till, having been twice difmounted, and wounded in the neck and thigh, he was on the point of being taken prifoner. From this danger he was rescued by John of Hainault, who furnished him with another horfe, and hurried the reluctant monarch off the field. After Philip's retreat, little refiftance was made by his troops, who were totally defeated with great slaughter. 'In this celebrated engagement, which furnished a most conspi cuous difplay of English prowefs, and which will ever be ranked among the moft fplendid paffages of the military history of this country, the flower of the Gallic nobility fell, as well as the most distinguished allies of their sovereign. Of the French who were facrificed on this fatal day, the principal were the counts of Alençon, Blois, Vaudemont, Harcourt, Aumale, Auxerre, and Sancerre. Among the confederate princes who were flain, the king of Bohemia, the king of Majorca, the duke of Lorrain, and the earl of Flanders, are enumerated by cotemporary writers. Befides the princes and noblemen who lost their lives on this memorable occafion, 80 bannerets, 1200 knights, 1500 gentlemen, 4000 men at arms, and near 30,000 infantry, are reported to have fallen. The English, on the other hand, are faid to have loft only one efquire, and three knights, and a very inconfiderable number of common men. The flaughter of the foe was greatly increafed by the orders which Edward gave before the battle, intimating that his men should not encumber themfelves with prifoners; in confequence of which, no quarter was given by the English. At the clofe of the battle, the king defcended from his post of obfervation, and received his fon with the strongest demonstrations of joy and affection; he exclaimed, with tranfport, "My gallant fon, may you perfevere in the course which you have so nobly be. gun. You have acted in fuch a manner, as to prove yourself worthy of that crown to which you are entitled by hereditary right; and I have reason to glory in the poffeffion of fuch a fon." The prince received the compliments and congratulations of his father with an afpect of unaffected modefty; and falling on his knees, craved the paternal blefling.' The third volume clofes with Dr. Coote's obfervations on the English conflitution: and we fhall terminate our prefent extracts with his fentiments on the national council. 6 The great council, or wittena-gemot, poffefied, in conjunction with the king, the fovereignty of the state. In this assembly, laws were enacted for the whole community, taxes were impofed, and the most important points of polity were difcuffed and determined. With refpect to the members who compofed this council, fuch doubts have arifen among hiftorians and antiquaries as perhaps can hardly be refolved at this diftance of time. Many writers of reputation have confined to the nobility the right of attendance in the wittena wittena-gemot; and others, without a due examination of the fubject, have fupported a doctrine maintained by celebrated names. But when we find that the principal advocates for the exclufion of the commons from the Anglo-Saxon legiflature, are perfons who, in other refpets, have proved themselves unfriendly to the caufe of liberty and to the juft claims of the people, we fhall be the lefs inclined to pay an inplicit deference to their opinions, or to receive with undifcerning acquiefcence what may ultimately appear to be the dictates of party, or the conclufions of prejudice. It is acknowledged that the Saxons preferved, after their fettlement in this island, the fame cuftoms and inftitutions which they had followed on the continent. We are informed by an hiftorian of undoubted credit and ability, that, among the ftates of Germany, the freemen in general had the right of aflembling in the national council, and of joining with the nobility in the difcuffion of matters of fuperior importance, while affairs of fmaller moment were determined by the nobles alone *. From this fingle authority, we are juftified in inferring the prefence of the commons not only in the councils of the heptarchy, but in thofe of the fubfequent monarchy. Is it reasonable to suppose that a high-fpirited and victorious people will abandon, in the establishment of colonies in a conquered country, the grand rampart of general liberty, when no caufe or pretence offered itself for fuch dereliction? 