rights flowing from them, as that of cutting wood, fisheries, or the like. The church made subinfeudations of their casual revenues, as the dues on marriages, funerals, and baptisms." The establishment of the feudal system thus universally in Europe, produced one effect, the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. Hitherto the mass of mankind had been collected under the municipal institutions which had been universal in antiquity, in cities, or wandered in vagabond hordes through the country. Under the feudal system these men lived isolated, each in his own habitation, at a great distance from each other. A glance will show that this single circumstance must have exercised on the character of society, and the course of civilization, the social preponderance; the government of society passed at once from the towns to the country-private took the lead of public property-private prevailed over public life. Such was the first effect, and it was an effect purely material, of the establishment of the feudal system. But other effects, still more material, followed, of a moral kind, which have exercised the most important effects on the European manners and mind. "The feudal proprietor established himself in an isolated place, which, for his own protection, he rendered secure. He lived there, with his wife, his children, and a few faithful friends, who shared his hospitality, and contributed to his defence, Around the castle, in its vicinity, were established the farmers, and serfs who cultivated his domain. In the midst of that inferior, but yet allied and protected population, religion planted a church, and introduced a priest. He was usually the chaplain of the castle, and at the same time the curate of the village; in subsequent ages these two characters were separated; the village pastor resided beside his church. This was the primitive feudal societythe cradle, as it were, of the European and Christian world. "From this state of things necessarily arose a prodigious superiority on the part of the possessor of the fief, alike in his own eyes, and in the eyes of those who surrounded him. The feeling of individual importance, of personal freedom, was the ruling principle of savage life; but here a new feeling was introduced-the importance of a proprietor, of the chief of a family, of a master, predominated over that of an individual. From this situation arose an immense feeling of superiority—a superiority peculiar to the feudal ages, and entirely different from any thing which had yet been experienced in the world. Like the feudal lord, the Roman patrician was the head of a family, a master, a landlord. He was, moreover, a religious magistrate, a pontiff in the interior of his family. He was, moreover, a member of the municipality in which his property was situated, and perhaps one of the august senate, which, in name at least, still ruled the empire. But all this importance and dignity was derived from without-the patrician shared it with the other members of his municipality-with the corporation of which he formed a part. The importance of the feudal lord, again, was purely individual-he owed nothing to another; all the power he enjoyed emanated from himself alone. What a feeling of individual consequence must such a situation have inspired-what pride, what insolence, must it have engendered in his mind! Above him was no superior, of whose orders he was to be the mere interpreter or organ-around him were no equals. No all-powerful municipality made his wishes bend to its own-no superior authority exercised a control over his wishes; he knew no bridle on his inclinations, but the limits of his power, or the presence of danger. "Another consequence, hitherto not sufficiently attended to, but of vast importance, flowed from this society. "The patriarchal society, of which the Bible and the Oriental monuments offer the model, was the first combination of men. The chief of a tribe lived with his children, his relations, the different generations who have assembled around him. This was the situation of Abraham-of the patriarchs: it is still that of the Arab tribes which perpetuate their manners. The clan, of which remains still exist in the mountains of Scotland, and the sept of Ireland, is a modification of the patriarchal society: it is the family of the chief, expanded during a succession of generations, and forming a little aggregation of dependents, still influenced by the same attachments, and subjected to the same authority. But the feudal community was very different. Allied at first to the clan, it was yet in many essential particulars dissimilar. There did not exist between its members the bond of relationship; they were not of the same blood; they often did not speak the same language. The feudal lord belonged to a foreign and conquering, his serfs to a domestic and vanquished race. Their employments were as various as their feelings and their traditions. The lord lived in his castle, with his wife, his children, and relations: the serfs on the estate, of a different race, of different names, toiled in the cottages around. This difference was prodigious-it exercised a most powerful effect on the domestic habits of modern Europe. It engendered the attachments of home: it brought women into their proper sphere in domestic life. The little society of freemen, who lived in the midst of an alien race in the castle, were all in all to each other. No forum or theatres were at hand, with their cares or their pleasures; no city enjoyments were a counterpoise to the pleasures of country life. War and the chase broke in, it is true, grievously at times, upon this scene of domestic peace. But war and the chase could not last for ever; and, in the long intervals of undisturbed repose, family attachments formed the chief solace of life. Thus it was that WOMEN acquired their paramount influence thence the manners of chivalry, and the gallantry of modern times; they were but an extension of the courtesy and habits of the castle. The word courtesy shows it-it was in the court of the castle that the habits it denotes were learned."