he continued to toil in his cabinet, and, at his moments of relaxation, to take that hard exercise to which he had accustomed himself. As spring approached, hopes were entertained of his recovery. On Saturday the 21st of February, though his legs were swollen, he set out from Kensington, on horseback, to hunt at Hampton Court. As he was galloping along the road near Hampton the horse stumbled, and fell violently; and the King fractured his right collar-bone. His majesty was carried to Hampton Court, where the bone was set. That same evening, contrary to medical advice, he returned to Kensington. The setting was deranged by the motion of the carriage; but the fracture was soon reduced again. For several days no bad symptoms appeared, or, if they appeared, they were kept secret. On the 28th of February he sent a message to both Houses of parliament, earnestly recommending them to set on foot immediately a proper treaty for the union of England and Scotland. This was William's last public act; and no scheme or intention could well be wiser or greater; though, even here, a certain class of writers, who pursue the greatest man of the age to the very tomb with animosity and rancour, can find matter at which to cavil. The very day after sending the two messages, the King was alarmingly ill. On the 3rd of March he was seized with fever and ague. On the 7th Lord Albemarle arrived from Holland to comfort him with some very good news; but he said to his lordship-" Je tire vers ma fin."-(I am drawing near my end.) He expired at Kensington Palace, in the evening of Sunday the 8th of March, 1702, in the 52nd year of his age. When he was dead a bracelet made of his wife's hair was found upon his arm.

There were blemishes in his reign, although in no one instance can the culpability, or a tithe of it, be laid to his single share; and there were defects in his personal character, or, perhaps, rather, in his bearing and manners, which seem generally to have been considered as unattractive if not repulsive; but let every deduction be made, and even every censure of his enemies and detractors be admitted, still William III, must remain on

his lofty pedestal, as one of the greatest, wisest, and best kings that have ever worn the English crown. So long as the revolution of 1688 is called the "Glorious Revolution," and the Constitution which flowed from it is held in esteem, even so long must England owe a debt of gratitude to his memory. But for his rare combination of personal qualities this experiment would have failed. We had not, among our public men, sufficient steadiness and honesty of purpose, or valour and genius enough to face the crisis. As well in relation to the distracted, demoralized state of England, as with regard to the cause of religious liberty on the Continent, William might indeed be called "The man of God's right hand, whom he made strong for himself."

Burnet, who was much about his person, having "observed him very carefully in a course of sixteen years; and who, on the whole, speaks impartially of him, not attempting to conceal his defects, says, among other particulars," William had a thin and weak body, was brown haired, and of a clear and delicate complexion; he had a Roman eagle nose, bright and sparkling eyes, a large front [forehead], and a countenance composed to gravity and authority: all his senses were critical and exquisite. He was always asthmatical, and the dregs of the small-pox falling on his lungs, he had a constant deep cough. His behaviour was solemnly serious, seldom cheerful, and then but with a few he spoke little and very slowly, and most commonly with a disgusting dryness, which was his character at all times, except in a day of battle; for then he was all fire, though without passion he was then everywhere and looked to everything. . . . . . He spoke Dutch, French, English, and German, equally well; and he understood Latin, Spanish, and Italian, so that he was well fitted to command armies composed of several nations. He had a memory that amazed all about him, for it never failed him; he was an exact observer of men and things; his strength lay rather in a true discerning and a sound judgment, than in imagination or invention: his designs were always great and good; but it was thought he trusted

too much to that, and that he did not descend enough to the humours of his people to make himself and his notions more acceptable to them. . . . . His reservedness

grew on him, so that it disgusted most of those who served him; but he had observed the error of too much talking, more than those of too cold a silence . . . . . He knew all foreign affairs well, and understood the state of every court in Europe very particularly .

He was a devout Calvinist, and yet a warm friend to toleration-at least anong all Protestant churches and sects. To the mere forms of church government he was very indifferent. His belief in predestination, or in absolute decrees, was as fixed as that of Napoleon Buonaparte in destiny or in his star. He had a horror of atheism and blasphemy," and though," says Burnet, "there was much of both in his court, yet it was always denied to him, and kept out of sight." He was scrupulously true to his word, when once pledged, and constant and warm in his attachment to his friends. By his wife, and by all those who best knew him, he was tenderly beloved. His character appears very advantageously in his private and confidential correspondence. The English nation, or rather the low-minded legislature of the day, were ungrateful to him through life, and disrespectful to him after death. They gave the great prince a private and meanly parsimonious funeral; and for many years no monument, statue, or tablet was erected to his memory.

With the death of William III. the male line of William the Silent became extinet; but William had named for his personal heir his cousin John William Friso, Prince of Nassau Dietz (grandson of his aunt Albertina Agnes by William Frederic of Nassau Dietz) from whom the present regal line of Orange is descended.

JOHN LOCKE was born at Wrington near Bristol, on the 29th August, 1632. By the advice of Colonel Popham, under whom Locke's father had served in the parlia mentary wars, Locke was placed at Westminster School, from which he was elected in 1651 to Christ Church, Oxford. He applied himself at that university with great diligence to the study of classical literature; and by the private reading of the works of Bacon and Descartes, he sought to acquire that aliment for his philosophical spirit which he did not find in the Aristotelian scholastic philosophy, as taught in the schools of Oxford. Though the writings of Descartes may have contributed, by their precision and scientific method, to the formation of his philosophical style, yet, if we may judge from the simply controversial notices of them in the Essay concerning Human Understanding,' they appear to have exercised a negative influence on the mind of Locke; while the principle of the Baconian method of observation gave

to it that taste for experimental studies which forms the basis of his own system, and probably determined his choice of a profession. He adopted that of medicine, which, however, the weakness of his constitution prevented him from practising.

In 1664 Locke visited Berlin as Secretary to Sir W. Swan, envoy to the Elector of Brandenburg; but after a year he returned to Oxford, where he accidentally formed the acquaintance of Lord Ashley, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury. Locke accepted the invitation of this nobleman to reside in his house; and from this time he attached himself to his fortunes during life, and after death vindicated his memory and honour. (Mémoires pour servir à la Vie d'Antoine Ashley, Comte de Shaftesbury, tirées des Papiers de feu M. Locke, et rédigées par Le Clerc, Biblioth. Choisie, t. vii. p. 146.) In the house of Shaftesbury Locke became acquainted with some of the most eminent men of the day, and was introduced to the Earl of Northumberland, whom, in 1668, he accompanied on a tour into France. Upon the death of the Earl, he returned to England, where he again found a home in the house of Lord Ashley, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Locke was employed to draw up a constitution for the government of Carolina, which province had been granted by Charles II. to Lord Ashley with seven others.

In 1670 Locke commenced his investigations into the nature and extent of the human understanding, but his numerous avocations long protracted the completion of his work. In 1672, when Ashley was created Earl of Shaftesbury and made Lord Chancellor, Locke was appointed Secretary of Presentations. This situation he held until Shaftesbury resigned the great seal, when he exchanged it for that of Secretary to the Board of Trade, of which the Earl still retained the post of President.

In 1675 Locke was admitted to the degree of Bachelor in Medicine, and in the summer of the same year visited France, being apprehensive of consumption. At Montpellier, where he ultimately took up his residence, he formed the acquaintance of the Earl of Pembroke, to