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    J shbuld readthe; iSfrsoldierswith these...

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    GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. The History of Gustav...

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    THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. The Doctrin...

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    Shakspeare's England. Shalcspere * Engla...

    li T |» eBritbh ^ ht ^ t 6 bad 6 d Society shbuld readthe ; amusing sec ^ 6 a iSfr . Tbiorhbtirf & etGt ^ i ^ m ^ axigi ^ ' '" " ' * -, , : . •¦ -,-. It has long beto an object of special wonder with us that Sbakspere ' a plays containoTh ^ feof ^ B niir ^ ce of smoking , whUe Ben Jonson , his younger con-Smporary , founds whole scenes upo * t £ e practice . Some commentators bring this ferwawlS W nroof of the camparatiTe ^ arttnW of many of his dramas ; but thw c ^ mofsu ^ , Kotog ^ as in full use . long before « Will" left London . He does noteither mention the introduction of forks from Italy ., It cannot be answered that SLnio does not stoop to liftticeHhefoUies of the day , since we have shown , that > Snafepere"drew * is manned ^ rifirely ,: and almost tinideidized , from his own age , and mentitea ^ falsehatf , masks , ' pcriltoders , ifardingales , and all the latest novelties , i ¦ " The Motets called it fitonly for rotten ^ lunged . chimney-sweeps , the habit blackening tfie tefeth and ' pblsonirigthebreath , used by waitermen , colliersj and carmen , who spit 'tend bisiaver every place . C « b e ^ it ^ mtees this dislike ^ th ' much humour , and in a 'manner that B ^ n' James himself would haves appreciated . . . . To which tirade

    g Bobadil would answer by strongly exhaling a whiff of smoke and declaring that , by that air , " it was the most divine tobacco he had ever drunk . Gallants delighted to take tobacco in the lords ^ rdom over the stage , and then go and spit privately in St . Paul's . . . , At the ordinary , bef « re the meat came smoking upon the . board , the gallant drew out his to"bacc * -b 63 C , ira < i ladle for assisting the cold , snuff into his nostrils , tongs for « 6 ldrng ' h 6 t coals , and pruning-iron ; all th | s artiUery , if he were rich or , foolish , of'gold and silver ; was very useful to pawn when current coin ran low . Hja whole talfcwas of different varietiesof tobacdo , which he knew better than the merchants , imd of tKe " ajk ) thecary ' s shop where it / could best be bought ; then he would show tt £ fre ? al tricksin the way of taking it , as the whiff , the sniff , and the Euripus . At tiie theatre he'fimoted and displayed his cane and pudding and all his . varieties of tobacco , ar id'from thence -would' repair to the . tobacco ordinary ;; his talk there is whether nicotine or Trinidado is sWeetestj which pipe has the best bore , which turns

    black , ' and which broke in browning . ...-... <¦ ,. . -The ' pobr laughed at this lukury of driving smoke through , the nose and sealing up all wijfti ^ flfthy . ' roguish tobacco 5 " they smiled to , see the smoke come forth of a man ' s tuniiets ' littiethmkink that itwas destineciI some * day to . be the favourite narcotic of the poorer classes . , v _ ,. . ' ¦ ,.. ,,- ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦' ¦¦ ¦• . ¦ •¦ .- ¦ - ¦ - < 4 < lJTn , a , second editi <» i we advise Mr . Thornbury to . strike out all those passing sentences of * depreciation of present times which .- cto not spring from sincere conviction . That he should prefer the age of Elizabeth to that of Victoria is quite conceivable ; but in expressing such a preference ^ it "will be Well for him to consider how he words it . He may regret the picturesque dresses of ShakBpeare ' s age , but he should not exclaim : — Alas ! for the jetting plumes , the jaunty cloaks , so unpractical and impossible , yet bo fitting the time and age— -lefore men were all tradesmen and London a mere

    workshop— before chivalry had die 4 out . Because lie cannot rea ll y believe London is nothing but a . workshop , all men nothing but tradesmen , and all chivalry extinct . If men no longer cufc down avenues of oaks to line a satin cloak , it is because they are more sensible of the better uses to whichavenues of oaks may be put . Again when he says , "The noble wa & . more friendly with his butler than now , when their dress is alike , and the one is certain to be coldly insolent , and the other vulgarly familiar /' be is either writing without thought j or in entire ignorance of actual cond * - tions . Noblemen' are not coldly insolent to any persons , certainly not to their servants ; if insolence is ever observed , it isfrom the butler to his lord . Writers are seldom aware of the extreme injudiciousness of saying what they do not mean ; even an absurdity , when sincere , carries a certain force with it , but improvized opinions and stereotyped phrases are always betrayals . ;^ Ve shall return again to these volumes for a pleasant detail or two ; meanwhile we commend them as very pretty gossip about a very interesting age

    J Shbuld Readthe; Isfrsoldierswith These...

