The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

ground of settlement. With regard to the area of
chargeability, the committee of 1847 thought it
would be right to extend it from parishes to unions,
and in that opinion the Government concurred. To
a national rate, which some persons suggested, or to
making a charge on tho Consolidated Fund, the
Government entertained grave objections, because
such a change would lead to additionel extravagance,
by withdrawing the expenditure from the supervision
of the ratepayers. It was therefore proposed that the
area of chargeability should be extended to unions
instead of parishes ; but that the uniformity of rating
the parishes within each union should be gradually
accomplished—if possible, within the period of ten
years.
Sir GEORGE GREY supported the bill.
Mr. W. MILES objected to anything like piecemeal
legislation on such a great question as that of the poor
laws, and suggested the propriety of the Govern-
ment taking a comprehensive view of the whole
question.
After a discussion of some length, leave was given
to bring in the bill, and the house adjourned.

THE INDIA MAIL.
The Calcutta steamer arrived at Trieste on Thurs-
day afternoon, in 120 hours from Alexandria. She
brings the India mail, with advices from Calcutta to
Jan. 4 ; Madras, Jan. 11; Shanghai, Dec. 17 ; Amoy,
Dec. 24 ; Hong-kong, Dec. 27; Singapore and Bom-
bay, Jan. 14 ; Burma'', Dec. 26 ; Sydney, Nov. 20 ;
Adele de, Dec. 3.
The steamer sent up the Persian Gulf for intelli.
gence had not returned to Bombay.
Captain Latter, the Deputy Commissioner at Prom,
had been assassinated.
The Indian steamer Medusa had been lost between
Promo and Meaday.
A dacoit chief had 5,000 men near Tonghoo, and
the garrisons at Moulmein and Manahan were ap-
prehensive of attack. The Governor-General ar•
rived at Rangoon on the 14th of December, but left
for Prome.
Madras is threatened with famine, the rains and
crops having failed, and there will bei a great loss of
revenue in Nellore.
The Nizam's dominions are in a bad state, and the
country overrun by predatory Rohilla hordes. The
north-west frontier is tranquil.
Trade in India has improved.
Canton and Ningpo remained quiet. Matters had
resumed their usual course at Amoy. A large portion
of Shanghai had been destroyed by fire by the Im-
perialists. A portion of the rebel forces had pro-
ceeded northward of Nankin, and had taken Tien-
Sing, about eighty miles from Pekin.
The Emperor of Japan wss dead, and the Cuurt
would go into mourning for two years, during which
no embassies could be received.

Despatches of the 30th ult. from Constantinople
state that one English and one French steamer has
started on a cruise iu the Black Sea. The Turkish
admiral was preparing an expedition of troops and
ammunition for the army in Asia. The Ilttnshee had
arrived with despatches for the English Ambassador.
The French steam corvette Prometheus had re
turned from Varna, upon which Admiral Hamelin
immediately called together a council of his cap
tarns, a step which was also taken by Admiral
Dundas. The result of this council was, that all
the large steamers of both fleets were ordered to
convoy the Turkish transports, which were first to
carry reinforcements to Varna, and thence to proceed
to Batoum.
Her Majesty's steam-sloop Fury returned to
Constantinople on the 25th with her despatches,
having been unable to enter Odessa on account of
the ice.

On the sth inst. a smart affair took place near
Giurgevo between the Turks and Russians. The
loss on either side was considerable. It appears
that 3,000 Turks crossed the Danube, routed the
Russian outposts, and attacked the town, after
which they retired.

The Turkish corps d'armee on the line of the
Danube, from I'regona to Nicopolis, in Lesser Wal-
lachia, ever au extent of four English miles, amounts
to 80,000 men, without reckoning 36,000 men of the
reserve, who are at Sophia. The Russian corps
reckon 41,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, 120 pieces of
cannon, 3,000 sappers and miners, and 13,000 men
of the reserve.

Letters received in Paris from the Danubian prin-
cipalities give a deplorable picture of the misery
which exists among the agricultural population, who
are torn by the invaders from their homes in order
to transport troops, build barracks, and to perform
other forced duties. The distress of this portion of
the Wallachian population is so great that they emi-
grate in masses into the Austrian and Turkish pro-
vinces, or take up arms to resist the outrages of
which they are made the victims.

