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    K 6 tells you that- St . PauPs precept as to submission was not general , but a special tribute to the comparative beneficence of the government of Nero , ; 32 he provinces , no doubt , -were far better off under the lieutenants of the Emperor than under the senatorial accomplices of Verres . But were they better off than they would have been under a free national government ? Was Athens under Nero as happy , we will not say as great , as Athens under Pericles ? We must decide this before we can say whether the provincials conld sincerely worship a ... monster of humanity as a God . Gibbon owns that his authorities are somewhat rhetorical . We have a record of the social state of Judea : and "there we see taxes and tolls which made the name of publican an abomination , unjust judges , a soldiery which did violence , accused falsely , and were not content with their wages , a people of lazarsand the wilderness not for his doc

    mendicants , ready to follow a teacher into , - trine , but for a little bread ; this people , goaded by insult and oppression into rebellion after rebellion , till they are massacred or banished , and their land made desolate . Trajan and the Antonines may have called governors to a severe account , but did Nero , Heliogabalus , or Didius Julianus ? We know that a reform of the farmers-general was still necessary in the time of Antoninus Pius . And though Mr . Congreve tells us that the emperors never failed to exercise their veto on oppression throughout the empire , Juvenal qualifies this statement with his " Exsul ab octavo Marius Mbit et Jrmtur Dis Jratis , at tu victrix provincia ploras . Confiscations alone , without the plunder of provinces , would scarcely have sufficed for the delirium of imperial luxury , the insanities of imperial architecture , the largesses to the praetoriansthe pattern * t drcences of the mob of Rome .

    , The last item , of imperial expenditure gives Mr . Congreve a pretext for sanctifying as socialist , . and contrasting with governments which are unable to cure strikes , the power which robbed of their harvests the industrious peasants of Libya ahdEgypt , to feed in perpetual idleness the population of the ' capital . It was a still more signal instance of socialistic tendencies to batcher provincial gladiators by thousands for the amusement of the same population . After ( this we are not surprised to see the title of " Imperial Socialism of France" given to a power which rose by an anti-socialist cry , and sent the Socialists to Cayenne . It would be irrational to rejoice in the Empire merely because it degraded and butchered the aristocracy , as it is to approve the choice of such a monster as Marius as 1 ihe leader of the popular party . The Empire degraded

    and butchered the aristocracy indeed , but in abolishing its political dignity , ifcdid not abolish its social evils , or abate its selfish luxury . The Koman milliozmaires and slave-owners under a Trajan were as happy as the nobles of Versailles : under a Domitian they were panic-stricken and miserable ,- but they were never anything but slave-owners and millionnaires . The proletariat , even by Mr . Congreve ' s showing , was not elevated ; the class of fteeholders did not revive . In nothing but vengeance were theCassars the true heirs of the Gracchi . Circumstances more than imperial edicts softened the condition of slavery , but half the population of the Empire still remained slaves . As to the armies , whLch with the nobles , the proletariat , and the slaves make ud the tncture of floman society , who does not see that the loyalty and

    discipline of the troops on the frontier was a relic of the Kepiibhc , and that of the Empire came the turbulence and licence of the praetorians , and the utter decay of patriotism , and with it of military spirit , which gradually left civilisation a defenceless prey to the barbarians . To speak briefly , if the government of the Caesars was the best of governments , why did not -the world improve under it ? Why , in spite of the infusion of Christianity , did society , and its moral and material forces , perpetually decline ? The Roman Empire , however , was at all events a necessity , or nearly a necessityof the particular case . It was a relief to the conquered ; it was a

    , retribution to the conquerors . It bound a harassed and discordant world together in the quiet of decay . But by what rule is the same remedy to be applied to usvwho have never been proscribed by a Sylla , or p lundered by a Verres ? " Because , " « ays Mr . Congreve , " every society in which we find aggregated many smaller ones , of sufficient size themselves to be independent societies—to make my meaning clear , all such states as the larger kingdoms of modern Europe , with . no exception as to our own country—« re not . fit subjects for fehe constitutional system . " Great Britain then ought to change constitutions with St . Domingo , since the first falls within the definition of incapacity , and the second does not .

    ; It is not the faint and false analogy , offered by the nations of the United Kingdom to the nations of the Koman Empire that really actuates Mr . Ooogreve , as appears ( from what he says afterwards . It is the desire ho has for a Dictator to give immediate effect to his theories , without the checks of a constitutional uystem , and carry us through what he calls our present transitional state to the new organisation of society based on industry—an industry which , in passing , we pray may be that of the brain as well as of the hand . A transition latrting from the battle of Actium till now , in apite of ! five centuries of the Western , . and fourteen of the Eastern Empire , and plenty of despotism besides , begins to verge on rthe indefinite . But it is necessary , before instituting a " provisional" Dictatorship , to know exactly what the term is to be . It is necessary , in short , to know what this new organisation of society based on industry , / and which we are to attain through

    military despotism , is , that all may recognise its advent . Otherwise the Lour will strike , the sociologist , or ithe high prieBt of a new church of science will announce it , and the provisional Dictator will send him to be * ried as a parrioide before the / tribunal of the Seine . Seated at Versailles qr Windsor , with guards , loads in waiting , and an unlimited command of money , the provisional will have a strong tendency to become permanent in opite of science and of fate . And this difficulty of deposition reminds us of the equal difficulty of the succession , which Mr . Congreve feels and tries in vain to surmount . The Roman monarchy , he truly observes , was not hereditary . It went in the family of the Cseaars , though not by direct descent , so long as that race remained . But afterwards it became elective , adoptive , insurrectionary as often' as either , legitimute succession like that of Domitian and Commodus being the exception . Mr . Congreve seems to suggest that each monarch

