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Ted Hagos
Beginning Kotlin: Build Applications with Better Code, Productivity,
and Performance
Ted Hagos
Makati, Philippines
Acknowledgments������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv
Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xvii
v
Table of Contents
Chapter 3: Functions��������������������������������������������������������������������������55
Declaring Functions��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������56
Single Expression Functions�������������������������������������������������������������������������61
Default Arguments�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������62
vi
Table of Contents
Named Parameters����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������63
Variable Number of Arguments���������������������������������������������������������������������64
Extension Functions��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������65
Infix Functions�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������68
Operator Overloading������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������71
Key Takeaways����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������74
Chapter 4: Types���������������������������������������������������������������������������������77
Interfaces������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������77
Diamond Problem������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������79
Invoking Super Behavior�������������������������������������������������������������������������������81
Classes����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������83
Constructors��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������84
Inheritance����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������88
Properties������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������93
Data Classes�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������98
Visibility Modifiers���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������102
Inheritance Modifiers����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������104
Object Declarations�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������105
Key Takeaways��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������106
vii
Table of Contents
Chapter 6: Collections����������������������������������������������������������������������123
Arrays����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������124
Collections��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������128
Lists�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������130
Sets�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������132
Maps������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������133
Collections Traversal������������������������������������������������������������������������������������135
Filter and Map���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������137
Key Takeaways��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������140
Chapter 7: Generics��������������������������������������������������������������������������141
Why Generics����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������141
Terminologies����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������143
Using Generics in Functions�����������������������������������������������������������������������������144
Using Generics in Classes���������������������������������������������������������������������������������147
Variance������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������149
Reified Generics������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������154
Key Takeaways��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������158
Chapter 8: Debugging�����������������������������������������������������������������������159
Errors����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������159
Runtime and Logic Errors����������������������������������������������������������������������������161
Working the Debugger��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������161
Set Breakpoints�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������164
Run the Program in Debug Mode����������������������������������������������������������������165
Analyze the Program State��������������������������������������������������������������������������166
Other Uses of the Debugger������������������������������������������������������������������������������176
Changing the Program State�����������������������������������������������������������������������177
Key Takeaways��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������183
viii
Table of Contents
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������225
ix
About the Author
Ted Hagos is the CTO and Data Protection Officer of RenditionDigital
International (RDI), a software development company based out of
Dublin. Before he joined RDI, he had various software development
roles and also spent time as a trainer at IBM Advanced Career Education,
Ateneo ITI, and Asia Pacific College. He spent many years in software
development dating back to Turbo C, Clipper, dBase IV, and Visual
Basic. Eventually, he found Java and spent many years working with it.
Nowadays, he’s busy with Kotlin, full-stack JavaScript, Android, and Spring
applications.
xi
About the Technical Reviewer
Manuel Jordan Elera is an autodidactic
developer and researcher who enjoys learning
new technologies for his own experiments and
creating new integrations. Manuel won the
Springy Award 2013 Community Champion
and Spring Champion. In his little free time,
he reads the Bible and composes music on his
guitar. Manuel is known as dr_pompeii. He
has tech-reviewed numerous books, including
Pro Spring MVC with WebFlux (Apress, 2020),
Pro Spring Boot 2 (Apress, 2019), Rapid Java Persistence and Microservices
(Apress, 2019), Java Language Features (Apress, 2018), Spring Boot 2
Recipes (Apress, 2018), and Java APIs, Extensions and Libraries (Apress,
2018). You can read his detailed tutorials on Spring technologies and
contact him through his blog at www.manueljordanelera.blogspot.com.
You can follow Manuel on his Twitter account, @dr_pompeii.
xiii
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Steve Anglin, Mark Powers, Shonmirin, and Manuel Jordan Elera
for making this book possible.
xv
Introduction
Welcome to Beginning Kotlin.
Kotlin may have (initially) gained popularity as a drop-in replacement
for Java for building Android apps, but it’s ubiquitous now. You can use
it to build web apps—both on the front and back end. Kotlin is quickly
gaining popularity in areas that used to be Java strongholds. If you want to
get a head start on Kotlin, this book is an excellent place to start.
Chapter Overviews
Chapter 1 (Introduction to Kotlin) – Brief introduction to the Kotlin
language. You’ll learn a bit about the language's history and some of its
well-known capabilities. The chapter also walks you through the steps on
how to install Kotlin and get started with a quick project.
Chapter 2 (A Quick Tour of Kotlin) – Discusses the language
elements of Kotlin. You’ll learn the syntax with brisk examples. You’ll know
how to declare strings, variables, and constants. You’ll also learn how to
move around using Kotlin’s control structures for looping, branching, and
exception handling.
Chapter 3 (Functions) – There’s a whole chapter dedicated to
functions because Kotlin’s functions have something new up their sleeves.
It has all the trimmings of a modern language like default and named
parameters, infix functions, and operators, and with Kotlin, we can also
create extension functions. Extension functions let you add behavior to an
existing class without inheriting from it and without changing its source.
xvii
Introduction
xviii
Introduction
xix
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Kotlin
Kotlin is a new language that targets the Java platform; its programs run on
the JVM (Java Virtual Machine), which puts it in the company of languages
like Groovy, Scala, Jython, and Clojure, to name a few.
What we’ll cover:
might remember that the history of the Java language contains references
that it was named after the coffee, rather than the island.
About Kotlin
It’s Simple
fun main() {
val name = "stranger" // Declare your first variable
println("Hi, $name!") // ...and use it!
print("Current count:")
for (i in 0..10) { // Loop over a range
from 0 to 10
print(" $i")
}
}
As you can see from the preceding code—which I lifted from https://
kotlinlang.org—we don’t (always) have to write a class. Top-level
functions can run without wrapping them inside classes.
It’s Asynchronous
import kotlinx.coroutines.*
2
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
}
}
}
// #5
log(start, "Liftoff!")
}
It’s Object-Oriented
abstract class Person(val name: String) {
abstract fun greet()
}
interface FoodConsumer {
fun eat()
fun pay(amount: Int) = println("Delicious! Here's $amount
bucks!")
}
3
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
fun main() {
val sam = RestaurantCustomer("Sam", "Mixed salad")
sam.greet() // An implementation of an abstract function
sam.order() // A member function
sam.eat() // An implementation of an interface function
sam.pay(10) // A default implementation in an interface
}
Like Java, it’s object-oriented. So, all those long hours you’ve
invested in Java’s OOP and design pattern won’t go to waste. Kotlin classes,
interfaces, and generics look and behave quite a lot like Java’s. This is
definitely a strength because, unlike other JVM languages like Scala, Kotlin
doesn’t look too foreign. It doesn’t alienate Java programmers. Instead, it
allows them to build on their strengths.
It’s Functional
Kotlin is a functional language. Higher order functions are functions that
operate on other functions, either by taking them in as parameters or by
returning them.
In a functional language (like Kotlin), functions are not just a named
collection of statements. You can use them anywhere you might use a
variable. You can pass functions as an argument to other functions, and you
can even return functions from other functions. This way, coding allows for a
different way of abstraction. Functions are treated as first-class citizens.
