The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-09 00:00:00

550 sore, Messrs. Parker, Furnival, and Parker. The house in which Milian lived is that now occupied by Grove, the fishmonger. We have said that it was not until after his successes that he went to reside near Rich mond. These particulars about him have present interest : Jn May, 1738, Thomson removed to Richmond, being in such easy circumstances as enabled him to enjoy the luxury of a country residence. He established himself iu a cottage in Kew-foot-lane, looking down upon the Thames, and commanding the distant landscape, with a pretty garden behind. This cottage has long since been ab sorbed in a handsome villa, of which what was once the poet's sitting-room now forms the principal part of the entrance-hall. His writing-table, with an inscription, is still shown, and the alcove in the garden, removed to the extremity of the grounds, under the spreading branches of a chestnut-tree, has been carefully preserved, with poetical tributes hanging on the walls, and a tablet to inform the pilgrim that "here Thomson sang the seasons and their change ; " which is not quite correct, as the " Seasons " were published six years before he went to live at Richmond. He had resided at Barnet in the earlier por tion of his life ; and some parts of the scenery there are not unlike Richmond. Mr. Bell supplies a note to the foregoing passage telling us of the present noble owner of the poet's residence : After Thomson's death the cottage was purchased by George Ross, Esq., who enlarged both house and grounds ; it afterwards passed into the hands of the Hon. Frances Boscawen, who put up the inscriptions relating to the poet. It is now the property of the Earl of Shaftesbury, and is called Rosedale-house—originally Rosedale, after Thomson's successor. Mr. Bell does not remark that in the glow ing panegyric on the British worthies (" Summer ") Thomson has the following lines on the author of the " Characteristics " : The generous Ashley thine, the friend of man; Who scanned his nature with a brother's eye, His weakness prompt to shade, to raise his aim, To touch the finer movements of the mind, And with the moral beauty charm the heart. The attributes hero given to the represen tative of the Ashleys are not extinct in that race. Some more ana of Thomson's habits are supplied by Mr. Bell : He had always been a great walker, and frequently walked from London to Richmond. Mallet lived at the water-side village of Strand-on the-Green, which once reckoned Joe Miller amongst its celebrities. This was one of Thomson's resting points. Another hall-way house was a little hostelrie called the l)ove Coffee-house, on the bank of the river, close to Hammersmith, where, according to local tradition, he had caught some of his wintry inspirations while he was writing the " Seasons." And he adds a note describing the present Dove Coffee house : The l)ove Coffee-hones is still in existence. It stands between the Upper and Lower Malls, and is approachable only on foot by a narrow path winding through a cluster of houses. A small terrace at the back, upon which some tables are placed, roofed over by trained lime-trees, com mands extensive views of two reaches of the stream, and the opposite shore is so flat and monotonous, that the place affords a favorable position for studying the chilliest and most mournful, though not the most picturesque aspects of the winter season. There has seldom been a work so highly corrected as the " Seasons," and Mr. Bell has profusely annotated it and given speci mens of the differences between the first and later editions. Thus in " Summer," upon the diamond and the effect of light, we read the following passage : The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays, Collected light, compact ; that, polished bright, And all its native lustre let abroad, Dares, as it sparkles on the fair one's breast, With vain ambition emulate her eyes. Originally the passage closed thus : And all its native lustre let abroad, Shines proudly on the bosoms of the fair. Certainly that passage was much improved, and as good alterations can be seen in other places. The topic mooted in the following note will probably be discussed in the forth coming edition of Pope by Mr Croker : Before Mr. Mitford came into possession of the volume containing Pope's alterations, it was already known through Warton's notes that Pope had made many correc tions in the " Seasons ; " but we had no knowledge of their extent or minuteness until Mr. Mitford communicated to the world his discovery of the copy of the poem in which they were actually made. That the alterations are Pope's admits of no reasonable doubt. Independenly of Mr. Mitford's opinion on that point, which is entitled to be received with respect, all the circumstances concur in lead