REVIEW.

Otago Witness, Issue 498, 15 June 1861, Page 9

REVIEW.

LORD MACAULAY'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Vol. V., edited by his Sister, Lady Trevelyan (From the London Spectator, March 23, 1861.)

After whnf, considering the nature of the undertaking, we mu&t pronounce to be a not unreasonable delaj', Lady Trevelyan has at length fulfilled her task of giving to the public so much of the fifth volume of Lord Macaula3''s History of England as could be re^ covered from the mass of papers which he left behind him at his death. That portion of the MS. which had undergone revision, and had been brought into the form which its author intended it finally to assume, comprises two complete chapters, and the best part of a third, which carry us on without a break from December 3, 1697, immediately after the conclusion of the Treaty of Kyswick, to the prorogation of Parliament on April 11, 1700, immediately after the termination of one of the most memorable struggles between the Lords and Commons that is recorded iv parliamentary history. After the latter period there is an interval of about sixteen months, of which the present volume contains no record ; and then we have a few additional page?, giving an account of the death of James 11., and of the storm' of indignation which was aroused in England by Louis XTVi's inconsiderate cora.pliance with the wishes of Madame de Maintenon that he should acknowledge the son of the exiled monarch as the lawful successor to the English throne. In the midst of this description the revised portion of the M.S. comes to an abrupt close.

Lord Macaulay's posthumous volume, therefore, carries on his history to a point rather more than two years in advance of that reached at the clo^e of the last volume published during his lifetime. This brief period, though not signalized by any such stirring events as had marked the earlier years of the reign of William 111., was one of no small .moment as regards the internal history of England,. The King was now about to experience the necessary reaction from the popularity, always rather political than personal, which he had hitherto enjoyed. The parliament, which met on the day following the rejoicings which celebrated the Treaty of Ryswick, showed itself inclined to offer a jealous resistance, rather than to yield a ready acquiescence, to his wishes. Their first measure was to reduce the military establishment, which William was very anxious to maintain on a war footing, to what it had been in the year 1680 ; and the highest sum which they could be induced to grant for the maintenance of the army was barely sufficient to keep up a force of. 10,000 men. Lord Macaulay, whose sj'mpnthies are, of course, entirely on the king's side throughout the whole of the struggle with his recalcitrant Commons, states the arguments by which the Court party vainly endeavoured to overcome the prevailing jealousy of a permanent military force, with all the cogency of which they are susceptible. Not even Lord Macaulay himself, however, could have prevailed over the then temper of the House of Commons. The Country party next directed their attention to the large grants of Crown lands which had been bestowed by William principally upon his own countrymen ; and leave was asked to bring in a bill vacating all such giants which had been made since the Revolution. The ministers cleverly eluded this attack by proposing to extend the measure to all the grants made by James 11. and Charles II. ; an extension which could not possibly be objected to, but which would have been so exceedingly inconvenient to many members of the opposition, that they thought it better to let their own bill fall quietly through. Although William had no special reason to be grateful to this parliament for the manner in which it had dealt with him, nevertheless, on its dissolution in July 1698, he took leave of it in very complimentary terms ; observing in his speech from the throne that the services which it had rendered to the country would " give it a lasting reputation, and be a subject of emulation to parliaments which shall come after." Judging by the event, we might almost be induced to believe that these words were spoken ironically. Jn its steady and determined opposition to the royal wishes, the new parliament, which met on December 6, left its predecessor far behind. Lord Macaulay points out that the meeting of this parliament was a very important epoch -in the history of the English Constitution. The experiment of confiding the government of the country to a small body of statesmen who, on all important questions, agreed with each other, and with the majority of the representatives of the pcoj.le, had been forced upon William by the capricious conduct, of the House of Commons during the years immediately following the Revolution ; and from 1693 to 1698 it was found, on the whole, to work reasonably well. But the result, of the general election in the latter year had been to leave the ministers in a very considerable minority. When such a state of things occurs, as it not unfrequently does, at the present day, the only consequence is that the ministry resigns, and the opposition succeeds to office. In the infancy of niinisterial governmeut, however, so simple a method of solving the difficulty had not yet been thought of. The ministers saw no necessary connection between the tenure of office and the support of a majority of the House, and persisted in endeavouring to carry on the government in the face of an overwhelming opposition. The evils necessarily resulting from this state of discord, which lasted till 1705, are dwelt upon by Lord Macaulay with extraordinary ability and power. The first act of the new parlia? ment waa to reduce the army from ten to seven thousand men, all of whom were to be. natural-born British subjects. The whose convictions on this point had under: gone no alteration, was greatly offended by the passing of this measure ; but he was even more deeply wounded by its final clause, the effect of which was to compel him to part with the regiment of Blue Dutch Foot Guards, to which he was, naturally, most warmly attached. So bitterly did he resent what he regarded as at once an act of suicidal folly and a personal insult to himself, that he actually came to the resolution of retiring from the government of England ; and though he was induced by the solicitations of Lord Chancellor Somers, aided by his own cooler reflections, '-to- abandon that determination, he could not resist the temptation of making one more fruitless effort to obtain permission-to retain his favourite regiment, as a personal favour to himself. The Commons then returned to the charge on the subject of the royal grants of Crown lands ; and, on sending up the Land-tax bill to the Lords, appended to it a clause empowering seven commissioners to inquire into the disposition of the property forfeited in Ireland during the late troubles. The Lords did not withhold their assent, though they protested against the forcible manner in which it had been wrung from them, and the bill was passed ; the King observing, in one of his private letters, " this commission will give us plenty of trouble this winter." William then prorogued the parlia-. ment on May 4, 1699, in. a speech containing no word either of thanks or praise, and con-* eluded with the wish " that no mischief niigh't happeh in the mean time." The Houses met again on November 1 8. The Commons opened the session with a fruitless attempt, to deprive 'Somers of the Chancellorship, and Burnet of the. dffice of preceptor to the l)uke of Glouces- - tot) and then turned their ' attention to the report of the commission' on "Irish forfeitures^, This report, which wajs sighed; by four out of the seven commissioners, censured the manner I in which William had disposed of- the forfeited lands, and recommended not only the resumption of all his grants, but! also a considerable extention of the original confiscations,' A'spe^

