The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

I JANUARY 14, 1854. f it tratur t. History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to the Accession of Louis Napoleon. Vol. 11. By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart. London : Blackwood. WE have read this volume with greater plea sure than its predecessor. It has more merits and fewer faults. Sir Archiba l d's s t yle is not indeed perfect: it wants concision, the meta ',bon are often ungraceful, and occasionally pan igraphs appear so full of repetition, and so slovenly in their diction, as to seem to resem ble rather the improvisation of a second-rate debater than the deliberate composition of one who aspires to address posterity. We could point out, were the task not ungracious, a dozen such instances within the compass of a hundred pages, some disfigured by actual bad taste, others by the mere want of a little revising care. It is when our author attempts to be declamatory that he most frequently breaks down. Oratory, written or spoken, re sembles music : a single discord mars the effect of a whole passage ; and the higher the style aimed at the more disappointing is the effect of failure. If an illustration of our meaning be required, let the reader turn to p. 463, where the trial of Queen Caroline is described. Sir Archibald, iu a note relating to this passage, very candidly admits that he has taken Macaulay as his model in the art of word-painting, thereby producing unfavour able comparison. The model is not one to be safely copied ; and the author of the " History of Europe" is the last man who should at tempt to copy it. Since Madame D'Arblay's laborious efforts to write like Dr. Johnson, there has been no instance of a more unhappy literary imitation. Fortunately it is confined to a single scene, occupying less than two pages. Let the historian rest satisfied that he has shown what he can do when he likes, and let him never repeat the experiment. We dwell on these shortcomings, not be cause it is any pleasure to do so, but because they are of a character to be amended without more trouble than an author ought to bestow on a new edition of a great work. If the sub stance of this history were not thoroughly valuable—if the book were not one likely to live, and be consulted, if not read, a century hence—we should hardly have paused to coin ment on inappropriate epithets, ill turned sentences, and clumsy imagery. Criticism is wasted where the deficiency lies on the side of natural gifts ; but Sir Archibald Alison has, or may have, every quality of a historian— great accuracy, untiring diligence, lucid order in the arrangement and statement of facts, and a style which, by attention, he can render not unpleasing. His faults are verbal only, and arise, sometimes, from a straining after rhetorical effect, for which his mental consti tution wholly unfits him ; more frequently from simple haste, and impatience of the "limie labor." The present volume deals with a period of ten years, from 11414 to 1825; and contains separate histories of Spain, Italy, Russia, France, and England during that term. From so vast a muss of matter it is of course impos sible to do more than select here and there, almost at random, isolated extracts of more than common interest ; and perhaps no part of this work will be more generally read at the present time than that which relates to the affairs of Eastern Europe. The increase of Russian power since the overthrow of Napo leon's army is ably set forth, and dwelt upon at length. Setting aside other conquests, the annexation, virtual though not nominal, of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw added enor mously to the Czar's resources. A territory exceeding that of Ireland by one-half, and containing some of the most fertile soil in the world—a race famous for bravery in war, and at that time not indisposed towards their new masters—a frontier advanced to within ten days' march of Vienna and Berlin—such were the fruits reaped from success by the most powerful of England's allies. But the internal and spontaneous growth of the empire bears just Proportions to its enlargement from with out. No European State, except rmsia, ap- THE PRESS. proaches it in the rapidity with which its population has augmented, the rate of increase being such as would, if continued, double its inhabitants in seventy years. But this fact alone furnishes no fair measure of Russian development. In France th e crow di ng toge ther of multitudes on a narrow a rea l ea d s to di▪ stress, disturbance, revolution, and eons° quent repression. In England emigration affords a safety-valve, but at the expense of whatever strength a greater number of work ing and fighting men might give to the com munity in war and peace. Russia, like Ame ri▪ ca, has room for all, were she peopled as densely as the British islands are. Five hn dred millions of human beings—one-half the human race now existing—might find space within her European territories alone. These two results must not be lost sight of. Propor tionably to the rest of Europe, there is reason to suppose that her material strength will be come greater and greater every year ; while thatincrease of strength is not accompanied by any danger from overcrowding, or from in sufficiency of the means of maintaining life. The political power of the nation, remarks our author, is vastly enhanced by the absence of class rivalry. The whole people is agricultu ral—dispersed, not concentrated—peaceable in habits and oriental in ideas. The urban population, forming but one-twelfth of the whole, possesses little wealth, and exercises no influence. There is, therefore, among all classes a general unity of interest, to which must be added an almost absolute unanimity —real among the peasantry, of eeted among the more powerful and educated—in matters of religious belief. Here are sources of vast external power, which the concentration of authority, temporal and spiritual, in one head serves to direct with equal secrecy and skill. So far we agree with Sir Archibald; but we must join issue with him when he passes a general though far from unqualified eulogy on the Russian system of internal administration. With a feeling common to pemons of his east of mind, especially to those who incline to rate human nature low, he admires the energy, the secrecy, and the consistent policy of des potism, overlooking or slighting the elements of weakness and decay which it contains. We grant that in Russia the experiment is tried under most favourable circumstances. We admit that the revolutionary spirit has never extended to any part of the Russian dominions, Poland only excepted. We con cede that the Russian people are such as our author forcibly describes them : They unite the devotion and singleness of purpose of Asia to the industry and material resources of Europe. It is incorrect to say that the Russians, like the inhabitants of England or France, are generally loyal, and only occa sionally seized with the disturbing passions of revolution or religion. They are loyal at all times, and in all places, and under all circumstances. They can never be brought to combat the ('zar but in the name of the Czar. Devo