The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-24 00:00:00

HE JRES

Yet, even here on, a lofty theme, does not the
reader feel that the utterance is too rhetorical
to be pathetic ? With some reality of matter
and terseness of style, the effects of. Mr. Collins
would be far greater• But, with more reflec-
tion and practice, these may come, and it is in
his own power to graduate very highly amongst
our fictionists. In the meanwhile, we may re-
cord that " Hide and Seek " is, on the whole,
a great improvement on " Basil," and we can
recommend it to the attention of our readers
as being well worthy of perusal.

The Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith. Now
Edition. Loudon : Longmans.
A HISTORY of cliques would be a curious book,
and would serve to show how often a certain
kind of fame or notoriety depends on the acci-
dent of connection., the eqmmercial world,
when a number of persona agree to " draw "
on each other to obtain that credit which
would be denied to single names, their securi-
ties are facetiously termed " pig-upon-bacon
bills" Tho Edinburgh reviewers at the com-
mencement of the last century were a similar
confederacy. All whose ambition, taste, or
legs would not carry them up to the " ninth
story or fiat in Buccleuch-place " were set
down as neither statesmen, diplomatists„ his-
torians, poets, nor honest men, while those
who had toiled up to that "elevated residence,"
even though they denounced Byron as worse
than Settle, and attacked Sophocles for his bad
Greek, were reported fit to lead the councils
and direct the taste of the entire empire.
14 is as astonishing to take up the catalogue
of names they insisted in vain on making
famous as it is to regard the splendour of so
many that they proposed to extinguish. Now,
there must have been some great merit in
Sydney Smith, not in obtaining the praise of
the " Northern horde," but in escaping its
consequeuees and impressing on a consider-
able section of the reading and thinking world
the belief that he was an able man. All praise
must be comparative; and, while we cannot
for a moment deny the strong desire and bril-
liant power of Sydney Smith to expose, plea-
santly , said effectually, many errors, much
fanaticism, and (in all but his own party) that
plentiful commodity which, by the Sus et no rma
loquendi, we call "humbug," yet who can give
the credit of any depth, to the man who as-
sumed that the bill of 1829 would quiet the
priesthood of the Church of dome, and in 1839
boasts that he does not repent his opinions—
who in 1830 speaks patronisingly of the gi-
gantic mind of Brougham, and gives us "such
names mingled" as " Lavoisier and Adam
Smith"? The excellences of Sydney Smith
are not amongst the common excellences of
Englishmen. Ho excelled in a pleasant hu-
mour, the result of evident content of mind
and high spirits; and was further un-English
in paying not the least regard in party matters
to the depth or weight of the sarcasms or re-
flections he threw out on his opponents. One
seeks in vain throughout his works for any
more than a jeering admission of the
honesty or sincerity of any man who happens
not to be of a particular mode of political
opinions; and there cannot be a doubt but
that the desire of polishing a point led him
into personalities which might have been, as
far as his own sot were concerned, painfully
retorted. The Edinburgh Review, in fact, in its
early time fought much more for faction than
for measures; and Mr. Percevars alleged re
versions and the pensions to Mr. Canning's
family are found much more often alluded to
than any broad questions of the time. The
great bulk of these three volumes, as our read-
ers already know, is mado up of Edinburgh
Review articles, in every one of which the
reader will find much of Sydney Smith's
telling humour allied (where party politics are
not concerned) with much truth. In personal
estimates and description of character and
style ho perhaps was greatest. Who, for ex-
ample, that ever has had the misfortune to
endeavour to find meanings amongst Jeremy
Bentham's " Characteristicalnesses " and
" Compensateabilitinesses" will not enjoy this
written daguereotype ?
hether it be necessary there should be a middleman
between the cultivator and the possessor, learned econo•
mists have doubted; but neither gods, men, nor book-

