whence she came. Her voice, so soft; her form, so delicate; the purity of her soul, opposed to their greedy calculations; her angelic calmness, contrasted with their fiend-like agitation, fill us with an unceasing, melancholy emotion, such as no modern tragedy has produced. She is not a heroine, whom passion makes strong, or sensibility weak, to win or to yield up her love. Other heroines struggle with their passion, or are subdued by external importunity; they can make sacrifices of themselves. Not so Thekla: she loves, and waits, unchangeable. Her lot is fixed; she can have no other; nor can she advance it by contending with the world. Her strength is all internal. She requires no disguise; she reveals her love in all its depth, singleness, and purity; she speaks of it unreservedly even to her lover: Where shouldst thou find truth upon the earth, if thou wert not to hear it from my lips?' is her touching language to him."

This is, to the life, one of Shakspeare's heroines-another Imogen. "A pure abstraction of the affections," existing only in her attachment to another; and that attachment outliving hope, and foregoing form, propriety, with every thing dear to a woman's nature, but the essence of it.

"In France this exaltation, without wandering or delirium, never could be tolerated in a young girl. It could not serve as a basis to a general system, and nothing is liked in France, but what admits of general application. The moral of a play is founded upon feeling in Germany; upon reason, in France. A sincere, strong, and unrestrained emotion appears, to them, to ennoble and sanctify what it inspires. But with us, the feeling that leads to a breach of duty is an aggravation of the sin. We pardon it much more reluctantly than a fault proceeding from self-interest, on account of the address and respect for appearances of this last. The former braves opinion; the latter temporizes with it, and this is a species of deference, not distasteful to the world."

The notes of M. Benjamin Constant de Rebecque contain a body of historical information, that tends very much to illustrate the Wallenstein" of Schiller; and to explain the reason why tragedies apparently so defective in their structure are witnessed with such intense satisfaction in Germany.

"All that relates to the thirty-years' war is national with the Germans, and as such is known by every body. The names that occur awake recollections that have no existence in us. Hence, Schiller had at command a number of allusions, which his countrymen caught at once, but which no one in France would comprehend.

"There is," he proceeds, " among us, a certain neglect of foreign history that proves a bar to the composition of historical dramas, such as are found in neighbouring literatures. The tragedies which succeed best in France are either those of pure fiction, which require but few preliminary notions, or those drawn from Grecian mythology and Roman history, which form part of our early education.”

Though we will not charge our countrymen with the neglect which the French author so freely admits against his own; yet, as far as our knowledge of German affairs is contrasted with that of the well-read Germans, we must allow there is such a deficiency, as must render abortive to us many of the allusions of their historical poets: especially as German writers, calculating upon the spread of literature and spirit of close research among their countrymen, study to wrap up a world of meaning in short sentences, that cannot but be obscure to those who have not in mind the epoch and events to which the allusion refers. We conceive, therefore, that we shall be doing no disservice, if we refresh the memory of our readers by compressing and transposing into connected narrative, the notes, which M. Constant thought indispensable to the elucidation of " Wallenstein." He borrowed them from a number of authorities*, known only to the learned in this country; and, as we have had occasion to go over the same ground in a measure, in order to fill up his gaps, it strikes us that our article, though entirely new-cast, is strictly retrospective in its character-calculated to revive faded or antiquated literature; and only not a gloss or copy of an original text, because that text is a collection of isolated portions of history and biography, that illustrate particular passages of a work, without regard to order or tautology.

Our readers will find our sketch of the Life of Wallenstein in our next number.

The Parliamentary Writs, and Writs of Military Summons, together with the Records and Muniments relating to the Suit and Service due and performed to the King's High Court of Parliament and the Councils of the Realm, or affording Evidence of Attendance given at Parliaments and Councils. Collected and edited by Francis Palgrave, Esq., F. R. S. and F. S. A., of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. Volume the first, 1827. Folio, pp. xcvi. and 982

1078.

Ducatus Lancastria Pars Tertia.-Calendar to Pleadings, Depositions, &c. in the Reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Philip and Mary; and to the Pleadings of the first thirteen Years of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Folio, 1827, pp. 509.

Calendars of the Proceedings in Chancery, in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth. To which are prefixed Examples of earlier Proceedings in that Court, namely, from the Reign of Richard the

* Herschenhahn, Khevenhiller, Schiller, &c.

Second to that of Queen Elizabeth, inclusive, from the Originals in the Tower. Vol. I. Folio, 1827, pp. 565.

THE Record Commission, to which we are indebted for these valuable additions to historical, antiquarian, and biographical literature, has existed nearly thirty years, during which period about fifty folio volumes, each tending to the illustration of some or all of these subjects, have been given to the public. Although the former works which have issued from the Commission vary as much in their general interest as in the manner in which they are executed; though it may be doubted whether the most essential documents have always been selected, or whether the private wishes of certain individuals have not had an improper influence, we cheerfully bear testimony to the highly important benefits which have been conferred upon historical researches. It is gratifying to find that the energy of the Commission has rather increased than lessened; that the most recent of its publications are the most worthy of commendation; and that they form an honourable contrast to the jobbing, unsatisfactory, and disgraceful manner in which some of the earlier volumes, the books misnamed a "Calendar to the Patent Rolls," and Calendars to the "Inquisitiones Post Mortem," for example, have been edited.

