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

the most ordinary affairs all the world acknowledges, and to know that we have no other resource against the de struction which is preparing fur us but in their wisdom. But so it is As for us, our line happily has been direct and straight, and our way is elear before us ; bat this, though it is matter of personal satisfaction to ourselves, is nothing as to the state of the country, which I, who am generally pretty sanguine, really begin to consider as desperate. Such have been the effects of two years' folly? - - - As the prospect of war became more certain Pitt and the Grenvilles drew closer together. Some facts published in this work show that it was impossible to avoid the rupture which soon after occurred, and Lord Grenville, in view of the break-up of the Addington Minis try, conceived a plan for a coalition charac teristic of his patriotic mind. We have not spare for the exposition of his views contained in his memorandum—a valuable document, clearly explaining the negotiations in which Pitt bore part previous to the dissolution of the Adding ton Ministry—and therefore take the summary of them given in the narrative : It appears that Lord Grenville, moved by a profound conviction of the danger likely to be brought upon this eountry by a weak and incapable Administration, when all its resources, directed with consummate skill, were re quired for the conflict into which she had entered, suggested a coalition of the ablest men of all parties, who were to sink all minor differences under the impulse of patriotic devotion, and form a Government such as the exigency demanded. That an Administration composed of the most distinguished men, in or out of Parliament, without any reference to alleged opinions, would have been able to conduct the war with vigour, and maintain the dignity of the empire undiminished till an honorable peace could be obtained, there seems little doubt. The country was not deficient either in great statesmen or in great commanders ; and urged by the overwhelming ruin with which she was threatened, by the immense power and brilliant military genius of the ruler of France, it was not too much to expect in the former the same union she was sure to find in the latter. At least, it was a noble idea, and set the example of self oblivion, which was to have been the principle of the combination. This WAS, however, not the only proof Lord Grenville gave of being at least halls, century in advance of his age. These views were deemed by Pitt imprac ticable or inexpedient. When summoned to the King (May, 1804), he asked Lor t Grenville to join him, but on the principle of not attempt ing a coalition with the Whigs, or of forcing the question of Roman Catholic Emancipation on the King. Grenville, with highly honour able feeling, declined, and again urged the policy of coalition : It is unnecessary to dwell on the mischiefs which have already resulted from placing the great offices of Govern ment in weak and incapable hands. We see no hope of any effectual remedy for these mischiefs, but by uniting in the public service " as large a proportion as possible of the weight, talents, and character, to be found in public men of all descriptions, and without any exception." This opinion 1 have already had occasion to express to you in the same words, and we have for some time been publicly acting in conformity to it; noncan we, while we remain impressed with that persuasion, concur in defeating an object for which the circumstances of the present times affo►d at once so strung an inducement and so favorable an occasion. ----- Hence resulted the separation of the Gren villes from Pitt, and their union with the Whig party. In politics, as Burke has said, the choice does no► often lie between positive good and positive evil, but between degrees of each. We cannot argue whether Pitt or Grenville was most to blame, for each acted from his own view of principles of duty, but we may fairly consider which of the two was most right. The idea of a Coalition will always be a favorite one with men who are sanguine in temper, and who believe there is sufficient force in patriotic feeling to overcome diversi ties of disposition, of connection, of sentiment, and of long-cherished hopes and views. Men of larger experience, and of deeper insight into the human mind, believe on the contrary that such Coalitions, however promising they may appear, can never prove satisfactory, as they are opposed to those elementary princi ples, be they of conviction or of interest, which attach men to particular parties in the State . The political philosopher well knows that whatever errors may enter into his calcula tions on other points, he is perfectly sure of his ground when he speculates on the elemen tary qualities of human character ; and hence he not only objects to Coalitions, for their sacrifice of opinion and the ill-effects they produce, but he feels certain that they must fail to accomplish their professed object of giving strength to the Government and concord to the country. He is convinced that they THE PRESS. contain within themselves the seeds of divi sion, and that union can no more result in political bodies from the mixture of irrecon cileable sentiments than in chemistry from shaking together substances which refuse to amalgamate. Lord Grenville had not to wait long for an opportunity of carrying his theory into prac tice. Pitt's Ministry was dissolved by his death in little more than a year and a half after its formation; and Grenville, who had in the interim acted with Fox, was summoned to forma new Cabinet. In his correspondence we trace the difficulties and distress which the Coalition occasioned him. A fow days before Pitt's death Grenville wrote to his bro ther in a desponding strain (Jan. 7, 1806) I never had from the beginning any other object than that of uniting the leading parties, and healing the dis tr►ctions of the country, being even then convinced that all the talents and exertions of all the public men of the coun try were not more than sufficient to meet the dangers that threatened us. This hope is now desperate; firstly, by the great misconduct of Pitt, who might have realised it, but refused to do so ; and secondly, by the violence of my own friends, some of whom (Fox's party) never wished the thing to succeed If then, after a struggle that shall tear the country to pieces, we now make it impossible for Pitt to carry on the government, who is to succeed ? Another experiment of shreds and pct.thes like Addington's, to be composed of Hawkesburys and Castlereaghs ; will that mend our case ? a joint Government of Fox's friends and ours, who the very first day we meet in Cabinet shall probably differ on the leading question of our whole policy—that of resistance or submission ? His embarrassment commenced as soon as his Ministry was formed. In the narrative a fair statement is given of his harassing position : Lord Grenville's confidence in the strong Government he had formed received some severe shocks before he had been long in office. His patriotism was of a totally diffe rent character to that assumed by some of his coadjutors, whose reputation arising from it was their sole political capital, and his qualifications as a statesman were not less genuine and liberal That his disappointment was bitter when he discovered the