HISTORY OF EUROPE.

LITERARY SPECTATOR.

Lotto JOHN RUSSELL has resumed his Memoirs of Europe*: another quarto volume takes him from the peace of Utrecht to about the middle of the last century, the epoch of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. To those who did not read the first volume of this meritorious young nobleman, it may be necessary to describe what they are to expect from his work. It is the commonplace book of the student of the wars and the diplomacy of modern Europe. It consists precisely of that sort of easy abridgment of

common but established authors, which most well-educated states- men would consider as a necessary part of their apprenticeship : and if persons will be content to let Lord JOHN RUSSELL have the

pleasure of reading- the original authors for them, they will find in him a very fair substitute. He registers all the principal facts ;

connects them well together ; draws a character with more truth than ambition ; and when he does mix up with his narrative a re- flection—which is not very often—it is, we may say, always sen- sible, if not pointed. One thing, which undoubtedly adds to the

pleasantness of the book, is that he never fails to introduce the great snots of the time—the piquant little anecdotes which illus-

trate persons and events, or the remarkable sayings which in the mouths of great men sometimes supply a. key by which to inter- pret the meaning of historical transactions. The author has

adopted the ambiguous title of Memoirs qt' the Affairs of Europe,

for the purpose, we should think, of absolving himself from all the forms and rules of historical composition. His Memoirs are His-

tory incog. He travels over just such country as he likes, and

loses no time in paying formal visits to places or persons for the satisfaction of a mere form. if a tutor were to say to his pupil, " Now sit down, and I will give you an idea how the Kings of Eu- rope for a hundred years played the royal game of peace and war— how they tried to overreach one another, and, at the expense of the common herd of men, contrived to prevail by force when fraud would not do,"—then would he tell precisely the story which Lord JOHN RUSSELL has written in the first instance for his own im- provement, and now printed for the instruction of his readers. There is nothing new in these Memoirs, except the author's good sense—his liberality—his humanity. We have read every fact in it over and over again : but then, we pretend to be historical : those who are learning the history of modern Europe—at least as far as relates to the course of great political events—cannot do better than follow the narrative of Lord Jonx RUSSELL.

We would however remark, that for such readers Mr. MURRAY should immediately pull down the lofty proportions of the history,

and reconstruct it after the fashion of the Polar Voyages, in mo- dest yet pretty duodecimo : if he would only do this, we would in- form all our young friends at school and college, that they must immediately provide themselves with the history of the last cen- tury from the pen of Lord .JOHN RUSSELL; and it is right that they should know that young persons at the present moment are sorely puzzled to know where to obtain information concerning this period in a collected form. But two volumes more are to appear ; which may prevent the Uhruire-editeur from taking our hint. We must, however, observe, that none but original works, new in matter and kind, have any right to the honours of the luculent quarto : a compilation, however able, should be portable : if a book contains the result of long and painful thought—if it is the germ of other men's speculations, and is intended to hold the rank of a tea-book—we would excuse a splendid and expensive method of publication ; but a manual, the size of a block of marble, is a monster. Either the Memoirs are for the many, or they are useless : it' for the many, how few are there who can afford to give 101. for the history of a hundred years ! The example of COXE is not in point : his pon- derous volumes, with all their documents, are in fact the materials of history, rather than history itself : they are mines ; Lord JOHN RUSSELL should aim at coin. We will hope that this error may he corrected ; and we think we might assure the publisher, that he would lose nothing by even an immediate ti ial of the experi- ment we propose : the history of the Eighteenth Century in live or six duodecimos, price thirty shillings, would be a little treasure.

We have spoken of the author's good sense: when it is the cha- racteristic of a man's mind, his historical writings may be recog- nized by their straightforwardness and simplicity ; by the absence of tropes ; by the aptness and suitableness, and we may add, the rarity of his remarks ; and further, if he should give into the great foible of historians, character-drawing, he will do it plainly but shrewdly—he will not parallelize, like PLUTARCH and SMOLLETT. As a suitable specimen of the work before us, we %via transerihe the sketch of Purr, Lord Chatham ; which is somewhat new, and creditable to the writer's discrimination. He has not, like so many others, been deluded by the physical faculties of that extraordinary man.

" Mr. Pitt, who was the foremost orator on the subject, could hardly have been blind to these considerations (respecting the propriety of keep- ing the I lanoverian troops in pay). Ile was a man endowed with quali- ties to captivate a nation and subdue a popular assembly. Bold and un- hesitating in the part he was to take upon every public question, he was the master of a loud but harmonious voice, a commanding eye, an unri- valled energy, but at the same time, propriety of language, and a light of imagination which flashed from him with brilliant splendour, and was gone ere any could pronounce that the speaker was fanciful or digres- * Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe to the Peace of Utrecht. By Lord John Rus- sell. 4to. London, ISM Murray. sive. Upon every subject, he appealed to some common and inspiring sentiment : the feeling of national honour, disgust at political corruption, the care of popular liberty, contempt of artifice, or hatred of oppression. lint, provided the topic were animating and effective, he little cared whether it were one on which a wise patriot could honestly dilate : a vulgar prejudice served his turn as well as an ancient and useful privilege: he countenanced every prevailing delusion, and hurried the nation to war, not as a necessary evil, but as an honourable choice. Above all, he loved to nurse the popular jealousy of France ; and it was upon his means of gratifying this feeling that he seemed to build his hopes of future power. Ever ready to be the mouthpiece of the cry or clamour of the hour, he could be as inconsistent as the multitude itself : in his earlier days, when reproached with his change of opinion, he pleaded honest conviction of error : after he bad acquired authority, he faced down his accusers with a glare of his eye and the hardihood of his denial. Nor, although he assumed a tone of virtue superior to his age, was he more scrupulous than others in political intrigue : but his object was higher. Instead of bartering his conscience for a large salary, or a share of pa- tronage, he aimed at undivided power, the fame of a great orator, to be the fear of every cabal and the admiration of a whole people."—p. 19G.

If we were disposed to prove the justice and truth of the au- thor's remarks, there are many points to which we could refer: We will simply quote one observation on the steadiness and bra- very of armies. We have lately seen it maintained, that militia and yeomanry, when called into action, are as likely to prove good soldiers as the regular troops whose trade is war. (Foreign Reriew, No. V. article " l3ismark on Cavalry Tactics.") The author of this paper seems to think that troops are not better for having stood fire : there may be truth in this, but he has not adverted to the principle which makes one set of men differ from another when drawn out to contend with another set, life at stake. Lord JouN RUSSELL has gone to the bottom of the matter, in the following remark, applied to the Highland troops who supported the Pre- tender in the invasion of 1745.

" The courage of an army is compounded of personal bravery and con- fidence in one another : no man woula- stand alone against a thousand armed opponents. If a soldier believes that his comrade will stand, he will hardly run away; if the contrary, he is sure to do so. Confidence, therefore, in one another, is what distinguishes an army from a rabble. This quality may he inspired by a common enthusiasm in the same cause, or it may he taught by the force of discipline. The Ilighlanders, zealous for their prince, had the confidence of enthusiasm, although they waited that of discipline : the English troops, which were raw levies, had neither the one nor the other."—p.:.35.

On the whole—let us resume in three words—Lord JOHN Rus- SELL'S book is a sober and intelligent history of an important pe- riod. Lord JOHN informs us in an advertisement, that in a third volume he intends to bring down his narrative to the end of the American War, and in a fourth close it with the death of Louis XVI.