scarcely thirty years of age. But the reputation which he gained was dearly purchased by a temporary loss of health, and a loss of sight which unhappily proved permanent. Armand Carrel, however, became his secretary, and the mind of Thierry grew almost more vigorous than ever. He formed at one time, in conjunction with M. Mignet, the design of writing a great national history, but was obliged by circumstances to abandon the attempt. Still his pen was not idle. In the early part of 1830 appeared his Lettres sur l'Histoire de France, already mentioned, on the publication of which the Institute elected him a member of the Académie des Belles Lettres Attacked soon afterwards by a nervous disorder, he was forced to leave Paris, and, what was still more painful, his favourite studies. From 1831 to 1836 he spent his time between the baths of Luxeuil and Vesoul. At Luxeuil he became acquainted with his wife, then Mademoiselle Julie de Querangal, a lady of a distinguished Breton family, who for twenty years watched over his ailing health, and "guarded," to use the words of William Hazlitt, “the great soul imprisoned in a suffering body." Madame Thierry, we may here remark, is well known in French literary circles for pieces from her pen which have appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes, under the nom de guerre of Philippe de Morvelle, and for another charming production entitled Adelaide, ou Memoires d'une Fille. M.Thierry's brother, Amadée, also is a great historian; his best work is his Histoire des Gaulois. visit to the blind historian, surrounded by his wife and family, in his retreat at Luxeuil, in which his position is beautifully compared with that of our own Milton in similar circumstances, is admirably related by Hazlitt in a biographical notice prefixed to his translation of the "History of the Norman Conquest.'

Α

But to return to our story. In the intervals of repose stolen from a life of suffering, M. Thierry still from time to time resumed the pen of an historian with unabated ardour. He not only revised his "History of the Anglo-Norman Conquest," but also republished the various productions of his youth, under the title of Dix Ans d'Etudes Historiques, already mentioned. Not content with this work, he commenced some twenty years since, a series of letters in the Revue des Deux Mondes, giving an exact picture of the civil, political, and religious life of France in the sixth century. These articles, collected into a volume, and published in 1835 under the title of Recits du Temps Merovingiens, obtained for their author the prize of £400., founded by the Baron Gobert, and awarded by the Académie Française. In the autumn of the same year, Mons. Guizot recalled M. Thierry from Montmorency to Paris to superintend a national undertaking-nothing less than that of sifting the archives of every French town and parish, for the purpose of extracting all the materials bearing on the history of the "Third Estate," so as to form a collection which should rival the great Benedictine compilations, and to supply materials for a gigantic work to be hereafter written a complete history of the French nation and people, as distinct from the nobility and clergy, and the reigning family.

Out of the many testimonies which we could adduce to the consummate ability of M. Thierry as an historian, we venture to select the following remarks from the writings of Edward Gans, the great philosopher whose loss Germany still deplores, and who thus touchingly speaks of his friend:

"It is he who has triumphantly demonstrated the fallacy of those historical systems which regard all France as a mere collection of Frankish tribes, which pass over in

silence the element imported from the south, and forget that, up to the beginning of the thirteenth century, the limits of the Frankish empire did not extend beyond the Isère. ... In a word, it is Thierry who has taught us to appreciate the true signification of what is called the fourteen centuries of the French monarchy.

"I will add," he continues, "that it is M. Augustin Thierry who, by his efforts to restore to proper names under the first two races their true orthography, has succeeded in fixing the moment of the metamorphosis of Franks into French; and it is Mons. Thierry who has demolished to its foundations the historical axiom inscribed at the head of the charter of 1814-namely, the pretended enfranchisement of the communes by Louis le Gros. In a word, he has created in our annals a glorious trace that will never be effaced; no historian, ancient or modern, has exhibited in a higher degree than he that human sense which is the soul of history.”

The chief merit of M. Thierry as an historian lies in the fact that he pursued a method the reverse of that which all modern writers have adopted of all authors of the nineteenth century, he could most truly repeat the boast of Horace,

“Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps."

Almost all authors, following what seems to them the natural path, go from the conquerors to the conquered; they view the latter only through dim reference to the former: they take their stand in the camp of the victors rather than that of the vanquished, and, dating the conquest from the day of victory, forget the existence of the defeated party. Thus, as Thierry himself most justly remarks,

"For all those who until recently have written the History of England, there are no Saxons at all after the battle of Hastings and the coronation of William the Conqueror. -A romance-writer, a man of genius, and not an Englishman, but a Scotchman, was the first to teach the modern English that their ancestors of the eleventh century were not all utterly defeated and crushed in one single day."

