to stand up for Law against Will, and for traditional wisdom against the subtleties of sophists, and the arts of rhetoricians, Sparta was the standing model of reverence for law, and attachment to ancient maxims. The revolutions which incessantly menaced every other Grecian state, and from which even Athens was not wholly secure, never threatened Sparta. The steadiness of the Spartan polity, and the constancy of Spartan maxims, were to the Greeks highly imposing phenomena. It was the " only government in Greece which could trace an unbroken 'peaceable descent from a high antiquity, and from its real or 'supposed founder;' and this, we think with Mr Grote, was one of the main causes of the astonishing ascendancy which the Spartans acquired over the Hellenic mind, and which they will not be found at all to deserve by any superior ability in the conduct of affairs. The steadiness of their political sym'pathies-exhibited at one time by putting down the tyrants or despots, at another by overthrowing the democracies-stood in the place of ability; and even the recognised failings of their government were often covered by the sentiment of respect for its early commencement and uninterrupted continuance.'(Vol. ii. p. 477.)

The reader who is conversant with the existing state of knowledge respecting the Grecian world, will gather from what has been laid before him, that as a contribution to that knowledge, the present work is of high performance and still higher promise. The author is not surpassed even by German scholarship, in intimate and accurate acquaintance with the whole field of Greek literature and antiquity; while none of his predecessors have approached to him in the amount of philosophy and general mental accomplishment which he has brought to bear upon the subject. In his remaining volumes, the next two of which, he informs us, are far advanced towards completion, he will have an opportunity of manifesting the same qualities in a more attractive field.

It has been made an objection to the volumes now published, that they contain a greater amount of dissertation than of history. To such objectors it may be replied, that for the times here treated of, a continuous stream of narrative is not possible; that those who desire nothing from history but an amusing story, may find such abundantly provided elsewhere; that it is as much a historian's duty to judge as to narrate, to prove as to assert; and that the same critics would be the first to reproach a writer who should substitute for the commonly received view of the facts, a view of his own, without showing by what evidence

he was prepared to substantiate it. There is in this case, too, the further peculiarity, that what is brought forward as matter of evidence, is itself almost always part and parcel of the exposition of the Greek mind; and on this score alone, no one who wishes to understand what Greece was, would desire to see.one page of Mr Grote's argumentative chapters expunged.

But another task lies before him, in those more eventful portions of the history, in which the graces of narrative are possible and to be expected. He will have the advantage, seldom possessed by historians, of finding in the writers whom he consults for the materials of his tale, the most finished examples of the mode of telling it. He has only to imitate their union of distinctness with condensation, of general unity with characteristic and picturesque detail; nay, he might almost content himself, in many of the most animated scenes, with a literal translation.

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In the present volumes the style is clear, unaffected, and often very apt and vigorous. If we have a complaint to make, it would be of the too frequent employment of words of Greek or Latin origin; some of them recognised English words, though not in common use, but others purely of his own invention, and unintelligible except to scholars. In some cases, doubtless, the words are needed, and carry their explanation along with them: such a word as autonomous,' conveying a political idea not exactly expressed by any modern word or phrase, is its own sufficient justification; and the same may be said of "gens,' a word borrowed from Roman history, to express a combination of religious and political ideas familiar to antiquity, and the same, substantially, which Niebuhr has proved that the term denoted at Rome. But many cases would be found in a careful revisal of these volumes, in which similar hard words are used to convey a meaning which might be perfectly expressed by phrases generally intelligible.

Mr Grote has made considerable innovations in the English orthography of Greek names, on the principle of keeping nearer to the Greek; instead of following the foreign spelling of the Romans merely because we have adopted their alphabet. There would be more to be said for this principle if it could be carried out consistently; but Mr Grote concedes so many exceptions to the shocked feelings of the reader, that in the end the disturbance of old associations is almost gratuitous. He justifies the restoration of the Greek K in place of the Roman C, by the injury which the sibilant letter does to the unrivalled harmony of the Greek language; yet he not only does not venture to write Korinth or Krete, but not even Phokis or Sikyon. At all events, we can see no reason for preserving K in words in which

the sound of C is precisely similar, such words as Locris or Cleomenes. There are other cases, too, to which his principle would extend, but in which he retains the Latin orthography. He writes Meno, Polemo, instead of Menon, Polemon; and why should one of the lost poems of Hesiod continue to be designated by so unpronounceable a name as EϾ? The real word is Eoiai, a name of genuine Greek sonorousness. We quite approve of retaining the diphthong ei (as Cleinias, Peisistratus,) if for no other reason than to mark the quantity: this example had been already set by Mr Mitford. We are glad also that Mr Grote, with the majority of recent scholars, preserves, when writing about Greece, the Grecian names of Divinities, and speaks of Ares and Demeter, not Mars and Ceres. The Roman deities mostly belonged to another mythology, had different legends, and to a great extent different attributes; and were only at a late period identified with the gods and goddesses of the Grecian Olympus. As well almost might we name these after Isis, Osiris, &c., with whom also Grecian ingenuity identified them; as it would undoubtedly have done with Thor, Odin, and Freya, if Scandinavia as well as Egypt had been known and frequented by Grecian travellers.

