The Press. — London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

be a curious problem to the historical specu • lator to say what might have happened in France had the coup critat of 1830 been planned and carried out with the secrecy and skill which marked that of 1852. President Bona parte knew better than to allow his troops to hold intercourse during three days with the insurgents, and to listen to their promises of promotion and reward to deserters. We cannot follow the historian through his able analysis—it may almost be called an essay—on the causes of revolutions in France. Those on which he mainly dwells are—the unpopularity of a Royal Family restored by foreign arms—the extreme division of pro perty, whereby the existence of an aristocracy is rendered impossible—the want of religious restraints in the large towns—the intense love of excitement, and individual thirst of distinc tion, called forth by the Bonapartean con quests,—and not least, though hitherto less noticed, the countless multitudes of illegiti mate children, without property, home, or domestic ties, who were, and still are, found in Paris and the urban districts. This class is reckoned as forming one-third of the Parisian population, and in Lyons the proportion is not less. Add to all this, that under a Govern ment professedly constitutional the working class were wholly unrepresented, while both their interests and their feelings often placed them in hostility to the bourgeoisie, who ex clusively composed the electoral body. It is noteworthy that physical distress had little, if anything, to do with the political convul sions we have described. Statistically tested, the prosperity of France in 1820-30 seems to have been great and increasing. Indeed, it would appear that severe distress turns away men's minds from politics : a certain degree of leisure and wellbeing aro necessary before the mass of mankind will interest themselves in the fate of ministers and constitutions. [To be continued.l Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. With Explanatory Notes. By Charles Edmonds. Second Edition. London : Willis. Atrttouott there are not a few defects, as well as mistakes, in this edition of the jeux d'esprit of the Anti-Jacobin, the volume is worthy of a place on the shelves of the collector. It has several illustrative notes, and six reprints of some of Gillray's most spirited caricatures. It has also an index professing to give the names of the authors of the several pieces, on the accuracy of which in many places we arc inclined to be sceptical. The little volume is handsomely got up, and " second " edition on the titlepage shows how keen is still the appreciation of the satirical poems of Canning, Frere, and Gifford. Mr. Edmonds, however, must excuse us if we say that he could scarcely be qualified for editing such a production. There are very few now living who could discharge the office properly, because the parties who had most to do with the authorship of those sarcastic pieces were not in the habit of making revelations on the subject. Several of the dicta scattered through his numerous notes show that Mr Edmonds has not the closeness in statement essential to a critical discharge of editorial functions. In his preface he adopts the re mark of Moore in the " Life of Sheridan" that " the Anti-Jacobin and the .Rolliad may be " considered on their respective sides as " models of light political satire." The names of the two works should not be mentioned in the same sentence. The Rolliad was epheme ral in interest, and so grossly licentious in many of its passages, that no man would per mit it in the hands of his wife or sister. Its wit was mechanical and ponderous. The heavy humour of Doctor Lawrence in his hex ameters and iambics was like a Dutch burgo master mimicking the elasticity of a French dancer. Mr. Edmonds, in proceeding to the origin of the Anti-Jacobin, says:— The sagacious mind of Mr. Pitt had long seen that his party in Parliament were, with very few exceptions, no match for his numerous opponents, powerful both in talent and social position ; among whom were Fox, Sheridan, Erskine, Horne Tooke, Whitbread, Nicholls, Courtenay, Fitzpatrick, the Dukes of Norfolk and Bedford, Lord Stanhope, the Duchess of Devonshire, and others. He was always anxious, therefore, to secure whatever available talent presented itself, and immediately on their appear. THE PRESS. ance enlisted under his banners Canning, Jenkinson, Hus lagooni and Castlereagh, all men of the same standing, for the first three were born in 1770, and the last in 1708. We see here a very clumsy enumeration of Mr. Pitt's opponents, in which " Nicholls " and " Courtenay" have precedence of the Pre mier Duke of England, and the Duchess of Devonshire for the first time is assigned the worst place in the company. The assertion that Mr. Pitt was " always anxious " to secure " whatever available talent presented itself" is not historically true. We could quote several high Tory authorities to show that Mr. Pitt neglected too much the means of influencing popular opinion through " literary " organs. He was not himself fond of literary society, though, if he pleased, he might have excelled in it, and the tendency of his nature was to rely too much on parliamentary numbers. As an instance of his comparative carelessness in recruiting talent to his standard we may cite his neglect of young Mr. Henry Brougham when brought under his special notice by Wilberforce, whose repeated attempts on that point are recorded in his printed correspon dence ; and other cases might be named. But the principal defect of this edition is, that Mr. Edmonds seems to have followed the selections made from the Anti-Jacobin in the reprint of 1800. We have in our possession a copy of those selections, which belonged to one of the most distinguished diplomatists of that day, bearing also " second edition " on its titlepage (pp. 240), and issued by Wright, the original publisher. For political reasons in that republication several curious bits from the original Anti-Jacobin were omitted. Mr. Edmonds appears to have followed it, interpo lating its pages with matter borrowed from some past and living writers of no great au thority in political history, amongst whom we would particularise Wraxall, whose informa- tion at best was only secondhand, and not beyond the value of club gossip. Undoubt edly the most important part of Mr. Ednionds's work is the index to the authorship, reliance on which we are not disposed to accord. He thus begins:— The following notices of the writers of the " Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin" are derived from the copies mentioned below, and each name is authenticated by the initials of the authority upon which each piece is ascribed to parti. ruler persons : C.