The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-15 00:00:00

Friday, July 14.

- - _
BANKRUPTCY ANNULLED.-WiLLIAm HOLMES POSTL/413,
Enfield, wine merchant
BANKRUPTS.-WARD Wier ARLISS, Plymouth, ale and
porter merchant-THOMAS STEN HO U SE, Friday-street, Cheapside,
warebouseman-Wia. WHITEHEAD and MARY ANN WHITEHEAD,
Leicester, inukeepers-CORMELIOS TERRY, Birmingham, cut
nail manufacturer-THomAs ARCHER and SAMUEL ARCHER,
Burslem , tailors-Gonnom HIINRY CRIPra, Shrewabury, wine
merchant--JAMES ROWLEY, Stafford- street, Bond-street, licensed
victualler - ROBERT MORRISON, Drury-lane, baker-HINE/
RUBBRA, Dudley, grocer-JAMES DAVID JONES and CHARLES
GOLD, Cheapside, tavern keepers-WILLIAM HENRY FLBMINO,
Camberwell, brewer-WILLIAM READE and GEORGE READS,
II iheniia Chambers, London-bridge, provision merchanta-JAMES
ECXLEY Paocirran, New Quay, St. Columb Minor, Cornwall,
shipowner-Wu-Lux Sims, Pimlico, builder- GEORGE Honsos,
Leeds, grocer-TIMOTHY JOHN SMITH, (trading under the name
of Jr:mason), Windsor, dealer in cutlery-TAMES PURDAY and
WILLIAM THomAnPURDAT, Norfolk, builders-THOMAS SQUIRES,
Grosvenor-mews, Bond-street, coach builder-CHARLES WHITE,
Salisbury, upholsterer-GEORGE TENNANT, Market- street,West-
minster,licensedvictualler-CHnisToeims SrAsHirrr, Barking,
mast and block maker-JOHN SMITH and Loam ASHBY, Great
Coram-street, linendraners.
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.-CHARtza ROBB, Forfar,
draper-DAVID Norman, Edinburgh, builder-JAMES JAMIESON
and Co., Borrowstoun-road, potters.

PORTRAIT or GARRICIL—The fine head of Garrick
painted by Zoffany for the elder Colman, and sold
from the Belmont collection at Uxbridge, has been
lithographed by Lowes Dickinson, in his best style,
and published by Wlienny. We do not recollect at
what date the figure was painted, but the face is that
of Garrick in his prime, before his features had sus-
tained the stage-wear which induced Johnson's joke.
The portrait is oval-shaped, of a good size for
framing, and represents a singularly handsome,
refined, and expressive face. The lively flexibility of
the mouth indicates the actor's art ; the lip and eye
realizing the image :
" What a mental power this eye shoots forth ; how big ima-
gination moves on this lip; to the dumbness of the gesture one
might interpret."
THE GULF OF FINLAND AND BALTIC SEA are de,
lineated with great clearness and precision in a well-
engraved map published by Mr. Wyld. Both coasts
of the Gulf from the Aland Isles are well delineated,
the fortifications being indicated by red lines. On spare
spaces are given plans of Cronstadt, Helsingfors,
with the Sveaborg forts, the Gulf of Bothnia, and
Cronstadt and St. Petersburg. For general use no
better chart could be desired, and just now it will be
especially useful to show the operations of the allied
fleets, and of the French forces on the eve of de-
parture for the Baltic.

JULY 15, 1854.

Sittraturt.

History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht
to the Peace of Versailles. 1713-1783. By
Lord Mahon. In 7 vols. Vol. VII. 1780-
1783. London: Murray.
THERE are historians more brilliant and more
profound than Lord Mahon ; but few exceed
him in the qualities of fair dealing and agree-
able writing. His style is generally easy ; his
remarks always impartial. The faults which
beset his earlier productions, and which were
exposed with friendly candour by Macaulay in
the Edinburgh (political bias being for once
neutralised in the essayist's mind by personal
predilection), have by practice been entirely
removed. In this last, as in the two preceding
volumes, we seldom meet with those little
moralising remarks—reminding one of the
sententious aphorisms of a Greek chorus—
which, while undeniably true, provoked a
smile by their very obvious nature. Lord
Mahon, in short, has learnt to write like a man
of the world as well as a scholar ; and being
able to take his own time, not. stimulated into
undue haste by the necessity of early publica-
tion, he has produced a book which will
probably continue to be read in future times,
and which will certainly be read with plea-
sure.

