The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

AuG. 11, 1855. Yet it is pitiable that the writer who could produce the charming opening lines of this little lyric should have penned so much stale, flat, unprofitable stuff as we find in " Maud." It is noteworthy that in conclusion the narrator represents his " old hybterical mock diseas3" dying as he breathes the air of battle : And I stood on a giant deck and mix'd my breath With a loyal people shouting a battle cry, Till I saw the dreary phantom arise and fly ,Far into the North, and battle, and seas of death. Let it go or stay, so I wake to the higher aims Of a land that has lost for a little her lust of gold, And love of a pea ie that was full of wrongs and shames, Horrible. hateful, monstrous, not to be told ; And hail once more to the banner of battle unroll'd ! Tho' many a light shall darken, and many shall weep For those that are crusli'd in the clash of jarring claims, Yet God's just doom shall be wreak'd on a giant liar; And many a darkness into the light shall leap, And shine in the sudden making of splendid names, Aud noble thought be freer under the sun, And the heart of a people beat with one desire ; For the lung, long canker of peace is over and done, And now by the side of the Black and the Baltic deep, And deathful-griuning mouths of the fortress, flames The blood•red blossom of war with a heart of fire. All that can be said of this feeble rant is, that it appropriately concludes one of the most extravagant poems that ever came before us with the recommendation of a respectable name. Mr. Tennyson has often trodden dangerous ground. He has hovered on the line which separates genius from charlatanry. In " Maud " he has advanced a step too far We predict that the good sense of the reading world will detect and laugh at the absurdities of " Maud," and that its publication will open the eyes of the rational portion of his admirers to the faults and follies of their idol. May he fall gently from his pedestal. The " Other Poems " are very slight. The " Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington " has been published before, and the " Charge of the Light Brigade " only makes us the more regret that we have no Campbell to celebrate the gallant achievements of our Sebastopol heroes. The Spanish Conquest in America, and its Rela tion to the History of Slavery and to the Government of Colonies. By Arthur Helps. Vols. I. and 11. London :J. W. Parker and Son. THE province of history selected by Mr. Helps has already been thoroughly explored by some of the ablest of modern historians. Very little can be added to their facts, and it is impossible to improve on the spirit and ease of their narrative. But Mr. Helps has sought to give a distinctive character to his work by specially directing attention to the origin and growth of what he terms " com mercial slavery" in the Modern World. A much less ,bulky work would have better elucidated this single subject. But the author argues that the story of slavery alone would lack dramatic interest for a history, and that, as it is naturally connected with some of the most striking events in human annals, it is better to retain it as a thread in the annals of modern discovery, and especially in the conquest of America, than attempt to present it in the meagre shape it would assume if separated from surrounding circum stances On the other hand, it cfiranot be concealed that as Mr. Helps has worked out his design his original principle is almost entirely lost sight of. In these two volumes of " The Conquest of America," extending no farther than the capture of Mexico by Cortes, the history of slavery occupies so little space as to be quite insignificant. It is positively smothered by the throng of glittering adven tures which the author has to relate. For this reason it is simply as an historian of the conquest of America that Mr. Helps must be regarded, so far, at least, as we can judge from this first portion of his work. His narrative is. full, and he has availed himself of some sources of information not noticed by his predecessors in the same field. But he speaks too slightingly of their works when he says :—" Other men have written, " and I believe successfully, of the various " conquests and discoveries made in Atnerinii,," Put:ely Robertson, Washington Irving..,a4ol rescott deserved 1129 Te reepeet4l inOntsio;4* THE. PERS... Whatever may be the merits of this work by Mr. Helps, it is not likely to rival the histories of those admirable writers in point of success. The style is oftentimes prolix and pedantic. Mr. Helps is too fond of interrupting the pro gress of his narrative by commonplace reflec tions. A bad man, he observes iu one part, has it often in his power to do a great deal of mischief; and subsequently this not very original remark is repeated:—" If it be of any " use to repeat the remark, it may certainly " here be noticed, what great mischief in " critical circumstances a bad man may do." Frequently through the volume we meet with sententious reflections of this kind : The child and the rustic, in simple envy of those above them, who seem to them all-powerful, little dream of the commanding cares and hungry anxieties which beset the man who has undertaken to play any considerable part in the world. So►netimes the remarks of Mr. Helps are almost pue►ile. Thus, when he is describing the discourse on government delivered by Fonseca in presence of Ferdinand and Isabella to Ov►tndo previous to his departure for the New World, the author in a waggish way adds comments of his own between parentheses. Ovando is admonished to keep his personal and his household expenses within due bounds, on which it is remarked :—" Here I " fancy the monarchs looked at each other, " thought of their own frugal way of living, " and Isabella smiled." Such " fancies " have no place in a historical narrative of this cha racter. The work would be much improved by liberal pruning. The opening chapters, relating to the life and Tabours of Prince Henry of Portugal, have most pretension to originality. The chronicle of Azurara, discovered in 1837, supplies the author with some interesting particulars, as the chronicler was contemporary with the events he describes ; .and it is this portion of the narrative also which affords most infor mation on the rise of negro slave►y. Mr. Helps appears familiar with the Portuguese historians ; the great work of Barros is fre quently quoted by him ; and we