The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

ber of letters written (most of them in cipher)
by the unfortunate Queen Henrietta Maria to
her husband, Charles I.; to the leading
royalists, as Newcastle, Hamilton, and Mont-
rose ; to Charles 11., to Cardinal Mazarin, and
others. These letters give us a faithful pic.
ture of the unhappy Charles, by one who had
perfectly fathomed his nature. The Queen
was always fearful of his indecision. Had
she been wiser, she would have known that it
was as vain to attempt to make such a nature
resolute as to endeavour to make a worm
stand erect. Had she been as earnest with
him for concession as she was for resistance,
all might have gone well, and the King would
have escaped those charges of weakness and
falsehood which it is impossible to excuse,
however justly they may be laid to the door of
the amiability of his character and the neces-
sities of his position. llenrietta early saw the
certainty of the contest, which, with her prin-
ciples, was inevitable. A constitutional mo-
narchy, in modern meaning, was inconceivable
to her, though with other advisers such a
monarchy Charles might possibly have
founded. Her devotion, when the full danger
opened to her view, was admirable. On her
visit to Holland her first object was to raise
funds to send to Charles. Some jewels were
pawned, some sold ; the merchants had good
bargains. The Queen complains that she can-
not get half what the gems are worth. " You
" may judge," she says, " now that they know
" we want money, how they keep their foot on
" our throat." She cannot restrain her regret
at parting with jewels which she had admired
on the person of her lord in his day of pro-
sperity :
You cannot imagine (she writes) how handsome your
pearl buttons were when they were out of tile gold, and
strung into a chain, and many as large as my great chain.
I assure you that I gave them up with no small regret.
But she thought arms, powder, and money
would do Charles more good than all his
jewels, though the aids thus sent him were
really of little service; many supplies never
reached his hand. In her absence the Queen
constantly attempted to infuse her resolution
into his breast :

Lose no time [she urges—May, 1642]—you have lost
enough already. Take a good resolution and pursue it
Remember your own maxims, that it is better to follow
out a bad resolution than to change it so often
It is not enough to declare yourself in writing; actions
must afterwards be seen.
Again, a little later:—
.

Delays have always ruined you. . . . Perhaps you
are beginning again your old game of yielding everything.
For my own consolation, however, I will hope the cun-
trary, till I hear the decision, for 1 confess that if you do
it you ruin yourself in ruining me.
Again :
Go on boldly; God will assist you. You see what you
have got by not following your first resolutions, when you
declared those of the Parliament traitors. Let that serve
you as an example; do not delay longer now in consulta-
tions, it is action which must do the work at this] hour; it
is time.

The young Duke of York Lad been sent to
Hull in charge of the Prince Palatine, and
she says, in relation to the refusal of Sir John
Hotham to yield the town :
_ _

I have wished myself in the place of James in Hull ; I
would have flung the rascal over the walls, or be should
have done the same thing for me.

She truly foreboded that, with the character
of the King, all her exertions would be useless,
and wrote sadly :
The truth is, that I see I shall be constrained by my
misfortunes to retire to some place where I can pray to
God for you.
In Charles, as in Hamlet—and there are such
strong points of resemblance between the
characters as to render one almost a type of
the other—" The native hue of resolution was
" sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."
Charles, I;ke Hamlet, had a task thrown
upon him far above his capacity for action to
discharge. In all such cases the consequence
must, by the laws of being, be tragic. Indi-
viduals are usually safest when allowed to
follow the bent of their nature. The advice
which constrains them to an opposite direction
more often ruins than saves them. The reso-
lution of the Queen would have maintained a
throne of her own, but, acting on the irresolute
disposition of Charles, only served to bring
his head to the block. Like the preceding
volume, this must be carefully read to be ap-
preciated, but the allusions in the letters will

15

be more easily understood, and, from their
continuity, they have more of the interest of
a regular narrative. It is probable that the
lady who has edited the volume has some-
times mistaken the meaning of the cipher she
had to translate; but she undoubtedly deserves
the highest credit for her research and care.

In one portly volume we have, by the Rev.
J. C. Robertson, " A History of the Christian
Church, from the Election of Pope Gregory the
Great to the Concordat of Worms " (3)—that is,
from the year 590 to 1122. We do not pretend,
in our limited space, to pass a decided opinion
on this laborious work. Gererally, we may
say that it appears written with a most scru-
pulous regard for truth, and that its primary
purpose is to give a plain connected narrative
of facts, without pretence to rhetorical ele-
gance, or elaborate disquisition. The volume
is, for the period it comprises, a history of the
growth of the Papal Church. A previous
publication by Mr. Robertson' traces the his-
tory of the Christian Church to the period at
which the present issue commences, and, for
the sake of completeness, the work should be
carried down to the date of the Reformation,
at least. The author has in all cases been
careful to quote his authorities. He is precise,
but never diffuse in his statements, and by
systematic arrangement takes a wide survey
of all branches of the Church without confu-
sion. Hence the history is full of solid infor-
mation. We think we may venture to assert
that no historian was ever more free from parti-
sanship, though the subject is one peculiarly
tempting to prejudice. To great scholarship
and luminousness of mind, he appears to us to
unite that gospel charity which instinctively
shrinks from every kind of mis-statement, and
which, when it finds a home in a truly en-
lightened mind, is the best guide to truth in
historical research. The volume is complete
in every point, and furnished with a good
index. In connection with the opening pas-
sages of the volume, that towards the end of
the sixth century North Italy was overrun by
the Lombards and other provinces threatened
by them, we may notice a striking statement,
in an eloquent lecture lately delivered by the
Bishop of Oxford at Reading, (4), that no one
of the barbarian nations which overran the
Roman empire, and failed to embrace Chris-
tianity, ever grew into a nation :
Through their lack of this one condition, a true living
faith, they wasted gradually away their original elements
of strength in hopeless and disorganising strife.

