31 MAY 1851, Page 16

BOOKS.

-RISS MARTINEAU'S INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE PEACE.* finis volume is nominally an introduction to the History of the Peace, which was commenced by Mr. Charles Knight and com- pleted by Miss Martineau. It is in fact a summary of our history from 1800 to 1815, prefaced by a rapid introduction to the latter history of the eighteenth century, from the outbreak of the French Revolution to the Union with Ireland, Pitt's retirement, and Ad- dington's accession. Compared with recent historical productions, where even second- ary events are treated in ample detail, Miss iifartineau's work is rather a commentary than a history. Events are narrated, but for the most part rapidly and succinctly ; sometimes they are " doubled up." In all cases Miss Martineau aims at extracting their essential qualities, rather than entering into their minutiae ; so that it is as much her opinion of the period as the period itself which is presented to the reader. This, indeed, is really the case in all histories : they exhibit not the things themselves, but the historian's idea of them ; the predominance of fact over commen- tary being merely a difference in composition. As much of judg- anent may be insinuated in a narrative as is displayed in an open discussion, and perhaps more mischievously, the reader being less upon his guard. Be it story, be it opinion, this Introduction is an interesting and a meritorious work. The military and political events have an in- herent interest that seems never to satiate ; and Miss Mar- tineau has well condensed them into a moderate compass, so that the reader can grasp the whole without weariness or strain. In warlike affairs, she seems to have been content with what may be called popular authorities; the Wellington Despatches being about the limit of her recondite researches. In civil matters, she has very closely read the valuable memoirs that have been published within these last ten or twelve years,—the Malmesbury Papers, the Lives of Eldon, Sidmouth, and Plainer Ward, the Nelson Cor- respondence, Brougham's Historical Characters, and other similar productions ; and she has extracted their most dramatic points and their most conclusive information. Whether the conclu- sions may always be deemed correct, will in a measure depend upon the preconceptions of the reader. Critically speaking, she has extracted the very. pith of her authorities, according to her view ; and this view is truer than many might expect. Miss Martineau has read the past with the lights of the present ; allowing for the circumstances of the time as motives of ac- tion in individuals, forming a philosophical estimate of the times themselves, and correcting or modifying her judgment by facts which have since seen the light, or by the softened opinion of the present day. She is liberal in her opinions ; but it is not old Whig liberalism, or the modern cant of liberalism, but a philosophical liberalism, even if it be a philosophy of her own. Napoleon is judged sternly, but truly ; Pitt with kindliness and allowance ; the amplest justice is done to Wellington ; and while doubts are thrown upon the necessity of the early Revolutionary wars, it is admitted that the Napoleonic wars could not have been avoided, owing to the character of the French ruler. To pronounce too harsh a judgment on the shallow, narrowminded, but obstinate men who ruled this country from the death of Fox and the expulsion of "All the Talents " till the conclusion of the period of which the his- tozian treats, is almost impossible. We think Miss Martineau underrates the abilities of George the Third ; at least she does not appreciate his thorough mastery of representative government as he understood it, his knowledge of current public opinion, and the manner in which he contrived through these means to have his own way, in spite of the great Whig families at one time, of Pitt, Canning, and Dundas at another, and of "All the Talents" on a third occasion. She also unduly depreciates Castlereagh. An orator or philosophical statesman he certainly was not : but he was a man of clear views and of great firmness ; he could impress his views upon the House of Commons in a roundabout way, distinctly if not effectively ; and he must have had considerable powers of managing a public assembly, otherwise he could not have led the House of Commons so long. To reecho, as Miss Marti- neau does in this instance, the old Whig talk of thirty years ago, is to lower the Whigs themselves : if Castlereagh was so very poor a creature, what must be thought of the opponents, who never could even shake him in his seat?

Traces of a similar feeling are shown upon the Irish Rebellion in connexion with the American War, though rather affecting the scale of the narrative than the conclusion. As much space is given to one individual case of oppression as to the whole Russian cam- paign.

Military and civil affairs or political economy are not the only topics of Miss Martineau. She opens her work with a large and temperate view of the old principle of the balance of power, and traces the successes of the Revolution to the manner in which statesmen had overlooked the people, and the incapacity even of the best and greatest of them to deal with the new power as suddenly as it rose : indeed it may be doubted whether it was dealt with really and truly in this country till Peel's last Adminis- tration, while abroad it has never been dealt with at all. The so- cial condition of the nation, and the spirit of the middle classes and the populace, are not overlooked, if the matters connected with • Introduction to the History of the Peace, from 1800 to 1815. By Harriet Mar- tineau. Published by Charles Knight. them are somewhat exaggerated. Neither is the outward condition of the country forgotten. This was Ireland at the beginning of the century.