cial clause was appended, to it, calling attention ( to a grant which-had been made by; William • to Elizabeth Villiers,- his old -mistress; .an act. of liberality for which Lord Macauley, with* • more zeal than discretion, yentures to offer a • faint defence. The Commons immediately in-. - trotluced aiid passed a billadopting.therecommendations of the commissioners on every point; and, knowing that if it ware sent up . alone the Lords would refuse to pas 3 it, they ' had recourse to their old expedient of tacking it on to a money bill. On this occasion, how* ' ever, the Lord's made a stand, and returned .. the bill to the Commons after having introduced several amendments into the appended clauses. The Commons steadily refused to yield, and sent back the bill to the Lords, who persisted in adhering to their amendments. The intense excitement which prevailed during the next three or four days is dcsc,ribedf.by Lord Macauley in a passage which will almost • bear comparison with his celebrated accouut of the trial of the Seven Bishops. The majority. in the Lords was said to be mainly composed of prelates, illigitimate sons of Charles 11., and needy and greedy courtiers ; and the cry irt • all places of public resort was that the nation . would be ruined by the three B's — Bishops, Bastards, and Beggars. At length the Lords gave way, and the bill was passed ; and, on the • very next day, April 1l r 1700, the parliament was prorogued by the royal command.

In the foregoing sketch, we have confined ourselves exclusively to the struggle, between' the King and the House of Commons. ' Ai- • though this is unquestionably the main feature ' of the period whose history is contained hi the- : present volume, there are, of course, many other events, the narration of which gives full . scope to Lord Macauley's unrivalled powers. The account of the Treaty of Partition arranged between England and France for the purpose of settling- the impending question of the sue- - cession to the throne of Spain, affords him an 6pportunity of introducing a brilliant descrip-'' tion of the condition of the ' Spanish empire and court, and of the state of the' wretched monarch, whose death was looked forward' to ' with such anxious expectation *by the whole of Europe. The portrait of Charles 11. of Spain is admirably executed, and we wish that we ■ had space to transfer it to our columns ;' but we must content ourselves with that of his minister, Cardinal Portocarrero, whom Lbuis 1 XIV. he had succeeded in gaining over to bis interests. '" .••••-

