The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

behind their jaunty hats. The wits, and some of them
were courtier% too, answered the query more roughly, and
they remarked, in rugged rhyme and bad grammar:—
You may strut, dapper George, but 'twill all be in vain ;
We know 'tis Queen Caroline, not you that reign—
You govern no more than Don Philip of Spain.
Then if you would have us fall down and adore you,
Lock up your fat spouse, as your dad did before you.

The Queen during the absence of her hus-
band on his lignoverian excursions was a firm
administrator. On that Proteus riot, which
suggested to Scott some of his very finest
descriptive passages, our author writes :

The indignation of the Queen Regent was almost incon-
trollable. She was especially indignant against General
Moyle, commander of the troops, who h refused to inter-
fere to suppress the riot. He was tolerably well justified in
his refusal ; for the magistrates of Edinburgh, ever ready to
invoke assistance, were given to betray them who rendered
it to the gallows, if the riot was suppressed by shedding
the blood of the rioters. His conduct on this occasion was
fu►ther regulated by orders from his commander-in-chief.
Caroline had no regard for any of the considerations which
governed the discreet general, and in the vexation of her
chafed spirit she declared that Moyle deserved to be shot
by order of a court-martial. It was with great difficulty that
her Ministers and friends succeeded in softening the aspe-
rity of her temper; even Sir Robert Walpole, who joined
in representing that it were better to hold Moyle harmless,
maintained in private that the general was fool, knave, or
coward.

But the Queen appears to have been naturally
humane and even gentle, and there are pas-
sages in her life which show that she some-
times put on an aspect of resolution which she
did not feel, as when she braved the menaces
of Mr. Howard, and persisted in keeping his
wife from him—a rare instance of complaisance
towards her own husband's frailty. Her fixed
resentment towards her eldest son, not even
to be weakened by the near approach of death,
is the sternest and darkest shade in her cha-
racter, and was probably justified, in part at
least, by some radical vice or defect in Frede
rick's character :

The animosity of the Queen and her daughter, the Prin-
cess Caroline. was almost unnaturally ferocious. The mother
cursed the day on which she had borne the son who was
for ever destroying her peace, and would end, she said, by
destroying her life. There was no opprobrious epithet
which she did not cast at him, and they who surrounded
the Queen and princess had the honour of daily hearing
them hope that God would strike the son and brother dead
with apoplexy. Such enmity seems to us now incredible,
and even in the days here treated of, it could not have been
common nor agreeable to those who witnessed it. The
gentle Princess Caroline's gentlest name for her brother
was " that nauseous beast," and in running over the cata-
logue of crimes of which she declared him capable, if not
actually guilty, she did not hesitate to say that he was ca-
pable of murdering even those whom he caressed.

The Queen was able as well as prudent, and
the later years of her life showed her uncon-
quei able firmness under the severest pangs of
physical suffering. To her alone must be
ascribed the merit of preserving spiritual and
intellectual life in the Church during the
dreary and depressing reign— as regarded
ecclesiastical affairs—of her consort.

The King's emphatic commendation of a
" good short sermon" is well known. When
the erratic Whiston reproved Queen Caroline
for talking loudly with the King in the Chapel
Royal during service, she alleged in excuse
that the King would talk :

What Caroline said of her consort was true enough. At
chapel, the King, when not sleeping, would be talking; Dr.
Young thougt:t, by power of his preaching, to keep him
awake, but the King on finding that the new chaplain was
not giving him what he loved, " a short, good sermon,"
soon began to exhibit signs of somnolency. Young exerted
himself in vain, and when his Majesty at length broke forth
with a snore, the poet-preacher felt his vanity so wounded
that he burst into tears. Where kings and queens so
behaved, no wonder that young ensigns flirted openly with
maids of honour, and that Lady Wortley Montague should
have reason to write to the Countess of Bute :—" I confess
I remember to have dressed for St. James's Chapel with
the same thoughts your daughters will have at the opera."
Yet learning and ability in the Church
through her influence found generous patron-
age in those days. Bishops Butler and
Berkely were highly esteemed by the Queen,
and it is said that the " Analogy " was the
ordinary reading of her breakfast table.
Her tolerance of the King's vices, which
some critics have felt inclined to condemn, was
in reality a proof of her admirable prudence.
She had a eery coarse kind of clay to deal
with, and sh moulded it to the best shape its
harsh nature would admit of. Like a skilful
workman, she made the best use of the tools
and materials at her command, and made the
King respectable in spite of his vicious na-
ture and contracted understanding. He was
not insensible of her merit, though he had

