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exhibiting his superiority to his keepers in this department of literature. The King's devotions then occupied him for a considerable period in his closet, and he retired to rest at an early hour, with a degree of languid composure surprising to witness in one so circumstanced, and which never seems to have deserted him even in the last extremity.

Such was the daily life of the vanquished King, varied only by such a public reception as the present, when his earlier glories seemed to flicker up once more in an illusive flash ere they were quenched in darkness for ever.

We have left Sir Giles and his fair charges in an inner-hall, which led directly to the presence of Royalty.

This chamber, lined with beautifully carved oak, and adorned with escutcheons and other heraldic devices, presented a quaint and pleasing appearance, not out of keeping with the rustling dames and plumed gallants that crowded its polished floor. In its centre stood three carved pyramids, of which the middle overtopped its two supporters by several feet; and around this shrine of heraldry were emblazoned the different coats of arms of the nobility and gentry of the surrounding districts.

At the further extremity of the hall stood a high wooden screen, such as in cathedrals portions off the altar from the nave, wrought into elaborate and fantastic ornaments, in which the grotesque nature of the imagery was only equalled by the excellence of the carv ing; and as the recess behind this framework communicated directly with the Presence-chamber, Maxwell, the Usher of the Black Rod, was here stationed to announce the names of those loyal gentlefolks who came to pay their respects to his Majesty.

It reminds one of Whitehall,' whispered Mary to Sir Giles, as the latter delivered their names in the subdued and reverential whisper becoming the atmosphere of a Court, only there are some ludicrous figures amongst the ladies' dresses," she added, womanlike, with a downward glance of satisfaction

at her own well-chosen costume, and another of admiration at her companion's beautiful figure.

Sir Giles did not answer. He was thinking of the many Royal receptions he had attended during the troubles, and how each after each seemed thinner of the old familiar faces, the hearty friends and good blades that had hedged their Sovereign round with a wall of steel in vain; whose bones were strewed far and wide over the surface of merry England; whose estates were gone, their families scattered, their hearths desolate. How few were left now! and those few, like himself, rusty, worn-out, disused, yet retaining the keen temper of the true steel to the last.

Welcome, Sir Giles,' whispered Maxwell, a courtier of forty years' standing, who had spent many a merry hour with the old knight under this very roof in days of yore, and who, albeit a man of peace from his youth upward, showed the marks of Time as plainly on his wrinkled face and snowy locks as did his more adventurous comrade, without however attaining the dignified and stately bearing of the veteran warrior. Welcome! The King spoke of you but yesterday. His Majesty will be indeed glad to see you. Fair ladies, you may enter at once. The dragon that watched over the gardens of the Hesperides neglected his post under the dazzling rays of beauty, whilst he was but Jupiter's Usher of the Black Rod!'

Maxwell esteemed himself only second to his royal master in classical lore, and piqued himself on two things in the world-the whiteness of his laced ruffles and the laborious pedantry of his compliments.

Grace smiled. What a formi. dable dragon!' she whispered, with an arch glance at the ancient courtier, that penetrated through brocade and embroidery-aye, and a flannel bulwark against rheumatism -to his susceptible old heart. Such shafts were never aimed at him in vain, but invariably reached their mark. Need we add that Maxwell was a confirmed bachelor of many years' standing?

Grace pursed up her pretty mouth into an expression of the gravest decorum, for she had now entered

1859.]

Oxford and Holmby-a Contrast.

the magic circle, of which the centre was the King.

It was indeed a sad contrast to the assembly she remembered so well at Merton College. Where were the Newcastles, the Winchesters, and the Worcesters ?-the brilliant aristocracy that had once formed the brightest jewels of the Crown? Where was Ormond's sagacious courage and Rupert's ready gallantry Lichfield's goodly person and Sir Jacob Astley's fine old war-worn face? Where were the nobility and the chivalry of England? Alas! not here in Holmby, rallying round their king; and therefore dead, scattered, and swept away from the face of the earth.

