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alty such as this Charles was utterly unworthy. The seizure of his papers at Naseby had hardly disclosed his intrigues with the Irish Catholics, when the Parliament was able to reveal to England a fresh treaty with them, which purchased no longer their neutrality, but their aid, by the simple concession of every demand they had made. The shame was without profit, for whatever aid Ireland might have given came too late to be of service. The spring of the following year saw the few troops who still clung to Charles surrounded and routed at Stow. "You have done your work now," their leader, Sir Jacob Astley, said bitterly to his conquerors, "and may go to play, unless you fall out

among yourselves."

From "A Short History of the

English People."

RUFUS WILMOT GRISWOLD

(1815-1857)

S EDITOR of Graham's Magazine, of the "Poets and Poetry of
America," and of the "Prose Writers of America," Griswold

rendered important services to American literature during its formative period. He was born in Rutland County, Vermont, February 15th, 1815. Beginning life as a Baptist clergyman, he left the pulpit for the uncertainties of literature in New York city. His career was a successful one, however. As the editor of Graham's Magazine he patronized Poe, and after the poet's death Griswold's theory of his character became the subject of much literary controversy. In 1853

a New York publishing house issued an edition of D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature," edited by Griswold, with a supplement of essays on the same style on American subjects. These, perhaps, are his best work. He died in New York city, August 27th, 1857.

R

ROGER WILLIAMS AND HIS CONTROVERSIES

OGER WILLIAMS was on many accounts the most remarkable man among the Puritans. He was the first legislator who fully recognized the rights of conscience, and this of itself should make his name immortal. He was eccentric in conduct as well as in opinion, but, nevertheless, a man of genius and virtue, of firmness, courage, disinterestedness, and benevolence. The notice of Williams and his writings by Dr. Verplanck is so just and comprehensive that we quote it without abridgment. He emigrated to New England from Wales in 1630. He was then, says Verplanck, a man of austere life and popular manners, full of reading, skilled in controversy, and gifted with a rapid, copious, and vehement eloquence. The writers of those days represent him as being full of turbulent and singular opinions, and the whole country," saith the quaint Cotton Mather, "was soon like to be set on fire by the rapid motion of a windmill in the head of this one man." The heresy which appeared most grievous to his brethren was his zeal for unqualified religious liberty. In the

PENN'S PURCHASE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

After the Painting by Benjamin West, "Penn's Treaty."
Engraved by J. C. Armytage.

B

ENJAMIN WEST (1738-1820) was one of the most famous, if not the most famous, of the earlier American painters. He was born in Pennsylvania, October 10th, 1738. After work as a portrait painter in American cities, he went abroad to study his art and finally settled in London, where he died March 11th, 1820. Besides "Penn's Treaty he painted "Death on the Pale Horse," the "Death of Wolfe," and other famous historical studies.

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