ag eis 
SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER 
Tro THE TWENTY-FOURTH VOLUME or THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
ae 
Vou. 24, No. 166. | 
th 
30, 1808. 
[Price 1s. 6d. 
HALE-YE “AR LY RETROSPECT OF DOMESTIC LITERATURE 
HISTORY. ‘ 
N looking back upon the literary pro- 
ductions of the lait half-year, we find 
but two books of real consequence in 
this department. One is, 
“« The History of the W ‘orld, from the 
Reign of Alexander to that-of Augustus,” 
by Dr. GitLiEes; comprehending a pe- 
riod of about three hundred years: and 
which Dy. Gillies calls the busiest in the 
annals of mankind. In five preliminary 
sections we have a survey of Alexander’s 
conguefis, and an estimate of his plans 
for their consolidation and improvement: 
comprising, so far as it can be known, 
the history of the nations which had been 
previously melted down into the mass of 
the Persian empire. The multitude of 
events, and the complications of history 
which crowd the page render any thing 
like analysis here, superfluous. It may 
be enough to say that the work is written 
with Dr. Gillies’s known ability, and that 
it is a valuable accession to the library of 
the scholar. 
The other work, which we shall no- 
tice more at length, is “ The History 
of the House of Austria,” by Mr. 
Coxe, in three volumes quarto, The 
House of Austria, it appears, formed a 
principal subject of his contemplation so 
long ago as the period of his travels in 
Sipitaer land, when the character. and ex- ~ 
ploits of Rhodolph of Hapsburgh and his 
immediate successors arrested his atten- 
tion. While resident at Vienna, the sub- 
ject pressed more strongly°on his mind, 
and from the rich stores of the Imperial 
library, and other sources of information, 
he collected abundant materials for bio-~ 
graphical memoirs of the great founder 
of the family, Other travels and ‘other 
publications suspended the desizn; and 
Mr. Coxe changed it fer the “ Historical 
and Political State of Europe,” in which 
the House of Austria was intended to 
form a conspicuous figure. This plan 
was however relinguished, but bis cvilec- 
tions for the Austrian History ‘still con- 
tinued to augment, particularly during 
two subsequent visits to Vienna, New 
literary pursuits still suspended without 
diverting his design; and the papers to 
Mongutx Mac., Ne. 166. 
which he obtained access while compiling 
thee Memoirs of Sir Robert and Eord 
Walpole, swelled the mass of materials, 
and threw a new and interesting light on 
the modern period of the Austrian annals. 
At length he found leisure to turn his 
whole attention to a work which he had 
been unwilling to relinquish, though un- 
able to complete; and the result of his 
labours is the book here offered to the 
public. The history itself presents a sin- 
gular speetacle, of a family rising rapidly 
from the possession of dominions which 
form scarcely a speck in the map of Eu- 
rope, to a stupendous height of power 
and splendour, equal, if not superior, to 
any preceding dignity. The house of 
Austria was the barrier that arrested the 
progress of the Mahometan hordes: and 
afterwards formed, for centuries, the great 
counterpoise to France: in the political 
balance. At all times, says Mr. Coxe, 
and in all circumstances, Austria ‘has 
been pre-eminent in peace as in arms; 
the court of Vienna has invariably Heer 
the great centre on which the vast ma~ 
chine of European policy has revolved, 
“ the composition of the work we find 
o formal method of divisions and sub- 
easibis adopted; Mr. Coxe has suffered. 
himself to be carried by the stream of 
time, marking with sufficient distinctness 
the more important periods, and intro- 
ducing in occasional pauses, reviews of 
the state of Europe, from which the rea- 
der may form a judgment of the progres- 
sive use, exterior connexions, and com- 
parative greatness of the House of Au- 
stria. © ‘Lhe History, he says, naturally 
closes with the death of Leopold,the ses 
cond; as it is not possible for an author, 
who values the reputation of candour and 
authenticity, to compile, from imperfect 
documents, and amidst the misrepresen- 
tations of passion and prejudice, a faith- 
ful account of those portentous revolu- 
tions which have totally changed the po- 
litical relations and 1 importance of Austri la, 
-and confounded all the ancient connec- 
tions of Europe. Such is the description 
which Mr. Coxe has himself viven of his 
work, in a more extended form, in the 
Prelace. His authorities, he adds, are 
4M. printed, 
a 
