not bear to be tried by ar y principle, sound or proof, set before our eyes the special unsound. The sound principle undoubtedly pleader's and oratorical talent, which is, that mere theological error ought not to be punished by the civil magistrate. This prin- we just before encountered in the art ciple the Toleration Act not only does not rec- of pleading all causes, of employing an ognise, but positively disclaims. Not a single infinite number of methods, of master one of the cruel laws enacted against noncon- ing them all and always, during every formists by the Tudors or the Stuarts is repealed, Persecution continues to be the gen- incident of the lawsuit. 'The final

sal rule. Toleration is the exception. Nor manifestation of a mind of this sort are Is this all. The freedom which is given to the faults into which its talent draws it. conscience is given in the most capricious man: By dint of development, he protra zts. ner. A Quaker, by making a declaration of faith in general terms, obtains the full benefit More than once his explications are of the Act without signing one of the thirty- commonplace. He proves what all nine Articles... An Independent minister, who allow. He makes clear what is alreads is perfectly willing to make the declaration re- clear. In one of his works there is a quired from the Quaker, but who has doubts about six or seven of the Articles, remains still passage on the necessity of reactions subject to the penal Jaws. Howe is liable to which reads like the verbosity of a punishment if he preaches before he has sol- clever schoolboy. Other passages, ex: emnly declared his assent to the Anglican doctrine touching the Eucharist. Penn, who ale cellent and novel, can only be read together rejects the Eucharist, is at perfect with pleasure once. On the second liberty to preach without making any declara- reading they appear too true; we have tion whatever on the subject.

seen it all at a glance, and are wearied. “ These are some of the obvious faults which must strike every person who examines the I have omitted one-third of the passage Toleration Act by that standard of just reason on the Act of Toleration, and acute which is the same in all countries and in all minds will think that I ought to have ages. But these very faults may perhaps ap- omitted another third. pear to be merits, when we take into consideration the passions and prejudices of those for

The last feature, the most singular, whom the Toleration Act was framed. This the least English of this History, is, law, abounding with contradictions which every that it is interesting. Macaulay wrote, smatterer in political philosophy can detect, in the Edinburgh Review, several voldid what a law framed by the utmost skill of the greatest masters of political philosophy umes of Essays; and every one knows might have failed to do. That the provisions that the first merit of a reviewer or a which have been recapitulated are cumbrous, journalist is to make himself readable. puerile, inconsistent with each other, inconsistent with the true theory of religious liberty, A thick volume naturally bores us ; it must be acknowledged. All that can be said is not thick for nothing; its bulk dein their defence is this ; that they removed a mands at the outset the attention of vast mass of evil without shocking a vast mass him who opens it. The solid binding, of prejudice ; that they put an end, at once and the table of contents, the preface, the for ever, without one division in either House of Parliament, without one riot in the streets, substantial chapters, drawn up like with scarcely one audible murmur even from soldiers in battle-array, all bid us take the classes most deeply tainted with bigotry, to a persecution which had raged during four gen

an armchair, put on a dressing-gown, erations, which had broken innumerable hearts, place our feet on the fender, and

study; which had made innumerable firesides deso- we owe no less to the grave man who late, which had filled the prisons with men of presents himself to us, armed with 600 whom the world was not worthy, which had driven thousands of those honest,'diligent and pages of text and three years of reflecgod-fearing yoeman and artisans, who are the tion. But a newspaper which we glance true strength of a nation, to seek a refuge be- at in a club, a review which we finger yond the ocean among the wigwams of red In- in a drawing-room in the evening, be dians and the lairs of panthers. Such a de- fore sitting down to dinner, must needs fence, however weak it may, appear to some shallow speculators, will probably be thought attract the eyes, overcome absence of completely statesmen."

