Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JOHN HAMPDEN. 1594?1643.] H EW private individuals, in any age or nation, have acquired or deserved greater honour than John Hampden, whose memory is revered to this hour by every lover of his country and every friend to the rights of mankind. As it is the chief object of civil society to provide for the welfare of the whole by delegating authority to one or more officers under certain prescribed limitations, it appears naturally to follow from this consideration that, failing in the execution of their duties, such officers may be lawfully stripped of their function: and those illustrious characters, who have been instrumental in resisting their encroachments, whether under the name of ' Emperors, ' of ' Kings, ' of Protectors, ' or of republican magistrates, will ever be considered, when the tide of passion and prejudice has had it's flow, as genuine patriots. John Hampden, the son of John Hampden Esq. descended from an ancient family of that name, whose paternal estate was situated at Great Hampden in Authorities. Warwick's Memoirs of the Reign of Charles /., Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, and Macauley's History of England. Buckinghamshire, and of Elizabeth second daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell, was born in London in 1594. At fifteen, he was admitted a Gentleman- Commoner of Magdalen College, Oxford; but he took no degree. From Oxford he removed to one of the Inns of Court, and closely applied himself to the study of the lawf till the death of his parents, which occurred in the course of a few years. Upon this event succeeding to an ample fortune, he indulged with other young men in some of the dissipations of his age; though he subsequently adopted a more reserved and austere mode of life, and courted the society of persons of graver dispositions. He pre