SATURDAY,

A corps of 500 Dorobanzes (Waflachians) has
passed nearly entire over to the Turks. All that
remain are thirteen privates and two sergeants. On
hearing this fact General Fischbach had Major
Calinesco arrested, and has decided on sending him
to Siberia.
Prince Stourza has gone to Constantinople. He
has offered 200,000 ducats, and has been made a
Paella by the Porte.
A journal has been established iu the princi-
palities fur publishing the official orders of the
Russians : its title is the Wallachian Moniteur.
Adviees from Odessa, of the 23rd ult., state that
the engineers conveyed to Sinope by the combined
fleets are drawing up plans for the fortification of
that port.

A democratic conspiracy has been discovered in
Madrid, and fourteen persons have been arrested,
jiagrante dciicto, being portion of a revolutionary
club. General Joseph Concha has been proclaimed
a rebel. lie bus escaped from Barcelona, and is said
to have embarked from France.

The Lusitania reached Liverpool yesterday with
the l3razil and Portugal mails. She left itio Janeiro
on the 10th ult., and Lisbon on the 4th inst.
There is no political news.
A NEW TAANSATLANTIC SHIP COMPANY has been set
on foot in Quebec, under the title of "The Canada
Ocean Stetuu.ship Company," and the stock has been
readily subscribed by the Canadian merchants. his
proposed to run two ships between the ports of the
St. Lawrence and Liverpool, and one between the
same ports and Cilasgow, the ships being of 1,600 to
2,000 tons each.

MISS CANTWFILL, whose protracted trial on a charge
of stealing a bit of ribbon from a shop lately caused
so much excitement in Dublin, has brought an action
for false imprisonment against the prosecutors in
that action. Damages are laid at 5,0001. The case
came on in the Dublin Queen's Bench on Wednes-
day, and stood adjourned when the court rose.
WElearu upon good authority that three battalions
of the Guards have been ordered to hold themselves
in readiness to leave Southampton for Malta on the
19th instant. It is stated that the military force
under orders for the East consists of 15,000 infantry
and artillery. For the present no cavalry is to ha
despatched to the scene of action. According to the
Globe the first detachmentswill comprise (in addition
to the Guards) six regiments of infantry from Ire-
land.

FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE.
Tuesday, Feb 7.
BANKRUPTS.—Tuos.J oNF.6I3unToN,BAKEtt Joint Gm's, and
FRED.RosENTHALCauctuLaY,Wiginore-street,Caveuttiali-aquare,
church furuishera:—JAKEs CROFTS, Threadneedle-street, City,
mine sliarebroker—WlLLlAm GRAND, Lower Tottenham, builder
Enwsun Bxmotko, Speenhaulland, Betkahlre, buiLer
itimiNurok 'ficickm., Mark-lane, City, and Itoydon,
Essex, brewer—JuHN ANous Hoicks, High-street, Southwark,
woollen draper—GEOßGE STEWART AMSINCE, Frederick-street,
I lampstead road, common brewer—Tttokaa TURNER, Mos-
Lyman, Derbyshire, grocer.
SCOTCH sEquESTHATIONS.--CHIBLEB CAMPBELL, Camp-
beincyn, near Fort George, draper—CHARLES HUME EAwckrr,
Diniwull, merchant.
Friday, Feb. 10.
BANKRUPTCY ANNULLED.—JAmEs SPENCER GORELY,
Btlealalld, Kent, brickmaker.
DANK RUPTS.—Okonoe COODE, Westminster, boarding-
house keeper.—JOSEPH CARTER, Gloucester, serivener.-111-
CtlittD GEORGE Drimoso, Newton Abbot, Devon, stationer.—
JOHN Cox, Rotherhithe, builder.—Witalam TOOVEY Asitrikuo,
I.embeth, lithographic and copper-plate printer.—ROßEßT
Iia)IOND, Ripon, builder.—JOHN ROBERT (1111 SON, Waterloo,
Lancashire, innkeeper.—JOSEPlt EmAs, Ardwiek, I.aticashire,
joiner and builder.—Taoicts Wonsm.:l7, Macclestield, clog and
patters maker.

