The Press. — London, England, 1855-05-05 00:00:00

MAT 5, 1855. nese carefully copied it in every piece of the set. The Voltalian flaw is painfully obvious in all Lady Morgan's literary muse. Thus the Passage continues : Philosophy, meanwhile, leaving reform to its struggles, and theology to ils sophisms, availed herself of the licence of the times, and of the inquiring spirit of the age. This affectation of " philosophy " in " her ladyship's writings is more than ridiculous. Her countryman, Mr. Grattan, in his first speech in the English House of Commons, while his success was still doubtful, secured the applause of Mr. Pitt, by a withering sarcasm against Doctor Dreigman. After describing the chaos of subjects through which that learned person had wandered, Grattan burst firth :—" Here the limits of " creation interposed, and stopped the gentle " roan. I shall proceed to answer him, to " defend the Catholics against his attack, and " to rescue the Protestants from his defence." In the days when Lady Morgan was " a " literary subaltern," there were many writers and speakers from whom " philosophy " re quired a safe deliverance. It is not, therefore, on such subjects as " Salvator Rosa and his Times," that we should expect to find Lady Morgan's talents appear to most advantage. Her mind was radically deficient in true poetical passion, though she had extraordinary facility in Milesian rhetoric. Thus, in describing Claude Lorraine's landscapes, she writes : The effect of the ever•efective chiaro-oscuro had been reiterated to repletion, by Adam Elzheimer and his school. It was the genius of Claude which developed the new mystery of perspective, until his glorious pictures seemed to open vistas through the walls they decorated. The creator of a vegetable aristocracy, this master painter of the elements ennobled the nature he copied, and was the first to stamp a beau ideal upon her material aspect, as Raphael had before done upon the human countenance. " The creator of a vegetable aristocracy "! When Lady Morgan wrote that sentence of Claude Lorraine, she must have been thinking of Mr Foater—" the father of Irish agricul ture"—for the political economists always thought that there was more than an allitera tive connection between patricians and pota toes in Ireland. The description of Salvator's landscapes is better, but it is too much in the best boudoir manner of Miss Rosa Matilda : The least of his landscapes was pregnant •pith moral in terest, and calculated to awaken human sympathies. His deep and gloomy forests, whose impervious shade is relieved by the silver bark of the shattered oak that forms the foreground, are only given as the shelter of the formidable bandit, whose bold and careless figure, strangely armed and wildly habited, fixes the eye beyond sll the merits of the scenic representation. The long line of stony pathway cut through masses of impending rack, is but the defile in which the gallant cavalier, bent on souse generous enterprise, is overtaken by the pitiless outlaw — or by the rush of storms, which seem to threaten destruc tion at every step his frighted steed advances. The way worn traveller, the benighted pilgrim, the shipwrecked mariner, introduced as accessories into the main scene, become images that engage the heart as well as the eve, and give to the inanimate character of landscape a moral action and an historical interest. ------- When Lady Morgan's novels come under our notice—even for the sake of " auld lang syne " we shall have pleasure in again examining them, and rendering that critical tribute to her humorous and sparkling vivacity which cannot be denied even by those who most dislike the defects which have detracted from her literary fame. Too fiercely decried in one quarter, she was too highly praised in another, and she is fairly entitled by her eminence to an impartial adjudication. Lives of Men of Letters of the Time of George 111. By Henry, Lord Brougham, F.R S. London: Griffin. THIS volume contains the reprints, in the uniform series of Lord Brougham's works, of the graphic and interesting sketches of Vol taire, Rousseau, Hume, Robertson, Johnson, and Gibbon. The volume will command, in all probability, even a larger number of readers than the preceding one, as the proportion of those who are interested by literature exceeds those who can appreciate science. A sketch and estimate of Voltaire must of necessity be a performance dealing with a multitude of subjects, and presenting iu little something like the phantasmagoria displayed by the THE PRESS. mind of the versatile writer himself. Lord Brougham's rapid style and ready decision is, therefore, seen to much advantage in this artiole. We do not know any part of his critical writings where this quality may be better found than in the pasaves (pages 21-27) upon the astatine of Voltaire, in which the truly French distillation of the eloquent and pictu resque narrative of Sallust is pleasantly and sometimes wittily pointed