The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-02 00:00:00

MAY 2, 1857. f iteratu rt. The Fortunes of Glencore. By Charles Lever. Three Vols. London : Chapman and Hall. I T must have been obvious, we should think, to all who had the pleasure of reading " The Fortunes of Glencore " during its appearance in the Dublin University Magazine, that Mr. Lever was making an experiment; that he had renounced the employment of those faculties by which his early popularity was achieved, and was seeking for success in a distinct. and, perhaps we might say, weightier style of composition. He now states in his preface that such has been his deliberate intention. He avows that it has not been his primary object to make an interesting story, or to point an instructive moral, but to accomplish " the faithful portraiture of character, the " close analysis of motives, and correct obser " vation as to some of the manners and modes " of thought which mark the age we live in." These points, then, are the criteria by which we must estimate the work and if in these Mr. Lever has succeeded, defectiveness of plot detracts little from his merit. As a mere story, then, we do not think " The Fortunes of Glencore " quite equal to some of his other productions. In the first place, the absence of all love scenes and lovers is trying to a three-volume novel. For want of this genial element the story is a little hard ; nor is the pathos of the tale as much developed as it might be. The meeting between Lord Glencore and the Countess might have been made a great deal more of ; and doubtless would have been, if Mr. Lever had sought primarily to excite our interest and our emo tions. But his appeal throughout is to the intellect. Some of the incidents also partake of that violence and slight air of exaggeration which has sometimes been objected to in Mr. Lever's fictions ; and, on the whole, we may say that the author's design, as above ex pressed, is pretty clearly stamped upon the work—to make the story for the sake of the characters, and not the characters for the story. Sir Horace Upton, Lord Glencore and his son, and a curious Irishman, who is the com panion and tutor of the latter, named Billy Traynor, are the four most prominent per sonages. Sir Horace is a diplomatist— not perhaps altogether unrecognisable English Minister at Turin. then at Naples, and subsequently Foreign Secretary at home. He is much the sort of character that Sir Bulwer Lytton loves to depict, and is finished with extreme care and effectiveness. He is one of those calm, astute beings who, under a. mask of langour and indifference, conceal vast intellectual and 'physical re sources—prompt energy and daring ambition. Nothing pleases him so much as to act the trifler in the presence of ruder organisations ; and to appear wholly occupied with his cook, his valet, and his medicine-chest—occa sionally, however, uttering paradoxes which perplex the simple listener, or allowing the edge of a sarcasm to glisten for one instant through the vesture of a compliment, like the bayonet of a hidden enemy. At rarer intervals he will show himself totally devoid of affecta tion, asserting openly that there are " six " men of sense in Europe, and he will tell you " the names of five of them"; and when it is really necessary to act, removing an obstacle or crushing an opponent with equal celerity and certainty. How far characters of this description are thoroughly true to nature, perhaps no individual is justified in attempt mg to determine. No man can say of the peculiarities of his fellow-creatures that they can go thus far and no farther; and as long as the delineator avoids manifest contradictions. w . e have no right to questio n th e fid e li t y o f his picture. His experience is as wide as our own. At the same time we must be permitted to say that although the conception of this character is masterly, and the general execu tion adequate, yet that Mr. Lever's sense of the ludicrous has at times betrayed him into excess of colouring. Sir Horace has a female familiar in the shape of a certain Princess Sabloukoff. an intriganto of European reputation, who i. THE PRESS. behind the scenes of every Court in Europe, and supplies the English Minister with information which astounds his employers in Downing•street. The celebrated Countess Mayendorif has probably contributed some of the most marked touches to this spirited portraiture. Lord Glencore is, perhaps, the most fault lessly drawn character in the story. His jealousy, his revenge, his irritability, and his final catastrophe, are all true to each other. Billy Traynor is, wo are told, a portrait of whom the original is still alive and hearty. He is drawn with great humour, and, we doubt not, equal fidelity. We have not space to say much of the remaining characters. Lady Glencore, an Italian, is separated from her husband owing to his causeless jealousy, and lives in Italy, the belie of her native town. She is for a time crushed by the mode of revenge which her lord adopts, who, confiding in the de struction of all proof, sends round paragraphs to the English papers denying their marriage, and declaring her his mistress. By the advice of the Princess Sabloukoti she returns to society, and it is at a masked ball at her own house that the final catastrophe occurs. Of the young Lord Glencore, who wanders about the world under the impression that he is illegitimate, we do not see as much as we could wish. We have doubted whether the effect of the announcement is not repre sented as rather too great upon a boy of fourteen. Colonel Harcourt is a very pleasant, genial, bluff character, and contrasts well with his friend, the polished and crafty Sir Horace. The following extract from a conversation between them will perhaps convey as just an impres sion of the style as anything we could offer : " Then you incline to believe Lady Glencore blame less? " asked Harcourt, anxiously. " I think well of every one, my charming colonel. It is the only true philosophy in life. Be as severe as you please on all who injure yourself, but always be lenient to the faults that only damage your friends. You have no idea how much practical wisdom the maxim contains, nor what a fund of charity it provides." " I'm ashamed to be so stupid ; but I must come back to my old question. Is all this story against illencore's wife only a calumny ? " " And I must fall hack upon my old remark, that all the rogues in the world are in gaol ; the people you see walking about and at large are unexceptionably honest— every man of them. Ali, my dear deputyassistaut, adjutant, or commissary, or whatever it be, can you not perceive the more than folly of these perquisitions into character ? You don't require that the ice should be strong enough to sustain a twentyfour-pounder before you venture to put foot on it ; enough that it is quite equal to your own weight; and so of the world at large—every• body, or nearly everybody, has virtue enough for all we want with him. This English habit—for it is essentially English—of eternally investigating everything, is like the policy of a man who would fire a round-shot every morning at his house, to see if it were well and securely built." " I don't, I can't agree with you," ciied Harcourt. "Be it so, my dear fellow ; only don't give me your reasons, and at least I shall respect your motives." " What would you do, then, in Glencore's place? Let me ask you that." " You may as well inquire how I should behave if I were a quadruped. Don't you perceive that I never could, by any possibility, place myself in such a false position. The man who, in a case of difficulty, takes counsel from his passions, is exactly like one who, being thirsty, tills himself out a bumper of aquafortis, and drinks it off." " I wish with all my heart you'd give up aphorisms, and just tell me how we could serve this poor fellow ; for I feel that there is a gleam of light breaking through his dark fortunes." " When a man is in the state Glencore is now in, the best policy is t) let him alone. They tell us that when Murat's blood was up, the Emperor always left him Zo his own guidance, since he either did something exces• sively brilliant, or made such a blunder as recalled him to subjection again. Let us treat our friend in this fashion, and wait. Oh, my worthy colonel, if you but knew what a secret there is in that same waiting policy. Many a game is aon by letting the adversary move out of his turn." " If all this subtlety be needed to guide a man in the plain road of life, what is to become of poor simple fellows like myself?" " Let them never go far from home, Harcourt, and they'll always find their way back," said Upton; and his eyes twinkled with quiet drollery. Come, now," said he, with perfect good nature of look and voice, " If I won't tell you what I should counsel tileneore in this emer• gency, do the next best thing—l'll tell you what ad vice you'd give him." " Let us hear it, then," said the other. " You'd send him abroad to search out his wife ; ask her forgiveness for all the wrong he has done her; call out any man that whispered the shadow of a reproach 435 against her ; and go back to such domesticity as it might please Heaven to accord him." " Certainly, if the woman has been unjustly dealt with—" " There's the rock you always split on ; you are ever lastingly in search of a character. Be satisfied when you have eaten a hearty breakfast, and don't ask for a bill of health. Researches are always dangerous. My great grandfather, who had a passion for genealogy, was cured of it by discovering that the first of the family was a stay u aker! Let the lesson not be lost on na." " From all which I am to deduce that you'd ask no questions—take her home again, and say nothing." "You forget, Harcourt, we are now discussing the line of action you would recommend; I am only hinting at the best mode of carrying out your ideas." `• Just for the pleasure of showing me that I didn't know how to walk in the road J made myself," said Harcourt, laughing. ` . Wliat a happy laugh that was, liarcourt. How plainly, too, it said, Think Heaven, I'm not'like that fellow with all his craft! ' And yon are right too, my dear friend; if the devil were to walk the world now, he'd be bored beyond endurance, seeing nothing hut the old vices played over again and again ; and so it is with all of us who have a spice of his nature. We'd give any. thing to see one new trick on the cards. Good night, and pleasant dreams to you." And with a sigh that had in its cadence something almost painful, he gave his two lingers to the honest grasp of the other, and withdrew. " You're a better fellow than you think yourself, or wish any one else to believe you," muttered Harcourt, as he ruffed his cigar; and he ruminated over this reflection till it was bedtime. And Harcourt was right . The Duke of Massa and the Chevalier Stubber wili of course he at once recognised by persons even slightly versed in Italian affairs. Baron Ward well deserves the colours in which he is here painted, and his well meaning but weak-minded master is very ft: • licitously hit off. _-_ _ _ Mr. Lever does not, on the whole, adopt the theory of those who would let the characters in fiction invariably describe themselves. He is fond of stepping aside and looking at them as a sculptor may contemplate the progress of a statue, of explaining this and that stroke, and drawing general conclusions. This plan, though dramatically defective, affords scope for many reflections on human nature which we should otherwise have missed, and is no demerit in a story which the author professes to have constructed on a peculiar plan. The Baltic C'ampaign of 1554. From th• Documents of Vice-Admiral Sir C. Napier, K.C.B. Edited by G. Butler Earl). London : Bentley. WE have deferred for some time our review of this painful volume. The whole subject of which it treats was often illustrated at length in another department of our journal, and Sir Charles Napier's letters in the newspapers, and. his oral controversy with his formidable anta gonist Sir James Graham, had previously ex hausted the personal interest of the question. We confess to a feeling of deep pain at a re trospective review of the whole proceedings of the Baltic campaign. The " discretion" of Sir Charles Napier had been previously impugned by Lord John Russell, the leader of the Houso of Commons at the time of the Russian war, and grave doubts were entertained whether the admiral had the manner and deportment suited for exercising control and obtaining much influence over the officers and men of a vast fleet. Government, however, decided on appointing him, and a portion of the public out of doors who like flashy reputations were much pleased at the admiral's appointment. Two incidents then occurred which were of a most unpropitious character. A banquet was given at the Reform Club, and the tone was as jubilant as if the thing which the admiral was " going to do" had actually been done. Lord Palmerston and Sir James Graham particu larly distinguished themselves at that feast, and Mr. Bright delivered a severe moral lecture to them both in the House of Commons. Next came the extraordinary omen of the admiral sticking in the mud just as he was embarking to go on board his flag-ship at Portsmouth. Persons not superstitious began to croak at these sinister precursors of the campaign. When it was ascertained clearly that the Baltic expedition was to end in " nothing,' and that it was only to be what the Parisians called a " promenade on the water," English men grumbled, and the more loudly because their expectations had been b 0 much excited. They thought of the old distich—