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to North Germany, with its great trading towns, Cologne, the newly rising Lübeck, and the Elbe and Baltic. Yet against so mighty a member of this alliance, a boisterous son of the Church was invoking the Papal aid, and in support of the very principle which lay at the foundation of the quarrel between the Pope and the Emperor. If it was difficult to break with Henry, it was impossible to desert Becket. Nothing can be more amusing, more interesting, or more instructive, than to watch how, amidst all these complications, the astuteness of the Roman curia paved itself a way; or how, while carefully refraining from every step which could compromise itself, it never let slip a single occasion of using the errors and blunders which all parties except itself inevitably fell into. The murder of Becket must indeed have been a godsend for the Pope. That foul event solved all his difficulties; strengthened the clerical and well nigh annihilated the imperial party, put everybody except the Pope in the wrong, and as far as this island was concerned, served to establish the basis of those claims upon England as a fief of the Roman See, which were renewed and confirmed under John, were put forward and repudiated under Edward the First, and were at last discreetly suffered to fall into abeyance, when there appeared no chance of their ever being enforced again.

We have by no means servilely followed Dr. Pauli in this comment upon the celebrated struggle; our limits absolutely forbade any such mode of treating the subject. We have accordingly confined ourselves to merely stating general results in the same way as our author states them, and refer to this really admirable part of his work for the careful details upon which his views -and indeed our own-are founded. Here, as well as throughout his history, it will be seen that he has made thorough use of the foreign as well as the English materials; and hence that he has been able to consider this great question not only as an English one, not as the record of a struggle between two nationalities in a distant corner of Europe,

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not as a mere rivalry between classes, but as a part of the eventful revolution which was taking place throughout Christendom, which shook the Empire, and ultimately the Papacy itself, to their foundations; and which more than anything else, moulded and formed the strictly medieval phase of Christianity itself.

The fate of another great hero of romance and tradition receives in a similar manner a new elucidation from Dr. Pauli's habit of referring the particular events of national history to their general European causes. We allude to Richard Cœur de Lion, than whom probably no historical character has been presented under more one-sided and false aspects. No one now but inveterate romance readers, and Mr. Tennyson's Margaret, cares

What songs beneath the waning stars,
The lion-souled Plantagenet
Sang, looking through his prison bars.

In spite of Ivanhoe, it is beginning to be pretty well known, that the mirror of chivalry of his day was a bad son, bad brother, and bad king; a bad husband, too: and most probably not a bad father, only because his wife did not present him with that name at all. The Virelai has been discovered to be less true than the Sirvente, and the traditional Blondel not quite such honest flesh and blood as the stern, vindictive, violent, but real Bertrand de Born. But still, most of our histories are much in the dark as to the true grounds of Richard's arrest and incarceration by the Emperor; and few Englishmen among those who are loud enough in their condemnation of that disloyal act, are at all aware of the amount of provocation which Richard had given to the House of Hohenstauffen. In truth, the German part of the foreign policy pursued by the first Plantagenets, and their intimate connexion with the House of Guelph and Duke Henry the Lion, have not been sufficiently considered. We have been too much in the habit of fancying that the foreign policy of these kings was confined to their own continental possessions, and the complications which these gave rise to with their French suzerans; and

we forget how deeply they were mixed up in all the great struggles between the Houses of Suabia and Saxony which convulsed the Empire for more than half a century. Without leading his readers too far from the legitimate subject of his work-viz., the history of England,-Dr. Pauli has succeeded in making these relations both clear and interesting, and in pointing out how much the events of that history were in fact modified and moulded by the foreign entanglements of the reigning family. In his pages, the hero of Acre remains what he no doubt always was-a daring, lawless, violent, bold, but unscrupulous gens-d'arme, a reckless trooper, but bad soldier; a fireeater, ready enough to rush into danger himself, and lead others into it. But there is another side to the picture, wanting the features which, such as they are, are not altogether devoid of interest for the majority of men. We see Richard here, a tyrannical ruler, a fickle ally, a crooked politician, a perfidious schemer, and, worst of all, a short-sighted and blundering intriguer. We read, and perhaps resent this interference with cherished prejudices, but we are convinced, and we close the account of his life with a feeling of thankfulness that it was cut short before he had the opportunity of doing all the evil which a prolonged reign would have inflicted upon this country.

