The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

f it tr at tut. Addresses delivered by his Royal Highness the Prince Albert. Published by the Society of Arts. London : Bell and Daldy. No candid mind can deny the fact that the Prince Consort is one of the most accomplished personages who ever occupied so high a station as that which his Royal Highness fills in Eng land. If there were any doubt on the point, it would be removed by a critical perusal of these intellectual addresses. Few orators rival the Prince Consort in forcible breadth of generalisation. Prince Albert does not in dulge in mere abstractions ; his habits of thought and speech unite the philosophic and practi:ml. We might, indeed, infer from the tone and sentiment of these addresses that his Royal Highness was deeply conversant with the ascertained laws of social history, as dis tinguished from mere political narrative. There is a largeness of view, combined with a closeness of thought, in his exercitations that gives them much value. His Royal Highness can be didactic without pedantry, and philo sophical without being fiigid. He has evi dently profited by the highest German culture ; but his Royal Highness has superadded the observation and practical reference which belong to English habits. The blending of the two qualities in these addresses is very inte resting. Other features, also, are apparent in the style of his Royal Highness. The composition is smooth ; there is no obscurity ; and, along with the pithy power of thought in the logic, there is considerable polish in the rhetoric The reflection of an essayist, the shrewdness of a man of the world, and the scholarly dic tion of an academic mind all meet in these compositions. Brilliant brevity and sugges tive thoughts are sAlom found together, as here, in the formal addresses from personages of state. When the Prince Consort first delivered these addresses, it was said that " they were " composed for him !" The question next came, " By whom ?" and no one could answer. The fact is that their high merit and origin ality consist in their being utterly unlike such speeches as official formalists would venture to put in the lips of a great dignitary. Their boldness is unlike the pettiness and empty verbiage of redtapists. At times, certain sec tions have been offended with the manly frankness and honest utterances of the Prince Consort. Roman Catholics tried to find grounds for offence in the following admirable sentiments, delivered on the festival of the " Sons of the Clergy":— When our ancestors purified the Christian faith and shook off the yoke of a domineering Priesthood, they felt that the keystone of that wonderful fabric, which had grown up in the dark times of the middle ages, was the Celibacy of the Clergy, and shrewdly foresaw that their reformed faith and newly won religious liberty would on the contrary only be secure in the hands of a clergy united with the people, by every sympathy, national, personal, and domestic. Gentlemen, this nation has enjoyed for three hundred years the blessing of a church establishment which rests upon this basis, and cannot be too grateful for the advan .tages afforded by the fact, that the Christian ministers not only preach the doctrines of Christianity, but live among their congregations an example for the discharge of every Christian duty, as husbands, fathers, and masters of families, themselves capable of fathoming the whole depth of human feelings, desires, and difficulties. Whilst we must gratefully acknowledge that they have as a body worthily fulfilled this high and difficult task, we must bear in mind that we deny them an equal participa tion in one of the actuating motives of life—the one which amongst the •` children of this generation " exercises, per haps of necessity, the strongest influence—l mean the desire for the acquisition and accumulation of the goods of this world. Gentlemen, the appellation of a " money•making par son," is not only a reproach, but a condemnation for a clergyman, depriving him at once of all influence over his congregation. Yet this man who has to shun opportunities for acquiring wealth, open to most of us, and who has him self only an often scanty life income, allotted to him for his services, has a wife and children like ourselves; and we wish him to have the same solicitude for their welfare which we feel for our own. Are we not bound then to do what we can to relieve his mind from anxiety, and to preserve his children from destitution, when it shall have pleased the Almighty to remove him from the scene of his labours ? We submit that nothing could be more worthy of the heart of a Protestant Prince than the foregoing eloquent passage. Candid Roman THE PRESS, JULY 25, 1857. Catholics confess that the "domineering Priest hood" did provoke the cry for a Reforma tion. Through all these addresses Social Philo sophy holds a high place. There is a posi tivism of thought in all of them which stamps them as the productions of one mind, and it is in their social aspirations