the demand, he discharged it; but, on communication of the imposition to his friend Lord Chesterfield and others, they induced the gentlemen of Kent to discountenance Jackson's hitherto flourishing, because favoured, house of resort, and this man, the dupe of his miscalculating cupidity, thus overreached his object. The amiable Ambassador vainly interceded in his favour; for the national honour was involved, and seemed to demand this manifestation of feeling. The functions and privileges of Ambassadors, in constituant association with the comprehensive Law of Nations, are discussed generally, and defined, by Grotius, Puffendorf, Dumont, and several others. Some particular treatises may also be cited, of which the best is that of Abraham de Wiquefort, "L'Ambassadeur et ses Fonctions." (1746, 2 vols., 4to.) The unfortunate Dolet (Stephen,) who, in 1546, was executed for reputed atheism-an act rather sanctioned than reproved by Calvin, Scaliger, and De BezeCalvin placing him on the same line as Servetus, (Bayle, article Dolet,) on his return from Venice, where he had been secretary to the envoy, (the Bishop of Limoges) printed, in 1541, at his own press in Lyons, a slender quarto volume, "De Officio Legati," &c. And Paschalius (Carlo Pasquali,) a born Italian, but naturalised Frenchman, published in 1598, at Rouen, where he was Advocate General of the Parliament, a little work, of which the best edition is that of the Elzevirs, (1645, 12mo.) intituled Legatus. It has no intrinsic merit; but the author, in 1589, was sent by Henry IV., on an embassy to Elizabeth, as stated by De Thou, to solicit pecuniary aid, which he obtained -forming, consequently, another interruption in the chain of Mr. Holmes's list of Ambassadors, thus to be filled up. He (Paschalius) was afterwards employed elsewhere, particularly with the Grisons, in 1604, as may be collected from Sully's Memoires, tome v., 338. These writers, Dolet, Paschalius, &c., as was the custom, or rule of the age, referred principally, to the ancients for facts and authorities, (Machiavelli is almost the sole exception,) and the sources were abundant in examples. The pages of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius, teem with prolix ambassadorial harangues-the exercise and produce of their own ingenuity, like Dr. Johnson's parliamentary discourses, when the doors were closed on reporters. Polybius, indeed, had performed the functions himself, as well as his father, Lycortas, and the "Excerpta Legationum" form part of his preserved labours. The Roman historians equally abound in relations and speeches of Ambassadors-Cineas from Pyrrhus, and Carneades from Athens, to the Senate-the elder Africanus to Syphax-Sylla to Bocchus-Titus Quintius to Greece, all comparatively brief, not forgetting that of Popilius to Antiochus, when placed in parallel with the elaborations of their Grecian predecessors. To what, sometimes tedious extent, Homer, with other Greek and Latin poets, indulged their loquacious propensities in this way, I need not indicate. The leading principle of our modern envoys and diplomatists, on the other hand, is the impressive lesson derived from Macchiavelli and Paolo Sarpi, " Volto sciolto, e pensieri stretti," which is equally one of the Spanish Jesuit, Gracian's precepts. "Oraculo Manual y arte de Prudencia sacada de los aforismos...... de L. Gracian." (Huesca, 1647, 4to.) It is also Lord Ches terfield's repeated recommendation to his son, and is, in fact, the old "Simulare et dissimulare." In Plato's Convivium (edit. L. J. Rückert, Lipsiæ, 1829.) Alcibiades, in speaking of his preceptor Socrates, describes him " Ειρωνευόμενος δε καὶ παίξων πάντα τε βιον προς τους ανθρώπους διατέλει." As disguising in playful form his real purpose; veiling his thoughts in smiles. This design of Mr. Holmes, I may repeat, was good, and his offering is acceptable; for history, like science, is most safely based on minute inquiry. It cannot, in fact, securely repose on other grounds; and, among the aids to the efficacy of its instructions, or development of its lessons, the views and characters of the main agents of the events unfolded in its pages, and constituting its attributions, may well appear entitled to distinct commemoration. "Les vrais Ambassadeurs, interprètes des lois, Voltaire, Tragédie de Brutus, Act v., sc. ii. A regular treatise on the subject would necessitate a recourse to Parisian channels of information, such as "La Chambre des Comptes," "Le Dépôt des Affaires Etrangères," and above all " Les Archives Nationales." These last are in the ancient Hôtel de Soubize, rue du Paradis, originally the residence of the Constable, Olivier de Clisson, under Charles V. in the fourteenth century, subsequently that of the House of Guise, and, in 1697, purchased by François de Rohan, Prince of Soubize-the produce of his wife's favours to Louis XIV. In 1806, Napoleon appropriated it to its present use. From these documents, it will appear that at least one female was invested with the dignity, and regularly appointed to the functions of Ambassadress the widow of the Maréchal de Guébriant, who in that quality accompanied Marie de Gonzague, the Queen of Ladislaus IV. to Poland, in 1645, and performed her imposed duties with perfect satisfaction to her own, as well as to the Polish court, where she received almost royal honours. The Polish Queen's ensuing fortunes were singular enough. I feel bound here to observe, that in my occasional, though rare, imputations of oversight, or inaccuracy, to Mr. Holmes, I am unfeignedly sensible that they may terminate in proofs of my own error. If so, I can aver that the fault is not carelessness of research, but the absence of accessible information. I am, moreover, quite aware how greatly the interest of this topic must be impaired by its foreign complexion, and how much more acceptable would be the details embraced in its compass, were they more directly British in character; but then, their national attraction could not fail to call forth numerous and abler expositors of the arising questions; nor should I, most probably, dare to enter the lists of competition, into which accidental circumstances may have emboldened me to venture, on the present occasion, with less diffidence. A dry succession of, mostly, unknown names, and connecting dates, and nothing more has been given by Mr. Holmes, appeared to me, at all events, to demand some relief or variety of illustrationwhether more or less in degree than I have attempted, it belongs not to me to determine. Your's, &c., J. R. THE BIBLE AND THE REFORMATION. AT the outset of our purpose, and before we proceed to demonstrate the fact, "that the popular reception of the Reformation did not and could not proceed from reading the Bible, or was its consequent inspiration,” we think it right to premise, that historical truth, not dogmatic, or sectarian controversy, is our object, and that, on no disputable point shall we adduce other than Protestant authority, as our main support. Our view of the subject may be confirmed by, while independent of, Catholic testimony, so as to establish it on the firmest grounds. In the second number of the Dublin Review, and fourth article, it was shown that various editions of the Scriptures had appeared in the respective tongues of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, previous to Luther's German version, which, by a singular ignorance or dissimulation of the fact, is usually viewed as the first vernacular translation of the Bible, and, as such, the parent and source of the Reformation. But in that article, not less than fifty distinct impressions, in the native dialects of Europe, are indicated; and though some rather represented |