With the reign of Richard's brother and successor, John, the documentary sources of English history first come fully into play. Hitherto the historian has been compelled to trust to chronicles, and a few collections of letters; the first rarely free from partisanship, the second necessarily representing only the views and interests of the individual writers. But from this time forth we are in possession of records, properly so called, by which we are enabled to test every assertion of those less trustworthy authorities we have mentioned. But the task of using these materials is not an easy one. It requires not only considerable judgment and much practice, but a very firm determination not to be disgusted with their dryness, or confused by their mul

tiplicity. In these respects our author is undoubtedly deserving of much praise. His predecessor, Dr. Lappenberg, had himself led the way, as far as the materials allowed, in the earlier volumes of this History, and had prepared a good deal of what has since been used by Dr. Pauli; but to this gentleman belongs the credit of having zealously followed a good example. Our readers will be prepared to learn that the personal character of John comes out in no more favourable colours in this History, than has heretofore been the case. Dr. Pauli, as we have shown, is no respecter of persons; and indeed it would be difficult in any degree to shake the verdict which contemporary tradition has passed upon that weak and vicious prince. His reign is nevertheless one of profound interest, inasmuch as it witnessed the first active development of those great principles which Englishmen are fond of pointing to as the real foundations of their political freedom, and consequently their national greatness. Dr. Pauli shows extremely well how, from step to step, the opposition of the nobles against the idea of the Nor man kingdom (as attempted to be realized by the Plantagenets), and the power of the king's court, advanced, and by what happy accidents of foreign policy it was furthered and assisted. Neither he, nor indeed any sane man, believes Magna Charta to have borne any resemblance to the charter extorted by a Parisian mob from behind its reeking barricades, or even the more solemn promulgation of a theoretical Rights of Man;' but he sees well enough that without the shock given by the Barons' to the hitherto supreme power of the Crown, the occasion for popular liberty might either never have occurred, or have been at least long delayed. The day of Runnymede was only the commencement of that great revolution which, in the suc ceeding reign, Simon de Montfort nearly lived to accomplish, and which, a very few years later, Robert of Winchelsea did succeed in establishing, in spite of all the efforts of one of the most astute and energetic of the Plantagenets.

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But there were many circum

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stances which made the reign of John one of the turning-points of English history. A succession which was partly doubtful, and was at all events disputed, placed the king in a relation towards his Barons and people which differed very widely from that of his predecessors. He might indeed claim by hereditary right, and under the will of his brother, to the prejudice of his nephew; but there can now be no doubt that when Hubert de Burgh, at the coronation, declared that Non ratione successionis, sed per electionem eum in regem coronabat, he alluded to a very positive public act of that nature: most probably with the intention of meeting the pretensions of the Duke of Bretagne, who did claim ratione successionis. During the whole period of his reign, John was never strong enough to crush the opposition which the great Barons organized against him; and thus a check was early placed upon the dangerous growth of the royal power, which would otherwise in all probability have succeeded in becoming entirely unlimited, had a succession of able princes, like Henry the Second or Edward the First wielded it. The extravagances of Richard, the laches of John, the fatuity of Henry_the Third, saved the liberties of England; and when Edward the First attempted to regain prerogatives which belonged to the crown of his ancestors, it was already too latethe people had grown out of leading strings. And he too was fortunately succeeded by a weak and capricious son. But the most pregnant events of the period were the ruin of the Guelphic House under the Emperor Otto, and the loss of the family possessions of the royal house in Normandy: this duchy had been

overrun and annexed to the crown of France, upon the pretext of a forfeiture incurred by John through the imputed, but not proven, murder of Arthur of Bretagne. The consequences of these at the time humiliating losses, were incalculable. The English, driven from the foreign duchies and counties, learnt to develop their national resources on their own soil; and England, in place of becoming, as it probably would, the outlying province of a

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continental empire,-strong alike in its insular position and its political and moral isolation,-went a way of its own, which was to lead it to the summit of power and influence and wealth. These are the cheering points which the historian seeks out for his consolation, amidst the shameful details of a reign infamous beyond most of those recorded in the annals of his land; and from which he learns to receive with reverent submission the chastisement which it sometimes pleases Providence, in mercy and wisdom, to inflict upon nations as well as individual men.

