The Hiftory of Modern Europe. With an Account of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and a View of the Progress of Society, from the Fifth to the Eighteenth Century. In a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son. 2 vols. 8vo. 12s. boards. Robinson.

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'HE idea of this work, we are told, was fuggefted by the Earl of Chesterfield's Letters to his Son on the Study of Modern Hiftory, which that noble lord recommended with particular warmth and attention. It is doubtless from the later periods of human annals that the most important instruction can de derived. For though the ancient records of nations afford entertainment, they are too much involved in uncertainty, or mixed with fable, to be confidered as ufeful representations of thofe characters and confequential events, which form the grand objects of hiftorical refearch. Modern hiftory, on the contrary, may be ascertained with a degree of exactness fufficient to establish its credit. It delineates men and manners through the various gradations of fociety, from barbarism to a ftate of refinement; while by unfolding the fprings of action, and tracing the progrefs and connection of events, it leads at once to the knowlege of human nature, and of thofe principles which influence our civil and political fyftem.

The first Letter treats of the fall of the Roman empire, and the fettlement of the barbarians. Of the moral and political caufes of this fignal revolution we meet with the following juft and animated account.

As foon as the Romans had fubdued the north of Europe, they fet themselves to civilize it. They transferred into the conquered countries their laws, manners, arts, fciences, language, and literature: and fome have thought thefe a fufficient compenfation for the lofs of liberty and independency; but you, I hope, will judge very differently, whatever veneration you may have for the Roman name.

• Good laws are effential to good government, arts and fciences to the profperity of a nation, and learning and politenefs to the perfection of the human character; but thefe, to exalt a people, must be the refult of the natural progrefs of civilization, not of any adventitious ferment or violence from abroad. The fruits of fummer are ripened in winter by art; but the course of the seasons is neceffary to give them their proper flavour, their proper fize, or their proper tafte. The fpontaneous produce of the forest, though fomewhat harfh, is preferable to what is raised by such violent culture: and the native dignity, the nàtive manners, and rude virtues of the barbarian, are fuperior to all that can be taught the flave. When mankind are obliged to look up to a master for honour and confequence, to flatter

his foibles, and to fear his frown; cunning takes place of wifdom, and treachery of fortitude; the mind lofes its vigour, the heart its generofity, and man, in being polished, is only debafed.

This truth was never, perhaps, more flrikingly exemplified than in the history of the Roman empire. The degrading inAuence of its dominion, more than any other circumftance, haftened its final diffolution; for although the conquered na tions were, by that means, more eafily kept in tubjection, they became unable to refill a foreign enemy, and might be confidered as decayed members of the body politic, which increased its fize without increafing its ftrength. An appearance of profperity, indeed, fucceeded to the havock of war; the ruined ci ties were rebuilt, and new ones founded; population flourished; civilization advanced; the arts were cultivated: but the martial and independent fpirit of the people was fo totally extinct in a few centuries, that instead of preferring death to flavery, like fo many of their illuftrious ancestors, they patiently fubmitted to any contribution which a rapacious governor was pleased to levy and the defcendants of thofe gallant warriors, who had difputed the field with the Roman legions under Cæfar and Germanicus, were unable to oppofe the most defultory inroads of a troop of undifciplined barbarians. They were become incapable either of thinking or acting for themfelves. Hence all the countries, which had been fubjected to the Roman yoke, fell a prey to the firt invader, after the imperial forces were withdrawn.

• Many other caufes contributed to the fall of the Roman empire.

Rome owed her dominion as much to the manners as to the arms of her citizens. Their dignity of fentiment; their love of liberty and of their country; their paffion for glory; their perfeverance in toils; their contempt of danger and of death; their obedience to the laws; and, above all, their mi litary difcipline, had extended and cemented the conquefts of the Romans. The very injuftices of that fovereign people, (for I fpeak of the times of the republic) were covered with a certain majefty, which made even tyranny refpectable: but their government carried in its bofom the feeds of deftruction. The continual jealousy between the fenate and the people, without any balancing power, made the ruin of the republic inevitable, as foon as the manners were relaxed; and a relaxation of manners was neceffarily produced, by the pillage of Greece, and the conqueft of Afia; by the contagious refinements of the one, and the influx of wealth from the other.