Constrained and gloomy countenances surround him now, instead of those frank haughty fronts that quailed not before a Sovereign's eye, but ever greeted him with manly looks of loyalty and friendship-faces in which he could confide, and before which it was no shame even for a monarch to unbend. His manner, always stately, has now become gloomy and reserved to the extreme of coldness. He cannot but be aware that every word of his lips, every glance of his eye, is watched with the utmost vigilance, noted down, and in all probability reported for the behoof of his bitterest enemies; yet must he never betray his consciousness of surveillance-must never for an instant lose his judgment and selfcommand.

'Twas but this very morning that, taking his accustomed exercise abroad, accompanied by MajorGeneral Browne and the devout Carrill, whose zeal to convert his sovereign never suffered him to be absent a moment from his side, a poor squalid woman, carrying a child in her arms, marked and scarred with that scrofulous disease which, though its superstitious remedy has been long ago discarded, bears to this day the name of 'king's evil,' approached the person of her Sovereign, and begged him, in tones of piteous appeal, only to touch her child, that it might be healed. Poor woman! she had watched and waited, and dodged the park-keepers, and stilled her own panting heart many a weary

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hour, ere she could penetrate to the King's presence; and she pleaded earnestly now, for she had implicit faith in the remedy.

Charles, ever merciful, ever kindly, and, like all his family, ever goodnatured, listened patiently to the poor woman's tale; and whilst he bestowed on her a broad piece or two, borrowed from the General for the occasion, stretched forth his own royal hand to heal the whining infant of its malady.

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Hold, woman!' exclaimed Carrill, indignantly interposing his person between the royal physician and the little sufferer. "Wouldst thou blaspheme before the very face of a minister of the Word? Who can heal save He alone, whose servants we are? And thou, sire!' he added, turning roughly upon the King, what art thou that thou shouldest arrogate to thyself the issues of life and death? Thou-a man ! a worm!-a mere insect crawling on the face of the earth! Away with thee, Charles Stuart ! in shame and penitence, lest a worse thing befal thee! Have we not read the Scriptures ?-do they not enjoin us to "fear God ?" "

And honour the king," added Charles, very quietly, and passing his hand gently over the child's forehead. Carrill sank back abashed, and the Major-General gave vent to his indignation in a volley of stifled oaths, which, Parliamentarian though he was, his military education called up at this instance of what he was pleased to term in his mutterings, a conceited parson's insubordination, worthy of the strappado!'

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The King's gloomy countenance, however, broke into a melancholy smile when he recognised the honest face of Sir Giles Allonby advancing into the presence. made a step forward, and extending both hands as the old Cavalier sank upon his knee, raised him to his feet, and led him a little aside from the surrounding throng, as though anxious to distinguish him by some especial mark of his royal favour. The devoted Royalist's whole face brightened at this instance of his Sovereign's condescension, and Sir Giles looked ten years younger for the moment as he basked in

the rays of this declining sun of royalty.

Express to good Lord Vaux our sympathy and sorrow for his malady, which confines him thus to his chamber. He must indeed be ill at ease when he fails to attend our Court, as well we know. Tell him that we will ourselves visit him ere long at his own good house at Boughton. Hark ye, Sir Giles! I have heard much of the excellence of your bowling-green yonder; we will play a set once more for a broad piece, as we did long ago, in days that were somewhat merrier than these are now.'

He sighed as he spoke; and Sir Giles professed himself, as indeed he was, overpowered at the condescension of his sovereign.

The King warmed to the subject. He could interest himself in trifles still.

The green below these windows,' said he, is so badly levelled that the bowl runs constantly against the bias. Even my Lord Pembroke can make nothing of it, and you and I can remember him, Sir Giles, many a point better than either of

us.

'Tis a game I love well,' added Charles, abstractedly; and yet methinks 'tis but a type of the life of men-and kings. How many are started fair upon their object with the surest aim and the best intentions; how few ever reach the goal. How the bias turns this one aside, and the want of force lets another die out in mid career, and an inch more would make a third the winner, but that it fails at the last hair'sbreadth. That is the truest bowl that can best sustain the rubs of the green. 'Tis the noblest heart that scorns to escape from its crosses, but can endure as well as face the ills of life

Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere vitam,

Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest.'

