SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

ABCILEOLocy,

Letters of the Kings of England ; now first collected from the Originals to Royal Ar- chives, and from other Authentic Sources, Private as well= Public. Edited, with an Historical Introduction and Notes, by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S.,

&c. &e. In two volumes Co urn, MISCELLANEA,

Notes and Recollections of a Professional Life. By the Into William Fergasson, Esq., ALD , Inspector-General of Military Hospitals. Edited by hls Son, James Fer- gusson Longman and O. TaKvauL A Year and a Day In the East ; or Wanderings over Land and Sea. By Mrs. Mot

Montauban Longman and Co.

LETTERS OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND.

" THEIR spirits shine through them." In a mere selection from epistles open to all men who will take the trouble to search for them, skill or tact would seem to be the principal ground of difference ; leaving little room for the display of such qualities as the solid opposed to the super- ficial, or a careful and learned spirit to a flashy and compiler-like mind. Such, however, is not the case. The mark of the master is visible in his work, even though it be nothing more than collectanea. The really learned antiquarian is animated by a consistent purpose if he is net guided by a defined plan ; and though he may produce a lumbering or heavy collection, it is yet complete in a certain sense, and he is never turned aside by the mere vulgar readableness of matter that may tempt him, especially if its archreological value is small or its rarity nil. The elegant scholar rejects everything that has only age and rarity to recommend it, unless it be so rare that an interest is attached to it as .4 curiosity alone ; he takes the best-known document if strikingly inns- trative of history or personal character, but admits nothing that has not some value illustrative or inherent. The bookmaker, notwithstanding he may have tact and skill, has no preservative salt or guiding principle, except the shopkee.ping notion of what he considers " attractive" to cus- tomers. Hence, " all's fish that comes to net " if it looks vendible : he may doubt the authenticity of a document., deeming it probably on a par with the " orations" in the ancient histories—but the person and the occasion are attractive, so in it goes : the scheme only admits papers of a certain class—but others turnap, so put them in too : printed documents well known' at least in their substance, to readers of history, for every historian has used them, are scarcely in character—but they are ready to the hand, "and faith he'll prent them " ; whilst to fill space being a leading object, any document however formal is likely to be thrown in as makeweight. It scarcely needs to be observed that much originality of materials or curious lore can only be expected from the real antiqua- rian; for neither the scholar nor the litterateur has arehmology er per- haps patience enough to explore with effect our manuscriptarchives—both mnst be dependent upon second-hand directions or finger-posts of learn- ing. Their lore must be still poorer. Heraldry and genealogy are slighted by one, and most probably unknown to the other ; but the general knowledge and expanded mind of the scholar will bear him up, when the litterateur will be apt to sprawl and flounder. These two volumes of Letters of the Sings of England rather smack a the litterateur than of the scholar or antiquarian. Some of the book- making traits we have already alluded to may be found in the mode -of selection adopted; and in translations from the Latin, French, -and Anglo- Norman, the style seems to have been so changed by the translator as rather to represent his mind than that of the original writer. To the mere reprint of well-known documents we do not object when they have a strong interest or striking character ; but such pieces as the alleged proclamations of Richard the Third and Richmond before the battle of Bosworth Field, (taken from the chroniclers ) with public documents, formal epistles, and the more commonplace of the well-known letters of Charles the First, might have been spared, and replaced by epistles of greater character now omitted. The illustrative matter is judicious in the sense of notbeingoverdone ; but this is nearly all that can be favourably said of it. Mr. Halliwell'a previous labours among provincial dialects, nursery rhymes, and so -forth, would seem to have unfitted his mind to deal with the larger events and charac- ters of history. There is frequently a flashy assumption, half pertness half swagger, about his off-hand judgments. Thus he speaks of Henry the Seventh's official reply to the Pope, who had affected -to move him to a crusade, as "a precious memorial of royal shujjiing"; though the main arguments are most sufficient,—that the Kings of France and Spain are much nearer the Turk as regards a sea voyage; and the Germans, Bohemians, &c., closer by land, and better acquainted with the Turkish mode of fighting. Had the project been less chimerical than it was, Wellington himself could have hit upon nothing better than "the diffi- culty of moving the forces." What is still stranger, the editor's glossa- rial foot-notes are sometimes inaccurate or poor : they are either not wanted, or the reader could have given a better explanation himself either by the context or the dictionary. Here is a singular example of misap- prehending character, context, and the common word "grope."

