at least one-third of the second. A single extract will suffice to shew the style and manner in which these historical portions are written. They are both comprehensive and spirited.

Napoleon had now reached the zenith of his power; and France, astounded and enraptured at the greatness to which he had raised her, forgot all thoughts of freedom; while she conferred on her master the epithet of le grand. The last secret sparks of liberty seemed extinguished by the surges of the national pride, and by the full tide of military fame; and all the factions had vanished. But the brilliancy of this meridian glory was not destined to be of long duration. Insatiable ambition, and the intoxication of power, no longer preserved even the semblance of truth or justice; and war became only the expression of the arbitrary will of the mighty despot of Europe.

Yet the world was still, for a time, to be struck with wonder at new achievements. The Prince Regent of Portugal fled to the Brazils from before the French arms. Madrid was occupied by the imperial legions, and Charles IV. ceded the crown of Spain and the Indies to Bonaparte, who treacherously placed his own brother Joseph on the throne. This led to a sanguinary war, the beginning of disasters to the great tyrant, and which after six years terminated with his fall. Renewed hostilities with Austria ended once more in her complete humiliation; and Spain alone remained the eyesore of ambition. The Pope was suspected of intrigue against the imperial power, and being menaced in his capital, began to hurl at Bonaparte the spent and idle thunders of the Vatican; but they recoiled upon St. Peter's chair. The Pope was dethroned, and held prisoner in France; and the Roman states were annexed to her territory.

The star of Napoleon's destiny, however, was about to set, and to be finally combust in its own fires. His ambition became an instinct, which led him to trample on all opposing interests, whether sacred or profane. Josephine, the guardian angel of his throne, the moderator of his schemes, and the object of his real love, was sacrificed to the policy of founding the fourth dynasty of France, the house of Napoleon, that was to reign over a second Carlovingian empire. Josephine was repudiated, and, amidst the crowd of royal and imperial princesses, Marie-Louise, the daughter of humbled Austria, was chosen, in 1810, to fill the throne of her unfortunate aunt, MarieAntoinette. The French empire, about this period, comprehended Holland, Belgium, part of Germany, and of Switzerland, and all Italy; and Napoleon reigned absoletely over forty-three millions:-but henceforth, his history became a series of reverses.

'He formed the design of reducing Russia, and giving law from the ancient palace of the Czars. Untaught by the example of Charles XII. of Sweden, he ventured on a winter campaign, amidst the snows and ices of the north, with an army of half a million, composed of sixteen nations. Moscow was fired by its inhabitants, and Bonaparte, with a portion of his troops, rode through its deserted streets, amidst the flames that on every side glared upon him, as a fiend in human

shape, the curse of humanity, and the demon of all the horrors that reigned around. The fighting retreat, through whirlwinds of snow, and all the rigors of a Russian winter, completed the work of carnage and misery; and at least half a million of human beings perished in a hundred and seventy days, to gratify the infernal lust of power, which remorselessly converted the whole region of its march into a theatre of blood, and crime, and misery,-presenting one of the darkest and most appalling tragedies that war ever exhibited on the earth!

The failure of this expedition was connected with disaffection and plot at home; and France herself began to perceive, that, in consequence of the gigantic ambition of her military despot, she was under the ban of Europe, being regarded as the centre from which emanated all its miseries.

The time was come for the downfall of Bonaparte. Deserted by several of his allies, he entered on another campaign, with a new army, and the Russians and Prussians were compelled to retreat towards Silesia. The Emperor of Austria, seeing that his son-in-law was not sincerely disposed to peace, from a mediator became an enemy; and the war was attended with various fortunes, till at the battle of Leipsic, in October, 1813, the French were completely routed by the allies; who, amidst surrounding revolutions, all tending to the dismemberment of the French empire, began to enter France. Bonaparte, with a legislative body contrary to his views, and a staff of officers on whom he could not depend, endeavoured in vain to rouse the French nation to arms; and after contending for three months against a million of enemies, he was deposed, on the 2nd of April, 1814; and the military despotism of nearly fifteen years, received its death-blow, preparatory to its last convulsive struggle, the following year, at Waterloo.

