56 
eight-and-twenty, introductory. pages, fur- 
ther than to say, that they contain one of 
the. most,beautiful specimens of historical 
disquisition which we ever remember to 
have seen compressed within so small a 
compass. We haye quoted one short pas- 
sage from this introduction in our Supple- 
ment (see commencement of the article on 
“the Greek Klephtai,” vol. lix., p. 608) ; 
and we are free to confess that, if the work 
had come into our hands before so. large a - 
portion of that Supplement had been :print- 
ed off, we should have devoted to it several 
es. : 
The translator seems to have done jus- 
tice to his author. The style is elegant, 
without affectation of superfluous orna- 
ment; and, what can rarely be said of 
modern translations from the French, is 
pure and genuine English, both in Jan- 
guage and construction—unpolluted with 
gallic phraseology or gallic idiom: a praise 
which cannot always be given even to the 
elegant Gibbon. 
A History of England, from the First 
Invasion by the Romans to the Common- 
wealth. By Joun Lincarp, D.D. Vol. VI. 
4to., containing the Reigns of James £. and 
Charles I.—This is another of those works 
whose tardy appearance we lament; as in 
the Supplement we might have given it a 
much larger consideration than 1s practi- 
cable in our monthly number. Here we 
can do little more than announce its ap- 
pearance, and bear our testimony. that, to 
the extent to which we have been enabled 
to carry our examinations, it appears to be 
written in the same temperate and candid 
spirit with the preceding volumes, and 
with the same apparent diligence in the 
‘quest of original documents and authori- 
ties. We see no reason to withhold our 
credit from the assertion, when the author 
says, in the prefixed advertisement to these 
sheets— 
In composing them, the writer has scrupulously 
adhered to his former plan, joining the same distrust 
of modern, with the same attention to original, au- 
thorities. It has also been his endeavour to hold, 
with asteady hand, the balance between the con- 
tending parties, and to delineate, with equal fidelity, 
the virtues and vices of the principal actors, whether 
they supported the pretensions of the crown, or 
fought for the liberties of the people. Having no 
political partialities to gratify, he knows not of any 
temptation, which was likely, in this respect, to 
seduce him from the straight line of his duty. 
In repelling the jealousy “ that he may 
occasionally be swayed by religious pre- 
possessions,”’ he appeals to the unsatisfac- 
tory result of Mr. Todd’s attempt to re- 
scue the memory of Archbishop Cranmer; 
and we confess ourselves to be of opinion, 
that few of ‘the hot, or of the politie po- 
Temics and theologians of those times, of 
either party, will be much exalted in esti- 
mation, by the severity of a scrupulous ap- 
peal to’ authentic documents. The con- 
tests-of theology? aré- little «calculated; we 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
(Aug. T, 
fear, to , fortify., mtegrity, ‘or .amend ‘the 
hearts and morals of those who engage in 
them. And .though, «in’ reading» history, 
even. where, as in the pages‘ ofeDr. Lin- 
gard, we ‘see .no reason -to ‘impeach®' the 
moral candour of the writer, we have ‘als 
ways an eye, not only to those inevitable 
partialities with which a man, even un- 
consciously, inclines: his belief to those of 
his own party and persuasion, but also to 
the circumstance, that the documents most 
favourable to that party are, also, gene- 
rally speaking, most accessible to the writer ; 
and therefore we do not, upon all points, 
go all the length with Dr. Lingard, any 
more than with any other historian; nor 
can we yet persuade ourselves, that all his 
extenuations on one side, or his Jess fa- 
vourable colourings on the other, are so com- 
pletely accurate as he himself, we doubt 
not, believes them to be; yet, we must 
say, that we have found much more reason 
to be satisfied with his representations, in 
general, of these matters, than we have 
usually been with those of the gene- 
rality of our previous, though Protestant, 
historians. In the history of the “Gun- 
powder-plot, for example, in the present 
volume (a tempting theme for Catholic 
partiality), we discover no cloven. foot; 
and, assuredly, much less appearance of 
“* extenuating any thing,”’ than we do in 
other accounts of “ setting down mueh in 
malice.” 
Dr. Lingard, naturally enough, “gives 
more credit than we should do to the auto- 
biography of a Jesuit’s Journal ; as he had 
before to the extenuations of Dunstan, in 
the story of Edwy and Elgiva; but we 
assure him he does not give a whit less to 
the Machiavelian artifices, and murdérous 
calumnies of those crown: lawyers, who, in 
eases of this deseription, always seem to 
think that they are feed, not to promote 
justice, but to shed blood, upon which, like 
vampires, they are to feed and fatten. Dr.. 
L.. notices, also, the controversial assault 
upon him by the Edinburgh . Reviewers, 
and their ‘ laboured eulogium: ‘upon 
Hume ;” upon which we shall only say, 
that Dr. L. can have nothing to fear from 
the comparison ; and that not all the na- 
tionality, nor all the talent of the. Edin- 
burgh Reviewers, can. long uphold the 
historical reputation of their idohzed coun- 
tryman. The day is not far distant, when 
Hume’s' England will be’ only read as an 
ingenious and eloquent political romance. + 
But as the volume before us treats also 
of that important political period, which 
embraces the rise and progress of the great 
Civil War between the King and Parlia- 
ment (usually, but improperly, ealled the 
Great Rebellion), and‘ terminates with’ the 
death of the king; our readers will, per- 
haps, be desirous of knowing with ‘what 
temper the historian speaks of the event. 
We close, therefore, our hasty notice (for, 
of such a’work; we cannot call it a Téview) 
; with 
