full and minute reply would lead us. It will be remembered, that we described the reproductive system generally as that which professes to separate the work-master from the work, and to follow him in his productive process. It follows, then, that the analytic labors which are to bring out the features of the system, must be directed to that point-to perform that work of separation, to distinguish the poetic from the other elements of mind, and to discover, first the general, and then the particular laws of its working. The inquiries must begin with the whole field of art. He must contemplate the manifestations of genius in science, in oratory, in poetry, music, painting, statuary, and architecture; and, by ascertaining what is common to the creative process in all these departments, discover the essential properties of genius. He may then endeavour to learn the peculiar conditions, in each department of art, which determine the mode in which the creative element must manifest itself. In his further studies he will probably be led, by the comparative destitution of our country in respect to the other arts, to direct himself chiefly to Poetry. Here he will find himself called on anew to investigate and distinguish. First he will be required to investigate the ground of the division of poetry into different classes, what peculiarity in the working of the one Protean element is the cause; and then the characteristics of the imagination as exhibited in the individual poet, whose works he would study.

We must confess that the course of study which we have thus marked out has very much the advantage, or the recommendation, (as the case may be,) of novelty; and the student might very reasonably call upon us to point out the proper helps. Alas! those to which the English reader has access are few enough. One unparalleled mind traversed this path, but his light is now extinguished; and he has left only fragmentary directions in place of the perfect Guide to Art, which he-and no one so well as he could have given. But the directions of COLERIDGE, fragmentary as they are, and the writings of his friends conceived in the same spirit, are the best guides to which we can recommend the genial student in art.

ART. III.-An Address delivered at Hartford on the 9th of November, 1835, the close of the second century from the first settlement of the city. By JOEL HAWES, D. D. Pastor of the First Church in Hartford. Hartford: Belknap & Hammersley. 1835. pp. 80.

"THE people of England derived their liberty from the king, not the king his authority from the people." This declaration of EDMUND BURKE may sound startling and heterodox to many readers. It is not our purpose to confine ourselves to the discussion of this text; but the investigation which we propose to pursue, will show in what sense, and how far, the bold annunciation of Burke is true. The attempt has often been made to trace the origin of those principles of Popular Liberty which form the basis of our institutions. The contradictory conclusions to which different writers have come on this subject, show the difficulty which attends speculations of this nature. While one sees the first evolution of the principles of popular liberty in the American Revolution, another carries it back to the institutions of the pilgrim fathers of New England, and a third traces it to the genius of English Puritanism. Others imagine it struck out by the conflicting elements of earlier revolution, and still another refers it wholly to the influence of commercial progress. That each of these causes have had an influence, there can be no doubt; but to make either of them the exclusive or chief cause, is to mistake the course and order of things. Besides, the working of the spirit of popular liberty would naturally be slow and silent in its first manifestations, and we are to look for a series of preparatory movements before we can expect any decided evolution and clear settlement of principles.

The author of the work named at the head of this articleand which we have selected rather as a text than a subject, rather as the representative of a class of opinions than as occupying the highest place, or being the most complete in its class-finds the first manifestations of the spirit of popular liberty in the institutions of those who settled this country, and its germs in the principles of the English Puritans. How truly, we shall see.

In order to ascertain when and where the principles of popular liberty first began to exert an influence, we must inquire when and where the common people first began to take part in making the laws by which they were governed. And here the mind of the reader will probably revert to the days of

republican Greece and Rome; but as to those days succeeded a long dark night of tyranny, when popular liberty had not even a name to exist, we need not go back to that time, unless it should appear that their influence re-enkindled the spirit of independence that once nerved the arms and steeled the hearts of their most sturdy sons. That any such connexions exist, we think cannot be shown; but, on the contrary, we apprehend, that the principles of popular liberty owe their existence to a train of circumstances, which have been usually overlooked in these investigations, and that they made their appearance at a time and in a place which have been little heeded in these inquiries. In short, it is in the free cities. of Italy, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, that we find the first developements of that spirit. From thence it was transplanted to France by the kings of that country, from France to England by the kings of that realm, and from England it spread to America through the influence of institutions which were thus originated. The causes which originated this principle, and the manner in which it has been extended, will form the subject of examination in this article.

The northern barbarians which overran and conquered the south and west of Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries, carried destruction and desolation in their train. The fertile plains and highly cultivated fields of Ancient Italy were turned into desolate wastes, and the walls of her towns and cities were levelled with the ground. The public roads were either destroyed or neglected, the country was filled with robbery and murder, and no man was safe away from the immediate vicinity of his home.* So successful had these conquerors been, that at the commencement of the eighth century, Italy, France, Spain, England, and Germany, had been subdued, and divided among some nation of the "northern hive."

