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PUBLIC 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 Catjiotic Itrabmiig of Jfwtanb, 
 
 ON SOME SUBJECTS OF 
 
 ANCIENT & MODERN HISTORY, 
 
 IN THE YEARS 1856, 1857, & 1858. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES BURTON ROBERTSON, ESQ. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY, 
 
 TRANSLATOR OF “ F. SCHLEGEL’S PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY,” AND OF 
 “ MOEHLER’S SYMBOLISM.” 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 (£a%Ik §00k£llm$ $ dumgmtg, |Timneb t 
 
 CHARLES DOLMAN, MANAGER, 
 
 61, NEW BOND STREET, & 6, QUEEN'S HEAD PASSAGE, 
 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1859. 
 
 I The Right of Translation is reserved .} 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rfvyp 
 
 ^ TO THE 
 
 I* 
 
 VERY REV. JOHN HENRI NEWMAN, D.D. 
 
 Swpmor of the IJirminjIjam Congregation of t|je #rafonr, 
 
 
 GRATITUDE EOR MANY FAVOURS RECEIVED, 
 
 PROFOUND ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND VIRTUES, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING LECTURES 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 

 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Some of the following Lectures, delivered within 
 the last two or three years before the Catholic 
 University of Dublin, were, through the kindness 
 of the editors of two journals of that capital, 
 the Telegraph and the Tablet , inserted in their 
 columns. They now appear considerably enlarged, 
 and incorporated with others which have never 
 before been published. They may be regarded 
 in the light of specimens; and should they meet 
 with a kind approval from the public, will be 
 followed in due time by others. 
 
 These Lectures are divided under the two heads 
 of Ancient and Modern History ; yet, though 
 apparently miscellaneous, a secret bond of con- 
 nection will be found to hold the members of 
 each division together. 
 
 The inaugural Lecture shadows out some of 
 the subjects treated in the three following. The 
 second and third Lectures, on Phoenicia and her 
 colonies, are, from the very nature of the subject, 
 closely connected. The fourth Lecture, on Egypt, 
 follows not, I think, inappropriately ; for not only 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 did Phoenicia draw from the latter country many 
 articles for her commerce, but many elements of 
 her religious system. 
 
 In some of the geographical notices on Phoe- 
 nicia and Egypt, I must record my obligations to 
 Dr. SmitlPs elaborate “ Dictionary of Ancient 
 Geography,” to Professor Heeren’s work on the 
 “ Polity and Commerce of Ancient Nations,” and 
 especially to Dr. Alliolf’s “ Biblical Archaeology,” 
 whose very words have occasionally been used 
 without express acknowledgment in the text. 
 
 On the more important points of Ancient Geo- 
 graphy, connected with the subjects here treated, 
 I have carefully consulted the original authorities, 
 such as Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Stephanus 
 Byzantinus. And under the head of Phoenician 
 and Carthaginian colonies, I have been able, I 
 believe, to glean a few facts, which had escaped 
 the research of even so careful an investigator as 
 Heeren. 
 
 On the religion of Phoenicia and her colonies, 
 the elaborate work of the German ecclesiastic, 
 Dr. Movers, throws a broad light. The Politics 
 of Aristotle is the chief authority in all that 
 relates to the political institutions of Carthage. 
 But on this topic, as well as on the maritime and 
 inland trade of that Republic, the above-cited 
 work of Heeren supplies much valuable informa- 
 tion. His statements have been compared with 
 those of other modern writers. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IS 
 
 With respect to Egypt, its language and history 
 come not within the scope of my observations, and 
 are but briefly touched on. Here, however, among 
 other guides, I have chiefly followed Sir J. G. 
 Wilkinson in the valuable annotations he has 
 appended to Mr. Rawlinson^s recently published 
 translation of Herodotus. 
 
 Under the head of Modern History are classed 
 the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth Lectures. 
 These, too, may at first sight seem to bear not 
 much relationship with each other ; but a nearer 
 inspection will prove the contrary. 
 
 In the fifth Lecture I give an outline of what 
 I conceive to be the theory of the Christian state. 
 Then I trace in the political institutions of Spain 
 those important changes which, begun under Fer- 
 dinand the Catholic and Charles V., and con- 
 summated under Philip II., brought down that 
 great country from a condition of healthful vigour 
 to one of slow-wasting decline. 
 
 In the sixth Lecture, conformably with the 
 political principles laid down in the foregoing, 
 I describe the various evolutions and perturba- 
 tions of our own remarkable Constitution, showing 
 how far it has developed, and how far it has 
 deviated from, the type of the old Christian 
 temperate monarchy. 
 
 In the seventh and eighth Lectures I endea- 
 vour to sound the causes, moral and political, of 
 that great disrupture of the social bonds which 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 occurred in France in 1789; causes which, in the 
 opinion of a very influential literary periodical/* 
 have never been satisfactorily explained. 
 
 This Revolution was the most memorable lesson 
 ever given to mankind, and assuredly it well be- 
 hoves us to study it. It well behoves us to study 
 its causes, moral and political, and to learn the 
 conditions on which, and on which only, depend 
 the stability, the freedom, and the glory of states. 
 
 For a theme so arduous and so complicated, 
 and which for sixty years has exercised so many 
 lofty intellects, none can be more sensible of his 
 inability than the writer himself. But there are 
 certain advantages he possesses which, in some 
 measure, may make up for his natural deficiencies. 
 
 In his religious creed he has a key to the 
 solution of many political problems ; and a candid 
 Protestant will perhaps allow, that a great moral 
 and social revolution in a Catholic country will 
 require, to some extent at least, for its explana- 
 tion, a practical knowledge of Catholic principles.f 
 
 * The London Quarterly Review some years ago made 
 this remark. 
 
 t It was not only his great genius, hut his warm 
 sympathies for the Catholic Church, that enabled our 
 illustrious Burke to divine so well the import of the 
 French Revolution. He was one of those chosen spirits 
 of Protestantism, that like a Grotius, a Leibnitz, a Haller, 
 and a Dr. Johnson, had such strong yearnings and aspira- 
 tions after Catholic truth. On the other hand, there have 
 been estimable English writers, like Southey, Sir Walter 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 It was also the writer’s lot to have passed 
 several years of his youth in the country where 
 this Revolution had its birth, and at a later 
 period to have long resided in the land which, 
 more than any other, felt its rebound. In those 
 two countries, France and Germany, it was his 
 good fortune to have enjoyed the society, and 
 sometimes the friendship, of men eminent in the 
 Church, or in the State, or in letters, and who 
 themselves, or whose fathers, had been the wit- 
 nesses and the victims of those great social 
 changes ; or who again, placed at a greater 
 distance, had been calmer and more disinterested 
 witnesses of these mighty events. Hence he has 
 been able to compare the results of the personal 
 experience of some, with those of the more un- 
 biassed judgments of others. Hence he has been 
 able to study the effects of this Revolution in 
 different countries ; and to see how the same 
 political sentiments are modified by diversities of 
 national character. Hence he has been able to 
 compare foreign institutions with those of his own 
 country ; and by such comparison enabled better 
 to discern what was local and accidental in those 
 institutions, what universal and essential. Hence, 
 though devoid of the political experience which 
 
 Scott, and Sir A. Alison, who, in their conflict with the 
 principles of this Revolution, have been hampered by 
 their sectarian bigotry, and have never been able to rise 
 to the political Catholicism of Burke. 
 
Xll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 official life affords, foreign travel and observation, 
 and converse with most distinguished publicists 
 and practical politicians, have gone far to supply 
 the place of such experience. 
 
 It was these external advantages, foreign to 
 any merit of his own, which induced the writer 
 to undertake a task from which he would other- 
 wise have shrunk. 
 
 With the sanction of eminent personages at 
 home, as well as of distinguished publicists 
 abroad, - * he combated for fifteen years in the 
 pages of a Catholic periodical the political as well 
 as the religious errors of his age. True to those 
 political doctrines with which he started at the 
 outset of his literary career, he has ever upheld 
 the principles of temperate monarchy, ever con- 
 tended against the false absolutism as well as 
 against the false liberalism, and striven to show 
 the points of analogy between absolute power and 
 the revolutionary democracy. Never separating 
 order and liberty in his theory, nor in his affec- 
 tions, he then foretold that they would both 
 flourish and prosper, in proportion as the holy 
 Catholic faith spread through Europe, and struck 
 deeper roots in the minds of men.f 
 
 # I may name the illustrious Gorres, and the late 
 Dr. Jarcke more especially, who, after Gorres, was the 
 greatest political writer of Germany. 
 
 f Vide my Memoir of F. Schlegel, prefixed to my 
 translation of his “ Philosophy of History.” — Saunders 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 And during the twenty-three years that have 
 elapsed since that prediction was made, we have 
 seen that the principles of temperate monarchy 
 have kept pace with the wider diffusion of the 
 Catholic faith. The extraordinary events that 
 ten years ago shook society to its foundations, 
 have, by an overruling Providence, been made 
 conducive to the freedom and the glory of the 
 Church; and the conservative reaction has been 
 equally strong, but well-regulated withal. In 
 those countries where the Revolution had been 
 most violent, royalty and aristocracy are now re- 
 garded as essential, indispensable elements in the 
 social organization of a great state. There not 
 only has the full spiritual independence of the 
 Church been guaranteed, but a close alliance 
 with her invoked by the civil power. Church 
 property has been looked on as especially sacred ; 
 and a confiscation of church revenues as calcu- 
 lated to undermine every description of property. 
 The rights of the parent over the education of the 
 child have been fully acknowledged But, at the 
 same time, the need of popular self-government 
 has been equally recognized. Large municipal 
 
 and Otley, London, 1835 ; 2 vols. 8vo. The generous 
 Protestant critic who, in the Athenaeum (December, 1835), 
 treated my performance with such extreme indulgence, 
 and who seemed surprised at the prediction, must on a 
 calm review of the years that have intervened, acknowl- 
 edge that I was not a very bad prophet. 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 franchises, provincial parliaments with well-de- 
 fined rights, a moderate freedom of the press, 
 protection of the citizen from arbitrary arrests, 
 publication of the state of the finances, have been 
 acknowledged to be necessary elements of good 
 government; and when not carried into effect, 
 formally promised. 
 
 But before the old balance of political insti- 
 tutions can be restored, the moral equilibrium 
 must be re-established in minds. The terrific 
 tempest that has swept over the ocean, has lef 
 a swell on its surface, that will long impede 
 navigation. 
 
 Dublin, Easter Tuesday. 
 
 2 Qth April , 1859. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS — THE WRITER’S FIRST LITERARY 
 EFFORTS ENCOURAGED BY THE ILLUSTRIOUS O’CONNELL — 
 
 THE WRITER’S CONNECTION WITH THE “ DUBLIN REVIEW ” 
 
 — Ireland’s past and Ireland’s future — geography 
 
 CONSIDERED IN ITS RELATIONS TO HISTORY Page 1 
 
 LECTUEE II. 
 
 THE GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF PH(ENICIA 31 
 
 LECTUEE III. 
 
 THE COLONIES OF PH(ENICIA, AND ESPECIALLY CARTHAGE 62 
 
 LECTUEE IV. 
 
 THE GEOGRAPHY, INSTITUTIONS, TRADE, ARTS, AND SCIENCES 
 OF ANCIENT EGYPT 105 
 
 LECTUEE Y. 
 
 THEORY OF THE CHRISTIAN MONARCHY— THE ANCIENT POLI- 
 TICAL INSTITUTIONS OF SPAIN — THE ABSOLUTISM INTRO- 
 DUCED BY FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC AND CHARLES V., 
 
 AND CONSUMMATED BY PHILIP II 163 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 LECTUEE VI. 
 
 THEORY AND HISTORY OF THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION OF 
 1688, AS COMPARED WITH THE OLD EUROPEAN MONARCHY, 
 
 AND THE MODERN REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM Page 205 
 
 LECTUEE VII. 
 
 MORAL CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1789 .... 245 
 
 LECTUEE VIII. 
 
 POLITICAL CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1789 302 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF THE EGYPTIANS 357 
 
 RELATION OF GREEK TO EGYPTIAN SCIENCE 359 
 
 THE MENACED REIGN OF THE PRAETORIAN GUARDS 361 
 
ANCIENT HISTORY. 
 
i 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 I) V-;: jla U-.A 
 
 7 ?•< f ) /•-- ij i , ■ mroiT Jii €wJ ,4 ojSteSCJJ* 
 
INAUGURAL LECTURE. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS— THE WRITER’S FIRST LITERARY EFFORTS 
 
 ENCOURAGED BY THE ILLUSTRIOUS OCONNELL — THE WRITER’S 
 
 CONNECTION WITH THE “ DUBLIN REVIEW” — IRELAND’S PAST 
 
 and Ireland’s future — geography considered in its 
 
 RELATIONS TO HISTORY. 
 
 As this is the first occasion on which I have 
 had the honour of addressing you, permit me, 
 before entering upon the subject of this evening’s 
 lecture, to make a few preliminary remarks. 
 Although this is the first time in my life I have 
 trod your shores, I cannot consider myself a 
 stranger in your hospitable land. How, indeed, 
 — connected as I am with that country by the 
 bonds of a common faith, by family ties, by 
 friendships with her sons in other countries, by 
 literary fellowship with distinguished members of 
 the Irish clergy and laity in a journal founded by 
 your illustrious Liberator — how could I feel myself 
 other than at home in this interesting country? 
 The great man whom I have just alluded to 
 kindly encouraged my first literary efforts; and 
 when, in the noble view of uniting English and 
 Irish Catholics in defence of their faith and the 
 cultivation of literature, he founded the journal in 
 question, he honoured me with a request for my 
 
2 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 co-operation. On that occasion, in the very first 
 number of that journal, I expressed my conviction 
 that the time was not distant when the religious 
 and literary glories of Ireland's early days would 
 revive ; and if I may take the liberty of citing 
 my own words, I concluded my observations as 
 follows : — “ Sons of Erin, no longer despond : 
 the night is nearly passed, and the light of a 
 new intellectual day begins to peer above the 
 mountain-tops." 
 
 When I wrote these words, many years ago, 
 I little imagined that the humble individual now 
 addressing you would ever have had the honour 
 of being connected with an institution which 
 would seem one of the means appointed by 
 Divine Providence for bringing about the happy 
 consummation referred to — an institution founded 
 by the venerable Hierarchy of Ireland, sanctioned 
 and encouraged by the Holy See, supported by the 
 generous sacrifices of the people of this country, 
 as well as of the Catholics of Great Britain and 
 America, presided over by an illustrious writer and 
 theologian, and to which so many distinguished 
 men have lent their co-operation. 
 
 But was I wrong in mv anticipations? Was 
 I wrong in hoping that a people blessed with so 
 many gifts of nature and of grace — a people which 
 had played so glorious a part in the early ages of 
 Christendom — would not be backward in aiding 
 that great Catholic regeneration -of art, literature, 
 and science, which is the glorious mission reserved 
 for the nineteenth century? How could I look 
 back on the glories of Ireland's past, contemplate 
 the energies of her present, and feel despondent as 
 to her future? You know her eventful history far 
 better than myself, and it is almost presumptuous 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 3 
 
 in me to call your attention to it. You know how, 
 as if in anticipation of the marvellous destinies she 
 was to accomplish under the Christian dispen- 
 sation, this island was called, even in mythic 
 antiquity, “the sacred isle how, even in her 
 days of heathenism, she had been less defiled with 
 idolatry than almost any other Gentile land; how, 
 when the time of her visitation had arrived, and 
 Christianity had been introduced to her knowledge, 
 she gave the Church so warm and kindly a 
 reception, that the Divine Guest hath never since 
 quitted her roof. You know how the Emerald 
 Isle was spared by the waves of the barbaric 
 invasion which overswept the whole Roman 
 Empire — how she became the nurse of learning 
 and piety — how she sent forth teachers and mis- 
 sionaries to so many nations, in whose hearts and 
 tabernacles her memory is still enshrined. You 
 know again how, when evil days had come on, and 
 Christendom had been rent asunder by heresy, 
 this island set, for two hundred and fifty years, the 
 example of such heroic constancy and fortitude 
 under persecution so unprecedented, that her 
 name has gone forth among the nations as the 
 very symbol of fidelity ; how, too, even in her 
 hour of depression, she helped to save the British 
 monarchy ; how she woke to a new life in the 
 eighteenth century, and in the course of fifty 
 years began and terminated that glorious struggle 
 for her religious liberties, that not only issued in 
 her own emancipation, but has materially contri- 
 buted to the enfranchisement of the Church in 
 Belgium, and more recently in Austria and in 
 France. 
 
 How, then, could it be supposed that such a 
 country would remain stationary amid the great 
 b 2 
 
4 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED 
 
 religious movement of the present century ? How 
 could it be supposed, too, that a land which, under 
 the most adverse circumstances, had achieved so 
 much for literature — a land “whose waste” — to use 
 the words of the poet — “was more rich than other 
 climes’ fertility” — the parent of illustrious orators, 
 statesmen, and poets — the home of high thought 
 and brilliant imagination, of genial wit and fervid 
 eloquence — the country of Burke and O’Connell, 
 of O’Leary and Doyle, of Grattan, Plunket, Shiel, 
 and Moore, — that that land, I say, would lag in the 
 race of intellectual improvement ? 
 
 In concluding these remarks, I can only hope 
 and pray that my early anticipations may be fully 
 realized, and that this University may prove not 
 only an instrument of union among all Catholics 
 of the British empire, but the token of a new 
 moral and intellectual life. 
 
 I regret to have detained your attention so 
 long, and will now proceed to the subject of the 
 evening’s lecture, — 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED IN ITS RELATIONS TO 
 HISTORY. 
 
 I bespeak your indulgence to the imperfections 
 of a first essay ; and the more so when you con- 
 sider the difficulties which beset the subject, and 
 that I am here almost without guidance ; for I am 
 aware of no writer who has treated the matter 
 from the point of view here taken. 
 
 DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 I shall begin by defining the nature, object, and 
 limits of geography, and then proceed to show the 
 
IN ITS RELATIONS TO HISTORY. 
 
 5 
 
 points of resemblance and points of difference 
 between historical geography and historical phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 I shall afterwards point out what distinguished 
 intellects have in all ages cultivated this science, 
 and shall then prove its intrinsic interest and 
 importance. 
 
 Lastly, I shall adduce, by way of illustration 
 and example, several subjects, where geography 
 subserves the purposes of history, and even supplies 
 its deficiencies. 
 
 DEFINITION OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 Geography is the science w r hich describes the 
 astronomical situation of the various regions of the 
 earth, their physical configuration and properties, 
 their natural and their political divisions, as well 
 as their social condition in successive periods of 
 their history. This science takes its form from 
 astronomy, receives its matter from geology, na- 
 tural history, and ethnography, on the one hand, 
 and from statistics and archaeology on the other, 
 and runs parallel with history. Geography, in 
 itself, is not astronomy, nor geology, nor natural 
 history, nor ethnography, nor statistics, nor arch- 
 aeology, nor even history ; but from all these 
 sciences it borrows more or less. Our business at 
 present is not with physical, but with historical 
 geography ; or with the earth considered as the 
 abode of nations at various periods of history. 
 
 The geographical treatise occupies a middle 
 place between the book of travels and the historical 
 work ; and while it has its own distinctive charac- 
 teristics, it partakes of the properties of both. 
 Like the book of travels, it describes the site of 
 
6 
 
 DEFINITION 
 
 countries, their aspect and physical condition, as 
 well as the cities which, with their various monu- 
 ments, adorn them. But how different is the 
 treatment of the matter in either work ! The 
 descriptions of the traveller are more subjective , — 
 that is, bear the stamp of his own individual feel- 
 ings ; those of the geographer are more objective , — 
 that is, represent objects as they are in themselves, 
 independently of personal impressions. The de- 
 scriptions of the traveller ought to have a poetic 
 colouring, because such only can reflect that ideal 
 which lies in the great works of Nature as well as 
 of human genius. The descriptions of the geo- 
 grapher must be in a tone more temperate and 
 subdued, in order not to impair the topographical 
 exactness of his statements. The former, in 
 describing the productions of nature and of human 
 skill, aims at setting forth the harmony of parts, 
 and the general design and import of the whole ; 
 the latter strives to depict, with a sort of mathema- 
 tical precision, each separate part of those objects, 
 irrespective of their relative bearings and of their 
 general meaning. The representations of one have 
 the vivid, luminous expression belonging to true 
 art ; those of the other the hard, painful minute- 
 ness of the daguerreotype. In a word, the book of 
 travels ought to be a work of art ; the treatise of 
 geography a work of science. 
 
 Now let us observe the points of resemblance 
 and of difference between historical philosophy 
 and historical geography. 
 
 Firstly — Historical philosophy begins with 
 Divine revelation, and traces the moral and intel- 
 lectual advances and retrogressions of man in the 
 course of ages. Historical geography commences 
 with an account of man’s habitation — the earth ; 
 
OF GEOGKAPHICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 describes the relations between him and Nature, 
 and, pre-supposing Divine revelation, sketches 
 the history of the human race under the Divine 
 government. 
 
 Secondly — Historical philosophy traces the in- 
 ternal development of institutions, religious and 
 political, as well as their external influence. His- 
 torical geography, confining its observation more 
 to outward things, states but the general character 
 and the general effects of institutions. 
 
 Thirdly — History deals in the delineation of 
 public characters, and in the narration of public 
 events. Geography almost ignores individual 
 characters, takes but an incidental notice of 
 events, and bestows all its attention on laws, 
 manners, customs, and institutions. 
 
 Fourthly — The former depicts individuals, as 
 well as the masses; the latter the masses only. 
 
 Fifthly — The descriptions of one are more 
 psychological, those of the other more anthro- 
 pological. 
 
 Sixthly — Historical philosophy considers nations 
 more in their political relations ; historical geo- 
 graphy more according to the affinities of race 
 and language. 
 
 Seventhly — The former takes but a casual 
 glance of the barbarian and the savage, and fixes 
 its eye almost exclusively on the children of 
 civilization ; the latter embraces in its descrip- 
 tions barbarian and savage, as well as civilized 
 states. 
 
 Lastly — While history assimilates various know- 
 ledge to an unity of purpose, geography is the 
 reservoir of many sciences, where, however, they 
 appear rather in their positive results, than in 
 their argumentative process. 
 
8 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 Such are the points of difference and the points 
 of similitude between history and geography. 
 Their intimate relation is expressed in the very 
 words, “ Ancient Geography/* “ Modern Geo- 
 graphy/* “ Political Geography/* and the like. 
 Further, this relation is evinced in the fact that 
 the same men have frequently cultivated both 
 branches of learning ; as also in the circumstance 
 that historians often preface their narrative of 
 events with a geographical survey of the countries 
 where those events occurred. 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 Now, with respect to the history of geographical 
 science, it is not a little remarkable that though 
 in ancient Greece, as in other countries, history 
 in its origin was closely allied with poetry, yet 
 when the former began to assume a distinct shape, 
 it then, if I may so speak, grew out of geography. 
 Those first prose historians who preceded Hero- 
 dotus, and fragments of whose writings yet sub- 
 sist, gave to their countrymen the results of their 
 extensive travels in Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, 
 and Persia, describing their provinces, coasts, and 
 islands, and recording the history of their cities 
 and more celebrated temples. Such were the 
 prose writers, or A oy6ypa(j)oi, as they are called, 
 who flourished in the latter half of the sixth cen- 
 tury before our Lord, like Cadmus and Hecatseus 
 of Miletus, Acusilaus of Argos, Pherecydes of 
 Leros, Charon of Lampsacus, and Hellanicus of 
 Lesbos. Indeed, the earliest treatise of geography, 
 at least in the Grecian world, was composed 
 by one of those old historians, Hecatseus of 
 Miletus, and which he entitled Tlepiriyr)<ng, or the 
 
OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 9 
 
 Geographical Itinerary. To these early topo- 
 graphers and legendary writers succeeded the 
 inquisitive traveller, the lively narrator, the truth- 
 telling Herodotus, whose glory it is to have first 
 imparted to history her true purport and dignity. 
 But the father of history is as much a geographer 
 as an historian. It is thus the sciences in their 
 infancy evince the unity of their origin, and inter- 
 twine with each other, tili in a later period of 
 development they branch off in separate direc- 
 tions ; like sisters, who grow up together in 
 childhood, and then are separated by the events 
 of later life. 
 
 When geography became a special discipline, or 
 branch of learning, it was cultivated by distin- 
 guished intellects, sometimes in conjunction with 
 history, sometimes independently of it. And, 
 indeed, the fact that the greatest minds have at 
 all periods, even down to the present age, bestowed 
 much time and attention on this study, is itself a 
 proof of its great interest and importance. In 
 later antiquity, when the practical sciences became 
 more the subjects of investigation, geography, 
 especially in the school of Alexandria, was culti- 
 vated with great success. One of its most dis- 
 tinguished ornaments, Eratosthenes, eminent alike 
 in philology and the mathematics, enlarged the 
 boundaries of the science. Not to speak of pro- 
 fessed geographers, like the learned and judicious 
 Strabo, the terse Pomponius Mela, the elegant 
 and laborious compiler Pliny, and the practical 
 Ptolemy, Diodorus Siculus contains much geo- 
 graphical matter; and the elegant and critical 
 historian Arrian, by his description of India and 
 its inhabitants, and the periplus of the Euxine, 
 which some have attributed to him, rendered the 
 greatest services to geography. 
 
10 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 In modern times, to name but a few examples 
 of the union of geographical and historical learn- 
 ing, the historian of “ The Decline and Fall of the 
 Roman Empire” possessed the most exquisite 
 geographical lore ; and his geographical chapters 
 are not, perhaps, the least interesting and attrac- 
 tive of his work. The historian of America, who 
 had evinced so much familarity with this science, 
 closed his literary career with a treatise more geo- 
 graphical than historical — I mean his disquisition 
 “ On the Commerce of the Ancients with India ” 
 — his most finished production. I purposely pass 
 over the professional cultivators of the science, 
 like the celebrated D'Anville, in France, the 
 renovator of Ancient Geography, and in our own 
 country, Pinkerton, and that able commentator 
 on Herodotus, Major Rennell. To say nothing 
 of the labours of the French academicians for the 
 last two centuries on this subject, the geography 
 of Asia has been in our times much indebted to 
 the French orientalists, Abel Remusat and Saint 
 Martin, as well as to our own Sanscrit scholars of 
 Calcutta and London. While in France, during 
 the present age, geography has been treated with 
 great learning and elegance by Gosselin, Malte- 
 Brun, Walckenaere, and Huot ; and in Italy, 
 with much precision and exactness, by the dis- 
 tinguished ethnographer Balbi ; a man of brilliant 
 imagination, like Chateaubriand, to whom one 
 should have imagined such pursuits foreign, has 
 given a brief, indeed, but very spirited sketch of 
 the history of the science. 
 
 As to Germany, in recent times, so far from 
 geography being there abandoned to dry statists 
 and vulgar compilers, illustrious scholars and 
 thinkers have devoted, some an exclusive, others 
 
OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 11 
 
 a considerable attention to the subject. While a 
 new light has been thrown on ancient geography 
 by the labours of Mannert, Uckert, and others ; 
 and universal geography has been treated with 
 consummate erudition, and in a most philosophic 
 spirit, by Ritter ; historians, philologers, and 
 "naturalists have borne a conspicuous part in the 
 cultivation, and even promotion, of this branch of 
 knowledge. The works of the great historians, 
 Heeren and Niebuhr, evince a most masterly 
 acquaintance with the subject. The celebrated 
 naturalist, Alexander Yon Humboldt, and the 
 Orientalist, Klaproth, so skilled in the languages 
 of Central Asia, have enlarged the boundaries of 
 the science. Lastly, the late Catholic professor 
 of Munich, the illustrious Gorres, a man of uni- 
 versal learning, and one of the profoundest and 
 most comprehensive intellects that ever meditated 
 on history, closed his glorious career with a 
 treatise entitled, “ The Exodus of the Japhetites 
 from Armenia;” a most luminous commentary 
 on the tenth chapter of Genesis ; and wherein, to 
 those lofty philosophic views with which he had 
 long familiarised the world, he united the minutest 
 knowledge of geographical details. 
 
 I have not been here sketching a history of 
 geographical science, nor tracing an account of its 
 most celebrated masters; but my sole object has 
 been to show that men of the greatest erudition, 
 the highest imaginative powers, and the most 
 philosophic minds have not disdained this pursuit. 
 
 INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL 
 STUDIES. 
 
 Now, as to the intrinsic interest of these studies. 
 
12 
 
 INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE 
 
 who will deny that they possess a considerable 
 charm ? Who will say that the naive pictures of 
 the manners and customs of the Scythian and 
 African tribes in Herodotus — or that the voyage 
 of Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great, 
 along the sterile shores of the ancient Gedrosia, 
 or modern Beloochistan, and wherein he describes 
 the habits of the Ichthyophagi, or its fish-eating 
 tribes, — who will say that all these descriptions of 
 countries and their inhabitants, falling strictly, as 
 they do, within the province of geography, are 
 matters of less interest than the sieges and battles 
 of a Cyrus and an Alexander ? Is Hannons voyage 
 of discovery and colonization along the western 
 coasts of Africa — a voyage in which by two 
 thousand years he anticipated the daring efforts 
 of the Portuguese navigators of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury — a subject less attractive than the campaigns 
 of his celebrated countryman, Hannibal ? Or, to 
 come down to modern times, are the adventures 
 of that intrepid mariner, who, as the English poet 
 says, 
 
 “ For many a day and many a joyless night 
 Fought with mad seas,” 
 
 till he at last doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and 
 by his skill and courage opened to Portugal the 
 treasures of India, less interesting than the political 
 intrigues carried on by his contemporary, Ferdi- 
 nand the Catholic, king of Spain? Or are the 
 struggles of that illustrious admiral, who, upheld 
 by his trust in Divine Providence, and following 
 with unshaken constancy the magnet of his own 
 sagacious mind, realized the long, vague anticipa- 
 tion of ages, confirmed the old Egyptian tradition 
 recorded by Plato as to the lost island of Atlantis, 
 
OF GEOGRAPHICAL STUDIES. 
 
 13 
 
 and to the astonished eyes of mankind revealed a 
 new world, — are his struggles, I say, a matter of 
 less interest and moment than the wars of 
 Charles Y. and Philip II. and the intricate nego- 
 tiations of their diplomacy ? And again, amid 
 the frequent wars of the last century, springing, 
 as they sometimes did, out of such frivolous causes, 
 do not the noble voyages of discovery conducted 
 by a Cook and a Bougainville, and which brought 
 before our startled gaze the vast Archipelago of 
 the Pacific Ocean, and gave a new world to com- 
 merce and to science— do not these voyages con- 
 stitute a most pleasing episode ? And if history, by 
 showing us the sudden elevation and downfall of the 
 great ones of the earth, and the rise and extinction 
 of successive kingdoms and empires, inculcates the 
 lesson of the instability of all human greatness 
 — geography, too, tells us the same tale. Is her 
 teaching less impressive than that of history, when 
 she leads us over the broken aqueduct, and the 
 choked-up canal, through plains once blooming 
 with fertility, and now usurped by the sands of 
 the desert? or when she conducts us through the 
 majestic remains of cities — the dead mistresses of 
 empire, once rife with the busy hum of commerce 
 and the sounds of revelry — the theatres of human 
 wit and eloquence, — where, too, were celebrated 
 the shows of martial glory, and the sacred pomps 
 of religion, and now the abode of savage beasts, 
 doomed to the solitude of desolation and the reign 
 of an eternal silence, interrupted only by the cry 
 of the jackal, and the screech of the birds of 
 night? 
 
 Thus has geography an interest peculiar to itself ; 
 but its importance must rise in our estimation, 
 when we reflect that on certain matters, which it 
 
14 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED WITH RESPECT 
 
 treats either exclusively, or more in detail than 
 history, it is enabled to subserve the purposes of 
 the latter, and even to supply its deficiencies. Of 
 these matters three examples may be alleged, and 
 to these I shall now take the liberty of calling 
 your attention. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED WITH RESPECT TO LOCAL 
 AND CLIMATIC INFLUENCES. 
 
 These are, first, local and climatic influences ; 
 secondly, barbarian and savage life ; and thirdly, 
 archaeology, as far as it relates to the religious, 
 domestic, and political usages and institutions 
 and artistic monuments of ancient nations. 
 
 With regard to the first point, I here understand 
 by climatic and local influences, not only those of 
 climate, and of the situation, soil, and products 
 of a country, but the physical organization and 
 the moral and intellectual character of its in- 
 habitants. 
 
 In his state of original justice and innocence, 
 man was independent of climatic influences. As 
 his intelligence and will were in subjection to 
 God, so his body and all its senses and faculties 
 were in due subordination to that intelligence and 
 that will so happily regulated. His light, etherial 
 body was the fitting organ of a pure and luminous 
 soul. But when, by his rebellion against his Lord 
 and Maker, he had lost his true freedom, then 
 the earth, which had before yielded her fruits to 
 him in spontaneous abundance, became smitten 
 with barrenness ; then his corporeal faculties 
 became more gross, usurped too exclusive a domi- 
 nion over his soul, and were in turn subjected to 
 the influences of physical nature. Hence that 
 
TO LOCAL AND CLIMATIC INFLUENCES. 
 
 15 
 
 rule over nature, originally imparted to man, was 
 now weakened and disputed. Hence, too, his 
 history, subsequent to his fall, shows a struggle 
 for the mastery between his intelligence and ex- 
 ternal nature, or a mutual action and re- action of 
 the two upon each other. So the culpable ex- 
 aggerations of Montesquieu, as to the influence 
 of climate on nations — the offspring of a philo- 
 sophy more or less materialist — were, like every 
 other error, founded on the abuse of truth. 
 
 There are five great elements that go to make 
 up that complex thing which we call a nation’s 
 history. These are, first, the action of Divine 
 Providence on society, judging, chastising, and 
 rewarding nations and generations according to 
 their deserts ; next, the free will of man, co-oper- 
 ating with or resisting the designs of the Almighty; 
 then, the benignant or adverse influence of spirits, 
 good or evil, opposing or aiding and carrying on 
 the Divine Government; then again, the law of 
 growth, maturity, and decay, common to the col- 
 lective as well as the individual forms of humanity; 
 and, lastly, local and climatic influences, in the 
 comprehensive sense I have used the term. In a 
 most masterly lecture, which must be still fresh 
 in your memories, the first three principles in the 
 historic life of nations have been, by a distin- 
 guished colleague"* already brought before your 
 observation. My business to-night is with the 
 last-named element, though the fourth shall meet 
 with an incidental notice. 
 
 Even in the dawn of history, we see a mys- 
 terious analogy between the character of a race 
 and the place of its abode. The first men lived 
 in more intimate relations with Nature; they had 
 * Mr. Allies, in his Inaugural Lecture. 
 
16 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED WITH RESPECT 
 
 a more vivid perception of her powers, properties, 
 and influences ; for their senses were more acute 
 and vigorous, and their power of mental intuition 
 keener, than it is easy for us now to conceive. 
 Hence, it is not a little remarkable, that the 
 Semitic race, which even in its heathen members 
 was, comparatively speaking, more tenacious of 
 primitive traditions, should have lingered round 
 the cradle of mankind, and have loved to dwell in 
 those central regions of the earth where man had 
 first heard his Creator’s voice. For rarely did 
 that race, as if haunted by the glorious reminis- 
 cences of Eden, wander beyond those middle 
 countries of Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Syria, Pales- 
 tine, and Arabia — regions so near the seat of 
 primeval innocence and bliss ! The sons of 
 Cham, on the other hand, labouring under a 
 mysterious malediction, and perhaps pursued by 
 the execration of the other races, hurried at an 
 early period towards the torrid zone — to the 
 southernmost parts of Asia, and to the burning 
 sands of Africa, as places the most congenial to 
 the passionate glow of their own fierce and sen- 
 sual bosoms. The vigorous, enterprising sons of 
 Japhet — audax Iapeti genus — formed for the 
 accomplishment of such high destinies, had been 
 inured, as Gorres observes, to the bracing moun- 
 tain air of Armenia, where, after the departure 
 of the other races, they had long dwelt. Hence 
 they evinced a marked predilection for the Alpine 
 regions of Asia and Europe, stretching their 
 shoots over the isles and peninsula of Scandinavia, 
 the plains of Sarmatia, and the steppes of Scythia, 
 even to the Polar Seas. 
 
 But if the first men — under Providential guid- 
 ance, of course — sought out with such marvellous 
 
TO LOCALITY AND CLIMATE. 
 
 17 
 
 instinct the countries most akin to their character 
 and feelings, locality, in its turn, exerted a potent 
 influence on the moral nature, as well as the 
 physical organization of their descendants. Who 
 can doubt that the character and the habits of 
 the Mogul and the Arab have been much modi- 
 fied by the steppes and the deserts of their 
 respective countries ? Again, who does not know 
 that the mountaineer and the islander have ever 
 a more energetic spirit of nationality ? Further, 
 to give an instance, where locality exercises an 
 influence on the physical organs of a people, a 
 great writer has observed that the accent of the 
 mountaineer is always more guttural, that of the 
 inhabitant of the plain more soft, that of people 
 by the seashore more nasal. 
 
 A glance at the map of a country will often 
 enable us to divine its history. Who can look at 
 Europe, with its long line of coast, its deep gulfs, 
 its wide and countless bays, its many penin- 
 sulas, and groups of islands clustering near their 
 shores, and where the sea appears to contend with 
 the land for mastery, and not say, that this con- 
 tinent was the destined seat of a high civilization? 
 
 Africa, on the other hand, presents the very 
 reverse of this picture. With its vast deserts and 
 burning clime — with bays neither deep nor capa- 
 cious — possessing, as it does, few wholly navigable 
 rivers, few peninsulas, headlands, and islands in 
 the vicinity of the coast — such a continent (irre- 
 spective of that mysterious primal malediction 
 weighing on its inhabitants, and whereof many 
 of its tribes are conscious) — such a continent, I 
 say, is by Nature herself debarred from an active 
 intercourse with the rest of the world, and never 
 could become the abode of highly-civilized nations, 
 c 
 
18 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED 
 
 The effect of climate on national character, so 
 much exaggerated by the false philosophers of the 
 last century, was far more potent in Heathen than 
 in Christian countries. Paganism was as little 
 able to resist the voluptuous influences of climate 
 and soil as it was to withstand the allurements of 
 wealth, the arts of sophistry, and the terrors of 
 persecution. 
 
 There was a bitter irony in the heathen^ 
 doctrine of fate. God had made him free, but, 
 as far as he could , he destroyed his own freedom ; 
 for, by subjecting himself to Nature, he came in 
 some measure under the law of Nature, which is 
 necessity. So his false theory became, in relation 
 to himself, partially true. At all events, we must 
 allow that in the Pagan state a strong character 
 of naturalism was predominant. Even that law 
 of growth, maturity, and decay, which I stated 
 before to preside over the historic life of nations, 
 prevailed among the peoples of heathenism with a 
 rigour and an uniformity that we find not among 
 those of Christendom. The nations faithful to the 
 Church are blessed with such longevity, their 
 childhood is so marvellous, their adolescence so 
 vigorous, their manhood so active and energetic, 
 their age so venerable, and, thanks to Chris- 
 tianity, they possess such a power of resuscitation ; 
 they often spring up, like the phoenix, from their 
 own ashes, and the Church lends them, as it were, 
 a portion of her immortality. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED WITH RESPECT TO 
 BARBARIAN AND SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 I pass now to the second point — the picture 
 of barbarian and savage life; — a matter which 
 
WITH RESPECT TO SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 19 
 
 the geographer treats more in detail than the 
 historian. 
 
 Although, as I before said, civilization is the 
 proper theme for historical philosophy, and the 
 description of barbarian and savage life lies more 
 within the province of geography, still these three 
 forms of social existence cannot be separated by 
 any line of rigid demarcation. How often have 
 not barbarous nations come into collision with 
 civilized, or entered into relations of amity with 
 them ? How often have they not been mutually 
 affected by the good or the adverse fortunes of 
 either? How strangely, too, at times, is their 
 destiny interwoven ! And how can the historian 
 sever, in contemplation, what in matter of fact is 
 so closely conjoined ? Yet, though barbarian and 
 savage nations cannot elude the observation of 
 the historian, an inquiry into their manners, 
 habits, laws, and institutions, is the special task 
 of the geographer. And how vastly important is 
 such a task, a little reflection will show. What 
 fearful havoc hath not barbarism often inflicted 
 on the civilized world ! How has its aspect been 
 changed by the inroads of barbarians ! What 
 other but barbarians were those hordes which, at 
 various periods of history, and under the succes- 
 sive names of Scythians, Huns, Tartars, and Turks, 
 have rushed down, like swarms of locusts, from 
 the heights of central Asia, and overspread and 
 darkened almost the whole surface of civilization, 
 “ devouring,” as the Scripture saith, “ every green 
 thing ? ” What other but barbarians were those 
 sons of the desert who conceived and propagated 
 that great anti-Christian heresy — the most bitter, 
 formidable, obdurate foe of 'the Church — and 
 whereon, as a great Catholic philosopher has 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED 
 
 observed, so many features of the Arab character 
 are impressed ? Hence the manners and customs, 
 the laws and institutions of barbarian nations are 
 objects that challenge the gravest attention. 
 
 Again, what more interesting study than to 
 observe those still existing usages and habits of 
 infant communities, which recall the naive , touch- 
 ing pictures of Genesis and the Book of Job, of 
 the Iliad and the Odyssey ! or to inquire into the 
 mercantile transactions of the rude tribes of Asia 
 and of Africa — to track those routes of commerce, 
 which are still the same as in the time of Hero- 
 dotus, and to examine those articles of merchan- 
 dise that were described by the prophets Isaiah 
 and Ezekiel ! Nor can those Asiatic and African 
 cities which are at the present day what they 
 were long ages ago, at once stations of rest for 
 the caravan, emporiums of trade, and sanctuaries 
 of religion, be considered undeserving of notice. 
 
 Further, the study of barbarian tribes serves to 
 throw light on passages in the infancy of nations 
 who subsequently reached a high degree of civil- 
 ization. Although the primitive condition of 
 mankind, as fresh from the fount of primeval 
 revelation, and favoured with a closer intercourse 
 with celestial spirits, was one in many respects 
 highly civilized ; yet how many later nations 
 never knew that state, or have fallen away from 
 it ! How many, in consequence, have had to pass 
 through a stage of greater or less barbarism, before 
 they attained the summit of civilized life ? Hence 
 w r e can understand how Niebuhr could illustrate 
 certain parts of the early history and constitution 
 of Borne, by analogies taken from the negro 
 states of Central Africa. And again, we some- 
 times find in barbarous tribes interesting remains 
 
WITH RESPECT TO SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 21 
 
 of an early civilization ; — as Mr. Bowdich dis- 
 covered among the Ashantees, near the coast of 
 Guinea, vestiges of old Egyptian usages and 
 institutions, from which he draws some luminous 
 historical deductions. 
 
 Let us now pass from the barbarian to the 
 savage. 
 
 A great English Catholic writer, well known 
 and dear to us all, has recently said — “The savage 
 has no history.” True ; and therefore he belongs 
 to the geographer more than to the historian. 
 The savage has no history, but he has the rem- 
 nants of a history. He has the remnants of 
 languages, which (as Humboldt observed, in 
 respect to many of the American dialects) are 
 most copious in their vocabulary, and most re- 
 fined and philosophic in their grammatical struc- 
 ture, and which, like the buried cities in his 
 wilderness, point to an anterior civilization. He 
 often possesses remains of the early traditionary 
 history of the human race; and, above all, he has 
 a disfigured remnant of the great body of religious 
 truths and practices derived from primeval reve- 
 lation. It is by this slender stock from the 
 common patrimony of mankind his feeble moral 
 and intellectual nature is upheld. 
 
 One of the deepest Christian philosophers of 
 our time, Count De Maistre, has called the savage 
 state the second fall of humanity. And the pro- 
 found truth of this observation must strike us, 
 when we reflect, that as the fall of man had its 
 origin in rebellion against God, so it was in a 
 defection from society — which is the channel 
 ordained by the Almighty, not only for man^s 
 intellectual development, but for his moral im- 
 provement also — the savage state had its rise. 
 
22 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED 
 
 And with this defection there was, of course, a 
 corresponding moral and intellectual degradation 
 in these outcast tribes. Hence, so far from 
 regarding, with Rousseau and other sophists of 
 the eighteenth century, the savage as the genuine, 
 legitimate child of Nature, we must look upon 
 him as the bastard, who dishonours his mother, — 
 as the prodigal son, who hath wasted his patri- 
 mony, — as the imbecile sovereign, who lets Nature 
 dispute or disown that dominion which God had 
 given him over her. Hence those who at first 
 sight had been dazzled with admiration at traits 
 of courage, generosity, and noble-mindedness — 
 parts of man^s original greatness — which the 
 savage still retained, were, on a nearer inspection, 
 shocked by revolting features of character. “ The 
 Indian savages are much better than ourselves,” 
 said the learned French naturalist, Lamanon ; 
 and the next day he was massacred by these good 
 Indians. Whereupon his fellow-voyager, the 
 celebrated and unfortunate La Perouse, observed, 
 “ I have less dislike for the savages than for our 
 philosophers, who bespatter them with praise.” 
 
 M. de Chateaubriand, like many of his early 
 contemporaries, was in his first youth carried 
 away by that morbid enthusiasm for the savage 
 state which the perverse eloquence of Rousseau 
 had inspired. A few years later the revolutionary 
 tempest cast him on the shores of America. In 
 that continent, whose gorgeous vegetation, and 
 vast savannas, and sea-like rivers, and sublime 
 cataracts, and primeval forests were to nurse his 
 young imagination, and brace it for those lofty 
 flights which were afterwards to astonish the 
 world — in that continent, I say, he had ample 
 opportunities for testing the truth of his youthful 
 
WITH RESPECT TO SAVAGE LIFE. 
 
 23 
 
 speculations. The result of his observations is, to 
 show that we should neither overrate, nor unduly 
 depreciate the character of the savage. He espe- 
 cially points out how, among these outcast children 
 of the human race, we meet with all the forms of 
 social polity to be found among civilized nations. 
 Monarchy, hereditary or elective — aristocracy, 
 oligarchy, royalty — more or less tempered by 
 popular assemblies — sometimes even a regular 
 system of foreign alliances, are severally to be 
 discerned in these savage communities. These 
 institutions, indeed, the writer I speak of seems 
 to regard as the first rude elementary forms of 
 human society; but a deeper philosophy proves 
 them to be the weak remains, or, at best, the 
 gross transcripts of a prior civilization. 
 
 But there is yet another and a higher point of 
 view, from which the savage may be considered. 
 
 Cicero says that no people, how fierce and un- 
 cultivated soever, though it might not know the 
 fitting mode of worshipping the Deity, was yet 
 found without some notion of its being. And the 
 wise Plutarch observes , — “ We may find nations 
 without arts, without letters, without gymnasia, 
 without commerce, without written laws ; but a 
 people without religion and worship we shall never 
 find.” The remark of these ancient sages was based 
 on a sufficiently large induction ; but how small 
 were their knowledge and experience on this matter 
 when compared with ours ! They knew nothing 
 of savage life, except as exemplified in some 
 Scythian and African tribes. And impiety might 
 then say, as it did long afterwards allege, that in 
 the same way as some ancient travellers pretended 
 to have found people having tails, and with eyes 
 in their stomachs ; so a more extended knowledge 
 
24 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED 
 
 of the globe would make us acquainted with tribes 
 devoid of all religious notions. But how have all 
 these absurd conjectures of irreligion vanished 
 before the light of modern discovery ! Now that 
 the whole world is known to us, where is such a 
 lusus natures — such a monster in the moral world — 
 as a people without religion to be found ? The 
 progress of geographical science has revealed to 
 us, in all its fearful reality and hideous magnitude, 
 the portent of savage life. Yet everywhere, even 
 among the most degraded members of the human 
 family, have the great doctrines of primitive Re- 
 velation — the belief in a Supreme Being — in the 
 existence of intermediate spirits — in the immor- 
 tality of the soul — in a state of future retribution 
 — in the efficacy of prayer and of sacrifice, been 
 found to prevail. Frequently, even, we discern the 
 tradition of man’s primal innocence and subse- 
 quent fall — of the Garden of Eden, and of the 
 Deluge. Nay, more; it is a most remarkable fact 
 that even the great dogma of the Trinity, which 
 is found more or less disfigured, more or less clearly 
 expressed in the mythology, religious rites, and 
 philosophic writings af the primitive nations of 
 Asia, like the Chinese, the Hindoos, and others, 
 but less prominently so in those of Greece and 
 Rome, should in the mythology of the Tahitans 
 be enounced with a fullness and a distinctness to 
 be paralleled, perhaps, by no Greek pagan writer 
 except the great Plato. 
 
 Thus I may venture here to repeat what I said 
 on another occasion — the evidences of natural 
 religion have not only been increased in intensive 
 force by the vast confirmation and development 
 they have received in the Blessed Covenant of the 
 Redemption, but by the progress of geographical 
 
WITH RESPECT TO ARCHAEOLOGY. 
 
 25 
 
 and anthropological science consequent on the 
 discovery of the New World, the discovery of 
 Australia and Polynesia, and the circumnavigation 
 of the globe, they have grown in extensive power 
 also. So, in a theological, as well as a psychological 
 and ethnographical point of view, the savage is an 
 object worthy of the deepest study. But, for the 
 reasons before alleged, his portrait is to be found 
 less in the pages of the historian than in those of 
 the geographer. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED WITH RESPECT TO 
 ARCHAEOLOGY. 
 
 Thirdly. — I come now to archaeology. 
 
 Archaeology is to ancient geography what 
 statistics are to modern ; yet, as in modern geo- 
 graphy we must not give the minute details of 
 statistics, so in ancient the same fault is to be 
 avoided in respect to archaeology. We must select 
 those points only which are of general utility and 
 permanent interest, which illustrate important 
 events in profane and sacred history (though, as 
 regards the latter, every event may, in a certain 
 sense, be considered important), or which throw 
 light on countries and cities, as well as on the 
 manners, customs, and institutions of their in- 
 habitants, as celebrated in the Bible, and in the 
 writings of profane antiquity. The general reader 
 and the man of the world are not to be referred 
 to professional works, or to books difficult of access, 
 like Introductions to the Bible, elaborate treatises 
 on Greek and Roman antiquities, collections of 
 ancient coins, medals, and inscriptions, or a 
 voluminous series of travels, or the Transactions 
 of academic societies. But in a popular book, like 
 
26 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED 
 
 a Treatise of Geography, such persons have a right 
 to look for information on topics of an universal 
 and abiding interest, important, not to the anti- 
 quarian only, but to every Christian and scholar. 
 It is needless to dwell on the importance of such 
 studies. Sacred geography, aided by archaeology, 
 serves to illustrate localities described in the Bible, 
 as well as the usages and manners of their inhabi- 
 tants ; to reveal the force and beauty of Scriptural 
 descriptions, allusions, and similitudes ; to set forth 
 more vividly the fulfilment of prophecy, and in 
 many ways demonstrate the truth of Holy Writ. 
 Classical geography, in the same way, becomes 
 the useful handmaid of ancient poetry and history, 
 lends a new charm to the pictures of the former, 
 imparts more reality to the narratives of the latter, 
 and stamps more deeply on our memory the deeds 
 of heroism and the monuments of genius. Who, 
 in contemplating the ruins of Babylon and 
 Ninive, will not be impressed with greater awe by 
 the sublime prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and 
 Ezekiel ? And who, in studying the topography 
 of the Troad, will not read with a keener relish 
 the descriptions of the Iliad ? 
 
 It may be objected that I have no right to 
 drag into this discussion a foreign science ; that 
 archaeology is quite distinct from geography, and 
 that I must not thrust my sickle into another 
 man's field. But here we must bear in mind 
 what I stated at the commencement of this lecture, 
 namely, that geography is essentially a mixed 
 science ; and here I am alleging a point where it 
 serves to illustrate history. I stated also, that it 
 was the province of geography to furnish the 
 general results of divers sciences, and to make 
 them popular ; and this service is more especially 
 
WITH RESPECT TO ARCHAEOLOGY. 
 
 27 
 
 needed in the case of archaeology, which is essen- 
 tially a recondite study. 
 
 Moreover, where lies the proper sphere of geo- 
 graphy but in the description of the physical, 
 moral, and intellectual condition of different coun- 
 tries ? And how, in respect to ancient geography, 
 can this end be accomplished, except by the aid 
 of archaeology? But if at all times this study 
 entered into the province of ancient geography, 
 this is more particularly the case in the present 
 age. . 
 
 This age has been called the era of archceolo- 
 gical discoveries , as the sixteenth and eighteenth 
 centuries were the epoch of geographical dis- 
 covery. And here observe the admirable conduct 
 of Divine Providence in the march of human 
 science ! Scarcely had those enterprising navi- 
 gators Cook and Bougainville, and their com- 
 panions and immediate successors, by finding out, 
 or at least better ascertaining, the vast continent 
 and archipelago of the South Sea, completed our 
 knowledge of the eartlPs configuration, when new 
 mines of archaeological learning were opened to 
 the inquisitive intellect of Europe. Sir William 
 Jones, one of the greatest scholars England ever 
 produced, had the honour of unsealing to our 
 curious gaze the intellectual treasures of India. 
 The Asiatic Society of Calcutta, which he founded, 
 has thrown the greatest light on the religious and 
 civil institutions, the manners, customs, history, 
 and geography of Hindostan, and brought to light 
 a literature which (as far as poetry and meta- 
 physics are concerned) nearly vies with that of 
 ancient Greece. 
 
 Anquetil Du Perron, that hero of learning, as 
 he has been called, made, at the same time, a 
 
28 
 
 GEOGRAPHY CONSIDERED 
 
 voyage to Bombay, for tlie express purpose of 
 collecting and translating the Zendavesta, or Sacred 
 Books of the ancient Persians, extant among their 
 descendants, the modern Parsees. The religion 
 and literature of China had long been investigated 
 with critical learning by the Jesuit missionaries, 
 when in our age a new life has been infused into 
 those studies by those great Orientalists, Abel 
 Remusat and Klaproth. 
 
 At the commencement of the present century, 
 Napoleon, escorted, like another Alexander, by 
 a group of distinguished scholars, artists, and 
 naturalists, invaded Egypt ; and while, by his 
 arms he sought to bring it under the dominion 
 of France, he caused the learned to explore the 
 natural products of its soil, and study the monu- 
 ments of its antiquity. After many attempts 
 to decipher its mysterious tongue, Young and 
 Champollion discovered the clue to the under- 
 standing of the hieroglyphics. Small as is the 
 progress yet made in this work of discovery, still, 
 interesting disclosures on the primitive history of 
 Egypt, as well as striking confirmations to the 
 truth of Holy Writ, have been elicited from these 
 researches. * 
 
 Finally, the earliest of earthly monarchies — 
 Assyria — has been the last to reveal the secrets of 
 its history to the questionings of science. With 
 what brilliant success, and with what important 
 results to sacred and profane history, Botta, 
 Layard, and Rawlinson have prosecuted their 
 inquiries on this subject, is too well known to 
 require any comment. Suffice it to say, we may 
 
 * Since this lecture was delivered, great progress has 
 been made in the study of hieroglyphic literature. 
 
WITH RESPECT TO ARCHAEOLOGY. 
 
 29 
 
 soon expect an Assyrian counterpart to the Hebrew 
 Books of Kings and Chronicles, and even, perhaps, 
 of Judges ! 
 
 Thus, to sum up the results of these investiga- 
 tions, the patriarchal land of Fohi* hath been 
 forced to come out of her long seclusion, and 
 witness to the truths of primitive revelation, and 
 the great facts of primeval history. India, amid 
 her wild dreams and gigantic fantasies, hath 
 uttered oracles worthy of note ; while in her 
 singular institutions she sets before our eyes a 
 sort of petrifaction of the primitive world. lran,t 
 in her long struggle with Turan, J or the region of 
 darkness, hath proved herself, in her traditions, 
 the purest of heathen states. Then the land of 
 Misraim,§ Israelis old hereditary foe — she who 
 had so long made the nations drink of her cup of 
 enchantment — she who had perverted the noblest 
 gifts of knowledge, and spread around her the 
 meshes of idolatry, — that great night-walker of 
 history, as she has been called by an illustrious 
 German, who had so long dealt with the occult 
 powers in sciences forbidden, — she, too, hath been 
 made by Providence to shake off the sepulchral 
 dust of ages, to open her lips, after more than two 
 thousand years* silence, in order to depose to the 
 truth of the divine oracles, and tell the secrets of 
 her mystic lore. Lastly, Asshur|| and Babel have 
 been roused from the long ’sleep which they had 
 slept. They, who had led the way in rebellion 
 against God, and who, after the Flood, had been 
 the first to bring confusion upon the earth — they 
 have been evoked from the tomb, to confirm and 
 
 * China. + Persia. J Tartary. 
 
 § Egypt. || Assyria and Babylonia. 
 
30 
 
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES. 
 
 illustrate, by their responses, the truth of prophecy, 
 and justify the God of that people whom they 
 had hated and oppressed ! 
 
 What mighty disclosures have been thus re- 
 served for these our times ! What a noble field 
 is here thrown open to historical geography ! 
 And if even we overlook all the other striking 
 manifestations of Providential agency, these dis- 
 coveries would surely serve to render our age one 
 of the most memorable in the history of the 
 Church and of the human mind. 
 
LECTURE IL 
 
 THE GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OP PHOENICIA.^ 
 
 The subject of this evening^ lecture is “The 
 Geography and History of Phoenicia.” I shall 
 first speak of the physical geography of Phoenicia ; 
 then give a brief account of its several states. I 
 shall afterwards proceed to inquire into its lan- 
 guage, its religious and political institutions, and 
 its arts and sciences. Its manufactures, its land 
 and maritime commerce, and its colonies, will 
 subsequently pass under consideration. I shall 
 conclude with some general remarks upon its 
 people. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OP PHOENICIA. 
 
 That narrow tract of seacoast along the Medi- 
 terranean and to the south-west of Syria, which, 
 
 * In composing this and the following lecture on the 
 colonies of Phoenicia, the writer has consulted, among the 
 ancients, chiefly Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, 
 and Stephanus Byzantinus ; and among the moderns, Dr. 
 Allioli’s Biblical Antiquities (in German), Heeren’s Manual 
 of Ancient History, the same author’s work on the Polity 
 and Commerce of Ancient Nations (in German), W. Piitz’s 
 Geography and History (in German), Holler’s Universal 
 History (in German), Cesare Cantu’s Histoire Universelle 
 (translated from the Italian), the Cosmos of A. von Hum- 
 boldt, and the Dictionnaire Geographique of M. Bouillet 
 (Brussels edition). 
 
32 
 
 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PHCENICIA. 
 
 from its local position, was denominated by its 
 native inhabitants Canaan — that is, low land — 
 was called in the later books of the Bible, as well 
 as by the Greeks and Romans, Phoenicia (iotvha?). 
 This appellation it derived from the abundance of 
 palm trees which there grew. 
 
 On the north and the east it was bounded by 
 Syria, on the south by Palestine, and on the west 
 it stretched along the Mediterranean to the length 
 of about one hundred and twenty-five English 
 miles. This fruitful maritime district, which in 
 ancient times was adorned with large and beautiful 
 cities, was watered by many streams, issuing out 
 of Lebanon — namely, the Eleutherus, the Adonis, 
 the Lycus, the Leontes, the Belus, and others. 
 
 The Lebanon, which encloses Phoenicia, some- 
 times advances abruptly towards the Mediterra- 
 nean, sometimes recedes, and consists of two 
 chains, running from north to south, called, the 
 Libanus and Anti-Libanus, which formed between 
 them the fertile valley termed by the Greeks 
 Coele Syria, or Hollow Syria. The Lebanon, in 
 its highest parts, reaches near twelve thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea, and gives birth to 
 many streams, that scatter on the hills and in 
 the valleys around the richest vegetation. The 
 country abounds in cypresses, pines, palm-trees, 
 and oaks. 
 
 The cedars of Lebanon are celebrated, not 
 only in the Bible, but in the works of profane 
 antiquity. The vine, without much expenditure 
 of labour, attains to a luxuriant growth ; the 
 honey, by reason of the fragrant meadows and 
 pastures, possesses as much excellence as the vine. 
 Indeed, for the breeding of cattle, for the chase, 
 for gardening, and for tillage, the mountain land 
 
GEOGRAPHY OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 33 
 
 of Lebanon was most richly provided. Hence 
 was it coveted by so many nations, and, among 
 other reasons, selected by Divine Providence for 
 the promised land. 
 
 The most ancient inhabitants of Phoenicia were 
 descendants of Cham by Canaan, and were divided 
 into several tribes. — (Gen. x. 15, et seq.) The 
 Sidonians, the Arkites, the Senites, the Arvadites, 
 and the Zemerites, had settled in the district 
 along the Mediterranean coast, and had distin- 
 guished themselves by their skill in the arts and 
 sciences, in commerce and navigation. By the 
 Greeks, these tribes were called Phoenicians 
 (<PoiviKEg), but among the Israelites they bore the 
 name of Canaanites. The grossest idolatry had 
 long prevailed along this sea-coast, and not seldom 
 were the neighbouring Israelites seduced into that 
 crime by the Phoenicians — a seduction wherein 
 the Sidonian Queen Jezabel was very instru- 
 mental. — (3 Kings, xi. 5; xvi. 31.) During the 
 period of the schism of the ten tribes, the idols 
 of Phoenicia, Philistine, and Syria found their 
 way not only into the kingdom of Israel, but into 
 that of Judah. — (See 3rd and 4th Books of 
 Kings.) 
 
 Originally, the more important cities of Phoe- 
 nicia possessed monarchical constitutions, and there 
 were as many independent states as there were 
 cities ; but at a subsequent period Tyre arrogated 
 the supremacy over the other states, and this 
 supremacy, then, passed on in succession to the 
 great empires of Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. 
 In the Books of Maccabees (2 Maccab. iii. 5, 6 ; 
 viii. 8) Phoenicia is cited as a province of the 
 empire of the Seleucidse; and in the Acts of the 
 Apostles we find it mentioned, together with 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 SIDON. 
 
 Cyprus and Samaria, as under the Roman dominion 
 (xi. 19; xv. 3; xxi. 2). Phoenicia, in the time 
 of Our Lord, as forming part of Syria, was called 
 Syro-Phoenicia (Supo (poiv'iicri) , in order to distin- 
 guish it from Syria proper. The woman whose 
 daughter, as we read in the Gospel, was plagued 
 by an evil spirit, and who invoked the almighty 
 aid of Our Saviour, is called by Saint Mark 
 (xii. 26) a Syro-Phoenician, and by Saint Mat- 
 thew, for the reason above alleged, a Canaanite. 
 St. Paul and St. Barnabas, on their journey 
 through Phoenicia, converted many heathens to 
 Christianity. — (Acts of the Apostles, xv. 3.) 
 
 CITY OF SIDON. 
 
 Sidon (Zidon), the most ancient of all the 
 cities situated on the Mediterranean, was founded 
 by Sidon, the first-born of Canaan. It lay, ac- 
 cording to Strabo (lib. xvi. p. 756), 200 stadia 
 from Tyre, and 400 from Berytus. Even in the 
 time of Joshua, Sidon was very populous; for 
 it is said the Lord gave the Canaanites into the 
 hands of Israel, and they beat them, and pursued 
 them, even to the great city of Sidon. — (Jos. xi. 8.) 
 Sidon, in its flourishing period, had its own kings 
 as well as its own coins (Jer. xxv. 22 ; xxxvii. 3 ; 
 Echkhel, Doctrina Num. Yet. vol. i. Ill, p. 405 et 
 seq.), and, as a commercial city, attained to great 
 celebrity. — (Is. xxiii. 2.) Even Homer depicts the 
 Sidonians as a mercantile people, devoted to art, 
 and skilled in navigation : — 
 
 “ Then she descended,” he says, 
 
 “ Into the sweet perfumed chamber, 
 
 Where the beautiful garments she kept, 
 
 So rich in design, work of virgins Sidonian, 
 
 That the divine chief, Alexander, 
 
 Out of Sidon had brought.” — (Iliad, vii. 228.) 
 
SIDON. 
 
 35 
 
 And again, — 
 
 “ Other prizes for racers did Peleus* bold son now set 
 forth. 
 
 A silver pitcher there was, 
 
 Work of art most refined. Six measures it held, 
 
 And in beauty surpassed all that earth 
 Could show, for the skilful artists of Sidon 
 Did fashion the vase. But men of Phoenicia, 
 
 O’er the dark waters bringing it, 
 
 In the haven exposed it for sale, 
 
 And gave it at last to King Tlioas.” 
 
 (Iliad, xxiii. 740.) 
 
 Workmen from Sidon were employed in the 
 construction of the temples of Solomon and 
 Zerubbabel. The Sidonians were previously in 
 hostile collision with the Israelites ; but this state 
 of hostility did not last for any length of time. — 
 (Judges, x. 12.) The judgment of the Almighty 
 impended over the idolatrous city, for it was 
 announced by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, 
 “ So saith the Lord God : Behold, I am against 
 thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the 
 midst of thee ; and they shall know that I am 
 the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments 
 in her, and shall be sanctified in her [that is, 
 shall be found as a holy and just judge]. For 
 I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her 
 streets ; and the wounded shall be judged in the 
 midst of her by the sword upon her on every 
 side, and they shall know that I am the Lord.” — 
 (Ezekiel, xxviii. 22.) 
 
 Sidon, which Artaxerxes Ochus destroyed in 
 the year 350 before Christ, was soon afterwards 
 rebuilt. — (Diod. Sic. lib. xvi. c. 42.) 
 
 The city is now called Saida , and numbers 
 nearly four thousand inhabitants ; within its 
 walls, as well as in the circumjacent country, we 
 d 2 
 
36 
 
 ARADUS. 
 
 meet with ruins and mutilated columns, which 
 avouch its former greatness and splendour. 
 
 CITIES FOUNDED BY SIDONIAN COLONISTS. 
 
 1. Colonists from Sidon, the mother of several 
 maritime Phoenician cities, founded the city of 
 Arka, called by the Greeks ’'Ap/a?, situate at the 
 north-west foot of Lebanon, and about two 
 leagues distant from the Mediterranean Sea. It 
 received its name from the Aracites (Arkun), a 
 Canaanitish tribe. — (St. Jerome, Qusest. in Gen. 
 x. 5.) Remains of the ancient city have been 
 found by several travellers, and Burckhardt, in 
 particular, passed by, in the year 1812, a hill called 
 Tel- Ark a, on whose sides lay many ruined walls 
 and fragments of granite columns. — (Travels in 
 Syria and Palestine, pp. 271, 520.) 
 
 2. The city of Arvad (Aradus), situate on an 
 island of the same name, at the mouth of the river 
 Eleutherus, was built by the Aradites (Arvadein), 
 the descendants of Canaan. They were accounted 
 skilful mariners in the service of the Syrians. — 
 (Ezekiel, xxvii. 8, 11.) At a later period the 
 Aradites were in alliance with the Romans. — 
 (1 Maccabees, xv. 23.) 
 
 Now the island is called Ruad, or Rowada, and 
 is in a state of great desolation. 
 
 “ Portions of the old double Phoenician wall,” 
 says Dr. Smith, in his “ Dictionary of Ancient 
 Geography,” “ are still found on the north-east 
 and south-east of the island; and the rock is per- 
 forated by the cisterns, of which Strabo speaks.”* 
 The same author minutely describes the contri- 
 
 * Art. Aradus. 
 
TYRE. 
 
 37 
 
 vance by which the inhabitants drew their water 
 from a submarine source. 
 
 Though the tradition has been lost, the boat- 
 men of Raud still draw fresh water from the 
 spring Ibrahim in the sea, a few rods from the 
 shore of the opposite coast. The traveller Mr. 
 Walpole found two of these springs. 
 
 A few Greek inscriptions, taken from columns 
 of black basalt, are given by the Rev. Mr. Thom- 
 son in his “ Bibliotheca Sacra.*” 
 
 TYRE. 
 
 Among the cities of Phoenicia, of more recent 
 origin, we must place Tyre, called by the Hebrews 
 Zor, which rose in strength and beauty on a 
 rocky eminence of the Mediterranean. — (Jos. xix. 
 29 ; Osee, ix. 13.) The city soon attained to 
 great power, so as to surpass its parent, Zidon. 
 It had its own kings, and amongst these, Hiram 
 was in relations of amity with David and Solomon. 
 When David built himself a palace, Hiram sent 
 him builders and wood of cedar ; as was also the 
 case under Solomon, who raised a magnificent 
 temple to the Lord. — (2 Kings, v. 11; 3 Kings, 
 ix. 10, et seq.) 
 
 The Tyrians, at an early period, displayed the 
 greatest commercial activity, founded everywhere 
 colonies, and thereby acquired immense riches, as 
 may be clearly seen in the 27th chapter of Ezekiel. 
 In the sequel the inhabitants of Tyre built on the 
 neighbouring island, and called the city likewise 
 Tyre. Historians have since distinguished be- 
 tween the old and the new Tyre. — (Diod. Sic. 
 lib. xvii. c. 40; Plin. lib. v. c. 17.) 
 
 The prophets of Jehovah announced to the rich 
 
38 
 
 TYRE. 
 
 and voluptuous mistress of the ocean the desola- 
 tion impending over her. “ Therefore, thus 
 saith the Lord God, Behold I am against thee, 
 
 0 Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up 
 against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come 
 up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, 
 and break down her towers : I will also scrape 
 the dust from her, and make her like the top of 
 a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of 
 nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, 
 saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil 
 to the nations.” — (Ezekiel, xxvi. 3, 5 ; Cf. xxvii. 
 
 1 et seq. ; Is. xxiii. 1.) 
 
 This desolation was inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar, 
 and afterwards by Alexander the Great, w T ho 
 brought up a dike against the insular city, and 
 destroyed it. After Alexander’s death. Tyre, 
 which flourished anew, passed under the dominion 
 of the Seleucidse, and on the overthrow of the 
 latter, fell under the Roman sway. 
 
 Ezekiel’s prophecy against Tyre has been lite- 
 rally fulfilled ; for the modern traveller can now 
 witness the fisher’s net outspread upon the naked 
 rock, whereon she once stood. 
 
 The present name of Tyre is Sur, which nearly 
 resembles the old Hebrew one of Zor. It now 
 is more like a village than a city ; and the island 
 is now nearly covered over with the sands of the 
 sea. Its present inhabitants live chiefly by fishing. 
 
 OTHER PHOENICIAN CITIES. 
 
 1. Some leagues below the mouth of the 
 Eleutherus, and not far from the foot of 
 Lebanon, between Botrys and Orthosia, lay Tri- 
 polis, built by the inhabitants of Sidon, Tyre, 
 
HISTORY OF PHCENICIA. 
 
 39 
 
 and Aradus. — (Ptolem. lib. v. c. xiii.; Diod. Sic. 
 lib. xvi. c. 41.) The city originally consisted of 
 three parts, whereof each was surrounded with a 
 separate wall. Thence the name Tripolis, or the 
 triple city. The spacious harbour was favourable 
 to an extensive commerce. Demetrius, the son of 
 Seleucus, conquered the city. — (2 Maccabees, xiv. 
 1 , et seq .) 
 
 2. The city of Gebal, called by the Greeks 
 Byblos, was situate on a hill near the Mediterra- 
 nean. — -(Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 755.) As far as Gebal, 
 the Israelites were to extend their conquests. — 
 (Joshua, xiii. 5.) At Solomon^ Temple, Giblites, 
 that is, Gebalites, also worked, as they brought 
 wood and stone. — (3 Kings, v. 18.) By the Tyrians 
 they were esteemed as experienced mariners. The 
 Prophet Ezekiel saith, “The ancients of Gebal and 
 the wise men thereof were thy calkers.” — (Ezekiel, 
 xxvii. 9.) 
 
 HISTORY OF PHCENICIA. 
 
 Having given a geographical account of this 
 country, I now proceed to state its history. 
 
 The history of the Phoenicians, like that of ail 
 early Gentile nations, is extremely defective. 
 Scattered notices of them only are to be found in 
 the Bible, Josephus, and a few Greek writers. 
 Menander of Ephesus, who lived in Tyre itself, 
 compiled, with a careful attention to chrono- 
 logical order, the annals of that city from the 
 national records. But a few fragments only of 
 his work are extant in the treatise of Josephus 
 against the grammarian Apion. Among the 
 native historians of Phoenicia there subsist but 
 some remains of the work of Sanchoniatho in the 
 Greek translation of Philo of Byblos. These 
 
40 
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 fragments contain, however, but a cosmogony ; 
 and so far from possessing the genuineness and 
 antiquity once attributed to them, they are a 
 mere compilation of intentionally distorted pas- 
 sages from Phoenician, Egyptian, Hebrew, and 
 Greek works. 
 
 The Phoenicians present the singular spectacle 
 of a Chamite people speaking a Semitic tongue. 
 “ That the Phoenicians,” says the great philologer 
 Adelung,* “ were really Canaanites, is, among 
 other things, apparent from their coins, in which 
 even the northern or Syrian Phoenicians call 
 themselves Canaanites. Of all Semitic languages, 
 their tongue approximates the nearest to the 
 Hebrew, although the foreign intercourse, pro- 
 duced by extensive commerce, must have needs 
 occasioned many a deviation from that standard 
 of purity.” 
 
 “ The language of the Canaanites of the coast, 
 or Phoenicians,” he continues, “ was divided into 
 two dialects — the pure Palestinian, on the fron- 
 tiers of Palestine, and the low Syriac, on the 
 Syrian frontier — a difference which is still per- 
 ceptible on the yet extant coins.” 
 
 Then, with respect to the Punic tongue — a 
 dialect more or less corrupt of the old Phoenician 
 — this scholar shows that it was the general deno- 
 mination applied by the Romans to the language 
 of all Phoenician nations. The essential identity 
 of the Phoenician and the Punic tongues it is im- 
 possible to deny, as Carthage was a Phoenician 
 colony, founded twelve hundred and thirty-four 
 years before Christ, and as the language of the 
 
 * Mithridates, by Adelung, vol. i. pp. S45-6. Berlin, 
 1806. 
 
RELIGION. 
 
 41 
 
 mother-country there prevailed even down to the 
 extinction of the Roman sway. Rut, as St. J erome* 
 remarks, this language in his time, from the long 
 lapse of ages and from foreign influences, had 
 undergone much change. A few coins, dating 
 from a period when the language had been already 
 vitiated, a few inscriptions found in the ruins of 
 Citium in Cyprus, and on the isle of Malta, and 
 an epitaph discovered at Athens, as well as the 
 sixteen verses in the Poenulus of Plautus, are all 
 that remain of a language which (unless perhaps 
 some vestiges of it may be found in the tongue of 
 the Berbers) is no longer spoken on the earth. 
 
