Philosophy of Contemporari/ Ct'itic'ism, No. XXXF. 



1824.) 



than even that of Parliament ; and 

 enlightened peojile will rather connive 

 at crime against the statute than be 

 instrumental in enforcing the statute, 

 which they regard itself as criminal. 



The third article, on Dr. Bradley's 

 Authentic Narrative of Frince Hohen- 

 loJie's extraordinary Cure of Miss Bar- 

 bara O'Connor, is a temperate exposure 

 of the newly-revived pretensions to 

 Catholic miracles ; which we particu- 

 larly lament, as having a tendency to 

 revive those prejudices which were so 

 happily dying away ; and to encourage 

 a suspicion that Catholicism has not 

 l>ccorae so comparatively a rational 

 and harndess, superstition as candour 

 was heginuing to believe. 



In the review of the prosing dulncss 

 and " silly or vulgar peculiarities," or, 

 as the " French critics" have charac- 

 terised them, "the vnlgarly-'ungram- 

 matical" details of the Bonrbon Narra- 

 tives, which are the subject of the fifth 

 article, the reviewer has not only 

 spoken with critical freedom of those 

 niaudling effusions of royal iniheeility, 

 and of the " tone of selfishness and 

 cold disregard of other men's safety, as 

 well as services, which runs through 

 these tracts ;" but has taken the 

 opportunity of reducing to their proper 

 level the heroes of Horace Walpole's 

 "Catiilogue of ten Royal and fourscore 

 >ioblc Authors;" of whom tlic only 

 exemptions admitted from this cen- 

 enre of worse than mediocrity are one 

 king (James I. of Scotland,) and "two 

 or three nol)lemen" (Bacon, Boling- 

 broke, and Shaftesbury, we suppose). 

 With a true anti-Bourbon spirit, this 

 well-written article does severe justice 

 on a once pitied and infatuatedly- 

 chcrished race, " now only remarkable 

 ior feebleness and bigotry, hatred to 

 freedom, and ingratitude to their best 

 licnefactors." Nothing of importance 

 to the instructive records of history is 

 added by the feeble and prosing pens 

 of Jjouis XVIIl. and the Duclicss of 

 Angoulenic, unless it be the impor- 

 laiieo of " a fricassee, or a bottle of 

 bnrgundy," to the consolation of fugi- 

 tive royalty. 



Upon the subject of Mr. Bischoff's 

 Jteasotts for the immediate Repeal of the 

 'J'ax vti I'oreifjn Wool, the ri;viewt;r, in 

 a strain of correct argument, supported 

 by facts and documents, sustains the 

 rights of the commercial and nianu- 

 fa<;tiiring interests against the mono- 

 polising and high price spirit of the 

 agricultural proprietors. 



37 



We are happy to find hini equally 

 consistent with the principles of rea- 

 son and justice on the still more impor- 

 tant subject of the seventh article,— 

 Thoughts on the Necessilij of improviuff 

 the Condition of tlie Slaves in the British 

 Colonies, with a view to their ultimate 

 Emancipation, and on the Practicability, 

 the Safety, and the Advantages, of thi 

 latter Measure ; by 'J". Clarkson, esq. 

 This is a subject upon which we can- 

 not here do justice, either to the 

 venerated author of the pamplilet, the 

 reviewer, or our own feelings. We 

 rejoice, however, on the increase and 

 activity of the societies^ originating 

 from " the parent stocks at Liverpool 

 and London," for the promotion of the 

 objects for which Mr. Clarkson has so 

 long and zealously laboured ; we shall 

 rejoice in every demonstration, " that 

 a fuller knowledge of the subject is 

 alone wanting to their complete prac- 

 tical success ; and wliile we cannot 

 suppress our a]iprehensions of the 

 obstinate resistance which the claims 

 of justice and humanity have yet to 

 encounter from foreign hostility, and 

 the selfish prejudices and narrow 

 ^interests of a few among ourselves, 

 neither can we suppress our anxious 

 conviction, that nothing short of the 

 complete abolition of slavery can ever 

 abolish the slave-trade. 



In the eleventh article, on the Me- 

 moirs of the Baron de Kolli, relative to 

 his secret Mission inl8\0,for liberatiuy 

 Ferdinand VII. from. Captivity at Va- 

 Icneey, written by himsef; to which are 

 added, Memoirs of the Queen of Utruria. 

 written by herself, — we have a satisfy- 

 ing abridgment of the awkward ma- 

 nagement of that bungling intrigue of 

 the British cabinet to which the for- 

 nier of these items refers; and of the 

 spirit in which the review is written 

 we have a specimen in the well- 

 founded remark on " the surjjrisc of all 

 the world, and the mortilication of 

 legitimacy," that the fall of Napoleon 

 was followed by no " bringing to light 

 of crimes of the departed tyranny," no 

 overflowing of the jircss "with me- 

 moirs and testimonies of those who 

 had been its victims." On the con- 

 trary, it is well observed — "The abuse 

 of the Emperor was (?ir less after his 

 abdication than it had ever been 

 during his reign; iind we believe we 

 state the truth but feebly and inade- 

 (|u;ilely wIkui W(! say, tliul nil Unit has 

 siiiie becMi disclosed of his <;ondHet 

 and cbaiaeter, has tended nut ody U\ 



roiue 



