joy either peace or tranquility. The monk Gombaud thought he had a right to be prime minifter, as the reward of his fervices; and as women generally repay flattery with favour, they as generally referve vengeance for infult: the empress brought her animofities along with her. Walla's friends were perfecuted, and Lothario was deprived of the title of emperor, that the fucceffion might be referved for young Charles. The three brothers again affociated in a league against their father. Count Bernard, diffatisfied with his mafter's conduct, joined the rebels; and Gregory IV. then pope, went to France in the army of Lothario, under pretence of accommodating matters, but really with an intention to employ against the emperor that power which he derived from him, glad of an opportunity to asfert the fupremacy and independency of the holy fee.

The prefence of the pope, in thofe days of fuperftition, was of itself fufficient to determine the fate of Lewis. After a deceitful negociation, and an interview with Gregory on the part of Lothario, the unfortunate emperor found himself abandoned by his army, and at the mercy of his rebellious fons. He was depofed in a tumultuous affembly held on the spot, and Lothario proclaimed in his ftead; after which infamous tranfaction the pope returned to Rome,'

The eighth Letter recounts the hiftory of the Normans and Danes, before their fettlement in France and England; the ninth traces the hiftory of England, from the end of the Saxon heptarchy, to the death of Alfred the Great; the tenth is employed on the empire of Charlemagne aud the church, from the death of Charles the Bald, to the death of Lewis IV. when the imperial dignity was tranflated from the French to the Germans; the eleventh deduces the hiftory of the German empire, from the election of Conrad I. to the death of Henry the Fowler; the twelfth treats of France, from the settlement of the Normans, to the extinction of the Carlovingian. race; and the thirteenth continues the hiftory of the German empire, and its dependencies, Rome, and the Italian ftates, under Otho the Great, and his fucceffors of the houfe of Saxony. This prince, defervedly ftyled the Great, was the moft powerful emperor fince Charlemagne, and re-united Italy to the imperial dominions; but, like the monarch laft mentioned, he propagated religion by the force of arms. The throne of Otho was fucceffively occupied by his fon and grandfon of the fame name; the latter of whom is faid to have been poisoned by a pair of gloves fent him by Crefcentius's widow, whom he had debauched under a promife of marriage.

In the fourteenth Letter the author refumes the history of England from the death of Alfred, to the reign of Canute the Great. The fifteenth treats of France, from the acceffion

of

of Hugh Capet, to the invafion of England by William duke of Normandy. As this period forms a new epoch in the French hiftory, we shall present our readers with a fhort extract from the narrative.

• While England changed its mafters, and Germany its form of government, France alfo had changed its reigning family, and was become, like Germany, a government entirely feudal. Each province had its hereditary counts or dukes. He who could only feize upon two or three fmall villages, paid homage to the ufurper of a province; and he who had only a castle, held it of the poffeffor of a town. The kingdom was a monftrous affemblage of members, without any compact body.

Of the princes, or nobles, who held immediately of the crown, Hugh Capet was not the leaft powerful. He poffeffed

the dukedom of France, which extended as far as Touraine : he was also count of Paris; and the vaft domains which he held in Picardy and Champagne, gave him great authority in thofe provinces. He therefore feized the crown on the death of Lewis V. and brought more ftrength to it, than he derived from it; for the royal domain was now reduced to the cities of Laon and Soiffons, with a few other difputed territories.

The right of fucceffion belonged to Charles, duke of Lor rain, uncle to Lewis V. but the condition of vaffal of the empire appeared to the French nobility a fufficient reason for excluding him, and Hugh Capet fecured the favour of the clergy by refigning the abbies which had been hereditary in his family. An extreme devotion, real or apparent, recommended him to the people; and particularly, his veneration for reliques. Force and addrefs feconded his ambition, and the national averfion to his rival completed its fuccefs. He was acknowledged in an affembly of the nobles; he was anointed at Rheims; and he farther eftablished his throne, by affociating his fon Robert in the government of the kingdom, and vefting him with thofe enfigns of royalty, which he prudently denied himself, as what might give umbrage to men who were lately his equals.

Charles, in the mean time, entered France; made himself mafter of Laon by affault, and of Rheims, by the treachery of archbishop Arnold, his relation. But this unhappy prince was afterwards himself betrayed by the bishop of Laon, and made prifoner for life.

• A council was affembled for the trial of Arnold. He was degraded; and Gerbert, a man of learning and genius, who had been tutor to the emperor Otho III and to the king's fon, Robert, was elected into the fee of Rheims. But the court of Rome not being confulted in this tranfaction, it was declared void; Arnold was re-established, and Gerbert depofed. The

first, however, remained in prifon, till the death of Hugh Capet, who was more afraid of Arnold's intrigues than the thunder of the Vatican; while the fecond, having found an afylum in the court of his pupil Otho, became archbishop of Ravenna, and afterwards pope, under the name of Sylvester II.

Nothing elfe remarkable happened during the reign of Hugh Capet, who conducted all things with great prudence and moderation; and had the fingular honour of establishing a new family, and in fome measure a new form of government, with few circumftances of violence, and without fhedding blood. He died in the fifty-feventh year of his age, and the eighth of his reign, and was quietly fucceeded by his fon Robert; a prince of a lefs vigorous, though not of a lefs amiable cha

racter.