'The expreffions used by our earlier writers, when they mention the public councils, are for the most part fuch as feem to favour the idea of excluding the commons; but the monks not being remarkably accurate in their modes of fpeech, may have included under one pompous appellation (as, principes, magnates, proceres, optimates, &c.) not only the nobles, who were more particularly entitled to fuch a ftyle, but fuch of the gentry as had been deputed by the land-holders and free men of the realm to represent them in the wittena-gemot. The perions thus delegated acquired a temporary fuperiority over thofe members of the community who were not the objects of reprefentative choice, and might, without much distortion of fignification, be comprehended under the general denomination of the principal or the greateft men of the kingdom. But, though there is reafon to conclude, that individuals anfwering to our prefent gentry were admitted to a feat in the national "De minoribus rebus principes confultant, de majoribus omnes ; ita tamen, ut ea quoque, quorum penes plebein arbitrium eft, apud principes pertra&tentur." Tacit. Germ. cap. 11. Mr. Hume is of opinion, that this practice of procuring the affent of the whole community could only "have place in fmall tribes, where every citizen might, without inconvenience, be aflembled upon any extraordinary emergency." In answer to this remark, it may be obferved, that it could eafily take place in extenfive principalities, by the medium of reprefentation. But, (fays the hiftorian) Tacitus fpeaks not of reprefentatives." We learn, however, that the Germans adopted the principle of reprefentation in o her tranf actions; and why should we not infer that they also applied it to this cafe?' 6 aflem affemblies, we are not inclined to carry this idea fo far as to fuppofe, with fome authors, that perfons fo inconfiderable as the heads of tithings fat as reprefentatives of the ten families under their jurifdiction; a circumstance which would not only have rendered the councils too numerous, but would have been an unneceffary extenfion of the popular interference in the legiflature. It is probable, however, that the hundredary, or magiftrate of the hundred, was admitted to the privilege of representing that divifion of a county; and that the chief magiftrate of a great town was honoured with a fimilar trust. We are exprefly informed, that a ceol, who possessed five hides of land, was regarded as a thane, and had a right to a feat in the wittena-gemot. As it can hardly be contended that alf who had acquired that property were nobles in the strict sense, for they ought rather to be claffed among the gentry, we may confider them as correfponding in some measure with our prefent idea of the commons. And though the eftate of qualifications feems to have been confiderably enlarged before the Conqueft, it does not thence follow that the governing magiftrates of the towns and hundreds, who, if they really fat in the wittena-gemot, were admitted in confequence of their office, were excluded. The power of this affembly not only extended to the principal acts of government and legislation, but even to the depofition of fuch fovereigns as were guilty of flagrant violations of the rights of their fubjects. We learn, that Sigebert, king of Weffex, was de pofed, for his tyranny and barbarity, by the ftates of his realm *. Though the greatest caution ought to be ufed in the exercife of this right of removing a tyrant from his throne, the act itself is jus、、 tifiable on the principles of reafon. Whatever may be advanced, in oppofition to this doctrine, by the bigots of indefeasible right, and however ftrong may be their deprecation of the dangers that may arife from inculcating fuch an idea into the public mind, the right of depofition feems to exift in the collective body of every state, though it should only be enforced in cafes of extreme neceffity. Government was manifeftly intended for the protection and benefit of the whole community, not for the gratification of the vanity, ambition, caprice, avarice, or defpotifm, of the ruling individual. Without difcuffing the fubject of an original contract between the governor and the governed, we may conclude, that a reciprocity was adopted in the original formation of monarchies or states; that the ties of fubmiffion and allegiance were fuppofed to be requited by the obligations of justice, moderation, and equity, on the part. of the rulers; and that flagrant violations of thefe duties authorize a revocation of that power which was only a truft for the public weal, and which, when grofsly abufed, ought to be transferred to other hands +.' Things Chron. ax. Sad ann. 755.-Hen. Huntingd. lib. iv.' marks, Things as they Are; or, the Adventures of Caleb Williams By William Godwin. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Jewed. Crosby. 1794. O anticipate the contents of this very interefting narrative, would be no kindnefs to the reader. We fhall, therefore, not attempt an analyfis, but fimply obferve, that the plot of this novel turns on the enmity of two neighbouring gentlemen, the one of whom is governed by all the vulgar paffions predominant in uninformed minds, pride, intereft, love of power, and envy; the other is externally amiable, but is internally directed, not by true principle, but by that very equivocal motive to virtue, the love of fame. Actuated by this principle, the latter is betrayed into the commiffion of a crime, which involves the remainder of his life in perplexity, gloom, diftrefs, and cruelty. The moral is excellent, but the neceffity of religious principle, without