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1853.]

The Duke de Brabant.

tinental influence-unless the people of Prussia and Austria are prepared to see their capitals in the possession of the Frank, as they were in the last war, they cannot consent to allow France to place her foot on Belgium, and thereby to possess the mouths of the Scheldt, the Meuse, and the Rhine, gaining a step towards the Thames and the Medway, and many steps on the road to Germany and Holland.

These considerations it is that induced the German Courts, in the course of the month of May, to receive Leopold of Belgium with open arms, and that further induced the House of Austria to agree to the marriage of the Duke of Brabant with the Archduchess Maria Henrietta, the daughter of the Archduke Joseph and of the Archduchess Maria Dorothea, a princess of Wurtemberg. The Duke of Brabant is, from all we have read, and all we have heard of him, a young prince of distinguished merit, of the most amiable disposition, and solid qualities of mind and heart. He is a son, in every sense, worthy of such a father, and will find a fitting mate, both in natural disposition and endowments, in the princess whom he has chosen as his partner for life. But much as the young couple are suited to each other in years and natural dispositions, it is the moral and political fitness of the union that has weighed with the Courts of Austria and Brussels, and that has convinced the statesmen of Europe that this marriage will nip in the bud the projects of an unlawful ambition. We allude to the desire of the Emperor of the French to extend his frontier to the Rhine. The wisdom and temperance of which Leopold the father has given so many and such varied proofs, it is well known to the Court of Vienna are inherited by the son; and in an European sense, nothing can be more important than that a dynasty such as this should be preserved. From 1848 to the present day there is no country that has been more open-we speak in respect to its freedom and its frontiersto the influence of every extravagant doctrine and every wild political passion than Belgium. There have been agitations and revolu

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tions in France, and almost in every state in Germany, and in these countries religious dissensions and differences have mingled with civil broils; but in Belgium, thanks to the wisdom, adroitness, and tolerance of the King, there have been neither émeutes, nor outbreaks, nor bloodshed, nor anything more formidable than changes in the personnel of the Belgian Ministry. It is because Leopold has heartily devoted himself, from 1831 and 1832, to his difficult task, that he has been successful. He has honourably and conscientiously fulfilled his duties, and it is for this reason his people have afforded so many marks of confidence and affection. A member of the Reformed Church, he has had the rare merit of contenting a people so ultra-Catholic that they have been called plus Catholique que le Saint Pere lui même. Conduct such as this discloses profound sagacity and deep political wisdom.

The Duke of Brabant has studied in the cabinet of an able master and monitor; and as by the law of the land he has been brought up in the religion of the nation over which he is to reign, it may be supposed he has an additional reason for identifying himself with a people who owe to his parent the enjoyment of perfect prosperity and of full and entire liberty, both civil and religious. The moral and political importance of Belgium is increased in an European sense by the projected union of the heir to the throne with an Austrian princess. It is the convincing and diplomatie proof that Belgium must henceforth become dynastic in the state system of Europe, and that the suspicions and mistrusts which so long existed in the cabinets of what are called the Great Powers against this little monarchy are now dispelled. The important towns of Belgium, in giving their approbation and adhesion to this projected marriage, or rather to this solemn betrothal, have shown that they wish their existence to be, as it has been for the last twenty years, free and independent, removed from all foreign influence and dictation. The Belgian nation and people desire not political annihilation, they covet not annexation to, or rather absorp

tion in, the empire of France. No; they desire to be as they have long been, Belgians, having thoughts, feelings, wishes, and instincts, as well as a nationality all their own. The Archduchess Maria Henrietta will identify herself with all the feelings of the Belgians; for in the traditions of her family and home she will find it recorded that some of the brightest days of Belgium and of Austria were those in which Maria Theresa governed both countries. This is, doubtless, the feeling entertained by the Belgian Senate and the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, for both one and the other responded to the official announcement of the marriage by loud salvos of applause.

