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  BLACKWOOD'S

  Edinburgh

  MAGAZINE.

  VOL. LXVIII.

  JULY-DECEMBER, 1850.

  [Illustration]

  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH;

  AND

  37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

  1850.




BLACKWOOD'S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

  NO. CCCCXVII.       JULY, 1850.       VOL. LXVIII.




CONTENTS.


  THE HOUSE OF GUISE,                                          1

  MY PENINSULAR MEDAL. BY AN OLD PENINSULAR. CONCLUSION,      20

  CHATEAUBRIAND'S MEMOIRS,                                    33

  THE GREEN HAND--A "SHORT" YARN. PART XI.,                   48

  THE JEW BILL,                                               73

  THE PICTURES OF THE SEASON,                                 77

  THE YEAR OF SORROW.--IRELAND--1849,                         93

  LONDON AND EDINBURGH CHESS MATCH,                           97

  THE INDUSTRY OF THE PEOPLE,                                106


EDINBURGH:

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET; AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW,
LONDON.

_To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._

SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.




BLACKWOOD'S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

  NO. CCCCXVII.       JULY, 1850.       VOL. LXVIII.




THE HOUSE OF GUISE.[1]

  [1] _Histoire des Ducs de Guise._ Par RENE DE BOUILLE, ancien
  ministre plenipotentiaire. Volume the First. Paris: 1849.


Upon the page of history are inscribed the names of many great men,
uncrowned, but more illustrious than most kings, whose biography
essentially involves the records of their country and times. The
cases are very rare in which this occurs of an entire lineage;
when through several successive generations the same extraordinary
qualities are transmitted, and the hero or statesman who perished
yesterday, to-day and to-morrow seems to start again to life in the
persons of descendants who rival and even eclipse his fame. These
remarkable and most unfrequent instances are exemplified in the
house of Guise, those puissant nobles of Lorraine, immigrant into
and naturalised in France, who for eighty years led the armies and
directed the councils of their adopted country. Great warriors, bold
and profound politicians, unscrupulous and interested champions of
Rome, alternately defenders of and competitors for thrones, they
upheld their power and pretensions by the double lever of religious
enthusiasm, and of skilful appeals to the sympathy of the people.
Rich in glory, in wealth, in popularity, they were alternately
indispensable and formidable to their sovereigns, and were virtually
the last representatives of that energetic, able, and arrogant
aristocracy, whose services to the state were often limited by
the jealousy their power inspired, and whose patriotism was not
unfrequently tarnished by their factious temper and unbounded
ambition. From an early period of the sixteenth century, the
influence of Guise was felt in France, for the most part paramount
to that of royalty itself; until the might and glory of the house
sank and disappeared beneath the daggers of assassins, and before
the conquering sword of the Fourth Henry.

The history of France during the sixteenth century necessarily
comprises the public acts of the family of Guise, and the memoirs
of the time abound in personal details of the members of that
renowned house; but a work especially devoted to them was still
a desideratum, until the appearance of that which M. Rene de
Bouille has just produced. One of the chief difficulties of his
task must have been to avoid including the history of the century
in that of the extraordinary men so intimately connected with its
chief events. Whilst confining himself as much as possible to his
immediate subject, he has yet, as he himself says, found his horizon
of necessity extensive. And in order to assemble in one frame the
various members of that celebrated family, he has been compelled
to admit with them a host of other personages, who in their turn
have brought a retinue, and have insisted on