The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-09 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

position in Europe as a Russian officer. For t})e rest, he
despises alike as fools those who are lighting with him or
against him. He knows the commencement of the bother
was a mere personal pique between two old men, or a
political pretext for doing something which was exces-
sively hazardous. He has not a grain of military en-
thusiasm ; but, if a poor or an obscure man, he welcomes
the war readily enough, as a possible means of personal
aggrandisement. As for the danger, he neither thinks or
cares much about it. What is the use cf living, if you
cannot have 60,0001. a year, and live in Paris? The rest
is all bosh I

If slander were a valid or useful instrument
of warfare, the "Roving Englishman " might
hope to do good service against our foe. But,
as its employment is repugnant to every
honest mind, and can only serve to brutalise
war and embitter national hatreds, we must
beg to repudiate these pictures as the mere
" fancy sketches " of a mean and malignant
disposition, always eager to revile when it
thinks it can do so at a safe distance, and
without fear of retaliation.

The introductory and latter portions of the
book are devoted to the bitter depreciation of
her Majesty's servants generally, and to those
under the control of the Foreign-office par-
ticularly.
Our readers will not suspect us of any over-
indulgent leaning to Whig magnates, or of any
blind, unreasoning faith in those who have
been intrusted with the conduct of affairs
during the last two years. We have spoken
out plainly enough our disapproval of their
policy. But Christian charity and gentlemanly
feeling should be of no party, or rather of all
parties ; and when men of high character,
kindly nature, and tried ability are ranco-
rously attacked in their private as in their
public capacity, we will not stop to ask if they
are Whigs or Tories, lords or commoners,
Greys or Smiths, Browns or Cavendishes, but
will brand the calumny in the terms it de-
serves.
Slang is not wit. Where is the humour in
perpetually styling Lord Westmorland " Lord
Fiddlededee," and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe
"Sir Hector Stubble "? Why, the swarming
urchins of St. Giles display mo►e invention in
their nicknames. If ever the term aping could
be appropriately ascribed to the penmanship
of a creature supposed to possess human
intelligence, it would be to the " Roving
Englishman's " servile imitation of the lowest
peculiarities of Mr. Charles Dickens—pecu-
liarities which, though they cannot degrade
his genius, yet serve to show that there is a
link between the brightest and meanest of
mankind. Monkeyficd Dickensism is really
the only phrase which we can find to truly
designate such descriptions as this following
of the camp at Chobhatu

No accident of importance having happened to anybody
during the preliminary arrangements, the camp soon be-
came a place of fashionable resort. It was as good as a play.
Parade went mad there, and the cousinocracy showed itself
worthy of the occasion. Colonel Lord Fitzgrey entertained
a distinguished party to breakfast at Stuffem's Railway
Hotel. General the Honourable Sir Ajax Fitzelliot did the
same ; and so did Captain and Lieutenant• Colonel Money-
bags and Lady Prudence Moneybags.

Lord Blethusaleh Filzrussell, attended by a wealthy or
titled staff of his own immediate connections, including
the sons of his family banker and solicitor, rode slowly
along the line, in a manner suited to his age, dignity, and
infirmities. Nothing could have been more admirable
than the conduct of his lordship on this trying occasion.
The intrepid heroism with which he kept his seat on
horseback, in spite of severe rheumatic pains, brought on
by the frequent showers which had caused even the boldest
old /adiem to take shelter; the cheerful manner in which he
raised his double eyeglass, to inspect each fine regiment as
it filed past him. Indeed, the scene was quite affecting,
and his lordship's medical man (present with a lancet, in
case another attack of apoplexy had seized my lord
suddenly) received the warmest and most. deserved com-
pliments for his care and skill, from a select circle of the
aristocracy.

