THE GLEANER'S PORTE-FOLIO.

chief cause of his overwhelming reverses. His rival waged war in the spirit of the best times; and to the confidence which his probity inspired, Wellington owed a large share of his success. Hannibal is accused of the grossest perfidy; and this vice was probably the cause of his having failed in an en. terprise, the boldest and most ably conducted that is recorded in history. If this opinion be correct, it offers a signal proof of the utility of good faith. For our own part, we have not the faintest doubt, that justice is absolutely necessary to permanent prosperity. The contrary quality may prosper for a time, but its final miscarriage is generally the more marked; and it consoles us amidst the many disorders and violences of the political world, to see that crime rarely escapes discomfiture and punishment. Hannibal possessed in an incomparable degree the qualities of a soldier and a statesman, and he nevertheless failed, through his bad faith and cruelty, in an enterprise planned and executed with consummate talents. Buonaparte has notoriously miscarried from the same vices of character; and with a genius for war and civil administration of the

highest order, he has seen his mighty scheme of glory and empire burst like a bubble.

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having committed great errors, had the reputation of having been beaten by fortune and not by his enemies. In the rapidity of their marches, the number of their pitched battles, the slaughter of their enemies, and their long tide of success, there is a strong resemblance between the French and Carthaginian Generals. At the same time, the fortunes of both were decided in one battle, and by Generals whom they never before encountered. To complete the similarity, they were both compelled to fly from the countries they had illustrated by their victories, and had nearly raised to undisputed empire. Hannibal, it is true, after the battle of Zama, filled the highest office in Carthage; and it was only the implacable hatred and jealousy of the Romans, which procured from his ungrateful and fickle country the order for his banishment. Buonaparte's flight was not so honourable; though the fears and hostilities of his opponents were equally manifest. Hannibal maintained his courage to the last; and his death was one of the vilest stains on the policy of the Romans, and the noblest homage they could have possibly paid to his extraordinary genius. Buonaparte has not, in our opinion, displayed an equal degree of magnanimity; and cannot, therefore, stand a comparison with Hannibal in his deportment in bad fortune.

The Carthaginian, in addition to his military and political talents, exercised an astonishing command over the minds of his followers. Never, perhaps, were such heterogeneous materials collected under the same standard; and to have kept them to gether, after they had been enriched by the plunder and corrupted by the luxuries of Italy, conveys a wonderful idea of the ascendency of his character. Buonaparte, in this respect, will stand a comparison with Hannibal. But he was much his inferior in fertility of resources. Whenever Hannibal committed an error, or sustained a check, with what rapidity he extricated himself from the one, and retrieved the other! Buonaparte, it is true, after his disastrous campaign in Russia, and the sigual defeat he sustained at Leipsic, collected, in each instance, an army with a degree of promptitude that had an appearance of the marvellous. And how near upon both occasions was he of wresting the victory from his opponents! But Hannibal, till his last defeat, never suffered himself to be reduced to such extremities. Yet Buonaparte, after

Scipio, like Wellington, appeared towards the close of the war, after all the other Generals, who had been opposed to their antagonists, had been defeated; and when very few hopes of safety seemed to remain to their countrymen. Both in their modes of warfare were accused of excessive temerity, and of endangering the existence of the state. Scipio was opposed by all the wisdom, reputation, and influence then in Rome; and having obtained the permission of the Roman people to raise an army, he was at the point of losing the command, the expedition was considered so rash. Even his success did not stifle animadversion; and the battle of Zama continued to be misrepresented by certain Romans, who were dazzled by the genius, and stunned by the victories of Hannibal. Yet never was an expedition planned with more consummate wisdom; for it offered the only means of withdrawing the Carthaginians from Italy. Had it failed, Rome would not have been in a worse condition; and it is even problematical whether it would have been in so bad a one; for Carthage would have hardly risked the invasion of Italy a second time. It was one of those enterprizes, which confound common calculations, and are alone justified by success. It was, in a word, one of the boldest, and yet one of the most prudent adventures, recorded in all history.

Wellington has this in common with Scipio, that his success astonished his countrymen, and far exceeded their hopes. When he carried the war into Spain, the Continent lay prostrate under the feet of Buonaparte. Hope was almost extinct, in every bosom. It was considered madness to oppose a torrent, which swept away every obstacle with incredible fury. Spain was dejected by her reverses, and showed several signs of lukewarmness in the cause. The rest of the Continent looked upon the

por; it broke the mighty charm of French invincibility and evidently prepared all those great results which have since changed the face of the political world.

