BOOKS.
PINLAY's HISTORY oF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.* In this volume Mr. Finlay brings to a close his long and elaborate narrative of Greek and Byzantine story from the subjection of Greece by the Roman arms, B. C. 146, to the capture of Constanti- nople by Mehemet the Second. A full history of the Byzantine empire did not appear to promise much attraction ; that of dege- nerate and subject Greece still less. The four volumes in which Mr. Finlay has now completed his survey form, however, a very valuable and successful series. Extensive knowledge and careful research, under the guidance of a sound judgment and a dis- criminating perception, combined with literary skill of a classical vet independent cast, have filled up a vacuum in English litera- ture, which was not felt till it was occupied. This merit may be assigned to the historian without an implicit agreement in all his views. -Until the last corruption of the Greeks and Byzantines compel the admission by necessitating the exposure of their vil- lanous baseness and criminality, Mr. Finlay, we think, ascribes to the people and to the government more worth and importance than they were entitled to ; for although a thousand years elapsed from the foundation to the extinction of the Eastern empire, its existence during a long portion of time was owing to the weak- ness of its enemies rather than to any intrinsic strength.
Although a subject is everything to a writer, yet a good subject is easily spoiled by bad treatment. In pointing to those more tan- gible features by which Mr. Finlay gives interest to his narrative, the necessary qualities of proper scale, characteristic selection and sufficient animation, together with fitting elevation and tone, may be assumed as present. The distinction of this book is the attempt of the author to penetrate beyond the outward forms to the inward-causes which upheld the Byzantine empire so long, and finally induced its downfall. In the particular things to which he asoribes the preservation or at least in the weight which he assigns to tliem, we think Mr. Finlay mistaken. We believe that a corps of administrators, or in modern parlance a bureaucracy, is powerless of itself for anything but evil. In its best form, its spirit must be derived from the public opinion of which its mem- bers partake, when they spring, as in this country, from the vari- ous classes of society. When, as is mostly the case in despotic countries, they form a separate caste by birth or training, they get in addition to the pedantic formalism which no "clerk in a public office" can altogether escape, a narrow and self-sufficient esprit de corps, not unmixed with contempt of other classes. It may be true that a certain traditional regularity or order will be preserved in their mode of doing business, and that a widely ramified and powerful class of public officers can interpose the resistance of a vis inerthe to arbitrary power. We believe, however, that, unless cor- rected by public opinion or the strong hand of authority, the "order" will degenerate into a useless and expensive collection of forms, adapted to fleece the people (we have such things even in England) ; and that the resistance to change will a more likely to show itself in preventing improvements than abuses. We also think that Mr. Finlay attributes too much influence to formal and material things, and too much power to the ruler or Emperor. No doubt, fiscal oppression, the accumulation of wealth in few hands the destruction of industry, and the exhaustion of even accumulated capital, are tokens of a decaying empire and a declining social state; but we think they are only tokens of some- thing deeper, accompaniments as much as causes. Except in the case of overwhelming violence, the true causes of national degradation are not to be found in this or that ruler's measures, or choice of ministers, or mistaken policy, or in any material cir- cumstances, so much as in the decline of manly feeling, the loss of martial virtue, the decay of moral and mental vigour, and the spread of an epicurean selfishness or a yet more ignoble sordidness.
"Enough—no foreign foe could quell Thy soul till from itself it fell. Yes! self-abasement paved the way To villain bonds and despot sway.'
It must not be supposed that Mr. Finlay overlooks moral causes either in describing particular facts or in expressing general con- clusions. He merely, in our opinion, attributes too much weight for good or evil to material and formal things. This mistake, how- ever, induces the full notice of matters which historians frequently slight, and directs the author's attention to curious topics, which if not altogether disregarded are usually dismissed in rounded periods that convey but little knowledge to the reader. The manner of Mr. Finlay has been formed on that of the stand- ard historians, :without anything imitative of their style or mode „,_• History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, from 1057 to 1453. By George toluY. Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Literature. Published by Black- Wood sad Sow
of treatment. His opinions lead him to pursue subjects whioh they rather neglect, and he enters more into social or individual particulars than his predecessors, and we think more fully in this than in the former volume. Thd sketch of the talkative chivalry of the West, who arrived in the first Crusade may serve as an in- timation of the kind of portrait-pictures of Which the volume con- tains a good many.