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The reception of the king and the Duke, too, by the people on their return from Germany at Verviers, at Liège, at Tirlemont, at Louvain, at Mechlin, and at Brussels shows that the inhabitants and bourgeoisie of these important places ratify the choice of their prince, and look to the projected union with entire hope fulness and generous trust. The memory of Maria Theresa has been preserved in Belgium with veneration bordering upon reverence, and the worthy farmers of the country and the industrious shopkeepers of the towns naturally conceive that the great granddaughter of a good and a great woman is not without many of the Empress's best and brightest qualities. It would, indeed, appear as though this marriage were the complement and fulfilment of the independent existence of Belgium. The sovereign and the people have, amidst many difficulties and dan gers, and in times of the utmost turmoil and trouble, shown themselves so prudent and yet so patriotic, so devoted to liberty and independence, and yet such friends of tranquillity and order that they have conciliated the respect and esteem of the most absolute and despotic courts. Even Russia now feels and acknowledges that the mission of Leopold has been a safe and a pacific mission, and while indispensable to the independent vitality of Belgium, most useful to Europe. It is because it is felt that in the event of anything hap

pening to the distinguished father, there is a scion of the house to supply his place uno avulso non deficit alter that the bridegroom of the Austrian Archduchess is looked upon as the spear and shield' of a nation which desires to enjoy liberty with order, and religion with

toleration.

The people of Belgium, of Germany, and of England, have had no prejudices or hatreds against the great French nation. They feel and know that the French people are desirous of freedom at home and of peace abroad. But if an ambitious ruler should make an aggression on a neighbouring nation, weak and defenceless as compared with France, it is satisfactory to know that the Powers of Europe are prepared to maintain the integrity of Belgium, as the integrity of Turkey. The treaty guaranteeing the integrity and neutrality of Belgium is scarcely yet dry, and most of the statesmen who signed it are in the land of the living. It is not then to be expected that these eminent men, or rather the powers which they represent, will quietly allow a State which they called into being to be blotted out of the map of Europe by an individual who, raised to power by conspiracy and revolution, may lose an empire by the very means and instruments to which he resorted to acquire it. In the construction of the kingdom of Belgium Russia, it is true, acted no very enthusiastic part. But Russia has since adhered to Leopold with more friendliness, not that she loves him the more, but the Emperor of France the less. Independently, however, of Russia England, Austria, and Prussia can maintain and defend the right, and preserve intact a settlement guaranteed by solemn treaty, any infraction of which must lead to grave complications if not to actual war. England is as little prepared to see France in possession of Antwerp and Ostend as Germany is prepared to see her in possession of the left bank of the Rhine. But irrespectively of England and Germany there is the people of Belgium prepared to forbid the bans of union with France and looking to that Leopold dynasty which has given the country twenty years of peace and progress.

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.

AUGUST, 1853.

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND, FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE EXTINCTION OF THE LAST JACOBITE INSURRECTION.*

MANY years have probably still

to elapse before an exhaustive history can be written of England and Scotland for the century which lies between the expulsion of the Stuarts and the outbreak of the first French revolution. The outward political characteristics of the period are sufficiently intelligible; but the forces at work underneath the surface, the swift and silent course of change in the temper and dispositions of the people, have as yet furnished too imperfect indications of their ultimate tendency to enable us either to estimate the value of them, or even vaguely to conceive their meaning. The word progress,' which is on the lips of all of us, expresses indeed our consciousness of the change that is going forward, and the sanguine feelings with which we regard it; but we have still to ask, progress towards what? and to receive very little satisfaction in the answers

which are given us. Is it progress in nobleness? progress in the conquest of what is small and unworthy in the human soul? or progress merely in material comfortsin the conquest over nature, and making her the handmaid of human convenience ?

In default of such proper insight into the real nature of what was going forward, such history of the eighteenth century as hitherto has offered itself has naturally been deficient in the power of arresting our interest. The disappearance from the surface of all questions of principle, religious or political, and as a consequence the absence from the arena of public life of all really remarkable men, is seriously felt as we descend from the great eras of the Reformation and the Revolution; while, owing to the improved

mechanical contrivances for the preservation of the records of what took place, we are overwhelmed by a multitude of details and minutiæ of circumstance and opinion, in which all men, and especially statesmen, are most found to indulge in the inverse ratio of the importance of the subject matter.

