ambassadors were instructed to introduce into all their negotiations, a distinct recognition of the pacific character of that religion which was mutually professed by the bellige rent states. The usual preface to his treaties was to the following effect: "When Jesus Christ came into the "world, peace was sung by choirs of ministering angels; "and when he was about to depart, peace was bequeathed to his disciples." Amongst the most valuable of the commercial treaties concluded during this reign, was that which was fraudulently obtained from Philip, the archduke of Austria, and heir to the Spanish throne; who, when driven by stress of weather upon the English coast, was detained in a kind of honourable captivity, till this and some other contracts of political importance were extorted from him.

Spain had lately risen to a high degree of eminence among the European states, partly on account of the expectation which was entertained, that, at no distant period, that kingdom would be annexed to the imperial crown of Germany; and partly, because of the brilliant discoveries which had lately been made, under her auspices, in the New World. The successful voyages of Columbus opened the prospect of an almost unlimited extent of empire; and the most flattering expectations of unbounded wealth were cherished both by the king and his nobles, as the result of those discoveries. It was, therefore, felt by Henry to be an object of more than ordinary importance, to conclude an advantageous treaty with a power which seemed to command the treasures of both hemispheres*.

* The success of the Portuguese navigator, in sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, and of the Spanish in discovering the American continent, fired the ambition of other adventurers, and led to new voyages of discovery. Among the rest, John Cabot, a native of Venice, then resident in Bristol, obtained the permission of Henry to proceed, with his three sons, in a small fleet of five ships, which were chiefly fitted out at their own expense, in search of yet undiscovered countries; and they were so successful in their enterprise, as to discover the islands of Newfoundland and St. John's in North America; which were, of course, the first British settlements in that quarter of the globe.

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