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REVIEW.-The Latter Days. By Mrs.
Sherwood. Seeley and Burnside. Lon-
don. 1833.

THE reputation which the talents and the
piety of Mrs. Sherwood have obtained for
her among a large branch of the christian
world, should have made her pause ere she
ventured to indulge herself in a species of
composition in which judgment and imagi-
nation, two powers of the mind that do not
readily act together, must be completely
She
blended, in order to secure success.
could not have attempted a work of greater
danger than an allegory embracing an
entire view of the christian scheme, relative
to the fall and redemption of man; and,
under a display of greater powers than can
be discovered in this performance, she
would have deservedly incurred condem-
nation, not so much for her failure, as for
the want of a proper estimate of the diffi-
culties inherent to the subject. Of the reli-
gious allegories already before the public,
that of Bunyan may be said to stand alone.
There is a bold simplicity in it, which sus-
tains the rich and rapid fancy with which
it is animated, and closely attaches the
imagery which delights the reader, to the
elevated truths which it is intended rather
to elucidate than to adorn. It has been
said of the Pilgrim's Progress, that there are
passages in it which may vie in sublimity
with passages in the Paradise Lost. This
is scarcely true, as regards language and
poetic vigour; but let it be considered
that a great portion of the sublimity
ascribable to both works belongs to the
subject rather than the composition: and
that Bunyan, with his simple humility of
style, and the unpolished plainness of his
scriptural diction, has not, in a single
instance, injured the sublimity of his mat-
ter; while the learning and brilliancy of the
verse, the imagery and accessory illustra
tions, of the great poet, may be found
sometimes struggling with that sublimity,
and arrogating for themselves the admi-
ration which should belong to his theme
alone.

Mrs. Sherwood looks with a sort of sacred horror at any attempts to improve mankind she regards all notions of general benevolence as testimonies of an irreligious love of the world; religious toleration, as conducive to the neglect of all religion; and the cultivation of human intelligence and human learning, as very dangerous to the cause of salvation. Opinions of this nature cannot be avowed in the present days with openness and candour. There is no such thing as putting them into the form of 2D. SERIES, No. 39.-VOL. IV.

argument. Our fair authoress has sent
them forth in masquerade, and we could
willingly have suffered them to go through
the mummeries consequent to such dis-
guise without the slightest notice, had she
not set them off with some shreds and
The
patches of a religious character.
great mysteries of our faith, which, it
is admitted, must remain inexplicable to
human wisdom, and are consequently
beyond the power of human elucidation,
ought to be left immutably fixed and pre-
served in the awful phraseology in which
they have been rather sublimely intimated,
than revealed to us; and all who have,
even with the best intentions, ventured to
attempt to raise the mystical veil through
which they are seen darkly, in our mortal
state of existence, have almost ever startled
and offended the truly pious, and have
shaken the faith which they were perhaps
desirous to strengthen. What then shall
we say to an attempt to reduce such mys-
teries, so as to make them parody with
human circumstances at the worst of human
times? An allegory should always elevate
its subject; in painting and in poetry, it
seizes upon terrestrial things; it throws the
clay aside, and sets before us the mind, the
intellect, the spirit, by which, in the com-
mon course of life, we see the masses of
senseless matter actuated: but by what
allegory shall we venture to bring down to
earth, and clothe with ill-modelled clay, the
incomprehensible things of heaven? To say
the least of such rashness, we cannot acquit
the author of a want of delicacy and judgment,
while we would fain refrain from express-
ing our apprehension, that in the minds of
many strict and conscientious Christians,
she will appear to have been deficient, not
merely in good taste and discretion, but in
that reverential awe, which would, had it
been felt and acknowledged, have inter-
dicted such an undertaking. Our readers
will be aware of our meaning on the perusal
of the following extract, which is not the
most offensive passage of a similar charac-

ter in the work :

"But they rebelled against him, and admitted one into their hearts and affections, who had been his enemy from the beginning; and he beguiled them with lies and deceit, for he is a liar, and the father of lies; and they rebelled against the Lord, and sold themselves to the enemy, and were as persons lost and undone for ever; and thus time went on, and their case appeared to be without hope, and there is no doubt but that the enemy triumphed, and counted on this land and the people residing thereon as his own for ever. Nevertheless, the Lord had not forgotten them, neither had the King who is the Father of the Lord; for our Lord is a King's son, nay, a King himself, and the King of kings, being one in power, authority, and majesty with his Father, although, according to the old feudal laws, it 183.-VOL. XVI.