It is, therefore, no small proof of historical talent in the writer of the two volumes now before us that he has been able to distil such a mass of material into a palatable liquid, and has made a practicable and pleasant road for us through what was before a rather dreary wilderness. We do not know that Mr. Burton has added any absolutely new fact to those already known; but, what is of far greater importance, he has organized and made intelligible the confused heap he found before him; and while it is not easy for us to speak too highly of the manner in which he has executed his work, the same modest gracefulness of mind that gives such a charm to all he has written will probably make himself the last person who will estimate it at its full value. The matter, as he has treated it, has itself become interesting, and his style, if less brilliant than Macaulay's, has a pregnant elegance of its own, leaving behind it a calm and satis. factory impression, which pleases us as we receive it, and is retained without an effort. There is an appearance of indolence which is sometimes unconsciously acknowledged, and betrays itself, bythe-bye, seriously in a negligent correcting of the press; but in general it is the indolence of power, which holds its subject under easy command, and wields it without exertion. He makes no preten

History of Scotland, from the Revolution to the Extinction of the Last Jacobite Insurrection. By John Hill Burton. Two Vols. Octavo. London: Longman

and Co. 1853.

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sion to a large philosophy; tented to let facts tell their own story, he does not encumber them with comments, and he has shown his discretion as much in what he has avoided as in what he has touched. But in his detail of action, and in his estimate of character, there is an elevation of feeling and a calm subdued fairness far beyond the school of utilitarians, to which, from an occasional condescension to their hack expressions, he seems to belong. Mr. Burton, too, speaks of the progress of the enlightenment of humanizing influences, of large minded toleration, &c. &c., as if the improvement of man's nature was an unquestioned and unquestionable fact; as if there were no excellences in the earlier world which we do not now possess in larger measure; as if there were no inimitable Athenian sculptures, Norman architectures, Italian paintings, and Elizabethan dramas. We should be glad to force him to a fuller definition of his meaning; but happily the philosophy of progress in the general modern sense has had very little influence in forming Mr. Burton's mind, however he may suppose himself to believe in it.

The subject of his book is simply indicated in its title; more particularly it is the union of the two kingdoms, the causes which made it necessary, the imprudences, carelessnesses, and jealousies in the working it out, which produced so many dangerous and almost disastrous consequences. We are thus carried through a series of events the names of the most prominent of which will show at once to the general reader what he is to look for -the accession of William, the settlement of the Church, the later career of Claverhouse, the Glencoe massacre, the singular history of the Darien company, the Act of Security, and finally the passing of the Act of Union, compose the first volume; the second opens with the inauspicious working of the new settlement, the thoughtlessness with which the sensitive pride of the weaker nation was fretted and irritated into alienation; and leads us on through the Jacobite insurrections, which were rendered possible only by the opportunity which had been so unwisely created.

Great art is shown in the arrangement and composition. The story evolves itself systematically as the writer saw it, event rising out of event, and cause slowly working upon cause till the climax of the rebellion. The descriptions are graphic and full, especially those of battles and battlefields, which have been composed evidently after personal examination of the localities. Those of personal character, though occasionally rather too brief and allusive, are definite in their outline. Mr. Burton's sympathies are not controlled by party feeling, and high qualities are always appreciated on whatever side they are to be found. Bitter against no one, the smallest trait of good feeling betrayed by the veriest rascal receives its due kind mention from him; but he never makes the rascal into a misrepresented saint because he happens to be on the anti-Jacobite side. Judging by these volumes only we should consider him a man without enthusiasm, one who regarded enthusiasm with a sad feeling, as at best a species of generous weakness. But the period he is dealing with contains nothing about which it is possible for a wise man to be enthusiastic; neither greatness in the matters at issue, nor greatness in the persons concerned with them. The vehement theologians and the vehement politicians were alike fanatics or dreamers, and a dispassionate regret for so much wasted heroism was the only sentiment with which it was possible to regard them. If unenthusiastic, Mr. Burton is never contemptuous; when a good word is possible he never fails to say it; and the book throughout is written in a spirit of great kindly good sense.