 Let us now consider the religious institutions 
 of Phoenicia. 
 
 The learned Catholic clergyman, Dr. Movers,f 
 who has written a most elaborate work on the 
 Phoenicians, declares that, from the active inter- 
 course which this people carried on with Assyria 
 and with Egypt, their theology was a syncretism of 
 the Egyptian and the Assyrian. 
 
 In their religion the supreme Triad consisted of 
 Baal, Melkart, or Hercules, and Astarte. Baal 
 is the sovereign god over the world — the lord of 
 heaven ; Melkart the god working in the world, 
 and revealing himself therein, regarded as the son 
 of Baal, or of one essence with him ; while As- 
 tarte appears in two opposite characters, as the 
 goddess of war and the moon in Sidon, and as 
 Aphrodite in Tyre. 
 
 The inferior gods were the sun, the moon, and 
 the five planets; then the deities which preside 
 over the elements, over particular times and 
 seasons of the year, over certain periods of life — 
 
 * Preface to the Epistle to the Galatians, 
 f Die Piionizier. 3 vois. 
 
42 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 like youth and age — and over certain trades and 
 occupations, as well as the divinities of the lower 
 world. 
 
 The most ancient places of worship were those 
 where the Divinity was thought to exert the 
 most powerful influence — such as mountains, 
 groves, meadows, and the vicinity of rivers, lakes, 
 and springs ; many whereof bear the names of 
 those deities. 
 
 The Phoenician gods were seldom represented 
 in a purely human form. Columns of wood or 
 stone were the idols in primitive times, and at a 
 later period the deities were represented in the 
 shape of animals, — like bulls, lions, dogs, and 
 serpents, or in forms half human, half brutish. 
 It is remarkable that the earliest idols of the 
 Greeks were shapeless trunks, and columns in 
 wood or stone. 
 
 The learned Dr. Movers, whom I just cited, in 
 his elaborate work on the Phoenicians, shows that 
 in the sanctuaries of their temples three idols were 
 invariably placed. This was a practice common 
 to some other nations of the Pagan world, and is 
 considered symbolic of their belief in a Divine 
 Trinity, whereof heathenism so often presents the 
 broken and confused image. 
 
 Their sacrifices were partly peace-offerings, 
 partly expiatory, and consisted mostly of sheep 
 and oxen. 
 
 Here again we are reminded of the custom so 
 prevalent among heathen nations, ever to select 
 for the victims of religious sacrifice the animals 
 surrounding man, or ministering more imme- 
 diately to his use and convenience. “ Never, or 
 rarely, at least,” says the Count de Maistre, “ did 
 they choose for such a purpose strange or savage 
 
RELIGION. 
 
 43 
 
 beasts ; and when they did not immolate man 
 himself, they sacrificed the animals most akin to 
 man.”* 
 
 This was again a perversion of the great tradi- 
 tionary doctrine of a future Atonement, which 
 glimmers through the night of Paganism, and 
 wherein we discern at once the remembrance of 
 man's original transgression, and the vague, but 
 anxious, feverish foreboding of his future regene- 
 ration. 
 
 On the great annual festivals, however, as also 
 on all occasions of importance, and especially in 
 public calamities, the Phoenicians had recourse to 
 the immolation of human victims. “ The leading 
 festivals of this people,” says M. Putz, “ as was 
 the case in all the natural religions of antiquity, 
 were connected with the yearly changes in the 
 great life of nature, and were designed to be the 
 mythic representations of the birth, death, resusci- 
 tation, and nuptials of their gods. To such feasts 
 thousands flocked from all parts of Asia and 
 Africa (and even Indians, Ethiopians, and Scy- 
 thians, were in the number) ; and the festal 
 embassies from the colonies lasted long after Tyre 
 had ceased to be their religious and political 
 centre.” 
 
 The worship of this people, indeed, like that of 
 all Chamite nations, was marked by an especial 
 character of lust and cruelty. The maidens, to 
 obtain their marriage dowries, sacrificed their 
 virtue in the temple ; and children, immolated by 
 their own parents, were placed in the glowing 
 arms of the idol Moloch. The mysteries of Adonis, 
 especially, were celebrated with peculiar dissolute- 
 
 * See his treatise on Sacrifices, at the end of vol. ii. 
 of the Soirees de St. Petersbourg. 
 
44 
 
 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 ness. This sensual and sanguinary worship was 
 diffused, not only through the Phoenician colonies, 
 but, in a certain degree, throughout all the 
 countries with which this people traded. And 
 as small idols formed one of the articles of their 
 commerce, it is evident that the Phoenicians 
 were very active agents in the propagation of 
 idolatry. 
 
 Let us turn now to the political institutions of 
 this people. Prom the earliest times, as we have 
 seen, the Phoenician cities possessed monarchical 
 constitutions. The kingly power was hereditary; 
 yet was tempered by the authority of a municipal 
 senate. This constitution existed, not only in the 
 Mosaic age, but, with a brief interruption, was 
 perpetuated through the whole period of the 
 national independence of these states, and even 
 in the time of the Persian domination. There were 
 not unfrequently political commotions; — tyrants 
 then appear to have sprung up, and at one period, 
 from the year 572 to 554 before our Lord, the 
 royal dignity was abolished at Tyre, and the office 
 of Stiff etes or judges established in its room. In 
 these stirring commercial cities it was impossible 
 for a rigid despotism to strike deep root ; yet, in 
 the Phoenician states, the constitution never 
 assumed the exclusive oligarchical character, as 
 in their daughter Carthage : an hereditary royalty 
 counterbalanced the power of the patrician magis- 
 trates. 
 
 Each Phoenician city, with the territory apper- 
 taining to it, had its own internal government ; 
 but all were bound together by a federal bond. 
 In this confederation Sidon, in the first ages, held 
 the first rank ; but when she had been surpassed 
 in opulence and power by Tyre, this supremacy 
 
SCIENCES AND ARTS. 
 
 45 
 
 devolved on the latter city. The kings of the 
 several cities, accompanied by their magistrates, 
 met together at Tripolis, in order to deliberate on 
 the common concerns of the league. It is a just 
 remark of the late Professor Heeren, that it being 
 the custom for colonies at all times, but especially 
 in, antiquity, to retain or copy the usages and 
 institutions of the mother-land, the history of 
 Carthage may, in a certain degree, supply the 
 loss of that of Tyre ; and hence the sort of 
 ascendancy exerted by the former over Utica, 
 Leptis, and Adrumetum, may afford us an idea of 
 the sway exercised by the latter over the other 
 cities of the Phoenician confederacy. 
 
 Turning now to consider the state of the sciences 
 and arts among this people, I am disposed to concur 
 in the following judicious observations of the late 
 Rev. Mr. Rose : — 
 
 “ Celebrated as the ancient Phoenicians have 
 been,” says he, “ we may yet venture to question 
 the probability of their having acquired very ex- 
 tensive knowledge, or explored to any considerable 
 extent the paths of real science. From their com- 
 mercial habits, indeed, they were necessarily ac- 
 quainted with some things that may come under 
 this classification, and possessed skill in arithmetic 
 and astronomy, as applicable to the purpose of 
 navigation ; and, doubtless, from their general 
 intercourse they were enabled to import true 
 learning from foreign countries. Their most 
 ancient philosopher was Mochus, or Moschus, a 
 native of Sidon. Some have ascribed to him the 
 source of the Atomic philosophy, which afterwards 
 acquired so much celebrity in Greece under Leu- 
 cippus and Epicurus ; but there is sufficient evi- 
 dence that this opinion is destitute of a solid 
 
46 
 
 SCIENCES AND ARTS. 
 
 foundation. Cadmus was born also at Sidon. 
 He formed the Greek alphabet upon the founda- 
 tions of the Phoenician. But though this is a 
 well-ascertained fact, the notion that he instituted 
 schools of philosophy at Thebes is destitute of 
 probability/'’ — (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol.i. 
 p. 555.) 
 
 In later ages, however, and under the Greek 
 and Roman rule, Phoenicia was a seat of consider- 
 able learning, and both Sidon and Tyre produced 
 their philosophers. Such were Boethus and Dio- 
 datus of Sidon, Antipater of Tyre, Maximus, a 
 Platonic philosopher of the second century, 
 belonging to the same city ; and Apollonius, of 
 the same place, who gave an account of the 
 writings and disciples of Zeno. Here, partly by 
 the immigration of new settlers, partly by the 
 influence of the Greek dynasty and the Greek 
 literature, the national mind of Phoenicia seems 
 to have undergone a change, and taken a more 
 speculative turn. 
 
 But the Grseco-Macedonian sway lies beyond 
 the period at which I am considering this people. 
 
 With respect to the fine arts, the Phoenician 
 medals are very beautiful, and of such exquisite 
 workmanship as not to be distinguished from the 
 Greek ones but by the inscription. Pausanias 
 cites a Carthaginian artist named Boethus, who 
 had chiselled ivory figures for the Temple of Juno 
 in Elis. Livy makes mention of a silver buckler, 
 weighing one hundred and thirty pounds, on which 
 was engraven the portrait of Asdrubal, the brother 
 of Hannibal. This buckler was afterwards hung 
 up in the Roman Capitol. Strabo and Appian 
 both extol the beauty and the prodigious height 
 of the houses in Tyre and Carthage. The temples 
 
MANUFACTURES. 
 
 47 
 
 there, too, were adorned and enriched with gold 
 statues. 
 
 The manufactures and commerce of this people 
 next claim our consideration. 
 
 Industry was one of the chief traits in the 
 Phoenician character. From the earliest period 
 Sidon, as we have seen, was celebrated for its 
 purple dyes, its finely-tissued garments, and its 
 manufacture of glass. The shores of Phoenicia 
 abounded in shell-fish, which gave the richest 
 and most various purple colours. Thus nature 
 furnished her in abundance with the raw material 
 for her fabrics. 
 
 In the course of time the Tyrian dyes, com- 
 posed of vegetable as well as animal matter, 
 reached the highest perfection ; and throughout 
 all antiquity, in the Western as well as the Eastern 
 world, the purple garments of Tyre were sought 
 out as objects of the most refined luxury. 
 
 The Phoenicians applied these purple dyes to 
 all kinds of garments, whether composed of linen 
 or cotton, or even (as in later times) of silk. But 
 it was on woollen dresses they lavished every 
 variety of colour. From the nomade tribes in 
 their vicinity they were able to procure the finest 
 species of wool, and this they dyed in its un- 
 wrought state. Hence they were enabled to 
 furnish woollen vestures, distinguished for their 
 durable quality, their elegant texture, and their 
 various and resplendent dye. 
 
 Glass was another manufacture which the 
 Phoenicians had the honour of discovering, and 
 whereof they long retained the exclusive posses- 
 sion. The sand or nitre used in the manufacture 
 of this article was found in the southern parts of 
 the country, at the mouth of the river Belus. 
 
48 
 
 MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Little use seems to have been made in antiquity 
 of glass, for in the warm climates of the East 
 curtains w r ere preferred ; and again, their drink- 
 ing-cups. and goblets were made of silver and 
 other precious metals. In the more sumptuous 
 edifices of Phoenicia, however, the practice seems 
 to have prevailed of inlaying the walls with glass, 
 — a custom which, according to Mr. Morier, still 
 subsists in Persia. 
 
 Other products of Phoenician industry were 
 ornaments of dress and finely-wrought utensils. 
 The prophet Ezekiel speaks of the benches of 
 Indian ivory, wrought by the Phoenicians, and 
 Homer of a chain of amber and gold brought by 
 their pilots to Greece. And a still fuller account 
 of such fabrics is furnished by the prophet Isaiah, 
 when he describes the ornaments of the Hebrew 
 women, which were, doubtless, the work of 
 Phoenician skill. “ In that day,” saith the pro- 
 phet, “the Lord will make bald the crown of 
 the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord 
 will discover their hair. In that day the Lord 
 will take away the ornaments of shoes, and little 
 moons, and chains, and necklaces, and bracelets, 
 and bonnets, and bodkins, and ornaments of the 
 legs, and tablets, and sweet-balls, and earrings,- 
 and rings, and jewels hanging on the forehead, 
 and changes of apparel, and short cloaks, and fine 
 linen, and crisping-pins, and looking-glasses, and 
 lawns, and headbands, and fine veils.” — (Isaiah, 
 iii. 17—23.) 
 
 From such scattered and incidental notices as 
 these (and we possess no other, whether in sacred 
 or profane writers), we may infer the vast extent 
 and amazing variety of the Phoenician manu- 
 factures. 
 
INLAND TRADE. 
 
 49 
 
 INLAND TRADE. 
 
 The commerce of these states was on a par 
 with their industry. Their land trade embraced 
 Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Palestine, Syria, Baby- 
 lonia, Cappadocia, and Armenia. From Egypt 
 they imported cotton and tissues; from Ethiopia, 
 ebony and precious stones; from Arabia, gold, 
 jewels, incense, and cinnamon, which last came 
 from India. By way of Babylon they received 
 the commodities of eastern Asia, and from Pales- 
 tine they drew corn, oil, raisins, and balm. Cap- 
 padocia and the regions of the Caucasus were the 
 primitive seats of the slave-trade ; and thence 
 the Phoenicians procured slaves for the various 
 markets of Europe. Armenia furnished its con- 
 tingent of horses and mules. 
 
 I shall now describe the details of this traffic, 
 taking for my chief authority the prophet Ezekiel, 
 who, in his 27 th chapter, has depicted with such 
 wonderful accuracy, and in such glowing colours, 
 the commerce and manufactures of Tyre. 
 
 I shall speak first of Phoenicia’s inland trade. 
 
 One of the chief branches of that trade was 
 with southern and eastern Arabia. The cara- 
 vans for southern Arabia appear to have passed 
 through Petra, the capital of Idumaea, and which 
 lay on the northern skirts of the desert. Here 
 was a great emporium of Arabian wares. The 
 Phoenician caravan then seems to have passed 
 along the eastern shore of the Bed Sea, and, after 
 traversing Macoraba, or the modern Mecca, to 
 have reached Arabia Felix. Here the products 
 chiefly sought after by the Phoenician merchants 
 were incense, myrrh, and gold; and these, by 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 PHOENICIA. 
 
 means of the rich merchandise of raw and manu- 
 factured goods they imported from other lands, 
 they could easily procure. 
 
 With eastern Arabia also did the Phoenicians 
 trade. Here the route of the caravan lay from 
 the country of thej^Nabathaeans direct through 
 Arabia Deserta, to Gerra, on the Persian Gulf. 
 Here their merchants found, besides the produc- 
 tions of Arabia, the rich cotton tissues, the pearls, 
 the diamonds, and the cinnamon imported from 
 India. 
 
 The community of language must have been 
 singularly favourable to the commerce thus carried 
 on between the traders of Arabia and Phoenicia. 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel, alluding to this trade, 
 singeth of Tyre : “ The men of Dedan [that is, the 
 inhabitants of Gerra and the country about] — the 
 men of Dedan were thy merchants ; many isles 
 were the merchandise of thy hands ; they brought 
 thee for a present horns of ivory and of ebony 33 
 (xxvii. 15). And the prophet Isaiah speaketh of 
 the caravans, or “ travelling companies of De- 
 danim 33 (xxi. 13). 
 
 Another channel of Phoenicia's southern trade 
 was with Egypt. This was, perhaps, the most 
 ancient direction of commerce ; for Herodotus 
 tells us, “ that when Phoenicians had migrated 
 from what is called the Red Sea to the Medi- 
 terranean, they forthwith applied themselves to 
 distant voyages, and that having exported Egyp- 
 tian and Assyrian merchandise, they touched at 
 other places." — (Book i. c. 1.) 
 
 That the inhabitants of Canaan, and their 
 neighbours, the Madianites and Idumeans, traded 
 with Egypt, is clear from the Mosaic narrative. 
 
 The commerce which Phoenicia carried on with 
 
INLAND TRADE. 
 
 51 
 
 Egypt is thus described by the prophet Ezekiel : 
 “ Fine broidered linen from Egypt was woven for 
 thy sail, to be spread on thy mast ; blue and 
 purple from the islands of Elisa [that is, Greece] 
 were made thy covering.” The cotton plant was 
 indigenous to Egypt, and the weaving and em- 
 broidery of that article (as we may learn from 
 pictorial representations of Egyptian sarcophagi) 
 one of its most flourishing branches of industry. 
 
 Corn was another commodity which, in years 
 of great scarcity, Phoenicia imported from Egypt. 
 On the other hand, wine she imported into the 
 latter country, as the vine was a stranger to 
 Egypt. 
 
 By the medium of Thebes the Phoenicians were 
 brought into contact with the traders from the 
 interior parts of Africa. Thebes was the central 
 point, whither converged the different routes of 
 commerce. Thither came the caravans from the 
 cities of Nigritia, on the southern skirts of the 
 Great Desert ; or from the shores of the Red 
 Sea, with the products of Arabia. Thence one 
 set of caravans proceeded to the great oasis of 
 Jupiter Ammon, in the Libyan desert, and on- 
 ward to the Phoenician and Greek cities on the 
 northern coast of Africa. Another set advanced 
 to the cities of Lower Egypt, and after there dis- 
 charging a portion of their merchandise, crossed 
 the isthmus of Suez, and terminated their course 
 at Tyre. 
 
 When the glory of Thebes had passed away, 
 and Memphis had been made the capital of Egypt, 
 the latter became the seat of Phoenician trade. 
 Herodotus informs us there was a sort of Tyrian 
 factory in the city. “ Tyrian Phoenicians,” says 
 he, “ dwell round a temple sacred to Proteus, and 
 
52 
 
 PHOENICIA* 
 
 the whole tract is called the Tyrian camp.”— 
 (Herod, lib. ii. c. 112.) 
 
 The second branch of the inland trade of 
 Phoenicia was with the East. There the com- 
 merce carried on was with Palestine, Syria, Baby- 
 lonia, and Assyria. 
 
 Palestine was truly the granary of Phoenicia. 
 The prophet Ezekiel saith — “ Judah and the land 
 of Israel, they were thy merchants with the best 
 corn; they set forth balm, and honey, and oil, 
 and rosin in thy fairs.” — (Ezekiel, xxvii. 17.) 
 This was truly the land which the spies, whom 
 Moses had sent thither, announced as flowing with 
 milk and honey. And though the desolations of 
 near three thousand years, the ravages of foreign 
 invasion, and the convulsions of internal warfare, 
 — though the thunderbolts of Divine vengeance 
 on an apostate people, and, lastly, the blighting 
 despotism of the Ottoman, have stricken the land 
 with barrenness, — yet it has retained much of its 
 intrinsic fertility, and will amply repay the toil of 
 cultivation. Here grew the finest wheat, superior 
 even to that of Egypt ; here wine of the most 
 exquisite flavour rewarded the toil of the vine- 
 dresser. Even in our times the grapes attain to 
 such an enormous size, as excited the wonder of 
 M. de Chateaubriand ; and the oil, in the opinion of 
 the same distinguished traveller, surpasses the 
 purest oil of Provence. The balm spoken of by 
 the prophet was celebrated among the Greeks and 
 Homans as something unique in its kind. 
 
 The great living German naturalist Schubert, 
 who visited, only a few years ago, the Holy Land, 
 declares that among the causes of its desolation 
 must be ranked the destruction of the woods on 
 the hills and mountains, which, by attracting the 
 
INLAND TRADE. 
 
 53 
 
 rain, gave rise to many rivulets, that spread 
 fertility through the country. 
 
 Of the Syrian trade the prophet saith — “ The 
 men of Damascus were thy merchants in the 
 multitude of thy works, in the multitude of divers 
 riches, in rich wine, in wool from the desert.” 
 The wine of Chalybon (probably the modern 
 Aleppo) was of so exquisite a kind as to be always 
 reserved for the royal table of Persia, provided as 
 it was with the costliest products of every land. 
 
 The wool from the desert, mentioned by the 
 prophet, is that from the sheep belonging to the 
 nomade tribes in the Syrian and Arabian deserts. 
 This wool is the finest in the world. The father 
 of history extols the superior qualities of Arabian 
 sheep. What an important element in Phoenician 
 manufactures this wool constituted, we have already 
 had an opportunity of observing. 
 
 Now, as to the trade of Phoenicia with Babylon. 
 
 The articles of Babylonian manufacture were 
 exquisitely- embroidered tapestries, woollen and 
 linen garments of the most elaborate texture and 
 brilliant colouring, odoriferous waters, stones 
 engraved, and various kinds of ornamental- work. 
 These, of course, were imported by the Phoenician 
 merchants ; but many productions of India found 
 their way through the channel of Babylon. Prom 
 nothern India came the finest emeralds, valuable 
 dyes, and those richly -embroidered shawls from 
 the valley of Cashmeer, which, it appears, were 
 in as much requisition among the fair sex of 
 Babylonia and Persia three thousand years ago, 
 as among the ladies of Europe at the present day. 
 Gold, brought by these northern Indians from the 
 desert of Gobi, in the present Mongolia, formed 
 another article of Babylonian commerce, which 
 
54 
 
 PHOENICIA. 
 
 found its way into Phoenicia. The other articles 
 of merchandise which passed through Babylon 
 into Phoenicia were cinnamon, nutmeg, ivory, 
 ebony, pearls, and diamonds. The cinnamon 
 came, beyond doubt, from the isle of Taprobane, 
 or the modern Ceylon. The pearls were gathered 
 partly in the Persian Gulf, partly on the south- 
 west coast of India, by Cape Comorin. Diamonds 
 came exclusively from India ; but ebony and ivory 
 the Phoenician merchants drew not only from 
 that peninsula, but from Ethiopia also. 
 
 These Indian commodities were obtained by 
 them partly through the medium of Babylon, 
 partly direct from India herself. 
 
 Heeren has shown it to be probable that to the 
 western and south-western shores of that peninsula 
 sailed pilots, sometimes from Arabia, but more 
 frequently from the Phoenician stations, Tylos and 
 Aradus, islands situate in the Persian Gulf, and 
 now known by the name of the Bahrein Isles. In 
 exchange for the products and manufactures of 
 Phoenicia, Arabia, Babylonia, and other countries, 
 they obtained the rich merchandise of India ; 
 brought these cargoes back to the eastern coasts 
 of Arabia, whence, by caravans, they were trans- 
 ported through its sandy deserts to Babylon, or 
 directly to the Phoenician cities. Our great 
 authority on this subject, the prophet Ezekiel, has 
 described the route as well as the articles of this 
 commerce. “ The men of Dedan,” says he (and 
 it is to be observed that the descendants of this 
 grandson of Cush inhabited the eastern coast of 
 Arabia, opposite the isles of Aradus and Tylos), — - 
 “ the men of Dedan were thy merchants ; many 
 isles were the merchandise of thine hand ; they 
 brought thee for a present horns of ivory, and 
 ebony/* 
 
INLAND TRADE. 
 
 55 
 
 The last branch of Phoenician commerce was 
 the northern trade with Cappadocia, Armenia, and 
 the Caucasian regions. “ Thubal and Mosoch,” 
 says the prophet, “ they were thy merchants; 
 they brought to thy people slaves and vessels of 
 brass. From the house of Thogorma they brought 
 horses, and horsemen, and mules to thy market.” 
 — (Ezek. xxvii. 13, 14.) 
 
 Thubal and Mosoch, the sons of Japhet, were 
 the progenitors of the Caucasian nations, and 
 Mosoch more particularly of the Moschi, who 
 inhabited the mountains between Iberia, Armenia, 
 and Colchis. 
 
 From a very early period, even down to recent 
 times, have these regions been the seat of the slave- 
 trade, for they were peopled by a race not surpassed 
 in beauty by any on the earth. The prophet 
 Joel and other holy seers of Israel denounced this 
 abominable traffic in women and children, and 
 foretold the Divine judgment that would overtake 
 those engaged in it : — “ And the children of Judah 
 and the children of Jerusalem,” saith the prophet, 
 “ ye have sold them to the children of the Greeks, 
 that ye might remove them far off from their own 
 country. Behold, I will raise them out of the 
 place wherein ye have sold them, and I will 
 return ye recompense upon your own heads.” — * 
 (Joel, iii.) 
 
 The vessels of brass spoken of by Ezekiel have 
 ever abounded in these countries. Xenophon 
 speaks of the quantity of brass employed for 
 domestic utensils by the neighbouring Carduchi, 
 or modern Koords ; and even at the present day 
 this metal forms an important article of trade 
 between the Caucasus and Bagdad. 
 
 Thogorma, another son of Japhet, is, according 
 
56 
 
 PHOENICIA. 
 
 to an ancient tradition, recorded by Moses of 
 Chorene, the progenitor of the Georgians, the 
 Lesghians, and the Mingrelians. Others think 
 that by Thogorma, Armenia is here understood — 
 a land famous for its breed of horses and mules. 
 In the Nissean plains of the contiguous Media 
 were bred those noble steeds, celebrated by Hero- 
 dotus, and called sacred, and which, as Heeren 
 observes, by reason of their stately size, the 
 admirable proportion of their limbs, and the milk- 
 white beauty of their skin, were alone deemed 
 worthy of conducting the chariot of the Persian 
 monarch. 
 
 Having dwelt at such length on the manufac- 
 tures and on the inland trade of the Phoenicians, 
 I must pass rapidly over their maritime commerce 
 and their colonies. 
 
 Their commerce by sea was, perhaps, more 
 lucrative than the one by land, and with the former 
 they coupled piracy, and especially the slave-trade. 
 They visited, explored, and partially colonized all 
 the islands of the Archipelago, and more especially 
 Cyprus, Crete, the Sporades, the Cyclades, the 
 isles in the Hellespont, and even Thasos, whence 
 they extracted gold. The foundation of Pronectus 
 and Bithynium, in Asia Minor, is attributed to 
 them. These establishments, together with others, 
 they were compelled to abandon, in proportion as 
 the Greeks waxed in numbers and in strength. In 
 the same way the Etrurians drove them from Italy ; 
 but they prospered in Sicily, whither they had 
 carried the worship of Astarte (to whom they dedi- 
 cated a temple on Mount Eryx), and where, too, 
 they built the cities of Motya, Solus, or Soluntum,* 
 and Panormus, or the modern Palermo. 
 
 * In Greek XoXoas, evrog, (contracted) SoXofrg, ovvroc . 
 
MARITIME COMMERCE. 
 
 57 
 
 Leaving for a moment their colonies on the 
 northern coast of Africa, and the south-west coast 
 of Spain, we track them to the British isles, which 
 they explored for the sake of tin, and which 
 received from them, as the best etymologists 
 admit, the name of Bratanac , which, in Phoeni- 
 cian, signifies tin. In the same way the Greeks 
 called these island Cassiterides, from the Greek 
 word KCKTCFiTtpog, which means tin. 
 
 From the Baltic they fetched amber, unless, 
 perhaps, southern Russia furnished them the same 
 commodity at less cost and trouble. 
 
 To monopolize trade, which was then carried 
 on by barter, they founded such a vast number of 
 colonies, that the spread of this people served to 
 enlarge the boundaries of geographical know- 
 ledge. The whole West was overspread with a 
 net of these settlements. Of some I have already 
 spoken. 
 
 COMMERCE OF PHCENICIA. 
 
 The northern coast of Africa and the south- 
 west coast of Spain were literally studded with 
 their colonies. In the latter country Carteja, 
 Tartessus,* and Gades (or the modern Cadiz), 
 
 * Tartessus (says M. Bouillet), a city of ancient Spain, 
 founded by the Phoenicians, seems to have been situated 
 towards the mouth of the Bsetis, or modern Guadalquivir. 
 It was there the gold of the Peninsula was amassed by 
 this people, to be transported into the East, The renown 
 of the wealth of Tartessus was perpetuated among the 
 Greeks and the Romans ; but the site of the city they 
 could not even then ascertain. Some of the learned have 
 thought that Tartessus was but the original name of Gades, 
 or even of Carteja, the modern Algesiras. — (Bouillet’s Diet. 
 Geo. et Hist. tom. iv. p. 265. Bruxelles, 1854.) 
 
58 
 
 MARITIME COMMERCE. 
 
 were their chief settlements. In the former they 
 were Utica, Thysdrus, the Great and Little Leptis, 
 and lastly Carthage, which sought to reduce to 
 a state of dependence almost all the maritime 
 countries of the western shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean. They reached even Madeira and the 
 Canaries, where coins, belonging either to them 
 or the Carthaginians, are said to have been dug- 
 up. 
 
 In the Persian Gulf they possessed, as we have 
 seen, the islands of Tylos and Aradus, that served 
 as stations for their Indian trade. Even the cir- 
 cumnavigation of Africa, by sailing down the Red 
 Sea, was, according to Herodotus, achieved by 
 this people ; and his account is now fully credited 
 by the most learned historians and geographers 
 of the age. 
 
 Now, as to the influence which the Phoenicians 
 exerted on other nations, let us hear a very com- 
 petent authority on this subject. 
 
 “ The Phoenicians,” says Alexander von Hum- 
 boldt, “ were the most active intermediate agents 
 in the intercourse of nations from the Indian 
 Ocean to the furthest west and north of Europe. 
 Confined, in some respects, in their intellectual 
 culture, less familiar with the fine than with the 
 mechanical arts, they displayed not in their 
 creations the same grandeur as the inhabitants 
 of the Nile’s valley, who were endowed with a 
 finer organization. Yet, by the activity and bold- 
 ness they evinced in their commercial relations, 
 especially by the numerous colonies they planted 
 (one of which far surpassed the mother-country 
 in power), they contributed more than all the 
 races which peopled the coasts of the Mediter- 
 ranean to the promotion of the circulation of 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER. 
 
 59 
 
 ideas, and to a more various and extended know- 
 ledge of the physical world. The Phoenicians 
 made use of the measures and weights employed 
 in Babylon.* 
 
 “ Moreover, they were acquainted with the use 
 of coins for the purpose of facilitating commercial 
 transactions — a thing, strange to say, unknown 
 to the Egyptians, whose artistic education was so 
 perfect. But what, perhaps, most contributed to 
 extend the influence of the Phoenicians upon the 
 civilization of those nations with whom they came 
 in contact, was the care which they took every- 
 where to communicate and diffuse alphabetic 
 writing, which they had long made use of. If 
 the legend of a colony brought into Boeotia by 
 Cadmus still remains involved in the clouds of 
 fable, it is not less certain that the Greeks are 
 indebted for their knowledge of the alphabet, 
 long called by them * Phoenician characters/ to 
 the commercial relations between tlie Phoenicians 
 and the Ionians.”t 
 
 •k * * * 
 
 “ It was not only,” continues Humboldt, “ by 
 their intermediate agency, and by the impulse 
 they communicated, the Phoenicians furnished 
 new materials for physical observation, but they 
 also by their own discoveries enlarged the circle 
 of science. Their individual prosperity, founded, 
 as it was, on the development of their navy, and 
 on the activity of the Sidonians in manufacturing 
 works of white or coloured glass, weaving stuffs, 
 
 * See Bockh on ancient coins, weights, and measures 
 (in German), pp. 12 et 237. 1855. 
 
 t Vide Otfried Muller’s Minyans, p. 115, and his 
 Dorians, vol. i. p. 120. 
 
60 
 
 GENERAL CHARACTER. 
 
 and dyeing them in purple, led the Phoenicians, 
 as always happens, to discoveries in the mathe- 
 matical and chemical sciences, and to the arts of 
 application. The Sidonians, says Strabo,* are 
 represented as laborious investigators in astro- 
 nomy, as well as in the science of numbers. They 
 were prepared for those sciences by their keeping 
 of accounts, as well as by their nightly navi- 
 gations ; for both sciences are necessary to com- 
 merce and to navigation/^ So far, Alexander 
 von Humboldt. 
 
 To conclude, if we compare the Phoenicians 
 with the other nations of primitive antiquity, we 
 shall find that they had not the profound scientific 
 genius of the Egyptians, nor the spirit of military 
 adventure that distinguished the Persians, nor the 
 high poetic and philosophic endowments of the 
 Hindoos, nor the earnest moral sense of the 
 Chinese. Not in religion only, but in manners, 
 customs, modes of life, and occupations also, they 
 formed the most striking contrast to their neigh- 
 bours — the Hebrews. On the one hand, the Phoe- 
 nicians were an essentially trading and manufac- 
 turing people, devoted to traffic by sea and land, 
 digging into the bowels of the earth in quest of 
 gold, traversing distant seas and exploring remote 
 shores, founding colonies, and bringing nations 
 under their sway. On the other hand, the He- 
 brews were a still, agricultural, and, if I may so 
 speak, a sacerdotal people, rarely engaged in 
 commerce, undertaking mostly but defensive wars, 
 and cultivating their corn, their wine, their oil, 
 and their healing balm — so symbolic of their 
 
 * Strabo, xvi. p. 757. 
 
 f Cosmos, by A. von Humboldt, tom. ii. pp. 151-3 
 (French translation). 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER. 
 
 61 
 
 religious doctrines. The Phoenicians, though no 
 strangers to higher art, — as, indeed, the many 
 proud monuments of their cities proved, as well 
 as their co-operation in the building of Solomon's 
 Temple, — were yet chiefly devoted to those me- 
 chanical arts and contrivances which minister to 
 the convenience and the luxury of man. Com- 
 merce, navigation, mining, and manufactures, 
 engrossed their attention. They were an essen- 
 tially practical people. They were the Dutchmen 
 of the primitive world. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE COLONIES OF PHOENICIA, AND ESPECIALLY 
 CARTHAGE. 
 
 The subject of this afternoon’s lecture turns 
 on the colonies of Phoenicia, and more especially 
 Carthage. In a lecture delivered last term, I 
 described the different cities of the Phoenician 
 confederation, then spoke of the language, reli- 
 gious and political institutions, manufactures, 
 and inland trade of those states. Having then 
 touched but lightly on their maritime commerce 
 and their colonies, I will endeavour on the present 
 occasion to supply this deficiency. After con- 
 cluding this portion of my subject, I will proceed 
 to inquire into the territorial extent, the religion, 
 the government, the intellectual condition, the 
 trade, and the causes of the decline and fall 
 of the most important Phoenician republic — 
 Carthage. 1 
 
 The Phoenicians occupied in very early times 
 most of the islands of the Archipelago ; but out 
 of these they were driven by the Greeks. Their 
 chief colonies were partly in southern Spain, in- 
 cluding the cities of Tartessus, Gades, Carteja ; 
 partly on the northern coast of Africa, west of 
 the Little Svrtis, such as Utica, Carthage, 
 Hadrumetum; partly on the north-west coast of 
 
COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 63 
 
 Sicily, such as Panormus, or the modern Palermo, 
 and Lilybseum. It is extremely probable that 
 they had settlements in the Persian Gulf, on the 
 islands of Tylos and Aradus, or the Bahrein Isles 
 of modern times. 
 
 “ The survey of the Phoenician colonies,” says 
 Heeren, “ serves for a basis of a survey of their 
 maritime commerce and their navigation, which, 
 however, extended further than their colonies. 
 With the Phoenicians, as with other nations, 
 maritime trade sprang out of piracy; as pirates 
 they appear in the pages of Homer.” 
 
 The chief countries with which they carried on 
 trade were— first, their colonies in Africa and 
 Spain, especially in the latter land, because of its 
 rich silver-mines ; secondly, with the western 
 coast of Africa, beyond the Columns of Hercules ; 
 and, thirdly, with Britain and the Scilly Isles, in 
 search of tin ; and, probably, with the North, in 
 quest of amber ; fourthly, from the northern 
 point of the Arabian Gulf, Elath, and Eziongeber, 
 they sailed in connection with the Hebrews to 
 Ophir — that is, to the rich countries of the South, 
 especially Arabia Felix and Ethiopia ; fifthly, 
 from the Persian Gulf they carried on commerce 
 with the western peninsula of India, and with 
 the island of Ceylon ; and, lastly, as I stated in 
 my former lecture, they made some great voyages 
 of discovery, among which the circumnavigation 
 of Africa, six hundred years before the Christian 
 era, is not the least remarkable fact. The latter 
 fact, related by Herodotus, and which was so long 
 questioned, has been shown to be extremely pro- 
 bable by writers of such high authority as Major 
 Rennell, Heeren, Sprengel, A. von Humboldt, 
 M. Bouillet, M. Miot ; and, lastly, by a philologer 
 
64 
 
 COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 consummately versed in the Coptic language and 
 literature, M. Etienne Quatremere. 
 
 “ The Phoenicians,” says A. von Humboldt, 
 “ were the most active agents in the commerce of 
 nations from the Indian Ocean to the farthest west 
 and north of Europe.” — (Cosmos, tom. ii.) They 
 concealed, indeed, with the utmost caution the 
 term of their naval expeditions, in order to obviate 
 the rivalry of other nations ; and with this view 
 they propagated the strangest fables, which the 
 undiscerning credulity of historians subsequently 
 adopted. 
 
 “It is perhaps to them,” says an eminent 
 modern Italian historian (Cesare Cantu), “ we 
 are to ascribe the terrifying names of Babel- 
 Mandeb, or Port of Affliction, and that of Mete, 
 or Death, given to another port of the Arabian 
 Gulf, which is, perhaps, the same with Cape Gar- 
 dafui, or the Cape of Funerals.” In confirmation 
 of this remark, I may cite a passage from Strabo, 
 relating an anecdote of a captain of a Tyrian vessel, 
 who, on observing that he was watched by Roman 
 ships following in his track, ran his vessel against 
 a shoal, and so led the Romans on to their de- 
 struction ; while he himself, having escaped ship- 
 wreck, received from his own republic an indem- 
 nity for the loss of his merchandise and ship. 
 
 This statement of Strabo, when we consider 
 the extreme mercantile jealousy and habitual 
 perfidy of this people, is well entitled to credit. 
 
 I shall now proceed to describe the various 
 colonies of Phoenicia. 
 
 Their most eastern colonies were Tylos and 
 Aradus, or the modern Bahrein Isles, in the centre 
 of the Persian Gulf. The first was sometimes 
 called Tyros , which more clearly indicates its 
 
COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 65 
 
 connection with the leading city of the Phoenician 
 confederation. 
 
 Of these isles Strabo writes as follows : — 
 
 “ In navigating further down the Persian Gulf 
 from Gerrha, we find other islands like Tyrus 
 and Aradus, which have temples similar to those 
 of the Phoenicians ; their inhabitants affirm that 
 the isles and cities, which bear the same name in 
 Phoenicia, were their colonies.” 
 
 It is evident that these islands, so conveniently 
 situated for carrying on the trade with India, 
 where, besides, grew excellent timber for ship- 
 building, and where, from the earliest times, down 
 to the present day, the finest pearl-fisheries have 
 existed, could not long elude the mercantile vigi- 
 lance of this people. Their caravans, as was 
 observed on a former occasion, had long traded 
 with the eastern, no less than with the southern 
 coasts of Arabia, in quest of the precio^ com- 
 modities of that country, as well as of those she 
 imported from India. These islands, according 
 to ancient writers, abounded in excellent timber, 
 were remarkable for their flourishing plantations 
 of cotton, and, above all, for their pearls, that, in 
 the opinion of Mr. Morier, a recent traveller, 
 surpass those of Ceylon in hardness and in bril- 
 liancy. 
 
 There were many other places in the Persian 
 Gulf bearing a Phoenician name, and which, 
 coupled with certain historical facts, prove them 
 most certainly to have been Phoenician settle- 
 ments. Such were Sidodoma, on the eastern side 
 of the Persian Gulf; and a city Szur (or Tur, 
 Tyros), in Oman, on the western side. 
 
 The Chaldeans, when banished from Babylon, 
 had, according to Strabo, founded Gerrha, in the 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 Persian Gulf, and had a part with the Phoenicians 
 in the lucrative trade with India. “ The men of 
 Dedan,” — that is, the inhabitants of Gerra, — says 
 the prophet Ezekiel, addressing Tyre — “ The men 
 of Dedan were thy merchants ; many islands were 
 the traffic of thy hand ; they exchanged for thy 
 price teeth of ivory and ebony.” (Ezek. xxvii. 15.) 
 Heeren has shown it to be extremely probable 
 that the Indian commodities here mentioned by 
 the prophet — ivory, ebony, together with cinna- 
 mon, — were conveyed to Gerra, and to Tylos and 
 Arad us, in the Persian Gulf, not in Indian, but in 
 Phoenician, as well as Arabian vessels. 
 
 Now, as to the Phoenician colonies in Asia 
 Minor and Greece, Pronectus, a city near Dre- 
 panum, in Bithynia, was, according to a geogra- 
 pher of the fifth century (Stephanus Byzantinus) 
 founded by the Phoenicians. And so was Bithy- 
 nium, in the same province, afterwards called 
 Claudiopolis. 
 
 The commentator on Stephanus Byzantinus 
 well observes, that, for the purposes of trade, the 
 Phoenicians built many cities on different shores 
 of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Amathus,* and many other ancient cities of 
 Cyprus, were of Phoenician origin. * The same 
 was the case in the islands of Crete and of 
 Rhodes ; for their Phoenician worship implies a 
 Phoenician origin. 
 
 I observed, on a former occasion, that the 
 growing opulence and power of the Greeks early 
 drove the Phoenicians from the coasts of Asia 
 Minor and the islands of the Archipelago, and 
 that the commercial jealousy of the Etrurians, as 
 
 * Vide Gronov. in St. Bvz. p. 70, N. 48. 
 
COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 67 
 
 well as of the Hellenic colonies in southern Italy, 
 prevented them from founding factories or set- 
 tlements in that country. But in Sicily it was 
 otherwise. “ Before the Greeks/' says Thucy- 
 dides, “had migrated to that island, the Phoeni- 
 cians had already occupied its coasts, and the 
 small isles adjacent; but when the immigrations 
 of the former had begun to be more frequent, the 
 latter then retired to Motya, Solus, and Panor- 
 mus, or the modern Palermo."' 5 *' 
 
 The city of Motya, when it was besieged by 
 Dionysius, at the commencement of the fourth 
 century before Christ, is thus described by Diodo- 
 rus Siculus : “ This city," says he, “ was situate 
 in an island, at the distance of six stadia from 
 Sicily, and was distinguished for the number and 
 great elegance of its houses, as its inhabitants 
 abounded in wealth."+ Though this description 
 strictly applies to the period of the Carthaginian 
 sway, yet much of it can doubtless be referred 
 to that age when it was still under the rule of 
 the Phoenicians. 
 
 Solus and Panormus, from their excellent situa- 
 tion and convenient harbours, naturally attracted 
 the attention of these enterprising mariners and 
 merchants ; but of the condition of these cities in 
 the time of the Phoenicians or Carthaginians, we 
 have little or no account. 
 
 Another colony of the Phoenicians was Malta, 
 which lay southwards of Sicily, and directly on 
 their passage to the south of Spain and the north 
 of Africa. Diodorus Siculus says they found, on 
 their mercantile expeditions to the western ocean, 
 
 * Thucyd. lib. vi. c. 2. 
 t Diod. Sic. lib. xiv. c. xlviii. 2. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 a safe refuge in this island, from its central situa- 
 tion and its commodious harbours. He extols 
 the wealth of the inhabitants, the beauty of their 
 mansions, and the variety of their manufactures, 
 especially their linen fabrics, remarkable as they 
 were for the softness and delicacy of their texture. 
 That this people had really settled in this island 
 is proved by the discovery of various coins, and 
 other monuments, with Phoenician inscriptions. 
 
 Gaulos, or the modern Gozzo, an isle adjacent to 
 Malta, was another settlement of this enterprising 
 nation. 
 
 Sardinia, too, as we are assured by Diodorus, 
 was early colonized by this race. “ Having,” he 
 says, “ become wealthy by the trade with Spain, 
 the Phoenicians sent colonies not a few into Sicily 
 and the neighbouring islands, into Africa and 
 Sardinia , and, lastly, into Iberia.”* 
 
 True to their commercial system, as a modern 
 historian observes, they seem, not like their de- 
 scendants, the Carthaginians, to have attempted 
 the subjugation of the island, but merely to have 
 established on the coasts some settlements for 
 their commerce and their navigation. 
 
 Of the Phoenician settlements in that island, as 
 well as in the Balearic Isles, I shall at present say 
 nothing, but reserve my account of them to the 
 moment when I come to describe the Carthaginian 
 colonies. Let us hasten to southern Spain, which 
 was the term of the expeditions of these adven- 
 turous mariners. 
 
 The southern coast of Andalusia was the chief 
 seat of the Phoenician factories. Here was the 
 famed city of Tartessus, generally supposed to 
 
 * Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 358. 
 
COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 69 
 
 have been built near the mouth of the river Bietis, 
 or modern Guadalquivir, though some have con- 
 sidered it identical with Hispalis, or the modem 
 Seville, and others with Carteja, or the modern 
 Algesiras. The country around it was called 
 Tartessis; and Strabo and Stephanus Byzantinus 
 both say that there flowed into the sea a river 
 bearing the name of Tartessus, which, as Pau- 
 sanias expressly asserts, was afterwards called 
 the Baetis, or modern Guadalquivir. The exact 
 site of the city was, however, a mystery even to 
 the later Greeks and Romans. 
 
 The name of this region was doubtless derived 
 from Tharsis, the second son of the Japlietite 
 Javan, whose descendants had here settled. The 
 whole Iberian peninsula was known to the He- 
 brews under the name of Tharshish. Thence the 
 ships of the Tyrians and King Solomon fetched 
 gold , silver , and ivory, and to Tharsis, whose 
 inhabitants were in commercial intercourse with 
 Tyre, the kings Josaphat and Ochoziah equipped 
 vessels. (3 Kings, x. 22 ; xxii. 49 ; 2 Chron. ix. 
 10 — 21 ; xx. 36; Ezek. xxvii. 12—25.) “ Tarsish 
 
 was thy merchant,” saith the prophet Ezekiel, 
 addressing Tyre — “ Tarsish was thy merchant, by 
 reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches : 
 with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy 
 fairs.” And again, in the 25th verse of the same 
 chapter, the prophet saith, u The ships of Tarsish 
 did sing of thee in thy market, and thou wast 
 replenished, and made very glorious in the midst 
 of the seas.” — (Ezek. xxvii. 12 — 25.) 
 
 This glowing description of the Hebrew' seer, as 
 to the abundance of the precious and the useful 
 metals in the land of Tharsis, or Spain, is con- 
 firmed by the voice of all profane antiquity. The 
 
70 
 
 COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 author of the treatise “ De Mirabilibus,” by some 
 attributed to Aristotle, says that such was the 
 abundance of silver in the city of Tartessus, that 
 the Phoenician merchants brought back to their 
 native country ships laden with that precious 
 metab and that their very anchors were made out 
 of it. Diodorus Siculus declares that rivulets of 
 pure silver flowed through the land ; and that as 
 its inhabitants were unacquainted with its use, 
 the Phoenicians easily obtained it in exchange for 
 some trifling merchandise, and thence conveying 
 it to Greece, Asia, and all other countries, acquired 
 very considerable wealth.”* He describes the 
 rich gold and silver mines of that country, which, 
 though wrought in his time with great diligence 
 by the Romans, had yet, as he expressly ob- 
 serves, been “ opened by the avarice of the Car- 
 thaginians.” Judging from analogy, however, it 
 is more probable that their enterprising ancestors, 
 the Phoenicians, had first led the way in these 
 mining operations. Our historian further corro- 
 borates the statement of the Hebrew prophet, by 
 adding that in many parts of Iberiaf tin is found, 
 though not, as some historians represent, on the 
 surface of the earth ; but that, like gold and silver, 
 it is dug out of its depths, and then fused. 
 
 Strabo, too, confirms this account of Diodorus 
 as to the mineral wealth of Spain. “ Of metals, 
 in fact,” says he, “the whole country of the 
 Iberians is full, although it is not equally fertile 
 and flourishing throughout, especially in those 
 parts where the metals most abound. It is seldom 
 
 * Diod. Sic. lib. v. xxxv. 2 et 3. 
 
 f A. von Humboldt declares that during his stay in the 
 Spanish province of Gallicia, he saw tin washed down by 
 the torrents from the mountains. — (Cosmos, tom. ii.) 
 
COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 71 
 
 that any place is blessed with both these advan- 
 tages, and likewise seldom that the different kinds 
 of metals abound in one small territory. Turde- 
 tania, however,” or the modern Andalusia (which, 
 be it observed, was the part visited by the Hebrew 
 and the Phmnician vessels), — “ Turdetania and the 
 surrounding districts excel so entirely in this 
 respect, that, however you may wish, words can- 
 not convey their superiority. Gold, silver, copper, 
 and iron, equal in amount, and of similar quality, 
 not having been hitherto discovered in any other 
 part of the world. Gold is not only dug from the 
 mines, but likewise collected, sand containing gold 
 being washed down by the rivers and torrents. 
 . . . .” And with respect to tin, Strabo, quoting 
 the historian Posidonius, says — “Tin is not found 
 upon the surface of the earth, as authors com- 
 monly suppose, but it is dug up, and is produced 
 both in places among the barbarians, who dwell 
 beyond the Lusitanians [that is in the modern 
 province of Gallicia], and in the Cassiterides [or 
 Scilly Isles], and from the British islands it is 
 carried to Marseilles. Among the Artabri [or 
 modern Gallicians], who are the last of the Lusi- 
 tanians towards the north and west, he tells us 
 that the earth is powdered with silver, tin, and 
 white gold, — that is, gold mixed with silver, the 
 earth having been brought down by the rivers.”* 
 Such w r ere the mineral riches of the country of 
 Tartessus, wherewith the Phoenicians traded, and 
 where, besides the city of Tartessus, already named, 
 they built many other important places. Of these, 
 one of the most considerable was, doubtless, Gades, 
 or Gadeira, the modern Cadiz, in which, accord- 
 
 * Strabo, lib. iii. c. iii. secs. 8 and 9. 
 
72 
 
 COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 ing to Diodorus, besides structures of a suitable 
 grandeur, there was a magnificent temple dedi- 
 cated to Hercules, wherein the Phoenician rites 
 were solemnized with splendour. This city, 
 situate at the very mouth of the Atlantic Ocean, 
 invited those daring mariners to voyages of dis- 
 covery. Thence they launched forth on its waters, 
 coasting along the western parts of Spain and 
 France, as far as the Scilly Isles, in search of tin, 
 or, steering a south-westerly course, they explored 
 the shores of Africa, and penetrated even to the 
 Canary Islands. So it was near three thousand 
 years afterwards from Palos, in the vicinity of 
 Cadiz, Columbus and his adventurous crew em- 
 barked in search of a new world. 
 
 The other Phoenician colonies on the coast of 
 Spain, and situate in the most fertile parts of 
 that peninsula, were Malaca and Hispalis, or the 
 modern Malaga and Seville. “ Of the former,” 
 Strabo says/* “it is a market for the nomade 
 tribes from the opposite coast, and there are great 
 stores of salt fish there.” He adds that it is by 
 some confounded with Malaca; but this is a 
 mistake, “for the latter, which is at a greater 
 distance from Calpe, or the modern Gibraltar, is 
 in ruins, and preserves traces of having been a 
 Grecian city ; whereas Malaca is nearer, and Phoe- 
 nician in its configuration.” 
 
 The excellent situation of Hispalis, on the 
 Guadalquivir, which admitted ships of consider- 
 able size, could not have escaped the attention of 
 the Phoenicians. 
 
 To come now to their colonies on the coast of 
 Africa, Utica was decidedly one of the most 
 
 * Strabo, lib. iii. c. iv. s. 2. 
 
COLONIES OF PHOENICIA. 
 
 73 
 
 ancient. It was (says Yelleins Paterculus) built 
 about 28 7 years before Carthage. The founda- 
 tion of Cadiz was nearly contemporary with it. 
 He adds that the foundation of Utica occurred in 
 the times of Codrus, who flourished about eleven 
 hundred years before the Christian era. 
 
 Utica (says Strabo, speaking of this city in his 
 time) — Utica is inferior only to Carthage in great- 
 ness and dignity; and on the destruction of the 
 latter, “ it became the capital of the province, and 
 the resort of the Homans for the conduct of their 
 affairs in Africa. The two cities were so situate 
 that you might see one from the other.”* 
 
 The other Phoenician cities on the African coast 
 were Hadrumetum, Thysdrus, and the Great and 
 the Little Leptis, which in the Phoenician, as well 
 as Carthaginian period, formed independent states, 
 each with its own separate territory. United with 
 Carthage in the bonds of a common confedera- 
 tion, they ever evinced the greatest jealousy of her 
 power. 
 
 The Phoenicians are said to have founded three 
 hundred cities on the western coast of Africa 
 alone, but which were utterly destroyed by its 
 savage tribes. 
 
 These remarks on the commercial and colonial 
 policy of the Phoenicians I shall conclude with a 
 citation from the “ Cosmos ” of Alexander von 
 Humboldt, and which assigns to the Phoenicians a 
 high place in the history of civilization. 
 
 “To calculate,” says he, “the extent of country 
 which was opened for the first time by the vessels 
 and the caravans of the Phoenicians, we need but 
 point to the colonies established near the Euxine, 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 832, ed. Cas. 
 
74 
 
 VOYAGES OF PHOENICIANS. 
 
 on the coasts of Bithvnia, such as Pronectus and 
 Bithynium, that probably date from a remote 
 antiquity ; the Cyclades and many isles of the 
 iEgean acknowledged as such in the time of 
 Homer; the southern part of Spain, rich in silver- 
 mines, like Gades and Tartessus ; the north of 
 Africa, to the west of the Little Syrtis, containing 
 Hadrumetum, Utica, and Carthage; the northern 
 countries of Europe, producing tin and amber; 
 lastly, two factories established in the Persian 
 Gulf, like Tylos and Aradus, at present the 
 Bahrein Isles. 
 
 “ The trade in amber, which probably first took 
 the direction towards theCimbricChersonesus, and 
 later towards the shores of the Baltic, inhabited 
 by the Estians, owed its first rise to the enterprise 
 and perseverance of the Phoenician navigators, who 
 sailed along those coasts. The expansion which 
 this commerce took is worthy of remark, and 
 shows what the taste for a single distant produc- 
 tion may effect for establishing between nations fre- 
 quent communications, and for bringing about the 
 knowledge of vast countries. In the same way as 
 the Phoeseans of Marseilles conveyed the tin of 
 Britain across Gaul down to the Phone ; so the 
 yellow amber (electrum) passed from people to 
 people, across Germany and the country of the 
 Celts, to either side of the Alps, to the banks of 
 the Po, or to the Borysthenes across Pannonia. 
 It was this commerce which for the first time 
 placed the coasts of the North Sea in relation with 
 the Euxine and with the Adriatic. 
 
 “ Starting from Carthage, and probably also 
 from Tartessus and Gades, founded two centuries 
 before, the Phoenicians explored a great part of 
 the nortn-western coasts of Africa, and advanced 
 
VOYAGES OF PHCENICIANS. 
 
 75 
 
 much beyond Cape Bojador, though the river 
 Chretes of Hanno could not be either the Chre- 
 mates mentioned by Aristotle in his Meteorology, 
 nor the modern Gambia. It is there that were 
 situate the numerous cities of the Syrians, whereof 
 Strabo estimates the number at three hundred, and 
 which were destroyed by the Pharusians and the 
 Nigritians. 
 
 “ Among these was Cerne, which formed the 
 chief station for vessels, and the best-provisioned 
 mart on the whole coast. On the west the Canary 
 Isles and the A^res, which the son of Columbus, 
 Don Fernando, took for theCassiterides, discovered 
 by the Carthaginians ; on the north the Orcades, 
 the Feroe Isles, and Iceland, became, as it were, 
 the intermediate stations for vessels proceeding to 
 the New Continent. They mark the two routes 
 whereby the European race put itself in commu- 
 nication with the tribes peopling the north and the 
 centre of America. This consideration lends a high 
 interest to the question how far the Phoenicians 
 of the mother country, or those of the colonies 
 scattered on the coasts of Iberia and Africa, — such 
 as Gades, Cerne, and Carthage, — were acquainted 
 with Porto Santo, Madeira, and the Canaries, and 
 at what period that acquaintance commenced. 
 We may even say that this question is pregnant 
 with importance to the history of the world. In 
 a long chain of events, we like to rise to the first 
 ring. Two thousand years, at least, had probably 
 elapsed from the foundation of Tartessus and Utica 
 by the Phoenicians to the discovery of America by 
 the North Passage, — that is to say, to the voyage 
 of Erich Randa to Greenland,* which was soon 
 
 * In the year 982. 
 
76 
 
 CARTHAGE. 
 
 followed by voyages extending even to North 
 Carolina. And we must reckon two thousand 
 five hundred years from the first period to the 
 expedition of Columbus, who proceeded to America 
 by the south-west, in starting from a point con- 
 tiguous to the ancient Phoenician city of Gades.” 
 — (Cosmos, vol. ii. pp. 151 — 156, French edition.) 
 
 So far A. von Humboldt. 
 
 I now pass to the most important Phoenician 
 colony — Carthage. 
 
 SITUATION AND POSSESSIONS OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 Carthage stood within the recess of a large bay 
 (the Sinus Carthaginiensis), inclosed by the head- 
 lands of Apollo and Mercury (now Cape Farina 
 and Cape Bon), in the middle and northernmost 
 part of the north coast of Africa, about 36 degrees 
 latitude north, and about 10 degrees longitude 
 east. Advantageously situated on the shores of 
 the Mediterranean, its walls were washed by that 
 sea on the north, east, and west. To the south 
 its possessions extended as far as the Great Desert. 
 This city was called by the Greeks K apxrjdwv 
 instead of K apd^cjv, for the Sicilian Greeks pro- 
 nounced the theta like chi. 
 
 “ The foundation of Carthage (says Niebuhr) 
 was by no means the first of the Punic settle- 
 ments in those parts. Utica was more ancient, 
 and the names Utica and Carthage stood in the 
 same relation as Palaiopolis and Neapolis — for 
 Athica and Carcheda mean nothing else but Old- 
 town and New- town ; and Utica must at first have 
 had another name. These places were* Phoenician 
 factories, from the period of the greatness of the 
 
CARTHAGE. 
 
 77 
 
 Phoenician state ; our doubts hereupon can have 
 arisen only from our own ignorance/'* 
 
 The western boundaries of Carthage extended, 
 according to Polybius, as far as the Straits of 
 Gibraltar. But within this tract of territory there 
 were many independent Numidian tribes. The 
 southern limit, as we have seen, was formed by 
 the Great Desert. On the east the possessions of 
 the republic stretched as far as the frontiers of 
 Cyrenaica, marked by the altars of the Philaenian 
 brothers. 
 
 The vulgar tradition that Dido or Elisa fled 
 from Tyre to escape Pygmalion, her brother-in-law, 
 who had murdered her husband, is unhistorical ; 
 because, as has been proved by Dr. Movers, Dido 
 or Elisa is a mythic personage. But this tradition 
 is so far important, as it shows that civil dissensions 
 in Phoenicia forced a part of its citizens to emigrate 
 to the north of Africa. The very circumstances 
 of this emigration rendered Carthage independent 
 of the mother country ; but, like the Greek colo- 
 nies, it remained united with the parent state by 
 the ties of religion and the bonds of commercial 
 intercourse. 
 
 The Phoenicians found on the coast of Africa, 
 where they settled, nomade tribes, whose manners 
 and customs have been so vividly delineated by 
 Herodotus ; such as the Libyans and the Maxyes, 
 the Zaveces and the Gyzantes. Among these the 
 Carthaginians sent colonies for the purpose of 
 subduing and civilizing them. Hence arose a 
 mixed population, called the Liby-Phoenices. 
 
 * Lectures on Ancient History, translated by Dr. L. 
 Schmitz, tom. iii. p. 159. 
 
78 
 
 RELIGION OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 RELIGION OF THE CARTHAGINIANS. 
 
 To come now to the religion of the Cartha- 
 ginians — it was substantially the same with that 
 of their ancestors, the Phoenicians, which I 
 described on a former occasion. The same character 
 of lust and hate was impressed on both creeds; 
 the same features of gloomy distrust and fierce 
 suspicion, of voluptuous festivals and sanguinary 
 rites, were common to the worship of the parent 
 state and of its daughter. Yet the Tyrian colonists 
 of Carthage could not, of course, escape the moral 
 influences of the land where they had settled; and 
 accordingly we find in their religion many elements 
 borrowed from the Libyan. 
 
 The names of the Phoenician and Carthaginian 
 deities were nearly identical ; such asElim, Alomim, 
 Baalat, Melkart, and Dan. The sun, as the 
 generative power of nature, they worshipped under 
 the name of Baal ; and such was their veneration 
 for him that, dreading to pronounce his name, 
 they designated him by the appellation of the 
 Ancient, or the Eternal. His statue, like that of 
 Moloch in Tyre, was of metal, with arms out- 
 stretched, and with a cavity in its breast, which, 
 when heated from below, received, as in a glowing 
 furnace, the infant victims of superstition. With 
 this god was associated the female goddess 
 Astarte, or the Queen of Heaven, corresponding 
 to Juno, to the Cyprian Venus, to the Diana, and 
 even to the Minerva of the Greeks. Her worship 
 bore a peculiar character of voluptuousness; and 
 her licentious festivals subsisted even to the fourth 
 century of the Christian era, and drew down the 
 strong animadversions of a Saint Augustine and a 
 
RELIGION OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 79 
 
 Salvian. Then came the Tyrian Hercules, or 
 Melkart, a name which signifies King of the City , 
 the most popular of all the Phoenician deities. In 
 his temples burned a perpetual fire ; and yearly, 
 in the spring, the priests kindled in his honour 
 an immense pyre, out of which flew up an eagle, 
 the symbol of the reviving year. He was the 
 tutelary god of all navigators and merchants ; and 
 the Carthaginians never failed to send to his 
 temple at Tyre the annual tribute of a tithe of the 
 public revenues. 
 
 Esmun was the god of medicine, who passed for 
 working, throughout Africa, extraordinary cures. 
 His temples were the resort, not only of physicians, 
 but of the learned generally, who repaired thither 
 for the purpose of teaching and of investigating. 
 We find here, too, the old Egyptian custom of the 
 temple-sleep, so calculated to foster every species 
 of magical illusion. 
 
 The Dioscuri were the tutelary gods of navi- 
 gators ; and the horse was an emblem borne on 
 the arms of Carthage. The Carthaginian name 
 of the god, corresponding to the Greek Poseidon, 
 and the Roman Neptune, is unknown; but he 
 played an important part in the mythology of this 
 people, and received in his waters the tribute of 
 many a human victim. 
 
 Among the demi-gods was Elisa, or Dido, in 
 whose presence were held the political assem- 
 blies ; and the Philaeni, whose altars marked the 
 limits of the Carthaginian and the Cyrensean 
 territories. The Philsenian brothers, as is well 
 known, on occasion of a contest for territory 
 between the two states, buried themselves alive in 
 the earth, in order to secure the triumph of 
 Carthage. Altars were erected to them on the 
 
80 
 
 RELIGION OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 spot ; and round these, in course of time, rose up 
 a city, which, however, even in Strabo’s age, had 
 ceased to exist. It is remarkable, however, that 
 the learned Italian traveller Della Celia, * who, 
 in the year 1817, explored the regency of Tripoli 
 and the adjoining country, declares that he saw 
 columns of sandstone, with inscriptions, very much 
 defaced, in an unknown tongue, and which, from 
 their position, one is inclined to take for these 
 pillars of the Philsenian brothers, as described by 
 Scylax, Strabo, and Polybius. 
 
 “ The Carthaginians/’ says a distinguished 
 modern historian of Italy, “ believed that the 
 souls of the just ascended unto light eternal; and 
 they called death the last port, the common haven. 
 They borrowed some things from the religion of 
 the conquered nations. Thus, it is probable that 
 they learned from the Africans to worship fire, 
 earth, air, the winds, and the other elements ; the 
 worship of Ceres and Proserpine they derived from 
 Sicily ; and from Sardinia that of Iolaus, the 
 nephew of Hercules.” f 
 
 There was not, it is to be observed, among this 
 people a sacerdotal caste, as in India, Egypt, and 
 Persia ; nor do there appear to have been here- 
 ditary priesthoods, as in certain families of ancient 
 Greece. But the priestly dignity was held by the 
 chief citizens of the republic, and was encircled 
 with every mark of outward honour. Religion, in 
 fact, as among all the nations of antiquity, was in 
 the closest connection with the state. Yearly were 
 solemn deputations of priests sent by the senate 
 and people of Carthage to honour Melkart in his 
 
 # Viaggio da Tripoli, p. 77. 
 
 f Cesare Cantu, Hist. Universelle, tom. ii. p. 49. 
 
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 81 
 
 temple at Tyre. And on occasion of the esta- 
 blishment of every new colony, sanctuaries were 
 founded, like that of Neptune, for example, on 
 the western coast of Africa, and that of Hercules, 
 when Cartbagena in Spain was built. The com- 
 manders of troops were required to offer sacrifice 
 to the gods during battle ; and soothsayers, with- 
 out whose counsel no martial enterprise could be 
 undertaken, ever attended the armies. 
 
 I spoke on a former occasion of that especial 
 character of lust and cruelty that marked the 
 worship of the Phoenicians, like that of every 
 other Chamite people. 
 
 All Pagan nations, indeed, have practised human 
 sacrifices ; and the difference among them relates 
 only to the degree of their frequency, and the 
 length of time they continued. An illustrious 
 German Catholic writer declares that he knows 
 but one exception — the Chinese — in whose history 
 and sacred books he could find no trace of the 
 abominable custom. But even this is hardly an 
 exception ; for such, down to two centuries before 
 our era, was the purity of the belief and practice 
 of that people — such the fidelity with which they 
 had clung to patriarchal traditions, that they 
 could scarcely be called Pagan. Yet everywhere 
 else had the terrors of superstition engendered 
 this cruel rite. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 Let us now consider the political institutions of 
 Carthage. 
 
 The constitution of Carthage has been com- 
 pared by Aristotle with the Cretan and the 
 Spartan ; and on the whole, though he has pointed 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 CARTHAGE. 
 
 out defects therein, it has received his warm com- 
 mendation. 
 
 The government was in the hands of one, and, 
 later, of two kings, and of a senate. The kings, 
 who were called suffetes — a term exactly corre- 
 sponding to the shophetim, or judges, of the 
 Hebrews — were magistrates, chosen for life by 
 the people out of the chief and most opulent 
 families. 
 
 The senate was composed of representatives of 
 all classes of citizens, and was divided into the 
 smaller and the greater council. The former, 
 called repovcrici, was, it appears, charged with the 
 direction of foreign affairs ; the latter, called 
 'SvyicXriTog, was more especially intrusted with 
 the internal administration. 
 
 If the kings and the senate entertained con- 
 trary opinions on any subject, the decision of the 
 matter was reserved for the judgment of the 
 people in the public assemblies. 
 
 The kings were not usually commanders of 
 armies, but were charged solely with the civil 
 government. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Carthaginian territory 
 were mere subjects, without the rights of citizens. 
 Some elected their municipal magistrates ; others 
 received them from the ruling city. To the Phoe- 
 nician colonies alone was reserved the privilege of 
 being treated by the Punic state, not as subjects, 
 but as confederates. 
 
 Such is an outline of this constitution, which 
 was commended by two of the greatest masters of 
 political science in the ancient world, — Aristotle 
 and Polybius, — and which may certainly be termed 
 a temperate aristocracy. Royalty was at first re- 
 tained, after the pattern of the mother-country ; 
 
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 83 
 
 but at a very early period it gave place to aristo- 
 cracy, and the kings became merely elective, and 
 the chief magistrates of a republic. 
 
 Royalty was not here, as in Sparta, hereditary 
 in two ruling houses, but was merely elective for 
 life out of the more opulent families in the state. 
 The Carthaginian kings, as we have seen, were not 
 usually intrusted with the command of armies, but 
 were restricted to the administration of civil affairs. 
 This is a notable difference in the constitutions of 
 Sparta and of Carthage. There are, however, 
 examples in the history of the latter state, where 
 kings commanded troops, and headed colonial 
 expeditions. 
 
 On the senate devolved the chief authority in 
 all matters of foreign and domestic administration. 
 The smaller council (repoucrm) was called thatof the 
 hundred men, and had the management of foreign 
 affairs ; the larger council, called SuyfcArfroe, was 
 intrusted with the internal administration. To 
 each of these councils were annexed species of com- 
 mittees, called pentarchies (II ei'Tapxiai), charged 
 with some special departments of government; like 
 that of war, finance, and the rest. 
 
 As to the nature and constitution of the senate, 
 we are left with very scanty means of information. 
 
 What was the exact number of its members 
 we know not, though several passages in ancient 
 writers show the numbers to have been consider- 
 able. Whether the senate were hereditary, or 
 eligible by the people, or self- elective, are matters 
 whereof we are equally ignorant. 
 
 One thing, however, is certain. To the dignity 
 of senator, as well as to the various offices of govern- 
 ment, no emoluments were annexed ; and therefore 
 they could be filled only by persons of wealth. 
 g 2 
 
84 
 
 CARTHAGE. 
 
 This provision, doubtless, insured the predomi- 
 nance of the aristocracy ; but as this was an aris- 
 tocracy of wealth, rather than of military prowess, 
 or of sacerdotal origin, or even of moral and in- 
 tellectual pre-eminence, mere riches, especially 
 mercantile riches, were too highly exalted in the 
 social scale, and thereby a dangerous stimulus was 
 given to cupidity. This venality of charges was a 
 defect that did not escape the penetrative eye of 
 the Stagirite, much as he admired, on other points, 
 the Carthaginian constitution. “For this custom,” 
 says he, “raises wealth above its real intrinsic 
 value, and makes the whole republic covetous ; 
 for what the ruling class holds to be honourable 
 forms the standard of opinion with the other 
 citizens.” 
 
 Another defect the great philosopher points out 
 is the plurality of offices united in the hands of 
 the same individual, and which is traceable to the 
 same cause with the other. 
 
 As to the judicial tribunals of Carthage, we 
 possess but few data for forming an opinion. The 
 court of magistrates best known to us is that of 
 the hundred and four men. This tribunal Aris- 
 totle compares with that of the Spartan Ephori, 
 remarking, at the same time, that while the latter 
 were chosen out of all classes of citizens, the 
 former were taken only from the more respectable 
 and opulent. Thereby, as Heeren well observes, 
 was Carthage delivered from that plague and curse 
 of the ancient republics, — the popular tribunals. 
 
 Of the other courts of justice in that state, 
 nothing is known. But we know that the criminal 
 code was most severe ; and that in capital cases 
 such atrocious punishments were awarded as mu- 
 tilation of limb, stoning, crucifixion, flaying alive, 
 
LITERATURE. 
 
 85 
 
 and the being devoured or trodden under-foot by 
 wild beasts. 
 
 Such was this mercantile aristocracy, to which 
 it is impossible to deny the merit of great excel- 
 lence, when we reflect that during the first five 
 hundred years of its existence there were but two 
 attempts, and those unsuccessful ones, made to 
 bring about its overthrow. Of the causes that led 
 to the ruin of the republic I shall have occasion 
 later to speak. 
 
 LITERATURE OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 Let us now proceed to inquire into the intellec- 
 tual character of this people. 
 
 The whole literature of the Carthaginians has 
 perished, and it has been their doom to have their 
 history recorded, not only by foreign writers, but 
 by writers taken from the ranks of their enemies 
 and conquerors. That they possessed historians 
 in their vernacular language is clear from Sallust, 
 who, in his history of the Jugurthine war, posi- 
 tively declares that he drew his account of early 
 Carthaginian history from the Punic books that 
 had belonged to King Hiempsal, and according to 
 the translation given him.'* One Punic work 
 only has survived the wreck of the national litera- 
 ture. This is a treatise on agriculture, in twenty- 
 eight books, by the King Mago, and which, after 
 the destruction of Carthage, the Roman senate 
 ordered Silanus to translate into the Latin tongue. 
 Fragments of this great work, which was much 
 
 * Qui mortales initio Africam habuerint, ut ex libris 
 Punicis, qui regis Hiempsalis dicebantur, interpretatum 
 nobis est, dicain. — (Sallust, Jug. cap. xvii.) 
 
86 
 
 CARTHAGE. 
 
 esteemed by the ancients, still subsist in the pages 
 of Varro, Columella, and Pliny. It is singular 
 enough that the only subsisting monument of 
 Punic literature should furnish fresh proof of the 
 practical tendencies of the Phoenician mind ! 
 
 After mentioning the fact of the translation of 
 this work into Latin by order of the Senate, Pliny 
 adds that the libraries of Carthage were given up 
 to the Numidian kings — a fact which in itself 
 proves the high intellectual cultivation of this 
 people. 
 
 “'We are generally inclined,” says Niebuhr, 
 “ to form erroneous notions of the Carthaginians, 
 for we imagine them to have been a people with 
 extensive dominions, but rude and barbarous. 
 But the arts had reached a high degree of perfec- 
 tion among them, as we not only know from 
 passages in which they are incidentally mentioned, 
 but roads constructed according to principles of 
 art are first met with among the Carthaginians, 
 and the art with which the Romans made their 
 high roads was probably derived from the Car- 
 thaginians. The accounts of the capture of their 
 city give evidence of immense splendour. They 
 had numerous manufactures, and the art of paint- 
 ing on glass, in particular, was carried to very 
 great perfection. Many pieces of ancient glass, 
 which are found in the tombs in the interior of 
 Guinea, and which can have been carried thither 
 only by commerce, may give us some idea of that 
 art. I have seen pieces of surpassing beauty.” 
 
 “The Carthaginians,” continues Niebuhr, “de- 
 rived their civilization from the Tyrians, and that 
 all the arts of brass-founding, and those of an 
 ornamental character, were developed at Tyre as 
 early as the time of Solomon, may be seen from 
 
FINE ARTS. 
 
 87 
 
 the historical books of the Old Testament. And 
 there can be no doubt that these arts were still 
 further developed by the Carthaginians.”* 
 
 So far Niebuhr. The only question is, whether 
 among those noble specimens of art found by the 
 Romans on the taking of Carthage, all were the 
 products of native skill, or whether the spoils of 
 the Greek cities of Sicily were not intermingled 
 with them ? 
 
 The Greek influence, which was to absorb the 
 Western as well as the Eastern world, had pene- 
 trated here even before the Macedonian conquests.f 
 Resistance here, as at Rome, was early made to 
 the introduction of Greek literature ; but a law 
 passed to that effect was soon abrogated. Hanni- 
 bal himself received a Greek education, cultivated 
 the society of Greek literati, and composed his 
 memoirs in the Greek language. “ From the age 
 of three to twelve,” says a modern historian, “ the 
 children of the great Carthaginian families were 
 brought up in the temple ; from twelve to twenty 
 they learned all in regard to industry and the 
 different trades ; and then at twenty they were 
 trained to military exercises. They were then 
 called upon to choose the profession which they 
 would embrace, — the priesthood or the navy, or 
 commerce, industry, or the army. The Greek 
 language, which had now become prevalent, was, 
 with its literature and philosophy, taught by 
 Greek professors.” J 
 
 * Lectures on Ancient History, vol. iii. p. 156, trans- 
 lated by Dr. L. Schmitz. 
 
 t On the wide diffusion of the Greek language in the 
 three centuries before our Lord, see Hug’s elaborate account 
 in his Introduction to the New Testament, vol. ii. 
 
