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to the progress of man, and the duration of "this human earth of ours." We must, however, take the liberty of entering our protest against being supposed to give an entire assent either to her premises or her conclusions:

"The Creator has done nothing in vain; hence the world will not end before the whole globe becomes known, before all the vegetable and mineral substances it contains be employed, and finally before mankind have acquired all the industry and all the knowledge of the arts and sciences which they can possibly obtain in their present state of intelligence. Since the invention of printing, mankind are advancing in this career with gigantic steps; everything they acquire is safe from the injury of time and fortune, and is fixed for ever by the aid of printing. In one hundred and fifty, or two hundred years at most, every thing will be known to perfection. In morality," after some changes which Madame de Genlis, in a kind of prophetical rapture, minutely describes, "will arise the most brilliant golden age ever known; it will be that of the perfection of civilisation: the world will be old enough to be converted, and will be prepared to give its final account: at this memorable epoch, when all the destiny of man shall be fulfilled, when all his faculties shall have been put in operation, and all the treasures of nature and of creation fully known, time will finish, and be lost in the bosom of eternity. I believe that five or six hundred years will be sufficient to bring all these things about."

Again :

"I read lately in the newspapers, that there have been recently discovered some little isles, from which various productions of nature have been brought; but it appears that the most useful and the best among them have been long since known: we now find no plants of superior virtues, and only insignificant animals, &c. &c. ; which to me seems an additional reason for believing that the greatest and last of events, the end of the world, is not far distant."

There are many incidental anecdotes dispersed throughout the work, and related in that pure, lively, and agreeable style, which constitutes one of the peculiar merits of Madame de Genlis. We have only room for two short but laughable examples :

"M. Ameilhon was named a member of the Institute. One day, he formed part of a deputation, and presented himself to the Emperor for the first time, with the ardent hope of being remarked by him and obtaining the honour of a few words en passant; he placed himself in a conspicuous station in the audience-chamber; the Emperor at last seeing a face which he only imperfectly recollected went up to him and said, 'Are you not M. Ancellon?' 'Yes, Sire, Ameilhon.' *Ah! true, librarian of Saint Genevieve ? Yes, Sire, of the Arsenal.'

'Oh yes, the continuation of the History of the Ottoman Empire.' 'Yes, Sire, of the History of the Lower Empire.' At these words, the Emperor, annoyed at his own mistakes, turned his back upon him roughly; and M. Ameilhon feeling nothing but the honour and joy of being for a few minutes near the Emperor, and the object of his attention, said emphatically to his next neighbour, the Emperor is a wonderful man, he knows everything. This story was told me the same day by one of my friends, M. Destournel, who was present."

The following occurs in a note, upon a passage where Madame de Genlis describes, with feelings of indignation, the custom into which people had fallen after the revolution" of calling each other thou and thee' before company, a thing never heard of in former times :"

"This remark on the thou and thee reminds me of a very pleasant repartee of Madame de Bussy, wife of the Governor of St. Domingo. Being alone with her husband (whom she did not love) M. de Bussy entreated her to call him thou and thee, which she had never before done. After a great many entreaties, she consented at last, and said to him, Eh bien va-t-en."

Here we must stop, for it would be unfair, even if it were possible, to append to a mere analysis of her memoirs any judgment upon the numerous and important works which Madame de Genlis has produced; or endeavour to fix the place which she will hold in the estimation of posterity. In conclusion we would only repeat, that both instruction and amusement may be derived by a judicious perusal of the present volumes. And if we have expressed ourselves laughingly or slightingly in any part of our review, we trust that our remarks will be applied solely to those points which called them forth, and to which they ought to be confined. We know of few men belonging to this age, who are entitled to use a tone of superiority towards Madame de Genlis: and there is not one who has a right to speak of her with disrespect. For ourselves, having recorded our sincere opinion, as critics, upon the topics more immediately subjected to our notice, we are now desirous to pay that general tribute which is due to acknowledged talents, amiable qualities, and excellent intentions. She who has delighted thousands by her writings, and laboured through a long life for the improvement of the rising generation, has a claim upon public gratitude and regard, which they who make the nearest approaches to her genius and virtues will be the most ready to allow. Madame de Genlis has at length arrived at the period when she must feel the real vanity and insignificance of personal accomplishments and literary triumphs, when she can deem nothing of

Godwin's History of the Commonwealth of England.

61

intrinsic value, except the peace of mind which springs from an approving conscience: yet it must be gratifying to her to reflect, now that the last act of her own drama is at hand, that she will leave the theatre of present existence amidst applauses and regrets. We trust that the intervening space will be spent in that tranquillity, which the evening rays of fame may gild, but cannot disturb, neither too anxious about the future, nor "sicklied o'er" by too painful a retrospect of those past grievances and disappointments from which no condition of humanity is exempted, and which are, perhaps, the best preparatives to wean us from a world that is fast fading from beneath our feet.

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For the rest, it is only necessary to observe, that our extracts have been taken from the English edition of the memoirs, and that although we have noticed many inelegancies and a few blunders in the translation, it is, upon the whole, as good as the generality of those which are got up in haste under the auspices of a bookseller.