a&TUItDAY3

sellers can doubt the necessity of a middleman between
Mr. lientham and the public. Mr. Bentham is long; Mr.
Bentham is occasionally involved and obscure; Mr.
Bentham invents new and alarming. expressions; Mr.
Bentham loves division and subdivision--and he love*
method itself, more than its consequences. Those only,
therefore, who know his originality, his knowledge, his
vigour, and his boldness, will recur to the works them.
selves. The great muss of readers will not purchase im-
prevenient at so dear a rata; but will choose rather to be-
come acquainted with Mr. Bentham through the medium
of reviews—after that eminent philosopher has been
walled, trimmed, shaved, and forced into clean linen.
Ono great use of a review, indeed, is to make men wise in
ten pages who have no appetite for a hundred pages; to
condense nourishment, to work with pulp and essence, and
to guard the stomach from idle burden and unmeaning
bulk. For half a page, sometimes fur a whole page, Mr.
Bentham writer with a power which few can equal; and,
by selecting and omitting, an admirable style may be
formed from the text. Using this liberty, we shall endeavour
to give an account of Mr. Bentham's doctrines, for the
most part in his own words. Wherever any expression is
particularly happy, let it be considered to be Mr. Ben-
tham's :—the dulness we take to ourselves.
His character of the new President of the
Council has become famous. and will live,
like Chatham's answer to old Horace Walpole,
as an elegant extract
Lord John Russell gives himself great credit for not
having confiscated Church property, but merely remodelled
and redivided it. I accuse him not of plunder, but T
accuse him of taking the Church of England, rolling it
about as a cook does a piece of dough with a rolling-pin,
cutting a hundred different shapes with all the plieitic
fertility of a confectioner, and without the most distant
suspicion that he can ever be wrong, or ever be mistaken ;
with a certainty that he can anticipate the consequences
of every possible change in human affairs. There is not a
better man in England than Lord John Rusaell ; but his
worst failure is that he is utterly ignorant of all moral
fear ; there is nothing lie would net undertake. I believe
he would perform the operation for the stone—build St.
Peter's—vr assume (with or without ten minutes' notice)
the command of the Channel fleet; and no one would
discover by his manner that the patient had died—the
church tumbled down—and the Chunuel fleet been knocked
to atoms. I believe his motivea are always pure, and his
measures often able; but they are endless, and never dune
with that pedeteutuus patio and pedetentour wind in
which it behoves the wise and virtuous improver to walk.
Re alarms the wise Liberals; and it is impossible to sleep
soundly while he has the command of the watch.",
The public are so well acquainted with the
style, opinions, and politics of Sydney Smith
that it may seem out of place to have devoted
a little space to this reprint ; but his works
are works not of passing interest. We are at
this moment merely trying the experiments of
which ho was no mean advocate; while some
of the measures recommended by his school
have not yet happily been inflicted upon us.
And we could wish nothing more heartily
than that those who look back to that school
as everything that was wise and profound
would take up these three volumes, look at
the hopes and assurances of 1804, and com-
pare the results which half a century of expe-
rience has given us.
The present forms a beautifully-printed
portable edition of a most various and enter-
taining collection of the works of the writer.

Junius Discovered. By Frederick Griffin.—

London : Triibner.
Th. North British Review. No. =MIL—

London: Hamilton and Co.
M a.G ittms, who dates from Montreal, feels sure
that he has discovered "Junius" in Governor
Pownall, who was captain-general of Massa-
chusetts from 1757 to 1760. He was appointed
governor of South Carolina, bid resigned that
post to become comptroller-general of the com-
bined army in Germany. On his return to
England, in 1763, he took up his residence at
Richmond, Married Lady Fawkner, and sat
in Parliament from 1767 to 1780. He died at
Bath in 1805.
As regards social rank and local habitation,
Governor Pownall might well have been
Junius, but intetnal evidence is all against
him. " A large proportion of his published
" works," says Mr. Griffin, " is on the subject
" of antiquities," a study little likely to engage
the genius of the fiery Junius. Governor
Pownall, writing to a friend, under date of
July 11,'70, says, " I here am marked by Go-
" vernment as the American partisan in
" general," while Junius uniformly supported
the policy of George Grenville, and discoun
tenanced American resistance. It is curious

• Another peculiarity of the Russells iu, that they never alter
their opinions: they are au exLellent 1..0, but they must be
trepanned before they eau be convinced.

