Connected with Science, Literature, and the Arts. THE CABINET; or the SELECTED BEAU

CONSTABLE'S MISCELLANY OF ORIGI BROWN'S PHILOSOPHY of the MIND;

5. MEMOIRS of LAROCHEJAQUELEIN. With a Preface AN ELEMENTARY COMPENDIUM of

12. ELECTIONS of the most Remarkable Phenomena of has been received by the public.

17. ROBERTS'S NARRATIVE of VOYAGES and EXCUR- BURKE and his WIFE, who were Tried before

pire in the East, to the period of the French Revolution Trans THE EDINBURGH GEOGRAPHICAL and lated from the French of C. G. KOCH. BY ANDREW CRICHTON. 3 vols.

THE EDINBURGH ALMANACK for 1829.
Besides the former Lists contained in the Almanack, which THE PROPRIETORS of the "EDINBURGH

Trios, &c. original and selected; among these, a few old and beau-MESSRS SMITH AND CO. HUNTER SQUARE.

LITERARY CRITICISM.

History of the Revolutions in Europe, from the Subversion of the Roman Empire in the West, till the Abdication of Bonaparte. From the French of C. W. Koch; by Andrew Crichton. 3 vols. Being the xxxiii, xxxiv, and xxxv vols. of Constable's Miscellany. Edinburgh. 1828 and 1829.

THIS is a valuable and interesting work, every page of which teems with important knowledge. It presents a clear and impartial panoramic view of the history of the world for the last fourteen centuries; and in an ably written introduction furnishes a brief sketch of the prerious progress of society, from the earliest authentic The work was published in 1813, shortly after the author's death, and was speedily acknowledged as entitled to rank high among the literature of the Contihent; it is now for the first time introduced to the EngHish reader.

era

Borysthenes, and the Don; and dividing into two branches, the Ostrogoths spread over Pannonia, whilst the Visigoths twice ravaged Italy, sacked and plundered Rome, and penetrated even into Gaul and Spain. The Franks and the Alemanns came from the banks of the Rhine, the Maine, the Weser, and the Elbe, and joined to swell the torrent that inundated the country of the Caesars. The Saxons came from beyond the Elbe, and keeping chiefly by the sea-coast, committed ravages there similar to those which other barbarians were busy with in the interior. Lastly, the Huns, the fiercest of all, came from the remote districts of Northern Asia, to which the Greeks or Romans had never penetrated, and having first attacked Byzantium and the Eastern division of the Empire, they then precipitated themselves on the west, under the conduct of the famous Attila. For upwards of two hundred years all was confusion, bloodshed, and darkness. Not a single nation was to be found in Europe whose rights or boundaries were ascertained and established. The old order of things had been swept away at once; and it was not to be expected that so great a mass of discordant elements could immediately arrange themselves into an harmonious and appropriate disposition. Gradually, however, this began to be the case. Much internal commotion still existed, but out of the chaotic mass, new and distinct Empires sprang up, like islands rising in the ocean. The Franks established themselves in Gaul; the Ale manns became masters of Germany; the Huns contented themselves with Russia; the Visigoths disputed with the Mahometans from Africa the dominion of Spain; and the Saxons crossed over into Britain, and formed the political association known by the name of the Hep. tarchy. Whatever difference there might be in other respects, there were two features which gave all these nations a general resemblance to each other, and increased the probability of mutual co-operation towards the ultimate advancement of civilization. These were

Koch divided his work into eight sections or periods, beginning with the year 406, and ending with the year 1789; but a ninth period has been added by his friend, biographer, and editor, M. Schoell, comprising an account of the French Revolution, and thus bringing down the History of Europe to the year 1815. The two first volumes contain Koch's original work; the greater part of the third is occupied with Schoell's addition. We shall endeavour to give our readers some idea of the contents of the whole, by mentioning very generally and briefly the leading subjects which are treated of in the different sections. Our abstract may serve not only to interest them in the work itself, but to a certain extent may refresh their memory of those great events, to a more detailed account of which the volumes before us are dedicated. At a season when all classes are admonished to indulge in a salutary retro-the feudal system, and the Christian religion, both of spect of the occurrences of a past year, it will not, perhaps, be uninteresting to the intelligent mind to contrast with its own temporary concerns, the principal occurrences of past centuries,-occurrences which influenced the destiny of a world.

