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

THE PRE S S, MAY 15, 1858.

" The Grand Remonstrance" was carried through
the House of Commons by the popular party.
It contained a recapitulation of all the grievances
of the King's reign, and has by different histo-
rians been thought the successful effort of an
expiring faction to regain importance, or the hold
attempt of sagacious patriots to warn the country
of its danger.

The first question to be decided is at what
point, if at any, the Long Parliament departed
from a justifiable course of reform, and placed
themselves in the wrong. Mr. Hallam is of
opinion that such a point of departure is to be
noted when, after (in the spring of 1641) "forming
our Constitution such nearly as it now exists "
—by, first, the Triennial Bill ; second, the aboli-
tion of arbitrary taxation ; third, of arbitrary
imprisonment ; and fourth, of several minor
grievances which bore hard on individuals—they
proceeded to the impeachment of Strafford, the
act against their own dissolution, and the exclu-
sion of the bishops from the House of Lords. If
this opinion be correct, there is no difficulty in
comprehending the reaction in the King's favour
which set in during the autumn, and which was
only checked by his foolish attempt to seize the
five members in the following January. On this
hypothesis, the originators of the Grand Remon-
strance would seem to have been actuated by
faction rather than patriotism. And such would
appear to have been the opinion of Falkland and
other eminent and nobleminded members of the
revolutionary party. By a mode of reasoning
peculiar to himself; Mr. Forster sees in the mode-
ration of Hyde and Falkland the justification of
the extreme party, and in the efforts of the
Universities and the House of Lords to preserve
episcopaq " treason" to the popular leaders !
Such logic as this renders Mr. Forster totally
worthless as an historical teacher. The complete
and unconscious begging of the question evinced
in the passages we allude to is such evidence of
ratiocinative weakness as at once to put him out
of court. But even this is hardly the worst.
Supposing that Mr. Halkun is wrong, and that
the Long Parliament were justified in the extreme
measures which they adopted. Still, the King
had submitted to them. Where then was the
propriety of striving to excite the people against
him any further P A justification of this conduct
has sometimes been sought for in an alleged
design on the King's part to recover his preroga-
tive by force of arms; and a transaction which
took place at Edinburgh, styled "The Incident,"
has sometimes been pressed into the service of
his detractors to show that he might have had a
design of assassinating the Puritan chiefs. The
only authority on the point is Clarendon, in
whose history it stands recorded that the Mar-
quis of Montrose offered to King Charles, when
in Edinburgh, to assassinate the Earl of Argyle
and the Marquis of Hamilton. Intelligence of
this " incident" was conveyed to Westminster,
where it caused the greatest consternation. Now,
the joke is that this pretty little plot has long
since been discovered to be a mares nest. It
has been found out that many passages in Cla-
rendon's history which stand as part of the text
were never meant by him to appear there at all.
By some blunder of the first publishers, certain
XiS. notes, containing mere memoranda of re-
ports, and intended for his Life, were transferred
to the pages of the History, and the MSS. of the
History transferred to the collection of notes.
The passage relating to this offer of Montrose is
one that has been so treated ; and in the edition
of 1826, the true reading is given in an appendix,
where there is not even a hint of assassination.
This, of course, is what Clarendon intended to
be the authentic version of what took place at
Edinburgh ; and it will scarcely be believed that
a writer who plumes himself so much on research
as Mr. Forster does should be totally ignorant
of the real state of Clarendon's work, and should
quote from the old corrupt text as if it were the
authentic one :

Clarendon says explicitly that Montrose, while profess-
ing to be able to satisfy the King of the treason of Argyle
and the Harniltons, advised the more certain and expedi-
tious mode of disposing of them by assassination, which he
"frankly undertook to do."

This is really monstrous. Clarendon intended
nothing of the kind. The characters of British
heroes are not to be written away after this
fashion. And this s►ngle error is, in our opinion,
quite a sufficient sample of the whole volume as
a reliable authority.

