ART. III. Hiftory of England, by Mrs. Macaulay Graham, Volume VI. and VII. WH HATEVER may be thought of Burnet's comparison of Charles II. to Tiberius, he does not deferve the cenfure thrown upon him by Mr. Hume, for the character in general. For tho' the refemblance between any two characters is fcarce ever exact enough to juftify a comparison of them, much lefs when they lived at fuch different times and under fuch different circumftances as the Roman Emperor and the King of England, the colours with which Mr. Hume has painted the latter are much too weak and too favourable. Some allowances were certainly to be made for habits of indolence and indecifion, and there might be fome moments in the course of a long reign in which the follies overshadowed the vices; yet whoever reads the history through, and can bring into one point of view Charles's general infenfibility and ingratitude to the friends of his family, his treatment of Clarendon, his barbarous revenge on Coventry, his acquiefcence in the perfecution of the Scotch, the eafe with which he figned death warrants for the popish plot at the time he did not believe a word of it, the tameness with which he faw Stafford die, his barbarous acquiefcence in the proceedings against College, Ruffel, and Sidney-whoever, I fay, can group thefe objects (for I fay nothing of the great blot of the reign, the money received from France, as I chufe only to fpeak of the man) will feel other fentiments than thofe of pity or contempt. Bad however as this reign was, and much as had long been fuppofed to lay behind, fo much had been lately brought forward, that there were no new facts to be expected, even from the indefatigable hatred of Mrs. Macaulay. Accordingly, upon the whole, Mr. Hume's statement and hers are much the fame; and tho' fhe gives more amplitude and circumftance to fome of the worfe tranfactions, fuch as the breach of faith with Sir Harry Vane, the particulars of College's trial, the Quo Warranto Warranto bufinefs, &c. there is not much to chufe in this refpect between the two hiftories. But tho the facts are much the fame, and a cool judicious reader will rife either from Mr. Hume or Mrs. Macaulay with an equal deteftation of tyranny, there is a great difference in the manner in which they are told, and in this lies Mrs. Macaulay's advantage in this part of her history, for I mean now to speak of no other. It is a hiftory glowing with the love of liberty, fpurring to virtue, animating to action, it is in this refpect ancient hiftory; whereas the other, from the coolness and temper and little emotion with which in general the author speaks of great crimes, appears more favourable to the fpirit of indolence and indifference. But there is another characteristic of Mrs. Macaulay's history still more respectable than her love of liberty, and that is her love of truth; I do not mean historical truth, from which the feldom deviates, and never as I could fee willingly, but of moral truth. This is apparent from the honourable mention the makes of Secretary Coventry, for voting against the miniftry in parliament when he was Secretary of State; her abhorrence of the custom of encouraging informers in any caufes whatever, by rewards; and her cenfures (happily undeferved of late years) upon crown lawyers, for their implicit obedience to their leaders, even to the extreme of perfecution; a practice which in former times has thrown as much difgrace on this country, as the most servile compliance of the most fervile commiffion that was ever nominated in France, could do upon that enslaved people. As to the style of Mrs. Macaulay's hiftory, though it fometimes riles, as in the obfervations I have just mentioned, and in the account of Ruffel, Sidney, and Shaftefbury, in which there is much good writing, it is upon the whole the leaft brilliant part of the work. The order seems to be Mr. Hume's; and many of the most ftriking paffages are taken from Sir John Dalrymple, without alteration and without acknowledgment. Nor is is this all: there are even faults of grammar; but these, though difparaging to a play or novel, are of lefs confe quence to a history, the province of which being peculiarly to inftruct, if it fucceeds in that, the reft may be neglected with less risk. There is a very fenfible preface, very modeftly written, relative to the objections which have been made to Mrs. Macaulay's other works, in which, at the fame time that the blames herself for fome inftances of petulance that have escaped her formerly, fhe complains of the hard treatment and indifcriminate abufe fhe has met with on account of her principles, without being contradicted as to any of her facts. Tho' I do not think her entirely clear on this point, as undoubtedly her reafonings on Strafford's trial are fuch as neither reafon nor law can juftify, it must be confeffed that in these volumes at