THE WORKS OF

WALTER BAGEHOT
124535

M. A., AND FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

WITH MEMOIRS BY R. H. HUTTON

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED IN FULL

BY

The Travelers Insurance Company

OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT

EDITED BY FORREST MORGAN

IN FIVE VOLUMES

VOL. II

Hartford

1891

Copyrighted, 1889, by

THE TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY,

of Hartford, Conn.

Copyrighted, 1891, by THE TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

LITERARY STUDIES.

Edward Gibbon (National Review, January, 1856)
Thomas Babington Macaulay (National Review, April, 1856)
Bishop Butler (Prospective Review, October, 1854)
Sterne and Thackeray (National Review, April, 1864)
The Waverley Novels (National Review, April, 1858)
Charles Dickens (National Review, October, 1858)
Henry Crabb Robinson (Fortnightly Review, Aug. 1, 1869)

RELIGIOUS AND METAPHYSICAL ESSAYS.

The Ignorance of Man (National Review, April, 1862)

On the Emotion of Conviction (Contemporary Review, April,

1871)

297

326

The Metaphysical Basis of Toleration (Contemporary Review,

April, 1874)

339

The Public Worship Regulation Bill (Economist, July 18, 1874)

360

III.

On the new Constitution of France, and the aptitude

of the French character for national freedom

389

IV. On the aptitude of the French character for national

PAGE

1

58

100

154

197

239

279

LITERARY STUDIES.

EDWARD GIBBON.*

(1856.)

A WIT said of Gibbon's autobiography that he did not know the difference between himself and the Roman empire. He has narrated his "progressions from London to Buriton and from Buriton to London" in the saine monotonous majestic periods that record the fall of states and empires; the consequence is, that a fascinating book gives but a vague idea of its subject. It may not be without its use to attempt a description of him in plainer though less splendid English.

The diligence of their descendant accumulated many particulars of the remote annals of the Gibbon family; but its real founder was the grandfather of the historian, who lived in the times of the "South Sea." He was a capital man of business according to the custom of that age, a dealer in many kinds of merchandise; like perhaps the "complete tradesman" of Defoe, who was to understand the price and quality of all articles made within the kingdom. The preference, however, of Edward Gibbon the grandfather was for the article "shares"; his genius, like that of Mr. Hudson, had a natural tendency towards a commerce in the metaphysical and non-existent: and he was fortunate in the age on which his lot was thrown, it afforded many opportunities of gratifying that taste.

*The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edward Gibbon, Esq. With Notes by Dean Milman and M. Guizot. Edited, with additional Notes, by William Smith, LL. D. In Eight Volumes. 1855. Murray.

London,

+ Bagehot himself. — ED.

VOL. II.-1.

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