S

behoved him to do his father homage, nay, and himself homage too, for this his inferior principality, which he purchased from the enemy under this charter, to wit, that he was to become a servant, and, as it were, a vassal to his own princely authority. But, as I was saying,' continued my uncle, 'the Father of our Lord, viz. the King of kings, as we find in the letters of which I spoke before, had ever borne in mind the afflictions of the miserable people of this land, and had prepared a ransom for them, which was to be paid by his Son; and in order for the payment of which, it behoved this last to leave his glorious state, and become as one of us, and in that lowly estate, being as a servant rather than a prince amongst us, he paid our ransom, and set us free, and thus we are his possession, first by right, and next by conquest, and anon we shall be his in his visible presence, by a union as close as that of the members of one body to the head."p. 28, 29.

Mrs. Sherwood intimates in her preface that her motive in the composition of this volume, was to bring forward "under an allegory sanctioned by Scripture," some attention to the great prophetic indications of the approach of the latter days. To this design there could not have arisen the slightest objection in pious minds, though many might have been startled at its boldness; for the application of prophecy requires not less of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, than that through which it was first uttered. The certainty of the great event of the last day, with the conformity, in some respects or other, of the signs of all ages, with those that will precede that event, ought to make christian believers ever watchful; but we do not thence conclude, with our authoress, that, in consequence of such watchfulness, every attempt at the improvement of the human race should be interdicted, and that we must absolutely wait" for the Lord's coming," before the condition of mankind can be in the slightest measure ameliorated. The purport of scripture appears to us to be sadly mistaken in the following passage :—

"My uncle sighed, as if oppressed by my unbelief and slowness of comprehension, and then spoke 'I know not wherefore I should be impatient with you, Nicodemus, for not comprehending what no human wisdom could help you to understand, for these things can only be explained by the Interpreter himself; although, we, the servants of the only true Lord, are commanded to teach, to exhort, to reprove, humbly awaiting the kindling of that fire for which we can only prepare and collect the dead coal. Nevertheless, I am inclined to say, Why are you so slow of comprehension? why must I repeat this truth so often to you, that the rule and dominion is not at this time in the band of the Lord, but that he, for purposes which as yet we (even those who have been brought to place our whole confidence in the promises) cannot fully comprehend, has delivered

this dominion into other hands, viz. the hands of him who, having been his enemy from the beginning, obtained his first footing in this place by subtlety and hellish craft, and hath ever since kept that place amongst us; insomuch so, that the faithful servants

of the Lord have never yet been able to make head

against them. Neither indeed can it be expectal that they ever should during the absence of they Lord, inasmuch as we acknowledge no head b him, nor look for any perfect union of our member. but with the head; and hence it has always bem found that every attempt to muster and organize, a it were, the party of the faithful in this house bas always failed. In general this failure has been occa sioned by two circumstances, the first and most fant of which has ever been the arrogance of some abe or other of the members themselves; and the ether, some trick of the enemy, by which he has found means to slide in some of his own party into ther councils and assemblies.'

"This,' said I, is a lamentable state of an and is there no hope of a present amendment? "Things must remain as they are,' replied my uncle, as I have told you many times before, th the Master comes,-then all will be right."

"And what is required of us under these circanstances? I asked, speaking somewhat fretfully.

"We must stand in our places, and do our ow work, the Interpreter being our guide and director, and not be quitting our own especial duties, to set the world upon wheels which will never go round." -p. 125 to 127.

The actual story or fable of the allegory is slight. A young man, named Nicodemus, while at the age of four-and-twenty, feeling himself without friend, or means of support, receives a letter from an uncle whom he has never seen, inviting him to the service of the best of masters. Nicodemus accepts the invitation, and arrives at a castle which has long been left by its owner, and in which the servants have had their own way, entirely thoughtless, and even mistrustful of his return. These servants are,-Mr. Fitzadam, the intendant of steward; Madame Le Monde, the housekeeper; the Doctor, or Chaplain; Father Peter; the Librarian, &c. It will be easily perceived that under the images of the steward and the housekeeper, the love of power, and the worldly-mindedness of mankind, are intended to be portrayed. The impossibility of reducing any general characteristics of our race into distinct personages, without falling into a labyrinth of contradictions and absurdities, was sufficiently manifested by the writers of our old moralities and mysteries, to which the work of our authoress stands in nearly the same degree of relation as a modern novel does to an old comedy; and the personages of "All the World" and "His Wife," with whom those old popish farces were so particularly conversant, were identical with the Mrs. S's steward and housekeeper. The Doctor and the Librarian are undoubtedly her own, for they are intended to allegorize the Church of England, and the pride or vanity of human learning, with its supposed tendency to infidelity. Against each of these, the allegoric pages of Mrs. S. may be considered as an ambush for a running fire of satire and condemnation. The

