It was easier to silence them by a living authority. | garchies. The vassal of Western, and the serf The bishops came forth as the elect depositories of of Eastern Europe, might otherwise, at this day, an unwritten code. Tradition became the rule of have been in the same social state, and military the Christian world. It might crush the errors of autocracies might now be occupying the place of Arius-it might sustain the usurpations of Am- our constitutional or paternal governments. Hilbrose. This was the age of Controversy. debrand's despotism, with whatever inconsistency, Constantine saw the miraculous cross, and wor- sought to guide mankind, by moral impulses, to a shipped. He confirmed to the Christian hierarchy more than human sanctity. The feudal despotism all their original and all their acquired powers. with which he waged war, sought, with a stern This was the age of the Church and State Alliance. consistency, to degrade them into beasts of prey The seat of empire was transferred from the or beasts of burden. It was the conflict of mental Tiber to the Bosphorus. The Roman bishop and with physical power, of literature with ignorance, clergy seized on the vacant inheritance of abdicated of religion with injustice and debauchery. To authority. The pope became the virtual sovereign the popes of the middle ages was assigned a provof the Roman city. The Greeks and Latins be-ince, their abandonment of which would have came ecclesiastical rivals. Then was first heard plunged the church and the world into the same the Roman watch-word and rallying cry of the hopeless slavery. To Pope Gregory the Seventh visible unity of the church. This was the age of were first given the genius and the courage to Papal Independence. raise himself and his successors to the level of that high vocation. Goths, Vandals, Huns, Bulgarians, Franks, and Lombards, conquered the dominions of Cæsar. But they became the converts and tributaries of Peter. The repulse of the Saracens by Charles Martel gave to Europe a new empire, to the church a second Constantine. This was the age of Barbaric Invasion. states. Europe became one vast assemblage of military The lands were everywhere partitioned by the conquerors among their liegemen, who, having bound themselves to use their swords in their lords' defence, imposed a similar obligation on their own tenants, who, in turn, exacted it from their subordinate vassals. This was the age of Feudalism and of Hildebrand. He ascended the apostolic throne, therefore, armed with prescriptions in favor of the loftiest claims of the hierarchy, thus reaching back almost to the apostolic times. But he found in the papal armory other weapons scarcely less keen, though of a more recent fabric. Of these the most effective were the intimate alliance of the Roman See with the monastic orders, and the reäppearance, in theological debate, of that mystic word which, seven centuries before, had wrought such prodigies at Nicæa. He who first taught men to speak of an hypostatic change beneath unchanging forms, may have taught them to talk nonsense. But though he added little or nothing to the received doctrine of the church, he made an incalculable addition to the sacerdotal power. To grasp, to multiply, and to employ these resources in such a manner as to render the Roman pontiff the suzerain of the civilized world, was the end for which Hildebrand lived-an unworthy end, if contrasted with the high and holy purposes of the gospel-an end even hateful, if contrasted with the free and generous spirit in which the primitive founders of the church had established and inculcated her liberties-yet an end which might well allure a noble spirit in the eleventh century, and the attainment of which (so far as it was attained) may be now acknowledged to have been conducive, perhaps essential, to the progress of Christianity and civilization. Yet Hildebrand was the founder of a tyranny only less odious than that which he arrested, and was apparently actuated by an ambition neither less proud, selfish, nor reckless, than that of his secular antagonists. In the great economy of Providence human agency is ever alloyed by some base motives; and the noblest successes recorded by history, must still be purchased at the price of some great ultimate disaster. To the title of the Czar Peter of the Church conferred on him by M. Guizot, Hildebrand's only claim is, that by the energy of his will he moulded her institutions and her habits of thought to his own purposes. But the Czar wrought in the spirit of an architect who invents, arranges, and executes his own plan: Hildebrand in the spirit of a builder, erecting by the divine command a temple of which the divine hand had drawn the design and provided the materials. His faith in what he judged to be the purposes and the will of Heaven, were not merely sublime but astounding. He is everywhere depicted in his own letters the habitual denizen of that bright region which the