4
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
fun main() {
// Who sent the most messages?
val frequentSender = messages
.groupBy(Message::sender)
.maxByOrNull { (_, messages) -> messages.size }
?.key // #1
println(frequentSender) // [Ma]
5
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
class SampleTest {
@Test
fun `test sum`() { // #1
val a = 1
val b = 41
assertEquals(42, sum(a, b), "Wrong result for
sum($a, $b)")
}
@Test
fun `test computation`() {
assertTrue("Computation failed") {
setup() // #2
compute()
}
}
}
6
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
// Sources
fun sum(a: Int, b: Int) = a + b
fun setup() {}
fun compute() = true
All the sample codes above are from kotlinlang.org. If you’d like to
try the codes without investing time (yet) on IDE setup, go to https://
kotlinlang.org. You should see the code samples I used above
(Figure 1-1).
7
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
If you click the “Run” button or the “Open in Playground” link, you
should be able to run the codes, see the result, and even edit the codes.
The Kotlin playground is good for short snippets and for
experimenting. If you intend to do non-trivial coding work in Kotlin, you’ll
need an IDE.
It is possible to use Kotlin without IntelliJ. You should be able to find Kotlin
plugins for Eclipse or NetBeans—you can even use the Kotlin command line
SDK if you feel really up to it, but the simplest way to get started is to just use
JetBrain’s IntelliJ. After all, Kotlin was a brainchild of JetBrains.
8
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
9
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
You can get the IDEA installer for Windows, macOS, or Linux
platforms. There are two editions of IDEA: the Ultimate and Community
edition. The Community edition is free for use—it’s not a disabled or time-
restricted version. It’s full-featured, and you can use it as long as you want.
The Ultimate edition is the paid version. The difference between the two
versions lies in the number of languages, framework support, build tools,
and other toolchains—as you may have guessed, the Ultimate edition has
all the bells and whistles. For our purposes, the Community edition will do.
JetBrains has a detailed comparison between Ultimate and Community
editions here https://www.jetbrains.com/products/compare/?product
=idea&product=idea-ce.
Hardware Requirements
The recommended hardware specs from JetBrains are as follows:
• 8GB RAM
• Multi-Core CPU
10
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
On Windows
1. Download the installer from the JetBrains site.
11
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
You can launch IntelliJ from the Windows Start menu. I usually just hit
the Super key (the one with the Windows logo), then type “IntelliJ”, then hit
Enter. If you created a desktop shortcut, you could double-click that—it’ll
launch IntelliJ just as well.
On macOS
1. Download the disk image; take care that you’re
downloading the correct installer for your
architecture. There are separate disk images for Intel
and Apple Silicon processors.
2. Mount the image and drag the IntelliJ IDEA app to
the Applications folder.
12
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
On Linux
1. Download the tarball
If you want to extract it in the /opt folder, you can run the
following command
13
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
The Welcome screen is the starting point for working with the IDE. You
can also configure your settings from this screen. This screen also appears
when you close all opened projects.
IntelliJ is very configurable. You can tweak many features to suit your
preferences.
14
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
Choose “Gradle Kotlin” for the Build System. For the JDK, click the
down arrow, and choose “Download JDK”. Figure 1-7 shows all the JDK in
my system; as you can see, I already have a couple of them installed. Kotlin
requires JDK 8 to run—feel free to choose between JDK 8 to 18.
15
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
16
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
17
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
There are a couple of ways to run the project. You can trigger the Run
action from the main menu bar or quick launch bar. The quickest way
to run is to click the arrow inside the main editor gutter (I marked it in
Figure 1-9).
Another way to quickly run the project is to use IntelliJ’s search
everywhere tool—the Double Shift. Pressing the Shift key twice in
quick succession launches the Search Everywhere, then type “Run” (see
Figure 1-10).
18
Chapter 1 Introduction to Kotlin
Choose the “Run Main.kt” action, then hit Enter. The Search
Everywhere tool is probably the single most important keyboard shortcut
you need to remember in IntelliJ. It can get you anywhere.
Run the app any way you choose. IntelliJ will build the app, then run
it. The runtime results show up in the Run tool window (lower part of the
IDE). See Figure 1-11.
Key Takeaways
• Kotlin may have started as a drop-in replacement
for Java for Android development, but it’s ubiquitous
now. You can use it for web development (both front-
end and back-end), desktop apps, and, very soon, for
writing native apps.
20
CHAPTER 2
• Program elements
• Basic types
• Immutability
• Strings
• Nullable types
• Control structures
• Exception handling
Program Elements
When learning a new language like French or Spanish, you’ll probably
start with parts of speech and the rules that govern them. It'd be easier to
approach a language if we understood how its parts come together.
A Kotlin program contains literals, variables, expressions, keywords,
and many other things. We’ll explore some of them in this section.
Literals
Kotlin has literal for the basic types (numbers, characters, Boolean, String).
Type refers to the kind of data that Kotlin recognizes. Listing 2-1 shows a
code snippet that defines various types.
var intLiteral = 5
var doubleLiteral = .02
var stringLiteral = "Hello"
var charLiteral = '1'
var boolLiteral = true
In the preceding listing, the values 5, .02, “Hello”, ‘1’, and true are literals
of Integer, Double, String, Character, and Boolean types, respectively. By
the way, you probably noticed by now that you don’t need to terminate
Kotlin statements with a semi-colon—you can still do that if you want to. I
just chose not to do it.
Variables
We use a variable to store and manipulate data, or more precisely, a value.
Values are things that you can store, manipulate, print, push, or pull from
an I/O. To work with values, we put them inside variables. You can create
a variable by declaring an identifier using the var keyword followed by the
type, like in the following statement:
In the statement above, foo is the identifier and Int is the type.
Kotlin specifies types by placing them to the right of the identifier and is
separated from it by a colon symbol.
22
Chapter 2 A Quick Tour of Kotlin
Once you declare a variable, you can assign a value to it, like this
foo = 10
println(foo)
Like in Java, we can declare and define variables on the same line.
Here’s the var foo example again
var foo = 10
println(foo)
23
Chapter 2 A Quick Tour of Kotlin
can change them as often as you want. Think of val as the equivalent of the
final keyword in Java; once you initialize it to a value, you can’t change it
anymore; they’re immutable.
Val variables are declared and initialized just like var variables (see the
example below)
val a: Int
a = 10
Remember that variables declared with the val keyword are final and
cannot be re-assigned once you’ve initialized them to a value. The code
snippet below will not work
If you think you need to change the value of the variable boo at a later
time, change the declaration from val to var.
24
Chapter 2 A Quick Tour of Kotlin
while ((rem = a % b) != 0) {
a = b
b = rem
}
println(b)
Kotlin won’t let you compile the code sample above because the while
statement expects an expression, and assignments are not expressions.
Let’s rewrite Listing 2-2 so it can work in Kotlin. (See Listing 2-3.)
while(!foundGcf) {
rem = a % b
if (rem != 0) {
a = b
b = rem
}
else {
foundGcf = true
}
}
println(b)
25
Chapter 2 A Quick Tour of Kotlin
Keywords
Keywords are special or reserved words that have special meaning to
the compiler, and as such, you cannot use them for identifiers (like class
names, variable names, interface names, function names, etc.).
Kotlin has hard, soft, and modifier keywords. The hard keywords are
always interpreted as keywords and cannot be used as identifiers. Some
examples of these are break, class, continue, do, else, false, while, this,
throw, try, super, and when.