ART. III.-History of the Commonwealth of England, from the commencement to the Restoration of Charles the Second. By William Godwin. 2 vols. Colburn. London, 1826.

THE history of the English commonwealth can neither be written nor read to any good purpose, except by those who have perused attentively the annals of this kingdom for at least a century and a half prior to the reign of the first Charles. That particular condition of things which came to a crisis in the year 1642, originated in feelings and political maxims of a much older date; which, extending backward to the very accession of the Tudors, continued, during the reigns of Henry the Eighth and his two daughters, to gain strength in the public mind, until, at length, under the less vigorous administration of the Stuarts, they effected a material change in the practical adjustment and balance of the constitution.

No sooner had Henry the Seventh obtained the throne, and reconciled the interests of the rival families which himself and his queen represented, than he determined to weaken the power of the higher nobility, whose pretensions and warlike spirit had so often convulsed the kingdom. The leading principle of his policy was to confer upon the commons a degree of political consideration, to which they had not yet practically attained, and to raise up, by that means, a powerful body in the state, which might

countervail to some extent the formidable influence of the great barons, and afford to the crown the means of vindicating its inherent rights against the ambition and intrigues of the aristocracy. In pursuance of this object, Henry revived the dormant privileges of the boroughs and trading towns, and bestowed upon them others of still greater value. The same views led him to dispense with some of those feudal obligations which bound the tenants of the crown to provide and maintain, on certain occasions, a large military force; choosing rather to confide the safety of the realm to the zeal of the people and to the resources of the royal treasury, than to fill his camp with warriors, whose designs might be frequently opposed to his own, and whose impetuous valour he might not at all times be able either to direct or control.

But it is clear that this weighty part of the public service, with which the sovereign charged himself, could not be performed, without drawing occasional supplies from the wealth and industry of his subjects; and the arrangements which appear to have been tacitly adopted, about the period in question, for commuting military servitude into a pecuniary fine, may be regarded as laying the foundation of that very precarious system of finance which was afterwards so frequently resorted to, under the name of subsidies.

There is no point in English history so imperfectly illustrated as the origin of the grants now mentioned, and the principle according to which they were raised, whether by the crown or by the parliament. Historians have confined their researches too exclusively to those great and obvious strokes of policy, which employed the eloquence of statesmen, or the skill and courage of commanders; while they have overlooked the still more important changes in the relation between the monarch and the people, which placed for a time, in the hands of the latter, the whole power and direction of the government. The king, who practically relinquished the right of calling his barons into the field at the head of their retainers, thought himself entitled to demand, from time to time, a portion of their income, as a compensation for the immunity which he thus permitted them to enjoy; and we find that this imperfect commutation of military service for a payment in money, paved the way for the introduction of two great evils, namely, an occasional impressment of soldiers, and an involuntary subsidy yielded to the wants of the crown, at the instance of royal commissioners. The holders of the great feus, forgetting the main condition upon which they possessed their lands, soon ceased to regard such payments as the price of their own exemption, as well as that of their vassals, from the toils and

danger of war, and became accustomed to view them as donations to the sovereign, which they were at liberty either to give or to withhold.

The arbitrary rule of Henry the Eighth, indeed, left no room for hesitation, whenever the necessities of the state required the aid either of money or of personal service at the hands of his subjects. The plunder of the church, moreover, filled his coffers with treasure more than equal to all the wants of his government, during a reign of comparative peace and security; and enabled him to maintain unimpaired, and without coming to any actual collision with parliament, the extensive prerogative which was bequeathed to him by his father. He was never called upon to sacrifice, for the sake of a financial accommo→ dation, the lofty notions of regal authority which belonged to his times and to his blood. He supported his fleets and armies on the revenue hereditary or acquired, which, as king of England, he could at pleasure command and disburse; and during the whole of his vigorous administration, he found no reason to regret the new scheme of government which the fears and suspicions of his predecessor had substituted for the simpler maxims of the feudal system.

Elizabeth, in like manner, drew, from the confiscation of ecclesiastical lands and rents, means sufficiently ample to defray the expense of all her establishments, civil and military. Jealous of parliamentary interference, she seldom applied to the representatives of the people, either for funds or for counsel; preferring the exercise of her darling prerogative to an overflowing exchequer, and even to the magnificence and state which belonged to her exalted rank. When pressed by sudden claims, she hesitated not to sell the domains which the avidity of her father had torn from the church, and to lavish upon needful armaments or fortifications the accumulated stores which the piety of former ages had consecrated to the service of religion. Enjoying, besides, the important advantage of being regarded by a large body of her subjects as the main support of the reformation, she found a ready access to their favour and co-operation whensoever she thought it necessary to call upon them to adventure their lives and their estates in the service of the country. Long as was her reign, accordingly, she had the good fortune not to outlive the resources upon which her independence as a sovereign was perceived to rest. She made no sacrifice, and sustained no insult from the impatience of popular innovation; but leaving to the feeble hands of her successor a prerogative equally unlimited and unquestioned, she died in possession of that proud autocracy in which the family of the Tudors placed all the glory and delight of kingly power.

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