 X Histoire Universelle, par Cesare Cantu, traduit de 
 ITtalien, tom. xi. p. 50. Louvain, 1848. - 
 
88 
 
 COLONIES OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 The remains of Carthaginian art are almost as 
 scanty as those of the literature. Sir Grenville 
 Temple, for six months, caused excavations to be 
 made in the environs of Carthage. Among the 
 monuments discovered I may name the Temple 
 of the Celestial Juno, or Thamat, in whose ruins 
 were found about seven hundred coins, and various 
 utensils made of earth or glass, a pleasure-house 
 on the shores of the sea, with painted walls and 
 mosaic pavement, remains of statues and lamps, 
 fragments of Punic inscriptions, and an entire 
 one. In those environs, about a hundred and 
 thirty inscriptions, for the most part funereal, 
 have been found. Some are Numidian, in African 
 characters. Traces of the great aqueduct for the 
 irrigation of the gardens and fields have also been 
 found out. 
 
 I may add that this very year, in Tyre, several 
 Phoenician inscriptions have been discovered, 
 which, by the aid of the Hebrew, have been de- 
 ciphered, and furnish us with the names of several 
 Tyrian kings, unknown to us before. 
 
 Here is the place to say a few words on the 
 colonies of Carthage. 
 
 Of these, Sardinia was one of the chief. Dio- 
 dorus Siculus, after stating that a descendant of 
 Hercules — Iolaus — had colonized Sardinia, had 
 there built splendid cities, had divided the lands, 
 and had constructed gymnasia and temples to the 
 gods, says that he called the inhabitants after 
 himself, Iolseans. He adds, that an oracle had 
 declared that as long as this people preserved that 
 name, they should enjoy this freedom inviolate. 
 “The truth of this oracle,” he says, “has been 
 verified even to the present day. For the Cartha- 
 ginians, though in the zenith of their power they 
 
COLONIES OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 89 
 
 took this island, were unable to reduce its ancient 
 inhabitants to servitude. For the latter flew to 
 their mountains, and having constructed their 
 habitations underground, reared numerous flocks 
 of cattle. Hence an abundance of milk, cheese, 
 and meat supplied their bodily wants. Having 
 deserted the fields, they abandoned at the same 
 
 time the cares of agriculture Although 
 
 the Carthaginians often marched against them 
 with considerable forces, yet the difficulty of the 
 locality, and the inextricable windings of these 
 subterraneous abodes, ever served to protect them 
 from slavery.” 
 
 The historian goes on to say, “ that, for the 
 same reasons, the Romans, with all their power, 
 were equally unsuccessful against this people.”* 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that even at the present 
 day the mountaineers of Sardinia go about clad 
 in sheepskins, and altogether lead a rude, uncul- 
 tivated life. 
 
 Calaris, or the modern Cagliari, was built by 
 the Carthaginians. 
 
 The Balearic Isles, whereof the principal are 
 the modern Majorca and Minorca, were also 
 colonized and possessed by the Carthaginians. 
 They were, according to Diodorus, called by the 
 Greeks the Gymnasian Isles, because the inhabi- 
 tants in the summer months went about naked. 
 They were also more frequently termed the 
 Balearic Isles, from the Greek word j3 aXXeLv (to 
 cast), because of the singular skill of the inha- 
 bitants in the use of the sling. 
 
 They were in antiquity, as in modern times, 
 remarkable for their fertility in corn, and wine. 
 
 * Diod. Sic. Bibl. tom. iii. lib. v. pp. 281 , 282 . 
 
90 
 
 COLONIES OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 and oil, and hemp, as well as for a very fine breed 
 of mules. 
 
 Their inhabitants were extremely prone to dis- 
 soluteness. 
 
 “ Pityusa [the modern Ivija] was,” says Diodo- 
 rus, “ so called from the multitude of its pines.” 
 It was, according to this historian, equal in size 
 to Corcyra, or the modern Corfu, but of moderate 
 fertility. It was distinguished for the beauty of 
 its hills and valleys, and its sheep were celebrated 
 for the softness of their wool. The extent of its 
 ports, the size of its cities, and the splendour of 
 its mansions, are highly extolled by the historian. 
 The Carthaginians there built a city called Eresus, 
 and formed the major part of the population of 
 the island. They migrated into it about 160 years 
 after the foundation of Carthage.* 
 
 Before concluding the subject of the Phoenician 
 and Carthaginian colonies, I shall take the liberty 
 of saying a few words on the ancient intercourse 
 between Phoenicia and Ireland. 
 
 In my former lecture I spoke of the commerce 
 which the Phoenicians carried on with the Tin 
 Islands, including not only the Scilly Isles, but 
 Great Britain and Ireland, to which that people 
 gave the name of Bratanac, signifying tin. Though, 
 as Mr. Moore observes, no tin-mines have been 
 discovered in Ireland, yet lead-mines, an object 
 equally attractive to the Phoenicians, exist in this 
 country. 
 
 That a large proportion of the Irish population 
 was supplied from Celtic Spain is a well-authen- 
 ticated tradition, on which there rests no manner 
 of doubt. This fact, coupled with the greater 
 proximity of Ireland to Spain, would naturally 
 * Vide Diod. Sic. lib. v. pp. 283, 284. 
 
PHOENICIANS IN IRELAND. 
 
 91 
 
 induce the Phoenician and Carthaginian colonists 
 settled in the latter country, to trade more fre- 
 quently with Ireland than with Albion. Further, 
 the more accurate acquaintance which the Greeks, 
 borrowing probably from Phoenician sources, dis- 
 play with the geography of Ireland rather than 
 with that of England, is another fact corroborative 
 of this closer commercial intercourse. Again, 
 that the Phoenicians established factories both in 
 England and in Ireland is a circumstance which, 
 though unrecorded in history, is in itself highly 
 probable ; for such was the general custom of this 
 mercantile people. But were these factories so 
 numerous and so important as to exert a wide 
 and permanent influence on the Irish population ? 
 Could they affect, as some have supposed, the 
 race of the country, its creed, its manners, its 
 customs ? Is there even a strong admixture of 
 Phoenician words in the Erse, such as religion and 
 commerce might introduce into languages belong- 
 ing to totally distinct families ? 
 
 On all these matters I am quite unqualified to 
 form an opinion ; but the highest authorities on 
 this subject, the two greatest living Irish scholars. 
 Professor Curry, of our university, and Dr. O’Dono- 
 van, have assured me that, in regard to such an 
 influence, there is no evidence whatever in the re- 
 cords and traditions of Ireland. Until, therefore, 
 further investigation shall have elucidated this sub- 
 ject, it becomes us all to guard a prudent reserve. 
 Meanwhile, it is most gratifying to observe the spirit 
 of enlightened criticism, and severe, impartial 
 inquiry which the scholars of Ireland are now 
 introducing into the study of her antiquities ; 
 for investigations so conducted, whatever may be 
 their issue, must not only redound to the immortal 
 
92 
 
 CARTHAGE. 
 
 honour of their authors, but confer a lasting service 
 on their country. 
 
 Want of space preventing me from speaking of 
 the maritime commerce of Carthage, I shall now 
 proceed to describe its inland trade. 
 
 THE INLAND TRADE OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 The first writer who called attention to the 
 subject of the inland trade of Carthage, was the 
 late German Professor Heeren. He had, indeed, 
 the merit of first showing how important an ele- 
 ment in the civilization of nations was commerce 
 in general ; and though he at times unduly magni- 
 fied its importance, still, it cannot be denied that 
 he threw considerable light on this interesting 
 point in the social life of nations. 
 
 It could not be expected that a commercial 
 republic, like that of Carthage, so vigilant in 
 turning all her local advantages to account, in 
 espying new outlets for her trade, should have 
 neglected the vast regions outspread in her rear. 
 Indeed, the multitude of black slaves in Egypt, 
 in Cyrenaica, and in Carthage, where they were 
 employed not only in the service of individuals, 
 but in that of the state also ; the fact, too, that 
 numbers of these slaves were found even in 
 Greece and Italy, prove the existence of an ex- 
 tensive slave-trade with the interior of Africa. 
 The circumstance, moreover, that the nomade 
 tribes between the Great and Little Syrtis, — such 
 as the Nasamonians, the Lotophagi, and others, 
 who then (like their successors, the modern in- 
 habitants of Tripoli) took a most active part in 
 this commerce with central Africa, were subjects 
 of Carthage, is strongly corroborative of the same 
 
INLAND TRADE. 
 
 93 
 
 assumption. To this may be added an anecdote 
 recorded by Athenseus, that a Carthaginian, 
 named Mago, thrice traversed the great African 
 desert, subsisting on nothing else but roasted 
 flour — for such an occurrence cannot be con- 
 sidered as an event purely isolated. Hence, I 
 am naturally led to make some reflections on this 
 remarkable trade, and the still more remarkable 
 region where it was carried on. 
 
 What a mysterious continent is Africa ! For 
 upwards of three thousand years hath it been 
 known to mankind, and yet how imperfectly is it 
 still known ! The northern and the eastern por- 
 tions of this immense region, — Carthage, Cyrene, 
 Egypt, and Meroe, — like the splendid outer courts 
 of a vast temple, were indeed well enough known 
 to the ancient world. But the inner sanctuary of 
 that temple was wrapped in impenetrable gloom ; 
 and they who entered within its sombre precincts, 
 as if devoted to some stern, relentless divinity, 
 rarely returned. Africa, indeed, has ever been 
 the land of malediction. Its burning clime — its 
 boundless wastes of sand — its pestilential va- 
 pours — its rankly-luxuriant valleys, teeming with 
 venomous serpents and the most ferocious beasts, 
 rendered it a fitting abode for those men of lust 
 and violence, who, by reason of a primeval crime, 
 had been doomed to everlasting servitude. This 
 doom hath it continued to fulfil in every age, by 
 driving forth its own children from its bosom, 
 and sending them to the slave-markets of other 
 lands. Yet, in despite of this commerce, how 
 strangely impervious hath its interior remained 
 to investigation ! What almost insuperable ob- 
 stacles hath it presented in every age to the zeal 
 of the missionary, the enterprise of the merchant, 
 
94 
 
 INLAND TRADE. 
 
 the research of the man of science, and the arms 
 of the warrior ! 
 
 Let us now proceed to consider the routes of 
 ancient commerce through the dreary wastes of 
 this inhospitable region. These pathways of 
 ancient trade, the father of history, more than 
 two thousand years ago, described ; and the ex- 
 treme accuracy of his descriptions has been, in 
 our times, verified by the researches of intelligent 
 travellers. At Thebes, where Herodotus sojourned 
 for some time, and which was the converging point 
 of the African caravans, he was enabled to obtain 
 much information respecting that trade, as well 
 as those regions and their inhabitants. He was 
 enabled to receive these accounts from the lips, 
 not of Egyptians only, but of Libyans, Cyre- 
 nasans, and Carthaginians also. From the ex- 
 tremity of Abyssinia, as well as from the south- 
 western parts of Africa, came the trading caravans 
 to Thebes. Thence they departed for the Ammo- 
 nium, or the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, in the 
 Libyan desert ; from thence they took their de- 
 parture for Augila; and from this to Phasania, or 
 the modern Fezzan. Here one set of caravans 
 proceeded northwards to Leptis and to Carthage ; 
 and another set started southwards for the banks 
 of the Niger. If such w T as the course of this 
 trade, what were the articles of merchandise that 
 formed its staple? Here modern travellers come 
 to our aid, and the reason of the thing shows 
 that, if the course of this commerce, as described 
 by ancient historians, has remained unaltered ; so 
 the articles of merchandise, consisting, as they do, 
 of the natural products of these countries, must 
 have been the same in former ages as at the pre- 
 sent day. 
 
INLAND TRADE. 
 
 95 
 
 The commodities exported from the interior of 
 Africa are ivory, gold dust, and gold grains, ostrich 
 feathers, and especially black slaves ; and in return 
 the inhabitants of Nigritia receive dates, and par- 
 ticularly salt, whereof they are utterly destitute. 
 In the Great Desert of Sahara, Nature has stored 
 up immense magazines of salt, partly in lakes, 
 partly in vast mounds rising up from the earth, 
 partly in mines ; and this condiment is absolutely 
 needful for the health as well as the appetite of 
 the natives of Soodan. This merchandise the 
 inhabitants of Fezzan convey to the countries of the 
 Niger, and in exchange receive gold, which super- 
 abounds in those regions. This precious metal, 
 together with Negro slaves, is then transported to 
 the northern coasts of Africa. 
 
 Here, doubtless, was a source of immense 
 profit to the Carthaginian republic; and it is no 
 wonder she should have striven to conceal it. 
 The desert was to her an inexhaustible mine of 
 wealth; she extracted from Central Africa not 
 only the most valuable gems and precious metals, 
 but the one which was the measure and standard 
 of all values ; and she thence drew multitudes of 
 slaves not only for her own public and private 
 service, but for the purpose of importation into 
 her own colonies, like Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia, 
 as well as into the adjacent countries of the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 I said a little while ago, that the researches of 
 modern travellers had singularly verified the 
 statements of the father of history, not only as to 
 the routes of the inland trade of Africa, but also 
 as to the nature of that region, and the manners 
 of its inhabitants. The subject not being irrele- 
 
96 
 
 CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 vant to the one under discussion, I may be par- 
 doned a short digression. 
 
 The aspect and products of the African deserts, 
 the customs of their inhabitants, the oases, with 
 their palm-trees and fresh fountains, the relative 
 distances of the caravan stations, have been all 
 most correctly described by that old diligent 
 traveller, whom History acknowledges to be her 
 father. 
 
 From want of space I can cite but a few 
 examples. 
 
 The inquisitive spirit of our age, for example, 
 has discovered the Ammonium, or oasis of Jupiter 
 Ammon, situate in the Libyan desert, at ten days* 
 journey from Thebes, the ancient capital of Upper 
 Egypt. There has the ruined Temple of Ammon 
 been found, with its Egyptian architecture, with 
 sculptures representing the old Ammonian wor- 
 ship, especially the procession of the golden ship, 
 with the palace and domains of the pontiff king, 
 with the fountain of the sun, “ that still runs icy 
 cold by day, and by night begins to warm;” all, 
 as Herodotus had described, and Alexander the 
 Great had witnessed, more than two thousand 
 years ago. 
 
 Again, the father of history, speaking of the 
 Garamantes, or the ancient inhabitants of the 
 modern Fezzan, says , — “ These Garamantes hunt 
 the Ethiopian Troglodytes in four-horse chariots ; 
 for the Ethiopian Troglodytes are the swiftest of 
 foot of all men of whom we have heard any 
 account given. The Troglodytes feed upon ser- 
 pents and lizards, and such kind of reptiles ; they 
 speak a language like no other, but screech, like 
 bats.” — (Lib. iv. c. 183.) 
 
 The Ethiopian Troglodytes mentioned by Hero- 
 
CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 97 
 
 dot us are now represented by the Tibboos of the 
 Rock ; who dwell in caverns in the mountains of 
 Tibesti, to the south-east of Fezzan. Captain Lyon 
 states that the Sultan of Fezzan appoints an annual 
 hunt with horse and infantry in pursuit of these 
 unfortunate negroes, and that, during his abode in 
 that country, the sultanas son brought back from 
 one of these homicidal chases eighteen hundred 
 captives, including men, women, and children. 
 
 Even the circumstance recorded by the Greek 
 historian as to the singular language of these 
 Troglodytes has been attested by modern tra- 
 vellers. “ When the inhabitants of Augila,” says 
 the German traveller Hornemann, “ speak of these 
 races, they say that their language resembles the 
 chirping of birds/”* 
 
 I pass now to the consideration of the many 
 and various causes that brought about the decline, 
 and prepared the downfall, of the Carthaginian 
 republic. 
 
 DECLINE OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 The first was the want of homogeneousness in 
 this state. The confederate Phoenician cities, like 
 Utica, Leptis, Hadrumetum, and others, were 
 jealous of its ascendancy. The second cause was, 
 that that city ever remained a city, and did not 
 assimilate the provinces to her own constitution. 
 Those provinces, remaining vassals, were without 
 any participation in the blessings of that con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Again, the Liby-Phoenician population, and 
 
 * See Hornemann’s “ Reise/’ p. 143. See also Captain 
 Lyon’s “ Narrative of a Journey through Central Africa/ 5 
 p. 250. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 DECLINE OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 still more the pure Libyan tribes, ever enter- 
 tained towards Carthage the deep-rooted hostility 
 of race. Moreover, many of these tribes had been 
 reluctantly forced to abandon the nomade life, 
 and to adopt the pursuits of agriculture. Hence 
 it is not surprising that they should have sought 
 every opportunity to throw off the Carthaginian 
 yoke, and should not unfrequently have broken 
 out into bloody insurrections. Thus all those 
 provinces, whether subject or tributary, hung by 
 a very loose tie to the Punic city. 
 
 Lastly, the number of mercenary troops Car- 
 thage enlisted, when she attempted wars of con- 
 quest and aggrandisement, became another source 
 of weakness and of danger. 
 
 I have already spoken of the pernicious ascend- 
 ancy which the Carthaginian constitution gave to 
 riches. This ascendancy in course of time in- 
 creased; and, amid the growing corruption of 
 morals which wealth engendered, the healthy and 
 moral occupations of agriculture, that in the better 
 ages of the republic had so much engaged the 
 attention of the great families, were gradually 
 abandoned by them. This circumstance is expressly 
 stated by Cicero to have been one of the causes of 
 the decline of Carthage. 
 
 The inherent vigour of her political constitution 
 is apparent from the fact, that for the first five 
 hundred years of her existence, as I before said, 
 there were but two attempts at revolution, and 
 that both these signally failed. This constitution 
 was that of a municipal republic, well adapted for 
 the tranquil pursuits of trade and manufactures, 
 and which, in times of peace, could, without much 
 difficulty, maintain its supremacy. But for a state 
 of protracted and extensive warfare, it was not 
 
DECLINE OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 99 
 
 adapted. An invasion of its territory, like that 
 accomplished by the Greek Agathocles and the 
 Roman Regulus, caused the defection of its vassals 
 and its tributaries. Great foreign wars Carthage 
 could not carry on without mercenary troops ; and 
 the fidelity of such troops was, of course, always 
 more or less uncertain. Hence the mother-country, 
 Tyre, seems to have followed a wiser policy in 
 confining itself to navigation, commerce, and ma- 
 nufactures, as well as to purely defensive warfare. 
 
 Into aggressive hostilities Carthage was, as it 
 were, forced against her will. The defence of one 
 of her best colonies — the western part of Sicily- 
 brought her for the first time into collision with 
 Rome. The first Punic war, which sprang up on 
 that occasion, terminated in the loss to her of 
 that island as well as of Sardinia. For these losses 
 this republic strove to indemnify herself by ex- 
 tending her possessions in Spain, whose natives 
 could furnish numerous mercenaries for her army, 
 and whose mineral riches could afford her inex- 
 haustible resources for waging hostilities. 
 
 The penetrative genius of Hannibal sees that 
 in the circumstances of his country a defensive 
 war could lead to no definitive result, and he 
 boldly resolves to carry the warfare into the 
 enemy^s land. You know the glorious career of that 
 great commander; you know how long victory 
 followed his standard ; you know by what almost 
 superhuman energy he shook the Roman Capitol, 
 and made the destinies of the Eternal City tremble 
 in the balance. 
 
 At last Scipio imitated the policy of the Cartha- 
 ginian chief, and transferred the struggle into his 
 rivaPs country. There were, for the reasons above 
 stated, by far fewer elements of cohesion in the 
 h 2 
 
100 
 
 C Ail T II AGE. 
 
 Panic state than in the Roman ; and an invasion 
 of the territory of the former had always proved 
 highly dangerous to the stability of its consti- 
 tution. 
 
 For a hundred years the house of Barca, to* 
 which Hannibal belonged, had been endeavouring 
 to render the constitution more popular, and to 
 enlarge the powers of the military commanders. 
 These democratic innovations were resisted by 
 the party of Hanno. The latter party, in the fear 
 that the generals would obtain a preponderance 
 of power dangerous to the constitution, was ad- 
 verse to the war with Rome, and therefore raised 
 every obstacle to its prosecution. The prodigious 
 successes of Hannibal for a time silenced their 
 clamours; but when reverses came upon this great 
 man, this more aristocratic party renewed its 
 opposition, in which it was joined by the popular 
 faction, that the family of Hannibal had fostered. 
 With the dangers of the country, this democratic 
 faction, increased in rashness and violence, till at 
 last it precipitated the ruin of the state. This is 
 the history of all republics. 
 
 LAST DAYS OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 By the second Punic w r ar, Carthage lost not 
 only all her conquests in Italy, but was compelled 
 to give up her fleet, the main source of her strength 
 and greatness. Had she but retained this last 
 sheet-anchor of safety, she might have shaken the 
 dust off* her feet, and winged her flight to those 
 western isles of the Atlantic, which, according to 
 Diodorus Siculus, she had always looked upon as 
 her last asylum in the hour of extreme peril. 
 
 There, encompassed by the ocean, she might 
 
ITS LAST DAYS. 
 
 101 
 
 have long defied the arras of haughty Rome. 
 There, in those blessed Canary Isles, aptly called 
 by the ancients the Fortunate Isles/* and which 
 realize all that poetry had sung of the gardens of 
 the Hesperides — where smiles a perpetual spring, 
 abounding, as they do, in the most delicious 
 springs, and umbrageous woods, and the most 
 exquisite vines — where, in fine, blend all the fruits 
 of the torrid and the temperate zone — in those 
 blessed isles, I say, Carthage might have renewed 
 her existence, asserted again her maritime and 
 commercial supremacy, and possibly anticipated 
 by many ages the discovery of the New World. 
 But it was otherwise ordained. The rapacious 
 eagles of Rome are flapping their wings to gorge 
 on their hapless prey. The Roman senate loads this 
 unfortunate people with every species of insult — 
 it seeks by every art to entrap them into a viola- 
 tion of the last treaty ; it stirs up their Numidiau 
 rivals to annoy and oppress them. The Carthagi- 
 • nians resist the encroachments and aggressions 
 of Masinissa, secretly instigated and encouraged 
 by the Romans ; and this resistance to their ally 
 is construed by the latter into a violation of the 
 treaty. Hence arose the third Punic war. The 
 Romans rejected every equitable proposal on the 
 part of their rivals, and insisted on their abandon- 
 ing their city, and building another at a distance 
 from the sea; But how could Carthage divorce 
 herself from that element, to which she owed her 
 wealth and her greatness? The cruel proposition 
 was scornfully rejected, and she resolved to oppose 
 to her enemies all the energy of despair. 
 
 Meanwhile the unhappy republic was torn by 
 internal factions. There was a Numidian party, a 
 Roman party, and a party of enlightened patriots, 
 
102 
 
 CARTHAGE. 
 
 who sought in the constitution itself for the ele- 
 ments of its safety. This violent conflict of parties 
 is ever the token of a falling state. 
 
 Tyre had already astonished the world by her 
 heroic resistance to Nebuchadnezzar and Alexan- 
 der the Great. Her descendant, in her last 
 struggle for existence, was now to surpass the 
 heroism of the parent. 
 
 Here, to describe the last days of Carthage, 
 
 I will borrow the graphic pencil of an Italian 
 historian.* 
 
 “ The Romans,” says he, “ under the command 
 of the younger Scipio, invest the unhappy city 
 closer and closer. The Carthaginians melt down 
 all their remnant of precious metals for the fabri- 
 cation of arms ; they daily manufacture a hundred 
 bucklers, three hundred swords, five hundred 
 lances, and a thousand darts ; the slaves are libe- 
 rated ; the women cut off their hair to make 
 cordage for the vessels. Out of the demolished 
 houses they construct a fleet, which is sent against , 
 the enemy, and is repelled. For six days and six 
 nights they defend their city street by street and 
 house by house. The deserters, who had taken 
 refuge in the Temple of AEsculapius, set fire to it. 
 Hasdrubal, after an heroic resistance, submits to 
 the Romans ; his wife upbraids him for that sub- 
 mission, and, clad in the most splendid robes, 
 mounts to the summit of a temple, and, holding 
 her two children in her arms, precipitates her- 
 self into the flames. For seventeen days the city 
 burns, and out of a population of 700,000 souls 
 that it possessed prior to the siege, fifty thousand 
 only survive its destruction. The Roman general 
 
 * Cesare Cantu, Histoire Universelle, tom. ii. 
 
ITS LAST DAYS. 
 
 103 
 
 bids the plough he drawn around its walls, and, 
 amidst the most fearful imprecations, devotes it 
 to the infernal gods.” 
 
 So far the historian. Pause, gentlemen, for a 
 moment, and contemplate the awful spectacle that 
 has just passed before your eyes. At the sight of 
 such appalling heroism, of all this energy of 
 desperation, we ask ourselves what was the cause 
 of the phenomenon ? One cause, doubtless, was 
 the atrocious law of nations that prevailed in 
 antiquity — a law that respected not the rights of 
 the conquered, that trampled under foot the claims 
 of property, and doomed the city to ravage, and 
 its inhabitants to poverty, servitude, and even 
 death. But we must look for another and a deeper 
 cause still. The State was something sacred and 
 inviolable in the eyes of the heathen. With it 
 were intertwined all his notions of individual as 
 well as public happiness — all his sentiments of 
 right and justice — all his holiest feelings and 
 recollections — all his sense of national glory — all 
 his hopes of personal immortality. Justice itself 
 seemed to be overthrown with the State, and the 
 tutelary divinities themselves to be buried under its 
 ruins. On the other hand, the Catholic Christian, 
 secure in the Divine promises, knows that his 
 Church will outlive the desolation of battles, the 
 revolutions of empires, the fall of states, and the 
 vicissitudes of time itself. But in those local, 
 earthsprung religions, where, though there was a 
 seed of primitive revelation, and some flowers 
 attested a Divine origin, yet were the boughs beut 
 and distorted by superstition, and, as in the Indian 
 tree, the branches grew downwards : — in those 
 local, earthsprung religions, I say, it was other- 
 wise. Hence the overthrow of the State convulsed 
 
104 
 
 CARTHAGE, 
 
 and lacerated the deepest feelings of the heathen, 
 and to an extent which it is difficult for us even 
 to conceive. The generous Roman, who was an 
 almost unwilling instrument in this scene of 
 carnage and desolation, on beholding the destruc- 
 tion of this great city, with all its pomp, and 
 riches, and monuments of art, and vast population, 
 exclaimed, in the words of Homer, “ The day 
 will come when the walls of Ilium shall fall, and 
 Priam, and all his race.” He thought, doubtless, 
 of the fate that awaited his own Rome ; for on 
 his friend and companion, the historian Polybius, 
 asking him what he meant by Ilium and the race 
 of Priam, he replied, without naming Rome, that 
 he thought how the most flourishing states decline 
 and perish, according as destiny decrees. The 
 Roman saw indeed that his own city was one day 
 to share the fate of her rival ; but what he did 
 not see, what he could not see, was that Rome 
 should spring up regenerate from her ashes, and 
 that she was one day to be favoured with an 
 exemption from the perishableness of all earthly 
 things. For not in vain had she been denomi- 
 nated the City of Strength — not in vain had the 
 twelve vultures that had hovered round the head 
 of Romulus betokened the eternal destinies of his 
 city. Her earthly greatness and power was but 
 the symbol and the prelude of her spiritual great- 
 ness and power, when she was to exchange a 
 mortal for an immortal crown, and be invested 
 with a rule as wide as earth, and as enduring as 
 Time. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 LECTURE ON THE GEOGRAPHY, INSTITUTIONS, TRADE, 
 ARTS, AND SCIENCES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 The country whose geography and institutions, 
 trade, arts, and sciences, I proposet his evening to 
 describe, is ancient Egypt — a country associated 
 with our most interesting recollections, whether 
 in sacred or in profane history. For it is the land 
 peopled by the sons of Mizraim, the descendants 
 of that unholy race, which first after the Flood 
 disturbed the primeval unity of mankind, and by 
 its rebellion and crimes drew down the anger of 
 God, and the execration of their fellow-men ; and 
 so like their patriarch, the firstborn Cain, went 
 forth into the wilderness, carrying about them, 
 like him, the marks of their degraded origin. 
 This is the land which our spiritual forefather, 
 Abraham, visited in its rising greatness, — which 
 Joseph ruled, and where Jacob and his children 
 found hospitality, and where that patriarch's seed 
 expanded into a far-spreading tree, and his sons 
 grew up into a mighty people. This is the land 
 where that people endured wrongs innumerable, 
 emblematical of, and preparatory for, that long 
 probationary state wherein their peculiar mission 
 consisted, — where, too, their mighty deliverer and 
 lawgiver, upheld by the arm of Omnipotence, 
 confounded the wizards of idolatry, smote the air. 
 
106 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 the waters, the fields, and their various habitants, 
 not excepting even men themselves, with awful 
 plagues, and at last broke the yoke of bondage 
 that had so long weighed upon his nation. This 
 is the land which henceforth becomes Israel's 
 deadly, hereditary foe, symbolizing in the Scrip- 
 tures carnal, unregenerate man ; as, on the other 
 hand, Israel represents the spiritual man, awaiting 
 in humble faith and hope the coming of Messiah's 
 kingdom ; for this great national antithesis, if I 
 may so speak, pervades the whole of the Old 
 Testament. This is the land, too, against which 
 the holy seers of God, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
 and Nahum had thundered forth such fearful 
 judgments, and on whose history is stamped in 
 burning characters the doom of Divine vengeance. 
 For thereof it had been said, “I will destroy the 
 idols, and I will make an end of the idols of 
 Memphis ; and there shall be no more a prince 
 of the land of Egypt." — (Ezekiel xxx. 13.) And 
 again it has been said, “It shall be the lowest 
 among other kingdoms, and it shall no more be 
 exalted over the nations." — (Ezekiel xxix. 15.) 
 And, lo ! amid the countless vicissitudes and the 
 stupendous revolutions of the two thousand three 
 hundred years that intervened between her first 
 Persian conqueror, Cambyses, and her late sove- 
 reign, Mehemet Ali, though the Persian, the 
 Greek, the Roman, the Byzantine, the Arab, the 
 Mameluke, and the Turk, have successively ruled 
 over the land, and passed away as pageants, — 
 though the worship of Mithras, the Hellenic 
 superstition, the Catholic religion, and the creed 
 of Islam, have been successively introduced and 
 successively expelled, or at least set aside, never, 
 amid all these great revolutions, religious and 
 
ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 107 
 
 social, has an Egyptian ruled over Egypt/* And 
 surely she has been what Ezekiel had foretold, 
 “ the lowest or the basest of the kingdoms,” when 
 (a thing unexampled in history!) she was governed 
 by an aristocracy of slaves — those vicious, degraded 
 Mamelukes, cursed with barrenness, and forced to 
 be perpetually renovated from the slave-markets 
 of Circassia. 
 
 Again, Egypt is the land which the Saviour 
 himself had hallowed by His presence in that 
 mysterious flight from Palestine, which already 
 prefigured the rejection of the once chosen people, 
 and the future conversion of Gentility. Lastly, 
 here, at a later period, the night-flower of a gloomy 
 Magic was changed into the bright sun-flower of 
 Christian Mysticism; and those old wizards, that 
 had loved to haunt the dark caverns of subter- 
 ranean life, became the glorious ecstatics, often 
 rapt in the vision of the Beatific Presence, and 
 startling the wilderness with their stupendous 
 signs, and the still greater marvels of their 
 sanctity. 
 
 But if in sacred and ecclesiastical history Egypt 
 holds so conspicuous a place, not less important 
 is the part she plays in the world's annals. Here 
 was a people, whose origin was as mysterious as 
 the sources of its own Nile — for it is not yet quite 
 determined (though the last opinion be the most 
 probable) whether its civilization descended that 
 mighty stream from Meroe to Thebes, or whether 
 it ascended it from Thebes to Meroe, — here was 
 a nation depending for its wealth, its refinement, 
 
 * The fact that during the period, from the year 414 
 to 354 b.c., Egypt, after throwing off, for a time, the 
 Persian yoke, was ruled by a few native kings, forms no 
 material exception to the truth of this remark. 
 
108 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT, 
 
 nay, its very existence, upon a single river; a 
 nation singular in all its manners, customs, laws, 
 and institutions, having scarcely a counterpart in 
 history, save in the strange inhabitants of the 
 banks of the Ganges. Here was a people, possess- 
 ing in its theology noble remnants of primitive 
 revelation, intermingled with notions and prac- 
 tices of the grossest superstition, now surprising 
 us by its ethical wisdom, and now shocking us by 
 its anile credulity ; now seeking its fate in the 
 stars, and now, by the arts of an infernal magic, 
 searching in quest of forbidden science ; a people 
 of anomalies such as perhaps never existed on the 
 earth, and whose very cities were often engaged 
 in bloody religious wars. Here was a people 
 having glorious formulas of primeval science, but 
 often unable to apply them ; retaining a noble 
 instrument, whereof it had in part lost the use. 
 On the other hand, here was a nation great in 
 arts and in arms, 'achieving mighty conquests, 
 carrying on extensive commerce, abounding in all 
 the conveniences and luxuries of life, and erecting 
 colossal monuments of art, some vrhereof have 
 resisted the action of thousands of years, while 
 others in their very ruins fill us with awe, as the 
 creations of superhuman power. This was the 
 land, too, so renowned in classic antiquity, which 
 Homer sung, which Lycurgus and Solon visited 
 for the wisdom of its laws, where Pythagoras and 
 Plato drank in many of their noble inspirations, 
 and which Herodotus described. 
 
 Let us begin with the geography of this ancient 
 country. 
 
ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 109 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OE ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 Egypt, a country situate in the north-east corner 
 of Africa, was bounded on the north by the Medi- 
 terranean ; on the east by Palestine, Arabia Petrsea, 
 and the Red Sea; on the south by ^Ethiopia, 
 which included the modern Nubia, Sennaar, and 
 Abyssinia ; and on the west by the great Libyan 
 desert. In a more confined sense, Egypt was the 
 valley watered by the Nile, from the first cataract 
 down to the Mediterranean sea. This remarkable 
 and celebrated land was called by the Greeks 
 A'lyvTTTOQ, by the Romans iEgyptus ; but in the 
 Scriptures it occurs under the name of Mizraim ; 
 for it was peopled by the posterity of Mizraim, 
 the second son of Cham. It is also called the 
 land of Cham ; for of Jacob it is said, “ He was a 
 stranger in the land of Cham.” By the modern 
 Arabs, Egypt is named Mesr (which is the same 
 appellation as Mizraim); by the Turks, El Kebit , 
 that is, the inundated; and by the Copts it is 
 termed Chami. 
 
 Egypt was divided by Sesostris into thirty-six 
 nomes or districts, whereof twenty-six were in 
 Upper or Southern, and ten in Lower or Northern 
 Egypt. The Greeks adopted the number of 
 nomes, adding to them four districts ; but divided 
 the country into Upper, Central, and Lower Egypt. 
 The first was called Thebais, and extended from 
 Syene, or the modern Assuan, to Hermopolis 
 Magna, or the modern Eshmounein. This portion 
 of Egypt is named by the Arabs the Said. Central 
 Egypt, stretching from Hermopolis Magna to 
 Memphis, was by the Greeks called Heptanomis, 
 as containing seven nomes or districts. Among 
 
110 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the Arabs it bears the name of Mesr Mostani. 
 Lower Egypt, extending from Memphis to the 
 Mediterranean, was by the Greeks termed the 
 Delta, because it was in the shape of an inverted 
 delta, whose apex was at Memphis, and whose 
 base was along the Mediterranean. The modern 
 Arabs call it El Bahari.* 
 
 The climate of Upper Egypt is exceedingly dry 
 and sultry, the rain there scarcely ever falling. 
 In Lower Egypt the heat is attempered bv cooling 
 sea-breezes. That country knows but two seasons 
 « — spring and summer ; the spring lasting from 
 November to February, and the summer the re- 
 maining months of the year. 
 
 The Simoom, or wind of the desert, there exer- 
 cises the greatest ravages; while the plague, small- 
 pox, and inflammatory fevers, still continue indi- 
 genous to the land. Ophthalmia, the effect of the 
 dazzling reflection of the sun on the white sand, 
 is another of the plagues with which this country 
 is afflicted. , 
 
 The valley of the Nile has always been cele- 
 brated for its extreme fertility. Indeed, it is the 
 only fertile tract which greets the eye in those 
 immense sandy wastes that stretch between the 
 tenth and thirtieth degrees of north latitude, from 
 the western shores of the Atlantic to the banks of 
 the Indus. Whatever spot in ancient, as well as 
 in modern times, the waters of the Nile were 
 unable to reach, in order there to deposit the 
 rich alluvial soil, there the wilderness usurped 
 dominion. 
 
 Now I may say a few words on that singular 
 river, which was not only the most marked physi- 
 cal peculiarity of Egypt, but was a phenomenon 
 exerting the greatest influence on her moral and 
 
ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 social life. The Delta was literally a gift of the 
 Nile; and even Upper Egypt was indebted for its 
 great fertility to the canals, and other means of 
 artificial irrigation, drawn from its stream. This 
 river, the only one in Egypt, is called by Homer 
 the Aiguptos,^ and by the Greeks of later times 
 the Neilos, the Nile. In the Bible it is termed 
 the River (hajeor), and even the troubled or black 
 river (schiehor), because of the slime which it 
 carries along with it, and deposits in its inunda- 
 tions.f Here the classical and Biblical etymolo- 
 gies agree; for some derive the name Neilos from 
 an old Indian word, Nilas, signifying black. 
 
 The Nile, which in one of its branches issues 
 from the high mountains of A1 Kamar, or the 
 Moon, traverses Egypt in many windings from 
 south to north. “ The sources of this river/’ says a 
 distinguished living French geographer, M. Bouil- 
 let, “ were a problem insoluble to the ancients ; 
 and the moderns themselves have but very recently 
 solved it.” Ptolemy was the first to place those 
 sources in the Mountains of the Mqon, called by 
 the Arabs El Kamar ; and that opinion prevails 
 to this day. He adds that “ Caillaud and M. 
 D’Abbadie are the travellers we are the most in- 
 debted to for this discovery. The latter found out 
 the chief source of the Blue Nile, or the Balir el 
 Azrek, in the year 1846, and thus completed the 
 discovery of Bruce.” J 
 
 The Nile takes its rise to the south of Darfur, 
 in the mountains of A1 Kamar, towards 34° 38' 
 
 * Od. iv. 355. 
 
 t Gen. xli. 1 ; Jer. xi. 18 ; Is. xxxiii. 3. 
 
 J Diet, de Geog. par M. Bouillet, tom. iii. Bruxelles, 
 1854. 
 
112 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF 
 
 longitude east from the meridian of Paris, and 
 7 ° 49' north latitude; flows at first, under the 
 name of Bahr el Abiad, or the White River, to the 
 east and the north-east ; then runs due north ; 
 receives in its course the tributary streams of the 
 Maleg, the Bahr el Azrek, or the Blue River, and 
 the Atbarah, or the ancient Astaboras; and thus 
 traverses the country of Donga, that of the Che- 
 louks, the Denka, and passes between Dar el Aize, 
 in Sennaar, and Kordofan. It then takes the 
 name of the Nile, flows through Abyssinia and 
 Nubia, waters the lands of Halfay, of Shendy, of 
 Darner, of Berber, of Chaykye, of Dongolah, of 
 Mahas, of Sokkot, of Hadjar, and of the Barabras; 
 and so reaches the frontiers of Egypt. Thence it 
 runs in an almost direct line from south to north, 
 till in 30° 12' north latitude it diverges into two 
 branches, which themselves, by their ramifications, 
 form seven arms and seven mouths, called by the 
 ancients the Canopic, the Bolbitine, the Seben- 
 nitic, the Phatnitic, the Mendesian, the Tanitic, 
 and the Pelusiac.* The course of this river is 
 3,500 English miles. 
 
 It is singular that the same age which has wit- 
 nessed the deciphering of the Egyptian hierogly- 
 phics, should have beheld the discovery of the 
 sources of the Nile : for in this mysterious land, 
 Nature, like Man, seemed anxious to shroud her 
 works in obscurity. 
 
 Another subject, which, no less than the sources 
 of the Nile, excited the curiosity, and exercised the 
 ingenuity of the learned of antiquity, w r as the 
 cause of its periodic inundations. Various reasons, 
 more or less fanciful, were assigned for this phe- 
 
 * Vide Balbi, Geographie Moderne, pp. 912 — 914. 
 
THE NILE. 
 
 113 
 
 nomenon. At length Agatharchides, the traveller 
 and geographer, who flourished in the second 
 century before our era, divined the true cause, 
 by ascribing the periodic overflow of this river to 
 the annual melting of the snows on the mountains 
 of Abyssinia, and still more to the tropical rains, 
 which at the same time descend in .Ethiopia, 
 Modern investigation has confirmed the con- 
 jectures of this ancient writer, 
 
 In the last days of June the river begins to 
 swell above its banks ; in the middle of- August 
 the dikes are cut, and the flood drawn off by 
 countless canals ; and towards the end of Septem- 
 ber, the inundation has attained to its greatest 
 height. At this period the Delta looks like a vast 
 sea studded with islands ; and Upper Egypt, where 
 the banks of the river are much higher, and con- 
 sequently where the inundation is contracted 
 within narrower limits, has the appearance of an 
 inland lake. 
 
 The water of the Nile was particularly sweet, 
 and was thought worthy of being served up at the 
 luxurious table of the Persian monarch, The 
 river abounded in excellent fish. This was one of 
 the good things for which the carnal soul of Israel 
 craved in the wilderness. But the crocodile and 
 the hippopotamus were the two most remarkable 
 animal products of this stream. The former is 
 well-known, and has been described by the Father 
 of History with all the graphic vigour of an eye 
 wdtness. This amphibious animal, which, as we 
 learn from Diodorus Siculus, frequented in ancient 
 times the whole course of the river, is now scarcely 
 ever seen below Upper Egypt. The hippopota- 
 mus, too, now never descends the Nile below the 
 second cataract. This four-footed mammiferous 
 
 i 
 
114 
 
 THE NILE. 
 
 beast, which many think is the behemoth spoken 
 of in the Book of Job;* is thus described by 
 Herodotus,— “ It is a quadruped; cloven-footed; 
 with the hoofs of an ox, snub-nosed; has the mane 
 of a horse, projecting tusks, and the tail and neigh 
 of a horse ; in size, it is equal to a very large ox ; 
 its hide is so thick that spear-handles are made 
 of it when dry.”+ 
 
 This description of the animal is correct, except 
 as to its size, which is much understated by the 
 Greek historian. The eminent German naturalist, 
 Dr. Oken, says that it is often seventeen feet in 
 length and seven feet high, and exceeds the ele- 
 phant in bulk. It lies mostly in the depths of 
 the water, but from time to time comes up to 
 the sedgy banks to browse on herbs and plants. J 
 It is an inhabitant of the Niger also, and some 
 other African rivers. 
 
 The Nile, which, as the fountain of life, fertility, 
 and civilization to Egypt, was made an object of 
 divine honours, possesses for the Christian, too, 
 a high and enduring interest. For the great 
 Hebrew lawgiver was born on its reedy banks, 
 and by a divinely-imparted power he converted 
 its waters into blood. 
 
 To measure the elevation of the Nile’s waters 
 at the period of their overflow, the ancient Egyp- 
 tians had very remarkable scales, which they 
 called Nilometers. These were intrusted to the 
 care of the priests, as even at the present day they 
 are reserved to the superintendence of the Govern- 
 ment. If the waters rose to thirty feet, then a 
 fruitful year was to be expected, and the joy of 
 
 * Job xl. 15. 
 
 + Herod, b. ii. c. 71. 
 
 J Vide Oken, Zoolog., tom. ii. p. 772. 
 
LAKE MCE RIS. 
 
 115 
 
 the people was unbounded. When the Nile had 
 risen to a suitable height, then the dikes near 
 Memphis were pierced, and the water let into all 
 the canals and lakes. But when the waters had 
 not reached the due elevation, then the canals, 
 shut or opened by the sluices, poured out their 
 streams to irrigate the thirsty land. 
 
 Among other remarkable phenomena in the 
 physical geography of Egypt, I must notice the 
 lakes Moeris and M areotis. The Father of History, 
 after describing the wonders of the Labyrinth, 
 says that they are surpassed by the still greater 
 marvel of Lake Moeris. He believed it to be the 
 work of man, and indeed of the monarch whose 
 name it bore ; and in this opinion he is followed 
 by Pliny. But Strabo put forth the correct 
 opinion, which modern inquiry has corroborated 
 — that this was a natural and not an artificial 
 lake ; though some think it highly probable that 
 it has been enlarged and improved by the hand of 
 man. This lake, which was about three hundred 
 miles in circumference, was the most extensive as 
 well as remarkable one in all Egypt. It formed 
 the western boundary of the Arsinoite nome in 
 the Heptanomis, and was connected with the Nile 
 by the Joseph's canal (Bahr Jusuf). A portion 
 of its ancient bed is represented by the modern 
 Birket el Kerun. 
 
 The other lake I shall notice is that of Mareotis 
 or Mareia (the modern Birket el Mariout), which 
 was a considerable lake in the north of the Delta, 
 extending south-westward of the Canopic arm of 
 the Nile, and running parallel to the Mediterra- 
 nean. In breadth it was about twenty-two 
 English miles, and in length about forty-two. In 
 its northern extremity, its waters at one time 
 
 i 2 
 
116 
 
 LAKE MAREOTIS. 
 
 washed the walls of the city of Alexandria; and 
 before the foundation of that city, Mareotis was 
 termed the lake above Pharus. “ It was,” says 
 the geographer Ritter, “ surrounded with forts 
 and towns, whereof Marea was the capital, and 
 which gave its name to the nome and to the lake. 
 Its banks were famous for the cultivation of the 
 olive and the vine.”"* “ Under the Pharaohs,” 
 says Dr. Smith, “ Marea was one of the principal 
 frontier garrisons of Egypt, on the side of Libya ; 
 but from the silence of Herodotus, we may infer 
 that the Persians did not station troops there.” + 
 
 CITIES OE UPPER EGYPT. 
 
 I now proceed to speak of the cities of Egypt, 
 beginning with those of the Upper. Thebes, 
 called by the Greeks Diospolis, and by the 
 Hebrews No or No Ammon, was the most ancient 
 and celebrated city of Upper Egypt. It lay on 
 either side of the Nile and its canals, and, accord- 
 ing to Homer's description, was of very wide 
 circumference : — 
 
 A hundred gates hath the city, and from each 
 Two hundred brave warriors inarch to the fight, 
 
 With steeds and with cars.— Iliad, ix. 381. 
 
 The vast extent of this city, its commodious situa- 
 tion, which made it the emporium of trade with 
 Arabia and the interior of Africa, its great opu- 
 lence, its sumptuous temples and palaces, the 
 abode of the Pharaohs within its walls, and the 
 sanctity which attached to it as the resort of so 
 
 * Africa. Ritter’s Geography, p. 476. French trans. 
 
 t Geography of Greeks and Romans, Art. Marea. 
 
UPPER EGYPT. 
 
 117 
 
 many pilgrims, marked it out pre-eminently as 
 the capital of Egypt. And even when Memphis 
 became the chief seat of Government, it still 
 retained much of its ancient importance. 
 
 The prophet Nahum thus denounces the doom 
 of Thebes; — “ Art thou better than populous 
 No, that dwells among the rivers? Waters are 
 round about it ; the sea is its riches ; the waters 
 are its walls ; Ethiopia and Egypt were the 
 strength thereof, and there is no end ; Africa and 
 the Libyans were thy helpers, yet she also was 
 removed and carried into captivity; her young 
 children were dashed in pieces at the top of every 
 street ; and they cast lots upon her nobles ; and all 
 her great men were bound in fetters.”— (Nahum, 
 iii. 8—10.) 
 
 And the subjugation of this city by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah in 
 the following words ; — “ The Lord of hosts, the 
 God of Israel, saith, f Behold I will visit upon the 
 tumult of No, and upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt, 
 and upon her gods, and upon her kings, and upon 
 Pharaoh, and upon them that trust in him ; and 
 I will deliver them into the hands of them that 
 seek their lives, and into the hand of Nabuchado- 
 nosor, King of Babylon, and into the hand of his 
 servants.”— (Jer. xlvii. 25, 26.) 
 
 Thebes was taken by the Persian conqueror 
 Cambyses, delivered up to pillage by Ptolemy 
 Lathyrus, against whom it had revolted, and 
 almost entirely destroyed by Cornelius Gallus, 
 governor of Egypt under Augustus, till at last it 
 fell underj the domination of the Mussulmans, 
 whose blighting sway is here, as everywhere else 
 apparent. On the ruins of the ancient city, which 
 occupy a space of about twenty-five miles, stand 
 
118 
 
 UPPER EGYPT : 
 
 now tlie villages of Carnac, Luxor, Medinet Abou, 
 and Gournou, like the wretched poverty-stricken 
 descendants of some illustrious house. 
 
 The ruins of Thebes have been described and 
 carefully engraved by the artists and scholars, who 
 accompanied Napoleon into Egypt, and by their 
 later successors, Wilkinson, Champollion, Rosel- 
 lini, and Prokesch. To their works I beg to refer 
 all who wish to investigate this interesting subject, 
 remarking only that the walls of the temples and 
 palaces of Thebes are covered over with figures or 
 hieroglyphs representing the deeds of the ancient 
 Kings. 
 
 2. Syene (the modern Assuan), situate on the 
 eastern bank of the Nile, and on the frontiers of 
 ^Ethiopia, was the southernmost city of Egypt. 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel thus denounces its desola- 
 tion by the Chaldees : — “ Thus saith the Lord : 
 They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the 
 pride of her empire shall be brought down ; from 
 the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the 
 sword, saith the Lord, the God of hosts/* — (Ezekiel, 
 xxx. 6.) And again the holy seer cries out : — 
 “ Therefore, behold I come against thee, and thy 
 rivers; and I will make the land of Egypt utterly 
 desolate and wasted by the sword, from the tower 
 of Syene, even to the borders of Ethiopia.” — 
 (xxiv. 10.) 
 
 “It has been,” says X)i\ Smith, “in all ages 
 the southern frontier city of Egypt towards 
 ^Ethiopia, and under the Homans was guarded by 
 three cohorts. From its neighbourhood was ob- 
 tained the fine red granite, called Syenitis lapis.”* 
 Syene being under the tropic, was celebrated in 
 
 * New Classical Dictionary, p. 734. 
 
ITS CITIES. 
 
 119 
 
 antiquity for a well, at the bottom of which was 
 reflected the sun at the time of the summer solstice. 
 To this city Juvenal was banished. 
 
 The present Assuan, an insignificant place, lies 
 somewhat north-east of the ancient Syene, and 
 rose out of the ruins of the Roman city of that 
 name. 
 
 Thebes and Syene are the only cities of Upper 
 Egypt mentioned in the Old Testament. 
 
 3. The city of Philse was situate on a small 
 lovely island of the same name, about two miles 
 south of Syene, and just above the little cataract. 
 Many ancient monuments, especially two fine 
 temples, are there found in excellent preserva- 
 tion. 
 
 4. Elephantine, or Elepliantis, was in one of 
 those charming islands to the south of Syene, 
 which are called the gardens of the tropics. It 
 was the frontier station of Egypt towards ^Ethiopia, 
 and was strongly garrisoned under the Persians 
 and the Romans. “ Among the most remarkable 
 objects in it,” says Dr. Smith, “were the temple 
 of Cnuphis and a Kilometer ; and it is still cele- 
 brated for the ruins of its rock-hewn temples.” 
 
 5. Gmbi (in Greek 5 '0/ij3ot) was distant about 
 thirty miles from Syene, and stood on the eastern 
 bank of the Nile, in the Ombites Nomos. It was 
 celebrated for the worship it paid to the crocodile, 
 and for the religious wars it .carried on with the 
 city of Tentyra, which held that worship in abomi- 
 nation. 
 
 Coptos lay a little to the east of the Nile, 
 some distance below Thebes. It was the great 
 emporium of the Indian trade with Europe, the 
 merchandise being conveyed from the Red Sea 
 to Coptos on the back of camels. Having revolted 
 
120 
 
 UPPER EGYPT. 
 
 against Diocletian, it was, in the year 296, taken 
 and destroyed by that emperor; but it subse- 
 quently regained much of its commercial import- 
 ance. 
 
 6. Abydus (in Greek 'AflvSocr) was another 
 city of Upper Egypt, once the first after Thebes ; 
 but already, in the time of Strabo, it had sunk to 
 the insignificance of a village. It had a temple 
 of Osiris, and a Memnonium (both still standing), 
 and an oracle. Here, in the year 1818, Mr. W. 
 Bankes discovered in the interior wall of a 
 building not belonging to the great edifice, a 
 kind of tablet or genealogy of the early kings of 
 Egypt, which is now usually called the Tablet of 
 Abydos. 
 
 7. Tentyra, the modern Denderah, was a city 
 of Upper Egypt, situate on the western bank of 
 the Nile, between Abydos and Coptos, with cele- 
 brated temples of Athor (the Egyptian Venus), Isis, 
 and Typhon. Its inhabitants were distinguished 
 for their hatred of the crocodile, and consequently 
 were the hereditary foes of the people of Ombi, 
 who worshipped that animal. Among the magni- 
 ficent ruins of this place are those of the great 
 temple, where was found the famous zodiac con- 
 veyed into France, in the year 1821, and by the 
 aid whereof unbelief sought to assign to Egyptian 
 astronomy an age quite inconsistent with the 
 Mosaic chronology. Scholars of the first order 
 have proved the utter groundlessness of this 
 assumption, and that the zodiac in question does 
 not date from a period anterior to the Ptolemies. 
 
 8. Lycopolis, the modern Syout, another city 
 of Upper Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile, 
 between Hermopolis and Ptolemais, is said by 
 Dr. Smith to have derived its name from the cir- 
 
CENTRAL EGYPT. 
 
 121 
 
 cumstance, that an Ethiopian army was put to 
 flight near it by a pack of wolves. The wolf, or 
 rather the jackal, which the ancients took for a 
 wolf, was honoured in this city. It gave birth to 
 the philosopher Plotinus. 
 
 9. Latopolis was another city of Upper Egypt, 
 on the western bank of the Nile, between Thebes 
 and Apollinopolis. Some say, that, in common 
 with some other cities, it received this name from 
 the Greeks, because it was consecrated to the 
 goddess Buto, whom they identified with their 
 own Latona. Others assert that the city was so 
 called from the Nile fish Latus (A arog), to whose 
 worship it was dedicated, and which was the sym- 
 bol of the goddess Neith, whom the Greeks con- 
 sidered identical with their Athena. 
 
 THE CITIES OF HEPTANOMIS, OR CENTRAL EGYPT. 
 
 The chief cities of Central Egypt were Memphis, 
 Crocodilopolis, and Heracleopolis. 
 
 The city of Memphis lay in a rather narrow 
 valley on the western bank of the Nile, at some 
 miles above the bifurcation of that river. Called 
 by the Greeks and Romans Memphis, it was de- 
 nominated by the Hebrews Moph, or Noph, by 
 the Copts Meplii, or Memphi, and by the Arabs, 
 Menf. Built by Menes, enlarged and restored by 
 Uchoreas, it was long the capital of a large state; 
 and when, under Psammetichus, Egypt was united 
 into a single empire, it became the capital of the 
 whole country. Its circumference was about 150 
 stadia or three geographical miles and three quar- 
 ters. It was connected by canals with the Lakes 
 Mseris and Mareotis, and was the great centre of 
 Egyptian commerce, down to the Persian conquest, 
 
122 
 
 CENTRAL EGYPT : 
 
 in the year 525 before Christy when it was partially 
 destroyed by Cambyses. 
 
 Among the many splendid edifices that adorned 
 Memphis, I may mention the Royal Palace, and 
 the Phtha, or Vulcan, with the annexed court of 
 the god-bull, Apis — which was worshipped as the 
 symbol of generative power. To this refers the 
 passage of the prophet : — “ Thus saith the Lord 
 God : I will also destroy the idols, and I will 
 make an end of the idols of Memphis (Noph) : 
 and I will make a fire in Egypt : Pelusium (Sin) 
 shall be in pain, like a woman in labour, and 
 Alexandria - ^ shall be laid waste ; and in Memphis 
 (Noph) there shall be daily distress-.” — (Ezekiel, 
 xxx. 13, 16.) 
 
 Earthly glory had so infatuated the great, that 
 they idolized themselves ; for Isaiah saith — “ The 
 princes of Tanis (Zoan) are become fools; the* 
 princes of Memphis (Noph) are gone astray : they 
 have deceived Egypt, the stay of the people thereof. 
 — (xix. 13.) 
 
 The conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, and still 
 more the foundation of Alexandria, and the trans- 
 fer of the seat of power to that city by the Ptole- 
 mies, brought about the decline of Memphis. The 
 Arabs, who conquered Egypt in the seventh cen- 
 tury, built out of the ruins of the ancient Memphis 
 the modern Cairo and other adjoining cities. 
 “ Cairo,” says a modem writer, “ rises, like a 
 vision of the Arabian Nights* Tales, adorned partly 
 with Saracenic, partly with old Egyptian monu- 
 ments. Near the village Mitraheny, between 
 Ghizeh and Sakkarah, huge mounds of earth 
 
 * Instead of Alexandria the name ought to be Thebes, 
 as all critics are agreed. 
 
ITS CITIES. 
 
 123 
 
 mark the site of the old, celebrated Memphis. A 
 colossal statue, deeply sunk into the earth, and 
 some blocks of granite, are now the only remains 
 of that city, whose vast necropolis is thought to 
 have filled the whole tract extending from the 
 pyramids of Ghizeh to the pyramids of Darshur.” 
 
 2. Crocodilopolis, or Arsinoe, was another city 
 of Central Egypt, situated on a canal leading from 
 the Nile to lake Moeris. Its present name is 
 Medinet el Fayoum. 
 
 3. Heracleopolis the Great was distinguished 
 by that title from another city of the same name. 
 It was to the south of Crocodilopolis, and cele- 
 brated for the worship there rendered to the 
 Ichneumon. Between the Great and Little 
 Heracleopolis was the famous labyrinth, composed 
 of twelve palaces, where, according to Herodotus, 
 the deputies of all the Egyptian nomes assembled 
 to offer sacrifices in common. 
 
 Heracleopolis was called by the Hebrews Hanes, 
 or Chanes, and by the modem Arabs Abnas. It 
 was the seat of an Egyptian dynasty in the time 
 of the prophet Isaiah, who thus denounces the 
 league which the Israelites had concluded with 
 the Egyptians. Among other things he says : — 
 iC And the strength of Pharaoh shall be to your 
 confusion, and the confidence of the shadow of 
 Egypt to your shame. For thy princes were in 
 Tanis, and thy messengers came even to Hanes,” 
 that is, to crave assistance. — (Isaiah, xxx. 3, 4.) 
 
 The ancient Hanes has now sunk into a village, 
 and shows few remains of its ancient greatness.* 
 
 * Vide Description de F Egypt, c. iv. p. 404. 
 
124 
 
 LOWER EGYPT : 
 
 THE CITIES OF LOWER EGYPT. 
 
 Lower Egypt comprised a very great number 
 of important cities, among which On, or Helio- 
 polis, Pelusium, Tanis, Sais, Tamiathis (Dami- 
 etta), Bolbitine, or the modern Rosetta, and 
 Canopus, or the modern Aboukir are particularly 
 worthy of notice. 
 
 1. Heliopolis, called by the Egyptians On, 
 which signifies light, was celebrated for its temple 
 of Phre, over which a numerous priesthood pre- 
 sided. Like the Apis at Memphis, so likewise in 
 the temples of Heliopolis a bull was kept as the 
 symbol of the god Mnevis. In the times of the 
 Ptolemies, Heliopolis still flourished as a cele- 
 brated school of philosophy; and the geographer 
 Strabo, who in the reign of the Emperor Augustus 
 visited the city in its state of desolation, was 
 shown the houses where dwelt Plato and Erato- 
 sthenes, when they learned the lessons of sacerdotal 
 wisdom. 
 
 The Persians are .said to have destroyed this 
 city, whereof there are no remains but a single 
 obelisk. 
 
 We read in the book of Genesis that Joseph's 
 father-in-law was one of the priests in the temple 
 of Heliopolis. By the mediation of Pharaoh, the 
 favoured Joseph, who, because of the services he 
 had rendered to Egypt, was called the deliverer 
 of the people, received from the hand of Potiphar, 
 the priest at Heliopolis, Arsenath for his wife, who 
 bore him two sons, Manasses and Ephraim. 
 
 “In a little village," says Dr. Allioli, “situate 
 near the site of the ancient Heliopolis, and called 
 Matarieh, there stands a primitive sycamore-tree, 
 
ITS CITIES. 
 
 125 
 
 and about fifty steps from it runs a clear rivulet. 
 According to a tradition many centuries old, the 
 Holy Family, when on their flight into Egypt 
 they came out of the wilderness, rested under this 
 sycamore, found refreshment in the sweet and 
 pleasant waters of the spring, and then turned 
 their steps towards Memphis.” “As she,” ex- 
 claims the pious and illustrious Protestant natu- 
 ralist and traveller, Schubert— as she, the chosen 
 one among women, proceeded hence towards 
 Memphis, and saw around her the splendour of 
 the temples of Heliopolis, and before her the 
 magnificence of the pyramids, how little must all 
 the glory of this world have seemed unto her, 
 compared with that Glory she bore in her arms 
 and upon her breast, as well as within her 
 heart !”* 
 
 2. Tanis, called by the Hebrews Zoan, was a 
 very ancient city, built on the eastern bank of 
 the Nile, in Lower Egypt, and gave its name to 
 the Tanitic branch of that river. It was one of 
 the capitals of the ancient kings of Lower Egypt, 
 as well as the scene of the wondrous signs wrought 
 by Moses in the name of Jehovah. Of these the 
 Psalmist reminds the Israelites, lest they should 
 relapse into the obstinacy of their fathers. “ Mar- 
 vellous things did He do in the sight of their 
 fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Tanis 
 (Zoan). .... They remembered not His hand 
 in the day that He redeemed them from the hand 
 of him that afflicted them ; how He wrought His 
 signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of 
 Tanis (Zoan) . And He turned their rivers into 
 
 * Schubert’s Travels in Palestine and Egypt (in Ger- 
 man). 
 
126 
 
 LOWER EGYPT : 
 
 bloody and their floods that they might not drink.” 
 - — (Psalm, Ixxvii. 12, 42, 44.) 
 
 Among the cities of Egypt which, according to 
 the prediction of Ezekiel, were to be laid waste 
 by the Chaldees, Tanis is mentioned. “ And I 
 will destroy the land of Phatures (Upper Egypt), 
 and will make a fire in Tanis (Zoan).” — (Ezekiel, 
 xxx. 14.) 
 
 The present San, says Dr. Allioli, situate on the 
 eastern bank of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, some 
 leagues from the lake Menzaleh, yet contains con- 
 siderable ruins of the ancient Zoan or Tanis. The 
 French scholar, M. Malus, found here in company 
 with his friends seven obelisks in part mutilated, 
 a broken monument of granite, vases of fine clay, 
 and specimens of highly-polished crystal.*" 
 
 3. Pelusium was called in the old Egyptian 
 Peremoun or Peromi, and in the Hebrew Sin — 
 names derived from words signifying mud. It 
 was a fortified city on the northern frontier of 
 Egypt towards Palestine, distant two geographical 
 miles from the Mediterranean, and lay in a 
 swampy region, from which, indeed, it derived its 
 name. This city was considered to be the key 
 which closed Egypt against any foe advancing from 
 the eastern quarter. It was strongly fortified, 
 and was the scene of many battles and sieges in 
 the successive wars in which Egypt was engaged 
 with Assyria, Persia, Syria, and Rome. 
 
 Over this strong place the Chaldeans, under 
 Nebuchadnezzar, executed the divine judgment 
 set forth by the prophet Ezekiel : — “ And I will 
 pour out my indignation upon Pelusium (Sin), 
 
 * Mem. sur l’Egypte, tom. ii. p. 274. AlliolPs Bib. 
 Antiq. ii. tom. 
 
ITS CITIES. 
 
 127 
 
 the strength of Egypt And I will make a 
 
 fire in Egypt. Pelusium (Sin) shall be in pain, 
 like a woman in labour. — (Ezekiel, xxx. 15, 16.) 
 
 The present castle, situate near the ruins of 
 Pelusium, or Sin, the Arabs call Tineh, which also 
 signifies mire. 
 
 4. Sais was a considerable city of the Delta, on 
 the eastern side of the Canopic branch of the 
 Nile. It was one of the chief cities of Lower 
 Egypt, and contained the palace and burial-place 
 of the Pharaohs, as well as the tomb of Osiris. 
 It had a splendid temple dedicated to the goddess 
 Neith, whereon was read the inscription, “ I am 
 what hath been, what is, what shall be ; no mortal 
 hath ever raised the veil which covereth me.” 
 
 Adorned with sumptuous buildings, it was 
 one of the main seats of Egyptian learning and 
 philosophy, and was in consequence frequently 
 visited by the sages of ancient Greece. Its pre- 
 sent name is Sa ; but it is nought but a mass of 
 ruins. 
 
 5. Canopus, or Canobus (in Greek KavwTroc* or 
 KavwfioQ, the modem Aboukir), was an important 
 city on the coast of Lower Egypt, near the west- 
 ernmost mouth of the Nile, which was hence 
 called the Canopic mouth. It was in the enjoy- 
 ment of an extensive commerce. It possessed 
 celebrated temples dedicated to Serapis, and the 
 water-god, Canopus. The Greeks said that it 
 derived its name from a Greek pilot of Menelaus. 
 “Its inhabitants,” says Dr. Smith, * “ were pro- 
 verbial for their luxury, and hence came the Greek 
 word KavwfiiG/uoQ. After the establishment of 
 Christianity, the city rapidly declined.” 
 
 * New Classical Dictionary, p. 143. 
 
128 
 
 EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 
 
 6. Lastly, there was Naucratis, a city of Lower 
 Egypt, situate on the eastern bank of the Canopic 
 branch of the Nile, which was hence called Nau- 
 craticuen Ostium. This, in the words of the 
 writer just quoted, was a colony of the Milesians, 
 founded probably in the reign of Amasis, about 
 550 b.c. ; it remained a pure Greek city, It was 
 the only place in Egypt where Greeks were per- 
 mitted to settle and trade. 
 
 It was the birthplace of Athenseus, Lyceas, 
 Phylarcus, Polycharmus, and the grammarian, 
 Julius Pollux, the author of the “ Onomasticon.”** 
 
 My limits will not allow me to enter upon 
 the history of this people ; and this omission is 
 the less inconvenient, as its history and chronology 
 are now the subject of anxious investigations, from 
 which important results may ere long be expected. 
 
 I will content myself with citing the following 
 observations from two works of authority on the 
 subject of 
 
 EARLY EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 
 
 “ The chronology of the old monarchy,” says a 
 modern English writer, “ and the succeeding 
 division of the Egyptian monarchy (the middle 
 monarchy) is beset with, at present, insurmount- 
 able difficulties, since, in the first place, there are 
 no synchronisms in the annals of other nations to 
 guide the inquirer, and in the next we know not 
 whether the dynasties in Manetho should be taken 
 as a series , or whether he enumerates contempo- 
 raneous families of kings, some of whom reigned 
 at the same time at Memphis, and others at Sais, 
 
 * New Classical Dictionary, p. 468. 
 
CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 129 
 
 Xois, and Thebes. And even if Manetho himself 
 intended his dynasties to follow one another in 
 direct order, the question still remains, whether 
 his authorities did so too.” — (Dr. Smith's Geo- 
 graphy of the Greeks and Romans. Art. Egypt, 
 p. 42.) And to the same effect, a writer in the 
 French Catholic Encyclopaedia of the present cen- 
 tury observes, “ The dynasties of Manetho, if we 
 suppose them successive , would form a total of 
 more than five thousand three hundred years. 
 The greater part of chronologists think that those 
 dynasties reigned simultaneously over different 
 parts of Egypt. They recognize four principal 
 ones — those of Thebes, of This, of Memphis, and 
 of Tanis. This opinion, which is the only one 
 reconcilable with biblical chronology, is more- 
 over corroborated by various monuments, and 
 especially by the history of the Shepherd Kings. 
 The latter reigned in Lower Egypt, while the 
 Pharaohs filled the throne of Thebes.”'* 
 
 * Encyclopedic Catholique du Dix-neuvieme Siecle, 
 p. 216. — To these high authorities I have much pleasure in 
 adding the testimony of one of the greatest Egyptian 
 archaeologists of the present day, Sir J. G. Wilkinson. 
 In the valuable and interesting annotations himself and 
 Sir Henry Rawlinson have appended to the second volume 
 of the translation of Herodotus, which the brother of the 
 latter has just published, I find the following remarks on 
 Egyptian chronology : — “The names of kings, and the num- 
 ber of years, says Sir G. Wilkinson, given by Manetho, are 
 not to be taken as of consecutive reigns ; for not only do 
 we know, from the authority of Manetho, that there were 
 contemporary kings of Thebais, and of the other provinces 
 of Egypt, but the monuments themselves decide this point, 
 by the mention of the years of one king's reign correspond- 
 ing with those of another ; and by the representation of one 
 king meeting another , generally as his superior ; as well as 
 bv various statements in papyri and other documents.” — 
 Vide Appendix to Book ii. of Rawlinson’s Translations of 
 K 
 
130 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 I now come to speak of the religious institu- 
 tions of Egypt. Many noble remnants there 
 were of primitive revelation in the Egyptian 
 theology. The unity of the Godhead was clearly 
 taught ; and the creation was symbolized by the 
 universe in the shape of an egg issuing from the 
 mouth of Kneph. The great dogma of the Trinity 
 was here less corrupted than in the Indian 
 mythology. Plutarch says, in his treatise “ De 
 Iside atque Osiride,” that the supreme science of 
 the Egyptians consisted in regarding Phtha as the 
 great architect of the universe. His wisdom was 
 adored at Sais, under the name of Neith ; and his 
 goodness in Elephantine, under that of Kneph, 
 whose symbol was a serpent revolving round 
 itself. 
 
 No nation, too, had a more vivid sense of the 
 doctrine of the souPs immortality than the Egyp- 
 tians. The dead, according to them, were called 
 on to give a rigid account of the acts of their 
 whole lives, before the tribunal of Osiris. The 
 good and the evil genius are represented as accus- 
 ing and defending the departed soul. The place 
 
 Herodotus, illustrated from the recent hieroglyphic and 
 Assyrian researches by Sir J. G. Wilkinson and Sir H. 
 Rawlinson, p. 340, vol. ii. Murray. London, 1858. 
 
 Again, Sir G. Wilkinson says, “ With regard to the age 
 of Menes (the first king of Egypt), and the chronology of 
 the Egyptian kings, all is of course very uncertain. No 
 era is given by the monuments, which merely record some 
 events that happened under particular kings ; and any 
 calculation based on the duration of their reigns given by 
 Manetho, must be even more uncertain than that of gene- 
 alogies.” — Ibid., p. 341. See Appendix, note A. 
 
OF EGYPT. 
 
 131 
 
 of eternal reprobation is called “Amenfchis,” that 
 of eternal bliss is named “ The fields of the 
 sun.” 
 
 Like the Hindoos, this people were firm be- 
 lievers in the transmigration of the soul — a doc- 
 trine which was but a gross disfigurement of the 
 primitive dogma of its purgation in a future life. 
 To avert the dreaded fate of this metempsychosis, 
 the body was most carefully embalmed. Perhaps 
 also, as an eminent Catholic writer has conjec- 
 tured, the idea of the body^s future resurrection 
 had no little influence on this practice of embalm- 
 ing the dead. 
 
 Before I pass to consider the idolatry of the 
 Egyptians, I beg leave to premise a few general 
 remarks. 
 
 The first men loved to express their ideas in 
 symbols, for their science was more intuitive than 
 ratiocinative. God and nature — mind and matter 
 — the universe and its component parts — the world 
 of men and the world of brutes — were (as far as 
 the limits of human reason would permit) contem- 
 plated by them in their inward essence, and in 
 their due relations and due subordination. The 
 visible and the invisible world, theology and civil 
 history, astronomy and physics, were all included 
 in one vast synthesis. This was, of course, no 
 longer the bright intuition of the first man in his 
 state of original justice; for sin had troubled the 
 glorious harmony of his soul ; yet was it a remnant 
 of that pristine vision. But when man had sunk 
 more and more under the dominion of nature — 
 when the mists of irregular passion had more and 
 more clouded his understanding — when the Evil 
 One, bent on his destruction, and finding a too 
 ready ally in his corrupt heart, had thickened those 
 
132 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 mists of ignorance and passion, — then the mean- 
 ing of those ancient symbols was gradually lost. 
 Even in the Mysteries, where among the heathen 
 a purer doctrine was retained, those emblems 
 became more and more unintelligible. So when 
 some mythograpliers tell us that the religion of 
 the Pagans was purely astronomical, others that 
 it was purely physical, others, again, that it was 
 purely historical, others, in fine, that it was but 
 a corruption of primitive religion, they appear to 
 me to be partially right and partially wrong; for 
 all these things were included as parts in that 
 synthetic science of the first man, which heathen- 
 ism had corrupted. 
 
 But if the initiated, in course of time, misappre- 
 hended these symbols, how much more did the 
 vulgar take them in the grossest and most mate- 
 rial sense ! 
 
 The divine triad — Kneph, Phtha, and Neith,- — 
 distorted from its original meaning, was made to 
 signify the procreative and the generative powers 
 of Nature, and their fruit. These were the 
 divinities of the first order, with which the twelve 
 •of the second were in close connection, for they 
 were regarded as their children. The third order 
 of divinities was in genealogical union with the 
 second — for Osiris and Isis, with their son Horus, 
 descend from a couple of the second order, 
 Kronos and Rhea. 
 
 Osiris and Isis engender Horus. The two 
 former perform the functions of the Greek Thes- 
 mophoroi, or divine lawgivers. They discover 
 wheat and barley, invent the instruments for 
 ploughing, teach agriculture on the banks of the 
 Nile, institute religious worship, marriage, and 
 civil laws, and diffuse those blessings, not by 
 
OF EGYPT. 
 
 133 
 
 force of arms, but by the charms of poetry and 
 music. 
 
