to myself, what a model you are for diplomacy. Would that the pleasant Peer who rules over our Foreign Office were walking by my side-not that he much needs enlightening in this way, but he would be glad to have his diplomatic sagacity confirmed by the wisdom of the streets. However, whether the boy was wise or not, he expressed my sentiments exactly as to quarrels in general, and as to the Russian war in particular; and you will hear no more from me about that sad and tiresome subject for a long time. It is a far more difficult matter that I shall want your advice upon. MIDHURST. Let us arrange ourselves more judiciously. I never can give my best attention to anything unless I am comfortably seated. [Hereupon MR. MIDHURST made us all come to another part of the garden, where there were seats or mossy banks for reclining.] TH PRESCOTT'S PHILIP THE SECOND.* HE return of Mr. Prescott to Spanish ground, the scene of his first success, will be viewed with general satisfaction. The years that have passed since the publication of Ferdinand and Isabella, have greatly enlarged the circle of readers prepared to receive him on familiar terms, without reserve-and without excitement:-having learned from his previous writings what may be expected from him, and what he is not likely to give. These two volumes on Philip II.-a beginning only of the proposed work-will justify their anticipations. They display his well known characteristics; the same merits and deficiencies; on a somewhat enlarged scale, corresponding to the wider dimensions of his subject. The History of Philip the Second is, truly enough, the History of Europe during the latter half of the Sixteenth Century;' and this not only because the dominions to which he succeeded touched nearly every other European state of the first class. It is yet more so, because of the part assumed by him as head of one of the two rival powers, the collision of which, during his age, determined the actual position and subsequent fortunes of all. It is therefore not merely the extent and complexity of subject that make it difficult to write this history. It is beset with disputed questions of the utmost importance, political, social, and religious, developed in marked. opposition during this period; which ever since have continued to agitate the European system, and on which the opinions of men are still divided. His Whatever may be thought of Mr. Prescott's ability to satisfy all the demands of so arduous a task, it is obvious that at this incipient stage of his progress, no final judgment can be expected. The last date in his second volume is the year 1570; a period including the first act only of the drama in which Philip was chief actor. So far, neither his actions nor his designs betray that peculiar character which afterwards rendered his malignant influence detestable. system is cautious and pacific; limited by the bounds of his own dominion, it makes no pretension as yet to engross or give law to others. In England, as Mary's consort, he prudently avoids all public responsibility for the severities of her reign. His wars with the Pope and with France are just, as well as successful; and he uses his advantages with moderation. The persecution of his subjects on religious grounds, however cruel, was not without example in other kingdoms; he only walked, indeed, with a heavier tread in the steps of his father. In the Netherlands, the opposition which his tyranny History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain. By William H. Prescott. Two vols. London: Bentley. See Van Kampen. Gesch. der Niederlände, b. ii. cap. v., 283; Meteren (1 th., b. i. 50) says that 50,000; Grotius (Annal. 1. i. 12) 100,000 persons, were executed for heresy in the Low Countries during the reign of Charles; the numbers however are certainly exaggerated. 1856.] Events of the latter Years of Philip's Reign. provoked, has not yet grown above the height of a domestic quarrel; and his sanguinary vengeance rather exceeds the measure than violates the rule of what in his day was permitted to sovereigns incensed by rebellious subjects.' His only aggressive warfare, against the Mohammedan pirates, is gratefully hailed by Europe; to which the Crescent is still a sign of fear. While the prestige of his power is at its height, it has not yet become odious as well as formidable to his neighbours. And whatever may be whispered of tragedies in his own household, they are still concealed intra parietes: a theme of doubtful terror or pity, destined, perhaps, to be talked of for a while, and then forgotten, but for subsequent events which taught men to take for granted more than rumour had at first dared even to hint. In short, had Philip's reign ended at this period, a name which now gives its sinister title to an age, might have been entered on the roll of severe and powerful kings, without incurring the gravest sentence of history, or becoming to after times a symbol of all that most revolts humanity, shocks the moral sense, and threatens the security of nations. It is in the ensuing portion of his reign that this hateful aspect prevails; when the intrusion of his policy-a