• The most remarkable circumflance in the reign of Robert, and the moft worthy of your attention, is his excommunication by the pope. This prince had efpoufed Bertha, his coufin in the fourth degree: a marriage not only lawful according to our prefent ideas of things, and juftified by the practice of all nations, ancient and modern, but neceffary to the welfare of the state, fhe being the fifter of Rodolph, king of Burgundy. But the clergy, among their other ufurpations, had, about this time, made a facrament of marriage, and laid the most effential of civil engagements under spiritual prohibitions, which extended even to the feventh degree of confanguinity. The popes politically ar rogated to themselves a fpecial jurifdiction over this first object of fociety, and that on which all the reft hang: Gregory V. therefore undertook to diffolve the marriage between Robert and Bertha, though it had been authorifed by feveral bishops; and in a council held at Rome, without examining the cause, and without hearing the parties, he published, with the moft defpotic authority, an imperious decree, which ordered the king and queen to be feparated, under peril of excommunication; and all the bishops who had countenanced the pretended crime, were fufpended from their functions, till fuch time as they should make fatisfaction to the holy fee...

Robert, however, perfifted in keeping his wife, and thereby incurred the fentence of excommunication; which, according to cardinal Peter Damien, an hiftorian of those times, had fuch an effect on the minds of men, that the king was abandoned by all his courtiers, and even by his own domeftics, two fervants excepted; and thefe threw to the dogs all the victuals which he left at meals, and purified, by fire, the veffels in which he had been ferved: fo fearful were they of what had been touched by an excommunicated perfon! The fame credulous author adds, that the queen was brought to-bed of a monfter, which had a neck and head like a goofe: a certain proof, and punishment of inceft! But, as Voltaire very justly obferves, there was nothing monftrous in all this affair, but the infolence of the pope, and the weakness of the king; who giving way to fuperftitious VOL. XLVII. May, 1779.

A a

ter

terrors, or afraid of civil commotions, at laft repudiated his wife Bertha, and married Conftance, daughter to the count of Arles, in whom he found a tyrant, instead of an amiable confort.'

The fixteenth Letter continues the hiftory of England, from the Danish, to the Norman conqueft; and the next recites that of Spain, the Arabs, and the empire of Conftantinople, during the ninth, tenth, and part of the eleventh century.

The author mentions the juftiza of Aragon as an officer known only in that country; but we believe fuch an officer was familiar in every feudal state, and conftituted a part of the aula regis.

Hitherto the author has rapidly traverfed what he calls the wilds of hiftory, where the objects are confufed, rude, and uninterefting; and before he enters the more cultivated fields, he devotes the eighteenth Letter to a review of the progrefs of fociety in Europe, from the fettlement of the modern nations, to the middle of the eleventh century. He then refumes the narrative of the German empire and its dependencies, Rome and the Italian ftates, under Conrad II. and his defcendents of the house of Franconia; paffing afterwards to the history of England, and thence to that of other countries, in a chronological gradation.

This work is comprised in feventy-two Letters, which exhibit a clear and faithful detail of the European hiftory fince the fall of the Roman empire. The author feems to have chiefly followed the authority of Voltaire, whofe lively and appofite fentiments he, on many occafions, adopts. Confidered as an epiftolary production, apparently calculated for the improvement of a young pupil, it contains much fewer apoftrophes than might have been expected, in the course of so extenfive a work; but if the author does not convey instruction by a direct addrefs to the understanding, he treats of events and characters in that free and animated manner, that is beft fuited to the purpose of historical information, as well as of entertainment.

The English Poets, with Prefaces biographical and critical to each Author. By Samuel Johnson, L.L. D. Illuftrated with Heads, engraved by Bartolozzi, Caldwall, Hall, Sherwin, Walker, &c. 60 vols. Small 8vo. 71. 101. half bound. Printed for the principal Bookfellers,

AS S the general character of every polifhed nation depends in a great measure on its poetical productions, too much care cannot be taken, in works of this nature, to imprefs on foreigners a proper idea of their merit. This task

was

was perhaps never fo well executed as in the performance before us. Our poetical militia, cloathed in the new uniform which the editors have here beftowed upon them, make a most refpectable figure, both with regard to numbers and appearance. The text is, in general, correct, the paper not too white or gloffy, but neat and clean, and the type sharp and ele gant; though for eyes turned of fifty it may be thought rather too fmall. We could have wifhed, for the fake of uniformity, that the Lives of the Poets, instead of making a number of distinct volumes, had been prefixed to the works of the feveral authors, and in the fame type. But to this we fuppofe the bookfellers had fome weighty and fubftantial objections, which will appear in due time. In the mean while, we must be content with what Dr. Johnfon has found leisure to give his poets; fome few a long life, fome a short one, and some none at all. What we already have is however worthy of the writer; and, like the reft of his works, both amufing and inftru&tive.

Biography, fo far at least as it is concerned about little mén, is not very entertaining, except when it has the additional grace of novelty to recommend it. The life of a poet is feldom read twice; and when the few interefting circumftances, or diverting anecdotes that can be picked up concerning him, are once known, curiofity is fatisfied: to run over the fame ground, therefore, when there could be little hopes of starting fresh game, to be obliged to tell the fame tale which had been often repeated, was a task that could not promise to the under taker much pleasure, or flatter him with the hopes of much additional fame by the execution of it: it was a labour which few men would have had courage and patience enough to en gage in; and in which we at the fame time firmly believe no man but Dr. Johnson would have performed fo well. He has proved, indeed, that a man of genius, penetration, and fagacity, can always, even from old and worn-out materials, strike out fomething new and entertaining.

The Lives of the Poets, as far as they go (and we hope foon to have more of them) are well written, and as the painters fay, in his best manner. This writer has, we know, been cenfured for a pompous phraseology: with what degree of justice we leave our readers to determine. Certain it is, that very:* little

* In one of the Lives Dr. Johnfon talks of lines that were diftin guished by repulfive harfhnefs-and in his Life of Dryden informs us, that he loved fometimes to approach the precipice of abfurdity, and to hover over the abyss of unideal vacancy.' Thefe, with two or three more inftances of a turgid ftyle, we could with might be omitted in a future edition.