 Typhon is the evil principle that slays Osiris, 
 and casts his body into the river Nile. Isis 
 mourns her lord, finds his corpse again, which is 
 brought back by the stream ; but Typhon cuts 
 up the body, so found, into fourteen parts. Isis 
 discovers them again, and her son Horus, like a 
 renovated Osiris, avenges his father, and drives 
 Typhon back into the wilderness. This myth is 
 supposed to symbolize, besides the struggle be- 
 tween good and evil, the annual course of the sun, 
 and the periodic inundation and ebb of the Nile. 
 
 I shall conclude this part of my subject with 
 the following judicious observations of Dr. Prit- 
 chard upon the Egyptian theology: — 
 
 “ The sum of the Egyptian doctrine,” says he, 
 “ on the origin of things, seems to be as follows : 
 There existed from all eternity a self-dependent 
 being, whom they term Cneph or Cnuphis ; this 
 name importing a good genius or spirit. From 
 him was produced a finite creation, typified under 
 the form of an egg, which represented the chaotic 
 or unformed state of the world. There also pro- 
 ceeded at the same time from Cneph, a masculo- 
 feminine principle, which animated the chaotic 
 mass, and reduced its elements into organized 
 forms. This being, in the masculine character, 
 is Phthas or Vulcan; in the female Neith or 
 Minerva. 
 
 “We thus find that the Egyptians, though they 
 worshipped the elements of Nature, were not 
 altogether without some idea of a first cause, by 
 whose agency the present universe was called into 
 existence ; that they regarded the primitive deity 
 as an eternal, intellectual, and spiritual being. 
 
134 
 
 ITS POLITICAL 
 
 f< At the same time it must be allowed, that even 
 in their account of the origin of the universe, and 
 the operations of the Creator, the Egyptians were 
 not free from the weakness and imperfection that 
 lies at the foundation of Paganism : we find even 
 here a mixture of sensual images borrowed from 
 the material world. The masculo- feminine being 
 produced by Cnuphis, to wLom the subsequent 
 development of the world in the way of genera- 
 tion is attributed, is a striking instance of this 
 description.” — (Pritchard, Analysis of Egyptian 
 Mythology, pp. 174-5.) 
 
 Now as to the sources of our information on the 
 Egyptian religion, it is to be observed that the 
 sacred books which pass under the name of 
 Hermes Trismegistus are spurious productions — 
 the work of some Neo-Platonists of the third and 
 fourth centuries of our era. Yet, as the illustrious 
 Gorres conjectures with much probability, those 
 spurious writings embody much of the religious 
 doctrines, and traditions, and philosophic opinions 
 contained in the sacred books whose name they 
 assume, and which we can no longer discover. 
 
 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Let us now turn to the political institutions of 
 Egypt. The power of the Egyptian kings w r as 
 tempered and restrained by the rights of the 
 sacerdotal caste, and by the influence of the 
 warriors. Without the advice and co-operation 
 of the former they could not exercise any act of 
 authority. Their hours for rising, for devotion, 
 for the transaction of public business were all 
 rigidly prescribed. They were generally taken 
 from the military caste; but prior to entering 
 
INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 135 
 
 upon their regal functions, they received a sort of 
 priestly initiation. They bore the title of Son of 
 the Sun, and wore the tiara of Osiris ; and as 
 their statues were placed among those of the 
 gods, they were sometimes confounded with the 
 divinity. 
 
 Their revenues they derived from the farming 
 out of their lands, from the gold-mines in Nubia, 
 from the fisheries, and from the tributes of subject 
 nations. 
 
 They ruled the land through governors, and 
 they dispensed justice through the priests. From 
 time to time they convoked meetings of these 
 governors, to deliberate upon public affairs ; and 
 it is thought by some to be not improbable that 
 the famous Labyrinth, consisting of six thousand 
 halls (three thousand above ground, and three 
 thousand under ground), and which Herodotus 
 considered the greatest wonder in this land of 
 marvels, was allotted to the use of these assemblies. 
 Every morning a priest read to the king a sort 
 of homily on the duties of his station. On his 
 demise, before he could attain to the honours of 
 royal sepulture, his whole life was subjected to a 
 severe scrutiny. 
 
 The monarchy was usually hereditary, though 
 the forms were elective. The priests and the 
 warriors chose the monarch, and the people rati- 
 fied the choice. The eldest son of the last sove- 
 reign, and in default of issue, his next of kin was 
 almost always elected. Here the constitution 
 bore no little resemblance to that of the old 
 Germanic empire, as it subsisted down to the 
 beginning of the present century. 
 
 The priesthood was hereditary from father to 
 son, and was constituted into a hierarchy, subject 
 
136 
 
 ITS PRIESTS. 
 
 to a head or high priest, and divided into various 
 members, each with its several functions and occu- 
 pations. The chief seats of the sacerdotal caste 
 were Thebes, Memphis, Heliopolis, and Sais. To 
 each of these was an independent hierarchy 
 attached, with its high-priest, its seers, its astro- 
 logers, its scribes and inferior ministers. The 
 priests were also in exclusive possession of all the 
 learned professions : they were the judges, the 
 physicians, the artists, the historiographers of the 
 land. 
 
 In his description of the Isiac procession, 
 St. Clemens Alexandrinus gives the following 
 interesting account of the orders of this hier- 
 archy : — 
 
 “The Egyptians/* says lie, “have their own 
 peculiar philosophy. This is evidenced by their 
 sacred ceremonies and processions. First pro- 
 ceeds the cantor, bearing one of the symbols of 
 music. They say that he ought to bear two of 
 the books of Hermes, one whereof contains the 
 hymns to the gods, the other the rule for a kingly 
 life. After the cantor comes the astrologer, who 
 carries in his hands the horoscope and the palm, 
 the emblems of astrology. He must always have 
 on his lips the four books of Hermes which treat 
 of astrology. One of these is on the course of the 
 stars that appear fixed, and on the conjunction of 
 the sun and moon, the rest on their rise. Then 
 comes the hierogrammateus, or sacred scribe, 
 having pens stuck on his head, and a book and 
 ink for writing, and a reed wherewith to write. 
 It behoves him to understand the hieroglyphics, 
 and the description of the world, and geography, 
 and the course of the sun and moon, and of the 
 five planets, and the chorography of Egypt, and 
 
ITS PRIESTS. 
 
 137 
 
 the description of the Nile, and to understand all 
 the instruments and ornaments used in the sacred 
 rites, as well as the places allotted for these. Then, 
 after these, comes he who is called the stolistes, 
 having the measure of justice and the chalice of 
 libations. He understands all those things which 
 are called natSs^riica, that is, relating to religious 
 discipline, and the marking out and sealing of the 
 sacrificial victims.” — (Stromata, lib. vi. c. 4.) 
 
 So far St. Clemens Alexandrinus. 
 
 The priests were bound to a life of greater 
 moral purity ; they were obliged to abstain from 
 certain vegetables, from fish, from swine-flesh 
 (except on certain occasions, when swine were 
 offered to Osiris); and on them exclusively was 
 imposed the obligation of monogamy. They were 
 nlso bound to attend to bodily cleanliness, to 
 practise ablutions, to shave their heads, and to 
 go about clad in a pure white linen tunic, and 
 with sandals of papyrus. 
 
 I must here observe that the tumah. or defile- 
 ment, imparted by certain animals which I just 
 adverted to, and which constitutes so important a 
 feature in the Mosaic legislation, was not unknown 
 to some other ancient nations, and probably was 
 a remnant of primitive religion. The reasons of 
 this mysterious law are traceable partly to physical, 
 partly to moral causes; others seem to elude the 
 grasp of inquiry, and prove, I think, that deep 
 intuition into nature, and especially the animal 
 world, which the first men possessed, and which 
 we have lost. 
 
 One-third of the lands of Egypt was assigned 
 to the maintenance of religious worship, and the 
 support of the priesthood. These lands were 
 farmed out, and were exempt from taxes. 
 
138 
 
 ITS WARRIORS. 
 
 I come now to the warrior caste. 
 
 The warrior caste held the second rank in the 
 Egyptian constitution. They were divided into 
 the Hermotybies and the Calasiries ; the former 
 consisting of a hundred and sixty thousand men, 
 the latter of two hundred and fifty thousand. To 
 these troops portions of land were allotted, free 
 from taxation. These warriors were settled on 
 the different frontiers of Egypt, to defend her 
 territory against the incursions of foreign foes. 
 Thus, as we are told by Herodotus, they were 
 quartered at Daphnae Pelusise as a bulwark 
 against the Arabs ; at Elephantine against the 
 Ethiopians ; and at Marea against the Libyans.* 
 The same plan was followed by the Hindoos, who, 
 on the north-western frontier of India, her most 
 open and vulnerable quarter, stationed large divi- 
 sions of their war-caste, which, if we remember, 
 offered to Alexander the Great so energetic a 
 resistance. 
 
 There was no cavalry in the Egyptian army, 
 composed as it w T as entirely of foot-soldiers, con- 
 sisting of archers and other heavy-armed troops. 
 War-chariots were used by the generals. “A 
 thousand of the Calasiries, and as many of the 
 Hermotybies,” says Herodotus, “each served a year 
 in the king’s body-guard.” To these, besides 
 their usual allotment of acres, some extraordinary 
 allowances were made. 
 
 As to the inferior castes, these consisted of the 
 retail dealers, the handicraftsmen, the fishermen, 
 and the boatmen of the Nile, to whom were added, 
 after the reign of Psammetichus, the interpreters, 
 a mongrel race composed of the offspring of 
 
 * Herodotus, xi. c. 30. 
 
THE SYSTEM OF CASTES. 
 
 139 
 
 Greeks and Egyptians. The swineherds were 
 held in nearly the same abhorrence as in India the 
 Pariahs have ever been. All contact with them 
 entailed defilement ; they were shut out from all 
 intercourse with the other classes, and even from 
 service in the temple. 
 
 THE SYSTEM OF CASTES. 
 
 This seems the fitting place to say a few words 
 on the system of castes, as compared with other 
 forms of polity in the ancient and the modern 
 world. Let us consider its advantages and its 
 disadvantages. In the first place, the power of 
 the monarch was attempered and restrained by 
 the prerogatives of the priesthood and the influ- 
 ence of the warriors ; the inferior castes had their 
 sphere of limited, indeed, but still ascertained 
 rights ; and hence that confusion of all principles 
 — that annihilation of all individual liberty, which 
 the modern Mussulman state exhibits, was not 
 possible in the Egyptian monarchy. In Islam 
 the two great checks on regal despotism are want- 
 ing — an hereditary nobility and a sacerdotal 
 corporation. Hence its political history pre- 
 sents, in hideous alternation, lawless tyranny and 
 anarchic violence. 
 
 But if to the modern Mahometan despotism 
 the caste system be thus far superior, it has, con- 
 trasted even with the better institutions of the 
 ancient nations of the West, the advantage of 
 greater solidity and permanence. I must here 
 observe that this system, in its first principle, 
 hath its root in the intellectual, moral, and social 
 inequality of men, corrupted and degraded as they 
 have been by the Fall. In this first rudimental 
 
140 
 
 THE SYSTEM 
 
 form, it probably existed (as we may more than 
 infer from a remarkable passage in Plato), in the 
 earliest times of Greece. The mild, paternal rule 
 of her princes, however, in the heroic ages — the 
 wise, temperate government of her aristocracies 
 in the period immediately following the abolition 
 of royalty, were far superior, as regards order and 
 freedom, to the government of any Indian Rajah, 
 or Egyptian Pharoah. But the innate weakness 
 of these Grecian polities became in time apparent. 
 The aristocracy that had overturned royalty was 
 in turn forced to give way to a democratic govern- 
 ment, which, when its violence had become in- 
 tolerable, was overthrown by a tyrannis. This, 
 too, when the measure of its iniquity was full, was 
 upset by an oligarchy, that soon becoming odious 
 to the people, shared in its turn the fate of pre- 
 ceding governments; till at last, amid the strife 
 of corrupt, and enervated, and exhausted factions, 
 freedom sank under a foreign yoke, or was for 
 ever crushed by a domestic despotism. Such is 
 the history of the Greek Republics. 
 
 If we now look to* the disadvantages of the 
 system of castes, we shall find that though pos- 
 sessing greater elements of durability, yet, by 
 keeping the several classes in a state of unnatural 
 separation, it disjoints society, if I may so speak, 
 and sooner or later brings those classes into colli- 
 sion. Such a conflict is evidenced in the bloody 
 contests carried on between the priestly and the 
 military castes in India as well as Egypt. And 
 the disjointing of society, which I just now ad- 
 verted to, is exemplified in the emigration to 
 ^Ethiopia of almost the whole Egyptian war-caste, 
 that from some cause of discontent in the reign of 
 Psammetichus, abandoned their country, and left 
 
OF CASTES. 
 
 141 
 
 it henceforth entirely dependent on the aid of 
 Greek mercenaries. 
 
 This system has the still greater defect of be- 
 getting in the higher orders of society a contempt 
 for the inferior, of discouraging all social inter- 
 course between the upper and the lower ranks, 
 and of effectually preventing the moral and poli- 
 tical amelioration of the latter. It must, how- 
 ever, be owned, that, with the exception of the 
 outcasts, slavery appears in a more odious and 
 repulsive form in the classical states than in the 
 Oriental monarchies. 
 
 Then this caste system, by preventing the rise 
 of the middle classes, keeps the sacerdotal and the 
 war castes in a state of unwholesome stagnation, 
 political as well as intellectual. By rendering all 
 pursuits and occupations hereditary, it interferes 
 with the freedom of personal choice and inclina- 
 tion, introduces in course of time a sort of 
 mechanical uniformity into all the productions of 
 mind ; and if it promote superior dexterity in cer- 
 tain manual arts, it effectually cramps the aspira- 
 tions of genius in all high intellectual pursuits. 
 
 The great excellence which Egypt attained to 
 in art and science during the early period of her 
 monarchy, was not the result of the system of 
 castes, but of that heritage of knowledge which, 
 in common with other ancient countries, she had 
 derived from the primitive world. But on the 
 other hand, the stationary character of her art, 
 and especially science, during the thousand years 
 that intervened between Sesostris and the Persian 
 invasion, proves the baneful influence of this 
 system on the human mind. 
 
 Thus, then, to sum up the results of the com- f 
 parison I have instituted — the constitution of 
 castes tended to keep all the elements of social 
 
142 
 
 THE SYSTEM OF CASTES. 
 
 and intellectual life in a state of barren isolation, 
 and stagnant torpor ; the system of the Greek 
 and Roman governments held them in a state of 
 fierce and perpetual collision, which terminated in 
 their destruction; while the Mussulman state, in 
 its spirit of false unity, strives to confound, and, 
 if possible, to annihilate their existence. 
 
 How vastly superior to all these forms of polity 
 is the Christian monarchy ! There we find a mild, 
 paternal royalty, holding together with undisputed 
 sway the various members of the social body — a 
 chivalrous, free-spirited nobility, rooted in the 
 soil, and intertwined with the most glorious re- 
 collections of their country — representing the prin- 
 ciple of nationality, as the priesthood represents 
 that of universal humanity — a stirring, energetic 
 middle class, which perpetually renovates that 
 nobility; a happy, contented peasantry, to whom 
 the very idea of slavery is unknown ; and a pure, 
 beneficent, enlightened priesthood, not the apanage 
 of certain families, as in ancient Greece, not an here- 
 ditary corporation, as in India, Persia, and Egypt, 
 but called by Divine election out of all classes, 
 uniting those classes by the twofold tie of spiritual 
 influence and social position, and promoting their 
 moral improvement and mental culture. So all 
 those elements of social and intellectual life, that 
 in one system are isolated, in another are brought 
 into perpetual antagonism, in another are attempted 
 to be confounded, are here, as far as human in- 
 firmity permits, blended, and harmonized, and 
 brought into the most salutary co-operation. 
 
 I shall now pass on to contemplate the state of 
 agriculture, manufactures, and commerce among 
 this people, and then examine the degree of excel- 
 lence which the fine arts and the sciences had 
 attained to among them. 
 
AGRICULTURE. 
 
 143 
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF EGYPT. 
 
 Such was the extraordinary fertility of Egypt, 
 produced by the rich slime which the recurring 
 inundations of the Nile deposited on its soil, that 
 in most years it produced two harvests, and that 
 many of the wonted labours of agriculture might 
 have easily been dispensed with. That land 
 abounded in the finest cereals, wheat, barley, rye, 
 and oats, which were of such excellent quality, 
 and attained to such luxuriant growth, that they 
 not only supplied the wants of the large native 
 population, but proved an article of very consider- 
 able exportation to foreign countries. Indeed, 
 from the earliest times down to the latest period 
 of Roman domination, Egypt was the granary to 
 many a land near and remote. 
 
 Vegetables and fruits were most abundant, and 
 of the most exquisite flavour. Rice, cotton, linen, 
 and hemp were cultivated to a great extent. 
 
 Although, as I before said, the soil scarcely 
 needed the labour of man for the production of 
 its fruits, yet we see on the monuments of ancient 
 Egypt pictorial representations of many processes 
 of husbandry, such as ploughing, raking, hoeing, 
 and the rest, which might be well deemed super- 
 fluous. 
 
 Nor was the soil less propitious to pasturage 
 than to tillage. Cattle of the most various kinds, 
 and of the most vigorous growth, were bred in 
 Egypt. Oxen, sheep, goats, horses, mules, asses, 
 and many species of poultry there abounded, and 
 were destined, in part for sacrificial worship, in 
 part for domestic and public uses. “ The breed 
 of horses, /V says Professor Heeren, “ was so con- 
 
144 
 
 MANUFACTURES AND TRADE. 
 
 siderable that a trade with foreign countries was 
 carried on in them. Solomon obtained the steeds 
 for his numerous cavalry from Egypt ” — (2 Chr. 
 ix. 2.)* 
 
 MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE OF EGYPT. 
 
 In the useful arts that country was not less 
 distinguished. However unfavourable to the free 
 expansion of genius in higher art the system of 
 castes may be, it is on all hands admitted that in 
 the processes of mechanic industry it is conducive 
 to perfection. The example of India as well as 
 of Egypt will bear out the truth of this assertion. 
 In the latter country, weaving, dyeing, joinery, 
 smithcraft, jewellery, and every species of solid 
 and elegant manufacture, were brought to the 
 highest perfection. To give but one example, in- 
 stead of the Roman triclinium, the ancient Egyp- 
 tians used at their repasts chairs and sofas, and 
 these, as we see by the monuments, were wrought 
 with a skill and delicacy of execution that might 
 challenge a comparison with those of modern 
 Europe. Furniture, consisting of costly foreign 
 woods, gilded ornaments, works inlaid with ivory, 
 carpets of the most resplendent dye, and vases of 
 the most exquisite workmanship, adorned the 
 habitations of the rich. The process and results 
 of these various manufactures are vividly repre- 
 sented on the walls of the still standing palaces 
 and tombs of this ancient land. Lower Egypt 
 was more particularly the seat of manufacturing 
 industry as well as of agriculture; while the Upper 
 was more specially devoted to the cares of hus- 
 bandry. 
 
 * Heeren’s Commerce of Ancient Nations. 
 
MANUFACTURES AND TRADE. 
 
 145 
 
 But the commerce of Egypt was scarcely less 
 flourishing than her agriculture and her manu- 
 factures. A circumstance which, as has been 
 justly observed, has led many to suppose that 
 Egypt was entirely shut up within herself, ex- 
 cluded from a commercial intercourse with other 
 nations, was, that her trade was mostly overland, 
 and therefore less obvious to attention, and less 
 striking to the eye. From a very early period, 
 numerous caravans brought from the remote 
 shores of Abyssinia the products of India and 
 Arabia, the pearls, diamonds, pepper, and cin- 
 namon of one country, and the nard, cassia, 
 balsam, and frankincense of the other, and poured 
 them into the lap of Thebes. Another set of 
 caravans, leaving the banks of the Niger, traversed 
 the fearful, boundless desert tracts of Sahara, de- 
 posited a portion of their commodities in Eezzan, 
 to be conveyed to the Punic cities on the northern 
 coast of Africa, and then passing through the 
 oasis of Jupiter Ammon, terminated their course 
 in Thebes, whither they brought their treasures 
 of gold-dust, ivory, ebony, and black slaves. 
 What an accumulation of riches ! what import- 
 ance, splendour, and variety in the articles of 
 merchandise ! and what a vast intercourse among 
 nations doth not all this trade presuppose ! 
 Nor was this all. Other caravans proceeded 
 from Thebes or from Memphis, across the isthmus 
 of Suez ; conveying the corn and the cotton tissues 
 of Egypt, as well as the products of India, Arabia, 
 and of central Africa, already enumerated, to 
 the Phoenician and Syrian cities ; traversed the 
 desert of Syria ; crossed the Euphrates at Cir- 
 cesium, and then followed that stream down to 
 Babylon. In this vast capital was the confluence 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 MANUFACTURES AND TRADE. 
 
 of all the treasures of western and eastern com- 
 merce. There the goods brought from Phoenicia 
 were exchanged for the rich manufactures of 
 Babylon, and for the productions, natural and 
 artificial, of Persia and the contiguous eastern 
 lands of northern India, and even, in all pro- 
 bability, of China itself. 
 
 It is fitting, however, to observe that the 
 Egyptians themselves did not take an active part 
 in this caravan trade. The conductors of the 
 caravans from the city of Meroe were chiefly 
 taken from those rude nomadic tribes that inha- 
 bited the rocky districts eastward of the Nile, 
 and among whom Cambyses, before he took his 
 disastrous expedition into Ethiopia, sought out 
 his interpreters. The guides of the caravans that 
 reached Egypt from the interior of Africa were 
 mostly inhabitants of Phasania, or the modern 
 Eezzan, and the other oases in the Libyan desert. 
 This vast inland trade of Egypt, which I have 
 shortly described, was greatly facilitated and 
 enhanced by the proximity of rich gold-mines in 
 the contiguous Nubia — mines which so abundantly 
 furnished the metal that constitutes the standard 
 of values, and the most convenient medium of 
 exchange. 
 
 Though, like the Hindoos, averse to maritime 
 commerce, the Egyptians loved to navigate their 
 own Nile, branching off, as it did, into such a 
 variety of arms and canals. On this river a very 
 active trade was carried on between the various 
 districts and cities of the kingdom. Indeed, a 
 large portion of the inhabitants, whether as boat- 
 men or as fishermen, lived on the water ; and on the 
 great festivals the whole population seemed to 
 pour itself out upon the stream. 
 
THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 147 
 
 In the last age of the Pharaonic monarchy greater 
 extension was given to foreign trade : Psammeti- 
 chus opened some ports of the Delta to Phoenician 
 and Greek merchants ; in Memphis there was, in 
 the time of Herodotus, a factory named the 
 Tyrian camp ; and the successor of Psammetichus, 
 Amasis, built for the Greek merchants the city of 
 Naucratis, with a temple for the solemnization of 
 Greek rites, called the Hellenion. 
 
 It is singular that a nation so far advanced in 
 art as the Egyptians, and in the possession of so 
 extensive and lucrative a trade, should have had 
 no coinage. This was unknown to them till the 
 period of the Persian rule, when Darius Hystaspis 
 introduced into Egypt, as into other parts of his 
 dominions, his golden Darics. 
 
 THE FINE ARTS IN EGYPT. 
 
 The last-mentioned topic naturally leads me to 
 the consideration of Egyptian Art. It was here, 
 especially as regards painting and sculpture, the 
 baneful influence of the system of castes was most 
 conspicuous. A particular type for the face, 
 figure, dress, and attitude of the different deities, 
 pontiffs, and kings, was rigidly prescribed to the 
 artist. Little scope was left to the play of fancy, 
 or to the combinations of genius, or the sponta- 
 neous efforts of individual mind or character. But 
 a stiff, traditionary model, transmitted from age 
 to age, by rendering improvement difficult, effec- 
 tually cramped the flights of imagination. 
 
 In Christian Art, it is true, a few conventional 
 types in regard to certain sacred personages have 
 been adhered to. Yet such types have not been 
 found incompatible with the greatest variety of 
 l 2 
 
148 
 
 THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 combination — the greatest originality of conception 
 — the utmost vigour and boldness of delineation. 
 
 In profane paintings, such as battle-pieces, 
 where the genius of the Egyptian artist was not 
 so tied down to a set model, there was much 
 greater life, truthfulness, and freedom of repre- 
 sentation. The French artists who accompanied 
 Buonaparte into Egypt, and who had been brought 
 up in an almost idolatrous worship of Greek Art, 
 were astonished at the life and vigour exhibited 
 in these paintings. 
 
 In the delineation of animals the Egyptian 
 artists were eminently successful. Whether it 
 were that here the conventional types were less 
 rigidly enforced ; or, that by their religious wor- 
 ship this people had been led to study more 
 attentively the aspect and the habits of the inferior 
 creation, — certain it is, that their representations 
 of the brute, in sculpture as well as in painting, 
 were distinguished for uncommon force and'spirit. 
 This fact did not escape the delicate perception of 
 the author of “ Corinne.” “ The Egyptian sculp- 
 tors,” says Madame de Stael, “ represented the 
 aspect of animals with much more genius than they 
 did that of men.”* And her master, Augustus 
 William Yon Schlegel, observes, that the Egyptian 
 lions in basalt, which he had seen at Rome, realized 
 with admirable truth the majestic repose of the cou- 
 chant lord of the desert, as described by Dante : — 
 
 “ In guisa di Leon, quando riposa.” 
 
 The same consummate critic remarks, that 
 from the excessive glare of light in Egypt, the use 
 of white stone or marble in sculpture would have 
 
 * Corinne, tom. i. p. 127. 
 
THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 149 
 
 been painful to the eye, and that the adoption of 
 dark and green-coloured stones by the artists of 
 that country was extremely judicious. 
 
 In painting, the Egyptians were unacquainted 
 with perspective, and they could give but the 
 profile of the human face. Hence, in their repre- 
 sentations of human figures, as well as of landscape 
 and scenery, there was a certain deadness and 
 stiffness which all the richness and brilliancy of 
 colouring, that after thousands of years has re- 
 tained its freshness, and all the skilful drawing of 
 particular parts, have not been able to retrieve. 
 
 What shall I say of the Egyptian architecture, 
 where we see blended all the qualities of massive- 
 ness, solidity, grandeur, and richness of decoration? 
 What shall I say of those magnificent temples 
 and palaces, with their vast porticos, their many 
 halls, opening one upon the other — with their 
 rows of huge pillars, some running seventy feet 
 in height and ten in diameter — with their high 
 decorated obelisks — with the colossal sphinxes 
 that bordered on each side the avenues to the 
 temple, denoting that life was an enigma, which 
 could find its solution in religion only ? What 
 shall I say of those vast pyramids, constructed at 
 once with such boldness and such precision, and 
 which in their towering majesty seem to defy 
 time itself? What shall I say of those immense 
 Necropoleis, or Cities of the Dead, where the same 
 care and labour were employed to embellish death, 
 as other nations have bestowed on the adornment 
 of life ? Such an architecture could have sprung 
 up only among a people filled with the idea of 
 immortality, and in whose eyes earthly existence 
 was but a fleeting passage to a future life. 
 
150 
 
 SCIENCE OF EGYPT. 
 
 SCIENCE OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Let us now pass to the science of this nation. 
 
 They were especially skilled in the mathe- 
 matical sciences, in astronomy, in chemistry, in 
 medicine. The nature of their country and the 
 periodic overflow of the Nile forced upon them, as 
 it were, the study of geometry and mensuration ; 
 while their cloudless heavens invited them to the 
 contemplation of the stars, and of the laws that 
 govern them. The practice of embalming the 
 dead may also have led to a more careful inquiry 
 into the organization of the human body, as well 
 as into the action of mineral and vegetable sub- 
 stances upon its life. The dietetic course pursued 
 by this people for the maintenance of health and 
 the prevention of maladies was most excellent. 
 On the other hand, the progress of medical 
 science was retarded by the hereditary formulas 
 handed down from father to son, and from which 
 the physician in the treatment of diseases was 
 not allowed to depart. 
 
 Here I shall take the liberty of citing a remark- 
 able passage from a great living Italian historian, 
 and I trust that its great depth and beauty will 
 plead a sufficient apology for its length : — 
 
 “ Science (says he) will never be useful to all, 
 nor truly progressive, so long as it remains the 
 privilege and the secret of any corporation what- 
 soever. Now, among ancient nations it was re- 
 served for priests alone, and even among these it 
 was not universally spread. But whence did these 
 priests derive this science themselves? It is a 
 subject of marvel to behold how, in the very dawn 
 of history, the human race is found endowed with 
 
SCIENCE OF EGYPT. 
 
 151 
 
 so much knowledge. In their very infancy man- 
 kind can cultivate the earth by the aid of divers 
 instruments ; they have brought the animals under 
 subjection; they bake bread and press wine and 
 oil ; they weave, they sew, and they embroider ; 
 they manufacture glass, fish up the coral, draw 
 the metals from the earth, and cut the diamond. 
 Statuary, architecture, music, dancing, the casting 
 of metals, weights, measures, coins, seals, chro- 
 nology, arithmetic, w r riting, are recorded as exist- 
 ing things in the most ancient traditions of nations. 
 Religious worship, laws, tribunals, contracts, penal- 
 ties for crimes, we find already in existence from 
 the remotest period. 
 
 “ But there is something still more astonishing : 
 man possesses, in the very outset of his existence, 
 knowledge, which may be called purely specula- 
 tive, to which he was not urged by want, and 
 which demanded the observations of centuries, 
 instruments of a certain degree of delicacy, and 
 an exactness of calculation. The apparent daily 
 movement of the stars, the circular shadow pro- 
 jected on the moon in eclipses, the convex surface 
 of the sea, might have given man an idea of the 
 roundness of the earth; but how did he divine 
 the dimensions of our planet ? And yet they 
 formed the basis of the metrical systems of Egypt 
 and of Asia. The period of nineteen years, pre- 
 served even to this day under the name of the 
 Golden Number, was adopted by the Egyptians; 
 that of sixty years was common to all Asiatics ; 
 that of six hundred years was employed by the 
 Chaldeans. The sphere, the sundial, the division 
 of the time into weeks, the solar and the lunar 
 eclipse, the eccentric course of comets, — all these 
 facts in physical science were known to the 
 
152 
 
 SCIENCE OF EGYPT. 
 
 Egyptians, who, though among other things not 
 possessed of the telescope, knew that the milky 
 way was but a vast congeries of stars. Each of 
 the four sides of the great Egyptian Pyramid was 
 perfectly well set towards one of the cardinal 
 points. 
 
 “ When we see a child of ten know not only 
 how to clothe himself and avoid all bodily dangers, 
 but translate into articulate sounds his own ideas, 
 transmit them by language, fix them by writing, 
 by decomposing all human science into twenty- 
 four letters, ten ciphers, and seven musical notes, 
 we are compelled to believe that that child had 
 been instructed by some one acquainted with 
 those things, and that his knowledge came from 
 tradition. So in respect to the science of the 
 primitive nations, no other conclusions appear to 
 us possible. To suppose with Bailly and Roma- 
 gnosi, that this knowledge was transmitted by a 
 nation still more ancient, is only to put off the 
 difficulty. It is, on the contrary, our belief that 
 this science was a remnant of that of the first 
 men, enlightened by the vision of God ; and we 
 shall give up that opinion only when another more 
 reasonable is proposed in its stead. One thing 
 which confirms us in our view is to see that the 
 primitive science we speak of is not developed by 
 degrees, nor by successive conquests ; on the con- 
 trary, it possesses from the very first admirable 
 formulas ; but, so far from improving on them in 
 the course of time, it even errs in their applica- 
 tion.” * 
 
 The science of the Egyptians was like their 
 
 * Histoire Universelle, par Cantu, traduite de Tltalien, 
 tom. i. p. 188-189. 
 
SCIENCE OF EGYPT. 
 
 153 
 
 system of castes, which was favourable to stability, 
 but was adverse to progress — where truth in one 
 case, as right in the other, was better insured 
 against endless change and wicked and absurd 
 caprice. A mass of truths, in morals and physics, 
 greater than we discern in the Greek philosophy, 
 lie on the surface of Egyptian science ; but as the 
 element of spontaneity, though not extinct, was 
 here dull and feeble, those truths were but inade- 
 quately comprehended, and never carried out to 
 their legitimate bearings. In that Oriental philo- 
 sophy the stock of doctrines, indeed, was more 
 abundant. On the other hand, the Greek philo- 
 sophy, though, as being further removed from 
 primitive religion and primitive science, it were 
 more scantily provided with such doctrines, yet 
 possessed a more active principle of production 
 and spontaneous origination. In one case a valu- 
 able hereditary estate was carelessly cultivated ; 
 in the other, a comparatively barren tract was 
 tilled with much diligence.* 
 
 Egyptian science shows less evidence of progress 
 than Egyptian art. For in the latter we discern 
 something like gradual improvement, from the 
 earliest known period down to the nineteenth 
 dynasty, under whose sway the national arts seem 
 to have reached their highest degree of maturity. 
 These ancient nations, blessed as they had been 
 with the heritage, however mutilated, of primeval 
 science, could not much enlarge the domain of 
 physical truths, precisely because at an early 
 period in their history they had fallen under the 
 dominion of Nature herself. To apprehend the 
 laws of Nature we must rise above Nature; that 
 
 # See Appendix, note B. 
 
154 
 
 SCIENCE OF EGYPT. 
 
 is to say, we must understand her relations to God 
 and to man. This is the reason why no Heathen 
 people, not even the lively and penetrative Greeks, 
 could attain to the true mastery of physical 
 science. Superstition cast a veil over the object 
 of her worship, and feared to examine too closely 
 and handle too familiarly the divinity in its 
 niche. 
 
 Mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, and medi- 
 cine, coupled with astrology and magic, seem to 
 have been the favourite pursuits of the Egyptians. 
 I doubt not that further progress in hieroglyphical 
 literature will tend to confirm the opinions ex- 
 pressed by a great writer* — that of those two 
 nations, the Egyptians and the Hindoos, so 
 nearly resembling each other in their religious 
 and political institutions, the former were more 
 distinguished for the cultivation of science, the 
 latter for their poetic productions and meta- 
 physical speculations. Something of the same 
 contrast, which this illustrious writer points out 
 between these two ancient nations, was ob- 
 servable, in the later Mussulman world, between 
 the Persians and the Arabs : for while the former 
 (as an eminent English Catholic divine, f well 
 known and dear to us all, has recently observed) 
 were remarkable for their love and cultivation of 
 poetry, the latter pursued with ardour the study 
 of mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. 
 
 It is in the latter sciences the Greeks proclaim 
 the proficiency of the Egyptians. Nothing, after 
 the wisdom of their laws, so much elicits their 
 applause. If Lycurgus and Solon visited the 
 
 * F. Schlegel. 
 
 f Vid. Newman’s Turks. 
 
SCIENCE OE EGYPT. 
 
 155 
 
 land of Nile, to study her wise institutions — if 
 Hecatseus and Herodotus, animated with the spirit 
 of a liberal curiosity, explored her cities and pro- 
 vinces — Thales, and Pythagoras, and Democritus, 
 and Eudoxus are expressly recorded to have thence 
 derived much mathematical and physical know- 
 ledge. The last-named mathematician, Eudoxus, 
 passed, with his illustrious friend Plato, thirteen 
 years in the sacerdotal college of Heliopolis. And 
 Strabo even adds (though he assigns no ground 
 for the assertion), that the Egyptian priests did 
 not communicate to their two distinguished dis- 
 ciples all the knowledge they possessed. 
 
 Were now the Egyptians equally eminent in 
 moral philosophy ? I before stated the opinion of 
 the illustrious Gorres, that the books fabricated 
 by the Neo-Platonists of the third and fourth 
 century of our era, under the name of Hermes 
 Trismegistus, spurious as they were, yet in all 
 probability embodied many of the doctrines and 
 traditions of those old sacred Egyptian books 
 which have perished, and whose name they as- 
 sumed. Now the titles and purport of many of 
 these spurious writings are moral and meta- 
 physical. Our progress in hieroglyphical literature 
 is too inconsiderable to enable us to answer the 
 question I have just proposed, as to the degree of 
 eminence this people had attained to in meta- 
 physical philosophy. The Inscriptions on some 
 of their temples, and the sayings of their priests, 
 as recorded by Greek writers, denote the preva- 
 lence of that deep moral wisdom, which all 
 antiquity attributed to them. Again, we can 
 hardly suppose that the great Plato, whose whole 
 life was devoted to the investigation of meta- 
 physical, moral, and political truths, should have 
 
156 
 
 LANGUAGE OF EGYPT. 
 
 given up thirteen long years to an exclusive study 
 of mathematics and physics. 
 
 This seems the place to speak of the writing of 
 the Egyptians. They had three species of writing 
 — the hieroglyphic, the hieratic, and the demotic. 
 The hieroglyphic was a writing partly figurative, 
 partly phonetic, destined chiefly for monumental 
 inscriptions. The hieratic was formed out of the 
 hieroglyphic writing, and was used exclusively by 
 the priests. The demotic was formed from the 
 hieroglyphics through the hieratic, which was a 
 sort of abbreviated hieroglyphic. The demotic 
 writing was in general use among all classes, and. 
 seems to have sprung up only in the later ages of 
 the monarchy. 
 
 LANGUAGE OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 “ In the formation of their written language,” 
 says Sir Gr. Wilkinson, “the Egyptians began 
 with what is the oldest form of writing — repre- 
 sentational signs. The alphabetic system was a 
 later invention, which grew out of picture-writing ; 
 for, as drawing is older than writing, so picture- 
 writing is older than alphabetic characters, and as 
 Baron justly observes, f hieroglyphics preceded 
 letters/ But the Egyptians, in their representa- 
 tional signs, did not confine themselves to the 
 simple delineation of the object, merely in order 
 to signify itself ; this would not have given them 
 a written language ; they went further, and repre- 
 sented ideas also ; for two legs not only signified 
 what they represented, but implied the notion of 
 e walking/ or ' motion ; 9 and the former meaning 
 might be pointed out by a particular mark, which 
 showed that the object was to be taken in a posi- 
 
LANGUAGE OF EGYPT. 
 
 157 
 
 tive sense ; and a bull signified e strong/ but when 
 followed by a half-circle and a line, it read simply 
 a bull. 
 
 “ The plural number was marked by the same 
 object thrice repeated.” — (Wilkinson’s App. to 
 Rawlinson’s Translation of Herodotus, vol. ii. 
 p. 313 .) 
 
 The hieroglyphic w r riting is, I said, partly 
 figurative, partly phonetic. Thus the sign of a 
 bull represents a bull ; but with a certain mark it 
 represents strength. The sign of an animal may 
 have also a mere conventional signification. 
 
 Such a sign also frequently signifies the initial 
 letter of the word. Thus, the figure of an owl is 
 put for the letter M, because the Egyptian word 
 for owl ( Mounck ) begins with the letter M. Here 
 the sign is used phonetically. Sometimes, again, 
 both the alphabetic and the representational signs 
 will be used to express the idea. Thus the alpha- 
 betic sign for hthor (a horse) will be followed by the 
 figure of that animal. The last is called the deter- 
 minative sign. Here we see a sort of fluctuation 
 between figurative and phonetic writing. The 
 same thing exists in the Assyrian writing, with 
 this difference only, that the figure of the animal 
 would in this case precede and not follow the 
 alphabetic sign. 
 
 The inscriptions on the mummies and the sar- 
 cophagi, as far as they can be deciphered, contain 
 certain forms of prayer, and certain biographical 
 notices relative to the deceased. The inscriptions 
 on the walls of temples and palaces, and round the 
 pictures and statues of gods and kings, have, like 
 those found in the excavated ruins of Assyria, an 
 historical character. Some fragments of hymns 
 have also been deciphered. We know from an 
 
158 
 
 LANGUAGE OF EGYPT. 
 
 interesting passage already cited from St. Clemens 
 Alexandrinus that the cantor in the sacred pro- 
 cession bore that book of Hermes, which contained 
 the hymns to the gods. Whether this people 
 possessed epic and dramatic poems is a secret 
 reserved for future investigation. From the 
 number of Egyptian papyri now collected in the 
 museums of Europe, and from the zeal and skill 
 now shown in deciphering them, light must ere 
 long be thrown on this obscure subject. It is 
 known that the Chinese, a nation of the remotest 
 antiquity, which was among the most civilized of 
 Asiatic peoples, which had made the greatest pro- 
 gress in the cultivation of the useful arts, had 
 produced very distinguished philosophers, and 
 possessed sacred books remarkable for the purity 
 of their doctrine, as well as their philosophical 
 depth — the Chinese, I say, have no great epic and 
 dramatic productions, but merely lyrical poetry 
 and novels of real life. It may have been so with 
 the Egyptians. The march of humanity is so 
 various that we must not expect to meet every- 
 where with the same phenomena. It is, indeed, 
 subject to certain great fundamental laws, to cer- 
 tain general types of being; but in that unity, 
 what a wondrous variety do we find ! 
 
 Such is the land of marvel I have attempted 
 feebly to describe. The ancients said that at early 
 dawn there was wont to issue from the colossal 
 statue of the Theban Memnon a strange myste- 
 rious sound. So, fifty years ago, in the dawn of 
 Christian philosophy, after the long night of ir- 
 religion that for a century had overspread Europe, 
 a strange, mysterious, half-articulate sound, seem- 
 ing to corroborate the oracles of God, came forth 
 from the ruined temples and palaces of Egypt. 
 
LANGUAGE OF EGYPT. 
 
 159 
 
 That sound we must now endeavour better to 
 comprehend — we must listen attentively for its 
 repetition, for, believe me, it was not uttered 
 without a deep significancy, and a high design.* 
 
 # In the composition of this Lecture I have consulted, 
 besides the works enumerated on a former occasion, the 
 second volume of the new translation of Herodotus, by 
 George Rawlinson, Esq., M.A., with annotations by Sir J. 
 G. Wilkinson and Col. Sir Henry Rawlinson. London. 
 Murray, 1858. 
 
 2. The History of Antiquity by M. Duncker, vol. i. (in 
 German). Berlin, 1852. 
 
 3. The History of Commerce, by Scherer (in German). 
 1852. 
 
MODERN HISTORY. 
 
 M 
 

 
LECTURE V. 
 
 THEORY OF THE CHRISTIAN MONARCHY.- — THE 
 
 ANCIENT POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF SPAIN. 
 
 THE ABSOLUTISM INTRODUCED BY FERDINAND 
 THE CATHOLIC AND CHARLES V., AND CONSUM- 
 MATED BY PHILIP II. * 
 
 PART I. 
 
 I had first intended merely to give the consti- 
 tutional history of Spain from the period of transi- 
 tion, which marks the reign of Ferdinand the 
 Catholic, and bring it down to the extinction of 
 the Austrian dynasty at the close of the seven- 
 teenth century. According to this first plan, I 
 should have taken for granted the excellence of 
 the constitution of the Three Estates, and resting 
 on^this premiss, have ascribed the political decline 
 of Spain chiefly to the overthrow of her ancient 
 institutions. But, on reflection, I found I should 
 have had to encounter various kinds of adversaries 
 ready to dispute the truth of this proposition. 
 For there are some, like the new school of Abso- 
 lutists, headed by a French journalist of consider- 
 able zeal and talent, who consider Absolutism an 
 improvement on the old temperate Monarchy; 
 others, again, who confound the latter with the 
 modern constitutional governments, which are 
 more or less revolutionary ; and others, also, who 
 m 2 
 
164 
 
 ANALOGIES BETWEEN 
 
 hold all political forms to be in themselves matters 
 of indifference — a proposition which, taken in the 
 latitude here meant, is most absurd and dangerous. 
 Against all these adversaries it was necessary to 
 give a rationale of the old temperate monarchy ; 
 to show its reasonableness, its internal fitness, 
 its utility, its adaptation to human wants. 
 
 The present lecture being the first of a series 
 which in the next session I propose to deliver on 
 the history of Spain, Portugal, and France, the 
 principles here laid down will serve to guide us in 
 future inquiries. 
 
 The first part of this lecture, therefore, will be 
 didactic ; the remainder, historical ; and I fear I 
 perhaps owe you an apology for introducing this 
 abstract dissertation. 
 
 ANALOGIES BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 There must have been something singularly 
 consonant to the Catholic Church in the constitu- 
 tion of the Three Estates, since in every great 
 European country during the Middle Ages, and 
 in many states afterwards, we find that form^of 
 polity established. In the first place, this fact is 
 doubtless ascribable to the spirit of equity which 
 characterizes the Church — a spirit that aims at 
 satisfying all rights, and conciliating all interests. 
 
 Secondly, there has always existed the closest 
 connection between the religious and the political 
 institutions of states ; and the old oriental nations 
 even regarded their political organization as a 
 reflex of their celestial hierarchy. It cannot be 
 denied that the elements of monarchy, aristocracy, 
 and even democracy exist in the divine constitu- 
 tion of the Catholic Church. The Papacy and the 
 
CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 165 
 
 Episcopate fully represent the two first-named 
 elements; but the democratic element is repre- 
 sented by the inferior clergy, which, in the diocesan 
 synod (corresponding as it does to the civil muni- 
 cipality), exercises so large an influence. Again, 
 in the general council, although the second order 
 of the priesthood has not a deliberative voice, it is 
 still frequently consulted ; and the doctors of 
 theology and canon law, as advisers, there play a 
 most important part. The rights and the duties of 
 the Popedom, the Episcopate, and the Presbytery, 
 are laid down and defined in the canon law with the 
 utmost fulness and precision ; and this admirable 
 code of legislation, that has exerted considerable 
 influence even on the civil jurisprudence of Chris- 
 tian nations, would alone suffice to rebut the 
 charge, that the Catholic Church favours arbitrary 
 power. But the analogies between the constitu- 
 tion of the Church and that of the temporal 
 monarchy formed under her influence, must not 
 be pressed too far ; and we shall presently see the 
 reason, wherefore the popular element could never 
 be carried to the same extent in the Church as in 
 the State. 
 
 Certain analogies must exist between spiritual 
 and civil government. The Christian Catholic 
 Church is the Divine State founded immediately 
 by our Lord and God, directly, for the sancti- 
 fication and salvation of man, and, indirectly, for 
 the promotion of his temporal happiness. The 
 State is the temporal Church which, as the emana- 
 tion from, and development of the family, is 
 mediately and indirectly established of God, 
 chiefly for the protection and advancement of 
 man's temporal interests and felicity, but, remotely 
 and indirectly, also for the furthering of his eternal 
 
166 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN 
 
 salvation ; for the well-being or the disorders of 
 the State react on the Church. 
 
 The two institutions, the one divine, the other 
 only indirectly and remotely so, but both con- 
 curring, in different ways, towards man’s spiritual 
 and temporal welfare, there must needs be some 
 analogy between them. So much for analogies 
 between Church and State. 
 
 Let us now consider the state in its several 
 parts — the monarchical, the aristocratic, and the 
 popular. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MONARCHY. 
 
 Loyalty is the emanation of paternity. In 
 history, the evolution of royalty from its first 
 seminal principle is almost palpable. We see the 
 father growing by degrees into the patriarch — the 
 patriarch into the tribe-chieftain — the tribe-chief- 
 tain into the king. Some writers apprehend, 
 indeed, that by admitting the patriarchal origin 
 of civil government, they w^ould sanction despotic 
 power. Singular notion, forsooth ! as if paternal 
 authority were not regulated by the Divine law, 
 which condemns all tyranny; — as if it were not 
 attempered by the domestic affections, by the 
 sense of duty in the father, by maternal tender- 
 ness, by filial piety ! As in the family we find 
 the root and the type of monarchic rule ; so here, 
 also, we find the model of the temperate, or re- 
 presentative government. Does not the wise and 
 loving father make his sons, according as they 
 grow up to manhood, acquainted with the state of 
 his affairs, lay open to them his accounts, intro- 
 duce them to his agents, and consult their feelings 
 and wishes as to the management of his property? 
 And does not the harsh, morose parent, who pur- 
 
MONARCHY. 
 
 167 
 
 sues the opposite policy, render his sons averse to 
 business, helpless in the management of their 
 estates, ignorant of men and their ways, the easy 
 dupes of cunning, as well as more open to the 
 allurements of vice ? And in characterizing the 
 evil effects of such parental conduct, have I not 
 traced at the same time the history of absolute 
 monarchy ? This analogy between the abuses of 
 domestic and political power did not escape the 
 penetration of the illustrious Archbishop of Cam- 
 brai, when he was defending, against the arbitrary 
 encroachments of Louis XIV., the ancient consti- 
 tution of Trance. 
 
 That among all forms of government, the 
 monarchical is entitled to great pre-eminence, is 
 clear from the fact that those institutions which 
 are directly the creation of Heaven, such as the 
 family, and the Jewish and the Christian Churches, 
 possess a monarchical constitution .* Again, Aris- 
 totle confesses that monarchy is by far the most 
 ancient and the most widely-diffused of all systems 
 of polity. 
 
 But has the republic, whether aristocratic or 
 popular, no root in human nature — no root in 
 the wants and interests of nations ? This it would 
 be folly to assert. There are certain conditions 
 and certain phases in human society where this is 
 a natural, and even necessary form of government; 
 and as we shall presently see, the republican 
 element enters largely into the constitution of the 
 Christian monarchy ; but never in antiquity, nor 
 in modern times, has the republic been supposed 
 to possess the same sacred character with royalty. 
 
 * Even the Gallican Sorbonne, a hundred and fifty 
 years ago, anathematized those who would deny the con- 
 stitution of the Catholic Church to he monarchical. 
 
168 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN 
 
 Never was it considered the emanation of pater- 
 nity — never doth it become, at least for any 
 considerable time, the cohesive principle of large 
 associations of men — never can it hold together a 
 variety of races, or a great diversity of classes and 
 interests.* The republic always implies a pre- 
 
 * The United States of America form no exception to 
 the truth of this remark. North America has had every 
 conceivable advantage for the promotion and development 
 of republican institutions. Her population brave, active, 
 intelligent, enterprising, is mainly formed out of races 
 which, like the German, and more especially the Anglo- 
 Saxon and the Celtic, are among the noblest and most highly - 
 gifted on the earth ; forming in this respect a decided con- 
 trast with South America, whose free inhabitants, besides a 
 comparatively few creole Spaniards and Portuguese, chiefly 
 consist of Mulattoes, Negroes, and Zamboes. Secondly, the 
 settlers of British America carried with them from their 
 mother country its admirable laws, customs, and institu- 
 tions, which had time to grow up and expand in the 
 wilderness. Thirdly, the Anglo-Americans had long been 
 trained up in the discipline of Parliamentary institutions. 
 Fourthly, the great men who conducted the American 
 Revolution acted with singular moderation, and introduced 
 few organic changes into their country’s institutions. 
 Fifthly, the American Union is not a republic, one and 
 undivided, but a confederacy of states, where in all local 
 matters and concerns the separate legislatures enjoy para- 
 mount authority. Sixthly, the institution of slavery, odious 
 and repulsive as it is to the Christian, is still here, as it was in 
 antiquity, conducive to the preservation of a large republic. 
 Seventhly, there is an almost illimitable extent of territory, 
 over which the inhabitants of America may spread, and 
 whereby all the dangers and disorders, moral and political, 
 of an over-crowded population are obviated. Eighthly, 
 with few exceptions, there is no populace in the American 
 cities ; and thus the very element for the demagogue is 
 away. Ninthly, the facility for obtaining work, and the 
 high rate of wages, insure quiet and contentment among 
 the labouring classes. Lastly, no powerful rival States 
 have been near to foment disunion, or excite rebellion in 
 
MONARCHY. 
 
 169 
 
 existing polity. For (as on one occasion I 
 defined it in a periodical publication*), tlie re- 
 public is the municipality detached, either by 
 revolution or colonization, from a parent monarchy. 
 By revolution, when the rights of some commu- 
 nity or province have been arbitrarily violated by 
 a sovereign, or the colonists have been misled 
 by religious fanaticism, or by false political 
 doctrines; — or by colonization, when a set of 
 adventurers, either dissatisfied with the govern- 
 ment at home, or seeking to better their fortunes, 
 meet, without possessing mutual rights or ante- 
 cedent claims one upon another, in some distant 
 land. Here a government has to be chosen : and 
 where a community is small, and the occupations 
 of the colonists commercial, a division of powers, 
 
 the American confederacy, or impede the prosperity, or 
 encroach on the rights of its inhabitants. Yet, with all 
 these advantages, extraneous and interior, the American 
 Union, after a brief existence of seventy years, presents all 
 the symptoms of internal decay. It has been gradually 
 sinking from a republic to an ochlocracy ; and so feeble 
 is the tie which now binds the northern and the southern 
 provinces, that the merest accident may snap it asunder. 
 And in proportion as population multiplies, and in- 
 terests grow more complicated and various, and luxury 
 and refinement augment the diversity of classes, we shall 
 see one state after another detach itself from the confede- 
 ration, and proclaim its independence. But in America, as 
 in Protestant Europe, the Catholic Church can alone save 
 order and freedom from a general shipwreck. This note 
 was printed a year ago ; and the ominous wail as to the 
 future prospects of the American Republic, just uttered by 
 its chief functionary, is surely not calculated to invalidate 
 the remarks then made. (See the late message of the 
 American President.) America, to avoid civil war and 
 anarchy, must either give up two-tliirds of her dominions, 
 or renounce her democratic institutions. 
 
 * The Dublin Review . 
 
170 
 
 NOBILITY. 
 
 or a republic, is the most natural and fitting form 
 of polity. Hence this government, though spring- 
 ing out of circumstances that may be termed 
 providential, is never, like royalty, an emanation 
 from the divine institution of the family. 
 
 No civil governments are, of course, strictly 
 divine ; but all, of whatever form, are, as the Scrip- 
 ture and the Church teach, ordained of God ; 
 because they are necessary to the defence and the 
 conservation of human society, whereof He is 
 the author. 
 
 NOBILITY. 
 
 I now pass to the second element in the Chris- 
 tian monarchy — Nobility. Nobility is an institu- 
 tion still more widely diffused than royalty ; for, 
 in one form or another, it exists in every state, 
 except in small pastoral communities, like the 
 little cantons of Switzerland, or in a republic 
 verging on anarchy. Nobility is the concrete ex- 
 pression of the moral, intellectual, and physical 
 inequality in the human race. It is the outward 
 distinction bestowed on the superiority of martial 
 prowess, or of civil virtue or talent, or of wealth. 
 It is the heart out of which flows, and into which 
 reverts, all the life-blood of the body politic. For, 
 what is the patrimonial royalty, but an evolution 
 from the territorial nobility ? What were the 
 Kings of Prussia some centuries back but Counts 
 of Hohenzollern? What were the Kings of 
 Bavaria fifty years ago but Dukes of Bavaria? 
 Nay, what was the Emperor of Austria long ages 
 ago, but Archduke of Austria? Into what class 
 doth the burgher pass, when, by money acquired 
 in commerce, he has purchased land ; or when, 
 by great military, judicial, or scientific services. 
 
NOBILITY. 
 
 171 
 
 he has been rewarded with permanent honours by 
 his country,? Into what class, but the noble, 
 under one denomination or another ? and this by 
 the same natural process whereby money or 
 moveable property tends to settle in land, or 
 immoveable property. 
 
 How close are the relations of the territorial 
 nobility with the rural population, or the peasantry, 
 it is needless to point out. Not less intimate are 
 the ties which bind the civic nobility or the patri- 
 ciate with the tradesman and the mechanic. 
 
 The Christian priesthood is more or less formed 
 out of all classes ; its spiritual ministrations are 
 for the benefit of all ; its mission is to preach up 
 the spiritual equality of all men in the eyes of 
 their Heavenly Father and Redeemer, and to 
 mitigate by words of consolation and deeds of 
 love those harsh social inequalities which the sin 
 of our first parents had brought upon the earth. 
 Yet there is no doubt that, considered in their 
 purely social relations, the clergy, by the simi- 
 larity of their political privileges, by the nature of 
 their property, which consists chiefly in land and 
 in the charges on land, by the refinements of 
 intellectual culture, and lastly by the birth of 
 many of their members, are more closely con- 
 nected with the noble than with any other class. 
 This community of feelings and interests does not, 
 of course (as we shall presently see), preclude the 
 clergy from forming in the political system a 
 counterpoise to nobility. 
 
 Hence we can understand the immense impor- 
 tance of this last-named great central institution, 
 with which all other members of the body politic 
 are more or less intimately bound. Hence we 
 can understand why aristocracy has always been 
 
172 
 
 NOBILITY. 
 
 considered the great prop of the throne, and the 
 rampart of popular freedom. Hence we can 
 understand the expression of the great Catholic 
 publicist. Von Haller, who declared that all the 
 purely political disputes which for the last eighty 
 years have convulsed Europe might be resolved 
 into the question of nobility. And I do not hesi- 
 tate to say that a Catholic devoted to his Church, 
 w r ho thinks soundly on nobility, will think soundly 
 on every other matter of constitutional policy. 
 But if he misapprehend the position and the 
 functions of nobility, above all, if he be hostile to 
 its existence, he will then be driven to the support 
 either of absolute monarchy or of the revolutionary 
 democracy. 
 
 Of nobility there are various kinds, and various 
 grades. There is the high aristocracy and the 
 inferior nobility — the barones majores and the 
 barones minores — the peerage and the landed 
 gentry, as in Great Britain and Ireland — the 
 hoherer adel and the kleiner add of the Ger- 
 mans — the noblesse de la cour and the noblesse de 
 province of ancient France — the grandeza and 
 hidalgos of Spain and Portugal. There is the 
 military and the judicial nobility — the noblesse de 
 Vepee and the noblesse de la robe ; there is the 
 patriciate , or the commercial nobility, which in the 
 cities of Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries, 
 was once so powerful, as well as wealthy. One of 
 the most constant as well as liberal pursuits of 
 nobility is the cultivation of letters ; but its true 
 inherent calling is the profession of arms. Hence 
 the Sclavonic language, with an admirable philo- 
 sophy, forms its word boycird (nobleman) from 
 the root boi , which signifies battle. 
 
 In nobility, also, not only is the sense of per- 
 
THE CLERICAL ORDER. 
 
 173 
 
 sonal honour most keen, but the sentiment of 
 nationality is most vivid ; though of course in the 
 better specimens of this class that feeling is 
 softened and refined by the influences of religion, 
 education, and a large intercourse with mankind : 
 for nobility is the representative and the guardian 
 of the national spirit and the political traditions 
 of a country, as the priesthood is the natural 
 organ and defender of its religious doctrines and 
 traditions. And this leads me to another element 
 in the Christian monarchy — the clergy, considered 
 in their political aspect. 
 
 THE CLERICAL ORDER. 
 
 Under the patriarchal dispensation, religious 
 and political authority was combined in the head 
 of the family, and subsequently in the head of the 
 commonwealth. In the Mosaic law the two 
 powers were separated, and the Jewish Church, 
 though local and national, was still independent 
 of the State. In the Christian religion, the 
 Church is not only independent, but universal. 
 Her universality confirms her independence, and 
 her independence brings out her universality into 
 bolder relief. Thus did religion first cling round, 
 prop, and adorn the family and the state; then 
 it detached itself, like a vigorous plant, needing 
 no support ; and, lastly, it grew into a mighty 
 tree, overshadowing the earth, and sheltering all 
 families, and tribes, and peoples, and kingdoms. 
 
 But though distinct from, and independent of, 
 the temporal power, the Church is not to be 
 separated from it. She is there to guard, and 
 strengthen, and enlighten, and hallow the State. 
 Without this connection between the two institu- 
 
174 
 
 THE CLERICAL ORDER. 
 
 tions — the one (as I have said) immediately and 
 directly established by God, for man’s eternal 
 happiness, the other only mediately and indirectly 
 ordained of God for his temporal felicity ; — without 
 this connection, I repeat, there would have been 
 no Christian civilization; without it, civil legisla- 
 tion would not have been humanized, nor vicious 
 customs eradicated, nor regal tyranny curbed, nor 
 popular licence restrained ; while the Church her- 
 self, in the exercise of her own discipline, and the 
 management of her own property, would have 
 been left unprotected. - * 
 
 If the Church must hold property, and property, 
 too, of the best and most stable kind — that is to 
 say, land — then of course she must enjoy those 
 
 * The modern false theories as to the relations between 
 Church and State correspond to the ancient heresies rela- 
 tive to the Person of our Lord. Thus Erastianism, or the 
 ecclesiastical supremacy of the State, corresponds to 
 Arianism. The elder Calvinism, which merged the State 
 in the Church, answers to Eutychianism. The doctrine 
 of the total separation of Church and State, pronounced 
 five-and-twenty years ago, with good intentions, by the 
 Abbe' de la Mennais, but censured by the Holy See, in the 
 Encyclical Letter of 1832, corresponds to Nestorianism, or 
 the denial of the Unity of our Lord’s P^-son. This was 
 the first shoal on which that great genius was destined to 
 split. These analogies have been traced with a masterly 
 hand, by the illustrious Gorres. See his Athanasius, in 
 German. Ratisbonne, 1838. See also an article entitled 
 “ Religious and Social Condition of Belgium,” in the Dublin 
 Review , 1845, where the writer of this lecture endeavoured 
 to show that in despite of the excellent spirit of the bulk of 
 the Belgian people, this principle of the total separation of 
 Church and State, proclaimed in their Constitution, went 
 far to neutralize the other principle of the spiritual inde- 
 pendence of the Church, which it equally recognized. 
 Twelve years’ experience has surely not tended to weaken 
 the force of the observations the writer then made. 
 
THE CLERICAL ORDER. 
 
 175 
 
 political rights which property involves ; and 
 those rights must be in proportion to her own 
 dignity, and in proportion to the benefit of those 
 conferring them ; in other words, the clergy must 
 hold in the state an eminent rank. 
 
 Connected as they are by spiritual bonds with 
 all classes, — bound, too, by natural ties with all 
 ranks, — the priesthood are the mediators among 
 men, called on by position as well as by origin, 
 by interest as well as by duty, to promote concord 
 among all orders of society, to defend all rights, 
 and reconcile all interests. They represent in the 
 state the principle of charity or conciliation, as 
 the secular aristocracy typify that of force, as 
 well as of justice. Hence theocracies, like those 
 of Papal Pome and the old ecclesiastical electo- 
 rates of Germany, lean to an excessive mildness 
 of rule ; while aristocracies, untempered by the 
 monarchical, clerical, and popular elements, like 
 that of Venice, are characterized by harshness. 
 
 The clergy, too, typify the intellectual prin- 
 ciple in the state. A German Catholic philoso- 
 pher once called the priesthood “the upper house 
 of intelligence,^ and the scientific class “ the 
 lower house and this is strictly true, for the 
 one represents, like the aristocracy, the stable, 
 invariable domain of intelligence, which is Divine 
 Revelation ; the other, like the commonalty, is 
 the representative of the moveable property of 
 intelligence, which is science. Both, of course, 
 are closely interlinked, and stand or fall together. 
 The clergy, of course, cannot dispense with the 
 aids of literature and science ; and generally 
 speaking (except under very peculiar circum- 
 stances), they are the most literate body of a 
 nation. The literati and scientific men need as 
 
176 
 
 THE COMMONS. 
 
 much, and even more than others, the guiding 
 light and the sanctifying influences of religion. 
 Wherever the priesthood is honoured, there litera- 
 ture is honoured: and wherever the former is 
 hated and persecuted, there letters and science 
 often share the same fate. This fact is perceptible 
 in the early years of the so-called “ Reformation,” 
 when learning, universities, and their professors 
 were treated with such profound contempt ; in the 
 French Revolution, when the atheistic Jacobins of 
 1793, on no other ground but his scientific pre- 
 eminence, sent, amongst others, the great chemist 
 Lavoisier to the guillotine; and, lastly, in the 
 Red Republicans and the Socialists of our own 
 time, who, after having long exalted scientific men 
 above priests, now involve both (as they do the 
 noble and the burgher) in the same brutal, san- 
 guinary hate. 
 
 THE COMMONS. 
 
 It is now time to pass to the last element of the 
 Christian Monarchy — the third estate. As the 
 aristocracy and the clergy severally form corpora- 
 tions, so the people, represented in the munici- 
 pality, constitute a corporation. The municipality, 
 chosen by the citizens for the management of 
 their local concerns, at once reflects and guides the 
 spirit of those citizens. Here they learn to know 
 each other, — here they are initiated into affairs, — 
 here they become acquainted with the difficulties 
 and the responsibilities of government, and conse- 
 quently acquire habits of moderation and self- 
 discipline, — here public spirit and a strong practical 
 sense are fostered and developed, — here is the 
 well-spring of national prosperity, — here the semi- 
 
THE COMMONS. 
 
 177 
 
 nary of useful legislation, — here the sure defence 
 of order, — here the bulwark of popular freedom. 
 Hence the municipal corporation is hated alike by 
 the despot and the demagogue. The system of 
 administrative centralization is, on the other hand, 
 the idol of both; for it facilitates in a marvellous 
 degree the accomplishment of their respective 
 schemes. 
 
 Out of the municipality were, in part, elected the 
 deputies of the third estate. These, called Pro- 
 curadores in Spain, Tiers Etat in France, Com- 
 mons in England, symbolize and embody the 
 active, stirring forces of society — the mercantile 
 and industrial classes, the yeomanry, the learned 
 professions, to which must be added a large admix- 
 ture of the inferior nobility. This branch of the 
 legislature represents more directly the principle 
 of progress, as the other two represent that of 
 stability. Without an active, intelligent middle 
 class, there is no advanced civilization. Look at 
 Poland and Hungary, countries possessing the rudi- 
 ments of a noble constitution — countries that had 
 deserved so well of Christendom, and that, indeed, 
 were martyrs in her cause. Yet those lands, 
 partly from the perpetual inroads and ravages of 
 the Muscovites and Turks, partly from the be- 
 numbing influence of the Greek schism atical 
 church, partly from the religious troubles of the 
 sixteenth century, partly from the variety of races 
 in one country, and partly from the disastrous 
 system of elective royalty and the liberum veto in 
 the other, — those countries, I say, Poland and 
 IPungary, w r ere excluded from the advantages of 
 commerce and industry. And so, on one hand, 
 they never emancipated their peasants from the 
 shackles of serfdom, and never, on the other, raised 
 
178 
 
 THE COMMONS. 
 
 up an energetic, independent, intelligent, wealthy 
 middle class. I once heard a German, who had 
 travelled much in Hungary, call that land “ Eng- 
 land in the time of King John;” and the desig- 
 nation, as regards the late constitution of that 
 country, is not incorrect. 
 
 Thus, to' sum up in one word the character- 
 istics of the different elements in the Christian 
 monarchy, I may call royalty the principle of love 
 or cohesion in the state, the clergy the principle 
 of spiritual direction, the aristocracy the principle 
 of conservation, the middle class the principle of 
 renovation, and the lower the principle of pro- 
 duction — whether in agriculture, industry, or 
 trade. 
 
 If we compare the constitution of the Three 
 Estates with the other forms of polity that suc- 
 ceeded it, we may arrive at the following result. 
 This states- constitution may be defined a 
 monarchy, tempered by the power of the clergy, 
 the nobility, and the third estate. The crown 
 could exercise its veto freely, and as it was in 
 possession of its own hereditary domains, could 
 never be starved by a factious parliament into a 
 surrender of its prerogatives. The clergy held 
 large benefices and endowments, and could not, 
 therefore (as in some of the modern constitutional 
 kingdoms), be menaced in its material existence 
 with the withdrawal of parliamentary subsidies. 
 The nobility was wealthy and powerful, and not 
 (as in so many of the modern continental coun- 
 tries) weakened, plundered, impoverished, living 
 on the scanty remnant of ancient possessions. 
 The third estate had its full corporate privileges 
 and property, freely administering its municipal 
 concerns, and not depending on a central board 
 
THE MODERN ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 179 
 
 for the regulation of its minutest affairs. No tax 
 could be levied, no law passed without the con- 
 currence of the Three Estates. There, doubtless, 
 collisions between the several powers in the body 
 politic were possible, and did actually occur ; but 
 the danger, as well as the frequency of sucb col- 
 lisions, was infinitely lessened. There was the 
 Catholic religion, to preserve concord among all 
 classes ; there was, on the part of the subject, deep 
 loyalty to the Crown, and on the part of the 
 Crown, the most paternal sentiments towards the 
 subject. There harmony was maintained, as in 
 all domestic and social life, by a spirit of mutual 
 concession and mutual forbearance. 
 
 This noble constitution was in its development 
 arrested by the Reformation — an event that exer- 
 cised the greatest political influence even over 
 those countries that adhered to the Catholic faith. 
 
 THE MODERN ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 The Absolutism that in the 16th century re- 
 placed the mediaeval constitution of the Three 
 Estates, may be defined an undue, exorbitant 
 extension of the Royal Power to the prejudice of 
 the other members of the state. 
 
 This Absolutism, in some Protestant countries, 
 shows itself under a hideous aspect; but in 
 Catholic kingdoms, it was tempered (as even 
 Montesquieu acknowledges to have been the case 
 in regard to Spain) by the influence of the clergy, 
 by the paternal character of most sovereigns, by 
 the manners and spirit of the people, and by 
 municipal franchises, and local liberties. This 
 government can be better appreciated when I 
 come to speak of the affairs of Spain. 
 
 n 2 
 
180 
 
 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The British Constitution, which had been in 
 the Middle Ages the same with that of other 
 Catholic monarchies, underwent, at the Reforma- 
 tion, and in the subsequent period, the most 
 violent perturbations, oscillating fearfully between 
 despotism and democracy, till at last it settled 
 down into the polity of 1688. That Constitution, 
 from the Revolution of 1688 down to the impor- 
 tant changes of 1832, may be defined an aristo- 
 cracy, tempered by democracy, and retaining 
 and respecting the traditions, habits, indirect 
 power, and prestige of Royalty. The great 
 changes of 1832, which somewhat modify this 
 definition, I will not attempt to characterize; for 
 such an attempt would lead me into the stormy 
 region of contemporaneous politics. And those 
 changes I could not well characterize, if I would ; 
 because we still live in the crisis of their develop- 
 ment. The British is still the noblest of existing 
 constitutions. 
 
 THE MODERN REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 The modern representative system which has 
 grown out of the great French Revolution of 
 1789, and which has found so much favour in 
 some European countries, may 'be defined a 
 temporary compromise between Absolutism and 
 Democracy. This system I sufficiently charac- 
 terized when I told you what the Mediaeval 
 Monarchy was not. 
 
181 
 
 THE OLD POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF SPAIN. 
 
 In no country had the old parliamentary insti- 
 tutions struck deeper root, and taken a more 
 vigorous growth, than in Spain. The political 
 influence of the clergy had been great under the 
 old Gothic monarchy ; and in the long religious 
 and national struggle which the Christians of 
 Spain had to carry on against their Mussulman 
 invaders, that influence was not likely to decline. 
 The Kings of Spain were, under their trying 
 circumstances, more dependent on the nobles. 
 These nobles, in their wars, acquired immense 
 possessions, and with possessions, of course, great 
 political importance. The cities formed the 
 strongest bulwark against the Moors, and it w^as 
 found necessary to concede to them large corpo- 
 rate privileges. Royalty, in its turn, was invested 
 with the additional halo which misfortune imparts 
 to high station. So all circumstances concurred 
 to give a vigorous development to Spain's political 
 institutions. 
 
 Under this system of temperate monarchy, she 
 expelled her Moorish invaders, planted the trium- 
 phant cross on the walls of Granada, carried on 
 an active trade, covered her soil with rich and 
 beautiful cities, promulgated from the opulent 
 Barcelona a maritime code to Europe, laid the 
 foundations of hex own colonial greatness, and 
 nursed those formidable hosts which, down to the 
 middle of the seventeenth century, were the 
 terror of Europe. A romantic poetry, too, added 
 new lustre to the feats of chivalry. 
 
 But in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the 
 Inquisition, very different in its constitution and 
 
182 OLD POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF SPAIN. 
 
 proceedings from the milder one of Rome, by its 
 extreme severity embittered minds, and exercised 
 at times a dangerous compression on the human 
 intellect. The emigration to America drained 
 the population ; and the introduction of the pre- 
 cious metals led to the neglect of husbandry and 
 manufactures. The thirst for gold in the new 
 continent, and the deeds of blood and rapine 
 which accompanied it, debased and corrupted a 
 portion of the nation. The degradation of the 
 Cortes crushed the public spirit and the political 
 energies of all classes, and so dried up the well- 
 spring that would certainly have revivified the 
 state. So that hardy plant of the mountains of 
 Asturias and Castile, when transferred to the 
 sunny plains of Andalusia, put forth an unwonted 
 richness of blossoming ; but when again trans- 
 planted to the tropical soil of America, then its 
 excessive luxuriance of foliage and gaudiness of 
 flowers told the discerning eye, that decay was 
 already at the root. 
 
 The tendency to regal absolutism was general 
 in the fifteenth century ; and this from causes 
 which it would be too long here to enumerate. 
 The same phenomenon is apparent in Spain, in 
 Trance, and even in England. It may be traced 
 to the general decline of the spiritual power, and 
 especially to the disregard for that temporal 
 umpirage of the Popes, which had not been less 
 instrumental in upholding the mutual rights of 
 the sovereign and the subject, than in enforcing 
 justice in the international relations of states. 
 
 In Spain, besides the more general causes 
 adverted to, the divisions among the different 
 orders in the kingdom facilitated in a remarkable 
 degree the undue extension of the royal pre- 
 
QUEEN ISABELLA. 
 
 183 
 
 rogative. Daring the fourteenth and fifteenth 
 centuries a great contest had been going on 
 between the nobles and the cities, as to the 
 possession and the administration of certain public 
 domains. This dispute sometimes broke out into 
 open warfare ; but even in quiet times, it extended 
 to other political questions, and was in the state 
 a dangerous element of disorder. 
 
 'QUEEN ISABELLA. 
 
 The glorious reign of Isabella had drawn to a 
 close. Under the joint sceptre of that Queen and 
 of her consort, Ferdinand, the kingdoms of Aragon 
 and Castile had been united; Moorish Granada 
 had fallen, and the Crescent had succumbed to 
 the Cross ; a new world had been discovered, and 
 brought under subjection to the Spanish crown ; 
 the spirit of maritime adventure had been 
 awakened ; and commerce and manufactures had 
 reached a high pitch of prosperity. Nor had the 
 advancement of letters been less attended to. The 
 vernacular poetry had been encouraged ; classical 
 studies had been fostered ; new editions and com- 
 mentaries on the Greek and Roman writers had 
 been brought out ; printing-presses established in 
 the chief cities of the kingdom ; eminent scholars, 
 foreigners as well as natives, appointed to the 
 university chairs ; a learned academy instituted in 
 the palace itself; the old universities reformed, 
 and the new one of Alcala founded by the illus- 
 trious Cardinal Ximenes; and under the munificent 
 patronage of the same great prelate and states- 
 man, and with incredible labour and expense, the 
 first polyglot Bible had been ushered into the 
 world. 
 