In so brief a review as we can here permit ourselves we shall best please our readers, and better do justice to Mr. Burton, by not attempting any general analysis, but by selecting detailed specimens of his manner and of his conclusions; and we will take first, as a matter in which English readers in the present state of their knowledge are likely to feel greatest interest-the too painfully celebrated massacre of Glencoe. It has probably received an undue prominence as an isolated fact, but the intensely tra

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gical features of the story, with the wildness of the scene in which it took place, have combined to fasten it upon the imagination, and the shame and the stain have clung to the memory of William in dyes which have hitherto only deepened as time has grown older. As Mr. Burton himself wisely says—

If Dalrymple and Breadalbane had dreamed of the influence of striking scenery in perpetuating the memory of political crimes, they would have sought any other place than this grand mountain solitude for the execution of their cruelty.

But there are few persons who will not be glad to find the darker shadows partially relieved; and a literal and dispassionate statement of the facts of the catastrophe does certainly go far to distribute the guilt over a wider surface than we had hitherto supposed. William himself is cleared of any further responsibility than what is involved in his having permitted a severity which the Scotch Ministers on whom he was forced to rely had represented to him as necessary. The sufferers are shown to have been guilty of worse offences than Jacobitism, and the severity with which the massacre was executed must be allowed that degree of palliation (slight and miserable as it is) to which very bad actions are entitled when they are in harmony with the practice of the time, and are tolerated by general opinion. The outline of the circumstances is fami

liar to every one. The Highlanders had been out with Claverhouse in what the government were entitled to consider a dangerous rebellion. It was certain that they would explode again on the first opportunity; and even in peace their habits were such that unless they could be overawed or coerced, their very existence was fatal to the industry of the neighbouring Lowland population. The provocation which they had already given had laid them fairly open to a severe retribution, and we need entertain no wonder that alike

by William and his advisers it was felt absolutely necessary to make some example of the worst of the clans. Among those against whom as freebooters there was the heaviest reason to complain were the MacDonalds of Glencoe, and if

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the Government had in a straightforward and open manner selected them for a peremptory vengeance we could only have regarded it as one of those strong stern acts of justice on which great men will venture in a spirit of wise humanity, knowing that in dealing with habits radically vicious severity is the truest clemency. The Secretary of State for Scotland, however, Sir John Dalrymple, was not a great man, and such a course of conduct he had neither the understanding to perceive to be right, nor the energy to carry it out if he had. He attempted to entangle the chiefs in a position in which they should have outlawed themselves by acts of their own, and as soon as they had forfeited their privileges as subjects he determined to extirpate them as a horde of savages, or beasts of prey. Promises of money by William's orders were held out to such of the chiefs as would offer a ready submission, and this was done bona fide, and with no covert purpose. At the same time

A proclamation was issued requiring all the chiefs to swear the oath of allegiance in the presence of a civil judge, before the first of January, 1692, threatening those who failed to do so with the penalties of treason and of military execution upon their lands. The ferocious name of the writ by which it was to be executed, called letters of fire and sword, had nothing in it to startle the ear, although it was known to infer military execution in its most appalling form. Any one who by reason of his estates being ravaged, or for any other cause, had a deadly feud with a Highland clan, readily obtained this license of extermination against them, on payment of the usual fees.

The threat, like the promise, appears to be open and plain, and so in form it was. But Mr. Burton has shown by extracts from Dalrymple's letters that he hoped that obedience would be generally refused, and that by skilfully availing himself of the animosities of clan against clan he might let them loose upon one another for mutual extirpation. Let the sentence which we have italicized, however, be carefully observed, for while the massacre in its actual features wears the frightful appearance of licensed murder, the licence was one which was recognised by the legislation of the time, and

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