Mr. Forster's talent lies in a picturesque and
effective grouping of his materials. Who will
not read with pleasure the following sketch of the
house of Commons ?
The entire length of the room in which the members
sat was something less than the breadth of Westminster
Hall; and, handsome as it originally had been, with its
rich architecture and decorated paintings of the thirteenth
century, it had lost all trace of these under boards and
whitewash immediately after the Reformation, when also
a new floor above, and a new roof under the old, still
more abridged its proportions. At the western end. the
entrance was between rows of benches, passing the bar,
and underneath a gallery into which members mounted
by a ladder on the right-hand corner, near the southern
window. At the eastern end, a little in advance of a large
window looking on the river, stood the Speaker's chair;
and again, a little less in advance of that towards the
middle of the floor, stood the Clerk's table, at which sat
Henry Elsyng, and John Rushworth his lately appointed
assistant, with their faces to the mace and their backs to
the Speaker. Then, on right and left of the Speaker, in
benches stretching along and springing up as in an am-
phitheatre on either band, were assembled the honourable
members. There they sat, puritan and courtier, the pink
and choice of the gentlemen of England with bearded
faces close-cut and stern, or here and there more gaily
trimmed with peak and ruff ; faces for the most part worn
with anxious thoughts and fears, heavy with toil, weary
with responsibility and care, often with long itnorison-
ment; there they sat, in their steeple hats and Spanish
cloaks, with swords and bands, by birth, by wealth, by
talents, the first assembl7 of the world. And there, pre-
siding in his great cairn- surmounted by the arms of
England, sat Mr. Speaker; also hatted, cloaked, and
sworded like the rest ; but not always treated by them, nor
in tooth always treating them, with the respect which has
gathered to his office in latter time.

While he does this yet a few minutes longer, let us
seize the occasion to °beam where some of the prominent
people sit. The member whose manuscript record chiefly
has been quoted, Sir Simonds D'Ewes, will guide us to
the knowledge here and there, in jotting down his own
speeches; for as it was then the custom to avoid mention
as sell of the place represented as of the member's name,
the principal mode of indicating a previous speaker was
by some well-known personal quality, or by his position
in the house. Sir Simonds himself sat usually by the
Speaker's chair, on the lowermost form close by the south
end of the Clerk's table; and there, whatever the subject
of debate might be, or the excitement going on around
him, this precise Self-satisfied puritan gentleman sat,
writing-apparatus forming part of his equipment, his eyes
close to the paper (for their sight was defective), and
ever busily taking his notes: but it was his custom, when
he spoke, to go up two steps higher, that he might more
easily be hear) by the whole house. In this position,
Mr. Harry Marten, the member fur Berkshire, was " the
gentleman below." Mr. Pym, the acknowledged chief of
the inejority of the Commons, is ever in his " usual place
near the bar," just below the gallery on the same right-
band side of the house at entering. Sir John Culpepper,
member for Kent, and so soon to be Chancellor of the
Exchequer, is "the gentleman on the other side of the
way." He sat upon the left-hand side; and near him,
Molt generally together, sat Hyde and Falkland; Mr.
Geoffrey Palmer, the member for Stamford, and Sir John
Strangiveys, sitting near. On the same aide at the upper
end, on the Speaker's right, sat the elder Vane, member
for Wilton, for a few days longer Secretary of State and
Treaserer of the Household ; near whom were other
holders of office. Sir Thomas Jermyn, his Majesty's
Comptroller, who sat for Bury St. Edmund's; Sir Edward
Herbert, the Attorney-General, who sat for Old Sarum ;
Oliver St. John, the Solicitor-General, member for Tot-
ness, still holding the office iu the King's service which
had failed to draw him over to the King's side ; Mr.
Coventry, member for Evesham and one of the King's
house; and young Harry Vane, member fur Hull, and
Joint•treasurer of the Navy ; all sat in this quarter, on the
Speaker's right. Near them sat also Mr. Edward Nicholas,
clerk of the Council, soon to be Sir Edward and Secretary
of State in place of Windebauk, now an anxious auditor
and spectator of this memorable debate, which he was
there to report to the King. Between these members
and Hyde, on the same side of the house, sat the member
for Wilton, Sir Be gjainia Rodyerd ; Sir Walter Earle ;
William Strode ; and lawyer Glyn, the member for West-
minster. Mr. Herbert Pike, the member for Brecon,
with Mr. Wilmot, member for Tamworth, and a knot of
young courtiers, sat at the lower end of the house on the
sanie side, immediately on the left at entering. Jahn
Hampden sat on the other side, behind Pym ; and be-
tween him and Harry Marten, sat Edmund Waller ; on
one of the back benches, Cromwell; nut far from him,
Denzil Holies; and under the gallery, the member for
Oxford University, the learned Mr. Seidel). Near him sat
lawyer Maynard, the other member tor Tommie ; and over
them, in the gallery itself, that successful lawyer Mr. Hol—
borne ; Sir Edward l)ering; and the member for Leicester
shire, Sir Arthur Haselrig. But our list must come to a
close. The reader has been detained too long (tom the
debate on the Great Remonstrance.