184 
 
 FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC. 
 
 While she had thus promoted the intellectual 
 refinement and the material well-being of her 
 subjects, Isabella had been still more solicitous 
 for the sacred interests of religion. Having 
 obtained from the Pope the right of nomination 
 to many episcopal sees and inferior ecclesiastical 
 benefices, she appointed none but men of learning 
 and piety. With the sanction of the Holy See, 
 and with the co-operation of the prelates, she was 
 instrumental in restoring discipline in many 
 monasteries and convents, and in reforming the 
 manners of many of the secular clergy. 
 
 In her own person she combined all the quali- 
 ties, moral and intellectual, that could adorn a 
 woman and a sovereign. Her prudence, fore- 
 thought, courage, firmness, and perseverance were 
 equalled only by her piety, generosity, gentleness, 
 charity to the poor, and conjugal and maternal 
 tenderness. 
 
 FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC. 
 
 Vastly inferior to her in amiability and virtue, 
 lier consort, Ferdinand, was her equal in sagacity, 
 steadiness, and courage. This politic prince suc- 
 cessively annexed to his dominions Naples, 
 Navarre, and Oran and other fortresses on the 
 coast of Africa; while in her transatlantic posses- 
 sions he consolidated the authority of Spain. 
 
 The great aim, both of Queen Isabella and 
 himself, under the guidance of Cardinal Ximenes, 
 was to restrict the exorbitant power, and check 
 the turbulent spirit of the nobles. But not 
 content with repressing the abuses of aristocratic 
 power, their efforts tended to weaken and under- 
 mine its existence. In the prosecution of a policy 
 
THE INQUISITION. 
 
 185 
 
 common to the sovereigns of that age, the more 
 generous Isabella was carried further than wisdom 
 would have sanctioned ; but in his assaults on 
 nobility, it is impossible to acquit the crafty 
 Ferdinand of despotic designs. 
 
 A powerful instrument, which this sovereign 
 employed for extending the royal prerogative, was 
 the acquisition of the grand-masterships of the 
 military orders, like that of St. Iago, of Calatrava, 
 and of Alcantara, This vastly augmented the 
 revenues of the Crown, as well as brought the 
 inferior nobility under its influence. 
 
 Another engine, which the same prince made 
 use of to effect his despotic purposes, was the 
 Inquisition. 
 
 THE INQUISITION. 
 
 This tribunal, founded in the year 1478, was, 
 both in its origin, its composition, and subse- 
 quent history, far more political than the first 
 Inquisition, that in the thirteenth century had 
 been instituted against the Albigenses. At the 
 urgent request of Ferdinand and Isabella, Pope 
 Sixtus IV. issued a Bull on the 1st November, 
 1478, allowing the establishment of an Inquisition 
 in Castile for the cognizance of heresy, provided 
 three ecclesiastical dignitaries of irreproachable 
 morals and competent learning were appointed to 
 preside. 
 
 Dr. Hefele, a German Catholic theologian, who 
 has written an excellent life of Cardinal Ximenes, 
 is the modern writer who has furnished us with 
 the most valuable information respecting this tri- 
 bunal. He proves, as I pointed out in a reviewal 
 I made of this work a few years ago (and I will 
 
186 
 
 THE INQUISITION. 
 
 here take the liberty of citing my own words*) — 
 he proves the repugnance which the Popes evinced 
 to the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition, 
 and their constant efforts to mitigate its severity. 
 He shows, nevertheless, that its prisons were very 
 roomy and well ventilated; that except in the 
 very rare case of an attempt at suicide, no fetters 
 or manacles were put on the prisoners; that 
 torture for eliciting the truth was applied less 
 frequently, with more humanity, and under 
 greater restrictions, than in the secular tribunals 
 of the time ; that much mildness and indulgence 
 were practised in the treatment of prisoners ; and 
 that every precaution was devised and enforced to 
 protect innocence, to obviate fraud, malice, or 
 revenge on the part of accusers and witnesses, and 
 to further in every way the ends of justice. Dr. 
 Hefele then speaks of the autos cla fe, and convicts 
 Llorente the historian of the Inquisition, and his 
 copyists, of the most enormous exaggerations on 
 this head, showing that the jurisdiction of the 
 holy office was not confined to heresy, but ex- 
 tended to the grosser transgressions of the moral 
 law, such as blasphemy, sacrilege, sorcery, poly- 
 gamy, nameless crimes, and other heinous offences. 
 He proves that the number of executions, as 
 stated by the Spanish writer just named, are most 
 grossly exaggerated, and rest on absurd and in- 
 consistent estimates. He next states the opinions 
 of the most illustrious Spaniards on the Inquisi- 
 tion, and, further, shows that that institution did 
 not, as is often pretended, exert so injurious an 
 influence on literature and science. Lastly, he 
 sketches the biography of Llorente himself, and 
 lays open, besides his heterodox sentiments and 
 
 * See Dublin Review. Oct. 1852. Article — “ Life and 
 Times of Cardinal Ximenes.” 
 
THE INQUISITION. 
 
 187 
 
 his rancorous hostility to the Holy See, the gross 
 ignorance, the total absence of critical acumen, 
 and the falsehoods, the contradictions, and the 
 malignity that pervade all his writings. 
 
 In his assertion that the Spanish Inquisition 
 was far more a political than an ecclesiastical 
 institute, Dr. Hefele is supported not only by 
 Catholic writers of such eminence as Frederick 
 Schlegel and Balmez, but by distinguished Pro- 
 testant historians, like Guizot, Ranke, and 
 Prescott. And in the charge of carelessness and 
 ignorance, which he has so fully substantiated 
 against Llorente, he is to a great extent borne out 
 by Prescott himself. 
 
 The new Inquisition founded by Ferdinand the 
 Catholic, and which, as we have seen from its 
 constitution and its proceedings, was far more 
 political than the ancient one, was an instrument 
 (and, indeed, was so designed) for stretching the 
 royal prerogative. The fifteenth century, which 
 witnessed its establishment, was a period when in 
 many countries of Europe, as has been said, regal 
 absolutism was superseding the old free monarchy 
 of the Middle Ages. And, indeed, the prince 
 who instituted this tribunal in Spain was one 
 who strove to undermine the ancient liberties of 
 his country. That the new Inquisition was an 
 engine of political power in the hands of the 
 sovereign, none can deny, who remember that 
 Philip II., when the Aragonese refused to sur- 
 render to him the obnoxious minister Perez, who 
 had sought an asylum amongst them, denounced 
 him to this tribunal, without even alleging against 
 him the pretext of heresy. And how can we call 
 that a purely ecclesiastical court, which, among 
 other transgressions, took cognizance of offences 
 against fiscal and commercial regulations, and 
 
188 
 
 PHILIP AND JOANNA. 
 
 other matters of civil administration ? How 
 could an institute, which was so frequently in 
 collision with Papal and episcopal authority, be 
 deemed a bulwark of ecclesiastical rights ? And 
 if it were so much under the influence of the 
 crown, where was the guarantee that the liberties 
 of the other orders, and especially of the nobles, 
 would receive an adequate protection ? 
 
 Though the conspiracies and the revolts of the 
 Jews and the Moors had led to the establishment 
 of the Inquisition; yet King Ferdinand the 
 Catholic made use of this tribunal for furthering 
 one of the great ends of his policy — the extension 
 of the royal power. 
 
 Though many Jews had simulated conversion 
 to Christianity, and many had been engaged in 
 conspiracies against the throne ; yet the total 
 expulsion of this people from Spain was a 
 most barbarous, unjustifiable act, and one most 
 prejudicial to industry and trade. Many of the 
 unfortunate exiles, through the clemency of the 
 reigning Pontiff, Pope Alexander VI., found a 
 hospitable asylum within the Roman states. 
 
 PHILIP AND JOANNA. 
 
 On Isabella’s death, which took place in the 
 year 1504, her daughter Joanna, and her consort 
 Philip, the son of the Emperor Maxmilian, suc- 
 ceeded to the throne of Castile. But two years 
 afterwards Philip died, and his queen Joanna 
 lost her reason. Hereupon Cardinal Ximenes 
 induced the Castilian Cortes to confer on Ferdinand 
 the Catholic the regency of Castile, till Philip’s 
 son, afterwards Charles V., should attain his 
 majority. 
 
CHARLES V. 
 
 189 
 
 Ferdinand continued to govern Castile, as 
 Regent, and to reign over his native Aragon, till 
 the period of his death. This occurred on the 
 23rd of January, 1516, when, having received 
 with much fervour the last sacraments of the 
 Church, he expired at the age of sixty-four, deeply 
 regretted by a people whom he had helped to 
 raise to so high a pitch of prosperity and glory. 
 His public character I have already had occasion 
 to describe. Though in his youth he had some- 
 times given way to sensual pleasures, he was in 
 maturer years devout and regular in his conduct. 
 
 His successor to the united crowns of Aragon 
 and Castile, with all their dependencies, was 
 Charles Y. 
 
 CHARLES V. 
 
 Charles was born at Ghent, the 25th February, 
 1500. He was the eldest son of Philip the Fair, 
 archduke of Austria, and of Joanna, infanta of 
 Castile. His paternal grandfather was the Ger- 
 man emperor Maximilian, and his maternal 
 grandmother, Isabella, queen of Castile. At his 
 christening, which took place on the 7th of March 
 of the same year, the magistrates of Ghent pre- 
 sented to the newborn child a silver ship weigh- 
 ing fifty pounds — the presage, as it were, of his 
 future maritime power. 
 
 Fie was at first brought up at Mechlin, under 
 the care of his paternal aunt, Margaret of Austria, 
 one of the most distinguished women of the six- 
 teenth century. Charles, at a very early age, had 
 lost his father, whose premature death had dis- 
 ordered the reason, never very strong, of his 
 Queen Joanna. The education of the young 
 
190 
 
 CHARLES Y. 
 
 prince was intrusted to the care of William of 
 Croy, baron of Cliievres, and of Adrian of Utrecht, 
 a man of humble birth, but of great learning 
 and piety, who afterwards, under the name of 
 Adrian VI., mounted the pontifical throne. 
 
 Charles, in his childhood, evinced a certain 
 delicacy of constitution ; but his health became 
 more robust as he grew up. It was perhaps for 
 this reason his governor encouraged in him a love 
 for bodily and martial exercises, rather than for 
 intellectual pursuits. 
 
 He attained his majority in August, 1515 ; and 
 in the following January, on the death of Ferdi- 
 nand the Catholic, all the kingdoms of Spain and 
 her colonies fell to his lot. He inherited from his 
 father the Low Countries, that is, the present 
 kingdoms of Belgium and Holland, including the 
 French province of Franche Comte. On the 
 28th January, 1519, he was elected at Frankfort 
 emperor of Germany. Thus he became the most 
 powerful sovereign that had reigned in Europe 
 since Charlemagne ; and so arose that glorious 
 monarchy, on whose bounds the sun never set. 
 
 Like all men whose intellectual powers are 
 various, the mind of Charles was of slow develop- 
 ment. He had reached his twenty-fifth year 
 when the Venetian ambassador at Madrid, Tiepolo, 
 declared it to be the opinion of most people that 
 the Prince was actually stupid. It was thus in 
 our own times an eminent literary man, M. de 
 Chateaubriand, who, in the versatility of his talents 
 was equalled by few of his contemporaries, was 
 wont to be called by his mother, up to his fifteenth 
 year, the dunce of the family. The existence of 
 many faculties in one mind impedes their mutual 
 growth, and so it is late before they all come to 
 
CHARLES Y. 
 
 191 
 
 maturity. It was not before his thirtieth year, 
 the great intellect of Charles revealed itself to his 
 astonished contemporaries. Then he emancipated 
 himself from the tutelage of his counsellors ; then 
 he judged and acted for himself; then he proved 
 himself one of the ablest generals and the most 
 consummate statesman of his times. As the sun, 
 when he suddenly emerges from the clouds and 
 mists of the morning, careers majestically through 
 the heavens, darting on all sides the splendour of 
 his beams, calling forth all the magnificence of 
 vegetation, and revealing and beautifying all the 
 rich variety of animal life, till he sinks to his rest 
 under a gorgeous canopy of clouds, — it was so with 
 this illustrious emperor. 
 
 “ Further, further ! ” was his glorious device, 
 and well he fulfilled it. He flies wherever his 
 presence is needed ; he visits alternately every 
 portion of his vast dominions. Many a long, 
 fatiguing journey he undertakes by land, many a 
 dangerous voyage he encounters at sea. The 
 affairs of war and the occupations of peace by 
 turns engage his attention. Now he triumphs 
 over Francis I. ; now he defeats the German 
 Protestants at Miihlberg ; now he conquers Tunis, 
 and delivers the Christian captives; now he 
 arrests the Turk in his victorious career; now he 
 reduces to obedience the rebellious city of Ghent ; 
 now he quells the insurrection of the Commu- 
 nidades in Spain ; now he strives to allay the 
 religious disputes of Germany ; now he aids in 
 the convocation of a general council. And as if 
 Europe were too confined a theatre for his exploits 
 and his glory, America is overrun and subdued 
 by his generals, and Fernando Cortez, and Pizarro, 
 and their comrades, lay a new world at his feet. 
 
192 
 
 HIS LAST YEARS. 
 
 My business upon the present occasion is only 
 with this monarch's rule in Spain. When he 
 went to Germany to be crowned, and intrusted 
 the administration of the former country to the 
 unpopular Fleming, Cardinal Adrian, the cities of 
 Castile, headed by Don Juan Padilla, rose up in 
 revolt. The rebellion was directed against the 
 exorbitant and ever-increasing taxes levied by the 
 Flemish ministers. The insurgents were confede- 
 rated in a league called the Holy Junta ; but their 
 army was beaten at Villalar, in the year 1521, 
 and Padilla taken and executed. A like insur- 
 rection broke out in Valencia, under the name of 
 the Germanada; and owing to the tyranny of the 
 nobles, a still more violent one in Majorca. 
 Charles, on his return, announced an almost 
 general amnesty; but when the revolt had been 
 put down, the Cortes in the different kingdoms 
 of Spain lost more and more of their power and 
 importance. 
 
 LAST YEARS OF CHARLES V. 
 
 The reverses that marked the close of Charles's 
 life rendered his attacks of gout more frequent ; 
 and a constitutional melancholy, which he seems 
 to have inherited from his mother Joanna, did 
 ever and anon cast a shade over that existence, 
 which had long been so brilliant. Often had he 
 sighed for the charms of religious solitude ; and 
 now that Philip had reached his majority, he 
 resolved to abdicate in his favour. After having 
 resigned into his hands the sceptres of Burgundy 
 and of Spain, with all her vast possessions, and 
 after having vainly endeavoured to obtain for him 
 the imperial crown of Germany, he sought a refuge 
 
HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 193 
 
 from the cares and turmoil of the world in the 
 Monastery of St. Just, in Estremadura. Master 
 of half of Europe, and lord of America, he had 
 yet discerned more clearly than most men the 
 emptiness of human grandeur. Two years he 
 passed in this sacred retreat, dividing his time 
 between religious contemplation and mechanical 
 pursuits, and occasionally giving advice to his son 
 on grave affairs of state. Retaining to the last 
 the serene possession of his great intellect, he 
 breathed out his soul into his Maker’s hands on 
 the 21st of September, 1558. 
 
 Thus died a prince possessed of high moral 
 qualities and the most splendid intellectual gifts, 
 and who, in a critical period of European history, 
 , had received from Divine Providence, for the de- 
 fence of the Church and the protection of Chris- 
 tendom, an immense power. And when we con- 
 sider the vast difficulties he had to encounter, he 
 certainly was faithful to his mission. Errors, and 
 grave errors, he doubtless committed. He often 
 encroached on the rights of the Church, and dealt 
 a heavy blow at the civil liberties of Spain. But 
 here he obeyed more the spirit of his age than the 
 inclination of his own heart ; for princes are often 
 overborne by the imperious sway of circumstances, 
 and follow a pre-existing system of policy, whereof 
 they comprehend not the import, nor foresee the 
 consequences. In the case of the German interim, 
 though it was an interference with the jurisdiction 
 of the Church, Charles clearly acted with the 
 intention of allaying the religious contests of Ger- 
 many. His disagreements with the Popes were 
 almost always of a political kind; and the sack 
 of Rome, one of the most disgraceful events 
 in an age so rife in scandals, occurred without 
 
194 
 
 PHILIP II. 
 
 liis sanction, and called forth his most severe 
 reprobation. 
 
 Though his youth had been stained by some 
 irregularities, yet later, in all the relations of 
 private life he was most exemplary; and the 
 Bishop Navagiero, who was Venetian Ambassador 
 at Madrid, and who had ample opportunities for 
 forming a correct judgment, pronounced him to 
 be the most religious of princes. 
 
 Let us now pass to the reign of his son. 
 
 PHILIP II. 
 
 Philip II. was born at Valladolid, on the 21st 
 May, 1527. His mother was the Empress Isabella, 
 daughter of Emanuel the Great of Portugal. By 
 his father he was descended from the ducal houses 
 of Burgundy and Austria. By both father and 
 mother he claimed a descent from Ferdinand and 
 Isabella the Catholic of Spain. “ As by blood he 
 was half a Spaniard (says Prescott), so by tem- 
 perament and character he proved to be wholly 
 so.” 
 
 His education had been intrusted to the care of 
 a learned professor of Salamanca, Martinez Siliceo, 
 and to the Commendador Mayor of Castile, Don 
 John Zuniga, an accomplished cavalier, and a man 
 of the very highest honour and probity. 
 
 Philip made considerable proficiency in the 
 Latin language; but evinced a more decided taste 
 for the mathematics, as well as for the fine arts, of 
 which he became a considerable connoisseur and 
 a liberal patron. In his childhood he gave an 
 earnest of that grave and almost melancholy tem- 
 perament which afterwards distinguished him. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive a stronger contrast 
 
HIS POLICY. 
 
 195 
 
 than that existing between the characters of 
 Charles and Philip, his son. Charles was remark- 
 able for bodily activity; was, as we have seen, 
 constantly travelling, and was particularly fond of 
 the chase. After the two visits paid in his youth 
 to the different provinces of his empire, Philip 
 never undertook a long journey, rarely travelled 
 further than from Madrid to the Escurial and 
 back again, and took no delight in the pleasures 
 of the chase. Charles loved the military life, was 
 himself a most distinguished general, and divided 
 his time between diplomacy and war. Philip was 
 essentially what the French call, “ un homme de 
 cabinet” indefatigable in the labours of the desk, 
 ever selecting able generals ; but after the battle 
 of St. Quentin, fought in the first years of his 
 reign, never taking a personal part in warfare. 
 Charles spoke many languages, could adapt him- 
 self to the manners and habits of the different 
 nations he ruled, and uttered such a number of 
 wise and witty sayings as would fill a volume. 
 Philip was most reserved and taciturn ; spoke but 
 the Castilian tongue with ease ; was a Spaniard, 
 and nothing but a Spaniard, in all his views, feel- 
 ings and habits; and was stiff and unprepossessing 
 in his deportment and manners. The father 
 never pushed his political principles to extremes, 
 but accommodated them to the wants and circum- 
 stances of the time, and strove to attemper justice 
 with mercy. The son took up certain fixed, abso- 
 lute principles ; clung to them with inflexible 
 pertinacity ; sought to enforce them, without 
 regard to time, place, and circumstances ; and 
 everywhere carry out rigid right, irrespective of 
 the claims of equity. 
 
 What errors, what crimes, wdiich his father 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 HIS POLICY 
 
 never would have committed, marked the public 
 conduct of Philip ! Let us consider his proceed- 
 ings in regard to the Netherlands, to Portugal, 
 and to Spain herself. 
 
 1st. On the outbreak of the troubles in the 
 Netherlands, Philip pursued a policy the very 
 reverse of what prudence would have dictated. 
 If those provinces were to be preserved to Spain, 
 then surely common sense would have suggested 
 that the Sovereign should visit them in person, 
 allay their feelings of irritation, redress their 
 grievances, confirm their old political rights and 
 liberties anew, and thus detach the justly dis- 
 contented patriots from the adherents of the new 
 heresy. Then, among the partisans of that heresy, 
 the Sovereign should have distinguished between 
 those who, like the Lutherans and the Calvinists, 
 held doctrines consistent with social order, and 
 those who (as in the case of the Anabaptists) 
 struck at the root of all society. Again, he should 
 have made a distinction between those provinces 
 where Protestantism had taken deep root, and 
 those where it was not yet introduced, tolerating 
 it in the former, and excluding it from the latter. 
 For let it not be forgotten, that the religious tole- 
 ration now so happily prevalent, could not, in the 
 age which witnessed the breaking out of the 
 Reformation, have been carried out to the same 
 extent ; for then a Protestant sect was no sooner 
 tolerated, than it aimed at ascendancy; and as 
 soon as it acquired ascendancy, it began to per- 
 secute the members of the Catholic Church. 
 
 The policy here recommended was at a subse- 
 quent period followed by the illustrious general 
 and statesman, Alexander Farnese, and was the 
 means of preserving to the Spanish Crown the 
 
IN THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 197 
 
 southern provinces of Belgium. Had Philip, at 
 the outset of the insurrection, adopted this course, 
 the Dutch provinces would not have been torn 
 from his sceptre. But instead of pursuing a 
 system alike wise, conciliatory, and firm, recom- 
 mended even by the Regent, Margaret of Parma, 
 Philip hesitated, procrastinated, gave evasive 
 replies, and sought by dissimulation to compass 
 his ends. The Catholics of the Netherlands, 
 disgusted with his perfidy, joined the Protestants 
 in a common league to defend their civil privi- 
 leges. And it was only the fanatic violence of 
 the tumultuous bands called the Gueux, which 
 alienated the Catholic population from the alli- 
 ance. 
 
 Disdaining the entreaties of the Netherland 
 patriots, and heedless even of the counsels of the 
 Regent, Philip sends to the Low Countries an 
 army commanded by the inexorable Alba. The 
 system of terror, and the countless atrocities com- 
 mitted by this sanguinary tyrant (unfortunately 
 too well supported by Philip), brought odium on 
 the Church, caused the Spanish name to be 
 execrated, and was well-nigh effacing the last 
 vestige of Spanish rule in the Netherlands. Alba, 
 dishonoured, detested, was now disgraced by the 
 court in whose behalf he had trampled under 
 foot all the laws of justice and humanity. The 
 other generals who succeeded him in the task of 
 quelling rebellion, like Requesens, Don John of 
 Austria, Alexander Parnese, and Spinola, strove 
 by a system of conciliation to win back the affec- 
 tions of the unfortunate inhabitants. Requesens 
 even ordered the statue to be pulled down which 
 Alba, at Antwerp, had arrogantly erected to him- 
 self. But if the policy of these generals, and the 
 
198 
 
 HIS POLICY 
 
 partial success attending it (for the re-conquesf 
 of the northern provinces circumstances had now 
 rendered well-nigh impossible) — if this policy, I 
 say, was the severest condemnation on the terror- 
 ism of Alba, where can we discern the wisdom of 
 a prince who, by his craft and dissimulation, had 
 disgusted his subjects, Catholic as well as Pro- 
 testant — by his tyranny had driven them into 
 rebellion, and who, yielding to the claims of 
 justice only at the eleventh hour, was able to save 
 but one-half of the most flourishing portion of his 
 empire? 
 
 2nd. Again, his conduct towards Portugal is 
 marked by the most reckless, violent measures. 
 On the death of Cardinal Henry, he takes posses- 
 sion of that country as the grandson of Emanuel 
 the Great on the maternal side ; but he violates 
 all the engagements he enters into with the inha- 
 bitants. He never convokes their Cortes ; he 
 tramples under foot their political liberties ; he 
 shuts the port of Lisbon against the vessels of the 
 Dutch, and so forces that enterprising people to 
 seek in the Indian Archipelago itself for the spices 
 and other Indian commodities, which they were 
 willing to purchase from the Portuguese. Hence 
 they successively wrest from the latter the 
 Moluccas, the peninsula of Malacca, the isle of 
 Ceylon, and many fortified places on the coasts of 
 Malabar and Coromandel, and succeed in expel- 
 ling their factories from Japan. Thus deprived of 
 her foreign trade and her colonies on the one hand, 
 and of her constitutional liberties on the other, 
 Portugal sees all her springs of internal prosperity 
 dried up. “A system of rapacity,” says Piitz, 
 “ was widely organized. All places were given 
 away or sold to the Spaniards ; the royal domains 
 
IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 
 
 199 
 
 of the country were confiscated ; its fortresses 
 dismantled ; its military navy carried off to the 
 docks of Spain.” Forty years after Philip’s death, 
 the glorious and almost bloodless revolution of 
 1640 delivered Portugal from the Spanish yoke ; 
 but though the change was salutary, she never 
 recovered her ancient wealth and greatness. 
 
 3rd. With regard to his own native domi- 
 nions, who can deny that Philip’s incessant wars, 
 sometimes carried on simultaneously with the 
 Netherlands, France, and England, must have 
 exhausted the finances, and proved ruinous to the 
 prosperity of Spain? If these wars were sometimes 
 just, and conducive to the welfare of Christendom, 
 yet how expensive in the magnitude of their 
 operations, and in their diversity ! 
 
 It is fair, however, to recall to mind the more 
 successful measures of Philip. His fleet, combined 
 with the Papal and the Venetian, and commanded 
 by his natural half-brother, Don John of Austria, 
 annihilated, in the year 1571, the Turkish navy 
 at Lepanto — an event from which we may date 
 the decline of the Ottoman power. Again, it was 
 the support which Philip gave to the Catholic 
 League, that effected the exclusion of a Protestant 
 prince from the throne of France, and the conse- 
 quent salvation of religion in that country. But 
 here his policy was not of the most disinterested 
 kind ; and the Spanish faction, stained as it was 
 with crimes, long retarded the settlement of that 
 difficult question. 
 
 On the 13th of September, 1598, Philip the 
 Second died in the splendid palace of the Escurial, 
 which he himself had built. During his frightful 
 illness he received the sacraments of the Church 
 many times, and had his eyes constantly fixed on 
 
200 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 a crucifix (the gift of his illustrious father) ; while 
 he ordered the crown to be placed on a death's 
 skull by his bedside. The awful malady of which 
 he died — the morbus pedicularis — is one inflicted 
 only on great tyrants and great heresiarchs. Thus 
 his death was as equivocal as his life ; and in calling 
 him to Himself, the Almighty seemed publicly to 
 condemn the means wherewith he had often dis- 
 honoured the holiest of causes— -the craft, the 
 violence, and the tyranny with which he had so 
 often defended the Church. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 Let us now take a general survey of the Spanish 
 monarchy towards the close of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 Since the year 1538, when some of them by 
 their opposition gave offence to Charles V., the 
 Grandees had never been summoned to Cortes. 
 They were henceforth, both by that monarch and 
 his successor, studiously excluded from places of 
 trust and importance, whether in the army or in 
 the administration. 
 
 They now were induced to pass more of their 
 time in cities than on their estates, giving them- 
 selves up frequently to most frivolous amusements, 
 playing apart in the pageantry of the court, getting 
 sometimes involved in debt, and so falling into a 
 state of dependence on the Crown. So they lost 
 more and more of their political importance. 
 
 The Hidalgos, or inferior nobility, that had 
 formerly served under the Grandees, now entered 
 into the royal army or navy, or took holy orders, 
 or emigrated to America. 
 
 The clergy, from the commencement of the 
 
STATE OF SPANISH MONARCHY. 
 
 201 
 
 sixteenth century, had become more and more 
 dependent upon the Crown. Philip himself de- 
 clared, in an ordinance of 1565, that he had 
 received from the Holy See the presentation to 
 all the episcopal and collegiate churches in his 
 dominions. The loss by the clergy of capitular 
 election had important effects even of a political 
 kind. 
 
 Philip, it must be observed, was most conscien- 
 tious in his ecclesiastical appointments— looking 
 chiefly to learning and piety, and making birth a 
 secondary consideration. Like the nobility, the 
 clergy, too, from henceforth were never summoned 
 to Cortes. 
 
 But during the sixteenth century, the deputies 
 of cities were still convened ; yet their old legisla- 
 tive rights had now dwindled down to the privilege 
 of petitioning. Still the German historian, Kanke, 
 says that he has not found in any parliamentary 
 deliberations of that age greater honesty of pur- 
 pose, or a more patriotic spirit, than in these acts 
 of the Spanish Cortes. Their remonstrances 
 relate either to abuses in the administration, or 
 in the tribunals of justice, or to the excessive 
 expenditure of the court, or to the burden of 
 taxation. The king sometimes admits the just- 
 ness of their complaints, and promises immediate 
 redress; and sometimes he answers that he will 
 take their prayer into consideration. This con- 
 vocation of deputies was still, therefore, an 
 important remnant of the ancient liberties of 
 Spain. 
 
 Aragon, however, still retained her old parlia- 
 mentary rights. On one occasion, Philip II., to 
 testify his discontent, entered, booted and spurred, 
 into the Cortes held at Zaragossa — conduct which 
 
202 
 
 STATE OF SPANISH MONARCHY 
 
 was afterwards imitated by Louis XIV., who hold- 
 ing what the French call a bed of justice for en- 
 forcing the registration of an ordinance, once 
 came to the Parliament of Paris with a horsewhip 
 in hand, and in full military uniform.* 
 
 Under Philip II., Burgos, Medina del Campo, 
 Leon, and other cities sank to be mere shadows of 
 their former greatness. 
 
 The Cortes of 1594 addressed the king as fol- 
 lows : — “ The truth is, the kingdom is utterly 
 exhausted and drained, so that no one possesses 
 capital, credit, or anything else. Places where 
 there were formerly large woollen-manufactories, 
 have now nothing to show ; and where there were 
 once people of substance, these have been reduced 
 in the same proportion. Hence it comes to pass, 
 that in no part of the country are there any 
 powerful and opulent cities. The decrease of the 
 population is apparent in the number of houses 
 closed and empty, and in the small rent paid for 
 those which are let.” Such was the language 
 held to Philip by the Castilian Cortes of 1594.f 
 The venality of the officials seems to have 
 attained a great height, and is a frequent subject 
 of complaint on the part of the Cortes. 
 
 Of the countries depending on Spain, Lom- 
 bardy had preserved the old municipal rights of 
 its cities, and was in the enjoyment of much 
 wealth. Sicily, still in possession of her old insti- 
 tutions, was less exposed to the rapacity and 
 oppression of the Spanish governors. Not so her 
 neighbour Naples, which groaned under the 
 
 * See Raumer’s European History, vol. ii. 
 t See Ranke’s Southern Europe in sixteenth century, 
 vol. i. 
 
AT CLOSE OF PHILIPPS REIGN. 203 
 
 abuses of the worst administration. The American 
 colonies were not allowed to trade with any 
 European state but the mother country ; nor to 
 export their commodities but at certain appointed 
 periods, and then only to the port of Seville. 
 They were therefore compelled to pay three times 
 the ordinary price for the most necessary articles 
 of life ; and a system of organized smuggling was 
 the necessary result of these absurd prohibitions. 
 But in the reign of Philip, and his successor, 
 Spain still possessed a most formidable army, a 
 powerful marine, immense colonies, generals and 
 statesmen of a high order, and a brilliant band of 
 artists and men of letters. Need I mention those 
 great captains, the worthy successors of Gonsalvo, 
 and Pescara, and Leyva, men formed by their 
 example and teaching, such as Alexander Farnese, 
 Requesens, Don John of Austria, and Spinola? 
 
 Need I recall the great luminaries of art and 
 letters, and remind you of the tenderness of 
 Ponce de Leon, the fertility of Lope, the intense 
 reality of Cervantes, the ideal conceptions of 
 Calderon, the concentrated energy of Murillo ? 
 
 Need I name, too, the many bright lights of 
 sanctity that at this time adorned the Church of 
 Spain ? 
 
 In the following reigns of the Austrian dynasty, 
 Spain sank more and more in the scale of nations. 
 She saw her coasts insulted by foreign cruisers — 
 her treasures from her colonies intercepted — her 
 strength wasting away — her population, which in 
 the time of Queen Isabella had amounted to twenty 
 millions, reduced, at the close of the seventeenth 
 century, to six. Under the Bourbon dynasty there 
 was a remarkable improvement; but the people 
 still retained the remembrance of their ancient 
 
204 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 renown, and still clung to the last remnants of 
 their old political institutions. They have passed 
 successively through the ordeals of absolutism, 
 and war, and revolution, and an impious, anarchic 
 tyranny ; they have lived to see the loss of colo- 
 nial empire, the degradation of Royalty, the 
 plunder and oppression of the Church. But they 
 have preserved the unfailing well-spring of politi- 
 cal greatness — an indomitable courage, the high 
 sense of probity and honour, and an undying 
 attachment to the Catholic faith.* 
 
 * In the composition of this Lecture, the following, 
 amongst other works, have been chiefly consulted : — 
 
 I. Ranke’s History of the Princes and Nations of 
 Southern Europe, 1 vol. (in German) ; Berlin, 1834. 
 
 II. Raumer’s Letters on the History of Europe in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth century (in German), vol. 2 ; 
 1832. 
 
 III. History of Cardinal Ximenes, by Hefele (in Ger- 
 man) ; 1844. 
 
 IY. Piitz’s Geography and History of Modern Europe 
 3rd vol. (in German) ; Coblentz, 1855. 
 
 Y. Encyclopedic Catholique du Dix-neuvieme Siecle. 
 Paris, 1840. 
 
 VI. Prescott’s Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella ; 7th 
 edition ; London, 1854. 
 
 VII. Prescott’s Reign of Philip II., 1 st and 2 nd vol. 5 
 London, 1855. 
 
 VIII. Balmez’s Catholic and Protestant Civilization ; 
 translated by C * Hanford, Esq. 1852. 
 
LECTURE VI* 
 
 THEORY AND HISTORY OF THE BRITISH CONSTITU- 
 TION OF 1688 , AS COMPARED WITH THE OLD 
 EUROPEAN MONARCHY, AND THE MODERN REPRE- 
 SENTATIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 My Lord Mayor, Ladies, and Gentlemen, 
 
 The constitution of Great Britain, like that 
 of all the large European kingdoms, was, prior to 
 the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the 
 constitution of the Three Estates. This constitu- 
 tion of the social man corresponded to that of the 
 individual man, in whom mind, soul, and body 
 are united into one person. Again, it answered 
 to the type of the family from which it had sprung, 
 and where its three elements are represented in 
 the father, the mother, and the child. And, 
 again, it corresponded to the divine exemplar of 
 the Christian Catholic Church, whereon it had 
 been modelled, and where the three elements are 
 represented in the Papacy, the Episcopate, and 
 the Presbytery. 
 
 In heathen antiquity, the want of such a tem- 
 perate monarchy was felt, and the theory dimly 
 discerned; but that theory could not be realized, 
 and that want could not be gratified, and for 
 obvious reasons. First, heathenism was incapable 
 
 * This lecture was delivered, not before the University, 
 but before a literary society in connection with it. 
 
206 CONSTITUTION OF THE THREE ESTATES. 
 
 of inspiring individuals and classes with the same 
 tender reverence for the rights and lawful claims 
 of others, which it is the glory of the Christian 
 religion to have instilled. Secondly, the principle 
 of rigid law, proclaimed by Heathenism, intro- 
 duced into all the social relations a degree of 
 sternness and severity alien from the spirit of 
 conciliatory equity recommended by the Catholic 
 Church. Thirdly, Paganism, though it might at 
 times exalt royalty into an idol, to be broken 
 again at its caprice, could never, like the Chris- 
 tian religion, invest it with a sacred, inviolable 
 character. Fourthly, under the Pagan system, 
 the spiritual and temporal powers were con- 
 founded; and consequently the great guarantee 
 to order and freedom which their separation 
 under Christianity affords, did not then exist. 
 Fifthly, as a consequence of this confusion of civil 
 and religious authority, the priesthood was an 
 emanation of royal power, or an apanage of 
 nobility ; or when, as in the system of castes, its 
 position was more independent, its origin, its 
 rights, its whole existence, w ere still interwoven 
 into the organization of the State. Lastly, the 
 personal slavery to which the masses among 
 Heathen nations were condemned, checked the 
 warm sympathy of class with class, debarred the 
 lower ranks from rising in the social scale, and 
 thus cut off from the State a source of perennial 
 energy. 
 
 In the constitution of the Three Estates, royalty 
 possessed its hereditary domains, which insured 
 it independence in its material existence. It 
 shared with the three estates legislative power; 
 but its veto w r as real and not nominal, and its 
 conscience could not be coerced by a minister at 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE THREE ESTATES. 207 
 
 the head of a parliamentary majority. Of course 
 here, as in all social and domestic life, concord 
 could be maintained only by a spirit of mutual 
 concession and mutual forbearance. But when the 
 king and the estates of the realm were all bound 
 together by the bond of the Catholic religion, 
 there was little probability that a law sanctioned 
 by the clergy, the nobles, and the commons, would 
 involve any principle repugnant to religion, reason, 
 or natural equity. 
 
 The clergy possessed spiritual independence; 
 and, backed by their sacred jurisdiction, their 
 property and political privileges insured them vast 
 weight and importance. 
 
 The aristocracy, powerful by rank, landed pos- 
 sessions, and political privileges, formed the 
 second distinct rampart against regal tyranny and 
 popular licence. The inferior nobility or gentry 
 corresponded to the second order in the sacred 
 ministry. Between the two orders of the priest- 
 hood and the two classes of nobility, stood the 
 lawyers, the academicians, the literati, the men of 
 science, the members of universities. So intelli- 
 gence, in its higher — spiritual, and in its lower — 
 earthly elements, and property and rank in their 
 various degrees, were here represented. 
 
 The commons, in the municipal corporations, 
 had the management of their own funds, and the 
 direction of their own local concerns. Thereby they 
 were initiated into public affairs; they learned 
 to know the difficulties and the responsibilities of 
 government; and so they entered the legislature 
 with minds trained to habits of business, indis- 
 posed to rash innovations, and contented with an 
 order of things, which left them undisturbed in 
 the sphere of their political activity. 
 
208 
 
 REFORMATION. 
 
 Such was that admirable constitution of the 
 Three Estates, that, directly or indirectly, and to 
 a greater or less extent, the Reformation retarded 
 in its development. 
 
 In England, the way to this religious revolution 
 had been paved by the Lollard heresy, which, even 
 down to the sixteenth century, lurked among some 
 in the lower classes. The civil wars of the Roses 
 had relaxed the bonds of ecclesiastical discipline, 
 and introduced disorder in clerical life, and vice 
 and ignorance among the laity. These wars had 
 also destroyed the flower of our aristocracy, now 
 replaced by a race of upstarts, who, forgetful of 
 the true spirit of nobility, were soon to become 
 the passive instruments of despotic power. 
 
 The Reformation was brought about in England, 
 not by popular enthusiasm as in Northern Ger- 
 many, Switzerland, and Scotland, but by the 
 despotism of the Crown. Step by step, and 
 slowly, against a reluctant people, did the religious 
 innovations make their way. 
 
 Looking to their political effects (and this is 
 the only part of the subject that can now engage 
 our attention), we shall see that all those elements, 
 which Catholicism had so happily blended in the 
 body politic, were rudely dissevered by the Refor- 
 mation. Royalty, by the sacrilegious assumption 
 of ecclesiastical supremacy, became of necessity 
 despotic. The clergy, with the loss of spiritual 
 independence, forfeited more or less their political 
 independence, and, by the rejection of the great 
 Christian sacrifice of the altar, renounced in a 
 manner their moral significance. The aristocracy, 
 bribed with the plunder of the Church, lost by 
 degrees its hold on the people, as it became more 
 dependent on the Crown. The people, in their 
 
REFORMATION. 
 
 209 
 
 tarn, taught by the fundamental doctrine of Pro- 
 testantism to regard all ecclesiastical authority 
 as a usurpation, distrusted and at last despised 
 the Protestant clergy; while imbued with those 
 democratic principles so inherent in Calvinism, 
 they gradually lost all reverence for the throne. 
 
 All were to feel in course of time the retributive 
 hand of Divine justice. The clergy, who at the 
 Reformation had so shamefully abandoned their 
 sacred trust, were now in the grand Rebellion dis- 
 possessed of their wealth and of the honours they 
 had prized above all spiritual goods. The aristo- 
 cracy, that had been aggrandised by the sacrile- 
 gious robbery of the Church, was now trampled 
 in the dust. The people, that, except in a few 
 instances, had tamely acquiesced in the despoiling 
 and profanation of the sanctuary of faith, were 
 now, in the abject misery consequent on the ruin 
 of so many charitable institutions, to pay the 
 bitter penalty of their defection. Lastly, royalty 
 itself, in the person of the unhappy Charles I., 
 was to expiate on the scaffold the crimes and the 
 impious tyranny of the eighth Henry. 
 
 Schism begat heresy, and heresy the wildest 
 fanaticism ; and from this in turn were to spring 
 irreligion and religious indifference. The schism 
 of Henry VIII. developed into the heresy of 
 Edward VI., and the latter was succeeded by a 
 rigid Calvinistic presbyterianism ; and this again 
 Brownism, or the sect of Independents, and that 
 of Anabaptists, and of Quakers, and lastly, that 
 of the Eifth-Monarchy men, strove successively to 
 set aside. Deism then sought to rise on the ruins 
 of religious fanaticism. 
 
 So in politics we witness a like progeny of 
 errors. The despotism of Henry and Elizabeth 
 r 
 
210 
 
 GRAND REBELLION. 
 
 provoked the Puritan opposition ; and this again, 
 in the reigns of the first James and of his unfor- 
 tunate son, drove the Crown, now destitute of the 
 compass of fixed principles and the rudder of old 
 institutions, to arbitrary encroachments on the 
 ancient liberties of the country. In opposition 
 to the court the waves of rebellion successively 
 lifted up factions, each fiercer, wilder, and more 
 lawless than the other. Moderate Puritans, and 
 Independents, and Levellers, and the disciples of 
 Yenner, or the Pifth- Monarchy men, one after 
 another, strove to grasp the helm of government, 
 till the sword of Cromwell coerced them into 
 temporary submission. But military tyranny is 
 scarcely more favourable to social order than 
 democratic lawlessness ; and a nation that had 
 passed through all the fearful phases of revolution, 
 now ardently panted for the Restoration of its 
 ancient monarchy. 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 When Charles II. mounted the throne of his 
 fathers, in what condition did he find England ? 
 A mighty storm had swept over the land; and 
 though some stately trees had been levelled with 
 the dust, the main oaks of the forest were still 
 standing. Though some members of the gentry 
 and aristocracy had suffered much from confisca- 
 tion, the great bulk of the landed property was 
 still in the hands of its original owners. The 
 tithes and the church lands had not been brought 
 to public sale, or been abolished, but had been 
 only transferred to the ministers of a rival church. 
 The various judicatures of the kingdom still sub- 
 sisted unimpaired ; and, thanks to the energy of 
 
RESTORATION. 
 
 211 
 
 the great Sir Matthew Hale, who had resisted 
 the clamours of fanaticism, the Mosaic code had 
 not been forcibly introduced into the country, 
 nor its ancient body of laws ignominiously 
 banished. The municipal corporations — the pride 
 and strength of England — had not been swept 
 away by the revolutionary torrent. The vene- 
 rable temple of the constitution, here and there 
 mutilated and defaced, had resisted the ravages 
 of the storm ; and when its portals were thrown 
 open for the reception of its ancient hierarchy, 
 they could, without difficulty, renew the course of 
 their ministrations. 
 
 What a different spectacle presented itself to 
 Louis XVIII., when, after twenty-five years’ 
 exile, he was restored to the heritage of his 
 fathers ! 
 
 But if such was the state of laws and insti- 
 tutions in England, what was the condition of 
 parties? It is truly wonderful, when we con- 
 sider the fearful aberrations of the Protestant 
 mind — the dreadful excesses of religious fana- 
 ticism — the endless strife of sects — the violence 
 of political parties — the anarchical spirit of the 
 Independents and the Levellers — the exaggerations 
 of even many among the Cavaliers — and then, 
 when we look to the concomitant convulsions of 
 civil war, democratic license, and the military 
 tyranny which grew out of it — it is truly wonder- 
 ful, I say, that the strong practical English sense 
 should have survived such perturbations, moral 
 and social. Yet so it was. And this political 
 sagacity on the one hand, and on the other, the 
 happy preservation of England’s laws, liberties, 
 and institutions, after a rebellion which had 
 shaken society to its foundations — these two ele- 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 ments insured the prosperous issue of what may 
 be called the defensive revolution of 1688. To 
 return to the state of parties at the accession of 
 Charles II. to the throne. 
 
 I have already adverted to the anarchical doc- 
 trines and proceedings of the revolutionary parties. 
 But were the Cavaliers, who were now the lords of 
 the ascendant, free from all political error ? They 
 were, unfortunately, in too many cases, the worthy 
 political representatives of the church of Henry 
 VIII. Like their great Patriarch, they preached 
 up the doctrine of passive obedience ; they not 
 only, in opposition to the majority of Catholic 
 divines, denied to a nation the right of physical 
 resistance against even the most impious and 
 atrocious tyranny, but they denied the right of 
 moral resistance to the iniquitous mandates of 
 a prince, — nay, a few carried their folly and im- 
 piety so far,* as to require in such cases the 
 obedience of the subject. See how these sec- 
 tarians distorted and disfigured the great Catholic 
 dogma of the divine origin of the civil power ! see 
 w r hat dangerous confusion they brought into the 
 treatment of a delicate as well as important ques- 
 tion of social ethics ! And allowing that the 
 bulk of Cavaliers rejected these culpable exag- 
 gerations of doctrine, yet was there a wide de- 
 marcation between Anglican Toryism and Catholic 
 Royalism. 
 
 Again, what was the conduct of these Cavaliers 
 towards their English and Irish Catholic allies — 
 
 * Sir Robert Filmer, in his “ Patriarcha,” says, “ a man 
 is bound to obey the king’s command against law ; nay, 
 in some cases against divine laws” (p. 100. London). Such 
 monstrous extravagances were of course rejected by - the 
 great majority of Protestant Tories. 
 
ANGLICANS AND PRESBYTERIANS. 
 
 213 
 
 men who, like them, had made the noblest sacrifices 
 in behalf of royalty, had fought and bled together 
 with them on the same battle-field — had been for 
 the same cause doomed to fines, imprisonment, and 
 confiscation ? Did they relax in their favour the 
 penal code? Did they even crave the suspen- 
 sion of those laws in their behalf ? No, the 
 majority of them vied with the Puritans in the 
 persecution of their Catholic fellow-subjects. 
 
 The intolerant policy recommended by most 
 of the Royalists towards the Nonconformists was 
 not less injurious to the interests of the monarchy, 
 and of the Established Church, than it was re- 
 pugnant to the principles of justice. Nay, the 
 rejection of all offers of compromise made by the 
 moderate Presbyterians was as injudicious as it 
 was inconsistent on the part of the majority of 
 Anglicans. For as the latter denied the divine 
 origin of Episcopacy, and many of the former 
 were willing to accept a sort of episcopal govern- 
 ment as a mere ecclesiastical ordinance, the 
 Anglican Church, by repudiating so powerful a 
 body from her communion, weakened her own 
 power. Indeed, the whole religious contest be- 
 tween that Church and the Puritans, turning, as 
 it did, not on questions of doctrine, but on mere 
 ritual observances, is for the frivolousness of the 
 grounds, as well as the acrimony of the strife, 
 unprecedented in the history of heretical sects. 
 The Anglican minority, indeed, represented by 
 the school of Laud, and holding the doctrine of 
 the divine institution of Episcopacy, had a very 
 reasonable ground for opposing the admission of 
 Presbyterians within the pale of their church.* 
 
 * A tract published by Laud, while yet a young man, 
 
214 
 
 CHARACTER OF CHARLES II. 
 
 The prince who ascended the throne of a land 
 still quaking from a recent revolution, and so torn 
 by religious strife and political contention, ought 
 to have been endowed with an unwonted energy 
 of character, and a more than ordinary share 
 of wisdom. Charles II. possessed high natural 
 abilities ; but unfortunately those abilities had 
 not been cultivated by a good education. In the 
 rambling life he had led in exile, he had con- 
 tracted habits of idleness and aversion to business. 
 Distinguished for a pleasing person and the most 
 insinuating manners and address, and possessed 
 withal of a natural kindliness of disposition, 
 Charles soon won the affections of his subjects, — 
 and, indeed, became one of the most popular 
 monarchs that ever sat on the British throne. 
 But unfortunately these good qualities were vi- 
 tiated by habits of sensual indulgence, and of 
 systematic dissimulation. Those hours that ought 
 to have been devoted to the promotion of his 
 peopled welfare he squandered away in idle saun- 
 terings in the company of unworthy favourites. 
 And while, by his scandalous amours, he increased 
 the corruption of his times, he left unsolved all 
 the arduous problems which devolved on the 
 government of that day. Playing fast and loose 
 with all political parties, ready to sacrifice the 
 most sacred claims of justice and of honour to 
 the fleeting interest of the moment, he betrayed 
 in turn all friends, and earned the contempt of 
 all men of probity. 
 
 His faithful friend and able counsellor, Claren- 
 don, he let, in despite of his earnest remonstrances 
 
 to prove the divine origin of episcopacy, was censured by 
 the University of Oxford, in the year 1608. 
 
CHARACTER OF CHARLES II. 
 
 215 
 
 and entreaties, die in exile. And though that 
 statesman had committed errors of judgment, and 
 Charles had been forced by a popular outcry to 
 dismiss him from his councils, yet nothing could 
 palliate the injustice and ingratitude evinced by 
 the monarch towards so meritorious a servant. 
 What shall I say of his treatment of the unhappy 
 victims of Oateses pretended Popish plot — men 
 professing the faith that he secretly believed in, 
 and of whose innocence, too, he was firmly con- 
 vinced ? What shall I say of those death-warrants 
 he so cowardly signed against holy Catholic priests, 
 whose sole crime was the exercise of their sacred 
 ministry ? What of the judicial murders of the 
 virtuous Lord Stafford, and of the venerable Dr. 
 Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh ? 
 
 Then, again, what indescribable meanness in his 
 acceptance of a pension from the sovereign of a 
 rival and often hostile state — a pension sought for 
 less from any great political motive, than for the 
 indulgence of his personal ease and the gratifica- 
 tion of his own pleasures ! And surely a brother 
 like James Duke of York, who had ever been as 
 faithful and affectionate to Charles as he had been 
 true to his church, deserved a better requital at 
 the hands of the monarch than a tame, dastard 
 compliance with the clamours of that brother’s 
 foes. And surely, anxious as was Charles to up- 
 hold his brother’s rights to the throne, yet nothing 
 was so calculated to impair those rights, and en- 
 danger his succession, than the king’s consent, 
 however reluctantly yielded, to James’s retire- 
 ment from the council, and temporary exile from 
 the country. A weakness of character so de- 
 plorable, while it conciliates no foes, disgusts and 
 disheartens friends. Such weakness, as it is the 
 
216 
 
 EVENTS IN HIS REIGN. 
 
 effect of selfishness, gives place on the first 
 occasion to a violence no less reprehensible. 
 
 By the Act of Settlement, Charles II. basely 
 sacrificed the interests of very many among the 
 Irish Catholics — the most devoted adherents of 
 his house and of monarchy, and rewarded with 
 their confiscated lands the Cromwellian adven- 
 turers and settlers, whose brethren in England he 
 at the same moment proscribed. 
 
 The two great physical scourges which visited 
 the British capital in this reign — : the plague and 
 the fire of London — as they seemed a fearful retri- 
 bution for all the innocent blood shed during the 
 preceding hundred years, fitly symbolized the wide- 
 spread corruption of the court and of the higher 
 classes, as well as the burning rage of sectarian 
 strife and political contention, then more fierce 
 than ever. 
 
 The conspiracy of Russell and Sydney to bring 
 about an insurrection in England and Scotland, in 
 order to effect the exclusion of the Duke of York 
 from the throne, and the still more desperate plot 
 of baser criminals to take away the lives of the 
 king and his brother — a plot which the former 
 sanctioned not, but which they did not denounce 
 — showed how ripe for revolution a party in the 
 country still was. 
 
 During his whole reign, Charles floated indo- 
 lently down the stream of time, looking only to 
 his immediate ease, and heedless of the fearful 
 eddies he was destined sooner or later to en- 
 counter. 
 
 In thisreign the Habeas Corpus Act — that palla- 
 dium of personal liberty — was passed by the legis- 
 lature. The naval glory of the empire was nobly 
 upheld ; and under Charles and his successor the 
 
DEATH OF CHARLES II. 
 
 217 
 
 commercial and colonial system of the country 
 took an immense development. 
 
 DEATH OF CHARLES II. 
 
 On Monday, the 2nd of February, 1685, the 
 king, after a feverish and restless night, rose at an 
 early hour. Though the remedies administered to 
 him were attended with partial success, it soon 
 became evident that the hour of his dissolution 
 was rapidly approaching. 
 
 His brother, the Duke of York, whose persecu- 
 tion he had sometimes weakly consented to, was in 
 his last illness destined to be his ministering angel 
 of consolation. James knelt down by the pillow 
 of the sick monarch, and asked if he might send 
 for a Catholic priest. “ For God’s sake do,” was 
 the king’s reply ; but he immediately added, “ Will 
 it not expose you to danger?” James replied, 
 “ that he cared not for the danger,” and sending 
 out a trusty messenger, shortly afterwards intro- 
 duced to his majesty the Rev. Mr. Huddleston, 
 with these words — “ Sir, this worthy man comes 
 to save your soul.” The priest threw himself on 
 his knees, and offered to the dying monarch the 
 aid of his ministry. To his inquiries Charles 
 replied, “ that it was his desire to die in the com- 
 munion of the Roman Catholic Church : that he 
 heartily repented of all his sins, and in particular 
 of having deferred his reconciliation to that hour : 
 that he hoped for salvation from the merits of 
 Christ his Saviour : that he pardoned all his 
 enemies, asked pardon of all whom he had offended, 
 and was in peace with all men ; and that he pur- 
 posed, if God should spare him, to prove the 
 sincerity of his repentance by a thorough amend- 
 
218 
 
 DEATH OF CHARLES II. 
 
 rnent of life.” The Rev. Mr. Huddleston, having 
 heard his confession, administered to him the holy 
 viaticum, anointed him, and retired. About two 
 o'clock in the night, looking on the duke, who 
 was kneeling at his bedside and kissing his hand, 
 the monarch called him “the best of friends and 
 brothers, desired him to forgive the harsh treat- 
 ment which he had sometimes received, and prayed 
 that God might grant him a long and prosperous 
 reign” — words the truest which Charles had ever 
 spoken, uttered on the threshold of that eternity, 
 where all dissimulation is vain. 
 
 At noon on the following day, the 6th of 
 February, 1685, the monarch calmly expired. 
 
 For this singular grace of a death-bed repent- 
 ance, after a life so scandalous, I have often 
 thought that Charles was indebted to the prayers 
 of a holy priest whom, under peculiar circum- 
 stances, he had during his exile met with in 
 Germany. The anecdote, with your permission, 
 I will now state. A few years before the Restora- 
 tion, Charles was on a visit to the ecclesiastical 
 elector of Mayence. In the course of conversa- 
 tion the elector said to the prince, “ There is in 
 my arch-diocese a saintly priest, called Holzhauser, 
 possessing the gifts of prophecy and miracle, and 
 who, many years ago, and long before the event, 
 foretold the tragic end of your royal father, and is 
 deeply interested in English affairs : would you 
 like to see him?” “ By all means,” replied Charles. 
 The priest was accordingly sent for, and though 
 the night was stormy, he traversed in a boat, at 
 the risk of his life, the Rhine from Bingen to 
 Mayence. Having been introduced to the English 
 prince, the latter questioned him much as to the 
 prophecy relative to his father's death. All that 
 
JAMES II. 
 
 219 
 
 passed in this secret interview, which was pro- 
 longed far into the night, is not known. But 
 Holzhauser declared that on taking leave of the 
 prince he invited him over to England, in case he 
 should ever be restored to the throne of his ances- 
 tors. In reply the holy man observed, he had 
 long burned with the desire to preach the faith in 
 England, and that if his duty to his congregation 
 allowed him, he would accept the invitation. 
 Charles shook hands with him in bidding him 
 farewell, and he in turn strongly commended to 
 the future king the protection of his English and 
 Irish Catholic subjects. 
 
 In a luminous commentary, which he wrote in 
 Latin, on the Apocalypse, Holzhauser foretold the 
 future conversion of England to the Catholic 
 faith. 
 
 JAMES II. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive a more decided con- 
 trast than existed between the character of the 
 deceased monarch and that of his brother, who, 
 under the name of James II., now ascended the 
 British throne. Charles II., as I have already 
 observed, possessed talents of a superior kind, but 
 which, from want of diligence, as well as of an 
 early good education, were in a great measure 
 useless to himself and to society. James II., with 
 inferior abilities, was much better read, and was 
 remarkable for his application to business. Charles, 
 with a greater knowledge of mankind, was of a 
 temper too easy, and too unsteady of purpose. 
 James had a mind more contracted than dull, and, 
 as his view of men and things was of a limited 
 range, his temper, like that of most narrow-minded 
 
220 
 
 HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 men, was exceedingly obstinate. The former looked 
 on dissimulation as the great engine of state policy; 
 the latter, in all the relations of public life, carried 
 frankness to a fault. One was the slave of sensual 
 passion, and, after having long paltered with his 
 conscience, found only on the verge of eternity 
 the treasure of faith, for which he had through 
 life secretly yearned. The other, after diligent 
 reading and serious inquiry, received from Heaven 
 the gift of the true faith — a gift which he clung 
 to with singular fidelity, which he never forfeited, 
 and for which he sacrificed an imperial crown — a 
 sacrifice, indeed, often overlooked by historians, 
 but which, certainly, was not forgotten by the 
 recording angel of mercy. And though he had 
 not always conformed his practice to his belief, 
 though, brought up in a vicious court, he had paid 
 a tribute to the corruption of his times, still the 
 latter years of his life were marked by great piety. 
 It must be acknowledged, indeed, that if the 
 Stuarts were mostly unfortunate in life, their 
 deaths were beyond measure blessed. Both the 
 royal brothers were distinguished for personal 
 bravery; and James, indeed, as admiral of the 
 British fleet, had in several hard-fought engage- 
 ments given signal proofs of courage and of skill. 
 Yet, singular to say, when, for the dearest interests 
 of himself, his house, his empire, his religion, and 
 more especially of Catholic Ireland, that skill and 
 courage were the most needed, a strange, unwonted 
 feeling of pusillanimity came over him. 
 
 In the critical position wherein, on his accession 
 to the throne, James was placed, what was the 
 policy which justice and prudence dictated? what 
 was the course to be pursued in order to conciliate 
 the respective claims of religious parties, to insure 
 
RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL PARTIES. 221 
 
 the stability of the throne, the quiet of the state, 
 the interests of his own Church, the religious 
 rights of his Catholic subjects, the toleration of 
 the Protestant Nonconformists ? 
 
 To answer these questions, we must know what 
 were the resources on which the king could depend. 
 He had the hearty sympathies of the Irish people, 
 of the bulk of Scotch Highlanders, and of the 
 English Catholics, whose landed gentry were then 
 far more numerous and wealthy than at the present 
 day. He had the support, more or less cordial, 
 of the great Tory party, then composed of the vast 
 majority of the Anglican clergy, the by far larger 
 portion of the aristocracy, the great mass of the 
 country gentlemen, the universities, and a con- 
 siderable body in all the other classes of society. 
 Such were the advantages, that compensated for 
 the difficulties of his position, when he ascended 
 the throne. By an infatuated policy, obstinately 
 pursued for three years, all these advantages he 
 recklessly threw away ; he alienated the affections 
 and lost the confidence of almost all his Protestant 
 subjects, and drew down the disapproval of all 
 enlightened Catholics at home and abroad. 
 
 He should have conciliated by every mark of 
 favour the High Church party, evinced a rigid 
 regard for the property and political privileges of 
 the Protestant Church, abandoned, if possible, its 
 headship to the Parliament, abstained from all 
 interference with the Protestant Universities, been 
 content with the quiet, unobtrusive exercise of 
 Catholic worship, encouraged calm, amicable con- 
 ferences between the Catholic clergy and the Pro- 
 testant ministers, discountenanced all bribes for 
 feigned, hypocritical conversions, satisfied the just 
 claims of those Irish adherents who had suffered 
 
222 
 
 POLICY OP JAMES II. 
 
 so much for their devotedness to his dynasty, made 
 a moderate use of the dispensing power in regard 
 to the nomination of Catholics to civil and military 
 situations, and, by constantly proposing to his Par- 
 liament the removal of civil disabilities from the 
 Nonconformists as well as from the Catholics, have 
 won the affections of the former, and strengthened 
 the confidence of the latter. 
 
 The first parliament that met after James’s 
 coming to the throne evinced a conciliatory spirit, 
 and granted liberal supplies. The suppression of 
 Monmouth’s rebellion, that ought to have conso- 
 lidated the new government, served, by intoxicating 
 the monarch with success, to undermine his throne. 
 Not content with bringing the ringleader of the 
 rebellion, who had once before been pardoned, and 
 a few of his accomplices to condign punishment, 
 James sent to the county, the seat of the late in- 
 surrection, judges who, by the brutality of their 
 deportment, as well as by the number and cruelty 
 of their sentences, brought disgrace on justice, and 
 irritated the nation. 
 
 The removal from the Cabinet Council of Lord 
 Rochester, a tried and faithful servant of the king, 
 for his refusal to conform to the Catholic faith, 
 while it proved how little James yet understood 
 the spirit of the religion he had embraced, excited 
 in the intensest degree the religious fears of the 
 Protestant Tories. At the same time profligate 
 and godless men, in order to win the favour of the 
 deluded prince, feigned conversion to his creed. 
 The crafty statesman, Sunderland, who somewhat 
 later betrayed his royal master, sought by such 
 hypocrisy to worm himself into his confidence. 
 From the growing approximations of the Laudian 
 school of divines to Catholic doctrine, there were 
 
POLICY OF JAMES II. 
 
 223 
 
 at that period many genuine conversions ; and had 
 James pursued a more rational policy, those con- 
 versions would have been far more numerous. 
 
 The assault on the academic privileges of the 
 universities, while in nowise conducive to the 
 interests of the Catholic religion, cast new con- 
 sternation into the Protestant mind, and arrayed 
 a formidable host of prejudices against the monarch 
 and his creed. A Catholic provost (Dr. Giffard) 
 was appointed to Magdalen College, the Protestant 
 fellows were expelled, and it was apprehended that 
 all the other colleges of Oxford would share the 
 same fate. These apprehensions were uot, of 
 course, allayed by the introduction into the 
 council of a rash, weak-minded man, Father Petre, 
 the king's confessor. Against this last step many 
 enlightened Catholics in and out of the Privy 
 Council had vainly protested ; and now the Head 
 of the Catholic Church raised his warning voice. 
 Had James resolved to blast for ever the prospects 
 of Catholicism in these realms, he could not have 
 pursued a policy more desperate. 
 
 The next measure of the king was the famous 
 Declaration of liberty of conscience, whereby the 
 execution of all the penal laws against Catholics, 
 and against Protestant Nonconformists, was sus- 
 pended. Surely nothing could be more laudable 
 than such a scheme, and blame must attach only 
 to the imprudent mode of carrying it into execu- 
 tion. The king's dispensing power had just been 
 acknowledged by the judges as legal ; but this 
 power had hitherto been exercised only in indi- 
 vidual cases. But the sweeping manner in which 
 James attempted to exert it would supersede all 
 parliamentary legislation, and render the royal 
 authority quite paramount. The monarch should 
 
224 
 
 POLICY OF JAMES II. 
 
 have bided his time, content for the present with 
 that practical toleration which the Catholics in his 
 empire were enjoying, and which he was anxious 
 to extend to the Protestant dissenters. He should 
 have remembered that in all human affairs practice 
 precedes theory ; and that before laws are formally 
 rescinded, they mostly fall into disuse, or become 
 practically inoperative. 
 
 But, not content with enforcing a practical reli- 
 gious toleration, the sovereign was anxious to gain 
 proselytes over to his own views, and accordingly 
 issued a proclamation, commanding the “ Declara- 
 tion of Indulgence/'’ as it was called, to be read 
 from every Protestant pulpit. Now, many of the 
 bishops and clergy objected, on principle, to all 
 religious toleration, even when enacted by the en- 
 tire legislature; and still more must they have been 
 opposed in this case to such a stretch of the royal 
 prerogative. Many of the prelates, headed by Dr. 
 Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, respectfully 
 declined compliance with the royal mandate. They 
 were prosecuted before the King^s Bench ; they 
 were acquitted by the jury, and the news of their 
 acquittal was received with shouts of joy, which 
 re-echoed even to the king’s camp in the vicinity 
 of London. 
 
 This acquittal sealed the fate of James. The 
 Whig malcontents, who had long been carrying on 
 negotiations with the Prince of Orange, were now 
 joined by many Tories. The English monarch had 
 lately been somewhat estranged from Louis XIV. ; 
 or that prince, who had vainly called the attention 
 of James to the dangerous intrigues of his son-in- 
 law, William, would certainly have prevented the 
 departure of the fleet of the latter from the shores 
 of Holland. The Princess Mary had artfully 
 
FLIGHT OF JAMES II. 
 
 225 
 
 lulled her father into a false security as to the 
 designs of her husband. Her sister Anne, on the 
 news of William's invasion of England, fled from 
 her father's palace. The English monarch, in an 
 agony of grief, exclaimed, “O God, help me ! for 
 my very children desert me." A fearful Nemesis 
 pursued those undutiful daughters ; for one died 
 early, and of the twenty-five children whom the two 
 sisters bore, not one reached the age of majority. 
 If their Protestant consciences would not allow 
 them to co-operate in the designs of their father, 
 yet at least, duty, affection, nature cried out to 
 them not to lift up their hands against a parent. 
 
 Deserted now by all parties, and after having so 
 long despised the counsels of his trusty Protestant 
 advisers, as well as of the English Catholic nobility, 
 and after having turned a deaf ear to the warnings 
 of the Sovereign Pontiff, and even of the French 
 monarch, who had at first encouraged him in his 
 rash designs, James now felt himself in worse than 
 the wonted “ solitude of kings." The defection of 
 a large body of troops under Lord Cornbury, the 
 son of Clarendon, consummated his ruin. After 
 the failure of his first attempt at escape from 
 England, he succeeded in his second; and having 
 reached the French territory, he was most hospi- 
 tably received by Louis XIV., who assigned to his 
 use the palace of St. Germain-en-Laye, which was 
 so long to be the abode of himself and his family. 
 
 Let us now contemplate the revolution which 
 was instrumental in thedethroningof this monarch, 
 and see what was its peculiar character. This will 
 lead us to consider the two classes of political revo- 
 lution. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 DIFFERENT KINDS 
 
 REVOLUTIONS DESTRUCTIVE, AND REVOLUTIONS 
 DEFENSIVE. 
 
 There are revolutions which are destructive, and 
 there are revolutions which are defensive or con- 
 servative. Those revolutions are destructive, which 
 aim not at the reform, but the overthrow of politi- 
 cal institutions, which set aside prescription, the 
 guardian of public as well as private right ; which 
 substitute for existing laws abstract theories with- 
 out relation to life ; which trample under foot the 
 vested rights of individuals and corporations; which 
 array in hostility class against class ; which invert 
 the relations of the social hierarchy; which not 
 only arbitrarily change national laws and customs, 
 but subvert institutions inherent, if I may so speak, 
 in humanity itself ; such as royalty, necessary to the 
 conservation of every large state ; such as nobility, 
 to be found under one form or another in every 
 human polity. Those revolutions are destructive, 
 which rob the people of their ancient customs and 
 franchises, take from them their corporate rights 
 and liberties, and leave them defenceless against 
 the encroachments of power, subject them either 
 to the terrorism of clubs, or the violence of the 
 armed force. Above all, are those revolutions 
 destructive, which assail the sacred interests of 
 religion and morality, which encroach on the 
 spiritual rights and jurisdiction of the Catholic 
 Church, confiscate her property, and maltreat her 
 priesthood ; which, by the introduction of divorce, 
 trouble and undermine the existence of the family, 
 and, by a licentious press, poison the springs of 
 public and private virtue. 
 
 Such to a greater or less extent were the politi- 
 
OF REVOLUTION. 
 
 227 
 
 cal revolutions that followed in the wake of the 
 disastrous Reformation of the sixteenth century, 
 and which were introduced either by regal despot- 
 ism or by popular license. Such was that fearful 
 Rebellion of 1640 I have already adverted to ; such 
 in a far more eminent degree was that mighty 
 French Revolution of 1789 — the most sweeping 
 and destructive that history records; such its 
 feeble imitations in Spain, in Portugal, in Naples, 
 in Rome, in Piedmont, in Germany — revolutions 
 that were checked in their bloody career partly 
 by the energetic virtue of the people, partly by 
 the active vigilance of Governments, partly by the 
 fearful warnings of past experience. 
 
 Now it is time to speak of defensive revolu- 
 tions. 
 
 Defensive revolutions are those, where the laws 
 and liberties, the religious and political institu- 
 tions of a nation are defended against the tyranny 
 of the prince, or the lawlessness of the multitude. 
 An eminent German Catholic philosopher has 
 said, that such revolutions might with propriety 
 be denominated political evolutions . And such a 
 name might be given them, either to signify that 
 they evolve some latent consequence of law or 
 maxim of state, or that by them some antagonistic 
 principle is cast out. Such were the risings of 
 Catholics, however unsuccessful, in the North of 
 England against the sacrilegious despotism of 
 Henry VIII.; such the French League that, at 
 the close of the sixteenth century, by recognizing 
 Henry of Navarre only on the condition of his 
 renouncing Calvinism* saved the Church of France 
 from the perils of a Huguenot tyranny ; such the 
 noble resistance of the Brabanters and Flemings 
 to the arbitrary encroachments of the Emperor 
 q 2 
 
228 
 
 REVOLUTION OF 1688. 
 
 Joseph II. on their religion and liberties. Here 
 we find a recognition and enforcement of a prin- 
 ciple prevailing in the public law of those countries, 
 that Catholicism was part and parcel of Royal 
 legitimacy. Again, the glorious revolution that 
 in the year 1640 was brought about by the unani- 
 mous accord of the clergy, nobility, and commons 
 of Portugal, which achieved the expulsion of the 
 Spaniards after their sixty years* calamitous sway, 
 the setting up of the house of Braganza on the 
 throne, and the re-establishment of the ancient 
 Cortes ; this, I say, was a conservative or defensive 
 revolution. 
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. 
 
 The question next to be examined is whether 
 the Revolution of 1688 were a defensive or a 
 destructive revolution. It may be considered 
 under two aspects. It was defensive as regards 
 the Anglican Church and its property and privi- 
 leges, and the political institutions and liberties of 
 England ; but in regard to the religious freedom 
 of English and Irish Catholics, it was destructive^ 
 Was it now necessary for the attainment of the 
 objects above specified? I think not; but this is 
 a question difficult to answer. Besides, in human 
 affairs, it is not certainty, but probability, which 
 is the mainspring of action. The Catholic League 
 of Erance was not certain that Henry of Navarre, 
 if allowed to mount the throne as a Calvinist, 
 would abuse his power, and under the guidance of 
 his intolerant fellow-religionists persecute the 
 Church of God. But in the then condition of 
 Erance such persecution was highly probable; and 
 under the sense of this probability, the League 
 
REVOLUTION OF 1688. 
 
 229 
 
 acted accordingly. Now James II. was not only 
 the head of England's state, but the head of her 
 Protestant Church also ; and who can doubt that 
 he had cruelly outraged Protestant feeling ? Who 
 can doubt that his systematic exclusion of Pro- 
 testants from the high offices of state— likely as 
 it seemed to be perpetuated under his Catholic 
 heir — was calculated to rouse in the highest degree 
 the indignation of a Protestant people? Who 
 can doubt that his assault on the property and 
 academic privileges of the University of Oxford 
 was of a nature to fill with alarm the Protestant 
 Church? And could that alarm be allayed by 
 the attempt to coerce the conscience of her pre- 
 lates, with regard to the reading of the Declara- 
 tion of Indulgence from the Protestant pulpits ? 
 And if an extreme exercise of an acknowledged 
 right be tyrannical, was not the sweeping use the 
 sovereign made of the dispensing power in regard 
 to the penal laws, and the pretensions he put 
 forth as to other matters of legislation, unknown 
 to the better periods of our history, as well as 
 repugnant to the genius of our constitution ? And 
 were not most of the proceedings of James as alien 
 from the spirit of the religion he had embraced, 
 as they were rash and absurd in themselves, and 
 insulting to Protestant feeling and Protestant 
 opinion? Well, it seems scarcely fair to deny to 
 Protestants those means of defence we claim for 
 ourselves. 
 
 But, considering the noble cause of religious 
 toleration which James so clumsily and un- 
 worthily defended — considering the grievances of 
 the Nonconformists, and the many and bitter 
 wrongs of English and Irish Catholics — would it 
 not have been wise on the part of the great Tory 
 
230 CONSTITUTION OF 1688. 
 
 party, not to have let the last chance of concilia- 
 tion pass unheeded by? Would it not have been 
 wise on their part, who looked with coldness and 
 distrust on the accession of William III. to the 
 throne, who were so soon to be agitated with 
 scruples of conscience touching their defection 
 from the cause of royal legitimacy, and to split 
 into the two opposite factions of Jacobites and 
 Hanoverians, — would it not have been wise, I say, 
 to have accepted James’s repentance, proffered at 
 the eleventh hour, to have rallied round his throne, 
 and have come to a prudent and final settlement 
 of affairs ? Then all the political blessings which 
 flowed from the revolution of 1688 might have 
 been obtained without the concomitant evils. 
 Then those excessive limitations on the royal 
 prerogative, which are calculated to endanger the 
 stability of the constitution, would have been 
 obviated. Then faithful Ireland would not have 
 been doomed to the protracted agony of a hundred 
 years. Then the ravages of civil war would not 
 have been carried into the peaceful glens of Scot- 
 land, nor her mountain-torrents dyed with the 
 blood of her heroic sons. Then the mighty wars, 
 which grew out of the Revolution, would not have 
 convulsed and desolated Europe. The system of 
 credit, useful within certain limits, would not 
 have been shamefully abused, nor the fortunes of 
 posterity mortgaged through the accumulation of 
 an enormous debt. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF 1688. 
 
 Let us now analyze the constitution which 
 sprang out of the Revolution of 1688. 
 
 As the Revolution was in most respects defen- 
 
CONSTITUTION OF 1688. 
 
