BOOKS.
BEA.SSEY'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.* IN this second volume of his History of England under George the Third, Mr. Massey exhibits, we think, some improvement as regards style and the general treatment of his subject. The objection urged against his first volume still remains. He does not exhibit the natural qualities of a great historian, whether dis. played in a vividly picturesque composition, in a penetrating per ception of the deeper characteristics of the events and persons with which he has to deal, or in a practical political philosophy Neither has he given that full account of the decade treated of (1770-1780,) which a painstaking industry might have achieved and which would have been valuable as a store-house of informs.' tion. The details of war form no part of Mr. Massey's plan; his real object, at least, as developed in his work, being a political and Parliamentary history. This is neatly enough done- the more salient points are well selected and presented in an easy terse, and readable manner, but without any remarkable force, and too much overloaded by comment. Indeed the larger part of the book is a species of commentary, mostly interwoven with the narrative, sometimes distinctly standing out as a discus,sion. Such is the case with the argument on the use of mercenaries arising from our engagement of the Hessians during the Ameri- can war ; and the more elaborate disquisition on the partition of Poland. These commentaries are moderate in tone and sensible in conclusion; though they do not always command assent. For instance, we do not believe that the London mob is "to this day the most brutal and odious rabble in Europe." The military ex- perience of Washington was indeed "limited," but he had as much experience in the kind of war which the nature of the country compelled as his antagonists, if not more. He had been actively engaged in the Indian and French wars, and had wit- nessed the disastrous defeat and death of Braddock. It is said, indeed, that his experience on that occasion shook his faith in the power of regular discipline engaged in a country like America, and inspired him with hopes of successful resistance. Horne Tooke might not in the estimate of some persons be a quite respectable man ; but the author of the "Diversions of Purley" should not in a history be characterized as "Parson Horne," "ribald priest," "one of those bullies whose tongue and pen were more formidable than the weapons of an ordinary swaggerer," and so on. The re- presentations of Burke's ill success in the House are hyperbolical. Mr. Massey confounds the failure of the philosophic orator twenty years later, when, broken in health, disappointed in public affairs, and drawing near to death, he ceased to command the ear of the House, with the triumphs of his early prime. How could Burke have obtained the contemporary reputation of an orator if he had always failed of effect ? The elder Pitt and Gibbon were surely as good judges of the impression made upon listeners, as Mr. Massey, writing eighty years after the fact. In the preface to his first volume the author observed that he proposed "to follow with some minuteness the progress of society, and to describe the manners of its various orders, the court, the aristocracy, the middle classes, and the labouring people." In noticing this volume we remarked that, "strange to say., he had not attempted to execute his own idea; and of all the historians of the period of which he treats, with whom we are acquainted, he deals most with Parliamentary party struggles, contests between the Crown and the great Whig chiefs, intrigues of chiefs with one another, and dry summaries of campaigns." These are still the characteristics of the work so far as the materials of the second decade of George the First's reign resemble those of the first. The present volume, however, opens with an elaborate chapter on manners, morals, and social progress, probably suggested by Macaulay's celebrated survey of the state of England at the close of the reign of Charles the Second. Mr. Massey, however, goes further back than Macaulay, starting with the middle ages, chivalry, and the Reformation, and gradually descending through English society till he reaches the true subject of his theme— manners, morals, arts, learning, and the social condition of Eng- land during the period of the second and third Georges. From the want of depth and soundness in Mr. Massey's mind, his repre- sentations cannot always be relied upon without some q_nanft- cation. Still this chapter is upon the whole the newest and most interesting in the work. There is a good deal of reading and inquiry if it cannot be called research, and the results are cleverly presented ; as, for instance, this picture of domestic ac- commodation during the middle ages.
"The fortresses raised by the pride and grandeur cf men who must be considered as petty princes rather than feudal barons, were designed for the accommodation of numerous military retainers, and for security against attack. The internal arrangements of these structures made no provision for domestic privacy. The great hall was the common resort for the whols household, and for visitors and wayfarers of every description. The small unglazed windows near the ceiling, while they let in rain and wind, !Waif admitted the day. Without the ventilation, however, which such apertures afforded, the atmosphere of the apartment would have been insu
The accumulated odours of viands, of smoke half returned from the imper- fect chimney, of human beings of every description, men-at-arms,.footmen, serving-men, minstrels, wandering friars, devotees under vows against clest! linen, and mendicants swarming with vermin, dogs and cats, and, befe.11,a all, the stench arising from the untold abominations of the floor, on wkieu layers of rushes were spread, like the compost of a farm-yard, must ye- • A History of Ragland during the Reign of George the Third. By Wawa% Massey, M.P. Volume IL 1770-1780. Published by Parker and Son.
PPortable.
a etly have bred pestilence, had it not been for the current of fresh air 11 'Ilch continually circulated through the chamber. A bed was a luxury 1:e1y found in the castles and mansions of the Plantagenet nobility; sepa- rate chambers were also rare ; and, for the most part, knights and ladies, horseboys and scullions, littered down in one common dormitory., after a fashion which would hardly be tolerated now in a well-appointed Refuge for the Destitute. "The dwellings of the inferior gentry, though not pretending to belong to the class of fortified houses, were constructed mainly with a view to de- fence against robbery and violence. A moat generally surrounded the building, and the access to the upper apartments was by an external stair- case which was drawn up like a portcullis. The interior arrangements, like those of the baronial castles, were deficient in almost every provision for comfort and decency. Few of the manor houses built before the time of the Tudors, are now occupied by gentry ; and those which are so inhabited, have undergone considerable alterations, both within and without ; some of them are still used as farm-houses and dwellings for labourers.
