SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER 
to tur FIFTY-EIGHTH VOLUME or tue 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. ~ 
No. 405.] 
JANUARY 31, 1825. 
[Price 2s. 
REVIEW OF NEW WORKS. 
Memotrs of the Arrains of Europe 
JSrom the Peact of Utrecut, Thin 4to. 
Murray. 
HOUGH no name appears in the 
title page of this attractive volume, 
itis unequivocally attributed, by general 
rumour, to the pen of Lord John 
Russell, and, as far as we can learn, 
there is as little desire as there can be 
occasion, for disavowal on the part of 
the noble author. We could have 
wished, indeed, that his superscription- 
had been unequivocally affixed :—that 
so distinguished a member of the house 
of Russel! had thus given an unreserved 
sanction to the manly and generous 
sentiments it so freely breathes :—for 
although. an argument be not the, more, 
logical, an opinion the more valid, ora 
fact more‘true, because, advanced: by a 
mnan of rank .and: family’; yet itis: re- 
ceived with less jealousy, and passes 
more current from the stamp’and im- 
press of such authority. Tt is liable to 
less cayil. in the market. The cry of 
jacobinism, radicalism, levelling and 
anarchism! or the like is not as easily 
raised against a liberal sentiment, or a 
just censure of tyranny and, corruption, 
when uttered. by the patriot of conspi- 
cuous exalted station, as when it issues: 
from the dark corners:of obscurity, or 
from the lips of the demagogue (as he 
must ofcourse be called) who has no- 
thing but the justice of his cause or the 
validity of his logic to entitle him to 
credence or attention. These con- 
siderations will, we trust, excuse us 
both in the estimation of his lordship 
and, the public, ifwe admit for once, the 
voice of, general. rumour as evidence in 
our critical court, andi treat the work 
before us as the production of Lord 
John Russell: 
Before we enter more particularly 
into the analysis of its contents or the 
estimation of its merits, we must, how- 
ever, observe that, in one respect, the 
perusal somewhat disappointed us. 
From. the misnomer in the title page 
“ affairs of Europe,from the Peace of 
Uirecht’ we. expected to have found 
-. Monruty Maa. No. 405. 
something like a sketch of, or essay to- 
wards a history of European affairs, 
from the date of that famous treaty to 
the present time. But the period em- 
braced in this memoir extends in 
reality no further than to six or eight 
years beyond the death of Louis XIV.: 
though the evident object, in an_his-. 
torical point of view, is to shew the in- 
fluence which the reign and policy of 
the Grand Monarch has had upon the 
subsequent events which have affected 
the destinies of the civilized world. 
Relative to these, indeed, many per- 
tinent reflections are introduced ; and 
many observations suggested well wor- 
thy of the serious attention of those 
who, in estimating the oceurrences and 
expedients of the present, are not. quite 
indifferent .to remoter consequences 
and tke destinies of the future. Still, 
however, ‘the work itself,» considered: 
with reference to its facts and epoch, 
is a memoir of the court and politics of 
the latter days of Louis the Fourteenth ; 
and as a book of reference to the moré 
methodical historian it is nothing more. 
Considered in this point of view, it is, 
however, equally interesting and instruc- 
tive. It is a supplement..4t, once and 
an antidote to Voltaire?s . celebrated, 
and seductively amusing “ Age of 
Louis XIV.” It exposes both sides of 
the tapistry, and shews the base mate- 
rials out of which the gaudy glare’ of 
the surface has been produced: or, 
perhaps, we might have said in more 
appropriate metaphor, it detects by its 
essay the base materials of ‘fraud and 
misery which constitute the base of 
that tinsel glare. of frippery and vanity, 
which courtiers at least, if not nations 
also, are apt. to dignify with the pom- 
pous epithets of national glory. It does 
more: it is alesson to despots them- 
selves (if they are capable of being 
taught), as well as to nations, It shews 
them, that to enslave their subjects they 
must become enslaved themselves. The 
labour of the galleys would scarcely be 
more insupportable to a generous and 
energetic mind, than the: drudgery. of 
4 E mechanical 
