wards generously settled a pension on him, which was punctually paid. His intimacy with Lord Mountjoy induced him to visit England, which was rendered so agreeable to him, that during the subsequent years of his life it was his favourite country.

Erasmus first obtained distinguished notice by his panegyric on Prince Philip, on his return from Spain to the Low Countries. It was followed by several works which at the time were universally admired, but which, though they are for the most part well known to scholars, are now seldom consulted except for the beauty of their style. During his sojourns in England, he became acquainted with all the most celebrated men of the day, particularly Sir Thomas More, for whom he entertained a great friendship. He was also treated with great distinction by Henry VIII.; and indeed wherever he went he was received with singular honour, as one of the greatest ornaments of literature in his day. He was for a while professor of Greek in Cambridge, and rendered material assistance to Dean Colet, in the establishment of St. Paul's school. From England he returned to the Continent, and was deeply engaged at the period of the Reformation in many controversies with Luther, as well as with the most zealous adversaries of that extraordinary man. Of these controversies, as well as of the principal works of Erasmus, Mr. Butler gives a detailed, an animated, and a most impartial account, for which we must refer the reader who may be interested in such subjects, to the work itself. Erasmus died at Basle, in 1536, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, deeply regretted by the whole Christian world. Mr. Butler thus sums up his merits:

Never did a man possess admirers more numerous, or of a higher distinction. This, his printed epistolary correspondence abundantly shows: he contributed more than any other person to the restoration of letters. That his learning was immense, that his taste was exquisite, and that his industry was marvellous, his friends and adversaries agreed: the former admit, that on too many occasions he expressed himself inaccurately and inadvertently; the latter, that he was often blamed without reason.'

His memory is yet in such esteem at Bâsle, that strangers are taken to see the house in which he died. His name was given by the magistrates to a college, in which theology is taught, and the assemblies of the academy are sometimes held. The magistrates bought his cabinet in 1661, and presented it to the academy. It contains his seal, his sword, his knife, his pincers, his will written with his own hand, and his portrait by Holbein.

Rotterdam, the place of his birth, showed equal respect to his memory. On the house in which he was born, the magistrates caused verses highly complimentary to his memory, to be inscribed. . When

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When Philip II., in 1549, announced his intention to make his solemn entry into Rotterdam, the senate, in order to receive His Majesty with greater solemnity, and to raise the town in his opinion, caused a statue of Erasmus, as large as life, to be erected upon the house in which he was born. He was habited as an ecclesiastic, with a pen in his right hand, and a scroll in the left, which contained an inscription. The King, the Queen Dowager of Hungary, and the nobles in their suite, visited the statue, and afterwards the house in which Erasmus was born.

The statue, thus suddenly erected, was of wood. In 1557, one of stone was substituted for it, by the magistrates. Some time afterwards, the Spanish garrison quartered at Rotterdam threw down the statue and flung it into the Meuse.

In 1562, after the Dutch had expelled the Spaniards from Rotterdam, the magistrates caused a statue of Erasmus, as large as life, to be cast in copper, and to be placed on a pedestal, surrounded by an iron balustrade. It was the work of Keyser, and is greatly admired. Knight's life of Erasmus contains a good engraving of it. The inhabitants are extremely careful that it should be seen by all strangers of distinction who visit the town. Doctor Knight's Life of Erasmus contains engravings of Holbein's portrait of him; of the house in which he was born; of the Queen's college, which contained his room; of the parish church of Aldington, of which he was rector; the inscription upon his monument at Bâsle, and the inscription upon his statue at Rotterdam.'

Erasmus is now best known by his "Manual of a Christian Soldier," which Charles V. held in the highest esteem; his "Adages," or "Proverbs," a work of great industry, learning, and talent; his "Encomium of Folly," in which the follies, exhibited by persons in every condition of life, are ingeniously satirised; but above all, by his "Colloquies,” with which every school-boy is acquainted, and his " Edition and Latin Version of the New Testament," which, of all his works, is certainly the most honourable to his memory.

It is due to Mr. Butler to observe, that within the compass of a moderate volume he has compressed an immense quantum of matter, that he has arranged his various materials in a lucid order, and that his language, always perspicuous, is sometimes graceful, and uniformly becoming a gentleman and a scholar.

ART. I. Congrès de Panama, par M. DE PRADT, Ancien Archevèque de Malines. Paris. Bèchet Ainé. 1825.

ALTHOUGH a considerable length of time has elapsed, since

it was announced that the Spanish American states had agreed to depute representatives to a general congress, yet we believe that the idea of holding such an assembly is by no means abandoned. On the contrary, the most recent intelligence from those States mentions the appointment of some of the plenipotentiaries who are to attend at Panama, and there seems no reason to doubt that the congress will be constituted and conducted in such a manner, as that it will command universal attention and respect.

