MEMORANDA

ON THE WORKS OF WILLIAM PRYNNE, PREPARED, AT THE REQUEST OF THE LIBRARY COMMITTEE, BY THE LIBRARIAN OF THE GENERAL LIBRARY.

Mr. Henry Stevens, of London, having sent to the library a large proportion of the works of William Prynne, a leading parliamentarian, published between the years 1628 and 1670, I have been requested to embody in a statement such facts, bearing upon the value of the collection, as might aid the library committee to form an opinion as to the expediency of purchasing it.

Each succeeding decade of years is enhancing the value, in the public estimation, of the writings of Prynne. After defending, for more than a score of years, the rights of the people, and of the commonwealth, he is found, finally, defending the restoration of Charles II, but always in the name of the same rights and of the fundamental law of England. He was the unvarying opponent of ecclesiastical control in civil affairs, and on account of these principles has frequently been spoken of in contemptuous language, as by A. Wood, in his Athenæ Oxonienses.

Notwithstanding the violence and vituperation in which he indulged, while defending either the cause of the people, or of the King, his merits are acknowledged by Francis Hargrave, who died in 1821, in the following language, in his introduction to Sir M. Hale's Jurisdiction of the Lord's House; or Parliament considered, according to ancient records. Lond., 1796, p. lxxxvi:

"Throughout his legal writings, he is continually carping at that great oracle of our law, Lord Coke, with a very disgusting coarseness. And it is sometimes a fashion to countenance Prynne in such licentious disrespect. At the same time, it is but justice to him to acknowledge, that his contributions to the elucidation of our law and history, more especially in points relative to our government and constitution, are very numerous and important; that his laborious collections from records, and other the best sources, are highly valuable; and that his remarks, though frequently disfigured by the ungovernableness of his bigotry and of his outrageous prejudices, and ever to be received with peculiar caution, evince great force of intellect; and often administer vast aid to the most sober and profound inquiry."

No injustice will be done to Prynne, after this appreciative and honorable testimonial, if we quote the language of Bp. Nicolson, uttered eighty years previously, in his English Historical Library:

"The voluminous Will. Prynne has also carefully and largely informed us of the public occurrences of this reign, as well as the two next following, in order to the asserting and vindicating of the ancient sovereignty of

our English monarchs against all foreign encroachments and innovations whatever." p. 79.

"Hitherto we have mentioned only such as have written the history of our prelacy with an honest intent. We have others that made it their business to daub with false paint. * * * The last of this gang was that eternal scribbler, Wm. Prynne, who raked together all the dirt that had been thrown at any of our bishops by the most inveterate and implacable of enemies, and heaped it into a large dunghill-book, inscribed The Antipathie.' * **But 'tis time to rid our hands of this filth and nastiness." p. 125.

Bishop Nicolson, in spite of his own condemnation, is compelled frequently to refer to Prynne, as a valuable authority, in such sentences as this: "In his animadversions upon Coke, a great many misquotations of the Records, etc., are noted." (pp. 117, 191, 196); while Wood, whose strong prejudices we have already referred to, is obliged to confess that his works are "highly useful to the antiquary, as well as to the critic and the divine."

Prynne, as a lawyer, and as a member of the Society of Lincoln's Inn, had, during his life, given to its library copies of his publications. W. H. Spilsbury, the librarian, in his account of Lincoln's Inn, published in 1850, says of Prynne's writings:

"The indefatigable industry of the author in the investigation of innumerable documents, many of which are no longer in existence, has been found of great use to the practical lawyer, in cases involving questions of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, by the direct references to, and numerous transcripts of original records, which the work contains." p.

287.

The same author is also the writer of an article in the Law Review (1849), on Prynne's Records, in which he says:

"His character has hitherto not been justly appreciated. His memorable speech in favor of his sovereign * * * gives evidence of the magnanimity of his disposition, and serves to redeem his character from the indiscriminate censure cast upon it by some distinguished men." vol. 10, p. 432.

"The writer who could quote a hundred authors on so unpromising a subject as The Unloveliness of Love-locks,' and ten times that number in his Histrio Mastix, is undoubtedly of great value, as affording materials to aid the researches of the inquiring student." p. 434.

Isaac D'Israeli, in his paper on Prynne, in his Calamities of Authors, and entitled "A Voluminous Author without Judgment," says:

"His activity and the firmness and intrepidity of his character, in public life, were as ardent as they were in his study; his soul was Roman; Charles II dignified him with the title of the Cato of the age; and one of his own party described him as William the Couqueror,' a title he had most hardly earned by his inflexible and invin

cible nature."