THE TOTAL Loss OF THE SHIP America on the
Seven Stones, off Scilly, has been reported at Lloyd'e.
She was on her homeward voyage from Callao, fur
London, with a cargo of guano. The crew were
picked up by a pilot-cutter, and landed at St.
Mary's, Scilly. The America was nearly a new ship,
and was, with her cargo, fully insured.
DIMINO THE SITTING OF THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSION,
held at Newcastle•ou-Tyne, to inquire into the causes of
cholera in that town, /Or. J. B. Hume, the chief commis-
Shiner, made a vacillation that the epidemic has cost the
town 3,8001. for medicine and burials alone, and would
cast it CM. a week fur eight years to support the widows
and destitute—nearly 30,0001. In addition to this sum,
he said, some thousands of pounds had been collected and
distributed by the vicar. There are also '2OO benefit
societies in the town, and, taking the average loss at 5001.
each, this made 10,0001. more.
THE JANUARY SETTLEMENT AT THE PARIS BOURSE was
marked by several cases of speculators not being able to
pay all their differences. In some instances part was
paid at once, and time given fur the rest ; but in other
cases some of the persons who are unable to pay have
disappeared altogether. Amongst the persons in thislatter
category is N. Victor Lange, a con/is/eq., as the term is.
Another person belonging to the couiisae has blown out his
brains at Versailles.
THE GREAT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDOE EIGHT-OAS BOAT
RACE will take place in the Easter vacation at Putney.
The Oxford crew is partly selected, and some of them have
already commenced active training.

FERRUARY 11, 1854.

fittraturt.

[The continuation of our Review of Ruskin's " Stones of
Venice" is deferred till next week.]

HOLLAND HOUSE.
Memoirs of the Whig Party during My Ti,,...
By Henry Richard Lord Holland. Edited
by his Son, Henry Edward Lord Holland.
London : Longmans.
HOLLAND-HOUSE literature, with its attractive
title and insipid contents, is like a stale
bottle of bitter
.beer corked and labelled as
" Moett's champagne." We expect to be exhi-
larated, but a short trial nauseates and repels.
Its bitterness is without brilliancy ; muddy
and acidulous, even its tartness is soporific.
The best works of " Holland-house " were
vicarious in their merits; its dinners were
excellent, its memorials are wretched. Con-
founding slanders with scandals, taking ru-
mours for facts, Lord Holland is scarcely
worth roasting before a slow fire of criticism;
but an examination of the vaunted " Holland-
house " is not without use, and may do the
service of exposing literary imposition.
Tho first point for illustration is the method
by which " Holland-house " gathered its lite-
rary frequenters. In the last century literary
men stood in a peculiar relation to the wealthy
and influential families that sway the Legisla-
ture. In much that related to every-day life
it was an age of the coffee-house and the wine-
tavern. Society was more open than it is now
to agreeable adventurers with lively manners,
good address, and quiet assurance. Persons
of the best condition ate their steaks and
drank their claret in the numerous coffee-
houses that abounded near Covent-garden and
the Temple. Men about town who could
either write or talk well had more chances in
their favour than at present. There was more
intimacy between the haughty peer and his
political clients than there is now between the
chiefs of party and their various literary sub-
ordinates. Now literature aspires to the con-
ventional regularity of a profession ; in those
times it was a lottery, with a few grand prizes
and a wheel full of blanks.
Smollett has left us in his novels a lively
picture of the nature of a " great man's ante-
chamber" iu those days. A crowd of adventu-
rers, more picturesque than polite, awaited
the rising of the grandee. The French Revo
lution came, and a gradual social change came
on. There was a reaction against adventu-
rers : brilliant scamps, living on their wits,
whose lives were sometimes more gay than their
comedies, or not unfrequently sadder than
their rejected tragedies, became unpopular.
" Respectability " now became the cry, and
" a wholesome prejudice" set in against poets
scrambling up Parnassus with bailiffs at their
heels, and political oracles against whom their
tailors cried " anathema." In truth, as the
traditions of our predecessors inform us, the
coffee-houses then (1789-1815) became noisy,
disputatious, and painfully polemical. Minis-
ters were scolded at one table, and Opposition
extolled at another ; the guests poured out
invectives more fiery than their wine. The
old genial humour of the pleasant-lounging
coffee-house companions was at end. Debating
societies, regular or irregular, were the order
of the time, and Boniface gave himself the
airs of "Mr. Speaker."
In such times (circa 1815) "Holland house,"
and for about ten years subsequently, enjoyed
its palmiest time. It had no competitors to
rival its hospitality, and there were peculiar
circumstances which gave an exaggerated impor-
tance to its reunions. As yet the club system had
not been established, and the great mansions
of that day were less brilliant than at previous
or subsequent periods. The royal palace was
shrouded in darkness and sorrow; the Prince
of Wales had grown old, wore wigs, and pre-
ferred Lord Eldon and port to Sheridan and
burgundy. The glories of Devonshire-house
had been dimmed. Its fascinating mistress
was mouldering in the grave ; her not less
beautiful sister had also vanished from the
scene. Lady Melbourne, too, was grown old,
and on the horizon of fashion no brilliant
orbs appeared in place of those last lights of

