all possible palliations for the conduct of the | from their ancestors in the days of the Revolu individual delinquent, and never attempts to shut him out from the benefit of those natural sympathies of which the bad as well as the good are occasionally the objects, from their fortune or situation. He has given a new character, we think, to history, by this soft and condescending concern for the feelings of individuals; and not only left a splendid record of the gentleness and affectionate simplicity of his own dispositions, but set an example by which we hope that men of genius may be taught hereafter to render their instructions more engaging and impressive. Nothing, we are persuaded, can be more gratifying to his friends, than the impression of his character which this work will carry down to posterity; nor is it a matter of indifference to the country, that its most illustrious statesman should be yet more distinguished for the amiableness of his private affections.

tion. In the same circumstances, we are persuaded, they would have acted with the same spirit;-nay, in consequence of the more general diffusion of education and intelligence, we believe they would have been still more zealous and more unanimous in the cause of liberty. But we have of late been exposed to the operation of various causes, which have tended to lull our vigilance, and relax our exertions; and which threaten, unless powerfully counteracted, to bring on, gradually, such a general indifference and forgetfulness of the interests of freedom, as to prepare the people for any tolerably mild form of servitude which their future rulers may be tempted to impose upon them.

suffer tremendously in the period of transition. If ambition and great activity therefore be not necessary to our happiness, we shall do wisely to occupy ourselves with the many innocent and pleasant pursuits that are allowed under all governments; instead of spreading tumult and discontent, by endeavouring to realize some political conceit of our own imagination. Mr. Hume, we are afraid, is chiefly responsi ble for the prevalence of this Epicurean and ignoble strain of sentiment in this country,an author from whose dispositions and understanding, a very different doctrine might have been anticipated.* But, under whatever authority it is maintained, we have no scruple in saying, that it seems to us as obviously false as it is pernicious. We need not appeal to Turkey or to Russia to prove, that neither liberal nor even gainful pursuits can be carried on with advantage, where there is no political freedom: For, even laying out of view the utter impossibility of securing the persons and properties of individuals in any other way, it is certain that the consciousness of independence is a great enjoyment in itself, and that, without it, all the powers of the mind, and all the capacities of happiness, are gradually blunted and destroyed. It is like the privation of air and exercise, or the emasculation of the body;-which, though they may appear at first to conduce to tranquillity and indolent enjoyment, never fail to enfeeble the whole frame, and to produce a state of oppressive languor and debility, in comparison with which even wounds and fatigue would be delicious.

in the prevailing manners of the people, and the monstrous patronage of the government. It can admit of no doubt, we suppose, that trade, which has made us rich, has made us still more luxurious; and that the increased necessity of expense, has in general outgone the means of supplying it. Almost every individual now finds it more difficult to live on a level with his equals, than he did when all were poorer; almost every man, therefore, is needy; and he who is both needy and luxurious, holds his independence on a very precarious tenure. Government, on the other hand, has the disposal of nearly twenty millions per annum, and the power of nominating to two or three hundred thousand posts or places of emolument ;-the whole population of the country amounting (1808) to less than five millions of grown men. The consequence is, that, beyond the rank of mere labourers, there is scarcely one man out of three who does not hold or hope for some appointment or promotion from government, and is not consequently disposed to go all honest lengths in recommending himself to its favour. This, it must be admitted, is a situation which justifies some alarm for the liberties of the people; and, when taken together with that general indifference to the public which has been already noticed, accounts sufficiently for that habit of presuming in favour of all exertions of authority, and against all popular discontent or interference, which is so remarkably the characteristic of the present generation. From this passive desertion of the people, it is but one step to abet and defend the actual oppressions of their rulers; To counteract all these enervating and deand men, otherwise conscientious, we are pressing causes, we had, no doubt, the increasafraid, too often impose upon themselves by ing opulence of the lower and middling orders no better reasonings than the following of the people, naturally leading them to aspire "This measure, to be sure, is bad, and some- to greater independence, and improving their what tyrannical;-but men are not angels;-education and general intelligence. And thus, all human government is imperfect; and, on the whole, ours is much too good to be quarrelled with. Besides, what good purpose could be answered by my individual opposition? I might ruin my own fortune, indeed, and blast the prospects of my children; but it *Few things seem more unaccountable, and inwould be too romantic to imagine, that the deed absurd, than that Hume should have taken fear of my displeasure would produce an im- part with high-church and high-monarchy men. maculate administration-so I will hold my from the Presbyterians, may perhaps have influThe persecutions which he suffered in his youth tongue, and shift for myself as well as possi-enced his ecclesiastical partialities. But that he ble." When the majority of those who have influence in the country reason in this manner, it surely cannot be unnecessary to remind us, now and then, of the great things that were done when the people roused themselves against their oppressors.

