and yet not believed in the authenticity of the Christian Scriptures.

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Mr. Cooke, as we think, undervalues Swift's literary, as much as his moral and religious, character. He tells us, that Bolingbroke, Addison, and Swift, were acknowledged as the triumvirate who infused elegance into our language. "Among "these, the first place was assigned to Bolingbroke, and it "would not be difficult to prove that he deserves it. Swift "has never been thought of as his rival: his plain and unpretending language, so utterly devoid of figure or ornament, could never be compared with that of a man was always ready to acknowledge as his master." Swift's language "is plain and unpretending;" Bolingbroke's, on the contrary, full of ornament and figure; true: but this does not decide the question at once in favour of Bolingbroke. They were both accomplished literary gladiators. The peer advanced, with a dignified and imposing air, assumed a graceful but studied attitude, flourished his shining rapier, as if he would dazzle the eyes, before he pierced the breast, of his opponents. The dean advanced in an easy and natural, "almost negligent, manner," looked merely at the mark he had to strike, and subdued his foe before he put him on his guard. In truth, the simplicity of Swift's style is its charm; and it is its strength. The fault of Bolingbroke's, is its affectation of ornament. Its march is encumbered by the richness of the dress, and the argument obscured by a profusion of figures. We do not hesitate to say, that the best specimen of Bolingbroke's style is to be found in some of those papers in the Craftsman, which he wrote with the intention of concealing the writer; and it is in them, too, that he most resembles Swift. He wrote, as Swift always wrote, not to astonish, but to convince. He thought of his cause, and not of his fame. He was "unpretending," and he was effective.

Swift was sparing in the use of metaphors; he could carry his point without them. To introduce them, therefore, would have been superfluous, at least-if not impertinent. Men who scarcely know their own meaning, or, knowing it, are unable to convey an accurate idea of it in literal terms-in other words, persons whose intellectual vision is obscure, or whose

command of language is imperfect-take refuge in circumlocutory and figurative illustrations. Affectation sometimes adopts, from choice, the fault to which weakness has recourse, from necessity. From this affectation, or this weakness, Bolingbroke himself is by no means exempt, even in the most elaborate of his philosophical works.

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Again, we are quite at a loss to discover upon what grounds Mr. Cooke should assert" that Swift was always ready to acknowledge Bolingbroke as his master." When Swift was first introduced to Bolingbroke, he was of the mature age of fortyone. His mind was furnished with a rich store of knowledge, classical, historical, political, and literary. His style was already formed. His character as an author was established. He was fully conscious of his powers; and was not the person to call any man his master, least of all a young man of thirty. He met Bolingbroke as an equal, and in that equality ever maintained himself. What then had Swift, a country vicar, to throw into the scale against the preponderance of Bolingbroke's rank? what, but his unrivalled talents? Again,

In which department, we should wish to learn, was Bolingbroke his master? Was it in poetry? In this province, at least, Bolingbroke was the scholar, and a very unpromising one. Was it in theology? Was it in classical taste and erudition? In these, again, Swift will not lose by the comparison. Of their relative merits, as masters of language, we will pronounce nothing categorically. It is too much a matter of mere taste. Sub judice lis est. Well, then it must be in the department of politics that Bolingbroke leaves his pupil behind, at such a hopeless distance. And yet, if the merit of political writings is to be tested by their effects, the balance here again will seem in favour of Swift. No compositions that Bolingbroke ever wrote or ever spoke, powerful and splendid as they are, produced effects bearing any comparison to those produced by Swift's Conduct of the Allies, and Drapier's Letters. On the effect of the former publications on the English mind we have already said a few words. But magical as that was, it was nothing compared with the overwhelming effect of the latter over the Irish nation.

The Drapier's Letters not only turned the hearts of the people to him, as one man, but suspended the functions of

government, and erected the Dean of St. Patrick's into the autocrat of Ireland. The agitations of the storm were felt even in England, and shook Walpole upon his ministerial throne. He would have wished, but durst not venture, to arrest him. Swift, strong in the cause he had advocated, in his conscious integrity, and the attachment of the people, long enjoyed the popularity and gratitude he had so well deserved, and set his enemies at defiance.

It is scarcely necessary to enter into any formal vindication of Johnson and Warburton, against certain contemptuous aspersions of Mr. Cooke. All that we shall say, is, that when writers have passed from the scene a century, or even half of that period, and yet are remembered and read as generally as Johnson and Warburton, it is too late to demolish their characters by a passing sarcasm. To speak of them contemptuously, reflects ridicule on the critics-more than on the authors.

