The Press.
London, England, 1853-08-13 00:00:00

1. The Grenville Papers ; being the Correspondence
of Richard Grenville Earl Temple, K.G., and
the Right lion. George Grenville, their Friends
and Contemporaries. Vols. M. and IV.
Edited by W. J. Smith, Esq. London :
Murray.
2. Courts and Cabinets of George the Third. By
the Duke of Buckingham. Second Edition.
London: Hurst and Blackett.
THE present division of the "Grenville Papers"
gives the correspondence from 1765 to 1777.
Like the preceding volumes of the same series,
they will be indis]►ensable to the historical
student ; but we think that general readers
will not find them so interesting, unless they
take pleasure in the hunt after "Junius."
Horace Walpole has so accustomed us to
brilliant, graphic writing upon the politics of
those times that we fancy other contemporary
narratives appear to great disadvantage by the
side of the lively sketchy crttyons of the
Twickenham gossip. As Walpole, however, is
not so trustworthy as he is graphic, it is very
satisfactory to be able to refer to precise
and formal letters like many of those in this
cmyespondenee. Their perusal enables us to
estimate with more cer•t.ainty the eminent
family to which they principally refer.
In a long continuance of political power, no
parliamentary connection since the Revolution
could vie with the Grenvilles. The list of the
offices filled by them records their influence.
'Twic•e within half 31, century they gave Primo
Ministers to England (1763-:• and P4OB-7).
George Grenville led the House of Commons ;
his nephew, Lord Grenville, in the next gene
ration, led the House of Peers. In a sternly
time, Earl Temple, the ally and brother-in-
law of the " great commoner," and the patron
of Wilkes, was a finmidal►lc chief of Opposi-
tion, and in dogged pertinacity and self=asser•-
tion he far outstripped the Roekinghlims, the
Townshends, and the Newcastles. His nephew,
the first Marquis of Buckingham. filled the
post Of L•ish V ieeroy at a season of imminent
peril, I►roke to pieces the ►seditious opposition
of the Whigs in Ireland, and rendered vast
services to his King and country by the bold
part he took in daunting the coalition of Fox
and North. In Lord Grenville the House of
Commons found one of its ablest Speakers,
and the House of Lords one of its wisest and
most statesmanlike guides. Two Premier-
ships. a Chancellorship of the Exchequer. the
Viceroyalty of Ireland, the Speakership of the
Commons, and Secretaryship for Foreign
Aflitirs, held by two generations in one family,
suggest. of themselves the degree of energy and
knowledge, of political acceptance stud
authority, which this great connection hail
obtained. In addition to their own power,
the Grenvilles associated their history with
the finite of the Pitts. and in later times
they blended their fortunes with the as.
cendancy of Mr. Fox. Surpassing other great
families in the continuance of their personal
influence, the contrasts in " the story of their
house" are not less strange. Thus it can truly
be said that, while the Crown found its most
resolute supporters in the (irenvilles at the
ems of the American war and the French
revolution, it also met in the family some of
its most embarrassing opponents. Lord Tem-
ple's alliance with the elder Pitt, and his
nephew's junction with Fox, with his vigorous
support of the Whig party, are amongst
the most remarkable passages in the history
of " Opposition." It happens, also, that, while
the Grenvilles have been accused of a guilty
knowledge of "Junius," the sanction of their
great name was invoked in after times fir• "the
agitation" of the Irish Romanists. Thus for
two generations, in it period of commotion and
peril, the Executive counted the Grenvilles
first amongst the first of its adversaries or its
allies.
It is evident that the sway of such a connec-
tion cannot be traced merely to titles of
honour, or broad domains, or family connec-
tions. Those may have been aids, but they
could not have been the supports of such con
tinned power. Iv the charnetty of the Oren-
villes we can see the sources of their authority.
Though no one of their family rose to the
historical renown of Walpole or either of the

THE PRESS.