If we turn to Mr. Forster's literary essays we
observe kindred defects and merits—a strong and
turbid flow of thought, and a copious command of
facts—which carry us over rough ground and
smooth, over bush, briar, and swamp, at a slow,
perhaps, but steady and uniform rate. But the
briars and swamps are numerous. There is a blunt-
ness of perception in Mr. Forster's intellect, and •
corresponding slovenliness in his style, the one
which often leads him into mistakes, while

.

smith ":

other seriously detracts from the pleasure with
which we peruse him. His views of things are
hard and literal; his sentences seem framed in
total disregard of either elegance or perspicuity,
and though generally their awkwardness pro-
ceeds from mere negligence of composition, it is
occasionally the reflex of a proportionate con-
fusion of ideas. As examples of his want of
taste we may quote the following passage about
Johnson and IVilkes:

"His name," said Dr. Johnson, "has been sounded
from pole to pole as the phcenix of convivial felicity."
More naturally he added : "Jack has a great variety of talk ;
Jack is a scholar; and Jack has the manners of a gentle-
man."

Why " more naturally "? The one mode of ex-
pression was just as natural as the other. John-
son was merely using one of those intentional
hyperboles which pass current in all societies, and
could never be misunderstood by any one whose
mental palate was not a little dull. His comment
upon an anecdote relating to the French opinion
of Churchill is a still stronger instance of this
particular deficiency :

"I don't know," wrote Horace Walpole to Sir H. Mann,
in one or his lately published letters, " whether this man's
fame has extended to Florence ; but you may judge of the
noise he makes in this part of the world by the following
trait, which is a pretty instance of that good-breeding on
which the French pique themselves. My sister and Mr.
Churchill are in France. A Frenchman asked him if he
was Churchill le fanseu.r poite!---Non.—Ma joi, Monsieur,
taut pis pour votes!" To think that it should be so much
the worse for the son of a general, and the husband of a
Lady Maria, daughter to an earl, not to be a low-bred
scribbler!
Now, this very commonplace sarcasm is quite
superfluous. The Frenchman's remark was ill-
bred. Had Churchill been the pattern of virtue
and refinement instead of what he was, such an
observation would naturally have been ill received.
But considering the opinion which half the
English public at that time entertained of him,
it must have been felt as uncommonly offensive.
That that opinion was possibly erroneous has
nothing to do with the question. We must not,
as writers too frequently do, confound erroneous
opinions with the conduct which is based on
those opinions. It might be very wrong for our
ancestors to have looked upon Churchill merely
as a clever and profligate lampooner, but, thinking
him so, they are not to be blamed for having
thought it anything but flattering to be mistaken
for him.
Of confused statement and harsh constructions,
the following examples will suffice. After
quoting a long passage from Churchill's prophecy
of famine, he adds :

We cannot leave the poem without remarking the in-
genuity of praise it bail extorted from Mr. Tooke. It bas
been observed of it, be says, and for himself he adopts the
observation, " that the author displays peculiar skill in
throwing his thoughts into poetical paragraphs, so that
the sentence swells to the conclusion, as in prose ! " This
we must call the first instance, within our knowledge, of
an express eulogy of poetry on the ground of its resem-
blance to prose. Dr. Johnson was wont to note a curious
delusion in his dad, which hits prevailed very generally
since, that people supposed they were writing poetry when
they did not write prose. Mr. Tooke and his friend
represent the delusion of supposing poetry to be but •
better sort of prose.
Now, if this sarcasm is good for anything, Mr.
Forster should have said "the delusion of sup-
" posing prose to be a better sort of poetry."
For prose being made the model, and poetry the
imitation, it is absurd to talk of the latter being
but a better sort of the former. But there is
really no delusion involved in Mr. Tooke's re-
mark. Such ,888,ges as the one here quoted
are only versified rhetoric; and as a rhetorical
climax is unquestionably produced with more
ease in prose than in poetry, it is a legitimate
ground of praise in any writer to say that he
produces it as easily in poetry as in prose.
A little further on we have :
It was a part of his hatred of the hypocrisies to work with
whit he had before him,--small ungodlike politicians
enough, whom he broke into still smaller pieces, and paved
Pitt's road with back into power.

The last clause is not the sort of writing we are
accustomed to look for in works of this preten-
sion.

Mr. Forster's want of fineness and nicety of
mind naturally betrays itself in criticism. He
says, for instance, that the following lines of
Churchill "recall the happy turns of Gold-

Happy the Savage of those early times,
Ere Europe's sons were known, sod Europe's crimes!
Gold, cursed gold ! slept in the womb of earth,
Unfelt its mischiefs, as unknown its worth;