a renegade by renouncing his early sentiments. He will, in the course of nature, be left by these elder politicans, who now support him by their countenance and example; and he will remain amongst his opponents, an isolated object of sneer and sarcasm, as a disciple of those, whose opinions have disappeared from the political world, as the dreams of the alchemists have from that of science.

Let him look considerately around him:-What growing and strengthening opinion has ever yet been ultimately extinguished by opposition ?— Has the reformed religion yielded to force?—the spirit of colonial independence?—the desire of civil equality?-the wish for representative government ?-Do we not observe that the leaders of the opposition to all those latter opinions, are now studying only how to retreat with honour?

At the period when Napoleon was about to leave Paris for his last Austrian war, he reviewed in the square of the Carousel one of the most brilliant assemblages of troops that had ever been collected in Europe. He spent many hours enjoying the effect of his word, or look, in transforming into its various shapes, this mighty instrument of dominion over the nations opposed to his will. A witness of the scene relates, that a little dry old man in a rusty wig came near him, and whispered in his ear thus:-"Do you see a little bird flitting about the square, and passing in between those columns, and battalions, and squadrons of horse?" "I see no bird," said the man. "But I do, clearly," replied the other," and it is that little bird which will soon overthrow the columns, and the squadrons, and the mind that now directs them."- "What do you mean?" said his companion-" I mean," replied he, "that public opinion, in the shape of a little bird, is now flitting between all these military masses, and will, before long, be able to subdue both them and their master." After such a speech, he was soon lost in the crowd, and could never be recognised again by his casual acquaintance.

After the young member has reflected upon the futility of the opposition to the leading opinions of the day, let him observe the changes of the arguments employed by their opponents, from the beginning of their hostility to the present time.-Do the speakers rely upon their former ? Do they grow strong by the agreement between their speculations, and the course of events? Do they silence their opponents by referring to the former declarations of both? Or rather, do they not abandon every position in succession, and endeavour to avoid a surrender, by temporary evasions.

reasons

A young man who begins a career of public life, will naturally attach himself to the chariot of him who directs it in the path of fame and glory, and whose progress is cheered by the acclamations and applause of the assembled multitude. It would be as reasonable to prefer the Margate hoy to the steam-boat, as to adhere to the exclusive doctrines of exploded statesmen, when the reason of mankind has declared in favour of their rivals.'-pp. 190-194.

If, upon the whole, we have been rather disappointed in the 'Political Primer,' we think we have, nevertheless, given the author sufficient encouragement to try his powers upon another work on the same subject, but more extended in its plan than this, and also more grave and more elaborate in its execution.

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ART. V. Annals of the House of Hanover, collected and arranged by Sir Andrew Halliday, M.D. F.R.S.E., Domestic Physician to H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence, &c. 2 Vols. Royal 8vo. 21. 28. London. Sams. 1826.

THE high antiquity of the House of Brunswick, the remote period to which its rise may with absolute certainty be traced, and even the degree of splendour which adorned one period of its early fortunes, are all circumstances as clearly established, and as indisputably recognized, as any truths in the whole compass of history. But the vicissitudes which have attended the destiny of this ancient line, are perhaps even more curious, though they may be related by some persons with less complacency and candour, than the mere fact of the remoteness of its origin.

After appearing as the most powerful and brilliant among the sovereign families of Germany, the house of Guelph sank into comparative obscurity and oblivion for nearly five hundred years; its possessions were reduced to a poor and barren duchy, which was often carved out by a tenfold subdivision, to nourish the pride of sovereignty in as many of its petty princess; and the characters of these chieftains, and the laws which regulated their inheritance, might have seemed equally to forbid the second elevation of their house. At length, the fortunate extinction of some of its branches, and an unusual energy of mind in one of its surviving princes, acquired for the family the electoral dignity, and established a decent preparation for the sudden grandeur which awaited it. An illustrious marriage then only remained to raise it to the throne of three kingdoms, and to give birth to the true epoch of its glory :the glory of being invited to reign over a mighty empire and a free people, not by priority of hereditary claim, but against it, and by solemn compact and national preference; not by any false assumption of indefeasible right, but by the spontaneous election and the suffrages of the states of these realms. By a remarkable chance, it was reserved for a junior branch of the ancient Guelphic family to attain this elevation and glory, for the elder line of the house remains in its German seats, and has never emerged from its insignificant dominion over a scanty principality.

