the fall of the Ottoman Empire, (and he ciety. We recall that stormy day when a sees it already on the ground) each power late minister had to resist nearly alone the should take possession of a part of the East, united efforts of the most powerful orators under the title of a protectorate; should of the chamber. The minister succumbed. found on its coasts model towns destined Lamartine believed he saw in the energy of to relieve Europe of its exuberant popula- the attack, a spirit of systematic hostility, tion; should lead thither the indigent by of covetousness, or of rancor. His poet's the attraction of a benevolent, equitable, heart was indignant; he descended into the and regular organization, and should ap- arena, re-established the combat, and made peal thus insensibly to Asia in the way of an appeal to the country to decide the vicconversion. "In twenty years," adds La- tory. That influence which Lamartine somemartine, "the measure which I propose times exercises in the debates of the chamwould have created prosperous nations, and ber, is less due to the eminent oratorical millions of men would be marching under facilities which he possesses, than to the the aegis of Europe to a new civilzation." morality of his life, to the elevated instincts But remark that this theory, presented here of his nature, and above all to the calm disin the state of a skeleton, is adorned with interested, independent, and noble attitude, a magic of style so attractive, that the spirt which he has ever preserved since his entry allows itself to be gently led towards the into the political career. angelic dream of the candid soul of the The poet of Elvira has in his general appoet. We nearly forget that to realize this pearance a something which recalls Byron. system, which unrolls itself in twenty pages, There is the same beauty of face and look, there would be required nothing less than there are the same habits of elegance and to change by a stroke of a wand, minds and dandyism, the same tournure, a little trimmen, to overthrow empires, to make conti- med, a little English, perhaps, but perfectly nents approach each other, and to join by noble and distinguished! If you join to the bonds of mutual and durable sympathy, this to complete the resemblance, the train races, formed upon centuries of mortal en- of a great lord, a sumptuous hotel, horses of mities. But M. Lamartine accomplishes pure race, a magnificent chateau, you can all these things in twenty years, and with then conclude that since Tasso and Camoa stroke of the pen. Another ten centuries, ens, the times are a little changed, and that and perhaps this audacious Utopia will be- one is permitted in our days to be a great come a manorial right. Thus goes the poet without dying in an hospital. world! While the crowd is painfully forced to enlarge the wheel-rut deepened by the With the late political position of M. de generations passed, expecting that it will Lamartine the public is familiar. leave to the generations to come the con- longer he has sate in the Chamber of Deputinuation of its work, the poet, intrepid, ties the more he has seen cause to withdraw and indefatigable enlightener! raises him- his confidence from the King and Guizot, self to his height above the times, and cries to oppose them, and warn the country of to the crowd, "Come to me." "I have the necessity of a firm stand for liberty. not thy wings," answered the crowd. The For this his eloquence has been zealously poet, uncomprehended takes his flight, and and splendidly exerted in the Chamber; the crowd which could not comprehend, re- for this he established the journal Bien Pubturns to its work. lique; but above all, for this has he written The In a later analysis, there is in the excep- his great work the history of the Girondists, tional position of Lamartine, amid the par- which has unquestionably done more than ties and ambitions which divide the coun- any other cause to urge on the era of the try and the chamber, a character of dignity revolution. During the paroxysm of this and grandeur which well becomes the poet. great and wonderful change, Lamartine has Notwithstanding his speech is vague, inde- maintained all expectations formed of him. cisive, and ill at ease, in the narrow and Wise, firm, benevolent, and disinterested, ephemeral questions, which each session sees he resisted the rash claims, while he has born and die, yet that speech enlarges, for- advocated the just ones of the people. To tifies, and unrolls itself harmoniously color- him, perhaps, more than any other, of the ed and imposing, whenever it has to vindi- present leaders of France, it is owing that cate the rights of intelligence, or to defend so stupendous a crisis has been passed with the eternal principles of honor, of morality, so little outrage, and so much noble forand of charity, on which rest all human so- bearance. His power upon the multitude in its most agitated moments reminds us of the introduction not only of greater stabithat of Cicero. From his true Christian lity into the new government, but for a faith, and the high and generous principles higher policy both domestic and foreign which he has derived from it, we look for than has yet distinguished state morality. From the British Quarterly Review. ENGLISH SOCIETY UNDER JAMES I. (1) "The Great Oyer of Poisoning: the Trial of the Earl of Somerset for the Poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, in the Tower of London, and various matters connected therewith, from contemporary MSS." By ANDREW AMOS, Esq. 1847. (2) "The Workes of the Most High and Mightie Prince James, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith." Published by JAMES, Bishop of Winton, and Dean of his Majesties Chapel Royal. Printed by Robert Barker, anno 1616. (3.) "The Progresses of James the First." By JOHN NICHOLS. SHINE, Titan, shine, Let thy sharp rays be hurled, "But in that sphere, Where what thine arms enfold "O! this is he! Whose new beams make our spring Men glad, and birds to sing Jingratitude which turned so soon from the setting splendors of "that bright occidental star," to the murky north, expecting a glorious sunrise. We must, however, bear in mind, that the dark pages of Stuart history, on which we dwell, were a sealed book to the men of that generation-that the whole record of England in the 17th century was as yet unrolled; and too heedless of the past, and indulging in exaggerated expectations of the future, the nation, in its joyful welcome of King James, gave but another illustration of the vanity of human expectations. Such was one of the least extravagant of But if, on the day of his triumphant entry the poetic welcomes, albeit ending with the into that city which of yore had welcomed assertion, "Earth has not such a king," her nobler Plantagenets, some prophet hand proffered to the "high and mighty James, by could have lifted the veil, and shown the the grace of God, King of England, Scot- eager multitudes the clouds and darkness, land, France, and Ireland," when he took where hope pointed to a sun-burst of glory, his "triumphant passage" on the 15th of how deep and prolonged a wail would have March, 1604, from the Tower, through the mingled with their exulting pæans. city, where Theosophia, in "a blue mantle Although at the first glance it seems difseeded with stars;" Tamesis, with a crown ficult to account for the general delight of of sedge and reeds; Eleutheria in white; the people at the accession of James of Scotand Soteria, "in carnation, a colour signi- land, on closer view we shall perceive the fying cheer and life ;" and a host of quaint- motives that swayed many minds. While ly dressed personages, classical, legendary, with some, the honors and emoluments and allegorical, stood ready with speeches which a new reign always offers-while with in choice Latin, and most euphuistical Eng- others, that natural love of what is new, prelish, all in honor of the monarch who had vailed-with many, the accession of James succeeded to the sceptre of the great Eliza- was hailed as the advent of better days for beth. And looking back on the unmatched religion. The high church policy which glories of her reign, and the disgraceful rule may be traced in the councils of Elizabeth, of her successor, we feel disgust at the out- from the death of Lord Burghley, certainly rageous eulogies lavished on so worthless an went far to weaken her popularity during object, and indignation at the short-sighted the last years of her reign. Now, from the king, who had been brought up under the death of its rightful possessor. In the tutelage of George Buchanan, the friend other ballad, which laments that, "Sweet England's pride is gone! Welladay, welladay,- of Calvin, and Beza, and Knox-the King, in whose dominions alone the Genevan discipline was established, surely to him, beyond all others, might they confidently look for relief from the yoke of a rigorous conformity, and the crushing tyranny of the after a recapitulation of his many gallant ecclesiastical courts. And then, too, the services in the Low Countries, Ireland, pupil of Buchanan, the fierce denouncer of Spain, and Portugal, and hints of the jearegal, no less than priestly tyranny, could lousy with which he was regarded, the balnot but have imbibed principles more in ladist goes on to say:: unison with old English feeling than those of the haughty Tudors; and, all unconscious of the right royal manifestoes enshrined in his precious "Basilicon Doron," they prepared to view in the new monarch a maintainer of their ancient libertics. "But all could not prevail, And probably the thousands by whom these ballads were sung knew much more than history has handed down to us. But perhaps the chief cause of his shortlived popularity may be found in the fact that James of Scotland was the candidate for the English crown, to whom that idol of the people, the Earl of Essex, had proffered his warmest service, and for whom he But however highly the anticipations of suffered the severe displeasure of the queen, the people had been originally raised, much which eventually cost him his life. The ex- had been done already, in the short space of treme popularity of this, the last and most eleven months, by the perverse self-will of unfortunate favorite of Elizabeth, Essex, the monarch who arrogated to himself that has scarcely been duly estimated. We were most inappropriate of all titles, "the Brimuch struck when lately turning over the tish Solomon," to disabuse their credulity. collection of the "Roxburgh Ballads," to The "mock conference at Hampton Court," find that, while in the whole there are and the elevation of Bancroft to the archiscarcely a score of ballads referring to poli- episcopal chair of Canterbury, had proved tical events, two are lamentations over the to the Puritan party the fallacy of their untimely fate of our "jewel," the "good hopes; while the favors lavished on Lord Earl of Essex." We need scarcely remark Henry Howard, the betrayer of Essex, and that much mystery hangs over the circum- especially upon Robert Cecil, his direst and stances of his so called treason; and it is most inveterate enemy, showed that gratecurious to see in these ballads