THE PRESS.

the gay world. Hertford-Lase was neither
popular nor brilliant; the wife of Lord Castle-
reagh, leader of the Commons, was beautiful
in person, interesting in manners, but too de-
licate in health for the labours of hospitality.
The. Chancellor's house of that day was very
different in its attractions from that brilliant
mansion near Hanover-square where, in sa-
loons thronged with fashion, the gorgeous
beauty of Sarah Lady Lyndhurst shone as
resplendently as the talents of her famous
husband in the Senate. As yet the JERSEY
planet was only looming near the horizon.
The Whigs in those days had not the social
resources of other times. Lord Grey was cold,
and not covetous of personal popularity. The
Duke of Richmond and the Duke of Portland
then voted with Ministers, and, as Devonshire-
house had ceased to be political, " Holland-
house" in such times became socially im-
portant. What injured it in one respect
served it in another. Destitute of the
charm of female society, it was more social,
less
.reserved, certainly more amusing, than
patrician mansions of the period. As its doors
were necessarily closed against ladies, so they
opened with more facility to the amusing
crowd of male notabilities who underwent a
season of lionising in its menagerie. The
tavern life of the previous century was to
some extent brilliantly revived. Everybody
was at home, and every one had some special
interest in the place. To some it was a chapel
of ease to Bellamy's kitchen, and, though its
beefsteaks might have been less juicy, its jokes
were as savoury as any echoed in the corridors
of St. Stephen's by the Sergeant Murphys of
the day. There the hungry sages of the north
devoured and drank, and quoted each other,
and praised themselves, and smiled at her
ladyship's wit, and shut their ears and opened
their mouths when "his lordship" commenced
to Boswellise over the bottle. The host was
king of his company. Stammering and in-
effective in the House of Peers, he enjoyed
the attention paid to him by bibulous philoso-
phers who came from the Scotch side of the
border, and from parliamentary politicians
who had a historical regard for anything
human baptised as " Fox." Did the conver-
sation flag, " as my uncle once said " operated
like magic on the listeners, and Edinburgh
reviewers gaped with reverent awe and paused
on their busy forks. Or perchance it might
be, "when my grandfather was dining with
the King"—or a fling at the character of Pitt—
or a calumny upon Marie Antoinette—or an
un-English burst of enthusiasm about Napo-
leon—or some personality about the wretched
habits of the dying Sheridan—or some paltry
sneers at the Duke of Wellington—or a dis-
paragement of the glorious Nelson—or a hate
ful backbiting of the accomplished Windham—
it was small talk spiced with sarcastic inuen-
does and peppered with scandalous stories.
But then we are told that we ought to have
admired the exhibition ; the bitter things were
said with so much suavity; there was such
benevolence on the countenance while the
tongue was stabbing the characters of the
absent or the dead. It was detraction trying
to delight ; it was backbiting with bonhommie.
Its admirers only lament, when such table
talk is printed, that the reader cannot have
the advantage of the joyous chuckle with which
Marie Antoinette was traduced, or the pleasant
face with which Windham was maligned. We
are assured. by Whig scribes that, though
" Holland-house " memoirs are nothing but
dull detraction, the conversation there was
excellent and abounded in brilliancy. But
your popular patriots from the other side of
the border found everything delightful when
they found themselves in company with real
live English lords, with a plenteous table,
sparkling wines, and the outward show of good
society. Frothy platitudes escaped censure
while champagne foamed ; and mediocrity was
approved along with the madeira. Invitations
were given liberally and accepted thankfully,
and "Holland-house" for a time had a most
exaggerated fame.
But all this was doomed to have an end, and
long before the host and hostess had resigned
their hospitable toils. Two great blows were
given to its convivial celebrity, and they came
from opposite quarters. Mr. Croke! s best and
most creditable work, the formation of the