public opinion, which is in all countries the great operating check upon authority, had become more extensive and more enlightened; and might perhaps have been found a suffi

should have sided with the Tudors and the Stuarts against the people, seems quite inconsistent with all the great traits of his character. His unrivalled sagacity must have looked with contempt on the preposterous arguments by which the jus divinum was maintained. His natural benevolence must have suggested the cruelty of subjecting the enjoy. In aid of these actual temptations of inter- ments of thousands to the caprice of one unfeeling est and indolence, come certain speculative individual; and his own practical independence in doctrines, as to the real value of liberty, and private life, might have taught him the value of the illusions by which men are carried away rided. Mr. Fox seems to have been struck with those feelings which he has so mischievously dewho fancy themselves acting on the principle the same surprise at this strange trait in the characof patriotism. Private happiness, it is dis-ter of our philosopher. In a letter to Mr. Laing, covered, has but little dependence on the he says, He was an excellent man, and of great nature of the government. The oppressions powers of mind; but his partiality to kings and of monarchs and demagogues are nearly equal princes is intolerable: nay, it is, in my opinion, in degree, though a little different in form; miration which women and children sometimes quite ridiculous; and is more like the foolish ad. and the only thing certain is, that in flying have for kings, than the opinion right or wrong, from the one we shall fall into the other, and, of a philosopher."

system of timidity so apt to graduate into
servility; and to familiarize his countrymen
once more to speak and to think of Charles,
of James, and of Strafford,-and of William,
and Russell, and Sydney,-
-as it becomes
Englishmen to speak and to think of such
characters. To talk with affected tenderness
of oppressors, may suit the policy of those
who wish to bespeak the clemency of an
Imperial Conqueror; but must appear pecu-
liarly base and inconsistent in all who profess
an anxiety to rouse the people to great exer-
tions in the cause of their independence.

The volume itself, which has given occasion to these reflections, and from which we have withheld our readers too long, consists of a preface or general introduction from the pen of Lord Holland; an introductory chapter, comprising a review of the leading events, from the year 1640 to the death of Charles II.; two chapters of the history of the reign of James, which include no more than seven months of the year 1685, and narrate very little but the unfortunate expeditions of Argyle and of Monmouth; and a pretty long Appendix, consisting chiefly of the corre spondence between Barillon, the French confidential minister at the court of England, and his master Louis XIV.

cient corrective of all our other corruptions, of Mr. Fox's, as likely to put an end to a had things gone on around us in their usual and accustomed channels. Unfortunately, however, the French Revolution came, to astonish and appal the world; and, originating with the people, not only subverted thrones and establishments, but made such havoc on the lives and properties and principles of individuals, as very naturally to excite the horror and alarm of all whose condition was not already intolerable. This alarm, in so far as it related to this country, was always excessive, and in a great degree unreasonable: But it was impossible perhaps altogether to escape it; and the consequences have been incalculably injurious to the interests of practical liberty. During the raging of that war which Jacobinism in its most disgusting form carried on against rank and royalty, it was natural for those who apprehended the possibility of a similar conflict at home, to fortify those orders with all that reason and even prejudice could supply for their security, and to lay aside for the time those jealousies and hereditary grudges, upon which, in better days, it was their duty to engage in contention. While a raging fever of liberty was epidemic in the neighbourhood, the ordinary diet of the people appeared too inflammatory for their constitution; and it was thought advisable to abstain from articles, which, at all other times, were allowed to be necessary for their health and vigour. Thus, a sort of tacit convention was entered into, to say nothing, for a while, of the follies and vices of princes, the tyranny of courts, or the rights of the people. The Revolution of 1688, it was agreed, could not be mentioned with praise, without giving some indirect encouragement to the Revolution of 1789; and it was thought as well to say nothing in favour of Hampden, or Russell, or Sydney, for fear it might give spirits to Robespierre, Danton, or Marat. To this strict regimen the greater part of the nation submitted of their own accord; and it was forced upon the remainder by a pretty vigorous system of proceeding. Now, we do not greatly blame either the alarm, or the precautions which it dictated; but we do very seriously lament, that the use of those precautions should have degenerated into a sort of national habit; and should be continued and approved of so very long after the danger which occasioned them has ceased.

