August, 1830.

7. . . . . In person Niebuhr is short, not above five feet six, or seven, I should think, at the outside; his face is thin, and his features rather pointed, his eyes remarkably lively and benevolent. His manner is frank, sensible, and kind, and what Bunsen calls the Teutonic character of benevolence is very predominant about him, yet with nothing of what Jeffrey called, on the other hand, the beer-drinking heaviness of a mere Saxon. He received me very kindly, and we talked in English, which he speaks very well, on a great number of subjects. I was struck with his minute knowledge of the text and MSS. of Thucydides, and with his earnest hope, several times repeated, that we might never do away with the system of classical education in England. - I told him of

's nonsense about Guernsey and Jersey, at which he was very much entertained, but said that it did not surprise him. He said that he was now much more inclined to change old institutions than he had been formerly, but "possibly," said he, "I may see reason in two or three years to go back more to my old views." Yet he anticipated no evil consequences to the peace of Europe, even from a Republic in France, for he thought that all classes of people had derived benefit from experience.

Niebuhr spoke with great admiration of our former great men, Pitt and Fox, &c., and thought that we were degenerated; and he mentioned as a very absurd thing a speech of who visited him at Bonn, that if those men were now to come to life, they would be thought nothing of with our present lights in political economy. Niebuhr asked me with much interest about my plans of religious instruction at Rugby, and said that in their Protestant schools the business began daily with the reading and expounding a chapter in the New Testament. He spoke of the Catholics in Prussia, as being very hypocritical, that is, having no belief beyond outward profession. Bunsen, he said, was going to publish a collection of German hymns for the Church service. Their literature is very rich in hymns in point of quantity, no fewer than 36,000, and out of these Bunsen is going to collect the best. Niebuhr's tone on these matters quite satisfied me, and made me feel sure that all was right. He spoke with great admiration of Wordsworth's poetry. He often protested that he was no revolutionist, but he said, though he would have given a portion of his fortune that Charles X. should have gov

erned constitutionally, and so remained on the throne, "yet," said he, "after what took place, I would myself have joined the people in Paris, that is to say, I would have given them my advice and direction, for I do not know that I should have done much good with a musket." — Niebuhr spoke of Mr. Pitt, that to his positive knowledge, from unpublished State Papers, which he had seen, Pitt had remonstrated most warmly against the coalition at Pilnitz, and had been unwillingly drawn into the war to gratify George III. -My account of Niebuhr's conversation has been sadly broken, and I am afraid I cannot recollect all that I wish to recollect. He said that he once owed his life to Louis Bonaparte, who interceded with Napoleon when he was going to have Niebuhr shot; and promised Niebuhr that, if he could not persuade his brother, he would get him twenty-four hours' notice, and furnish him with the means of escaping to England. After this Niebuhr met Louis at Rome, and he said that he did not well know how to address him; but he thought that the service which he had received from him might well excuse him for addressing him as "Sire." He asked me into the drawingroom to drink tea, and introduced me to his wife. Niebuhr's children also were in the room, four girls and a boy, with a young lady, who, I believe, was their governess. They struck me as very nice mannered children, and it was very delightful to see Niebuhr's affectionate manner to them and to his wife. While we were at tea, there came in a young man with the intelligence that the Duke of Orleans had been proclaimed king, and Niebuhr's joy at the news was quite enthusiastic. He had said before, that in the present state of society, a Republic was not to his taste, and that he earnestly hoped that there would be no attempt to revive it in France. He went home with me to my inn, and when I told him what pleasure it would give me to see any of his friends in England, he said that there was a friend of his, a nobleman, who was thinking of sending his son to be educated in England. The father and mother, he said, were pious and excellent people, and devoted to the improvement of their tenantry in every respect, and they wished their son to be brought up in the same views. And Niebuhr said that if this young man came to England, he should be very happy to avail himself of my offer. And he expressed his hope that you and I might be at Bonn again some day together, and that he might receive us under his own roof. He expressed repeatedly his great affec

́tion for England, saying that his father had accustomed him from a boy to read the English newspapers, in order that he might early learn the opinions and feelings of Englishmen. On the whole, I was most delighted with my visit, and thought it altogether a great contrast to the fever and excitement of- The moral superiority of the German character in this instance was very striking: at the same time I owe it to the French to say, that now that I have learnt the whole story of the late revolution, I am quite satisfied of the justice of their cause, and delighted with the heroic and admirable manner in which they have conducted themselves. How different from even the beginning of the first Revolution, and how satisfactory to find that in this instance the lesson of experience seems not to have been thrown away.

August, 1830.