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church, or rather, the doctor, is perpetually represented as the weak, conceited dupe of the intendant and the housekeeper, and we must admit that the wealth and conduct of the establishment have given occasion for the sarcasm contained in the following quotation, which is one of the happiests hits in the whole work :-

"Now by the time that the chaplain arrived, Madame le Monde had gathered her daughters about her, and they were all sitting round the fire, the teatable being in the midst of them, and they being tutored by their mother, were ready to receive the doctor with their best smiles, and with many honied speeches, such as few men can listen unto, and keep that sobriety of mind which is needful in the guidance of life. Nevertheless, they knew perfectly well how far to go, and where to forbear; for their object was not to make the doctor believe that they were altogether what they were not, that is, faithful servants of the true Lord, but to bring him to bear with them, he knowing them not to be as yet among the faithful, by the shew of such qualities as were pleasing in those that were so. Hence, when he had taken his seat among them, they began to insinuate certain flatteries relating to those parts of his character and conduct, whereon they knew from experience that he prided himself, viz. his attention to the children of the servants, his care in catechizing them, and providing for their wants, and the earnestness with which he endeavoured to bring all parties together, to the promotion, as they chose to say, of kindness i and brotherly love, and of universal good: and thus, whilst these young people were gratifying his feelings in one way, the mother was carefully administering to them in another. She well knew that he loved the velvet chair, with its downy cushion, which was always placed for him in the corner of the fire-place; and it was in that therefore that she caused him to sit, whilst she sweetened his beverage precisely to his taste, and took care that he should have the very choicest morsels; and when she found that he was in the highest state of enjoyment, stretching his legs before the fire, and regaling himself with that which she gave him, until the sweet liquor ran out of the corners of his mouth, she began to turn to the subject for which she had sought his company; and having in formed him of my arrival, and spoken of me with some commendation, as of one who might, in good hands, be an acquisition in the family, she proceeded to the following effect-for the young man who was handing about the tea, afterwards related every word to me.

"Now, my worthy doctor,' said she, you and I know that there are some subjects in which we do not entirely agree; but again there are others in which we wholly coincide; and certain I am, if all of your party were as judicious, and candid, and benevolent as you are, and as ready to hold out the right hand of philanthropy to a fellow-servant, although he may not think with him in every point, there would not be the discords and differences in the family which now there are, to the great detriment of the household, and the injury of the master's property; but inasmuch as that worthy man, the secretary, continued she, (for it seems that this Madame le Monde has the custom, when it serves her purpose, to give the most respectful epithets, to those she least likes,) this good secretary of ours, is perhaps one of the most wrong-headed guides, a young man can have on entering first into life. I am very anxious that you, my excellent sir, should endeavour to form an acquaintance with the youth, and obtain his confidence as soon as possible, in order that you may guard him against the absurd notions with which his uncle will certainly inspire him, if he is not prevented. There is no need, I suppose,' con

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continued the housekeeper, to point out to you, my dear sir, what those unsocial and very peculiar notions are to which I allude; neither can I doubt but that you are thoroughly acquainted with them already.'

"Assuredly so, undoubtedly so, madam,' replied the doctor, I perfectly know that very peculiar notion to which you chiefly allude, viz. that extraordinary and inconceivable idea, pretended to be gathered from our master's letters, respecting his intention to return to this place, and to take the management of all affairs into his own hands, with the further singular notion, built upon the former, viz. that none of those disorders of which we all complain, can be, or ever will be, regulated until the master comes; thus diverting the attention of the servants from their respective duties, and paralyzing the efforts of all parties, by endeavouring to convince each individual, that none of his efforts will ever prove effectual in producing that reform of manners and morals which we all desire so ardently, and to which we are undoubtedly approaching,' 'Dear sir,' added Madame le Monde, let the enemy say what

he will, it surely cannot be possible that your labours, and exhortations, and instructions, &c. &c." -p. 52 to 55.

The reader cannot fail to notice the frequent use of the inelegant phrase 'viz.' in these extracts, with similar obsolete expressions, more suited to the parchments of a lawyer's desk, than to the pages of an imaginative composition.