The first period into which our author divides his View of the Revolutions of Europe, extends from the year 406 to 800. It was in the early part of the fifth century that the mighty fabric of the Roman Empire, which had been long tottering to decay, fell finally and forever into ruin. Their far-extended possessions, which it had cost them ages to acquire, were, in the course of a few lustrums, snatched from them, one after another, and over-run by barbarians, who trampled under foot all the institutions and improvements which Roman greatness had introduced into their most distant colonies. The Vandals came from the banks of the Elbe and the Vistula, and passing through Germany, entered Gaul, plundering and destroying wherever they went. The Goths came from the banks of the Dniester, the

which were now universally adopted, and materially tended to soften the harsher characteristics of the times. The only other event of this period to which it is necessary to allude, is the new religion which Mahomet founded in Asia, and the Empire which he extended through Africa into Spain.

The second period, which extends from the year 800 to 962, introduces us to the ascendency of the Empire of the Franks under Charlemagne, and the Carloviagian race of kings. It was not till a much later period that the different independent kingdoms, which rose upon the ashes of Roman greatness, began to consider the careful preservation of a just balance of power as the most essential part of European and international policy. They had been too long accustomed to acknowledge the ascendency of one country, to be surprised at finding themselves again becoming tributary to the superior genius of a great conqueror. Charlemagne, who succeeded his father Pepin in 768, eclipsed every monarch that had preceded him, since the days of Julius Cæsar.

France, Spain, Germany, and Italy, submitted to his arms. Nor did he figure only as a warrior, but also as a legislator, and munificent patron of letters. The empire of the Franks thus became paramount in Europe; the monarchies of the north, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Russia, had not yet emerged from the confusion and darkness in which they had long lain. The descendants of Charlemagne, however, not possess ing his abilities, which were indeed far beyond the age in which he lived, divided his empire into three distinct portions, nearly akin to the modern Italy, Germany, and France. One cause of the dismemberment, and rapid decay of the power of Charlemagne, will be found in the greater influence which the Normans, or nations of Scandinavian origin, the Huns, in Hungary, Moravia, and Russia, and the British, united into one monarchy, first under Egbert, and afterwards under Alfred, began to possess in the affairs of Europe. As yet, however, all these countries were in their infancy, and contending with those numerous difficulties which continually beset the childhood of nations.

The third period, which extends from the year 962 to 1074, embraces an account of the successes and power of Otho the Great, Emperor of Germany, who nearly succeeded in again converting the whole of Christendom into one great State, of which the Pope was the spiritual head, and the Emperor the secular; the latter enjoying the important prerogative of confirming or rescinding the election of the former. In Spain, the Mahometan dynasty of the Ommiades expired in the eleventh century, and the Christians under Sancho the Great, king of Navarre, acquired an ascendency, which, though it fluctuated, they never afterwards entirely lost. In France, under the weak sway of some of the Capetian kings who succeeded the Carlovingians, the feudal system grew to such abuse, that the more powerful barons usurped almost all the rights of royalty. In England, the successors to Alfred, giving themselves up to the dominion of priests and monks, saw their subjects, the Anglo-Saxons, first subdued by the Danes under Sweyn and Canute, and the Danes, in their turn, were conquered by the Normans under William. It was not till the tenth century that the Gospel found its way into the Scandinavian nations; and Canute the Great, who succeeded to the throne of Denmark in 1014, was the first monarch who made Christianity the established religion of that kingdom. In Sweden, about the same time, there prevailed a strange mixture both of doctrine and worship, Jesus Christ being profanely associated with Odin, and the pagan goddess Freya confounded with the Virgin. The Poles are a nation whose name does not occur in history before the middle of the tenth century. They were one of the Sclavonian tribes settled north of the Elbe; and being subdued by the Germans, were obliged to embrace Christianity. The Greek empire had sunk at this era to the lowest degree of corruption, fanaticism, and perfidy.

ing to acknowledge the right which the Emperors had exercised of confirming the Popes, he claimed for the Popes the prerogative both of confirming and dethroning the Emperors. In support of this arrogated authority, he was involved in a long war with Henry IV. of Germany; but its conclusion was such as tended rather to strengthen than diminish his pretensions; and, ere long, the kings of Portugal, Arragon, England, Scotland, Sardinia, the two Sicilies, and several others, became vassals and tributaries to the Papal See.

