The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 21, 1857. 1140 " fears of the brave and follies of the wise" are a more attractive spectacle than their cou rage or their wisdom But Mr. lluttou seldom or never sneers ; ho is too much in earnest. He seems rather to gaze upon the weak nesses of mankind in a mood of indulgent melancholy. " Expende Hannibalem" is his motto upon every occasion. His irony is pe. culiar ; it is felt in every page like a kind of invisible presence—a faint but ever perceptible aroma, imparting a pleasant piquancy to a subdued and unaffected style. It does not, like that of some satirists, surprise us at unexpected corners, or flash on us in sudden jets. It flows equably along—indicating a calm conviction that virtue is usually hypo• crisy and vice usually misfortune, but that, after all, it does not much matter which it is. and that the least said the soonest mended? It must be confessed, however, that a study of the last ten years of George 11.'s reign is not calculated to convert a cynic. A been tiousness of manners, redeemed neither by the elegance of the Caroline nor the vigour of the Augustan era ; a Parliament in which the job bery of the Pelharns had succeeded to the Homeric conflicts of Windham and Walpole ; a literature from which the greatest poet and greatest prose writer of the century had just disappeared, and left no visible successor; and last, though not least, a war in which Brad dock and Byng had recalled the humiliation of Fontenoy and Laffeldt, and a cowardly Ministry had aggravated the national disho nour by the very means they adopted to efface it. Such is the picture upon which Englishmen now look between the years 1751 and 1758; and no doubt they have cause to congratulate themselves on the contrast. Yet the inference is hardly fair, for if Mr. Hutton had written but a year or two later, what a widely diffe rent story he would have had to tell ! Passing from polities to the social and lite rary features of the day, Mr. Hutton has col lected a large amount of illustrative anecdote, linked together by reflections which are gene rally sensible, and often cleverly expressed. Some exceptions we fed bound not entirely to omit. It is Mr. Hutton's very impartiality by which he is sometimes led astray. His pur suit of candouv is per fits et nefas. He is so resolute in finding out something to be said for those whom popular feeling has condemned that he is occasionally unjust to himself and his own good sense. His treatment of the great Chesterfield and Johnson case is an in stance of this mistake:— Johnson had originally dedicated his Dictionary to Lord Chesterfield, whose patronage he courted for a time. Being afflicted, however, with deafness and other physical infirmities that militated against the Graces, his lordship had of late withdrawn from the world, and neglected his rough but thin-skinned protige. On the announcement of the early appearance of the Dictionary, the noble lord suddenly bethought him of his humble friend, and wrote two excellent papers in its praise, which were published in the World. The tardy favour was spurned by the surly moralist Perhaps all men whose position in society is inferior to their rank in the intellectual scale, become morose, disappointed, and envious. Aud these feelings stand sadly in the way of true dignity. Johnson, with all his mental superiority, was full of the littlenesses of human nature. Ile accordingly writhed under the patronising air assumed by Lord Chesterfield,—most likely, quite uncon scionsly,—and, in a vain attempt to assert his dignity, exhibited much rudenessa and ill temper. Nevertheless, there are many who profess to admire his " spirit,"—for- getful that it was not displayed until the coveted patron. age was no longer necessary. He then quotes the well-known letter, and comments on it as follows : This famous letter, then, amounts simply to thin. Seven years before it was written, an ungainly scholar took offence, that the most elegant man of the age was not as much fascinated by his profound erudition as he himself was by the other's manners and address. Mistaking suavity of demeanour for heartfelt interest and sympathy, he imagined that he had made a most favourable inipms• lion, and that flowers were henceforth to spring up beneath his tread. But the statesman and orator had other matters to occupy his mind than the image of the big, awkward man who was compiling a dictionary. The vanity of the latter was hurt by this apparent neglect—not his pride, for that would not have prevented him from accepting any amount of favours. If he could not be all, he would be nothing. So he ceased to attend his lord ship's levees, and, in consequence, was very likely forgotton. But when it was announced that Mr. Johnson's Dictionary was about to issue from the press, his lordship kindly took the trouble to