The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-03 00:00:00

MAY 3, 1856. 'fittraturt. 211 e mojr$, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore. Edited by Lord John Russell. Vols. VII. and VIII. London : Longmans. I N spite of all that has been written and said (not without strong grounds) against the cha racter of Thomas Moore, the conclusion of his bi og raphy will be looked for with interest. Of the entire eight volumes, the two first arid these two last are the best; and we much regret that they were not intrusted to the car e of any one else rather than Lord John Russell. We heard an eminent person, whose name frequently appears here in connection w ith Moore, offer leis opinion that the poet never meant that the diary should be given at full length to the public. An able literary artist might have executed a classical bio graphy of Moore in three volumes, which would have amply satisfied the claims of pos thumous interest. As the work stands it is a huge olla podrida of scraps about fashionable life, stale scandals, anecdotes at second-hand, and flattering paragraphs about Moore's aris tocratic friends, with stinging reflections on the hollowness of the Whig party, and the hypocrisy of its pretended democracy. The closing years of Moore's life were in painful contrast with the earlier portion of his joyous existence. Pecuniary anxieties, the unfortunate end of his son, and the wretched ness of worldly disappointment, fell upon him heavily, and his health gave way. Lord John Russell sadly describes the dreary picture which the once genial poet thus exhibited in his closing days : The death of his only remaining child, and his last and most beloved sister, deeply affected the health, crushed the spirits, and impaired the mind of Moore. An illness of an alarming nature shook his frame, and for a long time made him incapable of any exertion. When he recovered, he was a different man. His memory was perpetually at fault, and nothing seemed to rest upon his mind. He made engagements to dinners and parties, but usually forgot half of them. When he did appear, his gay flow of spirits, happy application of humorous stories, and constant and congenial ease, were all wanting. The brilliant hues of his varied conversation had failed, and the strong powers of his intellect had manifestly sunk. There was something peculiarly sad in the change. It is not unusual to observe the faculties grow weaker with age ; and in the retirement of a man's own home, there may be " no uirpleasing melan• choly "in the task of watching such a decline. But when in the midst of the gay and the convivial the wit appeared without his gaiety, and the guest without his conviviality— when the fine fancy appeared not so much sobered as sad dened, it was a cheerless sight. Neither of the poet's sons turned out well, they both died after attaining manhood; and Moore had thus the misfortune of surviving his five children His life, indeed, was more chequered with sun and shade than is usual iu the case of prosperous authors, and the con templation of his whole career and character presents something enigmatical, as there are many contradictions recorded in these volumes. Upon the nature of his character we shall say a few words. Moore was a voluptuary at heart, with a fine physical constitution, and rare literary facul ties. It was really remarkable that a being so epicurean should have emerged from such a political hotbed as Dublin society in 1795. Love and wine were as often his lyrical themes as " Liberty " and party politics ; and that a young Irishman should have had such a lusciously Oriental character is not a little strange. It was not altogether as a tufthunter that he delighted in the gay parties of fashion able celebrities. Beauty, wealth, grace, splen did houses, sumptuous feastings, the grandeur of the g rea t an d hi g hb orn, t h e pomp o f their retinues, their imposing equipages. their so ciety free fro m th e j arr i ng t one o f vu lgar strife, polite flattery from patrician lips, all fascinated Moore with a Circrean sorcery. He was so constituted as to be intensely affected by dazzling life, and every page of his diary proves his gusto for the kind of existence opened to him by his literary fame, his engaging manners, and his exquisite singing. It was therefore in sensation, as opposed to reflection, that the essence of Moore's intellect was to be found. Vivid utterance rather than deep thought was to be expected from his mind. Hence when the pen of a diarist was THE PRESS. in his hand, he was working not in unison with his nature. He succeeded when he aimed at being a modern Anacreon; he failed when he tried to become a domestic chroni• cler, like Evelyn or Mr. Pepys. Thus the reading of his Memoirs produces an odd sensation. No Muse ever before twaddled so tediously as the •" retired cherub " of Sloper ton-cottage ; but we must turn to the last instalment of his Memoirs. The eighth volume contains several letters from Lady Donegal, Miss Godfrey, Samuel