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posure of so very sacred a truth is " unscriptural and dangerous . " Here the Sleepers Awakened detected Jesuitry . Many young students were induced to secede to Rome . A deeper argument was opened in " Tract ninety . " It endeavoured to show that the thirty-nine articles might be subscribed in safety by those who held the doctrines of the Church of Rome , though not of individual members of that Church , or of certain sects or schismatics within , her bosom ; that it was against these errors , and not against the Church of Rome , nor against her legitimate teaching that the articles had 1 > een drawn up . The legitimate consequence , not of the Tracts , but of the Articles ; , has been secession to Rome amongst the honest—hypocrisy and reservation in . the noble army of preachers . Hence have arisen
the squabbles about " credence-tables , " " candlesticks , " " crosses , " " decorated altars , " and the more subtle points of " baptismal regeneration , " and the royal supremacy . " The tendency of such questions cannot be doubted . Mr . Marsden ' s object in the present work has been not argument , but history ; jiot reasoning , but statement . He proves his familiarity with the subject , and ably manages his materials . There is an inevitable bias in the volumes , but the narrative is , for the most part * candid and impartial . The references given at the end of each " church" will be useful to the student who wishes to extend his investigations , and is within reach of an ecclesiastical library . With these qualifications the work cannot fail to become a useful Manual of Church History .
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SCOTTISH HEROES . Scottish Heroes in the Days of Wallace and JBruce . By the Rev . Alexander Low , A . M ., 2 vols . Hurst and Blackett . Wallace and Bruce belong to the same epoch of Scottish history , fought in the same cause , appealed to the same national spirit , are celebrated together in epic songs , yet Bruce is the contrast of Wallace . Wallace was not more brave or devoted , or in resolution more dauntless , or in spirit more free ; but he was of the pure heroic type . Into the patriotism of Bruce there entered suggestions of timidity and reserve , nq $ . unwise or ignoble , but which subdue the romantic colouring . The Scots sing of Stirling and Bannoekburn , of Douglas and the Lord of the Isles ; but their minstrels take up the career of Wallace when , as a youth , he slew the Northumbrian knights , and retired into the wood of Laglans , and weave a canto from every episode , to the last
dismal day in London . N " othing is wanting to the attraction of the story . Part of the hero ' s life was obscure . Tradition , therefore , which abhors a vacuum , opens a range of pleasant myths , with green forest vistas , love passages , knightly feats , and days enriched by beauty and poetry , by recitatives , music , and all the merry round of outlaw revelry . In these scenes Sir William " Wallace , in stature a Telamon , in pride an Achilles , makes a prominent figure . With his gigantic frame clothed in a surcoat and tabard , with the martial habergeon on his shoulders , an iron capleyne on his head , a collar of steel , gauntlets on his hand , a broadsword , a mace , and a dagger slung to his belt , he is the model of chivalry . Establishing among the woods and hills a commonwealth of courage , he is seen , rescuing the beautiful orphan of Leamington , taking her to his heart at a secret bridal , losing her after a , fray , beholding her execution , ami avenging it . Then , his night attacks on the English camps , scaling the Vanaparts of castles like a Red-Cross Kuight , charging at the head of his Scots through the ranks
When both armies joiaed battle , the great horses of England rushed upon the Scottish lances , as * if upon a thick wood , and one mighty and horrible sound arose from the breaking of fbe lances , the shock of falling horsemen , and ^ tlie shrieks of the dying . The siege of Caerlaverock is described with pictorial effect : the castle stood between the forest and the sea : — - It was surrounded on all sides : by numerous bodies of the enemy , each anxious to signalise its skill and bravery , and many a . shining shield of silver , many a lance and pennon were alternately displayed before the walls ; and as one baron and his followers were wounded , or forced to retire before the besieged , another host of knights advanced to the charge , assailing the gate , or covering the
entrance , and snouting their respective war-cries . It would seem that before this insignificant fortress , wMch poured its rude artillery upon the assailants with courage and effect , all fcke chivalry of England was displayed ; bearing on their shields and bannere of . every hue and colour , red pitchers with besants , gold lioncels , white saltire and chief , green crosses , lion rampant , the red chevron , dancette and billets of gold on blue , red and ermine , gemell of gold , golden mullets , and almost every device of that chivalrous age . When one shield was beaten , back , aoiother took its place ; when one banner was torn , another was displayed ; and the numerous engines , which were supplied by the English fleet * made great destruction upon the walls , where the brave ¦ defenders continually relieved each other , till neither iron cap nor wooden target could save them from wounds . :
Mr . Alexander Low , minister of the parish of Keig , in Aberdeenshire , has illustrated , with considerable success , one of the most stirring periods of bis national history . His scholarship is large , and he applies a sound judgment to the decision of involved or disputed issues . While , therefoce , his style is picturesque and vigorous , his method is strictly historical ; and the result is , that Scottish Heroes in the Days of Wallace and Bruce , with , all theelements of p . opularity 9 is also a work of practical and permanent value .