and monitions that their subjective originality is most to be found. The facts that society, rightly con stituted, should make a grand whole, and that the happiness of all classes are inevitably joined together, are always presented to the audience. The ideas of order, law, and duty are philosophically touched upon, and every address shows that the distinguished speaker has been accustomed to reflect upon the beauty as well as the utility of the social structure. The critical closeness of thought in these addresses proves the sustained power of the Prince Consort's faculty for observation. In his speech at the Royal Academy dinner in 185] his Royal Highness observed : Gentlemen! the production of all works in art or poetry requires in their conception and execution not only an exercise of the intellect, skill, and patience, but particn• larly a concurrent warmth of feeling and a free flow of imagination. This renders them most tender plant., which will thrive only in an atmosphere calculated to maintain that warmth, and that atmosphere is one of kind ness, kindness towards the artist personally as well as towards his production. An unkind word of criticism passes like a cold blast over their under shoots, and shrivels them up, checking the flow of the sap, which was rising to produce perhaps multitudes of flowers and fruit. But still criticism is absolutely necessary to the develop- ment of art, and the injudicious praise of an inferior work becomes an insult to superior genius. " The concurrent warmth of feeling " is, in deed, necessary to all exercise of the artistic and literary mind. To move others, a man must be moved himself. The Prince then proceeds:— In this respect our times are peculiarly unfavourable when compared with those when Madonnas were painted in the seclusion of convents ; for we have now on the one hand the eager competition of a vast array of artists of every degree of talent and skill, and on the other, as judge, a great public, for the greater part wholly uneducated in art, and thus led by professional writers who often strive to impress the public with a great idea of their own artistic knowledge by the merciless manner in which they treat works which cost those who produced them the highest efforts of mind or feeling. The works of art, by being publicly exhibited and offered for sale, are becoming articles of trade, following as such the unreasoning laws of markets and fashion ; and public and even private patronage is swayed by their tyrannical influence. Jt is, then, to an institntion like this, gentlemen, that we must look for a counterpoise to these evils. Most true ; and the " merciless manner " is often exhibited by critics who cannot draw a sketch in Indian ink. Some of our msthetical " critics " are the merest pretenders. The world of art is comparatively restricted in England, and critics in it, therefore, obtain more despotic influence than in literature. The characterisation of the late Sir R. Peel by the Prince Consort is executed with great ability, though open to criticism in detail. We shall extract the whole passage, as it is one of the most finished . effusions in this volume. At the Lord Mayor of York's dinner to the Lord Mayor of London in 1850, the Prince Consort, alluding to the death of Sir Robert Peel, spoke as follows : Only at our last meeting we were still admiring his eloquence and the earnestness with which he appealed to you to uphold, by your exertions and personal sacrifices, what was to him the highest object, the honour of his country ; he met you the following day together with other commissioners, to confer with you upon the details of our undertaking: and you must have been struck, as every body has been who has had the benefit of his advice upon practical points, with the attention, care, and sagacity with which he treated the minutest details, proving that to a great mind nothing is little, from the knowledge that in the moral and intellectual as in the physical world the smallest point is only a link in that great chain, and holds its ap pointed place in that great whole which is governed by the Divine wisdom. The constitution of Sir Robert Peel's mind was pecu liarly that of a statesman, and of an English statesmen : he was liberal from feeling, but conservative upon prin ciple ; whilst his impulse drove him to foster progress, his sagacious mind and great experience showed him how easily the whole machinery of a State and of society is de ranged, and how important, but how difficult also, it is to direct its further development in accordance with its funda mental principles, like organic growth in nature. It was peculiar to btm, that in great things as in small all the difficulties and objections occurred to him first ; he would anxiously consider them, pause, and warn against rash resolutions ; but having convinced himself, after a long and careful investigation, that a step was not only right to be taken, but of the practical mode also of safely taking it, it became to him a necessity and a duty to take it : all his caution and apparent timidity changed into courage and power of action, and at the same time readiness cheerfully to make any personal sacrifice which its execution might demand. Gentlemen ! if he has had so great au influence over this country, it was from the nation recognising in his qualities the true type of the English character, which is essentially practical. Warmly attached to his institutions, and revering the bequests left to him by the industry, wis dom, and piety ofi l his forefathers, the Englishman attaches little value to any theoretical scheme. It will attract his attention only after having been for some time placed before him; it must have been thoroughly investigated am? dis. cussed before he will entertain it. Should it be an empty theory, it will fall to the ground during this time of proba. tion ; should it survive this trial, it will be on account of the practical qualities contained in it ; but its adoption in the end will entirely depend upon its harmonising with the national feeling, the historic development of the country, and the peculiar nature of its institutions. It is owing to these national qualities that England, whilst constantly progressing, has still preserved the integ rity of her constitution from the earliest times, and has been protected from wild schemes whose chief charm lies in their novelty, whilst around us we have seen unfortu nately whole nations distracted, and the very fabric of society endangered from the levity with which the result of the experience of generations, the growth of ages, has been thrown away to give place to temporarily favourite ideas. This is very fine and discriminative eloquence, but, like Lawrence's portraiture of the original in oils, it is too flattering. Cromwell desired that the warts in his face should not he omitted ; and in this portrait of Peel we are made to think of Queen Elizabeth's wish that she should be painted without shadow. " Attention, care, and sagacity " in studying " the minutest details " Sir Robert Peel un doubtedly possessed; but, in our opinion, he always made too much of " difficulties and objections." He did not look enough into the general reason of things ; he often lost himself in mere details ; and when two opposite prin ciples sere tendered to him Sir R. Peel tr ould puzzle himself, because he would think upon them without reference to higher views than consideration of mere detail ever can give. Be sides, he did not see in time " the difficulties ' from standing still. He had no prescience, and his want of imagination is omitted from the foregoing picture. A Conservative states man is bound to be as prospective as a Liberal politician. He is as much bound as the leader of ary other connection to weigh the eventualities between inaction and innovation ; and when he sees that measures are inevitable, he ought to take part in devising those which are least dangerous. The political and social character of the Englishman as described by the Prince Con sort is drawn with clear and firm outlines. Yet it is remarkable that Sir R. Peel once de clared that it was " extremely difficult to " understand the people of England." He confessed that he was often puzzled by their love of money and property, and by their fond ness for political excitement. This volume is handsomely got up, and it is published by the Society of Arts, of which the Prince Consort is President. It is certain to be found in most libraries, as, in addition to the value of the orations themselves, much interesting matter is prefixed to the several speeches. An interesting account of the 23rd Regiment (Welsh Fusiliers) precedes the fuldress on giving them new colours in 1849. The following is curious : An ancient custom is connected with this regiment, in dicating its Welsh origin, of which it is not a little proud. When marching in review it is preceded by a goat with gilded horns, and crowned with flowers ; and on St. David's•day, when the health of thy• Prince of Wales is drunk, the goat, in magnificent housings, ridden by a drummer boy, is solemnly led round the table by the I)rum•Majot. In 1775, when the regiment was at Boston, the goat lwing frightened, leaped upon the table, threw his rider, and bounding over the heads of the guests, escaped, caparisoned as he was, to his quarters in the barracks. In 1844 the regimental goat died, and her Majesty graciously presented a fine Persian goat to each of the two battalions. The last words of the address from the Prince Consort were these : Take these Colours, one emphatically called the Queen's (let it he a pledge of your loyalty to your Sovereign, and of obedience to the laws of your Country), the other more especially the Regimental one, let that be a pledge of your determination to maintain the honour of your Regi• ment. In looking at the one you will think of your Sovereign, in looking at the ether you will think of those who have fought, bled, and conquered before you. On the bloody heights of the Alma these colours were borne in triumph by this re 728