how earnest- ful remembrance had little place in the ly this crime is disclaimed. "Count him heart of King James. It is probable, too, that not like to Champion," says the writer of this "triumphant passage" itself aided the the one entitled, " The Earl of Essex's last waning popularity of the monarch; for, algood night:" "Those traitorous men of Babington; though on this occasion he ambled along on "a dainty white jennet," beneath a canopy borne by eight splendidly dressed attendants, yet his awkward figure, rendered more awkward by "his doublets stuffed stiletto proof," his tongue too large for his mouth, his eyes large, and ever rolling about, and his peculiarly ungraceful mode of riding, stoopNow we think in this there is a covert al- ing almost as though to clutch the mane, lusion to his efforts to obtain the recog- must have rendered him, as to his personal nition of James as the queen's successor. appearance, an object of contempt to the poWestmoreland and Babington's plots were puiace, who remembered the stately selfexpressly to place Mary on the throne; but possession and queenly dignity of the aged Essex, in his "quarrel," maintained the Elizabeth. With greater penetration than right the right of a Protestant prince, as he evinced on more important subjects, well as next heir to the crown, after the James soon discovered that he had not the qualities to befit him for a popular monarch; an influence which, from that period so after this procession, he kept himself to the present day, has ever been profar more than our former kings-from ap- ductive of mischief to our land. During pearing in public on solemn occasions; and the greater part of Elizabeth's reign, our from hence forward the outrageous compli- relations with France were too precarious ments which Dekker and Beaumont, and es- to allow of our young nobles making any pecially Ben Jonson, awaited to lay at his lengthened stay there, while the characters of feet, were pronounced at Whitehall, or Catherine de Medicis and of the Guises preTheobald's, instead of being chorussed with vented their cautious fathers from desiring loud music at Aldgate or Temple Bar. it. With the accession of Henry of NaJames, in withdrawing thus from the irreve- varre, all danger seemed to have ceased; rent gaze of his subjects, did not, however, England and France joined in a steadfast intend that he should be forgotten. On the league; and because popish machinations, contrary, perhaps no monarch ever took such and massacres of St. Bartholomew were no pains to keep himself in the minds, though longer to be feared, even our wariest statescertainly not in the hearts of all men. Never, men seem to have been blinded to the confrom the time of the Gowrie conspiracy, to sequences of their sons becoming familiarthat of the journey of Prince Charles into ized with the open profligacy of a court Spain, did any reign present so many which still retained its bad pre-eminence of strange and mysterious episodes. To one being the most licentious in Europe. of these-in its relation both to the king It was from thence that the greater freeand to the peculiar superstitions of the dom of speech and manners, the endless time, the most important of all-we shall round of frivolous, though expensive amusehave occasion to refer; we must, however, ments, and the darker crimes of plots that ere passing, take a slight view of the court scrupled at no means for their attainment, and court manners. Here, the state of of secret poisonings-most abhorrent of all things was not greatly dissimilar to that of to true English feeling, came. his grandson at the Restoration. Just as A court presided over by a woman as the sober state of the Protectorate was suc- vain, as extravagant, and as eagerly devoted ceeded by the license and frivolity of Charles to pleasure, as Anne of Denmark, presentthe Second's court, so the solemn magni- ed necessarily great attractions to the young ficence, the stately and formal observances nobility, and afforded likewise a favorable of Elizabeth's court, gave way to a license arena, in which the aspirants for royal faof speech and conduct, a taste for extrava-vor could struggle into notice. Although gance, and an endless round of dissipation, King James evinced but little taste for the at which the learned queen and her deco- masques and revels on which Inigo Jones rous ladies in waiting, and her grave minis- lavished so much expensive machinery, and ters of state, would have stood aghast. The Daniels, and Beaumont, and Fletcher, and chief agent in this change was the queen, a Ben Jonson, so much fine poetry, he was woman of weak mind and strong will; whose yet flattered by the compliments which ineager love of dissipation had been whetted variably formed the conclusion. He was by the privations to which she had been also gratified by the opportunities thus afsubjected in Scotland, and who seems, from forded of arraying himself in kingly state, her inordinate love of expense, to have and surrounding himself with a splendid really believed that "London streets were cortege; in short, enacting, as his subservipaved with gold." Unfortunately, scarcely ent chaplains declared, "Solomon in all a nobleman of Elizabeth's days remained to his glory," to the admiring gaze of his teach, by his example, a better way. The countrymen, who pressed to behold him, in old courtiers of the queen had almost all numbers that bade fair to create a famine grown old with their aged mistress, and in the land. Thus the queen continued had preceded, or swiftly followed her to the without restraint in her course of