JUNE 24, 1854.

to observe how, undeterred by previous failures,
each new " discoverer" persists in overlooking
all facts which tell against his theory, or in
perverting them so as to support it. Governor
composition is extremely loose and
slovenly, and, because acute critics have dis-
covered grammatical slips in Junius, Mr.
Griffin states gravely :
The impartial reader will no doubt bear this in mind
whenever he catches the Governor tripping in his grammar,
and will set down any occasional defect in grammatical
construction as another presumption in favour of the Go-
vtruor's identity with Junius.
It can scarcely be worth while to follow the
chain of reasoning of which the above is a
From the specimens here given of 'Governor
Pownall's writing, it seems to us quite certain
that he could not have penned the letters of
Junius, and that he was animated neither by
his motives nor his principles.
The boldness with which. Junius defied in-
quiry, and the accomplishment thus far of his
eniphatic declaration, " I ain the sole depo-
" sitary of my own secret, and it shall perish
" with ine," have greatly contributed to his
fame. There are power and grandeur in the
strength of will which could thus voluntarily
abjure posthumous renown, and could sweep
away every trace of, its identity. Modern in-
quiry, so far from dispelling the " clouds and
" darkness" in which " the unknown god" of
Mr. Wilkes's political idolatry shrouded him-
self, seems but to thicken it by increasing
the number of pretenders to his throne. The
publication of the Chatham and Grenville
papers increases our admiration of his activity,
and generally sustains that impression of his
character derived froth. his acknowledged
writings, yet supplies no additional clue to his
identity. He still remains as unknown as
when with his own hand * he penned his cele-
brated " Dedication to the English People."
Tried by his own test, the reviewer who first
put forward Thomas LAtelton has failed to
establish his case. " When the true man is
found," he wrote, " uncertainty will cease, as
truth is, from its very nature, progressive." But
no new evidence has been adduced in support
of his theory, though many objections have
been urged to it.
Junius himself is often contradictory,
and his critics are continually at fault.
Some maintain that he Must, from the
gradual improvement in his style, his ardour,
audacity, and dissoluteness, have been a
young man, while others hold that he was of
mature age ; some fancy they can detect in
his expressions his Irish origin, while others
point tc his constant use of the word " English"
to negative the notion. It has generally been
assumed that he was a man of family and sta-
tion ; but one critic, who undertakes the task
of correcting all others, hints that he is to be
sought in a much lower rank. Not having
time for the inquiry himself, he is generously
willing to set others on the track of some pa-
triotic John Gilpin of the day—au absurd
crotchet, which could only have been suggested
by a vain desire of obtaining distinction for
originality.
This critic, though very sharp on the con-
jectures of others, has been singularly unlucky
in his own. He soundly abused Wootlfall's
edition for negligence, and questioned the
antbenticity of the great bulk of the papers
included under the title of " Miscellaneous."
Among these papers were some signed Cor-
reggio, and the piece headed the " Grand
Council," Our critic, after urging that the
printer's notice to " C.," in reference to the
Grand Council, was meant for Correggio alone,
and not for the initial adopted by Junius,
gives us this rare proof of his critical saga-
city
It appears to us that in tone, temper, style, policy,
principles, party views, prejudices, likings and dislikings,
the writings of Correggio and those on the Grand Council
differ absolutely from the known writings ofJunins. Some
traces perhaps of Wilkes's style may be discovered.
And then follows what the critic takes to be
evidence in support of his view, wound up by
sneers at Dr. Good and Woodfall for printing
the composition as a piece of Junius, and by
his own conclusion that there " is more evi
" dence in favour of Wilkes than can be ad

• We say with his own baud because every new IS. disco-
vered exhibits distinctly the peculiar penmanship ofJunius, and
proves that from his most laboured compositions to the hurried
corrections on a proof•sheet no second baud was ever employed.