    Bag .. iPJfrtf -AgrfAffjya ~ . . . _ J ^ fflfa & ffii ^

    Gustavus Adolphus. The History Of Gustav...

    GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS . The History of Gustavus Adolphus , and of the Thirty Tears' War , up to the King ' s Death . By B . Chapman , M . A . Longman and Co . MjRy Chapman collected a store of excellent materials for the biography of Gustavus Adolplius , and has made good use of them . His narrative is ample , rapid , and derived from many sources inaccessible to the ordinary English reader—the Scandinavian records , the English State Paper Office , the works of Swedish , German , and Danish liistorians . Some of these , writing of Gustavus Adolphus from the point of view of extreme Catholicism , have disparaged his military genius , from hatred of his religious opinions ; others , equally fanatic in a Protestant sense , have crowned him as the one great captain of the Thirty Years' War . Mr . Chapman has been solicitous to restrain every prejudice that might interfere with an impartial exposition of the character and acts of the Swedish king-. To estimate his capacities as a general was . easier than to estialiensteinnis nvai ami iuu

    mate his motives as a prince and politician , w , ms , pronounced him the greatest soldier of his age ; Napoleon ranked him among bhe ' eight beat general the arorld had seen . His success was not irregular and accidental , but uniform and , so to speak , systematic . But the Germans , and Cromwell , and the . French , and even the Danes , have ascribed to him an inordinate lust of power . Richelieu" and the Catholics have doubted the purity of his principles of toleration . Mr . Chapman does not claim for him any superior religious liberality , nor does lie deny the charge of ambition , though he argues , BritK justice , that the ambition of Gustavus Adolphus was not the violent and lawless ambition that has tempted other conquerors to ravage and enslave the mrorld . It may be conceded that he did dream of establishing a dynasty of Sweden on the throne of the German Empire ; that he proposed not only to Ittett the princes of the CatkoUc League , but to subordinate them to himself ; and though it is always a diifioult question how far even tho highest genius can be permanently successful when opposed by great military and political alii-Burvivea uauio ui

    ances , it may oe believed tnat uustavus , naa ne me umzcu , would have brought the Thirty Years' War to a termination very different from the peace of Westphalia . That battle , which cut short his career , did not put ajHmd at once to his influence on the general mind of Europe . WaUcnfltein s reWwang forces carried witli them the terrors of the dead king , who left , under tb ^ iotaomand of Mb own generals and those of his allies , seven well-appointed armierin ? th 4 field , iand couquests extending over nearly two-thirds of Germany , —* its best cities and most considerable rivers . He had exhausted the powers of the League j-the German nation scarcely reckoned him as its oppressor ; all Europe was weary of the conflict that was turning a vast and fertile region into a wilderogas . Some largtf . cltiea had been utterly rained—almost utterly depopulated . Three hundred dilapidated , and deserted houses in Nordheim and Gottingen showed that the Imperialist * had marched that way . The inhabitants of Hesse were retraced to a quarter 6 f their fbrmer numbers ; those of Augsburg from eighty to eighteen thousand : the soldiers mutilated the peasantry , tho peasantry the

    soldiers , with reciprocal brutality .. I or these afl | iptipiia tUft JUeagHfirs pretended to holdGustavus . Adolp ^ Tis responsible , tkough , t % ey . of course ,, had cliallenffed the war by their gigantic scheines of religious " reaction , ' and perpetuate ^ it * Bv their obstinacy . To Gustavus , on the other hand , it was , mainly awing -that nlitigations of jofllitiiBal despotism were introdtlced intti'th ' ePalMijoiate' thafe the rights of the Protestants were ¦¦ placed under fair securities ; tn « it the Thirtv Years' War , indeed , was not , in its resnlts ^ as during its ebntinuahce , a curse to Germany and to the northern kingdoms . ' To his 1 humanity , also ; it was dtie that the Swedes and their aUies' did not retaliate tike cruelties of the ImperiaHst troops . They were forbidden to molest women or children , to slay the wounded or to refuse quarter , to commit unnecessary ravages , or to pillage such towns as consented to pay a moderate ransom . . . _ . .-. Even at PrankforVthoughtlie Swedish soldiers , embittered and infuriated by the ruthless sack of Brandenburg , converted their victory into , a ; slaueliter . e \ aM

    hundred prisoners were taken and spared ; only one unarmed citizen AvaskttlecL and that by his own fault ; no woman suffered violence . At Magdeburg a month after , when the Imperialist triumph was complete , the horrors that followed were long the reproach of the German army . The _ noble Tilly , it is truie , may be exonerated from the etumrious crime ; but his discipline was lax . '' lie did not , in imitation of Gustavus , dash sword in hand among his troops , and punish even plunderers . Indeed , he was less habituated than his great rival to act a personal part in battles and sieges . As he told Marshal Grammont ^ he gained several decisive actions without firing a pistol ; while Gustavus laboured m the field , galloped with his cavalry when it charged the most formidable points of the enemyf s line , and was , at once , a trooper and a general . \>

