- 315 ndices. II.-1. The Catechetic Lectures of St. Cyril, Archbishop of 2. A Help to Catechising. By James Beaven, M.A. 3. A Catechism for the Use of St. John's Chapel, Edin- burgh. By the Rev. E. B. Ramsay, M.A. 4. Hints on Scriptural Education and on Catechising: a Charge, by E. Bather, M.A., Archdeacon of Salop. IV.-Medii Ævi Kalendarium: or Dates, Charters, and Cus- 347 VI.-Memoirs of the Queens of France; with Notices of the - 411 VII.-Report to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, from the Poor Law Commis- sioners, on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain; with Appen- VIII.-Lays of Ancient Rome. By Thomas Babington Macaulay 453 tion and Qualification of Parliamentary Electors in Eng- XI.-Life of Sir Astley Cooper, Bart., interspersed with XII.-1. Observations upon the Treaty of Washington, signed 2. Speech of Mr. Benton, Senator for Missouri in the Secret Session of Congress, in Opposition to the British 3. Speech of W. C. Rives, of Virginia, on the Treaty with - 478 - 502 529 to e requisite for the vigorous conception of character;— which is perhaps the reason that metaphysicians have never been dramatists. It is as ill-judged to exercise the critical and the creativ faculties at the same moment as it would be to combine the statue with the anatomical model by the use of some transparent material, and call upon us at once to admire the outward beauty of man's shape and the marvels of his internal economy. In M Taylor's poetry we never come to an analysis of the feelings, for is not the passions, but men impassioned, that he describes: we seldom come to any long strain of merely speculative meditation, for his subject is not thought in itself, but thoughtful men. Passion appears to be valued chiefly as leading to action: nay, action itself is in some degree subordinated to reflection, though reflection of so practical a character as to be in fact a form of action. It is in this respect that he pays his tribute to the age and reflects its spirit. Belonging, on the whole, to the active school, his poetry is, though never sicklied over,' yet sometimes shadowed over with the cast of thought (we do not mean mystical thought), in a degree which makes the principal difference between him and our early dramatists. So far as this predominance of practical thought and fixed prpose tends to weaken his sympathy for natural and healthy passion, it necessarily tends to injure the popular interest of his dramas, and to deprive them of that perfect spontaneity of movement and edundant life which characterizes those of our early literature. On the other hand, the blended dignity of thought and a sedate moral habit invests Mr. Taylor's poetry with a stateliness in which the drama is generally deficient, and makes his writings illustrate in some degree, a new form of the art-such a form indeed as we might expect the written drama naturally to assume if it were to revive in the nineteenth century, and maintain itself as a branch of literature apart from the stage. ART. IV.-Medii Evi Kalendarium: or Dates, Charters, and Customs of the Middle Ages, with Kalendars from the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century; and an Alphabetical Digest of obsolete Names of Days; forming a Glossary of the Dates of the Middle Ages, with Tables and other Aids for ascertaining Dates. By R. T. Hampson. 2 vols. London. 1841. THE plan and intention of this work may be best told in the words of the author. 'Of a work which is chiefly founded on information derived from manuscript or printed sources, little explanation can be necessary. The original VOL. LXXI. NO. CXLII. 2 D original intention was to cast into the form of a glossary as many of the terms now obsolete, being employed in medieval chronology, as could be obtained by a diligent research, and to assign the bearing of each as nearly as it could be satisfactorily ascertained. In the prosecution of this plan it soon became obvious that the utility of the glossary would be considerably enlarged by determining the age of the term itself; and the attempt to effect this object with exactitude has necessarily introduced a multitude of ecclesiastical and legal antiquities which were not contemplated in the first design, but which are indispensable in many cases to confer probability on explanations respecting which there may be conflicting opinions. Writers of considerable eminence on ecclesiastical subjects connected with chronology do not always agree in determining the year in which several of the principal feasts were instituted. The variation sometimes extends to one or two centuries, and occasions difficulties which are not always to be surmounted. In such cases the leading opinions are given, with references to the authorities on which they are founded. . . . . Innumerable instances may be readily collected from the glossary, in which it has been a principal object to assemble, in an alphabetical order, whatever might tend to elucidate the obscurities of the chronology of the middle ages. In order the better to preserve the utility of this department of the work by removing from it everything that did not immediately belong to the explanations, it became necessary either to reject many curious and not altogether useless facts, or to embody them in a separate department. The latter course has been pursued. 