The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

848

fitcraturt.

2'he Letters of Horace Walpole. Edited by
Peter Cunningham. Vol. 111. London :

Bentley.
THERE cannot possibly be pleasanter summer-
reading than the letters of Walpole. There is
a freshness and lightness of touch about them
which always charms, and their variety of
matter has something in it for everybody's
taste. Gossip about former beauties, safe
scandal of a century ago, piquant anecdotes,
lively allusions, literary " criticisms," inge-
nious theories, historical discoveries, and dna
of every kind, abound in his pages. Though
we read his letter 3 again and again, after a
little time they seem to us as lively and fresh
as ever.

But we cannot review Walpole; our task is
with his latest editor. In the third volume,
now before us, Mr. Peter Cunningham has
greatly improved. He has cut himself down
by half, and he has left out many of his too
obtrusive " CUNNINGILM"S. The admonitions
of the various journals apparently have not
been without effect. Walpole as a writer was
sharp, neat, cleancutting, and close in his
style. Mr. Peter Cunningham is often the
reverse of these. He thi►,ks and writes like
a stale Boswell, forgetting that Boswell had
original matter, and took great pains with h►s
composition. Mr. Cunningham dots down
whatever comes into his head, and must put
in his scraps of cards whether they are relevant
or the reverse. Ho does not apply a critical
or judicial standard to his annotations. lie
composes by an artificial system of mnemonics,
and must work out the matter at his command.
But let us be thankful : he has cut himself
down in the present volume, and so far there
is a great improvement.
In our former notices of this edition we
have shown the inexactness in small matters
of Mr. Cunningham. In the present volume
there is still room for criticism. The text
runs :

The famous Miss Elizabeth Villiers Pitt is in England ;
the only public place in which she has been seen is the
Popish chapel ; her only exploit, endeavours to wreak her
malice on her brother William. whose kindness to her has
been excessive. She applies to all his enemies, and, as
Mr. Fox told me, has even gone so fur as to send a bundle
of his letters to the author of the " Test," to prove that
Mr. Pitt has cheated her, as she calls it, of a hundred a
year, end which only prove that lie once allowed her two,
and atter all her wickedness still allows her one. How
she must be vexed that she has no way of setting the gout
more against him ! Adieu! tell me if you receive all my
letters.
Upon which the note says :

Sister of William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham.—
Watrotz. See vol. ii. p. 470. Let me add here that the
Mrs. Pitt of vol. ii. p. 367 is this El.kibeth Pitt, not her
sister Anne Pitt. She married John Hannani, Esq., and
died 14 Feb. 1770.--CuNsiNoHwm.

What was Miss Elizabeth Pitt "famous " for?
NVe know that her sister " Anne" was cele-
brated in more ways than one ; but a reader
would like to have had. from " CUNNINGHAM "
some information about Miss Elizabeth Pitt,
and why she had been seen in the Popish

chapel.
The text runs :
Admiral Byng's tragedy was completed on Mond.iy—a
perfect tragedy, for there were variety of incidents, villainy,
murder and a hero His sufferings, persecutions, aseer-
SIOUS, disturbances, nay, the revolutions of his fate, had
not in the least unhinged his mind ; his whole behaviour
was natural and firm. A few days befure,one of his friends
standing by him said, " Which of us is tallest ?" He re-
plica, "Why this ceremony ? I know what it means; let
the man come and measure me for my coffin." Ile said,
that being acquitted of cowardice, and being persuaded on
the coolest reflection that he had acted fur the hest, and
should act so again, he was not unwilling to suffer. He
desired to be shot on the quarter-deck, not where common
malefactors are; came out at twelve, set down in a chair,
for he would not kneel, and refused to have his face
covered, that his countenance might show whether he

feared death ; but being told that tt mieht frighten his
ezecu'•ioners, he submitted, gave the signal at once, re-
ceived One shot through the head, number through the
bout, and fell. Do cowards live or die thus? Can Ciat
man want spirit who only fears to terrify his executioners?
/Ids the aspen Duke of Newcastle lived thus? Would my
Lord Hardwicke die thus, even aupposiug he had nothing
conscience ?

capital writing. There is narrative.
light satire—" the aspen Luke of
"—and pointed sarcasm is the
It i 8 Writing uv t 9 s level With the

THE PRESS, AUGUST 29,1857.

°cession, and Mr. P. Cunningham spoils it
with his note :

Admiral Byng, on the morning of his execution, took his
usual draught for the scurvy.—CUNNINOHANI.

The note should have " dele." It suggests
acting on the part of the Admiral, and asso-
ciates the ridiculous with a tragedy.

The long letter from Walpole to Hume (pp.
150-3) has the note :
Now first collected. From " Letters of Eminent Per•
sons addressed to David Hume," edited by J. H. Burton,
Bvo , 1819.—CUNNINGhAM.

