The Peace Party-Sir J. Graham and Mr. Gladstone. 531 obnoxious, become palatable in altered conditions! We are certain that all the Peace party are lower in the schedule-we forget the letter-in which old Gatton and the rest were found.

We must say a passing word on the other three notables found in the peace category,-Sir James Graham, and Messrs. Gladstone and Herbert: how different to the other three! These gentlemen belonged to the Cabinet which brought us into the war; and now they are traitors to the work of their own hands. We have endeavoured to discover the grounds of this tergiversation, but have had great difficulty in finding the true clue to the event. Sir James Graham stated that he was certain that, if Sir Robert Peel had been living, he would do as he was doing, and that he was only supporting the opinions and policy of that eminent statesman. This is, for aught we know, the reason for the course he is taking; at any rate, we know of no other. Does Sir James mean that Sir Robert would have adopted the whole line of conduct pursued by himself;-that he would first adopt a war policy, and, in a few months, adopt a peace policy; that he would lead the country into all the horrors and difficulties of hostilities with the greatest military power in the world, and then abandon it? We have no such opinion of Sir Robert Peel. It is true, he did not hesitate to change his course, when he saw reasons for so doing; but he did not, in an incredibly short period, abandon his new line of policy. We imagine Sir Robert would have either had the sense not to go to war at all, or, having arrived at the conviction of its unavoidable necessity, he would then have carried it on to some useful issue; but Sir James Graham has neither had the sense to prevent the war, nor the patriotism frankly to support it. A very modest assumption this! Sir James, according to his own account, is the embodiment of Sir Robert; he is sure he speaks his sentiments, and is carrying out his policy! Then, according to this, the Right Hon. Baronet is in possession of a mind just of the dimensions of Sir Robert,—his intellect, his judgment, his great sagacity, his statesmanship, his lucid powers of thought and expression. And there he stands, Sir James, a young Peel, the very image of his ancestor; for he is doing exactly as Sir Robert would have done, and consequently he must possess the same faculties to do it with. This is the cant of one of our modern statesmen! And it exactly falls in with the habits of all mediocre minds. These creatures always think they are doing as some great man would have done, which is just the same thing as if an animal of a mixed breed, which shall be nameless, should bray, as he passed the road, that he was a very Arab, because he possessed the same number of limbs, and could snuff the winds. In this illustration we have a fair character of the routine mind; the mind which adopts the opinions and maxims of others, without one particle of original conception. This war is a great crisis, it

involves profound interests, it shakes the fabric of existing nationalities, it portends endless consequences of good or evil to mankind; and Sir James Graham comes forward, and tells the world, that he does not look upon events with his own eyes, but with those, as he imagines, of Sir Robert Peel; that he has no policy of his own, but that he is carrying out that of his departed friend; and, moreover, that he imagines that Sir Robert's peace policy will do very well for ever; in truth, that it is a policy suited to all times, all contingencies, all conditions of the world. These are the sort of men who, in war, lose battles, and, in any great emergency of nations, plunge them

into ruin.

So far as we can judge, Mr. Gladstone's reasons for the course he has adopted are moral. He argues that to press Russia beyond the Four Points, and his own interpretation of the third, would be "immoral and sinful." We really confess our inability to determine these questions, namely,-How far war is consistent with morality, and is free from sin? how many human lives may be sacrificed? how much property may be expended? and how much mischief may be inflicted on an enemy? All this, however, Mr. Gladstone's metaphysics, or acquaintance with casuistry, it seems, enable him to do. He can have no objection, per se, to war; for he, too, was one of the Ministers who led us into the difficulty. He seems to imagine, however, that war can be arrested at any point, as his War Budget was founded on the principle of providing the ways and means within the year, without having resort to loans. Every body knows that Mr. Gladstone is a theorist, and we quarrel not with his theories, but with his conduct. The prolix style of Mr. Gladstone makes it difficult to get through his speeches, and equally difficult to pick up his meaning. We believe, however, we have discovered the principle of his objections to any further prosecution of the contest. We are bound to respect such reasons up to a certain point, as they originate in morality. But the morality of the question embraces both sides; and it seems rather unfair to denounce the Divine vengeance upon us, for our part in the war, and leave Russia unscathed. Yet so it is; all the moral turpitude is on our side; all the virtue, moderation, moral glory, up to the point of sublimity, in the person of Nicholas, is on the side of Russia. These pro-Russian tendencies are difficult to account for, only that we are reminded that paradox is the privilege of great men. But, with these tendencies, is Mr. Gladstone fit to take a part in any Government of this country? We had, with many others, looked forward to the time when, as we hoped, Mr. Gladstone would have filled the office of Premier. This hope is gone. A statesman whose principles are so ill-defined in his own mind as to allow him to take two sides, the antipodes of each

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other, in a few weeks, can hardly be said to have any principles at all; and, even on the lower ground of policy, surely Mr. Gladstone's notions of what is for the good of the State must be extremely crude, when, in so grave a question as that of war or peace, he could one day judge it politic to go to war, and the next to end the contest, without any result at all. We expect, then, from the fusion of these discordant elements, that the next Session will be fierce and ardent. We hope Lord Palmerston will maintain his ground; if not, appeal to the country; and we are certain the country will sustain him.

Thus, then, the matter stands, at home and abroad. Nations have a mission; and the mission of this nation, for centuries, has been to exercise a balancing power in Europe, so as to prevent the domination of one nation and the extinction of liberty in the rest. Our infant navy destroyed the grand Armada, and thus ended the ambitious projects of Spain; our armies, under Marlborough, with the assistance of allies, smote down the power of Louis XIV., then apparently on the point of becoming universal; and Wellington arrested the career of Napoleon in the Peninsula, when all Europe lay prostrate at his feet, and again adjusted the equilibrium.