    ma miutary aisposiuons were cpnsunamai-e . jx . jutsijysiu il was xue opinion of most generals of the period that he could not have failed after his arrangement of his troops in front of the Imperial army : — The shallowxiess of the files seemed , indeed , to , render them less aTjle to resist an impetuous charge than those of the enemy , which were twice as deep . Bat the conrage of the troops ^ supplied the place of material solidity ; and the files being so comparatively shallow , artillery made less havoc atnorig them . Then , again , the division of the army into small maniples , -with corisiderahle intervals between each , gave space for evolutions , and the power of throwing the troops With rapidity wherever their services or support might be fonnd requisite during the vicissitudes of the engagement . The quaint old author of the " Swedish Discipl ine" sums up in this way the merits of the king's new order of : bottle : —

    " Upon the sight of it on the map you will readily make this judgment : that one part so fences , so backs , so flanks another—is so ready , to second , . to . ; relieve another , so apt either to send out succours or to receive into their hinder wards or ranks a » y of their former fellows that shall happen to be overlaid , that the whole army looks like some impregnable city with its bastiles , its towers , its bulwarks , and several retreats about it , so that well may the men be killed , but very hardly shall the whole order be routed . And of this We have experience in this battle , where there was not , that I can find , any one regiment put to flight but Collenbach ' sonly . The less marvel , then , it is if ' God with tis' and this order of embattling , invented by this new but royal captain , gave so full an overthrow to the eldest and best general in the world . " Mr . Chapman ' s historv . however , is by no means a military work . It includes

    everypoint of political interest associated with the career of Gustavus . After a brief but luminous summary of the events that took place in Sweden from the death of the great Gustavus Yasa to the accession of Gnstavus Adolphus , he devotes a chapter to the account of his youth , his education , his early exploits and indications of character , his love of the beautiful Ebba Brahe , whom he lost by an act of inconstancy , and his comfortless marriage with Eleonora of Brandenburg . Mr . Chapman here sketches the portrait of Gustavus : — He was at this time still slight , tall , and well proportioned , with fair and almost golden hair , a beard inclining to brown , an aquiline nose , and a countenance whose pale gravity was tempered with great sweetness of expression . In addition to these advantages of person , and to what in female estimation was perhaps a still greater charm , -his reputation for enterprise and bravery , he was remarkably eloquent , and spoke with the frankness that belongs to constitutional courage , and the ardour which an exquisite sense of beauty , moral and physical , kindles on the tongue .

    After the king ' s death , Mr . Chapman writes : — In his latter years , indeed , ho no longer possessed the graceful form that had belonged to him when he was the ardent and favoured suitor of Ebba Brahe '; but the slight inclination to corpulency that grew with him as he advanced towards middle age detracted probably little , if at all , from the commanding dignity of his person . His countenance to the last retained its captivating sweetness and expressive variety . It was a countenance of which the most accomplished pencil could give in one effort only an inadequate idea , and which Vandyke—to whose portrait of the king none of the engravings which I have seen , probably , do justice—has represented only in repose . - This is an excellent history , worthy to be ranked with the best foreign bioffraphies of Gustavus . It is more authentic than Mauyillon s , more impartial than GfrOrer ' s , and incomparably better than the English compilation by Harte .

    The Doctrine Of Inspiration. The Doctrin...

    THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION . The Doctrine of Inspiration : Being an Enquiry Concerning the Infallibility , Inspiration , and Authority of Holy Writ . By the Rev . John Macnaught , M . A ., Oxon ., Incumbent of St . Chrysostom ' e Church , Everton , Liverpool . Longman nnd Co . Evn > EFTr . -r a great change is taking place in the minds and spirits of many teachers of dogmatic religion in tho present day . We have already had to notice the vast advances towards a free and liberal interpretation of the liiDio made by such men as Professor Maurice and Mr . Jowctt , and we have no doubt that numbers would be read y to accompany them in their mild heresy , had they the courage to front the indignation and censure of the arcli to include in tho record tno

    oracles of church authority . We have now opinions of another priest of the national church , who not satisfied in conscience that the Scriptures are infallible , has had the boldness to follow tne doubt even to the end , undaunted by nny , inferences he was compelled to draw , nnd unawed by such talismanic terms as " inspiration" and * ' ennonicity . " Tho result obtained by this process is that Mr . Macnaught feels his mind more at rest , and declares himself ready to maintain , against an comers , that the authority of the Scriptures is strengthened by his view of the case . Mr . Macnaught -very cleverly argues that tho numerous errors , astronomical , geological , historical , chronological , and moral , which it contains , militate at once against its infallibility and against ita inspiratwt according to tho general acceptation of that term ; whilst its catwimty w

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 21, 1856, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21061856/page/20/