been warmly renewed in Europe, on the merits of the English, Spanish and German drama compared with that of France. The controversy extends, indeed, to the respective principles and taste of these nations in all branches of composition. The techknical distinction of the styles under discussion is the romantic and the classi cal, an exact explanation of which has been attempted, but not very satisfactorily given, in the 52d number of the Edinburgh Review. They will be best understood by a reference to the "Southern Literature" of M. Sismondi, the Germany of M. de Stael, and the Dramatic Literature of Schlegel. These are the three great champions of the romantic in contradistinction to the classical, or to the French school, for which exclusively the latter term is arrogated by the French critics. tuguese, their origin and progress, | their discriminating principles and features, their best productions, are reviewed in succession, with a highly cultivated taste, an ample erudition, a most impartial liberality, and ingenious analysis. The fine fancy and elegant style of the author would carry you irresistibly along with him, even were his subject less attractive in itself and less important. He introduces those who have not already attended to the literature of the South of Europe, into a new world with which they must feel a little ashamed of not having been acquainted, if they aspire or pretend to a knowledge of the varieties and extent of human genius. Indeed, who is it that can be said to be well-informed as to the history or powers of his nature, and is yet ignorant of the progress and compass of the literature of the nations of the European Continent? Such The English in their warfare a work as this of M. Sismondi and in defence of their own and the the literary history of Italy of Spanish drama, had no allies on the Guingené,* make the reproach of Continent of any account, until this ignorance the heavier, in pro- M. de Stael, Schlegel, and Sisviding a means of removing it at mondi entered the lists on their once so easy and delightful. It side, and completed a coalition renders the knowledge of foreign nearly as potent in its way as was languages of the less consequence, that of Vienna against the emperor although neither it nor any pro- Napoleon. Sismondi has taken the duction can be considered as an Spanish drama especially under equivalent under a general point of his protection, and as he proview. The acquisition of a culti-mises to give the world, in convated language, is to the mind like the addition of a new sense. It opens a new creation of ideas; a new chapter in the history of man. The work of M. Sismondi has an additional interest, with a view to the old controversy which has * Histoire littéraire D'Italie, par P. L. Ginguené. Paris. It has now reached the 6th vol. and is a work of great erudition and elegance. tinuation of his present work, a review of the literature of the North of Europe including the English, we may expect to find him still more earnest in the cause of Shakspeare than of Calderon and Lope de Vega. In the celebrated German critic, William Schlegel, Shakspeare has found an enthusiastic and all powerful advocate. "His account of him," says the Edinburgh Review, "is admirably characteristic, usurped by something worse in its tendency, and not less chimerical than the cabbala or judicial astrology. Our natural good sense requires to be kept constantly on its guard against the distempered fancies of credulity and superstition; the love of novelty, and distinction; the proneness to sectarism and system; the many strong passions which interfere to impede and turn back human reason in its career of perfectibility; and which employ against it most efficaciously the lights it has already acquired. Some of the uni and indeed by far the best which has been given of the plays of that great genius by any writer either English or foreign." Under our general head of elegant literature, the reader will find a considerable extract from Schlegel's investigation of the merits of Shakspeare, and will be struck with the force and beauty of the author's remarks. This part of his work, which is entitled-Lectures on dramatic literature-although the most interesting to us, is not the most useful or important. His history and analysis of the drama of the antients deserve particular at-versities of Germany (that of tention, and may be studied with solid profit. As the work has been considered at large in the principal reviews of Great Britain, we need not dwell upon it. The Germany of M. de Stael has been reprinted and widely circulated in this country. Our public is generally acquainted with the admira-selves to the domain of metaphyble critique of it which sir James Mackintosh has published in the Edinburgh Review. We shall, therefore, only say of it that we think it worthy of her great reputation; but that she has gone too far in her encomiums on German genius, and the productions of the German school, and might with advantage to herself and her readers have left the mystical philosophy of that school to be exposed by some one of its own plodding adepts. The German philosophy is little better than a relapse into the occult sciences, of which the eighteenth century was supposed to have for ever purged the list of human studies. When we find the powers of eloquence and imagination leagued in