The fall of Carthage, and the expulfion of the Gauls out of Italy, though feemingly the two moit fortunate events in the Roman hiftory, contributed alfo to a change of manners, and to the extinction of Roman liberty. While Carthage fubfifted, the attention of all parties was carried to that rival fate; to de

fend themfelves, or annoy their enemies, was the only care of the Romans: and, as long as the Gauls had poffeffions in the neighbourhood of Rome, her citizens were united by the fenfe of a common danger; but no fooner were their fears from abroad removed, than the people grew altogether ungovernable. Ambitious men took advantage of their licentioufnefs; party clashed with party. A mafter became necessary, in order to terminate the horrors of civil war, as well as to give union and vigour to the flate. Intereft and vanity made courtiers; force or fear, flaves. The people were difarmed by the jealousy of defpotifm, and corrupted by the example of an abandoned court. Debauchery, profligacy, and almost every vice, was common upon the throne."

The author next takes a view of the policy and legislation, eftablished by the barbarians on their fettlement in the provinces of the Roman empire; fince known by the name of the feudal fyftem. He obferves that this mode of government, 'with all its imperfections, and the diforders to which it gave birth, was not fo debafing to humanity as the uniform preffure of Roman defpotifm. But this remark feems applicable only to the fuperior orders in the ftate; for under the feudat government, the common people were confidered in no other light than as flaves.

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The third Letter recites the tranfactions of Europe, from the fettlement of the northern nations to the time of Char lemagne, the period when modern history begins to affume its importance. The first country mentioned in this detail is France; which is fucceeded by Spain, Italy, and the empire of Conftantinople."

The fourth Letter is employed on the hiftory of Britain, from the time it was deferted by the Romans, to the end of the Saxon heptarchy; and the fifth defcribes the government, laws, and manners of the Saxons in Britain. The fixth treats of the reign of Charlemagne; and the feventh, of the empire of this monarch, and the church, from the acceffion of Lewis the Debonair, to the death of Charles the Bald. Hardly any part of history affords a more ftriking example than this period, of the fudden elevation and difmemberment of a prodigious empire; the former in confequence of the extraor dinary talents of a prince, and the latter, of the weakness of his fucceffor. How different from the government and splendid tranfactions of Charlemagne, appears the conduct of his fon Lewis in the following extract!

The hiftory of Europe, during feveral ages after the death of Charlemagne, is little more than a catalogue of crimes, and a regifter of the debafing effects of ignorance and fuperftition.

His empire foon experienced the fate of Alexander's. It had quickly attained its height; and yet, while animated by the fuperior genius of Charles, it poffeffed a furprising degree of ftrength and harmony: but thefe not being natural to the feudal fyftem, the difcordant elements began to feparate under his fon, Lewis the Debonair (fo called on account of the gentleness of his manners), and that vaft body being no longer informed by the fame fpirit, was in a fhort time entirely dismembered.

Lewis, though a prince of middling capacity, was unable to fupport fo great a weight of empire: and his piety and parental fondnefs, however amiable in themfelves, enfeebled a character already too weak, and an authority never refpected. He rendered himself odious to the clergy by attempting to reform certain abuses, without foreseeing that this powerful body would not pay him the fame fubmiffion they had done his father. More religious than political, he fpent lefs time in fettling the affairs of his empire than thofe of his foul: ignorant that true religion confifts in fulfilling the duties of our ftation, and that the practices of the cloifter are improperly affociated with the functions of the throne. But his greatest error was occafioned by his paternal affection, and a blind imitation of his father's example, in dividing his dominions among his children. Soon after his acceffion to the throne, he affociated his eldeft fon Lothario with him in the empire; he created Pepin king of Aquitaine, Lewis king of Bavaria; and, after the ceremony of coronation was over, fent them to the government of their respective kingdoms.