ing us to the same conclusion. The interleaved copy evidently belonged to Thomson, whose careful emenda tions, incorporated in subsequent editions, are marked in its pages. It is certain that he did not seriously set about the task of revising the " Seasons " till two years after he want to reside at Richmond I and that Pope was his frequent THE PRESS. visitor during the latter period. That Pope should have noted his emendations in the copy Thomson had prepared for the reception of his own, is, therefore, not only highly probable, but seems to be the course which common con venience would have rendered most desirable for both. The " small and beautiful writing," not likely to be mis taken by any one familiar with Pope's hand, supplies another evidence of their authenticity ; and the importance attached to them by Thomson helps to confirm their authoritative source. If they were not Pope's, whose were they? Certainly not Collins's, nor Hammond's, nor Mallet's, the latest of Thomson's literary associates. Lyttleton'a undoubtedly they were not, as the specimens of the changes made by his lordship in the teat introduced amongst the notes to this edition will enable the reader to determine for himself. The negative testimony is quite as strong in favour of Pope as the affirmative. It is astonishing how much of the dubious appertains to parts of Pope's literary work. The reasoning in the foregoing passage is fairly balanced, and yet it is not perfectly conclusive. After the opinion of Pope on descriptive poetry,. " that it was a composition "as absurd as a feast made of sauces," one could scarcely imagine his taking up the " Seasons " for minute emendation. To the writer of poetry we know of no better exercise than to compare the changes made (no matter by whom) in the successive editions of the " Seasons." They remind us of the curious correspondence between Gray and Mason relative to the emendations in the beautiful epitaph by the latter on Miss Drummond (" Correspondence of Gray and Mason," p. 396), and they instruct young writers on the necessity of being fastidious, and to learn, as Sir Philip Francis told Burke, that " polish is " essential to preservation." We have been pleased in a high degree with Mr. Bell's " Thomson." It justly sup ports the title of " Annotated Edition." We should like to linger over some of the cor rected passages, but our space warns us to close. Speeches of Eminent British Statesmen during the Thirty-nine Years' Peace. First Series. London : Griffin and Co. No department of literature possesses so little general interest as that occupied with " speeches." The fact is, that orations are " made to be spoken, and not to be read" ; and what had great success in the delivery often appears tame in perusal. The occasion has passed away, the passions have subsided ; antipathies on one side, and enthusiasm on the other, have disappeared. What was once a fiery torrent has become a cold bed of lava, and we can scarcely imagine that volcanic force accompanied its eruption. The partisanship and half-thinking of speeches also detract from their enduring in terest. In a divided age, when society is split into classes, and when party sways the Senate, speeches seldom can possess a moral unity. They rarely rise to be expressive of national will ; and in a Parliament of debaters mere dramatic oratory would he felt to be unreal. Forensic eloquence in cases that appeal to the heart is free from those defects ; and hence, with the exception of Burke, no orators of the Senate have had so many posthumous readers as Erskine and Curran. The speeches in this volume are not well selected. They contain single specimens of Lord Liverpool, the Earl of Durham, Sir S. Romilly, Sir J. Mackintosh, Viscount Castle reagh, Lord J. Russell, Mr. Huskisson, George Canning, the Duke of Wellington, and Earl Grey. In some passages it may be admitted that many of these speeches exhibit elo quence, but amongst these debaters there was only one orator. Lord Liverpool, amiable and well informed, with the calm manners of an English gentleman, had personal weight of character, but no force as a speaker. Lord Durham had violent principles, and an elocu tion more waspish than vehement. His in spiration was of the spleen ; he had no circumspective logic in debate, and he was without any of the ideal in his nature, which was not, however, deficient in atrabilious energy, from which his friends suffered as often as his foes. Sir Samuel Romilly was Hugonotic on his legs as in his pedigree. Often admirable in his purposes, he was re pulsive in his austerity, and in his highest words he could only attain to the sour sublime in eloquence. Yet he had the pliancy of an advocate ) and ha had moral tuaiitits in his SATURDAY, nature, which gradually affected those whom he was in the habit of addressing. As