its support, we have reason to tremble, lest the progress of sound knowledge should be arrested, and its empire Landshuth in Bavaria for instance) profess, as academical bodies, a code of philosophy presenting altogether the most preposterous of all imaginable compounds of theology, physics, Spinonism, and rabbinical mysticism. The systemmongers do not restrict them sics, but carry their reveries into practical life, particularly into the healing art. We can never too strongly express our gratitude to the English critics for having so nicely scrutinized, and so resolutely withstood all the novelties of the German school. It is as useful to trace the wanderings and explode the follies, as it is to exhibit the progress, and confirm the real discoveries of the human mind. The History of the Italian Republics of the Middle Age, by Sismonde de Sismondi. Vol. 9th, 10th, and 11th.-Paris, 1816. The accomplished author of the literature of the South has raised, in this great history, a permanent monument to his fame. The ablest of the contributors to the Edin tached to the principle of political liberty under whatever form or circumstances it may exist, of which it imports us to know perfectly the pathology and operation. This knowledge is only to be obtained in its proper extent by studying the history of all the governments of whatever time or locality, in any degree popular in their constitution. Greece, Rome, and the Italy of the middle age, are the most fruitful and the most entertaining sources of instruction. The materials which M. Sismondi had to draw from a sort of chaos were immense in quantity. He would have deserved unbounded credit for arranging and digest burgh Review has not hesitated to denominate him the first historian of his time. There are some, how ever, of his cotemporaries-for instance, Mitford the historian of Greece, who might dispute the palm: but all must admit that this history of M. Sismondi is of the highest order of excellence, both in form and substance. The first eight volumes were published in 1809, and given as the result of fourteen years of indefatigable research. Besides these three additional volumes, three more are now in preparation, and will probably appear in the course of the year 1818. The undertaking of M. Sismondi will then be completed, and he will have conferred a last-ing them alone, without, as he has ing benefit upon the cause of political philosophy. His subject embraces an infinite variety of the most curious and instructive incident, and is of particular importance for the youth of a republic. The Italy of the middle age is, if we may be allowed the phrase, a microcosm of republican history, an encyclopedia of examples and lessons for republican institutions. The history of ancient Greece by Mitford, the immortal work of Livy and this history of M. Sismondi should have the preference in every collection of human annals for the use of an American citizen. A judicious and elegant abridgment of each of these works would be the most useful and ought to be the most acceptable literary service that could be rendered to these States. Our institutions may boast of sounder principles, a more regular organisation, a more auspicious concurrence of external circumstances, than can be ascribed to those of any other free state; but there are dangerous passions universal in our nature, passions at done, investing them with all the radiance and charms which could be imparted by a profound moralist and a master of style. The three volumes, the 9th, 10th, and 11th now announced, may be read with profit as a whole, indepen dently of those which precede and are to follow. The period over which they extend is from 1430 to 1492, that of the rule of the house of Medicis in Florence. It is the era of the greatest influence of Italy on the fate of all Europe. She was then the school of nations; their preceptor and fountain head in letters, the arts, and the taste of classical antiquity. The reformation had its birth at this period, and is to be traced in connexion with the reigns of popes Nicholas V. and Pius II. eminent for their zeal, their attainments and their great intellect, and of popes Eugene IV., Sixtus IV. and Innocent VIII-no less remarkable, for their imprudence and the scandal of their lives. Venice seconded the great Scanderbeg in Illyria, and shut out the Turks from the West. Lombardy sub mitted to the son of a peasant; and the greatness of Francis Flozza was a signal admonition to old dynasties as to what may be effected in the race of ambition by genius, intrepidity and firmness alone;-a splendid memento of the true origin of all hereditary power. Italy teemed in every part with illustrious examples: bold conspiracies, unexpected revolutions, the most profound political schemes crowd into the same canvas: nearly the whole philosophy of history is to be found in the annals of one country within space of sixty years, from the rapid action of twenty several states dissimilar in their political constitutions and their social cha-racter. We had intended to lay before our readers a version of the seventy-eight chapter of the 10th volume of M. Sismondi, in which he narrates the revolutions of Geneva in the middle of the 15th century, and the last years and death of Cosmo de Medicis in Florence. But our limits oblige us to postpone this instructive extract for another