policy of selfish ambition, armed with intrigue, corruption, and violence—is felt in every part of the European system, under an arrogant pretext of Catholic zeal. This will be the trying part of the historian's task; the moral significance of which deepens as its surface is expanded. The growing procession of eminent figures keeps pace with the crowd of notable events. The former we shall not enumerate: of the latter it will suffice to name the forty years' war in the Low Countries-which cost Philip the best jewel in his crown, and made him pawn the rest in the hope of regaining it; the Morisco war in the Alpujarras; the troubles and treasons of the French League: the wars with Henri Quatre, with Elizabeth of England; the seizure of Portugal; the destruction of the liberties of Aragon; the rise of a 21 new commercial power in Holland; the adventures of Dutch and English sea-kings in the East and in the New World. Along this line of momentous changes rise a series of special incidents, frequent, enormous, and startling:-Bartholomew massacres; battles of Lepanto; the sieges of Antwerp and Paris; the wreck of the Armada; murders of the Guises, assassinations of Henry III. and of William of Orange: the story of Don Juan of Austria and Escovedo, with its sequel in the tragedy of Perez. Throughout these events, the dark presence of Philip is never lost sight of; nothing can be more portentous than his pestilent activity, nothing more impressive than its utter failure. The Nemesis which pursues injustice reaches him before his reign expires; distress at home, defeat and odium abroad, are the sole fruits of his labours and his crimes: and he dies with every circumstance that can make the end of a bad life terrible and exemplary. It is needless to say how much a theme like this demands from the historian; whether we consider the gravity of its main features, or the importance of its accessories. Among the latter, in a department neglected by previous writers, the subject of finance may be mentioned. The pressure of debt bequeathed to Philip by his father, increased by the loss of Belgium, and by the efforts to recover it, leads to the strangest fiscal complications; and Philip, after straining every kind of exaction to the utmost, and resorting to the most pernicious and shameful expedients for raising money, sets the first example of a state bankruptcy. In his administration of the commerce of the New World,* he founds the colonial system;' which, copied afterwards by other nations, has fettered the intercourse of mankind down to our own days. The development, under various phases in different regions, of the great religious question, which, during this period, arrived at its second crisis; the social effects, both of this controversy and of the new channels opened to ambition, industry, and science, by maritime discovery, and by the press, must also * See Scherer. Allgemeine Geschichte des Welthandels, ii. 229 et seq. 22 22 Prescott's Philip the Second. be considered. Nor can the higher phenomena of intellectual life in this age be overlooked by the historian. The first names in modern letters, with one great exception, belong to the 16th century. Shakspeare had written and Bacon begun to think, before its close. Cervantes was maimed at Lepanto: Lope wrote his Angelica on board of the Armada. The dawn of English genius is contemporary with the morning of Spanish literature:-a brief and glorious appearance, which for a while threw its splendour over the ruins of the state, until the whole region of thought was darkened, and the national spirit quelled, by the Inquisition. Such and so various are the topics in view beyond the point now reached by Mr. Prescott. It will be seen that he has yet to arrive at the critical stage of his undertaking. It may be added that what is already written cannot be pronounced complete or otherwise, until it is seen what supplements are hereafter introduced. It might be premature to insist on certain deficiencies, which, in the author's method of arranging his subject under separate heads, may be supplied in a forthcoming section; or to describe as omitted what is merely reserved for discussion hereafter. In short, of an unfinished piece, designed in this manner, the report, if meant to be just, can only be in some respects provisional. Our attention therefore for the present will be given to distinct and separate features; reserving general judgments for a later period. The first question, in respect of histories proposed to be rewritten, concerns the materials used. The praise which Ovid gives to Mulciber's art will not greatly commend an historian; of whom it may be said that his workmanship counts for little, if his matter be unsound. Even in pieces like Schiller's Thirty Years' War, and Voltaire's Peterthe Great, the want of substantial accuracy is barely compensated by graces of style and acuteness of remark. [January, Mr. Prescott, at all events, will not owe his success to such qualities: he takes his stand on authentic documents collected from MSS. in various archives, or lately published, -which were unknown to his predecessors. Of printed