The Press. — London, England, 1858-05-15 00:00:00

And we presume that the Leandrian exploit is not yet to be classed as a myth. 111 r. Trelawny accompanied Byron to Greece. He was not with him at his death, but reached the house a few days afterwards. Fletcher, the servant of the deceased, immediately led him up to the room where the dead body lay embalmed. He made the best use of the opportunity of satis fying his curiosity : I asked Fletcher to bring sue a glass of water. On his l e aving the room, to confirm or remove my doubts as to the cause of his lameness, I uncovered the Filgrim's feet, and was answered—the great mystery was solved. Both his feet were clubbed, and hie legs withered to the knee— the form and features of an Apollo, with the feet and legs of a sylvan satyr Kuowing and sympathising with Byron's sensitiveness, his associates avoided prying into the cause of his lame. nese; so did strangers, from good breeding or common humanity. It was generally thought his halting gait originated in some defect of the right foot or ankle—the right foot was the most distorted, and it had been made worse in his boyhood by vain efforts to set it right. He told me that for several years he wore steel splints, which so wrenched the sinews and tendons of his leg that they increased his lameness ; the foot was twisted inwards, only the edge touched the ground, and that leg was shorter than the other. His shoes were peculiar—very high heeled, with the soles uncommonly thick on the inside and pared thin on the outside—the toes were stuffed with cotton• wool, and his trousers were very large below the knee and strapped down so as to cover his feet. The peculiarity of his gait was now accounted for; he entered a room with a sort of run, as if he could not atop, then planted his best leg well forward, throwing back his body to keep his balance. In early life, whilst his frame was light and elastic, with the aid of a stick he might have tottered along for a mile or two; but after he had waxed heavier, he seldom attempted to walk more than a few hundred yards, without squatting down or leaning agninet the first wall, bank, rock, or tree at hand, never sitting on the ground, as it would have been difficult for him to get up again. In the company of strangers, occasionally, he would make desperate efforts to conceal his infirmity, but the hectic flush on his face, his swelling veins, and quivering nerves betrayed him, and he suffered for many days after such exertions. Disposed to fatten, incapable of taking exercise to check the tendency, what could he do? If he added to his weight, his feet would not have supported him ; in this dilemma he was compelled to exist in a state of semi. starvation ; he was less than eleven stone when at Genoa, sad said he had been fourteen at Venice. The pangs of hunger which travellers and shipwreckei mariners have described were nothing to what he suffered; their priva tions were temporary, his were for life, and more unendur able, as be was in the midst of abundance. While Mr. Trelawny stood in contemplation of the corpse, Fletcher returned from his errand ; and, " without making any remark, drew the " shroud and pall carefully over the feet of his " master's corpse"—by which it would appear that the "valet" this case "comprehended the hero" better than the biographer. Mr. Trelawny copied an unfinished letter of Byron's, which he here prints, and collected the papers in the room, comprising, among other fragments, " fif " teen stanzas of the seventeenth canto of ' Don " Juan.' " After so many youthful bards have tried their hands at " continuations" of that poem, it would have been interesting to see what its author's own ideas were on the subject ; but Mr. Trelawny has not favoured us with any means of forming an opinion. His book, as we have seen, is throughout devoted much more to .be personal peculiarities of Byron than to the elucidation of his literary genius. Concerning the latter, we get only a few scattered notices — such as the influence exercised on him by Shel ley—his incaparity of writing except when the fit seized him—his intention of writing a fifth canto of " Childe Harold" (which was to contain, among other matters, a description of Stromboli in eruption)— ; but not such a delineation of it as, with the opportunities he enjoyed, Mr. Trelawny might have accomplished for us. The book is an interesting one ; it could hardly be otherwise ; but it is mo re th an ordinarily painful as regards both the distinguished men whom it describes. The latter chapters are devoted to Mr. Trelavmy's own adventures in Greece, in company with the interlocutors in that unusually dull dialogue in which he figures in Mr. Landor's " Imaginary Conversations." Historical and Biographical Essays. By John Forster. In Two Vols. London : Murray. Tns three historical essays of which the first volume o f thi s pu bli cat i on i s compose d are en titled " The Grand Remonstrance," " The Plan tagenets and Tudors," and " The Civil . Wars and Olive r C romwe ll . " The f i rst o f t h em gives us a very graphic account of the great contest in the House of Commons during the winter of 1 641-2, when that appeal to the people known as THE PRE S S, MAY 15, 1858. " The Grand Remonstrance" was carried through