mind, conquer readers. Macaulay at: What I find complete in this, is the tained, through practice, this gift of art of developing. This antithesis of readableness, and he retains in his llisideas, sustained by the antithesis of tory the habits which he acquired in words, the symmetrical periods, the periodicals. He employs every means expressions designedly repeated to of keeping up attention, good or indifattract attention, the exhaustion of ferent, worthy or unworthy of his great * Macaulav, ü. 465, History of England, talents ; amongst others, allusion to

heard the saying of an editor, to whom of Lingard or Robertsor

. ; we should Pierre Leroux offered an article on have hard work not to fir.ish a volume God. “ God I there is no actuality of Macaulay. about it !” Macaulay profits by this Here is a detached narrative which remark. He never forgets the actual. shows very well, and in the abstract, If he mentions a regiment, he points the means of interesting which he emout in a few lines the splendid deeds ploys, and the great interest which he which it has done since its formation excites. The subject is the Massaci e up to our own day: thus the officers of of Glencoe. Macaulay begins by do this regiment, encamped in the Crimea, scribing the spot like a traveller who stationed at Malta, or at Calcutta, are has seen it, and points it out to the obliged to read his History. He relates bands of tourists and dilettanti, histo. the reception of Schomberg in the rians and antiquarians, who every year House : who is interested in Schom start from London: berg? Forthwith he adds that Wel

“ Mac Ian dwelt in the mouth of a ravine lington, a hundred years later, was

situated not far from the southern shore of received, under like circumstances, Loch Leven, an arm of the sea which deeply with a ceremony copied from the first : indents the western coast of Scotland, and what Englishman is not interested in separates Argyleshire from Inverness-shire. Wellington ? He relates the siege of lets inhabited by his tribe. The whole popu

Near his house were two or three small hamLondonderry, he points out the spot lation which he governed was not supposed to which the ancient bastions occupy in exceed two hundred souls. In the neighbour. the present town, the eld which was

hood of the little cluster of villages was some

copsewood and some pasture land: but a little covered by the Irish camp, the well at

further up the defile no sign of population or which the besiegers drank : what citi- of fruitfulness was to be seen. In the Gaelic zen of Londonderry can help buying tongue, Glencoe signifies the Glen of Weephis book ? Whatever town he comes ing: and, in truth, that pass is the most dreary

and melancholy of all the Scottish passes, the upon, he notes the changes which it very Valley of the Shadow of Death. Mists has undergone, the new streets added, and storms brood over it through the greater the buildings repaired or constructed, part of the finest summer; and

even on those the increase of commerce, the introduce there is no cloud in the sky, the impression

rare days when the sun is bright, and when tion of new industries : hence all the made by the landscape is sad and awful. The aldermen and merchants con- path lies along a stream which issues from the strained to subscribe to his work. most sullen and gloomy of mountain pools. Elsewhere we find an anecdote of an

Huge precipices of naked stone frown on both

sides. Even in July the streaks of snow may actor and actress : as the superlative often be discerned in the rifts near the sumdegree is interesting, he begins by say- mits. All down the sides of the crags heaps ing that William Mountford was the of ruin mark the headlong paths of the tör

Mile after mile the traveller looks in most agreeable comedian, that Anne vain for the smoke of one hut, or for one huBracegirdle was the most popular man form wrapped in a plaid, and listens in actress of the time. If he introduces a vain for the bark of a shepherd's dog or the

Mile after mile the only statesman, he always announces him bleat of a lamb.

sound that indicates life is the faint cry of a by some great word : he was the most bird of prey from some storm-beaten pinnacle insinuating, or the most equitable, or of rock. The progress of civilisation, which he best informed, or the most invete- has turned so many wastes into fields yellow rately debauched, of all the politicians with harvests or gay with apple blossoms, has of the day.

