220 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS. 
The political tracts of the last year are almost wholly occupied with one great 
object ; the recommencement of hostilities between Britain and France, Party 
distinctions have for the most part been laid aside, and the threat of an extermi- 
nating invasion has aroused the ancient patriotism of the British nation. The sys- 
tem of colonial policy has been investigated by Mr. Brougham with much ability: 
and the Essay on Population by Mr. Malthus, has been expanded from a small 
octavo toa large quarto, with a corresponding increase of publicity and general 
approbation. 
Art. 1. ihe History of the Anglo-Saxons, from the Death of Alfred the Great to the 
Norman Conquest. By Su. ‘Turner, 
THIS third volume of the Anglo- 
Saxon history is better executed than the 
second, is far better executed than the 
first volume: Mr. Turner here displays 
aresearch more travelled,and an estimate 
more judicious. The sagas edited in Den- 
mark, and the manuscripts of the Cot- 
ton Library at length begin to be called 
in to his assistance: and considerable 
additions are made to the information so 
eloquently condensed by Milton, and so 
clearly unfolded by Rapin. Several 
manuscripts, however, which the Cot- 
ton Library contains, and which might 
have been expected to threw light on 
the events discussed, are not quoted. 
Such as the manuscript Caligula, 4. [X., 
in which illustrations may be found of 
the fabulous history of Arthur, and of 
his pretended invasion of Denmark. 
The Anglo-Saxon heroic poem, or chro- 
nicle in verse, of the tenth century, /7- 
tellius, A. XV., contains matter appli- 
cable to the purposes of this historian. 
There is a compendium of the history of 
the Anglo-Saxon kings, in Domitianus, 
A. VIII, and also valuable particulars 
of the institutes of Knute, or Canute. 
Of this king again there is especial no- 
tice in the manuscript Caligula, A. X; 
and of his tribute, or tax, called Dane- 
lage, in the Harleian manuscripts, No. 
746. There are also manuscripts. con- 
cerning the gests of the Normans, 
whence perhaps something could have 
been borrowed to illustrate their-origin, 
which is somewhat within our author’s 
scope. Js not the Latin original also 
extant, whence Lydgate versified his 
life of St. Edmund? Yet we have not 
observed ‘under that reign mention of 
either biography. When Mr. ‘Turner 
has properly examined these, and some 
other domestic and foreign sources of 
instruction, he will, no doubt, revise his 
whole work, and accompany it with a 
profuse appendix of scarce and inedited 
F.A.S. Vol. Tit. 
8vo. pp. 420. 
documents: it will become, we doubt 
not, a perennial monument in the tem- 
ple of British literature. A greater de- 
tail, both of narrative and quotation, 
both of text and note, might with ad- 
vantage have been indulged, and there 
are several of our country historians, 
who might be assessed for tributary ma- 
terials. There is a fragment of an an- 
cient poem concerning Saint George, 
which was edited at Copenhagen by 
Barthold Christian Sandvig in 1783, and 
which is transcribed from a Vatican 
manuscript containing the gospels ac- 
cording to Otfrid’s version. From this 
ballad, or hymn, it appears that the 
Saint George, so highly venerated by 
the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon tribes, was 
an early christian missionary, and pro- 
bably a Lombard by birth, for his le- 
gend has been found connected with a 
history of Lombardy. He was opposed 
by a heathen named Tatian, and cast 
into a well; byt he rose again and 
wrought many miracles. It is not un- 
likely that this Saint George visited 
England, and left behind him that po- 
pularity of character, which we have 
since transferred to the army-contractor 
of Alexandria, the Cappadocian George. 
In‘this ballad he is called mare crabo, 
merry count George, which agrees with, the 
chivalrous character ascibed to this Saint. 
We should have been glad to see the 
date of a mission ascertained, which has 
left such profound traces of efficacy in 
our vernacular literature. He can hard- 
ly have. flourished before Beda (all 
whose works demanded the perusal of a 
historian of the Anglo-Saxons), as Beda 
would not have failed to notice him in 
the ecclesiastical history. Mr. Gibbon 
recommended a magnificent edition of 
the early writers on English affairs, and 
wished it to be entrusted to Mr. Pinker- 
ton: Might it not be undertaken by a 
voluntary committee of the learned in 
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