We had intended to have presented our readers with a brief analysis of the metaphysical opinions of Bolingbroke, which he has dignified with the title of First Philosophy; together with a compendious review of his arguments against the historical evidences of Christianity. But we have already exceeded the limits assigned us, and must postpone those parts of our subject to a future number. What we have further to add, is, that we are far from considering Bolingbroke either that prodigy of intellect, or that monster of vice, which his admirers on one hand, and his assailants on the other, have chosen to represent him. Yet do we believe that, if his moral principles had been sufficiently strong to regulate the course of his ambition, and control the impetuosity of his passions, he might have escaped those humiliations and calamities by which he was overwhelmed, and taken the highest station to which a subject is permitted to aspire. But so infatuated was he with the charms of power and pleasure, that, after pursuing them to his ruin in early life, he sat down deliberately, in his maturer years, to devise theories and arguments in justification of his practice. His political treatises, as we have before observed, were evidently written with that design, and his metaphysical systems bear decisive marks of being constructed with an oblique view to an apology for his own vices. He takes infinite pains to

persuade himself that God neither exerts any providence here, nor any retribution hereafter; and therefore the ambitious man may pursue power, and the voluptuary pleasure, to any excess, or in any form, without apprehending either present compunction, or future punishment. Whether he succeeded in convincing himself of the soundness of his doctrines, is very doubtful; that he has not gained many converts may be inferred from this—that the merited unpopularity of his philosophical works has contributed to that neglect and disrepute into which his political treatises have undeservedly fallen, and left a stigma upon his name, which his splendid talents have tended rather to expose than palliate in the eyes of posterity.

ARTICLE X.

Les Cours du Nord dévoileés; ou, le Secret de Töplitz. Par un Ancien Ministre résident à la Diète de Francfort. Paris

Decembre 1835.

UNDER this pretending, and somewhat affected, title, we have been surprised to meet with one of the ablest pamphlets, on the foreign policy of France, and its relations to the great Northern coalition, which has issued from the press of that, or any other, country. We are not prepared, indeed, to assent to all the positions which the author attempts to establish with regard to the objects of the congress, which was so mysteriously convoked, and so secretly conducted, last autumn, in the depths of Bohemia. Yet, they may be looked upon as ingenious suppositions, which deserve more attention than is usually bestowed on political prognostications,-because they evidently proceed from the pen of one, who has a close knowledge, and probably some actual experience, of the intrigues which he describes. We may be mistaken as to the immediate ends of the meeting of the three sovereigns; but the light which our author throws upon their ulterior designs, and the contrasts which he draws between the efficiency of their diplomatic agents, and those of the French government, furnish new and important information, to awaken the attention, and strengthen the policy, of western Europe. In the article on the Prussian Commercial

League, in our last number, we described the influence which Russia has long exercised over the German confederationthe skill with which, as early as the year 1828, she pointed out "le rôle de la Prusse”—and the tenacity with which she has forwarded her continental system, in the presence of changes which threatened the peace of Europe. The apathy, with which France and England have viewed the policy of the Northern courts, is now dispelled; every day brings us fresh tokens of the rising anxiety and indignation of the English people; and the meeting, which took place at Töplitz, has furnished grounds for endless conjectures and increased apprehension. We are tempted to give the passage, in which the author of the pamphlet before us describes the relations of France and England to the Northern powers, under these cir

cumstances.

"When the three sovereigns of the North met at Töplitz and at Kalisch, the journals of all parties, in France and in England, were equally at a loss to determine the motives and the object of that mysterious meeting. It was the first time in the history of European diplomacy, that two powers, which had heretofore boasted of a preponderating influence, found themselves shut out from a solemn congress, by the sovereigns of three great continental nations. The Quadruple Alliance had indeed been secretly concluded by the respective ministers of France and England, but its object was explicitly avowed after the treaty had been ratified. The formation of an exclusive congress by the Northern powers, for the express purpose of discussing secret questions, if it does not amount to an act of hostility towards their two great allies, cannot but be regarded as a certain proof of the distrust and ill-will which the sovereigns of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, bear to those of England and of France. The complete ignorance of the cabinets of St. James and of the Tuileries, as to the questions which were agitated at the Congress, is the most disgraceful part of the occurrence. The language which has been held by the Emperor Nicolas to the municipality of Warsaw, and the attitude of the Northern powers-emboldened by their recent conference-has excited the indignation and the alarm of the press in England and in France. And the public demands with impatience some explanations on the subject of the intrigues which have been so obscurely carried on at Töplitz-explanations, which it is the duty of the well paid minister of Foreign Affairs, and of the ambassadors, who receive such ample salaries, to communicate. Previously to the opening of this celebrated congress, and during its continuance, these great statesmen lay, as it were, stretched along, with their ears to the ground, to catch the faintest sound from the mine which was being prepared at Töplitz. But it will not be difficult to demonstrate that we shall derive no information from their reports.

"What generous citizen can contemplate the journeys, the excursions, and the frequent interviews of the allied sovereigns of the North, without a feeling of grief and anxiety? A feeling which will be increased from day to day, when he reflects on the vague and inadequate opinion which is entertained in the West of Europe of the dangers which threaten it from the East."-(p. 1—3.)