—Ce.nning's own copy of the poetry. B.—Lord Burghersh's copy. W.—Wright the publisher's copy. V.—lnformation of W. Upcott, amanuensis. The editor does not say where Canning's " copy of the poetry" is to be seen. Nor does he choose to investigate what may be the worth of Upcott's testimony, of an amanuensis making unpermitted revelations. We should like to see the grounds on which these asser tions are made so boldly, when it appears, on coming to the end of this " contents with the " names of the authors," that, after all, there is still room for conjecture on the matter. Let us, for example, turn to the well-known poem of " New Morality," which has been always emphatically ascribed to the united talents of Canning and Frere. Mr. Edmonds thus undertakes to assign the special author ship of that celebrated piece : PAGE. 225 From Mental Mists Frere, W. Yet venial Vices, &c. 226 Bethink thee, Gifford, &c. These lines were written by Mr. Canning some years before he had any personal acquaintance with Mr. Gifford. 227 Awake ! for shame I Canning, W. 230 Fond Hope ! Frere, W. 231 Such is the liberal Justice {Frere 235 0 ! Nurse of Crimes G. Ellis 236 See Louvet 237 But hold, severer Virtue j Frere j I W. 1 Canning { Frere 238 To thee proud Barras bows Canning }W. Ellis 239 Ere long, perhaps { Gifford I w. Ellis j Couriers and Stars i Canning J . " 240 Britain, beware 241 So thine own 0ak,.... attributed to W. Pitt. Here are five authors assigned to a poem of four hundred and sixty-five lines, and in this edition there is no numeration of the verses, although it was made with great care in the SATURDA' original Anti-Jacobin. But the markin g wttb a show of accuracy the portions of such va riorum authorship at once suggests doubt to any critical mind. We are forced to think of the affectation of minuteness in repeating hearsay tales so well described in The School for Scandal, how Charles Surface's bullet, " what " was very extraordinary, after passing through " Sir Peter, struck against a little bronze " Shakspeare that stood on the mantelpiece, " glanced out of the window at right angles, " and wounded the postman who had just " come to the door with a double letter from " Northamptonshire." The reader will have observed that the letter " W " stands as the authority in the table for those " names of " the authors." Yet after his previous liner. tions we are surprised at the end of his "con. tents " to find the editor thus disparaging Wright : With regard to Mr. Wright's appropriation of particular passages to different authors, it is obviously mere conjec. ture. Both Canning and Gifford professed not to be able to make such distribution, but the farmer's share of "New Morality" was so very much the largest as to e nt i t l e him to be considered its author. Then what did Mr. Edmonds mean by telling us of " Canninq's own copy " and the " authority of Wright, ' when at the close he throws Wright over, and undertakes flippantly to settle the question himself ? A passage in his own preface registers under his own hand the perspicacity of Mr. Edmonds as au editor. He says : Bat Mr. Canning's greatest power is shown in " New Morality," which, being the last of the series, seems to have been reserved as a concentrating medium fur his pent-up scorn and contempt of the Whigs and their adherents. So that his blows fall thick he cares little who suffer from them, and the modern reader is surprised to find Charles Lamb and other non-intruders into politics figuring as congenial conspirators with Tom Paine ! In this poem occur many often-quoted lines, and among them that of "The Derby Dilly with its six Insides." Here he treats Canning as the chief author of " New Morality," and falls into the gross blinder of asserting that it contains the erby Dilly " passage. A reader would be long searching for it in that place; but, if Mr. Edmonds opened his eyes, he would find it in the "Loves of the Triangles," alt p. 137 of his own edition! But, even where not positively erroneous, his references are not sufficiently pre • cise. Thus in the mention of Horne Tooke's name we are told " an elegant memoir of him was " contributed to the Quarterly _Review, vol. vii., "by the late Lord Dudley." In the records of periodical writings there is scarcely a more mordant piece of incrimination than the essay, not "memoir," referred to, and few articles that ever appeared in the critical literature of England caused more sensation in social circles than that "elegant memoir," with its excruciating use of the scalpel. The following ten lines of the " New Morality " are, says Mr. Edmonds, attributed to the pen of Mr. Pitt " So thine own oak, by some fair streamlet's side, Waves its broad arms, and spreads its leafy pride, Tow'rs from the earth, and rearing to the skies Its conscious strength, the tempest's wrath defies: Its ample branches shield the fowls of air, To its cool shade the panting herds repair. The treacherous current works its noiseless way, The fibres loosen, and the roots decay ; Prostrate the beauteous ruin lies ; and all That shared its shelter perish in its fall." We should like to see it stated by whom these lines are ascribed to Mr. Pitt. There is, cer tainly, a sonorous swell and rhetorical tone in the verse not dissimilar from what one might have expected from Mr. Pitt if he had been a poet, but we doubt that he ever wrote them. The only evidence that could be assigned for such a statement is of a slight and circumstantial kind, not alluded to by Mr. Edmonds. W . e know, from a variety of sources, that Mr. Pitt was fond of declaiming passages from Lucan ; and we have little doubt but that the spiritel , lines in the first book of the " Pharsalut (ver. 136), alluding to Pompey, " stat magni nominis umbra, "Quails frugifero quereus," rte. &c., were favourites of Mr. Pitt ; and if he had chosen a theme for exercising his powers of anglicising from a favourite classic it might have been from " Lucan's Oak." Mr. Edmonds thus concludes his introduc tion : Nor have Prime Ministers and Secr-tories of State, in general, left much of a sportive characte r behind them;