"Of all the great speakers of a day fertile in oratory,

Sheridan had the most conspicuous natural gifts. His figure,

at his first introduction into the house, was manly and

striking; his countenance singularly expressive, when

excited by debate; his eye large, black, and intellectual;

and his voice one of the richest, most flexible, and most

sonorous, that ever came from human lips. Pitt's was

powerful, but monotonous; and its measured tone often

wearied the ear. Fox's was all confusion in the commencement

of his speech; and it required some tension of ear

throughout to catch his words. Burke's was loud and bold,

but unmusical; and his contempt for order in his sentences,

and the abruptness of his grand and swelling conceptions,

that seemed to roll through his mind like billows before a

gale, often made the defects of his delivery more striking.

But Sheridan, in manner, gesture, and voice, had every

quality that could give effect to eloquence.

"Pitt and Fox were listened to with profound respect, and in

silence, broken only by occasional cheers; but from the

moment of Sheridan's rising, there was an expectation of

pleasure, which to his last days was seldom disappointed. A

low murmur of eagerness ran round the house; every word was

watched for, and his first pleasantry set the whole

assemblage in a roar. Sheridan was aware of this; and has

been heard to say, 'that if a jester would never be an

orator, yet no speaker could expect to be popular in a _full

house_, without a jest; and that he always made the

experiment, good or bad; as a laugh gave him the country

gentlemen to a man.'

"In the house he was always formidable; and though Pitt's

moral or physical courage never shrank from man, yet

Sheridan was the antagonist with whom he evidently least

desired to come into collision, and with whom the collision,

when it did occur, was of the most fretful nature. Pitt's

sarcasm on him as a theatrical manager, and Sheridan's

severe, yet fully justified retort, are too well known to be

now repeated; but there were a thousand instances of that

'keen encounter of their wits,' in which person was more

involved than party."

* * * * *

"Burke was created for parliament. His mind was born with a

determination to things of grandeur and difficulty.

"'Spumantemque dari, pecora inter inertia, votis

Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem.'"

Nothing in the ordinary professions, nothing in the trials

or triumphs of private life, could have satisfied the noble

hunger and thirst of his spirit of exertion. This quality

was so predominant, that to it a large proportion of his

original failures, and of his unfitness for general public

business, which chiefly belongs to detail, is to be traced

through life. No Hercules could wear the irresistible

weapons and the lion's skin with more natural supremacy; but

none could make more miserable work with the distaff.

Burke's magnitude of grasp, and towering conception, were so

much a part of his nature, that he could never forego their

exercise, however unsuited to the occasion. Let the object

be as trivial as it might, his first instinct was to turn it

into all shapes of lofty speculation, and try how far it

could be moulded and magnified into the semblance of

greatness. If he had no large national interest to summon

him, he winged his tempest against a turnpike bill; or flung

away upon the petty quarrels and obscure peculations of the

underlings of office, colours and forms that might have

emblazoned the fall of a dynasty."

* * * * *

"Erskine, like many other characters of peculiar liveliness,

had a morbid sensibility to the circumstances of the moment,

which sometimes strangely enfeebled his presence of mind;

any appearance of neglect in his audience, a cough, a yawn,

or a whisper, even among the mixed multitude of the courts,

and strong as he was there, has been known to dishearten him

visibly. This trait was so notorious, that a solicitor,

whose only merit was a remarkably vacant face, was said to

be often planted opposite to Erskine by the adverse party,

to yawn when the advocate began.

"The cause of his first failure in the house, was not unlike

this curious mode of disconcerting an orator. He had been

brought forward to support the falling fortunes of Fox, then

struggling under the weight of the 'coalition.' The 'India

Bill' had heaped the king's almost open hostility on the

accumulation of public wrath and grievance which the

ministers had with such luckless industry been employed

during the year in raising for their own ruin. Fox looked

abroad for help; and Gordon, the member for Portsmouth, was

displaced from his borough, and Erskine was brought into the

house, with no slight triumph of his party, and perhaps some

degree of anxiety on the opposite side. On the night of his

first speech, Pitt, evidently intending to reply, sat with

pen and paper in his hand, prepared to catch the arguments

of this formidable adversary. He wrote a word or two;

Erskine proceeded; but with every additional sentence Pitt's

attention to the paper relaxed; his look became more

careless; and he obviously began to think the orator less

and less worthy of his attention. At length, while every eye

in the house was fixed upon him, he, with a contemptuous

smile, dashed the pen through the paper, and flung them on

the floor. Erskine never recovered from this expression of

disdain; his voice faltered, he struggled through the

remainder of his speech, and sank into his seat dispirited

and shorn of his fame.

"But a mind of the saliency and variety of Erskine's, must

have distinguished itself wherever it was determined on

distinction; and it is impossible to believe, that the

master of the grave, deeply-reasoned, and glowing eloquence

of this great pleader, should not have been able to bring

his gifts with him from Westminster-hall to the higher altar

of parliament. There were times when his efforts in the

house reminded it of his finest effusions at the bar. But

those were rare. He obviously felt that his place was not in

the legislature; that no man can wisely hope for more than

one kind of eminence; and except upon some party emergency,

he seldom spoke, and probably never with much expectation of

public effect. His later years lowered his name; by his

retirement from active life, he lost the habits forced upon

him by professional and public rank; and wandered through

society, to the close of his days, a pleasant idler; still

the gentleman and the man of easy wit, but leaving society

to wonder what had become of the great orator, in what

corner of the brain of this perpetual punster and

story-teller, this man of careless conduct and rambling

conversation, had shrunk the glorious faculty, that in

better days flashed with such force and brightness; what

cloud had absorbed the lightnings that had once alike

penetrated and illumined the heart of the British nation."

The following investigation of the authorship of Junius will be read

with interest.

"The trial of Hastings had brought Sir Philip Francis into

public notice, and his strong Foxite principles introduced

him to the prince's friends. His rise is still unexplained.

From a clerk in the War-office, he had been suddenly exalted

into a commissioner for regulating the affairs of India, and

sent to Bengal with an appointment, estimated at ten

thousand pounds a-year. On his return to England he joined

Opposition, declared violent hostilities against Hastings,

and gave his most zealous assistance to the prosecution;

though the house of commons would not suffer him to be on

the committee of impeachment. Francis was an able and

effective speaker; with an occasional wildness of manner and

eccentricity of expression, which, if they sometimes

provoked a smile, often increased the interest of his

statements.

"But the usual lot of those who have identified themselves

with any one public subject, rapidly overtook him. His

temperament, his talents, and his knowledge, were all

Indian. With the impeachment he was politically born, with

it he lived, and when it withered away, his adventitious and

local celebrity perished along with it. He clung to Fox for

a few years after; but while the great leader of opposition

found all his skill necessary to retain his party in

existence, he was not likely to solicit a partisan at once

so difficult to keep in order and to employ. The close of

his ambitious and disappointed life was spent in ranging

along the skirts of both parties, joining neither, and

speaking his mind with easy, and perhaps sincere, scorn of

both; reprobating the Whigs, during their brief reign, for

their neglect of fancied promises; and equally reprobating

the ministry, for their blindness to fancied pretensions.

"But he was still to have a momentary respite for fame.

While he was going down into that oblivion which rewards the

labours of so many politicians; a pamphlet, ascribing

Junius's letters to Sir Phillip, arrested his descent. Its

arguments were plausible; and, for a while, opinion appeared

to be in favour of the conjecture, notwithstanding a denial

from the presumed Junius; which, however, had much the air

of his feeling no strong dislike to being suspected of this

new title to celebrity. But further examination extinguished

the title; and left the secret, which had perplexed so many

unravellers of literary webs, to perplex the grave idlers of

generations to come.

"Yet the true wonder is not the concealment; for a multitude

of causes might have produced the continued necessity even

after the death of the writer; but the feasibility with

which the chief features of Junius may be fastened on almost

every writer, of the crowd for whom claims have been laid to

this dubious honour: while, in every instance, some

discrepancy finally starts upon the eye, which excludes the

claim.

"Burke had more than the vigour, the information, and the

command of language; but he was incapable of the virulence

and the disloyalty. Horne Tooke had the virulence and the

disloyalty in superabundance; but he wanted the cool sarcasm

and the polished elegance, even if he could have been fairly

supposed to be at once the assailant and the defender.

Wilkes had the information and the wit; but his style was

incorrigibly vulgar, and all its metaphors were for and from

the mob: in addition, he would have rejoiced to declare

himself the writer: his well-known answer to an inquiry on

the subject was, 'Would to Heaven I had!' _Utinam

scripsissem!_ Lord George Germaine has been lately brought

forward as a candidate; and the evidence fully proves that

he possessed the dexterity of style, the powerful and

pungent remark, and even the individual causes of bitterness

and partisanship, which might be supposed to stimulate

Junius: but, in the private correspondence of Junius with

his printer, Woodfall, there are contemptuous allusions to

Lord George's conduct in the field, which at once put an end

to the question of authorship.

