ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE. * THE fifth volume of Sir Archibald
Alison's History of Europe embraces various branches of his subject, extending over very varying intervals of time. In England, we have the history of the first Reform Ministry, from the passing of the Reform Bill till the retirement of Earl Grey and the dismissal of Lord Melbourne by William the Fourth, on the accession of Lord Al- thorp to the House of Lords. The annals of France are nar- rated from the close of 1831, when the hereditary Peerage was abolished, to the downfall of Mole's Administration, in 183'1. French affairs, are in a measure continued till 1841, by their connexion with the revolt of Mehemet Ali and the Syrian expe- dition ; events which, naturally come into the affairs of Greece, Turkey, and the East in general, from the treaty of Adrianople to the settlement of the Turkish and Egyptian quarrel, and the reestablishment of a nominal diplomatic friendliness with France. The constitutional, or rather the political history of Germany, is exhibited from the peace of 1815 to the eve of the revo- lutions of 1848: and a very succinct. and useful survey it is. The reader may not always agree with the conclusions of the writer, neither is the survey altogether free from the pecu- liar faults of Sir Archibald in logic and composition. These logical faults, however, are less prominent than in questions connected with the democratic attempts in France or with the Reform Bill and restricted currency in England. The faults of composition are more subdued. There is less rhetorical straining and overelaborated detail than in the narratives of French and English affairs, as well as a sounder judgment. The exposition of the settlement of Germany at the Congress of Vienna, and of the Bund, its powers and mode of action ostensibly so grand, in reality so subservient to the two military powers of Austria and Prussia, especially in all that relates to internal affairs—affords an instructive coup d'oeil of the Germanic Confederation, and throws light upon its Iate and present proceedings. ,The account of the barefaced violation -of the constitutional promises made by the -monarchs while under terror of Napoleon is plainly given : the heartburnings and conspiracies to which the monarchical falsehood -gave rise are briefly but sufficiently exhibited ; the social demar- cations in Germany between the nobles, the middle class, and the peasants, with the narrowness of view and opposition of interests and feelings hence arising, are well indicated ; lastly, it is noted -how the economibal condition, the "res. angusta domi" of the !Germans, turns the enthusiastic, educated, all-comprehending youth, into a tool of power. "A very curious circumstance connected with the social condition of Ger- many in the first half of the nineteenth century, tended greatly to extend the influence of government, though at first sight it might seem calculated to have a directly opposite effect. This was the great extent to which edu- cation had been earned in the middle and lower ranks. That this universal • opening of the gates of knowledge rendered nearly all young men at first liberal, and even revolutionary in their opinions, is indeed certain ; and ac- cordingly, extreme licence of ideas in the schools and universities was one of the circumstances which moat strongly excited the solicitude of the go- vernments of Germany. But what came of these young men when they left college and went into the world ? Universally educated, they all sighed for intellectual rather than physical labour : restricted in their walk of life by circumstances, there was not one in ten could find employment, or earn a subsistence in intellectual pursuits. Trade or manufactures in a country so little commercial could absorb only a limited number ; the army fur- nished occupation merely for a few years in early life ; colonies there were none ' • emigration, till the middle of the century, was almost unknown. Thus the only channel left open was that of government employment ; and the great number who crowded accordingly into that line, gave the authori- ties an immense sway over those who had entered upon the career and felt the wants of real life. Dreaming of republics, and declaiming passages about Brutus and Cromwell, was very exciting as long as the youths were at col- lege, maintained by their parents, and animated by the presence of each other; but when they went out into the world, and found themselves alone in a garret, with scarce the means of purchasing one meal a day, it became very desirable to exchange such penury for the certainty, and security of a government office. Thus it was universally found in Germany that there were a dozen applicants for every vacant situation, how humble soever, that fell vacant, and that the visionary enthusiasm of the young aspirant was speedily cooled down by the chill atmosphere of real life after they left the universities. The ardent student, burning with the passion for freedom, who had fought two duels, with his meerschaum, his beer, and his liebens- wurdige schauspielerin, was ere long transformed into a quiet, respectable government employe, who toiled at his desk twelve hours a day for eighty pounds a year, and thanked his stars that, iu the dread competition, he had drawn such a prize in the lottery of life. It would be the same in every other country if the means of existence were equally restricted. Cut off the backwoods and California from America, or Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow, with India and Australia, from England, and where would be the boasted independence of the Anglo-Saxon character ?"
In addition to the political history. of Germany, a survey is taken of its literature for a longer period than the nominal chro- nology of the book, going back indeed to the last century. It is not equal in interest to the political section, nor, we think, in merit to some other pictures of national art and letters that Sir Archibald Alison has delineated in the course of his two great works. Part of this defect would seem to arise from the absence • His of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon in 1815 to the Accession of Louis Napoleon us 1852. By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., B.C.L„ Author of the "His- tory of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789 to the Battle of Waterloo," 4.c. ,fc. Published by Blackwood and Sons. of critical acumen ; the nature and spirit of his authors are not thoroughly seized. A more palpable cause is over-fulness and over-panegyric. A number of little knownauthors are brought be- fore the reader, and the praises of greater men are exaggerated. Sound criticism would scarcely place Scott and Goethe on a level with Homer and Shakspere. This is a profound 'passage on the effect of political repression, if not oppression, on literary feel- ing; perhaps on the general feeling to which literature only gives tongue.
