the warmest attachment. Yet even this final affair wears the air of a successful arrangement, brought about by the instrumentality of kind John Home, rather than of any very decided and inevitable mutual attachment on the part of Carlyle and Mary Roddam. The fact is, that Carlyle was made for friendship rather than love, and the reason why he did not inspire more passionate attachments in all probability was, that he did not feel them. He speaks of his Mary as the most ' valuable friend and companion that any mortal ever possessed;' as gifted with an ease and propriety of manner, which made her to be well received, and indeed much distinguished, in every company. Throughout it appears that his satisfaction sprang quite as much from the judgment of the world without as from the promptings of the heart within; and the following passage, though most creditable to him as a friend, is quite decisive against his claim to the character of a lover:

'I do not think it is possible I could derive greater satisfaction from any circumstance in human life than I did from the high approbation which was given to my choice by the very superior men who were my closest and most discerning friends, such as Ferguson, Robertson, Blair, and Ballantine, not merely by words, but by the open, respectful, and confidential manner in which they conversed with her.'

Mrs. Carlyle was co-heiress of a small estate in Northumberland, called Heathpool, and had many relations in and around Newcastle. This led to frequent visits to that and other parts of the north of England. In Newcastle, as in most trading towns, the women were superior to the men in manners and appearance.

In 1766, Dr. Robertson, now Principal of the University of Edinburgh, and leader of the moderate party in the Church, and Dr. Carlyle, who, notwithstanding some slight jealousies connected with the Douglas' libel and other matters, was his ablest supporter, paid a visit at Kelburn, the seat of the Earl of Glasgow, then High Commissioner of the General Assembly. Lord Glasgow, it seems, was in reality a man of far greater ability than the world ever came to know, and the sketch preserved of him by Carlyle adds to its other merits, as Mr. Burton has remarked in a note, that of being unique. From the mainland the party passed over to Bute, and they were made free of the burgh of Rothsay, which cost us a hard drink of new claret.' No wonder that he complained of the civic tap when compared with that at Mount Stuart, where he was living, and where Alexander McMillan (Lord Bute's factor) was one of the best landlords for a large company, for

'he was loud and joyful, and made the wine flow like Bacchus ' himself . . . . There was the best cyprus I ever saw, which 'had lain there since Lord Bute left the island in 1745. The 'claret was of the same age, and excellent.' The following is an amusing specimen of the clerical views of these libations:

'After we had been four days there, Robertson took me into a window before dinner, and with some solemnity proposed to make a motion to shorten the drinking, if I would second him; "because," added he, "although you and I may go through it, I am averse to it on James Stuart's (the Hon. James Stewart Montague) account." I answered that I would willingly second whatever measure of that kind he should propose, but added that I was afraid it would not do, as our toastmaster was very despotic, and, besides, might throw ridicule upon us, as we were to leave the island the day after the next, and that we had not proposed any abridgement to the repast till the old claret was all done, the last of which we had drunk yesterday. "Well, well," replied the doctor, "be it so, then, and let us end as we began." (P. 474.)

We have now reached the last chapter which the stout old Doctor was permitted to write; and our readers will not be sorry to learn that it records two visits to London. The occasion of these visits was partly the claim of exemption from window tax, which the Clergy of Scotland had instructed Carlyle to urge on their behalf, on the same grounds on which they were exempted from paying the land tax on their glebes, and partly his wife's health. The following scene of a great legal debate in the House of Lords on the great Douglas case, is on every account extremely interesting and graphic:

'On the 27th I attended the House of Peers on the Douglas Cause. The Duke of Buccleuch] had promised to carry me down to the House; but as I was going into Grosvenor Square to meet him at ten o'clock, I met the Duke of Montague, who was coming from his house, and took me into his chariot, saying that the Duke of B. was not yet ready. He put me in by the side of the throne, where I found two or three of my friends, among them Thomas Bell. The business did not begin till eleven, and from that time I stood, with now and then a lean on the edge of a deal board, till nine in the evening, without any refreshment but a small roll and two oranges. The heat of the house was chiefly oppressive, and Lord Sandwich's speech, which, though learned and able, yet being three hours long, was very intolerable. The Duke of Bedford spoke low, but not half an hour. The Chancellor and Lord Mansfield united on the side of Douglas; each of them spoke above an hour. Andrew Stuart, whom I saw in the House, sitting on the left side of the throne, seemed to be much affected at a part of Lord Camden's speech, in which he reflected on him, and immediately left the House; from whence I concluded that he was in despair of success. Lord Mansfield, overcome with heat,

was about to faint in the middle of his speech, and was obliged to stop. The side-doors were immediately thrown open, and the Chancellor rushing out, returned soon with a servant, who followed him with a bottle and glasses. Lord Mansfield drank two glasses of the wine, and after some time revived, and proceeded in his speech. We, who had no wine, were nearly as much recruited by the fresh air which rushed in at the open doors as his lordship by the wine. About nine the business ended in favour of Douglas, there being only five Peers on the other side. I was well pleased with that decision, as I had favoured that side: Professor Ferguson and I being the only two of our set of people who favoured Douglas, chiefly on the opinion that, if the proof of filiation on his part was not sustained, the whole system of evidence in such cases would be overturned, and a door be opened for endless disputes about succession. I had asked the Duke of B., some days before the decision, how it would go; he said that if the Law Lords disagreed, there was no saying how it would go; because the Peers, however imperfectly prepared to judge, would follow the Judge they most respected. But if they united, the case would be determined by their opinion; it being [the practice] in their House to support the Law Lords in all judicial cases.