"Dunning possessed the style, the satire, and the

partisanship; but Junius makes blunders in his law, of which

Dunning must have been incapable. Gerard Hamilton

(Single-speech) might have written the letters, but he never

possessed the moral courage; and was, besides, so consummate

a coxcomb, that his vanity must have, however involuntarily,

let out the secret. The argument, that he was Junius; from

his notoriously using the same peculiarities of phrase at

the time when all the world was in full chase of the author,

ought of itself to be decisive against him; for nothing can

be clearer, than that the actual writer was determined on

concealment, and that he would never have toyed with his

dangerous secret so much in the manner of a school-girl,

anxious to develop her accomplishments.

"It is with no wish to add to the number of the

controversialists on this bluestocking subject, that a

conjecture is hazarded; that Junius will be found, if ever

found, among some of the humbler names of the list. If he

had been a political leader, or, in any sense of the word,

an independent man, it is next to impossible that he should

not have left some indication of his authorship. But it is

perfectly easy to conceive the case of a private secretary,

or dependent of a political leader, writing, by his command,

and for his temporary purpose, a series of attacks on a

ministry; which, when the object was gained, it was of the

highest importance to bury, so far as the connexion was

concerned, in total oblivion. Junius, writing on his own

behalf, would have, in all probability, retained evidence

sufficient to substantiate his title, when the peril of the

discovery should have passed away, which it did within a few

years; for who would have thought, in 1780, of punishing

even the libels on the king in 1770? Or when, if the peril

remained, the writer would have felt himself borne on a tide

of popular applause high above the inflictions of law.

"But, writing for another; the most natural result was, that

he should have been _pledged_ to extinguish all proof of the

transaction; to give up every fragment that could lead to

the discovery at any future period; and to surrender the

whole mystery into the hands of the superior, for whose

purposes it had been constructed, and who, while he had no

fame to acquire by its being made public, might be undone by

its betrayal.

"The marks of _private secretaryship_ are so strong, that

all the probable conjectures have pointed to writers under

that relation; Lloyd, the private secretary of George

Grenville; Greatrakes, Lord Shelburne's private secretary;

Rosenhagen, who was so much concerned in the business of

Shelburne house, that he may be considered as a second

secretary; and Macauley Boyd, who was perpetually about some

public man, and who was at length fixed by his friends on

Lord Macartney's establishment, and went with him to take

office in India.

"But, mortifying as it may be to the disputants on the

subject, the discovery is now beyond rational hope; for

Junius intimates his having been a spectator of

parliamentary proceedings even further back than the year

1743; which, supposing him to have been twenty years old at

the time, would give more than a century for his experience.

In the long interval since 1772, when the letters ceased:

not the slightest clue has been discovered; though doubtless

the keenest inquiry was set on foot by the parties assailed.

Sir William Draper died with but one wish, though a

sufficiently uncharitable one, that he could have found out

his castigator, before he took leave of the world. Lord

North often avowed his total ignorance of the writer. The

king's reported observation to Gen. Desaguiliers, in 1772,

'We know who Junius is, and he will write no more,' is

unsubstantiated; and if ever made, was probably prefaced

with a supposition; for no publicity ever followed; and what

neither the minister of the day, nor his successors ever

knew, could scarcely have come to the king's knowledge but

by inspiration, nor remained locked up there but by a

reserve not far short of a political error.

"But the question is not worth the trouble of discovery;

for, since the personal resentment is past, its interest can

arise only from pulling the mask off the visage of some

individual of political eminence, and giving us the amusing

contrast of his real and his assumed physiognomy; or from

unearthing some great unknown genius. But the leaders have

been already excluded; and the composition of the letters

demanded no extraordinary powers. Their secret information

has been vaunted; but Junius gives us no more than what

would now be called the 'chat of the clubs;' the currency of

conversation, which any man mixing in general life might

collect in his half-hour's walk down St. James's Street: he

gives us no insight into the _purposes_ of government; of

the _counsels_ of the _cabinet_ he knows nothing. The style

was undeniably excellent for the purpose, and its writer

must have been a man of ability. If it had been original, he

might have been a man of genius; but it was notoriously

formed on Col. Titus's letter, which from its strong

peculiarities, is of easy imitation. The crime and the

blunder together of Junius was, that he attacked the king, a

man so publicly honest and so personally virtuous, that his

assailant inevitably pronounced himself a libeller. But if

he had restricted his lash to the contending politicians of

the day, justice would have rejoiced in his vigorous

severity. Who could have regretted the keenest application

of the scourge to the Duke of Grafton, the most incapable of

ministers, and the most openly and offensively profligate of

men; to the indomitable selfishness of Mansfield; to the

avarice of Bedford, the suspicious negotiator of the

scandalous treaty of 1763; or to the slippered and

drivelling ambition of North, sacrificing an empire to his

covetousness of power?"

Mr. Croly has recorded a quantity of the "good things" that were said by

the wits of the day at the table of the Prince, who used the facilities

which his rank afforded him, of collecting around him all that was most

distinguished in intellect, with praiseworthy zeal. Had his companions

been chosen only from among that highest class, we might have quoted

with regard to him, the sentence of Cicero--"facillime et in optimam

partem, cognoscuntur adolescentes, qui se ad claros et sapientes viros,

bene consulentes rei publicae, contulerunt: quibuscum si frequentes sunt,

opinionem afferunt populo, eorum fore se similes quos sibi ipsi

delegerint ad imitandum"--but unfortunately his intimacy was habitually

shared by far less worthy associates--persons whom it was contamination

to approach. Many of these _jeux d'esprit_ are of respectable antiquity;

we transcribe a few which are attributed to the Prince himself, as

specimens of royal humour.

"The conversation turning on some new eccentricity of Lord

George Gordon; his unfitness for a mob leader was instanced

in his suffering the rioters of 1780 to break open the

gin-shops, and, in particular, to intoxicate themselves by

the plunder of Langdale's great distillery, in Holborn. 'But

why did not Langdale defend his property?' was the question.

'He had not the means,' was the answer. 'Not the means of

defence?' said the prince; 'ask Angelo: he, a brewer, a

fellow all his life long at _carte_ and _tierce_.'"

"Sheridan was detailing the failure of Fox's match with Miss

Pulteney. 'I never thought that any thing would result from

it,' said the prince. 'Then,' replied Sheridan, 'it was not

for want of sighs: he sat beside her cooing like a

turtle-dove.'

"'He never cared about it,' said the prince; 'he saw long

ago that it was a _coup manque_.'"

"Fox disliked Dr. Parr; who, however, whether from personal

admiration, or from the habit which through life humiliated

his real titles to respect--that of fastening on the public

favourites of the time, persecuted him with praise. The

prince saw a newspaper panegyric on Fox, evidently from the

Dr.'s pen; and on being asked what he thought of it,

observed, that 'it reminded him of the famous epitaph on

Machiavel's tomb,'--

"'Tanto nomini nullum _Par_ elogium.'"

"If English punning," says Mr. Croly, "be a proscribed

species of wit; though it bears, in fact, much more the

character of the 'chartered libertine,' every where

reprobated, and every where received; yet classical puns

take rank in all lands and languages. Burke's pun on 'the

divine right of kings and toastmasters,'--the _jure

de-vino_--perhaps stands at the head of its class. But in an

argument with Jackson, the prince, jestingly, contended that

trial by jury was as old as the time of Julius Caesar; and

even that Caesar died by it. He quoted Suetonius: '_Jure_

caesus videtur.'"

In October, 1788, George the III. was afflicted with a mental disease,

which totally incapacitated him for the duties of government. We do not

wish to be unjustly harsh, but when we consider the irritability which,

as may be inferred from the anecdote we have related of the King's

intention to retire from England, must have formed a prominent trait in

his character, and the displeasure he could not help manifesting in his

communications to Parliament respecting the Prince's debts, it is

impossible to reject the idea that the conduct of the latter was a main

cause of his affliction.

He recovered, however, before the preliminary arrangements for the

entrance of the Prince upon the regency had been completed. From this

period up to the moment when the King became again a victim of the same

dreadful malady, from whose grasp he never afterwards was freed, the

Prince mixed no more with politics, but "abandoned himself," in the

words of our author, "to pursuits still more obnoxious than those of

public ambition." The course of his life was only varied by his

disastrous marriage with the unfortunate Caroline, Princess of

Brunswick. One of Mr. Croly's chapters is headed "the Prince's

Marriage," the next, "the Royal Separation." We need not occupy much

space with a subject which must be familiar to all of our readers, and

of which the details are as disgusting as they are pitiful. Of all the

foul stains upon the character of the royal profligate, it has stamped

the foulest. Every principle of honour, of virtue, of humanity, was

violated in the grossest manner.

That the Prince of Wales was morally guilty of the crime of bigamy in

marrying the Princess Caroline, we have no hesitation in asserting. No

one can doubt that Mrs. Fitzherbert had the claims of a wife upon him

previously to his entering into this second engagement, however it may

be attempted, as has been done by Mr. Croly, to deny such claims, upon

the ground that the connexion was void by the laws of the land, although

the ordinances of religion may have been complied with. If it can be

supposed, that the Prince was determined, whilst binding himself at the

altar of God by the most sacred vows, to take advantage of the laws of

the land to cast aside the solemn obligations he thus assumed, as soon

as it suited his convenience, in what a despicable situation is he

placed! Deceit, perjury, sacrilege, would be terms too weak for the act.

