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    ' BRITISH HISTORIANS . TVfc Lives of the British Bistorians . By Eugene Lawrence , 2 vols . New Yoxk . Scrflmer . There being'no categorical woa * l £ ott tb& British historians , Mr . Lawrence has undertaken to compose their " Lives , " beginning with Gildas , and ending with Arnold . Upon the whole ? they lave been prudent and serious men , generally potiticians , always in earnest on one subject or another , and rarely impartial The grave procession , as far as Mr . Lawrence has yet passed it in review , closes with Charles James Fox . It is headed , as we have said , bv l of who

    Gddas the monk Bangor , m-Mr . Lawrence marshals to the front , after some preUmiisary generalities o » the attributes of British « history . " As an AmericaQ it would not have been surprising had he regarded this class of English writers with a sceptical eye . But he is unnecessarily generous j our great historians / ' we are told * have no rivals later than Tacitus . Gibbon am Hume are more philosophical than Guiciardini , more profound than Voltaire , more learned than Schiller , more interesting than the " critical " WieDUhr—whose criticisms on early Roman history , we must remind Mr . Lawrence , have been triturated into impalpable legendary . However , he who proposes to-exalt is likely to be quite as accurate as he who writes to

    disparage , and we rnust be grateful for this , the only book devoted specially to th «_ brographMs of our liistOriaaa& In this nineteenth century , with London-» mjetmdfi ^ datiot jM no New Zealand Marius sketching St . ^^^¦^¦ ¦^^^^ . ^ Vmsitdti ^ that the first Engfish history was entitled SJrf " * ^^^ - % this work endasaffir niea that the British nobaity Sfff ^ ^^ P ° ***** ancient virtues , aird that t&e clergy Were no Ifftfeer 5 ^ Ki ? W ? T'S ? ¦ ? & * & » ™* * nfe * i . * hSf Jere ^ aHS E * a 5 d ^ S ! . ^ Onfc f - ^^« he saw the Saxons shedding S ^ iSff ^ ^ TS population . In the next century appeared feS ^^ Sv 1 ^^ Bed ^^ andarter ^ e Gorman in vaS the V ^^ i £ s ^ S ^ 6 rnSrpylaHai by" Inaitdpaus . Mr . Lawrence ; bv ^ a somftwha *

    , . able , aridwote i ^ Rotnaa eon-Spft&t to the ; death ofi JamesMe ^ irsi ; . But how did he write it ? No account is given of the " Chronicles" Xwbict , with all their gross and credulous absurdities , are worth the student ' s attention . Some notice , also , wasdueto JpnneWs ; colleetioft . The sketdhes of the lives of Sir Walter Raleigh , CSniHden and Clarendon , though ^ incomplete and uncritical , are suggestive and no * unitifprm ' ihg . That on Burnet has obviously been compiled -without reference to the investigation's which have of late years thrown a new sarif clear light into the recessed departments of bistory , the pers o chara « ter and acts of public men . All the allusions to Penn are strangely out Of date . . & J

    -Of thte Hves of Hutae and Gibbon the facts are well known . Mr . Lawrace ' s summaries are hardly needed in England . A more original steetchi which would have borne some amplification , is that on Catherine ^ acaulay , a very naeritorious writer , very unjustly neglected . Horace Walpole tell . into one of his characteristic impertinences when he placed her <> n a level with Robertson , and in advance of Hume . It was impertinent to imply that Butne was not superior to Robertson : but she was a woman of unusual talents , was admiredt by Washington , and among her contemporaries gained ^ distinguished reputatfon . The rector of Watbrook , Dr . Wilson , beatified her m effigy , by placing her statue in the chancel of his church .

    If She has been forgotten , if her books are not to be found among reprints and refetejuces , it is because their political tendencies brought upon them the suppressing power of the clergy , of " gentlemen " and of " ladies , " while th ey v t ete not sufficiently Substantial or authentic to interest the liberal critics to . restoring the fireshMes ^ of lira . Macaufay ' s deciduous fame , Her attack upon the Stuarts abbunded in ekpletive exaggeration : her reply to BurRe . was hot , weaft , and unequal . But she was , as Mr . Lawrence says , w < £ !\' *^* fl » ltt 5 ?^ ^* 4 s 3 ncere ' <* ne * productions were not without a certain sort of power * . At all events , writers of inferior importance have been 1 es £ effectually suppressed .