Mr. G. M. W. Reynolds (we hope we rrint
his initials correctly) can afford to look down
upon such stuff us this, as a genuine specimen
of the higher order of Quadrumana, who goes
through the actions pertaining to man with
becoming gravity, may despise the frivolous
antics of the Sylvanus or Nemestrina species.
The author tells us that Lord Westmor-
land was present at a ball given by Prince
Schwartzenberg to celebrate the downfall of
Lord Palmerston, and that his lordship after-
wards composed a mass in honour of the
Prince's death, which happened a short time
subsequently. The ball was given instead of
thp usual pew Year's-day reeeptten; and few

SATURDAY,

of our readers, we should fancy, will be likely
to credit such a piece of gobemoucherie as the
assertion that the defeat of a British Minister
was the occasion of the festivity.
The mass was composed by Lord Westmor-
land twenty-five years previously at Florence,
and was produced at Vienna before Prince
Schwartzenberg's death.
So much for the writer's ingenuousness. We
have already hinted at his gratitude to Lord
Westmorland and other diplomatists, from
whom he received kindness, and by whom he
was treated with unusual consideration.

As the "Roving Englishman," in the midst
of his tricks, professes a great love of plain
dealing, wo must take the liberty of putting
his sincerity to the test, and of asking him (if
he be the person universally named in society
as the author of this book) whether it is to his
merit, or to the aristocratic influences which he
so eloquently deprecates, that he owes his almost
unpreeedentedly rapid rise in his profession?
And whether it is to the humbleness of his
contrition, or to the interest with which the
accident of his birth has surrounded him, that
he is indebted for his retention and even pro-
motion in a service the rules of which he has
so flagrantly transgressed ?
Secondly. Did not the Earl of Westmor-
land evince extraordinary indulgence to the
author under circumstances when a certain
degree of rigour would have been shown by
almost any other ambassador than the kindly,
accomplished diplomatist and gallant soldier
who represents his Sovereign at Vienna, and
against whom we doubt if one of her Majesty's
subjects can be found to endorse or to echo
the ungrateful attack which beginning at
page 297 extends to page 305 of the work
before us ? _ _

Thirdly. Does the author know (what he
pretends to ignore) that the concert which he
rates Mr. Grey fur performing in at Vienna
was given for a noble charity? Its object
was to raise a fund for the widows and
orphans of literary men. Does he or does
he not remember a young member of the
mission at Vienna who eagerly sought admit-
tance to the musical parties given by the
same gentleman, who there made acquaint-
ance with the society which he vituperates,
and who now writes a book full of sneering
allusions to the man whose salt he has eaten,
and from whom he never met with aught but
kindness and courtesy ? When he seeks to dis-
parage the same person as a public employe,
does he or does he not know that Mr.
Grey is not only one of the most genial
companions and kindly gentlemen in Europe,
but that he is also one of the ablest
and most rising diplomatists whom we
possess? The former part of our statement
will be corroborated by all who know anything
of London or foreign society ; and the officers
of our Baltic fleet and all who have studied
the policy of the Swedish Court will readily
admit that to the tact, conciliatory spirit, and,
above all, to the frankness and honest unre-
serve of Mr. Grey we are mainly indebted for
the friendly attituda of Sweden at the com-
mencement of the war, as for its present cop
dial feeling towards us we are indebted to
Mr. Mageuis, who has also the honour of
being roundly abused by our author.

Fourthly. Was it for certain reasons result,
ing from his former gross misconduct consi-
dered prudent that the author should not he
employed on the same confidential footing as
other attaches? Was thiO not particularly the
case at Constantinople, and is not this the
secret of the peculiar savageness of his on-
slaught on Lord Stratford? His readers will
not fail to perceive his strange ignorance of
all the more important negotiations in which
our ambassador at Constantinople was en-
gaged. It is somewhat strange, and not
unworthy of remark, that the persons upon
whom the author most plentifully pours forth
the vials of his splenetic spite are those wit
whom the individual currently reported to be
the " Roving Englishman " has been diplo-
matically connected. Lord Stratford de Red-
cliire, Lord Westmorland, Mr. Bligh, Mr.
Alagcnis, and Mr. Grey, ore covered with filth
by our literary yahoo ; whereas Lord Cowley,
Mr. Hudson, Mr Crampton, Mr. Buchanan,
and other British envoys, equally amiable and
equally talented with those WI 40141 he I►ttaoh4l