out. Of Voltaire as a historian Lord Brougham expresses a very high opinion, attributing to him the merit that histories ceased to be merely chronological narratives of events set down in the order of time, and often only recorded on account of their tendency to excite the wonder of the reader. Of the " Estti sur les Mteurs des Nations," he says : This work has thus become the true history of human society, indeed of the human race. He Inuits himself, no doubt, in time, beginning with the age of Charle- magne ; but he fixes no bounds of space to his survey. Front that period, the middle of the eighth century, to the middle of the seventeenth, upwards of nine cen turies, he traverses the whole globe, to gather in each quarter, at each time, all the changes that have taken place in society—all the events that have happened among man —the story of all the eminent individuals that have flourished—all the revolutions that have affected the for• tunes of nations or of princes ; and neglecting everywhere the trivial matters, however authentically vouched, he fixes our al tendon only on the things which deserve to be remem bered as having exerted a sensible influence upon the destinies of the world. In proportion to the real intrinsic importance of each event, or to the interest which it is calculated to excite, is the minuteness with which its cir cumstances are detailed. But no event is given in detail merely because it is fitted to excite a vulgar and ignorant wonder; while those things are recorded which are of real moment, although their particulars may seem to create little interest. To the work was prefixed a treatise on the " Philosophy of History," but the whole book might justly be designated by that name. One thing is certain, that though, as Lord Brougham says, this work had much effect on succeeding historical writing, Voltaire himself sadly forgot its principles in his " Age of Louis XIV.," perhaps the most tame narrative in any language, and his " Life of Peter the Great," which deals perpetually in trifles, and frequently in exaggeration. The " Lite of Hume " is enriched with some novel information and several letters of the historian, as well as some facsimile extracts from the manuscript, which show with how much labour Hume strove to polish a style which, after all, affords abundant speci mens of Gallicisins and Scotticisms. The artiole on "Johnson ." contains much plainly-told truth respecting the great levia than, and, while allotting him the illustrious place to which he is entitled, avoids the too common habit of critics even of the present day to praise the doctor as indiscriminately as his own clique in the parlour of the Mitre. Lord Brougham has not forgotten his unreasoning hatred of Scotland, and balances fairly enough his honour of Hnme with his enjoyment of the company of Wilkes. " Gibbon" is a fair article on the life of ono who did not pass through much vicissitude. The criticism on the style of the great work will be generally coincided in, but it is hard to say whether it has not had more readers than if it had been as compact as that of Livy or of Hume. The most agreeable article in the volume is that on Lord Brougham's famous kinsman Robertson the historian It has the charm always inseparable from the writing of one who has a personal recollection of his subject. One most interesting fact is related in Robert son's life—namely, that Lord Bute conveyed to him an offer from George 111. to write the History of England, and that such provision should be settled upon him as would enable him to devote his whole time to the task. The failure of such a negotiation must be ever regretted by the friends of English historical literature It is probable (says Lord Brougham) that the retire ment of Lord Bute from office, which happened soon after, put an end to this important negotiation : important in a very high degree to the literature, and, indeed, to the con stitutional interests of the country. Nothing more seems to have resulted from the correspondence except the re viving in his favour the place of historiographer for Scotland, to which he was appointed in 17134. But who that values the accuracy of historical narration, and sets a right estimate upon the benefits derived to our political system from • through investigation of the records and the events of former times, during which our mixed go vernment was slowly formed and gradually matured. can avoid deeply lamenting that the subject of English history had not fallen into the hands of him who wag, by a compe tent judge, though a rival author, justly called '' the most diligent and most faithful oc penmen ''? We should then have possessed a work of which the brilliant outside gluts being sustained by the intrinsic value of the eoin, it would no longer have been necessary for the student to read one narrative for it dramatic effect, whi e he sought in the other the real facts of the story, and to refuse giving the tint praise of an historian