But Mr. Croly's own words are sufficient to prove that the lady was, and

is, considered to have been connected with him by other ties than those

of a mistress. He says, "she still enjoys at least the gains of the

connexion, and up to the hoary age of seventy-five, calmly draws her

salary of ten thousand pounds a year!" Would that salary be continued to

a mistress? It is evident from the English papers that Mrs. Fitzherbert

is treated with the greatest consideration by the present king and royal

family, and that she is received by them on the most intimate footing;

her name is recorded amongst those of the constant guests at the royal

table and social assemblages of every kind. On what other ground can

this circumstance be accounted for, than that she is regarded as a

sister-in-law by the sovereign, and as a reputable relative by his

family?

It is singular enough that Mr. Croly seems to consider a violation of

the laws of God less reprehensible than a violation of the laws of man.

Such at least is the unavoidable inference to be drawn from his remarks

on this matter. He is quite indignant at the idea of his Royal Highness

having married a woman of inferior rank, and a Roman Catholic (there is

the horrid part of the affair,) by which he would have been guilty of a

sin against the state, and evinces great anxiety to prove that the crime

was one of a much lighter dye--merely an adulterous connexion, by which

he transgressed one of the Divine Commandments. This Mr. Fox also

attempted to do in Parliament, when it was hinted by a member that the

_liaison_ was not of the character which usually subsists between

individuals in the relative rank of the Prince and the lady, and the

attempt was disgraceful enough even in a statesman--but in a minister of

religion!--we leave it however to speak for itself.

In 1811, George the III. was a second time a lunatic, and the Prince

ascended his throne, though only with the title of Regent, which he did

not change for that of King until 1820, when the nominal monarch died,

having survived his reason for nearly ten years. Ten years longer did

the Fourth George sway the sceptre of the noblest empire in the world;

and then he too mingled with the same dust as the meanest of his

subjects. "C'est ainsi," in the words of Bossuet, "que la puissance

divine, justement irritee centre notre orgueil, le pousse jusqu' au

neant, et que, pour egaler a jamais les conditions, elle ne fait de nous

tous qu' une meme cendre."

During the last years of his life, George the IVth was the prey of

various maladies, with which a remarkably strong constitution enabled

him to struggle until the spring of 1830. His corporeal sufferings may

have been one cause of his almost entire seclusion at Windsor Castle,

where he was like the Grand Lama of Thibet, unseeing and unseen, except

by a chosen few, but it cannot be doubted that the knowledge of the

unpopularity under which he certainly laboured, had some effect in

producing the slight communication which took place between him and his

subjects. So notorious was his aversion to making an appearance in

London, that when he was first announced, last April, to be seriously

indisposed, it was rumoured for a time that the sickness was

fictitious--a mere pretence to avoid holding a levee which had been

fixed for a certain day in that month, and which was in consequence

deferred. But before the period had arrived to which it was postponed,

there was no longer a doubt that the angel of death was brandishing his

dart, and that there was little chance of averting the threatened

stroke. The bulletins which the royal physicians daily promulgated,

though couched in equivocal and unsatisfactory terms, shadowed out

impending dissolution. The reason of their ambiguity was currently

believed to be the circumstance, that the King insisted upon reading the

newspapers in which they were published; whilst the medical attendants

were anxious to withhold from him a knowledge of his true situation.

Besides being in the public prints, these bulletins appeared, in

manuscript copies, in the windows of almost every shop, and were

likewise shown every day at the Palace of St. James, by a lord and groom

in waiting, richly dressed, to all of the loving subjects who preferred

repairing thither for the satisfaction of their affectionate solicitude.

It was rather amusing to watch the manner in which this satisfaction was

obtained. The bulletins were thrust into the faces of all as they

entered into the great hall where the exhibitors were stationed, with

laudable earnestness and zeal, and most of the visiters looked with

great interest--upon the paintings with which the apartment was adorned.

The multitudes of persons, however, of both sexes, and often of high

distinction, who filled the rooms that were thrown open, during the

fashionable hours of the day, rendered it an entertaining scene. The

most anxious faces were those of the owners of dry-good shops, by whom

the recovery of the monarch was indeed an object devoutly desired, as

they had already laid in their varieties of spring fashions, which the

universal mourning that was to follow the demise of the crown, would

convert almost into positive lumber.

At length, on the 26th of June, intelligence was received that the

monarch of Great Britain had been conquered by a still more powerful

king. What mourning without grief! what weeping without a tear! The

papers immediately commenced a chorus of lamentation and eulogy, in

which but one discordant voice was heard. This was the voice of the

"Times"--the only leading journal which had independence and spirit

enough to vindicate its character as a guardian of the public morals, by

disdaining to prostitute its columns to the purposes of falsehood. One

paper affirmed, among other fulsome and mendacious remarks, that the

royal defunct must have taken his departure from this world with a clear

conscience, as he had never injured an individual! After such an

assertion

"Quis neget arduis

Pronos relabi posse rivos

Montibus, Tiberimque riverti?"

Did the shades of an injured wife and an injured father never rise

before the imagination of the dying man? did the injury inflicted by a

life of evil example never appal the recollection of the dying King?

Yes, a life of evil example; we repeat the phrase. Look at his whole

career, from the moment when it first became free from control, to its

close. Does it not afford an almost uninterrupted series of the most

scandalous violations of the rules which a king especially should hold

sacred--the rules of religion, of morals? When young, he countenanced by

his deportment the extravagance and profligacy of all the youth of the

kingdom--when old, contemplate the avowed, the flagrant concubinage he

sanctioned--see one adulteress openly succeeding another in his favour,

and say whether his declining years furnished a more exemplary model for

imitation than those of his boyhood. Worse than all, behold by whom,

amongst others, his very death-bed, we may say, is surrounded--the

mistress who had last sacrificed her virtue and honour, and the husband

and the children of that woman, who were occupying places in the royal

household, as the price of the wife and the mother's shame. It is well

known that it was not until after the accession of the present

sovereign, that Lady Conyngham, and the man from whom she derives the

right of being so entitled, together with their offspring, received an

intimation that their presence was no longer desirable at Windsor

Castle, from which they departed, in consequence, amid the ridicule and

scorn of the empire.

It was an interesting period for an American to be in London, that of

the death of one king, and the accession of another; and, as such events

are not of every-day occurrence, we esteemed ourselves particularly

fortunate in being on the spot at the time. The various ceremonies

consequent upon them,--the lying in state,--the obsequies,--the

proclamation,--the prorogation of Parliament, and so forth, were well

worth witnessing; but, by far the most interesting result they produced,

was the general election which followed the dissolution of the

legislature. We were enabled, through the kindness of a gentleman who

was a candidate, to study the whole process of an election in a free

borough, having accompanied him, at his invitation, to the scene of

political strife, and remained there until the contest was brought to a

close. By occupying a few pages with an account of it, we may, perhaps,

communicate some degree of information and pleasure to a portion of our

readers, without being guilty of too wide a digression.

The two first days subsequently to our arrival in the town, were spent

in visiting those persons whose suffrages were not ascertained at the

time when the candidates made their canvass, two or three weeks before,

that is to say,--called personally upon every one who possessed a vote,

and requested his support. In this, there is no mincing of the matter in

the least,--the suffrage is openly asked, and as openly promised or

refused; but it is only among the more respectable class, that this

ceremonial is sufficient,--the others "thank their God they have a vote

to sell." On the third day, the election commenced. Two temporary

covered buildings had been erected near each other in the principal part

of the town, in one of which were the hustings and the polls, and the

other was employed for the sittings of a species of court, where the

qualifications of suspected voters were tried. About nine in the

morning, the candidates, three in number, proceeded to the former booth,

if we may so term it, and, after the settlement of the necessary

preliminaries, were proposed and seconded as representatives of the

borough, in the order in which they stood on the hustings. These were

partitioned into three divisions,--one belonging to each of the opposing

gentlemen,--which were crowded with their respective friends. Directly

below the hustings, which were considerably elevated, was a table, round

which were seated the poll clerks, and others officially connected with

the election. This was separated by a board running across the building,

from the polls, which were also divided into three parts, or boxes,

corresponding with the divisions of the hustings. All the proposers and

seconders made speeches, as well as the candidates,--and nothing could

surpass the amusing nature of the scene during the discourses of two of

the haranguers, who were particularly obnoxious to a large portion of

the assembled crowd. They were saluted with a vast variety of _gentle_

epithets, and almost every method of annoyance and interruption was put

in practice. After the _speechification_ was concluded, the polling

commenced. It was done by tallies. The committee of each candidate,

marshalled in succession ten of their friends at a time, who appeared in

the box belonging to their party, and, on being asked, one after

another, for whom they voted, gave, viva voce, either a plumper for one,

or split their vote amongst two of the candidates. This system was

regularly prosecuted, until the diminished numbers of one of the

parties, rendered it difficult to collect ten men in time, when as many

as could be brought together, were sent in. On the last day of the

election, not more than one vote was polled in an hour in one of the

boxes.