tion to the throne is so interwoven with the inmost feel ings of their hearts that it has become part and parcel of their very being ; it is as universal as the belief in God or a future state is in other countries. No disturbing or rival passions interfere with the unity of this feeling, which is sublime from its universality, and respectable from its disinterestedness. The Czar is at once their temporal sovereign, their supreme chief, whose will is law in all temporal Malta, and the head of their Church, under the ?Nis of whose protection they alone hope for entrance into paradise in the world to come. The Patriarch of Constantinople is, properly speaking, the head of the Greek Church, but he is a foreigner, and at a distance ; the real ecclesiastical authority resides in the Czar, who appoints all the bishops; and his brows are surrounded, in their eyes, at once with the diadem of the Sultan and the tiara of the Pontiff. This unity of feeling—the result of the combination, in the same people, of the Asiatic principle of passive obe• dience in temporal, and the Roman Catholic one of unity of belief in religious concerns—has been much enhanced in Russia by the entire identity of material interests over every part of the empire. A Sovereign reverenced as the terrestrial impersonation of the Supreme—a clergy igno rant indeed, and fanatical, but numbering nearly a quarter of a million, and influencing m ultitudes who exceed them both in ignorance .. and fanaticism—an administra tion, both end and military, thoroughly centralised—rank conferred and taken away at the pleasure of the Czar—an aristocracy numerous, and not devoid of wealth, though debarred from inde pendence—universal ignorance, with a preva lent system of serfdom—surely , if autocracy be an effective instrument of human governincut _ '0,........,-..-....-- - --- 39 anywhere, these are the right materials to work with. But what says Sir Arehibahl ? " Before the light of knowledge," he remarks, " the vast fabric would melt away, but with it " would -disappear at the saute time the inter " nal solidity and external strength of the empire." In other words, the existing state of things will last no longer than while knowledge can be forcibly excluded ;—a precarious tenure for authority to build on ! But we go farther, and believing that, while all information on Russian affairs must come from official per sons, no such evidence can be relied upon where there exists any inducement to falsify, we utterly distrust the alleged efficiency of the Russian Government even as regards its present well-doing. Corruption prevails in every department; public spirit is chilled by the principle of blind subordination; the pea sant may be always loyal, but the noble is often a conspirator; the mechanical excellence of the army has not sufficed to inspire it with that enthusiasm which decides the fate of desperate battles. Here, however, Nature steps in to remedy the defect which human arrangements have produced. She has im planted in these northern races both the de sire, and to some degree the capacity, for con quest : .1111anilliS Custine says, that in Russia we are perpetually reminded of two things—the absence of the sun and the presence of power. Both are equally important alike in their social and external eft . ects; perhaps the last is the necessary consequence of the first. A very simple reason keg, and ever must make, the Russians desirous above all things of escaping out of their own country : it is the severity of its climate. Those who live in a yummy where the snow covers the ground for eight months in the year, and the long nights of winter ore illuminated only by the cold light ;of the sinvira borealis. long with inexpressible ardour for the genial warmth mid sonny hills of the south, where the skies are ever blue, the sun ever shines, and nature teems with the luxuriance of tropical vegetation. The shores of the liosphorur, the Golden Horn, the dome of St. Sophia, are not may thu secret dream of ambition to every Russian, hut the um doubted object of their expectation. " I do not wish Constantinople," said Nicholas: "my empire is already too large ; but I know that I or my successors must have it : you might as well arrest a stream in its descent from a mountain, as the Rnasians in their advance to the Hellespont." The habits which necessity has given to them fwnnanently fit, and ever must fit, them for foreign conquest. Their life is a continual confliet with the severity of nature; actual warfare, as to the Roman soldiers, is f.-lt chiefly as a relaxation from the rude but invigorating discipline of pelice. 11 . 1iat are the hardships of a campaign to men who never knew the luxury of beds, whose food is hijack bread and water, who sleep ever on the hard bench or cold gmund, end know no pleasure save the simple urea of nature, and the exciting ones of conquest? ben the north ceases toeo nauunicate vigour to the flame, hardihood to the habits, and ambition to the soul, Russia will cease to be a conquering country, but not till then. Differing from the historian's estimate of Russian capabilities, both in esse and in posse, as far too high, we nevertheless commend his dissertation on this subject to the study of all renders. It is elaborately compiled, well put together, and neither meagre nor overlaid with needless detail. It is worth notice that, al though he calculates the military force of Russia for foreign service at more than half a million of men, he acknowledges that not half this power could be brought together within a twelvemonth and that in no nation of the orld does there exist so wide a discrepancy between the real and the calculated numeriedd military force. Nor, although undervaluing its enfeebling effect on the Government, is he blind to the great public vice of Russia : Montesquieu long ago said that honour is the principle of a monarchy, and virtue of a republic. Both are true, in a certain sense, of society generally, though not of every individual of which it is composed ; for though few are willing to practise these virtues themselves, yet all are ready to exact them of their neighbours. Public opinion inclines to the right side, because it is founded on our judgment of others ; private acne often to the wrong, because they are Founded by our own inclina tions. if we are to form our ogoinhnn from the example of Russia, we should be forced to conclude that the 'prin ciple of despotism is coRR rionoN. This arises from the selfish desire of gain in individuals being unchecked by the opinion of those who, as they do not participate in, are not biassed by it; and fnpni the immensity of the empire, and the table number of functionaries em ployed, rendering all the vigilance of the Emperor and of the higher officers of state imulegnate to cheek the general abuses which prevail. Doubtless there are Diem 110.11 in the highest situations, both civil and military, in Russia who are as pure and honourable as any in the work' ; but they are the exceptions, not the rule. Deurrally aresk• big, and as a national characteristic, the functionaries in Retsina are corrupt. The taking of bribes is general ; jna lice is too often venal; the chiefs of the police, on the J