The Press. — London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 10, 1855. yittraturt. History of the Reign of Philip 11., King of Spain. By W. H. Prescott. Two Yols. London : Bentley. THEsE two portly volumes contain only the first twelve years of the reign of Philip 11., and hence we suppose the entire work will Oc cupy not less than six or eight volumes. It strikes us that this space is out of all pro portion to the ►subject, and we are sure that the narrative is at times unnecessarily prolix. Mr. Prescott is diligent and learned ; his style is lucid, and he manages with admirable skill to discriminate those portions of his history which are essentially distinct, and to treat them in separate books with great advantage to the convenience and interest of the reader. Against these merits, however, are to be set great minuteness in the detail of trivial or unimportant matters (more noticeable in this history than in any of Mr. Prescott's previous productions), and a total absence of those finer qualities of intellect which in the highest order of historic composition flash forth to enlighten the mind of the reader and charm his fancy. Genius has a kind of transmuting property, which improves whatever it touches— " truths divine come mended from its tongue " —and the events of the past receive new elements of significance and fascination when subjected to its scrutiny. A really great his torian is always full of original ideas, and the history itself can never be separated from the author. But Mr. Prescott is a narrator merely : beyond his excessive prolixity, he has scarcely a distinguishing characteristic on which we can seize. With every disposi tion to laud his labours, we can scarcely set them higher than faithful and ingenious com• pilations. Like our Lord Mahon, he is pains taking in his investigations, and wields a fluent pen, but we are often compelled to wish that he better understood the merits of com pression. Every one acquainted with old chronicles must have observed the space they bestow on the description of mere pageantry. Their elaborate word-painting has some value for the illustration of manners, but it should be introduced sparingly in a historic narrative. Mr. Prescott does not seem to think so : the passage descriptive of the marriage of Philip with our Queen Mary, will serve to show the manner in which his narrative is needlessly spun out if an hour elapsed before Philip was joined by the Que 4 n at the entrance of the cathedral. Mary was sur roamed by the lords and ladies of her Court. Her dress, of white satin and cloth of gold, like his own, was studded and fringed with diamonds of inestimable price, some of them, doubtless, the gift of Philip, which he had sent to her by the hands of the Prince of Eboli, soon after his landing. Her bright-red slippers, and her mantle of black velvet, formed a contrast to the rest of her apparel, and, for a bridal costume, would hardly suit the taste of the present day. The royal party then moved up the nave of the cathedral, and were received in the choir by the Bishop of Winchester, supported by the great prelates of the English Church. The greatest of all, Cranmer, the Primate of all England, who should have penormed the ceremony, was absent—in disgrace and a . pry oner. hilip and Mary took their seats under a royal canopy, with an altar between them. The Queen was surrounded by the ladies of her Court ; whose beauty, says an Italian wr;ter, acquired additional lustre by contrast with the shi dowy completions of the South. The aisles and spacious galleries were crowded with spectators of every degree, drawn together from the most distant quarters to witness the ceremony The effect of the spectacle was heightened by the various costumes of the two nations—the richlytinted and picturesque dresses of the Spaniards, and the solid magni ficence of the English and Flemings, mingling together in gay confusion. The glittering procession moved slowly on. to the blithe sounds of festal music, while the air was rent with the loyal acclamations of the populace, delighted, as ni nal, with the splendour of the pageant. S 1 ectacular effects of this kind are continually &tailed at great length. There are readers whom this trivial minuteness will amuse, but, for our own part, we have a strong objection to history written after the Miss Strickland model. Mr. Prescott is not fortunate in being com pelled to take Philip IL as the principal ligure of the extensive canvas he designs to fill. There is no character in history more thoroughly detestable. He had not even the THE PRESS. vices of greatness. Nature had cast him in small proportions, and his parts were only swollen by the greatness of his position and by the venom of his bigotry. Of all bad men, those are the worst who, with a hard but narrow intellect, and totally devoid of human sympathies, are ruffed up with an opinion of their own infallibility, and abandon them selves to the worship of some malignant principle, with a conviction that it alone is supremely worthy their devotion. Of this character are bigots in all ages. Philip 11., like Robespierre (to whom his character had strong points of resemblance), went far, be cause he believed what he professed. As Robespierre kept the guillotine in activity for the sake of liberty, Philip kept the axe and the auto-dale in constant requisition for the greater glory of God Fanatical despots of this kind are a class by themselves. They have little in common with the full-blooded tyrants who rush to the perpetration of atrocities for the indulgence of their passions, or with the usurpers who advance to the realisation of their ambitious schemes by removing every obstacle that lies in their path. About the worst of these monsters there is something human; their passions connect them with the rest of man kind. But the hard, suspicious, phlegmatic bigots who think that duty consists in cruelty —who thank God as they sign warrants send ing their fellow-creatures to the scaffold or the stake—who have learnt to shrink from charity as a crime, and to believe that their virtue increases with their atrocity —have every avenue choked by which they might be led to a better disposition. In their• whole lives it is vain to look for one generous act or human frailty. A man never becomes so truly fiendish as when he is removed equally from all human virtues and human weaknesses. A weak and indiscriminating criticism has pleaded in favour of such men that they are respectable in their morals and habits. Philip 11. was in some points of conduct a model of propriety : his habits were regular, he was indefatigable in the transaction of closet business; his personal expense was moderate ; his dress neat and plain. " His demeanour," writes our author, " was grave, with