    Iti has treatment of Mr . If 6 x , Mr , Lawrence is scarcely just . He says that he _ Jv as ' . tnthbut any of the qualities' necessary to an historian . But the History was a study , not a finished work ; it came rough from the writer s himad , and should be considered only as the summary of a great design .. .. In the dame way Sir . Lawrence repeats a vulgarity when he describes Milton s prose stylfe as unpolished , impure , and dissonant , without delicacy , ease , or ; grace . It is easy to sets whence the idea has come . That melting-P ° i £ f J £ * e ' , mind of the General Reader , is familiar witli certain S ^ ¦ " * * 6 4 * tf ? from Miltpn , and as 0 . R . seldom or never re lS j ? ** * r tlie Prose works in eostenso , the popular notion is that the author of iJar ^ rfas could not write elegant prose . But he could , and it was mo ^ P aiJ elegattt—it was rich a ^ id musical , full of dignified vnriations and "SW ^ n ^ a ^ es . Bat an admirer of Lord Kames cau hardly be expected to

    : A ;' ppsftive . defect in Mtr . Lawrence ' s book , which aims at tho utility of a SKvfoi ' jl ! well-knowh *< lives" nre written At length , while others , ^ E ? V ^^ WQtP obscure , might not be leas interesting , are given with SSSvT t ^ cittctnqsa . Thus , on Goldsmith , to whoTn one charming ^ E ^ K « edicated by Forstev , and another by Irving , we have an iSSSSa ? OT ^ y * ^ eW aa ok * G * W > on and Hume ; but of old Mixen Mr . ffliS ^^ iiL ^ 'W . * ° ¥ y » l ftnd of fche curious Rapin atill lesa . It may MWM ? l *? iSt ? J » A , K *» pin , of Langucdoc , among the " British Bft ^ nvnts ^^*^ ' -i * > ^ ° comp ^ ea without seventy . If by " a ndt fiffi iim ^ &iSi ^ i ^ f < on ^ ^ ° K « w , written British history , Rupin ' s was « ot « ne oniy natfte « o be mtroouVsett ; if" it menu a British writer of history ,

    learnedtttafi 1 the puerile ^ flmalogy ; , d ^ ribes J ^ ffirey pf Uf omnouth , as the Lady of the Monkish hafetCHfiana ^ T ^ hiin ^ o Mathew Pam ; I ^ bian , Stow , Speed , arid Bakex , only pai>fiphs are ^ devo t eWand tlte pfen . of tfie tvork admitted of no fourth detail . But it wbMd have bee # ^ well to give some indicaiiion of * the nature of the ' ^ istones ^ referred « efe *® iat ; for e ^ atnple ; does the reader leam from Mr : * Laurence : c ^ o ^ ber run ^ he was fc renovmed /

    B ^ W excluded ; but , having given him a place , it shou ld W been a far place , and not an ambiguous curler . The erudite chronietr was born at Castres , m Languedoe , ia 1661 . . He studied first law , S mihtery afiWj he ^ was a captain of dragoons , then a private , andTastly a rechise , devoting eighteen yeters to the composition of his eight Cy clop ^ quartos . Mr . Lawrence says « he died of hard study , " adding \— yC 1 OpCea 31 He is said to have been of a serioua disposition , fond of music , and well skille * m many languages He knew French , Italian , Latin , Greek , ^ id Spanish ™ ^ it of T ° ^ ^ * lrt ? * 5 evei 7 countrjr . His mind ' was of aspecSaSe character , fond of reasoning and general inquiry . As an historian , he was careful

    The history begins with a clear exposition of the leading principles of the English constitution , of which Rapin seems to have been an ardent admirer He then describes the shape , size , and nature of the British Isle ; relates the fable of Brutus , the grandson of Eneas , and paints the early Britons , tall , well-formed , and savage , living m huts of turf , skins , or boughs , and hiding in the shades of impenetrable forests . It is impossible to read Rapin ' s clear and laborious narrative , without admiring the patience and ardour with which he has studied the annals of a foreign countrv and became imbued withthe spirit of its le and its institutions sincere

    , peop . A lover of freedom and a reformer in religion , Rapin found here a congenial subject , and wrote with . yrxthing interest of a people , who so perfectly ^ epresented his owa political and religious principles . His history , with the exception of that o f Hume , is stall the best account we have of England ; and , although Rapin was neither a pb . riosopb . er nor a fine writer , he perfectly mastered his subject , and has given a clear and interesting account of England , uaidev the Saxons / the Normans ? and in later ages . Hume has borrowed liberally from him , particularly in . his earlier v olumes , and probably no writer upon English history will ever make any progress without deriving considerable aid from Bapin .