The candidates were obliged to remain in their places on the hustings,

day after day, from the opening until the closing of the polls, and

thank aloud every one who gave them a vote. At the end of every day's

polling, the three gentlemen made speeches, all pretty much of the same

purport, expressing their thanks for the support they had received, and

their perfect confidence of ultimate success. There were not more than

six or seven hundred voters in the town; and yet, for eight days, was

the contest carried on. On the ninth, one of the parties retired from

the field, and the other two were declared duly elected; after which

they were chaired. The reason of this protraction, was owing in part to

the unavoidable slowness of viva voce voting, but chiefly to the number

of votes objected to, by persons whose occupation it was to point out

every flaw they could discover in the qualifications of those who

appeared at the polls. One of those persons was in the employ of each

candidate, and, as the struggle was close and somewhat acrimonious,

objections were made on the slightest possible grounds, which were

furnished in abundance, by the variety of circumstances that

disqualified a man for voting in that borough. Whenever an objection was

made, the objector stated the cause of it; and, having written it down

on a piece of paper, handed it to the voter objected to, who repaired

with it to the other booth. Here, having shown it to the assessor, or

judge, who was invested with unlimited power to decide upon every

question of qualification, he was tried in his turn. This was by far the

more interesting and amusing of the two booths. The trial was conducted

in regular form. The accused, so to call him, was placed at the bar of

the court, where he was cross-questioned, and confronted with friendly

and adverse witnesses; and then the lawyers in attendance, who had been

respectively largely feed by the several candidates, pleaded for, or

against his qualifications, according as he was a friend, or not, of

their employer. When the arguments were finished, the assessor either

rejected his vote, or sent him back to the polls with a certificate of

qualification, which he exhibited, and had his suffrage recorded. In

some instances, the trials were speedily despatched; but, generally,

they occupied a considerable space of time, so that when the polls were

finally closed, there were at least a hundred names on the books of the

court, of persons who were yet to be arraigned.

It would require more space than is at our disposal, to enter into any

detail of the odd speeches which were made, and the various scenes,

laughable and serious, that occurred during the course of the election.

For the same reason, we cannot dwell upon the observations which are

naturally excited by the whole matter; but, we may remark, that we

became fully satisfied, that frequent Parliaments, with the present

election system, would be one of the greatest evils which could be

inflicted on England. The seldomer, certainly, that such sluices of

varied corruption are opened, the better. Here was a whole town for

weeks in a state of the worst kind of commotion,--almost all the usual

labours of the lower classes were suspended; unrestricted freedom of

access to taverns and alehouses, at the expense of those who were

courting their sweet voices, was afforded them; and some idea may be

formed of the use that was made of it, from the fact that the bill

brought to one of the candidates, by the keeper of an inn, for a single

night's debauch, amounted to nearly a hundred pounds sterling. At the

bar of the court where the qualifications were examined, abundant

evidence was given, that this indirect species of bribery was not the

only kind which was in operation. The intense eagerness manifested by

the greater part of those to whose votes objections had been made, to

obtain a decision of the assessor in their favour,--the quantity and

grossness of the falsehoods they uttered, in order to effect that

object, rendered palpable the existence of some very potent motive for

desiring the possession of a suffrage. That these evils are to be

attributed mainly to the viva voce mode of voting, we have little doubt,

and, assuredly, the tree which produces such fruit, cannot be sound.

But, we feel no desire to involve ourselves in a discussion concerning

the best system of election, which has been debated _usque ad nauseam_,

and we shall therefore return to our proper subject.

There are various pictures afforded by the different portions of the

career of his late Majesty, which it may be of the highest benefit for

republican Americans to contemplate. It was beautifully said by

Sheridan, in one of the most brilliant of his speeches, that Bonaparte

was an instrument in the hands of Providence to make the English love

their constitution better; cling to it with more fondness; hang round it

with more tenderness: and in the same way we may affirm that such kings

as George IV. are eminently calculated to strengthen our attachment to

the republican institutions of this country. The history of their lives

furnishes that gross evidence of the absurdities involved in the

doctrine of hereditary right, which cannot fail to disgust and revolt.

It presents the spectacle of a ruler the least fitted to rule. It proves

that princes, from the very circumstance of being princes, are the least

likely to be able to execute those duties which devolve upon them, with

efficiency or conscientiousness--that the situation in which they are

placed by their birth, nullifies the very reason for which their order

was first established, and renders them a curse instead of a blessing.

What was the source from which royal privileges and authority first

flowed? Was it not the superiority in various ways of the persons who

were invested with them, and which caused them to be considered as

pre-eminently qualified to discharge the functions incumbent on a king?

And is not the name of king at present, a by-word for inferiority in

every respect in which inferiority is degrading? Every deficiency indeed

of talent, knowledge, virtue, is regarded so much as a matter of course

in a personage of royal station, that the slightest proof of the

possession of either, which in an humbler individual would just be

sufficient to screen him from remark, is cried up as something

wonderful. Think of a king being able to quote a Latin line, or make a

speech of ten minutes in length!--the boast of Mr. Croly with regard to

George IV. Such an unusual occurrence is deemed almost incredible, and

many persons, even among his own subjects, will firmly believe that

neither feat was performed in consequence of original information and

faculties, but resulted from the suggestions of another.

But by far the most important light in which we republicans can

contemplate the career of George IV. in connexion with the object of

increasing our love for the institutions under which we live, is that of

morality and religion. The point may be conceded, which is always

advanced as the main argument in support of hereditary monarchical

government--that it is better adapted to preserve the peace of a country

by keeping the succession free from difficulty and doubt, though a

reference to history may perhaps warrant the denial even of this

position, by exhibiting the various usurpations, murders, unnatural

rebellions of children against parents, and other heart-sickening

crimes, the consequences of the right invested in one family of

exercising sovereign rule, which have so often plunged whole nations

into misery and blood;--but this point may be acknowledged; we may admit

that elections of chief magistrates are more likely to be the source of

frequent troubles. If it can nevertheless be shown, that there is that

in the very essence of monarchical institutions which is in any way

hostile to virtue, the question ought to be considered as settled in

favour of the system that is free from this insuperable objection; for

it cannot be denied, that any principle at all tending to aid the

propagation of immorality, is the worst which can be admitted into the

social and political compacts by which men are united together, and

should most be deprecated and eschewed. No matter what apparent or real

beneficial results may flow from it, they cannot counterbalance the

detriment it may inflict upon the surest guarantee of permanent good to

man, both in his individual and aggregate capacity--both with regard to

his temporal and eternal interests. National happiness and prosperity of

a durable character, are inseparable from national virtue. The evils

produced by dissensions concerning the chief power in a state, are in a

degree contingent and temporary; those engendered by immorality are

certain and lasting. Let then the pages, not merely of the book which

tells the story of George IVth of England, but of all history be

consulted, and who will deny that they furnish overwhelming evidence

that the moral atmosphere of courts has been at all times tainted and

baleful; that they have been ever the centres of corruption and vice,

and that they must ever be so? They must ever be so, we assert, because

the natural and unavoidable result of raising any collection of persons

above the opinion, as it were, of the rest of the world, and of

surrounding them with a species of _prestige_ which prevents their vices

and follies from being viewed in their real hideousness, is to ensure

amongst them the sway of immorality. They thus form a sanctuary for

corruption, which can never be established in a country where no

factitious distinctions exist; there profligacy can have no refuge when

hard pressed by public opinion, no ramparts behind which to protect

itself from the assaults of that potent enemy; and it will never in

consequence be able to obtain there any other than individual dominion.

If we turn our eyes upon the condition of the English court as it now

exists, although it may be less exceptionable than when George was at

its head, we shall find sufficient justification of the foregoing

remarks. The present sovereign, it is well known, is unfortunate in

possessing a mind of that nervous description, which renders any

considerable excitement a thing to be avoided; it was the effect

produced upon it by his appointment to the Lord High Admiraltyship

during his brother's life, which occasioned his removal from that post.

His moral character is certainly less disreputable than that of his

predecessor; but who can witness, without feelings akin to disgust, the

spectacle of a family of illegitimate offspring exalted in the palace,

and following him in all his perambulations? It is far from our wish to

cast any reflection upon those unfortunate persons, who are in no way

accountable for the ignominy and guilt connected with their birth. The

shame and the reproach are for the author of the stain, who exposes

himself to double reprehension, by the countenance he virtually lends to

the cause of immorality. William IV., however, is a paragon in

comparison to his next brother, the Duke of Cumberland, a person, who,

if he has given any warrant for the tenth part of the imputations which

rest upon him, can only have escaped the penalties inflicted by the law

on the greatest offences, because he is the brother of the king. We

cannot convey a better idea of the estimation in which he is held in

London, than by stating, that in all the caricatures where an attempt is

made to embody the evil spirit, his person is used for that purpose.

"What poor things are kings!

What poorer things are nations to obey

Him, whom a petty passion does command!"

These considerations, we repeat, are well adapted to promote the

important object to which we have alluded, of causing our institutions

to be properly appreciated and loved by ourselves. This is the great

desideratum with respect to them--the chief thing necessary for their

preservation. Our situation now is more enviable than that of any

country of the earth; and all which is requisite is, that we should be

aware of our own happiness, and rightly understand the source from which

it springs--the republican form of government. Let us be thoroughly

impressed with the conviction of the superior efficacy of this system

over every other, in promoting the end for which political societies

were instituted, and we are safe. We will then be furnished with the

best defence against the principal enemy from which danger need be

dreaded,--we mean that propensity to change, which is one of the common

infirmities of the human breast,--that restlessness which renders the

life of man a scene of constant struggle, tends to prevent him from

estimating and enjoying the blessings he possesses, and often causes him

to dash away with his own rash hand, the cup of happiness from his lips.

