40 REVIEW.Nicolas's History of the Battle of Agincourt. [July, A worked by Napoleon was the Police, carried to a system of perfection scarcely credible, and supported by the iniqui tous system of licensing brothels, gambling-houses, and other places of profligacy; and even these dens of infamy by the agency of Fouche wer made instruments of espionage. But our readers will not expect from us minuteness of detail; our notice of this clever and interesting work is now brought up to the close of the Fourth Volume, and the treaty of Amiens. Wen must now pause for breath in humble imitation of Napoleon. We have yet a vast field of enterprise and ambition before us, in which much was done and suffered. We shall give an analysis of the remaining volumes in our next; and, if our limits permit, we will offer a few general observations on the style and character of the work itself. 2. (To be continued.) The History of the Battle of Agincourt; and of the Expedition of Henry the Fifth into France to which is added the Roll of the Men at Arms in the English Army. By Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Esq. Barrister at Law, F.S. A., &c. 12mo. OPTATISSIMUM est vincere ; se cundum, nullum casum pro dignitate et libertate patriæ non ferendum putare (Cic. Philipp. xiii.). Both these principles unquestionably actuated Henry in his military conduct, and especially in the grand instance before us. He found, upon the decease of his father, that if he did not excite war abroad, he would experience it at home in the form of insurrection, because he held the crown by Usurpation. Of the two evils he therefore chose the least; and being determined to provoke France to resistance, he required, "That the provinces of Normandy, Maine, and Anjou, the territories which formerly composed the duchy of Acquitaine, and one half of Provence, should be ceded to England; that the arrears of the ransom of King John, who was taken at the battle of Poictiers, amounting to twelve hundred crowns, should be faithfully discharged; and that Charles should give him his daughter Katherine in marriage, with a portion of two millions of crowns.' Pp. ii-iii. ,, continuing hypocritical negociations, in order to gain time for better prepa- › rations. On Sunday, 11th Aug. 1415, he set sail; and soon afterwards commenced the siege of Harfleur. The resistance which he there found convinced him, that his invasion was both rash and hazardous. Sickness next thinned his ranks to a handful of men. This very circumstance proved, however, a most fortunate event; for it produced contempt in the minds of the French, who therefore neglecting all caution, were lured into a bad position, where their numbers could not avail them. By Henry's judicious tactics, their battalions were huddled together in a mob, like a flock of sheep; and being unable to destroy, or even use their swords with effect, (see p. ccxxiv), were easily butchered by chopping only, or trodden down by their own retreating troops. Of this excellent generalship of our victorious monarch, it is needless to say more, than that Buonaparte threw himself into a similar position at the Battle of Marengo, and thus held the Austrians at bay till Dessaix arrived and routed them. Mr. Nicolas has collected all the accounts of the battle, given by contemporaries, by way of notes, to the text of an anonymous MS. historian, whose work Mr. N. literally translates. This historian gives some very curious facts. The King was determined to cut his way. through the enemy, or in other words, to break the centre, and he had placed his army in a field enclosed within hedges and brakes, and with coppices or hedges on the sides to protect them from being surrounded by the enemy's ambuscades. (P. ccv). The historian then says, "And now coming within reach of the along the flanks began to attack our archers the horsemen of the French posted enemy, of God they were quickly compelled, amidst on both sides of the army. But by the will showers of darts, to retreat, and to fly to the hindermost ranks, with the exception of a very few, who ran between the archers and the woods, yet not without slaughter and wounds; yea with the exception also of a great many, both horses and horsemen, who were arrested in their flight, by the fires, stakes (chevaux de frise), and sharp arrows, so that they could not escape far. But the enemy's cross-bow-men, who were behind the rear of the armed men, and on the flanks, after the first but too hasty dis charge, in which they hurt very few, re- the flower of their army into action, treated, from the fear of our bows." a This was the issue of the first onset, and Elmham gives the following picturesque account of the success of the archers. "The warlike bands of archers, with their strong and numerous volleys, covered the air with clouds, shedding, as a cloud laden with shower, an intolerable, multitude of piercing arrows, and inflicting wounds on the horses, either threw the French horsemen, who were arrayed to charge them, to the ground, or forced them to retreat; and so their dreadful and formidable purpose was defeated." P. ccix. The movement of the French cavalry upon the archers having been thus defeated, the next thing was the conflict between the men at arms; and here again the archers turned the battle in our favour by a flank attack upon the enemy. The infantry of the latter was, it seems, in the rear of their horse, thus leaving the archers almost free from any sort of injury, because provision had been made against charges