half to be plebeians: the third contained the Licinian Agrarian law.

Mr. Niebuhr is so eloquent on the subject of the first of these rogations, that we cannot refrain from quoting him at some length.

Many of the patricians, though they no longer cherished the old idea of being descended from a higher caste, might have strongly opposed this measure, from honest conviction of their firm and well-founded rights. With equal honesty might the plebeians, without meriting the reproach of selfishness, assert their claims to full and complete civic rights, strengthened by services of two hundred years, in opposition to ordinances which could not be obligatory upon that which arose long after. Unquestionably it is frequently experience alone that proves the wisdom of a law. Livy gives an apparently strong objection made to the tribunes. It was said, "if the greatest man of the age, who in the most eminent d'anger, should canvass for the consulate for the salvation of his country, were a patrician," (his Appius could only name Camillus, we with more reason think of the great Scipio,)" if he, together with meritorious patricians, and a single worthless plebeian demagogue, sought the magistracy, would it not then be absurd that he should be uncertain of his election, perhaps must lose it, while the plebeian might expect it, without making any exertion?" The historian, who leaves such an objection unanswered, dishonestly misleads his readers, as he may expect to meet with some who regard, as irrefutable, whatever is left arbitrarily or negligently unrefuted. He should have furnished Licinius with his reply, that in Rome, for a long time yet, none of either order, but men approved in war, would presume to sue for the consulate; the plebeian opponent, of the greatest general, would not be inferior to the other patrician, even though neither could compare himself in greatness to him; but then a plebeian might be this hero of his age, provided only that the enlivening rays of an unshackled supreme power were not withdrawn from him--and of such a one the patricians wished to deprive the Republic altogether, and only then to tolerate his services, when a patrician consul might condescend to question and listen to him. The appointment also which they attacked was necessary, because experience had exhibited nothing but irreclaimable perfidy. Should the highest order act honestly, then the election of the worthiest might be permitted, and enjoined to the citizens, without any restriction by the letter of the law, though no free constitution could dispense with that letter. But, after such experience, who could place any confidence in the good faith of the patricians? It would be happy for the Republic, if even the letter of this law, solemnly sworn to, and anxiously weighed, were secure against daring violation! Should ever the ancient party-spirit of the orders be dissolved in general patriotism; should trying days of misfortune then arrive; then might their better posterity, for a time, relax the bonds of the law. A defeat was more

endurable than servitude, and a crippling imprisonment of the living body. But whence these gloomy apprehensions of plebeian incapacity and want of virtue? Certainly not from experience; for, in the only period in which the patricians had not succeeded, in excluding them from the command of the armies, plebeian consular tribunes had gained victories on the very spot which had been made mournful by the culpable defeat of their patrician predecessors. Who had commanded the army at the Allia? And even supposing the worst, the constitution itself presented the remedy in the

dictatorship, which should be restricted to no order. For, from the plebeians too, men would arise, who would, as dictators, save their country, who would not menace it, or turn against the citizens those arms, which were intended to be employed against their enemies.

Further, the Roman government had, with great wisdom, from ancient times, imparted the freedom of the city to entire communities, in order to increase the small body of citizens, until they became a great nation. A far greater extension of this system was necessary, for higher objects than had been embraced since the commencement of the sole dominion of the patricians. But could any one expect to bind the associated citizens tó their new country, by love, if all honours were refused to their equestrian orders? And if, as already several patrician families had died off, their number continually diminished; if the plebeians were still forcibly repulsed from all honourable exertions, their wealthy men directed to making money, as an employment, the renewing of the highest order, by pure Italian noble families, prevented-if adopted freedmen debased the stock of the nation; could then the measure of the magnanimity and virtue of the still remaining patricians determine the destiny of the Republic? All experience teaches that oligarchies do not diminish faster in number than in mental strength. This, indeed, may appear a matter of indifference, to him who is satisfied with power and wealth in his own days, but how will any one prevent that which has happened in many Greek republics, that an almost expiring, and increasingly despotic oligarchy should be destroyed by a sanguinary democracy, or by a tyrant? Perhaps such a revolution was not far remote! All the blessings of future greatness, which the gods had laid in the auguries of the city at its birth, and the founding of the capitol, would then depart for ever. For a long time past, the state was enfeebled and suffering, because it was living in an unhealthy condition. Freed from this condition, in concord with itself, steeled by the internal energy with which it would have restored itself to a healthy existence, it was destined to attain the pinnacle of grandeur.