" The conduct of Alexius towards the Crusaders was certainly deficient both in candour and prudence; but he had a very difficult part to act ; and it must be admitted that all his fears and distrust were fully justified by the rapine of the private soldiers, who plundered his subjects, and the insolence of the chiefs, who insulted his authority. The memorable anecdote of the insolence of a petty French chieftain, who has been supposed by Ducange to have been a Count of Paris, and who rudely seated himself on the Imperial throne at a solemn audience, is familiar both to the readers of history and romance. His conduct must have appeared to the Byzantine courtiers an act of high treason deserving death, and it was regarded by the princes of the Crusade as an intolerable piece of rudeness and brutality. The Franks and Greeks were at this time in social conditions which rendered it impossible for them to associate together without feelings of mutual contempt. The narration of Anna Comnena enables us to contrast in a curious manner the experienced anility of the Byzantine court with the idleness and mental in- anity of the Western aristocracy. She complains, with great reason, of the presumption, vanity, and loquacity of the chiefs, who, considining themselves entitled by their rank to converse with the Emperor, compelled him to sa- crifiee hour after hour of his valuable time listening to their pretensions and solicitations. Alexius knew that these men were independent chiefs, and he was anxious to avoid giving them offence, for their power so often exceeded their judgment that the neglect of a childish demand or the irritation of an unintentional slight might plunge his empire in a dangerous and bloody war. The personal behaviour of Alexius was more judicious than his po- litical system. He did everything to conciliate the nobles, and his patience, good humour, and liberality, overcame many difficulties; but his health suffered from the fatigue of the interminable audiences he gave the leaders amidst the toils of his other occupations. The silly loquacity of men who wasted their days in idle talk and vain boasting made a very unfavourable impression on the By zantine nobles, whose social intercourse retained much of Roman gravity, formalized by Oriental ceremony. The chiefs of the Cru- sade also displayed an unseemly eagerness to obtain money and presents from the Emperor. •Tancred, the flower of Norman chivalry, openly expressed his disgust at the rapacity of his companions."
The death of Alexius, the first sovereign of the house of Corn- nenus, is an example of biographical traits carried into history.
"Violent attacks of gout, accompanied by increasing weakness, warned Alexius of his approaching end. Near the conclusion of his reign he gained great popularity by burning the Bogomilian heresiarch Basil, and by found- ing a splendid hospital and orphan asylum. " The deathbed of Alexius affords a melancholy picture of the effects of his duplicity in the bosom of his own family. It seems like a satire on his reign. His habitual distrust of all men had induced him to make his wife and his learned daughter his chief companions, and to employ them in aid- ing him to perform the- routine duties of the Imperial administration.. The Empress Irene and the Princess Anna proved apt pupils in the school of political intrigue. They deluded themselves into the belief that they under- stood the whole art of government, and proposed that Anna's husband, the Cmsar Nicephorur Bryennios, should share the task of government with them. To effect this, Irene endeavoured to persuade Alexius to nominate the Cmsar his successor, though his eldest son John had been invested with the Imperial title for twenty-six years. The Empress entertained an aver- sion for John, whose short and ugly figure showed to little advantage in the pageants of the court, while his love of truth and frank character appeared to her proof of rudeness and stupidity. During the last illness of the Em- peror she frequently pressed him to declare Nicephorus his successor ; but Alexius, who was well acquainted with his son's talents, listened patiently to her advice without following it. When the Emperor's end approached, Irene took more daring measures to secure the realization of he wishes. The palace was filled with her creatures, and the Varangian guards on duty were gained over, and prepared to dispute the title of John to the throne. In the mean time, John, who had watched all his mother's intrigues, took prompt and decided measures for securing his succession, without bringing matters to an open rupture. While the Empress was absent from his father's bedside, he entered his chamber and drew the Imperial signet from his finger ; an act of which the dying Emperor perfectly understood the import, and of which, consistent with his habitual dissimulation, he said nothing to the Empress on her return. John immediately employed the signet to assume the direction of the public administration—the treasury, the army, and the fleet. He then hastened to the palace; where the Varangians for a time dis- puted his authority, and he had some difficulty in avoiding a collision between these foreign guards and the people who supported him but at length he gained possession of the great palace ; which was the citadel of Constanti- nople. The Empress, finding that all her schemes were thus rendered abortive, rushed to the apartment of her dying husband, and accused her son of treason, urging him to declare another successor : but Alexius only raised his hands and eyes to heaven, to indicate that his concerns on earth were terminated, and that his thoughts were now directed to another world. The Empress, interpreting the gesture according to the Emperor's habitual sys- tem of duplicity, supposed the movement was made to avoid giving a direct answer ; and as she gazed on the dying Emperor, exclaimed, 'You die as you have lived, a hypocrite.' "The Emperor Alexius died in the year 1118, aged seventy ; having reigned thirty-seven years four months and a half."
Decay is not considered a fit subject for elaborate narrative ; but the decline of the Byzantine empire in Mr. Finlay's hands is, with some exceptions descriptive of small events, an interesting story. This in part arises from the exposition of political causes, already alluded to ; but the decline of the Byzantine empire was not unre- lieved by men and events of interest. Alexius Comnenus was a remarkable character, upon whom, we think, the historian presses unduly hard. The Crusaders throw relief„action, and a rude' or ludicrous richness, into the story. The foundation and overthrow of the Frank empire of Constantinople, as well as the rising.and culminating empire of the Turks, impart action. The defence of the capital and the death of the last Constantine in the breach he could no longer defend, are a worthy and poetical termination of an em- pire; which, however, might not even then have fallen, but for the baseness, bigotry, and cowardice of the Greeks.
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