The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-12 00:00:00

ISittraturt.

History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to
the Accession of Louis Napoleon. By Sir
Archibald Alison. Vol. IV. London :
Blackwood.

THE present volume of this history embraces
by far the most important events of the period
which Sir A Alison has undertaken to illus-
trate. It relates the agitation for Roman
Catholic Emancipation, and the subsequent
passing of that measure by the Duke of Wel
lington s Government; the fall of his Grace's
Administration, with the accession of the
Whigs to power, and the great Reform con
test; the convulsion occasioned in several
European States by the success of the Paris
barricades; the measures which marked the
first, and, as it seemed, the most critical period
of Louis Philippe's reign ; and the complete
history of that desperate, and in many respects
most noble, attempt made by Poland to re-
cover her independence. The progress and
fortunes of that war are described by Sir A.
Alison with the clearness and animation
which, as a historian of military operations,
has gained him deserved popularity. Of the
numerous campaigns he has described none
possess stronger interest, or are narrated with
greater vigour, than this one which utterly for
the time, and perhaps for ever, crushed the
nationality of Poland, and immensely in-
creased the prestige and power of her gigantic
conqueror.

It is almost ungracious to allude to Sir A.
Alison's faults, as it is hopeless to expect that
he will now profit by friendly criticism. In
this volume, as in all his past writings, his
" summings up " are excessively pedantic.
The historian is not called on to form a Rha-
damanthean code of his own, and to judge not
only characters, but parties and events, by it.
Our author is so resolved to be impartial in all
his decisions that he keeps his balance evenly
trimmed, and never suffers the reader to escape
till he has exhausted the vices and virtues of
every political conjuncture, and dealt out what
he conceives to be an exact meed of praise
and blame to every personage who figures in
his page. No author would be more improved
by liberal excision ; and we could particularly
wish that he had been more sparing of his
sententious precepts—such as " There is no
" unmixed good in human affairs," and " The
" cause of truth is paramount to every other
" consideration."

The fault is the more striking as the pre-
sent volume challenges comparison with the
best portion of Miss Martineau's extremely
lively " History of the Peace," in which events,
though often strongly coloured by the writer's
prejudices, are related with unusual vivacity
and concentration. The " dignity "of the his-
torical style is carried by Sir A. Alison to the
verge of tediousness. But when he confines
himself to description he is always instructive
and pleasing; and many of his reflections
show the penetration of an observant and
original mind. There is, for example, great
truth in the remark on the Duke of Welling-
ton's policy in political affairs. After noting
the reasons existing for conceding the Roman
Catholic claims, the historian proceeds :

These difficulties strongly presented themselves to the
Cabinet Ministers, and especially the Duke of Welling-
ton, whose mind, eminently practical and sagacious, had
been trained, amidst th• ever-changing vicissitudes of
military warfare, to abandon old positions, and take sip
new ones when the former had become untenable, and
who looked rather to the real and lasting interests of the
State than to the individual consistency or reputation of
the public men intrusted with its defence. From the
time, accordingly, that the Catholic Association had be-
come so formidable, and the Clare election had proved how
powerfully it might be brought to bear on the majority in
Parliament, the necessity of" settling the question," as it
was called—that is, conceding all the demands of the
Catholics—had been secretly discussed in the Cabinet, and
plans regarding it submitted to the King.
The fall of the Wellington Administration
is regarded here as the great turning point in
our modern history:—

The Wellington Administration, and with it the old
system of government in Great Britain, fell, because it
had become unsuited to the altered circumstances of the
people ; it neither met their wishes, nor provided for their
necessities,