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

THE PRESS.

the manner iu which they act could not oven
promote those irrational objects. The story
is wild and improbable, and at the same time
dull and uninteresting. The plot. absurd as it
is. is evolved with no skill. and the minor cha-
racters are ill drawn and commonplace. The
mixture of topog►aphical and anti►qua►ian lec-
tures with a romance on the passions is the
least happy conception that ever entered the
head of a Woillitll of genius. Male. de stacl,
with a highly poetic imagination, was no poet :
and the impromptu recitations of Corinne are
writ ten in a style fit only fur a French version
of the poems of Ossian : these defects, never-
theless, are redeemed with passages of une-
qualled eloquence, descripti (((( s of vast power,
and the most refined and delic►►te observations
on life and 111d1111C114.

De!Pane is the work of the authoress
which, upon the whole, we are inclined to pre-
fer to every other. It was written before
Corinne, before she had travelled much, and
before reflection and experience had sobered
down the exuberances of a wild imagination.
It sins against probability, we might almost
say against possibility : it has faults against
1 good taste, good sense, gotal principle, and
sound religion ; but it has a charm that no
reader of sensibility can resist, a fascination
that carries away the judgment captive and
disarms criticism. The charm is not in the
interest of the story, nor in the ingenuity of
the separate incidents : it consists in the truth
and force with which some of the characters
are delineated, the eloquence of the intensest
egotism, and the minuteness of its self-inves-
tigation. The defects of the story never for a
moment diminish our interest. in the principal
character, the generosity aunt selfdevotion of
Pelphine enchant us, her good nature delights
us. we are are iu love with her very defects,
and we can only quarrel with her bad taste
in bestowing such ardent affection on so
poor a creature its the melodrionatic /donee.
The " finesse with which the diameter of
Mine. de Vernon is drawn exhibits the care-
ful observation with which it. was taken from
the life : so perfect is the delineation that. we
quite understand and almost share the irra
tional affect. of the generous Delphine for
her cold-hearted aunt worldly but most agreeable
friend. We are ourselves under the spell of
her fascinating and attractive indolence, and
we sympathise in the grief of the heroine for
her loss. It is said that this unamiable
character was studied from the selfish Talley
rand, during the period of the liaison between
him and the authoress. The volatile libertine
it is supposed had tired of the society of his
iteColliplished but exacting mistress, and that
he had manifested no tenderness towards her
feelings or her vanity in the method by which
he broke the chain. When helphine appeared
he instantly recognised his own resemblance.
We know not whether he was flattered or
offended. lie delivered himself with the
oracular brevity to which he was accustomed,
but with more than his usual felicity. When
asked if he had read the popular work in
which it was believed that the authoress had
sketched her own portrait in Delphine, as well
as his in Mine. de Vernon, he replied he had
not. "I do not like
.fictinn," he added. "On
in'', ryn'elle aeons a dernse tows les &nix en
frinntes."

Ilf Alitograph Letters ',armed by

Tl►ou►os Moore to 31r. James Power. Lon-

don: Puttick and Simpson.
WE notieed these letters at the date of their
side. and we return to the subject convinced.
with the Quarterly, that here we have a
supplementary volume to the already pro-
lix eorrespondence of Tom Moore. the
junction between Lord John Russell as
editor, and Moore as letter-writer, proved un-
fortunate, like all " eoalitions" between oppo
site natures. A prosier work on a sparkling
theme we never met than the so-called "life"

of the witty Whig poet, and, suspecting that
our readers have had more than enough of
Moores letters, we will be brief in our extracts
from those notes " unpublished" by Lord John
Russell

_
An author's letters to his publisher partake
of less reserve than him writing to other parties,
and the most interesting parts of this cata-

353

logue are the frank revelations of idooree
difficulties. He thus describes, in 1827, the
limited state of his wardrobe:—

I am going to inflict upon you a tailoring commission
for n►e. My former poor snip is a bankrupt (as I have
learned by a demand upon me from his assignees fur pay-
ment 1. and I st accordingly proceed to break another.
My only evening coat not being u► a state to stand a dinner
by daylight. I must have ono ready fur toe when I vogue
up. and what I want you to do i 4, to send the enclosed to
Stager. in Pall Mall, and to take the tumble of calling
then to know Mau him whether he can, without taking
my measure. make a coat sufficiently well upon this pattern
for me. He is Wiudiington Irvings tailor, and the only
o►te I know anything of beyond my own..te.