"Henry VIII. to the Lord Cromwell.*

" Right Vasty and entirely beloved, we greet you well. Advertising you that we having heard what the Bishop of Winchester hath done in the house of Sion, although he would so set the same forth unto us, as we might have ocaasion to think he bath done truly as becometh him towards us; Tel having this forenoon spoken with Morris the receiver there, we may well perceive him to have ostented and boasted him to us to have done more than indeed he bath, and a coloured doubleness t either to be in him, or in Morris, or both; Morris not answering di- rectly to divers interroritories by us to him ministered. We having, therefore, showed him that, intending to try his truth to us, will not go about to -grope him, but will see, if according to his duty, he will of his own mind confess the mere truth: we already knowing much more than he weeneth.§ * Cotton MS., VeSp. F. xill., No. 132. The monastery of Syon bad recently been visited by Cromwell's Commissioners; and most of the authorities-of the inane pro- fessed themselves favourable to the King's claims. -

Duplicity. To elicit the truth by coaxing or flatter . § Thlnketh.

"Wherefore, we require you, upon his repair unto you, studiously to examine him, by whom you shall perceive doubleness in the other, in him, or both. The which being never so craftily handled, I would not were hidden; not doubting it shall your circumspect manner, desirous and attentive mind in trying out truth known unto us, as it is. Thus fare ye well I "From our manor at Greenwich, the 26th day of ..., the twenty-seventh year our reign."

To "coax or flatter" the steward of a contumacious religious house, was a thing that would never have crossed the mind of bluff Harry; and the reading shows that he was going to take no trouble with " Morris " : any common dictionary would give the meaning of the royal writer— GROPE, T. a. to search by feeling in the dark." These remarks apply to the character of the book and its editing ; which are poor and jejune, compared with the well-selected and labori- ously-edited Letters (I Illustrious Ladies by Miss Woods, noticed a few weeks since though these volumes are less cumbrous and more craftsman-like since; those of the antiquarian lady. Still, it was im- possible to have recourse to our printed collections, and to have access to several national repositories, without producing a work of some interest and value, when the period extended from the First Richard to 'the First Charles, and a monarch was a ruler de facto' if not his own prime minister. The management of the publication is also well planned for the purposes of the popular reader. The orthography is reduced to the modern standard, and everything done to facilitate the perusal, even to the frequent translation of the quotations with which some royal 'writers interspersed their texts. It does not appear that more than alterations in the spelling was designed; but some letters have a very modern cast that do not profess to be translations, and thus raise doubts .either of their authenticity or of the perfect accuracy of their trans- cription.

Not the least interesting epistles of the collection are those of Richard the First, both from their great antiquity, and for the fresh light they throw upon the character of the Lion-hearted, who seems to have been more than a mere hero. The following rescript shows that he had juster moral views upon the subject of "wrecking" than numbers of his countrymen entertained for many centuries afterwards.

"Letter of Richard I. A.D. 1190.

"Richard, by the grace of God, King of England, Duke of Normandy, of Aqui- taine, and Anglers, to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Counts, Barons, Justi- ciaries, Sheriffs, and all Bailiffs, and his faithful subjects, to whom this present letter may come, greeting. Know ye' that we have proclaimed that the wreck of shattered ships be quiet and unmolested through all our land, both on this side of the sea and beyond it, for ever and ever, for the love of God, and for the salva- tion of our own soul, and of the soul of our father and of our predecessors, in the following manner: Willing and positively commanding, that if any vessel shall .Save been wrecked in any part ot our territory, and if any one whoever he be, bath escaped from thence, he have all his goods and property freely and quietly which shall come to land, and which he shall be able to show to be his in right and reason. But if any man shall have perished in the wrecked vessel, we freely grant that his heirs that is to say, his sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, from whatever quarter they may come, have the property of the deceased whole and entire; provided they shall be able to show, by ftur and plausible reason, that they be the lawful heirs, by the credible testimony of their country, or by some other way. But, if the deceased have not a son or daughter, brother or sister, as heir, then, we will that the property of the deceased be our own. Moreover, that this grant of ours may continue sure, firm, and valid for ever and ever, we con- firm the same by the sanction of our seal; these being witnesses: Walker, Arch- bishop of Rouen; Friar Warner of Naples; the Master of the Hospital in Eng- land; Brother Winfred, Master of the Templars in England. Given on the 16th

• of October 1190."

The original of the following is in Anglo-Norman, and preserved in the Tower. It should have been given with the translation, on account of its character and great importance. The translator cannot subdue the forceful brevity of the original, but he seems to have put into the man- ner some of his own ideas of good writing.

"Richard I. to the Emperor of Germany, Henry V., when he was the Emperor's prisoner. A.D. 1196. U1 have been born in such a station as to give an account of my actions to none but God; but these are of such a nature, that I fear not even the judgment of men, and especially, Sire, of a prince so just as yourself. "My connexion with the King of Sicily ought not to have grieved you; I have been able to keep on good terms with a man of whose aid I stood in need, without justly offending a prince whose friend and ally I was. As for the Mpg of France, I know of nothing that ought to have brought on me his ill humour, except my having been more successful than he. Whether opportunity' or fortune, I have done those feats which he would have been glad to achieve: this is the sum of my crimes towards him. With regard to the King of Cyprus, every one knows I have done no more than avenge the injuries that I had first received; and, in avenging myself on him' I have freed his subjects from the yoke by which he op- pressed them. I have disposed of my conquest. Was it tot my right? And if there was any one who ought to have found fault with it, it was the Emperor of Constantinople, by whom neither you nor I have been very kindly treated. The Duke of Austria has too well revenged the injury of which he complains to reckon it still among the number of my crimes. He was the first to fail in causing his standard to be hoisted in a place where we commanded, the King of France and myself in person. I punished him for it too severely: he has had his revenge twofold; he ought not to have anything upon his mind on this score, but the con- sciousness of a vengeance that Christianity permits not.

