The Press. — London, England, 1858-09-11 00:00:00

876 THE WEEK. Orr the 31st of August last, English literature and English society sustained a severe loss by the lamented death of Mr. FORD. Ile was born in 1796, in Sloane-street, London. His father, a scion of an old Sussex stock, was in 1789 M.l'. for East Grinstead, and afterwards long chief magistrate of the London police. His mother was the daughter and heiress of BENJAMIN BOOTH, well known as a patron of art and artists, especially of RICHARD WILs" of whose fine landscapes he left upwards of sixty specimens. Melt Alto Foal) thus inherited that love of art which was one of the chief enjoyments and distinctions of his life. Educated at Winchester and Oxford, he was called to the Bar, but soon forsook Lincoln's-inn for the Louvre and the Vatican, recently opened to Englishmen by the close of the revolutionary war. He spent several years in travel, during which he visited the greater part of Europe, and began to form those collections of books, prints, and pictures which afterwards became so rich and remarkable. Having returned to England and married a daughter of the late Lord ESSEX, he undertook a journey to Spain in 1830. He was so fascinated with that interesting country and its people, that he remained there for three years. Much of this time was spent at Granada, where he resided for many months in the Alhambra, at Seville, and in various long expedi tions on horseback, in the course of which he examined, with sketchbook and notebook in hand, the greater part of the Peninsula, and acquired those habits and tastes which gave colour and direction to a great portion of his life, and made him—to use the brief words of his epitaph composed by himself—Rerum Hispanics indagator acerrimus. Returning home in 1833, he settled in Devonshire, near Exeter, at Hevitre-house, where he made large and tasteful improvements, and laid out a beautiful garden in the Moorish style, where his cypresses and myrtles from Granada flourished with the luxuriance of their native Andalusia. Mrs. Palm dying in 1837, he married, for the second time, in 1839, a daughter of the late Lord CrtasrsTowN, and soon afterwards passed some months in Italy, when he recrossed the Alps for the last time. The next four or five years he spent principally at Hevitre, and in the composition of the " Handbook for Spain," into which he collected the results of many years study and travel. No work, bearing so humble a title, ever enjoyed, or deserved, so immediate, so wide, and so enduring a popularity. Designed, as the title declared, for " readers at home" no less than for " travellers abroad," its design was exactly and completely fulfilled. There is no subject connected with Spain on which the book fails to give either full and satisfactory information, or clear indication of the best sources where knowledge may be obtained. On its solid worth and charming style the public has long ago pronounced a decided opinion. Of its scrupulous accuracy and its marvellous minuteness of observation, those only can judge who have used it for its primary purpose, as a guide across the wild Sierra, or through the streets of the remote Spanish town. There the traveller will find the deep defile, or the hill-top prospect, the airy belfry, o r the black-browed portal painted, in a few words, with the masterly touch of a Turner or a Roberts; and rarely, indeed, will he discover any grand natural or artistic feature which has escaped the keen glance of the indagator acerrimus, whose industry has made his day easy, and whose wit and learning helps to render his evenings brief. The " Handbook " is, in truth, not only a picture but a history of Spain. In tracing this history, especially the history of the Peninsular war, Mr. FORD exposed the blunders and falsehoods of Spanish and French writers, with a hand so skilful and severe, that his publisher and some over-cautious friends became alarmed as to the reception it might meet with in the countries most concerned, and apprehended, as a possible result of the author's frankness, that English travellers might be deprived of their handbooks on the frontier of indignant Spain. By the advice, or rather at the entreaties, of these timid councillors, Mr. FORD therefore agreed to cancel a great part of the first impression, and dilute the phials of his historical wrath, and moderate the tone of his criticism. A few copies, however, of the original sheets were preserved, and the suppressed " Handbook " is now one of the greatest curiosities of recent literature. The work appeared in 1845, and was received with the applause it deserved. Two large editions were soon exhausted, and the third, almost rewritten, appeared in 1855. The second edition having been greatly abridged, Mr. Foal) published the excised matter in the shape of essays, entitled " Gatherings from Spain," a volume, more manageable in form and type than the " Ihndbook," which still retains its popularity. From these two works various tours in Spain have been constructed, and will, no doubt, continue to be manufactured for years to come. It is fortunate that Air. FORD preceded most of his followers, and that so keen and able an observer saw Spain before the Betting in of the transition, which is now effecting that de-Pyreneesing process which Louis XIV. pretended he had accomplished. When Mr. Foal) lived in the Alhambra, Andalusia was yet the land of the monk and the mantilla. The monk, who with all his picturesqueness could well be spared, was extirpated soon after Mr. FORWS departure. The mantilla is, alas ! fast following the cowl ; and both seem to be taking refuge, as exotics, in imperial Gaul. The pre-railway Spain will, however, live in the pictures and pages of Mr. Foal - ) and his friend Mr. ROBERTS. Besides his independent publications, Mr. FORD was the author of many admirable contributions to the Quarterly Review and other perio dicals, From 1836 to 1857 he was one of the most popular and active of THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 11, lB5B. the Albemarle-street staff; and the late Mr. LOCKH ART cou l d always