ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



487 



rope unhappily has been of late. 

 The events which led to the battle 

 of Laupen are detailed in the au- 

 thor's usual impressive manner. 

 It is to be observed thatj on this 

 theatre, the car of victor)' is not at- 

 tendant on the briliiant Paladins, 

 but ever awaits the humble peasant 

 and the contemned burgher. 



The dreadful plague, mentioned 

 by all the historians, which raged 

 at this period, carried away in 

 Basle alone twelve thousand per- 

 sons, and a third of the population 

 of Helvetia. ■ 



Chap. IX. Zuric, Zug, and 

 Berne join the confederacy. It ap- 

 pears from the present wort, as 

 well as from all history, that in- 

 surrection ever originates in oppres- 

 sion. Had not the inhabitants of 

 the sequestered vales of the Alps 

 been grievously and wantonly op- 

 pressed, the world would have been 

 deprived of the example of high 

 practical liberty, which Helvetia 

 so long exhibited. Privilege and li- 

 berty are not only compatible, they 

 are capable of mutually assisting 

 each other: but, at moments inau- 

 spicious to human weal, they over- 

 leap their respective limits : then, 

 rancorous animosity lays hold of the 

 minds of men, fierce warfare rava- 

 ges the earth, and dreadful havoc is 

 often made, before the equilibrium 

 of the political and moral world is 

 restored ; before privilege will con- 

 sent to be considered as an investi- 

 ture for the general good, connect- 

 ed with burthens as well as with 

 benefits; and before liberty will 

 submit to necessary restraints. 



In Chap. X.we find the splendid 

 Leopold, the very essence of chi- 

 valry, unable to endure that bur- 

 ghers and peasants should set up 

 privileges which entrenched on his 



claims. Early did Europe witness 

 how courts miscalculate the prowess 

 with which liberty inspires her chil- 

 dren ; what wonders, a people who 

 regard slavery as worse than death 

 are capable of performing ; and how 

 unequal is the contest between the 

 satellites of arbitrary power, and the 

 worthy sons of freedom, who fight 

 for all that they hold most dear ! 

 It was the sentiment of liberty pa- 

 ramount in the mind, that render- 

 ed the Swiss confederates, few in 

 numbers, and destitute of means, 

 invincible by the whole power of 

 the house of Austria. 



Though descriptions of battles 

 form perhaps the least instructive 

 parts of the page of history, yet, 

 when they are perspicuous and 

 lively, they add very much to its 

 interest. Mr. Planta has succeeded 

 in giving this advantage tohis work, 

 in an eminent degree. The de- 

 scriptions of the battles of Morgar- 

 ten, Semijach, Laupen, and Naefels, 

 do not disparage these great events ; 

 and we mistake if the reader risi s 

 not from the perusal of the Helve- 

 tic history, with veneration for 

 these spots in no degree inferior to 

 that which he has felt for those that 

 have been consecrated by the elo- 

 quence of Greece. 



In Chap. XI. the author thus de- 

 scribes the Swiss mode of fighting: 

 ' To stand like walls, was their 

 fundamental order of defence : to 

 advance irresistibly ; to penetrate 

 and bear down every thing before 

 them, like a rock rolling from the 

 summit of St. Gothard, was their 

 mode of attack. Such were the 

 tactics said to have been practised 

 before Troy by the Israelites, when 

 they were still led by the God of 

 Hosts, and by the Greek phalanx 

 and Roman legions, before their 