damps of fear never penetrate, and the shadows of doubt never overcast. To extol him as one of those Christian stoics whom the wreck of worlds could not divert from the straight paths of integrity and truth, is a mere extravagance. His policy was imperial; his resources and his arts sacerdotal. Anathemas and flatteries, stern defiances and subtle insinuations, invective such as night have been thundered by Genseric, and apologies such as might have been whispered by Augustulus, succeed each other in his story, with no visible trace of hesitation or of shame. Even his professed orthodoxy is rendered questionable by his conduct and language towards Berengarius, the great opponent of transubstantiation. With William of England, Philip of France, and Robert of Apulia, and even with Henry of Germany, he temporized at the expense of his own principles as often as the sacrifice seemed advantageous. "Nature gave horns to bulls" to aspiring and belligerent churchmen she gave dissimulation and artifice. To the spiritual despotism of Rome in the middle ages may, indeed, be traced a long series of Our exhausted space forbids the attempt to anerrors and crimes, of wars and persecutions. Yet alyze or delineate the character of the great the papal dynasty was the triumphant antagonist founder of the spiritual despotism of Rome. His of another despotism the most galling, the most acts must stand in place of such a portraiture. debasing, and otherwise the most irremediable, He found the papacy dependent on the empire: under which Europe had ever groaned. The he sustained her by alliances almost commensurate centralization of ecclesiastical power more than with the Italian Peninsula. He found the papacy balanced the isolating spirit of the feudal oli-electoral by the Roman people and clergy: he left it electoral by a college of papal nomination. He | of greater magnitude, and that magnitude acquired found the emperor the virtual patron of the Holy within a single century, than the whole Roman See: he wrested that power from his hands. He empire, the consolidation of a thousand years. found the secular clergy the allies and dependents One deep and melancholy interruption of her proof the secular power: he converted them into the gress is recorded in the reign of the unfortunate inalienable auxiliaries of his own. He found the Charles I. But that interruption gives only a new higher ecclesiastics in servitude to the temporal force to the fact, that the whole being of English sovereigns: he delivered them from that yoke to freedom and prosperity depends upon religion. subjugate them to the Roman Tiara. He found From the days of Elizabeth to our own all the the patronage of the church the mere desecrated great questions of the state have been especially spoil and merchandise of princes: he reduced it religious. In the reign of William III. Popery within the dominion of the supreme pontiff. He was wholly excluded from the legislature. From is celebrated as the reformer of the impure and that moment the country felt itself relieved of a profane abuses of his age: he is more justly enti-weight which, even under the vigorous reign of tled to the praise of having left the impress of his Elizabeth, and the politic reign of James, had own gigantic character on the history of all the heavily encumbered its movements. From that ages which have succeeded him. act it seemed to have begun a new existence. From the hour when papists were suffered no more to corrupt the councils, deform the legislative countenance, and enfeeble the national vigor, purity, and independence of Protestantism, England sprang up like a 66 giant refreshed." Even From the Britannia. THE STRENGTH OF ENGLAND. Ir is a memorable characteristic of English history that, from the period of the Reformation-the separation of the American colonies became a that period in which England first assumed the source of additional prosperity; and, instead of rank of a great kingdom-all the leading questions the drain of millions of British treasure, in supof her public life have been connected with reli- plying the financial exhaustion and guarding the gion. There is no such feature in the history of frontiers of a new continent, America has been the continental kingdoms. After the first strug-made the source of a perpetual supply of wealth gles of the Reformation, religion was superseded and production to England. by politics, and politics themselves quickly sank But the most instructive feature of this history from the public view under the shade of despotism. of perpetual religious impulse is, that it has been But in England religion was the perpetual object a perpetual controversy with Romanism. The of popular inquiry, popular interest, and popular various sectaries have troubled the peace of the privileges. It mingled with every feature of pub-church; but from the days of the second Charles lic freedom; it influenced every advance of the they have never menaced