"Our complexion," says Burke, "is such, that we are palled with

enjoyment, and stimulated with hope,--that we become less sensible to a

long-possessed benefit, from the very circumstance that it is become

habitual. Specious, untried, ambiguous prospects of new advantage,

recommend themselves to the spirit of adventure, which more or less

prevails in every mind. From this temper, men and factions, and nations

too, have sacrificed the good of which they had been in assured

possession, in favour of wild and irrational expectations." To be

satisfied, is, indeed, we fear, difficult for human nature, even where

there is no good to be reached beyond what we already have obtained. A

great object, in such case, is to be convinced that there is no such

good to be acquired--to suppose that we have arrived at the utmost

boundaries of mortal felicity.

Nothing, however, that we have advanced as fitted to aid that object,

inasmuch as it respects our political condition, is of such influence

for its accomplishment, as the contemplation of the actual state of the

European world. When the tempest howls without, the domestic hearth is

invested with a doubly inviting aspect; we gather round it with

eagerness, in proportion to the dismal appearance of external nature,

and bless it for the security which it affords from the rage of the

heavens. Should we not, in like manner, embrace with redoubled fondness,

the institutions which maintain us in prosperity and peace, now,

especially, whilst we are enabled to behold the fearful operation of the

consequences of monarchical rule--the horrors in which they are

involving the fairest and most civilized portions of the globe; and when

we know, too, that the motive which inspired the inhabitants of those

countries with courage to encounter the storm, by which they are tossed

about on the sea of revolution, was the hope of being driven by it into

some haven like that which shelters us from the fury of winds and waves?

When, if ever, they will attain to the possession of the blessings which

we enjoy,--how all the troubles by which they are agitated will end, is

what no human ken is competent to discern; but the philanthropist and

the Christian need never despair. Out of chaos came this beautiful

world; and the same Being who called it into existence, still watches

over its concerns,--is still as potent to convert obscurity into

brightness, as when He first said, "Let there be light," and there was

light!

ART. III.--_Essay on the Hieroglyphic System of M.

Champollion, Jr. and the advantages which it offers to

sacred criticism._ By J. G. H. GREPPO, _Vicar-General of

Belley. Translated from the French by_ ISAAC STUART, _with

notes and illustrations._ Boston: pp. 276.

In former numbers of this journal, there are several articles devoted to

the subject of Egyptian hieroglyphics, particularly as connected with

the labours of Mons. Champollion. Every day seems to give opportunity of

additional observation, by furnishing new and interesting facts. How

much further the investigations may be carried, it would be unsafe even

to conjecture; but, in the present state of things, we are fully

authorized to consider the problem of hieroglyphics as at last solved,

and such general principles established, as must render subsequent

investigations comparatively easy. Every age seems to be productive of

some great genius peculiarly adapted to the accomplishment of some great

design, connected either with the advancement of learning, or the

melioration of the moral condition of mankind. The present appears

fruitful of great men, and France, particularly favoured, whether we

regard the great political events which have called out the most

gigantic exhibitions of practical wisdom, or look at the onward march of

science, which seems in no wise impeded, by convulsions which scatter

every thing but science, like the yellow leaves of autumn. Let us not,

however, be diverted from our object,--the sober investigation of a

sober subject, alike deeply interesting to the philologer, the student

of history, and the inquirer into the sacred truths connected with

divine revelation.

The work which stands at the head of this article, purports to be an

investigation of the hieroglyphic system developed in the published

works of Mons. Champollion, Jr. and the advantage which it offers to

sacred criticism. It is the performance of a clergyman of the Roman

Catholic Church, J. G. H. Greppo, Vicar-General of Belley. The original

work, however, is not before us. We examine it through the medium of a

translation made by Mr. Isaac Stuart, son of the Rev. Moses Stuart, one

of the most eminent scholars of our country, who vouches for the

accuracy of the translation, having inspected the whole, and compared it

with the original. Dr. Stuart has added some notes, where he has seen

occasion to differ from Mr. Greppo, on some points of Hebrew philology

and criticism. The reasons for his difference of opinion are given with

that candour for which the writer is distinguished, and the intelligent

reader is left to judge as to the merits of the question.

It is well known to the learned, that Mons. Champollion, the younger,

has been spending several years in the uninterrupted study of the

Egyptian hieroglyphics. In his capacity of Professor of History at

Grenoble, he found his labours embarrassed by the immense hiatus which

occurs in Egyptian history, and, to the filling up of this, he set

himself to work with all the zeal and energy which genius could inspire.

In this work, he had the advantage of youth, and a very superior

education in the Coptic and other oriental languages, connected with a

patience of investigation, which appears almost miraculous. He had the

advantage of knowing, moreover, that, if ever any just conclusion was to

be gained, he must seek it by getting some starting point, different

from that whence all his predecessors had set out. There had been a

variety of learned men whose investigations were directed to this point,

such as Father Kircher the Jesuit, whose different works on Egyptian

antiquities had been successively published in Rome, from 1636 to

1652--Warburton, the highly gifted author of the Divine Legation of

Moses, the learned Count de Gebelin, and others of equal and less name.

But these had all confessedly failed, and the learned almost gave up the

subject in despair, so much so, that Champollion himself, states it as

the only opinion which appeared to be well established among them, viz.

"that it was impossible ever to acquire that knowledge which had

hitherto been sought with great labour, and in vain."

In the midst of these discouragements, a circumstance occurred, familiar

probably to our readers, but to which we allude merely to observe, that

it seemed at once to open a new era of investigation, and is among the

many evidences of the fact, that events of apparently the most

inconsiderable description, are connected with results whose magnitude

cannot be estimated. At the close of the last century, while the French

troops were engaged in the prosecution of the war in Egypt, it is well

known, that a number of learned men were associated with the expedition,

for the prosecution of purposes far more honourable than those of human

conquest,--we mean the exploration of a hitherto sealed country, with

the express design of advancing the arts and sciences. One division of

the army occupied the village of _Raschid_, otherwise called _Rosetta_;

and, while they were employed in digging the foundation for a fort, they

found a block of black basalt, in a mutilated condition, bearing a

portion of three inscriptions, one of which was in the Egyptian

hieroglyphics. The fate of the military expedition, lost to the French

the possession of this stone, as it fell into the hands of the British,

by the capitulation of Alexandria; it was afterward conveyed to London,

and placed in the British museum. Previously to the termination of the

war, however, the stone and its characters had been correctly delineated

by the artists connected with the commission, and then, through the

medium of an engraving, placed in possession of the learned. This is a

brief history of the Rosetta stone, as it is called, but still it

baffled the investigations of the learned. They had gone upon the

supposition, that the hieroglyphic method of writing must, of necessity,

be _ideographic_, i. e. figurative or symbolical, and that each of these

signs was the expression of an idea. Here appears to have been the great

root of all their mistakes on the subject, mistakes naturally fallen

into by the moderns, inasmuch as the few incidental passages left on the

subject in the writings of the ancients, all recognized this as a fact.

Except Clement of Alexandria, one of the fathers of the church, not a

solitary writer had left on record any other opinion; and the passage of

Clement has itself never been understood, until since the discoveries of

Champollion. It seems to be one of those curious facts connected with

the history of the human mind, that it requires a great intellect to

seize on the simplest element of truth. It is easy to speculate on data,

which are assumed without a rigorous examination, and then to make an

exhibition of learning which may astonish the world; but, it is the

province of the greatest genius to lay hold of simple truth, and

establish a foundation utterly immoveable, before there is any attempt

at a superstructure. This was the business, and this the achievement of

Champollion. Now that the discovery is made, we are amazed at the want

of previous penetration. It struck the mind of Champollion, that, if the

Egyptian hieroglyphics were _ideographic_, there must be _exceptions_,

for two substantial reasons: first, because _proper names_, or names of

persons, do not always admit of being expressed by any sign, that is,

proper names have not in all cases a meaning; and, second, because

_foreign names_, or those which have no relation to any particular

spoken language, could not be represented by conventional signs. These

principles appear now to be self-evident, and this is the basis of

Champollion's discovery. On this he built the idea, that there must

exist among the Egyptians _alphabetic characters_, which should express

the _sounds_ of the spoken language; and, in order to test this

principle, he set about the investigation of the celebrated Rosetta

stone. This stone, let it be remembered, had on it _three inscriptions

in different characters_. One of these inscriptions was written in

Greek, and of course easily decyphered; of the other two, one was

written in hieroglyphics, and the other in the common character of the

country. The course pursued by Champollion, was exceedingly simple, and,

on that account, may be considered masterly. In the Greek text, the name

of Ptolemy occurred, together with some names which were foreign to the

Egyptian language. In the hieroglyphic inscription, there were certain

signs grouped together and frequently repeated; and, what rendered them

remarkable was, that they were enclosed in a kind of oval or ring,

called a cartouche, and maintained a relative position which seemed to

correspond with the Greek word Ptolemy. Champollion conjectured, that

there must be some connection between the signs clustered in these

rings, and the name of Ptolemy expressed by signs, which would _sound_

like that word; and this led him to expect, that he would get at what he

was persuaded was the truth, viz. that the hieroglyphic writing was

_alphabetic,_ rather than exclusively _ideographic_. With the view of

testing this, he went into a close analysis of the group of signs which

he supposed designated the name of Ptolemy; and, as the result of this

analysis, obtained what he considered the equivalents to the letters in

the name of this prince.

