The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-15 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAY 15, 1858.

In full content he found the truest wealth •

In toil he found diversion, food, and health;

Stranger to ease and luxury of courts,
His sports were labours, and his labours sports;
His youth was hardy, and his old age green ;
Life's morn was vigorous, and her eve serene;
No rules he held, but what were made for use;

No arts he learn'd, nor ills which arts produce;
False lights he follow'd, but believ'd them true ;
He knew not much, but liv'd to what he knew.

We confess we know very little poetry in the
same metre which reminds us less of Goldsmith.
These are masterly heroics, but their union of
Johnson's vigour and Pope's antithesis is quite
unlike the general flow of "The Traveller" or
" The Deserted Village."
With one more extract on the subject of Sir
Robert Walpole we shall close our list of objec-
tions. Mr. Forster is writing of the first Par-
liament of George III.:

The first election of the new reign was remarkable for
its gross venality, nor had " undertakers " been so rife or
so active since the reign of James I. One borough even
publicly advertised itself for sale; and 140 far, by such
means at least, the desired success appeared within easy
reach. But any shrewd observer might foresee a great
impending change under the proposed new system, in the
reaction of all this on the temper of the people out of
doors. Sir Robert Walpole did strange things with the
House of Commons, but for great popular purposes ; and
already it was manifest enough that a mere bungling
imitation of such things, for purposes wholly unpopular,
would be quite a different matter. In a word, it was be-
coming tolerably clear to such a man as Wilkes, who had
managed again to effect his return for the borough of
Aylesbury, that a good day for • Demagogue was at hand.
It is difficult to unfold with brevity the amount
of " bungling" condensed into these few sen-
tences. In the first place, it is a very curious
mode of arguing to contend that 'Walpole's
system was more justifiable than Bute's, because
Bute had for an opponent John Wilkes, and
Walpole Sir William Wyndham—which is what
in effect Mr. Forster does. What Sir Robert
did for " great popular purposes " evoked the
opposition of a band of upright and highly-gifted
English gentlemen. What Lord Bute did for
causes of an opposite character simply brought
about " a good day for a Demagogue !' We wish
Sir Robert joy of his advocate. But, in the next
place, Walpole's purposes were popular only in a
technical sense of the word ; in the sense in
which Lord Bute's were unpopular, they were
unpopular too—that is, unacceptable to the mass
of the community. The unpopularity of each
was independent of the real principles sup
to be at stake in their respective systems. Wal-
pole was hated as the author of taxes, standing
armies, and Ministerial autocracy, not as the
supporter of the Protestant religion and the bar-
rier against the return of absolutism • and Bute
was hated as the promoter of Scotchmen and a
general system of Court favouritism, and not as
the repairer of the kingly power, to which the
lapse of a very few years proved that the nation
was favourable. Thirdly, the popularity of the
purpose, granting that it was so, would not jus-
tify the baseness of the means. To corrupt pri-
vate manners for the sake of political institutions
is as shortsighted as immoral • for we destroy
that which alone makes political institutions of
value. According to the happy expression of
Lord Bolingbroke, " liberty," in the time of
Walpole, "was undermined, for fear it should be
overthrown."

On the whole, we should characterize Mr.
Forster's genius as powerful, but coarse-grained.
He moves easily under a great weight of informa-
tion ; and no straining at effect, or forced intro-
ductions of knowledge, disfigure his pages. He
has also the art of grouping his facts so as to
form an effective coup-d'ceil; but we should not
trust him so much for an opinion on each one
separately. As a shopman may be able to arrange
his window to perfection whom we would not
trust to choose a silk dress for a lady. These
essays are, however, above the average of perio-
dical literature. They will probably long con-
tinue to be regarded as standard authorities on
the authors of which they treat. With
Mr. Forster's estimate of Steele, Churchill,
and Foote we agree in the main ; and they are
three men whose careers peculiarly deserve to be
brought into juxtaposition. With all their im-
providence, dissipation, and generosity, all three
contrived to keep clear of those degrading depths
of poverty in which so many bright spirits of the
day were bedimmed. It is pleasant to remember
that Churchill got "a thousand pounds in two
months." It gives us quite a new idea of the
man to think that he kept a country house at

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and Country were so rigidly divided, he enjoyed
his hunting, shooting, and fishing with the
of a Scott or a Wilson. More lucky, perraspt:,
than Fielding, that he died ere reverses overtook
him, and that it could truly be said of him on his
tomb that " life was to the last enjoyed." Foote
also was enabled—though we must remember
that he enjoyed the aid of one or two private
bequests—to keep up appearances to the last.
Here he is in his youth :
Those were still great days for clubs and taverns. The
Grecian, in Deverenz-court, continued to retain some
portion of the fame for Temple wit which made Steele
propose to date from it his learned papers in tht Taller,
and here was Foote's morning lounge ; while in the
evening he sought the Bedford in Covent-garden, which
had succeeded lately to the theatrical glories of Torifs
and Will's, and where, to be one of the knot of well-dressed
people that met there and modestly called themselves the
world, was of course a natural object of youthful aspiration.
For the vicinity of the theatre was even yet the head-
quarters of wit; and still the ingenious apophthegm of
Steele's passed current, that what the bank was to the
credit of the nation the playhouse was to its politeness
and good manners. Here accordingly breaks upon us the
first clear glimpse of our hero. A well-known physician
and theatrical critic of the day, Dr. Barrowby, sketches him
for us. One evening, he says, he saw a young an ex•
travagantly dressed out in a frock suit of green end silver
lace, bag-wig, sword, bouquet, and point-ruffles, enter the
room, and immediately join the critical circle at the upper
end. Nobody recognized him ; but such was the ease of
his bearing, and the point and humour of remark with which
he at once took part in the conversation, that his presence
seemed to disconcert no one; and a sort of pleased bus
of " Who is he ?" was still going round the room un-
answered, when a handsome carriage stopped at the door,
be rose and quitted the room, and the servants announced
that his name was Foote, that he was a young gentleman
of family and fortune, a student of the Inner Temple, and
that the carriage had called for him on its way to the
assembly of a lady of fashion.
And here he is at the end:—

It is at the Queen's drawing•room in January 1777.
Greeted heartily by all around him, made to feel that his
infamous persecutors had not been abl e to sully his name,
and singled out for recognition by his sovereign. the old
spirit for a while reasserts its sway. " Sir George Warren,"
says Cumberland, who also was present, "had his Onier
snatched off his ribbon, encircled with diamonds to the
value of 7001. Foote was there, and lays it upon the
parsons ; having secured, as he says, his gold snuff• box in
his waistcoat pocket upon seeing so many black gowns in
the rcom. "

There are innumerable good stories scattered
through this essay on Foote ; but we have already
exceeded our proper space, and must take our
leave of Mr. Forster with thanks for the enter-
tainment he has afforded us, in which we should
have been less careful to note blemishes but for
his own propensity to bear hardly on others.