And now our course is exactly the same, though on an Eastern field, and, we doubt not, the result will be the same. We fear not Russia; we fear ourselves. Our factions are our bane. How profoundly humiliating that, in the presence of a great crisis, even our leading men cannot forego the paltry ambitions of party,-forget themselves, their prejudices, passions, and interests, and make their country alone the object of their solicitude and love!

The meanness of clique and party intrigues, in a great emergency like the present, is only equalled by its moral turpitude; and those who are found incompetent to serve their country by the dominancy of such passions, ought to be rejected from Parliament by the indignant voice of an insulted people.

BRIEF LITERARY
LITERARY NOTICES.

History of the Reign of Philip II., King of Spain. By W. H. Prescott. Two Vols. London: Bentley. 1855.

A POPULAR author is in danger of falling into one of two extremes. Either he becomes so fastidious, so fearful of risking his reputation, as to retire prematurely from the exercise of his powers; or, knowing that his name will command a market, and forgetting that "l'auteur se tue à allonger ce que le lecteur se tue à abréger," he overlooks the brevity of human life, the costliness of thick octavos, and that every thing superfluous is of the nature of a blemish. Into this latter fault Mr. Prescott has fallen. The scale on which the work is framed is altogether out of proportion to the importance of the period and the personages described, although that is by no means small. Descriptions of dress and of Court pageantry may fitly form an ample portion of the biographies of royal ladies, but can claim scanty attention upon the page devoted to grave national affairs; and yet such descriptions occupy no inconsiderable part of Mr. Prescott's volumes. We should suppose, at least, four more such volumes will be required to complete the work.

Philip II. of Spain is one of the most fearful characters in history. If we credit him with industry and sincerity, we have exhausted the list of his virtues; while he is chargeable with nearly every vice that can darken the character and molest mankind. Perfidious, without a conscious blush, and cruel, without the poor excuse of passion, be ruled over the greatest Empire of the age; viewing men with suspicion, and controlling them by craft, he stands before the student of history the most notorious example of what a narrow and contracted intellect may become when pervaded by the principles of Papal Rome. The sworn foe of all mental or religious freedom, the perfecter, though not the founder, of the Inquisition, the master-butcher, through his instrument Alva, of the unhappy Netherlands, his blighting influence is felt to the present day in his native Spain, whose declension in the scale of nations commenced when the last spark of Protestant light was trodden out by his foot. Such is the chief figure on the canvass before us.

But not only is the character of Philip deserving of the closest study; the secondary actors in the scene are men, and women too, of more than average proportions. The two Granvilles, William the

Brief Literary Notices.

535

Taciturn, the Duke of Alva, Counts Egmont and Horn, Margaret of Parma, and others, are each studies in themselves, presenting features of individuality unusually marked, and whose fortunes were mixed up with events of the deepest importance. And in addition to the dramatic force and picturesque beauty of many of its episodes, the epoch itself is one of those typical periods to which we have referred in noticing Dr. Rule's "Studies of History." Medieval ignorance and submission were waning, and freedom of thought and action were beginning to assert themselves, even in the presence of a despotism the most complete. Principles which in their infancy had chequered the career of his father, the Emperor Charles V., now grew apace in France, the Netherlands, and elsewhere, in spite of all the astuteness and cruelty of his son. During the life-time of the man who certainly had the will, and apparently possessed the power, to extinguish every free aspiration, and bend every will to the service of despotism, the principles of civil and religious freedom were fully and finally established in one kingdom,-and that the richest portion of his own dominions, and their seeds planted in the soil of others, to spring up, we doubt not, after the gloom of the ages which have since transpired.

We are glad to see that this work is to be included in the cheap edition of our author's histories. The popularity of the series is no matter of surprise to us, when we find the "History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella" comprised in a portable and handsome volume, and offered for the sum of five shillings. The lover of sound and entertaining literature could find, perhaps, no equal bargain, even in these days of cheap and valuable reprints. We have always thought the "Ferdinand and Isabella" one of the noblest compositions of its class. It is history in such magnificent examples as this, and not the domestic and social novel of our day, which is the true successor of the Homeric poems. To aid in its production, old chronicles furnish the materials, Providence stands in place of the machinery, and genius, worthy of any age, supplies the presiding art. The story of the Spanish Peninsula is a romance in every part of it, and in all its details; but the author, with an artist's eye, has selected the choicest period, and grouped the whole with an artist's skilful hand. The characters and the events which come before us are both worthy of the epic treatment they receive. The calm, and politic, and kingly Ferdinand; the noble, beautiful, and more than queenly Isabella; Gonzalo the great Captain, and Ximenes the astute Cardinal,-these are a few only of the personages in this historic pageant; while its episodes are themselves of thrilling interest, and bear the names of the Holy Inquisition, the Conquest of Granada, and the Discovery of the New World. The author could not have chosen a theme more various and romantic, nor can his reader desire composition more skilful, or an outline more complete. If "Philip II." is not quite equal to this masterpiece, we have said enough to lead our readers to wish to place it on the shelf which bears that work, as well as the "Mexico" and the "Peru."

The volumes of Mr. Prescott are too extensive for us to travel through. The chief subjects embraced in them are the wars of Philip with the Pope (for, strange as it may seem, staunch defender of Catholicism as he was, his arms were first turned against the Pontiff)