The fourth period comprehends upwards of two centuries, from the year 1074 to 1300. A number of important events, possessing no immaterial influence over the future destinies of Europe, took place within these two centuries. The Cæsars had passed away, the Charlemagnes had gone down into the dust, the Othos existed no longer; but a new and powerful monarchy was about to arise, forming one of the most splendid of all the pageants that ever passed across the stage of history. This was the dominion of the Roman Pontiffs. Hitherto they had, in general, succumbed to the most influential monarch of the times, whether Frank or German; but this was a humiliation that little suited the haughty and ambitious spirit of Pope Gregory VII, "a man," says Koch, "born for great undertakings; as remarkable for his genius, which raised him above his times, as for the austerity of his manners and the boundless reach of his ambition." So far from consent

"In every respect circumstances were such as to hasten and facilitate the progress of this new pontifical supremacy. It had commenced in a barbarous age, when the whole of the Western World was covered with the darkness of ignorance; and when mankind knew neither the just rights of sovereignty, nor the bounds which reason and equity should have set to the authority of the priesthood. The court of Rome was then the only school where politics were studied, and the Popes the only monarchs that put them in practice. An extravagant superstition, the inseparable companion of ignorance, held all Europe in subjection; the Popes were reverenced with a veneration resembling that which belongs only to the Deity; and the whole world trembled at the utterance of the single word, Excommunication. Kings were not sufficiently powerful to oppose any successful resistance to the encroachments of Rome; their authority was curtailed and counteracted by that of their vassals, who seized with eagerness every occasion which the Popes offered them, to aggrandize their own prerogatives at the expense of the sovereign authority."

To these causes of ecclesiastical sovereignty are to be added others,-in particular, the multiplication of religious orders, the institution of religious and military orders, and the expeditions to the East, known by the name of Crusades. The superstitious opinion then prevalent, that the end of the world was at hand, led to many pilgrimages to the Holy Land, where the devotees proposed to abide the second coming of the Lord. So long as the Arabs were masters of Palestine, they protected and countenanced these pilgrimages, from which they derived no small emolument; but when the Seljukian Turks, a ferocious and barbarous people, conquered the country, in the year 1075, every kind of insult and oppression was heaped upon the Christians, which at length gave birth to the resolution to expel the Infidels from the Holy Land. There were, in all, seven Grand Crusades. The first was undertaken in the year 1096, by Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine; the second in 1147, by Conrad III., Emperor of Germany, and Louis VII., King of France; the third in 1189, by the Emperor Frederic I., surnamed Barbarossa, Philip of France, and Richard Coeur-de-Lion of England; the fourth in 1202, by Boniface, Marquis of Montserrat ; the fifth in 1217, by Andrew, King of Hungary; the sixth in 1228, by the Emperor Frederic II.; and the seventh in 1248, by Louis IX., King of France. The only Eastern possessions which the Europeans found themselves masters of, after a succession of wars, which thus lasted for nearly two hundred years, were the towns of Tyre and Ptolemais. But the advantages which the See of Rome drew from the Crusades were immense, and led to its encouraging similar expeditions in the west and north of Europe. Accordingly, we find that, about the same time, holy wars were carried on-1st, against the Mahometans of Spain and Africa; 2d, against the Emperors and Kings who refused obedience to the orders of the Popes; 3d, against heretical or schismatic princes, such as the Greeks and Russians; 4th, against the Slavonians and other Pagan nations on the coasts of the Baltic; and, 5th, against the Waldenses, Albigenses, and Hussites, who were regarded as heretics. The Knights of St John, the Knights of the Temple, and the Teutonic Knights, were numerous bodies, combining religion with military prow

ess, which sprang into existence in consequence of the Crusades, and afterwards contributed greatly to the renown of chivalry, which was now about to give so peculiar a colour to European society and manners.

ving others under their protection, rescinding and annulling their acts and proceedings, summoning them to their court, and acting as arbiters in their disputes. The history of the Popes is the history of all Europe. They "In general, it may be said," our author remarks, assumed the privilege of legitimating the sons of kings, "that these ultramarine expeditions, prosecuted with in order to qualify them for the succession; they forobstinacy for nearly two hundred years, hastened the bade sovereigns to tax the clergy; they claimed a feudal progress of arts and civilisation in Europe. The Cru- superiority over all, and exercised it over a very great saders, journeying through kingdoms better organized number; they conferred royalty on those who were amthan their own, were necessarily led to form new ideas, bitious of power; they released subjects from their oath and acquire new information with regard to science and of allegiance; dethroned sovereigns at their pleasure; politics. Some vestiges of learning and good taste had and laid kingdoms and empires under interdict, to been preserved in Greece, and even in the extremities avenge their own quarrels. We find them disposing of of Asia, where letters had been encouraged by the pa- the states of excommunicated princes, as well as those tronage of the Caliphs. The city of Constantinople, of heretics and their followers; of islands and kingdoms which had not yet suffered from the ravages of the bar- newly discovered; of the property of infidels or schisbarians, abounded in the finest monuments of art. It matics; and even of Catholics who refused to bow bepresented, to the eyes of the Crusaders, a spectacle of fore the insolent tyranny of the Popes. grandeur and magnificence that could not but excite their admiration, and call forth a strong desire to imitate those models, the sight of which at once pleased and astonished them. To the Italians especially, it must have proved of great advantage. The continued intercourse which they maintained with the East and the city of Constantinople, afforded them the means of becoming familiar with the language and literature of the Greeks, of communicating the same taste to their own countrymen, and in this way advancing the glorious epoch of the revival of letters."

