but

The second vision of Mr. Macaulay is, | Pepys or Pennant, or any of the many scrapif possible, still more absurd. He imagines book histories which have been recently a Cromwell dynasty! If it had not been fabricated from those old materials; for Monk and his army, the rest of the na- when we come to examine them, we find tion would have been loyal to the son of that in these cases as everywhere else, Mr. the illustrious Oliver. Macaulay's propensity to caricature and exaggerate leads him not merely to disfigure Had the Protector and the Parliament been circumstances, but totally to forget the prinsuffered to proceed undisturbed, there can be little doubt that an order of things similar to that which was afterwards established under the house of Hanover, would have been established

under the house of Cromwell.'-i. 142.

And yet in a page or two Mr. Macaulay is found making an admission-made, indeed, with the object of disparaging Monk and the royalists—but which gives to his theory of a Cromwellian dynasty the most con

clusive refutation.

'It was probably not till Monk had been some days in the capital that he made up his mind. The cry of the whole people was for a free parliament; and there could be no doubt that a parliament really free would instantly restore the exiled family.—i. 147.

ciple on which such episodes are admissible into regular history-namely, the illustration of the story. They should be, as it were, woven into the narrative, and not, as Mr. Macaulay generally treats them, stitched on like patches. This latter observation does not of course apply to the collecting a body of miscellaneous facts into a separate chapter, as Hume and others have done; but Mr. Macaulay's chapter, besides, as we shall show, the prevailing inaccuracy of its details, has one general and essential defect specially its own.

for suspending his narrative to take a view The moment Mr. Macaulay has selected of the surface and society of England is the death of Charles II. Now we think no worse point of time could have been chosen All this hypothesis of a Cromwellian for tracing the obscure but very certain condynasty looks like sheer nonsense; but we nection between political events and the have no doubt it has a meaning, and we re- manners of a people. The Restoration, for quest our readers not to be diverted by the instance, was an era in manners as well as almost ludicrous partiality and absurdity of in politics-so was in a fainter degree the Mr. Macaulay's speculations from an ap- Revolution-either, or both, of those periods preciation of the deep hostility to the mon- would have afforded a natural position for archy from which they arise. They are contemplating a going and a coming order like bubbles on the surface of a dark pool, which indicate that there is something rotten below.

of things; but we believe that there are no two periods in our annals which were so identical in morals and politics—so undisWe should if we had time have many tinguishable, in short, in any national view other complaints to make of the details of -as the latter years of Charles and the this chapter, which are deeply coloured earlier years of James. Here then is an with all Mr. Macaulay's prejudices and objection in limine to this famous chapterpassions. He is, we may almost say of and not in limine only, but in substance; course, violent and unjust against Strafford for in fact the period he has chosen would and Clarendon; and the most prominent not have furnished out the chapter, fourtouch of candour that we can find in this fifths of which belong to a date later than period of his history is, that he slurs over that which he professes to treat of. In the murder of Laud in an obscure half-line (i. 119) as if he were as we hope he really is--ashamed of it.

short, the chapter is like an old curiosityshop, into which-no matter whether it happens to stand in Charles Street, William Street, or George Street-the knick-knacks We now arrive at what we have heard of a couple of centuries are promiscuously called the celebrated third chapter-cele- jumbled. What does it signify, in a history brated it deserves to be, and we hope our of the reign of Charles II., that a writer, humble observations may add something to sixty years after the Revolution' (i. 347), its celebrity. There is no feature of Mr. says that in the lodging-houses at Bath Macaulay's book on which, we believe, he the hearth-slabs' were freestone, not more prides himself, and which has been in marble'-that 'the best apartments were truth more popular with his readers, than hung with coarse woollen stuff, and furthe descriptions which he introduces of the nished with rush-bottomed chairs?'-nay, residences, habits, and manners of our an- that he should have the personal good taste cestors. They are, provided you do not to lament that in those Baotian days' not a look below the surface, as entertaining as wainscot was painted' (348); and yet this

་

twaddle of the reign of George II., patched John a Noaks farms in 1849 the same land which his forefathers farmed in 1485. Therefore, this is the same dish of Persian ware out of which Feversham supped. Q. E. D.!