Soft keywords act as reserved words in certain contexts where they
are applicable; otherwise, they can be used as regular identifiers. Some
examples of soft keywords are the following: file, finally, get, import,
receiver, set, constructor, delegate, get, by, and where.
Lastly, there are modifier keywords. These things act as reserved
words in a modifier list of declarations; otherwise, they can be used as
identifiers. Some examples of these things are the following: abstract,
actual, annotation, companion, enum, final, infix, inline, lateinit, operator,
and open.
Tip If you use IntelliJ, you don’t have to memorize the list of
keywords; the IDE will give you enough visual hints if you accidentally
use a keyword as an identifier
26
Chapter 2 A Quick Tour of Kotlin
Whitespace
Like Java, Kotlin is also a tokenized language. Whitespace is not significant
and can be safely ignored. You can write your codes with extravagant use
of whitespace, like this
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
println( "Hello")
}
Or you can write it with very minimal whitespace, like the following
example:
Either way, the compiler doesn’t care, so write your codes to benefit
humans who may be unlucky enough to maintain our codes. Forget the
compiler. It doesn’t care about white space anyway. Use whitespaces to
prettify the code and make it readable, probably something like this
Operators
Kotlin supports various operators and symbols we can use to formulate
expressions and statements. Table 2-1 (below) shows some of them.
27
Chapter 2 A Quick Tour of Kotlin
28
Chapter 2 A Quick Tour of Kotlin
29
Chapter 2 A Quick Tour of Kotlin
var p1 = Person("John")
var p2 = Person("John")
30
Other documents randomly have
different content
become plain that he would never be restored, or would be restored
at least under strict limitations. The clergy went back, it must be
owned, to their old theory, as soon as they found that it would do
them no harm. It is principally to the general baseness and
profligacy of the times that Clarendon is indebted for his high
reputation. He was, in every respect, a man unfit for his age, at once
too good for it and too bad for it. He seemed to be one of the
ministers of Elizabeth, transplanted at once to a state of society
widely different from that in which the abilities of such ministers had
been serviceable. In the sixteenth century, the Royal prerogative had
scarcely been called in question. A Minister who held it high was in
no danger, so long as he used it well. That attachment to the Crown,
that extreme jealousy of popular encroachments, that love, half
religious half political, for the Church, which, from the beginning of
the second session of the Long Parliament, showed itself in
Clarendon, and which his sufferings, his long residence in France,
and his high station in the government, served to strengthen, would,
a hundred years earlier, have secured to him the favour of his
sovereign without rendering him odious to the people. His probity,
his correctness in private life, his decency of deportment, and his
general ability, would not have misbecome a colleague of
Walsingham and Burleigh. But, in the times on which he was cast,
his errors and his virtues were alike out of place. He imprisoned men
without trial. He was accused of raising unlawful contributions on the
people for the support of the army. The abolition of the act which
ensured the frequent holding of Parliaments was one of his favourite
objects. He seems to have meditated the revival of the Star
Chamber and the High Commission Court. His zeal for the
prerogative made him unpopular; but it could not secure to him the
favour of a master far more desirous of ease and pleasure than of
power. Charles would rather have lived in exile and privacy, with
abundance of money, a crowd of mimics to amuse him, and a score
of mistresses, than have purchased the absolute dominion of the
world by the privations and exertions to which Clarendon was
constantly urging him. A councillor who was always bringing him
papers and giving him advice, and who stoutly refused to
compliment Lady Castlemaine and to carry messages to Mistress
Stewart, soon became more hateful to him than ever Cromwell had
been. Thus, considered by the people as an oppressor, by the Court
as a censor, the Minister fell from his high office with a ruin more
violent and destructive than could ever have been his fate, if he had
either respected the principles of the Constitution or flattered the
vices of the King.
Mr. Hallam has formed, we think, a most correct estimate of the
character and administration of Clarendon. But he scarcely makes a
sufficient allowance for the wear and tear which honesty almost
necessarily sustains in the friction of political life, and which, in times
so rough as those through which Clarendon passed, must be very
considerable. When these are fairly estimated, we think that his
integrity may be allowed to pass muster. A high-minded man he
certainly was not, either in public or in private affairs. His own
account of his conduct in the affair of his daughter is the most
extraordinary passage in autobiography. We except nothing even in
the Confessions of Rousseau. Several writers have taken a perverted
and absurd pride in representing themselves as detestable; but no
other ever laboured hard to make himself despicable and ridiculous.
In one important particular Clarendon showed as little regard to the
honour of his country as he had shown to that of his family. He
accepted a subsidy from France for the relief of Portugal. But this
method of obtaining money was afterwards practised to a much
greater extent, and for objects much less respectable, both by the
Court and by the Opposition.
These pecuniary transactions are commonly considered as the
most disgraceful part of the history of those times; and they were no
doubt highly reprehensible. Yet, in justice to the Whigs and to
Charles himself, we must admit that they were not so shameful or
atrocious as at the present day they appear. The effect of violent
animosities between parties has always been an indifference to the
general welfare and honour of the State. A politician, where factions
run high, is interested not for the whole people, but for his own
section of it. The rest are, in his view, strangers, enemies, or rather
pirates. The strongest aversion which he can feel to any foreign
power is the ardour of friendship, when compared with the loathing
which he entertains towards those domestic foes with whom he is
cooped up in a narrow space, with whom he lives in a constant
interchange of petty injuries and insults, and from whom, in the day
of their success, he has to expect severities far beyond any that a
conqueror from a distant country would inflict. Thus, in Greece, it
was a point of honour for a man to cleave to his party against his
country. No aristocratical citizen of Samos or Corcyra would have
hesitated to call in the aid of Lacedæmon. The multitude, on the
contrary, looked every where to Athens. In the Italian states of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, from the same cause, no man
was so much a Pisan or a Florentine as a Ghibeline or a Guelf. It may
be doubted whether there was a single individual who would have
scrupled to raise his party from a state of depression, by opening the
gates of his native city to a French or an Arragonese force. The
Reformation, dividing; almost every European country into’ two
parts, produced similar effects. The Catholic was too strong for the
Englishman, the Huguenot for the Frenchman. The Protestant
statesmen of Scotland and France called in the aid of Elizabeth; and
the Papists of the League brought a Spanish army into the very
heart of France. ‘The commotions to which the French Revolution
gave rise were followed by the same consequences. The Republicans
in every part of Europe were eager to see the armies of the National
Convention and the Directory appear among them, and exulted in
defeats which distressed and humbled those whom they considered
as their worst enemies, their own rulers. The princes and nobles of
France, on the other hand, did their utmost to bring foreign invaders
to Paris. A very short time has elapsed since the Apostolical party in
Spain invoked, too successfully, the support of strangers.
The great contest which raged in England during the seventeenth
century extinguished, not indeed in the body of the people, but in
those classes which were most actively engaged in politics, almost
all national feelings. Charles the Second and many of his courtiers
had passed a large part of their lives in banishment, living on the
bounty of foreign treasuries, soliciting foreign aid to reestablish
monarchy in their native country. The King’s own brother had fought
in Flanders, under the banners of Spain, against the English armies.