Passing from the reign of John to that of Henry the Third, Dr. Pauli pursues the thread of his narrative, leading us from constitutional change to constitutional change, and marking the variations of progress, as at one time the now organized opposition, at another the Crown, was triumphant: but showing that throughout, the course of popular development was an onward one. The new complications which arose out of the election of an English prince to be King of the Romans, are well and carefully delineated. But the favourite character of this part of the story is Simon de Montfort, the son of him who had been in his time to the Tolosans what Alva was in his to the Netherlands. It must be confessed that there are few historical personages more fitted to play the part of a hero. A gallant soldier, a wise administrator, and a far-seeing politician, he was moulded by nature to be the chief of a great constitutional revolution: and we have reason to be grateful that England possessed such a man to guide the popular interests at a moment when the decisive battle between freedom and prerogative was to be fought. As regent or guardian of the realm, we see him protecting an imbecile king against the consequences of his own weakness, and vindicating the rights of a nobility and a people, continually endangered by the avarice or ambition of foreign minions. We find him taking wide and comprehensive views of foreign policy, and of a commerce which even then, in its infancy, gave signs of the gigantic powers which it possessed.

None but he could in all probability have held in check the ardent and violent personality of Edward the First, or compelled him to abate from the inordinate pretensions of his despotic character. He fell, indeed, ultimately, in the struggle, but not until his work had been done: his life was sufficiently prolonged to allow of the consolidation of a power of whose future importance he himself could have formed no conception, but which we at the present day know how to appreciate and to use. He

left a legacy to all future times, which in its gradual development has become the main cause of our social and political greatness. In 1265, representatives of the cities and the smaller Barons sat for the first time in the great Council of the realm-a real Parliament. It is idle to say that De Montfort laboured for his own class, and that he did not foresee the ultimate results of his labours. It is enough that they have borne their fruit, that they enabled others who followed him to build more grandly upon his foundations, and that from his time the course of freedom, and with it of national power, has ever been forward. It is in truth the great and distinguishing virtue of English politicians that they have never been generalizers and theorists; that they have applied a remedy to a mischief, whenever the necessity arose, and only in such measure as the necessity demanded; and that they have at all times sturdily turned away from pedantie deductions upon general principles, to hold fast the practical good which could be done at the time, and in

the required direction. And so laboured De Montfort in his generation. Yet so beneficial was his influence that his contemporaries idolized him the common people looked upon him as a saint, and honoured him as a martyr. His remains were collected and preserved as relics, miracles were reported to be performed at his tomb, and the popular poetry of the period selected him as its hero. A nobler monument was never reared to a benefactor of his kind. The words in which our author sums up the character of De Montfort may serve as a specimen of his style:

The news of his death flew speedily over the whole land, and spread mourning and sorrow throughout all ranks. The pure moral character of the Earl of Leicester, his tenderness towards the

oppressed, the courage and skill with

which he had conducted the reform of the State, had won for him the love of the greater part of the population. Himself a man of real and by no means make-believe piety, but educated in the intercourse with the noblest and most pious spirits of his time, he was a friend to the English clergy, and especially to those of the lower order, whose burthens he had given himself pains to alleviate. It was they, therefore, who first rewarded him for all his acts, and for the martyr's death which he had bravely suffered in reliance upon the justice of his cause, with the 'glory' of a saint-never recognised indeed by pope or king, but which the people persuaded themselves was confirmed at his tomb by many miracles and cures. They scrupled not to place him on a level with their national Saint of Canterbury, and to unite the names of the two martyrs in ballads of lamentation. . . . History,

it must be confessed, assigns a somewhat different place to the Earl of Leicester. It is not possible that all the accusations of his enemies should have been mere inventions; a violent ambition probably left him only at the moment of his death; although he never strove to set the crown upon his own head, yet he struggled to the utmost to raise his own power above that of the Crown. Prudent and far-seeing as he was, he had to this end allied himself with all the elements which throughout the land were struggling for freedom, and thus awakened and nourished the germs of the most magnificent constitution, whose far-reaching growth he cannot possibly himself have suspected. Like Becket, he too had human errors to atone for by death; but his blood was fated to put the seal for his country upon the prize for which he had so perseveringly struggled with perfidious adversaries.