    might choose his successor among . the-members of his own family without regard to primogeniture . He must be sanguine if he expects any one family to produce in each generation a man fitted to be master of his kind . But even if it were so , how often would the merit of the Germanicus or Britannicus prevail against the family intrigues of the Livias and Agrippinas ? During the happy epoch from Nerva to Marcus Antoninus the emperors were adoptive ; but to resort to adoption , a king must be without an heir , which was more li kely to happen with Roman morality than withours . As to election , it is an intelligible principle , but it is incompatible with absolutism-. -Absolutism has an invincible tendency to found a dynasty by the aid of its praetorians . Let us take warning from the Imperial Socialism of France . The tendency to hereditary succession was always visible even in the Roman Empire ; an d this , like all other corrupt tendencies , would be aggravated in a modern empire by association and connexion with its fellows . It is very important to romember that the Roman Empire stood alone .

    In vain does Mr . Congreve hope to correct political despotism by instituting an independent spiritual power , and dividing the functions of God an d the Executive , which were combined in Xero . As to priesthoods , we see how far they are correctives of despotism . As to science and opinion , to advance and prevail they must have free utterance and free discussion , which will often shake the throne , and which he who has the power of the sword may stop , by applying it to the larynx . Mr . Congreve excuses some of the persecutions of the early Christians , on the ground that the emperors regarded Christianity as mutiny . But ' are not the simplest principles of morality and humanity a mutiny against Nero ? Let us appeal once more to the example of France , where the Dictator , fresh upon his throne , destroys the independence of the Academy , which even legitimate despotism treated with chivalrous respect . Insurrections of opinion are the most dangerous of all insurrections ; but they will be put down by the praetorians , whom opinion does not reach so long as they are supplied with champagne and sausages , and who are therefore " the true nobility of France . "

    To demand a dictator is , in a modest way , to demand that your own opinions shall be absolute . The Russian and Austrian autocracies , the legitimate succession having been broken in both , answer , so far as we can see , to Mr . Congreve ' s idea of the true type of government ; but probably he would reject them both , as he would have rejected Charles the First , though with an independent spiritual power in the shape of Laud . We have all dreamed of the government of an allwise despot , that is , of a despot who agrees in all things with ourselves . But Providence , curis acuens morlalia corda , has willed that the allwise man shall not be found , and that mankind shall not dispense themselves from political responsibility and political action . When they try to do so , they are smitten with the decrepitude of Rome and Paraguay . We hope we have not in any respect misunderstood Mr . Congreve . From the nature of his work he is led to throw out his strong remarks rather

    loosely , as though to see what you will make of them . We are always grateful for a strong remark when it comes from a man of Mr . Congreve ' s intellect , and we have made the best we could of those he has given us . He will see that his book , if not true , ought to be answered without other compliments than those which his great ability and courageous honesty demand . _ It treats of no speculative or antiquarian theme . Imperialism is fast becoming the practical creed of many who once owned a better faith . Disgusted , and justly disgusted with the inefficiency of our existing system , they hasten to place in the hands of a single man , selected they know not how , the power which no single man is fit to hold , and which no wise and good man would desire to hold—a power which a Louis Napoleon eagerly grasps , which a Cromwell constantly struggled to resign .

    Untitled Article

    RHYMES AND VERSES . The Golden Age , and other Poems . By Alexander Gouge . A . Hall , Virtue , and Co . Lays and Lyi-ics . By C . Rae Brown . A . 11 * 11 , Virtue , ami Co . Blanche de Bourbon . By W . II . Jonea . Hookhani and boas . Abdul Medjid , and other Poems . By II . B . Macdonald . Groombndge and Sons . Ex Ererno . By H . G . Keene . W . Blackwood and buns . Volumes of verse , not so remarkable as to demand separate or instant attention , nor so destitute of any plen , good or bad , as to fall an early and defenceless prey to the waste-paper basket , constantl y accumulate on our and the Avant 01

    table ; and from time to time we are moved by conscience elbow-room , to dispose of these volumes in a batch . With one exception , the batch to be cleared away this week falls considerably short ol tne average merit . Mr . Alexander Gouge , who dedicates his Golden Ayr , ami other Poems , to the Earl of Carlisle , tells us , in his preface—which here ami there brings to mind the preface to Ferinilian—that " the Golden A ( jc , placed first on the list , as being the most classical theme and the longest ( though it may profiabbj prove the least popular ) piece of the whole , is uouuiless a more suitable subject for an Epic Poem ; " but that « it was foreign to his purpose to mould it into that shape . " This , of course , s . lem-os a i cavil in the matter . Taking Mr . Gouge's kindly hint about the > Golden Ay , we skip that poem , and come at the minor pioces , for which , if we unuustand him aright , he anticipates comparative popularity . Here are tjoii t eventually popular veraos , written by Mr . Gouge in . a young lady a aiuuiu " On her leaving S " : — Sweet maid ! Ere yet our loan we grieve—Our lovely guest resign , — Oh ! that 1 could a garland weave To dock a brow like thine I I would not aim ( my skill above , ) To paint thy gentle eye , Lit up with genitiH , beaming love , And virgin modesty—Thy beauty—Bweet as Summer ' s roso—With native grace refined—Thy woinnn ' n heart—the mien that glows , TJio Index of tho Mind . —

    Untitled Article

    ^ gg 1 EE LEA 3 > £ ER . _] &atubi > ay .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1855, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2090/page/18/