All this might Licinius have said, without having the spirit of prophecy; so Livy ought to have spoken from his soul, if he had thought oratorical discussion suitable on the occasion. For the later history of Rome shews, that together with endless blessings, no single disadvantage resulted from this law. The Decii, who gave themselves as sin-offerings for the whole nation, were plebeians: they were plebeians who first checked, then vanquished Pyrrhus; a plebeian subjected the Gauls of Italy; the same arrested the course of Hannibal's victories; a plebeian, the peasantgeneral, destroyed the Cimbrians and Teutonians; a plebeian consul saved Rome from Catiline and his accomplices; the Catos, the Gracchi, and Brutus were plebeians. Scipio the Great, undoubtedly was a patrician, and he towers above his people, as Hannibal does above all nations. The Æmilii, the Valerii, the Sulpicii, the Fabii, other houses of the Cornelü, as well as the Scipios, counted men, who were among the greatest whom the republic produced; their statues stand peaceably by those of the great plebeians. On the deeds of each, another rose to new eminence. All gradually degenerated when in possession of superior authority, and in the power of soul-subduing wealth. But the municipia invigorated the people with new families; the patricians, with the exception of a few families, who therefore shine the more resplendently, became as corrupt as the con

spiracy of Cataline evinces; the heads of which, himself, Cethegus, and Lentulus, were all patricians; hence Cornelius Severus distinguishes it by the dreadful name of the patrician crime.'-vol. ii, pp. 347-352.

Nothing could exceed the furious opposition of the patricians, headed by the venerable Camillus; or the firmness of the tribunes, and the steadiness of the people, who re-elected them every year. At length Camillus himself saw that farther resistance was vain, and he signalized the close of a glorious life, by mediating between the two conflicting orders. Henceforth we hear of no complaints of oppressive taxation, for all contributed equally; of no resistance to levies, but murmurs when soldiers were discharged: plebeian consuls led the armies of Rome to victory; the state increased rapidly in wealth and power; patrician and plebeian became unmeaning names, all were citizens of a common country, and Rome, at union with herself, became mistress of the world, bequeathing to posterity a glorious proof, that the greatness of a state must be founded on justice and internal harmony.

From the specimens which we have here given, of Mr. Niebuhr's History of Rome, the intelligent reader will conclude, that it is a work of no common order. It was originally published in Germany, about the year 1812 or 1813, and received great encouragement from the Prussian government, as its democratic principles, it was thought, were likely to produce a striking effect against the influence of the French. Prussia, at that period, cultivated those principles for national purposes, and has since renounced and opposed them, as inconsistent with the far-famed doctrines of the Holy Alliance. For the sake of the literature of Germany, and the character of its professors, we deeply regret to hear that Mr. Niebuhr has followed the example thus held out to him, and that he has prepared a second edition of his history, in which he has altogether erased, or very much softened down, the popular principles which speak so boldly, and with so much truth, throughout the first impression of his work. An English translation of his second edition is also, we hear, in a course of preparation, at Cambridge. It will be for the public to decide, which of the two shall be entitled to their preference; but, in the meantime, we have no hesitation in recommending to them, the translation now before us, which, if we except a few Germanicisms, is executed in a vigorous style, and with a degree of fidelity and accuracy highly creditable to Mr. Walter.

ART. VI. Holland Tide; or Munster Popular Tales. Vol. i. 8vo. pp. 378. 8s. 6d. boards. London: Simpkin & Marshall. 1827. AFTER We had perused the first of the several stories in this volume, we concluded that Holland-Tide was a new emanation from the O'Hara family; nor did the sly laudatory allusion to the novel of the

"Boyne Water," occurring in the prefatory part of the work before us, tend, a little, to confirm this impression. For, it is exactly that sort of device, with which a skilful masquerader would encounter the over-curious inquirer; the quantity of praise being just sufficient to draw off the pursuer, whilst it does not exceed that fair measure, which, in case his identity is explained, an author may be allowed to indulge in. As we proceeded, however, to increase our acquaintance with the contents of the volume, we felt strongly inclined to doubt the truth of our first impressions; and, on closing the book, were convinced that they were quite unfounded. There is a strain of merriment, particularly in the latter tales, much more a-kin to the wit and pleasantry of the collector of the "Fairy Legends," than to the melo-dramatic muse of M. Banim. Some of those tales are not inferior to the " Legends," in drollery, or in the quaint and native style of narrative in which they are clothed.