The oppressed Cavaliers in England constantly looked to the Louvre
and the Escurial for deliverance and revenge. Clarendon censures
the continental governments with great bitterness for not interfering
in our internal dissensions. It is not strange, therefore, that, amidst
the furious contests which followed the Restoration, the violence of
party feeling should produce effects which would probably have
attended it even in an age less distinguished by laxity of principle
and indelicacy of sentiment. It was not till a natural death had
terminated the paralytic old age of the Jacobite party that the evil
was completely at an end. The Whigs long looked to Holland, the
High Tories to France. The former concluded the Barrier Treaty; the
latter entreated the Court of Versailles to send an expedition to
England. Many men who, however erroneous their political notions
might be, were unquestionably honourable in private life, accepted
money without scruple from the foreign powers favourable to the
Pretender.
Never was there less of national feeling among the higher orders
than during the reign of Charles the Second. That Prince, on the one
side, thought it better to be the deputy of an absolute king than the
King of a free people. Algernon Sydney, on the other hand, would
gladly have aided France in all her ambitious schemes, and have
seen England reduced to the condition of a province, in the wild
hope that a foreign despot would assist him to establish his darling
republic. The King took the money of France to assist him in the
enterprise which he meditated against the liberty of his subjects,
with as little scruple as Frederic of Prussia or Alexander of Russia
accepted our subsidies in time of war. The leaders of the Opposition
no more thought themselves disgraced by the presents of Lewis,
than a gentleman of our own time thinks himself disgraced by the
liberality of powerful and wealthy members of his party who pay his
election bill. The money which the King received from France had
been largely employed to corrupt members of Parliament. The
enemies of the court might think it fair, or even absolutely necessary,
to encounter bribery with bribery. Thus they took the French
gratuities, the needy among them for their own use, the rich
probably for the general purposes of the party, without any scruple.
If we compare their conduct not with that of English statesmen in
our own time, but with that of persons in those foreign countries
which are now situated as England then was, we shall probably see
reason to abate something of the severity of censure with which it
has been the fashion to visit those proceedings. Yet, when every
allowance is made, the transaction is sufficiently offensive. It is
satisfactory to find that Lord Russell stands free from any imputation
of personal participation in the spoil. An age so miserably poor in all
the moral qualities which render public characters respectable can ill
spare the credit which it derives from a man, not indeed conspicuous
for talents or knowledge, but honest even in his errors, respectable
in every relation of life, rationally pious, steadily and placidly brave.
The great improvement which took place in our breed of public
men is principally to be ascribed to the Revolution. Yet that
memorable event, in a great measure, took its character from the
very vices which it was the means of reforming. It was assuredly a
happy revolution, and a useful revolution; but it was not, what it has
often been called, a glorious revolution. William, and William alone,
derived glory from it. The transaction was, in almost every part,
discreditable to England. That a tyrant who had violated the
fundamental laws of the country, who had attacked the rights of its
greatest corporations, who had begun to persecute the established
religion of the state, who had never respected the law either in his
superstition or in his revenge, could not be pulled down without the
aid of a foreign army, is a circumstance not very grateful to our
national pride. Yet this is the least degrading part of the story. The
shameless insincerity of the great and noble, the warm assurances
of general support which James received, down to the moment of
general desertion, indicate a meanness of spirit and a looseness of
morality most disgraceful to the age. That the enterprise succeeded,
at least that it succeeded without bloodshed or commotion, was
principally owing to an act of ungrateful perfidy, such as no soldier
had ever before committed, and to those monstrous fictions
respecting the birth of the Prince of Wales which persons of the
highest rank were not ashamed to circulate. In all the proceedings of
the Convention, in the conference particularly, we see that littleness
of mind which is the chief characteristic of the times. The resolutions
on which the two Houses at last agreed were as bad as any
resolutions for so excellent a purpose could be. Their feeble and
contradictory language was evidently intended to save the credit of
the Tories, who were ashamed to name what they were not
ashamed to do. Through the whole transaction no commanding
talents were displayed by any Englishman; no extraordinary risks
were run; no sacrifices were made for the deliverance of the nation,
except the sacrifice which Churchill made of honour, and Anne of
natural affection. It was in some sense fortunate, as we have
already said, for the Church of England, that the Reformation in this
country was effected by men who cared little about religion. And, in
the same manner, it was fortunate for our civil government that the
Revolution was in a great measure effected by men who cared little
about their political principles. At such a crisis, splendid talents and
strong passions might have done more harm than good. There was
far greater reason to fear that too much would be attempted, and
that violent movements would produce an equally violent reaction,
than that too little would be done in the way of change. But
narrowness of intellect and flexibility of principle, though they may
be serviceable, can never be respectable.
If in the Revolution itself there was little that can properly be
called glorious, there was still less in the events which followed. In a
church which had as one man declared the doctrine of resistance
unchristian, only four hundred persons refused to take the oath of
allegiance to a government founded on resistance. In the preceding
generation, both the Episcopal and the Presbyterian clergy, rather
than concede points of conscience not more important, had resigned
their livings by thousands.
The churchmen, at the time of the Revolution, justified their
conduct by all those profligate sophisms which are called Jesuitical,
and which are commonly reckoned among the peculiar sins of
Popery, but which in fact are every where the anodynes employed by
minds rather subtle than strong, to quiet those internal twinges
which they cannot but feel and which they will not obey. As the oath
taken by the clergy was in the teeth of their principles, so was their
conduct in the teeth of their oath. Their constant machinations
against the Government to which they had sworn fidelity brought a
reproach on their order and on Christianity itself. A distinguished
prelate has not scrupled to say that the rapid increase of infidelity at
that time was principally produced by the disgust which the faithless
conduct of his brethren excited in men not sufficiently candid or
judicious to discern the beauties of the system amidst the vices of its
ministers.
But the reproach was not confined to the Church. In every political
party, in the Cabinet itself, duplicity and perfidy abounded. The very
men whom William loaded with benefits and in whom he reposed
most confidence, with his seals of office in their hands, kept up a
correspondence with the exiled family. Orford, Leeds, and
Shrewsbury were guilty of this odious treachery. Even Devonshire is
not altogether free from suspicion. It may well be conceived that, at
such a time, such a nature as that of Marlborough would riot in the
very luxury of baseness. His former treason, thoroughly furnished
with all that makes infamy exquisite, placed him under the
disadvantage which attends every artist from the time that he
produces a masterpiece. Yet his second great stroke may excite
wonder, even in those who appreciate all the merit of the first. Lest
his admirers should be able to say that at the time of the Revolution
he had betrayed his King from any other than selfish motives, he
proceeded to betray his country. He sent intelligence to the French
court of a secret expedition intended to attack Brest. The
consequence was that the expedition failed, and that eight hundred
British soldiers lost their lives from the abandoned villany of a British
general. Yet this man has been canonized by so many eminent
writers that to speak of him as he deserves may seem scarcely
decent.
The reign of William the Third, as Mr. Hallam happily says, was the
Nadir of the national prosperity. It was also the Nadir of the national
character. It was the time when the rank harvest of vices sown
during thirty years of licentiousness and confusion was gathered in;
but it was also the seed-time of great virtues.
