secrets of the Spanish monarchy.* He confidently denies that Herrera can be justly accused of not having made a judicious and candid use of these precious materials, or that he was influenced by any unworthy prejudices against the character of Las Casas; since, according to the opinion of the times in which he lived, there was nothing criminal in the project of Las Cases, and neither Herrera nor Sepulveda could look forward so far beyond the feeble lights of their own age as to accuse Las Casas of inconsistency in wishing to preserve the Indian at the expense of the African race.t These reasons are certainly of sufficient force to compel the mind to pause before it yields to an impression, which, however benevolent and amiable in those by whom it is felt, and honorable to human nature itself, must be considered as of less importance than the permanent interests of historical truth. Though this momentary illusion may be dissipated, yet history does ample justice to the fame of Las Casas when it attributes the fatal error he committed to "the inconsistency natural to men who hurry with headlong impetuosity towards a favorite point." His heart was right; and we have seen too many philanthropic designs pursued with an equal disregard to the justice or expediency of the means by which they were to be accomplished.' Mr Wheaton has compressed into the last paragraph but one of the above extracts, the substance of a long note, in the third volume of Dean Funes' history, in which the latter attempts, with a good deal of animation, to refute the arguments of M. Lavessei, a traveller in South America, who, as it appears on the authority of bishop Grégoire, is also disposed to vindicate the character of Las Casas. The strength of the argument against Las Casas is of course the authority of Herrera, for, we believe, the subsequent writers add nothing to his testimony. Dean Funes and Mr Wheaton justly maintain the high general character of Herrera for authenticity, and the circumstance of his access to the royal archives of Simancas, an advantage enjoyed by no other historian, is fairly urged by Funes as adding great weight to his authority on any point, especially one of which the proofs can be supposed to have existed in those archives. We think also that caution should be had in following bishop Grégoire in his censure of this dis *Even Dr. Robertson, who received very liberal communications from other sources, was denied access to the Archivo of Simancas. See preface to the Hist. of America, vol. i.' Ensayo Historico, tom. in, p. 511. Note (a) tinguished historian. Not having the work of M. Grégoire at hand, we are unable to say what authority he produces for the assertion, that'some of the best Spanish writers on American history consider him as a careless and inaccurate historian.' With regard to the hostility against Las Casas, which is alleged to have actuated Herrera, and with which M. Lavessei charges him, in agreement with M. Grégoire, dean Funes denies that the decads of Herrera authorize the charge, or that there is any reason to suppose that Herrera would have considered a participation in the slave trade as a reproach. This remark also may be extended to Sepulveda, on whose silence M. Grégoire is the more disposed to rely, from his known hostility to Las Casas. We venture to add, that one reason why no document was produced by Herrera, whose practice by the way is not to multiply diplomatic proofs of his statements, in confirmation of his assertion with respect to Las Casas, and, in general, one reason why little or nothing appears to have been said upon the subject by contemporary writers, may be, that the traffic itself was by no means so novel, as is sometimes thought. It is certainly a gross error to speak of Las Casas as the deviser and inventor of the slave trade. For though its origin is not free from doubts, it is generally agreed that as early as 1442 the Portuguese accepted some negroes of the Moors, in ransom for Moorish captives. And so rapidly did the contagion spread, that in a few years thirty-seven ships had been fitted out in this gainful traffic. In 1502 the Spaniards began to employ negro slaves in the mines of Hispaniola ; and it was not till 1517, that Charles V, at the instance of Las Casas, as is alleged, granted his patent for the importation of four thousand slaves annually into Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico. Now it is clear, on the slightest reflection, that great importations must have been made and the trade well organized, both as respects the supply in Africa and the disposal of the slaves in the West Indies, before it could enter into the head of any one, to undertake such a large importation. We infer, from this consideration, that the public must have been already too familiar with this traffic, to make the participation of any individual in it a matter of wonder or reproach, and that it was owing merely to its historical connexion with the efforts of Las Casas for the relief of the Indians, that Herrera was led to mention this, as he would have done any other incident in his life, not as an accusation or a blot on his memo ry. This is c himself. We work, in whic translation, ha Spanish into s follows;- T that his views opinions he cl had attained a cellor, could dients, procur the Indies, in plantations an number of lab with certain him.** feelings here; islands is ment We s in the same se which closes w ry. This is confirmed by looking at the passage of Herrera himself. We believe it is not to be found in that judicious work, in which Capt. John Stevens, under the name of a translation, hath contrived to reduce four goodly folios of Spanish into six moderate sized octavos of English. It is as follows; The licentiate Bartholomew de Las Casas, seeing that his views met with difficulties on all sides, and that the opinions he cherished, notwithstanding the great familiarity he had attained and the credit he possessed with the high chancellor, could not take effect, turned his attention to other expedients, procuring a license to import negroes for the Spaniards in the Indies, in order that by them the labor of the Indians in the plantations and mines might be lightened, and that a good number of laborers should be engaged to go to the Indies, with certain privileges and on certain conditions fixed by him.'