Lord Holland's part of the volume is written with great judgment, perspicuity, and propriety; and though it contains less anecdote and minute information with regard to his illustrious kinsman than every reader must wish to possess, it not only gives a very satis factory account of the progress of the work to which it is prefixed, but affords us some glimpses of the character and opinions of its author, which are peculiarly interesting, both from the authenticity of the source from which they are derived, and from the unostentatious simplicity with which they are communicated. Lord Holland has not been able to ascertain at what period Mr. Fox first formed the design of writing a history; but, from the year 1797, when he ceased to give a regular attendance in parliament, he was almost entirely occupied with literary schemes and avocations. The following little sketch of the temper and employments of him who was pitied by many as a disappointed politician, is extremely amiable; and, we are now convinced by the fragment before us, correctly true.

and fondness for poetry, which neither pleasure nor 'During his retirement, that love of literature, business had ever extinguished, revived with an ardour, such as few, in the eagerness of youth or in pursuit of fame or advantage, are capable of feeling. For some time, however, his studies were not directed to any particular object. Such was the tions, whether supplied by conversation, desultory happy disposition of his mind, that his own reflec

It is now at least ten years since Jacobinism was prostrated at Paris; and it is still longer since it ceased to be regarded with any thing but horror in this country. Yet the favourers of power would still take advantage of its name to shield authority from question; and to throw obloquy on the rights and services of the people. The power of habit has come unfortunately to their aid; and it is still un-reading, or the common occurrences of a life in the fashionable, and, we are afraid, not very popular, to talk of the tyranny of the Stuarts, and the triumph of the Revolution, in the tone which was universal and established within these last twenty years. For our parts, however, we see no sort of reason for this change; and we hail, with pleasure, this work

country, were always sufficient to call forth the vigour and exertion of his faculties. Intercourse with the world had so little deadened in him the sense of the simplest enjoyments, that even in the that keen relish of existence, which, after the first hours of apparent leisure and inactivity, he retained impressions of life, is so rarely excited but by great interests and strong passions. Hence it was that

in the interval between his active attendance in par- | times. A conversation which passed on the subliament, and the undertaking of his History, heject of the literature of the age of James the Senever felt the tedium of a vacant day. A verse in cond, proves his rigid adherence to these ideas; Cowper, which he frequently repeated,

'How various his employments whom the world Calls idle !'

and perhaps the substance of it may serve to illus. trate and explain them. In speaking of the writers of that period, he lamented that he had not devised a method of interweaving any account of them or their works, much less any criticism on their style, into his history. On my suggesting the example of Hume and Voltaire, who had discussed such topics at some length, either at the end of each reign, or in a separate chapter, he observed, with much commendation of their execution of it, that such a contrivance might be a good mode of writing critical essays, but that it was, in his opinion, in

was an accurate description of the life he was then leading; and I am persuaded, that if he had consulted his own gratifications only, it would have continued to be so. The circumstances which led him once more to take an active part in public discussions, are foreign to the purposes of this preface. It is sufficient to remark, that they could not be foreseen, and that his notion of engaging in some literary undertaking was adopted during his retirement, and with the prospect of long and uninter-compatible with the nature of his undertaking, rupted leisure before him."-p. iii. iv.