anticipate its publication, by two most flattering notices, and this prepared the public for its favourable reception. It would no doubt have been more gratifying to Johnson's feelings if his wife could have lived to hear his praises; but her death was certainly not imputable to Lord Chesterfield. And the assertion that he no longer needed a patron's aid was simply balderdash, for in the following year he was arrested for a paltry debt of iSs., which Simnel lliebardson—at his urg...nt request — sent him six guine,ts to discharge. Now, to say nothing of the fact that Mr. Hut ton hero contradicts himself—admitting in one place that the patronage was no longer necessary, and asserting in another that John son's words to that effect were " balderdash" —we would ask him whether it is not quite possible for an author to be in want of money even when his reputation is sufficiently established to enable him to dispense with patronage? We think Mr. Hutton must admit that his language on this point is inconsi derate. The remainder of his observations are, we think, equally ill-founded. Chester field did profess heartfelt interest and sym pathy for literary men, for they never would have sought his acquaintance fur the unsub stantial reward of being permitted to gaze on his demeanour. And what is more, if he only knew Johnson as " a big, awkward man who " was compiling a dictionary," what more damning evidence of his unfitness for the part of a Mmeoenas? Chesterfield neglected Johnson as great men will neglect obscure ones to the end of time. This sort of thing, if not generosity and magnanimity, is at all events human nature, and this alone would not have been visited with the general cen sure of mankind. \Vhat constituted the mean ness of Chesterfield's conduct towards John son was not so much his neglect of him in ad versity as his patronage of him in prosperity —his attempt to make literary capital out of him, and persuade the world that he had done all along from benevolence what he only did at last from selfishness, when ho could gra tify his own vanity and conciliate a successful man at a single stroke. Neutiquam officium liberi esse hominis puto, Cum is nihil promereat postulare id gratite apponi sihi. The latter part of Mr. Hutton's book will be found very good reading. The extracts from newspapers and other periodicals are well chosen, and display a keen eye for "points." He is sometimes, however, careless about particular facts —as, for instance, in his account of the Beefsteak Club, which is so am biguously worded as to leave it doubtful whether the Beefsteak Club and the Society of Steaks wore, or were not, two diffe rent institutions ; the truth being that the original Beefsteak Club is of very much earlier date than the " Sublime Society," having existed, at all events, as far back as 1709, in which year Dr. King dedicated his " Art of Cookery " to its members. But the Society of Steaks was established in 1735 by John Rich and Lord Peterborough, and is the parent of the club which exists under the stune rune, and in possession of the original gridiron, to the present day. But it was the old Beef steak Club which met at the Rummer Tavern in Covent-garden, which numbered Peg Wof fington among its members, anti not, as Mr. Hutton says, tho Society of Steaks ; though it certainly is not improbable that Peg, who was one of Rich's Covent Garden company, might have been enrolled also among the Sublimities, of whom he was the parent. But this is pure conjecture. An evidently well-informed writer in the National Review, who seems to have drawn his inspiration " direct from the gridiron," and to whom we are indebted for some of the above particulars, clearly implies that she was not a member of that society. We take our leave of Mr. Hutton's book with many thanks for the entertainment it has afforded us. He has written nothing which is not readable, and very little which is not worth reading. Some of his invectives in deed are mere conventionalities, and evince thoughtlessness rather than malignity. And we should add, also, that the work has been so hurriedly sent to press as to leave it dis figured by a variety of clerical errors—its Jupiter Sotor for Soter, 75 f o r 55, a misquota tion of Horace, &c.