In order to give our readers an idea of his process of investigation, we

will state the signs which he found in the group surrounded by a ring on

the Rosetta stone. These are the following: a square--half circle--a

flower with the stem bent--a lion in repose--the three sides of a

parallelogram--two feathers, and a crooked line. The square, Champollion

considered the equivalent of the Greek letter Pi--the half circle,

Tau--the flower with the stem bent, Omicron--the lion in repose,

Lamda--the three sides of the parallelogram, Mu--the feathers, Eta,--and

the crooked line, Sigma. This gave the name Ptolmes. At this stage of

his investigations, Champollion supposed that he had obtained seven

signs of an alphabet; but, could he have gone no further, he would have

established nothing, and his researches would have passed off with the

labours of the learned who had preceded him. To test his principle

further, it was necessary, therefore, that he should be able to get at

some other monument, on which there should be recognized some name also

known by some Greek or other connected inscription. Such a monument was

found in an obelisk discovered in the island of Philae, and transported

to London. On this was discovered a group of characters also enclosed in

a ring, and containing more signs than the former, some of them similar.

On a part of the base which originally supported the obelisk, there was

an inscription in Greek, addressed to _Ptolemy_ and _Cleopatra_. Now, if

the basis of Champollion was correct, there ought to be found in the

name Cleopatra, such signs as were common to both, and they must perform

the same functions which had been previously assigned them; and this was

precisely the result. We have this strikingly set forth in a note of the

translator, which is here presented.

"To prove that the conjectures of Champollion were true, the

first sign in the name of Cleopatra should not be found in

the name of Ptolemy, because the letter _K_ does not occur in

PTOLMES. This was found to be the fact. The letter _K_

represented by _a quadrant_.

"The second sign (_a lion in repose_ which represents the

_Lamda_), is exactly similar to the fourth sign in the name of

Ptolemy, which, as we have already seen, represents a _Lamda_.

"The third sign in the name of Cleopatra is _a feather_;

which should represent the _single_ vowel _Epsilon_, because

the _two feathers_ in the name of Ptolemy represent _double

Epsilon_, which is equivalent to the Greek _Eta_. Such is its

import. As Greppo remarks in a note, and as has been fully

proved by subsequent investigations of Champollion, the sign

which resembles two feathers, corresponds also with the

vowels _Eta_, _Iota_, and with the diphthongs _Alpha Iota_,

_Epsilon Iota_.

"The fourth character in the hieroglyphic cartouche of

Cleopatra, representing _a flower with a stalk bent back_ (or

a knop), corresponds to the _Omicron_ in the Greek name of

this queen. This sign is the very same with the third

character in the hieroglyphic name of Ptolemy, which there

represents _Omicron_.

"The fifth sign is in the form of _a square_. It here

represents the _Pi_, and is the same with the first sign in

the hieroglyphic name of Ptolemy.

"The sixth sign, corresponding to the Greek vowel _Alpha_ in

Cleopatra, is _a hawk_; which of course ought not to be

found in the name of Ptolemy (as it has no letter _Alpha_), and

it is not.

"The seventh character is an _open hand_, representing the

_Tau_; but this hand is not found in the hieroglyphic name of

Ptolemy, where _Tau_, the second letter in that name, is

represented by a half circle. The reader will see in Note G,

why these two signs stand for the same letter and sound.

"The eighth character in the name of Cleopatra, which is _a

mouth_, and which here represents the Greek _Rho_, should not

be found in the name of Ptolemy, and it is not.

"The ninth and last sign in the name of the queen, which

represents the vowel _Alpha_, is _the hawk_, the very same

sign which represents this vowel in the third syllable of

the same name.

"The name of Cleopatra is terminated by two hieroglyphic

symbolical signs, _the egg and the half circle_, which,

according to Champollion, are always used to _denote the

feminine gender_."

These were great advances, and our readers will now easily understand

the process by which the distinguished discoverer arrived at his

results. Step by step, he has thus been able to form his _phonetic

alphabet_. In September, 1822, he gave an account of his discovery, and

of the principles of his system, in a letter to Mons. Dacier, perpetual

Secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions, and of Belles Lettres. In

1824, Champollion published the first edition of his work, "Precis du

systeme hieroglyphique des anciens Egyptiens, ou recherches sur les

elemens premiers de cette ecriture sacree, &c." This is the work which

is reviewed in the number of this journal for June, 1827, p. 438. In the

year 1828, a second edition of this work was called for, and this second

edition is rendered more valuable, by having appended to it the letter

to Mons. Dacier.

It is not the purpose of the present article, to go into an account of

the results of Champollion's labours;--this has been amply done in

preceding pages of this journal. The essay of Mons. Greppo, gave us a

favourable opportunity, following the course of the author, of stating

in brief, the process by which Champollion arrived at his most valuable

and interesting conclusions. The object of the essay is to show the

advantages which this discovery gives to the study of sacred criticism.

This is the special aim of the work; and, in relation to this, the

author has observed:--

"Some of the numerous facts, which the study of Egyptian

developed, will be applied to the Holy Scriptures in some of

those portions which relate to Egypt, and they will shed

much light upon these passages of the sacred annals. We

shall endeavour to accomplish this work with all the

precision and simplicity possible in researches which are

necessarily scientific, but which are of high interest on

account of their tendency; and it is on this account only,

that we present them with such confidence.

"A religion whose origin is from above, is without doubt

safe from the vain attacks of a few blinded men; and, while

it has been defended for so many centuries by the most

powerful minds that have shed a lustre upon the sciences and

upon literature, it scarcely needs our weak defence. Yet it

is consoling to a Christian, to witness the amazing progress

of human knowledge. The mind is ever attaining to new

truths, and is confirming the remark so often quoted from a

celebrated English Chancellor, (Bacon) a remark which

applies as well to revealed as to natural religion, of which

Christianity is but the development; _Leves gustus in

philosophia movere fortasse ad atheismum, sed pleniores

haustus ad religionem reducere_: i. e. _superficial

knowledge in philosophy may perhaps lead to atheism, but a

fundamental knowledge will lead to religion_."

The Essay of Mons. Greppo is composed of two parts, the first of which

is an explanation of the hieroglyphic system of Champollion; and the

second, the application of the hieroglyphic system to the elucidation of

the sacred writings. The relations of the Hebrews with the Egyptians

were such, that the history of the latter cannot be otherwise than most

intimately connected with the religion of the Bible. In fact, there was

no country in the world, foreign to Judea, whose name is so conspicuous

in the Bible, as that of Egypt; beginning at the time of Abraham, and

going down to the very Apostolic age; and it hence follows, that he who

would study in detail, the historic annals of the Hebrews, ought to be

as fully acquainted with those of ancient Egypt, as the largest means

will allow. In carrying out his intention, M. Greppo has gone deeply

into philological, historical, chronological, and geographical

considerations. By making the "precis" of Champollion the basis of his

argument, and bringing in to his assistance the labours of the elder

Champollion, called by way of distinction Champollion Figeac, from the

place of his residence; he has investigated the history of the Pharaohs,

as connected with the accounts given in the books of Genesis and Exodus,

and the later historical writings.

In the fourth chapter of the second part, there is an interesting

discussion relative to the difficulty of reconciling the position taken

in Exodus, as to the perishing of Pharaoh, with the conclusions drawn

from the investigations of Champollion. The last Pharaoh of the Exodus,

is ascertained to be the King _Amenophis Ramses_. According to Manetho,

he reigned twenty years; viz. from 1493 B. C., to 1473 B. C., so

calculated also by Champollion Figeac. But the departure of the children

of Israel took place about the year 1491 B. C., consequently in the

second or third year of this Prince. If this Prince perished in the Red

Sea, how can this be reconciled with the fact, that Manetho states him

to have reigned twenty years, and this is confirmed by the calculations

of the elder Champollion. M. Greppo goes into an interesting discussion,

to prove that the text of the Book of Exodus does not state that Pharaoh

perished in the Red Sea. His examination of the sacred text will be

interesting to many of our readers:

"Scripture does not compel us to believe that the Pharaoh

with whom we now are concerned, participated in the fatal

calamity of his army. And first, Moses says not a word to

this effect, when he relates the miracle performed by the

Lord in favour of his people. He informs us, it is true,

that Pharaoh marched in pursuit of the children of Israel;

_And he made ready his chariot and took his people with him.

And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the

chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. And

the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he

pursued after the children of Israel_ (Exod. xiv. 6-8.). A

little further on he says; _And the Egyptians pursued, and

went in after them, into the midst of the sea, even all

Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen_ (v. 23.).

