The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-03 00:00:00

JANUARY 3, 1857. Sitcraturt. THE publishing world has been unusually busy for some weeks past. It is true that not many very remarkable works have issued from the press; of the volumes which crowd our table, few are of distinguished merit. But the mass and variety of new publications attest the prodigious intellectual activity which pre vails, and show how rapidly the number, not only of those who read, but of those who write, is extending. As we cannot hope to give de tailed notices of the books which reach us at this season, our readers may not be displeased to receive a summary of them, that they may judge for themselves of the amazing activity evinced in all departments of lite rature at this commencement of the year 1857, and make a selection according to their several tastes. We adopt this plan the more willingly, as it will enable us to clear our table of its rapidly-increasing burden, and to re serve some few volumes for more detailed notice. An important contribution to the HISTORY of Europe, for some years subsequent to our Revolution of 1688, has been made by the pub lication of a volume of State Papers and Cor respondence, carefully and intelligently edited by Mr. J. M. Kemble (1). The central figure in this " Correspondence " is Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the twelfth and youngest child of Elizabeth Stuart and the Elector Palatine, and the mother of that Prince, George Louis, des tined to found the most splendid and fortunate dynasty in the world's annals. The Electress was herself in correspondence with most of the illustrious and eminent personages of her time. Her favourite, Leibnitz, was as well versed in politics as in philosophy, and it is from the mass of his correspondence that most of the letters and papers here printed are selected. Biographical notices are pre fixed by the editor to the letters of the most celebrated correspondents ; and these me moirs, written with knowledge and in a popular style, will, we fancy, be generally esteemed the most readable, if not the most valuable, part of the volume. Thus the memoirs of the Electress Sophia; of Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans ; of Count Schttlenburg ; of Lieutenant-General Patkul; and of Gene ral Cavalier, are full of interest, and embrace to a considerable extent a view of the politics and society of Europe at the time in which they lived. The reader is thus initiated, so to speak, into the social atmosphere of the age to which the letters refer. They extend from 1686 to 1707, the correspondence in the earlier years being scanty, but in the later ones tole rably copious. It is necessary to warn the reader that the" Correspondence" itself cannot be read hurriedly—it must be studied before its significance can be appreciated ; and we are inclined to think that much of it must be valueless even to historical students, though, knowing how often a bare hint in contempo rary papers will raise the veil of obscurity from important transactions, we offer an opinion on this point with diffidence. We hope Mr. Kemble may be induced to publish a continuation of his work. We think there is a wide field still open for the illustration of particular periods by the publication of con temporary authorities. Whatever is done in this way must at least be attended with the good result of bringing the reading public nearer to original sources of history, and must tend to the correction of those prejudices from which few historians are free, and which are commonly most rooted in those writers who in their own day at least are most popular. For Mr. Kemble's "Memoirs" alone the volume well deserves attention. Another volume of similar character we owe to the research of nn industrious lady, Mary Anne Everett Green (2). It contains a num- (1) State Papers anti Correspondence, illuetratire of the Swint and Political State of Europe from the Revolution to the .4,.re:%ion of the Howse of Honorer. Edited, with Historical Introduction, Biographical Memoirs, and Notes, by J. M. KPmble, M.A. London: J. W. Parker and son. (2) Letters of Queen ifenrietla Maria, including her Private Correspondence with Charles I. Collected from the Public Archives and Private Libraries of France and England. Edited by Mary Anne Everett Green. London: Bentley. THE PRESS. ber of letters written (most of them in cipher) by the unfortunate Queen Henrietta Maria to her husband, Charles I.; to the leading royalists, as Newcastle, Hamilton, and Mont rose ; to Charles 11., to Cardinal Mazarin, and others. These letters give us a faithful pic. ture of the unhappy Charles, by one who had perfectly fathomed his nature. The Queen was always fearful of his indecision. Had she been wiser, she would have known that it was as vain to attempt to make such a nature resolute as to endeavour to make a worm stand erect. Had she been as earnest with him for concession as she was for resistance, all might have gone well, and the King would have escaped those charges of weakness and falsehood which it is impossible to excuse, however justly they may be laid to the door of the amiability of his character and the neces sities of his position. llenrietta early saw the certainty of the contest, which, with her prin ciples, was inevitable. A constitutional mo narchy, in modern meaning, was inconceivable to her, though with other advisers such a monarchy Charles might possibly have founded. Her devotion, when the full danger opened to her view, was admirable. On her visit to Holland her first object was to raise funds to send to Charles. Some jewels were pawned, some sold ; the merchants had good bargains. The Queen complains that she can not get half what the gems are worth. " You " may judge," she says, " now that they know " we want money, how they keep their foot on " our throat." She cannot restrain her regret at parting with jewels which she had admired on the person of her lord in his day of pro sperity : You cannot imagine (she writes) how handsome your pearl buttons were when they were out of tile gold, and strung into a chain, and many as large as my great chain. I assure you that I gave them up with no small regret. But she thought arms, powder, and money would do Charles more good than all his jewels, though the aids thus sent him were really of little service; many supplies never reached his hand. In her absence the Queen constantly attempted to infuse her resolution into his breast : Lose no time [she urges—May, 1642]—you have lost enough already. Take a good resolution and pursue it Remember your own maxims, that it is