Church and State, who have flourished aversion to exercise, and had suffered in Britain from the reign of Henry VIII. from indisposition. A painful complaint, to the present age," a scheme vast and which had been gradually increasing, magnificent, and one which, in some compelled him to submit to an opera respects, Gibbon might have happily ac- tion in London. The effect was it seems complished; but he would have dwelt beneficial, for be managed to visit Lord too much in generalities, he would have Auckland at Eden Farm, which is some satisfied himself with describing and distance from the metropolis, and again illustrating those outward acts which to return thither in order to dine with show to greatest advantage upon the Lord Loughborough, at whose house he page of history. He could not have ap- met with Burke, Pitt, and Wyndham. preciated the lofty and disinterested | About the middle of December he was motives which actuated the conduct of conscious of several unfavourable sympsome of England's greatest worthies; he toms, and was again compelled to place would have felt no sympathy for that himself under the hands of a surgeon. noble heroism which springs solely from He did not apprehend that the result a sense of duty without any regard to the would prove fatal, but deemed that a world's smiles and frowns; and his own radical cure might be effected, and appreciation of moral excellence was far imagined that he should be able to retoo limited for a work which, in addition | turn to Lausanne. The day before he to the intellectual power that Gibbon died he talked of the probable duration undoubtedly possessed, required a genial of his life, and said that he thought he sympathetic nature, capable of expand- might survive for ten, twelve, or perhaps ing itself in every direction, of gathering twenty years; but during the night he up all that was beautiful and good, and was seized with a violent attack, and of presenting it before us, so that it expired after a few hours' illness, on the might become a "joy for ever," and 16th January, 1794. satisfy not only the intellect but the heart. In the year 1793 the death of Lady Sheffield induced Gibbon to visit England once more, in the hope that his society might prove a solace to the afflicted husband. He esteemed the presence of a friend the only comfort at such a moment, for he was utterly ignorant of any higher source of consolation; and in writing to Lord Sheffield the only hope which he can suggest is, that "if there be a future life her mild virtues have surely entitled her to the reward of pure and perfect felicity." In such ignorance and gloom was the great historian advancing rapidly towards the close of his career. Too truly, alas! may Cowper's beautiful comparison between the simple but devout cottager, and the witty and learned Frenchman, be applied to Edward Gibbon. Oh, happy peasant! Oh, unhappy bard! Gibbon arrived in England in the month of June, and spent the remainder of the summer with his friend. In October he went to Bath to visit his stepmother, and from thence to Lord Spencer's, at Althorp. For a long time previously he had betrayed a great We cannot close this short biographical sketch without making a few remarks upon the great work which has gained for Gibbon an European reputation, and which bids fair to increase in popularity, in proportion to the growth of historic study. History is the biography of nations, it links us in a chain of brotherhood with the men who have gone before us, it instructs us by example, by precept, by admonition. While we live again in the past, we gather suggestions for our own course, we see what rocks are to be shunned, what innovations are to be feared, and to what principles we should most firmly adhere, We see how often license has been mistaken for liberty, and how it is only by slow steps, and by the exercise of private virtue in her citizens that a nation can obtain anything better than the semblance of freedom; and the deeds of infamy which have been enacted under the veil of religion, or in the fierce spirit of an intractable bigotry, may teach us lessons of charity, forbearance, and gratitude. The knowledge of what men have done proves to us that there is nothing which may not be accomplished in the future. The heroism which has called forth great deeds and nerved to high and lofty enterprise, becomes "bequeathed by sire to son through the glowing pages of history. Before we can a linguist, well acquainted with the philosophy of language; an antiquary, patient and unwearied, deeming nothing too minute for his attention; an ethnologist and a geographer. It were easy to enlarge upon the be endowed, but enough has been said to show how few men in any age have been duly fitted for so lofty a position, and that perhaps not one has appeared in whom all the requisite qualifications have been harmoniously combined. Our biography of Gibbon, short as it necessarily is, will have intimated the point in which lay his most striking deficiency. He was a sceptic and a scoffer, sometimes openly so, but for the most part covertly, contenting himself with halftruths, with mean inuendoes, or with groundless imputations. He never boldly and bravely confesses himself an adversary to the Christian faith; he never proves, or attempts to prove, any falsity in the arguments upon which