fian would assuredly break the basin in his struggles; his face would be lacerated; and, when his howling had brought the police to his assistance, the streaming blood would give an air of plausibility to his odious calumny that you had been attempting to cut his throat; whereas, he knows, as well as you know, that not a drop of blood would have been spilt, and very little water, had he forborne making so horrid an uproar."

into dimness when laid aside for a long time into dark repositories; but, upon being brought back to sunlight, revive gradually into something of their early life and coloring.* There are four separate reasons why the authorship of this book will always remain an interesting problem for the historical student :

1st. Because it involves something of a mystery. In this respect it resembles the question as to the Gowrie Conspiracy, as to the Iron Masque, &c. &c.; and unless. some new documents should appear, which is not quite impossible, but is continually growing nearer to an impossibility, it will remain a mystery; but a mystery which might be made much more engaging by a better mode of presenting the evidence on either side, and of pointing the difficulties that beset either conclusion.

2dly. Because it is an instructive example of conflicting evidence, which having long been sifted by various cross-examiners, sharp as razors, from ability and from reciprocal animosity, has now become interesting for itself; the question it was, which interested at the first; but at length the mere testimonies, illustrated by hostile critics, have come to have a separate interest of their own apart from the point at issue.

After such a passage, I suppose few people would be satisfied with Sir James's construction of the book :-“It is an account of the means by which the art of assassination is to be acquired and preserved; it is a theory of that class of phenomena. It is essential to its purpose, therefore, that it should contain an exposition of murder in all its varieties." In reality, the state of Italian society in those days, as Sir James himself suggests, is the best key to the possibility of such a work as The Prince, but, at the same time, the best guarantee of its absolute sincerity. We need only to read the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, who was a contemporary of Machiavel, to see with what reckless levity a man, naturally generous and brave, thought of avenging his slightest quarrel by a pistol shot from some cowardly ambuscade. Not military princes only, but popes, cardinals, 3dly. The book has a close connexion bishops, appear to have employed murder- with the character of Charles I., which is ers, and to have sheltered murderers as a a character meriting even a pathetic attennecessary part of their domestic garrisons-tion, where its native features are brought often to be used defensively, or in menace; under the light of the very difficult circumbut, under critical circumstances, to be used stances besetting its natural development. aggressively for sudden advantages. It was no mistake, therefore, in Frederick of Prussia, to reply calmly and elaborately to The Prince, as not meant for a jest, but as a serious philosophic treatise offered to the world (if, on such a subject, one may say so) in perfect good faith. It may, perhaps, also be no mistake, at all events it proves the diffusive impression as to the cool wickedness of the book, that, in past times, many people seriously believed the name of Old Nick [one of the vulgar expressions for the devil], to have been an off-set from the name of Niccolo Machiavelli.

4thly. The book is one of that small number which (like the famous pamphlet of the Abbé Sieyes, on the Tiers état), produced an impression worthy to be called national. According to my present recollection, I must, myself, have seen the fortyninth edition; at present [May, 1846] it wants but thirty-two months of full two hundred yearst since the publication of the book; such an extent of distribution in

pened, three or four years ago, to what are called "Life and coloring: "-Such a change hap The Raphael Tapestries. After having been laid up in darkness for about ten years, they were brought out and exhibited at Manchester; after which the crimsons deepened remarkably under constant exposure to light, the blues clarified themselves, and the harmonies of the coloring began to revive.

The king suffered on the 30th of January, 1649. Aud I have somewhere read an anecdote, that Royston, the publisher, caused several copies, the first that were sufficiently dry, to be distributed amongst the crowd that surrounded the scaf

fold. This was a bold act. For Royston, and

an age of readers so limited, such a dura-rect there: "horror" is his own word; tion of the interest connected with a ques- and a horror it was until a late act for extion so personal, is the strongest testimony alting the weak and pulling down the extant of the awe pursuing so bold an act mighty. Sir James seems to have thought as the judicial execution of a king. this phrase of "a horror," un peu fort for

Sir James Mackintosh takes up the case so young a prelate. But it is to be conas against Dr. Wordsworth. And, being a sidered that Dr. G. came immediately from lawyer, he fences with the witnesses on the rural deanry of Bocking, where the the other side, in a style of ease and adroit-pastures are good. And Sir James ought ness that wins the reader's applause. Yet, to have known by one memorable case in after all, he is not the more satisfactory for his own time, and charged upon the injusbeing brilliant. He studied the case neither tice of his own party, that it is very possimore nor less than he would have done a ble for a rural parson leaving a simple recbrief: he took it up on occasion of a suddentory to view even a bishopric as an insupsummons ab extra: and it is certain that no portable affront; and, in fact, as an atrocijustice will ever be done to all the bearings ous hoax or swindle, if the rectory happened of the evidence, unless the evidence is ex- to be Stanhope, worth in good mining years amined con amore. It must be a labor of six thousand per annum, and the bishopric love, spontaneous, and even impassioned; to be Exeter, worth, until lately, not more and not of mere compliance with the sug-than two. But the use which Sir James gestion of a journal, or the excitement of a makes of this fact, coming so soon after new book, that will ever support the task the king's return, is-that assuredly the of threshing out and winnowing all the materials available for this discussion.