that " ceremonious observance which marked the " old Castilian, and which may be thought the " natural expression of Philip's slow and " phlegmatic temperament." This sort of respectability belongs to the peculiar tempera ment of the men ; it is the formalism in which th• most merciless and heartless kind of inhumanity cases itself; and to our mind tends only to make the character more tho• roughly odious and despicable, as it certainly makes it more dangerous : of all monsters, those of the respectable and incorruptible class are the worst. The historical student is compelled to notice how instrumental the Church of Rome has been in moulding this class of character. Mr. Prescott opens his history with the abdication of Charles V., and then goes back to trace the early years of Philip. He was born in 1527, and, being early introduced to public affairs, was, when only fourteen, ap pointed Regent, with a council to guide him, during his father's absence from Spain on a military expedition. Two years later he was married to the Infanta Mary of Portugal ; and Mr. Prescott is happy in having to describe the nuptial pageantry. He tells us not only that the Infanta wore a dress of cloth of silver, and that the housings of her mule were of rich brocade, but that all the officials of Salamanca met her " in their robes of office " of crimson velvet, with hose and shoes of " spotless white." From this union sprang the unfortunate Don Carlos, whose hapless fate has suggested to Schiller his noblest drama. The Infanta survived the birth of her son but a few days, and the child was thus thrown early on the care of its harsh father. Philip's next alliance was with Mary, in 1555 ; and he seems to have taken extraordinary pains to make himself popular in England, though without much success. In the same year his father resigned to him all his authority, and at the age of twenty-seven Philip found himself the most powerful monarch in Europe. 1075 The volumes of Mr. Prescott are too exten sive for us to travel through. The chief sub• jects embraced in them are the wars of Philip with the Pope and with France, the com mencement of the great struggle in the Netherlands, the war with the Turks, and, lastly, the domestic relations of Philip and the dark history of the unfortunate Don Carlos. The narrative on all these subjects, mostinteresting in themselves, is precise, and in parts only too copious. Some im portant passages which were shrouded in mystery before have been cleared up by Mr. Prescott's diligence. In the narrative of the war with France a spirited account is given of the fall of Calais. The loss of this place was the great obstacle to the conclusion of peace when all the belli gerents were tired of the struggle. When the Congress met, the English envoys declared, " If we return without the recovery of Calais, " we shall be stoned to death by thie people." The death of Mary did not improve the pro spect, for it was currently reported that the new English Queen " would cut off the head " of any Minister who should abandon Calais." In this perplexity Philip, who strongly desired peace, determined to bring the question to an issue : Philip ordered the Spanish plenipotentiaries to write his final instructions to Feria, his Minister in London. The envoy was authorised to say, that, although England had lost Calais through her own negligence, yet Philip would stand faithfully by her for the recovery of it. But, on the other hand, she must be prepared to support him with her whole strength by land and by sea, and that not for a single campaign, but for the war so long as it lasted. The Government should ponder well whether the prize would be worth the cost. Feria must bring the matter home to the Queen, and lead her, if possible, to the desired conclusion ; but so that she might appear to come to it by her own suggestion rather than by his. The responsibility must be left with her. The letter of the plenipotentiaries, which is a very long one, is a model in its way, and shows that, in some particulars, the science of diplomacy has gained little since the sixteenth century. The English Government yielded, and made the most singular compromise ever devised to soothe the wounded vanity of a people : The English Government at last consented to an ar rangement, which, if it did not save Calais, so far saved appearances that it might satisfy the nation. It was agreed that Calais should be restored at the end of eight years. if France failed to do this, she was to pay five hundred thousand crowns to England, whose claims to Calais would not, however, be affected by such a pay ment. Should either of the parties, or their subjects, during that period, do anything in contravention of this treaty, or in violation of the peace between the two coun tries, the offending party should forfeit all claim to the dis puted territory. The loss, keenly as it was felt at the time, was a fortunate one for England, as Mr. Pres cott justly states that Calais was held by the English only as a door by which they might at pleasure invade France. This peace was no sooner concluded than the troubles in the Netherlands commenced. The bigoted and repressive rule of Philip was intolerable to the free spirit of the men of Flanders. The Duchess Margaret of Parma, Philip's half sister, was appointed by him Regent of the Netherlands; and while the gloomy monarch was enlarging the powers of the Inquisition in Spain, and superintending autos-da-fe, the Regent Margaret was endea vouring to withstand the progress of the Reformation in the Netherlands, and to satisfy the demands of the people for tolera tion. With great difficulty some concessions were wrung from Philip—as that the Inquisi tion should be abolished in the Netherlands, and a general pardon be granted at the discre tion of the monarch, but it is instructive to mark the bigot's mental reservations : Slight as these concessions were, and crippled by con ditions which rendered them nearly nugatory, it will hardly be believed that he was not even sincere in making them This is proved by a revelation lately made of a curious document in the Archives of Simanctui. While the ink was scarcely dry on the despatches to Margaret, Philip summoned a notary into his presence, and before the Duke of Alva a nd two other persons, pinata, so lemnly protested that the authority he had given to the Regent in respect to a ge neral p ardon was not of his own free will. " lie therefore did not feel bound by it, but re served to himself the right to punish the !guilty, and especi ally the authors and abettors of sedition in the Low Coital tries." Faithfully did Philip keep his intents n ot s. interference lie wanted. The Duke of Alva The religious riots g ave him the preten was soon after sent to the Netherlands