The causes which have been mentioned have exercised an influence not less powerful on the literature of Germany than on its political condition and social state. In the sp.eculations of its philosophers, equally with the visions of its poets and the imaginations of its dramatists, are to be seen' the traces of genius chafing against the fetters of conventionalism, of freedom seeking to burst the bonds of power. Excluded from a share in the direc- tion of affitirs, debarred from exerng an influence on present events, shut out in consequence from a practical direction, the thought of Germany has been forcibly turned into the realms of imagination, and has sought a vent for its ardent feelings in the picture of ideal beauty, the creations of erudite fancy. - All the events of time, from the earliest ates; have floated before its vision; all the characters of men in all nations have peopled its ideal world; all the thoughts which have been wrung by joy or suffering fmm the human heart in the endless vicissitude of human affairs have found a vent ill its
try. Hence the perfection, unrivalled in modern times, to which the
erman drama has suddenly arisen. The stage was the only theatre on which the ardent aspirations of an age of intellectual activity and impas- sioned energy could be exerted. The German drains and poetry iii the re- sult of excited genius and enthusiastic feeling wielding the treasures of great learning, but debarred from any practical application. Like the poetry of Racine and Corneille, it contained the aspirations of minds born to • be free, but permitted to expatiate only in the realms of imagination. And genius wrote for the drama because it had no real stage to write for ; men went to the theatre because they had no House of Lords or Commons to go to. This circumstance invests the German literature during the period of its greatness—that is, the last half-century—with an interest, and gives it an importance, beyond what usually belongs to the efforts of thought, how great or splendid soever. In it as in a mirror, and far more than in the political history of the period, may be traced what ideas have been really fermenting in the minds of men ; and if coming events ever casttheir shadows-before,* it is when the sunlight of genius throws its radiance over the dark and troubled ocean of the moral world. In the extravagant 'doctrines and cor- rupt conceptions which prevailed in France in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Lord Chesterfield saw the harbingers of the coming re- volution in that country; and he must be blind indeed who does not per- ceive in the German literature of the nineteenth the heavings of a pent:up fire destined to produce throes and convulsions more earnest, more sericam, but not less bloody, than those which have stood forth as a beacon to the world in the French Revolution."
The feelings indicated in this passage are not confined to modern Germany, or to France under le Grand Hfonarque. We believe they are universal, when a widespread ramification of absolute or all-but absolute power, whether of.authority, station, or wealth, is impeding the direct exercise of genius and the full use of speech. This feeling is continually traceable in Shakspere ; varying according to the circumstances of his dramatis permute, from profound reflection, through ludicrous or contemptuous ex- hibition, to indignant denunciation. " Man, proud man, dress'd in a little brief authority,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As makes the angels weep."
According to Hamlet, " the insolence of °fee, and the spurns which patient merit of the unworthy takes,' are enough to justify suicide as an escape. Iago tells us "preferment goes by letter and affection." When Lear receives an affirmative answer to his question, " Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar ? " he continues- " And the creature run from the cur ?
There thou might'st behold the great image of authority : A dog's obeyed in office Through Lanced clothes small vices do appear; Robes and fared gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtles; breaks : Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it."
To a certain degree these and other similar if less potent pas- sages are true still, though not to such an extent as to produce a poet's bitter reclamation. In the mass of mankind, who are the last to be relieved from the bitter reality, the feelings linger long, as they are the most exposed to insult or oppression. We saw their effects in the first French Revolution : if Sir Archibald Alison is right in his prevision, something akin to that outbreak may yet be experienced even in Germany. The other parts of Sir Archibald's history, though full of the author's wonted faults of diffuse composition, peculiar opinions paraded in season and out of season till they look like hobbies, and the too frequent want of historical tone, are yet attractive. Sir Archibald Alison is always clear and often eloquent. The strug- gles and events under the first Reform Ministry in England carry the mind back to a stirring time, which those who felt its move- ment can scarcely recall in all its vividness. The civil conflicts in France following the Revolution of July 1830, which were in this country underrated perhaps at the time of their occurrence, take their due character and importance when seen by the light of 1848 and the throes of the Republic. To Earl Grey and his col- leagues generally Sir Archibald pays what he intends to be a marked compliment, though it is rather of an odd kind. Accord- ing to the historian, they deserve great credit for an " organized hypocrisy." They could have continued their power by carrying on the revolution ; they preferred to stay it and sacrifice their places. In public they boasted of " the Bill "; in private, even to their opponents, they lamented the result of their handywork. Does not Sir Archibald see that hypocrisy like this is morally far more censurable than any political opinions honestly held?
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