But it is against "human learning" that all her fears and all her hatred are directed, and accordingly the Librarian is described by her as little better than a monster: "A little man, long-bodied, and uncommonly short from the waist downwards;" "and the forepart of the head, to wit, that portion in which the brains are found, being unusually low"-may be ludicrous enough, and may be characteristic of some pretenders to learning, of the author's acquaintance: but the library of scientific and moral truth is, she may be assured, under the keeping and direction of a being of far more inviting mien and aspect; and she has seen no other than a miserable conceited dwarf, who enters at the back door, and gets acquainted with the names and indexes of books, but knows little of their contents. Of the real librarian, the advocates of religion can have no apprehension, except in proportion to the instability of their own faith; and when the pious shudder at the investigation and disclosure of moral, political, or scientific truths, we cannot but suspect that the faith they possess in the truths of the gospel is not founded on a rock, but on the sand.

REVIEW.-A Narrative of the Peninsular War. By Lieut. Col. Leigh Hay, F. R. S. E., M. P. Second Edition; in 2 Vols. H. Washbourne. London. 1834. THE five years of the Peninsular war have afforded grounds for different opinions,

both in a military and political point of view. That the conduct of the Emperor Napoleon towards Spain in 1808, had given both cause and occasion to a large and influential party of Spaniards to vindicate their country from that paramount authority which he had long exercised over its councils, and which he had, in a more direct manner, sought to establish by usurpation, there can be no question; but, ununfortunately, the views and principles of individuals composing that party were far from being in unison. Many were actuated by a devotion to the old monarchy, with its supports, the nobility and the church; while a very considerable number of others, equally averse to French domination, were divided among themselves by ideas, more or less enlightened, relative to popular rights. The portion of Spaniards in the interest of the French was not small. Among these were men, justly indignant at the conduct of the queen and the royal family; together with many of liberal opinions, who thought they saw, in the government of Buonaparte, the prospect of means for breaking through those prejudices and habits by which enlarged ideas and improved knowledge were so generally excluded from Spanish society. Connexions of more than a hundred years' duration, under a weak, proud, and indolent branch of the Bourbon family, had caused the policy of Spain to lean upon the cabinet of France for advice and direction; and, although the ancient antipathy between the two nations was far from being eradicated, still it may be said, that, since the accession of the grandson of Louis XIV. to the Spanish throne, the interests and connexions of Spain had been greatly assimilated with those of France; and hence, among those Spaniards who possessed most enterprize and general intelligence, the bias of sentiment was greatly in favour of the French.

At the time when the Emperor of France began to put into action his design of terminating the Bourbon dynasty in that nation, the royal family of Spain were despicable in the deepest degree. The vices of pride, indolence, imbecility, and shameless sensuality, were the distinguishing characteristics of the court; but the grandees and the ecclesiastics were impressed with the persuasion that their own existence was identified with the retention of the sceptre of the kingdom in the grasp of this vile and unhappy race; and it is from the majority of these two orders, that the ignorant population of such a country receives its public and political impulses.

Napoleon either undervalued or mistook the strength and popularity of the priest hood; and when he found that they were not easily to be conciliated, he did not hesitate to defy their influence. He con trived to fill the great towns and fortresses. of Spain with French troops, while, on various pretences, he removed from the country most of the regular and best disciplined soldiers of the Catholic crown, and united them with his own armies in Ger many.

The Tory administration of England concluded, that the atrocious outrages with which Buonaparte had commenced and executed his usurpation, had placed him in a position of great difficulty and danger. They believed,—or, at least they endeavoured to persuade the people of this country,-that all Spain was ready to rise in arms, and to expel the fraudful invader, with shame and loss, from her borders; and they anxiously gave ear to the profes sions of patriotism uttered by the Spanish juntas, who were, in many instances, prompted by emissaries from England itself, to implore assistance. Spain was not Poland: she had nothing of that devout fervour in the cause of liberty and national independence, on which courts and courtiers look with wonder, but with no intention to aid. Spain was uneasy and indignant, but her pride and bigotry ill supplied the place of that animating principle, the genuine spirit of freedom, as far as regarded her own energies or exertions; yet did that very pride and bigotry secure to her the commiseration of the Tory government of this country, more certainly than the warmest and most generous popular feeling would have done.

