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"Jack stuffed or forced.

"The fish is not cut open but cleaned through the gills, wash it well with salt and water and wash off all the slime, then make your stuffing of anchovies, eschalots, butter, crumb of bread, three eggs, some alspice, lemon-juice, a little lemon-peel and some sweet herbs, with a little pepper and salt; mix it well together, stuff your fish as full as you can then rub your baking dish with butter, or lay rashers of bacon with sliced onions in the bottom, place the fish in and baste frequently with finely chopped anchovies and butter; let it well bake, and when done remove the fish, then take the baking dish and brown a little flour in it, add some bouillon and estragan vinegar, and pass it through a tamis, then pour this sauce over the fish and serve it up.

"Jack-Cotelettes.

"Scale and skin your fish, chop up the flesh very fine with some eschalots, take crumb of bread steeped in milk and squeezed out, stir up some butter, six eggs, and beat the whole together in a mortar with half a lb. of fresh butter, some finely cut lemon-peel and alspice, put it on a dish and form your cotelettes, then baste with egg and bread-crumbs and fry them to a nice brown.

"Tench and carp are good this way, and jack-dumplings can be made as above and served up with good bouillon.

"Jack boiled, with Sauce à l'Hollandoise.

"Boil the fish, then take four yolks of eggs, some butter, flour, vinegar, green onions, parsley and alspice, stir this in some bouillon over the fire, and serve it over the fish. In boiling the fish you must use salt, whole pepper, a sliced onion or two and a few bay-leaves.

"Jack, salted, with Mustard Sauce.

"Salt your fish for twenty-four hours and boil it twenty minutes; fry for sauce some flour until brown, add a quantity of sliced onions, and when done pour some good bouillon to it, then add the mustard and let it boil, then serve it over your fish.

"Jack à la Braise.

"Choose for this a large fish, clean and scale it well; cut bacon, lemonpeel and anchovies into fillets, spit the jack well with them on both sides, then let it lie for some hours in spiced vinegar, onions cut small and a few bay-leaves, with some salt; turn it frequently, so that the fish be well soaked; then take your baking dish, in which lay thin slices of bacon, place the jack upon them, pour in the liquor and cover it with thin layers of bacon, then let it bake in a quick oven to a nice brown, whilst baking let it be frequently basted; when done place it in your dish and serve up for sauce brown coulis or stock gravy, a few tablespoonfuls of the liquor flavoured with anchovies and lemon-juice. If you wish for a richer dish, make the following cream; take veal, ham, a carrot, parsley-root, turnip,

an onion or two, spice, and a few spoonfuls of rather fat bouillon; place all together in a stew-pan on the fire, and when it becomes brown at the bottom of the pan, add a few spoonfuls of good gravy, and dissolve the brown at the bottom, mix a handful of flour to it and add some cream, then boil it to a rich gravy; pass the whole through a tamis, and beat up with it six yolks of eggs, then add some anchovy, butter, lemon-peel and parsley cut fine, squeeze the juice of a lemon in it, and let it boil up; when the jack is nearly done pour this cream over it, and bake it to a nice brown, then serve it up with the before-named sauce."

ART. XII.-The History of the Western Empire; from its Restoration by Charlemagne to the Accession of Charles V. By Sir ROBERT COMYN. 2 vols. Allen & Co.

INDUSTRY, enlargement of views, correct and very often vivid colouring,-condensation, grasp, and a statesmanlike eloquence are features in the execution of these volumes. The Chief Justice of Madras has happily chosen a grand but definite section of human history, and which may be conveniently made the subject of a distinct work; being susceptible of separation and particular illustration. It is in a striking degree defined, having its own characteristics, which, although numerous, belong to intelligible yet strange and mighty developments; so that he who, like Sir Robert Comyn, seizes upon these lineaments, and keeps their birth, growth, and matured results constantly before his eyes, can hardly fail to produce a compact and deeply instructive book, provided he has the patience, the zeal, and the knowledge of our learned author. Were we merely to name and enumerate the multitude of authorities he has consulted throughout, not a few being cited at every page, it would be felt that his reading and research have been vast; and when we add that his analyzing and weighing powers are such as might be expected to be improved to a high perfection by professional habits, our readers may believe that an elaborate and luminous work has been the product; that a sterling history has been contributed to our already splendid library of books in that noble department of English literature. It seems to have been a work of love as well as of labour.

The grand period which elapsed between the era of Charlemagne and that of Charles the Fifth, as regards features and developments, is not only one of mighty dramatic interest, so to speak, and presenting the unities of a wondrous design, but it offers to our contemplation the origin and the elements of the present advanced state of civilization to be witnessed in Europe. The middle ages are therefore rife with instruction to us, and full of the materials which every student of human progress should trace and candidly estimate. Let his eye not rest chiefly upon wars and intrigues,

but on the things of which these were the signs and effects. And to the reader who looks for such richer entertainment and for standard benefit a better guide cannot be named than Sir Robert.

Let us see what are our author's views of the period which his book embraces, especially its latter wonders, as given in a concluding summary.