SATURDAY,

sometimes an odd way of showing it. His
grief on her death proves the sincerity of his
attachment to her. The following incident is
touchiug :
The old memory would not entirely fade, the old
fire would not entirely be quenched. " I hear," said
he, once to Baron Brinkman, as he lay sleepless, at early
morn, on his couch, " I hear you have a portrait of my
wife, which was a present from her to you, and that it is a
better likeness than any I have got. Let me look at it."
The portrait was brought, and so placed before the King
that he could contemplate it leisurely at his ease. "It is
like her," he murmured. " Place it nearer to me, and
leave me till I ring." For two whole hours the baron re-
mained in attendance in an adjoining room, before he was
again summoned to his master's presence. At the end of
that time ho entered the King's bed-room on being called.
George looked up at him with eyes full of tears, and mut-
tered, pointing to the portrait :—" Take it away ;. take it
away ! I never yet saw the woman worthy to buckle her
shoe." And thence he arose and went and breakfasted
with Lady Yarmouth.

Lady Sundon, who may be considered as the
Queen's prime minister, was as prudent as her
mistress. One of Horace Walpole's best stories
relates to her :

I was saying to Lady Pomfret, " To be sure, she is dead
very rich." She replied with some warmth, " She Lever
took money." When I came home I mentioned this to
Sir Robert. "No," said he, " but she took jewels. Lord

Pomfret's place of master of the horse to 0;3 Queen was
bought of her for a pair of diamond ear-rings of fourteen
hundred pounds value." One day that she wore them at
a visit at old Marlbro's, as soon as she was gone, the
duchess said to Lady Mary Wortley, " how can that
woman have the impudence to go about in that bribe?"
" Madam," said Lady Mary, " How would you have people
know where wine is to be sold, unless there is a sign hung
out ?" Sir Robert told me that in the enthusiasm of her
vanity Lady Sundon had proposed to him to unite with
her and govern the kingdom together; he bowed, begged
her patronage, but he said he thought nobody fit to govern
the kingdom but the King and Queen.

The life of the consort of George 111. does
not present many points of interest, but Dr.
Doran has constructed an impartial and amus-
ing biography of Caroline of Brunswick. The
diary of Lord Malmesbury supplies copious
details on all the incidents of her passage to
England and her marriage, and the " Diary
Illustrative," gives the later facts of her career.
Though somewhat stale, we may quote Lord
Malmesbury's account of her careless toilette,
and of her first interview with the Prince :
The party bad been three weeks at Hanover, and, during
that time, Lord Malmesbury had hell frequent discussions
with the princess upon the very delicate matter of the
toilette. She prided, or, to use the noble lord's own term,
" she piqued herself on dressing quick." He disapproved
of this; for a quick dresser is a slovenly and unclean
dresser. On this point, however, she would not be con-
vinced; probably, she was the less inclined to be so, as
the weather continued intensely cold; and the next luxury
to lying in bed was, being quickly dressed when she got
out of it. He could not come to details with a young
bride who despised perfect ablutions ; but he found a
Court lady, Madame Busche, through whom he poured the
necessary amount of information that should induce the
princess to be more liberal towards her skin, in the dispen-
sation of water. He desired Madame Busche to explain
to her that the prince was very delicate, and that he ex-
pected a long and very careful luiklle de proprieti, of which
she had no idea. "On the contrary," he says, " she neg-
lects it sadly, and is offensive from this neglect. Madame
Busche executes her commission well, and the princess
came out, the next day, well washed all over!"

On due notice of the arrival being made to the royal
family, the Princa of Wales went immediately to visit his
cousin and bride. What occurred at the interview, of
which Lord Malmesbury was the sole witness, he has the
best right to tell. I, according to the established
etiquette, introduced (no one else being in the room) the
Princess Caroline to him. She ♦ery properly, in conse-
quence of my saying to her it was the right mode of pro-
ceeding, attempted to kneel to him. He raised her
(gracefully enough) and embraced her, said barely one
word, turned round, retired to a distant part of the apart-
ment, and calling me to him, said : Harris, I am not
well ; pray, get me a glass of brandy.' I said, Sir, bad
you not better have a glass of water ?' Upon which he,
much out of humour, said, with an oath, No, I will go
directly to the Queen.' And away he went. The princess,
left during this short moment alone, was in a state of
astonishment; and on my joining her, said: ' Mon Dieu,
est ce que le prince est toujours comme cola? Je le
trouve trds gros et nallement aussi beau que son
portrait.'"