it is grounded: but with the malice of a hidden foe he conceals the most rancorous enmity under the mask of friendship. This spirit of hostility to the holy verities of our religion breathes through all the pages of Gibbon's celebrated work, and this it is which so grievously detracts from its merit. Perhaps, indeed, the evil tendency of his history lies not so much in what he has said, as in what he has left unsaid, for neglect is often more inju rious than opposition. Unconsciously, however, like many of his brother infidels, he has been aiding the cause of truth with the very weapons which he has directed against it, and the most popular of American commentators has declared that, in his exposition of the Revelation of St. John, no book has been of more effective service to him than the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." understand the age in which our own lot is cast, we must imbibe thoroughly the spirit of the past, and he will be the greatest legislator who can appreciate most perfectly, from bygone ages, all that is available in the present; and whose system is founded upon no en-powers with which the historian should chanting and fallacious theory, but on the noble vantage ground of precedent, of authority, and of broad and general deductions. It is no light task to select and arrange from out the huge chaos of disconnected materials which the stream of Time has brought down to us, those facts and those principles which may prove of real value to ourselves, and which may give us in enduring shape the "form and pressure" of past ages. Indeed the historian requires so many and such varied qualifications that we should be inclined to rank him second only to the poet in the domain of literature. He must be largely gifted with imagination, that he may look before and after, that he may be enabled to go, as it were, out of himself, and live for awhile two lives -a denizen of the past, feeling as it felt, sympathising with its prejudices, with its aims, and with its sufferings; a citizen of the present, far-sighted, liberal, and hopeful, his views bounding with its warm life-blood, his spirit thrilled with its most genial aspirations. To the imagination of the poet he must unite the calm research and the impar tial decisions of the philosopher. He must be pre-eminently a large-souled man, unfettered by party feeling, or the narrow one-sidedness of a sect, and large-hearted withal, loving his race, if possible, all the more for the insight he has gained into their sins, their follies, or their virtues, and despairing not of the future, even when the thick clouds of the past hang most heavily around him. It is obvious, too, that he should be a firm believer in a Divine Providence, for if he sees not "God in history," he will meet with innumerable problems which he cannot solve, and become in volved in a labyrinth from which he will in vain endeavour to extricate himself. If he have no faith in God, he will have no faith in humanity, and a sneering, barren scepticism, and a moral philosophy which lacks truth and life, and is utterly "stale and unprofitable," will detract from the interest, and mar the unity of his work. The historian, again, should be a man of learning, and in some degree of science: he should be There are many sceptics with whom we feel a profound sympathy, men who long ardently for truth, who "stretch lame hands of faith" towards that religion which they will ultimately embrace, but who are so perplexed by difficulties, so encompassed with doubts, that they walk on in darkness and have no light. Sincere, humble, and patient, the path which they are treading, rough and sterile though it prove, will lead them at length into a region of light and beauty. "Religion stretches out her hands to them, and salutes them with a gentle name, even at the time they would seem to resist her; for she discerns in them a thirst for righteousness and peace, which she only is capable of satisfying. And she waits for the happy moment, when, recognising the striking harmony between the Christian revelations and the imperfect revelations they have received from the voice within, these Christians by anticipation, these Christians by desire and want, shall become such in fact and profession." But the scepticism of Gibbon is of altogether another kind; so thoroughly was he an egotist, so impelled was he by vanity, that the good seed had it fallen on such a soil would have been utterly choked. There was in him an obliquity of moral vision, and we do not meet with a single intimation either in his autobiography or letters, which would lead us to suppose that he ever honestly desired to ascertain the truth, or that he ever examined with due care and seriousness the external and internal evidences of Christianity. Leaving this topic, on which, however, we have not dwelt longer than its importance merited, and without alluding to some minor points in which Gibbon's " History" appears somewhat defective, little more remains to be done, save to echo the praise which has been universally allotted to the work by judges far more qualified than ourselves. The artistic skill with which he has selected and grouped his materials, the felicity with which he has seized the salient points in a survey of many centuries, his profound, unwearied, and accurate research, which