When we contemplate the Peninsular war in this point of view, we are the less surprised that from the expedition of Sir John Moore, to the battle of Vittoria in 1813, the Spaniards seem to have regarded the hostilities which were being carried on, year after year, in the very heart of their country, as a contest in which they were themselves not principals; and that there were times and instances, in which it was difficult to say whether they considered the French or the British as the greatest intruders. The indifference of the Spaniards is, indeed, one of the most decided features of the war. They were jealous of the reputation which accrued to the betterregulated and more resolute movements and actions of their allies; and perhaps never, during the great successes of the British chieftain, did they sincerely acknowledge his services, or confidently look

or deliverance at his hands. The author efore us, whose predilections have a mafest bias in favour of the real patriotism f the Spaniards, and of their friendship or their deliverers, cannot avoid giving epeated instances of the doubts by which hey were actuated. After each victory, he British army experienced all the difficulties they might have expected in the country of an enemy; they were perpetually without food, and were suffered to rely upon their own uncertain resources, where they had a right to look for all the succour of national support. Even after the battle of Salamanca, when the French army was dispersed, and the Duke of Wellington marched in triumph to Madrid, there was no popular movement, no bold and renovated exertion on the part of a people, the prime link of whose chains seemed completely unriveted by that event. The British troops, after a momentary burst of admiration and of thanks on the part of the inhabitants of Salamanca, who by that battle were delivered from their immediate dread of Gallic pillage and devastation, were compelled, unaided, to sustain the severest deprivations.

Involved, as this country was, at that period, in war with the French emperor, it was obvious that the two kingdoms of the Peninsula afforded a favourable arena on which to combat one of his ambitious projects. Our armies and even treasure were accordingly poured forth with a profuse liberality worthy of a cause higher in the scale of freedom, and more serviceable to the permanent interests of humanity. Our successes were great, and our military reputation acquired many bright leaves to its laurel crown; but, what was the result? Every symptom of an expansion of mind, which during the struggle had occasionally endeavoured to admit a faint ray of liberty, was closed, and the old government of Spain was restored, with all its darkness and all its deformities. The Cortes was degraded and dismissed, and the few who had dared to honour the name of Ferdinand, by making it, as they hoped, the watch-word of a better state of things, and had invigorated their loyalty with genuine patriotism, were delivered over as the victims of his tyranny. The usurped sceptre of the wretched Bourbons had, indeed, fallen from the hand of the brother of Napoleon; but, unequal as was the power of that hand to sway it effectively at so momentous a period, was it actually the victories of Britain that caused it to fall from his grasp? Can we venture conscientiously to say that the Peninsula was

delivered, after all, by the British blood which was shed in its valleys and on its mountains; or that the military talents and intrepidity of our mighty commander, extraordinary as they were, effected it? No, it is high and sufficient praise for Wellington, and his brave associates in arms, that, situated as they were, in a country where they were acting against a superior and desperate foe, as the champions of a people who mistrusted them, and of whom a part suspected and dreaded the consequences of deliverance by their hands, they were almost perpetually victorious. It was the news of the fatal retreat from Moscow, which reached Madrid some time after the battle of Salamanca, that liberated Spain. The retreat from Moscow was the commencement of that fall, which, after many rebounds, of which rebounds, that from Elba astonished and startled; the world,— terminated at last in a rocky grave at St. Helena; and the evacuation of Spain by the French troops was necessarily one of its earliest consequences.

The author of the present volumes is, without doubt, an active and intelligent officer, and we find him employed, previous to the actual commencement of the war, as one of those military agents, through whom the British government either endeavoured to obtain some knowledge of the real feel. ings and means of the Spanish people, or to conciliate their good will, and incite them against the French. It may safely be granted that there were great zeal, intelligence, and military talent, among the gentlemen on whom this task was imposed; and yet, with that admission, we shall leave ourselves room to declare, that all the facts of the war are but a series of proofs that they failed in making themselves or their government correctly acquainted with the sentiments of the Spanish nation, whose good will was never very cordially won. Our gallant narrator is extremely sore at the terms in which Lieut.-Col. Napier, in his "History of the Peninsular War," has spoken of the labours of the military gentlemen engaged on these missions.

"To read his account, says Lieut.-Col. L. Hay, of the missions to the several provinces, it would appear that a more useless, inefficient, weak, medling set of persons were never employed to mar a great cause,"

This we conceive to be a very strained construction of Colonel Napier's meaning, who does not so much condemn the bustling activity of the agents, as their reluctance to let the government fully understand how little sensible were the Spanish people of the favour intended them. To

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