THEIR VARIOUS EULOGISTS. 75 above the sphere of natural agencies. I see the mountains of New England rising from their rocky thrones. They rush forward to the ocean, subsiding as they advance and there they range themselves a mighty bulwark around the heavendirected vessel. Yes! the everlasting God himself stretches out the arm of His mercy and His power in substantial manifestation, and gathers the meek company of his worshippers in the hollow of His hand!" If we allow something for American exuberance in this magnificent outburst, what shall we say of the genial admiration with which we ourselves have regarded, with all their errors, the Republicans of the English Commonwealth? Hear the language which has been listened to with acclamations at Oxford : : "Lo! Sidney bending o'er the block! His mien, Yet no diffuse harangue, declaim'd aloud, To gain the plaudit of a wayward crowd; No specious vaunt death's terrors to defy, And seal'd by death the lesson that he taught." Passing to the latest example of my series, what are the terms in which M. de Lamartine, that last and most accomplished mediator between the passions of the mob and the interests of society, has spoken of the Girondists? He has written a history, which may be called a poem, in their praise. Recall his exquisite description of Vergniaud, in his prison garb, awaiting his fate. His infant nephew, beholding his sunken cheeks, his hair in disorder, and his garments in tatters, was distressed with the tremors of a young Astyanax. "My child," said the captive, taking him on his lap, “look well at me: when you are a man, you can say that you saw Vergniaud, the founder of the Republic, at the most glorious period, and in the most splendid costume he ever wore-that in which he suffered the persecution of wretches, and in which he prepared to die for liberty." Proceed from this incident to the supreme catastrophe-the Girondists, in a helpless group, upon the scaffold, repudiated by the mob, and encountering their doom. Yet in the hour of their agony arises their brave Marseillaise hymn. The inexorable machine is destroying them one by one, and as head after head falls into the bloody basket the chorus grows feebler, till it is reduced to the single voice of Vergniaud, himself reserved to be the last sacrifice. I would say, if the actors had been entirely worthy of their parts, that this tragedy-or this triumphwas the grandest in history. History has elevated the men I speak of, and for an excellent reason they strove to benefit their kind. In one sense their efforts also proceeded in a right direction, and though their philosophy, in another sense, may have been false or vague, still their object was noble and their impulse pure. Apart from their motives, their exertions were not idle, for they accomplished something for the good of human nature, in directing it artificially to a higher standard. Without attaining to the end they sought, they attained to one which in their view was subsidiary, but which was not less important, if less obvious to the world. History, as the register of the judgments of the past, has accordingly taken account of their position. It has framed on the whole a favourable award. What judgment then shall such efforts receive from us, who are more concerned with the present and the future ?-May I presume to say that I have anticipated your answer? The cause of Progress is permanently identified with every tentative effort in its behalf. Saving the contribution of utter moonshine (and who shall say that even this is valueless to dapple and enliven the great stream as it flows?), every rill and every channel directs its quota to the common aggregate. In almost all the great exertions of aspiring spirits there is a tendency to our moral, material, or intellectual benefit; and we must recognise this tendency, even while we insist upon individual responsibility, and on the wide limits assigned within which, as individuals, we may accelerate or retard, or only modify, its consequences. At the verge of our liberties we must reverence a constraint, which compels Progress by means of, or in spite of, mortal agencies. In spite even of those who have had Progress on their lips, and by means of those who held its name in dread—by idolatries of the past, or auguries of the future, the great impulse has been impartially promoted; and we may hold of these Revivalists, as of others more prescient, that no generous effort has been wholly thrown away. THE MEDIEVAL CASTLE. A Belt of Castles.-Feudalism transitory.-An Example and its History.— The date of the Castle-Builders.-Robert, Earl of Gloucester.-Cromwell and the Castle-Breakers.-The Castle Proprietary superseded.-The Castle Age parenthetical. THE stream of history, like the River Rhine, in a certain part of its course, is lavishly garnished with castles. Castles rise, as it were, from every point of its landscape and occupy the dominant positions on its terrain. The powers beyond them are dormant or invisible, the world at their base is their own domain, and it is clear that their masters, for a certain space, are the real lords of Western Europe, to a degree which it requires an effort to appreciate in reading the history of the European nations. We speak, indeed, of a history of England, France, or Germany, certain centuries back, but for a long time it was the history of the English, French, German, Castellans, and the nation as a whole was comparatively an abstraction. Kings, priests, and burghers were items in the account, but the lords of the castles outweighed them altogether. On the other hand, if we are pretty generally agreed that such was the character of the Feudal age, it is not quite so common a tendency to remark the comparative abruptness of its commencement and close. There is a certain stage at which the lords of castles were paramount; but they were not so while the European races were settling in their territories, and they were of less importance still at a later date. As we said, history, like the Rhine, passes through a castellated region, and, like that of the river, this stratum FEUDALISM TRANSITORY. 79 begins and ends suddenly. There are no castles before or after. To all practical purposes they are out of view, where the stream is hurrying from its sources, or where it sweeps along calmly to its confluence with the sea. This phenomenon is a subject for the mind to dwell upon, for it is significant of the transitory nature of Feudalism, and it may be explained in an essay or illustrated by an example. An example may serve to vivify our generalisations, if we observe the experiences of some particular castle, which, for England, may have been a fair representative of the rest. Such a castle we conceive that to have been, of which we are about to outline the biography, and which was known in its day as the Castle of Bristol. The term was is so strictly appropriate that, excepting one or two vaults and groinings in adjacent cellars, there is no vestige of this castle now to be seen. Yet it was of vast dimensions, splendour, and stability, though time or its vicissitudes must have dealt with it harshly; for William Wyrcestre, in 1480, found much of it already, "pulled down and ruinous." It was to be expected that Leland, following after him, should observe the effect of another half century in contributing further to the work of dilapidation. It is clear that he regarded what he saw as a remnant. "In the castle," says he, "be two courtes. In the utter courte, as in the north-west part of it, is a great dungeon tower, made, as it is said, of stone brought out of Cane, in Normandy, by the red Erle of Glocestar.... There be many toures yet standing in both the courtes, but alle tendith to ruine." This ruin, as it was in the time of Leland, had, however, represented its class with distinction, and its custody had counted for much historically. There were few places in the kingdom at that day, which had witnessed more grave or remarkable transactions. Bristol Castle had been the centre of military operations in the protracted struggle between Stephen and Matilda. It had grated in the teeth of Richard Cœur de Lion, and stood out conspicuous in the Barons war, chang |