The doubtful points in the history of the
unhappy Queen are fairly investigated and ex-
plained by the author. She committed a great
mistake in leaving England, and an equal
mistake, after her eccentric life on the Conti-
nent, in returning here, more especially as her
daughter had married and had died in her •
absence, and the only tie was thus severed
which bound her to the country. Her restless
nature, however, was gratified by the mob-
homage she received, and the disturbance

Jutt 7, 1855.

she excited. There was some dignity in her
position when she appeared as a persecuted
Queen, but after " the bill " was dropped, and
she accepted an allowance of 50,0001. a year, she
had no longer a part to play. Her conduct in
endeavouring to force an entrance into the
Abbey on occasion of the coronation showed
the infirmity of her judgment; and there can be
little doubt that the mortification she expe-
rienced at being turned from the doors at
which she successively applied for admittance,
and the little support she met with from the
people, hastened her death. Her funeral gave
rise to the greatest mob-triumph ever known
in thin country. In spite of police and soldiers,
the procession was forced through the City,
and the turbulent proceedings of that wet,
gusty August day—described iu detail and
with great animation by Dr. Doran—formed
a fitting close to the unquiet and disastrous
life of Caroline of Bunswick.

The volumes are very readable—being full
of anecdote, and quite impartial. The object
of the author, indeed, seems to have been unly
to produce a work which would be acceptable
from the closeness of its facts and the liveli-
ness of its style.

The Epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthian:.
With Critical Notes and Dissertations. By
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, M.A. Two Vols.
London : Murray.
The Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians,
Galatians, Romans. With Critical Notes and

Dissertations. By Benjamin Jowett, M.A.
Two Vols. London : Murray.
THESE works have so much in common that
it is evident they must have been produced
in concert. In each case the Greek text of
Lachmann is taken as the nearest approach to
the authentic text of the three first centuries,
and copious introductions, notes, and disqui-
sitions are added to explain St. Paul's posi-
tion at the time he wrote, and to elucidate
his language and ideas. In one respect there
is a difference in the plan adopted. Mr.
Jowett gives a literal version of the text in
English, on the opposite page to the Greek;
while Mr. Stanley gives merely a paraphrase
of the Apostles meaning at the end of each
section of his discourse. The difference will
not be much regarded by scholars ; but for
general reference the plan of Mr. Jowett is the
most desirable. His dissertations also are
fuller than those of Mr. Stanley, though some
will doubt whether this be an improvement,
as he often wanders far from St. Paul, and
enters largely into those controversies of
the day which belong to what may be termed
metaphysical theology. Of this we shall
presently give some instances.
The variations from the text of Lachmann
are in each case trivial, and Mr. Jowett has
sagaciously laid down the main principle on
which that great scholar proceeded. It was
to restore the text as it has been found to
exist in the most ancient Greek and Latin
MSS., and in the citations from St. Paul con-
tained in the early fathers. Thus, he takes
fact as his basis, regarding all speculative
readings and doctrinal considerations as of
little account when opposed to ancient and
independent authorities, and " the result has
" shown," says Mr. Jowett, "that the most
" ancient text is also in every other sense by
" far the best." He argues that, as no scholar
would be willing to accept the text of
Sophocles or Thucydides as it 1%118 printed
two centuries ago, no apology can be needed
for laying aside the " Textus Receptus " of the
New Testament. But, in limitation of this
line of argument, it is to be remembered, that
the text of the New Testament received the
attention of men of profound learning at
periods when comparatively little care was
bestowed upon profane authors.
Mr. Jowett, in stating the order in which
the Epistles of St. Paul were written, assigns
the first place to the two Epistles to the Thes-
salonians, then the Epistles to the Galatians,
Corinthians, and Romans. Next, he ranks
the Epistles of the Imprisonment, including
under this term the Ephesians, Colossians.
Philippians, and Philemon, and, lastly, the
Pastorals. Read in chronological order, Mr.
Jewett thinks there is discernible in the