either its power or its national mind; it urged, sustained, and guided existence. Popery has done both. It is against every step of that general progress which raised Popery that the Church of England was raised as a feeble country into imperial power, which in- the national bulwark. Popery is the true peril ; vested an island with dominion in every quarter of and the day which shall see the Church of Engthe globe, and which gave an authority to English land relax the most determined and principled opinion, exercising an unlimited control over the resistance to Popery will see that church undone, opinion of universal mankind. the constitution mortally wounded, and the counThese statements are undeniable; they are his-try preserving only strength enough to entomb toric facts; they are the solid testimonials of time; and the conclusion is equally legitimate-that it has pleased the Great Disposer of all things to raise up England at once as a proof of providential protection, as the depository of divine truth, and as the champion of pure religion in all the assaults and corruptions of its enemies. them both, with useless tears and ignominious regrets, till it follows them to the grave. But the ministerial cry is, "Maynooth must be endowed-we are pledged to it by the terms of the union." This is untrue. There was no such pledge at the union, nor at any other time. The grant has been repeatedly the subject of discussion The principle of this religious existence is so since, and this pledge was never allowed. The effective, that its presence or absence shapes the grant has even been occasionally diminished. whole history of England since it became a Other grants, made before the union, have been kingdom. From the accession of the first Wil- diminished, modified, and even extinguished. The liam to the reign of Henry VIII., the era of the grants to the Kildare-street schools, the grant to Reformation, England was utterly popish. Its the Dublin Society, with a variety of local grants, history was thus a succession of tyrannies. The have undergone constant changes; but no one arcountry was convulsed with civil wars, or ex-gued their continuance on the pledge of the union. hausted by foreign expeditions, equally wasteful, bloody, and useless. But, from the period of the Reformation, England rose into sudden strength. The throne still had difficulties to encounter, but they were gradually broken down; the progress was never retarded; the horizon was continually widening. It is not less remarkable, that this perpetual progress was less probable in the existence of England than of any other country. We can easily conjecture the progress of a continental power, with Europe open before it, and the boundaries of kingdoms ready to vanish before the march of its armies: but the boundaries of an island are prescribed by the hand of nature. Yet, at this hour, the territories ruled by this island are Even if the pledge had been given, did it authorize Not The next step will be to pay the Popish priesthood. This is to be justified to the Protestant by a piece of subtlety, at which Popery laughs already. Pay the priests, and we shall separate them from the peasantry; they will lose the influence which superstition gives them; the priests 66 will be forgotten, and the peasantry will turn Protestant." And this is the argument addressed to a rational people! Who can doubt that the popish priest would be only the more excited to clamor by finding what clamor has already produced? That he will still keep up his closeness of connection with the populace is evident, from the incessant ceremonies forming the ritual of Rome; and that more money will give him, as it gives every one else, more power; that he will have more chapels, more pompous ceremonies, more of all the means which corrupt, or dazzle, or mislead the multitude. which proclaims freedom to the unfortunate slave, in Martinique and Guadaloupe, in Bourbon and Cayenne, in Senegal and Algiers, be the epoch fixed for the abandonment of the right of search." Lord Aberdeen replies through his under secretary, Viscount Canning. He expresses concurrence in much that the society say, and promises "respectful consideration" of the suggestion made; but he denies that the past course has been without good fruit. Portugal has of late executed in good faith the treaty of 1842; Spain has "redeemed the engagement of the treaty taken in 1835, for the enactment of a penal law of great severity against the slave-trade;" "and, If Popery shall be once endowed, it will be the established religion of Ireland. The advance is al-though the unhappy beings yearly landed on the ready made; another step and the evil is completed. Infatuation can go no further. Ireland will be popish and will be lost. In what shape divine vengeance will come is beyond our foresight to know; but it has been hitherto unfailing, and it will not spare us, when it is called down by an act of Protestant guilt, more gratuitous, more headlong, and more contemptuous, than all in the history of the empire. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE. counte coast of Brazil may still be reckoned by thousands, the increasing demand for labor in that country places it beyond all doubt, that but for the operation of British cruisers, the numbers would have been many times multiplied." "But the influence of one country upon the domestic institutions of another, those institutions being recognized and upheld by the laws, and closely interwoven with the habits and interests of the people, can rarely be otherwise than slow and uncertain; and it becomes a matter of grave consideration, whether, in the hope of being able to contribute to the eventual abolition of slavery in Cuba and Brazil, the government of England would do wisely to abandon those means of direct action against the slave-trade, which, though far from complete in their operation, have not been without their good effect, and are likely, as Lord Aberdeen con [It is remarkable, that, if the society are so confident of the impolicy of the armed suppression, they do not at once propose to give up what is positively bad, without waiting to exact ulterior conditions. Such course would much facilitate the solution of all such questions of international morals.]-Spectator, 5 April. The Eneid of Virgil. With English Notes, by CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D., Professor of Greek and Latin in Columbia College, and Rector of the Grammar School, New York. Edited by J. R. Major, D. D., Head Master of King's College School, London. A CURIOUS Correspondence between the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Foreign Office, on the "right of search," has just appeared. It is remarkable for the naked manner in which the society denounce the present means of attempting to put down the slave-trade. Their letter is signed, "On behalf of the com-fidently trusts, to gain in efficiency." mittee, Thomas Clarkson, President," and is dated on the 1st of March, 1845. It points out that the society has always looked to the abolition of slavery as the only means of annihilating the slave-trade, and has therefore "never nanced the suppression of the slave-trade by an armed force." The history of the traffic for many years past abundantly proves "the inefficiency, not to say impolicy, of that mode of suppression.' The treaties for the purpose are defective; are rendered a dead letter by the positive bad faith of foreign powers; are impracticable, on account of the extent of the coast to be watched; and while the armed force is maintained at an immense cost, its use has aggravated the horrors of the traffic. "Governments may enter into negotiations, enTHE merit of Anthon's school editions of the gage in treaties, enact laws, and promulgate ordi- Classics is well known both in this country and nances for the abolition of the slave-trade; but America, for the clearness and fulness of their the experience of thirty years has proved that all explanations, whether relating to the constructing will be in vain if they are not in unison with the of the text or an explanation of its allusions. feelings and not supported by the opinions of the The present edition of The Eneid of Virgil is not people themselves. What then is to be done? only a neat and handy reprint of Professor AnThe committee would respectfully reply, direct thon's last school-book, the notes being placed at all your energies and influence against the system the foot of the page instead of relegated to the of slavery.' "An opportunity is now afforded." end: Dr. Major has improved the original in the "France asks to be relieved from the right of only way perhaps it requires improvement, by search in her case the equivalent should be the omitting the translation of easy passages, and complete and immediate abolition of slavery in notes conveying information which in this country her colonial possessions. This would be a guar-is at hand in Classical Dictionaries and other books antee the best guarantee which could be given-used by the student.-Spectator. that her flag should not be surreptitiously employed in feeding them at least with slaves. And in asking this great act of justice and mercy from France, no indignity would be offered; for her government, her legislative chambers, and her people, have resolved that the abolition of slavery shall take place. It is then simply a question of time. Let that be fixed; and the day FATHER MATHEW'S EMBARRASSMENTS.-The subscriptions to compensate this gentleman for his heavy expenses while prosecuting the cause of teetotalism have already exceeded 70007.-a sum nearly sufficient to cover the reverend gentleman's liabilities, but of course not enough to support the expense of another campaign. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 56.-7 JUNE, 1845. SCRAPS.