 231 
 
 sive, so the constitution was not the product of 
 arbitrary theories, but the growth and develop- 
 ment of pre-existing institutions. The very words 
 used to denote this Revolution and its principal 
 acts, such as the “ Revolution Settlement/' “ the 
 Protestant Succession/' u the Bill of Rights/' 
 show that its authors grounded their work on an 
 historical basis, and aimed not at sweeping, un- 
 qualified change, but at the attainment of certain 
 definite rights, and the security of certain specific 
 interests. Who could apply the term “ Revolu- 
 tion Settlement" to the rebellion of 1640, which 
 overturned the monarchy and peerage, dragged 
 the monarch to the scaffold, led to a democratic, 
 then to a military tyranny, and confessed its own 
 impotence by aiding (partially, at least) in a 
 restoration ? Still less could such a term be 
 applied to the impious anarchy of 1790 and its 
 various phases. 
 
 To begin with the lower elements of society — 
 the municipal corporations, which had been dis- 
 turbed and disorganized in the preceding reigns, 
 were now confirmed anew, and restored to their 
 pristine vigour. No attempt was made to in- 
 troduce into these kingdoms that bureaucratic 
 regime, which was then becoming so fashionable 
 in Europe; but municipal self-government was, 
 in all its integrity, maintained. 
 
 The House of Commons acquired new strength 
 and new importance ; but at the same time, as 
 we shall presently see, it was closely united with 
 the Upper House by a community of interests, 
 opinions, and affections. To this sympathy, as 
 Mr. Burke well observes, we must mainly ascribe 
 the happy working of our constitution. 
 
 The Anglican Church retained unimpaired its 
 
232 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF 1688. 
 
 property and political privileges ; and, indeed, it 
 was in defence of these the Revolution had been 
 partly brought about. The universities, too, 
 preserved their autonomy, and sent their repre- 
 sentatives to parliament. There is much truth in 
 the severe remark of Locke, that the bench of 
 bishops was the dead member, the caput mortuum 
 of the British constitution. This is no fault of 
 the Revolution of 1688, but is to be ascribed to 
 the Reformation of the sixteenth century, which 
 made these prelates not only schismatical and 
 heretical, but Erastian, and by depriving them 
 of sacerdotal jurisdiction, and even orders, under- 
 mined, of course, their moral and political in- 
 fluence. 
 
 The Middle Age had invested science with 
 great external dignity, as it had clothed the 
 priesthood with much political power. But now, 
 as the principles of Protestantism developed, the 
 two houses of Convocation, which were the political 
 as well as the spiritual organs of the clergy, were 
 virtually suspended ; and in the course of the 
 eighteenth century, the second order of ministry 
 was excluded from the House of Commons. All 
 these circumstances combined tended more and 
 more to unspiritualize parliament, and to give 
 to secular rank and property there too exclusive 
 a predominance. 
 
 If now we turn to the aristocracy, we shall find 
 that, by the way it had conducted the Revolution, 
 it had achieved a signal triumph ; and this triumph 
 was in part owing to the unanimity of the Whig 
 and Tory parties, which the infatuated policy of the 
 late king had brought about. Who could have ima- 
 gined that that aristocracy, which forty years before 
 had been so humbled in the Grand Rebellion* 
 
CONSTITUTION OF 1688 . 
 
 233 
 
 would now evince such unwonted energy, and 
 assume a position so commanding ? It now suc- 
 ceeded to many of the functions of royalty ; and 
 the latter was compelled to play a more passive 
 part. This is one of the weak points in the 
 constitution of 1688, which it behoves us carefully 
 to examine. 
 
 Under the old constitution of the three estates, 
 as we have seen, royalty had its own hereditary 
 domains ; for in the patrimonial monarchy the 
 king was the first of independent proprietors; 
 nor could he in the course of ages, without detri- 
 ment to his dignity, lose that proprietorship. But 
 at the Revolution of 1688, royalty was stripped of 
 its lands, and made a pensioner on the bounty of 
 parliament ; and thus, at the caprice of a factious 
 majority, might be starved into a surrender of its 
 just prerogatives. Under the elder monarchy, 
 which, more or less developed, was that of all the 
 great European states, the king could exercise 
 his veto freely, and could sanction or reject the 
 laws proposed by the several estates, according 
 as his judgment and conscience dictated. But 
 under the new system, the ministry necessarily 
 chosen out of the parliament, and responsible to 
 parliament, could always oppose to the royal will 
 the will of the parliamentary majority. Hence 
 the veto on bills, nominally conceded to the 
 Crown, has never since the Revolution been really 
 exercised. Hence George II., on one occasion, 
 truly said that, in England, the ministers were 
 king. On this matter, Mr. Hallam, in his “ Con- 
 stitutional History of England,” expresses himself 
 with an amusing gravity. “ What, indeed,” he 
 says, “ might be effected by a king of England at 
 pnce able, active, popular, and ambitious — should 
 
234 CONSTITUTION OF 1688. 
 
 such ever unfortunately appear in this country — 
 it is not easy to predict : certainly his reign 
 would be dangerous on one side or other to the 
 present balance of the Constitution.”* Is it 
 possible to pronounce a severer critique on the 
 regal branch of our government ? What sort 
 of a constitution can that be which is unable to 
 support a talented and energetic monarch, and for 
 which, we are told, the firmness of a William III. 
 was something too great? How, then, if such an 
 ostracism be pronounced against royal talent and 
 activity, can such a constitution be adapted (as 
 its propagandists pretend) for all civilized states 
 and dynasties ? Must, then, in the countries 
 blessed with such a regime, the royal family, like 
 the peasants of Switzerland, rejoice in the birth 
 of an innocent ! Or must it be reserved to a 
 committee of Whig publicists and lawyers to 
 determine what degree of mental mediocrity and 
 feebleness of character a constitutional throne 
 may be safely intrusted to ! 
 
 But observe, aristocracy is ever pliant, concilia- 
 tory, far-sighted, never pushes its principles to 
 extremes, and is disposed to compromise ; and 
 this remark is particularly applicable to one so 
 practical and prudent as the British. George the 
 Third on one occasion told his Parliament, “ If 
 you force Mr. Fox on me, I will throw up the 
 reins of government, and retire to Hanover.” And 
 a Parliament, constituted as the British then was, 
 would never have driven the Crown to such peril- 
 ous straits. Not so, however, the more popular 
 legislatures, as they are found in the modern 
 representative systems ; for democracy is rash. 
 
 # Vol. iii. p. 297. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF 1688. 
 
 235 
 
 headlong, violent, intractable, tenacious of its 
 projects, and, in carrying them out, deaf to the 
 voice of prudence. This, in our times, was expe- 
 rienced by Charles X. of France, whose conscience 
 the Chamber of Deputies shamefully violated by 
 calling on him, under pain of refusal of subsidies, 
 to suppress the almost only Christian colleges in 
 his dominions, and to limit the number of ecclesi- 
 astical vocations in the seminaries.* The Chamber 
 was preparing fresh assaults on the royal con- 
 science, on the Church, and the monarchy, when 
 the king grasped his sword; and had he but 
 waited for his African army, he would have effec- 
 tually put down the revolutionary party ; and then 
 those who vanquished him would (as events subse- 
 quently proved) have hailed him as the benefactor 
 of his country. 
 
 * Charles X. suffered much anguish of mind, and long 
 hesitated before he signed the fatal ordinances of June, 
 1828. He summoned to St. Cloud a council of prelates 
 to advise him in this difficult matter. Among the prelates 
 were his confessor, Cardinal Latil, and Monseigneur Fray- 
 sinous, bishop of Hermopolis, who had just retired from 
 power with M. de Villele and his colleagues. The council 
 declared, that looking to the extreme peril in which the 
 monarchy was placed, and in order to avoid greater 
 dangers to Church and State, the king might affix his 
 signature to the ordinances in question. 
 
 Of course Charles X. took the first opportunity, which 
 presented itself a year afterwards, of tripping up the 
 ministry of Martignac, that, backed by the revolutionary 
 party, had forced the fatal ordinances upon him. 
 
 The facts here related I heard at the time from an 
 eminent Frenchman, who by his connections had access 
 to the best sources of information. 
 
 I have a strong conviction, though resting on no 
 positive proof, that it was the dread of a recurrence of 
 the same mental anguish, as well as a perception of the 
 dangers of the monarchy, which induced Charles X. to 
 make the coup d’etat of 1830. 
 
236 EFFECTS OF THAT CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Thus, then, the British aristocracy, which at 
 the Revolution, when it dethroned the rightful 
 monarch, had shown its wisdom by deviating as 
 little as possible from the right line of succession, 
 now in the century and a half which followed, 
 soothed royalty in its humiliating position, by 
 surrounding it with all the pomp of ceremonial, 
 and leaving to it as much as possible an indirect 
 power. 
 
 EFFECTS OF THAT CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Having now freely analyzed the several parts of 
 the British Constitution of 1688, and pointed out, 
 to the best of my ability, its many excellences 
 and some of its defects, let me show its practical 
 workings for the last century and a half. 
 
 It must be said, to the honour of our country, 
 that the eighteenth century, which in other states 
 was a period of political decline and moral dege- 
 neracy, was in Great Britain an era of freedom, 
 prosperity, and glory. 
 
 At this epoch, and chiefly in consequence of the 
 loss of her ancient Cortes, Spain had sunk into 
 that political languor from which she was, at the 
 commencement of this century, roused by the 
 paroxysms of revolution. France was still bleeding 
 from the long wars of Louis XIY. ; and, robbed 
 by that monarch and Richelieu of her old political 
 institutions, and under the exclusive guidance of a 
 court rash, frivolous, innovating, she was soon to 
 enter on that career of guilt and impiety which 
 was at last to precipitate her into the abyss of 
 revolution. Italy, contented in some of her pro- 
 vinces, in others sat silent and mournful amid 
 the ruins of her glorious mediaeval Republics. 
 
EFFECTS OF THAT CONSTITUTION. 237 
 
 Portugal, which in the last half of the seventeenth 
 century had resumed her ancient energy, fell now 
 by degrees into a state of too great commercial 
 dependence on England ; and with the progress of 
 absolutism, pined and sickened daily. In Bavaria 
 the convocation of the States fell into disuse ; and 
 this was the case in several of the minor German 
 principalities. In Prussia an odious military 
 despotism was established; and Denmark, weary 
 of her long revolutions, sank under the most 
 arbitrary of governments. 
 
 At this period, when absolute power w r as making 
 such progress, England stood forth with her time- 
 honoured Constitution, the work of our Catholic 
 forefathers ; a Constitution which had stood the 
 brunt of ages, resisted the sapping of the Tudor 
 despotism — the arbitrary innovations of the first 
 Stuarts — the shocks of the Grand Rebellion. And 
 now, though mutilated and defaced, though far 
 below the ideal of the old Christian monarchy, the 
 Constitution of 1688 has yet insured better than 
 any contemporary government the union of order 
 and freedom. Nowhere have the claims of the 
 territorial nobility and the commercial notabilities 
 been better adjusted; nowhere have the aristo- 
 cracy and the landed gentry been more sustained 
 and renovated by the wealth of the trading classes, 
 and the talents of the professional; nowhere has 
 personal liberty, as well as life and property, been 
 better protected ; nowhere have the material 
 interests of the people been better guarded, nor 
 their practical good sense been better developed, 
 than by our admirable municipal institutions. 
 And under the aegis of that Constitution, and by 
 the bravery and skill of the inhabitants of the 
 three kingdoms, has not Great Britain pursued a 
 
238 EFFECTS OF THAT CONSTITUTION. 
 
 glorious career in letters, and arts, and science, 
 and arms? Has she not on many a shore, and 
 many a sea, waved her triumphant banners — 
 spread the wings of her commerce to every breeze 
 — covered the seas with her rich argosies — girdled 
 the ocean with a long belt of naval stations — 
 realized in her workshops the mythic marvels of 
 Hephaestus, and far, from the rising to the setting 
 sun, established a colossal colonial dominion, 
 which, in the solidity as well as the variety and 
 extent of its structure, surpasses all that the skill 
 of the Venetians, the noble daring of the first 
 Portuguese and Spaniards, the patient industry of 
 the Dutch, and the brilliant but ephemeral efforts 
 of the French had succeeded in erecting? And 
 did she not sixty years ago scare away from her 
 shores the fiends of anarchy, that French Jacobin- 
 ism had evoked, and aid the nations of Europe to 
 overthrow that gigantic tyranny which bestrode 
 and crushed them ? And, thanks to the better 
 elements of that Constitution, was not the heroic 
 Catholic people of this island sustained in its early 
 efforts for emancipation by the genius of Burke, 
 and the eloquence of Grattan and Plunket, and 
 finally delivered by the energy of O^Connell? 
 And were not thus the portals of that Constitu- 
 tion burst asunder, which the misguided policy of 
 James had failed to open to this nation ? 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In conclusion, I will endeavour to sum up the 
 purport of the preceding observations. 
 
 The Constitution of the three estates — the noble 
 creation of the Catholic Church — calculated as it 
 was to insure the rights and the interests of all 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 239 
 
 classes, was, as we have seen, arrested in its deve- 
 lopment by the Reformation of the sixteenth 
 century. It gave place to absolute monarchy. 
 This system of government, though in Catholic 
 countries it was modified by many counteracting 
 influences — by the spirit of religion, public man- 
 ners, the power of the clergy, the rights of corpo- 
 rations, local customs and franchises, and the 
 remnant of provincial legislatures — yet in rendering 
 the power of the Crown too exorbitant, and in 
 bereaving it of the active co-operation of the 
 other orders of the state, tended to undermine its 
 existence. By narrowing the political sphere of 
 the aristocracy, it rendered it discontented, rash, 
 inexperienced, prone to innovation ; w 7 hilst its 
 efficiency as the defender of royal prerogative and 
 popular liberty was alike impaired. 
 
 After abridging the political rights of the clergy, 
 absolute monorchy encroached on their spiritual 
 jurisdiction; for ‘provincial synods and national 
 councils , as the history of Spain and France can 
 attest , did not long survive the suspension of Cortes 
 and States-General. 
 
 The administrative centralization begun by the 
 absolutism of the eighteenth century, was con- 
 summated by the fearful revolution which marked 
 its close. Hereby municipal institutions were 
 gradually weakened and undermined; and the' 
 management of their local concerns being by 
 degrees withdrawn from the people, they became 
 ignorant and helpless in political affairs, and so 
 fell an easy prey to the arts of revolutionary 
 sophists. 
 
 Thus did absolute monarchy leave the forms of 
 the states-constitution subsisting, but devoid of 
 life and energy. The clergy still retained their 
 
240 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 temporal possessions, and much political influence ; 
 the aristocracy their titles and wealth ; the Com- 
 mons their municipal property and many municipal 
 privileges. But these orders had little or no share 
 in the government of the realm; and royalty, 
 like a solitary column, alone supported the super- 
 incumbent edifice of the state. 
 
 This system of government, paralyzing the 
 members of the body politic, reduced it to a con- 
 dition of languor and atony — a condition that 
 led, by a natural reaction, to the paroxysms of 
 revolution. 
 
 Against absolute monarchy the modern repre- 
 sentative system has been a protest and a reaction. 
 This system sprang out of the great French Revo- 
 lution of 1789. It strove (and in this attempt it 
 has partially succeeded) to restore to the different 
 orders of the state that activity whereof absolutism 
 had bereaved them. But that activity hath not 
 been well regulated, nor hath the co-operation of 
 powers sought to be introduced been effective and 
 harmonious. 
 
 By the modern representative system, I under- 
 stand not such purely revolutionary governments 
 as the French Constituent Assembly of 1791, and 
 the Spanish Cortes of 1812 and 1820 ; but hereby 
 I understand those governments, like the French 
 Charter of 1814, and the Spanish Constitution 
 of the present day, where the monarchical and 
 the aristocratical elements are combined with the 
 popular. 
 
 This system has the defects of the Constitution 
 of 1688, without its countervailing advantages. 
 Here, as in our own Constitution, royalty is de- 
 pendent on the Parliament for its very subsistence; 
 here, too, the royal veto on the passing of laws is 
 
THE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 241 
 
 more or less a virtual nullity. But this dependence 
 is more stringent and humiliating, because the 
 commonalty in this representative system is more 
 powerful and arrogant; and democracy, as I have 
 shown, is ever, in its relations with the Crown, 
 less prudent, more jealous, more imperious, more 
 exacting. 
 
 But this modern representative government 
 wants the sheet-anchor of the British Constitu- 
 tion — the union subsisting between the Upper 
 and the Lower Houses of Legislature — a union 
 brought about in the manner I have before 
 described.*’ 
 
 While the aristocracy is thus weakened, the 
 municipal corporation is undermined ; for, next to 
 royalty and nobility, no object is more feared and 
 detested by the revolutionary party than the free 
 municipality. Administrative centralization, begun 
 by absolutism, and consummated by the revolution 
 of 1789, is retained in every one of these represen- 
 tative governments. To the many evils of that 
 system above described, I may add that by entirely 
 subordinating the provinces of an empire to its 
 capital, it facilitates in a marvellous degree the 
 enterprises of any revolutionary faction. The 
 first demagogue or military chief who, at the head 
 of an armed force, gets possession of the capital, 
 is master of the state, where he can establish at 
 his will a military or a popular tyranny. 
 
 In Spain, whose people has been well called by 
 the Count de Maistre the most legislative of modern 
 times, and where the nobility have retained their 
 
 * Since the constitutional changes of 1832, which this 
 is not the place to characterize, this union between the 
 House of Lords and the House of Commons is, doubtless, 
 no longer what it once was. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 THE STATES-CONSTITUTION. 
 
 possessions, the municipalities their rights ; where 
 the clergy have so nobly stood the fiery ordeal of 
 persecution, and the immense majority of the 
 nation have had the inestimable happiness of pre- 
 serving their faith ; it is to be hoped (and, indeed, 
 it is highly probable) that their present govern- 
 ment will, after various fluctuations, settle down 
 into their old “ Cortes por estamentos,” or the 
 Constitution of the three orders. 
 
 It is long, I fear, ere such a blessed consumma- 
 tion can be looked for in France. There, in 
 despite of the great progress of religion, the utter 
 godlessness and depravity of large masses in the 
 middle and the lower classes, as well as the total 
 destruction of the old municipal organization, and 
 the fearful havoc made on the property and poli- 
 tical influence of the old nobility, render for many 
 years yet the establishment of a free and stable 
 order of things a matter well-nigh impracticable. 
 
 Thus have I characterized the modern absolut- 
 ism, the modem representative system, the British 
 Constitution, and, lastly, the Constitution of the 
 three estates, of which the former are respectively 
 the remnant or the corruption. 
 
 I have shown that absolutism led to revolution ; 
 and that the representative system, though a noble 
 effort after a better order of things, was at best 
 but a temporary compromise between the revolu- 
 tion and absolutism. 
 
 But is the Constitution of 1688, which stands 
 forth as a glorious relic of the past, calculated to 
 insure the future safety of European nations, as 
 well as of our own ? This question, I fear, must 
 be answered in the negative. For, firstly, not to 
 say that it is scarcely possible to find out of Great 
 Britain an aristocracy so strongly constituted as 
 
THE STATES- CONSTITUTION. 
 
 243 
 
 our own, the parliamentary ascendancy of that 
 aristocracy, highly useful as it has been, was 
 propped up by means precarious and artificial- 
 means, too, that have at last partially failed. 
 Secondly, the excessive abridgment of the royal 
 prerogative is calculated sooner or later to 
 introduce dangerous perturbations into that con- 
 stitution. 
 
 The States-Constitution, therefore, is the only 
 refuge of safety for the nations of Europe. This 
 constitution protects all interests, and guarantees 
 all rights ; it is founded in the nature of things ; 
 it is founded in the history of those nations. 
 
 To apply, however, these remarks more imme- 
 diately to England — as in religion the Anglican 
 Church facilitates more than any other Protestant 
 communion a return to Catholic unity, so in 
 politics the constitution of 1688 is more suscep- 
 tible than any existing government of a glorious 
 regeneration. Under the benign influence of 
 Catholicism, our constitution will yet be restored 
 to its pristine vigour ; the bench of bishops will 
 become a caput vivum , instead of what Locke called 
 it, a caput mortuum ; royalty will recover its pro- 
 prietary rights and its effectual veto ; the aristo- 
 cracy will be still more honoured and respected ; 
 the commonalty, henceforth devoted to the Church, 
 loyal to the Crown, and united and happy, will 
 be intrusted — and most safely intrusted — with a 
 large share of political rights. But if, unhappily, 
 before Catholicism can gain even a partial ascend- 
 ancy over the English mind, the revolutionary 
 democracy should prevail ; we may then look for 
 a long period of anarchy and bloodshed, marked 
 by the frightful alternations of religious fanaticism 
 and atheistic frenzy. May the Providence that 
 r 2 
 
244 
 
 THE STATES-CONSTITUTION. 
 
 has so long watched over our country defend us 
 from evils so tremendous ! 
 
 N.B. — For the anecdote about Holzhauser, see his life 
 prefixed to the German Translation of his Commentary 
 on the Apocalypse (1849). 
 
 N.B. — For the Oxford censure on Laud’s early Tract, 
 see Dollinger’s Essay on the History of the Tractarian 
 Movement, in the “Historisch-Politische Blatter” (Munich, 
 1844). 
 
245 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 MORAL CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 OF 1789. 
 
 I have oh a former occasion spoken of the 
 different kinds of revolution — those of a conserv- 
 ative, and those of a destructive nature.* Those 
 revolutions I showed to be conservative, which 
 were achieved in defence of the religious or the 
 civil institutions and liberties of a country ; and 
 those revolutions, on the other hand, destructive, 
 which overthrew or assailed its religion, or pro- 
 duced fundamental organic changes in its laws 
 and institutions. 
 
 The Revolution of 1789 was assuredly the most 
 destructive that history records. After the Refor- 
 mation, it is the most momentous fact, — the most 
 awful portent of modem times. The Reformation 
 was a purely religious revolution, which was 
 attended but indirectly with political consequences. 
 The Revolution of 1789 was a great politico-moral 
 convulsion, having causes and consequences alike 
 moral and political ; bearing strong affinities to 
 the Grand Rebellion of 1640, though infinitely 
 more aggravated in its character, and more widely 
 extended in its operations and its influence. All 
 
 * Vide Lecture VI. 
 
246 PROBLEMS OF THAT REVOLUTION. 
 
 the great problems of moral and social life were 
 canvassed in this mighty revolution : and so an 
 explanation of its causes and its effects would 
 furnish much insight into all political science. It 
 condenses within a narrow space of time the great 
 social changes of former ages, rendering them as 
 intense in quality as they are limited in duration. 
 For here, within the compass of sixty or seventy 
 years, we see the corrupt influence of the Greek 
 sophists — the ravages of the Peloponnesian war — 
 the struggles of the Roman patricians and plebei- 
 ans — the revolt of the Gracchi — the mutual 
 proscriptions of Marius and Sylla — the bloody 
 contests of Pompey and Caesar — the crafty des- 
 potism of Augustus — the menaced reign of the 
 Praetorian guards.*'’ What theme can be more 
 majestic ! what more various and more extensive l 
 I just now said this great revolution involved all 
 the problems of moral and social life. 
 
 First, as to religion, not only the Christian, 
 but the heathen, knew that an atheistic nation 
 could not exist. " One may as well attempt to 
 build a city in the air,” says the wise Plutarch, 
 “ as found a state without religion.” But never, 
 until 1792, had the monstrous experiment been 
 essayed. 
 
 The great Bossuet had long ago told us that 
 Deism was a practical Atheism, and the enlight- 
 ened Christian knew that as this system rejected 
 not only all sacrifice and sacerdotal mediation, but 
 all public prayer, and individualized, so to speak, 
 religion, it could not possibly bind a community 
 together. But the utter failure of the ludicrous, 
 as well as blasphemous, system of Theophilan- 
 
 * Vide Note in Appendix, 
 
PROBLEMS OE THAT REVOLUTION. 247 
 
 thropy in 1796, made this truth palpable, as it 
 were, to mankind. 
 
 Then, again, with regard to social and political 
 science, is there a single question which has not 
 been mooted— a single problem whereof the solu- 
 tion, in one form or another, has not been at- 
 tempted ? 
 
 What is the origin of human society ? Is it indi- 
 rectly a Divine institution, or is it a mere creature 
 of human convention ? Is the civil power or- 
 dained of God, or is it a mere commission of the 
 people, revocable at its will ? Can a political con- 
 stitution be struck off at a heat, or must it be the 
 work of time ? Should royalty have a share in the 
 legislative power, or should its functions be con- 
 fined solely to the executive ? Should royalty 
 hold landed estates, or be merely salaried by the 
 Parliament ? Ought a territorial nobility to 
 exist ? Should the law of primogeniture for real 
 property exist ? Should there be one, or two 
 legislative houses ? How should they be consti- 
 tuted, and what should be the extent of the 
 popular suffrage? Should there be free munici- 
 palities, or should the system of administrative 
 centralization prevail ? What should be the 
 relations between Church and State? Should the 
 clergy enjoy spiritual independence, or in matters 
 of discipline be subjected to the State? Should 
 they possess landed endowments, and be admitted 
 to political privileges and dignities, or be reduced 
 to a mere government salary, or made dependent 
 on the voluntary oblations of the faithful ? Should 
 they be utterly excluded from any share of political 
 power ? Should the laws recognize religion as the 
 most sacred of institutions, or utterly ignore her 
 existence ? Should, consequently, the observance of 
 
248 PROBLEMS OF THAT REVOLUTION. 
 
 Sundays and of holidays be enforced by the State, 
 or abandoned to individual caprice ? Should mar- 
 riage be acknowledged as a Divine sacrament, or as 
 a mere civil contract ? Should divorce be tolerated? 
 Does the education of the child belong to the 
 parent, or to the State ? Should education be 
 free, or be controlled by the civil power ? 
 
 Again, should the press be subjected to a cen- 
 sorship, or should it be free ? And if free, what 
 should be the limits of that freedom? Should 
 seditious clubs be tolerated ? Should secret poli- 
 tical societies be tolerated ? Further, is the 
 republican or the regal form of government to be 
 preferred ? What are the conditions to determine 
 such a choice ? Should the republic, if adopted, 
 be federal, or should it be one and indivisible ? 
 
 Lastly, what is the origin of property ? Is it 
 founded in the natural law, or in mere positive 
 law ? Such were the portentous magnitude and 
 variety of the social and political questions raised 
 by the Revolution of 1789. 
 
 Hence it is clear, that if we can give a satifactory 
 answer to these questions, we have obtained an 
 immense insight into political science. In theology 
 there is no better method of learning the doctrines 
 of the Church, than by studying the heresies which 
 she has condemned, and which have brought out 
 her teaching more clearly and more forcibly. The 
 foundations of political as of all ethical science 
 are laid down by Revelation. The superstructure 
 of the social edifice is ^abandoned to the liberty of 
 individual opinion; but its foundations are jealously 
 guarded by religion. 
 
 In examining this great political heresy of the 
 French Revolution, we must see what is the teach- 
 ing of the Church on the matters at issue, and 
 
ITS POLITICAL TENETS. 
 
 249 
 
 what is the share left to philosophic speculation. 
 The Catholic who would say,, “I execrate the 
 crimes of the French Revolution — I abhor its 
 impieties — I repudiate its Jansenism — but I hold 
 to its political principles and measures/* would be 
 guilty, to say the least, of great rashness ; for many 
 of those principles and measures have been formally 
 condemned by the Church, and many others are 
 repugnant to her spirit,"* and those which, for 
 
 * In the Brief of the 10th March, 1791, the Pope 
 (Pius VI.) examined many articles of the Civil Constitution 
 of the clergy. He replied to those who pretended that the 
 Constituent Assembly had a right to pass laws in matters 
 of church discipline, as being susceptible of change. “ In 
 the first place,” said the Pope, “ many of the new decrees 
 depart from the teaching of faith. Is not that absolute 
 licence , which is proclaimed and exaggerated ; is not that doc- 
 trine , which no longer beholds in the sovereign the minister of 
 God himself ; is not that formal withdrawal from the 
 authority of the Holy See ; are not all these points,” said 
 the Pope, 66 contrary to the principles of the Catholic 
 Church ? Moreover, discipline has often an intimate 
 connection with dogma.” — (Memoires pour servir a 
 l’Histoire Ecclesiastique pendant le Dix-huitieme Siecle, 
 t. iii. p. 173.) 
 
 The sacrilegious spoliation of the secular and regular 
 clergy — the proscription of whole classes of citizens, for no 
 other crime than their rank and status in society, are as 
 repugnant to Catholic doctrine as to the dictates of natural 
 equity. 
 
 The degradation of marriage to the condition of a mere 
 civil contract, and the consequent permission of divorce, 
 under the pretext that the State is only to regard the civil 
 effects of marriage, — consecrated as these principles are in 
 the legislation of revolutionary France, — are clearly con- 
 trary to Catholic dogma. 
 
 The declaration made by the Convention, that the 
 child belongs to the State, and not to the parent, and that, 
 consequently, the civil government may control all moral 
 and secular education, is equally adverse to Catholic 
 doctrine. 
 
250 
 
 ITS POLITICAL TENETS. 
 
 instance, like the abolition of the institution of 
 nobility, cannot come under her ban, are still 
 rejected by the universal sense and practice of 
 mankind. 
 
 In the present lecture I shall speak of the moral 
 causes of the Revolution of 1789 ; and in treating 
 
 The sanction given by the French revolution to secret 
 societies — societies, indeed, out of which it sprang — mili- 
 tates, likewise, against the Catholic precept. 
 
 The appeal made by that revolution to the rebels of all 
 countries — the attempt to propagate its principles by the 
 sword — are repugnant to the maxims and the practice of 
 the Church. 
 
 Lastly, a memorable example how contrary to the spirit 
 and the doctrines of the Church are the political tenets of 
 the Revolution, is shown in the condemnation of the 
 journal called Avenir . The intentions of the writers were 
 most pure, as their abilities were undoubted ; and their 
 zeal in behalf of the truths of religion and of the rights of 
 the clergy could not be surpassed. Yet because that journal 
 failed to evince sufficient respect for the authority of civil 
 rulers ; because it inculcated the expediency of tole- 
 rating all errors, in order better to promote the triumph of 
 religion; and because it preached up the total separation 
 of Church and State, it was condemned by the Holy See, 
 in the Encyclical Letter of 1832. So adverse are the 
 political tenets of the French Revolution to the doctrines 
 and the spirit of the Catholic religion. 
 
 This truth w'as indirectly acknowledged by the chief editor 
 of that journal, the Abbe de la Mennais himself, who (as I 
 know on the best authority), when on the condemnation of 
 these opinions he stopped its publication, said to his friends, 
 “ Well, it is all for the best ; for had the Avenir continued, 
 the Catholics of France would perhaps have been induced 
 to join with the revolutionary party.” And had he then 
 not merely suspended the publication of this newspaper, 
 but given in his internal adhesion to the doctrines of the 
 Encyclical Letter, all would have been right ; but in the 
 four years of hesitation which followed, pride, alas ! was 
 swelling his heart and darkening his understanding, and 
 we all know the fearful catastrophe which ensued. 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 251 
 
 this subject, the following are the topics which 
 will successively engage our attention : — 1st, the 
 Reformation of the sixteenth century; 2nd, the 
 Jansenistic heresy; 3rd, Gallicanism — whether the 
 more moderate Gallicanism of the prelates, or the 
 more violent one of the magistrates ; 4th, the 
 encroachments of the state on the spiritual rights 
 of the Church during the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries ; 5th, the immorality intro- 
 duced at court and among the high nobility by the 
 regent, Philip duke of Orleans ; 6th, the demo- 
 ralizing effects of the financial system of the 
 adventurer Law ; 7th, the scandals of the court of 
 Louis XY. ; 8th, the irreligious literature and 
 science of the last century ; 9th, the laxity of 
 discipline that had crept into many religious com- 
 munities, and the irregularities of conduct among 
 not a few of the secular clergy ; and lastly, the 
 great disorders introduced into public education 
 by the suppression of the Society of Jesus. 
 
 In the next lecture the political causes of this 
 Revolution will come under our consideration. 
 
 PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 It is in the Reformation of the sixteenth century 
 we must look for the main cause of that great 
 moral and political revolution that convulsed the 
 close of the last age. The Reformation engen- 
 dered first heresy, and then fanaticism, and lastly 
 unbelief ; and those nations whom it failed to 
 corrupt by the first two, it succeeded in contami- 
 nating by the last. In Prance, the Catholic 
 Church carried on with Protestantism a death- 
 struggle, which lasted for about sixty years. And 
 when we consider- that the greater part of the 
 
252 
 
 PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 nobility had, at one time, embraced the doctrines 
 of the Reformation, that a portion of the clergy were 
 very degenerate, and that a corrupt and vacillating 
 court played fast and loose with both religious 
 parties, we may suppose what extreme perils the 
 true faith had to encounter. And what a bloody 
 persecution had the Church then to endure ! 
 How many of her ministers were slain at the 
 altar, or forced to fly from their flocks ! How 
 many churches were desecrated and destroyed ! 
 How many abbeys and convents burned to the 
 ground, and their helpless inmates cruelly insulted 
 and put to death ! What rapine ! what havoc ! 
 what atrocious outrages ! what cold-blooded 
 butcheries practised on unoffending Catholics of 
 every class ! 
 
 Bergier long ago defied the Protestants to name 
 a single city in France where, when the Hugue- 
 nots had taken possession of it, the Catholic 
 religion was not proscribed, nor her ministers 
 put to death, or banished ! 
 
 Towards the end of the sixteenth century the 
 Church of God came out of the struggle, — vic- 
 torious, indeed, but maimed and bleeding. The 
 dragon had been conquered ; but he left behind 
 him a brood, which was to worry her for many 
 a long year. Jansenism was an off-shoot of the 
 Reformation ; and the violent parliamentary Gal- 
 licanism, though it did not originate in the 
 religious schism of the sixteenth century, was 
 certainly affected by it. 
 
 The French Huguenots in the seventeeenth 
 century enjoyed a degree of liberty then unknown 
 to Catholics in Protestant States, and which, 
 even after their rebellion under Louis XIII., they 
 did not forfeit. When, in the year 1685, Louis 
 
PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 253 
 
 XIV., unfortunately, rescinded their charter of 
 religious freedom — the edict of Nantes — he not 
 only committed an act of gross injustice and 
 tyranny, but he struck a severe blow at the in- 
 terests of his own Church, as well as of the French 
 monarchy. For, on the one hand, he checked 
 the tide of conversions then fast setting in towards 
 Catholicism, and, on the other, he banished from 
 his kingdom a mass of industrious artisans and 
 brave seamen, who proceeded to man the fleets of 
 his enemies, and to transfer to Holland, England, 
 and Prussia, their skill and their enterprise. 
 Then, by bereaving the Protestant people of their 
 pastors, he disorganized their churches, and thus 
 brought to a premature development those germs 
 of unbelief latent in all the forms of Protest- 
 antism. Lastly, by this ordinance he exasperated 
 his Protestant subjects at home to Epvolt, and to 
 a frenzy of fanaticism that could be put down 
 only by the cruel dragonnades; while, in their 
 exiled fellow-religionists, he created a host of 
 formidable enemies, who stirred up hatred to 
 France in every Protestant court. Hence it is 
 not surprising that the reigning Pontiff*,* and 
 many enlightened Catholics of the day, should 
 have disapproved of the persecuting policy of the 
 French king. “ Coercion,” said the Pope, "is 
 not the way to make Christians.” Bad laws have 
 a more lasting effect than is commonly supposed. 
 Though during the greater part of the eighteenth 
 century the unjust ordinance of 1685 was no 
 longer enforced, and the French Protestants en- 
 joyed to a great extent practical toleration, yet 
 such was the amount of disaffection engendered 
 by former intolerance, that when the Revolution 
 * Innocent XI. 
 
254 
 
 JANSENISM. 
 
 of 1789 broke out, the bulk of these religionists, 
 contrary to their own moral and material interests, 
 sided with the enemies of all religion and social 
 order. They formed, indeed, not a twentieth 
 part of the French population ; yet, congregated 
 as they were in some cities of southern France, 
 their political influence was more formidable than 
 their numbers would have warranted us to suppose. 
 
 So, not only the Reformation, in its general 
 influence on the European mind, but the French 
 Calvinism in particular, must be looked on as no 
 unimportant agent in bringing about the Revo- 
 lution of 1789. 
 
 JANSENISM. 
 
 I now come to another moral cause of the 
 revolution — J an senism . 
 
 Jansenius, Jbishop of Ypres, in Belgium, wrote 
 a work, entitled Augustinus , in which he professed 
 to state and explain the opinions of St. Augustine 
 touching free-will, Divine grace, and predestina- 
 tion. It was only after his death the work was 
 published. 
 
 Pope Urban VIII., in 1642, issued the Bull 
 “ In Eminenti,” by which he condemned this 
 book, declaring that, to the great scandal of Catho- 
 lics, and in contempt of the authority of the 
 Holy See, it contained many propositions already 
 anathematized by his predecessors ; for it renewed 
 the errors of Baius. The Pope concluded with 
 pronouncing excommunication against all who 
 should maintain its doctrines. But the university 
 of Louvain, backed by the archbishop of Malines, 
 and the bishop of Ghent, obtained, by negotiations 
 with the court of Spain, the suspension for many 
 years of the publication of the Papal Bull. At 
 
JANSENISM. 
 
 255 
 
 last, in the year 1651, that court enforced, under 
 severe penalties, the publication of the Pontifical 
 decree. This was then accepted by the univer- 
 sity of Louvain, and by the entire Church of the 
 Low Countries. 
 
 But Jansenism, stifled in the land of its birth, 
 grew and spread, and ultimately assumed a for- 
 midable development in France. Duvergier de 
 Hauranne, abbot of St. Cyran, in Berry, and 
 who, during his abode at the university of Louvain, 
 had been on intimate terms with Jansenius, 
 became in his own country an ardent apostle of 
 the doctrines of his master. Talented, energetic, 
 enterprising, obstinate, he was formed to be the 
 leader of a sect. Irreproachable in his morals, 
 and austere in his maxims, he was shocked by 
 many lax opinions in morality which had come 
 into vogue, which, however, the Holy See and the 
 bishops had condemned, and which the religious 
 communities, some of whose members had ad- 
 vanced them, had rejected also. But like all 
 innovators, the Abbe de St. Cyran must needs 
 run into the opposite and still more dangerous 
 extreme of a harsh rigorism in the guidance of 
 souls. There is no reason to doubt the sincerity 
 of his convictions ; and though we cannot acquit 
 him of a spirit of culpable indocility, we must 
 remember he died before certain questions con- 
 nected with Jansenism had been finally deter- 
 mined by the Holy See, and therefore, had he 
 been enlightened by those decisions, he might 
 have renounced his errors. 
 
 He directed the consciences of the nuns of Port- 
 Royal ; and when they gave up their convent for 
 the use of the male solitaries, he was associated 
 with Arnauld d'Andilly, with Bignon, with Le 
 
256 
 
 JANSENISM. 
 
 Maistre, and his brother De Sacy, and with Lan- 
 celot. He induced the younger, and afterwards 
 famous, Arnauld to embrace his theological 
 opinions. This last-named doctor, Nicole, and 
 the great Pascal, were the brighest ornaments of 
 the school of Port-Royal. 
 
 In the year 1652, the syndic of the Sorbonne, 
 Dr. Cornet, extracted from the book Augustinus , 
 five propositions, which contained the sum and 
 essence of its doctrine. The Holy See, first in 
 the Bull of Innocent X. in the year 1653, then 
 in that of Alexander VII. in 1659, declared that 
 these propositions were contained in the said 
 work, and condemned them as false and heretical. 
 
 The following are the five condemned propo- 
 sitions : — 
 
 1. Certain precepts of God are impracticable 
 to the just, though they seek to accomplish them 
 according to their strength, if they have not the 
 grace to render those commandments possible to 
 them. 
 
 2. In the state of corrupt nature, man never 
 resists interior grace. 
 
 3. To gain merit, or to transgress, in the state 
 of fallen nature, man needs not a freedom exempt 
 from necessity ; a liberty free from violence 
 suffices. 
 
 4. Some semi-Pelagians admitted that an ante- 
 rior and preventive grace was necessary for every 
 special act, even for the beginning of faith ; but 
 they erred in pretending that the human will could 
 resist this grace, or second it. 
 
 5. It is an error on the part of the semi- 
 Pelagians to say, that Jesus Christ died, or shed 
 his blood, for all men. 
 
 These propositions the J ansenists, with consum- 
 
PORT-ROYAL. 
 
 257 
 
 mate art, disclaimed ; but they pretended that they 
 were not to be found in the work of Jansenius. 
 They raised, for the first time, the distinction 
 between right and fact in doctrinal decisions. 
 They said that the Church could pronounce on 
 the truth or the falsehood of doctrines, but had 
 not received the power to decide whether such 
 and such doctrines were contained, or no, in such 
 and such writings. 
 
 This was evidently to render the judgments of 
 the Church illusory ; for, if she could combat error 
 in the abstract only, and not in its concrete 
 forms, how could she fulfil her mission? How 
 could she guard her children against false teachers, 
 whether they enounced their errors by word or 
 in writing ? How could the shepherds of Christ 
 lead off their flocks from pernicious pastures? 
 The Holy See and the episcopate scouted with 
 indignation the futile pretext. And the wisdom 
 of the Church was even in this instance justified 
 by the conduct of her opponents; for much as the 
 Jansenists disclaimed the five condemned propo- 
 sitions, they not only defended their substance, 
 but sometimes (as on one occasion Arnauld), their 
 very words. 
 
 It is, indeed, deeply to be regretted that the 
 school of Port-Royal, which was distinguished 
 for so much learning and talent, should have 
 taken a false theological direction ; and that 
 while its members, with one hand, rendered im- 
 portant services to religion, they should with 
 another have levelled at her severe blows. From 
 this community issued very valuable works on 
 grammar and on logic; while the “ Perpetuite de 
 la Foi,” the joint production of Arnauld and 
 Nicole, and the “ Unite de kEglise,” and the 
 s 
 
258 
 
 PASCAL. 
 
 “ Prejuges legitimes contre les Calvinistes,” by 
 the latter, have ever been regarded as classical 
 writings in Catholic controversy. Arnauld was 
 remarkable for the ardour of his character, his 
 fertility of resources, his extent of learning, and 
 flexibility of talent. Nicole is frequently called 
 “ Bourdaloue, minus his eloquence,” and was one 
 of the most learned divines, and most vigorous 
 dialecticians of his age. Need I speak of the great 
 genius of Pascal ? — a writer so versatile and so 
 eloquent, a thinker so profound and so original, 
 and who, after having commenced his career with 
 the most brilliant discoveries in the mathematical 
 and the physical sciences, closed it with those 
 glorious Thoughts, that, like the unfinished cathe- 
 drals of the Middle Ages, still awe us by their 
 grandeur. Unfortunately, under the inspiration 
 of his unhappy party, he tarnished his great merits 
 by his very unjust, however able, strictures on the 
 illustrious Society of Jesus, and set the dangerous 
 example of treating religious subjects in a tone of 
 levity.* 
 
 Of these three celebrated men, Pascal died in 
 an early stage of the controversy ; and though he 
 be obnoxious to the charge of a refractory spirit, 
 yet, as he departed this life before his party had 
 become a sect, we may perhaps be allowed to 
 express the pious hope, that he did not die out 
 of the pale of Catholic communion. t Nicole, 
 
 * In the Provincial Letters. 44 The whole book of the 
 Provinciates” well observes Voltaire, 44 went on a false 
 foundation. The extravagant opinions of several Spanish 
 and Flemish Jesuits were dexterously attributed to the 
 whole society. There were Dominican and Franciscan 
 casuists, among whom such opinions might have been 
 disinterred also.” — Siecle de Louis XIV. c. xxxvi. 
 
 f Firstly, when Pascal died in the year 1662, the Bull 
 
PASCAL. 
 
 259 
 
 who had long been one of the leaders of the 
 party, seceded from its ranks towards the close 
 of his life. Arnauld, alas ! died in the obstinate 
 
 of Urban VIII. had already, it is true, condemned the 
 doctrines of Jansenism, and the two Bulls of Innocent X. 
 and of Alexander VII. had confirmed that condemnation, 
 and moreover declared the five heretical propositions to be 
 contained in the book, Augustinus . These are grave facts. 
 Yet in an affair so complicated, good faith might fall into 
 certain misunderstandings, and require certain explana- 
 tions, which the Church never refuses to give. Hence 
 in this affair of Jansenism, the Holy See explained its 
 doctrine by successive decrees. But in this period of the 
 controversy, we may suppose Pascal to have been honestly 
 deceived as to the authority of the Church in matters of 
 fact . For this question was then new ; and even the mind 
 of Bossuet wavered on the subject for some years. See 
 Dollinger’s biographical sketch of Bossuet in Kirchen- 
 Lexicon. 
 
 Secondly, it must be borne in mind that, in the age of 
 Pascal, the Papal decisions did not receive in France that 
 prompt, filial obedience which they had met with in 
 earlier times, and which they happily obtain at the pre- 
 sent day. A certain hesitation to know how far the 
 Church gave them her tacit assent was then too common. 
 
 Thirdly, for many years after this philosopher’s death, 
 which occurred in 1662, Arnauld, Nicole, and other Jan- 
 senists frequented the society of the orthodox ; and, indeed, 
 the great Bossuet was on friendly terms with Arnauld. 
 This doctor was even on one occasion consulted by the 
 Pope.' 
 
 Fourthly, in the days of Pascal, the followers of Jan- 
 senius may, I think, be characterized as a turbulent 
 party, professing false and heretical doctrines within the 
 Church, but which had not yet seceded from her com- 
 munion, or thrown off her authority. It was only when 
 Arnauld and his friends breaking what is called the 
 “ Peace of Pope Clement IX., 5 ’ had* repaired to the Low 
 Countries, and there planted Jansenistic churches, the 
 Jansenists became a sect. Repeated Bulls of condemnation, 
 issued by the Sovereign Pontiffs, and accepted by the 
 entire Church, then left no shadow of doubt as to the 
 s 2 
 
260 
 
 PASCAL. 
 
 profession of Jansenism, at the advanced age of 
 eighty-two. 
 
 Quesnel,in whose armsArnauld had expired, now 
 
 intentions of the Holy See, and of the prelates. Hence 
 we may conclude, that in the time of this writer, the 
 culpable indocility of the Jansenistic party had not yet 
 hardened into formal heresy. 
 
 Dr. Dollinger, in his interesting biographical sketch of 
 Bossuet in the Ecclesiastical Encyclopsedia of Freyburg, 
 after showing how on many occasions this great prelate 
 reprobated the doctrines and the proceedings of the Jan- 
 senists, says that he kept on friendly terms with Arnauld, 
 because of his excellent works against the Calvinists ; and 
 that 44 his treatment of the Jansenists was the milder, 
 because it was not till after his death (in 1704), this 
 party openly took up a schismatical position.” — Vide 
 Kirchen-Lexicon, art. Bossuet. Freyburg, 1848. 
 
 What were Pascal’s views on the Hierarchy, is ad- 
 mirably expressed in a letter, which he addressed to 
 Mademoiselle de Roannez, and where his opinion on 
 this matter is more fully developed than in the “Pen- 
 se'es.” 44 1 commend with all my heart,” says he, 44 the 
 degree of zeal, which I recognize in your letter, for the 
 union with the Pope. The Body without the Head is no 
 more living, than the Head without the Body. Whoso 
 separates from one or from the other, no longer belongs to 
 Jesus Christ. I know not if there be in the Church 
 persons more devoted to this unity of the Body, than 
 those whom you call marked (notes). (In Faugere’s new 
 edition of the Pensees the word ndtres (our party) stands 
 instead of notes . — Vol. i. p. 86, edit. Paris, 1844.) We know 
 that all virtues, martyrdom itself, austerities, all good 
 works are useless out of the Church, and out of com- 
 munion with the Head of the Church, who is the Pope. 
 I will never separate from his communion, at least I beg 
 God to give me that grace, without which I should be 
 lost, for ever lost.” 
 
 In my youth I once "consulted, in private conversation, 
 the Abbe de la Mennais on this very subject of Pascal’s 
 end. Those were his glorious days of orthodoxy, when 
 none could be more opposed than himself to the doctrines 
 
NICOLE. ARNAULD. 
 
 261 
 
 became the leader of the party. Among other 
 writings, he had published a work entitled “ Moral 
 Reflexions on the New Testament,” a book re- 
 plete with Jansenistic principles, and from which 
 one hundred and one propositions were extracted, 
 and condemned in the famous Bull Unigenitus, 
 promulgated in the year 1713. Having been 
 liberated from imprisonment at Brussels, he re- 
 paired to Holland, where he planted Jansenistic 
 churches. An active intercourse was now kept 
 up between the members of the party in that 
 country and in France ; and the French Jansenists 
 constantly recruited the rising communities in 
 Holland. 
 
 The Dutch government naturally encouraged 
 the deplorable schism which had broken out 
 among its Catholic subjects. And though 
 the noxious plant of Jansenism was, by the re- 
 volutionary tempest of 1789, swept away from 
 the French soil, it still, to this day, vegetates 
 miserably in the small and decaying community 
 of Utrecht. 
 
 of the Jansenists, whether as regarded grace, or practical 
 morality, or the Hierarchy, or the merits of an illustrious 
 Order. He gave the opinion I have expressed above, 
 alleging only the first reason that has been stated. On 
 the whole I must conclude in the words of a recent bio- 
 grapher of this philosopher, who judges him with great 
 indulgence. 44 It is deeply to be regretted,” says he, 44 that 
 Pascal’s submission to the Church was not complete : un- 
 fortunate prejudices misdirected his religious feelings.” — 
 Encyclopedic Catholicjue, art. Pascal, p. 621. It is but 
 fair to add, that as Pascal blamed his friends for allowing 
 subscription to the Formulary of Pope Alexander VII., 
 it is always doubtful whether, had his life been prolonged, 
 he would, like Nicole, have submitted to the final decrees 
 of the Church. 
 
262 
 
 JANSENISM. 
 
 r The Jansenists refused to submit to the Bull 
 Unigenitus, and appealed from the decision of 
 the Sovereign Pontiff to that of a future council. 
 Hence their name of “ Appellants/' They evinced, 
 in their errors, a fatal spirit of consistency. As 
 at the outset of their career, by their vain dis- 
 tinction between right and fact, by denying to 
 the Church the faculty of determining whether or 
 no certain propositions were comprised in a book, 
 they rendered her power nugatory; so now, by 
 appealing to an extraordinary tribunal, which 
 could derive its force and efficacy only from the 
 convocation and the confirmation of the Holy 
 See, they sought to render the supreme, perma- 
 nent authority in the Chureh null and \oid. 
 Again, their practice of invoking the inter- 
 ference of the civil power in purely ecclesiastical 
 matters, proves them to have been animated with 
 the true heretical spirit. Thus, when the Sor- 
 bonne, in the year 1656, condemned the work of 
 Arnauld on Frequent Communion, and excluded 
 him, with seventy of his partisans, from the 
 Faculty, the party brought the affair before the 
 Parliament of Paris. And such was the ascendant 
 they obtained over this Parliament in the last 
 century, that we see its grave magistrates too 
 often lend themselves as willing instruments of 
 this religious faction for harassing and oppressing 
 the Church. 
 
 The Jansenists who rejected the Bull Uni- 
 genitus, were now, as has been observed, called 
 the Appellants, and though the authority of the 
 Holy See and of the French bishops was sup- 
 ported by the government of the Regent, the 
 Duke of Orleans, yet the party grew in strength 
 and numbers. 
 
JANSENISM. 
 
 263 
 
 For seventy years they had, by a series of subter- 
 fuges and evasions — unparalleled since the Arian 
 heresy — sought to elude the force of ecclesiastical 
 censures, and remain in the bosom of a Church 
 which they so cruelly betrayed. Now, to impose 
 on the credulity of the vulgar, they had recourse 
 to supernatural illusions and the prestige of ficti- 
 tious miracles. One of their body, the deacon of 
 Paris, who, from his unwillingness to subscribe 
 the Bull Unigenitus, had refused to take priestly 
 orders, fell an early victim to his excessive auste- 
 rities, and was interred in the cemetery of St. 
 Medard. His reputation for sanctity drew the 
 devotees of the party around his tomb : his 
 intercession was openly invoked ; reports of pre- 
 tended miraculous healings were busily circu- 
 lated ; thousands flocked to the church-yard, till 
 the contagious frenzy of fanaticism spread through 
 the mass, and many were thrown into violent 
 agitations and convulsive tremblings. Hence 
 their name of Convulsionnaires. It should be 
 observed, that these physical perturbations are 
 one of the marks of false mysticism. Jansenism, 
 which, in its fundamental doctrine, bore such 
 striking resemblance to Calvinism, presents us 
 here with another point of analogy ; and it is 
 impossible to deny the striking similarity between 
 the Convulsionnaires of St. Medard and the still 
 more fanatical Camisards of the Cevennes.^ The 
 Jansenistic as well as the Calvinistic enthusiasts 
 declared themselves inspired,— pretended to the 
 gift of prophecy, made the same abusive applica- 
 
 * For the Camisards, see an account in “ Memoires pour 
 servir a l’Histoire Ecclesiastique pendant le dix-huitieme 
 Siecle,” tom. i. pp. 11 — 37. For the Convulsionnaires, see 
 the same work, tom. ii. pp. 99, 115, 137. 
 
264 
 
 JANSENISM. 
 
 tion of scriptural predictions, practised the same 
 juggleries on the persons of their unhappy dupes, 
 and exhibited the same strange contortions and 
 phrenetic movements of the body. 
 
 These scenes of fanaticism, though repressed 
 by the civil power, were from time to time re- 
 newed in private during the course of the last 
 century. They brought discredit on the party, 
 and sowed disunion in its ranks. 
 
 As time went on, it assumed an attitude of 
 more decided hostility to the Church ; and 
 throwing more into the background its funda- 
 mental doctrine on grace, coalesced more closely 
 with the ultra- Gallicans,* and encouraged the 
 encroachments of the secular power on eccle- 
 siastical discipline and jurisdiction. It numbered 
 in its ranks a few bishops, a no inconsiderable 
 portion of the Sorbonne, many in the secular 
 clergy and in some of the religious orders, and 
 a strong party in the parliaments, especially that 
 of Paris. When, as the century advanced, the 
 party felt its prestige and vigour waning in France, 
 it suddenly revived in the Pistoians of Italy, and 
 in the Febronians and Josephists of Germany, 
 who pushed even to more fearful extremes its 
 anti-papal doctrines. But the great bull, Auc - 
 torem Fidei , issued by Pope Pius YI. in 1794, 
 gave the death-blow to the sect in France, as well 
 as in Italy ; and the revolutionary tempest then 
 swept the lifeless corpse away. 
 
 In conclusion, if we would investigate the 
 
 * The first Jansenists were not such decided Gallicans 
 as their successors. In the dispute on the Hierarchy, 
 which terminated in the Declaration of 1682, Arnauld, 
 strange to say, leaned to the side of the Holy See. 
 
JANSENISM. 
 
 265 
 
 doctrinal nature, and the historical influence of 
 Jansenism, we shall, I think, arrive at the follow- 
 ing result. Being, in its origin, like many other 
 heresies, a protest and a reaction against practical 
 abuses and false opinions, it ran off, like them, 
 into opposite excesses of doctrine. It was in its 
 essence and in its effects nothing more nor less 
 than a mitigated Calvinism. Though apparently 
 assailing but one dogma, it yet shakes the whole 
 system of Catholic belief ; for such is the connec- 
 tion between all dogmas, and such the union 
 between doctrine and morals, that we cannot 
 pluck out one stone from the sacred edifice of the 
 Church, without weakening and deranging the 
 whole fabric. Exalting Divine grace to the pre- 
 judice of man's free will, and reducing the latter 
 to a state of impotence, “ it represents God," in 
 the words of a great French writer, “ as ever 
 armed to punish inevitable crimes." And so it 
 raises up a wall of separation between the creature 
 and the Creator, and drives man either to despair, 
 or to libertinism and unbelief. It discourages 
 the frequentation of the sacraments, and so dries 
 up the well-spring of all good works : it discoun- 
 tenances many devotional practices sanctioned 
 by the Church, and so checks the warm, genial 
 outpourings of piety. Beginning in a secret 
 distrust, and a captious opposition to ecclesiastical 
 authority, it long strives to baulk the vigilance, 
 and elude the censures of the Holy See and of 
 the prelates. But when, after its endless subter- 
 fuges and evasions have been exposed, and its 
 craft has been foiled, it feels its state of fear- 
 ful isolation, it then betakes itself to all the 
 illusions and devices of the false, heretical 
 mysticism, 
 
266 
 
 JANSENISM. 
 
 While, by its worrying attacks, it diverts the 
 attention and energies of the French clergy from 
 the great battle against infidelity, it forces them 
 to a partial accommodation to its harsh, rigoristic 
 morality. It goads on the secular power to the 
 most violent encroachments on ecclesiastical 
 authority, and so far promotes (though uninten- 
 tionally) the efforts of unbelief, that it is not 
 easy to discern where the influence of the one 
 ends, and that of the other begins. After so 
 long flattering and cajoling the temporal sove- 
 reignty in its war against the Church, it turns 
 round on the former in the hour of adversity, and 
 lifts up the banner of rebellion. At the close of 
 its long career of artifice, it throws off the mask ; 
 and “ in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy,” 
 which it had the chief hand in framing, it openly 
 proclaims the principles of a schism, which is but 
 the short prelude to the reign of atheism. “ What 
 would have been the sentiments of Arnauld, 
 Nicole, and Pascal,” well observes M. Lacratelle 
 in his “ History of the French Revolution,”— 
 “what would have been the sentiments of those 
 distinguished men had they been present at the 
 sittings of the Constituent Assembly of 1790, and 
 heard the hundred Jansenist deputies, who so 
 frequently invoked their names, while they were 
 labouring to subvert ecclesiastical government 
 and discipline, despoiling the Church of her 
 sacred patrimony, and sapping the foundations 
 of all social order ? ” Alas ! alas ! we must 
 reply in the words of Scripture, “They who sow 
 the winds, must reap the whirlwind.” 
 
GALLICANISM. 
 
 267 
 
 GALLICANISM. 
 
 Gallicanism, or a spirit of quasi-independence 
 in the Church of France, was one of the moral 
 causes of the Kevolution. There were two kinds 
 of Gallicanism — that of the clergy, which was 
 compatible with orthodoxy; that of the Parlia- 
 ments, which, if not directly sehismatical, had a 
 strong sehismatical tendency. This distinction is 
 perpetually pointed out by the French clergy. 
 Bossuet, in his letter to Cardinal d ; Estrees, says 
 that the bishops of France understood the liberties 
 of the Gallican Church in a sense very different 
 from that of the magistrates. The same distinction 
 is made by the Abbe Fleury, who, originally bred 
 to the bar, had a much stronger tinge of Galli- 
 canism than the illustrious Bishop of Meaux. 
 
 Let me now trace, in as few words as possible, 
 the history of Gallicanism. 
 
 The dogmatic inerrancy of the Chair of Peter 
 is a doctrine clearly deducible from Scripture; 
 and sometimes is unequivocally expressed, at 
 other times implied, in the writings of the early 
 Fathers, as it is formally stated in those of the 
 medimval doctors. 
 
 It is doubtless true, also, that the disciplinary 
 decrees of the Holy See have been, and will be, 
 from the Divine promises made to it, always con- 
 ducive to the general well-being of the Church. 
 But, on the other hand, a certain scope is left to 
 the individual action of the Pontiff ; and one 
 Pope may be more zealous than another in the 
 maintenance of discipline, and the promotion of 
 piety. So the great Pope Nicholas Y. candidly 
 allowed, that some of his predecessors, in the 
 fourteenth century, had stretched a long arm, — 
 
268 
 
 GALLICANISM. 
 
 that is to say, had made an extreme use of their 
 pontifical prerogative — a policy which, whether 
 in the Church or in the State, is extremely 
 dangerous. During their abode at Avignon, the 
 popes were involved in the greatest financial diffi- 
 culties, and so were forced to draw largely on the 
 revenues of the different national churches, and 
 to appoint foreigners to vacant benefices. This 
 exercise of power gave dissatisfaction, and excited 
 a spirit of opposition. Then came the great 
 Western Schism — the most formidable trial, per- 
 haps, which the Church of Christ ever went 
 through. There were disputed elections to the 
 Chair of Peter — there were various aspirants to 
 the great dignity — - one anti-pope fulminated 
 excommunications against another anti-pope — 
 Christendom was divided in its obedience — the 
 bonds of discipline and subordination were every- 
 where relaxed — and the temporal power made 
 fearful inroads on the rights of the spiritual. 
 But the Paraclete that Christ had promised should 
 always abide with His Church, was true to her 
 at this eventful moment. After formidable diffi- 
 culties had been overcome, the great Council of 
 Constance was held; some of the anti-popes with- 
 drew their claims, and others were deposed ; and, 
 under the name of Martin V., the Council elected 
 a new successor to St. Peter. But the decree as 
 to the superiority of the General Council over the 
 Pope, passed in the Council of Constance, was 
 not confirmed by Pope Martin Y. ; and many 
 who had pronounced that decree, regarded it as 
 applying only to a state of schism in the Papacy, 
 consequent on a disputed election. The senti- 
 ment, however, was taken up by some in an abso- 
 lute sense, and, among others, by the French 
 
GALLICANISM. 
 
 269 
 
 divines Gerson, Almain, and others. In the course 
 of the fifteenth century, the spirit of opposition 
 to the Holy See, — occasioned partly by the ca- 
 lamitous events of the preceding age, partly by 
 the growing coldness of faith and laxity of morals, 
 partly by the disorders in the Roman court itself, 
 — gave strength and nurture to this opinion. It 
 was censured and repudiated by several popes, 
 and among others by Julius II. 
 
 It was still discussed in the theological schools, 
 and was defended by some doctors of the Sorbonne ; 
 and so, by degrees, constituted what Bossuet calls 
 the vetus opinio Parisiensium. 
 
 Not to detain your attention, however, too long 
 on this matter, I will briefly state that Pierre 
 Pithou, a learned jurist, who had abjured Calvin- 
 ism, published in the early part of the seventeenth 
 century, a compilation called “The Liberties of the 
 Galliean Church.” This book was condemned by 
 an assembly of French bishops as false, scandalous, 
 schismatical, derogatory to the rights of the Holy 
 See and of the bishops, dangerous to faith, and so 
 forth. The decision was confirmed by the Pope. 
 But this book, so condemned, was but the violent 
 expression of that Parliamentary Gallicanism, 
 which now for two centuries, and especially dur- 
 ing the last half of the eighteenth century, was 
 the torment of the Church. You will please to 
 bear in mind the distinction, already insisted on, 
 between the Parliamentary and the Episcopal 
 Gallicanism, for the former had no inconsiderable 
 share in bringing about the Revolution. 
 
 In the reign of Louis XIII. a large assembly 
 of French bishops unequivocally pronounced the 
 infallibility of the Holy See in doctrinal deci- 
 sions addressed to the whole Church. The same 
 
270 
 
 EPISCOPAL GALLICANISM. 
 
 opinion Cardinal Richelieu required the hete- 
 rodox Richer, when he recanted various errors 
 respecting the Papacy, to subscribe. Theses to the 
 same effect continued to be maintained in the 
 Sorbonne. So utterly untrue is the statement, 
 that from the time of the Council of Constance, 
 the dogmatic infallibility of the Holy See had 
 been denied by the Gallican Church. 
 
 We now come to the celebrated synod of 1682. 
 It were too long to enumerate the conflict of 
 Louis XIV. with the Pope, or the immediate 
 occasion of the synod in question. Suffice it to 
 say, that because the Pontiff would not acknow- 
 ledge the monarches claim to the nomination to 
 certain benefices, the latter became seriously 
 irritated, and presumed to set limits to the Pon- 
 tifical power. The great Bossuet seeing the ex- 
 treme pride and irritation of the king, and the 
 servile spirit of some prelates, especially the 
 Bishop of Tournai, who seemed disposed to pro- 
 ceed to schismatical lengths, attempted a middle 
 course between the doctrine of Papal infallibility 
 and the parliamentary Gallicanism. He openei 
 the Assembly with his sermon on the unity of the 
 Church — a most magnificent monument of elo- 
 quence and episcopal wisdom — in which he 
 strongly brought out the authority of the Holy 
 See. In the spirit of compromise adverted to 
 were drawn up under his influence the famous 
 four propositions. The first, regarding the rela- 
 tions between the supreme spiritual and temporal 
 powers, is framed in too absolute a form; but it 
 treats of a subject which does not now immediately 
 concern us. The other three relate to matters in 
 the internal government of the Church, namely, 
 the superiority of the General Council over the 
 
PARLIMENTARY GALLICANISM. 
 
 271 
 
 Pope, and the fallibility of Papal decisions in 
 doctrinal matters. The four propositions were 
 declared null and void, and rejected by the Holy 
 See. A censure was pronounced on them by a 
 synod in Spain, and by another in Hungary. In 
 France, also, the acts of the Assembly of 1682 
 encountered opposition ; and it v/as considered 
 intolerable that a meeting of thirty French bishops 
 should presume to erect free opinions into dogmas, 
 or at least to force them as such on a whole 
 national Church. This pretension Bossuet, though 
 clearly with great inconsistency, disclaimed, in the 
 words “ Abeat Declaratio, quo libuerit ; manet in - 
 concussa vetus opinio Parisiensium.” 
 
 Louis XIV. at last made his peace with the 
 Pope, and revoked the ordinance, requiring all 
 beneficed clergymen and doctors of theology to 
 subscribe the Declaration of 1682. And the Pope, 
 on his part, refused bulls of translation to all pre- 
 lates who would not renounce its articles. 
 
 But this ordinance, so revoked by Louis XIV., 
 was published anew by the Regent Philip of 
 Orleans in 1715 ; and during the whole eighteenth 
 century, doctors and professors of theology were 
 forced to subscribe the Declaration of 1682. That 
 document remained a formidable weapon in the 
 hands of the Jansenists to resist pontifical and epis- 
 copal authority, and in the hands of the Parliaments 
 to domineer over the Church. Fleury lived to con- 
 fess that the liberties of the Gallican Church might 
 better be called its servitudes ;* and the great 
 Fenelon, who always opposed Gallicanism, went 
 so far as to say (though his words are clearly 
 hyperbolical), that the French king was nearly as 
 much master of the Church of France, as the 
 * See his Opuscules. 
 
272 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY GALLICANISM. 
 
 English king of the Anglican. You may conceive 
 what a state things must have reached, before so 
 great a prelate would have used language so 
 strong. And he had not seen the worst : he did 
 not live to see the scandalous violation of eccle- 
 siastical rights ; episcopal pastorals burned by the 
 common hangman at the order of the Paris Parlia- 
 ment; and the same body sending forth the armed 
 police to force the orthodox clergy to take the 
 last sacraments to the dying Jansenists. 
 
 As to the great Bossuet, we must not judge the 
 part he played in the Assembly of 1682 with too 
 great severity. He had imbibed at the Sorbonne 
 certain scholastic opinions on the hierarchy ; and 
 to prevent a schism, he stated those opinions with 
 his wonted learning and eloquence. He had not 
 on this matter the light of experience we now pos- 
 sess ; he was not doomed to see the Declaration of 
 1682, which, with intentions of peace, he had sup- 
 ported, converted into an engine for the oppression 
 of the Church ; nor had he heard the strong lan- 
 guage of animadversion regarding it employed by 
 the Holy See. Even as it is, the “ Defensio Cleri 
 Gallicani,” as we now possess it, is, probably, not 
 in the form in which it last came from the hands 
 of Bossuet. It is more than suspected, that the 
 emendations to the work he had made in a spirit 
 more favourable to the Papal power, were sup- 
 pressed by his Jansenist nephew, the Abbe Bossuet. 
 It is certain that a funeral oration on St. Ignatius 
 Loyola, as well as a notice on the Formulary of 
 Pope Alexander VII., written by this great prelate, 
 were withdrawn from publication by the religious 
 party to which his nephew belonged.** 
 
 * See the biographical sketch of Bossuet by Dr. Dol- 
 linger, in the Kirchen-Lexicon (Freyburg, 1848), tom. i. 
 
THE REGENCY. 
 
 273 
 
 The moral revolution in France may be said to 
 date from the calamitous days of the regency of 
 the Duke of Orleans. Let us now turn our atten- 
 tion to this period. 
 
 THE REGENCY OF PHILIP OF ORLEANS. 
 
 During the reign of Louis XIV., if there were 
 many scandals at court, there was eminent virtue 
 also ; a certain decorum was maintained, and vice 
 was never allowed to stalk forth in insolent osten- 
 tation. The ranks of the laity no less than of 
 the clergy presented an array of piety as well as of 
 learning and genius never surpassed in the his- 
 tory of nations. We look over the copious and 
 splendid literature of that reign, over its divinity, 
 its metaphysics, its histories, its natural philo- 
 sophy, its poetry, tragic and comic ; and yet how 
 little do we find which orthodoxy and virtue can 
 reprove. It is only now and then a low murmur 
 of impiety reached the vigilant ear of the great 
 Bossuet; and it was only in the salons of Ninon 
 de PEnclos, an Epicurean philosophy dared to 
 whisper its doubts. But with the regency of the 
 Duke of Orleans, a new era commences. This 
 Prince had been called by Louis XIV. a “ fan- 
 faron de crimes,” — a braggadocio of crimes, and his 
 government inaugurates the reign of blasphemy 
 and audacious vice. 
 
 Days, specially consecrated to religion, were 
 selected by the Regent for the celebration of his 
 orgies. There, surrounded by men and women of 
 the most abandoned character, he prolonged his 
 debaucheries far into the night, lewdness of talk, 
 and blasphemy, and gambling, and drunkenness, 
 
 T 
 
£74 
 
 THE REGENCY. 
 
 following in hideous succession. After a certain 
 hour of the evening, the palace gates were closed ; 
 and no state affairs, however urgent and important, 
 were allowed to interrupt the revels of the night. 
 The scandalous example of the Court was but too 
 faithfully followed out by the nobility of the 
 capital ; and it is to be observed that, during the 
 whole course of the eighteenth century, the 
 morals of the higher classes never recovered 
 from the shock they had received under the 
 regency. 
 
 While the Court and the high nobility thus 
 openly trampled under foot morality and public 
 decorum, the elevation to the episcopal office, and 
 even the cardinalatial dignity, of the Abbe Dubois, 
 the guilty companion and accomplice of the 
 Regent in all his excesses, was a fresh outrage on 
 religion. Nor was the scandal lessened by the 
 nomination of this unworthy ecclesiastic to the 
 archiepiscopal see of Cambrai, which the genius 
 and the virtues of the illustrious Fenelon had 
 just adorned. The swindling transactions of the 
 Mississippi scheme gave another blow to public 
 morality. The long expensive wars of Louis XIY. 
 had greatly disordered the finances of the state. 
 After several ineffectual attempts to restore them 
 to order, the Scotchman, Law, proposed the esta- 
 blishment of a public bank, which had the effect 
 of stimulating commerce and manufactures, and 
 bringing large profits to the state. Had Law con- 
 fined his scheme to its original proportions, and 
 not embarrassed it with commercial operations 
 and wild colonial projects, he would have suc- 
 ceeded in reducing considerably the public debt, 
 and greatly augmenting the revenues and the 
 resources of the country. But soon a system of 
 
THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 
 
 275 
 
 credit, which, confined within reasonable limits, 
 w r ould have conferred immense advantages on 
 France, gave place to speculations of the most 
 extravagant kind. A joint-stock company was 
 started by Law for the cultivation and colonization 
 of lands on the Mississippi. A general mania 
 seized on countless individuals in the higher and 
 middle classes for the purchase of shares in this 
 company; these sold at an enormous premium, 
 and were soon multipled without limit. Specula- 
 tion so wild was followed by its natural conse- 
 quences ; the eyes of the public were opened when 
 too late; innumerable families were reduced to 
 beggary, and a few only by fraud had acquired 
 immense wealth. Landed property had in many 
 instances changed hands ; men in the pursuit of 
 riches had lost their character, as well as for- 
 tunes ; and those once steady and regular in 
 their habits of business had been carried away 
 by a rage for sudden gains. The man who has 
 once become the slave of sensuality, and has given 
 his heart up to the vice of covetousness, will soon 
 fall an easy prey to unbelief. Such was now the 
 case with France. The libertinism of the regency 
 was followed by the more systematic impiety of 
 the following reign. 
 
 THE SCANDALS OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 
 
 Louis XY. had been carefully trained to the 
 practice of religion and virtue by his preceptor, 
 the excellent Fleury. Soon after his elevation to 
 the throne, the monarch called to his councils 
 this able and virtuous prelate, for whom he soon 
 procured a cardinal's hat. Of his wise and pacific 
 t 2 
 
276 
 
 THE COURT OF LOUIS XY. 
 
 administration, this is not yet the place to speak. 
 During the twenty years of his ministry, he 
 watched with a vigilant eye over the morals of 
 his former pupil, and though he were unable to 
 keep from Court the profligate young nobles 
 brought up under the regency, he checked their 
 vicious influence over the royal youth. Louis XY. 
 was married to a Polish princess of great virtue 
 and amiability, Maria Leczinska, and for the 
 first fifteen years of their union his conduct to his 
 queen was most affectionate and exemplary. But 
 to corrupt and ambitious courtiers virtue is an 
 object most importunate as well as odious; and 
 they conceived the best means for undermining 
 the influence of Cardinal Fleury, was to debauch 
 the morals of the king, and wean his affections 
 from his virtuous consort. By the most insidious 
 arts they inspired him with a guilty passion for 
 Madame de Chateauroux. At this time his 
 Mentor, fhe wise Cardinal Fleury, died, at the 
 advanced age of ninety. Alas ! what a contrast 
 is presented by the early and the later years of 
 Louis XY ! In the first, we see him practising 
 works of piety, pure and happy in his domestic 
 circle, following the counsels of prudence, main- 
 taining peace with his neighbours, healing the 
 wounds of his country, introducing economy in 
 the administration, relieving the burdens of his 
 people, encouraging agriculture and commerce, 
 upholding the authority of the Holy See, and 
 allaying dissensions in the Church of Prance. 
 Then, when we turn over the page of history, and 
 see the last thirty scandalous, disastrous years of 
 that reign, what a feeling of pain and disappoint- 
 ment comes over us ! When we see conjugal 
 fidelity violated, public decorum trampled under 
 
THE COURT OF LOUIS XV. 
 
