gone before him; they who should have been to him as posterity were in the place of ancestors.' His eldest son, Arthur Henry Hallam-the subject of Tennyson's In Memoriam'-died in 1833; and another son, Henry Fitzmaurice Hallam, was taken from him, shortly after he had been called to the bar, in 1850. The afflicted father collected and printed for private circulation the Remains, in Verse and Prose, of Arthur Henry Hallam' (1834), and some friend added memorials of the second son. Both were eminently accomplished, amiable, and promising young men. The historian died January 21, 1859, having reached the age of eighty-one.

Effects of the Feudel System.-From the View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages.'

It is the previous state of society, under the grandchildren of Charlemagne, which we must always keep in mind, if we would appreciate the effects of the feudal system upon the welfare of mankind. The institutions of the eleventh century must be compared with those of the ninth, not with the advanced civilisation of modern times. The state of anarchy which we usually term feudal was the natural result of a vast and barbarous empire feebly administered, and the cause, rather than the effect, of the general establishment of fendal tenures. These, by preserving the mutual relations of the whole, kept alive the feeling of a common country and common duties; and settled, after the lapse of ages, into the free constitution of England, the firm monarchy of France, and the federal union of Germany.

The utility of any form of policy may be estimated by its effects upon national greatness and security, upon civil liberty and private rights, upon the tranquillity and order of society, upon the increase and diffusion of wealth, or upon the general tone of moral sentiment and energy. The feudal constitution was little adapted for the defence of a mighty kingdom, far less for schemes of conquest. But as it prevailed alike in several adjacent countries, none had anything to fear from the military superiority of its neighbours. It was this inefficiency of the feudal militia, perhaps, that saved Europe, during the middle ages, from the danger of universal monarchy. In times when princes had little notions of confederacies for mutual protection, it is hard to say what might not have been the successes of an Otho, a Frederic, or a Philip Augustus, if they could have wielded the whole force of their subjects whenever their ambition required. If an empire equally extensive with that of Charlemague, and supported by military despotism, had been formed about the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, the seeds of commerce and liberty, just then beginning to shoot, would have perished; and Europe, reduced to a barbarous servitude, might have fallen before the free barbarians of Tartary.

If we look at the feudal polity as a scheine of civil freedom, it bears a noble countenance. To the feudal law it is owing that the very names of rght and privilege were not swept away, as in Asia, by the desolating hand of power. The tyranny which, on every favourable moment, was breaking through all barriers, would have rioted without control, if, when the people were poor and disunited, the nobility had not been brave and free. So far as the sphere of fendality extended, it diffused the spirit of liberty and the notions of private right. Every one will acknowledge this who considers the limitations of the services of vas salage, so cautiously marked in those law-books which are the records of customs; the reciprocity of obligation between the lord and his tenant; the consent required in every measure of a legislative or general nature; the security, above all, which every vassal found in the administration of justice by his peers, and even-we may in this sense say-in the trial by combat. The bulk of the people, it is true, were degraded by servitude; but this had no connection with the feudal tenures.

The peace and good order of society were not promoted by this system. Though private wars did not originate in the feudal customs, it is impossible to doubt that they were perpetuated by so convenient an institution, which indeed owed its universal establishment to no other cause. And as predominant habits of warfare are totally irreconcilable with those of industry, not merely by the immediate works of ›

destruction which render its efforts unavailing, but through that contempt of pesc fal occupations which they produce, the feudal system must have been intrinsicals adverse to the accumulation of wealth, and the improvement of those arts which mitigate the evils or abridge the labours of mankind."