The press was emancipated from the censorship soon after the
Revolution; and the Government immediately fell under the
censorship of the press. Statesmen had a scrutiny to endure which
was every day becoming more and more severe. The extreme
violence of opinions abated. The Whigs learned moderation in office;
the Tories learned the principles of liberty in opposition. The parties
almost constantly approximated, often met, sometimes crossed each
other. There were occasional bursts of violence; but, from the time
of the Revolution, those bursts were constantly becoming less and
less terrible. The severity with which the Tories, at the close of the
reign of Anne, treated some of those who had directed public affairs
during the war of the Grand Alliance, and the retaliatory measures of
the Whigs, after the accession of the House of Hanover, cannot be
justified; but they were by no means in the style of the infuriated
parties, whose alternate murders had disgraced our history towards
the close of the reign of Charles the Second. At the fall of Walpole
far greater moderation was displayed. And from that time it has
been the practice, a practice not strictly according to the theory of
our Constitution, but still most salutary, to consider the loss of office,
and the public disapprobation, as punishments sufficient for errors in
the administration not imputable to personal corruption. Nothing, we
believe, has contributed more than this lenity to raise the character
of public men. Ambition is of itself a game sufficiently hazardous and
sufficiently deep to inflame the passions without adding property,
life, and liberty to the stake. Where the play runs so desperately
high as in the seventeenth century, honour is at an end. Statesmen,
instead of being as they should be, at once mild and steady, are at
once ferocious and inconsistent. The axe is for ever before their
eyes. A popular outcry sometimes unnerves them, and sometimes
makes them desperate; it drives them to unworthy compliances, or
to measures of vengeance as cruel as those which they have reason
to expect. A Minister in our times need not fear either to be firm or
to be merciful. Our old policy in this respect was as absurd as that of
the king in the Eastern tale who proclaimed that any physician who
pleased might come to court and prescribe for his diseases, but that
if the remedies failed the adventurer should lose his head. It is easy
to conceive how many able men would refuse to undertake the cure
on such conditions; how much the sense of extreme danger would
confuse the perceptions, and cloud the intellect, of the practitioner,
at the very crisis which most called for self-possession, and how
strong his temptation would be, if he found that he had committed a
blunder, to escape the consequences of it by poisoning his patient.
But in fact it would have been impossible, since the Revolution, to
punish any Minister for the general course of his policy, with the
slightest semblance of justice; for since that time no Minister has
been able to pursue any general course of policy without the
approbation of the Parliament. The most important effects of that
great change were, as Mr. Hallam has most truly said and most ably
shown, those which it indirectly produced. Thenceforward it became
the interest of the executive government to protect those very
doctrines which an executive government is in general inclined to
persecute. The sovereign, the ministers, the courtiers, at last even
the universities and the clergy, were changed into advocates of the
right of resistance. In the theory of the Whigs, in the situation of the
Tories, in the common interest of all public men, the Parliamentary
constitution of the country found perfect security. The power of the
House of Commons, in particular, has been steadily on the increase.
Since supplies have been granted for short terms and appropriated
to particular services, the approbation of that House has been as
necessary in practice to the executive administration as it has al-
ways been in theory to taxes and to laws.
Mr. Hallam appears to have begun with the reign of Henry the
Seventh, as the period at which what is called modern history, in
contradistinction to the history of the middle ages, is generally
supposed to commence. He has stopped at the accession of George
the Third, “from unwillingness,” as he says, “to excite the prejudices
of modern politics, especially those connected with personal
character.” These two eras, we think, deserved the distinction on
other grounds. Our remote posterity, when looking back on our
history in that comprehensive manner in which remote posterity
alone can, without much danger of error, look back on it, will
probably observe those points with peculiar interest. They are, if we
mistake not, the beginning and the end of an entire and separate
chapter in our annals. The period which lies between them is a
perfect cycle, a great year of the public mind. In the reign of Henry
the Seventh, all the political differences which had agitated England
since the Norman conquest seemed to be set at rest. The long and
fierce struggle between the Crown and the Barons had terminated.
The grievances which had produced the rebellions of Tyler and Cade
had disappeared. Vilanage was scarcely known. The two royal
houses, whose conflicting claims had long convulsed the kingdom,
were at length united. The claimants whose pretensions, just or
unjust, had disturbed the new settlement, were overthrown. In
religion there was no open dissent, and probably very little secret
heresy. The old subjects of contention, in short, had vanished; those
which were to succeed had not yet appeared.
Soon, however, new principles were announced; principles which
were destined to keep England during two centuries and a half in a
state of commotion. The Reformation divided the people into two
great parties. The Protestants were victorious. They again
subdivided themselves. Political factions were engrafted on
theological sects. The mutual animosities of the two parties
gradually emerged into the light of public life. First came conflicts in
Parliament; then civil war; then revolutions upon revolutions, each
attended by its appurtenance of proscriptions, and persecutions, and
tests; each followed by severe measures on the part of the
conquerors; each exciting a deadly and festering hatred in the
conquered. During the reign of George the Second, things were
evidently tending to repose. At the close of that reign, the nation
had completed the great revolution which commenced in the early
part of the sixteenth century, and was again at rest. The fury of
sects had died away. The Catholics themselves practically enjoyed
toleration; and more than toleration they did not yet venture even to
desire. Jacobitism was a mere name. Nobody was left to fight for
that wretched cause, and very few to drink for it. The Constitution,
purchased so dearly, was on every side extolled and worshipped.
Even those distinctions of party which must almost always be found
in a free state could scarcely be traced. The two great bodies which,
from the time of the Revolution, had been gradually tending to
approximation, were now united in emulous support of that splendid
Administration which smote to the dust both the branches of the
House of Bourbon. The great battle for our ecclesiastical and civil
polity had been fought and won. The wounds had been healed. The
victors and the vanquished were rejoicing together. Every person
acquainted with the political writers of the last generation will
recollect the terms in which they generally speak of that time. It was
a glimpse of a golden age of union and glory, a short interval of rest,
which had been preceded by centuries of agitation, and which
centuries of agitation were destined to follow.
How soon faction again began to ferment is well known. In the
Letters of Junius, in Burke’s Thoughts on the Cause of the
Discontents, and in many other writings of less merit, the violent
dissensions which speedily convulsed the country are imputed to the
system of favouritism which George the Third introduced, to the
influence of Bute, or to the profligacy of those who called
themselves the King’s friends. With all deference to the eminent
writers to whom we have referred, we may venture to say that they
lived too near the events of which they treated to judge correctly.
The schism which was then appearing in the nation, and which has
been from that time almost constantly widening, had little in
common with those schisms which had divided it during the reigns
of the Tudors and the Stuarts. The symptoms of popular feeling,
indeed, will always be in a great measure the same; but the principle
which excited that feeling was here new. The support which was
given to Wilkes, the clamour for reform during the American war, the
disaffected conduct of large classes of people at the time of the
French Revolution, no more resembled the opposition which had
been offered to the government of Charles the Second, than that
opposition resembled the contest between the Roses.
