SIDNEY, ALGERNON, grand-nephew of the famous sir Philip Sidney, was b. in the year 1629. He received a careful education, and accompanied his father, the earl of Leicester, to Denmark and France. \thither the latter had been sent on embassies. In 1641 he served with some distinction against the rebels in Ireland, of which country his father was then lord-lieut. for the king. Subsequently, in 1643, along with his elder brother, the viscount Lisle, he crossed to England, ostensibly to take service under the king, then at war with his parliament. The two brothers, however, on their arrival, joined the parliamentary forces. At the battle of Long Marston Moor, in which he was sharply wounded, Algernon's courage and capacity were conspicuous; and in evidence of the estimation in which he came to be held IT his party, we find him, in 1646, lieut. gen. of the horse in Ireland. and governor of Dublin; and, subsequently, in 1647 after receiving the thanks of the house of numinous for his services, appoint...A governor of Dover. The year before, he had been returned to parliament as member for Cardiff. In 16-IS he was one of the judges at the king's trial, mid though, for some reason not explained, he neither was present at the pdssing of sentence, nor signed the warrant of execution, his general approval of the proceedings is not doubted. lie is reported to have afterward spoken of the execution as "the justest and bravest action that ever was done in England or anywhere else." In principle a severe republican, be resented the ursupation of power by Cromwell, and during the protectorate lived in retirement at the family scat of Penshurst, in Kent. In 1659, on the meeting of the restored parlia ment, Sidney was again in his place. He was nominated one of the council of state, and shortly after dispatched to Denmark on a political mission. After the restoration,
he lived precariously on the continent, flitting about from place to place, but in 1677, a pardon was procured hint from Charles II., and he returned to his native country. Nevertheless, lie was still obdurately republican in his opinions, and it is undoubted that he schemed for the overthrow of the monarchy, and the establishment of a republic in its stead; for this end he solicited the aid of the French monarch, and there is evidence of his having been supplied with money by Barillon, the French ambassador. Obscurely his designs were suspected, and in June, 1683, when the Rye house plot was announced, the opportunity was seized to get rid of a man felt to lie dangerous. Along with his friend lord Russell and others, he was arrested, and committed to the tower. On Nov. 21 he was tried for high treason before the brutal Jefferies, mid on the merest mockery of evi dence, found guilty, and condemned to die. On Dec. 7 he was beheaded on Tower hill. He met his death with heroic firmness, amid general sympathy and indignation. He has ever since enjoyed a sort of canonized reputation as a patriot hero and martyr, and it cannot be held undeserved, narrow and impracticable as we must admit his views to have been. In the history and theory of government, Sidney was more deeply learned than any man of his time. His Discourses concerning Gorernment were first published in 1698; in 1704 another edition was issued, a third appeared in 1751, and the fourth in 1772. Sidney's life has been written by S. W. Meadley (Load. 1813). See also Bien cower's Sidney Papers (Load. 1813).