But, as the school of moral discipline, the feudal institutions were perhaps most to be valued. Society had sunk. for several centuries after the dissolution of the Roman empire, into a condition of utter depravity; whe e. it any vices could be seleted as more eminently characteristic than others they were falsehood treachery, and ingratitude. In slowly purging off the lees of this extreme corruptiou, the feudal spirit exerted its améliorating influence. Violation of faith stood first in the catalogue of crimes, most repugnant to the very essence of a feudal tenure, most severely and promptly avenged, most branded by general infamy. The ferdal law-books breathe throughout a spirit of honourable obligation. The feudal course of jurisdic tion promoted, what trial by peers is peculiarly calculated to promote, a keeper feeling, as well as a readier perception, of moral as well as of legal distinctions. In the reciprocal services of lord and vassal, there was ample scope for every magnanimons and disinterested energy. The heart of man, when placed in circumstances that have a tendency to excite them, will seldom be deficient in such sentiments. No occasions could be more favourable than the protection of a faithful supporter, or the defence of a beneficent sovereign, against such powerful aggression as left little prospect except of sharing in his ruin.

The Houses and Furniture of the Nobles in the Middle Ages.-From the

same.

It is an error to suppose that the English gentry were lodged in stately, or even in well-sized houses. Generally speaking, their dwellings were almost as inferior to those of their descendants in capacity as they were in convenience. The usual arrangement consisted of an entrance-passage running through the house, with a hall on one side, a parlour beyond, and one or two chambers above; and on the opposite side, a kitchen, pantry, and other offices. Such was the ordinary manor-house of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as appears not only from the documents and engravings, but, as to the latter period. from the buildings themselves-sometimes, though not very frequently, occupied by families of consideration, more often corverted into farm-houses, or distinct tenements. Larger structures were erected by men of great estates during the reigns of Henry IV. and Edward IV.; but very few can be traced higher; and such has been the effect of time, still more through the advance or decline of families, and the progress of architectural improvement, than the natural decay of these buildings, that I should conceive it difficult to name a house in England, still inhabited by a gentleman. and not belonging to the order of castles, the principal apartments of which are older than the reign of Henry VII. The instances at least must be extremely few.

The two most essential improvements in architecture during this period. one of which had been missed by the sagacity of Greece and Rome, were chimneys and glass windows. Nothing apparently can be more simple than the former; yet the wisdom of ancient times had been content to let the smoke escape by an aperture in the centre of the roof and a discovery, of which Vitruvius had not a glimpse, was made, perhaps by some forgotten semi-barbarian! About the middle of the fourteenth century the use of chimneys is distinctly mentioned in England and in Italy; but they are found in several of our castles which bear a much older date. This country seems to have lost very early the art of making glass, which was preserved in France, whence artificers were brought into England to furnish the windows in some new churches in the seventh century. It is said that, in the reign of Henry III, a few ecclesiastical buildings had glazed windows. Suger, however, a century before, had adorned bis great work, the Abbey of St. Denis, with windows not only glazed but painted; and I presume that other churches of the same class, both in France and England, especially after the lancet-shaped window had viekled to one of ampier dimensions, were generally decorated in a similar manner. Yet glass is said not to have been employed in the domestic architecture of France before the fourteenth century; and its introduction into England was probably by no means earlier. Nor, indeed. did it come into general use during the period of the middle ages. Glazed windows were considered as movable furniture, and prob

ably here a high price. When the Earls of Northumberland, as late as the reign of Elizabeth, left Alnwick Castle, the windows were taken out of their frames and carefully laid by.

But if the domestic buildings of the fifteenth century would not seem very spacious or convenient at present. far .ess would this luxurious generation be content with their internal accommodations. A gentleman's house containing three or four beds was extraordinarily well provided; few probably had more thɛn two. The walls were commonly bare, without wainscot, or even plaster. except that some great houses were furnished with hangings, and that, perhaps, hardly so soon as the reign of Edward IV. It is unnecessary to add that neither libraries of books nor pictures could have found a place among furniture. Silver-plate was very rare, and hardly used for the table. A few inventories of furniture that still remain exhibit a miserable deficiency. And this was incomparably greater in private gentlemen's houses than among citizens, and especially foreign merchants. We have an inventory of the goods belonging to Contarini, a rich Vere'ian trader, at his house on St. Botolph's Lane, A.D. 1481. There appears to have been no less than ten beds, and glass windows are especially noted as movable furniture. No mention, however, is inade of chairs or looking-classes. If we compare his account, however trifling in our estimation. with a similar inventory of furniture in Skipton Castle, the great honour of the Earls of Cumber and, and among the most plendid mansions of the north, not at the same period-for I have not found any inventory of a nobleman's furniture so ancient-but in 1572, after almost a century of continual improvement, we shall be astonished at the inferior provision of the baronial residence. There were not more than seven or eight beds in this great castle, nor had any of the chambers either chairs, glasses, or carpets. It is in this sense, probably, that we must understand Eneas Sylvius, if he meant anything more than to express a traveller's discontent. when he declares that the Kings of Scotland would rejoice to be as well lodged as the second class of citizens at Nuremberg. Few burghers of that town had mansions. I presume, equal to the palaces of Dunfermline or Stirling; but it is not unlikely that they were better furnished.

