The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-29 00:00:00

DECEMBER 29, 1855. N ittraturt. The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second. By Thomas Babington Macaulay. Vols. 111. and IV. London : Longmans. WE are not disposed to concur in the objec tions which are made to Mr. Macaulay's work on the score of the length or fulness of the narrative. These two volumes contain only nine years of the reign of William 111., but they are nine of the most important years in our history, whether we regard the foreign or domestic transactions they comprise. We ex pect from a modern historian not a mere sum mary of events extending over a very lengthened period, but rather a complete ex position of events confined within a definite period, and having that degree of complete ness which admits of some unity of design and treatment. A history which relates to a single reign, a single war, a single re• volution, or a single course of political transactions, is not necessarily a fragment. On the contrary, such histories are, to the limits of their intent, the most complete and finished that we have, and eminently the most valuable and instructive. our day espe cially, when books multiply so fast, and so many able writers are in the field, it is much better that separate authors should fully treat separate epochs, than that they should follow each other's steps over the same ground. It is to be regretted that Mr. Macaulay did not in the first instance propose to himself a com plete history of the Revolution of 1688; that Revolution has its boundary lines, not only as to actual occurrences, but as to causes and consequences. It would naturally commence with the accession of James 11., and it would naturally end with the failure of Charles Edward s enterprise in '45. By contemplating a more extensive work than it is possible for him to perform, we fear Mr. Macaulay's history will want that completeness, propriety, and unity of purpose which might otherwise have marked it. Whoever will glance at the contents of these volumes will readily acknowledge the impor tance of the events they narrate. The third volume commences with the proclamation of William and Mary, and the first sentences afford a fair specimen of Mr. Macaulay's rapid and energetic but somewhat jerking style : The Revolution had been accomplished. The decrees of the Convention were everywhere received with submis sion. London, true during fifty eventful years to the cause of civil freedom and of the reformed religion, was foremost in professing loyalty to the new sovereigns. Garter King-at-Arme, after making proclamation under the windows of Whitehall, rode in state along the Strand to Temple Bar. He was followed by the maces of the two Houses, by the two Speakers, Halifax and Powle, and by a long train of coaches filled with noblemen and gentle. men. The magistrates of the City threw open their gates and joined the procession. Four regiments of militia lined the way up Ludgate-hill, round St. Paul's Cathedral, and along Cheapside. The streets, the balconies, and the very housetops were crowded with gazers. All the steeples from the Abbey to the Tower sent forth a joyous din. The proclamation was repeated, with sound of trumpet, in front of tbe Royal Exchange, amidst the shouts of the citizens. In the evening every window from Whitechapel to Pic cadilly was lighted up. The state rooms of the palace were thrown open, and were filled by a gorgeous company of courtiers desirous to kiss the hands of the King and Queen. The Whigs assembled there, flushed with victory and prosperity. In a single chapter there are described with great animation the first measures of the new reign—William's first Ministry—the temper of the Parliament and the country—the Coalition against France, and the declaration of war. In the next chapter the affairs of Ireland are related, from the commencement of the Revo lution to the raising of the siege of London derry ; in the next we have a view of occurrences in Scotland from the elections for the Convention to the battle of Killiecrankie, with the death of Dundee and its consequences. We need not proceed further. Each chapter has a story of its own; and we must say that the narrative is generally the more interesting as it is the more full. The third volume is occupied with the history of two years only. The fourth ends with the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, and Williams triumphant entry into London. THE PRESS. To the style of 'Mr. Macaulay's narrative there are more valid objections than to its length. The brilliant essayist is visible in every page, but we seldom catch sight of the candid and discriminating historian. His mind is essentially the mind of an advocate. He is always intent on dressing up a case for effect. He must have violent contrasts, and, as nature and truth but rarely afford them, they must be manufactured out of the ample materialir which are always at the historian's disposal. So completely has this habit of mind obtained ascendancy over Mr. Macaulay's other and better faculties, that he is blind to the contradictions into which it is perpetually leading him. In describing the Highlanders (iii. 302-9), he writes— That a stab in the back, or a shot from behind a frag ment of rock, were approved modes of taking satisfaction for insult. But- That there was no other part of the island where men, sordily clothed, lodged, and fed, . . . had in such a degree the better qualities of an aristocracy, grace, and dignity of manner, self-respect, and that noble sensibility which makes dishonour more terrible than death. Does not the reader perceive that in these passages, short as they are, the bad and good qualities of the Highland people are both greatly exaggerated? For how could the "better qualities of an aristocracy," and the "noble sensibility" of honour, subsist together with the practice of cowardly assassination? A stranger, says Mr. Macaulay, might be feasted at a board, where the company would have been covered with cutaneous eruptions, and others smeared with tar like sheep. His conch would have been the bare earth, dry or wet as the weather might be ; and from that couch he would have risen half poisoned with stench, half blind with the reek of turf, and half mad with the itch. But— A gentleman whose clothes were begrimed with the accumulated filth of years, and whose hovel smelt worse than an English hogaty, would often do the honours of that hovel with a lofty courtesy worthy of the splendid circle of Versailles, . . . minstrels who did not know their letters sometimes poured forth rhapsodies, in which a discerning critic might have found