—which are open to mis construction, and which use trust in another edition will be removed. We hope, however, to meet Mr. Hutton again. He is earnest and thoughtful, and requires nothing but leisure to produce a work that shall be valuable as well as entertaining. The Norse-Folk; or, a Visit to the Homes of Norway and Sweden. By Charles Loring Brace. London : Bentley. DIFFERENT countries come into and go out of fashion among travellers, liko their shooting-coats, knapsacks, and walking sticks. Twenty years ago " Spain " was the place about which people loved to read. Now-a-days Norway and Sweden have got their turn, and books about them, if well done, are almost sure to be popular. This volume before us is very pleasant light reading; it is sketchy, lively, and cheerful. The writer wants the social logic of Laing, and he has not the acuteness of H. 1). Inglis, who was at the head of all superficial travel-writers in his day; but Mr. Brace is intelligent, and he is a toler ably trained observer. Like his countrymen, he is prolix, and intrudes himself too often, but he is generally good company, and tarry at-home readers of " travel " must take writers as they find them. Mr. Brace reminds us at times of Prince Puckler-Muskan. For example, in the following sketch of a castle in Sweden we catch the mannerism of an old acquaintance : The next morning I was forwarded to Count X.'s estate, in my friend's carriage, the horses being aupplicd at the post-stations. The entrance of the property was through au old stiff avenue of beeches, perfectly straight, leading to the front of the castle. It is remarkable how poorly placed and ill-kept are many of the estates of the highest nobility in Sweden. The rich middle classes seem usually to possess more tasteful properties. Here we came that upon the barns, brick buildings with high-pointed gables, not at all screened ; then to a mill, built upon what was the old moat probably, now a rather unseemly weed-grown stream. There was nothing of that nicety of care one sees in such places in England, but the broad carefully ploughed fields on each side, and the herds of Ayrshire and Durham cattle on the meadows, showed the owner an agriculturist, perhaps more occupied in that direction at present than in beautifying. September —. lam in a comfortable old bedchamber on the ground floor, looking out on the court, which is closed by two brick wings with little Gothic turrets. An ancient clock is in the centre, and the date says 1612 probably the date of the restoration of the building. My room opens into a huge dining-room, not now used appa rently, and lined with old portraits. There is a heap of new books in their paper wrappers, unopened, on one of the sideboards, just as they have been sent from the agents and publishers. A servant in livery in the hall has especial charge of me and my wants. It is two o'clock, and we are having the hour to ourselves to dress for dinner. Mr. Brace ought to have told us who was Count X., especially when he has so mi nutely described his castle. There, also, he met the Countess S., with an album full of autographs. The inside of the castle is thus described : I have been kindly shown over the castle by Countess S. Three large saloons—those most used by the family —were filled with costly paintings. Here, as so often in the rich houses of Sweden, I have been surprised at the rare cave, tions of art. Even the English castles, especially in the medieval art, are not superior, and only some Austrian and Italian private collections can be judged finer. Rubens, Caracci, Rembrandt, Wouverinann, Poussin, and numerous others, each of which is a gem. There were also pretty collections of china. Plate is not shown as it is in England, or perhaps not so richly possessed. Thu rooms were usually uncarpeted, with parquet floors; fur• niture solid and tasteful, with now and then some ant i q ue oak or walnut piece, quaintly carved. The bedrooms have very heavy hangings over the beds and at the windows, the pillows and all being covered with red drapery. The charm of the whole was in the antique grandeur of the apart ments, and the historic air from the portraits. Each route had its paintings and its ancient Laces, connecting the Present with the far-away Past; sweet womanly looks, cheeks fresh as if copied yesterday, stern and manly coun tenances, and one or two crowned heads, for the family number these among its ancestors. Some ghost stories are told about the old castle, which are not very thrilling, and tho manners of the Swedish gentry at table aro described at full length. The author had several distinguished members of the bush family among his acquaintances. We cannot put entire faith in the writer's remarks on the state of religion in Sweden. It is extremely difficult for a foreigner making a rapid tour in a strange country to attain general conclusions about the actual state of religion amongst a people. He prophesies in the following style We believe it is no rash effort at foretelling, which should say that this century will see the disruption and convulsion of the Swedish State Church. The Baptists End Methodists are labouring in a quiet, earnest way, on the great principles of Christianity ; and the very nature of these truths is to shatter hierarchies, and to tear open formalism and hypocrisy. They have Oils far suffered persecution, banishment, and reproach; but each day their I cause grows stronger, and takes deeper hold of the heats --- rs g