Such was the fall of a man, who, far from being by nature a Nero, or a Caligula, was still his own god; and was prepared, without pity, to sacrifice millions, as a holocaust to his ambition; and to resort to hypocrisy, impiety, and acts of barbarism, if these were deemed necessary to accomplish his ends. He was the means of unsettling those ancient fabrics of civil and ecclesiastical legitimacy, that have checked the march of human improvement; and his extraordinary career, though in itself so despotic, has been productive on the whole of the advancement of freedom, the grand basis of every other social benefit. History is fraught with melancholy examples of the moral disorder in the constitution of man which has produced all his woes:the only consolation is, that if evil is permitted, out of it good may be educed.' Vol. II., pp. 249-253.

We need not say, that we cordially recommend these volumes to our readers. To our younger friends, more especially, who have already visited the Continent, or to those who may be contemplating a trip or tour, they will afford both amusement and instruction. The majority of persons set out to visit foreign shores without even preparing themselves by a previous course of

reading for an intelligent enjoyment of that which they expect to see and hear. To all who may be desirous of following a more excellent way, Mr. Hoppus's volumes will prove at once a pleasant companion and a useful guide.

Art. III. The Seven Ages of England. By Charles Williams. 12mo. London, 1836.

THE history of England, like that of other countries, has been generally viewed in its political bearings, -as the record of the rise and fall of successive dynasties, and of the various political events which have agitated our island during the lapse of nearly nineteen centuries. But in this little volume it is treated in a manner more consonant, perhaps, with the ideas of our thinking and innovating age, when the tall chimney of the manufactory rears itself where Cæsar beheld interminable forest or swamp, and when the busy train of machinery is heard where once echoed the outlaw's bugle, or the song of some pilgrim company making merry beneath the greenwood shade. Mr. Williams has traced the mental history of England, rising from the dwellingplace of a few tribes of untutored savages, spearing the salmon of their native rivers in their rude coracle, to be the mother land of busy and civilized millions, whose proud ships ride in every harbour of the globe;-the metropolis of the World. Such a volume could hardly fail of being both instructive and entertaining; and we must thank Mr. Williams for the manner in which he has performed his task.

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The book is divided into seven parts, each comprising a distinctly marked period;-a step in the march of intellect,' at which, after having raised us to our present pitch of refinement, it is now the fashion to rail, because it is extending its benefits among the lower ranks of society. The first of these periods, or ages, is that of Escape from Barbarism,' extending from the landing of the Romans, B.C. 55, down to the year 1066. During this period, the sudden flood of refinement introduced by the Romans, so different from the gradual progress of self-improvement, had reduced to effeminacy the native British who had dared to resist the Roman arms; and, unable to defend themselves against the fierce savages of the North, they called in the Saxons to be their deliverers and their masters. The Anglo-Saxons made considerable progress in civilization; but the study of literature and the liberal arts was chiefly confined to the monks: the infrequency of commerce with other countries, and the difficulty of communication among themselves, produced a retrogression, or at least stagnation among the body of the people; and a lament

able state of ignorance prevailed, when the Norman Conquest introduced a new era.

This second period, extending from A.D. 1066 to 1420, is distinguished as the Age of Civilization.'