It has been justly remarked, that in Mr. Hallam's Literature of Top there is more of sentiment than could have been anticipated from the calm, unimpassioned tenor of his historic style. We may illustrate this by two short extracts.

Shakspeare's Self-retrospection.

There seems to have been a period of Shakspeare's life when his heart was il! at ease, and ill content with the world and his own couscience; the memory of hours misspent, the pang of affection misplaced or unrequited, the experience of man's worser nature, which intercourse with unworthy associates, by choice or circumstances. peculiarly teaches: these, as they sank into the depths of his great mind, seem not only to have inspired into it the conception of Lear' and 'Timon,' but that of one primary character, the censurer of mankind. This type is first seen in the philosophic melancholy of Jaques, gazing with an undiminished serenity, and with a gaiety of fancy, though not of manners, on the follies of the world. It assumes a graver cast in the exiled Deke of the same play, and next one rather more severe in the Duke of Measure for Measure.' In all these, however, it is merely contemplstive philosophy. In Hamlet,' this is mingled with the impul es of a perturbed heart under the pressure of extraordinary circumstances; it shines no longer, as in the former characters, with a steady light, but pays in fitful coruscations amidst feigned gaiety and extravagance. In Lear,' it is the flash of sudden inspiration across the Incongruous imagery of madness; in Timon,' it is obscured by the exaggerations of misanthropy. These plays all belong to nearly the same period: As You Like It' being usually referred to 1600, Timon' to the same year, Measure for Measure' to 1603, and Lear' to 1604. In the later plays of Shakspeare, especially in Macb th and the Tempest,' much of moral speculation will be found, but he has never re turned to this type of character in the personages.

Milton's Blindness and Remembrance of his Early Reading.

In the numerous imitations, and still more numerous traces of older poetry which we perceive in * Paradise Lost," it is always to be kept in mind that lie bad only his recollection to rely upɔn. His blindn s8 seems to have been complete b fore 1654 and I scarcely think he had begun his poem before the anxiety and trouble into which the public strife of the Commonwealth and Restoration had thrown him, gave leisure for immortal occupations. Then the remembrance of early reading came over his dark and lonely path, like the moon emerging from tua clous. Then it was that the Muse was truly his; not only as she poured her crea tive inspiration into his mind, but as the daughter of Memory, coming with frogments of ancient melodies, the voice of Euripides. and Homer, and Tasso; sounds that he had loved in youth, and treasured up for the solace of his age. They whɔ, though not enduring the calamity of Milton, have known what it is, when afar from books, in solitude of in travelling, or in the intervals of worldly care, to feed on poet'cal recollections, to murmur over the beautiful lines whose cadence has long dlighted their ear, to recall the sentiments and images which retain by association the charm that early years once gave them-they will feel the inestimable value of committing to the memory, in the prime of its power, what it will easily receive and indelibly retain. I know not, indeed, whether an education that deals much with poetry, such as is still usual in Engian !, has any more solid argument among many in its favour, than it lays the foundation of intellectual pleasures at the other extreme of life.