" Portocarrero was one of a race of men of whom we, happily for us, have seen very little, but whose influence has been the curse of Ronian^ Catholic countries. He wa,a, like S^sjtus ,the' Fourth and Alexander the Sixth;, a Ippy.tiip&ni:' made ouf of an impious priest. Such politicians are generally worse than the worst of' the laity, more merciless than any ruffian that can be found in camps, more dishonest than any pettifogger who haunts the tribunals. The' sanctity of their profession has an unsanctifying influence on them. The lessons of the nursery, the habits of boyhood and of early youth, leave in the minds of the great majority of avowed infidels some traces of religion, which, in seasons of mourning and of sickness, become plainly discernible. But it is scarcely possible that any such trace should remain in the mind of.the hypocrite who, during many years, is constantly going through' what he considers as the mummery of preaching, saying mass, baptizing, shriving. When an ecclesiastic ' of this sort mixes in the contests of men of the world, he is indeed much to be dreaded as an ■ enemy, but still more to be dreaded as an ally. From the pulpit where he daily employs his eloquence to embellish what he regards as fables, from the altar whence he daily looks down with secret scorn on the prostrate dupes who believe that he can turn a drop of wine into blood, from the confessional where he daily studies with cold and scientific attention the morbid anatomy of guilty consciences, he brings to courts sometalents which may move the envy of 'the more cunningand unscrupulous of lay courtiers, a rare skill in reading characters and in managing tempers, a ' rare art of dissimulation, a rare dexterity in insinuating what it is not safe to affirm or to propose in explicit terms. There are two feeling 3 which often prevent an unprincipled layman from becoming utterly ' depraved and despicable — domestic feeling, and chivalrous feeling. His heart may be softened by the endearments of a family. His pride may revolt from the thought of doing what does not become a gentleman. But neither with the domestic feeling nor with the chivalrous • feeling has the wicked priest any sympathy. His , gown excludes him from the closest and most tender of human relations,- and at the same time dispenses him from the observation of the fashionable code of honour."

Many historians agree in regarding the Par* ' tition Treaty as one of the most impudent' encroachments that tyranny and injustice ever planned ; and it has not unfrequently been compared to that by which the partition, -of Poland was finally arranged, Lord Macaulay, however, boldly undertakes its defence. The Spanish monarchy was, he says, merely an ill- . governed .empire, entirely deistiiute . of any, common national character whatever. ~ ..1t5, par-,. - tition, therefore resembled that which "is ef- . .fected by ! setting loose a drove of slaves' who' had been fastened together with' collars and handcuffs, and whose union' has produced only pain, inconvenience, and mutual disgust." That of Poland,- on the other hand, " was such a partition as is "effected by hacking a living body limb from limb." He argues at some" length that the consent of England to the arrangement involved no breach of faith with the House of Austria; and then proceeds to assert the general policy and necessity of that consent iv the following cogent and forcible terms : — " If the whole Spanish monarchy should pass , to the House of Bourbon, it was highly probable that in a few years England would cease to' be great and free, and that Holland would be a mere province of France. ' Such a danger England and ' Holland might lawfully have averted by war"; and it would be absurd to say that a danger which may be lawfully averted by war cannot lawfully be averted by peaceable means. , If ' nations are so, deeply interested in a question, that they would be justified in resorting to : arma for the purpose of settling it, they, must surely be suflicicntfy interested in it to be justified, ia resorting to amicable arrangement's for the purpose of settling it. Yet, strange to say, a multi- , tude of writers who have warmly praised the English and Dutch Governments for waging a long and bloody war in order to prevent the question of the Spanish succession from being' .settled in a manner prejudicial to them, haveseverely blamed those Governments for trying to ' attain the same end without the shedding of a drop of blood, without the addition of a crown tothe taxation of any country in Christendom, and without a moment's interruption of the trads of the world by land or by sea." ,

Among the other events described by Lord Macaulay in the volume now before usf are the destruction of Whitehall by fire, caused Tjy the carelessness of a laundress: "the patriotic journalists and pamphleteers of that time did not fail," he observes^ '' to note that she Was a Dutchwoman ;" the embassy of the Duke of Portland to Paris ; and the visit of Peter the Great to England. The latter, event, especiullv, is admirably narrated. Lord Macauley dwells upon the sriking contrast between the rude simplicity of the Czar's appearance and habits, and the mixture of filth and. splendour whichordinarily characterised the suitejof the Rus- ■ sian ambassador, who used to "come to the state-balls,, dropping -'pearls and vermin." " But perhaps the mpst interesting. episode" in the whole volume is* the account of Patterson's illfated expedition to < the -Isthmus of -Darien. \ Lord. Macauley gives a very minute histqryVbf 1 this enterprise, going Back some ; yearsin,or t ijer . to trace jisjprigin^and progress; 4n. fArll|a'etaii;Jy ;The vieiiV which .he takes *ot :^it:i||Tenj|r^}iiß(^ favourable.' ? Ha, regards it a^^n ? ut^^ra^«|^ fensible ancj. irrational achenie^pwipx^e^byi^l 1 man who was hbnjbs^-in|leisc^^>u^&^|tft^^ of judgment : and ! Arlen^relylr^tidi^ : Scotland by- theJiefifeil-oTJi^ng^ndHo^twpl^S^ an undertaking^%ht>6^Td.nolM|tfM%>^^ herein 4 "SXheTwhole^^^m ,' of the atl^^m«er^^blti^^ew| J e^i

to anything that has ever proceeded from Lord Macauley's pen. Asa sample of its style we will quote the statement of the considerations wliich induced the Scotch people, ordinarily so cautious, to throw themselves with such warmth and eagerness into Paterson's

design:

