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    GOG AND MAGOG.*

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    M. VILLEMAIN AND THE PAPAL QUESTION.*

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    a false notion of his power , his importance , or his honour , and cannot be offended when he has to exclaim , —

    " Eh quoi ! j ' apprends que Ton critique . Iai de queprecedemou nom . " Ifc is one of the great privileges of our peerage that its ranks are from time to . time recruited by new men , and these new men , judiciously selected , do . add'to'its -strength .. and lustre . Beyond these soldiers and law lords , the assembly is composed of large-acred squires , gentlemen of noble birth , with handles to their names , who are hereditary legislators , and who , by their place and station , and by their weight and example , do certainly refine us , and win us from the mere worship of worldly success , money , notoriety , and other base ends to which a country without a higher class seems always to run . If we cannot bow down , as many do , to mere rank , remembering not , with Disraeli , that the best blood of the country runs in the veins of its peasantry , but that we , too , are men of good lineage , and , above all , Englishmen , we may still regard the

    peerage with some deference . We should be as far from the senseless animosity of the demagogue , as from the wholesale subservience of the sycophant . We , too , have our class . If we sometimes hear of silly lectures being given by lords , and of silly mediaeval retrogressive speeches being made " by them , of sentiments avowed by them , which make it an anomaly for the same feudal baron , with feudal title and feudal pride , to travel on a , railway invented by one of the people which he despises and would trample on ^ rwe must remember that others of the class are men of very high bearing , patrons of learning , of liberty , and of art ; that that very feudal pride aided , us against the tyranny of priest and" king ; that it is still'the-natural -element of ; an important part in our constitution , keeps . us from many whimsical and popular follies , and gives the world a living proof of the love of order and law possessed by the people , and of the stability of" our England's institutions .

    let us also remember that if the forms of greatness change from age to age , that the spirit in those forms remains the same , and that the warrior of former times re-appears as the great orator of the present day ; and as in the really pure race of Stanley , the next generation may furnish a true statesman , ; who ,, combining-, the tastes oft he aristocracy with the large-hearted and wise ¦ liberality of the people , may-greatly help the nation on to a completer civilization .

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    ft ~ V \ T HY should I play the Eomaji fool , and die on mine own Vr sword p" These words of Shakespeare inighfc be very appropriately put into the mouth of M . Villeniain , and in fact of all the French liberals who are indiscreet enough to espouse the cause of the Pope against the Emperor , and to maintain the illegality or iniquity of any attempt-to . wrest'from the Father of the faithful the government of a people whose liberty he unceasingly , represses . M . Villemahi , in his antipathy to the pi-esent rule in his own country , draws his sword on behalf of the . troubled Pontiff upon . the Emperor , and forgets that if imperial despotism is pernicious and detestable , papal despotism is far more so . He is evidently conscious of all the traced to want of freedom

    evils in Franco which may be justly , and yet would prevent the recovery of freedom by the oppressed Italians . Here is an opportunity of overthrowing one tyranny at least , and we should have anticipated that the liberal party would have eagerly seized it ; but on the contrary , we have now before us a pamphlet by one . of its most learned and distinguished members , in which ia set forth an elaborate advocacy of the papal pretensions . Perhaps it is only another instance of the recognised truth , that distress makes the sufferer solfiah and envious . If France cannot be free , then let Italy too remain enslaved . The mistake of this policy is apparent . The sooner Italy is liberated , the sooner will France aha / e its liberty . The object of the writer ' s attack is the famous hrochuro of " Le J ? av > e at le Congrhs ; " and the lino of argument which M . Villomaiu

    takes up is that , any interference with the extent of the papal dominions is illegitimate , sis being an infringement of all principles of international law . If the territory of the Holy See , ho argues , is not inviolable , what gu ' ivrunioQ has any Power that some stronger Power or combination of Powers may not strip it of its most valunblo possessions P The title of the Pope to the sovereignty of the States of the Church is as well founded and ns indisputable as that of any potentate in Europe to his hereditary crown . Whence have certain powers derived the most important territorial augmentations F From treaties . And whence has the Holy See received ita temporal aggrandisement P From treaties . Why then , asks M . Villomain , shall theso treaties be regarded in one case as sacred and inviolable , and in the other as so much wuate-pnper P

    obstinacy , not inferior to that with which . Pius VII . opposed Napoleon I ., and Gregory VII . the Emperor Henry IV . On the whole , we may consider this reply inadequate to " Le Pope et U Congres , "in spite of the inconsequential and singularly imperfect character of the latter production . M . Villemain has failed to demonstrate the proposition on which his whole argument is based , arid the reader remains unconvinced that the Pope hits any right whatever to hold a sway repugnant to the entire body of his subjects ; and he has failed equally in showing that what a Congress has given a Congress may not take away . In one point he takes , a very allowable opportunity of administering a rebuke to the cant- — for we can call it little else , coming from such a souree—of the author of the obnoxious pamphlet , who , it will ' . be remembered , urges that a large state ought and must give room for tho ¦ " generous activities of public life , * ' to which M . Villemaiii thus retorts : " This is a theory of by no means constant application . We might ask , in fact , whether political life exists for all large states , whether it is thriving amongst them , whether they all have those ' generous activities of public life' to which the author alludes ; or whether there are not , on the contrai-y , some very great states in which this public life is peculiarly repressed ; " ( p . 13 . ) This is hard hitting ^ M . Villemain ' s pamphlet is an indication that an entire and sweeping abolition of the temporal power of the Holy See would not encounter more determined opposition than will its partial deprivation proposed in " Le IB ape et le Congres . "