materials, Spain has furnished the Documentos Ineditos, a series issued by the Royal Academy of History; the Memoirs of that Academy;' and papers inserted in the Semanario Erudito. The collections of Von Raumer from many European archives have also been used. From Belgium there is Gachard's Correspondance de Philippe II., chiefly brought from Simancas, of which two volumes have been published by command of the Belgian Government; and another Brussels work, the Correspondance de Marguerite D'Autriche, edited by Reiffenberg. Holland supplies the Archives de la Maison d'Orange Nassau, by Groen van Prinsterer, from papers in the King of Holland's library; and important aid is given by the French publication (made at the instance of Guizot) of the Granvelle Papers, edited by Weiss,-from Besançon. Besides these, moreover, Mr. Prescott has constantly at hand the old histories,-Thuanus,* Cabrera, Strada, Brandt, &c.; and on the whole it may be said, shows more diligence in gathering on all sides, than severity in testing his authorities. His MS. collections come from the great archives of Simancas, but lately opened to research; and from several other repositories, public and private, in England, Germany, and elsewhere. For these Mr. Prescott owes much to many friends; among whom appear several of the United States envoys at different courts, busied in gaining access to state papers, and in getting their marrow extracted for his use. It is pleasing to see these ministers in so liberal and pacific a relation to the things of Spain;' at a time when American diplomacy has attracted public notice, in connexion with other pro He is not quite just in blaming Watson's alleged want of research. The works used by him, the best then extant, are the same to which Mr. Prescott continually refers; and he had the good fortune or good judgment to quote no very questionable authorities, such as Leti, whom it is surprising to find in Mr. Prescott's notes, together with Miss Strickland! 1856.] Mr. Prescott's Materials. ceedings and designs, affecting that kingdom, which have gone far to impair the credit of the United States as a civilized community. In the Simancas archives, and in some chief libraries of England, France, Holland, and Belgium, the search was undertaken by Don Pascual de Gayangos, Arabic professor in the University of Madrid: a name to be specially mentioned here, since it recurs whenever the writers of England address themselves to Spanish subjects. This amiable scholar is indeed their Great Apollo-opiferque per orbem dicitur -and deserves thanks from all their readers. It is a pity that the low state of the publishing system in his own country should leave him the assistant of others, without due encouragement for displaying his attainments in some original work of his own. Of all the MSS. thus variously collected, the choicest perhaps are the Relazione Venete; of which, independently of the two printed series,* voluminous copies exist in the libraries of Berlin and Gotha. They are not, however, used by Mr. Prescott for the first time; their value was long since attested by Ranke, who wrought them with equal skill and discrimination into his classical work on the Princes and Peoples of Southern Europe. The importance to the historian of such contemporary writings and state papers cannot be disputed; whether they merely fortify received accounts, or correct them. They assist in opening the secrets of statesmen, and determine their real share in obscure transactions. Some of them, the Venice reports especially, preserve traits of conspicuous persons, and of the manners of their day, which have been overlooked by professed historians. On the other hand, their value has its limits. It would not be safe to take as 23 authorities, omni exceptione majores, either the notes of diplomatic repor ters, or the despatches of ministers and kings. As to the former-while they are sufficient evidence of current opinions, of the suspicions and rumours of the hour; and indispensable for many local details and personal descriptions-it must be remembered that, after all, the writers were, in respect of less obvious matters, both liable to various kinds of error, and apt to be deceived, by design as well as by accident or prejudice. For the most part, it is also evident that they draw their information from channels precisely similar to those which supplied the best contemporary historians, such as De Thou, for instance, with materials. In short, they may be admitted to enlarge and to control, but they do not by any means supersede the books already extant. As to state records, even of the most secret character,-these again are by no means in all cases magisterial data for the solution of historic doubts. They must be read with extreme caution, especially during an age in which dissimulation was the rule of statesmen and kings,and above all in respect of a monarch so close and insidious as Philip, whose ministers too were adepts in every treacherous art. In such cabinets we may find confidential letters' and 'private instructions' as false as the most ostensible state papers. When deceit pervades the whole scheme of