Pitts, in resolute ambition, conjoined with I
great capacity for affairs and unwearied energy,
none other of the great families approached
even to faint rivalry with the Grenvilles. They
relied in the main upon their courage and
capacity. In the days of the elder Pitt. the
King, when surveying the parliamentary con-
nections from which he had to choose, beheld
the Legislature divided between the Dedfords,
the Newcustles, and the Grenvilles. Of these
the Bedfords worked by the spell of a great
(though rather ovemited,) name, and by
their stereotyped formula of men " who bled
with Hampden in the field, and died with
Sydney on the scaffold." They drew their
moral influence, such as it was, from the tra-
ditions of the Revolution, from the memory of
blood unjustly shed, from companionship with
" the great Deliverer." Their vast possessions,
of course, added to their influence. The
Neweastles relied on their boroughs. their
electioneering resources, and on their acknow-
ledged leadership of the " great Whig families"
of Cavendish, l'Anniox, Fitzroy, Bentinck,
Manners, C4mway, and Wentworth.f The
greatness of the Grenvilles is visible in the
tact that, without the historical pretensions of
the BedtOrds or (what we may call) the elan of
the Neweastles, they challenged comparison
with them both, and conquered them in turn.
To the traditions associated with the name of
Russell they opposed their talent for affairs,
and abilities which required no aneestral pedi-
gree f'or the enhancement of their lustre.
Against the confederacy of the Neweastles
they presented high personal capacity for
office, an industry that never flagged, and entire
freedom from that ridiculous tn*vestie of lead
el-ship. that burlesque upon power, which used
to be seen in the big house at the north-west
corner of Lincoln's Inn-fields, and which has
been so well painted by Smollett as to give
that humorist a claim to be counted amongst
his/prim/. novelists. The Grenvilles were not
the mere, mouthpieces of a knot of factious
families ; they were not the spokesmen for a
clique of disappointed nobles, afraid to venture
out in debate. unequal to the toils of polities.
They were not compelled like the Roeking
hams to suck the brains of a man of genius
like Burke, to use his tongue in debate, and
to rely upon his pen for advocating their prin-
ciples. They mainly relied upon themselves ;
and with an industry that might have shamed
the bar, and with a courage that would have
won glory in the camp, the Grenvilles under-
took the burden and courted the hazards of
political war, and encountered great responsi-
bilities with their own energy and eminent
endowments. This is their real glory—this
is their ehtim to permanent renown. •
Turning from the Grenvilles to their papers,
we must plainly tell our readers that the
letters in these two volumes give us scanty
materials for interesting extracts. The follow-
ing passage relates to a very celebrated beauty
of the last century—Lady Sarah Lennox. We
take it from Mr. Grenville's diary for January,
1707 :

Mr. Pitt ( Thomas) told Mr. Grenville a most extraordi-
nary anecdote, relating to the King's attachment to Lady
Sarah Lennox. He nays that his Majesty came to Lady
Susan Strangwnys (Lady Susan O'Brien) in the drawing-
room asked her in a whisper it' she did not think the
coronation a much finer sight if there was a queen ; she
said yes. Ile then asked her if she did not know some-
body who would grace that ceremony in the properest
manner: at this she was much emharmased, thinking he
meant herself, but 1w went on. and said. " 1 mean your friend
Lady Sarah Lennox; tell her so, and let me hate her
answer the next drawing-room day."
Lady Sonth was at this time in love with Lord Ne w-
bottle.: and therefore received this news with great re-
litetanee : it was. however, talked over in the family. and.
by Lord mid Lady Holland's persuasion, she wits brtillght
to listen to it. She went the next drawing-mom day to St.
James's, stated to the King. in as few words as she could,
the inconveniences and difficulties in which such a step
would involve him. He said that was his business: he
would stand them all : his part was taken, he wished to
hear hers was likewise.
In this state it. continued, whilst she, by the advice of
her friends, broke oil' with Lord Newbottle very reluc-

-
• lu the earlier editions of his "Constitutional }Timmy" Mr.
Hallam passed St ,n strictures on Lori, William Russell, which
we perceive have been expunged from later impressions.
+ Of the seven " great Whig handles" mentioned above, as fol-
lowing the Newcastle connection in the last century, it is
remarkable that in our times not less than four are ranged
under the banner of Lord Derby—viz.: Lennox. Manners, Ben-
tinek. and Conway ;NI arquis of Hertford).
t William John lire, afterwards fifth Marquis of Lothian.
Ile died in 1815.