In historic literature the new edition of Sir
Harris Nicolas's " Historic Peerage 01 England"
(5) must take a high place. It exhibits
" under strictly alphabetical arrangement the
" descent of every title which has been con-
" ferred in this country since the accession of
" William the Conqueror, the manner and
" period of its creation, the dates of the
" deaths of those who inherited it, and of the
" year when each dignity became extinct, was
" forfeited, or fell into abeyance." A list of all
prelates who have filled sees within the same
period is added. The present edition has been
thoroughly revised, and as far as practicable
perfected. Still we think a little more detail
would have been desirable. The date of birth
of peers should have been inserted as often as
it could be obtained ; and the precise date of
death, easily ascertainable in most cases, would
have added to the completeness of the work.
The volume is beautifully printed, and from
the vast body of information it contains (found
nowhere else in the same compass) equally de-
serves a place in the library of noble mansions,
and on the shelves of the student.

A volume of Mr. John Wade, under the
title of " England's Greatness" (6), professes to
supply a history of British civilisation. Sub-
stantially, however, the volume is but a con-
densed history of England with some supple-
mentary chapters, and occasional remarks on.
social progress. The style of this book is more

(3) History of the Christian Church, from the Eketiost of Pops
Gregory the Great to the Concordat of Worms. By James
Craigie Robertson. M.A. London : Murray.
(4) National Life. A Lecture. By the Bishop of Oxford.
London : Bentley.
(5) A Historic Peerage of England. Being a new Edition of
the Synopsis of the Peerage of Eugland. By the late Sir Harris
Nicolas. Revised, corrected, and continued to the present time
by William Courthope, Esq., Somerset Herald. London: Murray,
(6) Ewland's Greatness, its Rise and Progress. By John
Wade. London: Longmane.

16

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remarkable for sweeping general assertion
thou fin discriminating statement or sound
judgment. The pres.imptionexhibited by
'this writer is seldom found in conjunction
with the candour and carefulness which are
the first requisites of an historic pen. He
would have done better had he confined him-
self to the more modest labour of compilation
in which he certainly excels.
It is a eharp line which separates history
from BIOGRAPHY. We are at a loss in which
deptrtment to place Dr. Doran's new work,
M, inarclis Retired from Business " (7). It con-
tains sketches of all sovereigns, ancient and
modern, who have either been deposed, or have
voluntarily abdicated their sceptres. Instances
of the latter are rare, and the results seldom
fortunate. Diocletian, happy for a time, was
at last tormented by a feeling of insecurity,
and died so obscurely that it is not certain
whether he perished by suicide or by the
hand of an assassin. Maximilian fared as
badly. Charles V. must often have regretted
his power, though he made no effort to
recover it. The history of Victor Amadeus,
first King of Sardinia, is curious. After
abdicating in favour of his son lie was so
violently urged by his wife (au ex-lady-in-
waiting) to resume the Crown, that he made
the effort, failed, was separated from his wife,
and kept iu strict confinement till all danger
from his ambition was over. Christina of
Sweden furnishes the most memorable example
of voluntary abdication. Dr. Doran gives a
copious sketch of her fantastic career. She
resigned her Crown at twenty-four, and lived a
fussy, useless, and not innocent life after-
wards for forty years. The placid King of
Holland, who, in our day, resigned his Crown
at sixty-eight for love, lived but a short period
to enjoy his felicity with the Countess
d'Oultrement. He die very suddenly h
tree
years afterwards, possessed of a fortune, ac-
cording to our author, of thirteen millions
sterling. These volumes by Dr. Dom'', like
his previous ones, are written in a careless,
sprightly vein. We can excuse inaccuracies
in works so rapidly produced ; but such
offences against good taste as calumnious mis-
representation of living personages, and as in.
decent allusions, are unpardonable in even a
superficial essayist. It is a pity that a writer
who stows so much tact in the selection of
his subjects, and such readiness iu compila-
tion, should not bestow a little more care on
his composition.
Of a widely different character is M. Brial-
mont's Llialtuire du Due de Wellington (8). The
author is a Belgian of distinguished ability.
He proposes to supply—what is undoubtedly
a defect Loth in continental and English litera-
ture—a complete and authentic biography of
Wellington. This volume brings his career
down to the close of the Peninsular campaign
of 1611. Two more volumes will complete the
work. We can speak of the manner in which
M. Brialmont has fulfilled his arduous work
only in general terms. The broad principles
on which he has proceeded are admirable. It
is possible to speak of a great general in rela-
tion to his military exploits alone : if he won
great battles and achieved great conquests he
would be great as a soldier, irrespective of the
means which he employed to gain his ends.
Much more is required to form a truly great
man. It is necessary that he should wage
war humanely, that his ends should be just
and his exploits be permanent in their conse-
quences, and that he should exercise his
talents for the service of his country, not for
motives of personal aggrandisement. M.
Brialmont recognises these considerations.
His view of the character of our great hero is
large, complete, and generous. "It is the in-
" contestable merit of Wellington," says the
author, " that he succeeded in all his enter-
" prises without the possibility of any one
" being able to reproach him with falsehood,
" trickery, or cruelty." In the course of his
work the author takes occasion to correct
some of the most glaring errors of M. Thiers.
The tiography thus far appears to us highly

(7) Wotan-Pet Retired from Business. By Dr. Doran. 2 vols.
London : Bentley.
(6) ilistoire ds Due de Wellington. Par M. Drialmont Tonle I.
London: tills,: and Co.
(9) Alfieri and ciobt mi their Lira and Adventures. By Edward
Copping. London : Add2l and Co.