135

Athanteum Mb, was completely successful ;
and the social distinctiveness of meeting the
notabilities of professional life in familiar in-
tercourse with the magnates of society was
once and for ever taken away from " Holland-
house." The extension of the club system
completed the effort, and an ordinary house
dinner at the " Garrick," fifteen years ago, with
the Duke of Beaufort, and Lord Saye and Sele,
and Sir Henry Webb, and Theodore Hook,
and James Smith, and " Ingoldsby," and many
other celebrities in the circles of fashion
and wit, often excelled in convivial pleasure
the reunions at " Holland house." It was
discovered that, after all, " Holland-house "
depended chiefly on extrinsic distinctions
which new phases of society had rendered
common. But the second blow was more
special and particular, and, oddly enough, it
came from a countrywoman of Mr. Croker.
Margaret Countess of Blessington was a
woman of rare gifts, and still rarer personal
attractions. Of her character and her career,
and the strange story associated with her
name, we need not speak. With singular fas-
cinations of address, setting off the lustre of a
beauty that was at once voluptuous and refined,
her figure was imposing, without losing its
feminine grace, and her address frank and in-
sinuating, while the humour of her country
flowed on her pleasant vivacious tongue, and
the fire of its Celtic passion lighted up her
luxuriant dark eyes. A sojourner for years in
southern climes, her nature had gradually ac-
quired the artistic spirit and genial enthusiasm
so common amongst Italian and Provençal
women. She was certainly one of the most
brilliant persons that ever figured in those
circles where social pleasures are pursued as
great ends of existence. Her literary merits
were the very least of her attractions.
Such was the woman, gifted with beauty
and genial humour, who converted " Gore-
house" into a successful rival of the over-
praised " Holland-house," with its pretensions
to a monopoly of intellectual society. May is
not more charming than October—than the
gay, fresh-ringing conversation at Gore-house
was beyond that mixture of parliamentary small
talk and Literary-Club opinionativeness which
the frequenters of Holland-house pretended to
regard as the quintessence of social brilliancy.
The society at " Gore-house " had also
another inexpressible merit over the meetings
at its Kensington competitor. The rustling of
the petticoat was often heard in its parties,
and womanhood was there represented, not, as
in the mansions of the Foxes, by dowager-
deputies. Pleasant it was, and most brilliant,
to see some choice specimens of the sex
mingling with warriors of world-wide renown,
with orators, also, who
" Bound the bar and senate in their spells,"

and with numbers of accomplished persona
noted in literature and art. Who on a sum-
mer evening would leave the sight of that
then charming garden at Kensington-gore,
with the perfumed air echoing the wit of a
brace of gallant ex-Chancellors ; that enliven-
ing scene, where, amidst flowering shrubberies,
and amidst a group of happy listeners, the
conqueror of Waterloo was playing carte and
tierce with some nimble-witted assailant whose
ladylike logic, with its at rong reserve of cheery,
heart-inspiring laughter, carried the victory
from the otherwise invincible Wellesley ?
Who would change a scene like that for
" Holland-house," with its nasty stories and its
bitter inuendoes, and its popularity-hunting pa-
tronage of authors and artists of established
fame? Another superiority also in Gore•house
was the friendly offices which it rendered to
struggling artists and authors. Its generosity
was not of that description which waits to
honour triumphant talent.
Between these two " houses " an amusing
parallel might to written, indicating the
points of contrast and similarity between
them, both associated with " scandal" and
with pleasurable reunions. We need not pur-
sue it ; but we may say that, whatever the
faults of the Gore-house circles, it did not as-
sail and traduce the living and the dead, like
its less amiable though more " historical "
rival. Whatever were the faults of Lady Bles-
sington, we believe that she never would have
stooped to taking by the hand any one whose

.