-Value of a Fine Lady, 450-Chromatics, Quick Passage, 490. : From the Spectator. DO THE TIMES MAKE THE MAN? present views of what is fitting to be done for the Irish; a lucky accident, which, had it existed in 1800, would have crowned the endeavors of WilA WITTY Writer of our day maintains, that liam Pitt to consolidate the Union on a secure whenever the times need such and such a charac-basis. And, which perhaps is not among the ter, it is sure to arise. He believes that the right least important circumstances of Sir Robert Peel's man ever comes to the surface of events; and position, the nation entertains a sober conviction, that the leading spirits in a community may be that his rivals, the whigs, are at once incapable regarded as exponents of the pervading senti- and insincere politicians; and, as such, it desires ments at the period. He holds that the anchorite no fresh experiment of their management of puband fakir denote the prevalence of ascetic religious lic affairs, coupled with perhaps a quarrel with feeling; the sturdy Luther, that of uneasy crav- our French neighbors, resulting from the personal ing after religious freedom of thought. The arrogance of a leading member of their party. searching reasonings of a Hobbes, he believes, With such fortunate accessory advantages on were prompted by a strong appetite in the seven- his side, it is difficult to determine whether Sir teenth century for philosophical theory; whilst Robert Peel is so much the product of his times, the mild and attractive but inconclusive writings as he is, simply, the only instrument suited to of a Dugald Stewart and a Mackintosh naturally them which is at our disposal. Nor, after all, is find favor with the less robust-minded community it very creditable to the generative force of "the of the nineteenth. These, out of many more times," that one man should be found playing two examples, are cited in illustration of his proposi- such different parts in his life as Sir Robert Peel tion which, nevertheless, we cannot allow to has assuredly done. That no one man has sprung supply a complete explanation of the success of upon the stage, possessing patriotic impulses particular individuals at given periods. There are and commanding qualities, with the fresh stamp accidental circumstances, in most cases, which and impress of his times upon him, would seem connect themselves with the qualities of the man, to negative, in some sort, the foregoing hypotheforming the vantage-ground from which he passes sis; inasmuch as, for want of such a one to direct on to power or to fame. It is impossible, for in- a new form of things, we are obliged to adapt to stance, to treat of the political events that are the purpose one fashioned in an opposite school. passing before our eyes without admitting that Perhaps the real solution of this is to be found Sir Robert Peel does represent the actual condi- in the peculiar temper of our present transition tion of the reflecting mind of England; and that state. From the predominance of the desire for he deals with the government of the country peace and quiet, and the facilities they afford for accordingly, after a fashion that no other states- carrying out all sorts of material improvements in man would venture to practise. But there is no the community, the minister whose prudence can ground for believing that his personal talent and secure us from agitating discord is the man for pertinacious will are the whole cause of his the middle classes, to whom "order" is as the present ascendancy. The wealth to which our breath of life. The collective impersonation of premier succeeded by inheritance counts for much false pretences," (as some one called the French in gaining the estimation and confidence of the Chamber,) which fills the halls of St. Stephen's, public of England, and stands quite apart from his no longer excites the community to any interest in personal character. Then, he is not a young man: its agency as an engine of government. This his age inspires a belief in his sagacity, which political collapse, whilst it is unfavorable to the would have been withheld from him twenty years production of a statesman-hero, is favorable to a ago; further, he has adopted a policy distasteful to government of expediency par excellence; for the bulk of his party; which is a guarantee for his which, as has often been shown, Sir Robert Peel's sincerity in following it up, since their displeasure is extremely well suited. The day may come must cause him very considerable pain. The when a reconstructive genius shall be necessary, reigning monarch, again, happens to concur in his to mould anew the elements of controlling power 66 28 which recent dislocations and the action of new | ley's Comet; The Atmosphere; The New Planforces have partially deranged; when God grant ets. We were especially interested in the Lecture that "the right man" may arise! But the ten- on Halley's Comet. In one of the notes to this dency of legislation at this present time is not so lecture