passages which would have reminded him of the tenderness of Otway, or of the vigour of Dryden. We all know that in a savage, or semi-savage, state men may exhibit natural dignity of de meanour, and possess faculties of song, but Mr. Macaulay is singularly infelicitous in his tawdry illustrations. Their demeanour bears no kind of resemblance to the artificial graces of a ceremonious Court, and the song has little in common with the verse of such poets as Otway and Dryden. At the commencement of the third volume (23-4) we see some fresh allusions to the apos they of Dryden and to his poorness of spirit. Nowhere is Mr. Macaulay's habit of inveterate advocacy more conspicuous than in his in dictment against Dryden in the volume of this history previously published. He makes it a strong presumption against the sincerity of Dryden's conversion to Popery that the character of his writings underwent no change after his change of faith. They were, says Mr. Macaulay, as licentious as ever, while, if his conversion had been sincere, his re ligious impressions must have influenced his conduct, and exercised a chastening in fluence over his pen. This view of the case is worked up as strongly as possible. But in another place Mr. Macaulay has to remark on the infatuation of James in supposing that no amount of provocation or tyranny on his part could induce the Church of England to act against those principles of Divine right and passive obedience professed by its ministers. He is then severe on the besotted credulity which could not see that very often men act in direct opposition to the principles they sincerely hold, and wonders that James did not, by looking into his own breast, observe how opposed his convictions often were to his daily acts. No one doubted the sincerity of James's religious belief, yet not all the remon strances of his confessors could tear him from his courtezans. The world in all ages is full of such examples. Nothing is more common than for men to " know the right and yet the " wrong pursue ;" to be drawn one way by conviction and another by temptations they are too weak to resist. If ali this be true, as applied to James, must it not also be true as applied to Dryden? and what are we to think of the judgment of a writer who argues vehe mently against views and statements he has himself advanced, as often as he has occasion to make the most of passages of history, and present them in what he takes to be the most theatrical dress' It is owing to the same unfortunate propen sity—the craving for effect at any cost—that Mr. Macaulay jumps from small particular facts to large general conclusions. This is a most vicious practice in history, as the reader can never be on his guard against it. At p. 97, vol. iii., Mr. Macaulay describes the situation of the non-conforming clergy to be such as the great majority of the divines of the Established Church might well envy : Few, indeed, of the parochial clergy were so abundantly supplied with comforts as the favorite orator of a great assembly of Nonconformists in the City. The voluntary contributions of his wealthy hearers—aldermen and de puties, West-India merchants and Turkey merchants, Wardens of the Company of Fishmongers and Wardens of the Company of Goldsmiths—enabled him to become a landowner or a mortgagee. The best broadcloth from Blackwell-hall, and the best poultry from Leadenhall market, were frequently left at his door. . . . While a waiting•woman was generally considered as a helpmeet fora chaplain in holy orders of the Established Church, the widows and daughters of opulent citizens were sup posed to belong in a peculiar manner to Nonconformist pastors, 6,:c. If we turn to the author's own authorities for all this florid statement, we find that Tom Brown had said of the Presbyterian divines, in what Mr. Macaulay calls "his scurrilous way," that their preaching brings in money, and money buys land; and land is an amusement they all desire, in spite of their hypocritical cant. If it were not for the quarterly contributions there would be no longer schism or separation. We are also referred to the Spectator (317), where one Nesbit, a popular dissenting preacher, is represented as " regaled with " marrow-bones, ox-cheek, and a bottle of " Brooks and Hellier." In Wilson's " His tory of Dissenting Churches," another of Mr. Macaulay's authorities, will be found, he says, several instances of Nonconformist preachers who, about this time, made handsome fortunes, generally, it should seem, by marriages. But what of the aldermen and deputies—what of the Wardens of the Company of Fish mongers and Company of Goldsmiths—what of the West India merchants and Turkey merchants—of the broadcloth from Blackwell hall and the poultry from Leadenhall-market— what of the widows and daughters of opulent citizens belonging in a " peculiar manner " to Nonconformist pastors? For these sweeping statements we fancy there is no authority whatever. Some Presbyterian preachers throve in the world, as sleek pious men will occasionally do at all times, and the author's imagination supplies the rest. We have popular dissenting preachers iu our own day. They doubtless fare as well as did the Non conformist divines in 1600; but who, except to burlesque the character of our age, would think of representing that the wives and daughters of opulent citizens belong to them in a peculiar manner ? When Mr. Macaulay comes to speak of the non-jurors, he represents them as incapable of arguing in a rational manner : The non•juror sacrificed, not liberty to order, not order to liberty, but both liberty and order to a superstition as stupid and degrading as the Egyptian worship of cats and onions.—iii. 448. But, on the previous page, he shows that " the swearing clergy, as they were called, " were not a little perplexed " by the reason ing of the non-jurors, and that they were entirely unable to meet the argument that obedience to Cromwell would have been as lawful as obedience to William. Scarcely one of the non-jurors can be named, says Mr. Macaulay in support of his view of their " stupid and degrading superstition," who was qualified to discuss any large question of morals or politics ; and, lest this dictum of a Whig should be doubted, he refers us to an opinion of Johnson in " Boswell's Life," to the effect that, among the non jurors, there was one, and one only, who could reason. Among the four or five names mentioned by Jobneen three are those of Leslie, Law, and Collier. Leslie is the one of whom Johnson spolte. and " Leslie," he said, " was a reasoner, and ei " reasoner who could not be reasoned against," a proof that Johnson did not take the same 9