He seems to have fixed finally on the history of the Revolution, about the year 1799; but even after the work was begun, he not only dedicated large portions of his time to the study of Greek literature, and poetry in general, but meditated and announced to his correspondents a great variety of publications, upon a very wide range of subjects. Among these were, an edition of Dryden-a Defence of Racine and of the French Stage-an Essay on the Beauties of Euripides-a Disquisition upon Hume's History-and an Essay or Dialogue on Poetry, History, and Oratory. In 1802, the greater part of the work, as it now stands, was finished; but the author wished to consult the papers in the Scotch College, and the Depot des Affaires etrangères at Paris, and took the opportunity of the to pay peace a visit to that capital accordingly. After his return, he made some additions to his chapters; but being soon after recalled to the duties of public life, he never afterwards found leisure to go on with the work to which he had dedicated himself with so much zeal and assiduity. What he did write was finished, however, for the most part, with very great care. He wrote very slow: and was extremely fastidious in the choice of his expressions; holding pedantry and affectation, however, in far greater horror than carelessness or roughness. He commonly wrote detached sentences on slips of paper, and afterwards dictated them off to Mrs. Fox, who copied them into the book from which the present volume has been printed without the alteration of a single syl

lable.

The only other part of Lord Holland's statement, to which we think it necessary to call the attention of the reader, is that in which he thinks it necessary to explain the peculiar notions which Mr. Fox entertained on the subject of historical composition, and the very rigid laws to which he had subjected himself in the execution of his important task.

"It is therefore necessary to observe, that he had formed his plan so exclusively on the model of ancient writers, that he not only felt some repugnance to the modern practice of notes, but he thought that all which an historian wished to say, should be introduced as part of a continued narration, and never assume the appearance of a digression, much less of a dissertation annexed to it. From the period, therefore, that he closed his Introductory Chapter, he defined his duty as an author, to consist in recounting the facts as they arose; or in his simple and forcible language, in telling the story of those

which, if it ceased to be a narrative, ceased to be a history."-p. xxxvi. xxxvii.

Now, we must be permitted to say, that this is a view of the nature of history, which, in so far as it is intelligible, appears to be very narrow and erroneous; and which seems, like all such partial views, to have been so little adhered to by the author himself, as only to exclude many excellences, without attaining the praise even of consistency in error. The object of history, we conceive, is to give us a clear narrative of the transactions of past ages, with a view of the character and condition of those who were concerned in them, and such reasonings and reflections as may be necessary to explain their connection, or natural on reviewing their results. That some account of the authors of a literary age should have a place in such a composition, seems to follow upon two considerations: first, because it is unquestionably one object of history to give us a distinct view of the state and condition of the age and people with whose affairs it is occupied; and nothing can serve so well to illustrate their true state and condition as a correct estimate and description of the great authors they produced: and, secondly, because the fact that such and such authors did and elegant, or rude and ignorant, are facts flourish in such a period, and were ingenious which are interesting in themselves, and may be made the object of narrative just as properly as that such and such princes or ministers did flourish at the same time, and were ambitious or slothful, tyrannical or friends to liberty. Political events are not the only

events which are recorded even in ancient history; and, now when it is generally admitted, that even political events cannot be fully understood or accounted for without taking into view the preceding and concomitant changes in manners, literature, commerce, &c. it cannot fail to appear surprising, that an author of such a compass of mind as belonged to Mr. Fox, should have thought of confining himself to the mere chronicling of wars or factions, and held himself excluded, by the laws of historical composition, from touching upon topics so much more interesting.

The truth is, however, that Mr. Fox has by no means adhered to this plan of merely telling the story of the times" of which he

treats.

