inglorious negotiations of James I. for the recovery of his hereditary dominions. The appearance of Gustavus Adolphus in Germany, and the brilliant victories of the northern hero, afforded the fugitive Elector a last gleam of reviving fortune. He followed the triumphant march of the Swedish army into the Palatinate: but the fall of Gustavus at Lutzen extinguished the remaining hopes and broke the heart of the unhappy Frederic; and, a few days after the glorious death of the Swedish conqueror, he sunk into an untimely and ignoble tomb. In the long season of adversity which intervened between the flight from Prague and the death of Frederic, the conduct of Elizabeth appears in far more magnanimous colours than that of her husband; and the most interesting part of Miss Benger's volumes is devoted to this period of her heroine's life. While Frederic was chafed by every petty slight, and stung to madness by the coarse jests of a republican populace on his necessities, his Queen bore her fallen fortunes with a mixture of dignified resignation and heroic fortitude, which deservedly attracted universal enthusiasm in her favour. Her cause attracted numerous volunteers from England; and in her quarrel" a thousand swords leapt from their scabbards." Even her stern relative, Christian of Brunswick, was charmed and softened into respectful gallantry by her graces. When that Prince first saw her, he raised her glove with reverence to his lips; and placing it on his casque and drawing his sword, he took a solemn oath, as he knelt before her, never to lay down his arms until he should see her re-instated in her husband's dominions. He acquitted himself nobly of his vow until the brief close of his life; and it was in allusion to it, and to the religious cause in which he had originally armed, that he bore his famous motto: "FÜR Gott und für SIE," as Miss Benger has it: - or, as it is more commonly recorded, "ALLES FÜR GOTT UND SIE," All for God and her. With a kindred spirit of romantic devotion it was, that Lord Craven attached himself to her service with a constancy which survived the attractions of her youth, and which there is some reason to believe was rewarded with her widowed hand. It does not appear that the universal admiration which Elizabeth attracted, was ever tarnished by suspicion of her virtue. The original letters, which Miss Benger has given us from Bromley's and other collections, afford a very pleasing picture of the domestic life of Elizabeth and the lasting attachment with which she had inspired her husband. To the ambitious spirit of Elizabeth must her own misfortunes and those of her consort perhaps mainly be attributed; but the reader will rise from the perusal of these interesting Memoirs with the conviction, that the royal pair were mutually gifted with some of the sweetest virtues of private life. Elizabeth, indeed, would have wielded a sceptre with dignity and vigour; but it was only in a domestic sphere that Frederic might have been respectable and happy, an amiable and man, fond a parent and husband. state. - was at The death of Frederic deprived his suffering widow and her numerous family of the only protector whom their distresses had left them; and Elizabeth was now long fated to experience the selfishness and coldness of her royal connexions, the desertion of political friends, and the iniquity of statesmen, who unscrupulously sacrificed the cause of justice, and the interests of the helpless Palatine children, to every paltry intrigue of For many years the widowed queen was harassed by her political exertions, and overwhelmed with domestic cares; and, unhappily, when the object of all her solicitude, - the restoration of the Palatinate to her eldest son, tained, the character of that Prince rendered the recovery of his rights a source of little pleasure to his parent, or advantage to her other children. It is not the least striking part of her story, that none of her children were fated to shed cheerfulness over the decline of her saddened existence. The eldest of her family, a promising youth, had been drowned in Holland before the eyes of his unhappy father, who was doomed to see him perish, and to hear his agonising cries, without the power of rendering him aid. Charles Louis, the eldest surviving son, on succeeding to the electorate, displayed all the brutality of a true German despot, and reminds us forcibly in several traits of the Princess of Bareith's portraits of the same order in the following century. Prince Rupert, the third and best beloved son of Elizabeth, whose gallant exploits in the cause of his uncle Charles I. have associated his name with our history, was reduced, after the fall of the royal cause, to become a wandering corsair, and afterwards a mercenary commander in the service of the house of Austria, the hereditary enemies of his family. Maurice, his next brother, was supposed to have perished at sea in a cruise, and was never more heard of; and of the two youngest sons of Elizabeth, the one, Philip, was obliged to fly from Holland, in consequence of his cold-blooded assassination of an unarmed French officer, and the other, Edward, abjured the religion and society of his family. Of the four daughters of Elizabeth, the eldest, who shared her name, separated from her for some unexplained cause, and retired to the court of Brandenberg; another died shortly after her bridal; N 3 a third, a third, the favourite above all her children, gave her deep affliction by deserting the reformed faith, to which she was herself firmly attached; and the youngest, Sophia, whose marriage into the house of Brunswick afterwards gave this realm to her illustrious descendants, had quitted the maternal roof to reside with her brother at Heidelberg. Thus bereaved of the society of all her children, the Queen of Bohemia, now in her sixty-third year, resolved, soon after the restoration of her nephew, Charles II., upon returning to England. No shouts of welcome hailed her on those shores which she had left, forty years before, a blooming and happy bride. Charles II., to whom she had shown much kindness in his own adversity, received her with indifference; and she was indebted for the home, in which she shortly after died, not to his hospitality, but to the lasting devotion of Lord Craven. On the probabilities of her private marriage with that nobleman, Miss Benger has been able neither to throw any new light, nor to cast decided contradiction. In this brief account of Miss Benger's interesting work we have borne testimony to its general historical fidelity; and