We regret much that we are prevented on the present occasion from inquiring how the Record Commission has performed its duties; the way in which it is conducted; and the objects which it has accomplished, and still purposes to attain. This, however, will probably be the subject of a future article; and we shall now only notice such of its publications as have appeared in the present year, commencing with those which relate to the earliest period, rather than attending to the order in which they were published. "The Parliamentary Writs" consist,

First, Of a chronological abstract of all the instruments contained in the volume; and which, being very wisely written in English, forms a kind of analysis of each record, adapted to the most general reader.

Secondly, A calendar of the writs of election, and returns thereof.

Thirdly, Writs, records, and muniments relating to the suit and service due and performed to the king's high court of parliament and the other councils of the realm, or affording evidence of attendance given at parliaments and councils during the reign of Edward the First.

Fourthly, Writs, records, and muniments relating to the military services due to the crown, whether by reason of tenure or of allegiance, during the reign of Edward the First.

To these succeed the appendix, alphabetical digest, introduction thereto, digest, and index.

We learn from the resolution of the Commissioners on the 27th of April, 1822, that it was resolved to reprint the rolls of parliament, pleas in parliament, and petitions; to print records of inquisitions and proceedings in courts of inferior jurisdiction which originated in parliament; writs issued by the authority of the great council or parliament; writs of summons and of election, and returns of the commons to the conclusion of the period embraced by the rolls; and writs of wages, prorogation, &c. Pursuant to this resolution, it was farther resolved, at a board held above three years afterwards, namely, on the 1st of July, 1825, "that Mr. Palgrave's specimen of the edition of Parliamentary Writs' being approved of, he is desired to proceed with the printing accordingly." Thus, in little more than two years that gentleman has produced the volume before us, which is perhaps one of the most extraordinary. examples of laborious and painful research that has ever appeared: but before speaking of its contents we shall say a few words on the "resolutions' which we have quoted. It seems that the Record Commission purpose publishing every document that elucidates the early parliamentary history of the kingdom; and it is impossible to applaud that intention more highly than it deserves. Not only is the subject of the utmost importance in itself, but every other department of antiquarian literature, biography, and the history of this country, as well as of Scotland, and of France, Spain, and other continental nations, will be considerably illustrated, since the proceedings of parliament embraced objects connected with public affairs as well as those of a private or personal nature. As a body of evidence on history, manners, customs, individual character and conduct, property, and, in a word, on every thing relating to society, from about the middle of the thirteenth to the close of the fifteenth century, the rolls of parliament are of unequalled value. When we reflect on the tardiness which until lately has characterized this Commission, we confess our fears that it will be our grand-children rather than ourselves who will benefit by its proposed labours: but we entreat it not to relax in its efforts; and to apply, if necessary, to parliament for increased revenues, rather than that posterity only may benefit by the accomplishment of its plans. Mr. Palgrave has displayed unusual zeal in producing such a volume in so short a period, and from that fact we augur more favourably of the future; especially since we hope it is settled that the printing of the greater part of those records is to be intrusted to his superintendence.

The preface to the "Parliamentary Writs" abounds in so much valuable information relative to the manner in which peers and others were summoned to parliament, or to perform military service; and consequently adds so materially to our knowledge of

the early legislative assemblies of the realm, and at the same time so satisfactorily explains the contents of the volume, that we shall extract the greater part of it.

"The collection, of which this is the first volume, includes all the records which show the constituent parts of the ancient legislative and remedial assemblies of England, beginning with the reign of Edward I., the period when they first assumed a definite organization. Before this era, neither the principles nor the practice of the constitution can be ascertained with certainty; but, under the government of Edward, a settled and uniform usage may be discerned, from whence the parliament received an organization nearly approaching to the form in which it now subsists. Considerable obscurity prevails with respect to the rights and functions of the individuals who enjoyed the privilege or were subjected to the duty of attendance. The fact, however, of such attendance is evinced by documents existing in a series which, although not entirely unbroken, is sufficiently complete to afford a satisfactory view of the estates, orders, and members who composed the great councils of the realm. These documents may be arranged under the following sections:

"I. Writs of summons addressed to the prelates, the earls, and to the individuals generally, but not invariably, designated as barones,' 'proceres,' or 'magnates;' and also to the justices, clerks, and others of the council. In most instances the writs are extant on the dorses of the close-roll, upon which, each set of writs appears to have been entered or enrolled from a pannel or schedule (such as is now termed a parliamentary pawn) which remained on the file*. Two only of these pannels have been found; the one belonging to the reign of Henry III., and the other to the reign of Edward II. Occasionally the clerks of the chancery contented themselves with tacking the pannel to the roll (the breviate of the writs issued for the council of the 16 Edw. I. may be quoted as an exemplification of this practice, p. 18, No. I.). Most of the riders or schedules now attached to the rolls appear to be pannels of this description; and, had it not been for the precaution of annexing them to the larger record, the information which they convey would have been lost. All documents which bore a direct relation to the rights of property, or to judicial proceedings, were recorded in the chancery with considerable care, but much less attention was paid to those which referred only to current transactions; and it is probable that the neglect of the clerks of the chancery in omitting to enrol the pannels is the principal cause of the paucity of parliamentary writs of summons in the earlier periods. Of original writs of summons, fifteen belonging to 34 Edw. I. (pp. 165, 166, Nos. 4 to 20.) were found in the bundle which contains the writs of election of that year.

"II. Proxies of the prelates, earls, and proceres.'—It is stated by Selden and Hody, that proxy-rolls were formerly extant in the Tower. The editor has been informed that none can now be found;

They are now kept in the Petty Bag Office.