IK

tiality is perhaps tlie worse fault ol" the two, — for in liis excessive admiration lie harnis his hero, by overcolouring. He gives us a noble figure of tbe king truly, but it is ail sunshine, and without tlie shading tliat nature demands. If be bad bad tbe courage to tbrow in tbe dark shadows, tbe picture would bave been less dazzling perbaps, but more true, and be would easily bave won our bornage for tbe man, wbere we refuse to worsbip tbe demi-god. Unfortunately too for Prussia's great bero, the old saying tbat one extrême often induces anotber, bas in bis case been verified ; and we find a not less celebrated bistorian tban bis panegyrist, drawing bis portrait also, but witb tbis différence, tbat he is almost careless of tbe bgbts ; wbereas tbe shadows he paints in witb unsparing band. Wben wise men differ, wbo sball agrée ? But the conclusion is inévitable, tbat tbough Carlyle is excellent company, and we do not easily tire of Macaulay, it is somewhere between the two tbat we sball find, wbat after ail we are looking for — the real King Frederick WiUiam.

Macaulay also is not free from tbis hero-worship, and in his bistory of William of Orange, his anxiety is too apparent to make facts which are bistory, subservient to the object of bis dévotion, instead of belping us to see how far tbe king himself is responsible for tbe existence oi those iacts ; and his attempt to excuse or défend the massacre of Glencoe must rest a blot on his writings, as it ever will on the reign of William the Tbird. But the fault of personality, he does not carry to excess ; and tbough we do not lose sigbt of bim in his works,

\ve are only conscious of his présence by the insensible charni wliich it throws over every page ; it is an animatino- présence, not an intrusive one, enlivening the storv, but never coming forward to divert to itself the attention it is seeking to win for others : and though many and skilful pens havealready endeavoured, and no doubt will again seek, to trace this portion of the history of a great people, we might venture to predict that the celebrated New Zealander will not find a pleasanter guide than his prophet, when he shall corne as long foretold — to weep over the ruins of the modem Babylon.