The Norman conquest,' says Mr. Williams, 'proved fatal to the entire race of the Anglo-Saxon nobility, many of whom lost their lives, and almost all their property. Not a few of the number sought refuge in different monasteries. Some of them became abbots, and others closed their career as monks. The lands of the Saxon earls were occupied by the Norman Barons, who must have had but little intercourse with their vassals, whom they probably did not respect, and whom they had much reason to fear. Still one advantage was derived from the conquest ;--it gave a new stimulus to the national mind. The higher ranks had enfeebled the Anglo-Saxon intellect, thus precluding its improvement, and impeding the operation of the wise institutions of Alfred and his forefathers. The universal destruction of the Anglo-Saxon nobility, and the sufferings and consumption of a portion of the Anglo-Saxon population terminated a state of affluent weakness. A new race of men was spread over the whole island, urged on by a love of glory, which made every human mind restless till it had acquired personal improvement and distinction. The wealth and situation of England opened new avenues to fame, and drew from all parts of Europe the most aspiring and the most able to acquire honours and profit. A new creative vigour afterwards appeared in every path of human effort. Activity and emulation became the prominent qualities of the nation, and the different classes, giving themselves to various pursuits, infused the spirit and enlarged the boundaries of improvement in all. In literature and trade, the Anglo-Normans became fervent and indefatigable, as they were also in amusements, war, and religion. A steady and effective judgement, combined with perseverance, appeared in their exertions; and though they sometimes deviated into civil turbulence, yet the progress of the nation as a whole never intermitted.' pp. 44-–46.

This important period must be considered as that of the formation of our language, which Chaucer much contributed to refine and extend. At this time also the learning of England was enriched by the introduction of the Arabic Numerals, and the important science of Algebra, which, with the study of chemistry, were brought into Europe by the success of the Mohammedan arms. Now also began to arise those magnificent cathedrals which have been the admiration of succeeding ages. And, not least, the Crusaders introduced from the East the compass, the foundation of our future maritime greatness.

'The Age of Discovery' is marked by Mr. Williams as extending from the middle of the fifteenth, to that of the sixteenth century; and it is well ushered in by the invention of the Art of Printing. This was followed by the achievement of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, and the splendid discoveries of

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Columbus and Sebastian Cabot. The mental slumber which had so long prevailed, was now shaken off; a time of comparative peace succeeded, when there were no Crusades calling knights and nobles to the field in support of the honour of Religion, and when the rival roses, whose dissensions had disturbed every rank of society, met in the person of Henry VIII. The period which then commenced, is distinguished as the Age of Learning.' 'Europe had assuredly never beheld a court so learned or so accomplished as that of Elizabeth. It was rare indeed to find a courtier acquainted with no language but his own.' And ladies were not wanting who could discourse in Latin or Greek. The example of the Queen made learning fashionable in the higher and middle ranks; and the names of Spenser, Shakspeare, Jonson, Bacon, Coke, and their contemporaries, present a splendid galaxy of learning and genius. About this time, those noble woods which once covered the greater part of England, began to be exhausted; and through the neglect of planting, from the idea that these vast provisions could never be expended, such scarcity of wood prevailed, that not only in the city of London,' says an old author quoted by Mr. Williams, but

"" all haven townes, and in very many parts within the land, the inhabitants in general are constrained to make their fiers of sea-coale or pit-coale even in the chambers of honourable personages, and through necessity, the mother of invention, they have of very late years devised the making of iron, the making of all sorts of glass, and the burning of bricke, with sea-coale or pit-coale. Within thirty years last the nice dames of London would not come into any house or room where sea-coales were burned, nor willingly eat of the meat that was either sod or roasted with sea-coal-fire."

The attention now turned to experimental philosophy, and its important results, distinguish the fifth of these periods- the Age of Science.' The researches of Galileo, Torricelli, and other celebrated men, opened wide fields of study; but above all, the sublime discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, following up those of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler, in Astronomy, placed almost every branch of science on a new footing. This portion of Mr. Williams's work is extremely interesting. The period extending from the year 1750 to the close of the eighteenth century, is marked as the Age of Invention.' In all branches of our manufactures, immense improvements were made; and the invention of the steam-engine presented at once a tremendous mechanical power, and a means by which distance seems annihilated, the journeys which took our ancestors weeks to accomplish, being reduced to trips of a few hours.

The interval which has elapsed since the close of the last century, is well characterized as 'the Age of Progress.' The age