Were I proprietor of this journal, and entitled to room a discretion, perhaps I might be indiscreet enough to take forty pages for my own separate use. But, being merely an inside passenger, and booked for only one place, I must confine myself to my own allotment. This puts an end to all idea of reviewing the whole controversy; but it may be well to point out one or two oversights in Sir James Mackintosh.

doctor must have had some conspicuous merit, when so immediately promoted, and amongst so select a few. That merit, he means to argue, could have been nothing else, or less, than the seasonable authorship of the Icon.

It is certain, however, that the service which obtained Exeter, was not this. Worcester, to which G. afterwards obtained a translation, and the fond hope of Winchester, which he never lived to reach, may have been sought for on the argument of the Icon. But Exeter was given on another This is certain; and, if

The reader is aware of the question at issue, viz., whether the Icon, which is sup- consideration. posed to have done so much service to the known to Sir James, would perhaps have cause of royalty, by keeping alive the mem- arrested his final judgment. ory of Charles I., in the attitude of one 2. Sir James quotes, without noticing forgiving injuries, or expostulating with their entire inaccuracy, the well-known enemies in a tone of apparent candor, were words of Lord Clarendon-that when the really written by the king himself, or writ-secret (as to the Icon) should cease to be ten for him, under the masque of his char- such, "nobody would be gladd of it but Mr. acter, by Dr. Gauden. Sir James, in this case, is counsel for Dr. Gauden. Now, it happened that about six months after the Restoration, this doctor was made Bishop of Exeter. The worthy man was not very long, viz., exactly forty-eight days, in discovering that Exeter was a horror" of a bishopric. It was so; he was quite cor

all his equipage of compositors, were in great peril already, by their labors at the press. Imprisonmert for political offences was fatal to three out of four in those days; but the penalties were sometimes worse than imprisonment for offences so critically perilous as that of Royston.

"A horror :"-It is true that Dr. G. received a sum of twenty thousand pounds within the first year; but that was for renewal of leases that had

Milton." I notice this only as indicating the carelessness with which people read, and the imperfect knowledge of the facts even amongst persons like Lord Clarendon, having easy access to the details, and contemporary with the case. Why should the disclosure have so special an interest for Milton? The Icon Basiliké, or royal image, having been set up for national worship, Milton, viewing the case as no better than idolatry, applied himself to pull down the idol; and, in allusion to the title of the book, as well as to the ancient Iconoclasts,

lapsed during the Commonwealth suppression of the sees; and nothing so great was likely to occur again.

he called his own exposure of the Icon by false, it was easy for him to reply with the the name of Iconoclastes, or the Image- bold front of an innocent man. There was breaker. But Milton has no interest in next a second charge, of having negotiated Lord Clarendon's secret. What he had with the rebels subsequently to their insurmeant by breaking the image was not the rection. To this also there was a reply: showing that the king had not written the not so triumphant, because, as a fact, it book, but that whoever had written it (king could not be blankly denied; but under the or any body else), had falsely represented state difficulties of the king, it was capathe politics and public events of the last ble of defence. Thirdly, however, there seven years, and had falsely colored the was a charge quite separate and much king's opinions, feelings, designs, as ex- darker, which, if substantiated, would have pounded by his acts. Not the title to the ruined the royal cause with many of its authorship, was what Milton denied: of staunchest adherents. This concerned the that he was comparatively careless: but secret negotiation with the Popish nuncio the king's title to so meek and candid a through Lord Glamorgan. It may be ninecharacter as was there portrayed. It is ty years since Dr. Birch, amongst his many true that laughingly, and in transitu, Mil- useful contributions to English history, ton notices the unlikelihood of a king's brought to life this curious correspondence: finding leisure for such a task, and he no- and since that day there has been no room tices also the internal marks of some chap- for doubt as to the truth of the charge. lain's hand in the style. That same prac- Lord Glamorgan was a personal friend of tice in composition, which suggested to Sir the king, and a friend so devoted, that he James Mackintosh his objections to the submitted without a murmur to be represtyle, as too dressed and precise for a prince sented publicly as a poor imbecile creawriting with a gentleman's negligence, sug- ture, this being the sole retreat open to gested also to Milton his suspicion of a the king's own character. Now, the Icon clerical participation in the work. He does not distinguish this last charge, as to thought probably, which may, after all, which there was no answer, from the two turn out to be true, that the work was a others where there was In a person situjoint product of two or more persons. But ated like Gauden, and superficially acall that was indifferent to his argument. quainted with political facts, this confusion His purpose was to destroy the authority might be perfectly natural. Not so with by exposing the falsehood of the book. the king; and it would deeply injure his And his dilemma is framed to meet either memory, if we could suppose him to have hypothesis that of the king's authorship, or that of an anonymous courtier's. Written by the king, the book falsifies facts in a way which must often have contradicted his own official knowledge, and must therefore impeach his veracity: written for the king, the work is still liable to the same charge of material falsehood, though probably not of conscious falsehood; so far the writer's position may seem improved; one who was not in the Cabinet would often utter untruths, without knowing them to be such yet again this is balanced by the deliberate assumption of a false character for the purpose of public deception.

