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AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERi'ISL'R

whole, in the volume before us, Mr. Hannay estab-
lishes his claim to be considered a writer of fiction of
the healthful order, whose mental aliment strengthens
the mind while it sharpens the judgment. He is
one of the numerous writers of the day with whom
his readers desire the pleasure of frequent intercourse.

History of Europe, from the Fall of Napoleon, in
1815, to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, in 1852.
By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L. Vol. IV.
Edinburgh and London : W. Blackwood and Sons.

The difficulty attendant on the composition of any-
thing entitled to be clignified, with the name of his-
tory, upon circumstances of recent occurrence, has
been so frequently remarked and so often admitted,
as to have assumed a position among those popular
opinions which are generally classed under the de-
nomination of admitted facts. The difficulty as re-
gards recent events, is with equal readiness and even
a greater show of propriety insisted on, and exalted
into impossibilities, when the facts to be treated of
and the individuals whose conduct is to be canvassed
belong to periods contemporaneous with those in
which the narrator has himself occupied a conspicuous
place, and on which his individual opinions, social
position, and literary talents, have exercised a modi-
fying influence. Like many other adminicles of
popular belief, however, this impossibility, like those
which time out of mind have beset the career of un-
successful statesmen and defeated warriors—which
have set narrow bounds to the wide aspirations of
baffled ambition, are found to be difficulties only in
the way of moderate talent, but vanish, as flies the
morning mist before the noon-day sun, when the
strong self-will of genius undertakes their conquest,
guided on the path to victory by the lamp of know-
ledge—counselled on the way to its achievement by
prudence and wisdom—sustained by courage, and im-
pelled by firm integrity of purpose. The work now
under consideration, of which the fourth volume is
before us, is an apt and satisfactory illustration of the
preceding observations. Commencing with a period,
which, in accordance with popular supposition, is sur-
rounded simply by difficulties, the work has gradually
advanced till it has now reached an epoch shut up
within the prescribed impossibility of treatment—
an epoch with which the youngest of its readers is con-
nected, and in which the great majority of living men
have been familiar spectators or busy actors. Within
its full and flowirr, narrative, nevertheless, the most
fastidious investigator will look in vain for indications
of the presumed impossibilities ; and a wit of more
than usual sharpness will be required to discover and
point out the difficulties with which imagination has
peopled the path of the successful historian. Like
otherintellects of Titan mould, having first matured
his plan, Sir Archibald Alison, the Tacitus of our
time, has carefully selected his materials—with cau-
tious sagacity compared their relations, measured
their importance, and weighed their influence in
respect to the circumstances on which they have
operated—having cautiously adjusted their propor-
tions and determined their powers as cause and effect,
he proceeds, without halt or hesitation, in building up
the fabric which his genius .has discovered them fit
for the construction of. Giving each its due impor-
tance in the structure, displaying here an ornament
of rich and vivid beauty, placing there a mass of
strength and power, yet, on the whole, so skilfully
balancing the varied parts—so contrasting and com-
mingling the elements, that the result is a fabric of
solid power, symmetric beauty, and intrinsic worth.
In constructing his great historic pile, Sir Archibald
rejects no useful material, be it plastic or inflexible.
dingy in complexion or brilliant in hue, but with well-
tutored skill he finds for each a place, and. out of
objects the most heterogeneous. from principles the
most repugnant., lie elaborates a lucid and harmonious
whole. He explains, balances, and displays the mo-