those who have in any measure gone over the same ground can alone appreciate; his vivid imagination, his eagle glance across unknown and far-spreading territories; the power with which, like a mighty master of his art, he exercises his imperial sway over those dark and gloomy ages, evoking the spirits of the departed, and depicting them with so graphic and vigorous a pencil, that we might almost imagine the historian had himself seen and conversed with the men who figure in his splendid drama; all these great and varied qualifications will ensure for Gibbon a high and enduring place among our historians He lives in our memories as a magnificent illustration of mental power and mental superiority, but they are happier who live not only in our memories, but in our hearts, whose names have become household words which we pronounce with affection and tenderness, and who, while adding to our intellectual wealth, have enriched us still more by their example and their moral worth. Only the actions of the just J. D. ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS, CARDINAL-DUKE DE RICHELIEU. If we were to take the opinions of Guy Patin and the other lampooners, who with such laudable activity poured forth floods of pamphlets two centuries ago, we might almost be led to suppose that young ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS, like Luther, was born of an incubus. How fondly those old Paris frondeurs collected, embellished, circulated every little bit of scandal about despotism and absolute government! How industriously they endeavoured to revive all the reminiscences of the Satire Ménippée, and fire away anti-cardinalist jokes for want of deadlier missiles! Sober truth compels us to say, that our hero was nothing else than the younger son of a Poitevin gentleman, whose impoverished exchequer did not allow him to support, in anything like style, the honours of his genealogical tree. Born on the 5th of September, 1585, he received a tolerable education preparatory to his entering the army. One of his brothers had already been comfortably provided for by the Church, and a bishop's mitre at Luçon was the first prize (not such a bad one either), which the Poitevin gentilhomme secured towards the worldly welfare of his family. Whilst the prelate thus sailed easily down the stream of life, the soldier would have to fight his way to distinction sword in hand, starting with the usual chances "as Gentlemen," he said, in a sort of oratorical programme to that effect, I am come to live with you, and to make my habitual abode in this place, there is nothing that can be more agreeable to me than to see your faces, and to know from your own declaration that you feel pleasure at my presence; I thank you for the good wishes you express; I shall do my best to deserve them by every kindness in my power; for the strongest wish I have is that I may be useful to all and each of you. There are some in this company who are separated from us, as I am aware, on matters of faith; may we, notwithstanding, be all united together in the bond of charity! I shall do all in my power towards that object; it will be as useful to them as to us, besides pleasing the king, whom every one of us is bound to obey. Time will prove more fully than anything I can say the affection I bear to you; I shall therefore leave deeds to show that your welfare will be the end of my endeavours." If this short harangue evidences the spirit of Christian charity, we must remember how the new bishop of Luçon stood circumstanced when he delivered it. He addressed himself, of course, to his bona fide flock-the Roman Catholic portion of the community; but he was in the midst of a thoroughly Protestant district, and the harshest term he could use then was charity. At a later period of his life, uncontrolled power taught him to erase that word from his vocabulary. If Richelieu manifested kindly dispositions towards the Huguenot separatists, he affected, likewise, a strong sympathy for the common people, who, overwhelmed by taxes, and bearing the dreadful consequences of a protracted succession of civil wars, could hardly eke out a miserable livelihood. He solicited and obtained for them some slight relief. But then, here, too, we can discover a strong contrast in the principles which the despotic statesman adopted subsequently as the foundation. of all true government. "All politicians," he wrote, in his celebrated "Testament Politique," "are agreed that, if the people's circumstances were too easy, it would be impossible to keep them within the bounds of duty. We must compare them to mules, which, being accustomed to burdens, are more injured by long repose than by work." of a cadet de famille. History does not inform us whether young Armand's inclination was in accordance with the parental will, but certainly his subsequent conduct at the siege of La Rochelle proves that he was more at home on the field of battle than in the arena of theological discussion. The bishop of Luçon had not yet been consecrated, when, under the impression of some religious scruples, he was induced to renounce a position so many would have earnestly coveted, and to withdraw himself entirely from the world. He entered a Carthusian monastery. This circumstance was likely to prove a serious matter in the straitened circumstances of the Du