benefitted artfully by a defence upon one charge which the reader (as he knew) would apply to another. Yet would it not equally injure him to suppose that he had accepted from another such an equivocating defence? No: for it must be recollected that the king, though he had read, could not have had the opportunity (which he anticipated) of revising the proof sheets; consequently we know not what he might finally have struck out. But, were it other

This " poor imbecile creature" was the original suggester of the Steam-engine. He is known in his earlier life as Lord Herbert, son of Lord Worcester, who at that time was an earl, but af3. Amongst the passages which most afterward raised to a Marquisate, and subsequently fect the king's character, on the former hy- the son was made Duke of Beaufort. Apart from pothesis, (viz., that of his own authorship,) the negotiations with the nuncio, the king's peris the 12th section of the Icon, relating to El of Glamorgan as a means of accrediting him sonal bargain with Lord Herbert (whom he made his private negotiations with the Irish Ro- for this particular Irish service) was tainted with man Catholics. The case stands thus: marks of secret leanings to Popery. Lord GlaCharles had been charged with having ex-morgan's family were Papis's; and into this famicited (or permitted his Popish queen toy, the house of Somerset having Plantagenet blood in their veins, the king was pledged to give excite) the Irish rebellion and massacre of a daughter in marriage, with a portion of three 1641. To this charge, being factious and hundred thousand pounds.

wise, Sir James Mackintosh argues that the phalia. That treaty it was, balancing and dishonesty would, under all the circum- readjusting all Christendom, until the stances, have been trivial, when confined French Revolution again unsettled it, that to the act of tolerating an irrelevant de- first proclaimed to the Popish interest the fence, in comparison of that dishonesty hopelessness of further efforts for extermiwhich could deliberately compose a false nating the Protestant interest. But this one. So far I fully agree with Sir James: consummation of the strife had not been his apology for the defence of the act, sup- reached by four or five years at the time posing that defence to be Gauden's, is suf- when Charles entered upon his jesuitical ficient. But his apology for the act itself dealings with the Popish council in Ireland ; is, I fear, untenable. He contends,-that dealings equally at war with the welfare of "it certainly was not more unlawful for struggling Europe, with the fundamental him," [the king] "to seek the aid of the laws of the three kingdoms which the king Irish Catholics, than it was for his oppo- ruled, and with the coronation oaths which nents to call in the succor of the Scotch he had sworn. I, that love and pity the Presbyterians." How so? The cases are afflicted prince, whose position blinded him, most different. The English and the Scottish of necessity, to the truth in many things, Parliaments were on terms of the most am the last person to speak harshly of his brotherly agreement as to all capital points conduct. But undoubtedly he committed of policy, whether civil or religious. In a great error for his reputation, that would both senates all were Protestants; and the have proved even a fatal error for his inpreponderant body, even in the English terests, had it succeeded at the moment, senate, up to 1646, were Presbyterians, and that might have upset the interests of and, one may say, Scottish Presbyterians; universal Protestantism, coming at that for they had taken the covenant. Conse- most critical moment. This case I notice, quently no injury, present or in reversion, as having a large application; for it is too to any great European interest, could be charged upon the consciences of the two Parliaments. Whereas the Kilkenny treaty, on Charles's part, went to the direct formal establishment of Popery as the Irish Church, to the restoration of the lands claimed as church lands, to a large confiscation, and to the utter extermination of the Protestant interest in Ireland. The treaty did all this, by its tendency; and if it were to be prevented from doing it, that could only be through prolonged war, in which the king would have found himself ranged in battle against the Protestant faith. The king not only testified his carelessness of the Protestant interest, but he also raised a new and a rancorous cause of civil war.