P. F. TYTLER—SIR W. NAPIER-LIEUT.-COL. CURWOOD—JAMES MILL.

The History of Scotland,' by PATRICK FRASER TYTLER, is an attempt to build the history of that country upon unquestionable muniments.' The author professed to have anxiously endeavoured to examine the most authentic sources of information, and to convey a true picture of the times, without prepossession or partiality. He commences with the accession of Alexander III., because it is at that period that our national annals become particularly interesting to the general reader. The first volume of Mr. Tytler's History was published in 1823, and a continuation appeared at intervals, conducting the narrative to the year 1603, when James VI. ascended the throne of England. The style of the History is plain and perspicuous, with just sufficient animation to keep alive the attention of the reader. Mr. Tytler added considerably to the amount and correctness of our knowledge of Scottish history. He took up a few doubtful or erroneous opinions on questions of fact (such as that John Knox was accessory to the murder of Rizzio, of which he failed to give any satisfactory proof); but the industry and talent he evinced entitled him to the gratitude of his countrymen. A second edition of this work, up to the period already mentioned, extends to nine volumes. Mr. Tytler was author of the Lives of Scottish Worthies' and a 'Life of Sir Walter Raleigh,' and he edited two volumes of Letters illustrative of the history of England under Edward VI. and Mary.

*Todd publishes a letter addressed by Milton to Andrew Marvell dated Feb-nary 21. 1652 3. and assumes that the poet had still the use of one eye, which could direct his hand. The editor of this work has inspected the letter to Marvel in the State Paper Office, and ascertained that it is not in Milton's hand writing. It is in a fine current elerklike hand.

This gentleman was grandson of Mr. William Tytler, whom Burns has characterised as

Revered defender of beanteous Stuart;

and his father, Lord Woodhouselee, a Scottish judge, wrote a popu lar Universal History.' Latterly, Mr. Patrick F. Tytler enjoyed a pension of £200 per annum. He died at Malvern, December 24, 1849. A Life of Mr. Tytler was published (1859) by the Rev. John Burgon, M.A., of Oriel College, Oxford. It represents the historian in a very prepossessing light, as affectionate, pious, and cheerful, beloved by all who knew him.

The History of the War in the Peninsula, and in the South of France, from the year 1807 to the year 1814,' in six volumes, 1828-40, by COLONEL SIR W. F. P. NAPIER, is acknowledged to be the most valuable record of that war which England waged against the power of Napoleon.outhey had previously written a History of this period, but it was heavy and uninteresting, and is now rarely met with. Sir W. Napier was an actor in the great struggle he records, and peculiarly conversant with the art of war. The most ample testimony has been borne to the accuracy of the historian's statements, and to the diligence and acuteness with which he has collected his materials. Sir William Napier was a son of Colonel the Hon. George Napier, by Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of the second Duke of Richmond. He was born at Castletown, in Ireland, in 1785. Besides his important History, he was author of an account of The Conquest of Scinde, of The Life and Opinions of Sir Charles Napier,' the celebrated military commander, and conquerer of Scinde. In defending his brother, Sir William breaks out into the following eloquent reference to the great poet of his generation:

Eulogium on Lord Byron.

This

But while the Lord High Commissioner, Adam. could only see in the military resident of Cephalonia a person to be crushed by the leaden weight of power without equity, there was another observer in that island who appreciated, and manfully proclaimed the great qualities of the future conqueror of Scinde. man, himself a butt for the rancour of envious dullness, was one whose youthful genius pervaded the world while he lived, and covered it with a pall when he died. For to him mountain and plain, torrent and lake, the seas, the skies, the earth, light and darkness, and even the depths of the human heart, gave up their poetic secrets; and he told them again, with such harmonious melody, that listening nations marvelled at the sound: and when it ceased, they sorrowed. Lord Byron noted, and generously proclaimed the merits which Sir Frederick Adam marked as defects. Sir William Napier died February 12, 1860.

Assault of Badajos.- From The History of the War in the Peninsula.'

Dry but clouded was the night, the air was thick with watery exhalations from the rivers, the ramparts and trenches unusually still; yet a low murmur pervaded the latter, and in the former lights flittered here and there, while the deep voices of the sentinels proclaimed from time to time that all was well in Badajos. The French, confiding in Phillipon's direful skill, watched from their lofty station the approach of enemies they had twice before baffled, and now hoved to drive a third time blasted