ART. IV. 1. The Lives of Eminent English Judges of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. By W. N. WELSBY, Esq., M.A., Recorder of Chester. 8vo. London: 1846. 2. The Lives of Twelve Eminent Judges of the Last and of the Present Century. By WILLIAM C. TOWNSHEND, Esq., M. A., Recorder of Macclesfield. Two Volumes. 8vo. London : 1846.

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IN N an Essay on Gin-Shops, published in the first volume of Essays, by Boz,' will be found some curious remarks on the liability of certain trades to run mad in concert, or contract epidemic disorders of a very distressing and eccentric kind; the most remarkable symptoms being an enormous outlay in decorations and announcements, or an unaccountable eagerness to create a demand for commodities by overstocking the market with them. The writer mentions gin-shops, shawl-shops, and druggists as familiar instances; but we should be inclined to name booksellers as the severest sufferers from such maladies; for though their expenditure in plaster pillars, gilding and plate-glass, has

not hitherto been excessive, they surely more than compensate for any comparative saving in these articles by advertisements; and no class of traders speculate more rashly on a demand to be created, or rush into madder competition at the first glimpse of an opening or new field for capital. With them, it never rains but it pours; single misfortunes (meaning bad books) never come alone; and when we get a good thing, it speedily becomes so parodied and travestied by imitators, that we often end by wishing we never had it at all. For example, the historical novels of the last fifteen or twenty years are a heavy set-off against our debt of gratitude to the author of Waverley; and as to the fashionable novels, we are tempted to address the only surviving founder of any note in the words of Mrs Cole :. Oh, Lord N., Lord N.! where do you expect to go when you die?' At the same time, it must be admitted that the prolonged duration as well as frequent recurrence of the madness or disease, is in no small degree owing to the remissness of the critical portion of the press; for it is obvious that a good slashing article might operate as beneficially as shaving the head and blistering; and a coxcombical writer held up to merited ridicule, would be as incapable of communicating infection as a bale of goods rinsed in vinegar and fumigated, according to the approved laws of quarantine. To show what may be done in this line, we have only to refer to the sudden and beneficial check given to the multiplication of lady-travellers by our chief southern contemporary. Far be it from us to say that the highborn dames in question were superfluous on the field of literature, but their copyists would be; and even of fair originals, we had assuredly enough. Just so-to come to the class of productions whose threatened influx has frightened us into the foregoing train of reflection-far be it from us to say or insinuate that Mr Welsby and Mr Townshend are to be received as unbidden and unwelcome guests, or that there is no room for them at our table; but we honestly think we have now as much legal biography as we shall want till another generation of lawyers has died away; and we trust the trade' will take due notice of the fact. The works before us, with Mr Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon, and Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors (when completed), will make about twelve thick closely-printed octavos; which is as much as an enlightened public can masticate, and more than it can digest, of any given subject within two years.

We have already borne willing testimony to the very high merits of Mr Twiss's and Lord Campbell's works; and it is no slight praise to say, that Mr Welsby's and Mr Townshend's are

in all respects worthy to be placed alongside of them. Here, however, we must distinguish.

Mr Welsby's publication contains a great deal of valuable matter and agreeable writing; but seven out of the sixteen memoirs are not his own; and there is internal evidence that, as regards these at any rate, the volunteered duties of editor have been somewhat hastily performed. The Notice of Hale is a mere reprint of a Magazine article on the face of it.

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Mr Townshend felt more respect for the public, or had not the same reasons for hurrying into the field. "From a consideration of delicacy due to relatives, (so runs the Preface,) the biographer ' has, in every instance where there were immediate descendants 'surviving, requested and obtained permission to publish these 'memoirs. To the Earl of Eldon, to Lords Kenyon, Alvanley, Redesdale, and Tenterden, and to the Honourable Thomas Erskine, his acknowledgments are especially due for the courtesy with which the permission was conceded. For the accuracy of the facts and justice of the comments he is alone responsible. A third of these volumes is new. A statement of this kind adds incalculably to the value of such a work.

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The lives included in Mr Welsby's volume are those of Whitelock, Holt, Lord Cowper, Lord Harcourt, Lord Macclesfield, Lord King, Lord Talbot, Lord Bathurst, and Lord Camden, by Mr Welsby himself: Hale, by Mr H. Merivale; Blackstone, by a writer not named; Lords Nottingham, Hardwicke, Mansfield, Thurlow, and Ashburton, by the late Edmund Plunkett Burke ;-a man never mentioned without expressions of the warmest regard and highest admiration by his contemporaries. He accepted the appointment of Judge in the West Indies in 1832, and was killed in a hurricane in 1835. The Lives contributed by him are more than ordinarily attractive; independently of the variety of racy anecdotes scattered through them, they derive a peculiar charm from the genial humour of the writer.

Mr Townshend's twelve forensic or judicial Cæsars areLords Loughborough, Kenyon, Ellenborough, Tenterden, Alvanley, Erskine, Redesdale, Stowell, and Eldon; Mr Justice Buller, Sir William Grant, and Sir Vicary Gibbs. The general character and tendency of his volumes are stated in a striking passage of the preface:

In the biography of these revered magistrates, whose contemporary course reflects light upon each other, and illustrates the legal annals of our times, there are comprehended records of eloquent debate, and able statesmanship, and useful legislation; many bright passages of national history; reports of those eventful trials which move the feel

VOL. LXXXIV. NO. CLXX.

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