0

I

~~

.1

F'

138

pen had publicly assailed her in such blasting
lines as Lord Byron in '• English Bards ad
dressed to Lady Holland.
But where are the illusions of Holland-house
now? Gone—utterly gone beyond redemp-
tion by all the powers of rhetoric: They are
gone with the miserable revelations of its
utter mediocrity in these "memoirs of the
/Whigs," and offensive " anecdotes of foreign
Courts," published by Lord Holland. Where
is the wit, or the genius, or the style, or the
scholarship (of which we were so often told),
or the philosophy, in any of their pages ?
Lord Holland had full leisure ; he had ample
opportunities for observation ; and, after the
most laborious efforts, he can leave behind
him nothing but twaddling anecdotes, told iu
slipshod language. Writing of a national hero
like Lord Nelson, he says, " His greatness
" was a strong instance of the superiority of
" the heart over the head, and a strong proof
" that a warm imagination is a more necessary
" ingredient in the composition of a hero than
" a sound understanding."—p. 20. Lord Nelson
had an intellect which would have raised him
to the first rank in any profession. He was
completely master of every branch of naval
science, and the annals of war do not record
a more remarkable case of prescient sagacity
than Nelson's divination of the escape of
the French fleet to the West Indies in 1800,
and again discovering that they had returned.
Not satisfied with impeaching his intellect,
Lord Holland devotes half of the space allot-
ted to Nelson to the consideration of Lady
Hamilton's " scandal." He does more justice
to Mr. Pitt : if he tried to diminish the great-
ness of Mr. Pitt's genius, Lord Holland felt
that he would have been injuring the fame of
"my uncle, Mr. Fox." But mark how he
denies any merit to the pecuniary disinterest-
edness of Pitt:—
I have not spoken of his disinterestedness about money
It was, however, acknowledged by his enemies, and would
in a man of inferior capacity have deserved to be recorded
as a virtue. But it is a negative virt le at best ; and in a
statesman of great ability who is contending for " crowns
and kingdoms," and has neither children nor family to pro-
vide for, it seems of no difficult attainment. He must be
a fool indeed who woulu barter the mighty space of such
large honours for so much trash as may be grasped at.
We feel no pleasure in calling attention to
the fact of a public subscription having been
made for Mr. Fox, to the amount of thirty-six
thousand pounds, when he had squandered
the enormous sums of money given to him by
his father, to whose fortune the maxim of " ill
got, ill gone," is painfully applicable. The
fact of the " rate in aid " having been levied.
from Whig pockets for the sustenance of Mr
Pox has been the precedent for the eleemo-
synary assistance given to stipendiary patriots
like Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Cobden. The
largesse given to Charles Fox ought to have
been recollected when Lord Holland vilified
the acts of Sheridan. Even so truly eminent
a member of the Whig party as the late Earl
Grey does not escape from his aspersion. He
commemorates the altercations between Lord
Grey and his brother-in-law, Mr. Whitbread.
He even insinuates that the conduct of Lord
Grey had the effect of shortening his relative's
life. Here are Lord Holland's words :
Mr. Whitbread was always surrounded by flatterers;
some, from mere servility of disposition and submissive
admiration of all he said or did ; others, with baser desiEns
of interest or revenge, instilled suspicions and inflamed
his animosity against his brother-in-law. Lord Grey, on
the other hand, frank, artless, and impetuous, and conscious
.of the sincerity as well as purity of his affections, never
measured his words nor restrained his warmth in his in-
tercourse with a man with whom he had been so long and
so intimately connected. The uneasy footing nn which
they lived was a source of vexation to both. Perhaps it
was ultimately fatal to the peace, the fortune, and even the
life of Mr. Whitbread.
Who but Lord Holland would have insinu-
ated that quarrels with Lord Grey had short-
ened the days of Whitbread? We have
always thought that Whitbread, like Lord
Castlereagh, lost his reason from having been
vastly overworked. The management of his
extensive brewery in Chiswell street and of
his large lauded property, along with his in-
cessant exertions as an active member of
Parliament, were enough to overtask any man ;
i and, n addition to these toils, he tried to
arrange the chaotic concerns of Drury-lane
Theatre. The charge against Lord Grey of'
" not measuring his words " comes with sin-

THE PRESS.