A coat that you'd •' not stand a dinner by
daylight inust. we suppose, have been a gar-
ment of that fahliiim alluded to in Campbell's
Exile of I•;rin :--''
•" I'he d.•w on his thin mho. w►u homy ►tnd chill."

We find various allusions to " Barnes and
the Times" in these notes. In one place he
says:—

Barnes. I see. hits not taken the hint about the pnff.li
u►ust pluck up ►warragr gh to ask again. My neigh-
bour. colonel Napier, who hats gone to town, has under
taken to make Jones .to his best in sonic design to which
I can write.

The ~ Colonel Napier " here mentioned is
the eminent military historian. Some political
stroke was, of course, being played in the
letter spoken oaf:--

I want you for Napier to direet the ettelotwil blank letter
to the editor of the (flu newmpaper, and have it pot in the
IK►x at the °filee as soon as possible.

While residing in France, on aceount of his
Bermuda dittieultica, his friends endeavoured
to obtain for him some lucrative literary em-
ployment, by connecting him with the editorial
depniiments of the Rdinburfilt lieriew and the
Time*. He writes to Power. in INV :

This would be, I lerstaitel. between *oven and eight
hundred a year to toe, mud would not take, I should think,
more than a tlt's labour ont of every quarter. • • •
I have had also, within these three clays, through
Brougham, a propoMil wind* (though I cannot accept of
it) flatters me exceedingly. It is that I *heath! replace the
present powerfid editor of the Times (who is HO in writing
the leading article for that paper. It was proposed to pay ins.
at the lute of twelve hundred It year, ite.

IVhat were the exact terms of his subsequent
agreement with the 7'intes does not transpire ;
but he writes, in Is'27

I trust I shall be able to get through this next liar, trithnnt
flying anything mnre far the l'imrp, This, hotiimen mar.
selves. I want to devote myaelf entirely to our Miscellany
in! my Life of Byron. We are about to rut down our
establishment to one woman own ant, whirl, will make a
difference, I think, adequate to • • • in our wipe:mem
—not so marl, from the aettial saving or what a servant
I.IISIS, as from the impossibility of emnpany•krepiny which
it will bring with it.

Nothing, undoubtedly, was so honourable to
Moore as the independence with which he
toiled for his bread. Even with nll his in
dustry and literary sureemm, his means were
never adequate to his modenite expenditure.
In this respeet. he resembled Southey, who had
not twenty pounds to spare at n lime when Sir
Hobert. Peel offered him a baronetcy. Even
so late as Is:12, how strained Moore was for a
five•pound note, the following note to Power
testifies :
1.. Union Club. Will you do nie a favour'? My yearly
suhseription to my dub (where I live at least for AO per
vent. cheaper and hiiter) is doe lo•day. It will hi a great
loss to me to Ise excluded. Pray have the kindness to send
mot per boarer, as I aru►not leave this at ',resent myself, M.,
for which you shall have the selection of cue or N et, if you
wish, out of six songs which I shall bring you in the course
of tmmorrow. fray strain a point for me this time.

It has been rumoured in literary circles that
Moore's countryman, " rather Prout," is pre-
paring a publication on the lift. and character
of Moore. In the hope that the rumour may
be true, we will defer till the subject is by this
means fairly before us our own views of the
character of Moore, and the peculiar qualities
41 his mind.
But we cannot conclude this notice of the
catalogue of " Power's Moore's Letters " with-
out expressing a regret at seeing this con-
fidential correspondence set up for sale in an
auctioneer's room. As autographs they sold
at an inconsiderable sum, and allusions, often
the reverse of flattering, to various living
parties abound in them. The letters of one
actor written in confidence to a late editor of
an evening contemporary were also catalogued
for sale, and appear here in print, though much
calculated to annoy. There can he but one
opinion on so scandalous a breach of confi-
dence.