Rogers, " Monk" Lewis, James Corry, and others. Of these Miss Godfrey's are the best, but several of the others might have been omitted with advantage. Of passages which may be considered " disclosures " there are but few. Those relating to Moore's low opinion of his own party, the Whigs, are the most remark. able. None of them are more curious than one, in which we find so eminent a statesman and so pure a Whig as the Marquis of Lansdowne bearing his attestation to the political sound ness of the views put forward by Mr. Disraeli Under date of 27th December, 1835, while at Bowood, we find Moore thus writing in his diary : A good deal of conversation at and after breakfast. Speaking of Disraeli " the Younger's " view of the political character of Whigs and Tories, in his late pamphlets, Lord Lansdowne remarked, that there was a good deal of truth in what he said, as to the Tories having taken a more democratic line, in general, than the Whigs; their political position, since the Revolution, having led them Li. e., the Tories] to court the alliance of the people against the aris tocracy. Hence (as I suggested) the popular view they took of the subjects of a standing army, the Debt, septennial par liaments, &c. I mentioned the laugh lately raised among a party of Burdett's constituents, when the deputation they appointed to wait on him reported his having said to them, that " lie had always been a Tory." This, however, is perfectly true. Burdett has said the same thing to me more than once :—" I am a Tory of the school of Sir Wil liam Wyndham." Moore of course alluded here to the " Vindi cation of the English Constitution," addressed to Lord Lyndhurst. (The reference to this passage in the diary is erroneous, as the index maker has placed it under the name of the author of the " Curiosities of Literature.") Mr. Disraeli has always contended that the Whig party was essentially an oligarchy, and that its system approximated to the Venetian model. Let us see what Moore says : The short taste of the sweets of power with which the Whigs have been regaled has evidently intoxicated the whole party ; and their bearing in authority, from wanting that mellowness which a long course of possession gave to the others, has the misfortune of being neither imposing nor conciliatory ; but while it reminds one constantly of their station, too often fails, at the same time, to inspire much respect for it. When I say this I mean it of the party generally, and of almost all the under strappers. Some of the leaders —as, for instance, Lord Lansdowne, Lord John, and, I may add, perhaps, Lord Melbourne—furnish exceptions to the remark, though even they are far better men out of office than in. The aristocratic prejudices of the party have already been shown in their choice of the materials of their Ministries; and the same patrician exclusiveness which drove Canning to adopt early the resolution of keeping clear of a party, by whose lordly branches he foresaw he would be over shadowed, still exists in full pride and force. Neither Canning, indeed, nor Peel, would have ever risen to be Prime Ministers had they first started into political exist ence under the " umbrage broad " of the Whigs. What ! the son of a cotton spinner take the pas of a Lord Morpeth or a Lord Duncannon ! Impossible ! We shall, before long, however, see what it will all come to ; even in our own times we shall, I think, see the denouement. Elsewhere Moore records (vol. vii. p. 70) that the Whigs were losing that claim to respect which he was once disposed to allow them; and he continues : It has been, indeed, one of the natural consequences of the Reform Bill, that, in proportion as it has reduced the power of the Tories, it has improved, of course, the chances of the Whigs in all future struggles between them for power ; and this change in the relative position of the two parties is bringing rapidly into play some of the most disagreeable characteristics of both. Long possession of place, and the apparent certainty of its future tenure, gave to the Tories all that repose which a consciousness of power usually generates; they could afford, from their feeling of security, to be civil, and even liberal ; and their elevation being not from birth, but position, and therefore accessible to all, was more intelligible, and therefore less offensive than pretensions derived from the Herald's office. On the other hand, the Whigs were surrounded, from their political position, with extrinsic advantages and associations which threw into the shade or rendered inactive all that was intrinsically unpopular in them. The aristocratic pride which is chiefly found among that party was a good deal softened down, and even lost sight of, in their habitual advocacy of the cause of the people, and the intimate connection with popular leaders to which it in tn duced them. 423 These seem strange sentiments for a Whig partisan; but so it is throughout. Moore, indeed, can hardly be called a Whig in any sense, if we are to place faith in the declara tions of his