the House of Commons by the popular party. It contained a recapitulation of all the grievances of the King's reign, and has by different histo rians been thought the successful effort of an expiring faction to regain importance, or the hold attempt of sagacious patriots to warn the country of its danger. The first question to be decided is at what point, if at any, the Long Parliament departed from a justifiable course of reform, and placed themselves in the wrong. Mr. Hallam is of opinion that such a point of departure is to be noted when, after (in the spring of 1641) "forming our Constitution such nearly as it now exists " —by, first, the Triennial Bill ; second, the aboli tion of arbitrary taxation ; third, of arbitrary imprisonment ; and fourth, of several minor grievances which bore hard on individuals—they proceeded to the impeachment of Strafford, the act against their own dissolution, and the exclu sion of the bishops from the House of Lords. If this opinion be correct, there is no difficulty in comprehending the reaction in the King's favour which set in during the autumn, and which was only checked by his foolish attempt to seize the five members in the following January. On this hypothesis, the originators of the Grand Remon strance would seem to have been actuated by faction rather than patriotism. And such would appear to have been the opinion of Falkland and other eminent and nobleminded members of the revolutionary party. By a mode of reasoning peculiar to himself; Mr. Forster sees in the mode ration of Hyde and Falkland the justification of the extreme party, and in the efforts of the Universities and the House of Lords to preserve episcopaq " treason" to the popular leaders ! Such logic as this renders Mr. Forster totally worthless as an historical teacher. The complete and unconscious begging of the question evinced in the passages we allude to is such evidence of ratiocinative weakness as at once to put him out of court. But even this is hardly the worst. Supposing that Mr. Halkun is wrong, and that the Long Parliament were justified in the extreme measures which they adopted. Still, the King had submitted to them. Where then was the propriety of striving to excite the people against him any further P A justification of this conduct has sometimes been sought for in an alleged design on the King's part to recover his preroga tive by force of arms; and a transaction which took place at Edinburgh, styled "The Incident," has sometimes been pressed into the service of his detractors to show that he might have had a design of assassinating the Puritan chiefs. The only authority on the point is Clarendon, in whose history it stands recorded that the Mar quis of Montrose offered to King Charles, when in Edinburgh, to assassinate the Earl of Argyle and the Marquis of Hamilton. Intelligence of this " incident" was conveyed to Westminster, where it caused the greatest consternation. Now, the joke is that this pretty little plot has long since been discovered to be a mares nest. It has been found out that many passages in Cla rendon's history which stand as part of the text were never meant by him to appear there at all. By some blunder of the first publishers, certain XiS. notes, containing mere memoranda of re ports, and intended for his Life, were transferred to the pages of the History, and the MSS. of the History transferred to the collection of notes. The passage relating to this offer of Montrose is one that has been so treated ; and in the edition of 1826, the true reading is given in an appendix, where there is not even a hint of assassination. This, of course, is what Clarendon intended to be the authentic version of what took place at Edinburgh ; and it will scarcely be believed that a writer who plumes himself so much on research as Mr. Forster does should be totally ignorant of the real state of Clarendon's work, and should quote from the old corrupt text as if it were the authentic one : Clarendon says explicitly that Montrose, while profess ing to be able to satisfy the King of the treason of Argyle and the Harniltons, advised the more certain and expedi tious mode of disposing of them by assassination, which he "frankly undertook to do." This is really monstrous. Clarendon intended nothing of the kind. The characters of British heroes are not to be written away after this fashion. And this s►ngle error is, in our opinion, quite a sufficient sample of the whole volume as a reliable authority. Mr. Forster's talent lies in a picturesque and effective grouping of his materials. Who will not read with pleasure the following sketch of the house of Commons ? The entire length of the room in which the members sat was something less than the breadth of Westminster Hall; and, handsome as it originally had been, with its rich architecture and decorated paintings of the thirteenth century, it had lost all trace of these under boards and whitewash immediately after the Reformation, when also a new floor above, and a new roof under the old, still more abridged its proportions. At the western end. the entrance was between rows of benches, passing the bar, and underneath a gallery into which members mounted by a ladder on the right-hand corner, near the southern window. At the eastern end, a