With the exception of the Achæan league, and the general legislature of the North American states, history furnishes no example of the union of a number of republics for the purpose of providing for their common safety. The accession of strength and of moral influence which such an assembly is calculated to confer on Mexico, Guatemala, Columbia, Buenos Ayres, Chili, and Peru, will probably induce them to consider, whether they cannot meet periodically, and form a closer connection than that which at present subsists between them. The states of the Rio de la Plata will no doubt also be represented at the Congress, but it seems as yet uncertain APP. REV. VOL. CVIII. whether

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whether the empire of Brazil will claim a voice in its deliberations, or, if it will, whether it shall be admitted. This question is one of no slight importance to the Emperor, as well as to the republics surrounding him, and the arrangement of it will afford some indication of the fate which awaits the only throne in the New World. It certainly seems to be the fashion at Rio Janeiro to throw ridicule upon the approaching Congress, but that court will probably discover that it would derive infinitely more advantage from joining the Spanish American league, than it can ever hope for from the Holy Alliance.

The results of the latter combination have already shewn themselves in Spain, by stripping her one by one of her most valuable colonies, by affrighting foreign merchants of every country from her shores, by rendering her best and her ablest citizens, exiles and mendicants, and by reducing the King himself and his government to a condition of impotence and poverty, such as never before disgraced a sovereign actually sitting on the throne of his kingdom. Ferdinand VII. is nothing more at this moment than a mere theatrical king, dressed up in tinsel, with a pasteboard crown, and a gilt sceptre, fretting his hour away in empty pageantry, conscious the while, if he have any manly faculty about him, of the real wretchedness which lives beneath his tawdry robes. And for this he may thank the Holy Alliance. For if that supreme police of Europe had not sent its legions to his succour, he would have been compelled, in spite of his personal imbecility, to yield to the influence of liberal principles, and to have fixed the true foundation of a Prince's happiness in the prosperity and the affections of his people.

France would in time have reduced herself to a situation similar to that of Spain, if the pervading principles of the charter, an active and in some measure a free press, the existence of her chambers, and the extent of her commercial connections, had not obliged her by the mere force of circumstances to disencumber at least her own national career, as much as possible, from the incubus of the Holy Alliance. Her recognition of Hayti is likely to be followed up by a similar policy towards the Spanish American states, and as such a proceeding on her part would be an open infraction of the anti-democratic league which she has so long observed, she must cease to be a member of it, and so far she must essentially contribute to its dissolution.

Widely different indeed from the principles which prevailed at Vienna, are those which have summoned the Congress that is to be held at Panama. To indicate the probable

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labours of that assembly, to mark its importance, and to speculate on the consequences which its decrees are likely to produce not only in Spanish America but in Europe, are the principal objects which M. DE PRADT has proposed to himself in the publication whose title stands at the head of this article. The Abbè has signalized himself by his activity in tracing to their remote contingencies, some of the greatest events which have happened within the last twenty-five years. In his efforts to outrun the sober reflections of practical men he has exposed himself occasionally to the most blighting of all imputations, that of empiricism; he has often shewn himself a theoretical and sometimes a most eccentric politician; but it would be doing him great injustice not to acknowledge, that he now and then evinces a portion of sagacity, which, though it is not sufficiently predominant to stanıp his writings. with a character of authority, is nevertheless sufficient to compensate for their mistakes, and to render even his boldest speculations worthy of our attention. His exordium is characteristic.

A Congress in America! A Congress of the people! Every dog has his day! A Congress for the purpose of putting an end to the war carried on by Europe against America, and to establish the relations of one part of the globe with the other portions of it! Heavens! what an age is this we live in! Productive as it is of so much novelty and grandeur, what is to become of the history of the future, what even of that of the olden time? What epoch of the world has ever witnessed an assembly gathered from the bosom of so vast a territory, and destined to decide on such momentous interests?'

The Abbè exclaims, in a transport of enthusiasm, that if age had not chained him to his native soil, he would forthwith proceed to the seat of the Congress; and after giving vent to his feelings through a page or two of high-flown metaphor, he states the subjects upon which that assembly is to deliberate, and which, according to the official announcement of the Columbian minister for foreign affairs, are to be as follows:

1. To form or to renew, in the most solemn manner, a perpetual league between all the new states of America against Spain. 2. To publish a manifesto, setting forth the justice of their cause, and the system of their policy towards the other powers of the Christian world..

3. To agree upon a treaty of navigation and commerce between themselves as allies and confederates.

4. To decide whether they should form a coalition for the purpose of delivering the islands of Cuba and Porto-Rico from the yoke of Spain, and if so, what contingent of men and money each should furnish.