THE

MONTHLY

CRITICAL GAZETTE,

FROM

JUNE TO NOVEMBER, INCLUSIVE.

1824.

VOLUME I.

London:

PUBLISHED BY KNIGHT AND LACEY,

PATERNOSTER-ROW;

AND SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE

UNITED KINGDOM.

Lectures on the Philosophy of Modern History; delivered at the University of Dublin, by George Miller, M.D. M.R.I.A. &c.- Vol. 5 and 6; 8vo. pp. 528-524. 31. 12s. Dublin. Murray, London. THE fifth and sixth volumes of Dr. Miller's Lectures exhibit that interesting period comprised between the commencement of the reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and the English revolution of 1688; that almost sacred period, when the spirit of free enquiry, after its long suppression by the barbarism of the feudal ages, burst forth with renovated vigour, and assumed an inextinguishable energy. The subject is especially interesting at the present period; not only on account of its bearing a striking resemblance to the period of the reformation, but because the investigation of past motives, principles, and effects, will furnish useful admonition, at a time when the "monarchal principle" has pledged itself, by word and act, to extinguish the free opinions which are again budding into life from every part of the European soil, in a deluge of human blood, which may leave no pausing-place for the "sole of the foot" of peace; nor any mountain-top, on which the ark of liberty may rest.

The forty-second lecture, after exhibiting a masterly analysis of the political system of Europe, demonstrates its tendency to unite its states into extended combinations of federative relations; the great improvement characterising the three concluding centuries considered in these lectures. The originating causes which have affected the political situation of the various states of Europe are principally the alteration of the systems of commerce, and the reformation. After pointing out the agency by which the latter great revolution was effected, the historian thus surveys the character of Luther, who has contributed to much to change the moral surface of society :

"The character of the reformer was singularly compounded of a fearless courage in conduct, and a cautious and even diffident timidity of opinion. Driven early into the monastic life by the shock experienced at the sudden death of a friend, whom lightning had killed by his side; he appears to have been disciplined by it to habits of patient Crit. Gaz, Vol. 1. No. 1.

2202907

B.

2

Miller's Lectures on Modern History.

[HISTORY.

submission, while his native character was such as bade defiance to the apprehension of danger. In that situation, indeed, he found various incitements to a purer faith. The monastery in which he sought a retreat from the world was one of the Augustinian order, in which he naturally acquired a respect for the writings of Augustine. In the second year after he had entered the monastery, he discovered a Latin Bible, and then, for the first time, learned that there were other passages of Scripture besides those which were recited in the offices of the church; soon afterwards, being visited in sickness by an aged monk, he received from him the doctrine of the remission of sins through faith, and, from that time, was indefatigable in searching the sacred Scriptures, and the works of the patron of his order. Still, he had no idea of questioning the faith of the Romish church, and seven years elapsed before he was, as he has himself represented, forced into an open opposition, by the impossibility of retreating. Luther has been censured as coarse and violent, when he had at length found himself engaged in the great struggle of the reformation; but with more moderation, he could not have held on his way through the difficulties which he had encountered; and, with all his violence, he was most adverse to the principle of maintaining by arms the cause of religious truth." The forty-fourth lecture contains the History of Spain and Portugal, between 1516 and 1598; and exhibits a short review of the rise and decay of the cortes of Castille and Arragon. In that part of the philosophy of modern history, which refers to England, we find passages, illustrating the great struggle between the commons and the royal prerogative, worthy attention.

In referring to the times preceding the commonwealth and the struggle they originated, we cannot help being struck with the evidence, how certainly a reformed church and commerce have gone hand-in-hand in producing the general enlightenment and distinguished amelioration of the English people, and how certainly the indolence and non-inquiry of the Catholic worship have circumscribed the spread of light, and, in some cases, almost extinguished it.

