The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

16

witted to do so by preparing the way for the
sacrifice of Mr. Disraeli by systematic libels.
He will outlive their spite, or they will
only be remembered in connection with him
like the heroes of "The Dunciad." The career
of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer
is not closed : we believe its brightest por-
tion is in the future. We have watched its
wonderful vicissitudes with a deep interest
since our college days, when we read fort the
first time " Contarini Fleming " with a low-
ing heart and a kindling cheek. Its author
was decried as a writer, and he is now one of
the most popular, as lie will certainly be the
most enduring, author of the day: he was
coughed down in the House of Commons in
his maiden speech, and he lived to produce
oratorical effects in the same assembly which
have never been equalled in our time, and
which we much doubt whether the eighteenth
century ever surpassed. He has only been
driven from power by a coalition against him
of every man of talent of every party in the
house except his own, and that coalition
already is nauseous to the nation. We have
invariably observed that, whenever Disraeli
has received a check, it has only been the
herald of a great advance ; and that, when the
world has believed him beaten, he has always
been on the eve of his greatest victories.

Life of Quintus Horatian Flaocus. With Illus-
trations. By the Rev. Henry Hart Milman,
D.D. New Edition. London : Murray.
ABOUT three years since, on a fine summer after-
noon, one of the judges of the land went to pay
a visit to an illustrious old orator then living in
rural retirement, after having carried the highest
honours in the Senate and at the Bar. Amongst
the amusement of the aged statesman was his
curious collection of all the editions of Horace
worth preserving. By way of pleasing intelli
gence, Judge told his aged friend that a
treat was in store for him, as Milman's edition
of Horace was advertised in the last Quarterly.
The venerable statesman slowly tottered with
his visitor to the side of his library, whore
tiers of " Homces" were ranged above each
other. " I love every Horace with a scholar's
loving," said he, and his eye complacently
surveyed his treasures. " But you have not
Milmau's ? " and the visitor eagerly expa-
tiated on what might be expected from the
Dean of St. Paul's forthcoming one, with its
picturesque illustrations, its critical disquisi-
tions, and the pleasing annotations of so
graceful a writer. After some converse, the
visit terminated with the old scholar saying,
"Well, you see that I was able to sack you yet
at the odes of Horace. But nevertheless I'll
get Milman's too." The aged Horatian enthu-
siast, whose decease, since this was written, is
unhappily recorded in the Times of yesterday,
the oldest public man in the British empire,
termed by Lord Brougham " the incompa-
rable orator," was the nonagenarian peer,
Lord Plunket. And, without going into his
judicial merits, we have no doubt that the
famous ex-Chancellor of Ireland gave worse
decisions than when he uttered the words,
"I'll get Milman's too."
The Dean of St. Paul's is excelled by sonic
of his clerical contemporaries in erudition,
and he is surpassed by some authors of our
age in originality and vivid force of style; but
he has special merits of his own which honour-
ably distinguish him in the world of letters.
He is at once learned and eloquent, graceful
and profound. His knowledge of books is
very extensive, and his attainments are car-
ried easily, unlike the case of certain awkward
commentators, who aro perpetually stumbling
under their ponderous acquisitions. There is
II blending in his scholarship of the old and
new styles amongst our English divines. Ile
comroses in the spirit of one honourably proud
of his academical attainments, yet desirous of
gaining that popular fame which can only be
won from a large circle of readers. Too much
of a rhetorician to be completely successful
as a poet, ho still showed in early life con-
siderableaptitude for more exciting styles of
composition than those to which his manhood
has been devoted. We have often thought of
the present Dean of St. Paul's as ..,ntntsted
with a late witty canon of the same ..athedral.
I n the case of Sydney Smith, we agree with