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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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house of one Ezekiel Brown , where , bis wounds being dressed , the surgeon would , for awhile , have given him hopes of life * But he felt that his hurt was mortal ; and , indulging no weak expectations of recovery , he occupied the few days that remained to him in despatching letters of counsel to the Parliament , in prosecution of his favourite plan . '—P . 435 . His last words were a prayer
for his country ; and the news of his loss was the signal for universal sorrow . * All the troops that could be spared from the quarters round joined to escort the honoured corpse to its last resting-place , once his beloved abode among the hills and woods of the Chilterns . They followed him to his grave in the parish church close adjoining his mansion , their arms reversed , their drums and ensigns muffled , and their heads uncovered . Thus
they marched , singing the 90 th psalm as they proceeded to the funeral , and the 43 d as they returned/—P . 440 . And thus died Hampden . It is impossible to read this simple detail without being strongly affected . The caiuse for which he had perilled his all , seemed , at the time of his death , to be on the point of succumbing , less before the vigour of its opponents than the weakness of its own counsellors- It must have been bitter to die at
the moment when he must have been conscious that his were the talents most efficient for his beloved cause , and when his clear judgment had already discerned the deficiencies of its leaders * We , who know as matter of long-past history , that result which his earnest gaze could only dimly and doubtingly see shadowed
forth in the future , may feel a melancholy gratification in the fact ,, that he was spared the sight of the unworthiness of some of those on whom his hopes were placed , and the eventual recall of the dynasty by means of which he and his country had so deeply suffered . But his sacrifice , and that of the numbers of brave
and honourable men who fell in the same conflict , was not in vain , did it achieve no more than afford a pattern and precedent for succeeding years . Who shall say what extremes tyranny might have dared , or to what excess of subjection men might have believed themselves forced to submit , had not the example of the conduct of Hampden and his compatriots , and of the death
of Charles , been alive in the world ' s memory ? Wherever , since , men have armed themselves with courage to beard usurpation or oppression , the English Commons of the 17 th century have been quoted for an example of right , and for a ground of hope : instructing each individual to do his best for the prevalence of his own honest notions of right , secure that in the end right must prevail .
Over the bust of Hampden , in the Temple of British Worthies , is this inscription : ( With great courage and consummate abilities , he began a noble opposition to an arbitrary court in defence of the liberties of his country , supported them in Parliament , and died for them in the field . Let us revere his memory ! ' ^
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Hampden . 4 49
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 449, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/17/
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