HUYSUM, Jan van, this very celebrated fruit and flower painter was born at Amsterdam in 1682, and was the son and pupil of Justus van Huysum, a scene-painter. He enlivened his pictures by light back-grounds, and enriched them by introducing a great variety of other objects with his fruit and flowers, as vases, &c.; he sometimes painted also landscapes. The flowers of Van Huysum are executed with extreme finish and taste, and he is generally considered to have attained the highest excellence in this department of painting. Lord Ashburton possesses some remarkable examples of his work. He executed also water-colour drawings as well as oil pictures; all are valued by collectors, and generally realize large prices. He died in his native place in 1749.—He had three brothers, all painters; one of these, Jacob, came to this country and was chiefly occupied in copying the pictures of his brother Jan, which copies are doubtless reputed to be by the more celebrated brother.—R. N. W.
HVITFELDT, Arild, a Danish noble, who flourished in the latter part of the sixteenth century and beginning of the seventeenth. He held the high post of chancellor of the kingdom under Christian IV., and owes his name in literature to the well-known "Chronicles of Denmark," completed by him about the commencement of that monarch's reign. The work supplies valuable sources of historical information; and its style, although rather dry, is good, considering the age. Hvitfeldt died in 1609.—J. J.
HYDE, Edward, Lord Clarendon, an illustrious statesman and historian, was born on 18th February, 1609, and was the third son of Henry Hyde, Esq., of Denton in Wiltshire, a member of a respectable family which for centuries had been settled in Cheshire. The future chancellor received his early education from the vicar of the parish, and was admitted of Magdalen college, Oxford, in 1621, in his fourteenth year. He was at first intended for the church; but after the death of his elder brothers he was entered a student of law in the Middle temple in 1625. His legal studies were not prosecuted at first with great assiduity, and he spent much of his time in the company of gay and dissolute companions. Ill-health, too, and subsequently a strong attachment to the daughter of Sir George Ayliffe, whom he married in 1629, diverted his attention from his professional pursuits. His young wife, however, died only six months after his marriage, a bereavement which overwhelmed him with grief, and though he was now heir to a competent fortune, he devoted himself assiduously to study, and soon acquired a respectable knowledge of the law, as well as an extensive acquaintance with literature. He was in habits of most friendly intercourse with Ben Jonson, Isaac Walton, Waller, Chillingworth, and other eminent writers, as well as with a number of the principal statesmen of the day. After remaining a widower for nearly three years, he married in 1632 a daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, master of the mint, and a few months later, on the death of his father, succeeded to the possession of the family estate. His legal reputation and practice at the bar steadily increased, and in 1640 he commenced his political career. He was returned to the Short parliament in that year, both by Shaftesbury and Wootton Basset, and made his election to serve for the latter. He at once joined the constitutional party, and assisted Pym, Rudyard, and other experienced statesmen, in their attacks upon the abuses which had been practised by the king and his advisers. He supported the court, however, on the question of supply in opposition to Hampden. He was deeply grieved at the precipitate dissolution of the parliament, and still more at the arbitrary measures which followed this step. Hyde was returned to the Long parliament by the borough of Saltash, and quitted the bar in order to devote his whole attention to the discharge of his parliamentary duties. He was from the outset a prominent leader among the patriots, and aided with his powerful influence in the suppression of the Earl Marshal's court, the court of York, and the high commission, the passing of the triennial bill, and the abolition of arbitrary taxation. He was no less forward in condemning shipmoney, impeaching the judges who gave it their sanction, driving Finch and Windebank into exile, and in impeaching Strafford. There is reason to believe that he went so far as to vote for the bill of attainder, though in his "History" he dishonestly conceals his participation in these vigorous proceedings. He even supported the unconstitutional and dangerous bill to prevent a dissolution of the parliament without its own consent, and continued to act with the reforming party until shortly before the period of the Grand Remonstrance, which the more thorough-going men brought forward for the purpose of rekindling popular enthusiasm for their cause, and stemming the reaction which had set in in the king's favour. Hyde and his friends seem to have thought that, though no confidence could be placed in the king's good faith, his weakness afforded a security against the resumption of previous concessions, and the renewal of his former arbitrary and unconstitutional procedure. The ulterior designs, too, of some at least of the patriots began to be disclosed, and recoiling from the opening gulf of revolution, Hyde and his friends went over to the conservative side, and thenceforward followed the fortunes of the court. He opposed the bill for the exclusion of bishops from parliament, and the bill for abolishing episcopacy (March, 1641). In the month of October following, he was invited to a private conference with the king, and was warmly thanked for the important service he had rendered to his majesty. A few weeks later, Hyde wrote an answer to the Remonstrance, which was adopted by the king, and so sensible was Charles how "much he was beholden to him for many good services," that when Falkland became secretary of state, and Colepepper chancellor of the exchequer, the office of solicitor-general was offered to Hyde. The offer, however, was declined by him, though he consented to meet frequently with Falkland and Colepepper to consult on the king's affairs, and to conduct them in parliament. Under the able management of these three associates, the royal cause was daily gaining ground, when Charles himself ruined his own prospects by his rash and unconstitutional attempt to arrest the "five members." As he had solemnly pledged himself to take no step in parliament without the consent of his three councillors, they have been accused of being "indirect if not direct parties to the deed." But Hyde has in the most solemn terms disclaimed any complicity in the act for himself and for his friends, and there is no good ground for questioning the truth of his statement. So mortified were they at this breach of faith on the part of the king, that "they were inclined never more to take upon them the care of anything to be transacted in the house." But as the political horizon grew darker, a sense of duty induced them to "continue on public grounds to serve a sovereign in whom they could no longer place private confidence." To Hyde was assigned the task of preparing the royal answers to the demands of the parliament, and other state papers, which were written with great ability, and were supposed at the time to be the king's own composition. When Charles withdrew from Whitehall in March, 1642, Hyde remained at his post; but his services were so necessary to the king, that he was summoned to repair to his presence, and having with some difficulty made his escape from London, he reached York, where Charles then resided, by a circuitous and unfrequented route, and during the next two eventful years continued to act as the king's adviser. In the spring of 1643, Hyde was made chancellor of the exchequer, sworn a member of the privy council, and received the honour of knighthood. He exerted himself vigorously, but without effect, first to negotiate a peace between the contending parties, and then to arrest the decline of the royal cause, which he mainly ascribed to the misconduct of the royalists, by many of whom he was regarded with envy and dislike. In February, 1645, when Prince Charles was sent to the west, Hyde was appointed a member of the council by whom he was to be guided. On the 5th of March the prince and his adviser took leave of the king, whom neither of them ever saw again. The ruin which speedily overtook the royal cause, made it necessary that the prince should quit the kingdom, to save him from falling into the hands of the parliament. Accompanied by Hyde and others of his suite, he fled first to Scilly and thence to Jersey, 16th April, 1646. The intrigues of the queen ultimately obtained from Charles an order that the prince should join her in Paris, in opposition to the strong remonstrances of Hyde, who made urgent representations to her of the injury which would thus arise to the king's affairs, but without effect. He remained behind in Jersey, where he spent the next two years, which were for the most part occupied with the preparation of his great work, the "History of the Rebellion." He devoted not less than ten hours a day to this undertaking, which seems to have kept his spirits from sinking under the adverse circumstances in which he was placed. He quitted this sequestered retreat in June, 1648, in obedience to an order of the king, and joined Prince Charles at the Hague, having on his voyage been seized and plundered by