All the only made Glencoe more desolate. But Macaulay's great science and industry of a peaceful age can ex. qualities serve him as well in this mat- tract nothing valuable from that wilderness : Ser as his literary machinery, a little too but, in an age of violence and ranine, the wil

derness itself was valued on account of the manifest, a little too copious, a little too

shelter which it afforded to the plunderer and The astonishing number of his plunder." * details, the medley of psychological and moral dissertations, descriptions, rela- The description, though very beautiful, tions, opicions, pleadings, portraits, is written for effect. The final antibeyond all, good composition and the thesis explains it; the author has made continuous stream of eloquence, seize it in order to show that the Macdonalds and retain the attention to the end.

are

rents.

were the greatest brigands of the I do not transcribe the sequel of the country.

explanation, the examples of James V, The Master of Stair, who represented Sixtus V., and so many others, whom William III. in Scotland, relying on Macaulay cites to find 'precedents for the fact that Mac Ian had not taken the Master of Stair. Then follows a the path of allegiance on the appointed very circumstantial and very solid disday, determined to destroy the chief cussion, to prove that William III. was and his clan. He was not urged by not responsible for the massacre. It is hereditary hate nor by private interest; clear that Macaulay's object here as else. he was a man of taste, polished and where, is less to draw a picture than to amiable. He did this crime out of suggest a judgment. He desires tha! bumanity, persuaded that there was no we should have an opinion on the otter way of pacifying the Highlands. morality of the act, that we shoulė at Thereupon Macaulay inserts a disserta- tribute it to its real authors, that each tion of four pages, very well written, should bear exactly his own share, and full of interest and knowledge, whose no more. A little further, when the diversity affords us rest, which leads us question of the punishment of the crime over all kinds of historical examples, arises, and William, having severely and moral lessons :

chastised the executioners, contents "We daily see men do for their party, for himself with recalling the Master of their sect, for their country, for their favourite Stair, Macaulay writes a dissertation of schemes of political and social reform, what several pages to consider this injustice they would not do to enrich or to avenge them and to blame the king. Here, as elseselves. At a temptation directly addressed to our private cupidity or to our private animosowhere, he is still an orator and a moral. ity, whatever virtue we have takes the alarm. ist ; nothing has more power to inBut virtue itself may contribute

to the fall of terest an English reader. "Happily for him who imagines that it is in his power, by us, he at length becomes once more a violating some general rule of morality, to confer an important benefit on a church, on a com- narrator ; the petty details which he monwealth, on mankind. He silences the ro then selects fix the attention, and place monstrances of conscience, and hardens his the scene before our eyes : heart against the most touching spectacles of misery, by repeating to himself that his inten

“The sight of the red coats approaching tions are pure, that his objects are noble, that caused some anxiety among the population of he is doing a little evil for the sake of a great the valley. John, the eldest son of the Chief, good. By degrees he comes altogether to for came, accompanied by twenty clansmen, to get the turpitude of the means in the excel- meet the strangers, and asked what this visit lence of the end, and at length perpetrates meant. Lieutenant Lindsay answered that the without one internal twinge acts which would soldiers came as friends, and wanted nothing shock a buccaneer. There is no reason to be but quarters. They were kindly received, and lieve that Dominic would, for the best arch were lodged under the thatched roofs of the bishopric in Christendom, have incited fero- little community: Glenlyon and several of his cious marauders to plunder and slaughter a

men were taken into the house of a tacksman peaceful and industrious population, that Ever who was named, from the cluster

of cabins over ard Digby would, for a dukedom, have blown a which he exercised authority, Inverriggen. large assembly of people into the air, or that Lindsay, was accommodated nearer to the Robespierre would have murdered for hire one

abode of the old chief. Auchintriater, one of of the thousands whom he murdered from the principal men of the clan, who goverr.ej philanthropy."

the small teamlet of Auchnaion, found room

there for a party commanded by a serjeant Do we not recognize here the English. named Barbour. Provisions were liberally man brought up on psychological and supplied. There was no want of beef, whick

had probably fattened in distant pastures: nor moral essays and sermons, who involun. was any payment demanded : for in hospitaltarily and every instant spreads one ity, as in thievery, the Gaelic marauders over the paper ? This species of litera- rivalled the Bedouins. During twelve days the ture is w known in French lecture soldiers lived familiarly with the people

of the

glen. Old Mac Ian, who had before felt many rooms and reviews, this is why it is misgivings as to the relation

in which he stood unknown in French histories. When to the government, seems to have been pleased we wish to enter English history, we

with the visit. The officers passed much of have only to step down from the pulpit evenings were cheerfully spent by the peat fire