a Legal Reformer his name deserves to be held in high reverence, though his character was dashed with not a few infirmities. Sir J. Mackintosh was a rhetorician, prominent in voice and manners, and elaborately academical in the style of a bygone age. His views were large, but inexact, and he could neither speak to the heart nor sway a practical assembly. Lord Castlereagh had many high qualities as a speaker; he was ready, practical, and when warmed into vehemence could excite the House of Commons. But his language was meagre, his sentences loose and unfinished, and he violated grammar with flagrant fre. quency. His political character is a subject quite apart from his reputation as a debater. His rival, Canning, had many of the great qualities of the highest school of eloquence. His language rolled with a Ciceronian flow ; his illustrations were poetical; and he had a grand ideal often before his mind. Hi 4 political character, also (and in another sense), is a subject apart from his eloquence. Lord Dudley well remarked of these two rivals " that Castlereagh and Canning were instances " that men succeed by their characters rather than by their talents"; but in politics cha racter implies more than its conventional meaning. Resolution, directness, power over others, and reliability, are all implied by " character," and these qualities in the long run conquer mere talent, or even genius itself, with its dazzling but often deceitful emanatives. _ _ Of Lord John Russell as a speaker there is an admirable portrait in " Coningsby," in which it is remarked that the noble lord has physi cal defects which not even a "Demosthenic impulse could overcome." The Duke of Wel lington had a certain difficulty in articulation which impeded his efficiency in debate. If he had been trained from early years and prac tised in elocution, he might have excelled as a debater, irrespectively of the prodigious in fluence of his unrivalled character. By many degrees the most remarkable oration in this volume is his Grace's speech on Catholic Emancipation in 1829. From such a man the following passage was calculated to produce , great effect I am one of those who have probably passed a longer period of my life engaged in war than most men, and prin cipally in civil war; and I must say this, that. if I could avoid, by any sacrifice whatever, even one month of civil war in the country to which I was attached, I would sacrifice my life in order to do it. I say that there is nothing that destroys property, cuts up prosperity by the roots, and demoralises character, to the degree that civil war does. In such a crisis the hand of every man is raised against his neighbour, against his brother, and against his father ; servant betrays master, and the whole scene ends in confusion and devastation. Yet, my lords, this is the resource to which we must have looked ; these are the means which we must have applied, in order to have put an end to this state of things, if we had not made the op tion of bringing forward the measures for which I say I sm responsible. But let us look a little farther. If civil war is so bad when it is occasioned by resistance to the Go vernment—if it is so bad in the case I have stated, and so Much to be avoided, how much more is it to be avoided when we are to arm the people in order that we may con quer one part of them by exciting the other part against them ? But let us carefully observe the following arguments, penned by his Grace in support of the measure. Let us observe how expe rience has refuted them : I would ask your lordshipa, whether you are not called upon to review the state of the representation of Ireland — whether you are not called upon to see, even supposing that the principle were a permanent one, if it be fit that Parliament should remain as it has remained fur some time, groaning under a Popish influence exercised by the priests over the elections in Ireland. I would ask your lordships, I repeat, whether it is not right to make an ar rangement which has for its object not only the settle ment of this question, but at the same time to relieve the country from the inconveniences which I have mentioned. I have already stated the manner in which the organisa tion I have alluded to works upon all the great interests of the country ; but I wish your lordships particularly to attend to the manner in which it works upon the Church itself. But has not " the representation of Ireland " groaned more than ever since 1529, under the influence of a political priesthood? Then as to the calming effects expected from constant concession, the Duke said : 1 have seen that any restriction upon concession has only had the effect of increasing the demands of the Roman Catholics, and at the same time giving them fresh power to eeferco those deusae4s. I hare therefore eensidered it mf