extent of his delusion, there can be no question ; bat there were other causes of unpleasantness, besides the displays of empty pretension and miserable selfishness, that arose around him. His forgetfulness of his own interests was extended to the interests of persons who were nearest and dearest to him. This appears to have given offence ; and to the accumu lated disagreftbleness of his position was now added the want of cordiality with a relative, whom he regarded with the tenderest affection. In a most affecting letter to the Marquis, re plying to a charge that there was any diminu tion of his brotherly attachment, he said : Let me speak to you fairly and plainly. lam conscious of no concealment, I had nothing to conceal, I never courted the task which was cast upon me. Nothing but your wishes and my brother's—l repeat it, for it is abso lutely and positively true, and I appeal to that God who now sees me write t is—nothing else has prevented me from doing long since, what I shall now certainly do the very first instant I can do it with honour, withdrawing myself altogether from a scene and course of life which I detest, and in which I cannot but too plainly see it will be impos sible for me to maintain the only thing I do value in life, whioh is the affection of my friends and relations, and most of all that of my brothers I cannot conceal from myself that my continuance where I am can do no good to anybody, and will only destroy my own happiness without object or motive of any sort. Here for the present we must end our notice of these valuable volumes. We have only just closed one of them, and the other contains many points deserving comment. But from the passages we have quoted, and the allusions made to the events embraced in them, our readers may judge how rich they are in genuine historical material, and how much light they throw on some of the most memorable political transactions in the im portant reign of George the Third. The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa. By Lady Morgan. London : Bryce. IT appears that, like other writers of the pre sent time, Lady Morgan has resolved on a republication of all her works. It is a serious crisis in an author's career when, after en joying considerable popularity, a more de belirate verdict is asked from the select tribunal which quashes or affirms the deci sions of the circulating library. With her characteristic fearlessness Lady Morgan ve►i tures on the trial ; and if it were merely a ques tion as to "her ladyship's " talent, there would be little room for doubt, but upon the perma nent value of her writings there is room for SATURDAY, hesitation. When Irish subjects were fresh, and the sister country not familiarised to us, the novelists who painted the manners of their native land obtained an exaggerated position in the literary world. Pamphlets on the " Catholic question," in " three vols. post octavo," were then eagerly read, when diversi fied with satirical sketches of Mr. Conway Crawley, " her ladyship's" reviewer in ord►- nary, and travesties of viceregal glories at Dublin, with anecdotes of living celebrities introduced in dialogues. There was vivacity, force, and much humour in their composition. Though not of the purest water, the Irish diamonds glittered in their lavish profusion, and made a pleasant show, and they were often set with considerable skill in the art of rhetorical jewellery. There was not then, whatever Lady Morgan may think, the compe tition that now exists in writing novels. In the preface to this new edition of her works it is stated of " Salvator Rosa," the first in this series : The style in which it was written may now, perhaps, be deemed rococo by the censors of the modern free-amt-easy school, who write that those who run may read. Such as it is, it was the style with which the author won her spurs under the command of Field-Marshal " O'Donnel" and other heroes, native and foreign, who " championed" to their utmost the sublime cause of right and their oountry'd independence. If, however, with the conceit of other veterans, she now " Shoulders her crutch and shows how fields were won," she pleads that she served, though only as a subaltern, in times of the greatest literary enterprise and mental com. petitorship that British genius ever produced since the Augustan ages of Elizabeth and Anne ! Notwithstanding the adroit qualification of "only as a literary subaltern," there is too much of the quorum pars magna fui in that bold paragraph. Miss Edgeworth was the only Irish competitor that " Miss Owenson " had to encounter, for English female novelists were scarcities forty years ago. Very different is the task of a lady com batant who in our timeJ seeks to distinguish herself against Mrs. Gore, Mrs. Jameson, Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Mrs. Trolloppe, and not to speak of American ladies who can produce an " Uncle Tom," or of the recently lost and lamented writer of "Jane Eyre." Greater finish and far deeper moral qualities would now be required than were shown in the authorship of " O'llonnel." The taste of the times has changed, and readers now demand of the painters of humanity faithful portraiture of the workings of simple nature in the lowlier •ranks of life. Over these latter springs of action Lady Morgan never could have com mand. Miss Edgeworth's peasants were really full of Irish humour, though their passionate phases were not well depicted, as they may be seen in the better writings of Carleton. On the other hand, it was vain to expect the sweet feminine pathos of Mrs. S. C. Hall, and her graceful naturalness of style, in the peppered condiments that were carefully prepared by Lady Morgan. In all her productions the ambition of a woman to write like a man was too palpable, and it often exposed her to damaging censure. There is a still graver fault in the constant intrusion of Voltarian flippancy on the most serious subjects, and she surfeits the reader with the cant of indiffe rentism, while laying herself open to the charge of infidelity. Thus, in the work before us, let us mark the following passage, the italics being our own The Reformation came—the greatest even] of modern times. It was the policy of the new religion to carry on her system by a stern rejection of all the meretricious means by which the old Church had effected her scheme of usurpation. She wanted no pictures, and patronised no artists. Equally bent upon supremacy as her gr a! prede cessor, the called in new aids to accomplish her ends ; she Affected to engage reason on her side, and to found faith on proof. But., more bent on her object than considerate of her means, she discarded 100 little or too much; and did not foresee that reason, usurping the territory it was called in to defend, would eventually throw light on the retained abuses as it had upon those rejected. In discarding the arts and preserving the tithes, the Reformed Church at once loosened her strongest hold on the imagination, and armed the more calculating passions against her. This style of sentiment, we are happy to know, will not find many favorers in this age. It is a bad imitation of the worst passages . in the early numbers of the Edinburgh lievaw. A connoisseur once sent a porcelain saucer to China, and ordered an entire service of exactly the same pattern. Unfortunately there was a crack in the saucer, and the Chi-