It was otherwise with Augustin Thierry. The hidden but energising power of the Saxon element in England for a century and a half after the Norman Conquest, was as fully recognised by him as by Sir Walter Scott. He draws an interesting comparison between the Greeks of the present day under Turkish rule, and the English Saxons under their Norman lords; and it was his intention, had his life been spared, to follow up his researches, and to aid the progress of science by drawing out in a similar way the history of the Welsh, of the Irish Celts, of the Scots, both primitive and of mixed race, of the continental Bretons and Normans, and more especially of the numerous population then, as now, inhabiting the southern parts of France.

We may add that Thierry's "Conquest of England by the Normans" is justly called by his editor, William Hazlitt, "the noblest of his noble productions." It carries the history of our own land through five successive epochs of territorial and political usurpation, down to the final extinction of parties in the Norman regime, and the consequent loss of the AngloSaxon element as a distinguishing feature in the national character,-in other words, down to a little previous to the year A.D. 1200.

GENT. MAG. VOL. XLVI.

L

MEMOIR ON THE CHOLERA AT OXFORD a.

THE sad lesson taught the city of Oxford by its cholera visitations cannot be without profit to other cities; for as the appearance of the epidemic may be traced everywhere to the same causes, so may the same hygienic measures for its prevention or removal as were adopted at Oxford, be applicable to other places. Experience and observation have clearly shewn that the sources of this dread disease may be found in the nature of the soil, imperfect drainage, impure water, ill-constructed dwellings, together with insufficient food, intemperance, and want of cleanliness.

The powerful influence of these noxious agents upon life and health is now so generally admitted, that we may pass over the details which form the first portions of Dr. Acland's book, and proceed at once to the "lesson" enshrined in his Memoir.

While the laws of hygiene have for many years past occupied the attention of continental governments, England has only recently established sanitary regulations for towns and cities. That they are imperfect and inadequate, owing to a merciless prudery, and a fear of infringing the liberty of the subject, cannot be denied. But the mere recognition of the necessity for sanitary regulations is a great step gained, and we indulge the hope that, whatever deficiencies experience may shew the existence of, they will in due time be remedied.

The laws of hygiene involve questions of great political and religious importance. The problem of how a civilized people should strive to live in obedience to these laws, is better understood at the present day than formerly. But the continental nations have in this matter been far in advance of us, both in activity and efficiency. They have also boldly and elaborately treated certain phases of the question which we have not yet dared to touch. Thus, wiser in their generation, they have shewn a deeper regard for the interests of humanity, from which we might gather a profitable lesson.

In matters of administration, formality and routine appear to be infirmities of the English mind, choking, like weeds, the stream of benevolence and charity. Thus, in cases of urgent need in cholera, the formalities to be observed in obtaining aid were often so cumbrous, that frequently the patients died, before they were half performed. In most of our towns and cities there is no permanent provision for the treatment of epidemic diseases, consequently the mortality is increased greatly beyond the average, whenever disease makes its appearance, and, not unfrequently, it exhausts itself before adequate provision is made for its amelioration.

"Prevention is better than cure,"-yet no maxim is more disregarded than this. The cost of sanitary precaution weighs as nothing in the balance against the penalties of disease,-bodily suffering, death, impoverishment of families, widowhood, orphanhood, and the host of evils, moral and physical, attendant upon poverty. "Life," says Dr. Acland, “is a holy thing, and if communities throw away the lives of the individuals who compose them, or make these sickly, short, and miserable, the community will

a

"Memoir on the Cholera at Oxford, in the year 1854, with Considerations suggested by the Epidemic. By HENRY WENTWORTH ACLAND, M.D." (London: Churchill.)

in some manner 'pay for it.' It will have work done badly by the crushed artizan while he lives; it will maintain him for years in his sickness, and his children on his death."

"That the health of individuals is influenced by their mode of life no one doubts; a man may drink himself into hopeless dropsy, induce heart-disease by over-labour, destroy the integrity of his nervous system by mental excitement and late hours, induce disease of the lungs by imprudent labour, or shorten his days by ever working at work for which he is by nature unfitted. Instances of individual self-destruction from avoidable circumstances might be multiplied without end. But with these individual cases we have not here to deal. Each man has a free will, and he must make his choice according to the knowledge he possesses. But with communities it is not so; they have law-givers and laws; these may be good, or they may be bad: it is not to be doubted that communities, as well as individuals, may violate the sanitary laws which our Creator has imposed on us, bringing punishment to the community for its common crime, as well as to the individual for his individual crime."