Finally he adds; _And the waters returned, and covered the

chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that

came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as

one of them_ (v. 28). Such are the principal features of the

narrative which Moses gives of this Egyptian expedition, and

of the terrible event in which it resulted. But in the

circumstantial account of this disaster, he does not name

Pharaoh personally except when he speaks of his departure.

Now if the persecutor of Israel entered the Red Sea with his

army, and was swallowed up with it, is it probable that the

chief and legislator of the Hebrews would have been silent

about such a circumstance as the tragical death of this

prince? an event more important, perhaps, than even the

destruction of his army, and surely very proper as a

striking illustration both of the protection which God

extended to his people, and of the chastisements his justice

inflicted upon the impious. And further; to strengthen the

faith of this people when in a state of distrust and

murmuring, Moses often recounts to them their deliverance

from Egyptian bondage, their passage through the Red Sea,

and the other miracles which God had wrought for them; and

on all these occasions, when the allusion to the death of an

oppressive prince would have been so natural, he conveys no

such idea.

"The circumstance related by Moses, that no one escaped,

_there remained not so much as one of them_, proves nothing

relative to the supposed disaster of Pharaoh. It refers to

those who followed the Hebrews into the sea, among whom

Moses does not enumerate this prince. We remark also, that

the sacred historian seems designedly to leave room for

making exceptions to the general disaster, by the precise

manner in which he announces, _that the waters covered the

chariots and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that

came into the sea after them_; this literally signifies that

the waters covered only the chariots and horsemen which

entered into the sea, and leaves us to infer that all did

not enter. The incidental expression in verse 28, _that came

into the sea after them_, seems then to modify the more

general expression in verse 23, _even all_, and authorizes

us to understand it with some latitude, rather than to

restrain it to its rigorous sense. All these circumstances

of the narrative accord with the presumption, not only that

Pharaoh did not enter into the Red Sea, but perhaps even

that some of his infantry, if he possessed any, did not

enter; and at least, that this is true of some principal

chiefs who surrounded him, and who formed what we now call a

body of _staff-officers_.

"In relating the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, the book

of _Wisdom_, which describes so often and in such an

admirable manner, the wonders of the Lord in conducting his

people, and which celebrates the illustrious men whom he

made his instruments, makes no mention either of Pharaoh or

of his tragical death. It is limited to the remark, that in

his wisdom he precipitated the enemies of Israel into the

sea (_Wisdom of Solomon_, x. 19)."

Mons. Greppo appears to be aware, that there are difficulties attending

his interpretation, arising out of the apparent positive declarations

contained in other parts of the sacred volume: for instance, in Ex. ch.

xv. 19th v., as also Ps. cxxxvi. 15th v. His answer to these objections,

and some collateral arguments by which he endeavours to support his

theory, are too long to be here introduced. Professor Stuart, in a

learned note, part of which we feel compelled to quote, dissents from

the reasoning of Mons. Greppo, and takes the safer course of leaving to

further discoveries, what, in the present state of the researches, may

not yet be considered as definitely settled.

"The modesty and ingenuity which M. Greppo has exhibited, in

the discussion which gives occasion to the present note,

certainly entitle him to much credit and approbation. Still

it seems to me very doubtful, whether the exegesis in

question can be supported. When God says, in Exod. xiv. 17,

'I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host,

upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen;" and when he

repeats the same sentiment in Exod. xiv. 18; the natural

inference seems to be, that the fate of Pharaoh would be the

same as that of his host, his chariots and his horsemen.

Accordingly, in Exod. xiv. 23, it is said, 'The Egyptians

pursued, and went in after them [the Hebrews] into the midst

of the sea, _every horse of Pharaoh and his chariot_, and

his horsemen, into the midst of the sea.' It is true,

indeed, that kol-sus par`o v^eh.e-lo may mean, _all the

horses of Pharaoh and all his chariots_, viz. all those

which belonged to his army. But is it not the natural

implication here, that Pharaoh was at the head of his army,

and led them on? And when in Exod. xiv. 28 it is said, that

of all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after the

Israelites, _there remained not so much as one of them_, is

not the natural implication here, that Pharaoh at the head

of his army went into the sea, and perished along with them?

"In the triumphal song of Moses and the Hebrews, recorded in

Exod. xv., the implication in verses 4, 19, seems most

naturally to be, that Pharaoh was joined with his army in

the destruction to which they were subjected.

"But still more does this appear, in Ps. cvi. 11, where it

is said, 'The waters covered their enemies [the Egyptians];

_there was not one of them left_.' How could this well be

said, if Pharaoh himself, the most powerful, unrelenting,

and bitter enemy which they had, was still preserved alive,

and permitted afterwards to make new conquests over his

southern neighbours? This passage M. Greppo has entirely

overlooked.

"In regard to Ps. cxxxvi. 15, the exegesis of our author is

ingenious; but it will not bear the test of criticism. For

example; in Exod. xiv. 27, it is said, 'And the Lord

_overthrew_ the Egyptians, in the midst of the sea; where

the Hebrew word answering to _overthrew_ is dgbz-r from

vayna`er from ni`er. But in Ps. cxxxvi. 15, the very same

word is applied to Pharaoh and his host; '_And he overthrew_

(vayna`er) _Pharaoh and his host_. In both cases (which are

exactly the same), the word ni`er properly means, _he drave

into_ (_hineintreiben, Gesenius_.) Now if the Lord _drave_

the Egyptians _into_ the midst of the sea, and also _drave_

Pharaoh and his host _into_ the midst of the sea, we cannot

well see how Pharaoh escaped drowning. Accordingly, we find

that such an occurrence is plainly recognized by Nehemiah

ix. 10, 11, when, after mentioning Pharaoh, his servants,

and his people, this distinguished man speaks of the

'persecutors of the Hebrews as thrown into the deep, as a

stone in the mighty waters.'

"As to any difficulties respecting _chronology_ in this

case, about which M. Greppo seems to be principally

solicitous, it may be remarked, that the subject of ancient

Egyptian chronology is yet very far from being so much

cleared up, as to throw any real embarrassments in the way

of Scripture facts. More light will give more

satisfaction--as in the famous case of the zodiacs, so

finely described in the last chapter of M. Greppo's book."

The fifth and sixth chapters of the work of Mons. Greppo, are devoted to

the examination of the history of the Pharaohs mentioned in the sacred

writings, down to the time of Solomon, and of the other kings of Egypt,

who are distinguished by proper names.

The seventh chapter is devoted to the chronology of Manetho, the

official historiographer of Egypt; and several questions are discussed,

which relate to the difference between him, and the scripture

chronologers. In the close of the chapter, the author draws two

conclusions, which we are disposed to think entirely justified by the

present state of the investigations--these conclusions will be better

stated in the author's own words:--

"From the remarks which we have communicated to our readers,

we infer that there is no foundation for that fear about the

advance of Egyptian studies, which the religious zeal of

some estimable men has led them to cherish; neither is there

any occasion to distrust the _data_ transmitted by the

historian of the Pharaohs. Nothing can authorize such a

distrust. On the other hand, every thing conspires to prove,

at the present time, that the new discoveries and their

application to chronology, will disclose more and more the

truth and exactness of the historic facts in Scripture. We

believe that men are too apt to form a judgment of systems

when they hardly understand them; and perhaps they are too

prone to forget that if true faith is timorous, it is not

distrustful, like the pride which is connected with the vain

theories of men; because it views the basis, upon which the

august edifice of divine revelation reposes, as immoveable.

Inspired with this thought, we have adopted, from entire

conviction, all the satisfactory results elicited by the

labours of the Champollions; and we wait, with impatience

and with confidence, the new developments which they

promise, persuaded beforehand that revealed religion cannot

but gain from them."

In the eighth chapter of his essay, Mons. Greppo applies the discoveries

of Champollion to the Egyptian geography, so far as the scriptures are

concerned. If it be true, as he conceives, that the city of Rameses

occupied the site of the Arabian city, now called Ramsis, there seems to

be an irreconcilable difference with some of the scripture relations;

for this city, _Ramsis_, is on the western side of the river Nile, and

not less than one hundred and fifty miles from that position on the Red

Sea, where it is believed that the passage of the Israelites was made.

