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is rendered highly probable when taken in connexion with the information which Mr. Baker received from the people residing on the shores of the Albert Nyanza, that the lake extends to the north-west for about forty miles, when it suddenly turns to the west, contracting gradually, and that its extent is unknown. That the Bahr el Ghazal may ultimately prove to be the true Nile is thus rendered extremely probable, nor does its mere-like character, so far as it has been explored, militate against such a supposition. The characteristic of the Nile below Khartúm, for a considerable part of its course, and for a large portion of the year, is that of a very sluggish stream with gigantic reeds springing out of the stagnant water on each side. In descending the stream from Gondokoro, on passing the Bahr el Ghazal, it is a custom, Captain Grant tells us, for all boats to fire a gun as a salute, possibly a traditionary honour paid to the great source of Egypt's fertility. The river, which flows from Gondokoro at its junction with the Bahr el Ghazal, is only eighty or a hundred yards across, while the Bahr el Ghazal is half a mile in width, and after the junction of the two streams Captain Grant admits that there is an evident increase in breadth and width, that the water thenceforward becomes purer, losing much of its turbid appearance, and that the current is considerably increased. The river which flows past Gondokoro, and which Captain Speke, in his map, traces from the Victoria Nyanza, is, Dr. Beke informs us, known there not as the Bahr el Abyad, or White Nile, but as the Bahr el Djebel, or mountain river.

Should it be eventually found that the Tanganyika is connected with the Albert Nyanza, and the latter by its westerly or any other effluent with the Bahr el Ghazal, it will necessarily follow that the Tanganyika, or rather the river Marunga, which enters that lake at its southern extremity, will form the true head water of the Nile, and the course of the mighty river will then be proved to extend through forty degrees of latitude, and the great lakes Tanganyika and Albert Nyanza, will be but the expansion of a majestic river the course of which from its fountain head to its embouchure, will exceed four thousand miles.

We have, in a former number of the Quarterly Review,' expressed our doubts whether the result of Captain Speke's travels could be accepted by geographers as a final solution of the great problem which has perplexed the scientific and the curious of all ages, and the important discovery by Mr. Baker of the

See p. 380 of Captain Grant's Walk across Africa,'-a remarkable record of courageous endurance and a most amusing picture of African manners and character.

great

great Albert Nyanza confirms us in that opinion; for the notion of Captain Speke that the little Luta Nzigè (Albert Victoria) was only a backwater of the Nile,' which the river must 'fill' before it could continue its course, has been proved to be completely erroneous. The Albert Nyanza is a lake of vast although unknown dimensions, but certainly inferior neither to the Victoria Nyanza nor the Tanganyika, receiving the drainage of extensive mountain ranges on the west, and of the Utumbi, Uganda, and Unyoro countries to the east. There is even considerable reason to doubt whether the river struck by Captain Speke at Madi is even the same which he left at the Karuma Falls, for no part of its subsequent course, although indicated upon a map for two hundred geographical miles, was ever seen by him; and Dr. Peney, one of the Austrian missionaries, who resided for nine years at Gondokoro, concluded from the results of long observation that the river which flows past that place contributes little or nothing to the flood of the Nile. The sum of Captain Speke's discoveries, therefore, now appears to consist in the fact that he discovered in his first exploratory journey the great lake Victoria Nyanza, and in his second a river issuing from it, which, after a not very lengthened course, has been ascertained to fall, in common, however, with several other rivers probably as large if not larger than itself, into another enormous lake, now denominated the Albert Nyanza; but of the effluent of this lake positively nothing is at present known, however great may be the probability that a connexion between the Nile of Egypt and the lake may be hereafter incontrovertibly proved.

We trust that in the above remarks we shall not be suspected of wishing to detract from the real merits of the gallant explorer, whose untimely death is so generally and justly deplored. Whatever may be the ultimate value assigned to the facts ascertained by him, there can be no difference of opinion either as to the intrepidity of his character or on the magnitude of the exploit of the march across the continent of Africa, which he and his companion Captain Grant accomplished in the face of so many dangers and at the cost of many sufferings and privations.

The complete solution of the great geographical problem may not be given to one explorer, nor perhaps will it be accomplished in one generation, but we certainly appear to be approaching nearer and nearer to its determination. If the lake Tanganyika should prove to be connected with the Albert Nyanza, and the Albert Nyanza by its westerly or other effluent with the great river of Egypt, to Dr. Livingstone may yet be awarded the honour of being the real discoverer of the source of the Nile,

the

the probable region of which he pointed out long before any of the expeditions from the eastern coast of Africa had been undertaken; and he may soon, by a careful survey of the Tanganyika and possibly also of the Albert Nyanza, be on the verge of a discovery which will far surpass in interest any that has hitherto been made within the basin of the Nile.

ART. II.-1. The Barons' War, including the Battles of Lewes and Evesham. By William Henry Blaauw, Esq., M.A. Svo. London and Lewes, 1844.

2. The Chronicle of William de Rishanger, of the Barons' Wars. The Miracles of Simon de Montfort. Edited for the Camden Society by James O. Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S. 4to. 1840. 3. Monumenta Franciscana. Edited under the direction of the Master of the Rolls by J. S. Brewer, M.A. 8vo. 1858. 4. Roberti Grosseteste Episcopi quondam Lincolniensis Epistolæ. Edited under the direction of the Master of the Rolls by Henry R. Luard, M.A. 8vo. 1861.

