with that of Wilberforce and Clarkson. And when the stain and caste of
slavery shall have passed from our own country, he will be regarded as
our friend and benefactor, whose faithful rebukes and warnings and
eloquent appeals to our pride of character, borne to us across the
Atlantic, touched the guilty sensitiveness of the national conscience,
and through shame prepared the way for repentance.







ENGLAND UNDER JAMES II.

A review of the first two volumes of Macaulay's _History of England
from the Accession of James II_.

In accordance with the labor-saving spirit of the age, we have in these
volumes an admirable example of history made easy. Had they been
published in his time, they might have found favor in the eyes of the
poet Gray, who declared that his ideal of happiness was "to lie on a sofa
and read eternal new romances."

The style is that which lends such a charm to the author's essays,--
brilliant, epigrammatic, vigorous. Indeed, herein lies the fault of the
work, when viewed as a mere detail of historical facts. Its sparkling
rhetoric is not the safest medium of truth to the simple-minded inquirer.
A discriminating and able critic has done the author no injustice in
saying that, in attempting to give effect and vividness to his thoughts