dissipatomb; while to them had succeeded the tion; while the people cast many a wonderyounger courtiers of the king, whose charac- ing gaze at a court, where the noblest later is so minutely and truthfully described dies, even the queen herself, took part as in the well-known old ballad of "The Old actresses in the masques, although, to the and the Young Courtier." For the swift time of the Restoration, no woman had apand general deterioration of manner which peared, even on the public stage, and where the court of James exhibited, we think the nobles vied with each other in gaming we may refer to the influence of France, and hard drinking, while, to obtain means for their extravagant expenditure, places well perceive that Prince Henry was deswere openly set up for sale, and bribes re-tined, had he lived, to take a commanding ceived almost as openly from foreign powers. part in swaying the destinies of Europe. No wonder was it that the people soon James the First never exhibited any of began to look back with fond recollections the domestic affections; of him it might be to the memory of Elizabeth; more especial- said, in the words of Madame Geofrin, rely, when the king, who certainly in his specting a French philosopher, that "heapolicy more resembled Rehoboam than his ven had given him a morsel of brains, but wiser father, began to assume a power, and not a bit of heart." The "morsel of to advance his prerogative, far beyond what- brains" which fell to the British Solomon's ever she had attempted. But the popular share was indeed a modicum, but of natufeeling must have something to cling to-ral affection he seems to have been utterly some hope of better days, although as yet destitute. No wonder was it, therefore, แ far distant; and this feeling found an ob- that he soon began to view his gifted son ject, this hope a stay, in the heir apparent with an hostility that in a few years deepof the crown; Prince Henry Frederic, who, ened into hatred. But although love of although a mere boy, was already distin- wife or children could not be charged upon guished by no ordinary gifts and attain- James the First, no king, except, perhaps, ments. The important part which this boy Edward the Second, ever became more the might eventually take in the affairs of Eu- victim of favoritism. From the time of his rope seems to have been early recognised by arrival in England, to the day that he drew the continental powers; for even in the year his last breath, one royal favorite after an1606, when he had but just attained the other swayed him at their will, and exhibitage of twelve years, we find, in a letter of ed to the world the spectacle of a king ever John Pory, that "the old Venetian, Lieger, boasting of his absolute power, but, in represented a new Lieger, called Justinian, ality, the very servant of their caprices. to the king and the prince; I say to the The first favorite was Sir Philip Herbert, prince, for they delivered a letter to him, afterwards Earl of Montgomery, whose from the seignory, as well as to the king." claims on the king's partiality consisted of During the same year, we find the French" comeliness of person," and a knowambassador, Borderie, thus writing-ledge of horses and dogs;" but the star of "None of his pleasures savor in the least of his ascendant soon waned before the influa child—he studies two hours in the day, ence of a young Scottish adventurer, of and employs the rest of his time in tossing whose early life and family, scarcely anythe pike, leaping, shooting with the bow, thing is known. This was Robert Carr, throwing the bar, or vaulting, or some other subsequently that Earl of Somerset, whose exercise of the kind, and he is never idle." participation in the Overbury murder led to The reader will bear in mind that all these the Great Oyer of Poisoning." Even the athletic exercises were the favorite and time-latest researches cannot determine the exhallowed sports of the English people. act time when Carr first appeared at court, Borderie, however, goes on to say, that with nor the circumstances under which he was great kindness to his dependents, he exhib- first introduced to the king. Perhaps the ited such zeal and energy, exerting "his generally received story may be correct, whole strength to compass what he desires, that some time during the year 1606, while that he is already feared by the Earl of engaged as page to some Scotch gentleman, Salisbury, who appears greatly apprehen- at a tilting match, when about to present sive of the prince's ascendancy." Now, the shield and device of his master to the when we remember that this description is king, he fell, and broke his leg; that James, not the eulogy of an English courtier, anx-moved at his suffering, and struck with his ious to gain the smiles of the future mo- fine person, ordered his own surgeons to atnarch, but the confidential report of a fo- tend him, visited him daily, and took him reign ambassador, pledged by his office to into such high favor, in so short a time, that give a faithful account of the state of things popular opinion could only believe that here; when we remember, too, that the re- witchcraft must have been employed. The public of Venice, then so feared and honor- personal appearance of this youth was, howed, so wary too, would scarcely have risked ever, his only claim on the king's favor. the displeasure of the father, by compli- He was miserably deficient in education, menting his heir, unless that heir were well and from his after conduct he appears to known to be no common character, we may have been, if not weak-minded, certainly |