-(Lecture iv. 13, 17; Civilization Européenne.) We have exhausted, perhaps exceeded, our limits; and we have only extracted a few of the most striking ideas from the first hundred pages of one of Guizot's works-ex uno disce omnes. The translation of them has been an agreeable occupation for a few evenings; but they awake one mournful impression-the voice which uttered so many noble and enlightened sentiments is now silent; the genius which once cast abroad light on the history of man, is lost in the vortex of present politics. The philosopher, the historian, are merged in the states man-the instructor of all in the governor of one generation. Great as have been his services, brilliant his course in the new career into which he has been launched, it is as nothing compared to that which he has left; for the one confers present distinction, the other immortal fame. INDEX TO VOL. LVI. Affghanistan, 133-general review of Agitation the cause of the evils of Ire- Alison, Archibald, Esq., speech of, at the Ancient canal between the Nile and the Artist's morning song, the, from Goethe, 419. Auckland, Lord, review of his Affghan- istan policy, 133. Aytoun, W. E., Esq., speech of, at the Banking System, the Scottish, 671*. Bell, H. G., Esq., speech of, at the Blanc, M., his history of ten years re- Bossuet, character of, as a historian, 789. Bride of Corinth, the, from Goethe, 57. Burns' festival, account of the, 370- Burns' festival, 395. Canal between the Nile and Red Sea, Catharine of Russia, sketch of, 410. Cavalier, the old Scottish, a ballad, 195. Commitments for crime, tables of, 1, 2. Crime, causes of the increase of, 1-in Cupid as a landscape painter, from Delphi, defeat of the Gauls at, 472. by, 399-the tombless man, a dream, Doleful lay of the noble wife of Asan Aga, the, from Goethe, 67. Don John and the heretics of Flanders, Dost Mohammed, character of, 142. Earthquake of Lisbon, the, 102. Eglinton, the Earl of, speeches of, at the Emperor, week of an-an account of 127. Erl king, the, from Goethe, 63. Execution of Montrose, the, a ballad Castle on the mountain, the, from Fairy tutor, the, a legend of Upper historical account of the, 182. Goethe, 425. Catania, 33. Lusatia, 83. Falkland islands, affair of the, 406. Finlay's Greece under the Romans, re- First love, from Goethe, 61. Fourier and his system, sketch of, 591. French socialists, 588. Galatia, Gaulish kingdom of, 478. Gibbon, character of, as a historian, 788. God, the, and the Bayaderé, from Goethe, Poems and Ballads of, No. I. Great drought, the, 433-Chap. II., 436 -Chap. III., 438-Chap. IV., 440— Grievances of Ireland, examination of Hardy, trial of, for high treason, 261. Hume, character of, as a historian, 788. Increase of crime, causes of, 1-districts Infant labour, increase of crime attri- Introduction to his poems, from Goethe, Ireland, increase of crime in, 1-exa- mination of the question as to the It is no fiction, 364. Jesuits, expulsion of the, from Portugal, 109-extinction of the order, 112. 49. Lamartine, review of the travels of, 657. Lee, J., anecdotes of, 249, 255. Life in Louisiana, Chap. I., a Voyage on Lines on the landing of Louis Philippe, Lisbon, the great earthquake of, 102. Louisiana, life in, Chap. I., 507-Chap. Love chase, in prose, a, Chap. I., 164– -the fairy tutor, 83-No. III., the Lushington on the Afghan war, 133. Machiavel, character of, as a historian, M'Neill, Sir John, speech of, at the 430. Maid of Orleans, remarks on the, 216. Manufacturing districts, increase of Marston; or, Memoirs of a Statesman- Martin Luther, an ode, 80. Memoirs of a Statesman-see Marston. Memoranda of a month's tour in Sicily Messina, approach to, 28. Minstrel, the, from Goethe, 65. Montrose, execution of, a ballad, 289. Mure, Colonel, speech of, at the Burns' Museum of Palermo, the, 20. My college friends-No. I. John Brown, 569-No. II., the same concluded, 763. Chap. I. A voyage on the Red River, Nelson's dispatches and letters, review New love, new life, from Goethe, 429. Night on the banks of the Tennessee, a, Night thought, a, from Goethe, 428. North, Lord, anecdotes of, 255. rightly reversed? 539-statement of Old Scottish cavalier, the, a ballad, by Oporto wine company, origin of the, Palermo, sketches of, 20. Passages in the life of a Russian officer, Patmore's poems, review of, 331. I. Introduction, 54-the bride of Co- a Cupid, 62-second life, ib.-the erl- Poland, the partition of, 405, 407. Portugal, history of, during the admi- Prichard's natural history of man, re- Prometheus, from Goethe, 428. Ptolemy, completion of the canal be- Radzivil, Prince, sketch of, 406. Reviews: Smith's memoirs of the Mar- quis of Pombal, 100-Lushington's |