The Press.
London, England, 1856-01-26 00:00:00

Friday, .Innuary 9.5 .

7,SANKRUPTS.—WIT.LIAII SHOvE, 011 and colourman, Croy-
don—WILLIAM HAWKKR and ALFRED CAMPION, carmen, Dow-
gate-hill. tity—Wittuat TINGLY, warehouseman, Tottenham-
court-road—WILLIAM PHILLIPS, builder, Wallingford—JAMES
SIAM', glove manufacturer, `coke-sub-Iltundon, bomersetbbire
—lnouss FALKINOHAM, coach-builder, Knalesborough
Enwsito ELLIS, wine merchant, Ludgate-hiII—WILLIAM Jona-
sox, licensed victualler, Metropolitan Cattle market —Nam
BRODIE, commission agent, Liverpool—JAMES CHADWICK,
joiner, Heywood, Lancashire WILLIAM WILCOX BsEEL
stationer and printer, Bartlett's-buildings, Holborn—Ousts.
JErraatEs. merchant, Aldersgaie-street, City—JOHN BEiouso-
BtrrnE, dealer in metals, Old Kent-road— Faansaic
CHAFFERS, colonial btoker, late of Old Broad.street—Joun
Caoss, innkeeper, Bolton, Lancashire—Joss.rit BUDSuN, mer-
chant. Seaton Carew and West Hartlepool, Durham.
SCOTCH SEQESTRATIONS. JOHN WILSON, grocer.
Ilelensburgh—AatlOßALD DAVIT so and Co., sewed muslin
ntereltaats, Glasgow— CHARLES STEWART, manufacturer, Glas-
'ow—Joan FERGUSON, manufacturer, Glasgow.

JANUARY 26, 1856.

N:ittraturt.

The History of Latin Christianity. By Henry
Hart Milman, Dean of St. Paul's. Vols. IV.

V. and VI. London : Murray.
IT is obvious that no branch of literary criticism
is now so called upon for its resources as that
which treats of the art of writing history.
Moral philosophy is not a favorite pursuit
of the 'English intellect ; the preference
for the practical, as opposed to the specula-
tive, influences our intellectual as much as
our social aspirations. We think it very likely
that a considerable quantity of the best intel-
lect of our time, escaping from the dull rou-
tine of common life and conventional politics,
may seek to influence the age through the
moral power of the narrator's pen. Revolu-
tionary events have forced some of the best
French minds into becoming historians.
What political disasters and civil contentions
did for Tacitus, Machiavelli, Thiers, and
Guizot, may yet find a parallel amongst some
of the profoundest spirits in England.
Dean Milmau is certainly entitled to be
ranked in the first class of living historians.
Upon a former occasion (Paws, vol. ii , p.
327) we criticised at length his characteristics,
and we may now say that the sequel cf his
" History of Latin Christianity " corroborates
our estimate of his powers. What we then
said we need not here repeat. His style of
writing history differs widely from that fol-
lowed by some of his contemporaries. Mr.
Macaulay and Sir Archibald Alison, for
stance, have both aspired to the laurels
gained by recording the events of an " age."
They are therefore minute, anecdotical, and
pictorially diffuse. There is a gallery of cha-
racters in their works, and the incidental
public questions are debated first by the per-
sonages of the drama, and afterwards dis-
sented upon by the historians. It is a rule as
old as the days of Aristotle, and confirmed by
Quinctilian, that in relating the events of an
era the facts should be grouped around a
character, or a theory, that they should culmi-
nate to an apex. Mr. Macaulay has followed
the rule, and chosen King William ; Sir A.
Alison has selected an ethical principle, and
has classified his details by constant reference
to the corruption of human nature opposing
barriers to revolutionary dreams of perfecti-
bility. His valuable work is certainly open to
the witty sarcasm, that he wants to show
" that Providence was on the side of the
" Tories." Thiers, upon the other hand,
having to traverse nearly the same period,
groups all his facts of " The Consulate and the
Empire " around the career of Napoleon le
Grand ; and in a similar style Lamartine
selects " Robespierre " as the principle in-
carnate of the terrible moral drama of the
French Revolution.

The Dean of St. Paul's has made a gal-
lant and successful strug_fle against the
monotony incident to a narrator traversing
several centuries. He relieves the dryness of
dissertation by his vivid style ; and his flowing
narrative has spirit, elegance, and strength.
The present division of his great work in-
cludes from the times of Innocent 111. (A D.
1160) to those of Nicholas V. (A D 1454.) It is
an excellent portraiture of mediaeval reli-
gionism. A vast quantity of important matter
is compressed within its pages; and too much
praise cannot be given to the notes, which are
copious, and variously erudite, besides being
regulated by good sense. In some places we
observe that the Dean's pen is apt to run into
wordiness, as if the extent of his subject was
at last wearying him, but these instances are
comparatively rare. With the exception of Mr.
Macaulay's volumes, the whole style of this im-
portant work is more highly wrought, and exhi.
bits more finish, than any other English his-
torical performance of our time. If Dean Mil-
man is occasionally colloquial, he is never
slipshod, like Alison ; if, like Mr. Hallam, he
occasionally leans too much in the direction
of what Dryden calls " a sin of latitude," the
Dean of St. Paul's does not exhibit the rugged-
ness of that eminent writer. In fairness to
both sides, and in dignified calmness, a high