1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



309 



full of fire and fury an active volcano. 

 With a boiling spirit of impetuous impa- 

 tience, that knows no control from within or 

 without, he has a son of the same blessed 

 temperament ready 4at every carouse to 

 fling the tankards at each other's heads; 

 and at every contradiction, each to plunge 

 his sword into the other's bosom. The 

 " Wolle" had deserted his wife, and living, 

 as he does, in open profligacy with a leman, 

 draws on him the censures of the Church. 

 The Church and her censures he sets at de- 

 fiance, and in revenge impelled, besides by 

 a desire to grasp at some ecclesiastical lands 

 he sets fire to the town of Forres, and 

 burns down the Archdeacon's mansion, and 

 part of the cathedral. The Church retaliates 

 with her final censures, an;l again the " Wolfe'' 

 gives free course to his vengeance, and wreaks 

 it upon the buildings and the magnificent 

 cathedral of Elgin. On this occasion, three 

 of his sons are severely wounded, and a 

 fourth is in imminent peril from the confla- 

 gration. The terrors of the father are too 

 mighty for his energies, and he is seized 

 with a raging fever. In the agonies of 

 disease and apprehension, sharpened by the 

 activity of a resolute Franciscan, who ad- 

 ministers to both soul and body, he is finally 

 brought to submission is reconciled to the 

 Church and to his father ; and on his re- 

 covery, undergoes the penance of walking 

 barefoot, in public, to the church mani- 

 festly in the determination of proceeding 

 with the same contumacy, and haughty, and 

 impetuous spirit as before. The writer pro- 

 fesses to adhere rigorously to historical 

 facts. A 11 the common histories of Scotland 

 represent the Wolfe, after the outrage upon 

 Elgin, as being thrown into prison by his 

 father, and remaining there to the end of his 

 life. The author relies upon a contempo- 

 rary chronicle, and may have reason for his 

 reliance. Our received histories are full of 

 convicted blunders. The Wolfe's sarco- 

 phagus is still in the cathedral of Dunkeld, 

 from the inscription of \thich, it seems he 

 died in 1394. His father died in 1390. 



The story of the Wolfe is, as we have 

 said, strictly an episode ; but it is by far the 

 best part of the romance. All that relates 

 to him is vigorously and effectively exe- 

 cuted. That which really constitutes the 

 romance that with which the volumes begin 

 and end, and with which they are chiefly 

 occupied, is of far inferior interest, and much 

 of it of far inferior execution. An Hephorne 

 returns, with a friend, from the wars of 

 France, passes through England, and stops 

 at Norham Castle, on the borders. Here he 

 gets a few glimpses of a lady, and being red- 

 hot for falling in love with the first fair 

 form he meets, is at once desperately, and 

 as it proves, perjnanently enamoured. He 

 goes on to Scotland with his friend, and 

 visits his paternal roof marries his sister to 

 his friend ; sets out to a splendid tournay 

 visits the court joins a challenging party 

 to London, to fight on London Bridge re- 



turns, and accompanies the expedition of the 

 Douglas' to Newcastle, and is present at the 

 fight of Otterboume, where the Douglas 

 is slain, and Hotspur and his brother are 

 taken prisoners, <fec. tfec. On all these oc- 

 casions, and on all others, be is distinguished 

 by his gallant bearing, his frank and cour- 

 teous manner, and in short by a cluster of 

 generous and gentlemanly qualities. In all 

 these places too, he encounters the lady of 

 Norham Castle sometimes believing her to 

 be one person and sometimes another at 

 one time she attends upon him, unknown, as 

 his page ; but at last the cloud of mystery 

 clears away, and the parties, in the wonted 

 way, are blessed. 



Though much of the tale may be said to be 

 ably done, the effect is heavy; and but for the 

 relief of the Wolfe, would be intolerably op- 

 pressive. The dialogue of the leading per- 

 sons is insufferable from the affected quaint- 

 ness of the language a medley of ancient 

 and modern of English, and Saxon, and 

 French, and Latin. Does the writer imagine 

 the gentlemen of the age, of which he writes, 

 spake such a mag-pie dialect? But the lan- 

 guage of the underlings is past bearing 1 

 at all. 



A General View of the Present System 

 of Public Education in France, and of 

 the Laws, Regulations, and Courses of 

 Study in the Different Faculties, Collegcis t 

 and inferior Schools, which now compose 

 the Royal University of that Kingdom. By 

 David Johnston, M. D. ; 1827. Very 

 early in the French Revolution, the Univer- 

 sity of Paris was broken up nil its privileges 

 were annihilated, and its possessions dis- 

 persed ; and with it every other public and 

 protected institution for education. The 

 common resources and scenes of in- 

 struction were swept away, and instruc- 

 tion was sought for from any quarter, 

 from pretenders and unpretenders without 

 authority, since it couid not be obtained 

 with by hook or by crook any way 

 wherever it could be procured. There were 

 none to control the master or the scholar ; 

 the wonted course might be safely aban- 

 doned, and another method as safely adopted. 

 There was a chance for getting rid of the 

 bad, and at least of trying a better. Edu- 

 cation was completely unfettered, and left 

 as surely it ought to be to ' the effects of 

 unthwarted competition. 



This free state of things, however, was not 

 suffered to last long. The essence of edu- 

 cation is not enough for people. They re- 

 quire certain outward and visible signs to 

 recognise the man, who is qualified to 

 teach, or to preach, or to cut oft' a limb, or 

 dabble in physic, or quibble in the courts ; 

 and there must therefore be authorities, under 

 whose control men may graduate, and thus 

 win titles to confidence. Besides, among the 

 philosophers of the national convention, edu- 

 cation was a favourite subject of specula- 

 tion. Man is the creature of habit. Take 