'The rejoicings in Scotland were very great on this occasion, and even outrageous: although the Douglas family had been long in obscurity, yet the Hamiltons had for a long period lost their popularity. The attachment which all their acquaintances had to Baron Mure, who was the original author of this suit, and to Andrew Stuart, who carried it on, swayed their minds very much their way. They were men of uncommon good sense and probity.' (P. 514.)

But Carlyle saw the great Judge more nearly than in the House of Lords, and the following conversation with him is noteworthy :

'In the course of my operations about the window tax, I had frequently short interviews with Lord Mansfield. One day he sent for me to breakfast, when I had a long conversation with him on various subjects. Amongst others, he talked of Hume and Robertson's Histories, and said that though they had pleased and instructed him much, and though he could point out few or no faults in them, yet, when he was reading their books, he did not think he was reading English: could I account to him how that happened? I answered that the same objection had not occurred to me, who was a Scotchman bred as well as born; but that I had a solution to it, which I would submit to his lordship. It was, that to every man bred in Scotland the English language was in some respects a foreign tongue, the precise value and force of whose words and phrases he did not understand, and therefore was continually endeavouring to word his expressions by additional epithets or circumlocutions, which made his writings appear both stiff and redundant. With this solution his lordship appeared entirely satisfied. By this time his lordship perfectly understood the nature of our claim to exemption from the window tax, and promised me his aid, and suggested some new arguments in our favour. (P. 516.)

It was during this visit to London that Carlyle sat to Martin for the picture from which the engraving is taken which forms the frontispiece of this volume. The face, in which one can trace the likeness to Kay's well-known caricatures, reminds one of some of the earlier portraits of Goethe. But there is a tinge in it of that hereditary fragility which carried so many of his loved ones to the tomb, and clouded the long earthly pilgrimage which yet remained for this man of mirth. The following passage, one of the latest which he wrote, and which must positively close our copious analysis, is full of sadness:

'When we returned from the south, we were happy to find our two fine girls in such good health; but my mother, and unmarried sister Sarah, had lived for some time close by us, and saw them twice every day. Sarah, the eldest, was now eight years of age, and had displayed great sweetness of temper, with an uncommon degree of sagacity. Jenny, the second, was now six, and was gay and lively and engaging to the last degree. They were both handsome in their several kinds, the first like me and my family, the second like their mother. They already had made great proficiency in writing and arithmetic, and were remarkably good dancers. At this time they betrayed no symptoms of that fatal disease which robbed me of them, unless it might have been predicted from their extreme sensibilities of taste and affection which they already displayed. It was the will of Heaven that I should lose them too soon. But to reflect on their promising qualities ever since has been the delight of many a watchful night and melancholy day. I lost them before they had given me any emotions but those of joy and hope.' (P. 526.)

The supplementary chapter, which tells the story of Dr. Carlyle's long career of usefulness, from the period at which the autobiography closes till his death in 1805, is by Mr. Burton, one of the best of living antiquarians, the author of 'Scotland from the Revolution to the Rebellion,' and, what is most of all to the present purpose, the biographer of Hume. It is fortunate that so able and independent a man was charged with the editorship of this curious fragment. Mr. Burton wisely resolved to publish it in its integrity, without suppression or alteration; and in preserving the accuracy and completeness of the text (which had been considerably tampered with by other persons who formerly had access to the manuscript), he has rendered another service to history and to literature.

ART. VII.-History of the United Netherlands, from the death of William the Silent to the Synod of Dort, with a full view of the English-Dutch struggle against Spain, and of the origin and destruction of the Spanish Armada. By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L. Two vols. 8vo. London: 1860.

R. MOTLEY'S former volumes, containing the History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic,' were reviewed by us in connexion with Mr. Prescott's Life of Philip II.'* In being thus reminded of the decease of that delightful historian, we must again lament the rapidity with which, during the past year or two, star after star, whose brilliancy has been the guide of youth, and the companion and delight of maturity and age, in the continents of the east and west, has disappeared below the horizon. Mr. Prescott's reputation from the first hour of its appearance has shone with a steady and enduring lustre; his great acquirements, his patience and unremitting hopefulness and industry under the most severe affliction which could happen to a student, his pure devotion to one of the loftiest departments of literature, the honest and single-hearted purpose of his life, have caused his name to be regarded with affection and esteem whereever English literature is read or heard of. That he should have left half told the story of Philip II. will long remain a subject of regret: and of this we are reminded in opening the present volumes, for although they embrace the same subject approached from a different side, one is never consoled for the half-finished picture of one artist by that of another. This present portion of Mr. Motley's continuation of the History of the Netherlands' is written on a more extensive plan than that with which the public are already acquainted. This was in some degree necessary. From the death of William the Silent, the struggle in the Netherlands embraces more or less the contemporaneous history of France, Spain, and England, and indeed the whole interest of European history at that period. The archives of these various countries abound in MS. wealth, in diplomatic correspondence and state papers, the accumulations of the sixteenth century. These volumes bear evidence of long and laborious researches in these authentic collections-researches which, even if they have sometimes led Mr. Motley to violate the due proportions of his narrative, will be regarded by every student of European history with real interest.

Ed. Rev., vol. cv. p. 1.