    Surely , old liapin , soldier and scholar , deserved ten pages of biography . Mr . Lawrence gives hitn three . But , other parts of the book are on a b etter plan , and the whole is light and readable .

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    A BAtGBE OE BOOKS . Cross Purposes j or * fhe Way . of the World . By Hargarfet Cassott . ( Ward and Lock . )—It is not long since an absurd and maundering novel with this very title , or the first half of it , came under our notice . "We do not know which author was first in the field , nor is the question very important ; for the points of resemblance are few , and those of divergence many , between Cross Purposes j or , the Way of the World :, and Cross Purposes , or—whatevermundane alternative may have constituted the secondary title of the story which we may speak of , retrospectively , as fi the other . " Both novels > to be sure , fall within the saine category—the unreal and lifeless fiction of " real life . " In both we see and never lose sight of those stereotyped generalities under which bad novelists continually strive to hide their ignorance of human : motives , passion , character , and even the commonest customs of the society they attempt to depict . In both we see and never lose

    sight of that beautifully fine writing which endows a spade with nameless interest . In both novels happiness is indifferently mentioned as a "" ray " and a " cup ; * ' in the first case it is apt to be " solitary , " and to " cheer a life , of darkness and desolation ; " in the second case , it is always " quaffed to the dregs . " In both novels , again , we read about those " noble natures " whose nobility is assumed , and thenceforth taken for granted ; those " cold , proud beauties / ' with the remarkable " brows , ' which are generally of < c chiselled marble , " and which always " bear an impress " either of birth or some mental or spiritual quality not otherwise manifest j those people who talk vapidly in " trembling accents , " or in "low , deep undertones ; " and those other people who are first presented to us as tremendous fellows for " will , " and " power , " " energy , " and , in short , for all that we usually express or understand by the phrase , " that sort of thing , " but who directly lapse into very sketches of inanity , and drivelling , purposeless boredom . So far , there is not a conventional pin to choose between the two novels . But

    we have reached the limit of the analogy ; and by way of indicating then vast difference in all respects beside , we need only observe that the story of Cross Purposes—this one—ia unintentionally amusing ; whereas , the other Cross Purposes had some claim to be considered the dreariest nonsense that ever went forth in the guise of a three-volume novel . "We may mention , bythe-bye , that the Cross Purposes now in hand appears in the more modern form of a single cheap volume . Sebastopol ; the Story of its Fall . By George Tt . Emerson . ( Routledge . )—In this book—one of the many cheap publications relating to the war—some attempt has been made to connect the scattered statements of the newspapers , from the declaration of war to the fall of Sebastopol . The whole narrative appears to have been re-written , with creditable care and a modest pretence of style 5 but the story is too evidently told in the heat of the national war-feeling to be worth much as an authority .

    The Planter's Victim ; or , Incidents of American Slavery . ( Triibner . )—We speak of this book quite apart from its purpose ( which is the condemnation of the negro slave system ) when we say that it is one of tlie worst books that have recentl y come to us from America . To criticise it in referenco to the slavery question would bo merely to establish one poor case in support of an admitted truth—that the most incapable advocates are genernlly found damaging the best cause , - The Match Girl ; or , Life Scenes as they are . ( TriUmer . )—Wo have no foitli in such titles as this . They wo too frequently a mere begging of tho question . Writers who know no touch of their art make confession , in a tone of

    boastful humility , that theirs is not the power to create or conceive ; but , say they , if we shall have only succeeded in presenting pictures of life as it is , then will our end bo accomplished , — If , truly 1 Some little conception , some slight creative faculty is wanted , perhaps , for tho poor work of depicting human nature . Not that the author of The Match Qirl pretends to have written that touching story without tho aid of genius . Although we nre told that " the characters nre taken from real life , and that , " no imaginary beings are introduced to give ctfect , or to finish the picture , " wo are also informed , in an appended criticism of tho kind which certain publishers nr « in tho habit of quoting from nowhere , that the book is " written with ft power and directness

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    dagger , so serrated at the edge ' that it would mangle the fl « sh a&it entered ; or . ^ poignard so-small and fine- that , b * ing pressed into the bod ? y through a perforated plate , it would- kilL but leave onlvau invisible puncture .

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    2 mi : THE LBADIIR £ No . 313 , Satordaiv

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1856, page 282, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2133/page/18/