The increasing importance of towns, and the rise of free corporations, served also to soften many of the harsher features of feudalism, and to make the people more aware of their own rights. In England, the Commons were admitted into Parliament in the year 1266, during the reign of Henry III., and this example was soon followed by France and Germany. The old Roman laws were revived, as much superior to the jurisprudence then in use, and, under the arrangement of Gratian, the Canon Law was added to them. The studies of jurisprudence and theology, which thus acquired fresh dignity, led to other studies; and the Universities of Paris, Bologna, Padua, Salamanca, Cambridge, Oxford, and others, date their origin early in the thirteenth century. In Italy, there arose a number of republics, and more especially those of Genoa and Venice. The greatness to which both reached materially contributed to the revival of the arts and sciences in that country. During this epoch, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies and of Portugal were also founded,—the Inquisition was established in those countries most subject to Papal do minion,-Magna Charta, the basis of the English Constitution, was obtained from King John,-and the Moguls, coming from the north of the Great Wall of China -from that district which lies between Eastern Tartary and modern Buckharia-over-ran, under the guidance of the famous Zinghis Khan, all Tartary, Turkistan, China, and Persia; and then, directing their steps towards Europe, penetrated into Russia, and spread over Poland, Silesia, Moravia, Hungary, and the countries bordering on the Adriatic Sea. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the Mogul Empire, from south to north, extended from the Chinese Sea and the Indies to the extremities of Siberia, and, from east to west, from Japan to Asia Minor, and the frontiers of Poland in Europe.

The fifth period commences with the year 1300, and ends with the year 1453, when Constantinople was taken by the Turks. It was during this period that the Papal authority attained its utmost height, and also began to witness its decline and fall.

"Nothing is more remarkable," says Koch," than the influence of the Papal authority over the temporalities of princes. We find them interfering in all their quarrels, addressing their commands to all, without distinction, enjoining some to lay down their arms, recei

"Thus it is obvious that the Court of Rome, at the time of which we speak, enjoyed a conspicuous preponderance in the political system of Europe. But, in the ordinary course of human affairs, this power, vast and formidable as it was, began, from the fourteenth century, gradually to diminish. The mightiest empires have their appointed term; and the highest stage of their elevation is often the first step of their decline. Kings, becoming more and more enlightened as to their true interests, learned to support the rights and the majesty of their crowns, against the encroachments of the Popes. Those who were vassals and tributaries of the Holy See gradually shook off the yoke; even the clergy, who groaned under the weight of this spiritual despotism, joined the secular princes in repressing these abuses, and restraining within proper bounds a power which was making incessant encroachments on their just prerogatives."

Abuse of power invariably leads to its destruction, and this was the case with the Popes. We may form some notion of the insolent arrogance of these priests, by a single extract from a bull of Pope Clement VI., issued against the Emperor Louis of Bavaria, who incurred the censures of the Church for defending the rights of his crown, at the commencement of the fourteenth century:-" May God," says the Pope, in speaking of the Emperor, "smite him with madness and disease; may heaven crush him with its thunderbolts ; may the wrath of God, and that of St Peter and St Paul, fall on him in this world and the next; may the whole universe combine against him; may the earth swallow him up alive; may his name perish in the first generation, and his memory disappear from the earth; may all the elements conspire against him; may his children, delivered into the hands of his enemies, be massacred before the eyes of their father!" The blow which at length struck at the root of this overgrown pontifical power came from the Reformers of Germany. It was not, however, till a somewhat later period than that of which we talk, that the Reformation began to spread. As if to prepare the way for this great revolution in the human mind, several scientific discoveries were made, of the last importance to the progress of knowledge. Among the principal of these may be mentioned, the invention of writing-paper, of oil-painting, of printing, of gunpowder, and of the mariner's compass. In the south, Venice and Genoa, and in the north, the cities of the Hanseatic league, began to carry commerce to great perfection. The different countries of Europe, amidst a number of intestine wars and petty revolutions, were gradually assuming their present form; whilst the Turks, an Asiatic race, attacked the feeble shadow of Greek and Roman power still existing in Constantinople, and, under Mahomet II., conquered the last Constantine, and established for themselves a dominion in Europe.

The sixth section extends from the year 1453 to 1648, and brings us down to the more civilized and classical