No. LXV.
There was a couple of unamiable, maiden ladies, who had cherished, for a long time, an unkindly feeling to the son of their married sister; and, whenever her temporary absence afforded a fitting opportunity, one of them would inquire of the other, if it was not a good time to lick Billy. Mr. Macaulay suffers no convenient occasion to pass, without exhibiting a practical illustration of this opinion, that it is a good time to lick Billy.
In vol. ii. page 292, Mr. Macaulay says—“Penn was at Chester (in 1687,) on a pastoral tour. His popularity and authority among his brethren had greatly declined since he had become a tool of the King and the Jesuits.” In proof of this assertion Mr. Macaulay refers to a letter, from Bonrepaux to Seignelay, and to Gerard Croese’s Quaker History. Let us see, for ourselves, what Bonrepaux says—“Penn, chef des Quakers, qu’on sait être dans les intérêts du Roi d’Angleterre, est si fort décrié parmi ceux de son parti qu’ils n’ont plus aucune confiance en lui.”
Now I ask, in the name of historical truth, if Mr. Macaulay is sustained in his assertion, by Bonrepaux? Is there a jot or tittle of evidence, in this reference, that Penn “had become a tool of the King and of the Jesuits;” or that Bonrepaux was himself of any such opinion?
Let us next present the passage from Croese—“Etiam Quakeri Pennum non amplius, ut ante, ita amabant ac magnifaciebant, quidam aversabantur ac fugiebant.”
I ask, in reference to this quotation from Croese, the same question? No possible version of these passages into English will go farther, than to show, that the Quakers were dissatisfied with Penn, about that time: in neither is there the slightest reference to Penn, as “a tool of the King and of the Jesuits.” Mr. Macaulay’s passage is so constructed, that his citation of authorities goes, not only to the fact of Penn’s unpopularity, for a time, but to the cause of it, as assigned by Mr. Macaulay himself, namely, that Penn “had become a tool of the King and of the Jesuits.”
Now it is well known, that Penn, in 1687, was in bad odor with some of the Quakers. He was suspected, by some persons, of being a Jesuit—George Keith, the Quaker renegade, called him a deist—he was said by others to be a Papist. Even Tillotson had given countenance to this foolish story, which Penn’s intimacy with King James tended to corroborate. How far Tillotston believed Penn to be a Papist, or a tool of the King, or of the Jesuits, will appear, upon the perusal of a few lines from Tillotson to Penn, written in 1686, the year before that, of which Mr. Macaulay is writing—“I am very sorry that the suspicion I had entertained concerning you, of which I gave you the true account in my former letter, hath occasioned so much trouble and inconvenience to you: and I do now declare with great joy, that I am fully satisfied, that there was no just ground for that suspicion, and therefore do heartily beg your pardon for it.” Clarkson’s Memoirs, vol. i. chap. 22.
If the authorities, cited, sustained the statement of Mr. Macaulay, their credibility would still form a serious question. In vol. ii. pages 305-7-8, Mr. Macaulay refers to Bonrepaux’s “complicity with the Jesuits.” It would have been quite agreeable to that crafty emissary of Lewis, to have had it believed, that Penn was of their fraternity. As for Gerard Croese, Chalmers speaks of him and his history, with very little respect; and states, that it dissatisfied the Quakers. However this may have been, there is not a syllable in Gerard Croese’s Historia Quakeriana, giving color to Mr. Macaulay’s assertion, that Penn “had become a tool of the King and of the Jesuits.” On the contrary, Croese, as I shall show hereafter, speaks of Penn, with great respect, on several occasions.
In the same paragraph, of which a part is quoted, at the commencement of this article, Mr. Macaulay, after stating, that, when the King and Penn met at Chester, in 1687, Penn preached, or, to use Mr. Macaulay’s word, harangued, in the tennis court, he says—“It is said indeed, that his Majesty deigned to look into the tennis court, and to listen, with decency, to his friend’s melodious eloquence.” What does Mr. Macaulay mean?—that the King did not laugh outright?—that he made some little exertion, to suppress a disposition to make a mock of Penn and his preaching? No intelligent reader, though he may not catch the invidious spirit of this remark, can fail to perceive the writer’s design, to speak disparagingly of Penn.