government, no communication, indeed, however intimate, is safe from suspi cion. So we are told by the historian Mendoza, much employed in his day-the very period in question-in Spanish diplomacy; when, speaking of his office, he exclaims : O embajadores, puros majaderos ! * Paris, 1833, by Tommaséo; Florence, 1839-55, by Alberi. The latter Mr. Prescott sometimes uses; yet he consults Micheli, the envoy to England (reign of Mary and Elizabeth), from a copy of the Gotha MSS. His report is in vol. ii. of the first series of the Florentine edition. For a good account of these remarkable State papers, and a just estimate of the degree and limits of their value as materials for history, see Von Reumont. Beiträge zur Italienischen Geschichte. Berlin: 1853. Hurtado de Mendoza. Epistolas. Roughly Englished : Ambassadors! mere busy nincompoops! source; There is yet another point to be noticed. When history leans on unpublished data, its authority becomes a question of confidence in the discretion, industry, and fairness of the compiler. The reader cannot follow every statement to its and must take for granted that for all material purposes everything important has been discovered; that from the documents used nothing essential has been left out; that what is taken from them has been perfectly understood, and is repeated with absolute fidelity. It is plain that if these conditions are reversed, or neglected even, a method which at the first glance seems to throw a new light into the very heart of history, may, in reality, obscure its truth: and the evil in that case will be in compound proportion of the credit assumed, with the degree of its misuse, and the difficulty of detection.* These are not trivial considerations. It should be clearly seen, on the opening of a new school of historical science, that the privilege which adds to the author's resources greatly increases his responsibility. In the case of Mr. Prescott, no one will question his desire to do justice to his subject; although some may doubt, for reasons presently to be given, whether he always adheres to his originals as closely as might be desired. It will also be remembered that their selection was made by a variety of different hands. On the whole, however, allowing for a certain preference of the Spanish point of view, it may be believed that the new matter in this history represents, with tolerable completeness, the results attainable by this kind of research. A review of these results may at first surprise those familiar with the ordinary books. They will observe how slightly the aspect of public events and characters is changed by this new light from behind the scenes. The stage, it may be said, is brought nearer to the spectator; the decorations and dresses are better seen; much by-play of the actors, and some minor traits of expression in features or gesture, hitherto invisible, may now be discovered. But the main business of the drama, the general attitudes and relative position of its chief persons, are the same that were already disclosed by the common lights of the old historic theatre. On reflection, however, it will appear why it should be so in this case-why it will be so in all similar cases. History is not 'done in a corner;' and there is no concealing from mankind the nature of anything which nearly concerns them. Minor links of action, the distribution of inner parts, and the bearing of personal influences, may be hidden in State closets; and on things of limited effect, false colours may be thrown by statecraft, and there remain. But the main track of events runs too deeply through time to be mistaken by those even who stand aloof from it; and the leading attributes, of good or evil, are quickly perceived in all great transactions, and in those who direct them.† Men judge by visible results; their united judgment, with sufficient means, on matters of common concern, cannot greatly err; nor will the means be wanting with respect to affairs, which, however prepared in darkness, must be consummated in open day. Add to this the indubitable operation of that instinct, so rapid and sure in its perceptions, which is one of the protective gifts of nature to mankind,-informing them of what is to be feared or de *The best security must be sought in the further encouragement of published collections, duly edited; a work beyond the reach or conditions of private enterprise, and therefore especially incumbent on the State. The instance of Cromwell may be objected. But it is in fact no exception. Obloquy was cast upon his name after death, by the party which he had overthrown,-when it became ascendant. But the opinion which now prevails in his favour is the same which was held during his time by the better part of England, and by the wisest of European statesmen. The leaders in all great disputes are subject to praise or blame, according to the views of the party on either side. This is a question not of fact but of principle; nor is it solved by discoveries of new particulars. So in the case of Philip; the same actions which were abhorred in other parts of Europe, were celebrated in Spain as religious and 'prudent.' |