, " Scotland was; indeed, not blessed with a mild climate or a fertile soil. But the richest spots • that had ever existed on the face of the earth had been spoti quite as little favoured by nature. It was ou a bare rock, surrounded by deep sea. that the streets of Tyre were piled up to a dizzy height. On that sterile crag were woven the robes of Persian satraps and Sicilian tyrants : there were fashioned silver bowls and chargers for the banquets of kings : and there Pomeranian amber was set in Lydian gold to adorn the necks of queens. In the warehouses were collected the flue linen of Egypt and the odorous gums of - Arabia ; the ivory of India, an* the tin of Britain. In the port lay fleets of great ships which had weathered the storms of the Euxine and the Atlantic. Powerful and wealthy colonies in distant parts of the world looked up with filial reverence to the little island ; and despots, who trampled on the laws and outraged the feelings of all the nations between the Hydaspes and the JEgean, condescended to court the population of that busy hive. At a later period, on a dreary "bank formed by the soil which the Alpine streams swept 4own to the Adriatic, rose the palaces of Venice. Within a space which would not have been thought large enough for one of the parks " *of "a rude northern baron were collected riches . JaKei&eeding those of a northern kingdom. In almost every one of the private dwellings which fringed the Great Canal, were to be seen plate, mirrors, jewellery, tapestry, paintings, carving, such as might move the envy of the master of Holyrood. In the arsenal were munitions of war sufficient to maintain a contest against the whole of the Ottoman Empire. And, before the grandeur of Venice had declined, another commonwealth, still lees favoured, if possible, by nature, had rapidly risen to a power and opulence which the whole civilized world contemplated with envy and admiration. On a desolate marsh overhung • by fogs and exhaling diseases, a marsh where, ■ there was neither wood nor stone, neither earth nor drinkable water, a marsh from which the ocean on one side and the Rhine on the other • were with difficulty kept out by art, was to be found the most prosperous community in Europe. The wealth wliich was collected within five miles of the Stiidthouse of Amsterdam would purchase the fee simple of Scotland. And why should this be ? Was there any reason to believe that nature had bestowed on the Phoenician, on the Venetian, or on the Hollander, a larger measure of activity, of ingenuity, of forethought, of selfcommand, than on the citizen of Edinburgh or Glasgow ? The truth was, that in all those qualities which conduce to success in life, and especially in commercial life, the Scot had never - been 1 surpassed ; perhaps he had never been equalled. All that was necessary was that his energy should take, a proper direction ; and Ja proper direction Paterson undertook to give."J But while we do full justice to the splendid powers of description so lavishly displayed throughout the whole of this episode, we are far from giving an unqualified assent to the conclusions at which Lord Macaulay arrives. . To state the reasons for ou,r dissent would require far more space than is at our disposal on the present occasion. But his is evidently an exparte statement throughout. His sneers at " the nest of buccaneers," and " squatters who had occupied Darien," are sufficient proofs of the animus with which he regards the whole enterprise. Werecommend the reader to compare the account of the Darien expedition with that of the affair of Captain Kidd, which is given in the following chapter. It would be by no means difficult, by dwelling skilfully on its most unfavourable points, to obtain from any one who was not previously familiar with the facts of the case a full assent to the interpretation which the enemies of Somers strove to put upon the latter transaction ; and yet there are few facts in history more firmly established titan that the Chancellor was entirely blameless throughout the whole affair. In addition to the revised portion of Lord Macaulay's MS. the present volume contains a brief account of the death of William 111., which Lady Trevelyan has deciphered, with some difficulty, from a rough sketch of the last two months of his reign, which she found . among her brother's papers. This she has given precisely as it stood, without any attempt to connect it with the preceding chapters. In fact, throughout the whole volume, she has carefully abstained from making even the slightest addition to, of alteration in, the original manuscript. In this -forbearance she has shown an entirely wise and commendable discretion. We quite agree with her in preferring " that the last thoughts of the great mind which has passed away from us should be preserved sacred from any touch but his own." That Lord Macaulay's History should never be completed was, indeed, from the first, a necessary consequence of the magnitude of the scale on which it was -commenced. ' But not even'from the finished work could we obtain a clearer idea of the magnificence of its proportions and the delicacy of its execution than • is afforded .to us by the fragment which we now possess. .There will always be a- variety .of opinions as to the .intrinsic value of a history which is written with a strong political bias ; but no difference of sentiments on this point can affect the universal estimate of the transcendent literary merit of Lord Macauley's greatest work.