Bernard, king of Italy, the grandfon of Charlemagne, was offended at this divifion. He thought his right to the empire fuperior to Lothario's, as his father Pepin was the elder brother of Lewis. The archbishops of Milan and Cremona flattered him in his pretenfions: he revolted, and levied war against his uncle, in contempt of the imperial dignity, to which his crown was fubject. Lewis acted on this occafion with more vigour than either his friends or his enemies expected; he immediately raifed a powerful army, and was preparing to cross the Alps, when Bernard was abandoned by his troops. This unfortunate prince was made prifoner, and condemned to lofe his head; but his uncle, by a fingular kind of lenity, mitigated the punishment to the lofs of his eyes. He died three days after; and Lewis, in order to prevent future troubles, ordered three natural fons of Charlemagne to be fhaved, and shut up in a

convent.

After thefe rigours, the emperor was violently feized with remorfe, accufing himself of the murder of his nephew, and of tyrannic cruelty to his brothers, inhumanly fecluded from the world. He was encouraged by the monks in this melancholy humour; which, at lat, came to fuch a height, that he impeached himfelf in an affembly of the ftates, and begged the bishops to enjoin him public penance. The clergy now

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fenfible of Lewis's weakness, fet no bounds to their ufurpations. The popes thought they might do any thing under fo pious a prince: they did not wait for the emperor's confirmation, and were guilty of every other irregularity. The bishops exalted themselves above the throne, and the whole fraternity of the church claimed an exemption from all civil jurifdiction. Even that fet of men who pretend to renounce the world, the monks, feemed to afpire at the government of it.

Lewis, by the advice of his minifters, who were defirous to divert him from his monaftic habits, had married a fecond wife, whofe name was Judith, defcended from one of the nobleft families in Bavaria, and diftinguished both by her mental and perfonal accomplishments. This princefs brought him a fon, afterwards known by the name of Charles the Bald, whose birth was the occafion of much joy, but proved in a short time the cause of many forrows. For this fon there was no inheritance, the imperial dominions being already divided among the children of the first marriage. The emprefs, therefore, who had gained a great afcendancy over her husband, preffed Lewis to place her fon Charles on a footing with his other children, by a new divifion of the empire. Aquitaine and Bavaria were fmall kingdoms; from them nothing could be expected: but Lothario's fhare was large, and might fpare a little. Senfible of the wishes of his father, and prevailed on by the entreaties of this fond mother, Lothario confented, that fome provifion should accordingly be made for his brother Charles; but he foon repented, and the three brothers joined in a rebellion against their father; the most fingular circumftance, perhaps, to be met with in history.

• Thefe diforders were fostered by Walla, abbot of Corbie, a monk of high birth, who had formerly been in the confidence of Lewis, but was now in difgrace, He declaimed against the court, and against the empress in particular, accufing her of an adulterous commerce with count Bernard, the prime minifter. His fchemes fucceeded. The emperor was abandoned by his army, and made prifoner, along with his wife Judith, and her fon Charles. The emprefs was shut up in a cloifter, and Lewis himself would have been obliged to take the monaftic habit, had it not been fuppofed that he would make a voluntaty refignation of his crown. He had the courage, however, to infift on the rectitude of his intentions while he acknowledged his errors, and promised to act with more circumfpection for the future. The nobility pitied their humbled fovereign; and by the intrigues of the monk Gombaud, who fowed diffentions among the brothers, he was restored to his dignity, and feemingly reconciled with his family.

• The first use that the emperor made of his liberty, was to recall his confort to court; though not without the permiffion of the pope, as fhe had formally taken the veil. Bernard was álfo recalled, and Walla banished; yet Lewis did not long en

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