GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. OCTOBER, 1844. BY SYLVANUS URBAN, Gest. CONTENTS. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Organ of St. Luke's, Old Street-Lockhart's Druidical Temple near Shap (with a Plate) Terms of the Grant of the Arms of Ulster to Baronets" and their Descendants" 381 Mrs. Houston's Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, 385; Erdeswick's Survey of Staffordshire, and Garner's Natural History of the County of Stafford, 388; Brockedon's Italy, 390; Miss Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England, LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. New Publications, 402; Mechanics' Institute, Devonport FINE ARTS.-Modern Race-cups..... ARCHITECTURE.-Temporary Church at Kentish Town ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES.-British Archæological Association...... 382 384 OBITUARY; with Memoirs of the Earl of Mountnorris; Viscount Powers- Registrar-General's Returns of Mortality in the Metropolis-Markets - Prices of Shares, 447; Meteorological Diary-Stocks Embellished with a View of a DRUIDICAL TEMPLE near SHAP; and with an MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. Amongst the Organs mentioned in our last Magazine was that at St. Luke's, Old Street, which has lately undergone very considerable additions and improvements, so as to place it among the first in London. We are now informed by the Rev. Benj. C. Sangar, M.A. Curate and Evening Lecturer of St. Luke's, that the money which was required for this purpose was not raised by the sale of tickets, (for not one was sold,) but by the voluntary contributions of the parishioners and freeholders-varying from 201. to 51. Mr. JOHN INGRAM LOCKHART, editor of the translation of the Memoirs of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, has addressed to us a letter explaining that the slight variation of the number of chapters in his translation from those in the original Spanish edition of 1632, has been occasioned by the erroneous numeration of one of the chapters in the latter. Mr. Lockhart's division is therefore only a proper correction of the original. He also offers some notes explaining why he has called the cannon presented to the Emperor, Charles V. a silver cannon, instead of gold, silver, and copper, as it certainly is described in the passage pointed out by our reviewer. (After all, we suggest that it was a brass cannon, inlaid with gold and silver ornaments.) Also why he suppressed some passages of the original Spanish, as redundant and superfluous; and why he followed Torquemada instead of the author he was translating, Bernal Diaz, in calling the Emperor Montezuma, Motecusuma and not Montecuma, as Diaz constantly styles him. All our reviewer has observed is substantially correct, according to Mr. Lockhart's own showing. In " Coningsby" we are told, that "when Henry the Seventh called his first Parliament there were only twenty-nine Temporal Peers to be found, and even some of them took their seats illegally, for they have been attainted. Of those twenty-nine not five remain, and they, as the Howards for instance, are not Norman nobility." If any correspondents would take this as a text, "One who is no Antiquary, but a Politician," thinks that his discourse would be generally interesting. In the pedigree which accompanies a memoir of Bishops Lloyd and Morgan, in our Volume for 1826, it is stated, that the Rev. William Lloyd, D.D. son of William Bishop of Worcester, died without issue. Mr. EDWARD PROTHEROE, jun. states that this is an error. He was twice married, and had issue by both wives. His male descendants became extinct on the death of John Lloyd his son; but his representative in the female line is Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker, Esq. now of Hardwick Court near Gloucester. W. S. is indebted to the article in July No. on the subject of "Confessionals still existing in English Churches," for the suggestion that a circular aperture in the southern chancel wall at Coombes in Sussex (which during a recent visit attracted the notice and roused the conjectures of himself and a companion) was formerly used as an outward confessional. The aperture is close by the small door, formerly called the priest's entrance to the chancel. The village itself, consisting of but some half dozen cottages, though from its extreme seclusion but little known, is one of the most picturesque and romantically situated of our English hamlets. The church, or rather chapelry, is said to have been a dependency on the neighbouring priory of St. Botolph's. In the same No. p. 77, is mentioned a drawing from a fresco in Godshill Church, Isle of Wight, exhibited at the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, June 20th, representing Christ crucified on a bush. It seems to me that by this (as it appears) unusual peculiarity of detail, the artist may have desired whilst representing the sacrifice of our Saviour, the antitype, to recall to the mind and place before "the eyes of the faithful" the prophetical one of Isaac, the type. St. Ambrose, (lib. 1, de Abraham Patriarchâ, c. 8), says, " Et ecce aries unus suspensus cornibus, in virgulto Sabec. Aries hic cornibus hærens et suspensus inter vepres significat Christum in cruce suspensum virgultum illud, patibulum crucis est." Procopius says of the ram, that it appears "instar ascendentis in arbore Sabec; nec tantum cornibus sed pedibus etiam anterioribus iniquum hæsisse in illius arboris ramis, eâque figurâ Christum in arboris crucem ascendentem, et in eâ pendentem, repræsentasse." Athanasius, (lib. Quæst. ad Antiochum, q. 98,) says, there is also a mystical meaning in the name of the bush, Sabec, which may be translated remission, obtained for us by the Cross of Christ. "Planta Sabec est veneranda crux. Juxta Hebræos videtur Sabec remissio esse, et condonatio." ERRATA. P. 208. Rear-Admiral Wise died on the 29th April. At page 137, line 9 of the note, 211 should be 411. And in page 140, line 24 of the note, after the word-" called "by Burke, should have been added. THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. History of the Conquest of Mexico. By William Prescott. 