In the political as in the natural body, a sensation is often referred
to a part widely different from that in which it really resides. A man
whose leg is cut off fancies that he feels a pain in his toe. And in the
same manner the people, in the earlier part of the late reign,
sincerely attributed their discontent to grievances which had been
effectually lopped off. They imagined that the prerogative was too
strong for the Constitution, that the principles of the Revolution were
abandoned, that the system of the Stuarts was restored. Every
impartial man must now acknowledge that these charges were
groundless. The conduct of the Government with respect to the
Middlesex election would have been contemplated with delight by
the first generation of Whigs. They would have thought it a splendid
triumph of the cause of liberty that the King and the Lords should
resign to the lower House a portion of the legislative power, and
allow it to incapacitate without their consent. This, indeed, Mr. Burke
clearly perceived. “When the House of Commons,” says he, “in an
endeavour to obtain new advantages at the expense of the other
orders of the state, for the benefit of the commons at large, have
pursued strong measures, if it were not just, it was at least natural,
that the constituents should connive at all their proceedings;
because we ourselves were ultimately to profit. But when this
submission is urged to us in a contest between the representatives
and ourselves, and where nothing can be put into their scale which
is not taken from ours, they fancy us to be children when they tell us
that they are our representatives, our own flesh and blood, and that
all the stripes they give us are for our good.” These sentences
contain, in fact, the whole explanation of the mystery. The conflict of
the seventeenth century was maintained by the Parliament against
the Crown. The conflict which commenced in the middle of the
eighteenth century, which still remains undecided, and in which our
children and grandchildren will probably be called to act or to suffer,
is between a large portion of the people on the one side, and the
Crown and the Parliament united on the other.
The privileges of the House of Commons, those privileges which,
in 1642, all London rose in arms to defend, which the people
considered as synonymous with their own liberties, and in
comparison of which they took no account of the most precious and
sacred principles of English jurisprudence, have now become nearly
as odious as the rigours of martial law. That power of committing
which the people anciently loved to see the House of Commons
exercise, is now, at least when employed against libellers, the most
unpopular power in the Constitution. If the Commons were to suffer
the Lords to amend money-bills, we do not believe that the people
would care one straw about the matter. If they were to suffer the
Lords even to originate money-bills, we doubt whether such a
surrender of their constitutional rights would excite half so much
dissatisfaction as the exclusion of strangers from a single important
discussion. The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a
fourth estate of the realm. The publication of the debates, a practice
which seemed to the most liberal statesman of the old school full of
danger to the great safeguards of public liberty, is now regarded by
many persons as a safeguard tantamount, and more than
tantamount, to all the rest together.
Burke, in a speech on parliamentary reform which is the more
remarkable because it was delivered long before the French
Revolution, has described, in striking language, the change in public
feeling of which we speak. “It suggests melancholy reflections,” says
he, “in consequence of the strange course we have long held, that
we are now no longer quarreling about the character, or about the
conduct of men, or the tenour of measures; but we are grown out of
humour with the English Constitution itself; this is become the object
of the animosity of Englishmen. This constitution in former days
used to be the envy of the world; it was the pattern for politicians;
the theme of the eloquent; the meditation of the philosopher in
every part of the world. As to Englishmen, it was their pride, their
consolation. By it they lived, and for it they were ready to die. Its
defects, if it had any, were partly covered by partiality, and partly
borne by prudence. Now all its excellencies are forgot, its faults are
forcibly dragged into day, exaggerated by every artifice of
misrepresentation. It is despised and rejected of men; and every
device and invention of ingenuity or idleness is set up in opposition,
or in preference to it.” We neither adopt nor condemn the language
of reprobation which the great orator here employs. We call him only
as a witness to the fact. That the revolution of public feeling which
he described was then in progress is indisputable; and it is equally
indisputable, we think, that it is in progress still.
To investigate and classify the causes of so great a change would
require far more thought, and far more space, than we at present
have to bestow. But some of them are obvious. During the contest
which the Parliament carried on against the Stuarts, it had only to
check and complain. It has since had to govern. As an attacking
body, it could select its points of attack, and it naturally chose those
on which it was likely to receive public support. As a ruling body, it
has neither the same liberty of choice, nor the same motives to
gratify the people. With the power of an executive government, it
has drawn to itself some of the vices, and all the unpopularity of an
executive government. On the House of Commons above all,
possessed as it is of the public purse, and consequently of the public
sword, the nation throws all the blame of an ill conducted war, of a
blundering negotiation, of a disgraceful treaty, of an embarrassing
commercial crisis. The delays of the Court of Chancery, the
misconduct of a judge at Van Diemen’s Land, any thing, in short,
which in any part of the administration any person feels as a
grievance, is attributed to the tyranny! or at least to the negligence,
of that all-powerful body. Private individuals pester it with their
wrongs and claims. A merchant appeals to it from the Courts of Rio
Janeiro or St. Petersburgh. A historical painter complains to it that
his department of art finds no encouragement. Anciently the
Parliament resembled a member of opposition, from whom no places
are expected, who is not expected to confer favours and propose
measures, but merely to watch and censure, and who may,
therefore, unless he is grossly injudicious, be popular with the great
body of the community. The Parliament now resembles the same
person put into office, surrounded by petitioners whom twenty times
his patronage would not satisfy, stunned with complaints, buried in
memorials, compelled by the duties of his station to bring forward
measures similar to those which he was formerly accustomed to
observe and to check, and perpetually encountered by objections
similar to those which it was formerly his business to raise.
Perhaps it may be laid down as a general rule that a legislative
assembly, not constituted on democratical principles, cannot be
popular long after it ceases to be weak. Its zeal for what the people,
rightly or wrongly, conceive to be their interests, its sympathy with
their mutable and violent passions, are merely the effects of the
particular circumstances in which it is placed. As long as it depends
for existence on the public favour, it will employ all the means in its
power to conciliate that favour. While this is the case, defects in its
constitution are of little consequence. But, as the close union of such
a body with the nation is the effect of an identity of interests not
essential but accidental, it is in some measure dissolved from the
time at which the danger which produced it ceases to exist.
Hence, before the Revolution, the question of Parliamentary
reform was of very little importance. The friends of liberty had no
very ardent wish for reform. The strongest Tories saw no objections
to it. It is remarkable that Clarendon loudly applauds the changes
which Cromwell introduced, changes far stronger than the Whigs of
the present day would in general approve. There is no reason to
think, however, that the reform effected by Cromwell made any
great difference in the conduct of the Parliament. Indeed, if the
House of Commons had, during the reign of Charles the Second,
been elected by universal suffrage, or if all the seats had been put
up to sale, as in the French Parliaments, it would, we suspect, have
acted very much as it did. We know how strongly the Parliament of
Paris exerted itself in favour of the people on many important
occasions; and the reason is evident. Though it did not emanate
from the people, its whole consequence depended on the support of
the people.
From the time of the Revolution the House of Commons has been
gradually becoming what it now is, a great council of state,
containing many members chosen freely by the people, and many
others anxious to acquire the favour of the people; but, on the
whole, aristocratical in its temper and interest. It is very far from
being an illiberal and stupid oligarchy; but it is equally far from being
an express image of the general feeling. It is influenced by the
opinion of the people, and influenced powerfully, but slowly and
circuitously. Instead of outrunning the public mind; as before the
Revolution it frequently did, it now follows with slow steps and at a
wide distance. It is therefore necessarily unpopular; and the more so
because the good which it produces is much less evident to common
perception than the evil which it inflicts. It bears the blame of all the
mischief which is done, or supposed to be done, by its authority or
by its connivance. It does not get the credit, on the other hand, of
having prevented those innumerable abuses which do not exist
solely because the House of Commons exists. A large part of the
nation is certainly desirous of a reform in the representative system.
How large that part may be, and how strong its desires on the
subject may be, it is difficult to say. It is only at intervals that the
clamour on the subject is loud and vehement. But it seems to us
that, during the remissions, the feeling gathers strength, and that
every successive burst is more violent than that which preceded it.