'The Kalendars, it is presumed, will be found of considerable service. They are six in number, of which two are incorporated in one, but the others are distinct. They range from the middle of the tenth century to the end of the fourteenth, and may therefore be supposed to contain all the information which can be expected from works of their description. Of one, of which the original is believed to have been the property of King Athelstan, it must be confessed that it contains much matter that is not likely to prove remarkably useful, and it has been presented more as a literary curiosity than as an assistant in chronology. The obits of another have been retained, so far as they could be read by the transcriber, because it is possible that one or other of them may determine the date of some particular fact. For instance, we know from the Saxon Chronicles that the battle of Malden was fought in the year 993, and we ascertain, what is not mentioned by our historians, from the obit of Byrhtnoth, that it took place on the 11th of August.' Mr. Hampson makes no parade of his researches, but he has diligently consulted manuscript authorities, and brought forward much new and very curious matter, hitherto neglected or unemployed. He is, nevertheless, rather deficient in knowledge; and he has fallen into many errors and inaccuracies, displaying want of editorial care. These defects, which we will pass over, are, however, of very secondary importance when compared with the flippant and irreverent spirit by which the work is completely deformed. deformed. Such passages as those relating to the anointing of our Queen (i. 194), and the observance of the Lord's Day (i. 242), and the articles upon the Sunday (ii. 344), and the Sabbath (ii. 344), are most reprehensible; and the coarse and outrageous abuse of the Roman Catholic Church is in that tone which, instead of checking superstition, only promotes scoffing at all faith, all devotion, and all religious observances whatever. We regret to be compelled to pass this heavy censure upon a work which might have been rendered very useful to historical students but we must do our duty; and strongly therefore re commend, in its place, the clear and accurate Chronology of History,' by Sir Harris Nicolas-which, though less discursive, and less costly, contains all the information which can be practically required. Those of our readers who are free from the labour of ascertaining the dates occurring in historical or legal documents can have no notion of the perplexity in which such inquiries are involved. Take, for example, an era apparently occasioning so small a hitch as the beginning of the year. Yet our New Year's Day was, in the middle ages, only New Year's Day to a comparatively small fraction of the European community. Double-headed Janus, it is true, maintained his place at the head of the written kalendars, which, by tradition, always followed the Roman computation, so as to enable those who chose to reckon by kalends, nones, and ides to do so: still the practical caput anni shifted about, so as to compel you to be constantly on your guard. A very general commencement was on the Feast of the Annunciation, or the 25th March, which continued in use in this country until the introduction of the New Style in 1752; and although this change is a matter of great notoriety, it has nevertheless been repeatedly forgotten by those who have had to deal with documents of comparatively recent dates, but anterior to that alteration. We have known persons, otherwise well-informed, woefully puzzled at the fractional-looking dates, e. g. 14 January, 174, by which careful writers included the strict legal computation, and the other which was finding its way into use, though not recognised by law. Midwinter, Yule, or Christmas day, was a very common era for the commencement of the solar year, and appears to have been in use from the age of the Anglo-Saxons to about the thirteenth century. There was a considerable degree of thought, or, as we should now call it, philosophy, in causing the new year to begin from the mother-night,' whence, as it seems, the sun, having completed his circle, starts forth again in his race. How amusing it is to trace etymologies to their remote source, and yet how 2 D 2 6 sure |