Plessis family; fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, for the edification of the Christian Church, our soldier in posse, thought himself called upon to retain at any cost the position his brother had parted with; so, throwing back his sword into the scabbard, he adopted the crozier as the prop of his rising fortunes. None of the transactions connected with this episcopal promotion will bear close examination. Richelieu was only twenty years old when it took place, and a great many difficulties were raised by the Pope, not without strong reasons. Henry IV. had to interfere; the French ambassador at Rome exhausted all his diplomatic resources; as a final climax, Richelieu himself started for the eternal city, fully determined to conquer. His Holiness yielded at last, and the ceremony of consecration took place on April 17th, 1608. On his return from Rome, the young bishop of Luçon immediately repaired to his diocess. His new flock had for a very long time lived without any episcopal surveillance; in those days, as well as at present, prelates were not remarkably strict as to the duty of residence, and they found it more profitable to come and dance attendance at the Louvre or the Tuileries, than to preach the Gospel in a village church; with few exceptions, the motto of the episcopal body might have been crosse d'or, évêque de bois. Arriving in a part of France, where the majority of the people belonged to the Protestant religion, Richelieu resolved to discharge his duties with vigour and prudence. He would settle differences, soften irritations, and display uniformly the spirit of forbearance, when brought into contact with his Huguenot diocesaus What with the Huguenots, and what with the lame conditions to which "the mules" were reduced, the see of Luçon does not appear to have been a very lucrative benefice; Richelieu, the powerful genius who ruled so long over the destinies of France, and whose very name struck terror into the heart of Austria,-Richelieu began by driving bargains for some cheap church-furniture, and doing duty in second-best surplices. A number of letters written by him at this period have been published; they are full of little chit-chat on domestic grievances-letters which show that the bishop lived then in a laudable state of apostolical simplicity. His favourite correspondent was a Madame de Bourges, who resided in Paris, and who seems to have been in the habit of procuring for the young prelate the necessaries he required from time to time. "I shall find no lack of occupation here," he writes to her in April, 1609, “I assure you; everything is in such a ruinous condition, that it will require hard labour to set matters right again. I am very badly off for lodgings, as there is not one chimney but smokes. You may imagine that I am not anxious for a severe winter; patience, however, is the best remedy. I can give you my word that my bishopric is the ugliest, the muddiest, the most disagreeable in the kingdom; but I leave you to guess what is the condition of the bishop. I have neither garden nor avenue, nor any place at all where I may take a walk; I am, in fact, a prisoner in my own house. I break off this discourse to tell you that we could not find amongst my clothes a tunic and a dalmatica of white taffeta, which were to be forwarded with the white damask ornaments you ordered for me; this makes me think that they must have been forgotten." is the bishop of Evreux, Du Perron; 66 66 And, accordingly, off to Paris he went. There, in the motley crowd of courtiers who pressed around the throne of Henry IV., side by side with such illustrious men as Sully, Bassompierre, Villeroy, Duplessis-Mornay, he might see a host of long moustachioed, famishedlooking shams whom Agrippa d'Aubigné has painted to the life in the "Baron de Fæneste." They, too, were a little inclined towards vain-glory," they belonged to the " pauvre noblesse," and were seeking the means of retrieving their shattered fortunes. The Protestant satirist represents them walking about the Louvre with immense spurs jingling at their heels, to make people believe that they could afford to keep a horse ;wearing coats trimmed with lace and ribbons, but unable to boast of the indispensable shirt;-chewing a post-prandial toothpick, though they had eaten nothing for the last four-and-twenty hours. Worthy companions to consort with, and from whom to learn how to succeed in life! Richelieu endeavoured to gain reputation by his sermons. He preached several times before the Queen; but, apparently, to no purpose. Nay, if we believe Priolo, the bishop of Luçon was infelix concionator. Altogether, the result of these Paris journeys does not M. Avenel's "Lettres, Instructions Diplomatiques, He returned to his diocess, and soon seem to have been very encouraging. Many of the letters to Madame de Bourges are in exactly the same style; trifling topics are discussed, sometimes in a genuine vein of comic humour, always with a kind of philosophic insouciance. Then our bishop, after having sedulously done what he could amidst the Huguenots and the "mules" of the diocess, feels that he ought to refresh himself by a short journey to Paris, and a visit to those who, at the Louvre, dispense honours, riches, and power. There et Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de Richelieu." |