9 #

66

nighland supporters. Glenlyon appeared to be seem so little English, bears throrghout warmly attached to his niece and her husband the mark of genuine English talent. Alexander. Every day he came to their house to take his morning draught. Meanwhile he Universal, connected, it embraces all the bv which, when the signal for the slaughter woof. Developed, abundant, it enlightobserved with minute attention all the avenues facts in its vast, undivided, and unbroken should be given, the Macdonalds might at.

ens obscure facts, and opens up to the tempt to escape to the hills ; and he reported he result of his observations to Hamilton. most ignorant the most complicated

The night was rough. Hamilton and his questions. Interesting, varied, it attroops made slow progress, and were long after tracts and preserves the attention. It their time. While they were contending with the wind and snow, Glenlyon was supping and

has life, clearness, unity, qualities which playing at cards with those whom he meant to appear to be wholly French. It seems butcher before daybreak. He and Lieutenant as if the author were a popularizer Lindsay had engaged themselves to dine with like Thiers, a philospher_like Guizot, ke old Chief on the morrow. “Late in the evening a vague suspicion that

an artist like Thierry. The truth .s. some evil was intended crossed the mind of that he is an orator, and that after the the Chief's eldest son. The soldiers were evi- fashion of his country: but, as he pcs dently in a restless state; and some of them uttered strange exclamations. Two men, it is

sesses in the highest degree the orato said, were overheard whispering. *I do not rical faculties, and possesses them with like this job,' one of them muttered ; 'I should a national tendency and instincts, he be glad to fight the Macdonalds. But to kill men in their beds "We must do as we are faculties which he has not. He is no

seems to supplement through them the bid,' answered another voice. If there is any: thing wrong, our officers must answer for it. genuinely philosophical : the medioc John Macdonald was so uneasy, that, soon af. rity of his earlier chapters on the an ter midnight, he went to Gle: yon's quarters. cient history of England proves this Glenlyon and his men were a , to be getting their arms ready for action. sufficiently; but his force of reasoning, John, much alarmed, asked what these prepa- his habits of classification and order, rations meant. Glenlyon was profuse of friend- bestow unity upon his History. He is ly assurances. Some of Glengarry's people not a genuine artist; when he draws have been harrying the country:

We are geting ready to march against them. You are

a picture, he is always thinking of quite safe. Do you think that, if you were .n proving something; he inserts disserta. any danger, I should not have given a hint to tions in the most interesting and affectyour brother Sandy and his wife?". John's ing places; he has neither charm, suspicions were quieted. He returned to his house, and lay down to rest." *

lightness, vivacity, nor finesse, but a On the next day, at five in the morning, marvellous memory, vast knowledge, the old chieftain was assassinated, his

an ardent political passion, a great men shot in their beds or by the fire legal talent for expounding and pleadside. Women were butchered ; a boy, ing every cause, a precise knowledge of twelve years old, who begged his life precise and petty facts which rivet the on his knees, was slain ; they who died and warm a narrative. He is not sim

attention, charm, diversify, animate, half-naked, women and children, died of cold and hunger in the snow.

ply a popularizer ; he is too ardent, These precise details, these soldiers' too eager to prove, to conquer belief, conversations, this picture of evenings

to beat down his foes, to have only the by the Sreside, give to history the ani- limpid talent of a man who explains mation and life of a novel. And still and expounds, with no other end than the historian remains an orator: for

to explain and expound, which spreads he has chosen all these facts to exhibit light throughout, and never spreads the perfidy of the assassins and the heat; but he is so well provided with horrible nature of the massacre ; and details and reasons, so anxious to con. he will make use of them later on, to vince, so rich in his expositions, that demand, with all the power and passion

he cannot fail to be popular. By this of logic, the punishment of the crimi- breadth of knowledge, this power of nals.

