The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-27 00:00:00

(.I'ittraturt.

Essays. Contributed to the Quarterly Review.
By the late Earl of Ellesmere. London:
Murray.
READERS who take up this volume will be re-
minded of the old style of reviewing, before
the independent essay had become predomi-
nant in periodical literature. Lord Ellesmere
wrote because a new book demanded his criti
cal verdict, not because he had some theory of
his own to propound which he was anxious
for an opportunity of introdueing. It would
be much to the advantage of contemporary
literature if more space were allotted by our
various Reviews to the functions of oriticism.
Much literary power is wasted at the present
day in travelling over old ground. We see
many articles devoted to the character of
Shelley or Gibbon which had much better
have been devoted to Kingsley or Fronde.
We cannot learn much that is new about the
former. We may be pleased at recognising
familiar ideas clothed in novel language, and
adorned by striking illustrations. But the
office of a first-class Review is something more
than this. It is to guide public taste in its
decisions on the literature of the day. Its
position to the public should be something
the same as that of a judge towards the jury.
It is front the common sense of twelve average
men that the prisoner expects his final fate.
But the judge explains the law, epitomises the
evidence, and brings out the telling points.
So, no doubt, it is to the general opinion of
the public that an it Ithor must look for his
final positio- in the •!nple of Fame. But the
critic should . tuitions of taste and
the rules of cotup,sitiou ; endeavour to point
out to the public why it is that they are pleased
here, or offended there; lead them to apply
certain well-approved tests to their own first
impressions ; and hold up a standard to the
world by which the success of impostures
might be rendered of rare occurrence.
With the above critical faculty we should
surmise that Lord Ellesmere was largely en-
dowed. The subject-matter of these essays is
indeed such as to necessitate examination
rather of facts than of either style, method, or
argument. But wherever his lordship had a
chance, his clearness of mind, his good sense,
and his logical quickness are conspicuous
His mode of handling Sir Archibald Alison
is an excellent specimen of argumentative
criticism, and is also valuable as proving
how thorouglily kind and gentlemanlike a tone
is compatible with raking irony and un
shrinking exposure. As an example of grace-
ful and good humoured banter we extract the
concluding page of Essay 1X , in which Sir
Archibald's errors on the Waterloo campaign
had been ruthlessly gibbetted :
One more word at parting with Mr. Alison. In the pre.
face to the last edition of his work, p. !xi., we find the
following passege :
What the historian does to others, he willingly accords to him-
self; and certainly he feels no sort of impropriety in a yonlh
of twen,v tacking his first essay in letters by the criticism of the
work of twenty years.
• If no indiscreet vanity mislead us, these mysterious words
contain a dark allusion to ourselves, and convey Mr. Ali
son's impression that we, his reviewers, have not attained
our legal majority. We of " the gentle craft" claim upon
this point the indulgence usually conceded to Mr. Alison's
favourites, the gentle sex. Whatever be the amount of
youth and inexperience which we have brought to the task
of criticising a production so awfully designated as " the
work of twenty years," we venture to remind its author
that our observations have hitherto been strictly confined
to a special portion of that work, and principally to inac-
curacies, misstatements of facts, and errors of judgment,
which an Eton boy of the lower school would, with twenty
minntes' study of the documents in our possession, have
been able to detect and expose. Even for handling the
work in e.rlenso, however, a reviewer of twenty years might
in some respects be better qualified than one of older Ltand-
ing. We have a conscience in these matters; before we
review a Look we ususlly read it, and with greater attention
than may be necessary merely to certify its general cha-
racter—to discern, for instance, the prevalent evidences
of shallowness, verbosity, and self-satisfaction. Youth has
its faults, but it is the season for hard work of all kinds,
and heavy reading among others Adult and reviewing
man shrnka trom twenty average octavos compressed, not
by the author but by the binder, into ten. We have already
intimeted that we have read enough to convince us that
in all our own leading doctrines—moral, political, and
religious—we have an ally in Mr. Alison. The importance
end interest of his subject cannot be rated too high. By
isn4 by, therefore, we may perhaps screw up our courage.

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