3 Vols. 1843. THOUGH all histories coincide in their general purpose and aim of imparting to us a knowledge of some portion of mankind, during a certain period of their existence; yet, in effecting this, they may vary their style and manner, according to the genius of the writer, the particular purpose he has to accomplish, or the nature of his subject. What may be called the general style of historical writing, which is more usually adopted than any other, is when the writer, enumerating the facts that occur, separating what is essential and important from what is accidental or trivial, then reasons on what are the probable causes connected with them. Thus history becomes philosophical, drawing general inferences, revealing important truths, and obtaining instruction for the future from the experience of the past. In this manner of writing, among the Greeks, Thucydides stands pre-eminent; and Tacitus among the Romans. We see in them the great masters of political wisdom; judging, as from a higher survey of good and evil, of wisdom and of folly, of moral strength or weakness; connecting causes with events, tracing back important results unto their secret springs, and penetrating into those remote doctrines of the future which an ordinary eye would fail to reach. In the same class, in later times, we should reckon Davila, and Hume, and Gibbon, and others of no inferior claims in our own times. At one of the two extremes of this division, lies that species of history which in the hands of Machiavel became purely philosophical or didactic; in which the facts are used as mere illustrations of the principles, and comprehensive conclusions are drawn from certain events, and the consequences that have resulted from them, and in which the clear and comprehensive mind of the philosopher fixes its attention solely on the general results for the just deduction of inferences. At the opposite extreme is seen what may be called the picturesque narrative, in which class the old chroniclers for the most part will be found, and such histories as that of Froissart and Monstrelet; which style has lately been revived under the eloquent pen of Mr. Barante, in his "History of the Dukes of Burgundy," and of Chateaubriand in his "Genius of Christianity." Here, dismissing all fine and subtle analysis of motives, or remote deduction of consequences, or logical inferences, or penetrating criticism, or ingenious and probable theories, the writer simply mentions his field of action, produces his characters, and gives life to his picture, by the skilfulness of his grouping, the animation of his action, and the variety and splendour of his colouring. With such a pencil as this, the Greek historian already alluded to has described that memorable expedition of the Athenian army to the conquest of Sicily, from its commencement, when it left the harbour of the Piræus, like a triumphal procession, and the inspiring sounds and melody of musical in struments, aud the benedictions of the people, till its final termination in defeat and in distress, its ruined armies in the prisons of Syracuse, and its heart-broken commanders seeking in death a refuge from a fate still more terrible or as may be read in later times, in those terrific pictures which the pencil of Tacitus has drawn, of an age of political wickedness and personal depravity,-of vice, and misery, and degradation in every shape still increasing, till, as we descend along the stream of history, it seems almost to leave the surface of the earth and the open light of heaven, and to sink into low, deep, subterraneous channels, where it may be heard sullenly and dismally heaving amid the chasms of darkuess, and dashing in low and melancholy reverberations against the hollow caverns in which it has sunk. It is in this class-in the province of picturesque history-that the present author will take his place, and to which both the nature of his subject and the bent of his genius have united to lead him. History must take its hne and local colouring from its subject, and that will naturally be chosen by a writer which he feels congenial to him, and on which he trusts suc cessfully to exert his powers. It would perhaps be impossible in modern times to point at a subject which in itself would form a more splendid and fascinating historical picture than the one before us: it possesses unity of subject, with striking contrasts of character, novelty of description, and variety of detail. It is crowded with romantic adventures and noble exploits; it admits the most picturesque associations, and is connected with the most engrossing interests. It describes countries previously unknown, it makes us acquainted with a people living under a form of social intercourse and political regulation not before observed; it opens a new and almost boundless landscape beyond the distant shores; it describes the most astonishing changes of fortune, and the most momentous consequences proceeding from very trifling causes; and lastly, it presents to us both the powers of the mind and the affections and natural virtues of the heart under modifications not before observed, and existing in circumstances that were not known to exist at all. Such is the nature of the history which the present writer has selected to embellish with the graces of his narrative, as well as to illustrate by a supply of richer materials than any of his predecessors could command.