we have noticed particularly the only point in which she has somewhat forgotten strict impartiality in the delineation of conduct and character. Her narrative is not indeed otherwise exempt from a few inaccuracies: but these are of very little importance; and, if we point to two or three of them, it is less because we attach any great weight to them, than for the purpose of affording an opportunity for their easy correction in a future edition. Two of them occur in the genealogical account of the Palatine family, which forms the introductory chapter to the first volume. Thus (p. 4.) the Emperor Frederic I. is stated to have disgraced Herman, the last Count Palatine of the first dynasty, and to have transferred his possessions to Conrad of Suabia, after which the Palatinate passed by marriage to a prince of Saxony, and at length, in 1128, the Upper and Lower Palatinate were united in the person of Otho of Wittelspach, Duke of Bavaria, generally considered the founder of the Palatine house, or at least the author of its prosperity. Now there is contained in this story a palpable anachronism: for Frederic I. only commenced his imperial reign in 1154, twenty-six years later than the date assigned to the last of the changes, which his deposition of Herman is said to have produced. Again, of the Emperor Robert, the only prince of the Palatine house who ever attained the imperial dignity, it is said, (p. 8.) that he justified the electoral suffrage by his valour and the prudence that directed his conduct,' and that, according to the custom of that age, he journeyed to Italy to be crowned by the Pope.' Robert was never crowned by the Pope: he never penetrated beyond the confines of Lombardy; and in the only event of his reign, which is here incorrectly recorded, Miss Benger has made rather an unfortunate selection for his honour. The story of his defeat and disgrace in that expedition, which may be seen in Scipione Ammirato, (Storia Fiorentina, b. xvi.) certainly redounds so far to the credit neither of his valour nor his prudence. If these errors are not very grievous, the lapses of the pen in the succeeding narrative are scarcely more material. In vol. i. p. 24. Miss Benger speaks of the royal table of the Prince of Orange. She cannot need to be reminded that neither the hereditary dignity of William of Nassau, nor his office as the General of a republic, render the epithets of royalty appropriate to his state. So also there is a slight contradiction in the second volume, in the account of Prince Rupert, who, in p. 328., is stated to have commenced his military career at the siege of Rhinberg, and yet, ten pages farther, is declared to have been taken prisoner at the affair near Minden (in the Thirty Years' War) four years later, — the first action in which he had ever been engaged.' And, lastly, among these minute points of observation, we must doubt the authority upon which the patriotic Count Thurm, the mover of the original Bohemian insurrection which preceded the Thirty Years' War, is stated (p. 394.) to have outlived the peace of Westphalia, and to have died in his own castle in Prague.' For the last twelve years of the war, history scarcely notices the name of that once prominent actor in the revolutions of his country. No German writer, within our knowledge, has recorded any of the closing circumstances of his life; and Miss Benger has omitted to refer to her source of information on this particular. These little blemishes in the accuracy of Miss Benger's work are not matters for any serious censure; and the careful criticism which has enabled us to detect them, will probably serve only to show that we have found no graver errors to condemn. In proportion as our scrutiny has been rigid, our conclusions will be sure; and criticism is not misplaced on a work which may be justly pronounced to combine the easy charm and affecting interest of private biography with the severer dignity of political history. ART. XI. The English in Italy. 3 Vols. 8vo. London. Saunders and Otley. 17. 10s. 1825. 6 THIS HIS work is a sort of" Highways and Bye-ways" in Italy, without, however, the slightest pretensions to be compared with Mr. Grattan's sketches, either for imaginative embellishment, energy of diction, or variety of character. It is announced as the production of a distinguished resident' abroad, an epithet to which the author may have some title for aught we know, since there are many descriptions of distinction that may be very easily acquired on the Continent. But as to that degree of elevation which may be attributable to high birth, refined society, or intellectual attainments, we apprehend that very little evidence of it will be discovered in these volumes. They are written in a style not always English, and never elegant; interspersed with Italian phrases and pieces of poetry, which, besides being most industriously misprinted, are seldom introduced with propriety. The work consists of several tales, intended to exhibit the conduct of our countrymen in Italy, on whom the author is pleased to confer the general name of I Zingari, or the Gypsies, both tribes being equally wanderers' in his estimation. Those of our travelled gentry who have crossed the Alps, will doubtless feel honoured by the appellation, and grateful for the fidelity with which their demeanour abroad is represented by this 'distinguished' writer. It seems strange, however, that all the English' who came under the author's notice in Italy, were, without exception, fools or impostors, gamblers and vagabonds. It is evident that he knew no others, or at least if he did he has not done them justice. We can easily believe that the conduct of many of our countrymen in foreign society, has been marked occasionally by arrogance, or rather indeed by that deplorable species of ignorance which was the result of our long confinement within our island. It is but too true that they have often looked down upon Frenchmen and Italians as of a race inferior to themselves, and fit only to minister to their wants and their luxuries. The great diffusion of wealth in our community has permitted almost every class of it, but particularly the most self-sufficient and indomitable of all, the little rentiers, to visit the Continent; and many of these certainly have contributed, by the unmeasured rudeness of their behaviour, to render the very name of England ridiculous, if not odious, wherever they have appeared. But the vulgar English are now well known abroad, and a strong line of distinction, which they cannot efface, is drawn between them |