"The assassination of the Marquis de Montserrat is as foreign to my cha- racter as my presumed correspondence with Saladin is improbable. I have not evinced hitherto such a dread of my enemies as men should believe me capable of attacking their lives otherwise than sword in hand; and I have done mischief enough to Saladin, to compel men to think that I at least have not been his friend.

"My actions speak for me, and justify my cause more than words: Acre taken, two battles won, parties defeated, convoys carried off, with such abundance of rich spoils, (with which the world is witness I have not enriched myself,) indicate sufficiently, without my saying so, that I have never spared Saladin. I have re- ceived from him small presents, as fruits and similar things, which this Saracen, no less commendable for his politeness and generosity than for his valour and con- duct, bath sent to me from time to time. The King of France received some as well as myself; and these are the civilities which brave men during war perform tine towards another without M consequences. "It is said that I have not taken Jerusalem. I should have taken it, if time for it had been given me: this is the fault of my enemies, not mine; and I believe no just man could blame me for having deferred an enterprise, (which can always be undertaken,) in order to afford to my people a succour which they could not longer wait for. "There, Sire, these are my crimes ! Just and generous as you are, you, with- out doubt, acknowledge my innocence; and, if I am not mistaken, I perceive that you are affected at my misfortune."

This letter of Richard the Third is curious for the subject and The celebrity of one of the persons, as well as for its exhibition of the dis- creet and politic character of the writer.

"Richard III. to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Lincobs.

"Right Reverend Father in God, &c. Signifying unto you, that it is slowed unto us, that our servant and solicitor, Thomas Lynom marvellously blinded and abused with the late wife of William Shore, now being in Ludgate by our com- mandment, bath made contract of matrimony with her, as it is said; and intend- eth, to our full great marvel, to proceed to effect the same. We, for many causes, would be very sorry that he should be so disposed; and pray you, therefore, to

i send for him, n that ye goodly may exhort and stir him to the contrary.

"And if ye find him utterly set for to marry her, and none otherwise would be advertised, then, if it may stand with the law of the Church, we be content, (the time of marriage being deferred to our coining next to London,) that upon suffi- cient surety being found of her good a-bearing, ye do send for her keeper, and discharge him of our commandment by warrant of these; committing her to the rule and guiding of her father or any other, by your discretion in the mean season.

"To the Right Reverend Father in God, the Bishop of Lincoln, our Chancellor.'

There are a good many letters from James the First ; which upon the whole rather tend to raise his character for shrewdness, sagacity, and business knowledge, with fewer signs of the taint of mere kingeraft. To illustrate this point, would require many instances ; but we will take very good letter written to his son Prince Henry, then about ten years old, and soon after James's arrival in England. There are touches of the royal author, but there are also marks of sense as sound as that of Chesterfield.

"James I. to Prince Henry.' 1603.

"My son, I am glad that by your letter I may perceive that ye make some progress in learning, although I suspect ye have rather written than dytedt it; for I confess I long to receive a letter from you that may [be] wholly yours, as well matter as form, as well formed by your mind as drawn by your fingers; for ye may remember that in my book to you, t I warn you to beware with the kind of wit ye may stye out at the end of your lingers; not that I commend not a fair handwriting, sed hoc facito, ilia non ornittito, and the other is, multo magis procipuum. But nothing will be impossible for you, if ye will only remember two rules, the one male smiler in all virtuous actions, trust a little more to your own strength, and away with childish bashfulness audaces farttena focal, timi- dosque repellit; the other is my old, oft-repeated bashfulness, unto you, Whatever ye are about, hoc age. I am also glad of the discovery of your little counterfeit wench, [a pretended witch or possessor of supernatural power.] I pray God ye may be my heir in such discoveries. Ye have oft heard me say that most miracles now a days prove but illusions, and ye may see by this how wary judges should be in trusting accusations without an exact trial, and likewise how easily people are induced to trust to wonders. Let her be kept fast till my coming; and thus God bless you my son,

"Your loving father, "JAMES R."

* Ms. Han,, 6986, Art. 40.

Indited. ntu refers to the Rasiikon Dorm, which was published In 1603.

The letters of Charles the First by no means raise his character for honesty or straightforward dealing ; proving that mental reservation was a part of his principles. They are, however, very natural, and exhibit his strong domestic, and, as far as mere pomps were concerned, unassum- ing feelings.