SATURDAY,

tantly on her part: she went into the country for • few
days, and. by a fall front her horse, broke her leg. The
absence which this occasioned gave time and opportunities
fur her enemies to work ; they instilled jealousy into the
King's mind upon the subject of Lord Newbottle, telling
him that Lady Sarah still continued her intercourse with
hint. and immediately the marriage with the Princess of
Strelitz was act un lout : and at Lady Sarah's return from
the country she found herself deprived of her crown and
her lover, Lord Newbottle, who complained as much of
her us she did of the King. Whilst this was in agitation,
Lady Sarah used to meet the King in his rides early in the
morning, driving a little chaise with Lady Susan Stning-
ways ; and once it is said that, wanting to speak to him,
she went dressed like a servant-muid, and stood amongst
the crowd in the guard-room, to say a few words to him as
he passed by.
Tlw manner in which 'Walpole describes
Lady Sarah's haymaking ut Holland House,
dressed as a shepherdess, is doubtless familiar
to our readers. The story of her life was a
very remarkable one, and would be very in-
teresting if fully told by a trustworthy biogra-
pher. On account of the subsequent change
of her name to Danbury and Napier, many
persons are not aware that she was the mother
of those distinguished brothers, the hero of
Scinde and the historian of the Peninsular
war.
Nearly half of the third of these volumes is
occupied with the "Junius" controversy ; but,
that being a special subject, we will reserve it
fir particular examination when we can afford
it more space than our crowded columns will
now permit.

1. In noticing the second edition of the second
of the above works, we may express our regret
that all the " Grenville Papers" were not
published in the same uniform edition.
We can easily suppose that the Duke of
Buckingham had considerable trouble in se-
leeting the papers for the " Courts and Cabi-
nets of George the Third ;" and we can
undentand how one unused to literary labour
may have committed to other hands the im-
portant, though subordinate, function of com-
paring and revising the letterpress. This
division of labour has often taken place in
publishing what are called "family papers ;"
but it is certainly important that the revision
should be entrusted to competent persons.
The letterpress of the first edition of this
work was very carelessly examined, and teemed
with typographical errors. We me sorry to
be obliged to say that " the see)nd edition,
revised," does not reflect any credit on the
literary subaltern employed by '.the highly
respectable publishers whose nan tes are on
the titlepage. Some of these correc lions seem
to have been made in the mode attributed by
Swift to one of his printers—" for her Grace
the Duke, read his Grace the Duche: Thus,
in the first edition (vol. i., p. 69) w e find the
nonsense Latin, " Liberati animan s meam,"
corrected in the revised edition into "Liberare
animum mettnt"! In the first editit at (vol. i.,
p. 144) we read " discordia pimlaxit miseros"
corrected into " pmdixit miseros," Such
printing as " magmas ex oviuntur" 4vol. ii., p.
16) stands in both editions; and it is the
same way with such blunders as " Caliginosa
nocta" (vol. ii., page 222) ; and we might
enumerate many more to show that we cannot
accept this second edition as at all -properly
" revised." We regret that we are obliged to
say this. for the family papers themselves are
of great value ; and we do not join with those
who would in any degree disparage Ihe great
historical value of these volumes.
The work has been too long pub.7kished to
receive critical notice here from us otherwise
than as a " second edition." It abounds in
historical revelations, and is most agreeable
reading for those who like to peruse authentic
sketches of famous persons. When our co-
lumns are less crowded we will use some of
its materials in illustrating "A Day with
Pitt," as a companion picture to our previous
sketch of Fox.

()erosional Diseourse on the Nigger Question.
Communicated by T. Carlyle. London :

Bosworth.
MUCH truth, more parad►lx, a, good deal of
clever sarcasm on Manchester economics and
Exeter-hall philanthropy, a total—we might
say a wilful—disregard of what is practicable
in the present age, and a style even less than