The public attention may be for a time diverted to the Catholic
claims or the Mercantile code; but it is probable that at no very
distant period, perhaps in the lifetime of the present generation, all
other questions will merge in that which is, in a certain degree,
connected with them all.
Already we seem to ourselves to perceive the signs of unquiet
times, the vague presentiment of something great and strange
which pervades the community, the restless and turbid hopes of
those who have every thing to gain, the dimly hinted forebodings of
those who have every thing to lose. Many indications might be
mentioned, in themselves indeed as insignificant as straws; but even
the direction of a straw, to borrow the illustration of Bacon, will show
from what quarter the storm is setting in.
A great statesman might, by judicious and timely reformations, by
reconciling the two great branches of the natural aristocracy, the
capitalists and the landowners, and by so widening the base of the
government as to interest in its defence the whole of the middle
class, that brave, honest, and sound-hearted class, which is as
anxious for the maintenance of order and the security of property, as
it is hostile to corruption and oppression, succeed in averting a
struggle to which no rational friend of liberty or of law can look
forward without great apprehensions. There are those who will be
contented with nothing but demolition; and there are those who
shrink from all repair. There are innovators who long for a President
and a National Convention; and there are bigots who, while cities
larger and richer than the capitals of many great kingdoms are
calling out for representatives to watch over their interests, select
some hackneyed jobber in boroughs, some peer of the narrowest
and smallest mind, as the fittest depositary of a forfeited franchise.
Between these extremes there lies a more excellent way. Time is
bringing round another crisis analogous to that which occurred in the
seventeenth century. We stand in a situation similar to that in which
our ancestors stood under the reign of James the First. It will soon
again be necessary to reform that we may preserve, to save the
fundamental principles of the Constitution by alterations in the
subordinate parts. It will then be possible, as it was possible two
hundred years ago, to protect vested rights, to secure every useful
institution, every institution endeared by antiquity and noble
associations, and, at the same time, to introduce into the system
improvements harmonizing with the original plan. It remains to be
seen whether two hundred years have made us wiser.
We know of no great revolution which might not have been
prevented by compromise early and graciously made. Firmness is a
great virtue in public affairs; but it has its proper sphere.
Conspiracies and insurrections in which small minorities are
engaged, the outbreakings of popular violence unconnected with any
extensive project or any durable principle, are best repressed by
vigour and decision. To shrink from them is to make them
formidable. But no wise ruler will confound the pervading taint with
the slight local irritation. No wise ruler will treat the deeply seated
discontents of a great party, as he treats the fury of a mob which
destroys mills and power-looms. The neglect of this distinction has
been fatal even to governments strong in the power of the sword.
The present time is indeed a time of peace and order. But it is at
such a time that fools are most thoughtless and wise men most
thoughtful. That the discontents which have agitated the country
during the late and the present reign, and which, though not always
noisy, are never wholly dormant, will again break forth with
aggravated symptoms, is almost as certain as that the tides and
seasons will follow their appointed course. But in all movements of
the human mind which tend to great revolutions there is a crisis at
which moderate concession may amend, conciliate, and preserve.
Happy will it be for England if, at that crisis, her interests be
confided to men for whom history has not recorded the long series
of human crimes and follies in vain.
END OF VOL. 1.
INDEX
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: The 1860 six
volume print set had the index for all six
volumes at the end to volume six. This
PG edition has the complete index for all
volumes at the end of each volume.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ
A.
A priori reasoning, 8 9 10 20 21 59
Abbt and abbot, difference between,
76
Academy, character of its doctrines,
411
Academy, French, (the), 2 3 ; has been
of no benefit to literature, 23 ; its
treatment of Corneille and Voltaire, 23 21
; the scene of the fiercest animosities, 23
Academy of the Floral Games, at
Toulouse, 136 137 ; Acting, Garrick's,
quotation from Fielding illustrative of, i.
332; the true test of excellence in,133
Adam, Robert, court architect to
George III., 11
Addington, Henry, speaker of the
House of Commons, 282 ; made First
Lord of the Treasury, 282 ; his
administration, 282 281 ; coolness
between him and Pitt, 285 286 ; their
quarrel, 287 ; his resignation, 290 112 ;
raised to the Peerage, 112 ; raised to the
Peerage, 293
Addison, Joseph, review of Miss Aikin's
life of, 321 122 ; his character, 323 321 ;
sketch of his father's life, 321 325 ; his
birth and early life, 325 327 ; appointed
to a scholarship in Magdalene College,
Oxford, 327 ; his classical attainments,
327 330 ; his Essay on the Evidences of
Christianity, 330 ; his Latin poems, 331
332 ; contributes a preface to Dryden's
Georgies, 335 ; his intention to take
orders frustrated. 335 ; sent by the
government to the Continent, 333 ; his
introduction to Boileau, 310 ; leaves
Paris and proceeds to Venice, 311 315 ;
his residence in Italy, 315 350 ;
composes his Epistle to Montague (then
Lord Halifax), 350 ; his prospects
clouded by the death of William III., 351
; becomes tutor to a young English
traveller, 351 ; writes his Treatise on
Medals, 351 ; repairs to Holland, 351 ;
returns to England, 351 ; his cordial
reception and introduction into the Kit
Cat Club, 351 ; his pecuniary difficulties,
352 ; engaged by Godolphin to write a
poem in honour of Marlborough's
exploits, 351 355 ; is appointed to a
Commissionership, 355 ; merits of his
"Campaign," 356 ; criticism of his Travels
in Italy, 329 359 ; his opera of
Rosamond, 361 ; is made Undersecretary
of State, and accompanies the Earl of
Halifax to Hanover, 361 302 ; his election
to the House of Commons, 362 ; his
failure as a speaker, 362 ; his popularity
and talents for conversation, 365 367 ;
his timidity and constraint among
strangers, 367 ; his favorite associates,
368 371 ; becomes Chief Secretary for
Ireland under Wharton, 371 ; origination
of the Tatler, 373 371 ; his characteristics
as a writer, 373 378 ; compared with
Swift and Voltaire as a master of the art
of ridicule, 377 379 ; his pecuniary
losses, 382 383 ; loss of his
Secretaryship, 382 ; resignation of his
Fellowship, 383 ; encouragement and
disappointment of his advances towards
a great lad 383 ; returned to Parliament
without a contest, 383 ; his Whig
Examiner, 384 ; intercedes with the
Tories on behalf of Ambrose Phillipps and
Steele, 384 ; his discontinuance of the
Tatler and commencement of the
Spectator, 384 ; his part in the Spectator,
385 ; his commencement and