The biographical fragment on Prynne, by the late John Bruce, published this year in one of the volumes of the Camden Society, in London, is the latest evidence I have to offer of the increasing interest taken in the writings of Prynne. His preface commences in this man

ner:

"His works, and the circumstances of his personal history, considered simply by themselves, deserve the attention of the scholar and the historian; but, taken in connection with the general incidents of the

times in which he lived, they acquire a much higher importance, and have a far more extensive applicatien. Viewed in that relation, they enlarge our knowledge of the momentous transactions which occurred in England between 1625 and 1660; they give us views of men and events, nearer and more distinct than can be derived from the wide survey of the general historian; and they enable us-which is more valuable than anything else to drink deep into the general spirit of that eventful period. It is of the greatest importance that the history of that birthtime of our modern freedom, and our consequent greatness, should be thoroughly understood."

As a remarkable confirmation of what I have alleged, regarding the modern estimate of the high value to be ascribed to Prynne's writings, I would refer to the pages of the latest Dictionary of Authors, that of Allibone. He devotes more space to an account of Prynne and his writings than had been contained in any preceding dictionary. He gives many quotations, and from many authors, of their opinions on the subject, and they are all in addition to what I have cited from other sources, old and new, and well worth perusal, and are confirmatory of those statements on the importance and value of his works. I cannot refrain, however, from one quotation, a few lines, as Mr. Allibone observes, "handed us by a black-letter student (a judge in one of the courts of the United States), expressive of his own opinion": *. *

"The profoundness of his learning, and the accuracy of his report of the materials which he has brought to light, and the consuminate ability with which he discusses the interesting and important subjects of his works, have given an undeserved reputation to his intellectual productions. *** His judgment bore no proportion to his intelligence. While we borrow from the rich stores which his zeal and industry have accumulated, we cannot follow him as a guide. Accurately as he reports his materials, his use of them is injudicious and unfair."

This unwearying student and unflinching patriot, who had twice been in the pillory, twice had had his ears cropped, and had been repeatedly imprisoned by the governments of conflicting parties, for speaking what he believed to be important truth, on entering London on a return from an imprisonment, was received amid the acclamations of ten thousand citizens, with boughs and flowers in their hands. He died in 1669, while compiling and deciphering historical records as assiduously as at any previous period of his life.

The testimonies which we have quoted are sufficient to establish, if there were any need of doing it, the intrinsic value of Prynne's writings. As to its relative value, compared with other collections of his writings, it is worth observing that the collection offered by Mr. Stevens contains one hundred and twenty-three volumes, of which a very few are those of writers who controverted the published opinions of Prynne, and are no less rare and valuable than the writings which called them forth. Mr. Cooper's list contained but eight folio volumes of Prynne; and the Catalogue of Lincoln's Inn Library contains but seven; as this collection of Mr. Stevens contains six, it falls but little short of being as valuable as either of these. The rarity and scarcity of the volumes embraced appears from the consideration that while the printed list of those in the Lincoln's Inn Library contains but twenty of his works, published previous to 1641, Mr. Stevens' collection contains twenty-six, and is, therefore, richest for that period when his works would naturally be the most scarce.

The Lincoln's Inn collection of Prynne, in 1859, contained but 152 titles, of which five were second editions and eight were only broadsides. Since the sale of Brackett's collection, and the distribution of its contents, the collection here offered will be larger than any other existing, with the exception just noted and of that of the British Museum. Mr. Stevens is preparing for publication, in England, a full new biography of Prynne, introductory to a catalogue of over two hundred photographed titles of volumes published by Prynne, or in opposition to him.

STATE LIBRARY, March, 1877.

Imperial and Royal Geological Institute, Vienna.

Kaiserlich K. Geologische Reichsanstalt. Verhandlungen, 1876, nos. 11-17; 1877, nos. 1-10. 8°.

BADEN.

Government of Baden.

Uebersicht der bürgerlichen Rechts-pflege in Grossherzogthum Baden, während des Jahres, 1876. Karlsruhe, 1877. 4o.

Uebersicht der Strafrechts-pflege im Grossherzogthum Baden, während des Jahres, 1876. Karlsruhe, 1877. 4o. BAVARIA.

Royal Academy of Sciences, at Munich.

Philosophisch-philo

K. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften. logische Classe. Abhandlungen, dreizehnten Bandes, dritte Abtheilung; vierzehnten Bandes, erste Abtheilung. München, 1875–77. 4o. Sitzungsberichte; 1875 (Band II), Heft 2-4; 1876; 1877, Heft 1. München, 1875-77. 8°.

Mathematisch-physikalische Classe. Abhandlungen, zwölften Bandes, erste, zweite und dritte Abtheilung. München, 1875-1877. 4o. -. Sitzungsberichte; 1875, Heft 3; 1876; 1877, Heft 1. 8°. Historischen Classe. Abhandlungen, dreizehnten Bandes, erste und zweite Abtheilung. Munchen, 1875-77. 4°.