which we are perfuaded no real virtue can exift in the human heart, is not fo ftrongly enforced, as the nature of the ftory would admit. The characters are extremely welf drawn; and the pictures of modern manners are in moft inftances but too faithfully delineated. The political reflections, which however are not very numerous, might in general have been spared; and in a future edition, which we doubt not so very interefting and entertaining a book muft foon come to, we would recommend to the author to expunge a confiderable part of them at least. It is but juftice to add, that this work ranks greatly above the whole mafs of publications which bear the name of novels, if perhaps we except the productions of Fielding, Smollet, and Burney. In the conftruction and conduct of the narrative, it is even, in our opinion, fuperior to them. It is no mean compliment, indeed, to Mr. Godwin's ingenuity to fay, that though the paffion of love (which has in general been confidered as an effential adjunct in the compofition of a novel) marks, that," the queftion of dethroning kings will always be, as it has always been, an extraordinary queftion of fate, and wholly out of the law; a question (like all other queftions of ftate) of difpofitions, and of means, and of probable confequences, rather than of politive rights. As it was not made for common abuses, fo it is not to be agitated by common minds. The fpeculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end, and refiflance muß begin, is faint, obfcure, and not eafily definable." But the faintnefs of this metaphyfical line is of little confequence. Grofs and continued acts of tyranny and injuftice will appear, even to ordinary minds, as the only grounds of refiftance; and few civil fed communities will even think of aiming at the removal of their fovereign without being juttified by fuch a fries of the mott unequivocal acts of oppreffion and iniquity, as muft fuperfede all doubts refpecting the termination of the line of boundary.' does does not enter into the plot, fo fafcinating is the narrative, that few readers will have fufficient coolnefs to lay down the book before they have concluded it. We fhall felect a few fpecimens from thofe parts which; are moft eafily detached from the main ftory. The perfon in whom these calamities principally originated, was Mr. Falkland's nearest neighbour, a man of eftate equal to his own, by name, Barnabas Tyrrel. This man one might at first have suppofed of all others leaft qualified from inftruction, or inclined by the habits of his life, to interfere with and difturb the enjoyments of a mind fo richly endowed as that of Mr. Falkland. Mr. Tyrrel might have paffed for a true model of the English fquire. He was very early left under the tuition of his mother, a woman of very narrow capacity, and who had no other child. This mother feemed to think that there was nothing in the world fo precious as her hopeful Barnabas. Every thing muft give way to his accommodation and advantage; every one muft yield the moft fervile obedience to his commands. He must not be teased or restricted by any forms of inftruction; and of confequence his proficiency even in the arts of writing and reading was extremely flender. From his birth hewas mufcular and sturdy; and, confined to the ruelle of his mother,he made much fuch a figure as the whelp-lion that a barbarian might have given for a lap-dog to his miftrefs. But he foon broke loofe from thefe trammels, and formed an acquaintance with the groom and the game-keeper. Under their inftruction, he proved as ready a fcholar as he had been indocile and reftive to the pedant who held the office of his tutor. It was now evident that his small proficiency in literature was by no means to be afcribed to want of capacity. He difcovered no contemptible fagacity and quick-wittedness in the science of horse-flesh, and was eminently expert in the arts of thooting, fishing, and hunting. Nor did he confine himself to thefe, but added the theory and practice of boxing, cudgel-play, and quarter-ftaff. These exercises added tenfold robuftness and vigour to his former qualifications. His ftature, when grown, was fomewhat more than fix feet, and his form might have been selected by a painter as a model for that hero of antiquity, whofe prowess confifted in felling an ox with his fift, and then devouring him at a meal. Confcious of his advantage in this refpect, he was infupportably arrogant, tyrannical to his inferiors, and infolent to his equals. The activity of his mind, being diverted from the genuine field of utility and diftinction, showed itself in the rude tricks of an overgrown lubber. Here, as in all his other qualifications, he rose above his competitors; and if it had been poffible to overlook the callous and unrelenting difpofition in which they were generated, you would not have denied your applaufe to the invention these freaks difplayed, and the rough, farcaftic wit, with which they were accompanied.' X 2 The |