The lands which had been thus obtained by arms, together with all the inhabitants residing upon them, were considered

We had intended to refer to the authorities for all the principal statements of this article, and had prepared a complete set of notes with exact references for that purpose; but finding they would swell the article to an unreasonable extent, we prefer to omit them altogether. This will account for such resemblances as may occur in the language and style of this article to that of the historians who have been consulted-resemblances which would be scarcely admissible, unless we had (as originally intended) given a particular reference to passages upon which our statements rested. It will be proper to name the principal authors to whom references were made: Procopius, De Bellis Gothor, in the Scriptores Byzant. vol. 1. Bede, Hist. Eccl. Muratori, Antiquitates Ital. Bayle, Hist. and Crit. Dictionary. Crabbe's Hist. of Eng. Law. Blackstone's Commentaries. Sismondi's Ital. Republics. Hume, On Civil Liberty, On Commerce, Hist. of England. Hallam's Middle Ages. Robinson's Charles V. McIntosh, Hist. Eng. Mills, Hist. Chivalry and the Crusades, &c. 10

NO. III.-VOL. II.

the rightful property of the conquerors, and the whole was parcelled out by the chief to those who served under him ; and they in their turn by a subdivision parcelled out their respective shares to those inhabitants who occupied the lands assigned to them. This division and subdivision was all made upon condition that the person receiving a tract of land called feodee, or a conditional stipend, should serve the grantor faithfully, both at home and abroad, in peace and in war; and in default thereof the feud, or land, should revert to him from whom it was received. In this manner the government of all Europe became at once a military despotism, and gave rise to what has since been called the feudal system. By this, which, before the commencement of the tenth century had spread over all Europe, the people were doomed to the most abject slavery; they were considered the property of the Barons or Lords from whom they received the lands they cultivated, owing an unlimited subjection to him, whose word to them was law. The Barons also owed a degree of subjection to the Prince, from whom in the first instance they had received the land over which they bare rule; but they were also entitled to certain rights and privileges, to which there was nothing corresponding in the case of the commonalty. They were the king's counsellors, and they assisted in the enactment of laws for governing the realm. So universal had the influence of this system become, that in the tenth century, notwithstanding the boasted freedom of the Saxon institutions, the government of England was to the people an absolute despotism, to which they bare for a long time very nearly the same relation as the negroes of the Southern States now bear to the governments of the respective States.

But while the liberties of England were sinking in the vortex caused by the feudal system, Italy was beginning to emerge from the gloom of barbarism. The Huns and Alans had made themselves masters of this country early in the fifth century, but they in their turn were subjected to the arms of the Lombards about 568.* The Lombards, however, did not conquer the whole country until 743, when they subdued Ravenna and the Pentapolis. In 744 Italy was invaded by Charlemagne, who, after a series of desolating wars, subdued the Lombards, and annexed Italy to the crown of Germany; retaining it until 888, when the Italians and Burgundians expelled the Carlo

*Spain was conquered by the Vandals about 415; Gaul by the Franks, Allemani, and Burgundians about 431; the Herulians put an end to the Empire of the West about 476; the Saxons were firmly seated in England as early as

590.

vingian race, and held the crown until 951. At this time it was re-annexed to the crown of Germany by Otho I. of Saxony, to whom it nominally belonged until the death of Frederick II., 1250.

During this interval Italy was governed entirely by a foreign race of princes, whose seat of government was so far removed from this country, as to render it impossible for them to take much cognizance of these subjects; and the history of these three centuries, which, says the scrupulously accurate Sismondi, "in reference to the rest of Europe were utterly barbarous," contains an account of a revolution that was going on in the Italian towns and cities, which, though at first silent in its operation, was destined to exert a lasting influence on the cause of liberty and freedom. Removed from the immediate supervision of the Emperor, the Barons became insolent and overbearing; and their usurpations, exactions, and impositions were too grievous to be borne. The same spirit of pride and insubordination which led the Barons to oppress their own subjects, prompted them to commit depredations on those belonging to the neighbouring territories. Self-defence, therefore, compelled the Barons to consent to the re-building of the very walls they had helped to demolish. Indeed, we find that, before the conquest of Italy by Otho, the domestic quarrels of the Barons had induced several towns and cities in the plains of that country to inclose their territories with walls, and what had been begun before, went on rapidly after the victory of Otho.

From the time when these towns and cities were secured by walls, their power and prosperity increased with great rapidity. The oppressed from all quarters sought refuge in these sanctuaries of comparative repose, carrying with them their industry, their arts, and their arms. Sensible that on numbers depended their safety, the inhabitants of these cities offered every possible facility to those who desired to become inmates and fellowcitizens with them. The collection of so many persons within so small a compass, rendered commerce and manufactures necessary to their existence, and these in their turn became sources of great wealth. With this increase of numbers and accumulation of property, came a revival of the spirit of liberty; and we soon find many of these cities resolving on freedom and independence. Various means were pursued by the different cities to accomplish their object. In some

The seat of Government was at that time in the heart of the German Empire.