to the first master of historical com position. Nor would the acquisition of au English history, at once readable and erectable, have been purchased by the sacrifice of the other works with which this great writer, after the failure of the tresty,enriched our literature. It was part of the conditions which he imposed that he should tint he allowed to finish his " Charles V." ; and when we reflect on ten years having elapsed after he finished his " America," without resuming his pen, there seems no reason to doubt that he could have written this and the English history also during the period between 1769, when " Charles " was published, and lit 49, when he began the "Disquisition on Ancient India." The failure of the treaty, therefore, is a matter of utimiugled regret ; and is one of the worst of the many mischiefs which we owe to the English plan of conducting government by the con flict of adverse parties, with the consequence almost ne cessarily flowing from it, of all the principles, and all the measures, and all the designs of one Ministry becoming, as a matter of course, an object of suspicion, and even of dislike, to their successors. With the concluding remarks on the English system of government most people will agree, and none will be at a loss just now to point to countless instances in every department of administration of the truth of the author's ideas. In fine, we oan recommend this volume as a handsome reprint of a very able, pleas ing, and instructive work. As War is the one great subject of interest at present, those papers in Blackwood will probably be first turned to which bear upon this all engrossing subject. The article entitled "The Campaigns of a French Hussar" reviews the " Memoires du Colonel Combs sur lee Campaigns de Russie 1812, de Saxe 1813, de France 1814 15." The memoirs are more occupied with personal adventure than with details of Bonaparte's generalship; but the mere mention of his campaigns suggests the question, whether it is probable that Napoleon 111., among other eminent qualifications for the Imperial sceptre of his uncle, inherits the brilliant military genius of Napoleon I.? As yet this is "un grand petit. etre," but the sagacity he has displayed raises a strong presumption that he will so well measure his ability with his enterprises as to render the success of what he may personally engage in morally certain. "The story of the Campaign" is continued, bringing down the narrative of events to the intelligence received in eamp of the death of the Emperor Nicholas. The last chapter, devoted to " a view of the works," would, with the aid of a good map, give a very tolerable and clear idea of the position and batteries of both be sieged and besiegers. The pretty romance of " Zaidee" is maintained with much animation in the additional chapters here. given. The article upon " Modern Novelists" sums up in fair critical style the merit of recent fictions, and pays a handsome compliment to the memory of the anthotess of " Jane Eyre " To tosociate bodily weakness or waning life with the name of this remarkable woman dill not occur to us, nor can we think of cancelling now what we have said, but we repeat again over her grave the great admiration with which we have always regarded her wonderful powers. No one in her time has grasped with such extraordinary force the scenes and circumstances through which her story moved; no one has thrown as strong an individual life into place and locality. Her passionate and fearless nature, her wild, warm heart, are transfused into the magic world she has created—a world which no one can enter without yielding to the irresistible fascination cf her personal in fluence. Perhaps no other writer of her time has im pressed her mark so clearly on contemporary literature, or drawn so many followers into her own peculiar path ; and she leaves no one behind worthy to take the pre-eminent and leading place of the author of " Jane Eyre." The " Royal Scottish Academy," besides reviewing the pictures at the present exhibition of that society in Edinburgh, enters largely into the question as to whether artistic education is really required in order to appreciate art. The writer appears to think not, but we fancy he has mistaken the real meaning of his terms. An uneducated mind would no doubt comprehend a fine painting of a landscape with which he was well acquainted ; he could say whether it was like or not; but, unless intuitively a man of artistic feeling, he could not appreciate the real beauties of the picture before him. It is with paint ing as it is with music and every other art, the more we aro educated in its principles the more we appre ciate its apparent beauties and discover merit s which are totally unfelt by the uninstructed. It is very well to say that the first question a man would ask himself would he, "Is that picture natural'" It requires, in the flr-t pare, some little education, and no small amount of observation, to discern correctly