The long reign of Henry the Third-with one exception, the longest in our history was not one of humiliation at home and abroad, only because a great man was there, to unite all the national energies in one strong opposition to foreign interference and to domestic despotism. Simon de Montfort was probably the first man who fairly created a national party in this country; and this no doubt is the real explanation of his unbounded popularity. It was an inestimable

service, and was more and more felt to be so, under Edward the First, a prince of astonishing energy and many very noble qualities, but, like all the Norman and Plantagenet kings, cruel, reckless in the choice of means to his ends, and from his very cradle trained in Continental maxims of absolutism. The character of Edward cannot be appreciated until we take into account the influence exercised upon him by the relatives of his mother, a Provençal princess. To break through their intrigues, and rescue Henry the Third from the shackles in which these grasping and avaricious strangers held him, had been one cause of Simon de Montfort's wars against king and prince; and when every allowance is made for a natural exaggeration, there can be no doubt that the minions of the court were felt to be an intolerable burthen to the country. But they were denizens of the Land of Song, children of the Sunny South, with its odours and its pure skies, and the lays of its sensuous troubadours; and Edward, educated under their auspices, seems to have caught from them something of that inspiration of the softer side of chivalry which eminently fitted him for a hero of poetry and romance. That he was a stern, severe, and vindictive man, inexorable in his enmities, and cruel after the fashion of his time, is evident from his mode of dealing with the Welsh and Scotch; but with all this there was mingled an unusual strain of Southern or even Oriental gentleness. He would have been, had he come earlier, a sovereign capable of destroying, and for ever, every germ of popular freedom. But a greater man than himself had confronted him, and he lived to see the liberties he hated so firmly established that no force or fraud or cunning has since been able entirely to destroy them. We have said already that it is impossible for us within our limits to enter upon almost any detail of Dr. Pauli's work; least of all can we do this where events are concerned which have been differently construed according to the tendency of political or national feelings; but we can strongly recommend our author's account of the affairs of Scotland, and of the intrigues which

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Edward fostered in that kingdom. This is particularly one of those points in which the character of a foreigner has been of service to the historian. Having neither Scotch nor English predilections to mislead him, he has steered a middle course, and has, we believe, arrived at a just and probable conclusion, approaching in all probability the truth as nearly as we shall ever be able to attain. The great constitutional struggle which was incessantly carried on during Edward's reign naturally occupies a great portion of Dr. Pauli's attention, and here he shows himself a bold and original thinker, not less than a man who has used with skill and discrimination the works of the masters of our constitutional history.

That Edward should be a favourite with his historian seems to us extremely natural, especially as we have already observed that the historian is impartial, and has just as great an admiration for those who counteracted Edward's plans on every possible occasion. But it is in truth impossible to resist a feeling of respect for a man who battled so gallantly for what he believed his right; and who, in other respects, so steadily pursued the course which was most calculated to advance the interests and promote the welfare of his people. The legislation of this reign was of momentous importance; the confirmation of the charters (carried, it is true, against the king's will), the statutes of Westminster, of Gloucester, of Mortmain, are all monuments of political wisdom: nor must it be forgotten that in this reign the right of granting taxes was conceded to the parliament, openly and clearly, for the first time. It was now also that some of our most valuable legal customs were finally settled, among which may be mentioned the trial by jury in nearly its actual form. Even the exceptional institution of the judges of Trailbastons was probably a boon to the land, and called for by the unsettled condition of society in several of the northern counties. But Edward, while he strove to extend the limits of his country by force of arms, was not less mindful of more peaceful triumphs. His people owed to him the commencement of a royal navy,