people, the Gauls showed their want of skill in civil affairs. They used all the tyranny and oppression inseparable from an aristocracy of race, without gaining the safety which should also attend it. Their fetters galled their captives without securing them. Instead of entrenching themselves in a walled city and training their subjects to fight their battles, they lived chiefly in open villages, and derived no assistance in war either from the Greeks or Phrygians. Hence, when Cneius Manlius invaded their territory in 189 B. C., the Gauls fled with their wives and children to the mountains, where they were surrounded by the Romans and defeated with great loss. The Romans, however, did not then think proper to attempt their final reduction; nor did Galatia become a Roman province till the time of the Emperor Augustus. * Thus far we have followed the footsteps of M. Thierry, and have given such an abridgement of his narrative of the more obscure and uncertain portion of Celtic story as will enable our readers to judge of his qualifications as a describer of those great national movements which lie on the confines of history and fable. With the same disposition, so strongly marked in his brother's admirable work on the Norman Conquest, of referring political events, not to the passions or contrivances of prominent individuals, but to the unanimous wishes of large masses of population, and having the same sympathy with the conquered against the conquering races, he has set about his work with an inferior knowledge of his subject, and a less lively perception of the events which he narrates. Like many, perhaps most, of the French writers, he is wholly untinctured with the spirit of historical criticism; a quality which may be dispensed with, when a history is to be drawn, wholly or principally, from contemporary authorities, but which can alone give any value to a work founded on the various accounts contained in Greek and Latin authors, of the origin and adventures of a foreign race. It would be easy for us to show in detail the deficiencies of M. Thierry's book in this respect, by examining his account of the part taken by the Gauls in Hannibal's invasion of Italy; a part which has not been sufficiently attended to by many modern writers; as the existence of a powerful nation of Gauls in Northern Italy, the deadly enemies of Rome, was undoubtedly one of Hannibal's chief inducements for preferring an invasion of Italy from the north rather than from the south. But a more convincing proof than any researches of ours could furnish, may be afforded to any one who will take the trouble to compare the two admirable chapters in Niebuhr's Ex campestribus vicis agrisque frequentes demigrare et cum conjugibus ac liberis quæ ferre atque agere possint præ se agentes portantesque.—Livy, xxxviii. 18. second volume of his Roman History, which describe the early movements and national character of the Celts, and their famous capture of Rome, with the corresponding parts of M. Thierry's work; he will then see how different an appearance the records of antiquity assume in the feeble compilation of the French, and in the searching and vigorous investigation of the German writer. Nevertheless, we have no intention to detract from the authority of M. Thierry's history, or to deny to his work the merits which it certainly possesses. He has been the first to give, within a reasonable compass, a connected view of the fortunes of the Gaulish tribes, and their influence on the condition of the ancient world; and to his diligence in tracing the difference of races, by means of their language and other national peculiarities, the student of history, both ancient and modern, must be ever indebted.* ART. VII.-1. Briefe aus Paris, 1830, 1831. 2. Lettres écrites de Paris. Von Ludwig Par M. L. Börne. Traduites Par M. F. Guiran. Paris. 1832. Svo. S. Heine's Reisebilder Nachträge zu Heine's Reisebildern. (Pictures of Travel. Supplement to the Pictures of Travel.) Hamburg. 4 vols. 12mo. 2d Edition. ed Edition. 1830, 1831. THESE are two very singular productions, resembling each other in many particulars; both written in a certain wild reckless vein, with an apparent indifference or cynical contempt for all ordinary feelings, opinions, or creeds; and both possessing to a considerable extent that air of novelty and vivacity which is likely to accompany such an emancipation from all those fetters, the authority and force of which is recognised as legitimate by the rest of society. One of them (Börne's) is avowedly the production of a Jew; the other bears just as little marks of being written by a Christian; and both have been received with greater extremes of approbation and censure by opposite parties in Germany, than any works which for some time past have issued from the press of that country. * For the benefit of the author of the History of Spain and Portugal' in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia (see vol. i. p. 16), we remark that in Strabo, iii. p. 139, itäv should be read for iTay with Niebuhr, History of Rome, vol. i. note 377, and that poems containing 6000 verses, not poems 6000 years old, are meant. Knight, Symb. Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, 5, compares Hermippusap. Plin. Ñ. H. xxx. 1. Vicies centum millia versuum a Zoroastre condita: and Cæsar de B. G. vi. 14. Magnum ibi numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur ; itaque nonnulli annos vicenos in disciplina permanent. The same writer is likewise ignorant of Humboldt's celebrated Dissertation on the Basque Language. This has been peculiarly the case with Börne's "Letters from Paris," which touching, as they do, on questions the interest of which is yet at its height, and the future solution of which no political sagacity can foresee, and affecting the very superlative of ultra-liberalism, have stirred up a tempest of abuse on the one hand, and of clamorous applause on the other, which nothing but the very peculiar position of society at this moment could render at all intelligible. The literary scuffle over these volumes has been as desperate as the set-to over the body of Patroclus. It is the most pestilent, egotistical, atheistical, anarchical, incoherent effusion of the age, say the supporters of the German system as it is, and even the advocates of a moderate enlargement of constitutional rights. It is the freest, boldest, truest picture of the oppressions of the governors and the sufferings of the governed, say the ultra-liberals, and only by such strong thoughts conveyed in such strong words will the evils of society make themselves to be heard and remedied. The writer, say the moderates, is a literary bravo, who sets truth, principle, consistency, and moral decency at defiance. He is a fellow of infinite jest, strong fancy and caustic satire, say his admirers, wisely steering clear of the point as to decency and principle. He deserves to be exalted above all his brethren of the press, cries the editor of the