The truth is, that Mackintosh, from the long habit of defending the Roman Catholic pretensions, as applying to our own times, was tempted to overlook the difference which affected those pretensions in 1645-6. Mark the critical point of time. A great antiProtestant league of kingdoms had existed for a century, to which Spain, Austria, Bavaria, many Italian states, and, intermittingly, even France, were parties. The great agony of this struggle between Popery and the Reformation, came to its crisis, finally and for ever, in the Thirty years' war, which, beginning in 1618, (just one hundred years after Luther's first movement,) terminated in 1648, by the peace of West

generally true of politicians, arguing the Roman Catholic claims in these modern days, when the sting of Popery, as a political power, is extracted, that they forget the very different position of Protestantism, when it had to face a vast hostile confederation, always in procinctu for exterminating war, in case a favorable opening should arise.

Taking leave of the Icon Basiliké, I would express my opinion,-that the question is not yet exhausted: the pleadings must be reopened. But in the mean time no single arguments have been adduced against the king's claim of equal strength with these two of Sir James's: one drawn from external, the other from internal evidence:

First, that on the Gauden hypothesis, Lord Clarendon's silence as to the Icon in his history, though not strictly correct, is the venial error of a partisan; but that, on the other, or anti-Gauden hypothesis, his silence is fatal to his own character, as a man decently honest; and yet without an intelligible motive.

the

Secondly, that the impersonal character of the Icon is strongly in favor of its being a forgery. All the rhetorical forgeries of the later Greek literature, such as Letters of Phalaris, of Themistocles, &c. are detected by that mark. These forgeries, applying themselves to ages distant from the writer, are often, indeed, self-exposed

by their ignorant anachronisms. That station under changing circumstances in was a flaw which could not exist, in a the age or in the subject. He moves slowly, forgery, applied to contemporary events. or with velocity, as he moves amongst But else in the want of facts, of circum- breakers, or amongst open seas. And stantialities, and of personalities, such as were sure to grow out of love or hatred, there is exactly the same air of vagueness, and of timid dramatic personation, in the Icon, as in the old Greek knaveries.

MACKINTOSH'S MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.

upon every theme which he treats, in proportion as it rises in importance, the reader is sure of finding displayed the accomplishments of a scholar, the philosophic resources of a very original thinker, the elegance of a rhetorician, and the large sagacity of a statesman controlled by the most skeptical caution of a lawyer.

From the Westminster Review. RESEARCHES ON MAGNETISM.

1. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the year 1846. Part I. containing Experimental Researches in Electricity. By Michael Faraday, Esq., D. C. L. F. R. S., &c. 19th, 20th, and 21st Series.

Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des

Scéances de l'Academie des Sciences.
Tome XXII. Paris: 1846.

Abstract of Researches on Magnetism and certain allied subjects, including a supposed new Imponderable. By Baron von Reichenbach. Translated and abridged from the German by W. Gregory, M. D., F. R. S. E., M. R. I. A. London: 1846.

Perhaps it would have been an advantageous change for this republication of Sir James Mackintosh's works, if the entire third volume had been flung overboard, so as to lighten the vessel. This volume consists of political papers, that are at any rate imperfect, from the want of many documents that should accompany them, and are otherwise imperfect, laudably imperfect, from their author's station as a political partisan. It was his duty to be partial. 2. These papers are merely contributions to a vast thesaurus, never to be exhausted, of similar papers dislocated from their gen- 3. eral connexion they are useless; whilst, by compelling a higher price of admission, they obstruct the public access to other articles in the collection, which have an independent value, and sometimes a very high value, upon the very highest subjects. The ethical dissertation is crowded with just views, as regards what is old, and with THE nineteenth century is remarkable suggestions brilliant and powerful, as re- for triumphs of science, enterprise, and gards all the openings for novelty. Sir perseverance over great and acknowledged James Mackintosh has here done a public difficulties, and for the solution of probservice to education and the interests of the lems, practical and theoretical, sought in age, by setting his face against the selfish vain, or despaired of in former ages. But schemes of morality, too much favored by rapid and triumphant as is the march of the tendencies of England. He has thrown science, it is at the same time so gradual, light upon the mystery of conscience. He so imperceptible, that we cease to wonder has offered a subtle method of harmonizing at facts, which, but a few short years back, philosophic liberty with philosophic ne- would have been regarded as little short of cessity. He has done justice, when all miraculous. The steps by which we admen were determinately unjust,-to the vance are so numerous, that we do not leading schoolmen, to Aquinas, to Ockham, note the height to which we have climbed, to Biel, to Scotus, and in more modern until we turn to gaze behind us: the stone times to Soto and Suarez. To his own is hollowed, and we do not count the watercontemporaries, he is not just only, but drops which have worn it away. Nor can generous, as in the spirit of one who wishes the attentive observer of the advance of to make amends for the past injustice of physical science in our day fail to remark others. He is full of information and the effect of this progress upon the human suggestion upon every topic which he treats. mind. The obstinate refusal to receive Few men have so much combined the and acknowledge scientific truths decreases power of judging wisely from a stationary with proportionate rapidity, and the philosposition, with the power of changing that opher, who, in his laboratory, successfully