This last battle has led to more important consequences, than any perhaps recorded in history; and it is a curious coincidence in the lives of these great Generals, that Waterloo is now, as Zama was during the lifetime of Scipio, a subject for detraction to those who were in the habit of predicting irretrievable defeat instead of victory. But these exhalations of ignorance and malice are only the forerunners of that bright historical day in which the achieve ments of Wellington will appear with unclouded lustre. Such a display of talents for war as Wellington has given, reflects a lasting honour upon his nation, and is one of the most signal favours which Providence can confer upon a country. It has a tutelary, instead of a destructive charac

contest as a wanton and useless prolonga-ter; and to the genius of Wellington may

be fairly ascribed the dignified repose, the profound security, the plans of retrenchment, and the hopes of reviving prosperity, which now so happily and unexpectedly distinguish our beloved country.

tion of hostilities. England herself maintained the contest from a point of honour more than from a hope of final success. She was partly influenced in her conduct at that memorable period by the magnanimity of her character, and partly by the policy, that it was better to fight the enemy at a distance from home, than to have her shores exposed to the constant menace of invasion. But she had no great confidence in the results. Her General, however, continued undisturbed in the prosecution of his mighty plan. He was rapid, or slow, bold or cautious, aggressive or defensive, as circumstances required; but when his opera- | conduct of that people, it can be accounted

tions appeared to have a doubtful character they were regulated with a view to the movements of the allies in Spain and Germany, in whose favour he wished to make a diversion. Upon these occasions he was obliged to risk much, and to swerve from the severer rules of the art. But whenever he acted independently of those motives, and solely in the prosecution of his own plan, his arrangements were uniformly made and executed with the skill of a consummate master of the art. He displayed, during that memorable period, a force of character, a constancy of purpose, and a variety of resources, which raise our wonder the more we contemplate them. His success roused the Continent from its stu

In one point, the parallel between Scipio and Wellington, it is to be hoped, will never bear the most distant affinity. The treatment of Scipio by his countrymen was an act of ingratitude, for which there could be no excuse, and for which no indulgence has been shown by after ages. It has been ever since mentioned with unqualified censure; and as it formed an exception in the

for only on the supposition, that Scipio was too great for his age, and that his character was too lofty for the standard of Roman feeling and judgment. It raises, however, the merit of the man, and proves, beyond the possibility of contradiction, that the defeat of such an antagonist as Hannibal, belongs to Scipio, without participation on the part of his country. There was a wonderful elevation, besides a number of distinctive features in the character of this Roman. He seemed to be fully conscious that his country owed more to him than he did to his country; and though his great mind was, no doubt, indignant at the triumphs of the Carthaginians, it ceased to feel the violent enmity of his countrymen,

HISTORY OF REGENCIES.

as soon as the cause of their fears were re

moved. His victories bore all the marks of this elevated feeling; and he is the only Roman who did not consider that success gave him a right to dictate cruel and insult ing terms of submission. In all his military achievements, clemency was a prominent feature; and it was incredibly heightened by the contrast presented in the conduct of all the other Roman Generals. His mode of waging hostilities was marked by the humanity by which modern warfare is distinguished; and his magnanimity, as compared with that of Cæsar, had this difference, that in him it was natural and

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ter, Wellington would not have have probably had an opportunity of developing the full resources of his genius, without an event which happened at an early period of his command in the Peninsula. It may be said, without incurring the suspicion of courtly panegyric, that the era of the Regency was necessary to the developement of his genius, and the full growth of his fame. It is more than doubtful whether the same favourable and fostering circumstances would have occurred at any previous period during this, or the last reign. Justice likewise requires, that grateful mention should be made of the share which the

uniform; on the part of the Dictator, arti-illustrious person, who is at the head of the ficial and capricious. army, has had in raising that imperishable

by British courage, patriotism, and genius, in our time.

