whole of which produces an impression not unworthy of the temple of national justice. The king is seated on his throne, at the foot of which are three massive lions of silver; and a cause is pleaded and decided before him pro formâ. On all other occasions, he is addressed, as if he were actually present, by the advocates, who turn towards the vacant throne, which stands between two long tables, at which the judges are seated, clothed in a costume copied from that of the parliament of Paris. The fifth chapter of the author's work treats of the king's titles, and of the arms of the kingdom; and this subject is naturally connected with the history of the Danish orders of knighthood. These are only two, that of the Elephant and of Dannebrog. The former is said by some to have been founded by Canute the Sixth, who warred in the Holy Land, and restored Ptolemais, or St Jean d'Acre, to the Christians. But others assign it a much more modern date. The legend respecting the order of Dannebrog is, that king Waldemar the Second made war against the Pagans in Livonia, and the Danes having lost their standard in battle, a panic seized them, which was dissipated by the descent of a new standard from the sky, marked with cross, upon which they rallied and defeated the enemy with great slaughter. Whereupon the king instituted the order of the knights of Dannebrog, or the national standard. This oriflamme was lost in battle in after ages, and the order itself fell into oblivion, until it was revived by Christian the Fifth in 1671.*

* The praises of this national standard have been chanted by the Danish poet Ingemann. The following is a specimen of the spirit of his patriotic stanzas.

'Wave, crimson Dannebrog! on high,

And let thy white cross gleam afar,
Athwart the ocean as a star,

To guide thy sons to victory.

Ensign proud, and banner fair,

Stream like a meteor to the air,

E'en in the midst of darkness, bright;-
Thee ne'er shall tempest scathe or blight.

The sixth chapter of Mr Schlegel's work treats of a subject in which foreign nations have a deep interest ;-the superiority claimed by the king of Denmark over the neighboring seas, and especially the Sound, and the two Belts, together with the consequent right of levying duties upon the commerce of other nations for the passage of these straits into the Baltic sea. It contains a very full historical deduction of the ancient Danish claim to an exclusive sovereignty over these seas, which was the origin of the Sound duties, and a detail of the different treaties and regulations now existing, by which they are levied and collected. His seventh chapter treats of the regalian right of coining money, and, in connexion with that subject, of the bank of Copenhagen, and its paper currency. The notes of the bank, which became extremely depreciated during the late war with England, have been redeemed and taken out of circulation, and the paper is almost at par under the present excellent administration of the bank. The eighth chapter treats of the royal posts, and their present organization. The Danish posts were established by Christian the Fourth, a monarch of whom the Danes are justly proud. Christian the Fifth granted them to his illegitimate son, Count Christian de Gyldenlowe, in the form of a fief of the crown, and the Norwegian posts to another of his sons. But they were reunited to the royal domain under Frederic the Fourth, who appropriated their revenues to pension the retired servants of the crown, their widows and childThe ninth chapter treats of the island of Bornholm, and the peculiar privileges enjoyed by its inhabitants. This island, which was ceded to Sweden by the treaty of Reeskilde in 1658, shook off the Swedish yoke by its own exertions in the following war, and surrendered itself to Frederic the Third, upon

ren.

'Oh! oft hast thou inspired of old,
In battle-field our fathers bold;

And still shalt lead our children brave
To death or conquest on the wave.

'See where thy sons to combat rush,
To guard their land, their foes to crush,-
Ready their dearest blood to shed,

And emulate the glorious dead.

'Yes! proudly shalt thou wave on high,
O'er every sea, in every clime,

Till come the latest hour of time,—

Till thy Dania's spirit die.'

Wilson's Travels in Norway, &c. p. 459.

certain stipulated conditions, which are still observed. The inhabitants are enrolled in a local militia, well organized, and commanded by their own officers, and are exempt from the conscription for the army to which all other Danish subjects are liable.

