rict examinations of the king; and his
language is warm with admiration: the letter being a private one, can
hardly be suspected of court flattery. "His Majesty hath in person, with
the greatest dexterity of wit and strength of argument that mine ears ever
heard, compounded between the parties of the civil and ecclesiastical
courts, who begin to comply, by the king's sweet temper, on points that
were held to be incompatible."--Winwood's Mem. iii. p. 54.

In his progresses through the country, if any complained of having
received injury from any of the court, the king punished, or had
satisfaction made to the wronged, immediately.]

* * * * *

DISCREPANCIES OF OPINION AMONG THE DECRIERS OF JAMES THE FIRST.

Let us detect, among the modern decriers of the character of James I.,
those contradictory opinions, which start out in the same page; for the
conviction of truth flashed on the eyes of those who systematically
vilified him, and must often have pained them; while it embarrassed and
confused those, who, being of no party, yet had adopted the popular
notions. Even Hume is at variance with himself; for he censures James for
his indolence, "which prevented him making any progress in the practice of
foreign politics, and diminished that regard which all the neighbouring
nations had paid to England during the reign of his predecessor," p. 29.
Yet this philosopher observes afterwards, on the military character of
Prince Henry, at p. 63, that "had he lived, he had probably promoted _the
glory; perhaps not the felicity, of his people_. The unhappy prepossession
of men in favour of ambition, &c., engages them into such pursuits _as
destroy their own peace, and that of the rest of mankind_." This is true
philosophy, however politicians may comment, and however the military may
command the state. Had Hume, with all the sweetness of his temper, been a
philosopher on the throne, himself had probably incurred the censure he
passed on James I. Another important contradiction in Hume deserves
detection. The king, it seems, "boasted of his management of Ireland as
his masterpiece." According to the accounts of Sir John Davies, whose
political works are still read, and whom Hume quotes, James I. "in the
space of nine years made greater advances towards the reformation of that
kingdom than had been effected in more than four centuries;" on this
Hume adds that the king's "_vanity_ in this particular