or the English soldiers , and the splendid Gascon cavalry , meeting with his circular phalanx of pikemen , the onset of Edward ' s Earl Marshal , with the archers pouring in their arrows , fighting the great pirate , the Red Rover , hand to hand , and vanquishing him as much by magnaminity as by prowess , scouring the hill-districts of Scotland , bugle in hand , and bringing men and boys out of their glens to arm in his behalf , against one of the least scrupulous and one of the bravest kings of England . As the narrative progresses , it becomes more radiant with poetry , more inspiring , and more heroic . The climax is reached at the capture of Wallace , for , afterwards , though the great chief dies not less nobly than he lias lived , his punishment is too ghastly to form a picture . Mr . Low touches this episode lightly , and he does well . Who can fix his eye on the loftiest of men , when liis blood drips on the hurdle and the scaffold , when he is cut down , half dead , and disembowelled , —when his head and arms are cut off—as the trophies of victory and revenge P "When such is the closing scene , it is discreet to draw over it a decent veil .
Mr . Low , though he has collected all the legendary incidents attributed to the career of Wallace , and has woven them into a narrative full of colour and variety , does not confound the supposititious with the historical . His criticism is bold , clear , and penetrating , and his authorities are , in general , entitled to respect . Therefore , however vivid the impressions created by his forest panorama , and his anecdotes of early daring , they are not confused with the results of practical research , nor has Mr . Low fallen into the error , common in Scottish historians , of blackening the character of Edward to illustrate the virtues of Wallace . He affirms , what nqost English writers admit , that the wars in Scotland were excited by tbc usurpations of the English
and the unjustifiable violence and tyranny of their government . But he recounts , in a generous spirit , the excellent qualities oi the English King , and has some criticism for his Scottish heroes , especially for Bruce , whose earlier career was marked by hesitation and complicity . His description of the battle of Bannocl-cburn is honest and spirited . The English soldiers , horse and foot , exhibited on that memorable field the utmost intrepidity , charging , undismayed by failure again and again upon the Scottish lines , rushing between the squares of pikemen , sweeping forward under the storm of arrows , engaging so fiercely that the two armies broke into eight , as a fleet divides when each ship lias fixed upon her antagonist , reversed all the military dispositions , and fought , aa it were , 'four battles on the same field . The Earl of Gloucester , with forty thousand horsemen , began the action .:
—The shook of tho flrat clmrgo of England ' s cavalry ia said to have been dreadful , and being roaoived on tho spears of tho Scottish infautry , tho croah was heard at a groat diatauco , and dashed many knights from their naddloa , whose horaes were stabbed and rendered furious by their wounds ' . " The centra division , under the gallant Randolph , stood in a eteivdy body to roooivo tho charge of the English , and when thoir thousands wero spread out in irant of tho centre , the SootfciBh uquareB , which attacked them with great bravery and intrepidity , although ton to one ,-wore lout among the English , as if they had plunged into tho sea .