"The fertile parts of Limerick, Cork, and Kerry, and elsewhere, were sepa- rated by vast wildernesses, where no roads existed, and scarcely here and there a path. Swarms of people lived in these wilds, like rabbits in a warren. Not a plough or a cart was to be seen for many miles 'together; and the weed-grown mud hovels of the inhabitants could scarcely have been dis- cerned by the stranger, though a hundred might be within reach of his eye. But few strangers ventured there. The soldiery and police could make no way ; and they knew that every man's mind and hand were against thorn. Such districts were always the hiding-places of smugglers, thieves, and men from in danger om society ; and now, those who had outlawed themselves by their share in the rebellion of 1798 were harboured among the wilds. There was little commerce between the towns and the rural districts, to bind them together, and create mutual interests. The only produce of county Kerry was butter ; and that was carried to Cork on horseback. The proportion of inhabitants employed upon the land was more than double that so employed in England ; while the isolation of the class from the rest of the world was much greater : so that wrong ideas, once introduced among the rural multi- tude, were irremoveable; and the temptation to rule them as slaves or ban- ditti was as strong to the landowners and the government, as it was to hot- blooded and sanguine patriots to make them tools. Nothing had been done to remove from the rituals of this portion of the population the discontents which had exploded in rebellion two Tears before; and they did not know that they had anything to do with England but to hate her."

As a contrast to this picture the battle of Waterloo may be taken. There is of course nothing new in the facts, nay, there are no particular facts, and objections might be made to the perfect accuracy of the representation : but it may be instanced as a speci- men of Miss Martineau's power of drawing out the essential ele- ments of her military subjects.

"Bliicher's retreat compelled Wellington to retire from Quatre Bras : and by the afternoon of the 17th, he and his army had fallen back to Waterloo. 'cre the great captain drew out his forces, across two high roads, with a ravine at his right extremity, and a height above a hamlet as his extreme post on the left, whence he could communicate with Blucher, who had pro- mised to come to his aid if he should be attacked. In front of the right centre was a farm-house ; in front of the left centre was another. All the night of the 17th, the French were taking up their position on a range of heights in front.

"At ten o'clock on the morning of the 18th, the French made the attack. All day, they strove for the farm-house in front of the British right centre ; and all day it was held against them. They won the other farm-house—the German Legion within it Laving expended their ammunition, and being, at the moment, cut off from supply. A heavy cannonading along the whole line accompanied and sustained these assaults ; and during the whole day, the British in their lines sustained the fierce charges, in constant succession, now of cavalry, now of infantry, now of cavalry and infantry together. There is nothing in the history of battles more sublime than the generalship which could order, and the patient valour that could sustain, such a method of fighting as this. It foiled Napoleon in his strongest point. He had al- ways hitherto broken through the enemy's line, by bringing his force to bear upon one part (a weak one, if he could find it); but here he tried after it for the whole day without succeeding. He had now to measure himself with this Wellington'; and he had met his match. He gathered his artillery en masse, and made dreadful havoc on certain points ;—the vacant space was instantly filled up again. He arranged his bodies of cavalry so as to support each other, and sent them to make desperate efforts to pierce the British line of infantry. In a moment, the line became squares, and the ground was maintained. At six in the evening, not a point was gained by the French. Any advantage which had been yielded in the shock of a moment, had been immediately resumed. In the quiet words of Wellington, 'these attacks were uniformly unsuccessful.' It was impossible, after these eight hours of slaughter, to say where the victory would rest. The most doubtful moment for the Allies was soon after this—about seven o'clock. By this time Billow's corps had come up ; and Bliicher himself was on the heights on the British left, ready to take charge of the French right. Napoleon was now about to make a final desperate effort to rout the Allies, by an attack of a vast force upon the British left centre. Wellington saw it, and ordered every dis- posable man to the spot. Presently the continued roar of cannon and mus- ketry was the most dinning' ever heard by those on the field. Presently again there was a sudden, complete, brief pause ; and then again a tremen- dous outburst of mingled sounds. The French had been i checked, cast in

heaps of dead and wounded were the remainder turned, fled, and wen an in- stant pursued by the whole British line. When Napoleon saw that the Bri- tish had broken in upon his Old Guard, he turned pale as death, and said, in a tone of dismay, They are all mixed !' Wellington's word to his Guards in a ditch, Up, Guards, and at them !' had been potent. They were all mixed, as the British bore down the best reserve and last hope of Napoleon."

Many passages of interest on a variety of subjects crowd upon us. Perhaps Miss Martineau's sketches of character in explanation of conduct best display her ability and her mode of treatment. The pictures of Pitt, the King, and Addington, in reference to Pitt's resignation of office and Addington's acceseon, exhibit great skill and judgment. Upon the whole, however, her account of Nelson is the best instance of Miss Martineau's merit as a portrait-painter. It contains in the smallest compass the completest example of the -various traits of her composition, especially her criticism and her kindliness of mind.