Very true, your Majesty-quite correct,' observed the delighted Sir Giles, whose Latin had been long effaced by far more important pur

suits.

Everything shall be ready for your Majesty and in order. We cannot thank your Majesty enough.' The old Cavalier was quite overcome by his emotion.

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And this is your daughter,' pursued Charles, gravely and courteously saluting the young lady, who followed close upon her father's steps; a fair flower from a stanch old stem; and Mistress Mary Cave too, whom I rejoice once more to welcome to my Court.' But a cloud passed across the King's brow as he spoke, and the deep melancholy expression darkened his large eyes as Mary's face recalled to him the light of happier days and the image of his absent Queen. He turned from them with a sigh, and they passed on, whilst a fresh arrival and a fresh presentation took their place. His great-grandfather or his son would have detained somewhat longer in conversation the two fairest ladies that adorned the Court; but Charles I. was as insensible to female beauty as James V. and Charles II. were too dangerously susceptible of its attractions.

The party from Boughton sauntered through the lofty apartments of the palace, and entered into conversation with such of their friends and acquaintance as had passed through the Presence Chamber. Then the heavy coach once more lumbered through the courtyard, and they returned the way they

came.

Sir Giles was in high spirits at the anticipation of his Majesty's visit, and talked of nothing else the whole way home. Mary, contrary to her wont, looked pale and tired, whilst Grace seemed somewhat abstracted and occupied with her own thoughts.

As they traversed Brampton-ford they both looked for the strange fisherman, but he was nowhere to be seen. The river stole on quiet and undisturbed, its surface burnished into gold by the hot afternoon sun, and rippled only by the kiss of the stooping swallow, or the light track of the passing water-fly.

1859.]

SIR,

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SOME REMARKS ON MR. BUCKLE'S HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION.'

TO THE EDITOR OF

IR,-The following remarks, drawn up soon after the publication of Mr. Buckle's work, have been laid by ever since. It was presumed that they would prove unnecessary; that justice would be done to the special topics which they regard by those critics who should undertake the entire work. Under a mixed impression that this has not been done; that it ought to have been done; and that these observations result from sincere convictions, the author gives them their present place.

Of the views in Mr. Buckle's History of Civilization in England which have been called in question, there are three fundamentally important, on which it appears to me that some further comment than any that I have yet seen is somewhat urgently asked for. These I may briefly describe as Mr. Buckle's views on the question of free will; on the applicability of metaphysics to the study of mental laws; and on the comparison of moral and intellectual laws in respect to the effect produced by each on the progress of civilization. The first and third of these views have a direct relation to ethical philosophy. The second has at least an indirect one, so far as metaphysics, in the sense in which I use the term, are applicable to the discovery of moral laws.

It will be my lot to differ much from Mr. Buckle, but not in the first of these three heads; and if those who have attacked him on that part of his doctrines had treated him fairly, I should not have thought it worth while to make any addition to his own admirable statement of his views. But this has not been the case; and while his treatment of the subject has an immediate reference to the most valuable feature of his work, namely, his contradiction of those who affirm that the facts of history are incapable of being generalized,' the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews vie with each other in abuse of him for entertaining the doctrines subservient to this proof. But in truth the dif

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FRASER'S MAGAZINE.'

ficulties attending an attempt, in our present state of knowledge, to reconcile the regularity of human actions with freedom of the will, ought not to be laid to Mr. Buckle's charge; they are long pre-existent to Mr. Buckle, and independent of his speculations; they neither originate with him nor are they increased by him; he does not make, he finds the quarrel between predestination and free-will; but because the uniformities of human action constitute the very basis on which his theory of history is built, as furnishing its laws, it became unavoidable that he should distinctly affirm these uniformities and their results in general laws. With these laws he anticipates increased acquaintance as our knowledge increases; and he naturally and most logically avails himself in this direction of those singular discoveries, through statistical research, which are virtually impugned by his anonymous assailants. In truth, Mr. Buckle's desire to avoid the speculative difficulties appertaining to these views is sufficiently expressed in the following very guarded paragraph:

Fortunately for the object of this work, the believer in the possibility of a science of history is not called upon to hold either the doctrine of predestined events, or that of freedom of the will; and the only positions which, in this stage of the inquiry, I shall expect him to concede, are the following: That when we perform an action we perform it in consequence of some motive or motives; that those motives are the results of some antecedents; and that therefore if we were acquainted with the whole of the antecedents, and with all the laws of their movements, we could with unerring certainty predict the whole of their immediate results. This, unless I am greatly mistaken, is the view which must be held by every man whose mind is unbiassed by system, and who forms his opinions according to the evidence actually before him. pp. 16–17.

The doctrine conveyed in the above passage is borrowed from Mr. John Stuart Mill's invaluable work On Logic; and surely if this be the amount of Mr. Buckle's require

ments from his readers, he can scarcely deserve to be accused of allowing people to infer that there is, in his opinion, in the nature of things, a provision for the suicide of about two hundred and forty persons annually in London ;' and 'that this law is a curb to freedom.' Yet such is the class of readers for whom the Edinburgh Reviewers conceive that Mr. Buckle should furnish more ample defences against errors arising out of his views than are contained in the above-quoted paragraph of his work. I will venture to affirm that minds capable of such errors cannot be defended against them. The case is hopeless.

The laws which govern that progress which it is Mr. Buckle's purpose to develop, will, he observes, necessarily be physical and mental; discoverable in the influence of external nature on man, and of man on external nature. But while an exhaustive consideration of the subject leads him to the above division, he finds himself compelled, by the limitation which he has assigned himself in his present purpose, to have regard mainly to the influence of man upon external nature, i.e., to mental laws. The inquiry contained in his second chapter, which furnishes his grounds for ' separating Europe from other parts of the world,' admirable as it is, I leave untouched, as it neither explains away nor complicates the difficulties to which I now claim attention.

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Mr. Buckle denies the applicability of metaphysics to the discovery of mental laws, and founds this denial upon an examination of the method employed by metaphysicians in examining such laws.' Now, in the sense in which Mr. Buckle uses the term metaphysics, I entirely agree with him as expecting from them 'no real advance towards acquiring a knowledge of the laws of the human mind.' The

matter comprehended in his sense of the term being that vast body of literature which is constructed on the supposition that the laws of the human mind can be generalized solely from the facts of individual consciousness.' I accept indeed his general conclusion on this point, though disposed to believe that in

dividual consciousness is a somewhat unfair expression of that which the metaphysicians of this class presuppose themselves to rely upon. At any rate, I believe there is a method of acquiring laws of the human mind, according to which the consciousness of the individual may be successfully compared with the consciousness of others, calculated to obtain a reasonable amount of success. It is true such a process neither holds out such a promise of successful generalization as if an appeal could be effectually made to individual consciousness, nor can its results be tested by the method of statistical enumeration; but I wish to place it on its deserved footing as supplying an important source of our knowledge of mind; and I ask Mr. Buckle to bear in mind that the logical instruments, which we apply to the purposes of research, must suit the materials which constitute our subject matter. In this case, if he should fail to establish a true science of history, he will give to the subject at least the advantages of an empirical science. By the method which I here allude to, I mean no other than the one of which Professor Dugald Stewart was an eloquent expositor, whereby he proposed to gain acquaintance with what he terms the intellectual powers;' the phenomena resulting from which are,' he says, 'every moment soliciting our notice, and offer to our examination a field of discovery as inexhaustible as the phenomena of the material world.' I may admit that Dugald Stewart erred in supposing that his inquiries in this domain of metaphysical research could lead to the amount of certainty which is conferred by experimental induction, and yet I may regret that he did not systematically carry out his unpretentious views into a series of long continued observations framed on some well conceived hypothesis, wherein he was, I think, deficient. Since Dugald Stewart's time, a process analogous to that which he thus proposed in reference to mind, but applied to its material organ, the brain, has obtained much currency; and it is to be regretted that the national admirers of Dugald Stewart, instead of duly appreciat

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