However the question may eventually be settled, it appears to us, that

this location can in no sense consist with the text of the sacred

writings; for, in the first place, it would have required that the

Israelites should have crossed the Nile, on their journey towards

Palestine. Of this there is no account; neither had they any means; and

it would have required a miraculous interposition to enable them so to

do. But, second, the sacred text informs us, that, at the close of the

second day after the departure of the Israelites from Rameses, they

reached the borders of the Red Sea. It is utterly impossible that they

could have crossed the Nile, and travelled one hundred and fifty miles

in two days. It is beyond all rational calculation to suppose that they

could have travelled at the rate of more than twenty miles per day, and,

consequently, we must look for the situation of Rameses at a distance

not greater certainly than forty miles from the Red Sea, and on the

eastern side of the Nile. If the integrity of the sacred writings is to

be preserved, the idea that the Rameses of the Bible, and the Ramsis of

the Arabians are identical, must be abandoned, or, at any rate, not

adopted until something far more conclusive shall be found, than has yet

been given. Professor Stuart, in a note which we have above condensed,

refers to a previous work of his, where this subject is more largely

discussed, and which, as it may not be familiar to the mass of our

readers, being a work distinctly connected with theological studies,

will be referred to for a moment. In this work, the Professor enters

largely into the examination of the location of Rameses, which stands

also for Goshen. He considers, and with vast power of argument and

illustration, that the royal residence of the Pharaohs at the time of

Joseph and Moses, was at Zoan, and not Memphis, as has been generally

supposed. There can be no question, that Zoan was one of the oldest

cities of Lower Egypt, and situated on the eastern shore of the second

or Tanitic mouth of the Nile, and this was but a little distance from

the Pelusiac or eastern branch, on which the residence of the Israelites

has generally been supposed to have been. It was an extensive city, and

its ruins in the time of the French expedition, occupied an extensive

country. Champollion has remarked that the word signifies, "mollis,

delicatus, jucundus," which would make Zoan to mean Pleasant town. The

reader will be interested to observe, that, in Ps. lxxviii, the writer

alludes to Zoan, as the scenes of the miracles of Moses: also Ps. v.

verse 12, and also lxxii. verse 43. In the time of Isaiah, it is quite

clear, that Zoan was the place where the Egyptian court resided, at

least for a time. See ch. xix. verse 11. There are objections to this

view of Professor Stuart, but not stronger, than to others; and the most

probable is, that the kings of Egypt had different places of royal

residence, as is still customary. We know that Cyrus, after conquering

Babylon, spent part of his time there, and part at the capital of his

native country.

Contrary, therefore, to the opinion of Mons. Greppo, Professor Stuart

considers Rameses or Goshen, to be decidedly on the eastern side of the

Nile, and this is rendered more certain, if, as the Professor has

attempted to prove, _Zoan_ was frequently a royal residence of the

Pharaohs. The opinion taken by Mons. Greppo, that Rameses was on the

western side of the Nile, in what may be called Lower Eastern Egypt,

without the delta, is refuted in Michaelis _Supp. ad Lex._ Hebraica, p.

397. We make no pretentions to the ability of settling these disputed

points, and consider it perfectly safe to abide by the present general

idea, as to the location of Rameses, especially as there is nothing yet

in the shape of positive testimony against it. The reader who is

particularly interested in Biblical Archaeology, will be highly gratified

by consulting the work of Dr. Stuart, entitled--"Course of Hebrew

Study." In the ninth chapter of his Essay, the author has made use of

the discoveries of Champollion, to defeat certain objections to the

genuineness and authenticity of the Books of Moses, which were started

by Voltaire and others of his time. The high antiquity of the Pentateuch

was doubted, on the ground that writing in the common language could not

then have been known. Champollion has decyphered a manuscript, which

contains an act of the fifth year of the reign of Thouthmosis III. This

prince governed Egypt at a time when Joseph was carried there as a

slave, and this was at least two hundred years previous to the time in

which Moses wrote the Pentateuch.

An objection to the truth of the history of the Pentateuch, also, arose

out of the circumstance, that the magnificence and excellence of the

work said there to have been put upon the ark and its furniture in the

wilderness, was utterly beyond the state of the arts at the time

challenged in the relation. The discoveries of Champollion have

overthrown a supposition which had been held almost indisputable,

viz:--that the arts of Egypt had been indebted for their progress, to

the influence of those from Greece under the domination of the Lagidae

kings. He has established the contrary, beyond doubt, and has proved

that the most brilliant epoch of the arts in Egypt, was under a dynasty

contemporary with the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt.

The only remaining objection which is noticed by the author, is one

which he considers as capable of receiving the same satisfactory

solution.

It is objected that the name of _Sesostris_ is not mentioned in

Scripture, nor any feature of his history recognised. To this, the

investigations made by Champollion and the calculations of Champollion

Figeac are made to answer. The commencement of the reign of Sesostris is

fixed by these, in the year 1473, B. C.; consequently, this was

seventeen or eighteen years after the departure of the Israelites from

Egypt. While they were wandering in the wilderness, Sesostris overran

Palestine, which was then in possession of its primitive inhabitants,

and before the Israelites reached that land, the expedition of Sesostris

had long passed, for Diodorus tells us, that it terminated in the ninth

year of his reign. The silence of Scripture, therefore, as to Sesostris,

is in no wise remarkable, as the people of Israel had no connexion with

him, either as friend or foe.

The tenth chapter of the Essay, relates to the Egyptian Zodiacs. To our

readers who have examined the subject at all, the history of these is

now familiar,--the curious may turn to the Number of this Journal for

December, 1827, p. 520, where will be found an ample description.

We have thus given a detailed description of the Essay of Mons. Greppo,

and we cannot resist the pleasure before we close, of presenting the few

remarks with which he concludes his discussion.

"We come now to the conclusion of our undertaking. With the

aid of the new discoveries in Egypt, we think that we have

shed some light upon various passages of the sacred annals,

and that we have resolved, in a more satisfactory manner,

certain difficulties which were opposed to their veracity.

We have attentively examined the resources which the

writings and monuments of Egypt afford, in the

interpretation and defence of a religion, whose lot has

been, in all ages, to meet with enemies, when it should have

found only admirers and disciples. But the researches to

which we have been attending very naturally, as we think,

give rise to a thought consoling to the Christian.

"Providence, whose operations are so sensibly exhibited in

the whole physical constitution of the world, has not

abandoned to chance the government of the moral or

intellectual world. By means often imperceptible even to the

eye of the man of observation, and which seem reserved for

his own secret counsel, God directs second causes, gives

them efficiency according to his will, and makes them serve,

sometimes even contrary to their natural tendency, to

accomplish his own immutable decrees, and to propagate and

support that religion which he has revealed to us. It is in

this way that, consistently with his own will, he delays or

accelerates the march of human intellect; that he gives it a

direction such as he pleases; that he causes discoveries to

spring up in their time, as fruits ripen in their season;

and that the revolutions which renew the sciences, like

those which change the face of empires, enter into the plan

which he traced out for himself from all eternity.

"Does not this sublime truth, which affords an inexhaustible

subject of meditation to the well instructed and reflecting

man, but which needs for its development the pen of a

Bossuet,--does it not apply with great force to the subject

that we have been considering?

"Since the studies of our age have been principally directed

to the natural sciences, which the irreligious levity of the

last age had so strangely abused to the prejudice of

religion, we have seen the most admirable discoveries

confirming the physical history of the primitive world, as

it is given by Moses. It is sufficient to cite in proof of

this fact, the geological labours of our celebrated Cuvier.

Now that historic researches are pursued with a greater

activity than ever before, and the monuments of antiquity

illustrated by a judicious and promising criticism,

Providence has also ordered, that the writings of ancient

Egypt should in turn confirm the historic facts of the holy

books: facts against which a _systematic_ erudition had

furnished infidelity with so many objections that were

unceasingly repeated, though they had been a thousand times

refuted. We cannot doubt that human knowledge, as it becomes

more and more disengaged from the spirit of system, and

pursues truth as its only aim, will still attain, as it

advances, to other analogous results.

"Thus, as has been often said, revealed religion has no

greater foe than ignorance. Far from making it _her ally_,

as men who deny the testimony of all ages have not blushed

to assert, she cannot but glory in the advance of the

sciences. She has always favoured them, and it is chiefly

owing to her influence, that they have been preserved in the

midst of the barbarism from which she has rescued us. Thus

the progress of true science, _the progress of light_ (to

use a legitimate though often abused expression,) far from

being at variance with revealed religion, as its enemies

have represented,--far from being dangerous to it, as some

of its disciples have appeared to fear, tends, on the

contrary, each day to strengthen its claims upon all

enlightened minds, and to prove, in opposition to the pride

of false science, that this divine religion, confirmed as it

is by all the truths to which the human mind attains, _is

the truth of the Lord which endureth forever_."

We have ventured upon this protracted notice of the Essay of Mons.

Greppo, because the subject itself is one of gratifying pursuit even to

the mere scholar, but still more because it is vitally connected with

the evidences of revealed religion in which we hope that none of our

readers are altogether uninterested. There is in the Essay, no question

as to any of the minor points of the Christian faith,--there is here

nothing but what all may peruse with satisfaction. The question is one

entirely connected with evidence; and science and literature are pressed

fairly into the service of truth. The work is peculiarly valuable,

because it is the only work connected with the labours of Champollion

which has been made to wear an English dress. The works of both the

Champollions are locked up in a foreign language from most of our

readers; and we fear that the time will not soon come when there will be

sufficient encouragement either to translate or publish in this country

the splendid volumes of these brothers, who are, by their discoveries,

raising up for France the gratitude of the world. Until there shall be

liberality enough in our republic of letters, to enable us to possess

these works, with all their riches of illustration, and thus have

ancient Egypt brought to the inspection of American eyes, we would

recommend the work of Mons. Greppo, as the best, and indeed only

substitute at present known, always excepting the pages of our own

journal.

It is needless to say, that the merits of the translation cannot be

questioned, after the testimonials furnished by the learned Dr. Stuart;

without the advantage of comparing it with the original, we can speak of

its excellence relatively, for the style is clear, concise, and

classical.