by the cavalry, by means of hedges, woods, brakes, chevaux de frise, fires, &c. Our anonymous historian thus describes the second attack: "And when the armed men on both sides had nearly approached to one another, the flanks of both armies (viz. ours and the adversaries) immerged into the woods at each side. But when the French pobility, who at first approached in full front, had nearly joined battle, either from fear of the arrows, which by their impetuosity pierced through the sides and beavers of their helmets, or that they might more speedily penetrate our ranks to the standards, then divided themselves into three troops, charging our battle in the three places where the standards were: and, intermingling their spears closely, they assaulted our men with so ferocious an impetuosity, that they compelled them to retreat almost at spear's length.. ...but our men, quickly regaining strength, and making a brave resistance, repulsed the enemy, until they recovered the lost ground. Then the battle raged very fiercely! and our archers pierced the flanks with their arrows, and continually renewed the conflict. And when the arrows were exhausted, seizing up axes, poles, swords, and sharp spears, which were lying about, they prostrated, dispersed, and stabbed the enemy. Here we shall pause à moment to express our astonishment at the bad generalship of the French, who sent unsecured from an attack in flank, which must at least throw them into confusion. To resume. "They (the French) were seized with fear and panic; there were some even of the more noble of them, as it was reported in the army, who on that day surrendered themselves more than ten times. But no one had leisure to make prisoners of them; but all, without distinction of persons, as they were cast down to the ground, were those who threw them down, or by others put to death without intermission, either by that followed after, Also, when some of them in the engagement had been killed, and fell in the front, so great was the undisciplined violence and pressure of the multitude behind, that the living fell over the dead, and others also falling on the living were slain; so that in three places, where the force and host of our standards were, so great grew the heat of the slain, and of those who were overthrown among them, that our people ascended the very heaps, which had increased higher than a man, and butchered the adversaries below with swords, axes, and other weapons. And when at length, in two or three hours, that front battle was perforated and broken up, and the rest were driven to flight, our men began to pull down the heaps, and to separate the living from the dead, proposing to keep the living as slaves, to be ransomed. But behold immediately there arose a clamour, that the hinder battle of the enemy's cavalry, in incomparable and fresh numbers, was repairing its ranks and array to come upon us, who were so few in numbers, and so wearied. And immediately the captives, without regard to persons, excepting the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, and certain other illustrious individuals, who were in the king's retinue, and a very few others, either of his own prisoners, or of others who were following him, fell by the sword, lest they should be ruin to us in the coming battle. But after a little while the adversaries ranks, having felt the sharpness of the arrows, as our king was approaching towards them, left us a field of blood, with with victuals, arrows, spears, and bows." waggons, and many other carriages filled 3 Here ends the MS. account, and we regret that we have not room to add the interesting notes. Mr. Nicolas has given us, from contemporary authorities, a regular journal also of the whole campaign, the pageants at the return of Henry, &c. &c., all matters of the highest historical value, often curious and always interesting. He concludes his collections with lists of the men at arms, by name, the gallant archers excepted. Some few 48 REVIEW-Gilchrist's Unitarianism Abandoned. gentlemen are, however, called archers (see p. 51), and these we suspect were mounted archers*. All the lists are, however, incomplete, for which we can give only two reasons, one, that it was not usual to mention by name those who were not gentlemen, as we have noticed in our Review of this Author's "Chronicle of London;" and the other, that the barons, baronets, &c. were incumbered with a monstrous quantity of baggage and a number of servants of different denominations." (See a curious article from MS. in Grose's Milit. Antiq. ii. 311). There are also misnomers (quite common things,) e. g. in p. 21 we have, in the retenu of S de Harington, John Folbroke, a lance, which should be John Fosbroke, whose sepulchral effigies is engraved in the Encyclopedia of Antiquities, plate ii. p. 783, -misnomers which ought to be recollected by antiquaries; for, in Edmondson's Heraldry we have Fosbroke, alias Folbroke; and in Mr. Caley's Roll we have his brother Nicholas Fossebroke, a lance, serving under Sir Gerard Ufflech. We have, too, p. 8, a John Cannidische, which we think to be John Cavendish; and in p. 24, a Mons Wauter Barkeley, a name which we have not seen in any pedigree of that family." Here, however, we must take our leave. We are sorry to see, that only 250 copies of this work have been printed; for we can confidently give our opinion that, as an historical curiosity, it confers much honour upon the taste of Mr. Nicolas, and that posterity will value it at an enormous price. Patriots