* We see nothing like an accusation made from hostile feelings here; on the contrary the procuring of slaves for the islands is mentioned by Herrera with as much sang froid and in the same sentence as the engaging laborers from Spain on a stipulated price. We have not, out of very many passages where this historian mentions Las Casas, fallen on one where he does it in an unfriendly manner. On the other hand, we have one beneath our eye at the moment where he calls him Autor de mucha fè.'t Upon the whole, we are disposed to suspend our opinion on the point: it may be that in these troublesome times the archives of Simancas will be disclosed, and new light shed upon these and many other interesting portions of history now in obscurity. We are obliged to pass over Mr Wheaton's learned remarks on the Consolato del Mare, which we are the rather excused for doing, as we have already, at page 16 of this number of our journal, made an extract from a note to Mr Cushing's translation of Pothier's Maritime Contracts, where the same subject is ably investigated. After an account of the agency of Albericus Gentilis in building up the science of public law, Mr Wheaton dwells with an admiration, in which we fully sympathize, on the character of Grotius. His eulogium, however, is too long to extract, and too good to abridge, and we beg leave to refer our readers to it, in the discourse itself; which closes with a strain of judicious observation on the Decad. ii. lib. iii. cap. i. * Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. 20. followers of Grotius, and the modern doctrines of maritime war. We hope Mr Wheaton will pardon us for the exception we feel obliged to take to the following passage, before closing this notice of his discourse. War cannot be entirely stripped of its concomitant evils without ceasing to be war, any more than punishment for crimes can be separated from pain, without ceasing to be punishment : and it is much to be feared from the past history of mankind, that war is an inevitable calamity, the recurrence of which at periodical, though uncertain intervals, no human foresight or exertions can prevent. War, with all its horrors, is the price which nations must occasionally pay for their freedom and independence -the only alternative opposed to degradation and ruin; but like other evils which beset the chequered life of man, it has its uses, and in the eternal order of things, seems as necessary to the moral, as are storms and tempests to the natural world. "The cloud capt tower, the gorgeous palace"-may be laid in ruins, the valley inundated, and the oak rent from his native hills; but elasticity and health have been restored to a stagnant and pestilential atmosphere, and renovated nature goes on rejoicing in her course. It is in war that the greatest faculties of man have been developed, and his noblest virtues invigorated.. It is war "that makes ambition virtue." The effeminate poet may prate of " Macedonia's madman," and the satirist of a degenerate age may jeer at the hero of Carthage, with his-I demens et curre per Alpes-but magnanimous enterprise, persevering valor, and noble achievement, have secured them a niche in the temple of fame; and the names of Alexander and of Hannibal continue, in spite of detraction, to command the admiration of mankind. If war in general be not unattended with good effects;-when waged in defence of freedom and independence, and in vindicating national rights from insult and rapacity-it is consecrated in the adoption; and prosecuted by a people true to themselves, will rarely fail of attaining its object. For thongh disasters may await, clouds and darkness overhang the prospect-its ultimate effect will be to revive those principles which cannot readily lose their force, to render man not only deserving, but capable of the enjoyment of those rights for which he has contended." 6 We are disposed fully to concur with Mr Wheaton in the first part of his proposition, that war is a calamity, the recurrence of which no human foresight can prevent,' but we are unable to assent to the succeeding course of remark. The comparison of the great vices and crimes in the moral world to the storms: to have no fart and perilous su which the fort ordinate detail knowledge, and In short, when to the storms and tempests of the natural-though much too familiar to be excepted to, as a rhetorical illustration-appears to have no farther justice. The examples which Mr Wheaton has selected of military glory are-one of them at least-not well chosen to conciliate the indulgence of the moralist. Alexander was certainly, of all the renowned characters which war has signalized, one who had least pretence to plead for the miseries which he caused mankind. He appears to have been led on purely by the drunken ambition of a head-strong youth, who finds himself in unrestrained possession of prodigious means, and whom fortune favors in his first wild projects, till he thinks the world is too narrow a theatre, and kingdoms too mean an object, and the race of mankind too small a band of victims. A little more may be said for Hannibal, and less sympathy is felt for his enemies, than for the unoffending nations which the Macedonian phalanx hunted out in the distant regions of Asia. But these reflections are too trite to pursue. We wished to observe that the popular opinion of military glory, and the homage paid to military success, appear to us unreasonable and extravagant, and such as the philosophical censor, whatever his moral feelings be, cannot accord with. To make a consummate captain no doubt requires a rare combination of talents. It requires one equally rare to make a consummate artist or adept in any mystery or profession. But to make a general equal to most on the lists of military fame is the work of ordinary political coincidences. How many leaders, each competent to the conduct of war, did not the French revolution call up; nor has there been a war in Europe since the modern political system was organized, which has not had its perfect hero. The Roman history till the decline of the empire is still more full of them; and not one of the little states of Greece obtained a transitory political ascendency, but she was sure to produce her Philopomen or her Epaminondas, and carry the arms of an insignificant town over all the country. We believe that as rare a gift of presence of mind, mixed with courage and deliberation, foresight for the future, and promptitude in the present moment, are required in a very difficult and perilous surgical operation, as in fighting a great battle, of which the fortune depends on a thousand chances and subordinate details, that occur and operate often without the knowledge, and generally without the control of the leader. In short, when you have trained a man, by a life spent in the |