The Press. — London, England, 1858-02-20 00:00:00

I THE PRESS, FEBRUARY 20, 1858. opinion the orator had unjustly aspersed in the character b e had given in the course of the speech. Some men, it se emed, said the Solic itor - General , wishing to be very severe, were born for government, but Mr. Grenville had been, from whet they had heard, particularly unfortunate. Ills mind had b een contracted b y the two circumstances et h a ying been bred to a profession, and after he bad completed his studies, of having been immediately im mersed in the business of office. From the law he had acquired some evil habits and prejudices unknown to those who were happily ignorant under what form of go vernment they lived; and from his initiation into of he had not had the advantages of entering into the fashionable clubs, but had acquired an early intimacy with the first m en of the age. " Such, sir," said the Solicitor-General, sneering, as he thought triumphantly, at Burke, " were the disqualifications under which Mr. Grenville was called forth to the first situations in Administration at a time when ancient prejudices were still respected, and before it was understood that parts were spoiled by application, that ignorance was preferable to knowledge, and that any lively man of imagination and fancy, without practice in office, and without experience, might start up at once a self. taught Minister, and undertake the management of a great country in difficult times." This retort was considered very clever and happy. The reply undoubtedly was very happy If nothing but Burke's parliamentary perfor mances had come down to wz, what would have been his reputation—if there had been no thoughts on the present discontent, no reflec tions on the French Revolution, no Bristol Letter, no Literary Club to listen to his conver sation, no Johnson to attest his colloquial eminence? Burke's nature, in fact, was a strange medley of the practical and the impractical. In conduct he was shrewd and business-like. His efforts to keep his friends together Is ere untiring, nor did he disdain any of those party stratagems which the custom of statesmen sanctions. But the moment he rose upon his legs, his practical talent became a slave to his buoyant intellect. The deep thinker could not force himself to contemplate only the division list. The political philosopher could not re sist generalisations. His genius burst from its moorings, and, when he should have been battering a mud-fort, carried hint half round the world on a voyage of discovery. Some times au occasion presented itself when this kind of oratory was suitable. Then the effect he produced was prodigious. But in the ordinary business of Parliament it was felt that coarser instruments were wanted. Burke's private character was irreproach able. He had some little faults of manner, such as taking up a book and reading it out aloud at a party if he did not like his com pany, and some little infirmities of temper, such as throwing a Treasury account-book at the Prime Ministe r ' s head. But these are trifles in comparison with his singular benevo lence and charity, of which his conduct to the poet Crabbe is a noble example. Nor should we for a moment have alluded to the 30,0001. which he received from Lord Rockingham, had not Mr. Macknight been continually prating of his disinterested poverty to the dis advantage of other men. Burke's services were worth 30,0001, and he was right to take it; but the fact somewhat diminishes the alleged singularity of his conduct in steadily adhering to his patron. If it be true, also, es Mr. Macknight asserts, that he expected a handsome legacy into the bargain, the wonder is still more intelligible. Mr. Burke was a man of high genius and unimpeachable integrity. But he was neither the infallible statesman, the omnipotent orator, nor the superhuman purist which Mr. Macknight represents hi m. H e was some times misled by party spirit, he fought hard for the ordinary object of English ambition, and he scrupled not to accept the wages he had honestly earned. We need not fear to admit this much. For his character stands on a pedestal from which not even the pon derous panegyric of his present biographer will be able to drag him down. We must now glance briefly at the literary merits of these volumes If Lord Macaulay had never written, we should have said that Macknight's style was brilliant and powerful. As it is, it is only a capital bur lesque. To do our author justice, he has learned his tricks well. His short sentences and sweeping assertions are nearly perfect. He can hold us in suspense through a long paragraph descriptive of somno unknown per sc!nage, and knock us down at the end of it mull his name in full. He can treat rumours its Certainties, and certainties as rumours, quite as coolly as his original. The illusion is well sustained, and deserves to rank with the Shakespearian revivals of Mr. Charles Kean. In the second place wo have to note Mr. Macknight's partiality for bathos. This pecu liarity early shows itself. At page Ihe says, speaking of Ireland : AS year succeeded year, every gleam of comfort grew fainter; the shadows of night tell thickly around them; and with the establishment of the Hanoverian dynasty on the throne of the Three Kingdoms, for the Irish as a nation there seemed to be no future, no freedom, no pro sperity. Y.A it was in the saddest epoch in those sad five centuries of misgovernment and oppression, that a child, destined to be the mighty instrument in the emancipation of his country•, and a great instructor of the world in the political philosophy of all ages, was born in the house of a solicitor on Arran Quay, Dublin. It is certainly an almost unheard-of thing that when a country is badly governed it should produce a man of genius : Ou looking over Europe, the apostles of revolution might be seen already qualifying themselves for their ministry. The weapons of destruction were being sharpened; por tents of fearful augury were already in the heavens Diderot anti D'Alembert were commencing their Ency clopedia. Rousseau was, in contending for a provincial literary prize, to give indications both to the world and to himself of his paradoxical spirit, and of the great powers with which he had been endowed. Mirabeau was an in fant in short frocks; and some of the revolutionists, at whose deeds Barite and all Europe were to stand aghast, were already in long clothes. This is a powerful passage. Observe the impersonations and the proper names—all in their right places—and the affecting touch of infancy to conclude with. But Mr. Macknight can he pious as well as philosophic and pathetic. Of Peg Woffing ton he writes : With the tomb in prospect, the evil which had been her shame left her for ever, and she was to carry a contrite heart to the great Tribunal before which even the actress must at last appt•ar. Even actresses ! Well, we suppose they must. And even authors too, when let us trust Mr. Macknight's folly in this world will not. be brought up against him. _ . _ But Mr: Nicktiiglit's masterpiece is elicited by the publication of the parliamentary de bates. He is here seized with a " mighty madness," and bursts into song as follows : The new House of Commons, though perhaps both the most arbitrary and the most servile which had been chosen since the Itevolution, was, by the exertions of Burke, de stined to be the last that could hide its proceedings from the light of day ; and the foul spectre which dark ness had engendered, shrank away from that glorious Lucifer, son of the morning, the reporter in the gallery. Is there any allusion here to the Red Lion and the small hours? Can "The Glorious Lucifers " be the title of a convivial meeting, composed of that respectable section of the fourth estate which does most affect that hostelry ? And is Mr. Macknight himself " Perpetual Grand ?" We are aware that those veritable sons of the morning —who, alas! on quitting their establishment too often prove fallen ones—are compelled by the exigencies of their profession to see the sun rise oftener, as they say, than they would otherwise desire. But we were not aware of the existence of the G.L's., and should feel much gratified for more explicit information ou the subject It is only one step from bathos to bombast, and we now proceed to take it. Our space is growing limited, and we must therefore content ourselves with a couple of brief examples. To poor Byng lie thus alludes : Englishmen awoke and found that a nightmare had oppressed them. In 1756 all was despair; in Inti all was confideoce. The sacrament of blood which both mob and Ministers had taken for their despondency and imbecility after the loss of Minorca, had contributed to revive the drooping spirit of England; and a patriotic and fierce energy was kindled in the breasts of all who had partaken of that terrible communion. Mr. Macknight did not aspire to be bias phemons, we are sure. Ho is far too (lull. But we congratulate him on having achieved the distinction unconsciously. For " the King's friends" Mr. Macknight has reserved a choice bit of rant : We see their poisonous sting on the point of darting forth, but now quite harmless : we wonder at the fascina tion of the evil eye which is now brit glass: through their manifold contortions, now quite motionless, we trace their grovelling propensities ; and on gazing attentively at the hideous though lifeless objects betonp us, we almost fancy that we can hear the malignant hiss, and shudder at the deadly rattle. - - " Serpent, Sir ! I say, serpent !" said. the outraged Mr. Pott to the astonished Winkle. 185 We, too, hear the malignant hiss, but it is that of a less formidable creature; and though the other noise is offensive and discordant, it is not very deadly, and we do not shudder at it. We do not, for a moment imagine that any remarks of ours will disturb the complacency of Mr. Alacknight, or shake his faith in his own transcendent powers. This is displayed by his constant repetitions of himself. Three times in the first volume dues ho give us a cut and-dry puff of his hero in almost'precisely the same words. If our renders will refer to pages 2,0, and 201, they will see that we have not brought forward this charge without being able to substantiate it as well as our former ones. We have already alluded to his tauto logous panegyrics on Burke's oratory ; and really if anything could set us against that great man, if anything could make ua believe him a prig and a pretender, it would be the monotous solemnity of this gentleman's raptures. Impertinence is another conspicuous feature of Mr. Macknight's lueubrations. His observa tions on Burke's ancestry are an instance of this. " The or and ominous, the cross gales and " lion rampant sable, of the noble family of " De Burgh, had fur this Burke no attractions." How does Mr. Macknight know? Does he re quire to be told that men who feel moat deeply on these subjects say the least about them? and, moreover, that it was a peculiar eighteenth-cen tury habit to affect an indifference to these things? However, as he adds at p. 7 that " this " account of Burke's ancestry on his father's side " must be presented with diffidence, as it is " only by comparing rumour with rumour, and " rejecting misstatement after misstatement, " that an intelligible idea on this subject can " by any possibility be formed," he has de prived his former statement of all force, and left nothing visible but his own want of logic. Again, he tells us that of the " science of government " Dr. Johnson knew " literally nothing." Now, this is either a mere wanton assertion, or else our author is confusing the words art and science. Of the art of govern ment Johnson might know little, for he was not a politician. But of the science of Go vernment, as he never wrote upon the subject, it is idle to predicate his ignorance. It would, however, be endless to follow him through all his absurdities of this nature. \Ve take our leave of these two volumes, which bring us down to the conclusion of the Ameri can war, wi!li the most dismal apprehensions of the volumes to come. What a field for Mr. Macknight's peculiar powers in Warren Hast ings and the French Revolution ! The Glo rious Lucifers will be rampant. The sons of the morning will increase and multiply. The " malignant hiss " and the " deadly rattle " will grow louder and louder. A dozen Neros will fiddle while a dozen Homes are burning. At! nd other familiar events of au awful character will happen freely. He looked, and saw a sable sorcerer rise, Swift to whose hand a winged volume flies : All sudden, gorgons hiss, and dragons glare, And ten-horned fiends and giants rush to war. Helliises, Heaven descent's, and dance on earth, Gods, imps, and monster, music, rage and mirth, A fire, a jig, a battle, and a ball. Till one wile conflagration swallows all. La Defection de Marmont en 1814. By M. Rapetti. Paris: Poulet-Malassis et De Broise. THE posthumous memoirs of Marshal Mar mont, Duke de Raguse, which lately appeared in Paris, and of which some notice was at the time taken in this journal, have created quite a commotion in France from the tinsel upu ions manner in which they depreciate or as perse the First Napoleon, his lieute,iants and agents, or from the singular view they take of the extraordinary events in which those per sonages played a part or were interested Of all the events related or referred to by the author, that which has excited the greatest interest is naturally the famous de fection of 1814 which he accomplished, and of which the consequence was to precipitate the downfall of Napoleon. This defection has always been regarded by the great majority of the French as an act of the blackest tieason, and has consequently caused Miainuut to bp .. +~