will also highly estimate it; Henry was fully Napoleon's equal in military genius; for by one battle, with a handful of sick men, he placed himself on the French throne. He decoyed them into a position, where their numbers would not avail, invited their men at arms to attack his centre, between rows of archers and infantry on the flanks (which were inaccessible), and thus placed them between three fires (as modern language would say), instead of only one in front. French vanity is proverbial: they despised tactics at Agincourt, climate at Moscow, and P. 84. [July, English BRAVERY at Waterloo. They should have turned Henry's position; but they were fools-the fools of vanity, a very dangerous sort of fools, always running themselves and their friends into irrecoverable scrapes. Unitarianism abandoned; or Reasons as- THAT Unitarianism is in se a noand Deism is obvious; but that such table scheme to reconcile Christianity a scheme is impracticable, where a Saviour claims identity with the Almighty, is also obvious. He must therefore be degraded; but Scripture will not sanction such a degradation, and without it plain naked Deism must expose itself, and the scheme be come abortive. The only remedy, therefore, under the dilemma, is to pervert and misconstrue the text. Such a perversion and misconstruction must of course be sheer sophistry-in stronger words, vicious trifling with the most solemn of all subjects. In short, Unitarianism is only an air-pump for creating a vacuum in Christianity; and Mr. Gilchrist justly says, "A Christianity, which does not assign divine dignity to the person of Christ, and supreme importance to his office, is a mere shadow." P. 55. A shadow!-We would not say that it is not blasphemy. Mr. Gilchrist's pamphlet lets many cats out of the bag; it shows, that thousands are inimical to the Established Church and rational piety, merely because they have an insuperable propensity to dabble in divinity mysteries. Mr. Gilchrist, too, must have his own opinion of the Trinity. From p. 78 it appears, that he believes Christ to be properly God; but then it is only God dwelling" in the man Christ Jesus," a monstrous absurdity, for, of course, it puts an end to the functions of the Saviour upon his crucifixion. He is dead, and can be no longer God and man, for he has no longer physical existence, as man, and has become God only; of course is no longer, God dwelling in man. However, Mr. Gilchrist acts a conscientious honest part; and though we cannot recommend his logic or There were several in the battle. See divinity, he is far from deficient in sense and ability. 3. Hamper's Life, Diary, and Correspond ence of Sir William Dugdale. (Continued from part i. p. 515.) THE title of the Work is a short table of its contents, and we shall proceed in our notice according to that division. The LIFE is printed from the Author's own Manuscript, and is enriched with Notes by the Editor. Sir William was a Country Gentleman, an Antiquary, and a Herald, and was in all these characters pre-eminently respectable. He was exceedingly regular and correct in his private life, so that his affairs were always managed upon clock-work principles; but that he filled the office of "High. Constable for Hemlingford Hundred," to which he was appointed in 1628 by the folly of custom, in a manner fitted to give him high eclat at Bowstreet, we reasonably doubt. Indeed to put Sir William Dugdale into such an office was as silly as it would have been to have impressed him for a seaman. He was first intended for a Lawyer, but his inclination led him to Antiquities. Possessing besides a private fortune, he adapted his studies to that inclination, and was stimulated to Topography, by the perusal of Burton's Leicestershire and personal acquaintance with that author. Burton introduced him to Sir Symon Archer, who had made some Collections for Warwickshire, and to various families of note. Soon afterwards the Baronet took him to London. There he met with a man, who might be mythologically deemed to have had the labours of Hercules imposed upon him in the form of copying, scribere, semper scribere; we mean that extraordinary hero of perseverance who has ennobled drudgery, the indefatigable and most meritorious Dodsworth, who seems, like a child with a favourite toy, never to have gone to bed without a pen in his hand, that he might write in his sleep; and, notwithstanding such subjects for copying as old records, where no way is to be made currente calamo, this Cae sar of Scribes could boast of Veni, Vidi, Scripsi; for he thus describes bis tremendous conflict with the Nervii of the Tower Records. Writing to his worthy friend William Dugdale at Blythall" (no Mister or EsGENT. MAG. July, 1827. quire, as if he had been only writing to the head man-servant at Blythhall, instead of the gentleman proprietary,) he says, nesday 10 a clocke; being now come in so "I have newly received your l'res, Wedweary from the Tower, that I can do nothing. I am so very weary, having staid ther since 8 in the morning till nine this evening, and never stird out of the place to eat one bitt of bread, so that you must excuse me for all things till the nexte returne. And then I shall be short, for I am about the fines of Edw. III. which will be of great use, when I shall finish them: 20 yere being done. I have them all downeward, and all of Hen. III. and for Edw. 1. them." P. 236. and II., I will (God p'mitting) strive to do How Dodsworth's other engagements pressed him for time we cannot tell, but