Dr. Miller's style, in general, is clear and precise, and assists the methodical arrangement of his materials, by impressing his facts and inferences on the reader. He has very properly (page 4, vol. 5) deprecated the pressing, too closely, as is often done, a comparison between masses of unorganized matter, and associations of intelligent and moral beings. However advantageous such metaphorical illustrations may be deemed in declamation, they afford the most loose and slippery ground for inferences relative to the moral paths of philosophy, or matter of fact. The sober style of history requires that the wing of fancy should be restrained, or, at least, trained to the present lure of the immediate object of research. Yet our historian has himself fallen into the fault he deprecates; and we have found him, in several places, hunting down a metaphor, drawn from the anatomical peculiarities of animal structure, in order to use it as a material for his historical deductions; for instance, at page 3, we have the following strange illustration of this ambitious figure of speech, in which the unintelligible is mixed up in equal proportions with the pretensive. These two combinations, the incipient tendency of an organization to be completed in a subsequent period, may be regarded as the ramifications of a vascular structure spreading through a large mass of gross and unorganized matter, which it gradually assimilates to itself, &c. Now, "this is affectations," as Fluellin says, and should be reformed altogether! The defect is the more inexcusable, since the ancients

HISTORY.]

Steele's Wur in Spain.

3.

have left us such excellent models for history. That a metaphorical illustration uniformly ornaments where it is not required to corroborate, is a mistaken and a vulgar opinion. Nothing, on the contrary, can be more disadvantageous to a poor or bald style, since pretence and ambition exhibit its poverty more strongly by their contrast; and to a style purely historical, or logical, it is scarcely less disadvantageous; the cold severity of judgment being painfully decorated, and appearing to the eye of taste like a sculpture, or statue, painted with tawdry colours. It has the effect of gawdy trimming and embroidery on a quaker's coat. The attempt, moreover, is almost sure to be accompanied with failure, since a logical or philosophical inquiry is not calculated for supplying that glow and vivida vis of fancy, necessary to fuse metaphorical ornament with argument, so as to mould it into a brilliant and homogeneous mass, worthy of the impress of genius, and the unalloyed appreciation of public taste.

Notes on the War in Spain; detailing Occurrences, Military and Political, in Galicia, and at Gibraltar, and Cadiz, from the Fall of Corunna to the Occupation of Cadiz by the French. By Thomas Steele, Esq. M.A. of Magdalen College, Cambridge, a Member of the Spanish Committee.-1 vol. 8vo. pp. 362. 9s. Sherwood and Co. THE Communications made to the public by this volume, concerning the late affairs in Spain, are arranged under a great variety of heads, and include whatever is prominently important and interesting on a subject that has powerfully arrested contemporaneous attention. The account Mr. Steel gives of the occasion and manner of his visiting the Peninsula, cannot be more properly expressed than in his own words:"Having formed," says he, "the resolution of joining the Spanish constitutional army, about the middle of last July, I went on board the Iris, then lying in the Thames, near the Tower, where she was taking in her lading, consisting of some thousand stand of arms, &c. &c., the donation of the Spanish Committee to the army which I was about to join. I went on board in London, at the request of our secretary, Colonel Grant, who, in his anxiety for the service of the constitutional cause, was eager for the sailing of the vessel, and hoped that I, by my presence, might have some influence in hastening the captain's preparations. The vessel sailed two days afterwards. In its passage to Corunna, she was impeded by the hostility of two ships of the French blockading squadron, and with difficulty affected a landing."

Having spent three weeks among the Spaniards, and sought in vain to open a communication with Sir Robert Wilson, the British party contrived to sail for Gibraltar. Corunna and other places had submitted to the French, and an attack upon Cadiz was daily expected. Before this attack was realized, the Iris, however, paid a visit to the temporary residence of the cortes and their constitutional king; and the description our author gives of that town and its inhabitants is so highly picturesque and gratifying, that we wish our space would allow us to transcribe it, instead of compelling us to refer our readers to his