The subject of "dwellings for the labouring classes" has occupied a good deal of attention of late years, and very judiciously so, for it lies at the root of all social and moral progress of a very large portion of the community. The building of houses is for the most part a matter of speculation, and as those by whom, or for whom, they are built are under no control but that of cupidity, that truly unfortunate class-tenants, are perforce compelled to take what is provided for them. Houses are for the most part built with the view of being occupied by only one family, and the conveniences are arranged in conformity with that view. But they invariably come to be occupied by two or more families, and there follows an amount of inconvenience and discomfort incredible to those who have not experienced it. The only remedy for these evils is in the erection of houses "in flats ;" and those who have the welfare of the labouring classes truly at heart will use every effort in their power to promote the erection of such houses. A good work has been begun in the erection of baths and washhouses; it only requires to be continued by the erection of the kind of dwellings we have indicated, when as much will have been accomplished for the classes in question as the philanthropist can desire.

One of the chief defects in our dwellings as at present constructed is the entire absence of any provision for ventilation: there is abundant evidence to shew that this is a fruitful source of disease. An examination of most of the dwelling-houses erected within our sphere of observation during the last five-and-twenty years goes to shew that provision for ventilation forms no part of a builder's calculation; if a tenant requires it, he must provide it for himself as he best can, and frequently at no little cost and inconvenience.

Disease of every kind is so expensive a guest, that our best efforts should be directed to its prevention or speedy removal. It is a question of public economy, and medical aid should at all times be accessible to those who need it, without cost; it would be wiser and more economical to save a man's life by the expenditure of a few shillings in timely aid, than by denying it, to incur the charge of supporting his widow and children, perhaps, for years. Free dispensaries, then, are institutions we should desire to see multiplied, accessible at all hours to those requiring medical aid, without any formality whatever. Every encouragement should be given to the working classes to obtain medical aid as promptly as possible; the progress of disease would thereby be stayed; much suffering be spared to those who can ill afford to endure it, and a great pecuniary gain accrue to the community.

On the necessity for providing nurses for the poor, Dr. Acland says,

"There is no object more requiring the energy of the benevolent, none more certain to repay their exertions, none more easy of execution, than that of obtaining nurses trained and qualified to attend the poor at their own houses. A very moderate subscription, the co-operation of guardians, the consent of the governors of hospitals, with the aid of the parochial clergy, might at once obtain for every town a corps of nurses, such as we had at Oxford at the time of the cholera. A body of more or less competent women would then be ready at all times to wait on the sick poor. They might at once effect good in various ways. Their knowledge of cooking alone would be a positive boon, supposing always they had been properly instructed, as has been proposed, at the hospital. The more able of them would, in time, become trained nurses for all classes; they would be known and certified. This would probably have been attempted here, had not the cholera nurses, for the most part, gone out to the Crimea, and had not other circumstances delayed the public proposal of this plan....In connexion with every hospital through the kingdom, such an institution might soon exist, to the great advantage of every class in society, and to the maintenance of many respectable women, and especially widows."

The author's remarks "on certain relations between moral and physical improvement," are suggestive, and full of interest, which we would gladly quote, if our space permitted; but as they have been published separately as a pamphlet, entitled "Health, Work, and Play," we refer the reader to it.

The perusal of Dr. Acland's work has been attended with a pleasurable interest which the title did not lead us to expect. It is alike honourable to his head and heart, and, we think, cannot but exert a favourable influence upon society, wherever it becomes known. Dr. Acland looks below the surface of things, with a sympathetic eye for human suffering, and takes a clear view of the best means of alleviating it. Cholera has proved itself a dire teacher, and humiliating indeed must it appear to every hopeful mind, that certain great truths can only find audience under the pressure of calamities which, by an exercise of the knowledge we possess, might have been avoided. How strange the anomaly, that in a city which for so many centuries has been the proud seat and centre of English learning, the very fountain-head of knowledge should have shewn itself no better prepared to stay or cope with the great epidemic than other places where no such intellectual advantages are found. Sad indeed to see man so indifferent to the duty that lies nearest to him; to see the wealthy so indifferent to the welfare of their poorer brethren; to see the extremes of wealth and poverty, of comfort and misery, of repletion and pining want, in the midst of a city containing the great school of Christian philosophy: such things shock the humane observer, and mock his hopes of ameliorating the condition of those who have it not in their power to help themselves.