this we know, that the enormous mass of his collections, recommends his character to astonishment, not mere praise. He was pensioned by Fairfax on purpose to make collections, and with what measure "running over he honestly repaid this pecuniary support, the existing volumes demonstrate. Mr. Hamper, (and it is the only blemish which we can find in his work,) makes of him a mere machine, incapable of appear ing in print, a charge which we will not pass over without notice. Dods worth, then, we say, was not the rival of Sir William Dugdale, but he was plainly an exemplar, vice cotis. He was a man, whom Dugdale, most palpably did imitate. The Warwickshire, his chef-d'œuvre, is purely Dugdale's own; and a masterpiece it is. Mr. Dodsworth had, however, compiled materials both for a Monasticon and a Baronage; but, as our an cestors were not builders of castles in the air, but thought reasonably, because physically, Sir Henry Spelman very naturally concluded that Dodsworth was too old a man to see his object effected, and therefore recommended "Mr. Dugdale to joyne with Mr. Dodsworth in that com'endable work [the Mo nasticon], which by reason of his [Dugdale's] youth and forwardness to prosecute those studies, might in time be P. 10. brought to some perfection." A happy conjecture! We hear much of the folly of our ancestors. Their common sense was excellent. 60 REVIEW-Hamper's Life of Sir W. Dugdale. It is usual, in the world, for people to settle questions, where two persons are mixed up in them, at the cost of one or the other. So it has ensued in the case of Dodsworth and Dugdale; and both have been unjustly treated. Both were in fact enthusiasts in the same way; but that Dodsworth's industry and taste (in an antiquarian view, as to the sterling value of record, in such matters,) led the way to Sir William's improvements, and thus eventually to his fame, cannot be doubted. Dugdale is known to be the first author of a County History, founded upon record. Dodsworth says, "I borrowed Sir Symon Archer's booke of Staffordshire. It is pretty well done wth out help of Records, wch were not spoken in his tyme." P. 231. The last letter in the Correspondence, written by Dodsworth, is 10 May, 1651 (p. 255), and it appears that then he had made a faire p'gresse in the Wills, and was come to 3 Hen. VIII. p. 254."-Thus was he eternally travelling from office to office, scribere, semper scribere. Now from the co-parceny of Dodsworth and Dugdale in the Monasticon, the world has been either commending or depreciating the one at the expence of the other respectively, or mistaking the nature of the connection. Dodsworth was senior to Dugdale, and the latter very properly conceived, that literary obligation was only bringing more knowledge before the public, than could individually be obtained; and therefore that such obligation only told in justifiable favour of such obligée. Dugdale treated Dodsworth not as a superior, but as a tutor in his studies, and Dodsworth writes to Dugdale as a tutor does to a pupil. Nor was this all. He solicits Dodsworth's interest for obtaining for his daughter a situation in a lady's household, and Dodsworth exerts himself accordingly. Thus it is evident, that he (Dodsworth) had valuable connections. We shall not enter further into the subject of the intimacy between Dodsworth and Dugdale. We mean only to put the question upon its proper basis; viz. that Dodsworth was a tutor to Dugdale, and no more. But public considerations will not permit us to drop the subject here. [July We are sure that such a man as Dodsworth, with a sufficient number of clerks under him, would not have left a single record-office not thoroughly explored. For, let us make an estimate. No records can be more co pious than the Escheats. The first volume of the printed Calendar, embracing a period of eighty-five years (to begin from 26 Hen, III. to 20 Edw. II.) occupies 334 pages. Supposing one person to be capable of abstracting the amount of twelve pages in a week, or two in a day, (by no means hard work), he would fi nish the volume in about half a year; but ten would do it in less than three weeks. We know that the clerks in the Record-offices, though occasional dealers in false concords and bad syntax, will, nevertheless, read their old parchments with a fluency not to be commanded by the first Etonians unacquainted with the ancient pot-hooks. If then these ten clerks finished one volume in three weeks, they would furnish fifteen in a twelvemonth. Suppose each of them to have seventy pounds per annum for their labour, (a stipend which they would gladly accept) and a director in chief at 3001. per ann. the expence to the nation would be 10001. for fifteen volumes. Suppose that the Tower alone would take fifteen volumes (in 8vo.), the Rolls six, and so forth, de ceteris, sixty volumes would probably include the whole. The total expence would then amount to this, Abstracting for four years £. .-4,000 15,000 Total.........£.19,000 To come to round numbers, however, Dodsworth and Dugdale would have say 20,0001. Now we know, that had the business done for two thirds of the sum. dual process has a far superior liteThat the present grarary character and advantage we do pensive calendars in folio, as being not deny; all we object to is the exfar beyond the purses of reading men*; and when this business is undertaken at the public cost, and for public purposes, people should *Why not print fewer in folio; and then turn the types over for a larger num ber in octavo ? |