gular grace from the pen of a nobleman whose
posthumous memoirs incriminate friends and
foes. Mr. Whitbread was rather intractable
in his party, and Lord Byron happily called
him " the Demosthenes of bad taste; " and
Lord Grey would not allow himself to be brow-
beat by any man. But when the illustrious
name of Grey, which stands so high for per-
sonal honour and consistency, is thus assailed
by the censorious pen of Lord Holland, we
need not expect that any reputation can es-
cape from the "safe malignity" of his acri-
monious style. Lord Holland delights in
accusing his contemporaries of being sur-
rounded by " flatterers "—a charge which
might have been retaliated on this dinner-
giving peer. Mr. Macaulay has drawn the
character of Windham—" the finest gentleman
" of the age ; his form developed by. every i
" manly exercise ; his face beaming with n-
" telligence and spirit ; the ingenious, the
" chivalrous, the high-souled Windham."* Of
this brilliant man we are told by Lord Holland,
" He loved flattery, and his palate loved it in a
"gross form ,and served up in the meanest platter:'
'
The insinuation is both false and foul. Sooner
than truckle to some of the public journals,
Windham endured being unreported in the
debates, and he tauntingly called the press
that fourth estate." We lose all patience
when we are told " that the most fulsome
" adulation from an inferior blinded his dis-
" cernment " (p. 206) ; " his vanity stifled all
" affection and deadened all feelings for others
" in him " (p. 209); " that he was more capable
" of hatred than love in private" (p. 210)—
charges that we have no hesitation in pro-
nouncing to be calumnies upon the memory of
a right noble Englishman. In the same way
Mr. Grattan is sneered at for "his singular
" manners ;" and it is falsely said that "he
" was exclusively interested iu Irish affairs "
(p. 237). So deeply interested was Henry
Grattan iu imperial affairs that in 1808 he
called upon the English Parliament to put
down "the French party in Ireland," and cast
away his Irish popularity by doing so ; and
again, in 1815, he zealously supported Govern
ment in calling for war against France Lord
Holland, as " a French Whig," ought to have
recollected such facts. In a similar way the
personal honour of Mr. Curran (pp. 167-8) is
asperse I ; and so with Sheridan, and almost
every other public character submitted to his
censure.
It is evident that such " memoirs " cannot
be allowed to rank with the historical materials
already in existence. We have derived only
one satisfaction in perusing the volume—
namely, that it demonstrates, in its prolix
account of the Fox-Grenville Cabinet, how
" Coalitions" carry within them the seeds of
early dissolution. We have found one good
maxim and one well written passage in the
volume. The following aphorism we espe-
cially commend to the notice of the Earl of
Aberdeen ; and we bring it under his lord-
ship's notice, as, though he finds time to read
the PRESS, he may not have leisure to pore
over the twaddle of Lord Holland :
Neithertalent nor luck can confer in this country any
permanent influence over our councils on a man who has
nothing in his character congenial with the prince or the
people.
And the solitary passage of clever writing is
Lord Holland's characterisation of Addington,
Lord Sidmouth :
I have no predilection for the individual, and still less
for the species of politicians to which he belongs. He has
above once been raised by plausibility, servility, and conve•
nience, arising from a concurrence of accidents, to an emi-
nence infinitely beyond the reach of his capacity. Like
most men so circumstanced, he has incurred, and probably
deserved, the imputation of duplicity. His empty and
pompous manner exposed him to ridicule; and old Lord
Liverpooljnstly observed that he was laughed out of power
and place in 1803 by the beau monde, or, as that grave old
politician pronounced it, the biu mood. The folly, how
ever. of Lord Sidmouth was of a sort very congenial will-.
that of large bodies of the community. Great appearance
of moderation, inward admiration as well as outward obser
vance of forms, an elaborate and earnest profession of al;
the
.commonest principles of morality and the tritest
mamma of wisdom, uniformly distinguished him in public
In private he had no vice but wine ; and his jokes and
stories. though frequent and numerous, were inoffensive as
well as dall. His respect for all foimer ministers and past
transactions was unfeigned, and the importance he attached
to trifles was too well acted not tube very sincere. His vet,
mediocrity recommended him to those (and they are not

• Essay oa Warreia liiiiitings.