reasoning and passion, hc has produced

one of the ninest books of the age VIII.

whilst manifesting, the genius of his Thus this History, whose qualities nation. This solidity, this energy, this • Macaulay, ii. 536; History of England, deep political passion, these ch. xvii.

prepussessions, these pratrical habits,

mora.

race.

this limited philosophical power, this / our opinion of the night before. We somewhat uniform style, without Alex- discover at last that we are in pres ibility or sweetness, this eternal gravity, ence of a strange animal, a relic of a this geometrical progress to a settled lost family, a sort of mastodon, who end, announce in him the English has strayed in a world not made for mind. But if he is English to the him.

him. We rejoice in this zoological French, he is not so to his nation. The good luck, and dissect him with minute animation, interest, clearness, unity of curiosity, telling ourselves that we shall als narrative, astonish them. They probably never find another like him. think him brilliant, rapid, bold; it is, they say, a French mind. Doubtless $ 1.-STYLE AND MIND. he is so in many respects: if he understands Racine badly, he admires We are at first put out. Al is new Pascal and Bossuet; his friends say here-ideas, style, tone, the shape of tiat he used daily to read Madame de the phrases, and the very vocabulary. Sévigné. Nay, more, by the structure He takes every thing in a contrary f his mind, by his eloquence and meaning, does violence to every thing, inetoric, he is Latin; so that the inner to expressions as well as to things. structure of his talent places him with him paradoxes are set down for amongst the classics ; it is only by his principles; common sense takes the lively appreciation of special, complex form of absurdity. We are, as it were, and sensible facts, by his energy and carried into an unknown world, whose fierceness, by the rather heavy richness inhabitants walk head downwards, feet of his imagination, by the depth of in the air, dressed in motley, as great his coloring, that he belongs to his lords and maniacs, with contortions,

Like Addison and Burke, he jerks, and cries; we are grievously resembles a strange graft, fed and stunned by these extravagant and dis. transformed by the sap of the nationai cordant sounds; we want to stop our stock. At all events, this judgment is ears, we have a headache, we the strongest mark of the difference obliged to decipher a new language. between the two nations. To reach the We see upon the table volumes which English intellect, a Frenchman must ought to be as clear as possible- The make two voyages.

When he has History of the French Revolution, for crossed the first interval, which is wide, instance; and there we read these he comes upon Macaulay. Let him headings to the chapters : “Realized re-embark; he must accomplish a Ideals — Viaticum — Astræa Reduxsecond passage, just as long, to arrive Petition in Hieroglyphs-Windbagsat Carlyle for instance,

,-a mind funda Mercury de Brézé-Broglie the Warmentally Germanic, on the genuine God.” We ask ourselves what conEnglish soil.

nection there can be between these riddles and such simple events as we all know. We then perceive that

Carlyle always speaks in riddles CHAPTER IV.

“Logic-choppers is the name he

gives to the analysts of the eighteenth philosophy and History—Tarlyle. century; “Beaver science

“

is his

word for the catalogues and classifica. WHEN we ask Englishmen, especially tions of our modern men of science; those under forty, who amongst them

“Transcendental moonshine" signifies are the great thinkers, they first mention the philosophical and sentimental Carlyle; but at the same time they dreams imported from Germany: The advise us not tɔ read him, warning us religion of the “ rotatory calabash" that we will not understand him at all. means external and mechanical relig. Then, of course, we hasten to get the ion.* He cannot be contented with a twenty volumes of Carlyle-criticism, • Because the Kalnucks put written prayers history, pamphlets, fantasies, philoso- into a calabash turned by the wind, which in phy; we read them with very strange In the same way are the prayer-mills of Thibal

their opinion produces a perpetual adoration. emotions, contradicting every morning I used.

are