The authority cited for this is the Grand It is to be observed that the population of Duke Cosmo, who, on his way from CorunSomersetshire does not, like that of the manu- na to England, touched at Kinsale, and facturing districts, consist of emigrants from slept one night ashore, during which his distant places. It is by no means unusual to secretary, who does not seem to have find farmers who cultivate the same land which known any English, collected this valuable

reigned in England. The Somersetshire traditions information. The total public revenue of are THEREFORE of no small value to an historian. Ireland was little more than 300,0001., and the aggregate salaries of all the public serIt would be superfluous to endeavour, vants in the kingdom but 25,000l., so that after so high an authority, to depreciate the the sum stated as the Lord Lieutenant's inhistorical value of the story of the china come is incredible. We should be inclined dish, but we may be forgiven if we call to suspect the sum to be a clerical error of particular attention to the admirable struc- the transcriber's for 40,000 crowns. ture of Mr. Macaulay's syllogism. Feversham supped in Somersetshire one night in 1685.

same by its natural features and produc- though serviceable, were held in small tions. It needed, we think, no parade of esteem, and fetched low prices, and that, authorities to show that the cultivation of either for war or coaches, foreign breeds the soil was then inferior to ours; but Mr. were preferred (i. 315); but, on the other Macaulay will produce authorities, and, as hand, one of his favourite authorities (Chamoften happens to him, the authorities prove berlayne, 1684) boasts of the superiority of nothing but his own rashness :English horses:

In the drawings of English landscapes, made in that age for the Grand Duke Cosmo, scarce a hedgerow is to be seen, and numerous tracks, now rich with cultivation, appear as bare as Salisbury Plain.'—i. 311.

'For war, for coach, for highway, for hunting, nowhere such plenty of horses.'-Present State, P. 8.

And again:

'The modern racehorse was not then known.'

→i. 315.

No doubt; the Godolphin Arabian was not yet imported : but what used to take King Charles to Newmarket, on the road to which some of the revolution patriots were to lie in wait to assassinate him? Why did the King invite the Grand Duke to come to see the horse-racing at Newmarket ?—

These drawings are, if we may judge by the plates, to which we suppose Mr. Macaulay alludes, made hastily by a very poor hand, and hardly deserves to be spoken of as drawings of landscapes, the artist's object being chiefly the exterior aspect of the towns through which the Duke passed; but it is not true that scarcely a hedgerow is to be seen; there are, we are satisfied, nearly as many as the same artist would P. 201. now show in the same places; but why ap- the increased size and improved appearance Mr. Macaulay makes a great parade of peal to these poor sketches when we have of the towns and cities of England since a very contrary description in the text of the the days of Charles II. He need hardly, self-same work? We take, for example, the two earliest of these landscapes that we think, have taken such pains, when the occur in the route, and we find the country years ago informed us that the population of population estimates and returns of ten represented in the first described as having England and Wales, which in 1670 was estifields surrounded with hedges and dry walls' mated at about five and a half millions, was, (Travels of the Grand Duke Cosmo, ii. 127); in 1840, sixteen; and the greater part of the second represents the approach to Ex- his observations on these towns seem to us eter, thus described in the text-Every quite irrelevant to any part of his subject, where were seen fields surrounded with rows and in themselves both inaccurate and suof trees, meadows of the most beautiful verdure, gentlemen's seats, &c.' (ib. 128.) Is perficial. One instance of such trifling will suffice. We do not see what a description it good faith to produce such drawings of a place like Cheltenham-a creation of (even if they were what Mr. Macaulay de- almost our own day-has to do with a hisscribes, which they are not) as proof of a tory of the reign of King Charles II., fact which the letterpress on the opposite though it might be noticed in that of George page, and which must have been seen at the III., as a visit to it was thought to have same glance, contradicts? brought on his first illness; but while our statistical historian is expatiating in a very flowery style on the local position and wonderful growth of this beautiful town, he totally forgets the medicinal wells, to which alone it owes its existence ! The tragedy of Hamlet with the part of Hamlet omitted!

Again: Mr. Macaulay says of London :—

The town did not, as now, fade by imperceptible degrees into the country. No long avenues of villas, embowered in lilacs and laburnums, extended from the great centre of wealth and civilization almost to the boundaries

of Middlesex.-i. 349.

But hear what the writer of the Grand Duke's travels saw and records, and for which he is a rather better authority than for the profits of the Lord-Lieutenant :

'The whole tract of country-seven milesfrom Brentford to London, is truly delicious, from the abundance of well-built villas and country houses which are seen in every direction.— Travels, 162.