Morgenblatt. It should be on a gallows fifty feet high theu, replies Dr. Meyer of Altona. The most amusing part of the contest to quiet spectators, like ourselves, is, that we are persuaded both parties are in an entire mistake as to the true scope both of his work, and that of Heine, to which, though in a somewhat modified degree, the same exaggerated tone of praise and censure has been applied. We are convinced that if they had detected the real intent with which these ingenious performances have been written, the combatants would have immediately changed sides; the supporters of things as they are would have hailed Börne as a valuable auxiliary, who had been fighting their battle in disguise; while the liberals, finding that he was no true man after all," no waiter, but a Knight Templar,"— would have ejected him from his lodgings in the Temple of Fame, with as much alacrity and more noise than had attended his admission. The real fact, as we hope to show by internal evidence, is, that under the disguise of an affected and exaggerated liberalism, these works are written with the express purpose of turning into ridicule the whole slang of the party, of exposing the wild, unprincipled, or objectless views of its leading organs in Germany, their barefaced attempts on the credulity of the public, and their total incapacity of substituting any thing in room of the systems they are seeking to destroy. Such, certainly, was not formerly the character of the German press, which might rather have been reproached with a tendency to the opposite extreme; too strong an inertia, and attachment to every thing which custom had sanctioned and incorporated with the feelings and habits of the people, even where a change would have been attended with no danger, and with probable advantage. But in Germany, as elsewhere, a singular movement has been impressed on periodical literature, particularly the more ephemeral journals, by the general excitement and delusive hopes arising out of the success of the French and Belgian revolutions. In that country, formerly so remarkable for the quiet and even tenor of its political way, and where the governments, however little reconcilable with theoretical ideas of perfection, were undeniably exercised in practice with a general forbearance and mildness which had conciliated the attachment of the people, and, though not fenced round with the formal machinery of constitutions, had been scarcely less securely limited by the tacit and invariable practice of ages; in that country formerly so tranquil, the same restlessness, discontent, and desire of change have begun to manifest themselves, which had led to the overthrow of the existing dynasties in Belgium and France. The impulse came from the same quarter-the press. And if any thing were required to convince us of the tremendous power, either for evil or good, which that engine can exercise, it would be the effect which the persevering efforts of a few of its organs, and these not of distinguished ability, (though well gifted with the ordinary qualities which attract the multitude,) by the mere perseverance and combination with which their efforts are carried on, have produced on the national mind of Germany. Not that we are of opinion that even the mass of the population, numerically speaking, far less the majority of the intelligence in Germany, goes along with these apostles of revolution; but the continued increase of revolutionary journals, many of them of the most uncompromising character, demonstrates the spread of such opinions, by proving that they find readers. Projects of change, which three years ago would have struck the reader with astonishment; attacks upon governments in particular, and government in general; abuse of all in power; the fiercest and most savage diatribes against all those who differ in opinion from themselves,-are now as common in the Tribune or the Morgenblatt, as in the pages of the Nemesis or the Figaro. We hardly know a spectacle that gives a lower idea of the literary character than that presented by too many of the modern German liberal journals. Lovers as we are of rational and constitutional freedom, both of government and of the press, we regret, for the sake of literature itself, that its dignity and usefulness should be so degraded. Generally speaking, the French press, in its wildest extravagancies, had a clear meaning and object; it might be pursuing a phantom, but at least its views were intelligible and logical enough. Not so the ultraliberals beyond the Rhine. On no principle could their incoherent ravings, their gross inconsistencies, their planless speculations, their contempt for taste and decency, be explained, but this, that they had in truth no aim save that of bettering their own condition by the promotion of that agitation which, however fatal to the higher organs of literature, is carnival-time to the lower. In short, the only object which these literary condottieri steadily kept in view, the point from which they set out, and to which, like pirouetting Fakirs, they always returned,—was "self," still self: the best proof of which is, that if a stronger inducement were held out on the other side, if the bully was of sufficient importance to be purchased, his services in support of despotism, absolutism, Jesuitism, or any other ism, might be had at any time for some thirty pieces of silver. With what an easy and natural grace, for instance, does the democratic Saphir of Berlin graduate into the absolutist of Stuttgard; now lauding the French revolution, and then in "one little month, or ere his shoes were old," advocating the cause of Don Miguel, and breathing fire and sword against revolution all over the world. It is rather consoling to find, however, that the services of these mercenaries are estimated pretty much at their true value. Some one, we understand, accused Saphir the other day of receiving some 360 florins from government as the price of his services. The journalist repelled the charge with indignation, and assured his friends and the public that his pay was only 36. This we suppose may be considered as about the fair average price of a German ultra-liberal scribbler of all-work. It is this present aspect of the German periodical press, and the consideration of its ruinous effects on morality and taste, which seems to have excited the indignation of Börne and Heine, and called forth these bitter satires-for such, we are persuaded, they are upon its spirit and tendency. No two individuals could have been selected so well fitted to the task. "They also have been in Arcadia." Both, having sided with the spirit of "the movement" up to a certain point, had of course acquired a complete command of the slang of party, and a perfect knowledge of the few popular themes which it is the business of the journalist to vary and harp upon. And now that the extravagance, we might almost say the insanity, of some of their early collaborateurs has at last converted them to wiser and sounder |