"It was while Mr. Pitt was in the midst of the struggle of feeling which has been described as succeeding the news of the capitulation of Ulm—only on the Thursday after that Sunday when he carried the Dutch newspaper to his friend in Spring Gardens—that the tidings of the battle of Trafalgar reached him. He was called up in the night to receive them, in the form of a packet of despatches from Admiral Collingwood. He said afterwards, that, for once in his life, he could not sleep after the interruption. Many times, in his career as Minister, he had been called up in the night to re- ceive news, good or bad ; and he had always before been able to lay down his head and sleep immediately : but on this occasion he was so restless that he rose at three o'clock. The naval power of France and Spain was de- stroyed. We had nothing more to fear at sea : that part of our warfare might be considered closed; but Nelson was gone ; and no one from Pitt down to the humblest man born on British ground knew whether most to rejoice or to mourn. Their peculiar hero was lost, the greatest naval com- mander that the world had produced ; and nothing could be a compensation for his loss. Peculiar indeed Nelson was peculiarly British among other things. While full fraught with the genius which belongs to no country, he had the qualities, almost in excess, which Britons are apt to call British. His whole frame of body and mind seems to have overflowed with an electric sensibility, by which his own life was made one series of emotions, and his own being seemed to communicate itself to all others. Every man, woman, and child, who came near him was heroic ; and in himself were mingled emotions which rarely meet in the same soul. Few would have the courage to entertain at once, as he did, guilt and piety, remorse and confidence, paroxysms of weakness and inspirations of strength. Except as his native vigour wrought as discipline, he was undisciplined. He was as vehement in his modes of expression as in his feelings ; and he appears to have made no effort whatever to preserve his domestic virtue and withstand the guilty pas- sion which poisoned his life and that of his innocent wife, and which min- gles pity and disgust with the admiration and gratitude of an idolizing na- tion. flis piety was not only warm, but most presumptuous in the midst of his helpless guilt. He prayed glowingly and confidently ; but then, it was not like the prayer of any one else. It was petition as to a Superior Power enlisted against the French, which, on such an occasion, would not deal with him about Lady Hamilton. This view, unconsciously held, was no doubt natural, for it was that of the people generally. No one wanted to deal with him, as others are dealt with by society, for his domestic guilt, while he was to the popular eye like an angel with a flaming sword, God- sent to deliver the country. To the people, he was now the champion and the sailor ; and he was adored as he, in that view, deserved to be. The disclosures of after years, and the ethical judgment which, sooner or later, follows upon a passionate idolatry, have made the name and image of Nel- son now very different from what they were on the day of his funeral: but still he is truly regardedas the greatest of naval captains; as worthy of all ho- ncair for bravery, humanity, professional disinterestedness, and devoted zeal, and as commanding even a deeper admiration by the delicacy of his sensi- bilities on behalf of his country and his comrades. His passions and weak- nesses were so clearly the misery of his life, that to point them out as being so is perhaps a sufficient reprobation. In the ecstasy of their gratitude the nation mourned that they could do nothing but heap honours on the me- mory of their hero, and on all whom he had left to whom they could do honour without shaming him and themselves. His brother was made an Earl, with an income of 6000/. a year ; his sisters were presented with 10,000/. each ; and 100,0001. were voted for the purchase of an estate. All this would not have satisfied him ; for in the last paper he wrote, on the day of his death, the paper which made the nation his executor, he thrust his re- lations into a sort of postscript. It was Emma Hamilton whom he be- queathed to the nation's care, with a curious mingling of claims of her own pub- lic services and of her being his Emma. The one claim neutralized the other. If it was the principle and method of society in England to reward public service wherever found without a glance at private moral deserts, Lady Hamilton might and would have been pensioned and raised far above the destitution in which she died abroad. But such is not, and was even less at that time, the view of English society ; and Lady Hamilton could expect nothing from the nation while she was commended to them as Nelson's le- gacy ; known, as she was, to have estranged him from a wife to whose good- ness he bore the most emphatic testimony. It is a relief to turn from the spectacle of Nelson writing that paper in his cabin to that of his funeral in St. Paul's, when the sailors seized his flag as it was about to be lowered into his grave, and rent it in pieces, that each might wear a fragment next his heart. The leaden coffin in which he was brought home was cut up and spread abroad in like manner. Statues and other monuments were voted in profusion; and for many years afterwards, children by the firesides of Eng- land looked up when their ear was struck by the tone in which Nelson's name was spoken, and wondered at the tears which they saw in their pa- rerite eyes. Never was man more mourned by a nation.'