least are no parts which are to be afcribed to a party fpirit. Clarendon indeed fhe has treated with more feverity than the veneration we entertain for him renders quite palatable; at the fame time it must be owned the charges the bas brought against him, particularly that of conceals ing Charles's true character (which he ought to have reformed, or to have abandoned him) from the people be fore the Reftoration, and that of grofs and difgufting hypocrify with relation to his daughter the Dutchefs of York's marriage, are a difgrace to his memory. With tespect to her vindication of Ruffel and Sidney for tak ing French money, tho' done with great spirit, and as far as extenuating of the crime goes with great truth, it is fome contradiction to her own principles, as thele men could not know the ufes to which Lewis would put them, nor was it for the honor of their dignified charac ters to feem to encourage fo dangerous a practice as giving or receiving money to do even a right thing. The parts of the work which the reader will fee with most pleasure, as containing the greatest quantity of entertaining matter, ftated in a new way, are in the firit volume, the trial of the Regicides, Clarendon's banithment, and the death of the De Witts; and in the fecond, the treatment of Harrington, the reflections, p. 93. to 104. the account of the popish plot, College's and the Quo Warranto bnfinefs, Effex's death, and the characters of Halifax, Marvel, Saunders, Ruffel, Sidney, and Prince Rupert. ART. IV. Account of fome Articles in the 41ft volume of the Hiftory of the Academy of Infcriptions. Account of fome Medals of the Emperor Antoninus, by L'Abbé Barthelemi. THE HE eleven Medals, which L'Abbé Barthelemi propofes to examine, were ftruck in Egypt, in honor of the emperor Antoninus, in the 8th year of his reign; they are of large brass, rather scarce, and of good workmanship. are, The obverfe exhibits the Emperor, and the reverses 1. A woman with a crefcent representing the moon and the fign of Cancer. 2. The head of the Sun, and Leo. 3. Mercury and Virgo. :10. Venus and Taurus. II. The head of Serapis ; in an inner circle the Planets, and in an outer the 12 figns of the Zodiack. The author obferves, that in these Medals the planets are characterized by the head of a Divinity and a star, and that they were ftruck between the 29th of Auguft, 144, and the 29th of August, 145.-And he enquires what was the cause of this affociation? In the first place, each fign of the Zodiack was fupposed to be under the influence of a particular planet, as we learn from an Egyptian tradition preserved by Macrobius, who fays that at the beginning of the world the : VOL. I. F moon moon was created firft, and took her place in Cancer ; she was followed by the Sun, who went to the Lyon; Mercury to Virgo, Venus to the Balance; Mars to Scorpio, Jupiter to Sagittarius, and Saturn to Capricorn, Seven Signs being thus occupied, five remained independent. In order to fubject them to the fame influence as the reft, the five planets which had rifen last had a double kingdom, viz. Saturn who had Capricorn gained Aquarius Jupiter had Pifces, Mars had Aries, Venus Taurus, and Mercury Gemini. This being premised, it follows that the feven firft Medals reprefent the planets in their original houses, and the three next reprefent Saturn, Jupiter and Venus, in their acquired ones. Mars in Aries, and Mercury in Gemini, have not been seen by the Abbé, but they probably exist in some other cabinet. The intent therefore of the whole was, as the Abbé B. concludes, to represent the happiness which the world enjoyed under the government of Antoninus. For Placing the planets in their primitive state, was recalling the golden age, the original conftitution of things. It meant the fame as the Seculum aureum about the medals of Adrian, and the Felix temporum reparatio about thofe of fome others of the Roman emperors. And that this was the defign, is farther proyed by Antoninus's elevation to the empire happening near the day on which the Egyptians fuppofed the world to have been founded, viz. about the 20th or 22d of July, and also towards the end of a cycle, or that aftronomical period which was fupposed to restore all things to the state they were in at the beginning, this cycle happening on the 29th of July, 139. Befides this, aftrology, which had long poffeffed the minds of men, was in peculiar credit under this reign, and, according to aftrological notions, the planets were fuppofed to be both more powerful and more propitious, when they were in their proper houfes, than when in any other part of the heavens. Nor is this all: the Proconful of Africa had confulted the oracle about the destiny of Antoninus, and the only answer he had gained was, an order to obferve how often the prince's name was uttered by the priest. It was uttered only eight times. This therefore |