better to follow out a bad resolution than to change it so often It is not enough to declare yourself in writing; actions must afterwards be seen. Again, a little later:— . Delays have always ruined you. . . . Perhaps you are beginning again your old game of yielding everything. For my own consolation, however, I will hope the cun trary, till I hear the decision, for 1 confess that if you do it you ruin yourself in ruining me. Again : Go on boldly; God will assist you. You see what you have got by not following your first resolutions, when you declared those of the Parliament traitors. Let that serve you as an example; do not delay longer now in consulta tions, it is action which must do the work at this] hour; it is time. The young Duke of York Lad been sent to Hull in charge of the Prince Palatine, and she says, in relation to the refusal of Sir John Hotham to yield the town : _ _ I have wished myself in the place of James in Hull ; I would have flung the rascal over the walls, or be should have done the same thing for me. She truly foreboded that, with the character of the King, all her exertions would be useless, and wrote sadly : The truth is, that I see I shall be constrained by my misfortunes to retire to some place where I can pray to God for you. In Charles, as in Hamlet—and there are such strong points of resemblance between the characters as to render one almost a type of the other—" The native hue of resolution was " sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." Charles, I;ke Hamlet, had a task thrown upon him far above his capacity for action to discharge. In all such cases the consequence must, by the laws of being, be tragic. Indi viduals are usually safest when allowed to follow the bent of their nature. The advice which constrains them to an opposite direction more often ruins than saves them. The reso lution of the Queen would have maintained a throne of her own, but, acting on the irresolute disposition of Charles, only served to bring his head to the block. Like the preceding volume, this must be carefully read to be ap preciated, but the allusions in the letters will 15 be more easily understood, and, from their continuity, they have more of the interest of a regular narrative. It is probable that the lady who has edited the volume has some times mistaken the meaning of the cipher she had to translate; but she undoubtedly deserves the highest credit for her research and care. In one portly volume we have, by the Rev. J. C. Robertson, " A History of the Christian Church, from the Election of Pope Gregory the Great to the Concordat of Worms " (3) —that is, from the year 590 to 1122. We do not pretend, in our limited space, to pass a decided opinion on this laborious work. Gererally, we may say that it appears written with a most scru pulous regard for truth, and that its primary purpose is to give a plain connected narrative of facts, without pretence to rhetorical ele gance, or elaborate disquisition. The volume is, for the period it comprises, a history of the growth of the Papal Church. A previous publication by Mr. Robertson' traces the his tory of the Christian Church to the period at which the present issue commences, and, for the sake of completeness, the work should be carried down to the date of the Reformation, at least. The author has in all cases been careful to quote his authorities. He is precise, but never diffuse in his statements, and by systematic arrangement takes a wide survey of all branches of the Church without confu sion. Hence the history is full of solid infor mation. We think we may venture to assert that no historian was ever more free from parti sanship, though the subject is one peculiarly tempting to prejudice. To great scholarship and luminousness of mind, he appears to us to unite that gospel charity which instinctively shrinks from every kind of mis-statement, and which, when it finds a home in a truly en lightened mind, is the best guide to truth in historical research. The volume is complete in every point, and furnished with a good index. In connection with the opening pas sages of the volume, that towards the end of the sixth century North Italy was overrun by the Lombards and other provinces threatened by them, we may notice a striking statement, in an eloquent lecture lately delivered by the Bishop of Oxford at Reading, (4), that no one of the barbarian nations which overran the Roman empire, and failed to embrace Chris tianity, ever grew into a nation : Through their lack of this one condition, a true living faith, they wasted gradually away their original elements of strength in hopeless and disorganising strife. In historic literature the new edition of Sir Harris Nicolas's " Historic Peerage 01 England" (5) must take a high place. It exhibits " under strictly alphabetical arrangement the " descent of every title which has been con " ferred in this country since the accession of " William the Conqueror, the manner and " period of its creation, the dates of the " deaths of those who inherited it, and of the " year when each dignity became extinct, was " forfeited, or fell into abeyance." A list of all prelates who have filled sees within the same period is added. The present edition has been thoroughly revised, and as far as practicable perfected. Still we think a little more detail would have been desirable. The date of birth of peers should have been inserted as often as it could be obtained ; and the precise date of death, easily ascertainable in most cases, would have added to the completeness of the work. The volume is beautifully printed, and from the vast body of information it contains (found nowhere else in the same compass) equally de serves a place in the library of noble mansions, and on the shelves of the student. A volume of Mr. John Wade, under the title of " England's Greatness" (6), professes to supply a history of British civilisation. Sub stantially, however, the volume is but a con densed history of England with some supple mentary chapters, and occasional remarks on. social progress. The style of this book is more (3) History of the Christian Church, from the Eketiost of Pops Gregory the Great to the Concordat of Worms. By James Craigie Robertson. M.A. London : Murray. (4) National Life. A Lecture. By the Bishop of Oxford. London : Bentley. (5) A Historic Peerage of England. Being a new Edition of the Synopsis of the Peerage of Eugland. By the late Sir Harris Nicolas. Revised, corrected, and continued to the present time by William Courthope, Esq., Somerset Herald. London: Murray, (6) Ewland's Greatness, its Rise and Progress. By John Wade. London: Longmane.