is a French story which we copy: much towards a principled reformation as a bit-by- "Messier passed his life in search of comets. bit amendment; and for this, no wonderful genius He was an excellent man, but had the simplicity of but ordinary guides with honest intentions will be a child. At a time when he was in expectation of found to suffice. For instance; reformation in discovering a comet, his wife took ill and died. what regards the most widely-spread of our na- While attending upon her, being withdrawn from tional grievances-the frightful expensiveness of his observatory, Montagne de Limoges anticipated all kinds of justice (amounting to a practical him by discovering the comet. Messier was in denial of justice so far as a large proportion of us despair. A friend visiting him, began to offer are concerned)-will hardly be undertaken on any some consolation for the recent affliction he had comprehensive scale; but peddling laws will from suffered. Messier, thinking only of his comet, time to time be framed, to tinker particular defects exclaimed, 'I had discovered twelve. Alas, that now existing, and appease a certain class of suf- I should be robbed of the thirteenth by Montagne!' ferers. And so we shall go on, probably for a and his eyes filled with tears. Then remembering number of years, until the great difficulty occur that it was necessary to mourn for his wife, whose on the subject of the unemployed, that is, surplus remains were still in the house, he exclaimed, labor of England; the most formidable problem Ah! cette pauvre femme,' and again wept for in store for the governing minds of this vast and his comet." enlightened empire. Meanwhile, the measures pending in parliament for pacifying the Irish Catholics are, unquestionably, distasteful to the sincere Church-of-Englander and sectarian Protestant; but what remedial measure is ever otherwise? It is the inevitable fate of posterity to suffer for the misdeeds of their progenitors: we are 'posterity" in relation to the government of the eighteenth century, and we must either retrieve their errors or commit similar ones. Fortunately, no set of aspirants to office are found, just now, willing to turn the popular prejudices to account, or we should reckon with less confidence than we do on the carrying of our minister's conciliatory policy into effect. Nay, we might even be destined to behold renewed coercion bills, backed by glittering bayonets, once more at work in the Emerald Isle. But these, we trust, will never again be employed, unless, after England and the English shall have ceased to be in the wrong, the Irish forfeit their claim to our sympathy by refusing to be content with a fair measure of reparation. BOOKS RECEIVED. From Harper & Brothers, New York. BARNES' NOTES ON THE EPHESIANS, PHILIPPIANS AND COLOSSIANS. How much better is it to search the Scriptures for truth, than to examine human writings for controversy. WYOMING. A Tale. ILLUMINATED SHAKSPEARE, 51, 52. ILLUMINATED BIBLE, 26, 27-coming to the 24th of Isaiah. From D. Appleton & Co. New York. HISTORY OF GERMANY, Parts 4 and 5 completing this standard work, which reaches to the Downfall of Napoleon and the Holy Alliance. The modern portion is especially necessary to all who would understand the movement which is soon to heave the whole mass of middle Europe. SYDNEY SMITH'S FRAGMENT on the Irish Roman Haliburton & Dudley have issued a HISTORY OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS. It seems to be very minute, and to be principally intended for the members of the said order. SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER, for May. TALES. by T. S. Arthur. Published by S. FerTHE CLUB ROOM, AND OTHER TEMPERANCE rett & Co., Philadelphia. We are not afraid to recommend, unread, anything from the warm heart and sound judgment of Mr. Arthur. From Wiley & Putnam, New York. We have just received a beautiful collection of ten volumes of their LIBRARY OF CHOICE READING. This series is handsomely printed, upon fine paper and neatly done up. It is of the most convenient size for the gentle reader, and combines good taste with cheapness. We do not doubt that it will have a very extensive sale, combining, as it does, attractions for readers of all ages. We copy the titles of the volumes, with a considerable proportion of which our readers have already made a favorable acquaintance by means of reviews which we have copied from the Foreign Journals. 1. EOTHEN. 2. THE AMEER WITCH. 3. UNDINE. 4. IMAGINATION AND FANCY, by Leigh Hunt. 5. DIARY OF LADY WILLOUGHBY. 6 and 9. HAZLITT'S TABLE TALK. 7. HEADLONG HALL AND NIGHTMARE ABBEY. We are desirous of doing whatever we can, to make known the publication of such a course, From Greeley & McElrath, New York. not doubting but that it will continue to deserve DR. LARDNER'S POPULAR LECTURES, No. 2. the praise challenged by its motto from Charles The Minor Planets; Weather Almanacs; Hal-Lamb-" Books WHICH ARE BOOKS." |