The period to which the events relate that are included in the work extended over more than seven centuries, these events having occurred chiefly, of course, in Germany and Italy, although they affected the whole of Europe; a cloud of darkness having for the greater portion of the time overshadowed this quarter of the globe. But even before the era to which Sir Robert Comyn brings down his history, "the dense night had been gradually dispelled, and the rays of returning light were pouring forth with astonishing splendour. The slow advance of learning had become suddenly stimulated by the invention of printing in the middle of the fifteenth century. The arts, which had been painfully struggling with all the discouragement of a dark and uncivilized age, were gladdened by the voice of patronage. In Italy, painting had already attained a pitch of excellence never since surpassed; and the proudest of her architectural monuments were soon to be eclipsed by the stupendous fabric of St. Peter's. But not to Italy was the burst of light confined. Nature seemed prodigal in the production of genius in every nation. England and Spain were ready to produce their imperishable glories of literature; and the sixteenth century could boast of Ariosto and Tasso, of Shakspere and Spenser, of Cervantes and Lope. Science was at the same time destined to unlock her treasures to the world, which had been closed to the penetrating eyes of ancient Greece. By the aid of Copernicus, Tycho, Galileo, and Kepler, the wonders of the starry firmament were displayed in their true beauty; and before the close of the century Bacon had given earnest of his transcendant mind. And now the period had arrived when the annals of the Western Empire were to become, in great measure, the history of Europe. Instead of contracting their energies within their natural limits, or being content with harassing their immediate neighbours, the states began to mingle in a general struggle. A new system of policy sprang forth; and the views of the statesman were turned to that balance of power by which the European nations reciprocally sought to restrain the encroachments of one another. The ancient mode of warfare had grown obsolete by the invention of gunpowder; and entirely new principles were introduced in the science of defence and destruction. Upon a field so boundless, I have neither power nor inclination to enter; and having led the reader through the gloom of the dark ages, I cheerfully resign him to those shining lights which have illuminated the annals of the empire."

But let us just take a hasty glimpse of some of the great landmarks and phenomena of the period comprised by the Chief Justice's volumes and design; casting our eyes back to the commencement of the eighth century, and alighting at certain points.

Charlemagne was raised up at a critical point of time, when "idolatry and superstition usurped the place of religion; when the sciences of government and legislation were a mystery; when lite rature and art were neglected and unknown." Even this renowned emperor was himself unable to write; but yet he "soared above the cloud which covered the face of Europe, and became himself the luminary from which others derived their light." Nor was it to his bold and successful aggressions, to his bloody and unprovoked conquests, that he is chiefly entitled to his great name, although these more vulgar and barbarous deeds at first in all probability earned the distinction; for he made, with a sagacious foresight and arduous exertions, efforts in favour of civilization, and selected a firm rule, his councillors and agents being the most enlightened and capable.

At the time when he arose a less vigorous and more scrupulous innovator and invader would probably have been unable to compete with and surpass the Greeks and the followers of the Prophet in respect of political and territorial sway; while neither of the eastern nations appears to have been capable of originating new institutions and laying the foundations of mighty and lasting structures, which were in a manner to consolidate Europe, and prove the strongholds of civilization. But the prince who received the surname of "The Great," had a grand vocation to fulfil, and he seems to have understood the call at the time he was achieving it. He was happily backed by the Church of Rome, in that she, for example, proclaimed him Emperor of the West, the papal power not being in a condition then to lord it independently over the continent; although the time was coming when in consequence of feeble successors, dismemberment of the empire, the maturing of feudalism, and the encroachments of the church, the imperial yoke was to be broken, and Europe was to undergo new transformations, and be prepared for future processes, that would tend at length to purify and ripen the rough elements for the bursting forth of all that was most glorious in the fifteenth and succeeding centuries. "The supreme_government was gradually transferred from the Emperor to the Diets, in which the States ecclesiastical and temporal deliberated upon public measures. To the first class belonged the archbishops, bishops, and abbots; to the second, the dukes, princes, counts, and superior nobles; who together formed the great Germanic body. The inferior nobles and independent gentry appear, however, to have taken part in extraordinary deliberations, and in the election of the sovereign of the kingdom." Thus imperial thraldom was curbed

and modified by feudal power, as well as by that of the church. Those who peruse Sir Robert's volumes will distinctly learn how another element began to show itself in European development, viz., that of municipal independence and consideration; although after many struggles and direful lessons occasioned not only by the jealousy of city towards city, but of the civil dissensions of each within itself.

This is our author's sketch of the Italian municipalities in the thirteenth century,-"The most uncompromising selfishness predominated in every bosom; the strong hastened to overwhelm the weak; the weak, instead of combining for their mutual protection, fell recklessly upon one another. The wild and deafening cry of 'Liberty!' was the signal for revolt and bloodshed,-of revolt from one tyrant to become the prey of another; of bloodshed, which stained the honour of the noble, or ministered to the ferocity of the vulgar. Yet the grinding despotism of Venice, the revolutionary turbulence of Genoa, the ceaseless love of change and eager adoption of quarrel in Florence, have been strangely mistaken for freedom; and these far-famed republics have been continually held up as models for the imitation of posterity."

But although Sir Robert discovers nothing but a turbulent sea in the history of the Italian republics, nothing to gladden, and everything to avoid; yet good appears to have arisen out of all this complication of tumult and revolution. While freedom was driven to seek an asylum eleswhere and in a soil that would bear better fruit, as in Switzerland, where Austrian despotism was so nobly withstood and signally chastised; society and the future were also put in possession of tests which every one might apply and adhere to as councillors, when reconstruction was to attend religion as well as politics. Accordingly all the rough elements of the middle ages, which while unadjusted were constantly coming into violent collision, yet either were by such friction brought to harmony and suitably subordinated, or the concussions and contests educed such lights as were for the instruction of posterity, furnishing rich gifts.

It took a long season, there were many advances, windings, and retrogressions, however, as well as many premature innovations and rash experiments, before the social elements were matured which had their origin under the genius of the Western Empire and of the Romish church; and which had by the influences of these powers been fostered and modified. The arrogance and ambition of particular sovereigns-the wars and invasions of nations, frequently interposed to retard the ripening process. Even apparent strides of reform, or the promised rays of a new day, were sometimes turned back into deeper darkness and more vexatious uncertainty than before. Such may be said to have been the character and fate of the excitement which was witnessed at the close

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