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THE INC AS OF PERU . Cuzco and Lima : a Visit to the Ancient and Modern Capitals and Provinces of Peru . By C . R . MarMiam , 3 ? . R . G . S . Chapman and Hall . Few Europeans have visited Cuzco , the ancient capital of the Incas \ . scarcely one has described it . Though it forms the centre of the great range of American architectural monuments , and contains in itself an epitome of the extinct civilisation of Peru , travellers have preferred to tread the worn paths round the mounds of Cholula , or through the ruins of Tlascala , without attempting to compare the Mexican with the principal Peruvian remains . Mr . Markham , when his inquiries were directed to this subject * found thewritten sources of information , so scanty that he was compelled to choose between a sacrifice of curiosity , and a journey to Cuzco . Travelling to that ; dilapidated and mystic city ,. he- carefully examined the ground , surveyed the mouldering relics of art and beauty , the traces of a cultured nation , the points of contrast and similitude , suggested by the antique monuments of
Europe . The result is presented in a volume originally and specially interesting . But , unhappily , -Mr . Markham was pursued to Cuzco by an inveterate assumption , which , in spite of parenthetical humilities , and in ^ addition to some harsh prejudices that spot and streak his narrative , materially diminishes its authenticity . It is not surprising to find the old temples and palaces , ornate and solid , standing out from an horizon , of theory ; since , the archaeology of the Western continent is , for the most part , conjectural , and the imagination wanders between poetry and logici far in advance of exact discovery . A vast ^ historical restoration . is claimed by successive and conflicting writers , who have built up Aztec empires , and many a Babylon and Damascus of the West , which others have battered into absurdity . But Mr . Markham , who penetrates , not by a clue of his own finding , into the primal epoch of migration , owes some deference to speculatists who soar as high , and prophecy with as much authority , as he . At the outset , it is with more than warrantable confidence that he declares the monuments of Peru
to be less mysterious in their history than those of Central America . Certainly , the elaborate investigations which have been made into the architect ture of Axmul and Palenque , have led only to inferential conclusions , but these conclusions , in tlie minds of some very learned men , have been in the nature of doubts as to the lo » g antiquity of the buildings . The use of timber by the architects , of Central America is not analogous to its use by the architects of Egypt . In the dry climate of the Nilotic valley , clamps of wood were applied in concealed parts of the structure , and specimens have been discovered , hard and sound , at the lapse , hypothetically , of thirty centuries . But the sun and dews were excluded ; there was no rank vegetation to clamber and drip upon the walls . In the moist region of Central America timber was used for lintels , which , in many places are found in decay , establishing a stixmg presumption against the idea of their remote antiquity Nothing , at least , that is obscure in the history of Palenque or Axmul , is transparent in the history of Tachacamac or Caxamarquilla .
Mr . Markham , reciting the supposititious archaeology of the Peruvian ruins , asks whence came those mystic Incas ? They have "been described by an English antiquarian as a colony planted by Kublai Khnn , the first Chinese emperor of the Yuen dynasty ; " by a Spanish chronicler as Armenians , who left their country five centuries after the Deluge ; by Berreo , of Innidad , as transfigured Englishmen ; by others as Egyptians or Mexicans . Mr . Markham enumerates , in one clause , the lust three notions , implying that they are equally wild . It is by no means positive , however , that the theory of their emigration from China is not at least as apocryphal j or , if they came thence , that they were not sent by Kublai Khan , who may or may not have existed . The opinion may be " generally received " because that is an elastic phrase , as indefinite as ** orthodoxy ; " but it is , and is likely to bo , disputed , and cannot be proved . Wherever there ia doubt , there inevitably does Mr . Markharn ' s dogmatism alight , though he betrays an inconsistency of opinion common to rsapid and prejudiced reasoners . '
. , So far , by way of protest against the absolutism of Mr . Markham ' s deductions . In ar « hceology , in history , in politics , in social ideas , lie is an exaggerated sectarian . Tho few political generalisations that occur in the Volume arc ridiculously presumptuous ; and , though the antiquarian argument ia based on personal observation and peculiar studies , and . in unison with the ideas of Ilumboldt and Schlcgol , the great fabric of restored " Incarinl" institutions and manners ia marvellously flimsy .
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Masch I , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 209
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1856, page 209, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2130/page/17/
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