ts of compulsion, to write of it at present! The
rather as the History of it, any History we have, is not an intelligible
series of events, but a series of vociferous execrations, filling all
Nature, with nothing left to the reader but darkness, and such remedies
against despair as he himself can summon or contrive.

"Rulhiere's on that subject," says a Note which I may cite, "is the
only articulate-speaking Book to which mankind as yet can apply; [Cl.
Rulhiere, _Histoire de l'Anarchie de Pologne_ (Paris, 1807), 4 vols.
12mo.] and they will by no means find that a sufficient one. Rulhiere's
Book has its considerable merits; but it absolutely wants those of a
History; and can be recognized by no mind as an intelligible cosmic
Portraiture of that chaotic Mass of Occurrences: chronology, topography,
precision of detail by time and place; scene, and actors on scene,
remain unintelligible. Rulhiere himself knew Poland, at least had looked
on it from Warsaw outwards, year after year, and knew of it what an
inquiring Secretary of Legation could pick up on those terms, which
perhaps, after all, is not very much. His Narrative is drowned in
beautiful seas of description and reflection; has neither dates nor
references; and advances at an intolerable rate of slowness; in fact,
rather turns on its axis than advances; produces on you the effect of a
melodious Sonata, not of a lucid and comfortably instructive History.

"I forget for how long Rulhiere had been in Poland, as Ambassador's
Assistant: but the Country, the King and leading Personages were
personally known to him, more or less; Events with all details of them
were known: 'Why not write a History of the Anarchy and Wreck they fell
into?' said the Official people to him, on his return home: 'For behoof
of the Dauphin [who is to be Louis XVI. shortly]; may not he perhaps
draw profit from it? At the top of the Universe, experience is sometimes
wanted. Here are the Archives, here is Salary, here are what appliances
you like to name: Write!' It is well known he was appointed, on a
Pension of 250 pounds a year, with access to all archives, documents and
appliances in possession of the French Government, and express charge to
delineate this subject for benefit of the Dauphin's young mind. Nor can
I wonder, considering everything, that the process on Rulhiere's part,
being so full of difficulties, was extremely deliberate; that this Book
did not grow so steadily or fast as the Dau