years. On the 4th of August, 1790, according to a small volume
written by Philip Neve, Esq. (of which two editions were published
in the same year), Milton's coffin was removed, and his remains
exhibited to the public on the 4th and 5th of that month. Mr.
George Steevens, the great editor of Shakespeare, who justly
denounced the indignity INTENDED, not offered, to the great Puritan
poet's remains by Royalist landsharks, satisfied himself that the
corpse was that of a woman of fewer years than Milton. Thus did
good Providence, or good fortune, defeat the better half of their
nefarious project: and I doubt not their gains were spent as money
is which has been "gotten over the devil's back." Steevens'
assurance gives us good reason for believing that Mr. Philip Neve's
indignant protest is only good in the general, and that Milton's
"hallowed reliques" still "rest undisturb'd within their peaceful
shrine." I have adduced this instance to serve as an example of
what I condemn, and should, in any actual case, denounce as strongly
as Mr. Philip Neve or George Steevens. To expose a man's remains
after any interval for the purpose of treating his memory with
indignity, or of denouncing an unpopular cause which he espoused, or
(worst of all) "to fine his bones," or make money by the public
exhibition of his dust, deserves unmeasured and unqualified
reprobation, and every prudent measure should be taken to render
such an act impossible.

To take another example of the reprehensible practice of despoiling
the grave of a great enemy: Oliver Cromwell was, as is proved by
the most reliable evidence, namely, that of a trustworthy eye-
witness, buried on the scene of his greatest achievement, the Field
of Naseby. Some Royalist Philister is said to have discovered, and
stolen from its resting-place, the embalmed head of the great