occasion. It may be well to remark that where M. Sismondi and M. Roscoe meet in their subject, the former is much more accurate as to facts, more liberal in his interpretation of motives, and generally much more impartial, without being less elegant or erudite. No reader of judgment will be long at a loss to decide which of the two writers is most amply endowed with the qualities that make a great historian. There is in the narrative of Sismondi an appearance of confusion, and he has been accused of this defect; but it is nothing more than the appearance arising inevitably from a multifarious subject. The same reproach was cast VOL. I. on the Decline and Fall of Gibbon, owing to the same cause. The arrangement of both has however all attainable, and, we might add, all desirable perspicuity. Memoir of Don Miguel Joseph de Asanza and Don Gonzalo Q’Farrill, containing an exposition of the circumstances which justify their political conduct since March 1808 to April 1814. Paris, 1815. 1 vol. octavo. 325 pp. THE two authors of this Memoir were introduced into the Spanish ministry by Ferdinand VII. on the abdication of his father: Asanza was made minister of finance and O'Farrill minister of war. They have furnished, in a strain of moderation, good sense and seeming probity, a multitude of important facts concerning the origin, and political progress of the Revolution of Spain. Their testimony is of great authority owing to the stations which they occupied in the royal councils, and the excellent character they have retained. Several important public documents are annexed to the Memoir. The circumstances which induced and accompanied the sanguinary affray of the 2d of May in Madrid are minutely related, in a manner which leaves no doubt of the correctness of the whole statement. The atrocity of the massacre committed by Murat, under the abused forms of military judgment, after tranquillity had been restored, could only be equalled by its impolicy. "The blood of the victims," say these writers, who were indefatigable in their endeavours to propitiate mercy for them, "fructified the seeds of national hate and vengeance, sentiments well justified by so horrible an 2 U enormity." The extent and full odiousness of the perfidy of the French government in the occupation of the territory, and insnarement of the royal family of Spain, | are not to be understood from the mere proceedings at Bayonne. It is necessary for this purpose to follow the previous and simultaneous machinations of its agents, ambassadors and generals included, at Madrid, as they are unfolded in this Memoir of Messrs. Asanza and O'Farrill. The "Congress of Vienna" exhibits M. de Pradt himself in a more favourable light, as he is not here an actor in the scene; he investigates the new political interests and arrangements of Europe, with much sagacity, and knowledge, and something of resiliency from the crowned heads. Now and then his insufferable egotism obtrudes itself in the midst of his instructive speculations, and his tone is always the subdued, mincing one of habitual, instinctive servility. But "the Congress of Vienna" deserves to be considered and studied as in lineal succession to the Historical Memoirs of the Revolu- | Politique de tous les Cabinets, and tion of Spain, by M. de PRADT, author of the Congress of Vienna, &c. Paris, 1816. THE name of M. de Pradt is already familiar to every one who has given any attention to the political literature of the last eighteen months. His History of the Embassy at Warsaw was sought universally with an eagerness commensurate with the interest which the transactions to which it refers had excited. It gave us important facts, curious details, the best general delineation of Bonaparte ever, perhaps, made; but-to speak as to our own impressions at least it inspired a thorough contempt for the moral character of the author. It displayed in him a ready instrument and a fawning parasite of the one whom he so powerfully represents as the worst enemy of the human race;-whose vices and views he unfolds at last after his downfall, not in order to benefit the world, but to exalt himself as the nonpareil of diplomatists and to win the favour of the allied sovereigns, whom he flatters when triumphant as slavishly as he flattered his "God Mars"-Napoleon -in the hour of his prosperity. the writings of Gentz; and we rejoice much that it has been reprinted in this country. In the "History of the Restoration of the 31st March 1814," we have the Abbé de Pradt again in all his personal consequence; the spring of all the great political movements of this and the suc ceeding memorable year. Again, however, he throws new light on the transactions of which he speaks, and though from the caution of a wily accomplice, manoeuvring to save a remnant of reputation, he does not do full justice to his great opportunities of knowledge, he yet communicates valuable facts of evident authenticity, and enriches the stock of materials for genuine history. The remarks here made concerning his "History of the Restoration of 1814" may be extended to the "Memoirs of the Revolution of Spain," announced above. This the most recent book of the prolific archbishop is liable to the same objections, and possesses the same merits. It is, indeed, even more curious and precious than his other two histories. He was the companion of Napoleon at Bay |