    Such is the general bearing of tho writer's argument . Ifc is specious enough , and it is supported , as might have boon expected from so erudite an author , by a varioty of quotations from historiuns , philosophers , and ecclesiastics , from Amniiaiiufl Murcellinus down to Pius VII . The spirited resistance of the laat-nained pontiff to the ( ivst Napoleon , and the fearless demand for his restoration to liberty made by the National Council of French bishops in 1311 , are described iii terms of i&oalous admiration , and sundry allusjons t . p" Gregory VII . may give riao to tho suspicion that M . Villemain intended his pimiphlot to bo not Only a controversial reply to " Lo JPapo ct le Congrbs , " but also an exhortation to the Holy Father to holu hia own ( or rather what is not his own ) with an immovable

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    W E are not ashamed to confess that we belong to that class of persons for whom Mr . Fairholt has . written this leained and entei-taining little volume . We had , indeed , a vague notion that musty records must exist in pur city archives concerning the history of those doughty and highly painted , giants , who from their lofty pedestals beside the c ' iock have looked down upon so many banquets and festivals ; but we had no idea of who was Gog , who Magog , or why they were selected for those eminent positions . Mr .. Fairholt has . ¦ ¦ ¦ diligently and . long inquired into , this matter ; has sought for light in the histories of other civic giants on the Continent and elsewhere ; has illustrated his subject by inquiries far and wide into the curious subject of giants ; and has at . length furnished us with what may be sought for in vain in the pages of Stow , Howel , Strype , Northouck , Maitlaud , Seymour , ' Pennant , and all other Historians of London—a history of Gog arid Magog ,

    Let us at once g * et rid of a popular terror which the very title of Mr . Fairholt ' s- book might help to confirm . The giants are properly not Gog and Magog at all ; for although in Some ancient stories their names are so written , the best legendary history -informs us that the name of the one is Gqgmagog , and of the ^ other Corinzeus . So often have we gazed upon those mysterious figures when we were boys , and had no bttter recreation in the occasional holiday of an ancient City school than to loiter in Guildhall ,, that we do not hesitate to say that Coririaous is the giant standing with spear and shield upon the right hand side of the spectator as he looks towards the great western window in the Hall . Goginagog is he who , with reverent benrd and quiver full of arrows , and with ti pole in his hand , at the end whereof is a chain and spiked ball , stands in the corresponding corner .

    Their history is this : According to " Ca ' xton s Chronicle of England , " the Emperor Dioclesiim . had three and thirty daughters , of remarkably strong minds ; for whom , to get rid of them , he obtained three and thirty husbands . Tho ladies , rebelling , agreed to slay a . husband apiece and be free ; which done , their father , to punish them for their crimes , sent all to sea in one vessel , with s . months' provisions . After long sailing , they reached an island , which they named Albion , after the name of the eldest lady . The island , we must suppose , though since become remarkably populous , was then scarcely inhabited : but the Evil One , feeling a special interest in these refractory ladies , provided them with visionary husbands , the result whereof was a numerous progeny of horrible giants , who ruled over this land for many a day . So thing * went on , according to another version , until Unite , of whom wo read in

    •• Geoffrey of Monmouth , " and in " Milton , " having , got foot in Englund , and being prepared to ' improve the Hamo , as am earnest -reformer , was opposed in all his schemes by Albion , the rton of the lady of that name , and his brother giants , who then tyrannised over the isle , and wore in fact tho Conservatives and country party of thoao days . With huge clubs of knotty oak , battle-axes ' , whirlbats of iron , and globes full of spikes ,, the giants came on . After various fortune , tho men of huge stature wore by a stratagem overthrown , and pursued into Cornwall , whore Oorintous rulod . Albion was slain by Brute , fighting hand to hand , and hia two brothers , Gpg and Magog , otherwise Gogmagog and Corinseus , giants of vast bulk , were tulcon prisoners and loci in' triumph to tho place whore now London stands . Upon those risings upon the aide of the river Thames , Unite founded a city , and , building a palace where Guildhall stands , caused the two giants to bo chained to the gate of it us porters . It is in ^ memory of this , according to tho legends , tjijat theiV effigies *' stand ' to this duy in Guildhall . We niuat not , however , disguise tho fact that history is obscure and frequently con * tradiotory on these points . According to old Gboffroy of itfonmouth , Gotfinngog was n horrible monster , whomCoriniuti . i , to aniline the Court ! ofKing Unite , slow in single combat ; and now wo look again at Gog-

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    90 The Leader and Sahirday Analyst . [" Jan . 28 , 1860 .

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    * La Franco , l'Bmpiro , ot liv Papauto , Question do Droit PuMlo . Par M . Villonmin , Moinbre do l'Institut . Purls , , 1000 .

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    * &off and Mtwoff i the Giants in Oulldhnlf , their Jtval mid T , et / c > ultn \ ij JXhtorj / . By V . \ V . Faiiujom . ' . London s J . 0 , Hott « n .

    Gog And Magog.*

    GOG AND MAGOG . *

    M. Villemain And The Papal Question.*

    M . VILLEMAIN AND THE PAPAL QUESTION *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 90, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2331/page/14/