Wellington has been more fortunate: his || fabric of glory which has been constructed exploits have had more discriminating judges and a more grateful public. His country has a right to share in the lustre of his successes, because she is sensible of their value. Merit cannot meet more impartial judges or more warm advocates than the British public. This circumstance is also the chief secret of their power, and the most solid pledge of its continuauce. Yet with this happy peculiarity in their charac

In these remarks, reference has only been made to Wellington as a General. The time is not come to do justice to him as a man; but he has displayed so much wisdom in all the relations of life, that it is probable his reputation, when history shall fix his character, will appear as excellent in a private, as in a public capacity.

HISTORY OF REGENCIES.

THE first Regency that we find after the Conquest, was in the year 1216.When King John died, he left the kingdom in a most critical situation; his eldest son and heir, Henry III. was only ten years of age; the army of the crown consisted of foreign mercenaries, who could not feel for the interest of England, and could not be much relied upon: the heir to the crown of France had been called into England by a great body of the English Barons, who adhered to him, and acknowledged him as their King.

In this extremity of affairs, the wise and gallant William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, not despairing of the common weal, undertook to support young Henry, to drivethe French out of England, and restore the monarchy to its former splendour.

With this view he convened the Lords who had followed the fortune of King John, and presenting young Henry to them, he said, behold your King. He then repre. No. 117. Vol. XVIII.

sented to them, "That though the conduct of the late King had given the confederated Barons a pretence for complaining, it was not reasonable to take the crown from a family which had worn it so long, much less to give it to a foreigner: that King John's faults being personal, it would be unjust to punish the Prince, his son, for them, whose tender age secured him from all imputations on that score. That the remedy made use of by the confederated Barons, was worse than the disease, since it tended to reduce the kingdom under a shameful servitude; and therefore in the present posture of affairs, nothing was able to deliver them from the impending yoke, but their firm union under a Prince, who was, beyond all doubt, the lawful heir to the crown."

This speech was received with general applause, and the Lords cried out, with one voice, We will have Henry for our King. The coronation ceremony was performed at

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Gloucester with little pomp, by the Bishops of Bath and Winchester, in the presence of an inconsiderable number of Lords, with Gallo, the Pope's Legate, who, by order of his master, espoused young Henry's cause; the Archbishop of Canterbury was then at Rome. King John's crown having been lost in the well-stream, the Lords were obliged to make use of a plain circle, or chaplet of gold, which served at this inauguration instead of a crown.

The ceremony being over, the assembly of the Lords, who at that time represented the whole nation, chose the Earl of Pem broke, guardian to the King, and Protector and Regent of the kingdom. These offices he held till the year 1219, when he died, to the great grief of the whole kingdom, which he had freed from slavery. His body lies buried in the Temple church, London, where his effigy, in a coat of mail, is still to be seen in the ground.

He was succeeded in the office of Regent by Peter des Roches or de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester. The appointment of the latter was by the authority of parliament.

Hubert de Burgo (the ancestor of the Burkes, Earls of Clanricarde, of Mayo, &c.) was, by the same authority, made Chief Justiciary of England, or, as it were, the Lord Lieutenant of the kingdom under the Regent. This Lord finding the Regent an obstacle in his way, got the Pope to issue a bull, declaring the King of full age, when in fact he had not completed hisseventeenth year. The King's majority would of course have put an end to the authority and office of the Regent, but the Barons declared they would pay no regard whatever to the bull, because it was directly contrary to the laws of the land, by which the King could not be considered as of age till he was twenty-one.

In 1226 a parliament was held, in which the King was, as it were, by a new law declared by the authority of that assembly to be of age, though he was only turned of twenty; and here, of course, ended the minority and Regency together.

The next Regency was in the beginning of the reign of Edward III. after the deposition of his father Edward II. The parliament, as soon as their commissioners returned from Kenelworth Castle with the resignation of Edward II., caused his son to be immediately proclaimed King, by the name

of Edward III.; and in compliance with the law, which required that a minor King should have guardians, and the state during the minority, Regents, made choice of twelve from among the Bishops, Earls, and Barons, of whom Heary Earl of Lancaster, a Prince of the blood, descended from Henry III. was declared the president. The Queen-mother, however, seized the government, and ruled the state by her minister and favourite Mortimer, until the King, at the age of eighteen, assumed the reigns of government, with the consent of a parliament, held at London; and reigned without a Regent.