diary. In one place he prints a lively epigram published in Dublin at the time that the representation of Limerick was offered to him : When Limerick, in idle whim, Moore as her member lately courted, " The boys," for form's sake, ask'd of him To state what patty he supported. When thus his answer promptly ran (Now give the wit his meed of glory), " I'm of no party, as a man, — But, as a poet, am-a.tory." We have heard those clever verses attributed to the pen of the late witty Dominick Renayne, M.P. for Clonmel, who suppliedlO'Connell with some choice points for the Agitator's invec tives. Lord John Russell sees this flagrant inconsistency between Moore's professions in public and his confessions in private, and his Lordship thus tries to account for the incon sistency : It is singular that Mr. Moore should have been one of the gloomy prophets who predicted revolution and cala mity as the consequences of the Reform Act. Lord Grey, with a truer knowledge of the English people, was of opinion that the measure, to be safe, must be large ; and those who acted with him and under him, framed the Reform Bill in that spirit. There is, perhaps, in men of letters, a tendency to be dissatisfied with the political system under which they live. Sir James Mackintosh used to observe that the greatest authors of Athens were evidently averse to the rule of the democracy. In France, before the Revolution, the moat brilliant writers were as evidently hostile to the absolute monarchy under which they lived. In our own time Southey and Coleridge began with democracy, Scott as a Jacobite, Moore as a disaffected Irish Catholic. The freedom of literary pursuits leads men to question the excellence of the ruling power ; and thus despotism and democracy alike find enemies among the most highly gifted of those who live under their sway. Had Reform never been triumphant. Moore would, in all probability, have remained a warm Reformer. But Lord John has not there touched the question at issue. The charge against Moore (and it is 9. serious one) is, that he did not show his candid opinions, and that he was writing up the Whigs while he entertained so low an opinion of them. Moore's reputation will certainly not be improved by these con cluding volumes. We get some good glimpses of " party" behind the scenes. There rarely has been so great a party battle as the contest for the Speakership in 18:35, between Mr. Manners Sutton (Lord Canterbury) and Mr. Aber cromby (Lord Dunfermline). This is a lively description of the interior at Brookes's. Under date of 19th February, 1835, he writes:— Towards evening set out for the West, intending to dine at Brookes's, if I met with nothing better. Found there a great number assembled, peers and others not members of the House of Commons, waiting the result of the great trial of strength this evening on the question of the Speakership. Immense anxiety, and reports of the pro gress of the debate coming in from time to time. Post hour at length approaching, and the letters still kept open for the chance of the news arriving in time to be communi cated to country friends. But no intelligence arrived, and many sat down to seal their letters, when a young fellow ( Dundas, I believe,) came running breathless into the room and cried out, " Won it by ten ! won it by ten !" He was soon encircled, and questioned, and pulled about by one and another, while the whole party hnrrahed and shook hands. and were as uproarious as a party of schoolboys. Instantly all the letters that had been sealed were again opened, and every one sat down to communicate the joyful news to his correspondent; but had not proceeded far, when a sort of panic of doubt seized them all at the same moment as to whether the news just brought might be depended upon, Dundas's only authority for it having been a man whom he saw running into Abercromby's house (not far from Brookes's), and shouting upstairs to Mrs. Abercromby, " Won it by ten !" All now sat looking at each other, bewildered with the unfinished letters before them, and even our enthusiastic informant himself was beginning to be infected with the general distrust, when a whole party from the house came trooping in (Denison, the mover of Abercromby, among the rest), and no doubt was any longer left of the victory. Denison himself was hurrahed, and hugged, and twirled about like a top, and the whole group gave one as little notion of a party of grave and mature legislator! as can be well conceived. The cry was then, "Let's all dine here." Some scruples were stated by one or two as to not being dressed, but these were soon overmled, and frock-coats were the order of the day. I had before agreed with Lord Ducie to join him at the house dinner here, which had been prepared only for nine or ten persons ; but we now sat down a party of more than thirty (the waiters having added what they could to the repast), and Denison was put in the chair, with the Duke of Argyll on one side of him, and Lor i Ducie on the other. I got seated between young Ai °Mop