little in advance of a large window looking on the river, stood the Speaker's chair; and again, a little less in advance of that towards the middle of the floor, stood the Clerk's table, at which sat Henry Elsyng, and John Rushworth his lately appointed assistant, with their faces to the mace and their backs to the Speaker. Then, on right and left of the Speaker, in benches stretching along and springing up as in an am phitheatre on either band, were assembled the honourable members. There they sat, puritan and courtier, the pink and choice of the gentlemen of England with bearded faces close-cut and stern, or here and there more gaily trimmed with peak and ruff ; faces for the most part worn with anxious thoughts and fears, heavy with toil, weary with responsibility and care, often with long itnorison ment; there they sat, in their steeple hats and Spanish cloaks, with swords and bands, by birth, by wealth, by talents, the first assembl7 of the world. And there, pre siding in his great cairn- surmounted by the arms of England, sat Mr. Speaker; also hatted, cloaked, and sworded like the rest ; but not always treated by them, nor in tooth always treating them, with the respect which has gathered to his office in latter time. While he does this yet a few minutes longer, let us seize the occasion to °beam where some of the prominent people sit. The member whose manuscript record chiefly has been quoted, Sir Simonds D'Ewes, will guide us to the knowledge here and there, in jotting down his own speeches; for as it was then the custom to avoid mention as sell of the place represented as of the member's name, the principal mode of indicating a previous speaker was by some well-known personal quality, or by his position in the house. Sir Simonds himself sat usually by the Speaker's chair, on the lowermost form close by the south end of the Clerk's table; and there, whatever the subject of debate might be, or the excitement going on around him, this precise Self-satisfied puritan gentleman sat, writing-apparatus forming part of his equipment, his eyes close to the paper (for their sight was defective), and ever busily taking his notes: but it was his custom, when he spoke, to go up two steps higher, that he might more easily be hear) by the whole house. In this position, Mr. Harry Marten, the member fur Berkshire, was " the gentleman below." Mr. Pym, the acknowledged chief of the inejority of the Commons, is ever in his " usual place near the bar," just below the gallery on the same right band side of the house at entering. Sir John Culpepper, member for Kent, and so soon to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, is "the gentleman on the other side of the way." He sat upon the left-hand side; and near him, Molt generally together, sat Hyde and Falkland; Mr. Geoffrey Palmer, the member for Stamford, and Sir John Strangiveys, sitting near. On the same aide at the upper end, on the Speaker's right, sat the elder Vane, member for Wilton, for a few days longer Secretary of State and Treaserer of the Household ; near whom were other holders of office. Sir Thomas Jermyn, his Majesty's Comptroller, who sat for Bury St. Edmund's; Sir Edward Herbert, the Attorney-General, who sat for Old Sarum ; Oliver St. John, the Solicitor-General, member for Tot ness, still holding the office iu the King's service which had failed to draw him over to the King's side ; Mr. Coventry, member for Evesham and one of the King's house; and young Harry Vane, member fur Hull, and Joint•treasurer of the Navy ; all sat in this quarter, on the Speaker's right. Near them sat also Mr. Edward Nicholas, clerk of the Council, soon to be Sir Edward and Secretary of State in place of Windebauk, now an anxious auditor and spectator of this memorable debate, which he was there to report to the King. Between these members and Hyde, on the same side of the house, sat the member for Wilton, Sir Be gjainia Rodyerd ; Sir Walter Earle ; William Strode ; and lawyer Glyn, the member for West minster. Mr. Herbert Pike, the member for Brecon, with Mr. Wilmot, member for Tamworth, and a knot of young courtiers, sat at the lower end of the house on the sanie side, immediately on the left at entering. Jahn Hampden sat on the other side, behind Pym ; and be tween him and Harry Marten, sat Edmund Waller ; on one of the back benches, Cromwell; nut far from him, Denzil Holies; and under the gallery, the member for Oxford University, the learned Mr. Seidel). Near him sat lawyer Maynard, the other member tor Tommie ; and over them, in the gallery itself, that successful lawyer Mr. Hol— borne ; Sir Edward l)ering; and the member for Leicester shire, Sir Arthur Haselrig. But our list must come to a close. The reader has been detained too long (tom the debate on the Great Remonstrance. If we turn to Mr. Forster's literary essays we observe kindred defects and merits—a strong and turbid flow of thought, and a copious command of facts—which carry us over rough ground and smooth, over bush, briar, and swamp, at a slow, perhaps, but steady and uniform rate. But the briars and swamps are numerous. There is a blunt ness of perception in Mr. Forster's intellect, and • corresponding slovenliness in his style, the one which often leads him into mistakes, while - 1 da A31:44