are inclined to regret that the forty or fifty years of the Prince's labours in the cause of maritime dis covery are not detailed at greater length The history of this period is hurried and not always exact. For example, Prince Henry is said to have been born in 1394 and to have died in 1463, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. But if those dates are correctly given he must have lived to sixty-nine. The notice of the Prince's death is taken fro►n Faria y Sousa, not always a correct historian, and the less to be trusted as he lived two hundred years after the early voyages he describes. Our impression is, that Prince Henry was born in 1393, and (lied in 1460. He is said by Mr. Helps to have been the third son of Dom John ; he was in reality the fourth, Alphonse the eldest dying young. These errors are trivial. By other passages it seems doubtful whether Mr Helps read the chroniclers from whom he quotes with sufficient attention to gain an adequate idea of the Prince's career. It Sias after the capture of Ceuta, our author says, that Henry first began to meditate expeditions of discovery. But the Portuguese historians relate that from an early age he was remarkable for his study of naviga tion, and for all sciences connected with it ; and we know that it was in 1412, three years pre vious to the capture of Ceuta, that he succeeded in his object of despatching a vessel to pass Cape Non, until then the boundary of all voyages to the South. The, story may be fabulous that about this time a vision appeared to him in sleep, commanding him to devote his life to discovery, that he might carry the true faith to ends of the earth previously unknown ; but the tale at all events evinces the belief entertained that very early he devoted himself with ardour to those maritime studies for which he subsequently became so famous. It is to give a very poor idea of the designs he cherished at Ceuta, and the knowledge he acquired, to say, " that he had conversed much " with those who had made voyages in diffe " rent pints, of the world, and particularly " with Moors from Fez and Morocco, so that " be came to hear of the Azenegues, a people 0 bordering on the•country of the negroaa of 0 Ma" At this time tiler() is every reason 765 to believe that the Prince had formed in .his mind a fixed conviction that the golden Indies whose commerce had so wonderfully enriched Venice, and of which such dazzling accounts had been given by Venetian adventurers, were to be reached by following the coast of Africa to the south and east. So firmly was this conviction rooted in his mind, that he prosecuted it to the last hour of his life, and left its realisation as a splendid inheritance to his country at his death. As a discoverer Columbus must yield the palm to him in originality of view. lie was the first to dispel those vague terrors with which the mariners of the time regarded regions lying beyond the limits already known. It was from the study of ancient geographers that he seems first to have formed his opinion of the general outline of the African continent ; but it was an inspiration of genius to firmly seize the idea, in the dark state of geographical science then prevailing, that a sure route to the Indies was by turning the southern ex tremity of Africa, and that the nation which first availed itself of this route, and possessed itself of the rich countries to which it must lead, would open inexhaustible sources of wealth and commerce. It was not until after the soundness of this conception had been demonstrated, and the world was ringing with the fame of the Prince who had made so great a discovery, that Columbus developed his idea of reaching the Indies by sailing to the west The sagacious conclusion of the Prince was exactly fulfilled by the result, but the error of Columbus proved his safety. Had the ocean extended, as he supposed, without intervening land from Europe to Asia, he would have perished as an obscure adventurer. He missed the Indies he hoped to attain, but discovered a new world he never expected to find. If it be conceded that his idea of reach ing the rich coast of Asia by striking out to the west was yet more bold than that of the Prince, who sagaciously and rightly sought it to the south and east, yet to the latter must be accorded the praise of proving that the ocean was the great high road of commer and that the compass was a sure guide explore the surface of the globe. Hie exploits at Ceuta form one of brightest chapters in the romance of the middle ages. It was his lance which opened a road to victory through the Moorish ranks when they were drawn up to oppose the landing of the Portuguese chivalry; it was his foot which was first planted on the ram parts of Ceuta, and his sword which hewed a lane through the raging combatants, and kept the ground ho had won until reinforcements arrived. In the principal Mohammedan temple, solemnly consecrated to St. James the next day, the golden spurs of knighthood were buckled to his feet. This honour he .shared with his brothers ; but a certain proof that the honours of the victory were really adjudged to him, and that the King appreciated his talents and character, is fund in the titles conferred on him of Duke of Viseo and Grand Master of the Order of Christ. The revenues of the Order were very considerable, and gave the Prince ample means of sending out the expe ditions which became thereafter the leading business of his life. Left Governor of Ceuta, though then but two and twenty, he gathered round 'him, se the Portuguese chroniclers relate, seamen. travellers, and men learue I in every branch of science, makihg no distinction. of age .or country, and munificently rewarding all who could assist his inquiries and enlarge his knowledge of geography. The Moorish astronomers, at that time the most skilful in the world, revealed to him the secrets of thew art; the Jews, who traded with the East, told him all they knew of its various countries, their position and extent, of their cities, their inhabitants, their riches, and their arts; Moorish mariners instructed him in the use of their instruments of navigation; and Arab traders, whose roving habits led them to dis tant parts of Africa, roughly delineated the windings of the coast, described the continent us gradually narrowing towards the south, spoke of' the populousness and fertility of many of the kingdoms into which it vim divided, and hinted of lands where the Boil was Impregnated with gold,