Well: what is Mr. Macaulay’s authority for this? He quotes “Cartwright’s Diary, Aug. 30, 1687, and Clarkson’s Life of William Penn”—but without any indication of volume, chapter, or page. This loose and unsatisfactory kind of reference is quite common with Mr. Macaulay; and one might almost as well indicate the route to the pyramids, by setting up a finger post in Edinburgh, pointing in the direction of Cairo. No eminent historian, English or Scotch, has ever been thus regardless of his reader’s comfort; neither Rapin nor Tindal, Smollett nor Hume, nor Henry, nor Robertson, nor Guthrie, nor any other. Of this the reader may well complain. This may all be well enough, in a historical romance—but in a matter, pretending to be true and impartial history, no good reader will walk by faith, altogether, and upon the staff of a single narrator; and he will too often find, that the spirit of the context, in the authority, is very different, from that of the citation.
He, who imparts to any historical fact the coloring of his own prejudice, and dresses up a statement, after his own fancy, has no right to vouch in, as his authority, for the whole thing, however grotesque he may have made it—the writer, who has stated the naked fact. If Clarkson said simply, that the King had listened to Penn’s preaching, Mr. Macaulay has no right to quote Clarkson, as having said so, in a manner to lower Penn, the tithe of a hair, in the estimation of the world. A fortiori, if Clarkson has said, that the King listened to Penn’s preaching, on several occasion, with respect, Mr. Macaulay had no right to quote Clarkson, as his authority, for the sneering and ill-natured statement, to which I have referred. This is not history, it is gross misrepresentation; and, the more forcibly and ingeniously it is fabricated, the more unjust and the more ungenerous the libel, upon the dead.
The reader, if he will, may judge of Mr. Macaulay’s impartiality, by comparing his words with the only words uttered by Clarkson, on this point. They may be found, vol. i. chap. 23—“Among the places he (Penn) visited, in Cheshire, was Chester itself. The King, who was then travelling, arriving there at the same time, went to the meeting-house of the Quakers, to hear him preach. This mark of respect the King showed him also, at two or three other places where they fell in with each other, in the course of their respective tours.”
This is the only passage, which can be referred to, in Clarkson, by Mr. Macaulay, to sustain his ill-natured remark, whose evil spirit is entirely neutralized, by the very authority he cites. But there will be many, who will rather give Mr. Macaulay credit, for stating the point impartially; and few, I apprehend, who will take the trouble to look, through two octavo volumes, for a passage, thus vaguely referred to, without any indication of the volume, chapter, or page.
This rude assault, upon the character and motives of William Penn, Mr. Macaulay commences, by saying—“To speak the whole truths concerning Penn, is a task, which requires some courage.” It is becoming, in every historian, to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It certainly requires some courage—audacity, perhaps, is the better word—to present citations, in French and Latin, to sustain an assertion, which those citations do not sustain; and to refer to a highly respectable author, as having stated that, which he has nowhere stated.
It may not be amiss, to present my views of Mr. Macaulay’s injustice, more plainly than I have done. It is obvious to all, that a fact—the same fact—may, by the very manner of stating it, raise or lower the character of him, in regard to whom it is related. The manner of representing it may become material, or, substantially, part and parcel of the fact, as completely, as the coloring is part and parcel of a picture. No man has a right to take the sketch or outline of an angel, and, having given it the sable complexion of a devil, ascribe the entire thing, such as he has made it, to the author of the original sketch. No man, surely, has a right to seize a wreath, respectfully designed for the brows of his neighbor; distort it into the shape of a fool’s cap; clap it upon that neighbor’s head; and then charge the responsibility upon him, who prepared the original chaplet, as a token of respect.
Mr. Macaulay represents King James, as listening to the preaching of Penn, with concealed contempt—such are the force and meaning of his words; and he quotes Clarkson, as authority for this, who says precisely the contrary.
Every reader, who is uninstructed in the French and Latin languages, will view the quotations from Bonrepaux and Croese, as authorities for Mr. Macaulay’s assertion, that Penn had “become the tool of the King and the Jesuits”—for, whether carelessly, or cunningly, contrived, the sentence will certainly be understood to mean precisely this. A large number, even of those, who understand the languages, will take these quotations, as evidence, upon Mr. Macaulay’s word, without examination. Now, as I have stated, there is not the slightest authority, in these passages, for Mr. Macaulay’s assertion.