SATURDAY,

few) who dread and dislike all superiority of talent. There
were more persons than one who felt what an acquaintance
of mine expressed on his (Mr. Addington's) Ministry.
" He was glad," he said, " that Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox should
know that, in spite of their speaking and fine talents, the
business of the country could be conducted in a plain way
by a man who had no pretensions to genius." Of such
men Lord Sidmouth has always been an idol. He was
the fairest specimen, the truest type of the genus,
" The knight of the shire, who represents them all."
1

In the foregoing words we fancy that we
are reading of a personification of the Peelite
nature, which may be accepted as a piece of
" philosophy teaching by examples."

Records of Travels in Turkey, Greece, d.c., and of
a Cruise in the Black Sea with the Capitan
Pacha. By Captain Adolphus Slade, R.N.,
F.R.A.S., Admiral in the Turkish Fleet
(Muchaver Pacha). Loudon : Saunders and
Otley.
ALTHOUGH critics are vigilant, it frequentlyhap
pens, as in the present instance, that valuable
works are permitted to remain in temporary
oblivion until some accident occurs to resusci-
tate them and vocal attention to the merits of
their authors. In this case we should probably
have heard nothing snore of one of the best
books of travel of our time, excepting that
such a book had been long out of print, if the
interest attached to Captain Slade's position
as an admiral in the Turkish fleet had not
naturally revived attention to the records of
his former experience. Captain Slade, as the
original preface stated, was at Constantinople
in May, 1829, at the time when the second
campaign between the Czar and the Sultan
was commencing. Accident procured him the
acquaintance of the Capitan Pacha, with whom
he cruised in the Black Sea; and he subse-
quently made an excursion by land, in which
he passed through the Russian lines and sur-
veyed the scenes of the campaigns which had
just been concluded by the treaty of Adrian-
ople. It is singular to what an extent his
acute observations on what he then beheld
apply to passing events, though the advances
made by the Turks within the last twenty
years, on which he is a most competent wit-
ness, have confessedly changed his opinion of
the resources of the Ottoman empire. Apart
from their political interest, these records have
the high, because rare, literary merit of delight
ing the reader with the liveliest descriptions
in a free effortless style, which combines
admirably with the solid judgment and manly
sense of their conclusions. It is obvious that
if Captain Slade had not been devoted to the
duties of his profession he might have
achieved a considerable literary reputation, as
extracts, which we will select almost at
random, evince. The following is his amusing
account of a ball on board an English ship-of-
war then in the Bosphorus in celebration of
the recent peace :
We, who remained at Pera, had occasion, soon after-
wards, to behold the Osmanleys in a very unusual position ;
viz., mixing with European society with a degree of
versatility and comlescension so unexpected, that the
dragomans, a race peculiarly unsusceptible and difficu't to
beguile into a display of feelings, gave way for the first
time in their lives to expressions of astonishment, and
declared that nothing more could surprise them. The
object was a ballo, the name which the Osmanleys have
since adopted, as vernacular, to signify the simultaneous
movement of numerous pairs of legs to music, on board
the Blonde, which was fitted up for the occasion with a
taste and splendour rarely equalled in the British navy,
where such things, too, are well understood. Sir R.
Gordon was the giver of this fete in celebration of the
peace, and the Turkish Ministers were asked to meet the
Frank society ; a novel combination, which greatly
amused the most of us, in anticipation, but rather ruffled
the composure of the true believers, and of the fair
Europeans in general. The ladies took it into their heads
that they were only invited to dance for the amusement
of the Osmanleys—a gratuitous calumny on our worthy
ambassador—and declared, whether or no, that, consider-
ing the estimation in which Mussulmans held women, it
was indelicate to exhibit before them at all. They were
perfectly correct in their opinion ; but, when the moment
came, these, and all such idle considerations, gave way to
the pleasure of a ball on board ship. On the other hand,
there were a few prejudices to vanquish, and the Sultan's
leave to be obtained. He, however, so far from refusing
it, would gladly have assisted in his own sacred person, had
not state etiquette prevented. The most difficult man to
persuade to soil himself by so close an approach to
Christian debauchery was the Reis Effendi ; but when he
found that his brother ministers were going, and that the
Sultan wished it, consented. "Wonderful! if they do,
why should not I go ? Inshollah ! I will go." Heavy
rains retarded some days this grand experiment on

I

I

I