The shifting fortunes of so ancient a house would naturally, under any circumstances, be invested with some curiosity; and in this country the subject must of course possess a peculiar degree of attraction. We listen with respectful attention to the history of the royal lineage, whose covenant with our own ancestors has entailed upon us the obligations of allegiance, in return for the just administration of limited authority. We are disposed to regard the long descent of our princes from a noble stock with pleasing interest, perhaps even with some admixture of pride; and there may be minds disposed to derive a satisfaction from reflecting that we are governed by a constitutional monarch who can count up

more generations of noble forefathers than the imperial despots of the continent. But, for our own parts, we are not the more inclined to concur in any idle exaggeration of the fame which mere antiquity can bestow. We are neither prepared with Rimius to agree in the repetition of the absurd fable which would deduce the origin of our dynasty from the Roman family of the Actii, nor yet to believe, with Sir Andrew Halliday, that his present most excellent majesty, George the Fourth, is the forty-first in pure, clear, and undoubted descent from Edico, King of the Heruli, and father of the barbarian Odoacer, who overthrew the Western Empire.

It might be imagined that the authentic annals of the House of Brunswick were quite of sufficient antiquity and early lustre to satisfy the zeal of its most eager champions. But in the language of Gibbon, "an illustrious race must always be crowned with its proper mythology;" and it would be contrary to all experience, if the genealogists of the Guelphs had been contented to limit their flatteries within the bounds of truth, or even of probability. It was towards the close of the seventeenth century that the first elector of the house, Ernest Augustus, with very natural and even laudable anxiety, made the earliest attempts to illustrate the remote history of his line. He employed the famous Leibnitz in the task, the completion of which devolved upon the successors of the great librarian; and the Origines Guelfica, of which Scheidius was the final editor, contained the fruits of their genealogical researches.

The ancient annals of a reigning dynasty, thus compiled within the precincts of their own palace, cannot be considered to form the least suspicious among the labours of history. To exalt the pedigree and embellish the renown of the royal house which they serve, is the least effort to be expected from the industry of courtly genealogists. Much will naturally be required by the pride of illustrious patrons; and much will be freely rendered to their honour by devotion or zeal, by gratitude or hope. Leibnitz and his successors were the first, both to imagine the derivation of the Guelphs from the brother of Odoacer, and to manufacture another hypothesis-to which we shall presently refer-for the completion of the chain of pedigree.

The examination of the Origines Guelficæ, however, was destined to devolve upon a historian, whose critical acumen rendered him of all men the best qualified to weigh the evidence and detect the absurdities of the genealogists. When Gibbon undertook his treatise on the Antiquities of the House of Brunswick, he made the Origines Guelfice his text book. He certainly entered on his voluntary labour with the desire of offering a pleasing homage to the reigning family; and the political bias of his mind sufficiently inclined him to minister to its honour. So strongly is this disposition perceptible, that, when he depicts the vices of an ancient

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Guelph, he thinks it necessary to make a formal apology to his living descendants. But Gibbon had, still, too much respect for the dignity of his own office, or the habit of historical investigation was too powerful with him, to restrain himself from exposing the fables and hypotheses of his precursors; and the obscure visions of Leibnitz dissolve into air before the touch of his masterly criticism. It has always been a matter of surprise to us, that this essay by Gibbon, on the Antiquities of the House of Brunswick, should be so little familiar to the general reader. It was his last and posthumous work; it is extremely interesting in its subject; and it exhibits in its composition all the unimpaired maturity and vigour of his mind. Not even in the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" has he displayed more acuteness and judgment, more discursive knowledge, or more felicitous reflection; while the later essay is free from several of the blemishes in matter and style which disfigure the earlier and greater monument of his genius.