 277 
 
 foot, the guilty paramours of the palace disposing 
 of places and pensions, appointing commanders 
 to fleets and armies, corresponding with ambas- 
 sadors, patronizing the apostles of irreligion, and 
 aiding in the persecution of admirable religious 
 corporations ; when we see the profligate waste of 
 the public money, and the costly gifts lavished on 
 the objects of a criminal attachment; when we 
 behold the infectious atmosphere of the Court 
 contaminating the higher and middle classes of 
 society ; — then we involuntarily exclaim — “ Surely 
 some heavy judgment of God impends over this 
 dynasty and this nation ! 99 
 
 Madame de Chateauroux, Madame de Pompa- 
 dour, and the profligate Madame du Barry, 
 were the successive favourites of the voluptuous 
 monarch. The second, the Marquise de Pompa- 
 dour, exercised the greatest political power. In- 
 deed, for twenty years she possessed such influence 
 over the councils of Prance, that the virtuous 
 empress, Maria Theresa, with the view of gaining 
 her over to her interests, condescended to address 
 her as Ma bonne cousins . She encouraged the 
 
 arts, and gave the law to fashion, and was an 
 especial protectress of the school of Voltaire. 
 Here the scandal of this disgraceful connection 
 was aggravated by the encouragement given to 
 impiety ; and so by its prodigality, its sensuality, 
 its connivance at irreligion, the Court became a 
 triple source of ruin to the nation. 
 
 Yet Louis XV. himself never lost the faith. 
 Not only did he assist at sermons and at the Holy 
 Sacrifice, but whenever in the streets he encoun- 
 tered a priest bearing the Viaticum, he immedi- 
 ately alighted from his carriage, and followed the 
 Blessed Sacrament on foot to the house of the 
 
278 
 
 THE COURT OF LOUIS XY. 
 
 sick person. He had the humanity characteristic 
 of the House of Bourbon, and frequently performed 
 acts of charity. What a singular family is that 
 House of Bourbon ! What extremes of vice and 
 of virtue we encounter in its different members I 
 Under Louis XIY. flourished the great Dauphin, 
 the worthy pupil of Fenelon — a model of wisdom 
 and piety. At the corrupt court of Louis XY. 
 was the Dauphin, a virtuous and talented prince. 
 His son, Louis XYL, inherited his virtues, 
 indeed, but not his ability for rule. So was 
 unhappy France robbed, one after another, of the 
 princes that possessed the virtue and the energy 
 to save her ! 
 
 At the very time that Louis XV. was giving 
 such scandal to his subjects, there were French 
 Bourbon princesses adorning the cloister by their 
 virtues, and one of them even departed this life in 
 the odour of sanctity. 
 
 I am now brought to the consideration of the 
 irreligious literature of the last century ; but let 
 us first take a glance at the Christian literature 
 opposed to it. It was assuredly one of the greatest 
 trials of God’s Church in the last century, that 
 the sceptre of genius should have been taken from 
 her, and transferred to her deadliest foe — the anti- 
 Christian sect. To whatever quarter of Europe 
 the observer might turn his eyes, he saw, with few 
 exceptions, this mediocrity of Catholic talent ; and 
 this was more especially the case in France. The 
 race of giants had departed, and one of pigmies 
 had succeeded. The great luminaries of letters 
 and science, theology and philosophy, that had 
 shed such a gorgeous splendour over the reign of 
 Louis XIY., had one by one disappeared; and in 
 the early part of the eighteenth century, the stars 
 
THE COURT OF LOUIS XY. 279 
 
 of Cambrai and Clermont, Fenelon and Massillon, 
 alone lingered above the horizon. This dearth 
 of Catholic talent is in part ascribable to the sus- 
 pension of the States- General ; for, under that 
 system, the favouritism, which so often conferred 
 ecclesiastical dignities on mere rank, would not have 
 been tolerated ; and, moreover, the talents of the 
 clergy, as well as of the laity, would have been 
 better developed. Bergier and Bullet were among 
 the best defenders of religion against unbelief ; 
 but they were, however, nothing more than 
 divines of learning and solid judgment. The 
 lively, sarcastic, and accomplished Abbe Guenee, 
 the author of the “ Lettres de quelques J uifs 
 Portugais et Polonais a Monsieur Voltaire,” 
 was perhaps, in that age, the most brilliant apolo- 
 gist of Bevelation. The Jesuits produced some 
 good preachers, like Pere Hyde de Neuville and 
 Pere De la Hue, and judicious critics, like the 
 writers in the Journal de Trevoux . The Maurist 
 Benedictines upheld their ancient reputation as 
 learned investigators of mediaeval history, and 
 critical annotators on the Fathers of the Church. 
 The Fathers of the Oratory published learned and 
 valuable critical commentaries on the Sacred 
 Writings. The Academy of Inscriptions and 
 Belles Lettres, founded by Louis XIV. for pro- 
 moting the study of classical and oriental archae- 
 ology and mediaeval antiquities, was supported by 
 distinguished Catholic laymen, as well as Bene- 
 dictines. Such was the amount of Catholic talent 
 in the France of the last century. Learning, clear, 
 solid reasoning, critical sagacity, indeed, we find ; 
 but, with few exceptions, no flashes of wit, no 
 fervid eloquence, no high flights of imagination, 
 no depth of philosophical inquiry. 
 
280 
 
 INFIDEL LITERATURE. 
 
 It was, on tlie Catholic side, pre-eminently the 
 age of small men. France, at that period, can 
 show no deep Christian thinker, like Cardinal 
 Gerdil in Italy, or a Clarke and Bishop Butler in 
 England, or an Euler in Germany. This was, 
 indeed, the hour of darkness, and of the spirits of 
 darkness. Let us now contemplate the Church 
 in her long agony, which was to precede her 
 passion. The infidel philosophy of the last age 
 was the child of the Reformation. Towards the 
 close of the sixteenth century, a sect of Deists had 
 sprung up in Protestant Switzerland. As early 
 as the reign of James I., Lord Herbert, of Cher- 
 bury, commenced that long series of English 
 deists, consisting of Chubb, Collins, Shaftesbury, 
 Toland, and Bolingbroke, the friend of Voltaire. 
 Bayle, who at the commencement of the eighteenth 
 century introduced infidelity into France, was a 
 Protestant ; and so was Rousseau, the eloquent 
 apostle of Deism, and who did nothing more but 
 develop the principles of Protestantism. 
 
 Voltaire and his fellow-conspirators against the 
 Christian religion borrowed most of their weapons 
 of warfare from the arsenal of the English deists ; 
 and the philosopher of Ferney was, in his youth, 
 the friend and guest of Bolingbroke. 
 
 So Protestantism, which often, though falsely, 
 taunts the Catholic Church with having given birth 
 to unbelief, lies, itself, clearly open to that imputa- 
 tion. Let us now examine the character of the leaders 
 of the great anti-Christian confederacy in France. 
 
 Bayle was a writer of great erudition, and ex- 
 treme subtlety of reasoning. His “ Dictionnaire 
 
INFIDEL LITERATURE. 
 
 281 
 
 Philosophique” is even at the present day often 
 consulted. Montesquieu, who was one of the 
 most manly intellects of the eighteenth century, 
 unfortunately devoted to the wretched philosophy 
 of the day the powers which God had given him 
 for a nobler purpose. His strong sense, indeed, 
 and extensive learning guarded him against the 
 wilder excesses of unbelief; but the absence of 
 strong religious convictions left him without a 
 compass and a chart on the wide ocean of ethical 
 and political investigations. 
 
 Rousseau was a man of the most impassioned 
 eloquence and vigorous reasoning ; but a mind, 
 withal, so sophistical that, according to the just 
 observation of La Harpe, even truth itself deceives 
 us in his writings. His firm belief in the exist- 
 ence of the Deity and the immortality of the soul, 
 as well as in the necessity of virtue for a future 
 state of happiness, and remarkable tributes to the 
 Divinity and the blessed influences of the Chris- 
 tian religion, give at times to the pages of Rous- 
 seau a warmth and a splendour we rarely find in 
 the other infidel writers of the last century. 
 
 Inferior to Rousseau in eloquence and logical 
 power, the sophist of Ferney possessed a more 
 various and versatile talent. Essaying philosophy 
 and history, and poetry, tragic, comic and epic, 
 the novel, the romance, the satire, the epigram, 
 he directed all his powers to one infernal purpose 
 — the spread of irreligion ; and thought his 
 labour lost, as long as Christ retained one wor- 
 shipper. Unlike the more impassioned sophist of 
 Geneva, rarely do we meet in his writings with a 
 generous sentiment, or a tender emotion. But all 
 that elevates and thrills humanity, the sanctities 
 of religion, the nobleness of virtue, the purity of 
 
282 
 
 INFIDEL LITERATURE. 
 
 the domestic hearth, the expansiveness of friend- 
 ship, the generosity of patriotism, the majesty of 
 law, were polluted by his ribald jest and fiend-like 
 mockery. “ Like those insects that corrode the 
 roots of the most precious plants, he strives,” says 
 Count de Maistre, “to corrupt youth and women.” 
 And it is to be observed that, in despite of the 
 great progress of religion in France within the 
 last fifty years, though the aristocracy of 
 French literature has long rejected the yoke of 
 Voltaire, he still reigns in its lower walks; and 
 the novel, and the ballad, and the satire still 
 feel his deadly influence. The only truth which 
 this writer did not assail, was the existence of God ; 
 but every other dogma of religion became the butt 
 of his ridicule. 
 
 A more advanced phase of infidelity was repre- 
 sented by IF Alembert, Diderot, and others; they 
 openly advocated materialism and atheism. In 
 the Encyclopedic they strove to array all arts and 
 sciences against the Christian religion. It was, 
 indeed, a second tower of Babel, raised up by 
 man’s presumptuous impiety against God. It 
 was a tree of knowledge without a graft from the 
 tree of life. In mathematics and physics only did 
 D’Alembert attain to great eminence. Diderot 
 was a much inferior intellect that strove to make 
 up by the phrenetic violence of his declamation 
 for the utter hollowness of his ideas. 
 
 It was he who gave to Raynal that frothy 
 rhetoric, and those turgid invectives against 
 priests and kings, which the latter interwove into 
 his history of the European settlements in the 
 East and the West Indies. 
 
 The great Buffon, though he condescended to 
 do homage to the miserable philosophy of his day : 
 
INFIDEL LITERATURE. 
 
 283 
 
 yet by the nobleness of his sentiments, as well as 
 by the majesty of his genius, often rose superior to 
 the doctrines he professed. 
 
 Bernardin de St. Pierre was another great 
 painter of nature. His better feelings led him at 
 times to Christianity; but his excessive vanity 
 drove him back to the opposite opinions. 
 
 What shall I say of the remaining wretched herd 
 of materialists and atheists, — a Baron dHIolbach, 
 a Helvetius, a La Mettrie, a Cabanis, and others ? 
 It has been well said by a great writer, that 
 materialism is something below humanity. And 
 while by debasing man to a level with the brute, it 
 takes from him all the nobler instincts of his own 
 nature, it fails to give him in return those of the 
 lower animals. So deep a perversion of man’s moral 
 and intellectual being we connot conceive. We 
 cannot realize (and happily for us we cannot), that 
 awful eclipse of the understanding which denies 
 God. W T e have a mingled feeling of terror and 
 of pity, when we contemplate those miserable 
 souls that, as the great Italian poet says,* have 
 lost the supreme intelligential bliss : — “ Misere 
 anime, eh* han perduto lo ben dello *ntelletto.” 
 When that great idea of God is extinguished in 
 the human mind, what remains to man ? Nature 
 abhors a vacuum , said the old naturalists ; and 
 with what horror then must we recoil from that 
 void which atheism creates ? — a void in the intel- 
 ligence, a void in the conscience, a void in the 
 affections, a void in nature, a void in society, a 
 void in domestic life. The human mind is swung 
 from its orbit ; it wanders through trackless space ; 
 and the reign of chaos and old night returns. 
 
 * Dante. 
 
284 
 
 INFIDEL AND CHRISTIAN 
 
 What a lamentable abuse of all tbe noblest 
 gifts of intellect, wit and eloquence, imagination 
 and reasoning ! and for the accomplishment of 
 what purpose ? For the overthrow of religion, 
 natural and revealed — religion, the guide of 
 existence, the great moral teacher, which solves 
 all the problems of life, which tells us our origin 
 and our destiny, our duties to our Creator and 
 our fellow-creatures, the foundation of the family 
 and of the state — religion, the instructress of youth, 
 and the prop of age; the balm of hurt minds, and 
 the moderator of human joys ; which controls 
 the passions, and yet imparts a zest to innocent 
 pleasures ; which survives the illusions of youth 
 and the disappointments of manhood ; consoles 
 us in life, and supports us in death. 
 
 Such were the blessings that perverted genius 
 strove to snatch from mankind. Yet the time 
 was at hand when the proud Titans, who sought 
 to storm Heaven, were to be driven back by the 
 thunderbolts of Almighty wrath, and hurled down 
 into the lowest depths of Tartarus. 
 
 But even in regard to literature and science, 
 the influence of this infidel party was most perni- 
 cious. How could they understand Nature, who 
 rested their eyes on its surface only, and never 
 pierced to its inner depths ? How could they 
 understand the philosophy of history, who denied 
 the providence of God, and the free will of man ? 
 How could they comprehend metaphysics, who 
 disowned God, and knew nothing of man’s origin, 
 nor of his destiny? And was an abject material- 
 ism compatible with the aspirations of poetry? 
 Classical philology, too, shared the fate of 
 poetry and of history, and in education was made 
 to give place to mathematics and the natural 
 
LITERATURE COMPARED. 
 
 285 
 
 sciences. Hence, from this period dates the 
 decline of philological studies in France. 
 
 The men of genius whom infidelity could boast of, 
 like Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Buffon, and 
 D’Alembert, were men who had been trained up in 
 a Christian country, had received a Christian edu- 
 cation, and whose minds had been imbued with 
 the doctrines and the ethics of Christianity, and 
 had partially retained these sentiments in the 
 midst of their unbelief. But let unbelief sink 
 deep into a natioir’s mind — let it form its morals, 
 and fashion its manners — and we shall soon see 
 how barbarism of taste and coarseness of habits 
 will be associated with moral depravity and mental 
 debasement. Look at the godless literature of the 
 French Republic from 1790 to 1802, and at that 
 of the Empire down to 1814. What contemptible 
 mediocrity of intellect ; what wretched corruption 
 of taste ! But in the Catholic literature, which, 
 after a long sleep, revives under Napoleon, and 
 afterwards under the Bourbons, what fulness of 
 life, what energy do we discover ! what brilliance 
 of fancy and fervour of feeling in Chateaubriand ! 
 what depth of thought and majesty of diction in 
 the philosopher, De Bonald ! what profound in- 
 tuitions, what force and flexibility of style in the 
 great Count de Maistre ! what vigorous ratiocina- 
 tion, what burning eloquence in De la Mennais 
 before his fall ! what elevation of feeling and 
 harmony of numbers in the lyric poet, Lamartine! 
 
 Except in the semi-Pantheistic school, repre- 
 sented by Victor Cousin and his friends, French 
 infidelity in the present age, whether it be in 
 literature or in philosophy, has no first-rate talent 
 to display. Yet of this school, Jouffroy died 
 repenting his errors, and Victor Cousin him- 
 
286 
 
 SCANDALS IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 self has lately returned to the bosom of the 
 Church. 
 
 In science, indeed, the French scepticism of the 
 present century can put forward distinguished 
 names; but here again Catholicism has had noble 
 representatives. Need I name the great mathe- 
 matician Cauchy, and the mechanist Binel, and 
 many other bright ornaments of science ? 
 
 Let us now pass to another moral cause of the 
 French Revolution — the scandals in the Church. 
 
 SCANDALS IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 I have no hesitation in saying, that those 
 scandals were the exceptions, and that in the last 
 century the conduct of the French clergy was on 
 the whole exemplary. Let me begin with the 
 exceptions. It is well known that a number of 
 tonsured individuals bore the title of abbe , who, 
 though in possession of ecclesiastical benefices, 
 were not only not priests, but not even in minor 
 orders. To these individuals, though belonging 
 by birth to the Third Estate, the title of abbe 
 insured admission to the highest circles of society. 
 Hence was the title so much coveted, especially 
 by men of letters. The conduct of these abbes 
 was often most disedifying; and the scandal of 
 their lives not unfrequently, in the estimation of 
 the vulgar, reflected on the priesthood, to whom 
 by profession, as well as in sentiment, they were 
 utter strangers. Next, in order to escape the 
 observation of friends and neighbours, a number 
 of ecclesiastics of doubtful faith and disorderly 
 lives thronged to the capital and the great pro- 
 vincial cities. Men of the world, and infidels 
 especially, were led to place the other members of 
 
SCANDALS IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 287 
 
 tlie clerical body on a level with these outcasts of 
 the order. There were other churchmen, again, 
 who though not absolutely vicious, yet by their 
 # worldly and frivolous habits, gave disedification. 
 A few had secret relations with the infidel party. 
 The Jansenistical clergy, with incredible hypocrisy, 
 affected still to belong to a church which con- 
 demned them ; but by their fanatical behaviour, 
 their arrogance, and their invectives against the 
 Holy See and the Episcopate, they injured religion, 
 and afforded much triumph to unbelievers. 
 
 Among the higher dignitaries of the Church, 
 there were a few who neglected their dioceses, 
 passed their time at Court, and gave themselves up 
 entirely to a life of ambition or of ease. Others, 
 again, remaining in their dioceses, indulged too 
 much in worldly amusements. But here cases of 
 irregularity of conduct were extremely rare ; and 
 it was only very few who like Lomenie de Brienne, 
 Archbishop of Toulouse, and Talleyrand, Bishop 
 of Autun, entered into any compact with the 
 irreligious party. 
 
 Such were the cases of exception from the praise- 
 worthy character of the secular priests of France. 
 And from these exceptions must be deduced the 
 tonsured abbes (who belonged not to the clerical 
 order), and the Jansenists, who were condemned 
 and excommunicated by the Church. The great 
 bulk of the parochial clergy were men of laborious 
 and edifying lives; and the bishops and dignita- 
 ries were usually men learned, pious, charitable, 
 and devoted to the interests of religion. 
 
 Laxity crept into some of the religious orders 
 also. In several, the observance of abstinence, 
 midnight prayers, and choral services had been 
 abolished, and banquets and concerts substituted 
 
288 EXAMPLES OF EDIFICATION. 
 
 in their stead. Among some Benedictines and 
 some Fathers of the Oratory , the venom of Jan- 
 senism had spread. “The Maurist Fathers,” says 
 a modern historian, “ who had rendered such s 
 important services to religion and learning, gave 
 up, in consequence of internal dissensions, their 
 valuable labours. Twenty-eight Benedictines of 
 St. Germain des Pres sent up to the king a peti- 
 tion, to be rid of their monastic habit, which, they 
 said, rendered them ridiculous, and to be exempted 
 from the obligation of abstinence, and of the mid- 
 night office, which, as they declared, diverted them 
 from more useful works.”* 
 
 The severer orders, like the Premonstratensians, 
 the Carthusians, and the Trappists, remained to 
 the last prodigies of an austere sanctity. The 
 great Society of Jesus, as we shall presently see, 
 retained its first fervour, and the strictness of its 
 rule. The Lazarists, and the Congregation of 
 St. Sulpice were most exemplary in doctrine and 
 in morals. The female convents, as we know from 
 history, and as I have often heard enlightened 
 French ecclesiastics declare, remained during the 
 whole of that corrupt period singularly free from 
 abuses. 
 
 Such was the state of the French Church in the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 I will now take the liberty of citing the elo- 
 quent encomium which the illustrious Edmund 
 Burke has pronounced on the virtues and the 
 learning of the clergy of ancient France. 
 
 “ When my occasions took me into France,” 
 says Mr. Burke, “towards the close of the late 
 reign, the clergy, under all their forms, engaged 
 
 * Hist. Univ. vol. ix. p. 527. 
 
BURKE ON THE FRENCH CLERGY. 
 
 289 
 
 a considerable part of my curiosity. So far from 
 finding (except from one set of men, not then very 
 numerous, though very active) the complaints and 
 discontents against that body, which some pub- 
 lications had given me reason to expect, I perceived 
 little or no public or private uneasiness on their 
 account. On further examination, I found the 
 clergy, in general, persons of moderate minds and 
 decorous manners : I include the seculars and the 
 regulars of both sexes. I had not the good fortune 
 to know a great many of the parochial clergy; but, 
 in general, I received a perfectly good account 
 of their morals, and of their attention to their 
 duties. With some of the higher clergy I had a 
 personal acquaintance ; and of the rest in that 
 class, very good means of information. They were 
 almost all of them persons of noble birth. They 
 resembled others of their own rank; and where 
 there was any difference, it was in their favour. 
 They were more fully educated than the military 
 noblesse; so as by no means to disgrace their 
 profession by ignorance, or by want of fitness for 
 the exercise of their authority. They seemed to 
 me, beyond the clerical character, liberal and 
 open ; with the hearts of gentlemen, and men of 
 honour ; neither insolent, nor servile in their 
 manners and conduct. They seemed rather a 
 superior class — a set of men, amongst whom you 
 would not be surprised to meet a Fenelon. I saw 
 among the clergy in Paris (many of the descrip- 
 tion are not to be met with anywhere) men of 
 great learning and candour, and I had reason to 
 believe that this description was not confined to 
 Paris. What I found in other places, I know was 
 accidental, and therefore to be presumed a fair 
 sample. I spent a few days in a provincial town, 
 u 
 
290 BURKE ON THE FRENCH CLERGY. 
 
 where, in the absence of the bishop, I passed my 
 evenings with three clergymen, his vicars- general, 
 persons who would have done ' honour to any 
 church. They were all well informed; two of 
 them of deep, general, and extensive erudition, 
 ancient and modern, oriental and western; par- 
 ticularly in their own profession.” 
 
 Again, he says, “ France, before the Revolution, 
 had about one hundred and twenty bishops. A 
 few of them were men of eminent sanctity and 
 
 charity without limit Examples of avarice 
 
 and of licentiousness may be picked out, I do not 
 question it, by those who delight in the investiga- 
 tion which leads to such discoveries. A man as 
 old as I am will not be astonished that several in 
 every description do not lead that perfect life of 
 self-denial, with regard to wealth or to pleasure, 
 which is wished for by all, expected by some, and 
 by none exacted with more rigour than by those 
 who are the most attentive to their own interests, 
 or the most indulgent to their own passions. 
 When I was in France, I am certain that the 
 number of vicious prelates was not great. Certain 
 individuals among them, not distinguishable for 
 the regularity of their lives, made some amends 
 for the want of the severe virtues in their posses- 
 sion of the liberal, and were endowed with quali- 
 ties which made them useful in the Church and 
 State”* 
 
 Mr. Pitt and Mr. Wyndham, too, on their visits 
 to France were struck with the singular piety, 
 learning, and amenity of manners, that distin- 
 guished many ecclesiastics they met with. M. de 
 
 * Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution, pp. 
 210-17. 
 
CHARACTER OF THAT CLERGY. 
 
 291 
 
 Tocqueville, who certainly cannot be taxed with 
 an excessive zeal for Catholicism, has, in his very 
 remarkable work on the ancient regime, borne 
 ample testimony to the virtues and merits of the 
 old clergy of his country. The same favourable 
 impression was produced on the Protestant mind 
 of England, by the exemplary fortitude and piety 
 of the French emigrant priests. 
 
 The French Church of the eighteenth century 
 could not show the great intellects that have 
 adorned the present, such as an Abbe de la 
 Mennais before his fall, a Pere Lacordaire, a Pere 
 Xtavignan, an Abbe Gerbet, now Bishop of Per- 
 pignan, a Pere Geratry ; but the bulk of the 
 priesthood were then not only far more polished 
 and refined in manners, but better informed and 
 more learned than their successors, for they had 
 enjoyed the advantages of a much longer training. 
 But in the more essential qualities of unanimity 
 of feeling, zeal in the discharge of their duties, 
 and devotedness to the Holy See, they must 
 yield the palm to the ecclesiastics of the present 
 day. 
 
 There were two great events which tested the 
 virtue of the French episcopate in the last cen- 
 tury, — the suppression of the colleges of the J esuits 
 in 1763, and the civil constitution of the clergy 
 in 1790. Every human motive of self-interest, 
 ambition, and jealousy, must have suggested to 
 the French prelacy a compliance with the policy 
 of the court in regard to the Jesuits. Those 
 measures of the king and his powerful minister, 
 Choiseul, were, moreover, backed by most of the 
 parliaments, by the Jansenists, by the infide 
 party, and even, to a certain extent, by the 
 jealousy of other orders. In raising their voice 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 CHARACTER OF THAT CLERGY. 
 
 on behalf of an unjustly persecuted order, the 
 bishops exposed themselves to obloquy, and even 
 oppression ; and nothing but a sense of justice, 
 zeal for religion, love for learning and sound 
 education, and loyalty to the Holy See, could 
 have inspired them with such generous courage. 
 Four bishops only subscribed the condemnation 
 of the order; and among these was the Jansenist 
 prelate, M. de Fitzjames* 
 
 Thirty years afterwards, the French episcopate 
 passes through a still severer ordeal. New eccle- 
 siastical arrangements, incompatible with the 
 established discipline, and derogatory to the 
 rights and jurisdiction of the Holy See, are 
 made by the revolutionary government. An 
 oath to the new schismatical discipline is de- 
 manded by that government. It is condemned 
 by the Pope ; and the whole episcopal body — one 
 hundred and thirty in number — and four only 
 excepted, without hesitation, without seeking 
 from Rome any compromise, rejected the ob- 
 noxious oath, thereby exposing themselves to 
 poverty, imprisonment, exile, and even death ! 
 Such heroism surely proves that, if the French 
 prelacy contained worldly-minded members, it 
 was yet sound at heart. The bishops were nobly 
 seconded by the inferior clergy ; and rather than 
 incur the guilt of schism, one hundred and thirty 
 
 * The assembly of the clergy of France, in June, 1762, 
 declare to the king : — “ Sire, in asking you to-day to pre- 
 serve the Jesuits, we present to you the unanimous wish 
 of all the ecclesiastical provinces of your Kingdom ” — 
 “ Memoires pour servir a l’histoire ecclesiastique pendant 
 le 18eme, siecle,” vol. ii. p. 411. 
 
 Of the four dissentient bishops, three required but a 
 partial modification of the order, and one only condemned 
 it. Ibid., vol. ii. p. 407. 
 
CHARACTER OF THAT CLERGY. 
 
 293 
 
 prelates, and one hundred thousand priests, secu- 
 lar and regular, wandered forth into penury and 
 exile, or pined in dungeons, or shed their blood 
 on the scaffold. The revolutionary tempest, while 
 it uprooted in France the stately trees of the 
 forest, scattered to distant climes the seeds of 
 future vegetation ; and the expulsion of the 
 clergy, which the French Jacobins vainly hoped 
 to be the means of exterminating the Christian 
 religion, served only to propagate the Catholic 
 faith in England, Germany, and America. 
 
 But though, as events proved, there were so 
 many praiseworthy and glorious elements in the 
 Church of France, still there were many and 
 various abuses, that, unchecked as they were, 
 must certainly be classed among the minor causes 
 of the Revolution. 
 
 The contest with J ansenism, as before observed, 
 weakened the Church of France, and prevented 
 a concentration of her efforts against infidelity. 
 The morose, rigid morality of Jansenism, which, 
 in a modified form, the orthodox clergy were, 
 by force of circumstances, compelled to adopt, 
 disgusted men of the world with the practice of 
 religion, and drove not a few into unbelief. The 
 encroachments of the State fettered the whole- 
 some spiritual action of the priesthood. The 
 Gallicanism of the Sorbonne, and still more of 
 the parliaments, undermined the respect of the 
 faithful for the authority of the Holy See. The 
 absence of eminent talent in the ranks of the 
 Catholic clergy, occasioned partly by the abuse 
 of church patronage, partly — as we shall later see 
 — by the loss of old political institutions, was a 
 sore trial and a stumbling-block to the faithful. 
 A still greater trial was the worldly-mindedness 
 
294 
 
 SOCIETY OF JESUS. 
 
 of certain prelates, who engaged in the amuse- 
 ments and political intrigues of a court life, 
 utterly abandoned the care of their dioceses, or 
 the scandal of priests and monks, who, frequent- 
 ing the haunts of great cities, brought disgrace 
 on their sacred calling. These vicious clerics, on 
 the one hand, and the fanatical Jansenists, on the 
 other, became the nucleus of that clergy called 
 Constitutional , who embraced the schism of 
 1790, and some of whom violated their vows, 
 and married ; while others, again, threw off the 
 yoke of Christianity, and became the guiltiest 
 actors in some of the worst scenes of the revo- 
 lution. 
 
 I now come to the last moral cause I have 
 assigned for that revolution — the disorders intro- 
 duced into public education by the suppression of 
 the Jesuit colleges in 1763. 
 
 SUPPRESSION OF JESUIT COLLEGES. 
 
 The great Society of Jesus had been evidently 
 raised up by Divine Providence to arrest the 
 progress of Protestantism, and to compensate the 
 Church for the losses she had sustained in Europe 
 by new acquisitions in the eastern and western 
 hemispheres. 
 
 True to this high calling, this order devotes 
 itself to foreign and domestic missions, the educa- 
 tion of youth, especially in the higher classes, the 
 exercise of the sacred ministry, and the cultivation 
 of ecclesiastical and profane learning. By their 
 preaching and missionary labours its members 
 convert the most obdurate sinners, bring back 
 heretics to the Church, confirm the faith of the 
 wavering, reform the morals of corrupt cities. 
 
SOCIETY OE JESUS. 
 
 295 
 
 stimulate the zeal of the parochial clergy, instruct 
 the world by an elegant literature, and by a learned 
 and solid theology advance the interests of reli- 
 gion. They reform education, they win the hearts 
 of youth, they give a better direction to classical 
 studies, which many of the later Humanists had 
 perverted. Co-operating with other new orders, 
 they check the outburst of Protestantism in Italy, 
 and roll back its turbid waters from Austria and 
 Bavaria. They cross the ocean, and conquer new 
 provinces to Christ ; they brave perils by land, 
 and perils by sea, and perils in the wilderness, 
 and perils from wild beasts. 
 
 “A frame of adamant — a soul of fire — 
 
 No dangers daunt them, and no labours tire.” 
 
 Sometimes they venture in a frail canoe on the 
 unexplored rivers of South America, not knowing 
 whether the next quarter of an hour might not 
 dash them down some tremendous cataract. At 
 other times they traverse the trackless forest, 
 threatened with death from the serpent, the wild 
 beast, or the arrow of the fiercer savage. Again, 
 at other times (as in Paraguay), they realize the 
 fable of Orpheus, and by music and ecclesiastical 
 chants charm the outcast children of Nature, 
 kindle in their breasts the latent sparks of good- 
 ness God had fixed there, and reclaim them to 
 humanity, civilization, and the Gospel. 
 
 Such was this celebrated Society of Jesus. In 
 the great task of moral and intellectual regenera- 
 tion, which this order accomplished, it had noble 
 associates in the Congregation of St. Philip Neri, 
 in the order of the Theatines, in the Congregation 
 of St. Jerome iEmilian, in that of St. Calasanzio, 
 in the newly reformed Franciscan order of the 
 
296 
 
 SOCIETY OF JESUS. 
 
 Capuchins, in the Vincentian Lazarists, and others. 
 It was protected and encouraged in its labours by 
 the great prelates, who, like St. Charles Borromeo, 
 St. Francis of Sales, and others, laboured to carry 
 out the reforms of the Council of Trent. 
 
 But what distinguished the Society of Jesus 
 from the old orders and the new congregations, 
 was the amazing variety of objects it embraced, 
 and the wonderful success which, especially in its 
 origin, attended most of its efforts. Its members 
 early evinced, too, a preference for the practical 
 and the positive over the ideal and the speculative. 
 Thus they manifested a greater predilection for 
 polemical than for speculative theology ; for moral 
 than for dogmatic divinity; for the physical 
 sciences rather than for metaphysics. They have 
 ever shown a wonderful skill in the direction of 
 souls, and a remarkable aptitude for gaining over 
 the minds of youth to the practice of religion. 
 This practical spirit has been, from their origin to 
 the latest times, their abiding character. 
 
 Another characteristic (if I may be allowed to 
 express myself in so general a way) is, that their 
 corporate energy is on the whole more remarkable 
 than their individual. 
 
 On its first introduction into France, this 
 society had to encounter the hostility of the 
 Parliaments, the opposition of the University, and 
 the jealousy of some religious orders; but it was 
 mostly supported by the episcopate, the court, 
 and the nobility. It produced in the course of 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries eminent 
 divines, preachers, literati, and scientific men ; and 
 among these I need but cite the great names of 
 Petavius and Bourdaloue. It aided the clergy, 
 here, as elsewhere, in the exercise of the sacred 
 
SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 297 
 
 ministry, filled the pulpits, held missions, and 
 took so prominent a part in public education, 
 that most of the great men in every department 
 that adorned the reign of Louis XIV. had been 
 trained up in its colleges. It carried on an 
 unremitting war with Jansenism — a war that was 
 protracted far into the eighteenth century. 
 
 In that age we discern in this society the same 
 absence of eminent talent, as in the secular clergy 
 and most of the other religious orders. Its great 
 men, too, had vanished at the dawn of that in- 
 auspicious century. 
 
 We now come to the sad history of the sup- 
 pression of the order. The story is well known, 
 and my limits will not allow me to do more than 
 advert to it. The infidel party in Europe was the 
 well-known author of this work of destruction, in 
 which it was but too well seconded by the Jan- 
 senists. The first blow was struck in Portugal in 
 the year 1752. The tyrannical minister, Pombal, 
 in despite of the clearest evidence to the contrary, 
 feigned a conspiracy on the part of the Jesuits 
 against the king’s life, accused, among others, one 
 who was then actually confined to his bed in an 
 asylum, instituted an arbitrary State-Inquisition, 
 which, on the most ridiculous charges, imprisoned 
 many of these religious, and executed some 
 others. The property of the whole order in Por- 
 tugal was confiscated, and its members cast upon 
 the shores of the Papal States. 
 
 Measures of equal rigour against the society 
 were adopted in the Portuguese colonies. Several 
 bishops and members of other religious orders 
 were involved in this cruel persecution ; and the 
 most audacious encroachments on episcopal rights 
 and ecclesiastical discipline were perpetrated. 
 
298 
 
 SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 
 
 Here we see realized the truth of those words of 
 Scripture, “When one member suffereth, all 
 suffer.” 
 
 Nor was the oppression confined to the Church. 
 Many nobles, too, suffered imprisonment and 
 exile ; their property was confiscated, and all 
 entails abolished. So sure is it that tyranny 
 exercised against the Church will affect the State 
 also. These two great Corporations have so many 
 points of contact, that their interests cannot be 
 wholly dissevered. The despotism, political as well 
 as ecclesiastical, of Pombal was a worthy prelude 
 to that of the revolutionary Cortes of 1820. 
 
 In France the infidel party was indefatigable 
 in its manoeuvres to accomplish the ruin of the 
 Jesuits. Itidicule, calumnies, cabals, the agency 
 of secret societies, court intrigues, they left 
 nothing untried to bring about their infernal 
 purpose. They well knew that in destroying this 
 religious corporation they destroyed one of the 
 chief bulwarks of religion in France. They were 
 too well seconded by the Parliaments, many of 
 whose magistrates were Jansenists, and others, 
 though sincere Catholics, suffered themselves to 
 be carried away by the fanatical passions and 
 prejudices of their colleagues. Their accusations 
 against the Jesuits were as ridiculous and self-con- 
 tradictory as they w^ere atrocious. The minister 
 Choiseul was an adept of the irreligious faction. 
 His insidious charges against the order were for a 
 long time unheeded by Louis XV., who was sup- 
 ported in a just policy by the Dauphin, the friend 
 and protector of these religious. At last the 
 guilty Pompadour played in this matter a part 
 truly worthy of herself. Her Jesuit confessor 
 having refused her absolution, unless she quitted 
 
EFFECTS IN FRANCE, 
 
 299 
 
 the Court, she turned her whole vengeance against 
 the order, vowed its destruction, and to that effect 
 exerted her mischievous fascination over the in- 
 fatuated king. 
 
 In 1763 was issued at last the Royal edict, sup- 
 pressing the colleges of the society, confiscating its 
 property, and assigning a pension to its individual 
 members. They were not banished from France, 
 as they had been from Spain and Portugal ; but 
 though incapacitated for holding schools and col- 
 leges, they were allowed to preach and exercise 
 other ecclesiastical functions. 
 
 This exclusion of the Jesuits from public educa- 
 tion was a fearful blow to religion. In the early 
 part of the last century, they possessed in France, 
 both for their own sakes and that of the public, 
 too many colleges. For in the former case, this 
 excessive preponderance in public education was 
 calculated to awaken jealousy; and in the latter 
 case it prevented a wholesome competition. 
 Hence the suppression of their schools left an 
 immense void in public education. Their place 
 was now filled up by irreligious laymen, or by the 
 members of a certain regular Congregation, well 
 known for its attachment to Jansenism. 
 
 It has been said, that the men who acted so 
 fearful a part in the bloody scenes of the revolu- 
 tion, had been educated by the Jesuits. This is 
 quite untrue, as a simple calculation will show. 
 For the men who, at the age of eighteen or twenty, 
 had completed their studies in 1763, the year in 
 which those colleges were suppressed, must have 
 attained the age of fifty in 1793. Now, the men 
 who took a prominent part in the atrocious scenes 
 adverted to were mostly between twenty and forty 
 years of age. Few, comparatively, were turned of 
 
300 
 
 EFFECTS IN FRANCE. 
 
 fifty. And even if tlie pupils of the Jesuits had 
 forgotten the lessons of piety they had learned, 
 and even abandoned their religion, how could the 
 order be responsible for the behaviour of lay 
 students, who left them at the ages of eighteen 
 and twenty. The France of that day, as well as 
 other countries since that time, felt the want of 
 good religious universities, that would have carried 
 on the training of youth to the age of three or four 
 and twenty — an age, after which, if a young man 
 has been well furnished with religious and secular 
 knowledge, he is found, as the great Pere Lacor- 
 daire well observes, rarely to lose the gift of faith. 
 The abuse of university education has been 
 attended with very great evils to religion; but 
 the absence of university education has certainly 
 not tended to advance her interests. 
 
 The French bishops, as we have seen, with but 
 four exceptions, pronounced a warm eulogium 
 on the order, and petitioned the king that it 
 might be allowed to retain its colleges. Pope 
 Clement XIV., when, ten years later, overpowered 
 by the demands of most of the Catholic princes, 
 he reluctantly suppressed the society, rendered 
 full homage to the virtues of its members, and the 
 immense services they had rendered to religion 
 and learning. 
 
 The suppression of the Society of Jesus was 
 everywhere accompanied with attacks on other 
 religious orders, with encroachments on episcopal 
 jurisdiction, and even with revolutionary changes 
 in society. It was an anticipation of the fearful 
 commotions that were to convulse the close of the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 As we approach the awful tempest that is to 
 close that century, how the soil heaves beneath 
 
EFFECTS IN FRANCE. 
 
 301 
 
 our feet! — how quick and vivid flash the subter- 
 ranean lightnings! — how dense and sultry becomes 
 the air ! — and how distinctly are heard the mut- 
 terings of the distant thunder ! 
 
 The. event I have been speaking of, and which 
 was attended with effects, partly ecclesiastical, 
 partly political, leads me to the second division 
 of my subject — the political causes of the revo- 
 lution of 1789. 
 
 What were the elements of good and of evil 
 in the ancient monarchy of France? How far 
 had it departed from the type of the old Christian 
 state? How could the revolution of 1789 have 
 been averted? What points of analogy and of 
 contact subsisted between the Absolutism of the 
 eighteenth century and the revolutionary Demo- 
 cracy that convulsed its close ? 
 
 These are the questions which, with your per- 
 mission, I will discuss on the next occasion I have 
 the honour of meeting you. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 POLITICAL CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 OF 1789. 
 
 Having in a preceding lecture spoken of the 
 moral causes of the Revolution of 1789, I now 
 proceed to consider the political causes of that 
 great event. 
 
 In the execution of this task, I shall give an 
 outline of the Constitution of ancient France, 
 beginning with the crown, and its judicial and 
 administrative functionaries ; then describe in suc- 
 cession the three orders composing the State, — the 
 clergy, the nobility, and the commons, — noticing 
 the changes which in the century and a half pre- 
 ceding the Revolution, had been gradually brought 
 about in their rights and liberties. I shall then 
 enlarge on the system of administrative centraliza- 
 tion, established by Cardinal Richelieu, continued 
 by Louis XIV., and fearfully developed in the 
 course of the eighteenth century. The material 
 condition of the various classes, and more espe- 
 cially that of the peasantry, will next engage our 
 attention. The different systems of political eco- 
 nomy, the administration of Turgot, and the revo- 
 lutionary views of certain publicists, will then 
 come under review. Lastly, I shall conclude with 
 an inquiry into some special abuses in the ancient 
 government of France, and certain unjust and 
 
POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF ANCIENT FRANCE. 303 
 
 unwise measures of the old court, as well as the 
 disorder in the public finances. 
 
 POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF ANCIENT FRANCE. 
 
 The French monarchy was hereditary in the 
 male line. The three orders of the state con- 
 sisted, as in other European kingdoms, of the 
 clergy, the nobility, and the third estate. The 
 States-General, in which these orders sat, and 
 which had formerly been periodically convened, 
 had unfortunately, since 1614, been suspended. 
 Besides the States-General, there were States-Pro- 
 vincial. The provinces, where these were regularly 
 convoked, were called the pays d’etats , and those 
 which were governed solely by royal functionaries, 
 were called pays d’ election. 
 
 The former constituted a third, and the latter 
 two-thirds of the entire kingdom. Languedoc, 
 Provence, Bourgogne, Bearn, Comte de Foix, 
 Bretagne, Franche-Comte, and Lorraine, were the 
 chief provinces among the pays d’etat. These, as 
 we shall presently see, were in point of material 
 prosperity, as well as of the public spirit and 
 energy of their inhabitants, far superior to the 
 pays Selection. The royal governor in all the pro- 
 vinces was called intendant, and in the eighteenth 
 century the functions he had gradually usurped, 
 likened him considerably to a prefect of the present 
 day. In the pays d’ election, the taxes were gene- 
 rally farmed out, and those to whom they were 
 farmed out were called farmers-general of the 
 finances. 
 
 But in the pays d’etat, the taxes were levied 
 and assessed by the states-provincial. The royal 
 council of state presided over the whole adminis- 
 
304 POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF ANCIENT FRANCE. 
 
 tration. It exercised in some cases an appellate 
 jurisdiction. It also prepared and drew up the 
 more important ordinances and edicts of the king. 
 The courts of justice were called parliaments, and 
 were fourteen in number; whereof that of Paris 
 had by far the most extensive jurisdiction. Of 
 the judges called by the general name of magis - 
 trats , and who belonged in part to the nobility, 
 in part to the third estate, I shall soon have 
 occasion to speak. 
 
 The French provinces were not regulated by an 
 uniform code; some, like those of the south, had 
 a written jurisprudence, chiefly derived from the 
 Roman ; others w r ere ruled by customary laws, 
 which varied much in different districts. The 
 various cities of the kingdom had also their own 
 special laws and customs; and even in the names 
 of city magistrates there was great diversity. 
 
 This diversity will always subsist, where laws 
 are the spontaneous growth of time, and not the 
 artificial contrivance of a single lawgiver. Carried 
 to excess, this diversity is attended with consider- 
 able inconvenience, and must sooner or later be 
 the subject of reform. But the opposite mania 
 for codification entails evils of considerable mag- 
 nitude. 
 
 Having now spoken of the legal and judicial 
 organization of ancient France, I turn to consider 
 the constitution of the different orders composing 
 the monarchy, and naturally commence with the 
 clerical body. 
 
 THE CLERICAL ORDER. 
 
 The clergy in that country, as in all other Euro- 
 pean states, subsisted by tithes and landed endow- 
 ments. Their annual revenues amounted to about 
 
THE CLERGY. 
 
 305 
 
 eighty million francs, whereof about eleven mil- 
 lion they gave annually to the government, by a 
 voluntary grant. In times of difficulty their grants 
 rose to double the amount stated. 
 
 The clergy, like the nobility, were subject to all 
 indirect taxes ; but except in the conquered pro- 
 vinces, they paid no direct imposts. The free 
 grants I have just spoken of supplied the place. 
 They were the first order in the States-General 
 and the States-Provincial, deliberating and voting 
 separately from the other two — the nobility and 
 the commons. 
 
 Under the old system of States-General, the 
 bishops, as prelates of the Church, as large landed 
 proprietors, and as lawgivers, exerted an immense 
 power; and down to the Revolution of 1789, 
 their influence in those provinces, which were for- 
 tunate enough to retain their local legislatures, 
 was considerable. And how beneficial was that 
 influence M. de Tocqueville will tell us. 
 
 Speaking of the States-Provincial of Languedoc, 
 he says, in his very remarkable work on the ancien 
 regime , “ The clergy, for their part, though com- 
 posed in a great measure of nobles, there lived on a 
 perfect understanding with the third estate. They 
 entered with enthusiasm into all its projects, strove 
 in concert with that body to augment the material 
 prosperity of all citizens, and to promote their trade 
 and industry, placing at their service their great 
 knowledge of men and their rare skill in the man- 
 agement of affairs. It was almost always an eccle- 
 siastic that was deputed by the States to Versailles, 
 there to discuss with the ministers the matters con- 
 tested between them and the Crown. It may be 
 safely affirmed that during the whole of the last 
 century the province of Languedoc was adminis- 
 x 
 
306 
 
 THE CLERGY. 
 
 tered by commoners, controlled by nobles, and 
 aided by bishops:”* 
 
 So far M. de Tocqueville. 
 
 Hence we see how deeply interested were the 
 prelacy in the maintenance and extension of States- 
 Provincial, which opened so wide a field to their 
 patriotic efforts, and consequently enlarged the 
 sphere of their spiritual influence. The priest is 
 instinctively a statesman. The greatest ministers 
 of modern Europe have been members of the 
 clerical body ; and so it is not surprising that in 
 these provincial states the bishops should have 
 evinced so much talent in the handling of political 
 affairs. 
 
 Of the learning and virtues of the French clergy 
 I had occasion to speak in my last lecture. 
 
 THE NOBILITY. 
 
 I now pass to the nobility. 
 
 The nobility was the second order in the con- 
 stitution. There were various kinds of nobility : 
 the noblesse de la cour — the noblesse de province — 
 the noblesse de Vepee — and the noblesse de la robe. 
 The dues et pairs were at the head of the noblesse , 
 and sat on great occasions in the parliaments or 
 courts of justice. They constituted the high 
 aristocracy in France. All the members of a 
 family were ennobled ; and owing to this circum- 
 stance, the younger sons could not assimilate so 
 easily with the middle classes in the learned 
 professions, and many of them in consequence 
 languished in poverty. 
 
 The nobility usually filled the highest places in 
 
 * De l’Ancien Regime, p. 362. 
 
THE NOBILITY. 
 
 307 
 
 the army and navy, and very many held the first 
 dignities in the Church, as well as in the magis- 
 tracy. They were constantly reinforced by mem- 
 bers of the third estate, who, either by virtue of 
 signal services to the monarchy, or by favour, or 
 by purchase from the Crown, or by the acquisition 
 of lands to which titles were annexed, were raised 
 to the rank of nobility. Between the ennoblis as 
 they were called, or the recently ennobled, and 
 the old noblesse, there was often much jealousy 
 and strife. But such jealousies are incident to 
 human nature ; they are found to a greater or less 
 extent in all countries ; and had the States-General 
 been preserved, or even the States-Provincial been 
 in more general force, such contentions would 
 have been far more rare, and been attended with 
 less inconvenience and danger. Yet it cannot be 
 doubted that this perpetual renovation out of the 
 body of the commons was extremely beneficial to 
 the noblesse . 
 
 The fatal system introduced by Richelieu and 
 Louis XIV., of undermining the local influence 
 of the nobles, and attracting them to the court, 
 was attended with the most baleful consequences. 
 First, this constant residence at court was detri- 
 mental to their fortunes; next, it exposed their 
 virtue to the greatest dangers ; then, it took from 
 them that manly independence of character so 
 becoming to an aristocracy; and, lastly, it led to the 
 neglect, moral and material, of the peasantry, and 
 to the utter loss of the landlord^ social influence. 
 
 A portion of the noblesse, partly from patriotism, 
 partly from poverty, resided on their estates ; and 
 this was particularly the case in Brittany, Lower 
 Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Poitou. Of what 
 immense benefit such a residence was to them- 
 x 2 
 
308 
 
 THE NOBILITY. 
 
 selves, to their tenants, and to society at large, was 
 strikingly evinced at the breaking out of the Re- 
 volution. In those western provinces precisely it 
 was that religion, royalty, and freedom found such 
 heroic defenders. There, high and low, nobles 
 and peasants, fought banded together against an 
 impious tyranny pro aris et focis , for their altars 
 and their homesteads, their king and their country. 
 While the once grand seigneurs of Versailles were 
 now compelled to fly from their burning castles to 
 seek refuge on a foreign soil, the simple country 
 gentlemen of Poitou, Anjou, Maine, and Brittany, 
 whom the former had been wont to turn into ridi- 
 cule, were leading on their brave peasants to 
 battle against the Revolution. This memorable 
 example should teach us how fatal to nobility is 
 the abandonment of its estates, and the conse- 
 quent neglect of its tenantry. 
 
 In those provinces called pays d’etats, the nobles 
 had a fitting sphere for the exercise of their talents 
 and their patriotism. Hereby they were more 
 retained on their properties ; they were better 
 initiated into public affairs, and trained to the 
 management of business ; and thus they became 
 more public-spirited, as well as intelligent. Fur- 
 ther (and this is extremely worthy of attention), 
 in those provinces possessed of local legislatures, 
 the nobles lived on a more cordial understanding 
 with the members of the third estate. “ In Lan- 
 guedoc, more than elsewhere,” says M. de Tocque- 
 ville, “ the various classes of society mingled 
 together, and were on the footing of the most per- 
 fect equality.”* Again, in another part of his 
 very remarkable work he says, “ What particularly 
 
 * De l’Ancien Regime, p. 361, 
 
THE NOBILITY. 
 
 309 
 
 strikes us in the States-General of the fourteenth 
 century, is to see how the nobility and the third 
 estate find it more easy to carry on public 
 affairs together, or to offer a common resistance 
 to power, than they have ever done since that 
 time. This is observable, not only in the States- 
 General of the fourteenth century (many whereof 
 had an irregular and revolutionary character, from 
 the misfortunes of the time), but in the Provincial 
 States also, of the same period, where there is 
 nothing to show that affairs did not follow their 
 regular and habitual course.”* 
 
 So far this judicious writer. In those pro- 
 vinces, on the other hand, called pays Selection, 
 which had lost their local legislatures, the seigneur 
 was merely looked upon by the government as 
 the premier habitant — the chief inhabitant of the 
 district. Without much political importance in 
 his province, overlooked by the government, and 
 except (as proprietor) exercising little influence 
 over the people, the nobleman felt himself wounded 
 in his pride, and sought by a spirit of exclusive- 
 ness in social life, and by exorbitant pretensions of 
 rank, to indemnify himself for the substantial power 
 he had lost. Whenever an aristocracy is with- 
 drawn from its sphere of local influence, reduced 
 to be a puppet in the pageantries of a court, and 
 bereaved of legislative authority, then, on the one 
 hand, it becomes pretentious, arrogant, frivolous, 
 exclusive in its matrimonial alliances, and, on the 
 other, declines in capacity and in wealth. This 
 truth, the history not of Prance only, but of Spain 
 and of some other countries for the last two cen- 
 turies fully shows. 
 
 * De l’Ancien Regime, p. 15. 
 
310 
 
 THE NOBILITY. 
 
 As to the moral conduct of the high court 
 nobility, it had been becoming, as we have seen, 
 more and more depraved from the time of the 
 Regency. During the licentious reign of Louis 
 XY. this corruption attained to a fearful height ; 
 and in many instances it was further aggravated 
 by unbelief. Many a noble entertained at his 
 table the apostles and proselytes of infidelity, and 
 encouraged their sophistic and blasphemous talk. 
 Such infatuation on the part of those most inter- 
 ested in the preservation of that public order 
 which insures the rights of property and of birth, 
 and which religion can alone uphold, seems 
 inconceivable. 
 
 Strange, indeed ! but the fanaticism of opinion 
 is often found to be stronger than the claims of 
 self-interest itself; and under absolute monarchy 
 (as we shall later see), the conservative instincts 
 of aristocracy were blunted and deadened. Some 
 of these nobles, indeed, patronized infidelity more 
 from fashion than from conviction. But at this 
 corrupt court there were some, like the friends of 
 the Dauphin, who were distinguished for piety 
 and virtue. In the provincial noblesse, or country 
 gentlemen, such examples were far more frequent 
 and striking ; and the glorious names of Lescure, 
 La Rochejacquelein, and others in the Yendean 
 civil war, may show what models of Christian 
 heroism were to be found in the ranks of that 
 body. Under a better system of government the 
 moral and intellectual energies of the French 
 nobility would have been far better developed, 
 and would have redounded to their own glory, as 
 well as to the advantage of society. 
 
 Before I take leave of this order, I must notice 
 its privileges and those of the clergy in regard 
 
TAXATION OF CLERGY AND NOBLES. 311 
 
 to taxation ; and here I will take the liberty of 
 citing a passage from Burke's “Reflections on 
 the French Revolution." 
 
 “Perhaps persons unacquaint edwith the state 
 of France/' says this great writer, “ on hearing the 
 clergy and the noblesse were privileged in point 
 of taxation, may be led to imagine that previous 
 to the Revolution these bodies had contributed 
 nothing to the state. This is a great mistake. 
 They certainly did not contribute equally with 
 each other, nor either of them equally with the 
 commons. They both, however, contributed 
 largely. Neither nobility nor clergy enjoyed 
 any exemption from the excise on consumable 
 commodities, from duties of custom, or from any 
 of the other numerous indirect impositions which, 
 in France as well as here, make so very large a 
 proportion of all payments to the public. The 
 noblesse paid the capitation. They paid also a 
 land-tax, called the twentieth penny, to the height 
 sometimes of three, sometimes of four shillings in 
 the pound, both of them direct impositions of no 
 light nature and no trivial produce. 
 
 “ The clergy of the provinces annexed by con- 
 quest to France, (which in extent make about an 
 eighth part of the whole, but in wealth a much 
 larger proportion), paid likewise to the capitation 
 and the twentieth penny at the rate paid by the 
 nobility. The clergy in the old provinces did 
 not pay the capitation; but they had redeemed 
 themselves at the expense of about twenty-four 
 million francs, or a little more than a million ster- 
 ling. They were exempted from the twentieths; 
 but then they made free gifts. They contracted 
 debts for the state, and they were subject to some 
 other charges, the whole computed at about a 
 
312 THE COMMONS. 
 
 thirteenth part of their clear income. They ought 
 to have paid annually about forty thousand pounds 
 more, to put them on a par with the contribution 
 of the nobility. 
 
 “ When the terrors of this tremendous pro- 
 scription hung over the clergy, they made an 
 offer of a contribution through the Archbishop of 
 Aix, which for its extravagance ought not to have 
 been accepted/’* 
 
 THE THIRD ESTATE. 
 
 The third estate now claims our considera- 
 tion. It consisted of the members of the legal 
 and medical professions, the men of letters and 
 science, the merchants, master-manufacturers, the 
 non-noble landed proprietors, the farmers-general 
 and other government contractors, and the various 
 civil functionaries. The third estate had, in the 
 course of a century and a half, by its wealth 
 and intelligence risen to considerable influence. 
 While the high functionaries of the law enjoyed 
 in France a consideration not surpassed in any 
 country, the members of the bar did not hold a 
 position equal to their great importance. On the 
 other hand, men of letters and science were far 
 more highly considered than in England at that 
 time, or even perhaps at the present day. 
 
 The French magistrates formed an intermediate 
 link between the noblesse and the third estate ; 
 some, indeed, were of noble origin, while others 
 were sprung from the class of burgesses ; but all 
 held in the political, as well as the judicial order 
 
 * Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution, pp. 
 222 , 223 . 
 
THE MAGISTRATES. 
 
 313 
 
 of things, a most eminent position. Many of 
 them, even down to a late period, were remarkable 
 for their austere piety, unsullied integrity, and 
 the faithful discharge of their weighty duties. 
 Many, too, were oracles of legal learning ; and 
 the wisdom as well as the equity of their judicial 
 sentences was revered far and near. They gave 
 several eminent statesmen to Prance, and many 
 a bright ornament to letters and science. What 
 shall I say of the Talons, the Le Telliers, the 
 Pothiers, the D’Aguesseaus, — men who, by their 
 virtues, their dignity of character, their forensic 
 learning, and general acquirements, shed lustre 
 on their noble profession ? In later times, indeed, 
 many of this body fell under the influence of 
 Jansenism, and those who were not followers of 
 that sect, yet, by an esprit de corps , were drawn 
 into a violent opposition to the Church. The 
 provincial parliaments were much freer than that 
 of Paris from a factious and sectarian spirit; and 
 several of those parliaments refused, for example, 
 to concur in the iniquitous persecution raised 
 against the Jesuits. 
 
 Though the administration of justice on the 
 part of these magistrates was most pure, yet, in 
 its criminal branch was it often characterized 
 by great harshness. Burke observes, that in no 
 country were life and property better protected 
 than in ancient Prance. 
 
 After undergoing a legal examination, these 
 magistrates were allowed to purchase their several 
 offices ; and thus they were irremovable, and 
 became independent of the Crown. This inde- 
 pendence, joined to their great probity, gave 
 weight to their judgments, and even insured 
 them no little political influence. 
 
314 
 
 THE MAGISTRATES. 
 
 As the gens de loi — the men of the law — they 
 had the right, prior to the registration of any 
 royal ordinance, to protest or remonstrate against 
 the illegality of its form. This right they stretched 
 to one of remonstrance as to the spirit of an edict ; 
 and so they gradually usurped a sort of legislative 
 power in the kingdom. During the suspension 
 of the States-General, since the year 1614, this 
 exercise of an usurped authority often proved 
 beneficial to the state. But it was, at best, an 
 anomalous power, too often exercised in the spirit 
 of a contentious, narrow-minded legality, and 
 latterly perverted to the purposes of a sect and a 
 faction. Not only did the magistrates in the last 
 century too often abuse their powers, to the detri- 
 ment of the Church, but they even evinced a 
 factious opposition to wise measures brought 
 forward by the Crown. 
 
 When the king enforced the registration of an 
 ordinance, in despite of the remonstrances of the 
 parliament, he was said to hold a bed of justice, — 
 un lit de justice. 
 
 Of the literate and scientific class, whether 
 infidel or Catholic, I have already had occasion 
 to speak, and so I will not revert to the subject. 
 The government, especially that of Louis XVI., 
 afforded the greatest encouragement to letters, 
 and particularly to science ; it gave pensions to 
 their eminent professors, and set on foot voyages 
 of discovery. 
 
 As to merchants and manufacturers, they rose 
 during the eighteenth century in wealth and 
 importance ; and in the reign of Louis XVI. they 
 had attained to the acme of their prosperity. 
 France had immensely extended her maritime 
 commerce. The city of Bordeaux employed three 
 
MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS. 315 
 
 hundred vessels in the trade with Africa and 
 America, and covered an expenditure of fifty-two 
 million francs, with profits amounting to eighty- 
 eight millions. In the single year 1788 the city 
 of Nantes, which had received colonial commo- 
 dities to the value of two hundred million francs, 
 made a profit of forty millions. - * The trade with 
 the single island of St. Domingo maintained six- 
 teen hundred vessels and twenty-seven thousand 
 sailors. The exports of France to the Spanish 
 and French portions of St. Domingo in 1789 
 amounted to no less than £10,000,000 sterling ; 
 while those of Great Britain to all her West-India 
 islandsput together in 1842 were only £3, 600, 000. f 
 The commerce with the Levant by Marseilles was 
 something enormous.J 
 
 France then possessed fifteen colonies, more or 
 less flourishing. 
 
 Domestic manufactures, too, enjoyed a high 
 degree of prosperity. The fair of the city of 
 Beaucaire§ passed for a European market. “ The 
 commercial marine of France,” says Sir Archibald 
 Alison, “ was second only to that of Great Britain, 
 and her warlike navy, as the American war proved, 
 was almost on a level, for the first time in history, 
 with that of her great antagonist.” |j 
 
 * For these details, see Hofler’s “ Manual of Universal 
 History vol. III. part ii. p. 454. (In German). 
 
 t Vide Alison’s History, vol . I. 
 
 $ “ From 1780 to 1792,” says a writer in the “ Encyclo- 
 pedic Catholique,” 64 the trade of Marseilles took an immense 
 development. Its population during that period rose to 
 140,000 souls ; In 1792, 2,440 vessels carried on the trade 
 of its port.” (Encyclopedic Cathol. t. xv. p. 568.) All 
 this commercial prosperity the Revolution destroyed. 
 
 § VideDict. Geog.par M.Bouillett, t. i.p.451. Bruxelles, 
 1855. 
 
 || Vide Alison, vol. I. pp, 165, 166. 
 
316 
 
 PAYS d’eTATS. 
 
 Every encouragement was given by the govern- 
 ment, and by private agricultural societies, towards 
 tbe promotion of husbandry. The construction of 
 new roads and new canals favoured inland com- 
 munication. The seaports were enlarged and 
 fortified ; the capital and the country towns 
 extended and embellished. 
 
 The provincial cities in the pays d’etat were 
 often the seats of a local legislature, consisting of 
 clergy, nobles, and commons ; of a parliament, or 
 a high court of judicature ; and of a literary 
 academy. They displayed a life, a stir, a com- 
 mercial opulence, a municipal as well as intellec- 
 tual energy, and an aristocratic elegance and 
 refinement, which we should in vain look for in 
 any provincial city of modern Prance. In the 
 capital of one of these ancient pays d’etats , 
 namely Pau, in Bearn, I myself once passed a 
 year ; and I recollect the old people telling me 
 how much the city had fallen off from the times 
 they remembered, anterior to the Revolution."* 
 
 ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRALIZATION. 
 
 Yet, under the ancient regime , during the 
 eighteenth century, the fatal system of administra- 
 tive centralization, as was before remarked, was 
 making steady progress ; it was undermining the 
 constitution of the province, the city, and the 
 village, detaching classes one from the other, 
 effacing old associations, and breaking up all the 
 wholesome influences of rank and property, per- 
 
 * The reader will find some interesting details on the 
 French provinces in the last century in M. Th. Foisset’s 
 elegant work, “ Le President de Brosses, on les Parlemens 
 au dixhuitieme Siecle.” Paris, 1842. 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRALIZATION . 317 
 
 sonal talent and experience, spiritual powerand civil 
 magistracy. The class of functionaries, which this 
 system brings forth, and which were then in the 
 process of formation, have since the Revolution 
 attained to a formidable power, both in France and 
 in Germany. While they unduly extend the power 
 of the Crown, these officials have no devotion to 
 royalty ; they bear a mortal hatred to nobility, 
 whose functions they usurp ; they encroach on the 
 spiritual jurisdiction of the Church, even in those 
 cases where they dissent not from her doctrines ; 
 and they despise the people. They are the European 
 mandarins of modern times, who think to promote 
 civilization without the co-operation of the people, 
 and who, in their excessive solicitude for the public 
 weal, would fain spare all classes the trouble of pro- 
 viding for their mental and corporeal wants. They 
 are called bureaucrats in France and Germany; 
 and in the latter country I had ample opportunities 
 for studying them. I do not hesitate to say that 
 bureaucracy is one of the most dangerous and 
 revolutionary elements in modern Germany. 
 
 This system began under Louis XIY. in France, 
 was further developed in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, and partially interrupted by the Republic,*' 
 reached its culminating point under the first 
 Napoleon. It well deserves our attentive con- 
 sideration, for it had an important part in bring- 
 ing about the catastrophe of 1789. Its evils are 
 many and manifold. 
 
 First, this system renders the inhabitants of a 
 city helpless, and ignorant in the management of 
 
 * This partial interruption was, however, more apparent 
 than real ; for the local municipalities were coerced by the 
 clubs of the districts, and by the commissioners from 
 Paris. 
 
318 ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRALIZATION. 
 
 public affairs, and so exposes them to the arts of 
 revolutionary sophists. Experience alone can give 
 the adequate solution to many political problems. 
 
 Next, from the tedious and expensive delays it 
 occasions in the administration of local concerns, 
 it engenders great dissatisfaction among the people. 
 With the exception of the pays d’etats , it was not 
 possible in the France of the last century, as in 
 that of the present day, to construct or repair a 
 bridge, or enlarge an hospital, without an applica- 
 tion, through various intermediate boards, to the 
 central government of Paris. The consequence of 
 such a course was that one, sometimes two years 
 passed away before the prayer of the petition 
 could be acceded to. 
 
 Then, how could a city prosper when matters 
 so necessary to the wellbeing of its inhabitants 
 met with such obstacles ? Despatch is the life of 
 business, and where such delays were interposed 
 by authority, trade must needs languish. The 
 cities of France where commerce flourished were 
 either such as enjoyed a municipal independence, 
 or where this system of centralization was but 
 partially introduced. 
 
 Further, municipal institutions afford scope to 
 the talents and enterprise of the subject. But 
 exclude him from that career of useful, legitimate 
 ambition, and you render him either an indolent 
 citizen, or a discontented politician. 
 
 Again, in any social crisis — nay, in any emer- 
 gency, like one of those seasons of scarcity common 
 in old France — how helpless is a city without 
 municipal independence, or a province without 
 local authorities ! How ineffectual are often the 
 efforts of the central government to meet the 
 exigencies of the crisis ! How miserably doth 
 
CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY. 
 
 319 
 
 Power feel in those moments the recoil of its own 
 mistaken policy ! 
 
 Lastly, this system subordinates the provinces 
 to the capital, thereby exposing them to dangerous 
 influences, and rendering them the mere passive 
 instruments of any revolution brought about in 
 the metropolis. 
 
 The same remarks that apply to the constitution 
 of the city will apply to that of the village in 
 particular, and to that of the province in general. 
 
 Those provinces which had preserved their local 
 legislatures were far more flourishing in agriculture 
 and commerce than those bereft of them. They 
 were, too, as remarkable for their public spirit and 
 energy of enterprise as for their material prosperity. 
 
 In these districts, too, the devotion to royalty 
 was the strongest. Here Spain will afford an 
 illustration of this truth. What provinces, during 
 the last forty years, have made the noblest stand 
 in behalf of the Crown, as well as the Church, 
 against the assaults of the Revolution ? They are 
 Navarre and the Biscayan provinces, which had 
 ever retained their local Cortes, and Aragon and 
 Catalonia, which had ever boasted of their fueros, 
 or privileges. Yet, what an incessant, though 
 secret war, had a misguided government long 
 carried on against these institutions ! How blind, 
 alas, are princes ! They see not that when they 
 weaken the buttresses of freedom, they undermine 
 the foundations of their own thrones ! 
 
 CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY. 
 
 Having now examined the political relations of 
 the clergy, the nobility, and the burgesses, to 
 the State, and having pointed out the evils of 
 
320 
 
 CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY. 
 
 administrative centralization, as regards all the 
 interests, moral and material, of those classes, let 
 us now inquire into the condition of the French 
 peasantry, and see how it was affected by the 
 system I have described. 
 
 “ From the very beginning of the seventeenth 
 century, says M. de Tocqueville, “ Henry IV., 
 according to Perefixe, complained that the nobles 
 quitted their country seats. In the middle of 
 the eighteenth century this desertion became 
 almost general ; all the documents of the time 
 state the fact, and deplore it, — the economists in 
 their books, the intendants in their correspond- 
 ence, the agricultural societies in their Transac- 
 tions. An authentic proof of the fact is furnished 
 by the registers of the capitation tax. This tax 
 was levied at the real domicile of the person. 
 Now, all the high aristocracy, and a part of the 
 inferior nobility, paid the tax at Paris itself. 
 
 u We must beware, however,” continues M. de 
 Tocqueville, “ not to attribute to the direct in- 
 fluence of some of our statesmen and kings, like 
 Richelieu and Louis XIV., the abandonment of 
 their country seats on the part of the class which 
 was then at the head of the nation. The chief ^tnd 
 permanent cause of this fact lay not in the volition 
 of certain influential men, but in the slow and 
 unintermitting action of institutions. And a 
 proof of this is, that when in the eighteenth 
 century the government wished to combat the 
 evil, it could not even suspend its progress. In 
 proportion as the noblesse lost its political rights, 
 without acquiring new ones, and in proportion as 
 the local liberties disappeared, this absenteeism 
 of the nobles increased. It was no longer neces- 
 sary to have recourse to attractions to draw them 
 
CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY. 321 
 
 from their homes ; they had no longer a desire to 
 remain there ; a country life had become utterly 
 insipid to them. And what I here say of nobles 
 will apply to the rich landed proprietors of all 
 countries who pursue a like course.”* 
 
 So far M. de Tocqueville. 
 
 Now, what was the condition of the French 
 peasant under such a state of things ? 
 
 I shall presently speak of the mode in which 
 the peasant was taxed ; let me now consider his 
 feudal services. Here there were, especially in the 
 last century, many abuses. It will be well, how- 
 ever, as there has been so much exaggeration 
 on this topic, to weigh the following judicious 
 remarks of Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 “ The people of Scotland,” says he, “ were in 
 former times subject to numerous services, which 
 are now summed up in the emphatic word rent ; 
 and this, in truth, was equally the case with the 
 French tenantry. Their general condition was 
 that of metayers ; that is, they received their 
 implements and stock from their landlord, and 
 divided with him the gross produce, after the 
 tax-gatherer was satisfied. The numerous feudal 
 services were just a payment of rent in kind ; a 
 species of liquidation universal and unavoidable 
 in all rural districts in a certain state of civiliza- 
 tion, when a ready market for agricultural pro- 
 duce is, from the absence of great towns or the 
 want of internal communication, not to be found. 
 The people expected, when feudal services and 
 tithes were abolished during the Revolution, that 
 their amount would form a clear addition to 
 their gains ; but they soon found that they only 
 
 # De l’Ancien Regime, p. 210. 
 
322 
 
 THE CORVEE. 
 
 augmented the rent of their landlords, or were 
 exchanged for an enormous land-tax rigorously 
 collected by Government, and that their own 
 condition was in no degree ameliorated. Without 
 doubt the multitude of demands on the French 
 peasantry was often in the highest degree vex- 
 atious ; but it may be doubted, whether their 
 weight has been alleviated by their condensation 
 into a single payment; and whether the terrors 
 of the words rent and taxes* do not now 
 equal those of the whole catalogue of feudal 
 
 obligations.^f 
 
 So far Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 The condition of the peasant-proprietors since 
 the Revolution is, in my opinion, not so happy 
 as that of the peasantry in those parts of 
 ancient France where the landowners were not 
 absentees. 
 
 Towards the close of the seventeenth century, 
 the corvee , or compulsory labour rendered at 
 certain times to the landlord in lieu of rent, 
 began to be employed by the Government. The 
 corvee was now resorted to for various public 
 works, for the construction of roads, the transport 
 of convicts condemned to hard labour, and for 
 the conveyance of the military baggage from one 
 garrison to another. The peasants so employed 
 received, indeed, wages from the Government; 
 but these wages were low, and often arbitrarily 
 fixed. In the transport of the heavy military 
 baggage, the carts of the peasants were often 
 injured, and their oxen maimed; they were thus 
 
 * The land-tax in France is now twenty- five per cent, 
 at the very lowest, on the gross agricultural profits ; often 
 forty or fifty per cent, on the landowner’s gains. 
 
 t Life of Napoleon Buonaparte. 
 
THE TAILLE. 
 
 323 
 
 exposed to heavy pecuniary losses ; they had also 
 often to endure hardships from the violence and 
 arbitrary conduct of the military. All these 
 abuses, as M. de Tocqueville well observes, 
 would never have occurred, had there been on 
 the spot a proprietary rich, active, enlightened, 
 and benevolent, to bring before the higher autho- 
 rities the misdemeanours and oppressions of their 
 agents. What did the king's government know 
 of these abuses ? Little or nothing. But its 
 great error, and even crime, was to have with- 
 drawn from their legitimate sphere the nobles of 
 the country. 
 
 The taille was a land-tax imposed on the 
 houses and lands of the roturiers , or bourgeois- 
 proprietors. From this impost not only the 
 clergy and nobles, but a multitude of individuals 
 holding certain offices they had purchased, were 
 exempt. This tax, which in course of time 
 became very onerous, fell with an aggravated 
 weight on the roturier proprietors and the 
 peasants. The fact that it affected the estate 
 of a bourgeois, while that of his noble neighbour 
 escaped it, created a feeling of jealousy and 
 irritation between the two orders. Hence the 
 rich landowners belonging to the Third Estate 
 left their properties in the country, where their 
 feelings were thus wounded, and resorted to the 
 towns, where the tax could be more easily eluded. 
 Thus the country was by degrees stripped of a 
 wealthy proprietary, and a peasantry more and 
 more deserted and impoverished had to sustain 
 the heavier part of these public burdens. 
 
 Various efforts were made by the Government 
 either directly, or through its intendants in the 
 provinces, by the States-Provincial, and by agri- 
 y 2 
 
324 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMISTS. 
 
 cultural societies, in which the clergy and the 
 nobility took a leading part, to ameliorate the 
 condition of the peasants. 
 
 The material well-being of that class, and 
 indeed of all orders of society, engaged in an 
 especial manner the attention of literary, as well 
 as of official men. They assumed the name of 
 political economists ; and their writings exercised 
 at this time the greatest influence, not on public 
 opinion only, but on the Government itself. This 
 seems the fitting place to introduce them to your 
 notice. 
 
 THE SCHOOLS OF ECONOMISTS. 
 
 There were in France, about the middle of the 
 last century, two schools of political economists; 
 one which acknowledged Quesnay as its chief, the 
 other that was under the leadership of Gournay. 
 The former proclaimed agriculture to be the sole 
 source of national wealth ; the latter vindicated 
 for commerce and manufactures a share with 
 husbandry in promoting the prosperity of nations. 
 Physiocrats was the name given to the first. 
 Political economy was then in its infancy ; and 
 in the infancy of all sciences such one-sided, 
 exclusive systems are usually to be met with. 
 Strange that Quesnay should have overlooked 
 the fact, that though agriculture be the most 
 solid and lasting foundation of national prosperity, 
 yet trade and manufactures not only enhance 
 the value of agricultural produce, but furnish the 
 means for obtaining a more abundant supply of 
 it. States with but a barren soil, or a small 
 extent of territory, like Attica in ancient times, 
 or Holland and Venice in modern ages, have, by 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMISTS. 
 