count upon his friend at Hevitre fora brilliant and effe c ti ve essay. Of these papers, most of them upon subjects connected with the literature or art of Spain, a valuable and agreeable . volume might eas il y b e formed In politics, Mr. FORD was through life a hearty and c ons i s t ent C onserva: tive. His love of our old English institutions , and hi s di s lik e to rash innovation, is discernible throughout his writings, and was well known t« all who enjoyed his acquaintance. One of his earliest papers written for the Quarterly was an essay on the late War of the Spanish Succession, in reply to a pamphlet written under the inspiration of Lord PaimmtsTox, and published in 1837, in defence of the meddling policy of that Mi n i ster with regard to Spain. The subject being one of immediate and temporary interest, Mr. MURRAY considered it expedient to publish this essay in the shape of a pamphlet, with the title of "An Historical Inquiry into the Unchangeable Character of a War in Spain." In this anonym ous wor k , Mr. Four) denounced the policy of the then Whig Minister in the spirit in which Conservatism has always denounced it, and with a force of style and argument which attracted great notice. Many of his predicti ons h ave been fully realized. If he neither predicted nor foresaw the sudden rise nor the ignominious fall of the lively Foreign Secretary, he was one of the first to expose Lord PALMERSTON'S besetting sin, the vice of bullying the weak and cringing to the strong, which in February last became the Nemesis of his career. Although a decided politician, Mr. Fonn was of too genial a nature to allow difference of opinion, even on vital questions, to disturb the serenity and kindliness of his social relations. The Whig and Radical friends who have partaken of the famous ollas and guisados of his agreeable talk will testify that his Toryism, frankly avowed and boldly and skilfully maintained, was not one of his least pleasant characteristics; and that, in spite of their heterodox doctrines, they liked him quite as well as if he had been one of themselves, or even than if they had effected his political conversion. His charming house in Park-street, filled with all that is choice and beautiful in literature and art, was also the resort of all that English society affords of intellect and refinement, and those who have enjoyed his hospitality will long remember it and him with affectionate regret. Mr. FonD died at Hevitre in the sixty-second year of his age. lie was thrice married; the third time to the only sister of the late Sir W. Moi.Eswoirrii. By his first marriage he leaves a son and two daughters; by his second, one daughter. His son, FRANCIS CLARE FORD, is in the diplomatic service, and is attached to H. M. Legation at Lisbon. We have often thought that the careless outpourings of our senators and legislators at those provincial banquets which adorn their autumnal holiday are a wholesome corrective of that more disciplined and arti ficial language in which they are compelled to address the House of Commons. As the Johnson of BOSWELL is to the Johnson of " Ras selas" and the Rambler, so is the "table-talk" of a member of Parlia ment to his set speeches in St. Stephen's. Fresh from all the inspiring influences of country life, among his friends and neighbours, and cheered by the prospect of a three months' enjoyment of his favourite pursuits, even the sourest of Radicals forgets his grievances for awhile, and men of all shades of opinion are found combining to eulogize the most conflicting ideas and institutions. We have seldom seen a better instance of the truth of these remarks than was afforded by the inaugural banquet at the Leeds Town-hall on Tuesday last. Everything was couleur de rose. The visit of her Majesty shed additional lustre on the event, and everybody at table seemed resolved to try which should say the civilest thing about everybody and everything else. The health of the clergy was drank, and special allusion made to the services of Dr. Hoox and the Bishop of RIPON—tWO gentlemen differing very widely indeed as to IA hat the services of a clergyman and a bishop ought to be. Lord GODERICII congratulated his audience on the vigour and vitality of corporations as demonstrated by the event of the day ; and added that if the House of Commons was the tree of English freedom, it was principally because it cherished local institutions. "Other nations," said the Noble Lord, warming with his subject, "had "endeavoured to imitate us ; they had set up Chambers of Peers and " Chambers of Deputies, but they had failed in their attempts, because they "had planted their tree without its roots." Admirable, my Lord GoDErucii. Si sic omnia dixisses. Or rather not so much yourself; perhaps, as the party to which you belong. But is it not somewhat of a necessary consequence, that if local jurisdictions are of such inestimable , value, the conduct of local officers cannot be uniformly absurd? Ihe question of local institutions cannot be confined to municipal bodies, though these form a standing topic of abuse with Liberal orators in Par liament. It extends to our unpaid magistracy, to our local boards, and to every kind of government opposed to the spirit of centralization. It is no use to panegyrize local government as an empty abstraction. If it is go?d, its operation must be good. The acknowledgment of the general trin: ciple, howeyer, is a step in the right direction ; and when next an y Li e„nil politician is - tempted to declaim against the " ignorance and incapacity . 0 f municipal and county self-government, let him reflect on what a distin guished and promising young member of his own party pronounced nyo the subject at Leeds. Mr. BEECROFT followed in the same strain "saw in the magnificent pile, and in this noble hall, the symbol of a grand, "idea. The whole formed a sort of fane, which would enshrine througa " succeeding ages the noblest principles of their great Saxon ancestors:. "representative institutions—local self-government." Municipal lot! tutions, he continued, were "ai estate of the realm," and thros, • li ,; ~;;