Walpole never penned a letter which should
have been subjected to stricter annotation ;
but Mr. Cunningham leaves it alone. The
text runs :

I perceive by what you and others have said to me, sir,
that the freedom I have taken with Sir Philip Sidney is
what gives most offence : yet I think, if my words are duly
weighed, it will be found that my words are too strong,
rather than my argument weak. I say, when we at this
distance of time inquire what prodigious merits excited such
admiration. What admiration ? why, that all the learned of
Europe praised him, all the poets of England lamented his
death, the republic of Poland thought of him for their
king. I allow Sir Philip great valour, and from some of
his performances good sense ; but, dear air, compare his
talents with the admiration they occasioned, and that in no
unlettered, no unpolished age, and can we at this distance
help wondering at the vastness of his character? Allowing
as much sense to Sir Philip as his warmest admirers can
demand for him, surely this country has produced many
men of far greater abilities, who have by no means met
with a proportionate share of applause. It were a vain
parade to name them—take Lord Bacon alone, who I be-
lieve of all our writers, except Newton, is most known to
foreigners, and to whom Sir Philip was a puny child in
genius,—how far was he from attaining an equal degree of
fame and honour? To say the truth, I attribute the great
admiration of Sir Philip Sidney to his having so much
merit and learning for a man of his rank,

Rams enim forme sensus communis in illii

Fortuui.
Sidney is one of the glories of England ; and
an annotator might have intimated that the
effeminate Walpole, an habitual sneerer,
was entirely unable to appreciate such a being
as Sir P. Sidney. Mr. Cunningham leaves the
letter without a single word. This long letter
was originally published in Mr. Burton's
" Hume Correspondence." The subsequent
remarks on Lord Falkland would also have re•
quired annotation, but Mr. Cunningham is not
" up " in that period of English history.
In the same lengthy letter the text
runs :

When you allow that I am at all justifiable in mistaking
your sense, I must not retract, and therefore 1 will only
say that the words, "conduct much more natural could not
however procure Lord Halift,x the character of integrity,"
di 1 seem to me to say, that though his trimming more
probably flowed from integrity than policy, yet it could not
attain the reputation of the former. In general, too, T
must own that you seemed to make him figure as a more
considerable minister than I had thought him ; for thus,
sir, one compares one's own scanty and superfi,!ial reading,
with the study of an historian, who has long and diligently
weighed every circumstance.

so long on the stocks is to come forth with
Mr. Cunningham's aid. We are sorry for it.
The style of Mr. Cunningham's slipshod notes
is entirely unsuited to the annotation of
classical authors.

We do not think it fair that the letter "N,"
for " New," should in the table of contents
be placed after letters which are only " col-
lected" from various publications. In purely
original letters, never before published, we
are as yet much disappointed by this edition;
and unquestionably Al.r. Cunningham has not
increased his literary rank by this work. On
the contrary, by his obtrusiveness of the
eternal " CUNNINGHAM" in capital letters, by
the irrelevancy of many notes, the incorrect-
ness of not a few, and by the want of good
composition, the editor has exposed himself
to some severe depreciation. even in quarters
where none other than friendly sentiments
could prevail towards him. We may be told
of his multifarious occupations, 'out such ex-
cuses are not held valid in a court of criticism.
Authors like Pope and Walpole demand the
homage of scholarly precision in their editors,
and Bishop B►.rnet's style of English is not
the model on which a book-editor should form
his composition.

City Poems. By Alexander Smith, Author of
" A Life Drama," and Other Poems.

Cambridge : Macmillan and Co.
WE suppose that the present volume will
generally be considered superior to any thing
which Mr. Smith has yet produced. It is, in
onr opinion, a considerable improvement on
the " Life Drama;" it is more refined, more
simple, and contains broader views. Yet,
after all, it is a difference rather of degree than
of kind. " City Poems" are very far from
settling the question of the author's rank
among his brethren. There is in them much
of high promise, but no one passage upon
which we can lay our finger and say this poe.
sesses all the attributes of poetry of the
best sort. Mr. Smith's verses want more
power. They do not yet ring out with that
clear, full report that marks the utterance of a
writer sure of what he means himself, and sure
that it is worth tolling. Taken in detail, how-
ever, they present many passages of rich and
striking beauty. The occasional resemblance
to Mr. Tennyson is, we believe, accidental,
and only a result of the Laureate's legitimate
influence on a younger generation. Mr Smith
has an exuberant imagination, a fertility of pic-
turesque languaee, and a happy art of adapting
the sound to the sense. But the effect of these
poetic gifts is greatly lowered by a singular
inaccuracy of epithet, incongruity of metaphor,
and wearisome tautology both of sentiment
and expression. When we meet with any
poetic figure, it is an even chance whether it
turn out very fine or very abortive. In exa-
mining his poems one by one, we shall pay
special attention to this point.
The present volume contains six poems,
which are entitled " City Poems," from being
the supposed product of one who has lived all
his life in a large city, and only lately
awakened to the beauties of natural scenery.
The first is named " Horton," and is a species
of dialogue between the author and some of
his companions relative to a deceased friend
of that name. It opens with a description of
the poet in bed, listening to the noises in the
street below; presently he hears a cry of fire,
on which he reflects as follows :
" Ah, ha," I thought,
" That maniac. Fire, is loose ; who was so tame,
When little children looked into his face,

He laughed and blinked within his prison•grate,
His fit is on ; the merry winking elf

Has rushed into it hungry crimson fiend:
Now he will seize a house, crush in the roof,
And leap nail dance above his prey, and throw
His roaring fliekeriag arms across the ►ky—

--- - _
May he be bound again !"

These reflections are, perhaps, a little unna-
tural; but the language is nut), poetical, and
the three words, " a hungry crimson fiend,"
approach the sublime. He then goes to sleep.
and dreams that the God Sleep conducts
him to the Vale of Lethc. In answer to one of
his questions—

Sleep did not raise
His heavy lids, but in a drowsy voice,
Like uniriuur of a leafy sycamore
When bees are swartuius iu the glimmer*leavos.

L.oni riaruwic
on his conscie
That is es
argument,
Newcastle
passage.