 325 
 
 the arts of industry or the operations of trade, 
 been able to command all the necessaries and 
 conveniences of life, not only for their own con- 
 sumption, but for the purpose of re-exportation. 
 
 Political economy, like most sciences in the 
 eighteenth century, though contrary to the in- 
 tentions of its founders, was soon perverted to the 
 purposes of unbelief. And, indeed, it has been 
 only in our times a Christian school of economists 
 has arisen to remove the many dangerous pre- 
 judices and materialist notions, with which this 
 science had been overlaid. 
 
 The theories of these two opposite schools the 
 statesman Turgot endeavoured to combine, and to 
 carry out into practical operation. 
 
 A painful interest attaches to the history of 
 Turgot. Destined for the priesthood, he repairs 
 on the completion of his humanities to the Sor- 
 bonne, where his first published theses gave a 
 favourable idea of his talents, as well as of his 
 attachment to the Church. At the Sorbonne he 
 forms an intimacy with the Abbe Lomenie de 
 Brienne, afterwards archbishop of Toulouse, who, 
 by his secret alliance with the irreligious party, 
 brought such scandal on the Church, and by his 
 political administration inflicted such lasting injury 
 on the State. The Abbe Circe and a few other 
 secret adepts of the Encyclopaedist school com- 
 pleted the circle of acquaintances to which Turgot 
 now attached himself. A deep, irrevocable change 
 has occurred in his convictions. An essay, which 
 he now publishes, shows that he has lost the 
 gift of faith ; a gift which he is destined never to 
 recover. 
 
 Declining to take holy orders, he enters into 
 the magistracy, and soon, by family influence, as 
 
326 
 
 CHARACTER OF TURGOT. 
 
 well as by liis talents, obtains the place of Maitre 
 des Requetes — an office nearly corresponding to 
 that of our Master in Chancery. He at the same 
 time devotes himself with ardour to literary and 
 scientific pursuits, and displays a vigour as well 
 as a versatility of intellect truly astonishing. 
 Poetry, classical philology, modern languages, 
 mathematics, natural science, metaphysics, and 
 especially political economy, engage his attention. 
 His writings show him to have been one of 
 the most masculine intellects, and accomplished 
 scholars, that adorned France in the last century. 
 And deeply as he erred on the most important of 
 all subjects, and false, narrow, and superficial as 
 were most of his political views, it is impossible 
 to deny the honesty of his intentions, and the 
 integrity of his character. 
 
 Turgot is next appointed Intendant of Limoges. 
 In this new position he is enabled to realize, to 
 a certain extent, his views of political economy. 
 He encourages agriculture and commerce, reforms 
 abuses of various kinds, promotes the free circu- 
 lation of corn, abolishes the corvee , or compulsory 
 labour of the peasants on government works, 
 promotes the spread of popular instruction, and 
 the physical well-being of the people ; and urges 
 on the public authorities the necessity of a more 
 equal system of taxation. 
 
 A wider theatre now opens to his philanthropic 
 zeal and his administrative talents. Shortly after 
 his accession to the throne, Louis XVI., who had 
 at first intended to call to his councils the most 
 prudent and able minister under his predecessor, 
 M. de Machault, and one who, besides, had em- 
 joyed the confidence of his father, the Dauphin, 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF TURGOT. 
 
 327 
 
 is persuaded by the frivolous Maurepas to confide 
 the department of finances to the leader of the 
 economical school, Turgot. 
 
 Turgot had embraced a sort of mitigated scep- 
 ticism ; and though he frequented the society of 
 the leading infidels, he yet observed a certain 
 circumspection in his words and actions, and 
 had forborne, by any intemperate display of his 
 opinions, to outrage public feeling. “ He could,” 
 said Voltaire, “let off an arrow without showing 
 the hand whence it came.” 
 
 He was first appointed to be head of the 
 admiralty, for which he was totally unfitted ; and 
 shortly afterwards the king made him Comp- 
 troller-general of the Finances. As a civil 
 administrator, though his intentions were bene- 
 volent, and some of his views were sound, yet by the 
 precipitancy and rashness of many of his acts — by 
 his ignorance of men and their ways — by his dis- 
 regard for vested interests and acquired rights — 
 by his tenacious adherence to abstract theories, 
 without regard to the modifications required by 
 practice — he often wrought much mischief, and 
 compromised the success of measures just and 
 salutary in themselves. 
 
 His stiff, unprepossessing manners, so injurious 
 to all who have to make their way at courts, were 
 not more calculated to win the confidence of his 
 colleagues than to disarm the hostility of his 
 opponents. Among those opponents were to be 
 found not only the courtiers, whose pensions he 
 wished to suppress, but many worthy members 
 of the clergy and the aristocracy who, on public 
 grounds, justly condemned many points of his 
 policy. 
 
328 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF TURGOT. 
 
 The great projects njeditated by this minister 
 (says a recent biographer) were as follows : — * 
 “ The abolition of the corvees throughout the 
 whole kingdom ; the suppression of the more 
 tyrannical abuses of feudalism ; the two-twentieths 
 of the tattle converted into a single territorial tax 
 on the nobility and the clergy ; an equal assess- 
 ment of imposts insured by the land-register ; 
 freedom of conscience ; the recall of the Protest- 
 ants ; the suppression of the greater part of the 
 monasteries; the redemption of feudal rents, 
 combined with the rights of property ; one uni- 
 form civil code for the whole kingdom; unity 
 of weights and measures ; suppression of war- 
 denships and corporations ; provincial boards to 
 defend municipal interests ; the condition of 
 curates and vicars ameliorated ; philosophers and 
 men of letters invited to furnish the Government 
 with the tribute of their knowledge ; thought to 
 be rendered as free as industry ; a new system of 
 public instruction ; the civil power to be indepen- 
 dent of ecclesiastical authority, &c. &c. 
 
 “ The imagination is appalled,” continues the 
 writer, “ at the extent of these conceptions, when 
 we carry ourselves back to the time when Turgot 
 dared to put them forth. The mind is terrified 
 on reflecting at what a price the Revolution made 
 us purchase such of the reforms here mentioned 
 as were real and desirable ameliorations.”f 
 
 Let us now impartially analyze these proposed 
 reforms, and discriminate between their good and 
 their evil elements. 
 
 See the Biographic Universelle, edited by M. Michaud. 
 Art. Turgot, by M. Durozoir. 
 t See Michaud’s Biographie Universelle, as above. 
 
HIS PROPOSED REFORMS. 
 
 329 
 
 All the real reforms proposed by this minister 
 had been repeatedly recommended by the clergy, 
 in their periodical assemblies. They had often in- 
 sisted on the abolition of the corvees, not only on 
 government works, but on private estates. How 
 could they, whose predecessors had been chiefly 
 instrumental in putting an end, first to personal 
 slavery, and then to serfdom, oppose the removal 
 of the last remnant of feudal restraints? An 
 equal assessment of imposts on all classes of 
 society was another reform constantly recom- 
 mended by the clergy, and which, as was evinced 
 by their conduct in the Pays d’Etats, the nobles 
 themselves would never have opposed. In 1789 
 this was one of the political measures which they, 
 as well as the clergy, especially recommended to 
 their representatives in the States-General. 
 
 The redemption of feudal rents, combined with 
 the rights of property, would have been a measure 
 wise and salutary in itself ; for the tolls on by- 
 roads, and the passage over rivers and lakes, the 
 obligation in some places on the peasant to send 
 his corn to the mill of the seigneur, and his grapes 
 to his winepress, were burdens heavy and vexa- 
 tious. But such a measure was one of difficult 
 and delicate operation, and should have been in- 
 trusted to a more prudent statesman than Turgot, 
 and one less prejudiced against the higher classes. 
 
 A “ unity of weights and measures,” though 
 an act not easy of execution, would have approved 
 itself to the judgment of all classes. 
 
 “ One uniform civil code ” is a far more ques- 
 tionable proposal. In a country like Prance, 
 where the tenure of property was so various — 
 where there reigned such a diversity of manners 
 and usages and institutions in the different pro- 
 
330 HIS PROPOSED REFORMS. 
 
 vinces — uniformity of civil legislation could neither 
 be suddenly introduced nor strictly carried out. 
 Such an attempt would have given too rude a 
 shock, not only to old opinions and habits, but to 
 acquired rights and vested interests. A dead 
 uniformity in law and in administration was one 
 of the false idols of the statesmen of the eighteenth 
 century. But on this subject I have already 
 touched. 
 
 The trades-corporations needed, undoubtedly, 
 many reforms; but they should not have been 
 wholly suppressed, as Turgot demanded, and the 
 Revolution afterwards decreed. "While a certain 
 scope should be conceded to individual industry, 
 it were well, I think, there should be wardens to 
 superintend the conduct of workmen, and on one 
 hand to protect their material interests, by guard- 
 ing against excessive competition; and, on the 
 other, to secure the public against fraud. 
 
 That the lot of the curates and the vicars should 
 have been ameliorated, was a very laudable pro- 
 ject ; but if, as it is to be presumed, this amelio- 
 ration were to be effected by a re-distribution of 
 church property, such a measure could have been 
 rightfully enforced only with the concurrence of 
 the ecclesiastical authorities. And such a concur- 
 rence would never have been refused to any 
 judicious scheme of the kind. 
 
 As to freedom of conscience, it was then prac- 
 tically enjoyed by the French Protestants. And 
 had Louis XVI., under the administration of 
 Turgot, restored to them, by a formal edict, those 
 religious rights which he later conceded, the act 
 would in no quarter have encountered opposition. 
 
 Here ends the catalogue of real reforms proposed 
 by this minister. 
 
HIS PROPOSED REFORMS. 
 
 331 
 
 “The suppression of the greater part of the 
 monasteries ” would have been, on the one hand, 
 a gross usurpation of ecclesiastical authority on the 
 part of the State ; and, on the other, a heavy blow 
 struck at religion. Reforms were, doubtless, 
 needed in some of these bodies, particularly in 
 the mendicant orders ; but though the civil power 
 might invite attention to monastic abuses, the 
 Holy See and the prelates had alone the right 
 and the power to correct them. The religious 
 orders were the outworks of religion, and, as such, 
 must have been peculiarly offensive to the infidel 
 party, whose views Turgot carried out with such 
 consummate art. 
 
 The suppression of the greater part of the 
 monasteries would also have involved a very con- 
 siderable spoliation of church property. And thus 
 four objects would have been accomplished : — the 
 interests of religion damaged ; the political influ- 
 ence and consideration of the clergy lessened ; 
 the exchequer replenished for a time with the 
 spoils of the Church ; and, lastly, funds provided 
 for the establishment of schools and colleges, to 
 be directed by the adepts of irreligion. I do not 
 say that all these objects were clearly present to 
 the mind of Turgot. No ; I believe he acted 
 according to destructive instincts, of which he was 
 but half conscious. 
 
 That “ philosophers and men of letters should 
 be invited to furnish the Government with the 
 tribute of their knowledge,” was a truly puerile 
 demand in a country, where men of letters had 
 ever enjoyed great consideration, and even poli- 
 tical influence. That influence, without any 
 pompous invitation, would have been well insured 
 in the States-Provincial and the States-General; 
 
332 
 
 HIS PROPOSED REFORMS. 
 
 but the convocation of these assemblies was, for 
 many reasons, most odious to Turgot and his 
 party. The men of letters and philosophers, 
 whose counsels this statesman was for inviting, 
 were that wretched band of sophists that had been 
 so long undermining religion and social order in 
 France, and who were, twenty years afterwards, 
 to precipitate her into an abyss of ruin. 
 
 “ A new system of public instruction” must 
 be organized, with the view, assuredly, of propa- 
 gating the religious and political principles of the 
 Encyclopaedists. Instead of the wholesome com- 
 petition between the colleges connected with the 
 university, and those of the Jesuits, the Ora- 
 torians, the Benedictines, the Dominicans, the 
 Barnabites, and of the secular clergy, as well as 
 of the lay teachers, a dead uniformity of instruc- 
 tion was to prevail. It is needless to observe that 
 such a monopoly of instruction on the part of the 
 State, even if it furnished sufficient guarantees to 
 religion, would not have been so conducive to the 
 development of the public mind, or to the progress 
 of learning. 
 
 “ Thought must be as free as industry.” Yes, 
 great reformer ! the anarchy of doctrines must 
 be proclaimed ; the human mind must run riot in 
 its extravagance ; no legal check on the insolence 
 of sedition, the outrages of vice, or the ravings 
 of blasphemy. And this is but consistent ; for 
 “ the civil power is to be independent of eccle- 
 siastical authority.” In other words, the State is 
 not to recognize Religion, — it is to be severed 
 from all connection with her; it is to become 
 atheistic. 
 
 Well, indeed, may the biographer of Turgot 
 exclaim, he was appalled by the boldness of his 
 
HIS PROPOSED REFORMS. 
 
 333 
 
 conceptions ! If the genius of this statesman 
 points out judicious reforms, he anticipates by 
 twenty years the evil principles of the Revolution 
 - — the war against monastic bodies ; a sort of dic- 
 tation accorded to men of science, in preference to 
 the spiritual and the temporal aristocracy, — the 
 unrestrained licentiousness of the press, — the 
 monopoly of education on the part of the State, — 
 the utter desecration of that State, or political 
 atheism. Under a virtuous prince, like Louis 
 XVI., weak as he was in character, yet as long as 
 he retained his personal independence, it was not 
 possible for Turgot to realize all his political 
 views. After an administration of twenty months, 
 this minister fell under the combined opposition 
 of the clergy, the nobles, the parliaments, and the 
 people, who, by some of his injudicious measures, 
 had been disappointed in their expectations, and 
 injured in their material interests. 
 
 I have dwelt so long on the ministry of Turgot, 
 because it has been so often unduly extolled, and 
 because, in his good and in his evil measures, he 
 was the most remarkable statesman of his school. 
 His benevolent intentions and useful reforms, 
 which won the noble heart of his royal master, 
 were marred by that materialism, so common in 
 the politicians of that age, and which looked only 
 to the physical well-being of a nation ; by a spirit 
 of minute, puerile regulation, which, from his 
 intendancy in Limoges, became inherent in the 
 French bureaucracy, and has since passed to the 
 German;* by a precipitancy which, in its reforms, 
 
 * M. de Tocqueville observes that it is from the inten- 
 dancy of Turgot in Limoges dates the general mania for 
 scribbling ( ecrivassier is the epithet he uses) among French 
 
334 
 
 OPINIONS ON THAT STATESMAN. 
 
 ever looked to the accidental abuses, and never to 
 the inherent excellence of old institutions; and, 
 lastly, by that despotism, which could brook no 
 opposition, which dreaded the rivalry of the 
 higher classes, and disdained the concurrence 
 and the co-operation of the people, whom, with 
 an air of superiority, it sought to enlighten and 
 reform. 
 
 It is truly astonishing that the distinguished 
 Catholic historian, Cesare Cantu, should, with an 
 inconceivable levity have said, that “ the reforms 
 of Turgot and of Necker, if adopted, might have 
 prevented the Revolution.” If, instead of the 
 word prevented, he had said anticipated, he would 
 have been nearer the truth. For the projects 
 of the first-named minister, as they have been 
 enumerated, contain the germ of the chief mea- 
 sures afterwards enacted by the Constituent 
 Assembly. Revolution (and let us ever bear 
 that truth in mind) consists not in the outward 
 perturbations and convulsions of society, but in 
 the disease of its internal organs, and in the 
 derangement of their functions. The former are 
 the necessary consequences of the latter. And 
 surely Malesherbes, the friend and colleague of 
 Turgot, but who had learned wisdom in the 
 bitter school of misfortune, better characterized 
 
 officials. In some of the minor German States, like 
 Wurtemberg and Baden, where the bureaucratic system 
 is carried to the last pitch of pedantry, the Catholic clergy 
 are forced to consume a considerable portion of their 
 valuable time in drawing up long reports to the Govern- 
 ment, on the most trifling subjects of ecclesiastical admin- 
 istration. This was, at least, the case some years ago ; 
 but since 1848 there have been great changes in Germany. 
 And so it is possible this abuse has ceased. 
 
POLITICS OF THE VOLTAIRIAN SCHOOL. 335 
 
 the nature and bearing of their common policy, 
 than the Milanese writer I just quoted. “ M. Tur- 
 got and myself/' says Malesherbes, “were very 
 worthy people, well-informed, and animated with 
 a passionate zeal for all that was good. Who 
 would not have thought, that none could have 
 been more fitly selected than ourselves ? Yet, 
 knowing nothing of men but from books, deficient 
 in ability for business, we administered affairs 
 badly. * * * * Without intending it , without 
 knowing it, we have contributed to bring about the 
 revolution 
 
 A like opinion was pronounced on this minister 
 by another contemporary, M. de Montyon, in his 
 work entitled “ Particularity et Observations sur 
 les Ministres des Finances." 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY PUBLICISTS. 
 
 Most of the irreligious writers of France in the 
 eighteenth century were not political democrats; 
 for they despised the people too much to con- 
 descend to flatter their humours and passions, or 
 even to study their wants and interests. On the 
 contrary, Voltaire and his disciples were, as Lally 
 Tollendal once observed, ready to fly at the first 
 beat of the democratic drum. And M. de Tocque- 
 ville remarks, that almost all the officials and 
 writers of the infidel school are for ever holding 
 up the empire of China as a pattern for European 
 imitation. And the reason is obvious; they were 
 anxious to secure to the literati of France the 
 
 * See Biog. Univ., Michaud. Art. Turgot. Turgot 
 died of a fit of the gout, in the year 1781, in the fifty-fourth 
 year of his age. 
 
336 POLITICS OF THE VOLTAIRIAN SCHOOL. 
 
 same political supremacy, which the Mandarins 
 enjoy in the Celestial Empire. 
 
 A profound contempt for the humbler classes 
 of society, whom they regarded as unfit for, and 
 incapable of receiving the light of the new philo- 
 sophy, is one of the most salient traits in all these 
 apostles of irreligion.* 
 
 An unfailing instinct likewise told them, that 
 absolute monarchy afforded facilities for success, 
 as, by the influence of a corrupt minister, or of 
 a royal mistress, their doctrines might exert a 
 sway, which, under another system, where the 
 clergy, the nobles, and the commons, had a 
 voice in the public councils, was utterly unat- 
 tainable. 
 
 But though not democrats, it follows not that 
 they were attached to monarchy and its institu- 
 tions, or that the tendency of their party was to 
 support them. In the first place, their irreligious 
 principles sapped the foundations of all social 
 order; secondly, those hearts, so deadened by 
 scepticism, were incapable of any generous attach- 
 ment ; and, lastly, the sort of monarchical abso- 
 lutism they preached up and supported was one 
 which, sooner or later, must needs bring forth a 
 revolutionary republic. 
 
 The genuine French Republicans in the last 
 
 * On one occasion Voltaire writes to one of his friends : 
 — “ I care not whether our readers or our artisans he en- 
 lightened or not.” — Vol. lx. p. 23: 20 Sept. 1763. In 
 another letter, to Mme. d’Epinay, he writes, “ Ma chere 
 Philosophe, — I recommend to you Christianity” (here Vol- 
 taire uses an epithet in reference to our divine religion 
 which I dare not transcribe) ; “ you must close against it 
 the door of respectable people, but leave it in the street, 
 for which it is well suited.” — Vol. lx. p. 355. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY SOPHISTS. 
 
 337 
 
 century were the disciples of Rousseau and Mably. 
 The paradoxical Rousseau assailed the foundations 
 of the family and of the State ; and there is not 
 a social institution, not even that of property, 
 which his destructive sophistry left untouched. 
 His “ Contrat Social ” was the basis of the later 
 “ Declaration of Rights,” ' and, indeed, of the 
 whole revolutionary legislation.^ 
 
 * In this work, with an inexorable logic, Rousseau 
 pushes to the extremest consequences the doctrine of the 
 sovereignty of the people, propounded by Sidney, Locke, 
 and the French Calvinist Jurieu; a doctrine which is the 
 source of every revolutionary error and crime, even of 
 regicide itself. This principle he founded on a pretended 
 primitive compact between the ruler and the people, an- 
 terior to the social state. But such a contract, if express 
 (as has often been shown), presupposes a community of 
 language, territory, wants, and interests between the par- 
 ties, and consequently a state of society, and consequently, 
 again, an established power, without which the former 
 could not (as is admitted on all hands) possibly exist. 
 And if it be said that primitive compact is an implied one, 
 it may be answered, What signifies an implied contract in 
 a state of things where there was as yet no legislation and 
 no judge? Undoubtedly, in course of time, compacts were 
 made between sovereigns and subjects ; and again, the 
 heads of small communities of their own free will, or when 
 forced by circumstances, stipulated with the rulers of 
 more powerful tribes for the preservation of freedom and 
 property in return for their submission. And it is these 
 subsequent contracts which, as the great Catholic publicist 
 Ludwig Haller, in his famous work, c< The Restoration 
 of Political Science,” observes, have rendered the absurd 
 theory of a primitive compact more specious and plausi- 
 ble. The temporal power is not, indeed, like the spiritual, 
 immediately ordained of God ; no, it is but mediately so ; 
 that is to say, it was the natural development of domestic 
 authority, and is not supernaturally sustained, but is 
 abandoned to the accidents of time, and the modifications 
 of human volition. Yet, in one form or another, it must 
 always subsist. [The 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY SOPHISTS. 
 
 Mably, on the other hand, was a blind, indis- 
 criminate worshipper of the republics of heathen 
 antiquity. The Genevan sophist declared that 
 letters and science depraved man; and so he 
 spurned all civilization. The Parisian abbe, in 
 his perverse admiration of paganism, repudiated 
 all the social blessings which Christianity had 
 conferred on mankind. 
 
 In a word, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, and 
 Mably, were the four spirits whom the Revolution 
 more especially embodied. Irreligious mockery 
 and depravity of heart, — the deepest perversion 
 of the understanding, carried even to atheistic 
 frenzy, — a sophistication of the natural sense, and 
 the wildest disorder of the fancy, — a grotesque, 
 absurd mimicry of the pagan antique, — which 
 are all so characteristic of the Revolution, — are 
 severally represented by these four writers. 
 
 In the back-ground stand the more stately 
 figures of Buffon and Montesquieu. Buffon had 
 introduced an undue worship of Nature, and so 
 given an excessive preponderance to the physical 
 sciences over the moral. Those sciences became 
 henceforth idols olf the Revolution. 
 
 Montesquieu, whose native sagacity was so often 
 clouded by the sophistries of his age, would, in 
 happier times, have been a guiding light to France ; 
 but, as it was, there was such a mixture of truth 
 and falsehood in his writings, that, instead of 
 solving, they served but to perplex the political 
 
 The theory which makes the civil power an emanation 
 from the parental, is, in my opinion, the most satisfactory 
 and philosophical explanation of the Catholic dogma of 
 the divine origin of civil magistracy ; but it is a theory 
 resting on its own merits, and must not be confounded 
 with the sacred dogma itself. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY SOPHISTS. 
 
 339 
 
 problems of bis age and his country. He was an 
 ardent admirer of the British constitution ; but he 
 looked merely to the outward mechanism of that 
 constitution, without comprehending its internal 
 organism, or its relations to the Past or to the 
 Present. He was like those priests of antiquity, 
 who repeated the enunciations of an oracle which 
 they no longer understood. 
 
 At the outset of the Revolution, its more mode- 
 rate partisans followed the guidance of Montes- 
 quieu, and claimed a monarchy with two chambers. 
 The more violent democrats, headed by La Payette, 
 held up the American constitution as a model, 
 and demanded what these infatuated men called 
 a Royal Democracy ; that is, a single popular 
 chamber, with the phantom of a king. 
 
 If a monarchy with two chambers had been 
 but a revival of the old French constitution, with 
 the single modification that the clergy should vote 
 in one chamber with the nobles, there could have 
 been no very serious objection to such a scheme 
 of polity. But if the Crown were to be despoiled 
 of its lands, and its free legislative action, — if the 
 clergy were to be fettered in their spiritual juris- 
 diction, and robbed of their political rights, and 
 even property, — if the upper house were not to 
 be closely connected with the lower by a com- 
 munity of relationship, interests, and affections, 
 as in England, — if, moreover, administrative cen- 
 tralization were to be retained, — then, as a later 
 experience has shown, all the fearful evils attend- 
 ant on democracy (however disguised), in a great 
 and populous state, would infallibly have occurred. 
 And here I, for the moment, leave out of sight the 
 appalling aggravation to such evils from the irre- 
 ligion and immorality then so prevalent in France, 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 SECRET SOCIETIES. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, and it serves to show 
 how early the Revolution evinced its brutal aver- 
 sion to all intellectual superiority, that few of the 
 eminent writers of the last century, who survived 
 to witness the work of demolition they had been 
 so instrumental in bringing about, were elected 
 deputies to the Constituent or Legislative assem- 
 blies. They were overlooked by the generation 
 whom they had taught to depise all that was 
 venerable. They themselves recoiled with horror 
 from the foul progeny of their own perverted 
 minds; and even such as did not return to 
 Christianity, deplored what they called the ex- 
 cesses of the Revolution.* 
 
 I must now say a few words on the secret 
 societies. 
 
 SECRET SOCIETIES. 
 
 But without the aid of secret societies, the 
 anti-Christian league could not have accomplished 
 its infernal purposes. By such associations its 
 adepts were enabled to multiply, as well as to 
 discipline their forces, to concert their plan of 
 operations, and to carry on their war against 
 religion and society, with greater safety to them- 
 selves, and with better chances of success. 
 
 I have not space to dwell on this more esoteric 
 character of the Revolution. Suffice it to say, that 
 
 * This reminds me of the saying of a man of talent, but 
 of a very singular character, whom I often saw on my 
 first visit to Paris. He used to tell me, 44 Ah! sir, if 
 Voltaire and Rousseau had lived to see the Revolution, the 
 one would have become a Jesuit, the other a Trappist.” 
 The gentleman I allude to was himself a convert from the 
 north of Europe. 
 
SECRET SOCIETIES. 
 
 341 
 
 as the old institution of Freemasonry had in the 
 seventeenth century been made to subserve the 
 cause of political parties in England, so now in 
 France, during the last age, it was by degrees 
 converted into an instrument of the infidel and 
 revolutionary faction. 
 
 It would be too long to enter into the origin of 
 Freemasonry, and to trace its various transforma- 
 tions. Supposing it even to have been pure in 
 its origin, yet, like all secret societies, it could be 
 easily diverted from its pristine purpose. Under 
 heathenism, indeed, which obscured and perverted 
 so many religious truths, the ancient Mysteries, 
 though even in their origin not without cor- 
 ruption, helped to preserve the general doctrines 
 of primitive revelation. But under the Christian 
 dispensation, which has revealed all necessary 
 truths to mankind, such secret societies, as a great 
 writer well observes,'* are utterly incongruous. 
 
 While Freemasonry, with its impenetrable 
 secret, its symbols and its festivals, was calculated 
 to excite the curiosity and enkindle the imagina- 
 tion of youth, it held forth attractions to other 
 parties. Love of good cheer and amusement 
 brought some to its lodges; the more laudable 
 motive of performing works of beneficence induced 
 others to join its ranks; the spirit of charlatanism 
 enlisted other adepts; and the hope to find a 
 fitting medium for an irreligious and revolutionary 
 propagandism, led many to seek initiation into its 
 mysterious rites. 
 
 In France and elsewhere princes of the blood 
 and illustrious nobles, unconscious of the ulterior 
 
 * Vide F. Schlegel’s “ Philosophy of listory,” trans- 
 lated by myself, Lecture xviii. 5th editio i. Bohn, 1850. 
 
342 
 
 SECRET SOCIETIES. 
 
 tendencies of the Masonic association, because 
 they there filled inferior grades, openly declared 
 themselves its patrons. Other men of birth and 
 property followed their example. 
 
 The Church soon perceived the danger of these 
 secret societies. Pope Clement XII. excommuni- 
 cated the Freemasons in Italy ; and his successor, 
 Benedict XIV., confirmed and extended the 
 anathema. In our times, Popes Leo XII. and 
 Gregory XYI. have renewed the condemnation 
 pronounced by their predecessors against the 
 Masonic order, and all other secret associations. 
 
 The civil power imitated the example of the 
 spiritual, and in most states of Europe, during the 
 last century, was Freemasonry proscribed. 
 
 Out of that association the societies of Jacobins 
 and of Carbonari have been successively evolved. 
 This circumstance alone, independently of other 
 circumstances, vrould have justified the conduct 
 of the ecclesiastical and secular powers in regard 
 to the Freemasons. But many facts, which, in 
 the civil convulsions of France, came to light, 
 and several writings that at that time were dis- 
 covered, proved how actively those occupying the 
 higher grades in the Masonic order made it 
 instrumental in furthering the cause of impiety 
 and of the Revolution. Those holding the inferior 
 grades in this association were not cognizant of 
 the designs of their superiors in this mysterious 
 hierarchy ; but as they had joined a forbidden 
 society, they were in so far accessories to their 
 guilt. It is but just to add, that Freemasonry 
 varies in character in different countries ; and it 
 is generally admitted that in England its in- 
 fluence is less noxious than in any other land. 
 
EVILS OF ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 343 
 
 Before proceeding further, let me take a short 
 review of the foregoing remarks. 
 
 Such, then, was that unhappy separation of 
 classes, which absolute monarchy had in the last 
 century created in France. It separated the 
 court from the nobles, the nobles from the third 
 estate, the third estate as well as the nobles from 
 the peasantry. 
 
 It tended, moreover, to aid the progress of 
 unbelief. A capricious court sometimes patron- 
 ized, sometimes banished, the apostles of irreligion. 
 A nobility, in part debauched, found in impiety the 
 ready accomplice in its guilty pleasures. Given up 
 to dissipation, and carried away by the frivolous 
 amusements of the capital, many nobles forgot 
 the duties they owed to their tenantry, neglected 
 their comforts and well-being, encumbered their 
 estates with debt, and, by obtaining pensions and 
 places from the Government, sought, while they 
 augmented the public burthens, to retrieve their 
 own dilapidated fortunes. The third estate, 
 wealthy and intelligent as it was, dissatisfied 
 with a political order of things where its ener- 
 gies found not an adequate scope, made the 
 clergy and nobility responsible for errors of 
 government with which they were not charge- 
 able. This class sometimes copied, too, the vices 
 of the upper ranks of the capital, sometimes lent 
 an ear to the doctrines of impiety. 
 
 The political incapacity and inexperience, which, 
 from the want of sound representative institutions 
 in most of the provinces, the higher and wealthier 
 classes of society laboured under, made them 
 overlook the social and political evils attendant 
 on irreligion. This fact has been grossly exag- 
 
344 
 
 EVILS OF ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 gerated by M. de Tocqueville, who goes so far as 
 to attribute the spread of the infidel philosophy 
 exclusively to absolute power. He forgets that 
 the British constitution of 1688 had lasted about 
 fifty years, when the Protestant Bishop Butler, in 
 the year 1735, complained that in the cultivated 
 classes of England, Christianity was mostly as- 
 sumed to be untrue. De Tocqueville says, that 
 the inhabitants of the United States of America, 
 while they have adopted the political doctrines 
 of the French Revolution, have scouted its im- 
 pieties. Both assertions are untrue. The truth 
 of the latter statement he must settle with Mrs. 
 Trollope, who declares that during her abode in 
 America she never met in society with a gentle- 
 man who was not an infidel. This may be the 
 opposite exaggeration. But we all know how 
 widely Deism is spread through the United States, 
 and that Unitarianism, which is a cognate system 
 of doctrine, counts numerous followers in that 
 republic. 
 
 The false philosophy of the last age was, as 
 was shown in a former Lecture, the child of the 
 Reformation ; it came from that Spirit of Dark- 
 ness who is the artificer of all heresies, and 
 pursued a course independent of national usages 
 and national institutions. But as heresy has ever 
 been modified by the character and habits of 
 nations, so the French infidelity, differing, as it 
 doubtless did, from the English Deism, found 
 under absolute monarchy, as I have just now 
 observed, certain facilities and encouragements 
 which a better system of government would have 
 withheld ; for well-regulated freedom fosters all 
 the conservative instincts and feelings. 
 
 But, besides the evils of a centralizing govern- 
 
SUPPRESSION OF THE PARLIAMENTS. 345 
 
 ment, the absolutism of the last century had 
 many points of analogy and contact with the 
 Revolution, which it preceded, and which it helped 
 to bring forth. 
 
 SUPPRESSION OF THE PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 Not content with having disorganized the 
 Church and public education by the suppression 
 of the celebrated order I spoke of in my last 
 Lecture, the Government of Louis XV. put down 
 the parliaments, and introduced a new judicial 
 system. For the adoption of so violent a measure 
 the monarch had doubtless received great pro- 
 vocations. The parliaments, as I have before 
 observed, had on many occasions evinced towards 
 the Crown a very factious conduct, and had exer- 
 cised much oppression on the Church. Yet they 
 formed the chief barrier against despotic power ; 
 they possessed, with all their faults, many noble 
 elements; and the provincial parliaments, espe- 
 cially, were animated with a much better spirit 
 than the leading one of Paris. Singular dispen- 
 sation of Divine Providence ! The French episco- 
 pate, which those parliaments so often thwarted 
 and harassed, is now, after winning so many 
 bright crowns of confessorship and martyrdom in 
 the bloody scenes of the Revolution, become more 
 illustrious than ever. The Society of Jesus, which 
 they so cruelly persecuted, and at last abolished, 
 has revived, and has brought forth more distin- 
 guished men than for a century and a half it had 
 shown. Yet of all the institutions of the old 
 French monarchy, none have so utterly perished 
 as the parliaments in question ! 
 
 But the suppression of this ancient and vene- 
 
346 SUPPRESSION OF THE BODY-GUARDS. 
 
 rable body of magistrates, which, with all its 
 faults, had rendered signal services to the State, 
 and especially the manner in which that sup- 
 pression was carried out, was regarded as violent 
 and revolutionary, and gave a dangerous shock to 
 public opinion. 
 
 SUPPRESSION OF THE BODY-GUARDS. 
 
 The next revolutionary act of the old govern- 
 ment occurred under Louis XYI. This was the 
 disbanding of the body-guards, called the Maison 
 du Roi, commanded as it was by officers of the 
 most illustrious families, and many of whose 
 privates were nobles. In all professions, there 
 are certain corps d’elite , which reflect and, if 
 I may so speak, image forth the ideal of ex- 
 cellence. Such in the Church are religious orders 
 to the secular priest ; academies and scientific 
 societies to the man of letters or of science. 
 Such in the Middle Age was the spiritual chivalry, 
 like the Knights of St. John, to the secular knight- 
 hood. Now, this body-guard was to the French 
 soldier the pattern of military honour, fidelity, 
 and courage. Its suppression, by the advice of the 
 Marechal St. Germain, was a most impolitic mea- 
 sure, which had the effect of disorganizing the 
 army, and was not uninstrumental in its defection 
 during the first days of the Revolution. 
 
 THE AMERICAN WAR. 
 
 Another revolutionary measure of the old court 
 was the American war. This war all the mo- 
 narchical, and almost all the Catholic writers of 
 France, condemn as most impolitic and unwise, as 
 
THE AMERICAN WAR. 
 
 347 
 
 well as unjust.* Without any provocation from 
 its ally, and contrary to all the maxims of justice, 
 to all the dictates of prudence, the court of Ver- 
 sailles, amidst the general political ferment of its 
 own subjects, and with an exhausted treasury, 
 sends forth to the aid of the revolted provinces of 
 British America its fleets and its armies. What 
 other consequence could ensue from such an 
 alliance, but the one which actually ensued ? 
 Why, that the French colonies should learn and 
 practise the lesson of rebellion, and that the French 
 army should return imbued with revolutionary 
 ideas, and with its loyalty debauched ? The effect 
 which this war had on many of the young French 
 nobles is well described by Count Segur in his 
 Memoirs. The shallow, conceited Lafayette and 
 his compeers, many of whom became victims of 
 the revolutionary frenzy they had excited, could 
 not discriminate between institutions adapted for 
 municipal cities, now severed from the mother- 
 country, and those essential to the existence of an 
 old, populous, and powerful state. 
 
 THE LETTIIES-DE- CACHET. 
 
 An abuse of the ancient regime, in which, how- 
 ever, it was infinitely surpassed by the revolutionary 
 governments that succeeded it, were the lettres - 
 de-cachet , or arbitrary imprisonments, and on 
 which I must now say a word. These, in my 
 
 * The Marquis de Bouillie, in his interesting Memoirs, 
 writes : — “ M. de Choiseul, so far back as 1765, employed 
 secret agents in America to excite the British colonies to 
 rebellion 55 (p. 15 ; Paris, 1823). This was conduct w T orthy 
 of the patron of the Encyclopsedists, and the persecutor of 
 the Jesuits. 
 
348 
 
 THE LETTRES-DE-CACHET. 
 
 eyes, constitute the most odious vice in the old 
 government. Yet I remember well, on my first 
 visit to Paris, many years ago, the remark made by 
 a French nobleman, whom I often had the honour 
 of visiting, the son of a great writer, and himself 
 distinguished in letters. I observed that the 
 lettres-de-cachet were a great abuse in the ancient 
 monarchy, and he immediately replied, “ Oh ! 
 they often protected the honour of families.” 
 This shows in what a different light the French 
 of the old school regarded this usage, which to us 
 is so very hateful. Parental power was always 
 stronger in France, and longer exercised, than in 
 England or Ireland ; and when in the high 
 families a young man by his debaucheries and 
 gambling persevered in bringing disgrace on his 
 house, the father applied to the court to have him 
 locked up in the Bastille. This was the case, for 
 example, with the famous Mirabeau. 
 
 In the reign of Louis XV., a great abuse had 
 been made of the lettres-de-cachet , and individuals 
 belonging to various parties were shut up for a 
 time, more or less limited, in the Bastille. In the 
 reign of Louis XVI., however, a very moderate 
 exercise was made of this abusive right ; and when, 
 in 1789, the state prison was broken open by the 
 infuriated mob, five persons only were found de- 
 tained within its walls. 
 
 But this was a usage quite derogatory to the 
 dignity, as well as the freedom of the citizen, 
 and which, had the constitution of the States- 
 General been restored, would soon have been swept 
 away. Frequently in the course of the eighteenth 
 century had the clergy, in their addresses to the 
 Crown, protested against the lettres-de-cachet . 
 
DISORDER IN THE PUBLIC FINANCES. 349 
 
 I now come to tlie last abuse I intend to notice 
 — the prodigality of the court of Louis XV., and 
 the fearful augmentation of the public debt, 
 arising therefrom, as well as from rash, impolitic 
 wars. 
 
 DISORDER IN THE PUBLIC FINANCES. 
 
 “ The disorder in the finances,” says the Mar- 
 quis de Bouillie, “ caused by the lavish expenditure 
 of years, and increased by the American war, 
 which burdened the State with an expenditure of 
 twelve hundred million francs, was, though not 
 the greatest, yet the most palpable of the evils 
 that afflicted France/’ * 
 
 Alluding to the profligate waste of the public 
 money by the minister M. de Choiseul, for the 
 purposes of political corruption, this writer ob- 
 serves, “ that he gave considerable pensions to the 
 leading personages at court, and to officers of the 
 highest rank in the army, who hitherto had been 
 content with their emoluments, and had taken a 
 pride in the rewards they had received. It is 
 observed, that, under the ministry of Cardinal de 
 Fleury, the State paid three million francs in pen- 
 sions to the military ; they amounted to sixteen 
 million under that of M. de Choiseul. At the 
 period of the convocation of the Notables in 
 1787, the sum total of pensions had risen to 
 twenty-eight million francs, four-fifths whereof 
 were lavished upon the army.”t 
 
 “ In 1787,” he continues, “the revenues of the 
 State amounted to four hundred and seventy-four 
 million francs ; the expenses for the current year 
 
 * Bouillie’s Memoirs, p. 89 ; Paris, 1823. 
 t Id. p. 13. 
 
350 DISORDER IN THE PUBLIC FINANCES. 
 
 to six hundred million. There was, therefore, a 
 deficit of one hundred and twenty-six millions; 
 but on this sum fifty-two millions were to be re- 
 imbursed for that year, called a reimbursement at 
 a fixed period. Such reimbursements were to be 
 continued during many other years for sums more 
 or less considerable. 
 
 “ The life-annuities with which the State was 
 charged, amounting to ninety-six million francs, 
 became yearly extinct. The hope was entertained 
 of economizing every year from fifty to sixty mil- 
 lions ; and this reduction would not have been 
 difficult. The real deficit was, therefore, incon- 
 siderable, and would easily have been filled up by 
 the new stamp-tax, and by the territorial impost, 
 proposed to the Notables by M. deCalonne. This 
 impost, under the name of the Royal Tithe, had 
 been formerly recommended to Louis XIY. by 
 the Marechal de Vauban, and to Louis XV. in 
 1759 by M. de Silouette. The laying-on of this 
 tax required an estimate to be made of all the 
 landed estates, which would have been rated at so 
 much a franc on each man^s income. The pro- 
 vincial boards wdiich people were then anxious to 
 establish, would have insured ease and exactness 
 in the assessment of the tax/” - * 
 
 There was, unfortunately, the greatest inequality 
 in the assessment of the public imposts. Some of 
 the pays-d ? etats, as well as some of the opulent 
 cities, compounded for their taxes at a very mo- 
 derate rate. This was the case also with some 
 of the powerful nobles at court, with the rich 
 financiers and placemen, and with even a few of 
 
 # 'Memoires de M. de Bouillie, pp. 39, 40. 
 
DISORDER IN THE PUBLIC FINANCES. 351 
 
 the magistrates.* Hence imposts, so unequally 
 assessed, fell with redoubled weight on the classes 
 least capable of bearing them. 
 
 During the latter years of the reign of Louis 
 XV., the financial crisis impending over France, 
 as well as the many perils, moral and political, 
 which threatened her existence, did not escape 
 the attention of calm judicious observers. Among 
 those must be placed the anonymous writer of the 
 following letter addressed to Louis XV., in 1761, 
 and who thus, with the hand of a master, sounds 
 the many wounds of his country. The document 
 is as prophetic as the sermon of the eloquent mis- 
 
 # “ The princes of the blood, for example,” says the 
 writer just quoted, “ who, among them, were in the enjoy- 
 ment of from twenty-four to twenty-five million francs 
 per annum, paid for their two-twentieths but one hundred 
 and eighty-eight thousand francs a year, instead of two 
 millions four hundred thousand. 
 
 “ I will cite,” he continues, “ on this subject an anecdote, 
 which may serve to prove the existence of this abuse. The 
 Duke of Orleans, f who presided over the bureau of which 
 I was a member at the Assembly of the Notables in 1787, 
 told me one day, after a deliberation, in which we had 
 discussed and adopted the resolution in favour of esta- 
 blishing provincial boards ; ‘ Do you know, sir, that this 
 joke will cost me at least three hundred thousand francs 
 a year?’ ‘How, my lord?’ I replied. ‘ Why, with the 
 intendants of provinces I had an understanding, and 
 could in fact pay them whatever I thought proper. But, 
 on the other hand, the provincial boards will exact 
 my dues with the utmost rigour.’ This prince then 
 possessed seven million five hundred thousand francs per 
 annum ; and after the death of his father-in-law, the 
 Duke de Penthievre, he inherited four million francs of 
 yearly income .” — Memoires de Bouillie , p. 40. 
 
 f This was afterwards the notorious Philippe Egalite. 
 
352 DISORDER IN THE PUBLIC FINANCES. 
 
 sionary, Pere Brydaine, who, thirty years before 
 the event, foretold the worship of the Goddess of 
 Reason. It runs as follows : — 
 
 “ Your finances, sire, are in the utmost disorder, 
 and the great majority of states have perished 
 through this cause. Your ministers are without 
 genius and capacity. A seditious flame has sprung 
 up in the very bosom of your parliaments ; you 
 seek to corrupt them, and the remedy is worse 
 than the disease. Open war is carried on against 
 religion. The Encyclopaedists, under pretence of 
 enlightening mankind, are sapping its foundations. 
 All the different kinds of licence are closely con- 
 nected : the Philosophists and the Calvinists tend 
 towards republicanism, as well as the Jansenists ; 
 the Philosophists strike at the root, the others lop 
 the branches; and their efforts, without being con- 
 certed, will one day lay the tree low. Add to this, 
 the Economists, whose object is political licentious- 
 ness, as that of others is liberty of worship, and 
 the goverment may find itself in twenty or thirty 
 years undermined in every direction, and will 
 then fall with a crash. Lose no time in restoring 
 order in the finances ; embarrassments necessitate 
 fresh taxes, which grind the people, and induce 
 them afterwards to revolt. A time will come, 
 sire, when the people will be enlightened, and 
 that time is probably approaching.” 
 
 “ It was no common man,” says Sir Archibald 
 Alison, “ who in 1761 wrote this anonymous 
 letter. It produced a very great impression on 
 the king, his minister the Duke de Choiseul, and 
 Madame de Pompadour.” - * 
 
 Disorder in the finances is never the cause, but 
 
 * See Memoires de Mme. Ilausset. Alison’s Hist, of 
 Europe, vol. i. 
 
IMMEDIATE OCCASIONS OF THE REVOLUTION. 353 
 
 the occasion of great revolutions. After having 
 traced the causes of the catastrophe of 1789, let 
 me in conclusion advert to its more immediate 
 occasions. And here I cannot do better than cite 
 the words of a distinguished man, who was an 
 eye-witness of the first memorable scenes of the 
 Revolution, and held at the time a high military 
 post. 
 
 IMMEDIATE OCCASIONS OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 “ The great errors,” says the Marquis de 
 Bouillie, “ committed by M. Necker in the com- 
 position of the States- General were, as far as I 
 have observed, as follows : — Firstly the few quali- 
 fications exacted for election and eligibility, and 
 which opened to men without property admission 
 into the States ; secondly, the salary accorded to 
 deputies, and which attracted adventurers, with 
 few or no pecuniary resources ; thirdly, the selec- 
 tion of Versailles as the place of meeting for the 
 States;'* fourthly, the liberty granted to those 
 possessing lands or fiefs in different provinces, to 
 offer themselves as candidates to the electors of 
 those provinces, and even to confer on their attor- 
 neys the same rights of eligibility which they 
 themselves there possessed; and fifthly, the in- 
 advertence (which, trivial as it may seem, yet, 
 from its effects, was of very great importance), in 
 having built but two chambers, for the clergy and 
 nobility, and none at all for the third estate. This 
 omission left that order in the possession and the 
 
 * The frivolous Necker wished even Paris to be the 
 place for their assemblage ; but in this matter he was 
 overruled by the majority of the council. 
 
 2 A 
 
354 IMMEDIATE OCCASIONS OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 enjoyment of the common hall belonging to the 
 three estates, and furnished it with a pretext for 
 inviting the other orders there to assemble. To 
 all these mistakes we may add the double repre- 
 sentation of the third estate. Lastly, the con- 
 summation of all these errors was the weak 
 vacillating conduct which the king was induced to 
 hold in all his relations with the States-General, 
 from which his ministers entirely separated him, 
 instead of making him the arbiter of their de- 
 cisions. In the edict of their convocation, the 
 objects for which they were convened should have 
 been specified. The first difficulties likely to arise 
 should have been foreseen ; and of these the chief 
 were the verification of the powers of the deputies, 
 and the determining of the cases, when the three 
 orders should deliberate conjointly, or when sepa- 
 rately. These two questions ought to have been 
 submitted to the Government, and such a proceed- 
 ing would have been only in conformity with the 
 spirit and the principles of the States-General. 
 
 The double representation of the third estate 
 was followed by the fusion of the three orders into 
 one chamber. Thereby the triumph of democracy 
 was insured ; the fatal organic change in the con- 
 stitution of the country was made; and [looking 
 to the then moral and social condition of France), 
 all the disorder, the injustice, the tyranny, the 
 anarchy, the proscriptions, the confiscations, the 
 judicial murders, the civil wars, the popular 
 massacres, the crimes, the impieties which ensued, 
 were but the natural results of such an overthrow 
 of the old political system. 
 
 Such, then, were the minor occasions, and such 
 
 * Memoires du Marquis de Bouillie, pp. 68, 69. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 355 
 
 the great political causes, that led to the Revolution 
 of 1789. 
 
 There was not a single abuse in the old regime 
 which might not have been remedied without that 
 fearful catastrophe. I have endeavoured all along 
 to show you how that Revolution was in its 
 spiritual part the child of the Reformation, and in 
 its political, the offspring of regal Absolutism. 
 So a consistent opponent of the Revolution must 
 be the opponent of absolute Monarchy. 
 
 During the whole course of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, the clergy implored the Government to hold 
 periodical convocations of the States- General; to 
 establish in all the provinces of the kingdom 
 States-Provincial ; to publish accounts of the public 
 receipts and expenditure ; to check, in the time, at 
 least, of Louis XV., the prodigality of the Court, 
 to abolish the corvees , and to better the condition 
 of the peasantry. 
 
 In their several memorials to their representa- 
 tives, the different bodies of nobles in 1789 
 require the prohibition of lettres- de- cachet ; some 
 even speak of the demolition of the Bastille. All 
 demand that an end should be put to extraordi- 
 nary judicatures, and to arbitrary arrests ; that 
 each individual should be judged by his peers. 
 They ask for the freedom of trade and industry, 
 the liberty of the press, and the non-violation of 
 secrets intrusted to the post-office. They require, 
 that while the Catholic religion should be the 
 established one, the non-Catholics, or Protestants, 
 should enjoy all civil rights. They demand that 
 every exertion should be made to promote the 
 well-being of the peasantry, and that certain 
 game-laws hurtful to their interests should be 
 abolished. 
 
 2 a 2 
 
356 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 There was wisdom enough in ancient France to 
 avert the convulsion of 1789. There were vigour 
 and flexibility enough in her old States constitu- 
 tion to reform every abuse. 
 
 Sed Dis aliter visum est. 
 
 Louis XVI., who by his piety and benevolence 
 set a noble example to his people, was not the 
 prince to meet this formidable crisis. Instead of 
 seeking his advisers where he ought to have sought 
 them, he gave ear to the counsels of the false 
 Economists, and of the followers of Rousseau. 
 
 So, with a weak and vacillating king ; a court 
 nobility partly frivolous, partly corrupt ; a third 
 estate in part vitiated in its faith and its morals, 
 and imbued with revolutionary doctrines ; with 
 an army demoralized, a treasury exhausted, 
 and a people at once suffering and misled, — the 
 Monarchy of fourteen hundred years fell with a 
 tremendous crash. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 {Note A.) 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 “The entire number of years,” says Sir G. Wilkinson, 
 “ assigned by Manetho to his thirty dynasties of kings did 
 not greatly exceed 5,000 ; and Syncellus reports Manetho 
 as claiming for the monarchy no longer actual duration 
 than 3,555 years before the conquest by Alexander. (See 
 Muller’s Fr, Hist. Gr., vol. ii. p. 534.) Even this view, 
 however, seems to be extravagant ; for it places the acces- 
 sion of Menes (the first king) in b.c. 3,883, which is con- 
 siderably before the Deluge, according to the highest 
 computation. Still, the Egyptian numbers are moderate, 
 compared with those of some other nations. The Baby- 
 lonians counted 468,000 years from their first king, Alorus, 
 to the conquest by Cyrus. (Beros. apud Euseb. Chron. 
 Can. i. p. 5 — 18 ; compare Brandis. Rerum Ass. Temp. 
 Emendata, p. 16, 17.) And the Indians and Chinese 
 trace their history for a still longer period. The Egyptian 
 claims to a high relative antiquity had, no doubt, a solid 
 basis of truth. It is probable that a settled monarchy was 
 established in Egypt earlier than in any other country. 
 Babylonian history does not go back beyond b.c. 2234. 
 Egyptian begins nearly 500 years earlier.” — (Trans, of 
 Herod, b. ii. p. 2. n. 2. vol. ii. By G. Rawlinson, Esq., 
 M.A., assisted by Col. Sir H. Rawlinson and Sir G. G. 
 Wilkinson. London : Murray, 1858.) 
 
 “ Manetho (in Greek, M aveQojg) here spoken of was,” 
 says Dr. Smith, “an Egyptian priest, of the town of 
 Sebennvtus, who lived in the reign of the first Ptolemy. 
 He was the first Egyptian who gave, in the Greek language, 
 an acount of the religion and history of his country. He 
 based his information upon the ancient works of the 
 Egyptians themselves, and more especially upon their 
 
358 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 sacred books. The work in which he gave an account of 
 the theology of the Egyptians, and of the origin of the 
 gods and the world, bore the title of Ttiv <&v<jik&v ' E7 tito^y). 
 His historical work was entitled a 6 History of Egypt.’ It 
 was divided into three parts or books. The first contained 
 the history of the country previous to the thirty dynasties, 
 or what may be termed the mythology of Egypt, and also 
 of the first dynasties. The second opened with the eleventh, 
 twelfth, and concluded with the nineteenth dynasty. The 
 third gave the history of the remaining eleven dynasties, 
 and concluded with an account of Nectanebus, the last of 
 the Egyptian native kings. The work of Manetho is lost ; 
 but a list of the dynasties is preserved in Julius Africanus 
 and Eusebius (most correct in the Armenian version of 
 his ‘ Chronicon’), who, however, has introduced various 
 interpolations. The lists of the Egyptian kings, and the 
 duration of their several reigns, were undoubtedly derived 
 from genuine documents : and their correctness, so far as 
 they are not interpolated, is said to be confirmed by the 
 hieroglyphic inscriptions on the monuments.” — (Classical 
 Dictionary. Art. Manetho.) 
 
 When we consider that the History of Manetho is lost ; 
 that of the Greek original of Eusebius’s “ Chronicon” 
 fragments only remain ; that there exist of it but two 
 versions, a Latin (imperfect) and an Armenian ; that 
 the copyists of Manetho, Julius Africanus, and Georgius 
 Syncellus, vary in the lists of Egyptian kings, as well 
 as Eusebius ; that the hieroglyphic inscriptions them- 
 selves on the monuments still leave many chronological 
 and historical difficulties unexplained ; it seems rash on 
 the part of Dr. Smith, in this stage of the inquiry, to 
 bring a charge of interpolation against an historian of 
 such learning and authority as Eusebius. Would it not 
 be fairer to surmise that there were variations in the 
 different copies of Manetho’s work? Certainly the hiero- 
 glyphic inscriptions clearly corroborate, as we have just 
 seen, the opinion set forth by Eusebius as to the contem- 
 poraneousness of many of the Egyptian dynasties. 
 
 “ Forte iisdem temporibus ,” says he, “ multos JEgyptiormn 
 reges simul fuisse contigerit . Si quidem Thinitas aiunt et 
 Memphitas, Saitasque et iEthiopes regnasse, ac interim 
 alios quoque ; et sicut mihi videtur alios alibi , minime autem 
 alterum alteri successisse , sed alios hie , alios illic regnare 
 oportuisse : et ideo tot annorum multitudo, ut hoc modo 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 359 
 
 colligeretur, accidit.” — Chron. pp. 201, 202 ; ed. J. B. 
 Aucher, Yenetiis, 1818. 
 
 The beginnings of Egyptian history are set down, as we 
 have seen, by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson at 2,700 years before 
 Christ. This would leave an interval of 600 years between 
 the origin of the Egyptian monarchy and the occurrence 
 of the Deluge, usually computed at 8,300 years before our 
 era ; a period amply sufficient for the migration and set- 
 tlement of the first families of mankind. What often per- 
 plexes men not ill-disposed to religion, is the fact, that 
 they almost unconsciously presuppose a state of primitive 
 barbarism, from which mankind had slowly emerged. 
 Such men we may address in the words of the old Chinese 
 sage, cited by Abel Remusat : “ A bright light shone 
 around the first men ; we think they were in darkness, 
 because we ourselves have come out of it. Man is a child 
 born at midnight ; when he sees the sun rise, he thinks 
 that yesterday never existed.” ( Melanges Asiatiques.) 
 
 Such is the teaching of a true philosophy ; such the 
 clear intimation of the Bible ; such the testimony of all 
 tradition. 
 
 (Note B.) 
 
 RELATIONS OF GREEK TO EGYPTIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 It is very satisfactory to find that the view, as to the 
 relations of Greek to Egyptian science, expressed in the 
 text eighteen months ago, should be confirmed by the 
 authority of so distinguished a scholar as Sir Gardiner 
 Wilkinson. In the work just published, and referred to 
 above, we find the following remarks on this subject : — 
 
 6< No one will for a moment imagine,” says he, <c that the 
 wisest of the Greeks went to study in Egypt for any other 
 reason than because it was there the greatest discoveries 
 were to be learnt ; and that Pythagoras, or his followers 
 (Plut. de Plac. Phil. iii. c. 2) suggested, from no previous 
 experience, the theory (we now call Copernican) of the 
 sun being the centre of our system (Aristot. de Coelo, ii. 
 13), or the obliquity of the ecliptic, or the moon’s borrowed 
 light, or the proof of the Milky Way being a collection of 
 stars (Plut. de Plac. Phil. iii. c. 2), derived from the fact, 
 that the earth would otherwise intercept the light if derived 
 from the sun, taught by Democritus and Anaxagoras, 
 
360 
 
 APPENDIX* 
 
 according to Aristotle (Arist. Met. i. 8), the former of 
 whom studied astronomy for five years in Egypt (Diodor, 
 i. 98), and mentions himself as a disciple of the priests of 
 Egypt and of the Magi, having also been in Persia and at 
 Babylon.” — (Clem. Strom, i. p. 304.) * * * 
 
 Iamblichus says that Pythagoras derived his information 
 upon different sciences from Egypt ; he learnt philosophy 
 from the priests ; and his theories of comets, numbers, and 
 music, were doubtless from the same source : but the great 
 repugnance evinced by the Egyptian priests to receive 
 Pythagoras will account for their withholding from him 
 much that they knew, though his great patience, and his 
 readiness to comply with their regulations, even to the rite 
 of circumcision (Clem. Strom, i. p. 302), obtained for him 
 more information than was imparted to any other Greek 
 (PI ut. de Isi. s. 10). Clemens says (Strom, i. p. 303), 
 Pythagoras was the disciple of Souches the Egyptian 
 arch-prophet (Plutarch says of Conuphis, and Solon of 
 Soucliis the Saite) ; Plato of Sechnuphis of Heliopolis, 
 and Eudoxus the Cnidian of Conuphis ; and Clemens re- 
 peats the story of Plato (Tim. p. 466), of the Egyptian 
 priest saying, “ Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always 
 children !” which shows what was the general belief 
 among the Egyptians and Greeks respecting the source of 
 knowledge in early times. Strabo, indeed, affirms that 
 the Greeks did not even know the length of the year till 
 Eudoxus and Plato went to Egypt, at the late period of 
 370 b.c. (xvii. p. 554). Cicero says, “Plato iEgyptios 
 omnium philosophise disciplinarum parentes secutus est.” 
 — (Sonin . Scip.) 
 
 The development given in after-times by the Greelc mind to 
 what it learned originally from Egypt , is what showed the 
 genius of the Greeks , and conferred an obligation on mankind ; 
 and it is by keeping this in view , and by perceiving how the 
 Greeks applied what they learnt , that we shall do them justice , 
 not by erroneously attributing to them the discovery of what 
 was already old , when they were in their infancy . 
 
 Herodotus, on this, as on other occasions, is far above 
 the prejudices of his countrymen ; he claims no inventions 
 borrowed from other people ; and his reputation has not 
 suffered from the injudicious accusation of Plutarch “ of 
 malevolence towards the Greeks.” — (Trans, of Herod., 
 vol. ii. App. c. vii. p. 330-2.) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 361 
 
 {Note C.) 
 
 “the menaced reign of the praetorian guards.” 
 Lecture VII. 
 
 I am unwilling in these Lectures to touch on contempo- 
 raneous history ; but speaking of a Revolution, which is 
 not yet brought to a close, I should have left the sketch 
 very incomplete, had I made no allusion to the great 
 events passing around us. And now, in addressing the 
 general public, I am under less restraint than when 
 speaking to an audience within the walls of a university. 
 
 Though some time ago (and perhaps even yet the 
 danger is not passed), France seemed menaced with the 
 reign of praetorian guards, that menace will never, I 
 think, be realized, and for the following reasons : — 
 
 Firstly, that great country is not, like the Roman 
 Empire in the time of the Caesars and their successors, 
 in a state of hopeless moral and intellectual decay. On 
 the contrary, within the last fifty years, there has been 
 a wonderful process of regeneration going on in France. 
 The nobility, that had once given such scandal, and 
 caused so much evil, is now the most exemplary in 
 Europe. Large portions of the rural population in the 
 western and southern provinces might, for their piety, 
 virtue, loyalty, and courage, he the boast and pride of 
 any land. A great improvement has taken place in the 
 professional and the mercantile classes ; while among the 
 literati and men of science there are many who no less 
 adorn the Church by their virtues, than letters and science 
 by their genius and learning. Much has been done of late 
 years, and with considerable success, to reclaim to virtue 
 and religion the workmen and artisans of Paris and other 
 great cities. Of the great moral change in the army it 
 is needless to speak, since our countrymen had such 
 striking proofs of it in the late Crimean Avar. What 
 country has not heard of the virtues and heroic zeal of 
 the French clergy? Quoe regio in terris non plena laboris ? 
 The learned and talented members it has in our times 
 produced, and under difficulties and disadvantages of 
 every kind, show how well it will repay the efforts of 
 those who are labouring to improve ecclesiastical studies. 
 
 Godless and corrupt as a large portion of the French 
 
362 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 people still are, it is impossible that a nation which can 
 show in every class of her population so much piety, 
 probity, courage, intelligence, and patriotism, should suc- 
 cumb under the ignoble government of the Csesars. 
 
 But, secondly, it would be most unjust to ascribe to the 
 present enlightened emperor of the French, who rescued 
 his country from anarchy, and has achieved so much for 
 religion and social order, the design of establishing a 
 military tyranny. Independently of every motive of 
 virtue and patriotism, self-interest must show him that 
 a military democracy is not more stable than the civil one 
 he overthrew, and scarcely less dangerous to his own 
 dynasty. Such a government, besides throwing back to 
 a frightful extent the civilization of a land, impedes the 
 free exercise of the royal power, and imperils and renders 
 almost impossible the regular succession to the throne. 
 
 But it may be objected, that though in a kingdom so 
 full of vitality as that of France, where all the elements 
 of moral and social regeneration are becoming every day 
 more active, a military tyranny can never be permanently 
 established, may it not be introduced for a while, and 
 even forced on the present able sovereign by a mutinous 
 soldiery ? Are princes independent of the circumstances 
 of their position? Are they independent of the spirit and 
 influence of the institutions that surround them? What 
 is the social organization of France? What are her poli- 
 tical prospects for the future? Alas ! the answer must be, 
 they depend on the life of one man only. 
 
 The Church is, thank God ! free ; and honour to the 
 emperor who respects and promotes that freedom! But 
 where is the charter of her liberty ? What would her 
 condition be if to-morrow, through any disastrous accident, 
 certain members of the imperial family were nominated 
 to the regency ? 
 
 France has a finely-appointed army — Paris is strongly 
 fortified — and there are, besides, subterranean passages for 
 conveying troops from the Tuileries to the Hotel de Yille. 
 How can the bourgeois ever contrive there to proclaim 
 a Republic ? How can the strong man ever be surprised 
 in this citadel of his might? Vain hope! neither for- 
 tifications, nor subterranean passages can guard against 
 treachery or rebellion. The first ambitious general that, 
 espying a moment of imperial unpopularity, shall with 
 twenty thousand men make a coup de main , and seize on 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 363 
 
 the Hotel de Ville ; or the first commander who, returning 
 victorious from a campaign, and especially a revolutionary 
 campaign , shall lead his praetorian cohorts against the 
 Tuileries, will be master of France. Hence if the present 
 emperor were to be unfaithful to the high mission he has 
 received from Divine Providence ; if he were to forget the 
 claims of religion and social order, the glory and the 
 freedom of his country ; still the instinct of self-pre- 
 servation should teach him to abhor a military rule. 
 If he wishes to consolidate his power ; if he wishes to 
 found a dynasty, he must then decentralize Paris ; he 
 must overthrow the haughty domination of that capital, 
 which for sixty years has subverted so many governments 
 and so many dynasties ; he must give life to the languish- 
 ing provinces ; he must bestow large municipal franchises 
 on the cities ; he must establish provincial legislatures ; he 
 must, by every means he can devise, unite the old and the 
 new nobility, and strengthen their position ; he must tole- 
 rate a moderate and well-regulated freedom of the press ; 
 he must secure by a formal instrument the rights of the 
 Church. 
 
 The policy here recommended is, indeed, a generous 
 one ; but it is a generosity which coincides with the 
 plainest dictates of self-interest. Skill and energy has 
 this emperor displayed in the administration of affairs ; 
 he has crushed anarchy with a strong hand, and protected 
 the liberty of the Church and of education ; nay, more, he 
 has actively promoted the advancement of religion. But, 
 altogether, he evinces no power of organization ; he shows 
 not, except as regards religion (and that itself is a great 
 deal), the large prospective wisdom which embraces the 
 future in its calculations. 
 
 All these Napoleonides, indeed, are the children of 
 Force ; with a herculean vigour they strangle the serpents 
 of anarchy ; but those serpents revive ; for these men of 
 strength know not the wise charm that lulls their fury, 
 and takes from them their venom. This was eminently 
 the case with the first Napoleon. And though it were the 
 height of injustice to place on the same level the policy of 
 the nephew, still it were rash to say that that policy was 
 not obnoxious to peculiar dangers. The position of the 
 emperor is itself of a revolutionary origin ; he makes from 
 time to time revolutionary appeals to the political doc- 
 trines of 1789, which, in so far as they are contradistin- 
 
364 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 guished from those of other ages and countries, are es- 
 sentially tyrannic and anarchic ; # his conduct to the 
 house of Orleans was not only unjust, but revolutionary; 
 he still upholds the false administrative system of his 
 uncle, which renders a stable and free government imprac- 
 ticable ; he has pressed at different times revolutionary 
 counsels on the Pope;f while the spirit of ambition and 
 arrogance he has within the last few months displayed, 
 has excited the deep distrust of Europe, and the dis- 
 satisfaction of almost all classes of the French nation. 
 
 But are not others in some degree responsible for errors 
 and shortcomings in the imperial policy ? The Legitimatist 
 party committed an enormous fault in declining to attend 
 at court, and to enter into the diplomatic service, or to 
 take office under the present Government. I wish to speak 
 gently of a party, in which I have had so many esteemed 
 friends, and known so many estimable individuals, and 
 which, in a selfish and corrupt age, and under the 
 severest trials, has given to the world so many bright 
 examples of virtue, fidelity, and honour. Indeed, this 
 party errs only from an exaggerated sense of honour. By 
 the neutral position it has taken up, it serves neither the 
 cause of the Church, nor of its country, nor the interests 
 of social order and freedom, nor those of the exiled prince 
 himself. While this self-exclusion from public affairs 
 keeps, of course, its members in a state of political in- 
 experience and incapacity, it throws the emperor into the 
 hands of all sorts of adventurers, with or without a voca- 
 tion for statesmanship. 
 
 He was, it is said, once asked, “ Why does not your 
 imperial Majesty call more Catholic members to your 
 councils?” “ Where can I get them?” his Majesty 
 replied. Where indeed ? 
 
 What is there to prevent the great mass of Legitimatists 
 
 * It is just and fitting to recognize the material interests 
 of the Revolution, but not its 'peculiar doctrines . Thus the 
 Popes, by absolving the holders of confiscated church 
 property, recognized in the 16 th century the material 
 interests that had sprung up under the Reformation, but 
 never, of course, did they acknowledge its religious tenets. 
 
 f Such as the adoption of the Code Napoleon, contain- 
 ing as it does some irreligious enactments. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 365 
 
 from acknowledging the present emperor (as many of their 
 party did in regard to Louis Philippe) to be the de facto 
 sovereign of France? If Providence design there should 
 be a Restoration, then the policy pursued by the Legiti- 
 matists will render them incapable of serving their royal 
 master, when he shall be replaced on the throne of his 
 ancestors, and force him to seek counsel from Orleanists 
 and Bonapartists. But if the re-establishment of the 
 House of Bourbon be not among the events preordained, 
 then surely every obstacle to a reconciliation between its 
 adherents and the new Government should be removed. 
 Under every contingency, the policy pursued by this party 
 is ruinous to itself, detrimental to the best interests of reli- 
 gion and society, and utterly unprofitable to the exiled 
 prince himself. 
 
 Many Royalist families, I understand, dreading the 
 dangers of idleness for their children, are anxious they 
 should take office undqr the imperial Government. 
 
 But there was another party, on whose co-operation the 
 emperor had a stronger claim than on that of the Catholic 
 Legitimatists of France. This was the party of M. de 
 Montalembert and his friends, who hailed with so much 
 satisfaction the coup d'etat of 1851. 
 
 It is with the greatest pain I differ on any subject from 
 so virtuous and distinguished a nobleman as the Count de 
 Montalembert. Every Catholic must feel interested in 
 the fame of one who has rendered such immortal services 
 to religion and to society, and who, young as he still 
 is, has taken his place among the greatest orators of a 
 country so rich in eloquence. Possessed of rare historical 
 knowledge, well versed in classical philology, and singu- 
 larly familiar with the modern literatures of Europe, his 
 speeches and writings are remarkable for lucid statement, 
 vigorous reasoning, varied illustration, and frequent bursts 
 of a manly eloquence. 
 
 He is, however, more successful as an orator than as a 
 publicist ; for we miss in his writings not only profound 
 remarks, but accuracy of definition and classification. In 
 a word, scientific analysis and philosophic generalization 
 are the points where this distinguished writer is the least 
 strong. As a practical politician, a certain want of tact 
 and prudence is perceptible in him ; and hence he has 
 not retained the hold he had acquired over the minds of 
 French Catholics. 
 
366 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 He has fallen into a political error, the reverse of that 
 with which many Royalists are chargeable, who suffer 
 their attachment to a royal family to interfere with the 
 discharge of their duties to religion and to society. He 
 evidently thinks it quite an easy matter for a nation to 
 transfer its affections from one sovereign to another — 
 from a Charles X. to a Louis Philippe, and from a Louis 
 Philippe to a Napoleon III., — and that, provided adequate 
 guarantees in behalf of the high moral and social interests 
 can be obtained, any dynasty, whatever be its origin, may 
 reckon on the permanent enjoyment of power. He little 
 sees that the foundations of freedom are insecure, when 
 royalty is weak ; and that the main strength of royalty 
 is in the time-honoured fealty of generations. 
 
 But, be this view of the matter true or false, the Count 
 de Montalembert should have acted up to the line of policy 
 he had once taken ; given Napoleon a fair trial ; accepted 
 office under him, and endeavoured to moderate his coun- 
 cils ; or at all events he should, from his place in the 
 Legislative Assembly, have proposed reasonable, practi- 
 cable reforms. He should not have exacted of a new 
 Government, and one especially that had sprung up after 
 the recent tremendous Revolution, a measure of freedom 
 consistent, only with a long-established pacific rule. He 
 should have remembered that in England, under the reign 
 of William III. and of Queen Anne, the liberties of the 
 subject were more restricted, and necessarily so, than at 
 the present day. How often during their reigns, as well 
 as those of the first Georges, were not Jacobites, on 
 the rumour of any political commotion, banished from 
 the capital and the royal residences? Have the British 
 Government and British Legislature ever hesitated in 
 moments of danger to suspend the Habeas Corpus and 
 other liberties of the subject? No! they well knew that 
 freedom can at times be saved only by a momentary 
 suspension. 
 
 Montalembert, in my humble opinion, misapprehends 
 the nature of the British Constitution, and sees not the 
 dangers incident to the modern representative system. 
 Contrary, also, to the opinion of the most eminent pub- 
 licists of Europe, he evidently believes the American 
 Republic to be a durable concern : a fact which many 
 Americans themselves have at last begun to doubt. On 
 the whole, he appears to have attended more to the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 367 
 
 external mechanism, than to the internal organism of 
 states. 
 
 These illusions he shares with his celebrated country- 
 man, Chateaubriand, with whom he has many points of 
 resemblance. In both we see the same ardent attachment 
 to the Church — an attachment still more glowing and 
 practical in Montalembert ; the same generosity in their 
 political sentiments ; but, withal, the same want of pre- 
 cision in their ideas ; the same strong sense, hut the same 
 general absence of philosophy ; and if Chateaubriand is 
 a consummate master in poetic painting, Montalembert 
 equally excels in rhetorical amplification. 
 
 Both writers will always live in the memory of France, 
 as men of high genius and exalted character, and who have 
 devoted their gifts to the noblest of all causes — the glory 
 of religion, and the best interests of mankind. And the 
 shortcomings I have candidly stated, should not make us 
 undervalue the many excellent things, which their political 
 writings contain. 
 
 I have been arguing on the supposition that Napoleon 
 remains true to those professions he has constantly put 
 forth since his accession to the throne ; professions which 
 would have justified honourable men in joining his govern- 
 ment. But if he now belies all those professions — if, untrue 
 to the mission Divine Providence had intrusted to him, he 
 aims not at the consolidation of order, and the gradual 
 extension of freedom in France, but consumes his energies 
 in the prosecution of ambitious schemes ; then his doom is 
 fixed ; then the friends of order, who have hitherto upheld 
 him, will leave him to the Revolution as his only ally. 
 The war in which he has just engaged, can with difficulty 
 be carried on except by the aid of the revolutionary party 
 in Italy, and can scarcely issue but in revolution. For if 
 existing treaties are, without any provocation, to be vio- 
 lated ; if reigning dynasties are to be cast aside ; if revo- 
 lutionary chiefs and their bands are to be employed as 
 auxiliaries ; if those who reproach Austria with her glo- 
 rious emancipation of the Church, are to be courted as 
 allies ; if military revolt is to be encouraged ; if peaceful 
 reform in Italy is to be retarded ; what is this but a 
 revolutionary war ? And what other but effects fatal to 
 the internal peace of France can such a revolutionary 
 war entail ? 
 
 If, moreover, the temporal sovereignty of the Pope is 
 
368 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 to be disturbed ; if his spiritual independence is to be 
 endangered ; and, consequently, the interests of the uni- 
 versal Church to be compromised by the issue of the 
 present unhappy conflict ; what else but the maledictions 
 of Heaven can await its author ? Then will the anathemas 
 of the Church, and the curses of undeceived Italians pursue 
 him, take the appalling shape of Furies, and hanging over 
 his legions, unnerve their strength, throw their ranks into 
 disarray, and tracking their broken columns over the 
 Alps, follow them and their master to his palace-gates, 
 where treason and rebellion await him. Such, sooner or 
 later, will be the reward of guilty ambition. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 COX AND WYMAN, PRINTERS, OP.EAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON. 
 
. 
 
 ,