In this volume, we have so many as seven integral tales, of various length and merit. They are presented to us, as the contributions offered to the festivities of "Holland-Tide," or "Halloween," as they are celebrated in the south of Ireland, by a group of those living depositaries of traditions, whose instinct is so keen and true at that particular season, in directing them to the hospitable hearth. These stories, as our author heard them thus delivered, he collected diligently and disinterestedly, for the uses of the public; and merely takes the excuseable, and perhaps convenient, freedom, of translating them into his own language.

The" Aylmers of Bally-Aylmer," which is the first and longest of those tales is very nearly a fac-simile of the story of "Peter of the Castle," in the last series of the O'Hara Tales. We have, in the first place a supposed murderer, racked by remorse through a long life, which, otherwise, might have been a happy one. The complexion, however, of the imagined crime, is not the same in both tales; that of the character, in " Peter of the Castle," being deepened into fratricide, while the other is supposed to have merely murdered his friend. In the person of young Aylmer, we have, in full dimensions, the Redmond of the older tale. He is adopted by Fitzmaurice, the man who believes he has killed Aylmer, the father; and not only adopted, as a child, by him, but received, as a lover, by his daughter. On the present occasion, however, we find that the imputed homicide strives to compensate for his crime, by the amplest provisions for the future welfare of the orphan. Moreover, the "Katherine" of this second experiment, having appealed, we presume, against the unjust sentence which, in the former case, and under the title of Ellen, deprived her effectually of a lover, and consigned her to an undeserved fate, comes off under an arrangement which is altogether favourable to a long and prosperous life. Thus, not only in the ground-work on which the interest arises, is the community of material between the two productions, observable; but there is a striking similarity in the process for forwarding the action

in both the same relative proportions are given to the various figures, as it were: and in each, we may observe, is manifested the same want of scruple in wresting characters, and circumstances; the same rashness in staking probability, in order to attain some immediate end-effect being the object-and effect (but of a purely melo-dramatic quality), being the result in either case.

The scene of The Aylmers' is laid in the neighbourhood of a point on the south-western coast of Ireland; proceeding to which place, in the primitive pedestrian fashion, we are introduced to young Aylmer, at the very opening of the story. He is returning from the Irish metropolis, where he had been taking the benefit of the university,' as it is somewhat satirically said. He is benighted in the fastnesses of the Kerry mountains; and, nearly overcome with fatigue, approaches a cottage, where he sues for, but with difficulty. obtains, an asylum.-It turned out to be the haunt of a set of sheepstealers a circumstance, which, as soon as he discovered it, suggested to the adventurer the propriety of a speedy retreat. The account of the nocturnal escape and pursuit of Aylmer, by lake and mountain, is worked up minutely and elaborately; and may be presumed, therefore, to be a sanctioned specimen of the writer's powers of description. It becomes necessary, with reference to the following passage, to state, that the pursuers had the deepest possible interest in cutting off such an evidence as young Aylmer might have been against them, and that they were aided in this chase by a staunch hound, whose deep bay was carried by the wind to the heart of Aylmer, with increasing volume, every mo

ment.

Still he dashed forward headlong on his path, and still that horrid, sullen, twanging cry, became louder and louder upon his track, until it sounded in his ear, as the trumpet's charge might be supposed to do in that of a soldier destined to a forlorn hope. The shouting of the animal's masters, too, cheering their guide upon the game, became audible in the distance. With a failing spirit, Aylmer glanced on all sides as he bounded along, but could discern no means of even possible protection. No stream, no tract of water, by which he might baffle the terrible instinct of his fourfooted enemy, not one of the many contrivances by which he had heard and read this had been successfully accomplished, here presented themselves. His brain, his sight, his senses became confused, a fear like that which oppresses the dreamer in a fit of night-mare, lodged itself upon his heart, his will became powerless, and the motion which still hurried him along his path, might almost be termed involuntary. He thought of nothing, he saw nothing, he heard nothing, but the fast approaching terrors in his rear; the heavy, confident baying of the hound, and the fierce hallooing of his pursuers. Fortune seemed in every way to conspire against the devoted youth, for in rushing down a slight declivity of the heath, a small tuft of the weed came in contact with his foot, and flung him with considerable violence on the ground. He sprung to his feet again, but fell at the first effort to proceed; his foot was maimed past all use. One thrill of utter despair shot: through his frame, and the next moment a perfect indifference came over,