In speaking of Soho Square, he says,—

the fortunes of the Duke of Monmouth flourish. 'Monmouth Square had been the name while

ed.'- i. 356.

With a reference to Chamberlayne; but the reference again fails us ;—we cannot find it in Chamberlayne. Chamberlayne calls it King's Square. This trifle, however, though it confirms what we have said of the inacAgain he says that our native horses, curacy of Mr. Macaulay's references to his

'The coach drove instantly to Aldersgate Street, where the town residence of the Bishops of London then stood, within the shadow of the dome of their cathedral.'-i. 521.

Noble! but unluckily there was no dome either before that time, nor at that time, nor for some years after.

authorities, would not be worth mentioning, I when Mr. Macaulay was its most imporbut that it reveals a more important negli- tant contributor. gence in Mr. Macaulay. The attempt to say something picturLord Grey, one of the Rye House con-esque frequently betrays him into anachronspirators, who was second in command in ism and absurdity. When Princess Anne Monmouth's rebellion, and taken prisoner escaped from Whitehall in a hackney coach, with him, made a confession, which is one our great painter exalts the humility of the of the most remarkable documents of the flight by the grandeur of his style. times. It was printed, in 1754, under the title of Secret History of the Rye House Plot.' This work, which is conclusive as to the treason of Lord Russell and all the other patriots, is extremely distasteful to all the Whig historians; and Mr. Macaulay, though forced to quote it, is anxious to contest its veracity; but it would really seem as if he had not condescended to read this celebrated Confession. If he had, he could have made no mistake as to the name of the Square, nor referred to Chamberlayne for what is not there, for in his Confession Lord Grey tells us that in the spring of 1683, preparatory to fixing the precise. 'The mild and timid gave the wall. The day for a general insurrection, he met Mr. bold and athletic took it. If two roisterers met, Trenchard, one of the west-country conthey cocked their hats in each other's faces, and spirators, to consider that point at the Duke shoved towards the kennel. If he was a mere pushed each other about till the weaker was of Monmouth's house in SoHo SQUARE.' bully he sneaked off, muttering that he should (Grey, p. 36.) And again, Lord Grey find a time. If he was pugnacious, the encounsays that the night before the conspirators ter probably ended in a duel behind Montague were to leave town for their respective House.'-i. 360.

He tells us that in old London, as now in all old Paris, the kennel ran in the centre of the street, and that thence arose

the wish of every pedestrian to keep close to the wall.'

posts, he walked with the Duke of Mon- As we know that these jostlings for the mouth in SoHo SQUARE till break of day.' wall took place as early as the reign of EliHas Mr. Macaulay written his history with-zabeth (see Romeo and Juliet, i. 1), and as out having carefully read the infinitely most important document of the whole period? He tells us that the foundation of the Royal Society spread the growth of true science :

'One after another, phantoms which had haunted the world through ages of darkness fled before the light. Astrology and alchemy became jests.-i. 411.

late as that of George I., it was hardly worth while to relate it as a remarkable

fact of the reign of Charles II., to which moreover none of the authorities quoted apply; but even in this trivial matter Mr. Macaulay contrives to make a serious mistake; street quarrels of this nature, technically called rencounters ('sudden combat without premeditation,' Johnson's Dictionary), were settled on the spot, in an age when every well-dressed person wore a sword. It was only a formal pre-arranged duel that ever carried the combatants behind Montague House; and this distinction was important, for a fatal duel was legally murder, whereas a rencounter was seldom more than manslaughter.

The "London Gazette" came out only on Mondays and Thursdays. The contents generally were a royal proclamation, two or three Tory addresses, notices of two or three promo-mouth's hold on the affections of the peoAgain he produces as a proof of Montions, and a skirmish on the Danube, a description of a highwayman, &c. &c.' ple, and as an honourable instance of popular fidelity, that long after his death, an imAn ex-Secretary at War might know postor deceived the country people of Dorthat the Gazette is little better, indeed setshire by assuming his name. May we hardly so good, in our days; and that, sub-remind Mr. Macaulay of Sir William Čourstituting the publishing days, Tuesday and tenay, alias Thom, who figured even more Friday, for Monday and Thursday, the de- theatrically in our own day? Much the scription of King Charles's Gazette would larger part of Mr. Macaulay's anecdotes of exactly suit that of Queen Victoria, even this class might, we confidently believe, be

paralleled by analogous events fifty or hun-, persuade ourselves that ours is the higher dred years later than the times which he as well as the truer view of the principles censures or ridicules. of the Revolution and of the duty of an historian.