The second volume of the present work will be soon published, and will give an account of the public law of the duchies of Sleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, and of the local organization of Iceland, the Ferroe Islands, and the Danish colonies in the East and West Indies. We propose to notice it when it shall appear, and also to give our readers some account of the civil and criminal codes of Denmark, and of its judicial institutions. Although we cannot quite agree with Lord Molesworth (who on this occasion seems determined to make amends for blackening the other features of the nation by painting every thing in respect to the Danish laws en beau), that for justice, brevity, and perspicuity, they exceed all that I know in the world,' yet there are doubtless some things in the legal institutions of this country which are worth examination. Among these are the Conciliation or Arbitration Courts (ForligelsesCommission), which did not exist in Lord Molesworth's time, but were established by the present reigning monarch, and which experience has shown to be very useful in checking the spirit of litigation. The science of the legal antiquities of the country has also been diligently cultivated, and these, it is well known, are connected with our own fontes originis juris. The laws of Canute the Great have been studied and commented on by Professors Nyerup, Schlegel, and KolderupRosenvinge; and though we regard these inquiries into the barbarous and antiquated jurisprudence of our remote ancestors as rather valuable for a history of manners than of laws, yet they may not be wholly without their use in the latter point of view. Mr N. Falck, one of the professors of jurisprudence in the university of Kiel, in Holstein, in the preface to a German translation of Blackstone's Commentaries, which he has recently published, has much insisted upon the importance of these analogical studies as throwing light upon German jurisprudence; and it is possible that this may reflect some in return upon the history and principles of the common law of England.

ART. II.—The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, to which is added an Historical View of the Affairs of Ireland. By EDWARD EARL OF CLAREndon. A new Edition, exhibiting a faithful Collation of the original MS.; with all the suppressed Passages; also the unpublished Notes of Bishop Warburton. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press. Reprinted by Wells & Lilly, Boston.

We shall make no apology for the few remarks we have to offer, on the appearance of the first American edition of 'The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars.' The demand for books of this description is one of the best proofs of the progress of good taste, and the spirit of inquiry. It is in the works of contemporary writers that true history is to be found; and this of Lord Clarendon is most valuable of its kind; whether we consider the importance of the events treated of, their peculiar relation to the early history of our own country, or the character and talents of the historian. That it has great faults is admitted; but in the very admission is implied no small compliment to the author, since, in spite of them, it is universally acknowledged to be one of the noblest works in our language.

'His diction,' says Johnson, 'is neither exact, nor in itself suited to the purpose of history. It is the effusion of a mind crowded with ideas, and desirous of imparting them; and therefore always accumulating words, and involving one clause and sentence in another. But there is in his negligence a rude, inartificial majesty, which, without the nicety of labored elegance, swells the mind by its plenitude and diffusion. His narration is not perhaps sufficiently rapid, being stopped too frequently by particularities, which, though they might strike the author who was present at the transactions, will not equally detain the attention of posterity. But his ignorance or carelessness of the art of writing, is amply compensated by his knowledge of nature and of policy; the wisdom of his maxims, the justness of his reasonings, and the variety, distinctness, and strength of his characters.'

However we may be disposed to agree in the truth of these remarks, there are serious defects in Lord Clarendon's History, as we shall presently show, which the political bias of Johnson led him to overlook. The particularities,' which he thinks objectionable, do not appear so to us, excepting perhaps in a few instances. On the contrary, one of the great charms of the

history, consists in the vivacity, and even humor, with which this great man dilates on the personal adventures of himself and his friends. The object of history,' says Voltaire, is the human mind; and if the work before us be examined by this standard, it will be found that these episodes are full of the most useful as well as delightful matter. We see in them, not only the hearts of other men, but that of the historian himself, laid open to our view. What true lover of history would willingly give up any part of the spirited account of the surrender of Colchester, or of the truly romantic siege and capture of Pontefract Castle, or the curious details of the exiled Charles's little court, where many a politician may read his own character, and many a family its own history? Still more highly do we value those effusions of tenderness which the author pours out, whenever he has occasion to deplore the loss of a friend in the contests of that dreadful period. His description of the character and death of Lord Falkland is not surpassed in any language. Never did a friend more faithfully fulfil the duties of friendship, and never was a character more deserving of such devotion. Led on by his feelings, the historian runs. out into many little details and anecdotes, which at once illustrate the character he is describing, and do honor to the goodness of his own heart. The reader, yielding to the irresistible force of genius, is carried back to the time and place of action. He sees Lord Falkland in the House of Commons, urging with all the eloquence of conviction the cause of conciliation. When it is resolved to decide the contest by arms, he seems to watch his manly form, wasting with anxiety and distress for the fate of his country; he hears his perpetual and mournful ejaculation of Peace, Peace.' He marks the alacrity with which he prepares for the fatal battle, goes with him to the field, sees him fall before his eyes; and for the moment forgets, even the cause he espoused, in sympathy with his fate.

It is

It may be worth while to stop for a moment to compare this character with that of Hambden, an equally great and virtuous man of the opposite party, as drawn by the same hand. curious in this latter character, to observe the force of prejudice contending in the mind of the historian with a sense of justice and the love of truth. Dr Warburton truly observes, in a note on the character of Hambden, that while the author applies to him in conclusion what was said of Cinna,' that he had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any VOL. XXVII.-NO. 61.

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