The present, and concluding, volume deals
with the close of the American war—with
Indian annals during the administration of
Hastings—and with those traits of life and
manners which may be described as the social
history of the English people. Of these three
sections, perhaps the first, or political, is the
most interesting. The career of Hastings,
like that of Clive, has been described by a
master of language, whose gorgeous word-
painting and elegant declamation defy imita-
tion, even when we question both the justice
of the matter embodied in them, and the taste
which indulges in so decorated a style. In
his Oriental chapters Lord Mahon had to
follow Macaulay, and to tell over again, some-
times in very similar words, a story which the
essays of the former have made familiar to
every reader of English. No more difficult
task could be imposed on any author; yet, on
comparing the two, we know not whether the
calm historical tone of Lord Mahon be not, to
the cultivated and fastidious, more pleasing
than the eternal rhetoric of his rival. Cer-
tainly the contrast of manner is complete.
The Whig historian, not content with im-
bibing, seems to exaggerate and overcharge
every prejudice of the times which he
describes ; and an ignorant reader would rise
from the study of his work convinced that all
the honesty, patriotism, and wisdom of the
nation had always been found on what is called
the popular side. Lord Mahon, on the other
hand, even when censuring the conduct of a
political leader, allows him to plead his own
cause, puts in the strongest light the arguments
by which he may have been influenced, and
leans in his sentence towards the side of
mercy, knowing that in literature, as in law,
the judge should be the prisoner's counsel.
The part of this work which seems to us
least interesting is that which ought to be
most so—the chapter on " Life and Manners."
Lord Mahon has been misled by the example
of historians who undertook to write of more
remote times. Most educated persons can
form to themselves a tolerably good idea of
what England was like in the time of their
grandfathers ; and, though the anecdotes in-
troduced by way of illustration are well told,
they are for the most part familiar. But with
this and other drawbacks the history deserves
to be read universally ; and we trust that its
author will, if not politically employed, be in-
duced to continue it, at least, to the out-
break of the revolutionary war. At that point
Sir Archibald Alison's great work commences :
the intervening years should not be left with
out an adequate record.

My Friends and Acquaintance. By P. G.
Patmore. London : Saunders and Qtley.
TAE objections commonly made to the publi-
cation of that personal-knowledge which is
obtained by familiar converse with distin-

THE PRESS.

guished persons—and particulary with literary
characters—do not admit of a general answer.
They may be just or unreasonable, according
to circumstances. Each case must stand on
its merits, and each reporter must be judged
not only by the accuracy of his statements,
but by the discretion he shows in dealing
with the material at his disposal. There is no
character so single as not to show some cha-
meleon hues: it will present different aspects
in different lights, and may be represented as
mean and despicable, though really great and
generous, by suppressing its finer, and magni-
fying its smaller, traits. Ignorance may per-
form the work of malevolence in depreciating
the nature which it is unable to comprehend,
or which it has had little opportanity of ob-
serving ; and, on the whole, we think that the
reputation of eminent men has suffered more
from that limited appreciation of their quali-
ties which proceeds from very partial percep-
tions than from studied misrepresentation.
It is favourable to this view that the 'best
biographies, whatever shape they have as
sumed, have been written by persons who
were most intimate with the characters they
described. First impressions may be correct
in morals and conduct, but they can rarely be
relied on as to character. In ordinary life
conversation and manners present nearly as
much uniformity as dress ; not uncommonly,
indeed, the superiority of a man's intellect
may be detected as Johnson said Burke's could
be—in a chance meeting under a shed during
a shower of rain—but no insight into character
can be thus hastily gained. With the best
opportunities more than common perception
is required to form a just estimate of au
original nature; and for this reason the re-
marks of a mere acquaintance should be
received with great reserve. Mr. Patmore may
rather have known Campbell less than more
from having met him a few times at table, and
been favoured with a few of his formal notes.

For our own part, we object not to "revela-
tions " of social converse —when there is
nothing in the converse itself of a strictly
private character but to the revelations
which are imperfect in knowledge, and may,
therefore, convey a false impression, or which
are so indiscreet as to magnify those little
peculiarities of mind or manner which
have little or no connection with character,
and with which the public have legitimately
no concern. If eminent men are not described
by their contemporaries, by whom shall they
be described ? Every recollection of them is
precious, if it be essential ; but from authentic
memorials must be carefully separated those
carping judgments and criticisms, which, as
they are merely the reflection of the writer's
mind, may tell us something of him, indeed, if
we cared to find it, but may only perplex us
in more important respects.
Mr. Patmore's book would have been much
better had he given us more fact and less
opinion. He was not favourably circumstanced
for acquiring an intimate knowledge of those
persons whom he designates as his "friends
" and acquaintance." He was, it seems, a
" reader " to Mr. Colburn, when that shrewd
publisher was in the height of his fame, and
was thus brought into contact with several
writers, on whose modes of life the public will
very willingly receive information. As he
revised all Mr. Plumer Ward's novels, he was
admitted to that gentleman's intimacy. He
certainly knew Hazlitt and some of his set well,
and was occasionally admitted to the society
of Lady Blessington. Unluckily, he appears
to be excessively vain, and to attach very
undue importance to some of the communi-
cations he received.
His volumes commence with Charles Lamb,
whose humour he attempts to describe by
such phrases as " enormous jokes " and " pro
digious puns." The mere twaddle in which
poor Lamb often indulged is received by Mr.
Patmore with reverence as wit of the very
highest order. All that he records of the per-
sonal habits of Lamb has been told (and
often too) in better style before.
The recollections of Campbell are meagre
and prejudiced. We do not know whether
the statement is to be relied on that the
biographies professedly written by the poet
were really the work of one of his intimates—
a person " in connection with the newspaper