JUNE 9, 1855.

occupying also equally important posts,
escape his discriminating abuse. Is it
because the latter-named gentlemen have
never befriended him, never extended to him
their• hospitality, and never overlooked his
misconduct? Is it, in short, because he has
had no opportunity of spying into their
privacy and betraying their confidence?
His charges of fraud and dishonesty against
tie gentlemen employed in the Foreign•ofice
are too absurd, perhaps, to require refutation.
Nevertheless, we have thought it right to take
nothing for granted, and not to stigmatise as
libellous even the assertions of the " Roving
Englishman," until we had taken pains to
obtain the most precise information. Such
information we have been enabled to acquire,
and we may assure our readers that the whole
account given in this work of the system of
agencies established in that department is
utterly incorrect. Persons in the diplomatic
service generally have an agent in the Foreign
office to whom they give a power of attorney
to receive their salary, pay it into their
banker's bands, and execute other commis•
sions for them. So far from tracing with the
money which passes through their hands, a
diplomatist of rank informs us that they pay
the amount into the client's banker's hands
on the very day on which they receive it from
the Treasury. For his services an agent
receives a commission of one per cent. on the
client's salary ; and for the years during which
most young attaches remain unpaid (it is not
every one who is able, like our author•, to
obtain his promotion to a paid attacheship in
fifteen months) the agent performs the good
offices expected of him gratuitously and
without feo or reward. _ _

Even in the history of ill-natured gossip—in
which congenial study we should expect to
find our author quite at home—he occasionally
makes absurd mistakes, as when he gravely
tells us that Lord Blomfield, our Minister to
Prussia, is generally known by the name of
Fanny, whereas that silly sobriquet is really ap-
plied to an envoy in another part of Germany.
Mr. Cavendish of the Foreign•ofice, who,
we believe, never said a rude word nor did an
offensive action to anybody, is vituperated in
this volume with an intensity of ill-nature
which makes us believe that the mind of its
author must be curiously warped and his moral
vision jaundiced wiih envy and spitefulness.

We are the more confirmed in this opinion
because his fiercest attacks are always made
on generous or charitable actions. We have
already alluded to his sneer at Mr. Gre y
for performing in a concert given for a good
object in Vienna. The amateur performances
given in London under the sanction of her
Majesty, and for the noblest purposes, a few
weeks back, arouse the " Roving English-
man's " angriest passions, and he falls in such
a rage with kindness and humanity that he re-
minds us of Robson as the impish lawyer's
clerk in The Lottery Ticket, sereaming'and half
mad with misthanthropy when he sees good
men happy and loving folks comfortable around
We wish we could stop here ; but this man,
not conter t with calumniating the living,
must needs assail the dead. We will pot dwell
on this painful topic, but we will leave it to the
surviving friends of one of the most popular
and best known members of London society,
and to the chiefs of that department with which
his name is identified, to do justice in their
hearts to an old friend, an honourable gentle-
man, and a most valuable public servant, who is
traduced by the writer of this work for no
other reason we can divine except that he
was a generous and a kindly old' man who
was beloved by all who knew him.
Few books have issued from an English
press so bad in tone, so vulgar in style,
so false. in statement, and so malicious in
motive, as these " Pictures from the Battle
Field." Fuseli recommended his pupils to
sup on raw pork when they wished to depict
the horrible. The " Roving Englishman" would
seem to have a taste for more ghoul-like
food ; but though, undoubtedly, he has the
" mauvais comr," he dee6 not seem to pos
Bess the concomitant "bon estomae " which
the French cynic deemed equally indispensa-
ble for liappipeaq. On 040 contrary, he secp!s