We are not aware that any farther documents, illustrative of the origin of the House of Brunswick, have been discovered since the publication of the Origines Guelficæ, and of Gibbon's exposure of the hypothetical assumptions contained in that work. Yet Sir Andrew Halliday, in the costly and elaborate volumes before us, has been pleased to adopt, without qualification, the unsubstantial theories of Leibnitz, Eccard, and Scheidius, and entirely to over. look the judicious criticism, and sensible corrections, of the great historian. He has read, we presume, the essay on the Antiquities, for he surprises us by the admission that it gives a just view of the origin of the family; and this admission immediately follows the genealogical table in which he enumerates the perfect series of forty-one generations from Edico to George IV. He adds, indeed, a caveat that 'even Gibbon's memoir is not free from inaccuracies, and his reasoning not always borne out by his assumed facts;' but he omits to particularize the instances to which he may refer. If Gibbon's view of the origin of the family be just, then is Sir Andrew's positive deduction of their pedigree from Edico unwarranted to his subsequent charge of inaccuracy we shall be excused from attending, until he may publish his reasons for advancing it. Considering the relative weight of the two authorities, it would, perhaps, have been as satisfactory, if Sir Andrew Halliday had taken the trouble to detail the points, on which he conceives Mr. Gibbon to have erred in conclusion and judgment.

That Sir Andrew Halliday has scrupulously followed the authority of the Origines Guelficæ for the first part of his work, we gather from his own statement. That laborious compilation brings down the Guelphic annals no lower than the commencement of the thirteenth century; and so far our genealogist is correct, that 'it canvassess every disputed point in the early history of the family, with a minuteness that renders all farther research useless.' It has left to succeeding annalists only the task of determining on the

evidence which it adduces; and Sir Andrew has received it for his infallible guide throughout the whole of his first volume. For the second part of his annals, he has trusted chiefly to unpublished records and original charters, and to the most authentic histories of Germany and France.' Here, it is due to him in justice to observe, that we have found little to object to in his facts, and only a few errors to notice in the connection of his narrative with general history. But if his work were of greater importance, it would be a serious blemish in it that he has altogether neglected throughout to authenticate his statement by marginal references to the volumes and pages of his authorities. The custom of making such verifications, we cannot too often repeat, is among the greatest improvements in modern works of history, and should never be omitted by a writer who is desirous of submitting his accuracy to critical examination and proof.

In offering this observation, we have no design to impugn Sir Andrew Halliday's knowledge and accuracy in any degree beyond the instances which we may distinctly specify. We shall only remark farther, of the general composition of his book, that the style is sufficiently correct for the occasion; that the volumes are well and even elegantly printed; and that the work is adorned with some good plates, all portraits of course, and principally of distinguished personages of the House of Brunswick. Sir Andrew, in a dedication to his majesty, very modestly believes that he may perhaps fail in acquiring by this work any distinction for his genius, but trusts that he shall be entitled to some commendation for his industry.' That praise of zeal and industry we freely accord to him; and we will add that he has displayed in his undertaking such capacity and compass of mind as the compilation of annals may seem to require.

A former volume of documents, illustrative of the history of the House of Brunswick, which he published, and which he assures us is now out of print, or only to be found in the libraries of the curious, we have not had the good fortune to see; but we have the less reason to regret the privation, as he explains that the substance of these 'valuable documents' has been embodied in the annals before us. He has endeavoured to impart to the present work some of that ease and polish necessary to distinguish historical compositions from dry antiquarian researches,' and we cannot doubt the correctness of his assertion, that 'compared with its predecessor, it is much improved in literary merit.' We confess, however, that we do not quite understand his meaning when he speaks of supplying the deficiencies in a branch of European history, no less remarkable for the neglect with which it had hitherto been treated, than for the richness and interest of the materials in which it abounded.' We are really ignorant what great historical deficiencies he has supplied, we are at a loss to discover where are his rich and valuable materials; and we fear