discontinuance of the Guardian, 389 ; his
Cato, 345 390 394 365 366 ; his
intercourse with Pope, 394 395 ; his
concern for Steele, 396 ; begins a new
series of the Spectator, 397 ; appointed
secretary to the Lords Justices of the
Council on the death of Queen Anne. 397
; again appointed Chief Secretary for
Ireland, 399 ; his relations with Swift and
Tickell, 399 400 ; removed to the Board
of Trade, 401 ; production of his
Drummer, 401 ; his Freeholder, 402 ; his
estrangement from Pope, 403 404 ; his
long courtship of the Countess Dowager
of Warwick and union with her, 411 412 ;
takes up his abode at Holland House,
412 ; appointed Secretary of State bv
Sunderland, 413 ; failure of his health,
413 418 ; resigns his post, 413 ; receives
a pension, 414 ; his estrangement from
Steele and other friends, 414 415 ;
advocates the bill for limiting the number
of Peers, 415 ; refutation of a calumny
upon him, 417 ; intrusts his works to
Tickell, and dedicates them to Greggs,
418 ; sends for Gay on his death-bed to
ask his forgiveness, 418 419 ; his death
and funeral, 420 ; Tickell's eulogy on his
death, 421 ; superb edition of his works,
421 ; his monument in Poet's Corner,
Westminster Abbey, 422 ; praised by
Dryden, 369
Addison, Dr. Lancelot, sketch of his
life, 325 325
Adiaphorists, a sect of German
Protestants, 7 8
Adultery, how represented by the
Dramatists of the Restoration, 357
Advancement of Learning, by Bacon,
its publication, 383
Æschines, his character, 193 194
Æschylus and the Greek Drama, 210
229
Afghanistan, the monarchy of,
analogous to that of England in the 10th
century, 29 ; bravery of its inhabitants,
23 ; the English the only army in India
which could compete with them, 30 ;
their devastation in India, 207
Agricultural and manufacturing
laborers, comparison of their condition,
145 148
Agitjari, the singer, 256
Aiken, Miss, review of her Life of
Addison, 321 422
Aix, its capture, 244
Akenside, his epistle to Curio, 183
Albigenses, 310 311
Alcibiades, suspected of assisting at a
mock celebration of the Eleusinian
mysteries, 49
Aldrich, Dean, 113
Alexander the Great compared with
Clive, 297
Altieri, his greatness, 61 ; influence of
Dante upon his style, 61 62 ; comparison
between him and Cowper, 350 ; his
Rosmunda contrasted with Shakspere's
Lady Macbeth, 175 ; influence of
Plutarch and the writers of his school
upon, i. 401. 401
Allahabad, 27
Allegories of Johnson and Addison,
252
Allegory, difficulty of making it
interesting, 252
Allegro and Penseroso, 215
Alphabetical writing, the greatest of
human inventions, 453 ; comparative
views of its value by Plato and Bacon,
453 454
America, acquisitions of the Catholic
Church in, 300 ; its capabilities, 301
American Colonies, British, war with
them, 57 59 ; act for imposing stamp
duties upon them, 58 65 ; their
disaffection, 76 ; revival of the dispute
with them, 105 ; progress of their
resistance, 106
Anabaptists, their origin, 12
Anacharsis, reputed contriver of the
potter's wheel, 438
Analysis, critical not applicable with
exactness to poetry, 325 ; but grows
more accurate as criticism improves, 321
Anaverdy Khan, governor of tlie
Carnatic, 211
Angria, his fortress of Gheriah reduced
by Clive, 228
Anne, Queen, her political and
religious inclinations, 130 ; changes in
her government in 1710, 130 ; relative
estimation bv the Whigs and the Tories
of her reign, 133 140 ; state of parties at
her accession, v. 352, 352 353 ;
dismisses the Whigs, 381 382 ; change
in the conduct of public affairs
consequent on her death, 397 ; touches
Johnson for the king's evil, 173 ; her
cabinet during the Seven Years' War, 410
Antijacobin Review, (the new), vi. 405;
contrasted with the Antijacobin, 400 407
Antioch, Grecian eloquence at, 301
Anytus, 420
Apostolical succession, Mr. Gladstone
claims it for the Church of England, 100 ;
to 178. 178
Apprentices, negro, in the West Indies,
307 374 370 378 383
Aquinas, Thomas, 478
Arab fable of the Great Pyramid, 347
Arbuthnot's Satirical Works, 377
Archimedes, his slight estimate of his
inventions, 450
Archytas, rebuked by Plato, 449
Arcot, Nabob of, his relations with
England, 211 219 ; his claims recognized
by the English, 213
Areopagitiea, Milton's allusion to, 204
Argyle, Duke of, secedes from
Walpole's administration, 204
Arimant, Dryden's, 357
Ariosto, 60
Aristodemus, 2 303
Aristophanes, 352 ; his clouds a true
picture of the change in his countrymen's
character, 383
Aristotle, his authority impaired by the
Reformation, 440 ; the most profound
critic of antiquity, 140 141 ; his doctrine
in regard to poetry, 40 ; the
superstructure of his treatise on poetry
not equal to its plan, 140
Arithmetic, comparative estimate of, by
Plato and by Bacon, 448
Arlington, Lord, his character, 30 ; his
coldness for the Triple Alliance, 37 ; his
impeachment, 50
Armies in the middle ages, how
constituted, 282 478
a powerful restraint on the regal
power, 478 ; subsequent change in this
respect, 479
Arms, British, successes of, against the
French in 1758, 244 247
Army, (the) control of, by Charles I., or
by the Parliament, 489 ; its triumph over
both, 497 ; danger of a standing army
becoming an instrument of despotism,
487
Arne, Dr., set to music Addison's opera
of Rosamund, 361
Arragon and Castile, their old
institutions favorable to public liberty iii.
80. 80
Arrian, 395
Art of War, Machiavelli's, 306
Arundel, Earl of, iii. 434
Asia, Central, its people, 28
Asiatic Society, commencement of its
career under Warren Hastings, 98
Assemblies, deliberative, 2 40
Assembly, National, the French, 46 48
68 71 443 446
Astronomy, comparative estimate of by
Socrates and by Bacon, 452
Athenian jurymen, stipend of, 33 ;
note; police, name of, i. 34, 34 ; note;
magistrates, name of, who took
cognisance of offences against religion, i.
53, 139 ; note.; orators, essay on, 139
157 ; oratory unequalled, 145 ; causes of
its excellence, 145 ; its quality, 151 153
156
Johnson's ignorance of Athenian
character, 146 418 ; intelligence of the
populace, and its causes, 140 149 ;
books the least part of their education,
147 ; what it consisted in, 148 ; their
knowledge necessarily defective, 148 ;
and illogical from its conversational
character, 149 ; eloquence, history of,
151 153 ; when at its height, 153 154 ;
coincidence between their progress in
the art of war and the art of oratory, 155
; steps by which Athenian oratory
approached to finished excellence
extemporaneous with those by which its
character sank, 153 ; causes of this
phenomenon, 154 ; orators, in
proportion as they became more expert,
grew less respectable in general
character, 155 ; their vast abilities, 151 ;
statesmen, their decline and its causes,
155 ; ostracism, 182 ; comedies,
impurity of, 182 2 ; reprinted at the two
Universities, 182 ; iii. 2. 2
"Athenian Revels," Scenes from, 30 ;
to: 54
Athenians (the) grew more sceptical
with the progress of their civilization, 383
; the causes of their deficiencies in
logical accuracy, 383 384
Johnson's opinion of them, 384 418
Athens, the most disreputable part of,
i. 31, note ; favorite epithet of, i. 30, 30 ;
note; her decline and its characteristics,
153 154 Mr. Clifford's preference of
Sparta over, 181 ; contrasted with
Sparta, 185 187 ; seditions in, 188 ;
effect of slavery in, 181 ; her liturgic
system, 190 ; period of minority in, 191
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