Trying To Change A Sovereign.

what more natural according to Stuart notions , when yon cannot convince your opponent disputant , than to desire to brain him and put him out of the way of differing from you for ever . Thus , from the affair of the wretched ribbon weaver , the ci-deoant Whitechapel "small-coal" man , JOHN JAMES , at the beginning of his reign * to the sad case of the heir of princely Bedford at the end , eveiy political critic was regarded by the " merry monarch" as a latent regicidewhile

, almost certainly during the whole five-and-twenty years the probable bearers of poignards ancl primed pistolets were to be found in foreign adventurers lisping lewd lays in the French or Italian tongue to the lute or viol de gambo , the black-browed scum of France and Italy , caressed in Whitehall , and idly gossippecl with in the Mall . Acquainted with assassination and the ways of assassins ! Why , while in

exile in the Low Countries , Charles , assuming the command of the Arehers of Bruges , whose captain is , by traditional usage , called their king , taking this rank in order that his father ' s " asses "f might address him as " your Majesty , " then , be it remembered , a comparatively modern title , and so , probably , the more highly esteemed , without embroiling the States of their High Mightinesses with a neighbouring potentateheof the wart on the nosenotorious for

, , , standing no nonsense—while enjoying this Bartlemy fair dignity—the saturnine swarthy wanderer—whom ALICE LEE , in Woodstock , you will remember , would not , with all her loyalty , admit to be other than hard featured—was not unfamiliar with the idea of clanger from the knives ancl " hand-pieces " of fanatic jneeisians on a continental tour , " personally conducted , " though , to do them justice , their political opponents in this' matter

" bettered their instruction , " as witness , among others , the leading case of Dr . DOEISLAUS . But I will hazard asserting the brief proposition that " Charley over the water " never lost a wink of sleep , or the enjoyment of a " lark" whenever the opportunity arose , whether in the shape of a bottle of Rhenish with a friend , or a flirtation with a fair ancl fat Fleming , from fear of being . " potted " by a puritan ' s piece . The fact is , Charles the Second hacl no taint of the coward in his composition ; and I am not asserting this as in any

way to his credit . He had very little of the opposite quality about him either . With men like him cowardice or valour is but a matter of physical constitutionmental temperament . He was simply indifferent , self indulgent , lazy , phlegmatic . I am inclined to take his contemporary ' s ( JOHN SHEPHELD , Earl of Mulgrave , afterwards Duke of Buckinghamshire ) view of his character , rather than to adopt the popular notion , and to believe that he was not even a roue , a

voluptuary , in the sense in which the term is commonly , understood . It will seem surprising to many people to doubt that he was a man of warm passions . Yet , men of ardent disposition are commonl y found the most sensitive to the torture of jealousy , but certainly this was a pang Charles never felt . His insusceptibility to this feeling was notorious . He is popularly supposed to have been passionately attached to Nell Gwynne . His reported d ying entreaty , not to let

" poor Nelly starve , " is like moribund Nelson ' s expressed anxiety for another ci-deoant Drury Lane heroine—historical ; yet one of the best relished and most frequently aired jokes of that not too refined court , and let off without scruple in the presence of Royalty itself , who roared with laughter at it like the rest as often as it was repeated , was on the very delicate subject of the preference the lady exhibited for her military lover , Major Charles Hart , over her princely admirer . The soldier she was want to call her " Charles the first "; the sovereign