The Press. — London, England, 1856-04-19 00:00:00

APRIL 19, 1856• Sittrature. History of Europe from 1815 to 1852. By Sir A. Alison. Vol. V. London : Blackwoods. IN his last volume, Sir A. Alison follows four streams of history—the constitutional course of Germany, from 1814 to 1848, with notices of its social progress and of its literature and art; the consequences of the July revolution in France, to the establishment of Louis Phi lippe's throne by the elections of 1834 ; the politics of England from the Reform Bill to the fall of Earl Grey's Ministry at the end of 1834; and the events in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and the East, from the treaty of Adrianople in 1828 to the treaty of 1841. In each division the historian has skilfully mar shalled his facts. His industry and clearness of narration—merits which every one must allow him—are as conspicuous in this volume as in his previous efforts, and we have here less of that sermonising and intiated dogmati cal teaching with which the author often sorely tries the patience of his readers. He should check his pen the instant he is tempted to moralise, and should shun what we suppose he would call "the philosophy of politics," as the greatest drawback to the value of his writings. The superficial habits of the reviewing mind are more prominent in parts of this volume than could be wished. In the chapter on the literature and art of Germany, it is evident that the historian discourses on subjects with which he has but an imperfect acquaintance. Is it necessary for a historian to affect univer sal accomplishment, and to pronounce an authoritative judgment on the peculiar excel lencies or demerits of professors in every branch of intellectual life ? We think not. Voltaire sneered at Suetonius for pretending to intimate knowledge of the life of twelve Cnsars. What is to be thought of Sir A. Alison's pretence to judge, not only the policy of Courts and Cabinets, but the merits of Kant's metaphysics, Danneker's sculpture, and Beethoven's music? Such parade of knowledge is the plague of history It is useless for any good purpose ; it is always incomplete and superficial ; and it involun tarily inspires the mind with a sentiment akin to contempt for the abilities of an author with such cycloptediac pretension. Of what worth CAD be a review of the romantic literature of rmany which omits all mention of La Mctte Fouque? And of what value can be the musical criticism which deals in such vague generalities as that Beethoven is the Michael Angelo of music, Mozart its Raphael, and Haydn its Aunibale Caracci. It is worth while to dwell on this subject for a moment, as the critical cant arising from a pretence of universal knowledge is the be setting sin of our time. Sir A. Alison has a few catch-Ards which he introduces, like the reviewers in our inferior periodical literature, to amaze his readers by a parade of awful learning. Schiller was a mannerist, we are told, but " his mannerism was that of the Iliad ;' " though some sentences later we are informed that his mind " was not graphic like that of " Bonier, nor profound like that of Shake " speare, nor tender like those of Virgil and " Racine?' Homer does great duty in this chapter; Handers compositions, "like the " poems of Homer, will continue to enchant " successive generations," &c. But there is comfort for Schiller, though he had little in common with Homer, Shakespeare, Virgil, or Racine; his lyrics "unite the burning thoughts " of Gray, the condensed expression of Camp " bell, to the varied pictures of Collins, the " poetic fire of Pindar. Milton serves Sir A. Alison for a standard of comparison almost as often as Homer. The lyrics of Klopstock, like the Allegro' and the ' Penseroso,' or Lyeidas,' evince the lustre of his imagina " tion." Beethoven's pieces are like Milton's "Paradise Lost," and the symphonies of , Muzart awaken emotion " identical with that produced by the Holy Families of Raphael, "and akin to that whieh springs fiom the " coutentplation of the Parthenon of Athens, or reflection on the ' Penseroso' of Milton." itt lelthirti we are told, is more akin to Horace THE PRESS. than Pindar—a phrase with a b ou t as muc h meaning in it as if an attempt were made to describe a colour by saying that it is snore akin to white than black. The novels of Hak lander recal " the striking qualies of Dickens " and Bulwer." The fables of Andersen have not the " deep insightinto human nature of those " of La Fontaine, nor the amusing prattling of " Gay;" and the compositions of Jean Paul Richter " have neither the deep thought of " Bacon, nor the admit able wit of Cervantes, " nor the sagacious insight into the heart of " Scott or Bulwer." Matter of this kind is quite out of place in historical composition. Some narration of the progress of literature and art in Germany, with precise dates, and notices of the effect produced by particular works, would have been useful, as furnishing materials to enable us to trace the growth and changes of the German mind. But the wordy criticism of the author is too questionable in point of taste, and too destitute of precision, to be in an) degree useful. When Sir A. Alison deals with facts we follow him with much more pleasure. Of all countries of Europe, Germany has perhaps profited the most by the forty years of peace which resulted from the pacification of 1815. " Never." says the historian, " has the land " known so long a period of unbroken rest." Its progress in material prosperity has been amazing. The population of Prussia in 1815 was barely ten millions ; in 1855 it had risen to 18,283,000. The total population of the Getman Confederacy in 1815. was thirty millions, and in 1848 it had risen to up wards of forty-one millions. In all other elements of material prosperity its progress has been equally marked ; and if political liberty has not advanced with equal strides, the cause must be found in the revolutionary movements which have invariably resulted in giving increased strength to the authority they were designed to overthrow. The assassination of Kotzebue in 1819 alarmed the continental Governments, and induced them to adopt a repressive policy ; the French revolution of 1830 renewed their fears, and, by the jealousy it awakened of French propagandism, strengthened their hands ; con stitutional ideas were making real and solid progress previous to 18.18, but were dissipated by that convulsion, and again the principle of arbitrary government was strengthened by its trials and ultimate triumph. With the mate rial progress of Germany, however, the genuine freedom of the people must inevitably advance. Social power and political power are not to be separated; as