He expatiates largely, as indicative of the barbarous and bigoted state of England in the reign of Charles II., on the tumultuous opposition to turnpikes and the destruction of toll-gates. He seems to have forgotten that the same thing occurred the other day in Wales, and was only subdued by a stronger exertion of force than was required in the earlier period.

He tells, that when the floods were out between London and Ware, travellers were up to their saddle-skirts in water, and that a higgler once perished in such a flood (i. 374). We still hear of the same things every winter, and only so late as last February we read of many similar accidents.

These and such like puerilities, the majority of them collected from authorities of the reigns of the Georges, are, it seems, illustrations of England in the days of Charles II.

We take slight account of such mistakes as saying that the bishops were tried for a libel, though it is a strange one for a constitutional lawyer to make, or of calling Mrs. Lisle The Lady Alice, though this is equally strange in one who has been a guest at Windsor Castle.' We presume that both these errors, small, but ridiculous, arose from Mr. Macaulay's reading too hastily the running title of the State Trials instead of the text, for both these errors happen to be in the running title and not in the body of the work. There are several more serious slips in point of law, but on which it would not be worth while to detain our readers.

After so much of what seems to us absurdity and nonsense we are glad to be able to produce a bit of antiquarian topography, which, though not exempt from Mr. MacWhen we call these things puerilities, it aulay's too frequent sins, is, to our taste, is not that we should consider as such, an very natural and graceful; and we know authentic collection of facts, be they ever so not that we could produce from the whole small which should be really illustrative of work-assiduous as Mr. Macaulay has been any particular period, for instance, of the in seeking picturesque effects-any other period Mr. Macaulay has selected; but of picture of so high a tone of colouring and what value, except to make a volume of of feeling. The remains of the unhappy Ana, can it be to collect a heap of small Monmouth were, he says, facts, worthless in themselves-having no special relation to either the times or the events treated of—and, after all, not one in twenty told with perfect accuracy-perfect accuracy being the only merit of such mat

ters?

'Placed in a coffin covered with black velvet, and were laid privately under the communiontable of St. Peter's Chapel in the Tower. Within four years the pavement of that chancel was again disturbed, and hard by the remains of Monmouth were laid the remains of Jeffreys. It may be asked what could induce Mr. In truth there is no sadder spot on the earth than Macaulay to condescend to such petty er- that little cemetery. Death is there associated, rors? Two motives occur to us: the one not as in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, with we have already alluded to-the embellish-genius and virtue, with public veneration and ment of his historical romance; but another with imperishable renown; not, as in our hummore powerful, and which pervades the blest churches and churchyards, with everything whole work, a wish to exhibit England charities; but with whatever is darkest in human that is most endearing in social and domestic prior to the Revolution as in a mean and nature and in human destiny, with the savage even barbarous and despicable condition. triumph of implacable enemies, with the inconWe are, we trust, as sensible as Mr. Mac-stancy, the ingratitude, the cowardice of friends. aulay can be of the blessings of civil and with all the miseries of fallen greatness and of religious liberty, secured to us by the Re- blighted fame. volution, and of the gradual development of the material, and moral, and intellectual powers, which the political constitution then defined and established has so largely assisted. We think those advantages so great as to need no unfair embellishment, and we especially protest against Mr. Macaulay's systematic practice of raking up and exaggerating, as exclusively belonging to the earlier period, absurdities and abuses of which his evidence is mainly drawn from the latter. It may be self-flattery, but we

Thither have been carried, through successive ages, by the rude hands of gaolers, without one mourner following, the bleeding relics of men who had been the captains of armies, the leaders of parties, the oracles of senates, and the ornaments of courts. Thither was borne, before the window where Lady Jane Grey was praying, the mangled corpse of Guilford Dudley. Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and Protector of the realm, reposes there by the brother whom he murdered. There has mouldered away the headless trunk of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and Cardinal of St. Vitalis, a man worthy to have lived in a better age, and to have died in a better cause. There