On the contrary, he is more full of argument, and what is properly called reflection, than most modern historians with whom

we are acquainted. His argument, to be sure, | tion; and even if it were not so, the question is chiefly directed to ascertain the truth of would still be,-by what change in the disreputed facts, or the motives of ambiguous positions of the army and the nation Monk actions; and his reflections, however just and was able to make them do it. The second natural, may commonly be considered as re- event, which must always appear unaccountdundant, with a view to mere information. able upon the mere narrative of the circumOf another kind of reasoning, indeed, he is stances, is the base and abject submission of more sparing; though of a kind far more valu- the people to the avowed tyranny of the reable, and, in our apprehension, far more es- stored Charles, when he was pleased at last sential to the true perfection of history. We to give up the use of Parliaments, and to tax allude now to those general views of the and govern on his own single authority. This causes which influence the character and dis- happened when most of those must have still position of the people at large; and which, as been alive who had seen the nation rise up in they vary from age to age, bring a greater or arms against his father; and within five years a smaller part of the nation into contact with of the time when it rose up still more unaniits government, and ultimately produce the mously against his successor, and not only success or failure of every scheme of tyranny changed the succession of the crown, but very or freedom. The more this subject is medi- strictly defined and limited its prerogatives. tated, the more certain, we are persuaded, it The third, is the Revolution itself; an event will appear, that all permanent and important which was brought about by the very indioccurrences in the internal history of a coun-viduals who had submitted so quietly to the try, are the result of those changes in the general character of its population; and that kings and ministers are necessarily guided in their projects by a feeling of the tendencies of this varying character, and fail or succeed, exactly as they had judged correctly or erroneously of its condition. To trace the causes and the modes of its variation, is therefore to describe the true sources of events; and, merely to narrate the occurrences to which it gave rise, is to recite a history of actions without intelligible motives, and of effects without assignable causes. It is true, no doubt, that political events operate in their turn on that national character by which they are previously moulded and controuled: But they are very far, indeed, from being the chief agents in its formation; and the history of those very events is necessarily imperfect, as well as uninstructive, if the consideration of those other agents is omitted. They consist of every thing which affects the character of individuals:-manners, education, prevailing occupations, religion, taste,—and, above all, the distribution of wealth, and the state of prejudice and opinions.

domination of Charles, and who, when assembled in the House of Commons under James himself, had, of their own accord, sent one of their members to the Tower for having observed, upon a harsh and tyrannical expression of the King's, that "he hoped they were all Englishmen, and not to be frighted with a few hard words." It is not to give us the history of these events, merely to set down the time and circumstances of the occurrence, They evidently require some explanation, in order to be comprehended; and the narrative will be altogether unsatisfactory, as well as totally barren of instruction, unless it give some account of those changes in the general temper and opinion of the nation, by which such contradictory actions became possible. Mr. Fox's conception of the limits of legitimate history, restrained him, we are afraid, from entering into such considerations; and they will best estimate the amount of his error, who are most aware of the importance of the information of which it has deprived us. Nothing, in our apprehension, can be beyond the province of legitimate history, which tends to give us clear conceptions of It is the more to be regretted, that such a the times and characters with which that hismind as Mr. Fox's should have been bound tory is conversant; nor can the story of any up from such a subject by the shackles of an time be complete or valuable, unless it look idle theory; because the period of which he before and after,-to the causes and consetreats affords the finest of all opportunities for quences of the events which it details, and prosecuting such an inquiry, and does not, in-mark out the period with which it is occupied, deed, admit of an intelligible or satisfactory history upon any other conditions. There are three great events, falling within that period, of which, it appears to us, that "the story" has not yet been intelligibly told, for want of some such analysis of the national feelings. One is, the universal joy and sincere confidence with which Charles II. was received back, without one stipulation for the liberties of the people, or one precaution against the abuses of power. This was done by the very people who had waged war against a more amiable Sovereign, and quarrelled with the Protector for depriving them of their freedom. It is saying nothing, to say that Monk did this by means of the army. It was not done either by Monk or the army, but by the na

as part of a greater series, as well as an object of separate consideration.

In proceeding to the consideration of Mr. Fox's own part of this volume, it may be as well to complete that general estimate of its excellence and defects which we have been led incidentally to express in a good degree already. We shall then be able to pursue our analysis of the successive chapters with less distraction.

The sentiments, we think, are almost al. just, and candid, and manly; but the narra tive is too minute and diffusive, and does not in general flow with much spirit or facility. Inconsiderable incidents are detailed at far too great length; and an extreme and painful anxiety is shown to ascertain the