a people become more wealthy and more intelligent they must become more free, and the danger which threatens their advance is not the repressive action of their government, which must in some way or other mould itself to their progress in all the real elements of power, but a wild and ungovern able inflation of the spirit of liberty, which by breaking away from order may resolve society into its first elements, and lead to a harsh despotism, or to a brilliant but brief and anar chical period of revolutionary rule. The best hope for the political future of Germany is to be sought in the industrial and intellectual progress of the people. The history of France from the suppression of the hereditary peerage by Louis Philippe to the establishment of his throne by the elections of 1834. is narrated by the author with precision and fairness. The first effects of the revolution were disastrous in the ex treme. The State expenditure rose at once from less than 40,000,0001. sterling to upwards of 44,000,0001.; while the wages of workmen, owing to the extreme scarcity of employment, sunk in some cases from 3s. to 4s. a day down to Bd. The social insurrection in Lyons in Nov., 1831, caused by the distress and dis content of the operatives, was followed by the desperate rising in Paris on occasion of General Lainarque's funeral early in the following year. Nor were the hopes of the Republicans crushed by their bloody defeats. Desperate insurrec tiGns again broke out in Lyons and Paris in April, 1834, and extended to other parts of France. They were repressed with severity. In Paris, during the attack on the barricade in the Rue Transnonian, the orders of the officers were to force open and search every house from whence shots issued:— .......___44 r _._ 375 These oilers were issued with a rigour and cruelty which makes humanity shudder. Some shots had been seen to issue from the house No. 12, at the corner of the Rue Montmorency, in the Rue Transuovian, and orders were liven to force it open and despatch the insurgents within. The soldiers broke the doors open by blows of hatchets, and rushing in, as into the breach of a town taken by assault, in a state of frenzy put every living sonl to death within the walls. Sixteen unhappy beings, for the most part unarmed—old men, women, and chil dren—were massacred ! It recalled the worst days of the first revolution ! The resistance elsewhere was soon over come; and this frightful massacre had nut even the excuse of danger or necessity, for the forces of the insurgents were small and wholly overmatched. The account of the means taken by Louis Philippe to secure his throne is not the least instructive part of this history. When the principle of life peerages had been established, it was unscrupulously used by the Govern ment to extend its power. In October, 1832 An ordnnnance appeared creating sixty new peers, besides seven nominated at the close of the last session—a fresh inundation which completed the degradation of that dig nified portion of the Legislature. The creation of peers became thenceforward au instrument in the hands of the Executive to obtain majorities, and to rule by au organ ised system of corruption. When the new Chamber of Deputies assembled in August, 1834, the Goverument was able to command 320 votes out of 460. The results of the revo lution thus accomplished are briefly summed up by the author : The public burdens had, on an average of years, been increased by fully one-third ; the army and all its conco mitant expenses doubled. Such had become the penury of the working classes, especially in the great towns, the cen tres of revolution, that they had been driven by sheer suffering into two desperate revolts both at Paris and Lyons, which had only been suppressed after a lamentable effusion of blood, and fearful exasperation on both sides. The complaints of the press, so far from having ceased, bad augmented tenfold ; the Citizen• King bad become the object of greater vituperation than Charles X. had ever been ; the Government was engaged in an incessant war fare in the courts of law with the Republicans ; and peace was only preserved in the capital by forty thousand soldiers, and as many National Guards and armed patrols. The other chapters on the politics of Eng land and the affairs of Turkey are so full of facts judiciously arranged that they may be consulted at all times with advantage. We are disposed to cordially concur with the author, that to the refusal of England to afford assistance to Turkey in 1833, must be attri buted the encroachments of Russia which led to the war just terminated : That was perhaps the most fstal and inexplicable orris sion ever made by the Cabinet of Great Britain. The much wished for opportunity had arrived. Turkey, in the agonies of dissolution at the hands of its rebellious vassal, had flown to England for protection; a few sail of the line would have placed the capital in safety, and the prestige of Muscovite supremacy would have been at once destroyed by the most important of its protected States having vo luntarily placed itself under the protection of another and a rival power. Instead of this, what did England do? She refused succour; threw the Ottomans into the arms of Russia, who extorted as the price of her protection the treaty of Nukiar Skelessi, which converted the Euxine into a Russian lake and left the forts of the Bosphorus vis-à-vis to the bastions of Sebastopol, with a few sail of the line, ill•manned to combat eighteen line-of-battle ships, the skill of whose gunners England afterwards so fa tally experienced on the ramparts of the Malakoff and the Redan. The volume concludes with a most spirited and accurate sketch of the French conquest of Algeria. Italian Sights and Papal Principles. By James Jackson Jarves. London : Sampson Low and Co. THIS is a readable sketch of Italy and the Italians, dashed with just sufficient bad taste and egotism to make us laugh without making us frown. The style is fluent and graphic, and now and then approaches the confines of dig nified eloquence. The contrasts in the book are most striking. Few Europeans would have written the first chapter about the sick old gentleman in the cabin ; few Americans could have written the last chapter about Venice. We cannot bring ourselves to extract the first-named scene—how the author and an English young lady were the only two passengers on board the steamer who were determined to have their dinner—how they were surrounded by fellow voyagers in every stage of nausea, and how they were finally routed by the startling and decisive conduct of the old gentleman afore said ;—but we shall subjoin a specimen of the latter in its proper place. The " show piece"