1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



345 



same spirit and sentiments as diligent 

 at the leastas generally competent, 

 and as capable of sifting confused and 

 contradictory facts though less disposed 

 perhaps to moralize in vague generali- 

 ties, and recast familiar sentiments in 

 imposing forms. Where, however, Sir 

 James has exerted himself, it is with 

 good effect. " The characteristic quality 

 of English history," says he, with his 

 usual discernment in such matters, " is, 

 that it stands alone as the history of the 

 progress of a great people towards li- 

 berty during six centuries." On this 

 point he keeps his eve steadily fixed, 

 and loses no opportunity of placing the 

 steps prominently before the reader. 

 He traces them, where others have not 

 always found them 



The bishops succeeded to much of the local 

 power of the Roman magistrates ; the inferior 

 clergy became the teachers of their conquerors, 

 and were the only men of knowledge dispersed 

 throughout Europe ; the episcopal authority af- 

 forded a model of legal power and regular juris, 

 diction, which must have seemed a prodigy of 

 wisdom to the disorderly victors. The synods 

 and councils formed by the clergy, afforded the 

 first pattern of elective and representative as- 

 semblies , which were adopted by the independent 

 genius of the Germanic race, and which, being pre- 

 served for many ages by England, promise, in the 

 19th century, to spread over a large portion of 

 mankind. 



Our eyes fell upon the following pas- 



The writings of the earliest Christians contain 

 panegyrics on celibacy which cannot be reconciled 

 to reason, though they may be excused in an age 

 when the moral relations of the sexes, ofiohich 

 the principal is at this day little understood 

 by many of those who most feel the obligation^ 

 were so unsettled as continually to vibrate be- 

 tween the most extreme points of extravagant 

 austerity and gross licentiousness. 



What does the clause, which we have 

 put in italics, mean ? Jt reminds us of 

 Jjeigh Hunt, who was perpetually, in 

 " The Examiner," harping upon this 

 string, and apparently in the same key. 



Sir James is certainly too prosy for 

 narrative. 



An Account of the Great Floods of Au- 

 gust 1829, in the Province of Moray and 

 adjoining Districts, by Sir Thomas Dick 

 Lauder, Bart., of Fountain-hall. Though 

 a matter wholly of local interest, the 

 able and interesting manner in which 

 the writer has described the terrific 

 scene of these floods the destruction of 

 life and property the struggles and 

 escapes of individuals the energy and 

 activity of some, the resignation and 

 self-possession of others the sufferings 

 of the poor and the kindness of the rich, 

 is calculated not merely to convey a cor- 

 rect and exciting view of an extraordi- 



M.M. New Series VOL. X. No. 57. 



nary event, but to make the results 

 conducive to the best moral advantages. 

 The active describer himself was on a 

 spot the most severely visited, and wit- 

 nessed the devastation of his own long- 

 cherished and ornamented grounds. 



We were roused while at dinner (says he) by 

 the account the servants gave us of the swollen 

 state of the rivers ; and in defiance of the wea- 

 ther, the whole party sallied forth. We took our 

 way through the gar-den, towards the favourite 

 Mill Island. " John," said I, to the gardener, as 

 he was opening the gate that led to it, " I fear our 

 temple may be in some danger if this goes on." 

 " On, Sir, its awa' else," replied he, to my no 

 small dismay; and the instant we had passed the 

 gate, the Divie appalled u*. And now the mag- 

 nificent trees on the Mill Island were overthrown 

 faster and faster, offering no more resistance to 

 their triumphant enemy than reeds before the 

 mower's scythe. Numerous as they were, they 

 were all individually well known friends. Each 

 as it fell gave one enormous plash on the surface, 

 then a plunge ; the root appeared above water for 

 a moment; again all was submerged; and then 

 up rose the stem, disbranched and peeled ; after 

 which they either toiled round in the cauldron,, or 

 darted like arrows down the stream. A chill ran 

 through our hearts as we beheld the ruin of our 

 favourite and long-cherished spot going on. 

 Besides the loss of the Mill Island, which I had 

 looked for, the beautiful hanging bank, covered 

 with majestic forest and ornamental trees of all 

 kinds, and of growth so fresh and vigorous, had 

 vanished like the scenery of a dream ; and in its 

 place was the garden hedge, running for between 

 200 and 300 yards along the brink of a red allu- 

 vial perpendicular precipice fifty feet high, with 

 the broad remorseless flood rolling at its base, 

 eating into its foundation, and every successive 

 minute bringing down masses of many cubic 

 yards. And then, from time to time, some tall 

 and graceful tree, on the brink of the fractured 

 portions of the bank at either end, would slowly 

 and magnificently bend its head, and launch into 

 the foaming waves below. The whole scene had 

 an air of unreality about it that bewildered the 

 senses. It xvas like some of those wild melo- 

 dramatic exhibitions, where nature's operations 

 are out-heroded by the mechanist of a theatre, and 

 where mountains are thrown down by artificial 

 storms. Never did the unsubstantiality of all 

 earthly things come so perfectly home to my con- 

 viction. The hand of God appeared to be at 

 work, and I felt that he had only to pronounce his 

 dread fiat, and millions of such worlds as that we 

 inhabit would cease to exist. 



The flooding rivers were the Nairne, 

 Findhorn, and Spey, with their nume- 

 rous tributaries. All the low interven- 

 ing lands were covered, and the bridges 

 and the buildings along the banks were 

 for the most part swept away. The 

 plain of Torres was covered to an ex- 

 tent of twenty square miles, and the 

 destruction of property every where 

 great. The Duke of Gordon's loss 

 amounted to 16,000., and that of Lord 

 Fife to 10,000. ; but these are trifles 

 compared with the ruin of at least 3,000 



2 X 