THE

a

THE list of works which stands at the head of this article betrays a deficiency in English literature. Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, the founder of the English House of Commons, has had no biographer. The vicissitudes of his fame have, by a rare chance, almost equalled those of an eventful life. Honoured by those who knew him as a statesman and a hero, by those who survived him as a saint and martyr, he gradually faded from recollection, until, with the revival of classical letters, he passed into the oblivion which covered all things mediæval. The first serious attempt to rescue from forgetfulness the stirring events with which his name is interwoven was made by Thomas Carte, Englishman, as he proudly writes himself on the title-page of his History of England.' Carte, who was really a considerable historian, formed every writer who followed him for more than half a century; and the verdict of the uncompromising Nonjuror, condemning Montfort as a base and ungrateful rebel, became the received judgment of history, and was accepted without question by men who, if left to themselves, would have come to a very different conclusion. Sir James Mackintosh was the first to perceive that as Montfort rebelled he was probably a good man: but never having studied the facts, he was fain to content himself with the expression of a general sympathy. Since his time a generation has arisen in which no road to fame has been found so easy as to write the panegyric of some man of mark

whom

whom the common consent of mankind had branded with perpetual infamy. We have found something to say for Nero, for King John, for Richard III., for Bishop Bonner, for Robespierre; Cromwell has become a saint, Henry VIII. a wise and good man, singularly unfortunate in domestic life; yet there has been no life of Montfort. Perhaps he has never been made sufficiently infamous: for certainly a man revered in his own day, and literally worshipped after his death, however adverse the judgment of later historians may have been, cannot be said to stand on the same pinnacle of infamy with Nero or King John.

Perhaps, too, an explanation may be found in the peculiar circumstances of his times. If printing had been invented in the days of Henry III., the richest materials for his history would have been found in a series of such memoirs as illustrate the court life of the ancien régime in France. A weak, goodnatured, false, and fickle king, who would trust no one but a Pope, and be permanently governed by no one but a legate or a woman, was the prey of continual intrigues, which we often see in their results, but of which the secret history has for the most part perished utterly, and could scarcely have been revealed but through the medium of that lighter historical literature-so charming to read, so painful to reflect upon-which grows selfsown in more modern days where cultivated feebleness is crowned. Whatever be the cause, the fact remains; we have no life of Montfort. The nearest approach to it is contained in a book the unequal merit of which we gratefully acknowledge, Mr. Blaauw's War of the Barons.'

Simon de Montfort was born in the first years of the thirteenth century, the fourth and youngest son of an illustrious stock. His father was the stern captain, adventurer, bigot, statesman, and sovereign by turns, on whom the Albigensian crusade has conferred so doubtful an immortality. His mother was a Montmorency; his father's mother Petronilla, was the sister and coheiress of Robert Beaumont, last Earl of Leicester of his line. In right of his English blood the elder Simon had inherited half the lands and borne the honours of an Earl of Leicester. A quarrel or a rebellion-the terms were synonymous-deprived him of both, and though in the last years of King John he was restored to his lands, it does not appear that he ever again bore rank as an English earl. The difficulties which his eldest son Amauri experienced in making good his claim to the succession are significant of a change which was passing over the face of Europe. The King of England would no longer accept a divided allegiance. It was open to Amauri to do homage for

the

the honour of Leicester, but he must first renounce the broader lands and more splendid rank which fell to him under the crown of France. To his father, but twenty years before, no such objection had been raised; but times were now changed; the consciousness of nationality had been aroused, and it behoved Amauri to choose between the two noble inheritances which had been united in his father's hands. After a long negociation he was permitted to surrender his English claims to his youngest brother Simon,* who on August 13, 1231, did homage for the inheritance of his grandmother,† and became from that day an Englishman.‡

Yet this tie, however he may have understood its obligations, did not prevent him from twice seeking a position by marriage among the great feudatories of France. Twice he found the greatest heiresses of the time not unwilling to unite themselves to a younger son, who to an illustrious and almost royal name united the far rarer attraction of a genius which made its possessor a favourite in every court, while his real intimacies were formed among the profoundest scholars of his day. Both times his matrimonial ambition was foiled by the jealousy of the French crown. A third effort was at length crowned by a great alliance, and Simon suddenly becomes prominent in English history as the husband of Eleanor, the widowed Countess of Pembroke, and the sister of King Henry III. The marriage was approved by Henry, by whose really refined taste the southern manners and high personal accomplishments of Montfort would be held at their full value. It was nevertheless clandestine, most probably at Eleanor's suggestion (as we may guess from what happened afterwards), who saw that her brother would be willing to evade the opposition which he would not have had the spirit to confront. On the 7th of January, 1238, accordingly, this memorable marriage took place at the altar of St. Stephen's chapel. The King himself gave away the bride, but a simple chaplain read the marriage office, and the privacy was complete. The storm which followed its disclosure certainly justified the precaution. That the hand of a daughter of England should be given away in secret and without the approval of the barons, was an outrage almost as great to the feeling of that day as if the Great Charter had been burnt

Guy, the second brother, had become Count de Bigorre in right of his wife; the third, Robert, was dead.

Royal Letters,' Henry III., vol. i. p. 401.

He had already attached himself to the service of the English king, and received from him in April, 1230, a pension of 400 marks. Royal Letters,' vol. i. p. 362.

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