"It was not until the reign of Elizabeth that any considerable progress was made in domestic architecture. Many of the most commodious and stately mansions, inhabited by the rural aristocracy, date from this period ; and beyond some points of detail, it may be doubted whether any improve- ment has been made on the fine old English manor house of the sixteenth century."
One of the greatest difficulties in generalized descriptions is to preserve breadth of effect, without passing into exaggeration, or leaving a false impression. Macaulay himself cannot manage this ; from an indifference to accuracy, and a love of effect, he is ever apt to present the singular or exceptional as the rule. A similar error is visible in this account of the streets of London in the middle of the last century. Every annoyance here enume- rated, might happen at times, but if brought altogether as Mr. Massey brings them, the London ways would have been not "difficult" but impassable.
"The insolence, licentiousness, and ferocity of the people, especially in the capital and other great towns, were such as a traveller would hardly now encounter in the most remote and savage regions of the globe. No well-dressed individual of either sex could walk the streets of London with- out risk of personal insult or injury. It was, indeed, an undertaking of difficulty to pass through the streets at all. The narrow footway, separated from the carnage-road only by a line of unconnected stakes or posts, at wide intervals, was frequently blocked up with chairs, wheelbarrows, and other obstructions, some of them placed there wantonly, to annoy foot-passengers. Carmen and hackney-coach-drivers considered it excellent sport to splash decent people from head to foot ; and when a terrified female or bewildered stranger was tumbled into the kennel the accident was hailed with shouts of delight. Yet, on the whole, it was as safe and less disagreeable to tra- verse the streets on foot than in a conveyance. Chairs and carriages were upset, and collisions were constantly occurring ; the least inconvenience was, that the progress of vehicles through the great thoroughfares was in- terrupted by the absence, or rather disregard, of regulations for the traffic. But the delay was not the only annoyance. When a stoppage took place or an accident happened, the ears were stunned by a storm of oaths, and abusive altercation from the drivers and servants. Thieves were always ready to take advantage of the confusion, which they had themselves pro- bably originated for their own purposes. Beggars, also, availed themselves of the opportunity to ply their trade. The dismal tale of sickness and fa- mine was drawled out, and corroborated by horrible exhibitions. Stumps of limbs and diseased children were held up to the carriage-windows of the quality. If there were ladies in the family coach, a street vocalist would probably begin chanting some filthy doggrel, of which the refrain would be taken up by the bystanders."
The subject of Ministerial levees is one continually encountered in the satires and novels of the last century. Smollet draws a bitterly ludicrous picture of the Duke of Newcastle on such occa- sions; Pope and Swift frequently allude to them; Johnson, in his imitation of the Tenth Satire, selects them as one of the tests of a politician's approaching downfall
Love ends with hope, the sinking statesman's door, Pours in the morning-worshipper no more.
Mr. Massey's description is so informing as to furnish a useful commentary to the contemporary allusions.
"It was a custom of those days for the principal Ministers of State to hold daily levees, which were attended by people who had public business to transact, who had favours to ask, and who sought to keep themselves in the eye of the great man. Bishops and reverend aspirants of every class, Members of both Rouses who wanted their jobs done, men about town who wanted a place or a borough, mayors and corporations who had boroughs to sell, agents pamphleteers, coffee-house politicians, ordinarily composed this motley assemblage. And as each principal Minister usually stood upon his own credit, independently of and sometimes in open opposition to his col- leagues, a First Lord of the Treasury or a Secretary of State could collect from the daily attendance at his receptions a pretty accurate opinion as to the stability of his position. After any mark of court favour had been shown him, or after a successful struggle in Parliament, his saloons were thronged. And it often happened that the first significant intimation a Minister received of his declining power was in the absence of some vigi- lant and far-sighted jobber or place-hunter, who had gone over to a rival. For many years, the levees of Sir Robert Walpole were always crowded ; the attendance diminished after the failure of the Excise scheme, and the death of his firm and faithful patroness, Queen Caroline. But the Duke of New- castle had the largest number of clients. The well-known mansion in Lincoln s Inn Fields was, during a succession of years, resorted to as the most extensive mart of patronage that had ever been opened in this coun- try, and probably Newcastle gave, or rather bartered away, more places than any Minister before or since. It was said that almost the whole of the bench of Bishops had been filled by him ; and every department of the pub- lic service was crowded with his creatures."
Mr. Massey originally proposed to complete his work in four volumes, but this will be impracticable on his present scale. If the first twenty years of George the Third's reign occupy two vo- himes the last forty must at least require four or five ; for though the historian does not "undertake to write in any detail the biatory of India, of Ireland, of America or of wars," Parlia- ment, and politics, with the progress of manufactures, arts, and so- cietY, will demand a larger space in the latter than the earlier Period.
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