663

press, of coarse mind, and of almost ostenta-
tiously profligate personal habits" :

There is a work in two volumes octavo, entitled " Life
of Mrs. Siddons, by T. Campbell, Esq.," and another in
the like form entitled " Life of Sir Thomas Lawrence, by
T. Campbell, Esq. ," both of which productions, if I am
not greatly misinformed (and my authority was the party
better than ouy one else but Campbell himself acquainted
with the Ifacts), were entirely prepared and composed by
the gentleman above alluded to—who was an extremely
rapid and offhand writer, and was much employed by
" popular" publishers when called upon at a pinch to
supply the cravings of the literary market, on any parti-
cular topic of the moment, before its more legitimate
resources could be brought to bear. If the party in question
was to be believed, the only share the alleged author of the
above-named works had in their production was that of
" overlooking " the MS., " looking over " the proof sheets,
and permitting his name to stand rubrio in the titlepage.

The portrait of Campbell as a host is fairly
drawn :

Campbell was an excellent host for a small and well-
assorted literary dinner•party. He combined all the
qualities proper for that difficult office, without a single
counteracting one ; the highest intellectual position and
pretensions, without the smallest disposition to make them
apparent—much less to placard them ; a ready wit and a
fine turn for social humour, without the slightest touch of
that vulgar waggery which so often accompanies and neu-
tralises these, and is the bane of all the intellectual society
into which it is allowed to intrude ; a graceful, easy, and
well-bred manner and bearing, without any vestige of stiff-
ness on the one hand, or boisterousness on the other ;
finally, a perpetual consciousness of his position and
duties as master of the house, yet an entire apparent for-
getfulness of these in the pleasure he took in the presence
of his friends.

Much that follows this extract ought never
to have been printed. Mr. Patmore dwells at
length on some " dark and fearful insinuations
studiously propagated" by Campbell, and hints
that they were " the apple-
"pips that killed poor
" Byron before his time,—absurd rodomon-
tade, which receives no countenance from our
other sources of knowledge. Campbell him-

self says :
I never envied Lord Byron, but, on the contrary, re.
joiced in his fame ; in the first place, from a sense of
justice, and, in the next place, because, as a poetical critic,
he was my beneficent friend.
What feeling but that of kindness could I have towards
Lord Byron ? He was always affectionate towards me,
both in his writings and in his personal interviews.
Ah, my dear Moore, if we had him but back again, how
easily could we settle these matters

The criticism on Campbell is affected and
contradictory; but it is not worth while ex-
posing absurdity which is not likely to obtain
an hour's currency.
In the notice of Horace Smith an anecdote
is related of his early days which, if it be
authentic, shows that Cumberland could be
generous as well as fretful. Young Horace,
then a clerk in a merchant's counting-house,
had written some eulogistic verses on one of
Cumberland's dramas, the extract following
tells with what result :
The future author of the most famous feu d'esprit of his
time was sitting at his desk one morning, in the midst of
a whole counting-house full of other clerks and mercantile
functionaries, when a stately old gentleman of the old
school entered, whose appearance and attire were of the
most distinguished and pointqlevice character—at once
marking him as a denizen of those circles with which the
young dramatic amateur was only acquainted through the
medium of his favourite Cumberland's comedies.

It was Richard Cumberland himself, who, after looking
round him, inquired if " Mr. Smith " was within.
The counting-house boasted " two Mr. Smiths." Which
of them was it that the visitor wanted ?

" Mr. Smith, the poet"—was the altogether unbusiness-
like and indiscreet reply ; but it was sufficiently explana-
tory to arouse the fears and blushes of its object,—who de-
scended from his stool—took the visitor into an adjoining
room—received with mingled wonder and delight the
veteran dramatist's enthusiastic commendations of, and
thanks for, his verses—and thenceforth became a con-
firmed votary of the Muses.
At this time Horace Smith was a mere boy, with light
curling locks flowing down his shoulders ; but Cumber.
land, with a warmth and enthusiasm not usual with him
at that advanced period of his literary career, took so
strong a liking to him, that he never came into the city
without visiting his young protégé, and shortly afterwards
introduced him to several of the most distinguished amateur
writers of a day when amateur writing was in its glory—
under the illustrious auspices of Canning, Frere, Colonel
Croker, Herries, Sir James Bland Burgess, &c.
The chapters on Hazlitt are the most
valuable in the work ; and, though far from
complete as a memoir, will assist towards one
when the history of this strange being shall he
undertaken by a competent hand. Hazlitt in
love, as portrayed by his own confessions,
forms a curious piece of literary history. His
letters appear exaggerated, yet he was cer-
tainly a creature of strong passions and sensi-
bility, though there is something like displa

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