* History is more or less entertaining, we are apt to think, as it is more or less personal. How, for instance, the foremost associations of Grecian history crowd around the persons of a few favourite heroes, as Miltiades or Epaminondas among the carlier, and most prominently around Alexander in the later times; and how they droop and fade and fall away under the reigns of his successors, not because the matter is unimportant, but because the interest is no longer concentrated. If the welfare of the state is added to this personal interest in the principal agent or character, so that history and biography are mingled with each other, nothing more is wanting in attraction of the subject,-and these requisites are all found in the present narrative. The characters present many noble portraits for the historical painter; and the history is a record of heroic deeds on the one hand, in defence of national existence; on the other, instigated by the strongest of passions, worldly and religious, that the mind * See in the Preface, p. v. to p. viii. an account of the new materials which Mr. Prescott possessed, both from Madrid and Mexico, as well as by other sources, public and private. These most important materials were wanting to Robertson, which have since been assembled by the industry of Spanish scholars, of man could feel. Here was then an adaptation of means to ends, carried on through long and complicated difficulties; evil principles and good mixed, and contending together; things inmoral, and low, and base, mixing with all that was virtuous, and ennobling, and praiseworthy; and all this displayed in the most attractive field of all-the field of war and battle; where the imperfect tactics and rude masses of the barbarians were to be brought into collision with the science and ingenuity of the most civilized uation of the globe. The first object of the author was to collect all the authorities to which he could gain access, and which were unknown to or unused by his predecessors: the next was to appreciate their value, to keep a watchful eye on national prejudices, on professional interests, on party views, or on personal habits and temperament. The author justly observes. "The subversion of a great empire by a handful of adventurers, taken with all its strange and picturesque accompani. ments, has the air of romance rather than of sober history; and it is not easy to treat such a theme according to the severe rules prescribed by historical criticism. But, notwithstanding the seduc. tions of the subject, I have conscientiously endeavoured to distinguish fact from fiction, and to establish the narrative on as broad a basis as possible of contemporary evidence. The distance of the present age from the period of the narrative might be presumed to secure the historian from undue prejudice or partiality. Yet to the American and the English reader, acknowledging so different a moral standard from that of the sixteenth century, I may possibly be thought too indulgent to the errors of the * * conquerors; while to a Spaniard, accus. tomed to the undiluted panegyric of Solís, I may be deemed to have dealt too hardly with them. To such I can only say, that, while, on the one hand, I have not hesi tated to expose in their strongest colours the excesses of the conquerors; on the other, I have given them the benefit of such mitigating reflections as might be suggested by the circumstances and the period in which they lived. I have en deavoured not only to present a picture true in itself, but to place it in its proper light, and to put the spectator in a proper point of view for seeing it to the best advantage. I have endeavoured, at the expense of some repetition, to surround him with the spirit of the times, and, in a word, to make him, if I may so express myself, a contemporary of the sixteenth century," &c. It is true that the same period of history and the same events have been described by Robertson, and with all that judgment, grace, and elegance in the disposition of his subject, which he so eminently possessed, and which often supplied the place of deeper investigation and a wider circumference of knowledge; but the History of the Conquest of Mexico formed only one part of Robertson's more comprehensive plan; and was therefore as briefly narrated by him as was consistent with a clear and just elucidation of the subject. The present writer has viewed it on a larger scale; the dimensions of his canvass are more extensive; he is enabled to enter into more minute details, and to give a more elaborate finish to his design. Yet it is the very extent of this narrative that occasions the difficulty we feel in conveying our impressions of it. We are embarrassed by the copiousness of the subject, and the exuberant richness of the successive pictures, and the variety of subjects it comprehends. If we take single specimens from different pages of the work, they are but little detached fragments, less pleasing as detached from the general body, and giving little insight, and but partial and scattered glimpses, into the general structure: and, if we were to attempt an abridgment of the whole, it would be dry, tedious, and uninteresting in its altered form.† Preface, vol. I. p. xii. + La methode des abrégés a également les inconveniens. En écartant les détails |