1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



457 



generally or so abundantly as in Italy 

 or Germany. The French, with us, 

 monopolize the whole credit. They, 

 however, eat nothing but the hind quar- 

 ters, and that only of animals fed and 

 fattened with care and selection ; but 

 the Germans eat all parts of this loath- 

 some animal, except the skin and in- 

 testines. Of old, the flesh of the frog, 

 with salt and oil, was used as an anti- 

 dote to poison ; and, in modern times, 

 doctors have recommended, in cases of 

 epilepsy, the " liver of a frog calcined 

 in an oven, on a cabbage leaf, between 

 two plates, and swallowed in peony wa- 

 ter." But what absurdities have they 

 not recommended? The ornamental 

 portion of the work is very supe- 

 rior both as to selection and execu- 

 tion. 



Arthur of Britanny, by the author of 

 " The Templars," 3vols., 12mo. Though 

 we have given Arthur of Britanny but a 

 hasty glance, we have seen amply suffi- 

 cient to satisfy us, that the author is 

 destined to gather no ordinary renown 

 on the fields of historical romance. He 

 enters well into recorded characters 

 supplies with skill and congruity and 

 talks consistently of the times he des- 

 cribes. The prominent personage of the 

 tale is King John a mixture of the ape 

 and the tiger a dastard in spirit, but a 

 profligate in purpose, and reckless of 

 the means employed to perpetrate his 

 designs, whether to gratify revenge or 

 lust. The history of the world, fertile 

 as it is in worthless monarchs, when 

 monarchs were less cribbed and cabined 

 than they now are, or than they are 

 likely to be, scarcely furnishes so odious 

 and contemptible a person as John 

 one so utterly without any redeeming 

 virtue* A rebel to his father a traitor 

 to his brother, and the usurper of his 

 nephew's rights, instead of removing 

 invidious impressions, and conciliating 

 the good-will of unwilling subjects, he 

 alike, without scruple or restraint, vio- 

 lated public rights and invaded private 

 ones trampling upon the charities of 

 life seizing by main force where he 

 could not dupe or seduce, and murder- 

 ing by dark assassins where he despaired 

 of netting his victims in the meshes of 

 perverted laws. Human tolerance could 

 no longer brook the insulting tyranny, 

 and to the resentment of the barons, 

 not always of the purest kind, are we 

 indebted for the basis and principles of 

 our own civil liberties. It is true, the 

 nobles meant nothing but to secure 

 their own rights ; but, luckily for us, so- 

 large and so comprehensive were the 

 terms employed by them to define their 

 demands, that it has since been difficult, 

 and finally impracticable to confine and 

 M.M. New Series VOL. XI. No. 64. 



contract them again within the limits 

 which the barons of old doubtless meant 

 to restrict them, and to which again the 

 barons of our own days would gladly 

 bring them back. The defining of poli- 

 tical rights, in general terms, once ad- 

 mitted, -was of eternal advantage it 

 has been a constant object of appeal and 

 triumph a step that never could be 

 trodden back. 



In his tale the author introduces 

 young Arthur, quickly after his mar- 

 riage with Marie of France, into the 

 palace at Winchester, as the son of 

 Hubert de Burgh, where he plays 

 queen's page, while Hubert bestirs him- 

 self in rousing the nobles to get rid of 

 their worthless king and assert the 

 youth's rights. Of course much of the 

 piece is occupied with the risks both 

 parties incur from the jealousies and 

 suspicions of John, and the activity of 

 his agents. In the palace Arthur recog- 

 nizes his sister Eleanor, who, like Brutus 

 of old, had been feigning idiotcy for 

 years, and her lover, Louvaine, in the 

 disguise of court-fool. His bride too, is 

 employed by the indefatigable Hubert, 

 in prosecuting the same schemes. With 

 all these zealous agents, however, the 

 plot fails for want of money. Money 

 was to be forthcoming from an old 

 money-dealer, but John got scent of it, 

 and was beforehand with them mur- 

 dering the poor man, and bearing off for 

 his own use, the sinews of war. The 

 scene changes to Britanny, where Arthur 

 is captured and thrown into the Castle of 

 Falaise ; but is rescued from John's assas- 

 sins by the faithful Hubert, and instead 

 of dying the death which historians 

 assign him, he lives a long life, in some 

 happy retreat with his lovely and active 

 bride, where though he gives up royalty 

 for himself, he becomes the steady ad- 

 viser of his brother-in-law, and all Louis 

 IXth's best deeds are ascribed to his 

 sage promptings. 



Venetian Sketches family Library. 

 Vol. XX. These are well executed 

 sketches, but so connected and even con- 

 tinuous, that the title of history might 

 as appropriately have been assumed. 

 The volume extends to the year 1406 

 the year in which Carrera and his 

 sons were captured and butchered. The 

 sequel will occupy another volume. The 

 exposure of her archives, when Venice 

 finally sank under the dominion of 

 Austria, and the subsequent, or rather 

 consequent works of Sismondi and 

 Count Daru, have of late stirred a new 

 interest in favour of Venetian history. 

 Poets and novelists have lon<r made 

 Venice their favourite theme. But the 

 public acquaintance with its history has 

 been chiefly confined to the periods 

 3 N 