8. The aspect of Germany is certainly far more pleasing than that of France, and the people more comfortable. I cannot tell whether it really is so, but I cannot but wonder at Guizot placing France at the head of European civilization: he means because it is superior to Germany in social civilization, and to England in producing more advanced and enlarged individual minds. Many Englishmen will sneer at this notion, but I think it is to a certain degree well founded, and that our intellectual eminence in modern times by no means keeps pace with our advances in all the comforts and effectiveness of society. And I have no doubt that our miserable system of education has a great deal to do with it. I maintain that our historians ought to be twice as good as those of any other nation, because our social civilization is perfect.. Then, again, our habits of active life give our minds an enormous advantage, if we would work; but we do not, and therefore the history of our own country is at this day a thing to be done, as well as the histories of Greece and Rome. Foreigners say that our insular situation cramps and narrows our minds; and this is not mere nonsense either. If we were not physically a very active people, our disunion from the Continent would make us pretty nearly as bad as the Chinese. As it is, we are so distinct in habits and in feelings, owing originally in great measure to our insular situation, that I remember observing in 1815, that the English stood alone amidst all the nations assembled at Paris, and that even our fellow-subjects, the Hanoverians, could understand and sym

Now it is very

pathize with the French better than with us. true that by our distinctness we have gained very much, more than foreigners can understand. A thorough English gentleman, Christian, manly, and enlightened, is more, I believe, than Guizot or Sismondi could comprehend; it is a finer specimen of human nature than any other country, I believe, could furnish. Still, it is not a perfect specimen by a great deal; and therefore it will not do to contemplate ourselves only, or, contenting ourselves with saying that we are better than others, scorn to amend our institutions by comparing them with those of other nations. Our travellers and our exquisites imitate the outside of foreign customs without discrimination, just as in the absurd fashion of not eating fish with a knife, borrowed from the French, who do it because they have no knives fit for use. But monkeyish imitation will do no good; what is wanted is a deep knowledge and sympathy with the European character and institutions, and then there would be a hope that we might each impart to the other that in which we are superior.

VII. TOUR IN SCOTLAND.

July, 1831.

1. I was at Church (at Greenock) twice on Sunday, once at the Presbyterian Church, and once at the Episcopal Chapel. My impressions, received five years ago, were again renewed and strengthened as to the merits of the Presbyterian Church and our own. The singing is to me delightful,

I do not mean the music, but the heartiness with which all the congregation join in it. And I exceedingly like the local and particular prayers and addresses which the freedom of their services allows the minister to use. On the other hand, the people should be protected from the tediousness or dulness of their 'minister; and that is admirably effected by a Liturgy, and especially by such a Liturgy as ours. As to the repetitions in our Service, they arise chiefly from Land's folly in joining two services into one; but the repetition of the Lord's Prayer I can hardly think objectionable; not that I would contend for it, but neither would I complain of it. Some freedom in the Service the minister certainly should have; some power of insertion to suit the particular time and place; some power of explaining on the spot whatever is read from the Scriptures, which may require explanation, or at any rate of stating the context. It does seem to me that the

reforms required in our Liturgy and Service are so obvious, and so little affect the system itself, that their long omission is doubly blamable. But more remains behind, and of far greater difficulty: to make the Church at once popular and dignified, to give the people their just share in its government, without introducing a democratical spirit, -to give the Clergy a thorough sympathy with their flocks, without altogether lowering their rank and tone. When Wesley said to his minister, that they had no more to do with being gentlemen than with being dancing-masters, τὸ μὲν ὀρθῶς εἶπε, τὸ δὲ paρTev. In Christ's communication with His Apostles there is always a marked dignity and delicacy, a total absence of all that coarseness and vulgarity into which Wesley's doctrine would infallibly lead us. Yet even in Christ, the Lord and Master of His Disciples, there is a sympathy, which is a very different thing from condescension, a spirit of unaffected kindness, and, I had almost said, of sociability which the spirit of gentlemanliness has doubtless greatly dulled in the Church of England. "I have called you friends," is a text which applies to the Christian minister in his dealings with his brethren and equals, in an infinitely stronger degree than it could do to Him, who was our Lord and Master, and whose calling us brethren was not of nature, but out of the condescension of His infinite love. And he who shall thus far keep and thus far get rid of the spirit of gentlemanliness, would go near to make the Church of England all but perfect, no less in its popularity than in its real deserving of popularity, καὶ περὶ μὲν τούτων εἰρήσθω ἐπὶ τοσοῦτο, ἄνειμι δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν ἄνω λόγον.

July, 1831.

2. Again (at Glasgow) the Scotch minister's sermon struck me as addressed more ad clerum than ad populum; and again more than ever I felt the superiority of our Service. I cannot say how doubly welcome and impressive I thought the Lord's Prayer, when the minister (to my surprise, by the way) used it before the sermon. Nothing, it seems to me, can be worse than the introductory prayers of the Scotch Service, to judge from what I have hitherto heard: the intercessory prayer after the sermon is far simpler, and there the discretion given to the ministers is often happily used. But altogether, taking their Service as it is, and ours as it is, I would far rather have our own; how much more, therefore, with the slight improvements which we so easily might intro