When Richard II. succeeded at the age of eleven to his grandfather Edward III. the Duke of Lancaster, uncle to the young King, assumed the name and authority of Regent, till the parliament met. The first care of that body was to settle the administration of affairs during the King's minority. To that purpose they appointed several governors to the King, to take care of his education; and ordered that his three uncles, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Edmund de Langley, Earl of Cambridge, afterwards Duke of York, and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards Duke of Gloucester, should be Regents of the kingdom; but they joined with them some Bishops and lay-lords: this precaution was taken on account of the danger there might be in trusting the person and affairs of a minor King to the sole management of his nearest relations, who in the administration might have self-interested views. This was a great mortification to the three Princes.

The favourites of the young King soon succeeded in driving the Princes from the government of public affairs, but though they were able to make him change his council, they did not find it so easy a mátter to change his temper: full of his own merit, he beheld himself with extremeregret under the direction of others, at a time when he was of age to hold the reins of the government himself. Upon his having entered into his twenty-third year, he called his council, ordering all the members to be present.

When they were met, he asked them how old he was? to which answer was made, he was full twenty-two years of age,

govern: the parliament on this occasion appointed Richard Duke of York, to whom,

Since it is so," said he, " I will govern my kingdom myself. The condition of a King ought not to be worse than that of his sub-and to his posterity the crown was limited, jects, who are at liberty at that age to manage their affairs." Having thus made known his mind to them, he commanded the Chancellor to deliver to him the Great Seal (which that officer had received from the hands of the Regents), which he gave to the Bishop of Winchester, the famous William of Wickham, founder of Winchester School, and of New College, Oxford. Here ended of course the Regency.

Henry V. on his death-bed, named a Regent and a guardian for his infant son, Henry VI. then only nine months old; but the parliament altered this disposition, and appointed a protector and council, with a special limited authority.

to the exclusion of the Prince of Wales, only son to Henry VI. Regent and Protector of the kingdom, which he was to govern in the name of Henry, whilst that monarch's infirmity should continue. The Duke's office, however, was soon determined by the King's recovery; that Prince one day unexpectedly entered the Council Chamber, whilst the Protector and the Lords of the Council were sitting in consultation: he claimed the seat in which the Duke of York was then presiding; the Duke thus taken by surprise, was obliged to resign it; his power was immediately superseded, all his favourites were turned out of the offices he had conferred upon them as Protector, and none but the friends of Queen Margaret and of the house of Lancaster were brought into power.

The two worthy brothers of Henry V. the famous Duke of Bedford, and the good Humphry Duke of Gloucester, governed both France and England during the minority of their nephew: the former was Regent of France, where he gallantly maintained the interests of young Henry for many years: he caused his nephew to be crowned King of France, in the cathedral church of Paris, when that Prince was no more than twelve years of age. Soon after, the great Duke of Bedford died at Rouen, in Normandy, and lies buried in the cathe-that George Duke of Clarence, and the fa

dral church. Though his exploits had rendered his name famous through Europe, very little regard was paid to his memory by his relations: no monument was raised over his remains; a marble slab, with the following singular inscription: - Cy gist la Racine de Bedford, is all that shews where this great man lies.

The imbecility of the King's mind was not, however, entirely removed; it returned again; and when Edward IV. son to the Duke of York, was driven from the throne, and Henry, whom he had kept prisoner in the Tower, was restored to it, his Queen and his friends knowing that he was not capable of governing, it was proposed to the parliament that was immediately called,

mous Earl of Warwick, called the Kingmaker, should be made governors of the kingdom; and they were accordingly so appointed by the authority of parliament; they executed the office until they were stript of it by the revolution, which sent King Henry back to his prison in the Tower,

and restored Edward IV. to the throne. This Prince, when on his death-bed, recom

The fate of his brother, the good Duke Humphry, is so well celebrated by Shakes-mended to his brother Richard Duke of

peare, that it is not necessary to say any thing of it here.

Henry VI. like Richard II. remained in a state of pupillage till the age of nearly twenty-three.

When the King had reigned many years, he was attacked with an infirmity both of body and mind, which rendered him unfit to

Gloucester, the care of his son King Edward V. then only thirteen years of age: the Duke was, by the authority of the Privy Council, declared Protector of the King and kingdom during the minority, which title he retained till it merged into the greater one of King Richard III.

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